Chapter 47 and Chapter 46: Amulets and Wagashi
The meaning of "the worst possible fortune" is:
get off work
It rained early
sign
Zhuge Tongzhi took the ominous fortune slip that seemed to exude an ominous black aura. Looking at the characters "danger," "separation," and "urgency" in the slip's text, he knew how dangerous the contents were without even turning it over to read the interpretation.
What the heck? According to the timeline, wasn't Matsuda Jinpei's death the fourth year after Hagiwara Kenji's death?
He knew better than anyone else the powerful predictive power of the divination slips. Suddenly, Zhuge Tongzhi's anxiety was ignited. After scratching his cheek, he couldn't resist turning the slip over to the other side.
Even those with deep feelings can experience the sorrow of parting... Let us quietly await our fate of separation.
Besides the bomber, who else could cause the twins of the bomb squad to be separated by death? The short-haired girl pondered, suddenly remembering that the camera she had left in the apartment building hadn't been handed over to the First Investigation Division after being retrieved.
One reason is that she spent the entire week she was awake attending classes, and after school she would join the Junior Detective Club for activities.
Solving cases is almost a regular after-school activity on the schedule, and the remaining time after taking statements is spent trying out the effects of various types of liquor.
By the time I finally had some free time, it was completely dark.
On the other hand, she couldn't explain why the camera was placed there.
Why did she know in advance that an accident would happen there? Why didn't she tell the police beforehand? These kinds of unanswerable questions forced her to find a way to anonymously send out the video.
So, did she learn how to hide her IP address in her computer class?
Perhaps there was something, but faced with equipment far outdated by the times, her mind was completely blank.
Of course, high technology has its cool aspects, and primitive people have their own methods.
Clever as she was, she copied the video onto a USB drive, intending to submit it to the Investigation Division at some point, hoping to "fall from the sky" with clues in a physical sense.
But when her business with Kid got in the way, she was busy with a follow-up appointment to have her cast removed, and hurriedly boarded the train to Osaka with the Mori family.
So, even now, when she vaguely recalls this incident, the camera is still lying in the cabinet by her bedside, while the USB drive containing the copied video is lying next to it.
I've decided. The first thing I'll do when I get back is to put the USB drive in there.
Zhuge Tongzhi calculated the approximate time it would take to return to Beika Town and nodded silently: Fortunately, barring any unforeseen circumstances, there should be police officers working overtime at that time.
As she was making schedules, her phone suddenly vibrated in her pocket. Before she could even unlock the screen, she saw a tiny boat that had become enormous sailing into the view.
'Headphones are ready.' An electronic speech bubble appeared in the center of the screen.
Zhuge Tongzhi raised his head and looked around.
Conan ran to check on Ran Mouri's lottery results. As expected, the girl, favored by Lady Luck, drew the best possible lot and was smiling as she looked at it.
Sonoko Suzuki laughed heartily with a sense of pride, poking the head of the boy who always had bad luck, while Conan's back view revealed a speechless expression.
Meanwhile, unaware of what was happening, Hattori Heiji was bickering with Toyama Kazuha, neither of them paying attention to the fortune slips in their hands.
Kenji Hagiwara is hypnotizing himself about how bad luck can turn into good luck, and he seems to have figured out which family member he needs to be careful of according to his fortune slip. Meanwhile, Jinpei Matsuda is focused on where the vending machine is.
No one was paying attention to what was happening. Zhuge Tongzhi reached into his backpack and rummaged around for a bit, then found an in-ear headphone that was connected to a power bank and charging. He unplugged the charging cable and put it in his ear.
"Can you hear me? This is Noah's Ark." A heavily synthesized child's voice came through the earpiece, speaking in standard American English.
“Yes, this is Ale.” Zhuge Tongzhi walked to a less crowded area and communicated with Noah’s Ark in the earpiece. “You’re amazing, Noah, you fixed the earpiece so quickly.”
"It's not difficult; the devices inside the headphones are very advanced," Noah's Ark said calmly. "The network communication functions are all very complete."
"After all, it's a product of the Phantom Thief." Zhuge Tongzhi gently pressed the earphone in her ear, which she had gotten from Conan this morning.
