Chapter 168
Usuha Izuki spoke naturally: "Kudo Yusaku. There's a character in his novels I quite like."
System: [The one based on Samukawa, right... You're so narcissistic...]
Usuha Izuki: [Stop nagging! I simply admire Kudo Yusaku's abilities!]
Still a middle schooler, Kudo Shinichi held back his frustration: "Even if it's Dad... no character can compare to Holmes..."
Usuha Izuki smiled: "What author or character you like doesn't really matter. How the cases are designed is the essence of mystery novels, right? From this perspective, I actually prefer Agatha, and Conan Doyle has some factual errors that are too jarring..."
Kudo Shinichi became even more depressed: "Agatha's cases are indeed good... let's not talk about this."
At Kudo Shinichi's current age, his peers were more absorbed in ordinary entertainment, with fewer who liked reading and even fewer who liked mysteries. Usually he could only chat with his parents about this, so when he finally met a fellow enthusiast who had once liked Conan Doyle...
The person ended up abandoning their fandom and criticizing.
The worst part was that the reasons given were quite reasonable, which made Kudo Shinichi, as a Holmes fan, somewhat displeased.
Usuha Izuki coughed: "But speaking of character development, Conan Doyle did do very well. I particularly like his portrayal of—"
Kudo Shinichi finally became a bit happier and answered eagerly: "Holmes!"
Usuha Izuki: "—Moriarty."
Kudo Shinichi: "..........."
He looked at Usuha Izuki expressionlessly, vaguely suspecting whether the other was deliberately teasing him.
After all, he was just a middle schooler who hadn't fully grown yet, while the other should already be a university student who might really see him like a child...
So Kudo Shinichi emphasized unhappily: "I'm not a kid anymore..."
Saying this, he seriously studied Usuha Izuki, trying to deduce something from him to prove his point.
The other smiled as he let himself be observed.
Hmm, dressed very fashionably, no calluses on his hands, not carrying any bag—too little information, hard to judge.
But these prayer beads, crosses, four-leaf clovers, charms and such...
Kudo Shinichi hesitated: "Are you very worried about encountering something dangerous?"
"Why not guess that I just like dressing this way?" Usuha Izuki asked curiously.
"Um, how should I put it... the coordination of other parts is actually fairly harmonious, but these feel a bit incongruous..."
Usuha Izuki didn't answer whether he'd guessed correctly, just sighed: "Sigh, I am indeed very worried about being killed."
Kudo Shinichi's gaze immediately became sharp: "What's wrong? Are you in some trouble?"
Usuha Izuki looked worried: "Haven't you watched the news? People's reasons for killing nowadays are so strange. I usually speak quite directly, so I'm very worried that my friends might suddenly find me unpleasant and kill me."
Kudo Shinichi: "..........."
He reexamined all the small items hanging on Usuha Izuki.
Uh... wearing so many things that seemed mainly for blessing protection... how unpleasant must this guy's usual speech be for him to be so self-aware about offending people?
So Kudo Shinichi comforted: "When a dog bites a man, that's not news—when a man bites a dog, that's news. The cases you see in newspapers and on TV have definitely been filtered and selected because they'd make people feel surprised, meaning most cases don't actually have such bizarre murder motives. You should trust your friends more, and since you're aware that you speak too directly, you should try to change that instead of worrying so much."
"You're right. Although my friends don't look like good people, I should indeed have more trust in friends." Usuha Izuki completely avoided mentioning changing himself and directly switched topics: "Speaking of which, were you doing homework upstairs earlier?"
"No, I was just thinking about a problem."
Though Kudo Shinichi noticed that Usuha Izuki didn't seem to plan on correcting his flaws, when this topic came up, he immediately threw all his earlier displeasure and confusion aside: "On the way home from school today, I heard someone chatting at a bookstore about something I found very interesting."
"What was it?"
"Maybe because he was getting change, that person complained about encountering a strange person in the morning who was on the phone saying 'There are too few 10-yen coins, I need five more'... What would anyone need so many 10-yen coins for?"
Kudo Shinichi showed a somewhat reserved yet scrutinizing expression: "This is a personal habit of mine—finding interesting puzzles in daily life. There might not be answers, but the process of speculation is very fun. What do you think?"
After all, he was a middle schooler. Even with a famous father, it wasn't very possible for cases to always find him like Holmes. But he loved deduction, so he could only find things himself, like making associations based on license plate numbers of passing cars to exercise his deductive abilities.
Usually he just entertained himself alone, so now that he'd finally caught someone, he wondered if they'd be willing to play this deduction game with him, and he could also test their level.
If the other found it boring, thinking it was just kid stuff... then he'd know that people who didn't like Holmes definitely had no taste!
Maybe they just simply liked reading novels with average deductive ability, the type who didn't like to think while reading mysteries!
And despite knowing where the problem lay, still placing hope in these illusory divine blessings... somehow didn't seem very smart.
Kudo Shinichi began to doubt.
He lacked people to discuss mysteries with, but not to the point where just anyone would do... otherwise he was quite happy talking to himself in front of Ran too.
Fortunately, Usuha Izuki readily agreed: "I also think it's quite interesting, just that not being able to confirm the answer is a bit frustrating."
"It's mainly about discussing deductive thinking."
Being willing to play this kind of deduction game showed the other was at least willing to think. Kudo Shinichi's attitude toward Usuha Izuki became enthusiastic again: "This kind of thing isn't about winning or losing—as long as it's logically sound."
