Conan's other me

Chapter 177 The crossroads of the maze

Kyoto.

After arriving at Kyoto Station, the group headed by Uncle Mori took a taxi directly to Sannoji Temple.

There was no reception outside Sanneng Temple, but the temple gate was open, and when they walked in, they noticed a group of people chatting in the open space of the temple.

Noticing their approach, one of the young monks was the first to leave the crowd and greet them.

"Mr. Maury!"

The man held Uncle Maori's hand tightly with both hands and looked quite enthusiastic, "Thank you so much for coming all the way here. I am Long Yuan who called you before."

Following him, four other people came over.

"let me introduce…"

Then, Long Yuan helped introduce the people behind him.

He first introduced the elderly monk, about 70 to [-] years old, who was the abbot of Sanneng Temple, Enkai.

The abbot was in good spirits, with an indifferent smile on his face, which made Fengyuan feel that he was quite the monastic bearing he imagined.

The other three were dressed in ordinary clothes and were benefactors of Sannoji Temple.

The fat middle-aged man is Mr. Sakura Shozo, about 50 years old, and runs an antique shop on Teramachi Road.

The young man in his 30s next to him is Mizuo Harutaro, the young master of the Noh play Mizuo Ryu.

Standing at the back is Mr. Taiga Saijo, who wears glasses and looks a bit bookish, who runs a second-hand bookstore.

"Rather than being a benefactor," Abbot Yuanhai added after a brief introduction, "Actually, we are all fellow swordsmen."

Kendo...

Speaking of kendo, Kaedehara thought of Hattori Heiji.Hattori Heiji is also very good at kendo, and is the leader of the kendo club in his school.

Abbot Yuan Hai looks very strong, probably because he has been practicing kendo for many years.

"Speaking of which," Uncle Mao Li said after exchanging a few pleasantries, "I heard that there seems to be a Buddha statue in your temple that is only consecrated once every 12 years..."

"That's right, that's the main Buddha of this temple, Medicine Master Tathagata..."

"The day after tomorrow, it will be open to the public to pay homage, right?" Xiaolan showed an expectant expression, "Actually, we are also here this time to celebrate..."

"The donor is interested," Abbot Yuanhai responded, "I think Medicine Master Tathagata will also be very happy."

However, although the host Yuanhai looked as usual, the expression of Long Yuan standing beside him was a bit gloomy.

Soon, they learned the reason for Long Yuan's gloomy look.

Long Yuan brought them into the palace and told the inside story.

"What did you say? The main Buddha was stolen?" Uncle Maori was very surprised when he heard the news.

"Yeah, that was eight years ago."

Long Yuan opened the door of the cabinet enshrining Buddha statues and showed them. There were two statues of Buddha in the cabinet, but the middle was empty. The Tathagata Buddha was stolen by someone..."

After letting everyone take a look, he closed the door again.

"At the beginning, I advocated calling the police immediately, but was stopped by the abbot. He said, if there is a destiny, maybe one day we can reunite with this Medicine Buddha Tathagata..."

"It's really reasonable..." Uncle Maoli said.

After seeing the Buddha statue, everyone followed Long Yuan to the room for entertaining guests in the temple, where Long Yuan was going to discuss the entrustment with Uncle Mao Li.

"Eight years have passed so quickly," Long Yuan sat at the table and said in a deep voice, "A few days ago, I found this letter in the temple's mailbox..."

He took out a letter from his arms, and Uncle Maori took it from his hand, first flipping through the front and back of the letter.

"No postage stamp, no mention of who the sender was..."

Then he took out the letter from the envelope, with two lines written vertically on it, "As long as you solve the mystery of this painting, you will know where the Buddha statue is..."

Below the letter paper is the painting mentioned in the letter.

Kaedehara and Conan leaned over to watch.

There are several steps in the painting, and some strange patterns are painted with colored pens on some of the steps.

In order to facilitate viewing, Long Yuan also took out several copies of the paintings that had been photocopied and gave them to them.Long Yuan left beforehand, so they sat together and discussed.

Soon, they discussed the pattern on the painting and came up with the result.

The fifth step at the top is painted with cicadas, tengu and goldfish. The fourth level is painted with a chicken and a yellow loach. In the blank space between the two steps, there is a pause sign on the right. Look like black spots.

Between the second and third steps, there are paintings of violets, Tengu, and Mount Fuji. Beyond the steps, there is an acorn painted on the right side.

However, even though they understood what the painting was about, no one had a clue as to what the painting meant, and Fengyuan was no exception.

He was not impressed.

"Father," Xiao Lan looked worriedly at Uncle Mao Li who was racking his brains, "Can you find it before the day after tomorrow?"

"You, you don't have to worry. If you have your father to help you solve puzzles like this..."

"Leave the matter of finding Buddha statues to the experts," Sonoko said, "Let's see, how about we visit Kyoto?"

"It's good, it's good, you guys will only get in the way here."

