Chapter 444 - 55: Peel Off His Mask

Chapter 444: Chapter 55: Peel Off His Mask

"Thank you for the information."

Standing outside an apartment door, Conan unconsciously pitched his voice higher as he thanked the man in front of him.

"No, no, it really wasn’t anything..."

They were currently outside the home of Mizutani-san’s neighbor. The man the police had arrested earlier was probably not the real culprit. A careful examination showed that an old injury had left his right hand so weak he could barely lift a knife.

When it came to solving cases, Conan’s luck really was exceptional. Just as the trail seemed about to go cold again, he happened to spot a poster nearby. Then, when he called Hattori Heiji to ask for information, Heiji’s childhood friend inadvertently supplied another piece of the puzzle.

At last, the common link between the known victims had come together. Two years ago in Kyoto, on Tanabata, a fire started on the fifth floor of a hotel called the Vega after a guest discarded a cigarette butt. The emergency exit happened to be unusable.

The hotel elevator had a maximum capacity of seven people, and the seven current victims happened to be the people from the sixth floor who had managed to escape using that elevator.

If the elevator could only carry seven people, then someone had inevitably been left behind. The person who failed to get aboard and died at the scene was Honjo Nanako, who suffocated in the smoke.

As for Mizutani-san, the man Conan wanted to investigate, he had been Honjo Nanako’s boyfriend. He happened to be visiting a friend in Kyoto when the fire broke out and escaped the disaster.

Unfortunately, Mizutani-san was not home, so Conan could only get the information from his neighbor.

Conan stepped onto his skateboard, planning to visit Honjo Nanako’s family.

Yimi stepped onto the skateboard too, grabbed the back of his clothes, and imitated the high-pitched voice he had just used. "Thank you for the information~"

"..." Conan jumped back off. "Hey, two people on the same skateboard is dangerous... Forget it. Let’s just take the bus."

For now, he would not even ask why Yimi had followed him. Conan was still bothered by Vermouth’s panic back then.

"Have you already found, the culprit?" Yimi had mostly lost interest in this mission, but she still could not resist asking.

"Not for certain, but I already have an important clue."

The moment someone asked him, Conan could not resist showing off his deductions. "The seven circles on the seven-pin mahjong tiles represent the passengers in that elevator, right? And doesn’t the black line on the back of the tile look like an elevator door?"

"Mahjong?" Yimi did not understand the game. Kogoro played sometimes, but he had never taken her along to play mahjong with him.

Conan, who was not actually a child, naturally did not realize that Yimi did not even know what mahjong was, so he continued.

"Besides that, I actually found another clue. When I asked Sawamura-san—the neighbor—just now, I learned that Mizutani-san and Honjo Nanako-san both loved stargazing. That was why they chose a hotel named Vega. In that case, doesn’t the arrangement of the seven circles also connect to the Big Dipper?"

Conan turned his head and found Yimi counting on her fingers with a completely blank expression.

"What is, the Big Dipper?" she asked in confusion.

"Seven special stars in the sky. Normally..." Conan almost said, Even kids should know that. Aren’t you supposed to be a child prodigy? Then he remembered that Yimi was a child Kisaki Eri had adopted, and she had never once talked to him about her past.

He hurriedly changed what he was going to say. "Ayumi has a book about stars. If you’re interested, you can borrow it and read it. You only learn more things by reading more books."

"Mmm."

Yimi lowered her hands. She was starting to understand why she was unqualified. Conan could analyze a mountain of things using knowledge she did not understand at all, while when she went looking for criminals, she never used her brain.

Queen had not lied to her. If she wanted to become a qualified detective, she really did need to study seriously.

"Also, I think someone in that Organization has discovered my identity," Conan suddenly added.

Yimi knew his secret, and considering Vermouth’s attitude... If Yimi knew something, Conan hoped she could at least point him toward a target.

Or perhaps someone who stayed in contact with Yimi could point him in the right direction. Asking someone of uncertain allegiance for help was dangerous, but the Organization already knew his identity anyway, did it not?

He was wondering whether, if the Organization could develop a drug that somehow ignored conservation of energy and shrank a person’s body, it might also have developed a drug that turned people into animals...

