I'm in Detective Conan, and the system has appointed Batman.

Hattori Heiji:?

As the saying goes, don't expose someone's hardships.

You've already seen me lying on the ground, so please stop saying things that undermine my confidence, okay?

Faced with Heiji Hattori's disapproving gaze, Sonoko Suzuki covered her mouth with her hands, apologetic, and quickly shut up, leaving the room's chat channel to the two detectives.

Seeing that Suzuki Sonoko was no longer undermining him, Hattori Heiji breathed a sigh of relief and stood up, supporting himself on the ground.

His gaze fell on the wooden knife that had broken in two on the ground.

Suddenly, he had a new perspective on Chen En's strength and skills.

That wretched numerical monster disguised itself as a mechanical monster and ambushed me here.

Hattori Heiji muttered to himself as he spoke.

"You're even faster than I imagined."

"I didn't have a clear impression of you before, just by watching you fight. Now that I've actually fought you in person, I can feel your overwhelming power... It would be even better if you could put down your coffee cup and fight me with one hand instead."

He rubbed his lower back and then asked.

"Was it this easy when you beat Ishikawa Goemon?"

Upon hearing this, Chen En paused for a moment, then took a sip of coffee and answered affirmatively.

"If I were to say that I do not know the weakness of the Zantetsuken."

“Ishikawa Goemon could probably push me to the brink, forcing me to use my backup plan… even if he didn’t use the Zantetsuken, but just an ordinary famous sword, he could still achieve the same effect.”

"In tonight's conflict, the Iron-Cutting Sword was actually his weakness."

His words surprised both Sonoko Suzuki and Heiji Hattori.

Is Ishikawa Goemon's fighting power really that terrifying?

Heiji Hattori, who had initially harbored some competitive thoughts, immediately let them vanish.

It has to be said that those with senior experience are truly capable.

Chen En can kill Ishikawa Goemon in a second by sparring with him while holding a coffee cup in one hand. However, without any countermeasures, a head-on confrontation with Ishikawa Goemon might lead to his demise.

Chen En's words may have been somewhat exaggerated, but they were mostly true.

Ishikawa Goemon is a master of top-level swordsmanship techniques.

Even without the Zantetsu sword, relying solely on his intermediate to advanced karate fighting skills, coupled with his near-top-level physical abilities, he could easily overwhelm Hattori Heiji.

His own swordsmanship skills combined with the realm of seeing without form.

The combined effect of these two factors creates an unimaginable level of skill-based dominance.

Chen En possesses advanced combat skills. When he activates the Cassandra Ring, he can perform at a level comparable to Batman's top-tier combat skills, but he is still a notch below him.

After all, Cassandra's super intuition is similar to Ishikawa Goemon's existence of visible but intangible things.

With the same additional bonuses, lower base stats, and the Zantetsu Sword that can cut through anything, a mere graze will break your defense, and a direct hit will deal true damage. Plus, Lupin III and Daisuke Jigen, two top-tier item masters and gunners, provide support.

This trio really went all out, managing to force Chen En to use his Yellow Lantern Ring even before he could take control of the Iron-Cutting Sword.

...Of course, once the yellow light ring appears, the next step is to ask for text input.

"The Iron-Cutting Sword will get stuck to the konjac, but if it were replaced with an ordinary, sharp, famous sword..."

"In tonight's fight, he won't be controlled by my Konjac Net. Then, using his swordsmanship skills, he can probably easily break through the Bat Suit's defenses and directly injure my body."

"That will make it harder to fight."

Chen En briefly explained the battle that took place that night.

Hattori Heiji, who was initially surprised by Ishikawa Goemon's fighting prowess, started to lose his composure upon hearing this.

"What do you mean by the Iron-Cutting Sword getting stuck with Konjac?"

"Wait a minute, so that piece of konjac residue left at the scene of your fight with Lupin III, which was ignited by something, was actually left behind when you used Zantetsuken against Ishikawa Goemon?"

He had previously wondered why there were remnants of konjac at the scene.

On the way here, Hattori Heiji had already anticipated that Chen En might tell him that this was a konjac drink that Lupin III had stolen while on the run, and that it had been slashed and then set on fire during the battle.

I never expected this answer.

"...It's outrageous that such a top-tier sword would have such a flaw."

In the midst of the silence, Hattori Heiji finally put aside the battle for tonight and instead inquired about what Chen En knew about Lupin III's purpose in coming to Osaka Prefecture.

If Chen En hadn't known Lupin III's purpose in Osaka Prefecture, their battle wouldn't have happened tonight.

After all, Chen En has always maintained a "I will not attack unless attacked" attitude towards the likes of the Phantom Thief.

It would be absurd to say that Chen En's initiative to seek out Inspector Zenigata to deal with Lupin III after learning that Zenigata was taking action to arrest him in Osaka Prefecture was out of kindness.

I have so many things to deal with in Tokyo, where would I find the time to do this?

