Chapter 446 - 57: Someone Has to Machine-Gun Tokyo Tower

Chapter 446: Chapter 57: Someone Has to Machine-Gun Tokyo Tower

It was easy to use the other victims’ positions on the map to narrow down the general area where the next victim should be. From there, Conan only had to reason from Mizutani-san’s love of stargazing. Even if the man intended to end his own life, the last thing he would probably want to do was look at the stars.

And the place in this area closest to the stars was Tokyo Tower.

That made Conan even more certain that the culprit was Honjo-san. When Ai compared the pattern, she had simply searched for an image of the Big Dipper, shrunk it, and overlaid it on the map. Even the proportions matched almost perfectly. The culprit had to be a perfectionist.

Today was Tanabata. Once night fell, Tokyo Tower was hosting a festival and the place became exceptionally lively. Even the weather forecast had chosen this location for its live broadcast.

"Good evening. I’m here at Tokyo Tower, where a Tanabata festival is currently being held." The pretty female presenter spread both hands in front of the camera.

"What is she doing?" Yimi tugged Conan’s clothes and pointed at the camera.

"She’s filming the weather forecast. We... I don’t have time to waste here!" Conan ignored her and sprinted toward the inside of Tokyo Tower.

He did need help, but he did not want a child whose only advantage was being a little stronger than normal as his helper. Unfortunately, he simply could not shake Yimi off.

"Filming the weather forecast!" Yimi knew what that was. Even though this world still did not have smartphones, Kisaki Eri watched the weather forecast at the same time every day.

Yimi stood behind the presenter and tried to strike a cool pose like the ones she had seen in cartoons, only to notice Conan had left her behind. She had no choice but to hurry after him.

Conan did not get too far ahead. He finally realized that when he could not use the skateboard, carrying it around was nothing but a burden. He found one of the festival attendants and acted cute as he handed it over.

"Onee-san, could you look after this for me?" He pitched his voice higher and gave her a pitiful look. "While I was in the bathroom, Papa and my little sister left without me. They’re so mean."

"Papa and my little sister, left without me. They’re so mean." Yimi imitated his high-pitched voice and repeated the line behind him.

Conan: "..."

Mizutani-san, who was being framed, was not difficult to find. Conan did not even need to take out a photograph to compare faces, because the man was standing alone on Tokyo Tower’s observation deck, drinking red wine and tilting his head back in an attempt to look at the stars.

Most people who came to the festival on Tanabata were in pairs, making him stand out all the more. Unfortunately, even now, the clouds overhead prevented him from seeing a single star.

"Are you, the person going to another world?" Before Conan could say anything after walking over, Yimi stepped forward and spoke first.

"Little girl?" Mizutani turned in confusion, revealing a gentle-looking face. Judging from appearance alone, he did not give the impression of someone who would commit murder.

"The eighth person you couldn’t forgive was yourself, wasn’t it, Mizutani-san?" Conan pointed at the bag in his hand. "One item was taken from each of the seven victims. Were you planning to take those things with you when you killed yourself?"

That way, Mizutani-san would die branded as the murderer.

Mizutani closed his eyes, then opened them again. "That day two years ago, if I hadn’t gone to see my friend, Nanako wouldn’t have died. Whenever I think about it, I can’t forgive myself."

Conan looked at him gravely and delivered a baffling line. "You can’t commit suicide. Suicide is killing yourself..."

"I know! But I can’t bear a world without her." Mizutani turned his head away with a bitter smile.

Yimi grabbed Conan’s clothes. The atmosphere felt wrong, so for the moment she did not ask about going to another world.

"Everything ’he’ did was supposedly to avenge Honjo Nanako-san, and you were meant to be the final part of the atonement. That’s what Honjo Kazuki-san told you, right?"

Conan lowered his head, hiding his eyes behind his lenses. "Then, to make you take the blame, did he ever tell you..."

He told Mizutani that Honjo Nanako had voluntarily stepped out of the elevator, successfully earning a shocked expression.

Yimi could not understand anything Conan was saying. She only felt that this was exactly why she could not become a qualified detective.

But then Mizutani’s gaze shifted behind Conan. "Big Brother?"

"You bastard! You don’t have the right to call me that!" Honjo Kazuki angrily flung out a hand.

Mizutani lowered his head. "Was what he just said true?"

"She was a considerate girl, but even so, that doesn’t change the fact that those people caused her death!" Honjo Kazuki admitted it readily enough.

