The Gods Are Fighting Over Me - Chapter 11
The streetlights reflected on the car window, separated into long, bright lines by the fog. The streetscape sped past, blurring into a mix of different lights.
Lin Jianyue looked down, her fingers quickly moving across Google Maps. At the southeastern corner of central Tokyo, the words “Beika Town, 2-chome, 21” were clearly embedded in the map. This was her destination.
“We’re here.”
The sound of the brakes stopped, and the driver’s voice came through, mixed with the sound of the wipers.
Lin Jianyue looked up at the meter. The surprisingly high number made her eyelids twitch. After paying the fare and getting out of the car, she suddenly understood why Japanese office workers would cry uncontrollably when they missed the last train.
A fine, cold rain was falling from the sky, making a soft pattering sound on her umbrella. The number plate for Beika Town, 2-chome, 21, was swollen with rain. Where the paint for the name “Kudo” had peeled off, the bl00d-like brown-red color of the wood underneath was showing through.
In the backyard of Professor Agasa’s house next door, a large hole had been blown in the wall. The scattered rocks and debris blocked the only road for cars.
It was hard to imagine how Professor Agasa could have survived such an explosion without a scratch.
Ding-dong.
Lin Jianyue pressed the doorbell of the Kudo house.
Of course, she knew no one was home, but if she went straight to Professor Agasa’s house, it would only make the great detective, who was now a child, suspicious and put her on a blacklist that required the highest level of caution.
Lin Jianyue held the umbrella with her neck, freeing up a hand to press the doorbell a second time. With her other hand, she opened the first volume of the manga she had brought with her.
In the book, the doorbell startled Conan Edogawa and Professor Agasa, who looked panicked and quietly discussed who could be showing up at this hour.
“Shinichi, you have to be careful. It might be the people who gave you the poison,” Professor Agasa whispered, leaning into Conan’s ear.
“Yeah. If they came back to the scene and didn’t find my body, they might come looking for me.” Conan Edogawa’s eyebrows furrowed into a frown.
“What are we going to do, Shinichi?”
“We can’t go out now. We might run into them face-to-face.”
But Ran Mori, who was completely oblivious, turned to open the door, trying to see who had rung the doorbell of the Kudo house. Conan grabbed her by the arm and pulled her back.
Lin Jianyue looked at the panicked expressions of Conan and Professor Agasa in the manga, and a faint, mocking smile crossed her face. She didn’t have much of a preference for characters other than Kenji Hagiwara; she just didn’t like how Gosho Aoyama handled the plot.
Case Closed used to impress Lin Jianyue. She could see Gosho Aoyama’s love for his characters in the early stories. But maybe he had earned enough money, or maybe he was forced to keep serializing it without inspiration. The later stories of Case Closed felt full of characters who were just there to move the plot forward.
Absurd love.
The same old tired tropes.
Though some of the blame was on the publisher for forcing him to turn a short series into a long one that would outlive its readers. But for the sake of traffic and discussion, Gosho Aoyama would do anything.
Hoping for a 60-something Japanese man to write a love story was as good as tearing up the original and just making up your own story.
The love stories between young people were still full of life, but the adult love stories in the police department were full of decay.
Inspector Shiratori was the best example.
In the beginning, he relentlessly pursued Officer Sato, doing everything he could to stop Officer Takagi from getting to her. Later, he fell deeply in love with Teacher Kobayashi. The only reason for this was that when he was a child, a girl had given him a can of soda with a cherry blossom ring on it and told him that cherry blossoms were a symbol of courage.
Whoever he mistook for that girl, he would fall madly in love with.
It was laughable.
It reminded Lin Jianyue of the overbearing CEO novels that were once popular in China. In the first chapter, they would have a one-night stand, and the CEO would leave a memento. In the second chapter, the memento would be stolen by a wicked woman, and the CEO would mistake her for the heroine and help the villainess bully the heroine.
Then one day, he would suddenly realize his mistake, and his desperate attempt to get the heroine back would be filled with him banging his head against the wall, turning his back on the wicked woman.
Every time Lin Jianyue read a plot like that, she just wanted to laugh.
She wanted to ask if the male lead loved the living, breathing person, or the owner of the two pounds of flesh that his s3x organ found attractive.
Shiratori was a character in a family-friendly shonen manga and had to be a positive role model. So, a beautiful first meeting in childhood replaced the one-night stand, and the cherry blossom ring on the soda can and a word of encouragement replaced the memento.
Shiratori was better and more controlled than those overbearing CEOs, but his love story, under Gosho Aoyama’s pen, became ridiculous.
There were many people like Shiratori in the police department.
Lin Jianyue lowered her eyes and suddenly thought of Kenji Hagiwara.
After the fear receded, an emotion similar to tears of joy washed over her. She lowered her gaze, her eyelashes fluttering like the wings of a butterfly in the wind.
