Chapter 28: Conan Is Corrupting the Kids Again

"Here is the photo, take a look."

Amidst the expectant gazes of the three children, Hiroki produced a photo of a calico cat and handed it to them.

Boom!

Like a bolt from the blue, the enthusiasm of the trio instantly evaporated.

Suzuki Harumi almost couldn't help but laugh out loud, though the turn of events was well within his expectations. Requests from elementary school students were usually at the level of finding lost cats or walking dogs; a real kidnapping case would certainly never be entrusted to a group of kids.

"Stop joking around. We're very busy; how could we possibly have the time to help you look for a cat?" Genta and Mitsuhiko immediately lost their motivation. Rather than wasting time looking for a cat, they would rather eat a few more chocolate bars.

"You don't need to worry too much. Maybe in a few days, the cat will just come back on its own," Ayumi comforted Hiroki offhandedly, having also lost her earlier excitement.

"How can that be? If you help me find Akira, I'll give you my prized collection of gold Pokémon cards." Hiroki pulled a stack of shimmering gold Pokémon cards from his pocket and said in a tempting tone, "Look, these are my prized cards. I had such a hard time collecting them~"

"Pokémon cards? And they're the super rare gold ones? We'll take this job!"

Seeing the gold cards Hiroki brought out, the trio instantly regained their drive. They pulled the speechless Suzuki Harumi and Conan along to help search for the calico cat.

Since Akira had only gone missing last night, it couldn't have run very far. The group began searching the alleys around Hiroki's house.

After an hour of arduous searching, although they found quite a few stray cats with unusual appearances, they still hadn't found a trace of Akira. However, as Suzuki Harumi followed the group, the passive effect of his "Golden Rule" led him to pick up dozens of coins of various denominations.

Never mind the trio, who were filled with envy, even Conan was a bit jealous of Suzuki Harumi's luck with money. Based on Conan's secret observations, Suzuki Harumi made no active effort to find the money; it was as if the coins simply appeared in front of him. For instance, Suzuki Harumi would kick a pebble casually, and right where the pebble landed, a coin would be lying there.

"Why don't I have luck as good as Harumi's? If this keeps up, we won't have found Akira yet, but Harumi will already be a billionaire." Seeing Suzuki Harumi pick up another 500-yen coin, Genta couldn't help but complain with envy.

"Genta, you're exaggerating too much. This bit of money is still a long way from being a billionaire!" Halfway through his sentence, Mitsuhiko couldn't help but show a look of envy as well. "But if Harumi can pick up this much money every day, it won't be long before he really becomes a billionaire."

Conan muttered to himself, "You two naive little brats. Even if this guy couldn't find money, he'd still become a billionaire in the future." Conan was well aware of how terrifying Suzuki Harumi's background was; the kid was an heir to the Suzuki Group, a natural-born winner.

"Alright, alright~ stop looking at me like that." Suzuki Harumi shrugged. "Everyone has been looking for the cat for so long, you must all be thirsty. How about I use this money to treat everyone to some drinks?"

"Yay!"

Hearing Suzuki Harumi's words, the children cheered and ran to a nearby vending machine, happily picking out their drinks.

"Hiroki, here's a bottle of milk for you." Suzuki Harumi handed Hiroki a bottle of milk and asked with curiosity, "Does your Akira have any special traits? Like, what does it like to eat, or what kind of sound does it make?"

Hiroki thought for a moment and said, "Now that you mention it, Akira is a bit different from other cats. Its meow is very special—it doesn't go 'meow' like a normal cat, but rather 'giegie'."

"Giegie~~"

No sooner had Hiroki finished speaking than a strange cat cry drifted over from not far away.

"That's it! That's the sound."

"...The sound seems to be coming from over there."

Hearing this, the group paused for a moment, then quickly rushed in the direction of the sound, arriving in front of a villa.

"Akira, Akira..."

"Giegie~~"

Hearing Hiroki's call, a calico cat quickly jumped out of the villa's window, but its body was covered in blood.

Luckily, the sun hadn't set yet; otherwise, the children might have been left with psychological trauma after seeing such a thing in the dead of night.

"Why is there so much blood?" the trio asked, their faces filled with worry.

Suzuki Harumi grabbed the running calico cat with quick reflexes and inspected it up and down. "Don't worry, there are no wounds on this cat. This blood isn't its own."

"What?! Could it be..."

Conan's expression changed abruptly. He leaped onto the gate railing and nimbly vaulted into the yard.

"Conan, what happened? Wait for us..." Seeing this, Genta and the others followed suit, climbing over the gate and jumping into the yard.

*Damn it.*

Suzuki Harumi couldn't help but curse. When he watched the anime in the past, he always felt that Genta and the others were holding Conan back, but now it felt like Conan was the one corrupting the trio.

"Hiroki, wait here, I'll go check too." Suzuki Harumi shoved the calico cat into Hiroki's hands, exerted force through his feet, grabbed the top of the gate, and flipped into the yard.

Seeing Suzuki Harumi and the others all jump into the yard, Hiroki scratched his head in confusion and couldn't help but exclaim, "As expected of the Detective Boys, everyone is so amazing!"

"Ahhh..."

When Genta and the others stepped on a trash can and saw the blood-covered corpse slumped in the bathtub through the window, they were terrified out of their wits and ran out screaming. At this point, the Detective Boys were not yet battle-hardened; seeing such a gory corpse with their own eyes was still quite a shock.

"Mr. Ryuichi, it seems the young master and the others have run into some trouble. I'll go check it out first." Seeing the panicked state of the children, Tamaka Kurosaki quickly opened the car door and jogged over. Seeing this, Ryuichi Inoue slowly started the van and moved it toward where the children were.

Under normal circumstances, Tamaka Kurosaki and Ryuichi Inoue would not interfere with Suzuki Harumi's daily activities, but if he were in danger, they had to ensure his safety first.