Double Chapter
Even though Jiangxia was distracted, everything he needed to hear still sank in.
For now, the Takeda family's situation matched what he remembered: three people dead.
Misa and her mother "committed suicide," while Negishi — supposedly another suicide — was clearly strangled by Robert, judging by the stubborn shikigami still clinging to Rob's leg.
But if Negishi's ghost was stuck to Rob, then this wandering ghost fetus must've come from one of the mother and daughter.
Yet, in theory, people who commit suicide don't drop shikigami, let alone a ghost fetus — at most, they leave a ball of killing intent.
Unless… one of them didn't actually take her own life?
That's the aura of a secret, Jiangxia thought, utterly unsurprised.
He remembered this family's pot of relationships was famously messy: Takeda Misa was "technically" Shinichi Takeda's daughter, but Shinichi was infertile. So, over twenty years ago, his wife secretly asked the Takeda family's second son to father Misa, raising her as Shinichi's child.
Later, Shinichi found out.
A man who deals drugs for a living has already crossed every line. If he ever snapped — drunk, furious, isolated in this wilderness — "accidentally making someone close to him commit suicide" wouldn't exactly shock anyone.
Dozens of possibilities flickered through Jiangxia's mind, but he quickly pulled back.
Right now, he couldn't even confirm if that ghost fetus really was one of the Takeda women — it could be anyone who'd died nearby.
There was no point overthinking; best to just catch the ghost and ask.
Obviously, this was purely to save time. Not because he was excited to see a new ghost or anything…
Speaking of which — why were his ghosts still scurrying around?
Was this ghost really that slippery?
Jiangxia squinted at the direction he sensed them, but the houses blocked his view, and unfortunately, he didn't have X-ray vision. Regretfully, he looked away — just in time to see a middle-aged man walking up with a polite smile.
The man had a circular mustache and a U-shaped bald spot that practically gleamed in the dusk.
He stuck out his hand. "Hello, I'm Takeda Shinichi, the one who sent you the letter."
As they shook, Shinichi glanced at the people gathered in the courtyard, then tugged Jiangxia a few steps aside, dropping his voice:
"You must've heard what Yoko said. Actually, what I want you to investigate is Mr. Negishi — the one who 'hanged himself' a few days ago."
Jiangxia nodded, though his eyes couldn't help lingering on Shinichi's hairline and deep forehead creases.
He felt a tiny wave of relief — good thing the ghost fetus wasn't from this man.
Then again, a second ghost popping up here wouldn't be the worst outcome. Even if it wasn't good-looking, it'd still be useful…
As Shinichi spoke, he suddenly shivered — a prickly chill crawling up his spine.
He glanced around at the trees swaying in the mountain wind. Probably just the wind. He hugged his jacket tighter and leaned in, still whispering:
"I suspect Negishi didn't commit suicide — he was murdered. And I think someone in my family did it."
His eyes narrowed, and his voice dropped another notch:
"So I have an impolite request — if you find the culprit, don't make it public. Just tell me. I'll take care of the rest."
The moment he said it, a spark of killing intent glowed behind his eyes.
Ever since Negishi was silenced and a load of drugs went missing, he'd suspected an inside man.
This was his turf — no outsiders usually came here. Whoever killed Negishi knew the layout well and had slipped in and out like a ghost.
A secret like that couldn't be tolerated, not when he had so many other secrets buried under these hills.
Takeda Shinichi knew hiring a detective was risky. A sharp-eyed investigator might dig up more than just a murder.
But he'd read plenty of crime reports: in the Detective Conan universe, detectives always tackled the murder first. Drug dealing? That was a side quest — high school detectives, especially, were easy to steer.
As long as Jiangxia found the culprit without sniffing out the drug stash, Shinichi would pay him, thank him, and send him away with a smile.
If Jiangxia poked his nose where it shouldn't go… well, this mountain had plenty of places to hide a corpse.
No evidence, no problem. Even if the police came sniffing around, they couldn't possibly turn over every rock on Puppet Peak for a missing high school detective.
The only mild headache was that Jiangxia hadn't come alone — he'd brought two classmates.
Takeda Shinichi eyed Hattori and Kazuha chatting by the gate, annoyance flickering behind his mustache.
But the solution was simple enough: have the "inside man" drive them off the mountain, then stage a nice clean car accident.
Four birds, one stone.
Jiangxia's mind, meanwhile, was still half on that stubborn ghost fetus.
But when Shinichi's killing aura suddenly thickened like a bad fog, his attention snapped back to the man right in front of him.
Why was this drug lord's murderous intent almost catching up to Robert's?
A second later, Jiangxia connected the dots — and found it darkly amusing.
…
Shinichi finally finished spelling out his plan, peering at Jiangxia expectantly, waiting for him to promise to keep the "inside man" hush-hush.
Jiangxia, though, just watched that killing intent swirl and thought quietly to himself.
He did not nod.
Instead, with an air of smug detachment, Jiangxia tilted his head to a perfect 45-degree angle and declared,
"I refuse."
"If Mr. Negishi was murdered, then of course I'll call the police first. The law is the only justice — if I tell you first, and you help that 'family member' destroy the evidence, wouldn't that make me your accomplice in perverting justice?"
He lowered his gaze slightly from the sky, shooting Takeda Shinichi a sideways glance.