Uncle Mao Li looked very disgusted, but Xiaolan had a plan long ago, and said to Yuanzi: "To tell you the truth, I talked to He Ye on the phone before coming here, and she said that she can take us to visit Kyoto tomorrow. However, She has something to do with the persuasion department, so I'm afraid she won't be able to come..."

"It doesn't matter if that guy doesn't come..."

"Conan, Sora, you will also go together, right?"

"Um…"

Feng Yuan was ready to come down.

Kudo Shinichi is not familiar with Kyoto either, he can't appreciate the scenery here in his memory, so he really wants to visit it.

but…

"Ah, we won't go," Conan said. "We made an appointment with the kids nearby to go fishing at the river, right, Maple Plains?"

"..."

Big head on you.

……

They just rested in the temple for one night, and they parted ways temporarily the next day.

To be honest, Fengyuan was also interested in the case, so he did not deny Conan's words, but went to investigate with Conan.

The painting attached to the letter is likely to be related to the recent serial killings, and since Hotaru Genji is involved, it is natural to think of Yoshitsune and Benkei.

They planned to visit various places in Kyoto related to Yoshitsune and Benkei.

The first stop is Gojo Bridge.

It's just that there are countless people passing by the bridge every day. If there is anything special, people will have discovered it long ago. They looked at it for a while and found nothing related to that painting.

While they were observing, a figure quietly approached.

The man held a bamboo sword in his hand and walked very lightly.

He went directly towards Feng Yuan and Conan. To be precise, because Feng Yuan stood closer to him, he went towards Feng Yuan.

As he got closer, he muttered something in a low voice.

"On the Gojo Bridge in Kyoto, Benkei, a tall and sturdy man, raised his long sword and slashed at Ushiwakamaru..."

The figure raised the bamboo sword and swung it towards Fengyuan.

then…

"Pain, pain..."

"Hatto?" Conan, who was leaning on the guardrail and looking down the bridge, heard the movement, looked back, and found Hattori Heiji unexpectedly.

And Hattori Heiji has switched to holding the sword with one hand, and his right hand is covering the front of the calf just kicked by Kaedehara with his heel.

He originally wanted to scare this Kudo, and even said something specifically to give him time to react, but unexpectedly, Kudo seemed to be completely unaware, so he had no choice but to slow down the speed of swinging his sword.

What I didn't expect was...

Immediately afterwards he was ambushed.

"Hiss, Kudo, you are really insidious..." Hattori Heiji grinned and grinned, "You pretended not to notice, did you?" It jumped, and there was no effort."

"..."

"I said, Hattori, don't you want to pretend to be Benkei?" Looking at the bamboo sword in Hattori's hand and his current appearance, Conan immediately thought of what Hattori was going to do, and couldn't help complaining.

"Huh? How is it possible—"

"Big brother! Give me back the bamboo sword!"

Hattori Heiji was about to quibble, when the elementary school student who had just "borrowed" the bamboo sword from him and his companion ran over and asked him for the bamboo sword.

Returning the bamboo sword back, watching the elementary school students run away, Hattori Heiji looked at Conan sadly, "If I knew it, I would have taken you as a target..."

"Hey..." Conan rolled his eyes.

"Then Conan jumped onto the bridge all of a sudden?" Fengbara said, "And said you're not Benkei."

"Let's not talk about this anymore," Hattori Heiji decided to change the topic, because if he was Benkei, then Kudo would become Yoshitsune, and he would become his subordinate, "...I unexpectedly met you in this place."

"That's right, Xiaolan even told us that Ye said that you would not come if you have something to do..." Fengyuan said.

"Ah? So it turns out that guy Kazuha made an appointment with you?" Hattori Heiji was a little surprised, "Really, that stupid woman, just say no... By the way, what are you doing here?"

"I also want to ask what are you doing here..."

There were many pedestrians on the bridge, and the three of them left here and walked towards the nearby river bank. Hattori Heiji explained as they walked.

"Actually, the owner of the takoyaki restaurant in Osaka who was killed was quite familiar with me before." Hattori Heiji said, "Although he is a member of the thieves group, I have often gone to his store since middle school and have been taught by him." A lot of care, so I want to find the murderer to avenge him..."

That boss was one of the recently killed members of Hotaru Genji.

"So you came to Kyoto to find clues about the murderer?" Conan said, "If that's the case, I have something good..."

"I have a good thing." Maplehara said, handing the copy of the painting on his body to Hattori Heiji.

Hattori Heiji saw this painting for the first time.Sitting on the steps by the river bank, he took a closer look and found that he couldn't understand the meaning of the painting for a while.

"So that's how it is," Hattori Heiji mused, "as long as you solve the puzzle of this painting, you will not only find the Buddha statue, but you may also get clues about the murderer."

"And if Genji Hotaru is the one who stole the Buddha statue, we might be able to find clues to solve the mystery by looking for places related to Yoshitsune and Benkei... Unfortunately, we are not familiar with Kyoto..."

"Since that's the case, leave it to me, I'm pretty familiar with Kyoto. I just happened to come here on a motorcycle—"

He stopped talking halfway, and glanced at Fengyuan and Conan, "I said, Kudo, since you can change from one person to two, can't you find a way to temporarily close your lower body?"

