The Pirated Onmyoji of the Detective World

Suddenly, the room door was opened from the outside.

Just as everyone looked over in surprise and doubt, they found that Aragaki Yu, who had just disappeared, suddenly appeared at the door, seemingly dragging something behind him.

"Big brother Aragaki?" Conan looked at Aragaki Yu, who walked in, with some surprise.

Amidst everyone's surprised expressions, Yuya Aragaki lifted up the thing he was dragging behind him and threw it in front of everyone.

"what!!!"

It was only then that everyone was horrified to discover that this was actually a man who had fainted. Judging from his bruised and swollen face, he had definitely been knocked unconscious by someone.

When Conan noticed the fresh scars on the man's face, he immediately realized that the person who had done all this was probably Yuu Aragaki.

"!!!"

Conan instinctively activated his wristwatch-shaped tranquilizer gun, preparing to aim at Aragaki Yu.

But when he recalled what Aragaki Yu had always done, he immediately realized that the man who had fainted in front of him was probably not a good person.

"What exactly is going on?" Professor Agasa asked Aragaki Yu somewhat flusteredly.

Genta, Ayumi, and Mitsuhiko, also somewhat frightened, hid behind Professor Agasa.

Only Ai Haibara and Akemi Miyano looked at Yuu Aragaki with some nervousness, their eyes filled with worry and doubt.

Clearly, they were all very curious about what was going on with this man.

Chapter 349 I Didn't Mean It

“This person has been secretly watching us ever since we arrived here,” Aragaki Yu gave an answer that surprised and frightened everyone.

"Surveillance...surveillance!?" Dr. Agasa stared in astonishment at the unconscious man lying on the ground.

"That's right!"

"So, this uncle is a bad guy?" Ayumi asked, pointing at the man on the ground with some fear.

“I think that’s right!” Yuu Aragaki nodded and explained, “While you were deciphering the code left by the doctor, I discovered that this man was hiding outside the window spying on us in the room, so I decided to go and see what was going on.”

"But, but... Brother Aragaki, how can you go alone on something so dangerous!" Conan's expression changed upon hearing Aragaki Yu's words.

"..."

Yuu Aragaki glanced at Conan with some surprise, shrugged helplessly, and said with a smile, "Otherwise, should I bring a little kid like you along?"

Upon hearing this, Conan was momentarily speechless, "Uh..."

"That's right, that's right! Even when something like this happened before, Conan, you always sneaked over by yourself!" The Junior Detective League members, who were standing nearby, exposed Conan's past and said indignantly.

"..."

Now, Conan's expression became even more interesting.

"As soon as I went out, this man noticed that I had spotted him and suddenly lunged at me!" At this point, Aragaki Yu kicked the man on the ground with his toe before continuing to describe the situation, "In the end, I accidentally knocked him unconscious."

Yu Aragaki's description of the process was very simple and clear, and there was nothing suspicious about it.

But when Conan glanced at the man's bruised and swollen face, his lips twitched involuntarily.

This inevitably reminded him of that night in the school warehouse, when Aragaki Yuu was repeatedly striking the kidnapper with an iron bar...

Haha, it really is...

Was it an accident...?

Noticing the suspicious look on Conan's face, Aragaki Yu smiled slightly, took something out of his pocket and tossed it to Conan, "I didn't mean to hit him so hard, but when I noticed what he was carrying, I couldn't stop myself."

"Hmm? Things?"

Before Conan could say anything after hearing Aragaki Yu's explanation, he saw a dark lump being thrown at him.

Before he could react, Conan frantically stretched out his hands. When he caught the object and looked at it closely, his heart skipped a beat. "A hand... a pistol!"

"What!?"

When the others heard Conan's exclamation and noticed what Aragaki Yu had thrown into Conan's hand, they also became tense.

As Miyano Akemi looked at the unconscious man on the ground, she became even more vigilant.

“And it’s not just a pistol, he also has a knife.” Aragaki Yu hooked the man’s clothes at his waist with his toe, revealing the knife tucked there. “I overheard what you were saying outside the door, and I think, if I’m not mistaken, this is the man who found the toys the doctor hid and destroyed them before you.”

"hateful!"

"That uncle really is a big bad guy!"

Whenever others mentioned that Genta, Mitsuhiko, and Ayumi were the first to become furious after learning that this man was the one who destroyed the toys prepared by the professor.

