**Chapter 160: The Magician's Three Principles**

"Magic?"

Conan frowned upon hearing this.

Was it really magic?

Why did he feel like something was off?

"Fujino-senpai, when did you learn magic?" Ran asked, puzzled as she turned to Fujino.

In her mind, detectives and magicians usually didn't get along.

One spent all their time uncovering the truth behind secrets.

The other tried every way possible to hide the truth using secrets.

The two didn't seem to mix at all.

At least, Kudo Shinichi was like that.

Every time he watched a magic trick, he insisted on figuring out the truth behind it.

"Probably just a few days ago," Fujino nodded, then casually pulled a playing card from his sleeve and handed it to Ran.

"Is this a card trick?" Ran asked, confused as she accepted the card.

"Something like that," Fujino said, and with a flick of his hand, the card disappeared into thin air before their eyes.

Then, under their astonished gazes, he reached into his front pocket.

After rummaging for a bit, he pulled out the same card.

"Amazing," Ran said, though she couldn't quite figure out how Fujino had done it, she felt it was impressive.

"It's nothing, really. My technique still isn't very polished," Fujino chuckled awkwardly. "It's just some sleight-of-hand tricks. I thought if we're dealing with Kaitou Kid, we might as well fight magic with magic, so I decided to learn a bit."

'Haha... just a bit of learning?'

Conan was speechless.

Although, to him, magic was just a trick to deceive people, it wasn't something one could learn in a day.

Besides, he hadn't even seen how Fujino pulled off the card trick just now.

The card was understandable—quick hands could explain that.

But how did he make a wooden sword appear?

He was curious.

Thinking about it, he asked Fujino, "But Fujino, where did you hide such a long wooden sword?"

"How many times have I told you to call me Fujino-nii!" Fujino squatted down, grabbed Conan's head, and started rubbing it vigorously.

Conan's scalp tingled, and he felt like he was in agony, wishing for an end to it all.

After giving Conan a soft form of torture to pay him back for disturbing his peaceful day, Fujino stood up and continued, "Of course, I can't reveal how magic tricks are done. Secrets make magic more mysterious... and besides, one of the magician's three principles is to never reveal the secrets of the magic."

"The magician's three principles?" Ran tilted her head in confusion.

"Fujino-senpai is probably referring to the S.A.M. three principles," Sonoko suddenly chimed in. "They are: never reveal details of a trick before the performance, never perform the same trick at the same place and time, and never reveal the secrets of the magic."

"Sonoko, you actually know about that?" Ran was surprised that Sonoko was familiar with what sounded like complicated principles.

"Of course!" Sonoko said proudly. "I learned all this from a magic enthusiast forum."

"A magic forum?"

"Yep," Sonoko explained. "It's a website called the Magic Enthusiasts' Alliance. All the members there are magic lovers."

"So that's how it is. I didn't know you made friends online, Sonoko," Ran said.

"Online friendships are pretty normal, right?" Fujino suddenly said. "After all, the times are changing, and the internet is becoming more widespread. It won't be long before computers and mobile devices replace traditional ways of making friends... In fact, it probably won't be long before we have chat groups with hundreds, even thousands of people."

He wasn't just making wild guesses—he had evidence to back it up.

Because the future he came from was just like that.

Maybe ten or twenty years from now.

But in this world of Conan... it might take less than a year for things to develop that way.

"Chat groups with hundreds or thousands of people?!" Ran was stunned.

"That must be a lively group," Sonoko mumbled to herself, secretly imagining all the handsome guys who'd be in it.

After daydreaming for a bit, she looked up at Fujino and asked, "So, Fujino-senpai, you like going online too?"

"Yeah," Fujino nodded. "I just bought a laptop recently, though I haven't joined any chat groups yet."

"So you bought a computer too, Fujino-senpai! In that case, I'll send you the address later..."

Seeing that they were engrossed in their conversation, Conan decided not to pursue his questions further.

Magic really was the best explanation.

He couldn't have just made it appear out of thin air, right? 

That would be way too unscientific! 

But where exactly did that guy hide such a long wooden sword...

After thinking for a long time, racking his brain, Conan still couldn't figure out how Fujino managed to produce the wooden sword.