Sure enough, that already formidable killing intent swelled up, completely overshadowing Rob's beside him.
…Well, Rob only wanted to kill one person. Takeda, on the other hand, was now aiming for four.
A vein bulged on Shinichi's temple, but he still forced out a polite smile, his tone all sweetness and poison: "...You're overthinking. I just wanted to do some ideological work — persuade him to turn himself in."
The young detective sized him up for a second, then nodded, deadpan. "You'd better be."
He didn't bother to say more, clearly too disdainful to waste breath on a yinbi like Shinichi. He turned away and rejoined the group.
Takeda Shinichi glared after that arrogant back, his temples throbbing harder.
After a moment of seething, he suddenly sneered.
Heh. This city-bred detective probably hadn't realized the signal up here was garbage. To call the police, he'd have to use the house landline — and Shinichi could just keep an eye on that.
Once the "inside man" was ferreted out, it'd be easy to silence this tool person before any calls went through.
Shinichi replayed Jiangxia's irritating "justice speech" in his head, spat mentally, then stalked off to the studio — but not before he made sure to hide the phone line at home. Just in case.
…
While Jiangxia and Shinichi were talking some distance away, the sharp-eyed Yoko Takeda still noticed the tension.
She knew Brother Shinichi's temper — seeing Jiangxia return alone, she immediately guessed that Shinichi must've said something unpleasant.
The detective had come all this way, only to be scolded. And he looked so young, too. Cases took time — Shinichi shouldn't be so harsh.
Thinking this, Yoko stepped over with an apologetic smile.
"Let me show you around the house. Where do you want to start your investigation? We'll do our best to help."
"Hmm? Oh…" Jiangxia blinked back to reality, his gaze drifting toward the main residence.
He could sense his ghosts had all darted over there, so he pointed in that direction: "Then let's start at—"
Before he finished, two identical little girls suddenly burst out of a side room.
The twins were skipping over to Yoko, looking for their mother. But halfway there, they spotted Rob.
They froze.
In an instant, the curiosity on their faces twisted into pint-sized hostility.
Rob, seeing the familiar kids, strolled over like a proud uncle.
"Hi~ Sae, Emi, you've grown so much."
But the twin lolis recoiled in disgust, glaring for a few seconds before huddling together and whispering — not quietly at all:
"Murderer…"
"He's here to kill again."
"So scary."
"Scary, scary."
When they peeked up and saw Rob staring at them, blank-faced, they immediately scuttled sideways and tugged on Jiangxia's jacket like bear children claiming a new guardian.
"Detective brother, are you here to catch him?"
Yoko froze mid-step, completely stunned.
She rushed over and scolded softly, "What nonsense are you saying?!"
"Wah! Mommy's so scary too! O(≧mouth≦)(≧mouth≦)O!" The twins squealed, let go of Jiangxia's jacket, and scampered back into the side room, vanishing like ghosts themselves.(TL: Leaving the mouth cuz it looks funny)
Yoko hesitated — should she chase them down and scold them properly, or keep guiding the guest?
She sighed. Better deal with the guests first.
—Sae and Emi weren't usually this unruly. Maybe they were just excited to see guests. And they often watched TV, so maybe they were just showing off in front of the "Detective brother." Kids' thoughts were impossible to guess sometimes.
She turned back to Rob with an awkward smile. "I'm really sorry. I'll have them apologize to you later…"
"It's fine, really." Rob waved his hand stiffly.
But his eyes flicked nervously toward the side room — worried those kids might've actually seen him strangle Akio Negishi the other day.
Still, no one would believe random babble from bear children. Plus, his alibi was solid — he glanced at Hattori Heiji, his carefully planted "witness," and felt slightly reassured.
Meanwhile, Jiangxia calmly straightened his rumpled jacket. He was used to kids tugging at him — Ai Haibara and Conan did it all the time.
His eyes swept over Rob, who was now looking like a guilty tool person.
Those kids' "murderer" muttering had nothing to do with Negishi — the twins believed Rob killed their sister, Misa.
Three years ago, when Rob was about to leave after recovering from his injuries, Misa had shyly asked her sisters to find out what he thought of her.
Rob, recalling his impression of Misa, wrote "shine" on a slip of paper — to him, she was like a bright light in his life.
But because his mouth had been injured and he couldn't write Japanese properly, they'd been communicating with Romaji.
The English word "shine," written in Romaji, breaks down into "shi ne."
…Which, in anime battles, is shouted as "Shine!" — meaning "Die."
A few days after that note, Misa did, in fact, "shine."
The twins never forgot that sequence of events. In their little heads, it was clearly Rob's conspiracy.
Jiangxia sighed inwardly — sometimes, learning foreign languages well really did save lives.
Also, people shouldn't be so shy.
If Misa hadn't been too embarrassed to ask directly — or if Rob had just written "love" instead — things might've turned out very differently.
But now there was a ghost child wandering around, which meant the "suicide" from three years ago was still suspicious. Hard to say what really happened.
*Goal #1: Top 200 fanfics published within the last 31 - 90 days by POWER STONES.
Progress: 59/60(approx) for 10 BONUS CHAPTERS
Goal #2: One BONUS CHAPTER per review for the first 10 REVIEWS.
Progress:4/10*