.. Reversal.. the resurrection of the dead." Amuro Tooru took a deep breath and then exhaled, "They want to resurrect the deceased through self-sacrifice.
Oh.. that could be considered one type of speculation, though it's certainly not the only possibility." Kisaragi Chiyo's voice was very soft, yet it was loud enough for the other two people present to hear clearly. "But I would like to add something regarding Mr. Amuro's speculation: resurrecting the dead is a completely futile endeavor.
Because in this world, there is no such thing as bringing the dead back to life.
If that were the case, wouldn't life and death be thrown into total chaos?
"That's right." A thick voice came from behind the closed shoji door. With a swish, as the door to the Japanese-style room was opened, a rugged and heroic face appeared before everyone.
The man was tall and built, wearing a green jacket and holding a rolled-up notebook in his hand. From Kisaragi Chiyo's seated perspective, looking up at him, the man was almost as tall as the shoji doors of the washitsu.
Upon seeing him, Hara Kenji sat up from his reclining position on the tatami mat and let out a gasp of surprise.
"That's really quite tall," he remarked, his tone tinged with a hint of envy.
And he looks quite friendly," Hara Kenji remarked. "Even though his appearance is quite fierce, he's likely a good person unexpectedly.
What's that supposed to mean?" Kisaragi Chiyo glanced at him with a hint of amusement. "Is it the mutual attraction between fellow police officers?
From the way Mr. Mitsui, who had rushed over later, addressed him, they had already learned that this tall man was a police officer.
You can't put it that way." Hara Kenji shook his head and leaned in close to him, his voice dropping to a low whisper as if sharing a secret, "It should be called intuition, because right now, you're the only existence capable of attracting me.
Kisaragi Chiyo: ".."
Kisaragi Chiyo remained silent at this statement; although she did not answer, he found that he seemed to have grown accustomed to her occasional banter. Thinking about it this way, adapting to someone's presence so quickly was truly a terrifying thing.
Author's Note:
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Thanks to all the little angels for the collections, muah everyone 0330
Chapter 20
This tall policeman introduced himself as Date Wataru, an officer from Investigation Division One.
They had come at this time to cooperate with their superior's instructions, coming together with his partner to see if any other clues could be found at the Shimizu residence with Mr. Mitsui.
And the tall man in the brown suit standing nearby was Date Wataru's partner, Takagi Wataru.
"What about Officer Date's book?" The first person who couldn't sit still was the little boy Conan; he had been jumping up and down impatiently from the very first second he saw the other person.
"We couldn't find it." Date Wataru's expression was quite poor when he answered the question, his face filled with confusion and distress, his thick, seaweed-like eyebrows furrowed tightly together.
You didn't find it!?" Conan's voice rose involuntarily after hearing that. "How could you not find it? Mr. Mitsui, he..
At Conan's words, Kisaragi Chiyo turned her gaze toward the other side, where Mr. Mitsui stood, looking just as distressed and anxious as Date Wataru.
"This.. I clearly put it in the cabinet, so how could it be missing?" Mr. Mitsui's face was so contorted with frustration that his entire face was scrunched up, with a hint of disgust caught between his brows.
He paced back and forth unconsciously, then, as if remembering something, he poked his head out and shouted toward the hallway, "Mom, Mom.. is Shimizu with you?"
"Um, excuse me, by 'Little Shimizu,' do you mean that child with the long hair?" Upon hearing Shimizu's name, Kisaragi Chiyo thought of that child who had peeked through the crack in the door earlier and then vanished instantly upon being discovered.
Ah, yes." Mr. Mitsui gave a soft response, turning his head to look at Kisaragi Chiyo. "Mr. Kisaragi, have you.. already encountered that child?
"I saw that child in the hallway through the crack in the door earlier." Kisaragi Chiyo did not mention anything strange about Shimizu; he just used some vague words.
But just as I was about to check, that child had already disappeared.
I see." Mr. Mitsui gave an embarrassed smile, his tone became a bit more relaxed when he mentioned Shimizu Kyou.
I'm sorry, little Shimizu is a bit shy.
I don't know what's come over her lately; that child is always hiding from people, we rarely even see her around. When we do happen to run into her, she quickly hides away again.
"She's just like a little mouse, vanishing in a flash," Mr. Mitsui said, laughing himself first. He seemed to intend to ease the atmosphere, but he clearly failed, as no one else present joined in his laughter.
Mr. Mitsui, please think about it carefully again." Date Wataru did not forget his duty in coming here this time, he asked Mr. Mitsui once more, "Is it possible that you put that book somewhere else?
