Familiar Cat

Conan: "..." How had Jiang Xia's Case Magnet Constitution suddenly become so strong? As Conan recalled, there hadn't been that many murder cases around him before.

After thinking for a moment, an idea suddenly popped into Conan's mind—he remembered the things elderly people liked to say, such as, "Those who have experienced a near-death state open a door to 'that world' and become haunted by vengeful spirits."

The hairs on the back of his neck instinctively stood on end. But Conan quickly and speechlessly knocked himself on the head.

...What was he thinking? He needed to believe in science.

And even if ghosts really existed... Jiang Xia's near-death experience had been over a year ago. His sudden tendency to get wrapped up in cases, however, had started only recently, after Kudo Shinichi had been taken down by the Black Organization.

Thinking of that, Conan's thoughts, which had just returned to the right track, drifted again. He remembered the nonsense reports from when Jiang Xia had first become famous—things like "Kudo Shinichi died in an accident, and his unwilling vengeful spirit possessed a classmate."

"..." This was exactly why superstition was bad. Wasn't Kudo Shinichi still alive and well?

Conan lowered his head, glanced at what he was using to calm his nerves, then instinctively looked toward Jiang Xia.

Then he paused slightly, noticing that Jiang Xia's expression was strange, as though something had surprised him.

"?" Conan felt puzzled and carefully surveyed the surroundings again.

By then, they had already approached the tree.

Conan sniffed with his nose raised. From this close, there really was a faint smell resembling that of a corpse, but it was extremely light and came and went, almost like an illusion.

"..." In weather like this, whether it was meat or a corpse, it would