After the mission was over, Kaedehara retreated from his current position all the way to the position where he had just picked up the mysterious train pass.

Obviously, this ring was accidentally dropped on the ground by someone when Conan and the others were escaping, and this angle was naturally the direction of their escape in the first place.

"What's next?"

Ash Hara carefully observed the marks on the ground below where the ring had fallen. Although you can faintly see the messy footprints here, it is very difficult to trace them all the way through the woods...

"Hmm... Here they started to turn around," Kaedehara looked down a few steps away, "If it was Genta and they who ran with Conan at the beginning, then from here on, it should be Conan in command..."

Elementary school students who run around in unfamiliar woods will soon be overtaken by adults, so Conan will definitely choose to rely on his observation skills and try to avoid the roads that are difficult for them to follow.

"That..."

Gray Yuan Wai turned his head to look at Kaedehara.

Kaedehara was closing his eyes.

Memories belonging to Shinichi Kudo swirled through his mind like a tidal wave.

If they were led by Conan, then they could basically be said to be led by themselves - as long as they temporarily stopped deliberately suppressing the impact of this memory on them.

Ways of thinking... Emotion...

Kaedehara stood in place with his eyes closed, imagining himself encountering the same scene, and speculating on Conan's actions by borrowing Kudo Shinichi's way of thinking.

However, what makes him a little strange is that just like the few times he saw Kudo Yukiko before, even if he doesn't resist the emotion in his memory now, he doesn't seem to have any superfluous emotions...

For example, he still doesn't have "that kind of thought" about Xiaolan.

The kind of emotion that seems to spring up from memory, it seems that only for Yusaku Kudo and Yukiko Kudo...

"Go this way." Kaede Yuan opened his eyes and said to Gray Plains.

Since "crossing", Conan has also experienced a lot and grown a lot. So to be precise, using the memory of Kudo Shinichi to speculate on Conan will still be a little different from reality.

But Kaede didn't intend to use this as a guide, but just used it to guide himself to observe the clues on the road and combine them with them.

Elementary school students weigh less, so the marks are not very noticeable. But the footprints of the adult man who followed them were much more visible, as were the broken branches and bushes.

"Here," after walking for a while, Kaedehara paused to take a closer look, "Someone fell... It looks like it's supposed to be Wonta. ”

There was also a branch that had fallen to the ground next to it, and there were traces of friction with shoes on the branches. Yuantai must have accidentally stepped on this relatively round branch before falling.

Gray Yuan Wai pursed his mouth slightly, "Caught?" ”

"Probably not, the footprints are not scattered, they are not running separately..."Kaede Yuan said, "It means that they keep a certain distance from the person behind them, and it is not so easy to catch up..."

Gray Plains breathed a sigh of relief.

"What strikes me as a little strange, though..."

Kaedehara held his chin and thought for a moment, "There is no sign of change in the footprints of the man in front of this, and it looks as if he didn't notice that Yuanta fell at all..."

Gray Yuan was stunned for a moment, "... Did he lose it? ”

"Probably... Go ahead. ”

After a short walk, the man's trail separated from Conan and them, but not far, as if he had wandered around for a while, and then he turned around and met Conan and their trails again.

“… Looks like he did lose it..."

Kaedehara looked in the direction Conan had left, "I think he probably wanted to return to the scene of the killing." ”

And coincidentally, Conan and the others also ran in that direction, so after that, the two traces converged again.

Kaedehara and Gray Plains continued to walk.

……

In a dilapidated log cabin.

"I—It doesn't matter if we're hiding in this mountain hut for the time being, right?" Mitsuhiko put his hands against the door, trying to look outside through the cracks in the planks.

"Of course, I locked the door tightly!" Yuan Tai replied.

As soon as they ran into the wooden house, Motota wedged the wooden door with a plank on the table. They tried to pull it, but the wooden door seemed to freeze in space.

"Then I'll see if there are any other entrances!" Mitsuhiko turned his head to explore the rest of the cabin.

Ayumi held her knees and gasped for a few breaths, then got up and looked at Conan who was observing the wooden house, "It's, it's all my fault, I didn't notice that Conan was using an anesthetic needle watch... It caused Conan to shoot crooked..."

Running away all the way, she didn't have time to apologize.

"Huh? There's no such thing, I was too nervous to shoot crookedly at that time, and it was only after you pulled me that I did..."

"Yes, yes?"

"That's right, it's not your fault..."

After lying, Conan continued to look at the cabin.

The cabin is a two-room structure, and the outside has almost nothing but a wooden table, chairs, and two backpacks.

The two backpacks were leaning against the wall near the wooden door, which should have been brought in by someone else, and judging by the style of the backpacks, they should belong to a man and a woman.

A man and a woman...

"How's it going, Mitsuhiko?" Motota shouted at Mitsuhiko.

