The Pirated Onmyoji of the Detective World

Seeing Aragaki Yu write his name in the register, the staff member subconsciously pushed up his glasses and looked at Aragaki Yu with an expression that was both surprised and delighted.

No wonder he felt that the boy looked familiar.

Her expression naturally caught the attention of Aragaki Yu and Vermouth, who immediately became wary.

"Excuse me, is there a problem?" Aragaki Yu asked the staff member who was staring intently at him.

"what!"

The staff member, who had been startled awake, finally realized his intrusion and hurriedly explained, "I'm so sorry, are you Mr. Aragaki, the high school detective who is as famous as the great detective Kogoro Mouri?"

"..."

A high school detective?

He's even on par with Kogoro Mouri?

Aragaki Yu's lips twitched slightly.

Perhaps because she had appeared in front of the police so many times, she didn't even know when she had taken over Shinichi Kudo's position.

He is clearly an Onmyoji, but now the public always treats him like a detective.

It made him seem like he was neglecting his duties.

Wait a moment……

So, my main job should be being a high school student, right?

Although he was inwardly complaining, after realizing that the other person seemed to have something to ask him, Aragaki Yu nodded in response.

The next moment, the surprise on the other person's face indeed increased even more.

"I forgot to introduce myself. Actually, I am the owner of this hotel. My surname is Toda. To be honest, I have something I would like to ask you to do, but I have been putting it off because I couldn't find your contact information. I didn't expect you to come here today."

The hotel owner, Mr. Toda, was very polite, which made Yuu Aragaki feel a little embarrassed.

Vermouth, on the other hand, had a glint in her eyes after hearing Mr. Toda's words.

Looks like something interesting is about to happen.

……

Sure enough, in the following time, the hotel owner, Mr. Toda, led Aragaki Yu and Vermouth to their room while explaining his request to them—

Five years ago, Mr. Toda received a rather strange guest.

The reason why the guest was considered strange was that although he was a man, he had long hair and was wearing a bright red coat.

Moreover, he always keeps to himself and never communicates with others.

If that were all, the hotel owner, Mr. Toda, would at most consider him a strange person with a reclusive personality.

But one evening, the guest suddenly called Mr. Toda to his room and gave him a locked suitcase and a letter.

He hoped that the hotel owner, Mr. Toda, could keep his suitcase and letters for him for a day.

He also specifically instructed Mr. Toda that if he came to pick up the items himself the next day, he should return the box to him.

If someone else comes to collect the item on his behalf, he should hand the letter to that person.

Although he felt something was amiss, Mr. Toda agreed because the other party offered him 100,000 yen as payment.

However, the strange man did not return the next day.

On the contrary, just as he had said, a guy wearing sunglasses and a hat with a thick beard came to his door.

Therefore, Mr. Toda concealed the matter of the suitcase as instructed by the guest at the time.

He simply handed the letter to the person who came the next day.

To the hotel owner Mr. Tota's surprise, the bearded man opened the letter, looked horrified and angry, and promptly tore it up, threw it in the trash can, and left.

Then, out of curiosity, Mr. Toda couldn't help but pick up the scraps of paper and piece them together, only to find several bloody words written on them: "May you die a cursed death."

Originally, this matter should have ended there.

As for the locked suitcase, the hotel owner, Mr. Toda, had almost forgotten about it.

Unexpectedly, not long ago, hotel staff discovered a body in the forest, and according to police speculation, the body was very likely the body of the man in red from years ago.

When the police summoned the hotel staff for questioning a few days ago, the hotel owner had temporarily forgotten about the incident.

However, these past two days, after Mr. Toda thought about this matter, he wanted to ask a detective for help in order to find out about the suitcase and the man in red from back then.

As for why they didn't contact the police...

That's because the hotel owner, Mr. Toda, thought those policemen looked unreliable.

Haha, unreliable police...

Yuu Aragaki thought about it carefully, if he remembered correctly.

The police officers in Gunma Prefecture do seem to be quite unreliable.

……

After listening to the hotel owner's explanation, Aragaki Yu and Vermouth exchanged a silent glance.

With Vermouth nodding in agreement, Aragaki Yuuya also agreed to the hotel owner's request—

Help investigate the truth behind what happened back then.

The hotel owner was also pleasantly surprised, as this matter had been troubling him for the past two days.

Ten minutes later, the hotel owner returned to Aragaki Yu and Vermouth's room with the same suitcase from years ago.

Judging from the dust on the suitcase, it was indeed as the hotel owner said: he hadn't touched the suitcase all these years.

However, the strange man in red did not hand over the key to the suitcase to the hotel owner back then.

Yuu Aragaki dusted off the suitcase the hotel owner had placed on the table, then casually fiddled with the lock; the suitcase was indeed securely locked.

However, fearing that there might be something valuable inside the suitcase, Aragaki Yu didn't intend to force it open.

Seeing this, Vermouth didn't show any trouble. Instead, she seemed to understand and took out a hair clip from her hair, broke it into wire, and handed it to Aragaki Yu.

The next second, Aragaki Yu, who had just taken the wire from Vermouth, fiddled with the suitcase a few times, and the lock on the suitcase opened instantly.

Mr. Toda, the hotel owner, did not seem overly surprised by this.

After all, in his mind, it's normal for famous detectives to know a little bit about these kinds of tricks!

However, compared to Conan, who's always shooting people with a tranquilizer gun, this lock-picking skill is really nothing special.

Forget shooting people, a detective could even kick a soccer ball and shoot a satellite.

Chapter 638 Sports Newspaper

Soon, the suitcase that the hotel owner had kept for five years was opened in front of them.

To everyone's surprise, the first thing they saw in the box was a newspaper.

Moreover, it's a very ordinary sports newspaper no matter how you look at it.

The only unusual thing about this newspaper is that it was published five years ago in September.

The newspaper's front page headline read "Akagi-maru's First Victory," accompanied by a picture of two sumo wrestlers locked in fierce combat, seemingly documenting sumo wrestler Akagi-maru's first victory.

Apart from that, there was nothing else in this seemingly important suitcase.

Upon hearing this, Aragaki Yu and Vermouth exchanged a glance, both noticing the hint of interest in each other's eyes.

Things seem to be getting more interesting.

Unlike the two of them, Mr. Toda, the hotel owner standing to the side, seemed somewhat disappointed.

The reason he wanted to hire a detective to investigate the suitcase incident from five years ago was...

Of course, it's not just about finding out the truth or satisfying one's curiosity.

Mr. Toda was hoping to find something extraordinary in the suitcase, and then use the name of a famous detective to promote the Aoi-ya Hotel.

After all, it's currently the off-season for tourism, and business at Aoi-ya Ryokan is very slow. Mr. Toda hopes to attract more guests through this method.

However, there was only this simple newspaper in the suitcase.

He had originally thought that even if it wasn't some treasure or valuables, it might be some confidential information or something.

Mr. Toda even went so far as to speculate that there might be some murder or crime-related tools hidden inside.

It turned out that the strange man had set up that mysterious box in the middle of the night, but inside it was just an ordinary newspaper.

Perhaps because he felt like he had been tricked, Mr. Toda couldn't help but feel annoyed.

While Vermouth curiously examined the contents of the newspaper, Aragaki Yu casually started checking the empty suitcase on the table.

However, the result was exactly as he expected.

It's just an ordinary leather suitcase, not even genuine leather.

There were no mechanisms or hidden compartments inside the box.

In other words, the crux of the problem lies in this newspaper.

Although no special markings were found after a quick glance at the sports newspaper.