To be honest, if she did not have a Stand, Kurumi would never have wanted to get involved in a clash between people who could not be described as normal humans at all.
Although Kurumi had used King Crimson's ability during the Maple Leaf Gold Coins incident, that had only been when Conan and the others were facing criminals who threatened their lives and had no time to worry about anything else.
And now Conan was right beside her. To be honest, Kurumi was not sure whether he would notice that abrupt sensation if she activated Time Erasure.
To be safe, Kurumi did not use King Crimson's Time Erasure to enter the Hell Chamber.
So, with both of them wanting to go in but being stopped by the police, all they could do was stare at each other.
Fortunately, that awkward wait did not last long.
Perhaps because Mouri Kogoro and the others had discovered the camera in the Hell Chamber, Inspector Megure soon brought Mouri Kogoro, his daughter, Director Ochiai, and a group of staff members to the second-floor surveillance room, intending to use the monitors to check the scene at the time of the murder.
"Conan, where did you run off to again?!" When the crowd surged upstairs, Mouri Ran spotted Conan beside Kurumi and hurried over. The angry expression on her delicate face gave Conan an instant headache.
However, when he remembered that Kurumi, who knew Ran, was right beside him, Conan felt that he had a way to escape Ran's lecture.
So Conan put on a flattering smile and said to Ran, "It's like this, Ran. Big Sister Tokisaki helped me before, and she said she knows you too." A broad smile spread across his face as Conan sighed. "What a coincidence~"
"Huh? Tokisaki?" After hearing Conan's words, Ran looked at the graceful Kurumi standing beside him.
Realizing that Ran did not know her, Kurumi politely said, "It's like this. I saw Mouri at a karate competition before. I don't know karate myself, but after seeing how nimble you were, I thought you were really amazing."
Being praised by a beautiful girl who was even prettier than herself made Ran feel a little embarrassed.
"Not at all. I just really love karate." Ran was a little shy, but she still thanked Kurumi from the perspective of a guardian for having helped Conan before. "Still, I never expected Conan had been helped by you. What a coincidence."
Listening as the two girls gradually turned the conversation toward him, Conan hurriedly said, "Oh, right, Ran. Did Uncle find anything?" He did not want Ran to discover what had happened that night at the amusement park.
Conan's words reminded Ran that this was not the time to discuss such things. The murderer of President Manaka had not been found yet. Snapping back to her senses, she said, "Dad and the others found a camera in the room. They should be in the museum's surveillance room now, checking whether it recorded anything."
Ran's words made Kurumi sneer inwardly.
She had cut the camera's power cable long ago. There was no way it could have recorded anything.
Obviously, Conan and the others did not know that.
Upon hearing there had been a camera, Conan could not wait to rush to the surveillance room and check it out.
Just as Ran and Conan were saying goodbye to Kurumi, who seemed completely unrelated to the matter, and preparing to head to the surveillance room, a police officer suddenly walked over to the three of them.
"Which one of you is Miss Tokisaki?" the officer asked.
"Um, that would be me. May I ask what this is about?" Kurumi answered timidly in response to the officer's question.
The officer looked at the young girl Inspector Megure had asked him to bring in for questioning. Seeing the beautiful girl in a black dress, with her frail figure and reserved tone, he did not believe Kurumi could commit murder. But duty was duty. Since Inspector Megure had asked him to bring her to the surveillance room, he had to do it.
"Excuse me, has Miss Tokisaki been identified as a suspect?" Ran could not help asking before Kurumi could say anything.
Even Conan stared at the officer suspiciously.
"No, it's not that." The officer hurriedly explained, "Director Ochiai said that around the time of the murder, he was discussing a painting with Miss Tokisaki."
"Since Director Ochiai's statement needs to be verified by Miss Tokisaki, Inspector Megure asked me to bring her over."
The officer's answer put Ran and Conan at ease.
Following the officer to the surveillance room, Kurumi, Ran, and Conan saw a group of men scratching their heads in frustration the moment they pushed open the door.
Mouri Kogoro in particular.
He had thought they could use the surveillance footage to see the murder or find clues, but after discovering that the camera in the Hell Chamber had been destroyed long ago, his mood worsened immediately.
"Inspector Megure, Miss Tokisaki has been brought over."
The officer reported to the worried-looking Inspector Megure.
