Aimlessly walking a straight line, I strode heel to toe. One way or another the world isolates me with myself. To get reacquainted, I guess. But it's hard when that kitten steals any chance for me to be alone. Every step I took, it followed. So I outran it.

Not to say it's completely unavoidable. The kitten carries a stench. Making it more potent to the nose than the eyes. It needs a bath, but cats and water— oh. I dropped a fist into my palm. The hot spring! But who would accompany me? Ran and Kazuha are too shaken to settle. Heiji is... no.

Inspector Yokomizu passed with Heiji and the kid in tow, saying, "let's see if forensics discovered anything new."

"Hey, kid!" I waved a hand for his attention.

He excused himself then obediently jogged up. "Yeah?"

I grasped his wrist and whisked him down the hall. "Let's try the Mixed baths."

"The Mi-?!" His face brimmed with apple red. "Bu-but you! Keiko! We're in the middle of an investigation!"

Although he clumsily followed he didn't struggle to get away.

"The detectives are in the middle of an investigation, we're gonna soak."

"But I'm— I mean, we really shouldn't."

I knelt down to his height, wondering why he protested against relaxing like it would be anything but. "Are you...? Do you already understand the decencies between a boy and a girl?"

Through a nervous gulp, he nodded.

"Then... have ya seen a woman naked before?"

"W-well, um..." His eyes briefly studied the walls. The lights. The floor.

"I'll take that as a no." We resumed our pace to the springs. "Everyone's gotta have their first time sometime."

The kid squeaked out a tiny, "huh?"

And we were almost safe until someone pried him from my grip.

Heiji held him around the torso, announcing, "borrowin' Conan," before briskly striding away.

"Hey!" I clamped a hand onto Heiji's arm. Pulling. But my socks, and Heiji's strength took me sliding across the floor with him. "Give em' back! I don't want to go to the hot springs alone!"

"Hot springs?!" Heiji exclaimed, nearly tripping. He waited for me to explain, but that kitten smell climbed through the air, forcing me to retreat without answer.

The warmth of the water eagerly welcomed me back. And the farthest edge of the water from the door seemed a safe place to linger, but chills still jumped up my spine when it trotted in. The kitten mewed, its tail swaying as it's beady eyes laid on me. It scampered up. So fast I feared it would miss the water and leap in. It could drown. But it stepped in a puddle before then. Stopping, it shook that forepaw and mewed like it'd been injured.

We sat at a standoff. Me realizing too late that everything felt too hot, and the kitten curiously at the edge of the water. Dipping, and clawing at the water's surface as if conditioning itself to the feel. I shivered.

A soft click jarred our attention. The kitten opted to check it out, wandering to the imitation bamboo barricade which separated the Woman's from the Mixed.

The click became a snap and we jumped. I sidestepped to the edge when the kitten began hissing. No other foreboding sounds accompanied it, so I wasn't sure whether or not to rush. The kitten noticed when I slipped out to wrap myself in the towel, and happily pounced up.

My heart sped to its proximity, but soon galloped when a section of the wall collapsed. A hand curled around the edge of the remaining standing wall, and I screamed. I'm naked! The kitten took that cue to dart past.

I remained frozen. The hand disappeared, so whoever it is must've fled. But as soon as I decided to investigate, a handful of people bursted through the doorway.

Conan demanded, "what happened?!" At the same time Kazuha shouted, "are ya okay?!"

"I'm fine." The kid went beet red. I readjusted my towel and nodded at the wall. "That knocked over. Someone tried climbing in shortly after, but..."

That was all the kid needed to dash over. The Inspector and Heiji entered shortly after.

"We were told of a commotion," Inspector Yokomizo puffed, hands to his knees.

"Just taking a soak," came my breezy reply. Kazuha elbowed me. It could have been a misunderstanding. So many people gathering as if a bomb ticked off made me feel like it wasn't as big of a deal as I'd first imagined. Still, "the wall caved in. Scared me, might've simply been an accident—"

"The latches were cut," the kid called out as he returned. "Someone must think you saw something incriminating."

