Disclaimer: [Insert redundant disclaimer here.]
Tumbling, tumbling, tumbling down, Hattori Heiji, aka Toyama, could almost hear those tides crashing from that time, when he lost Kazuha.
Was she scared? The decent, the sound of air rushing past you, light fading away into a pinprick, that fateful hand letting go, the world dyed inky as the senses slowly faded away. Would he ever see her again? Could he see her again, could he join her?
It was so dark. So impenetrably claustrophobic, in shackles of moisture that would trap him in those moments. So terrifying. So completely black.
So full of raw horror.
.
Somewhere in the distance, a blink of light reached him. How long was it since they fell? What happened to the others?
And a narrow, impossibly bright beam flashed in this eyes..!
Friend or foe...?
Quickly he raised an arm in proper kendo position, gripping on a beam of fallen wood besides him, until a blood-curling face came in sight, with a rectangular glare for eyes, bolts framing the nose-less, mouth-less face, which seemed to glare down at him...
..."Toyama's here!" cried out a sarcastic, monotone voice, as the monster (?) turned to a second light. It was that very moment when he realized that he was staring at Sherry. Seriously, why were the girls at the Mask Club so strange, with Sherry's stoic scowl, R's katate, Sakura's overenthusiastic interest in celebrities and Abe-sensei's blandness in everything but personality?
If only Kazuha were here.
"Have you seen the others?" Sherry's chilling voice asked, as if she really couldn't care less.
"Not yet. Who have you found?"
"We've got Conan-san and Ran-san. Abe-sensei found Sakamoto-san and the Sakamoto twins, and Oda-san. Takano-san, the deceased's brother, Sakura-san and Oda Kimiko-san are still missing."
"Does anyone have a spare flashlight?" yelled a voice that took Heiji a few moments to place. Abe-sensei.
After several minutes of anxious scrambling and quite a bit of shouted directions, everyone found their way back together, Sakura-san and Oda Kimiko-san still missing.
"Aki, you should've said something first about this mansion being one of those old samurai houses.*"
So that's why she and Kimiko-san were always tapping this and that along the walls, Heiji realized with a start, they were disarming the traps! Was that connected to the KID heist somehow, and that strange "blood gem"? And for that matter, whatever prompted the Magician Under Moonlight to write such a dark poem?
Meanwhile in the cavern, R-san shivered. Conan-san took off his jacket and gently draped the blue fabric over her shoulders.
It was that very moment when a glass-breaking bawl was heard, from somewhere nearby. Immediately, Conan got up and ran towards it.
And then a chorus of screams joined the first...
Sorry for the delay, I couldn't really think of anything. I guess this is a transition chapter or something...
*When ninja were used for assassinations, many homes of important samurai lords were built with booby-traps in order to deter intruders.
