The Pirated Onmyoji of the Detective World

"No." Aragaki Yu shook his head.

Seeing that the others were also looking at him because of Conan's sudden outburst, Yuu Aragaki had no choice but to continue explaining, "I just felt that this villa was strange. When you were looking for those items with coded messages, I also checked this villa. It looks like it has three stories from the outside, but once you go inside, it only has two stories. I don't know where part of the space went."

"!!!"

Conan's spirits lifted upon hearing Aragaki Yu's words. "Aragaki-nii, you mean there's a hidden space in this villa, a secret room!?"

“Yes.” Yu Aragaki confirmed Conan’s statement. “I think that’s right. There must be something extraordinary hidden in this villa, and it might all be related to the old man who used to live here and carved those coins.”

"But, but..." Conan frowned, as if he wanted to say something.

“However, during my brief inspection of this villa, I didn’t find any way to find the secret room.” Aragaki Yu sighed, shrugged, and continued, “But then again, if it were that easy to find, that man wouldn’t still be here monitoring us to this day.”

"So, for now, we can only try to decipher these codes first." Conan raised an eyebrow and looked at Professor Agasa again. "Professor, besides the fact that the letters are all written in katakana, can you remember anything else? What do those codes have to do with the letters?"

Dr. Agasa coughed lightly, drawing everyone's attention back to himself, and continued, "Those letters are covered with various patterns that resemble these coded messages. There are patterns around the katakana greetings, drawn like lace."

"Then what!"

Conan looked anxious. "What happened to those letters?"

"Because I couldn't understand it at all, so I gave it to your dad..."

Professor Agasa, who almost let slip the secret as soon as he opened his mouth, suddenly realized his mistake and quickly corrected himself under the reproachful looks of Conan and Ai Haibara, saying, "Ah, no, no, no... I meant I showed it to a mystery novelist who lives nearby."

"Huh? You showed it to Dad?" Conan's expression changed slightly, and he was also a little surprised.

Dr. Agasa wiped the cold sweat from his forehead somewhat awkwardly. "This novelist, at first, kept making excuses because of work and wasn't interested at all. But after seeing the letter, he became more and more excited, so he asked me for the letter and then immediately closed the door."

"..."

Conan's face stiffened for a moment; he could clearly imagine the expression on his father's face at that moment.

And then, what did he say?

Urged on by Conan, Professor Agasa continued to recount the story, "Just a few minutes later, he came to my house and said to me, 'I'd like you to give this envelope to your aunt.' To be honest, I was so happy, Professor! You're like the sun. Thanks to you, all my frustration has vanished!"

"Is there something mysterious about that envelope?" Genta asked, puzzled. He had no idea what was going on in Professor Agasa's story.

"I don't know!" Professor Agasa shook his head helplessly.

"I bet the envelope contains the code deciphering sheet!" Conan said confidently. "That's right, because that novelist must also know that these codes actually represent some katakana characters."

"Huh? Katakana?" Everyone was stunned for a moment, looking at Conan with some surprise.

Only Ai Haibara sighed slightly as she watched Conan about to start his unbridled behavior again.

Having a companion like that must be exhausting for her.

Fortunately, apart from Professor Agasa and the children of the Detective Boys, there are no other people here now.

Only his older sister and Aragaki Yu were there.

these people……

They are all people she can trust.

Therefore, she did not say anything to remind Conan.

“Yes, it’s katakana.” Conan suddenly laughed. “The reason why all those letters were written in katakana is because the patterns drawn around them needed to be deciphered using katakana.”

"Oh...I see!" Professor Agasa suddenly clapped his hands, a look of sudden realization on his face.

Chapter 351 The Panicked Snow Woman

"So, the person who sent those letters to your aunt and the person who drew these coded messages that we see are probably the same person."

Because the mystery had suddenly become clear, Conan's tone unconsciously carried a hint of joy and excitement.

"Then, why did that person send my aunt those coded messages?" Dr. Agasa's face was still full of confusion.

“Professor, since that person deliberately used such a coded message that no one else could understand, it means he didn’t want anyone other than your aunt to know the contents of the letter.” Ai Haibara suddenly thought of the man carrying a weapon that Aragaki Yu had subdued, and reminded Professor Agasa, “Perhaps someone was trying to hurt him at that time.”

"what!"

Professor Agasa's expression was somewhat surprised, but his face quickly changed as if he had remembered something.