What a conclusion. I breathily chuckled, panic returning, "like what?" cracking a wry smile, I shook my head. "Complete darkness last night. Don't even know if they're male, female, whatever. Not even their height. What good am I?"

The kid looked momentarily taken aback by my tirade. "Well, they don't know that."

Heiji remained silent. Staring with that same look from a few days ago.

When officers began pouring in Ran guided me by the shoulders to the door. "Let's get you dressed."

In our room I dropped to the floor, riffling my bag, and slipping on clothes. Kazuha sat criss-cross between the beds for easier access to her bag as she brushed her hair into a ponytail.

Ran plopped onto the edge of her bed, legs swinging over the side, she leaned back. "The weathers great, we have free access to the springs, but there's a murderer on the loose." She sighed. "Not that we can't fight them off, it's... I was looking forward to relaxing..."

"You were probably lookin' forward to this the most." Kazuha offered her a small smile. "Lookin' after yer dad, an' Conan's got to be tiring."

"Conan?" Ran blinked. A laugh bubbled up. "Never. He almost takes care of himself. Except when Dad picks on him. But it's those moments, when Conan snaps back at him despite me saying not to, that I remember how much of a child he is."

"Strange kid." While tying a ribbon into her hair, Kazuha zeroed in on the blue sweatshirt I slipped into. "Isn't that a bit big?"

"Yeah," I replied. Hoping she wouldn't look into it. Ran grinned. I pointed meaningfully at her. "Don't."

But she did it anyway. "Is that Shinichi's?"

Kazuha's eyebrows jumped as she stared from Ran to me.

I tugged the collar over my nose. "No comment..."

"Oh my gosh!" Ran threw herself back giggling. "You're wearing his clothes!"

"No way." Kazuha fell forward, crawling up to tug it. "He lets ya borrow his sweatshirts?"

I bit my lips.

Ran, now full on laughing, sucked in a deep breath to gush, "you stole it!"

Kazuha sputtered into a laugh herself. An involuntary smile came over me at the sight, and I had to look away lest I laugh at myself.

"You two!" Exasperation laced my tone. "I didn't steal it! He left it at my place."

Kazuha smirked sidelong at me, now completely in on the game. "An' what exactly was he doin' at your place?"

The saying, if you're in a hole, quit digging, hit me at that moment. "Kazuuhaaa." But they refused to let up, and this unpleasant attention had to go somewhere else. "Kazuha has a crush on Heiji!"

Kazuha abruptly squeaked, "what?"

Ran, now breathing normally, remarked, "I already knew that."

"What?" Somehow her voice kicked up to a higher pitch.

Ran stood, and we followed to leave.

"It's a surprise to everyone but you doesn't apply here, huh?"

Kazuha blushed at my comment. "It's more of a surprise that it's not a surprise..."

They lowered the trenchcoat man, his body laid down and covered in a black tarp. One of the officers informed me that the name on his license read Fujiwara Nobou. And the most puzzling thing about Fujiwara's room is that it looked like all the others. Aside from the rope, position of the chair, suitcase, and the corpse himself, it could have been anyone's room. And from the setup it had to be just that. A suicide. What's that thing Holmes would say? Something about simple cases...

"What are ya doing here?"

Kazuha yelped. "Heiji!" She pressed down on her heart. Taking a breath, she explained, "we were going to lunch, but Keiko stopped."

And suddenly he turned serious. "Did you remember anything?"

"Heiji." My shoulders dropped. "My memory's fine. Everything I told y'all is everything I saw. I was just trying to figure out who the man I saw could've been."

He threw an arm around my shoulder then grinned at every officer in the room. "Welcome to the party."

And they murmured some form of agreement.

Ran peered around me at Heiji. "Where's Conan?"

"Here." Conan stepped from behind Heiji's leg, holding a napkin to his arm.

