Phantom Thief of Heart!but conan

Chapter 906: 0 Frame Start

"Since this is the project I proposed, let's start with me." Seeing Hakuba nod in agreement, Koshimizu Nanatsuki ignored Tokitsu Junya's expression, snapped his fingers, and announced the start of the project.

Mizuno Rena, who had been waiting on the side, raised her hand, and the cameras and other equipment at the rear of the deck quickly moved over.

Surrounded by cameras, Tokatsu Junya, who was quite resistant to this in his heart, had to swallow his anger.

The detectives didn't have a good look at him, but at least the staff remembered that there was such a person and handed him a chair, allowing him to sit down opposite Conan successfully.

Although they were sitting at the children's table, they seemed to be sitting on an equal footing, so Koshimizu Nanatsuki nodded and began the first story.

"I have the least experience among you all, and I don't have that many cases accumulated, so I'll just throw out some ideas to inspire you. Well, the title is, 'A rich man lives in a villa in the suburbs, where the scenery is beautiful and the climate is pleasant. However, less than half a year after moving in, his daughter committed suicide. Half a year later, a detective passed by this place. A week after he arrived, the maid, housekeeper and gardener in the house committed suicide one after another.'"

Koshimizu Nanatsuki put on a smile with curved eyebrows, but there was no smile at all in the depths of her eyes. Instead, some deep emotions were brewing in them.

"It's really bizarre and tortuous." Hattori Heiji pinched his chin, thought for a moment, and threw out his first guess, "Their suicides are all real. This puzzle doesn't involve supernatural or mysterious elements, right?"

He didn't have many opportunities to play this kind of game - mainly because the people around him didn't like to play reasoning games with him - but the rules were basically clear to him.

According to the rules of Turtle Soup, or in other words, the situational puzzle, the person who sets the question gives the question, and the others rely on the analysis of the question to narrow down the truth step by step. This process is like washing out the treasure sealed in the mud bit by bit. The answer is often completely opposite to the intuitive guess. It is indeed a very suitable interlude game for detectives.

"...Yes." Nanatsuki Koshimizu paused meaningfully for a few seconds and nodded.

It wasn't the original version of her friend's story, but it was a predictable one, a future caused by a fool.

If it weren't for her, if it weren't for the Phantom Thief of Hearts...

"Then the detective in this question is a crucial role." Bai Ba Tan raised his finger in realization, "It was the judgment made by this detective around his daughter's suicide that led to this tragedy, right?"

"Yes."

"It's easy to guess up to this point." Tang Ze tilted his head, knowing that he should play the role of a qualified troublemaker at this time, so he shook his finger pretentiously, "Next should be the important branch of the answer, but Miss Yueshui, I don't think you would do it without a purpose. You would throw out such a story at the beginning, there must be a reason. Let me make a bolder guess. This detective is not qualified, and his mistakes directly lead to many consequences, right?"

This sentence was not meant to be suggestive at all; it was more like a direct statement. Almost everyone's eyes immediately turned to Tokitsu Junya.

Koshimizu Nanatsuki laughed heartily, and at the end of the laugh, she responded to his thoughts with a brief answer: "That's right, you are worthy of it, Akechi."

Considering the title, this is a somewhat far-fetched idea, but combined with the actual situation of the variety show, Goro Akechi's guess is quite impressive.

He almost pointed out directly that the reason why Nanatsuki Koshimizu proposed this game and started it was because of her extreme dissatisfaction with Tokitsu Junya's performance in the interlude-like case in the previous prologue.

According to the speaking order, Tokitsu Junya should have spoken next, but the atmosphere was so awkward that he couldn't even open his mouth.

After he remained silent for several seconds and still did not respond, Conan put down the drink in his hand and cleared his throat.

"Now that you have guessed the key, it's easy. The detective mistakenly believed that one of the gardeners, housekeepers, or maids murdered the young lady, and the other party chose to commit suicide to show his determination, right?"

The reasoning couldn't be simpler. In fact, not long after Nanatsuki Koshimizu opened her mouth, he felt that most people present had guessed the general outline of the incident.

