hotmtlnovel Page 213
Page 213
Step, covering his nose with a look of disgust.
"Ugh... This middle-aged man who drinks alcohol, I never expected it to be a Kogoro Mouri story!"
Dou Tang frowned and asked, "Excuse me, are you Mr. Kenno Junki, the head of Jingying Agency?"
The man absentmindedly scratched the back of his head, nodding slightly, whether from sleepiness or just a nod, and mumbled, "Ah, yes, that's right, it is I... hiccup, what brings you here?"
Dou Tang sighed and said, "I was sent by Xingyi."
Kashino was stunned for a moment, then his eyes widened suddenly, and he said, "Mr. Hoshigito?!"
He quickly pulled the door open to make way, nodding and saying, "Please come in! Please come in!"
Dou Tang nodded, took a step forward into the house, and suddenly fell silent. He even waved his hand behind him to stop Mikazuki from continuing forward.
The office in front of me was more than just dirty and messy. Empty bottles were piled on the tables, ashtrays were full of cigarette butts, the air was thick with the smell of alcohol and cigarette smoke, newspapers were haphazardly bundled together and thrown in the corner, and untidy lunch boxes and plastic bags were on the desks...
In short, the scene before me was nothing like what a detective agency should look like.
Dou Tang took a half step back and said in a deep voice, "It seems we've come to the wrong place. Sorry for the intrusion."
Then, Tou-Tang led Mikazuki down the road.
Kashino paused for a moment, then quickly followed, calling out loudly, "Wait, wait! Sir! You've come to the right place! I'm Kashino Junki! This is the Kiyo Sakura Agency!"
Dou Tang walked downstairs, looked back at him, and frowned, saying, "Really? This is a detective agency? But all I saw was a useless person who started drinking and smoking during the day."
Hearing these merciless words, Kenno choked for a moment, his outstretched hand slowly lowering. Finally, he scratched his head, forced a somewhat helpless smile, and said, "Oh dear... I'm so sorry to have made you laugh..."
This person... seems to have given up on himself... Why? How could Xingyi's subordinates have turned out like this?
"Mr. Kashino? What happened to you?!"
Suddenly, a voice came from beside him. Dou Tang turned his head and saw that it was the old lady from before.
At this moment, the old lady looked at Jianye, who looked dejected, and seemed to find it hard to believe. She opened her mouth and said, "How did you become like this?"
Kashino didn't reply, but just smiled awkwardly and scratched his head.
Seeing his expression, Dou Tang clicked his tongue and asked the old lady, "He's not usually like this?"
The old lady seemed to realize that Dou Tang wanted to see Jian Ye, so she quickly said, "Of course not! Mr. Jian Ye used to be... a very positive and reliable person!"
Dou Tang looked at Jian Ye again, and the smile on Jian Ye's face gradually faded, turning into a helpless sadness.
Dou Tang pondered for a moment, then had an idea and said, "It seems you've encountered something. Would you mind telling me about it?"
Jianye looked troubled, watching Doutang hesitate.
"If you can't make up your mind, then you'll just have to bear the difficulties yourself and numb yourself with alcohol and tobacco," Mikazuki suddenly said sarcastically.
Kashino's face instantly turned bright red. Looking at Mikazuki and Toudou, he finally lowered his head and sighed.
A moment later, the three of them were already sitting in the old lady's shop.
Kashino held his teacup and said, "My matter... you probably can't help me."
To be honest, Dou Tang really didn't want to help, but for some reason, he always felt that things about Jian Ye might not be so simple.
Seeing that Dou Tang remained persistent, Jian Ye sighed and said, "My daughter... seems to have eloped with someone."
"And with someone who looks like a little kid..."
After hearing this, Mikazuki hissed, frowned, and looked at Toudou with disbelief, saying, "Oh no, Ran Mouri eloped with Conan?!"
Kashino Asakazuki cast a resentful glance at him.
Dou Tang coughed twice and said, "Please don't mind her, she always talks like that. Just ignore her and continue."
Kakino nodded, then continued, "A few days ago, my daughter's cat went missing, so she went out to look for it. She didn't come back for several days, and she brought back a little boy, asking if she could take him in."
"How could this be? Of course I chose to call the police first, but after Rouzi found out I called the police, she actually eloped with that little boy that very night..."
Overcome with grief, he slammed his fist on the table in anger, shouting, "Damn it! Who is that little boy?!"
“Perhaps his surname is Kudo…” Mikazuki whispered again.
"How come I never noticed you were such a chatterbox before..." Dou Tang reached out and pinched Mikazuki's cheek.
However... the cat went missing, followed by the little boy... Dou Tang looked Mikazuki up and down, realizing that this guy was originally a cat demon as well.
