Conan Rick's Investigator

However, the human neck has its limits, and it cannot be seen from that angle anyway.

"you come back."

At Akai Shuichi's invitation, Judy sat back in the car, turned her shoulder, and let Akai reach out and take off the small yellow disc.

It feels extremely light and thin, and it doesn’t feel like there are any electronic components inside.

"Is this a... sticker?"

James took a closer look and saw that it didn't look like a bug, either from the front or the back.

However, Shuichi Akai was more cautious. He simply squeezed the sticker into a small ball and threw it out through the window.

"Did anyone touch you this afternoon?"

This statement was a bit ambiguous, but Judy also understood what Shuichi Akai meant.

"When I was recording my confession, it seemed that there was no..."

"But when I was on the bus, I was focused on the robbers inside and probably didn't pay much attention to the back..."

Shuichi Akai narrowed his eyes slightly, and his mind recalled the scene inside the car.

Sitting behind Judy... was the little boy.

The boy took the strange watch and aimed it at the robber, shooting out a needle, and then the robber fell asleep...

"I see……"

"Tread carefully, Judy."

Judy got off the bus for the second time, and this time no unusual items were found on her.

"Maybe someone is investigating us..." Akai Xiu said as he pushed open the car door, got out and picked up the sticker thrown on the ground next to him.

James was a little confused and asked, "But isn't this just a sticker prank? There are no electronic devices in it..."

Shuichi Akai remained silent and quietly put the crumpled sticker into his pocket.

……

Back on the bus, Qin Zhibo opened his eyes.

[The famous detective's eavesdropping device] Although it is very high-tech, its weakness is that if someone takes it off, the eavesdropping will be immediately interrupted.

However, most people probably wouldn't think too much about it even if they found the sticker.

It's just a sticker, what bad intentions could there be?

As for the timing of sticking the bug, he attracted Judy's attention by talking to her from the front, and Kuroba Kaito took the opportunity to stick it on from behind, while he was recording his statement at the police station.

What Qin Zhibo didn't expect was that this group of people were actually FBI from the United States, and they knew him.

That Judy didn't recognize herself, but Shuichi Akai and James, who didn't know what she looked like, knew herself.

From their conversation, it seemed that the FBI came to Japan to carry out a certain mission.

James might want to recruit him, but Qin Zhibo is not interested in this thankless job. Besides, it is not convenient for him to contact his old acquaintances now.

An example of this is when I didn’t recognize Shuichi Akai at all on the bus.

And this Shuichi Akai claimed that his father was a good friend of his, which reminded Qin Zhibo of the man named "Akai Wuwu" in the photo in the drawer.

Fortunately, the other party has no plans to drag me into this, which is a good thing.

As for what missions these "former colleagues" were planning to carry out in Japan, Qin Zhibo was not interested. As long as it did not affect him, that was enough.

……

"Medieval Art Museum, here we are—"

The car's horn sounded a warning tone, and the last three people got off the car together.

Looking at the Medieval Art Museum standing in the sunset, Qin Zhibo, Kuroba Kaito, and Koizumi Akako all felt a little tired.

We set out from Jianggutian Town in the morning and arrived at the Zhongshi Art Museum in the evening. The journey was so difficult.

Not to mention Kuroba Kaito and Koizumi Akako who have always lived in a peaceful world, even Qin Zhibo was a little unhappy this time.

He encountered a difficult former colleague, a difficult robbery gang...but the mission was not triggered and he didn't get anything.

In addition to Inspector Megure's daily verbal praise.

The Medieval Art Museum was closed and the main entrance was locked, so the three of them walked in through the back door.

When I arrived at the director's office, I heard the sound of laughter.

Qin Zhibo pushed open the door and saw Terai Huangzhisuke and Matsumoto Ryohei having a pleasant conversation.

"Master!"

Seeing Kuroba Kaito coming, Terai Huangzhisuke quickly stood up from the sofa, walked to the front and asked with concern: "I heard that you encountered a bus robber. Are you not hurt?"

Kuroba Kaito was no longer as frivolous as usual. He just shook his head slightly and looked at Matsumoto Ryohei.

Matsumoto Ryohei immediately understood what he meant, stood up, adjusted the hem of his suit, and walked out.

"Everyone, please follow me."

……

Walking along the gallery of the art museum, a group of people followed Matsumoto Ryohei.

Kuroba Kaito leaned close to Terai Huangzhisuke's ear and whispered, "Dad, you didn't tell that guy too much about us, did you?"

"No, Mr. Matsumoto didn't ask anything about Phantom Thieves. We mainly talked about art, art identification, and food..."

"gourmet food?"

Kuroba Kaito was a little puzzled. After all, Terai Konosuke was the assistant of two previous Kaito Kids, so it was normal for him to have knowledge of art and artwork, but food...

Forget it, as long as I don’t ask about the Phantom Thief.

Koizumi Hongzi, who was walking at the back, looked at the collection of the Medieval Art Museum curiously. She didn't think that some of the exhibits were a bit gloomy at all, and even looked very interested.

"This art museum... has good taste~"

"Thank you for the compliment, miss."

Ryohei Matsumoto, who was walking in front, heard Koizumi Anko's praise and tilted his head to greet her.

Suddenly, a statue caught Koizumi Hongzi's attention.

This is the Hell Exhibition Hall, which contains some strange shapes, but this statue is particularly special.

This is a traditional winged demon body image, but its face is featureless and has two slightly curved horns on its head.

Qin Zhibo remembered that this statue was placed in the Western-style house where the "transvestite" was discovered. This "transvestite" was disguised as his own mother, not like Ma Chengshi.

The original owner of this Western-style house was a student of Matsumoto Ryohei's father. After the case was solved, all the horrifying statues in the house were purchased by Matsumoto Ryohei.

