Anime, but the Phantom Thieves of Heart

Especially Kusaka Hironari, whose "shadow" seemed to have been eliminated by Lan Ke.

Does this sound strange? After all, Lan Ke had personally witnessed the other party's shadow being resolved.

But in fact, this is not the case. What Lan Ke and the others eliminated was just the "distorted desire", which does not mean that the other party has given up "revenge". From a certain perspective, the other party who has experienced inner torture and made up his mind to take revenge again may be more "determined" than before.

The only difference is that the other party is more rational in the process of "revenge" and at least will not harm innocent people.

But Lan Ke still felt something was wrong.

That was the body of 'Haitengdu'.

Although Lan Ke is not a forensic doctor, as a surgeon, he is not unfamiliar with this. In fact, because of his excellent surgical skills and young age, he has often been invited to help in "emergency" cases.

At that time, he was eager to increase his surgical experience and accepted all surgeries, which led to his understanding of injuries other than the "thoracic and abdominal cavity".

According to the scene, the other party was attacked from behind, resulting in a heavy blow to the back of the head, and eventually died from excessive blood loss.

But... there's something wrong with the 'bleeding amount'!

If this situation happened in other cases, Lan Ke would feel strange but at least be overly vigilant. But the problem is that this case is different from the previous ones. You know, Yashiro Hideto took away something that looked like a "Stone Ghost Mask".

Even though according to his assistant, it is impossible for 'vampires' to really exist in this world, then the most terrifying effect of the 'Stone Mask' would be lost, but since it is related to 'blood', Lan Ke still couldn't help but think of it.

Just as Lan Ke was carefully observing the scene, Josuke Higashikata, with a grim expression on his face, was already walking towards Lan Ke on the other side.

Although the main job of Josuke Higashikata and his team is to "capture the Phantom Thieves of Hearts", someone was killed right under their noses. This is simply a slap in the face of all the police officers at the scene. It would be a problem if Josuke Higashikata, as the person in charge, could have a good expression.

However, no matter how angry he was, he did not lose his judgment.

Almost at the same time as he realized that a murder had occurred, he ordered his subordinates to seal off the scene, take control of the monitoring room, and then question the personnel.

Fortunately, the purpose of the operation was to capture the "Phantom Thieves of Hearts", and Yasiro Hideto, contrary to his usual practice, installed a lot of surveillance cameras in the office building. This reduced a lot of trouble for the police and directly eliminated many people who appeared in the surveillance cameras.

But it is precisely because of this that new doubts arise.

From the surveillance, we can see that "Kaito Watari" disappeared from the surveillance at 11:37, and Mao Lilan screamed at 11:51, which means that in just fourteen minutes, the other party reached the destination and was shot in the head.

Moreover, from the other party's behavior in the video, it can be seen that he took the initiative to go to the "reception room".

"It should be 'an acquaintance committing a crime'."

Josuke Higashikata made a judgment almost immediately after watching the surveillance video. Even Kagami, who was transferred to his command, did not react to what happened. After all, he was just an ordinary patrolman before being transferred to Josuke Higashikata and had not even handled a few murder cases.

Josuke Higashikata patiently explained this to the other party. After all, the reason he transferred the other party to his team was to train him.

"It's very simple. The victim did not resist when he was killed. There are generally only two possibilities for this situation."

"First, the attacker was so fast that the victim didn't even have time to react before he was killed."

"Secondly, he completely trusted his attacker, which is why he exposed his 'weak spot' to them. Ultimately, he was killed without putting up a fight."

As he spoke, Higashikata Josuke gave the order directly.

"First, determine the movements of everyone in this building during the 'time of the incident,' and confirm the victim's interpersonal relationships with the staff!"

"Yes!"

After Kagami saluted, she notified other colleagues to go check on the person together.

Just when Josuke Higashikata was about to start investigating the murder, the communicator suddenly rang. Josuke Higashikata's expression, which was already not very good, suddenly became even uglier, and he walked straight in a certain direction.

Looking at the impetuous Higashikata Josuke, Lan Ke and Kudo Shinichi exchanged glances and followed him in tacit understanding.

They had only walked a short while when they heard a loud commotion.

