The Corpse Collector In Conan

24: YOUNG MAN, YOU ARE POSSESSED

When Jiang Xia left the police station, the child ghost dragged a leg-scratching shikigami that was about the same size as itself and ran over to him.

"Ochiai has been arrested, and the shikigami's grudge has dissipated a lot, so it can now be fully pulled off the leg," said Jiang Xia.

Jiang Xia walked out of the police station and turned into a small street. 

When there was no one around, he bent down and picked up the child ghost and shikigami.

With Ochiai going to jail, the shikigami's obsession dissipated. 

Now, it was just a paper shikigami without emotion.

Collecting shikigami was not as troublesome as collecting ghosts.

Jiang Xia pricked his fingertip, and casually pressed the blood bead onto the shikigami.

A blood-red mark was imprinted on the shikigami, which quickly turned black and finally solidified into the shape of a flower and the letter "Z".

Jiang Xia picked up the new shikigami and looked at it for a while before putting it into the empty space of the tattoo on his chest.

Now he had the child ghost, enough murderous aura, and a shikigami, although they were all rare. 

But going from nothing to something was a qualitative change, a breakthrough.

Jiang Xia exhaled a breath of mist, raised the collar of his windbreaker, and walked expressionlessly on the cold street, feeling that the future was bright.

"After so long in this world, I finally look like a psychic," he thought.

*****

Jiang Xia had originally thought that it would take some time to find evidence for the other leg-scratching shikigami, which also lacked evidence.

But the next day, when he was wondering whether to go to class or to the office, the police called and told him that the murder case he had received from the detective next door had a result - the police had found evidence.

Jiang Xia hung up the phone and felt relieved.

"Boss Amuro is really useful."

*****

With this matter settled, Jiang Xia no longer had to worry about his schedule for today.

He went straight to the police station to deal with the follow-up of the case.

At the police department, as usual, Jiang Xia released his ghost baby to wander around and see if there were any excess murderous aura or shikigami. 

He then found a long bench to sit down and looked to the side.

There sat a familiar face.

The detective next door who provided clues to the murder case had also come.

After both of them finished writing their reports, while the police officer was organizing the signing materials, the detective next door looked at Jiang Xia and shook the newspaper in his hand, laughing as the paper rustled, "It looks like I'm going to have a famous detective neighbor soon."

Jiang Xia asked, "Famous detective?"

He turned his head and saw a huge photo of himself on the newspaper. 

The background was the medieval exhibition hall from yesterday.

Last night, when Jiang Xia was blocked by reporters at the entrance of the exhibition hall, he was not very skilled in handling the situation, so he did not say much.

However, the museum curator next to him was very talkative. 

The police did not stop the curator, as in this world, cases were not very confidential.

The curator looked at the camera, pondered for a moment, and then began to shower Jiang Xia with high praise.

Perhaps he suddenly realized that the stronger his opponent, the less he would lose face if he lost.

In addition, besides the curator, the little girl involved in the kidnapping case happened to be playing nearby with her father last night.

After the father and daughter happened to witness Jiang Xia's heroic rescue of the hostage, they excitedly shared the story with many reporters who quickly gathered around them, eager for more details.

Furthermore, some media with inside information found out that Jiang Xia was actually a classmate of Kudo Shinichi, who had recently been in the news frequently due to his disappearance and rumored murder.

Thus, the media made a big deal out of it.

- Two high school detectives, one in front and one in back, appearing together and also being classmates.

This coincidence was enough for the media to concoct several stories out of thin air.

Jiang Xia: "..."

He took the newspaper from the enthusiastic detective next door and read it with a bit of annoyance. 

He felt that the media in this world had really wild imaginations.

However, even though the media had fabricated stories about him, Jiang Xia knew that if he wanted to quickly increase his reputation, receive more commissions, and come into contact with more potentially ghostly people after death, he needed to be talked about.

Jiang Xia was different from other high school detectives.

He didn't have hundreds of cases piled up under his belt.

However, stunts like being possessed by "Kudo Shinichi's ghost" could make Jiang Xia famous just like a detective who suddenly falls asleep and solves a crime scene because of his uniqueness.

"...Anyway, I feel complicated," Jiang Xia thought silently to himself.

After finishing the investigation report, before leaving, the police officer handed them two envelopes with a special bonus.

It was said that this was due to the case next door where the victim's body was thrown away during a festival, burned in public, and witnessed by many people, causing a huge impact. 

Therefore, successfully solving the case was commendable.

Jiang Xia listened to this reason and fell silent for a moment.

When he received the envelope, he felt the rough texture of the parchment.

*****

After a week, as expected, the case of burning the bodies at the festival made it to the newspapers.

Jiang Xia looked at his own photo in the newspaper and decided to buy several copies and a notebook.

When he got home, he cut out all the articles that mentioned him and pasted them into the notebook.

He had heard that in this world, many celebrities have the habit of hiring detectives to listen to stories of solving cases.

So Jiang Xia planned to make such a collection first.

If someone asked in the future, he could just hand it over and let them read it themselves.

In addition, the group of reporters had good photography skills and took pretty good photos.

*****

The next day, after Jiang Xia got up, he checked the schedule of the school.

There was no exam today.

So Jiang Xia skipped class comfortably.

He carried a water bottle and pruning shears to take care of the potted plants at home and the plants growing in the yard, all of which could be used in ghost mint.

While pruning, Jiang Xia picked the ripe fruits and leaves, cut them into appropriately sized pieces, and spread them out in the basement to dry.

The ones that had already dried were collected and taken to the living room, rolled into homemade cigarettes, sealed in a box, and the whole process was very skilful.

After finishing, Jiang Xia looked at the time and found that it was not yet noon.

So he took a cage of cats and planned to go to the detective agency to wait for clients to come.