Double Chapter
"!"
The three bear children didn't dare make a sound. They instantly yanked their hands back and huddled tighter together, skillfully squeezing themselves into a single quivering lump — instinctively believing this might shrink the area available for scolding.
Jiangxia silently watched them for a moment, then slowly shifted his gaze.
Of course, he didn't scold them — yet. After all, they didn't carry any killing intent. He'd just make a note of it for later and leech a few extra cases off these bear children when the chance came up.
…
Beside him, Toyama Kazuha, who'd stepped on a human skull, finally recovered from the shock. She'd seen her share of corpses with Hattori Heiji before, so her tolerance was stronger than most innocent tool people's. Still, finding a skeleton out here rattled her enough that she instinctively looked around for Hattori Heiji… only to remember he was still off investigating at the Spider Mansion.
Kazuha's horrified eyes drooped into resigned half-moons. She had plenty of complaints about that detective boyfriend of hers, but figured now was hardly the place to air them out. She stuffed her rant back down and focused on the scene in front of her.
Fortunately, there was another reliable detective here.
She leaned closer to Jiangxia and lowered her voice. "What's going on with these bones?"
Jiangxia borrowed his ghost's vision. Even in the pitch-dark mountain, he could see every detail clearly. He swept his flashlight beam around, then let the light settle on a certain spot. His tone stayed flat as he explained:
"These are definitely human bones. There's lime scattered nearby — lime absorbs moisture and releases heat, which speeds up decomposition and makes a corpse skeletonize faster."
In other words, someone had definitely helped the process along.
Rob's eyes flickered. He asked, a little stiffly, "A murder case?"
"Most likely," Jiangxia said. But he wasn't especially interested in standing around analyzing it under the open sky — he still wanted to find that ghost. So after another glance, he stepped toward a flat stone about thirty centimeters wide.
"There seem to be drag marks here…" he murmured. He squatted and lifted the stone in one swift motion.
He'd half-expected to find a horde of scorpions, ants, or centipedes under there. But there was nothing — maybe the weird seasonal shifts had made it tough for the more fragile insects to survive.
Jiangxia felt oddly relieved by the absence of creepy crawlies.
He had Rob take a few photos, then fished out a pair of gloves. Carefully, he picked up the items hidden under the stone — a mottled ring and a flattened cigarette pack. A few stray cigarettes lay scattered beside it.
Jiangxia cracked open the pack and dumped the contents into his gloved palm.
Six cigarettes fell out — but two were torn in half. That left him with four long and two short.
…A textbook dying message.
How do these victims always find the time to get so creative in their final moments…?
Haibara Ai crouched beside him, holding her flashlight steady. When her eyes fell on the ring in Jiangxia's hand, she paused slightly — there were letters engraved inside: ETSUKO to ASAO.
"Etsuko to Asao…" she murmured. "That could be the couple's ring Miss Nonomiya Etsuko gave her fiancé, Kono Asao."
She switched to her calm "detective mode" voice. "Miss Nonomiya is a guest at our inn. About a year ago, she came here with Kawano, they had a huge argument, and he stormed off alone. He completely disappeared afterward — she hasn't heard from him since."
Haibara's eyes shifted back to the skeleton, her tone softening.
"And now… his ring, here. Looks like the person she's been waiting for all this time was already gone, even then."
She tipped her chin up to the starlit sky, letting out a tiny, inaudible sigh. She'd seen plenty of these sad pots, but somehow they still hit her.
A moment later, she turned back to Jiangxia, voice low. "Should we call the police?"
Normally, she'd already have the number dialed. But this was Jiangxia — the Detective Conan universe's resident famous detective — so she felt it best to ask first. With Jiangxia, "call the police" was never that straightforward.
Jiangxia nodded slightly. Then he opened his mouth to add, "But this place—"
Before he could finish, Toyama Kazuha's resigned voice cut in: "No signal."
Jiangxia looked at her blankly. He'd nearly forgotten — this girl was basically a part-time '110 speed-dialer,' her police-calling skills nearly as sharp as Ran Mouri's.
