"...To sum it up, we need your help to find Peniwaisu and to stop him," Ayumi said.
"This is serious stuff," Dr. Agasa said. "You ran away from home, made your parents worry for your safety."
"I know," Ayumi said. "And I know that when this is all over I'll owe a lot of people an apology."
Shiro looked at Shigeo Yasuda. "You're the one who's been helping her all this time?"
"Yup, " he said. "Probably broke a law or two in the process, but whatever."
"Ayumi's phone contains Peniwaisu's confession to multiple accounts of murder," Conan said.
"But since he presumably has it in his possession, he might've deleted the message by now," Nancy said.
"That shouldn't be an issue, if we can get it back," Conan said. "Like with computers, deleted texts can usually be undeleted by a skilled IT guy. And if not, company that created the model phone that Ayumi uses keeps a backup for text messages on an online cloud storage server, so that a user's text history can be recovered even if their phone's destroyed. If the police request access to those logs from the company as part of their criminal investigation, then they should be able to recover the confession in a fairly short time, provided of course that the police believe us in the first place."
"I don't think he's destroyed the phone," Shiro said. "If this guy's actions are consistent with how Ayumi-chan described him, he'll likely use Ayumi-chan's phone to trap other people. Just like he used Maria to trap her."
"But remember? He didn't use Maria's phone to message Ayumi-chan," Mitsuhiko said.
"Maybe that just means he doesn't have it?" the Professor suggested.
"Right," Conan said. "At this point all we know is that Maria's gone missing, not that she's dead or captured. She could be in hiding, for all we know."
"Well, actually, Peniwaisu lured me to that house by allowing my phone to track Maria's," Ayumi said.
"It could've been a trick though," Genta said. "Like, what if it was his own phone you were tracking, or just the house itself?"
"Ayumi-chan, you left to go find Maria as soon as you saw her supposed location, right?" Conan asked.
She nodded.
"How far away was it from the library?" Conan asked.
"Uh, I was Dunn much of that time, so about ten minutes or less," Ayumi answered.
"Yet in spite of that, he was already at the house by the time you arrived," Shiro said.
"Ah! That must mean his center of operations is no more than ten minutes from the house where he tried to kill her!" Nancy said.
"Ayumi-chan, you said you talked quite a bit via text message with Peniwaisu back when you were a player ," Yasuda saw. "Can be control the game from his phone?"
Ayumi shook her head. "I don't think so. At one point, I asked him to change my class min the game. He said I'd have to wait about an hour, because he was away from his computer."
"So assuming the tracking function was indeed set up from his computer shortly after Ayumi-chan asked, and not before, and assuming that he really can't control the game from a mobile phone, and assuming that he wasn't simply waiting at that house with a laptop for her to text him then that confirms it," Shiro said. "Ayumi-chan, you need to show us exactly where this house is."
Scene Transition
Conan had gone over to a convenience store and bought a map of the city, then returned to the abandoned apartment complex.
"This is a highly dense urban area where the speed limit is normally about 25 miles an hour," Conan said. "Traveling at 25 MPH, Peniwaisu could not have beaten Ayumi-chan to the house unless his base of operations was less than..."
"4.16 miles," Yasuda said. "Give or take."
"Hmm, working with decimals is kind of difficult," Conan said. "But..."
He drew something kind of square-ish. "Peniwaisu's base of operations is probably somewhere within this area."
"But that's still a lot of ground to cover," Dr. Agasa said.
"Isn't there some way to narrow that down?" Mitasuhiko asked.
"You know, we could just check out that house for ourselves and see if we can find any clues," Nancy said. "I'm honestly kind of surprised that I'm the first person to mention that."
Scene Transition
Ayumi, whose whole face was covered up to mask her identity, led her friends to the house where she'd almost died.
"Be careful of the days," Ayumi said as Dr. Agasa pulled up on the latch to the front gate.
In fact, as they walked across the front yard they didn't see any dogs. The two kennels which were there before were now nowhere to be seen.
They tried the front door. It opened.
"Huh? But it was locked then," Ayumi said.
They all entered the house.
It was a reasonably orderly place, but somehow it looked...off.
"Wow, this place hasn't been dusted in a while," Genta said.
