"Obviously, after that murder five years ago, the killer may never have left this villa at all. That was also why the police had never been able to find the killer."
He stomped on the hidden door in the floor, indicating that the police would never have imagined there was a hidden door inside the villa. They would have gone outside to search for the killer's escape route instead.
"Knowing that is enough." Jiang Hang carried Genta in one hand and tucked Mitsuhiko under his other arm. With the two biggest troublemakers handled, Ayumi, being a girl, naturally clung tightly to Jiang Hang's clothes as well.
"Besides, whether the case gets solved isn't the most important thing. The important thing is that I brought you here. If I went off to solve the mystery, what would happen to you? I brought you here, and now that the Haunted House Adventure game is over, of course I have to take you home."
"It's precisely because you're a detective that you need to protect the people around you." He truly hoped Conan would take that to heart, because the outrageous stunts the boy might pull in the future were simply too numerous. Comics could afford not to care about such things, but in reality, Jiang Hang really did not want to see a morning news report someday about the Mouri Detective Agency being massacred by a mysterious man.
Don't mistake Gin for some poor sap. He was a genuine killer with no emotions for anyone except Sherry.
At last, he looked at Conan again.
"Let's go, little detective. Otherwise, your big sister Ran will be upset."
A Shattered Family
Takagi Wataru really was an exceptionally dependable and useful "tool man." In the original story, he had been Conan's tool for learning about cases. Now, he had become Jiang Hang's.
Less than half an hour after receiving Jiang Hang's call, he drove over in his own car.
According to him, he was not actually on leave today. An incident had happened at his uncle's company, so his mother had asked him to go take a look. Since he had nothing to do that afternoon, he went over to ask about it, and his uncle had conveniently kept him for a meal.
Jiang Hang curiously asked about the case at his uncle's company. Takagi Wataru quickly waved his hands and said it was nothing serious, just a prank. A warning would be enough.
When Jiang Hang saw the deluxe lunchbox beside Takagi Wataru, stuffed full and still giving off an enticing aroma, he immediately understood.
So he had been slacking off too. Jiang Hang got it.
Ever since Jiang Hang had taught Takagi Wataru the Meditation Method last time, the man had repeatedly thanked him. Their relationship had grown much more familiar, and they could even joke around a little.
"Anyway, ahem, there's no need to tell Inspector Megure about this. I already contacted him just now. When he heard that you'd found some important clues, he started looking through the files for the case from five years ago. He'll probably be here soon... Oh, right. What's with you guys?"
Only after saying that did Takagi Wataru notice the familiar-looking group of kids beside Jiang Hang.
Weren't these the children from the Maple Gold Coin Case? He even knew one of them, the child named Conan who was temporarily staying with Kogoro Mouri. How had Jiang Hang gotten involved with these kids again?
For some reason, though, he felt that Conan's expression looked especially gloomy right now.
He looked at Jiang Hang with questioning eyes, and Jiang Hang briefly explained what had happened.
When he learned that this group of children had come to the scene of a murder from five years ago to play Haunted House Adventure, a cold sweat appeared on Takagi Wataru's forehead.
Were these little brats cursed or something? Last time, a Treasure Map they had picked up led to six hundred million yen in gold coins. This time, they chose a haunted house adventure and came straight to the scene of a murder from five years ago.
Looking at these elementary school students bursting with energy, Takagi Wataru could not help worrying about what he would do if his future son or daughter turned out to be this much trouble.
Though right now, he had not even caught sight of a girlfriend.
Although the members of the Detective Boys had gotten their fill of haunted house exploration, they had absolutely no intention of going home yet. They seemed to be hoping to see some kind of "cops-and-robbers showdown" before they would be satisfied.
"I'll give you a quick rundown. Once Inspector Megure gets here, you can take them over there," Jiang Hang said with a completely shameless attitude, preparing to dump the rest of the case onto the police.
"Th-That wouldn't be right, would it?" Takagi Wataru could naturally tell that Jiang Hang was handing all the credit to the police and taking none of the benefits for himself. "This is a five-year-old cold case. If you really solve it, Jiang Hang, your reputation will definitely soar once it gets publicized."
"I was already in the newspaper after the Art Museum Incident. Until the matter at the museum dies down, that's the best advertisement I could ask for." Thinking of the glaring words "Famous Detective Jiang Hang" in the newspaper, Jiang Hang felt an overwhelming sense of awkwardness. "I still have to screen out unreliable commissions. I really don't have the energy to take on any other commissions right now."
A flood of miscellaneous commissions had indeed come in, but many of them were pranks. There were also plenty of requests to investigate affairs and cheating spouses, and Jiang Hang had not accepted those.
