Multiverse , Leveling Up in the World I Created

When we went outside, a terrible sight unfolded before our eyes.

A man was slumped at the end of the department store escalator, bleeding from his abdomen. He was clutching a bag containing paper money tightly with both hands, and judging by his condition, he looked like he could stop breathing at any moment.

I immediately pulled out my phone and called the police and an ambulance.

"Jin-kun... setting aside how glad I am to see you, you get involved with cases far too often."

This time as well, Inspector Megure Juuzo and Sergeant Takagi Wataru came leading the police, but the man had already stopped breathing. So they controlled the crowd, preserved the scene as a murder case, and began investigating.

"I agree. It’s not like I intended it either."

"Have you figured anything out?"

These incompetent police officers asked as soon as they saw me.

"Well... if you look at the bag the deceased is holding, you can tell that the ○X△ written in blood is a dying message. For now, I think we’ll know more after examining the body."

"I see..."

Then the police began examining various things from the body.

"The victim is Chujo Katsunori, 43 years old. The business card he’s carrying says he’s the director of an errand service center."

"So he was a detective."

"And looking at his call history, there’s a record of a call 30 minutes ago."

"If it was 30 minutes ago, wouldn’t that be around when the incident occurred?! Call it right now!"

At Juuzo’s words, the officer immediately began calling the victim’s phone.

Ring ring! Ring ring!

Then a bell rang nearby, and it was none other than the phone of the middle-aged man who looked like an office worker with a half-bald head, whom we had thought was suspicious earlier.

As the man panicked and immediately silenced the ringtone, the police surrounded him to prevent escape.

"It’s you. The one who called the victim 30 minutes ago."

"A, no, that’s..."

Then Sonoko looked at the man and said.

"This man is right. I heard it at the coffee shop. He definitely said something like he’d pay 4 times the money, so come quickly."

At those words, Juuzo glared at the man again and pressed him.

"What happened? Tell the truth."

"A, fine! I’ll talk! I’ll tell you everything..."

Eventually, the man, seeing no way out, began confessing the truth.

"So you hired a detective to conduct an internal investigation of the company?"

"A, yes..."

"Last month, you learned that someone among the employees was secretly embezzling company money, and the director instructed you to find the culprit before informing the president."

"Yes..."

"Where is the company?"

"Floors 8 through 11 of this building are our company."

"So you received a call from the detective saying he’d found the culprit, and the meeting place was set at this cafe instead of the company. But when the appointed time came, the person didn’t show, so you called his phone. Is that it?"

"Yes."

Then Wataru, who had been listening from behind, offered an opinion.

"Seeing that the bag the victim was holding is empty, wouldn’t the embezzler and the murderer be the same person?"

"Hmm... you’re right. There’s a high possibility that he killed the detective, took the evidence, and fled to the company upstairs!"

Juuzo asked the man again.

"But do you have any clues about the embezzler?"

"A, no! There is! During the interim report a week ago, I received a list of suspicious employees from the deceased detective... that’s this list!"

The man fumbled and showed the police the list the detective had given him. The list had no fewer than 58 names written on it.

Seeing the case being solved smoothly, I thought I could leave now and tried to go somewhere else with Ran and the others, but Juuzo stopped me immediately.

"Where are you trying to go now?"

"Ah, the case seems to be solving itself. Besides, we have no connection to it."

"That’s not true! Don’t be like that, cooperate with the case like last time. We haven’t solved the dying message yet, and there are this many suspects. Besides, if you could figure something out with onmyoji arts..."

Juuzo was getting more and more shameless.

"Good grief... If it’s embezzlement, finding the culprit should be easy. There are many people on the list, but finding someone who suddenly came into a lot of money should be easy. And if you check alibis, you should be able to significantly narrow down the suspects from the list."

"That’s true."

"And without needing onmyoji arts, this dying message is a name."

"Huh? A name? You mean ○X△?"

"Yes, if you look at the top part of ○X△, isn’t it a bit cut off? The missing part was probably written on the documents the culprit took. Also, if you look before ○X△, there’s a bloodstain that looks like it was left mid-writing. That means there was something written before it too. The victim probably wrote it hastily on the escalator footplate while dying."

"Oh! I see!"

Juuzo urgently ordered the other officers.

"Everyone heard that? Search right now!"

"Understood!"

At that command, the officers began checking the escalator footplates. Then one officer raised his hand and said.

"Found it! There’s a □ here that looks handwritten."

"I see. So it becomes □○X△, but how does this become a name?"

Juuzo came to me and asked again.

"It becomes a name. From what I can see, it’s probably kanji. The □ that just appeared is a bit larger than the other ○X△. And △ is hard to see as a complete △, isn’t it? It looks almost like 亽."

"You’re right. The bottom is cut off, so it’s hard to see it as a complete △. As you said, it could be 亽. Then the other ○X too..."

"Yes, X is likely 乄 or 乂, and ○ is small and disconnected, so it’s likely 口 or 冂."

"Oh! Then, since 口 has size, for example, it could become 回 or 囚."

"That’s right. And since the other kanji have their top parts cut off, X could also be 女, 夂, or 义."

"Ooooh! Bring the list quickly!"

Juuzo received the list, examined the names one by one, and pointed to one name for me.

"Kuniyoshi Bunta. This person. Isn’t this him?"

"Yes, that’s right. If you consider the top part was cut off, it could easily look like ○X△. The top part is probably written on the documents the culprit took."

Juuzo immediately ordered the police.

"Good! We’ve identified the culprit, so go up to the company and arrest him immediately and secure the evidence!"

