The Goblin Robber Group used to be a crew of thieves who "robbed the rich to help the poor"—and by "the poor," they mostly meant themselves.
Ten years ago, the Goblins disbanded. Their leader, Demon, decided to retire. He took part of the loot and "washed his hands" in the metaphorical gold basin of retirement. With his share of jewelry, he built a quiet little villa out in the suburbs.
That villa is exactly where Jiangxia Tongzhi and the others are now.
The ex-leader, having too much time and a suspicious amount of skill, took up clockmaking. The villa is stuffed with clocks—some handmade, some bought—and one of them, he cleverly hid the remaining jewelry in.
But he didn't tell anyone which one. Classic move.
After Demon kicked the bucket, the villa was inherited by his granddaughter, Nakamura.
…
Jiangxia was currently sitting in this overly lore-heavy villa, sipping tea, and feeling like someone was above him.
He glanced up at the ceiling. Yep. That poor granddaughter was currently tied up in the attic.
——The two shady guys who had invited them in—the goatee man and the parted hair guy—weren't actually the owners. They'd busted in that morning, demanding the location of the hidden loot. Nakamura, of course, had no idea what they were talking about. So naturally, they tied her up and locked her upstairs, then decided to search for the treasure themselves.
Once they got it, they'd planned to silence her. Because of course they would. Murder logistics are part of the job, apparently.
Unfortunately for them, instead of treasure, they found a famous detective at their front door.
That's when they got another bright idea: pretend to be the rightful owners and get this detective—Jiangxia—to find the hidden stash for them.
Sure, there was a risk they'd be exposed. But the goatee and the parted-hair man weren't worried. They had guns, they had hostages. Besides Nakamura, the two kids with Jiangxia looked like perfect tool people for leverage if needed.
While the robbers were busy plotting their next steps, Jiangxia casually held the cup of tea offered by Goatee and evaluated their murderous aura like one might evaluate the tannins in a wine.
His shikigami had already sensed something was off when they were still in the woods earlier. The bloodlust was practically leaking out of the walls.
When Goatee opened the door, the murderous vibes spiked.
Jiangxia was quietly impressed. These two were promising. If they were already this stabby just hearing about the treasure, how much worse would they get once they actually saw it? Career growth potential: high.
Thinking of this, Jiangxia subtly poked the Tengu with the teacup.
The Tengu had gotten much smarter lately. It pondered the situation for a couple seconds, then smacked its own forehead with a ghostly "ah-ha!" and zipped up through the ceiling.
A while later, it came back with a report: Nakamura was indeed tied up in the attic, but alive.
Cool. No need to rush then.
Jiangxia relaxed and listened to the two robbers trying to sell their "we're totally legit" act with increasingly forced cheerfulness.
Meanwhile, Amuro Toru and Conan had started knocking on proverbial mental doors. Their eyes occasionally gleamed with suspicion as they picked up on all kinds of inconsistencies.
But like good detectives, they didn't confront anyone just yet. You don't start yelling "murderer!" until all the clues are nicely aligned. So instead, they redirected their attention to the villa's many oddities.
Jiangxia watched quietly and mentally added a few bullet points to his ongoing "Notes on Detective Habits."
On the other side of the room, Haibara Ai did the same—except her internal notebook was titled "Notes on Jiangxia Habits." There wasn't much else to do.
She'd initially assumed Jiangxia was a chill buddhist type—a salted fish who stuck to his duties and preferred coasting through life.
But watching him now, she realized that might've been a misread. The moment a puzzle appeared, he'd dropped everything and dived in. And not just dived in—he looked like he was enjoying it.
...He might actually like solving cases.
That made her think of Dr. Agasa—he loved tossing her brain teasers too. Maybe she'd start collecting some of them and gift Jiangxia a mystery notebook someday. You know, along with the tonic.
…
There really were a lot of weird things in this house: every piece of furniture had some kind of animal theme; the walls and shelves were cluttered with clocks; and all the digital clocks had a weird crack just before the final digit. There was even a random circular hole drilled in the study wall.
As expected of an eccentric old clockmaker.
But the weirdest thing? The clocks.
Every day at exactly 11 o'clock, every single clock in the villa—regardless of type—would ring out at once. Deafening.
Also: the cuckoo clock in the study. It was special.
Normally, cuckoo clocks have cute little birds that chirp out the hour.
This one? Nope.
This one only chimed at noon.
And instead of a bird, the clock's little window burst open to reveal three grotesque demon heads, each labeled with a letter: R, N, and L—from right to left.
They didn't chirp. They screeched. Like, horror movie screeched.
Jiangxia, as usual, remained completely unfazed. But his ghosts were intrigued. They floated over to examine the clock like curious undergrads in a haunted museum.
When noon struck, the demons popped out—musclebound, grotesque little Western-style devils. Not even close to the cute Q-ball ghosts Jiangxia usually kept around.
The mermaid shikigami had been politely observing until BAM—demon triplets to the face. Her scales practically popped off in shock.
She retaliated by chasing the evil clock gremlins around the room, swinging her tail like a broom of justice.
Miyano Akemi tried to stop her, but the mermaid was on a mission. So instead, Akemi picked up some of the mermaid's leftover murderous aura, shaped it into a small sphere, and flicked it at the cuckoo clock with a sigh. Teamwork.
Ugly or not, the clock demons weren't just for show. They delivered crucial hints.
Amuro and Conan stared at the clock. With a little help from Jiangxia's earlier spoilers, the pieces clicked together:
"Eleven o'clock and all the animal furniture… that matches the lion head ring on the front door," Amuro muttered. "The cuckoo clock's message is: 'Right,' 'Light,' 'Night.' So the clue is probably: 'At night, shine a light on the lion's head ring on the right.'"
Conan had figured it out too. But as a "first-grader," all he could do was nod gravely beside him. Internally, he sighed: I miss being Kudo Shinichi. I miss adults taking me seriously. I miss not having to pretend I like apple juice.
The goatee and parted hair men shared a silent look of glee.
Parted hair looked ready to wrap this up and take out the detectives with his gun hand (currently disguised as a plaster cast).
But Goatee was more cautious.
He discreetly stopped his partner and turned to the detectives with a warm smile: "Why don't we all check it out together after dark? My grandfather was very into secret mechanisms. I bet it'll be an incredible show once it starts. Oh—and of course, we'll pay your commission."
*Goal #1: Top 200 fanfics published within the last 31 - 90 days by POWER STONES.
Progress: 12/60(approx) for 10 BONUS CHAPTERS
Goal #2: One BONUS CHAPTER per review for the first 10 REVIEWS.
Progress:2/10*