"You already know..."
"The culprit..."
"Who is it?"
Everyone present turned their heads and looked at Senichi simultaneously upon hearing his words, as if they were manipulated like puppets.
"Detective Senichi, do you mean you already know who the culprit is?" Kogoro Mouri said incredulously, "You said there's conclusive evidence, then where is the evidence?"
"Right here." Senichi pointed to the Go board with black and white pieces placed beside him. "Mr. Itakura left us the final message through these Go pieces before he died."
With Senichi's words, everyone's gaze fell on the Go board.
"This is Braille, also known as tactile writing," Senichi explained. "And you can know the information Mr. Itakura left us if you only look at the black flags on the board."
Senichi had once drawn Braille skill, although it was only a 1 year skill, it was completely feasible to recognize these simple characters.
With Senichi's word by word explanation, everyone looked in shock at Ryusuke Soma next to them.
Because the Braille just read by Senichi revealed the content, "The murderer is Soma, and the evidence is his watch."
"I remember you mentioned that Mr. Itakura is very picky about watches and will admire the guest's watch every time he visits."
Senichi looked at the sweating Ryusuke Soma and said, "If that's the case, then Mr. Soma, the watch you bought just five days ago shouldn't have Mr. Itakura's fingerprints from a week ago."
In other words, as long as Senichi takes Ryusuke Soma's newly bought watch back and detects Mr. Itakura's fingerprints on it, it will be an irrefutable piece of evidence.
This is also why Senichi raced ahead and arrived at the hotel before everyone else, deliberately revealing his watch in the elevator.
It's to make Ryusuke Soma confess the crucial information that "his watch was newly bought five days ago" when riding the elevator with them.
Because Senichi knew that he only needed to draw attention to his watch and make the three talk about the "watch" topic with the reference of the original plot. So, he proactively triggered this "plot."
It can be said that solving this case is really too simple with Senichi's knowledge of the plot and conclusive evidence.
As for Ryusuke Soma's motive for killing Suguru Itakura, it's a somewhat sad topic.
In summary, it stems from the betrayal of dreams when Ryusuke Soma and Suguru Itakura were young.
Twenty years ago, Suguru Itakura was just an unknown game engineer, and Ryusuke Soma was just a small employee in a game company.
At that time, they were buddies who often played and chatted over drinks in the Shogi enthusiasts' club.
They mentioned during a casual conversation that if they became famous in the future, they would work together to design a Shogi software that could defeat even masters.
However, Suguru Itakura told him to "wait a bit more" when he was found by him three days ago.
At that moment, Ryusuke Soma felt that his dream of the past twenty years was nothing but a joke to him.
He had searched for countless game records of famous players for the sake of this dream for over these two decades. Yet, when he finally found Suguru Itakura, he dismissed him by saying to wait until the time was right.
He had invested so much time and effort into this Master-level Shogi program, he even borrowed money to invest so much financially in Suguru Itakura. However, all he got was a casual postponement, a dismissive and careless response.
Later, he exploded emotionally because of his shattered dream. After telling Suguru Itakura that he was going out to buy red wine to cheer him up, he went out and bought red wine and sleeping pills.
"Perhaps twenty years is too long for both him and me," Ryusuke Soma laughed self-deprecatingly. "Hearts and dreams will change with the passage of time after parting ways."
To this, Senichi could only pat the other's shoulder and sigh helplessly.
He sympathized with his plight, but Ryusuke Soma's mistake was choosing such an extreme way to solve the matter.
Afterward, the hotel room fell into an awkward silence.
And during this time, Conan and Senichi exchanged glances without making a sound.
It was clear that Conan had probably copied the contents from the magnetic disk seeing the relaxed expression on his face.
The waiting time didn't last long. Soon, Inspector Megure arrived at the hotel with Takagi and Chiba.
"What's the situation at the scene?"
Megure entered and, upon seeing Kogoro Mouri he immediately asked, "Briefly summarize the ins and outs of the matter!"
Megure and his team suddenly felt a bit confused after Kogoro Mouri's brief explanation.
What's going on?
Has the case... already been solved?
Megure was a bit bewildered looking at the resigned culprit beside him.
But considering that Senichi and Kogoro Mouri were present.
Oh, then it's okay...
After exchanging greetings, Megure directed Takagi and Chiba to collect some evidence. When the forensic team finished taking photos of the scene, they directly took the culprit Ryusuke Soma into custody.
As everyone walked out of the hotel together, they realized that tiny white snowflakes had started falling in the night at some point.
Standing at the entrance, Megure suddenly spoke to Ran, "There are still some things I need to discuss with Kogoro. I'll hail a taxi for you two."
"No need." Ran held Conan's hand and smiled, "It's only about a thirty-minute walk home."
"Well, I'll give you a ride then." Senichi saw that Ran was about to decline so he waved his hand and said, "Don't be polite. It's better to go home early on such a cold day, and I'm not taking a detour."
"Then... alright." Ran hesitated at first but then nodded, "Thank you, Detective Senichi."
"The parking lot was full; So I parked in the nearby mall's parking lot." Senichi said while leading the way. "Let's walk over there."
However, Ran didn't take a step forward as she watched Senichi's back. Instead, she looked at the falling snow in the sky and said with a hint of sadness, "Conan-kun, do you think…. people will all change?"
"Hmm?"
"To maintain an unchanged heart after parting ways..." seemingly influenced by Ryusuke Soma, Ran's eyes were slightly red. "Just waiting like this feels really difficult..."
"Don't worry, Brother Shinichi(Kudo) will definitely remain the same!"
Conan forced a smile to show her a brilliant smile, but seeing the teardrops rolling in her eyes, he involuntarily lowered his voice with a hint of uncertainty, "So, you don't really need to worry..."
At this moment, Conan's heart was filled with endless bitterness besides powerlessness.