Conan: Death is Watching Me

Chapter 152 You Want to Kill Me? Magician Kuroba

“No, no,” Hamano Toshiya chuckled. “Everyone except Sonoko, who is sick, has to participate. Even if you’re a magician, it doesn’t matter… Or are you scared?”

Gao Mo's gaze darkened slightly.

What is this fool trying to do?
"Huh? Me too?" Xiaolan asked anxiously, "But I still have to take care of Sonoko..."

"That makes sense, and Xiaolan isn't even a member of the chat room."

The beautiful Tanaka found a notepad and a marker next to the landline phone in the restaurant.

"Is this ok?"

“Of course,” Hamano Toshiya said, his hands behind his back. “Now please write everyone’s name on a piece of paper one by one. Look carefully, I haven’t touched these sticky notes at all.”

"Got it," Tanaka said with a smile, writing down everyone's names. "And then?"

"Next, stack the written notes together, turn them over, and hand them to Miss Xiaolan, along with the pen."

Hamano Toshiya looked confident.

"Miss Xiaolan, I will blindfold you with a towel. Next, please randomly select a few sticky notes and mark them with ○, X, △, or □... Be careful not to let anyone else see, and don't draw on the side with the name on it."

As for task allocation... ○ is the acting head of the department, responsible for the arrangements of the activities for today and tomorrow, X is the banquet manager I just mentioned, and the other two will do something fun... Hmm, let me think..."

Under everyone's gaze, Hamano Toshiya pretended to be deep in thought, just like a professional magician putting on a performance.

“I’ve got it. The person marked with △ will be responsible for boiling the bath water, and the person marked with □ will be punished... locked in a room by themselves before the party starts. How about that? Consider it a bit of entertainment for today.”

Gao Mo's gaze swept over everyone present, and he lowered his head slightly to hide his eyes.

Using magic to set a trap?

It would be naive to think you could fool his eyes.

Even though nothing had happened yet, he had already identified a suspicious target.

They also know what the other party wants to do.

They use seemingly random magic tricks to assign tasks to everyone, thereby orchestrating a criminal scheme.

While being targeted, Toshiya Hamano is also used as a tool, and may even be framed for crimes in the end.

If it was a frame-up, Hamano Toshi would still be the last one killed.

So... the next person we need to kill is this "Shadow of Death"?
Gao Mo's eyes were shining.

He is not immortal; he is also in danger of being killed in the Conan world.

Death perception can only anticipate threats; whether one can avoid them depends on oneself.

If it were him in the past, this situation might have been very troublesome, but now...

“Let me do it,” Gao Mo said, taking Xiao Lan’s place. “Miss Xiao Lan would be better off going to look after Miss Sonoko.”

As he spoke, Gao Mo turned to Hamano Toshiya for an answer.

"May I?"

"Huh?" Hamano Toshiya was a little surprised, but his expression remained confident. "Of course, but you have to do everything according to my requirements."

"no problem."

Gao Mo stood in the corner, blindfolded, and took the sticky notes and marker from Tanaka. He fumbled and drew marks on the notes one by one in his palm.

The magic trick wasn't complicated. Tanaka was simply an assistant who prepared marked sticky notes in advance, and then pretended not to know anything and wrote everyone's names on them.

The marker in his hand should have been replaced by Tanaka by now; it's no longer usable for marking.

“Okay,” Hamano Toshiya stared intently at Gao Mo’s movements, and after confirming that Gao Mo hadn’t done anything tampering with his hands, he raised an eyebrow and smiled, “Finally, please shuffle the order of the sticky notes… and cover them with your hand so we can’t see them.”

Gao Mo did as instructed.

"Who can put the sticky notes on the table and lay them out with the names facing down?"

Hamano Toshiya revealed a smug expression, and his gaze towards Gao Mo became more provocative.

"Now, let's have our magician reveal the riddle. Of course, I'll make a prediction before revealing it. If he guesses correctly, how about we give him a round of applause?"

"Clap clap clap!"

Everyone in the villa laughed and applauded in advance.

"If we can guess correctly, it will be a real surprise."

"I didn't know Mr. Hamano was so amazing."

"It's nothing," Hamano Toshiya said, still with his hands behind his back. After Tanaka laid out the sticky notes, he smiled and pretended to be thinking. "First of all, it's the acting chief. If my intuition is right, it should be you—Ms. Kuroda!"

"How could it be me?"

Kuroda, the bespectacled woman whose name was called, was surprised for a moment. She stepped forward and flipped open the sticky note marked with an ○, and sure enough, it was her own name.

"it is true!"

"How did you do it?"

"But I've never been involved in this before," the bespectacled woman said hesitantly. "Maybe we should find someone else?"

"What does it matter? Aren't you a teacher? It'll definitely be fine, it's only two days anyway."

