Slacker Assassin's Multiverse Daily

"Obviously, after that murder case five years ago, the killer might never have left this villa at all. That's why the police could never find the culprit."

He stomped on the secret door in the floor, indicating that the police would never think to look for a hidden door inside the villa itself. Instead, they'd be outside searching for the killer's escape route.

"Knowing that much is enough." Jiang Hang held Genta in one hand and scooped up Mitsuhiko with the other—the two biggest troublemakers were handled. Ayumi, being a girl, naturally clung tightly to Jiang Hang's clothes.

"And solving the problem isn't the most important thing. What matters is that I brought you all here. If I go off to crack the mystery, what happens to you? I brought you to this haunted house, and now that the game is over, I have to take you back."

"Precisely because I'm a detective, I need to protect the people around me." He really hoped Conan would take this to heart, because the kid was going to pull so many reckless stunts in the future. In a manga, you could gloss over that stuff, but in real life, he really didn't want to wake up one morning to a news headline about the Mouri Detective Agency being bloodily raided by some mysterious man.

Don't treat Gin like some joke. That guy was a genuine killer who had no feelings for anyone except Sherry.

He turned to look at Conan one last time.

"Let's go, little detective. Otherwise, your Ran-neechan is going to be upset."

Chapter 37: A Shattered Family

Takagi Wataru was truly a reliable and easy-to-use "tool." In the original story, he was Conan's tool for learning about cases. Now, he had become Jiang Hang's.

After receiving Jiang Hang's call, he showed up in his own car in less than half an hour.

According to him, he wasn't on leave today. His uncle's company had an incident, and his mom called him over to check it out. Since he had nothing to do this afternoon, he went over to ask about it, and his uncle ended up keeping him for a meal.

Jiang Hang was curious and asked about the case at his uncle's place. Takagi quickly waved his hand, saying it wasn't serious—just a prank. A warning would be enough.

When Jiang Hang spotted the packed, fragrant luxury bento box beside Takagi, he immediately understood.

So he was slacking off too. Jiang Hang knew the drill.

Ever since Jiang Hang taught Takagi the Meditation Method, the guy had thanked him repeatedly. Their relationship had warmed up considerably, and they could even joke around now.

"Anyway, ahem, no need to mention this to Inspector Megure. I just contacted him, and when he heard you found some important clues, he started looking into the case files from five years ago. He should be here soon... By the way, what's all this?"

After speaking, Takagi finally noticed the familiar group of kids around Jiang Hang.

Weren't these the kids from the Maple Gold Coin Case? He even recognized one of them—the boy named Conan, who was temporarily staying at the Mouri Detective Agency. How did Jiang Hang get tangled up with these kids again?

But for some reason, he felt like Conan's expression was especially gloomy right now.

He looked at Jiang Hang with a puzzled expression, and Jiang Hang briefly explained what had happened.

When he learned that these kids had come to a five-year-old murder scene to play a haunted house adventure game, a cold sweat broke out on Takagi's forehead.

Were these kids cursed? Last time, a found treasure map led to six hundred million yen in gold coins. This time, they pick a haunted house adventure and end up at a five-year-old murder scene.

Looking at these hyperactive elementary school students, Takagi couldn't help worrying about what he'd do if his own future son or daughter turned out to be this troublesome.

Even though he hadn't even seen a girlfriend yet.

The members of the Detective Boys had already gotten their fill of the haunted house adventure, but they showed no sign of wanting to go home. They seemed to be hoping for some kind of "police vs. criminals" showdown.

"I'll give you a quick rundown. When Inspector Megure gets here, you take them over there," Jiang Hang said, completely in a passing-the-buck mood, ready to leave the rest of the case to the police.

"This... this isn't right," Takagi could tell that Jiang Hang was handing all the credit to the police without taking any for himself. "This is a five-year-old cold case. If you really solve it, Jiang Hang, the publicity would make your name skyrocket."

"The Art Museum Incident already got me in the papers. Until that settles down, that's the best advertisement I could ask for." Thinking about the newspaper headline "Famous Detective Jiang Hang," Jiang Hang felt a strong sense of dissonance. "Right now, I still have to sift through all those unreliable commissions. I really don't have the energy to take on any more cases for a while."

It was true that a flood of random commissions had come in, but many were pranks. There were also plenty of requests to investigate extramarital affairs and cheating. Jiang Hang didn't accept those.

