"Mm, two of you, take this young lady back for questioning right now..."
Inspector Megure seemed to have settled on who the culprit was and was about to order his men to take her away when Shu Yunwen suddenly spoke up. "Inspector Megure, Miss Aiko here probably isn't the culprit. Do you think a woman could use a fruit knife to cut off a man's head inside that tunnel? Besides, you must have found the victim's head, right? That kind of cut couldn't have been made with a fruit knife."
"Huh?" Inspector Megure turned to look at Shu Yunwen, who had a serious expression on his face. "Shu-san, what are you...?"
Hitomi looked toward Shu Yunwen too, a flash of hatred passing through her eyes. "Aiko, Aiko seems to be pretty strong..."
"Hitomi." Shu Yunwen interrupted her. "I don't think we can trust what you, the culprit, have to say."
"W-what?" Inspector Megure exclaimed. "This lady is the culprit? But she was sitting in the first row, while the victim was in the third. You and your companion were sitting between them..."
As he listened to Inspector Megure ramble on, Shu Yunwen rolled his eyes.
Was this guy really going to play the role of the person who questioned the correct deduction?
Shu Yunwen raised a hand to signal for silence, then said, "Inspector Megure, if you want to know the truth, then don't interrupt me. Listen until I'm finished, okay?"
After a pause, Shu Yunwen turned to Tsukamoto Kazumi. "Kazumi, could you help me with something?"
"Of course." Tsukamoto Kazumi looked surprised too. "Are you going to demonstrate your deduction at the scene, Shu-san? I had no idea you were good at solving cases. But are you sure you won't make a mistake? If we end up causing trouble for the police..."
"I won't, Kazumi. Please trust me," Shu Yunwen said with a smile.
After he said that, Tsukamoto Kazumi stopped asking questions and nodded.
Nearby, Genta, Mitsuhiko, and Ayumi were all staring at Shu Yunwen in astonishment and admiration.
Genta: "Amazing! Brother Yunwen's going to solve the case right here?"
Mitsuhiko: "Brother Yunwen is classmates with Kudo Shinichi. Could he be a great detective too?"
Ayumi: "I don't think Brother Yunwen seems very reliable. If he messes this up, the officer will definitely scold him, right?"
Mitsuhiko: "Genta, is Brother Yunwen good at solving cases?"
Genta: "I'm not really sure. I've never seen him solve a case before."
Ayumi: "Just as I thought. He's not reliable..."
Shu Yunwen rolled his eyes and ignored the kids. Smiling at Tsukamoto Kazumi, he said, "Kazumi, please sit here. Oh, and before you sit down, put your bag behind you as a cushion."
"Okay." Tsukamoto Kazumi nodded.
"Inspector Megure, could you sit in the third row, where the victim was? And, officer, please find a rope. Tie a loop at one end and a hook at the other." As Shu Yunwen gave his instructions, Hitomi's face grew paler and paler.
Once everything was ready, Shu Yunwen continued. "Kazumi, with your bag behind you, you should be able to slide out from under the safety bar just by lowering your body. Then, in the pitch-black tunnel, with your legs hooked over the safety bar, you could easily swing through the space in the middle and slip the loop made from this rope over Inspector Megure's neck. Finally, you'd hook the other end onto the track. If the roller coaster was moving at high speed, Inspector Megure's head would be separated from his body..."
"...As for the evidence, Inspector Megure, the police must have found something in the tunnel, right?" Shu Yunwen asked.
Inspector Megure turned to the forensic examiner beside him, who immediately replied, "Inspector, we found some scattered pearls inside the tunnel, along with a rope with an iron hook attached to it..."
Shu Yunwen spoke up. "The necklace must have been the loop around Mr. Kishida's neck, right? If you tied it to the rope after entering the tunnel, it would have become the cutting weapon I just described."
By then, almost everyone understood what had happened.
Ran looked at Hitomi in shock. She had always thought that the crying woman was a kind and good person.
Genta, Mitsuhiko, and Ayumi were all staring excitedly at Shu Yunwen, shouting things like "Amazing!"
Reiko turned to Hitomi, unable to believe it. "Hitomi, w-where's the necklace you were wearing? I saw it when we were on the roller coaster just now..."
"I-I lost it." Hitomi instinctively covered her neck. "I might have lost it by accident while riding the roller coaster. Officer, are you going to decide I did it just because my necklace is missing? Or maybe that man, who's standing there so smugly as he tells everyone what happened, was the one who did it! He knows so much about how it happened. It could very well have been him!"
"...That's right. In the tunnel, you took my necklace and attached the hook to it, then used it to kill Kishida..."
As she said this, Hitomi's expression grew more and more twisted.
"H-Hitomi..." Her friend Reiko looked at her as if she were a stranger, shrinking back in fear.
Accompanied by two officers, Aiko was crying as she stared at Hitomi, just as bewildered.
Inspector Megure turned to Shu Yunwen. "Shu-san..."
