10:30 AM.
Kurosawa Hoshino and the others arrived precisely on time in the car rented by Kogorō Mouri at an old villa.
"Haha, just in time." Kogorō checked the time on his phone and happily got out of the car.
"Hoshino, I've been wanting to ask you this on the way here. Your pants pocket is bulging—what's in there?" Sonoko pointed to the right cuff of Kurosawa's pants, where a cylindrical object bulged out, looking like a small bottle.
Hearing this, Ran and Haibara couldn't help but glance at it as well.
"This? A secret weapon." Kurosawa smiled, lightly patting his pocket, and walked with Kogorō toward the villa's steps. Reaching the door, he knocked.
A crisp thump, thump sounded.
After about ten seconds, the door opened, and a chubby man appeared.
Kogorō's smile froze. He glanced at the group of children beside him and saw that they were all snickering, so his expression turned somewhat unpleasant. He glared at the man and asked, "You're Nakamura Misao?"
However, the man didn't even look at him. He stared at Kurosawa with surprise and said excitedly, "Kurosawa-kun, I didn't expect you to actually come. Nakamura, come out quickly—you really invited Kurosawa-kun."
"Is that so?" Another tall, thin man came out of the house, but his right hand was bandaged and in a sling around his neck, looking rather pitiful. He recognized Kurosawa at a glance and said happily, "That's great, Kurosawa-kun! I never expected such a famous high school detective like you to come because of a letter. It's such a surprise! Once I'm done here, I'm definitely going to post this online so everyone knows how lucky I am!"
"Wait, aren't you guys—" Kogorō was about to speak when Kurosawa stopped him.
"Uncle Mouri, let me talk to them. Oh, and Ran, could you go to the car and get my backpack for me? And also bring down all the things I prepared?" After speaking, he turned and winked at everyone.
At that moment, Kogorō also realized what was going on and glanced subtly at the two men—one fat, one thin.
Actually, Ran and the others had been wondering the same thing. The two men had clearly invited Kogorō, but then said they were inviting Kurosawa. Now, seeing Kurosawa wink, they understood that something was definitely wrong with these two men. They seemed to have no idea what the letter really contained. And most importantly, Kurosawa hadn't left a backpack in the car or prepared anything. It was as if he was telling them to stay away.
Haibara reacted the fastest and spoke first. "Ran-neechan, Sonoko-neechan, my handheld game console is still in Hoshino-nii's bag. I want to play."
"Okay, I can't do anything with you." Ran took Haibara's hand and walked toward the car not far away.
"Hoshino, I'll go get your bag." Sonoko also turned and ran toward the car.
"Kurosawa-kun, please come in." The two men didn't notice anything amiss and were still inviting him into the house.
"Mr. Nakamura, you mentioned in your letter that something strange was happening at the villa. I've prepared something specifically for dealing with such things," Kurosawa said with a smile.
"Really? What is it?"
"It's—" Kurosawa put his hand in his pocket and touched the sleeping gas. It was the sleeping gas that had fallen when Kurosawa had hit them with his baton when Kaito Kid tried to drug them. He had kept it, and it would come in handy today.
"Sorry, I think it's a waste to use this on you two." Kurosawa regretted it and withdrew his hand.
This scene left the two men completely bewildered.
"Uncle Mouri—" Suddenly, Kurosawa looked at Kogorō with a very serious expression. The two men looked over as well.
Then, the next second—
With a muffled bang, the man now nominally Nakamura Misao took a solid punch to the chin from Kurosawa's sneak attack.
"Uncle Mouri, the other one is yours." As Kurosawa spoke rapidly, he didn't give the man on the ground a chance to react. He pressed his knee down on the man's bound hand and then punched him several more times, specifically targeting his chin, making the man's head spin.
"You—" The fat man finally came to his senses, revealing a fierce expression. But before he could make a move, he felt one of his arms being grabbed, and then he was lifted into the air and slammed hard to the ground. With a thud, the ground seemed to tremble, and the man immediately lost his ability to move.
Kogorō released the man's arm, slowly straightened his body, lightly patted imaginary dust off his clothes, tugged at his collar, and said indifferently, "Kid, you still need to sneak attack to beat someone up? You're still a long way off."
"As long as the goal is achieved, whether it's a sneak attack or not doesn't matter." Kurosawa shook his hand, which was a little sore, looked at the man who had finally passed out, and then slowly untied the bandage on the man's arm. A pistol was clutched in his hand.
Kogorō gasped. "Something's definitely wrong. I didn't expect them to even bring a gun. You brat, this guy can't be Nakamura Misao, right?"
"Of course. If it were Nakamura Misao, how could he not know what was written in the letter? It wasn't an invitation to me at all."
"Right." Kogorō nodded, then shouted to his daughter, Ran, who was standing nearby, "Ran, call the police."
"Got it." Ran replied.
"By the way, you brat, what were you trying to take out of your pocket just now? Why didn't you take it out later?"
"Sleeping gas." Kurosawa took out the sleeping gas and tossed it up and down.
"Where did you get this?" Kogorō glared.
"It was on the cruise ship last time—" Kurosawa explained how he had stolen it from Kaito Kid.
After listening, Kogorō grinned. "I think we should hand it over to the police. It's a bit dangerous for you to keep it."
"I think it's better to keep it. If we encounter someone with a gun again, or if there are many people, it'll be much more effective than fists."
"Whatever. By the way, don't leave this pistol behind." Kogorō was afraid that Kurosawa would steal something again, so he gave him a warning.
"I'd like to. Unless this guy dies, he'll definitely tell us when he gets to the Metropolitan Police Department."
Ran and Sonoko, who had brought Haibara, were startled when they heard Kurosawa's words. They suspected that he wasn't joking and that he really wanted to hide the pistol.
"Hoshino, let's not stand here. It feels weird." Sonoko stepped forward, grabbed his arm, and pulled him to the side.
"Yeah, it's scary." Ran grabbed his other arm.
The two girls just dragged Kurosawa away like that.
Kurosawa looked around, puzzled. He felt that it was really strange. He didn't understand what they were doing.