The Phantom Thief of Heart! But Conan.

Where else could this be? This was Nishikawa Mutsumi's former dream, a symbol of wealth and glory, but also her current nightmare, a nightmare that she couldn't help but recall whenever she saw a flickering flame.

This is the bedroom of the eldest daughter of the Mamiya family.

Gorgeous curtains, elegant decorations, all expensive and beautiful things that represent status, all look the same in the flames.

Mutsumi Nishikawa, who was lying on the ground, pressed her mouth tightly to suppress the urge to shout wildly, and stood up in a very embarrassed manner.

The flames that had been burning quietly in the room suddenly began to flow violently as she stood up. The strange smell and high temperature made sweat pour out on Mutsumi Nishikawa's unrecognizable face.

Without thinking, she instinctively touched the wall lamp which was extremely hot in the fire scene and turned it twice.

After living here for so many years, she had already mastered the intricate secret passages in the entire castle. She naturally knew how many entrances and exits there were in this deadly tower and how to escape safely.

Four years ago, she escaped from the fire in the same way and faked her own death.

As the mechanism on the wall turned, the wall behind her, which was originally tightly closed, began to rotate. Before Mutsumi Nishikawa could carefully identify what was behind the wall, she immediately staggered back into the open passage.

However, when the mechanism door completely rotated, Mutsumi Nishikawa only felt that the light in front of her eyes was refracted repeatedly in a psychedelic dizziness, as if the whole world was spinning with this door.

When she regained her sight, all she saw was still a raging fire.

This time, it was the servants' room in the tower, where Mutsumi Nishikawa once lived.

The Mamiya family, which had no shortage of living space, was quite generous in this regard, and she had lived here for many years, sharing a room with another maid of similar age, and they got along quite harmoniously.

Then four years ago, at that critical moment, she also burned him to death in this tower.

There was no time to think about what was going on with these rooms that were connected to each other and completely defied common sense. Before the fallen fire man moved, he screamed again and opened the next passage.

Only after Nishikawa Mutsumi's panicked figure completely disappeared did the door to the secret passage she entered rotate again.

Tang Ze, holding Conan in his hand, walked in leisurely with his teammates.

"She is so scared. This woman must be the culprit of the arson four years ago." Conan reached out and touched the flames around him, and said confidently, "I haven't done much research in forensic medicine, but the skeleton just now, both in age and physical characteristics, matches that of Ms. Masuo Mamiya. That is the real old lady of the Mamiya family."

The seemingly scary flames gently wrapped around his fingers when they touched it, like dipping into hot water, without causing any harm to him.

Compared to the room he entered from the oil painting in the hall, the sea of ​​fire in this area looked even more terrifying at first glance, but as long as he calmed down and investigated carefully, he would soon find that this place was more like an "oil painting" than a sea of ​​fire.

It doesn't mean to hurt anyone, it just quietly records the past, as if freezing time at that sad night.

"You're right. If it wasn't intentional, how could he have killed all the people in the family who knew the old lady very well?" Tang Ze shrugged and stretched out his hand to tease the flames that looked like water plants. "But this place is very safe for us, but not necessarily for that woman."

Conan, who was still thinking about the dialectical questions such as "the oil painting world is a sea of ​​fire purgatory, but the real sea of ​​fire is a flowing oil painting", was stunned: "Why, can this world still distinguish who is the real murderer and cause targeted harm to her?"

"That's the situation you mentioned, but it's not the case here." Tang Ze said pertinently, "Having a specific reaction to a specific person is a very subjective mechanism that requires 'judgment and identification', and here, everything you see from midnight onwards is just a mirror image of the real world. It just records reality truthfully and doesn't give much feedback."

In order to give a specific response to a specific group of people, there must be a conscious existence like the owner of the hall that can control and influence the space. This will not be the case in a public hall that belongs to everyone.

Although this place looks very much like the personal palace they used to conquer, its essence is still the impression space of the Mamiya family castle. It is a collective thing, but it is particularly special because of the limitations of the group.

Tang Ze didn't explain much, but Conan's reaction was quick.