At first, Conan had simply been interested in the current mahjong case. Now, because of Irish, he had no choice but to identify the real culprit as quickly as possible.

"That Organization?" Yimi asked, puzzled.

The bus arrived. Conan did not answer immediately. He led Yimi to the seats in the very back before speaking quietly. "You knew that woman just now too, didn’t you?"

Yimi shook her head. "I don’t know her, but she had Dr. Araide’s, smell."

"..."

For the moment, Conan decided to believe her and continued.

"Vermouth said she was helping Irish with a disguise. Her words aren’t exactly trustworthy, but the only people who could connect all these things and investigate me are the ones who attended that meeting at police headquarters. If he needed a disguise, then it looks like he isn’t an undercover officer who was already planted inside the police."

"Disguise?" Yimi understood the word, but she did not really understand what Conan was saying.

Conan explained, "Like that woman just now... Though I guess you didn’t see her take off her mask. You remember Kaitou Kid, right? He puts on masks with other people’s faces and pretends to be them."

As he spoke, he saw several people getting onto the bus and had no choice but to stop the topic for the moment.

After getting off, Conan headed toward Honjo Nanako’s home using the address he had gotten from Sawamura-san. By another stroke of luck, he ran into Honjo Nanako’s older brother right at the door.

"Mizutani? He left a bouquet at today’s memorial service and then went away. My parents can’t forgive him for eloping with my sister." Since Conan introduced himself as Kogoro’s assistant, Honjo-san answered his questions properly.

"A bouquet... Did anyone else usually send flowers?" Conan asked.

"Flowers used to arrive from different places." Honjo-san opened his notebook. Every location had been recorded with meticulous neatness.

Conan leaned over for a look. They were, roughly speaking, the cities where the victims had lived.

"Before he left, he also said something strange." Honjo-san thought for a moment. "He said there were eight people he could never forgive, and now only one was left."

Conan did not answer. He stared at him without blinking.

Honjo-san pointed behind him. "Little boy, your friend just ran off."

"Yimi?" Conan turned around and, sure enough, saw the girl walking away.

Was she going to find that "knight"? Hopefully, it was for something good.

Yimi really had run off to contact someone, but she certainly was not going to contact her own Stand. She was simply going to call the police.

Unfortunately, for some reason, she could not find a single phone booth now. She had no choice but to use her own phone to report it.

Then she remembered that the police would not listen to a child, so she took out her voice-changing mask.

...

Police conference room.

"Excuse me, Inspector Megure. There’s a call reporting something. I think you need to hear it." A lower-ranking officer knocked and entered, nervously calling for Inspector Megure.

"Is it related to this case? We’re in the middle of a meeting." Megure’s superior, Matsumoto Kiyonaga—or rather, Irish disguised as Matsumoto Kiyonaga—lowered his voice and put on an authoritative air.

"Maybe not. I’m not sure..." The officer’s voice grew quieter. "The caller seems to be the person who previously helped us capture quite a few armed suspects. They said it concerns the meeting."

He sounded uncertain because the person on the other end spoke far too tersely.

"What? Take me there, quickly!" Realizing how important that might be, Inspector Megure hurried after him to take the call.

Once they heard it might be related to this meeting, the other officers who had been worrying themselves sick over the case had a reason to follow too. After all, the caller had not specifically named Inspector Megure as the only person who should hear it.

"Hello? Inspector Megure speaking."

"There is, a disguised police officer, in the meeting." Yimi simply repeated what Conan had told her into the phone, being a good child who knew to solve problems by calling the police.

"A dis— Can you explain in more detail? Who is it? How do you know?" Inspector Megure pressed the receiver tighter to his ear so the sound would not leak.

But Irish’s hearing was good enough that he still caught the gist ahead of time.

That voice... It couldn’t be Gin, could it??

Yimi thought over what Conan had told her, then recalled how Kaitou Kid behaved and continued, "Irish. He is disguised. Peel off, the mask on his face, and you’ll know."

Understanding dawned on Inspector Megure. There was no need to ask which one. Everyone who had attended the meeting was right here. If one of them was wearing a human-face mask, they could simply go down the line and pinch everybody’s face.