The Phantom Thief of Heart! But Conan.

The person standing in front was slow to move for two seconds, then turned around and saw that it was Goro Akechi as expected.

"I am indeed a detective. But do you know that this is..."

"Ah, it's you, Detective Akechi, the 'Killer of Crime', isn't it?" The monk who called him was excited to see his face. "I've seen you on TV. Since your name is only one letter different from Kogoro Akechi, I remembered it right away..."

Hattori Heiji, who was watching the commotion a few meters away, lowered his brows and made a face: "He just said this morning, 'a name he gave himself', which means that the name Akechi Goro was given to himself, right? Sure enough, he had already made the plan from this step on..."

A name similar to a detective in mystery novels has a halo effect when it appears in the media, making it easy for people to remember his name and instinctively think that he must be a detective...

The name has a branding effect from the beginning, and his identity as a detective is simply a natural existence for commercial marketing...

Tang Ze didn't say anything, but just looked at him silently for a while, then turned his eyes downward suggestively.

Hattori Heiji, who was confused by the look on his face, couldn't help but look down and saw Conan's face.

When they first met, I tried to test whether Goro Akechi was a pseudonym, but was mocked for having a similar naming logic. Edogawa Conan: "..."

"You're too kind." Goro Akechi, who was standing in front, smiled gently. "So what do you want to talk to me about?"

"It is a fate to meet such a famous detective like you here. Could you please help me solve a puzzle?" The monk was a little excited after receiving the response. If he was not holding the vegetables he just bought, he would immediately hold Mingzhi's hand and shake it a few times.

"Well..." Mingzhi tilted his head, looking a little embarrassed.

"He definitely won't accept it." Hattori Heiji complained bluntly, "He already said that he is a detective with 'high commercial value'. Now the commission fee has increased to such a high level."

"That's not necessarily true. Uncle's commissions are not cheap now, and he often helps the police without expecting anything in return." Conan crossed his arms and said in a fair tone, "Even if you want to make money, you have to build up a reputation first. A detective's reputation cannot be built up from paid commissions. As long as the police ask for help or if they meet by chance, Akechi Goro will still help."

It is not much different from Kogoro Mori in nature, and the reason why Akechi charges a higher fee is purely due to the added image and media visibility.

"But this isn't a definite case." Hattori Heiji shook his head. "What if after spending a lot of time, we find out it was a misunderstanding, or just a small matter, like looking for a cat or a dog? Wouldn't that be a big disappointment?"

"You sound quite experienced." Conan glanced over.

"Why, I don't believe you haven't had this kind of trouble before." Hattori Heiji looked back unwillingly, "It can't be helped. High school student detectives basically don't accept paid commissions... The one in front doesn't count. He's just a high school student in age, but he's not a high school student at all. It's not appropriate for him to squeeze into this group."

Regardless of whether Mingzhi's character as a genius boy who graduated from college is real or fake, it is certain that he is not in school, and his attempt to position himself as a high school detective is full of suspicion of being an attempt to attract attention.

However, if Mingzhi refuses, they will complain but still understand.

Suddenly stopping a detective on the street and grabbing him to ask for a favor is like trying to get something for free, which is actually a bit embarrassing and offensive.

Sure enough, Mingzhi in front of him shook his head slightly.

"Now is not my working time. I want to participate in the Sakura Festival and relax from my busy work..." Halfway through his words, he looked over the monk's shoulder and saw Conan and his group who had been standing behind and watching for who knows how long.

His eyes met Tang Ze.

Tang Ze picked up a bunch of dumplings, took a bite of one, and nodded with this action.

Xingchuan Hui changed the words on his lips and slowed down his tone: "But you are right, it is fate that we met. Tell me what trouble you encountered?"

Seeing that Xingchuan Hui handled it very easily, Tangze chewed the dumpling in his mouth quickly and praised him in his heart.

As expected of a guy who has been training for so long, with him and the other members of the Phantom Thieves around, Hoshikawa Teru is making rapid progress.

Since he was really not good at being a detective, Tang Ze gave him some training on how to delay time and refuse if he encountered an emergency case on the road or was caught by a passing policeman who asked for help when Tang Ze was not around.

