Conan: Science Cartoonist Kudo Yuji

"I'm so sorry, you can't enter now."

The freight worker driving the vehicle at the north gate slowly controlled the truck to stop. The security guard waved a red and white fluorescent stick in his hand and started shouting loudly as soon as he saw the headlights of the car.

"Well, I loaded the goods according to the time agreed between the company and Mr. Fu Jiang. If I can't leave on time, I will definitely arrive in Tokyo late, and I will definitely be deducted money!"

The driver complained, "Could you please report this to Mr. Fu Jiang and ask him to call our company to explain the situation?"

"Well..." The security guard glanced at the truck with an embarrassed look on his face: "Mr. Fu Jiang is in the vault now. We can't get in. The intercom just said that the communication function of the vault has been directly blocked..."

"Then I deserve to be deducted money, how can this be!"

The driver with freckles on his face angrily unbuckled his seat belt. He looked to be about thirty years old, and the ring on his finger indicated that he was a husband.

The security guard, who was also a worker, empathized with the situation. He first sighed, then picked up the walkie-talkie as if he had made up his mind.

"This is the North Gate's Sanchuan. Are there any collectibles that haven't been loaded yet?"

"Since the vault was sealed an hour ago, no packed boxes have been delivered. As for the goods..."

The other party paused for a while, probably for confirmation.

"Ah, there are also some worthless plates, scrolls, and books. Mr. Fujiang said that we would pack them together and send them to Tokyo at the end."

Mifune looked at the driver with a surprised smile, then coughed twice: "Well, it's not good to keep the freight company waiting, so you should prepare the loading first and send this part away."

By the time the next car arrives, the time Kidd has predicted will probably have passed, and that won't prevent the next driver from loading the goods.

"Give me your documents and I'll stamp them. You can drive into Fujiang Mansion from the south gate."

Mifune looked up to confirm the driver's identity, then stamped his seal hard on the document and instructed the driver to drive the car to the south along the wall of the mansion.

"What a nice guy, Mr. Mifune."

With his hands on the steering wheel, the driver with freckles successfully entered Fu Jiang's house with the documents with a seal. The car drove to the loading point not far from the North Gate Warehouse, parked the truck in reverse in front of the loading platform, and the driver jumped out of the car holding the baseball cap.

"It's you who's here to load the goods at this time."

A sturdy man crossed his arms, followed by a group of men, obviously the workers in charge of loading the goods.

"If it's urgent, then..."

"Please wait a moment." The driver patted himself and took out a seven-star from his pocket: "Although Mr. Mifune has helped a lot, I will also have a headache if you don't agree."

"Oh, you are quite a smart guy."

Cigarettes were distributed to the workers one by one. In front of everyone, the driver lit the cigarette in his hand and took a deep puff, and then everyone started puffing smoke.

"If Mr. Fu Jiang hadn't locked himself in the vault, we wouldn't be able to smoke so openly. We have to clean up the cigarette butts and ashes!"

"Oh!"

Everyone agreed in unison and started smoking.

"Strange, are the Seven Stars' cigarettes so strong..."

After the driver's eyes went blind and his legs went limp and he passed out, the moment he realized something was wrong, everyone fell down one after another.

The noise just now seemed like a dream, and the people falling asleep on the ground were indeed real. After realizing that everyone had fallen asleep safely, the driver climbed up by holding on to the floor and dusted off his body with his hands.

Picking up the cigarette butt he had just smoked, he put his fingers into his mouth and slowly pulled out a transparent bag. He let out all the smoke before speaking.

"Really? What's so fun about cigarettes?" He was careful not to step on anyone as he walked to the loading platform and looked at the packaged books and scrolls. His fingers brushed over several cylindrical scrolls, finally stopping on the two with the white lines on them.

"Although I have already planned this, thank you so much, Mr. Mifune..."

"Hey, I think you should thank me more than Mr. Mifune."

Light footsteps came out from the shadows, and the person blended in well with the environment under the baseball cap, which meant that the driver couldn't see his face clearly.

"After all, I didn't expose your tricks."

"Hattori Heiji, a high school detective from Osaka?! Shouldn't you be preparing for more important things right now? Time is running out."

"Ha, I don't even take kendo competitions seriously..."

Hattori Heiji noticed that the Kaito Kidd opposite him was looking at him with complicated eyes, and he had a bad feeling.

"You... the more important thing you said is..."

"Aren't you planning to confess your love to your childhood sweetheart? Obviously, what's going on over there is more important than going against me." The driver took off his mask with force, and Kuroba Kaito, who had obviously styled his hair to look like Kudo Shinichi, gave a thumbs up.

"Keep working hard, Hattori-kun."

"Oh, thank you so much for your support..." Hattori Heiji thanked him subconsciously, and suddenly said: "No wonder! How come even you know that I'm going to confess!"

Kuroba Kaito blinked and said, "Well, there are various channels."

"You know from all these channels that I'm going to confess?! You think I'm a clown, don't you?"

Hattori Heiji suddenly realized that he seemed to be fooled. He made a sound and took out two black barrels from behind.

"I see, you changed my bucket."

"Hmph, although the preview said that you would come to take the knife at ten o'clock, you actually replaced the real one with the fake one a long time ago. It's just that the real one is still at Fujiang's house, and you did come to take it at this time." Hattori Heiji opened a barrel and pulled out a red short knife from it.

"You really like playing word games. That police officer would never realize that the goods he was protecting were fakes."

“It’s called a fake, but it’s actually more genuine than the real thing.”

Kuroba Kaito reached behind his back and pulled out the orange short sword that Minami Masamune had given him.

"What? The colors are totally different." Hattori Heiji said seriously, "What do you want to do by collecting these swords?"

"It would be too boring if I told you the answer so easily." Kuroba Kaito stomped hard, unsheathed his sword and rushed straight towards Hattori Heiji.

"There are flaws all over..."

Hattori Heiji pulled out the sword by holding the handle, and at the moment he swung it towards Kid, he saw a transparent steel wire tied around Kuroba Kaito's waist suddenly shrink, and the sword fell into the air. Kuroba Kaito flipped over in the air very nimbly and landed behind Hattori Heiji.

He directly pulled away the other barrel from Hattori Heiji's hand, then Kuroba Kaito grabbed the wrist of Detective Osaka and chuckled into his ear.

"Heiji, I like you too..."

"Damn it, you actually used Kazuha's voice!" Hattori Heiji said he was angry, but his powerless arms still exposed his current condition.

You don't even need to look to know that his face is extremely red.

"Damn you, Phantom Thief!" (End of this chapter)