While the search and rescue teams were busy, Conan stared out at the sea, a bad feeling gnawing at him.
He knew deep down that Sawaki Kohei wasn't just some ordinary background character—a mere "digital mass"—but the real culprit behind the serial attacks and even this latest explosion.
So… had Sawaki suddenly grown a conscience? Or was this all part of a grander plan, killing his targets just before committing suicide in the ocean?
Conan glanced at Jiangxia. Right now, only the two of them seemed to understand what was really going on. Maybe Jiangxia could at least share in the weight of these tangled thoughts.
Also, it'd probably be a good idea to tell the others right away that Sawaki might be the murderer.
Because what if Sawaki hadn't willingly disappeared into the sea, but had some accident underwater and got rescued later, returning to the restaurant? If no one knew his true identity, he might lash out again and hurt the rescue workers or some other unlucky digital media peeps hanging around.
But when Conan looked at Jiangxia, his emotions grew even more complicated.
Jiangxia seemed completely checked out. He was sitting silently on the steps by the water, staring at where the sea lapped against the concrete. His head was bowed, hiding his expression. But based on that ultra-avoidant body language—fixated on a single tiny corner of the world—he was probably still deep in his "autism cave."
"…Really?"
Conan rubbed his chin.
Guess I'll have to handle this one myself.
——
Actually, Jiangxia had already returned to his main body a while ago.
He'd had to expel the sea water before his underwater breathing skill timed out, otherwise he might've choked on it when it expired.
He'd handed over both the murderous aura and the shikigami to the mermaid.
Not that there was any real danger of her stealing them—unprocessed murderous aura isn't edible or digestible to ghosts.
So even if the murderous aura was practically bursting out of Sawaki Kohei, the mermaid would, at most, sneak a few bites. That wouldn't reduce the weight at all, and ghosts don't have saliva or anything gross like that anyway. If she tried to eat it and couldn't, she'd just get mad and chuck it aside—no way she was wasting it.
In short: a certified safe murderous aura porter.
Jiangxia hadn't expected her to take that long surfacing, though. Maybe she'd decided to really test how tough ordinary murderous aura was?
By the time Jiangxia had quietly spat out the water and waited a few moments, the mermaid finally surfaced, carrying a huge ball of murderous aura and three shikigami.
She returned to her regular ghost-size form and, with an elegant flick of her tail, climbed up onto the steps next to Jiangxia and sat down cross-legged—clearly trying to look composed. Then she pushed the ball of murderous aura toward him.
Jiangxia looked down and instantly understood why she'd taken so long.
The once-sloppy, tangled ball of murderous aura… had been carefully twisted into neat little strands.
A quick visual check told him each strand was about the perfect weight for a standard ghost mint roll. No need to measure or cut them himself. Handy.
The mermaid lined up the strands in a row and counted them one by one, treating each with great reverence as she handed them over.
At the end, she picked up the very last strand, hesitated, and looked up at Jiangxia with a hopeful glance.
Jiangxia: "…"
What are you doing? You can't even bite that thing.
But now wasn't the time to start arguing with a ghostly fish—Conan, sitting nearby, was giving him some deeply complicated looks.
Jiangxia kept still and concentrated on pretending to be out of commission.
The mermaid stared at him for a long time. Seeing that her master had zero intention of nodding or reacting, she gave a tiny sigh.
Then, very reluctantly, she split the strand of murderous aura in half, pushed one half to Jiangxia, and hugged the other half to her chest, her eyes filled with a tragic sort of determination: This is non-negotiable.
Jiangxia's gaze followed the floating murderous aura.
Still, he didn't nod or react.
The mermaid's determined eyes slowly turned watery, like she was about to cry in Q-Q.
After a bit more internal struggle, she gently switched the two halves—giving Jiangxia the bigger piece, and keeping the smaller one for herself.
As she passed him the bigger half, the tail of the murderous aura trembled just a little.
Jiangxia honestly didn't care all that much. The mermaid couldn't actually eat unprocessed murderous aura—she could only play with it. And once she got tired of that and finally wanted to eat it for real, she'd have to come crawling back so he could mint it properly into ghost mint. Then she could use it as ghost food.
The amount of aura hadn't changed, and it was still staying by his side. The only difference was that it had moved from his storage space to the mermaid's hands.
He hadn't nodded earlier simply because Conan, with that unnerving sense of child detective justice, had been staring directly at him the whole time.
But now, Jiangxia noticed that Conan had made some sort of decision—he was clutching his anesthetic watch and dashing off at speed.
Once Kudo finally looked away, Jiangxia gave the mermaid a subtle nod.
She immediately leapt up and scurried off with her murderous aura, visibly thrilled. Even though she'd only gotten a little bit, the fact that she'd earned it through struggle made it all the sweeter—she looked happier than when she got the whole thing for free.
——
Elsewhere…
Driven by pure instinct, Conan decided to out Sawaki Kohei's true identity. He quietly aimed his trusty anesthetic watch at the back of Kogoro Mouri's neck, selecting the sleeping detective as his latest ventriloquist puppet.
Step one: knock him out cold with an anesthetic needle.
Step two: use the bowtie voice changer to impersonate Mouri and deliver the deduction.
Step three: profit.
He didn't even consider using Jiangxia's voice—because when Jiangxia went into "deep hang-up mode," he wouldn't talk, reason, or even blink. Ran would notice immediately if Jiangxia suddenly started talking like a normal human being. Busted.
As for Mouri… eh, the guy rarely solved cases seriously anyway. Who even knew what his "normal" behavior looked like anymore?
He could just blame it on "emotional shock" over an old friend's betrayal and call it a day. Besides, Mouri's eyes weren't that noticeable when closed. It'd probably pass.
——
As "Mouri Kogoro's" voice rang out behind him, delivering the deduction, Jiangxia quietly exhaled in relief.
Sawaki Kohei's unexpected hostility toward him today had seriously rattled his nerves.
Reputation points still need to be farmed, but I need to slow the pace down a bit...
It's exhausting trying to out-brain and out-bluff criminals every time. Can't they be a little less cunning and a little more reckless?
As for the Organization, Jiangxia had already thought of a plausible excuse. He remembered how Gin had warned him multiple times not to make too much of a scene—especially not the kind that would attract police attention.
So now, blowing up an entire building just to take out one mediocre target? Yeah... that might technically qualify as overdoing it.
So of course he had to quietly retreat from the center of the case and let some clueless detective, who thought they'd figured out the "first layer," take the spotlight instead.
*Goal #1: Top 200 fanfics published within the last 31 - 90 days by POWER STONES.
Progress: 15/60(approx) for 10 BONUS CHAPTERS
Goal #2: One BONUS CHAPTER per review for the first 10 REVIEWS.
Progress:2/10*