Without wasting time, Fujino dialed Suwa Yuji's number and got straight to the point. "Suwa-sensei, ever heard of a guy named Shibata Shiro?"
"Shibata Shiro?" Suwa Yuji, sitting in the back courtyard of his kendo dojo, sounded puzzled. "What's your deal with him?"
Fujino explained, "I've got a client who wants me to find him, but the clues are thin. All I've got is his name and a photo from when he won the Kansai Summer Tournament. Thought I'd check with you."
"A photo, huh?" Suwa pondered. The name Shibata Shiro didn't ring any bells. But if this guy was a kendo prodigy thirty years ago… maybe he'd know him. Thirty years is a long time—geniuses from back then would likely be at least seventh-dan by now, maybe eighth like Suwa himself. Anything less than seventh-dan? Hardly a genius.
He replied, "The name's not familiar, but if he was a kendo star back then… bring the photo over. I might've seen him at that event."
"I'm on my way."
---
After a ten-minute trip, Fujino and his group arrived at the Konoha Kendo Dojo. It was a Saturday afternoon, so the place was buzzing with more students than usual.
Pushing open the dojo's door, Fujino was greeted by the crisp clack of wooden swords. Students in protective gear sparred in intense training sessions.
"So this is where Senpai trains in kendo?" Ran looked around, curious. "There are so many students…"
"When I first started coming here, it was pretty quiet," Fujino said, scanning the room. "Ever since Suwa-sensei got promoted to eighth-dan, the place has been packed."
"Eighth-dan?" Mouri Kogoro raised an eyebrow. "No wonder it's so crowded…"
As a former cop, Mouri had trained in kendo and knew the weight of an eighth-dan rank. What surprised him was that Fujino was tight with someone of that caliber—and from the way he casually called Suwa, they seemed close.
"Fujino-senpai!" A girl with a single ponytail approached, greeting him warmly.
Fujino recognized her as Aoyama Soma, who'd once hired him for a kendo tournament. Glancing around, he asked, "Soma-chan, have you seen Suwa-sensei? I just talked to him, and we're supposed to meet here."
"Sensei's practicing in the back courtyard," Soma replied. "He told me to fetch him if you showed up."
"No need. We'll wait," Fujino said, leading the group to a bench by the dojo's edge.
"Say, Fujino," Mouri piped up, recalling Soma calling him 'senpai.' "Are you, like, Suwa-sensei's direct disciple or something?"
"Disciple? Kinda," Fujino said vaguely. Truth be told, he wasn't officially Suwa's student. More like… a friend and training partner, if you had to label it.
Hattori Shizuka, standing nearby, perked up at the name Suwa Yuji. She'd heard of him—a newly minted eighth-dan, a top-tier swordsman. Though she hadn't touched kendo in years, her son's passion for it kept her in the loop. *This kid's Suwa Yuji's disciple?* And from the looks of it, a favored one.
"Fujino!" Suwa Yuji strode over, dressed in a black kendo uniform, a samurai sword tucked at his waist. His sharp eyes scanned the group before he introduced himself. "First time meeting. I'm Suwa Yuji, head of this dojo."
"Mouri Kogoro," Mouri stood, returning the greeting. "This is my daughter, Ran… and Conan, who's staying with us for now."
For some reason, the moment Mouri saw Suwa, a chill ran down his spine…
Conan, meanwhile, shot Mouri a deadpan glare. *Why does he always have to say I'm 'staying' with them?*
Hattori Shizuka gave a slight bow. "My name's Ikenami."
"I heard about your situation from Fujino over the phone," Suwa said, cutting to the chase. "You're looking for someone named Shibata Shiro, right?"
"Correct." Shizuka nodded, pulling the photo from her purse and handing it over.
"This is Shibata?" Suwa studied the photo for a moment, then shook his head. "Don't recognize him."
Fujino wasn't surprised. At best, Shibata would be seventh-dan—hardly someone a kendo legend like Suwa would remember, especially from another prefecture. Only a handful of eighth-dan masters or exceptional talents would stick in his mind.
But no recognition didn't mean no leads. Suwa wasn't giving up. He pulled out his phone and called the Kendo Association.
Fujino hadn't expected Suwa to know Shibata personally. His goal was to leverage Suwa's connections to dig up info.
---
An hour later, at the dojo's training area.
"The Kendo Association got back to me," Suwa said, leaning on a wooden sword as he sat on a bench, wiping sweat from his brow. He checked his phone. "Shibata Shiro… the info checks out. He won a bunch of championships back in the day, but lately, he's only been active in community tournaments. I'll send you the details."
"Thanks for the trouble," Fujino said.
"No big deal," Suwa waved it off. "Just swing by and spar with me more often. I'm getting rusty with no one to practice with."
"I've been swamped lately, so I forgot to drop by. I'll make time to train," Fujino promised
with a light chuckle. "After all, besides you, Suwa-sensei, I don't get much real sparring practice."
He got where Suwa was coming from—being a top-tier swordsman with no one to match his level must feel like having all that skill with nowhere to use it. Eighth-dan masters couldn't just casually spar with peers; everyone had their own pride and secrets to guard.
