The Phantom Thief of Heart! But Conan.

……

"No, no, no, even if it's just a guess, this sounds way too far-fetched..."

Pinching the bridge of his nose, Conan quickly deleted the images that had surfaced in his mind as Hattori Heiji described them, decisively denying them.

He knew his cognitive abilities were extraordinary, but even if they were extraordinary, creating something like a doppelganger was still too far ahead of its time...

"Otherwise, how else can you explain your conjecture? In the end, the idea that Tang Ze and Joker have a very deep connection, or even that they might be the same person, is absurd enough in itself." Hattori Heiji waved his hand, speaking bluntly.

If it is the Joker, then yes, he is indeed an excellent disguiser. He has solved the problem of Conan being unable to appear as Shinichi Kudo many times. Playing different identities is not a problem for him. But this means that the Joker needs to use two identities continuously to accomplish many things, especially in front of Conan and others who know his identity.

Leaving aside the difficulties involved, the workload is astonishing. Tang Ze also needs to play a role that is completely different from his own personality. Is it really necessary to put so much pressure on himself?

Based on their understanding of the Phantom Thief of Hearts' work, it would actually be safer to remain completely hidden from the public eye...

“I admit that there are many flaws in this suspicion, and there are many reasons to prove that they are not the same person. But the more I sort through my past memories, the more details I find that also corroborate my suspicions…”

Conan pressed his forehead, recalling his interactions with the Joker, his voice tinged with uncertainty.

If Tang Ze is indeed the Joker, or even if he is a member of the Phantom Thieves, then Tang Ze's incomprehensible growth rate in combat power can be explained to some extent.

According to the information obtained by the two detectives investigating Karasawa's files, Karasawa had not demonstrated any special physical abilities before arriving in Tokyo.

This can be attested to by Okita Souji, who was quite familiar with the past of Karasawa.

Heiji Hattori later asked Okita Souji about the details of the accident that led to his acquaintance with Karasawa. At the time when Karasawa rushed out to save Okita Souji, he was just starting high school, and Karasawa probably didn't have much of a physical training background.

Just two months after leaving Kyoto, Karasawa arrived in Tokyo and was already able to perform the difficult maneuver of sprinting 100 meters and smashing a car window to park.

If it weren't for Okita's and Karasawa's amnesiac behavior, Karasawa's past and present wouldn't be that different, to the point that one could suspect they are completely different people.

However, if he actually possessed special powers during the time he was under the organization's control, then all of this could be reasonably explained.

Besides these obvious places, there are many other details.

For example, how did the Joker discover that he was Shinichi Kudo and learn about their schedule, then suddenly rush to cover for him? During the school festival, when Karasawa disappeared from everyone's sight, the Joker appeared immediately afterward as the fake Shinichi Kudo. Even inside the cocoon on Noah's Ark, although they did hear the Joker's voice, if you calculate carefully, they were chasing Jack the Ripper with the exhausted children, and they didn't actually have any close contact with the Joker himself at all...

Admittedly, there were quite a few times when the Joker appeared when Tang Ze and the others were on their missions, but just like before, Conan's attention was elsewhere and he didn't have the chance to notice both of them at the same time.

And the most obvious and self-evident conclusion—

"The Joker only appeared after Karasawa came to Tokyo. It was about two or three days after Karasawa transferred schools that the first case signed 'The Phantom Thieves of Hearts' caused such a stir." Conan said logically, narrowing his eyes, "And there's a reason for this time difference. Maru Denjiro was Uncle Mori's first client after Karasawa came to Tokyo."

At the time, Kogoro Mouri was still an unknown private detective, and Conan was attacked by Gin on the same day that Karasawa arrived in Tokyo. That evening, he was taken back to the Mouri Detective Agency by Ran Mouri as a distant relative of Shinichi Kudo.

In other words, this is the first case that Conan has handled alongside Kogoro Mouri.

The gap in between might be the time when Tang Ze discovers that there is a detective agency upstairs and is waiting for Kogoro Mouri to observe him.

“You seem to be getting more and more certain of your idea as you talk.” Hattori Heiji shook his head. “At this stage, we don’t have any evidence to prove or disprove it, do we? If we’re just speculating, all sorts of possibilities can be conceived.”

