Jiangxia fell silent for a moment, retracted whatever words of scolding were about to leave his mouth, and gently set Ayumi Yoshida down.
"Don't be afraid. Speak slowly."
Ayumi sniffled and nodded. "I just wanted to look for evidence on the balcony…"
While standing by the railing and casually glancing out, something caught her eye. One of the windows in a nearby detached house looked weird—reddish, glowing faintly.
She squinted. It was a bathroom window.
Inside, a man was slumped by the bathtub, half-submerged in blood. Like, properly soaked. Definitely didn't look like someone still drawing breath.
"…That house," Ayumi pointed hesitantly toward it.
The officers crowded around the railing, peering in the same direction. But this was a residential neighborhood—rows and rows of similar houses. One red-tinged window didn't narrow things down much.
Jiangxia turned to look at the Tengu.
This time, Tengu actually got the hint. It zipped off toward where Ayumi had pointed, then returned not long after.
Yup. The kid was right. There was a corpse.
Also—bonus—some fresh shikigami.
…
Even though they were still in the middle of sorting out the Higashida case, a body showing up nearby meant they couldn't just ignore it.
Judging by Ayumi's description, the person had probably just died too—still warm.
Officer Sato let out a heavy sigh. Time was already tight, and now there was another murder scene on the itinerary. If this kept up, Mr. Higashida might miss his flight entirely.
Jiangxia gave the fretting officers a little push forward. "The killer's probably Kitagawa—the guy who helped Mr. Higashida home while he was drunk. The kids' notebook says he had a Band-Aid on his thumb. Could be from when he got pricked by Miss Muranishi's cactus while staging the scene. You can check that cactus on the balcony later. As for how he did it… We're short on time. I'll explain on the way."
Inspector Megure was delighted. Honestly, the best decision he'd made all night was dragging Jiangxia to the scene with increasingly desperate hints.
Officer Sato was equally satisfied. The smartest thing she'd done today? Shamelessly roping Jiangxia in, no question. Even if he hadn't finished walking through the whole case yet, at this rate, Mr. Higashida could still catch his flight and get dinner.
…
The group zeroed in on the house Ayumi had pointed to and spent a bit of time navigating the maze of residential streets.
Once they found it, Inspector Megure rang the doorbell.
After a few increasingly impatient presses, a cranky-looking middle-aged man in a bathrobe and glasses finally opened the door. "What?! What's with all the noise?!"
Jiangxia glanced down—sure enough, a shikigami was clinging to the man's leg.
The officers rushed inside and made a beeline for the bathroom.
But when they opened the door, they were greeted with… a spotless, blood-free bathroom. No corpse. Not even a single ominous bloodstain.
Inspector Megure froze and looked over at Ayumi.
She fidgeted, flustered. "I… I thought it was this one…"
Jiangxia, however, knew she wasn't wrong.
This house had two residents—twin brothers.
The younger one, Torofumi Tanaka, was rich. The older one, Kazuyoshi, was a parasite leeching off him. And he wasn't just mooching—he'd gotten dirt on his younger brother and had been using it to blackmail him.
Lately, Torofumi had had enough. He decided to kill his brother.
But right after the murder, Ayumi had started screaming from the balcony across the way, tipping him off. In a panic, Torofumi cleaned the bathroom lightning-fast and tried to use their identical faces to pull a classic twin switcheroo.
…
Jiangxia stared at the spotless bathroom.
Right then, his Tengu returned with fresh intel: the corpse was hidden upstairs.
Jiangxia leaned over and quietly told Inspector Megure, "Just because we don't see any blood doesn't mean it's clean. This is a bathroom—easy to wash everything down. Plus… there's still a faint smell of blood in the air."
Haibara Ai, standing nearby, perked up and sniffed carefully. All she caught was disinfectant.
But Jiangxia looked serious—not like he was bluffing.
She held her chin thoughtfully. Wait… Can only certain people smell blood like that? Like people who've been on missions, seen a lot of…
…blood.
Oh no.
Haibara's eyes widened slightly.
She started to reach for Jiangxia's sleeve—to subtly tug and remind him to watch his vest. ( Organization cadre. Remember?)
But before she could—
Conan, standing nearby, suddenly nodded with complete confidence. "Yeah, I smelled blood too."
Haibara: "..."
…Wait, is this some kind of weird detective superpower?
Her hand, mid-reach, gracefully detoured—ended up smoothing her own bangs instead.
On top of her head, the ghost of Miyano Akemi leaned over and patted her lovingly across dimensions.
Inspector Megure still couldn't smell anything, but he trusted Jiangxia completely. The kid had good instincts. Plus, Jiangxia was in his prime—maybe he really did have a sharper nose.
*Goal #1: Top 200 fanfics published within the last 31 - 90 days by POWER STONES.
Progress: 12/60(approx) for 10 BONUS CHAPTERS
Goal #2: One BONUS CHAPTER per review for the first 10 REVIEWS.
Progress:2/10*