Conan's other self

Kyoto.

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

No one was waiting outside Shanneng Temple, but the temple door was open. When they walked in, they noticed a group of people gathering in the open space of the temple to chat.

Noticing their arrival, one of the young monks took the lead in leaving the crowd and came towards them.

"Mr. Mori!"

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 old monk, who looked about sixty or seventy years old. He was Enkai, the abbot of Shannou Temple.

The abbot was in good spirits, with a calm smile on his face, which made Fengyuan feel that he had the demeanor of a monk that he had imagined.

The other three people were wearing ordinary clothes and were benefactors of Sannoji Temple.

The fatter middle-aged man is Mr. Sakura Shozo. He is about fifty years old and runs an antique shop on Teramachi Road.

The young man next to him, about thirty years old, is Harutaro Mizuo, the young master of the Noh drama Mizuaki.

The man standing at the back wearing glasses and looking a bit bookish is Mr. Taiga Saijo who runs a used bookstore.

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

Kendo...

Speaking of kendo, Maplehara 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," after a few pleasantries, Uncle Maori said, "I heard that your temple seems to have a Buddha statue that is consecrated only once every twelve years..."

"Yes, that is the main Buddha of this temple, Medicine Master Tathagata..."

"Will it be open to the public for worship the day after tomorrow?" Xiaolan showed an expectant expression, "Actually, we are here to celebrate this occasion..."

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

However, although the host Yuan Hai looked normal, the expression of Long Yuan standing next to him was a little gloomy.

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

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 the Buddha statues and showed them. There were two Buddha statues in the cabinet, but the middle one was empty. "The one on the left is the Sunlight Bodhisattva, and the one on the right is the Moonlight Bodhisattva. The Medicine Master was originally placed in the middle. Tathagata Buddha was stolen..."

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

"At first I advocated calling the police immediately, but the abbot stopped me. He said that if we are destined, maybe one day we can meet Medicine Master Tathagata again..."

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

After seeing the Buddha statue, everyone followed Long Yuan to the room where guests were entertained in the temple, where Long Yuan was going to discuss the commission with Uncle Maori.

"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. Uncle Maori took it from his hand and first looked at the front and back of the letter.

"No stamps were affixed, nor was the sender written..."

Then he took out a letter from the envelope, with two columns of words written on it, "As long as you solve the mystery of this painting, you will know the location of the Buddha statue..."

At the bottom of the letter is the painting mentioned in the letter.

Maplehara and Conan came over to take a look.

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 unimpressed.

"Dad," Xiaolan looked at Uncle Maori who was racking his brains with some worry, "can you find me before the day after tomorrow?"

"You don't have to worry. If your father is involved in a puzzle like this, he will definitely be able to solve it..."

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

"That's good, that's good. You guys will only get in the way here."

Uncle Maori looked very disgusted, but Xiaolan had already made a plan and said to Sonoko: "To tell you the truth, before I came here, I had a phone call with Kazuye, and she said she could take us to visit Kyoto tomorrow. However, She persuaded the department to have something to do, so I'm afraid she can't come over..."

"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 also not familiar with Kyoto. 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?"

"..."

You're a big-headed idiot.

…

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

To be honest, Maplehara was also somewhat interested in the case, so he did not deny Conan's words, but followed Conan to investigate.

The painting attached to the letter is most likely related to the recent serial murders, and since Genji Hotaru 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 countless people pass by the bridge here every day. If there was anything special, people would have discovered it long ago. They looked at it for a while and found nothing related to the painting.

While they were observing, a figure approached quietly.

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..."

This figure raised his bamboo sword and swung it towards Fengyuan.

Then…

"It hurts, it hurts..."

"Hattori?" Conan, who was leaning on the guardrail and looking under the bridge, heard the noise and looked back, and unexpectedly spotted Hattori Heiji.

Hattori Heiji had switched to holding the sword with one hand, and his right hand was covering the front of his calf that had just been kicked by Maplehara with his heel.

He originally wanted to scare Kudo, and spoke specifically to give him time to react, but to his surprise, Kudo didn't seem to notice it at all, so he had to slow down the speed of his sword swing.