She returned her earpiece to Kid on the spot, but Conan's hasn't.
The signal channel of the miniature earphone is set, and even if someone else gets their hands on it, it's just a piece of high-tech junk. Therefore, Kaito Kuroba didn't bother with this small item that could be lost in every mission.
However, for Noah's Ark, it was like finding a treasure.
"By the way, Noah, could you connect to the Investigation Division's network, or could you create an IP address and send me a file?"
Zhuge Tongzhi chatted with the artificial intelligence for a bit and suddenly realized that he now had an absolute computer expert by his side.
"Of course, as long as both parties are connected to the internet, transmitting a file with a hidden address is very simple," Noah's Ark replied.
"Then I'll have to wait until I get back and turn on the computer." Zhuge Tongzhi crossed his plan to raid the Metropolitan Police Department at night out of his mind and asked, "Did Hiroki finish moving today?"
“He’s finished moving. He said he’ll call you later.” Noah’s Ark’s tone became more animated when talking about his creator. “Hiroki is very happy. He thought the next contact would be a long time from now.”
"Actually, I didn't expect it either," Zhuge Tongzhi said frankly.
Because Noah's Ark only appeared on her phone last night.
In the four hours from 4 a.m. to 8 a.m., she learned about the story between Al and Hiroki Sawada, and that Al had instructed them not to contact her except in special circumstances.
The fact that she transformed into a young girl at the jewelry exhibition fits Al's definition of a special situation, so Noah's Ark, which had been silent on the phone, raised its sails from the sea of data.
Noah's Ark and Hiroki Sawada were delighted with their meeting, while Zhuge Tongzhi felt a mix of question marks and exclamation marks flashing in his mind after listening to Noah's Ark's story.
What? It was Elle who stopped Hiroki from committing suicide? And she even saved Morofushi Kagemitsu?
What?! Elju knows she won't be herself when she wakes up! She knows I exist!
After four hours of conversation, Noah's Ark, having explained everything, went to tinker with the operation of the miniature earphones, while Zhuge Tongzhi lay calmly on the bed, watching the sunlight slowly climb up the curtains.
Before getting out of bed, Zhuge Tongzhi, experiencing for the first time what it meant to swallow one's tears, closed his eyes and sincerely murmured:
Al, if you can still hear this in this body, please believe that Vadashi is just an ordinary college student who accidentally wandered into the world of Detective Conan.
Although I'm currently using your identity, don't worry, I'll leave as soon as I've accumulated enough progress points.
After she confessed her situation to Noah's Ark, she received the same diagnosis of amnesia that Conan had deduced.
If she couldn't remember what happened before she traveled through time, she might readily accept this identity. But the problem is that she has a coherent and reasonable memory of living in a foreign land.
Zhuge Tongzhi is someone who also exists in another world, and she herself deeply believes in this.
Time travel is hard to explain, so whether facing Conan or Noah's Ark, she chose to accept the diagnosis of memory disorder and continue to follow the clues at hand.
In other people's eyes, she and Elju are already the same person, but Zhuge Tongzhi himself makes a distinction between the physical and mental levels.
"Then I'll contact you later, after I get back to Beika Town." Zhuge Tongzhi said to the artificial intelligence in his earpiece, carefully folding the ominous sign belonging to Matsuda Jinpei into a slip of paper, and walked out of the fortune-telling station.
There were already quite a few white papers on the railing used to tie the ominous fortune sticks. Zhuge Tongzhi found an empty spot, wrapped the fortune sticks around it, and tied a tight knot. After tying the knot, he pulled hard on both ends of the rope to prevent the misfortune on the fortune sticks from escaping with the strong winds on the mountaintop.
"Online statistics show that people often believe the fortune slips are accurate because they actively attribute events in their lives to them," Noah's Ark said calmly and objectively, watching the girl's strenuous movements. "You don't need to worry about it."
“Noah, you haven’t yet explored the essence of this world.” Zhuge Tongzhi shook his head and said earnestly, “Understanding this matter is as complicated as understanding destiny.”
This world is scientific, but it is also scientific; we need to pay close attention to all kinds of omens.
