After Twenty Years of High School in the Detective World, I Decided to End It All

The novel is complete. Updates every other day at 8 a.m.

Natsume Haruki is an unremarkable new special-admission student at the University of Tokyo.

He used to be an ordinary first-year high school student who had spent twenty years in high school.

But everything changed when he hacked into the network of a major organization, spoke directly with its boss, and demanded that they arrange proof of his university admission.

He finally made it to university!

After refusing the organization's boss's suggestion that they make him a fake University of Tokyo diploma, he stepped onto campus, overjoyed.

His miserable high school life was finally over. This time, he would earn his university degree fair and square!

Congratulations, Host, you are now bound to the Detective Conan Popularity System.

An unexpected visitor spoke inside his head.

The little orb bounced around in his mind and told him this world was a manga starring a shrunken high school student. If the manga didn't end...

He would never graduate from university normally!

Natsume Haruki: Can I just kill the protagonist and then graduate?

System: Of course not. If the protagonist dies, the world will be destroyed too.

Natsume Haruki: So I can't graduate...

System: Is that the point?!

Natsume Haruki: What matters more than a degree to a student?

System: ...

Natsume Haruki: What good are you?

System: With enough popularity points, even the dead can be brought back to life. Getting you a diploma should be even easier.

Natsume Haruki: ...An official degree. The kind that lets me sit the exams?

System: ...Of course.

Natsume Haruki: Deal!

And so, the Whiskey Trio received an order to keep an eye on a boy genius. Without a care, he showed them the shackles on his hands and feet and the collar around his neck.

"They only need to know I'm useful. All I need is to get the reputation I want."

The sixteen-year-old genius, scouted from a remote town by the University of Tokyo, looked at himself restrained by chains and sneered. Yet beneath his tousled black hair, his emerald eyes hid a sadness and despair at odds with his tone.

The Whiskey Trio: We have to find a way to save him by getting the other members of the organization out of the way. (Resolutely)

Kenji Hagiwara and Jinpei Matsuda saw a boy sitting quietly by the roadside on their way back from work. He watched the crowds of children and parents leaving with smiles on their faces, longing in his eyes.

"They've gone somewhere very, very far away. Maybe they'll come back once I've done all this."

The boy tilted his head and smiled at them, his eyes full of determination and yearning.

The Bomb Disposal Twins: At a loss for words

A boy wandered around crime scenes in Tokyo, desperately searching for something. He could always see the truth at a glance. He wore high collars and long sleeves at all times, and only someone with an exceptionally keen eye could catch a glimpse of the wounds hidden beneath the fabric when he moved.

"Could you be the Silver Bullet that pierces my heart?"

The boy smiled and covered his heart, his unfocused eyes full of yearning.

The detectives: We'll save you. (Resolutely)

After an accident, Ai Haibara watched the boy who had figured out her identity leave with his watcher, his face expressionless. In their rushed final moments, all she could make out was what he mouthed.

"Don't be afraid. Go live in the sunlight."

Ai Haibara: "He looks like he's about to wither away in that darkness..."

Meanwhile, on the forum:

"Aaaaaah! Someone, please come save our Haruki! Anyone!"

"That bastard boss! Our kid is only 1.4! He's almost lost the will to live!"

"At first, Haruki just wanted to make something of himself and fulfill his parents' last wishes! How did things end up like this?"

"Who could have imagined that just when he finally found a chance to show his talent in that remote countryside, it turned out the other side was the organization? Aaaaaah!"

"He was ostracized by normal society for being a genius, and now he's ostracized by the organization for being normal? Haharu, you..."

One day, the boy who was like a gentle breeze suddenly disappeared, as if the wind had scattered him. In the end, the Whiskey Trio found him at one of the organization's bases, covered in blood and clutching a crow's feather.

"I don't want... to be rejected anymore."

The boy's smile was still like a breeze on a spring day, gentle and warm. He reached out with a hand free of shackles, smeared with red marks, like a bright red flower growing out of a rotting swamp. Beside him lay the cold bodies of two people who had once been closer to him than anyone.

"I'll provide technical support for the next mission too... Panno. That's my codename."

For the first time, he gave a genuine smile, unlike any of his usual ones.

The forum:

"Haha, turns out I wasn't crazy after all! Sob!"

"This is the first time I've hated how little the good guys communicate. If only... he was so close to finding his salvation."

"Aaaaaah, Haruki!!!"

"Those two were people you yourself acknowledged as family!!!"

"Kenji!! Jinpei!!"

"He looks alive, but Haruki's heart has been dead for a long time."

"He's willingly stepped into the darkness... because he doesn't believe anyone can accept all of him. Only in the crow's nest can he find even a little warmth..."

"Hahaha... sob... haha... ugh..."

At the final showdown, the good guys finally shared information. They discovered that the boy they thought had long since sunk into darkness had secretly been sending messages out under other identities.

At last, when they found him, they discovered only a nearly cold body at the final location. To the very end, his hand remained wrapped around the knife buried in the boss's chest.

"Aaaaaah! Did he really save Hagiwara and Matsuda right from under the boss's nose?!!"

"He kept saying he only wanted to make something of himself, but in the end, he still couldn't help being kind."

"The organization lied to you. They forged the news of your parents' deaths!!! They're still alive!"

"Please, don't let Haruki die thinking that his parents went on that trip and died because he selfishly urged them to go!"

"Aaaaaah! Please, heavens, let our Haruki survive!"

At last, the boy stirred slightly in intensive care. With the help and support of those around him, he regained his freedom and successfully earned the degree he'd dreamed of. As he smiled and accepted his diploma under everyone's gaze, everyone thought he could finally live in the sunlight. Then, at home, he received a phone call, and his expression changed at once.

"Panno, I await your orders."

The manga officially ended.

After enduring countless rounds of torture, the forum finally exploded.

"That rotten old organization boss!!! Wasn't he dead already?!"

"Someone come save Haruki! That poor kid has suffered so much!"

"It ended just like that!!! You old hack, I'm going to send you local specialties!"

"!!!"

Natsume Haruki: Hehe, one last explosion for you all.

No CP. If you insist on pairing anyone up, then please wish our certificate a happy 99th anniversary.

It's the kind of feel-good story that's a lot of fun, haha. The kid's already spent twenty years in high school, so cut him some slack.

The angst is fake, the angst is fake!

No outline. Just handpicked personal tastes...

The author likes delicate, fallen pretty boys and things like that...

Anyway, I'm a terrible person!!!

There will be some very strange descriptions.

Hahaha...

The protagonist won't suffer, and I'm more of an everyone-fan when it comes to Detective Conan.

I definitely won't bash any characters.

I'll do my best to keep them in character.

If something goes wrong, well, there's nothing I can do...

I'm just a lousy novelist, cut me some slack!!!!!!!

I don't plan to put this novel behind a paywall or anything. I'm just writing it for fun.

Fun, fun!!!

Theme: In the end, we will reach the destination we desire.