Isn't it very scientific to use the Death Note to kill people?

Thankfully, he was alright in the end...

If someone like Hayashi Yoshiki were killed by a criminal, he probably felt that his life would be completely changed.

Conan finally understands why Ai Haibara cares so much about Yoshiki Hayashi.

Or rather, it would be strange if anyone who knows Yoshiki Hayashi's character didn't care about him.

Thinking about this, Conan couldn't help but look at Ran beside him.

With just one glance, he couldn't help but exclaim:

"Sister Xiaolan?"

The beautiful young woman placed her hands on her thighs and gripped the hem of her skirt tightly.

Conan saw her reddened eyes clearly.

After Kogoro Mouri's emotions subsided, Yoshiki Hayashi smiled wryly and ruffled his disheveled hair, saying, "So this is the one thing we absolutely mustn't tell Aunt Eri..."

"It's enough that you know it yourself."

Kogoro Mouri hummed and sat back down.

He is indeed a very reliable elder when necessary.

Kogoro Mouri took out a cigarette from his pocket to light it, but before he could even get his lighter out, he paused and put the cigarette back into the pack.

At that moment, Lin Jiashu noticed Xiaolan's eyes.

"I'm sorry, Xiaolan."

"...No, I'm fine, Yoshiki-nii."

She said this, but she had to raise her hand to wipe away the tears that had slid down her cheek.

She was clearly saddened, but forced a smile: "I'm so glad Yoshiki-nii is alright. I just feel... Yoshiki-nii is such a good person, yet he has to face all this, and I... I haven't done anything for you, but you—"

"Hmph, look what you've done, you've made Xiaolan cry."

Seeing that Yoshiki Hayashi looked rather restless, Kogoro Mouri snorted.

"So it's all Mr. Amuro's fault..."

"It seems the BOSS still hasn't fully realized his mistake."

"……I see."

Meeting his cold gaze, Lin Jiashu finally chose to back down, raising his hands with difficulty and saying, "In short, I'm very sorry, everyone."

His pained expression finally made Xiaolan, whose eyes were red, unable to help but laugh.

I really need to do something for Yoshiki-san...

The sadness lingering in her chest made Xiaolan unable to help but shift her attention to this point again.

"So that bomb-wielding criminal was caught? There were wanted posters for him all over the place just a few days ago." Conan asked the question that had been bothering him.

"Oh, he died in an accident when the police found him."

! !

Conan's expression changed slightly when he heard the word "accident".

Amuro Tooru's gaze also deepened considerably.

Only Kogoro Mouri clapped his hands with glee: "Good riddance! This is what they call divine intervention!"

"...Yes, after that guy escaped, he even sent a fax to the police station threatening to commit another crime. Fortunately, he was eventually discovered by the police and died during the chase."

Lin Jiashu stopped there and didn't continue the topic.

It's a good thing that the bomber died in an accident—even Toshiro Odagiri thought so, but he was somewhat discouraged after learning that it was Yoshiki Hayashi who posted the other party's information on the internet.

When faced with Yoshiki Hayashi's revelation, he remained silent for a long time. In the end, he simply patted Yoshiki Hayashi on the shoulder, telling him not to take it to heart, and solemnly declared that he would keep the secret.

In his view, if the police hadn't failed in their duty and allowed the criminals to escape, Lin Jiashu wouldn't have needed to exploit the abilities of other criminals.

"Speaking of which, Ashu, your new book is really impressive. Almost every bookstore I passed by had a poster of your new book on it."

"Yes, Editor Asamiya said that the results this time far exceeded expectations, and the distribution is a bit too slow to keep up."

When this topic came up, Lin Jiashu seemed to feel a lot of pressure because the book signing was on the weekend—he was even worried that he wouldn't be able to write in the Death Note after the signing.

Xiaolan clapped her hands with a bright smile and said, "I made a promise with Yuanzi that I'll go to the book signing to cheer on Yoshiki-nii."

"Me too, Ayumi and the others also made plans to go." Conan replied cheerfully.

