Chapter 59: Feimo: Like a ghost?

"No problem," Morizono Mikio agreed with a nod, then looked back at Ikema Shinnosuke, his smile tinged with a trace of helplessness. "You're still the exact same as before."

Inside the car, Ikema Shinnosuke maintained a calm expression. His sharply chiseled face featured meticulously trimmed-to-the-millimeter handlebar mustaches, projecting an oppressive, dignified aura beneath his steady demeanor. "For the heir of the Tikei Group to be named a suspect—even if she is cleared of suspicion afterward, it will still leave a handle for others to exploit, claiming it was the result of a power-and-money trade. Even without evidence, you can't stop people from spreading rumors. She should never have dragged Nonoshita into this!"

Akina couldn't help but peek out from Tikei Nonoshita's collar, turning to look at Nonoshita's equally calm expression.

It really was guessed right by the master...

Morizono Mikio didn't say much more; his son was still lying in a hospital bed, after all. "Are you going to go say hello to Mr. Mouri Kogoro? There's also a young detective named Hattori Heiji—he's quite a promising young man!"

"No need," Ikema Shinnosuke said indifferently. "I don't like getting deeply involved with detectives, especially those famous master detectives. Even though their connections are vast, they are all jinxes who easily bring misfortune to others. Maintaining a decent relationship is enough."

Nonoshita observed Ikema Shinnosuke's expression but couldn't read anything from it, nor did he remember his old man ever having a feud with detectives.

Still, this cheap old man of his had a clear enough perspective to actually perceive certain master detectives as grim reapers...

"Then are you heading back now?" Morizono Mikio's enthusiasm remained unabated. "If the place over there hasn't been tidied up yet, you can stay here for the night."

"I already arranged for people to clean it before coming back," Ikema Shinnosuke paused. "Let's get together tomorrow."

"That works too," Morizono Mikio immediately smiled. "Before you know it, so many years have passed, and it's been a long time since the two of us sat down and chatted."

"Then, see you tomorrow." Ikema Shinnosuke looked at Akina, who was poking its head out from Nonoshita's collar. "Is this the pet you're keeping?"

Nonoshita replied with a calm expression, "I named it Akina."

Akina looked at Ikema Shinnosuke, not even flicking its forked tongue.

Although Nonoshita had subtly calculated against Ikema Shinnosuke, and it didn't feel quite as intimidated facing him, it was still a little nervous...

Ikema Shinnosuke remained quite composed, nodding slightly. "Get in the car."

Akina: "..."

This felt rather ignored...

After Nonoshita said goodbye to Morizono Mikio and Morizono Yurie, he got into the car.

The vehicle quickly drove away, watched from afar by Hattori Heiji and the others.

"Is that Mr. Tikei's father? I couldn't see his face clearly at all!" Toyama Kazuha said with a touch of curiosity.

"Alright, nothing much to see," Hattori Heiji said offhandedly. "My mother once heard from Butler Shigematsu that he seems to be a very stern person."

Conan looked around with a puzzled expression. Strange, what was Nonoshita looking at as he headed out?

Talk about being all mysterious...

...

In the departing car, Ema found the right moment to land on the roof, catching a free ride.

Streetlights shone through the car windows as the sturdily-built European-descended driver drove in silence. Under the high-speed driving, the interior of the car alternated between light and shadow.

Ikema Shinnosuke suddenly spoke up, "If this matter isn't resolved in time, and rumors continue to spread after you're cleared of suspicion, what will you do?"

Nonoshita continued to look at the streetscape outside the car window without turning his head. "Find a detective with a decent reputation to reinvestigate, and use that detective's fame and supporters to prove my innocence once more. It might not force the rumor-mongers to shut up, but at least it will make others disbelieve the rumors."

Ikema Shinnosuke nodded, his tense expression relaxing quite a bit. "Good. When you have time, go check out the company here in Tokyo. Take on the title of a consultant first, and you can bring any ideas you have to the person in charge. Are you still going to school?"

"I want to graduate early and take the exams," Nonoshita said.

"Are you confident?"

"Yes."

"Then I'll have it arranged for you."

After this conversation, silence persisted all the way.

Ikema Shinnosuke lowered his head to read two documents, while Nonoshita browsed his own phone unconcernedly.

Akina looked left and right. With such a heavy atmosphere, why could these two people remain so calm and composed doing their own things? Hey, seeing Nonoshita browsing the "Bounty Hall" webpage again, it couldn't help but peek at the screen.

Nonoshita found a smuggler with a good reputation on the Bounty Hall webpage and ordered some weapons.

Originally, he had thought about ordering them after settling down, but the two places where he had stayed successively were unsuitable, and he didn't want to drag it out any longer.

The other party replied quickly: [In stock. $10,000. Pay one-fifth online as a deposit, and the rest upon delivery face-to-face. Tomorrow from 2:00 AM to 3:00 AM, Table No. 2 at the resting area, 1-chome 214, Futaba-cho.]

[OK]

Nonoshita was quite satisfied with this timing. As long as they didn't specify the exact month and day for the meeting, it was fine. After replying, he checked the backend messages again.

First, he filtered out bounties outside the Tokyo area, then filtered out those with low cost-effectiveness, and finally, one bounty caught his attention.