Commissions that paid little, took a long time, and could damage a detective's reputation—Jiang Hang naturally wouldn't take them.

Aside from those, after filtering through Koharu Yoshino and the System Bulletin Board, Jiang Hang basically only chose the simple lost-item commissions that were easy for him to complete.

To be honest, he had been so busy these past few days that he couldn't even catch a proper meal. Running around all day, even if his body could handle it, his mind was exhausted.

If another wave of advertising hit, he wouldn't even be able to slack off this month.

Back when he was watching Conan, Jiang Hang used to joke that Conan had only been small for half a year in the story, yet in that half-year, he handled over a thousand cases.

But at Jiang Hang's current pace—starting with five Two-Star Commissions a day—if there were enough commissions and he could keep up, a thousand commissions in half a year wasn't a joke.

But Jiang Hang felt that unless he really wanted to follow in Teacher Saitama's footsteps, there was no way he'd grind that hard.

And who said he wasn't getting anything out of this? This case would bring him at least ten million yen and another system reward. Plus, the upgrade requirements for his agency would be nearly met after this case was closed. That was another decent boost for him.

Of course, there was an even more important point. After handling several murder cases recently, Jiang Hang had developed a reluctance to meet the killers in these cases.

Abe Yutaka killed a friend for money. Jiang Hang just found it disgusting. If he could, he'd beat that guy up a few more times.

Director Ochiai made an irreversible mistake because of his obsession. Jiang Hang felt conflicted. He didn't even know what choice he would make if he were in Director Ochiai's shoes. In that tangled state of mind, he went to find lawyer Eri Kisaki to help preserve the art museum as much as possible.

As for this case, Jiang Hang could see with his Eagle Eye that the person under that secret door was the son of the villa's owner from five years ago. He had seen the guy's photo in the villa, and he was also the missing murderer who had vanished for five years.

Completely different from the confident look in the photo album, the man was now as haggard as a savage, trapped deep inside the secret door. If not for Eagle Eye, Jiang Hang wouldn't have recognized him.

Besides him, there was another person in the villa—his mother.

She had also become incredibly old, her white hair like a ghost from a horror story. From the details in the villa, it was clear that she was the one who had imprisoned her son.

Jiang Hang didn't understand why she had turned out this way. Logically, the property the villa's owner left behind, if sold, would have been more than enough for the mother and son to live comfortably. But she chose to hide from all eyes like this.

Clearly, it was because of that accidental murder from back then.

But he couldn't comprehend this kind of behavior. In his eyes, the minds of this mother and son were completely twisted. He really didn't want to deal with people like that.

He didn't like murder cases, and he also hated seeing how a murder case could shatter a family into such pieces.

Chapter 38: Conan Starts Overthinking Again

Once the police reinforcements arrived, it didn't take long before a haggard mother and son were led out of that "haunted house," their heads hung low.

The white-haired mother still couldn't accept the reality, muttering incessantly as she was taken into custody: "Where did it go wrong? Why were we found out... What have I been doing for these past five years..."

Though no formal interrogation had taken place yet, the son had already confessed everything the moment he was arrested.

Five years ago, he had accidentally killed his own father. To protect her son, the mother hid him in a secret passage within the villa. The police at the time hadn't noticed a thing. Afterward, she used the excuse of leaving the place, fired all the maids, and let the entire villa fall into disrepair—all to avoid the police discovering her son's whereabouts.

For five years, he had lived in that hidden room, never seeing the light of day.

Meanwhile, the mother grew increasingly unhinged, believing that if she could just outlast the statute of limitations on the manhunt, her son could still have a "bright future."

"She's completely lost it," Jiang Hang sighed after hearing the details of the case from Takagi Wataru.

Locking her own son in a cramped secret room for five years—that was worse than letting him turn himself in. Life in prison wouldn't have turned him into such a wreck.

After getting out, with their family's wealth, at least her son wouldn't have to worry about the rest of his life.

Even getting him plastic surgery would have been a more sensible idea than this.

And thinking that surpassing the police's wanted time limit would mean they wouldn't arrest her son... anyone with even a basic understanding of the law wouldn't entertain such a notion.

Forget the fact that twenty years in that secret room would leave him completely unable to adapt to the world outside.

More importantly, the statute of limitations on wanted fugitives had been abolished years ago. Even after twenty years, the warrant wouldn't be lifted. A wanted criminal remained a wanted criminal no matter how much time passed.

If a fugitive from twenty years ago actually dared to walk openly down the street, the police certainly wouldn't pass up such easy credit.