"Yes sir!"

Before Juuzo left, I stopped him and held out my hand.

"Huh? We didn’t do any fortune-telling this time, so there’s no need to pay a fee, is there?"

This guy was trying to just move on after taking up that much of my time.

"Usually, if I cooperated this much, wouldn’t you at least give me travel expenses? Honestly, didn’t I save you the trouble of investigating the people on the list one by one?"

"How much do you think a police salary is?"

"We were also short on time. Yet you held us up. So I think I’m entitled to at least coffee money."

"A, fine. I’ll give it."

Juuzo pulled out his wallet with a resigned look and handed me ten thousand yen, grumbling.

"Good grief... In the whole world, you’re the only one who extorts money from the police."

Ignoring Juuzo’s grumbling, I accepted the money with a bright expression like a child receiving New Year’s money and bowed.

"I’ll enjoy the coffee."

We went back into the coffee shop and had another drink each with the money Juuzo gave us.

"As expected, Jin is amazing! I only saw ○X△."

"Seriously, the moment I saw the X, all I could think of was butts."

"Butts, pfft..."

When Ran and Sonoko said that, Sterling was also impressed.

"I knew Jin was excellent at onmyoji, but his deductive skills are quite high-level too."

"Of course. You heard earlier. He’s the only one who extorts money from the police. Besides this, he’s solved many cases!"

At Sonoko’s words, Sterling muttered quietly to himself with a serious face.

"As expected, he was someone worth paying attention to for that organization..."

I couldn’t help but be a little surprised at those words. The only organization Sterling could be referring to was the Black Organization. But I wasn’t nervous or scared. Rather, it seemed like it would be fun.

Honestly, since I was on vacation, I had been traveling around and teasing Conan, living comfortably. But lately, the same routine had been repeating, and I was getting a little bored.

’The Black Organization has their eye on me... Well, that makes sense. There was the incident with Vermouth, and I’ve been outstanding as an onmyoji, even finding the lingering spirit in that house that even the Reien Temple couldn’t solve, so I’d stand out...’

While I was thinking this, Sterling stood up and said.

"I enjoyed the coffee. I should head to the game center now. See you all tomorrow."

"Goodbye."

Sterling bowed to us and left, but judging by the atmosphere, it didn’t seem like he was actually going to the game center.

"Whew... now we can finally talk among ourselves."

Once Sterling left, Sonoko spoke with relief.

"Huh? Is there something going on?"

"Of course there is! Hurry up and tell me—how did you two end up kissing?"

The kissing story wasn’t that grand, so I just told her the truth.

"Well, one thing led to another and it just happened."

"I see..."

"But why are you asking?"

"I want to try kissing Morgan too... So I was hoping to get some hints from you two..."

Sonoko also seemed to want to progress like us. But there was a problem.

"That’ll be difficult. A while ago, Morgan and I went to your house. At that time, Tomoko-san and Ayako-neesan made me promise. No touching until graduation!"

"Wha, what!!!???"

"Honestly, Morgan couldn’t relate because he’s Western, but since there are only a few years left, I just agreed."

"Haah... How much are these people planning to ruin my love life?"

Then Ran spoke as if to soothe Sonoko.

"Rather than ruining it, they want you to focus more on studying..."

"Studying, what! Ugh!!"

Gulp gulp!

Sonoko seemed frustrated and downed her drink in one go.

"Kyah!"

"Anyone watching would think you’re drinking alcohol."

"I wish I could have a drink!"

As Sonoko sat with a look of utter despair, Ran made a suggestion to cheer her up.

"Instead of that, how about we go to karaoke? That should cheer you up."

"That’s a good idea! Let’s have fun today!"

We had no choice but to play along for a while to cheer Sonoko up. Because of that, I got home late, and Haibara made a fuss again.

"You’re late!"

"Huh? Didn’t the nanny make you dinner?"

"She did, but it wasn’t good."

"Really?"

When Haibara said that, I wondered if Haruka (Akemi) couldn’t cook, so I picked up one of the side dishes she’d made and tried it. But it wasn’t bad at all. In fact, it was on the delicious side.

"What’s the problem? There’s nothing wrong with the taste."

"No, it’s different. It’s completely different from the dinner you make!"

This kid must have developed a refined palate from eating only the food I make every day.

"Good grief... I have circumstances too, so there will be busy days. I can’t cook for you every day. So stop complaining and eat what the nanny makes when you’re hungry."

"No. If it’s not the food Jin makes, it has no meaning."

I don’t know why this kid, who isn’t even actually young, acts so childishly.

"Don’t tell me... you wanted to eat dinner with me?"

At those words, Haibara’s face turned rapidly red, and she scurried into her room as if fleeing. I couldn’t help but chuckle at the sight.

"Um... could you teach me how to cook?"

Once Haibara went into her room, Haruka came out and cautiously asked me. She must have been listening to our conversation from her room.

"Alright. But it’s late today, so I’ll teach you starting tomorrow evening."

"Thank you."

So for several days, I came home early in the evening and began teaching Haruka one dish at a time, starting with simple things.

Haruka learned enthusiastically, even taking notes. As a result, her skills began to improve quickly, and Haibara, watching her, seemed to acknowledge her to some extent, eating the meals Haruka prepared little by little.

"It’s delicious... you learned hard... But Jin’s is still better!"

At those words, Haruka was happy, but I couldn’t help but chuckle.

’This kid, being all tsundere.’

While spending time like that, Vermouth came disguised as a customer and visited again.