"Alright, I understand." After letting the officer leave the room, Megure looked at the timid Kurumi by the door and silently sighed.
Just as everyone else thought, Kurumi's pitiful appearance was enough to make them immediately exclude her from the category of suspects.
But procedure still had to be followed.
Especially since Director Ochiai had said that around the time of the murder, he had been discussing the painting Divine Punishment with Kurumi in his office.
"Miss Tokisaki, you were discussing your wish to purchase an oil painting in Director Ochiai's office earlier, correct?"
Kurumi glanced at Ochiai, then nodded. "Yes. Because I really like the work called Divine Punishment, I came to speak with Grandpa Director today."
Kurumi the Drama Queen
Kurumi's answer was confirmed by Director Ochiai, who was in the room. "That's right. Miss Tokisaki did come to discuss Divine Punishment with me today." Ochiai nodded. "Originally, I did not want these artworks to become part of vulgar monetary transactions. But with the museum about to disappear, rather than let these treasures be secretly taken away and sold for money, it would be better for them to go to collectors who genuinely love art as much as I do."
Director Ochiai's tone was full of melancholy and loss.
Indeed, to ordinary people, Director Ochiai was an old man who treated artworks like his own children. Now that he was about to lose this place, his second home, everyone could feel the desolation radiating from him.
However, among the staff beside Ochiai, a shifty-looking man in a black suit revealed a guilty look.
"Then that means Director Ochiai, your suspicion is the greatest..."
Mouri Kogoro frowned as he voiced his judgment while looking at Ochiai.
The Great Detective believed that among those present, the only person who hated the deceased President Manaka the most was Ochiai, the museum's manager.
But after carefully looking Ochiai up and down and seeing that he was already in his seventies or eighties, Mouri Kogoro became somewhat uncertain.
The reason was simple.
Judging from the condition of the body, the deceased's suit was wrinkled around the chest. The murderer must have lifted the over-two-hundred-pound President Manaka with one hand, pinned him against the wall while he was suspended in midair, then—
With the other hand, the murderer had held a sword and driven its sharp point through the deceased's throat and directly into the wall behind him.
In Mouri Kogoro's eyes, one thing was obvious about this method of murder: if the culprit wanted to pull it off, they needed considerable physical ability.
"That can't be true! Grandpa Director is so old. How could he possibly lift a fat man with one hand?!"
The moment Mouri Kogoro finished speaking, Kurumi, who was never one to shy away from stirring up trouble, immediately refuted him.
Perhaps because Kurumi had spoken their minds, the museum staff also began defending the director one after another.
Mouri Kogoro looked a little embarrassed.
But Conan, standing beside Kurumi, caught a crucial point in Ochiai's words.
"Wait, Grandpa Director. Did you just say someone took artworks from this museum and sold them?"
Conan's words drew everyone's attention in the room.
At the same time, he noticed cold sweat pouring down the face of the employee in the black suit, who was trying to hide behind his colleagues so no one would notice him.
Inspector Megure also noticed the man's strange behavior.
"Director, this is the person you were talking about, isn't it?" Megure strode aggressively up to the employee. Under the stern aura cultivated through decades of police work, the man suddenly panicked and blurted out, "N-No, it wasn't me! I didn't kill President Manaka!"
"So you admit that you sold the artworks here?" The man's unguarded words made Megure feel that his suspicion was growing stronger.
Just as the man wanted to defend himself, the employee who had previously opened the director's office door said sternly, "Stop trying to deny it, Kubota! Do you think we don't know that because of what you did, the boss already demanded massive compensation from you?!"
With his colleague exposing him, the man named Kubota finally admitted it. "B-But even so, I didn't kill President Manaka!"
"But among everyone here, you are still the most suspicious." Mouri Kogoro shifted his focus toward Kubota and gave his analysis. "You killed President Manaka because you were afraid of having to pay enormous damages. And because you did not want evidence of your crime to be discovered, you deliberately damaged the camera in that room as a staff member, didn't you?"
Mouri Kogoro's stern analysis seemed quite convincing to the people around him.
At least from that perspective, Kubota was indeed the most suspicious person.
"B-But I really didn't kill him!" Kubota, his face covered in cold sweat, desperately tried to distance himself from the murder.
Since the camera had been deliberately damaged, Inspector Megure and Mouri Kogoro had already decided in their hearts that this guilty-looking fellow was the murderer.
