Meanwhile, Edogawa Kozou began his move.
He nimbly leaped down from the rooftop, landing behind Satou Miwako, and patted her shoulder.
Satou Miwako turned her head in surprise. Upon seeing Edogawa Kozou, she paused, then took two steps back, feigning an innocent, pitiful, and frightened expression.

"You don't want to get hurt, do you?"
Edogawa Kozou walked slowly forward. "Hand over your money obediently... or else..."
But before he could finish, Satou Miwako lashed out with a kick.
The roundhouse kick struck him squarely in the lower abdomen.
The immense force sent him staggering backward.
Pain shot through him; he felt as if his lower abdomen had been slapped by a polar bear.

"Move in!"
With a loud shout, two or three figures suddenly emerged from the surroundings.
Those individuals wore smart suits; they were likely all detectives from the Metropolitan Police Department.

"Damn it!"
Clutching his stomach, Edogawa Kozou finally understood what was happening.
He'd been set up!
Realizing this, he was startled and immediately used his lightness skill to dash towards the rooftops.

"Don't run!"
Seeing this, Satou Miwako immediately leaped, flipped onto a wall, then grabbed the eaves and climbed onto the roof.
Edogawa Kozou immediately jumped to the roof of another building.
Satou Miwako pursued relentlessly, also jumping across.
Although lacking Edogawa Kozou's agility, Satou Miwako, relying on astonishing jumping power, managed to grab the eaves of another building just centimeters from falling, then pulled herself up with arm strength.

"Damn it..."
However, unable to keep up with his movements, she could only watch helplessly as Edogawa Kozou continued to flee across the rooftops.
But just as she was about to give up, a white figure suddenly flashed past her.
"Him?"
Satou Miwako recognized the white figure; it was the same guy who had just teased her a short while ago.

"That woman, what's her deal?"
Edogawa Kozou stood on a rooftop, panting, looking back towards Satou Miwako's direction. Recalling the blow to his lower abdomen, he still felt a lingering fear.

"Just arrived in Beika and already ran into the Beika Virago. You really are unlucky."

"Beika Virago?"
Edogawa Kozou looked back and saw a person in a white robe and black mask standing behind him, speaking in a low voice.
Being new here, he didn't recognize the Beika Batman, merely surprised that he hadn't noticed this person silently appear behind him.
Without much thought, he threw a punch.

Fujino dodged easily, then lunged forward with a quick and decisive elbow strike!
Then, Edogawa Kozou felt as if his chest had been hit by a dump truck. His vision went black, and he tumbled off the roof, crashing onto the asphalt pavement outside the wall beside the rooftop.

"Jeet Kune Do really is efficient."
Fujino retracted his elbow, glancing at Edogawa Kozou who had fallen to the ground.
With a light leap, his body floated down like a feather.
Checking for breath and finding him still alive, Fujino took out a Bat Shuriken from his pocket dimension and stabbed it firmly into Edogawa Kozou's butt.
After taking an elbow strike from him, he probably wouldn't wake up anytime soon.
But just to be safe, a little stab with a Bat Shuriken was better.

Just as Fujino finished searching Edogawa Kozou, finding 500,000 yen in cash and some gold and silver jewelry, and was about to get up, a sense of crisis suddenly filled his mind.
This sense of crisis... it was the Hidden Blade's sixth sense!
Reacting instantly, Fujino drew his Hidden Blade and turned to block.
"Clang!"
A crisp sound spread out.
Satou Miwako, who had caught up at some point, delivered a roundhouse kick to the flat of the Hidden Blade.
The immense force was transmitted through the Hidden Blade to Fujino's hand.
But the current Fujino was no longer the same as before.
[Detective Enhancement Activated]
Fujino forcibly pushed the Hidden Blade forward. Then, under an equally immense force, Satou Miwako stumbled back several steps.

"Didn't expect to run into you again."
Satou Miwako adjusted her stance, her gaze fixed hotly on Fujino.

"What a coincidence, Miss Beika Virago."
Fujino silently sheathed his Hidden Blade.

"Beika... Virago?"
Satou Miwako's small face immediately darkened upon hearing this.
Why did all these criminals like to call her a virago?
She was about to be officially branded a virago at the MPD!

"Alright, Miss Virago, I don't have much time to entangle with you today..."
Saying this, Fujino pointed at Edogawa Kozou. "You can handle this guy. I have other things to attend to..."
But before Fujino could finish, Satou Miwako charged directly at him.
Fujino's brow furrowed. In his vision, Satou Miwako's next move was clearly visible.
Combat Insight had triggered.
Seizing the opportunity, Fujino stepped with his left foot and swept his right leg towards Satou Miwako's lower body.
Chest bump!
Satou Miwako's balance was unsteady, and she was sent flying by Fujino.
She landed in mid-air, then fell hard on her butt.