"And it looks like mold's growing on the walls," Yasuda said.
"That's a sign that fresh air hasn't been circulating in here," Shiro said. "Aside from Peniwaisu opening the back door to come and go, of course. It seems as though the air conditioner's only very recently been turned on. Because of this, the air gets really moist in the summertime, allowing for mold growth."
"It's as if nobody's lived here in forever," Conan said. "Even though all the lights are on."
"If Peniwaisu were living here, it wouldn't be this poorly maintained," Mitsuhiko said.
"I don't think he's here right now," Conan said. "It's probably safe for us to split up."
"I call me and Shigeo-san," Shiro said.
"No, there's something I need to discuss with him," Conan said. "You and Genta, Mitsuhiko and the Professor, Ayumi-chan and Nancy."
And so, they split up to search the premises.
Conan and Yasuda went up into the attic.
"There's one thing I don't quite get about Ayumi-chan's story," Conan said. "How did you know to be here at the moment when her life was in danger?"
"Simple," Yasuda said. "You know how I told him that Peniwaisu had visited my humble abode before? Well, he put an emblem in one of the bathrooms. I kinda brushed this detail aside, because it really didn't compute to me, but I thought that I heard drilling at the time."
"Drilling?"
"Yeah. And there was an odd smell too. Well, after I learned about that game she almost died playing, I thought back on then, and I think...I think that smell might've been Potassium Nitrate. It's commonly used as stump remover, because, when you drill a hole into a stump and insert potassium nitrate, it speeds up the rotting process, by creating an environment favorable to fungi growth. The floor to that bathroom is wooden, whenever you look past the paper lining. From there, it didn't take much of a leap for me to conclude that the creator of that game used the pursuit of those so-called emblems as a means of having children 'accidentally' killed, that his plan was for some child to fall through the rotten bathroom floor, a fall that might've very likely proved fatal. I knew that I had to find her again, to warn her not to play the game. If anything happened to her because I just sat around and did nothing, well, that's not something that I wanted to have to live with. So the next day I went looking for her, and found her just in the nick of time. Does that answer satisfy you, detective?"
"I don't know. Should it?"
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"
Conan and Yasuda ran from the attic and followed the sound of Mitsuhiko's screaming.
Scene Transition
As soon as Mitsuhiko had rolled back the bathroom curtain, he discovered a skeleton lying there.
"By the looks of it, this was probably an old woman," Yasuda said, touching the skeleton to examine it.
"Um, I get how maybe you can determine gender," Nancy said. "But how age?"
"These bones are brittle and stiff," Conan said. "They display symptoms of aging. This was probably an old woman, like he said. Besides, there were a few pictures hanging on the wall here and there. She was probably the sole resident of this house."
"Do you think Peniwaisu killed her?" Dr. Agasa asked.
"Not necessarily," Conan said. "It's possible that one day, while she was taking a bath or shower, she fell and broke her hip, evidenced by the fracture right there."
He pointed. "She may've been unable to get up, or escape this bathtub, and as a result she died either of starvation or dehydration. After a few days or so."
"Dehydration, in a bathtub?" Shiro said. "What bitter irony."
"It's sad, really," Dr. Agasa said. "By the look of that skeleton, it must've been lying here undiscovered for years. She must've lived alone, had no friends or family. Nobody noticed when she disappeared."
"A terrible way to go out," Ayumi said.
"But since Peniwaisu had been using this place and gone inside the house at least once," Nancy said, "then surely be knows about the body, right?"
"It would've been to his advantage to say nothing," Shiro said. "If she was elderly, then she likely received a stipend from the government. If they believed her to still be alive, then they'd keep mailing the pension money to her house, and Peniwaisu could line his own pockets."
"Great, he's not just a serial killer but also a con artist," Dr. Agasa said with disgust.
"Hold on a second," Conan said.
He ran out into the hallway. He took another look at the pic hanging on the wall.
"Who's that man?" Genta asked.
"She's old in these pictures, and he's young, so maybe he's...her son?" Nancy said.
Conan had a hunch in that moment. He took out his phone and snapped a picture of the photograph.
"Excuse me a minute please!" Conan called our behind him as he ran outside.
