Chapter 107: Worthy of Being Top University Graduates |
"Inspector Megure, the Forensic Doctors are here," Patrol Officer Endo reported.
"Mhm," Inspector Megure nodded. "It's Ishikawa and Miss Hasegawa, right? The others have already introduced you. I'll leave the corpse examination in your hands."
"Do we have the deceased's detailed background and medical history, Inspector Megure?" Bai Mu asked.
"We do," Inspector Megure replied. "I've already had the patrol officer who summoned the suspects fetch the files, but it will take a little while to bring the information back."
"Alright, we will conduct a detailed test and examination once the files arrive," Bai Mu said.
Inspector Megure nodded. "Just follow your standard procedures. If you need anything, just ask Endo. Since you are new here and unfamiliar with how things work, I've assigned him to be your assistant."
"Understood," Bai Mu replied.
After saying that, Inspector Megure turned his head to speak to someone else.
The famous Detective, Mouri Kogoro, the man who constantly dominated the headlines, was indeed present at the Crime Scene once again.
"If you ask me, you guys are just making things too complicated, Inspector Megure," Mouri Kogoro declared casually. "According to my deduction, the deceased definitely died of a sudden cardiac arrest."
"After all, she was getting on in years and ran a famous art gallery. Worrying about her business during the day and her own paintings at night—when middle-aged people don't get enough rest, they get overworked and drop dead. It's a very common occurrence!"
"People really need to pay attention to their rest, don't you agree, Inspector Megure?" Mouri Kogoro leaned in and muttered, "I say we wrap this case up quickly. I still have to catch Miss Okino Yoko's television performance tonight."
"Dad! Please quit drinking beer before you say things like that, okay?!"
A young woman with a sharp, pointed hairstyle interjected. She delivered a swift punch right to the top of Mouri Kogoro's head. A comically massive lump instantly swelled up from his skull, but it disappeared just as quickly as it had formed. Bai Mu almost thought his eyes were playing tricks on him.
'Who on earth is this girl?'
Bai Mu had not seen this person in the newspapers. He had never seen such sharp bangs before; it literally looked like she had a horn growing out of her head.
'This hairstyle is a bit too unique,' Bai Mu thought. 'But how come Mouri Kogoro is so different from what I imagined? He seems like a comic relief character, a bit foolish.'
His gaze swept over the people outside the police force. Besides Mouri Kogoro and his daughter, there was also an elementary school boy wearing glasses.
The boy's outfit was also quite distinct. He wore white sneakers, a wristwatch, a blue school uniform, and a red bowtie around his neck.
He looked even younger than Lucy. He was wandering around the room all by himself, occasionally crawling on the floor, sniffing around here and there.
When he noticed Bai Mu's gaze, he froze for a moment, flashed a very forced smile at him, and then scurried behind the sofa with his hands behind his back, doing who knew what.
At that moment, Mouri Kogoro's daughter seemed to sense something. She marched behind the sofa and lifted the schoolboy up with a single hand.
"Don't cause trouble for everyone, Conan."
"Hehehe, I know, Ran."
Bai Mu had a strong sense of deja vu, as if he were on a television set. All these scenes and elements felt deliberately engineered.
How should he put it? It was like one of those soap operas where you could watch hundreds of episodes and every single one followed the exact same formula, with every character saying the same lines and doing the same things.
It was painfully obvious that Mouri Kogoro's trio had a completely different vibe compared to the police officers.
Of course, Bai Mu kept his suspicions completely hidden. The other police officers at the scene acted like fixed NPCs, just standing around taking photos or standing guard. Therefore, he simply played his role as a Forensic Doctor, sticking strictly to his designated duties.
Bai Mu turned to look at Misty Rain Traveler. She was staring thoughtfully at the schoolboy, seemingly having discovered something.
She shot Bai Mu a meaningful glance, but Endo was standing right next to them, diligently playing the role of an assistant, effectively acting as a surveillance camera. There was no way for the two of them to discuss anything outside their assigned identities.
