In Detective Conan: Intercepting Miwako Sato at the Start

Page 107

His voice was still calm, but it seemed to have lost some of its previous aloofness.

Miyamoto Yumi paused for a moment, looking at Takada Yuki's broad but slightly cold back, and felt a strange sense of relief.

Chapter 128 Miwako Sato is lost

Yumi Miyamoto nodded vigorously, staring intently at his back as if grasping at a straw, trying to ignore the eerie sounds and shadows around her.

The two walked a little further. Although Miyamoto Yumi was still nervous along the way, she managed to avoid the same panicked state she had shown before, thanks to the safe zone that Takada Yuuki had deliberately created.

We finally reached the finish line.

Soon, everyone arrived at the finish line of the test of courage.

"Welcome back." Just then, the others who had reached the finish line greeted Takada Yuuki and his companion warmly.

"Phew." Miyamoto Yumi let out a soft breath, and her whole body immediately relaxed a lot.

“Speaking of which, President Fujita and his team are so slow!” said a woman with her hair in a bun next to her.

“That’s right, half an hour has already passed.” Another club member, seeing this, checked his phone.

Haven't Sato Miwako and the others returned yet?

Yuuki Takada's face didn't show any concern, but he was quite concerned about her privately. He picked up his phone, glanced at it, and decided to send her a message.

Seeing that Sato Miwako had not yet returned, Miyamoto Yumi became a little worried. "Fujita Maiko is there too, but she's still too slow."

"I'll call them..."

"Stop hitting them, stop hitting them. Maybe they have something to talk about." The woman with the bun walked over and said with a disdainful look, "After all, the president admires Sato-senpai. Maybe they're having a good chat."

"If you call them rashly and it affects both of them, what do you think we should do?"

"That's it."

"Huh? Is it going to rain?" The girl with the bun hairstyle looked up at the dark sky.

Before the words were even finished, large raindrops began to pour down without warning, pattering against the leaves and instantly soaking everyone.

"Wow! Why is it raining so heavily all of a sudden!"

"Quick, find somewhere to take shelter from the rain!"

The crowd was in chaos, rushing towards the only small pavilion at the finish line.

Yuki Takada stood still, raindrops dripping from his hair.

He squinted at the path they had come from, a path that had quickly become muddy and impassable in the downpour.

"Takada-senpai, come here quickly!" Miyamoto Yumi called out from the pavilion.

Just then, Miyamoto Yumi's phone suddenly rang. "It's Fujita Maiko calling..."

Yumi Miyamoto answered quickly, saying, "Hello, what is it?"

"I understand. You're going to turn back, right?"

"No..." A male college student next to him immediately asked, "What happened?"

"Miwako lost her phone, and when the two of them were looking for it together, they suddenly got separated."

"What?" Upon hearing this news, Yuki Takada's heart tightened suddenly.

The others also became worried, and the male college student continued to ask, "Are they alright?"

"Sato, are they alright..." Takada Yuki said softly.

"Don't worry, this area is private, so there's no danger," the woman with the bun hairstyle said as she approached. "Why don't you go back first?"

Many raindrops even fell directly onto their heads.

"Ugh, the rain is getting heavier."

After saying that, the woman with the bun hairstyle and her gang members went back first.

"I'll leave the rest to you." The woman with the bun hairstyle glanced back at the male college student as she ran.

"Okay, leave it to me." The male college student nodded.

……

"Takada-senpai, you'll get soaked in the rain like this." Miyamoto Yumi came over, took his hand, and pulled him inside.

“I think we should wait in the pavilion for a while before going to find Miwako,” Miyamoto Yumi said, looking at Takada Yuuki in front of her.

Yuki Takada stepped out of the pavilion, letting the heavy rain soak him. After a few seconds of pause, he slowly said, "Yumi, I'm sorry, I need to go find Miwako Sato."

After saying that, Yuuki Takada quickened his pace and headed back the way he had come.

"Takada-senpai..." Miyamoto Yumi called softly.

Large raindrops instantly soaked through Yuki Takada's hair and clothes.

But Yuki Takada didn't care at all, and his pace quickened until he was almost running on the muddy forest path.

The cold rain washed over his face, but it couldn't extinguish the inexplicable anxiety rising in his heart.

"Miwako!" Yuuki Takada tried to call out, but his voice was weak amidst the dense rain and the rustling of leaves.

