Conan: Begins to collaborate with Miss Bayonetta and become famous

Chapter 770 You Don’t Need to Know So Much

"I think it's probably related to the Criminal Procedure Law Amendment Bill, which has been stalled in the Diet. What's happening in Japan now?"

“….…You don’t need to know so much.”

Amuro finally spoke, but his words were a refusal. It looked like he wasn't going to answer no matter what he asked. "So that's the case—" Conan said happily, as if he had pulled out his trump card.

"Even if I find the murderer?"

"!"

Amuro's heavy breathing could be heard from the other end of the phone.

By the time Ran noticed, Conan had already disappeared from the corridor of the main hall.

"Conan!" Ran called out his name while searching around the main hall.

"Hey, where did you go..."

At this moment, Lan's cell phone in her bag vibrated.

At the same time, Kogoro's cell phone, who was sitting on the bench next to him, was also vibrating.

"Could it be..."

Lan took out her phone from her bag and looked at the screen.

Kogoro also took out his cell phone from his pocket and checked the screen.

Both of them received a text message from Shinichi on their phones, titled "The truth of the incident."

In the evening, snow began to fall.

Kogoro, Conan, Ran and Yui came to the observatory together.

Everyone was waiting for someone to arrive in front of the 45-meter radio telescope standing deep in the facility.

After a while, a figure appeared walking on the one-way street next to the railway tracks.

Kogoro shouted at him, "Sorry for your hard work, Mr. Funakubo Eizo."

"Ah, it's you?" Funakubo spotted Kogoro and walked over. "Why are you in a place like this?"

"Because I found the Washito Takashi you've been looking for." Hearing Kogoro's words, Funakubo couldn't help but stop: "Found it?!"

"That white zazen grass... you were the one who placed it at Miss Maki's grave, weren't you?"

"What?" Funakubo blinked, suddenly felt someone behind him, and immediately turned around to look.

Then he saw Otomo, who was brought over by Sato and Takagi, standing there with a look of surprise on his face.

Funakubo knew that the words just now were directed at Otomo.

"he is…?"

Funakubo looked at Otomo in surprise, and Kogoro also looked straight at him.

"Mr. Otomo Takashi, I heard that you have bruises on your left arm and right shoulder."

"what?"

Sato walked around behind Otomo, said, "Excuse me," and took off his shirt.

Otomo was wearing a T-shirt under his work clothes with the sleeves rolled up to his shoulders. Bruises could be clearly seen on his left arm, and there were similar bruises on the shoulder of his right arm.

Yui saw the bruises and said, "These are bruises caused by the recoil of firing a rifle. They're on my right shoulder and left arm."

"No, this was when I was cutting down trees..." Otomo was about to argue.

"I see." A voice came from the observation building, and Lan and others turned around to look.

"Painting the body makes it fierce, swallowing charcoal makes it mute, and making its shape unrecognizable..." Gao Ming stood in front of the observation building with his chin supported by his hand.

"Inspector Morofushi!" Xiaolan frowned.

"Have you been discharged from the hospital?!" Sato asked. "Yes." Gao Ming nodded in response.

Takagi, who was relieved like everyone else, remembered Gao Ming's words.

"Um, 'Lacquer Body for Li'...?"

"Ah, that's a story from the Biographies of Assassins in the Records of the Grand Historian."

Lan, who is very fond of Chinese classics, began to explain.

"It tells the story of a man named Yu Rang from the State of Jin who, by painting himself to change his appearance and swallowing charcoal to alter his voice, disguised himself as a criminal and sneaked into the Jin palace to assassinate—"

"That is to say, Mr. Otomo Takashi." Kogoro interrupted Xiaolan's explanation and said to Otomo: "You also changed your face and name in this way - am I right?"

"?!" Looking at Otomo with a serious face, Fukubo showed a surprised look. He had no idea why he was saying this now.

At this moment, Sato, sensing Funakubo's doubts, spoke up, "The name 'Jisu Takashi' is on the list of Nagano Prefecture hunting license holders."

"I know this. That guy does have a hunting license." Having said this, Funakubo was stunned for a moment.

"Takashi...?!" Only then did he realize that the Otomo in front of him had the same name as Washito.

This man, who looks but not quite like Jiutou, has the same name, "Long".

"That's right. Washito Ryu changed his surname to 'Otomo' through adoption. I only found out about this after checking the household register."

"You...!" Funakubo rushed out and grabbed Otomo's shirt from the chest. "So close! I didn't expect you to be so bold!"

Otomo groaned in pain as his neck was strangled.

"Mr. Ying San!"

"Please calm down." Sato and Takagi hurried forward to stop him.

Kogoro continued, "Mr. Otomo. Eight years ago, you were convicted with a suspended sentence. After the three-year suspended sentence ended, you disappeared and returned to Nagano. You lived on the mountain where Miss Maki's grave is located."

Kogoro pointed at Mt. Miho.

Funakubo's grip loosened slightly, and Otomo began to cough, then lowered his head and spoke in a hoarse voice.

"...suspended sentence. Because I accepted that sentence, Maki-san... I'm really upset. I think I need to apologize to her parents. But I don't have the courage. At least, I need to go to her grave and apologize..."

Every year, before the anniversary of Maki's death, Otomo would visit her grave in advance, offering white zazen grass and, to melt the snow, he would sprinkle charcoal powder he had burned himself around the grave.

"So, Hana..." Ran said suddenly. Kogoro continued, "She changed her appearance and name to avoid seeing other people, so she went to pay her respects before the anniversary of her death."

As Funakubo clutched Otomo's shirt, the image of the charcoal hut surfaced in his mind: "Could it be... that the charcoal hut was built on that mountain for this purpose..."

"Isn't there a reason for the name 'Buppa'?" Conan asked, and Otomo replied, "It's my nickname."

"Nickname..." Kogoro murmured softly, and something seemed to flash through a corner of his mind.

"That's a nickname only the chef and I know," said Otomo, whose clothes were grabbed on the chest, turning his face away as if to look away.

"I see." Sato nodded beside him.

"So, Yuchu realized you were living on this mountain," Yui continued.

"Later, Inspector Yamato discovered the chef, and then encountered an avalanche..."