Chapter 300: Meeting in Person Is Risky

As someone spoiled on the plot, Jiangxia Tongzhi already knew this magician's gathering had a ghost in the mix—and that Sonoko Suzuki was one of the attendees.

Originally, considering Sonoko's... particular tastes, Jiangxia assumed she wouldn't bother inviting him. So he just tuned into the radio regularly, waiting for any murder-related news so he could swoop in and collect the corpse.

Unexpectedly, Sonoko sent him a direct invitation to go together.

After texting back, Jiangxia gently stroked the mermaid's very nice tail and said with a hint of emotion, "She's really a good person."

The mermaid had originally planned to slap him with her tail. But seeing the fresh killing intent Jiangxia had just given her, she hesitated, then silently uncocked the tail she'd curled up for a strike.

...

On the day of the gathering, Kogoro Mouri insisted on driving.

—This middle-aged detective didn't vibe with modern trends and had a natural distrust of "meeting netizens in person." He felt like he'd seen too many cases of people getting swindled out of money, dignity, and sometimes pants, so he had to personally eyeball these "netizens" before he could sleep easy.

The car was filled with cheerful energy. Even Sonoko, who had been mentally fried by a barrage of multiple-choice questions earlier, bounced back—being an optimistic girl, she quickly came up with new mischief.

Sonoko leaned forward from the backseat, grinning mischievously as she poked Jiangxia on the arm. "This time, you pretend to be me. My forum ID is Disciple of the Magician."

Jiangxia gave her a skeptical look. "Pretend to be you?"

"Exactly! No one uses their real name on the forum, and it's all just text anyway. So I've always pretended to be a guy, and I even said I'd be bringing a friend to the gathering." The more she explained, the more amused she seemed by her own genius.

Originally, she'd wanted to shock everyone by dramatically revealing that Disciple of the Magician was actually a girl. Ideally, she'd drop that twist right in front of the Red Herring's face and watch him collapse in confusion at her fashionable boots.

But now that she couldn't openly flirt with Red Herring, the thrill of the identity reveal was kind of lost.

She pondered deeply for a moment, then decided that having Jiangxia impersonate her was actually way funnier.

That way, when she logged back into the forum later under the same ID, it would be like a weird kind of identity theft victory. If she couldn't get his person, she could at least get his account. Ahem... anyway, an in-person meeting should never end boring!

Ran Mouri and Jiangxia both stared at her as her smile slowly evolved into full villain mode: "..."

In the end, Jiangxia nodded under the "villain's" expectant gaze. Fortunately, he understood Sonoko's true intent. Otherwise, based on her expression alone, he'd have turned her down flat.

As for whether Sonoko would later use his name to post weird stuff online... Jiangxia wasn't too worried.

—From what he'd seen, most of the forum members had probably already figured out that Disciple of the Magician was a girl. She typed like a girl, spoke like a girl—no amount of "I'm a boy" would cover that up.

So this little identity swap was harmless. Jiangxia figured Sonoko's roleplay would collapse pretty fast once they arrived. Might as well let her have her fun on the way there—as thanks for giving him a ride to the crime scene.

...

Kogoro Mouri's car wound deeper into the forest, eventually stopping in front of a suspension bridge.

It was winter, and a heavy snow had just fallen. The bridge stretched across a deep river valley with steep cliffs, and both the wooden planks and rope handrails were thickly coated with snow.

As they stepped onto the bridge, Jiangxia caught the faintest whiff of gasoline.

Ran and Sonoko were too absorbed in chatting to notice. Conan was sneezing behind his giant surgical mask, trying to survive his cold.

Only Kogoro Mouri twitched his nose suspiciously and muttered, "What's that smell? Something's off."

Jiangxia calmly tightened his scarf around his nose and mouth, smoothly picked up Ran's last sentence, and pretended to be part of the conversation.

Kogoro had just spoken on reflex and didn't give it much thought.

Just then, a mountain wind swept past and carried away the suspicious scent entirely. Whatever Kogoro had sensed vanished, and he quickly forgot about it as he strode across the bridge with the others.

...

Beyond the bridge was a grove of snow-laden pine trees. Visibility was poor, and the group trudged through until a three-story villa emerged ahead of them.

Kogoro, wearing his Serious Adult Inspector face, adjusted his coat and tried to get ahead—ready to ring the doorbell first and assert dominance over any possibly shady netizens.

But before he could act, Sonoko yanked him back without mercy.

She spun around and started madly winking at Jiangxia.

Since Disciple of the Magician was her forum ID, she figured the first person to ring the bell would automatically be assumed to be Disciple of the Magician, with the rest just tagging along.

Her eyes sparkled as she softly hissed, "Don't forget my code name—Disciple of the Magician!"

Code name... seriously, how old are you? Still deep in your chuunibyou era. And that name is so long, it has zero weight. Jiangxia sighed quietly, then stepped forward and rang the bell.

More than ten seconds later, a kind-looking middle-aged man opened the door.

This was Yoshinori Ara, the villa's owner and one of the magician gathering's participants.

As soon as the door opened, Jiangxia subtly stepped aside to reveal the rest of the group behind him.

He casually dropped the name "Disciple of the Magician" and waited for Yoshinori's gaze to swing toward Sonoko or Ran, exposing the disguise.

But instead, Yoshinori just stared directly at Jiangxia.

Then he lit up in surprise: "Disciple of the Magician... you're actually a guy?! The way you wrote online, I totally thought you were a girl!"

"..." Yeah. That was the correct conclusion. So maybe look behind me now? Jiangxia inched even further to the side.

Finally, Yoshinori noticed the two high school girls standing behind him.

His eyes darted from them back to Jiangxia, then his expression shifted—into something oddly complex.

It was the look of a man who had just discovered a rare species of scumbag.

Jiangxia: "...?"

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

Progress: 13/60(approx) for 10 BONUS CHAPTERS

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

Progress:2/10*