Conan’s Corpse Picker

   Chapter 399 Gin Poisoning Incident (Joint Chapter)

   Accompanied by a strange sense of wriggling, eight hard and sharp spider legs slowly stretched out from behind Jiang Xia and waved in the air unskilledly.

   Jiang Xia manipulated the puppet he possessed and let the spider legs stick out in front of him.

   Jiang Xia glanced at the cold light they glowed in the moonlight, and continued to stretch it forward, letting one of them rest lightly on the outer wall.

The moment    clawed at the wall, the tip of his leg suddenly developed a strong suction force.

   Almost at the same time, Jiang Xia found that the consumption rate of murderous aura became faster.

  “…”

  The ability to climb walls in spider form seems to be coin-operated?

   After realizing this, Jiang Xia briefly fell into contemplation.

   After a second, several other spider legs came out of the window one after another, gropingly clawing at the wall.

  … coin-operated as well.

   Not because of curiosity, but because he thought about it, and as expected, he still felt that he should familiarize himself with the situation of the puppet before using it formally, so that he would not make mistakes in the future.

  …

  In the dark of night, a figure with eight slender legs behind it climbed carefully along the wall of the building.

   Gradually, the figure in the white kimono grew faster and faster, and finally swept back and forth across the wall like a spot of light, light and without leaving any traces.

   It wasn't until the new legs were almost used up that Jiang Xia slowed down and hung it by the window of his room.

   He carefully looked at the spider legs like iron hooks on the wall, recalled the speed of movement just now, and was quite satisfied.

   Now that the monster vests of water, land and air are all in place, in the future, he may be invincible when it comes to running alone. Judging from the speed just now, in the short term, Amuro Toru's car may not even be able to outrun this spider.

After    understood the usage of the new vest, Jiang Xia was about to return to the room.

   At this time, the mermaid and the misty dog ​​who were following seemed to have found something. The two ghosts chatted for a while, and pointed Jiang Xia in a direction.

   Jiang Xia looked over there. After thinking for a while, he manipulated the spider legs to go around the inn horizontally, and stopped on the second floor on the opposite side, next to a window.

  ...The speed was too high during the leg test just now. The biggest feeling in the whole process was "the sea breeze is really strong today" and "I climbed really fast".

   Now he stopped to observe carefully, but Jiang Xia gradually realized that something was wrong—across the wall, he could vaguely feel a murderous aura in the room.

   In addition, going deeper, there seems to be a more seductive atmosphere.

  …Murderous and Shikigami?

   Has your luck been a little better recently... Jiang Xia silently touched his arm, feeling that he was holding on to the European energy.

  …

  The humanoid part of the spider puppet is very light and moves like a weightless paper figure.

   Jiang Xia first let the ghost sneak into the suspicious room with murderous aura in front of him to take a look.

   Confirming that the owner was asleep, Jiang Xia hung himself on the side of the window, then gently stuck out a sharp claw, placed it on the window, and provoked it along the gap.

  The old-style window bolts fell in response.

  The window slowly slid open.

  The eight spider legs behind Jiang Xia moved silently. When he landed again, he had already entered the house.

   This room is a one-bedroom with a simple layout with a low coffee table and an equally very low bed on the left hand side.

   A middle-aged man with brown hair was lying on the bed. He didn't seem to be sleeping very well. He was gnashing his teeth in his dreams, as if he wanted to catch someone and take a bite at any time.

   Jiang Xia glanced at him, and his eyes quickly landed on the coffee table beside him.

  —Maybe thinking about counting before leaving, the owner did not put the luggage in the bag.

   At this time, two sets of fishing rods, a pair of insulating gloves, and a lighter were neatly arranged on the table. Jiang Xia took a closer look and found that the fishing rod was made of carbon and was very light.

  …also conducts electricity.

  “…”

   Putting these things together, Jiang Xia felt that the memory bank had moved.

  ...He seems to have encountered a case he had seen before.

  Thinking for a moment, Jiang Xia didn't move the items on the table, but directed the ghosts to float into the owner's bag and looked at the business card holder.

   A stack of business cards was tucked into the business card holder, the top of which was repeated by the owner himself, with the name "Kazui Kazui", the president of the Hejing Public Works Store.

   Jiang Xia nodded secretly, recalling this somewhat impressive name.

  —He remembered that in this case that had not yet happened, Kazuyuki Kazui wanted to use the recreational activity of “fishing” to cause an electric shock accident. Fortunately, a certain financial president who oppressed him with loan sharks “accidentally died” on a cruise ship.