At the same time, his cough worsened.

It was too difficult, so Conan gave up thinking about it.

Now that he thought about it, Kaitou Kid could somehow pull out a glider from who knows where.

So, Fujino casually producing a wooden sword seemed somewhat reasonable.

Meanwhile, Fujino opened the system interface and fell into deep thought as he looked at the unfinished system task.

He had already caught the culprit, and the police had taken them away.

Logically, this system task should be complete by now.

But why was there no progress or notification? 

Could it be that the task wasn't actually finished? 

Was there still something suspicious about the bank robbery case?

Pondering this, Fujino started reviewing the footage from his enhanced vision glasses.

First, the man entered through the bank's back door when the employee opened it, then he assaulted the employee, drove the female employee away, and made the male employee help him pack the money...

While packing the money, the robber coughed twice, then found a chair to sit on. He reached into the pocket of a brown suit jacket draped over the chair, and just as the male employee he had knocked out tried to launch a sneak attack—

The phone rang.

Wait a minute...

Suddenly, Fujino noticed something odd.

Things were urgent at the time, so he hadn't paid attention.

But now, watching the footage again, he realized that right before the phone rang, the robber had touched his chest.

It was as if he was checking that the call wasn't coming from his own phone before he turned around and fired his gun.

A robber bringing a phone to a heist? 

That's really strange.

This guy had been making mistakes ever since he entered—first, choosing a male employee to pack the money, then bringing a phone, and even randomly reaching into the male employee's suit pocket...

Wait!

Suddenly, the clues in Fujino's mind clicked into place.

He remembered it now.

This must be an original plotline from *Detective Conan*, right? 

Although his memory was a bit fuzzy, he still remembered how, in that episode, Ran's skirt fluttered when she played bowling with Sonoko.

Back then, he had been wondering whether Ran was wearing... uh, never mind.

That wasn't important. What mattered was that he now knew who the robber's accomplice was.

If the robber's mistakes weren't actually mistakes, then it all made sense! 

Everything fit together perfectly.

Since Fujino was familiar with Inspector Megure and his team, they were questioned first by the police.

At that moment, inside the bank, the employees and the arriving customers were still being questioned by the police.

Even after being questioned, they couldn't leave the bank right away.

Only after everyone had been questioned and Inspector Megure gave the signal would people be allowed to go.

Fujino lifted his head and glanced around the room.

In an instant, he spotted the main suspect.

If he wasn't mistaken, the robber's accomplice had to be that person.

"Brother Fujino, if you have the time, could you come with us to make a statement?" 

Just then, Inspector Megure, who had just finished handling some matters, approached Fujino and said, "By the way, we also need to discuss some commendations and awards."

"That's not urgent."

"Not urgent?"

Inspector Megure looked at him in surprise.

He gave Fujino a strange look.

Brother Fujino was acting a bit odd today.

Normally, if there were any talk of commendations, Fujino would be very enthusiastic.

But today...

"Do you have something else to take care of, brother?" 

Inspector Megure asked, puzzled.

"Not exactly," Fujino paused, then said in a serious tone, "It's just that the truth behind this bank robbery goes far deeper than we've seen."

Inspector Megure frowned slightly. He was no stranger to cases within cases, so he only said with mild curiosity, "The truth goes deeper than this?"

"If I'm not wrong, that robber should have had an accomplice."

Fujino glanced around, then looked at the still-unfinished system task, and said.

"He had an accomplice?" 

Inspector Megure looked stunned.

Conan, hearing this, narrowed his eyes in thought.

From the beginning, he had felt something was off.

So the robber had an accomplice on the inside—that made sense.

If that were the case...

Suddenly, Conan seemed to think of something. He silently walked to the side and crouched down, starting to search for something.

"The robber entered through the back door of the bank, but I just checked—the back door can only be opened by bank employees."

Fujino, after organizing his thoughts, continued, "In other words, the robber barged in when the employee opened the door, but how did he know the employee would go out at that specific time? It's clear someone on the inside helped him. At that moment, the accomplice was already inside the bank."

Inspector Megure stroked his chin, nodding in agreement.

He didn't waste any time and directly asked, "Do you have any leads on the accomplice's identity, Brother Fujino?"

(End of chapter)