Chapter 236: Why Would a Detective Beat Someone?

Sawaki Kohei tore his gaze away from watching Jiangxia and Conan, staring straight ahead again with murderous intent burning in his eyes.

He remembered what Conan had noticed when tasting the seasoning in the kitchen just now.

If he recalled correctly, not long after that, Conan was whispering something to Jiangxia—this kid seemed like Jiangxia's personal eyeliner.

But Sawaki Kohei was pretty sure of something else. Earlier, Jiangxia had been eyeing him since he stepped out of his house, so Jiangxia must have asked the kid followed him wherever he went…

In that case...

Sawaki Kohei smirked quietly, remembering the crossbow trap he'd set up.

He adjusted his position calmly.

Jiangxia followed him, and as Sawaki shifted, Jiangxia moved slightly into the crossbow's firing range.

Sawaki Kohei glanced sideways at the scene, thinking about what would come next, feeling much more at ease.

Even if this didn't kill anyone, it wouldn't be a total loss—the crossbow was just the beginning. There were still plenty of bombs waiting to go off.

As long as Jiangxia got hurt a little now, he'd move slower and would be harder to escape later.

In the end, Jiangxia would be buried with Nana Osanai, Katsuyoshi Asahi, and Nishina in this underwater restaurant.

Perfect script.

…

The three of them headed toward the wine storage area, each lost in their own thoughts.

Conan was curiously inspecting the wine bottles lining the cabinets on both sides when suddenly a thin silver wire flickered across his vision—right in front of him, at adult calf height, someone was pulling a barely visible wire.

Conan's heart jumped with a sudden sense of danger. He shouted urgently to Sawaki Kohei, "Stop!"

Sawaki Kohei's reaction was half a beat too slow. Panicked, he accidentally broke the wire.

Almost immediately, a taut bowstring twanged sharply—especially loud in the enclosed wine storage.

The sound came from behind them.

Conan remembered Jiangxia trailing behind. He spun anxiously and shouted, "Watch out!"

The sharp crossbow bolt shot instantly. Conan couldn't even see it flying; all he heard was a whoosh of air.

At that moment, Jiangxia's hand shot up faster than the eye could follow. The deadly bolt was caught like a fluffy piece of cotton—grasped casually in his palm.

Jiangxia looked down at the murder weapon in stunned silence from the others behind him.

Then he calmly looked toward where the bolt had come from and said, "No one's here... This has to be a trigger mechanism the attacker set up earlier. Whoever left the letter is seriously messed up."

Conan, already thinking about first aid: "..."

Although he never quite registered it, Conan always forgot that Jiangxia was actually pretty good at fighting. But this time... if he was reading it right, the arrow had shot from behind Jiangxia.

...Could Jiangxia catch that too?

Conan stared at Jiangxia, unharmed, and then at the arrow in his hand. Along with admiration, there was a hint of envy.

If only he'd had those skills back when he was near the amusement park, maybe he wouldn't have had to suffer Gin's tricks, or deal with so much trouble now.

...Why didn't he follow this group to learn fighting earlier?

He regretted it now, deeply.

…

Just then, the crossbow firing and Conan and Sawaki Kohei's startled cries quickly drew the others' attention.

Inspector Megure looked at the arrow in Jiangxia's hand and nodded in recognition. "This is the same kind the attacker shot into my stomach before! I heard Dr. Agasa was attacked by one too."

Jiangxia handed the metal arrow over to Megure, then moved toward the cabinet at the end of the corridor.

He examined the crossbow hidden inside, and the "Eight of Spades" playing card placed beside it. "It's the same attacker."

While the police and detectives whispered about this new attack, Sawaki Kohei stood nearby, looking very ugly.

When others saw him like that, they didn't suspect anything odd—just figured it was normal. Judging by the playing card left next to the murder weapon, the attacker's target was Sawaki Kohei, so it made sense he looked scared.

But one person didn't think so.

—As a "prophet" with godlike perspective, Jiangxia knew in his heart the real reason for Sawaki's ugly face: he hadn't expected a detective who seemed to prefer solving problems with his brain to actually be pretty strong physically.

Thinking that, Jiangxia couldn't help but thank the police and the media.

The cases Jiangxia stumbled into were often sudden, and few reporters were there beforehand.

And since the police noticed the prisoners Jiangxia caught looked a bit lost in human form, some officers, to protect minors and detectives' reputations, rarely let reporters near the scenes.

As a result, not many people knew how Jiangxia dealt with prisoners.

He heard some tabloid tried to get insider info to criticize this kind of prisoner abuse and lack of humane treatment.

But after their report came out, instead of sparking discussion about detective ethics, it only brought in protest letters and mass unsubscribes like a blizzard.

Innocent tabloids were scolded for fabricating things, twisting the truth—how could a high school detective who hates evil just beat people for no reason?

Even if prisoners got hit, it must have been because they were too cruel—Jiangxia had no choice.

Otherwise, what else could he do? Just obediently take it from prisoners?

So after that, few reporters mentioned it again, focusing instead on flashy cases.

In the end, Detective Conan World's newspaper readers cared more about how interesting the case was. As long as the techniques were clever and the story compelling, it didn't matter if the detective was a ruthless gopher-smacking machine in private or a nice guy who enjoyed long talks with prisoners.

Now it seemed Sawaki Kohei, like some criminals, had been misled by reports that never mentioned Jiangxia's hands-on fighting skills.

Jiangxia secretly rejoiced. Good thing that was the case—otherwise, if Sawaki had been too scared of him before, he might have strongly refused to come along with excuses like "Isn't today a school day? Why are high school kids skipping class?" and insisted the police send him back to school... that would've been really bad.

…

In the wine storage, Inspector Megure and the others quietly discussed their next steps.

Jiangxia watched Sawaki Kohei and noticed his murderous aura flickering on and off like a bad lightbulb.

*Goal #1: Top 200 fanfics published within the last 31 - 90 days by POWER STONES.

Progress: 10/60(approx) for 10 BONUS CHAPTERS

Goal #2: One BONUS CHAPTER per review for the first 10 REVIEWS.

Progress:2/10*