Outlaws in Conan's World: Tokisaki Kurumi

Kawashima, Full of Unhealthy Thoughts

"Mr. Kawashima? I remember he left in the middle of the memorial service," said someone who had been sitting in the back and attending the service.

"Could Mr. Kawashima be the one behind this prank?" Another villager found it hard to believe.

After all, Kawashima was a well-known wealthy man on this island, and he also held a strong advantage in the upcoming election for the next village chief.

No matter how foolish a candidate for village chief who needed the villagers' favor to win votes might be, he should not have done something that came dangerously close to provoking the entire island's outrage.

As people began discussing and condemning Kawashima, his competitor, Village Chief Kuroiwa, though he felt that something was off, naturally would not pass up such a perfect chance to kick a man when he was down.

Even though the two of them had both been culprits in the arson murder meant to silence someone more than a decade ago.

Watching Kuroiwa seize the opportunity to loudly berate Kawashima for what he had done, Mouri Kogoro had already written the incident off as a prank, but Conan, whose head still hurt, had a bad feeling about it.

The noisy condemnation continued for several minutes. Finally, someone with a clearer head raised a question.

"But if Mr. Kawashima really did this, where is he? And what about the broken lock on the back door that the kid mentioned earlier?"

Faced with such a pointed question, Kuroiwa, who had been enthusiastically criticizing his rival, fell silent.

"Perhaps Kawashima joined forces with someone in the village," the woman standing beside Kuroiwa said disdainfully.

As Village Chief Kuroiwa's daughter, she clearly knew that she had to firmly support her father at a time like this.

However, such a flimsy assumption naturally failed to convince everyone.

But Kawashima, the prime suspect, had vanished somewhere. Without conclusive evidence, no matter how much they suspected him, it was all still speculation and conjecture.

Meanwhile, while everyone in the Community Center had gathered in the piano room, Kurumi took the unconscious Kawashima through the night and brought him to the second floor of Aso Narumi's clinic without anyone noticing.

Inside a storage room lit by dim light, King Crimson, under Kurumi's control, efficiently tied Kawashima tightly to a chair with rope.

After pulling the rag from Kawashima's mouth and tossing it aside, Kurumi brought over a chair for herself and sat opposite him, idly playing with the cold military knife in her hand.

Without saying a word, Kurumi wore a cruel smile completely unlike her usual gentle appearance as she considered what methods she would use to properly "entertain" the scum before her.

As for King Crimson, the tall and imposing figure stood faithfully beside Kurumi, diligently carrying out his duty.

A moment later, the unconscious Kawashima gradually woke up.

When he opened his eyes, he had yet to understand what had happened. His neck hurt terribly, and he was startled to find a breathtakingly beautiful girl sitting before him for some reason.

"Who are you?" The sudden sight left Kawashima thoroughly flustered.

What frightened him even more was that he could no longer feel any part of his body below his neck.

Panic immediately appeared on Kawashima's lecherous face.

"Y-you... what did you do to me?" he asked fearfully.

"Me?" Kurumi revealed a sweet smile that could make any man fall head over heels, yet Kawashima could not sense the slightest trace of amusement from the beautiful girl before him.

Especially her crimson right eye. That icy gaze, as though it had seen through every secret he possessed, made Kawashima feel that she had come with ill intent.

Not to mention the thick dagger she held in her hand.

"You don't need to know who I am." Kurumi smiled at Kawashima. "You only need to know that someone hired me to handle something for a friend."

Handle something? Hearing that the girl had come for him on someone else's commission, Kawashima, who considered himself filthy rich, hurriedly said, "Who hired you? No! I don't care who it was or how much they paid you! As long as you let me go, I'll give you double... no! Five times the money!"

Seeing her nimbly play with the dagger before him, Kawashima did not care who she was working for. In his eyes, any problem that could be solved with money was not a problem at all!

Hearing Kawashima try to buy her over, Kurumi smiled even more happily.

The visual shock of her charming smile and stunningly beautiful face even left Kawashima, now nothing more than meat on the chopping block, dazed for a moment.

As the richest man on the island, Kawashima believed he had used his financial advantages to have his way with plenty of beautiful women.

But at that moment, Kawashima felt that none of the women he had played with over the years could compare to the girl before him, who looked no older than fifteen or sixteen.

How could Kurumi, under Kawashima's vacant stare, fail to understand what the man before her was thinking? Under ordinary circumstances, she might have been a little angry and found a way to teach him a lesson.

