It was 4:30 AM, and the sky was still dim.
Ayumi woke up early, remembering her promise to watch the sunrise.
She groggily climbed to the window to check the sky outside, but vaguely saw a figure walking towards the hot spring bathhouse.
"Ai-chan," Ayumi rubbed her eyes and whispered to Haibara Ai, who seemed to still be asleep on the other bed, "I think I saw Tetsuyama-san heading towards the hot spring."
Haibara Ai was actually already awake. She calmly responded, "Is that so? But it's a bit too early to watch the sunrise at this hour. The hotel's hot springs don't officially open until five o'clock."
By 5:00 AM, the members of the Detective Boys had all woken up, urged by Genta's loud voice.
The children were all a bit excited at the thought of soaking in the hot spring and watching the sunrise.
"Alright! Let's go to the hot spring quickly while there's no one else!" Genta suggested, waving his fist.
"Agreed!" Mitsuhiko and Ayumi immediately responded.
Conan and Haibara Ai exchanged glances and followed them to the bathhouse.
The entrances to the male and female bathhouses were separate.
Conan was in the men's changing room, about to undress, when he heard Ayumi and Haibara Ai
scream simultaneously from the adjacent women's bathhouse.
"Ah—!!"
Something happened!
Conan rushed over instinctively, not caring about anything else, and directly burst into the women's bathhouse entrance.
"What's wrong?!" Conan anxiously shouted.
Ayumi and Haibara Ai were standing in the shower area, pointing inside in a panic.
They had clearly just taken off their clothes and were about to shower, and were currently stark naked.
Conan rushed in from behind, his gaze inevitably sweeping over their backs and small bottoms.
But Conan didn't care about any of that and immediately rushed in the direction they were pointing.
Inside the glass door of the open-air hot spring, a figure was lying face up on the ground, it was Tetsuyama Ganji.
He was also naked, and a white bar of soap provided by the hotel lay not far from his feet.
There was a clear patch of blood at the back of his head, staining the damp ground red.
At first glance, it looked very much like an accidental death caused by slipping on the soap, falling backward, and hitting the back of his head hard on the hard stone edge of the hot spring pool.
Ayumi and Haibara Ai had already grabbed towels to wrap themselves.
Their faces were pale as they instructed Genta and Mitsuhiko, who had followed them, to stay outside and prevent others from entering the crime scene.
After receiving the report, Inspector Jugo Yokomizo of the Kanagawa Prefectural Police quickly arrived at the scene with his team.
This inspector bore a striking resemblance to his coral-haired brother, Jugo Yokomizo, but he had a neat buzz cut and appeared to have a short temper.
After briefly listening to the children's descriptions and conducting an initial inspection of the scene, Jugo Yokomizo stroked his chin, looked at the soap and bloodstains on the ground, and quickly made a judgment.
"Hmph, it seems like an unfortunate accident. The old man woke up early, wanted to take a hot spring bath, but accidentally stepped on the soap and slipped, hitting the back of his head on a stone, dying instantly. Really, at such an old age, he should be more careful!"
"Wait a minute, Inspector Yokomizo!"
Conan couldn't help but interrupt, pointing to the surrounding environment,
"This is the women's bath! Don't you think it's strange that this old man would be in the women's bath?"
Jugo Yokomizo impatiently glanced at Conan.
"What's so strange about that? It's not completely bright yet, maybe the old man has poor eyesight, didn't see the sign at the entrance clearly, and just went into the wrong one!"
"But,"
Conan argued forcefully,
"There are lights at the bathhouse entrance, and the curtains clearly have Women's Bath and Men's Bath written on them in large characters, it's impossible not to see them! And look,"
He pointed at Tetsuyama Ganji's body,
"There's accumulated water on this old man's skin near his collarbone and around his navel. If the force of the fall was strong enough to be fatal, the water on his body should have been thrown off, not left with so much localized accumulation.
This looks more like someone rinsed him with hot water after he fell, to clean off certain traces on his body!"
Upon hearing this, Jugo Yokomizo frowned, squatted down, and examined closely, indeed finding the abnormal water accumulation Conan had mentioned.
He suddenly realized. "You mean… it's possible that the killer first struck the victim's head with a blunt object, causing him to fall, and then, to disguise it as an accidental slip, rinsed the victim's body with hot water to clean up any bloodstains that might have splashed onto him?"
"Very likely!" Conan nodded affirmatively.
"But!" Jugo Yokomizo stood up, "According to the hotel staff's testimony, before the children arrived at the bathhouse, no one else was seen entering or exiting the hot spring except for the deceased, Tetsuyama-san. And look,"
He pointed to the structure of the open-air hot spring. The open-air hot spring consisted of two parts, indoor and outdoor, surrounded by high walls and separated by glass windows and doors in the middle.
"The windows here are all locked from the inside, with no signs of forced entry. This means it's a locked-room mystery!
If, as you say, there was a killer, how did he get in to commit the murder, and how did he leave?!"
Conan's expression was serious, and he said in a deep voice, "That is to say, this is an impossible crime. To find out the truth, we must first solve this locked-room mystery."
"Hey, hey, what do you know, kid!"
Jugo Yokomizo suddenly realized that he wasn't talking to another police officer, but to Conan.
He irritably kicked Conan in the bottom, sending him outside the crime scene.
"Don't pretend to be a police officer and interfere with the investigation! Go stand aside!"
He turned and called to the other officers, "You guys, re-examine the scene carefully! Don't miss any corner!"
The noise reached the room where Rin and the others were upstairs.
It was a spacious Japanese-style room with two double futons.
The original arrangement was for Rin and Ellen to share one, and Caesar and Lucy to share the other.
"Ugh… So noisy… What happened?" Caesar was woken up, groggily sat up, and mumbled, rubbing her messy hair.
Ellen was also awake. She walked to the window, looked down, saw the police cars parked downstairs, and calmly said, "There are a lot of police officers downstairs. Perhaps there's been a case."
"A case?!" Lucy abruptly sat up in bed, "Doesn't that mean it will interfere with our hot spring bath?"
At this moment, Caesar was completely awake. She was astonished to find that Lucy, who should have been sleeping next to her, was now sleeping on Rin and Ellen's futon, and seemed to be next to Rin!
"Hey! Lucy! Why did you run over to that futon?!" Caesar pointed at her, looking utterly bewildered.
Lucy was also fully awake now. She hugged the covers and complained to Caesar.
"You're talking! It's all your fault! You're too restless in your sleep! In the middle of the night, you kept putting your arms and legs on my neck!
They were as heavy as stones! You almost suffocated me, and I had nightmares about being strangled! I had no choice but to sneak over to Ling's side in the middle of the night to squeeze in!"
Rin smiled helplessly from the side, wrapped her arms around Lucy from behind, and rested her chin on her shoulder.
Caesar listened, scratched her head, and chuckled a bit sheepishly, "Huh? Was I? I sleep pretty soundly…"