Chapter 20: I Might as Well Reveal the Motive Too

"Drawing this..." Chi Feichi moved his hand slightly so Conan could see the sail patterns. There were five in total, and he had basically figured them out.

Conan started, then his eyes filled with contemplation. Wait, this pattern...

Chi Feichi was considering whether to wait for Conan to deduce it. He was merely in the midst of the situation and had reconstructed the scene to study the culprit's methods; he had no interest in the tedious, long-winded work of deduction. However, it seemed it would take Conan quite a while to find the culprit, gather evidence, and dismantle the magic trick—which sounded even more troublesome.

In the ensuing silence, Suzuki Sonoko spoke up, sounding dejected. "Is it my fault?"

"Huh?" Mouri Ran looked surprised.

"I was the one who chose Hamano as the party coordinator," Sonoko blamed herself. "If he hadn't been alone in that room, he wouldn't have been killed. I just chose him, and now I've caused his death..."

Chi Feichi pulled himself out of his thoughts and said, "It wasn't."

Eh?

The others were surprised, though they assumed Chi Feichi was just trying to comfort Sonoko, albeit clumsily, given his lack of social grace.

A warmth spread through Sonoko’s heart. Although it was only two words, hearing him deny she was responsible for someone else's death in such a calm and firm tone was truly reassuring.

"Exactly, don't take it to heart," said Toita Takushi—the persona adopted by Kuroba Kaito—with a reassuring smile. Since Chi Feichi wasn't good at comfort, he would step in. "Your eyes were covered, and you were just picking cards at random to mark them. It's like a lottery; no one would blame the person throwing the darts. By the same logic, you were just acting as Mr. Hamano's performance assistant. You don't need to blame yourself."

Conan pondered, feeling like he had grasped a key point, but the specifics remained blurry.

Performance... assistant?

"No, comparing it to a lottery isn't appropriate, because who did what had already been determined," Chi Feichi spoke again, drawing everyone's attention back to him. "Mr. Hamano had already drawn the marks on the back of the papers before the names were written. When Miss Sonoko was blindfolded, the pen she used to make the marks actually couldn't write at all, and it didn't leave any marks whatsoever."

He had thought of this method from the very beginning. After all, he had learned about some simple magic tricks from Kuroba Kaito over the past few days, and besides... this pattern was exactly the same as the one in the museum where the armor walked. He remembered the method from that case.

"But it was Miss Tanaka who gave Miss Sonoko the pen," Kuroda Naoko said, looking at Tanaka Takahue. "In other words..."

"Miss Tanaka was the one who was truly Mr. Hamano's performance assistant," Chi Feichi stated, "while Miss Sonoko was just the lucky audience member chosen at random to come up on stage."

Conan’s eyes brightened. *Yes, that's it!*

*Then the culprit is...*

The others looked at Tanaka Takahue with a hint of suspicion.

Tanaka Takahue felt a tightness in her chest, but she didn't show it on her face. "Yes, Mr. Hamano did ask me to cooperate by handing him a pen that wouldn't write, but I didn't know how he had arranged things..."

"Are you sure you didn't know?" Chi Feichi didn't wait for her to answer, continuing calmly. "Mr. Hamano's original plan was for Mr. Toita Takushi to be the party coordinator. But after he confidently announced it, the paper with his own name on it turned out to be the one for the coordinator position. He was quite surprised at the time."

"Perhaps he just made a mistake when he was preparing the performance," Tanaka defended herself.

"Fine, let's set that aside," Chi Feichi didn't dwell on it. "At the time, Miss Tanaka was in the bathroom in charge of boiling water. From the ceiling of the bathroom, one can easily climb up and enter the second floor through the window. If you don't believe me, we can ask anyone to try it; it's very easy to climb up to the second floor..."

Conan: "..."

*When did this guy notice that?*

Although Chi Feichi sounded confident, he had to be sure, but it was still worth confirming...

"No need to try. I've looked; the ceiling is indeed not high, and one can climb up to the second floor," Tanaka Takahue said, deliberately showing some dissatisfaction. "Is Mr. Chi suspecting that I am the culprit? But if I were the culprit, how could I have transported Mr. Hamano's body to such a distant clearing without leaving footprints in the snow? That is simply not something a wingless human can do, right?"

"That is the method..." Chi Feichi held up his notebook. Among the five sail patterns, the last one was circled. "Shall we go and try it?"

Tanaka Takahue’s face turned pale instantly. She remembered that Chi Feichi had been drawing there ever since he returned. Did that mean he had gone to see the body, visited the suspension bridge, and upon returning, already figured out her method?