He stroked his chin and nodded thoughtfully: "Now that you put it that way, I think I understand. The previous area was about the power of public opinion and words, and recorded the desire to pry into private affairs and conspiracy theories, so it was particularly aggressive. But here, it is more like a scene of true mourning and grief, so it is naturally very peaceful."

As he walked from room to room and observed the manifestations of different areas, Conan was able to understand a little bit the operating logic of this world.

Joker has always emphasized that it is a mirror of the real world, and what is reflected in the mirror is naturally the impression that exists in reality.

"You're quick to react, Detective." Tang Ze highly praised the detective's quick mind.

"Then why do you say that the situation will be different for that woman?" Conan pointed in the direction where Nishikawa Mutsumi disappeared, "As long as she is touched slightly, she will immediately react and realize that there is no danger here."

With his brain occupied by shocking images, Mutsumi Nishikawa was in a panic and had no idea where to go. He could only flee relying on his survival instinct and muscle memory.

Once she stopped, or if she made a mistake and let the flames get close to her, there was no reason why she couldn't discover the secret of the room.

"Because this is a mirror." Miyano Akemi, who was covering the lower half of her face with a fan, laughed, "You will see what you look like in the mirror. She is a murderer with thirteen lives on her hands. Facing everything that records her crimes, she feels fear and escapes."

Just like with a little guidance from Karasawa, Mamiya Mitsuru, who exposed his greedy ambitions in front of the servants, caused an uproar in public opinion, and the cognitive world that they were fiercely passing through in the castle would fluctuate, and then have the opportunity to connect with reality again, allowing them to successfully throw Conan out to look at his bones, and then kick Nishikawa Mutsumi in to make barbecue.

This impression space composed of a minority of people is itself supported by two contagious legends: the so-called curse rumor and the treasure left by the great master of the Mamiya family. Its core is the special public opinion environment formed by this small group of people living in the castle. It is weak and easily affected.

When Nishikawa Mutsumi's great fear and imagination overlap with this world, what strengthens it is no longer the rules of the impression space, but the magnified terror of the evildoers who do evil things.

"So, to her, this is a real fire scene?" Conan opened his eyes wide in sudden realization and amazement.

For others, this is a place of mourning for the past, but for her, it is the source of all fears and desires.

Perhaps this is the reason why the Phantom Thieves brought this culprit into this world. She will be tortured here, experience the coercion and torture of fear, and meet her own end.

Even if she could leave here safely, everything she experienced was so incredible that it would only be regarded as a crazy hallucination under high pressure, and no one would know what had happened to her.

"Is this the essence of your change of heart..." Conan's mind briefly flashed with the faces of several people crying in front of the camera because of the intervention of the Phantom Thief of Hearts. For a moment, he didn't know whether to praise their clever thinking or say that their methods were radical. After thinking about it, he could only comment, "Simple and crude, but it is indeed effective. It is really a great conspiracy."

It is indeed a bit torturous, but it is also beyond reproach.

It is not the Phantom Thieves who torture the villains, but the devil in their own hearts. They drink the bitter fruit of their own making, so how can they blame others for being too cruel to them?

Just like the murderer today, even if she knew the plan of the Phantom Thieves, what can she say? You have the ability to protest against someone else's lynching, but you have the ability not to set fire?

Tang Ze smiled, but in Conan's eyes, he could only see the exaggerated curve of Joker's lips under the eye mask.

"That's the power of cognition. Welcome to the world of cognition, little detective."

----

While the detectives and the phantom thieves were leisurely discussing the nature of the world, Mutsumi Nishikawa, who was fleeing madly, couldn't even laugh.

The strong smell of burning had already filled her breath, and all she could see before her eyes was a human body that had lost its human form and was left with only a distorted silhouette.

Sometimes she entered a burning tower, sometimes a secret passage filled with thick smoke, which completely overlapped with her memory of that night four years ago. Sometimes she would abruptly enter an ordinary-looking castle room, and when she had some idea whether she had escaped, the burning firemen caught up with her again and set fire to the room that looked no different from an ordinary one.

Sometimes she entered the castle in the daytime, and sometimes a dark secret passage. Her body should have been dehydrated and exhausted due to the long-term intense exercise, but she was driven by the instinct of survival and ran towards the next door desperately.

