Edogawa Conan was full of question marks, even couldn't help taking off his glasses to wipe them before putting them back on.
What the hell were these people doing?!
However, wiping his glasses didn't change what he saw. If anything, during the time he was cleaning his glasses, the person drawing lots had changed...
Someone who had already drawn lots was pacing back and forth anxiously. Someone nearby went to talk to them, and for some reason, they started fighting.
Edogawa Conan had even more question marks.
What are they doing? What are they doing? Why are they fighting? Aren't they afraid someone will call the police if they make too much noise?
Edogawa Conan had already pulled his phone out of his pocket, hesitating whether to take preventive action.
What he didn't expect was that before he, a defender of justice, could make up his mind, suddenly a passerby shouted toward the alley.
"Someone called the police! The police will arrive soon!"
After shouting, this person ran away. The people in the alley panicked briefly, then quickly and silently scattered in all directions.
Edogawa Conan: "...???"
Wait... you all left, so what about me? Did I come here for nothing?
He stood there in a daze for a while, watching those people run away from his elevated position, then waited for a long time. Suspecting those people might not come back, he hesitantly climbed down the fire escape and walked toward the alley.
Since the people were gone, they should at least leave him some other clues, right?
In the dark alley, Edogawa Conan picked up the lottery cylinder and lottery sticks they had used for drawing lots from the ground by the dim light.
Wait, that's not right—there was more than one lottery cylinder!
Edogawa Conan was surprised to find another one.
He picked up all the lottery sticks and categorized them.
Well, although there were two cylinders, the content on the lottery sticks was very monotonous—only two types: [Go] and [Don't Go].
Among them, [Don't Go] was the majority.
Just as Edogawa Conan was about to deduce the situation based on what he had seen earlier, he suddenly heard footsteps and quickly hid with the lottery cylinders.
But there were no trash cans or boxes in this alley—it was completely open. Even though he was a child, he could easily be discovered.
"Good, no one's here..."
Someone muttered as they entered the alley and quickly spotted Edogawa Conan.
Edogawa Conan had his tranquilizer needle ready—but the guy opposite was wrapped up too tightly, with almost no exposed skin visible. He felt that if worst came to worst, he'd probably have to use his soccer ball to knock the person out...
"Huh? Why is there a child here?" That person was somewhat surprised. "This isn't a place for children. Go home quickly... Do you need me to take you back?"
From this person's tone and the information he had observed, Edogawa Conan relaxed his vigilance slightly and started making excuses: "My home is nearby. I lost something and I'll go home after I find it."
"Then hurry up and find it. Bad people will come here..."
"But didn't you just call the police, uncle?" Edogawa Conan asked with feigned innocence. "The police should arrive before the bad people, right?"
The person who called the police: "Uh..."
"So you didn't actually call the police? You just wanted them to leave? Why?" Edogawa Conan couldn't control himself and started pressing aggressively.
"Wait, wait, what's with kids these days!" The person was shocked. "How long have you been here? This definitely isn't just a short while!"
If he continued being treated as an ordinary child, he'd definitely be sent away. But having finally encountered someone who seemed willing to communicate, Edogawa Conan had to use various methods to extract information, even tentatively mentioning the title [Consultant]... Sure enough, after hearing [Consultant], the other party's attitude changed completely.
"You actually know about the [Consultant]..."
Edogawa Conan simply made his lie bigger: "Actually, my parents died, then my uncle took away my inheritance. Someone recommended that the [Consultant] here could solve problems, so I came."
His acting was pretty mediocre, but ordinary people really wouldn't think a child would make up such lies, especially knowing about the existence of a [Consultant]. So after hesitating for a while, the person who called police actually believed him.
Because this person sympathized with Edogawa Conan, Edogawa Conan's information-gathering efficiency immediately improved.
He finally figured out what the situation had been earlier.
Simply put, this [Consultant] supposedly sometimes only saw one person per day, at most three people, then would turn off the lights and go upstairs—a very capricious personality.
This was fine when there were few people, but recently, for some reason, more and more people had been coming—Edogawa Conan speculated this might be because that self-proclaimed modern Moriarty criminal consultant had been arrested, so the clients who could have been handled by that guy were flowing to Samukawa Shinryu—which was truly a dark joke.
Anyway, when there were more people, some would cause trouble. He heard that early on, some people were dissatisfied when the [Consultant] closed shop and even wanted to go upstairs and bang on the door...
Edogawa Conan was shocked: "Did they actually bang on it?"
