Phantom Thief of Heart!but conan

Chapter 840 The Real Curse

Things took a turn for the worse very quickly. Even Kogoro Mori, who went over to check on Shitara Ayane's life or death, didn't have time to call the police before the situation had already developed into a confrontation between Kyosuke Haga and Choichiro Shitara.

Looking at the two people confronting each other at this moment, everyone realized belatedly that everything that happened tonight might have been done intentionally by Yuga Kyosuke.

"So, there was something fishy about his father's death?" Pushing the task of calling the police to his daughter, Maori Kogoro approached the two people in the confrontation and observed what would happen next. He made a very basic inference, "Haga Kyosuke came to the party for this purpose?"

"So, that's why uncle chose to play "Requiem"? " Renxi Shitara, whose makeup was smudged from crying, said in a distraught voice.

"Hmm..." Kogoro Mori glanced back at the body of Shitara Ayane, who was confirmed dead and slowly losing body temperature, and then looked at the pool of blood left by Shitara Gensaburo's head at the bottom of the stairs.

If he had not taken into account Renki Shitara's emotions, he would have come to a further conclusion with great certainty, that is, he chose this song as the performance piece not only to express provocation, but it might also be closely related to the truth behind these people's deaths.

However, there is video footage of the entire process of Shitara Gensaburo falling down. The most that Haneda Kyosuke could say was that he disguised himself to look more like his father, and there was suspicion that he was inducing the other party's actions. From beginning to end, he didn't even touch Shitara Gensaburo.

Shitara Ayane climbed up to the second floor and fell over the railing in full view of everyone. Yuga Kyosuke was standing on the stage and performing with great concentration throughout the whole process, and it was impossible for him to interfere with her death.

Hanega Kyosuke must be a returning avenger, an angry son who wants to seek justice for his father and mother, but whether he is a murderer or not is impossible to conclude at this time.

Over there, Kyosuke Haga was holding three guitars steadily in his hands, his hawk-like eyes were fixed on Shitara Choichiro's face, his emotions clearly revealed.

It was obvious that he hated the hunchbacked old man in front of him.

"Where did you get these replicas..." Looking at the three guitars, Shitara Choichirō shouted with a slightly distorted face, completely ignoring the reactions of the onlookers.

He was naturally familiar with Stradivari.

Even during the decades when it was sealed, he would go to the storage room from time to time to appreciate and play with it, touching its moist wooden surface inch by inch, and feeling the elegance and tranquility that passed through time.

So when he couldn't tell at a glance which of the three swords was the authentic one, his belated fear almost reached its peak.

It would be impossible to make a replica to this level without close contact with the guitar. Back then, he had contact with the guitar and had a familiar luthier. He used the excuse that he loved the guitar too much and wanted to make a replica to avoid damaging the original, so he asked the other party to make a replica while he borrowed the guitar.

However, the flaws left by the replica were still obvious, which is why Shitara Danjiro was able to see through it at a glance.

Now, Yuga Kyosuke has only been playing the guitar for less than a week. How did he make this guitar?

The storage room is connected to the master bedroom. Apart from him and his wife, no one else has the chance to go in...

"Where did I get it? I saw it in your deeply twisted souls." Even when the truth was revealed, Yuga Kyosuke did not show any hysteria, but just laughed coldly, "You killed my father and my mother, just to take this zither for yourself. However, after the zither really came into your hands, unfortunate things happened one after another. Obviously, the same is true for things that do not belong to you. But even after thirty years, you still refuse to repent. What do you regard human life as? And what do you regard your relatives as?"

After his most secret past was exposed in public by Hanega Kyosuke, Shitara Choichirō's face turned pale and blue, and he looked even more dejected than when the accident happened at the venue earlier.

At this moment, he gritted his teeth and forced his attention to the piano in Yuga Kyosuke's hand.

"You said if I find out which one is the real Stradivarius, you will give it back to me?"

He had been obsessed with it for so many years, and in his old age, he had apparently fallen into a deeper obsession, almost going crazy. It seemed as if there was nothing else left in his brain except this precious piano.

Yuga Kyosuke stared at his old face covered with age spots and wrinkles, and couldn't even make a mocking expression.

He was overthinking to have fantasies about them and want to hear an answer and apology from them.

"Yes, I mean what I say. If you can find it, I will return it to you and never mention who it belongs to again."