What I didn't expect was...

Then he was attacked by surprise.

"Hey, Kudo, you are really insidious..." Hattori Heiji complained with a grin, "You pretended not to notice on purpose, didn't you?"

"How could it be?" Fengyuan's expression remained unchanged, "I was just suddenly startled, and I didn't use any force."

"..."

"I said, Hattori, are you trying 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!"

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

Returning the bamboo sword and watching the elementary school students run away, Hattori Heiji looked at Conan sadly, "If I had known, I would have targeted you..."

"Hey..." Conan rolled his eyes.

"Then Conan jumped onto the bridge all of a sudden?" Feng Yuan said, "And he said you were 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."

"Yes, Xiaolan also told us that Heye said you wouldn't come if you had 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 you what you are doing here..."

There were many pedestrians on the bridge. The three of them left 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 very familiar with me before." Hattori Heiji said, "Although he was a member of the thieves group, I have often gone to his store since I was in junior high, and I have been trained by him. A lot of care, so I want to find the murderer and 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 so, I have a good thing..."

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

This was the first time Hattori Heiji saw this painting. He sat on the steps by the river bank and took a closer look, and found that he could not figure out the meaning of the painting for a while.

"I see," Hattori Heiji held his chin in thought, "As long as we solve the mystery of this painting, not only can we find the Buddha statue, but we may also get clues to the murderer."

"And if it was Genji Hotaru 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..."

"In that case, the rest is up to me. I'm quite familiar with Kyoto. I just happened to ride a motorcycle over here -"

He stopped talking mid-sentence and glanced at Feng Yuan and Conan, "I say, Kudo, since you can change from one person to two people, can't you find a way to temporarily close your private parts?"

…

As long as it does not violate traffic laws, Hattori Heiji can only carry one Kudo. And regardless of traffic laws, carrying two people meant that one of them had to sit in Hattori Heiji's arms.

Feng Yuan 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 were still 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.

While walking on the road, he took out his mobile phone and called the doctor's house.

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

"Haiyuan?"

"Kudo...you seem to be quite surprised." Haibara Ai said, judging the identity of the other party from his tone.

"Yes, because you said before that you would stay in the laboratory these two days..."

"It went more smoothly than expected," Haihara Ai said, "Then what? 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." Maplehara said, "That's it. 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 of scenic spots in Kyoto related to 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 a computer to help you find potentially relevant places..."

"real?"

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

"No, it's just...an unexpected surprise. You are amazing, Haiyuan! 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.

Here, after briefly talking about the case, Fengyuan went on to tell Haibara Ai some of what he had seen at Sannou Temple. When the doctor slipped out and was about to steal something to eat, he was interrupted by Haibara Ai, who happened to be quietly listening to the phone. After catching it, 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 had only arrived not long ago.

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 Kazuye was a little absent-minded. Under Xiaolan's inquiry, Heye told the reason.

She was thinking about Hattori Heiji's first love.

"A magazine interview report?"

"right."

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 who was slightly older than him that he met in the third grade of elementary school. He also took out a Said it was a token related to her."

Kazuha turned a page and pointed to the photo of Hattori Heiji. In the photo, Hattori was holding 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," Heye replied, "probably the girl gave it to him."

"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 reporters to take pictures of the crystal beads," 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 photos of him from that time..." Kazuye turned over another page of the magazine. On this page was a photo of Hattori Heiji when he was a child.

Feng Yuan took a closer look.

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

"So cute!"

"That's it! Heiji was really awesome at that time - Xiaolan, this is not the point now..."

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

"But, Kazuha," Sonoko said with a wicked smile, "first love is the most special thing for a boy..."

"Garden!"

"Besides, be careful with this kid? He might be a spy sent by Hattori..."

Maplehara, who had been suppressing his presence, silently took a sip of juice. In fact, although he had no impression of the case, Maplehara was quite impressed by Hattori Heiji's first love.

It's just that he hasn't decided yet whether or how to say it.

After dinner, and ending the topic of Hattori Heiji’s first love, Maplehara followed Xiaolan and the others to visit some famous attractions 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.