Phantom Thief of Heart!but conan

Chapter 807: The Value of Thoughtfulness 5
"It's the Big Dipper and the Morning Star. Do you like this, Mizutani-kun?"

Mizutani Kosuke, who had been standing in front of the counter staring at the pendant for a long time without saying a word, was awakened by the voice. He looked up blankly and saw the comforting smile on Tang Ze's face. Only then did he come to his senses that he had been staring at the pendant for too long.

Perhaps it was because Chinese Valentine's Day was approaching and time was constantly reminding him of what had happened in the past, and the emptiness after some loss was aching again.

"I always feel like I've been a little too sentimental these days..." Mizutani Kosuke said self-deprecatingly and picked up the metal key chain.

Before he noticed this forum section because of the news push he received one day, Kosuke Mizutani, who lacked interpersonal communication in real life, had always lacked a channel to talk.

He was penniless, had no stable job, and had a very narrow social circle.

The only people who can sympathize with him are probably Nanako's family, but in their eyes, he is not recognized, and they even think that he is one of the culprits that led to this result...

This emotion has been suppressed in his heart for so long that when he rarely has the chance to talk about it with others, he often feels dazed as if the emotion has been released.

"This can't be called sentimentality, Mizutani-kun. Being traumatized by the loss of a close person only shows that you are a normal person. You always say that you tend to dwell on the past, but who can really completely abandon the past?" Tang Ze advised in a gentle tone, "You were criticized too much in the past."

"But you all are very strong. Compared to you, it seems that my emotions are hard to control..." Mizutani Kosuke handed the key chain in his hand to the cashier to pay, watched it being put into the shopping bag, and said in a low voice with embarrassment.

After joining the mutual aid society, Mizutani Kosuke realized that there were so many people in the world who were in a worse situation than himself.

Some of them lost their fathers when they were young, like Tang Ze; some lost their only child in middle age; some had their original life plans interrupted by natural disasters and man-made tragedies; some will spend the rest of their lives immersed in the pain of loss and regret.

Mentioning his own experiences in front of these people often made Mizutani Kosuke feel ashamed, and he wondered if he was too weak to get over it.

"How could that be? Mizutani-kun, there is no hierarchy in suffering." Tang Ze patted his shoulder, "Suffering should not be compared. It's not easy for you to get to where you are today after going through all this."

Mizutani Kousuke looked back at Tang Ze who was speaking in the tolerant tone of an elder, and couldn't help laughing at his particularly childish face.

"I'm such a wimp to let a minor enlighten me."

Tang Ze smiled and walked out of the observatory shop with him. Seeing that Mizutani Kousuke seemed to have calmed down a lot, he asked, "How do you feel? Are you feeling better?"

After putting the key chain into his bag, Mizutani Kosuke breathed a sigh of relief as if he had accomplished a mission.

As we walked out of the planetarium, he became more talkative.

"Being able to see the stars makes me feel much better. Nanako and I both like stargazing. I think it's because we can feel a sense of stability from the stars, as if the moments we are together can continue like this with the starlight..."

"You've made your mind clear, haven't you? Why did you say in the discussion thread that your girlfriend took care of your financial situation and chose a hobby that doesn't cost much to participate in?"

"Uh, haha, maybe that's one of the reasons too..."

"It looks like you really need someone to chat with. Do you want to go for a drink?"

"Ah? But, Tang Zejun, you are not old enough to drink yet..."

"Yeah, but I can watch you drink. Let's go, I know a cheap izakaya..."

----

"On Valentine's Day three years ago, a fire broke out in a hotel called Vega in Kyoto?" Conan raised his voice after hearing Hattori Heiji's answer.

"Yes, this incident was reported in the news at the time. Didn't I go to Kyoto to investigate the fire at the Karasawa residence? I found this when I was screening similar news. Two residents died in the fire." Hattori Heiji recalled the relevant content he had read before and slowly frowned, "Do you think this is related to the case you are investigating?"

"It's very likely. How many details do you remember? Would you mind going to the local area to help me confirm it carefully?" Conan clenched the notebook in his hand and confirmed quickly.

