SailorStar9: Well, this branch-out plot-line for my 'Second Chance' series came to me as I was waiting for the next relevant episode for the main fic and re-watching the 'Forensic Heroes' drama. Considering I've already uploaded the Movie arc of my 'Second Chance' series, I decided to give this alternate story-line of mine a shot.

Plot summary: Furuya Rei (Amuro Tooru) is a man of few regrets; he regretted not contracting his Police Academy friends after graduation. More importantly, he regretted letting the one woman he could see himself being romantically attached to slip through his fingers six years prior. So, when said woman reappears as the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department Division One's daytime coroner, will this be his second chance?

Disclaimers: I own absolutely nothing, except this plot and potential pairing.

Pending pairing: Furuya Rei/Mizuno Ami

Prologue: Wedding Eve, Part One

In the Ristorante Sundayrino one rainy night...

"Raita-kun, Hatsune-san, congratulations on getting married." Mouri proposed a toast.

"Now, even if you say congratulations, the ceremony is tomorrow." Banba Raita reminded, in the midst of the crowd's cheering. "We didn't get married yet."

"Come on." Kamon Hatsune chided. "Tonight is the eve of our wedding. After the wedding is over, we're going on our honeymoon right after."

"Yo, you two." Mouri teased. "I'm envious."

"It's been a long time, Mouri." Banba greeted his high-school classmate.

"So, this person is that famous detective?" Kamon was astonished.

"Yeah, a bad friend from high school." Banba introduced. ""Mouri Kogoro."

"Nice to meet you." Kamon replied. "I'm Hatsune. Then the two sitting beside Mouri-san must be..."

"His daughter, Ran." Ran replied.

"I'm his freeloader, Conan." Conan muttered.

"We're looking after him because of circumstances." Mouri chuckled.

"I heard that you two fell in love at first sight." Ran started.

"I felt it was fate the moment I saw her." Banba confirmed.

"It felt like 'finally, this is the one.'" Kamon added.

"Moreover, our birth date, blood type, and circumstances are the same." Banba remarked.

"Sometime we can understand each other without communicating." Kamon related.

"Thank you for waiting." the glasses-wearing Amuro Tooru approached the table. "Sorry." he gaped, having toppled the freshly-brought chocolate cake on Banba's lap.

"You stepped on the cake." Kamon moaned.

"I'm really sorry." Amuro apologized. "Today is my first time working here."

"Don't worry." Kamon assured. "Anyways, can you bring a rag for the pants?"

"Be right back." Amuro hurried off.

"Just because he's handsome, don't look at him like that." Banba pouted.

"Are you jealous?" Kamon giggled.

"You haven't changed a bit." Mouri ribbed. "That part of you being quick with the ladies but very possessive."

"Look who's talking." Banba retorted. "You were always glaring at anyone who approached Eri-chan."

"I can't stay listening to you guys talk about your possessiveness." Kamon stood up.

"What are you going?" Banba asked.

"The nail salon." Kamon replied. "I'm going to get bridal nail tips."

"You don't have to." Banba tried to dissuade her. "It's raining pretty badly."

"I can't." Kamon protested. "I made a reservation. Besides, all the staff are female, so you don't have to worry."

"I told you before, if you cheat on me, I'll make you pay." Banba warned.

"That's my line." Kamon shot back. "Honey. So, I'll be back in about 2 hours." she left the café after kissing Banba farewell. "Stay tuned for my nails."

"She could just put them on right before their wedding." Mouri stated. "She's just going to take them off before going to sleep."

"I heard that you're supposed to put nails tips on for 24 hours." Ran supplied.

"Seriously, he already has a beautiful wife." Mouri scoffed, seeing Banba flirt with two of their former classmates.

"Sir?" Amuro tapped the drunk Banba on his shoulder. "Your phone has been ringing."

"A text from Hatsune." Banba opened the MMS. "Since you're not picking up the phone, here's a picture." he looked at the photo attached. "You can see them in 30 minutes. Sorry, I need to use the bathroom." he excused himself.

A second phone? Conan blinked, seeing Banba hurry off answering the second phone. He's talking to someone with a scary face. He hung up quickly. And then he goes to the restroom. So that means the caller is in the restroom. Could that person be the caller? He wondered, seeing Haruoka Sanji exit the toilet.

"Waiter." Haruoka called. "Bourbon on the rocks." he placed his order.

"Watch where you're going, stupid." Banba roared, bumping into Amuro.

"This party is also your high school reunion, right?" Conan asked Mouri.

"Yeah." Mouri nodded. "It seems the bride had her own party on a different day."

"Then, is that guy wearing sunglasses your classmate?" Conan cast a look at Haruoka.

"I don't remember." Mouri replied. "It's been 20 years."

