After all that effort, not only did they fail to find Chikako Ikeda, but the group also stumbled into even worse news.
—The suspension bridge had been cut.
When they tried to call the police for help, they discovered the phone line was also dead.
With all contact to the outside world cut off, the atmosphere inside the villa instantly grew tense.
As the host, Ayako Suzuki tried to stay upbeat. She dug out a deck of poker cards and suggested everyone keep themselves distracted until morning. Once it was light out, they could hike over the back of the mountain and find a village on the other side to borrow a phone.
At that moment, Takahashi Ryoichi glanced upstairs, grabbed the toolbox, and said he'd fix the broken window on the second floor—just in case the "Bandage Man" decided to sneak back in.
Jangxia Tongzhi watched him go. After returning from the woods, Jangxia had immediately noticed that Takahashi's murderous aura had significantly weakened.
Also, there was now an extra shikigami perched on Takahashi's leg.
Clearly, this guy had finished the deed.
…
The second-floor balcony stretched in a long strip.
Under the pretense of fixing windows, Takahashi was actually setting up a trap.
He first pulled Chikako Ikeda's severed head out from under his clothes and mounted it on an inflatable doll dressed like a "Bandage Man". At first glance, it would look like the Bandage Man was cradling Chikako Ikeda in his arms.
A thin wire was tied to the doll's head.
Soon, once he swung this grotesque combo past the first-floor window using the wire, it would appear as if the Bandage Man was escaping with Chikako Ikeda.
Then Takahashi could pull the dummy back with the wire, stash it under his clothes, join the search party pretending to chase after the Bandage Man, sneak into the forest, ditch the head, stuff some rags around, and "accidentally" stumble upon the dismembered corpse of Chikako Ikeda.
That way, he and the Bandage Man would've been seen at the same time, giving him a solid alibi and letting him walk away clean.
Standing on the balcony, Takahashi checked the wire and mentally walked through his whole "genius" plan.
After finishing the setup, he casually strolled along the balcony to the central part of the second floor, which was open to the living room below, separated only by a railing.
Ayako Suzuki looked up and called out, "Come down and have some soup, I just made it."
Takahashi gave her a nod.
He took a step as if to go down, then suddenly spun around and shouted toward the darkness outside, "Who's there?!"
"What happened?!" The others tensed and looked up at him.
Jangxia put down his cards and stood up.
On the second floor, Takahashi's voice trembled: "Someone's outside!"
While the others ran to the window, Takahashi took the chance to sneak over to the railing and push his Bandage Man dummy down on its wire.
The "Bandage Man" swung past the window with "Chikako Ikeda" in its arms, prompting a round of horrified gasps.
Takahashi grinned, smug.
He reached for the wire to reel it back in—but just then, a hand shot out from the window.
Jangxia had grabbed the corner of the Bandage Man's robe.
The doll froze mid-air.
Takahashi, gripping the other end of the wire, stared blankly down at the scene, his brain buzzing.
—What the hell!?
The others ran to the window, crowding around Jangxia to help stop the "Bandage Man".
Takahashi panicked. His mind blank, he instinctively yanked on the wire, trying to pull the puppet and head back up before anyone noticed they weren't real.
The moment the wire pulled taut, Takahashi realized—
He'd just done something monumentally stupid.
But it was too late to fix it. At that exact moment, Jangxia let go.
The wire, now fully taut, snapped the Bandage Man doll upward unnaturally fast—right in full view of everyone.
The group stared, horrified. Their eyes followed the wire right up to…
Takahashi Ryoichi.
Silence.
Then Jangxia reached out and tugged the inflatable leg back down.
He lifted the doll's head.
The steel wire let out a low metallic hum—"zheng––".
And in that moment, everyone understood exactly how the "Bandage Man" had moved.
Takahashi Ryoichi's face turned chalk white as Jangxia said softly, "Mr. Takahashi, what is this?"
The younger man's tone was respectful, almost friendly, not aggressive at all.
But to Takahashi, it landed like a bomb, shattering any last scraps of hope.
—In the middle of the night, a doll swinging past could look convincingly real.
—But now, under the bright lights and close inspection of a dozen people?
Yeah, not so much.
Realizing the game was up, Takahashi bolted for the door.
But before he could make it, Jangxia tackled him from behind.
Jangxia glanced at the soul crouching on Takahashi's lap, and the leftover bits of murderous aura that still lingered—especially some dark sparks pointed at Ran.
He happily reached for his stick.
The aura was mediocre, sure, but hey—as the saying goes, even a mosquito is still meat.
…
The next day, a few of the boys climbed over the mountain and found a villager to call the police.
By noon, Takahashi Ryoichi—now stripped of all his "genius"—was being loaded into a police helicopter.
The officers had been mentally prepared for a violent suspect. After all, the guy had dismembered a corpse.
But when they actually saw him?
Takahashi burst into tears the moment he saw the police. Not only did he not resist, he practically ran to them like they were his long-lost family.
The officers were baffled. No resistance? Not even a struggle?
They could only assume the murderer had… suddenly grown a conscience.
They cheerfully flew Takahashi away and stayed behind to comfort the villa's traumatized guests.
Spending a whole night locked in with a deranged corpse-carver couldn't have been easy.
…
The others quickly hitchhiked out of the nightmare villa on the police transport.
On the way down the mountain, everyone was moody—except Jangxia and Conan.
Suzuki Ayako started burning up with a fever, clearly rattled by everything.
Jangxia looked at her pale face and reflected a little. Maybe he should've called the cops before dramatically ripping the head off that inflatable…
Compared to her, Suzuki Sonoko and Mouri Ran seemed to be holding up much better.
Maybe it was because they'd grown up around Kudo Shinichi and kept running into murder scenes like this. Over time, they'd developed a mild immunity to gore.
Still, even they looked downcast.
Ran and Sonoko kept glancing over at Jangxia with guilty expressions.
Eventually, one of them whispered, "Sorry… we just wanted to hang out and relax… we didn't expect…"
Didn't expect that every time they brought Jangxia somewhere, someone would end up dead. One attempt, one dismemberment—really rounded out the experience.
Jangxia glanced at them, a creeping anxiety building in his heart.
If this kept happening, what if they stopped inviting him to these murder hangouts altogether?
…Terrifying thought.
He couldn't let that happen.
"Don't blame yourselves," Jangxia said, trying to remember some motivational quotes he'd once been force-fed. "Although it's a pity to lose a life… being able to uncover the truth and help the victims—it makes me feel like I have value."
In other words: he had no trauma around murder scenes.
Please keep inviting him.
*Goal #1: Top 200 fanfics published within the last 30 days by POWER STONES.
Progress: 33/50(approx) for 10 BONUS CHAPTERS*