Scene Transition
Subaru Okiya/Shuichi Akai was riding the subway in a traincar by himself whenever he received a text from Conan, with an image attached:
"Forward this image to your colleagues, Elena-san even. Have them identify the man in this picture, and find out his address, then forward this info back to me. Please hurry, we are dealing with a serial killer!"
And so, Subaru began to message Elena.
Scene Transition
Ten Minutes Later
They went back outside.
"Conan-kun, did you find anything useful out here?" Ayumi asked.
"Huh? Uh, no, I'm still waiting for-
*ding*
Subaru went this back:
"The man in the picture is Ryumon Date, age 40. He lives on 3331 Shizukusa Street, in Beika. He has been arrested twice for cybercrime, having last been released from prison six years ago. Since then, he's laid low, and fallen off the police's radar. The woman on the left is his mother."
That's him, Conan thought. I'm sure of it. "Oi, Genta, you still got that map on you?"
Genta took it out of his backpack and gave it to Conan.
"Shizukusa Street...Yup, it's well within the lines. About 2-3 miles from here."
"Conan, what is it? Have you figured something out?" Mitsuhiko asked.
"Ayumi-chan," Conan said. "You were outside when the dogs attacked?"
She nodded.
"And the dogs were already outside?"
"Yeah. There were two doghouses outdoors," Yasuda said. "Right there."
He pointed.
"That must've been part of his alibi," Shiro said. "The fact that there's nothing there now. And the fact that he unlocked the front door. Had Ayumi-chan escaped, contacted the police, told them her story, and brought them here, the fact that there's no dogs and no dog house would cause them to doubt her story. And even if they went inside, as long as they didn't uncover the body in the shower it wouldn't look too suspicious to them. Finally, they would find no evidence that she owned dogs in the first place, and with that Ayumi-chan would be thought by them to have played a prank."
"He apparently wasn't aware of her extensive history with the police," Conan said. "Yasuda-san, I think you were mistaken: Inspector Megure most likely would've trusted her testimony even with seeming inconsistencies in what she claimed to have seen and what the crime scene looked like when they got there."
"My mistake then," Yasuda said. "But to be fair, turning to the police really didn't seem like a good idea at the time."
"Peniwaisu actually did ask me about my family, back when I was a player," Ayumi said. "He asked me about my mom and dad, aunts and uncles, and adult cousins, what kind of jobs they had."
"He must've been looking to see if you had family members who were with the police," Yasuda said. "That might've affected how likely they were to take your claims seriously and investigate."
"Ayumi-chan," Conan said, "The two dogs: did they happen to be pit bulls, by any chance?"
"A what?" Ayumi asked.
Conan goggled it and brought up a picture. "Did they look like this?"
Ayumi took a look at the picture. "Yeah, exactly like that! How did you know?"
"I just received word," Conan said. "Our man purchased two pit bulls nine months ago. I guess he must've been kept them malnourished on purpose, so that they'd be willing to kill and eat a human."
"Our man?" Shiro repeated. "You know who he is? How?"
"Oh, uh, I've been forwarding information to Uncle Kogoro," Conan lied.
And so, he told them Peniwaisu's true identity.
"Ryumon Date," Dr. Agasa repeated.
"If we know where he lives, then let's go bust him!" Genta said eagerly.
And it sounded like a pretty decent idea to all of them, when-
Conan's phone rang. It was...
It was coming from Ayumi's phone.
"It's him!" Conan announced.
Everyone was dead silent as Conan clicked "Answer" and put the phone to his ear:
"You must be Peniwaisu."
"Yes," the digitally altered voice said. "The mere fact that you know who I am means you've most likely made contact with Ayumi-chan by this point."
Conan growled. "Shut up! You of all people don't have any right to call her that!"
"Whatever. If she's there with you now, then please let me speak with her."
Conan handed the phone to Ayumi. She put it to her ear:
"Peniwaisu?" she said. "Is that you?"
"Yes. I have a question: how many people know? How many have you told? About me."
"Um, about seven people," Ayumi said.
"...I see. Have you figured out my identity yet?"
"Yes. We have. We visited your mother's house. Where's Maria-chan? What have you done with her?"
