Chapter 322: I Want Some European Energy

"Yes, and besides him, the other two… The other passenger who didn't come to the restaurant is also kind of suspicious. We asked the waiter on the way here—he said there's no room service. Hiding in your room during dinner is just unreasonable."

To be fair, Conan also thought Jiangxia was pretty suspicious. But then again, Jiangxia did have a habit of collapsing into corners and catching naps like a stray cat, so it was perfectly believable he might've just snoozed through dinner.

Jiangxia hummed thoughtfully.

He knew that among the three so-called "passengers resting in their cabins," one was Sadao Kujirai disguised as "Saizo Kanou," and another was a literal tool puppet that had already been retired. None of them were real people. Only Jiangxia was the genuine article.

Of course, he couldn't tell the detectives any of that.

He went along with them to knock on the anonymous person's door, but no one answered. So the trio headed back to the restaurant.

Inside, two robbers and a bank employee who'd brought a bomb on board were seated at different tables. Saizo's daughter was there too.

Jiangxia's eyes landed briefly on Robber No. 1—Sadao Kujirai. When he noticed a fresh ghost clinging to the man's leg like a barnacle, he realized the last kidnapper must've been lured away and disposed of by Kujirai.

The serial killings had officially begun. Jiangxia no longer had to worry about his presence startling Kujirai.

Next, his gaze moved to the bank employee, who was radiating killing intent like a space heater. Jiangxia was just about to pick the seat closest to all that juicy malice when Saizo Kanou's daughter walked up, holding a deck of cards.

"Wanna play cards?" she asked, bored.

Jiangxia glanced at her. Her eyes were unfocused, and her attention seemed like it was only loosely attached.

He took the cards from her hand and made a casual comment. "You seem nervous."

That caught Heiji Hattori and Conan's ears. The detectives simultaneously stopped scanning the room and looked over.

Nagisa Isogai chuckled lightly and pulled another deck of cards from who-knows-where. As she expertly shuffled and cut the cards, her tone took on an airy, almost dreamlike quality. "Nervous? A little, yeah. The ocean's terrifying. Especially the pitch-black sea at night. It hides painful memories, disturbing futures… and sometimes, corpses."

The ominous statement made both detectives narrow their eyes, suddenly alert.

Jiangxia, on the other hand, was unbothered.

To him, Nagisa Isogai was one of the rare passengers without any killing intent. Compared to everyone else, she was practically innocent. She'd boarded this ship just to look for someone. Her father, Saizo Kanou, had been missing for years. Even though she told people she'd "lost" him, deep down, she still held onto a bit of hope. She believed that if midnight came and went, and her father really was onboard, then he'd have to show himself.

Jiangxia withdrew his gaze and also began silently counting down to midnight.

…

Nagisa Isogai quickly finished shuffling and called over the other passengers. A small crowd gathered to play poker.

Jiangxia was momentarily distracted by all the ambient killing intent swirling around him. But luckily, this didn't affect the game—Mouri Ran wasn't here today, so he didn't have to worry about bad luck. Almost all the good cards landed in his lap.

A few rounds later, when he finally snapped out of his thoughts, Jiangxia realized he had already amassed a jelly bean chip pile the size of a small nation.

The other players stared at him like he was an alien.

Heiji Hattori counted the players at the table, looked at the mess of cards, then finally couldn't resist asking, "Were you… counting cards in your head?"

Nagisa Isogai, clutching a truly tragic hand, sighed with exhaustion—and a touch of envy. "This has nothing to do with mental math. With that kind of hand, anyone could win."

"No, I mean…" Heiji frowned, struggling to find the logic. "Did he, like, calculate the position of each card when he was shuffling or something…?"

But then he realized—Jiangxia didn't even shuffle every round. And card draws were regulated too. So that couldn't explain it.

So… was Jiangxia cheating?

Or was this guy just stupidly lucky?

It wasn't cheating—that didn't make sense in a casual game like this. Which left one conclusion.

Heiji had a sudden, horrible epiphany: No wonder I keep running into this guy, no matter how random the case. He doesn't track people—he just stumbles into them through sheer dumb luck. Which means... I'm the one with garbage luck?!

Heiji fell into deep, existential contemplation.

And slowly curled up like a salted slug.

…

Sadao Kujirai, Minoru Ebina, and Korehisa Kanie were also visibly uncomfortable. Even if no money was involved, no one liked losing every single round.

So, the moment the clock ticked past midnight, they all came up with various flimsy excuses and fled the table one by one.

Jiangxia watched Minoru Ebina's retreating back, which was wrapped in a thick cloud of killing intent. He mumbled something about going to the bathroom and slipped away to follow him.

He remembered that Ebina's luggage contained a time bomb—one strong enough to sink the whole ship.

Before dinner, Jiangxia's main body had been chilling in his room, while his ghost consciousness had floated around exploring. At one point, he drifted into Ebina's room and took a good look at the bomb bag.

The bomb was packed with anti-disassembly mechanisms and was extremely shock-resistant.

The first was to prevent someone from secretly disabling it and ruining the plan. The second was more of a safety net—if Ebina couldn't find the robbers on this ship, he'd chuck the bomb into the ocean.

In short, 99% of his murder plan hinged on that case.

So, if Jiangxia wanted to harvest a bit of killing intent, it was simple: toss the bomb case into the ocean right in front of him. That alone would cause a spectacular burst of rage. The whole process would take, what, a few minutes?

Then, if Ebina's hate ran deep enough, he might decide to do the job by hand instead—more killing intent. And once the robbers were dead or in pieces? Even more.

As Jiangxia stepped into the corridor, a swarm of invisible shikigami burst out from beneath his feet. They swept past Ebina and slipped through the crack under his door, piling up inside the room—raw material for a new puppet.

Miyano Akemi's soul drifted in next, fusing into the forming puppet to shape the anonymous person's appearance.

Jiangxia planned to open the door and walk off with the bomb case right as Ebina arrived—give the man a proper fright.

But just as Ebina reached for his keys, a bang!—like a firecracker—exploded from the deck on the other side of the wall.

Since it was also a gunpowder blast, anyone not in the loop might've thought it was a gunshot.

Ebina definitely did.

He stiffened, clearly triggered by some ancient trauma.

Then, without hesitation, the aging man spun around with surprising speed and sprinted toward the sound, clearly intent on identifying the shooter.

At the same time, the lock on his room clicked and the door creaked open.

From the gap, the puppet peeked out into the empty corridor, paused a beat, then silently shut the door again like not my business.

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

Progress: 52/60(approx) for 10 BONUS CHAPTERS

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

Progress:2/10*