The Daily Life of a Salted Fish Assassin in Anime Crossovers

If Jiang Hang hadn't used his Eagle Eye detection to discover this, Hirata Kazuaki would probably have noticed his arrival the next day.

However, since he had discovered it, Jiang Hang didn't spend much effort and simply moved to a place without cameras to approach the other party's residence.

Hirata Kazuaki was taking a shower in the bathroom at that moment, while Jiang Hang had sneaked into the house through an unlocked window in the second-floor corridor.

Although the system has not yet rewarded any climbing-related skills, it would be easy for him, with his assassin bloodline, to climb up to just two floors.

Before he even entered, he had already used his Eagle Vision to see that the house still contained a large quantity of illegal drugs.

It appears he held a position in the gang responsible for transportation and transshipment.

Jiang Hang kept his assassin's pace and, taking advantage of Hirata Kazuaki's bath time, found the kettle in the living room and poured some powder into it.

It's nothing serious, just a drug used to trick people into talking.

Its function is very simple, not much different from those mind-altering drugs. After taking it, it can make people feel confused and can be used to extract information from people with weak wills.

He didn't believe that someone who used drugs regularly could have a strong will.

This thing is certainly not a proper contraption; Jiang Hang put in a lot of effort to make it.

Although the methods were somewhat underhanded, a detective's identity is not something so inconvenient.

Anyway, as long as no one knows he came, it's the same as him not coming.

Hirata Kazuaki would only feel that he had a strange dream that he couldn't remember, and when he woke up, all traces would be wiped clean by Jiang Hang.

After doing all this, Jiang Hang found a random place to hide and observed Hirata and Akira taking a shower and then drinking a glass of water before going to bed.

Of course, it doesn't matter if the other party doesn't have the habit of drinking water before bed. Jiang Hang still has flammable sleeping pills on hand, but it will be more troublesome to deal with them afterwards.

About twenty minutes after Hirata and Akira had been lying in bed, Jiang Hang figured the sleeping pills should be taking effect, so he silently slipped into their room in the dark.

If it were an assassin, a single strike at this moment would be a perfect assassination.

However, Jiang Hang was there to inquire about information. Seeing that Hirata Kazuaki's breathing had become somewhat rapid, he unceremoniously pulled the other man out of bed. If it were an ordinary person, they would have woken up long ago if they were pulled like that.

At this moment, Hirata Kazuaki was still not awake. He seemed to be trying hard to open his eyes, but he couldn't open them at all. He was also muttering some meaningless words.

That's the dazed state we want; it means the drug has fully taken effect.

Jiang Hang didn't beat around the bush at all, and went straight to asking about the most crucial question: who made up the drug trafficking group?

Hirata Kazuaki seemed to hesitate for a moment, but under Jiang Hang's persistent questioning, he slowly uttered the name of Kawashima Hideo.

To Jiang Hang's surprise, Hirata Kazuaki only uttered this one person's name, which was somewhat different from his original expectation.

He had assumed that the four witnesses from that year were all members of this criminal gang, but it turned out that there was only one person.

However, this does not mean that Jiang Hang was wrong. Under his questioning, Hirata Kazuaki admitted that he started helping Kawashima Hideo transport drugs two years ago, but he was not very clear about things before that.

In short, after questioning the other party about the entire course of their crime, Jiang Hang put Hirata Kazuaki back on the bed, wiped away the traces he had left in his room, and then left the drug-filled house again through the second-floor window.

He's already found out what happened with Hirata Kazuaki. If he wants, he can send a message to Takagi and Inspector Megure in Tokyo right now and have them come and arrest the man.

Hirata Kazuaki's residence contained a large quantity of drugs, and the police could easily catch him red-handed with just a quick search. Jiang Hang wouldn't need to worry about it at all, and he wouldn't even suspect that it was on him.

Although cracking down on drug trafficking gangs should at least be a three-star case, ultimately, it cannot be directly linked to Keiji Aso's case.

Jiang Hang felt somewhat regretful about this.

