Since You Bought an AE86, You Might as Well Take It for a Run on Akina / You're Not Some Impostor Who Came Out of Nowhere, Are You?

Although I didn't encounter any major murder cases during my high school years, I still became a minor celebrity in Fukuoka.

At that time, she even thought she was omnipotent.

She will surely become a great figure who will be remembered in history in the future.

Then, just a year later, this unrealistic fantasy was shattered by the death of his best friend.

The Lavender Room Murder Case.

The deceased was a wealthy young lady, and her friend worked as a maid there.

When the incident occurred, she went to check on it and, after confirming that the deceased had committed suicide, she didn't think about the case anymore.

Little did anyone know that shortly after she left, the arrival of another "famous detective" would destroy everything.

The famous detective discovered some signs of tampering on the window of the deceased's bedroom, and then publicized this discovery, even forcing the police to conduct a second investigation into the case.

As a result, her friend became the only suspect with the opportunity to commit the crime and was taken to the police station for questioning multiple times.

It was precisely because of these interrogations that her friend was looked at with suspicion by everyone around her.

During that time, her friend contacted her, but she was a little stressed about her studies at the time. So after learning about this, she simply asked about the case and told the friend that the evidence was insufficient and that she shouldn't be afraid of the police. She then stopped asking about the matter.

Ultimately, her friend, unable to bear the burden any longer, chose to end her own life.

It wasn't until she heard the news that Natsuki Kosimizu realized the magnitude of her mistake.

She wasn't someone favored by the gods; she was just an ordinary little person who couldn't even save her own best friend, let alone anything else.

More importantly, she still doesn't know who the famous detective is. She only knows from her friend's words before he committed suicide that he was a high school detective with a strange speech pattern and tone.

Since then, she has been secretly investigating those high school detectives, and even frequently appears on detective programs on Nichuri TV, all in order to find high school students who meet these requirements as soon as possible.

Little did she know, her revenge plan was stopped by Jiang Hang just as it began.

At this moment, since Jiang Hang had already seen through everything about her, there was no need for Natsuki Kosimizu to pretend anymore.

She looked at Jiang Hang coldly. "I'm still looking for the detective who killed my friend last year. Since you know about this and still bring it up, does that mean you already know the high school student's true identity?"

Jiang Hang simply shook his head. "I haven't had any contact with the detective who killed your friend before, but if I have any news, I will contact you immediately."

Seeing that Natsuki Kosimizu's expression was becoming somewhat impatient, Jiang Hang added from the side.

"But I have something else on my hands. Although I haven't found any evidence yet that it's related to the Lavender Chamber case, I think you'll be interested in this information."

Natsuki Kosimizu remained unresponsive. Aside from the high school detective incident, she wasn't particularly interested in anything else these days.

It wasn't until Jiang Hang mentioned that so-called Suicide Website to her.

"The police officer who took our statements at the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department just now mentioned that I've been giving Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department there for the past two days. In fact, I did help solve a case yesterday."

"The four people committed suicide by burning charcoal, but one of them was determined to have died of cold after an autopsy. She was killed by the real murderer and then faked as a suicide before being sent to that suicide site."

"During my investigation of this case, I discovered several Suicide Website that the murderer frequently visited. He used these websites to lure underage girls to his home, where they were then imprisoned by him."

"Although the case has been solved, I have also discovered a 'suicide network' that is already quite large and may even have formed an industry chain behind this criminal and those websites."

"This suicide network has probably been around for at least a few years. Their operations cover all of Japan and even show a tendency to spread to other countries. Their goal is to induce more people who have lost faith in the future and are disappointed with society to commit suicide in order to satisfy their perverse desire for control."

Jiang Hang could sense that Natsuki Kosimizu's face was turning pale.

"I've only just started investigating this suicide network, but my resources are limited, so I was thinking of asking you to investigate the suicide cases that have occurred in Fukuoka in recent years."

"This naturally includes the two people who committed suicide one after another in the Lavender Room Murder Case. I believe you must also be concerned about whether this organization is interfering behind these suicides."

Chapter 459: Now that I've bought the AE86, I should take it for a spin on Mount Akina.

Jiang Hang made a request to Natsuki Kosimizu that she could not refuse.

