### Chapter 89: The Unholy Bond

Soon, emergency responders arrived on the scene and, amid the commotion, transported Matsumoto Sayaka to the hospital. At the same time, several police cars arrived to investigate the poisoning incident.

"Inspector Megure, according to the scene investigation, we suspect that someone put sodium hydroxide in the lemon tea!" 

"Just as Brother Fujino said."

Inspector Megure murmured to himself and turned to Fujino, "So, after Ms. Sayaka drank that bottle of tea, that's why she collapsed?"

"Yes, that's correct."

Fujino nodded. Standing next to him were Ran, Sonoko, and Conan. Both Sonoko and Ran looked anxious, while Conan wore a solemn expression.

"My daughter, how is she?!" 

Matsumoto Kiyoshi rushed into the bridal preparation room and anxiously asked Inspector Megure.

"According to the rescue team, she seems to be fine. Her heartbeat and breathing are stable, but she remains in shock and needs to be taken to the hospital for gastric lavage..."

Inspector Megure explained, "Thanks to Brother Fujino's timely use of vinegar to neutralize the sodium hydroxide and milk to prevent further burning, even the rescue personnel said it was textbook-level first aid."

Upon hearing this, Matsumoto Kiyoshi lowered his head. After a moment of silence, he walked up to Fujino and patted him on the shoulder. The gesture, though wordless, expressed deep gratitude.

Fujino acknowledged the gesture with a nod.

"Which of you will go to the hospital with the ambulance?"

The emergency personnel asked the crowd.

"I will go!"

"So will we!"

"Until the truth is clarified, no one is allowed to leave!" 

Matsumoto Kiyoshi shouted, interrupting Ran, Sonoko, and High-Sugi Junichi's actions, "Until the truth is known, everyone present could be the murderer."

He then sternly reprimanded the other emergency personnel, "Hurry up and take the patient to the hospital. What are you waiting for?"

"Yes!"

"Is this really the time to suspect this or that?" 

High-Sugi Junichi, visibly displeased, shouted at Matsumoto Kiyoshi, "She is your daughter! Don't you want to be by her side?"

"Brother Fujino has already done everything possible for Ms. Sayaka's emergency care. Even if we go now, it won't change anything."

Matsumoto Kiyoshi coldly stared at High-Sugi Junichi, "But by the way, my good son-in-law, even I, as her father, am not panicking. Why are you? Do you have a reason to leave?"

"Ah?!"

Hearing this, High-Sugi Junichi took a couple of steps back, his face showing panic.

"High-Sugi Junichi, you must be the one who poisoned Ms. Matsumoto!" 

Fujino added another blow.

"Don't speak nonsense!"

High-Sugi Junichi frowned, "How could I possibly kill my own fiancée?"

"I don't know why you would want to kill your fiancée."

Fujino fixed his gaze on High-Sugi Junichi, preferring not to waste words, "But the person who last had contact with that bottle of tea was you."

"Yes, I saw it too!"

Meigami Atsushi, who had been summoned to the scene, echoed, "The last person to enter the teacher's room was him!"

Takenaka Kazumi, who had brought the drinks to Matsumoto Sayaka, also looked at High-Sugi Junichi with suspicion, "Junichi, could it really be you?"

"You're all doubting me!" 

High-Sugi Junichi exclaimed with an innocent expression, casting anxious glances at the lemon tea where Matsumoto Sayaka had collapsed, "How could I poison Sayaka?"

"Ah, look!"

A child's voice broke in, "It seems like there was something in the lemon tea!"

Everyone turned to see the forensic police, under Conan's prompt, retrieving a capsule from the tea. 

"A capsule?"

Inspector Megure approached and took the capsule with tweezers, "If that's the case, then the murderer must not be just the groom. The murderer must have put a capsule containing sodium hydroxide into the lemon tea. As time passed, the poison would gradually be released..."

"If that's the case..."

Inspector Megure stood up, "Brother Fujino, the murderer might not be him. All seven people who were last in the room have suspects."

Conan, having found new evidence, slowly stood up and looked at Fujino.