I rarely try infiltration, but I still ended up going in the wrong direction.

However, there was still plenty of time, and he planned to go and have a proper "talk" with the eyewitnesses from back then tomorrow.

Chapter 50: The Mysterious Musical Score Concealing a Message of Death

The next day, while Jiang Hang was still pondering where to begin his investigation, new information arrived from Koharu Yuno's side.

After searching all night yesterday, the old policeman finally found the relics left behind by Keiji Aso.

In reality, the only valuable thing was a handwritten sheet music kept in a safe.

However, Yoshino Kiharu didn't know much about sheet music, so she called Jiang Hang to ask if he could read sheet music.

Unfortunately, Jiang Hang not only lacks artistic talent, but also has little musical talent.

While he may not be at the level of Gian or Conan in terms of singing, those who have heard him sing generally wouldn't want to listen to him a second time.

However, he quickly realized that one of Shizuka Sakaki's talents was playing music. Although it was only a basic skill, she should still have no problem reading sheet music.

So he contacted Shizuka Sakaki, and the two of them went together to where Yoshino Koharu was.

However, when Shizuka Sakaki saw the sheet music, she frowned after studying it for a while.

"This sheet music seems a bit strange..."

Upon hearing this, Jiang Hang leaned over to take a look, and indeed it was very strange, because he couldn't understand what the musical notes marked on it were at all.

He recalled that the sheet music was only briefly mentioned in the police file. The police at the time determined that the sheet music was irrelevant to the case and simply recorded it as a personal item.

"Is there a problem with this sheet music?" he asked Shizuka Sakaki, a professional, while also glancing at the elderly policeman who looked like he hadn't had enough sleep.

"Sir, was anything on this sheet music investigated by the police back then?"

Upon hearing Jiang Hang's question, the elderly policeman, who was nearing retirement age, yawned and slowly answered Jiang Hang's question.

"Well... let me think... it seems like... someone investigated me, but then again, it seems like no one did. It's been a while, and I don't think I remember the details very clearly."

The old policeman had his eyes slightly closed, looking as if he might fall asleep at any moment.

“Oh right, I remember now. It seems that I took it to a pianist for inspection, but it ended up being a mess of opinions. So the police deduced from this sheet music that it might have been written by Aso when he was mentally unstable. After that, it has been left here untouched.”

Shizuka Sakaki also nodded as she looked at the sheet music.

"It's really a mess. Even just humming along to a few tunes feels a bit awkward. It doesn't feel like something a pianist would leave behind... Was Keiji Aso already mentally deranged before he died?" As she said this, Shizuka Sakaki seemed to be trying to find a suitable instrument to play the sheet music, but in the end, she still couldn't find a suitable instrument.

While Shizuka Sakaki continued to ponder the score, Jiang Hang took advantage of the fact that the old policeman hadn't fallen asleep and quickly inquired about the last witness from that year.

"By the way, sir, I heard that there were four eyewitnesses to Keiji Aso's self-immolation case back then!"

"Yes, that's true... Are you reporters interested in this too?" The old policeman seemed a little surprised, but he still repeated the names of the four people.

"Speaking of which, all four of them grew up with Aso since they were little. I remember... they even went to learn piano together when they were young... but fifty years have passed in the blink of an eye. Aso died, Kameyama died, and of the remaining three, Kuroiwa became the village chief, Kawashima became the richest man on the island, and only Nishimoto... his family used to be quite wealthy, but since Kameyama died two years ago, he has become a bit abnormal. Now he basically stays at home every day and doesn't go out. I don't know what kind of shock he suffered."

"Speaking of which, Nishiki was the one who had the best relationship with Aso among the original group. When Aso went on tour abroad later, Nishiki would often go abroad to support him..."

Older people are indeed prone to reminiscing about the past. Jiang Hang only asked a casual question, and the old policeman immediately told him the information he wanted to know. Jiang Hang even asked the old policeman for his current address under the pretext of wanting to interview Nishiki Ken.

At this moment, Shizuka Sakaki, who was standing to the side, seemed to have discovered something, which drew Jiang Hang's attention.

