The Phantom Thief of Heart! But Conan.

Chapter 1157 Tell the truth

"How's Mr. Itakura doing?"

"Ah, it seems the rescue is over. The hospital said that although the golden time for emergency treatment has been missed, Mr. Itakura is already taking medicine to prepare for a bypass surgery, and his will to survive is very strong..." When he said this, Takagi Wataru's expression couldn't help but become a little weird.

Not only him, but almost everyone present remembered the tenacious Braille chessboard left behind by Itakura Taku who was tied up and unable to move.

...I have to admit, it's very convincing.

"Well, this is a happy ending for everyone."

As Megure Juzo spoke, he glanced at Soma Ryusuke, who had been handcuffed by his subordinates. He saw that his shoulders slumped when he heard the news, and he didn't know whether he was shocked or relieved of the pressure.

The murderer failed and the victim was safe and sound.

Even if this situation is just a lucky accident, all impulsive, peaceful, thoughtless, and well-thought-out disagreements and contradictions, as well as the opportunity to clarify and find another solution, are much better than being dead and unable to come back to life.

Ryusuke Soma looked down at the handcuffs on his hands, said nothing, and followed them out in silence.

As usual, Kogoro Mouri was kept behind by Juzo Megure, and was forced to deal with the aftermath of the scene in which he had no involvement. Ran Mouri consciously took Conan and two other unlucky clients who were innocently involved, and walked out of this temporary shell that originally belonged to Taku Itakura.

"The project is definitely not on schedule. However, there are now legitimate reasons for delaying it."

"Indeed. If Mr. Itakura could wake up sooner and fix the core algorithm..."

"Are you still thinking about this?"

"You said that as if you didn't mean it that way."

Ran Mouri looked at the two guys who were still thinking about work and competition at this moment, shook her head, and looked down at Conan who was following behind her.

"What about you? Have you resolved your issue?"

Conan would take such a risk today. Even though it would be easy to be discovered, he still asked someone to cover him up and get in touch with the evidence. He must have a purpose.

Conan, who was deep in thought with his head down, was brought back to his senses by her voice. He nodded vaguely and answered a few words, his mind still lingering on what he had just seen.

Since it was impossible for him to calmly take out other storage media in front of the police and directly copy Itakura Taku's diary, he could only directly copy each document and paste them into the newly created document page, and then take advantage of the sleeping Kogoro Mouri's powerful power to transfer the things away.

Therefore, in just a few quick glances, he immediately saw the key points of the document.

——Those blank spaces seem to be the blank lines used to separate diary entries, but in fact they are white text that can only be seen after they are selected and inverted.

This is not a technical encryption method. In fact, for a programmer of Itakura Taku's technical level, it is a bit humorous and childish.

But Taku Itakura did just that, and he did it for many years.

Just like the floppy disk with the word "Diary" on it, this is most likely the message that Itakura Taku wanted to leave for others.

The reason for using such a simple ciphertext technique is probably because there is a concern that someone who gets the file won't be able to find it, and there are also other encryption methods that would require additional operations...

In other words, it is very likely that Taku Itakura did this because he knew that he was being monitored while writing his diary.

Considering that Itakura Taku is an anxious persecutor, this may not be entirely true, but his sense of crisis cannot be groundless...

"Sister Xiaolan, I have to go to the doctor..." Conan clenched the things in his pocket, "I'll go at noon..."

"Well, it looks like your business is done." Mao Lilan shook her head helplessly, "Go ahead, Mr. Itakura has been rescued. You can wait for him to wake up and tell us about the next situation. There's no problem here."

Even if Kogoro Mouri knew nothing about Conan's reasoning, it would not delay the handling of the case.

and so……

"Go save your world, little hero."

----

"What? Shinichi, you found another clue related to them?"

Dr. Agasa was shocked when he saw Conan coming without saying hello.