Those commissions did not pay much, took a long time, and could damage a detective's reputation. Naturally, Jiang Hang would never take them.
Other than those, after screening by Koharu Yoshino, Shizuka Sakaki, and the System Bulletin Board, the commissions Jiang Hang chose were basically easy lost-item requests that he could complete without effort.
To be honest, Jiang Hang had been so busy these past few days that he could barely make it to mealtimes. He had been running around all day. Even if his body could handle it, the mental exhaustion was still too much.
If another wave of publicity came along, he truly would not be able to slack off at all this month.
Back when he watched Conan, Jiang Hang had complained that Conan had only been shrunk for half a year in the story, yet more than a thousand cases had happened during those six months.
But at Jiang Hang's current pace, with a minimum of five Two-Star Commissions a day, as long as there were enough commissions and he could endure it, completing a thousand commissions in half a year really would not be a joke.
Still, Jiang Hang felt that unless he truly wanted to follow Teacher Saitama's example, he would never grind himself that hard.
Besides, who said he had gained no benefits? This case alone could bring him ten million yen and another system reward. On top of that, once this case was completed, the agency's upgrade requirements would be more or less fulfilled. That would be another considerable improvement for him.
Of course, there was an even more important reason. After dealing with several murder cases recently, Jiang Hang had developed a reluctance to meet this case's killer.
Abe Yutaka had killed his friend for money. Jiang Hang found it disgusting, and if possible, he wanted to beat that guy up a few more times.
Director Ochiai had committed an irreversible mistake because of his obsession. Jiang Hang felt conflicted. He did not even know what choice he would make if he were in Director Ochiai's shoes. With that struggle in mind, he had sought Eri Kisaki's help as a lawyer to preserve the art museum as much as possible.
As for this case, Jiang Hang could see through Eagle Eye that the person beneath the hidden door was the villa owner's son from five years ago. He had seen the man's old photo inside the villa, and he was also the murderer who had vanished without a trace for the past five years.
Completely unlike the spirited figure in the photo album, the man now looked as dejected as a wild man. Imprisoned in the deepest part behind the hidden door, Jiang Hang would not have recognized him as the same person without Eagle Eye.
There was another person in the villa besides him: his mother.
She had become extremely aged as well. Her head full of white hair made her look like a ghost from a horror story. From every detail inside the villa, it was clear that she was the one who had imprisoned her son.
He did not know why she had become like this. Logically speaking, selling the property the villa owner had possessed in life would have been more than enough for the mother and son to live comfortably. Yet she had chosen to avoid everyone's attention this way.
Clearly, it was because of that accidental murder case all those years ago.
But he could not understand such a choice. In his eyes, the hearts of this mother and son had become completely twisted. He truly did not want to deal with people like them.
He did not like murder cases, nor did he want to see a family end up so thoroughly shattered because of one.
Conan Started Imagining Things Again
After the police reinforcements arrived, it did not take long for the exhausted mother and son to be led out of the "haunted house" with their heads lowered.
The white-haired mother could not even accept reality. On the way to being arrested, she kept muttering, "Where did it go wrong? Why were we discovered... What have I been doing these past five years...?"
Although the formal interrogation had not begun yet, the son had immediately confessed everything after being arrested by the police.
Five years ago, he had accidentally killed his father. Then, in order to protect her son, his mother hid him in the villa's secret passage. The police at the time had not noticed it. Later, she used leaving the area as an excuse to dismiss all the servants and let the entire villa fall into disrepair, all to prevent the police from discovering her son's whereabouts.
For the past five years, he had lived inside that secret room without ever seeing daylight.
Meanwhile, the mother had become increasingly unhinged. She believed that as long as they outlasted the police's wanted period, her son could still have a "bright future."
"She's completely insane." After hearing the details of the case from Takagi Wataru, Jiang Hang merely sighed.
Keeping her own son locked in a cramped secret room for five years was worse than making him turn himself in. At least prison life would not turn someone into that ghostly state.
After he got out of prison, with his family's wealth, her son would at least not need to worry too much about the rest of his life.
Even having her son get plastic surgery would have been far more reliable than her plan.
And believing that the police would stop pursuing her son once the wanted period expired... no one who understood the law would think that way.
Not to mention that making her son live in that secret room for the twenty long years of the wanted period would leave him utterly unable to adapt to the world twenty years later.
More importantly, the twenty-year wanted period had been changed by the police many years ago. Even after twenty years, the warrant would not be canceled. A wanted criminal would still be a wanted criminal no matter how long he lived.
If a wanted criminal from twenty years ago walked openly down the street, the police obviously would not pass up such an easy achievement.
