Heading out, Azuma stopped by a nearby convenience store to buy a strawberry cream cake for breakfast. He ate it while walking to school.
"Azuma, morning!"
"Morning!"
"Azuma, want to play basketball this weekend?"
"No thanks, I've got plans with someone."
Along the way, he greeted some familiar classmates—people from junior high or even elementary school—but many weren't in his class anymore.
At the school gate, Azuma ran into Yorita Miko and Yurikawa Hana.
"Morning, Azuma!"
Yorita Miko seemed in a good mood.
"Morning, Azuma-kun!"
Yurikawa Hana smiled as she greeted him, still munching on a rice ball—her fourth one this morning!
"How's today?"
Azuma asked Miko.
She glanced around before saying, "It's pretty good today!"
Hearing this, Azuma nodded. It seemed no evil spirits were clinging to him for now.
Good!
Otherwise, it'd feel like he had some spirit-magnet physique.
Wouldn't that make him just like Yurikawa Hana?
But—
Come to think of it—
With his powerful body, shouldn't his yang energy be so overwhelming that evil spirits would get burned just approaching him?
Why weren't the spirits in this world afraid of his yang energy at all?
Sure enough!
Was it because of the differences in this world?
Azuma's mind wandered as he reached the second-year corridor. There, he parted ways with Yorita Miko and Yurikawa Hana.
Yorita Miko and Yurikawa Hana went to Class C, while Azuma entered Class B's classroom.
Today was Friday.
Yes—
Not Thursday, even though Azuma remembered yesterday as Wednesday.
But today was definitely Friday.
Even his phone showed it as Friday.
So, yeah—
Conan would never get to grow up!
"Morning, Sonoko!"
"Morning, Ran!"
Sitting at his desk, Azuma greeted Sonoko and Ran, who were chatting about gossip nearby.
"Morning, Azuma!"
They greeted him back, and then Sonoko pulled him over, the three of them diving into gossip.
Sonoko's gossip was about recent events in the entertainment industry.
"Miss Yoko's situation is so sad. It wasn't even her fault, and now her agency's shelving her!"
Ran said with a pained expression, feeling bad for Okino Yoko.
Sonoko had just mentioned that her cousin, who runs an entertainment company, visited yesterday. Curious, she'd asked him about industry gossip.
Her cousin told her that because someone died—and it was Okino Yoko's ex-boyfriend from her school days—her agency had shelved her.
"That's how the entertainment world is. If you can't bring profit to the company, or worse, cause negative impact, getting shelved is totally normal," Azuma said.
He knew plenty about showbiz from his past life.
"But Okino Yoko really got unlucky."
No kidding!
She'd paid Fujie Akiyoshi three times to shut him up, but that greedy lunatic still ended up killing himself in her house.
Pure mental case!
If Okino Yoko could redo it, she'd probably never date anyone in her school days again.
"And there's more!" Sonoko added. "Ran, didn't you say it was Ikezawa Yuko sneaking into Miss Yoko's place? My cousin said Ikezawa Yuko's in trouble now too. Everyone in the industry knows about her tricks, and someone ratted her out."
"Now all her jobs are on hold—she's probably getting shelved too!"
Hearing that Ikezawa Yuko was also getting sidelined, Ran didn't feel much sympathy for her.
After all—
She was clearly in the wrong here.
And compared to the pure, sweet image of Okino Yoko, Ikezawa Yuko's mature, cool persona didn't leave a great first impression with Ran.
"Do wrong, and you pay the price," Azuma concluded.
Sonoko and Ran nodded, agreeing with him.
For instance—
"I forgot to do my math homework yesterday."
During first period's math class, Sonoko stared at her blank workbook, her face crumpling.
What now?
The teacher was about to check homework—please don't call on me!
Sonoko prayed inwardly.
But good luck didn't come, and bad luck did—the math teacher picked her.
Watching Sonoko walk to the front like she was heading to her execution, Azuma and Ran couldn't help but laugh.
That's what you get for focusing on gossip and forgetting your homework!
After school, Sonoko reminded Azuma again not to forget tomorrow's plans and not to be late.
"Don't worry, I'll be there early," Azuma said, waving goodbye to Sonoko and Ran before heading in another direction.
At a park—
Azuma arrived right on time and saw Conan and a few other kids gathered, talking about something.
"Perfect timing," Azuma said with a slight smile.
Earlier, before school ended, he'd overheard Conan and his friends planning to meet at the park. Teitan Elementary let out earlier than Teitan High.
So by the time Azuma got there after school, Conan and the others had already gone home, dropped off their bags, and were discussing what to play.
But before they could decide—
They picked up a map clearly covered in ciphers.
And so—
These thrill-seeking kids started following the map's coded instructions to search!
Azuma watched them dash out of the park and followed along.
Say what you will—these kids had endless energy.
They began searching before dusk and kept going even after it got completely dark.
Finally—
After Conan analyzed it and concluded the cipher-writer was Italian, they ended up at a building shaped like the kanji for "sun."
Looking out the building's windows—
Conan indeed found the fish pattern marked on the map.
"Then the treasure should be up there!"
Conan looked up at the ceiling.
Genta even grabbed a flashlight and shone it upward—nothing!
"Huh? Why's there nothing?"
Genta said, disappointed, then gave Conan a skeptical look. "Conan, did you mess up your analysis or what?"
Conan: "…"
Ignoring Genta's doubt, he stared at a spot on the ceiling under the flashlight's beam where something seemed off.
There… it looked like something had been hanging there before.
"So… the treasure was taken already?"
Conan thought to himself.
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