Chapter 358 The Mastermind Psychic Asks for a Monthly Ticket (σ≧▽≦)σ
Four children headed towards the art classroom.
After they left, a middle-aged man followed them with light footsteps and a slightly hunched back. The man's face was slightly gloomy, and his smooth head reflected the moonlight outside the window. He raised his hand to touch his head from time to time, and his eyes moved back and forth, as if he was observing the environment, or thinking.
Further back, about ten meters away, two figures stood quietly at the corner, silently watching the situation ahead... These were Jiang Xia and "Amuro Toru".
Although nothing has happened yet, an adult was following several children in the dark night, and the man's expression and actions did not seem like those of a good person... This can easily lead people to a series of associations about illegal crimes.
When Jiang Xia saw the bald man who was very noticeable as the follower from afar, he roughly understood the situation.
If I remember correctly, this should be Conan's dean of studies.
It all started a few days ago: the director's beloved wig was lost, and he didn't want to see anyone during the day, so he had to return to school in the dark at night to look for the wig.
Just now, after discovering that there were still four wandering children in the school, the director was worried that his head would be exposed, so he planned to take a series of measures to scare the children away and then continue searching.
Jiang Xia was just reminiscing when the mermaid next to him happily wagged her tail.
The murderous aura on the body of "Amuro Toru" next to him, which had been almost drained away, suddenly became more abundant.
Jiang Xia turned his head and saw that although Vermouth looked calm, there was a dangerous gleam in her eyes as she looked towards the dean.
He immediately understood - Belmode didn't know the real reason why the director followed the child, and didn't even know that this was actually a teacher at the school. So now, she might have regarded the director as a criminal with some bad intentions.
The criminals' target includes Conan.
……Um?
Jiang Xia touched the murderous aura that had expanded around him, and looked through two windows at Conan who was walking into the art classroom in the distance. Suddenly, he felt that he smelled a business opportunity.
After the director approached the Junior Detective Team, Jiang Xia also moved forward a little.
Then he stopped at the corner, released a ghost to float into the art classroom, and temporarily transferred his vision to the ghost, using it to observe the situation in the room.
…
Conan was worried about alerting any suspicious people in the school, so he didn't turn on the lights. Instead, he used a flashlight to shine on the plaster statue in the art classroom and observed it carefully.
There was indeed a mismatched mark on the plaster base and the table, which corresponded exactly to the mark left by the "victim" in the bizarre rumor. In other words, the rumors about the art classroom were not groundless.
Conan continued to check along the edge of the plaster while thinking.
Soon, he discovered that there was a mark on the forehead of the plaster statue, as if it had been glued.
He looked at it doubtfully and reached out to touch it.
As the flashlight beam shook, Conan suddenly felt something was wrong.
Looking closely, he saw that a mouth had cracked open on the top of the plaster at some point, with sharp teeth standing in the mouth. The terrifying tips of the teeth pressed on Conan's hand that was stretched out to touch the plaster statue, and it seemed that the teeth would suddenly close in the next second and bite off those fingers.
Under Conan's slightly dull gaze, the mouth that appeared inexplicably curled up its lips and grinned into a hideous smile that could make one's heart and lungs stop.
…
Suddenly a scream was heard in the art classroom.
The child's penetrating voice spread far along the quiet and dark corridor.
Jiang Xia retracted his vision and the clay, just in time to see that "Amuro Toru" next to him froze reflexively, as if he wanted to run over to check immediately, but in the end, he thought of something and stopped.
Jiang Xia imitated Vermouth's expression and reacted in a similar way, while glancing at the murderous aura that suddenly emanated from the woman.
... Kudo is so useful.
…
In the art classroom.
Although Conan was startled, he certainly would not be scared by a mere clay mouth.
However, the other three children were frightened by the sudden noise he made, and they hugged each other like frightened birds.
Under their complicated gazes, Conan nervously looked at the plaster statue with a smooth forehead in front of him.
…The scary mouth disappeared, as suddenly as it had appeared.
After observing for a moment, Conan walked closer in disbelief, and touched and knocked on the plaster in confusion, trying to figure out the reason for the strange incident.
The other three children did not see the "mouth" just now.
Ayumi stared at Conan, who was behaving abnormally, in confusion. After hesitating for a moment, she fearfully suggested, "Let's leave here first... or should we go find Brother Jiang Xia?"
