The whole world has my vest

"Mr. Ranpo, let's go back to the Armed Detective Agency and discuss this with President Fukuzawa, shall we?"

Doppo Kunikida sees the seriousness of the problem, and it is clear that people will continue to die until one of John's bet with Ranpo Edogawa wins.

Even if those who died were some heinous people who should have been judged but were not punished, but for a serious person like Kunikida Doppo, even the truly guilty people should not die in this way. He should accept the trial of the court, reveal the past criminal evidence one by one to the world, and finally accept the punishment according to the crime.

All in all, John's practice of lynching will greatly affect the atmosphere of the society. If it is serious, it may make the country turbulent.

Kunikida Doppo can even guess the impact if John really wins the bet again and again-after all, he only needs to get them all before the police go to arrest the criminals. Just kill it.

"We can't go back to the detective agency."

Unexpectedly, Edogawa Ranpo said so.

"Obviously, John has been prepared for a long time. If we return to Yokohama, we will give him more time to plan. Only by chasing after him, forcing him to a corner, and making him lose his spare time, is it possible Show your feet."

The green-eyed detective clenched his fists, and he said proudly: "Besides, he has issued a challenge to me! If I can't win against him, the reputation of the Armed Detective Agency will be questioned by those who seek help—I am absolutely Don't let this happen!"

Although Edogawa Ranpo doesn't pay much attention to work, and even often eats snacks with relish in meetings, but as a veteran of the detective agency, he will not lose to anyone in his sense of belonging.

Edogawa Ranpo stood in the morgue of the Osaka Metropolitan Police Department. When he saw the corpses, he quickly deduced how these people died.

The torturer was beaten to death by a paranoid man, the perverted stalker who raped and killed eight girls was tortured to death by a torturer...

If you look at these corpses together, their ways of death are actually intertwined!

Edogawa Ranpo's pupils constricted, and he opened the autopsy report that he had thrown aside again, his eyes constantly moving left and right following the words.

He read it quickly, and hundreds of pages of detailed reports were flipped through in his hands.

If these murderers were killed by the previous person one by one in order, how did the last person die?

——If it was John who did it, then we can find evidence that he killed the deceased. This gamble that does not know how long it will last is Edogawa Ranpo's victory!

However, the famous detective did not find what he was looking for.

Edogawa Ranbu frowned slightly, looked through it again in confusion, but still couldn't find what he wanted to find.

"It's not right, the last person died in an accident of iron nails falling from the sky, but it can't really be an accident."

Knowing that John had made a move, but unable to find any evidence, this kind of reluctance made Edogawa flustered and flattened his mouth.

It is clearly stated in the report that the last prisoner who died died outside, and the iron nail that smashed through his head belonged to a certain billboard. That billboard had been hanging in that area for a long time, and there had been no accidents before. How could Songluo suddenly appear so appropriately?

There was no problem with that screw at first, but it has been gradually deformed by the wind, rain, sun and snow, and it fell off from its original place. On the day it fell off, the murderer happened to be there pass below.

No one thought that such a small nail would penetrate the dead man's head so precisely and straightly, causing him to die on the spot.

The Appraisal Department also conducted an inspection afterwards, but found no traces of tampering, and it could be seen that the screw had fallen off naturally. If you want a more specific appraisal report, you have to wait.

Kunikida Doppo saw Edogawa Ranpo lost in thought alone, he quietly walked out of the slightly chilly morgue, came to the corridor, and contacted Fukuzawa Yukichi.

"Yes, President, Ranpo-san said that he will not return to Yokohama and will continue to follow... Yes, okay, I understand, I will protect him well!"

Hanging up the phone, Kunikida Doppo's frown still did not let go, a feeling of uneasiness surrounded his heart, making him walk back and forth involuntarily.

——Speaking of which, this is probably the first time Kunikida Doppo saw Edogawa Ranpo in such a hard fight. All the members of the detective agency are very convinced of Edogawa Ranpo's reasoning ability. It can be said that in Thanks to his help, the early detective agency gained a firm foothold in Yokohama.

Therefore, this kind of thought inevitably lingered in Kunikida Doppo's mind: "Who is that John...?"

The same idea lingers in the minds of those businessmen who are concerned about John's rapid development of the company's power, but are eager to get a share of it.

Logically speaking, John, who is obviously of mixed race and even more Western European in appearance, should be rejected by those social circles that pay attention to qualifications and age, but it was Takako Ninagawa who brought him into the circle.

