Chapter 29
A pitch-black locked room, a Public Security officer illuminating a crime scene with a flashlight, an eyewitness detective hiding behind a lectern, a victim suffocating in agony, and a suspect caught in the act of committing the crime.
A textbook-perfect murder case structure, with no extraneous elements. A delight for any obsessive-compulsive.
To understand what happened, let’s first hear from the eyewitness, Edogawa Conan.
“I got separated from the group, and then, I met this man.”
The experience of this escape room would be forever etched in Edogawa Conan’s memory.
At the time, he was searching for clues in the classroom. Edogawa Conan was not a real elementary school student, after all. Being separated from the main group was actually more conducive to him using his detective’s intellect to solve the puzzle, without his companions exclaiming, “Heavens, an ultimate elementary school student! This child is terrifying!”
Edogawa Conan wasn’t panicking at all. It didn’t matter that he couldn’t contact Mouri Kogoro due to the signal being blocked. Detective Mouri was the king of Beika Town, and a king is never without his followers. He wouldn’t get lost.
After some searching, Edogawa Conan found a piece of paper in the drawer of the second-to-last seat by the window. He snapped his fingers triumphantly.
The back row by the window, the king’s homeland. As expected.
He unfolded the paper and read it carefully.
Engrossed in his reading, Edogawa Conan didn’t notice a dark figure silently appearing at the lectern.
The man had a square, righteous-looking face, but his eyes were sinister, as fierce and cold as a snake’s.
The darkness concealed the unnaturalness of his eyes, and also the unevenly applied foundation on his neck.
There was a faint suture line where the man’s neck connected to his body.
The darkness made his disguise perfect, but everything has its pros and cons.
In the pitch-black classroom, the 102cm-tall Edogawa Conan blended in perfectly with the desks and chairs. The man looked around, but couldn’t see a single person.
What’s going on? I definitely heard a sound.
Locked rooms always have mechanisms that even the staff don’t know about. The man didn’t dwell on it and turned to leave.
As he left, the baseball bat he was dragging on the floor made a harsh scraping sound, giving Edogawa Conan a sense of foreboding.
He had a severe psychological trauma associated with blunt weapons.
As everyone knows, Kudo Shinichi had been bludgeoned by Gin from a 174cm high schooler into a 102cm kid. The area of his psychological trauma was that big.
Edogawa Conan recognized it in a second. The baseball bat in the man’s hand was real.
Not an inflatable foam one, but a hard object that could kill a person with one blow.
Edogawa Conan remembered Sonoko saying that to ensure the guests’ safety, there were no dangerous items in the escape room that could actually hurt people.
A detective’s memory can accurately remember the face of every one of the ten players. Edogawa Conan quickly made a judgment.
“He’s the killer wandering in the locked room.”
The detective said to himself, “Maybe I’m overthinking it. The baseball bat could also be a prop to enhance the horror atmosphere.”
But Edogawa Conan still felt a faint sense of unease. He quietly followed the man, ready to activate his genius watch at any moment.
Kinoshita Yatarou didn’t realize he was being followed by an elementary school student. He grinned a bloody smile, ready to go on a rampage.
An escape room. It was practically heaven!
The foolish prey had walked right into the wolf’s den, treating danger as a game, thinking that if they were caught by the killer, they could just say “I’m not playing anymore” and get a get-out-of-jail-free card. It was laughably naive.
Ten little lambs. Kinoshita Yatarou licked his lips.
Oh, he had almost forgotten. There was also his “colleague.” That made eleven little lambs.
The thought of another player in the escape room playing the killer made Kinoshita Yatarou want to laugh.
It was too funny. Funnier than a novice showing off in front of an expert was pretending to be a killer in front of a real killer. Kinoshita Yatarou almost had to hold his stomach from laughing.
He swung the baseball bat forcefully. Amidst the whooshing sound, Kinoshita’s sharp ears caught the sound of a player’s voice. He excitedly walked towards the source of the sound.
Behind the killer, Edogawa Conan raised his watch, on high alert, the tranquilizer dart ready to fire.
“AAAAAAAH!”
The sound of frantic running echoed down the corridor, the floorboards pounding. Kinoshita, who had just peeked around the corner, was met head-on by a charging beagle, and a mouthful of old blood gushed out of his chest. “Cough, cough, cough!”
The charging beagle—no, the player running for his life—shouted, “Get out of the way!” and continued his desperate sprint.
Behind the player, a terrifying female ghost with black hair and bloody clothes was in hot pursuit. Her stamina and speed were far superior to the beagle’s. She grabbed the player by the collar and lifted him into the air, slamming him against the wall.
“Your head is mine,” she said, leaning close to the player, who was crying in fear. Her jet-black pupils absorbed all the light. “Understand?”
“Yes, yes, yes!” the player nodded up and down, his head about to fall off.
The dark-haired girl let go. She pulled open a hidden escape route in the wall and gestured for the eliminated player to get lost.
“Remember to give me a good review,” she instructed. “Light up the five-star review on the official escape room app, ‘Are You Dead Yet?'”
First blood. The female ghost continued to wander the locked room, looking for the next lucky player.
In the corridor around the corner, out of her sight, Kinoshita Yatarou frantically pounded his chest, struggling to catch his breath.
“It was just a small accident,” he said, wiping his sweat in pain. “Hmph, ten little lambs left.”