The person who called the police: "No, they got beaten up by someone who said how dare they disrespect the Consultant..."
Edogawa Conan: "............"
This couldn't continue, so later everyone chose to draw lots.
Because many people had only heard there was such a [Consultant] but hadn't actually made up their minds, they would wander around near the Consultant's house. When such people were discovered, yakuza members responsible for managing this area would bring them to this alley to draw lots...
"Wait." Edogawa Conan couldn't help asking, "Yakuza members?"
"Right, the legal kind, registered with Metropolitan Police." The person who called the police said quietly, "I heard the [Consultant] once helped their organization. When they heard there were people causing trouble near the [Consultant]'s house, they came to help for a few days... and established rules while they were at it."
"Drawing lots, right?"
"...Yes, it works quite well."
Many people, although troubled in their hearts, would come looking for the [Consultant] to try consulting after hearing about him. But since people who could come here probably had illegal ideas in mind, they were very hesitant about whether to actually take that step.
So they would be brought to this alley for the first round of drawing. If they drew [Don't Go], they should leave quickly and not occupy everyone else's spot.
Then there would be people maintaining order who would hand out numbered tickets based on first-come-first-served, stamped with a special seal, so that if someone didn't get their turn today, they could come back later without starting over—just go by number.
If several people came together, they would be told that the [Consultant] didn't like noise and only one person could go. To save time, they would draw lots again, with one person selected from the group.
Edogawa Conan: "............"
"Because the [Consultant] isn't there every day, even though many people give up, occasionally when luck is bad, you get a situation like today where a bunch of people happen to meet and start fighting or arguing... very annoying."
The person who called the police sighed: "So I... uh, never mind. Anyway, you're still a child, and your situation doesn't necessarily require finding the [Consultant]. Find a lawyer... really don't come here anymore..."
Under the persuasion of the person who called the police, Edogawa Conan pretended to be convinced and left.
Then he called Dr. Agasa.
Dr. Agasa was quite worried too. After receiving his call, he breathed a sigh of relief: "How did it go? Did you investigate anything?"
"...I investigated some very complex, bizarrely-styled rumors." Edogawa Conan's mouth twitched. "Is it really okay that Samukawa-san has such good relations with yakuza?"
Don't think he didn't know—that guy who made the false police report was actually yakuza too!!!
It seemed like they were afraid things would escalate, so they simply made a false police report to get rid of this wave of people who might cause trouble...
It looked like a very practiced routine. And if the false police report didn't work, he would definitely make a real police report. So the reason the driver said police often came here was actually because yakuza frequently reported people for disturbing the peace here?!
Even Samukawa Shinryu calling the police himself would be more normal than this!!!
After hearing Edogawa Conan's frantic complaints, Dr. Agasa extracted the key point: "So Samukawa-san really is the [Consultant] you've been looking for? Didn't you say it wasn't him, that it was a misunderstanding?"
Edogawa Conan: "...I'm also very surprised about this."
He was fed up too!
So that criminal who solved codes really did consult with Samukawa Shinryu at the time, right? That's why Officer Hagiwara so naturally said "that guy is really good at breaking codes"...
Looking back now, this clue was practically explicit. How did he make it so complicated, going back and forth suspecting and denying and suspecting and denying?!
Edogawa Conan reviewed the situation.
First, it was because Samukawa-san admitted he was a consultant, but when he investigated, he found that Samukawa-san was Metropolitan Police's consultant, so afterward he stopped suspecting... Wait.
During that incident on the ship, when Hattori Heiji asked, Samukawa-san seemed to admit he was a consultant too!
Unlike when he directly asked about the [Consultant] codename, that time Hattori Heiji specifically emphasized "criminal consultant," but he actually thought Samukawa-san was joking and went up to "smooth things over," thus confusing Hattori Heiji too...
Right, it was also after he "smoothed things over" that Samukawa-san seemed exasperated for a moment, then changed his approach, saying things like detectives should investigate themselves, children don't need to know too much...
Finally, he had reviewed everything clearly.
Edogawa Conan silently raised his hand and covered his face.
So Samukawa-san was actually extremely honest, and he had been too clever for his own good, making the problem complicated?!
Having such good relations with yakuza organizations, with them coming to help maintain order around his house, and providing criminal consultation to so many people—why be so honest at a time like this!
Normal people would try to hide and cover things up, right?!
Insisting on doing this—did Samukawa-san have some kind of serious problem?!