Chapter 10: The Grim Reaper!
“An agency fee of 300,000 yen?!”
Kogoro Mouri was stunned, his mouth agape in disbelief, his exaggerated exclamation echoing through the apartment. It was only after Eiichi Yamagishi tugged at him that he hurriedly hushed himself.
Even after calming down, his face still wore a pained expression, his small mustache twitching incessantly.
He should have fought harder to at least split it evenly.
He was desperately short on money now.
Ran’s tuition, the office bills, and now he was housing a freeloading brat...
It hurt—just thinking about it was painful!
Three hundred thousand yen... enough for him to toil for an entire month!
Though the case was dangerous, it was ultimately just a routine investigation commission, taking less than half a day...
“Mouri-san?” Eiichi Yamagishi called out in puzzlement.
Given the usual rates, 300,000 yen was already quite generous, making this detective’s reaction all the more peculiar.
“Oh, right,” the mustached man patted his chest to steady himself. “Of course, it’s confidential, but when we arrived, a woman rushed out from here... I think her name was Yuko Ikezawa.”
“It was Yuko Ikezawa who was harassing and threatening Yoko,” Koumo said, taking the envelope from the mustached man’s pained gaze. “She seems to have a spare key to this place?”
“Kido?”
Eiichi Yamagishi, who also knew Koumo, looked slightly surprised upon hearing this.
“I did lose the key here, about five days ago in the TV station’s lounge. I even asked the staff to help find it... It must have been then. That day, I saw Yuko Ikezawa!”
Turning quickly to Kogoro Mouri, Yamagishi implored, “Mouri-san, please help me retrieve the spare key...”
“Thank you, Kido-san.”
After finishing the call with Yoko, the chubby young man wiped away his tears and gathered himself, handing the phone back to Koumo with sincere gratitude. “If it weren’t for you, I might have made a terrible mistake. From now on, I plan to find a proper job and support Yoko as a fan.”
Unlike Yamagishi, who was subdued by the mustached man, he was more grateful to Koumo for helping clear up the misunderstanding with Yoko.
“It’s good that you’ve thought it through.”
Koumo smiled and put away his phone.
After bitterness comes sweetness.
He was now completely immersed in the joy of 300,000 yen, eager to return and count the money one bill at a time.
One, two, three...
Time in this Conan world was strange, seemingly stretched infinitely by some force.
Different timelines overlapped—some used ancient phones, others like Koumo used the latest full-screen smartphones.
Yet the world was generally stable, especially economically, roughly resembling Japan around the year 2000.
Three hundred thousand yen was about equivalent to 20,000 RMB at that time.
Counting on: four, five, six...
Noticing the burning gaze of the mustached man beside him, Koumo withdrew a thousand-yen bill from the envelope.
“Take this and buy some sake. Don’t mention it.”
Kogoro Mouri gritted his teeth inwardly, recalling Yoko’s autograph and forcing a smile, “Just don’t forget what you promised.”
That brat—so wealthy yet so stingy.
“Um...”
Eiichi Yamagishi, feeling somewhat lost, quickly grabbed Koumo after the chubby young man left.
“Wait, Kido, Yoko specifically mentioned you. She’ll be guest-starring in a drama in a few days, so maybe I can recommend you...
Do you have any ideas? It probably won’t be a major role...”
“It doesn’t need to be important,” Koumo perked up again. “Just some minor parts, preferably without showing my face, so no one recognizes me.”
Extra work was extra work; the job was still the priority.
He needed to save up to open his own detective agency—300,000 yen was far from enough.
“Of course, the pay can’t be too low either.”
“Huh?”
Yamagishi’s mouth twitched.
Such a strange request...
“Alright, I understand. I’ll ask around at Nichinichi TV. If there’s something, I’ll get back to you...”
“Ah!”
“Bang—!”
Before Yamagishi could finish, a loud crash came from the elevator shaft, followed by a brief scream, shaking the entire building.
“What’s happening?”
“It’s the elevator!”
The residents hurried out of their apartments, and Koumo followed a startled Yamagishi to the 25th floor, where the elevator doors were wide open.
The doors hadn’t closed, revealing the pitch-black elevator shaft inside.
A strange smell of rust wafted through the air.
Koumo steadied himself against the wall and peered down.
In the faint light, splatters of fresh blood were visible, the chubby face of Yoko’s ex-boyfriend starkly clear in his keen eyesight.
How could this be?
Koumo’s gaze trembled slightly as he stared fixedly at the gruesome scene below, recalling the eerie feeling he’d had earlier.
The elevator...
