"Mouri-sensei, I think you've been neglecting your exercise lately."
Tsuneo's movements stiffened for a moment as he looked across at the mustachioed detective. They were deep in the mountains, where the air quality was superb—absolutely the perfect environment for a workout.
Conan quietly shifted his weight, scooting his seat away. In times like these, it's best to keep a safe distance from the old man.
Didn't you see I was happily playing along with the mind-reading act? Who gave you the guts to ruin the mood…
"I—I'm doing just fine..." Uncle Mouri stammered, realizing he had misspoken. He gave a light cough, his eyes pleading. Please, give me a break here…
Time ticked by quickly, and soon it was past nine o'clock, approaching ten.
"By now, he should be finished eating no matter how slow he is, right?" Ran glanced at the clock, preparing to head upstairs to collect the dishes.
Akashi Hiroto, who had been teaching Sonoko tennis techniques, nodded and offered a word of thanks.
"Take this with you." Tsuneo casually tossed the little bratty detective sitting next to him toward Ran.
"Right. Conan-kun, keep your footsteps light!" Ran instructed as she stood at the base of the stairs. Their host might already be asleep.
"Got it!"
The two of them crept up the stairs as quietly as possible.
This time, the lights were finally off. Standing before the bedroom door, Ran and Conan reached out and gently slid the door open.
Inside the darkened room, silence reigned. A corpse hung suspended in mid-air.
It was hard to see clearly in the gloom. But in a situation like this, one didn't need to see the details to know what had happened.
"..."
"AAAAAAHHHHHH!"
A long-overdue scream pierced the air, its penetrating power absolute.
Conan, meanwhile, narrowed his eyes, staring intensely at the elderly man hanging in his own room.
"Ran! Are you okay?!"
The group downstairs rushed up the stairs immediately. They crowded around the second-floor bedroom, following the direction of Ran's trembling finger to peer inside.
"Fa... Father..." Akashi Hiroto stood at the doorway, his face a mask of horror and shock.
"The body still has a lingering warmth, but the toes have already begun to stiffen. In this state, the time of death should be approximately thirty minutes ago." Uncle Mouri stepped into the room, performing a rudimentary forensic examination.
"Thirty minutes, huh?"
Tsuneo and Conan both stood beside the corpse, scanning it from top to bottom.
The old man's death was not a pleasant sight. His mouth hung wide open, and blood seeped from the corner of his lips, pitter-pattering as it dripped onto the futon below.
"Mr. Akashi, please call the police immediately!" Mouri turned to the stunned man at the door.
"Right! Of course!"
Hiroto stammered out a response and bolted downstairs.
"Come to think of it, the jurisdiction for this area should belong to the Gunma Prefectural Police, right?" Mouri said, standing up.
"The Gunma Police..."
The three people in the room exchanged looks, all sharing the same sinking feeling...
"I fly to the scene the moment I hear the call!"
"For the sake of Mr. Mouri, whether it's over mountains or across seas—even if the roads were collapsed from the rain—I, Yamamura, would find a way to come flying here instantly!"
The newcomer was none other than Yamamura Misao. At this moment, he was gazing at the "Sleeping Kogoro" with a look of pure, unadulterated adoration.
"..." Uncle Mouri looked utterly speechless. Does Gunma really have no other police officers?
"So, how is it?" Yamamura chirped. "What kind of murder case is it this time? Where's the murder weapon? What about the evidence? Is there going to be a Sleeping Kogoro deduction show later?"
Officer Yamamura fired off a barrage of questions in one breath.
"Hey, don't smile like that at a crime scene! It's unprofessional. We haven't even confirmed if this is a homicide yet." Mouri shoved away the face that was leaning far too close to his own, then began to brief him on the scene.
The deceased was the owner of the house, Akashi Iwao.
The first people to check on him were Tsuneo and Conan about an hour and a half ago; at that time, the light was still on, and they hadn't opened the door.
The second time was when Ran and Conan went up; the light was off, and upon opening the door, they found that the man's life had been "extinguished" as well.
Time of death was roughly thirty minutes ago.
Since everyone had been gathered in the downstairs living room for the past two hours, a homicide seemed unlikely.
"Actually, I think only Uncle left the living room for a bit to take a bath." Sonoko nodded, confirming the timeline.
"Then... then doesn't that mean only Mr. Mouri has a brief gap in his alibi?!" Yamamura pointed at the Sleeping Kogoro, his voice weak with realization.
"Now you listen to me! This is my first time in this house! I don't even know where they keep the rope! Why on earth would I do such a thing?!"
Mouri's head felt like it was about to explode with frustration as he glared at the muddled detective.
"Blood?"
"Why would there be blood?"
Conan stood outside the door, muttering to himself. He glanced up at Tsuneo.
Wait a minute. Now that I think about it, when Ran was about to come up earlier, this guy intentionally threw me toward her.
It was hard not to suspect there was something fishy going on. Perhaps Tsuneo had sensed something.
But, this time of death...
The Great Detective looked toward Akashi Hiroto again. The man had indeed stayed in the living room the entire time.
Inside the room, Mouri also pointed out the blood at the corner of the victim's mouth.
"Don't people who hang themselves usually bleed from the mouth?" Sonoko asked, confused. "What's the problem?"
"Exactly. You see that in TV dramas and movies all the time," Ran added with a nod.
"That's fake. In a hanging, the face becomes bloated because blood pools there, but unless there is an actual injury inside the oral cavity, blood won't just flow out of the mouth," Conan piped up, providing a bit of scientific trivia.
The blood seen on screen was usually just a visual cue to tell the audience that the character was dead.
"Right, Tsuneo-niichan?"
The bratty detective didn't forget to pull the "handyman" into the conversation, using him to deflect suspicion and validate the source of his knowledge.
"Yeah, you're right." Tsuneo nodded, acting as if he had just learned something new.
In his mind, he knew the culprit was 100% that tennis coach.
Suicide? With so many "reapers" gathered in one place, a simple suicide is practically forbidden by the laws of nature.
Tsuneo had even gone out of his way earlier to tell Akashi Hiroto that his father was "crying." He had tried to drop a hint, but ultimately, he lived by a simple code: Let go of the urge to help others and respect their fate.
Who knew what kind of deep-seated grudge the man held...
"I see, that makes sense." Yamamura bent over slightly to examine the deceased, still puzzled by the blood.
"Could it be because he was receiving treatment from a dentist? He did mention that his tooth was hurting terribly because of a cavity," Akashi Hiroto said, stepping forward.
"A cavity?"
"It does look like the right molar has been extracted." Uncle Mouri checked carefully and nodded.
Indeed, the blood was seeping from the site of a pulled tooth. A folding ladder lay toppled nearby. The victim was quite short, so he likely used it to reach the beam and tie the rope.
"He said it himself... that he didn't want to live anymore."
"And when you first went upstairs, you heard the sound of crying, right?"
"Given the circumstances, this is undoubtedly a suicide," Mouri concluded, looking toward Tsuneo.
Before Tsuneo could respond, Yamamura, who was holding a handheld camcorder, looked like he was about to burst into tears.
"What am I supposed to do now? I already bragged to my colleagues that I was going to film the Sleeping Kogoro's deduction show live..."
The entire group stared at the man in deadpan silence.
This guy really feels like a fake policeman...
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