Jiang Hang patted Takagi Wataru on the shoulder and told him it would be best to find a psychologist to thoroughly evaluate the mother and son's mental states. Their minds had already been abnormal five years ago.
The extremely repressed life of the past five years had probably left them unable to live normally. If they did not receive help in time, they might even take their own lives in a moment of despair.
He did not possess the abilities of a time assassin. He could not travel back five years to undo this tragedy. This was all he could do now.
Takagi Wataru nodded with a similarly emotional expression.
As a police officer, especially one in the Violent Crimes Division responsible for serious cases like murder, kidnapping, and robbery, he had seen many criminals like this. But no matter how often he encountered such tragedies, he still found them regrettable.
Jiang Hang did not need to involve himself in what happened afterward. He did not even need to go to the station to give a formal statement, since he had merely provided a clue. The rest had been handled by the police.
Outsiders might not know, but it was enough that the police remembered this favor.
Jiang Hang sent each member of the Detective Boys home one by one. After thinking it over, he still concealed today's Haunted House Adventure and merely said he had taken them out for a meal and played outside for a little while, sparing them a scolding from their parents.
When he finally brought the low-spirited Conan back to the Mouri Detective Agency, Kogoro Mouri casually grumbled at the kid who ate and drank at his house all day while causing endless trouble. Then Ran Mori quickly came out to smooth things over and thank Jiang Hang.
Watching Jiang Hang turn and leave, Conan felt that he still had not completely understood this strange man.
Not only had today's probing failed, but Jiang Hang had given him a thorough lecture.
Detectives needed more than deduction, calling the police was the most normal thing to do—Jiang Hang's words had left Conan thoroughly depressed, as though Conan did not know how to call the police himself.
But one thing was certain. They truly were not detectives of the same style, Conan thought.
Detectives like them had started out because of their love for deduction and their own sense of justice, gradually becoming who they were today.
Most ordinary detectives, on the other hand, entered the profession simply to make money. Some notorious detectives had sought greater profits from the very beginning. They maintained close relationships with yakuza, accepted all kinds of shady commissions, and would do anything for money. That was also why many people held prejudices against detectives.
Either they loved deduction, or they wanted money, or they deduced while making money. In any case, ninety-nine percent of detectives came from one of those reasons.
But Jiang Hang had neither reason. Making money was naturally impossible. Jiang Hang was rich; he had not become a detective to make money or launder it. Conan had even vaguely overheard Ran talking on the phone with Jiang Hang's mother the day before yesterday, mentioning that she planned to donate one hundred million yen to that art museum. How could someone capable of making that decision possibly lack money?
And as for liking and being good at deduction... Conan had not found that in Jiang Hang either. Although Jiang Hang had a reputation on the streets for being warmhearted and helpful, that had nothing to do with enjoying deduction. It only showed that he had a strong sense of justice.
After dealing with him several times, Conan had vaguely sensed that Jiang Hang did not seem especially interested in deduction. Whenever Conan deliberately brought up classic murder methods from detective novels, Jiang Hang would change the subject or simply rub his head and tell him that children should study hard instead of reading detective novels all day.
Conan thought carefully. Jiang Hang had a strong sense of justice and did not lack money. He did not truly enjoy deduction, and his first reaction whenever something happened was actually to call the police... Why had such a person not chosen to become a police officer, openly investigating cases and helping others? Why had he chosen to become a detective instead?
Could it be... that for some special reason, he could not become a police officer, but because of his personal sense of justice, he had ultimately chosen the profession of a detective, someone who could assist the police in solving cases?
But what exactly was this so-called "special reason"?
The more Conan thought about it, the more mysterious Jiang Hang became. His imagination even started fabricating a family background for Jiang Hang, full of complicated grudges, love, and hatred.
If Conan, who lived in a normal world, knew that Jiang Hang possessed something as absurdly deus ex machina as a "system," he would probably cough up blood in fury at the answer. Not even the most ridiculous detective novel could write something like that.
Keep It Up, Oligey~
After sending the troublemaking group home, Jiang Hang also brought the two girls back to their homes.
More accurately, Shizuka Sakaki drove Koharu Yoshino home. Jiang Hang's main intention had been to see how the two girls reacted after encountering another case tonight.
Having personally witnessed a murder case, Koharu Yoshino, as the heroine of a youth anime, had actually started getting used to always encountering all sorts of cases whenever she was around Jiang Hang.
No wonder Jiang Hang had warned her so seriously during the interview. Koharu Yoshino was now close to believing that "calamity stars" really existed in this world.