Jiang Hang patted Takagi Wataru on the shoulder, suggesting he find a psychologist to properly assess the mental state of the mother and son. They had already been unstable five years ago.

Five years of extreme isolation had likely left them incapable of living a normal life. If not addressed promptly, they might even take their own lives out of despair.

He wasn't a time-manipulating ability user; he couldn't go back five years to undo this tragedy. All he could do now was this much.

Takagi Wataru nodded with a somber expression.

As a police officer, especially one in the Violent Crimes Division handling murder, kidnapping, and robbery, he had seen many such criminals. But no matter how many times he encountered tragedies like this, he still felt a pang of regret.

From there, Jiang Hang had no further part to play. He didn't even need to go to the station to give a statement—after all, he had only provided a lead. The rest was up to the police.

But while the public wouldn't know, the police would remember his help, and that was enough.

After dropping off each member of the Detective Boys at their homes, Jiang Hang thought it over and decided to keep today's haunted house adventure a secret. He simply said he had taken them out for a meal and some light fun afterward, sparing them a scolding from their parents.

Finally, when he returned a dejected Conan to the Mouri Detective Agency, Kogoro Mouri grumbled a few words about the freeloading, troublemaking kid, and then Ran Mori quickly stepped in to smooth things over and thank Jiang Hang.

Watching Jiang Hang turn and leave, Conan felt he still hadn't fully figured out this strange man.

Today's probing hadn't just failed—it had ended with Jiang Hang giving him a proper lecture.

Something about how detectives needed more than just deduction, and how calling the police was the most normal course of action. It left Conan feeling frustrated, as if he didn't already know to call the cops.

But one thing was certain: they were definitely not the same kind of detective, Conan thought.

Detectives like him started out driven by a love for deduction and a sense of justice, step by step reaching where they were today.

Most ordinary detectives, on the other hand, entered the field just to make money. Some notoriously infamous ones even worked closely with the Yakuza from the start, taking on shady commissions and doing anything for cash—which was why many people held prejudices against detectives.

Either they loved deduction, they wanted money, or they did both. In any case, ninety-nine percent of detectives fell into one of these categories.

But Jiang Hang fit neither. Making money was out of the question—he was clearly wealthy. He hadn't become a detective to earn or launder money. In fact, the day before, when Ran had been on the phone with his mother, Conan had overheard something about him donating a hundred million yen to that art museum. Someone who could make that kind of decision wasn't short on cash.

As for loving and excelling at deduction... Conan hadn't seen that in Jiang Hang either. Sure, the guy was known for being helpful and warm-hearted on the streets, but that had nothing to do with a passion for deduction—it just showed he had a strong sense of justice.

After a few interactions, Conan had vaguely sensed that Jiang Hang didn't seem particularly interested in deduction. Even when Conan deliberately brought up classic trick methods from detective novels, Jiang Hang would either change the subject or ruffle his hair, telling him to focus on his studies instead of reading those stories.

Conan thought hard. A strong sense of justice, no shortage of money, no real love for deduction, and his first instinct in any situation was to call the police... Why hadn't someone like this just become a police officer in the first place, openly investigating cases and helping people? Why choose to be a detective instead?

Could it be... that for some special reason, he couldn't become a cop, but his personal sense of justice drove him to take up detective work as a way to assist the police?

But what was this "special reason"?

The more Conan thought, the more mysterious Jiang Hang seemed. His imagination even ran wild, conjuring up a complicated family background full of grudges and entanglements behind Jiang Hang.

If Conan, living in a normal world, knew that Jiang Hang had something like a "system"—a deus ex machina—he'd probably be furious enough to spit blood. Even the most absurd detective novels couldn't come up with something like that.

Chapter 39: Chapter 39: Go for It, Oli Gei~

After sending the Detective Boys home, Jiang Hang also dropped off the two girls.

To be precise, Shizuka Sakaki drove Koharu Yoshino back. Jiang Hang's main concern was to see how the two girls reacted after encountering another case tonight.

Having witnessed a murder case firsthand, Koharu Yoshino, as the heroine of a youth anime, had gradually gotten used to the fact that cases always seemed to pop up around Jiang Hang.

No wonder he had warned her so seriously during the interview. By now, Koharu Yoshino was almost ready to believe that there really was such a thing as a "jinx" in this world.