Kenji Hagiwara was alive.
The heroic story of the police officer was able to continue. He would have a new life.
Maybe he would meet a new person and fall in love with them at first sight because of a certain moment. Maybe a new person would come out of nowhere, with a past connection that would make him lose his mind, just like most of the police officers in Gosho Aoyama’s work.
A car’s headlights suddenly lit up on her left. Lin Jianyue closed the book and turned to face the light.
The headlights made her squint. By the time her eyes adjusted to the brightness, the owner of the car had stopped, turned off the lights, and was getting out of the driver’s seat.
It was Kenji Hagiwara.
He had seen Lin Jianyue earlier, but the moment their eyes met, his jawline tensed. His Adam’s apple bobbed in his throat, and he frowned, looking away.
Kenji Hagiwara had already changed out of his rain-soaked black suit. His long hair was not yet dry, and water was still dripping from the ends. He pretended not to see her and walked straight to Professor Agasa’s house, pressing the doorbell.
There seemed to be a brief moment of chaos inside the house. After a few seconds, someone finally answered the doorbell, “Hello, what can I do for you at this hour?”
Professor Agasa’s voice came through the intercom, strained and tense.
Kenji Hagiwara’s voice was calm, with no hint of emotion. “Hello, I’m with the police. We received a report of an explosion here. Can you open the door? I need to speak with you.”
“Oh, oh, I’ll be right there!”
In the background, Ran Mori’s voice could be heard, telling Conan to come back inside.
Soon, Professor Agasa pushed open the gate, followed by Ran Mori, who was holding Conan’s hand.
When Ran Mori saw Lin Jianyue, her eyes lit up, and she came forward with a smile. “Were you looking for Shinichi just now?”
Ran Mori showed Lin Jianyue all of her kindness, not even questioning why a strange woman would be at the Kudo house late at night.
Conan Edogawa, held by Ran Mori, looked up, his eyes behind his glasses scanning Lin Jianyue, as if he were evaluating her danger level.
Lin Jianyue nodded. “I’ve run into some trouble and wanted to ask Shinichi Kudo for help.”
“Is it serious? Should we call the police?” Ran Mori immediately looked worried. “I know Officer Megure from the police department. If you need, I can help you contact him.”
“No, it’s just some personal stuff. It’s not serious enough to bother the police. But…” Lin Jianyue stopped, lowering her eyes.
She hadn’t thought of a good lie yet, but it was okay. Ran Mori was an overly gentle girl, and she wouldn’t press her for details.
Just as Lin Jianyue had thought, Ran Mori didn’t ask any more questions. Instead, she took out her phone. “My name is Ran Mori. I’m Shinichi’s childhood friend. If he comes back, I’ll contact you right away. And my dad is a detective. You can also ask him for help.”
“Want to exchange phone numbers?”
“Thank you. I’d really appreciate it.”
Lin Jianyue smiled as she entered her number into Ran Mori’s phone. As she handed it back, her eyes met Kenji Hagiwara’s.
He had just finished talking to Professor Agasa and was walking past Ran Mori to check out the explosion site in the backyard.
Their eyes only met for a moment. The deep, dark emotions in his purple eyes made Lin Jianyue’s heart skip a beat. She quickly lowered her gaze, and he just happened to look away at the same time.
And then they passed each other.
After exchanging numbers, Lin Jianyue said goodbye to Ran Mori, and they each started on their way home.
It was late, the subway had stopped running, and she didn’t see anywhere to hail a taxi.
Thankfully, the apartment her brother had rented was also near the city center, and she could walk there, but it would completely drain all of her energy.
The clean streets were empty, with only the occasional sound of the wind sighing through an alley. The dim streetlights were just enough for Lin Jianyue to see the path in front of her.
Lin Jianyue was thinking about how to ask her brother for money for a car when she heard footsteps ahead of her, getting closer, a heavy sound like someone walking on her heart.
Lin Jianyue looked up. Her pupils suddenly shrank, and goosebumps crawled all over her body.
Gin and Vodka.
The two were dressed in black that blended into the night. The red tip of the cigarette in Gin’s mouth was like a burning fuse, and he was quietly saying something to Vodka.
Lin Jianyue cursed under her breath. After a quick thought, she clutched her bag, avoided eye contact, and, like a normal woman forced to walk home late at night, she silently changed her path into a diagonal line, sticking close to the storefronts on the side of the street, making sure to pass Gin at a safe distance.
Gin was taller than Lin Jianyue had imagined, at least two meters tall. His shadow loomed over her, making it hard to breathe.
Gin never paid attention to irrelevant people, just as he never remembered the names of the people he killed. As he and Vodka passed Lin Jianyue, he didn’t even glance at her.
But if Lin Jianyue had pretended to be calm and walked past him without a second thought, he might have stopped, turned back, and given her a chop to the neck.