If we take cognitive ability into account, as he exemplified, then the world becomes incredibly diverse.

Joker could be Tang Ze's second personality, a clone, a doppelganger, or even a twin brother. Without evidence, any wild speculation is possible.

For a detective, the most important thing is still evidence.

“…You’re right, these are all just my guesses.” Conan looked down at the tables and chairs set up outside the coffee shop downstairs and nodded slowly. “We need more evidence.”

So what he should do now is actually to remain still and continue to observe. Observe the Phantom Thieves, and observe Tang Ze.

As long as he keeps an eye on things, Conan believes that no matter what the facts are, he will eventually find evidence to support them.

After hanging up the phone with Heiji Hattori, Conan breathed a sigh of relief and inexplicably felt much better.

Perhaps it's because it's been two days since we started at Hachijojima, and the feeling of having nowhere to vent has been suffocating him. Now that there are people discussing this issue with him, he must feel a little relieved.

Thinking this, he walked back to the sofa in the office and glanced at the television.

Kogoro Mouri is currently engrossed in the Karasawa case, ostensibly to assist Eri Kisaki, but in reality, he's using the opportunity to get closer to her. So, instead of watching Yoko Okino's show, which he usually enjoys, the TV is showing the midday news.

In the days since they left, Tokyo has maintained its complex structure, with news events scrolling across the horizontal bar below.

Arsonists Arrested, Kidnapper Commits Suicide, Fourth Hit-and-Run Incident This Month, Paper Airplane Riot...

"No wonder the Phantom Thief of Hearts has appeared." Looking at those inhuman news headlines, Conan couldn't help but mutter to himself, "The security situation is deteriorating way too quickly..."

Could this also be the impact that the organization's research on cognition might have had, something that the Joker had been reluctant to discuss at the time?

No, blaming organizations for ordinary social events is a bit of an attempt to shift responsibility...

Kogoro Mouri tossed the documents in front of him into the file box, and when he looked up, he followed Conan's gaze, who was standing in front of the TV, and happened to see the last news report.

"This 'Paper Airplane Boy' incident has caused quite a stir. They say that more than a hundred identical paper airplanes have been found in the city in the past two days, and no one knows where they were thrown from..." Kogoro Mouri looked at the paper airplanes with patterns painted on them in the news footage and couldn't help but complain, "I really don't know who is playing this prank. They must be really bored."

More than a hundred paper airplanes folded from newspaper, all marked identically, were clearly handmade.

Regardless of the person's purpose in doing this, engaging in such a time-consuming and laborious task is simply a sign of excessive idleness.

"A hundred or so?" Conan lowered his eyebrows, looking at the paper airplanes displayed on the screen with a strange expression.

Are all these paper airplanes scattered all over the street a way for people to vent their work stress?

There's no need to use such an environmentally unfriendly method; it's reminiscent of those phantom thieves who litter paper without regard for the lives of sanitation workers...

Oh dear, why am I thinking about him again?

Patting his forehead, Conan changed the subject: "Where's Ran? Isn't she coming home for dinner today?"

"Ran, she texted me saying she'll be back a little late today." Kogoro Mouri stood up, stretched his neck a few times, and answered casually, "She said she's going to check on that kid detective's house, help tidy up or something..."

The "detective brat" that Kogoro Mouri is referring to can only be Shinichi Kudo.

So Xiaolan ran off to...

Thinking about the current situation there, Conan couldn't help but shudder.

Oh no, Mr. Akai hasn't told Ran that he's moved there yet!

----

Next door to the Kudo residence, which Conan is eyeing, Naomi Argento, carefully carrying her luggage, is following behind Karasawa as she tiptoes into the tall mansion.

To receive this level of education, Naomi's family must be quite well-off, but she is still just a child from a relatively good middle-class family and has never lived in a villa of this size.

“Now I’m starting to believe you really aren’t short of money.” Perhaps it was the atmosphere, but Naomi couldn’t help but lower her voice. “In Tokyo, a house this big isn’t cheap, is it…”

“People who are short of money don’t have the energy to hire people to develop artificial intelligence,” Tang Ze said directly. “Shiho should have already told you about the job. What, did you think that I or Shiho were paying you a salary to keep you entertained?”