The rhetoric just used to deal with the young monk was part of the training content, and Xingchuan Hui was able to digest and apply it quite well.

Hoshikawa Teru's action was to confirm that Tang Ze was free to help, so as to avoid exposing himself as a fake detective, but in the eyes of others, his turn of events had a different meaning.

"Because he saw Uncle Mori and us, he suddenly wanted to maintain the image of a good detective?" Hattori Heiji touched his chin and guessed, "He really was refusing just now, didn't I understand it correctly?"

He suddenly glanced at them and immediately changed the subject and agreed. In the eyes of Hattori Heiji, this action was very provocative.

"No, not necessarily..." Conan glanced at Tang Ze out of the corner of his eye.

Why did he feel that Mingzhi saw Tang Ze here, and his tone suddenly changed from cold business talk to active detective style? Is he so burdened with his image?

"Why not just go and ask?" Tang Ze shrugged, raised his leg and walked forward without waiting for the two of them to stop him.

The monk, who was unaware of the little episode behind the scenes, immediately breathed a sigh of relief when he saw Akechi Goro agree.

"I am practicing in the temple over there, my Buddhist name is Chuanjiu. A few days ago, a guest came to visit the abbot. As a result, she suddenly disappeared in her room." Pointing to the temple spire that was exposed under the thick cherry trees, Chuanjiu's expression became strange as he spoke, "I feel that things are very strange, but I can't figure it out. I can only trouble smart people like you to think of a solution."

"Missing mysteriously, so is it a missing persons case?" Hattori Heiji walked over, adjusted his baseball cap, and took over the conversation directly.

"But if they are tourists, it is normal for them to leave without saying hello." Conan also came over, "What makes you feel wrong?"

"You two brats, don't interrupt when someone else's client is introducing themselves!" Maori Kogoro, who saw the noise and came over, patted each of them on the back of their heads. It sounded very polite, but even though he said this, his steps didn't stop. It was not difficult to see that Denkyu's direct ignoring of them just now really made him subtly unhappy.

Denkyu looked at the people who had gathered around him with a puzzled look on his face, then looked at Akechi Goro, whose expression remained unchanged.

"Friend." Hoshikawa Teru replied briefly and calmly, "He's also a detective."

"Oh, oh..." Chuanjiu scratched his bald head. Although he didn't understand why a truckload of detectives appeared just when he held one detective, as if there were some special effect of a large number of detectives appearing, it wouldn't be a loss to have more of them. He continued to answer Conan's question, "The guest was a long-haired female donor. Because she came very late, we invited her to stay in the temple's annex for one night. The next morning, when I prepared breakfast and went to her room to call her, I found that she was no longer there. If you say she left suddenly, it is indeed possible, but she didn't take any of her luggage with her, and..."

Chuanjiu looked around with some concern and lowered his voice subconsciously, but he still couldn't help showing a look of fear on his face. It was obvious that the scene had a great impact on him.

"Besides, the room is full of blood..." Chuanjiu raised his hand to cover his mouth and said vaguely, "The entire tatami is stained red, and it doesn't look like it has dried yet. No matter how you look at it, the people who are bleeding are probably..."

Chuanjiu had never been exposed to relevant scenes or knowledge, so he didn't know whether the amount of blood on the ground was life-threatening, but based on his simple intuition, the situation was really bad enough.

"Do you suspect that she was attacked in the room, or that she is dead?" Hattori Heiji frowned.

"In this case, calling the police directly should be more likely to get results than finding a detective on the street to ask." Maori Kogoro said more seriously, "Have you called the police?"

"Of course! I definitely have this common sense!" Chuanjiu said quickly, "I first went to the abbot to tell him about this, and then I called the police immediately. But when the police arrived, there was nothing in the room. The bloodstains were all gone."

"Huh?!" Ran Mao Li, who had just followed and watched, realized that the situation was developing in the direction of urban legend, and couldn't help but cover her mouth, "This is a lie, how could such a thing happen... Even if someone went to deal with it temporarily, it would be too late, right? Aren't the police in Tokyo supposed to come quickly?"

"The faster ones are the Investigation Division. They're used to it." Tang Ze clarified for the policemen warmly, "The main reason is that if they are dispatched, it basically means that a criminal case has occurred. The nature of this case cannot be confirmed yet, so it should be the police officers from the nearby police station who will go over to check the situation. It will indeed be slower."

