Stay away from Conan.

It seemed that after his suggestion that everyone wear special clothing and protective gear before sparring was directly rejected by Hattori Heiji, Saijo Taiga's expression was like this. After looking a little serious, he persuaded the two of them:
"Although it's limited to three moves, you should still be careful and not get hurt."

So, Nishijo Taiga kindly reminded.

In response to this, Sakura Masao heard the words of Mizuo Harutarou and Nishijo Taiga, and they seemed to think that he was no match for Hattori Heiji and that he had to be careful not to get hurt. This made Sakura Masao retort a little unhappy:
"Don't worry, I've been practicing for many years after all, and it's inevitable to get injured when we practice kendo, don't worry!"

After saying this, seeing that no one had any other objections, everyone came to the open space in the backyard of Sannoji Temple, ready to start the competition between Hattori Heiji and Sakura Masazō.

So, Sakura Masazō took off the suit jacket he was wearing outside, took the bamboo sword that had been prepared beside him, and naturally walked to the center of the open space, waiting for Hattori Heiji to arrive.

Seeing this, Hattori Heiji was not ambiguous either. He also went to the place where bamboo swords were placed and picked out a bamboo sword. Then, Hattori Heiji went directly to the middle of the field and stood opposite Sakura Shozo, as if he was ready to start fighting directly -

"Uncle, can we start now?"

So, as soon as these words came out, seeing how confident Hattori Heiji was, especially the fact that he didn't make any extra preparations, not even taking off his coat and hat, and just came up to compete with him, Sakura Masao couldn't help but feel a little heavy.

But now that the other party has said so and asked me to express my opinion, how would it look like if I backed down?
Therefore, Sakura Shozo could only smile and say:

"Of course, let's get started! Nishijo, you will be the referee."

"it is good."

Hearing this, Nishijo Taiga nodded, walked forward, and came to the side of the middle position where the two people were standing. He looked left and right at the two people who had already taken their positions in front of him. They seemed to have entered the state, so Nishijo Taiga nodded and began to give orders:

"Ready... to start!"

"Snapped!"

However, at this moment, as Saijo Taiga's command had just fallen, before Sakura Masao could react, Hattori Heiji struck Sakura Masao in the face with his sword, and in almost an instant, he completed the attack on Sakura Masao's head.

Thus, watching Hattori Heiji's attack, Sakura Masao couldn't help but sweat coldly. He saw the bamboo sword right on top of his head. The attack was so fast, but he obviously controlled the strength at the end, so that this attack didn't cause much pain to him.

This was just the tip of the iceberg shown by Hattori Heiji, which had already made Sakura Masazō want to retreat.

Not only Sakura Masazō who was facing this move, but also Mizuo Harutarou who was watching the fight, and Nishijo Taikawa who was the referee, were all surprised. They did not expect that Hattori Heiji was so powerful. Mizuo Harutarou could not help but show a look of amazement, but Nishijo Taikawa's expression returned to seriousness after the surprise, and he made a ruling on the current situation:
"In the first round, Hattori Heiji's attack was effective."

After hearing this, Hattori Heiji also smiled, then retracted the bamboo sword he had used, stood back to his original position, and prepared for the next round of attack.

In response, Sakura Shozo wiped the cold sweat from his forehead, took a long breath, then smiled awkwardly and said to Hattori Heiji:

"You are indeed a young man, your reaction is so quick. My old bones are a little uncomfortable with it!" Saying this, Sakura Masazao also got into position again, and was fully prepared for the next round of attack.

At this point, Nishijo Taikawa, the referee, continued to give instructions after seeing that both sides were ready again.

This time, following the order, Sakura Masazao did not hesitate and attacked directly without even looking at the opponent's movements, hoping that he could successfully seize the initiative this time.

And this approach did have some effect. Compared to the previous round where he was defeated without doing anything in an instant, this time Sakura Masazo fought with Hattori Heiji for several swords, but in the end he was still one step behind. Hattori Heiji seized the gap between his moves, thrust his sword straight forward, stabbed Sakura Masazo's throat before retracting his force.

As a result, Sakura Masazō lost again in the second round.

Then, in the third round, Sakura Masazō continued to attack, but this time Hattori Heiji did not fight back, but attacked first, hitting Sakura Masazō, who was impatient due to two rounds of defeat, so that there was a hint of discord in his moves, which was caught by Hattori Heiji, and he directly counterattacked and knocked the bamboo sword out of his hand, causing Sakura Masazō to lose again in the third round.

After three rounds of defeat, Sakura Shozo hesitated for a moment, but soon recovered his composure and smiled wryly at Hattori Heiji, praising him:

"You are so young and promising!"

In this way, Hattori Heiji also accepted the bamboo sword and returned the gift, then said to everyone:

"Well, it's almost time for me to leave."

"Please."

In response, Mizuo Harutaro nodded slightly to Hattori Heiji and said nothing more. The others did not keep Hattori Heiji and his friends for long, allowing Hattori Heiji and Conan to leave Sannoji naturally.

So, watching Hattori Heiji leave, Sakura Masao, who was standing in the same place, just glanced at Hattori Heiji briefly, and then turned to Nishijo Taiga beside him with a serious expression.

As for Saijo Taiga, he looked extremely serious, even frowning slightly as he looked at Hattori Heiji. It was unclear what he was thinking...

……

"It seems that something really went wrong inside 'Genji Hotaru'. Someone actually sent a letter to the owner of the stolen Buddha statue eight years ago, informing him of its location. But what is their purpose in doing this?"

After leaving Sannoji Temple, facing the new clues, Hattori Heiji couldn't help but wonder, but then, this doubt was quickly covered up, and Hattori Heiji turned and said:
"Forget it, it's more important to solve the mystery. If the person who stole the Buddha statue is 'Genji Hotaru', maybe if we look for it in places related to Yoshitsune and Benkei, we can probably find some clues to the mystery! This is somewhat similar to what we did before!"

"But, didn't we just go to some places? But we didn't find anything... Now, the key question is, what does this picture mean? This is like a cabinet with some things scattered on it... Especially these things, the painting is too abstract!"

Conan looked at the blueprint he had just received and said this with a confused look on his face... (End of this chapter)