*Did he just sit there and reconstruct it because he wasn't sure how the ropes were wound?*

"Of course we should try it," Toita Takushi said, looking sternly at Tanaka Takahue. "Miss Tanaka, what do you think?"

Tanaka Takahue remained silent. This method would certainly work, but she couldn't be sure if the man had actual evidence...

"Then let's go and try it!" Conan added.

"Wait. Before we go, I will state the evidence first, so that Miss Tanaka doesn't discard it somewhere else," Chi Feichi interrupted. "On our way back from the suspension bridge, I noticed that when Miss Tanaka passed through the woods, she lagged behind and disappeared for a while. She must have gone to retrieve something, right? For example, the crossbow bolt used to help execute the crime. That sort of thing would be discovered if left lying around. The best way is to retrieve it, bring it back to the room, and burn it in the kitchen under the pretense of boiling water. However, you haven't had a chance to leave since you returned, so the bolt should still be hidden in your shoe. As for why it's a bolt, everyone will understand after we finish the demonstration."

Tanaka Takahue’s hands, clasped in front of her, tightened. She was on the verge of collapse.

Conan stared blankly at Chi Feichi. He had only just begun to piece things together, and this man had already found both the method and the evidence.

*What kind of person is this guy?*

*His speed in solving cases is just absurd!*

*If he even knows the motive... ha, that should be impossible...*

Chi Feichi: "I will state the motive as well..."

Conan: "..."

Chi Feichi continued, "Previously, 'Shadow Master' mentioned in the chat room, 'The death of the escape artist Harui Fuuden was all your fault.' I curiously asked the others about what happened. At the time, the magician's apprentice—that is, Miss Sonoko—told me that before I joined the chat room, the people there had discussed Harui Fuuden’s escape magic and expressed a desire to see him perform again.

"I checked news reports. Harui Fuuden, who was already elderly and had retired from the stage, announced his comeback shortly after that, only to die in an accident during an escape performance.

"When Harui Fuuden first started performing, he used the stage name 'Ikasama Doji.' Putting it all together, the 'Ikasama Doji' in the chat room was actually Harui Fuuden himself. He saw everyone in the chat room saying they wanted to see him perform, which is why he returned to the stage.

"But after Harui Fuuden passed away, the 'Ikasama Doji' account was still being used. I found it very strange and even doubted my previous deduction that 'Ikasama Doji' was Harui Fuuden. That is the reason I came here..."

In the chat room, in order to pretend to be a stranger, he hadn't been very close to Kuroba Kaito, and he had indeed deliberately asked such questions, which Suzuki Sonoko had answered.

As for the subsequent investigation, he was just making it up. It wasn't easy for him to distance himself from Kuroba Kaito.

Tanaka Takahue, who had remained silent, let out a weary sigh. She took the bolt out of her shoe and smiled bitterly. "You are right. 'Ikasama Doji' was Harui Fuuden, and he was my grandfather. I was surprised when he suddenly said he wanted to make a comeback. It wasn't until after he passed away that I organized his belongings, found his chat account, and saw the content of those conversations.

"You probably don't know, do you? He intended to tell you his true identity once he succeeded. There is an unsent email on his computer: 'I succeeded! Are you all happy? —Ikasama Doji—Harui Fuuden.' That is what it says.

"However, I didn't kill Mr. Hamano because they wanted to see my grandfather's escape performance and caused his death. That was my grandfather's choice. But they..."

"They later said things in the chat room like, 'That old man died in the cold water,' and 'He wanted to die on stage, didn't he? Haha,'" Chi Feichi took over, reciting the chat content in his usual calm and indifferent tone, which sounded somewhat eerie. "I had just joined the chat room at that time and saw these. So, the 'Escape King' who was laughing and egging Mr. Hamano on hasn't come today—he must be dead, right? As for the other 'Shadow Master' who never showed up, that must be a fake account you registered using other means, intended to be a non-existent person who would take the blame for the murder."

"Yes, that's exactly right," Tanaka Takahue said helplessly. "You saw right through me."

The others were horrified.

*Another person died?*

*No, it should be said, someone else had already died beforehand, and couldn't even make it here?*

Conan was already feeling numb.

Method, evidence, motive—how much time had passed since the incident began, and yet the entire case was laid out before them.

And he didn't even miss the minor details...

*What kind of monster is this guy?*

"Your grandfather was a very lovely old man," Chi Feichi said. "I don't mean that mockingly."

"I know. He would have liked that evaluation," Tanaka Takahue smiled, though her smile was full of sorrow. She looked at Kuroba Kaito. "Actually, there was one other person who knew 'Ikasama Doji' was my grandfather: Toita Takushi. He even sent an email to encourage my grandfather before he returned to the stage..."