A shoehorn-shaped face and a sleazy little mustache.
Hidden in the darkness, Kurumi noticed the man in her sights, who looked exactly like the man in the photograph Narumi had given her.
One of the killers—Kawashima.
Watching one of her targets head toward the Community Center's restroom, Kurumi swiftly rushed after him and had King Crimson knock him out before he could react.
Although killing him outright would have been simpler than knocking him unconscious, Kurumi and Narumi still needed this man alive for the time being for the next stage of their plan.
Moonlight Sonata
For the next stage of the plan, Kurumi did not kill Kawashima directly and temporarily spared his life.
However!
Keeping Kawashima alive was merely the bare minimum requirement.
And that meant that as long as Kawashima could still breathe, neither Aso Narumi nor Kurumi cared what became of his body.
Therefore, to keep Kawashima from causing trouble for her operation, Kurumi deliberately used the methods she had learned in the organization to quickly and precisely snap Kawashima's spine.
With a crack, the unconscious Kawashima completely lost his ability to move.
Although Kurumi had not taken Kawashima's life, the injury she had inflicted was likely more terrifying than death itself to anyone.
The human spine occupied an extremely important position in the body. Standing, walking, and all kinds of movements depended on it.
What was more, Kurumi's blow had not merely severed Kawashima's spine—it had directly destroyed his nerves as well. In other words, from this point on, Kawashima would no longer be able to feel any part of his body below the head.
This was probably high-level paraplegia.
What Kurumi had done to him would have been utterly excessive if done to anyone else. But against trash like him, who had ruined families by selling White Powder, Kurumi had no intention of showing mercy.
After stuffing a filthy rag into Kawashima's mouth, Kurumi crammed him into a large cardboard box, then covered it with miscellaneous clutter from the room. Finally, after making sure everything was foolproof, Kurumi left the room to prepare for the next step.
Actually, running into Kawashima in the hallway had been an unexpected stroke of luck. But even without that pleasant surprise, Kurumi could have waited until the memorial service ended and everyone began leaving, then used King Crimson's Time Erasure to take him away right under everyone's noses.
After finding the recorder Narumi had prepared, Kurumi headed to the room where the piano donated by Aso Keiji was kept.
The second step of their plan was for Kurumi to play the tape containing the piano piece "Moonlight Sonata" in the piano room during or immediately after the memorial service, stirring panic in those people's hearts.
And to ensure that the "shadow disappears" described in the letter Narumi had sent Mouri Kogoro truly came to pass, Narumi and Kurumi had planned from the beginning to use these culprits as targets.
However, compared to the sufficiently shocking deterrent of a living person dying beside the Cursed Piano the villagers believed to be haunted, one person's disappearance lacked some impact.
But that happened to fit the meaning of the word "disappear" in the letter.
Upon reaching the piano room, Kurumi placed the recorder behind the piano and eagerly pressed the play button.
The next second, the beautiful piano melody composed by Beethoven, a piece praised by the German poet Ludwig as being like a rocking boat upon the moonlit waters of Lake Lucerne in Switzerland, flowed from the recorder.
"Done!"
Curious about what sort of reaction the people attending the memorial service in the next room would have upon hearing this piece, Kurumi activated King Crimson's ability again and swiftly left the room filled with music.
At the same time, the moment the piano music began, the people in the next room erupted.
Those who firmly believed in the island's curse were either flustered or frightened.
They looked around in every direction, seeing expressions on the faces of those beside them that were exactly the same as their own.
"This piece... this piece, isn't it..."
"It's Moonlight Sonata! It's Aso Keiji's soul!!!"
The panicked, clamorous voices immediately shattered the solemn silence of the memorial service.
And the most alarmed among them were probably the few people who knew the truth of what had happened in the past.
Looks like Kurumi really succeeded! Unlike the panicked crowd, Narumi, who knew the truth, deliberately put on the same shocked expression as everyone else, fully displaying her talent as an actress.
