Conan: Science Cartoonist Kudo Yuji

"Are you okay, Hakuba?"

After avoiding the search of a group of people, Kuroba Kaito returned to Hakuba's side. Looking at the girl covered in mud, he lowered his head to check himself and found the same thing.

"I definitely can't go back to the hotel now."

Hakuba caught a glimpse of a man walking towards them from the corner of his eye, and hurriedly pulled Kuroba Kaito to hide in the bushes. He only breathed a sigh of relief after the man looked around and left.

"These guys are always hanging around outside, and it's impossible for us to hide. Besides, it's easier to be discovered during the day."

Bai Ma pulled Kuroba Kaito's sleeve and gave him two suggestions: either leave the area immediately under the cover of night, or find a place to rest first.

"If we leave, no matter which direction we go, there will definitely be people waiting in the main passage. We have to knock them all down."

Kuroba Kaito made a bitter face. If he had brought props, even just a deck of cards, he would have the confidence to give it a try, but unfortunately he had nothing on him now.

"As for rest, I noticed that those people did not search the love hotel. Why is that?"

Kuroba Kaito looked at Hakuba in confusion. Reasoning was not his strong point, and the magician was not willing to spend a lot of energy on thinking.

"They didn't search love hotels because either there were people in nearby love hotels that they couldn't afford to offend, or they were sure we wouldn't go to a love hotel."

If you can't afford to offend someone, you have to go back to being these people.

"Who do you think they are? They are coming for me..." Although Kuroba Kaito asked Hakuba, he already had a suspect in his mind.

[Is it that old man? ]

Maybe Nan Zhengzong deliberately sent people to attack him in order to take away the three swords, just to drag him to the hot spring mountain, so even though he had such a big advantage, these people did not really intend to kill him.

After telling Hakuba about his speculation, Kuroba Kaito saw that the girl was somewhat certain, and continued to add: "That old man must think that he cheated me so much, so I will definitely not give him the knife obediently as he asked."

No, it might be even more cruel. Minami Masamune might even want others to think that the knife is on Kaito Kid, and send people to look for clues to the treasure based on the shape of the knife.

"As long as everyone else's attention is on me, his people won't be disturbed when they go looking for treasure."

The more he talked, the more suspicious Minami Masamune seemed to him. Kuroba Kaito looked in the direction of the hot spring hotel from afar.

"If I'm not mistaken, the knife must have been taken away by now. The great detective can't protect the knife himself."

Yes, it must be Minami Masamune. Let him steal the knife first, and then take all the knives away from him. In this way, even if Kaito Kidd appears and says that he no longer has the knife, others will never believe it and will just keep chasing him.

"Tsk, even though I've been planning to give the knife to the police or the great detective, I'm really annoyed to be played with again." Kuroba Kaito now has a very complicated attitude towards Minami Masamune: "Couple hotel, could it be that Yuuji is with some lady now?"

Hakuba's eyebrows raised, "That's a bit odd. Isn't Minami Masamune the daughter of Minami Kaori? Why are you describing her as that lady?"

Even if the old man could accept it, he couldn't possibly watch his grandson-in-law staying in a couple hotel with another girl and ask others not to disturb him.

"Well, my dad said that the old man of the Nan family really doesn't care about this. It seems that as long as his granddaughter can accept it, he doesn't care..."

Kuroba Kaito shook his head and said, "Anyway, let's secretly find a hotel to rest, and then go check out the new situation after these guys leave."

The two of them immediately began to grope in the bushes. They had moved from the brightly lit area to this dark forest, and now they had to return to the street.

Kuroba Kaito hid a few stones and branches in his arms, and threw stones around from time to time along the way. After this happened so many times, the bodyguards who were communicating through headphones also noticed something was wrong.

“That guy is back on the street.”

Gojo marked the locations where the sounds appeared on a map of the hot spring town and gave it to Yuuji, pointing to the third couple hotel on the second street.

"The target is here."

"Well, it's almost done." Yuuji closed the map and said when Gojo's eyes widened, "Tell our people to prepare to withdraw and go back to get a good night's sleep."

"You're... going back now?!" Gojo's unwillingness made Yuuji squinted at him with an amused expression: "Why? You still want to watch them go to a couple hotel."

"No, after working all night, if we just leave like this, wouldn't that mean we have gained nothing?"

"Doesn't that damn thing count?" Yuji picked up a cup of fresh wolfberry tea and took a sip. After feeling the warmth on his body, he blew the hot steam of the tea with satisfaction.

"I thought about it when we were in Goryokaku. Since that guy followed us, it makes no sense that the other groups wouldn't follow."

Yuji held his chin, sitting by the car and looking at the sky which was getting darker as the sun was about to rise.

"The people following Brian might chase him after Kuroba Kaito steals the knife. The people following the police might not just stand there and watch after three knives appear in the hotel. In any case, they will take action tonight."

"So that's how it is." Gojo nodded, "Because Kuroba Kaito is not stupid, he knows that it doesn't matter as long as the three knives are not in Brian's hands, so he can't wait to throw the knives to others."

If those guys with the ghost faces fail to take the knife tonight, they will have to go to the Hakodate Police Station to rob it the next day.

"Even if it was handed over to the police, the Ghost Faces were still worried that Axe Jiang might take the knife away, claiming it was theirs."

Yuji grinned: "Now I am more interested in the ghost face."

"I have a guess on this point."

Gojo immediately took out his cell phone and gave the person he suspected to Yuuji.

"This man used to be the bodyguard and driver of Fujiang Takuzo's father. He was fired for being seriously injured while protecting his boss, and ended up being drunk and depressed all day."

"The dismissal could be due to some other arrangement, and staying indoors could be to cover up the truth. It's really interesting."

Yuuji stretched.

"It's like the old man first killed a group of suspicious police officers, then dismissed most of them and re-employed the police department. But if it weren't for these police officers helping him fight for power and profit after they arrived at the local level, he wouldn't have been able to get the surveillance systems in most places across the country."

"Cough cough..."

Wucheng suddenly felt that he was not suitable to stay here. The main reason was that he didn't dare to respond to Kudo Yuuji casually, and what this kid said was quite right.

"By the way, if the police department disobeys one day, will the old man kill another batch of them, and then..."

"Cough cough..."

Wu Cheng took a peek and then muttered, "How many years can the old man last? Four years at most."

“I’m worried about this year.”

Yuji waved his hand and closed the car door. While Gojo was confused, he told the driver to drive back to the hot spring hotel where the police were staying, and then got out of the car at the door.

"Well, that's really miserable."

Because the hotel had a threshold, he had to stand up from the wheelchair and move the chair into the hotel and then sit back down again. Standing at the door, the boy looked at the cracked aisle in the wall and rolled his wheelchair to the right in the direction where he heard the sound of a knife cutting.

As soon as he entered the kitchen, he met Iori Muga who was standing at the door. Yuuji noticed Toyama Kazuha and Ooka Momiji who were resting on the sofa next to the kitchen table that was moved from somewhere.

"I slept so soundly..."

Ooka Hongye rested her head on the armrest of the sofa, while Kazuha's face was pressed into her rival's arms. Both of them hugged each other and slept comfortably.

Under Iori Muga's suddenly widened gaze, the boy stood up from the wheelchair quite naturally, walked to the kitchen table, lifted the lid of the warm pot, and stared at the contents in stunned silence.

“Why red beans and rice?”

(End of this chapter)