"But the queue might be long and tiring. As for autographs, I can just sign them for you here."

"That's different."

Ran and Conan both refused.

Why are they all like Cohen?

Lin Jiashu didn't understand the difference, but it was always a good thing to have support.

In fact, according to Lin Jiashu's initial plan, the entry point for using Noah's Ark should be based on his identity as a mystery novelist.

268

Chapter 268: Cointreau is sick, Cohen is sick, Gin is sick (two-in-one)

48 units sold on the first day!

The New King of Mystery Novels!

"The Famous Detective and the Famous Mystery Novelist: 1+1>2"

A fusion of magic and crime, an unprecedented artistic approach!

Highly recommended by the super popular idol Yoko Okino!

The biggest autograph session in history

……

After Lin Jiashu barely managed to complete the book signing event despite his hands aching for several days, Futaba Publishing House didn't hold him back and poured money into promotion and marketing.

Newspapers, radio, television advertising, offline promotions...

In any corner that has anything to do with mystery or detective fiction, you can see the traces of Futaba Publishing's vigorous promotion.

This release is "The Kindaichi Case Files: The Magic Train Murder Case" - in the original Kindaichi series, this story is definitely the most significant one!

Even setting aside the exceptionally brilliant crime methods in this story, the first appearance of Takato Yoichi, a genius crime strategist who calls himself the "Hell Puppet Master" and an endless parallel nemesis to the protagonist Kindaichi, is truly stunning when he sheds his timid facade and reveals his arrogant core after the truth is revealed.

Kaori Shinmei: "It was a wonderful surprise! This is a perfect portrayal of artistic crime, and it's also full of the exhilarating feeling of a battle between genius and evil. Thank you, Ms. Hayashi, for bringing us such a wonderful story!"

Yusaku Kudo: "An impossible crime that happened on a train, a body that magically disappeared and then suddenly reappeared in the distance—it all seemed like the hand of God was threading a needle. The truth is astonishing!"

"..."

"..."

Along with the book's release, numerous reviews from mystery novelists and critics were published in the newspapers, and even some magicians joined in the fun.

In a bar

In the dimly lit bar, Cohen sat in the far corner, his eyes glued to the words in the book, completely absorbed in a terrifying excitement: "Art...it's so art!!"

Chianti, who had long since distanced herself from him, felt a chill run down her spine as she listened to his unconscious murmurs, and rubbed the goosebumps that had risen on her arms in disgust.

"abnormal!"

Even Vodka looked at Cohen speechlessly.

—Is mental illness contagious?

He then looked at his older brother, Gin.

"Brother, shouldn't you bring a lamp? It's a bit hard on your eyes like this."

"Shut up."

Gin paid no attention to the dimly lit bar, quickly reading the book in his hand.

He wasn't interested in mystery novels, but this was, after all, Cointreau's work—

The story begins when Kindaichi's friend, Inspector Kenmochi, receives a crime warning letter. The letter states that death and terror will occur on a train three days from now, and it is signed "Hell Puppet Master".

So, in order to prevent a potential murder, Kindaichi and his companions boarded the train that day.

On the train that day, the internationally renowned magician team "Fantasy Magicians" was performing. They would continue their tour until they reached their final destination for a grand finale performance—an annual tradition for this magician team.

As the magicians took to the stage one after another, the "Hell Puppet Master" also made his move.

He used lies and pranks to deceive passengers into believing that a bomb would explode in thirty minutes, forcing the train to stop for inspection. What they found after thirty minutes was a very small rose bomb, a prank.

The passengers boarded the train again, and Kindaichi and his friends discovered the corpse of the Magician's leader in the luxury carriage—a magnificent corpse surrounded by a large number of balloons and thorny roses, displaying a poetic and eerie beauty. When Kindaichi and the others tried to go forward to examine it, smoke suddenly rose from the middle of the corpse.

Fearing that a real bomb was about to explode, Kindaichi and the others quickly exited the carriage and closed the door. However, what followed was the sound of numerous balloons bursting inside the carriage.