"What's this?" Upon lifting the napkin she let out a small shriek. Blood stained it, and continued to bleed over until he reapplied the napkin. Ran hastily searched both her pockets. "You need more napkins."

"Whoa, it's okay." I urged Ran to the dining room. "Order something for me, and I'll bandage him. There's a first aid kit in my bag."

"Why'd you pack a first aid kit?"

"Habit. Because Shinichi thinks he's invincible."

She chuckled, shaking her head. "Alright, thank you."

I pushed Conan's back when they left. "Go wash it off in the bathroom, I'll meet you there."

He nodded then darted down the hall. I went to follow when my arm pulled back.

"Hey," Heiji half-whispered. He turned me to face him. "I want to ask you something."

My eyebrows drew together. "If this is about how your shirt doesn't match your shoes, I can't help."

"What?" He glanced down at himself. "No! I wanna ask about your parents."

I jerked out of his hold. "No."

He crossed his arms and propped against the wall. Feigning nonchalance. "An' why's that?"

An officer dusting for fingerprints on the doorknob glanced our way, and I backed off. "Because there's nothing to tell."

"So, you climbed the broken wall."

Conan nodded, his arm held forth as I wrapped it in gauze. We seated ourselves on the edge of a bathtub, discussing how this gaping wound came to be.

"And didn't think you'd slip, and hurt yourself on the jagged rocks surrounding it?"

He scratched the back of his head, again, nodding.

"You're hopeless..."

"Hey." He kicked his foot to the side of the tub, wincing when the vibrations traveled to his arm.

"Hold still."

"I am."

Out of my peripheral I caught his lower lip jutting out. Before this year I'd never been around children, but he makes an amusing definition of one.

"You're also braver than me. Climbing that wall after the intruder. As well as the way you kept a level head last night." I laid a hand over his bandage after finishing. "Thank you for that."

He ducked his head. "No problem."

"But this case is a problem, isn't it?" I leaned back, setting my hands to my knees. "Factoring what we experienced last night out of the equation, it's too complicated."

His head flipped up. "What do you mean?"

"I mean, obviously not the case, but solving it. Like what Holmes would say," I pressed two fingers between my brows, urging the memory forth. "It is simple cases which are so extremely difficult." His eyes widened momentarily, causing me to force a chuckle. "Or something. I dunno. It makes sense. With odd cases there are more loose ends to tug, more chances one thread will bring it all to unravel. But here there's just my loose ends. Do you know if there's any suspects?"

He set his hands to his knees, demeanor completely sober. "There's the Hamasaki family. It appears their adopted daughter is actually the daughter of the victim."

"That's a unique scenario."

He nodded. "And since they had been asleep in their rooms, it makes a loose alibi."

My exasperation hit the brink at that. "Sleeping along with the rest of the world. No one would wake up last night."

Heiji stepped into the doorway, interrupting whatever Conan planned to say next. "Forensics discovered sedatives in the complimentary drinks. Everyone, including the staff, had been knocked out by an anonymous, generous delivery of juice and tea mixes." With one hand in his pocket, he smirked down at me. "Not so simple now, huh?"

My eyes narrowed.

Heiji sighed. "Can we talk?" He briefly eyed the kid. "Outside?"

Mutely I trailed to the door. Conan followed, but I redirected him to the dining room saying something about being there soon.

We exited out a side door. He propped himself against the wall, crossed his arms, and I really didn't want to be there at the moment. He took his time to gather his thoughts, holding me under a scrutiny that probably defined me as a criminal if I looked too much into it.

"Years ago your parents struck up a deal to start their own business in America."

"Yeah, well, you were there when they announced it."

"Assuming that didn't go well, they would have returned to their home in Osaka. To stabilize and move on. But it's only you with this couple acting as your guardians."

Him figuring out my 'parents' reminded me of a time when Shinichi pointed out the same thing. Except this felt different. Wrong. "And it went well. It wasn't for me though, so I came back. Those people I'm with were kind enough to put me up, but only in Beika where they live."

