Suzuki Sonoko failed to leave with her little friends—the landline in the Yotsui family villa was completely useless. It might as well have been a piece of furniture.
And just now, while they were hunting for a working phone, they discovered that one of the hallway lights was broken.
This made Suzuki Sonoko ponder deeply and even feel a little sympathy. The Yotsui family must be struggling... They threw such a grand birthday party, invited so many guests, but behind the scenes, they were so poor they couldn't even pay the phone bill...
Since they couldn't make any calls, the group had no choice but to return to the living room. Anyway, by tomorrow morning at the latest, Chairman Yotsui would send a car to pick them up.
Jiangxia Tongzhi came downstairs with the others.
In the hall, Yotsui Reika and her admirers were seated around a table, playing cards.
Jiangxia glanced over and quickly matched everyone's face to their name. The suitors were all extremely distinctive: Ichieda Takashi, Nikaidou Yuji, Mifune Takuya, Gojo Osamu, Rokuda Masashi... With this many dramatic personalities packed into one room, odds were good more than one person wouldn't survive the night.
Yotsui Reika, holding a fan of cards, spotted them and casually waved. "Want to join?"
Jiangxia figured, sure. It was a good opportunity to gather a little background information—handy for reasonable spoilers later.
The table was massive, with plenty of empty seats around.
Jiangxia grabbed a chair and plopped down beside Ichieda Takashi, who radiated murderous aura like a broken radiator. It was an excellent environment for a psychic.
Suzuki Sonoko, initially reluctant to mingle with the harem, saw Jiangxia blending in like a professional tool person and could only grit her teeth and drag a chair over.
Since both of them had joined, of course Ran Mouri followed suit. As for Conan—well, he had no say in the matter. He didn't even get to touch the cards, treated like an accessory attached to Ran.
And so, the whole group sat down to play.
Partway through the game, toward the end of a round, Yotsui Reika suddenly found her fancy dress too inconvenient and decided to head back to her room to change into something more comfortable.
The others stayed behind, idly chatting as they waited for her.
In their gossip, they let slip a lot of juicy background: they, including Reika, were all once members of a yacht club, regularly going diving and fishing together.
Notably, they spoke of it all in the past tense, as if everyone had since withdrawn.
Suzuki Sonoko nodded, completely misunderstanding: Ah, got it. Must be because the Yotsui family's broke now and can't afford yacht repairs. Naturally, the club fell apart too.
Conan, however, felt there was something more sinister behind it.
He was about to ask when a ponytailed man, seemingly oblivious to common sense, proudly planted a death flag: "Yeah, those were the good old days… Such a shame about the tragedy two years ago."
The others immediately stiffened and tried to shush him, clearly having made a pact to never speak of that incident again.
Conan's expression darkened slightly. He couldn't help but glance at Jiangxia, a sinking feeling creeping into his heart—was it a coincidence, or something worse? Whenever Jiangxia was around, disasters seemed to pop up like shikigami at a ritual.
But… this is a materialistic universe, where everything has a logical, scientific explanation. Coincidence is just coincidence. Jiangxia being here is unrelated. Totally unrelated.
Conan repeated the theory of materialism to himself like a buddhist chanting sutras, but somehow it felt hollow.
In the end, he could only silently pray: Please, just this once, let tonight be a peaceful Christmas Eve...
…
Since the former yacht club members had clammed up, Jiangxia didn't bother digging further. He could always fill in the blanks later.
And honestly, he already knew the story. With spoilers in hand, Jiangxia understood exactly what that "tragedy" was.
Two years ago, during a sudden storm at sea, the yacht club members got separated from Yotsui Reika. A girl named Yaeko Nanao had gone back to rescue her—but ended up robbed of her life jacket by Reika and Nikaidou, and drowned in the ocean.
Takashi Ichieda, who had been in love with Yaeko, pieced together what really happened and quietly vowed revenge.
Meanwhile, Nikaidou, sharing this shameful secret with Yotsui Reika, later blackmailed her into agreeing to marry him.
…
Under everyone's frantic gestures to shut up, the ponytailed man thankfully didn't spill the full story.
But even so, the mood in the living room soured noticeably.
The reverse harem lost interest in their card game, and only then realized someone was missing.
They glanced at their watches. "Why isn't Reika back yet? How long does it take to change clothes?"
Yone Nanao, the elderly family helper, stood up. "I'll go check."
Five minutes later.
The elderly woman returned, looking dazed. "…The eldest miss isn't in her room."
"Oh!" One of the suitors had a eureka and immediately spun it into romance: maybe Reika felt ignored, so she was hiding, waiting for them to come find her—a classic favorability trap! A once-in-a-lifetime chance to win her heart, marry into the Yotsui Group, and reach the pinnacle of life!
He leapt to his feet. "I'll find her!"
The others snapped out of it and quickly piled on: "I'm going too!" "Wait for me!"
They stampeded out like bear children chasing after candy.
Jiangxia watched their retreating backs, hesitated briefly, then stayed seated.
He hadn't come here to pick a wife. He barely knew Yotsui Reika. If he joined the search party now, it would look suspicious.
Besides, he knew they'd have to come back here sooner or later anyway.
—If memory served, Reika was still somewhere inside the villa, but unconscious and hidden away, awaiting a future murder scene. No way she'd be found that easily.
Sure enough, ten minutes later, the reverse harem came scrambling back, faces pale.
After a thorough (and thoroughly chaotic) search, they still hadn't found a trace of Yotsui Reika.
*Goal #1: Top 200 fanfics published within the last 31 - 90 days by POWER STONES.
Progress: 47/60(approx) for 10 BONUS CHAPTERS
Goal #2: One BONUS CHAPTER per review for the first 10 REVIEWS.
Progress:2/10*