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"You both know Cursed Spirits exist. If anything like this happens when I'm not around, stay as far away as possible."
"We know..."
Kai's voice sounded cold, but Haruno and Yukino knew he was worried about them. He wouldn't have said anything if he didn't care about their safety.
"Wait." Yukino's faint smile vanished as she caught the implication in his words. She fixed him with an intent stare. "Are you saying a Cursed Spirit caused all this commotion?"
"Yeah." Kai saw no reason to hide it and nodded. "It seems to be a rather unusual one too."
He hadn't seen the creature itself, but he could sense Cursed Energy spreading through the building. Its strength made him think the spirit was Special Grade...
Special Grade Cursed Spirits had been showing up more often lately. Most Jujutsu Sorcerers would worry about that, but for someone with Cursed Spirit Manipulation, each new spirit was just another chance to add to his collection. At this pace, building an army of Curses would be easy.
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"M-MADAM!"
A security guard ran back into the banquet hall, his face full of panic. Fumino Yukinoshita frowned, and a hint of worry showed in her eyes.
"What happened?"
Had someone really died? If that was true, the Yukinoshita family's reputation would suffer a serious blow tonight.
The guard's answer offered no relief. "Y-Yes, Madam. We found the body in the restroom!!"
Fumino closed her eyes, realizing her worst fear had come true. She wasn't the type to panic. Now that it had happened, her main goal was to control the damage.
She turned to address the gathered guests. "Everyone, I sincerely apologize for this disturbance. The Yukinoshita family will compensate you properly for tonight's inconvenience, but I must ask you all to leave immediately."
With a dead body in the estate, the banquet couldn't go on.
"Wait!"
Before anyone could move, a child's voice called out, and everyone looked at Conan Edogawa.
Ran Mouri and Sonoko Suzuki stared at him in shock, while Kai watched the serious boy with clear amusement.
"No one can leave this room!"
"CONAN, WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?" Ran hurried toward him, already preparing to apologize to the surrounding guests.
Conan cut her off before she could say anything more. "I'm not joking, Ran. Stay back. There's a strong possibility the murderer is still among us—"
His commanding tone stopped Ran in her tracks. For a brief moment, the image of Conan Edogawa overlapped perfectly with Shinichi Kudo, dragging every suspicion she had tried to suppress back to the surface.
'How can they be this similar? Even if they're related, they shouldn't be identical in almost every way. Could Conan Edogawa really be Shinichi Kudo?'
"That's enough!" Fumino snapped, finally losing her patience. "Boy, do you understand what you're saying? You're accusing someone in this room of murder."
If the guests had been ordinary people, she might not have reacted so strongly. But most of them were business leaders, public figures, or important partners of the Yukinoshita family. One careless accusation could cause a scandal that would last.
"Of course I understand."
"..." Fumino's glare didn't bother Conan. When he was on a case, he stopped caring about caution or manners. He would have acted the same way at any banquet, even if it was hosted by the Shinomiya or Suzuki family.
"Until everyone has been cleared of suspicion, no one is leaving."
Despite his appearance as an elementary school student, Conan spoke with the authority and composure of an experienced investigator. The disconnect was so pronounced that it became difficult to view him as an ordinary child.
"You…" Fumino trembled with anger, barely restraining herself from having security remove him.
Tomoko Suzuki stepped in before things got worse. "That's enough, Fumino. Don't let him get to you. Conan came with my group tonight, and he always acts like this when something happens. Please don't hold it against him."
Because Ran and Sonoko had been close friends since they were kids, Tomoko knew the boy who was always with Ran.
"Fine." Fumino had not realized Conan was connected to Tomoko. Out of respect for her, she forced down her anger and turned an icy stare on the boy. "You claim the murderer is among us. Where is your evidence?"
"I'll find it, along with the killer."
Conan stayed confident. He might have doubts in other parts of his life, but when it came to solving crimes, he never questioned himself.
"It's rare to see Mother this angry," Haruno whispered to Kai as she watched the confrontation unfold.
Neither she nor Yukino could remember their mother ever losing her temper this much. Conan really had a knack for getting on people's nerves.
"Yea..." Yukino agreed, unable to deny it.
Ran overheard them and scratched her cheek awkwardly. "I'm sorry. Conan is causing your family so much trouble."
"It's fine," Yukino replied.
They hadn't talked much, but it was clear Ran was sincere and thoughtful. Even Yukino's usual distant attitude softened when someone apologized so honestly.
Haruno merely chuckled and waved away Ran's concern. "Honestly, seeing Mother like this is rather entertaining. Don't you agree, Yukino?"
Yukino rolled her eyes at her sister. That wasn't something Haruno should say out loud, especially since it was about their mother. Still, she didn't deny it. Seeing their usually calm and strict mother so angry was more entertaining than Yukino wanted to admit.
Ran looked between the sisters, unsure how to respond. 'What is wrong with these two? How can they find it funny when their own mother is this furious?'
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Eventually, they brought the body out of the restroom. Maybe it was Conan's strange luck, but the adults let a supposed child examine the corpse without stopping him.
No one stopped him, but people kept giving him strange looks as time went on.
Sonoko watched Conan move around the body before leaning toward Ran. "Doesn't that little brat act exactly like Shinichi used to?"
"Huh? Yeah…" Ran answered absently.
She kept watching Conan, and her suspicions only grew stronger. 'Could there really be a way for a teenager to shrink into a child?'
…
"How is this possible?" After looking over the body for a while, Conan's frown grew deeper.
"Well?" Fumino called impatiently. "Have you discovered anything, little detective?"
"I'm still determining the cause of death."
When Conan was focused on a case, sarcasm didn't bother him. As long as no one got in his way, he ignored everything else.
The problem was, he couldn't figure out how the victim had died...
"Are we really just going to stand here?" Haruno asked Kai. The investigation was starting to feel like a waste of time.
"Forget it. This is going nowhere, and there's no reason to drag it out."
Kai shook his head. He didn't want to spend the rest of the night watching a detective try to explain a supernatural death with normal logic.
Without another word, he stepped away from the group and walked directly toward the corpse.
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