"First-day sales of 480,000!"
"The New King of Mystery Fiction!"
"Famous Detective and Famous Mystery Novelist, 1+1 > 2!"
"A combination of magic and crime, an unprecedented artistic technique!"
"Highly recommended by the super popular idol Ms. Yoko Okino!"
"The most grand autograph session ever!"
...
Hayashi Yoshiki barely completed the signing event, at the cost of his hands being sore for several days. Futaba Publishing spared no expense on publicity and promotion.
Newspapers, radio stations, TV ads, offline promotions…
Wherever there was anything related to mystery fiction, you could see traces of Futaba Publishing's hard work.
The book released this time was "The Case Files of Young Kindaichi: The Magic Train Murder Case." In the original Kindaichi series, this story is definitely one of the most brilliant!
Even if we put aside the extremely exciting criminal methods in this story, the protagonist Kindaichi's enduring rival, the genius criminal planner who calls himself the "Puppet Master of Hell," Takato Yoichi, is truly amazing when he sheds his timid disguise and reveals his arrogant inner self after the truth is revealed.
ShinmeiKaori: "It was a real surprise! This is a perfect display of artistic crime, and it is full of the thrill of the battle between genius and devil. Thank you, Mr. Hayashi, for bringing us such a wonderful story!"
Yusaku Kudo: "The impossible crime that happened on the train, the body that disappeared as if by magic and suddenly reappeared in the distance—everything was like God's hand threading the needle. The truth is shocking!"
…
…
Along with the release of the book, many reviews from mystery novelists and critics were published in newspapers, and even some magicians joined in the fun.
In a bar…
Cohen sat in the corner of the dimly lit bar, his eyes devouring the words in the book, his whole body immersed in a fervent excitement. "Art… It's so artistic!!"
Chianti, who was nearby, felt her scalp tingle as she heard his unconscious murmurs. She rubbed the goosebumps on her arms in disgust.
"Abnormal!"
Even Vodka looked at Cohen speechlessly.
Can mental illness be contagious? he wondered.
He glanced at his boss, Gin.
"Brother, why don't you use a lamp? Isn't that bad for your eyes?"
"Shut up."
Gin, unconcerned by the dim bar, read the book in his hand quickly.
He had no interest in detective novels, but this was a creation by Hayashi Yoshiki (Cointreau), after all.
The story begins when Kindaichi's friend, Inspector Kenmochi, receives a warning letter about a crime. It states that death and terror will occur on a certain train in three days, and the letter is signed by the "Puppet Master of Hell."
So, to prevent a potential murder, Kindaichi and others board the train on that day.
On the train, a magic troupe known both at home and abroad as the "Fantasy Magicians" was performing. They would continue their grand show until they reached the final stop—an annual tradition for this magic team.
As the magicians began to perform one after another, the "Puppet Master of Hell" also took action.
He used lies and pranks to deceive the passengers into believing that a bomb would explode in thirty minutes, forcing the train to stop for inspection. However, what they found thirty minutes later was a very small rose-themed bomb, evidently a prank.
The passengers subsequently re-boarded the train, but Kindaichi and his companions discovered the corpse of the magician leader in a luxury carriage. The corpse was surrounded by a large number of balloons and thorny roses, presenting a poetic and weirdly gorgeous scene. However, when Kindaichi and his companions wanted to go forward to check, smoke suddenly rose from the midst of the corpse.
Fearing that a real bomb was about to explode, Kindaichi and his companions hurriedly exited the carriage and closed the door. What followed was the sound of a large number of balloons bursting.
Later, the body in the carriage had disappeared without a trace, leaving only broken balloons and a profusion of flowers.
The protagonists wondered if this was a magic prank played on them by the magician leader. But after arriving at the hotel at the terminal, they unexpectedly found the leader's body in a room, with limbs twisted, hanging in the air like a puppet.
…
Gin was not particularly interested in magic, and compared to the story in the Wax Man Castle (assuming this is a previous work by Hayashi or a known Kindaichi case), it was indeed a bit difficult for him to deduce the answer.
After reading to the end, even he had to admit that it was indeed a clever trick and magical enough.