Although I haven't known Natsuki Kosimizu for long, she has the potential to be a great detective, and Conan and Natsuki Kosimizu Heiji Hattori serve as examples in this regard.

On the other hand, because of the death of important relatives and friends, they begin to hate the people who caused it all, and may even turn to crime. Jiang Hang has seen many such criminals in the past few months, and Yusuke Sakata is more or less the type of person.

Natsuki Kosimizu hasn't gone down that path yet, but judging from her behavior on the day she stopped the car, it's clear that she harbors a deep-seated prejudice against irresponsible detectives.

Taking both of these factors into account, it's actually quite easy to guess Natsuki Kosimizu's current state of mind is.

If there was even the slightest suspicious aspect to her friend's death, she would investigate without hesitation.

She previously believed that the arrogant detective had made a wrong deduction, which led to her friend's unbearable burden and suicide.

So she began to try to find the detective's whereabouts.

Even if she hasn't done anything drastic yet, if she can't find out the detective's identity, she might actually resort to some extreme measures.

If that day really comes, Jiang Hang could use a similar method to Yusuke Sakata to get her out of trouble, but to be honest, even if Sherlock Holmes acknowledges the legitimacy of private revenge when the law is ineffective.

But in Jiang Hang's case, killing one's target of revenge is never the best way to seek revenge.

To cause someone's beliefs to collapse, their spirit to break down, and their friends and family to abandon them, leaving them to live a painful life in the world, unable to find anyone willing to support them, is also a form of revenge.

Only when there are no other options and no way back will murder become an option for Jiang Hang to consider.

Yusuke Sakata was already at a point of no return; he had begun killing people. By the time Jiang Hang learned about the case, there were only two targets left for him to take revenge on.

Under those circumstances, only by allowing him to complete his final revenge could he calm down.

However, it's different for Natsuki Kosimizu. She hasn't taken that step yet, and there's still plenty of time for her to change her mindset.

As for watching someone take that final step into darkness and then pulling them out, taking advantage of their desperation to get them to join the Brotherhood, Jiang Hang, a mentally sound adult, couldn't do that.

In short, it's still a long way off before we discuss these things now.

Besides, as long as Natsuki Kosimizu agrees now, they will be comrades on the same side. If she wants to take revenge on that detective later, he might be able to provide Natsuki Kosimizu with some small help.

As expected, Natsuki Kosimizu's reaction was not unexpected by Jiang Hang.

"I need to know about those Suicide Website first," she said cautiously, not so easily believing what Jiang Hang said.

"It's getting late today. I'll compile some information and send it to you tomorrow morning. You can verify it yourself then. But to be honest, we can't confirm right now whether your friend's and that young lady's suicides are related to these websites," Jiang Hang emphasized to Natsuki Kosimizu again, but was immediately interrupted by Natsuki Kosimizu.

"I'll investigate whether there's any other conspiracy behind that case myself..." she said, then immediately added, "Even if there's no connection, as long as such a website is real, I won't let it continue to exist in this world."

If what Jiang Hang said is true, and hundreds or thousands of people choose to commit suicide every year because of the inducements on these Suicide Website, then she naturally cannot continue to remain indifferent.

Seeing that Natsuki Kosimizu had unconsciously clenched her fist, Jiang Hang knew that their conversation had come to an end.

Don't provoke them any further late at night. Wait until they've accepted what happened tonight before slowly discussing the Lavender Locked Room case.

After seeing the preoccupied Natsuki Kosimizu off to her car, Jiang Hang quickly returned to his office and lay down on his bed to begin his study session for the evening—the reward for the arsonist had been issued.

Besides the usual monetary rewards, Jiang Hang also acquired a skill that he had been longing for:

Riding (Beginner): Able to skillfully ride some common mounts and vehicles.

After acquiring this skill, Jiang Hang can legitimately declare that he has become a true veteran driver.

Before this, Jiang Hang's driving skills were only so-so. In addition, the AE86 itself is a car that is difficult to control. Even the best setting with all the features could not solve the problem. He could only slow down to be more stable.

But now that he has acquired this skill, Jiang Hang feels different.

