Hi there !

After that little cliff, time to... Ah, in fact nah, we won't solve it yet }=)

So don't worry if you feel a bit lost at the beginning, you didn't miss any chapter, I'll explain later ; )

o.O.o

SilverQueen08 : Haha, such enthusiasm ; ) Here is your update ! ^^

Emmahoshi : Yup, it's not her : ) All my friendly characters can't be psychopaths, right ? xD Hmm Hattori recognized a face he already saw during the lodge case and well, his detective brain does the connection... So yes, he now know who is culprit. Buuut... Ah well, I'll give more explanations about what happened on Sunday ; )

Laury Rose : Hehe, yea, but that's Heiji, he doesn't know how not to be curious and how to be careful, we can't change him ^^ But, for his defence, that culprit did look inoffensive... Bad luck, that's all :p Aaaand that's not what's going to happen : ) As I said, see you chapter 11 for more explanation... There's Heiji in that chapter though... I like twisted things in fact... xD

Chapter 10 - Forest lost in the city

"- Heiji !" Kazuha called with a strong voice, waving her hand in front of her friend's eyes as she saw he was, once again, daydreaming, his look staring into space.

"- ... Don' yell like that, Ahou !" The Osakan snapped back, jumping out of his thoughts.

"- I wouldn't yell if ya listened ta me, Ahou ! Ya've been daydreaming half the time since last week, it's pretty annoying ya know, ta feel like I'm speaking ta myself all day long...

- Sorry...

- Ya sure there's nothing ? Ya can talk ta me, ya know..." She added with a softer voice, a light shadow of concern on the face, knowing that, unless he was on a case, the dark-skinned wasn't the kind to ignore her.

"- There's nothin', I already told ya that..." He confirmed with a shrug.

"- Well, at least try ta be "with us" when we'll be at the Mouri's, ya wouldn't want ta be rude...

- Yea..."

The detective of the West looked up, to see they were already in front of the Agency. Kazuha wanted to see Ran, still a bit concerned about the girl, feeling a bit guilty, having even brought a little present with her. She organized this little visit, coming over a weekend to say 'hi' and have some news.

"- Hello, Kazuha-chan !" Ran welcomed them with a warm smile when they knocked on Kogoro's office door. "It's so freezing outside, come in quick, I wouldn't want you to catch a cold !"

"- Hello, Ran-chan !

- Hi !"

"- Hey, we got guests in case you didn't notice !" The long-haired girl finally scolded after she let the Osakans in and saw none of the two other inhabitants of the flat even raised their head to welcome them.

Both were on one of the couches, the moustached man and the small detective bending together on the morning's newspaper with focused faces, catching Heiji's attention so he approached.

"- Ah, a Kid's heist ?

- Yea, he sent his notice last night to the police..." The boy answered, though his eyes were still on the paper, on which there was a picture of the Thief's notice.

"- Cool, I've never participated ta one, let me see !"

"- Ok, I think we lost the three of them..." The Tokyoite girl giggled when she saw the green-eyed teen was squeezing on the couch to sit near to Conan.

"- Detectives..." Kazuha sighed with exaggeration, before sharing a bored look with her friend, who was softly laughing as she had the exact some though. "Oh, by the way, this is fer ya !" The ponytailed girl said once they finished laughing.

"- What's the occasion ?" The blue-eyed girl wondered with a surprised look as she took the bag the other was holding to her.

"- Well ya know... I just happened ta see that top ya liked that much last time ya came and... well..." The Osakan didn't finish her sentence, a bit embarrassed, knowing she wasn't really good in making up stories.

"- Oh, you remembered ! You shouldn't have, though...

- I wanted ta...

- Well, thank you then !" Ran concluded, guessing quite quickly at her friend's face it was her way to apologize for the accident at the ski resort, not wanting to embarrass the girl any longer by refusing her present.

"- Hmm I thought the Kid's riddles were difficult but apparently the police already solved everythin' ! " Heiji observed with a loud voice, after he finished reading the article and the notice.

"- Nah, they're probably mistaken..." Conan stated in a low voice.

"- Tsk, what kind of nonsense are you spurting once against, brat ?" Kogoro sighed with a bored look at the kid. "Their deductions seem perfectly fine to me !"

The small detective's eyes laid once against on the picture.

"Let's meet tomorrow night, in that forest lost in the city,

You may have to look under that castle to see me at the 12th

But you'll easily find me earlier on the highest tower,

Before I make the Millenary Diamond mine.

Kaitou Kid"

The article gave more information about the Diamond. It was part of a huge contemporary sculpture, "Utopia", a kind of castle on a block of rock, made of a pure white and thin material, giving an ethereal impression to the whole work. On the highest tower of that castle rested, just for that specific exhibition, the Millenary Diamond.

The sculpture, that was more than two meters wide, was hanging from a ceiling in the Mori museum, in a room where the floor was made of mirrors, reinforcing that aura of fantasy the castle already had.

