Conan Rick's Investigator

But as soon as she got off the car, Ayumi saw a sloppy figure who was out of tune with the people around him walking towards her, with a crazy smile on his face.

The sloppy man passed by the three little ones and did not notice that one of them had a very frightened look in his eyes.

After the man passed by with a hunched back, Ayumi pointed at the man's back tremblingly and said that this man was the bad guy she met yesterday.

"Really! Ayumi?"

"Ah."

Ayumi nodded weakly, but Genta and Mitsuhiko showed excited expressions.

Because they know that the time has come for them to make a contribution.

……

In the taxi back to Shinjuku Street, Qin Zhibo rolled down the window and looked at the sky outside.

Night falls on this land, and thousands of stars penetrate the cosmic distance measured in light years, just to share the same sky.

This cosmic romance is intoxicating, but it also reminds someone that it's time to go home.

"Shouldn't you go home?"

Qin Zhibo looked back at Koizumi Hongzi in the back seat, but Koizumi Hongzi had a serious face and did not answer the question Qin Zhibo asked.

"That arsonist...could he be trying to construct a magic circle?"

What Koizumi Hongzi blurted out startled Qin Zhibo and the driver in the front seat.

"The magic circle you're talking about, is that the one you constructed on Tokyo Tower?"

Koizumi Hongzi nodded slightly. "Large-scale magic circles like that require preliminary preparation, called 'marking.' Similar to drawing a magic circle, special conditions must be met at specific locations."

"We, the Red Magic Clan, have a special marking method that ordinary people cannot detect. However, different magic circles have different methods, and flames may also be one of the conditions."

The driver sitting in the front seat broke out in a cold sweat, his tightly closed lips showing what he was thinking: he didn't know and didn't dare to ask.

After all, who would bother with a mentally ill person for no reason?

Qin Zhibo seemed to be thinking about something, and then asked, "Then can you feel whether this is a magic circle?"

Koizumi Hongzi closed her eyes, sensed it, and shook her head.

"No, I can't sense it until the magic circle is completed."

"However, I can tell from the location of the previous arson whether this is the 'mark' before the magic circle is formed. Since there are only a few types of magic circles, it is relatively easy to spot."

Qin Zhibo looked at the driver beside him and asked, "Driver, do you have a map in your car?"

"Yes! Yes!"

The driver, who didn't want to get involved, quickly took out a map from the glove box and handed it to Qin Zhibo in the passenger seat. Qin Zhibo then gave the map to Koizumi Hongzi.

"Those locations are, in order, Ikebukuro, Asakusabashi, and Tabata..."

Koizumi Hongzi pointed out these points on the map with her finger, and soon found the answer by moving her finger around on the map.

"It's a pentagram!"

"He's marking the pentagram!"

Koizumi Hongzi handed the map to Qin Zhibo, and Qin Zhibo connected the lines according to the method Koizumi Hongzi pointed out, and it turned out to be the five endpoints of a pentagram.

"The five endpoints mark the edges of the magic circle, and the center is where the magic circle is activated."

Following Koizumi Hongzi's instructions, Qin Zhibo found the center of the entire magic circle on the map.

Shinagawa Ward!

However, even if we get the location of Shinagawa District, we don’t know when the other party plans to activate the magic circle.

unless……

Qin Zhibo suddenly remembered that during the day in Zoroastrianism, Xiumu Feiyan introduced that today was the first day that the "Fire of Truth" believed in by Zoroastrianism - the original body of Cthugha, the star Fomalhaut ruled the night sky.

Is it today?

"Driver! Return to Shinagawa District immediately!"

……

At Shinagawa Station, after Conan and Haibara Ai finished discussing the case and returned to the car, they found that the three little ones had disappeared.

"What about people?"

Conan and Haibara Ai were both confused. At this moment, a "beeping" sound came from the detective badge in their pocket.

After answering the call, I learned that the three kids had followed the arsonist because they happened to meet him, and the arsonist was now setting fire.

After hearing the news, Conan and Haibara Ai looked at each other. Since there was only one arsonist, they decided to solve the incident themselves.

After the two left, Sato Miwako, who had finished her work, returned to the car and saw the empty seats, and was full of questions.

"What about people?"

……

The three kids hung up the phone and focused their attention on the arsonist who was lighting the fire.

The red flames burned brighter and brighter in front of the arsonist. The arsonist was not afraid of the burning in his eyes. He stared at the flames obsessively with a grin on his lips.

"Hehe... my good child, grow up quickly..."

The three little ones who had never played with fire since childhood looked at this exciting scene and couldn't believe that there were people who were not afraid of the curse of wetting the bed due to playing with fire.

After a while, the arsonist stood up and walked out. The three little kids were so scared that they quickly hid themselves and whispered to each other.

"The fire is getting bigger and bigger. Should we call the fire department first?"

“But I don’t have a phone…”

"The criminal is about to escape. Should we chase him?"

