Chapter 19: You're a Detective?! 【Please Continue Reading】

“Everyone, stay calm and don’t move!” Shoji Sakamoto shouted, stepping forward to shield the group in the darkness.

“The power room is over by the machinery room. I’ll go check it out!” Gao Mo’s heart pounded fiercely. “Xiao Lan!”

A faint breeze swept past as a shadow appeared at the corridor’s corner. Perhaps miscalculating, the blade that should have targeted Shoji Sakamoto’s chest instead lunged straight at Gao Mo’s neck.

Not again!

Gao Mo’s pupils dilated.

The sensation of death surged to its peak instantly.

Humans experience momentary “blindness” when moving from light into darkness, especially when the lights suddenly cut out unexpectedly.

Yet Gao Mo’s eagle-eyed vision remained largely unimpaired.

“Xiao Lan, knife—up ahead!” he warned.

“Yes!” Xiao Lan’s voice was low and sharp as she crouched slightly, her slender high school frame taut like a drawn bowstring. She struck swiftly the instant the blade’s whoosh neared, making Gao Mo break into a cold sweat.

Time seemed to slow, as if returning to the brink of death itself.

Though his dynamic vision allowed him to perceive everything, his body couldn’t react fast enough.

Thankfully, bodyguard Xiao Lan was formidable.

As she pushed aside the shadowy assailant’s arm, she delivered a brutal side kick to the attacker’s abdomen.

“Bang!”

The shadow convulsed in pain, the knife slipping from their grip. Before they could recover, Xiao Lan leapt and delivered a flying kick that nearly sent the attacker sprawling.

Amazing...

Gao Mo was momentarily stunned.

Though only vague outlines could be seen in the dark, he could still sense Xiao Lan’s fierce skill and the immense strength her petite body unleashed.

If only her eyes weren’t blinded by the darkness, she could have easily finished the assailant with a single sequence.

Such power—if only it were his...

“Don’t run!” Xiao Lan shouted, chasing after the figure as they scrambled to their feet and fled down the stairs on the other side.

“Shoji-sama,” Gao Mo called coolly toward the stairs, “where are you going?”

“Huh?”

With Kogoro Mouri flipping the power switch back on near the power room, the corridor lights flickered and then illuminated again.

Shoji Sakamoto’s tall figure appeared around the stairwell corner.

“I heard some noise and came back to check. What happened here?” Shoji wiped sweat from his brow. “Someone just bumped into me earlier... Could it have been Ichiro? Did Ichiro attack you?”

“Before saying that, you should probably look at the wound on your chin,” Gao Mo said with a smile, standing behind Xiao Lan.

He had been suspicious of this man who had been tailing them ever since Conan mentioned there were multiple culprits—but he hadn’t expected a power outage ploy.

“A wound?” Shoji touched his chin and immediately paled.

Xiao Lan’s earlier kick had slashed his chin, blood beginning to seep out.

“I just bumped into something... Kinda clumsy,” Shoji said with a nervous laugh. “Kaneda’s butler, you don’t really think I attacked you, right? I’ve been with you all along; I had no chance to cut the power…”

“Then how do you know I was the one attacked?” Gao Mo’s expression remained calm. “It doesn’t add up. No sane person would think an outsider like me was the target.”

“Well... Ichiro really liked Natsue, so he wouldn’t—”

“Then why me? I was with Xiao Lan the whole time. Unless you were here just now,” Gao Mo said, watching Shoji’s increasingly discomfited face.

This broad-shouldered man’s thick eyebrows and large eyes could no longer hide the murderous intent simmering beneath.

“When did you start suspecting me?” Shoji’s smile vanished, his gaze darkening.

He had planned to make his move in the machinery room, but this external butler seemed to have uncovered something.

When he saw Gao Mo pulling Natsue aside, he immediately sensed something was wrong.

There should have been a better opportunity!

“I don’t think I showed any cracks. It was indeed Ichiro who killed Dad and Aki,” Shoji said, frowning in confusion. “How did you—”

“You hid your intentions well, but too well,” Gao Mo said with a complex expression. “If you were truly Natsue’s devoted uncle, Lord Takakura wouldn’t have completely excluded you from the inheritance. Your sister’s, Aki’s, and Tatsuo’s reactions are the normal ones.”

