Conan: I'm Really Not Tokyo Ghost Story

Sano stared at the pile of books he had borrowed from the library and had only flipped through a few times, and then looked at the pile of equipment he had bought earlier to exercise, but had never used except the first day, and which was now covered in dust.

...Finally, a few dots were slowly typed out.

Forget it, I'll just watch TV.

When I turned on the TV, it was showing a news report.

"According to reports, Congressman Sotaro Goji has been confirmed to have accepted bribes and has since resigned. Reliable sources say that years ago, Goji negligently caused the death of a driving school instructor, but unfortunately, the statute of limitations has expired..."

Congressman, Goji Sotaro, that name sounds familiar...

Sano stroked his chin and pondered for a while before finally remembering that the name had been mentioned in the self-confession of the police officer named Sakata.

This guy was one of the main culprits who caused Sakata's father's death and led Sakata down a path of no return. He should have died at Sakata's hands as well.

However, thanks to Sano's intervention, he did not die.

...After Sakata was taken away silently that day, Sano overheard that the policeman, who seemed to be Toyama Kazuha's father and also Sakata's superior, had mentioned to him that he would help him... well, handle the aftermath.

So that's how it's handled?

Having lost his hat and now embroiled in public opinion, this guy is indeed considered finished.

Although Sano's words weren't harsh enough, for a... righteous police officer, doing this much was probably the best he could do.

A few minutes later.

Sano, having washed up, went out carrying a trash bag.

...This is certainly not because Sano has come to his senses and is preparing to turn over a new leaf; he simply has a mission.

Moreover, it wasn't an organizational task; it was a system task.

Although the reward is low, even pitifully small, only twenty points, every little bit helps, especially considering the low difficulty level.

It's the same kind of thing that's triggered before: go to a designated location and stay there for a specified amount of time.

It's very easy.

Especially now, things are different from before.

In the past, missions like this always meant that Sano would inevitably encounter Conan, and most likely it would be Conan with his cursed aura in effect, with deaths and cases being the norm.

Under those conditions, even if Sano didn't want to get involved, he would likely be affected and forced to get involved.

But now, Sano has stood up.

Perhaps appearing under one's true identity or even an alias will be affected by various factors.

But what if it's just a cat?

They are small in size, so they are not easy to be discovered, and even if they are discovered, they will not be noticed.

Chapter 253, Page 252: Shaking it makes it taste better.

Is there anything more suitable for avoiding trouble... or more accurately, avoiding the presence of a plague god?

After throwing away the trash, Sano planned to immediately switch identities and head to the mission location, but unexpectedly, he ran into Ai again after turning the corner... well, a little trouble.

"Hello, Uncle."

The little girl, who was squatting in front of the vending machine at the entrance of the convenience store, almost pressing her face against it, finally noticed Sano as he approached.

Then, after changing his body orientation, he bowed and greeted Sano.

...I've never seen anyone actually squat down to bow.

Sano frowned and thought to himself, "Hey, little girl, watch your image, your panties are showing."

The little girl always seems to wear a white floral dress, and squatting in such an unseemly way is indeed not very elegant.

However, the little girl looked completely confused when Sano reminded her: "Pants? I'm not wearing any?"

……Um???

Noticing Sano's bewilderment, the little girl actually stood up, lifted her skirt, and was about to show him: "Look, you don't believe me..."

"Wait……"

Just as Sano realized something was wrong and was about to stop the other girl to avoid being seen as a pervert, the little girl had already lifted it up, revealing her white... diaper.

"I'm wearing a diaper!"

The little girl looked very proud.

Sano: "..."

That makes sense now, but...

"How old are you?"

Upon hearing Sano's sudden question, the little girl immediately held up three fingers: "Four years old!"

So why hold up three fingers?

Is it normal for a four-year-old to still be wearing diapers? Why does this guy look so proud?

Sano stared blankly at the little girl, for the first time wondering where his thoughts had gone.

When she came to her senses, the little girl had already put down her skirt and continued to press her face against the vending machine, drooling.

...What's going on? Why didn't they bring up the incident from last time?

Sano, who had expected the little girl to complain about running errands, immediately lost his surprise when he saw her staring intently at the can of cola. He then had a pretty good idea of ​​what was going on.

"Want to drink?"

