Hattori sighed and covered his forehead. This was the second time now—what the hell was going on with this kid?
He frowned and glanced over at Conan, who was wearing earmuffs. For some reason, the whole scene felt eerily familiar.
It gave Hattori Heiji a strong sense of déjà vu—he was reminded of that case at the diplomat's house. Just thinking about it made him recall Jiang Xia.
He looked around cautiously, raising his head.
But Jiang Xia wasn't identifying the murderer nearby, like usual.
—Actually, Jiang Xia wasn't even here. Everyone else had returned to the hotel. The only person near them was a woman in a fancy dress.
The woman noticed Hattori Heiji looking around and spoke up on her own:
"Looking for that little detective? He just went back inside. Probably to call the police."
Hattori Heiji was a little surprised. He just left? Jiang Xia already gathered all the clues at the scene that quickly?
I'm still struggling to even find some water drops(to check for AC in the car). Damn, is this the gap between us...
…
Half an hour later, everyone had gathered again in the hall, looking grim.
The situation was worse than they'd imagined.
Before this, some of them were still optimistically hoping that the explosion was just some elaborate game arranged by Boss Kanaya.
But after searching the place, they discovered all the mobile phones were broken, the landline had been cut, and the car in the garage was out of gas—completely undrivable. They were trapped here.
And that meant one very bad thing: Boss Kanaya's death might only be the beginning. The murderer's target might not be just him.
As Hattori Heiji summarized the situation aloud, he couldn't help but glance at Jiang Xia after each sentence—like a student sneaking peeks at their teacher during a presentation, trying to gauge if their answer was on the right track.
But to his surprise, Jiang Xia, standing quietly at the back of the crowd, wasn't stepping forward to name the culprit. Instead, he was slouched on the sofa, head lowered, completely immersed in his own thoughts.
This made Hattori's heart sink a little.
If Jiang Xia—the guy who could basically download the murderer's whole script just by glancing at the scene—was taking this long to figure it out, then just how high-level was the killer this time...?
As that thought crossed his mind, loud, exaggerated laughter suddenly rang out from the crowd.
Everyone turned, startled, and saw the woman in the dress flick her lighter and light a cigarette.
She gave a mysterious little smirk.
"The identity of the murderer, the method they used, and the conclusive evidence... I already know it all."
Conan had just taken off his earmuffs. When he heard that line, his hand jolted—and he snapped the earmuffs right back on.
Thank goodness this lady liked theatrics… If everyone were like Jiang Xia and opened with "The murderer is xxx," then there'd be no time to protect his innocent ears.
Relieved, Conan turned away, closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and tried to think through the case.
But it didn't last long. Hattori Heiji snatched the earmuffs off.
"Don't bother covering up—she didn't name the killer. She said she's giving the murderer ten minutes to confess. If they don't, she'll expose them."
"Oh..." Conan retrieved the earmuffs, hesitating whether to put them on again.
—Even if there was no risk of that woman spoiling the mystery just yet… Jiang Xia was still here.
Still, what was going on with Jiang Xia today? After all this time, he hadn't started solving the case at all. It was getting kind of unsettling.
Could it be… there just weren't enough clues?
Conan wasn't the only one who thought that. Hattori Heiji was wondering the same thing.
The two of them walked over to Jiang Xia and tried talking to him. But they quickly noticed something was off—although Jiang Xia would nod or shake his head in response, there was a huge delay. He showed no expression. The guy looked completely out of it.
Ran sat nearby and had been watching for a while. She finally spoke up, looking worried: "Are you okay?"
Conan glanced at Jiang Xia, then looked out the window, thinking back to the murder that had just happened. Suddenly, a spark lit up in his mind.
When Hattori Heiji walked away to check on the others, Conan leaned closer to Jiang Xia and whispered, "Where's your medicine?"
Xiaobai, who was lying on Jiang Xia's shoulder, misunderstood the question and thought Conan was insulting Jiang Xia. With a huff, it pulled out a feather left behind by the Tengu and gripped a pen, silently planning its revenge and noting it down in his Vengeance Book.
But in this situation, there was no need to wake Jiang Xia up.
The mini detective in front of him had a big brain and a bunch of secrets. Jiang Xia had said before—if the case didn't involve the organization, there was no need to waste time fooling Conan. In fact, Conan might even help them fool others.
Jiang Xia's body had apparently failed to sync with his consciousness. He didn't respond at all and continued staring at the ground, dazed.
Ran had heard Conan's question, though. She stepped in curiously: "What medicine?"
*Goal #1: Top 200 fanfics published within the last 30 - 90 days by POWER STONES.
Progress: 30/60(approx) for 10 BONUS CHAPTERS
Goal #2: One BONUS CHAPTER per review for the first 10 REVIEWS.
Progress:1/10*