The Phantom Thief of Heart! But Conan

"Chess, armor statues, clocks... they are all the same puzzle elements as those in the castle..."

Watching the door in front of him light up again as the armor was placed in place, Conan muttered quietly and slowly calmed down.

He couldn't tell whether he was calming down by solving puzzles, or because his mood was agitated, so his brain reacted extremely quickly. In short, he just naturally joined in to observe the mechanism and solve the puzzles, and walked through four or five places along the way. room, it was at this time that my mind finally started to work, thinking about what was going on here.

This is certainly not the ordinary real world.

The ground and stairs made of paint, the sculpture-like decoration, everything that completely violates the rules of reality form an almost abstract world of oil painting according to its own inherent logic.

But it's not entirely out of touch with reality. Although the form is abstract, the decorative style and many decorations in the castle are exactly the same as the Mamiya family they saw during the day. After walking through each room, he can also see oil paintings corresponding to the Mamiya family's ancestors and information about them. Biography.

If this is the world that the Phantom Thieves "see", then he can probably understand how the Phantom Thieves of Heart found those targets, how they learned what they were doing, and how they accomplished the incredible change of heart.

"How do you feel? Do you like this world?" Seeing Conan stop in place, looking at everything around him, Tang Ze, who had been silently following behind him, took two steps forward.

"No wonder your actions are always successful." Conan raised his head and looked up at the tall oil painting in front of him. "It's like a mirror that reflects the world. You stand in the mirror and look at the reflection of the world at will. People outside the mirror can't notice it at all. There’s no way to interfere. It’s simply cheating.”

Part of what he said was a sigh, and the other part was a bit of resentful complaint.

The Phantom Thieves of the Heart are still active today, and there are many voices who use their existence to disparage the police and detectives.

But look at what these guys really do. Is it really fair to compare them? With such power to assist, as long as they find a way to enter here, this world has no secrets for the Phantom Thieves.

If the detective wants to compete with such power, it is as if he is competing against an opponent holding a reference answer. He is not on the same starting line at all, and there is nothing he can do if someone tries to trick him.

"Well, the Phantom Thieves with my presence are indeed cheating." Brother Karasawa said pertinently, "But you can't just enter here if you want to, and you can get out if you want to get out. You need to pay to gain this power. The price is not small.”

Conan opened his mouth, and just as he was about to say something to complain about Joker's somewhat narcissistic tone, the wall around the oil painting suddenly surged.

Before he could react, the red scarf immediately wrapped around his waist and threw him backwards. He was caught by Asai Narumi who was standing behind.

"Ah, Qian..."

"Shh, call me Lunar." Asai Naomi pointed to the mask on his face, then put Conan at his feet, stepped forward, and protected him behind him.

Conan looked towards the place where he was standing just now, and saw a pool of black paint splashed on the ground, which seemed to be corrosive and made a slight hissing sound.

Tangze turned around, looked at the portrait of a woman with a delicate and haggard face, and raised his hand: "Trigger, lend me a hand."

Hearing the code name of this hellish joke, Conan instinctively turned his head and looked at the man in a black cloak standing behind.

In his extremely shocked sight, a white sculpture rose up behind this guy covered in black. As he raised his hand, the chains tied to the sculpture made two crisp collision sounds.

A bolt of thunderous flames hit the oil painting in front of him accurately. Golden flames instantly shot up, and more black, sludge-like paint splashed outward.

Conan, who felt like he was watching some game cutscene, pointed tremblingly in the direction of Matsuda Jinpei: "That, that is..."

Before he could finish his question, as the flames rose, a piercing scream filled the room, almost instantly piercing his eardrums.

Along with the severe pain in his eardrum, another test tube was stuffed into his mouth.

"Stop talking, little detective." Miyano Akemi squatted down, covered his ears for him, and said in a gentle voice, "If you have any questions, you can ask them later. This world is very dangerous for ordinary people."

Asai Shimizu shook his head: "It's not just dangerous to ordinary people. If it weren't for the leader who could maintain our survival to the maximum extent, it would be a miracle that we could not reduce our strength until today."

Miyano Akemi smiled softly in agreement.

With a drink-like reagent in his mouth, Conan, who had recovered, looked forward, staring in shock at what was happening in front of him.

As the firelight invaded, the woman in the oil painting was quickly burned to a charred black color. The entire painting began to twist and deform. The paint and cloth on the surface curled and blackened, and soon peeled off in the flames.

However, what is shown in the picture frame on the wall is not the dilapidated posture of the ordinary painting after being burned, but as if the person in the painting was really wrapped in the fire. The melancholy and elegant woman gradually turned into a blackened skeleton in the flames. , dense white bones were exposed from the coal-black embers, and the scene instantly became terrifying.

As the fire spread, the walls around the painting began to twist and surge again, cracking into countless tiny cracks that made people's scalps numb. Eyes, lips and tongues opened along with the cracks.

The shrill screams gradually weakened, and then those crazy rotating eyeballs and constantly moving lips began to make their own sounds.

"... After so many years, something happened as soon as I came back. It's really unlucky..."