Instead of answering, he abruptly hung up.
"I would hate to be him right now," Nancy said with a grin. "There's no way he can silence everyone who knows his secret. And since the Japanese criminal justice system prioritizes confessions, the circumstantial evidence that we have should be enough to put him behind bars."
"If he can't silence the witnesses, his remaining option would be...to run away, perhaps?" Conan suggested.
Then, his phone rang again.
It was Kogoro.
Conan answered: "Yeah?"
"Hey, brat," Kogoro said, though the tone of his voice was unusually caring and sympathetic. "The man who attempted to murder your friend Ayumi...he just turned himself in to the police, and as we speak he's confessing to a large number of other murders. Is she okay?"
"Yeah, she's fine," Conan said. "She's with us right now. The past two days she's been in hiding, but we found her."
"That's a relief," Kogoro said. "I'll notify her parents right away. She's ready to go home now?"
"I think so," Conan said. "Except for one thing: another person is missing, one of her friends from school. We suspect that man is behind it."
Kogoro sighed. "In that case, there's a good chance she's dea...Ow!...So what if my bedside manner's bad?...Oi!"
Eri took the phone from her husband. "Is Ayumi-chan's missing friend's name Maria?"
Conan nodded. "Yeah. How'd you know?"
"Her parents filed a missing person report to the police a few nights ago," Eri said. "One reason that the police have been slow to investigate Ayumi-chan's disappearance is because they were trying to find this Maria girl. Her and several other missing children, for which I would assume that man is responsible. If Maria's still alive, the police will find her. If the worst happens, I'll do everything I can to make sure this man gets the death penalty."
Conan smirked. "Don't forget, you're a defense attorney, not a prosecutor. But regardless, thank you for your kind words, and I'm sure that Ayumi-chan will take comfort in knowing that he won't be able to hurt anyone else."
Conan hung up, and turned to Ayumi. "Did hear get all that? It's over. Peniwaisu surrendered to the police. You're safe now."
Ayumi shook her head. "No, I can't rest until I know that Maria-chan's safe too."She
And that, just now, Yasuda thought, was you being extraordinary.
"What are we waiting for then?" Genta asked, a fierce determination on his face. "Let's go the police station and force that sicko to tell us where our friend is!"
Scene Transition
"...Okay," Megure said, sitting on the other end of the table. "So to be clear, you are confessing to 20-30 accounts of first degree murder, through the use of a mobile game you created in order to ensnare children into deadly traps in remote parts of the city. You placed more than 3,000 stickers, called 'emblems', throughout Tokyo for that purpose. You confess also to covering up the death of your mother two and a quarter years ago in order to profit from her monthly government pension, which you used to help fund your death game. The only question I have is: why? Why would you commit such heinous acts, against the most innocent and vulnerable members of our society?"
Ryumon Date/Peniwaisu the Elder scoffed. "Innocent my right foot! I've had a few close friends from my childhood and my college years, so I've been active on social media sites. And again and again, I've been inundated with the same dang thing: Ten year olds on the internet, with devices given to them by mommy and daddy, posting lewd pictures of theirselves where anybody can see it, going on emotional tangents about their 'relationship status' and their 'breakups'. It was truly disgusting, and I thought to myself: these idiots should never be given the chance to reproduce. So I picked up where our old pal Natural Selection left off, and began killing brats with cell phones. For these violations of the Japanese legal code, I agree to serve 15 years in prison."
Stunned by this man's audacity, Megure stood up. "I think you do not understand the situation, 'sir'! For your crimes, the death penalty is a near guarantee!"
Ryumon/Peniwaisu shrugged. "Sure. But if you do that, Maria Higashio will die."
Megure grabbed the man by the collar. "What do you know about her?! What have you done to her? Where is she at?"
"Not telling," he said with a grin. "Not unless you offer me a plea bargain: I plea guilty and serve fifteen years, and in exchange I'll tell you where she is, before it's too late."
"Before it's...too late?" Megure repeated.
"Oh? You don't know? She'll be departing from this world by the end of the day, or well before then, if nobody gets to her in time. In short, she's my insurance policy: you can give me the punishment you think I deserve, or you can save a little girl who's on the verge of dying. But you can't do both. So which is it going to be?"
