"Kurosawa, weren't you already a famous detective?" Ran, passing by, heard Kurosawa Hoshino's words and asked in confusion.
"I was just joking." Kurosawa smiled, looking at the name of his second superpower on the system panel—Scene Rewind.
A thought flashed through his mind. He activated it.
In a situation only he could see and hear, the question Ran had just asked reappeared before his eyes. He was like an audience member in a movie theater, watching his own conversation with Ran, watching himself answer Haibara's call. He could even fast-forward and pause, observing every detail of himself or Ran.
"Not bad." Kurosawa laced his fingers together, moved to the sofa, and looked at the spot where he'd just been sitting. There, another version of himself appeared. He touched it lightly—his fingers passed through as if touching air.
"No side effects. It can rewind scenes from any location within the last year. Great. I'm a real detective now. I'll never have to worry about cases outside the main storyline again."
Muttering to himself, Kurosawa continued experimenting with his superpower. With a thought, the scene suddenly rewound rapidly. Another version of himself got up and left the Mouri Detective Agency with Ran—but they were walking backward, as if time had been reversed.
Kurosawa got up and went to the window, opening it to look down. He saw himself and Ran laughing and talking as they walked backward, disappearing from sight.
If they want to follow me, I'd have to walk the same paths I've walked before. He shook his head, then thought again, fast-forwarding the rewound scene. A short while later, he and Ran, who had disappeared, returned, quickly arriving on the second floor, reenacting everything that had just happened.
"Hey kid, what are you doing?" Kogorō Mouri, sitting in his office chair reading the newspaper, noticed Kurosawa standing by the window. Seeing him still there after so long, he couldn't help but ask.
"Uncle Mouri, I just remembered something. I need to go out for a bit." Kurosawa said, then hurriedly left.
Downstairs, he took out his phone and dialed Inspector Megure's number.
"Hoshino, what's up?"
"Inspector Megure, do you have any unsolved cases on your hands? Preferably recent ones."
"Huh? Hoshino, you mean you're going to help the police solve cases?" Megure's voice was filled with barely concealed excitement.
"I want to test something. Inspector, I'll wait for you downstairs at Uncle Mouri's."
"Okay, okay. Hoshino, I'll have Satō come pick you up. I'll bring him back and we'll go together."
Kurosawa replied and hung up.
He mainly wanted to see if solving cases not mentioned in the original story would yield Origin Points. But he felt the chances were slim. Though the system was mute and offered no instructions, he could still deduce the answer.
If cases not appearing in the original work could yield Origin Points, then they shouldn't be called Origin Points—they should be called "Case-Solving Points."
But since he hadn't experimented, he still had to try. If he could actually obtain Origin Points, he could immediately put his newly acquired superpower to good use.
Two hours later, a police car was parked downstairs at the Mouri Detective Agency. Kurosawa Hoshino and Inspector Megure got out.
"Hoshino-kun, thank you so much for helping our police solve another case. This time, the murderer was really bold—he didn't even dispose of the murder weapon and hid it in his pillow. Luckily, you found it." Inspector Megure patted Kurosawa on the shoulder, praising him happily.
"Inspector Megure, you can go back to work. I'm going upstairs."
"Sigh, I do have some things to take care of." Megure sighed, but quickly smiled again. After all, Kurosawa had already helped the police solve two cases today—one of which was a murder case from two days ago.
"Hoshino, I'll be going now." With that, he got into his car and drove away.
Kurosawa waited until the car disappeared from his sight before turning and slowly walking upstairs.
As expected, cases outside the main plot yield no Origin Points.
The case he'd helped the police solve was a murder in an apartment building. A middle-aged woman was murdered in front of her own apartment. Coincidentally, the hallway camera was broken, so the police couldn't find the killer. Of course, the neighbors' apartments were all checked, but nothing seemed amiss.
When Kurosawa arrived at the scene, he used Scene Rewind to quickly rewind the scene, freezing it on the moment of the murder two days ago. It turned out the killer was the neighbor next door. After stabbing the victim to death, the killer quickly returned home. Kurosawa couldn't enter at the time, so the scene froze, and he could only ask Inspector Megure to get the killer's cooperation.
Coincidentally, the killer was also home. Kurosawa entered the house and continued using Scene Rewind, watching the killer return home, wrap the murder weapon in plastic wrap, and hide it in his pillow. Two days passed without the killer disposing of it.
So he didn't waste any words. He found the murder weapon in front of the killer, who then knelt down and cried in remorse, saying that the victim had been making noise in his room every night, keeping him awake, which finally led him to the idea of murder.
After the incident, Kurosawa didn't get any Origin Points. He had Inspector Megure take him back.
"As expected. I can't get Origin Points. Otherwise, I'd get one superpower a day." Kurosawa was quite satisfied with this superpower. At least for now, his survival in this world depended on solving cases. With this superpower, he wouldn't be afraid of being asked to solve cases anymore.
He arrived at the door. He opened it and called out, "I'm back."
"You brat, I just saw you coming back in a police car. Did you go solve a case?" Kogorō asked, standing by the window.
"Yes." Kurosawa nodded.
"Didn't you answer that phone call earlier? Did you help Inspector Megure solve a case? Why did you go again?" Ran asked, peeking out from the sink area.
Two hours earlier, when Kurosawa was solving a case over the phone, Ran had overheard the entire process and already knew the perpetrator had confessed.
"It's a new case." Kurosawa explained without hiding anything.
After listening, Kogorō scoffed, "That murderer is really stupid. He hadn't dealt with the murder weapon for two days, and you actually found it when you came to his door."
Ran interjected, "I think it's because the police were investigating the area these past two days that he didn't have a chance to deal with it."
"Ran is right." Kurosawa nodded at her.
"Yay!" Ran exclaimed excitedly. "I have the potential to be a great detective!"