Jiangxia Tongzhi had just picked up some Detective Conan merchandise from the store. On his way out, he bumped into a guy scribbling down high scores at the arcade next door and got roped into gaming for a bit.
After that, he headed to the Mouri Detective Agency. But before going upstairs, he ran into Conan on the street.
Conan was dragging his feet, clutching a handkerchief, and sneezing nonstop.
Jiangxia gave him a once-over. "You catch a cold?"
"Yeah," Conan nodded, eyeing him suspiciously. For some reason, he got the feeling Jiangxia looked... pleased?
...No way. That had to be in his head.
There's no way Jiangxia would be happy because his classmate was sick. He was probably just in a good mood in general.
In reality, Jiangxia was in a good mood.
In his experience, Conan and his crew rarely got sick—but when they did, it usually meant something special was about to happen.
And Jiangxia remembered: in that case where Kimie Tsujimura killed her husband, Conan had a cold too—so the chances of a mission triggering just went up.
Mouri's place was a three-story building, with the detective office on the second floor.
The two of them headed up. Just as they reached the door, they heard a voice with an Osaka accent yelling:
"Get Kudo Shinichi out here! I know he's here!"
Then came Ran's voice, sounding exasperated: "I told you, he's not here…"
Conan opened the door, confused, and saw a boy in athletic wear, dark-skinned and wearing a baseball cap.
Before he could ask who that was, the boy turned around, spotted Jiangxia, and froze.
A second later, Hattori Heiji pointed straight at him and shouted at Ran: "Jiangxia's here! And you said Kudo Shinichi isn't!"
Ran and Conan: "…?"
Ran blinked. She didn't see the connection.
She stepped aside to let Jiangxia in, then turned to Hattori, confused. "Jiangxia just came to deliver some merch to my dad. What's that got to do with Shinichi? Also, why are you even here?"
Hattori Heiji stopped being mysterious and took off his baseball cap, revealing his face. "Name's Hattori Heiji. Just like Jiangxia—or Kudo—I'm a high school detective."
"'Or'?" Conan squinted. That wording was fishy. It sounded like he was implying only Jiangxia or Kudo, only one of them were detectives. What, did this guy just revoke his detective license because Shinichi's been MIA?
Conan's gaze toward Hattori got noticeably colder.
Meanwhile, the guy from Osaka was being super friendly.
He looked at Conan, pulled a bottle of Paikaru from his bag, poured a half-glass, and offered it to him. "Here. Miracle cure for colds. One cup and you're good."
Conan blinked, touched. So the Osaka guy did notice he was sick… and even brought medicine...?
Heartwarming.
He raised the glass to drink—
—but Jiangxia suddenly snatched it away and intercepted.
He sniffed the cup, frowned. "You're seriously giving a kid something this strong?"
And then, naturally, he dumped the whole thing into the sink.
"Was that... wine?" Ran took the empty glass from Jiangxia, sniffed it, and immediately sneezed from the fumes.
She glared at Hattori. "You were gonna make a child drink this?!"
Hattori just grinned, shoved the Paikaru into Kogoro Mouri's arms like it was a welcome gift, and turned back to Ran: "One sip of that stuff and you feel warm all over. Perfect cure for colds. Anyway, back to the point—Kudo Shinichi. He's hiding nearby, right?"
Kogoro looked completely uninterested. He set the bottle aside and started fussing with the merch Jiangxia brought.
Jiangxia, on the other hand, "accidentally" knocked the bottle over and let the booze quietly spill out.
If Conan, while sick, drank Paikaru, he'd experience one of those miraculous side effects—transforming back into Kudo Shinichi temporarily.
And right now, the Organization was watching Isao Tsujimura like a hawk. Jiangxia didn't know why, but he did know this:
If Kudo Shinichi suddenly showed up at the diplomat's house in the middle of an investigation… even if Gin followed his usual settings and forgot after committing murder, other people in the Organization weren't goldfish-brained.
Kudo Shinichi was too famous.
If anyone in the Organization recognized him, it'd be a total disaster.
Better for him to stay a portable elementary schooler.
…Still, might not be a bad idea to secretly send a bottle of Paikaru to Haibara Ai later. Let her research the principle and maybe find a temporary antidote.
While Jiangxia was busy doing some casual sabotage, Ran and Conan were grilling Hattori, and Kogoro was happily tearing open the new merch—
Suddenly, there were two sharp knocks at the door. Tuk-tuk.
Everyone turned to look.
A middle-aged woman was standing there.
When she saw she had their attention, she pulled off her sunglasses and stepped inside, heading straight for Kogoro.
"Is your doorbell just for show? I rang it forever! Anyway, I need something investigated. You should have time now."
Jiangxia stayed in the back, low-key, blending into the furniture. He peered over to check who it was.
Yup—her photo had been in that folder Gin gave him.
Kimie Tsujimura. The wife of the diplomat, Isao Tsujimura.
She didn't notice Jiangxia.
She handed Kogoro a file. "I want you to investigate my son's girlfriend. This is her photo and resume. Please come to my house for the details—my husband's very concerned about it too. But as a diplomat, if he came to a detective agency…"
Hattori perked up. "That'd be a scandal for sure! Hey, how about we tag along? If it looks like a group of parents and kids, no one'll suspect a thing. Sound good?"
Ikemura GongJiang glanced at Hattori.
The more people there were, the messier it'd get—perfect.
"Sounds reasonable. I'll leave it to you."
She picked up the file again and rose gracefully to her feet.
Then she heard Hattori say, "Jiangxia, you come too. I wanna see how good you really are."
Isao Tsujimura flinched, and the file slipped from her hands back onto the table.
She whipped around and saw the same detective she'd met once before—the one they said had sharp eyes.
*Goal #1: Top 200 fanfics published within the last 30 days by POWER STONES.
Progress: 36/50(approx) for 10 BONUS CHAPTERS
Goal #2: One BONUS CHAPTER per review for the first 10 REVIEWS.
Progress:1/10*