Chapter 38: Astrology
Natsume stared at the glowing text on her interface. The words Lavender Villa hung heavily in the mission description. Her mind immediately went to Noelle, who was currently working there as a maid. Her fingers tapped rhythmically against her screen as she drafted a quick message to the dutiful girl, asking for a rundown of the current situation at the estate.
A reply from Noelle arrived almost instantly, detailing the tense atmosphere and the ongoing investigation.
Natsume leaned back, her eyes narrowing as she connected the dots. The world mission explicitly mentioned the Detective Koshien. Combining that detail with Noelle's current predicament at the villa, Natsume deduced that this very murder case had to be the inciting incident for the grand Detective Koshien event that would take place in the future.
She remembered this specific case quite vividly. The culprit was one of the few individuals in this world she actually felt a deep sense of pity for. Natsuki Koshimizu. That was her name. The girl had orchestrated an elaborate, tragic revenge plot all for the sake of her friend—a maid who had been falsely accused of murder and driven to suicide. Natsuki's entire goal had been to smoke out the arrogant high school detective whose reckless deductions had caused her friend's death.
Noelle and the others likely had no idea this isolated incident was tied to the Detective Koshien. Natsume searched her memory. To find the guilty party, Natsuki Koshimizu had invited several prominent high school detectives to a remote island. Excluding Natsuki herself, there were three main targets: Heiji Hattori, Saguru Hakuba, and... Tokitsu Junya.
A spark of realization lit up Natsume's eyes. The high school detective with the strange, archaic way of speaking that Lisa had asked Noelle to track down. It had to be Tokitsu Junya.
Natsume quickly typed out everything she knew and sent the information to Noelle. As for whether that particular detective truly was Tokitsu Junya, she would leave the final verification to Noelle. Natsume knew better than to micromanage. If she handed over all the answers on a silver platter, the earnest maid might feel her own efforts were being undermined, and Natsume certainly did not want to upset her.
As for Lisa's vague promise to teach the boy a lesson once he was found, Natsume decided to wash her hands of the matter entirely. Lisa was a grown woman, fiercely intelligent, and highly protective of their found family. She knew exactly what she was doing. Natsume trusted the librarian to handle the situation with her usual terrifying sense of propriety.
What truly occupied Natsume's thoughts now was the System itself. Why had this world mission refreshed and updated when Conan was nowhere near the premises?
She stroked her chin, deep in thought. Could it be the butterfly effect? The world mission was tied to a major case from the original timeline. Because Lisa and Noelle had intervened and solved the Lavender Villa murder ahead of schedule, their actions directly altered the conditions for the future Detective Koshien competition. That logical chain reaction would explain why the world mission suddenly refreshed and marked itself as completed.
Did this mean Conan was not a strict requirement? Natsume felt a surge of hope. Perhaps the little detective of death did not need to be physically present for a world mission to trigger. As long as a case tied to the original timeline was resolved, the System would recognize the completion.
But that hope fizzled out just as quickly. She slumped against her desk, feeling a wave of discouragement. Sometimes, without Conan acting as a walking catalyst, these cases simply refused to happen at all. If the inciting incident never triggered, the world mission would remain dormant forever.
The Beika Library Director was the perfect example. Lisa had been keeping a close eye on that creepy old man for days. She watched his every move, yet he had done absolutely nothing out of the ordinary. Did they really have to sit on their hands and wait for the Detective Boys to wander into the library before the man finally made his move?
Natsume let out a long, exhausted sigh. Just as she suspected. The cases did not summon the detectives. The detectives summoned the cases.
Two days later, Natsume sat at her table, unfolding the morning newspaper to check the latest developments on the Lavender Villa murder. The headlines were bold and aggressive. The villa's butler had finally marched into the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department and confessed the entire truth.
However, Natsume noticed the media's angle immediately. The articles were heavily skewed toward condemning the sheer incompetence of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department. The police were being dragged through the mud for their failure to see the truth the first time around. As for the high school detective who had arrogantly misled the authorities in the first place? He was merely mentioned in passing, likely because the press did not know his actual name and had no leads to pursue.
Natsume frowned slightly, her finger tracing the brief paragraph mentioning the unnamed detective. Lisa was not going to be happy when she read this. The media was letting the true instigator off the hook. Natsume could only imagine the kind of lesson the librarian was currently plotting for the boy.
