Outlaw in Conan's World, Tokisaki Kurumi

As the box was slowly opened, the item inside immediately drew cries of alarm from everyone around it.

"Why? Why is there a hand inside?!"

Village Chief Kuroiwa looked at the hand in the box, thick blood still dripping from it, and his entire body went limp as he collapsed onto the floor.

"What?!"

"How could this be?"

As the only woman present, Mouri Ran was so frightened that she covered her face, not daring to look at the severed hand reeking of blood inside the box.

Mouri Kogoro frowned deeply as he stared at the severed hand in the box, feeling that something was wrong.

What had happened on the island had completely exceeded his expectations.

Though equally shocked, Conan, the experienced Great Detective, was not afraid in the slightest.

Despite being just a child, he moved closer instead. After observing it for a while, he said gravely, "Uncle, this hand... was probably cut off less than an hour ago. And..."

Judging from the cut at the wrist, Conan noticed that the flesh and bone were remarkably smooth, and that it had been severed precisely at the wrist joint.

"It looks like whoever did this used an extremely sharp weapon to cut the hand off directly." Mouri Kogoro had also noticed the unusual cut at the wrist.

As Mouri Kogoro analyzed the scene, the atmosphere in the room nearly froze solid.

"Curse! It's Aso Keiji's Curse!" Hirata, the bespectacled man with the strongest build but unexpectedly little courage, cried out in terror.

"No! This definitely isn't a curse!" Conan frowned tightly, holding the sticky note attached to the box with an unusually solemn expression. "Someone did this deliberately!"

This time, Mouri Kogoro did not refute Conan. Instead, he nodded and looked at his daughter. "Ran, call the police right now." After she hurriedly took out her phone and began making the call, Mouri Kogoro turned to Hirata. "Mr. Hirata, I need you to tell me exactly how you found this box!"

Having witnessed Hirata's fearful side firsthand, Mouri Kogoro felt that Hirata probably had no idea the box actually contained a hand.

That fear and terror had been genuine, not something deliberately acted out to deceive them.

"Yes..." Having been called on by Mouri Kogoro, Hirata recounted in full how he had found the box in the corridor.

It turned out that just a few minutes ago, when Hirata had left his office to use the restroom, he had noticed this box abruptly appearing in the empty corridor.

Strange, was this box here just now? Curious, he walked over, squatted beside it, and began examining the box, which looked like it might contain a cake.

When he picked up the box, Hirata became even more puzzled.

Judging by its overall weight, it should not have contained a cake.

Could it be some kind of small gift?

As Hirata looked the box over from every angle, he noticed a small sticky note attached beneath the bow on top.

A small gift for Village Chief Kuroiwa? Curious, Hirata failed to notice the folded edge at the end of the note.

After finishing his account, Hirata said with lingering fear, "That's what happened. When I saw that the note said it was for the village chief, I brought it straight here."

"You didn't notice that the signature on the note had been folded over?" Mouri Kogoro pressed, staring at Hirata.

"No! I still had work to do at the time, so I only thought about delivering the box first..."

Off to the side, Conan carefully observed Hirata's tone and expression as he spoke. He felt that the man was probably not lying.

"Hirata! Did you see who put this box in the corridor?!"

Having gulped down a large glass of water to calm his panic, Kuroiwa suddenly shouted.

"No, I only went to the restroom. When I came back, I saw this box on the floor!" Under his superior's questioning, Hirata answered honestly. "When I passed through the corridor before going to the restroom, there definitely wasn't anything there!"

His mind rapidly analyzing the situation, Mouri Kogoro asked, "So you're saying that someone placed this box there while Mr. Hirata was using the restroom?"

Kurumi's Other Objective

Hirata frowned as Mouri Kogoro questioned him. Although he knew his words sounded bizarre, that was exactly what had happened.

He had only spent one or two minutes in the restroom, and he was indeed telling the truth.

"But weren't all the Community Center staff sent out to search for Kawashima?" Kuroiwa, sitting in his chair and having recovered somewhat, had just said this when his face suddenly changed.

"Wait, this hand couldn't be..."

"I'm afraid it's just as you guessed, Village Chief Kuroiwa." Mouri Kogoro looked at the severed hand. Judging from its appearance, it was undoubtedly the hand of a man around forty years old.

Combined with what he had learned earlier about Kawashima's age, Mouri Kogoro guessed that the hand's owner was likely Mr. Kawashima, who had vanished mysteriously last night.

After hearing Mouri Kogoro's words, Mouri Ran cried out, "Does that mean Mr. Kawashima has already been killed, Dad?"

"I'm afraid so." Though it was only a suspicion, there was a very high chance that the hand belonged to Kawashima.

At the thought that someone had already met such an unfortunate end, Mouri Kogoro's tone grew heavy.

"How could this be?"

Meanwhile, at Aso Narumi's clinic.

Unlike the heavy atmosphere in the village chief's office at the Community Center, Kurumi and Aso Narumi were happily drinking coffee that Kurumi had brought over and brewed.

