"It's not because of this," Conan sighed with the weight of life's ups and downs. "It's just… the deeper you get involved, the more you realize how tangled the organization is and how terrifying their power really is. They're everywhere, and even insiders can't breathe. If Jiangxia ever learned about a criminal organization on this level, it might really mess with his head."
Hattori Heiji gave a thoughtful "hmm" and his gaze drifted to Jiangxia's left wrist.
He'd already noticed that Conan and Mouri Ran seemed to take Jiangxia's mental state very seriously—and Jiangxia's weird reaction after seeing the car accident scene made Heiji guess something. "Well, if you don't want to say, I won't bring it up with him."
The mood felt a little heavy. After confirming Conan wasn't hiding any more secrets, Heiji shifted gears and asked about something less serious.
Clearing his throat, he asked quietly, "By the way… I've always wanted to ask—" He pointed to the earmuffs around Conan's neck, "do those actually work?"
At the mention of this, Conan perked up—no more sleepy eyes.
He tapped his earphones and calmly shared his expert advice: "Of course they work, but you need to add another pair of music earphones to block out Jiangxia's voice as much as possible. And it's best to set up both devices ahead of time, so you can put them on quickly. Or, if you don't mind looking ridiculous, just wear noise-isolating earmuffs and hum to yourself."
Hattori Heiji blinked. Tears of expertise. What kind of life is Kudo living these days?
Seeing Conan like this, Heiji—who had barely been free from detective duty for a day—decided he was definitely coming back to this circle.
What's two setbacks? Conan's survived worse. He can handle it.
Their friendship progress bar filled up quickly.
Before getting off the bus, Conan even kindly left two order numbers for Heiji—one for earmuffs, one for headphones.
Heiji carefully wrote them down and asked cautiously, "Any other gadgets I should get?"
Brothers and sisters have a different kind of bond. And today he found a new brother.
Facing Jiangxia again, Heiji felt way more relaxed.
...
Jiangxia was pretty happy with how the exchange between the two of them was going.
Heiji was too far away to watch closely, but Conan was right there. Just paying attention to his movements made it easy to track Heiji's case progress.
After the Sherlock Holmes trip, Jiangxia started looking forward to getting a commission from afar—or for Heiji to kick into case-solving mode.
But neither happened. Instead, he got news about the organization's next move.
—An ordinary afternoon. Jiangxia was doing his usual weekend activities with the younger brothers.
Nowadays, their entertainment was much less than before—the detective agency's cat-and-dog catching business had gradually gotten famous, and even the younger brothers were busy with work. The old lazy hangout times had become working hours.
Jiangxia was visiting the younger brothers today. Actually, he had business: he wanted to settle their wages for catching cats.
But meeting just for money felt kind of cold, so on the surface the main goal was still to play games.
Jiangxia flipped through the game hall records for a while, checked the time, and planned to leave.
It was time for the little ones to catch cats too. The longer the cats and dogs stayed missing, the better chance they'd slip away.
A group of them said their goodbyes outside the arcade.
Jiangxia planned to go check the mailbox at the office as usual, then swing by the Mouri office to see if Conan had travel plans.
But then he suddenly spotted a black Porsche 356A across the street.
Jiangxia froze and looked around instinctively.
Soon, his eyes landed on two men in black carrying bulging briefcases, probably fresh from an illegal deal.
Jiangxia caught the moment—the presence of Gin—and the three ghosts following him immediately went into work mode, flying toward Gin with practiced speed.
Jiangxia watched them leave, satisfied.
As for himself… Jiangxia wanted to pretend he didn't know Gin like before, but before leaving, Gin gave him a look.
They stared at each other for a moment. Gin nodded his chin toward the vehicle, then made a vague expression: Get in the car.
...Another job?
Jiangxia looked around and saw no familiar faces.
He then slipped into a nearby alley. Coming out the other side, Vodka had just stopped the car.
Jiangxia opened the door and sat down. Before getting in, he checked his surroundings. Few pedestrians, no one like Conan or Haibara Ai looking shocked. They must still be in school.
Jiangxia sighed quietly as he sat in the Porsche that Gin was so well known for. This car's pretty nice, but it's super eye-catching. If he got caught getting into it one day, he'd have to come up with some serious nonsense... Wonder if the car breaks down, will Gin consider getting a new one?
Gin didn't know someone was thinking about messing with his car, but he suddenly felt a little uneasy.
With a sour look, he scanned outside the car but found nothing wrong.
Gin frowned and urged Vodka to move the car.
As the car pulled away, Gin glanced toward the game hall in the distance, thought of Jiangxia's gang of little brothers, and quietly asked, "Are you busy?"
Jiangxia's expression didn't change. "They're very useful and help me gather necessary information." Especially since everyone's good at catching cats...
Gin exhaled a cigarette and didn't press further.
He handed Jiangxia a photo. "Have you seen this person?"
Jiangxia glanced at it—a young woman with short hair, very beautiful but with a hint of arrogance in her expression, and a little bruised.
He remembered her well. "I helped her find her lost dog before."
The woman's name was Reika Yotsui, only daughter of the chairman of Yotsui Group.
But to Jiangxia, another identity of Reika Yotsui was more important—she was the future victim in a serial murder case.
Gin saw Jiangxia nod and wasn't surprised. When other intelligence officers investigated Reika Yotsui's situation, they found she'd been to Jiangxia's detective agency.
Gin said briefly: "If you get the chance, kill her."
Jiangxia nodded again. There were quite a few assignments these days. He used to think the official members were slacking off all day...
But then, thinking about it—forget Gin. Even Amuro Toru is so busy his feet barely touch the ground. Besides his public security work, Amuro's got so many part-time jobs gathering intelligence for the organization.
Comparing that, Jiangxia felt that his own pace of taking assignments every few days was pretty leisurely.
*Goal #1: Top 200 fanfics published within the last 31 - 90 days by POWER STONES.
Progress: 42/60(approx) for 10 BONUS CHAPTERS
Goal #2: One BONUS CHAPTER per review for the first 10 REVIEWS.
Progress:1/10*