Shitara Choichirō felt as if he had been pardoned. He immediately took two steps forward, reached out and touched the violin in the case. Soon the expression on his face froze.

Unlike the highly similar imitations he had imagined, these three guitars were actually unique and different when you looked at them closer.

In Yuga Kyosuke's right hand was the guitar he had just played. Even without the bright spotlight on the stage, it seemed to still be glowing. The fine and dense reflections made the whole guitar glow and you could even see colorful spots of light coming from the paint surface.

The lids of the two violin cases he held in his left hand were both opened, and the bodies of the instruments were firmly fixed in the bases of the cases. The one on top was also very exquisite and smooth, with a mirror-like panel that could almost reflect a person's shadow, and the pegs were of an ancient color, full of quiet beauty.

The one below doesn't look much different in appearance, but the bridge and the tailpiece have a strange bright color. I reached out and touched the neck of the guitar. It was as delicate as a baby's skin, and there was a gentle warmth to the touch.

Almost at the moment he touched them, Shitara Toichiro, who had been dealing with Stradivari for half his life, dared to assert that they were all authentic.

In other words, even if there are some differences, they are most likely made by the same person as the original piano.

Kyosuke Haga might not be making a replica. He might have purchased two other unknown works of Antonio Stradivari from special channels. They are just very similar to the original ones, so there seems to be almost no difference.

This legendary artist and luthier made more than a thousand musical instruments in his lifetime, but today there are only five or six hundred works on the market that can be confirmed to be his own. If Yuga Kyosuke is willing to purchase them at any cost and with all his heart, he might really be able to find his unknown posthumous works.

With this guitar as a basis, after I came into contact with the one they had, I made additional carvings on the guitar to make it more similar, and a week was enough time.

No matter which one he chooses, he can't go wrong, they are all "Stradivarius".

After finding a reasonable explanation for the scene before him in his mind, Shitara Choichiro felt relieved.

He touched left and right, looking as if hesitant and unable to choose the authentic product, but in fact he had already entered the stage of picking and choosing like buying goods.

What he needed was a famous piano. It didn't matter whether it was the original one or not. Judging from the performance just now by Yuga Kyosuke, the sound quality of this seemingly-real piano might be even better.

Hanega Kyosuke is making trouble because of his father's affairs. His wish is to know the truth of that year and reveal it to everyone. If he makes the wrong choice, he will only become more proud, declare himself a failure, and then start telling stories about the past.

…But so what?
He is 72 years old, and all the people involved in the case have died. At his age, it is impossible for the procuratorate to be willing to prosecute him, and the case has long exceeded the statute of limitations.

Even if he admitted it, what would happen? What was important now was that as long as he made his choice, the other two "imitations" made to confuse him would be judged as "fakes" as he insisted, and then lose their original value. What he wanted was always the best one.

So what he has to do now is to choose the best and most suitable one from the three...

His emotional changes were so obvious, how could Yuga Kyosuke, who was standing in front of him and looking at him coldly, not feel it?
Yuga Kyosuke couldn't help but clench his hands on the koto for a moment, and once again felt unfamiliar and disappointed with this family that had been completely infected by desire.

Stradivari seems to be the starting point of the feud between brothers and the harm between relatives, and the fuse that triggered everything. However, if you look carefully at the faces of these people, even if there was no this violin, the tragedy of that year would have happened sooner or later.

People whose minds have been corrupted by the evil spirit of greed have transformed from human beings into materialistic monsters, which are chilling to the sight of.

"This one, this is the Stradivarius!" Under his gaze, Shitara Choichiro finally made a decision. He grabbed the violin he had just played in his right hand and stated his conclusion.

Almost as soon as he finished speaking, he couldn't wait to reach out his hand, and his dry fingers tightly gripped Yuga Kyosuke's arm, ready to hug him in his arms.

Contrary to his expectation, Yuga Kyosuke had no intention of stopping him, but instead lightly let go of his hand.

As a result, Shitara Choichirō, who had tried his best to snatch it, fell backwards to the ground and screamed in pain.

His body had already failed, and he was only alive today relying on drugs. If the place where he fell had not happened to be covered with a red carpet used to welcome guests, he might have died from this fall.

"Grandpa!" Shitara Renxi exclaimed and hurried forward to support Shitara Toichiro, who couldn't even lift his head.

