Professional Group

Professional Group referred to police officers who had passed the relevant civil service examinations.

Across the entire Eastern Island Nation, only 10 to 15 people passed each year!

Most of them were University of Tokyo graduates, while the rest came from other prestigious universities. The exam was far more difficult than the Bar Exam.

Such a low pass rate naturally corresponded to a "bright future."

Not only did they begin their careers as Police Inspectors, one rank above Takagi Wataru's current rank of Senior Patrolman, but after several months to a year of grassroots training, they could be promoted directly to Police Inspector, placing them on the same level as Inspector Megure.

Generally speaking, Professional Group Police Inspectors would most likely enter the National Police Agency directly at that point. Even if they failed to enter it immediately, they would hold desk jobs at the Metropolitan Police Department or other regional headquarters rather than work on the front lines—the Metropolitan Police Department was Tokyo's police headquarters, while the National Police Agency was the superior body overseeing all police headquarters nationwide, including the Metropolitan Police Department.

Furthermore, Professional Group officers had a strong chance of reaching the rank of Superintendent before turning thirty, and could be promoted to Chief Superintendent once they had enough seniority—ranks that the front-line workhorses of the Non-Professional Group could never attain in their entire lives.

Although the Professional Group was also part of the police system, they were more like "senior civil servants." Front-line officers also bitterly called them "Bureaucratic Police" and the "Gold Watch Group."

Of course, Megure had no negative opinion of Shiraishi Kuro...

Six years ago, when Shiraishi Kuro had just joined the force and was training in Violent Crimes Unit Three of the First Investigation Division, Megure had initially been rather troubled—was the First Investigation Division a place for the Gold Watch Group to train? Could those office-bound people avoid causing trouble?

However, Shiraishi Kuro's outstanding performance soon changed Megure's opinion of the Gold Watch Group...

Even ten months later, Shiraishi Kuro caught the eye of Minister Odagiri of the newly established Organized Crime Countermeasures Department because of his excellent field performance, his... imposing physique, and the powerful aura of intimidation that seemed innate to him. He became a core member of the newly reorganized and expanded Organized Crime Department. (In this novel, the Organized Crime Department became independent seven years later than it did in the real Eastern Island Nation.)

Shiraishi Kuro had not minded "front-line work" at all. He became the chief of Squad Four in the most front-line Organized Crime Unit 3, then was promoted to section chief two years later, while retaining the rank of Police Inspector.

And now, upon hearing Inspector Megure say that...

"Gold Watch Group?" Takagi stared at Shiraishi Kuro in shock.

This guy looked like... his muscles ought to have grown into his brain. He was actually Gold Watch Group?

Takagi's thoughts were written all over his face.

Megure: ...

Megure was speechless too. He had just swallowed the words "Gold Watch Group," and Takagi had to blurt them out, didn't he?

"Um... Officer Takagi." Shiraishi Kuro looked at him seriously.

"Ah! No... I mean..." Takagi immediately panicked—this was not a matter of position, nor was it merely because of his physique. Inspector Shiraishi seemed to truly be surrounded by an intimidating aura!

"That won't do! Sometimes people who don't look very smart are actually quite cunning... As a detective, you mustn't judge people by appearances!" Shiraishi Kuro said solemnly.

"Yes! Thank you for the lesson!" Takagi hurriedly gave a ninety-degree bow, a depth he had only used before at Date Wataru's funeral.

At the same time, Megure's gaze toward Shiraishi Kuro became more serious. "Brother Shiraishi, I heard you've recently been investigating the Ministry of Justice... cough cough, that case. This time, could it be..."

"Hahaha, I'm on vacation!" Shiraishi Kuro laughed and changed the subject.

Seeing Shiraishi Kuro's smiling face only made Megure more uneasy—mostly uneasy for Shiraishi Kuro, because the case he was involved in was no trivial matter...

Megure had heard some things as well. Supposedly, the Minister of Justice had secretly manipulated local Violent Organizations and had even colluded with foreign forces in money laundering activities!

Of course, that was only "supposedly." Naturally... the case had been called off by "those above."

And Organized Crime Unit 3 had been the first to discover the case. Based on Megure's understanding of Shiraishi Kuro, he probably would not obediently pretend nothing had happened just because "those above" had ordered him to.

But before Megure could ask anything further, Shinichi could not help saying, "Inspector Megure, that person over there is still dead..."

"Of course I know! Honestly, we haven't ruled out homicide yet. We'd be in a lot of trouble if you go touching things like this!" Megure rebuked him.

"Sorry, Inspector Megure! This guy gets so wrapped up in deductions..."

At that moment, a long-haired girl with horns... no, a girl with long hair and high slanted bangs came over to apologize to Megure.