But for someone who was about to die~

Kurumi considered herself quite broad-minded.

At least E+ broad-minded. Perhaps even infinitely close to F.

Kurumi patted Kawashima's face with the cold dagger in her hand. "Mr. Kawashima, I don't believe some matters... can be solved with money."

"Especially when it concerns my friend."

The cold flat of the blade struck heavily against his face, snapping Kawashima out of the lustful daze he had been in.

Hearing that the girl had come because of her friend's commission, Kawashima's mind raced as he tried to remember whether he had offended someone over something recently.

"I don't know who hired you, but as long as you don't hurt me, I'll tell you anything." Seemingly believing that the woman before him only wanted information and would not harm him for the time being, Kawashima's tone became noticeably more confident.

As for how she had made him unable to feel his body, Kawashima simply assumed that he had been injected with some kind of anesthetic.

Seeing Kawashima cooperate so readily, Kurumi leaned back against the chair and crossed her legs.

As Kurumi's long, slender legs, wrapped in black stockings and radiating irresistible allure, crossed before him, Kawashima, reeking of lechery, stared at them so hard that his breathing quickened.

Damn it, just let me find an opening! Then I'll make you understand what happens when you provoke me!

Rapidly imagining how he would find an opportunity to subdue her once the drug's effects wore off, Kawashima had already pictured the alluring sight of the beautiful girl before him pleading beneath him.

But... would things really turn around the way he imagined?

One of Kira Yoshikage's Classic Quotes

Kawashima still did not know that the pain in the back of his neck came not only from King Crimson's loving chop, but also from the agonized cries of his broken spine.

Without a doubt, he had become a high-level paraplegic, yet he still did not know that he had become a cripple barely better off than a vegetable.

The beautiful face of the girl before him, the full breasts that looked impossible to grasp with one hand, and her lovely legs that radiated endless temptation constantly stirred Kawashima both visually and physically.

Kurumi saw Kawashima's reaction and paid it no mind.

"Mr. Kawashima, regarding my friend's commission, I only wanted to ask..." As she said this, Kurumi leaned forward and brought her face close to his.

Breathing in the enticing fragrance drifting from the girl, Kawashima unconsciously swallowed.

Enchantress! This woman is definitely an enchantress! Kawashima, who had already imagined an explicit scene in his mind, felt the flames in his heart burn even hotter.

But before he could get excited for long, Kurumi's next words were like icy seawater from Siberia, instantly extinguishing his blazing desire.

"To keep Aso Keiji from exposing you people for dealing White Powder, you killed his entire family. Are you really afraid of Aso Keiji's ghost?"

With that one simple question, Kawashima's expression instantly turned to terror.

"Y-you... how do you know about this?!" With the deepest secret in his heart laid bare, Kawashima was so overwhelmed that even his voice trembled violently.

Kurumi looked at him coldly and, without hesitation, shoved the military knife's blade into Kawashima's mouth. Her chilling voice seemed capable of freezing one's soul. "You bastard, don't answer a question with a question!"

Feeling the cold, sharp blade against the corner of his mouth, Kawashima trembled all over in fear.

"Did school teach you to answer questions with questions? I asked whether you were really afraid of Aso Keiji's ghost!"

With her cruel expression, Kurumi only needed to move her hand slightly for the corner of Kawashima's mouth to be sliced open all the way to his ear.

"Afraid! Of course we're afraid!" With a knife in his mouth, Kawashima could only carefully open his mouth and answer Kurumi's question.

"No! You're not afraid!" Dissatisfied with his answer, Kurumi said, "The evil spirit curse you spread across the island was merely a way to use the piano more conveniently to sell White Powder!"

Kurumi loathed such things deeply, and the cruelty in her eyes nearly became tangible. At that moment, she wanted nothing more than to slice this man apart piece by piece and see whether his heart was still red.

Completely terrified by the bloodthirsty aura Kurumi gave off, Kawashima was on the verge of collapse.

"You people not only killed an innocent family for your own interests, but even after their deaths, you continued to tarnish their names!"

Kurumi knew that her own hands were stained with blood, but it was all the blood of evil people who had received what they deserved.

As one of the few people in the organization who still possessed some conscience, she had been slandered by quite a few people because of it.

Kurumi pulled the knife from Kawashima's mouth and wiped the saliva from it on his suit.

Looking at Kawashima with disgust, Kurumi dropped her earlier aggressive attitude and said coolly, "I can give you a chance to live. As long as you honestly explain everything that led up to your murder of Aso Keiji's family, I can let you keep living."