"Sister Seijitsu, have you dealt with that scum's wounds?" Kurumi, who had only returned not long ago after handling her business, asked.

Aso Narumi naturally knew who Kurumi meant by "that scum."

"More or less." Aso Narumi thought for a moment. "As you requested, I cut off both his hands. Since he's already a high-level paraplegic, there was no need for anesthetic. That saved me quite a bit of trouble."

Recalling how Kawashima had shown no reaction when she cleanly cut off those two things in front of him with tools early that morning, Aso Narumi knew he had completely broken down. She was somewhat surprised that she had not felt the slightest guilt while doing such a thing. Instead, what welled up inside her was the wild thrill of revenge.

That abnormal mindset made Narumi feel as though something was wrong with her.

Across from her, Kurumi saw the worry in Aso Narumi's hesitant expression and smiled reassuringly. "Don't worry so much, Sister Seijitsu."

"You should know that Kawashima worked with Kuroiwa and the others to commit such cruel acts. On top of that, they were dealing White Powder. If this had happened in the neighboring Celestial Empire, they'd probably have already been shot."

Sounding like an old Slav from the moment she opened her mouth, Kurumi lamented that Japan's laws were no good while the Celestial Empire's laws were good, continuing her daily brainwashing of Aso Narumi.

At this point, Kurumi could not help marveling at how hard her homeland, the great Celestial Empire, cracked down on crimes like selling White Powder.

"Yes, they deserve it!"

Aso Narumi, whose mind had been thoroughly shaped by Kurumi, naturally agreed with her view.

Putting Kawashima aside, the more Aso Narumi looked at Kurumi, the more mysterious she found her.

"By the way, Kurumi, how did you get the box to the Community Center without anyone noticing?" Thinking back on Kurumi's many mysterious qualities, Aso Narumi asked curiously, "Most of the villagers may be in the mountains searching for Kawashima now, but even so, people would still pass by on the road from here to the Community Center, wouldn't they?"

"As for that~" Kurumi deliberately kept her in suspense. "We're professionals. How could we survive in society without any special skills?"

Seeing that Kurumi did not seem willing to answer directly, Aso Narumi puffed out her cheeks in slight complaint. That adorable look made Kurumi's heart itch.

However, out of professional ethics, Kurumi forcibly suppressed her urge to use this secret in exchange for some benefits from Narumi.

"All right, Sister Seijitsu. Once everything here is over, I'll tell you!" Kurumi gave a playful wink, her cheerful tone giving no hint that she was the mastermind behind Kawashima's disappearance and crippling.

"Next, I need to prepare the remaining package. If I'm not mistaken, the Tokyo police will arrive by this afternoon at the latest." Pointing at a box on the nearby table, wrapped identically to the previous gift box, Kurumi said, "I'll put this remaining one in the piano room. As for that scum..." Kurumi thought for a moment. "Let him live for now."

Although Kurumi's plan was highly feasible, when Aso Narumi heard that the Tokyo police would come, she could not help worrying for Kurumi.

"Will this really be all right? The Tokyo police aren't that easy to fool."

"Besides, Kurumi, you're on this island. If the police really launch a full investigation, won't they suspect you?" Aso Narumi asked.

"The Tokyo police..." When it came to the police in Conan's world, Kurumi sincerely felt that they were incompetent.

Perhaps because of the world's setting, Kurumi knew full well that without a detective's help, the police in this world were truly useless at everything. Despite possessing so many resources, they had repeatedly been toyed with by all kinds of criminals. It was utterly embarrassing.

But even if Japan's police in this world were hopelessly incompetent, Kurumi would not become arrogant enough to underestimate them, only to be slapped in the face by some sudden twist later.

Besides, she still needed to operate in this area afterward. If she got herself onto the Metropolitan Police Department's list too early, it would undoubtedly cause irreparable damage to her subsequent plans.

Therefore, to ensure nothing could go wrong, Kurumi said confidently, "Don't worry. I checked out of the inn early this morning and had someone create the illusion that I had already left by boat."

The organization member who had brought Kurumi here was the one who completed the task.

When Aso Narumi heard that Kurumi had checked out of the inn, she exclaimed, "Ah! But without the inn, where will you sleep tonight, Kurumi?"

After waiting for so long, Kurumi had finally gotten Aso Narumi to ask the most crucial question.

"Well~" Kurumi said with a beaming smile as she looked at Narumi, "Of course I'll sleep with Sister Seijitsu! I've already moved my luggage over!"

At the thought that she could finally sleep with a beautiful girl tonight, even the way Kurumi looked at Narumi changed.

Under Kurumi's gaze, Narumi felt that the way Kurumi looked at her resembled those men harboring certain intentions, and it frightened her.

Provocation

That afternoon, a group of police officers from Tokyo arrived on Moon Shadow Island.

Leading the team was still the workhorse of the Metropolitan Police Department—Inspector Megure.