If Hitomi insisted on saying this, they truly didn't have enough evidence to prove she had done it. Without enough evidence to convict her, even if they brought the case to court, the judge wouldn't find her guilty. And after Hitomi had turned the accusation around on Shu Yunwen, he would probably have to go to the police station and give a statement too.
"Damn it! You're the one who did all this. Why? Why won't you admit it?" Genta demanded.
Mitsuhiko spoke up too. "Brother Yunwen has already explained the truth, but you still won't confess! That's awful!"
"And now you're trying to blame him! How can anyone be so wicked?" Ayumi chimed in.
Shu Yunwen looked at Hitomi coldly.
This woman had revealed her true nature, and she made him sick and angry.
"You brought that hook, so there should be something of yours on it..." Shu Yunwen began slowly.
"Oh? You mean my fingerprints? Then go check!" Hitomi shouted. "If you really find my fingerprints, you can take me in! So none of this counts as evidence! This isn't enough to prove I did it! Isn't that right, officer?"
Inspector Megure frowned and turned to Shu Yunwen, speaking quietly. "Shu-san, with how confident she is, there probably aren't any fingerprints of hers on the hook or the rope."
Shu Yunwen turned to Inspector Megure and rolled his eyes. "Inspector Megure, she's got you wrapped around her finger too? When did I ever say there'd be fingerprints? Since she brought the hook and rope with her, she must have kept them inside something. If they came into contact with it, something could have stuck to them. Fibers, scratches, skin flakes, for example... If they match something, can you explain that away?"
Hitomi froze, stunned.
A female officer stepped forward. "Hello, miss. We need to check your belongings..."
"G-get away!" Hitomi clutched her bag protectively.
Inspector Megure waved his hand, and the others went to help. Shu Yunwen took out his camcorder again and delivered the finishing blow. "Actually, Hitomi, there's no point denying it. What happened in the tunnel happened to be caught on my camcorder. It was very dark in there, but my camcorder has a night-vision function. It clearly recorded you taking the necklace with the hook attached and putting it around Mr. Kishida's head. Want to see?"
"R-really?" Before Hitomi could say anything, Inspector Megure spoke excitedly. "Shu-san, please hand me your camcorder. That's very important evidence."
If the crime itself had been filmed, Hitomi could have a million mouths and still never get away with it!
Not only did Shu Yunwen and the others find the woman's true face, now that she had dropped her act, repulsive, but even the police couldn't stand her.
Shu Yunwen held the camcorder and smiled. "I don't mind handing it over, but... do you know how to use it, officer? It's the latest model on the market, and it works differently from other machines. If you accidentally erase the tape..."
"..." Inspector Megure was speechless. "Then please bring up the footage for me, Shu-san."
"Sure." Shu Yunwen nodded and began adjusting the camcorder, then played the recording.
In the distance, Hitomi had finally had her bag taken away by the officers. She was handcuffed and led toward Inspector Megure.
As she drew closer, Hitomi suddenly broke free from the two officers holding her and snatched the iron hook from the forensic examiner in front of her. With a vicious look on her face, she charged at Shu Yunwen, swinging the hook down toward his face. "Die!"
"Look out!" Inspector Megure couldn't counterattack in time, so he threw his portly body in front of Shu Yunwen, ready to take the blow.
Shu Yunwen looked coldly at Hitomi and began chanting a sorcerous curse. The beginner-level curses didn't offer any effective way to fight back, but even the simplest illusion spell was enough to dodge an iron hook.
Ran cried out and ran toward them, but after only two steps, she heard a loud bang. A footprint appeared on Hitomi's face, and she fell to the side. The two officers immediately tackled her and held her down.
Tsukamoto Kazumi lowered her leg, brought her feet together, and stood beside Shu Yunwen, smiling sweetly. "Shu-san, are you all right?"
"Me? Heh..." Shu Yunwen's mouth twitched. "Of course I'm fine. She's the one who's hurt, isn't she?"
Shu Yunwen pointed at Hitomi, whose face was smudged with dirt, with a clear shoe print and blood at the corner of her mouth.
Wait, he thought he remembered something. Hadn't Tsukamoto Kazumi appeared in the anime too? And wasn't she... the captain of the karate club?
What the hell? Was this for real?
Tsukamoto Kazumi had always been so gentle around him. But now it seemed that beneath her gentle exterior, she had a violent heart...
Ran laughed awkwardly from the sidelines and stopped where she was.
Tsukamoto Kazumi was so strong that even Ran felt pressured. Hitomi had taken a kick like that. She should... she should still be alive, right?
"You're a bunch of useless idiots! You couldn't even keep an eye on her!" Inspector Megure began loudly berating his men. All the officers in the shadow of Inspector Megure's wrath wore miserable expressions and lowered their heads as they took the scolding.
After receiving some basic treatment, Hitomi glared at Shu Yunwen with hatred. "...You just told me that you'd help cover up the fact that I killed Kishida!"