The body of the leader that appeared in the carriage was actually only his head. His hands and even his body under his clothes were disguised by balloons. When the protagonists retreated in fear of the smoke in the carriage, the thorns of the roses and the small rose bombs detonated the balloons, and the head inside was taken away from the carriage by a sophisticated magic trick.
The murderer, disguised as a timid magic troupe manager, packed the whole body in a prepared package. When the train stopped, he exchanged it with another transport package he had sent before departure, so that the body was sent to the hotel.
Essentially, the murderer's clever use of the rose bomb at the beginning successfully deceived the protagonists and carefully connected the initial impossible crime, allowing it to advance from an ordinary grand illusion to a super grand illusion with greatly improved scope in time and space. In addition, the use of broken puppets as a premonition of the murder also concealed the purpose of dismemberment, which was a very good auxiliary trick.
"Hmph, famous detective…"
Under Vodka's gaze, Gin sneered inexplicably.
He spends all day thinking about how to kill people, and even now uses artistic techniques in his books… This is Hayashi (Cointreau)!
However, the character that Gin found most interesting in the book was the "Puppet Master of Hell," Takato Yoichi.
In the book, Kindaichi asked him why, with his intellect, he didn't just kill those people without alerting anyone, instead sending a threatening letter in advance and carrying out such a risky plan on a moving train.
"Because that's boring."
"Performing an artistic crime that was as wonderful as a completed magic trick, full of puzzles and weirdness, and instantly captivating the packed audience—yes, as a magician."
Shedding the disguise of being weak and gullible, Takato Yoichi's cheerful and arrogant personality was particularly eye-catching.
He took pleasure in deceiving others and equated murder and revenge with artistic creation. He was undoubtedly a happy criminal.
There can't be any mistake!
This is the true face of Hayashi (Cointreau)!
Appearing to be kind and gentle, but secretly, he was constantly creating art that involved so-called accidental murders, and he felt happy about it—had he actually projected himself into the book he created?
The end of the story is that Takato Haruichi was handcuffed and sent to prison.
But Gin was sure that this character's story would not end here.
"Interesting…"
Turning to the last few pages, one finds a very interesting "murder method."
The reason why Takato Yoichi attacked several members of the "Fantasy Magicians" was to avenge his mother, Reiko Chikamiya—Reiko Chikamiya was the original founder of the "Fantasy Magicians." She created many magic tricks in her life and recorded them in her notebook. The members of the team coveted her notebook, forced her, and eventually killed her.
But in fact, Reiko Chikamiya had already anticipated that the members of the team had ill intentions, so she left a trap in the final escape magic.
In that magic trick, the performer needs to be tied up, hands and feet, and crawl into a container, which will then be ignited by fire.
The magician themselves has to untie the restraints inside the container and then use their hand to gently stroke a phosphorous material with a very low ignition point hidden in the container to ignite it.
However, the spotlights on the stage would cause the phosphorus to ignite prematurely, and the performer could not escape at all.
In other words, the original victim, Reiko, enacted her revenge many years later through her creation.
After a long silence, Gin put the book back on the bar.
At this moment, Chianti finally couldn't stand it anymore and screamed:
"You bastard, have you had enough? This is disgusting!!"
"Art… this is art!" Cohen also couldn't help but slam the table and praise loudly.
The victim in Hayashi's book—the leader of the magic team whose disappeared body was described at great length—was apparently named Cohen.
The final result was that this character was dismembered and hung from the ceiling like a puppet. Reading the text of that scene, Cohen's (the real one) heart pounded with excitement.
"Brother, the psychiatrist who examined Hayashi (Cointreau) before… should we ask him to check on Cohen?" Vodka could see Cohen's flushed face from a distance. He couldn't help but scratch his cheek with his fingers and asked hesitantly.
Gin lit a cigarette.
Cohen was a rare diligent guy in the organization. He was taciturn and always carried out his tasks without a word.
After a while, Gin said, "You go and arrange it."
"OK." Vodka nodded immediately.
"Not bad! I think it's more interesting than any of your previous works! The magic-themed crime is very interesting. I think the character of Takato Yoichi won't be gone for good, right? So next time, if you plan to write this kind of plot again, I can be your free consultant," Kuroba Kaito said on the phone.
