The Daily Life of a Salted Fish Assassin in Anime Crossovers

"If I'm not mistaken, they couldn't find the crystal bead, so they couldn't sell the Buddha statue for a good price and therefore couldn't find a good buyer. In the end, they had no choice but to hide the Buddha statue."

"Then last week, I was interviewed by that magazine and they took a picture of the crystal bead and put it in the magazine. As it happened, they saw it, so they thought they could find a way to take the crystal bead from me. That way, they could put it back on the Buddha statue and sell it intact."

Hattori Heiji made this judgment: "Then, because of some accident within that gang in recent years, perhaps their leader passed away and did not tell them the location of the Buddha statue and the treasures they had stolen over the years, so they still don't know where the Buddha statue is hidden and can only rely on that coded map to make inferences."

"However, they have been unable to solve the mystery on that cipher map, so they still don't know the location of the Buddha statue and can only rely on other detectives to investigate."

"At the same time, in order to avoid me possibly discovering the truth about the crystal bead during the investigation, they even deliberately avoided me, the detective who is closer to them, and found you, the famous detective in Tokyo, to help them."

"However, they didn't expect that after you refused their request, you would actually come to Kyoto for tourism and run into this incident. The person who was murdered in Osaka was the owner of a barbecue restaurant that I used to frequent and knew. I came to Kyoto to investigate his case."

Hattori Heiji said this, while shaking his head slightly: "But if you think about it this way, the owner of that antique shop shouldn't be a member of the thief gang, otherwise why would he tell us about this? He could have kept it a secret. If it weren't for him, we might not have been able to find out about Sannoji even after investigating for several days."

However, Jiang Hang refuted Hattori Heiji's new speculation: "It's impossible to be sure right now. After all, there have been internal conflicts within Genji Hotaru's gang of thieves. I think the two of them may have joined forces to eliminate the others first. But it's clear that they don't completely trust each other. Maybe the antique shop owner had only heard of your name before and hadn't read the magazine. He only found out about it tonight after taking us to that bookstore."

"At the bookstore, when Saijo Taiga told you about your situation and you took out this crystal bead, look at Sakura Masazo's expression. He was initially surprised, and then he kept glancing at Saijo Taiga. If he was simply unaware of the situation, there was no need for him to look at Saijo Taiga with such a questioning gaze."

"Besides, when I was at Sanonji Temple, I asked around very clearly. After Ryuen received that letter, the first person to suggest to him that we find a detective to help solve the mystery and mention my name was Saijo Taiga from the used bookstore. It was only after he made that suggestion that the other people who knew about this matter agreed."

"Based on the current situation, it is highly likely that Saijo Taiga is a member of Genji Hotaru, and he is very likely to be an important figure in that group. As for the antique shop owner, Sakura Seizo, he is also quite suspicious, but he seems to be the kind of person who is responsible for disposing of the stolen goods after Genji Hotaru completes the theft, which is why the two of them joined forces."

"As for the other person who knows about this, but we haven't met him yet, the theater's young master, Harutaro Mizuo, is also a suspect. But we can't be sure until we meet him, so let's keep him on our watchlist for now." Conan analyzed from the side, looking at Heiji Hattori.

After waiting eight years for his "first love," Heiji Hattori probably thinks about what he could do if he met his "first love" every time he comes to Kyoto. But suddenly, the crystal bead he picked up back then, which was left behind by his "first love," has been transformed into the precious bead on the head of another Buddha statue.

It seems that Heiji Hattori is still somewhat heartbroken because his "first love" dream, which he had waited eight years for, has been completely shattered.

"I never imagined that my first love would encounter something like this. Even this clue is gone, and it seems that it is impossible to find him again."

Conan didn't let Heiji Hattori continue sighing. He reminded him, "Instead of worrying about your 'first love,' I think you'd better worry about your own affairs right now."

He continued, "Regardless of whether Saijo Taiga and Sakura Seizo are members of Genji Hotaru, the fact that Sannoji suddenly received that letter is definitely because Genji Hotaru's members saw your interview in a magazine and knew that this crucial white tamarisk was in your hands. Without a doubt, they are now eyeing this 'white tamarisk' in your hands and want to find an opportunity to take it away from you."