"No trace at all? Can't it be detected by luminol reagent or something like that?" Hattori Heiji thought thoughtfully.

"… Luminol is not expensive, but it still requires equipment and reagents, which costs money." Xingchuan Hui, who was ready to slack off, couldn't help but say, "How could the police station prepare such a thing for the young police officers on duty?" * (Note)

"That means there is still a possibility that a case has occurred." Conan pondered, "What about the abbot of your temple? What does he say? The visiting guests must have more contact with him than you do, right?"

"The abbot said that I was mistaken." Chuanjiu sighed deeply when he said this, "He said that the guest must have gone back early in the morning, and I was hallucinating because I was not in a good mood that morning... But it is impossible. How could I imagine that the visiting guest died in the room for no reason..."

As he spoke, his face turned green. "What if someone committed a murder in the temple and dumped the body before cleaning up the scene? I arrived too early and happened to see them... In the mystery novel, I would be the next person to die..."

Several detectives who had just started to analyze the possibilities in their minds couldn't help but look at him.

That's right, the guy recognized Goro Akechi who was active on TV at first sight, because his name was very similar to the famous detective in the novel, so he must be a mystery enthusiast.

"Well, there's no conclusion to be drawn by just thinking about it here. Since you are so sure, why don't we go to the temple and listen to what the abbot says." Hattori Heiji looked at the exposed spire and winked at the others.

At the time of the "incident", apart from the young monk in front of him, there were only the missing female tourist and the abbot of the temple in the villa.

If this really happened in a mystery novel, then it would be almost obvious who the murderer is.

"Oh, so many detectives. Chuanjiu, what are you doing..."

After walking for a few minutes, they arrived at a small temple called Shengyue Temple. The kind-looking abbot Shi Lian received them and looked at his disciples with an indescribable look.

He knew that Chuanjiu was still brooding over this matter, but it wasn't to the extent of calling so many people over, right?

I'm really worried that tourists will suspect this is some kind of temple marketing trick...

"Um, well, something unexpected happened..." Chuanjiu tugged at his sleeves awkwardly, "I just can't figure it out..."

"Ladies and gentlemen, could it be that the strange rumor 'My guests disappeared like morning mist' aroused your interest?" Shi Lian shook her head. "It has been said for a long time. You just overslept that morning and couldn't distinguish between dreams and reality."

"We have to confirm this before we know." Hattori Heiji shrugged and deliberately provoked him, "Is he hallucinating, or is there really a dead person, but you cleaned up the scene before the police arrived? How can we know if we don't check it?"

He was worried that if a crime really happened, the abbot would deliberately conceal the truth and prevent them from inspecting the scene, whether he was the real murderer or simply wanted to avoid the temple being involved in a criminal case...

Whether there is a scene or not has a huge impact on the murder case.

Even if the murderer is caught, asking him to confirm the scene and recount the crime process and details are important steps in solving the case.

Despite such harsh comments, Abbot Shi Lian simply glanced at Hattori Heiji indifferently.

Rather than expressing uneasiness or dissatisfaction at having one's thoughts exposed, that look contained a hint of subtle pity and sympathy, which made Hattori Heiji feel very confused.

"Of course, no problem. Seeing is believing. I understand your concerns." Shi Lian straightened her clothes, walked down the stairs slowly, and put on her wooden clogs. "If you want to take a look, I'll take you to the other courtyard. Let's take a look at the so-called 'man-eating room'."

The temple's branch courtyard was unexpectedly far from the main temple building. It took several people more than ten or twenty minutes of walking before they finally arrived at the branch courtyard by the sea.

The small wooden house is located among a clump of bushes. Although it can be seen that someone has been maintaining and cleaning it, the neglected vegetation still gives it an old and dilapidated temperament. Coupled with the faded and cracked state of the wood under the wind and sun, it is obvious that it is an old house.

Almost the moment he stepped into the room, Xingchuan Hui raised his hand and fanned his nose, as if he wanted to brush away some pungent smell.

"Although it's been wiped clean..." He twitched his nostrils like a hound, lowered his eyes, and said firmly, "But there's a smell of blood here."