Usuha Izuki smiled: "That's good. But speaking of logic, the king of logic, Ellery Queen—"
Kudo Shinichi could now confirm this guy was deliberately toying with him. What terrible personality—no wonder he worried about friends killing him... wait, he now even suspected that this guy's talk about friends and such was just teasing him!
So his expression darkened: "Usuha-san..."
"Just call me Usuha." Usuha Izuki said shamelessly. "I met a kid who likes Queen before—maybe you two would get along well."
Kudo Shinichi: "...No need."
Don't you have anyone around you who likes Holmes?!
And this guy's acquaintances probably would also be very difficult people—better to respectfully decline.
Though Kudo Shinichi had quite a few complaints about Usuha Izuki, he was actually very interested in him, feeling this guy had an aura of "secrets."
So far, aside from his name, he couldn't even confirm whether the other was a university student. When speaking, he gave almost no information that could be deduced.
But he didn't want to ask directly—he only wanted to deduce bit by bit himself, eventually making this big brother look at him with new respect while convincing him to like Conan Doyle again.
So Kudo Shinichi coughed: "Alright, what can you think of from 10-yen coins?"
"Emphasizing 10-yen coins should have a very necessary reason... probably not for buying things."
Kudo Shinichi nodded: "Right, otherwise he could just ask for a 50-yen coin directly, no need to go in circles... maybe for making change, not having enough small bills at his stall, or possibly something else..."
Usuha Izuki thought: "In this case, let's speculate how many 10-yen coins he already had."
This was easy. Kudo Shinichi immediately said: "Using 'too few' to describe means the amount on hand is about half the target quantity, otherwise he'd say 'still short a bit' or 'not enough.' Based on this, if we treat the five coins he mentioned needing as one-third, he probably had ten to fifteen coins on hand."
"Mm, so he roughly needs twenty 10-yen coins. If it's for making change, that still seems too few."
Kudo Shinichi urged: "Don't always have me doing the deduction—you deduce some possibilities too!"
"Should be somewhere that requires coins, otherwise for purchases, having a cashier means direct change-making without needing to prepare yourself... um, 10-yen... isn't the minimum amount for phone booths 10 yen? Because if it's vending machines, they can make change, so using large bills is fine, but phone booths don't make change, so preparing small coins is better."
"I considered phone booths before too."
Kudo Shinichi felt both regretful and happy—because Usuha Izuki could follow his line of thinking, but unfortunately this seemed like a dead end.
"But just for making a phone call, would he need so many coins? If it's a long call, he could use 100-yen coins or just buy a phone card. And according to what the person I encountered said, wasn't the other already chatting on a cell phone? Why bother with phone booths? Even if the phone was running low, quickly finding a convenience store to charge would be better than collecting 10-yen coins, right?"
Usuha Izuki blinked: "If it were me, I'd probably be doing it for anonymity."
Kudo Shinichi: "...Huh?"
Usuha Izuki said naturally: "For doing bad things, you couldn't use your own phone number, right? Buying a disposable phone card is also troublesome—better to use public phone booths. Just find one nearby without cameras."
Kudo Shinichi's mouth twitched: "No, almost no one would check carrier records, only police..."
"Right, if I wanted to hide from police eyes, I'd choose public phone booths. That is, having a cell phone but still needing to use public booths means the bad thing I'm doing is really very bad."
Usuha Izuki smiled: "Most likely crime-related."
Kudo Shinichi wanted to say this line of thinking was perhaps too much of a slippery slope, but thinking it over, his expression gradually became serious: "It's quite possible. If it were just phone fraud, there'd be no need for such complexity, because out of 100 calls maybe not one person would take the bait, and among 100 people who got scammed maybe not one case would check carriers. So if it is crime, it must be a more serious case."
"With 10-yen coins, he couldn't talk long. He probably prepared to hang up after chatting briefly once connected, meaning he prepared many phone numbers to call one by one, confirming something..."
Kudo Shinichi pondered: "Short time means simple matters, quick confirmation. At least ten places need confirmation, indicating a large scope... is he looking for someone?"
"Today is a weekday, and the caller probably planned to call during the day, right? Then basically those at home would be housewives or elderly people... It's possible a housewife accidentally saw something she shouldn't have while shopping, then dropped her point card or something in panic while leaving, revealing her surname. If she screamed, her voice would be heard too. Public phone booths have yellow pages listing phone numbers for nearby households by surname. Finding the corresponding surname and calling to hear one sentence should confirm if it's the right person, then they'd come to silence her..."
Usuha Izuki smoothly finished his speculation and sighed: "Ah, it feels like it's too late to stop it now."
Kudo Shinichi was stunned: "From a deductive standpoint, you're quite impressive, but deducing all this from one random passerby's comment, though logically sound, feels a bit exaggerated..."
This tone of regret about not being able to prevent it—how did he already treat his deduction as truth?
Being logically sound didn't mean there weren't other possibilities! He could immediately come up with other developments too—
Just then, the TV that had been playing as background noise began reporting a case.
"...a female corpse was discovered. Her son found her upon returning from school and called police. She's suspected of witnessing a murder scene yesterday and being silenced. The family received a suspicious call from a public phone booth this morning..."
Usuha Izuki: "Ah, seems we can confirm the answer now."
Kudo Shinichi: "........???"
—Though, but, we only had one sentence as a clue! Could he really deduce the truth just like that?! Must be coincidence?