*We reached our goal this week!! Releasing 10 BONUS CHAPTERS. Same goals for this week too, so please vote and review if you like it! Thanks :) *
The search area Jiangxia was assigned didn't include the bathtub where Reika was hiding.
He confidently paddled around anyway, borrowing the ghost's night vision ability just in case.
Not long after, the room suddenly went dark — the villa had lost power.
Suzuki Sonoko let out a startled shriek, flailing around ≧≦.
She remembered that Jiangxia had been nearby just before the power outage.
Sonoko, thinking fast, grabbed onto someone and nuzzled against them. "Why did the power suddenly go out? It's so dark..." she grumbled. Hmm?
…Wait a second. Why could she rub her face against theirs so easily?
Judging by height, shouldn't it have been a shoulder? Or at least a neck...?
While Sonoko was wondering, the person in her arms said helplessly, "Sonoko…"
It was Mouri Ran's voice.
Sonoko: "…!"
QAQ
…Never mind. Ran's face is also very nice. Not a loss. Definitely not a loss…
Sonoko let go, tearfully, just in time to hear Jiangxia's voice from not far away.
As usual, Jiangxia's tone was calm: "I remember the electrical switch is in the west corridor, not far from here. Let's go check it."
Conan answered and turned on the flashlight on his watch. Everyone followed with the guidance of the weak beam of light towards the switch.
Just as they were about to reach it, there was a creaking sound — the window opening — and then suddenly the lights came back on.
Someone was already there.
Jiangxia glanced around the electric switch area and saw that four people were already gathered there. With the four of them, that made eight — the full group that had been searching the villa earlier.
The group exchanged quick updates. Under the subtle guidance of an insider, they soon concluded that the murderer had taken advantage of the chaos to escape into the forest — and probably hadn't gotten far.
The irritable Ponytail youth rolled up his sleeves, vaulted over the window, and rushed out: "Bastard, don't think you can run!"
Jiangxia chased after him: "Wait, it doesn't have to be—" His voice got fainter as he ran, eventually disappearing into the woods along with him.
Mouri Ran and Sonoko hesitated a moment, then hurried to catch up. Conan tried to chase after them too. And of course, the other eager young talents dove headfirst into the forest without thinking.
The woods were dense, and night made it even darker. In no time, the group splintered into scattered smaller clumps.
Jiangxia ran for a while until he realized no one was nearby.
He casually picked a spot, "hung up" while standing there, and shifted his consciousness into Xiaobai's puppet.
Back at the restaurant, when the eight of them had left earlier, only Granny Yone and Xiaobai had stayed behind.
Later, when Granny Yone saw everyone sprint into the forest, she worried the "bear children" would get lost and chased after them.
Now, only the ghost Xiaobai remained in the restaurant.
Jiangxia, now in Xiaobai's puppet body, opened his eyes from the sofa.
He was just starting to look around when he heard hurried footsteps approaching.
Not wanting to alert the visitor, Jiangxia quickly closed his eyes again.
It was Ichieda Takashi who came running in.
Ichieda stared at the "sleeping" child on the sofa, looking a bit confused.
So small. Could such a tiny thing clearly describe something like "someone drowned me by pressing my head into water"?
He needed a certain kind of testimony.
And if you looked carefully, the kid wasn't even as big as the sink at the Yotsui house.
If the bear child woke up and babbled something vague like "someone pushed me to swim in the pool," the famous detectives — and Jiangxia — might connect it with details like "Reika Yotsui was also soaked in water"…
That would be game over.
But now, even Granny Yone had chased after the others. There were no other witnesses left for him to mess with.
Ichieda had no choice.
He picked up Xiaobai from the sofa and carried him into the kitchen.
Pouring water into the sink, he shook Jiangxia lightly, trying to wake him up — sleeping pills were meant to prevent resistance, not completely knock someone out. Otherwise, the kid couldn't give the testimony he needed.
Jiangxia had expected this. He had even made a special plan, ready to flutter his limbs politely later and discreetly spit out the coffee still lingering in the puppet's body.
Since the puppet had no digestive system, if he didn't deal with it now, when it got lifted later, the coffee would spill everywhere. Not very "come without a trace" of him.
However, just as Jiangxia was about to "regain consciousness" according to Ichieda's script, he caught a glimpse of Ichieda's leg — and was stunned.
Earlier, there had been only one shikigami clinging to Ichieda.
But now, a second one had appeared out of nowhere.
This shikigami looked brand new, awkwardly clambering up Ichieda's ankle.
Jiangxia fell into deep thought.
…Whose shikigami was this?
Had Ichieda Takashi killed someone else in the woods just now, annoyed by being followed too closely?
Or had Reika Yotsui died prematurely from some accident?
Jiangxia poked the nearby Tengu.
The Tengu flapped its wings and flew to the bathtub where Reika Yotsui had been hidden.
Soon, Jiangxia got the news from Tengu:
— Reika Yotsui wasn't breathing.
Apparently, when Ichieda tried to block her mouth and nose to keep her quiet, he got a little too aggressive.
Her body was bound tightly too, her breathing completely blocked.
In the end, she suffocated before she could even drown.
The unexpected situation left Jiangxia slightly surprised.
In the original story, that wasn't how it went.
...Was this just a technical error?
Or had Ichieda Takashi gotten so nervous he wrapped the tape too tightly?
If it was the latter... Jiangxia mused darkly, was it because his "detective genius" aura was just too intimidating?
...Not good.
If he remembered right, more and more people would start coming after him in the future — ones who wanted to "challenge the detective" or "fool the eyewitness."
...Tsk. Looks like he'd need to act a little dumber in the future. Maybe fake some nonexistent weaknesses, lure in the bolder idiots.
But that was a problem for another day.
Right now, the more urgent task was to deal with the two shikigami crawling around in front of him.
…
Ichieda Takashi had finished filling the sink.
He grabbed Jiangxia and tried to shove him face-first into the water—
…but he couldn't.
The supposedly groggy child easily pushed Ichieda's hand aside.
Then Jiangxia perched himself on the edge of the sink, casually grabbed a rolling pin nearby, and turned his face slowly toward him.
Ichieda Takashi met the excited, ominous glint hidden in the child's gaze —
—and somewhere deep inside, his survival instincts began to scream.
*Goal #1: Top 200 fanfics published within the last 31 - 90 days by POWER STONES.
Progress: 3/60(approx) for 10 BONUS CHAPTERS
Goal #2: One BONUS CHAPTER per review for the first 10 REVIEWS.
Progress:2/10*