Was Liu A'dou right or not? They just had to wait a few hours to find out.
As dawn broke, the old undead Yashida really did open his eyes and saw Midori. "Dr. Midori, did our plan succeed?"
Silence. Yashida sensed something was off—the atmosphere was heavy. Then he noticed Midori's face looked awful. Something wasn't right. He turned his head and saw his whole family, from the youngest to the oldest, all staring at him like they were watching some freak show.
What the hell?
Everyone wanted to ask what was going on. It was just too absurd. Why had Yashida faked his death? They all looked at Liu A'dou, hoping for an explanation. They were also curious how he figured this out. He was supposed to be "dead"—so how was he alive again? It made no sense.
Yashida wanted to ask too. He and Dr. Midori had planned everything so well. But the one thing they hadn't planned for was Liu A'dou.
"If I'm not wrong, Mr. Yashida staged this whole thing for Wolverine. To steal his ability, the plan should've gone like this—fake death to stall Wolverine, then use his own granddaughter and son as bait to lure Logan step by step into his trap, and finally steal his powers. Am I right, Yashida?"
Yashida's face turned dark. Everything was spot on. He had a group of ninjas ready to attack Mariko next, and he believed Logan wouldn't just stand by. But now, the plan was completely ruined.
"As for Dr. Midori, she played a critical role in all of this. Sure, she knows a lot about medicine, but what really matters is her combat experience. She probably provided all the help and strategy. Being a doctor was just her cover."
"How did you figure that out?" Yashida asked in a low voice.
"There was a wet patch under your foot. For someone who eats, drinks, and does everything else in bed, how would the sole of your foot get wet? Here's how I worked it out—you drank the fake-death poison when no one was around. But maybe it tasted awful, so you dropped your glass on the floor. Then your foot stepped in the spilled water. Because you were in pain, you didn't care and just got back in bed to wait for the poison to kick in. Then you called your son and granddaughter in to talk. The fake-death poison simulates death, but that made your body stay stiff longer than the machines expected, which was suspicious. So I knew this was all an act—to lure Wolverine into your trap."
Silence. Dead quiet. Finally, Yashida bared his fangs.
"So what?" Yashida snapped. No one disobeyed him. "Logan has immortality, but look what he's done—running into battle again and again, killing pointlessly. He's wasting that gift. If I had that power, I could lead the Yashida family to even greater glory, make bigger contributions to humanity. I could benefit the whole world!"
'…' Yep, this villain crap really never changes. Always dressing up their disgusting plans with some noble excuse. You want immortality? Fine. But don't pretend it's for world peace.
Logan was furious. "I thought we were friends, and you wanted to steal my powers?"
"Logan, you freak—you don't deserve those powers. Only someone like me is worthy." The masks were off now, so Yashida went full scumbag. "Madame Viper, our deal still stands, right? Get me out of here. I need better care."
So Dr. Midori really was Madame Viper. Liu A'dou had heard his wife mention her before, but this was the first time seeing her.
"Of course it stands. Let's go." Madame Viper smiled, then dropped an electrified net between them and the others. The floor opened up, and the two vanished through it.
Now what?
Nothing much. Yashida was disgusting, but faking his death wasn't a crime. He hadn't killed anyone. At most, it was a prank. Even the cops couldn't do much.
But there was no way Wolverine was letting them walk away. If that guy kept coming after him, it would never end. He sprang into action, claws out. He slashed through the electric net, got zapped until smoke rose off him, but Wolverine just acted like nothing happened and gave chase.
Yukio saw this and quickly grabbed "Muramasa" from the hall and jumped down after him. Liu A'dou figured this wasn't his business anymore—it was time to go steal the pagoda. He'd wasted enough time already and still hadn't gotten anything out of it.
But just then, he got blocked again—this time by the Secretary of Justice. "Mr. Liu, I believe I need your help."
"Hmm?"
The Minister of Justice didn't want to get involved in the Yashida mess—nor could he—but he did have something more urgent that needed Liu A'dou's help. "Your reasoning skills are incredible, Mr. Liu. Right now, the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department is dealing with a really difficult case. I was wondering if you'd be willing to come with me to assist them. Your deduction skills would be a huge asset to us."
Liu A'dou thought, 'What kind of case would make them bring in an outsider?' He'd dealt with the police before. The Tokyo force cared a lot about their image and usually didn't like working with detectives. If they were asking now, then things must be bad.
He got curious. Stealing stuff wasn't challenging anymore, but solving a case sounded fun. And from the way the Minister of Justice looked desperate to distance himself from the Yashida family scandal, it was clear he just wanted out. Fine, might as well go.
He sent the location of the pagoda to Chu Yuxuan and decided to go enjoy the show. "If I can help, I'd be happy to."
He had Mariko tell Logan where he was going, and then he left. The Minister of Justice took his own family and got out of the Yashida house too. If that old man refused to die, this marriage might not happen after all. Yashida was getting more senile with age. But if he really passed the family to Mariko, that would change things. Politics is all about interests—if there's benefit, people marry; if not, they don't. Same as love: you like someone, you go for it; if not, you don't.
The sudden death cases on the street were happening every few days. And every time, there were multiple victims. The case was insanely hard, and the police had no answers. The Minister of Justice knew all this. That's why, after seeing Liu A'dou's deduction skills, he was blown away and really hoped Liu A'dou could help.
Witnesses all said the victims just collapsed without warning. The autopsy reports said it was sudden death—no disease, no poison, no known cause. Not even a clear cause of death.
People were dropping dead in the middle of busy streets. It left everyone panicked. No one knew who might be next. There were no patterns. The dead had nothing in common—no medical history, nothing. They just died. At least a car accident has a reason. But these deaths had nothing—no signs, no build-up. Just sudden. So sudden it was terrifying.
The police had tried everything. Even when they were staking out the streets, people still dropped dead right in front of them, and they saw nothing. It was a dead-end case—literally. They had nothing to go on.
But if they didn't investigate, people kept dying. If they did investigate and still found nothing, people still died. It wrecked the Tokyo police's reputation. People were starting to lose all trust in them.
So the Minister of Justice reached out to Liu A'dou for help. Liu A'dou, for his part, found the case pretty interesting. It really felt like something out of Death Note. Like writing someone's name in that little black notebook, and then—bam—they die a few moments later. Killing from a distance, no contact needed at all.
The Japanese police ended up classifying it as a mutant case. But they had no plan for how to catch the killer. Not even a suspect.
"Now that's interesting." Liu A'dou spent a full day reading through all the testimonies and reviewing street surveillance footage. "Minister, it looks like your police department still has a lot of room to grow." Even in a detective universe, the Tokyo cops could be downright useless. The suspect was basically right there, and they still insisted there wasn't one. Liu A'dou was speechless. Guess the police were really just there to make the detectives look good.