Solving cases with Detective Conan's science? No, I'm a cultivator!

When Kitagawa Taki opened it, there was a stack of cash and a letter inside.

The letter read, "The twenty-five million has been paid in full, and in exchange, I will take something of equal value."

After reading it, Kitagawa Taki handed it to Kogoro Mouri.

"Um……"

"I know! Someone must be playing a prank!"

Kogoro Mouri had a flash of inspiration and revealed his reasoning.

Kitagawa Taki was speechless. How could tens of millions of yen be a prank? As expected of the Mori method of elimination!

Conan made Shinichi Kudo's signature move, supporting his chin with his right index finger and thumb.

Unaware of the probing gaze upon them from behind.

When Ran saw this familiar gesture, she instantly thought of Shinichi Kudo, who would make this gesture when he was thinking.

'Conan…this kid…and Shinichi…'

Conan looked at Kogoro Mouri and said, "Uncle, could it be that someone wants to buy something from Dr. Ogawa? Isn't that what the letter is saying?"

Dr. Ogawa suddenly realized, "Speaking of which, there's a painting in my hospital office that was passed down from my grandfather. It should be worth 20 million."

“That’s it! The sender must want to buy your painting!” Kogoro Mouri affirmed.

Conan urged from the side, "Let's go to the hospital first!"

“Wait, Mr. Ogawa, this matter is most likely related to your child.”

Kitagawa Taki shared his thoughts, boldly speculating that someone was deliberately using ghosts to harm Dr. Ogawa's child.

Because all of this is too coincidental, Yuta encountered a ghost and has been sick ever since. If this continues, it will definitely endanger his life. And the letter just now said that he wanted to take something worth tens of millions. That painting was only twenty million, but the sender gave nearly fifty million in total.

Besides, why not just buy paintings openly and honestly? Why go through all that trouble?

"What?" Dr. Ogawa was startled.

"We're coming to your house right now; Yuta might be in danger."

Regardless of whether it is true or not, they will eventually have to go to the door to exorcise the spirit.

"But Yuuta isn't home right now! He's at kindergarten!"

Upon hearing that his son was in danger, Dr. Ogawa panicked and didn't even think about why Kitagawa Taki said that.

When Conan heard Kitagawa Taki mention Yuta, he was initially puzzled, but the clues of "Yuta, toys, huge sums of money, and equivalent items" lingered in his mind. Suddenly, a thought flashed through his mind: could the equivalent items refer to Yuta?

Conan thought it over and over and it seemed more and more likely, so he shouted, "Hurry up! Let's go to the kindergarten now!"

The group squeezed into Dr. Ogawa's car and headed to Yuta's kindergarten.

Upon arriving at the kindergarten, everyone learned a terrifying piece of news: Yuta had just been picked up by a man!

Kitagawa Taki said, "It hasn't been long, they definitely haven't gone far!"

The group then began searching the surrounding area, and soon found Yuta and the man in a park.

The man, wearing a gray trench coat and a black felt hat, holding a gleaming kitchen knife, slowly approached Yuta, who was sitting on the ground playing with toys. His body trembled slightly.

"Yuta!" Dr. Ogawa exclaimed.

The man was somewhat surprised to see Dr. Ogawa arrive, but then, as if he had made up his mind, he stabbed Yuta with a knife.

Just as Kitagawa Taki was about to intervene, he saw a child's spirit suddenly appear beside Yuta, looking at the man with tears in its eyes and shouting, "Daddy, no!"

The man seemed to have seen the spirit, muttering, "Tomoya..."

His body froze, and the knife in his hand fell to the ground.

Just then, a soccer ball flew by and hit the man in the face.

Conan breathed a sigh of relief. Although he didn't know why the man's knife had fallen before his ball hit him, he was just glad that the man hadn't succeeded.

Several people rushed over, Kogoro Mouri restrained the man, and Yuta threw himself into Dr. Ogawa's arms.

"Mr. Ogino, I never expected it to be you!"

Dr. Ogawa said in a trembling voice.

The man named Ogino seemed not to hear, as Kogoro Mouri pinned him to the ground, one hand outstretched forward, repeatedly calling out "Tomoya".

Kogoro Mouri asked, "Mr. Ogawa, do you know him?"

Dr. Ogawa explained, "Three years ago, Mr. Ogino's child, Tomoya Ogino, was brought to our hospital because of appendicitis, but it was too late, and he couldn't be saved."

"Mr. Ogino has always believed it was my responsibility for performing the surgery. I never expected... I never expected him to..."

Conan considered a startling possibility: "Could those toys be Tomoya Ogino's belongings?"

This explains why some of the toys don't have barcodes, and why some are very old or even damaged.

Ogino cried uncontrollably, "I knew all along it wasn't a surgical mistake, but... if I didn't treat it as a mistake, I... I..."

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, Tomoya, Tomoya, it's all Daddy's fault..."

Seeing that things were clear, Kogoro Mouri said to Ran, who was standing nearby, "Ran, go call the police!"

