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Chapter 1104: Deterred by the Big Shot's Past Battle History
"Hey, hey, Genta! Don't run around!"
Conan hurriedly followed, "This is a house built by Jiguan Kichiemon, no one knows what mechanism might be inside!"
Genta's right foot had just stepped onto the staircase when the wooden staircase suddenly creaked and sank a bit.
Afterwards, the wooden planks of the entire staircase suddenly flipped over. The original steps became a smooth downward slope, and the wooden planks below flipped open, revealing a big pit.
Conan quickly stopped at the edge of the pit, watching Genta lose his footing and slide all the way into the pit because he couldn't grab the wooden plank. He was extremely anxious.
Behind the staircase, a burly, muscular man with a buzz cut was crouching low, frowning and hiding in the shadow, hesitating whether to go and rescue him or not.
Judging from the traces inside the room, before these children came in, besides him, there should have been 2-5 other people active here recently. One of them was a female, but there was at least one other person whose information he had no way of figuring out at all.
No matter who they were, coming here definitely meant they were after the treasure. In other words, after finding the treasure, there would inevitably be a struggle.
If he couldn't grasp the opponent's information in advance, then he might be stabbed in the back.
If he could remain calm, he might be able to force the other people out...
These children are making such a big commotion, the others will definitely come and check!
At the entrance of the room on the other side, Chi Feichei was draped in a black robe, his entire person concealed in the darkness. His face was covered by bandages and a mask. He had activated the spare oxygen supply within his body to support his body's consumption, standing quietly like a ghost, not even a single breath escaping.
And under heat vision, he could see Genta and the other four children's bodies emitting heat. He could see the five children's hands and feet temperature decreasing, and their brains and chests heating up. That was a sign of fear.
Similarly, he could also see the dense, ice-cold, deep blue sharp blades in the big pit under Genta's foot. He could see the mechanism composed of gears and other parts below the staircase's wooden planks, and of course, the man hiding behind the staircase, whose chest temperature was gradually rising above his head temperature.
This should represent... anxiety!
Sometimes, what is seen and observed by heat vision points more directly to the core.
"Genta!"
Ayumi, Mitsuhiko, and Haibara Ai also hurriedly ran to Conan's side.
After Genta slid to the end of the staircase, he reached out and grabbed the edge of the wooden plank, but his hands were trembling, and he clearly couldn't hold on for long. Upon seeing the sharp blades in the pit below him, his scalp numbed even more, and he couldn't help but let out a scream, "Ahhhh!"
On the wooden plank of the floor above, a deliberately emphasized footstep suddenly rang out. It was hidden within Genta's screams and was difficult to hear, but the man hiding behind the staircase, who was concentrating and paying attention to the surrounding area, heard it and let out a long sigh of relief.
He understood the intention of the person upstairs: I am here, stop hiding. Everyone is here for the treasure, so let's join hands to find it. After finding it, we can consider how to distribute it. No one should think about stabbing anyone in the back!
And his intentional failure to conceal his sigh of relief was also a performance to show that he understood, indicating his location and agreeing to join hands.
But there should be others...
While the man was hesitating, Chi Feichei intervened.
A sleeve sword flew towards Genta. The others only saw a flash of silver light, and the sleeve sword, carrying a transparent long string, had already pierced through the back collar of Genta's clothes and was nailed into the wooden plank in the wall corner with a 'thud'.
Conan's face turned pale. He turned his head and looked towards the dark place.
There are still others here!
Moreover, what's going on with this person? They aren't worried at all that the sleeve sword might cut the child's back neck? Or rather, is the other party so confident that they firmly believe they cannot miss?
"Huh?" Genta felt something ice-cold brush against the back of his neck. He turned his head and saw the sleeve sword nailed to the wall. His face turned pale, and his hands and feet completely went limp.
However, Genta didn't fall after letting go. A transparent, thickened fishing line ran across the back collar of his clothes. One end was tied to the sleeve sword, and the other end was pulled tight by Chi Feichei's right hand. The middle was stretched taut, leaving Genta hanging like a piece of clothes being dried.
The man behind the staircase was relieved. He leaned over, reached out and grabbed Genta, then turned his head towards the direction from which the sleeve sword had flown out of the darkness and said, "Hey, I've got a firm hold on this kid. Loosen the string a bit, and I'll lift him up!"