Inspector Megure froze for a moment, then turned to Shu Yunwen with a serious expression. "Shu-san, is that true?"
Helping a criminal cover up a crime was unforgivable in the eyes of the police.
Shu Yunwen rolled his eyes inwardly and smiled. "Inspector Megure, how could that be? After watching the footage, I knew she was the culprit. I was only talking to her earlier to test out her method. Why would I help someone like her cover up her crime? She's a murderer! Exposing the truth and catching murderers is what I do."
Tsukamoto Kazumi stood beside Shu Yunwen and defended him. "Inspector Megure, there's no way Shu-san would do something like that!"
Ran spoke up too. "Inspector Megure, Shu-san wouldn't do something like that. Didn't he just help the police solve a murder yesterday? If Shu-san were that kind of person, he wouldn't have helped the police yesterday."
Inspector Megure froze, then scratched his head with an embarrassed smile. "Shu-san, I'm sorry for suspecting you just now..."
Besides, Hitomi was so despicable in Inspector Megure's eyes that she wasn't at all trustworthy.
"It's all right, Inspector Megure." Shu Yunwen smiled faintly as he looked coldly at Hitomi.
Kishida, whom Shu Yunwen had already absorbed, might have been a bastard, but Hitomi, now that she had shown her true colors, was definitely no better. Maybe she was even worse.
"But he really did promise to help cover up my crime..." Hitomi kept insisting, but no one believed her.
Genta, Mitsuhiko, and Ayumi began whispering among themselves again.
"She's already been caught, and she's still trying to frame Brother Yunwen," Genta said unhappily.
"Is it because Brother Yunwen helped the police catch her? She's a bad person! Even worse than the monsters in Masked Hero!" Ayumi clenched her fists.
"Yeah, she's a really, really bad person." Mitsuhiko rested his right hand on his chin, looking as if he were in the middle of a deduction. "But if Brother Yunwen's right, he knew that bad big sister was the culprit because of the video, and only then did he investigate the method. So he didn't actually find the culprit through deduction!"
"Oh, right!" Genta nodded. "That means Brother Yunwen isn't all that amazing after all!"
"Ah! I thought Brother Yunwen was a famous detective, just as good as the high school detective Kudo Shinichi..." Ayumi looked disappointed. "I guess he's just an ordinary old man after all?"
As Shu Yunwen listened to the kids' incessant chatter, another vein began to appear on his forehead.
Ran chuckled. "Actually, Shu-san is pretty amazing..."
As they were talking, someone shouted from outside the crowd, "Make way! Please, let me through! Thank you..."
Then a very cocky-looking boy squeezed his way into the crowd. "I heard there's a case here? Hmm, I can help! No case is too difficult for me, Kudo Shinichi!"
That's right. The person who had pushed his way into the crowd was Kudo Shinichi.
Ran saw "Washing Machine" and happily went over to him. "Shinichi, you're here? Where did you go just now?"
"Huh? Ran! Hold on a second!" Kudo Shinichi waved a hand, then turned to Inspector Megure. "Officer, I heard there was a murder here, is that right? Is there anything I can help with?"
"Haha! It's Student Kudo! Thanks for coming all this way. But today's case has already been solved, and the culprit has been caught." With the case resolved, Inspector Megure was in a pretty good mood. He warmly greeted Kudo Shinichi.
"It's a-already been solved?" Kudo Shinichi looked surprised, and a little disappointed.
Inspector Megure immediately took offense and gave him a sidelong glance. "Oh? You look pretty disappointed, Student Kudo!"
"W-what? No!" Kudo Shinichi quickly straightened up.
Ran came over too and apologized. "Inspector Megure, Shinichi definitely didn't mean it like that. Shinichi, Shu-san solved the case!"
Shu Yunwen and Tsukamoto Kazumi also came over. "Hello, Student Kudo."
"Hello, Shu-san, Tsukamoto-senpai." Kudo Shinichi greeted them, feeling rather unhappy.
So Shu Yunwen was the one who solved the case, after all?
Hmph! What a show-off!
Well, to be honest, Kudo Shinichi's real problem was that he felt Shu Yunwen had stolen his thunder.
Of course, as the great high school detective Kudo Shinichi, he would never admit something like that!
Mm... Never admit it!
P.S. Since this is fan fiction, of course I have to change the plot!
Otherwise, you might as well just watch the Detective Conan anime. Don't you agree?
P.S. 2: I think this change works pretty well. Actually, in the anime, I personally don't think this woman was a good person either. She killed someone, then framed Aiko. That doesn't make her a good person...
P.S. 3: In the next chapter, Washing Machine is going to shrink. Just thinking about it gets me excited!
P.S. 4: This chapter has so many words. I've really poured my heart into it!
P.S. 5: If you've read it, please add it to your collection and recommend it. At least make the stats look a little better for me!
P.S. 6: There won't be any more P.S. notes below this. I swear!
Before you continue