"So, this item's effect is... something like what a Stand user has?" Fujino muttered to himself, staring at the item details with a puzzled look.
After snapping back to reality, he thought for a moment, then decided to try activating the effect of the [Black Ghost] item.
"This thing should be activated in a similar way to the Soul Puppets..." Following the instructions in his mind, Fujino mentally triggered the first awakening of the Black Ghost.
Along with a strange trembling sensation, Fujino suddenly felt like something was peeling away from his body. He looked down and saw that the shadow cast by the sun at his feet was starting to detach from him in a peculiar way, growing darker and darker, gradually transforming into a patch of blackness.
Though calling it a black hole wasn't quite right. No matter how you looked at it, this patch of blackness was clearly liquid.
"Gurgle..." Suddenly, the black liquid churned. "Huh?" Fujino was startled by the movement in the black water.
As he watched in surprise, a black figure slowly emerged from within the black liquid.
The black figure wasn't wearing any clothes, but there was nothing inappropriate to see. After all, Little Black was completely black; you could only barely make out its form. Even the surrounding sunlight seemed to be warped around it.
"Stare..." Fujino looked at Little Black, and Little Black looked at Fujino.
"This is so weird..." Fujino and Little Black exchanged gazes for a moment. He could clearly feel that this entity was something that had been peeled away from himself. It was a strange feeling, like looking at a severed limb. And those eyes, that mouth – are you sure this isn't the 'Little Black' from some murder scene?!
If you added some creepy background music, it would look exactly like a murder scene.
"Soul Puppets are still better looking," Fujino sighed, raising his hand and clenching his fist.
Little Black raised its hand at the same time, performing the identical action.
"So the Black Ghost's main function is to peel your shadow off and turn it into a physical entity?" "It feels a bit similar to controlling the Soul Puppets..." "But compared to the Soul Puppets, this method of control is a bit strange."
Fujino shook his head and dispelled Little Black. After control was released, Little Black turned back into a puddle of black liquid and returned to Fujino's feet.
After confirming Little Black's abilities, Fujino then turned his attention to the newly acquired Civil Engineering profession:
[Civil Engineering Profession: Beginner
Sub-Profession Skill:
Civil Engineer: (Provides basic architectural knowledge to the host)
Soul of the Civil Engineer: Beginner (Any building constructed by the host will receive a building bonus of Defense +10%, Durability +10%, Stability +10%)]
"Civil Engineering Profession..." Fujino's mouth twitched slightly as he stared at the profession panel in front of him.
Judging by the stats on the panel, the Civil Engineering profession looked like another one that required breakthroughs to unlock its potential.
But this Civil Engineering profession... He figured he wasn't a civil engineer himself, so where would he even get proficiency points?
However, then a sudden thought struck Fujino. He suddenly remembered a place where the basic knowledge of the Civil Engineering profession could come in handy.
...
In the afternoon, the mountainous region of Tottori Prefecture.
A white figure swiftly moved through the rugged mountain paths of the forest. The figure's speed was astonishing; while rapidly dodging obstacles around it, it maintained an extremely high speed, like a ghost.
Running at high speed, Fujino leaped up to the treetops. What came into view was a magnificent mansion built next to a cliff in a large forest.
"According to the information Sonoko gave me, the address should be here. It looks exactly like the picture and is pretty much the same as I remember..." Fujino narrowed his eyes, silently watching the Twilight Mansion in the distance, comparing it to the information in his mind. "Looks like this should be the Twilight Mansion."
There was nothing particularly special about the Twilight Mansion; it was a very typical large Western-style manor house. Calling it a villa wasn't quite accurate, as its scale was comparable to a castle. But to call it a castle wasn't right either, as it didn't have the shape of a castle. So, describing it as a manor house was the most fitting.
However, he was a bit curious. Since this mansion was built of gold, was its foundation also gold, considering how heavy such a structure would be? After all, this manor house was built right on the edge of a cliff and seemed a bit precarious. If the foundation wasn't stable, such a heavy weight would likely have collapsed long ago.
Pulling back his gaze, Fujino didn't dwell on it too much. In Conan's world, anyway, common sense usually didn't apply. A golden mansion built on the edge of a cliff? It didn't make sense, but it was very 'Conan logic'...
