Ran watched Kogoro with a dumbfounded look, clearly thinking her father was pathetic.
Anyway, after waiting a bit, Conan arrived, but when he saw me he tried to run away again, and Ran hurriedly called out to him.
"Conan! This is really important to me.
Please help me out."
At Ran's urgent request, Conan paused for a moment.
In that gap, Kogoro grabbed Conan.
"You little rascal, what kind of trouble did you get into this time!"
"Eek!"
With Conan caught like that, Ran went over and said to him.
"It'll be over quickly.
Can you help your sister for just a moment?"
Conan seemed to give up and was about to reveal his secret himself.
"Haa... The truth is..."
Knock knock knock!
Just then, there was a knock at the door.
Then Kogoro, who was holding Conan, opened the door to see who it was.
"Yes, this is the Mouri Detective Agency..."
"Um, I have something I need to discuss..."
"Uh, uh, huh?! You, you, you're?! N-No way!!!"
The woman who entered took off the hat she was wearing deep over her head, and there stood 'Okino Yoko', the actress and singer you see all over TV.
Kogoro was her huge fan, whether it was because she was beautiful or because of her songs, I couldn't tell.
"So, I have a request to make... Huh? Jin, how are you here?"
I had filmed commercials with her several times, so we had known each other for a while.
"It's been a while, Yoko-san."
Seeing that, Kogoro said.
"You two know each other?"
"Yes, we met while filming a commercial together."
"I see.
Ah! This isn't the time for that."
Kogoro dropped Conan and went into his room to quickly get himself ready.
Ran and Conan looked at Kogoro like he was pathetic.
In no time at all, Kogoro came out of the room.
He had completely changed clothes and even fixed his hair neatly.
'Wow~ Amazing.
To even shave in that short time...'
"So, it looks like you're having some kind of trouble, miss~?"
Yoko was taken aback by Kogoro's attempt to look cool, but she soon pulled herself together and started telling her story.
"Well, it's..."
To summarize, she was scared because of a stalker and couldn't even sleep well.
"What a terrible guy! Daring to do that to Yoko-san!"
Kogoro empathized with her deeply, probably because he was also Yoko's hardcore fan, and got angry along with her.
Then the manager who came with Yoko spoke to Kogoro.
"Um, we'd like this case to be investigated as secretly as possible... If the police find out, it would hurt her image..."
"And you are?"
"I'm Yamagishi, the manager."
Kogoro's tone changed drastically depending on whether he was talking to a man or a woman.
"Hm, a manager... Understood.
I'll investigate discreetly."
Kogoro got Yoko's address, phone number, and even an autograph with her name, reassured Yoko not to worry, and said they should go look at her house together.
Then Ran said.
"Dad! Can I come too? I want to see what a famous singer's room looks like!! Conan wants to see it too, right?"
"Yeah."
"You can come, but you absolutely must not get in the way!"
"Okay!"
Honestly, this made no sense.
'For a daughter to follow her dad to a workplace where there might be a dead body... And for the dad to allow it... This is ridiculous... If you think too deeply about it, you lose?'
Since it was basically a manga world, I just went along with it.
But as we were going, Yoko kept glancing at me.
'She was like this when we filmed commercials too... Don't tell me she also has feelings for me?'
We arrived at the apartment where Yoko lived, and Yoko opened the front door with her key.
"This is it.
Please, come in... Huh? Ah... Uh..."
As soon as Yoko opened the door, she was shocked by what she saw inside and couldn't finish her sentence.
Seeing that, Kogoro hurriedly opened the door.
"What is it!"
Clunk!
Kogoro quickly threw open Yoko's front door.
"No way, this is!"
In Yoko's living room, a man lay dead with a kitchen knife stuck in his back.
Seeing that, Ran and Yoko screamed.
"Kyaaaaaah!"
"Call the police!"
The manager hurriedly stopped Kogoro.
"Wait! If this gets out to the media, Yoko will be caught up in a scandal! Can you keep this quiet somehow..."
"That would be ideal.
We can keep this quiet... Like hell we can!! This is a murder case!!!"
I went inside, looked at the body, and said.
"This is a suicide."
Everyone turned to look at me in surprise.
Kogoro said to me.
"No, son-in-law, there's a knife in his back.
How is this suicide?"
"If you look at the body's back, the knife is stuck too deeply into the spine.
This is a wound a person couldn't make by stabbing."
Hearing that, Kogoro examined the wound closely.
Since Kogoro had worked as a detective, he looked at the wound and immediately understood.
"I see.
But you can't say it's suicide just from that.
A knife stuck in the back doesn't make sense."
"If you look here, there are marks on the floor that match the size of the back of the knife, right? And isn't the room really hot?"
"That's true.
But what does that have to do with anything?"
I pointed to the chair behind the body and said.
"The person who committed suicide probably stood the knife upright and froze it in place, then positioned it in the marks here and jumped backward to kill himself.
And he raised the room temperature to destroy the evidence.
A large person like this falling backward from a chair could make a wound this deep."
"Th-That's... true.... Anyway, call the police first."
"Y-Yes, yes!"
Yoko's manager hurriedly went to call the police.
Then I continued speaking.
"If you look here, the person who committed suicide is clutching Yoko's hair.
He probably intended to frame Yoko-san by making it look like she stabbed him.
But being stabbed that hard in the spine from behind would cause near instant death, so he couldn't have grabbed her hair."
