Conan: I'm Really Not Tokyo Ghost Story

...Impossible, absolutely impossible!

Amuro Tooru immediately grabbed Sano across from him: "Did you see or hear the waiter come over and ask me if I needed another cup of hot water?"

"Ok?"

Sano stroked his chin, then asked irrelevantly, "What, Bourbon-sama? Are you having auditory hallucinations...? If you also have visual hallucinations, then it should be called a delusion, right? You wouldn't happen to have a mental illness, would you? Oh dear, that would be terrible. You need to see a doctor right away, early detection and treatment are crucial... But there's nothing we can do about it. After all, in our line of work, the pressure is immense, and we're particularly prone to mental breakdowns. It's not surprising that some psychological problems can spread to the mental health. Don't worry, I'm quite open-minded and won't discriminate against you..."

Toru Amuro: "..."

Watching that little mouth babbling away, it jumped directly from a stage of mixed mockery and concern to a stage of mixed insult and worry.

Amuro Tooru was completely dumbfounded.

How does this make you think you have a mental illness? Why are you jumping around so fast?

"...I'm a little tired, I'm going back to rest."

Unable to bear the insults any longer and unable to refute them, Amuro Tooru could only forcefully end the conversation and prepare to retreat, but just as he stepped out of the store...

Amuro Tooru tripped over the threshold again and almost fell flat on his face.

Fortunately, the black fox next to him reacted quickly and reached out to help him up.

"Are you OK?"

Sano sighed deliberately: "You even tripped over this? It must be quite serious. Take my advice and go see a doctor right away. It's really nothing serious. Take my good apprentice Ito Taka... that is, Koren. He also has an illness, but he's still living a good life. The important thing is to solve the physiological problem and avoid affecting your normal daily life. That's the key. Maybe you can ask him to introduce you to his doctor. He'll be more reliable and you might even save some money."

Amid Sano's rambling, Amuro Tooru glanced back at the threshold, which was clearly obvious but which he had failed to notice earlier.

His face turned very dark.

Something's not right.

Something's very wrong, extremely wrong, absolutely wrong!

Could it be that I'm really sick?

No, calm down, we can't be sure yet.

If it were truly a mental issue, there should be traceable signs, and it should have progressed gradually. There were absolutely no signs of it before today.

How could it have gotten so serious all of a sudden?

Amuro Tooru tried to calm himself down, but the black fox next to him kept nagging, implying that he was sick.

This made Amuro Tooru's mindset increasingly divided.

At this moment.

Amuro Tooru, whose mind was in complete chaos, suddenly felt that he could understand Sano's feelings even though he hadn't been examined or diagnosed with anything.

"enough!"

...Amuro Tooru actually knew that the person next to him didn't have any bad intentions.

While it may sound somewhat sarcastic, at its core...

This can still be considered as showing "concern" for Amuro Tooru.

After all, Amuro Tooru had similar thoughts... Of course, his actions differed, but in any case, he couldn't possibly get angry.

At most, it's just some annoyance and helplessness.

"I'll think about it later, let's leave it at that for today."

After saying that, Amuro Tooru left in a hurry, leaving Sano with an even wider smile.

In fact, besides using Amuro Tooru as a subject for his five senses manipulation experiment, Sano had also done some other tricks earlier, namely, manipulating the emotions of the other party regarding his Black Fox disguise and his true identity.

Sano did not interfere with the emotions that Amuro Tooru displayed during the experiment, but simply observed silently. However, he deeply manipulated the emotions that involved his two identities. It was not that the emotions were inflated, but they were certainly growing, and of course, these were only positive emotions.

As for negative emotions, just suppress them.

The goal, of course, is to increase "favorability".

Yes, this is a very common setting, but this is the first time Sano has brought it up.

Although Sano doesn't actually have any equipment or anything that is clearly related to this, it doesn't stop him from entertaining himself—the derivative of the believer setting is the favorability rating.

Through Nakajima Keizo, we can see that it is not only those with miserable lives or pitifully low willpower who can be brainwashed into becoming believers.

So, can someone with extremely high willpower become a believer?

After countless tests conducted secretly and over a long period of time.

Sano arrived at a true intrinsic standard—that is, likability.

With his fox-like eyes, Sano can significantly increase a person's favorability towards him in a short period of time, but that's only temporary; he wants "permanent" favorability.

Then the only option is to raise the favorability rating to its peak.

For example, if you have a maximum favorability rating of 100, it's very difficult for it to drop below 90... Of course, this refers to the ultimate goal stage. Normally, raising favorability rating once is only temporary.

