What did he do?
He actually exposed the fact that the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department didn't have evidence to the primary suspect?!
Nakajima Takuto stood rooted to the spot, his mind a blank.
When the Police didn't have concrete evidence, they wanted Akikawa Sosuke to confess,
by making Akikawa Sosuke believe that the Police already had evidence,
but were willing to be lenient and offer him a chance to turn himself in and start anew.
Now Akikawa Sosuke knew the Police had no evidence.
Wouldn't all the previous bluffs be meaningless?
Nakajima Takuto's hand gripping Akikawa Sosuke's collar gradually loosened, and after Akikawa Sosuke broke free, he coughed again.
However, at this moment, Nakajima Takuto had no time to pay attention to Akikawa Sosuke.
Because he realized he had made a colossal mistake, the back of his shirt was completely soaked with cold sweat.
If his superiors found out about this, he would definitely face severe punishment.
"No, that's not right, there's still a chance to fix this."
Nakajima Takuto stiffly turned his head to look at Akikawa Sosuke, who was desperately coughing while clutching his neck.
"Given this guy's mental age and experience, he might not even know what the words I just said mean to him."
"How could a kid who's been confined at home since elementary school know the procedures for a Detective's investigation?"
"Besides, as long as he confesses, wouldn't the previous mistake be written off?"
"If the culprit has already confessed, who would know that I accidentally revealed the details of the case investigation to the culprit?"
Nakajima Takuto calmed down and said in a deep voice to Akikawa Sosuke:
"I'm giving you one more chance. Think carefully before you speak. You need to remember, I'm giving you a chance!"
"You are already an adult. The Protection Act hasn't applied to you for two years."
"If you confess honestly now, it can be considered turning yourself in, and you'll receive a lighter sentence."
"But if you get caught, the outcome won't be like this."
Nakajima Takuto no longer had the energy to pretend to be kind and gentle in front of Akikawa Sosuke.
He laid it out plainly. Surely the other party would understand now?
Akikawa Sosuke pondered for a moment, then cautiously said:
"I remember now, the person riding the motorcycle seemed to be wearing gloves when they killed my mother."
Nakajima Takuto: "?"
"You're adding details now, are you?! You heard me say we didn't find fingerprints, so you added a detail that the fake culprit was wearing gloves, right?"
Nakajima Takuto was almost driven to death by anger, and once again couldn't help but shout:
"Stop talking about someone riding a motorcycle! The Police already have evidence! It's clearly because you harbored resentment towards your mother, so you killed Ryoko!"
"No, no, no! Everything I said is true!" Akikawa Sosuke repeatedly denied. "Even if I really wanted to kill Mom, I couldn't…"
"What do you mean 'even if'?! What do you mean 'couldn't'?!"
"As long as you have a knife, even someone like you, using this hand, could kill your own mother…"
Nakajima Takuto said angrily, then grabbed Akikawa Sosuke's right hand, which had always been hidden in the sleeve of his hospital gown.
However, after seeing Akikawa Sosuke's right hand, which was already swollen and purple, and bent in the wrong direction,
Nakajima Takuto's words were abruptly stuck in his throat.
"Ah——!"
Akikawa Sosuke let out a miserable cry.
Nakajima Takuto saw Akikawa Sosuke's face contort with pain, and he quickly let go.
"Your… your hand… what happened?"
This time, Nakajima Takuto's words began to stutter.
It was the first time he had discovered that Akikawa Sosuke's right hand was fractured.
Furthermore, there was severe swelling and subcutaneous bleeding.
And the color of the subcutaneous bleeding was no longer red, but had turned bluish-purple.
This indicated that a considerable amount of time had passed since Akikawa Sosuke's hand was injured.
A bad feeling began to rise in Nakajima Takuto's mind.
"I just… said… when Mom braked hard yesterday… it hit…"
"Then why didn't you say anything when you woke up this morning?!"
"I… didn't dare…"
Nakajima Takuto looked at Akikawa Sosuke, who didn't dare to look him in the eye, appearing extremely frightened.
He felt a rush of blood to his head, so angry that he felt dizzy for a moment.
"What in the world is going on?!"
"This feeling of déjà vu, like a child who got injured but was afraid of getting scolded at home, so they hid it and ended up with the injury getting worse and worse!"
"Is he an idiot?! He really is an idiot, isn't he!"
"He's already twenty years old, an adult! How could he do something that even a middle schooler wouldn't…"
Nakajima Takuto finally understood where the sense of incongruity came from when Akikawa Sosuke was eating.