Fujino, it seems this time your reasoning was wrong.

The murderer is not as simple as it appears.

At this moment, High-Sugi Junichi let out a sigh of relief and arrogantly said to Fujino, "I told you! How could I have poisoned Sayaka?"

Fujino frowned, walked over, and gave Conan a knock on the head, "Children should not interfere!"

After knocking Conan, Fujino continued, "No, even if that's the case, the only suspect remains High-Sugi Junichi."

"I saw that the lemon tea Ms. Sayaka had was not the same one she originally had."

Fujino approached the table with flowers and another bottle of lemon tea, "When Ran and Sonoko went to the nearby electronics store to buy batteries, Sonoko placed her lemon tea on the table. At that time, Ms. Sayaka, who was narrating a past story, did not notice this and picked up Sonoko's tea."

Fujino, wearing white gloves, picked up the lemon tea from the table:

"If the capsule was placed in the tea before, it should have been in Sonoko's tea. However, Sonoko wouldn't poison herself. Similarly, Ms. Matsumoto wouldn't poison herself, as she hadn't left the bridal preparation room."

"Sodium hydroxide is a substance that will gradually dissolve into a highly corrosive substance when exposed to air and requires a good seal to maintain its potency. Both Sonoko and Ms. Matsumoto did not have this condition. The capsule was clearly intended to divert suspicion, so the only person left who could be the murderer is the one who had the last contact with the drink."

At this point, Fujino turned his gaze to High-Sugi Junichi, "High-Sugi Junichi, do you have anything else to say?"

"....."

High-Sugi Junichi stared at Fujino, and after a moment of daze, burst into laughter, "What a flaw in your plans! I didn't expect that Sayaka would pick up the wrong lemon tea."

"Why did you do this?"

Matsumoto Kiyoshi lunged at High-Sugi Junichi, grabbing him by the collar, "Has Sayaka done anything to wrong you? Why poison her?"

"Sayaka never did anything wrong to me."

High-Sugi Junichi sneered and then, with an icy tone, shouted, "I just wanted you to experience the pain of losing a loved one, just like you made me experience when you accidentally killed my mother!"

With High-Sugi Junichi's revelation, the room fell into stunned silence.

Matsumoto Kiyoshi stood frozen.

"But that woman was really foolish, even managing to pick the wrong lemon tea."

High-Sugi Junichi scoffed, "But then again, if she weren't foolish, how could she have so easily agreed to my pursuit, dreaming of marrying into a wealthy family?"

Twenty years ago, Matsumoto Kiyoshi's father, Matsumoto Kiyoshi, caused an accident while chasing a suspect, resulting in the death of High-Sugi Junichi's only parent, his mother. High-Sugi Junichi, known then as Takashi Junichi, witnessed the death of his mother without medical treatment. He was later adopted by the High-Sugi family and renamed High-Sugi Junichi.

During college, High-Sugi Junichi discovered that Matsumoto Sayaka was the daughter of Matsumoto Kiyoshi. His pursuit of Matsumoto Sayaka was driven by a desire for revenge for his mother's death. Today, he executed a poisoning plot during the wedding.

However, what no one knew was that Matsumoto Sayaka had long been aware of the truth. From a strict perspective, this was a suicide. Matsumoto Sayaka had noticed the poison when High-Sugi Junichi was putting it in the tea, but she chose to drink it anyway.

This was her way of atoning for the mistakes her father made twenty years ago, believing it was the only way to make amends for the wrongs of the Matsumoto family.

Fujino, who had known the truth from the beginning, had no intention of intervening. Intervening rashly would only complicate the tangled bond further; it was better to cut it off directly. Moreover, the task given by the system was to solve the case, not to handle it in any particular way.

Fortunately, with the White Angel skill effect, Fujino was confident he could protect Matsumoto Sayaka's life with adequate preparation and even increase his medical skills proficiency.

Despite the satisfaction of resolving the twisted bond, he still felt a surge of anger toward High-Sugi Junichi. Now that the unholy bond was severed, he might as well take action. 

(End of Chapter)