Chapter 15: A Typhoon That Both Made and Broke
Shikishima Island - 1:00 AM
Most of the island's residents had long since fallen asleep. Although some had been awakened by the commotion at the guesthouse, they'd returned home once the situation was resolved satisfactorily.
Only a few unfortunate souls remained busy this late at night.
Conan, panting heavily, finally arrived at the warehouse where the Ryujin was located. He was definitely among the unfortunate ones.
A faint light emanated from inside the warehouse, accompanied by muffled sobbing.
Without a doubt, that had to be Hamada.
"Tell me quickly—where did you hide the gold?!"
Conan could guess who was speaking without even thinking. It was Uemoto Yasuo. This man must be Kinoshita Goro's accomplice.
"Take this, you bastard!"
WHAM!
Uncle Mouri delivered a devastating punch that sent sparks flying. Even Natsukawa, who hadn't arrived yet, could practically feel the impact from that blow.
"Who's there?!"
The people inside clearly heard the disturbance. Rustling sounds filled the air, then a man in a white suit burst through the door and took off running without a word.
"Uemoto-san, don't run! We know it's you!" Conan shouted, but his warning fell on deaf ears.
The fleeing man completely ignored him.
Whoosh!
BANG!
"AHHH!"
Uemoto's feet flew out from under him, and he tumbled across the ground twice from the momentum.
Needless to say, it was Conan who'd made the move—or rather, made the kick.
Size 44 power-enhancing shoes. Accept no substitutes.
By the time Natsukawa arrived at the scene, Uemoto was already trussed up like a crab ready for market.
Inside the Warehouse
Hamada Koji had been beaten beyond recognition. He was currently cowering in a corner, displaying clear signs of mental instability. It seemed Hamada had been tortured for quite some time before they'd arrived.
"Talk! Do you know where the gold is or not?!"
The village chief, arriving fashionably late, seemed to have already caught the scent of gold. His face was flushed with excitement, and all the fatigue from his journey vanished in an instant.
He grabbed Hamada's shoulders and shook him violently. Hamada tried to speak several times but couldn't force out a single word.
"Village Chief, he'll die if you keep shaking him like that," the police officer who'd accompanied him offered a reasonable suggestion. "Why don't we take him back to the village office and interrogate him tomorrow?"
"Indeed. I'd say he needs considerable time to recover." Natsukawa's voice cut through the chaos. "After being beaten this badly, even his own mother probably wouldn't recognize him."
Natsukawa's earlier intimidation of Mikami Takeo was clearly effective. The moment he spoke, the village chief immediately stopped his aggressive shaking.
There was no way around it—might makes right. When someone with real power shows up, even the local tyrant becomes helpless.
Later That Night
In the middle of the night, Shikishima's only doctor was dragged from his bed to examine Hamada. After confirming the man would survive, he checked on Kinoshita Goro and Uemoto Yasuo as well.
Compared to Hamada, these two were in significantly worse condition.
One was still unconscious from Natsukawa's precise strike, and the other had been launched away by Conan's power-enhancing shoes.
Neither regained consciousness until the following morning.
Village Office - Next Day, Noon
When the sun hung high in the sky, Natsukawa finally woke up.
He'd stayed up far too late the previous night and had allowed himself to sleep in.
He was ultimately roused by Conan's persistent knocking.
Conan had experienced another sleepless night, obsessively pondering why the culprits had turned out to be Kinoshita Goro and Uemoto Yasuo instead of Hamada.
He'd only managed to piece together a rough theory as dawn broke.
With noon approaching and Natsukawa still not awake, the boy detective had grown increasingly anxious, eager to verify his hypothesis.
"I've got it all figured out!"
After helping Anya wash up and get dressed, Natsukawa arrived at the village office meeting hall.
"Then please, enlighten us," Village Chief Mikami Takeo prompted once everyone had taken their seats.