Having heard enough, Megure stood up and exited the room.
Kogoro, Eri, Dr. Agasa, Ayumi and her friends (including Yasuda) were waiting outside the door.
"Inspector, what of Maria-chan?" Ayumi asked.
Megure explained the situation to them.
"Listen," he said. "To me it's nearly unthinkable that the man in that room would only get 15 years. However, we've got to put a child's life above such concerns."
"Does that mean you're going to accept his deal?" Eri asked.
"That's not what I said. I am saying this: You all have 30 minutes to find her. After that, then we'll accept his deal."
"Thirty minutes is hardly any time at all!" Kogoro protested. "Can't you make it an hour?"
"Sorry, but given the uncertainty of Maria Higashio's situation, I'm not willing to wait longer than thirty minutes."
"We'd better get started then," Nancy said.
"You guys go on without me," Yasuda said. "I'm gonna go shut Triskelion down."
Conan nodded. "You know Peniwaisu's home address? It's 3331 Shizukusa Street."
"Got it."
"Are you sure you can handle that by yourself?" Ayumi asked.
"Ayumi-chan, I will shut down that game even if it kills me," Yasuda said. "That's a promise."
"Hold on," Shiro said. "Let me come with you."
"Huh? Genta said. "Shiro, you aren't interested in saving Maria-chan?"
"W-well, um, that's not what I-
"It's fine," Yasuda said. "This should only require one person. You go with them and save your friend."
And with that, Yasuda ran off.
"We need to split up and see if we can find her somewhere in this huge city," Conan said. "Chop chop!"
"Wait," Megure said. "Ayumi-chan, here's your phone back."
She accepted it. "Thanks."
And then she and her friends ran off to find Maria.
Scene Transition
Yasuda, panting, made it to Shizukusa Street. He looked at his watch: Ayumi and her friends only had 8 minutes left. He wondered how they were doing. But of course, he had bigger concerns at the moment.
Spotting the home with the number 3331, he began to climb the stairs when-
The second floor veranda was blocked by a group of teenagers. He looked behind him; the bottom of the stairs was also blocked off by teenagers. In short, he was surrounded.
"I take it you're Peniwaisu's hired help?" Yasuda said.
"We're players of his game," one of them said. "We're the Knights of the White Chrysanthemum, the elite warriors of Prudentia! As of about thirty minutes ago, we were given reason for the first time ever to ally with our mortal enemies, the Knights of the Red Carnation, our Justitian counterparts, along with the best players from Temperantia and Fortitudo, to oppose an enemy that threatens us all!"
"A lot of big words in there," Yasuda said. "Am I supposed to understand what any of that meant?"
"It means we're not gonna let you kill our game!" one of the Justitian players said.
"You fools!" Yasuda said. "Do you realize how many people have actually died because of 'your game'?! Don't you realize that the deaths will continue, even without Peniwaisu, like a deadly landmine? It's an ugly blotch upon the city of Tokyo! You should be trying to help me dismantle it!"
"We don't care!" one of the Prudentia players said. "This game is far too important to us! We'll take it upon ourselves to find and eliminate the most dangerously placed emblems, and then everything will be fine. You can't stop us from playing!"
"Sorry, but the dangers are too great," Yasuda said. "I'm shutting it down, so you can either step aside or be shoved aside."
"We're sorry to hear you say that. Let's get'em!"
Yasuda jumped into the railing and ran up it. He landed safely on the veranda before any of them could react and he opened the door to 3331.
Then they grabbed him from behind and began to pull him back away from the door.
He shook free just enough to throw a spinning crescent kick at his assailants, stunning them long enough for him to run inside and slam the door behind him.
Several of their hands were sticking inside the room, preventing him from closing and locking the door. He leaned against the door by a pretty wide angle and planted his feet so as to keep them from overpowering him. Somebody's hand grabbed his hat and knocked it off his head.
He looked at the house that he was standing in, though he was unable to see any computers from where he was.
He knew that if he let off the door to look around the room, they'd come flooding in.
Just then, three teens who'd been waiting inside the house came into view and walked towards him menacingly.