The only response he received was the rumble of thunder and the howling of wind and rain.

……

Miwako Sato strolled through the woods, looking around at the pitch-black surroundings.

How to do?

Right now, not only have we failed to find her phone, but we've also been caught in the rain.

That's really too tragic.

Should I go back to my hotel room first?

only……

I seem to have lost my way now, and I can't even tell where I am.

After getting separated from Fujita Maiko, she tried to find her way back by memory, but the torrential rain completely disrupted her sense of direction.

The already barely discernible path nearly disappeared under the onslaught of rain and the cover of night. She was soaked to the bone, her teeth chattering from the cold, her thin clothes clinging tightly to her body, bringing a chilling sensation.

To make matters worse, while groping her way forward, she slipped and tumbled down a gentle slope. Although the slope wasn't steep and she wasn't seriously injured, a sharp pain shot through her ankle, indicating a sprain.

"Damn it..." She leaned against the wet tree trunk, panting heavily, the rain blurring her vision. Helplessness and panic gripped her like vines. She tried to stand up, but the sharp pain in her ankle made her give up instantly.

Just then, Sato Miwako seemed to hear faint shouts, as if someone was calling her name.

"Hello--!"

"I'm here!" Miwako Sato shouted with all her might, hoping to drown out the sound of the rain.

But the voice seemed to have disappeared, as if it had just been her hallucination.

The hope that was ignited and then extinguished only made the current situation even more desperate.

Yuki Takada stopped in his tracks, his heart pounding in his ears.

He thought he had just heard something, but the rain was too loud to tell the direction or what it was.

I forced myself to calm down and not search aimlessly like a headless fly. I carefully observed my surroundings.

On the muddy ground, the messy footprints left by their large group of people had mostly disappeared after being washed away by the rain. However, he could still recognize some relatively new marks on the road.

Yuki Takada crouched down and wiped away the mud with his fingers, where some footprints could be vaguely discerned.

And these footprints may very well belong to Miwako Sato.

Chapter 129 Looking for Miwako Sato

Yuki Takada decided to follow these possible clues.

The rain was quickly destroying the clues; he had to hurry.

"Miwako! Miwako, where are you?!" Yuuki Takada shouted, panting heavily. His voice carried through the rain, his footsteps drowned out by the sound of the raindrops.

Yuki Takada kept shouting, the noise mixed with the torrential rain almost completely filling his hearing.

He struggled forward along the unfamiliar and muddy path, his eyes scanning every shadow that might be hiding, like a hawk's.

He kept squeezing out shouts from his throat: "Sato! Miwako! Answer me if you hear me!"

However, all that answered him was the howling wind sweeping through the woods and the relentless patter of rain against the leaves and the ground.

Those occasional, seemingly faint responses were ultimately proven to be cruel jokes played by the storm.

Mud and water splattered all over his trouser legs, and the cold, soaked clothes clung tightly to his skin, bringing a biting chill, but Yuuki Takada was completely oblivious.

An unprecedented sense of anxiety gripped him, suffocating him even more than the terrible weather.

"Damn it!" Yuuki Takada cursed under his breath, slamming his fist into the wet tree trunk beside him, a sharp pain shooting through his knuckles.

A sense of powerlessness and anger intertwined.

Yuki Takada always prided himself on being calm and rational, and always able to find a solution to problems.

But at this moment, in the face of this vast rainy night and dark forest, he felt for the first time his own insignificance and powerlessness.

After searching for a while, Yuki Takada accidentally found the lost cell phone left behind by Miwako Sato.

Yuki Takada picked up the phone, checked it several times, and said softly, "This is Miwako Sato's phone."

"Damn it!" Takada Yuuki turned his head slightly and said coldly, "Where are you, Miwako?"

Meanwhile, Miwako Sato's situation is deteriorating rapidly.

The brief rest huddled under the tree roots did not bring much relief; on the contrary, the cold seeped into her limbs and bones more deeply because she remained still.

His teeth were chattering uncontrollably, and his exposed skin was already bluish-white from the cold.

The swelling and pain in my ankle did not lessen; instead, the pain became more pronounced and throbbing under the stimulation of cold and dampness.

The most terrifying thing was the feeling of despair, which, like the boundless darkness and the cold rain, slowly seeped into her will.

Yuki Takada's calls seemed to have completely disappeared; perhaps he never came looking for her at all?