"I saw it when I went to the library and searched for news with relevant keywords. It was about a resident on the fifth floor who was smoking in a non-smoking area and did not put out the cigarette butt, which caused the carpet to ignite. The resident who started the fire also died in the fire. In addition, another person on the sixth floor died of carbon monoxide poisoning due to the thick smoke." Hattori Heiji said as he swiftly began to organize the schoolbag he had just put down.

Skipping classes to conduct detective investigations was something that both he and the teacher were probably used to.

"Didn't the fire department rescue people in time?" Conan looked at his watch, made a gesture to Haibara Ai, and also picked up his schoolbag and tiptoed out of the classroom.

"No, the hotel's fire inspection was overseen. The escape ladder on the sixth floor was stuck due to the fire and could not be used. The only safe staircase was on fire so badly that the guests on the sixth floor were forced to use the elevator to escape."

"That hotel, doesn't it, only have one elevator?"

"That's probably the only one that can be used in a fire."

Conan let out a breath, and Hattori Heiji on the other end of the phone was silent for a moment.

Their smart minds naturally have strong associative abilities, and at this time they have already thought of the possibilities of that mahjong tile.

"So the black line drawn by the murderer on the mahjong tile means the elevator. Hattori..."

"I understand. I will go to the site to confirm the maximum number of passengers in the hotel's elevator."

"sorry to bother you."

Even though he asked like this, Conan had actually already anticipated the most likely scenario.

There is a high probability that this number will be 7.

Just like the seven tubes on mahjong tiles.

I'm afraid I'll have to go to the library and look up Kyoto newspapers from three years ago to see if I can find any personal information about the victims who died in the fire.

"It's no trouble, just a piece of cake." Hattori Heiji laughed on the other end of the phone, "Hurry up, we can't let Adachi Toru succeed this time, Kudo."

"Ah, of course."

----

"How's it going, did Mizutani Kousuke give up?"

As soon as Tang Ze returned to the base, he heard Matsuda Jinpei asking this question, and he almost spit out the coffee that was about to reach his mouth. He said this as if he were some criminal.

Although strictly speaking they are indeed criminals, referring to a room full of black accounts with unknown sources of funds engaged in illegal industries, but the tone of this as if they were members of the Yakuza is too...

"How can I say goodbye? I just went to chat with him, not to torture him." Tang Ze shook his head, not knowing whether to laugh or cry. "Whether he wants to tell others is his own business."

During the whole process of contacting Hirosuke Mizutani, apart from guiding him to the forum at the beginning, Noah did some tricks, including contacting him on the Internet, communicating for two or three days, and using the hard-to-get planetarium tickets to call Hirosuke Mizutani out for a meeting. All of these were accomplished by Tang Ze with just his mouth, oh no, with just a keyboard.

He didn't induce others to say anything inappropriate, so don't accuse him!

Matsuda Jinpei raised his eyes from the edge of his sunglasses, looked at him disbelievingly, and changed the words to: "So did he confess?"

"… He confessed." Tang Ze shrugged and gave up correcting his wording. "He has been in a very bad mental state over the past few years. Motokami Kazuki has been putting pressure on him by saying that he can't avenge Nanako and that he is also the murderer who killed Nanako. He was almost at his limit."

Really, how could I not ask the question? Do you understand the value of thoughtfulness 5?

Mizutani Kosuke has a gentle personality, and one could even say he is a bit submissive.

His girlfriend chose to run away from home because of her relationship with him. He always felt that he was in the wrong about this matter. However, within two years of living with his girlfriend, she died in an accident while traveling with him.

The double guilt and pressure almost overwhelmed him. When the right opportunity came and after the offline meeting, Tang Ze always used an attitude of tolerance and understanding to guide him to express his true feelings, after two glasses of wine, Mizutani Kosuke said everything.

In addition to the fact that people tend to speak the truth after drinking, the relatively private conversation space such as the booth in the izakaya is also a very important part, so Tang Ze tried to find a way to meet him offline.

This is almost equivalent to reporting and exposing his girlfriend's brother in disguise. Considering that the other party's motive for murder was to avenge his girlfriend, these words are even more difficult to say.

It is easy to leave traces when talking online, but if we meet and talk offline, there will be much less such concerns.

After the pressure was gone, Mizutani Kousuke's sense of burden suddenly became lighter. After all, he was afraid that the worst case scenario would happen, and the listener would want to report it to the police after listening to it. It was also difficult to take the drunken nonsense seriously.