"Since Master Zhenzhao passed away, the noble young master took him away. Now the lady is gone again, who knows if he is really the noble young master..."

"...Will it be Master Man's idea..."

"I heard that one of the servants is the lady's lover..."

"...Isn't it because he is thinking about the old lady's inheritance..."

All kinds of conspiracy theories and gossips heard during the tentative inquiries during the day, as these lips opened and closed, poured into everyone's ears like a tide.

The canvas was still burning, the charred bones were hanging high, and countless eyes, mouths, ears and other organs filled the walls and ceiling of the room, the scene was horrifying.

The members of the Phantom Thieves, who had expected this, couldn't help but frown, but their reactions were still calm. Only Conan, who was constantly receiving the shock, couldn't help swallowing his saliva twice, and the last bit of cold liquid in his mouth was also swallowed by him.

Almost the next moment after drinking it all, the faint stinging pain bombarded his ears together with those sounds, making Conan unable to restrain his shivers.

Miyano Akemi, who was paying attention to his situation, took the test tube back, thought about it, and simply took out a large flask from her bag, inserted a straw, and handed it to Conan.

"Keep drinking, the distortion here is quite serious. Don't worry, this is not real water, it's okay to drink too much." Miyano Akemi said sympathetically.

Matsuda Jinpei, who was standing in the back row, looked at the liquid in the flask, and remembered that he drank the thing unconsciously when he just woke up, and then he felt how he felt after knowing its origin. He opened his mouth to say something, but seeing Tang Ze who didn't even turn his head in front of him, he at least held back the words on his lips.

Forget it, he's not a member of the Phantom Thieves anyway, so he won't have the chance to drink it a few times. Seeing him sucking it, he was quite happy. Being kept in the dark is actually a good thing...

Tang Ze observed these noisy things, squinted his eyes, and with the help of the third eye's vision, he quickly found the main body that needed to be attacked, and drew out the knife with his backhand.

"Lunar, lock the closed mouth, Shade, follow up. Spy, get ready to attack."

All the people in the Phantom Thieves were already accustomed to following Tang Ze's orders in battle, and they almost formed muscle memory, and they prepared themselves without any pause.

So, in Conan's extremely shocked sight, a fierce battle that was completely different from his expectations kicked off.

Many complicated and shocking thoughts were flying in his brain, but the first sentence that Conan organized in his mind was——

"So why do you call yourself the Phantom Thieves?! This is a deliberate misunderstanding, right?!"

————

"A-choo——"

"Ai, what's wrong?" Ayumi, who happily pulled her companions downstairs, suddenly became nervous, "Did you catch a cold last night because you didn't cover yourself with the quilt properly?"

"Well, no..." Ai Huihara looked thoughtfully along the corridor window and glanced at the foggy sky outside, "Maybe, the smell is a little unfamiliar."

"It does have a very strange smell, well, after all, it's an old castle..." Ayumi did not doubt it and quickly accepted the explanation.

Ai Huihara let her hold her hand and walked up the stairs step by step to the restaurant on the first floor, paying attention to the direction where the RV of the Phantom Thieves was parked.

One night passed, did the gang finish their work?

Soon, the empty breakfast table answered her question.

"The other people? Oh, they don't have the habit of eating breakfast." Facing Mamiya Mitsuru's question, Tang Ze lied calmly, "Only me and Senior Morobushi have relatively stable schedules, so there are only two of us."

"Is that so..." Mamiya Mitsuru looked at Tang Ze and Morobushi Kagemitsu who were chewing bread slowly, and cast a suspicious look at the RV outside the window.

The RV of the Phantom Thieves was specially made considering the personnel and work needs. It was modified from a medium-sized bus, which is about the size of the original Fairy Bus. After a simple soft decoration inside, it was completed by Matsuda Jinpei, who is proficient in machinery and loves to study, with the assistance of Noah. Just looking at the appearance, the size is already very deterrent. It is very reasonable to say that there are many people living in it now.

People didn't stay in the castle at night. They couldn't break into their cars just because they thought they might be running around at home. Although Mamiya Mitsuru had some concerns in his heart, such as whether they had found some clues, he concealed them out of selfishness and investigated secretly. At this time, he could only swallow his worries.

"Young people nowadays have unhealthy work and rest schedules." Mamiya Mitsuru had to sigh reluctantly.

"We college students are like this." Tang Ze nodded, not ashamed but proud, "As long as there is no early eight, getting up early is meaningless."

Mamiya Mitsuru's mouth twitched, and he met his extremely calm and clear blue eyes. He held his breath for two seconds, and had to lower his head to continue eating.

Forget it, it's only half a day, and a group of juniors shouldn't be able to crack it so quickly...

"By the way, Conan is gone too." Mitsuhiko Tsuburaya, who finally waited for them to finish speaking, said quickly, "I didn't see him when I got up in the morning. I thought he went to the bathroom to wash up, but the doctor and Genta didn't either See him..."

"Actually, when I got up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom, Conan's bed was empty." Mota Kojima scratched his head and expressed worry, "It was probably only two or three in the morning..."