He hadn’t noticed anything suspicious before...

This man’s acting was even better than his own, fooling everyone completely.

Even he hadn’t thought much at first.

He’d assumed this guy just wanted a loan, not that he had such a dark side.

“Is that all?” Shoji’s brow furrowed deeper.

He didn’t understand why, for the plan to succeed, he had even gotten Kogoro Mouri drunk.

Because that inexplicably onboard detective might interfere—despite not seeming as reliable as the reports said.

After all this scheming, to be seen through by a temporary butler...

“Of course not. You’re so protective of those precious kitchen tools, never letting anyone touch them, yet you’ve lost your knives multiple times. It’s hard to believe that’s not deliberate,” Gao Mo said casually, sensing the killing intent. “Even the will—did you purposely bring that up?”

“You’re a detective too? The one Dad specially hired?!” Shoji’s surprise morphed into a bitter, self-mocking laugh. “I see now... So that’s why old Suzuki suddenly hired an outside butler. Was that Dad’s plan? Or did he lose to that old man? Saying he hates detectives was all a lie!”

“I am indeed just a butler.”

Gao Mo wasn’t interested in probing further into the case but was curious.

“There’s one thing I don’t quite understand. Why did you want to kill Aki and Ichiro? It wasn’t just to get all the inheritance, right?”

“I didn’t kill Aki,” Shoji laughed. “If anything, I was avenging Dad and Aki...”

“Avenging? That’s outrageous!” Xiao Lan angrily interrupted Shoji’s self-justification. “The person you tried to kill earlier was Miss Natsue! How could you do that?!”

“Is everyone alright? There was an automatic cut-off device in the power room...” Kogoro Mouri came up from the restaurant to check the situation, but before he could ask, a shadow suddenly flashed before his eyes.

Shoji’s face hardened as he tried to take Kogoro hostage.

“Bang—!”

A loud crash echoed through the corridor. Already weakened by Xiao Lan’s blow, Shoji was thrown into the air by Kogoro’s reflexive fireman’s carry throw, crashing down and spitting foam as he lost consciousness.

“What’s going on?” Kogoro was bewildered, holding Shoji, still confused.

Shoji’s expression had genuinely scared him moments before.

He thought Shoji was going to kill him.

“This guy...” Xiao Lan smiled with relief. “You caught the real culprit! He’s the mastermind behind all this!”

“Really?” Kogoro stared blankly for a moment, then shrugged off the details, laughing triumphantly. “I knew it was him!”

“...” Gao Mo ignored the overconfident Kogoro and turned to fetch a towel to clean the bloody knife dropped on the floor.

The blade was stained with blood—likely the very kitchen knife used to kill old Takakura.

No matter what, his mission was more than half complete.

They were less than half a day from Tokyo. One suspect was dead; another was unconscious. The only remaining threats were the three in the restaurant.

The ever-present aura of death that had haunted the ship seemed to have finally dissipated.

The fierce Tatsuo, surprisingly, showed no killing intent but instead had cried bitterly upon learning the truth.

...

“Moo—!”

At dawn, the cruise ship’s horn sounded, signaling their imminent arrival in Tokyo.

Exhausted from the night’s ordeal, Gao Mo stepped out onto the observation deck to breathe in the sea breeze.

“Brother Kido,” Conan whispered, “how did you know Ichiro was killed by Shoji?”

“There’s something he probably didn’t lie about,” Gao Mo yawned, still tired. “Aki was likely killed by Ichiro, who was then knocked unconscious and pushed into the sea...”

“Really?” Conan’s face showed doubt. “Why do you think that?”

“No need for so many whys. I just feel that’s how it is,” Gao Mo brushed him off casually.

He wasn’t a detective now; no point digging deeper.

Don’t expect too much from a washed-up idol moonlighting as a butler.

“Heh, heh heh.”

Conan’s smile froze.

He’d always wondered how Gao Mo managed to solve cases so well.

Turns out he was just a blind cat stumbling on a dead mouse, just like his uncle.

People are truly birds of a feather.