After opening the automatic rebound door installed at the cave entrance, the roar of a Tengu echoed once more.
The passage inside the cave was indeed, as Administrator said, unusually narrow, low, and winding.
Besides Conan, who was the shortest and could barely walk bent over, Ran, Sonoko, Rin, Ju Fufu, and Manager Imaizumi could only crawl forward awkwardly.
Every now and then, one could hear the dull thud of a head hitting a protruding rock and someone's cry of pain.
"This path is too difficult!" Sonoko complained, her hairstyle almost disheveled.
Ju Fufu, however, was very agile and could occasionally remind those behind her. "Watch out for a sharp rock on the left!"
Why else would cats be considered liquid creatures?
After crawling for about five or six minutes, the space suddenly opened up.
They had finally entered the main cave seen in the surveillance footage.
The space was larger than imagined, the air damp and cold, and the sound of water dripping from stalactites was clearly audible.
Below the shrine, a person lay on their back on the ground, motionless.
On his face, he wore a red Tengu mask with a long nose.
Conan was the first to rush over, squatting down, and carefully reaching out to feel the person's neck.
Without any surprise, his fingertips could no longer feel any pulse.
He took a deep breath and gently removed the Tengu mask.
Beneath the mask was the face of a man in his fifties, with wide-open eyes and a slightly protruding tongue.
"Mayor... Mayor Masamune! It really is Mayor Masamune!"
Imaizumi Shigeo leaned closer, cried out in shock, his face filled with disbelief.
"How could this happen?!"
"Ran-neechan, call the police quickly!" Conan immediately shouted.
Administrator, with a mournful face, reminded him. "It's no use, there's no signal in here! You have to go outside the cave to make a call!"
"I'll go!" Ran immediately volunteered, turning around and quickly crawling back the way they came.
Administrator looked at the Tengu mask taken from the body with a pained expression, muttering. "Sigh, this Tengu mask can't be sold now..."
Just then, the observant Ju Fufu made another discovery next to the body.
"Huh? Look, besides the body, there's also a broken piece of wood here?"
She pointed to a broken beam on the ground, which, by its material and shape, was part of the beam above the shrine.
Sonoko looked at the broken beam, then looked up at the high shrine beam, and clapped her hands as if in sudden realization.
"I get it! The mayor hanged himself on that beam up there! But because he was too heavy, or the wood wasn't sturdy to begin with,
the wood broke as soon as he hung himself, and that's why he fell! Right?"
She proudly tilted her nose up, pleased with her deduction.
Conan's gaze swept around.
Soon, he noticed a pile of scattered wooden scaffolding structures stacked next to the shrine wall.
"Administrator-niisan, what is that?" Conan asked, pointing at the pile of wood.
Administrator glanced at it.
"Oh, that's called a scaffold, which is essentially a simple ladder. It was originally set up against this stone wall to allow visitors to climb directly onto the small platform below the shrine to visit or make wishes.
Strange, why was it dismantled and thrown here? It was fine when I patrolled yesterday morning."
Imaizumi Shigeo's expression changed slightly upon hearing this, and he spoke.
"This scaffold... our company received instructions from the mayor yesterday afternoon to send someone to dismantle it.
The mayor said that the scaffold here was old and in disrepair, posing a safety hazard, so he asked us to dismantle it first and replace it with a new one in a few days."
Sonoko looked at the shrine high above, exclaiming.
"Wow! The mayor's resolve to commit suicide must have been really strong! Without a ladder, he actually managed to climb such a steep rock with his bare hands, just to hang himself on that beam? That's too much willpower!"
Just then, another strange sound came, the so-called "Tengu cry" they had heard outside.
Footsteps sounded, and a man with glasses, graying hair, appearing to be in his sixties, with a scholarly demeanor, walked over.
He had a curious expression. "Oh? Why is it so lively here? Has something happened?"
He seemed to have been attracted by the exclamations and commotion of the crowd just now.
Imaizumi Shigeo saw him, sighed, and replied. "It's Shimomura-san... Alas, it's the mayor... Mayor Masamune... he's dead."
The man called Shimomura Shozo showed a perfectly appropriate amount of surprise upon hearing this. He clasped his hands together, bowed slightly in the direction of the body, and said, "Life is truly unpredictable, full of twists and turns."
Then, as if nothing had happened, he began to chat with Imaizumi Shigeo and the Administrator. The conversation quickly turned to legends of Tengu and local historical anecdotes.
The few of them even occasionally let out a few chuckles, completely ignoring the cold body still lying beside them.
Rin watched this scene from the side, her mouth twitching slightly, silently ranting in her mind.
As expected of Beika Town, the residents are so calm.
They can get more and more excited chatting at a murder scene; their psychological resilience is too strong!
Through their conversation, it was learned that Shimomura Shozo was the principal of a nearby middle school, now retired, and had been engaged in Tengu research, publishing many books related to Tengu.
Conan felt that the Tengu's cry was related to this case, so he seized the opportunity to ask Shimomura Shozo.
"Shimomura-san, you heard that sound just now, didn't you? What exactly is that Tengu's cry?"
Shimomura Shozo pushed up his glasses and replied.
"Little one, that is the cry of the Tengu. It's the sound made by the spirit that protects this mountain forest, very mysterious, isn't it?"
His answer was no answer at all, completely avoiding a scientific explanation.
Not long after, another Tengu cry was heard.
Soon after, Officer Qing Yi and Officer Seth also squeezed into the cave.
Rin saw them, somewhat surprised, and quietly asked Qing Yi. "Officer Qing Yi, why just you two? Where's Officer Zhuyuan? Didn't she come?"
According to the custom of the Conan world, a police inspector usually leads the team on every dispatch.
Seth's eyes darted away, and an awkward expression appeared on his face.
Qing Yi narrowed her eyes, leaned close to Rin's ear, and whispered in a pleased voice.
"Zhu Yuan actually came too, but the passage in this cave is a bit too narrow for her.
She tried, but she really couldn't get in, and now she's very frustrated, waiting outside..."
Qing Yi made an "S" shape with her hand, subtly hinting at the fact that Zhu Yuan was stuck outside the cave because of her figure, especially her fuller hips.
A picture of Officer Zhuyuan, puffed up and stuck in the passage, appeared in Rin's mind. She quickly pressed her lips together tightly to keep from laughing out loud.
This Zhu Yuan is such a loser!