Even if she was beaten, she didn't want to stay in this scary place that even Conan would be scared of...
Conan, however, was already completely interested.
He was unable to find the mechanism at first and it was difficult to take the thing away, so he took out his mobile phone and used the last bit of battery to take a picture of this strange plaster statue.
After observing the other plaster statues and finding that none of them had mouths, Conan felt more and more that what he had just encountered must have been a man-made trick. He just couldn't figure out the principle behind it... Perhaps it was some unique material that could expand and then evaporate under certain conditions?
After taking photos of the plaster statue from all angles, Conan touched it one last time and said enthusiastically, "Let's go to the health room and take a look."
With that, he quickly walked out the door.
Conan remembered that a few days ago, someone claimed to have seen the human model in the health room running wildly in the corridor - now it seems that perhaps this series of "weird campus legends" is actually caused by a mastermind who is proficient in chemical materials and is hiding in the shadows.
The other three children looked at each other for a moment, not daring to walk around on their own, and finally had to follow Conan.
A group of people quickly came to the health room.
There are some ordinary-looking tools piled up here, but no cold human-like plaster statues. It is more relaxing than an art classroom.
Ayumi looked around and felt herself calmer.
When the other three students were looking for the human body model, she also wanted to help, so she pulled open a piece of cloth covering something against the wall.
A human model of an adult body without any skin on its surface emerged from under the cloth without any warning.
Ayumi stared blankly at this "person" whose surface was only muscles and blood vessels, and who looked bloody as if he had been skinned. Her scalp exploded, and she let out a throat-tearing scream, and ran out the door at an unprecedented speed.
Conan was stunned, and after he came to his senses, he hurriedly chased after him.
The three little boys ran in the direction Ayumi left, passed two right angles, and then stopped at the stairs in the middle of the corridor - just now, they clearly saw Ayumi turn in here, but at this moment there was no one in front of them, and there was no sound of footsteps fleeing upstairs.
“…Ayumi?”
Conan called out tentatively.
No one responded, only the echo fell to the ground like ripples. The three little boys stood there holding their breath, clearly hearing the sound of their own hearts pounding in the quiet night.
Mitsuhiko said in a voice so weak that it could not be heard: "Ayumi, Ayumi must have been swallowed by the legend..."
With one person gone out of nowhere, Conan was no longer as relaxed as before.
But he firmly believes that there is no "legend": "Those 'weird legends' are all man-made. It is very likely that someone hiding in the school kidnapped Ayumi!"
He looked around, swiveling his flashlight for clues.
Before he could look around, Kojima Genta next to him suddenly let out a scream like a pig being slaughtered.
Conan turned his head suddenly and saw Yuantai raised his hand tremblingly and pointed at the window of the opposite building.
The building here is in the shape of a Chinese character "口". Looking over there, they could see a skinless "person" clinging to the glass opposite, staring at them stiffly and coldly - it was the skinned mannequin from before!
...It couldn't be moving by itself, someone must have moved it. Conan gritted his teeth and rushed over.
Mitsuhiko and Genta followed instinctively.
…
After the children left in a hurry, the wooden door of the tool room on the first floor slowly slid open, revealing three figures.
Jiang Xia let go of Ayumi's hand and looked down at her.
After Ayumi rushed out of the health room just now, she ran around in panic, trying to hide in a corner.
Then he bumped into Jiang Xia who was hiding in the corner as usual.
Then, Ayumi bumped into someone in the dark and opened her mouth to scream in panic, but before she could shout, Jiang Xia covered her mouth.
...Jiang Xia didn't know why he wanted to stop her screaming. Maybe it was just a conditioned reflex after watching too many anime movies.
After doing this, he came to his senses and looked at the other two people in the surrounding space with a little embarrassment.
But Ayumi was already frightened, and she didn't make a sound after Jiang Xia let go.
As for Vermouth, she didn't seem to think there was anything wrong with this reaction. Instead, when Jiang Xia was catching people, she instinctively looked to both sides and confirmed the situation... looking very skilled.
When there is no one around who is embarrassed and no one realizes that something is wrong, then the embarrassment will naturally cease to exist...
The person involved, Jiang Xia, quickly returned to normal.
