"........."
"............"
For a moment, the air was painfully awkward.
Ran lowered her head, face burning, and fell silent, while Fang Zheng also had no idea what he was supposed to say.
What’s the correct line for a situation like this?
Your first kiss wasn’t with Shinichi Kudou, it was with me, Fang Zheng!!
...Yeah no, that sounds all kinds of wrong......... Huh? Wait? First kiss?
Thinking of this, Fang Zheng’s eyes suddenly lit up.
"Sorry, Ran, my bad, um... I mixed you up with Mira. But it’s fine, your first kiss already went to Shinichi Kudou......"
"Eh?!"
Hearing that, Ran was so shocked she completely forgot the whole forced-kiss part. She jerked her head up and stared at Fang Zheng in surprise.
"Mr. Fang Zheng, I-I’ve never, um... kissed Shinichi?"
"Huh? You haven’t? I remember in that fourteenth something..."
"???"
Oh, right, that was the movie title.
Fang Zheng waved his hand and thought back for a bit.
"I remember back then you and Conan went to that underwater restaurant, then there was an explosion. Conan’s little short legs got stuck under the car, and you did mouth-to-mouth to give him oxygen, didn’t you?"
Yup, this was the scene Fang Zheng remembered most clearly from the early movies. Even though in this world he hadn’t gone through it with them, if his memory was correct, it did happen.
"Back then I was just worried about Conan........."
At this point Ran also froze. She probably only just now processed the whole "Conan = Shinichi" business, and then the equation "I kissed Conan = I kissed Shinichi = I gave Shinichi my first kiss."
In an instant, Ran’s face turned as red as a monkey’s butt.
"B-but at that time I didn’t know Conan was Shinichi, I was just trying to save him......"
"But at least objectively speaking, you did kiss Shinichi Kudou."
Fang Zheng quietly shifted the blame. As long as he could firmly insist that Ran’s first kiss had already gone to Shinichi Kudou, then his own trouble vanished!
"Uu...... now that you mention it, that’s true........."
Sure enough, Ran’s train of thought got derailed by Fang Zheng. Once she really thought back, yeah, she had done it to save Conan, and at the time she didn’t know Conan was Shinichi. But Conan himself obviously knew full well, so wouldn’t Shinichi have thought of that as his own first kiss?
Wait a sec, even if it was forced by the situation back then, why did he never bring it up after revealing his identity?
Did that brat just decide to treat it like nothing ever happened?
No way, I have to talk this through with Shinichi!
Watching Ran’s expression shift nonstop, Fang Zheng quietly let out a breath, then conveniently fed Conan some misinformation and pulled some aggro onto him.
As they say, better him than me—Conan, may you rest in peace.
Now that Fang Zheng had dumped the misdirection onto Conan, he was free to go all-out.
"But seriously, why were you wearing Pinru’s... wait no, Mira’s clothes?"
Fang Zheng looked at Ran in front of him and voiced his doubt. Yeah, under normal circumstances he would never mistake her, but he knew very well that the clothes Ran was wearing belonged to Mira—that’s why he’d just looked at the outfit instead of the person and yanked her over to make a move.
"Th-this... because my clothes got dirty, Miss Mira suggested lending me her clothes......"
Hearing Fang Zheng ask that, Ran’s face flushed again. This went back to when they’d gone shopping together. Mira was the Queen, rich and willful, so of course she bought only pretty and expensive outfits, while Ran was just a high schooler, strapped for cash and unable to afford those. So Mira suggested that if Ran saw anything she liked, she could borrow it to wear. Their relationship was close as sisters anyway, so it wasn’t a big deal.
And Ran was a girl after all; liking pretty clothes is like a built-in bug in the female race. So of course she didn’t turn it down.
What Ran hadn’t expected was that borrowing clothes would lead to trouble......... she actually got mistaken for Mira by Mr. Fang Zheng, and then that whole... right, the first kiss!
Thinking of this, Ran suddenly froze.
