Model worker and his little darling

Seeing the extravagant banquet, the three members of the Junior Detective Team were filled with various emotions.

"The Yatsudai Group is a fairly large conglomerate. This is the first cruise ship built by their flagship company, Yatsudai Merchant Ships. This level of luxury is the bare minimum."

Pingqing felt that he had a special connection with cruise ships lately; last time it was pirates, and this time it was bombs.

At that moment, a man wearing glasses walked over and kicked Conan, who was wiping his glasses, with his knee, sending the glasses flying and crashing to the ground.

"Mr. Mori, I'm a screenwriter named Hiroshige Kusaka, and I'm a big fan of Mr. Mori."

As they were speaking, a beautiful woman appeared behind them.

"This is Ms. Minami Akiyoshi, the deputy head of the design team that designed this passenger ship. She also came up with such a beautiful name as 'Aphrodite'."

However, upon seeing the beautiful woman, Uncle Mori did not approach her as he usually would; instead, he wore an awkward expression.

Ping Qing sized up the two of them. It was quite rare for the real murderer and the fake murderer to appear together.

This time it all depended on the two of them; he was just here for tourism.

When the waiter invited everyone to sit down for a meal, Hiroshige Kusaka volunteered to join them.

"Don't you think the uncle is acting a little strange today?"

Seeing Sonoko's confused look, Ran looked at her father's back with a puzzled expression, "Really?"

"Think about it, if it were a typical middle-aged man..."

Seeing Sonoko's incredibly accurate imitation, the group couldn't help but burst out laughing, mainly because Sonoko's imitation was just too perfect.

Uncle's beloved daughter O(n_n)O

"I think it's because Ms. Minami looks a lot like my mother," Ran explained with a smile.

Hiroshige Kusaka explained that he was writing a story set on a luxury cruise ship, and that's how he met Minamiko while researching.

"Was Mr. Mori invited as well, or did he receive some kind of investigation request?"

"Actually, the people invited were Ms. Sonoko Suzuki's parents. Her father is the chairman of the Suzuki Foundation."

Sonoko nodded. "But my parents couldn't get away no matter what, so I came in their place. Then, I invited everyone over."

After hearing that Uncle Mori didn't board the ship to investigate a case, Hiroshige Kusaka breathed a sigh of relief, and the three members of the Junior Detective Club were curious about what kind of story he had written.

"It could be a disaster like the Tannite, sinking on its maiden voyage."

Ping Qing clicked his tongue. "Aihara could be a prophet. That hit the nail on the head."

When the topic of sinking ships came up, Uncle Mori recalled the cargo ship that sank with the Yatsushiro Zaibatsu fifteen years ago. The prevailing opinion was that the captain's misjudgment caused the ship to collide with an iceberg.

Upon hearing this, the Junior Detectives immediately became worried about the ship.

"When the ship sank, those people were probably the first to be rescued."

Following Hiroshige Kusaka's gaze, one could see the former prime minister and his wife, the popular entertainer duo, Yatsushiro Entarō, the head of the Yatsushiro Zaibatsu, and his daughter, Yatsushiro Takae.

At this moment, the captain also came out. He was the first mate of the cargo ship that sank fifteen years ago, Hai Teng Du.

"To this enjoyable cruise trip, and also to celebrate Ran's victory in the Kanto Tournament, cheers!"

Looking at the delicious food on the table, Pingqing was in a great mood. As expected of the chef specially hired by the Yadai Group, his skills were impeccable.

After dinner, Hiroshige Kusaka left early, citing seasickness, while Uncle Mori, who was quite drunk, was taken back to his room by Taira no Kiyoshi.

"What are you planning to do?" Pingqing asked the three little ones curiously.

"We want to prepare a gift for Sister Xiaolan to celebrate her victory."

"I picked these up on the island where we docked during the day. Let's make a gold medal out of these and give it to her as a gift."

"Shinichi didn't give us anything, that's so pitiful."

Upon hearing Shinichi's name, Taira's eyes flickered; their relationship hadn't thawed yet.

However, Conan didn't actually prepare a gift.

So I started making seashell bracelets with the three little ones, just to pass the time.

The next morning.

Everyone went up to the deck to enjoy the view and have tea.

The three little ones secretly put the seashell bracelet into Xiaolan's coat pocket, hoping to give her a surprise.

Because he had an appointment with a beautiful woman, Uncle Mori left with a smug look on his face, and the remaining children suggested playing hide-and-seek.

Pingqing quietly reduced his presence; he stopped participating in games like hide-and-seek.

Conan, who also didn't want to participate, was forcibly dragged away by the three little ones, and when he turned around, he saw Hirai Kiyoshi pretending to be dead.

"Brother Pingqing, let's play hide-and-seek together."

Taira no Kiyoshi: ...

He knew Conan was up to no good.

Seeing this, Ayumi came over and grabbed Hirakiyo, and just like that, Hirakiyo was forced to join in.

I must say, it feels quite novel.

After a round of rock-paper-scissors, the grouping process became a little awkward.

Sonoko and Ai Haibara were in charge of finding people, and Sonoko borrowed Genta's detective armband to facilitate communication.

He casually found a place to sit down and began to check on the movements of Hiroshige Kusaka.

They discovered he was on the phone with Minako Akiyoshi. After saying just one sentence, he turned on the recorder, put on the cruise ship jacket that everyone had, covered his face, and left the room.

Similarly, Minako Akiyoshi on the other side made the same move.

Seeing the two begin to act, Ping Qing was satisfied.

"Brother Pingqing, I've found you."

Upon seeing the garden, Taira no Kiyoshi raised his hand and said, "I surrender."

"Honestly, you couldn't have found a better place to hide."

"I'm just doing this to keep you guys company." If he really wanted to hide, no one could find him.

Yuanzi waved her hand and went to find Xiaolan.

Pingqing leisurely strolled onto the deck and discovered that only Xiaolan was still missing.

Hirakiyo, who was leisurely watching the show, never expected that Hiroshige Kusaka, who looked young and strong, was actually a complete waste, and was fighting on equal terms with 78-year-old Yatsushiro Entarō.

After a brief exchange of blows, the two arrived at the cabin door.

Yatsushiro Entarō pinned Kusaka Hiroshige down, gripping his neck tightly, preparing to push him into the sea.

In the end, it was Minami Akiyoshi who secretly helped out; otherwise, it would have been Hiroshige Kusaka who ended up feeding the fish in the sea.

After the hide-and-seek game was over, Xiaolan finally appeared.

"It looks like we won."

Seeing this, Haibara began to contact Sonoko.

"Help me! I'm locked in a box, and it's so cold here."

Conan quickly used his tracking glasses, only to find that they had been damaged by Hiroshige Kusaka's knee.

Upon hearing Sonoko say it was cold, Conan immediately thought of the freezer.

Seeing Conan about to rush to the freezer, Hirakiyo quickly grabbed him.

"No, the freezer is full of food, there's almost no place to hide. Besides, people go to the freezer to get food from time to time, so it's not very convenient to hide someone there."

"The place where the garden is located is very likely the morgue."

After finding Sonoko in the morgue, everyone quickly took her to the infirmary.