[Comprehensive] Phantom Thief · Phantom Thief

It's night at the Minato Hotel.

This is the last performance of the Hopper Magic Troupe going to Japan this time, and if there is no accident, maybe... it will also be the last performance of the entire magic troupe.

Due to some well-known reasons in the industry, the current head of the magic troupe, Judy Hopper, the eldest daughter of the Hopper family, has always held a rather persistent resistance to inheriting the magic troupe. It is said that if it is not because of this It was the last wish of her deceased grandfather, the former British number one magician James Hooper, before his death. Then the Hopper Magic Troupe might not even be able to survive the previous two years, and would directly follow James Hooper. Hopper's death and announced the dissolution.

But even so, two years later, when the previous agreement to "disband the magic troupe when all the troupe members find new jobs" is about to expire, it seems that Hopper's troupe cannot escape the fate of being disbanded after all.

——Of course, this is based on the premise that no accidents happen.

But obviously, this so-called "accident" will definitely happen, and the time when it will happen...

That's tonight.

……

On the fifth floor of the Hong Kong Hotel, the venue for the dinner magic show of the Hopper Magic Troupe.

The huge dinner hall is divided according to the two different uses of the magic performance area and the audience viewing and dining area. They meet at the front desk of the performance area. The distance between the performers should not be extended too far, so that the audience loses their interest in participating in the performance... It can be seen that the people who arranged the venue did spend a lot of thought and tried their best I want to make this show the best it can be.

It's just a pity that when people are blinded by their own will and strong emotional tendencies, they often don't—or don't want to—see everything around them that should be easily noticed.

For example, the elaborate design and layout of this venue, such as... Miss Hopper's magic troupe who turned a blind eye to this...

Kaito sighed softly.

Different from the choice of pretending to be a member of the magic troupe in the original book, the time-traveling version of Kaito Boy is now disguised as an ordinary guest for tonight's action, sitting in a corner of the venue with Loki who has disappeared On the surface, it seems that they are watching the magic show on the stage with great interest, but in fact... they are actually listening intently to the bug that was placed in the background in advance, which is happening between Judy and the veteran of the magic troupe. Yet another dispute between superheroes Robert over whether the troupe should disband after this show.

Although from the standpoint of Kaito, he should dislike or alienate or ignore Miss Judy who denies or even hates magic, but the reason why the little girl has an aversion to magic is actually because she He thinks that magic killed his parents, made him lose his parents when he was young, and grew up alone and helpless.

Although there is a grandfather who loves her by her side, for a little girl who is only in her early ten years, the positions of father and mother cannot be easily replaced by anyone, right?

Kaito thinks, how many people can be like Kaito Kuroba, the original protagonist of "Magic Kaito", who lost his most important father, Touichi when he was young, and can still grow into the lively and cheerful sunny boy he later became? ?

——It can only be said that the protagonists of the comics are probably all talented.

At least, Kaito thinks he can't do this - even if he is a time traveler.

The most important loved ones in your life are irreplaceable forever. The sadness and pain you have to bear when you lose them has never been related to things like age and experience. It will never be weakened by any more experiences you have had.

So Kaito thought, Miss Judy would behave like this, but it was actually human nature in the first place.

I just hope that... the precious secret memory hidden in the red tears can bring back the softness and warmth that this woman once had in her heart, so that she can get some comfort and courage, and really recover from the past pain. Get out of the pain firmly, and complete the most important transformation in your life——"Just treat it...as repaying the kindness of Mr. James' teaching for Dad."

Looking at the blond "Senior Sister" walking among the guests with a skilled professional smile from a distance, Kaito suddenly found that after seeing him in person, his heart softened.

Before coming here, I used to have the kind of indifference to Judy Hopper that is natural because it has nothing to do with me. After hearing the other party use that kind of sound from the bug, it seems to be sharp and arrogant, but in fact it is The same sad and fragile tone, when telling her distaste for the magic that killed her parents, inexplicably turned into a deep sigh—speaking of it, Judy’s experience is actually very similar to her own.

