Chapter 364: Don't say I didn't give you a chance

"Mr. Mouri!"

A young monk noticed Mouri Kogoro and hurried over to shake his hand and introduce himself.

"Thank you for coming from afar. I am Ryuen, who contacted you, and this is the abbot of this temple, Enkai."

"These three here are the patrons of our temple."

The monk Ryuen continued to introduce the other guests.

"Mr. Sakura Shozo is an antique art dealer who runs an antique shop on Teramachi Street. Next to him is the young master of the Mizuo school of Noh, Mr. Mizuo Harutaro, and this last one is Mr. Saijo Taiga, who runs a second-hand bookstore."

The introduced antique dealer Sakura Shozo was stout and wore glasses; the fat on his face revealed the slickness of a businessman, and he immediately flattered Mouri Kogoro, while the two next to him were neither fawning nor cold.

The young master of the Mizuo school was a young man with medium-short hair, wearing a kimono, who nodded slightly at Mouri Kogoro, possessing a certain young master temperament.

And the second-hand bookstore owner named Saijo Taiga looked like a bookworm, with a pair of round glasses on his long, thin face, looking the most amiable.

"Hehe," the old monk laughed, "these three patrons are actually like us, all fellow enthusiasts of swordsmanship."

"You all practice swordsmanship?" Mouri Kogoro said in surprise, "No wonder the abbot's body is so sturdy."

Akaso Kaze stood behind, holding Toyama Kazuha, with no intention of introducing himself at all.

Mouri Kogoro, of course, wouldn't introduce him either; if they knew Akaso Kaze's identity, who would pay attention to him?

"Then, Mr. Mouri," Ryuen took the lead, "I will take you to see the situation now."

"That's fine."

"That..." Saijo Taiga looked at Akaso Kaze as they brushed past, opened his mouth, but couldn't ask the question.

"That young man looks a bit familiar," Sakura Shozo's face flashed with a trace of doubt, "have I seen him somewhere?"

"Maybe." Saijo Taiga frowned slightly.

After parting ways with Sakura Shozo and the others, Mouri Kogoro followed Ryuen into the main hall, "What? That main Buddha statue was stolen?!"

"Yes, it has been 8 years already."

Ryuen opened the shrine, revealing the only two remaining Buddha statues.

"The one on the left is the Sunlight Bodhisattva statue, and the one on the right is the Moonlight Bodhisattva statue. The Medicine Buddha that was originally placed in the middle was stolen."

"At the time, I advocated calling the police immediately, but I was stopped by the abbot. He said that if it was meant to be, perhaps one day we could be reunited with the Medicine Buddha."

"He really is open-minded," Mouri Kogoro couldn't help but retort, "but the public will be visiting the day after tomorrow, right? It's too tight to find a Buddha statue that has been missing for 8 years in these few days."

Ryuen led everyone to the side hall's meditation room and handed a letter without a stamp to Mouri Kogoro: "Actually, five days ago, I found a letter in the temple's mailbox."

"There was no stamp, and no sender was written. It's playing tricks."

Mouri Kogoro opened the envelope and took out two sheets of paper, which read: "As long as you solve the mystery of this painting, you will know the location of the Buddha statue."

The paper below had some strange things drawn on it, and it also included the original photo of the Medicine Buddha.

"What is this drawing?"

Ryuen poured tea and left. Mouri Kogoro frowned and put the drawing in front of Akaso Kaze.

Akaso Kaze had black lines on his forehead.

You are too lazy, you are the one who collected the commission fee.

He pushed the drawing to Conan.

Don't say I didn't give you a chance later.

Conan was indeed excited and looked at the drawing.

The overall picture looked like the steps of a pyramid.

The top five layers depicted red cicadas, green tengu, and red goldfish, while the fourth layer had yellow chickens and yellow loaches, with an ink dot next to them.

Below that, between the second and third layers, were violets, a green tengu, and a purple Mount Mount Fuji, with an acorn outside.

It was very likely that the one who stole the Buddha statue from Sanno-ji back then was that Genji Hotaru, but why did they send such a letter 8 years later?

Conan muttered to himself.

I wonder if it has anything to do with the recent murder cases.

"Kazuha, did you get that bead you asked Hattori for?" Akaso Kaze asked.

"I got it."

Toyama Kazuha took out a crystal bead.

It was crystal clear and quite pretty.

Akaso Kaze smiled slightly.

With this bead, he wouldn't even need to look for them; the criminals would deliver themselves.

He threaded it with a spider silk and hung the bead around his neck.

Night fell, Pontocho.

Like Kabukicho, Pontocho, located along the Kamo River, was full of teahouses and bars, and it was exceptionally lively at night.

Especially in this cherry blossom season, sitting in a teahouse and enjoying the cherry blossoms across the river had a unique flavor.

Below the teahouse was a small river, and across the embankment was the wide Kamo River. From a distance, one could see the night cherry blossoms blooming on the opposite bank, which looked quite dreamy under the city lights.

Pedestrians along the Kamo River were attracted by the beautiful scenery, and many couples leaned against the riverbank to enjoy the cherry blossoms, which was quite atmospheric.