But at this point, they still lacked the most important evidence needed to convict Kubota.
Watching the farcical scene before her, Kurumi found it rather amusing. More than that, though, she wanted to see Conan's reaction.
"Mouri, honestly, I really don't think that man, who looks so weak, could do something like this." Kurumi spoke into Ran's ear in a voice Conan could hear.
"Huh? Is that so?" The innocent Ran looked doubtfully at Kubota, whose legs were trembling, and began to feel that Kurumi might have a point.
No... Hearing Kurumi's words, Conan also looked at Kubota.
For some reason, he felt that this case was definitely not so simple.
"Ran, I'm going to the bathroom!"
Feeling that something was wrong, Conan used the bathroom as an excuse and quickly ran toward the Hell Chamber, where the murder had occurred.
His instincts told him that there had to be something at the crime scene that everyone had overlooked.
After Conan ran off, Kurumi watched Kubota, who was nearly collapsing from being wrongly accused. Filled with mischievous amusement, she felt that if this continued, the police might really take him away as the murderer based on his behavior alone.
Fortunately, even Mouri Kogoro, seeing Kubota's pathetic display, began to wonder whether someone with such poor nerves could really commit murder.
He looked like he was about to piss himself.
Because Mouri Kogoro had once been a police officer, he knew very well that convicting a suspect required complete evidence.
And since the surveillance camera had already been destroyed, the only way to find evidence now was to investigate the crime scene.
"Inspector Megure, there's something I need to confirm." Mouri Kogoro walked over to Megure and spoke.
"Alright, Mouri. Do you want me to come with you?"
"No need. The forensic team by the body is enough." Turning down Megure's offer, Mouri Kogoro walked out of the room deep in thought.
Not long after Mouri Kogoro left, Kurumi spoke up. "Officer, may I go outside for a moment?" As if she had some difficulty speaking about it, Kurumi looked rather bashful.
I just got off work today. Three updates tomorrow.
I worked overtime on the accounts today and just got home.
I'll make up for it with three updates tomorrow.
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Conan's Deduction
Since Kurumi, a young girl, seemingly had nothing to do with the murder that had occurred that night, Inspector Megure in the surveillance room let her leave without a second thought.
She just could not leave the museum yet.
Once she stepped outside and the door closed behind her, the embarrassment vanished from Kurumi's face in an instant.
After looking around, Kurumi knew Conan's claim that he was going to the bathroom had only been an excuse. Still wearing a gentle smile, she headed toward the Hell Chamber.
"Sorry, miss, you can't go in." It was the same officer. Faithfully carrying out his duty, he stopped Kurumi once again.
Damn it...
Cursing unhappily in her heart, Kurumi still asked politely on the surface, "Um, did Detective Mouri just go in?"
"Detective Mouri is inside." The officer asked, "Do you have something related to the case that you need to tell him?"
Don't answer a question with a question, idiot! Resisting the urge to activate King Crimson and enter directly, Kurumi nodded. "That's right. There's something I want to tell him, though I don't know whether it counts as a clue."
After hearing Kurumi's answer, the officer was somewhat displeased that the girl wanted to tell a detective about a clue instead of the police.
But since it concerned a murder case, the officer could only let Kurumi in first.
Because of the murder, the lights on the ceiling of the pitch-black Hell Chamber had now been turned on.
The white light illuminated the room filled with strange artworks, driving away the unsettling sense of dread.
Once inside, Kurumi saw two figures, one large and one small, standing before the body with furrowed brows.
It seemed that the murder case was simply too bizarre.
No clues had been found at the scene, and the only possibility—the surveillance camera—had been destroyed long ago.
Perhaps the only fortunate thing was that because the camera had been damaged, the murderer could now be narrowed down to someone inside the museum.
Looking at the troubled pair, Kurumi wanted to hum a cheerful little tune in her heart.
But it was already very late, and Kurumi no longer wanted to keep wasting time here.
It was true that causing trouble felt great, especially when she, the mastermind, stood nearby watching the two detectives scratch their heads while she secretly smiled in satisfaction.
But after Kurumi's excitement faded, she suddenly found it a little boring.
Without the surveillance footage that had left clues in the original story, the police who arrived and the two detectives naturally had no way of knowing how this murder had happened.
Before you continue