Another person showed up. Even if there were still others left, the three of them here were enough to handle it.
Chi Feichei stepped forward, allowing the taut fishing line to loosen considerably.
A group of mischievous kids are still so reckless, they should be scared a bit!
The man lifted the limp Genta to his side and placed him on the ground.
"Thank you..." Genta lay on the ground, appeasing his frightened mood.
"Genta, are you okay?" Ayumi quickly stepped forward.
"Are you kids also here to search for treasure?" the man asked.
"Uh..." Mitsuhiko hesitated a bit, then denied it, "No."
"It doesn't matter," the man smiled, reached out his foot and stepped on the edge of the staircase a bit. The staircase immediately returned to its original state. These kids were just now loudly talking about diamonds, did they really think he was deaf and couldn't hear? But they were just a group of kids after all, might as well bring them along. "Be careful! This staircase is a trap. To go upstairs, you have to walk a bit further back. Moreover, Sansui Kichiemon is a weird person. If you only rely on your eyes to see the appearance and act rashly, you'll be in for big trouble!"
Chi Feichei saw that the big pit on the floor was also covered by the wooden plank again. While the man was talking to the five children, he bypassed the location of the big pit, went to the wooden plank of the wall, pulled out the sleeve sword nailed to it, then went to Genta's front, passed the sleeve sword through the back collar of Genta's clothes, and retracted the fishing line.
"Huh?" Genta stared blankly, looking up at the No-Face mask in front of him. "Such a familiar mask..."
Haibara Ai silently looked at the black-robed man in front of her.
Brother Hichiji actually came here...
Mitsuhiko saw the mask clearly and exclaimed in surprise, "J-July?!"
The burly man reached out to pull Genta up. He looked up and saw the strange mask on Chi Feichei's face. Besides being surprised, he also carried some vigilance. "July? Are you Cleaners also interested in treasure hunting?"
"Is that not allowed?" Chi Feichei asked back in a gentle, lazy fake voice.
Haibara Ai: "..."
This sound...
If she hadn't already guessed that Brother Hichiji might come, she would have thought this was Fake July!
"So cool!" Mitsuhiko's eyes lit up. "Are you here to find treasure together?"
"We didn't agree to meet," the man quickly waved his hand. "Just like I said, he is a Cleaner, and I am a Treasure Hunter. We are both hunters, but the domain where everyone usually operates is completely different. Even if I wanted to invite a companion to come together, it would be impossible to find a Cleaner!"
"Cleaner?" Conan repeated curiously.
The man looked at Chi Feichei beside him, who was silently packing up his sleeve sword. Although he could only see a black shadow that was almost the same color as the background, it seemed July knew these kids and shouldn't mind him talking to these kids a bit.
To be honest, he was just a little afraid of July, the current number one Bounty Hunter in Japan. If the other party suddenly took action against him... Huh, wait a minute, he rarely does bad deeds usually, and July doesn't know his code name. Even if he wanted to sell him, he couldn't find his information.
Then what is there to be afraid of?
"This is a branch of Bounty Hunters, cough..." The man coughed dryly to embolden himself. Even if July had no reason to arrest him, he was still deterred by the big shot's past battle history, is that not allowed? "As for us Treasure Hunters, wherever there is information about treasure, we run there. We are relatively good at treasure hunting. Their Cleaners mainly help the police catch criminals, and occasionally they will choose to entrust people to private employers. They occasionally mockingly call themselves Ashman, which means cleaner, janitor, someone who cleans up garbage. It's a mockery of the people who are caught, and also a mockery of themselves..."
Ayumi listened with great interest, "So there are so many types of Bounty Hunters."
"I'm interested in treasure hunting," Mitsuhiko said, touching his chin with a conflicted look on his face. "But I'm also very interested in catching criminals..."
Conan saw that the child's ideal was leaning towards 'Bounty Hunter', and said with half-moon eyes, "What's so good about being a Bounty Hunter? They might also engage in some criminal actions usually. At the very least, possessing illegal gun possession and carrying dangerous items without permission is considered illegal armament, right?"
Becoming an excellent detective is truly worth pursuing as a goal and a dream for life.
He doesn't want to see the 'Junior Detective League' turn into the 'Bounty Hunter Boys' one day!
The man broke out in a sweat. He always felt that this glasses kid in front of him spoke in an old-fashioned tone and was quite annoying...
