Chapter 238
Usuha Izuki dropped that bombshell on Edogawa Conan and couldn't be bothered to listen to his excuses, simply walking away.
Finally getting tired of the matching game, Usuha Izuki went to ask Hagiwara Kenji if he could return to the hotel.
"Theoretically speaking, no, but given the current situation... forget it, go back. The others will have to return for the night soon anyway." Hagiwara Kenji understood Usuha Izuki well. "Are you bored?"
Usuha Izuki nodded: "The internet speed here is terrible."
Matsuda Jinpei, who had been thinking about the case, immediately said upon hearing this: "Perfect, since you're bored, go to sleep. Take this chance to fix that messy sleep schedule of yours."
Usuha Izuki was speechless: "...Are you my mom?"
"Stop complaining!" Matsuda Jinpei griped. "I have to consider whether I'll wake you up when calling or emailing you. It's too annoying—hurry up and fix it!"
Hagiwara Kenji smiled and chimed in: "Indeed, this is a good opportunity, Little Shinryu. Tsukikage Island has poor signal, terrible internet speed, and boring TV programs. You can't possibly play matching games until dawn, right?"
Although they pushed Usuha Izuki back to the hotel to sleep, Hagiwara Kenji and Matsuda Jinpei, being active police officers—even though Matsuda Jinpei was from the Explosive Ordnance Disposal unit—still showed professional dedication by staying behind to discuss the case with Mouri Kogorou and others, simply wrapping themselves in blankets and sleeping at the activity center.
The elderly police officer from Tsukikage Island finally arrived at some point and joined the case discussion, though he couldn't provide any useful intelligence. Expecting him to solve the case was even more hopeless, so everyone could only hope that after reporting to police, Tokyo would quickly send people over.
After all, Tsukikage Island was also under Tokyo jurisdiction, so when someone died, the Metropolitan Police would definitely be responsible.
The next day, people from the Metropolitan Police finally arrived by boat.
Leading them was everyone's old acquaintance, Inspector Megure.
Edogawa Conan woke up relatively early. Groggily getting up, he found Matsuda Jinpei and Hagiwara Kenji had already disappeared.
He immediately perked up and searched all the way outside, discovering they were briefing Inspector Megure on the situation.
From the sound of their voices, it seemed they had finished most of what needed to be reported.
Inspector Megure said: "I understand the general situation. You two... I feel like I just saw Matsuda-kun helping escort criminals a few days ago. I'm starting to get the illusion that Matsuda-kun is also one of our Criminal Investigation Division One people."
Hagiwara Kenji smiled: "Traveling is more fun with more people. If Date wasn't on vacation with his girlfriend, he should be here too."
In this situation, Hagiwara Kenji didn't call Date Wataru "Squad Leader" to avoid misunderstandings.
Hearing about dating, Inspector Megure somewhat wanted to ask this master of group blind dates about when the next mixer would be for some of his single subordinates, but thinking the occasion wasn't right, he gave up and returned to the main topic: "Anyway, after lunch, let's call everyone back for questioning."
Calling people over at this time would mean having to provide them lunch too, so better to wait until mealtime passed before questioning.
Actually, they shouldn't have let people go back last night. There might still be some clues on them, but now after a whole night, anything that needed handling had definitely been dealt with.
But they couldn't just search everyone upon arrival either. They had to question people first, and only after questioning, having ideas and suspects, could they search with justification. That brought them back to square one.
With so many people attending this second anniversary memorial, detaining them all would definitely cause trouble. Going through them one by one for questioning would take who knows how long, and not everyone was a night owl like Usuha Izuki. This place couldn't accommodate so many people sleeping either, so after weighing the options, they had to let people go.
Inspector Megure understood these problems, so he didn't blame them—they were on vacation, not working, so helping out was already good!
If Samukawa Shinryu encountered this kind of thing during his vacation, he probably wouldn't even bother maintaining order!
Thinking of Samukawa Shinryu, Inspector Megure asked: "Date's dating aside, but what about Samukawa-kun? When you two go out to play, you don't bring Samukawa-kun?"
Edogawa Conan, secretly eavesdropping: "...???"
What was going on? Even if Officer Hagiwara and Samukawa-san used to be partners, Samukawa-san was now the [Consultant]!
Did Inspector Megure just naturally accept that the [Consultant] still had a great relationship with the police, that they'd even vacation together?! Really not planning to arrest him?!
"He's sleeping at the hotel." Matsuda Jinpei said. "Inspector, you don't expect him to sleep on the floor here, do you?"
Inspector Megure, who met Matsuda Jinpei quite frequently for various reasons and was used to his way of speaking, twitched his mouth and replied: "You're right... Samukawa-kun never compromises his comfort in some ways..."
Edogawa Conan silently analyzed Inspector Megure's tone when mentioning Samukawa Shinryu.
Calm down, it might not be what he thought...
No, he couldn't calm down.
...Inspector Megure! What's wrong with you, Inspector Megure! That's the [Consultant]! What's with that helpless yet doting tone?!
Had he misunderstood something?
