Chapter 305: Are you sure it's a love rival, not a sister?

Sera Masumi pulled up her suitcase and asked after thinking for a moment: "By the way, where are you all going?"

"Beika Hotel," Mouri Ran replied.

"Really? What a coincidence, I'm going to that hotel too!"

Sera Masumi's face was full of surprise.

"Is this guy for real?"

Conan didn't know why, but he just didn't like her, especially when Sera Masumi was laughing and chatting with Ran.

Seeing that Akaso Kaze didn't seem to have any reaction, he asked in confusion, "Brother Akaso, don't you feel anything at all? She might be a love rival, you know."

Akaso Kaze looked at the brat with a strange expression.

Are you sure it's a love rival, not a sister?

"Conan, your judgment is off; this person is a girl."

"What? A girl?"

Conan was stunned and looked at Sera Masumi carefully, especially at her Adam's apple.

Only then did he swallow his saliva in surprise.

"She really is a girl. Brother Akaso, how did you tell at a glance?"

The corners of Akaso Kaze's mouth curled up, and he reached out to ruffle Conan's hair.

"You're still too young, you don't understand..."

Conan was dumbfounded. How do I not understand?

"What?! There are no rooms left?"

At the Beika Hotel, Sera Masumi was speaking angrily at the front desk.

"Why? I made a reservation!"

"I am so sorry," the manager apologized, "It is our mistake. Because the annex is unfortunately under renovation, the number of rooms has been reduced significantly, and they are all full now."

"How can this be? Can't you think of a way?"

Not far away, Sonoko had also heard Akaso Kaze's introduction. She stared straight at Sera Masumi's flat chest and said in great confusion:

"Is she really a girl? How come I can't tell? Looking closely, she actually looks like a handsome guy, but to think there's a girl as strong as Ran, it's truly surprising."

"Um, Sonoko," Ran looked around, "Where are we eating the cake buffet?"

"It's at the cafe on the 2nd floor. I just asked the front desk, but she said it's already full," Sonoko said unhappily.

Bang!

A loud noise outside the hotel suddenly startled everyone, followed immediately by a scream.

Akaso Kaze stopped in his tracks.

It was from the direction of the parking lot.

The parking lot was located next to the annex on the right side of the hotel. Conan rushed out without a word.

The three of them, Akaso Kaze included, had no choice but to follow.

When they arrived at the scene, three panicked middle-aged men and women were already standing there, calling for an ambulance.

A car had just backed out of a parking space, and a yellow-haired man was lying on the now-vacant spot, his head covered in a splash-pattern of blood.

"What happened?" Conan asked.

"I..." a middle-aged woman said tremblingly, "When I was backing up, this person suddenly fell from above."

"Isn't, isn't this person Kamizumi?" another plump middle-aged woman said in surprise after seeing the man's face clearly.

"Hey, it really is Kamizumi!"

Conan squatted down to the corpse to check the situation immediately.

A very strong smell of alcohol; he seemed to have drunk quite a lot.

The cause of death was a fall from a height, dying on the spot. The impact was quite significant; to make such a loud noise, he must have fallen from a great height.

"Eh? Who is that?" the middle-aged woman suddenly pointed to the roof, "There was a strange figure on the roof just now!"

"There's someone on the roof?" Conan looked up, "Did you see that person's face clearly?"

"This, I only saw the clothes..."

"In that case, take us to the roof to see,"

Akaso Kaze glanced at the roof of the annex and said to the security guard who had rushed over, "It might be a murder case. Before the police arrive, keep the scene untouched."

"O-okay." The security guard nodded subconsciously. By the time he came to his senses, Conan and Akaso Kaze had already followed the middle-aged men and women to the annex, while Ran and Sonoko stayed behind to call the police.

Only one elevator in the annex was working properly. Conan and the others went up, but Akaso Kaze stayed below.

"Is it okay for little Conan to go up alone? If the murderer is really up there..."

Sera Masumi suddenly walked over and asked curiously, looking at Akaso Kaze's composed appearance.

Akaso Kaze smiled, "It's fine. The murderer's goal has already been achieved, and her heart isn't bad; she won't lay a hand on a child."

"You, you know who the murderer is?"

Sera Masumi looked at Akaso Kaze in surprise.

"What's there to be surprised about? I am an Onmyoji, I can divine."

"Is that so? So that's how it is."

Sera Masumi's face was full of disbelief.

Isn't "Onmyoji" just a synonym for a charlatan?

Akaso Kaze didn't mind; she had just returned from abroad, so of course she didn't know his reputation.

He looked at the elevator and said quietly:

"This elevator will go to the top floor. Conan will see a pair of shoes pressing down on a coat; that is the illusion of suicide created by the murderer."

"Then the elevator will come down and pause on the 6th and 2nd floors, and finally open again in front of us."