Conan frowned slightly: "According to their original plan, they should have found the Buddha statue from its hiding place first, but now that you've appeared, if that Saijo Taiga is really a member of the Genji Hotaru, they might target you first to avoid any unforeseen complications."

"The internal conflict within Genji Hotaru has already resulted in the deaths of five of their own. To achieve their goals, this group certainly wouldn't mind losing a few more lives. They might even be discussing how to deal with you right now."

“Even just now in that used bookstore, if there hadn’t been four of us there, and if it hadn’t been so late, and if there hadn’t been a lot of passersby outside the shop, they might have attacked us if they hadn’t been able to resist when you took out this crystal bead.”

Thinking of this, Conan couldn't help but glance at Jiang Hang beside him, and looked somewhat regretful.

It was only because the other party restrained his urge to attack that he succeeded. Otherwise, even if he were a master of swordsmanship and archery, he would probably be no match for Jiang Hang, a humanoid Gundam who could slice bullets with his hidden blade.

Although Conan has never personally witnessed Jiang Hang's hidden sword slicing bullets like Wataru Takagi has, among the people he knows, Jiang Hang is the pinnacle of combat ability. While Ran is not bad in terms of combat ability, she is clearly no match for Jiang Hang in terms of combat experience.

Not to mention that Jiang Hang has always been hiding two high-tech hidden swords in his wrist.

If Jiang Hang were to turn into a so-called psychopathic killer, it would probably take an entire army, regardless of casualties, to bring him under control.

In short, if Saijo Taiga and his group had made their move at the used bookstore, they could have resolved the incident immediately. After that, all they would have needed to do was decipher the coded diagram and retrieve the Buddha statue that had been stolen eight years ago.

Meanwhile, Heiji Hattori also considered the possibility that Hotaru Genji's men might try to attack him.

He touched his nose, looking very confident: "Want to attack me? Then let them come. I've been wanting to test my skills against them in kendo anyway. I've never been afraid of anyone in that area."

Hattori Heiji is a master of kendo, and the murderer is also described by the police as a master of kendo. Naturally, he would want to completely defeat his opponent in his area of ​​expertise and then make his arrest.

"So, you're prepared to act as bait to lure them in?" Conan asked.

Hattori Heiji nodded and picked up his crystal bead: "After all, we are only making inferences based on the existing clues and their actions. There is no real evidence pointing to the other side. Genji Hotaru has committed dozens of crimes in the past ten years but has never been caught by the police. They will definitely be very vigilant in this regard. It will not be easy to make them reveal their flaws using normal methods."

"But now, I have what they want most in my hands. As long as they want to take it from me, they will inevitably come to me. At that time, they will naturally show their true colors. So now it is us who should be patient."

Conan then retorted, "The other party is not only proficient in swordsmanship. Have you forgotten that among those he killed, there was one who was killed by a single arrow to the heart? If he really wanted to kill you, he could have just hidden in the shadows and shot you with an arrow. I think you'd better be careful and avoid going to sparsely populated places these next few days, lest he give you an opportunity."

Heiji Hattori shook his head: "At least we're still helping them solve the puzzle on the picture. They won't make a move until we solve the puzzle or they realize something's wrong."

Hattori Heiji looked at Jiang Hang, seemingly wanting to hear his opinion: "Jiang Hang, what do you think we should do now?"

Jiang Hang, who had been waiting on the sidelines for Hattori Heiji and Conan, the two famous detectives, to come to a conclusion, twitched at the corner of his mouth.

"Now, I think you guys should go back to your rooms and get some sleep. It's already so late. Let's talk about tomorrow's problems after we wake up tomorrow. If those guys really do something dangerous, we can just leave it to the police to handle."

Upon receiving Jiang Hang's reply, Hattori Heiji pursed his lips, seemingly somewhat dissatisfied: "How could I possibly encounter any danger? You can rest assured. After I get up tomorrow, I'll investigate a few more places and try to solve the riddle on that map by tomorrow."

With that, Hattori Heiji said goodbye to Jiang Hang and went back to his room.

Hearing Jiang Hang's words, Conan's eyebrows twitched, looking somewhat helpless.

