Chapter 72: A hellish start.
Morofushi Sora'aki, 17 years old, a second-year high school student at Rouman Academy, has been bound to a system called "Plot Maintenance" since childhood, and needs to do various tasks to maintain his unstable world.
This was how things were supposed to go, but then he found the remnants of the otherworldly stone tablet. The energy overflowing from the fragments prevented the system from harming his existence, and then helped him stabilize this world in a slower, more stable, and safer way, protecting this beautiful and happy world.
The methods are not limited to having friends in another world, avoiding dangerous items that minors should not touch, running away after completing a mission, and trying to avoid direct contact with relevant personnel.
Rather than doing a task, it's more accurate to say that Morofushi Sora'aki was "playing".
Therefore, apart from his innate hypermnesia, Morofushi Sora'aki never felt any other pressure.
Up until now.
The amulet contains fragments of a stone slab, which has always tried its best to fulfill human wishes—therefore, it is not impossible that its power would begin to wane after fulfilling the wishes.
Simply put, Little Stone's power was starting to become insufficient, and Morofushi Sora'aki could no longer "play" under its protection. It was time to start doing some serious tasks so that Little Stone could start accumulating power again.
This time, things won't be as easy as before.
Morofushi Sora'aki realized this, and could even sense the apology of this non-human being through the protective amulet. Despite not being human and not understanding human emotions, it would give everything for humanity.
Perhaps it is precisely because 'it' is not human that 'it' can give 'itself' in this way, even if 'it' is destroyed by the humans 'it' loves.
This was also the first time that Morofushi Sora'aki truly realized what the plot was all about.
Without the complete protection of the stone slab, Morofushi Sora'aki stood downstairs at the Mouri Detective Agency, looking up at the sign above, and slowly blinked.
The protagonist of the "story" is a high school student of the same age as him—however, in his world, this protagonist is currently a year younger than Miyano Shiho and has not yet reached the age to follow the storyline.
"Kudou, Shin'ichi," Morofushi Sora'aki murmured the name softly.
Kudou Shin'ichi, the savior of the Japanese police, a renowned high school detective who solved countless cases for the police. However, at the age of 17, after a date with his childhood friend Mouri Ran at an amusement park, he was hit on the head and given an unknown drug, which turned him into an elementary school student. He is currently staying at the Mouri Detective Agency.
Yes, Morofushi Sora'aki has now arrived in a new world—a completely new world, unlike any of the worlds he has ever been before.
This world, like his own, is unstable. As the protagonist, Kudou Shin'ichi should have had a smooth journey, but unfortunately, the "protagonist halo" that's often mentioned in comic and light novels has almost disappeared.
Moreover, the original plot has been greatly changed from the very beginning.
People who should have been partners have become enemies, and what was originally a thrilling "story" that could have been safely overcome is very likely to turn into an "accident".
As for the timeline, it all became an "unfamiliar future" for Morofushi Sora'aki.
In this world, it is five years in the future for Morofushi Sora'aki. Upon noticing the time, Morofushi Sora'aki's first thought was—have all the anime and comic he's been following ended?
I seem to have gone off-topic. Anyway, this time, Morofushi Sora'aki's mission is to protect the protagonist while maintaining the original plot.
The mission is incredibly difficult, practically a five-star hell level challenge. But precisely because of this difficulty, Little Stone will receive significantly more energy than before. In a sense, it's an equivalent exchange.
Morofushi Sora'aki's advantage lies in his experience in multiple worlds and his knowledge of interpersonal relationships, so it is not difficult for him to ascertain the situation of others.
First, he went to Nagano and saw the Nagano couple's murder case in the newspaper, but at the same time, the newspaper had one more sentence than Good Friends World.
—The family's youngest child disappeared after the murder, and his fate is unknown.
In other words, Hiromitsu in this world has disappeared.
Then Morofushi Sora'aki went to the location of Miyano Clinic, but the hospital had long been abandoned and looked like it hadn't been inhabited for a long time.
The Miyano family has disappeared.
Morofushi Sora'aki knew where Furuya Rei's house was and went to check it out, but Furuya Rei was nowhere to be found. In fact, compared to the other people, Morofushi Sora'aki couldn't even be sure when he disappeared.
Meanwhile, the newspapers did report on the two bombing incidents in the past, but Hagiwara Kenji was not on the list of police officers who died in the bombing seven years ago, and Matsuda Jinpei was not the police officer who died on the Ferris wheel three years ago.
Matsuda's father was wrongfully imprisoned more than 20 years ago, and the Hagiwara family moved due to bankruptcy. Morofushi Sora'aki couldn't find where these two people were currently.
All his contacts had disappeared.
Morofushi Sora'aki knew that he probably wouldn't get any information from his older brother, and would only have to explain his identity. The only clear target left was the shrunken Kudou Shin'ichi.