  ...It seems that on the way to Moon Shadow Island, it is really possible to pick up something else along the way.

   Just like that, you have to find an excuse not to take the boat sent by the organization.

   By the way, before that, there is one more thing to confirm.

  …

   Jiang Xia raised his hand to recall the ghost, drove the puppet, and silently walked to the door of the room.

   He pushed the door out, used the hook to restore the door bolt behind him, and then came to another door on the right.

   It is customary to put the ghost in first and take a look.

   After confirming that the owner of this room was also asleep, Jiang Xia pushed the door bolt and entered.

   Then, his eyes froze slightly.

  —In this room, a middle-aged man was also sleeping. This man has a broad chin, a tall aquiline nose, and deep nasolabial lines on his face, which are clear even when he is not smiling.

   Combined with what happened just now and these characteristics, a name quickly emerged in Jiang Xia's mind: Yamazaki Hesao.

  —that is, the unscrupulous moneylender who Kawai Kazuyuki next door planned to assassinate, and the president of Yamazaki Financial Corporation.

   Of course, to Jiang Xia, Yamazaki's name is not important, character is not important, and status is not important.

  The important thing is that this person has a large piece of Shikigami on his leg, so dense that it almost covers his calf. If you count it carefully, there are seven.

  Seven.

  “…”

   Jiang Xia stared for a while without saying a word.

   Then he silently left the room, restored the doors and windows, and climbed down the stairs along the wall.

   Dodge the lights and head all the way to the beach.

  Eight legs are indeed faster than two legs, and when they only walk on flat ground and don’t climb walls vertically, they don’t consume as much murderous energy as before.

   Jiang Xia approached the pier while secretly adapting to the new way of walking.

  The moist smell of sea water came to me, and the fine waves crashed against the shore to create the sound of rushing water. In the dark atmosphere, two yachts could be seen moored in the small port.

   One of the boats was for business use, and the hull was painted with "Oiyuan". At this time, the lights on the boat were not lit, and there was no person.

   There was someone moving on the other ship.

   Jiang Xia put his vision on the ghost and let the ghost float into the second boat for a walk. I saw two men in black suits who looked like passersby, and they seemed to be on duty on the boat.

  …It looks like this is a ship sent by the organization.

   Jiang Xia's eyes wandered back and forth between the two ships, his eyes flickering.

The boat organized by    is of course safer and more convenient.

But now, as long as you switch to another mode of transportation, you can easily pick up eight shikigami along the way... It's like if you change from driving to bus to work one day in a month, you can get an extra month's salary. , it's hard not to get excited.

  ... After all, he is not a big ghost, and he can never pick up too many ghosts.

  —Judging from the brochure Jiangxia received when he checked into the hotel, the "Haiyuan" next to the organization's ship was a traveling merchant ship.

   In this season, there are not many interesting places around, but there is a main island near Yueying Island. The southeast corner of the island is full of fish, which is suitable for fishing. The recent destinations of the Haiyuan are also there.

   The murderous owner who had prepared conductive fishing rods and insulating gloves just now was planning to use the Kaiyuan cruise and fishing as entertainment to kill that ghostly boss.

Jiang Xia thought about it and realized that if he did not take the Haiyuan, but took the organization's boat to Yueying Island, and then went to the island to solve the case after the incident, he would probably only be able to pick up the one dropped by President Duogui himself. Shikigami - Once the president is electrocuted by Kazui, the seven old shikigami on his legs will release their obsessions and fall on the spot, and then they will likely squirm into the sea and disappear, making it difficult to find.

  ... Anyway, Jiang Xia felt that he had to go to the Haiyuan to catch a boat.

   And... it'd be better if Gin also hitchhiked with him.

   After all, once Jiang Xia took the Haiyuan, after the electric shock case, whether he solved the case or simply watched, it would inevitably be delayed for a while.

  This is different from Tokyo. Everyone in Tokyo is familiar with it, so you can go directly. But here, he may have to follow the police to go through the process - according to Jiang Xia's accumulated experience during this period, where there are many detectives, similar regulations will be looser, while some places are more strict. Jiang Xia seldom came to Tottori Prefecture, so he didn't know what was going on here.

