Where did Asama Yasuharu go?

Outside the train, Nonmori directed two crows to snatch the gloves away and discard them far into the distance, while leaving a flock of crows fluttering on the ground to ruin the drag marks left by the box.

Inside the train, Torada Feichi returned to the restroom, caught his breath from his hurried state, and meticulously cleaned away the dust from the train that had settled around his shoes. Once his breathing had steadied, he stepped out, carrying the still-unconscious Noncai with him.

Everyone had given their all for this operation. Setting everything else aside, judging simply by the packing speed, he was confident that the next time he packed a courier parcel, he would definitely be no slower than a professional with years of experience...

Ahem...

Therefore, he did not want a failure of the challenge to be caused by a minor slip in the details.

By the time Dalsy found Torada Feichi, Feichi was already safely in his room.

Seeing that Torada Feichi was unharmed, Dalsy let out a sigh of relief. "Young Master, so you had already returned."

"Mm, I came back to check on Noncai," Torada Feichi said with an expressionless face. "Those matters can be left to the police and the detectives."

Giving it some thought, Dalsy agreed. "Would you like to rest a bit longer, sir? I will keep watch outside."

Torada Feichi still felt it was somewhat strange to go back to sleep when a murder case had just occurred, but considering that sitting around idly would be boring, he figured it might be better to lie down and check on the situation from Nonmori's perspective. "Very well."

Not long after dawn, a knock sounded at the door.

Dalsy opened the door and looked down, only to see Conan's small frame. "Little brother?"

"Is Brother Torada here?" Conan craned his neck to peer inside.

Dalsy turned his gaze toward the compartment. "The Young Master is sleeping."

Conan was instantly rendered speechless. After failing to find evidence of the culprit's crime, he had wanted to consult Torada Feichi, only to find him missing. Upon asking around, he realized that Torada Feichi had not been seen for quite a while, so he had come to check if he was in his room.

Originally, he had expected Torada Feichi to be investigating somewhere or pondering the case inside his room. He never imagined Torada Feichi would actually run back to sleep...

Inside the compartment, Torada Feichi sent an email to the police department's mailbox and calmly headed out. "Conan? Would you like to come in and sit?"

"Uh, no need. I wanted to have you come outside with me for a moment," Conan noticed that Torada Feichi's clothes were somewhat wrinkled. "You really did run back to sleep."

"The Young Master took his medication yesterday and needs to rest," Dalsy couldn't help speaking up on Torada Feichi's behalf.

Conan snapped back to reality, a pang of guilt stirring within him. Although Torada Feichi usually seemed completely normal when they interacted, he was still a patient who needed medication to stabilize his condition, and many psychiatric drugs came with unpleasant side effects. "Ah, I forgot. Then I..."

"It's fine," Torada Feichi said as he stepped out. "Let's go. Didn't you want to see me?"

Dalsy frowned. "Young Master..."

"Stay in the room and keep an eye on Noncai for me. Feed it some fresh water when it wakes up," Torada Feichi said without looking back.

Dalsy offered no further resistance. "Understood."

Conan hurried to keep up with Torada Feichi, asking in a soft voice, "Hey, is your body alright? Did you experience any side effects after taking the medication?"

"No," Torada Feichi replied. "My health is just fine."

"Don't push yourself," Conan remarked with a tone of mature wisdom. "I know those pills come with a bunch of side effects—drowsiness, fatigue, dizziness, vomiting are the mild ones, and long-term use leaves aftereffects."

That was precisely why he didn't want to take the medicine...

Torada Feichi cut short Conan's sentimentality. "Alright, didn't you say you wanted me for something?"

Figuring that Torada Feichi simply didn't want to discuss the matter, Conan dropped it. "It's about this incident..."

Because Asama Anji had gone missing, the killer had been unable to kill him and had instead used Asama Anji's room to create the illusion that he had fled.

Since Asama Anji had previously attempted to rob the jewelry store, only to be chased off empty-handed by the owner while shouting, "This isn't what we agreed upon," he had motive to hold a grudge and murder the owner. Moreover, with Asama Anji indeed nowhere to be found, the police had already concluded that he was the murderer on the run and had begun casting a net to search for him.

However, this obviously could not fool Conan...

"The Asama Anji we saw later was just someone wearing the same coat, hat, and mask; there's no proof that it was actually him."

"And when Uncle Mouri and I gave chase, the killer fired at us. We took cover beside the train car, but we didn't witness the killer walk into the room with our own eyes..."

As he spoke, Conan led Torada Feichi to the door of Asama Anji's room. "The reason Uncle Mouri was certain the killer entered the room is because the door closed afterward. But I found traces of fishing line on the door. The killer must have rigged a trap on the door beforehand, ran over after committing the murder, shot the glass, fired at us, and then—taking advantage of the moment we were hiding and couldn't see him—slipped off to the other side toward the second-floor stairs, cut the fishing line to let the door close, and made us think he had run inside the room..."