When they checked again a few seconds later, the bodies in the carriage had vanished without a trace, leaving only broken balloons and a large number of flowers.

The main characters wondered if this was a magic trick prank by the magician captain, but after arriving at the hotel at the final stop, they unexpectedly discovered the captain's corpse in a room, with his arms and legs twisted and hanging in mid-air like a marionette.

"..."

Gin wasn't interested in magic, and compared to the story in Wax Man City, he did find it a bit difficult to deduce the answer.

Even after watching until the very end, he had to admit that it was indeed a clever technique, and quite magical indeed.

The commander's corpse that appeared in the carriage was actually just his head; his hands and even his body under his clothes were disguised by balloons. As the main characters retreated in fear of the smoke in the carriage, the thorns of roses and rose bombs detonated the balloons in the carriage, and the head inside was cleverly removed from the carriage by magic.

The prisoner, disguised as a meek and submissive magician manager, packed the body entirely into a package he had prepared. When the train stopped, he swapped the body with another package that the prisoner had sent before departure, thus sending the body to the hotel along with the train.

While this may not seem like a particularly sophisticated method, the killer's clever use of the rose bomb at the beginning successfully deceived the protagonist group, meticulously connecting the initially impossible crime and elevating it from an ordinary grand magic trick to a super-grand magic trick with greatly enhanced scale in terms of time and space. In addition, using the broken-string puppet as a premonition to kill also subtly concealed the purpose of dismemberment, making it a very good auxiliary trick.

"Hmph, famous detective..."

Under Vodka's gaze, Gin gave a sneer for no apparent reason.

He spends all his time thinking about how to kill people, and now he even uses artistic techniques in his books... That's Cointreau for you!

However, the character that Gin found most interesting in the book was "Hell Puppet Master" Takato Yoichi.

In the book, Kindaichi asks the other party why he sent out threatening letters in advance and carried out such a risky plan on a moving train when he could have easily killed those victims without alerting anyone.

"Because that's boring."

"Perform a wonderfully enigmatic and bizarre art crime, as if it were a completed magic trick, and instantly captivate the entire audience—yes, as a magician."

After shedding his facade of weakness and vulnerability, Takato Yoichi's cheerful and arrogant personality is particularly striking.

He derives pleasure from deceiving others and equates murderous revenge with artistic creation, making him an undeniably pleasurable criminal.

There's no mistake!

This is exactly what Cointreau truly is!

He deceives others with his innocent and gentle demeanor, while secretly engaging in so-called accidental murder-style artistic creations and finding pleasure in it—did he actually write about himself in a different guise in his own book?

The story ends with Gao Yuanyao being handcuffed and sent to prison.

But Gin is certain that this character's story will not end here.

"interesting……"

Turn to the last few pages, and you'll find another very interesting "murder method".

The reason why Takato Yoichi targeted several members of "Illusion Magician" was to avenge his mother, Chikamiya Reiko. Chikamiya Reiko was the original founder of "Illusion Magician." She created many magic tricks throughout her life and recorded them in her notebook. The members of the team coveted her notebook and pressured her, ultimately causing her death.

But in fact, Reiko Chikamiya had long anticipated that the members of the team had ulterior motives, so she left a trap in the final escape magic trick.

The performer in that magic trick needed to be bound hand and foot and crawl into a container, which would then be set on fire. The trick was supposed to involve the magician untying himself inside the container and then lightly striking phosphorus with his hand, which had a very low ignition point, to ignite it. However, the stage spotlights caused the phosphorus to ignite prematurely, making it impossible for the performer to escape.

In other words, the victim carried out his revenge many years later.

After a long silence, Gin put the book back on the bar.

At this moment, Chianti finally couldn't take it anymore and let out a sharp scream:

"You bastard, have you had enough?! This is disgusting!!"

"Art...this is art!"

Cohen, equally unable to contain himself, slammed his fist on the table and loudly praised it.