"Tell me, why are you here again, Mouri?"

After meeting Mouri Kogoro, Inspector Megure rolled his eyes and looked speechlessly at the Great Detective chatting with him. "Every time there's a murder scene, you're there. Is it just a coincidence, or do you have a Shinigami following you around?"

In a sense, Inspector Megure had touched upon the truth.

"Not at all, Inspector Megure!" Mouri Kogoro, utterly lacking any self-awareness, was not embarrassed in the slightest. Instead, he said rather proudly, "Because I'm the Great Detective Mouri Kogoro!"

"But then again, why are you here, Inspector Megure?"

Though he had no idea what connection Mouri Kogoro's "Great Detective" title had with murder cases, that did not stop Inspector Megure from thinking Mouri Kogoro's luck was truly terrible.

But jokes aside, with a murder case at hand, as a Tokyo police officer, his foremost priority was naturally solving the case and catching the true culprit.

"Because Moon Shadow Island is part of Tokyo too!" After answering Mouri Kogoro's question, Inspector Megure said sternly, "All right, enough joking. I want to know exactly what happened on Moon Shadow Island."

Seeing Inspector Megure get serious, Mouri Kogoro put aside his joking mood as well and recounted everything that had happened during this period with a serious expression.

"So you suspect that hand belongs to a man named Kawashima?" Upon hearing Mouri Kogoro say that someone had wrapped a severed hand as a gift and sent it to the village chief, Inspector Megure was astonished, but he also began to feel that the case might be quite difficult.

Mouri Kogoro nodded. To be honest, the case had already reached a level of brutality. What he understood even less was that if the hand truly belonged to Kawashima, did that mean the culprit had targeted him because there was some deep-seated grudge between them?

After telling Inspector Megure what he had considered, the latter thought it over carefully and decided to split his men into two groups. One group would gather and question everyone who had attended the memorial service in the village last night, while the other would investigate among the villagers whether Kawashima had offended anyone for some reason.

As for the so-called Aso Keiji's Curse, Inspector Megure, being a police officer, naturally did not believe in such mysterious nonsense.

More than half an hour later, everyone who had attended the memorial service last night had been gathered at the Community Center.

Aso Narumi was among them.

Meanwhile, not long after Aso Narumi left with the police officers who had come for her, Kurumi followed the plan. Carrying a gift box containing the other hand, she moved stealthily while activating King Crimson's Time Erasure ability, once again reaching the vicinity of the Community Center without anyone noticing.

Looking at the Community Center in the distance, which had been sealed off by the police, Kurumi quietly approached the back entrance.

Sure enough, two police officers stood at the back door whose lock Kurumi had damaged earlier.

Hiding around the corner, Kurumi calculated the distance between herself and the two men.

King Crimson's Time Erasure ability could erase more than ten seconds of time for everyone in this world except Kurumi herself. In other words, if Kurumi activated King Crimson now and walked behind the two officers, then when she released the ability, the two officers affected by King Crimson would not notice anything unusual. They would not even be able to perceive that Kurumi had openly walked behind them.

As for what came next...

Watching the two officers collapse unconscious after King Crimson struck the backs of their necks, Kurumi turned, pushed open the door, and strode inside.

Arriving beside the piano donated by Aso Keiji, Kurumi placed the gift box in her hand atop it.

As a Stand user, Kurumi knew perfectly well that under the nearly bug-like ability of King Crimson, the Moon Shadow Island incident she was orchestrating had an infinitely close to zero chance of being solved through Conan, Mouri Kogoro, and the police alone.

But if things simply continued this way, Kurumi could naturally eliminate the other two accomplices without any effort and ensure that no one noticed her or Aso Narumi. Yet as someone who delighted in chaos, Kurumi felt that such a development would be far too boring.

To bring herself a little fun, Kurumi and Aso Narumi decided after discussing it to place two additional things inside this gift box.

One was a tape recording of the truth behind what had happened years ago, recorded during their interrogation of Kawashima.

The other was a cipher created by Aso Narumi, using sheet music as its puzzle.

To make sure what happened next would cause enough shock, Kurumi decided to activate King Crimson's other bug-level ability—Epitaph.

As an ability derived from King Crimson's Time Erasure, Epitaph could see scenes from the future, up to several dozen seconds ahead. Furthermore, the future observed by Epitaph was certain to happen unless it was erased using Time Erasure.

Time Erasure combined with Epitaph made King Crimson, already immensely powerful in its basic attributes, an invincible Stand possessing both destructive power and absolute evasion.

Kurumi had King Crimson sit before the piano and imitate the rhythm and technique Aso Narumi had taught her that morning for playing "Moonlight." As the pleasant piano melody began, Kurumi sharply heard chaotic footsteps coming from the corridor.

King Crimson!!!

Having calculated the furthest distance at which she would be discovered, Kurumi activated King Crimson and instantly vanished from the spot.

Bang!