In response, Chen En finally explained his purpose in Osaka Prefecture.

When Hattori Heiji heard that Lupin III had acquired the jewel from the puppeteer named Flying Dragon, and that he had returned it to Chen En during the battle that night, and that Chen En had then delivered it to the back door of the Osaka Police Headquarters to return it to Flying Dragon.

He looked somewhat surprised, then asked in confusion.

"What are you talking about? I don't know anything about this."

"Before I left, I spoke with that mechanic known as the Flying Dragon Warrior in the conference room. He said his gem still hasn't been found... Could it be that the Flying Dragon Warrior was lying after getting the gem back?"

"Logically speaking, no one would go out of their way to cause trouble for Lupin III after getting the jewel back, right?"

Putting everything else aside, when Lupin III really gets serious, he's truly aiming to kill.

Therefore, even if Lupin III steals something, most people will stop after getting their things back and will not go looking for trouble with Lupin III.

After all, if you cause trouble for Lupin III, it's inevitable that the conflict will escalate if Lupin III retaliates.

If things continue like this, it will turn into a situation where Lupin III, in his past career as a phantom thief, took down any one of the countless criminal organizations. Instead of losing the treasure, he lost his life as well. Why bother?

"...You mean, the Flying Dragon Warrior told you that his gem was not found?"

Chen En narrowed his eyes slightly, revealing a hint of disapproval.

"It seems that monkey really was lying to me."

"I really need to increase the intensity of his treatment."

Chapter 1217 Two-Pronged Approach

"Oh my, I never imagined there would be such a big difference between me and that guy."

"Oh, right."

Hattori Heiji tidied up the broken wooden sword, held it in his arms, and was about to leave when he seemed to remember something, turned around and looked at Chen En, and suddenly said something.

"Didn't you say you were going to Kyoto Prefecture to find that guy Okita Souji?"

“I called Okita Souji about this. Okita Souji said that he originally planned to participate in the nearby kendo league, but since an extraordinary master wants to see him, he must stay in Kyoto Prefecture to await his arrival.”

"When you beat him up, you'd better go all out and not hold back."

"Otherwise, if I were taken down by you so quickly, and he could have lasted so long, wouldn't that make me look bad?"

The famous detective from Kansai said as he pushed open the door and came out.

At the door, he finally uttered a few words.

"Inspector Zenigata has already finalized the details of the upcoming cooperation with Hiryuji."

"If nothing unexpected happens, the formal arrest operation will begin tomorrow during the day, or at the latest by tomorrow night. If you have anything to take care of in Tokyo, I suggest you go back and deal with it as soon as possible."

"Although I think it's not impossible for you to travel between the two places in a short time with your mysterious plane."

"However, it would be better to have more tolerance for errors than to pursue such high efficiency."

Upon hearing this, Chen En narrowed his eyes slightly but did not reply.

However, just as Hattori Heiji said.

If we say that construction will start simultaneously in both Osaka Prefecture and Tokyo City tomorrow night.

Even if he had a Batplane, a mode of transportation that could allow him to travel between Osaka Prefecture and Tokyo in a short time.

It is still somewhat difficult to deal with events in two locations at the same time.

However, if we disregard the events in Osaka Prefecture, Inspector Zenigata alone might be able to cause some trouble for Lupin III, but it wouldn't be enough to stop Lupin III from leaving if he really wanted to.

Tokyo was already in chaos, and now the Visbanian rebels are on top of that.

It will likely end up in complete chaos, leading to numerous civilian casualties.

He still did not intend to let Lupin III achieve his goals in Osaka Prefecture unless absolutely necessary.

But what if we put things in Tokyo aside for now?

That would be putting the cart before the horse.

His reason for dealing with the Lupin III incident in Osaka Prefecture was to prevent the situation in Tokyo from descending into chaos again.

If we ignore the chaos in Tokyo and instead deal with Lupin III's situation first, wouldn't that be tantamount to abandoning the efforts to prevent the chaos that has already occurred in order to prevent future chaos?

This is even less desirable than the previous option.

Seeing that Chen En seemed to have taken a sip of coffee and was deep in thought, Hattori Heiji didn't linger. He waved and disappeared at the end of the corridor, seemingly preparing to do something else within his power.

Looking at the empty corridor, Chen En gently rubbed his chin with his fingers.

It would be unrealistic to expect two events that are highly likely to occur at the same time to be resolved simultaneously. But if we think about it the other way around... wouldn't it be better to prevent the two events from happening at the same time?

If only the events involving Lupin III in Osaka Prefecture or the Black Organization in Tokyo could happen at different times...

Of course, to ordinary people, this idea is even more fantastical than solving two events at the same time.

However, for Chen En, who possesses a wealth of intelligence and wields considerable influence in Tokyo, the task is far simpler. He only needs to contact one person to ensure that the two events occur at different times.

That was the detective from the Public Security Planning Division of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department.