Phantom Thief of Hearts × Necromancer √
Conan raised a hand to shield his face from the wind kicked up by the helicopter's rotors. Hearing those words, he froze.
The speaker was clearly being extremely cautious.
Though he had indeed spoken directly to Pramia, his voice came through with a slightly distorted pitch. He had obviously used some kind of device—like Professor Agasa's voice changer—to alter his voice.
And judging from the way he spoke, this person seemed to genuinely know Joker.
Meanwhile, in another world they could not see, Tangze stood behind Asai Narumi, watching Pramia's shadow scream as it gradually shrank.
To Tangze himself, there was not much difference between gently erasing a shadow through a change of heart and simply killing someone's shadow outright, thereby erasing that person's life.
The difference in dropped rewards, that was. Killing them still produced Desire Stones.
Standing here and truly watching these shadows, Tangze could somewhat understand why Akechi Goro's abilities in the original story had developed in the direction of turning people into husks and driving them insane.
The ability to casually decide life and death was an alluring power, one that could easily unbalance anyone whose resolve was not strong enough.
It could not compare to worldly power, nor could it influence society on a larger scale, but it was indeed a sharp weapon that could gradually lead immature youths astray...
Fortunately, Tangze was not fundamentally a youth anymore.
"...That's about enough, Lunar. Stop." Seeing the shadow begin to shrink, slowly changing from a giant statue into a smaller humanoid shadow, Tangze reached out and tugged at Asai Narumi's haori sleeve, interrupting her instant-death charge-up.
Asai Narumi, unsurprised, did not resist Tangze's action. She merely silently released the hand pressing against her mask.
"I thought you'd just kill her."