Upon hearing the scream, Haibara Ai suddenly had a bad feeling. She quickly left the hot spring and approached the woman who was clutching her cheek and still screaming incessantly.
"What happened?"
Haibara Ai asked.
The woman, slumped on the floor, slowly turned her head when she heard the voice.
She looked at the young girl before her, who appeared to be just starting elementary school, with a pale face. Trembling, she extended her hand and pointed towards the hot spring pool she had just been soaking in. Her lips quivered as she stammered:
"Under... under the water… someone…"
---
"Edogawa-kun!"
As Conan slept, he dreamed he was riding a roller coaster with his childhood friend, Mouri Ran. Then, the entire world started spinning.
He opened his eyes abruptly to see Haibara Ai, her face pale, grabbing his collar and shaking him wildly.
"Haibara, what's wrong? Did you wet the bed again?"
"What do you mean 'again'? I've never wet the bed before, okay!"
Haibara Ai retorted, clearly annoyed.
"Then what's the matter?"
"There's a dead body in the women's hot spring area."
Hearing Haibara Ai's words, Conan's eyes widened instantly, and he was completely awake.
---
He quickly woke up Dr. Agasa, who was snoring loudly, and after changing into clothes, the three of them hurried downstairs.
At that moment, Conan heard the siren of a police car sounding outside.
The first floor of Guquan'an had already descended into chaos. Many staff members appeared visibly flustered, clearly caught off guard by the situation.
Soon, a group of detectives from the Kanagawa Prefecture Police Headquarters entered the lobby and asked, "Who called the police?"
"It was me!"
Haibara Ai raised her small hand and spoke loudly.
The police officers present looked surprised to see that the person who had reported the case was such a young girl.
The lead officer approached Haibara Ai, crouched down, and asked, "Can you tell me what happened, young lady?"
"I was bathing in the hot spring when I suddenly heard that sister scream," Haibara Ai explained, pointing to another woman in the lobby, wrapped in a blanket and looking pale.
---
Conan followed Haibara Ai's gesture and looked at the woman.
Her hair was wet and hanging down, and she was still wearing the yukata provided to guests by the inn. Her body was trembling uncontrollably.
'Judging by her attire, it's clear she hasn't returned to her room.'
'And if she was so scared, she wouldn't have taken time to shower first.'
'So why is her hair wet?'
Conan listened to Haibara Ai's description while recalling that the woman's hair had been tied up earlier.
Logically, her hair shouldn't have been exposed to water.
While Conan pondered this, the lead officer sent a female officer to question the trembling woman about what had happened.
---
The woman's name was Motoki Mayumi.
She had the same idea as Haibara Ai, wanting to enjoy the hot springs in the morning when no one else was around, and the water was relatively clean.
However, unlike Haibara Ai, Mayumi Motoki first chose the "bubble bath," which was said to be beneficial for the skin and had whitening effects.
As the name suggests, the bubble bath pool had many white bubbles on the water's surface.
The bubbles were created by injecting carbon dioxide into the water through nozzles installed at the bottom or sides of the pool.
But because of the dense bubbles, the bottom of the pool wasn't visible like other hot spring pools.
So, Mayumi Motoki didn't think twice and stepped directly into the pool.
---
However, as soon as she immersed herself, her right foot stepped on something soft.
At first, she didn't think much of it and even mustered the courage to submerge her entire head in the pool, wanting to see what she had stepped on.
But when she did, she was horrified to find a man's body lying at the bottom of the pool.
Frightened out of her wits, Mayumi Motoki bolted out of the pool and hadn't recovered since.
'No wonder her hair is wet… turns out she stepped on the body and dunked her head in to check the situation.'
Conan was astonished.
He silently marveled at Mayumi Motoki's extraordinary courage.
At the same time, he couldn't help but think that this incident might leave a deep psychological scar, and she might never visit hot springs again.
---
Conan and Haibara Ai hid behind Dr. Agasa, who was well-acquainted with the police, and entered the women's hot spring area.
By then, the body in the hot spring pool had already been retrieved.
Because the corpse had been soaking in the water for a long time, it was wrinkled and bloated.
Still, Conan and Haibara Ai immediately recognized it.
It was the actor who had played Masked Superman on stage the previous afternoon: Takeshi Furusawa.
After observing the body, Conan turned to Haibara Ai.
He saw her nodding seriously.
It seemed the two had reached the same conclusion about the cause of death.
---
The police conducted a preliminary examination of Furusawa Takeshi's body but found no visible injuries.
"Did he drown?"
A police officer from the Kanagawa Prefecture Headquarters muttered as he looked at Furusawa Takeshi's pale and wrinkled body.
"No, he didn't drown!"
At that moment, Conan activated his bow-tie voice changer and spoke in Dr. Agasa's voice.
The officers present turned to look at Dr. Agasa after hearing the voice.
Dr. Agasa was initially startled but quickly composed himself and echoed Conan's words:
"Although the deceased's skin shows signs of maceration and hypoxia due to prolonged immersion, if you look closely, his lips, nails, and earlobes are cyanotic."
Everyone turned their attention to Furusawa Takeshi's body and noticed that the skin of his lips, nails, and earlobes indeed had a bluish-purple tint.
"This is a classic symptom of hydrogen sulfide poisoning.
"The cyanosis occurs because hydrogen sulfide disrupts oxygen utilization.
"At the same time, poisoning victims often lose consciousness quickly due to nervous system depression, which can lead to respiratory failure. As a result, the body also exhibits signs of hypoxia.
"Additionally, Ms. Motoki mentioned earlier that the body was at the bottom of the pool when she found it.
"If the cause of death were drowning, the body would have floated to the surface due to lung inflation.
"But this body sank to the bottom, indicating that the cause of death wasn't drowning. Moreover, the time of death was relatively recent, as the body hasn't begun decomposing."
"So, the cause of death is most likely hydrogen sulfide poisoning."
---
(End of the Chapter)