……

Under the premise of not violating the traffic law, Hattori Heiji can only carry one Kudo.And even putting aside the traffic law, carrying two people means that one of them has to sit in Hattori Heiji's arms.

Fengyuan chose to refuse.

Simply handing over the task of finding relevant clues to these two people, Fengyuan planned to meet up with Xiaolan and the others while they just came out.

Of course, Fengyuan didn't intend to just ignore the case.Although a copy of the painting was left with Conan, he kept a photograph.

On the way, he took out his mobile phone and called the doctor's house.

"Hello, this is Dr. Ali's house."

"Grey Yuan?"

"Kudou...you seem to be quite surprised." Haibara Ai, who judged the identity of the other party from the tone, said.

"Yeah, because you said earlier that you're going to be in the lab for two days..."

"It went smoother than expected," Hui Yuanai said, "And then? You want to find a doctor, right?"

"Well," Fengyuan said as he walked, "there are some things that I would like to ask the doctor to help me check on the computer..."

"I can too."

"That's great." Fengyuan said, "It's like this, there is a painting that may be related to Yoshitsune and Benkei, I would like to ask you to help collect photos on the Internet, scenic spots in Kyoto and these two people ..."

"Oh..." Haiyuan Ai thought for a moment, "Do you want to compare?"

"almost."

"Then I can help you make a comparison program and use the computer to help you find possible relevant places..."

"Really?"

"Ah, do you think I'm joking?"

"No, it's just... an unexpected surprise. You are amazing, Haibara! Thank you!"

"Hmm~ If I really want to thank you, tomorrow..."

"tomorrow?"

"It's nothing." Hui Yuan Ai quickly changed his words.

The doctor plans to take the elementary school students to Kyoto tomorrow, and naturally she does too.Thinking of giving Kudo an "accident" tomorrow, she decided to hide it for now.

And here, after briefly talking about the case, Fengyuan then told Huiyuan Ai what he had seen and heard in Sanneng Temple. After catching him, he ended the call.

After sending the photo of the painting, he almost arrived at the place where he heard yesterday that Xiaolan and Yuanzi planned to meet up with Heye.

Because he and Conan came out earlier, they didn't arrive long.

Although gossip and girly topics are inevitable when three high school girls get together, Xiaolan and Sonoko are obviously used to chatting unscrupulously when Conan is around, so even though Maplehara is replaced this time, there is not much Change.

While Maplehara was admiring the scenery of Kyoto, he also listened to a lot of useless gossip.

Soon, he, Xiaolan and Yuanzi noticed that Heye was a little absent-minded.Under Xiaolan's inquiry, He Ye told the reason.

She was thinking about Hattori Heiji's first love.

"A magazine interview report?"

"Correct."

Sitting in a restaurant that Heye was familiar with, Heye took out a magazine from his bag and opened it for everyone to see.

"This is a very popular intelligence magazine in Kansai. The reporter asked Heiji about his first love in it, and he said that it was a girl slightly older than him he met in the third grade of elementary school. He also took out a Said it was a token related to her."

Kazuya turned the page and pointed to the photo of Hattori Heiji on it. In the photo, Hattori was pinching something like a crystal bead with his fingers, "He even asked a reporter to take this photo!"

"What is this?" Xiaolan asked curiously.

"An ordinary crystal bead," He Ye replied, "it was probably given to him by that girl."

"So, you and that girl..."

"How could I possibly know her? Heiji seemed to have only met her once... After that, he would look for her every time he came to Kyoto..."

"Ah! That's why he asked the reporter to take a picture of the crystal bead," Sonoko suddenly realized, "Heiji thought that maybe the girl would come to him after seeing the report..."

"Yeah! Look, he's very nasty, right?" He Ye said unhappy.

"Uh-huh!"

"The magazine also published his photos at that time..." Kazuha turned to another page of the magazine, and this page was a photo of Hattori Heiji when he was a child.

Feng Yuan took a careful look.

This guy Hattori has been so dark since he was a child...

"So cute!"

"That's to say! Heiji was really cute at that time—Xiao Lan, this is not the point now..."

"However, you don't have to be so concerned... Even if Hattori really has a first love, that's all in the past," Xiaolan said, "I think you two feel very good now..."

"However, Kazuha," Sonoko showed a smirk, "first love is the most special thing for boys..."

"Garden!"

"Also, be careful with this brat? It might be a spy sent by Hattori..."

Feng Yuan, who had been suppressing his sense of existence, silently took a sip of juice.In fact, although he has no impression of the case, Fengyuan is quite impressed with Hattori Heiji's first love.

It's just that he hasn't decided whether to say it, and how to say it.

After eating, the topic of Hattori Heiji's first love ended, and Fengyuan followed Xiaolan and the others to visit some famous scenic spots in Kyoto.

When Xiaolan returned to the temple in the evening, Xiaolan learned from the abbot that Uncle Mouri had gone out to fool around, and when she was about to go find him, Maplehara saw Hattori Heiji and Conan again who happened to be riding back.

(End of this chapter)