At the entrance, Conan, who had been pondering the riddle in the letter, instantly widened his eyes upon hearing the piano music coming from the Community Center.
"It's Moonlight Sonata! Oh no!"
Conan quickly sprang up from the steps and ran straight toward the piano room where the music was coming from.
Behind him, Mouri Kogoro and Mouri Ran, who had also noticed something was wrong, hurried after him.
After reaching the door of the piano room where the crowd had gathered, Conan ignored the people around him and forcefully shoved open the door by himself.
In the brightly lit but empty room, the sound coming from the black piano in the center made the originally beautiful and elegant sonata seem so eerie and terrifying.
What is going on?
Conan, who had expected someone to be in danger, froze for a moment when he saw that there was no corpse in the room.
With his sharp eyesight, he noticed that the piano keys were not moving along with the music.
At that moment, Mouri Kogoro, who had followed behind him, entered the room as well. Never one to believe in evil spirits or curses, he calmly walked over to the piano. After examining it for a while, he found the recorder placed inside.
"A curse! It's Aso Keiji's Curse!"
Outside the door, the bespectacled man who had spoken with Mouri Kogoro earlier said in terror.
He even took several involuntary steps back in his panic, pressing himself against the people gathered behind him.
"Hey, this isn't some curse..." Mouri Kogoro gave the panicked man a speechless look, then pursed his lips and took the playing recorder from the piano with an equally speechless expression.
"The sound is coming from a recorder." As he spoke, Mouri Kogoro switched the recorder off.
At once, the melody of Moonlight Sonata stopped.
The atmosphere fell silent once more.
"This is probably... someone's prank."
Mouri Kogoro placed the recorder on the piano and looked speechlessly at the people outside the door, who seemed thoroughly frightened. He found it a little amusing.
After hearing Mouri Kogoro's explanation and learning that the song had not come from the piano, the people gradually calmed down. Then someone asked, "A recorder? Who would play such a joke at a time like this?"
Once their extreme panic faded, the anger of having been fooled surged up within them.
"This is outrageous!"
"Exactly! Which bastard would do something like this?"
"Still, speaking of someone who would do such a thing..." Amid the crowd's furious complaints, one man's words stood out sharply.
Mouri Kogoro: "Take This Punch!"
Following the direction of the voice, everyone turned to look at the man who had spoken.
Being watched by so many people at once made him look uncomfortable. But when he thought of how some detestable person had used the island's tale of Aso Keiji's evil spirit to pull such a prank, his expression turned to indignant anger. "This must have been done by one of the villagers! Or rather, by someone attending tonight's memorial service for the former village chief!"
Hearing the man's angry words, the people around him began whispering among themselves.
But while everyone suspected one another, Conan, who felt the timing of this incident was far too convenient, did not agree with the first part of the man's claim.
After all, while the memorial service had been taking place, he, Mouri Kogoro, and Mouri Ran had been sitting in front of the entrance. And after examining the room, Conan had found no signs that the locks on the doors or windows had been damaged.
In other words, if an island villager had truly wanted to do this, they could not have entered through the back door of this room facing the sea. They would have had to pass through the front entrance where the three of them were.
Could it have been someone here? Conan asked suspiciously, "Other than the front entrance and this door, are there any other entrances to the Community Center?"
In the noisy room, Conan's childish voice sounded exceptionally conspicuous.
"As for doors, there's another one at the other end of this hallway," an honest man answered.
After hearing him, Conan looked at Mouri Kogoro. When he saw that the latter did not seem displeased by his casual question, Conan grew bolder.
After leaving behind the words, "Then I'll go take a look," Conan ran off with a rapid patter of footsteps.
Inside the room, Conan's departure did not draw much attention.
At that moment, Mouri Kogoro, who thought this was nothing more than a simple prank, felt there was no point dragging things out any longer. Since he did not take it seriously, he naturally had no interest in dealing with these people who still believed in superstitious nonsense like evil spirit curses.