However, after the cooling-off period, the goodwill that has been built up will not all drop off under normal circumstances; in other words, it is a "cumulative system".

The level of willpower, as well as other related factors such as the object's situation, the way Sano raises favorability, and so on.

All of these will affect the maximum increase in favorability that can be achieved in a single instance.

Simply put, it's difficult for someone like Amuro Tooru to become a believer in a short period of time, but if you try several times and make sure nothing unexpected happens along the way, then...

It's only a matter of time before the favorability rating is maxed out.

However, this only exists in theory. After all, some people will never truly and completely trust others, while others, even if they do completely trust others, will still be meticulous in their actions.

Of course, this was already the best answer Sano had anticipated.

otherwise.

The previous statement wouldn't say that 90 points of favorability is enough, but rather that the maximum value is 100.

all in all.

What Sano plans to do right now is to keep increasing his favorability.

Not just Amuro Tooru.

Others, especially the tools under the various pseudonyms.

This is especially true.

...Thinking about it this way, I suddenly felt like I was playing a game.

"My daily life in Tokyo: a guide to ×××"?

The problem is that the people I'm supposed to "conquer" seem to be mostly men... and a large portion of them aren't exactly ugly, at least in Sano's opinion, they're not exactly unattractive.

After just one glance, you'd probably find it utterly uninteresting.

...Ahem, back to the main point. Originally, if this were to be done, since the fox eyes were the foundation and the fox demon mask was conspicuous, Sano would have no choice but to have the black fox disguise have long and frequent direct contact with the targets.

But now that we have five senses, it will be much simpler... Even if it's not someone like Amuro Tooru, who is already "familiar" with high willpower, the principle is still the same. After the test just now, Sano was able to determine whether the five senses control the user's willpower level or not.

What exactly will be the effect of the strong and weak method?

It's not that Sano is more difficult to modify the user's perception.

It's not about the length of time.

The more senses that are modified, and the larger the scope of the modifications, the shorter the time required.

In addition, there are the state of the object being used at the time, and whether the modified content is reasonable enough, abrupt or not, etc. For example, Sano directly erased the voice of a customer in the coffee shop, compared with the wine in the glass suddenly speaking, the former is naturally easier to last longer, and even after the effect was lost, Amuro Tooru did not notice anything wrong.

In summary...

This time, their comeback has truly been phenomenal.

Based on the above performance alone, Sano even wanted to give this equipment an A-grade rating, not to mention the other effect of the coat, and the other route of facial manipulation, which is used on inanimate objects—this thing is even more extraordinary, and seems to be unaffected by the level of willpower of the people around it.

...Leaving aside the modified coat Sano was wearing, he deliberately arrived quite late before the agreed meeting time with Amuro Tooru.

During that time, he changed the color of the table in front of Amuro Tooru.

Even after the two left, Amuro Tooru still couldn't sense anything was wrong.

The same applies to the visual and tactile aspects of a table.

...It's one thing that it can affect the entire group, but how come the effect has become even stronger?

Doesn't that seem a bit illogical?

Sano stroked his chin and pondered for a while... Oh well, I'd better go home first.

"Ok?"

But at that moment, Sano stopped in his tracks.

At the same moment, the original body, still at home, received a phone call... Hmm.

It was Amuro Tooru who called.

...No way...right?

Sano answered the phone: "Hello, boss, what's up?"

Good afternoon, Sano. Have you had lunch yet?

Listening to Amuro Tooru's pleasantries, Sano twitched the corner of his mouth: "What, if I said I haven't eaten yet, are you planning to treat me to a meal, boss?"

"Haha, that's great."

Sano raised an eyebrow but remained silent, as did Amuro Tooru on the other end.

After a while, Amuro Tooru tentatively asked, "Sano, could you give me the number of that psychiatrist you said you could introduce to me last time... I still think I should take Kogoro Mouri for a checkup."

Sano: "..."

They actually used Kogoro Mouri as a shield?

Sano was slightly surprised and speechless, but also found it a little funny... He didn't expect that a little joke he made with this guy would actually be taken seriously.

...That's true, though.

That level of fright would probably make an ordinary person sick even if they weren't. It's not surprising that Amuro Tooru went for a checkup out of caution.

The only question is why Amuro Tooru would come looking for him?

Even if you don't trust Black Fox, the only middleman you can trust is your own true identity. But getting a mental illness check isn't that difficult; you can just go to any hospital for a checkup.