Chapter 256: I Need to Get Rid of This Detective

Amuro initially wanted to decline when Jiangxia volunteered for the task.

But then he remembered something and changed his mind.

"Help me draw the attention of the other participants. You're a fairly well-known detective—people with...gray affiliations will be watching you more closely."

In short, it was a peaceful, paddling-along kind of mission. A formality, really, just to give Jiangxia some activity on paper.

Last time, Amuro had run into Jiangxia at a hot spring hotel. Afterward, when he went back to file a task report, he noticed Jiangxia's dossier had a suspiciously long blank period.

Which was not a good sign.

Even peripheral members of the organization have performance quotas. They're lax, sure, but a long dry spell still gets noted. When the organization needs cannon fodder, those kinds of "floaters" are often first to be volunteered. Amuro, who'd clawed his way up from the outer ranks himself, knew the system all too well.

So when a low-effort task came along, Amuro figured it was worth bringing Jiangxia in to pad his resume.

Jiangxia understood the undercover's intention and didn't mind.

With Conan, Haibara Ai, and Amuro Toru around, this was indeed a comfy paddling zone.

No hard work today. Just ghost picking. Relaxed vibes.

Soon enough, Jiangxia shifted his attention from Amuro and started watching the other people gathered in the hotel lobby for the Izu Mystery Tour.

Some stood out:

There was an otaku clutching a laptop, running around asking people, "Are you the Baron of the Night?" and testing their reaction speeds.

Then there was a mafia-looking grandpa in sunglasses, flanked by a scary-faced maid.

But these were just passersby.

Jiangxia's gaze quickly settled on a man with a retreating hairline.

The guy looked unkempt. Long, greasy hair down to his shoulders, sloppy clothes, guzzling beer straight from the can. His narrow eyes occasionally lit up, glued to the waists, chests, and legs of passing women...

This fine gentleman was Jiangxia's mission target: Tokio Ebihara.

Not long ago, Jiangxia had been forcibly dragged by Gin to eat sushi—for some reason—and, running out of things to say, asked Vodka why Tokio Ebihara had made it onto the organization's kill list.

That's when he learned the story.

Apparently, during a mission, a corpse had fallen from a tall building and crushed one of their members. Dead on the spot.

Jiangxia wasn't sure if he imagined it, but Vodka seemed to subtly shift a few inches away from him while recounting this.

Then Vodka continued, poker-faced:

Tokio Ebihara had passed by the scene, spotted the briefcase on the corpse—clearly expensive—and decided to swipe it.

He wasn't just a sleaze; he was also a skilled programmer. So he tried to crack the data inside the bag.

In doing so, he triggered a virus called "Night Baron."

The virus activated the laptop's camera, captured his face, and sent his photo plus location straight to the organization.

Worse, Tokio Ebihara wasn't even at home. He was in a nearby internet café.

When he realized something was wrong, he immediately ghosted. At the time, he was mainly worried about the café owner chasing him down. He hadn't expected that hiding out would accidentally let him dodge the clean-up squad sent by the organization.

And thus, Tokio Ebihara found himself on the organization's assassination list.

Jiangxia had gone quiet for a long moment after hearing that.

It was right up there with Asahi's "cement incident" in the annals of absurd death-related accidents… But hey, at least there'd be a ghost to pick up.

…

Izu Princess Hotel – First Floor Lobby

Once Jiangxia confirmed his mission target, he began sizing up the other participants.

And quickly realized something was off.

The cast this time didn't match his memory of the original timeline—not just because Amuro was here too, but the others seemed... different.

For instance, Jiangxia distinctly remembered the host "Dark Night Baron" being a short-haired, sharp-tongued royal-type woman. She didn't even have the "Night Baron" virus. She'd just used the myth of the virus, beloved by programmers everywhere, as bait to lure Tokio Ebihara into the event and murder him.

But now? That woman was nowhere to be seen.

According to the front desk, all participants had already arrived.

…Well, it was fine. Murderer changes didn't affect ghost-picking anyway.

Jiangxia's gaze swept the crowd and stopped on a man radiating murderous intent.

He was an unfamiliar middle-aged guy in a business suit, all polished leather and shiny watch. Suave, polite, well put-together.

Jiangxia watched him hand out business cards, then casually walked over and took one for himself.

Satoru Maeda.

Came across like a kind, upstanding citizen.

But when no one was looking, Maeda would shoot daggers at Tokio Ebihara's back and flash the occasional murdery grin.

He also cast Jiangxia cautious glances now and then, clearly wary of his reputation.

When the resident ghost whispered to Jiangxia about this guy's intentions, Jiangxia felt pretty good about things.

Whether or not Maeda's target was Tokio Ebihara, it wouldn't interfere with Jiangxia's ghost-picking.

But if it was Tokio Ebihara, that'd be a bonus—he could double-dip with the organization and farm some extra credit.

Virtuous cycle, activated.

…

Later, the group introduced themselves and did a round of identity testing.

Everyone wanted to figure out who the event host was and get their hands on the "virus."

Jiangxia, as a famous detective towing two kids, was the first to get ruled out.

Like, what detective shows up to a virus hunt dragging children?

And the host was supposed to pose as the "Dark Night Baron" and carry out a bunch of shady, disruptive stunts over the next three days.

With Jiangxia? Who's gonna babysit?

So—excluded.

Conan and Haibara Ai listened to these deductions with perpetual half-moon eyes.

Jiangxia didn't care. He was just here to paddle.

…

After the meeting, Jiangxia took the two fake kids up to the room and unpacked.

Their suite had a small living room—maybe 20 square meters—and two bedrooms.

Conan dropped his bag and immediately took off to investigate the other guests.

Jiangxia checked the time and decided to browse the food stalls near the hotel.

In short, he wanted to avoid hanging around inside too much—no need to spook the would-be murderer.

Honestly, protecting a murderer's fragile little heart was a full-time job.

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

Progress: 36/60(approx) for 10 BONUS CHAPTERS

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

Progress:2/10*