"Correct, Treasure Hunters collect treasure in the dark, sometimes not hesitating to compete for things belonging to others, and even engaging in criminal behavior such as theft and robbery for a certain treasure clue," Haibara Ai looked at that man, then looked towards a certain black-robed man with a calm face. "As for Cleaners, even if they are catching criminals, they might also injure people without knowing the severity sometimes, let alone that they will also entrust people to private employers. That is even more of a crime. The police on one hand need their assistance, and on the other hand are wary of the danger level they possess and the possibility of loss of control. Among Bounty Hunter companions, they are probably the kind of people who are guarded against. No matter which side, they won't truly accept them. What's good about that?"
Chi Feichei: "..."
His younger sister is very assertive today.
After saying that, Haibara Ai felt a bit of regret. She saw the appearance of this male Treasure Hunter suddenly becoming vigilant just now, and felt that neither side would accept 'Cleaners'. She felt grievance for Chi Feichei, and also didn't want Edogawa to discover that she was defending 'July', so she attacked both sides.
But thinking about it this way, if Brother Hichiji could give up, might as well. Why go and suffer such grievance...
"Uh, actually, it's not like that. It's not about accepting or not accepting. Everyone wasn't familiar with each other originally, and usually everyone is busy with their own matters," the burly man scratched his head awkwardly, and secretly looked at Chi Feichei again. This was also meant for Chi Feichei to hear. "But Treasure Hunters like Scorpio who have been active for a long time, and killers like Spider who rank among the top internationally, have all suffered losses at his hands. Of course I have to guard against him a bit. If July wants to arrest me, I won't just surrender!"
This must be explained clearly, lest July suddenly feels unhappy and takes action against him.
Haibara Ai: "..."
Means she understood wrong?
Do Bounty Hunters internally not care about whether they disrupt team harmony at all?
Wrong, these people seemingly were originally just doing their own thing, and there's no such thing as a 'team' at all, let alone harmony.
"Don't worry," Chi Feichei said in a lazy male voice, "I won't arrest you."
"Just hearing you say it, I can't trust it, but there are quite a few mechanisms in this place. Might as well we join hands first to find the treasure," the man saying, then looked towards the five children again. "By the way, have you found any strange stones?"
"Hey, hey, Genta! Don't run around!"
Conan hurriedly followed, "This is a house built by Jiguan Kichiemon, no one knows what mechanism might be inside!"
Genta's right foot had just stepped onto the staircase when the wooden staircase suddenly creaked and sank a bit.
Afterwards, the wooden planks of the entire staircase suddenly flipped over. The original steps became a smooth downward slope, and the wooden planks below flipped open, revealing a big pit.
Conan quickly stopped at the edge of the pit, watching Genta lose his footing and slide all the way into the pit because he couldn't grab the wooden plank. He was extremely anxious.
Behind the staircase, a burly, muscular man with a buzz cut was crouching low, frowning and hiding in the shadow, hesitating whether to go and rescue him or not.
Judging from the traces inside the room, before these children came in, besides him, there should have been 2-5 other people active here recently. One of them was a female, but there was at least one other person whose information he had no way of figuring out at all.
No matter who they were, coming here definitely meant they were after the treasure. In other words, after finding the treasure, there would inevitably be a struggle.
If he couldn't grasp the opponent's information in advance, then he might be stabbed in the back.
If he could remain calm, he might be able to force the other people out...
These children are making such a big commotion, the others will definitely come and check!
At the entrance of the room on the other side, Chi Feichei was draped in a black robe, his entire person concealed in the darkness. His face was covered by bandages and a mask. He had activated the spare oxygen supply within his body to support his body's consumption, standing quietly like a ghost, not even a single breath escaping.
And under heat vision, he could see Genta and the other four children's bodies emitting heat. He could see the five children's hands and feet temperature decreasing, and their brains and chests heating up. That was a sign of fear.
Similarly, he could also see the dense, ice-cold, deep blue sharp blades in the big pit under Genta's foot. He could see the mechanism composed of gears and other parts below the staircase's wooden planks, and of course, the man hiding behind the staircase, whose chest temperature was gradually rising above his head temperature.
This should represent... anxiety!
Sometimes, what is seen and observed by heat vision points more directly to the core.
"Genta!"
Ayumi, Mitsuhiko, and Haibara Ai also hurriedly ran to Conan's side.