He waited for a while in the dark as if nothing had happened, and after the three children ran away, he put Ayumi Yoshida on the ground next to him.
Ayumi looked up and saw that it was Jiang Xia. She was stunned for a moment and subconsciously stepped back.
At the same time, she turned her head to look to the side, looking for a friend who could be beaten with her, but there was no one on both sides of the corridor, and the farther she went, the darker it became, as if it was filled with a terrible black fog.
“…”
Ayumi thought about the plaster statue with a cold gaze in the art classroom just now, and then about the human model that looked like it had been skinned alive, and she suddenly shuddered.
Then she tiptoed forward until she was just one step away from bumping into Jiang Xia. She raised her tender little arms and silently hugged Jiang Xia's legs.
...She would rather be beaten by Brother Jiang Xia than be eaten by that horrible model, or have a layer of her skin torn off and become the same kind of person...Compared to the weird legend, at least Brother Jiang Xia is better looking, and he doesn't kill people.
Jiang Xia inexplicably picked up a temporary follower.
He looked at Ayumi, who was not making any noise and whose legs were weak with fear, and felt that this level of naughty child was still acceptable, so he bent down and picked up the child.
Afterwards, Jiang Xia lowered his head to look at his elongated shadow in the dim light, and found that with Ayumi added, the outline of his shadow instantly expanded abnormally. He nodded secretly with satisfaction.
In fact, letting Bu Mei ride on your neck would have a better scaring effect.
But this kid seems to be wearing a skirt today... Never mind.
After adjusting his hugging posture while looking at the shadows on the ground, Jiang Xia planned to continue following to see the current situation of the three children.
However, when he looked up, he saw "Amuro Toru" next to him frowning slightly, wondering what he was thinking about.
Seeing Jiang Xia looking at her, Vermouth, with murderous aura around her, whispered, "I also saw the window opposite through the crack in the door just now. There is indeed a human model facing this side, stuck to the window, but..."
Having said that, she pointed to the corridor that was at right angles to here through two windows.
According to her observation just now, the figure who was following the children was hiding behind the side window.
In other words, someone else moved the human body model.
——In this not-so-big teaching building, besides them, there were actually two other people hiding.
After listening to this, Jiang Xia frowned slightly, keeping in sync with Vermouth.
But then, when Vermouth wasn't paying attention, he glanced at her in confusion.
...He thought that according to Vermouth's concern for her cool guy, she would rush over as soon as she discovered any signs of danger to prevent Conan from getting into trouble. Unexpectedly, Vermouth remained calm.
Is it because the mother and son of the Black Organization have unique parenting, or is it the result of her rational consideration?
The latter actually makes some sense - he and Vermouth have been hiding very well, so in Vermouth's view, in the eyes of the person following Conan, there should be only him and a few other children in the school.
So if the stalker wanted to kill someone, he could just pick up the mop and rush over to kill people. There's no need to beat around the bush to scare people.
Vermouth may have felt that if she rushed over rashly in this non-fatal situation and exposed her affection for Conan to Uzo who was also in the organization, she would lose a lot of advantages - even if she was now wearing the skin of Amuro Toru, this behavior would make Uzo next to her suspicious, and while doubting her attitude towards children, he would also take the opportunity to strip her vest.
Vermouth had a hard time enduring it.
Because of this, the murderous aura in her gradually increased without her noticing.
Jiang Xia watched silently, his mood continued to increase, and he continued to take Ayumi to the health room.
Although he looked a little anxious, trying not to be anxious, he was actually calm in his heart.
After all, based on what happened tonight, Jiang Xia had already guessed which incident this was.
——Two sneaky "bad guys" in the shadows, one of them is the dean of studies who only has the wig in his eyes.
The other is Conan and his classmates’ new homeroom teacher, Sumiko Kobayashi.
Teacher Kobayashi looks very similar to Officer Sato, but his personality is completely different.
In comparison, Kobayashi Sumiko is more introverted and weak, and she is very nervous about the upcoming parent-teacher meeting.
So every night, she would sneak into the school, and in the dark, she would place human models, plaster statues, and some dolls in the classroom, and let them act as students and parents to rehearse parent-teacher conferences... Well, in another sense, she was actually a very courageous person, worthy of being the same model as Officer Sato.
(End of this chapter)
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