Hamada had clearly recovered somewhat by now. After a night of medical treatment, his body was thoroughly wrapped in bandages, making him resemble a walking mummy.
Knowing he could no longer hide the truth, Hamada glared venomously at Kinoshita Goro and Uemoto Yasuo before beginning his confession.
The Truth Revealed
Hamada Koji had previously gone by the name Aoki Koji.
Seven years ago, on a night ravaged by a massive typhoon, three people besides the captain were aboard the Ryujin: the ship's owner, and two crew members.
Aoki Koji was one of those crew members. The other was Uemoto Yasuo.
Taking advantage of the typhoon's chaos, Aoki Koji had pushed both the ship owner and Uemoto Yasuo overboard, intending to keep the billion yen worth of gold entirely for himself.
And he'd succeeded—or so he'd thought.
After pushing them into the storm-tossed sea, he shut down the distress system, hid the Ryujin in the Navy Cave, and concealed himself on the island under a new identity.
Due to the recent typhoon, the Ryujin—which had been hidden in the Navy Cave all these years—was accidentally revealed, triggering this entire case.
Conan nodded with satisfaction, a knowing smile playing across his lips. It was pretty much exactly as he'd imagined—but the story wasn't over yet.
He asked his next question: "So how did Uemoto-san and Kinoshita-san end up working together?"
Uemoto spoke in a lifeless monotone. "It was probably the third day after the Ryujin was salvaged. I heard about the ship being found and contacted Kinoshita Goro. With his help, I was able to view the Ryujin. The moment I saw it, I knew it hadn't been swept up from the seabed by the typhoon—Aoki must have hidden it somewhere on the island all along."
"So I told Kinoshita-san about what happened seven years ago. Hamada was the only outsider who'd stayed on the island long-term after the Ryujin incident, so we naturally suspected him. After seeing Hamada on the island this time, I confirmed he was definitely Aoki—the bastard who pushed me and the ship owner overboard to our deaths."
"So the detonation device at the meeting hall wasn't your work?" Kogoro Mouri stared at the two suspects with steely eyes.
Kinoshita shook his head. "That should have been Hamada's doing. Uemoto only spotted Hamada right before the speech began—there wasn't nearly enough time to construct a detonation device then."
Natsukawa raised an eyebrow. Now things are becoming clear.
The detonation device at the speech had been Hamada's desperate attempt to prevent Uncle Mouri from investigating further and discovering his secrets.
Last night's assassination attempt, however, was because Uemoto and Kinoshita—realizing they might be able to keep the gold for themselves—didn't want Kogoro Mouri to continue his investigation.
No wonder Kinoshita had been eavesdropping yesterday, and later contradicted the village chief by offering to send them away from Shikishima.
They'd probably already captured Hamada and tied him up in the Ryujin's warehouse by that point.
Since they were on the verge of discovering the Ryujin's hiding place and the gold's location, they naturally couldn't allow Kogoro Mouri to continue investigating. That must have been the motive behind last night's assassination attempt.
Uemoto continued his confession. "After the speech concluded, we tied Aoki up in the warehouse and tried to extract information about where he'd hidden the ship. Unexpectedly, this guy was incredibly stubborn and refused to say anything, which led to Kinoshita-san attacking Mouri-san in the middle of the night."
Kogoro Mouri's gaze toward Hamada grew increasingly hostile. This bastard was responsible for both of my injuries.
The first was the detonation device on the ignition ball, and the second occurred because he wouldn't talk—and in the end, Hamada himself would suffer the consequences.
"Actually, if we hadn't made our move against Mouri-san, we might still have had a chance," Uemoto continued with a bitter smile. "In fact, when you all arrived, I'd just managed to extract some information from him. If I'd known I could get him to talk, Kinoshita-san wouldn't have needed to take such a reckless risk."
Kinoshita Goro's expression was dark with regret. "There's no point discussing what might have been."
Conan pondered for a moment, then asked another question—one he was particularly interested in: the 'Navy Ghost' legend and the scholars from five years ago.