So the first line of the riddle was indeed really easy to solve. Date : tonight, since the notice had been sent the day before. Place : the Mori Museum, in Tokyo, referred as the 'forest lost in the city' in the notice, since 'Mori' meant 'forest' in Japanese, and it was really in the town, in the middle of the Roppongi district.

The last line just gave the name of the jewel but the two others... The police had assumed quickly the jewel would be stolen at midnight but...

"- "The 12th" is also a bit strange ta ya, right ?" Heiji asked the bespectacled child when he saw his frown.

"- Yea..." He agreed, deep in his thoughts, his expression really teenage Shinichi-like.

"- Oh, and why is that ?" Ran wondered as she came near, making him jump and quickly forcing a more childish expression on his face.

"- Ah, his riddles are usually difficult, ne ?" Conan pointed out with an innocent smile. "Saying the 12th means it's on midnight doesn't sound a bit too easy ?

- Hmm true enough..." Kogoro admitted, crossing his arms against his chest as he was giving the idea a thought or two.

"- Could it be the 12th letter o' the alphabet... ? " The dark-skinned teen proposed, that trick being quite classical in riddles.

"- "L" then ?" The boy concluded, turning to his best friend with an interrogative look.

"- Ah, I know ! It's three o'clock then !" The moustached-man concluded with assurance. "I got to call Megure-keibu to tell him they are mistaken !

- Uh..." The detective of the West tried to interrupt him, not sure of his reasoning since they were still ignoring the first half of that line and the third.

But it was too late, as the man was already on his feet, in phone in the hand.

He exchanged a shrug with his small neighbour : Kogoro would probably be invited by the police so they'd be joining the chase tonight and, who knows, maybe they'd find the right signification of those clues in the meanwhile !

o.O.o

"- Hey, is that a spider behind ya ?!" Heiji suddenly spurted with a look over Kazuha's shoulder.

"- A what?! Don't let it come close, I so hate those !" The girl shrieked as she jumped and hid her head under her hands, trying to make herself as small as possible.

"- That's not really nice of you, Hattori-kun..." Ran scolded with a little smile. "Kazuha-chan, it's not a true spider, it's just a sculpture...

- ... Really ? " The girl asked with a tiny voice, opening an eye and turning to look behind her very slowly. "Oh what the... ?! That's ... so huge...

- That's "Maman". Mummy, in French." Conan explained with a smile while the dark-skinned was trying really hard not to laugh at his childhood friend's scared and now disgusted grimace.

"- This has nothing ta do with a mum...

- She is though, if you look closer, you'll see she has eggs." The Tokyoite girl explained. "Want me to show you?

- I'm not coming any closer of that thing..." Kazuha refused with a chill, her look on the 30-feet high bronze spider. "And ya... " She said with a hard voice after a short pause, her eyes now narrowing at a laughing Heiji. "Don't think ya're going ta get away like that, Ahou !"

Her glare was so filled with threats the other Osakan finally calmed down.

"- Maaa, was just a joke..." The dark-skinned detective smiled with a shrug. "Oh, it's startin' ta snow !" He noticed, glad to be able to change the subject.

"- They said it would yea, the temperatures dropped quite early this year..." The boy concluded, blowing some hot air on his already cold hands.

"- Let's go in, then, we should be able to, it's opened until 8 p.m. ..." Ran proposed as she saw how frozen the child seemed. "And since the heist isn't before 3 a.m., they said they wouldn't close earlier.

- So one hour left ? Still, 3 a.m. is quite late, does that Thief sleep sometimes ?" The pony-tailed girl wondered after she looked at her wristwatch.

"- Perhaps he's waitin' fer the snow ta pile up, like this we won' see him approachin' the buildin'..." The green-eyed teen joked as they stepped into the museum and they brushed the snow that was on their clothes.

"- Baka, the diamond is in the middle of the museum, it's not just about breaking a window and grabbing it." Conan pointed out with a flat voice. "He'll probably have to disguise as some policeman or someone from the staff...

- I know that..." The detective of the West concluded with embarrassment. "It was a joke, pal, a joke..."

After twenty minutes in the museum, they finally ended in the room where the "Utopia" was displayed. They couldn't have missed it, just stepping into the place was giving chills.

There was almost no sound, except for the one from their shoes as they came closer to the sculpture. The walls were pure white, mirroring the colour of the artist's work that was hanging, with cables so thin it seemed it was more floating than hanging, in the middle of the room. Even the three guards the museum had hired to watch the stone were dressed with white uniforms and hats.

"- This is so beautiful..." Ran whispered, not daring to use a too loud voice in the place.

"- And the Millenary Diamond is really finalizing the whole work..." Kazuha observed when the soft glow of the jewel caught her attention.

"- "The highest tower... " " The bespectacled detective said with a low voice, remembering Kid's notice, coming closer to look at the sculpture.

"- "Look under the castle..." " The Osakan added before crouching to look at the floor beneath the white castle.

They were both their eyes on the floor when the girls looked at them and mimicked them by looking at their own feet, noticing the whole room's floor was made of mirrors.

