[What did you do again? Gin sent me an email asking what I trained you for.]
[I just had a friendly exchange with him about the organization's personnel rules... I had a surprise today, I'll tell you when I get back.]
Gin probably thought Kazawa had learned some kind of Onmyoji technique from Toru Amuro...
In reality, he was overthinking. Kazawa's own Yin-Yang skills were already at a high level. After all, he was a game nerd who enjoyed high-speed, high-intensity surfing.
After replying to Toru Amuro's email — the man who got innocently dragged into this — Kazawa temporarily put away his phone and continued to observe the current situation.
The atmosphere was still tense. The two high school detectives had already found the red dot behind the victim's ear and were searching the room for the possible murder weapon.
Conan, who had a serious cold and had gulped down some white liquor, clearly wasn't in good shape. He wobbled as he moved and clumsily searched around the desk.
Then, just as expected, right when he discovered the poison needle, he bumped into Hattori Heiji, who was also on the ground checking things.
Before Mouri Ran could scream and grab Conan, Kazawa stepped forward. As if he had predicted it, he caught the elementary school student who had been knocked down.
Before Hattori Heiji could start criticizing them for "letting a child dig around a crime scene," Kazawa calmly spoke first:
"Wouldn't it be better to wait for the police to arrive before investigating? Or do high school detectives all ignore the rules and love destroying crime scenes?"
Hattori Heiji widened his eyes at the counter, pointing at the swollen-eyed child in Kazawa's arms:
"You let such a small child handle evidence, and you're accusing me of damaging the scene?"
"He's ignorant. He's still in elementary school. Are you too?" Kazawa finished the conversation with a simple jab.
Conan, whose head was still buzzing from the impact, shook himself a little more awake and looked up emotionally at Kazawa holding him.
Attacking the opponent without discrimination — is this what it feels like to have reliable brothers? How nice.
"All right, Conan, stop running around. You're still running a fever, and you're so restless."
After successfully shutting down the conflict, Kazawa stuffed Conan into Mouri Ran's arms and then looked up at Hattori Heiji with a gentle smile.
Hattori Heiji: "…"
Facing the silent judgment from half the room, he couldn't even get angry. He could only stand up in frustration, shove his hands into his pockets, and wait for the police to arrive.
Ten minutes later, the familiar officers from the First Investigation Division arrived at the Tsujimura residence, led by the familiar Inspector Megure.
"Brother Mouri—oh, and Classmate Kazawa is here too." After greeting his acquaintances, Inspector Megure turned his attention to the body on the ground. His movements were natural and smooth, with a tone that felt like chatting with neighbors.
From the first art museum murder case, Inspector Megure had already learned of Kazawa's sensitive identity as a juvenile offender. He knew Kazawa likely couldn't appear publicly or in the media, but also recognized that he was a real talent for solving cases. He basically treated Kazawa now as a semi-confidential detective and wasn't surprised to find him at a crime scene.
Kazawa looked at the dark circles under his eyes with sympathy, raised a hand, and greeted him.
In a way, being a police officer in this world might be even harder than working a 996 schedule.
"The deceased is Tsujimura Isao, a diplomat, 54 years old." Inspector Megure flipped through the documents his subordinates gave him while glancing at the body. "Mm… The body was discovered by Mrs. Tsujimura. The detective on the scene was invited here by her…"
At this point, without even examining the body, Inspector Megure sighed and glanced sideways at Mouri Kogoro:
"Looks like you killed someone again."
"Uh..." Mouri Kogoro scratched his head. "There aren't any obvious external injuries. So we can't rule out natural causes yet…"
"No." Conan and Hattori Heiji said in unison, both stunned and then looking at each other.
Weird kid... Hattori Heiji stared at Conan for a while, then turned back:
"There's a small red dot behind the victim's ear, and I found a suspicious silver needle on the table... His lips and fingertips are bluish, and the eye conjunctiva is bleeding — this shows he suffocated. But like this uncle said, there are no wounds, so he probably died from a kind of nerve-paralyzing poison!"
Inspector Megure paused, then looked closely at the strange dark-skinned teenager. He raised his eyebrows:
"Excuse me, who are you?"
"His name is Hattori Heiji. He's a cocky little detective." After being corrected by him, Mouri Kogoro unhappily shrugged.
"Hattori Heiji... Hattori..." Inspector Megure repeated the name and then suddenly realized,
"Ah! Hattori! You're the high school detective son of Hattori Heizo, chief of the Osaka Prefectural Police Department!"
Hattori Heiji, who had just entered full detective mode, twitched a vein on his forehead.
He didn't get famous because of his dad. He became a well-known detective with his own strength! That title made him sound like some kind of second-generation spoiled kid.
"Don't mention my dad right now..." He looked up and rolled his eyes.
"The victim's body is still warm, no livor mortis or other changes yet. When we found him, he'd been dead less than 30 minutes... Let's investigate step by step. As far as I can tell, there are no signs of forced entry…"
Clang!
A crisp metallic noise interrupted Hattori Heiji's rhythm. He turned around and saw Kazawa crouched beside the body, searching the pockets with several police officers. The sound came from a key that had been taken out of the dead man's bulging pants pocket.
Hattori Heiji frowned, wanting to tell him not to touch the body recklessly, but then saw that Kazawa had quietly put on gloves at some point and was now calmly taking them off while saying,
"This is probably the study key. When we arrived, the room was locked. Mrs. Tsujimura used a key to open the door... Mrs. Tsujimura, is there anyone else with a copy of the key?"
He turned his head and looked quietly at Tsujimura Kimie, who had a sorrowful expression.
Tsujimura Kimie looked back at him, her previously composed sadness fading slightly, her eyes equally calm.
Hattori Heiji glanced between Kazawa and Tsujimura Kimie. He couldn't shake the feeling that the two of them had reached some sort of silent agreement, exchanging thoughts through their eyes.
"...No one else." Tsujimura Kimie pulled out a set of keys identical to the one on the ground.
"Only my husband and I had the study key."
Kazawa lowered his gaze and nodded slightly — as if he had already known this answer, or had quietly accepted a choice she made.
He stepped back and returned to Mouri Ran's side, silently stepping into the background again.
Hattori Heiji watched him closely, frowning even more.
Kazawa is really strange…
He turned his attention back to the flat metal key on the ground, took a deep breath, and decided to ignore Kazawa's weirdness for now. He needed to take back control of the case.
"So, this is a clean and neat impossible case. Also known as—"
"A locked-room murder!"
His voice rang out clearly and powerfully. Everyone's attention returned to him.
Good. Everything is back on track. Hattori Heiji smiled and stuffed his hands in his pockets.
Then his next line was cut off again by Kazawa's voice.
"Conan——"
Hattori Heiji turned around and saw the restless little boy, who had just been climbing a ladder to look at the bookshelf, now wobbling more and more, about to fall from over a meter high.
The closest person to him was Kazawa, who had already stepped back into the crowd.
Kazawa reacted instantly again, jumping up and extending his arm beneath Conan's back, catching the small elementary schooler.
Hattori Heiji: "…"
What is going on with this guy named Kazawa Zhao?
Did he do it on purpose?
Is that it?