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In fact, Ji Yi believed the reason he wasn’t great at solving cases lay precisely here. He wasn’t the cautious type often found in past-life novels—those characters who, unable to grasp the situation, forcibly conclude they are incompetent.

The key reason he felt inadequate was this: while the people of Mihana Town spent their days obsessing over a hundred ingenious uses for fishing lines and piano wires or a thousand ways to fabricate alibis, to Ji Yi, this was pure idiocy.

These fools were addicted to exploiting timing differences and committing crimes with petty tricks in front of others—that was simply courting death.

The most perfect murder plan was to find a place where no one was around, stab the victim once, and then hide the body somewhere unlikely to be discovered.

No need for convoluted methods or locked rooms, no need for messy alibis.

The longer it took to discover the body, the better.

Covering up only left more clues, and killing in front of people to create timing differences left no time to destroy evidence.

Give a murderer ten years to prepare, ten years to execute the crime, and ten years to handle the evidence—even a fool could erase all traces.

That was a perfect crime.

Thus, catching these Mihana idiots was truly nothing impressive in Ji Yi’s eyes.

If you claim to be good at reasoning and solving cases, then your opponent should at least measure up to someone of the caliber of the Zodiac from your previous life’s reality.

If you’re not at Dr. Li Changyu’s level, what kind of expert are you?

So Ji Yi was self-aware—he wasn’t particularly talented. He could only pay more attention to details than others, learn more about criminal psychology, observe the scene carefully, and start from the basics, rather than indulging in flights of fancy.

Clearly, in front of him now was yet another self-important fool.

“Take her away,” Ji Yi said, tired of wasting words, signaling the officers to escort Eiko Toya to the police headquarters for pork cutlet rice.

Eiko Toya looked panicked.

“Wait, Inspector, Teacher Toya couldn’t have committed the crime,” Kogoro Mouri began to explain his theory—no elevator going from the 15th to the 8th floor, not enough time to use the stairs, and so on.

Ji Yi disliked useless rambling and cut him off directly: “Mr. Mouri, Ms. Eiko Toya didn’t need to kill the victim on the 8th floor. The victim could have taken the elevator up to the 15th floor herself.”

“The footprints found on the ground were just a distraction. The sequence of events likely was: after arriving on the 15th floor, Ms. Toya called the victim for some pretext, the victim took the elevator up, then was stabbed at the elevator door. Afterwards, the victim’s body was placed in the elevator, leaning against the door. The elevator was then sent down to the 8th floor by pressing the button, where the victim naturally collapsed and jammed the door.”

This method was characteristic of the era’s elevators, which only opened if something was caught in the door. If the timeline were a bit later when elevator sensors became more sensitive, this trick wouldn’t work. It was a distinctive, though rather useless, technique.

“If you check the 15th floor carefully, you’ll probably find traces of tampering on the elevator buttons to ensure the door got stuck.”

“That’s impossible! If she took the elevator to the 15th floor as you say, then her fingerprints must be on the 8th-floor elevator button!” Eiko Toya struggled in a nearly self-defeating manner.

“…How did someone with your IQ become a top designer?” Ji Yi thought. Although these two probably didn’t think the same way, where was your intelligence?

What was even more baffling was the forensic officer nearby, who timely added: “We found no fingerprints on the 8th-floor elevator button.”

Ji Yi instantly flared up. Was this what a properly trained officer should say? He began to swear.

“Where’s your brain?” he blasted the forensics team. “Have you ever seen an elevator button without fingerprints? Even if the victim didn’t use the elevator today, didn’t she ever use it before? Idiots! There should be more fingerprints on the buttons than you can count! The murderer is an idiot, and so are you? Or do you think the building’s cleaning staff wipe elevator buttons every day?”

Conan, used to seeing people like Inspector Megure—calm, good-natured, and almost never losing their temper—was inexplicably terrified watching Ji Yi rant like this. He was so scared he looked like an internet meme.

“So... so fierce...” Conan realized he had a new understanding of this young, sharp inspector’s reasoning skills.

Even Kogoro Mouri’s expression was priceless. Although Ji Yi was scolding the forensic team, Mouri somehow felt he was included in the “idiot” and “fool” category.

“Inspector Higashino... I think this officer didn’t mean any harm...” “Angel” Ran tried to mediate.

Ji Yi ignored her. Ran wasn’t his subordinate; her kindness and tolerance were admirable but irrelevant. As an officer of the Metropolitan Police Department, he absolutely would not tolerate such amateur mistakes from his team.

Limited talent, failure to deduce, being fooled by the killer—he could endure those. But this brainless behavior was unforgivable.

Eiko Toya stood there stunned, truly dumbfounded. In hindsight, her attempts to wipe away fingerprints seemed really foolish.

Ji Yi looked at Eiko Toya, wanting to say: if you don’t have the mental strength or intelligence, don’t kill people. You seemed prepared, forging footprints, wiping fingerprints, but every single thing you did just made things worse.

Next time, choose a dark and windy night, wait by the roadside when no one’s around, stab the victim once, tie a stone and throw them into the river—simple, efficient, and your chance of escape will be orders of magnitude higher.

“Since it’s come to this, I’ll let you give up hope. A stab to the chest causes significant bleeding. To avoid blood splatter, you probably used a raincoat and gloves. After killing, you rushed out to create an alibi. Those items are probably either in the 15th-floor office or on you, right?”

You see, trying to exploit timing differences in a crime is just stupid. If you had waited a few more days or hours, you’d have plenty of time to handle everything.

Eiko Toya knelt down, obediently handing over her bag.

“The evidence is indeed here.”

Then she explained her motive: the victim had stolen her new design and sold it to a rival. Afterwards, the victim resigned, mocking her that even if she reported it, nothing would come of it. The fashion week would be canceled, causing the brand even greater losses.

Ji Yi couldn’t sympathize. No matter how you looked at it, exposing this would only harm the rival. Canceling fashion week once, playing the victim, hiring a good lawyer, and leaking the story to the media could completely destroy the rival company’s reputation.

Corporate espionage and plagiarism so brazen as to leave evidence? Wasn’t this the kind of plot that would make you laugh awake from sleep?

You confront the victim with a recording, keep original design drafts, hire a competent lawyer, and even the rival’s top lawyer would lose.

How could such an easy case be turned upside down?

Even in Mihana Town, this should have made the rival company the prime suspect.

Shouldn’t the rival be the one kneeling, saying, “This damned woman caught us stealing her designs and is trying to ruin my company. I will never submit”?

Ji Yi thought if he were Eiko Toya, he’d elevate the victim to martyr status and throw a victory banquet for defeating the rival. No one would dare eat until Mika Taniguchi showed up.

You actually killed your biggest asset?

Ji Yi became ever more convinced this famous designer was intellectually flawed.

Meanwhile, Conan once again confirmed one thing.

This fierce Inspector Higashino Ji Yi was definitely a super reasoning genius just like his father!

Next time, I will prove myself!

Conan was filled with fighting spirit.