“I… I remember now, my aunt did say that! She said there was a strange guy who would often peek into her mailbox.”

"!!!"

Upon hearing all this, Conan instantly had a guess in his mind—

All of this could very well be the work of the man who was knocked unconscious by Aragaki Yu and destroyed the toys that the doctor had hidden.

His purpose in doing so was most likely to be searching for something in this villa.

"interesting!"

At this moment, Conan couldn't help but smile slightly. He was becoming more and more interested in this mysterious villa.

Unfortunately, because Aragaki Yu hit him hard, the man who was knocked unconscious was unable to wake up for a while, and the group was unable to get any information from him.

Therefore, everyone still has to start with these coded messages they found.

Everyone sat together studying the codes, and even Akemi Miyano and Ai Haibara tried to doodle on the paper.

Only after glancing at the patterns did Aragaki Yu give up on deciphering the codes, pretending to inspect the villa.

Although Aragaki Yu had a plan to decipher the code solution table, he said that since he wasn't planning to take the civil service exam, he'd rather leave this mentally and physically demanding task to someone else.

Anyway, with Conan here, they'll be able to solve these codes sooner or later.

Since the criminal has already been subdued, there's no need to rush the rest.

As for the others, the shikigami that had been staying in his Yin-Yang Domain had all run off to play in various corners of the villa out of boredom, and incidentally helped to find the hidden secret room.

……

After who knows how much time had passed, Conan, who had been studying the pattern, finally made a breakthrough.

After deducing the katakana represented by the black sun with no similar patterns, Conan further deduced a rough code solution table by finding three consecutive patterns that appeared many times and the small black and white dots that appeared in the upper right corner of various patterns.

However, this speed made Aragaki Yu shake his head in disbelief.

In China, this problem-solving speed would probably have been a disqualifying factor in a civil service exam.

Using the code solution table, the group quickly deciphered the meaning of the patterns on each object.

The pattern written on the bottom of the plate means—look carefully at the vase.

The design written on the bottom of the vase means—pay attention to the candlestick.

The pattern at the bottom of the candlestick means—look closely at the propeller.

……

Led by Conan, the group deciphered the codes on the items one by one.

However, Conan, who had deciphered all the codes, did not show any happy expression on his face. Instead, his expression became increasingly serious.

Because in the final French dictionary, the answer everyone got from translating the code was—look at the heater.

However, when everyone excitedly found the new code in the fireplace, everything returned to square one.

The secret code carved in the fireplace meant—pay attention to the plate.

"What the hell! This means we have to start all over again!" Genta complained.

"We were completely fooled by these coded messages!" Mitsuhiko couldn't help but chime in.

"Heh." Ai Haibara, who was standing at the back with Akemi Miyano, couldn't help but sneer. "Looks like we've all been completely fooled by someone's pranks!"

"This prank is outrageous!" Even Professor Agasa couldn't help but mutter at this moment.

Apart from Conan, everyone else at this point also felt that these codes were fake, just a prank left behind by someone.

However, Conan doesn't think so. He believes that no one would go to so much trouble to play a prank using a code that others might not be able to decipher.

However, according to the interpretation of the code, these patterns do indeed all mean this!

Conan frowned as he looked at the code solution sheet in his hand.

At that moment, a hint of doubt crept into his mind. "Could it be that there's an error in the code solution sheet I wrote? No, that's impossible!"

Conan sat cross-legged on the floor, racking his brains to think about the codes, hoping to find the places he had overlooked.

"Well, there's nothing we can do about it then. Let's put these things back where they were before the police arrive!" Professor Agasa, who thought it was all just a prank, could only say helplessly at this point.

"it is good."

Under Professor Agasa's guidance, Akemi Miyano and the other children put all the items they found back in their original places.

What no one noticed was that Aragaki Yu, who should have been here, had disappeared somewhere while inspecting the villa.

……

"Snow Woman, what's wrong?"

In a corner of the room, Yu Aragaki looked at the Yuki-onna who had floated back in a panic and asked her in confusion.

The snow woman's already fair face turned deathly pale. Upon seeing Aragaki Yu, she immediately shrank into Aragaki Yu's pocket, curling up into a ball and trembling.

"Yin, Onmyoji, there's... there's a ghost in this villa!" The Snow Woman's voice trembled slightly.

You could tell she was genuinely terrified.