A big man who once stomped his feet would make the political and financial circles tremble, coupled with John's own excellence, even if they actually wanted to squeeze John out, they had to hold their noses and bear it.

Someone once sent detectives to investigate John's details, but the only thing that can be found out is how lucky John was selected by Takashi Ninagawa, how he got his favor, and even vaguely inherited the trend of Takayoshi Ninagawa's political and financial circles.

If it was just that Takashi Ninagawa lost his mind after losing his granddaughter, so he wanted to give these invisible properties to a mixed-race child who had no blood relationship and had not known him for a long time, they would only secretly laugh at Takayoshi Ninagawa's loneliness and misery. Alzheimer's disease.

However, those invisible properties played unexpected effects in the hands of John, and even, with the help of John, several political circles who obviously made mistakes or offended others, and their political career came to the end, because With John's help, the business took on a new lease of life.

In this way, there will be many more people who are eager to curry favor with John, and the intelligent program that John created is indeed profitable.

Edogawa Ranpo was still checking the corpses himself in Osaka—since the autopsy report seemed to be all right, he did the inspection himself.

"The way of the last person's death... It's like the hand of the god of death. It just happened that he should die here by such a coincidence."

Edogawa Ranpo took off the gloves that were stained with blood and grease. Even he would feel tired after checking so many corpses at once.

Outside the window, there is already a bright moon hanging high, stars dotted with stars, and neon lights illuminate the night sky of this ancient city.

"Kunikida, let's go to Nagoya right away!" Edogawa Ranpo glanced at the window, and found that it was already night, and he couldn't care about rest. To the chill that just came out of the morgue.

"Nagoya? Wait a minute, hasn't John's itinerary been announced yet?"

Kunikida's face was also a bit ugly, after all, he has been helping Edogawa Ranpo since just now, and seeing those cut human tissues is always a little disgusting.

"Since John wants to talk about business and make this bet with me, he will not choose a city that is too far away. The first place he went to was Tokyo, and then Osaka, so Nagoya, the three major business districts in Japan, is naturally also there. on his itinerary."

Edogawa Ranpo spit out his reasoning in a series without looking back.

John's next target city was indeed Nagoya. After meeting Edogawa Ranpo and Kunikida, he boarded a plane to Nagoya and arrived in Nagoya in less than an hour.

Standing in front of the floor-to-ceiling windows of the hotel where he was staying, Joshua, who was wearing John's vest, closed his eyes to calm down his feverish brain.

Probably only he himself knew that when he saw that Edogawa Ranpo was so powerful, he deduced the murderer and the location of those unsolved cases in such a short period of time, and really almost interrupted his own layout, his first time The first reaction was not anger or worry, but a sense of joy and high spirits gushing from the bottom of my heart.

As if drinking the fine wine brewed from the sweetest grapes and the cleanest spring water, the drunken floating feeling still surrounds Joshua.

This kind of competition with Edogawa Ranpo in wisdom and time made Joshua also excited. Unfortunately, although 'John Libet' has no supernatural powers, for ordinary humans, his brain and behavior Dealing with things is probably a more dangerous existence than supernatural powers.

The human beings he targets rarely have any good results. For example, the protagonist Doctor Tianma who saved John's life in the original work was slandered as a murderer because of John. He fled for ten years in order to arrest John.

Even his younger sister, whom he cared about, was finally forced to collapse several times by John's madness and darkness.

"No...you have to be patient..." Joshua leaned his forehead against the cold window, watching the translucent reflection fall on the night scene of the neon lights of the city.

John's face has affected the consciousness of Joshua's body. He actually admires the serious and lovely detective, but at the moment his mind is full of viscous malice, and these malice are constantly producing various Bad idea.

Such as taking action to make the armed detective agency a target of public criticism, destroying the place where the famous detective is at ease, leaving him desperate to seek his own protection, such as hanging Edogawa Ranpo all the time, letting him follow behind him, no time to go back To take care of other things——Anyway, his plan from the beginning was to let Edogawa Ranpo's eyes follow John's body closely. In this case, why not just extend this time a little longer?

Joshua's jaw was tense, and he slammed his hand against the supposedly bulletproof double-glazed window: "Don't forget your purpose!"

Joshua whispered to himself.

He pulled his consciousness out of John's own viscous malice, and his dark eyes gradually returned to a thorough silence.

