Chapter 24: Young Man, You Are Possessed

When Jiang Xia left the police station.

The Ghost Infant dragged a leg-style shikigami, roughly its own size, and scurried over to his side with a *da-da* sound.

—With the curator arrested, the resentment of the leg-style shikigami had dissipated significantly; it could now be pulled off its leg in one complete piece.

Jiang Xia walked out of the Metropolitan Police Department and turned into a small alley.

Taking advantage of the lack of people around, he bent down and picked up both the Ghost Infant and the shikigami.

As the curator entered custody, the shikigami's obsession had faded.

Now, it was merely a soulless paper shikigami.

Collecting a shikigami was not as troublesome as collecting a ghost fetus.

Jiang Xia pricked his fingertip and casually pressed a bead of blood onto it.

A smear of blood appeared on the shikigami, which quickly turned from bright red to black, finally swirling and solidifying into a stylized "Z" mark.

Jiang Xia held the newly acquired ghost for a moment, inspecting it before stowing it into the tattooed space over his heart.

He had a ghost fetus, he had killing intent, and now he had a shikigami.

Though all were in small quantities, moving from nothing to something was a qualitative change—a breakthrough.

Jiang Xia exhaled a cloud of mist, pulled up his trench coat collar, and walked down the cold street with an expressionless face, feeling that the future was bright.

—After hanging around this world for so long, he finally looked a bit like what a medium ought to look like.

...

Jiang Xia had originally thought that the other leg-style shikigami, which lacked sufficient evidence, would take a while to reach a resolution.

To his surprise, when he woke up the next day, while debating whether to attend class or go to the agency for his shift.

The Metropolitan Police Department called to inform him that the murder case he had taken over from the neighboring detective had reached a conclusion—the police had found the evidence.

After listening, Jiang Xia hung up the phone with a sense of gratification.

Boss Amuro was truly useful.

...

With this matter settled, Jiang Xia no longer had to agonize over his schedule for the day.

He headed straight to the police station to handle the follow-up of the case.

Upon arriving at the Metropolitan Police Department, Jiang Xia followed his routine of releasing the Ghost Infant to wander around and see if there was any stray killing intent or shikigami.

He himself found a bench to sit on and looked to his side.

An acquaintance was sitting there.

—The neighboring detective who had provided the clues for the murder case had also arrived.

...

After the two finished their statements.

As the officer was organizing the signed documents, the neighboring detective looked at Jiang Xia and shook the newspaper in his hand.

Then, amidst the rustling of paper, he laughed: "It looks like I'm about to have a Great Detective for a neighbor."

Jiang Xia: "A Great Detective?"

He turned his head and saw a massive photograph in the newspaper—the person in it was himself.

The background was yesterday's medieval exhibition hall.

Last night, when Jiang Xia was cornered by reporters at the entrance of the exhibition hall, he hadn't said much due to his lack of experience.

But the curator beside him was very talkative. The police did not stop the old curator: in this world, cases weren't particularly confidential.

At that moment, the curator had gazed into the lens, thought for a moment, and proceeded to shower Jiang Xia with praise.

Perhaps he had suddenly realized that the stronger his opponent was, the less embarrassing his loss would be.

...

Additionally, besides the curator, the little girl from the kidnapping case happened to be playing nearby with her father last night.

After the father and daughter encountered the scene, they joined in the excitement and recounted Jiang Xia's heroic feat of saving the hostage, which immediately drew a swarm of reporters demanding more details.

Furthermore, some well-informed media outlets had discovered that Jiang Xia was a classmate of Shinichi Kudo.

Coincidentally, Shinichi Kudo, who had been frequently appearing in the news lately, had gone silent, with even rumors circulating that he had been murdered.

Thus, a sensational hook was born.

—Two high school detective prodigies appearing one after another, and they just happen to be classmates.

Such a coincidence was enough for the media to fabricate enough content to fill several pages.

Jiang Xia: "..."

He took the newspaper from the enthusiastic neighboring detective and read through it with a hint of speechlessness, feeling that the media in this world had quite the imagination.

However, even though he was being framed by the media, if he wanted to increase his reputation in a short time, receive more commissions, and subsequently come into contact with more people who might turn into ghosts after death... he needed a certain level of buzz.

Jiang Xia was different from other high school detectives.

He didn't have hundreds of cases to build his credentials.

But a gimmick like "The Soul of Shinichi Kudo Possessing a Body" could, much like a detective who "suddenly falls asleep at a crime scene to conduct reasoning," make Jiang Xia household-famous quickly due to its uniqueness.

"..." In short, it was complicated; his feelings were complicated.

After reading, Jiang Xia silently returned the newspaper.

Then, pretending to adjust his pant leg, he leaned down to pick up the running Ghost Infant and the leg-style shikigami it had brought back.

...

After finishing the statements, as they were leaving, the officer brought over two envelopes, giving them a special bonus.

It was said that because the victim in the case provided by the neighboring detective had been dumped at a festival and burned publicly in front of many witnesses, the impact was massive. Therefore, successfully solving it deserved a reward.

Listening to this reason, Jiang Xia fell silent for a moment.

As he took the envelope, he felt the rough kraft paper and couldn't help but feel that this money carried the aura of a salary thief.

...

A week later, as expected, the case regarding the festival cremation also made the newspapers.

Looking at his photo in the paper, Jiang Xia thought for a moment, bought several copies of the newspaper, and also bought a scrapbook.

After returning home, he cut out all the stories featuring his name and pasted them one by one into the scrapbook.

He had heard that in this world, many celebrities had the habit of dragging Great Detectives aside to demand stories about solved cases.

So, Jiang Xia planned to create such a collection first.

In the future, if anyone asked, he would simply hand it over for them to read themselves.

Additionally, those reporters had decent photography skills; the photos were actually quite good.

...

The next day, after waking up, Jiang Xia checked the school schedule.

There were no exams today.

Thus, Jiang Xia comfortably skipped class.

Carrying a water flask and gardening shears, he tended to the potted plants in his home and the plants growing in the yard—these were all ingredients that could be used in Ghost Mint.

During the pruning, Jiang Xia picked the ripe fruits and leaves, cut them into appropriately sized pieces, and spread them out in the basement to air-dry.

The ones that were already dried were stored and brought to the living room, rolled into homemade cigarettes, and then placed in airtight containers; the entire process was extremely practiced.

Once finished, Jiang Xia checked the time and found it wasn't even noon yet.

So, he picked up a cage of cats, intending to go sit in the detective agency and wait for clients to walk through the door.