At least right now, she really wants to drag Matsuda Jinpei to draw another fortune slip, but she's afraid of drawing another extremely unlucky one.
In that case, the better outcome would be compounded by misfortune, and the worse outcome would become a triple of misfortune.
Feeling conflicted, Zhuge Tongzhi sighed and walked over to Conan like a village official, his hands behind his back.
"I don't quite understand what you mean." Noah's Ark, which understands the world based on data, didn't understand the girl's words, but it carefully added this to its database, intending to ask Hiroki about it later.
Zhuge Tongzhi, who had walked into the crowd, found it inconvenient to talk to Noah's Ark. He simply tapped his earphones to indicate that they would talk later. Noah's Ark thoughtfully switched the earphones to power-saving mode.
The young men and women were exchanging fortune slips with the two police officers. Among the many lucky, medium lucky, and lucky ones, the one in Matsuda Jinpei's hand was extremely ominous, radiating an ominous aura.
“Very bad luck… that’s really rare.” Toyama Kazuha held her medium-good luck and Hattori Heiji’s bad luck fortune slip. “Heiji’s luck has always been terrible, but these are all bad luck fortune slips.”
"How could a detective's life be anything but ordinary?" Hattori Heiji accepted his ominous sign well, holding Conan's ominous sign in his hand, seeing it as a shared sentiment between detectives.
“Since I came to draw lots with Ran, I’ve rarely seen any bad luck lots.” Sonoko Suzuki clicked her tongue in amazement as she examined the ominous lot, which used very unvarnished language. She immediately suggested, “Why don’t we let Ran draw a lot for Officer Matsuda? She almost always draws very lucky lots!”
"Good idea." Zhuge Tongzhi's eyes lit up upon hearing this, but Matsuda Jinpei waved his hand and refused, saying that the result of the redraw was the same: "I've already drawn twice, and both times it was extremely unlucky."
"Ran's always so lucky! Everyone loves it when she helps with the fortune-telling!" Sonoko Suzuki put her arm around Ran Mouri's arm, giggling at the girl's shy smile, then turned to Jinpei Matsuda and said with good reason, "We're out having fun anyway, wouldn't it be even more fun to draw a lucky fortune?"
“Agreed!” Kenji Hagiwara raised his arm straight.
"Agreed!" Zhuge Tongzhi also raised his arm, and with his other hand pulled Conan, who was lost in thought, up high as well. "Three votes in favor, one vote against."
"Zhuge, are you that concerned about this?" Conan, whose arm had been pulled up, revealed his half-moon eyes. "I didn't see you rushing me to draw lots again just now."
Great Detective, I firmly believe you can turn misfortune into good fortune, but it's a different story for Matsuda Jinpei, whose fate is sealed with death.
She ignored Conan's gaze, stubbornly raising both hands high as she looked at Matsuda Jinpei, who was ruffling his curly hair and seemed somewhat helpless towards the two of them.
"Officer Matsuda, why don't you give it a try?" Ran Mouri took Conan's ominous fortune slip from Heiji Hattori's hand, and looked at the murderous inscription on it with a helpless smile: "Perfect, I'll draw one for Conan and Shinichi too."
"Yo yo yo—" Sonoko Suzuki started making a fuss, and Conan and Ran Mouri's faces turned red in sync.
"Kijinpei—" Kenji Hagiwara also squealed in a strange voice. He never had any adult baggage or concerns about image management, so he naturally joined in Sonoko Suzuki's jeers.
"Ahem, Officer Matsuda—" Zhuge Tongzhi cleared his throat and called out as well. His voice, with its completely different quality, quickly attracted the attention of those around him, and many people showed kind smiles.
"Alright, alright, I get it, I can't stand you guys anymore!" Matsuda Jinpei finally gave in, raising his hands in surrender, and handed the money he had drawn for the lottery to Ran Mouri. "Thank you, Miss Mouri."
"It's okay, I hope it will turn out well." Ran Mouri pushed Sonoko Suzuki, who was clinging to her and cheering, and walked towards the place where the fortune-telling container was being shaken.
Zhuge Tongzhi eagerly leaned over and watched as Ran Mouri repeatedly shook out three wooden sticks from the tube, one for Matsuda Jinpei, one for Conan, and one for Shinichi Kudo.
