Dr. Agasa's villa was tucked away in a remote spot. It would still be an hour or two before the police showed up.
Jiangxia Tongzhi was still piloting Akemi Miyano's puppet. He calmly informed the doctor and Haibara about the corpse in the attic, reminded them to call the police, and then—without ceremony—climbed out the window.
His consciousness returned to his real body, but he didn't dismiss the puppet. Instead, he left it dangling outside the villa window on standby. If Okuda got murdery again or made any funny moves, he could swoop in for a swift round two.
Putting the Detective Boys in the same room as gangsters was... deeply unnerving.
Sure, maintaining a puppet consumed energy—but that could be replenished with murderous aura. Murderous aura was precious, yes, but lately Jiangxia had been bumping into Gin more often, and the source had become a little more stable. In other words, the aura was renewable, but murder magnets were limited. Better to keep the puppet up—just in case.
He could dismiss it once the cops arrived.
Back inside, Haibara Ai had been watching the puppet version of Anonymous (aka Akemi) leave. When it turned the corner of the house and froze at the window frame, she blinked in surprise.
And just like that, the favorability rating—which had dipped a bit after the attic corpse incident—shot back up.
Anonymous probably didn't want to be seen by the police. But she must've been worried about the old folks and the bear children stuck in there with a bunch of gangsters. So she was silently keeping watch.
So it wasn't just a feeling—Xiaobai and Anonymous really were good people.
Although now that she thought about it… that tattoo on Anonymous's face was weird. Her skin looked smooth—didn't seem like she was covering a scar. And pretty older sisters usually didn't ink their faces like that…
Maybe, like Xiaobai, she'd been kidnapped and forced into it. Maybe someone in the Organization made her get that tattoo. The higher-ups in that hateful anonymous organization were persecuting good employees again. Flames of righteous anger sparked up behind Haibara as she clenched the gun in her little hands.
…
Meanwhile, Jiangxia, blissfully unaware of Haibara's rising goodwill stat, opened his eyes back in the hotel lobby.
He was just about to look around when—fwomp—a heavy quilt hit his shoulders. Ran Mouri shoved him down onto the sofa and began wrapping him up like a human burrito.
Jiangxia: "?"
He looked at Xiaobai. Xiaobai stared back innocently, just as baffled.
Jiangxia turned to Ran again and tried to sit up.
He got halfway before Ran firmly pushed him down again. "If you're not feeling well, just rest. Don't force yourself," she said sweetly, continuing to wrap.
Jiangxia: "…"
When did that get added to my settings?
What am I now, a tropical houseplant that needs five layers of quilts or I'll die?
He jabbed Xiaobai with an elbow, hoping for clarification.
Xiaobai strained to recall anything useful but came up empty. In the end, it sheepishly pulled out its Vengeance Book and showed it to him.
Jiangxia squinted at the tiny, translucent text, trying to read it. Just then, an explosion shook the hotel.
Everyone froze. Then chaos.
They bolted outside toward the source of the blast.
Jiangxia struggled free of the quilt roll and followed.
It was the garage that had exploded. Right now, it was a raging bonfire—impossible to see anything clearly.
Jiangxia's eyes locked on the corner of the flames. A shikigami floated out of the firelight and gently landed on the lap of a man wearing glasses.
Fire extinguishers were brought out, and the blaze was eventually subdued, revealing the wreckage of a blown-up car.
Inside, a charred body was slumped in the back seat. Judging by the accessories, the deceased was Ayako Oki—the woman who had figured out who the killer was.
The body count had gone up again, and the hotel's already tense mood plummeted even further.
Kento Togano stared blankly at the scorched corpse. Ayako had been his girlfriend.
He wailed and threw himself on the body. "Ayako!! AYAKO! Waaaaaaaaah..."
A few meters away, Jiangxia eyed the two shikigami now firmly attached to Kento Togano's legs and sank into deep thought.
This murderer wasn't just from the "acting school," he was from the "practical application" branch too. Two murders, no real evidence. Explosions really were a great way to destroy corpses. No wonder people in the Organization loved tossing bombs around like party favors.
Kento Togano, as it turned out, was a hardcore Sherlock Holmes fan. He'd snapped because Boss Kanaya and another guest, Toshiaki Fujisawa, had written extremely out-of-character fanfiction that "insulted the source material."
So he'd come up with two plans to kill each of them. But on the way, Ayako found out too much, so he used the second method on her instead. Fujisawa had narrowly escaped.
Which meant... Kento Togano still had one murder left in his queue. And this one would be rushed—no time for finesse.
If Jiangxia wanted to hand him over to the police, catching him in the act would be ideal. Good opportunity to grab a second shikigami, too. Efficient and stylish.
While he was plotting logistics, Ran and the others finished surveying the scene and started heading back inside, looking grim.
They turned—and spotted Jiangxia standing behind them, watching the ruins.
Ran froze.
Then her face twisted in horror.
He'd seen the flames from a distance and spaced out for a while. Now he was up close with the burnt wreck and the body...
She bolted in front of him like she'd teleported, grabbed his wrist, and yelled, "Don't do anything rash!!"
Jiangxia: "…"
Right. That storyline Xiaobai just showed him. The see-through Vengeance Book. This tracked perfectly with Conan's usual logic spirals.
Honestly, this "fragile PTSD" patch was a bit dramatic—but once you accepted it, it had its uses.
In future, whenever he didn't feel like personally opening a door or solving a whole serial murder, he could just copy-paste this excuse. Any scene with cars, with fire, with explosions… all valid trauma triggers.
Mental health is complex, okay? One minute you're fine, the next you're rebooting like a Windows XP laptop.
For now though, Jiangxia had fully recovered. He was just faster at bouncing back than normal people. Gifted, really.
He gently extracted his hand from Ran's grip, adjusted his pace to about 0.75x normal speed, and said calmly, "Shall we go back?"
*Goal #1: Top 200 fanfics published within the last 30 - 90 days by POWER STONES.
Progress: 36/60(approx) for 10 BONUS CHAPTERS
Goal #2: One BONUS CHAPTER per review for the first 10 REVIEWS.
Progress:2/10*