Traveling back thirty years to Conan, intercepting Princess Eri

Chapter 242 The Beautiful Swordswoman, Ikebane Shizuka

"Alright, try cutting it yourself?" Lin Xiuyi released Orisaka Midori's hand and stepped aside.

"Huh? Oh," Midori Orikasa seemed to wake up suddenly from a beautiful dream, a blush still lingering on her face.

Despite her efforts to concentrate, the scene of her close encounter with Lin Xiuyi kept replaying in her mind.

Normally, such a lapse in concentration might not be a big deal, but at this moment, her hand was holding a kitchen knife, and the consequences of her lack of focus quickly became apparent.

"Ah!" With a soft cry, Midori Orikasa cut her finger with the knife, and blood immediately gushed out.

Lin Xiuyi rushed forward to check, and fortunately the wound was not deep and not too serious.

While holding Midori Orikasa's hand and rinsing her wound under the tap, he asked Kogoro Mouri to get a band-aid.

"Senior, I can do it myself..." Midori Orikasa said in a slightly embarrassed voice.

Lin Xiu nodded and turned to clean up the food that the girl hadn't finished processing.

“I’m sorry, senpai,” Midori Orikasa asked, somewhat dejectedly, “Am I being too stupid?”

"You just need to concentrate when chopping vegetables," Lin Xiuyi reassured her. "You cut your hand because you were daydreaming. Just be more careful next time."

The reason I was lost in thought was all because of you...

Midori Orikasa couldn't help but complain to herself.

At that moment, Kogoro Mouri also brought over a band-aid: "Is the injury not too bad?"

“It’s just a minor injury, nothing to worry about,” Midori Orikasa shook her head gently, a strong smile on her face. “Such minor injuries are common when practicing kendo.”

She took the band-aid and skillfully wrapped it carefully around her finger. Although the wound was small, it couldn't get wet for a while.

Lin Xiuyi then had her stand aside and watch him prepare the ingredients. Orikasa Midori studied very diligently, occasionally asking a question or two.

After opening for business, the izakaya quickly became lively.

Despite her injured hand, Midori Orikasa still took the initiative to help out in various ways, helping Kogoro Mori clear the table and assisting Reiko in serving the guests.

With her help, Kogoro Mouri and Reiko, who were working as waiters, were immediately much more relaxed.

"Orikasa is really diligent," Kogoro Mouri said, taking advantage of a brief lull in the shop to come to the counter and chat with Hideichi Hayashi while drinking water.

“Do you think everyone is as lazy as you?” Lin Xiuyi said irritably. “Xiao Lü also helps out at the family’s flower shop.”

"Hey," Kogoro Mouri suddenly winked and leaned closer to his friend, asking in a low voice, "If Orikasa masters the cooking, are you still planning to bring Yukiko back?"

“Xiao Lü is just learning to cook from me,” Lin Xiuyi frowned. “She’s not working at the shop, so what does she have to do with Yukiko?”

Just as the two were talking, the curtain of the izakaya was lifted, and four or five young men dressed in kendo uniforms walked in.

"Wow, Shuichi, a stunning beauty has arrived!" Kogoro Mouri's eyes lit up instantly, his gaze fixed on the last girl to enter, his eyes filled with amazement.

The girl looked a bit older than Lin Xiuyi and the others. She had long, shiny black hair tied in a high ponytail, which swayed gently with her steps.

Like her companions, she wore a dark blue kendo uniform, looking dashing and spirited, her face radiating the unique heroic air of a female swordsman.

"I'll go greet them," Kogoro Mouri chuckled, and was about to step forward.

Unexpectedly, Midori Orikasa arrived ahead of the group of young people before him. Instead of greeting guests as usual, she looked at the swordswoman girl with some excitement and asked, "Excuse me, are you Ms. Shizuka Ikenami from Osaka University?"

"Hey, Jinghua, you have fans here too!" The girl's companions teased her, their faces beaming with smiles.

The swordswoman ignored them and nodded slightly: "Yes, I am Ikenami Shizuka."

“Ms. Ikenami, you’ve always been my idol,” Midori Orikasa said excitedly, her eyes sparkling with admiration. “I’ve watched every kendo competition you’ve participated in since junior high school.”

