Chapter 176: Chapter 175 – Decades long Mystery – Solved?

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Kenichi and the two ninjas he hired sat down and made themselves comfortable.

"Alright. What can I help you with?"

"What can you tell us about your father?" Kakashi asked the man while Daichi payed close attention to him.

Kenichi was confused. "What's this about? I thought you were looking into the person who broke into my home?"

"We are. But if we want to find the culprit and retrieve the stolen items then we need more information. We need to know if your father had any enemies? The more information we have the better. I know this might be a difficult subject but we need your help if we want to solve this." Kakashi said in a reassuring tone.

"Okay. What do you want to know about him?"

"Anything and everything you can tell us."

"My father Ichiro was a kind man. He followed in grandfather's footsteps and continued the family business." Kenichi had a smile on his face as he recalled memories of his father.

"He was a brilliant man but he was also a cautious one. He made sure not to step on any toes and that's how he was able to expand the business beyond the capital without making enemies. Father truly believed the history behind the heirloom. He spent his days taking care of me and my mother and growing the business. During the last several years he suffered from memory loss and loss of muscle movement."

"Your father traveled a lot, didn't he?" Daichi asked.

Kenichi nodded his head. "He's visited all over the world and met all kinds of people."

Daichi and Kakashi questioned the man for about half an hour before they were somewhat satisfied. The two ninjas then decided to look around the house to see if they could find something all the others missed.

As they looked around Daichi's eyes were drawn to several animal and bird sculptures locked behind a glass shelf. He used 'observe' skill on one of them and the information he found amazed him.

[Puppet - Crow]

[A chakra puppet created by Niya Ikaru. Special weightless but strong materials were used in the creation of this puppet. This mechanical puppet can only be activated if a certain chakra is poured into it. Once activated this puppet can follow the commands set by the person who activated it. This puppet was mainly used for reconnaissance. Can fly and observe an area or target for several hours and return to the user. Materials used are….]

At that moment a new notification appeared.

[Blueprint for the puppet can be acquired if you examine its inner mechanics.]

Daichi was about to ask if he could look at the puppet more closely but then immediately fell silent. 'I need to be careful with my intentions.'

"Those sculptures look so real. Who created them?" Daichi asked Kenichi.

The man looked at the objects on the shelf. "My mother. She had a fascination with such things. My grandmother was from the wind country. She had a love for puppets. I guess my mother picked it up from her. Those puppets can move for several seconds and can mimic the real thing… Well it was made in a way that only my mother's chakra could make it move."

"I see…"

Daichi looked at the puppets on the shelf and committed their image to memory. He had some things to do.

At that moment Kakashi came and gathered his student. "Well, we will get out of your hair for the moment."

Daichi and his sensei left the house and made their way to an Inn. The rooms were provided by Kenichi till they completed their mission.

"So have you drawn any conclusions?" Kakashi asked his student.

"His father travels a lot. Has contacts in several places… Kenichi's father is a good suspect for the thief…". 'And those puppets… He's an excellent candidate.' Daichi replied as he looked out the window.

"But…"

"But it doesn't fit… The theft at his house occurred after he died. And I'm sure that it was done by the Phantom… Did you get them?"

"Yes." Kakashi took a small book that their client gave them. "This is his father's travel journal. It noted down all his travels in and out of Fire country. The man was meticulous."

Daichi opened the scroll on the Phantom thief and laid the contents on the desk and examined the time and location of the thefts. He then compared them to Ichiro's business trips.

"A few of the thefts coincide with his travels but many took place while he was on the other side of the map…"

Kakashi sighed and looked at the setting sun. "Let's call it a day. We'll resume tomorrow with fresh eyes."

Daichi closed his eyes and thought about the situation. 'Before, we were investigating the thief but now we're also looking into Kenichi's father. It's like going in two directions at the same time but it's not going to help. Everything I learned till now are different pieces of the puzzle but it doesn't fit right.'

"But where do we start?" He asked his teacher.

"With the infamous mystery thief of course." Kakashi's voice brought Daichi out of his thoughts. "We'll start with him and then once we figure out his identity we'll take it from there."

Daichi nodded his head in agreement. He looked at the mountain of documents in front of him. 'There must be something here that we're missing.'

"I'll see you tomorrow morning, sensei." With those words Daichi got up and left. He went outside and was looking to buy a few items. 'The materials, color and design should be identical. This will be somewhat tricky.'

Daichi spent a couple hours roaming the capital streets and bought the items he needed. He returned to his room and got to work.

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"Morning sensei. I see you're already working." Daichi greeted his teacher and saw that Kakashi was going over the files.

"This is one the trickiest C Ranks I've had in a long time."

Daichi nodded at that sentiment and then Kakashi took a map and placed it near the table. It was a detailed map of the world with important locations marked. It was difficult to acquire but with Shigeru's help the task was completed.

Daichi looked over the different thefts that occurred and he was impressed.

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While his student was studying the Thief's methods, Kakashi began marking the locations on the map where the thief hit. The dates and locations seemed random with no discerning pattern.