"Hey, Conan and Shinichi have the same number." Ran Mouri picked up two identical wooden sticks from the table with some surprise. After looking at them for a while, she squatted down and waved the sticks in front of Conan, teasingly saying, "I guess it's because you both like Sherlock Holmes."
"Hahaha, yeah." Conan scratched the back of his head and agreed with Ran Mouri. He only breathed a sigh of relief and smiled when he saw the girl stand up to find the corresponding drawer.
"It's Xiao Ji, Officer Matsuda." Ran Mouri handed the fortune slip to Jinpei Matsuda. Soon, two heads appeared next to the fortune slip. Jinpei Matsuda silently stretched out his arm and lowered it.
"Success is half the battle, loss is half the battle... If you hold firm to your heart, you will eventually find peace." Zhuge Tongzhi leaned on Matsuda Jinpei's arm, gently reciting this somewhat ominous but ultimately auspicious fortune slip, his expression brightening.
"The hopes are plentiful, but difficult to realize... There is a risk of fire, so be extra careful." Kenji Hagiwara noticed the warning inside, leaned on his childhood friend's shoulder, looked at the fortune slip, and stroked his chin, summarizing: "Jinpei, you really seem to have a knack for dealing with fires."
"We're bomb disposal police, isn't this a normal warning?" Matsuda Jinpei, with two men hanging on him, twitched at the corner of his mouth. "Are you satisfied now? It's not a major disaster anymore."
"If the second-year student says she's not satisfied, can we try again?"
"No, get out of the way."
"Go and tie up all the bad luck slips." Ran Mouri, who had helped Conan and her sweetheart draw a medium-good slip, walked briskly, and she and Kazuha Toyama each tied one of their slips to the railing.
The fortune slips tied to the railings, like seeds of camphor, had snow-white wings and were firmly bound to the railings, steadily blocking all misfortune.
Zhuge Tongzhi patted the auspicious object in his pocket and decided to frame it and place it on his bedside table when he got home.
"Next, we're going to buy amulets." The short-haired girl rushed towards the small shop with its name on it, pulling Conan along by the hand. "Conan, give me some recommendations!"
"Ah, I think they're about the same. Why don't you ask Hattori?" Conan genuinely didn't care about these things and casually tossed the question to Hattori Heiji.
"I don't know anything about this either, let's ask Kazuha." Hattori Heiji put one hand in his pocket and pulled a string from around his neck with the other, pulling out a purple amulet with a pink cherry blossom print, showing it to the two elementary school students: "This is the amulet that guy gave me."
"It's so heavy." Zhuge Tongzhi reached out and weighed it in his hand, feeling that the small amulet seemed quite heavy. "What's inside?"
"Generally speaking, it's a wooden slip imbued with a year's worth of divine power."
Kazuha Toyama walked over and spoke to the child who didn't understand these things, pulling out a purple amulet from around his neck that was the same style as Heiji Hattori's but slightly darker in color. "However, inside Heiji's amulet is a fragment of a pair of handcuffs."
Kazuha Toyama and Heiji Hattori are childhood friends who grew up together. During a visit to the Hattori family home, the two were accidentally handcuffed together by an old pair of handcuffs.
Although they made a lot of embarrassing mistakes because they couldn't find the key to open the handcuffs, they regarded that experience as the beginning of their friendship. So after the handcuffs were forcibly pried open, they even collected the chain fragments and made two amulets.
Of course, the contents of the two amulets are not exactly the same.
The girl with her hair in a high ponytail blushed slightly as she explained the origin of her amulet, which contained a picture of Heiji Hattori.
"Why keep that kind of thing? I really don't understand." Hattori Heiji, standing beside him, complained without any sense of humor, weighing the amulet in his hand with obvious disgust. "It really chokes you."
"Huh?" Toyama Kazuha's expression changed, and his anger erupted instantly.
Zhuge Tongzhi and Conan silently took two steps back, watching their childhood friends, who were still holding the same amulets, start arguing fiercely within seconds.
"Hey, if you really disliked it, you wouldn't wear it close to your body in the first place, would you?" The two children, looking at the two people in front of them who were unwilling to back down, complained in unison.
