In the world of Detective Conan, however, he was bound to the Naruto System.

Chapter 74 The Rapid Progress of Solving the Case

Chapter 74 The Rapid Progress of Solving the Case

As soon as the words were spoken, the expressions of those who were pointed out changed, and each of them had someone come out to defend them. For example, there was Honichiro's mother, Hon Takeshi's wife Hon Natsue, and Hon Ryūo was even more powerful, with the couple joining forces.

"Don't make baseless accusations! How could I possibly kill the old man? I had absolutely no reason to kill him before he changed his will!!"

To put it bluntly, he is currently heavily in debt and desperately needs an inheritance to pay off his debts and maintain a high quality of life in the future.

In fact, this is also the reason why Honjozo and everyone else except Natsue have a bad relationship, yet everyone is willing to maintain a superficial peace. Isn't it because they hope to inherit the group and its assets from this old geezer?

But the old man's will was to leave everything to Ben Xiajiang!

Before Akutagawa Hiko could answer, the old butler stepped forward, holding a peculiar flower in his hand. It was the one that was said to grow only on this island, and the one that only Natsue had personally picked for Benwu to wear on this ship.

"I found this outside the door—"

As soon as the old butler said this, everyone found a target to focus their attacks on, including the two suspects pointed out by Akutagawa Hiko. They all believed him and wanted to convict him.

Mariko Kurumi's words were like a heavy hammer, nailing Takeshi Kurumi to the label of murderer: "I just passed by the door and accidentally overheard you and Dad arguing!!"

Akutagawa Hiko glanced at the eldest daughter of Hongozo, who had "accidentally" overheard the conversation. It was clear that she had seen Hongozo meeting with Sokumoto Takeshi and was worried that it was about the inheritance, so she had deliberately eavesdropped.

Honri Mako had no idea what Akutagawa Hiko was thinking. Her precious son had been identified as a suspect, and with the inheritance issue on top of that, she was determined to destroy the couple.

"I also heard that Xiao Wu is actually the son of Zai Cheng Youfu!!"

Clearly, they all knew something about the old man's despicable deeds. Their faces were full of shock, and almost everyone with the surname Ben was certain in an instant that he was the one who killed him.

Kitarou explained to the unsuspecting outsiders, "Zaijo Yuu is the president of Zaijo Sangyo, who committed suicide ten years ago after his father took over the company. I heard that his wife also passed away a year later, and his only son was sent to an orphanage..."

Everyone looked at Benwu, who had his head bowed. Although they were already certain in their hearts, they didn't expect him to admit it so readily: "That's right, I am Zaijiro Yuu's son—Zaijiro Takehiko!"

Just before everyone was verbally attacking Mototake and Hatamoto Natsue ran away crying, Akutagawa Hiko stopped the farce:

He wasn't the killer.

"What?!"

Meeting the astonished gazes of the crowd and the hopeful look in Kumoto Takeshi's eyes, Akutagawa Hiko explained calmly, "The old butler said that this flower was found outside the door, right?"

The old butler nodded and said, "That's right."

"That's strange. The old man was attacked at the door, so there must have been bloodstains outside. It's possible that he wiped the bloodstains clean, but left such a conspicuous flower. Is that possible?"

Kogoro Mori clapped his hands and exclaimed, "Yeah, that's completely illogical!"

Ran Mouri and Sonoko Suzuki had already established a good friendship with Natsue Honma, and now they directly comforted the rekindled hope in her, saying, "Akutagawa is an extremely skilled detective; he certainly wouldn't be wrong."

Benlong was starting to panic, because compared to the seemingly cowardly and gloomy Benichiro, he looked more like the murderer: "Then tell me who the murderer is, you don't mean to say it's me, do you!"

Akutagawa Hiko shook his head in denial: "Of course it wasn't you either—"

Ben Longnan breathed a sigh of relief.

Wait, doesn't that mean—

Akutagawa Hiko pointed out three suspects, two of whom have now been ruled out. As for the remaining one, everyone turned their attention to Honichiro. Before Honichiro could explain himself, Honri Mako let out a sharp, explosive sound, comparable to that of a chemistry lab teacher.

"What do you mean? Be careful, or I'll sue you for defamation! Ichiro couldn't possibly have killed his grandfather; he had no reason to do so!!"

Akutagawa picked at his ears. He was quite tolerant of this level of screaming. He had heard plenty of screams at crime scenes. He wondered if he could develop resistance to the Sound Ninja's attacks.

Shaking aside all these irrelevant thoughts, Akutagawa Hiko continued to perform his duties as a detective: "No, Honichiro had a motive for murder."

Akutagawa whispered a few words in Conan's ear, and Conan nodded knowingly.

Not long after, Conan returned carrying a sketchbook and a box, his expression very strange: "Huh? That's weird. All of Ichiro's drawings are of Natsue-nee. Isn't Natsue-nee Takeshi's wife?"

Hiko Akutagawa greatly admired Conan's ability to hit people's sore spots.

Before he could finish speaking, Ichiro rushed over like a madman to snatch the painting back. Conan's training proved effective; with a nimble movement, he returned to the main group.

Opening the picture book, it was indeed full of words by Kumoto Natsue.

Ben Xiajiang's uncle, Ben Xiang'er, came over, pointed at several paintings, and said with a complicated expression, "We've all been standing together these past few days, but you've only painted Xiajiang."

The old butler hesitated before speaking, "Once, Young Master Ichiro requested that you allow Miss Jiang Xia to marry him..."

These words caused an uproar.

Akutagawa Hiko continued opening the box, pointing to the empty slot inside, and said, "The murder weapon should still be on the ship right now. You don't have time to deal with it at all. It's only a matter of time before you find it."

After saying that, he put on disposable rubber gloves and picked up something from the pool of blood: "Actually, this is the evidence that confirms you are the murderer."

Kogoro Mouri took a closer look and finally recognized what it was: "Breadcrumbs?!"

Akutagawa Hiko nodded and said, "That's right. The old man hates Western food and many foreign cultural influences. He would never eat bread, so the presence of bread crumbs is very suspicious."

"Furthermore, besides blood, there was also charcoal on the breadcrumbs. It seems you have a habit of using bread as an eraser to edit photos."

As he spoke, Akutagawa Hiko swiftly took a crumb of bread covered in charcoal from Honichiro's sleeve.

With the evidence irrefutable, Honichiro could no longer support his body and collapsed to his knees with a thud: "It's all Grandpa's fault, it's all Grandpa's fault. Grandpa actually rejected me directly and even said that I, a dung beetle, wanted to eat swan meat."

"Even shortly after I made that request, as if mocking me, he directly arranged the marriage between Xia Jiang and Xiao Wu."

"It was the same thing on the deck before, saying things like 'If it's an impossible dream, just give up early.' I can never forgive my grandfather for not letting me get engaged to Xia Jiang, and Xiao Wu for taking Xia Jiang away."