"It's not as simple as you say..." Matsuda Jinpei glanced at Tang Ze's emotional expression, shook his head, and didn't continue speaking.

He is good at grasping people's weaknesses, and even better at fabricating the right environment to paralyze and relax his targets. It seems like Tang Ze knows how to do these things by nature.

Again, Tang Ze himself has firm beliefs and will not use his personal abilities to commit crimes. Otherwise, with just this ability to induce confessions, this guy would definitely cause greater damage than Kiharakawa.

"So, you plan to replace the memory card later?" Matsuda Jinpei stopped dwelling on this question and asked instead.

Morobushi Kagemitsu is delivering supplies to Shindo Sumire who is hiding in a basement in Kanagawa under the identity of Kitagawa Yusuke, so he is the only one who can ask this question.

Although Morobushi Kagemitsu himself did not seem to be in a hurry and seemed to have plenty of opportunities to resolve the issue after the dust settled, Matsuda Jinpei could not wait any longer.

Having already known the cause of his friend's death, and knowing that it was related to some deeply hidden cancer in the police force, Jinpei Matsuda really didn't want to wait even a moment longer.

"We have already taken Sumire Shindou away and disguised the death scene. The murderer will definitely wait until the night of Tanabata for his next move. We just need to exchange the things from Mizutani Kousuke before then. He can't possibly carry those things with him." Tang Ze waved his hand, "I understand how you feel, but don't worry, there's still time."

Anyway, Zhu Fu Jingguang has been dead for three years and has been back to life for a few months, so we can still wait a few more days.

"Noah, did you capture the content you were asked to monitor?" Tang Ze patted the doll on the bag.

After contacting Kousuke Mizutani, it was easy to find Motokami Kazuki's contact information through the contact information recorded in his mobile phone.

"We monitored it. Just as you guessed, he called Kiharakawa regularly, and sometimes even came directly to Kiharakawa's hospital for treatment." Noah answered calmly in his childish voice, "I selected some recordings and processed Motokami Kazuki's voice according to your request."

"Okay, just send it to Vermouth." Tang Ze spread his hands, "She knows what to do."

----

"Do you feel calm now, Mr. Motogami?"

"I have nothing to be upset about, doctor. But how could it be possible? That weakling, how could he dare to do that..."

Ireland, unable to bear it any longer, turned off the recording and slammed the table in anger.

He was wondering why Kumail was so calm and collected, and the information and documents he brought were so complete, as if he was really a famous detective. After all this time, he found out that the murderer who harmed Okakura Masaaki who had the information had nothing to do with any political struggle or conspiracy, but was the result of a researcher in the organization who had experimented with mind control without authorization and instigated others!

Vermouth said that the researcher now lives in Beika Town and has had contact with Kumail.

Thinking about what he had witnessed in the past, how Kumail instigated the murderer, even assisted the murderer in killing people and destroying evidence, and setting up the scene, Ireland suddenly felt that he had understood.

Even if Kumail was not responsible for this accident, he must have known the cause and effect in detail.

No wonder he looked too lazy to deal with him since the beginning of the mission!
"What do you mean this is the sequelae of a psychotherapy? This is bullshit psychotherapy..." Ireland was so angry that he pressed the delete key with extra force, "Wait until I bring the things back..."

His goal now is to find the family of this victim whose thinking is so strange in time, and he has no time to get involved with Vermouth for the time being.

When he finishes the task, he will definitely teach this psychologist who has caused him trouble a lesson...!
On the other side, Vermouth, who received the reply, opened the message and, as expected, saw Ireland's cold answer.

She curled up the corners of her mouth and slowly exhaled the cigarette in her mouth.

Through the curling smoke, she looked at the message in her mailbox that Kumail had sent her and asked her to pass on, and squinted her eyes slightly.

It is understandable that Kumail is targeting Ireland, but what is the purpose of this encirclement and constant angering of Ireland?

Never mind. It was a foregone conclusion that Ireland would not survive to complete the mission. No matter what this kid was going to do, everything would be buried in darkness again with the death and silence of those who knew about it.

She picked up her phone and continued to edit the message she was about to send back.

"Be careful with your steps, don't get caught by those wolfhounds, Kumail. I have high hopes for you, too."

(End of this chapter)