Noticing Dou Tang's gaze, Mikazuki proudly puffed out his chest, as if he were quite proud of his inappropriate吐槽 (tu cao, a Chinese internet slang term for sarcastic or critical remarks).
Dou Tang, however, was thinking about something else entirely.
If that cat turned into a little boy... then everything makes sense.
Chapter 11 From this moment on, I am the cold-faced detective
Dou Tang never expected that he would come across information about monsters turning into humans so quickly.
If this is true, it's actually not a good thing. Just think, even a normally run detective agency has encountered this kind of incident.
How many more of these kinds of things will happen in Urayasu City?
Dou Tang didn't think that what he encountered was just a simple coincidence.
After listening to Jianye's account, Doutang asked, "So, what are your daughter's physical characteristics? And what about that little boy? Please provide us with this information."
Kenno looked at Toudou with some suspicion and said, "Although Mr. Hoshino told me that you came here... to become the agency's new detective."
"But...you're planning to...start investigating the case as soon as you get here?"
It's no wonder that Kashino would think that way. This place was originally intended to be an intelligence gathering point and safe house for the Morning Star Group. It was located on an inconspicuous commercial street, with little reputation and a low profile... It was never operated as a detective agency at all.
This new detective, who seems quite young and has just arrived, actually got into the zone right away and wanted to investigate the case.
Dou Tang raised an eyebrow and asked in return, "Is it because of the special nature of your firm that you dare not call the police?"
"If you're afraid to call the police and don't have the ability to go out and search for your daughter, why don't you ask us for help?"
Upon hearing this, Kashino nodded somewhat dejectedly.
Because he was hiding his identity as a member of the Morning Star Group, this so-called safe house would be exposed once the police found out about his daughter's disappearance.
Dou Tang continued, "I remember that Xingyi people also have official connections here. Why don't you contact them?"
Kakino shook his head, his tone somewhat helpless: "The team leader does have connections here, but that police officer has been transferred to another area. If it's just a missing person case, he can't help."
“Then we’ll investigate ourselves.” Tou Tang picked up his teacup and took a sip. He reached for the Japanese sweets on the side, only to find that Mikazuki had already devoured them all.
Dou Tang looked at the smelly cat licking its fingers with a helpless expression.
Mikazuki pouted and said, "I couldn't eat it before, so what's wrong with eating more now?"
That's true. When Mikazuki was still a cat, his diet was strictly controlled by Akina, and he was not allowed to eat any oily or sugary foods.
Kenno then told Doutang everything about his daughter, Rouko, down to the details of which moles she had.
Dou Tang awkwardly touched his nose to hide his embarrassment: "There's no need to say even this..."
Mikazuki slammed his fist on the table: "What a perverted old man! At his age, he still remembers where his high school daughter has moles and birthmarks?!"
Kenno retorted, his neck stiff with shrug, "That's something I remembered from when I was a kid! From when I was a kid!"
Dou Tang waved his hand to stop the two: "Alright, enough nonsense. Let's start the investigation right away. Mr. Jianye, please arrange accommodation for us. We'll be inconvenienced for the next few days."
Kashino immediately placed his hands on his knees, bowed in accordance with the rules of the Yakuza, and said in a loud voice, "This is what I should do!"
After finishing his bow, he glanced at Dou Tang again, then lowered his head once more, this time bowing even lower, and said in a low voice, "I also entrust my daughter's matter to you."
Mikazuki glanced at Toudou, seemingly somewhat worried.
The two followed Kashino back to the office. The back part of the office had a room that could be used as a safe house, as well as a back door and two beds. It was just right for the two of them to stay here for the time being.
As for luggage... Tou-tang and Mikazuki didn't care; they could just buy new ones here.
After settling everything in, Dou Tang said goodbye to Jian Ye, and the two went straight out the door.
"The last place that girl was seen was at school... It seems we need to go to her school to look for clues," Dou Tang muttered.
Mikazuki said somewhat discontentedly, "We just got here and we've already taken on this kind of job. Have you thought about what we'll do if we can't find it? Or what if it has nothing to do with yokai at all, and it's just a normal elopement? No matter what the outcome, we're wasting our time."
Dou Tang sighed, stood by the roadside and looked back at Mikazuki: "This matter is a bit strange."
"Think about it, his daughter has been missing for three days, and why has Kenno been drinking and going out to look for her without any help? Even though the official forces here are of no help to Hoshigi, why doesn't he ask the group for help?"
Mikazuki pondered for a moment, then hesitated and said, "Is he lying to us?"
"I don't know." Dou Tang shook his head, turned around and continued walking forward. "But I'm sure there's more to this than meets the eye. He's probably hiding some information from us, but he should also realize that we're not ordinary people."