Genta even rolled up his sleeves, itching to rush up and teach the man another lesson, but he was immediately stopped by Professor Agasa, who had come to his senses.

While stopping Genta, Professor Agasa also asked Aragaki Yu, "But what exactly is this man's purpose in doing this?"

“I’m not entirely sure about that either,” Yuu Aragaki shook his head. “But during the process of subduing him, I think I heard him say something about something that guy had hidden away.”

"Something that's been hidden!"

"It's a treasure!"

Upon hearing this, Genta and the others couldn't help but get excited again.

Even Conan's eyes flashed with an unusual light.

Now he was certain that all of this was definitely related to another code left in the villa.

……

After Aragaki Yu tied the unconscious man to a chair in the bedroom and made a phone call to Inspector Megure to explain the situation,

The group returned to the room where they had discovered the coded message and waited for the police to arrive.

However, during this time, Conan was still studying the coded objects that Genta and the others had discovered.

"So, all the clues have come back to these coded messages?"

Conan scratched his head in frustration, but because the sample size was too small, he had no way of understanding the meaning of the images. "Damn it, these clues are still not enough!"

"Since these things were all found in this room, maybe if we look more closely, we'll find even more codes!" At this moment, seeing Conan racking his brains but having no clue, Yuu Aragaki couldn't help but remind him.

“That’s right!” Upon hearing this, Conan’s eyes suddenly lit up.

How could I not have thought of something so simple!

“Then let’s help out too!” After glancing at Aragaki Yu, Miyano Akemi suddenly said with a smile.

When Ai Haibara saw her older sister start rummaging through the room, she glanced at Yuu Aragaki, sighed helplessly, and then followed Akemi Miyano to begin the search.

The children in the Junior Detective Club, without needing any prompting, excitedly joined in.

Genta, in particular, was the most active with his hands, constantly muttering the word "treasure".

……

Because everyone was searching together, it didn't take long before they had thoroughly searched the room.

Of course, everyone's efforts were not in vain.

The group found a total of ten items in the room that had similar coded messages—in addition to the vase, plate, and candlestick that had been discovered at the beginning.

Other items bearing coded messages included playing cards, a French dictionary, records, a model airplane, a wine glass, a portrait, and finally, a puppet doll.

Looking at the collected items, Professor Agasa stroked his chin and said, "I remember my aunt telling me that my uncle loves puppet dolls the most."

"But we don't know what these things mean!" Ayumi squatted down next to Conan, looking at the pile of things on the ground with a troubled expression.

"Yes." Conan nodded.

Chapter 350 Secret Room

"It would be great if there was something longer, like an article. If that were the case, we might be able to deduce the meaning of these symbols," Conan said hesitantly, stroking his chin. "Like a diary or a letter."

"Hmm? I believe you!"

Just when Conan and his friends were at a loss, Professor Agasa seemed to remember something. "Oh right, I remember now, there really is such a letter!"

"Huh?" Conan, Genta, and the others looked at Professor Agasa in surprise.

"Yes, didn't I just say that I remember seeing this pattern somewhere before?" Professor Agasa stroked his beard and explained sheepishly, "I just forgot that it was my aunt who showed it to me a while ago!"

"Is your aunt the woman in the painting? Professor, I remember you just said she was a teacher at the nearby elementary school, right?" Conan asked Professor Agasa.

"Hmm." The doctor nodded and said, "That's right. I remember it was five or six years ago. For the past ten years, every year a strange letter without a sender has been sent to my aunt. My aunt felt something was wrong and came to me to discuss it."

Professor Agasa rested his chin on his hand, trying hard to recall what happened back then. "I remember the contents of the letter. It was all written in hiragana, and it was either 'Hello, teacher' or 'Please take care of yourself' or something like that."

"Could it be a letter from one of your students to your aunt?" Genta guessed.

Professor Agasa shook his head. "But the letters have been written in katakana for the past ten years. No one would deliberately write them like this..."

"That's really strange!" Mitsuhiko also felt that the contents of the letter from Professor Agasa were odd.

Conan was also keeping his head down, thinking about what the professor had said, but he still couldn't find any crucial clues.

Just then, he suddenly noticed that Aragaki Yu was looking around the room, seemingly searching for something.

Out of curiosity, Conan couldn't help but tug at Aragaki Yu's sleeve, "Aragaki-nii, did you find something?"