As he walked in, Lan Ke's face suddenly turned dark.

"It was the Phantom Thieves of Hearts! They definitely did it!!"

The 'eighth generation British man' was seen speaking nonsense while surrounded by a group of bodyguards and police.

"Those guys sent me a warning letter yesterday. They might have been trying to divert attention away from me so they could take down Hai Teng!"

What the other person said seemed to make sense at first glance, but upon closer inspection it was full of loopholes.

After all, why did the 'Phantom Thieves of Hearts' want to kill 'Hai Teng Du'?

But the media present didn’t care about that!

Because of the previous "Arasaka Case", the popularity of the "Phantom Thieves of Hearts" skyrocketed instantly. It can be said that the "Phantom Thieves" is the most discussed thing among the people during this period. It's a pity that the "Phantom Thieves" is too mysterious and will not show up easily, so the major media can only rehash it.

Now that a 'President' has said that the 'Phantom Thieves of Hearts' are murderers, they won't let this opportunity go, regardless of whether it's true or not!!

After all, even if it is proven that there is a problem later, it was said by the "eighth generation of British people". What does it have to do with them?

Looking at the other party's arrogant face, Lan Ke said nothing, but silently sent a message to Shirou Emiya.

'How's the progress?'

Lan Ke said nothing, he just wanted to watch this "clown" explode under the spotlight!

Chapter 44: Masks and Family.

How's the progress?

Emiya Shirou glanced at the 'BOSS room' that was getting closer and closer on the map and replied 'Almost there, the BOSS will be there soon' without saying anything else.

Although he usually smiles gently like a harmless big golden retriever, he has never forgotten his original oath. Even though Lan Ke has never really regarded him as a subordinate but as a friend, Shirou Emiya always puts Lan Ke first when doing business.

For example, he always remembered what Lan Ke said, that when they were not together, they should be careful with any words they said, just in case, so he always adhered to the attitude of not asking what should not be asked and not saying what should not be said.

Of course...except eating melons.

Although he didn't know what happened to Lan Ke, something unexpected must have happened. While paying attention to the safety of Busujima Saeko and Lucy, he held his phone and waited for Lan Ke's reply.

Sure enough, not long after, he soon received news from Lan Kexin.

"A murder occurred at the shipyard. I suspect that 'Yadai Hideto' may be the murderer. Please ask him if you encounter his shadow."

'OKAY'

Putting the phone back, Shirou Emiya turned to look at Busujima Saeko and Lucy on the other side.

"You two, we're going to speed up from now on. There seems to be some accidents with the Leader, so we need to speed up our progress."

The two people had different reactions after hearing what Emiya Shirou said.

Lucy was obviously worried, but Busujima Saeko was smiling.

But their movements were full of tacit understanding, and each of them increased the intensity of their movements. The pirates who were blocking their way were in trouble, but the good news was that their suffering time was shortened. After all, whether they were hit in the hand and then beheaded, or tortured by countless threads, now a sword piercing the heart or being shot in the head might be less painful.

The pace of the attack on the 'hall' accelerated, but on the other side, Josuke Higashikata's investigation came to a standstill.

Higashikata Josuke's subordinates have questioned everyone and have roughly eliminated all possible suspects. In this building with dozens of people, there are only four people who do not have alibis for the time when the victim was attacked.

The owner of this place is 'Hideto Yashiro', the deputy designer is 'Miwako Akiyoshi', the invited screenwriter 'Kusaka Kansei' and the parade organizer 'Jotaro Kujo'!

That's right, among the suspects is Jotaro Kujo!

Not only that, the more troublesome thing is that the 'murder weapon' has not been found!

Generally speaking, the easiest way to identify a suspect is through direct witnessing or direct evidence, and the "murder weapon" is an extremely important part of identifying a suspect.

But no matter how complicated the situation was, he had to solve it.

"Everyone, I would like to confirm your movements during the period before and after the 'victim's death'..."

Almost as soon as Josuke Higashikata finished speaking, Eito Yashiro couldn't help but yell.

"You mean you think I'm the murderer?!"

Facing the aggressive Yashiro Hideto, Higashikata Josuke just looked at him coldly.