"Hm? Ran, is that you? You've grown so much... Huh? You two actually..." Megure was greatly shocked that high school students had gone traveling to America as a couple.

"I didn't touch anything recklessly! I had these ladies keep watch over me the entire time. I didn't erase any traces or take anything. And... it isn't that 'homicide hasn't been ruled out.' It's 'definitely homicide'!

"There's a tiny puncture-like wound on the back of the victim's neck. He should have died from cervical spinal cord trauma. There was also a medicine bottle in the trash. He was probably drugged unconscious first, then killed when a sharp object was driven into the back of his neck." Shinichi hurriedly explained.

"Huh?" Megure froze upon hearing that—he apparently had not expected Shinichi, at his age, to conduct such a thorough examination.

However, Megure still said, "But moving the body around like that could affect the assessment of the time of death. After all, if we don't send it for a forensic autopsy, then during a basic examination, we can only judge by the degree of rigor mortis..."

"Based on the livor mortis and the stiffness of the victim's jaw, the time of death should have been one to two hours ago." Shinichi had clearly come prepared, and he gave off a somewhat showy impression.

Shiraishi Kuro said nothing at that moment. He merely looked at Kudo Shinichi and Mori Ran... Mm, they should be "them"!

That was right. Shiraishi Kuro had another secret...

Ever since childhood, he had vaguely remembered some things from a "past life." He could practically be called one of those legendary transmigrators.

Only, his method of "transmigration" had been closer to reincarnation. He had reincarnated from Earth into this unfamiliar yet faintly familiar parallel world.

And he possessed a very direct transmigrator's benefit—he could allocate points!

As long as he achieved something, or rather, accomplished something, he could receive a corresponding number of points.

He had grown up in an orphanage as a child, and it had been...

Shiraishi Orphanage in Kamurocho, Tokyo!

Kamurocho could be called the representative district in Tokyo where Violent Organizations gathered, and it was also home to the Tojo Clan, the largest Violent Organization in Kanto.

Therefore, Shiraishi Kuro had once wanted to join a Violent Organization as a child. Before he turned eighteen, he invested most of the reward points he earned—from childhood "little red flowers" to academic exams after starting school—into [Constitution].

He kept adding points to [Constitution] until it reached Lv10!

Based on Shiraishi Kuro's understanding of the Point Allocation System over the years, Lv10 was roughly... the level of the "human limit."

Perhaps because he had been frantically increasing his Constitution while he was still growing, Shiraishi Kuro's body had developed to an extremely exaggerated degree!

However...

When Shiraishi Kuro was eighteen, he suddenly discovered that Tokyo actually had a [Beika Town]!

It looked like this was the world of some elementary school Grim Reaper!

So, from the age of eighteen onward, Shiraishi Kuro completely abandoned martial pursuits for academics. With the aid of his point-allocation ability, he earned dual bachelor's degrees in [Psychology] and [Health Science] from the University of Tokyo, as well as dual master's degrees in [Law] and [Forensic Medicine]. During that time, he used points to assist himself while continually earning more through examinations and achievements, forming a positive cycle...

Then, at the age of twenty-four, he passed the Professional Group assessment!

Now that he saw Kudo Shinichi and Mori Ran were already high school students, Shiraishi Kuro guessed that... the timeline distortions were about to begin!

Note: In the setting, Kyogoku Makoto in his normal state was at the "human limit," or Lv10. Kyogoku Makoto protecting his wife in The Fist of Blue Sapphire was Lv11; Ran in her normal state was Lv8, while Ran protecting her husband was Lv9.

However, it should be noted that Kyogoku Makoto was a 79-kilogram human limit. Even if Ran rose to Lv10, she would only be a human limit at around 40 kilograms, while the protagonist was a 159-kilogram human limit. The practical combat implications of the three were entirely different.

[Protagonist in normal state vs. Kyogoku Makoto in normal state] was roughly equivalent to [Kyogoku Makoto in normal state vs. Ran protecting her husband].

Normally, the protagonist's combat strength should not be explained so directly through "setting," but combat was not the focus of this novel, so this would be laid out plainly for now.

There was also another extremely important setting: this novel was fanfiction only in relation to Conan. While cases and characters from other films, television dramas, anime, and games would also appear, everything besides Conan was merely in the category of "homage"—in other words, it would all be heavily altered. Character setups and cases were only borrowed to enrich the story; none of the settings or plotlines of other works would be followed strictly. The overall framework would be based on the world of Conan.

If you happened to see a familiar non-Conan character or an original plotline, do not doubt it—it was an homage, and it might not follow the story direction or settings you knew.

If you have only read Conan, that is even better, because everything outside of Conan was written as "original" material to begin with. If you have not seen those works, it is best to treat it as entirely original!