"Is that you, Hatsune?" Banba walked off from his collusion with Amuro. "Where are you? Goodbye? What are you saying? Hatsune? Where are you? Could that be..." he was shocked to see Hatsune's car in flames after hearing an explosion. "Hatsune's?"

"Ran, call the fire station, ambulance and police." Mouri ordered. Leaping over the table, he and Conan hurried outside.

"Hatsune, are you okay?" Banba shouted, only to receive a dial tone.

Some time later...

"The victim is burnt black and we're having the body check with medical records." Takagi reported. "The person who died is most likely the owner of this car, Kamon Hatsune-san."

"Before the car burnt, is it true that there was a phone call by Kamon-san saying she will commit suicide?" Megure inquired.

"Yes." Takagi nodded.

"Inspector." Chiba voiced. "Inside the trunk, there are two vacation suitcases."

"That is most likely a preparation for the honeymoon." Mouri supplied. "She was going to marry my old friend tomorrow."

"But why would a blessed person commit suicide?" Takagi inquired.

"I don't know." Mouri sighed. "Maybe she got wedding blues."

"Detective Takagi." Conan voiced. "This is a fake nail, right?" he pointed to a broken nail tip on the ground.

"You're right." Takagi blinked. "Why is it here?"

"Kamon-san said she would go to the nail salon about 2 hours ago and so she left." Conan explained. Perhaps we shouldn't conclude this as a suicide just yet.

In the Ristorante Sundayrino...

"Murder?" Mouri echoed, after Megure informed him. "It's not suicide?"

"The fake nail Conan found had some skin on it." Megure confirmed. "Perhaps the skin that was on it was from when she was struggling near the car, it has a high chance of being the culprit's."

"Who was it?" Banba demanded. "Who killed her?"

"You're Banba Raita, her fiance, right?" Megure inquired.

"That's right." Banba nodded.

"This hand injury, what happened?" Megure spotted Banba's bandaged hand.

"This was from when I fell and the glass shards cut me." Banba replied.

"Then, have you seen this hair brush?" Megure brought out the hairbrush that was sealed away as evidence.

"That's mine." Banba confirmed. "I thought I left it inside the suitcase."

"It was inside the suitcase that was inside the burnt car's trunk." Megure confirmed. "Just in case, we used the DNA on this hairbrush and the skin DNA on the fake nail to check if they're the same. They both matched."

"What are you saying?" Banba twitched. "You're saying I'm the culprit?"

"No, they didn't perfectly match." Takagi cut in. "We would like to use your DNA for more accurate results."

"No way." Banba snapped.

"Calm down, Banba." Mouri soothed. "You didn't do it, right?"

"Of course I didn't." Banba barked.

"But to hide the injury from when she retaliated, you could have injured yourself on purpose when you attacked me." Amuro cut in.

"Looks who's talking." Haruoka scoffed. "Before that lovely lady became someone else's, didn't you kill her, Mr. Waiter?"

"Wait a minute." Megure voiced. "What's going on?"

"If you're not going to say, I will." Banba stated. "This guy was sneakily meeting with Hatsune." he pointed to Amuro. "He's her lover."

"Of course I met her." Amuro chuckled. "It's because she hired me as her private eye. I'm a detective." he removed his glasses.

"That's strange." Banba snapped. "Why is the detective hired by Hatsune working as a waiter at our wedding party?"

"It's not a coincidence." Amuro corrected. "I made her choose the wedding party to be here where I work: to watch you. I was asked by Hatsune-san; she wanted me to watch you if you had any lovers. That's why I purposely dropped a cake on your pants; to prevent you from getting near any women. Anyway, you won't be able to ask if she hired me because Hatsune-san herself has burned to death inside the car at this restaurant's parking lot. However, me being hired by her could be proved by that sunglasses man. He happened to be where I was handing over Banba's progress report to Hatsune-san."

"Who are you?" Megure inquired.

"He's most likely another detective." Amuro supplied. "The person who hired him was Banba-san. He was asked to investigate who Hatsune's lover is. He was able to find the secret meeting spot, but he couldn't figure out who because he had a hat and hood on. But he heard the voice being similar to the waiter, so he called me over to check if it was the same voice. He held up a sign to Banba-san, showing it was the same person. Before that, he called Banba-san to the restroom, was to inform him that the person might be in the restaurant, so he will investigate who."

"You're correct." Haruoka confirmed. "I didn't think you would be a detective. I tried tailing you, but you would disappear."

"But, Banba-san, you were going to marry her even though she was seeing a mysterious person?" Takagi was confused.

"The detective said she hasn't met him for 3 weeks, so..." Banba started. "Also, I thought she would hate me if I told her a detective was observing her. We even told each other that we were both adopted children."

