Kudo Shinichi and the Blame He Took — Please Vote Monthly

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The moment Jiang Xia entered the classroom, the noisy atmosphere abruptly fell silent.

It was not because they feared the school bully. The ones who quieted down were mainly the girls in the class.

Most of them were looking at Jiang Xia's face.

A smaller number, being more observant, were looking at the back of his hand.

The silence lasted only a moment. Soon, more people began whispering to one another again, though the topic of conversation had clearly changed.

Before long, the teacher entered the classroom carrying a stack of test papers.

Jiang Xia found his seat, sat down, and quietly took the test.

During the break, he went out and bought a can of Cola.

When he returned, he found his desk drawer stuffed with all sorts of medicine for injuries.

Several bottles near the front had scented notes attached to them, containing words of concern or confessions.

The ones farther inside had none, but there were marks on the bottles where tape had once been stuck.

Jiang Xia stared at them silently for a while, suspecting that they had also had notes attached, only for the later arrivals to peel them off... Tsk, tsk. This cursed world that judged people by their looks.

Fortunately, he had always been handsome, both in his past life and this one.

That tradition absolutely had to continue.

Jiang Xia did not touch the medicine or the notes.

Taking them home would be awkward, but throwing them away would not be right either.

After considering it, he decided that since he had no use for the desk drawer anyway, he might as well leave them there for now.

That way, the next person bringing him a gift might see there was no room and retreat on their own.

If he rashly did anything and handled it poorly... given the nature of this world, Jiang Xia worried that before long, someone might poison his Water Cup.

Then Student Kudo behind him could put on a sorrowful face while conducting a "three suspects for poisoning the person secretly in love with them" investigation, using him to boost his record...

Kudo Shinichi was late again today. He only arrived after two tests had ended.

But he had a legitimate reason—on the way here, he had encountered a Murder Case at a breakfast shop and only came after solving it.

The Proctor nodded as though used to it and let him in.

Kudo Shinichi's seat happened to be directly behind Jiang Xia's.

As he passed Jiang Xia, his gaze inadvertently swept over the hand holding his pen, then snapped back. He stared at it thoughtfully for quite some time.

The moment the papers had been collected, Jiang Xia felt a pen poke his shoulder from behind.

When he turned around, he saw Kudo Shinichi staring at the Back of Hand with an intensely inquisitive look.

"What caused this injury? The bruising covers too large an area, and it's very even. If it wasn't caused by an impact, then there may be a problem with an important internal organ. You'd better—"

Jiang Xia cut him off without changing expression. "A Soccer Ball you kicked yesterday afternoon hit me."

Mouri Ran and Suzuki Sonoko happened to be passing by. The moment they heard that, they were stunned.

The two turned toward Kudo Shinichi at the same time, their voices filled with reproach. "Can't you kick at the goal?!"

"??" Kudo Shinichi was stunned too. "Soccer is a team sport that emphasizes coordination! How could I possibly only kick at the goal..." Hm?

...No, wait.

That did not seem to be the point.

...The point was that he had not played Soccer Ball at all yesterday. He had been at the Police Station all day supplementing his Statement!

But by the time he wanted to grasp the actual point, it was clearly too late.

Kudo Shinichi realized that the way Mouri Ran and Suzuki Sonoko looked at him had become the way one looked at "a piece of trash who kicked someone, did not apologize, and then came the next day to ask the victim how they felt as though nothing had happened."

Kudo Shinichi froze for a moment before arguing fiercely, "You can't just listen to his One-sided Story—bruising that even and with no swelling at all could not possibly have been caused by a Soccer Ball! You..." He turned to Jiang Xia, wanting to ask what was really going on.

However, the person at the desk in front of him had already collapsed onto his desk, single-mindedly catching up on sleep.

Jiang Xia had finally touched a Ghost yesterday and was a little too excited to sleep. So he had gotten up in the middle of the night, rolled Ghost Mint all night, and only fell asleep at dawn. Of course he was tired.

"...Hey!" Kudo Shinichi could not accept this behavior of pinning the blame on someone and then leaving. He leaned forward, intending to shake him awake.

But before he could touch Jiang Xia, Mouri Ran slapped him onto the desk and warned in a low voice, "Don't disturb his rest."

Kudo Shinichi: "..."

Just as he was about to defend himself, he suddenly sensed a dense Killing Intent.

Kudo Shinichi warily raised his head and looked around for its source. Most of the girls in the class were silently staring at him, and there were even several girls from other classes standing by the windows.

Kudo Shinichi: "..."

...Something was wrong.

This development was very wrong.

Clearly, he, Kudo Shinichi, was Teitan High School's most popular handsome Detective. Just a few days ago, plenty of pretty girls had written him Love Letters... So why had the world become so different the moment Jiang Xia came to school?

Though he felt indignant, there were simply too many people glaring at him...

Kudo Shinichi weighed his Combat Power and silently shut his mouth.

Forget it. He would not argue with a mentally fragile neighbor.

Maybe Jiang Xia had not been deliberately Faking an Accident for Compensation. Maybe he had seen an illusion...

Kudo Shinichi did not keep asking endless questions.

Jiang Xia spent a peaceful day, much to his satisfaction.

After school, when he returned home, he began preparing the tools he would need to help Kinoshita Yoko deal with the stalker.

Jiang Xia's house was quite large, with several floors and a Basement.

Its layout was similar to Professor Agasa's house next door.

True to his name, Professor Agasa was an eccentric inventor. At the same time, he was Conan's provider of Golden Fingers—things like the voice-changing Bow Tie, Anesthetic Watch, Satellite Sneakers, and Soccer Ball Belt... all of them had been made by him.

Beyond Professor's House was Kudo Shinichi's home.

Whenever Jiang Xia passed by and saw the Door Plate bearing the name "Kudo," he felt that Jiang Xia's parents had actually been rather lucky.

Kudo Shinichi's father, Kudo Yusaku, was the IQ ceiling of this world.

Yet Jiang Xia's parents, a pair of Men in Black from the organization, had lived beside him for so many years without their identities being exposed...

Now, Jiang Xia's parents had gone to heaven, while the Kudo couple had moved to the United States to settle down, so Jiang Xia no longer had to worry about that issue.

However, there was still Kudo Shinichi next door, equally skilled at digging into people's identities.

Fortunately, Kudo Shinichi had not discovered at all that Jiang Xia was working for a strange organization.

The reason was probably the same—Kudo Shinichi had not had much contact with Jiang Xia.

Jiang Xia Tongzhi was one year older than Kudo Shinichi, but due to various reasons, he had repeated a grade during middle school, which was why they became classmates in high school.

And whether it was Jiang Xia or Jiang Xia Tongzhi, both were extremely practiced at skipping class... Thinking of this, Jiang Xia resolved to carry on the fine tradition of skipping school.

Jiang Xia entered the Laboratory at home, found several useful tools, and changed into lighter clothes.

Then he put on a Face Mask to hide his face, went between Kinoshita Yoko's company and home, secretly borrowed a little electricity from the Street Lamps, and installed several surveillance cameras.

After that, the conditions on those stretches of road began Live Broadcasting in his home, seamlessly, 24 Hours a day.

Three evenings later.

While Jiang Xia was trimming a Potted Plant, the surveillance system gave two beeps.

It had detected a specific image.

Jiang Xia set down the scissors and pulled up the recording. He saw a uniquely colored car pass through the camera's view.

He enlarged the License Plate for another look and discovered that it was his target.

He set down the scissors, packed his things, and prepared to get to work.