Sera Masumi looked at Akaso Kaze, then stared wide-eyed at the elevator.

The elevator rose to the top floor and began to descend.

It really did pause on the 6th and 2nd floors respectively.

Sera Masumi looked at Akaso Kaze again in shock and took a deep breath.

When the elevator door opened, she immediately ran inside.

Looking at Akaso Kaze standing outside with a calm expression, a feeling of him being unfathomable arose in her heart.

She pressed the button for the top floor.

Dozens of seconds later, Sera Masumi stood on the platform on the roof, her small mouth agape in surprise, unable to close it.

On the wall not far away, the coat pressed down by the shoes was fluttering in the wind.

"This is... really the same as what he said!"

The middle-aged woman was wiping her tears and saying: "It's all my fault. I was the one who kept questioning him, that's why he committed suicide..."

"No, that's not right," Sera Masumi interrupted her from behind, "This is murder, absolutely murder!"

The middle-aged man standing nearby asked in confusion: "Why isn't it suicide? The shoes are placed here so neatly."

Sera Masumi's eyes were bright, "I have seen several suicide-by-jumping scenes; there is no such thing as not wearing shoes."

"Placing shoes neatly on the roof so that you can associate it with suicide—that kind of thing is a plot invented in movies and television."

Sera Masumi walked to the edge of the rooftop and looked down at the scene of the corpse in the parking lot, continuing:

"That man seemed to have drunk quite a lot of alcohol. Isn't it strange that he would take off his coat, fold it, and then neatly arrange his shoes in that situation?"

"Most importantly, this is directly above the deceased's body. It's absolutely impossible for it not to have been disturbed when he jumped."

"So, it is highly likely that the culprit deliberately faked the scene to look like a suicide by jumping, right, little Conan?"

Sera Masumi put her hands in her pockets and looked back at Conan with a smile.

"Ah, yeah."

Conan nodded blankly.

He didn't know if it was an illusion, but he felt that this girl's attention was mostly focused on him.

Could she be a shotacon?

Looking at her appearance, it was very possible.

Conan silently buttoned up his collar.

The police arrived at the scene very quickly and immediately launched an investigation. The one leading the team was still Inspector Megure.

"The victim is Kamizumi Sadao, the son of the owner of this Beika Hotel. He was the only one living in the annex."

Downstairs at the hotel, Takagi introduced the situation of the deceased.

"It seems he was trying to avoid the media because he had been arrested as the mastermind of a bank transfer fraud. He was released due to lack of evidence, and now the gossip magazines are all circling him."

"He was caught by the media last week, which caused a huge sensation. Mr. Sadao lashed out at the media and even smashed the window in the 6th-floor hallway with a fire extinguisher, and blocked the camera in the elevator with paint."

"As a result, fewer and fewer guests were willing to stay in the annex, and the hotel felt they couldn't let him stay like this anymore. It is said they planned to have him move abroad while the annex was being renovated."

"Yes," the middle-aged men and women added, "We victims also heard this news, which is why we came here to see him."

"Before he fled abroad, we wanted him to at least apologize to us or something."

Sera Masumi listened for a while, and after seeing the electric wheelchair found on the 2nd floor, she already had a rough conclusion in her heart.

Now the only thing missing was evidence.

However, Akaso Kaze's faint smile from just now kept lingering in her mind, as if everything was under his control.

That kind of powerful aura left a deep impression on her.

The main reason Sera Masumi returned to Japan from London with her mother this time was because of Conan.

They saw Conan, who looked exactly like Kudo Shinichi when he was a child, on TV, so they came back to find the truth.

As for Akaso Kaze, the Onmyoji, she had never heard of him before.

Is there such an impressive figure in Tokyo?

Conan had also deduced it by this time, and he revealed a triumphant smile.

Looking around, it seemed there was no one he could stun, so it looked like he would have to solve the case in the name of the Onmyoji.

He pretended to be innocent and said: "Inspector Megure, I just heard from Brother Akaso that this case is like this..."

"What? The Onmyoji-sama is here? Then what is there to deduce?"

Hearing Conan's words, Inspector Megure's eyes suddenly lit up. He scanned the area and saw Akaso Kaze, who was in the hotel, and walked over with large strides.

Only Conan was left looking dumbfounded.

Conan was stunned for a while, then raised his small hand and slapped himself.

I must be stupid, why did I mention Akaso Kaze?

Now it's over, the fun of solving the case is gone again.

Pfft.

Sera Masumi, who was staring at him from the side, couldn't help but laugh.

Conan hurriedly gave her a wary look and hurriedly chased after Inspector Megure's heels.

Damn it, I have to preserve my innocence.

Sera Masumi didn't know why, but she also followed toward the hotel lobby.