After silently grumbling in his mind, Fujino mentally activated the Black Ghost and released Little Black. Even though it was twilight, the Black Ghost's effect wasn't affected by light. Little Black quickly solidified from its liquid form.
Fujino took off his assassin's robe and draped it over Little Black. Then, he pulled out a white cloak from his personal space. Fully equipped, Little Black's face was no longer visible. Even its presence was masked by the passive effect of the assassin's robe.
"Okay..." Fujino nodded with satisfaction, then pressed a switch on the cloak. With a 'boom,' the cloak transformed into a small hang glider that could be used by one or two people.
Fujino controlled Little Black. Little Black controlled the hang glider.
Gliding past the rosy sunset sky, they flew straight towards the Twilight Mansion.
Above the manor house, Little Black cut the power to the hang glider. The hang glider began to descend in an arc, then landed steadily on the mansion's roof.
He put away the hang glider, then took out a bat grappling hook and quickly got to the mansion's courtyard.
The courtyard of the Twilight Mansion was spacious, with no buildings, just a patch of lush green grass.
Little Black looked around and quickly found an entrance, sneaking inside the mansion.
The interior space of the Twilight Mansion was vast, mostly adorned with golden decorations. It certainly fit the description of a 'golden house.' However, its atmosphere didn't match that 'golden house' characteristic. It was eerie, with faint traces of blood visible on the floors and walls everywhere.
Fujino took a deep breath and began a detailed investigation of the mansion.
There was one person living in the mansion right now. According to the information gathered earlier, that person should be one of the two detectives who bought this mansion: the gourmet detective, Shukuzen Ogami.
Aside from the collected information, Fujino also had some impressions of this person in his memory.
If he remembered correctly, this guy, along with another old woman, a detective named something like Chikage Senma, had planned to murder several famous detectives later on.
In short, although he was a detective, he was also a potential crazy murderer.
As for the motive, it was, of course, for the treasure in this mansion.
He naively believed that there was treasure hidden inside the manor house, not knowing that the manor house *itself* was the treasure.
Of course, apart from Fujino, the 'spoiler dog,' no one else knew yet that this manor house was made of gold.
This counted as benefiting from the information gap.
...
One hour later, Little Black's mission was successfully completed.
After putting away all the items used in the operation back into his personal space, Little Black turned back into a puddle of black water and returned from inside the mansion to Fujino's feet.
"Little Black's effect is really suitable for infiltration missions, huh..." Fujino glanced at his shadow, which had turned a bit pale, and thought for a moment.
Little Black could only act for one hour, but that hour was enough.
After use, his shadow would turn a bit pale, only returning to its normal darkness after five minutes. Fortunately, this effect didn't have any impact on him personally.
The mission was successfully completed this time. After changing back into his assassin's robe, Fujino turned and left.
This time, Little Black had investigated many useful things.
With the civil engineering knowledge, he quickly discovered the cleverness of this manor house. From the investigation results, the interior of this manor house was indeed made of pure gold.
In a room off the main hall/kitchen, there was a hidden clock. The clock was connected to a mechanism inside the manor house. By setting the clock to a specific time, the mechanism would trigger, shaking off the entire mansion's outer walls.
This was probably why, in his memory, when Conan and the others left by helicopter, the manor house's outer walls fell off, revealing the gold underneath.
If Conan hadn't messed things up, in his view, without any external force influencing it, the outer walls of this manor house wouldn't have fallen off for at least several decades, maybe even a century. After all, they were made of truly solid stone.
It was indeed hard to imagine that this kind of mechanism was built decades ago, or even further back into the last century. But considering the mechanisms in other villas in this world, and that 'Egg of Memories' which used optical principles... apparently, a small mechanism like this wasn't so surprising after all.
"If that's the case, maybe I can cash in on the gold inside this mansion..." Fujino walked through the forest, a slight smirk on his lips.
He was definitely eyeing the gold inside this mansion. After all, it was a huge gold treasure... it would be weird *not* to have any ideas about it.