The requester had left a message for the second time. The first time was to pick something up and deliver it to Nagano Prefecture, which he had ignored outright. This time, it was also to pick up a document in Beido Town and deliver it to Futaba-cho. The time was 2:30 AM on May 11th, and the bounty was quite substantial at 500,000 yen.

May 11th...

Nonoshita glanced at the date displayed on his phone—September 13th—and decisively gave up on it, turning to look at Akina, who was peeking at his screen.

Seeing Nonoshita look over, Akina paused, sighed inwardly, and thought that without it, its master's life would be really hard. "Master, that's for tomorrow..."

Nonoshita nodded and replied to the requester with an OK in private chat.

These kinds of bounties that could be done on the way were the most comforting.

An anonymous account quickly sent the specific information: the pickup address was in a locker at Beido Town Station, and it needed to be delivered to a bar in Futaba-cho and handed to a man sitting at the counter, along with passing on two sentences.

Things like this usually couldn't see the light of day—they might be stolen trade secrets or some contraband information. But he didn't care what it was; delivering it was enough.

The car drove all the way through the bustling commercial and office districts, turning into a quiet villa.

An elderly couple guarded the house. They should have been notified before his arrival, having already cleaned and tidied up, but a house large enough for only five people still felt cold and empty.

After returning to his room, Nonoshita placed Akina on the desk and opened the window to let Ema fly in.

"Hi, my handsome master! Hi, my lovely companion!" Ema greeted with quite a pleasant mood. "The environment here is really nice, as comfortable as the Morizono family's place and much quieter than theirs, except that there's only a commercial district in front, making it a bit hard to find food..."

Akina listened to the crow's caws in confusion and asked, "Master, what is it shouting?"

"It's greeting us and saying you're its lovely companion." Nonoshita took out his phone to check the time: 21:55.

He could wait another hour. It would be best if Ikema Shinnosuke was asleep; even if he wasn't, he could find an excuse to go out, and given Ikema Shinnosuke's personality, he wouldn't ask too many questions.

"Am I lovely?" Akina turned its long snake body in confusion, shook its head, and stopped thinking about it. "Master, then tell it that it's also my lovely companion."

Nonoshita was silent for a moment. He knew communication was going to be a major issue. "Can you guys write?"

"A little bit!" Akina nodded repeatedly.

"I know Japanese, Chinese, English, German..." Ema paused, turning to look at Akina, who was still nodding: "..."

"Careful with your spine," Nonoshita pressed Akina's head down until it rested flat on the desk, only then releasing his hand, and rummaged through a drawer. "It's fine, Ema, go ahead."

"Anyway, I know a lot," Ema still couldn't resist looking at Akina. "Some I don't remember very clearly, and some I don't know what language they are, but I can write simple communication and simple words."

"Very erudite." Nonoshita found a notebook he had left from childhood and a couple of pens in the drawer. After testing them one by one, he picked out two that still worked, placed them on the desk, and said, "Communicate amongst yourselves. I'm going to take a shower. Akina, tell Ema about our situation. Say whatever you want."

The snake and the crow were smart and instantly understood Nonoshita's intention, biting the pens and starting to scrawl characters in the notebook.

Nonoshita took the opportunity to slack off, went out for a shower, and when he came back, he found that the two pets were chatting so animatedly they hadn't even noticed him entering the room.

Ema turned the pages with its claw, then each took a side of the notebook and began scratching away with pens in their mouths.

As Akina wrote, its tail wagged happily, smacking against Ema's wing with a *thwack*.

Ema was stunned for a moment, then lowered its head to bite the pen and scribbled rapidly.

Nonoshita walked over and saw the dialogue between the two pets.

Ema: [Why did you hit me?]

Akina: [Wasn't intentional]

Ema: [Fine, go on]

Akina: [Let me tell you, sometimes the master walks without a sound, especially when he isn't wearing weights, just like that... that thing humans are really afraid of...]

Ema: [Like a ghost?]

Nonoshita, standing behind them: "..."

Akina: [Right! Also, he doesn't know today's date, what day of the week tomorrow is; the day after and the days after that are all the same. If you don't believe it, you can try testing him. It really makes one worry about how he's going to live by himself, but fortunately, we're here.]

Ema: [So magical?]

Akina: [He gets medical treatment at the hospital and has to take medicine, though I don't really understand what the doctor meant by multiple personality disorder.]

Ema: [Multiple personality disorder?!]

Akina: [The doctor said this is already cured, so what's wrong?]

Ema: [That's good! Multiple personality disorder means there are two or many minds inside his body. If it's not cured and a different personality emerges, he might not recognize us anymore!]

Akina: [So scary?]

Ema: [Yeah, gave the crow a scare!]

Akina: [Phew, close one, gave the snake a scare!]

The two pets frantically scrawled crooked characters, turning their heads from time to time to see what the other had written, then lowering their heads to draw fiercely again.

Nonoshita watched for a while, suddenly remembering when chat software had first come out in his past life—groups of people could chat engrossedly for hours. However, the frequency with which the two pets were frantically shaking their heads and drawing characters was a bit too fast, so he immediately spoke up to remind them, "Don't write too fast, you'll hurt your spines."

"Oh lord, scared the snake!"

"Oh lord, scared the crow!"

Akina slithered *whoosh* to the other side of the desk, and Ema quickly hopped away with two hops, both raising their heads to look at Nonoshita, then simultaneously breathing a sigh of relief.

Nonoshita: "..."