Torada Feichi bent down to inspect the door lock, where indeed there were some abnormal marks. "Do you know who the killer is?"

"It's the jewelry store manager, Mr. Kayetsu Toshinori!" Conan stated with certainty. "He's the only one who brought fishing gear and could have pulled off this trick using a fishing line."

"Merely bringing fishing gear isn't enough to serve as evidence," Torada Feichi noted.

"True, and there are far too many places to hide the murder weapon and bloody clothes; a search might not turn anything up," Conan mused. "Besides, Asama Anji is truly gone. He's nowhere to be found..."

This was also the part that baffled him.

After secretly communicating with his mother, he could confirm that his father's novel had originally not been written this way.

Asama Anji should have been dead, his body discovered by the police, leading them to believe that Asama Anji had fallen from the train and died while escaping.

Yet now, Asama Anji was neither seen alive nor found dead, vanishing as if into thin air.

"Could it be that Asama Anji never boarded the train in the beginning?" Torada Feichi offered a "rational" conjecture.

"You suspect Manager Kayetsu disguised himself from the start? Probably not. We ran into Asama Anji earlier in the dining car, and he took off his mask," Conan rubbed his face and continued. "His facial structure was different from Kayetsu Toshinori's; they didn't look like the same person. Furthermore, Manager Kayetsu was accompanying Boss Izumo in the dining car at the time, while Asama Anji went back to his own room—the timelines don't match."

"Mm," Torada Feichi finally noticed the red mark on Conan's face. "What happened to your face?"

"N-nothing!" Conan raised a hand to shield it. He certainly couldn't admit that it had been pinched red by his own mother, could he?

It was just one little remark about "some women being completely unreasonable"—to think she would inflict such a vicious attack on her own biological son! Women truly were unreasonable!

Had he known, he wouldn't have gone out of his way to expose his mother's disguise...

Torada Feichi felt as though he had missed out on something wonderful. "Right, that strange woman..."

"Ahem, she seems to be a detective. Though her personality is a bit odd and she seemed to have noticed something earlier, this case has nothing to do with her!" Conan covered for his mother and swiftly changed the subject. "The problem now is that we lack evidence..."

"Well, pardon me," Yukiko Kudo said, walking over wearing a hat and sunglasses, a half-smile playing on her lips. "My personality is indeed a bit odd."

Conan broke out in a cold sweat. *Damn it, got caught badmouthing someone again...*

Yukiko Kudo squatted down beside Conan, smiling sweetly as she pinched his cheek. "However, as a child, one shouldn't talk behind people's backs, you know~"

Lifting his eyes, Conan saw Torada Feichi staring thoughtfully at his face. A wave of inner despair washed over him, and he stubbornly broke free from Yukiko Kudo's clutches, running over to Torada Feichi's side for temporary shelter.

Could she please spare him a shred of dignity in front of Torada Feichi...

Standing up, Yukiko Kudo feigned ignorance of Conan and addressed Torada Feichi. "This child is very smart, but also quite mischievous. I heard this little fellow say earlier that you seem unable to find evidence of the culprit's crime?"

"That's right, Aunt... Big Sister, do you happen to know where the evidence is?" Under the threatening gaze of Yukiko Kudo, Conan humiliatingly corrected his address.

Yukiko Kudo replied bluntly, "Apologies, I wouldn't know either. After all, it really is terribly hard to find!"

Conan gave her a half-mooned stare. *If you don't know, why even jump out?* Pulling his thoughts back, he lowered his head in deep thought. "Then our only option is to lure him out..."

Torada Feichi felt as though he was cast in the role of the bait. "I'll do it."

Regardless of whether Conan had shrunk, he currently possessed the physique of a child, and Yukiko Kudo was a woman. As a grown man in the prime of his youth, he certainly couldn't cower in the background and let these two take the risk of drawing the killer into the trap.

Conan frowned in silence. He recalled that in the novel, the young man who discovered the truth had also tried to use himself as bait to hook the perpetrator because of a lack of evidence, only to end up murdered...

"Let me do it instead," Yukiko Kudo suggested. "Not reporting a crime you've discovered usually means you're trying to extort money through blackmail. A young master from a wealthy family who travels with bodyguards doesn't look like someone hard up for cash, nor is it easy to imagine him pulling off such a stunt. If you step up, it will only arouse the killer's suspicion. Someone like me, traveling entirely alone, is a much better fit!"

The three fell silent for a moment before finally deciding that Yukiko Kudo would play the part of this doomed bait.

Torada Feichi had brought a bodyguard along on the trip, indeed making him look nothing like the type to blackmail others.

Meanwhile, Yukiko Kudo had been acting mysterious from the start, as if she knew something all along but refused to share it, making her the ideal bait.