It’s just that Kaito is an alien who has lived in two lives, while Judy is a real local girl. The gap in rationality and self-regulation ability between the two naturally causes them to face similar encounters. Two different states formed by different bearing capacity.

Compared with Kaito's self-improvement, perhaps in the eyes of more people, Judy's performance of resentment and self-abuse, on the contrary... is more human, right?

Sighing secretly again, Kaito shook his head, shaking off the redundant thoughts in his mind.

Regardless of whether he wanted to pay back his father's favor, or just wanted to help his "senior sister" who had never met, in short, his plan now seems to be... Destined to change.

And just as Kaito was deriving tonight's action flow in his mind for the temporarily changed plan, with the climax of the performance on stage, the turning point in the plot also arrived as expected!

At the moment when everyone's attention was almost focused on the stage, centering on a certain round table in the middle of the hall, the familiar pink mist in the eyes of Nakamori Police Department and others suddenly expanded, spreading all over the place in the blink of an eye. The whole venue!

However, unexpectedly, when the police officers frantically took out the gas masks, they found out belatedly—"It's not hypnosis gas?!"

The criminal police who were really miserable by Kidd's special hypnotic gas in recent operations were shocked when they found out that they didn't have any adverse reactions after inhaling a small amount of pink mist.

But soon their attention was taken away by the white-clothed monster who turned and fled, and they had no time to think more.

Reflexively, they all chased after Kidd. From the moment of the pink smoke until the figure of the last police officer disappeared outside the door of the hall, there was only a short interval of less than half a minute!

The entire venue fell silent because of this unexpected development of God——

Should they boast that "the police officers are really efficient"?

But this reaction is really a bit exaggerated...

After tens of seconds of collective silence, waves of whispered discussions gradually began to sound around the venue.

At the same time, Judy, who was protected by members of the magic troupe and returned to the backstage during the chaos, found that the members who had been waiting behind the scenes were all wearing guns of varying degrees after entering the curtain. hurt!

"Big, big lady..."

Among them, the one with the most serious injuries and the most miserable condition was the elderly Robert, who was already in his seventies.

The neat white beard, which is always meticulously groomed on weekdays, is stained with sticky blood. Obviously, the whole person is extremely weak and lying on the floor, but when the old man sees Judy's figure appearing in the background, he instantly Shouted loudly: "Run away! Miss! Run away..."

It's just a pity that before Judy, who was already stunned by the bloody tragedy in front of her, could react, the leader of the villains who created this scene with a gun in hand - the bearded little boss Snake had already stepped on old Robert. From behind, condescending, with a posture of looking down, threatened Judy with the lives of all members of the regiment to hand over the red tear that was not on her chest...

"Count down to three, if you refuse to hand over the gem... three, two, one...!"

At the moment when the last word "one" blurted out, Snake pulled the trigger without any hesitation, aiming directly at Judy's heart!

And almost at the same moment, Paul, one of the members of the magic troupe who had been standing by Judy's side, rushed forward, as if he wanted to block the bullet for Judy...

Everything seems to have become a slow motion shot at this moment.

The flying bullets, the partners in front of him, the smug smile on the face of the unknown villain, and... the desperate and terrified expressions of the other members of the magic troupe...

At this moment, Judy seemed to suddenly understand a lot of things, but...

She thought, she has no more opportunities and time, right?

Closing her eyes in despair, the last thing the blond girl could do was to push Paul away in front of her—this is the responsibility of the heir to the Hopper family, brought about by the stone-red tears of the curse. The cursed fate, you can't hurt others because of this!

Thinking of this, Judy suddenly miraculously calmed down during the few seconds of waiting for the bullet to hit her chest.

However, after closing her eyes for a long time, the severe pain Judy expected did not come as expected.

He suddenly opened his eyes in disbelief, and what caught his eyes was not the dazzling bright red before, but...a touch of flowing white corners of his clothes!

"Phantom thief... Kidd?"

"Good night, Miss Hopper. Although I am honored to be recognized by a beautiful lady like you at the first time, but tonight... am I not a strange thief?"

Turning his head, he winked playfully at the blond woman with a puzzled face, and the corners of his mouth were slightly hooked, raising a standard mysterious smile that belonged to a magician: "That's right, I'm not here to steal the red tears, but... Protect it!"