Hamano Toshiya shrugged, his gaze falling on the X-marked sticky note.

"No need to look, the banquet manager is me. The key is the remaining two. The person who boils the bathwater is... you, Ms. Tanaka!"

"what?"

Tanaka pointed to himself and went over to look at the X note.

"How could it be me? Did you switch me out?"

Hamano Toshiya laughed and said, "Don't joke around. I didn't even touch these sticky notes. The person who made the marks was our great magician, and he was blindfolded... I almost forgot, magician, you can take off your blindfold now."

"Who knows if you guys were in cahoots?"

Tanaka glanced at Gao Mo and continued to press for answers.

"Who's the other unlucky guy?"

“Of course, it’s our great magician,” Hamano Toshiya winked coolly. “It’s good that the magician is in his room preparing his magic trick. It has to be more spectacular than mine, right?”

"Wow, Hamano," Araki exclaimed. "I never realized you had this talent when we were discussing it in the chat room before."

"Now you've discovered it, haven't you?" Hamano Toshi also fully appreciated the wonder of the magic show. "I think we should hold it every year from now on..."

"what?"

Doi Takaki flipped open the last sticky note.

"Wait a minute, you're the second unlucky one, Mr. Hamano."

"what?"

Hamano Toshiya swallowed his breath, and when he saw Doi Takaki pick up the note, his eyes almost popped out of their sockets.

Then I flipped to the X-note in front, only to find "Kuroba".

The two sticky notes were switched.

"Strange, how is this possible? It's clearly..."

"Did the magic show fail?" the bespectacled woman, Kuroda, comforted her. "It's alright, Mr. Hamano was already very good."

"No, I..."

Hamano Toshiya was speechless and could only cast a questioning glance at Tanaka.

Upon noticing Tanaka's similar confusion, Hamano Toshiya suddenly turned to Gao Mo: "It was you? How did you do that?"

"Alright, Hamano."

Huang Yi and a few others laughed.

"Kuroba is a professional magician after all, so don't try to teach him. You'll only suffer the consequences now, won't you? Besides, the surname Kuroba... our magician friend online is not some nobody."

"Yes, there used to be a very famous magician whose surname was Kuroba."

"Black Feather stole a pair, didn't he?" "Damn it."

Hamano Toshiya grabbed his hair in frustration and had no choice but to obediently go upstairs.

"We need to get the party ready quickly; I don't want to be locked up in my room all the time."

"That depends on when the room leader and the Shadow Mage arrive."

"No way?" Hamano Toshiya cried out in despair, "If they don't come, won't I be locked up forever? They definitely won't be able to come today, right?"

"Don't worry," Huang Yi said with a smile, "I'll wait until 10 p.m. at the latest."

"That's good. I bet they're fighting somewhere outside. It might even end in a fatality..."

"Don't say such things, Mr. Hamano."

"Haha, just kidding."

Gao Mo watched Hamano Toshiya go upstairs.

The others also began preparing for the party under the arrangement of Acting Chief of Staff Kuroda.

"Mr. Huang, go to the wine cellar to get some good wine, and while you're at it, make some simple snacks to go with the wine and desserts after the meal."

"Doito, help me tidy up, prepare the plating, and set up the stage for the party..."

Kuroda, unfamiliar with the situation, glanced at Gao Mo.

"Mr. Kuroba, the banquet manager said..."

"Everyone here is a magic enthusiast, so the program will consist of performing one magic trick each. If that doesn't work, you can also perform other talents... Don't worry, I prepared the magic tricks I'm going to perform before I came."

Gao Mo responded calmly.

Hamano is doomed to die; he foresaw the other's impending death during the magic show.

Now that the trap that was meant for him has been given to Hamano Toshiya, what will the criminal do?

Should we find another way to frame him?
In any case, something will definitely be done...

"Mr. Kuroba," Tanaka rushed back into the house, "I saw smoke coming from the suspension bridge. Could you please go and take a look? It's the only way in and out, and I'm worried..."

"Let's go take a look together."

Gao Mo called out to Takuki Doi amidst Tanaka's astonished gaze.

Although he wasn't afraid to be alone, why take the risk?
He had some doubts about Tanaka and Kuroda earlier, but now he is almost certain that Tanaka is the culprit.

As for accomplices...

It's possible, but unlikely.

Just pay attention to a few things.

Now he just needs to focus on playing his role as a magician and go all out to achieve an excellent rating.

The people in the villa basically believed he was a magician; the only troublesome one was Kaito Kid.

"quack!"

As Gao Mo trudged through the thick snow and dense forest, his gaze lingered briefly on the Tui Tak tree.

Since we hadn't anticipated this guy's appearance, we borrowed the name "Kuroba" and named him "Kuroba Rokuro".

Perhaps because of this, Kidd paid significantly more attention to and scrutinized him.

