Oritis in the world of Detective Conan

Chapter 204: Thrilling Music Score (Part 4)

While practicing with Sonoko on the tennis court, Xiaolan recalled an old event. At that time, she had a quarrel with Kudo Shinichi. Later, on the way home from school, the two reconciled because of a song, but she could not remember which famous song it was.

In the music classroom of Teitan Elementary School, all the classmates in Conan's class came, including the little girl. They were practicing chorus together. Miss Akiba and the opera singer were watching from the side, and Xiaolan was playing the piano accompaniment.

After the song was over, Xiaolan stopped playing and turned back to ask the two professionals: "What do you think of the children's singing?"

Ms. Akita immediately displayed her rather sharp criticism.

Yuan Tai was the first to be called out: "First, you are too loud. You need to learn to cooperate with others."

Mitsuhiko was next: "You didn't sing off-key from beginning to end, but sometimes you seemed distracted. Were you mesmerized by the profile of the girl in front of you?"

Upon hearing this, Mitsuhiko blushed immediately, and the other students burst into laughter.

Then Ms. Akita pointed at Haibara and said, "As for you, you sing well, but you should sing with more of a childlike feeling."

"I'm not a child." Huibara turned her head away with disdain.

Then it was Ayumi's turn. Miss Akita gently stroked her head. "Your pitch is excellent and you're energetic. You performed very well. Don't be affected by other people's voices. You should have confidence in yourself."

Then the little girl said: "Your singing is not bad, but I always feel that there is a sense of sadness in it. You can't sing such a song too sadly."

The little girl tugged at her blonde hair, looking a little unhappy, and turned her puffy face towards Miss Qiu Ting.

Finally, Miss Qiuting pointed the finger at Conan: "The problem is you. You didn't sing a single note correctly from beginning to end. Did you do it on purpose?"

Ayumi, who was standing by, immediately defended Conan: "Conan didn't do it on purpose. He's just tone-deaf."

Now all the children started laughing, and even Yuanzi, who was admiring the scene from the back, slapped his thighs and laughed out loud.

Conan showed his half-moon eyes: Are you speaking up for me?

The opera singer came over and comforted Conan: "This is not uncommon. Some people can know the individual pronunciations, but when the individual pronunciations are strung together into a song, they can't find the tune."

[Ms. FARROW: Florian's pitch is pretty terrible, if you think about it.]

[Puppeteer: It's probably because he has poor hearing. Florian usually speaks very loudly.]

[Fire Investigator: This is just a minor setback in the trial. It will not affect the baptism of fire.]

[Air Force: Come to think of it, Evelyn, your sense of taste isn't very sensitive either. Last time you added salt to your coffee instead of sugar and I didn't even notice.]

[Knight: I was wondering why those freshly brewed cups of coffee were so salty and bitter. Ugh.]

[Pilot: I'm worried about the food situation there.]

[Air Force: It's okay. I've stocked up on a lot of canned instant food, the kind you can eat right after opening the lid. At least I won't starve to death.]

[Entomologist: Has life become so hard?]

[Fire Investigator: I think it's okay.]

[Forward: Okay, as long as you are happy.]

At this time, Miss Qiuting began to criticize Xiaolan's piano again: "The sound of the piano is also very strange, and the overall pitch is dropping. Is it because it is not tuned regularly?"

Xiaolan immediately began to examine her, while asking, "Does Miss Qiu Ting have absolute pitch?"

Miss Akita admitted this.

When a child was curious about what absolute pitch was, the opera singer explained, "Absolute pitch is the ability to immediately name a sound upon hearing it—in other words, to pronounce the note. It's a remarkable talent, but it can also be acquired through hard work."

Then Huiyuan walked to the piano and looked at Miss Akiba. Miss Akiba nodded and turned around. Huiyuan pressed a few notes on the piano, and Miss Akiba guessed them all correctly.

The children exclaimed, "That's amazing! That's why Miss Qiuting sings so well."

Ms. Akita leaned against her desk and said, "Not necessarily. Actually, I'm not sure if perfect pitch is a must to be a musician. I remember that Mr. Powa Takumi, the former piano tuner, acquired perfect pitch through practice."

Conan turned to look at the opera singer: "Does Sister Sangria have absolute pitch?"

The opera singer shook his head. "I grew up in an opera house. My father trained me very hard every day so that I could perform on stage. However, I don't have that kind of outstanding talent, so I can only rely on my own hard work."

Ms. Akita was ready to leave, so she said goodbye to the children. "Well, that's all the advice I can give you. The rest is up to you. Like Ms. Sangria said, practice hard. I'll come back and see you when you're singing better."

The children were a little reluctant to leave, so Huiyuan crossed her arms and said, "How about we demonstrate it to you before we go back?"

Ms. Qiuting put on her backpack and said, "How much do you want to pay me? Professional singers won't sing if they don't get paid. Goodbye."

Just as Miss Qiuting was about to leave, the noise made by Yuan Tai attracted her attention. It turned out that the greedy Yuan Tai had stolen the thermos cup of tea and was about to take a sip.

Unexpectedly, as soon as he took a sip of the tea, Yuantai covered his throat in pain and fell to the ground struggling: "My throat, my throat! It hurts so much!"

Conan was shocked and ran towards Yuanta: "Yuanta, what's wrong with you?"

But someone was faster than him. The opera singer flashed to Yuantai's side like a shadow, helped him up, picked up the teacup, and smelled it under his nose.

"It has a peculiar smell that tea doesn't have. It's very pungent. It must have been mixed with some kind of irritant."

Conan and the other children had already run to Yuanta's side. Conan raised his head and asked the opera singer: "Sister Sangria, are you sure?"

The opera singer nodded. "I'm sure of that, because I was once attacked in the same way, and it left me completely unable to make any sound."

Conan immediately looked at Miss Akita: "Someone put drugs in your tea and wanted to harm you. You can understand it this way."

Miss Qiu Ting looked at the thermos in her hand in disbelief: "How could this be possible?"

The little girl reminded Conan at this time: "Conan, let's take Genta to the hospital first. He is feeling very uncomfortable now."

In the hospital, Yuantai was sent to the doctor, and the rest of the people gathered together to talk about what had just happened.

Conan asked Miss Akiba for details about the thermos and learned that someone took the opportunity to put drugs in Miss Akiba's thermos when she was at Domoto Academy.

After a while, Yuantai came out. The examination showed that he just had a sore throat and it would heal in a few days. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

Conan pondered for a moment, then pulled the opera singer aside and asked, "Sister Sangria, you said before that your voice was also harmed by this method?"

The opera singer shook his head. "Those people are more cruel than you imagine, little detective. They use drugs to control the singers' voices, just like locking the tongues of birds. I saw through their ugly faces, but I couldn't get rid of the aftereffects of the drugs until I received the invitation to the manor."

"So you joined the Oritis Organization because..."

The opera singer clenched his cape: "No doubt, it's so that I can sing freely."