Thus, just as Mouri Kogoro was about to persuade everyone to leave, Conan's voice suddenly came from the other end of the hallway, growing closer and closer.
"This is bad! The lock on the door at the other end of the hallway has been broken!"
Not long after his words fell, Conan came running in, panting heavily.
"What did you say? The lock on that door has been broken?"
"Could a villager really be causing trouble?"
"Damn it! Which bastard was it?"
With Conan's words, the crowd became even noisier.
Seeing the reaction at the scene, Mouri Kogoro's face darkened slightly.
"Listen, kid! At most, this just means some villager pulled a prank!"
Noticing that Mouri Kogoro was about to hit him on the head again, Conan instinctively shrank his neck.
"But!"
Conan had just wanted to explain when the people around them suddenly objected.
Among them, a man with braided hair, wearing a gray sweater, small dark sunglasses, and a hat, stepped forward and asked, "Prank, prank—you keep calling it a prank. Who exactly are you?"
Standing beside the man, a woman in a black business suit also looked at Mouri Kogoro with hostility.
Hearing that someone had finally asked about his identity, Mouri Kogoro closed his eyes. Straightening his suit with an immensely proud tone, he confidently introduced himself, "I am the Great Detective from Tokyo! Mouri Kogoro!"
Though his eyes were closed, Mouri Kogoro had already imagined everyone showing shocked expressions upon hearing his name.
But did things really go as Mouri Kogoro imagined?
Quite the opposite.
The people living on this island had never heard Mouri Kogoro's name. So after hearing his confident introduction, they all looked at the embarrassed Great Detective with suspicious eyes.
Honestly, Uncle... sigh...
Seeing Mouri Kogoro's awkward appearance, Conan, who had caught his breath, felt rather speechless.
Even Mouri Ran beside him could no longer bear to watch and turned her gaze away.
Just as the atmosphere in the room became unbearably awkward, Narumi, standing among the crowd, noticed a watch that had somehow appeared on the floor.
Huh? Was this watch here just now? Narumi was a little puzzled. Ever since coming here, she had not seen what appeared to be someone's lost watch on the floor, and it looked quite expensive.
Bending down to pick up the watch, Narumi called out loudly, "Excuse me, who dropped this watch on the floor?"
In response to Narumi's question, those who wore watches turned around and checked their wrists, while those without watches simply shook their heads.
A few seconds later, everyone present stated that the watch was not theirs.
Seeing that everyone said it was not theirs, Narumi asked in confusion, "Huh? Then whose watch is this?"
Among the crowd, a bald man!
No, the current village chief, Kuroiwa—the short, fat man with a fierce expression—noticed that the watch in Narumi's hand looked familiar.
"Isn't that Kawashima's watch?"
Village Chief Kuroiwa had some impression of this watch, which Kawashima liked best and showed off from time to time.
When the village chief mentioned Kawashima's name, everyone's expressions changed instantly.
"Could Kawashima be the one who pulled this prank?" Thinking the truth had already been uncovered, Mouri Kogoro reached his conclusion. "If this watch really belongs to Mr. Kawashima, then that means Mr. Kawashima left it here because he was in too much of a hurry to leave after setting up the scene, right?"
Conan, however, did not agree with Mouri Kogoro's conclusion.
"Probably not. If he was only using a recorder to play a prank, would Uncle Kawashima really need to take off his watch?"
Seeing Conan contradict him in front of everyone, Mouri Kogoro hardened his heart and slammed a fist onto Conan's head. Conan let out an "Ow!" and clutched his head in pain.
"Dad!" Seeing Conan get hit again, kind-hearted Mouri Ran could not stand it any longer.
She hurriedly pulled Conan over and began checking his head.
Sure enough, a bump had risen on Conan's large head.
It looked painful.
"Ahem!" To ease the awkwardness, Mouri Kogoro looked solemnly at everyone and began changing the subject. "Then, since this watch belongs to Mr. Kawashima, has anyone here seen him?"
Before you continue