Chapter 3521-3533 [The Ghost Without Feet]
There aren't many murders at Teitan Junior High School, and the cases are rarely extremely gruesome. Therefore, although Jiang Xia came today, he didn't actually have much hope of finding the ghost fetus.
But now, just by walking up the stairs... a ghost has appeared beside me.
It's like a dream.
He turned around, unable to hide his surprise, and prepared to command the ghosts to pounce. However, upon closer inspection, the ghost standing next to him and walking down the stairs with him looked somewhat familiar.
Jiang Xia: "..." Wait, look closely, isn't this the Snow Woman?
...Why are you just aimlessly swinging your rope around instead of playing cat's cradle with Akemi Miyano and the others?
Unlike other easily fooled ghosts, this arrogant demon hadn't yet formed a contract with him. Therefore, although Jiang Xia could sense that she was always nearby, he wasn't very perceptive about her exact location.
In his memory, the Snow Woman always wore her ethereal white kimono, gracefully floating in mid-air on a wisp of cold air, rarely stepping on the ground like a human. Coupled with that faint sense of anticipation in his heart... just now, out of the corner of his eye, he actually thought that a ghost had really swarmed on the stairs.
Beside her, the Snow Woman was a little curious about what these humans were doing, so as Jiang Xia walked around, she also landed on the ground and followed Jiang Xia's steps, jumping down one step at a time.
Halfway through the jump, the human next to him suddenly stopped.
Yuki-onna adjusted her kimono, looked up in confusion, and found that Jiang Xia was looking at her.
"...?"
The snow woman tilted her head: Why aren't you moving?
Jiang Xia: "..." I don't want to leave. I've encountered a scam involving a fake pregnancy.
He sighed, composed himself, and was about to tell the Snow Woman not to change her ghost persona so easily, but to continue being the easily recognizable ghost.
But just then, a puzzled voice came from below the steps: "Jiang Xia, what are you looking at?"
Jiang Xia snapped out of her daze and remembered that there were classmates next to her.
He shook his head, then looked away from the Snow Woman and walked down as if nothing had happened: "It's nothing."
Conan looked at him, then suspiciously glanced at the step where Jiangxia had stopped, but after looking left and right, he couldn't seem to see anything.
Just as I was about to ask, the door to the art room next door opened with a whoosh, and a student holding a paintbrush poked his head out, saying irritably, "Can you guys keep it down! You just started to get into an idea and you interrupted me. At this rate, when will I ever finish drawing!"
Dr. Araide, who hadn't said a word, apologized politely: "I'm sorry, I'll be more careful."
The student who was drawing snorted and slammed the door shut again.
Dr. Shinichi looked at the closed door, then belatedly realized: "This person..."
Just as he was about to say something, Sonoko Suzuki looked out the window and exclaimed in delight, "The rain has stopped!"
"Then let's go back first." Ran Mouri looked out the window, then suddenly her whole body trembled, and her voice rose sharply, "Desks!!"
"What desk?" Jiang Xia walked to her side and looked down at the open space. In the middle of a patch of muddy ground, a set of desks and chairs was neatly arranged.
On the table, a tattered piece of white paper was weighed down by a stone. The paper fluttered in the wind, and several large black characters were faintly written on it.
“This desk…” Sonoko Suzuki also got goosebumps. “Could it be the belongings of that dead senior from the warehouse?”
Jiang Xia glanced disappointedly at the steps beside her, then turned and went downstairs: "We'll know once we go and take a look."
...
The heavy rain had just stopped, and the courtyard was covered in mud and water.
Conan and Dr. Araide ran through the mud to the desk that was placed outdoors. They unfolded the fluttering paper and saw several large words written on it: "My resentment has not yet been eliminated."
"That's really scary," Dr. Shinichi sighed. "Who's playing these pranks?"
Conan touched the white paper in his hand: "This paper is dry, and it's not waterproof... It must have been moved here by someone after the rain stopped."
A voice drifted from afar: "But there weren't any footprints left on this muddy ground before you ran over."
“That’s right.” Conan said, then realized something was off. He turned around, his eye twitching slightly. “Why are you standing so far away?”
Jiang Xia stood in the corridor a dozen meters away, and touched his chin upon hearing this: "Well... I guess it's a habit of protecting the crime scene."
Conan: "..." Nonsense! You just think it's dirty!
Beside him, Dr. Shinichi looked down at the footprints he had made and slapped his forehead: "I'm so sorry, I didn't think of that."
Conan was speechless: "..." Compared to the previous "Dr. Araide," this guy is way too easy to fool...
Sonoko Suzuki and Ran Mouri didn't dare go downstairs. They called out from the hallway above, "How's your observation going? That table wouldn't happen to be...?"
Conan snapped out of his daze and nodded: "This should be the desk of that deceased senior—the same desk that was just placed in the warehouse—the signature on the desk looks exactly the same, both in terms of position and handwriting."
Sonoko Suzuki: "?!!"
Ran Mouri: "!!!"
...
At the insistence of the two high school girls who were afraid to take the stairs, the three of them left the open space and returned upstairs to meet up with them.
Sonoko Suzuki paced back and forth, her voice trembling as she spoke, "There's no mistake, it must be the ghost of that deceased senior! It's the one that moved the table there!"
Ran Mouri nodded to herself, "Yes, that must be it. I've heard that ghosts don't have feet."
Beside her, Miss Spider, perched on Jiang Xia's shoulder, looked down at her chibi-style legs hidden under her dress, then peeked out her eight spider legs from behind: "...?"
Dr. Shinichi didn't see the demons expressing their dissatisfaction. He looked at the two students who were clearly listless and was about to comfort them when he suddenly noticed that Sonoko Suzuki had seen something and was now pressed against the glass next to her.
This strange appearance startled the new doctor, who asked in surprise, "What's wrong?"
"The desk..." Sonoko Suzuki stared at the empty space below, "The desk is gone!!"
Conan sighed, "That startled me. We've moved it back to the warehouse."
Dr. Shinichi nodded: "Leaving it in the yard will probably cause panic—there's a strange sentence written on the paper: 'My resentment has not yet subsided.'"
"What?!!"
The two high school girls, who had just calmed down, started trembling even more violently than before. Sonoko Suzuki deduced, her voice trembling:
"So that's how it is... I understand now, I understand everything! — The paper didn't get wet because the resentful ghost sat at the table and used its body to shield the rain from the rain!"
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