"Yes."

His answer was calm, yet a strong sense of oppression emanated from his calmness.

Just as the scene fell into dead silence, a voice was the first to break it all.

"I was on the phone with my grandfather, confirming our schedule for the next few days. Because it involved company matters, I specifically found a place where there was no one to make the call."

Jotaro Kujo's voice was also extremely calm, as if he was not shaken at all by being treated as a suspect. In fact, he didn't care much, after all, it was not him who did it.

However, his testimony surprised Josuke Higashikata. After all, he was the only one present who knew who the so-called "grandfather" the other party was.

He almost instinctively chose to believe what Jotaro Kujo said, but out of fairness and justice, he still shook his head.

"If the testimony favorable to the suspect is provided by the family, we police will consider it invalid."

Jotaro Kujo didn't care about this, he just nodded to show that he understood.

As Jotaro Kujo took the lead, the other two followed closely.

"Since I still had time, I went back to the office to review yesterday's work. Since I'm a 'designer,' there's no surveillance inside my office to prevent data leaks."

Akiyoshi Miwako's reason is also understandable, after all, she is a staff member here.

As for Kusaka Kansei, he is even more innocent.

"I felt a little tired, so I decided to smoke a cigarette to refresh myself, so I found a place where no one was around and smoked a cigarette secretly."

After they finished explaining, they all looked at the eighth generation Englishman who was making trouble just now.

Although no one spoke, he quickly spoke as he felt like he didn't fit in.

"I'm tired. Can't I go back to the lounge and rest for a while?"

Looking at the self-righteous Yashiro Hideto, Josuke Higashikata was a little undecided for a moment.

On the other side, Lan Ke couldn't help but mutter to himself.

"Something's wrong..."

Kudo Shinichi, who was also listening quietly, noticed his friend's mumbling and couldn't help but speak.

"Narukami, what did you find?"

Lan Ke couldn't say "This time it's a choice of four, it's not standard", so he simply opened his "third eye" and looked at the scene carefully. The "third eye" did not disappoint him. Lan Ke soon noticed a glaring "mark" in the room.

He walked straight towards the place and immediately found a box.

Box?

Seeing Lan Ke standing in front of a shelf, a police officer in charge of the scene also walked over.

"Young man, what have you discovered?"

again?

Seeing Lan Ke's puzzled expression, the older police officer smiled slightly.

"I wasn't there during the Zeyue Building incident, but I later heard from Inspector Dongfang and another guy about your performance. I heard that you were the one who found the 'secret room' back then?"

As it turned out, although Lan Ke did not have as many acquaintances in the police station as Kudo Shinichi, his involvement in the previous "Zeyue Case" was so huge that it actually increased his "reputation".

But he didn't say much, just asked politely.

"Mr. Officer, could you open that box and take a look?"

"Of course, no problem~ But we've checked every place in this room, including this box. There's a strange mask inside, but there's no 'bloodstains', so it shouldn't be the 'murder weapon'..."

The officer explained as he opened the box, revealing a strange mask made of satin.

The mask, which looks like it is made of bone, is covered with traces of time. It looks ancient yet reveals a hint of weirdness.

"The person who arranged this place has a really strange hobby..."

Because he had followed his father to various parts of the world to "collect materials", including but not limited to various strange tribes, he had even seen products made of human bones, so he had no interest in this corroded-looking mask.

Especially after he looked around at other equally strange collections, he became even less concerned.

But when he saw Lan Ke seemed to be still observing the mask carefully, he fell into deep thought unconsciously.

He has known Lan Ke for more than a month, and he thinks he knows Lan Ke quite well.

Whether it is the other person's low-key personality or keen observation.

Perhaps because of his kendo training, his intuition was terrifying. His reasoning skills might be far inferior to his, but he could often rely on his intuition and observation to detect clues that he had overlooked.

Thinking of this, he couldn't help but ask.

"Officer, has this room always been decorated like this?"

Although Kudo Shinichi's question seemed a bit strange, he nodded.

"This room is usually used to entertain guests, so there are many gifts given to the Yashiro Shipyard by foreigners. Some of the items look quite unique, but they are all local specialties..."