Even if it's just a basic skill, after learning from a website in the system space and personally experiencing various car accident scenarios, he can be considered a genuine veteran driver.

Drifting and cornering through drainage ditches are not difficult skills for him to master.

Upon waking up and gaining new abilities, Jiang Hang, in a cheerful mood, asked Shizuka Sakaki about the lavender locked room case he had asked them to investigate the day before yesterday after he arrived at work.

Shizuka Sakaki had already prepared the information and immediately began to explain the process of the case to Jiang Hang in detail.

In general, it's a more detailed version of what Jiang Hang had previously found out. Unfortunately, they don't know anyone at the Fukuoka police station, and they can't use Jiang Hang's position as a consultant to the Metropolitan Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department to ask the Fukuoka police for the case files from last year.

Therefore, in Shizuka Sakaki's investigation, the identity of the detective who made the wrong deduction in that case remains a mystery.

"This detective shouldn't be Ms. Natsuki Kosimizu, right? What are you investigating this detective for?" Shizuka Sakaki asked Jiang Hang with some doubt.

Jiang Hang briefly explained Natsuki Kosimizu's role in the case to her, and only then did she realize what was going on.

"I haven't found this information yet. I'll go check it again," Jiang Hang said, seeing Shizuka Sakaki's somewhat flustered appearance. He indicated that they had found enough clues for the case.

After all, both victims committed suicide, and the police only suspected Natsuki Kosimizu's friend. Although rumors of the murderer committing suicide out of guilt after killing the other victims were rampant at the time, the police ultimately treated the case as a mystery in their official records.

Even if he gets the police files, it probably won't change much. Natsuki Kosimizu is quite well-known in Fukuoka. If she can't find out the detective's identity from the police, then the police probably won't have any detailed information about the detective either. At most, a few police officers might remember his general appearance.

Since further investigation wouldn't yield much progress, it's time to stop.

As for what Shizuka Sakaki and the others would investigate next, Jiang Hang thought for a moment. There was still a lot of work to be done on the Suicide Website. In the meantime, he could try to have the two of them contact the Suicide Website and small groups in Tokyo to see if they could get any useful information from the administrators of these websites.

Upon learning from Jiang Hang that such a barbaric website could possibly exist in this modern society, Shizuka Sakaki appeared somewhat shocked.

"I'm also organizing these materials right now. I'll send you a copy once I'm done. You can investigate them yourselves in private. If you find any useful clues, your bonuses and salaries will all be doubled this month."

"However, you'd better be fully prepared before you go to investigate, so as not to alert the enemy."

After organizing this information, he sent a copy of the suicide website information and his personal speculations to the detectives he knew and had a fairly good relationship with: Conan, Heiji Hattori, Ikumi Soda, Natsuki Kosimizu, and even Saguru Hakuba, whose father was the Superintendent General Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department Suicide Website.

Only Harufumi Mogi, who spends most of his time abroad, was temporarily put aside by him. After all, the Suicide Website was ultimately a problem specific to Japan and didn't have such a close relationship with other countries.

The famous detectives who received these messages were all quite polite. After all, which famous detective hasn't encountered a suicide victim in all sorts of strange cases?

In the past, most of them would observe the appearance of the deceased at the crime scene, rule out the possibility of homicide, and then stop investigating the reasons for the death—even if it was the inducement of Suicide Website, it could not induce a mentally sound person to commit suicide.

Those who are swayed by them are the ones whose attitudes are not so firm, and then, with just a slight push at a crucial moment, they are the pitiful ones who plunge those who commit suicide into an abyss of no return.

If these people were handed over to detectives for deduction, they would naturally be able to deduce the main reasons for their suicides.

Therefore, they all overlooked the possibility that those suicide cases might have been orchestrated by someone in the dark, until Jiang Hang discovered the existence of this Suicide Website, which made them realize that they might have been involved in one of the cases in the past, and their reasoning had neglected such a crucial clue.

After establishing the "Anti- Suicide Website Team," Jiang Hang actually obtained a lot of valuable clues from these famous detectives in various places. In fact, the police also cracked down on many administrators who operated Suicide Website based on these clues.

Of all these clues, the one that really caught Jiang Hang's attention the most was a list of "suicide hotspots" that Heiji Hattori Japan sent him.