"If you had asked me, I could've quickly figured out that this guy is a detective." Mouri chided.

"There's no way I could have." Banba retorted. "You're famous and people know your face. And I planned to introduce you to her later."

"But if you had relied on me, I don't think she would have committed suicide." Mouri chided. "The reason she lit the car on fire was probably you told her about your misbehavior."

"I didn't make such a call." Amuro protested. "Since all he was doing was flirting to girls drunk; even if she heard that, I doubt she would commit suicide."

"Speaking of phones, Banba-san, I heard you got a phone call from her before the explosion and a text hinting towards suicide." Megure cut in.

"Yeah," Banba replied. "She said 'Sayonara', while crying. If you doubt me, see." he pulled out the text message. "There's a text record at 8:54 pm."

"And the time of the police call?" Megure took the phone.

"At 9:21." Takagi replied.

"There seems to be a 30 minute gap." Megure pointed out.

"About that," Ran piped in. "I'm the one who called. I got stalled because we called for an ambulance and the fire station first. But when the ambulance and fire truck arrived, the car was burning so much that they couldn't do anything."

"But isn't it weird?" Conan asked. "Normally the car seats are made of materials that are difficult to burn. Why did it burn so much?"

"It was also exploding from time to time." Ran recalled.

"That's because of the spray cans." Takagi replied. "There were lots of spray cans, paper and cardboards inside. It burned more because of these."

"Why were those inside the car?" Megure inquired.

"Tonight, after the party, we were going to decorate the car." Banba replied. "We were going to ride the decorated car to the wedding and she wanted to surprise everyone. If you think I'm lying, check my text. I got a text saying she got all the materials."

"It seems you got a mail tonight at 8:18 saying she would return in 30 minutes." Megure went through the text history."

"It looks like she sent me a photo from the nail salon, too." Banba explained.

"That means, you knew there are flammable materials inside the car and when she was arriving." Megure concluded. "In other words, you could have sneaked out of the restaurant, ambushed her in the parking lot, pushed her into the car, and lit the car on fire. On top of that, there was a fake nail that she had just put on tonight beside the car. That fake nail had a small amount of skin on it. Judging from the situation, that skin was from when she resisted. It must have gotten there when she scratched the culprit. That skin's DNA and your hair's DNA from the hair brush almost matched."

"It wasn't a perfect match, right?" Banba stammered.

"By almost means that the skin's DNA was contaminated by the rain and mud." Amuro spoke. "So a perfect data couldn't be attained. Ruling out blood relatives, the genome can't be an approximate match. Taking that into consideration, that DNA must be the same person. It would be natural to think that way."

"What did you say, you bastard?" Banba snarled.

"Please don't use violence." Amuro side-stepped Banba's punch. "Mouri-san, please hold him down. If he attacked me again..."

"There's no need for that." Mouri stepped forward. "Banba, calm down. The hair from the hair brush isn't decided it's yours yet. Why don't you have them test your DNA?"

Just as I thought... Conan spotted the chocolate cream on Banba's sole. Then, how did he...

"Do you give us permission to analyze your DNA?" Takagi requested.

"Yeah." Banba nodded.

"This way, please." Takagi led Banba off.

Meanwhile, outside the restaurant's parking lot...

A Silver Mercedes Benz pulled up by the road and a high-heeled foot exited the vehicle.

In the Ristorante Sundayrino...

"Inspector Megure." Takagi came in. "There's a pathway that leads to the parking lot from this restaurant; it's on the back but during the incident, it was raining heavily and customers didn't go out, so it was locked."

"So, the only way out is through the front door?" Megure mused.

"If that's true, then one of the customers should remember." Takagi nodded.

"There are no other entrances?" Megure questioned.

"One could leave from the bathroom window, but below the window is not a pavement and there's a big puddle." Takagi answered. "If one were to have used that pathway, one would leave footprints behind. Also, during the incident, it was windy. The deceased Hatsune-san's umbrella was blown all the way to the street."

Windy? Conan wondered. That's right, when we came to his restaurant, the wind was pretty strong.

"So?" Megure cast a look at the two detectives on scene. "You detectives, got any ideas?"

"Not sure." Haruoka shrugged. "He was frantic when he learned that she was meeting somebody. But recently, he was more concerned about her getting phone calls. I guess it was him she was communicating with."

"No, I only contracted her through texting." Amuro refuted. "I only met her once, the one you saw. There was one thing that I told her that made her gloomy. I'm a detective, so I investigated Banba-san's past. Then I found one incident; he was saved at the same hotel fire as Hatsune-san. Both of their parents are missing and they were raised in the church."

SailorStar9: Any OOC-ness is regretted, by the way. *Sighs* Don't you just hate plot bunnies sometimes? Read and review.