His ideas were different from Hattori Heiji's.

This is exactly Jiang Hang's style: he finds out something, then simply hands the information over to the police, letting them handle the follow-up, and then he can easily walk away.

Although it might seem unbecoming of a detective, Jiang Hang simply didn't care about such things.

However, Conan still managed to glean the underlying meaning from Jiang Hang's words.

If the Genji Fireflies do anything dangerous, the case will be handed over to the police; otherwise, they will obviously handle it themselves.

Conan thought for a moment and realized that the "danger" Jiang Hang mentioned probably didn't refer to the kind of danger where Hattori Heiji might be attacked from the shadows, but rather the kind of danger where a building would be blown up, which could be considered a terrorist attack.

As things stand, it seems unlikely that the member of that Genji Hotaru group would do something like that.

So, does Jiang Hang support the three of them continuing the investigation in this case?

Since Jiang Hang was so confident, Conan didn't argue anymore. After all, he wanted to see how far Jiang Hang could go if he got serious.

Jiang Hang never expected that Conan would interpret a casual remark he made as something else entirely.

However, just as Conan thought, if the people on Genji Hotaru's side only use bows and arrows and swordsmanship, then it doesn't seem like there's any real danger.

After all, as the assassin bloodline continuously improves Jiang Hang's physical abilities, although his body is not yet at the level where he can jump off buildings without injury, he no longer needs to worry too much about dealing with various firearms, thanks to his daily practice of dodging bullets in the training space.

As for ordinary bows and arrows, even if Jiang Hang wasn't paying attention, he could probably catch them with his bare hands using his eagle eyes alone. Not to mention that Jiang Hang is already cautious, and after arriving at a place, he would immediately use his eagle eyes to roughly scan the surrounding area, and would never let danger enter his vicinity.

After Heiji Hattori left, Conan looked at Jiang Hang, who showed no signs of sleeping, and suddenly asked him, "If I'm not mistaken, you'll be going out again later to continue investigating Taiga Saijo and the others, right?"

Jiang Hang looked at Conan, not surprised that Conan had seen through his actions.

When he was in Tokyo, he would often go out at night under different aliases to do things that "punish evil and promote good." Although he had never told anyone about this, there had been a lot of urban rumors circulating in Tokyo recently. Jiang Hang had not made any special attempt to hide it when he was at his agency, so it was normal for Conan, who often visited his agency, to have some speculations about it.

"I'm planning to go over there and check things out a bit, and maybe conduct some shady investigations. What, do you want to come with me?"

Chapter 358: How come you're so skilled?

Before this, Jiang Hang usually went out alone at night.

After all, he has done quite a few things at night after putting on his disguise.

From initially driving away thugs and robbers, and then casually catching a few thieves at night, to later throwing smoke bombs and hitting gang members with club clubs during gang fights.

As Jiang Hang's own strength increased, he did more and more things.

He destroyed drug warehouses of gangs, disrupted arms deals between gangs, and anonymously handed over any shady dealings he encountered to the relevant authorities for them to handle.

Of course, if they don't handle it, Jiang Hang wouldn't mind taking care of it himself.

If the gang leaders and even high-ranking political figures who were tricked by Jiang Hang knew that he was the one who did all these things, he himself wouldn't have anything to fear, but his firm and the people around him wouldn't be able to live peacefully anymore.

So Jiang Hang was always alone when doing these things. At most, Shizuka Sakaki and Yuno Koharu had some guesses, but they never asked Jiang Hang, and even if they did, Jiang Hang would not admit it.

However, Jiang Hang is currently in Kyoto, and he doesn't plan to cause any big news tonight. Conan can be considered the first person to go out with Jiang Hang to investigate at night.

After all, Conan is small in stature, so he is not easy to be noticed. Moreover, when necessary, Conan can be asked to help with the deduction.

Although the process was somewhat shameful, Conan wasn't the type of person to care about such details.

As long as Jiang Hang doesn't make any fundamental mistakes, Conan doesn't really mind this method of collecting evidence.