Miles away in Shikoku, two very different people were reading that exact same newspaper.
Natsuki Koshimizu stood by her window, her hands gripping the edges of the paper so tightly her knuckles turned white. A genuine, watery smile broke across her face. Shana's innocence had finally been restored to the world. Her friend was no longer a murderer in the eyes of the public.
But as her eyes drifted down to the passing mention of the high school detective, her smile vanished. Natsuki pressed her thumb hard against the ink, nearly tearing the cheap paper. Her chest heaved. Someone was still out there living a comfortable life. Someone who had not yet paid the price for their deadly mistake.
On the other side of the country, Tokitsu Junya was also staring at the morning news.
He did not share the public's relief. Cold sweat gathered at his temples. He paced across his pristine room, his breathing shallow and erratic. If the public ever found out that he was the high school detective who had completely botched the deduction and misled the police, his flawless reputation would be shattered overnight. It was a humiliation he simply could not accept.
His panic quickly morphed into a defensive, ugly anger. He threw the newspaper onto his desk, his jaw locked tight. So much time had passed. The supposed culprit had already committed suicide out of guilt. The police had closed the file and moved on. Was there really any need to dig up the past? Why did those meddling detectives have to poke their noses where they did not belong and ruin a perfectly closed case?
That evening, the neon lights of Beika City flickered to life outside the Mouri Detective Agency.
"Ran, have you heard?" Sonoko bounced on the agency's guest sofa, leaning in close to Mouri Ran with a look of absolute thrill on her face.
Conan sat on the adjacent sofa, his eyes glued to the television screen. To anyone else, he looked like a normal child watching a cartoon. In reality, his ears were practically swiveling backward, catching every single word exchanged between the two high school girls.
Whenever Sonoko came over this late, it usually meant trouble. Why was she always trying to introduce questionable, ill-intentioned men to Ran? Showing up at this hour meant she was definitely trying to drag Ran out into the night for some ridiculous matchmaking scheme.
Conan narrowed his eyes, keeping his gaze fixed on the TV. He needed to listen carefully. Had something specific happened recently to prompt this sudden visit?
"Mm-hmm, I've heard. They say everyone who's gone to see her says she's incredibly accurate!" Ran nodded eagerly. Even though Sonoko had been vague, Ran clearly knew exactly what her best friend was talking about.
"But I don't know where that Astrologer sets up her stall. I heard her location is different every single day, and whether you can actually find her just depends on fate." Ran sighed, her shoulders dropping a fraction. She was clearly interested, but the lack of concrete information left her feeling resigned.
Astrology? What?
Conan let out a quiet breath, the tension leaving his small shoulders. So they were just talking about fortune telling. He felt a wave of immense relief knowing they were not discussing some handsome new guy from school. Still, he could not help but roll his eyes internally. Ran and Sonoko were practically adults, yet they still bought into this mystical nonsense.
"Haha, well I know!" Sonoko beamed, her eyes sparkling with triumph when she saw Ran's lingering interest. She leaned in closer, lowering her voice as if sharing a state secret. "Heh heh, I asked my classmates to keep an eye out and let me know if they spotted her. Today, one of them saw her setting up at a specific spot and messaged me immediately. As soon as I saw the text, I rushed straight over here. I knew you'd want to go."
"In that case, there's no time to lose. Let's go find that Astrologer right now, before she packs up and leaves." Sonoko did not even wait for an answer. She stood up abruptly, grabbing Ran by the arm and pulling her toward the door.
"Wait! Ran-neechan, I want to go too!"
Seeing Sonoko suddenly hauling Ran out the door into the night, Conan abandoned his stealth mission. He hopped off the sofa, sprinting over to grab Ran's free hand. He looked up with wide, innocent eyes, putting on his most convincing spoiled child act.
There was no way he was letting two teenage girls wander the streets of Beika this late at night, especially to meet some strange, wandering fortune teller. What if they ran into danger?
Besides, this astrology business sounded exactly like the kind of cheap trick used to scam gullible young girls out of their allowance. He was going to follow them, observe how this so-called Astrologer operated, and completely dismantle her parlor tricks. Once he exposed her as a fraud, Sonoko and Ran would finally stop believing in such ridiculous things.
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