After Genta slid to the end of the staircase, he reached out and grabbed the edge of the wooden plank, but his hands were trembling, and he clearly couldn't hold on for long. Upon seeing the sharp blades in the pit below him, his scalp numbed even more, and he couldn't help but let out a scream, "Ahhhh!"
On the wooden plank of the floor above, a deliberately emphasized footstep suddenly rang out. It was hidden within Genta's screams and was difficult to hear, but the man hiding behind the staircase, who was concentrating and paying attention to the surrounding area, heard it and let out a long sigh of relief.
He understood the intention of the person upstairs: I am here, stop hiding. Everyone is here for the treasure, so let's join hands to find it. After finding it, we can consider how to distribute it. No one should think about stabbing anyone in the back!
And his intentional failure to conceal his sigh of relief was also a performance to show that he understood, indicating his location and agreeing to join hands.
But there should be others...
While the man was hesitating, Chi Feichei intervened.
A sleeve sword flew towards Genta. The others only saw a flash of silver light, and the sleeve sword, carrying a transparent long string, had already pierced through the back collar of Genta's clothes and was nailed into the wooden plank in the wall corner with a 'thud'.
Conan's face turned pale. He turned his head and looked towards the dark place.
There are still others here!
Moreover, what's going on with this person? They aren't worried at all that the sleeve sword might cut the child's back neck? Or rather, is the other party so confident that they firmly believe they cannot miss?
"Huh?" Genta felt something ice-cold brush against the back of his neck. He turned his head and saw the sleeve sword nailed to the wall. His face turned pale, and his hands and feet completely went limp.
However, Genta didn't fall after letting go. A transparent, thickened fishing line ran across the back collar of his clothes. One end was tied to the sleeve sword, and the other end was pulled tight by Chi Feichei's right hand. The middle was stretched taut, leaving Genta hanging like a piece of clothes being dried.
The man behind the staircase was relieved. He leaned over, reached out and grabbed Genta, then turned his head towards the direction from which the sleeve sword had flown out of the darkness and said, "Hey, I've got a firm hold on this kid. Loosen the string a bit, and I'll lift him up!"
Another person showed up. Even if there were still others left, the three of them here were enough to handle it.
Chi Feichei stepped forward, allowing the taut fishing line to loosen considerably.
A group of mischievous kids are still so reckless, they should be scared a bit!
The man lifted the limp Genta to his side and placed him on the ground.
"Thank you..." Genta lay on the ground, appeasing his frightened mood.
"Genta, are you okay?" Ayumi quickly stepped forward.
"Are you kids also here to search for treasure?" the man asked.
"Uh..." Mitsuhiko hesitated a bit, then denied it, "No."
"It doesn't matter," the man smiled, reached out his foot and stepped on the edge of the staircase a bit. The staircase immediately returned to its original state. These kids were just now loudly talking about diamonds, did they really think he was deaf and couldn't hear? But they were just a group of kids after all, might as well bring them along. "Be careful! This staircase is a trap. To go upstairs, you have to walk a bit further back. Moreover, Sansui Kichiemon is a weird person. If you only rely on your eyes to see the appearance and act rashly, you'll be in for big trouble!"
Chi Feichei saw that the big pit on the floor was also covered by the wooden plank again. While the man was talking to the five children, he bypassed the location of the big pit, went to the wooden plank of the wall, pulled out the sleeve sword nailed to it, then went to Genta's front, passed the sleeve sword through the back collar of Genta's clothes, and retracted the fishing line.
"Huh?" Genta stared blankly, looking up at the No-Face mask in front of him. "Such a familiar mask..."
Haibara Ai silently looked at the black-robed man in front of her.
Brother Hichiji actually came here...
Mitsuhiko saw the mask clearly and exclaimed in surprise, "J-July?!"
The burly man reached out to pull Genta up. He looked up and saw the strange mask on Chi Feichei's face. Besides being surprised, he also carried some vigilance. "July? Are you Cleaners also interested in treasure hunting?"
"Is that not allowed?" Chi Feichei asked back in a gentle, lazy fake voice.
Haibara Ai: "..."
This sound...
If she hadn't already guessed that Brother Hichiji might come, she would have thought this was Fake July!
"So cool!" Mitsuhiko's eyes lit up. "Are you here to find treasure together?"
