Conan, the one Yimi suspected of being Child Emperor, was a member of the Detective Boys, so his detective activities were still quite useful as a reference.
But because Conan's shot had gone wide during the Valentine's Day case, Yimi hadn't managed to learn anything from what he did. She did remember one thing, though: besides investigating crimes, there was another kind of work that might belong to detectives.
After school, the Detective Boys would sometimes stay behind and wait for requests from classmates. They were at the age where enthusiasm usually lasted all of three minutes, yet somehow they'd kept up this detective game until now. They had even asked Professor Agasa to make several badges that could be used like walkie-talkies.
Yimi didn't wait around with them, though. She still had to try some entry-level detective work herself.
After changing back into a cat, Yimi carefully recalled what Kisaki Eri had told her about finding lost cats and dogs. But Kisaki Eri had only said "finding lost cats and dogs." She hadn't explained why they had to be found, or how to find them.
Fortunately, Yimi was very lucky. Just after turning into a kitten, she ran into Hiroki from the class next door at the school gate. The short boy hesitated for a moment, then slowly walked over and crouched down in front of her.
"Don't be scared. I just want to ask you for one thing. Actually, I was going to ask the Detective Boys from the next class for help."
"Meow?"
Hiroki took out a photo and pointed at the cat in it for Yimi. It was his family's cat, and it had recently gone missing.
He handed Yimi a biscuit, then took out a little ball and held it near her nose so she could smell it. It carried the scent of another cat.
"Please."
"Meow?" Please what?
Hiroki didn't say anything more. He knew that when communicating with a wild animal, actions worked much better than words.
Yimi thought about this scene for a moment. She'd seen something like it in cartoons.
A man in black took out a photograph and handed it to someone. "Go. Kill him. I'll give you a million when it's done."
This was a hit! So this was what "finding cats and dogs" meant? Detectives actually had to do something this terrifying?
Yimi gave the boy a long, meaningful look, then ran off following the scent.
Five minutes later, in a residential neighborhood.
"Meow, meow, meow!"
"Raow! Raow!"
Yimi raised a front paw and repeatedly smacked the head of the kitten that she completely outclassed in size. She wasn't going to seriously maim one of her own kind—at least, not any cat other than the meow-meows from her previous world. But she'd accepted payment, and it would be bad not to do the job, so she'd settle for beating this one up a little.
The kitten named Akira fled at full speed after getting smacked around. Yimi chased closely behind, letting out fierce little waows as she pursued it.
Only after she watched Akira run all the way back to Hiroki's feet did Yimi vaguely realize that she might have misunderstood something.
Hiroki opened his mouth and looked up at Yimi.
That fast?
But...
"Why are you covered in blood? Are you hurt?" Hiroki picked Akira up and anxiously checked it over.
Of course Yimi hadn't done that. She had only used the amount of force she normally used when roughhousing with other cats.
Yimi remembered seeing this cat jump out of someone else's window. After that, it had somehow ended up covered in blood that wasn't its own.
"Meow!"
Wasn't that extremely suspicious?!
Without worrying about whether Hiroki had any further reward for her, Yimi trotted back to the place where she'd found Akira and jumped onto the windowsill. The first thing she saw was a square-faced man nervously dragging a corpse that looked a lot like him.
At a time like this, she should call the police. But Yimi's phone still didn't work in this world, so she had to find a landline. Obviously, the nearest landline was inside the crime scene itself.
"Where did this stray cat come from?!"
In his extreme panic, the square-faced man grabbed a golf club and tried to drive Yimi away. But instead of running back out the window as he expected, Yimi darted through the bathroom into the hallway and leaped onto the phone cabinet.
"Damn it! Don't make trouble for me at a time like this!" The square-faced man put down his older brother's corpse and went to deal with Yimi first.
This time, Yimi had properly remembered that the number for calling 110 was 110.
She hugged the receiver with her front paws and stepped on the buttons a few times with her hind paws. "Hello. I want to report a crime. Someone killed someone here."
The square-faced man's hand froze in midair. He let out a strange cry and collapsed onto the floor as his legs went weak, then scrambled backward on all fours. In the process, his butt wiped clean the string of plum-blossom pawprints Yimi had left across the floor after getting blood on herself.
"Y-youkai! A youkai! Aaaaaah!"
...
"There really was a youkai! A cat youkai called the police! Believe me!" The square-faced man stared at the entrance of his own house from outside, completely breaking down.
Because he had killed someone, the youkai had come to punish him.
Inspector Megure glared at him. "Whether you're trying to pretend to be mentally ill to escape punishment is something the appropriate experts will determine. Right now, you still have a chance to honestly tell us where the child who called the police is!"
The call had come from the killer's own landline.
"..."
Finding a cat and calling the police over a murder case had both failed to complete the mission. The main quest in this world wasn't that simple after all.
Yimi changed back into human form, switched her clothes from the beginner combat outfit back to her everyday clothes, and left the crime scene.
"Hello, Yimi-san, can you hear me?" Ayumi's voice came from Yimi's chest. It was one of the badges Professor Agasa had made.
"I can hear you," Yimi replied.
Something as small as a badge obviously wasn't a cellphone, so it only worked within a limited range. They weren't very far apart.
"Great! We're going to Professor Agasa's house to play. Conan said he has Hami melon ready at home. Do you want to come?"
"Hami melon. I'm going!"
Yimi knew this fruit. She'd eaten it at Junko's house, at her aunt's place, and even back in her original home. Strangely, some fruits that she'd often seen back home had become rare ever since she started traveling between worlds.
For now, Yimi put aside her doubts about the people in this world and hopped along the white paving stones toward Professor Agasa's house. She'd gone there with the Detective Boys when they received their badges, and it wasn't very far from Ran's home.
She'd heard that Kaitou Kid lived next door to Professor Agasa, but no one had lived there for a very long time.
A very long time...
Beside the black sedan parked in front of the Kudo residence, a brown-haired girl in a white lab coat appeared and happened to be bumped head-on by the careless kitty.
An adult's weight wasn't something a child could easily budge. The woman only took one step back and instinctively steadied the mischievous little girl in front of her. Her hand also moved almost unconsciously toward Yimi's soft hat.
"Sorry," Yimi apologized.
"What's wrong?" someone traveling with the woman asked.
"Just a careless little girl," the girl in the lab coat replied coldly. She moved her hand away from Yimi's head, then casually pinched her cheek as payback for crashing into her.
At the same time, she pulled the thumb of her other hand out from inside Yimi's hat. Her suspicions had peaked. Still, she showed nothing unusual and stepped aside to let Yimi leave.
Choosing to come investigate before dark wasn't especially wise. It wasn't the peak commute or school-release period, but running into neighbors from nearby was perfectly normal. Killing random passersby over something like that would be even less reasonable.
Kudo Shinichi was someone whose death had not been confirmed after taking APTX4869. The Organization had sent people to inspect his home, including one of the drug's developers, Miyano Shiho.