But trying to cash in would still be a bit troublesome. After all, the former owner of this mansion was Renya Karasuma.
If such a large amount of wealth were discovered, that head of the Black Organization, Renya Karasuma, would definitely make a move.
If he stuck his neck out, the situation would become very dangerous.
But this risk only existed while the Black Organization was still around. Once the Organization was gone, there would be no more worries.
He had just used his civil engineering knowledge to dismantle the mechanism inside the mansion connected to the large clock.
Now, even if the clock's code were deciphered, what would fall wouldn't be the walls, but just a 'seed of gold.'
Even if people racked their brains, no one would ever guess that the entire mansion was made of gold. This way, the mansion matter could be put aside; the stone walls wouldn't easily fall off, even for several more decades. This meant he could plan for the long term.
...
The next morning, Teitan High School Class 2-B.
After a regular two-day weekend break, the students were all chatting about the fun things they did.
Only Ran and Sonoko seemed to have bad luck; even on a rare weekend swimming trip, they ran into a case of murdering a wife for insurance money.
But luckily, no one died, so going out on the weekend was just like playing a detective game.
"Chie-nee seems to be getting discharged from the hospital this afternoon." Sonoko suggested to Fujino and Ran, "How about we go visit her after school?"
"Yeah, I think that's a good idea," Ran nodded, thinking. "Even though Chie-nee's emotions have stabilized, this is a time when she really needs company."
"Chie-nee is really pitiful... running into that kind of jerk." Sonoko sighed, "But it's a good thing Fujino-senpai was there, otherwise that scumbag might have killed her."
"Actually, Ran deserves credit too," Fujino thought for a moment and said. "She also noticed something was off. If she hadn't suggested it, we might not have been there just in time to catch that guy poisoning her..."
"Oh, no, not really..." Ran waved her hand with a light laugh. "We still owe it to Fujino-senpai for figuring out the main source was in the air conditioner. Otherwise, we wouldn't have been able to find the evidence that guy was poisoning Chie-nee."
"Seriously, why are you guys all so sharp?" Sonoko teased, pretending to be hurt. "You're all acting like famous detectives, it's putting a lot of pressure on me!"
"Fujino-senpai!" Just then, accompanied by a clear call, the classroom door suddenly opened.
"Huh?" Fujino was taken aback by the sound. Ran and Sonoko also turned to look. They saw a girl in a school uniform with a long black ponytail open the door and walk straight towards them.
Looking at the girl in front of him, Fujino felt she looked familiar. Since she called him 'senpai,' she must be from the Konoha Kendo Club. But he didn't really recognize her.
He usually didn't pay much attention to the people in the kendo club. Most of the time, it was just him and Suwa Yuji practicing together one-on-one. After all, regular students might get beaten so badly by him that they'd give up kendo entirely.
After thinking for a moment, he said, "From the Konoha Kendo Club?"
"Uh, Fujino-senpai, you don't remember me?" The girl was clearly stunned for a moment, then thought, "We went together last time to get our Nidan ranking."
"Ah, there was something like that..." Fujino thought for a moment, nodded, and indeed remembered this junior. He recalled that she had been lucky enough to pass too.
"..." They had just been in a competition together recently, and he forgot that fast? Or did he just not remember her at all...
Aoyama Suzuko was speechless for a moment, then spoke up. "Actually, this time, I wanted to ask Fujino-senpai for a favor."
"A request?" Fujino immediately became serious upon hearing that and asked, "Is it a detective-related request?"
"Not exactly..." Aoyama Suzuko shook her head, hesitating before continuing. "It's just..."
"Ding dong!" Just then, the school bell suddenly rang.
"It's already time for class..." Aoyama Suzuko thought for a moment and frowned. "In that case, could Fujino-senpai please come to the Kendo Club after school?" Saying that, she turned and left.
Leaving only Ran, Sonoko, and Fujino looking completely bewildered.
"Fujino-senpai, so you actually know her?" Sonoko recovered and asked Fujino curiously.
"Know her? Not really, I guess," Fujino replied. "I remember she should be a student at our kendo club. I think she took the last kendo exam in the same group as me. Sonoko, do you know her?"
(End of Chapter)