"- Kazuha-chan..." The Tokyoite girl whispered with urge. "Your pants are... showing..." She finished with a barely audible voice.

The other girl blushed as she indeed saw her panties and looked at Heiji with red cheeks, to see he was looking at her with a straight face.

"- Heijiiii..." She growled menacingly with an icy-cold glare.

"- Hey, what did I do again?" He sighed, before he noticed her outfit. A mini skirt and some high thighs. Short enough for him to see... The Osakan blushed when he understood what was probably making his childhood friend angry. "Hey, I'm not lookin', I'm just followin' Kid's...

- I can't believe... Ya Ahou !" Kazuha yelled as she slapped him. "Let's leave that damn place, Ran-chan !" She decided, grabbing her friend's arm to drag her out, leaving a startled Heiji behind here.

"- I didn' deserve that one..." He complained as he rubbed his painful cheek.

"- Clearly..." The azure-eyed boy agreed with a sympathetic look. "So, what do you think of that hint ?

- Obviously, it has somethin' ta do with those mirrors...

- Yea, I was also thinking that... So the 12th and the mirrors...

- We should reflect the "L" ? Would be half past three ?

- Half past three isn't an "L" anymore..." The small detective observed as he took his chin in his hand, thinking.

"- Or... 9 then ? 9 p.m. ?" The dark-skinned teen proposed, before stopping to exchange a look with his friend.

"- That's it ! We got to warn Kogoro-san and the police..." Conan concluded as he took his phone out.

o.O.o

"- Ya look like a horse with a tooth ache..." The Osakan was mocking his friend, one hour later, as both were still in the museum in front of the sculpture, but now with Kogoro and the police.

"- I still think we're missing something..." The azure-eyed boy frowned, his eyes on the highest tower of the sculpture. "I'd be surprised if that third sentence was just mentioning the Utopia's castle...

- What else ? If ya want some high tower, there's the Mori Tower outside but..." Heiji proposed with an ironic smile.

"- That's it ! Look at that sculpture, there are three towers, just like this place !" The small detective spurted excitingly.

"- An' the highest one would be the Mori tower ?

- Yea, he'll be waiting there, let's go !"

The Tokyoite was already starting to rush when he half strangled in his sweater as someone grabbed his collar.

"- Where do you think you're going, brat ?" Kogoro asked him with a flat glare. "I promised Ran I'd keep my eyes on you while she's with her friend so don't think I'll let you leave like that... You're always running in every direction when there's a heist...

- But, Kogoro-jiisan...

- We think the Kid might appear at the top o' the Mori tower..." The green-eyed detective added, to help his friend to escape.

"- We just want to check, it won't be long..."

The moustached man looked at both boys with bored eyes. "Ran will kill me if I let you go, it's a no.

- Come with us if ya want... If there's nothin', we'll be back before the heist, else, ya'll be the one who caught the Kid !"

With a sigh, Kogoro finally shook his head. His eyes had sparkled at the idea he could add to his CV he caught the Kid but he wasn't really trustful of the two in front of him. "I need a smoke, will be the occasion... But we go back after five minutes up there, ok ?

- Haaai." The two younglings chorused with - almost - innocent faces.

"- Megure-keibu, we'll be right back !" The man waved to his policeman friend.

The officer was answering with a nod while the three of them were already heading outside of the room.

Ten minutes later, Ran's father was lighting his cigarette with a visible relief at the top of the Mori Tower, one of his arms lying on the guardrail, his eyes on the city at his feet, starting to be covered by the snow.

"- Hope he won' be a pain..." Heiji sighed with a look at the man from the little platform they were on, a bit further away.

The top of the tower was made of a heliport, on the lower level, where Kogoro was smoking. On both sides, two flights of steps led to two of platforms and our detectives were standing on one.

"- I'll knock him down if he is..." Conan retorted with a small smirk that made his friend wondering if he was serious or not.

"- Haha, ya should keep that sleepin' needle o' yers fer later, ya may need it ta solve that case in his place, as always... Uh, sorry..." The dark-skinned apologized as he took his phone out and stepped a bit away to answer his incoming call.

"- What was that ? Kazuha ? " The boy asked to his friend, his eyes still on the horizon, when he heard him hang up a few seconds later. "Hattori ?" He asked a second time when he noticed he didn't get any answer.

But his friend didn't hear him as he was already down the platform and heading towards Kogoro with a determined expression.

Until the last moment, the Tokyoite thought Heiji had something to ask to the moustached detective. But that was until he sent his right fist into his face, knocking down the middle-aged man, that he understood something was happening.

And that something turned into a nightmare when he saw the dark-skinned hauled the unconscious Kogoro and threw him over the guardrail.

"- What the... Oji-san ! " Conan yelled when he saw the man fall on the other side with a horrified expression, helpless, too far away to be able to intervene.

For info, the sculpture and its special room exist - this is the work of a Korean artist, really beautiful and really exposed in the Mori Museum. The spider exists too, at the same place : )

Oh and that's... Another cliff ? xD