### Chapter 38: The Rice Flower Death Squad
"These problems are piling up all at once."
Fujino stood on the balcony, watching Mieko Shibasaki's departing figure, and sighed deeply.
If he remembered correctly, Mieko Shibasaki was also involved in another case—the karaoke murder case.
The victim in that case was Tatsuya Kimura, whom Mieko had hired him to investigate.
However, the killer wasn't Mieko but Mariko Terahara, the band's manager. Kimura's declared love interest was actually Terahara, but due to misunderstandings, they hadn't confessed their feelings to each other. In the end, Terahara, consumed by hatred after a series of misunderstandings, poisoned Kimura after their final performance...
It was truly a tragedy born out of a misunderstanding...
"This is troublesome."
Fujino scratched the back of his head, feeling a bit of a headache.
Why were the cases he actively encountered becoming more frequent recently? Had he inadvertently acquired some sort of grim reaper's aura?
Fortunately, before a case occurs, there's still room for correction…
As for who referred Mieko to him, Fujino hadn't learned from her. She only vaguely mentioned that the referrer was a well-known popular idol.
From this hint, Fujino's first guess was Yoko Otsuki, as she was the only popular idol among the clients he had handled so far.
As for Yuko Ikeda… he immediately ruled her out. There was no way she would refer business to him after he had extorted her.
It was as if her brain had been pinched by a door!
Fujino shook his head, pushing those thoughts aside.
Business was business, regardless of who referred it.
Turning around, he looked at his somewhat messy bedroom and muttered, "It seems it's time to prioritize setting up the living room. It's really not appropriate to receive clients in the bedroom…"
Meanwhile, in a TV station's break room in Tokyo.
"This is really unfortunate… getting a door slammed on my head during a shoot."
Yuko Ikeda placed an ice pack on her head, sighing. "I hope it doesn't affect the subsequent program shooting."
After removing the ice pack, a sharp pain made her cry out.
...
The next day.
After accepting Mieko Shibasaki's request, Fujino didn't start the investigation immediately. Instead, he went to a furniture store to purchase furniture for his detective office.
As a detective, it was clearly unsuitable to receive clients only in the bedroom...
As the sun set.
"How frustrating!"
Leaving the bank near Tokyo Tower, Fujino, dressed in a black trench coat, complained with a deadpan expression, "They said they wouldn't handle POS machine business for minors. What nonsense."
He had intended to get a mobile POS machine from a familiar bank. However, they refused him, claiming he was a minor!
Damn it!
When he was the scion of the Fujino conglomerate, they were so enthusiastic about helping him open a bank account. Now that he was down on his luck, they discriminated against him for being an eighteen-year-old minor?
"Banks, really…"
Fujino sighed.
Not far from there, a system notification pinged in his ear:
**[Detective Mission: Italian Robber Case]**
*Mission Objective:* Capture the Italian robbery gang
*Mission Location:* Marked on your heads-up display
*Mission Time Limit:* Ten hours
*Mission Reward:* 1,000,000 yen bounty, 50 detective reputation points*
"Italian robbers?"
Looking at the one million yen reward on the system, Fujino was surprised.
He had just spent a million yen on furniture, leaving him with only 1.3 million yen.
While that was still a decent amount, considering the system's tendency for exorbitant fees, it wasn't nearly enough.
Without hesitation, Fujino accepted the mission to earn some much-needed cash.
"Fujino? What are you doing here?"
A child's voice suddenly called out.
Fujino turned to see Conan Edogawa, dressed in his classic attire, and several other elementary school students following him.
At that moment, a little girl with a cute face and a bright smile jumped out from behind Conan.
"Are you the famous high school detective Fujino?"
The girl, named Ayumi, who was the only girl in the Rice Flower Death Squad, asked in admiration.
"Famous is a bit much."
"I'm just a high school detective passing by."
"Really a detective!"
Ayumi grabbed the paper from Conan's hands, excitedly addressing Fujino, "Since you're a detective, you must have excellent deduction skills. Can you help us with this treasure map we found…"
Before she could finish, the other two boys pulled her aside.
"No way!"
"This treasure map is ours. If we let this detective see it, he might steal our credit."
"He might even take some of our treasure!"
"How could you…"
Conan, observing the bickering children, was at a loss. He suggested in a childlike tone, "I think it's better to let him take a look. He might notice something we missed."
Before he could finish, the children gave him a look of disbelief.
"Ha ha."
Fujino watched as Conan was treated like a neglected puppy, a faint smile on his lips.
Even though the paper looked like random scribbles, it was indeed a treasure map.
The map led to a cache of leaf-shaped gold coins worth six hundred million yen stolen by a robbery gang in Italy.
Six hundred million yen was tempting, but Fujino quickly dismissed the idea.
Even if he obtained the coins, selling them would be a major issue.
Selling them at a gold store would likely get him caught by the police on the same day… and finding a black market would be even harder, especially since Fujino didn't know its location.
As for the system's money conversion function… he had tried converting items into equivalent money when he first got the system, but it had failed. Even converting foreign currencies to system balance was impossible.
Unable to sell the coins, they would become a hot potato…
"What a pity."
Fujino shook off his thoughts with a sigh, "Since I can't get the big prize, I'll focus on earning the million yen from the current mission."
Turning his gaze to the shadowy alleyway, his eyes gleamed with a hint of cold light. "Capturing an international gang of robbers… maybe the police will offer a reward too."
(End of Chapter)