Koizumi Akako stopped in front of the statue, not hiding her interest in it at all.

"You guys go first, I'll take a look here."

Kuroba Kaito was delighted and quickly pulled Terai Konosuke forward.

Although Koizumi Akako had already found out her identity using unscientific means, Kuroba Kaito has not admitted it in person so far, and he is just trying to be stubborn.

But as soon as Koizumi Akako saw the painting "The Phantom Thief Under the Moon", all rebuttals became pale and powerless.

Without Koizumi Hongzi's interference, everything was just right.

In this way, Koizumi Hongzi left the team, and the rest of the people came to the art appraisal room.

Ryohei Matsumoto took out the key and opened the door. The painting "The Phantom Thief Under the Moon" had been placed on the X-ray scanning table.

Chapter 620: Phantom Thief and Ghoul

A cold light emanated from under the scanning table, illuminating "The Phantom Thief Under the Moon".

Ryohei Matsumoto walked to the computer nearby and started operating it, explaining as he went along.

“Many artists reuse their canvases, covering one painting on top of another, to save money or for some special artistic purpose…”

"Traditional X-ray scans cannot see another painting hidden beneath the painting. Just like X-rays taken in hospitals, which are only in black and white, we cannot see what is underneath the painting."

"However, we can use 13 wavelengths of light, ranging from ultraviolet to infrared, to illuminate the painting, and then use a camera to scan the image, so that we can restore the original lines and pigment colors of the painting to the greatest extent possible..."

Ryohei Matsumoto adjusted the parameters on the computer one last time, then came to the scanning table and pressed the start button.

Light that is completely invisible to the naked eye scans back and forth on "The Phantom Thief Under the Moon", and some dull colors appear on the screen.

As the scan progresses, the colors gradually converge and undergo subtle changes in color, like countless colorful maggots wriggling on the screen.

It became clearer, with the first outline of a moon.

This moon was scanned by Kuroba Kaito at home, and its position is exactly the same as that in "The Phantom Thief Under the Moon".

But the color is... red!

The scarlet moon hung in the dark night sky, and below the moon was a stretch of rolling gray mountains.

This stretch of mountains corresponds exactly to the location of the Black Feathered Daoyi's cloak fluttering in the wind.

In "The Phantom Thief Under the Moon", the white top hat worn by Kuroba Toichi gradually faded and began to shrink like a piece of meat roasted on flames.

It became a long, narrow head with odd proportions.

The shape of this head is three parts unhuman and seven parts more dog-like. The mouth protrudes like that of a canine, and the disgusting upper and lower jaws reveal sinister teeth.

Seeing this sinister face, Qin Zhibo's skin hair stood up and his brain suddenly recalled a memory from some time ago.

It was in a cemetery near Suzuki Sonoko's villa. She spent an unforgettable night in the coffin and met some "dog-faced visitors" or "dog-headed people".

At this moment, the faces of those "visitors" seemed alive, and under the constantly changing scanning light, the edges of their bodies kept trembling.

The changes on the screen are from top to bottom, and more details are scanned out.

Kuroba Daoyi's head turned into the dog-headed man's forward-leaning neck...

The upper half of Kuroba Daoyi's body turned into the upper half of a dog-headed man...

The lower half of Hei Yu Daoyi's body turned into a filthy, twisted mess, with a lot of blood in it.

In the original version of Kuroba Toichi's hand, he was holding the cloak that was originally the Phantom Thief's uniform. A corner of the white cloak spun into a regular and elegant vortex.

But after scanning, it was found that what was held there was not a corner of a cloak, but a human head!

It was a big bald head, and the miserable skin on the top of its head had been half eaten away, revealing the white bones with some blood underneath.

A human face distorted with fear, its mouth wide open to the throat.

This dog-headed figure that replaced Kuroba Toichi was located in a cemetery. The original stars behind Kaito Kidd were replaced by larger cross-shaped tombstones.

Thirteen waves of invisible light revealed everything that was originally invisible under the painting. As the scanner stopped working, the hateful image on the screen stopped shaking.

Looking at the scanned results in front of them, Qin Zhibo, Kuroba Kaito, Terai Kōnosuke, and Matsumoto Ryohei were all shocked.

What is surprising is not only the strange image of the dog-headed man, but also the superb skills of the creator of this painting.

The entire painting of "The Phantom Thief Under the Moon" was almost created based on the painting below. All the important lines in the painting are a continuation rather than a simple covering.

The bright white moon turned into a scarlet moon, the thief's cloak turned into gray mountains, the top hat turned into a dog's head, the swirling corner of the cloak turned into a half-eaten human head, and the stars turned into tombstones...

This unparalleled painting technique seems to come from hell, which is another reason for the painting within a painting that Matsumoto Ryohei did not elaborate on.

Let the colors and forms of one painting influence the other.

This kind of painting within a painting is extremely rare. The effort required for it far exceeds that of painting a painting, and the skills required are very high.

Besides, there was no X-ray scanning technology in the world before, and no one would waste time painting a picture that was destined to be unappreciated.

Qin Zhibo looked at the painting in front of him and, using the appreciation part of his art and craft (fine arts) skills, could tell that the painting was of such superb skill that it was worthy of being recognized as a world-class art work.

He paints the creepy things so vividly, with precise lines and proportions that evoke the viewer's dormant instinct - fear.

The appropriate color contrast and light and dark effects are like spikes lurking in the heart, giving the viewer a very unusual experience of hair standing on end.

The strange and eerie alternation between the two themes of the Phantom Thief and the Dog-Headed Man is truly remarkable.

"Miracle!"

Ryohei Matsumoto suddenly raised his arms and shouted loudly, his voice was deafening.