Jiang Hang originally wanted to ask Toyo Abe exactly what kind of murder method he had prepared.
However, seeing the man's shattered and disoriented state, Jiang Hang decided it would be better to leave the interrogation to the police.
Not long afterward, Inspector Megure arrived at the scene with several officers.
Megure Jūzō was quite surprised. It had only been a few days since the Maple Leaf Gold Coin case, and the police station had just finished interrogating the arrested gang members. Yet now Jiang Hang had called again, reporting another attempted murder.
Because he trusted Jiang Hang, Inspector Megure had rushed to the scene immediately.
After examining the situation inside the warehouse, he quickly confirmed that this had indeed been a deliberate murder attempt. Fortunately, Jiang Hang had stopped it in time.
Even the suspect had already been subdued and restrained. The man appeared to have completely abandoned any hope of escape.
It seemed that this newly debuted detective was quite capable in combat as well.
In his mind, Inspector Megure raised his evaluation of Jiang Hang once again.
When he learned that the suspect in this attempted murder was actually a client of Jiang Hang's detective agency, and that Jiang Hang had sensed something suspicious during the commission and secretly followed the man—ultimately stopping the murder—Megure found himself momentarily speechless.
Even the other officers present began looking at Jiang Hang as if he were some kind of extraordinary genius.
"Inspector Megure," Jiang Hang said calmly, "I'll leave the suspect to you. Because of time constraints, I haven't yet determined his motive."
"If my guess is correct, he also had a plan prepared to escape suspicion after the murder. However, since I stopped him early, he never had the chance to carry it out."
Jiang Hang continued,
"I suspect he intended to use me to create an alibi for himself. Unfortunately, I didn't have the time to investigate exactly how he planned to do it. That will have to be handled by the police."
"I'm sure you'll be able to extract the details of his motive and plan from him soon."
Inspector Megure immediately thumped his chest confidently.
"Don't worry, Detective Jiang Hang. We'll definitely uncover the suspect's motive and the rest of his plan during interrogation."
Megure never once considered that Jiang Hang might have failed to determine the motive because of limited ability.
Instead, he assumed that Jiang Hang had simply fulfilled his role as a detective and intentionally refrained from interfering with police work.
Compared to that young detective who had not appeared for nearly ten days now—Shinichi Kudo—this Jiang Hang fellow clearly had far better emotional intelligence.
Shinichi Kudo's reasoning abilities were extraordinary. In cases he participated in, he could deduce nearly everything—from the murder method to the criminal's motive.
After hearing his reasoning, even the culprit would often confess on the spot, greatly reducing the workload for the police.
But the downside was obvious.
To outside observers, the police ended up looking like a group of completely useless bystanders.
All they seemed to do was stand around while cheering for Shinichi Kudo.
Titles like "The Savior of the Japanese Police" had been built on the humiliation of the police themselves.
Perhaps those lazy officers who simply coasted through their careers didn't care.
But Inspector Megure had long been irritated by that reputation.
Jiang Hang, on the other hand, possessed excellent investigative ability while still leaving the police plenty of room to do their work.
Because of that, Megure's attitude toward Jiang Hang grew noticeably warmer.
What Jiang Hang didn't realize was that Inspector Megure's imagination had gone completely out of control.
In reality, Jiang Hang simply lacked the deductive ability to determine the motive.
Since Jiang Hang had been directly involved in the case, he still needed to accompany the police to the station and provide a formal statement.
Meanwhile, Masaki Negishi, who had been knocked unconscious with the iron rod, had already been taken to the hospital.
According to the doctor's preliminary diagnosis in the ambulance, he had only suffered a mild concussion. After some rest, he should recover completely.
To prevent Yoshino Koharu and Shizuka Sakaki from worrying, Jiang Hang sent them both a message explaining the situation briefly.
He even took a photo of himself sitting inside the police car.
After carefully blurring the faces of the police officers beside him, he sent the picture along with the message.
Then the system notification sounded again.
[System Notification]
Congratulations to the host for successfully preventing a three-star murder case. The case reward has been issued. Please check it at your convenience.
Jiang Hang quickly checked the rewards.