She seemed to be trapped in an endless purgatory, unable to find a way out or an end.

In this state where she had lost her basic judgment ability, Mutsumi Nishikawa certainly did not realize that she had entered and exited the cognitive world several times under the operation of the Phantom Thieves.

This world is very narrow. No matter what state the room is in, it is modeled after a real castle, with a real secret passage interspersed in it. Even Mutsumi Nishikawa, who is very familiar with it, can no longer trust the environment he perceives.

Her hair was burned into clumps by the flames, and her clothes were tattered, looking extremely miserable.

So when Tang Ze saw that her sanity was almost exhausted, he released her back to reality, ready to let Conan use the real treasure reasoning to completely break her defense, but Mutsumi Nishikawa was completely unaware that she had truly returned to reality.

She just kept running forward with her head down, running up the long stairs in the hall, running up the shiny marble floor, running up the corridor wet by rain.

Standing on the lawn outside the castle, feeling the rain falling from the sky and instantly soaking her whole body, Nishikawa Mutsumi's confused mind finally became a little clearer.

It was a purgatory made of fire, and as you can imagine, it would not rain in a purgatory of fire.

Mutsumi Nishikawa stretched out her hand blankly and caught some of the falling raindrops.

She was kicked into the cognitive world by Tang Ze around noon, and she has been fleeing in a panic until now, and it is already past evening.

It was dinner time, but everyone in the castle was still outside searching for the missing child, and no one noticed her strange condition for a while.

Mutsumi Nishikawa thought in a daze for a moment, and her eyes blurred by sweat finally began to focus. When she raised her head, she saw something that definitely should not be an illusion.

The RV carrying outsiders was quietly parked in the heavy rain.

Did I finally escape?

Mutsumi Nishikawa swallowed hard and wanted to collapse to the ground, but she remembered how she had been deceived by her surroundings many times before. She couldn't help but feel doubtful when she just started to relax but was immediately caught up by the firemen.

But the scene now was outside the castle. Even if this was still an illusion, she had no way to escape.

Hesitating in her heart, Mutsumi Nishikawa gritted her teeth and finally decided to drag her heavy feet towards the RV with all the lights turned off.

Maybe there will be one or two people up there. Even if there is no one, this thing that does not belong to the castle will make her feel more secure.

After running wildly for hours in the pursuit of flames, she couldn't help feeling fear and shrinking when she saw any part of the castle. She really didn't dare to turn back to the place that she should have known very well.

She walked to the door of the RV and pushed it tentatively. She was surprised to find that the RV was not locked. The folding front door was pushed open with just a little force.

Mutsumi Nishikawa felt as if she had been pardoned, and she crawled onto the floor of the RV.

Huibara Ai, who secretly ran into the car to check the data, was startled and quickly shrank back, hiding in the pile of pillows on the sofa, carefully hiding her body.

Oops, she forgot to lock the door. She shouldn't be so careless just because she came here to record the data...

With her SAN value almost reaching zero, Mutsumi Nishikawa had no time to notice such subtle movements.

She raised her feet and took two steps towards the spacious space behind the RV, and came face to face with the big white egg that had been briefly unwrapped by Haibara Ai to check the data and was exposed outside.

The bright white eggshell emitted a faint fluorescence, lying quietly in the soft bubble wrap and fabric. The scene was so surreal that Mutsumi Nishikawa couldn't help but be stunned.

The next second, a loud explosion and flames suddenly exploded in front of her eyes.

A charred human body fell from a high place and landed heavily on the ground in front of her.

In fact, when the man fell halfway, the flames and the dust from the explosion had been rolled back as if in a rewind, and when he really fell to the ground, he was already a perfectly healthy, handsome young man.

But the frightening noise completely wiped out the last bit of her rationality, and Nishikawa Mutsumi fell to her knees on the ground, screaming miserably.

"They are catching up, they are catching up...Don't come over, don't come over, don't come over!!!"

At the same time, Tang Ze, who was handsomely making a knife flower in the impression space and chopping a shadow into black mud, turned his head as if he realized something.

"What is more important than silence..."