"No! Conan told us to wait here obediently..."

The three little ones were talking to each other, completely unaware that the danger was quietly approaching behind them.

The arsonist held a sharp knife in his hand, and an evil and crazy smile appeared on his face.

"Youngsters? Do you want to pass on the fire as well?"

Chapter 485: Cthugha's Spell

"Young men, do you also want to pass on the fire?"

A gloomy and mocking voice sounded behind the three members of the Junior Detective Team.

The three little heads suddenly trembled, and they looked back tremblingly, and saw the arsonist who had returned standing behind them.

The three little ones were so scared that they stepped back subconsciously, while the arsonist fiddled with the dagger in his hand. The already rough shape of the dagger looked even more eerie and terrifying against the backdrop of the fire.

"What? Don't you want to pass on the fire?"

"Then I have no choice but to get rid of all three of you together. You will be the most important sacrifices in this grand carnival tonight."

As he was speaking, the arsonist stuck out his tongue and licked the cold light of the dagger.

Squishy——

"what!"

The three frightened little ones screamed and started running for their lives.

Because the three little ones often do all kinds of suicidal things, they have developed good escape skills compared to their peers. It took the arsonist half a minute to catch up with Ayumi who was running at the back.

"No! No!"

As a professional hostage, Ayumi struggled and cried hard, attracting Mitsuhiko and Genta who were running in front to stop and look back.

"Let go of Ayumi!"

The arsonist held Ayumi in his arms, pointed the dagger in his other hand at her head, and grinned sinisterly, "You two should come back here obediently..."

But before the arsonist could finish his words, another childish voice sounded behind him. When he turned around, he saw a little girl with brown hair.

"Do you know what a monster that eats garbage is?"

The brown-haired child stood quietly with his hands behind his back, and answered the riddle without any panic, which surprised the arsonist that the child was so calm.

Huh? Isn't she afraid of me?

But the next second, a trash can flew from not far away and hit the arsonist on the head.

Peng!

bang——

The one who kicked out the trash can was naturally Conan.

According to incomplete statistics, Conan has kicked the criminals' heads far more times than he has shot a goal, so football is a fighting skill for Conan.

As the metal trash can fell to the ground with a bang, Conan, who was not far away, grinned helplessly and made a higher and stronger goal for himself in his heart.

Please, can you find something cooler to kick next time...

The crisis was resolved, Conan turned off the tourmaline activation knob on the foot-strengthening shoes, walked to the three little ones, and started to scold and educate them.

"What are you doing? Didn't I tell you not to move around? Why are you..."

Before Conan finished speaking, five people in red robes suddenly walked out from the two exits of the alley and attacked the five little members of the Junior Detective Team from the front and back.

"Why are there children here?"

"Isn't that Bingzao? Why is he lying here?"

"Did this little brat do it?"

Hearing this, Conan's eyes widened, feeling incredible.

This arsonist actually has an accomplice!

Ayumi, who was unaware of this, wanted to run forward to ask the five red-robed men for help, but was stopped by Haibara Ai who was standing next to her.

"Don't go over there! They're accomplices of the arsonist."

"what?"

The three frightened little ones quickly huddled together and shrank fearfully behind Haibara Ai and Conan, who were still calmly facing the enemy.

There are people in front and behind the alley, there is only one trash can and one anesthetic needle. What should I do?

Just when Conan was still thinking about how to struggle, a red-robed man in the lead pulled out a shiny pistol from his arms.

"Tie them up with ropes!"

……

In a short while, the five little members of the Junior Detective Team were tied up with ropes and thrown in front of the flames.

The fire in front of the warehouse was burning fiercely enough, and billowing black smoke began to fill the air.

"Time is almost up. We need to complete the ritual before anyone discovers us."

The red-robed man in the lead took off his hood. Under the dazzling firelight, Conan found that this man looked somewhat similar to the arsonist he had kicked down.

Except that this man's beard is well-groomed and his hair is shorter and neater, he is exactly the same as the arsonist in other aspects!

Are they twins?

Five red-robed men surrounded the burning flames and the young detective team in front of the fire in a fan-shaped formation, and began to chant a unified spell.

"Ph'nglui mgfw'nafh..."

Mysterious and unknown spells were fluently recited from the mouths of five red-robed men.

As the chanting continued, the red-robed man in the lead raised his two arms and looked seriously at the flames that lit up the night sky.

Conan and Haibara Ai stared at the scene with wide eyes in surprise, surprised that in this modern society with rapidly developing technology, there are actually people who believe in spells?

This kind of scene of chanting spells that only appears in fantasy works actually appears in the real world!

Judging from the proficiency of these arsonist accomplices in chanting such complex spells, they are not ordinary thugs but have received special training.

However, even though Conan and Haibara Ai used their powerful language knowledge base to carefully identify the language used in the spell, they still could not figure out what language the spell was written in.