Meanwhile, the people outside suddenly let off the door. He knew they were about to try to ram the door in one giant clustered mass, and that nothing he could do could stop them from overpowering him.
And so, he took this opportunity to lock the door, and then he forgot about the door and ran forward. He slugged one of the three teens with a punch to the jaw and just barely managed to break past the other two.
He ran into the main room of the house, but the computer wasn't there. He knew the most logical remaining option was the bedroom.
He kicked back one of the remaining youths and punched the other one in the jaw. The first one was starting to get up, but instead of going for him Yasuda ran for the bedroom, just as the teens outside succeeded in breaking down the door.
He locked the door to the bedroom and began barricading it.
Alas, the oldest of them, one of the Prudentia players who might've been an adult, was waiting in the bedroom.
He punched Yasuda, and the homeless hero staggered backwards, falling against the closet door.
The player punched him several times in the gut and then began to choke him.
"WHY do you havta ruin our fun?!" he demanded.
"Because I...made a promise!" Yasuda managed with great resolve.
He kneed the adult player in the groin, headlocked him, and threw him to the ground.
He spotted the computer: it was a desktop plugged into the wall and sitting on a desk. Or, rather, the monitor was; it displayed information relevant to the game. The actual computer sat underneath the desk, plugged into the wall also. If he could unplug it, he could temporarily shut the game down. If he could destroy the computer, that would effectively spell the end to Triskelion. His best bet of destroying the computer was to throw or drop it out the window, seeing as how they were on the second story.
The adult player had gotten up and threw a punch at Yasuda. Yasuda ducked and them low tackled him, pushing him back and knocking him half against the wall, half against the closet door.
In the course of the impact, the adult player hit the doorknob hard, and it caused him no small bit of pain.
Yasuda, still grabbing onto him, shifted his weight and did a judo throw, knocking the adult player to the floor. Yasuda then lept on top of him, throwing punch after punch like there was no tomorrow. Finally, he lifted him up and threw him on the bed.
The bedroom door was nearly demolished by this point, but the barricade was still holding, just barely.
Yasuda knew he didn't have a lot of time. He unplugged the computer and lifted it up. He went up to the bedroom door, then faced the window.
With a running start, he managed to throw the computer through the window, smashing the glass in the process.
Yasuda peered out the window: sure enough, the computer had been thoroughly demolished.
It was over. Triskelion has been downed, for good.
The players burst into the room, just in time to see the smashed window and realize what Yasuda had done.
They were downtrodden and didn't care as Yasuda walked past them and left.
Scene Transition
Conan looked at his watch:
Twelve minutes left.
If we don't find Maria soon, he thought, that man will only serve a fifteen year sentence. When he gets out, he'll be able to start again, perhaps create another death game. He'd only be fifty five years old, after all. For the sake of the future children of this city, we must find her! Think, Kudo, where could she-
His phone rang.
Scene Transition
"Yo."
"H-Haibara?!" Conan said.
Indeed: the evil eyed yawny girl with 1990s hair was calling from Daizu-sensei's phone, from onboard a helicopter flying above the city of Tokyo.
"Is Ayumi-chan okay?"
Conan nodded. "She's fine. Now we're looking for Maria."
"From school?" Haibara
"Yeah, that Maria."
"She hasn't tried calling anyone?" Haibara asked, not entirely sure what was going on.
"No, I would assume that Peniwaisu has her...wait a second. That's right. It doesn't seem he ever tried to use her phone, so...what if she still has it, but is unable to use it?"
"Well, I guess she might be trapped somewhere with a phone with no power."
"That seems unlikely. Ayumi-chan told us the game uses up a lot of power to play, so I think a player of Triskelion would be especially conscious of battery life."
"Maybe her phone got wet?" Haibara suggested.
"Uh, no, I've seen the model phone Maria uses and to my knowledge it's waterproof...wait a second. Excuse me a moment, I'll call you back."
Conan hung up.
"Was that Shinichi Kudo?" Daizu-sensei asked.
Haibara nodded. "Now they're looking for someone else, another friend who went missing."
"Where you do you want me to land this thing?" Hitoshi Kamiya asked.
"Um, well, I guess my-
Conan was calling again.
"Yes?" Haibara said.