“…Thank you,” the swordswoman girl said, slightly surprised. Her gaze swept over Orikasa Midori’s hand, then a gentle smile appeared on her lips. “You’re practicing kendo too?”

“Yes,” Midori Orikasa nodded vigorously, her ponytail bobbing up and down, “I’ve been learning kendo from my mother since I was little, I…”

"Alright, Orikasa," seeing the girl talking incessantly to the customer, even blocking the aisle of the izakaya, Kogoro Mori quickly said, "Take care of the customer first, we can talk about other things later."

"I'm sorry," Midori Orikasa said, as if waking from a dream, her face showing a hint of apology. She quickly led the group to their seats.

"Those are just a few college students, right? They're quite famous, so why is Orikasa so excited?" Kogoro Mouri asked, looking surprised.

“Xiao Lü has been practicing kendo,” Lin Xiuyi said casually while methodically chopping vegetables. “Judging from their accents and clothing, they should all be from Osaka. They’ve probably come to Tokyo to participate in a kendo competition.”

"What the senior said is very accurate,"

Orikasa Midori walked over with a beaming smile, her eyes sparkling with excitement.
"They are from the Kendo Club of Osaka University. They came to Tokyo to participate in the All-Japan Student Kendo Championship held in Beika."

"The opening ceremony of the tournament is tonight. They just came out after attending the tournament. That Ms. Ikenami Shizuka is a very famous female swordsman in the kendo circle..."

Seeing Midori Orikasa talking excitedly, Hayashi Hideichi could only cough lightly in exasperation: "Where's their order?"

“Here,” Midori quickly handed over the order form, “By the way, senpai, that Ms. Ikenami wants to eat okonomiyaki, I wonder if you…”

“It should be possible,” Lin Xiuyi hesitated for a moment. “I learned a little bit from watching a cooking show on TV before.”

……

At the same time, at the construction site next to Sakuragaoka Junior High School.

Because of the discovery of the body, the entire construction site was tightly cordoned off with yellow and black police tape, which stood out conspicuously under the dim streetlights.

In addition, security guards were specially arranged to guard the construction site.

"Damn it, I never get the good jobs, but I always end up doing this kind of work," a security guard in his forties muttered, holding a flashlight and idly patrolling the construction site.

The vast construction site was silent, with only the lonely figure of the security guard.

The cold night wind howled, and the security guard couldn't help but shiver, hugging himself tightly.

"This wind is a bit strange..."

The security guard's mind involuntarily recalled the news he had heard from the police: the deceased at the construction site was a girl who had been sealed in a pillar with cement.

This reminded him of a rumor he had heard before: in ancient Japan, during large-scale construction projects, people were sacrificed to ensure the buildings would be protected by the gods and become more sturdy. These sacrificed individuals would become "human pillars," forever trapped inside the buildings to protect them from destruction.

"Could that girl have turned into a ghost too?" The security guard had just thought this when he heard a "click" sound nearby, which was particularly abrupt in the quiet night.

The security guard was startled and quickly turned around, shining his flashlight in the direction from which the sound came.

Then he saw a headless figure dressed in swordsman's clothes standing quietly in front of the pillar that had been destroyed by the police.

For a moment, the security guard's heart was pounding wildly, as if it was about to jump out of his throat.

"Ghost, ghost!"

The security guard panicked and hurriedly turned to run away, but he tripped over some debris on the ground, and his flashlight rolled to the side.

He frantically tried to get up, but suddenly noticed that the headless ghostly figure had quietly moved in front of him.

The security guard was so frightened that he collapsed to the ground, his face pale, and cried out in a tearful voice, "No, don't kill me! Help..."

"Uncle?"

The headless corpse bent down and picked up the flashlight from the ground.

Why would I kill you for no reason?

Are modern ghosts and monsters really this polite?
The security guard was stunned for a moment, then looked up cautiously and realized that what was in front of him was not a ghost, but a young man dressed as a swordsman.

It was only because his skin was so dark and he had been standing in the shadow of the building that he mistakenly thought the other person had no head.

"Phew, you scared me to death," the security guard breathed a sigh of relief, patted his chest, and then became angry and embarrassed. "This place has been sealed off by the police. Who let you in?"

