Chapter 129
Usuha Izuki didn't intend to make things too difficult for the bomb expert—the man was already very remorseful about his verbal slip.
Although they hadn't interacted much, he could tell this person's eyes simply contained only things he was interested in.
Thinking his operations were reckless, he wanted to stop him. Feeling he was a master, he respected him. Considering him somewhat crazy, he stayed away. Discovering his skills were indeed solid and he wasn't truly insane, he was willing to build familiarity again and attempt technical exchanges.
Moreover, looking at this bomb expert's imagination, he seemed to still think of him as a criminal... but his behavior showed no discrimination or disgust whatsoever, which was quite rare.
At his age, still being so pure—technical positions really nurtured people.
Compared to those FBI agents, Usuha Izuki found this bomb expert quite agreeable. Plus, he now wanted to properly vacation and had no intention of deliberately grinding suspicion values, so he accepted the juice the other had helped pour, indicating he didn't mind what he'd just said, and the matter was over.
The bomb expert sighed in relief.
Sigh, he vaguely remembered now—those two colleagues had indeed come to talk to him, but he'd been concentrating on checking what in his office had been touched and hadn't listened carefully, resulting in such a serious oversight...
Focus was a good thing, but sometimes you still needed to listen to what others were saying.
The FBI also laughed awkwardly—after all, it was their own person who had the problem, still somewhat embarrassing, so they quickly skipped this topic.
Kudo Yusaku's investigation had also made great progress: "I already know who the culprit is."
Usuha Izuki casually asked: "Who?"
Kudo Yusaku began building suspense: "Wait a bit more, tomorrow."
Usuha Izuki: "..."
This was detectives' bad habit—always liking to keep people in suspense.
Hagiwara Kenji asked: "So Kudo-san will stay here another day? Won't your family get anxious waiting?"
He'd chatted with Kudo Yusaku a few times and knew Kudo Yusaku's wife and son were both vacationing in Hawaii. Kudo Yusaku had temporarily returned to Japan to handle some publishing-related business, which was why he'd taken a separate flight.
...Hawaii was quite large anyway, and the round trip was quite time-consuming. Plus he hadn't had time to adjust to the time difference and was very tired, so after taking the case yesterday, Kudo Yusaku hadn't returned but had slept directly at the client's other hotel. Today would probably be the same.
He believed his wife and child would understand, but understanding was one thing—he'd definitely get scolded when he returned.
Kudo Yusaku's smile stiffened: "It's fine... Uh, do you have any travel plans? Why don't you come with me after this case ends?"
The calculation beads were practically hitting Hagiwara Kenji in the face.
Obviously feeling a bit sorry for his wife and child, thinking that bringing outsiders might make his wife scold him less for the sake of the guests.
Part of the reason was also that Kudo Yusaku felt very inspired being around Samukawa Shinryu, and Hagiwara Kenji and Matsuda Jinpei were also quite interesting—getting along well, they could make friends.
He already had quite a few police friends, but friends were never too many.
Unfortunately, Kudo Yusaku's invitation was decisively refused by Usuha Izuki: "No."
Kudo Yusaku hadn't expected to be refused so quickly, but as an adult, he would deduce for himself rather than directly asking "why did you refuse, do you dislike me?"
He didn't feel Samukawa Shinryu disliked him—he even felt they got along pleasantly and had good chemistry. Things he thought of, Samukawa Shinryu could also think of. They had much common ground.
...So did he want to play alone with friends and didn't want to add him, a new acquaintance?
Kudo Yusaku said understandingly: "True, you young people should play together."
Actually, Kudo Yusaku's guess was wrong. The reason Usuha Izuki wouldn't agree was entirely because—he didn't want to meet Kudo Shinichi.
Please, he was here on vacation! Staying around Kudo Shinichi, who knew what cases would arise! Even meeting Kudo Shinichi's father had already produced two cases!
The system was very reluctant: [Suspicion values... suspicion values from this world's core pillar character...]
Coming to this world for two years and still not meeting Conan! Was this reasonable? This wasn't reasonable!
Finally having a chance to meet and grind suspicion values, why pass it up?
Was vacationing really that important?!
Usuha Izuki's desire to vacation was very firm: [Anyway, he'll return to Japan too. If I want to meet him, I can sooner or later, but I finally came out on vacation—no one should influence me anymore!]
The system felt Usuha Izuki was truly willful.
Clearly wanting so much to exchange for permanent residence rights, not willing to spend a single suspicion value for this, unwilling to buy anything from the system shop, yet now with such a good opportunity to grind massive suspicion values, he was giving it up for so-called vacation!
Childish!
But thinking that this guy was indeed still underage when he died, let alone traveling abroad, the system felt it was understandable.
Sigh, willful was willful. What could it, a system, do? It just hoped next time it could bind a more professional actor host...
Though there probably weren't many with worse acting skills than Usuha Izuki. The system couldn't help secretly complaining.
In any case, the bomb crisis was resolved, Kudo Yusaku had theories about the culprit's identity, this case had bright prospects, and Usuha Izuki didn't even need to stay here anymore. After a summary meeting, he could take the money and leave.
That's right—although the FBI couldn't possibly pay Usuha Izuki a salary, the hotel owner was very excited and gratefully gave the great contributor Usuha Izuki a check with a huge amount, several times more than the thank-you money given by Kokonoe Yoto's second-generation friend.