Having knocked Satou Miwako down, Fujino didn't linger.
With a slight push from the balls of his feet, the Soul Wings skill activated.
His entire person leaped towards a nearby rooftop like a martial arts hero from a wuxia novel.
Satou Miwako sat on the ground, a sharp pain shooting through her backside.
She stared blankly at the white figure disappearing into the night sky in the distance, muttering to herself, "That guy... is a woman?"

Meanwhile, after Fujino piloted the Soul Lotus home and sat up in bed, he resentfully rubbed his aching head. "As expected, controlling the Soul Lotus to fly consumes a massive amount of mental energy..."
Although the system's skill description did mention consuming a large amount of mental energy,
the mental energy consumed by Soul Wings...
exceeded Fujino's expectations.
Based on his recent practice, if he hovered, his mental energy consumption would skyrocket.
Probably in less than five minutes, his blue bar would be depleted.
A more cost-effective way to use it was to activate Soul Wings during leaps, achieving an effect similar to qinggong.
That consumed less blue bar.
Fortunately, with the Student profession and the Flame Emblem's mental energy recovery bonus, a night's sleep should be enough to recover his nearly depleted reserves.

"This night, the gains were truly abundant..."
Lying in bed, Fujino opened the system interface, looking at the 4.8 million yen in his system balance, feeling satisfied and gratified.
The one million yen from arresting Edogawa Kozou had arrived.
He had just found 500,000 yen on that guy.
On the way back, he also did a bit of robbing the wicked to help the good, netting another 100,000 yen.
In total, he had gained 1.6 million yen this night.
Plus some gold and silver jewelry that couldn't be fenced... sold.
Normally, when he went out for a night's sweep, he ideally only managed to get ten or twenty thousand.
After all, those robbers usually didn't carry much money.
Most robbers only resorted to robbery when they ran out of money.

Early the next morning, just as Fujino woke up, he received a package and a letter.
The package was addressed from Niina Kaori, containing the latest signed issue of "1/2 no Chouten", penned by her.
The other letter was from a person named Mamiya Takato.
The general content of the letter was that their family had an ancestral treasure hidden in their old castle. If Fujino could accept the commission, he would offer a fee of 1.5 million yen.

"New Detective Profession Task Detected. Please check!"
Just as Fujino finished reading the letter, less than a minute later, the system's notification sounded in his ear.

[Detective Profession Task: Blue Castle Incident]
[Objective: Uncover the truth behind the Blue Castle fire four years ago, arrest the culprit in this incident]
[Reward: 2,000,000 Yen, +200 Detective Reputation, +1 All Profession Point]

"The Blue Castle case?"
Fujino recognized which case this was at a glance.
After all, the Blue Castle case was truly a classic.
"But 1.5 million yen... truly worthy of the Mamiya family."
Fujino put away the letter and accepted the system task.
A 1.5 million commission fee, plus a two million system reward, totaling 3.5 million yen.
One had to admit, the reward for this task was extremely generous.

After accepting the system task, Fujino rode his motorcycle towards the address indicated in the letter.
On the way, Fujino mounted his phone on the motorcycle's handlebars and dialed Hiratsuka Shizuka's number.
After all, today was a school day. Not informing her would be impolite.

"Taking leave again?"
Hiratsuka Shizuka, on the other end, seemed to have already anticipated Fujino's leave request, her tone as flat as could be.

"Yes, I received an urgent commission this morning, so I can't go to school today."

"I understand."
Hiratsuka Shizuka seemed to sigh. "How many days are you taking off this time?"

"Just one day should be enough... I have to go now, I'm driving. I'll treat you to ramen next time."
Immediately, Fujino hung up the phone.
Hiratsuka Shizuka put her phone away, her eyes gradually filled with resentment.
The temptation of being treated to ramen again... how could she refuse...
But speaking of which, hadn't this Fujino fellow said he'd treat her to ramen many times already?
She hadn't even seen the shadow of a ramen bowl yet.
This kid.

The address mentioned in the letter was located deep in a mountain forest.
Riding his motorcycle along the forest path, Fujino soon saw a magnificent building.
It was a tall, ancient castle. Its roof was blue, and its walls were white. Surrounding the castle were several tall towers, like the towers in fairy tales where princesses were imprisoned.
Notably, among the several towers, one had already been reduced to gray ruins.

Chapter 184