Among this large number of puppets, probably only the pregnant woman and Xiaobai are normal and would not be regarded as strange creatures.
But if they are used to board the ship, the staff will definitely not be at ease.
Even if the crew finally let the pregnant woman on board due to regulations, they might sneak over to check from time to time in order to prevent accidents. As for Xiaobai... if he drives on the ship and cannot find his guardian, he will most likely be regarded as lost.
Children should be sent directly to the police station.
...When can I pick up a normal adult male ghost? It's better to hide the tattoo and pin it on the face... Jiang Xia sighed and lifted up his sunglasses. After a second, he lifted up the sunglasses again.
Pulled it down and let it cover the tattoo under the eyes again.
He drove Miyano Akemi's puppet to the boarding channel, took out the old banknotes and showed them to the staff, and boarded the ship as an independent guest.
After entering the room and locking the door, Jiang Xia dismissed the puppets and planned to make them again when needed.
His consciousness returned to his original body, where he opened his eyes, then casually took out a novel and opened it, passing the time while waiting for the ship to sail.
…
Ten minutes later, Hattori Heiji brought Conan to the port.
It was soon time to sail the ship, and the passers-by who came for the advertisement had already left one after another. Hattori Heiji walked to the boarding channel without any hindrance, showed the old version of the banknote in the letter to the staff stationed there, and boarded the ship.
.
He followed the corridor to the lobby. When checking in at the front desk, Hattori Heiji shook the old banknotes in his hand and asked, "Why can I get on the ship just by showing you this?"
The receptionist was startled, and her expression was strange for a moment. This made her suspect that Hattori Heiji had not successfully solved the puzzle on his own, but had heard the news about "old banknotes can provide free travel opportunities".
This is cheating...
However, the receptionist then thought about it and realized that she was just a wage earner and she didn’t have to pay for the guests’ expenses. She quickly adjusted her expression and responded with a smile: “Because that’s what the gentleman who paid the shipping fee in advance asked.”
Hattori Heiji was stunned when he heard that the anonymous sender actually hired an entire ship to ask him to solve the case?... This is too sincere. What case does the client want to investigate?
A series of shocking cases involving wealthy families began to appear in the Osaka detective's mind.
After a while, he hid the excitement of facing a huge challenge and asked calmly: "Where is that gentleman now? I want to say hello to him."
Conan also looked at the front desk curiously.
The front desk person shook his head in embarrassment: "I have never met him. He contacted us by phone, and the prepaid fee was transferred directly. There was no personal contact."
Hattori Heiji nodded thoughtfully and didn't ask any more questions.
In this way, the identity of the client is also a mystery. Well... maybe this is actually a test. The client may be hiding on the ship, waiting to see when the detective can find him.
Hattori Heiji felt a fighting spirit in his heart.
After leaving the front desk, he originally wanted to pat his colleague on the shoulder to express competition and friendliness.
But due to height issues, he finally lowered his hand and touched Conan's head: "Haha, finally there is no Jiang Xia to answer this time. Let's compete, Kudo!"
"..." Conan silently pulled his hand away.
Maybe it was because he had been with Jiang Xia for a long time, and when he suddenly heard this declaration, he always felt like Hattori Heiji was still a little kid. However, Conan still subconsciously looked at the people around him, thinking that the employer might be hiding on the ship.
The two put away their luggage and walked around for a while, discovering that there were several other guests on the boat.
This made Hattori Heiji realize that there were some errors in his previous thinking - the client did not hire an entire ship for him, but probably just spent money to buy him a place.
...This made Hattori Heiji a little disappointed. It was not that he was disappointed that the other party did not spend money for him, but that as a result, all the reasoning dramas he had just imagined would not be realized.
…
Maybe it was not time for dinner yet, there were very few people on the boat, and apart from the service staff, there were only two customers in the restaurant.
One is a middle-aged man with glasses and a prim look, Ebina Minoru. The other is a very silent, taro-like, squinty-eyed uncle, Kameda Teruyoshi.
The two of them didn't know whether it was because they were introverted or in a bad mood. They just exchanged a few polite words and left quickly.
Hattori Heiji found nothing and could only return to the room temporarily.
In the evening, he and Conan came to the restaurant to catch their meal.
This time, there were more people than before, but compared to the entire ship, the population density was still too sparse.
Conan also felt a little strange.
After sitting down at the table, he grabbed the passing waiter and asked in a childlike voice: "Uncle, why does such a big ship only have so few passengers? It's too deserted."
The waiter originally wanted to say that there were only so many people who could answer the questions correctly, but he felt that this might be misinterpreted as him mocking the passengers who failed to get on the boat. So in the end, he just repeated it in another way with a desire to survive.
Conan said: "Including the three passengers currently resting in the room, there are only 11 people participating in this trip to Ogasawara."
Conan and Hattori Heiji were startled at the same time.
There are only three people resting in the cabin? There are fewer passengers on this ship than they thought.
At this time, the well-built and well-groomed Whalei Sadao next to him twirled the mustache on his lips and joined the conversation with interest:
"By the way, I remember that there was an old scholar among the passengers. We met in the corridor in the afternoon and chatted for a while - he seems to be an expert in marine life research?"
The waiter recalled the guest registration form: "Are you talking about Mr. Ye Caisan? He did say that he has a lot of research on the ocean."
As soon as Hattori Heiji felt that the name "Ye Saizo" sounded familiar, he saw that the expressions of all the passengers in the restaurant had changed, some were panic, some were complicated, and some were filled with hatred.
The detective radar alerted Heiji Hattori and Conan: "...Who is Yoshizo?"
The short-haired woman sitting nearby looked at them, smiled lightly, and said with a hint of memory: "He is a criminal genius known as the 'Shadow Planner.' Twenty years ago, he was responsible for a 400 million bank robbery."
The leader...after that case, he disappeared."
Not far away, the foggy dog hovered beside the dining table, watching this scene carefully.
Jiang Xia didn't show up at dinner. He didn't want his appearance to interfere with what was going to happen next, but he was a little curious about how far it had progressed, so he temporarily transferred his vision and hearing to the ghost and let the ghost float away.
Go out and check the situation.
For Jiang Xia, except for Hattori Heiji and Conan, everyone else in the restaurant was unfamiliar. However, he still used each person's characteristics to match the real person with the character in the spoiler.
