Model worker and his little darling

Tsujitani Toy Factory.

As Uncle Mori was greeting Inspector Megure, Hattori strode confidently into the crime scene with his hands in his pockets.

Inspector Megure: ??

"Oh, that won't do. You can't just go in there..."

"Officer, why are you being so strict? I think the forensic team should have done their job by now."

Inspector Megure rolled his eyes, but ultimately agreed with Uncle Mori's words and began to explain the case.

"The deceased was the president of this toy company. The estimated time of death was around 5 p.m. on Sunday the 29th of last month. The body was not discovered until 10 a.m. the following Sunday. It was discovered by four employees of the company."

Hattori and Conan squatted down next to the white line beside the corpse and began their deduction.

"The president was tied up with rope and died under a golf club."

Kazuha stepped forward, puzzled. "How did you figure that out, Heiji?"

Hattori began his explanation as usual, "There was an ink smear on the back of the body. That was probably because the murderer accidentally spilled ink on the table during the argument with the president. Then he tied the president up, and because the rope got soaked in ink, there were ink stains all over the floor."

Ran nodded to Kazuha, and then Kazuha continued to ask, "Then how do you know that the president was killed by a golf club?"

"Only the head of the body had bloodstains, and there were several thin, long wounds about ten centimeters long nearby. These were left from when the president continued to hit him with a golf club after he fell down, but missed several times."

"But why did the murderer tie up the victim before beating him?"

Hearing Ran's question, Conan also began to speak up, "They probably want to force him to reveal the safe's combination. Look, the safe over there has already been opened."

After putting on a show, the two, who were getting carried away, started pressing Inspector Megure for more evidence.

Inspector Megure also took out several photos of four building blocks left at the crime scene, each with Tsujitani's fingerprints on all six sides and ink on one side.

"This should be a death message. At the time, the president's hands were tied behind his back, so he couldn't choose the blocks he wanted. He could only keep exploring the grooves of the blocks with his fingers, so there are fingerprints on all six sides. He also touched other blocks, but didn't leave many fingerprints. But this one has the same line of text, so it will be easy to find."

Seeing Hattori confidently state his reasoning, Kazuha blushed silently beside him. "Wow, Heiji, you're amazing!" she exclaimed, only realizing after praising him that they were still in a competition.

He then picked up a notebook and began to decipher the death message left by the deceased.

Pingqing smiled; Kazuha was truly a lovely girl.

Seeing Pingqing standing idly to the side after wandering around, Xiaolan asked curiously, "Brother Pingqing, do you know everything?"

"Hmm, I know pretty much everything."

Ran turned to look at Kazuha, who was intently deciphering the message before her death, and said, "Could you help Kazuha? She really wants to go see the Takarazuka show with us."

Just then, Officer Takagi arrived to explain the alibi of the murder suspect at the time of the incident.

Reminded, Hattori smiled smugly and looked at Kazuha, who was working hard. He was sure he would win this match.

Then he saw Kazuha secretly wiping away tears, and his smile vanished instantly.

"Why are only four building blocks stained with ink at the scene? If you look at the real building blocks instead of the photos, you can see the words hidden behind them, and you might find some clues."

Conan was initially a little confused by Hattori's unusual behavior, but after seeing that Hattori was paying attention to Kazuha, he instantly understood his good friend's thoughts.

He then picked up the photo and began to offer suggestions. In this respect, he was far more skilled than Hattori.

“I always felt that the deceased deliberately stained the building blocks with ink, but some of these blocks had patterns on them, making it easy to mistake them. If it were chess pieces, the characters on them would be fixed, making it very easy to stained them with ink.”

Hattori looked at Conan with a surprised expression, and out of the corner of his eye, he saw that Kazuha seemed to have been inspired.

“We have no idea whether the deceased deliberately left behind words that were stained with ink or words that were not. Perhaps the words were not stained with ink at all, but were stained by the ink that had flowed onto the floor.”

Kazuha was startled, seemingly understanding something, and continued to bury herself in dealing with the message before her death.

Seeing Hattori and Conan working together, Ran hesitated and said, "Aren't they hinting at Kazuha?"

Ping Qing nodded. "That's true."

Tsk, the two detectives' acting skills are lacking.

Seeing Kazuha examining the building blocks, Hattori couldn't help but smile. "Keep it up, you'll find the answer soon."

Seeing that Hattori had been secretly watching Kazuha, Ran looked at the two of them with a maternal smile.

"very nice."

She was genuinely happy for the two of them.

Pingqing blinked. No one had told him that he was here to be fed dog food (a Chinese slang term for witnessing public displays of affection).

Ha, what a little trick of young lovers.

"Yeah, I feel like they're about to get married."

"Heiji, does your girlfriend know what you're doing in Japan?"

She deduced from Shinichi's words that what Taira was doing was related to the organization that shrunk Shinichi, and that he was secretly protecting them.

Taira no Kiyoshi: ...

He really wanted to go back in time and slap that brain-dead version of himself to death.

"I know, we both have our own things to do, and we will unconditionally trust and support each other."

Thinking of Gin, a smile appeared on Hirakiyo's face.

A hint of envy flashed in Xiaolan's eyes; such a relationship was truly wonderful.

At a murder scene, Kazuha is trying to decipher the message left before her death, Hirai and Ran are talking about their relationship, Conan and Hattori are looking for evidence, and Uncle Mori is following behind Inspector Megure, listening to Takagi's investigation results.

It was both eerie and harmonious.

Feeling Conan's gaze, Taira smiled; he was an obstacle on the road to romance between the male and female protagonists.

"I think I know."

Upon hearing Kazuha's voice, everyone turned to look.

Ran looked at Kazuha with surprise, "Kazuha, really?"

Kazuha nodded excitedly, "Yes, Ran, I understand."

"At the crime scene, four building blocks were found, each with Tsujiya's fingerprints on all six sides and ink on one side. The four blocks with ink on one side have the kana characters "o, mo, chi, ya" respectively, while the blocks directly opposite each other have the kana characters "i, wa, to, mi", which is "Iwatomi".

"So the real culprit is Iwato Tomioka."

Seeing that Kazuha had indeed deciphered the message before her death, Hattori revealed a proud smile.

..................................................................