Back at the art museum, you said Kogoro Mouri was a calamity star, but you were clearly the biggest calamity star of all. You followed someone and stumbled into an attempted murder, went to an art museum and ran into a murder case, then tonight you had a sudden urge to follow a group of children on a haunted house adventure and somehow found yourself in a murder case from five years ago. If you weren't a calamity star, then who was?
It could not be helped. Koharu Yoshino thought the "calamity star" Jiang Hang had meant was Kogoro Mouri. That was the first layer. Koharu Yoshino thought the real calamity star was Jiang Hang. That was the second layer. But in truth, the actual calamity star was Conan, hidden at the deepest level. That was the fifth layer. Based on the thousand-layer cake theory proposed by a certain famous gold-medal chef, Koharu Yoshino clearly still had much to learn.
Still, although Koharu Yoshino had looked terrified when haunted houses were mentioned, she was quite satisfied with her current life.
As long as no clients came in, she could openly do whatever she wanted. Her easygoing boss would occasionally take her out for lavish meals, and the salary was high. As for all the murder cases... they were a little scary, but wasn't this the "special" life she had always wanted?
A detective surrounded by all kinds of "bizarre" cases, and herself as his assistant responsible for gathering information and providing off-site support—perhaps their combination could become the "Sherlock Holmes and Watson of the new era"... What? You say the title "Sherlock Holmes of the Heisei era" was already taken?
No problem. There was still the Watson of the Heisei era. At worst, Jiang Hang could put up with it for a few years. The emperor was already advanced in age, so the next era would probably arrive before long. They were still young, and becoming the Sherlock Holmes and Watson of the next era would work just fine!
Forgive Koharu Yoshino, who got sleepy the moment she opened a detective novel. After reading detective novels for so many days, the only famous detective duo she could name was still Sherlock Holmes and Watson.
In short, after arriving at Jiang Hang's agency, the thought in Koharu Yoshino's mind about "becoming a king," whether it had been a dream or reality, had gradually faded.
Jiang Hang no longer needed to worry too much about Koharu Yoshino. Wanting to become a "king" all day was not a good thing. What if someone suddenly told her one day that she would become a Demon King who destroyed the world in the future? The whole world would be thrown into chaos.
But besides Koharu Yoshino, Shizuka Sakaki had developed some other issues.
Shizuka Sakaki's audition had failed yesterday. Jiang Hang had originally planned to treat her to a lavish dinner that night and have Koharu Yoshino comfort her, but the arrival of the Detective Boys disrupted his plan, and it ultimately led to a case from five years ago.
When Takagi Wataru told Jiang Hang about the mother and son in the haunted house, Shizuka Sakaki, who had been nearby, seemed to become even more downcast.
Jiang Hang did not say anything to Shizuka Sakaki along the way. It was only after Koharu Yoshino got out of the car that the two of them were left alone inside.
The car moved steadily through the still-crowded streets. Looking at the night outside the window, Jiang Hang, sitting in the passenger seat, finally spoke.
"This should be the first murder case you've encountered in person. How do you feel now?"
Shizuka Sakaki's hands seemed to tighten around the steering wheel.
"I... feel strange," Shizuka Sakaki said, shaking her head. She had only been startled by the mother and son's appearance at first, but after hearing their story, her feelings had become complicated.
"I heard Officer Takagi say that the man lost control after failing the college entrance exams for three consecutive years and being scolded by his father, then accidentally killed his father during their argument..." She let out a long breath, as if trying to make herself appear calmer.
"So you saw your own shadow in him?" Jiang Hang had heard Takagi Wataru's explanation earlier, but he had not considered it from that angle at the time. Now that Shizuka Sakaki said it, he realized that she had placed herself in the man's situation.
"My grades were always bad. And because I decided very early on that I wanted to become a voice actress, I didn't choose to continue my education after graduating high school. Instead, I entered a voice acting training school."
"After studying at the voice acting school for two years, the school arranged auditions for some graduates. I usually performed pretty well, and with a bit of luck, I was selected to take part in an audition."
"The audition was for a low-budget short anime. I chose a character who had a name but only a few lines, and because I was too nervous, I failed immediately." Shizuka Sakaki seemed unwilling to recall that memory, so she quickly skipped past her first failed audition.
"And yesterday's audition was also an opportunity I fought hard to get. I prepared for it for a long time. I kept using that Meditative Sleep Method Jiang Hang taught me because I was afraid I'd get too nervous, lose sleep, and perform badly."
"At yesterday's audition, I thought I was in great condition. I basically showed everything I had prepared... At first, I thought I had a chance, but I still failed in the end." Shizuka Sakaki spoke with a somewhat dim expression.
Before you continue