Chapter 325: The Thousand-Faced Witch

*This is the start of VOL 3: The Thousand-Faced Witch. You guys can probably guess what will happen :) Enjoy and vote! Thanks!*

Jiangxia Tongzhi smacked Kujirai Sadao on the head with a bat, knocking him flat again just as he'd tried sitting up. Then he stepped on him and got to work with his usual methodical beatdown routine.

Hattori Heiji stood nearby, holding a gun. Maybe because of all the years being brainwashed by his dad, Hattori Heizo, his first reaction to Jiangxia's completely unreasonable behavior was surprisingly:

"I should learn this."

A beat later, Heiji snapped back to reality. If he actually tried that kind of brute-force interrogation, his old man would twist his head off. Actually, if his father saw this scene, he might finally give up on trying to rope him into the backstabbing faction… Come to think of it, how had no one reported Jiangxia's habit yet? For a public figure, this kind of thing was surely career-ending, right?

Heiji silently cursed the media's lack of professionalism, but still had no intention of filming a short clip to expose Jiangxia.

After all, Jiangxia had just saved him from getting shot in the back of the head. And more importantly, when Heiji searched his conscience, he realized—if he really went and exposed Jiangxia just because he couldn't beat him… wouldn't that be villain behavior? That was just petty. He couldn't stoop that low.

Meanwhile, in another cabin, Conan was out gathering intel when he heard a faint scream.

He paused, automatically turned to follow the sound, and found it getting louder as he neared a door.

The tone of the scream… felt oddly familiar…

Conan's eye twitched. He immediately broke into a run toward the sound.

The moment he stepped out, he was greeted by the sight of Jiangxia going full throttle, seriously beating someone with a telescopic baton.

Not far away stood Hattori Heiji, holding a dagger and a gun, looking like he might want to intervene but had no idea where to begin.

Conan: "…"

Why aren't you stopping him? Why are you just standing there like you're watching a street performance?!

Eventually, Kujirai Sadao caved and started talking.

He admitted he'd been the robber from back then and confessed to having killed one of his accomplices… but swore up and down that he hadn't killed Kanie.

The rest of the group, drawn by the racket, arrived on deck one after another. Jiangxia stopped the beatdown just before they showed up, tucked away his baton, and stepped back as the others began questioning Kujirai.

Now that no one was hitting him anymore, Kujirai clammed up again. The sea breeze was strong this late at night, and with no new information, everyone decided to return to the cabin.

Ebina Minoru walked over to the now-useless Kujirai, bent down to help him up. Kujirai winced and reached out—only for Ebina's other hand to suddenly lunge forward, slamming a sharp kitchen knife straight into his chest.

"You really didn't kill Kanie," Ebina said as he yanked the knife out. He stared at the blood splashing onto him, hands trembling slightly. But then, a twisted little smile crept onto his face.

"—Because I did. Hahaha!"

Twenty years ago, the female bank employee killed in the robbery had been Ebina's girlfriend. Ever since, he'd been hunting down every last one of the robbers.

Originally, he'd planned to off himself after this final act of revenge. But now, staring into Kujirai's lifeless eyes, Ebina suddenly felt like… maybe life still had some meaning after all.

After that, everyone on the ship compared notes and barely managed to reconstruct the full mess behind "Furukawa Dai's" quiz event.

The next morning, Jiangxia gave his statement and left the police station, armed with a few new shikigami and a generous helping of killing intent.

He walked back along the mostly empty street toward his detective agency nearby. As he passed the mailbox, he casually pulled out several copies of that day's morning paper.

He'd originally planned to look up news about Kanou Saizo, see what the media was saying—but a different headline caught his eye.

Chris Vineyard Takes Temporary Retirement for Recovery

…Chris Vineyard?

Wait, isn't that Vermouth—the Black Organization's internal traitor-slash-insider, also known as the Witch of a Thousand Faces? That's such a chuunibyou title… Who even came up with that?

Jiangxia forcefully dragged his thoughts back on track.

Judging by the timing, this news probably meant Vermouth was on her way to Japan.

That was exciting. Vermouth always had strong killing intent—what with her love for trying to kill Sherry, random civilians, or teammates. Jiangxia figured she was the type to leak killing intent the way Gin did—reliably and in large quantities.

That said, her arrival could also bring a whole load of trouble.

Jiangxia remembered that last year, when Ran Mouri and the high school version of Shinichi Kudo visited America, they'd saved Vermouth—who'd been disguised as a serial killer and cornered by the FBI. On top of that, Kudo had even handed her a warm bowl of metaphorical chicken soup before sending her off.

So now, Vermouth felt closer to Ran and Shinichi than to her own mother.

Given all that, Jiangxia did a quick risk assessment:

He was a classmate of Ran and Shinichi. He often went ghost-hunting with them. His house was dangerously close to both of theirs. Worse, he'd somehow gotten labeled as "possessed by Shinichi Kudo's ghost"...

And if that wasn't enough, there was his identity as "Ouzo"—the ghost-leeching Black Organization cadre.

Put all that together, and to someone like Vermouth, "Jiangxia Tongzhi" probably looked like a ticking time bomb next to her two most cherished people.

Jiangxia: "…"

He suddenly felt like he'd accidentally aggro'd a boss-level character.

Still, Gin had insisted on keeping the "Ouzo" identity under wraps, so he probably wouldn't rat him out.

Plus, Vermouth was a solo act. She rarely interacted with other organization members unless she needed a tool or two. So maybe she wouldn't hear about "Jiangxia = Ouzo."

Still, Jiangxia figured—just in case Gin's legendary bad luck rubbed off on him—he should prepare for her arrival. The last thing he needed was to be branded a bad influence on her beloved Ran and Shinichi, constantly tripping them up and wrecking her perfect image of them.

Once home, Jiangxia began researching Chris Vineyard.

He pulled up a photo and zoomed in.

Then, turning to the ghosts of his parents (who were floating nearby helping Xiaobai rewrite his script), he called out, "Come."

The ghost parents perked up and floated closer to Jiangxia's legs.

The mermaid, watching from the fish tank, was clearly annoyed by how slow they were. It swam out, picked the ghosts up like a delivery service, dropped them neatly by Jiangxia's hand, then swam back with a casual I expect no thanks for my deeds energy.

Jiangxia grabbed the ghosts and set them down on the table.

Meeting their expectant gazes, he pointed to Vermouth's photo on the screen.

"From now on," he said, "if you ever see this person, immediately hug me. Same goes for anyone with a suspiciously fake-looking face."

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

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

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

Progress:2/10*