The most troublesome thing is that this guy is very familiar with the magician circle, so even if he says he's just starting out, it's not entirely safe.

“You were really amazing just now,” Doi Takuki chuckled. “How did you do that? If I were blindfolded, I wouldn’t even be able to recognize the name on the note, let alone switch the markings.”

“It’s nothing really,” Gao Mo said as they walked side by side. “Those of us who make a living as magicians have some talent. I just have a faster hand speed and switched the sticky notes in advance… those notes already had markings on them.”

This guy must have figured it out, but he's just pretending not to know.

Judging from his current level, Kidd's magic level is at least level 5.

“I see,” Doi Takuki said, feigning understanding. “So Ms. Tanaka was actually acting as a shill for Mr. Hamano? On the surface, Mr. Hamano didn’t touch the note at all because the entire operation was handled by Ms. Tanaka…”

"It would be very interesting if the two of them knew that you had seen through their methods so early on."

It's very interesting if everyone knew that Phantom Thief Kid was here.

Gao Mo maintained a calm demeanor, avoiding revealing any flaws in front of Kidd.

Although this guy isn't a professional actor, his acting skills are superb. Otherwise, he wouldn't have been able to impersonate Ran and Kazuha so well that even Conan and Hattori, the two detectives, couldn't tell the difference, with the latter suffering a great loss.

“By the way,” Doi Takaki suddenly turned his head and asked, “Does Mr. Kuroba have any connection with Kuroba Toichi from many years ago?”

"No, it's just that we happen to share the same surname."

"Then what made Mr. Kuroba a magician?"

Doi Takaki deliberately lingered a step behind, gazing at Gao Mo's retreating figure with a hint of inquiry in his expression.

Not just anyone can debut as a magician. Generally speaking, one either has a mentor or comes from a family of magicians. Very few geniuses can figure it out on their own.

But he had never heard of the name "Kuroba Rokuro".

Judging from Gao Mo's technique just now, it was definitely not some amateurish method.

And for some reason, it felt strangely familiar.

"Of course it's for making money," Gao Mo felt Doi Takaki's gaze. "Unfortunately, there hasn't been a magic troupe that suits me. I originally wanted to become Kuroba Toichi's apprentice, but I heard that Kuroba Toichi died 8 years ago."

I finally got to know Kinoshita Yoshiro, and the very next day I saw him die on stage after a performance mishap.

Later, I considered becoming an apprentice of Motoyasu Tsukumo—Kinoshita Yoshiro's magic teacher—but before I could even visit him, I heard that Tsukumo had been murdered by his disciple… So I had no choice but to learn on my own by reading books and watching videos.”

"Aren't you going to look for other ways?"

“No one else is suitable. A month ago, I was thinking of contacting Harui Fuden... Sigh, actually, I’ve been a bit concerned about that Phantom Thief Kid lately. I heard he often uses magic to outwit the police, even Sanada Ichizo is at a disadvantage. If possible, I’d like to find Phantom Thief Kid.” Gao Mo sighed and shook his head.

Doi Takuki secretly broke out in a cold sweat: "Phantom Thief Kid is a wanted criminal, I'm afraid you won't be able to find him..."

What a freak!

Gao Mo said nonchalantly, "It doesn't necessarily have to be a face-to-face meeting. You can become an apprentice online just the same way... and Kidd certainly won't suddenly get into trouble."

"Cough cough!"

Doi Takaki was taken aback by Gao Mo's topic-shifting technique and hurriedly pointed towards the cliff ahead.

"There's smoke coming from over there... the suspension bridge's on fire!"

"call!"

The cliff under the cover of night resembled a dark abyss, with the only suspension bridge connecting the two sides completely broken, leaving only the edge illuminated by firelight.

Doi Takaki ran to the edge of the cliff, horrified: "How could this happen? Without the suspension bridge, we'd all be trapped here and die... Who did this? It couldn't have just started burning for no reason!"

Keep acting.

This guy has helicopters to pick him up wherever he goes, and he also carries a glider on his person so he can easily fly away.

Gao Mo gazed quietly at the snow-covered forest opposite him.

Snow began to fall again in the deep mountains.

Blizzard Lodge Mode...

It feels like my detective genes have been forced to activate, giving me an urge to solve the case and flip the table.

“Mr. Kuroba,” Doi Takaki kicked the tree trunk in annoyance, “what do we do now?”

"It's alright, they'll definitely come looking for us. We'll only be stuck for a day or two at most."

Gao Mo closed his eyes, silently repeating to himself, "I am a magician now, not a detective."

There are plenty of cases; there's no need to create unnecessary complications at this time...

"Mr. Kuroba?" Doi Takaki called out anxiously, "Hurry back and inform everyone, I have a feeling something is going to happen."

For some unknown reason, Doi Takaki completely lost the mood to test Gao Mo, and his face turned extremely ugly.

(End of this chapter)