Shinichi's gaze swept across his personal interface, pausing briefly over several Entries flickering with different lights before finally stopping on [Clear Comprehension and Thorough Insight].
The upgrade of this blue Entry had originated from the explosive popularity of the manga Number One Chef throughout the Land of Fire and the surrounding smaller nations.
As countless readers followed the serialization, marveled at the cooking, and were moved by the protagonist's insight and intelligence, they unconsciously projected that impression onto the manga's author — Higashino Shinichi himself.
That admiration and imagination regarding the author's wisdom was continuously transforming into an endless stream of cognition, constantly nourishing this Entry.
And ever since the outbreak of the Third Shinobi World War, every one of Shinichi's actions and every one of his achievements had exploded like bombs, carefully recorded and analyzed by the intelligence agencies of every nation before being placed again and again on the desks of the upper echelons of the major shinobi villages.
He was far too young, and his potential far too terrifying. What he displayed was not merely overwhelming individual combat strength, but also a strategic vision and battlefield command ability that left others deeply shaken.
Those too were manifestations of intelligence!
Under the dual momentum of both factors, the advancement of [Clear Comprehension and Thorough Insight] had already become inevitable. And once it reached purple quality—
His learning, thinking, and comprehension efficiency would undergo yet another qualitative leap, providing immeasurable support for strengthening his "foundation unit 1" and for all future study and development afterward.
...
However, before the purple intelligence-type Entry Shinichi had been anticipating arrived, two other Entries — ones that caught even him somewhat off guard — reached the edge of transformation first.
On the third day of the return journey to the Land of Fire, the army stopped to rest in an open area. As usual, Shinichi found a secluded place near the camp to carry out his daily training.
After finishing his practice and slowly making his way back toward the camp, he suddenly felt a strange palpitation stir within his heart.
He immediately stopped walking and quietly summoned his personal panel.
There, on the interface, the two green Entries [Auspicious Sign] and [Ominous Sign] — one positive and one negative, both belonging to the domain of fortune — were now flickering violently like candles in the wind, on the verge of collapse.
Then, almost simultaneously, the words representing Auspicious Sign and Ominous Sign shattered apart with a crash, transforming into two masses of pure, profound azure light!
The radiance flowed and condensed before finally reforming into two entirely new lines of text before his eyes, each emanating a mysterious and unfathomable aura:
[Seeking Fortune (Blue): Your fortune has now connected with the flow of blessing and fate, granting insight into the precursors of auspiciousness. Luck frequently accompanies you, subtly guiding your everyday actions and decisions, making it easier for you to encounter opportunities and avoid trivial troubles. At the same time, you may actively consume this "blessing of fortune" surrounding you in order to perform a "Seeking Fortune" divination regarding a specific event, target, or your own future. The divination will reveal the potential paths of favorable development connected to the matter, possible advantageous variables that may exist, and the optimal timing or method of intervention. After use, this Entry will enter a frozen state. During this frozen period, all passive effects and active abilities will temporarily become inactive. The duration of the freeze depends on the importance and complexity of the event being divined, as well as the scale of its impact on the worldline and your own fate trajectory. The greater the impact of the event, the longer the recovery time required.]
[Avoiding Misfortune (Blue): Your fortune has now connected with calamity itself, granting insight into ominous signs. Misfortune often lingers around you, allowing you to vaguely sense impending danger and avoid needless disasters, making calamities and malicious intent far less able to approach you easily. At the same time, you may actively consume this "blessing of misfortune" in order to perform an "Avoiding Misfortune" divination regarding a specific event, target, or your own future. The divination will allow you to glimpse in advance dangers that may descend, hidden traps, covert conspiracies, or unfavorable trends of development. After use, this Entry will enter a frozen state. During this frozen period, all passive effects and active abilities will temporarily become inactive. The duration of the freeze depends on the importance and complexity of the event being divined, as well as the level of danger involved and the depth of its connection to you personally. The more fatal the danger, the longer the recovery time required.]
Oh?
Shinichi raised an eyebrow, genuinely surprised.
Ever since obtaining the two mysterious fortune-related Entries [Auspicious Sign] and [Ominous Sign], he had spent the last two years trying to fully understand their effects, eventually piecing together a rough outline.
Auspicious Sign made it easier for him to encounter good fortune and occasionally allowed him to passively sense signs that certain "good things" were about to happen.
Ominous Sign made it easier for him to avoid bad outcomes and occasionally allowed him to passively sense warnings that certain "bad things" were about to occur.
To give a simple example—
If he only possessed the Auspicious Sign Entry, then one day while heading out, he might suddenly feel an inexplicable impulse telling him:
'If you take the small eastern path and pass beneath the third locust tree at noon, you'll find money lying there.'