Dr. Ogawa stopped Ran, saying, "Don't call the police. Let's just let this go! As a father myself, I understand Mr. Ogino's feelings."

After saying that, Dr. Ogawa went over to comfort Ogino.

Kitagawa Taki slapped his forehead. He was completely wrong. He had thought someone was using a ghost to harm Yuta, but in the end, the ghost actually protected Yuta.

He looked at Ogino Tomoya, who was standing next to Ogino. This exorcism request wasn't over yet!

Chapter 20 Conan: Kamen Rider, Transform!

"Brother Kitagawa, how did you know Yuuta would be in danger?"

Conan asked, puzzled. It was only after Kitagawa Taki reminded him that he dared to deduce that the incident was related to Yuta.

Kitagawa Taki said mysteriously, "Because I... am an exorcist!"

Haha, here we go again! Fine, I won't say it then. Next time, he'll definitely beat Kitagawa Taki!

When Conan saw that Kitagawa Taki was trying to fob him off with the exorcism excuse again, he turned and left.

……

Dr. Ogawa's study.

"Mr. Kitagawa, Mr. Ogino, why did you ultimately give up attacking Yuuta?"

Dr. Ogawa saw it clearly: at the very last moment, it was Ogino who voluntarily dropped the knife.

Kitagawa Taki slowly said, "Because of that ghost, namely Ogino Tomoya, he was stopped."

Dr. Ogawa's eyes widened in shock as he asked, "So he's still at my house?"

"Ah."

"However, Mr. Ogawa, you don't need to be afraid. Ogino Tomoya's ghost is a spirit bound by obsession. It hasn't become a Buddha because it's bound by its obsession, so it won't actively harm people."

"Yuta got sick because he spent too much time with Tomoya Ogino."

Kitagawa Taki has already checked on Yuta's condition; all he needs to do is use a cleansing talisman to exorcise the evil spirits.

"So, Mr. Kitagawa, are you going to get rid of Ogino Tomoya?"

Dr. Ogawa was relieved to hear Kitagawa Taki say that he would not intentionally harm anyone.

Kitagawa Taki explained, "No need, just eliminate his obsession, and he will become a Buddha on his own."

"Later, I'll deal with Ogino Tomoya's matter first, and then I'll exorcise the evil spirit for Yuta, and he'll be fine."

"Thank you! Thank you, Mr. Kitagawa!" Dr. Ogawa expressed his gratitude once again.

Upon arriving at Yuta's room, Kitagawa Taki asked Yuta to go find Dr. Ogawa, while he went to find Ogino Tomoya to get more details about the situation.

It turns out that three years after Ogino Tomoya died from his incurable illness, his spirit did not dissipate because he could not bear to leave his parents, but instead transformed into a spirit bound by thoughts.

For the first two years, he was unconscious until last year when he regained consciousness. After discovering his father's resentment towards Dr. Ogawa and his attempt to kill Yuta, he tried to stop his father, but his father could not see him.

So he went to Dr. Ogawa's house with the toys his father sent out, hoping to protect Yuta. After discovering that Yuta could see him, he stayed with Yuta and played with him. He was completely unaware that his presence would affect Yuta's health.

After Kitagawa Taki explained the situation to him, he was willing to give up everything, but there were still two things to do.

After waiting for Ogino Tomoya to return home and see his parents one last time, he also said goodbye to Yuta and finally ascended to heaven.

Afterwards, Kitagawa Taki used a cleansing talisman to exorcise the evil spirit from Yuta, and the matter came to an end.

In the end, Kitagawa Taki received two million yen from Dr. Ogawa, as well as a commission fee to deliver to Kogoro Mouri.

……

Conan and his friends returned to the detective agency.

Ran had always been preoccupied with something on her mind. When Conan kicked the ball at Mr. Ogino, she seemed to see the shadow of Shinichi Kudo in Conan.

Conan was completely unaware of this.

Ran felt something was off the more she thought about it. She hadn't noticed it before, but now that she thought about it carefully, wasn't the day Conan appeared exactly the same day Shinichi Kudo disappeared? From that day on, she never saw Shinichi Kudo again.

But is it really possible for something as fantastical as shrinking to become smaller?

And what if Conan really is Shinichi Kudo?

So, Ran decided to test Conan.

Ran sat down next to Conan and said casually, "Conan, you're amazing! You were able to tell that Dr. Ogawa was a surgeon just by looking at his fingers! When did you figure that out?"

Conan felt a little proud after being praised by Ran, and said, "I saw it when I served him tea."

"Such keen observation!" Ran's eyes trembled. "Truly, as expected of Shinichi!"

"Haha, yeah!" Conan laughed, scratching his head.

Suddenly, Conan was struck dumb, his pupils dilating in shock—he let something slip!

"As expected... as expected, you are Shinichi!"

Ran stared intently at Conan, her face filled with disbelief.

'We're doomed, we're doomed!'