The Phantom Thief of Heart! But Conan.

Chapter 1316 Pick-up and Delivery Included, After-Sales Service in Place

Chapter 1316 Pick-up and Delivery Included, After-Sales Service in Place

However, what Pu and Jiang didn't know was that even without the Phantom Thieves' advance notice, someone was interrupting his spellcasting.

There's nothing we can do; the Phantom Thieves always provide comprehensive support and after-sales service. If you fall into their hands, it's just bad luck for Pu and Takumi.

With practiced ease, Ken Hagiwara cut open the insulation of the cable, deftly flipping open the connected components with two fingers. After confirming that everything was in order, he cut the thin wire.

Matsuda Jinpei stood to the side, and after he finished his work and got up, he went over to check the situation and finally nodded: "Alright, this is completely done. Apart from the bombs inside the venue, the ones around the outside are almost all dealt with. Let's check the rest after Fu and Takumi leave the venue."

Anyway, the perpetrator's attack is scheduled for tomorrow night's performance. Before that, even if you asked Pu and Jiang to blow it up, he wouldn't agree.

Although Pu and Jiang are still murderers who treat bombs as a means rather than a means of committing murder, their sense of ritual in this regard is stronger than that of many bombers, and their sense of self is excessively strong.

"The power is still considerable," Kenji Hagiwara commented succinctly. "He knows this venue well enough, and he used a large enough quantity."

Although it's possible that the bomb maker wasn't Pu He Jiang himself, and that he might not have hired a raw material supplier but rather a contractor handling both labor and materials, Pu He Jiang's choice still fits the characteristics of many novice bomb makers.

The incident at Domoto Academy was both part of the murder plan and an experiment for him to familiarize himself with his equipment and understand the amount of explosives to use.

If this guy hadn't been so obsessive and planned to blow up Domoto himself, after a few more crimes, even if he didn't make the bombs himself, he would have ended up making them himself.

Appreciating one's own work and finding release from it is also a typical characteristic of serial bombers.

"Fortunately, people can't lie to their own souls, otherwise just finding all the installation sites would keep us busy enough," Matsuda Jinpei said, equally candidly.

After a fierce battle inside the tomb, they deduced the approximate location where the Craftsman and the Master Craftsman had planted the explosives by analyzing the order and position of the elite monsters placed within the tomb.

This is thanks to Noah's increasingly outrageous computing power after Naomi's enhancement. Although the overall structure is different from the concert hall, Noah still calculated the spatial transformation relationship between the two and produced a very certain explosive installation map in one night.

At this point, the two of them naturally couldn't sit still.

It's not that I think the stoker and the craftsman will explode again after their hearts have been altered, but the main problem is that they know where the stoker is and they don't go to dismantle it. That's a bit disrespectful to the prisoners and their profession.

"Since joining the Phantom Thieves, I've defused far more bombs than when I was a police officer." Kenji Hagiwara's expression was relaxed, but what he said almost made Jinpei Matsuda lose his composure. "But now that we don't have to worry about safety issues without wearing bomb suits, it's a good thing, isn't it?"

With Matsuda Jinpei's attributes to rely on, and Tang Ze as a backup option, he is now very confident.

"You have the nerve to say that?" Matsuda Jinpei felt a little itchy to hit him. "Even for the sake of flexibility, not wearing a bomb suit isn't a choice worth encouraging!"

"If there really is that much," Kenji Hagiwara tossed the heavy plastic bomb raw materials in his hand, "honestly, it won't make a big difference whether you wear them or not."

The explosion that killed him was so powerful and destructive that even if he had worn the protective suit properly, he would still have perished. The bomb suit isn't invincible; it doesn't truly grant immunity to the damage caused by an explosion.

Those of them who work in bomb disposal are all too familiar with this situation. Rather than blaming or taking their anger out on him, Matsuda Jinpei was trying to find a specific reason to shift the weight and inevitability of this choice, which Hagiwara Kenji could understand.

However, on the other hand, perhaps due to this incident, he does now have a short-term super armor skill when using the mask—although the conditions for using it are a bit difficult.

"I really don't understand either." Finding it hard to refute, Matsuda Jinpei changed the subject. "Where did all these bombs come from in Nishitama City?"

