Kyoto.

After arriving at Kyoto Station, the group led by Uncle Mori took a taxi directly to Sannoji Temple.

There was no one outside the temple, but the temple door was open, and when they walked in, they noticed a group of people gathering in the open space of the temple to chat.

Noticing their arrival, one of the young monks was the first to leave the crowd and greeted them.

"Mr. Maori!"

The man clasped Uncle Maori's hand tightly in both hands, and looked quite enthusiastic, "Thank you so much for coming all the way here." I'm the same person who called you before. ”

Behind him, four other people also walked over.

"Let me introduce..."

Then, Long Yuan helped introduce the people behind him.

He first introduced the elderly monk, who was about sixty or seventy years old, and was the abbot of Shanneng Temple, Yuanhai.

The abbot was in good spirits, with an indifferent smile on his face, which made Kaedehara feel that he had the monastic bearing he imagined.

The other three people wore regular clothes and were the benefactors of Sannoji Temple.

The fatter middle-aged man, Mr. Sakura Masazo, was in his mid-fifties and ran an antique shop on Teramachi Road.

The young man in his thirties next to him was Harutaro Mizuo, the young master of the Noh Mizuo wake.

Standing at the back with glasses and a bit of a bookish look is Mr. Taiga Saijo, who runs a second-hand bookstore.

"It's not so much the donor," added Abbot Enkai after a brief introduction, "that we're all kendo fans. ”

Kendo...

Speaking of kendo, Kaedehara thought of Hattori Heiji. Hattori Heiji is also very good at kendo, and is the head of the kendo club in his school.

The abbot of Enkai seems to be very strong, probably because he has been practicing kendo for many years.

"Then again," said Uncle Maori after a few pleasantries, "I heard that there seems to be a Buddha statue in your temple that is only consecrated once in 12 years..."

"Yes, that's the main Buddha of this temple..."

"It's going to be open to the public the day after tomorrow, right?" Xiaolan showed an expectant expression, "Actually, we are also here to meet the prosperity this time..."

"The benefactor has a heart," Abbot Yuanhai replied, "I think the pharmacist will be very happy if he comes." ”

However, although the host of Yuanhai looked as usual, Long Yuan's expression standing beside him was a little dark.

Soon, they learned the reason for Long Yuan's gloomy expression.

Long Yuan took them to the palace and told them the inside story.

"What do you say? That Lord Buddha was stolen? Uncle Maori was very surprised when he heard the news.

"yes, that was eight years ago."

Long Yuan opened the door of the cabinet where the Buddha statue was enshrined and showed them that there were two Buddha statues in the cabinet, but the middle was empty, "The one on the left is the Sunlight Bodhisattva statue, and the one on the right is the Moonlight Bodhisattva Statue, the Medicine Buddha who was originally placed in the middle was stolen..."

After giving everyone a look, he closed the door again.

"At the beginning, I advocated calling the police immediately, but I was stopped by the abbot, who said that if there is fate, maybe one day we can reunite with this Medicine Buddha Nyorai..."

"I really want to think about it," said Uncle Maori.

After seeing the Buddha statue, everyone followed Long Yuan to the room where the guests were entertained in the temple, where Long Yuan was going to talk to Uncle Maori about the commission.

"Eight years have passed quickly," Long Yuan said in a deep voice, sitting at the table, "A few days ago, I found this letter in the mailbox in the temple..."

He took a letter from his bosom, and Uncle Maori took it from his hand, first looking at the front and back of the letter.

"There was no stamp, and it was not written who the sender was..."

Then he took out the letter from the envelope, and wrote two columns of words vertically on it, "If you solve the mystery of this painting, you will know where the Buddha statue is..."

Underneath the letter is the picture mentioned in the letter.

Kaedehara and Conan came over to watch.

There are several steps in the shape of lines, several of which have strange patterns drawn with colored pens.

In order to facilitate viewing, Long Yuan also took several copies of the paintings that had been copied a long time ago and handed them over. Long Yuan had left beforehand, and they sat down together and discussed.

Soon, they discussed the results of the drawings.

On the top of the fifth staircase, cicadas, tengus, and goldfish are depicted, and on the fourth floor a chicken and a yellow loach are depicted.

Between the second and third steps, violets, tengus, and Mt. Fuji are depicted, and an acorn is drawn on the right side of the stairs.

However, although he understood what the painting was about, everyone had no idea what the painting was trying to convey for the time being, and Kaedehara was no exception.

He wasn't impressed.

"Dad," Xiaolan looked at Uncle Maori who was racking his brains with some concern, "Can you find it before the day after tomorrow?" ”

"You, you don't have to worry, a puzzle like this, with your dad out of the way, you must be able to solve it..."

"I'll leave the matter of finding the Buddha statue to the experts," Sonoko said, "I see, how about we go to visit Kyoto?" ”

"That's good, that's good, you're just getting in the way here."

Uncle Maori looked very disgusted, but Xiaolan had a plan, and said to the garden: "To tell you the truth, I talked to Kazuha on the phone before coming here, and she said that she could take us to Kyoto tomorrow." However, she persuaded the ministry that there was something wrong, and I was afraid that she couldn't come..."

