Across from the Mori Detective Agency was a four-story building.
Inside a dimly lit room, Fujino stared at the photos pinned to the wall, with red strings connecting clippings from newspapers. His black pupils were filled with confusion.
From the memories in his mind, he had transmigrated into the world of Detective Conan...
Right now, he was living in the legendary crime capital, Beika Town, eighteen years old, working as a detective.
Fujino withdrew his gaze, walked out of the dim room, and glanced at the headline of the newspaper on the coffee table: "The Heisei Era's Holmes," squinting slightly.
In this world, his name was Fujino Toji, not much different from his name in his past life, Fujino. His background was rough that his parents were caught up in a case and died a year ago, leaving him with no relatives or savings. To survive, he became a detective.
However, his life as a detective was rather pathetic.
Unlike Shinichi Kudo, who would encounter murder cases wherever he went, Fujino, despite being a detective, rarely stumbled upon murder cases. As a result, after working for a whole year, he still hadn't made a name for himself.
His only source of income was taking on mundane daily tasks like finding lost cats and dogs. Even then, his clients often hired him at prices far below market rates. Pressed by his livelihood, he could only accept whatever came his way.
Leaving early and returning late, for the entire year he had worked as a detective, if he wasn't looking for cats or dogs, he was on the way to look for cats or dogs. Eventually, he simply couldn't take it anymore.
Already physically and mentally exhausted, he got caught in a rainstorm the previous day while investigating an infidelity case, and after standing in the rain all night, he caught a bad cold. His fever soared above forty degrees Celsius, and after finally making it home, he suddenly collapsed and died.
"Pretty miserable life…"
Fujino murmured, feeling a bit of sympathy for this guy's fate.
Based on the memories, this guy didn't have to live such a hard life. With his work ethic and diligence, it would've been more than enough for him to rent an apartment and live in Tokyo.
But unfortunately, there was a bug in his life: he had inherited a four-story building in a commercial district from his parents.
This was Japan, after all—a country with a fixed property tax. Just the property tax alone for that four-story building cost about 1.5 million yen per year, which was roughly 15,000 RMB at the current exchange rate.
Even though he was a minor, the tax office didn't care. As long as the house was in your name, you had to pay!
Judging by this guy's usual income—barely 50,000 yen per case, sometimes even less than that—it was already difficult to cover living expenses, let alone keep up with taxes or save anything.
All Fujino could think was that Japan's tax system was ruthless, even willing to squeeze dry an unfortunate, helpless eighteen-year-old kid!
As for renting out the building? The original owner had thought about that too, but there was another problem: without a legal guardian, minors were not allowed to lease property...
Ding dong!
At that moment, the doorbell rang.
Hearing it, Fujino's heart skipped a beat...
Could it be… someone here to collect property fees?
Thinking carefully, he realized he only had about 1 million yen left. If that got taken, the days ahead would only get harder...
Helpless, Fujino crossed the spacious 100-square-meter apartment to the entrance of the bedroom.
He pushed open the door, and what met his eyes was not some property manager in a suit with a nasty expression, but a girl in a dark blue school uniform with horns of hair on her head.
Ran Mouri stood by the half-open door, smiling faintly at the thin, wary boy in front of her. She bowed politely and said:
"Hello, Fujino-senpai. I'm Ran Mouri, I live right across from your place, and we're in the same class… I'm sorry to suddenly bother you, but you haven't been to school for a month, and we couldn't reach you by phone. So the teacher asked me to come and check on you…"
Same class… Senpai… Ran Mouri?
Right! The original owner attended Teitan High School, didn't he? But because he dropped out halfway to become a full-time detective, his grades plummeted, and he eventually got demoted to a lower year. Now, he and Ran Mouri were classmates.
Because of that, the original owner—who had long given up hope for school—stopped caring entirely. To make money, he basically wouldn't show up to school for a month or two at a time...
"Sorry about that. I've been taking on various commissions this past month and just couldn't spare the time."
Fujino gave an awkward smile and explained.