"Oh~ I see."
"He probably collected Yoko-san's hair from the brush she uses before killing himself.
There will be fingerprints on it."
At those words, everyone looked at me with amazement.
Conan also looked surprised, staring at me with wide eyes.
"Wow~ That's amazing..."
"Let's say Detective Mouri solved this."
Then Ran said flustered.
"No, why? You solved it so well."
"Well, I'm also somewhat famous, so it's a bit awkward for me to get involved in a case like this.
Detective, please take care of it."
"I see... Then it can't be helped.
If my son-in-law asks like this, I have no choice but to step up.
Hahahahaha"
Ran and Conan looked at the shameless Kogoro with exasperated expressions.
"Yoko-san, I ask you as well."
"Alright, I'll keep the secret too, but go on a date with me.
That's my condition."
When Yoko suddenly made that bombshell declaration, everyone shouted in surprise looking at Yoko.
"Eeeeeeeh!!!!???"
"The truth is I've liked Jin since we first filmed a commercial together.
But I didn't have the courage, and there was the stalker thing, so I couldn't contact you because I didn't want to burden you."
"I think I'll need to think about that."
Yoko said with a face like she was about to cry.
"Jin... Do you hate me?"
"I'm a fan of Yoko-san as well, but..."
When I spoke like I was in a difficult spot, Yoko compromised a lot and said.
"Alright, then at least your contact info..."
"That would be fine."
We exchanged contact information.
Then Conan came over, grabbed my pants, and said.
"Big brother! You and this lady look good together.
Why don't you go out with her?"
'This little brat!'
His intentions were obvious.
Yoko hugged Conan and said.
"Really? Thanks for cheering me on~!"
"Hehehet!"
Conan made a weird face and was about to die from happiness.
This kid, all his emotions show on his face.
But kid, do you realize this is a place with a dead body? It's a bit much to be laughing so happily...
Anyway, the police swarmed in and Inspector Megure Juzo came, talked with Kogoro, came over to us, took our simple statements, and the case was wrapped up well like that.
The next morning, I saw in the newspaper that Kogoro's photo was featured prominently in an article.
The title was 'Detective Kogoro Solves Stalker Case'.
"It's good that it was resolved without any issues.
But Conan, that little brat is annoying."
When I went to school and talked with Ran, she said Shinichi had called her last night.
Ran said with a bright face.
"You know what, he said he took on an important case and is using a fake name while tailing someone.
He said it'll take time."
"I see, that's good."
Now Ran seemed to have stopped looking for Shinichi.
Well, it wasn't a bad thing.
Ran wouldn't have to lose sleep worrying anymore.
"By the way, Conan is transferring tomorrow.
I wonder if he'll do well.
He's a bit odd, so I'm worried."
"He'll do fine.
He seemed pretty smart, so don't worry too much."
Finally, Conan was going to school too.
'Soon the little brats will be running around.'
A few days passed like that, and I spent my time filming commercials and doing onmyoji work.
Because of my fame, I got even more onmyoji work.
I didn't like having less time to rest, but I started making a ton of money, and my manager was so happy about making money that he even started gaining weight from eating well.
My onmyoji work was mostly fortune telling or exorcisms, so-called treating people who were 'possessed'.
Most of them had brain abnormalities causing hallucinations and auditory hallucinations, so I just pretended to perform an exorcism and easily cured them with [Mui Tenpen].
Occasionally there were attention seekers, so I told them they had to eat Thai peppers for the exorcism to work, and after force-feeding them a few times they got better quickly.
Because of [Mystic Eyes], I had seen real ghosts a few times too, but in this world spiritual power was weak, so they couldn't really harm the living.
I got a call from Ran while living like that.
-Jin, Conan is at the police station right now.
Dad is drunk and sleeping, and there's no adult around, so please help.
I'm not an adult either... Anyway, I agreed to help.
"Got it, I'll be right there."
I rode my bike to the Mouri Detective Agency, picked up Ran, and headed to the police station.
Apparently a murder case that had been unsolved for 5 years was solved thanks to the kids persuading the police?
"Conan! Do you know how worried I was! I thought something terrible happened to you when they said you were at the police station!"
'Oh~ It's the Detective Boys.'
The Detective Boys kids were getting scolded hard by their parents who had come to the police station.
Of course, Conan was also getting an earful from Ran.
"Wow~ It's the onmyoji brother from TV!"
"Oh, it's really him.
Big brother! Please give me an autograph!"
"Big brother, I'm your fan too.
Please."
These kids, as if they hadn't just been scolded, swarmed me all at once begging for autographs.
Seeing that, the parents sighed.
"Sure, got it.
But you have to listen to your mom and dad from now on."
"Yes!""Yes!""Yes!"
I signed for each of them and patted their heads.
Then while I was patting Ayumi's head, I pretended to flinch.
"Huh??"
"What is it? Big brother?"
Ran asked curiously too.
"Jin, is something wrong?"
I kept looking back and forth between Conan and Ayumi.
"These two are connected by fate."
"What!!!??? Really!!!????"
"Yeah."
"Wow~ Conan, you're so lucky~ Such a cute girl~ Hehehut~"
At my words, Ran smiled, and Conan made a face like he ate poop.
Ayumi didn't understand what I meant and just looked confused.
'This is revenge, kid. Hehehe.'