With her phone useless, Haibara Ai pivoted to her next option. "I remember the inn we're staying at has a landline."
But halfway through, she trailed off.
—Three guests at the inn had all received invitation letters from "Kono."
But Kono was clearly dead — his bones were scattered here, in plain sight.
That meant someone else had sent the invitations. And this neat display, practically gift-wrapped at a popular stargazing spot, felt suspiciously staged.
Haibara's sharp eyes narrowed.
If we just stroll back and drop a 'there's a dead body' bomb… we might be falling straight into someone's trap.
But with strangers around, she had to keep up her facade as a clueless "six-year-old child." She swallowed the deeper theory, confident Jiangxia would pick up the real meaning on his own.
She jumped straight to the safe conclusion instead. "Where did you come from? If it's nearby, maybe we could use your place to call the police instead…"
Before Jiangxia could answer, a figure emerged from the shadowy forest — a voice, hesitant but clear:
"Call the police? Did something happen?"
Jiangxia turned. A middle-aged man with a long face and short curly hair was standing there, clutching what looked like a heavy iron disc.
Professor Agasa's eyes widened. "Mr. Ryoji?"
Recognition flickered, then caution. The professor's gaze dropped to the skeleton at his feet. He couldn't help blurting, "What are you doing here?"
Mr. Ryoji was the owner of the inn where they were staying — and also ran a telescope rental side gig.
Mr. Ryoji hefted the iron weight in his hand and spoke earnestly, "I just remembered that the binoculars you borrowed were missing their lead weight. I forgot to reattach it after using it last time."
He handed it to the professor, but his eyes kept drifting to the spot where Haibara had pointed. He didn't need her to say it again — his stare locked onto the scattered bones.
The air froze for a heartbeat.
The next second, Mr. Ryoji let out a shriek, spun around, and bolted back to the inn.
Jiangxia silently watched his retreating figure. A bit overacted, he thought. But…
"Since it's been discovered anyway, let's use the inn's phone to call the police," Jiangxia said, wearing a seemingly helpless expression but feeling a tiny spark of anticipation inside.
Toyama Kazuha nodded, refusing to glance at the skeleton again. Her mind was already chanting call the police, call the police like a mantra.
Robert hadn't expected to stumble into another murder case either. Normally, he'd want nothing to do with the police — but being away from home, a police record could double as a handy alibi for the Spider Mansion. So he quickly nodded as well.
…
Meanwhile, far away in the Spider Mansion, Heiji Hattori was grilling Ryuji Takeda for leads.
Suddenly, Yuzo Takeda burst in. "Have you seen Big Brother? He said he was going to the studio to make puppets, but I've searched the whole house — he's vanished."
"What?!"
It shouldn't have been a big deal for an adult to go missing for an hour or two. But Heiji's gut twisted anyway.
He joined the family to search the house. Then a chilling thought struck him.
"Have you checked that abandoned warehouse on the Spider Temple grounds?"
Yuzo shuddered at the memory — he'd seen a hanged body there three years ago. He sure hadn't dared peek inside now. "N-no."
"Then let's go!"
A group scrambled up the dusty stairs, stopping at the warehouse door on the second floor.
Locked.
Heiji jiggled the doorknob. A warning bell clanged in his mind — too quiet.
"Find an axe!" he snapped.
A few hard swings later, the rotten wooden door cracked open.
Inside, a body swayed gently in the stale air.
Shinichi Takeda, like some pitiful insect caught in a spiderweb, hung there with eyes wide open, staring at nothing.
"…"
Heiji stared blankly. Shinichi Takeda had left less than an hour ago. In that time… who did this?
"Spider-sama… This is just like the legend of Spider-sama…" Ryuji's voice trembled. He glanced at his dead brother, then flinched as memories of his niece and daughter — who'd both been found hanged — flashed through his mind.
And thinking of his niece reminded him: "Oh! I heard Spider-sama often appears at the graveyard — where Rob and the others are now!"
"?!"
Heiji's mind jumped straight to Kazuha Toyama. His face darkened.
He didn't believe in some "Spider-sama," but Shinichi's corpse said plenty: a real murderer was out there using the legend to kill.