Daichi was impressed with the Phantom's work. "Man, whoever this is… They're really impressive. Stealing the Jewel from the earth Daimyo's castle in broad daylight… Robbing a painting from the Fire Capital royal court the night it was unveiled… Rare diamonds… This guy had flair. The total estimated value of everything he stole would be around 500 million and above. And no one could even find any trace of him. A master of either stealth or disguise. Or maybe even both."

"Yes. But the things he stole are too unique. Even if you put them up for auction in the black market you'd be found almost immediately. He couldn't have sold it. That would have put a huge target on his back." Kakashi said as he looked at the dates and places of the theft.

They spend hours combing through the reports and as Daichi was looking at something Kakashi called out to him. The Jonin placed a paper with several dates notes down on it.

"Daichi, tell me, do these dates seem interesting to you?" Kakashi asked him.

Daichi looked at the dates noted down on the paper. '17/03, 11/02, 04/06, 10/04, 05/09, 14/08, 13/09….'

Daichi looked at them for a few moments and shook his head. "No. Did you find something in them?"

"The first time the Phantom thief made his appearance. 17th March. That year he only made one appearance. The next year he made two. On 11th February and 04 of June… The culprit isn't just interested in fame and rare items. He also has a fascination with numbers."

Daichi looked at the numbers again and tried to see what his sensei had found.

Seeing Daichi's silence, Kakashi continued. "The first date. 17/03. Now if you add the individual numbers in that date, 1+7+3 you get-"

"11." Daichi's eyes widened. He looked at the dates again and at the month and something clicked in his head. "Add 11 months to the 3 (March) and you get February. The second month."

"Precisely. The date of the next robbery. 11/02. Now add the individual numbers up. 1+1+2 and you get 4. Add 4 months to February and the date of the next robbery is 04th of June."

Daichi looked at the dates and Kakashi's theory was correct. "So the date of the next robbery was in the previous one. How has no one figured this out yet?"

"You would need to wait for a while for the pattern to emerge. And most people wouldn't look at the dates so closely at first. Still, I doubt we're the first people to make this connection." Kakashi said.

Daichi sat back with his arms crossed and compiled all the information they had on their target. 'This guy has no problem letting the world know of the date for his next heist. He's bold. He's confident that he can escape whatever traps that are set up if they figure out the trick with the date. The fact that he's still a mystery speaks to his skills. This person wants to remain anonymous yet they want the world to know their existence. With 40 thefts across the world he's marked his name into the history books.'

At that thought something else crossed Daichi's mind. 'Wait a minute. Marked…'

Daichi took the map and spread it across the floor.

Kakashi smiled under the mask as he looked at his student. 'Looks like he has a new idea.'

"Sensei. I need you to tell me the location of the heists in the exact order it happened."

Kakashi looked at the files and began telling the information. As he said the name of each location Daichi marked it down and committed it to his memory. A couple minutes later 40 locations were marked with a small pin on the map.

Daichi took a few steps backwards and looked at the map from a distance. 'There isn't any identifiable symbol or markings appearing across the map… But I was sure that with his personality he would leave something behind… Maybe I'm just not seeing it?'

Daichi took a pen and paper and looked at the map.

"You ok Daichi?" His sensei asked.

"I thought I had something… I'm not sure…" The Jonin decided not to disturb his student and let Daichi do his own thing.

Daichi started scribbling on his paper and tried to come up with various Kanji, symbols or other meaningful illustrations that might appear and one that fit all the location points. The few that connected made no sense. Hours went by and dozens of crumpled up paper was by Daichi's side but the boy knew he was getting close.

His mind worked through hundreds of images that could be formed but none of them fit… Until…

Daichi slowly connected each dot and finally a meaningful word emerged. "He did more than just leave clues in the dates. He was marking his presence on the world itself."

"Did you find something Daichi?" Kakashi looked over and in Daichi's paper was a stylish version of the Kanji 'Eternal' (永).

Daichi had a wide grin on his face. "Eternal. He marked the word eternal into the map itself…. But there's something else. The kanji on the map. It has a certain design that makes it unique."

Kakashi looked at the symbol Daichi drew. 'He's right. The kanji is drawn in a unique font and style… The way this kanji is written…'

Kakashi narrowed his eyes and looked at kanji closely. "I've seen this before. This kanji in this exact design… I've seen it before."

The boy was shocked. "What?! Where?"

Kakashi recalled the information. "During one of my missions several years ago I came across this symbol. It was the house symbol of a small lord living a few miles outside the capital. I saw the symbol when I went to his house to complete a mission."

"Do you remember anything else?" Daichi asked in excitement.

"Yeah. The symbol also had a crane in its background. Eternal Crane. That's his house siegel." Kakashi closed his eyes and said with a sigh.

As he heard that piece of information, Daichi's eyes widened and he couldn't have had a wider grin. The thought of solving a mystery that stumped everyone else made him positively giddy.

Kakashi on the other hand had entirely different thoughts and emotions running through him. 'This mission just got a lot more complicated. If we're not careful this could turn into a huge problem for everyone.'

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Author's Note

Hi guys, something I wanna make clear is that the Phantom Thief character is not based on the Kaito kid character in Detective Conan anime. I've only watched Case closed, the English dubbed version of the series a long time ago. it had around 130 episodes i think. Anyway, I didn't watch any more than that. And I've only come to learn of Kaito kid half way through writing this arc.

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