"Then call them up."

That's a bit too simple. I slipped out the phone from my back pocket. "Why?"

"I want to hear it from their mouths." And there it was, his signature smirk. I'd never hated it before now. "Your real parents that is."

My body went rigid. I stared down, hoping he wouldn't catch the dread dulling my eyes. There's always a way out: They're unavailable. On vacation. Probably working. It would be night in America right now.

"And no excuses. I know how you like to lie when it's convenient for you." He dropped into my line of vision, his skills akin to mind reading. "Tell me what's going on."

"No." I shook my head. Prolonging it despite the defeat kicking down my chest. Below my breath I murmured in English, "I can't get you involved."

"In what?"

That threw me. "You know English?"

"That's not the point," Heiji continued in English as if the language conveyed a threat. "Why are you withholding secrets from me?"

"Withholding secrets?" I scoffed, walking a small circle to reel in my thoughts. "You aren't entitled to know everything about me, Heiji. I'm not one of your cases. If my secrets remain in my hands that's my choice."

He stomped forward, his heels digging into the ground before me. "Then tell me it's safe."

We stared each other down.

"There." He flung a hand out. "You can't do it. How can you expect—"

"It's safe."

He obviously had a hard time believing that.

"It is. For me to be here it has to be."

"Meaning there's the possibility of danger, and you're determined not to tell me... but you told Kudo."

The tension fled from my face. He's right. It'd been easier to tell Shinichi, he asked me as a friend, not a detective. But is that all? The danger remains, and Heiji and Shinichi are the same, right? Detectives... but something about the entire idea is different...

"Alright..." He shrugged, defeat playing on his smile. "I give... just don't rely solely on Kudo for whatever this is. If there comes a time you have to rely on someone, keep others in mind. Promise me that."

With a hand behind my back, fingers crossed, I pinky swore with the other. "I promise."

Back inside, with the door safely shut, I slumped against it. Sinking all the way to the floor with a sigh that could be my soul parting. That explains his staring game. Heiji's the last person I expected to puzzle the situation out. Thank goodness Kazuha isn't as perceptive. She'd do me in if I tried keeping the secret from her.

A clattering a room over turned my skin to ice. The kitten? Now?

It failed to mew, paw in, or whatever felines do. So, scared it would implement a surprise attack as I passed, I went in. A storage closet. Brooms. Mops. Dust pans. general cleaning supplies, and Conan.

"Conan!?"

"No!" His teeth clamped shut, a shadow of gloom hinted on the bridge of his nose, and is that guilt?

Nononono. "Y-you didn't!"

He vigorously shook his head, glasses askew. "Never!"

And that answers it. For the first time in a long time I didn't bother hiding my outrage, and stormed over him. "How well can you keep a secret!?"

His eyes went wide, he gave the wall a backwards hug, and shouted, "I can't tell you!"

Oh. "...is that a joke or an attestment?"

"A little of both."

I tried not to smile. This is serious. "You can keep a secret?"

He nodded. "But I didn't hear anything about the secret, except the fact that there is one."

"It's a secret that there's a secret."

"Alright."

"Promise?"

"Promise." He tilted his head when I turned to leave. "But I saw, when you promised Heiji, your fingers were crossed."

"Disapprove of my choice?"

"Mostly curious."

Something about curiosity and a cat had me looking over my shoulder. "It's hard to take advice from a hypocrite. I rely on others about as much as he does. Although, I think I have a bit more sense in that department in that I won't throw myself into danger."

Conan tipped forward, mouth agape. "But you know you can rely on those who can help if the time ever calls for it, right?"

"And what if I don't?" I scoffed. The fire from fighting Heiji never cooled. "I keep to myself not only because I have to, but because I have no idea what the danger actually looks like. Paranoia declares every shadow a threat, and that leaves me with no choice but to ignore it. Ignore any danger signs, so I can pretend nothing's wrong when nothing's wrong. With feelings like this, how can I call on those to protect me, if I can never tell what's wrong to begin with?" I realized too late my words stunned him. A child that's basically a stranger. "Sorry... I shouldn't have..."