"Looks like there's only one entrance."

Mitsuhiko walked into the room with his watch-type flashlight, and then suddenly slipped under his feet, "Wow! ”

"Hey, what's wrong?"

"Mitsuhiko!?" Conan also hurried towards that direction.

"The earth, the ground is wet..."

Mitsuhiko, who fell to the ground, casually replied, looked to the side, and by the light of a flashlight, he realized that next to him was an axe stuck in the floor, and the bottom of the axe was soaked with blood.

He slipped just now when he stepped on blood.

Mitsuhiko couldn't help but scream, "Ahhhhhhhh ”

"Ke, Conan—" Ayumi cowered behind Conan, looking fearfully at the pool of blood on the ground.

"Isn't it hard that the woman was killed here?"

"It should be right," Conan looked serious, "Judging by the drying up of the blood, it should have happened less than an hour ago..."

Conan paused, "In that case, there's a good chance that the murderer will return to this crime scene." ”

As soon as he finished speaking, they heard two heavy knocks on the door, startling the schoolchildren.

"Did that man come back just now?"

"I—Shall we talk to him?" Mitsuhiko said, "Maybe it's a passerby who came to this mountain hut by chance..."

"No, this dilapidated log cabin—"

Before Conan could finish again, there was a violent crash, and the people outside were apparently trying to smash the wooden door open with their bodies.

There was no need for Conan to explain, and the elementary school students immediately realized that it was the prisoner who had just chased them all the way outside.

"So, what now, Conan?"

"It's alright," Conan replied, "Doctor, they should have finished their shopping and returned to the campsite, and if they find that we are not there, they will definitely come to us, and Kaedehara has a pair of tracking glasses there..."

There was only one person on the other side, and Kaedehara didn't have shoes and watches like himself, so he could easily solve it.

"But, but we don't have detective badges with us..."

"yes, we were all in the tent before we came out..."

"This pair of glasses of mine can also send signals, and Kaedehara's glasses can also track it..."

"Oh, oh no!"

"Huh?"

"I just remembered that Kaedehara asked the doctor about his glasses when you didn't arrive at the doctor's house," Mitsuhiko's face was ugly, "his glasses seem to be still in the doctor's laboratory..."

“… Really, that's all there is to it for..."

The prisoner outside the door seemed to have given up on the impact, but it was likely that the other party was guarding outside, and they couldn't just get out like that.

Conan took out his phone again.

Mrs. Yuan didn't have any mobile phones with them, and his mobile phone was also out of battery, and he was busy running away before, so he hadn't even called the police yet.

"But, isn't Conan's phone out of battery?"

"yes... I can try to revive the battery though. Conan opened the back cover of the phone and removed the battery.

"Is this okay?"

"Well, take out the battery and heat it up with body temperature, and the voltage will go up, and it should be able to hold up for a little longer. If you just tell Kaedehara about our situation..."

Conan said as he warmed up the battery in his arms for a while, then reinstalled the battery and turned it on.

"Hit, open!"

"You really can!"

"That's amazing, Conan!"

"It's a little me... Hey, isn't it? ”

"What's wrong?"

"The phone is turned on, but there's no signal here..."Conan couldn't help but sigh, "Anyway, let's see if there's anything that can be used here, right?" ”

The axe on the ground was too big for elementary school students to use, and it could be used as a weapon for the prisoner, so it was not considered.

The cabin was very clean, and there was almost nothing but the two backpacks, so Conan focused on them.

"Well, that person seems to be gone..."

The elementary school students came back to their senses and noticed that there had been no movement outside for a while.

"Maybe I'm trying to think of another way to break in..."

Conan flipped through his backpack, "But it's okay, even if we don't have tracking glasses to use, Kaedehara will definitely be able to find us, and we have to find a way to protect ourselves before that..."

"Yes, yes..."

"But the backpack is full of clothes... There is a book about claustrophobia... It's all clothes, too... Cameras and film..."

"It doesn't seem to be of much use...," Mitsuhiko said.

"Hmm... But I guess what's going on here..."

Although he was in danger, Conan couldn't help but analyze the case with the clues he had.

That claustrophobic book gave him a conjecture...

Conan looked around the cabin and saw that the windows had been nailed up with iron nails...

I guess I was trying to treat claustrophobia here, but it backfired and led to a panic...

Speaking of which, that bag contains film and a video camera, and if you are claustrophobic, you can't get into the dark and narrow development darkroom, which is fatal for a photographer with a film camera.

In this case, it makes sense to think about treating claustrophobia...

So the woman must have felt that facing her fears could help the man cure his claustrophobia...

As a result, the man fell into a panic and went insane, and killed the woman in this state, and then he planned to bury the body near the "Beware of the Snakes" sign...