He looked at his own reflection, because he was wearing John's vest at the moment, so he could see this young man with a beautiful appearance but a monster inside, staring at Joshua like a reflection.

Joshua laughed slowly. He put his hand on the mirror-like floor-to-ceiling window, and the reflection on the floor-to-ceiling window also made this movement: "I will use this ability to see through and manipulate people's hearts. Come and save."

The reflection on the floor-to-ceiling windows also laughed, but this scene of talking to himself and talking to the reflection inevitably reminded people of schizophrenia or some scary and treacherous images.

If Joshua's shadow falling on the window made a slightly different action from the main body at this time, such as showing a meaningful smile, it would have the inside flavor of a horror ghost movie.

Joshua quickly cleaned up his fluctuating mood due to the influence of the card face. He thought that he should not make any more casual shots. Letting John's malice affect his own consciousness would not be worth the candle.

"This time, let the weirdo with twenty faces appear."

……

…………

John's behavior pattern changed.

This is what Edogawa Ranpo noticed when he arrived in Nagoya.

He no longer used the strange supernatural method to make serial killers kill each other, but used another magical method to make the cases happen in different places in Nagoya at the same time-this happened from the time when they were greeted. It was deduced from the Nagoya police officer.

"It seems that the difficulty of the game has increased this time."

Edogawa thought about it quickly, and said to the police officer who came to greet them: "Take us to the nearest crime scene."

This police officer obviously had doubts about the Armed Detective Agency. When he was driving to the crime scene, he looked through the rearview mirror and observed Edogawa Ranpo and Kunikida Doppo sitting in the back, with a look of distrust.

But yes, although Edogawa Ranpo's reasoning ability is very famous around Yokohama, it has not radiated to Nagoya for the time being. People probably can't intervene in the case.

When the police car arrived at the scene of the crime, there were already a lot of people around, but they were all blocked by keepout's yellow and white prohibition tape.

Before the police officer could stop the car, Edogawa Ranbu opened the door, ran over quickly, passed through the prohibition zone, and knelt down on the corpse lying on the ground.

"The deceased died from shock due to excessive blood loss. The fatal injury was a knife wound below the left rib. The assailant was right-handed. But at the beginning, the deceased suffered a violent blow to the head and lost his ability to move."

Edogawa Ranpo frowned.

"There is more than one murderer, at least two or more."

"To create a dent of this magnitude, the murder weapon must not be easily concealed." Edogawa glanced at the river not far away, then raised his head and said to the police officer who didn't know what happened.

"Go search the river, the murderer threw the murder weapon into the river. Ah, yes, those two are the murderers."

Then he pointed out two men in the crowd, a middle-aged man with disheveled hair, and a tall young man.

The two men who were pointed out were obviously taken aback, and the younger one even shrank back.

Kunikida reacted faster than the policemen present, jumped directly into the crowd, and subdued the tall young man who showed his intention to escape with an over-the-shoulder throw.

Is this an accidental case?

Ranpo Edogawa found that the case this time was not challenging, and the murderer was quickly found by him within 1 minute as usual.

A sense of burnout swept over his heart, and Edogawa pursed his lips in disorder, feeling at a loss for the disappointment and boredom he had experienced at that moment.

What, it's not a case made by John, which is disappointing.

However, the next few crime locations I went to showed the same flavor as when the last murderer died in Osaka.

Edogawa Ranbo swept away the fatigue just now, and began to search carefully at the crime scene.

These accidents can be described as a variety of strange things. Some accidentally stepped on a banana peel that someone dropped and hit the back of the head. Some made a phone call in a telephone booth and ended up knocking over two bottles that were mixed together to produce toxicity. Those who died of poisoning shock due to aromatics, and even more bizarre, even had their clothes caught in the door of the car, and they were taken and fell into the track and crushed to death.

If these are really accidents, it would be too concentrated.

"Is there any information on the deceased?" Edogawa Ranpo's complicated thoughts flashed through his brain in just a moment, and then he turned his head and asked the police officers present.

Ranpo Edogawa just arrived at the scene of the crime, and deduced the murderer within 1 minute. The performance of the murderer convinced the police officers present. Nagoya, like the Tokyo and Osaka Metropolitan Police Departments, fell in love with the super reasoning of famous detectives. Down.

So they hesitated for a while, and still called up the information of all the deceased for Edogawa Ranpo to check.

