Kimie Tsujimura had decided to find the perfect detective after she developed some murderous intentions toward her husband.
Her plan was simple: slip sleeping pills into his drink, let him nod off in the back-locked study, then bring a group of detectives into the house. Just as they were getting a feel for the scene, she would "wake" Isao up and secretly stab him to death with a poison needle as a clever cover-up.
Before that, she left a series of fake clues to make it look like her husband had been killed in a locked room—before anyone even entered the house.
This way, Kimie Tsujimura would appear innocent, with no time to commit the crime herself. She could pin the blame on her father-in-law and protect herself—best of both worlds.
But for this trick to work, the detective she brought had to have some real reasoning ability. At the very least, they needed to figure out the "locked room murder" upstairs.
So, Kimie Tsujimura started secretly contacting detectives under the pretense of investigating her daughter-in-law.
During this time, a friend recommended Jiangxia Tongzhi. Curious, she visited the detective office where Jiangxia worked to check him out.
At first, seeing how young Jiangxia was and his lack of official qualifications, Kimie was pretty confident he wouldn't be a threat.
But when her girlfriends started consulting with him, Kimie sat nearby flipping through Jiangxia's case files—and the more she read, the more shocked she got.
According to the reports, Jiangxia solved cases very quickly. He often zeroed in on the key point as soon as he opened his mouth. That showed serious observational skills—he could scan a whole scene in seconds and remember every detail.
Kimie looked at the criminals Jiangxia had apparently nabbed—somewhat mysteriously planted in the clippings—and felt a chill down her spine. What if, just as she jabbed her husband's neck with a poison needle, Jiangxia leaned over and asked, "What are you doing?"
That would be game over.
So, just to be safe, Kimie Tsujimura switched to a "tool person"—Mori Kogoro.
This detective was also good at investigations and supposedly had some reasoning skills. She'd heard he liked to jump to obvious conclusions when a murder case came up. So Kimie decisively dropped Jiangxia and went for Mori Kogoro.
But now... why was Jiangxia here?
Kimie regretted promising so quickly.
She adjusted her sunglasses, trying to think of an excuse to refuse Jiangxia and the others following along—she only wanted Mori Kogoro.
But before she could speak, Jiangxia suddenly walked over and asked politely, "Can I come too?"
When he got close, Kimie subconsciously nodded, unwilling to refuse.
Jiangxia took the permission and retreated with a satisfied grin.
Kimie took a moment to realize what she'd done, her face going pale. But changing her mind now would be too blunt—and suspicious. People might start wondering, If you have nothing to hide, why insist Jiangxia can't come?
...Forget it. Bring someone along to check things out first, watch the situation, and only then pull the trigger. If Jiangxia noticed her, the whole plan would be ruined.
Thinking this, Kimie Tsujimura barely managed to keep her noble and glamorous attitude as she walked to the door.
Jiangxia followed.
As soon as Kimie Tsujimura appeared, he was nearly halfway through completing his "organizational assessment task."
The four main players gathered, and the effect was impressive. Jiangxia couldn't help but glance at Hattori Heiji with admiration.
Speaking of which, Hattori Heiji was something else: he often ended up investigating serial murders, sometimes three or four deaths at once. Too bad he usually lived in Osaka—kind of far away.
Hattori Heiji had just been assigned a task, and he'd pulled Jiangxia along, clearly in a good mood. Although a routine commission wasn't a murder case, the process of verification and analysis still revealed a lot about someone's detective habits.
He flashed a smile like he saw through everything and turned to Jiangxia—only to find Jiangxia was staring at him.
After a brief pause, Jiangxia said, "Have you ever thought about transferring to Tokyo? There are lots of famous detectives here, and plenty of cases. It'd be easier to compare notes."
Hattori Heiji blinked: "...Huh?"
Jiangxia immediately realized maybe that wasn't the best thing to say. Some cases are location-specific, after all, and even if Heiji moved to Tokyo, he couldn't just take those cases with him.
Sighing, Jiangxia added, "Never mind, just saying casually."
Then he climbed into Kimie's car, looking a bit lost.
Hattori Heiji watched his back: "...?"
Was it just his imagination, or did Jiangxia seem friendly toward this challenger who'd suddenly appeared out of nowhere? Not hostile at all?
...What kind of strange vibe was that?
Suspicious, Hattori Heiji followed the car.
Conan, watching from a distance with his signature half-moon eyes expression, slipped into the car too. Hattori Heiji was still calling for Kudo Shinichi, and Conan felt uneasy about the whole thing.
In Conan's eyes, Hattori Heiji was a little too blunt—too straightforward to the point of being annoying.
If he kept asking Jiangxia questions Jiangxia didn't want to answer, he'd exhaust Jiangxia's patience. Someone would have to pull Jiangxia away from him. After all, Hattori Heiji wasn't a criminal—he could get in trouble if things went too far.
As soon as Conan got in, Ran Mouri also squeezed in. The car suddenly felt crowded.
Mori Kogoro looked back, speechless: "There are too many of you. Get out, two of you."
Kimie Tsujimura said, "It's fine, less suspicion that way." The more people, the better she felt.
She also noticed Jiangxia seemed very interested in that Osaka guy. So... good.
Ran deliberately sat between Jiangxia and Hattori Heiji to separate them.
She had just realized that although Hattori Heiji's target was Kudo Shinichi, he wasn't exactly warm toward Jiangxia either.
At first, she expected Hattori Heiji to start grilling Jiangxia, ready to kick someone out if he got annoying... but he didn't.
Hattori Heiji stayed quiet, deep in thought.
He was still mulling over Jiangxia's suggestion to "come to Tokyo."
If Toru Amuro had said that, Heiji would have suspected he was mocking Osaka's detective scene. But now, hearing it from Jiangxia...
Heiji's mind through Jiangxia's sincere eyes, unable to doubt him. He even half-imagined that if he nodded right now, Jiangxia would call a moving company and whisk him to Tokyo overnight.
So why did Jiangxia suddenly invite him? Was it because he admired his detective skills? Heiji was genuinely puzzled.
...
Kimie Tsujimura quickly drove the car to the destination.
The Tsujimura Estate was large and stylish. The group entered through the front door, encountering the family's butler, Kimie Tsujimura's son and daughter-in-law, and her father-in-law... before finally reaching the study door on the second floor.
*Goal #1: Top 200 fanfics published within the last 30 days by POWER STONES.
Progress: 39/50(approx) for 10 BONUS CHAPTERS
Goal #2: One BONUS CHAPTER per review for the first 10 REVIEWS.
Progress:1/10*