Although Conan knew long ago that Jiang Hang was very skilled in this area, Conan still looked at Jiang Hang with a strange expression when Jiang Hang casually bypassed the surveillance cameras in the hotel from the 10th floor, climbed out of the window, used his hidden sword and grappling hook to slide down the stairs, and then sneaked into the antique market they had visited during the day without being discovered by anyone. He then quietly pried open the door of Sakura Masazo's antique shop with a wire in a few moves.

Judging from Jiang Hang's skillful and experienced level of expertise, he doesn't seem like a detective at all, but rather more like one of those famous phantom thieves.

"Before becoming a detective, you weren't some phantom thief who switched careers, were you? You're way too skilled at it."

Conan even wondered if any phantom thieves had suddenly disappeared overseas recently.

Jiang Hang simply rolled his eyes at Conan. What do you mean by "phantom thief"? This is just the most basic operation for an assassin.

Whether it's assassin footwork or lock-picking skills, these are all things he painstakingly honed over a long period of time in the training space.

Because the group had been discussing things in the room for a long time, it was already past midnight when Hattori Heiji returned to his room.

They had rushed here and it was already past 1 a.m. At this time, the shops in the antique market had naturally already closed.

As for the surveillance cameras installed on the streets, they naturally couldn't escape Jiang Hang's observation.

After following Jiang Hang into the antique shop, Jiang Hang reminded him to be careful of certain areas.

With the Eagle Eye effect, Jiang Hang could clearly see everything in the room even without any lighting equipment.

It's clear that Sakura Seizo did a good job with the shop's security measures, probably because he was likely a member of the Genji Hotaru clan. As a thief, he naturally knew better than most how to guard against shoplifters.

This shop is full of traps; you might just walk a few steps or bump into something that could trigger an alarm.

These traps are effective against ordinary thieves, but they are not very effective against Jiang Hang.

Sakura Masazo did not sleep in the shop at night, so after avoiding those traps, Jiang Hang's investigation was quite bold.

After easily avoiding the traps, he took Conan directly to the store's warehouse to search for the book he had noticed that night that shone with golden light in Hawkeye's eyes.

It didn't take Jiang Hang long to find the book, and as he expected, it was indeed the "Yoshitsune Chronicle".

Upon seeing the book's title, Jiang Hang knew that half of the case was already solved.

He showed the book to Conan, who didn't have any eagle eyes. He used his phone and turned the brightness down to the lowest setting to barely see his surroundings.

“The Book of Yoshitsune… That shopkeeper clearly said he didn’t have this book here, so it seems your deduction is correct,” Conan said, opening the cover of the Book of Yoshitsune.

The book was not missing anything, and on the title page, Conan clearly saw that someone had written the name "Ise Saburo" with a pen.

“Ise Saburo…that’s also the name of a retainer under Minamoto no Yoshitsune,” Conan said, looking at Jiang Hang. “So, they really are members of the Minamoto clan’s Firefly.”

He remembered that a page had been torn out of the Yoshitsune Chronicle in Jiang Hang's hand. If they were not mistaken, the torn page should also have the name of another member of the Genji Firefly clan, or even be the book that one of the five Genji Firefly members who had been killed had once owned.

“If that’s the case, then Saijo Taiga really is the culprit in these serial murders,” Conan concluded. He looked at Jiang Hang, who was still searching around, and couldn’t help but ask curiously, “What are you still looking for?”

"Check if Genji Hotaru's gang's ledgers are kept with him. After all, he runs an antique shop, and after committing the crime, Genji Hotaru may have used his connections to find sellers."

Jiang Hang offered an explanation, but it was clear that Sakura Masazo hadn't hidden something so important in his shop. After thoroughly scanning the shop with his eagle eye and finding no other clues, Jiang Hang shook his head.

"It seems we won't find anything here, so let's investigate the used bookstore in Saijo Taiga next."

Seeing that Jiang Hang had only spent ten minutes browsing the antique shop before confidently concluding that there were no useful clues, Conan wondered if Jiang Hang was being too confident. However, considering Jiang Hang's superhuman observation skills, Conan ultimately said nothing, only muttering to himself, "That Jiang Hang guy is a real freak."

Jiang Hang kept the evidence, restored the antique shop's equipment and facilities to their original state, and after confirming that no clues had been missed, he left the antique shop with Conan.