Kogoro Mori, Karasawa and others followed closely behind her, and hurriedly helped Shitara Choichiro sit up, making sure that he had no broken bones or anything like that.

Ignoring Shitara Choichiro's painful wails, Yuga Kyosuke pointed at the piano in his arms and gave the final verdict: "This is not your piano. I know what you are thinking. You think this piano might be better than yours, so you can't wait to choose it, thinking that as long as there is a piano, it doesn't matter whether it's yours or not. But, unfortunately..."

Tang Ze, who was supporting him with both hands, was checking his arm for injuries, and his hand accidentally brushed Shitara Choichiro's wrist.

Inexplicably feeling empty in his arms for a moment, Shitara Shoichirō lowered his head and discovered with bloodshot eyes that the beautiful and smooth surface of the violin in his arms began to crack, the panel that emitted a charming luster lost its luster, and began to slowly crumble along the sound hole.

As soon as it fell into Shitara Choichirō's arms, it seemed to wither away, quickly damaging and dying, and soon became as old as he was.

"This is impossible, this is impossible...!" Shitara Choichiro screamed in disbelief and pain with a hoarse voice, "This is not true..."

His brain had stopped thinking, but everyone around him who saw this scene was shocked.

They watched with their own eyes as this intact violin gradually decayed. How did Yuga Kyosuke do it? Magic? Special materials? Visual distortion?

Conan reached out his hand in disbelief and touched the cracked side panel of the piano. Feeling the rough fracture of the wood, he was sure that this was indeed a damaged piano.

He suddenly raised his head and looked at Yuga Kyosuke who had a cold expression, then looked at Asai Masaji who was standing not far behind him and narrowed his eyes.

Counting from Yuga Kyosuke's father, the first letters of the names of the deceased in this family happen to be DEFGA...

He found it hard to believe that this was pure coincidence, but if he wanted to use this to conclude that Yuga Kyosuke was the murderer, he lacked evidence.

Just like this violin that suddenly broke, the only person with a motive was Hanega Kyosuke, and everyone's suspicion pointed to him, but there was just no evidence.

Yuga Kyosuke didn't even touch the two dead people tonight, and the piano was transferred in everyone's sight without any visual obstruction.

The only possible time to replace it might be when Shitara Choichiro fell down. Because he instinctively protected the zither in his arms and curled up into a ball, it did disappear from everyone's sight for a short time, but Shitara Choichiro himself had no reason to replace it...

While Conan was puzzled, Tang Ze, the instigator who was squatting next to him, withdrew his fingertips as if nothing had happened, pretending that he was just a kind-hearted passerby.

Why was this piano damaged in front of everyone?

Because this was something his teammates had just taken out from Shitara Choichirō's own palace.

Generally speaking, the secret treasure of the palace will have one form before leaving the palace, and another form after leaving the palace. In the palace, it will be closely related to the environment of the palace and the state of mind of the palace owner. If the image of the palace owner is a king, then the secret treasure is likely to be in the shape of a crown, but after returning to reality, it will only be consistent with the real source of desire in reality and change into its appearance.

So, when the violin from Shitara Choichirō's palace returned to reality, Shitara Choichirō, who was crying while holding the broken violin that Shitara Ayane had smashed, naturally felt in his subconscious that his treasure had been damaged.

The piano naturally shattered along with it.

The product of the cognitive world will be "collapsed into reality" the moment it enters reality, so it will only remain in this form.

As for how to change...

The leader of the Phantom Thieves, who had studied with Kidd for a while, rarely uses a commuter bag to cover up his belongings. His skills have become very sophisticated, and he can become a magician who can perform super close-up magic.

"My piano, my piano..." Shitara Toichiro touched it tremblingly, feeling the judgment as if from fate, and could not help but let out a howl of pain in collapse.

All the sounds around him could no longer enter his ears. Shitara Choichirō covered his chest and fell down.

His eyes became increasingly blurred and all the noises slowly formed the same sentence. The voices of everyone, young and old, men and women, seemed to be saying the same thing to him.

It was like the fateful death of all the members of their family, like the sudden fall of his wife and the piano in her arms. This was the real curse from it...

This voice is saying—

"If something that doesn't belong to you is taken away, it doesn't belong to you anymore."

Already overwhelmed and acting almost with the strength of his last breath, Shitara Choichirō closed his eyes and fell unwillingly and painfully into the inevitable death.

(End of this chapter)