And if the "Spider-sama" showed up at the graveyard, maybe the killer did too.
Too dangerous.
Heiji felt he should panic — his friends were out there now — but… when the word "danger" flickered through his mind, he remembered who else was at the graveyard.
Jiangxia Tongzhi.
These two thoughts slammed together and promptly went off-track.
Heiji remembered the murderers he'd seen before — the ones who'd cried so pitifully once caught — and that certain high school detective who stepped on them like roaches and made them confess everything.
"…."
Heiji glanced up at the corpse again, then let out a heavy sigh.
Rather than worrying about Kazuha and Jiangxia being hurt by the murderer, maybe he should worry more about being stuck here piecing together clues — only for Jiangxia to come swaggering back, dragging a half-dead culprit behind him.
'Oh, I ran into the murderer. He looked suspicious, so I knocked him out. He confessed everything.'
"…."
Heiji tapped his forehead for the Nth time, forcing himself to think like a normal high school detective.
Deep breath. Stay normal.
He cleared his throat. "Let's call the police."
…
Deep in the mountains.
Boss Ryoji's inn wasn't far from the star observation hilltop. This time of year, guests were scarce. When Jiangxia stepped inside, he scanned the room in one casual sweep.
Sure enough, all the guests were huddled in the lobby — a woman cradling a sake flask with her chin propped on her hand, a middle-aged man with a receding hairline, and a spiky-haired guy.
Aside from the twitchy Boss Ryoji, all three guests had received invitations from the deceased "Mr. Kono."
One of them was Kawano Mao's fiancée, Etsuko Nonomiya.
The other two were the editor and editor-in-chief of an astronomy magazine called Space Sunday. Their only link to Kono was that, a year ago — the day he vanished — they'd all stayed at this same inn.
Haibara Ai's eyes landed on Etsuko first.
Ever since she'd left the Organization, Haibara had plenty of free time. She subscribed to countless newspapers that loved splashing Jiangxia's case files across their front pages.
One paper rarely ran just one case — she'd read every scrap, stacking up experience like a true little cadre.
So, to her, tonight's setup looked just like some classic trap to flush out whoever killed Kawano.
She leaned closer to Jiangxia and whispered, "Boss Ryoji was close with the victim, too. Kawano and Miss Nonomiya were his juniors at university. They vacationed here often."
The moment he'd stepped inside, Jiangxia had already spotted what he needed — an old, leg-clinging shikigami wrapped around someone's calf. The murderer was as good as confirmed.
But there was still a ghost to pick up tonight.
So Jiangxia pulled back his covert gaze and, like a serious detective, murmured back to Haibara:
"Seems like the person who sent the invitations and staged this must be either Miss Nonomiya or Ryoji."
Of course, all of this hinged on the body being Kono's for real.
Luckily, that was easy to check — the skeleton up on the hill had a front tooth cavity, which matched Kono'sdental records. Miss Nonomiya confirmed it.
While they talked, Boss Ryoji kept dialing the landline like a hamster on a wheel — trying and failing to reach the police.
Click. Nothing. Click. Still nothing.
Jiangxia finally strolled over, tapped the phone, and said flatly, "Don't bother — it's not plugged in."
"What?!" Boss Ryoji nearly jumped. He yanked the phone off the table. "No wonder it felt weird — I thought it was a bad signal!"
Jiangxia: "…."
In his mind, the pot fell squarely on Ryoji.
After all, he'd invited everyone here, hidden the phone line, and was the first to "discover" the bones on the mountain.
But Ryoji only knew his junior had died horribly — he had no clue who did it.
So he'd gathered everyone who was here the night Kono vanished, hoping someone would crack when they saw the skeleton and reveal the truth — saving the day, the pot, and his precious inn's reputation in one shot.
*Goal #1: Top 200 fanfics published within the last 31 - 90 days by POWER STONES.
Progress: 25/60(approx) for 10 BONUS CHAPTERS
Goal #2: One BONUS CHAPTER per review for the first 10 REVIEWS.
Progress:4/10*