"Excuse me, I'm a student from Kyoto University. I came to Tokyo to participate in a kendo competition. I heard that the police found a woman's body in a concrete pillar at this construction site, so I came to check it out."

The young man squinted his fox-like eyes, scratched his head, and gave an embarrassed smile.

"Uncle, since you're a security guard here, you should know something about this, right? Can you tell me?"

"What's the point of asking about this?" The security guard got up from the ground, dusted himself off, and said, "I don't know the specifics either. I only know that the deceased was probably a student from the nearby Sakuragaoka Junior High School."

"By the way, the person who found the body is a high school detective who's recently become quite famous in Mika. He runs an izakaya (Japanese pub) nearby. If you're really interested in this, you should go find him."

"A high school detective?" The dark-skinned youth rubbed his chin. "I think I saw a report about him the other day. His name should be Lin Xiuyi, right?"

……

The Mori family's izakaya (Japanese pub).
Perhaps because there was a match tomorrow, the Osaka University students did not stay in the store for long.

After quickly finishing their meal, they got up and left.

The others left first, but the dashing swordswoman came to the cooking station.

"Is there something you need?" Lin Xiuyi stopped what she was doing, looked up, and asked with a hint of surprise on her face.

"The food tastes very good," the female swordswoman said, looking at Lin Xiuyi's young face with obvious surprise. "You're the only chef in this restaurant? Did you make that okonomiyaki too?"

“Yes,” Lin Xiu nodded, “Did my okonomiyaki not suit your taste?”

“No, you misunderstand,” the female swordsman quickly shook her head. “I was just a little curious that I could find authentic Osaka flavors in Tokyo. I thought the chef at this restaurant was also from Osaka, so I came here out of curiosity to ask.”

"At noon today, I also ordered okonomiyaki at another store, but the taste was completely different from that in Osaka."

“People from different places have different tastes. When food from other places is introduced, it is often adapted to suit the local tastes,” Lin Xiuyi said with a smile. “Actually, I learned it from TV programs and didn’t know that it was authentic Osaka-style okonomiyaki.”

After chatting for a few minutes, the female swordsman took her leave.

Lin Xiuyi watched her retreating figure, and the name Orisaka Midori had just introduced came to mind.
Shizuka Ikenami, Shizuka? Could she be Heiji Hattori's mother?

"senior?"

Midori Orikasa stretched out her hand in confusion and waved it in front of Hayashi Shuichi's eyes.

"What is it?" Lin Xiuyi came back to her senses.

"Miss Chibo has been gone for a while!" the girl said with a hint of disdain. "I didn't expect that you, senior, would be no different from an ordinary man when you see a beautiful woman."

“You’re beautiful too. Did I look at you like a lovesick fool?” Lin Xiuyi shook her head. “I was just thinking of someone I used to know.”

"Who is it? Tell me too!" Eri Kisaki, who had appeared out of nowhere, crossed her arms and snorted coldly. "When you first met Yukiko in the classroom, you said you were reminded of someone you knew from before. What? This swordswoman, you knew her too?"

“Shuichi, just look at pretty girls,” Kogoro Mouri walked over. “Why make up so many excuses? Look at me, I always look at pretty girls openly and honestly.”

"You're the one who corrupted Shuichi!" Eri glared at him angrily.

“Men don’t need anyone to guide them when they’re looking at beautiful women…” Kogoro Mouri muttered resentfully.

"But that lady was really cool," Reiko exclaimed wistfully. "It makes me want to learn kendo."

……

The izakaya closes promptly at 10 p.m.

"I'm so tired..." Kogoro Mouri stretched. "I'm going upstairs to take a shower."

Lingzi was too young and had already gone back home.

“Senior, I’ll take my leave too,” Midori Orikasa bowed slightly, then called Pudding to leave together.

Suddenly, only two people and a dog remained at the entrance of the izakaya: Lin Xiuyi, Fei Yingli, and Wangcai.

Wangcai stood at the shop entrance, reluctant to leave Pudding's departing figure.

"Stop staring," Lin Xiuyi kicked it in annoyance. "Being a simp has no future."

"Woo..."

Wangcai whimpered sadly. Seeing that Pudding was completely out of sight, it lowered its head, looked back every few steps, and slowly made its way upstairs...

(End of this chapter)