The Pirated Onmyoji of the Detective World

"Furthermore, I always feel that Miss Jinghua looks a lot like someone I know. I wonder if Miss Jinghua knows them?" Aragaki Yu chuckled, his eyes narrowing.

"Oh...!?" Miss Jinghua felt a pang of panic, but she tried her best to remain calm. "I wonder who you're talking about?"

……

Fortunately, Kogoro Mouri returned just in time, breaking the tense atmosphere between the two. "Let's go, let's go upstairs now!"

After Kogoro Mouri appeared, the two of them, as if by unspoken agreement, stopped their confrontation and instead nodded to him as if nothing had happened.

Led by Kogoro Mouri, the group entered the apartment building and soon took the elevator to Mr. Shibata's floor.

ding dong~

ding dong~

At Mr. Shibata's house, Kogoro Mori tried ringing the doorbell several times, but no one answered.

"Nobody's home?" Kogoro Mouri said, looking at Ran beside him with some distress.

"I think the couple must have gone somewhere, after all, it's Sunday today," Xiaolan said, also frowning.

Kogoro Mouri hesitated for a moment, knowing that waiting here was not a solution, so he looked at Shizuka behind him and suggested, "I think we should take a walk around here to kill some time, and come back later."

"That's the only way then." Miss Jinghua nodded helplessly.

After all, Mr. Shibata wasn't home, and they didn't have each other's contact information.

There is no better way than this.

Having made their decision, everyone immediately turned around and prepared to walk towards the elevator.

However, before turning to leave, Aragaki Yu glanced at Shibata-san's door, then at Kogoro Mouri who had just rang the doorbell, and a bad feeling crept into his heart—

This really is like death knocking on the door!

Chapter 442 Death Knocks on the Door (2)

Just then, as the group turned to leave...

A bald middle-aged man suddenly emerged from the stairwell, looking warily at Kogoro Mouri and his companions. "Hey, what are you guys doing here?"

"what……"

Kogoro Mouri, who had initially thought it was Mr. Shibata returning, lowered his head in disappointment upon seeing the newcomer's appearance. However, he quickly explained, "We've come to see Mr. Shibata about something."

"Oh, I see." Upon hearing this answer, the man lowered his guard slightly.

Then, as he walked towards Mr. Shibata's house, he said to the group, "I'm Mr. Zaidai's upstairs neighbor, Yoshikawa Takezo. If you have anything to say, please tell me quickly. They're coming over to my house to play mahjong later!"

"But it seems they've gone out?" Kogoro Mouri said, looking troubled.

"Going out?" Yoshikawa Takezo paused for a moment as he reached Mr. Shibata's door, then rang the doorbell in confusion. "That's absolutely impossible!"

However, after waiting for a while and still no one answered the door, Yoshikawa Takezo looked somewhat embarrassed.

However, he still smiled and said to Kogoro Mouri, "I think they must be sleeping!"

After saying that, Yoshikawa Takezo tried turning the doorknob of Mr. Shibata's house.

To everyone's surprise, with a "click," the door was opened directly by Yoshikawa Takezo.

"I told you so, they must be home!"

Then, led by Yoshikawa Takezo, Kogoro Mouri and Conan followed him into the house.

The TV in the room was still on, which clearly didn't mean the homeowner had left.

Just as Xiaolan was about to enter the house, Aragaki Yu suddenly reached out and stopped her.

Under Xiaolan's questioning gaze, Aragaki Yu frowned and shook his head at her.

Having already realized the situation was dire, Yuu Aragaki didn't want to hear Ran scream.

When Shizuka, who was also about to enter the house, saw Aragaki Yu stop Ran, she looked puzzled. However, she immediately stopped herself from stepping into the house.

"Hey, Shibata, wake up! We're about to start!" Yoshikawa Takezo called out loudly to Mr. Shibata from inside the house.

As Yu Aragaki watched Kogoro Mouri and Conan walk into the house, his expression turned serious.

Although Aragaki Yu has absolutely no recollection of the incident.

However, it's important to know that in the world of Detective Conan, when someone comes looking for you and the door is unlocked, especially if Kogoro Mouri or Conan are present, the homeowner usually...

Just then, the sound of an elevator door opening came from behind.

A woman carrying a backpack suddenly walked over.

Seeing the three people, including Aragaki Yu, blocking her doorway and the open door, the woman's expression clearly turned angry. "Who are you people? What are you doing here? Why are you barging into someone else's house!"