Mikazuki quickly caught up, scratching his head: "What you're saying is so confusing. If he's hiding it from us but can tell we're not ordinary people... he wants to lure us into a trap?"
"It's probably not to lure us into a trap, but rather that he encountered some obstacles or difficulties on his investigation journey, and therefore wanted to see what we could do... As for what he was hiding, perhaps he was afraid that we would abandon the investigation if we found out."
Mikazuki looked puzzled: "You... how come I never knew you were such a vivid imagination? Just because of something like this, you've come up with so much? And you're hiding information because you're afraid we'll give up or something..."
“This mentality is very common.” Dou Tang sighed helplessly, continuing as they walked, “I’ve encountered many before. Because they’re afraid the evil spirits are too powerful and they’ll give up, they deliberately conceal some information about the evil spirits to appear weaker… Their motivation might be that they hope the exorcist won’t abandon them.”
They don't care, but sometimes this can actually kill exorcists and increase the power of evil spirits.
"Before?" Mikazuki frowned, savoring the word. "Didn't your power only appear after the 'New Era'?"
Dou Tang realized he had let something slip, so he quickly covered it up by saying, "I know other exorcists, you know, right? The one named Lu Zizhen."
Mikazuki nodded with a hint of disbelief, then quickly took two steps to walk alongside Toudou.
Yuko Kashino's school wasn't far from here. The two walked along the street for a while and turned a few corners before arriving.
When Tou Tang saw the school, he took out his phone and started recording something. Mikazuki leaned over to take a look and saw that it recorded how many corners they had passed, what prominent landmarks they had seen along the way, and even which prominent tall buildings could be seen in the distance.
"Why are you memorizing this?" Mikazuki said with a smile, "You're actually starting to look like a detective! But I think you're missing a pair of eyes; your current appearance is too cold."
Dou Tang pressed his middle finger to his brow, as if there were invisible glasses there, and said coldly, "From now on, I am the cold-faced detective."
"Pfft, hahaha..."
Chapter 12 The Fox Demon with a Giant Slime
The two stopped at the entrance of Urayasu Municipal High School.
Mikazuki clutched his stomach and said, "I'm a little hungry."
Dou Tang suddenly turned his head, frowning: "You brat, we're already at the clue door, and you're telling me you're hungry?"
Mikazuki rubbed his belly and pouted, "I'm a cat, you know. Cats can't really say when they're hungry, right?"
Dou Tang's eye twitched: "But you're a human now..."
The two stood at the school gate. It was a school day, and there was some noise coming from inside the school. They looked at each other and sighed.
Dou Tang said, "You go eat first. I'll call Kenno Yuko's teacher and use my detective identity to contact her and see if there are any clues."
Mikazuki stretched out his hand: "Money!"
Dou Tang clenched his fists slightly, trying his best to suppress the urge to pet the cat, and casually tossed her some money from his wallet.
Mikazuki nodded and laughed, "Hehe, then I'll go eat first. Don't worry, I'll bring you a bento."
Dou Tang waved her hand with a forced smile, starting to wonder if she had made a mistake by bringing the stinky cat along. Ever since she said those things to Nurarihyon's house, this stinky cat had started to become arrogant... and it was getting more and more arrogant, with absolutely no self-awareness.
Watching Mikazuki skip and disappear around the street corner, Tou Tang shook his head and picked up his phone.
………………
After estimating that he was out of Dou Tang's perception range, Mikazuki let out a long breath, jumped up onto the low wall, and then jumped again, grabbing the eaves of a detached house and leaping onto the roof.
At the school gate, she sensed an aura that was very similar to her own, or more precisely, very similar to her current self, and very familiar.
Without a doubt, although the aura had faded considerably since he was no longer in demon form, it was undoubtedly the aura of his friend.
It's the scent of the fox spirit from Otome Yuri.
This aura wasn't resentful, so Tou Tang couldn't sense it. Mikazuki also subconsciously didn't want Tou Tang to get involved, since Otome Yuri had developed a strange obsession with Fall Guys since the last incident.
If Otome Yuri were to discover that Toudou is actually Fall Guys, I'm afraid... that little fox would do some really bizarre things.
Although it seems that even if that guy turned into a human, he wouldn't have much of an advantage against the guys around Dou Tang, but... Mikazuki is a cat.
Will a cat like it when its owner gets a new pet?
I don't want to for at least three days.
The buildings in Urayasu City are all quite short, and the surrounding area is full of two-story detached houses. The distance between these houses is not large, and with Mikazuki's superhuman physique, he can easily jump to the roof of the next building.
Following the scent of lilies, she arrived at a long apartment building.
Japan has a unique type of apartment building: a two-story old-style apartment building. These buildings are usually built by landowners and rented out after completion. They were a common form of rental housing in Japan in the past, but were later replaced by more modern high-rise apartment buildings.