——Edogawa Ranpo's reasoning is not wrong. These accidents are not accidents, but man-made products that are infinitely close to accidents.

However, all those involved cannot sue them, because for them, they just did a simple thing.

Like a migrant worker who intentionally used fragrance near a telephone booth, or a housewife who accidentally dropped another bottle of fragrance from a broken bag when she returned from shopping, and passed by this road on a bicycle, Rolling over the fallen fragrance caused the liquid in it to mix with another fragrance mixed with water, producing a deadly poisonous gas.

Just at this time, the loan shark who was going to collect debts saw this phone booth, and he walked in, but was locked in this dilapidated phone booth, inhaled enough poisonous gas and died.

Can this be called premeditated killing?Who said you can't use fragrances when cleaning the shop?Who said you can't lose your shopping?And who said that you can't ride a bicycle and crush it?

nothing.

In the cases that happened tonight, except for the murder case that Edogawa Ranpo solved in 1 minute at the beginning, all the other cases can only be closed as "accidents".

As expected by Edogawa Ranpo, these dead were all sinful people who caused the destruction of many homes and the separation of wives and children—without exception.

Even in the first case that was solved by Edogawa Ranpo in a second, the deceased was a murderer who used mental illness as a cover to get away with it several times.

The identities of the two men who killed the murderer were soon investigated.

"The middle-aged man, his wife and daughter were killed by the deceased, but the young man didn't know the middle-aged man at all."

This odd situation has some police officers in the Nagoya Metropolitan Police Department in doubt.

If the two conspired to take revenge on the murderer, it would not be difficult to understand, and this case could also be classified as revenge. However, the young man was a passerby who had nothing to do with the case, and there was no trace of any past between the two. Contact leads.

"They're believers in Twenty Faces."

Police officer Nakamura from the first section of the Nagoya Metropolitan Police Department walked in quickly from the door. He saw Ranpo Edogawa and Doppo Kunikida, two obviously outsiders, staying in the office, and he didn't show any surprise. I was also greeted, and knew the identity of their members of the armed detective agency.

This was a premeditated case. Originally, the middle-aged man planned to kill the murderer who was released on bail again to take revenge. However, his physical strength was inferior to the murderer. Although he stabbed the murderer, he was almost killed.

And the young man came to his aid when he was almost killed - because he recognized the stabbed man as a serial killer who was recently released on bail, so he hit the man with the bat in his hand. The back of the head of a famous murderer.

If it wasn't for Ranpo Edogawa, they would probably have escaped suspicion at this moment—the young man would have given false testimony for the middle-aged man, and any information would show that they were strangers who had nothing to do with each other, and natural testimony was also very effective.

"The weirdo with twenty faces is an urban legend that has spread around Tokyo. He is the patron saint of the night, the judge of justice, and an anonymous convict device that serves all those who yearn for power and justice."

Police Officer Nakamura said coldly, "There are already fans of the weird twenty-faced man claiming these cases, and now there are rumors about this guy everywhere on the Internet, and the face of our police has been trampled underfoot!"

"Hmph, what kind of weirdo with twenty faces is nothing more than a group of self-righteous executioners who disrupt the social order!"

A police officer whispered in displeasure.

"But how did they do it? How did they bring criminals who couldn't be punished by the law to trial at the same time?"

This question was also raised with doubts.

The Metropolitan Police Department fell into silence, Kunikida Doppo didn't understand, he looked at Edogawa Ranpo, hoping that the famous detective could solve the mystery.

"...it's the Internet."

This time, Edogawa Ranpo still lived up to the expectations of the detective staff.

He said lightly: "The Twenty Faces of the Weird screens out those who harbor justice and hatred through the Internet, and then asks them to do a small thing. In the end, the dead will die unexpectedly—even if they are found, there is no way to find them." Use, the existing law will not try this kind of behavior."

Edogawa Ranpo's speech reminded the police that they are now working overtime to search for traces of the twenty-faced figure on the Internet.

Kunikida Doppo has never been exposed to the evil side of human beings so frequently, even for him who has always been unswervingly moving towards his ideals, he still finds it quite hard.

"—It's really ironic that these murderers are free on parole because of the law, and they are at ease outside, but the people who killed them can't be judged because of the law."

Kunikida Doppo and Edogawa Ranpo left the police station together, he let out a long breath and said wearily.