"Actually, we are..." Upon hearing the woman say this, Xiaolan immediately realized that the lady of the house had returned home, and she hurriedly wanted to explain the purpose of their visit.

If nothing unexpected happens, the woman in front of me is Ms. Kyoko Shibata, whose name appears on the doorplate of Mr. Shibata's house.

Just then, the exclamations from Kogoro Mouri and Takezo Yoshikawa coming from inside the house interrupted Ran's words.

And things really did turn out exactly as Aragaki Yu had predicted.

"Mr. Shibata, what's wrong! Wake up!"

"Xiao Lan, call the police right now!"

"Yes!?" Hearing her father's words, Xiaolan at the door was also stunned. Although she didn't know what had happened, she still subconsciously took out her phone and dialed the police.

Xiaolan's act of calling the police was so practiced that it pained him.

Upon hearing the sounds coming from inside the house, Shibata Kyoko, who was standing at the door, immediately became flustered.

"husband!?"

At this moment, she didn't care about the three people outside and hurriedly ran into the house.

Miss Jinghua, who had been silent outside the door, did not show any obvious change in expression after hearing the commotion inside the house.

However, when she thought about what Aragaki Yu had just done, her gaze towards Aragaki Yu became interesting.

This guy named Aragaki Yu seemed to know all along what was going to happen in the house.

Aragaki Yuu naturally noticed Shizuka's gaze as she scrutinized him.

He simply nodded, smiled, and remained silent.

……

Ten minutes later, the police finally arrived at the scene.

To Aragaki Yu's surprise, the guy leading the team this time wasn't Inspector Megure.

Instead, it was Officer Yokomizo, whom I had met briefly during the case on the beach.

"Oh, it's Ran and Aragaki!" Officer Yokomizo greeted Ran and Aragaki Yu warmly as soon as he saw them waiting outside the door. "Are you here on a date?"

"This, how is this possible!"

Upon hearing this, Xiaolan's face turned bright red.

Steam rose from her head as she explained somewhat embarrassedly to Officer Yokomizo, "It was a case my dad handled!"

"Haha, so that's how it is!" Detective Yokomizo, realizing he had misunderstood, scratched his head sheepishly as he walked into the house. "So Mr. Mori is here too. I was wondering why a case would happen here!"

Xiaolan: "..."

For some reason, Xiaolan felt that Officer Yokomizo's words sounded strange.

Because the police have already arrived.

Yuu Aragaki, Ran, and Shizuka, who had been waiting outside the door, followed the police into the house.

Unlike Inspector Yokomizo, who went straight to the room where the crime occurred, Yuu Aragaki stopped in the living room.

Yuu Aragaki glanced around at his surroundings, looked at the TV that was on, and finally his gaze fell on the dining table not far away.

Ms. Shizuka, who was following behind Aragaki Yu, also did not go into the room where the incident occurred with the police.

After noticing Yuu Aragaki's gaze, Ms. Shizuka also walked towards the dining table.

Ran, who didn't want to go into the room where the incident occurred, breathed a sigh of relief when she saw that neither Aragaki Yu nor Ms. Shizuka had any intention of going into the room, and stayed in the living room with them.

After all, if she could, Xiaolan would absolutely not want to see any corpses.

Chapter 443 The Gambling Husband

"It seems something happened to Shibata halfway through his meal," said Miss Shizuka, looking at the half-eaten food on the table that hadn't been cleared away.

Xiaolan picked up the soup bowl on the table, but found that it wasn't warm when she held it, so she couldn't help but mutter, "Huh, this miso soup is cold!"

"Even the rice has become hard as a rock." Miss Jinghua also picked up her unfinished rice bowl and casually poked at the rice in the bowl with the chopsticks next to her to confirm.

“This must be Mr. Shibata’s breakfast!” Aragaki Yu walked over, glanced at the table, and picked up the newspaper next to the rice bowl. “This must be today’s breakfast. If there are no surprises, Mr. Shibata was probably eating breakfast while reading today’s news.”

"Yes!" Miss Jinghua glanced at the newspaper in Aragaki Yu's hand, then looked at the breakfast on the table, and couldn't help but say with regret, "It's such a pity that Gu Ji is so delicious!"

"Gu Ci?" Upon hearing a word she had never heard before, Xiao Lan put down her soup bowl and looked up at Miss Jing Hua in confusion.

"It's just a tilefish!" Miss Jinghua smiled and explained to Xiaolan.