It was that guy!
“What happened? Say something!” Kogoro Mouri impatiently pulled Koumo aside, unable to see clearly but his face darkening with gravity.
As a former Tokyo Metropolitan Police officer, he had far more experience in such matters than Koumo.
“He’s dead... really dead!”
Mouri stepped back solemnly, turning to Yamagishi with a grave expression.
“Call the police immediately!”
Yamagishi was terrified. “If we call the police, what about Yoko...”
“Don’t be an idiot! This is a homicide!”
Mouri roared, then examined the elevator doors thoughtfully.
“The doors opened, but the elevator wasn’t there—someone must have stepped into the empty shaft by accident... But how? The elevator was fine when we came up.”
“Don’t look at me,” Yamagishi trembled as he called the police. “I used another elevator.”
A cold wind blew through the corridor window cracks.
Koumo’s mind cleared as he noticed task notifications floating above Mouri’s head—
[Obtain Yoko’s exclusive autograph] and [Make Kido Koumo suffer badly].
Yamagishi had one too—[Keep Kido Koumo away from Yoko].
Though the chubby young man’s death seemed accidental, it still triggered the task system.
His earlier instinct was right.
In the original story, the chubby young man’s suicide felt as if fate had strangled him, an inevitable death that couldn’t be reversed.
Did this world truly have a Grim Reaper?
Koumo asked himself again silently.
Not just him—everyone’s fate seemed manipulated by death itself.
Those who defied fate were also fugitives escaping their own destinies.
“Whoosh, whoosh!”
Koumo stood at the drafty corridor entrance, scanning the gathering residents.
Mostly women and children murmured quietly about the death.
The chubby man’s death appeared just like an ordinary elevator accident.
No visible or palpable supernatural forces.
The residents’ whispers, the wind on the upper floors, the distant wailing sirens from below... all seemed to blend into the closing theme of a Conan episode.
Koumo clenched and unclenched his fingers tightly.
...
Late at night.
After finishing his statement at the scene, Koumo returned to the apartment building, the hefty 300,000 yen in hand.
The pressing financial problems had been temporarily resolved.
This sum would allow him to live comfortably here for a while—even a whole month locked indoors wouldn’t be an issue.
Yet Koumo wasn’t as happy as he had expected.
The mark of death was still on him.
Perhaps someday he too would suffer an accident like the chubby young man...
No, not just an accident—he had already sensed lethal intent several times.
Mrs. Yamada on the first day, the fat man who killed Yamada, even his female colleague Ayaka Matsumoto seemed to wish him dead.
Even a supermarket scramble over eggs nearly brought a deadly threat.
“Kido-san!”
The apartment manager suddenly called out as Koumo was about to go upstairs.
“You have a new package, just arrived.”
“A package?”
Koumo snapped back to reality and took a brown paper-wrapped box from the manager.
The mailing address was on Shobon Island, addressed to Room 1604.
Inside, there was only a thin envelope.
The seal was a deep red wax stamp, common for formal letters and invitations in this era, serving both as identity verification and tamper protection.
Upon closer inspection, the wax bore an emblem resembling a book’s crest...
Koumo’s fingers tightened involuntarily.
“What’s wrong?” the manager asked in surprise. “Is there a problem? I just saw this too...”
“Nothing, thank you.”
Koumo smiled faintly, steadying himself as he took the envelope upstairs.
Only after returning home and confirming no anomalies around him did Koumo open the wax seal, sipping a cold cola to refresh himself—
With money now, he wouldn’t have to suffer. The convenience store downstairs would be his personal fridge from now on.
He settled into the most comfortable spot on the sofa, took a deep breath, and carefully opened the wax seal.
Inside was only a black and gilded invitation, roughly the size of a Phantom Thief Kid’s notice.
An invitation from Shobon Island...
Four days later, he was to go to Shobon Island to play the role of a temporary butler, substituting for the old butler who couldn’t board the ship.
His first role to play.
Koumo’s eyes widened slightly.
So this was professional acting?
He had thought it might be for a drama or something.
Instead, it was starting directly in real life?
With his skill level...
Sweat beaded on Koumo’s forehead.
The actor’s subsequent advancement required playing four roles; just the first one was already daunting.
In just four days, he might not even have time to familiarize himself with butler duties, and who knew what would happen if he messed up...
The good news was that the duration was short and the location was just a ship.
Koumo racked his memory.
The Shobon family had a murder case on a ship, likely this one... In that case, he didn’t need to do much, just hold on until the case unfolded.
The level 1 skill “Rapid Immersion” should at least help somewhat.