Back at the art museum, you called that Mouri detective a jinx—but clearly, you're the biggest jinx of all. Following someone leads to an attempted murder case, going to an art museum turns into a murder case, and tonight, on a whim, you follow a bunch of kids to a haunted house and stumble upon a five-year-old murder case. If you're not a jinx, who is?

There was no helping it. Koharu Yoshino thought Jiang Hang's "jinx" referred to Kogoro Mouri—that was the first layer. She believed the real jinx was Jiang Hang himself—that was the second layer. But the actual jinx was Conan, hidden deep in the shadows—that was the fifth layer. According to the thousand-layer cake theory proposed by a famous chef, Koharu Yoshino still had a lot to learn.

Still, despite how scared she had been at the idea of going to the haunted house, Koharu Yoshino was quite satisfied with her current life.

As long as no clients showed up, she could do whatever she wanted. Her easygoing boss often took her out for big meals, and the pay was good. As for the murder cases... though a bit terrifying, wasn't this exactly the "special" life she had hoped for?

A detective entangled in all sorts of "bizarre" cases, and herself as the assistant gathering intel and providing backup—maybe their duo could become the "new-age Sherlock Holmes and Watson"... What, you say the title "Heisei's Sherlock Holmes" is already taken?

No problem—there was still Heisei's Watson. Worst case, Jiang Hang could just wait a few years. The current emperor was getting old, and the next era would probably come soon enough. They were still young—becoming the Holmes and Watson of the next era was totally fine!

Forgive Koharu Yoshino, who fell asleep at the mere sight of detective novels. After days of reading, the only detective duo she could name was still Holmes and Watson.

In any case, after arriving at Jiang Hang's office, the thought of "becoming king" that lingered in Koharu Yoshino's mind—whether dream or reality—had gradually faded.

Koharu Yoshino no longer required much worry from Jiang Hang; obsessing over becoming a "king" was hardly a good thing. If one day someone suddenly told her she was destined to become a demon lord who would destroy the world, everything would truly fall into chaos.

But aside from Koharu Yoshino, some other issues had cropped up on Shizuka Sakaki's end.

She had gone for an audition yesterday and failed. Jiang Hang had originally planned to have a big dinner and let Koharu Yoshino console her, but the arrival of the Detective Boys had disrupted his plans, eventually dragging up a case from five years ago.

When Takagi Wataru told Jiang Hang about the mother and son in the haunted house, Shizuka Sakaki, who was nearby, seemed to sink even lower in spirits.

Throughout the ride, Jiang Hang didn't say much to Shizuka Sakaki. It wasn't until Koharu Yoshino got off the car that only the two of them remained inside.

The car crawled unhurriedly through the still-congested roads. Gazing at the night scenery outside the window, he finally spoke up from the passenger seat to ask her a question.

"This should be the first murder case you've encountered firsthand, right? How do you feel now?"

Shizuka Sakaki's hands gripping the steering wheel seemed to tighten a little more.

"I... feel kind of strange," Shizuka Sakaki shook her head. She had only been startled by the appearance of that mother and son at first, but after hearing their story, her emotions became complicated.

"I heard Officer Takagi say that man failed the college entrance exam three years in a row, lost his temper when his father scolded him, and killed his father in the heat of an argument..." She let out a long breath, as if trying to force herself to appear calmer.

"So, you saw a reflection of yourself in him?" Jiang Hang had heard Takagi Wataru's explanation earlier, but hadn't thought about it that way at the time. Now that Shizuka Sakaki brought it up, he realized she had projected herself into that man's situation.

"My grades were never good, and I made up my mind early on to become a voice actor. So after graduating high school, I didn't continue my studies; instead, I entered a voice actor training school."

"After two years at the training school, the school would arrange for some graduates to go to auditions upon graduation. My usual performance was decent, and with a bit of luck, I was selected to participate in an audition."

"The audition was for a low-budget short-form anime. I chose a character who had a name but only a few lines. Then, because I was too nervous, I failed outright." Shizuka Sakaki seemed reluctant to recall that memory, so she quickly skipped over her first failed audition.

"Then yesterday's audition was also a hard-won opportunity. I prepared for it for a long time. The Meditative Sleep Method you taught me, Jiang Hang-kun, I've been using it all along, afraid that excessive nervousness would cause insomnia or poor performance."

"At the audition yesterday, I felt I was in good form. I basically showed everything I had prepared... I initially thought I might have a chance, but in the end, I still failed." Shizuka Sakaki said, her expression dim.