The Phantom Thief of Heart! But Conan.

Tang Ze, this is undoubtedly Tang Ze.

Rather than observing the sudden appearance of Hattori Heiji, he seemed to be relying on instinct to give minimal response to external stimuli, and there was no reasonable emotional feedback in his empty eyes.

Although he didn't know why he was having such a lucid dream with such clear cognition, Hattori Heiji still subconsciously analyzed the situation.

If this scene truly mirrored his past experiences, this should be the day he hit his head eight years ago.

If it was eight years ago, then the little boy in front of him, who was singing nursery rhymes mechanically with a very empty look and made people feel unfamiliar, should be Tang Ze who had not yet recovered at that time.

After staring at him for a while, Hattori Heiji opened his mouth and tentatively called out, "Kangze?"

The child, who hadn't even blinked, finally showed some reaction and turned his head slightly.

Then he raised his hand and slowly handed the thing in his hand to Hattori Heiji.

It was a small goldfish-shaped pendant, which seemed to have been bought from a stall. He kept holding it half-closed on his finger, like a simple decoration.

"Hmm? What do you mean, give it to me?"

Hattori Heiji, who had no idea of ​​Tang Ze's intention, was confused. He subconsciously raised his hand and took the goldfish made of printed cotton cloth.

Before he could figure it out, two voices calling out came from the other side of the courtyard.

"Ah Zhao, Ah Zhao? Ah, here."

"A Zhao, don't run around. There are a lot of people here and you'll get lost."

Tang Ze, whose hands were still raised, reacted quickly this time. He turned his head and ran towards the direction of the sound in small steps.

Standing outside the temple gate were two other adults also wearing kimonos. One could guess their identities without looking closely.

"Let's go, it's getting late, we should go back."

"Did you have fun today, Zhao? Hmm? Where's your goldfish?"

"Did you lose it somewhere? Then another kid must have taken it. Well, that's okay. Isn't there a saying where you just write 'I borrow your life' and whoever finds it gets it? So, you can kind of give it away and make a friend, which is great."

"Leona, don't blindly teach Zhao just because he doesn't understand..."

"Hahaha……"

Hattori Heiji opened his eyes slightly and wanted to chase after to get a clearer look, but his feet seemed to have taken root and he couldn't move.

He could only watch helplessly as the three figures slowly disappeared into the darkness. Against the backdrop of the moonlight and the shimmering petals, they seemed to be embarking on their journey home to another world...

The next second, Hattori Heiji sat up suddenly and was stunned for a moment before realizing where he was.

This is the Suzuki family's guesthouse in Kyoto. On the wall opposite him, a painting of goldfish is facing his face, as if it is a special explanation for his inexplicable dream.

----

"Ah? You're asking me when I came to Kyoto eight years ago?" Toyama Kazuha, who was halfway through stretching, was really stumped by the question. She held her chin in her hand and tried to recall it carefully. "Well, I can't remember clearly. I think it was in June or July..."

"Were there any festivals or anything like that happening nearby at that time?" Hattori Heiji continued to ask.

"A festival...ah! Now that you mention it, yes!" Toyama Kazuha raised her finger. "It must have been the Gion Festival, that famous festival in Kyoto with the Yamaboko parade...that's why Mom took me to a relative's house in Kyoto, helped me change into a kimono and put on makeup, just so she could take me out for fun. But it seems you were somewhere else at the time, so you didn't come along."

Gion, to use a more sophisticated term, is a famous traditional cultural street, or in more common terms, a flower street.

This area is still a neighborhood with teahouses and geisha culture as its core industries. As you can see from the name that is related to Buddhism, the religious atmosphere here is also very strong.

The Gion Festival, which originated in the Heian period, is a ritual used to pray for cleansing, blessings and exorcism during times of epidemics. The main festival is held at Yasaka Shrine, which is adjacent to Gion, and is Kyoto's most famous summer festival.

"Gion Festival, that explains it..." Hattori Heiji nodded and muttered to himself.