As an expert in explosives, although he was not involved in the bombing case of the legendary Teiji Moriya, he had learned the details of the Teiji Moriya case in order to explain to him where the Phantom Thieves got so much stock.

Teiji Moriya's situation can be somewhat explained by his profession. People who frequently work on public building design deal with many large-scale urban construction projects, and demolition by explosives is often a more economical option. It's not particularly difficult to understand why Moriya knew the location of the explosives used in demolition.

But isn't Pu Hejiang a piano tuner? How could someone with that profession be familiar with bombs?

"Maybe this is just a local custom," Kenji Hagiwara joked, then became a little more serious. "As for the specific origin, it's probably related to that dark web-like website."

They might not know much about other aspects, but they knew Motohashi Yoji's situation by heart.

Before being caught, Yoji Motohashi was also one of the suppliers for this website, indicating that the organization was indeed using this method to spread many potentially harmful things.

This is an effective way to harm society, at least in Kenji Hagiwara's view, it's much more effective than hoping that AI will destroy humanity.

"We can't rule out that possibility." Matsuda Jinpei looked through the bomb's position diagrams he had taken before the bomb disposal, thought for a moment, and suggested, "Do you think we need to establish our own 'fingerprint database'?"

"That's a great idea!" Kenji Hagiwara patted him twice. "As expected, Jinpei is growing much faster than me. He's already come up with a systematic approach so quickly?"

"Nonsense." Matsuda Jinpei slapped his hand away impatiently. "No matter which algorithm you use, I have several years more experience than you, okay?"

Most bomb thieves make their own explosives. While it's possible to distribute these items through illegal channels, this also means that all explosives that come out through these channels will have distinctive characteristics and become traceable.

Different explosives makers, based on their personal preferences, living environment, work situation, economic conditions, and other characteristics, will have relatively fixed choices in the specific components and accessories they use. They will have their own inclinations and choices, just like fingerprints, which have characteristics that can be compared and verified.

If they could draw the structure and wiring of every bomb they encountered and build a database, it would become very feasible to pinpoint the specific perpetrators in these heinous crimes.

Putting aside their back-and-forth hilariously ridiculous jokes, it really is an effective method.

"Okay, you're right, you're right. But I'm not going to admit defeat. Being younger means stronger learning ability and greater potential for advancement, right?"

"Ha, you've got a lot to learn. There are even more missions in the Phantom Thieves than when you were in the Explosive Ordnance Disposal Unit."

"I've seen it for myself. Seriously, where did all these bombs come from?"

Just as the two were joking around, their phones rang simultaneously.

Having guessed what was going on, the two took out their phones and, sure enough, saw the message sent by Tang Ze.

[Joker: Pu and Jiang are in the office. Alert level is full. We can set off.]

[Musician: Shall we resolve this today?]

[Joker: What else? Are you planning to blow up the concert hall tomorrow while you're at the show to entertain Domoto Ichiki?]

[Musician: That's not what I meant either————]

[Joker: If we really blow it up and have to rebuild, the garden will have to handle it. Rebuilding a burned-out structure is a huge problem. Since we can't completely demolish it and rebuild, it's better not to blow it up at all.]

[Musician: So that's the line of thought? —]

The two coughed twice, looked up, saw each other also trying not to laugh, and finally couldn't hold back their laughter.

Although they always complain about the leader's unreliability and inexplicable erratic thinking, without Tang Ze, this Phantom Thieves group would feel too much like a typical gang.

"Let's go. It's about time we dealt with the interior of the venue."

"Hey, Jinpei, aren't you going to the palace?"

"What are you going to do? With Tang Ze leading the way, are you afraid they can't beat you? Or have you been turning into a rat three times already and still not had enough?"

"It's not just me who changes; it's quite interesting to watch others change too."

"Forget it, the two of us aren't as agile as Master Jing. If we turned into mice, we'd just be at his mercy—"

While the Phantom Thieves were getting into their busy work routine, Shinichi Kudo, following behind Reiko Akiba, was looking around suspiciously.

It wasn't that he had discovered any trace of a criminal; he was wondering why he hadn't.

Akiba Reiko said she wanted to relax, and she really did. They strolled along, and she led him to the back hill of the green park.

