In the morning, Jangxia Tongzhi arrived at the detective agency, as per his usual routine. He lined up the newly received cat and dog cages and began sorting out the points.
Also, the previous assignment regarding the money-lending collateral had expired. Jangxia glanced at the register and called the clients one by one.
After posting a few notices about cats and dogs, someone came to the door.
Jangxia looked up and saw the client who had asked him to keep an eye on some collateral.
The client had just visited Mrs. Maru to repay the money and retrieve the mortgaged pottery. Now, she had come by the detective agency to settle the balance.
She looked especially happy to have the pottery back.
After paying for the service, she handed Jangxia a beautiful little card with shiny gold lettering.
"This is the shop my friend works at. They've relocated recently, and they gave us some experience coupons. I really don't have the time to go there myself, but if you're interested, feel free to check it out."
After she left, Jangxia looked at the experience ticket in his hand.
It wasn't uncommon for clients to hand out random coupons like this. Usually, it was just a way to advertise, given to the right person at the right moment.
At this point, Jangxia's business card holder was already stuffed with experience tickets from various openings—mostly for restaurants, a few for game halls, all of which had been passed along to the hardworking assistants. But this one was different—it was for a pottery class.
Jangxia initially planned to toss it into his cardholder after a quick glance.
However, when he saw the word "Izu" on the address, his interest was piqued.
Izu was a famous seaside destination, a couple of hours' drive from Tokyo.
Jangxia wasn't particularly interested in the beach, but he remembered that in this world, Izu was a hotspot for accidents. Every time Conan and the others went to the beach there, they seemed to encounter some murder mystery ripe for "ghosts" to get involved in.
Hmm... he thought. Maybe I'll skip school tomorrow and drop this experience ticket at Mouri Ran or Sonoko Suzuki's feet and see what happens.
As he pondered this, XiaoBai suddenly nudged him and pointed to the back.
Jangxia turned around and saw Amuro standing at the entrance of the office, eyeing the experience ticket in his hand.
"The pottery studio of Kikuemon?" Amuro asked.
Jangxia was startled.
After a moment, he remembered that Toru Amuro was more or less part of the protagonist group, so he probably had some kind of event magnetism.
He handed over the experience ticket, asking tentatively, "Have you heard of this place?"
"Yeah, this is the shop 'Kikuemon' is advertising," Amuro replied, inspecting the card.
Seeing Jangxia's interest, he added, "'Kikuemon' isn't a person's name, but a title. Anyone who earns it is a national treasure-level pottery master.
"'Kikuemon' has been passed down to the fifth generation, and the current owner, Tsuchiya Mankichi, is nearly 80 years old. The pottery studio has been undergoing renovations... It seems fewer and fewer people are learning the craft. He wants to create a prestigious place to attract apprentices."
"...I didn't expect there was so much history behind this experience ticket," Jangxia muttered to himself.
But what struck him as odd was how much Amuro knew. Pottery wasn't exactly a popular hobby, and even though Bourbon was good at gathering intelligence, it seemed strange that he'd remember the actual name of the fifth-generation "Kikuemon."
Something's fishy here...
And when there's something fishy, there's usually a ghost somewhere nearby.
Amuro noticed Jangxia's eyes narrowing and, recalling his usual spoiler-like deductions, didn't hide anything: "There is indeed a related task. I'm actually planning to use the coupon myself."
Jangxia nodded.
Then he pulled out his phone and started searching.
Kikuemon was well-known, and there was plenty of information about him online.
Recently, there was indeed a pottery experience class under this name, but it wasn't opened by Kikuemon himself. It was run by his younger brother, Mino Souyuki.
Mino had actually opened the store more than a decade ago, but it had always been low-profile. Recently, however, Kikuemon had urged his brother to renovate the place and make several improvements.
So, the shop was still in its trial operation phase.
The experience coupons that the client had given Jangxia weren't just random advertising, but actual limited "experience coupons," not for sale.
Jangxia stared at the news, then looked at the two names, and suddenly regretted his decision.
If I'd known all of this, I wouldn't have just nodded along earlier.
*Goal #1: Top 200 fanfics published within the last 30 days by POWER STONES.
Progress: 8/50(approx) for 10 BONUS CHAPTERS*