Therefore, he fully received the ridicule and disdain that Koshimizu Nanatsuki sent to Tokatsu Junya. Feeling a little bit of empathy, he rarely understood the atmosphere and chose to pretend to join the ranks of excluding others and squeeze Tokatsu Junya's speaking order to the back.

"Yes. Little brother, you are still an elementary school student, but you are very suitable to be a detective." Koshimizu Nanatsuki nodded with a smile.

The implication was that there was someone present who was not suitable to be a detective, she just didn't say who it was.

This time, Tokatsu Junya, who was almost being pointed at and scolded, turned pale and blue in the face.

Vaguely sensing that something was wrong, he wanted to remain silent, or pretend to be deaf-mute for a while, find an excuse of feeling unwell, and escape from this almost frozen atmosphere. However, with so many cameras, and the eyes of so many famous colleagues and media people focused on him, his feet felt as if they were filled with lead and he could not move.

He gritted his teeth and answered word by word in response to Nanatsuki Koshimizu's mocking smile.

"The detective caused some misunderstandings about the actions of the three people, misjudged the truth of the case, and eventually killed three innocent people one after another..."

"Yes." Before he could finish, Nanatsuki Koshimizu answered immediately, and the intention behind her words was obvious.

Although she had made many changes to the case, she thought that even someone as incompetent as Tokatsu Junya should have realized which case she was referring to. No matter how stupid Tokatsu Junya was, he was still a detective who had made achievements, and he was not so dull.

No one cares about Tokatsu Junya's reaction for the time being. Koshimizu Nanatsuki's answer means that the first layer of the soup has been revealed, and they have to continue to analyze the deeper logical relationship.

"It's understandable that the wrongly accused committed suicide, but if the other two committed suicide, then it seems that the reason for the injustice was related to them." Hattori Heiji touched his chin and thought, "Did these two people fabricate false evidence? Or maybe it's not that serious, at least they interfered with the investigation?"

"Yes. If there is no causal relationship, I certainly won't add it all to the question." Nanatsuki Koshimizu did not deny her own selfish motives here. The two people who indirectly caused this result would definitely not commit suicide just because of guilt, but in her heart, if Xiaoxun really was not rescued, then she felt that they should die of guilt for this.

"Just now you said that we should design the case based on the cases we have experienced ourselves, so the case you mentioned does have a real prototype, right?" Bai Ma touched his chin and made an additional judgment, "Maid, gardener, housekeeper... Generally, the person who is framed is not the housekeeper. It is the gardener or the maid. I guess it is the maid."

"That's correct, but may I ask why you make such a conclusion?" Nanatsuki Koshimizu asked in addition.

"Oh, a rough judgment. First of all, the daughter of the rich man did commit suicide. There is no murderer. This is a frame-up. Among the three people, the maid is of course the most vulnerable one." Bai Ma Tan explained with reason, "This is a villa in the suburbs, the environment is relatively closed, so in this simple interpersonal environment, the housekeeper must be closer to the status of the owner. Rather than being wronged, it is more likely that he concealed the information out of professional ethics. And the gardener, most of the people who hold this position are adult men, right?"

If the detective had to catch a fictitious murderer from among the related persons, the person who was finally chosen as the sacrifice would most likely be a maid with no special position.

"Great. You are indeed an experienced detective." Koshimizu Nanatsuki clapped softly.

"You're too kind. I just got to know some of the situations in big families when I was in England." Bai Matan made a distressed expression, "It's really hard for me to understand. Maybe it's because I have a good relationship with the servants hired by my family."

Before Tang Ze started to set the pace, he took the time to glance at Bai Ma.

Really? In this place where capitalism is superficial but feudalism is the basis, you say that other people's big families are closed and interpersonal relationships are weak? Really? I don't believe it.

"The maid was a victim who was wrongly accused. As Bai Ma just said, the butler is often the one who conceals the truth because his position is very different from that of ordinary maids. So, he committed suicide because he knew the inside story of the young lady's death, but for various reasons he did not say it, so he committed suicide after killing someone? It's a reasonable guess. There are indeed many butlers who play this role. I have been involved in more cases of this kind recently, and I have similar feelings."