Akaso Kaze pulled Toyama Kazuha to a deserted cherry tree.

The evening breeze blew, and cherry blossoms scattered with the wind, filling the ground with fragrance.

The clouds dispersed, the moon hung quietly in the sky, and the silver moonlight spilled down, making the night exceptionally peaceful.

The pink petals looked even more beautiful under the dim streetlights.

Occasionally, a few moths fluttered their wings, desperately throwing themselves into the dim light of the streetlamps.

Toyama Kazuha looked up at the cherry blossoms filling the sky, a sweet smile on her delicate and cute face.

Looking at her cute appearance, Akaso Kaze curled his lips into a smile.

He suddenly pulled Toyama Kazuha into his arms, lifted her chin, and planted a deep kiss on her colorful cherry lips.

At this moment, a cherry blossom petal happened to fall on Toyama Kazuha's lips.

Akaso Kaze bit the petal and continued to kiss.

The evening breeze grew stronger, and more cherry blossom petals fluttered with the wind, beautiful and fragrant.

Their kiss looked so beautiful in the rain of cherry blossoms.

Akaso Kaze let go of Toyama Kazuha and licked his lips.

A satisfied smile appeared on his heroic face.

Toyama Kazuha, however, was a bit flustered, widening her black agate eyes to look around.

Only when she found that there was no one around did she finally breathe a sigh of relief.

Kissing under the cherry tree by the street was romantic, but it would be too embarrassing if seen.

"Akaso-san, don't do this~"

"Don't do what?"

Looking at the smile on Akaso Kaze's face and his slightly raised eyebrows, Toyama Kazuha's heart began to race again.

She felt that one day she would die under Akaso-san's handsome and charming face.

"Help! Someone help!"

"What's wrong?"

A shout suddenly came from the teahouse next door.

Mouri Kogoro and Conan ran out from somewhere.

"What happened?" Mouri Kogoro asked.

"Mr., Mr. Sakura..." the teahouse landlady was so scared she only said half the sentence.

Since they had encountered it, Akaso Kaze couldn't just leave, so he pulled Toyama Kazuha over to see what was going on.

The antique art dealer Sakura Shozo was now lying coldly on the floor, his eyes wide open, his carotid artery cut, and blood flowed all over the floor.

"The technique is very clean," Mouri Kogoro and Conan squatted down next to the body and said, "This might be the work of the same person as the recent murder cases."

Akaso Kaze didn't speak, his gaze sweeping over Sakura Shozo's body before looking at the messy warehouse.

Things were turned upside down, looking like Sakura Shozo had been ambushed from behind while looking for something.

Moreover, the buttons of his suit were roughly torn open, and his wallet, full of cash, was just left on him.

Another one dead, Inspector Megure's pressure was even greater.

Although Akaso Kaze could have prevented this murder and caught the real culprit earlier, he didn't want to do it so quickly.

After all, the people who died deserved it.

Keeping them was also a scourge; it was better to let them kill each other, and he could also harvest their souls.

The recently deceased Sakura Shozo was undoubtedly one of the members of Genji Hotaru, and he should have been the one handling the stolen goods.

Including this guy, 6 people had already died. Presumably, the killer's head was already full of little people; thinking about it was really interesting.

He didn't bother with Mouri Kogoro and Conan's deduction of the case.

Akaso Kaze hugged Toyama Kazuha and walked towards the hotel.

Toyama Kazuha secretly looked at Akaso Kaze.

Neon lights flickered around, and the lines of Akaso Kaze's profile became exceptionally soft in the flickering neon, making one's heart flutter in the haze of the night...

"Hey, pay attention to your walking."

Akaso Kaze's mouth curled slightly.

Toyama Kazuha's palm was gently squeezed by his warm, large hand, and her small face turned red immediately.

Whoosh!

A sharp whistle came.

Akaso Kaze hugged Toyama Kazuha and turned gently.

An arrow was stuck in the tree.

I don't know when, but there were no pedestrians around them anymore.

This was a small forest by the river.

The river water reflected the waves under the moonlight.

A masked man waited leisurely a few meters away, holding two wooden swords in his hand, and threw one over after seeing Akaso Kaze.

Akaso Kaze didn't catch it, letting the wooden sword fall to the ground.

Although the masked man's expression couldn't be seen, his eyes were clearly full of doubt.

Akaso Kaze smiled.

"You want to spar with me? You have to be qualified first."

He reached out and pointed.

A stream of water flew up from the river, landed on the shore, and condensed into a human shape.

The water man picked up the wooden sword on the ground.

In the masked man's astonished expression, he launched a fierce attack.

2.8 A combination of intermediate water control magic and true illusion.

Easily created a master of swordsmanship.

The most terrifying thing is that it will never be injured...

Akaso Kaze watched the masked man who had fallen into a bitter battle and began to harvest souls from his head.

One, two, three, four, five, six.

It was really too simple.

Throwing the souls into the space, Akaso Kaze hugged Toyama Kazuha and left.

Only an angry masked man who dared not shout remained by the woods, helplessly enduring the water man's attack.

— Author's Notes —

Thanks to WJZ513 for the monthly ticket.