Police Files

The computer was in the study on the second floor, and the statement was taken in the study on the second floor.

Due to a lack of manpower, only Megure Jūzō and Takagi Wataru were in the room to take statements.

Ichijō Mirai found himself having to repeat a great deal of nonsense, and even more, "..."

He reached for Conan with his hand, "Why don't you let Conan come along?"

"I'm not feeling well, and he's sharp, but a young detective, and a child, has a different perspective than an adult, and may have found something more important."

And he's suspected to be a member of the Tokyo police.

Takagi Wataru froze for a moment, and should have refused, but looked down at Conan, hesitated, and nodded his head in agreement, "It's Conan, that's no problem."

In recent times, Officer Megure had been dealing with Conan almost every day. Takagi Wataru was unfamiliar with Conan, but he was familiar with him from Officer Megure's mouth, and had a certain amount of trust in him.

The detective's statement is the most important.

Takagi Wataru would have had a hard time refusing to take a statement with a detective if any other child had wanted to do so, but Conan was experienced enough to assist with the statement.

Ichijō Mirai narrowed his eyes a bit.

He closed the door and announced cheerfully, "Let's let Conan tell us what happened, we were together almost the whole time."

Before the two police officers and Conan could speak up, he added, "Conan also knows a little more information than I do about the Bandage Freak attack."

Officer Megure: "What, an attack?!"

Takagi Wataru: "Is it possible that, not only the dead man, but you guys were attacked as well?!"

Ichijō Mirai looks to Conan and nods: please start your story.

Conan: "..."

It's so obvious that you don't want to talk, so you're just trying to get out of the way!

Children are small, not stupid, and it's not right to treat them like that!

...Wait a minute, he didn't even try to hide it, he didn't treat them like idiots, he just smiled and held them in front of the microphone and encouraged them to 'go for it'.

But he does seem to be unwell.

Conan's eyes widened, and he began to tell the story.

Since the police came up the same way they did, he kept it simple, only mentioning that the drawbridge was still there, and then focusing on the fact that they opened three rooms in a row by mistake, and saw the killer's real body by accident.

Both officers became serious.

Ichijō Mirai was also serious as a group.

He put his hand on the desk, pressed most of his body weight into the light of the computer screen, and started pumping back his blue bar without moving.

Conan: "..."

Conan wanted to pretend that he didn't notice Ichijō Mirai's little movements like sleeping in class, but pretending wasn't enough, he silently looked at Ichijō Mirai a few more times, and without further hesitation, made the following judgment.

This Mr. Mirai looks quite gentlemanly and proper, gentle and polite, but with a little bit of a piquancy, looking serious but not at all rigid, such as letting a child be responsible for the first full confession, such as blatantly back to the blue bar.

He said: "But at that time we did not care, and then downstairs to gather, in the time when all the people are present respectively introduced themselves, there is a little unpleasant," 

That's the point. "Ms. Ayako mentioned a girl's name, and Ms. Ikeda looked upset."

"This is the murderer's motive."

The girl Ikeda Chikako plagiarized from was the girl who hanged herself shortly after the incident. No one else knew the reason for her death, but only Takahashi Ryouichi, who was close to her and had read her manuscripts, figured it out, and found traces of plagiarism in Ikeda Chikako's work.

This is a murder case with a vengeful twist.

It's a controversial case, with some feeling that the murderer deserved it and others feeling that the murderer didn't, like a scale that tilts left and right.

Conan paused and put a weight on the right end of the scale, "After introductions, Brother Mirai and Ms. Sonoko had something to do upstairs, while Ms. Ran and I were dragged for a walk by an bad brother and in the jungle, we were attacked by Mr. Takahashi,"

"He tried to silence us."

He elaborated on the situation, pausing afterward to round out the tail for Ichijō Mirai, who had returned to the blue in public, "Mr. Mirai wasn't feeling well at the time, so he went back to his room to rest and wasn't attacked,"

"The snow was too heavy, and he had a bad cold."

That's why he's a bit out of sorts now.

Takagi Wataru could see that he obviously didn't use the computer very much, and he was not very skillful at typing on the keyboard, recording Conan's statement as it was.

He occasionally made a typo because he couldn't type fast enough to keep up with the speed of human speech, and for five minutes he would regularly share his progress by transmitting it to his colleagues at the police station, so that they could correct any mistakes as they compiled the statement.

Ichijō Mirai's eyes fell on the screen.

In the time Conan had been talking, he had changed his position twice, once to the corner of the table, more arrogant than a student sneaking off to sleep in class, but sleeping openly.

The other time, he had propped up his head and was staring at the screen.

Takagi Wataru was a little embarrassed, and whispered as he typed in a rusty voice: "I'm sorry, Mr. Mirai, I'm not very good with computers, and there are some mistakes, but there are people over at the police station who sort it out, and every time they synchronize it, they'll help to correct the mistakes."

The others called him 'Mr. Mirai' and he adopted it, assuming that Ichijō Mirai was staring because he was so clumsy that he made typing mistakes from time to time, and that the statement wasn't 100% correct.

Ichijō Mirai responded, not really caring, "Uh-huh."

He was still staring at the screen.

Another five minutes came and went, and at the top of the screen, Takagi Wataru's sentence that he had hurriedly typed out a short while ago quietly changed, and the typo was corrected to read.

"You're a Soichi, but you're very unskilled with computers," Ichijō Mirai said, "Officer Megure doesn't know how to use a computer."

Takagi Wataru looked at Officer Megure and whispered the euphemism, "Mr. Megure is just a little bad with electronics."

Fearing that Ichijō Mirai, the detective, might think that the police were not capable of doing their job, he hastened to add, "But there's absolutely no problem with competence... Mr. Megure is very good, and has taught me a lot of things!"

Ichijō Mirai doesn't pay much attention to that, and has no doubts about the strength of the Japanese Police, having already established it, reacting faintly, "Oh."

He stared at watching Takagi Wataru typing out the finished Japanese while he spoke, a bit puzzled, "This computer, since it has a temporary connection with the police department's computer,"

"...Then can I see the police files?"