The clothes that the smaller Tang Ze wore in the dream, even as a modified version, are not suitable for daily wear, but if they are used as clothes for festivals or seasonal activities, they are very reasonable.

So, did I dream about Karasawa who came to participate in the Gion Festival eight years ago?

Although it made sense logically, especially considering that Tang Ze's house was not far from here, and that he and Kazuha might have really passed him in the crowd, he had no idea why he had dreamed about this...

Does this also have any symbolic meaning?

"What a mess." Maori Kogoro looked at the yawning man walking down and kicked Hattori Heiji. "You dragged others to talk about the case until midnight, and now you are discussing how to travel?"

I originally came here just to solve a lost-and-found commission from a temple.

Although this commission seems to involve a major case and group, in essence, it is just an ordinary commission to find an item.

What a peaceful job it was, but I ended up getting involved in a murder case just by going to a social event in the evening. And in Kyoto, where I was unfamiliar with the place and the police were suspicious... It's really annoying just thinking about it.

As a result, this restless dark-skinned guy went to the deceased's house at night to search through his belongings, and then came back with the explosive news that "the deceased was also a member of Genji Hotaru", and dragged others to discuss it with him until midnight...

Annoying, so annoying.

"No, I'm still focused on the case." Hattori Heiji glared back, "Don't act like it's none of your business, uncle. Maybe Genji Hotaru's people are causing all this trouble just for the statue in Sannoji Temple. You can't avoid these things if you want to complete your commission."

"How is that possible?" Maori Kogoro retorted subconsciously at first, frowned and thought for a moment, then asked hesitantly, "Wait a minute, I've always known that their Yakushi Nyorai statue is very famous, but I'm not really sure about its price in the art market. How much is it worth?"

"The pricing of art is different from jewelry; it's influenced by a variety of factors. This is a precious ancient Buddha statue that's only exhibited once every twelve years, so..." Hattori Heiji thought for a moment, "A few billion is still worth it, right?"

"Ten billion?" Kogoro Mouri exclaimed in surprise.

"You just realized it?" Conan's eyebrows twitched. "If it were cheaper, why would Sannoji be willing to come to you?"

Regardless of how famous Kogoro Maori is, the pricing is really at the T0 level.

Apart from some famous detectives who cannot be hired with money, if we really talk about income, he is definitely among the top few.

Since they were willing to invite him from so far away, the lost items must be of great value.

"About ten billion yen, then it seems reasonable that they would fight and kill each other for the missing Buddha statue." Mao Lilan made the calculation in her mind and nodded slowly.

If it really hasn't been sold after all these years, it would be a huge amount of money that would drive people crazy.

"Hiss, the offer is too low..." Kogoro Mouri lamented with a completely different emphasis.

Helping someone find something worth tens of thousands of yuan and helping someone find something worth tens of billions of yuan, even if the difficulty is the same, the price will be different.

Moreover, considering the resources and attention involved in such a valuable item, the difficulty could not be the same.

"...A rich man who reeks of money." Toyama and Ye shook their heads. "So, are you still going to continue investigating that case today?"

In addition to Conan and Hattori Heiji breaking into a private house and running to Sakura Masazo's antique shop to confirm the identity of the other party, Genji Hotaru, they also obtained some information that may be related to the case.

For example, the deceased's wallet was turned upside down, but the money was not taken away.

Through the "Yokeiki" signed by Ise Saburo that they found in an antique shop, they found a copy of the picture puzzle tucked inside the book.

From this, it becomes clear what might have been taken away from the deceased.

"The murderer must be not only a member of the Genji Hotaru clan, but also Benkei and Yoshitsune." Hattori Heiji spread his hands, "It must be Benkei, no matter who it is. This kind of situation usually only happens when the leader has an accident or dies..."

A criminal group that can operate stably for many years must have common interests.

Anyone who can be a leader in such a group must first be able to suppress many internal differences and balance the distribution of interests.

