Detective Conan 703

FILE 703: The Truth Hidden In the Blizzard

P2

GIN: I see...

--

GIN: The entire floor is being held hostage because of the bomber?

VODKA: Yeah... Some fool is causing thisbomb scare... / He's trying to find someone out of it...

--

VODKA: I guess that guy that looks like Akai is also on that floor... // Since no one that looks like him has come out of that department store yet...

--

VODKA: What a pain in the ass... Even if the bomb does or doesn't go off, that exist will be flooded with people... // I dunno if we'll be able to find this guy amongst the crowd...

GIN: No, it's all in our favor now... // His attention will be turned away from our snipers... / And he won't be able to run away as easily with all the people... // He'll be an easy target for Kir* who's waiting above and Korn that's waiting below...
* I think Aoyama Gosho made a typo, and he meant Chianti!!

P3

KIR: Hey, does he know about this?

GIN: He...? / Who are you talking about?

--

Kir: Burbon... // I heard that he went looking for that scientist, Sherry, that betrayed us...

--

GIN: Who knows. He's secretive like Vermouth... // No one can ever guess what he's up to or what he'll do...

--

VODKA: Burbon did hate Akai too... // Even more than you, Gin...

GIN: Well, I wasn't even planning on telling him even if we found Akai anyway...

--

KIR: Why's that?

GIN: He denied Akai's death... He thought that he was the only one who could kill Akai, so I don't blame him...

--

GIN: If this guy really is Akai... // Burbon will surely boast that what he believed was true... // And I don't need to see a smirk on his face...

P4

<no spoken text>

P5

STORE STAFF: Uh, / excuse me sir...

SUBARU: Oh, I'm sorry. I'm leaving... / I just wanted to take a look outside...

--

SUBARU: I'm in no mood to be eating anything... // when another floor on this building is being held hostage...

STORE STAFF: Oh... / Okay...

--

SUBARU: Although... I would like to serve those folks some hot and bitter coffee... // Those folks that are waiting so anxiously in he heat for their prey...

--

WOMAN: How long is it going to take you to figure this out!?

MAN: You ARE the great detective Mouri Kogoro aren't you?

--

MAN: Figure out who is sending the shirts for the bomber already so we can all be free!

MOURI: Oh, yeah...

--

MOURI: I simply don't have no idea... // About who the sender or the bomber could be...

RING RING

--

MOURI: Huh? A text message? // I don't recognize this address...

P6
MOURI: What? // No way...

--

MOURI: Waahhhaa... // Nya... // Wheee....

--

RAN: Wha, dad? // That's where the bomb is...

CONAN (as Mouri): It's fine...

P7

CONAN (as Mouri): I won't let that bomb go off... // I swear it on my name, the great detective Mouri Kogoro...

--

RAN: Does that mean you figured it out? // The person who has been sending the shirts?

Woman: But you said you had no idea earlier on!

--

CONAN: Yes... The mysterious sender and the mysterious bomber... // There's a key to solving this mystery!

--

CONAN: Doesn't all of this seem strange to you? If you look at the receipts that came with the shirts... // You know right away that they were bought every Sunday at the same time of 12:29 at this department store, in this sports section...

--

CONAN: If you came to this store on Sunday around that time, you would eventually be able to figure out who it is...

RAN: The sender probably never came... // That's why the bomber made this man faint in the bathroom and strapped the bomb on him so we'd look for him...

--

CONAN: That's the strange part...

RAN: Huh?

P8

CONAN: For the bomber to strap a bomb on to someone, they would have to be somewhere that's hidden and where there are no people. If the bomber is trying to spot the sender and he's busy doing that, he won't be able to keep watch to find the sender. Do you think he'd make such a rookie mistake?

--

RAN: That's true, but... // Maybe the bomber has a friend that was keeping watch...

CONAN: You idiot! Look around you!

--

CONAN: You see how everyone is on their cell phone? // If the bomber really wanted to keep everyone hostage, he wouldn't let anyone speak on their phone...

--

RAN: Then maybe the bomber strapped the bomb onto this man way before it was 12:29?

CONAN: Nope. The bomb was the last resort... // The bombs near the elevator and escalators can be left and disposed of discreetly if necessary... But it's too risky to strap a bomb onto a person when the sender may appear at any time...

--

RAN: But there's only one bomber right? How can the bomber strap a bomb onto someone while also keeping watch...

CONAN: What if the bomb was always strapped on even before coming here...

--

RAN: Wait, do you mean...

CONAN: Isn't that right?

P9

CONAN: Mr. Bomber... // or should I say, Mr. regular old John Doe?

--

MAN: Uh, what...?

CONAN: You didn't spot anyone on this floor around 12:29 that could be the sender so you thought...

--

CONAN: It was a plan the sender had created to lure you here... // You figured that the sender would be watching you and laughing at your scared face... // So you strapped on a bomb before you came here and kept everyone on the floor hostage... // You were trying to make the sender show themselves!

--

RAN: Show themselves, how?

CONAN: If the sender knew this guy's home address, it means that the sender probably knows his face too... / He was hoping that if he came out shouting that he had a bomb strapped to him and he was going to die, the sender would come out saying it's a lie or something that downplays the situation...

--

CONAN: He didn't really have to go through all the trouble, since I knew who the sender was right away...

RAN: Oh? Really?

P10

CONAN: Look at the receipt! // A customer can come to the store everyday around the same time, / but it's impossible to always have a receipt that says 12:29 sharp every time!

--

CONAN: You might be able to ask a store staff to give you a receipt that says the same exact time... But the store staff would remember any customer that makes such a strange request... // But, no one even remembers a customer that comes by every week to buy the same red shirt, which means...