That was undeniably a good thing. He would gain an unexpected windfall because of it.
But Auspicious Sign would not tell him that the very moment he bent down to pick up the money, a loose stone from the crumbling courtyard wall nearby would collapse because of the vibrations from his footsteps. That stone might injure him—or even kill him.
That would be the bad thing.
But with Ominous Sign, things became entirely different. Shinichi could both pick up the money and avoid being struck by the falling stone. The two complemented each other, fortune and disaster intertwined.
After understanding their effects, Shinichi had naturally considered upgrading them.
But he quickly realized just how difficult that would be.
"Luck" itself was an extremely abstract concept, difficult to precisely define or shape into collective perception. To make at least all of Konoha—and in a sufficiently shocking way—deeply and wholeheartedly believe that "Higashino Shinichi is just an incredibly lucky person" was no easy feat.
After all, luck was not like immense strength or overwhelming speed, things people could intuitively see with their own eyes. Successes could always be explained away as coincidence, power, intelligence, or even the mistakes of others. It was difficult to form a stable and universally acknowledged impression of it as an actual "trait."
And Ominous Sign was even more abstract, carrying a vaguely negative connotation.
If the core cognition behind Auspicious Sign pointed toward ideas like "he always runs into good fortune" or "luck is always on his side"—
Then what exactly was the cognition required for Ominous Sign?
Was it "bad luck"?
Or "constantly getting dragged into trouble"?
Shinichi had never fully grasped the core logic behind its creation and advancement.
And yet now, after the journey through the Land of Lightning, these two Entries had completed their transformation ahead of everything else.
That made Shinichi fall into thought.
'Maybe it's because people see this guy constantly ending up in absurdly dangerous situations, but somehow he always miraculously survives and escapes disaster at the last second?'
What was this, some kind of Detective Conan protagonist constitution?
Shinichi internally mocked himself. After arriving at an answer he himself wasn't entirely certain about, he stopped dwelling further on this theory that he currently had no way to fully verify and continued reading the descriptions of the two Entries.
First of all, the foundational passive effects had definitely become significantly stronger.
Whether it was the most basic "fortune blessing" and "misfortune avoidance," or those sudden flashes of intuition warning him about good or bad events, both the trigger frequency and the clarity of those sensations would inevitably rise alongside the Entry's increased quality.
And finally, there were the newly added active abilities.
Unlike before, where he could only passively wait for occasional intuitive flashes, he could now actively take initiative—fighting for a more advantageous position at critical moments or avoiding deadly undercurrents in advance.
'So I can actively choose... to temporarily lose my lucky-protagonist constitution or my Detective Conan death-flag constitution... in exchange for gambling on a...'
Shinichi narrowed his eyes thoughtfully.
This ability was precious.
But the cost was equally clear.
Better not to use it unless absolutely necessary. After all, the everyday value of the passive effects alone was already enormous.
But if he did use it, then it absolutely had to be at the moment most worth playing that card!
'I wonder what fortune-type Entries will become once they're upgraded to the very end?'
As he thought that, an absurd image involuntarily surfaced in Shinichi's mind.
A battlefield somewhere in the future.
Powerful enemies surrounded him from every direction, killing intent thick in the air, while he merely stood calmly in place with his hands behind his back, seemingly doing nothing at all.
And then, the very next second—
The heavens split apart, and a blazing meteor—or some other equally ridiculous catastrophe—came crashing down from the sky, landing directly in the center of the enemy formation and reducing the opposing main force to dust.
Even in death, the enemy would never understand what exactly they had lost to.
Shinichi shook his head and forcibly cast the absurd—yet not entirely impossible—scene out of his mind.
...
Two days later.
The long march finally reached its end.
As the Konoha expeditionary army crossed the final mountain pass, the familiar atmosphere and lush scenery of the Land of Fire rushed toward them.
Narumi Town.
This town located on the border of the Land of Fire—the very place where Shinichi had carried out his first mission after becoming a genin two years ago—had already appeared in the distance within everyone's sight.
'The Third Hokage mentioned the other day that the Daimyō of the Land of Fire specially dispatched an envoy here to wait for us. Apparently they intend to grant me some rewards?'
Looking at the distant Narumi Town, Shinichi thought to himself.
'Something about ceremonial sake too? I'm still underage—I can't drink alcohol!'
As he continued walking, Shinichi's gaze slowly swept across the surrounding terrain and geography of Narumi Town. A decision gradually formed in his heart, and his eyes deepened accordingly.
Perhaps...
It was finally time for Narumi Town...
To change its name.