Half an hour later, the elderly and frail Nagato Dozan fell asleep. Everyone had almost finished dinner when the phone in the room rang.
Musashinosuke went to answer it. "Hello, who is this?"
"It's me, Mitsuaki. Please put my father-in-law on the phone."
"Master is already asleep. We were just about to leave the room."
"Ah—! Help!" Suddenly, Nagato Mitsuaki's scream came through the receiver. Because the room was relatively quiet, everyone heard it clearly. They were all startled.
"What's wrong?" Kogorō Mouri snatched the receiver and asked.
"I'm in the room downstairs from you. Someone turned off the light and came at me with a knife. I've already hidden on the balcony." Nagato Mitsuaki's voice was extremely anxious.
Kogorō rushed to the balcony and looked down. Below, a man wearing a hat with his face wrapped in bandages stared back up at him, a knife clenched in his mouth.
The others looking down from their balconies felt chills run down their spines.
"Hideomi, why?" Hyuga Yuki looked at the man below in confusion and knelt on the balcony.
"We need to hurry and save him." Kogorō called out, leading everyone out of the room. Only Nagato Dozan remained sleeping in bed, and Hyuga Yuki knelt on the balcony, weeping.
Hyuga glanced back at the empty room and said to the people on the balcony below, "They're all gone. Time waits for no one. Come up quickly."
Unbeknownst to her, Nagato Dozan had already opened his eyes and was staring blankly at her back. Suddenly, as if sensing something, Nagato looked at the open door. Kurosawa Hoshino had quietly entered at some point, and the others were standing outside the door with various expressions.
Kurosawa put a finger to his lips and gestured to Nagato. Then he silently walked behind Hyuga, covered her mouth, and pulled her back forcefully.
Hyuga was startled and began to struggle. When she looked up and saw it was Kurosawa, she froze. When she was pulled back, she realized that everyone was there. Nagato Nobuko's eyes were filled with murderous rage as she glared at her. But remembering Kurosawa's instruction not to make any noise, she ultimately did not act.
On the balcony, a grappling hook was thrown up and hooked onto the railing. Then everyone watched as a hand reached up along the rope, followed by half a body—it was Nagato Mitsuaki. An eager smile appeared on his face. But when he saw the group at the door and Nagato Dozan on the bed all staring at him, the blood that had been burning hot instantly turned cold. He felt as if he had fallen into an ice cave.
"Mitsuaki, what are you doing?" Nagato Yasue looked at her husband in disbelief.
"Wait, you've misunderstood, I—" In his panic, Nagato Mitsuaki instinctively let go of the railing. He fell rapidly downward.
Everyone only had time to hear a scream before silence.
Conan and Hattori exchanged a glance. They were the first to react. They rushed to the balcony and looked down. They vaguely saw a figure lying on the iron railing next to the lawn behind the villa—his body pierced by the sharp end of the railing.
Kurosawa slowly walked over, looked down, and thought to himself, This is not my fault. I just wanted to catch him red-handed. It seems heaven didn't want him to live.
Half an hour later, the police and the crowd gathered together, staring at Hyuga Yuki, who stood in the center.
Nagato Nobuko said fiercely, "Did you plan with Mitsuaki to kill Dad? If Kurosawa hadn't stopped us from going downstairs after we left, you would have succeeded. And where is Hideomi? Where did you hide him?"
"Miss Hyuga—" Ran couldn't believe that the incredibly gentle woman could be so wicked.
"No." Hattori Heiji stepped forward. "Miss Hyuga only needed to tell Mitsuaki that the room was empty and leave. No one would know. Why did you stand on the balcony?"
Kogorō's expression changed. "Could it be that Miss Hyuga actually wanted to push Mitsuaki off?"
"Sachi, is that really true?" Nagato Dozan's ashen face finally regained some color.
Kurosawa said calmly, "Miss Hyuga, tell your story. You wanted to kill Mitsuaki, but now he fell himself. Are you still dissatisfied?"
"Yes... what am I dissatisfied with?" Hyuga murmured, then slowly recounted her story.
It turned out that the person Nagato Hideomi had rescued from the fire years ago was her. He had comforted and cared for her ever since, helping her through her most difficult days. As she grew up, she gradually fell in love with him and wanted to marry him.
However, the morning before yesterday, she went to his room and found that he had committed suicide by poisoning—leaving behind a suicide note. It turned out that the fire had been caused by him and Nagato Mitsuaki, indirectly leading to the deaths of her parents. Nagato Hideomi had lived with guilt all these years, which was why he hadn't undergone plastic surgery. It made it impossible for him to face Hyuga, who wanted to marry him, and ultimately led to his suicide.
After reading the letter, Hyuga felt as if fate had played a cruel joke on her—a cruel torment. The person she had always encouraged was one of the murderers of her parents. So she found Nagato Mitsuaki and told him about Nagato Hideomi's suicide, but concealed the suicide note. She planned tonight's scheme, lying that she could pin everything on Nagato Hideomi, intending to kill Nagato Mitsuaki at the last moment to avenge her parents.
"Hideomi, he—he—" Nagato Dozan stammered, unable to form a complete sentence.
The police chief present dispatched men to search for the body.
Seeing Hyuga's vacant eyes, Nagato hesitated for a moment, then revealed that her mother was his first love. He said he wanted to adopt her as his daughter, to inherit the Nagato Group in the future.
Kurosawa remained silent. He had already gained one Origin Point. Very satisfied.
Some time passed. Yama Kenzo drove away from the Nagato residence. On the way, he received a call from Gin.
"What's going on? Why are there so many police cars in front of the Nagato house?"
"What a pity. I never expected that Nagato Dozan would almost die tonight. It's all that damned Kurosawa Hoshino's fault. If it weren't for his amazing deduction skills, he wouldn't have noticed something was wrong. Wait, that's not right either. That woman wanted to kill Nagato Mitsuaki, but she couldn't kill Nagato Dozan either."
Gin listened for a while, then said calmly, "Tell me the whole story."
"You're interested? Here's what happened. This afternoon—" Gin didn't interrupt. He listened silently for ten minutes until he finally heard everything.
Then Yama Kenzo said, "Right now, I hate people with the surname Kurosawa the most. A high school detective? I think he'll die at the hands of a murderer one day."
Gin hung up the phone, took a deep breath, and a murderous glint flashed in his eyes.