After all, if they started chatting about Players or the Script here, their Main Quest of playing Forensic Doctors would likely run into serious complications.
It was still unclear what would happen if they broke their character settings, but based on the information gathered so far, Beika Town was an incredibly bizarre place.
The characters in this Script did not give Bai Mu any sense of reality.
They operated under bizarre, distinct rules that defied logic. This was especially true for Mouri Kogoro's trio, whose rules completely ignored the laws of physics—like that massive lump that had appeared and vanished in the blink of an eye.
Bai Mu felt that if he and Misty Rain did anything contrary to their character settings at such a critical murder scene, it would likely trigger some very unfortunate consequences.
For instance, everyone in the room might suddenly lock eyes on them and demand: "What is wrong with these two? Why are they saying such things? Don't they know this is Beika Town? Speak, who exactly are you?! Where did the real Forensic Doctors go?!"
Then this ordinary Script would instantly devolve into a horror Script.
Misty Rain had clearly realized this as well, so the two of them had no choice but to pretend to examine the corpse.
Bai Mu put on a convincing act, peeling back the deceased's eyelids to check her pupils, while Misty Rain stood to the side with a pen and notepad, nodding sagely as she scribbled on the paper.
Endo observed them with a deeply earnest expression, sighing in admiration. "Truly worthy of being top university graduates."
Hearing this, Misty Rain's stoic facade almost cracked.
Top university graduates, my foot!
What she was actually writing in her notepad was a classic ancient poem about the bright moonlight before a bed looking like frost on the ground. To prevent anyone else from deciphering it, she deliberately made her handwriting incomprehensibly sloppy.
Doctors always had their own unique handwriting that only they could decipher anyway. She did her absolute best to write in a way that only she could understand, making the strokes look more like the squiggles on a Daoist talisman.
Thankfully, she had a surgical mask covering her face. Otherwise, she was genuinely afraid she would lose control of her expressions.
To distract herself, she continued writing poetry.
—Raising my head to gaze at the bright moon, I behold an X-ray.
The two of them roughly inspected the corpse from top to bottom, without any unexpected incidents occurring.
That was until the schoolboy named Conan suddenly appeared beside the body.
"Mr. Forensic Doctor, have you figured out the time of death yet?" the schoolboy asked.
"This isn't a place for little kids to be playing around," Bai Mu said, trying to brush the boy off.
"Mr. Forensic Doctor, when I was in Hawaii with my parents, I learned a little bit about corpse identification," the schoolboy chirped. "Judging by the color and shape of the livor mortis, the exact time of death should be between ten to twelve hours ago. Did I guess right?"
Bai Mu narrowed his eyes. There was definitely something wrong with this kid. Whose parents would take their child to Hawaii to study autopsy techniques?
He pondered for a moment and realized this had to be a hint from the Script. The way the boy had been wandering around earlier looked exactly like someone searching for clues. Could it be that this was a set for a grade-school Detective? Was this kid named Conan actually the hidden protagonist?
Just as he decided to play along and agree with Conan, Misty Rain beat him to the punch.
"That's right, little guy. You learned very well," Misty Rain praised.
"Oh, wow!" the schoolboy suddenly exclaimed in an outrageously forced and exaggerated tone. "That's so weird! Ten hours ago would mean it was around six o'clock in the morning. The sun wasn't even up yet. But when we came in and found the body, the lights in the room were completely off! Could it be that this lady was painting in total darkness?"
Everyone's attention was immediately drawn to his incredibly dramatic voice. Inspector Megure froze for a second, then his expression turned solemn as he stroked his chin.
"That's true. If the deceased's time of death was six in the morning, why would she come to the art studio without turning on the lights? How could she paint without any light?"
Mouri Kogoro, however, remained entirely unfazed. Instead, he stormed over furiously. "You little brat, running around everywhere again! Stop interfering with the adults' work, you hear me?!"
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