Because Akikawa Sosuke's right hand was already injured at that time, but he was afraid of being discovered, so he had been eating with his left hand.
That's why he seemed so clumsy.
Nakajima Takuto cursed inwardly, then suddenly remembered something.
This Akikawa Sosuke in front of him really did seem to have the mental age of a child!
"Could it be true? Did he really not kill his mother?"
"But he clearly had ample motive, and was originally the only suspect!"
"He was confined and abused by his mother since childhood, he should have hated his mother to the bone!"
"With his mother dead, he's the biggest beneficiary!"
"Speaking of which, when he talked about his mother being killed by an outsider, although he seemed somewhat resistant, he didn't show the obvious signs of lying he did before."
"Or was he deliberately pretending not to be able to lie before, just so he could conceal the truth when fabricating the incident?"
Nakajima Takuto was horrified to realize that even he himself was gradually starting to believe that Akikawa Sosuke was not the culprit.
But emotionally, he couldn't accept this at all.
Because if these things were true,
then what he had done to Akikawa Sosuke today would have extremely negative and serious consequences.
Inducing a confession,
Forcing a confession.
Any one of these would be enough to make the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department's trust in the hearts of the public plummet.
Although this had always been the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department's way of handling cases,
he, who had applied these methods to the wrong person,
would definitely suffer unimaginably severe punishment.
"No, it must be you!"
"You don't have your right hand, but you still have your left, don't you?"
"As long as you have a knife, you can still kill Your mother."
"Afterward, you wiped away the fingerprints!"
"That's right, that's it!"
"You deliberately pretended to be a child to make me lower my guard!"
Nakajima Takuto maniacally grabbed Akikawa Sosuke's left hand and kept shouting loudly.
The killer could only be Akikawa Sosuke.
Akikawa Sosuke must be the killer!
Akikawa Sosuke wanted to break free, but his strength was no match for Nakajima Takuto.
"Stop!!"
Just then, the door to the hospital room was yanked open with a whoosh.
A high-pitched shout echoed through the hospital.
The next moment.
Nakajima Takuto felt his right hand, which was gripping Akikawa Sosuke's wrist, being grabbed by a pair of fair hands.
"Excuse me."
The voice sounded again.
As soon as the words fell, Nakajima Takuto felt a sharp pain shoot up from his wrist.
"Ah——!!"
The pain made Nakajima Takuto immediately let go and look at the person who had grabbed his wrist.
It was the high school Detective, Sera Masumi.
"Just a mere high schooler, daring to lay a hand on a Tokyo Metropolitan Police DepartmentDetective…"
Sera Masumi's attitude when she questioned him about inducing a confession just now was quite hostile,
and now she even dared to directly attack him.
Nakajima Takuto felt that,
this smug high school Detective in front of him seemed to have no regard for the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department's Detectives at all.
He had to make her understand the consequences of looking down on a Tokyo Metropolitan Police DepartmentDetective!
However, before Nakajima Takuto could finish speaking,
he felt his vision blur, and heard a 'bang—' of air being cut beside his ear.
At some point, Sera Masumi's other hand, which wasn't holding Nakajima Takuto's wrist, had formed a fist and shot past Nakajima Takuto's ear like a bullet.
A few strands of hair drifted down along with Sera Masumi's fist.
Nakajima Takuto's ear was also stinging from the wind of Sera Masumi's punch.
He felt as if the blood in his body had frozen in an instant.
Nakajima Takuto had no doubt.
If Sera Masumi's punch just now had landed on his face, he would probably have been sent straight to the emergency room.
"You're too impulsive, old man. Masumi Sera is a super Jeet Kune Do expert who can even suppress Ran…"
Conan, who had entered with her, looked at the frozen Nakajima Takuto, his mouth twitching, and silently complained in his heart.
"Nakajima! Miss Sera! What are you doing?!!"
The shout of Chiba Kazunobu, who arrived afterward, also echoed in the hospital room.
He was so shocked by the scene before him that his eyes widened, not understanding what had happened.
A moment later.
Only then did Sera Masumi slowly withdraw her hand, taking a step back and creating distance between herself and Nakajima Takuto.
She lightly wiped her fist; there was the corpse of a mosquito that had been smashed.
In the girl's deep green eyes was reflected the ashen-faced Nakajima Takuto,
and a apologetic smile appeared on her face, which was even more delicate than countless active male idols.
"Sorry, Detective Nakajima, there was a mosquito."