This was understandable—after all, on Kokonoe Yoto's friend's side, the prevented losses weren't easily quantifiable, but here, if the hotel was rebuilt plus losses during reconstruction downtime, plus the ransom fee, that was all real money. Preventing these losses, giving extra was not excessive at all!
Hagiwara Kenji and Matsuda Jinpei also received some, just smaller amounts. Kudo Yusaku's side would probably wait until catching the culprit to give together.
The FBI's situation was hard to say—they might feel they were taxpayers and the FBI should serve them—plus all the work was clearly done by outsiders, and they still wanted money? Dream on!
American capitalists were just this confident. As long as they weren't facing the IRS, they wouldn't cower.
Before leaving, Usuha Izuki exchanged contact information with the bomb expert and Kudo Yusaku.
Kudo Yusaku hadn't expected him to leave so readily, his tone even a bit resentful: "Don't you want to know who the culprit is?"
This wasn't scientific! How could someone participate in a case and then want to leave without even wanting to know who the real culprit was?!
Surely he couldn't already know who the culprit was? But this culprit—without investigating clearly who the hotel owner had offended, an outsider couldn't possibly guess!
So it was simply lack of interest.
In the past, when he built suspense, everyone was willing to patiently listen to his complete deduction before he pointed out the culprit! Why was Samukawa Shinryu so unconventional?
Kudo Yusaku couldn't understand.
However, Usuha Izuki said decisively: "Not interested. Solve it yourself."
Kudo Yusaku: "............"
Matsuda Jinpei and Hagiwara Kenji stood aside, wanting to speak but hesitating.
They were quite interested... As police, they had natural curiosity about truth and culprits. Leaving like this without knowing the whole story felt so uncomfortable... They really wanted to stay and see what was going on...
Damn it, how did Samukawa Shinryu resist! He wasn't a normal person!
Kudo Yusaku noticed Matsuda Jinpei and Hagiwara Kenji's expressions, and his somewhat shattered worldview pulled back together.
Exactly—there were still more people in the world curious about truth, willing to wait for detectives to reveal culprits.
So Kudo Yusaku violated detective principles and spoiled early: "You want to know?"
Without waiting for Usuha Izuki to say "no," Kudo Yusaku eagerly continued: "According to my deduction, the culprit should be the hotel owner's former business partner..."
Blah blah blah, finishing in one breath, Kudo Yusaku finally felt this breath go down smoothly.
He'd never been so worried that during his deduction, someone would show impatience and turn to leave, making his desire to confide explode... Really thanks to Samukawa Shinryu! Giving him such a rare experience!
Usuha Izuki looked at Kudo Yusaku's skyrocketing suspicion values in the background, still somewhat puzzled, not understanding what the other was suddenly suspicious about.
The system couldn't figure out either that Kudo Yusaku suspected Usuha Izuki would walk away without listening to his deduction...
In any case, the system felt this harvest was quite substantial. Kudo Yusaku, plus Judy among the FBI, were both weighted individuals. These suspicion values came gushing forth—struck it rich.
Only Usuha Izuki wasn't very happy, feeling it affected his vacation plans.
[What plans do you have...] The system was very puzzled.
Usuha Izuki: [Even if my plan is to lie at home for a day, if someone suddenly calls me out to eat at this time, I'd be unhappy. These suspicion values are the same—not what I wanted to grind at all. Seeing them just annoys me.]
[...]
Ignoring the departing Usuha Izuki's group, on the third day, having received no reply and not obtaining the ransom at the destination, the culprit was very displeased and planned to teach the hotel owner a lesson. But when the scheduled time arrived, he waited a long while without seeing the explosion.
Could the bomb setup have malfunctioned?
The culprit was somewhat puzzled and became vigilant, suspecting problems. He turned to leave, but upon returning to his lodging inn, was immediately apprehended by waiting FBI.
After interrogation, the FBI sighed: "Worthy of Kudo-san, all deductions correct!"
The culprit gritted his teeth: "Kudo Yusaku?! I know him! Where is he?"
Someone like this who enjoyed solving cases should like to show off by stating his deductions in front of him, right? Why hadn't he seen anyone resembling Kudo Yusaku?
Judy fell silent strangely: "Uh... he's not here, already left."
Culprit: "...???"
Because he'd already spoiled it for Usuha Izuki's group in advance, causing him to suddenly lose the fun of exposing the culprit's identity in front of everyone, Kudo Yusaku listlessly gave the FBI the answer key and went early to reunite with his wife and child.
Sigh... Suddenly felt these spotlight moments weren't that interesting either. Rather, Yukiko liked being the center of attention—from now on, let Yukiko say the answers instead...
However, everything had gains and losses. Kudo Yusaku temporarily lost interest in detective work's greatest pleasure but gained a heap of inspiration. Arriving at the hotel where his wife and child stayed, he entered the room and immediately began writing.
Kudo Yukiko had originally wanted to throw a tantrum, but seeing him work so seriously, she was somewhat surprised: "Didn't you say you had writer's block?"
"I got inspiration." Kudo Yusaku smiled. "I plan to add a new character... Indeed, the protagonist should have an archenemy!"