Chapter 324: Lazy Tips

After tossing the bomb, Jiangxia turned around to see Minoru Ebina staring out at the sea. The man suddenly collapsed to his knees, as if struck by a heavy blow. The murderous aura he had been radiating slowly faded.

Ten seconds later, a new murderous aura began to rise from the same retired office worker who had once seriously considered blowing up an entire ship. His expression twisted, the madness creeping back in.

Jiangxia leaned against the railing and said lazily, "You're here for those robbers from back then, aren't you?"

The word robbers triggered something. Ebina's eyes, dull until now, contracted slightly. He turned from the sea to face the black-clad puppet whose sleeves flapped in the ocean breeze.

She said in a soft voice, "Saizo Kanou is dead. The other three are all on board. One's already a burnt crisp, one's hanging off the outer ladder, and one's still pretending to be an innocent civilian in the crowd—Sadao Kujirai. You can wait for the infighting to finish… or do what you need to do."

—

Elsewhere on the ship, Heiji Hattori and Conan were still doing their tag-team detective routine—sometimes whispering together, sometimes splitting up.

Soon enough, both of them had pieced together the main shape of the case. Now it was just a matter of confirming the final details.

Conan headed back to the cabin to ask the crew about the ship's best hiding spots.

Heiji, on the other hand, was more hands-on. He'd borrowed a searchlight and was now sweeping through every nook and cranny.

Eventually, he reached the outer deck. The night was pitch-black. As he cast his beam across the hull—

A figure suddenly appeared in the light.

Heiji froze and swung the beam back.

There, tied to the rope ladder just beneath the deck, was a man dangling over the dark sea.

It was Korehisa Kanie, the missing person.

But contrary to their earlier suspicions, he hadn't been hiding—he had been tied up. A noose cinched tightly around his neck. The other end of the rope dangled down, swaying softly with the sea breeze and the rocking corpse.

Heiji stared at Kanie's distorted face and motionless chest, his expression slowly going stiff.

…He's dead.

The shock made his thoughts stall. This corpse flipped most of their deductions on their head—including Conan's.

Wait a second…

Could it be that when they had asked Jiangxia who was right earlier, and Jiangxia stayed silent—not because he hadn't figured it out—but because he thought they were both wrong?

Heiji frowned and began mentally reorganizing everything.

At that moment, behind him, a large figure crept closer—masked by the wind and waves, holding a steel pipe high above his head.

It was Sadao Kujirai.

He had just passed by and, spotting Heiji in this unlucky position with a searchlight, realized: this detective knew too much. And that simply could not be allowed.

—

Heiji was still deep in thought when suddenly—

"Dodge!"

The voice came from behind him and was rapidly approaching, the sound shifting closer with each syllable.

That was Jiangxia's voice.

That split-second recognition snapped Heiji into motion. He leapt aside on instinct.

A steel pipe whooshed past, grazing his shoulder and smashing into the railing with a loud clang.

Bzzzzzzzt.

Heiji stiffly turned his head, staring at the dented railing, cold sweat breaking out down his back.

And then he saw Sadao Kujirai, still gripping the steel pipe mid-swing—

And behind Kujirai, a baton flying in at nearly supersonic speed.

It was a baton ambush. On top of a pipe ambush.

For a moment, Heiji instinctively wanted to yell "Look out!" and tackle the guy—then he realized, wait, something about this situation is off.

So instead, he just stood there, frozen, as the baton smashed down on Kujirai's shoulder.

The 200-pound man went flying sideways like he'd been kicked by a bear. He hit the deck with a thud and rolled a bit, wheezing. Definitely not getting up soon.

"I just came out for some air and found this nonsense," Jiangxia said, casually strolling over. "Looks like we can catch the culprit red-handed."

He glanced at Heiji, who was still shaken and damp with cold sweat. "Detectives really are at high risk of being silenced. What'd you see?"

"Kanie's outside. Tied to the rope ladder. Dead," Heiji managed. But even as he spoke, he noticed something—Kujirai was trembling, reaching into his coat pocket.

Heiji tensed, about to yell—

Too late.

Whack!

The retractable baton slammed down on Kujirai's wrist. The gun he had just pulled out clattered across the deck and skidded into the wall.

Jiangxia gave it a glance and then raised his baton again. "Go pick it up. Could be evidence. Don't let it fall into the sea."

Heiji nodded and ran over, carefully picking it up with a handkerchief. Then, using a second handkerchief, he awkwardly examined it. "One bullet's missing. K—Conan found a casing in the engine room earlier. Said there were bloodstains too."

"Ah, makes sense."

Whack.

Jiangxia's baton came down again—this time knocking away the dagger Kujirai had just produced.

The dagger slid across the deck, following the exact same trajectory as the gun.

Heiji sighed and bent down again, collecting the knife like a janitor picking up after a very dangerous toddler.

But as he straightened, he froze for a moment at Jiangxia's latest comment—delivered with the same tone as someone casually solving a Sudoku:

"I understand everything."

…Wait, what?!

Even now, Heiji had only roughly figured out what had happened, and that was after hours of work and back-and-forth with Conan. Meanwhile, Jiangxia had spent most of the time zoning out in the dining hall with crew members keeping watch over him.

Heiji turned to him with a complicated expression. "…You deduced the whole thing?"

"Not really," Jiangxia said, looking bored. He pressed his fingers to his temple. "I'm not in the right state today."

Then, perking up for no apparent reason, he waved the baton again. "Luckily, we caught a suspicious guy. If we ask him a few questions, everything will be crystal clear."

Heiji: "…"

Sadao Kujirai: "…"

Wait, isn't this supposed to be a detective show? Asking questions while waving a stick—how is that remotely normal?!

Panic surged in Kujirai's heart. He scrambled to sit up. "I didn't kill anyone! I got a threatening letter, okay?! Someone said they'd target me, so I was just carrying the iron rod for self-defense! When I passed by and saw that shadow, I thought I was being attacked! I panicked and—Ow!"

Glossary

*Goal #1: Top 200 fanfics published within the last 31 - 90 days by POWER STONES.

Progress: 52/60(approx) for 10 BONUS CHAPTERS

Goal #2: One BONUS CHAPTER per review for the first 10 REVIEWS.

Progress:2/10*