"Ahh Conan couldn't help but sneeze.

"Ke, Conan, is the cold still healed? Haven't you already taken the medicine? ”

"How can it be so fast..."

"Hey, what is this?" Feeling that the people outside had left, Yuan Tai tried to open the door and wanted to take a sneak peek, but found that he couldn't open it, "There is a chain hanging on the door, we can't get out!" ”

"What!?"

"Do you smell any burning?" Ayumi wrinkled her nose.

"It's—this cabin seems to be on fire..."

"This guy..."

"Windows!" Mitsuhiko ran towards the window, "You should be able to escape through the window!" Yes... No way! The windows were also nailed shut..."

"No, if you don't get out of here..."

"Damn! This door can't be opened! ”

"Hey, listen to me!" Conan hurriedly said, "The fire has just been lit, and the prisoner is probably still outside..."

Conan lowered his voice slightly, speaking at a rapid pace, "I'll pretend I'm on the phone later, and I'll talk about that guy's characteristics on the phone... Then I pretend to ask you because I'm not sure, and you say out loud... Do you understand? ”

"Hmm!"

Conan quickly said the man's characteristics, and then said again: "Be loud, and be flustered!" ”

In this way, he planned to trick the prisoner who was supposed to be lighting the fire outside the house.

The elementary school students nodded seriously, and Conan put his phone to his ear, "So, this begins-"

Bang –

There was a loud bang, and then the crash of someone falling to the ground.

Conan's words came to an abrupt end.

"What's wrong?"

The elementary school students looked to the side of the door in surprise, and then noticed that the door had been pushed open a bit. Because the door was still hung with iron chains, it was not pushed open, but a large gap was exposed.

Through the gap, they saw a head looking inside, familiar and cute.

"Ash, Ash!"

The elementary school students ran over in surprise.

Conan also breathed a sigh of relief, since Gray Yuan appeared here, then Kaedehara must also be outside, so the movement just now should be the sound of the prisoner being put down, "It's really saved..."

"I said, you guys really know how to hide..."Gray Yuan said Ai, seeing the faces of Ayumi and the others, he was relieved.

"Gray Plains! It's great to meet you! ”

"Ah, by the way, there's a prisoner out there—"

"Don't worry, that guy has been dealt with." Gray Plains tried to fiddle with the chain again.

"Let us out first!" Conan said.

"There's a lock on the chain, and you can't open it from the outside," Gray Yuan replied, "Kaedehara went to find the key..."

"Hey, hey—"

"The fire has just been lit, it won't burn so quickly..."

"But that guy doesn't know where he left the key," Kaedehara walked over and stood behind Ash Yuan, and everyone in the room could only see half of his face, "he didn't find it." ”

"W-What should I do?"

"Sure enough, let's put out the fire first..."

"It's okay, since there is no way to resolve it peacefully, then you can only choose violence..."Kaedehara said, taking Gray Yuan's hand and pulling her away from the door, "You go to the corner of the wall over there first and squat, so as not to hurt you..."

"Hey," Conan looked at the dead fish, "you don't want to kick the door open, do you?" ”

"Congratulations, you guessed it right... I'm not like somebody, I always have no power on my body..."

Conan hurriedly pulled the puzzled elementary school students to the corner on the other side of the wall, huddled together and crouched.

Outside the house, the gray plain mourning also opened a safe distance.

When everything was ready, Kaedehara once again activated his foot strength enhancement shoes, and kicked them against the wooden door.

In the next moment, the wooden door flew out with the chains, and then slammed into the other wall.

Originally, there was only a hole left in the position of the wooden door.

Elementary school students were able to come out in this way.

The fire outside the house had just been lit, and they helped to extinguish it, and Mitsuhiko then pulled out a roll of rope from the two bags to tie up the unconscious prisoner, and then they made their way back to the campsite.

The police have also arrived, although this is Gunma Prefecture, and it is a very unreliable mountain village police department, but the prisoner has been caught, all the scenes are well preserved, and the murder case is quickly resolved.

Things were just as Conan had guessed.

The fiancée of the prisoner, Jumpo Usaki, wants to help him cure his claustrophobia, but chooses the wrong way.

In the darkness, he swings around in extreme fear with an axe he finds in the house, and inadvertently hacks to death his lover who tries to calm him down.

……

"Well, I found us by figuring out my way of thinking."

"And the traces of your escape." Kaedehara added.

"Yes, yes... But thanks to you and Ashbara, I'm not sure if my attempt will succeed," Conan clasped his hands behind his head, "Wait, that's not right..."

"What's wrong?"

Conan showed a vigilant look: "You obviously said that we have different thinking patterns, for example, you don't have that kind of thinking about Xiaolan..."

Well, who knows...

"yes... That's why I said I was figuring it out..."

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(End of chapter)