Stay away from Conan.

Obviously, Gao Yuan could see that the actions of the witch in front of him showed that she must know something, but she hesitated and answered "no".

With this result, it was clear that the answer of the shrine maiden was no longer important. Gao Yuan, who had come to Toshogu Shrine to ask just to give it a try, was now almost certain that Axie Keisaburo must have hidden something in the shrine, but...

The answer "No"...

Is it a deliberate deception?

It may have existed before, but it really doesn’t exist anymore!

At this moment, when Gao Yuan asked about this matter, the figures of the first generation of Phantom Thief Kidd and Kuroba Toichi appeared in his mind.

Thinking back to the starting point of the whole thing, if Kuroba Kaito hadn't told me that Kuroba Toichi might have tried to find Keisaburo Axie's treasure before the accident eight years ago, perhaps I wouldn't have taken this matter so seriously.

So, in the final analysis, the investigation into Keisaburo Axie's treasure will most likely reveal information about Toichi Kuroba.

Therefore, if there were things left by Keizaburo Axie at Toshogu Shrine but they are gone now, there is actually a possibility -

That is, it was stolen by Heiyu Daoyi back then!
Although it is just a guess, this possibility does exist, so Gao Yuan asked this question.

After Gao Yuan asked "It's still missing", the witch looked at Gao Yuan in surprise, with an expression of disbelief. Then, looking at Gao Yuan's serious expression, she clenched her fists, as if she had made up her mind, and responded to Gao Yuan:
“This… is…”

Glancing slightly downward to one side, after saying this, Miss Miko seemed to have made up her mind. She turned back and looked directly at Gao Yuan and said:
"The things that Mr. Keizaburo Axie left at our shrine were stolen many years ago?"

"Eight years ago?"

After hearing Miss Miko clearly state that the things were stolen, Gao Yuan immediately couldn't help but ask this question.

As a result, the witch was obviously surprised when she heard this, and looked at Gao Yuan with some suspicion. It seemed that Gao Yuan's answer was too accurate, which made the witch wonder if Gao Yuan knew something about this matter.

However, looking at Gao Yuan's age, Gao Yuan eight years ago should have been only in his teens. It is impossible that this young man in front of her did it. So although she has doubts, the witch lady couldn't help but say:

"Ah... almost... the criminal has not been caught yet..."

"That……"

Seeing this, Gao Yuan realized that his guess was probably correct, so he continued to ask:
"That thing, is it a knife?"

As Gao Yuan's questions became more and more clear, the witch realized that Gao Yuan might know something. Then, thinking that Gao Yuan claimed to be a detective, she simply spoke frankly:
"Yes, it is indeed a knife. But we are not very clear about the origin of the knife."

After hearing this conclusion from the witch, Gao Yuan was basically convinced that his idea was correct. The current situation obviously indicated that the direction of his investigation was consistent with what Kuroba Toichi had done back then.

Therefore, after this result, Gao Yuan knew that the key Star-Edge Knife was most likely taken away by Heiyu Daoyi that year.

Such a result... If it was Kuroba Toichi, what was his purpose? Was it simply because the sword was a treasure? Or did he want to prevent future generations from finding the so-called "weapon that could change the situation of the war" through the sword?
There is no way to know this at present, but in this way, the clues are broken...

Apart from knowing that Kuroba Toichi did come here to look for Keisaburo Axie's treasure, there is no way to make further inferences...

Just as Gao Yuan was thinking this, the miko suddenly remembered something and said, "Actually... our shrine keeps another thing besides the knife. Wait a minute, I'll go look for it."

Just like that, after the shrine maiden finished speaking, she asked Gao Yuan to wait for a while and went to the shrine to look for something. Not long after, the shrine maiden came back with a box.

"Look, this is it."

The box was handed to Gao Yuan, who opened it and found a picture inside. Looking at the five-pointed star shape in the lower right corner of the picture, it should be a bird's-eye view of Goryokaku. So if we regard it as a map, and look along the upper left corner of the picture, that position corresponds to the map...

Mt. Hakodate?

If Keizaburo Axue was secretly researching weapons, it would be a natural choice to do so in the mountains. In Hakodate, there is only one mountain, Mt. Hakodate. However...

If we guess based on this picture that the target location is in the mountains, how can we find it?

Hiding a secret base in the mountains for research is not something you can find just by looking for it. After all, the mountain is so big, and no one has found it yet. It is obviously somewhere in the mountains where there are few people.

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Moreover, this conclusion is only pieced together from fragmentary clues and may not be accurate. So is it necessary to go to great lengths to investigate this speculation?

Or should I ask the police to cooperate and use a large number of manpower to search the mountain? Just because of my guess?

Think about it now. Because of Keisaburo Axie's treasure, the current head of the Axie Group, the arms dealer Kadokura, and the mysterious swordsman who might be behind the scenes and killed Lawyer Hisagi, are probably all eyeing the traces of all those who are looking for the treasure. Once a large number of manpower is used to search the mountain, this matter cannot be concealed at all, and it will definitely cause conflicts on many sides.

What’s more, the key point is that there is an arms dealer involved. If things get out of hand, it may be difficult to resolve.

So, what to do?
The Star Blade has disappeared. Normal reasoning obviously cannot work here. At this time...

"Miss Miko..."

"Yes...um, my name is Yoshinaga Miko..."

When Gao Yuan was about to say something to Miss Miko, Miss Miko Yoshinaga was a little embarrassed about this title. After introducing herself, Gao Yuan returned the things to her and said:
"Well, Ms. Yoshinaga, if anyone comes to ask about the treasure that Keisaburo Axie hid in the shrine, please don't disclose it casually. Recently, a group of arms dealers have also set their sights on this thing, which may cause big problems."

So, after Gao Yuan reminded Yoshinaga Miko, he decided not to stay here any longer.

Next, Gao Yuan has his own ideas and is ready to act alone... (End of this chapter)