Sano squatted down next to the little girl.

"I want to, but I don't have the money, and my mom won't let me drink it. She says it will cause cavities in children."

The little girl pouted as she answered.

...This made Sano think of the soy sauce again.

"Your mom is lying to you. I've been drinking since I was a kid, and I'm fine now."

Sano stood up and took out some money from his pocket: "I'll buy you a drink, do you want some?"

"Really!?"

The little girl jumped up with a "whoosh," her excitement barely showing before disappearing as she stared warily at Sano: "Wait a minute, you have to make this clear first, this is completely free, you can't ask me for anything else."

Wow, they're quite clever. They learn from their mistakes and are good at learning from them. They're much better than those two fake kids.

Sano couldn't help but smile: "Okay, it's settled then, completely free. You have three seconds to decide whether you want it or not."

"Yes, yes, yes!!"

The little girl couldn't wait three seconds and immediately started pecking at the rice like a chick.

Then Sano took out a can of coffee and a can of cola from the vending machine.

After tossing the cold cola to the little girl, Sano suddenly spoke up a second before she was about to open the can: "It's not right to open it like that."

"what?"

The little girl looked at Sano in confusion: "But that's how my mom drives it."

"That's because you didn't see your mom's preparations."

Sano held up his coffee and shook it a few times: "Look, it tastes better if you shake it like this before opening it."

Hearing Sano's voice, which sounded like a demon tempting foolish humans, the little girl nodded in sudden understanding: "I see, I get it!"

Meanwhile, the owner of the convenience store, who had been watching the whole thing from behind the counter, looked like he had seen a ghost, his mouth agape as if he wanted to say something but couldn't.

Sano glanced at the boss, then looked at the little girl who was shaking the cola in both hands: "Then you can enjoy it slowly. I have something to do, so I'll be leaving now."

...Of course, Sano didn't want to run away quickly; he really had something to do, after all, a mission was still waiting for him.

The little girl stopped shaking, turned around, and happily bowed to Sano again to thank him and say goodbye: "Okay, thank you for the cola, Uncle, bye-bye!"

Sano waved his hand and quickened his pace as the little girl turned back to shake the cola.

Well, Sano is walking so fast simply because he's in a hurry; there's absolutely no other reason.

After a brief interlude, Sano continued on to the mission location, transforming into his black cat form halfway there before finally entering the mission area.

As expected, just as Sano predicted, Conan soon arrived, accompanied by his best friends Ran Mouri and Sonoko Suzuki. And then, as expected, another murder occurred.

Sano didn't pay attention to the process of the case, and was even too lazy to wait for the result... With Conan's abilities, he shouldn't be unable to solve the case.

After completing the mission, Sano quietly left.

...Sano originally thought that this mission might just be a minor incident, but when he triggered a mission the next day that was almost a copy and paste of the previous one, a strange premonition began to emerge.

Then on the third day, it was the same.

The same thing happened on the fourth day.

Day 5, Day 6, Day 7...

After this type of task was triggered more than ten times in a row, Sano began to become numb.

...To be honest, it wasn't exactly torture. Compared to the earlier capture missions and missions..., it wasn't as tiring or rushed. At most, it was just a bit boring.

Sano simply treated it as a change of scenery to sleep in, and also as a chance to go out for a walk and enjoy the view.

It's just that every time there's a scene, there's always an extra plague god and at least a corpse, which always makes people feel inexplicably a little disgusted.

In these dozen or so missions, apart from Conan as the fixed character, the people around him are basically rotating between three different combinations: best friend duo, father-daughter duo, and small team of four. There are no free choices.

...But starting a couple of days ago, another guy that Sano had never seen before suddenly started frantically trying to make his presence known to him.

Aside from the two times he appeared with Kogoro Mouri earlier, this must be the fifth time I've seen this guy near Conan, right?

Who is this guy?

Being able to make a huge impact in front of Conan, this plague god, means he can hardly be considered a passerby.

Looking at the guy in the suit who was taking pictures non-stop with a camera, Sano yawned and started speculating about his identity.

...To be honest, the fact that this guy was running around with a camera made Sano suspect that he was actually gathering intelligence.

It's not impossible that they noticed something was wrong with Conan and were sent by some organization... or even their own organization to investigate.