"S-sorry, Mr. Fang Zheng, I’ve got something to do, I’m going back first!"
With that, Ran hurriedly turned around, face bright red, and rushed into the elevator. Before Fang Zheng brought it up she hadn’t thought much of it, but now that she’d been reminded, she realized she’d already given her first kiss to Shinichi ages ago. So what did Shinichi think about it?
She absolutely had to ask him clearly!!
"Hoo............"
Watching Ran’s back disappear, Fang Zheng wiped the cold sweat off his forehead. That misdirect, the damage, the feigned death, and the clean disengage really came together beautifully. Guess all those years of playing Hunter weren’t wasted......
Time to bail, time to bail.
As for whether Conan would get beaten to death by Ran, that was none of Fang Zheng’s business.
Anyway, if your T is all short legs and you’ve got no heal, trying to DPS down a boss is practically a guaranteed wipe.
Of course, if Conan were a Paladin or a Death Knight, he might have a slightly better chance.
But if you ask Fang Zheng, at best Conan was just... a Gnome engineer?
He didn’t even have a Goblin defibrillator, so corpse-running was about the only thing left for him.
After this, the Flying Ship didn’t follow the original plan of stopping in Osaka, but went to Capital City instead. According to Officer Megure, the members of the theft ring they’d arrested actually intended to use the panic—when everyone evacuated and fled—to steal Buddhist statues and cultural relics in Capital City.
So to catch them all in one go, they just grabbed everyone in one place.
Once the Flying Ship landed in Capital City, the onboard mercenaries and theft ring members were naturally taken away by the police, while everyone else was quickly sent to the hospital for checkups. Based on the statements from the thieves, they indeed hadn’t stolen the Lethal Bacteria, but just to be safe, everyone still had to go through a round of physical examinations, and then......
Most people went to a hotel to rest; only Fang Zheng, yawning his head off, was dragged by Officer Megure to attend a press conference—because when that gang tried to hijack the Flying Ship, their accomplices on the ground had already posted the news online, causing a huge panic across western Japan. People in Nara, Capital City, and Osaka were all fleeing, practically ready to sprint all the way to Kagoshima.
Now that the case was resolved, the police of course had to hold a press conference right away to calm the public, and as the hero who fought back against the hijacking, Fang Zheng was naturally invited out to be heavily praised and applauded...... in short, it was all "you’re great, I’m great, we’re all great"......
"So I can finally go back to sleep now, right, Officer Megure?"
Walking out of the press conference again, Fang Zheng was practically nodding off. Mainly because the whole thing was boring as hell, and those reporters’ questions were just as dull. If it wasn’t to give the Metropolitan Police Department some face, Fang Zheng honestly would’ve gone straight back to bed.
"Hold it, little bro Fang Zheng."
Hearing Fang Zheng grumble, Officer Megure gave a wry smile and grabbed him.
"I know I really imposed on you before, but this time it’s something urgent. Something big."
"Oh?"
At that, Fang Zheng finally perked up a bit.
"Hope it’s not another lame elementary-school-level bacteria incident... So what is it?"
"Here’s the situation."
Officer Megure glanced around to make sure no one was nearby, then lowered his voice and spoke to Fang Zheng.
"We’ve interrogated that bunch from the theft ring we arrested, and found they have very close ties to a gang called Genji Firefly."
"And?"
Fang Zheng wasn’t impressed. Bottom line, they’re all just thieves anyway, right?
"Maybe you don’t know, little bro Fang Zheng, but in fact Genji Firefly is an outfit that’s been operating since Heisei Year Three, mainly around Tokyo, the Capital City, and Osaka, stealing famous Buddhist statues and works of art. But just a few days ago..."
Here, Officer Megure’s expression darkened.
"Most of the members of that group were killed."
"Oh?"
Sure enough, the moment he heard there were dead people, Fang Zheng finally got interested.
"Killed? Does it have anything to do with the bunch we caught?"
"I don’t know either, which is why we need your help."
"All right."