After being stable for so many years, the structure suddenly collapsed. Either there was a huge change in interests, such as a top European emperor winning a lottery worth tens of billions, or stealing a priceless treasure, or something happened to the leader who was responsible for balancing interests and coordinating personnel.

Genji Hotaru is obviously the latter. After all, if it was the former, some clues should have been found long ago, and it wouldn't be so confusing.

"But, you said yesterday that the murderer must have been in the teahouse at that time..." Toyama Kazuha's brows were furrowed so tightly that they could kill a mosquito.

There are only a few people who are suspects and have the opportunity to commit the crime, and the deceased is also a member of the Genji Hotaru.

For the entire day, among the group of people who went out for socializing yesterday, two were members of a robber gang, and there were three detectives? A sniper confrontation at the middle gate, right?

"Yes, I'm referring to Mizuo Harutarou, Saijo Taiga, and Ryuen. One of them is Benkei, the character from Genji Hotaru." Hattori Heiji nodded affirmatively. "We don't know exactly how many pictures there are in this puzzle, but the murderer has made one clear move: he took everyone's copy of the Yoshitsune Ki."

This is actually a somewhat pointless risk.

"Gikeiki" itself is a book with a high ownership rate. Leaving it behind might not necessarily arouse the police's association, but taking it away would make its existence very prominent, and immediately narrow the scope of the criminals to the surviving members of Genji Hotaru.

This doubt was answered with the copy of Sakura Masazo's book and the painting enclosed in the letter sent to Sannoji Temple.

"The murderer is not taking their books, he is recovering the picture puzzle. He doesn't want the painting to attract other people's attention." Conan nodded.

"My guess is that he arranged a private meeting with the deceased last night, asking him to bring the painting with him. He then pretended to have solved the puzzle, then led him to the warehouse and murdered him," Hattori Heiji analyzed. "Considering what Ms. Suzuki told us, that she heard something fall into the water while taking pictures yesterday, the murderer definitely didn't have the chance to leave the teahouse."

"So, the reason why the letter was sent to Sannoji Temple has also come to light." Conan took over the conversation. "There was no need for him to expose such a crucial thing to outsiders. He sent it to Sannoji Temple because he knew they would be very eager to find the location of the Buddha statue. He wanted to use them to find the specific location of the Buddha statue."

"Anyway..." Maori Kogoro was too lazy to listen to the two bratty kids' back-and-forth, so he interrupted directly, "This murder case is somewhat related to the commission from Sannoji Temple. We need to solve both the case and the mystery. Solving the mystery might be more urgent, as the Sannoji Temple will open the day after tomorrow."

At this point, they have basically been able to identify the criminal. The remaining problem is the riddle related to the Buddha statue, which really needs to be solved.

"Okay, then today we'll continue searching for places related to Yoshitsune, solving the puzzle, and then observing the suspect's movements..."

As a few people were talking, the wooden door of the house was gently opened.

They turned around and saw Tang Ze walking into the door with a box in his arms, looking emotional.

It is still breakfast time. Tang Ze showed up late, most likely because he had not woken up yet, so no one was surprised when he appeared a while later.

"You're up at this hour. It seems you slept well in a familiar place." Maori Kogoro nodded. "What is this?"

"No, I received a message from Mrs. Akiyama this morning. She said she remembered there was a package sent to my house, but because no one signed for it, it was recently transferred to her store. She asked me to pick it up..."

Tang Ze explained this, walked in with the box in his arms, and sat down at the dining table.

This was said rather euphemistically, but one could generally sense that there was something fishy about Mrs. Akiyama's expression yesterday that she was completely unaware of his disappearance.

I just don't know if she was intentionally avoiding it because of the fire, or if she realized the complex cause and effect relationship behind this matter, or if it was really as she said, she simply forgot.

As he sat down at the low table, everyone could see what was inside the wooden box.

Inside the box was a blue and white gradient kimono printed with plum blossoms.

Hattori Heiji's eyes suddenly widened.

This was exactly the style of the kimono that Tang Ze was wearing that he saw in his dream!