Still, the comment felt oddly familiar… like that old song from his past life, *"Come Home Often."* It gave off a weird vibe, like Suwa was some lonely elder waiting for a visit.
"This guy's still so ridiculous…" Conan muttered to himself. Fujino's over-the-top antics were old news by now. While Conan wasn't a kendo expert, he could tell from their earlier sparring that Fujino was seriously skilled.
But his focus wasn't on Fujino right now. It was on the woman calling herself "Ikenami." The odd request to find someone, the way she hid her ring finger, her subtle Kansai mannerisms—everything about her screamed suspicious.
Shizuka, meanwhile, didn't notice Conan's skeptical stare. She was too busy watching Fujino and Suwa. She'd seen their sparring session earlier, and it was, frankly, jaw-dropping. Suwa's prowess was expected—he was a legend, after all. But Fujino? He was a surprise.
Even though she hadn't touched kendo in years, she could tell their swordsmanship was nearly on par. Not a matter of strength or physique, but pure technique. They were evenly matched, trading blows with a kind of mutual respect.
If her son, Heiji, had been in that sparring match instead? *He'd probably get thrashed by Suwa-sensei without landing a hit,* she thought. Imagining Heiji recklessly challenging Fujino and getting clobbered with a wooden sword, she froze. *Wait… is that what Heiji meant by 'terrifying'?*
"Looks like we found him!" Ran's cheerful voice snapped Shizuka out of her thoughts. "Now you can finally reunite with your old friend, Ikenami-san."
"Yeah, I owe a lot to Fujino-tantei and Suwa-san for this," Shizuka said with a soft smile.
Finding Shibata so quickly was within her expectations, but getting a top-tier swordsman like Suwa to pull strings at the Kendo Association? That was a curveball. Good thing she'd never met Suwa before, or her cover might've been blown right there.
---
Statica wasn't too far from Tokyo, but the drive still took a few hours. By the time they got Shibata's address and reached the place, it was already dusk.
"This should be Shibata-san's place, right?" Mouri Kogoro said, eyeing the "Shibata" nameplate on the apartment door. He pressed the doorbell.
"Matches the address," Fujino confirmed, checking the text Suwa had sent.
"Maybe Shibata-san's not home?" Mouri pressed the bell again, frowning. "No answer on the phone either."
"Maybe he and his wife went shopping," Ran suggested. "It's the weekend, after all."
Shizuka's eyes narrowed, her long lashes flickering as a hint of confusion crept into her gaze. She'd called Shibata beforehand, arranging for him to meet them today or tomorrow to help with her little test for the detectives. By their agreement, he shouldn't have left the house. So why…?
"Probably," Fujino said, catching the faint puzzlement in Shizuka's expression.
If her plan had gone as intended, Shibata would've opened the door, exchanged pleasantries, and handed back the photo to wrap up the charade. But something had clearly gone wrong—something she hadn't anticipated.
And Fujino knew exactly what. The actor was dead.
How did he know? Simple: his system had already pinged him with a new task.
**[System Career Task: Apartment Murder Case**
**Objective: Solve the murder case that occurred in the apartment.**
**Rewards: 3,000,000 yen · 100 Detective Reputation Points]**
When the system task popped up, it was a done deal—Shibata was gone.
"Hey!" A voice called from behind. Fujino turned to see a man approaching. He wore a knitted vest over a dark green shirt, sporting a scruffy mustache and a bald patch that rivaled Dr. Agasa's. "You lot looking for Shibata?"
"That's right," Mouri nodded, eyeing the man. "We've got business with Shibata-san. And you are…?"
"Name's Yoshikawa. I live next door," the balding man said, strolling up. "If you've got something to talk about, make it quick. He's supposed to come over to my place for mahjong later."
"Mahjong?" Ran tilted her head. "But it doesn't seem like Shibata-san's home."
"No way," Yoshikawa scoffed. "That guy's definitely in there. Probably napping or something."
His tone dripped with certainty, like Shibata skipping out was unthinkable. He marched up and rang the doorbell himself. When no one answered, he casually pushed open the door and stepped inside, grinning back at the group. "Told ya, he's home!"
Fujino: "…"
*Is it really okay to just barge into someone's house like that?*
The others didn't seem fazed, following Yoshikawa inside without a second thought. Fujino shook his head and trailed after them.
Shibata's apartment was simple. The entrance led straight to a living room with wooden floors. A TV droned faintly from another room. On the table sat half-eaten food, a bowl of rice, and a fresh morning newspaper.
"Huh?" Ran touched the miso soup on the table. "The soup's cold…"
"The rice is hard too," Mouri said, poking at it with chopsticks. "This has to be breakfast, right?"
"Looks like it," Shizuka said, eyeing a fish head on the plate. "What a shame… that tilefish looks delicious."
"Tilefish?" Ran blinked, confused. "What's that?"
"It's another name for amadai—sweet tilefish," Fujino said, glancing at the fish and then at Shizuka. "Right, Ikenami-san?"
"Exactly," Shizuka replied, caught off guard for a moment before nodding.