To be honest, although he did think so when he came up with the idea, and felt that having the title of a famous detective would make it easier to get in touch with various problematic cases than searching around like a headless fly, he still didn't expect that Conan could collect information related to the organization so efficiently.

"...What do you mean by again? It's really lucky to meet him once." Conan's mouth twitched as he carefully checked the surrounding environment.

After confirming the information, he will definitely have to find Haibara Ai to learn more about the situation, but at this stage, he plans to check the content himself first.

If his guess was correct, some key information must have been recorded here.

After inserting the memory card into the card reader, Conan first opened the surveillance videos stored in it.

Itakura Taku does have the habit of cleaning up content regularly, but it is impossible that the content can only be used for 12 hours. The software is set for 12 hours because the clips exceeding this time are transferred to the memory card.

"There was video footage almost from the moment he entered the hotel..."

After confirming the time to start recording, Conan pursed his lips, not knowing for a moment how to evaluate this victim who he had only heard the voice of and was lying down when he saw him.

If you say he is rigorous, his whereabouts are actually very easy to find. Whether it is a partner who wants to kill him or an organization that has other intentions towards him, it is not difficult to find him.

You could say he wasn't being rigorous, but with all the little gadgets, he looked like a very self-aware victim. This made it easier for the police and detectives who came to clean up his room...

Thinking of this, Conan clicked on the video and watched it at a faster speed.

Several partners were generally right in their complaints about Itakura Taku. He is a weirdo with severe obsessive-compulsive disorder and special persistence in many strange things.

He almost always had a fixed schedule every day. He would check the placement of things in the room two or three times, and the documents on the table would be placed at right angles. Even if he was the only one living in the room, he would meticulously take various measures to prevent others from snooping, such as putting notes and pen refills in the gaps of drawers, and placing hair on the door hinges.

Life has been keeping this routine for the past few days, and it's been regular, but it can be seen that Itakura Taku's condition is not very good.

He was anxious about something and often woke up after falling asleep, reconfirming the tasks, as if he was afraid that his living area had been invaded without his knowledge.

Until three days ago, Ryusuke Soma came to the door as he said.

The fixed camera position of the surveillance camera cannot record all the interactions between the two people, but Ryusuke Soma did not lie about the specific situation at that time.

When Itakura Taku found out that he had come to his house, he breathed a sigh of relief, but at the same time, he showed obvious perfunctory and impatience, which angered Soma Ryusuke.

Shortly after leaving the room, he returned to the room with the prepared tools, put sleeping pills in the wine, and then tied the unconscious Itakura Taku tightly to a chair.

After doing all this, Ryusuke Soma looked down at Taku Itakura, who had not yet woken up, for a while, his expression changing from gloomy to bright, and finally, he turned and left.

The following scene is like a freeze-frame image. Except for the fact that Itakura Taku finally woke up after a few hours and tried hard to save himself, there is almost no change.

After struggling for a long time and realizing he couldn't break free on his own, Itakura Taku briefly collapsed and gave up for a while. Finally, he struggled to pull his socks off bit by bit with his toes and started to arrange the chess pieces...

"...That's quite impressive." Dr. Agasa, who hadn't figured out how these things were related to the organization, could only stand back and watch a show, and gave his comment.

"Maybe talented people are just a little different." After thinking about it, Conan, who didn't know what words to use to describe it, just made a helpless expression, and found that the picture that had been frozen for a while finally changed.

Due to the camera's position, the surveillance camera cannot clearly see the situation at the entrance of the room. It can only barely see the door opening and closing and people entering and exiting from an angle diagonally above.

The door that had been closed by Ryusuke Soma for more than 24 hours was suddenly pushed open.

Itakura Taku, who was gasping for breath with his head down, was almost soaked in sweat. He had stopped taking his medicine regularly because he was trapped. His poor heart was under increasing pressure and he was almost dying.

He was slow to realize the movement of the door, and reluctantly raised his head towards the door...