Shinichi Kudo guessed that if he weren't there, Reiko Akiba might have gone to the cemetery to pay her respects, but with him in the way, she naturally couldn't do such a private thing, so she skipped that step and really started strolling leisurely in the woods.

"You don't need to be nervous. Although this is a forest, it's still part of the city. I'm not going to any sparsely populated places." Akiba Reiko noticed that Kudo Shinichi, who was a few steps behind her, seemed quite nervous, and said, half to comfort her, "Going for a walk the day before the official performance is just my personal habit, and it doesn't mean anything else."

"Do you really like the forest environment?" Having checked and found no trace of the culprit, Shinichi Kudo had no choice but to give up for the time being and look away to find a topic of conversation.

It's better for Akiba Reiko to be willing to talk than for him to follow behind alone.

He had been suspicious the whole way, and now he had finally reached a less crowded place. He hadn't walked far, but he felt inexplicably tired.

Although his behavior was completely different, he inexplicably had the feeling that his mission today was similar to that of the Phantom Thief of Hearts in the past.

Is keeping an eye on someone and ensuring their safety really such a difficult and troublesome task? Suddenly I feel like I've been a bit too harsh on Joker before.

"It's not just forests. I love any natural landscape." Reiko Akiba didn't resist discussing such small things with him and answered naturally, "I've been to Austria for performances and training, and there are many beautiful landscapes there. I feel that music born in a natural setting is more in line with my interests and pursuits."

"Romantic school?" Shinichi Kudo used a relatively professional term this time.

"You're quite professional," Akiba Reiko said with a rare smile. "That's about right."

Romantic music began to explore the relationship between nature and humanity, using depictions of nature to contrast with human emotions. The content began to express the contrast between the spiritual world and reality, discussing themes such as life and death, loneliness and love, and the symbiosis between nature and humanity. It broke through the limitations of the Classical period and began to develop new styles.

This is quite in line with Akiba Reiko's style and feel.

"I wouldn't call it that, I just have a slightly better understanding," Shinichi Kudo said modestly. "But in that case, it's no wonder Mr. Haga introduced you to Yusuke Kitagawa. Romantic music really values ​​those things."

Romanticism is not limited to music; it is a style that has emerged in many fields of art. It emphasizes subjective emotions and also focuses on connections with other forms such as literature and painting. It is quite normal for such musicians to know artists in parallel fields.

"That might be true. Mr. Haga is a very understanding person," Akiba Reiko remarked, echoing his words.

"Oh really? When I last met him, he seemed quite aloof—" Sensing something was up, Shinichi Kudo chose to continue following this lead.

Is Haga Kyosuke really that understanding? Considering the fact that despite his destructive power, he wasn't convicted or even prosecuted, being understanding is more like it.

And honestly, it would be quite abnormal to say that someone who can get along with someone as eccentric as Yusuke Kitagawa is normal.

"It's not that he's friendly and easy to talk to. It's mainly that when you talk to him, you feel like he's understanding and accepting. He's not like a friend you can talk to about anything, but he makes you want to confide in him." Akiba Reiko gently shook her head. "Perhaps that's the infectious power of a musical genius."

The urge to confide in someone?

Recalling the dramatic turn of events at the Shitara family's birthday party, which nearly resulted in the family's demise, Shinichi Kudo blinked rapidly, feeling as if he had grasped a bit of the pattern.

Could it be that this is why a public figure like Kyosuke Haga would associate with the Phantom Thieves?

"Maybe. But the last time I met him, he was in a bad mood because of family issues, which might be why he didn't want to talk to anyone," Shinichi Kudo tentatively added.

Reiko Akiba's agreement was even more evident this time: "Yes, I think that's why he resonated with what I said. I've heard about his story; he not only lost a close relative, but the person who caused the tragedy was also a close relative. Such a wound is very difficult to heal."

"Is it the same for you?" Feeling it was time to find out about Hikaru Soma's situation, Shinichi Kudo changed the subject.

Reiko Akiba looked up, watching the sunlight filtering through the leaves and falling on her face, and closed her eyes briefly.

"Of course. Who isn't like that? We always have to get used to losing things."

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