No Saving Him This Time

"Tangze!" Sonoko Suzuki threw herself dramatically onto Tangze's desk. "What happened to your face?!"

Tangze froze for a moment. Seeing her reach out to touch his bandage, he quickly leaned back to avoid her. "Just a little scratch."

Sonoko looked heartbroken, her thoughts written all over her face: How could anyone bear to hurt such a face?

What a genuine face-obsessed girl.

Ran Mouri grabbed her best friend, who was acting up again, and smiled awkwardly. "Ah, Sonoko didn't mean to offend you... Thank you for last night, Tangze."

Mori Kogoro had been in exceptionally high spirits and had downed quite a few cans of beer at the café. By the time the café closed, he could barely walk in a straight line.

Though Ran Mouri was technically a frail young woman with A-rank strength and speed, it was rather ungentlemanly to leave a high school boy and a grown man for a girl to deal with after they had drunk themselves into a stupor.

So Tooru Amuro and Tangze worked together to carry Mori Kogoro up to the third floor. Amuro left after work, while Tangze stayed behind to help Ran Mouri boil hot water and make hangover tea.

It was not entirely because he wanted to earn favor. Mainly, Tangze had a long history with heavy drinking, so he was far too practiced at handling such things. He went through the whole routine with smooth efficiency, and before Ran Mouri and Conan could even react, Mori Kogoro had been cleaned up and laid flat on the sofa.

Tangze's standing in Ran Mouri's eyes had now risen from "the good-tempered new classmate" to "the gentle, kind neighbor."

"It was nothing. Was Mr. Mori doing alright this morning?"

"Thanks to your hangover tea, Dad was feeling completely refreshed."

"That's good. I'm glad I could help."

The two smiled at each other, and the atmosphere was warm and friendly.

Sonoko stretched out a hand and squeezed herself between them with a look of alarm, turning her head from side to side. "What are you two talking about? You've only been apart for two days and you're already this close?! Not fair, Ran! Your great detective has only been gone for a few days, so you have to stay faithful!"

Ran Mouri's smile immediately collapsed. "Don't mention him... That deduction maniac called and said he had a troublesome case, so he needed to leave for a while. I have no idea when he'll be back..."

"A detective?" Tangze tilted his head curiously. "Who are you talking about?"

"Shinichi Kudo. He's always on the news, so you've probably seen him before." Sonoko casually patted Ran's shoulder. "He's Ran's childhood friend! He's also in our class, but he disappeared before you transferred here, so you never got the chance to meet him."

"He's a great detective... Mr. Mori is a detective too, right?" Tangze worked through his character setup in his head. A melancholy boy who admired justice but could not pursue it suited him best at the moment, so he put on the gloomy expression he had shown Amuro before. "That must be nice..."

"Forget that deduction maniac, Ran. Want to go to the art museum together after school?" Sonoko did not want to discuss Shinichi Kudo, and she also sensed Tangze's mood sinking, so she hurriedly changed the subject. "There have been rumors lately that something strange has been happening at the Beika Art Museum!"

"Beika Art Museum? They're holding a medieval art exhibition recently, right? I did want to go. I heard there are works by many famous artists and lots of newly acquired pieces, but when I asked Dad to go with me, he refused outright..." Ran Mouri grew annoyed at the thought of Mori Kogoro's slovenly behavior.

Sonoko snapped her fingers. "That's right, that exhibition. The night patrol guards said they saw a suit of medieval armor wake up at midnight and start walking around on its own!"

"Huh? The strange incident is a ghost story like that?" Ran Mouri, who was somewhat afraid of ghosts, hesitated.

"Doesn't that sound interesting? It fits the mysterious atmosphere of the Middle Ages perfectly. You wanted to visit the museum anyway, so let's go together!" Sonoko finally revealed her true intention, then turned toward Tangze. "Tangze, you should come too. You haven't really had the chance to look around Beika Town since you arrived, right?"

That map of yours is awfully short...

Tangze saw through Sonoko's intentions at a glance, but naturally had no reason to refuse. "Sure. But Mouri still has to pick Conan up from school, so why don't we bring him along too?"

Today was the day the fake elementary school student officially began his long first-grade career. As half a guardian, Ran Mouri would not let a child on his first day of school go home alone.

"That little brat... Fine." If they did not pick Conan up, her best friend might abandon the plan altogether. And if it became just her inviting Tangze to see the exhibition alone, the nature of it would be different. He might even refuse.

There would be one more troublesome kid acting as a third wheel. Sonoko sighed.

After school, they picked Conan up from Teitan Elementary School. Tangze met the legendary group of troublesome child detectives, and also received Conan's unhappy sideways glare.

A handsome new transfer student had arrived, lived directly downstairs from them, and had no fewer chances than Shinichi Kudo used to have to spend time with Ran Mouri. Conan's rival radar was going off like crazy.

Tangze could not be bothered to argue with this East Asian king of jealousy, so he returned the look with a tolerant smile.

That was just how men who could not change back were. The moment a handsome guy appeared around their childhood friend, they really started panicking.

After Sonoko mentioned the museum, Tangze spent several hours digging through his memories for impressions of the case.

He quietly took out his phone and tried entering the names of the killer and victim one by one. Unfortunately, neither of them triggered the navigation app.

That made sense. Other than bombing cases, cases in Conan's world almost never involved random killings. They were basically all murders born from tangled interpersonal relationships.

Although the odds of the victim having done something terrible were much greater than the killer being truly twisted—such as the death of Maru Denjirou, which Tangze had just prevented—many were merely private grudges that would not cause a distorted personality. Stealing Hearts and reforming people was not omnipotent. It could only deal with twisted freaks, not family disputes or sudden illness.

Incidentally, Tangze had already tested the names of several characters with substantial roles. And sure enough, whatever else Conan's world might lack, it certainly had no shortage of Palaces.

Unfortunately, the main cast mostly engaged in intellectual battles against opponents and were unlikely to get caught up in murder cases. That left Tangze unmotivated, though the abundance of Palaces everywhere did give him plenty of room to work with.

As a veteran of multiple playthroughs, Tangze knew very well that the requirement for a Palace to form was "a powerful desire capable of distorting cognition," regardless of whether it was good or evil. Twisted scum could create Palaces, people with severe psychological trauma could create Palaces, and even obsessive idealists might create Palaces.

If he accidentally wiped out some key character's obsession, that would be the end of it. The Phantom Thief of Hearts only wanted to advance the plot and uncover the truth, not destroy people's convictions.

"Here we are, the Beika Art Museum!" Sonoko's shout pulled Tangze's drifting thoughts back. "That moving armor is in the medieval art exhibition hall that opened recently."

"Sonoko, we came to see the exhibition, not visit a haunted house..." Conan's mouth twitched. Was it really appropriate to shout ghost stories outside someone else's entrance?

Sonoko waved a hand. "What does it matter? It's not like we aren't buying tickets." Then she naturally grabbed Tangze's arm and pulled him toward the line.

Tangze looked up at the medieval art museum banner. Bathed in the Grim Reaper's aura, he entered this future crime scene with the solemn grief of someone attending a memorial service.

The second chapter will be a little later today. _(:з"∠)_ I'm sleepy, so I'm going to take a nap first.