"It doesn't matter if that guy doesn't come..."

"Conan, Sora, you're going to go with you, right?"

"Hmm..."

Kaedehara was ready to come down.

Shinichi Kudo wasn't familiar with Kyoto either, and he couldn't remember the scenery here, so he really wanted to visit it.

But...

"Ah, we're not going," Conan said, "we've made an appointment with the kids in the neighborhood to go fishing in the river, right, Kaedehara?" ”

“……”

Big-headed ghost on you.

……

They rested in the temple for one night, and the next day they parted ways for a while.

To be honest, Kaedehara was also a little interested in the case, so he didn't deny Conan's words, but followed Conan to investigate.

The painting attached to the letter is most likely also related to the recent serial killings, and since Genji Hotaru is involved, it is natural to think of Yoshitsune and Benkei.

They planned to travel around Kyoto in connection with Yoshitsune and Benkei.

The first stop is the Gojo Bridge.

It's just that countless people pass by the bridge every day, and if there is anything very special, it will be discovered a long time ago, and they look at it for a while and find nothing related to the painting.

And just as they were watching, a figure quietly approached.

The man was carrying a bamboo sword in his hand, and his steps were very light.

He went directly to Kaedehara and Conan, to be precise, because Kaedehara Station was closer to him, he was heading for Kaedehara.

As he approached, he whispered something.

"On the Gojo Bridge in Kyoto, Benkei, a stout man, raised his long knife and slashed at Ushiwakamaru..."

The figure raised its bamboo sword and swung it towards Kaedehara.

And then...

"It hurts, it hurts..."

"Hattori?" Conan, who was looking under the bridge on the guardrail, heard the movement, looked back, and was surprised to find Heiji Hattori.

And Hattori Heiji has changed to holding a sword with one hand, and his right hand is covering the front of the calf that was just kicked by Kaedehara with his heel.

He originally wanted to scare this Kudo, and specially spoke to give him time to react, but he didn't expect Kudo to seem to be completely unaware, so he had to slow down the speed of swinging his sword.

What I didn't expect was...

Then he was attacked.

"Hey, Kudo, you're really insidious..."Hattori complained with a grin, "You deliberately pretended not to find out, didn't you?" ”

"How so?" Kaede's original face didn't change, "I was just taken aback suddenly, and I didn't use any force." ”

“……”

"I said, Hattori, you don't want to pretend to be Benkei, do you?" Looking at the bamboo sword in Hattori's hand and his current appearance, Conan immediately thought of what Hattori was going to do, and couldn't help but complain.

"Huh? How is that possible-"

"Big brother! Give me back the bamboo sword! ”

Hattori Heiji was about to quibble, when the elementary school student and his companion who had just been "borrowed" by him ran over and asked him for a bamboo sword.

Returning the bamboo sword, watching the elementary school students run away, Hattori Heiji looked at Conan sadly, "I knew I would have taken you as a target..."

"Hey, hey—" Conan rolled his eyes.

"And then Conan jumped onto the bridge all at once?" Kaedehara said, "And said that you are not Benkei." ”

"Don't talk about that," Heiji Hattori decided to change the subject, because if he was Benkei, then Kudo would become Yoshitsune, and he would become his subordinate, "... I'm going to meet you in this place. ”

"Yes, Xiaolan also told us that Kazuye said that you don't have something to do..."Feng Yuan said.

"Huh? It turns out that Ye guy made an appointment with you? Hattori Heiji was a little surprised, "Really, that stupid woman, just say no... By the way, what are you doing here? ”

"I want to ask what you're doing here..."

There were many pedestrians on the bridge, and the three of them left here and walked towards the nearby riverbank, Hattori Heiji explained as he walked.

"Actually, the owner of the takoyaki restaurant in Osaka who was killed used to know me very well." Heiji Hattori said, "Although he is a member of the gang of thieves, I have been going to his shop since I was in the country, and I have been taken care of by him a lot, so I want to find the murderer and avenge him..."

That boss was one of the recently killed Genji Hotaru members.

"So you came to Kyoto to find clues to the murderer?" Conan said, "If that's the case, I've got something good..."

"I've got a good thing." Kaedehara said, handing a copy of the painting that had been placed on his body to Heiji Hattori.

It's the first time Heiji Hattori has seen this painting. He sat on the steps on the bank of the river and looked at it carefully, and found that he could not decipher the meaning of the painting for a while.

"I see," Hattori pondered, "if you solve the puzzle of this painting, you will not only find the Buddha statue, but you may also get a clue to the murderer." ”

"And if it's Genji Hotaru who stole the Buddha statue, as long as you look for it in a place related to Yoshitsura and Benkei, you might be able to find a clue to solve the mystery... It's a pity that we are not familiar with Kyoto..."

"In that case, let's wrap it around me, I'm pretty familiar with Kyoto. I happened to be riding a motorcycle—"

He stopped halfway through his speech and glanced at Kaedehara and Conan, "I said, Kudo, since you can change from one person to two people, can't you think of a way to temporarily close your lower body?" ”

……

On the premise of not violating the traffic law, Hattori Heiji can only carry one Kudo. And even if you put aside the traffic laws, carrying two people means that one of them has to sit in Hattori's arms.