--

CONAN: The sender printed their own reciept... // So the person in charge of the register of the sports equipment department... // Seta-san // it's you, isn't it?

--

CONAN: The register is in a separate room that cannot be seen by any other workers or customers... // Which means you could print receipts when you wanted to...

--

CONAN: Similarly, the sender and the receiver would most likely recognize each other... // But the receiver was unable to find you... / I knew it was you because you had been hiding in that room the whole time...

P11

MAN: Mai-chan...Is it you, Mai-chan? // Maruoka-san's daughter...?

MAI: Yes, that's me!

--

MAI: I'm the daughter of Maruoka Daisaku that you killed in the mountains 13 years ago!! // How dare you call me by my name like you're a friend or something!?

--

MAN: No... He was caught in an avalanche...

MAI: The avalanche... It was a convenient coincidence that helped you... The police didn't investigate further because of it...

--

MAI: But I found it all written down in my father's journal, on the day that you and my father went to the mountain on December 29th! // He had written about his hopes that you would become a reformed man if he showed you the magnificent scenery from the top of the mountain...

--

MAI: The company consipracy that was unmasked after my father's death! // I know that you framed my father for all the company money that you had used!

--

MAN: What are you talking about, Mai-chan...? // So it's her... // She's the one who...

--

MAN: Are you satisfied? / Now let my son go!!

MAI: Your son? / What are you talking about...

P12

MAN: Stop playing stupid!! // You send me these red shirts every week... / And you're the one that made me pull this ridiculous stunt!!

--

RAN reads the letter: I have your son... If you want your son back, strap the enclosed bomb on yourself and go to the sports equipment section of the Beika Department store and hold everyone hostage... / Know that I will kill your son if you don't find the sender!

--

If you're able to entertain me, I will return your son to you...

MAI: I don't know what this is... / I don't know...

--

MAN: Don't lie! My son has been missing since last week!!

RAN & MAI: WHAT!?

--

MAN: Give him back!! I did as you were told!!

MAI: Uh... // I...

--

CONAN: I see... Now I know what you were trying to accomplish...

MAN & MAI: Huh?

P13

CONAN: Seta-san is in the disadvantageous position since now you know it's her that was sending you the shirts... // And you're in the advantageous position of having both that letter and the bomb...

--

CONAN: That's why you made up that fake random letter, in an attempt to punish the sender once and for all! / But you had no idea that Seta-san has concrete evidence that proves that you killed her father...

--

MAN: Concrete... // Proof!?

--

MAN: Impossible! There's no way...

CONAN: Look at the 13 shirts Seta-san sent you! // They actually represent a secret code... If you read the code from right to left... // U... // B... / U... // R... // I... / E... // D...*
* It actually says "I saw you bury him" but I tried to fit it into the bubbles...

--

RAN: You buried? // Does it mean the sender saw him bury the body?

MAN: Ha... // HAHA!! It was a bluff!!

CONAN: A bluff?

P14

MAN: Isn't it!? / It was a blizzard that day... Even if there was someone else there...

CONAN: There's no way they could have seen you bury the body?

MAN: Uh... / No...

--

CONAN: Since it was the first time you climbed a mountain, you're a novice... // There's no way you would have walked out of the shed you were in to bury a body in the middle of a blizzard...

--

CONAN: Which means if we were to dig near that shed you were in, we would find it... // The body of the man that you murdered and buried 13 years ago...

--

CONAN: You seemed to have been confident that no one saw you... / But there was a witness... // It was you; both a murderer and a witness...

--

CONAN: By the way, about your son... / Has he really gone missing?

--

MAN: Yes... I think he ran away like always... // I'm such a fool... I wanted to put my son in a prestigious elementary school so I stole company money and killed my superior that figured it all out... / And now my son has ran away...

P15

CONAN: Please call the police and have this man and Seta-san go in for questioning... // Let all the customers know that all the bombs in the bags are fakes as well!

Store staff: Sure!

--

CONAN: I believe the riot squad should be near by thanks to your call...

MAI: Yes... I told them the bombs are probably fake so they should take care of them right away... / But they wouldn't make their move...

--

RAN: How did you know the bombs were fake?

CONAN: From the lipstick on the man's shoulder...

--

CONAN: If he strapped the bomb on himself at home, he would have avoided crowded trains to come here... // So I thought it was suspicious... I was wondering why this man was pretending to be in danger with a fake bomb strapped around himself...

--

CONAN: That concludes our investigation... // Are you satisfied, Seta-san?

MAI: Yes! / So you knew it all along... / You knew I was the one who called you using a voice changer...

--

MAI: I... wanted to see how this man would react to the message that I created with the secret code my father taught me... // I never thought it would make him dig his own grave...

--

MAI: You're just as I thought! Just from that tiny hint... / You asked the boy to double check that the blizzard incident was on December 29th...

CONAN: Oh, that was...

P16

MOURI: Flag signaling is used underwater or in the mountains where it's hard to communicate vocally... // If the message is "U BURIED" it's clearly not meant for underwater, but in the mountains...

CONAN: Huh?

--

MOURI: The receipt was ripped in a way for the shape to resemble a mountain and the shirts were red to symbolize murder... // If there's a murder in the mountains, it must be related to an incident of a missing person... / A missing person incident is not usually reported in hours and minutes, so the 12:29 must mean December 29th...

--

MOURI: That's what it says! In this text message I just got from an anonymous sender...

--

MOURI: So? What happened to the bomber?

RAN: Wha?

CONAN: Text message?

--

Message: That is my analysis of the situation. Now that you get it, find out the rest and set us free already.

--

CONAN: Who... // Who sent this!?

To be Continued in Issue 39