"Wait, there really is something wrong with this sheet music."

Shizuka Sakaki pointed to the sheet music in her hand: "I also study piano. When I put this sheet music into the piano keys, I found that the notes are basically all on the far left of the piano keyboard. I just glanced at it and none of the notes appeared anywhere else."

Jiang Hang immediately took this information to heart.

Keiji Aso is a renowned pianist, yet his compositions are utterly devoid of any aesthetic appeal. The police say he is mentally unstable, which could perhaps be considered an explanation.

But Jiang Hang knew the truth was definitely not that simple. If Aso Keiji was mentally unstable, he wouldn't have had this trip to Moonshadow Island.

Now that Shizuka Sakaki has found a clue, it seems a bit too illogical for someone who is mentally deranged to remember to only use the notes on the left side of the keyboard.

Unless it's not sheet music at all, but some kind of message he deliberately left behind!

Thinking of this, Jiang Hang couldn't help but scratch his hair.

Great, I've finally arrived at a place I'm completely unfamiliar with.

Reasoning is simply the process of finding clues and then piecing them together to find the truth.

In traditional mystery novels, a death message is a very common and crucial clue.

However, these so-called "death messages" are really varied, with all sorts of types.

God knows why the dead could have so many thoughts before they died.

If you're worried that the message you leave behind about your death might be too obvious and get destroyed by the murderer, then that's a bit ridiculous.

If the murderer leaves the scene immediately after committing the crime and never returns, then even the most obvious message of death left behind by the victim will not be discovered by the murderer.

However, if the murderer returns to the crime scene to clean it up after committing the crime, then no matter how ingenious the death message left by the deceased is, it may be destroyed by the murderer, and the original death message may even be used by the murderer.

This is something that often happens in detective novels.

Even if the death message is authentic, there is still one crucial point: these deceased individuals never considered the possibility that their death message might go undetected.

For example, the police back then, and Jiang Hang now.

So you should also consider the possibility that the person who sees your death message is not some famous detective, but a third-rate detective like me!

As Jiang Hang looked at the sheet music, he felt as if Keiji Aso, who had been dead for twelve years, was saying to him, "Want to know my secret? If you do, then decipher the message on the sheet music. I've put all my secrets on this sheet music."

I want to know about your grandpa!

Chapter 51: Don't go for assassination, go directly to Wushuang.

Inside the hotel, Jiang Hang, Mu Chun Yuno, and Sakaki Shizuka maintained serious expressions as they examined the photocopy of the sheet music.

After Jiang Hang mentioned that this might be a death message left by the deceased, the old policeman scratched his head and then asked Jiang Hang to make several copies of the sheet music and bring them back.

Now, in the hotel, the two girls have begun to think about what kind of code Aso Keiji would use and what message he would leave behind.

Everyone has a lot of ideas about this. Yuno Kiharu thinks there might be a hidden, mysterious codebook that can only be deciphered by finding it.

Shizuka Sakaki, on the other hand, planned to approach the issue from a musical perspective. She felt that it was still a musical score, only that Keiji Aso had added some useless, distracting notes. Perhaps by removing those useless notes, the original form of the score could be seen.

As for Jiang Hang... Jiang Hang has now given up on thinking about it.

He was completely clueless about deciphering codes, and the sheet music was also something he couldn't understand. He even started to consider using the off-site help kit.

Send this thing to Conan, and then tell Conan that you've encountered an interesting case and are here to test him. Conan will then obediently become your tool, deciphering the code and relaying the secret inside to you.

If Conan were an idiot, this would be a brilliant plan.

Seeing that everyone had been struggling with the score for a while without any progress, Jiang Hang made a decision.

The path of a detective is too mentally taxing; with his mortal intelligence, it's definitely not a viable one.

The assassins' first secret infiltration attempt last night also ended in failure.

In that case...

“Then there’s only one answer.” As he said this, Jiang Hang suddenly stood up to the surprise of the two girls, then silently took out his sword staff from his suitcase and held it with both hands.