At Jiangxia's instruction, the mermaid ghost swam through the air into the trunk for a look.
A moment later, she floated back, flicked her tail, and reported to Jiangxia that there was indeed a little girl inside.
As she spoke, the mermaid raised her tiny hand to her head, forming a half-circle gesture—like she was pretending to wear a hairband.
Jiangxia: "…"
Same size. Same hairband.
Could it really be Ayumi Yoshida in their trunk…?
Jiangxia quickly ran through his earlier car conversation with Amuro Tooru and the stops they'd made to pick up wedding materials. He remembered that Amuro had only mentioned Matsumoto Kiyonaga and some organization business at the very start of the trip.
After that, nothing sensitive had come up—Amuro wasn't exactly the chatty type when it came to the organization anyway.
As for Ayumi, she definitely hadn't been in the car from the beginning. She must've climbed in during the chaos back at Beika Park.
Which meant... she hadn't heard anything compromising.
…Good. That saves some brain cells from being fried making up excuses.
Next step: just get Ayumi out of the trunk, and this whole mess should quietly resolve itself.
Jiangxia sighed.
This time, he didn't even have to agonize over whether to follow Amuro Tooru to collect killing intent or tag along with Conan to harvest ghosts. Because today, Conan didn't bring any ghosts with him… ptui, lazy Death God.
…
Jiangxia didn't directly break it to Amuro Tooru with a "Hey, there's a kid in our trunk."
Instead, he glanced at him, lowered his voice, and took a more oblique route: "When I was on the phone just now, I heard some static."
Amuro Tooru's expression changed slightly. He caught the subtext immediately. Scanning the surroundings, he pulled out a portable signal detector—same one he'd used when they first got in the car.
Jiangxia didn't stop him. A normal person wouldn't carry something like that, sure. But a private detective? Totally reasonable. Especially when there were two private detectives in this car. Even if Ayumi caught a glimpse, she probably wouldn't get too suspicious.
Amuro had only meant to do a casual sweep. But as soon as the device powered on, its signal lights flared dramatically—there was a foreign signal source nearby.
It wasn't precise, just somewhere… in the rear.
Amuro's face subtly shifted. He had scanned the car back when they left the wedding company, and everything had been clean. So now—suddenly—an extra signal?
Hard not to spiral into conspiracy theories. Like maybe someone had planted a transmitter to spy on him or Jiangxia.
The car was still cruising down a one-way road with no shoulder to pull over.
Amuro gripped the steering wheel tightly, shot Jiangxia a look, and jerked his chin toward the back—check it out.
Jiangxia nodded solemnly. He shifted the flower pot sitting in the back, unbuckled his seatbelt, and climbed over into the rear seat to inspect the old cushions more closely.
He paused, deep in thought.
Given how noisy this car was, someone in the trunk probably couldn't hear the front-seat conversations too clearly.
But from Conan's earlier call, it was obvious the brat pack already knew that "Jiangxia and Ayumi were in the same car."
So maybe Ayumi had seen him somewhere along the way…
Now that the flower pot wasn't in the way, and with the closer angle, Jiangxia quickly spotted a crack.
He leaned in—and immediately locked eyes with a large, watery pair staring out at him.
The eyes widened in terror. And then, as if she'd seen a monster, Ayumi Yoshida's eyes rolled back. She fainted on the spot and collapsed inside the trunk.
Jiangxia: "…"
He leaned closer to the crack again and used the ghost's night vision to confirm: yep, Ayumi Yoshida.
…Was he that terrifying? Among the three detective kids, she'd used to be the least afraid of him.
Sigh. Children's affections truly are yinbi-level unreliable.
Jiangxia turned to Amuro and calmly reported, "There's someone in the trunk. I saw an eye."
Amuro's grip on the wheel visibly tightened. He glanced over, frown deepening.
He'd only asked Jiangxia to check for a bug or transmitter. Who would've expected a whole person?
At that moment, a long-forgotten memory resurfaced.
—His spare tires. They always went flat while sitting in the trunk.
Now, suddenly… a person in the trunk?
In a flash of tinfoil-hat logic, Amuro's mind jumped to a horrifying theory—what if the mysterious thing that had been destroying his tires wasn't a "thing" but a person?!
The idea of a "tire-gnawing person in the trunk" was both absurd and terrifying—completely beyond the range of normal reasoning. And somehow, that just made it worse.
In fact, humans could be scarier than any monster. Especially one who could chew through rubber tires.
…Wait. To gnaw through a tire, you'd need inhumanly sharp teeth. But maybe it wasn't teeth. Maybe they just used a tool… one that left tooth-like marks…
A thousand cursed thoughts flickered through Amuro's mind like lightning. But his face remained poker-straight. He calmly pressed the hidden gun at his side, started looking for a place to pull over, and warned Jiangxia: "Back up. Don't get too close to the backseat."
Jiangxia, remembering the innocent little Ayumi currently passed out cold, replied, "…It's fine. Judging from the eyes, it's just a kid. Probably one who climbed in by accident."
"A kid…" Amuro muttered—and immediately recalled the little boy who had assaulted him with anesthetic in a hotel not long ago.
Several keywords began smashing into each other in his head—child, trunk, knockout syringe—and his expression turned even darker.
His voice sharpened: "Get back. Away from the back seat!"
That last kid had an injection. Who knows what this one's carrying…
And it wasn't just that. The strange child from before had appeared and disappeared like a shikigami. But this time, they were just lying there… waiting… spotted by Jiangxia…
It felt like one of those moments in horror movies when an innocent civilian sees something they shouldn't have—and immediately gets targeted by the monster.
Jiangxia: "…?"
He didn't understand why the phrase "there's a child in the trunk" triggered Amuro Tooru like a trauma switch. But whatever. If he didn't get it, he'd just roll with it.
After a pause, Jiangxia obediently climbed back into the passenger seat.
*Goal #1: Top 200 fanfics published within the last 31 - 90 days by POWER STONES.
Progress: 36/60(approx) for 10 BONUS CHAPTERS
Goal #2: One BONUS CHAPTER per review for the first 10 REVIEWS.
Progress:2/10*