Oritis in the world of Detective Conan

Chapter 109: The Deduction Showdown at the Ghost Hotel (Part )

Officer Chiba found the electric wheelchair, still in motion, and a fairly long fishing line with a rubber band tied to the end on the second floor of the annex.

Several people came to the sixth floor, to the room where Mr. Shangzhu had lived. The broken window should have been covered with canvas and tape, but now the canvas had been blown open by the wind.

Conan noticed that the paint under the window had dried, leaving some strange marks. Sera discovered that this was right above the place where the fall occurred, which was quite suspicious.

After some reasoning, Sera said that the murderer was Ms. Hirukawa, the only one who had entered the annex.

After discussing with Inspector Megure, Sera set up the mechanism and began her performance.

Sera pointed out that it was Ms. Hirukawa who got Mr. Kamijuma drunk and placed him in the electric wheelchair. She then used an elevator with double doors to take him to the second floor, then through some paint cans placed on the sixth floor, to the window, and finally he fell down.

But when she was practicing with a dummy, she found that the dummy did not fall down the stairs as she said.

This made Conan feel a little bad, after all, none of the people present could use the tranquilizer gun as a mouthpiece for him. After thinking for a moment, he took out his phone and handed it to Inspector Megure, then began to explain his reasoning in the voice of Kudo Shinichi, while he hid in a corner nearby.

"The murderer used the two paint cans placed next to the window to push the victim downstairs."

Inspector Megure asked into the phone, "So how did the murderer use the paint can to commit the crime?"

"There are traces of a lot of paint spilled underneath the window, right? There are also traces of something being placed on it."

"Please try placing two paint cans horizontally along those marks and see if they match up perfectly."

Several police officers did as they were told and found that it was true.

"Then please hold down those two paint cans with your feet and start the wheelchair again."

Sera Masumi seemed to be testing the waters. She pulled the wheelchair to the back and asked directly, "Can we start from here?"

Conan also learned his lesson and did not answer directly: "You said that because I was not at the scene, I really have no way to judge."

"That's true." Then Sera pushed the wheelchair forward.

Sure enough, this time the wheelchair tilted forward, and the dummy on it flew directly out of the window and was caught by the police on standby downstairs with a protective mat.

Conan continued on the phone: "The method of getting the wheelchair back to the second floor is the same as when it came up. The murderer only needs to take away the fishing line and rubber bands in the elevator to hide the evidence."

"As for the reason why the paint cans didn't stay where they were, it's probably because the wheelchair hit the paint cans and the reaction force created pushed them away."

"If we can find fibers from the murderer's clothes on the victim's clothes, we should be able to solve the case."

"After all, if a woman wants to move a grown man into a wheelchair, she must lift his body with all her strength."

After hearing this reasoning, Ms. Hirukawa directly pleaded guilty, but according to her, the mechanism was actually designed by Mr. Kamijuma, who also said that he could use the rumor of "the wheelchair controlled by the old man's ghost" to scare away those media workers.

Mr. Kamizumi's act of making a fuss about her father's death angered Ms. Hirukawa, so she killed him in this way.

Seeing the murderer brought to justice, Conan ran out from the corner and took his cell phone. Just as he was about to say something, he ran into the priest and the sorcerer who walked in.

"As expected, there are no ghosts at all." The sorcerer was holding a piece of brownie in his hand.

The priest made a prayer gesture and sighed, "As expected of Kudo-san, he solved the truth behind the case in one go."

This made Conan a little nervous, but after looking at the expressions of the priest and the sorcerer, he realized that he was not exposed and couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief.

"By the way, Conan, the all-you-can-eat cake restaurant on the second floor is open again. It seems they restocked it." The sorcerer calmly scooped a spoonful of brownie. "Ran and Sonoko have already gone to reserve a table. We're here to ask you to go with Miss Sera."

Conan was about to agree, but then he realized that the sorcerer called Sera Masumi "Miss", and he couldn't help but be surprised: "Eh? Are you a girl?"

Seeing Conan turned around in surprise, Sera smiled heartily: "Ah, that's right."

On the way to the restaurant, Sera was a little curious about how the sorcerer could see through her gender directly: "I'm dressed like a boy, but you can tell that I'm a girl right away."

"After all, my previous experience allows me to distinguish a person's physical characteristics quite clearly."

"Hey, your past experiences? Are there any doctors or nurses in your family, or people who play sports?"

The sorcerer shook his head. "Neither. If I had to say, I'd probably consider myself a theologian."

"Ah?" When Shiliang heard this, his eyes widened.

"Then Miss Fiona wouldn't also be..."

The priest stroked his horn-shaped ornament and said, "Yes, I am in the same situation as Patricia."

Now Sera was dumbfounded. She initially thought that these two people were just enthusiasts of mysticism, and she never expected that their family was studying this.

When they arrived at the cake shop, Xiaolan and Sonoko were also shocked to find out that Sera Masumi was a girl.

Not long after, Masumi Sera also entered Teitan High School as a transfer student. She was very interested in the mysticism of priests and sorcerers, so after asking Xiaolan and Sonoko, she went straight to the Mysticism Research Club.

It was the prophet who opened the door for Sera Masumi. The priest and the sorcerer were not in the society at that time.

"Are you here to look for Fiona and Patricia? They are not in the club now. If you want to know about divination, please go back." The prophet responded to Sera politely.

Shira was even more surprised to see the prophet's attire. After all, she had never seen a person who could see the road clearly with a black veil covering his eyes.

"Um, excuse me, are you also a theologian?"

"Yes, I'm Eli Clarke, and I'm as good at divination as Fiona. But my beliefs are different from Fiona's and Patricia's."

"Your eyepatch?"

"You can think of it as a manifestation of faith, just like Fiona's horn-shaped headdress and Patricia's tattoo."

Sera noticed that the prophet also had a similar tattoo on his face. After chatting with the prophet for a few words, she prepared to get up and leave.

"Ms. Detective, I still want to remind you that sometimes it is better not to act on your own." The Prophet said with a smile as he looked at Sera who was about to push the door and leave.

Shira turned around and saw an owl with strange patterns on its face resting on the prophet's shoulder. The owl was looking at him with one eye open and one eye closed.

"Thank you for your advice." Shira felt as if he had been seen through and hurriedly left the Occult Research Club.