"I just received confirmation, Peniwaisu recently purchased waterproof tape online."
"So Maria walked into some derelict structure,and then the door was closed and sealed with waterproof tape behind her, and then it was flooded?"
"Sounds about right. However, Maria's been in there for more than two days. There's no way she could stay awake, much less afloat, for that long."
"So it must've filled up with water slowly," Haibara said.
"Yeah. But in that case, you'd think she would be able to call someone, unless..."
"Unless?"
"Unless the building was made out of metal, which would block signals from coming in or out! A metal silo!"
"Maria's trapped in a metal silo that's filling up with water?"
"Yeah. But for it to be filling up with water, and not only that but also water that's warm enough to not cause her to go into hypothermic shock and die, a fairly large apparatus must be attached the silo."
"Somebody would notice by now, unless-
"Unless it was an abandoned silo," Conan said. "There's one of those in the area, if I recall."
"Yeah. Shimotsuki Industrial, which was abandoned about four years ago. That must be where she is!"
"Shimotsuki Industrial," Hitoshi Kamiya said. "Roger that. Estimated time of arrival, three minutes."
After they landed, Haibara found the silo, unpeeled the tape and opened the door. Water flooded out, and Maria was found inside, deeply shaken up but alive.
As soon as Megure received word of this, he sent away the lawyer on scene and Ryumon Date/Peniwaisu did not get the plea bargain. Instead, after an unexpectedly lengthy trial he was sentenced to death.
Ending
(Hoshi Monogatari by Egoist)
I know you've taken this from my cold dead fingertips
I wrote this to tell you what I never had the nerve to say
Because I know that right now, you're punishing yourself
Because you of all people deserve to know the whole story
Once I was only a child, but I was old enough to understand
Something important was missing, though I didn't know what
I wandered in the dark, calling to the crowd, "Excuse me, sirs!"
"Somebody, anybody, please, tell me what I'm doing wrong!"
Finally, on the starry night of Tanabata, I looked out my window
And said, "Kami-sama, if you could let me have a friend, just one.
One who's true and faithful, and funny, but most of all spirited.
This one thing I ask, and I'll never ask for anything ever again."
And then I met you, and in what seemed like an eternity I had
The chance to know you, and for the first time I was really happy
It never ended, you see, that initial bliss: it grew, as we grew closer
Thank you, my one and dearest friend, for teaching me how to love
A Few Days Later
"...So you see, Yasuda-san saved my life, and perhaps that of other kids as well," Ayumi said. "Whatmore, he taught me what it means to be extraordinary. An extraordinary person puts others before himself. I believe that Yasuda-san is therefore an extraordinary person, and I humbly ask you to give him a job."
The school principal looked at Ayumi and then at the well-groomed man standing before him. (Grateful for all that he had done for their daughter, Mr. and Mrs. Yoshida offered to let Yasuda stay at their house for a while, where he was able to shower, brush his teeth, apply deodorant and borrow a fancy suit for this day.)
"Will you work hard?" he asked.
"As hard as it takes, sir."
"Are you willing to work all hours of the day, and even at night?"
"Yes sir, within reason."
The Principle nodded. "Okay. Our old nightguard was pretty terrible at his job anyway. You'll be taking his job, and have a few hours during the day working as a janitor."
"That sounds good to me. When do I start?"
"Tonight." He extended his hand and Yasuda shook it.
As they were leaving...
"Yes!" Ayumi said. "Congratulations on your new job!"
"Thanks. It wouldn't be possible without your endorsement."
"So, um, listen," she said. "I've been doing some thinking, and...people throw away a lot of perfectly good stuff. So whenever you don't have work and when I'm free, how about the two of us go digging for usable items in good condition and see if we can't donate some of it to a homeless shelter?"
Yasuda nodded. "We could do a lot of good that way, couldn't we? I'm in. But you know, why stop with just the two of us? Why don't you get some of your friends involved too? Of course, at least one adult would have to be present at all times, as there are some hazards that come with the territory, but I think if done properly it could work out nicely."
And so, Ayumi began a youth effort that, eventually, grew to the point where its participants donated as much as $300 million worth of salvaged goods to Japanese non-profit organizations every year.
Valkyrie had a new mission.
The End