When Jiangxia got home, he found a courier truck parked outside his house.
His first thought was that Sherry had sent another strange supplement.
So, out of habit, he almost rejected it.
But then he noticed something odd—the sender's info had changed.
No longer the usual "S" from Sherry's English name. Now it read "Hanako." Xiaobai flapped over and perched on the tightly sealed package, peering down at it.
But the box and its contents were so snugly packed together that even Xiaobai couldn't see inside—just the general shape.
After a moment, Xiaobai pulled its head out and started waving its arms around, trying to communicate.
Unfortunately, Jiangxia had no idea what it was trying to say.
"…Suspicious. Very suspicious."
Still, curiosity won out. Jiangxia signed for the parcel.
It had been a full year since he arrived in the Detective Conan universe, and aside from the Miyano sisters, no one had ever sent him anything by mail.
Now, out of nowhere, someone had? It was impossible not to be curious.
Best case scenario: a potential client had seen the news about one of his solved cases and sent a request.
Worst case: a criminal mailed him a random box filled with dangerous goods, maybe even a gas bomb.
But whatever it was, Jiangxia figured it wouldn't be a problem for a psychic like him.
He brought the package inside, took it to the basement, and ran it through the inspection machine—no trace of explosives.
He stored it in a sealed compartment just in case.
Then Jiangxia left the basement, headed to the room farthest from it, and closed the curtains.
Once isolated from the outside world, he turned around. Several pieces of shikigami burst from his palm, swirling together into a chunky, oversized Puppet.
Thanks to his growing shikigami army, the summoning process had become quicker and more stable lately.
Jiangxia poked the metaphysical dummy, making sure it was solid, then took a step back, picked up Xiaobai, and yeeted it into the Puppet.
The clay figure was immediately hit with boiling water, and within seconds, it began to bubble and shrink.
When the reaction subsided, a small boy of six or seven stood there.
This puppet was part Jiangxia's soul, part ghost essence—cute and handsome, a very photogenic little guy.
A black "Z" flower pattern bloomed on the left side of the boy's neck—the same place as Xiaobai's tattoo.
Jiangxia admired the result for a few seconds. Then something clicked.
"…Wait, you're a boy ghost?"
He could've sworn Xiaobai had once made a "ying~" sound. At the time, Jiangxia was sure that meant it was a cute little girl.
Tch. He'd been too soft during training last time.
The ghost boy just stood there, blankly, saying nothing.
Jiangxia wasn't surprised.
Even though the body was summoned using metaphysics, it was still too heavy for a weak soul like Xiaobai to control properly.
Throwing a ghost fetus into the Puppet "activates" it as a proper human-like body, but Xiaobai didn't have enough energy to actually use it.
So Jiangxia had to take over the controls himself.
There were two options:
Remote-control it like a puppet
Possess it directly—putting on the dummy like a new vest
Each had pros and cons. But for something that required movement, method two was clearly better.
Jiangxia sat down at his desk and shifted his consciousness into the puppet like a ghost slipping into a new skin.
A second later, Jiangxia opened his eyes—now looking out from the body of a small child.
"…." He took a moment to adjust to the lower field of vision, then turned to head down to the basement and finally open the package.
But just as he reached the door, he remembered that sometimes neighbors dropped by unannounced.
So he went back inside.
He climbed up on tiptoe to a slightly elevated bookshelf, grabbed a book, opened it, and propped it up in front of his actual body.
That way, if someone saw his real body sitting there blankly, it would at least look like he was reading and not catatonic.
He stepped back, looked over the setup, and nodded—very natural. With that, he turned and left.
Back in the basement, he entered the sealed compartment, picked up the mysterious courier box, and—without hesitation—ripped it open.
Click.
Two thick bundles of albums tumbled out.
The top one was a title he'd once wanted to buy, but never managed to.
Jiangxia lit up.
"…."
Correction: Xiaobai lit up.
Jiangxia had worn many vests before, so he was used to distinguishing between his own emotions and those of the ghosts riding shotgun.
He reminded Xiaobai: You're a big ghost now. Stay calm. Be cool.
Didn't work.
Jiangxia sighed, swimming in someone else's joy.
Kids really were hard to manage.
I want a mature ghost I can actually talk to...
He resumed his usual daydream about finding a reliable ghost partner while calmly drug-testing and radiation-testing the albums.
All clear.
That confirmed it—probably 80% likely these were from Yoko Kinoshita. Not some terrorist who figured out what kind of albums Jiangxia liked.
As he brought the albums upstairs, Jiangxia suddenly remembered the phrase "mother and son connection."
Maybe Yoko had noticed Xiaobai hadn't had anything new to look at recently and decided to send the albums along with the older one.
In the living room, Jiangxia set the album on the bookshelf beside the TV and released the puppet.
It crumbled instantly into scattered shikigami and a ghost child.
A moment later, everything melted away and vanished.
The ghosts and shikigami returned to the tattoos over Jiangxia's heart, like they were heading back to a respawn point.
———
This story mainly follows the comic version of the Detective Conan universe.
The billion-yen robbery only happened once in the manga. The culprits? Akemi Miyano and her two sketchy accomplices.
*Goal #1: Top 200 fanfics published within the last 30 days by POWER STONES.
Progress: 23/60(approx)*
Glossary
Shikigami – Paper-like spiritual entities used in Japanese mysticism. Jiangxia uses them like building blocks or servants.
Vest – Fanfic slang for a fake identity or body being used temporarily.