Before he could voice his question, Mikami Takeo beat him to it. "Five years ago, who killed those scholars who came to Shikishima to conduct research? And who was that Navy Ghost everyone's been talking about?"
"Of course it was Aoki. Who else could it have been?"
Uemoto glanced at Hamada Koji with a mocking sneer. "Seven years ago, he tried to kill me and the ship owner. Five years ago, I wouldn't be surprised if he murdered five scholars to protect his secret. And yesterday's attack on Mouri-san? I immediately knew it was you, Aoki. You're absolutely ruthless!"
"Killing so many people just to keep the gold for yourself. You even left that scar on your face to disguise your original appearance."
However, Hamada completely ignored the accusations, his expression utterly defeated, as if he'd already accepted whatever fate awaited him.
In truth, anyone would be devastated in his situation.
He'd been both made and broken by that typhoon seven years ago.
It could only be said that he'd had none of the advantages of timing, location, or connections.
Navy Cave - Later That Day
The matter was now completely resolved: the gold was hidden in the Navy Cave.
Kogoro Mouri experienced a strange mixture of pain and elation. This commission would earn him twenty million yen—such an enormous sum was the largest he'd ever received in his entire career.
No, it was the most money he'd ever possessed in his entire life.
Even though his backside still throbbed painfully, he endured it, determined to see the gold in the Navy Cave with his own eyes.
On the way there, Natsukawa couldn't help but ask, "Village Chief Mikami, hasn't anyone thought about exploring the Navy Cave all these years?"
Mikami Takeo smiled broadly. The hardship of climbing the mountain was absolutely worthless compared to ten billion yen worth of gold.
"We used to explore it regularly, but after the Ryujin incident seven years ago, rumors of a 'Navy Ghost' began circulating on the island. The source of these rumors was always the Navy Cave itself. Coupled with the scholars' murders five years ago, no one dared approach the place. Now that I think about it, Hamada was probably behind spreading all those ghost stories."
Deep in the mountains, they finally reached the entrance to the Navy Cave.
A faint whistling sound emanated from within, resembling the mournful wailing of restless spirits.
Fortunately it was daytime. At night, it would definitely terrify anyone who heard it.
"That's probably just the sea breeze blowing through the cave passages. There are no demons or monsters." Kogoro Mouri stepped confidently inside, and the others followed.
The Navy Ghost was undoubtedly just an elaborate cover Hamada had created to prevent anyone from approaching the Navy Cave.
According to Hamada and Uemoto's confessions, the group located and moved the shrine, revealing a dark stone staircase hidden behind it.
No one descended immediately—except for Mikami Takeo, who excitedly broke off a piece of one of the staircase bricks.
Although it was clearly covered in moss and age, Mikami Takeo recognized it instantly.
"That's right! It's gold!"
The others gasped in astonishment. The entire staircase was constructed from solid gold bricks.
Although moss had grown over the surface, it couldn't stop their greedy gazes from drinking in the sight.
"Village Chief Mikami, now that the case is solved, what about my commission fee?"
Kogoro Mouri spoke smugly, unable to contain his satisfaction.
This money was too easy to earn. Twenty million yen in just two days and one night—this is absolutely incredible!
Though I definitely have to thank Natsukawa properly for this. I owe him a serious debt of gratitude.
"Don't worry, Mouri-san. The money is already prepared and waiting. We'll present it to you with both hands the moment we return to the village."
"Hahaha! Village Chief Mikami is indeed a man of his word!"
Inside the Navy Cave, the voices of the two middle-aged men echoed outward through the passages. Combined with the howling wind, their laughter sounded as eerie and terrifying as ghostly wailing, causing the villagers guarding the entrance to shiver involuntarily.
[End of Chapter 15]
If you enjoyed this chapter, leave a Review!
P*atreon/Soulforger (advanced chapters)
Buy me coffee - ko-fi*com/soulforger01