"No, of course not..." Naomi quickly shook her head, swallowing her inner thoughts guiltily.

Okay, that's what she thinks.

After leaving school, she began working with ICPO through her father's introduction. She hadn't worked anywhere else, but she still had a sense of what private companies paid their engineers.

Compared to normal development positions, Tang Ze and Shiho Miyano were offering far too much.

Moreover, she had seen private companies developing artificial intelligence before, but the feeling from Tang Ze and Zhi Bao's words was that it wasn't a private company at all, it was practically a private individual.

Developing and maintaining artificial intelligence for private individuals? Seriously?

Considering her interactions with the kidnappers, Naomi, who had verbally agreed to cooperate under duress, naturally assumed that they didn't really need her to do anything, but simply wanted her to remain hidden for a while to avoid being tracked down by the group. The money they offered seemed more like hush money than a salary.

"Just stay put. If your family contacts you, just say you're staying here to relax and take some online jobs." Tang Ze sensed that her thoughts were definitely more complicated than she said, but seeing her slightly embarrassed expression, he considerately pretended not to know. "Be careful about information security—although we can handle it if you expose your information, prevention is always better than cure."

"Huh, can I contact them?" Naomi opened her eyes in surprise.

"Of course you can. We're not hiring you for work, it's not like we're imprisoning you. We won't restrict your personal freedom..." Tang Ze, who thought her thoughts must be quite unpredictable, gave her a few strange glances.

Has this girl gone crazy from being locked up in the sea coding? They hired her openly and honestly, and she applied openly and honestly. If there were any special circumstances, wouldn't they have told them in advance?

"I thought that even if you didn't trust me, you would trust Shiho's character."

"No, no, that's not the issue. I... I was just looking at Shiho—oh dear—"

Tang Zejun acts so matter-of-factly, can we blame her for that?

Anyone who sees a friend who is theoretically around their own age reappear before them looking exactly the same as they did ten years ago would assume something terrible has happened! Everyone would surely think there must be a lot of secrets behind this!

This recruitment process is being done so normally, which is actually the abnormal thing, okay? Why does it seem like she's overthinking things?

Before Naomi, her face flushed, could explain her thoughts, Tang Ze had already opened the restaurant door and brought the new employee to greet the others.

There are quite a few people sitting in the restaurant now, having lunch.

Thanks to Sonoko Suzuki's insistence on completing the travel plan, the Phantom Thieves finally got a real vacation, and their spirits were high, with no trace of their usual work routine.

They were sharing a large pizza on the table, chatting about the situation in Tokyo these past few days without detectives or the Phantom Thieves.

"We haven't been gone for very long, have we?" Akemi Miyano tossed the newspaper aside and asked uncertainly, "Just a few days away, and so many things have already happened?"

Of course, Tokyo is a megacity with a huge population. Given this population base, even if the crime rate is not high, the total number of cases will not be small. It is impossible for their Phantom Thieves to solve all the crime problems.

But seeing so many extraordinary stories emerge in the media just a few days after they left, it's still quite unsettling.

"We're just thankful nothing serious has happened," Matsuda Jinpei mumbled, his mouth full of food. "The police in Tokyo are always very busy."

In particular, the First Investigation Division, which is responsible for these cases, has over a hundred police officers in just one division, the Violent Crimes Division 3, where Inspector Megure (formerly Matsuda Jinpei) once worked. This shows just how complex the situations they face are.

“Even if a case occurs, it doesn’t necessarily mean it’s our responsibility,” Asai Narumi cautioned. “We only need to pay attention to those who are mentally ill; those who are mentally sound are not our concern.”

Naomi, who was following behind Tang Ze, widened her eyes in surprise.

"Cough, cough..." Before they could say anything more damaging to their image, Tang Ze quickly coughed twice. "Let's welcome our new colleague. We finally have a full-fledged operations engineer."

Just like Asai Narumi said, those who are mentally sound are not under their jurisdiction. Finally, we don't have to fight to the death with those mentally ill programmers anymore. It's really not easy.