Chapter 240: Is This Really the Time to Wave Hello?

BONUS CHAPTER #3

Sawaki figured he still had a shot at survival—just hold on. Once the police and detectives realized he hadn't floated up, they'd definitely dive down looking for him. Then he could get them to help. He wasn't crushed, after all—his leg was just stuck.

As for this portable oxygen tank? He claimed it came from the car, probably something the killer "Murakami Jo" had prepped for himself. Yeah, the story had more holes than Swiss cheese, but come on—when you're about to die, who cares about airtight alibis?

…

Above Sawaki Kohei's Head, Restaurant Ceiling Area

To create a more "open" underwater dining experience, the ceiling of the submarine restaurant had been designed in a convex, dome-like shape. Supposedly, this helped prevent seawater from rushing in.

It also happened to be handy for people who, say, needed to hang onto something after a massive explosion.

Now, a cluster of soaking-wet individuals clung to the protrusions on the ceiling, bobbing in the water and collectively trying to process the very recent kaboom.

No one could've predicted that an assassin from the Cold Weapons Faction—a guy who'd been sniping people with a dinky crossbow, no less—would suddenly graduate to blowing up an entire underwater building.

But while most of the survivors were mentally yelling "What just happened?!" and "Has Murakami gone full yinbi psycho?!", Ran Mouri wasn't thinking that at all.

One of her hands gripped a ceiling ledge to stay afloat. The other held on to Jiangxia, who was still spaced out, while she tried to pep-talk him back to consciousness with boundless hope and anime-style enthusiasm.

Moments earlier, Jiangxia had just finished doing ghost business in his mermaid puppet disguise underwater and dismissed the puppet.

This place was too flooded to light ghost mint and recharge his murderous aura. The vibes were all wrong.

Luckily, Jiangxia hadn't burned through much aura anyway when he used the puppet to mess with the Ferrari.

—Technically, manipulating water flow wasn't a mermaid's official skill. It was more of a natural talent. Like how humans are born to scream, mermaids just know how to gently tweak water currents. Add a splash of murder energy, and boom—suddenly very useful.

Just now, Jiangxia had used that ability to gently redirect the current—and in doing so, mildly sabotaged the Ferrari as it was being swept away.

And, okay, if Sawaki Kohei did end up drowning down there, Jiangxia could honestly say it wasn't his fault.

—He'd just been trying to solidify a puppet when Ferrari came outta nowhere like a turbo dolphin. Self-preservation kicked in, and he nudged the car's trajectory away from himself.

And anyway, the sea water was doing most of the pushing, not his puppet. Plus, who was it that planted the bomb and pressed the big red button? That's right—Sawaki Kohei himself.

So, rounding up, this was basically suicide. Just, you know, assisted a little.

...

After dismissing the mermaid puppet, Jiangxia quietly began assembling another one.

The submarine restaurant had emergency lighting, which automatically switched on when the explosion knocked out the main power. But a large chunk of those lights had also been wiped out in the blast, plunging half the place into murky darkness.

Jiangxia directed the soul of the Tengu toward a gloomy corner. The clay gathered there silently, molding itself into a humanoid puppet in the shadows.

...

Even though the explosion had been the kind that made you question your life choices, human bodies in this universe had... special physics. Plus, the water pressure apparently obeyed anime rules.

So, two minutes later, everyone had floated up to the ceiling unharmed—except for one unlucky soul whose leg was pinned under a Ferrari. Everyone else was clinging to ceiling fixtures, waterlogged but alive.

Even Nishina, who usually panicked at a kiddie pool, had been dragged up by Kogoro Mouri.

Inspector Megure might not be the most technically skilled, but boy did he take his job seriously. He wiped water from his eyes and immediately began checking roll call.

He scanned the group and frowned. "Where's Mr. Sawaki? Anyone see him?!"

Jiangxia kept his Tengu puppet (disguised as Sawaki) running in the background while his consciousness returned to his real body. He slowly opened his eyes.

His gaze flicked around and locked onto something.

Ran, who was floating closest to Jiangxia, noticed him "waking up" from his dazed state. She looked where he was looking.

Behind her, right in front of Jiangxia, someone was gripping a chandelier and floating calmly in the shadows.

The chandelier was long dead, and this corner didn't even have functioning emergency lights. All she could make out was the silhouette of a man.

With all the crashing water and building noises, yelling was useless. So Ran waved at Megure and pointed toward the shadows.

Megure followed her gesture and exhaled. Good. Headcount confirmed. Everyone accounted for.

Kogoro cupped his hands and yelled toward the shadowy figure: "Hey! You okay over there?!"

The noise of water gushing and random debris collapsing made it impossible for "Sawaki" to respond. But then the puppet casually raised a hand from behind a piece of floating debris and waved like a chill dad on a beach holiday.

No panic, no flailing. Just a tired "I'm here."

The whole group collectively relaxed.

Whew. Everyone alive. No major injuries. Honestly, for a Detective Conan murder setting, that was practically a miracle.

Time to shift focus: how to escape.

The logic went—if seawater poured in, there had to be a hole somewhere leading out. If they were lucky, they could swim through it.

Megure wanted to call Sawaki over, but the explosion had left all sorts of sharp crap floating around. It was safer to wait, come up with a plan, then signal him to follow.

...

Ever since Jiangxia swiped the mermaid and the ghost energy core from Kaito Kid, the ghost crew had gotten some buffs.

Now, even if Jiangxia wasn't actively conscious, they could lightly control their own puppets—just enough to move a limb or strike a cool pose.

While everyone else discussed how not to die underwater, the puppet version of "Sawaki"—actually Tengu—let his raised hand droop like a broken marionette and leaned back against his wings, sighing internally.

So tired. So very tired. He just wanted to go back to sleep in the tattoo space.

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

Progress: 14/60(approx) for 10 BONUS CHAPTERS

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

Progress:2/10*