"Perfectly correct. Akechi-kun, I'm beginning to doubt whether you know which case I'm talking about." Koshimizu Nanatsuki narrowed her eyes and was equally generous in her applause.

Although he was not really reasoning, and Goro Akechi could be considered to be well aware of the situation and was deliberately cheating, she was still very grateful to this assistant who was well versed in the art of words and was very good at inciting the atmosphere.

Without this traitor leading the charge, the slap she gave Tokatsu Junya in the face wouldn't have been so fast or so loud.

"Then it seems that the gardener is closer to the role of the persecutor." Conan nodded seriously, "As for the gardener, he should have a distant relationship with many people in the family. However, this position seems marginal, but it is actually quite crucial. A gardener can appear anywhere in this family at will. Maybe he is the direct cause of the detective's misjudgment? He gave disruptive clues, or directly said something that contradicts the truth?"

His guess was a bit broad, but overall it did not go beyond the scope of the gardener being one of the persecutors who caused the consequences, so Koshimizu Nanatsuki nodded and answered his guess in detail.

"It can be considered as a disruptive clue. The truth has basically surfaced, and I will not let you guess aimlessly. I will only ask one last question. The gardener is a man of bad conduct. Since the daughter of the rich man has died, her room is vacant. The gardener took advantage of the convenience of his job, broke into the lady's room, and stole her belongings. So, the last question, Mr. Shijin."

When Nanatsuki Koshimizu said this, her tone was always slow and leisurely, but the ups and downs of the rhythm made her slow and powerful voice sound like a heavy question.

"An isolated petty theft, a silent housekeeper, an innocent maid... who is the real murderer who caused the deaths of three people?"

Tokitsu Junya swallowed his saliva and met Koshimizu Nanatsuki's particularly gloomy eyes in the shadow of the parasol. He felt as if his throat was clogged with cotton and was hoarse and unable to speak for a moment.

With this detailed information, he already understood what Nanatsuki Koshimizu was talking about.

No matter where this woman discovered this case, at this moment she was questioning herself without a doubt.

He once again thought of running away, but was once again firmly fixed to the spot by the same reason, like a frog nailed to a foam board, and could only watch the ruthless butcher's knife approaching.

Finally, Tokitsu Junya lowered his head weakly.

"It's a detective. It's a detective who failed to find the truth and caused the death of others."

"Bravo!" Nanatsuki Koshimizu snapped her fingers very crisply, echoing her initial action. She grabbed the drink on the table with her backhand, pretending it was a wine glass, raised her head and took a big sip.

Being able to teach Tokatsu Junya a lesson was something she had anticipated at the beginning of this journey.

But at this moment, her mood was still very good, as if she had drunk a big gulp of salty soda under the scorching sun, and a feeling of comfort made her whole body cool.

"Detectives are faced with murder cases and rely on investigation. Any negligence or loopholes in the process will lead to unpredictable consequences. When giving results, you must be cautious. This is the story I want to share with you."

Wiping the water stains from the corners of her mouth, Nanatsuki Koshimizu sat up straight and first raised her head to a higher level. Then, she glanced at Tokitsu Junya's red and green face and gave a complete description of the slightly changed case.

"The rich man's daughter suffered from severe depression and often committed suicide and self-harmed. However, the rich man was unwilling to disclose his daughter's condition, fearing that she would bring shame to the family, so he sent her to this suburban villa far away from her family. She was deeply shocked and finally died after repeated struggles. The housekeeper who witnessed all this knew that this was a secret that the rich man did not want to make public, so when a passing detective came to the door with the intention of exploring the truth, he of course remained silent.

"The petty-thieving gardener had been undetected for months, so he acted with impunity and left traces of his presence in the young lady's boudoir. The detective mistakenly thought he had found evidence that had been missed before, and used this as evidence to tell the police that the murderer was the maid."

Having said that, she turned her head and her sharp gaze was like a knife, stabbing at Tokatsu Junya, whose hands and feet were numb.

"It just so happens that the 'evidence' found by the detective was also some sawed-off screws. The gardener sawed off the nails to make it easier to climb in and out of the window."

(End of this chapter)