A Genius In The World Of Conan

Chapter 17: The Murderer's Flaw

Kousuke Akikawa was a little surprised.

Not only was this a hospital ward, but behind this beautiful police officer stood two outsiders!

‘So, is this what detectives from the Metropolitan Police Department are like?’

‘Bringing outsiders to eavesdrop so openly?’

Kousuke Akikawa had initially thought that if everyone here was just another Nakajima Takuto—someone with a bit of intelligence but not too much—he should be able to handle them.

But he hadn’t expected the police to allow that "handsome" detective and that "death god" elementary schooler to listen in on the interrogation.

‘In the Detective Conan universe, all detectives seem to have exceptional intelligence. If I show any flaws, they’ll surely notice immediately…’

With that thought, Kousuke Akikawa turned his gaze toward Conan and Sera Masumi.

“May I ask who these two are?”

“This is Conan-kun and Sera-san. They might also have some questions for you, Akikawa-san.”

“Alright…”

Seeing that Sato Miwako had no intention of making the two detectives leave, Kousuke Akikawa nodded slightly.

“Thank you for your cooperation. Without further ado, may I ask you to recount your activities from yesterday, Akikawa-san?”

‘Recount my activities? Are you simply asking, or are you trying to verify whether my statements match the recording Nakajima took earlier?’

Kousuke Akikawa pondered for a moment before speaking.

“Yesterday was my twentieth birthday, so I planned to celebrate with my mother.”

“After the celebration, I was planning to go home—”

“Sorry, could you be more specific about how you celebrated? For example, where you went and what you did?”

“We just had a meal together.”

Of course, Kousuke Akikawa had no idea what the original host of this body and his mother had actually done yesterday.

However, considering the host’s physical condition, most activities were likely off-limits.

Moreover, since he hadn’t felt hungry at all until this morning, and given that the car accident occurred after 9 PM last night, he and his mother must have eaten out.

“May I ask which restaurant you went to? And what you ate?”

“Sorry, I don’t remember…”

“Huh? Do people usually forget what they ate last night? And wasn’t last night your birthday? Would you really forget that?”

Suddenly, a childish yet exaggerated voice rang out.

Conan blinked his innocent eyes, looking at Kousuke Akikawa with a gaze full of doubt.

‘It was his birthday last night. How could he possibly forget what he ate?’

‘If he wants to hide details about the meal, then it means that if the restaurant where he and his mother dined were investigated, something might be exposed!’

‘For example… maybe he put sleeping pills in his mother’s food…’

Conan quickly realized Kousuke Akikawa’s intention.

A smirk appeared on his lips as he reached for the small microphone in his collar, preparing to inform Takagi Wataru, who was recording the interrogation outside.

However, what Kousuke Akikawa said next made Conan freeze in place.

“For me, eating is painful, so all food tastes the same.”

“No matter what I eat, it’s difficult to swallow.”

“I have to take a bunch of pills just to force the food down, but if I eat even a little too much, I throw it all up.”

“Even if I had sushi last night, I wouldn’t have any memory of it.”

Hearing Kousuke Akikawa speak with his head down and his eyes filled with desolation, Conan’s expression suddenly stiffened.

‘I completely forgot! A normal person wouldn’t forget what they ate yesterday, but Kousuke Akikawa isn’t a normal person at all!’

‘As a long-term patient with liver failure, he’s already lost the ability to enjoy food.’

Realizing this, Conan suddenly felt a little embarrassed.

He had originally intended to play the innocent child and point out inconsistencies in Kousuke Akikawa’s words.

But instead, he had ended up sounding like an insensitive brat, poking at someone’s pain without thinking.

“Even if I had sushi last night, I wouldn’t have any memory of it…”

Sera Masumi quietly repeated Kousuke Akikawa’s words.

‘To him, sushi must be the best thing he could have…’

Sera Masumi had heard that, for children from ordinary families, sushi was considered the most luxurious food.

Now, hearing Kousuke Akikawa struggle to imagine any food other than sushi, she suddenly felt a strange sense of pity for him.

"My apologies, Akikawa-san. Please continue," said Sato Miwako.

"Mm… After that, while we were on our way back, a motorcycle suddenly appeared in front of us. That’s when my mother hit the brakes hard."

"Can you describe the motorcycle?"

"It was black."

"Can you be more specific?"

"Sorry, I don’t really know much about motorcycles."

"And then?"

...

After that, Kousuke Akikawa repeated the same story he had told Nakajima Takuto earlier—how they were rear-ended after braking, how the car crashed into the guardrail, how he hit his head and hand, and how his mother was murdered by the motorcyclist.

Everything matched exactly.

However, there was one difference.

Almost every time Kousuke Akikawa recounted a detail, Sato Miwako would ask him for more specifics.

"Excuse me, may I ask something?"

At that moment, Sera Masumi, who had been silent all this time, finally spoke.

"Akikawa-san, you mentioned that you hit your head and were somewhat disoriented at the time, but you should still remember the sequence in which the culprit stabbed Ms. Ryoko, right? The culprit stabbed her in the neck first, didn’t they?"

Akikawa Ryoko’s injuries included wounds on her neck, chest, and abdomen.

The final stab wound was to her abdomen.

Since strangulation marks were found on Akikawa Ryoko’s body, it indicated that she had struggled violently when attacked.

However, the knife wound to her throat was at the pharynx. If she had been stabbed there first, she wouldn’t have been able to struggle at all. This meant that her neck wound couldn’t have been the first.

Moreover, since no fingerprints were found on Akikawa Ryoko’s body and Kousuke Akikawa wasn’t wearing gloves, the strangulation marks were classified as "confidential police information" that only the police should know.

If Kousuke Akikawa was the murderer, he would likely avoid stating the correct stabbing sequence to mislead the investigation.

Sera’s question was designed to guide the culprit into a trap.

Since the final stab was to the abdomen, an outsider who only saw the aftermath might assume the attack started from the neck.

‘If Kousuke Akikawa nods, then he’s most likely the culprit,’ Sera thought.

But then, Kousuke Akikawa trembled as he recalled:

"I… I don’t think so… I remember the person stabbing my mother in the chest multiple times first, then the abdomen and finally the throat."

"I just remember my mom struggling a lot… and I was so scared that I didn’t dare to move, so I didn’t see it clearly…"

‘He actually avoided Sera’s trap…’

Conan quietly marveled at this, but he wasn’t ready to rule out the possibility that Kousuke Akikawa was the culprit just yet.

He discreetly tapped his collar microphone twice, sending a signal.

Moments later, a knock sounded at the hospital room door.

Takagi Wataru then entered.

Sato Miwako looked at him with a puzzled expression as he spoke in a lowered voice, but loud enough for everyone in the room to hear:

"The forensic team has reported that no traces of sleeping pills were found in Akikawa Ryoko’s system."

"So that rules out the possibility of sleeping pills causing the accident," Sato Miwako nodded.

"There’s one more thing. The forensic team used Luminol testing to confirm that the culprit had wiped the fingerprints off the dagger’s handle."

"But in doing so, the culprit made a mistake."

"Because when they used cyanoacrylate fuming to develop latent prints, they found another set of fingerprints on the handle—ones that didn’t belong to the victim, Akikawa Ryoko."

As Takagi Wataru "reported" this information to Sato Miwako,

Conan, behind his large round glasses, kept his eyes fixed on Kousuke Akikawa.

As expected.

The moment Takagi Wataru mentioned that another person’s fingerprints had been found on the dagger handle,

Kousuke Akikawa’s face displayed a look of utter shock.