The base reward was ten million yen, along with seven hundred reputation points. It was slightly less than the Maple Leaf Gold Coin case, but still very substantial.
In addition, he had obtained another new skill.
[Skill Obtained: Lockpicking (Beginner)]
Jiang Hang couldn't help twitching slightly.
This skill was even harder to explain than Disguise.
Well… no point complaining.
Perhaps one day a client would hire him to open a locked safe or something.
After all, having more skills never hurt.
Jiang Hang comforted himself with the thought that if his detective career ever failed, he could always collaborate with Inspector Megure and open locks for the police.
At the very least, the ten million yen was real.
He was now one step closer to buying the entire floor where his agency was located.
Wait.
Before buying property, he needed to buy a car.
Yoshino Koharu and Shizuka Sakaki probably had driver's licenses, right?
Until he obtained his own license, maybe he could temporarily have them act as drivers.
Jiang Hang's thoughts quickly began wandering.
From buying property to buying cars… and then somehow drifting into thoughts about veteran drivers and other completely inappropriate topics.
While Jiang Hang's mind wandered wildly, Shizuka Sakaki had already arrived at a small izakaya after leaving the detective agency.
Inside the lively restaurant, she met several friends she hadn't seen in a while.
"Shizuka, you finally made it!" a girl with short chestnut-colored hair complained while raising her drink. "Did your new part-time job already force you to work overtime?"
"Sorry, sorry," Shizuka Sakaki replied apologetically.
"The agency received a case this afternoon, so another part-time girl and I stayed to look up information. That's why I'm late."
She sat down with the group.
"In that case, I'll drink one as punishment."
Including Shizuka, there were five girls gathered for the small celebration.
If Jiang Hang had been present, he would have immediately recognized them as the main five girls from the anime Shirobako.
The chestnut-haired girl who had spoken earlier was Aoi Miyamori, the protagonist of that story. She skillfully poured Shizuka Sakaki a glass of fruit wine.
"This gathering was supposed to celebrate you finding a new part-time job and my official entry into Musashino Animation," Aoi Miyamori said. "But the guest of honor arrives last."
Shizuka Sakaki laughed awkwardly and finished the light fruit wine in a single gulp.
Beside her, a blue-haired girl with a ponytail looked at her curiously.
"By the way, Shizuka, you said you found a part-time job at a detective agency, right?" she asked.
"A detective sounds like a really special profession. What kind of person is your boss?"
Her name was Midori Imai, the youngest member of the group. Being under twenty, she could only drink juice inside the izakaya.
Back in high school, she had joined the animation club because of her love for anime and mainly worked on writing scripts. She was also the only one among the five who chose to attend university after graduation.
Naturally, hearing about a detective agency filled her with curiosity.
"Detectives aren't that exaggerated," Aoi Miyamori said before Shizuka could respond.
"I actually have a distant relative who works as a detective. Most of the time he just investigates cheating spouses or looks for lost pets and items."
"He's been a detective for more than ten years and has never encountered a murder case like the ones in novels. Sometimes people even dislike him because of those affairs he investigates."
"So honestly, detectives aren't nearly as impressive as you think."
Shizuka Sakaki nodded.
"The case our agency received today was also just a surveillance job."
"But our boss felt something was wrong with the client, so he changed his clothes and secretly followed the client instead."
She shrugged.
"I have no idea whether he discovered anything."
Truthfully, Shizuka Sakaki didn't have much confidence in her boss.
Following your own client sounded rather unbelievable.
"Our boss is a pretty young man," she continued. "His family is probably wealthy, and he seems like a good person."
"As for his deduction ability, I'm not sure yet. But during the interview, the way he looked at me felt like I was being stared at by an eagle."
"So maybe he's actually pretty capable… probably."
"Oh, and originally we planned to call him 'Director' or 'Chief,' but he said titles like that sounded unlucky."
"He told us to just call him by his name instead. Isn't that strange? What's unlucky about those titles?"
Shizuka Sakaki was quietly complaining about it when her phone suddenly vibrated.
A new message had arrived.
She opened it and saw the photo Jiang Hang had sent.
Her eyes widened immediately.
"No way…"
It seemed her boss actually had some real ability after all.