"Well, the next story I want to write is about a high school boy who follows in his father's footsteps and becomes a magic thief. How about you become my consultant then, Kuroba Kaito?" Hayashi Yoshiki replied.
"I'm telling you, can't you just talk to me properly…"
Hayashi Yoshiki smiled at Kaito's resentful tone and stopped teasing him. Instead, he suddenly said seriously that he would definitely ask him for advice when the time came.
This suddenly left Kuroba Kaito disarmed.
He was often teased by Hayashi Yoshiki, but now, seeing that he was so serious and sincere, Kaito was actually a little moved.
He was so moved that he felt a little carried away, but before he could say anything more, Hayashi Yoshiki hung up the phone.
The release of the new work did cause a huge response.
Many people congratulated Hayashi and expressed their thoughts after reading it, such as Conan, Hakuba Saguru, Hattori Heiji… even Gin posted a message.
Gin: "It's well written, but don't be too confident. You actually wrote yourself into the book."
Reading this message, Hayashi Yoshiki just felt confused.
Is even Gin sick these days?
In addition to Gin:
Cohen: "Too artistic!!!!!!!!!"
Chianti: "Cointreau, can you please stop writing about Cohen? This idiot has become a little crazy lately. It's creepy! He can't even shoot accurately when practicing with a gun lately!"
Chianti: "Damn it!"
Chianti: "Fuck!"
Such foul language,Hayashi Yoshiki thought, choosing not to respond.
Yoko Okino: "Yoshiki-kun is so awesome! I recently asked everyone in the circle to help promote him, and it turned out that many people are fans of Yoshiki-kun!"
Shimizu Reiko: [Image.jpg]
Shimizu Reiko: [Image.jpg]
…
The photos sent showed her, completely naked but with nothing explicit exposed, using a signed copy of Hayashi Yoshiki's book to cover her breasts or buttocks.
Hayashi Yoshiki responded tentatively.
What interested him more now was the information from Kudo Yusaku.
Kudo Yusaku: "I am really impressed by Yoshiki-kun's new work this time. The various details and ingenuity made me unable to resist reading it several times… In fact, when everyone was discussing things at work yesterday, I couldn't help but hold it in my hands and read it, and it ended up attracting everyone's attention."
Kudo Yusaku: "Yoshiki-kun, do you know the IT company called Schindler?"
Hayashi Yoshiki: "Schindler?"
Kudo Yusaku: "You can check it out first. If you are interested, I have good news for you."
Hayashi Yoshiki replied, "OK." He waited for about ten minutes before Kudo Yusaku sent another message.
Kudo Yusaku: "The artificial intelligence mentioned in the news is real, and it will be available on the market soon."
Kudo Yusaku: "To be honest, Schindler Corporation is using the power of artificial intelligence to develop a groundbreaking game, and I am currently in charge of writing the script for one of the sections."
Kudo Yusaku: "Everyone at the meeting noticed your new work, and the chairman of Schindler seemed to be interested in it, so I recommended you to him."
Kudo Yusaku: "After all, Japan is a market they value very much. Your fame and ability will be very helpful."
Kudo Yusaku: "How about it, are you interested? It would be interesting to add your name to the producer column of a groundbreaking game, right?"
Here it comes,Hayashi Yoshiki thought, a smile playing on his lips.
Although it felt like the influence of a Death Note in terms of how things were unfolding, Hayashi Yoshiki also had to accept Kudo Yusaku's kindness.
In the original plot of Detective Conan, Yusaku Kudo was indeed involved in writing the game script for "Cocoon," and Dr. Agasa also got involved in the game's development.
Hayashi Yoshiki quickly gave a positive answer.
Hayashi Yoshiki: "Thank you very much for this opportunity, Yusaku-san."
Kudo Yusaku: "Haha, after all, this is also a reflection of your personal ability, Yoshiki-kun. And I have to thank you for taking care of Shinichi."
The two exchanged pleasantries for a while, and after confirming that there were no problems, they ended the conversation.
Hayashi Yoshiki could now start looking for flights to the United States.