In this document, Heiji Hattori compiled a list of the places with the highest number of suicides in Japan over the past decade. Apart from the long-established suicide sites, one place in Gunma Prefecture, which had suddenly emerged in the last four or five years and was known as the "Togami Forest," caught Jiang Hang's attention.

Four or five years ago, this forest seemed unremarkable on the internet. But in the years since the rise of the internet, the suicide rate in this place has suddenly skyrocketed. Local legends have even begun to circulate that "anyone with troubles who enters the forest will be bewitched by the head god and will never be able to leave."

Jiang Hang pondered for a while about this place, which seemed to be a man-made "suicide hotspot," and decided to go there this weekend to see if he could find any clues.

Of course, there is another, rather crucial reason – Jiang Hang has owned the AE86 for so long, but he has never actually been to Gunma Prefecture, which is not far from Tokyo.

You should know that the famous Mount Akina is located in Gunma.

He's already acquired the Riding Skill. Tonight, he'll work overtime to upgrade the skill to intermediate level using a skill book. After that, he can take a ride on Mount Akina with the intermediate skill, and that will make the trip worthwhile.

Moreover, in this chaotic and mixed world, there might actually be a Fujiwara Tofu Shop on Mount Akina in this world?

While Jiang Hang was preparing for his weekend trip to Gunma, Takagi Wataru also sent news of the latest developments in the Shuushirou Case.

Jiang Hang's reasoning was correct.

When Masayoshi Sato shouted "go to the police" before he died, he was indeed shouting it to a close friend from his middle school baseball team.

Officer Sato identified the perpetrator by noticing in a mere ten seconds of surveillance footage that the way the assailant held the gun was similar to the way a friend from his baseball team held a baseball bat in a strange way.

In short, after learning that the murderer was likely an acquaintance of Officer Sato, Takagi Wataru spent the entire day reviewing case files at the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department. Finally, on the anniversary of Masayoshi Sato's death, while accompanying Miike Sato to pay her respects, he encountered several people who were also there to mourn her father.

After that, he only tested the waters slightly, and in front of Miike Sato, he said that the truth behind "Shuushirou Case" might mean "to turn himself in," and he successfully found out the real murderer by relying on the reactions on those people's faces.

With the criminal's psychological defenses broken down, he and Miike Sato easily got the information out of him about the whereabouts of the hidden money. This case, which had remained unsolved for twenty years, was thus resolved in a somewhat sudden manner.

"After the criminal confessed to what happened back then, Officer Sato seemed to have a weight lifted off his shoulders. He not only treated me to a meal but also invited me to see an idol's concert this weekend. I feel like I have a great chance now. Anyway, thank you so much for this. If Officer Sato and I really get together, I'll definitely make you my son's godfather in the future!" Takagi Wataru said excitedly on the other end of the phone, talking about his plans for the weekend as if things had already gone smoothly.

Chapter 460: Chapter 456: You're not some imposter who popped up out of nowhere, are you?

Jiang Hang wasn't particularly enthusiastic about being someone's godfather.

Not to mention that although Takagi Wataru seems to have a great advantage now, he is still a long way from the day when they will get married.

Besides, both Takagi Wataru and Miike Sato are still in the prime of their careers, so even if they get married, they probably won't have children anytime soon.

It's probably going to be many years before their child is born, and Jiang Hang definitely won't live to see that day come before the main storyline of Conan ends.

To put it bluntly, by the time the Conan storyline ends, Jiang Hang will probably already be the world's number one detective. Whether he will stay in this world then will depend on the system's attitude.

Therefore, during the phone call, Jiang Hang only expressed encouragement to Takagi Wataru, and then inquired about the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department's attitude towards the Suicide Website.

When it came to this matter, Takagi Wataru didn't actually know much more detail.

After all, the case of the Suicide Website had been handed over to another team to handle. He only knew that a lot of people had been arrested in the past few days, but it seemed that most of them were scapegoats pushed out to take the blame. The real big fish had not yet surfaced.

As for these Suicide Website, they will naturally be shut down one by one in the near future.

The progress from the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department was not beyond Jiang Hang's expectations.