Another sound made by a player. Kinoshita was excited again. Edogawa Conan followed closely behind, his genius watch always ready.
A foot stepped on the floor between the player’s legs. A bone-white pointer lifted the player’s chin.
The killer demon whispered, “Five-star review on ‘Are You Dead Yet?’. We hope you’ll come again.”
“It’s fine,” Kinoshita closed his eyes and hypnotized himself. “There are still nine little lambs.”
“…Eight little lambs left.”
“…Six little lambs left.”
“Four! I still have a chance!”
“Two—fuck you!” Kinoshita went crazy. “What kind of person is this?! It’s just an escape room! Do you have to be so ambitious?!”
Ten players, and she had eliminated nine of them, taking everything, not leaving a single drop of soup for Kinoshita.
Edogawa Conan, who had been holding up his genius watch the whole time, silently stretched his sore arm and hid himself a little deeper.
Miss Fan An was on a killing spree. The little kid hugged his surviving self in fear.
Kinoshita stood there, panting, his head buzzing.
There was still one player left. If he could eliminate them first, he could still retain a little dignity, not lose everything.
“To hell with dignity!” the man’s face was ferocious. He picked up his baseball bat. “You just wait!”
Not good! Edogawa Conan immediately raised his hand, preparing to fire the tranquilizer dart.
“Hiss!” he grimaced. “Ow, ow, ow, my wrist is so sore!”
He had been holding his arm up for too long. Edogawa Conan swallowed the bitter fruit of child abuse with tears in his eyes.
In that short time, Kinoshita had already approached the dark-haired girl, who had her back to him.
She was running and talking on the phone at the same time, her back completely unguarded.
Die! Kinoshita raised the baseball bat high.
His Gin-like movement triggered Edogawa Conan’s PTSD. He shouted, “Watch out!”
At the last moment, the girl sidestepped, dodging the baseball bat that was aimed at the back of her head.
Clatter.
She had dodged, but her phone hadn’t. Her phone fell to the ground, the screen shattering into a spiderweb of cracks.
Kinoshita’s first strike had missed. The momentum of the swing threw him off balance. The man arched his back like a lobster, his body shorter than the dark-haired girl’s.
Kinoshita’s rage did not diminish. So what if he had missed? He would beat her to death!
Attacked from behind so suddenly, her face must be full of terror. The thought is so satisfying.
To see the satisfying scene, Kinoshita looked up.
The girl’s long, black hair fell down, the cool strands brushing against the man’s face.
In an instant, goosebumps crawled all over Kinoshita’s body.
The girl, her head lowered, said nothing. Her empty, black pupils reflected the shattered screen of her phone.
Crack—the sound of reason breaking.
“My phone…” she whispered. “My new phone, that I’ve only had for a few days…”
The girl’s voice was soft and low, like a lover’s whisper.
The dark-haired girl gently untied the tie at her collar and wrapped it around Kinoshita’s neck, like a colorful, venomous Ouroboros.
Her movements were swift, happening in a matter of seconds. What followed was a towering rage and a frenzied madness.
“You’re finished.”
Fan An, whose bank balance was now in the single digits after paying rent, utilities, buying furniture, clothes, and a new phone with her salary, spoke with the voice of flowing hellfire:
“You. Are. Finished.”
—Die for me!
…
“In conclusion,” Edogawa Conan summarized, “this was a case of a property dispute.”
“My phone… my new phone…” Suspect An was pitiful, holding her shattered phone like it was a cenotaph, crying and mourning.
She was truly sad, her eyes misty with tears.
At the dark-haired girl’s feet, the man, lying on the ground like a dead pig, dug his nails into the floor, his fingers bleeding, as he tried to crawl away.
The girl sniffled. Anyone who saw her pitiful state would have to comfort her.
“The screen is just broken. It can be repaired,” Amuro said softly. “It was my fault. I called at the wrong time. How about I buy you a new one?”
“Really?” An’an’s mood instantly brightened. She confirmed again and again, “Are you really, really willing to take the blame?”
“Really, really,” the blond Public Security officer said, mimicking her. He bent down and pulled up the writhing man from the floor, twisting his arms behind his back.
This killer had cut off a police officer’s head, torn off the deceased’s face, and sewn it onto his own, mixing into the dark locked room.
If it weren’t for An’an, the consequences would have been unimaginable.
What was a phone? Amuro would at least have to apply for a Good Samaritan award for her.
Although the girl’s methods were a tiny bit brutal, it wasn’t a big problem. The man wasn’t dead, was he?
She had shattered his beloved phone but had saved his life. An’an was a kind child, as merciful as a saint.
Edogawa Conan: “…”
He couldn’t agree, but he didn’t dare to voice his opinion. He could only download the “Are You Dead Yet?” app and give the locked-room killer An a five-star review.
“I’ll leave this person to Mr. Amuro,” the detective said, relieved that an active-duty Public Security officer was present.
Fan An couldn’t care less about Kinoshita’s fate. She rubbed her hands together, waiting for the arrival of the second group of players.
This time, there was no one to steal her kills. She was going to kill ten at once!
Amuro took Kinoshita away. The girl’s footsteps gradually faded. The man, who had been dragged like a dead pig, suddenly moved.
“Where are you taking me?” Kinoshita’s voice was hoarse.
He was in a sorry state, but his eyes were filled with a black, muddy malice. He whispered in the blond young man’s ear, “Bourbon.”