"Ah...no picture. Is this the end of the video?"

Dr. Agasa, who was becoming more and more nervous and couldn't help holding his breath, noticed that the screen suddenly went black and asked instinctively.

Conan shook his head, his brows furrowed deeply.

This certainly cannot be the end of the video. The real ending is the part that Inspector Megure and the others saw, which is the part where Taku Itakura was placed next to the desk and waited for death silently.

That black screen...

"Has the surveillance footage been taken care of? Then Shinichi..."

"Shh!" Conan, who was listening attentively, raised a finger and turned the volume to the maximum.

Dr. Agasa's computer speaker was not very loud, and the surveillance camera placed in the corner had very poor sound reception. Conan had to almost put his ear close to it before he finally caught some sound.

A fuzzy, distorted, but still recognizable clear boy's voice came from the speakers.

"...Oh, it seems I've arrived at an inopportune moment. Mr. Itakura, do you need my help?"

----

"Mr. Itakura, Mr. Itakura...?"

"Um?!"

Itakura Taku, who was in a daze, felt someone patting his shoulder. He shuddered and turned his head sharply.

When he realized it was the nurse in charge of his bed, he raised his hand blankly. Itakura Taku shook his head, put his hand on his chest, and scolded him angrily: "Why are you walking without making any noise? It's scary. Really, I thought it was... Next time, if you have something to say, just talk about it."

The young nurse holding the notebook rolled her eyes, wondering who was scaring whom. After adjusting herself for a while, she handed over the document in her hand.

"Hurry up and read the instructions, drink water and eat, and I'll try to get your surgery scheduled tonight. Mr. Itakura, please hurry up."

After handing over the documents, the nurse turned and left.

She didn't know what the patient's situation was, whether he was a relative of a hospital manager or something like that, or why he took such a special channel. But in short, there were many complicated stories behind such patients, and it was not appropriate to find out more about them.

Itakura Taku caught it and wanted to call the nurse to ask for details, but he reflexively raised his hand and fumbled for his glasses at the bedside. When he looked down at the document in his hand, he couldn't help but be stunned.

He saw clearly the words on the document.

It is an informed consent form confirming the bypass surgery, informing him of the precautions for the surgery, the specific surgery schedule, etc.

There was nothing surprising in the content. This was something that had been discussed when he was admitted to the hospital.

He couldn't face the police for the time being, or rather, he didn't know what he could say and what he couldn't say. He could only remain silent until he was sure of his safety.

But it is also a fact that Soma tried to kill himself. At this time, he might have been easily arrested by the police because of the surveillance footage he left behind. The police will definitely come to him to confirm the specific details of the case.

In order to prolong this time as much as possible and avoid causing bigger problems, he chose to find a reliable surgeon to perform the long-delayed heart bypass surgery on the spot.

At that time, the hospital can inform the police that his heart problem can no longer be delayed, and in order not to endanger his life, he has chosen to have a bypass surgery. Naturally, he can remain in a coma for a while.

There is nothing wrong with the above, it is all a well-negotiated process. The only problem is...

"I see clearly?" Itakura Taku murmured to himself, "My, my eyes..."

From the moment he opened his eyes and got up, he felt that something was wrong with him. Only now did he finally realize that without wearing glasses or using eye drops, he could see the world clearly with his own eyes.

Putting down the paper in disbelief, Itakura Taku raised his hand and touched his eyelids tremblingly, but his action was interrupted by another voice.

"Your eyes have recovered."

Hearing the sound at the door, Itakura Taku raised his head. A male doctor in a white coat and with loose hair had walked into the ward at some point and closed the door.

"You, you are also his..."

"Don't worry about where I'm from." Asai Narimi smiled at him. "All you need to know is that we can cure you. My boss may be a little different from those you've met in the past. He may have many shortcomings, but his greatest strength remains unchanged. That is, he always keeps his word."

No matter how incredible it is.