I remember very clearly that I put that book in that cabinet," Mr. Mitsui said with great certainty. "I wouldn't have misremembered; I even locked the cabinet myself at the time.
"Then could it be that the old lady opened the cabinet and took the book?" Amuro Tooru had looked unhappy ever since hearing the news that the book had disappeared. Although Mr. Mitsui answered with certainty, it was obvious that Amuro Tooru felt the truthfulness of the other man's words was still questionable.
It was not difficult to notice the skeptical look in his eyes toward Mr. Mitsui; Amuro Tooru felt that Mr. Mitsui likely had some information that he was still hiding from them.
Impossible." Mr. Mitsui denied it quickly, his attitude toward that book filled with both resistance and apprehension. "Mom doesn't know anything about that book.. She doesn't believe in that kind of stuff.
At this point, his voice suddenly dropped an octave. "As for the rumors about that book.. Officer, I believe you all know a thing or two about it, right? All that nonsense about swapping and resurrection.. Mom doesn't believe in that stuff, so it's absolutely impossible that she took it."
Besides, I've always kept the keys to that cabinet on me, so it's impossible for anyone else to have touched them.
"You've had it on you the whole time?" Date Wataru asked.
Yes." Mr. Mitsui nodded vigorously, then his expression became somewhat hesitant again. "But I got caught in the rain on my way back just now. When I went to the bathroom to change my clothes, I left the keys inside that wet coat.
But I can guarantee that there was no one else in the room at the time but me. Besides, it only took me five minutes to change, the door was locked, so it would have been impossible for anyone to come in.
Facing Mr. Mitsui's statement, Kisaragi Chiyo felt that the direction of the matter had suddenly become somewhat subtle: "In that case, is it possible that someone picked the lock?"
In that case, the cabinet can be opened without a key.
But as soon as Kisaragi Chiyo proposed this idea, she was immediately shut down by Takagi Wataru, who was standing beside her.
No." Takagi Wataru flipped open the notebook in his hands. "Brother Date and I had also considered that possibility before, but we checked the scene as well, there were no signs that the cabinet had been pried open with any tools.
"That is truly strange then." Relying on the fact that only Kisaragi Chiyo could see him, Hara Kenji slowly circled around everyone, only stopping when he reached in front of Mr. Mitsui.
"So that's how it is." As if he had discovered something, Hara Kenji flashed a meaningful smile toward Kisaragi Chiyo. He pointed a finger toward the ceiling, then pressed it against his lips in a gesture for silence.
Perhaps your doubts are correct." Hara Kenji stood back beside Kisaragi Chiyo, radiating a cold aura. "Humans have vastly underestimated the intelligence and ability of the rats to cooperate.
Kisaragi." Hara Kenji tilted his head, slowly turning that excessively pale and handsome face toward Kisaragi Chiyo. "Do you still remember the noises we heard coming from the ceiling earlier?
".." Kisaragi Chiyo did not answer; he understood the somewhat absurd answer implied by the other man.
Although he agreed with the rat's intelligence and ability to cooperate, it was a rat after all; could it really do something like this?
Kisaragi Chiyo thought of that mouse that had greeted him, felt a bit uncertain again.
But just why? What kind of clues did Hara Kenji use to make that judgment?
Kisaragi Chiyo maintained a calm, expressionless face, working hard to think about the places she had overlooked.
"It's the scent." Hara Kenji's dark purple eyes curved slightly. His voice was pleasant, always carrying an air of effortless composure.
I'm quite sensitive to smells.
Kisaragi Chiyo: ".."
Ah, so that's how it is.
One must know that a dog's sense of smell has more than forty times the number of olfactory cells as a human's, so it is quite normal for them to easily catch scents that had previously only left a brief trace.
"For example, right now." Hara Kenji stared intently at Kisaragi Chiyo, suddenly leaning down to bring his face close to hers. His features magnified to a distance where Kisaragi Chiyo felt that even a single blink of her eyelashes might brush against him, leaving nothing in her field of vision but those dark purple eyes that resembled a deep-sea vortex.
I bet you're thinking bad things about me right now.
Faced with the other party's unprovoked accusation, Kisaragi Chiyo felt like rolling her eyes at this moment, but since the evil spirit pressing close to her face was only visible to her, she ultimately suppressed the impulse to avoid causing unnecessary misunderstandings for others.
A frivolous laugh rang in her ear again, a cold, faint fragrance brushed against the tip of her nose. The evil spirit turned its face away, returning her field of vision to normal.
Watching the subtle changes in Kisaragi Chiyo's expressions, Hara Kenji knew that she didn't understand at all, she hadn't even realized it despite his repeated explanations.