As Morofushi Sora'aki gazed at the sign of the Mouri Detective Agency, he suddenly heard a female voice from the side: "Excuse me, do you have a request?"
When Morofushi Sora'aki turned his head, he saw a beautiful, gentle-looking high school girl in a school uniform.
Morofushi Sora'aki matched the image of Mouri Ran in his mind with the image of Ran, and replied, "Yes."
Mouri Ran smiled faintly: "Dad isn't home right now. If you don't mind, please come in and have a seat."
Mouri Ran led Morofushi Sora'aki to the second floor of the Mouri Detective Agency, asked him to sit down on the sofa in front of the tea table, and said, "What would you like to drink? We have black tea and orange juice."
"Just plain water, thank you." Morofushi Sora'aki replied politely.
Mouri Ran placed a glass of water in front of Morofushi Sora'aki, then sat down on the other side and briefly inquired about the matter: "Dad might be back a little late. If there's anything else, you can tell me first, and I'll pass it on to him."
"It's just a very ordinary request." Morofushi Sora'aki casually found an excuse: "My name is Nozaki Umetarou. I don't go to school or live here. I just heard that Detective Mouri is very good and can complete any kind of request, so I came here because of his reputation."
"My request is..."
Just as Morofushi Sora'aki was about to state his request, the door was pushed open, and a childish voice rang out: "I'm back! Ran-neechan!"
When Edogawa Conan entered the room, the first thing he noticed was the outsider—Morofushi Sora'aki, who was the same age as Mouri Ran, had the best appearance, and most importantly, was a man.
Almost instantly, Morofushi Sora'aki noticed Edogawa Conan's wariness of him.
Ah, the protagonist I'm supposed to protect dislikes me. Morofushi Sora'aki thought casually to himself.
Edogawa Conan tugged at Mouri Ran's sleeve and asked sweetly, "Who is he, Ran-neechan?"
"Conan-kun, you can't be so rude—" Mouri Ran said first, then continued, "He's Dad's client... Honestly, where's Dad again? Do you know where, Conan-kun?"
Edogawa Conan obediently shook his head. After confirming that Morofushi Sora'aki was not his rival in love, he relaxed his guard, although he was still very careful about the distance between Morofushi Sora'aki and Mouri Ran.
"Big brother, what do you want to commission?" His sweet tone made it impossible to tell that he was actually a high school student.
"I have an older brother." Morofushi Sora'aki didn't treat Edogawa Conan as a real child and spoke calmly.
Edogawa Conan was a little surprised, since most people would look down on him and ignore him because of his childlike appearance, and would not explain the situation to him so seriously.
Therefore, Edogawa Conan couldn't help but take it a little more seriously.
Morofushi Sora'aki continued, "He's missing, I think..."
I know his current location.
Edogawa Conan paused for a moment, while Mouri Ran opened her eyes wide with concern: "Did you call the police? How long have you been missing?"
Edogawa Conan noticed something more than Mouri Ran: he noticed Morofushi Sora'aki's wording—not "find the other person", but "know the other person's location". This tone didn't sound like that of a younger brother worried about his older brother.
"He has been missing for 22 years," Morofushi Sora'aki replied.
Edogawa Conan: ...Just as I expected.
Mouri Ran was surprised: "Huh?"
Morofushi Sora'aki lowered his eyes: "My real name is not Nozaki Umetarou. It was given to me by the couple who adopted me."
Morofushi Sora'aki didn't even blush when he lied. He said, "I've always known I have family, and I don't really care that I was adopted by my current parents."
"I always thought they were living a peaceful and happy life, and I never thought of disturbing them. Until recently, I was looking through old newspapers and was surprised to find that my brother had been missing for 22 years." Morofushi Sora'aki said, "I don't want to disturb their current life. I just need to know if they are happy now."
He needed to come into contact with the protagonist of this world, so he had to have a reason. And the missing Morofushi Hiromitsu was the best reason.
Mouri Ran, having witnessed Mouri Kogorou handle so many requests, could easily grasp the difficulty of this one: "Um, Nozaki-kun, do you have more information? I'm sorry to say this... but 22 years is a long time, and it's already very difficult to find anything."
Morofushi Sora'aki took out a newspaper from 22 years ago and placed it in front of the two of them. "I know."
"So I'm just here to try it out. If I can't find it, it's okay."
Seeing the cat-eyed boy's disappointed (not really) expression, Mouri Ran felt a pang of sympathy: "We'll try our best to find relevant information!"
Standing to the side, Edogawa Conan still managed to glean more information. Looking at the case in the newspaper, he asked in confusion, "The couple died 22 years ago... Nozaki-nii, you weren't even born then, were you? So he wasn't your biological brother?"
"No, no." Morofushi Sora'aki replied honestly, "But if I had to say, he and my other brother are my last relatives in this world."
Edogawa Conan fell silent. His glasses reflected light for a moment, obscuring his expression.
The little detective felt like he'd overlooked some important information…