As soon as Kurumi finished speaking, Kawashima, hearing that he still had a chance to survive, hurriedly said, "I'll talk. I'll tell you everything!"

"Very good!" Kurumi set the knife aside, rose from her chair, and walked over to the table where the recorder sat.

"When I press the record button, you'll tell me what happened."

Watching Kawashima nod desperately, Kurumi pointed at the military knife beside her. "But if you falsify even a single word, I'll use this knife to cut the flesh off your body piece by piece."

"I'm sure you've heard that ancient China had a punishment called death by a thousand cuts..."

Under Kurumi's cruel words, Kawashima, a grown man who had already been scared to tears, knew his life was over.

Even if this girl did not kill him, once the tape recording his confession fell into the police's hands, he would not have an easy time.

But... compared to losing his life or suffering a punishment as terrifying as death by a thousand cuts, being locked in prison was still an acceptable outcome.

Click!

The sound of the button was crystal clear in the silent room.

After hearing it, Kawashima, having resigned himself to his fate, slowly began to speak.

Watching Kawashima honestly recount the truth of what had happened all those years ago, Kurumi revealed a meaningful smile.

Would she really let him go just because he admitted to his accomplices and the murders?

The answer was naturally: "NO!"

While Kurumi was making arrangements for Mr. Kawashima, Mouri Kogoro began to sense that something was wrong. After explaining to everyone why he had come to Moon Shadow Island, nobody could stay calm any longer.

Village Chief Kuroiwa in particular, one of the culprits behind the incident years ago, was terrified.

After mobilizing everyone to search the Community Center for Kawashima, Mouri Kogoro and Conan, who had already begun suspecting that there was a mastermind behind everything, found the storage room with the broken lock.

"Mr. Hirata, are there any important items stored in this room?" Standing in the storage room, Mouri Kogoro observed his surroundings as he asked the man beside him, who had been shouting in the piano room.

"Well... there aren't any valuables, since it's just a storage room," Hirata thought for a moment before answering honestly.

"Is that so?" Mouri Kogoro frowned. "If there are no valuables in here, why would someone deliberately break the lock?"

"They must have been looking for something!" Conan, who rarely felt that Mouri Kogoro's reasoning was somewhat normal, forgot about his pain.

"If it was something stored here, I think it would only be the island's police officer. He's the only one who has the key to the storage room."

Hirata answered honestly.

"Is that so?" Hearing Hirata's answer, Mouri Kogoro immediately perked up. "All right, then. Ran, go to the police station and bring the officer here. I'll stay here and guard the place so no one else can tamper with the scene!"

After hearing Mouri Kogoro inside the room, Mouri Ran, who stood outside looking uneasy, was somewhat unwilling.

As a girl, Mouri Ran was most afraid of things like curses, evil spirits, and ghosts.

But she could not disobey her father. Hirata was an outsider, and she did not want to go alone...

After thinking it over, and just as Mouri Kogoro urged her again from inside the room, Mouri Ran suddenly thought of Conan.

Good Person? Bad Person?

"Conan~, come with me, okay?" Wanting Conan to accompany her to find the police officer, Mouri Ran entered the room with a sweet smile and asked Conan, who was looking around.

"Huh? No way!" Conan, who only wanted to find clues, reflexively refused.

"No, it's fine to leave this place to Dad. Come with me~." Although she had been refused, Mouri Ran did not give up.

"No!"

Finding it troublesome, Conan refused once again.

Mouri Ran kept her sweet smile, but Mouri Kogoro noticed that his daughter's smile had become stiff. He vaguely sensed a faint killing intent emanating from her.

Knowing that his daughter was not someone to provoke, Mouri Kogoro averted his eyes and pretended to be unconcerned as he backed her up. "Ran's right. You little brat are always causing trouble! Go on! Go find the police officer with Ran!"

This time, ganged up on by father and daughter, Conan finally turned around reluctantly.

Completely unaware that he had narrowly escaped disaster, Conan still looked unwilling. But just as he was about to say something else, he noticed the way Mouri Ran was looking at him...

Somewhere deep in his memories, Conan suddenly recalled that his seemingly gentle childhood friend was actually extremely dangerous when she got angry.

Especially that fist of hers, which could crack a utility pole, had left an unforgettable impression on Conan.

Cowardice instantly overwhelmed Conan's reluctance. Like changing faces, he immediately put on a flattering expression and said in a childish voice, pretending to be delighted, "Okay! I'll go with Ran right away!"