"Could it be that he got up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom and got lost when he came out?" Mamiya Takato frowned and guessed the situation, "The structure of this castle is quite complicated. Compared with the area of ​​the castle, the place where we and the servants live is not the same. It’s not big, and many places are unused, so it’s easy to get lost.”

Especially if a child is running around in the dark, he might fall through a gap or be trapped in an unused room. That would be troublesome...

"Is that so? Let's try it..."

Just as Ayumi was about to say that she could use her detective badge to contact Conan, Haihara Ai, who was sitting next to her, immediately pulled her hand and stopped her from continuing.

"Conan will not get lost. He has a compass on his body, and he is very smart." Haiyuan Ai raised a smile, pretending to be innocent and cute, "He is a powerful reasoning maniac, maybe he discovered the chessboard riddle I can’t help but pursue the clues to the problem.”

"When you put it like that, it feels like something Conan can do..." Motojima thought for a few seconds, crossed his arms and nodded affirmatively.

"You actually didn't ask us to come together. This guy is too childish sometimes." Mitsuhiko Tsuburaya snorted.

Some of you are still children yourself...

Dr. A Li looked at the children dumbfounded. After thinking about it, he asked politely: "Is there any place here that is particularly easy to get lost? Let's go look for it after dinner."

"If I have to say, it's probably the tower." Mitsuru Mamiya touched his chin and said tentatively, "It's the tower on the left side of the castle that caught fire four years ago. The door over there has always been locked, but... Two years ago, a new servant came and said he was going to look for something in the tower. We immediately rushed over to look for it and found that although there were indeed signs of entry, there was no sign of anyone."

"What happened next?" Dr. Ali had a bad premonition after hearing this opening statement.

"Later, we called the police and searched the castle and the surrounding forests. We found him in the forest four or five days later." Mamiya Mitsuru sighed after saying this, "When we found him, he had already been starved. It’s quite scary to be dead, with an empty stomach, and a skinny body.”

"This, how could this happen..."

"Anyway, because of this accident, we completely sealed off the tower, but strange rumors started to spread among the servants, saying that maybe too many people died in the tower and the resentment was too heavy, and that he was bewitched by ghosts. He was killed in the end." Mamiya Mitsuru waved his hand, "It's nonsense, but something might happen over there."

After hearing such horrific rumors, the children couldn't sit still.

"Then let's go find Conan quickly, in case he also starves to death..."

"It's too, too pitiful. Then, pack my bread first..."

"Do you need our help?" Tang Ze said at the right time, "Let's also split up and help find someone."

"Okay, it's best to find him before lunch, he should be hungry by now..."

The dining table was noisy and very lively for a while. Sitting on the main seat, Mamiya Masashiro, who was as silent as a statue, raised his eyelids and looked at Tang Ze and Zhu Fu Jingguang gloomily, his heart full of fear.

Will the appearance of these unexpected young people cause any obstacles to her?

Could it be that the missing kid had touched some mechanism and escaped into the secret passage of the castle?

No, she had to hurry up and check it out. There were secrets in the secret passages of the castle that could not be discovered by others...

Feeling her gaze, Tang Ze lowered his head and observed the fake old lady who was obviously a little anxious with his peripheral vision, with a slight smile on his lips.

A missing child is found by you, which is unlucky for the child. A missing child and a group of young men and women are missing, do you dare to find them?

Then you better really dare.

Behind the wall, in another world different from the surface of the castle, there are still ghosts who died in the fire, ready to drag you, the evil ghost, down to feel the pain at any time...

————

"Cough, cough, cough, cough..."

Conan, who was carried out of the room, choked and coughed for a long time before spitting out the burnt and strange stench that seemed to have filled his lungs. He straightened up and wiped his face stained with black ash in embarrassment.

"Why is it so easy to catch fire in the world of oil painting?" Conan couldn't help complaining, "Even if there was a fire here, would that be too exaggerated?"

"Because you also said, this is the world of oil paintings." Shimabukuro Kimie, who was carrying him out on tiptoes, lightly and deftly jumped over several steps and placed him in front of the door leading to the next area. "This was a fire that killed more than a dozen people, and the memories of pain and fear will always remain here. However, this is still an 'isolated' castle, and every detail will be remembered for a long, long time. This unexplained fire naturally became a topic of conversation after dinner.”

Although this place looks like someone's palace, Shimabukuro Kimie didn't forget that they didn't use any keywords to enter here, and it can be said that they broke in by physical means.

So the nature of this world is naturally very clear. Here, like her island, is the "local public space" of the Mamiya family castle area.

In other words, this is an area with commonality.

"Okay, so you brought me to check this oil painting. Do you want to investigate the truth of the fire that year?" Conan asked this very confusing question, "Find the answer to the truth from these messy public opinions?"

"It is indeed hoped to investigate the fire. But as for the reason, you also know that we care more about the crimes happening now than the truth of the past." Shimabukuro Kimie smiled and pointed to the door in front of Conan, "Guess where it leads to?"