But Samukawa Shinryu had specifically torn down the "just joking" excuse he offered, showing he was seriously admitting to being the [Consultant], right?
After all, having already denied that the joke was a joke, admitting it was a joke again would really be meaningless!
Moreover, when he said "anyway, some people can't do anything about me no matter how dissatisfied they are," that sudden arrogance and recklessness made danger alarms blare in his mind. There really wasn't any other explanation!
Generally speaking, Edogawa Conan actually trusted his first impressions a lot. It was just because Hagiwara Kenji and Matsuda Jinpei, two police officers, were already registered with him as relatively reliable police, so when Hagiwara Kenji spoke up for Samukawa Shinryu, Edogawa Conan was willing to reexamine his deduction.
After examining and reflecting, Samukawa Shinryu's strange words made his mindset collapse completely, and his attitude rebounded—he should have trusted himself after all!!!
So even though the more reliable Inspector Megure was also very kind and amiable toward Samukawa Shinryu, Edogawa Conan had developed resistance.
Combined with Samukawa Shinryu's "I'm an outlaw, arrest me if you can" attitude, he really couldn't think well of him anymore. He even developed subtle thoughts about Inspector Megure, Hagiwara Kenji, and Matsuda Jinpei.
If not for the trust built from previous cooperation, plus Edogawa Conan's observation that they were indeed responsible police officers, he would have suspected they were corrupt cops.
Inspector Megure, unaware of Edogawa Conan's wild imagination, was still complaining: "By the time he wakes up, it'll probably be one or two o'clock. You two hurry up and eat, then come back to help. I'll talk to Matsuda's superior too."
"No need, I'm free anyway." Matsuda Jinpei, who wasn't actually from Criminal Investigation Division One, was already used to being dragged into cases. "Hagi, go wake up Mouri-san."
After saying this, Matsuda Jinpei seemed to remember something and asked Inspector Megure: "Inspector, this Mouri-san... isn't quite what I heard about?"
During last night's case discussion, Mouri Kogorou had proposed many ridiculous theories that left him and Hagiwara Kenji dumbfounded. Although the other party later explained it was to lighten the awkward atmosphere, he still felt something was off.
Edogawa Conan, eavesdropping, slowly had a drop of cold sweat roll down his forehead: "..."
Inspector Megure was all too familiar with Mouri Kogorou's performance when he dropped the ball, and couldn't help sweating too: "Well, although his early performance can be quite... that, once he enters his sleeping state, he becomes very reliable... Let's not talk about this. Everyone hurry up and prepare. Remember to call Samukawa-kun at the right time, or I'm afraid he'll sleep until evening."
"...Inspector, you have his number too. And Samukawa should be able to wake up earlier today since he definitely slept early last night."
"His wake-up mood is too bad..." Inspector Megure's gaze drifted. "You guys call him instead. You're friends, aren't you?"
Although Samukawa Shinryu wouldn't get angry about it, at times like this, listening to Samukawa Shinryu speak felt more stressful than usual... One phone call of less than ten minutes, then two hours of self-reflection about disturbing someone's sleep—too exhausting.
These two were the type who not only wouldn't reflect but would dare to complain about Samukawa Shinryu's sleep schedule. Inspector Megure envied them.
Edogawa Conan could barely listen anymore.
What kind of harmonious conversation was this... What exactly was going on with Samukawa Shinryu?!
Taking advantage of Hagiwara Kenji going to wake Mouri Kogorou and Matsuda Jinpei also being busy, Edogawa Conan slipped over to find Inspector Megure.
"Conan-kun." Inspector Megure had been seeing Edogawa Conan frequently at crime scenes lately and knew he (claimed to) assist Mouri Kogorou by asking questions and such, so his attitude was decent. He didn't brush him off as an ignorant child. "What's the matter?"
"It's about Samukawa-san. Uncle Mouri seems to have some opinion of Samukawa-san." Edogawa Conan tried his best to act obedient, then pulled out Mouri Kogorou as a shield—he was telling the truth! Mouri Kogorou really couldn't stand Samukawa Shinryu!
"Oh—" Without needing Edogawa Conan to say more, Inspector Megure immediately showed an enlightened expression, then very naturally said: "Samukawa-kun is easily misunderstood, but he's actually a good person. Don't worry, I'll explain to Mouri later."
This attitude didn't seem fake, but that made Edogawa Conan even more confused.
"...Inspector Megure, how does everyone at the Metropolitan Police view Samukawa-san? Why did he resign? Was it because he was always misunderstood?"
Although Inspector Megure was somewhat puzzled why Edogawa Conan was asking this, to improve Samukawa Shinryu's image in front of the child, he still answered.
"It has nothing to do with misunderstandings. Most people actually like him a lot. A small number who don't like him can't help it—if anything, they're just not skilled enough, so they can only ask him for help when something happens. As for resigning... anyway, Mouri will find out too, so telling you doesn't matter. He didn't really resign—he's still working as a [Consultant] at the Metropolitan Police."
Edogawa Conan: "............???"
—So that line "anyway, some people can't do anything about me no matter how dissatisfied they are" actually meant this?!