Therefore, if he splits up with Jinjiu tomorrow, he will delay for a long time to collect the shikigami, and then the Jinjiu that arrives at Yueying Island by the organized boat will probably be idle and go to the island, which should have been taken by others. The targets of human murder are all killed, and the efficiency is improved.

   As a result, Jiang Xia lost a few shikigami, and the gains outweighed the losses...

   Thinking about it carefully, it’s not too difficult to invite the leader to join us on a free boat anyway, at most bear the wrath of the boss.

And the boss's anger is actually a good thing... To be honest, if I didn't want to be expelled from the organization; I didn't want to be shot and killed by Jin Jiu in a rage, and then forced to take away Jin Jiu's busy body to work for him, Jiang Xia would not like his boss to be angry every day …

   A figure in a white kimono stood by the sea, quietly looking at the boat in the sea, thoughts surging in his mind.

   After a while, Jiang Xia looked sideways at the sharp spider legs sticking out from behind him, and nodded slightly as if determined.

  …

the next morning.

  Jiang Xia opened his eyes in the hotel quilt and stretched comfortably.

   There was a knocking sound at the door.

   Jiang Xia turned his head and walked over to open the door.

  I saw two men in black standing in the corridor.

   Jiang Xia looked at both sides of the corridor and saw no one, so he turned to let his boss and his younger brother into the room.

   After receiving the e-mail from Jinjiu last night, Jiang Xia also replied to an e-mail, briefly explaining the news on his side, including where he is now staying.

   "Depart at 6 pm and arrive after dark." Gin and vodka entered the house together, signaled the vodka to close the door, and confirmed the next itinerary to Moon Shadow Island.

   Then he looked at Jiang Xia and said solemnly: "The case of the Spider Mansion was solved by another person."

  There are relatively few cases in Tottori Prefecture, so when something happens, the speed of reporting will become very fast. The case that happened last night has already appeared in today's morning paper.

   In Jinjiu's view, the Spider Mansion, with its legendary bonus and terrifying images of the dead, is undoubtedly a great opportunity to raise its profile - Uzo needs to keep improving so that he can get in touch with those picky targets in the future.

   This is also the reason why Gin, after watching the death of Takeda Shinichi yesterday, completely stopped caring about Jiang Xia's concealment of information in advance.

  But I saw the news this morning, and the report actually said that the case was solved by a Kansai detective, while Uzo solved another old case.

  ...As the person who planned the entire script, if Uzo really wants to solve the case, he will never be preempted by others, so this must be his own idea. Thinking of this, when Jin Jiu asked this question, there was inevitably a bit of questioning in his tone.

   Jiang Xia said naturally:

   "If anyone else knew about this drug trafficking route, they saw that in the cases I encountered along the way, the deceased happened to be people on this route, and they might associate the two.

"And if the suspect happens to be in the organization and has access to the organization's clearing mission, it's even easier for him to speculate that I'm related to this matter - don't you say that even within the organization, it's better to hide your identity? "

  “…”

   Gin nodded slowly.

   makes some sense.

  … However, since the person who said these words was Uzo, it is very likely that these words were just his excuses.

  —For example, yesterday, Uzo left the Spider Mansion in a truck and the murderer. Gin originally thought that this was Uzo's attempt to create an alibi, or to take the opportunity to beat Rob.

  …Who knew that this person would rush to another case by accident.

   and so on, the more real reason for not being able to solve the case may be that Uzo actually enjoys the process of killing more than solving the case. So last night, between "cracking the spider mansion case and raising awareness" and "going to appreciate another case", he chose the latter.

   No wonder Uzo solves the case so fast every time, it looks like he is reciting the script... It turns out that he is really perfunctory.

  ...But this time, although Uzo couldn't help but go elsewhere to watch the killings, he still didn't delay the most basic business. And the reasons he gave were indeed plausible.

  Gin simply smoothed these things out, and didn't ask any further questions for the time being.

   When he saw the report this morning, he was indeed a little dissatisfied.

   But in fact, after seeing Uzo, his anger calmed down a little for some reason. Jin Jiu thought to himself, it seems that people who are too capable now have some shortcomings that go their own way... But then again, "self-planning actions" is not a complete disadvantage - the organization cultivates autonomous killing geniuses , not a marionette that needs to be toggled.

   reluctantly suppressed his anger at Uzo's self-assertion again.

After   , Gin took out a well-packaged square gift box from his bag and handed it to Jiang Xia.

   Jiang Xia took it and opened it, and found a packet of dim sum inside.

  “…?”

   (end of this chapter)