Saeki Tadashi remained calm as he watched this young man, who claimed to be a Detective, approach him with such a document, casually placing the photocopied report on the coffee table.
"Mr. Akechi, what do you mean by showing me this?"
Saeki Tadashi asked politely.
"Mr. Saeki, do you really not know this actress named Hanada Shochi?"
Takato took the photocopy back into his hand and began to speak.
"Then, I will tell the whole story from beginning to end."
Saeki Tadashi did not object and simply sat, waiting for Takato to explain.
"Actually, at first, I accepted a commission from a Mr. Nishikawa to investigate the matter of his illegitimate child from twenty years ago.
"That year, Mr. Nishikawa had an affair with an actress, but due to his son's strong opposition at the time, the two did not develop their relationship further. Instead, the actress was exposed in a scandal of being pregnant out of wedlock. So, the actress, in a fit of anger, chose to retire from acting, and pregnant, left Osaka for Tokyo. She disappeared for nearly twenty years, with no news whatsoever.
"Therefore, my purpose in coming to Tokyo is to find out where that actress went after she arrived in Tokyo."
Takato paused, seeing no reaction from Saeki Tadashi to his words, and continued.
"Originally, finding someone always requires some clues. But after carefully searching through some materials, I discovered a problem—what was the actress's real name? I looked through a large number of newspaper reports covering the event at the time, but they only mentioned the actress's stage name, with no information about her real name.
"So, I could only start from another clue—Mr. Nishikawa had given a 6-carat blue diamond to the actress that year. However, when I tried to investigate based on this, I also ran into a dead end—there was absolutely no news about this diamond on the market!"
At this point, Takato's gaze began to fix on Saeki Tadashi.
And Saeki Tadashi, realizing something, responded:
"So, you came to me to ask about information related to gems? Then you might be disappointed. Although I am a collector, with only the information of a 6-carat blue diamond, I cannot give you any useful information."
"That's not it. It might just be fate, but as soon as I arrived in Tokyo, I encountered Kaito Kid sending a Notice box to Mr. Saeki. Out of curiosity about the Kaito, I deciphered the content of the Notice box. So I went to the location the Kaito announced and found the gem, 'tears of moonlight,' which Mr. Saeki had collected."
Upon hearing this, Saeki Tadashi finally showed some emotion, but still hesitated to speak.
"After I saw 'tears of moonlight,' I finally understood why Mr. Saeki had bought it six years ago but had never displayed it publicly."
"You saw it?"
Hearing Takato say this, Saeki Tadashi finally relented.
"Yes, 'tears of moonlight' can no longer be displayed publicly because the diamond embedded in it is broken!"
Takato smiled.
"Of course, this was originally just a small interlude after I came to Tokyo, but when I carefully examined the broken diamonds, I suddenly realized that if these diamonds were restored into one, wouldn't the size be roughly 6 carats? And, coincidentally, it's also a blue diamond!"
"So you think this diamond is the one you want to investigate?"
Saeki Tadashi asked.
"Indeed, that was exactly what I thought at the time."
"Then Mr. Akechi might be disappointed. After all, I only bought it at an auction and don't know its origin."
Saeki Tadashi said.
Takato was not impatient. After all, from the beginning, his words were half-truths, and everything he did was just a prelude to the final questioning.
"Let's turn the topic back to earlier, about the actress's real name. I spent a lot of effort and finally found out the actress's real name, which is written in this photocopied report—Hanada Shochi."
Takato had a headache from searching for this information last night. The internet twenty years ago was super high-tech, and many companies didn't have server data. His hacking skills were completely useless here.
And the talent agency from back then had already gone out of business, so he couldn't find any clues online unless he could find someone from the industry back then, but he knew nothing about the film industry in this world!
However, a turning point appeared last night after he reviewed the films and TV shows the actress had appeared in—it was a twenty-year-old TV series about Sakamoto Ryoma, and in it, Takato actually saw a character he was familiar with!
That's right! Twenty years ago, the film industry! How could he forget this character in the world of "Detective Conan"! It was the protagonist of this world, the true identity of Edogawa Conan, Shinichi Kudo's mother—Kudo Yukiko!
Moreover, Kudo Yukiko is currently in the United States, a famous person known throughout America as the "Dark Night Baroness," a Famous Detective! It's not difficult to find the contact information of such a famous person online!
Coincidentally, he thought of this at dawn, and it was daytime in America then!
So Takato, with a try-it-and-see attitude, called the Kudo family across the ocean, and unexpectedly, things went surprisingly smoothly!
After Takato briefly explained the purpose of his call, Kudo Yukiko very enthusiastically provided a very important clue—she remembered the real name of the actress who had worked with her very clearly, it was "Shochi," but she couldn't remember the surname.
After getting this clue, Takato was very grateful for Kudo Yukiko's help, which gave Takato a very clear direction for his investigation—finally, Takato found the photocopied report he showed to Saeki Tadashi.
However, this experience exceeded Takato's expectations—he had originally planned to contact Shinichi Kudo after completing the challenge mission, but he hadn't even contacted Shinichi Kudo yet, and instead, he had already made contact with his parents!
At this moment, Saeki Tadashi had no reaction when Takato read out the name "Hanada Shochi," so Takato continued.
"Mr. Saeki, when I was investigating the diamond clue, I inadvertently looked up information about you and found that your surname Saeki was changed after marriage. Your original surname should be—Hanada!"
At this point, Takato smiled—all his previous words were prepared for this moment.
"The two clues I was tracking have converged at this point. No matter how I think about it, I don't believe this is a coincidence. So, Mr. Saeki, can you give me an answer?"
After speaking, Takato changed to a more upright sitting posture, looking at Saeki Tadashi, waiting for his response.
"Uncle Saeki?"
Just then, Hanada Emi walked in alone from outside the door and saw the somewhat strange atmosphere between Takato and Saeki Tadashi in the living room.