Kaedehara chose to refuse.

Simply handed over the task of finding relevant clues to these two people, and Feng Yuan planned to take advantage of the fact that it didn't take long to come out and go to meet Xiaolan and them.

Of course, Kaedehara didn't plan to just ignore the case. Although a copy of the painting was left for Conan, he kept a photo.

As he walked along the road, he took out his phone and called the doctor's home.

"Hello, this is Dr. Asasa's house."

"Ashbaranda?"

"Kudo... You seem surprised. Gray Yuan, who judged the identity of the other party from the tone, said.

"yes, because you said you were going to be in the lab for the past two days..."

"It went a little bit better than expected," said Grayplain, "and then what?" You're looking for a doctor, right? ”

"Well," Kaedehara said as he walked, "there's something I'd like to ask the Doctor to help me look it up on the computer..."

"Me too."

"That's great." Kaedehara said, "That's right, there's a painting that may be related to Yoshitsune and Benkei, and I'd like to ask you to help collect photos on the Internet, and the sights in Kyoto that are related to these two people..."

"Oh," Gray Yuan thought for a moment, "do you want to compare?" ”

"Almost."

"Then I can help make a comparison program and use the computer to help you find places that may be related..."

"Really?"

"Ah, do you think I'm kidding?"

"No, it's just... Unexpected surprises. You're amazing, Grayplain! Thanks! ”

"Uh-huh~ If you really want to thank you, tomorrow..."

"Tomorrow?"

"Nothing." Gray Yuan Wai quickly changed his words.

The doctor is going to take the elementary school students to Kyoto tomorrow, and so is she. Thinking of giving Kudo an "accident" tomorrow, she decided to hide it for now.

And here, after briefly talking about the case, Kaedehara went on to tell Ashbara Wai about what he had seen and heard in the Sanneng Temple, and waited until the doctor slipped out to steal food, but was caught by Ashbara Wai, who happened to be listening quietly on the phone, and ended the call.

He sent the picture of the painting over, and he almost arrived at the place where Xiaolan and Yuanzi planned to meet with Ye when he heard yesterday.

Because he and Conan came out earlier, they didn't arrive long.

Although the three high school girls get together to avoid gossip and the topic of girls, Xiaolan and Sonoko are obviously used to chatting unscrupulously when Conan is on their side, so even though it was changed to Kaedehara this time, it didn't change much.

While enjoying the scenery of Kyoto, Kaedehara also listened to a lot of gossip that was not nutritious.

Soon, he, Xiaolan, and Yuanzi noticed that He Ye was a little absent-minded. Under Xiaolan's inquiry, He Ye told the reason.

She's thinking about Heiji Hattori's first love.

"Interview coverage of the magazine?"

"Yes."

Sitting in a restaurant that He Ye was familiar with, He Ye took out a magazine from his bag and opened it for everyone to read.

"This is a very best-selling intelligence magazine in Kansai. The reporter asked Pingji about his first love, and he said that it was a girl he met in the third grade of elementary school who was slightly older than him. He also took out a token that he said was related to her. ”

He Ye turned the page and pointed to the photo of Hattori Heiji on it, in which Hattori was pinching a crystal bead-like thing with his fingers, "He also specially asked the reporter to take this photo!" ”

"What is this?" Xiaolan said curiously.

"An ordinary crystal bead," He Ye replied, "probably given to him by that girl." ”

"So, you and that girl..."

"How could I know her! Heiji seems to have only seen her once... After that, he would look for her every time he came to Kyoto..."

"Ahh That's why he asked the reporter to take a picture of the crystal beads," the garden looked suddenly enlightened, "Pingji thought, maybe that girl will come to him after seeing the report..."

"Yes! You see, he's nasty, isn't he? Kazuha said unhappily.

"Uh-huh!"

"The magazine also published a photo of him at that time..."Kazuha turned another page of the magazine, and this page was a photo of Hattori Heiji when he was a child.

Kaedehara took a closer look.

Hattori, this guy has always been so dark since he was a child...

"It's so cute!"

"That's it! Pingji was really good at that time - Xiaolan, that's not the point now..."

"But you don't have to worry so much... Even if Hattori does have his first love, it's all in the past," Xiaolan said, "I think you two are feeling good now..."

"But, Kazuha," Sonoko said with a wicked smile, "First love is the most special thing for boys..."

"Garden!"

"And, watch out for this little ghost, huh? Maybe it's a spy sent by Hattori..."

Kaedehara, who had been suppressing his sense of existence, silently took a sip of juice. In fact, although he didn't have much impression of the case, Kaede Hara was quite impressed by Hattori Heiji's first love.

It's just that he hasn't decided whether to say it or not, and how to say it.

After eating, ending the topic of Hattori Heiji's first love, Kaedehara followed Xiaolan and them to visit some famous attractions in Kyoto.

When she returned to the temple in the evening, when Ran learned from the abbot that Uncle Mori had gone out to fool around and was about to go to him, Kaedehara saw Heiji Hattori and Conan again, who happened to be riding back.

(End of chapter)