As soon as these words came out, everyone was shocked!

But Kaito didn't have the interest to answer their questions one by one.

Mr. Phantom Thief, who has always been a casual self, completely ignored the surprised gazes from all directions in the background, and just made a short explanation and explanation to the blond "senior sister" behind him: "The Kidd who appeared before should be from this group of people. My accomplices pretended to be here to attract the attention of the police. But to be honest, that fake is too different from my own image and temperament, right? As my opponent, Uncle Snake, your ability to restore the enemy is too low!"

——Well, in the end, it turned into a merciless mockery and attack on Uncle Snake.

This made the anger value of a certain little boss who was imprisoned once because of Kaito almost explode!

"Phantom Thief Kidd, you bastard..."

He wished he could raise his gun and shoot at the white-clothed monster not far away, but the remaining rationality in his mind stopped him in time to turn this crazy idea into reality.

Snake took a deep breath, and was about to say something, but saw the corner of the strange thief's mouth twitch suddenly...

Then, a burst of familiar pink smoke filled the entire space!

And when the smoke cleared, there were no Kaito and Judy backstage?

Feeling that he had been tricked once again, Snake had a burst of evil fire, but he had to grit his teeth and endure it. While commanding the subordinates behind him to retreat from the hall in the chaos, he refilled the pistol with bullets, and turned to face him. Quickly chasing after the white-clothed ghost thief and the blonde girl in the direction where they fled...

"So this is the wisdom of the wretched Ojisan."

The voice of Snake giving orders came from the bug that was still running stably, Kaito curled his lips, and finally couldn't hold back his complaints.

At this time, you still choose to split into two groups and run to chase him and Judy alone?Is the bearded uncle really crazy?

He alone is not his opponent at all!Isn't it such a way to send cheap gifts to your door for free? ==

Turning his head silently, the young magician who followed the path of the original work step by step on the path of becoming an enemy of the mysterious organization suddenly felt that he... seemed to have been lowered to a certain level...

Uninterested, according to the plan, he led Uncle Snake, who followed him and Judy alone, to the revolving restaurant on the roof. Kaito never shot the obviously mentally retarded little boss to hurt the two of them. Opportunity, caught the moment when the other party climbed up the stairs out of breath, and threw a small-scale hypnotic gas directly to solve the problem.

Turning around, facing Miss Judy's surprised gaze, Kaito softened his expression, raised his lips and smiled slightly: "You're making a fool of yourself."

Hearing that, in a sense, Judy, who was actually very tough, was stunned for two seconds, and then suddenly burst out laughing...

"If this is considered a shame, then will the members of my family still have a way out in the future?"

Different from the previous paranoid gloom, Judy's performance at this moment, as if she had broken some shackles that had shackled her for a long time, suddenly became straightforward and hearty.

Kaito was a little surprised by her huge change from the original book for a moment, but he quickly reacted, and the smile on his face couldn't help but deepened: "Miss Hopper's performance... It will make me feel that my next actions are superfluous..."

Saying so, Kaito stretched out his hand under Judy's puzzled gaze and picked off the gem called "red" tears, which was obviously a sapphire in front of her, lit the lighter, and placed the gem right above the flame...

In an instant, several dazzling rays of light shot out from above the gemstone, projected between the roof and the wall, showing the projections of photos that carried the past happy memories of three generations of the Hopper family...

"I think . . . this is what Mr. James Hopper wants to convey to you."

He signaled Judy to look at the many projections, the most unique one was the last letter James left for her, seeing the embarrassment of the blond woman bursting with tears, laughing and crying, Kuaidou thoughtfully Turn away, and like a true gentleman, leave this moment alone...to the other person.

Without passing his gaze, he glanced at the only one of his father among the many photos, and Kaito curled the corner of his mouth, just about to smile knowingly, but suddenly, in the inadvertent beating of the flame light, the pirate on the photo After a while, a series of small marks suddenly appeared...

"That is……?!"

Suddenly widening his eyes in disbelief, Kaito was so nervous at this moment that he almost forgot his heartbeat.