Chapter 355: The Secret Shadow Nearing Haibara 6
The air inside the cramped log cabin grew stifling, baking the wooden walls until they groaned under the rising temperature. Thick, acrid smoke began to curl beneath the floorboards. Qiqi, usually indifferent to her surroundings, shifted uncomfortably. The intense heat was anathema to her undead nature. Seeking relief, the little zombie retreated into an adjoining room furthest from the encroaching flames, curling into a tight ball in the corner and burying her face into her knees to rest.
Haibara coughed, her brow furrowing deeply as she tracked the rapidly spreading orange glow outside the windows. This isn't right, she thought, her scientific mind racing. Did the killer douse the exterior in gasoline?
The ignition was far too aggressive. From the moment the first spark caught, the blaze had transformed into a roaring inferno in mere minutes. The timeline simply didn't make sense for a standard forest fire. If this relentless heat kept up, the structural integrity of the cabin would fail, burying them in a fiery tomb long before any rescue team could pinpoint their location. Haibara cast a deeply worried glance toward the corner where Qiqi huddled. Panic clawed at her chest, her mind frantically calculating any possible escape route through the suffocating smoke.
A short distance away from the blazing structure, the true culprit behind the unnatural inferno stood calmly in the shadows of the tree line. Diluc lowered his hands, the residual crimson embers of his Pyro Elemental Burst fading into the night air. He had just unleashed a searing, forward-flying Fire Bird to deliberately stoke the flames, ensuring the blaze reached a critical mass. Satisfied that the fire was now fierce enough to force a desperate move, he turned to leave.
Beside him, Klee tugged at her backpack straps, looking back at the roaring cabin with wide eyes. "Big brother Diluc," she whispered, her voice tinged with worry. "Qiqi is going to be okay in there, right?"
Diluc adjusted his gloves, his expression unreadable but his tone gentle. "Don't worry. A mundane fire of this level poses absolutely no danger to a zombie with an immortal body. She will be fine."
Meanwhile, on the opposite side of the mountain, Conan and Dr. Agasa stood near the freshly discovered corpse. The local police had already cordoned off the area, led by none other than Inspector Misao Yamamura of the Gunma Prefecture Police, who had just been briefed on the chaotic events leading up to the emergency call.
Hearing the details, Conan's anxiety spiked. His friends were out there, completely unreachable.
Noticing the boy's grim expression, Yamamura puffed out his chest and offered a wide, toothy grin. "Now, now, don't you worry your little head! To us elite officers of the Gunma Prefecture, this Mount Tomei is basically our own backyard. Whether it's a group of lost children or a vicious murderer, we'll sniff them out in a jiffy and wrap this case up with a neat little bow!"
Conan and Dr. Agasa exchanged a long, deadpan stare. Hearing Yamamura's boisterous reassurances somehow managed to drain whatever lingering confidence they had left.
Just then, a shift in the wind caught Conan's attention. Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted a thick plume of dark smoke spiraling into the night sky from the dense forest canopy. He immediately tugged on the inspector's sleeve, pointing sharply toward the anomaly.
Yamamura barely spared it a passing glance. He waved a dismissive hand, chuckling lightly. "Ah, that? That's definitely just smoke from a campfire made by some late-night campers. It's nothing noteworthy." He then grabbed Conan by the shoulders and physically turned him around. "Look! There's smoke rising from over there, too. See? Campers everywhere!"
At that exact moment, Diluc and Masumi Sera emerged from the brush, having regrouped on the trail. They arrived just in time to catch the tail end of the inspector's brilliant deduction.
Diluc stared silently at the lanky detective. He couldn't help but marvel at the sheer, unblemished smoothness of the man's brain. He then shifted his gaze toward the exact coordinates Conan had pointed out—the very spot where his own Pyro flames were currently reducing a log cabin to ash.
Unlucky, Diluc mused internally, thinking of Haibara. Setting aside the sheer misfortune of getting entangled in a bus hijacking earlier that day, the poor girl was now quite literally in the hot seat. If it hadn't been for this spectacularly incompetent inspector brushing off the smoke, Conan would have undoubtedly rushed over to investigate. And if Conan intervened too early, Haibara wouldn't be pushed to the absolute brink—which meant she wouldn't risk exposing her true identity by consuming the temporary APTX4869 antidote.
Since Diluc had actively intervened to accelerate the crisis, the situation was now far more volatile than the original timeline. He silently hoped Haibara would make her move soon; otherwise, Baizhu would be forced to keep leading Ayumi and the other two kids in endless circles through the woods.
Seeing Diluc, Klee, and Sera return from their search, Conan's hopeful expression instantly fell. The absence of Haibara and the others meant the search party had turned up empty-handed. Now, only Baizhu remained unaccounted for in the woods. Conan gritted his teeth, praying the pharmacist had managed to locate Genta and the rest.
"Inspector Yamamura!" a uniformed officer called out, jogging over with three men in tow. "I have brought the three individuals we detained in the vicinity, just as you requested."
"Oh, I see. Good work," Yamamura praised, puffing his chest out again as he swaggered over to interrogate the trio.
Since the initial examination of the body was complete and no one bothered to shoo them away, Conan and Sera quietly trailed behind the inspector to eavesdrop.
The three suspects—Hayamichi Yonezumi, Tazo Usaki, and Takeya Iwakuma—stood in a tense line. One by one, they began to state their professions and their supposed reasons for wandering around the mountain in the dead of night.
Diluc stood off to the side, arms crossed, listening with feigned disinterest. Suddenly, he felt a light tug on the hem of his dark coat. He glanced down to see Klee looking up at him, giving a subtle nod.
Diluc reached down, gently patting Klee's head. Slipping a hand into his pocket, he sent a quick, silent signal to Baizhu, letting the man know it was finally time to "find" the missing children.
Barely ten minutes later, the sound of rustling bushes announced Baizhu's arrival. The elegant pharmacist stepped into the clearing, carrying an exhausted Ayumi on his back, with Mitsuhiko and Genta trailing closely behind him.
By this time, Inspector Yamamura was in the middle of grilling the second suspect, Tazo Usaki, pressing the man about his exact arrival time at Mount Tomei and the whereabouts of his companions.
Conan and Sera were leaning in, hanging onto Usaki's every word, when a sudden shout shattered the tense atmosphere.
"It's him!" Genta bellowed, his voice echoing across the clearing. He pointed a chubby finger straight at the suspect. "Inspector Yamamura, he's the killer!"
Mitsuhiko, still panting heavily from the trek, rushed up to Conan's side and nodded vigorously. "Yeah! Conan, we all saw it with our own eyes! He was burying a body in the woods just now!"
Ayumi, who had scraped her knee during their frantic escape and had been carried by Baizhu for the remainder of the journey, peered over the pharmacist's shoulder. She aimed a determined glare at Tazo Usaki. "Inspector Yamamura, catch him quickly!"
Yamamura froze, his jaw dropping as he stared at the three dirt-smudged children who had practically materialized out of thin air. Confronted with their synchronized, explosive accusations, his brain completely short-circuited. He stood there, blinking owlishly, entirely unable to process the situation.
It wasn't until Conan sharply kicked him in the shin and shouted a reminder that the inspector finally snapped out of his daze. Yelping, Yamamura leaped backward to put distance between himself and the accused killer, frantically waving his arms at his subordinates. "W-What are you waiting for?! Seize him!"
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