Mizutani clenched a fist. "I’m sorry. I won’t take the fall for you anymore, Big Brother."

He turned around, slung on his backpack, then walked over and returned the small bag to Honjo Kazuki. "Turn yourself in, Big Brother."

Honjo Kazuki gritted his teeth. "I heard Detective Mouri was investigating and came because I was a little concerned. I lied to you because I wanted you to take revenge. I never expected you wouldn’t even have the courage."

Conan immediately retorted, "That isn’t courage. It’s nothing more than your self-satisfaction—"

"Shut up!" Honjo Kazuki pulled out a knife. "Detective Mouri never came. It’s just you two kids, isn’t it!"

"Don’t look down on me!" He raised the knife and actually lunged at Conan, a child.

Conan hurried backward and raised his machine-gun anesthetic watch, only to see Yimi, who was standing beside him, take one step forward.

Remembering what had happened before, Conan instinctively shouted to stop her. "Yimi, don’t kill him!"

Don’t kill him?

Yimi did not really understand, but a cat’s reaction speed still let her divert the psychokinesis she had already released. Conan watched as Honjo Kazuki’s knife arm abruptly twisted around one hundred and eighty degrees like a pretzel.

"Aaah!!"

"Big Brother!" Even now, Mizutani still did not forget to worry about him.

How...

Conan had imagined Yimi using some more lethal high-tech poison needle. He had never imagined something like this.

"Don’t move! Police!" At that moment, the officers who had also deduced the real culprit finally arrived. They looked at the scene in confusion, but first surrounded Honjo completely.

After hearing what Eri said about Yimi, Kogoro had performed unusually well for once, and the real culprit had been deduced quickly.

"You two brats! What are you doing running all the way out here?" Kogoro strode over angrily.

He punched Conan on the head.

"?"

Conan’s gaze slid toward Yimi as he frantically signaled Kogoro, but Kogoro remained completely unmoved.

Still, there was now another measure of confusion in Conan’s gaze when he looked at Yimi. He could not understand how she had done that. The force required was far beyond anything a human being or a low-powered machine could produce.

Right—Irish!

Conan hurriedly watched the first officers approaching Honjo, trying to spot whoever was searching for the flash drive. According to his deductions, Chief Matsumoto was the most likely candidate. Unless it was Vermouth, other people might have trouble impersonating someone whose build was too different. The strongly built Chief Matsumoto was therefore his first suspect.

And at that exact moment, Conan’s peculiar luck struck again. Officer Takagi casually let the secret slip. "But who was the person pretending to be the chief?"

"Pretending to be the chief?" Conan blurted out in shock, failing to notice the thoughtful look Kogoro was giving him.

Takagi answered the question immediately. "Yeah. Earlier, somebody called and said one of us had been impersonated. The person pretending to be the chief ran away right after that. Later we found the real chief in the woods, but he doesn’t remember who attacked him either."

Damn it!

Conan looked around wildly.

Did Irish get away? He had already figured out that Conan was Kudo Shinichi! No, if that flash drive was really important to the Organization, they would not give it up so easily...

Just as Conan thought that, the sound of rotor blades suddenly came from outside Tokyo Tower.

They’re doing it this way?!

Conan spun around. Sure enough, a figure who appeared to be Irish stood in a helicopter, with two snipers beside him.

Irish was in an exceptionally foul mood. The moment he escaped, he called Gin and demanded to know whether Gin had been the one who called the police. Gin did not even bother denying it before hanging up on him!

Irish hated Gin, but until now, he had still considered Gin the least likely person to be a mole. Instead, Gin had turned around and screwed him over.

The thought was almost frightening. According to the original plan, Gin was supposed to be the one picking him up in the helicopter. That bastard might have invented some excuse to hose him down with machine-gun fire when the time came.

There were a lot of police officers in front of him, but it did not matter. If nobody survived, then his infiltration would still be perfect!

He had no faith in the two snipers beside him, who only seemed accurate when they were shooting their own side. Irish hauled out a machine gun, aimed it at Tokyo Tower, and pulled the trigger.

"Take cover!" Kogoro shouted as he hurriedly shoved both children behind a pillar.

Machine-gun bullets tore through the air. Conan, who had been forced flat on his back, saw those normally invisible objects stop dead in midair one after another before dropping to the floor.

The two snipers were stunned speechless as well.