"If Kiri-chan wants to buy an amulet, you can try this maple leaf one." Kenji Hagiwara stood in front of the counter and pointed to an amulet with a light yellow background and red maple leaves, with the word "amulet" simply embroidered on it in red thread.
Zhuge Tongzhi walked over and leaned against the counter. He was immediately captivated by the bright red color. Suddenly, he thought of the maple forests covering the mountains and murmured, "What beautiful maple leaves."
"Right? Kenji-chan has great taste, doesn't she?" Hagiwara Kenji said with a self-praising smile, watching as Zhuge Tongzhi bought the amulet from the shop owner without hesitation. "Remember to return the amulet or burn it a year later."
"Hmm, can I put my own things in here like I do, like Sister Kazuha?" Zhuge Tongzhi took the light amulet from the shopkeeper and asked a constructive question: "That way, I can keep the amulet with me all the time, right?"
Clearly, Hattori Heiji's amulet wasn't an object imbued with divine power, but rather an object that symbolized the deep bond between him and Toyama Kazuha, and it certainly wasn't just a year's worth of protection.
It was a talisman that could protect him for a very, very long time.
"That works fine too." Zhuge Tongzhi nodded in satisfaction after receiving confirmation, and carefully placed the amulet...
It was placed in the same pocket as the auspicious fortune slip.
Having each obtained what they wanted, the group, having finished exploring the shrine, headed down the mountain together.
…
Rei Furuya and Kagemitsu Morofushi, who did not participate in the lottery, descended the mountain a step ahead of time.
The two people were in a wagashi (Japanese sweets) shop in the cultural and creative street next to the shrine.
Adhering to the principle of loving what you do, Rei Furuya, who currently works at Poirot Cafe, carefully sampled the store's best-selling desserts and quickly provided many professional comments.
Sitting opposite Rei Furuya, Morofushi Kagemitsu listened with a hint of amazement to his childhood friend's genuine praise, and couldn't help but exclaim, "Zero, your cooking skills are really good now."
Who would have thought that from university to graduating from police academy, and then going undercover in the organization, Rei Furuya has always been a man who doesn't cook much and doesn't particularly care about cooking skills?
Now he's able to apply for a chef's job thanks to his outstanding culinary skills. Morofushi Kagemitsu couldn't help but laugh, watching his childhood friend's cheeks puff out as he ate, and he also picked up a daifuku and took a bite.
A refreshing vanilla flavor lingers in your mouth.
It's fragrant but not cloying, with a hint of mint and lime freshness; the ingredients are quite complex. He squinted, carefully discerning the flavors, and quickly came up with several plans to replicate this dessert.
“It still can’t compare to Hiro’s.” Rei Furuya swallowed the food in his mouth, took a sip of lemonade to clear the sweet and sour taste from his mouth, and said helplessly, “After all, the best-selling item in the store is still your sandwiches.”
“However, my home-cooked meals are actually quite good.” The blond, dark-skinned man gave a very youthful smile, closed one eye, and gave Morofushi Kagemitsu a thumbs up. “Maybe they can even surpass your cooking, Hiro.”
"Is that so?" A smile bloomed in his blue-gray eyes. Morofushi Kagemitsu curled the corners of his mouth, picked up a taiyaki and stuffed it into his mouth. With the rich red bean flavor filling his mouth, he mumbled his acceptance of the challenge: "Then bring it on, Zero."
While being leisurely "followed" by two police officers, Zhuge Tongzhi and his group arrived at the only church in Osaka with Gothic architecture.
-----------------------
Author's note: Ultimately, the battery died halfway through (facepalm and helpless smile).
…
Heihe Yushou is really sweet
(Black Chicken, you really can't seem to get comfortable unless you're being sarcastic.)
…
Zhuge Buys the Protective Item — Buying the Box and Returning the Pearl
The biggest problem this child has right now is:
The conflict between intact past memories and disordered present memories has its own logic.
…
I always thought wagashi was a specific type of confectionery.
Upon investigation, it turns out it's a general term for various Japanese sweets (or so it seems?).
I learned something new! (burp)
…
Mwah
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