"We didn't agree to meet," the man quickly waved his hand. "Just like I said, he is a Cleaner, and I am a Treasure Hunter. We are both hunters, but the domain where everyone usually operates is completely different. Even if I wanted to invite a companion to come together, it would be impossible to find a Cleaner!"
"Cleaner?" Conan repeated curiously.
The man looked at Chi Feichei beside him, who was silently packing up his sleeve sword. Although he could only see a black shadow that was almost the same color as the background, it seemed July knew these kids and shouldn't mind him talking to these kids a bit.
To be honest, he was just a little afraid of July, the current number one Bounty Hunter in Japan. If the other party suddenly took action against him... Huh, wait a minute, he rarely does bad deeds usually, and July doesn't know his code name. Even if he wanted to sell him, he couldn't find his information.
Then what is there to be afraid of?
"This is a branch of Bounty Hunters, cough..." The man coughed dryly to embolden himself. Even if July had no reason to arrest him, he was still deterred by the big shot's past battle history, is that not allowed? "As for us Treasure Hunters, wherever there is information about treasure, we run there. We are relatively good at treasure hunting. Their Cleaners mainly help the police catch criminals, and occasionally they will choose to entrust people to private employers. They occasionally mockingly call themselves Ashman, which means cleaner, janitor, someone who cleans up garbage. It's a mockery of the people who are caught, and also a mockery of themselves..."
Ayumi listened with great interest, "So there are so many types of Bounty Hunters."
"I'm interested in treasure hunting," Mitsuhiko said, touching his chin with a conflicted look on his face. "But I'm also very interested in catching criminals..."
Conan saw that the child's ideal was leaning towards 'Bounty Hunter', and said with half-moon eyes, "What's so good about being a Bounty Hunter? They might also engage in some criminal actions usually. At the very least, possessing illegal gun possession and carrying dangerous items without permission is considered illegal armament, right?"
Becoming an excellent detective is truly worth pursuing as a goal and a dream for life.
He doesn't want to see the 'Junior Detective League' turn into the 'Bounty Hunter Boys' one day!
The man broke out in a sweat. He always felt that this glasses kid in front of him spoke in an old-fashioned tone and was quite annoying...
"Correct, Treasure Hunters collect treasure in the dark, sometimes not hesitating to compete for things belonging to others, and even engaging in criminal behavior such as theft and robbery for a certain treasure clue," Haibara Ai looked at that man, then looked towards a certain black-robed man with a calm face. "As for Cleaners, even if they are catching criminals, they might also injure people without knowing the severity sometimes, let alone that they will also entrust people to private employers. That is even more of a crime. The police on one hand need their assistance, and on the other hand are wary of the danger level they possess and the possibility of loss of control. Among Bounty Hunter companions, they are probably the kind of people who are guarded against. No matter which side, they won't truly accept them. What's good about that?"
Chi Feichei: "..."
His younger sister is very assertive today.
After saying that, Haibara Ai felt a bit of regret. She saw the appearance of this male Treasure Hunter suddenly becoming vigilant just now, and felt that neither side would accept 'Cleaners'. She felt grievance for Chi Feichei, and also didn't want Edogawa to discover that she was defending 'July', so she attacked both sides.
But thinking about it this way, if Brother Hichiji could give up, might as well. Why go and suffer such grievance...
"Uh, actually, it's not like that. It's not about accepting or not accepting. Everyone wasn't familiar with each other originally, and usually everyone is busy with their own matters," the burly man scratched his head awkwardly, and secretly looked at Chi Feichei again. This was also meant for Chi Feichei to hear. "But Treasure Hunters like Scorpio who have been active for a long time, and killers like Spider who rank among the top internationally, have all suffered losses at his hands. Of course I have to guard against him a bit. If July wants to arrest me, I won't just surrender!"
This must be explained clearly, lest July suddenly feels unhappy and takes action against him.
Haibara Ai: "..."
Means she understood wrong?
Do Bounty Hunters internally not care about whether they disrupt team harmony at all?
Wrong, these people seemingly were originally just doing their own thing, and there's no such thing as a 'team' at all, let alone harmony.
"Don't worry," Chi Feichei said in a lazy male voice, "I won't arrest you."
"Just hearing you say it, I can't trust it, but there are quite a few mechanisms in this place. Might as well we join hands first to find the treasure," the man saying, then looked towards the five children again. "By the way, have you found any strange stones?"