Just how terrifying was the fragrant, seductive scent that Kisaragi Chiyo herself emitted within the world perceived by evil spirits. It danced upon Hara Kenji's self-control almost every moment; every change in her emotions, even the slightest, was sensitive enough to capture his entire attention.
*
"Mr. Mitsui." Kisaragi Chiyo spoke up suddenly, raising her eyes, her misty gray gaze falling upon the somewhat stunned Mr. Mitsui.
"I'm sorry.. although this question might be a bit rude, I still want to ask." The voice raced across the ceiling again, Kisaragi Chiyo's gaze slowly drifted from Mr. Mitsui's face, finally landing on a certain spot behind him.
Although someone once said, 'I saw Mr. Mitsui in the Church,' from the attitude you just displayed, it seems you do not believe in that so-called Church of Hope.
"I" heard the name of the Church of Hope, Mr. Mitsui almost subconsciously frowned, a look of disgust reflexively appearing on his face.
By this time, Date Wataru, standing to the side, also noticed something was wrong with Mr. Mitsui. Although he had previously sensed the concealment in Mr. Mitsui's words, he couldn't figure out the reason for a while, until Kisaragi Chiyo brought it up, causing a thought to suddenly flash through Date Wataru's mind.
"Are you trying to say that since Mr. Mitsui feels such resentment toward that so-called church, why would he appear within it?" Amuro Tooru flashed a smile, the same smile Kisaragi Chiyo had seen back when they were at the cafe.
The other party had already guessed the answer; after all, he was the apprentice of a great detective, wasn't he?
So based on this, can we boldly hypothesize a possibility.. that the one who obtained the book wasn't Mr. Mitsui, but rather that Mr. Mitsui is hiding something on behalf of someone else?
What!?" Conan was so shocked by Amuro Tooru's statement that he nearly jumped out of his skin. "But why would Mr. Mitsui..
Halfway through his sentence, Conan suddenly stopped, because the expression on Mr. Mitsui's face had already confirmed the accuracy of Amuro Tooru's hypothesis.
Conan's mind raced as he thought of a person; it was because of the need to protect this person that Mr. Mitsui had not revealed who the actual owner of that book, which seemed to carry a death curse, truly was.
"Shimizu Kagami." Kisaragi Chiyo did not have the habit of leaving things half-said. She looked at the long-haired girl who had silently appeared behind Mr. Mitsui during their conversation at some unknown moment—Shimizu Kagami.
The girl had long hair reaching down to her waist, her sharp, clear cat-like eyes stared blankly at Kisaragi Chiyo. Her slender figure possessed a rare, sunless pallor, standing in the shadows of the dim corridor, she looked exactly like a traditional Japanese doll.
Kisaragi Chiyo stared at her, stunned for a moment, before finally realizing something was wrong with the girl. Aside from the strange phenomenon that had just vanished, her human scent was far too faint—so faint it was almost like plain water.
"Little Kyo," Uncle Mitsui exclaimed.
It wasn't until Kisaragi Chiyo pointed it out that the people in the Japanese-style room realized Shimizu Kagami had stood behind them at some unknown point and listened to the entire conversation.
Mr. Mitsui hurriedly tried to reach out and grab Shimizu's hand, but the moment he extended his hand, a gust of wind swirled around Shimizu, in the next second, he had completely vanished.
“.. Was I seeing things?” Conan took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes. But once he raised his head and looked around, he found that among the people present, besides himself and Takagi Wataru, not a single person seemed surprised by what had just happened.
"Whatever it is, the priority right now is to find Shimizu Kagami." Amuro Tooru patted Conan's head to comfort him, then signaled with his eyes for him to follow him.
"Alright, alright, maybe Miss Shimizu just ran a little faster, but we'll be able to find her," Conan muttered, pulling himself together.
Although it was unknown how Shimizu had managed to get his hands on the book that Mr. Mitsui had locked in the cabinet, now was not the time to dwell on that question; finding Shimizu was the most important thing right now.
"I'll help too," Kisaragi Chiyo sighed, feeling that until Shimizu was found and the current situation was clarified, a distraught Mr. Mitsui likely wouldn't be in the mood to fetch the book for her.
As they left the Japanese-style room to head out and search for Shimizu Kagami, the policeman named Date Wataru seemed to have something he wanted to say to him, intentionally falling a step behind the others.
Kisaragi Chiyo had originally thought that the other person wanted to discuss something regarding Mr. Mitsui and Shimizu, but she didn't expect that the first words out of his mouth would leave her completely bewildered.
Long time no see, I didn't expect to run into you here.
Author's Note:
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Thanks to the little angel for the collection, mwah everyone 033300v0