"Hm." Jiangxia Tongzhi glanced down at the man slumped on the ground — Kento Togano.
This brainy college guy clearly hadn't experienced the, uh, harsher beatings of society. Compared to Okuda Tomoaki from that mess at Dr. Agasa's villa earlier, this one seemed like a prime candidate for it.
Hattori Heiji had never witnessed such a scene. That low, dull thunk with each hit was oddly stomach-churning.
At first, Hattori had wanted to step in and drag Jiangxia off. But Jiangxia wasn't going wild or anything. He wasn't yelling. He wasn't flailing. He was just... rhythmically thwacking the guy. There was a calmness to it. Almost refined. Hattori paused, baffled, feeling like his usual "grab-him-by-the-waist-and-haul-him-off" method might be a little out of place here.
He also had questions — serious ones. When Fujisawa Toshiaki got attacked earlier, Hattori hadn't even seen the culprit. So how did Jiangxia zero in on Kento Togano with such confidence? It's not like he just picked a random guy in the dark and got lucky... right?
Even the other guests were skeptical: "Are you sure? Wasn't Miss Oki his girlfriend?"
To Jiangxia, murder and spoiling a mystery were just two flavors of the same snack. He could do both at once, no problem.
"I'm sure it was him," said Jiangxia, thinking for a second, then diving into his mental notes from the very first case:
"When Boss Kanaya's car went off the cliff, Kento Togano was still in the lobby. But he could've used a timer. The 'device' in question? The boss's corpse.
"See, after death, a body stiffens before softening again. If you put the corpse in the driver's seat with the brake engaged, the car won't move. Then, if you crank the A/C to hot and calculate the timing just right, the softening will release the brake. The car rolls off the cliff. Ta-da."
He continued, "Now, that second garage explosion? Probably meant for Mr. Fujisawa. But then Miss Ogi figured out Kento Togano was the killer, so the whole scheme got recycled for silencing her. Both of them carried lighters on them after all.
"When she went into the dark car to find that collector's book, with no phones and no lights, she probably used her lighter — just like Fujisawa almost did."
Jiangxia took out his own lighter and flicked it on.
The moment the flame lit up, and everyone remembered the gasoline soaking the garage, the whole group simultaneously figured out how Ayako Oki had died.
Hattori Heiji's eyes lit up in sudden realization too.
"...Miss Oki said she'd give the killer time to turn themselves in, then went to the bathroom. But when she came back, she suddenly insisted she was mistaken. The only person who interacted with her in between was Kento Togano. He could've sweet-talked her using that collector's book... but how did you know that?"
"I was also in the living room," said Jiangxia, calmly pocketing the lighter.
"But you were—"
"I just didn't feel like moving." Jiangxia gave Kento Togano another whack with the stick and sighed. "I wasn't blind."
Hattori Heiji: "…"
Yeah... fair.
Back then, Jiangxia had practically faded into the background. He barely looked like he had the strength to blink, let alone gather clues. But somehow, he had pieced it all together quietly.
Hattori was now experiencing a full existential crisis. He'd been fretting over whether his deduction had beaten Jiangxia's.
But now it felt like Jiangxia had teleported from the starting line to the finish line in the blink of an eye. All while Hattori was still stretching.
Even in this broken state, Jiangxia was solving cases faster. Was it because Jiangxia was too strong? Or was Hattori... not as great as he thought?
Hattori quietly began reconsidering his life choices. Maybe it was time to leave the whole "detective" thing behind. Study hard. Go to Tokyo University. Live a peaceful, drama-free life...
…
The next morning, after sunrise, they finally borrowed a phone from a nearby mountain resident and called the police.
Even though the evidence was still a bit shaky, Kento Togano had already given up. He curled up in a corner of the living room, flinching every time Jiangxia passed by like some sort of ghost. He cursed the police under his breath. How were they still not here?!
Jiangxia didn't care about Kento Togano's traumatized puppy eyes.
He'd already absorbed all the murderous aura and snagged both shikigami from the guy. Last night, Kento Togano had basically short-circuited under the beatings and activated his full "prisoner's talent tree." Through snot and tears, he confessed everything — the methods, the timeline, the whole plot. He even started analyzing which parts might be provable in court. Once he had nothing left to say, Jiangxia finally put away the stick.
Kento Togano looked like he was about to cry from relief.
…In any case, Jiangxia had more pressing concerns — like Hattori Heiji, the walking murder magnet.
For some reason, this Kansai classmate seemed kinda... depressed.
He'd lost interest in the case. While the others were going over what happened, Hattori pulled out homework from his bag and started doing math like some quiet honor student preparing for retirement.
Jiangxia started to worry.
At this rate, forget asking Hattori to invite him to Osaka to ghost-hunt — even if he showed up in Osaka, Hattori probably wouldn't trigger any murder cases…
But then, Jiangxia had an idea.
Hattori Heiji wasn't a huge fan of Sherlock Holmes. But he had come on this Sherlock-themed tour — which meant he was still looking for Shinichi Kudo.
So... maybe if Conan just "accidentally" revealed himself in front of Hattori, it'd reignite his detective flame, like in the original plot.
And then, every time Hattori invited Conan to go out, Jiangxia could casually tag along and catch even more cases. Win-win.
Sure, it was a bit unfair to poor, innocent Kudo. But hey — he's the one who pulled off his own vest and showed it to Jiangxia first. So Jiangxia figured Conan probably wouldn't mind this little push.
…
Pulling off someone else's vest "accidentally" is a high-level skill.
Jiangxia thought hard. Then an idea sparked.
He glanced at Hattori's expression when looking at Conan and realized the problem: Hattori didn't fathom the idea of "adults turning into kids."
In that case…
*Goal #1: Top 200 fanfics published within the last 31 - 90 days by POWER STONES.
Progress: 39/60(approx) for 10 BONUS CHAPTERS
Goal #2: One BONUS CHAPTER per review for the first 10 REVIEWS.
Progress:2/10*