30 - Please Keep My Secret! The Ghost of Akiyo Fujie?

[Name: Azuma Shoyo]

[Gender: Male]

[Lifespan: 17/400 (years)]

[Strength: 830,000 tons]

[Defense: Can withstand a nuclear explosion equivalent to tens of millions of tons]

[Speed: Mach 206]

[Bloodline: Kryptonian Bloodline]

[Superpowers: Stellar Energy, Heat Vision, Bio-Force Field, Super Breath, Super Vision, Super Hearing, Super Intelligence…]

[Extracted Entry: Man of Steel Superman]

[Remaining Extractions: 0]

After basking in the sun for a few days, Azuma Shoyo's strength had increased by another 20,000 tons.

His speed had also gone up by 4 Mach.

"With this kind of power, even if Zod shows up, I wouldn't lose in a one-on-one fight, right?"

Azuma Shoyo got out of bed and glanced at his character panel in the system, musing to himself.

It was Wednesday. After waking up, Azuma Shoyo helped Yoko Okino with a math problem, which left him no time to prepare breakfast.

"I'm heading to school. If you're hungry, order something, or there's stuff in the fridge—you can cook if you want."

Azuma Shoyo quickly changed into his school uniform and called out to Yoko Okino, who was still buried under the covers.

She lazily waved a hand from beneath the blankets, looking too exhausted to even speak.

Click!

The door shut.

Only after hearing Azuma Shoyo's footsteps descending the stairs did Yoko Okino pull the covers off her head.

"That guy's like a bull—doesn't he ever get tired?"

"But… did I come out ahead or behind in all this?"

Yoko Okino tilted her head, lost in thought.

At the very least, Azuma Shoyo had promised to keep her secret—that she'd given money to Akihiro Fujie multiple times.

Not that Azuma Shoyo had ever planned to blab about it in the first place; Yoko Okino had just overthought the whole thing.

From that perspective, it seemed like she'd lost out.

But with Azuma Shoyo's looks, plus his youth?

Yoko Okino, this "old auntie," figured she'd come out ahead no matter how you sliced it.

Even she had to admit it—humans are visual creatures, and idols like her were no exception. Everyone's just an ordinary person deep down, nothing special about it.

If Azuma Shoyo weren't so handsome and young, would Yoko Okino have chosen this method to handle things?

"Sigh… Too bad someone died at my place. A bunch of my ongoing projects got put on hold. I wonder if this'll tank my career down the line?"

Yesterday, when she'd gone to the izakaya, her bad mood wasn't just because that jerk Akihiro Fujie had killed himself in her house and tried to frame her.

It was also because, while she was at the police station, she'd gotten word that all her upcoming work had been canceled for the foreseeable future.

The higher-ups at her company told her to "rest and recover."

But Yoko Okino wasn't naive. Rest? They didn't care about that.

They were waiting to see how this incident would affect her popularity. If the damage was minimal, they'd bring her back to work eventually.

But if it caused a massive drop in her fanbase, that "rest" period might stretch on indefinitely!

After mulling it over for a bit, Yoko Okino felt sleep creeping back in. She gave up on thinking about pointless things she couldn't control anyway.

Her eyes fluttered shut, and within moments, she was asleep again.

…

As for Yoko Okino crashing at his place, Azuma Shoyo didn't bother worrying about how long she'd stick around.

It wasn't like he was losing out.

On his way to Teitan High School, Azuma Shoyo started thinking about getting a motorcycle sometime soon.

A driver's license wouldn't be hard to come by.

A bit of cash could take care of that.

But…

His funds were running low.

He had maybe 20 or 30 million yen left in the bank.

Enough to get by, sure.

But not for long.

As for that old idea of starting a company with his tech skills, Azuma Shoyo decided it was too much hassle.

Maybe if he could extract an ability to control minds someday, he'd just take over all the shareholders of some big corporation. How easy would that be?

For now, though… Azuma Shoyo recalled that Conan and the gang would soon stumble into a case involving maple leaf gold coins—15,000 of them, worth about 600 million yen.

If he was short on cash, he could nab those for himself in the meantime.

If he didn't take them, they'd just get confiscated anyway. Better they benefit him than someone else.

"For the next few days, I'll keep an eye on Conan and the others. Once they figure out that cipher map, I'll swoop in and snag the coins first."

Azuma Shoyo thought to himself.

There you go—his temporary financial crisis solved, just like that.

See?

No need to start a company or hustle for a career!

In the classroom of Class B, Year 2, Azuma Shoyo spotted Sonoko and Ran chatting together. He walked over and greeted them.

"Shoyo, perfect timing! I heard you guys saw Yoko Okino last night? And there was a murder at her place?!" Sonoko asked, her eyes gleaming with gossip-hungry curiosity.

"Yeah, the dead guy was some creep named Akihiro Fujie. I'm pretty sure he was nuts—killing himself in her house to frame her. Who does that?" Azuma Shoyo said, dropping his bag at his seat.

"Uh-huh, definitely sounds like he was unhinged," Sonoko nodded, fully on board.

Ran privately agreed that Akihiro Fujie seemed off his rocker, but out of respect for the dead, she kept quiet.

Sonoko and Azuma Shoyo, however, had no such reservations.

They roasted Akihiro Fujie for a while before Sonoko brought up the weekend trip to Cosay Island.

"Didn't I mention buying tickets? Turns out my family invested in that horror-themed amusement park. On opening day, my parents are heading over, so we can just tag along with them," Sonoko said with a grin.

"Sonoko, won't that interrupt your parents' work?" Ran asked, a little concerned.

"Relax, it's fine! What work? They're just going to drink and chat with some boring adults. It's all pointless socializing," Sonoko said dismissively.

At noon, while eating lunch in the cafeteria, Azuma Shoyo ran into Miko Yotsuya and Hana Yurikawa.

Yesterday, he'd promised Hana he'd treat them to a meal today, so he figured he'd ask what they wanted.

But as soon as he sat down, Miko Yotsuya flashed him a specific hand signal.

It was their agreed-upon code from yesterday.

Whenever Miko made that gesture, it meant an evil spirit was lurking near Azuma Shoyo again.

Seriously?!

He'd just taken out one yesterday, and now another showed up today?

What was this?

Wait a second…

Could it be the ghost of Akihiro Fujie, the guy who'd killed himself yesterday?

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