Since it involved a homicide, Fang Zheng naturally snapped fully awake.
According to Officer Megure, this Genji Firefly crew had eight people in total, each using the name of one of Minamoto no Yoshitsune’s retainers as a codename, and each had a copy of the Yijing Record in their possession.
Now, five of the eight have already been killed in Osaka, the Capital City, and Tokyo. Technically speaking, that should count as a major case, but because that Red Siamese Cat bacteria scare blew up way too much, the media didn’t bother to pay attention to these homicides at all...
The only lead the police have so far is that the killer seems to be someone highly skilled in swordsmanship and archery, because the victims were either shot to death with arrows or cut down with a blade, the wounds clean and neat, one strike, fatal.
Yeah, you could call it a pretty "old-school" kind of killer.
Although Fang Zheng spent the whole night interrogating them, unfortunately he didn’t get anything useful. The Red Siamese Cat crew and this so?called Genji Firefly are basically in the same line of work, with a certain amount of "business dealings" between them. According to their statement, Genji Firefly controls a smuggling route for antiques, and they sometimes make use of that route.
In fact, if their plan this time had worked out, they’d intended to fence the goods through Genji Firefly as well, and show off their own skills in the process.
When they heard most of Genji Firefly’s members had been killed, the Red Siamese Cat people were quite shocked too—which was only natural. They’d been busy with their "big plan" lately, and as for what other gangs were up to... well, it’s not like they’d waste energy keeping tabs on that kind of thing!
The result was... they didn’t find out a damned thing.
When Fang Zheng got back to the hotel, he saw Ran, Mira, and Sonoko at the front entrance talking to a teenage girl. Seeing Fang Zheng come back, they quickly called out a greeting.
"Ah, you’re back, Mr. Fang Zheng."
"Yeah, I’m back. Oh, if it isn’t Kazuha."
Looking at the ponytailed girl, Fang Zheng raised his hand, and she cheerfully waved back at him.
"So what are you all up to?"
Hearing Fang Zheng ask, Mira answered with a happy grin.
"Kazuha said she’s going to take us around the Capital City for some sightseeing. Do you wanna come too?"
"Sure, I’ll drive you guys."
"Awesome!"
At Fang Zheng’s words, Mira let out a cheer, pulled open the car door, and hopped in. Sonoko and Kazuha slipped in right after her. Only Ran stood there, face pale as a sheet, staring at the car. In the end, after a moment’s hesitation, she climbed in wearing the expression of someone marching to their death, buckled her seat belt, closed her eyes, and resigned herself to fate.
Luckily, Fang Zheng didn’t race around like a maniac this time, and they actually made it onto the road in one piece.
"You two really do look alike, though."
Sitting in the back, Kazuha glanced at Ran on her left and Mira on her right, and couldn’t help commenting.
"When we first met, I got a real shock and thought, ’Since when are there two Rans?’"
"What do you think? Pretty similar, right? I’m the older sister, you know."
Mira puffed out her chest proudly, while Ran gave a strained little laugh. It wouldn’t have been so bad if Kazuha hadn’t brought it up, but once she did, Ran immediately thought of what had happened last night. Back then, Fang Zheng had misled her into going and confronting Conan, straight?up asking him whether that counted as her first kiss. Conan was totally blindsided, staring at her in utter confusion, not even knowing how to respond.
In the end, Conan hadn’t even managed to give an answer before Ran herself decided it was way too embarrassing, chose Self-Detonation and ran away... Just thinking about it now still made her want to die!!
"Speaking of which, where are Uncle Maori and Conan?"
Fang Zheng was driving and casually asked the question, and Sonoko answered with a cheerful grin.
"Uncle Maori said a temple here in the Capital City contacted him through someone to ask him to solve a case, so that little brat tagged along with him to the temple."
"Oh, I see."
Hearing that, Fang Zheng nodded.
"So where are we heading first?"
"Let’s go to Kiyomizu Temple!"
"OK, let’s go!"

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