[There's nothing special to do on the weekend, and I don't have work today, so I stay home and watch videos online.]

  [But staying at home all day is b, so I went out for a walk.]

  [I didn't expect to run into a kidnapper during a casual outing.]

  [Beika City is truly a magical pce. It feels like you enter criminals no matter where you go.]

  [After living here for over ten years, I should be used to it by now.]

  [It's rare to e across something like this, so I called the police right away. The police responded quite quickly.]

  [That's why I said, Shinichi, when you found those two guys from the anization, you should have goo the police first. Maybe you wouldn't have been hit with a stick.]

  [Today's diary doesn't have any particurly explosive tent—after all, not every day is full of excitement.]

  [But yesterday, I withe famous se of Shinichi turning into a child. I wonder what happened after that. Did he move straight into Ran Mouri's house?]

  ---

  Nagi reading the diary, suddenly became ied.

  "Maria, are the bodyguards keeping tabs on Kudo Shinichi?"

  "Kudo Shinichi? I'll check."

  Maria left to inquire and firmed that the bodyguards hadn't been monit Kudo Shinichi, even after he had turned into a child.

  She immediately ordered them to iigate his whereabouts.

  The response came quickly, along with a photo taken outside a hospital ward.

  Maria hahe photo to Nagi.

  "Maria, who are these two people?"

  In the photo, besides Shinichi, now a child, there was a man with a mustache and a young-looking woman.

  "The man is Kudo Yusaku, a world-famous mystery ."

  "The woman is Kudo Yukiko, a renowned actress who won numerous awards during her career."

  "Heh~ So his father's intelligend his mother's love for ag were perfectly ied."

  From Maria's expnation, Nagi uood that Kudo Shinichi was indeed a "perfect successor."

  Dubbed the "Holmes of the Heisei Era," Shinichi's reputation came with its ow of problems.

  Such fame often attracted unnecessary trouble and made him a target.

  "It seems, as the diary said, he's not a bad person, just a kid at the age where he's impulsive and overly enthusiastic about things he's ied in."

  But she also uood why he was called the "Death God."

  This was someone who would rush headlong into cases he found intriguing, regardless of the sequences.

  As for whether Shinichi was the root cause of the crime rate in Beika City, she was almost certain he was.

  Still, she couldn't deny that calling him "Death God" might be a bit unfair.

  "Maria, iive stories, don't the protagonists always stumble upon strange cases?"

  "Of course. To keep the story moving, detective stories are built around bizarre cases."

  "Detective stories rely on one case after ao sustain the plot. The suspense and twists iory are what make them iing."

  Nagi g Maria with a hint of surprise.

  "Maria, you seem to know a lot about this."

  "Well, I've read some books when I had free time. You've accumuted a lot of materials for drawing manga in the library, and I've ed them up over the years. Sometimes I'd find a book or two to read."

  Maria's expnation was reasonable.

  As Nagi's maid, her duties were plex, including handling Nagi's sudden whims. Occasionally, she needed some form of rexation, and reading iing novels became her pastime.

  After expining, Maria gave Nagi a subtle look.

  "So, do you think Kudo Shinichi is the protagonist of a detective novel?"

  "No, I don't think it's a detective novel."

  Nagi de ht.

  "Detective novels wouldn't earn a protagonist the title of 'Death God.'"

  "Hoeople would have to die for that to happen?"

  "True."

  Maria agreed.

  If a detective novel had enough deaths to warrant such a title, it would be an absolute failure as a story.

  "So, I think it's probably a manga or anime."

  Maria froze at this sudden cim.

  "Detective manga or anime… Are you saying the deaths are serialized?"

  "Exactly. That's why he's called the 'Death God.'"

  "…Makes sense."

  Maria couldn't refute such logic.

  "sidering Beika City's situation, I'm starting to uand why its crime rate is so high."

  Nagi eechless but felt like she had stumbled uporuth.

  "It's like the crime rate of the entire try is trated here just to provide cases for the protagonist."

  "…"

  The statement was absurd, yet it strangely felt accurate.

  "The fact that Kudo Shinichi turned into a child doesn't seem like the end of his story, it feels more like the beginning."

  "Right. The story begins with the famous detective Kudo Shinichi being stru the head by members of a mysterious anization, forced to drink a strange drug, and turning into a child. Then, he adopts a new identity and begins trag the anization and the drug, hoping to return to his inal self."

  Maria's specution was logical, and Nagi found it ving.

  A high school detective being turned into a child by a mysterious anization was the perfect setup for a long-running game of cat and mouse.

  "Well, no wonder he seems so unimpressed with being a Teitan High School student."

  Nagi nodded in uanding but then grew curious again.

  "Maria, what kind of story do you think we're in?"

  "For us? I think it's a slice-of-life story tered around you, Nagi—something lighthearted and full of your unique charm."

  Maria's response felt fitting, given her uanding of Nagi.

  "If you're that curious, you could just ask him directly wheime es."

  "Yeah."

  Nagi agreed. She already po do just that.

  After finishing the diary, it was time for the day's lottery.

  But with yesterday's results still fresh in her mind, she didn't have high expectations.

  [Genshin Impact]

  [Obtained Recipe: Mondstadt Hash Brown]

  [Mondstadt Hash Brown: A fried cake of mashed potatoes, capable of rest vitality. A little bit of pinee helps give it a nice ch, and great with a bit of jam. Loved by people of all ages.]