He grabbed my wrist. "Maybe not the shadows, but what lurks inside. It... it spooks me too. I've got a good eye for danger though, if you'll let me... protect you."

That... is possibly the last thing I expected to come out of his mouth. His resolute words sent my heart wavering, initially bringing me to consider his proposition in earnest.

I ruffled his hair, not offering an answer to his foolhardy valor, and took his hand. Leading us to the dining area. "The dark's kinda everywhere. Not to mention, you're so tiny, who's to say who'll protect whom?"

"Oh?" A sly grin crawled across his lips. "Is that what happened last night?"

"Oh." I raised a brow. "Is that how we're going to play it?"

A long stretch of hall between us and the dining area, and that smell returned. I hastened our pace, thinking it trailed behind, but that seemed to bring us closer. Where? Behind the man passing us? He lowered his head when I made eye contact. However when the man left, so did the smell. I stopped.

"What?" Conan asked.

"The kitten," I half-mused to myself. "Thought the smell was..."

"Smell?"

"Yeah, the kitten has this smell. It's how I avoid it, but just now..."

"...are you trying to say that man smelled the same?"

"Yeah."

He let go of my hand, and dashed off saying, "I've already eaten!"

His swift movement jerked me forward. I huffed, "would've been nice to know earlier," and entered the dining area.

"For someone who got first place, yer so slow~" Kazuha groaned, sprawled over the tabletop.

Ran anxiously smiled. "Where's Conan?"

I shrugged. "He already ate."

Ran slammed a hand to the table. "No he has not." And left.

"I ordered ya an omelette." Kazuha poked it. "It's cold."

"Um." I pulled it from her touch. "Thanks."

Kazuha, still slouching over the table, took a sip of her drink announcing, "I spoke with Ran." Eyes averted and straw dangling between her lips. "...you're in love with Shinichi, aren't ya?"

My mouth couldn't quite chew and gasp at the same time, so it settled for biting my inner cheek. "That—" pain. "Why bring this up?"

She settled her head in her palm, leering sidelong at me. "And listen, I believe he's a much better match for ya than Heiji." She stood up, an assertive fist held between us. "Heiji's hardheaded, brash, annoyingly self reliant—"

A house slipper interrupted her tirade, slapping the side of her head into silence.

"Sorry," Heiji grumbled from the doorway, now wearing only one slipper. "My hand slipped." He pointed over his shoulder. "We're gathering everyone at the crime scene."

Everyone didn't entail as many as I'd imagined. The Hamasaki family of three, and our group circled the entrance. Facing opposite to us sat Kogoro slouched over a chair, and Heiji at his side.

"To begin." Heiji paced the room. "What does everyone remember about last night?"

Kazuha quietly cleared her throat. Capturing my and Ran's attention. She nodded to the one slipper Heiji wore, raising a sly brow as she produced his other in her hand. Ran giggled behind her palm.

"We were up playing cards," I informed. Having seen Shinichi deduce, I knew Heiji was looking for an obvious statement. Only so he could branch off from there to explain something odd we all missed, inevitably proving how clever he could be. Heiji took in a breath, but I seized the opportunity, "That is! until everyone retired for the day. Because the complimentary drinks were drugged, forcing the hotel into a slumber."

Aside from Heiji's twitching brow, gasps were drawn around the room.

Except for one.

And I glanced sidelong at Jun Hamasaki. He met eyes with me after sweeping a glance around the room. Gawking internally at the guy, I thought, it couldn't possibly be... Shinichi mentioned once that there are times a culprit will fail to react innocently, giving themselves away by checking for others' reactions instead.

Of course... What does that make me? Maybe it has to do with knowing the information ahead of time... the fact that I can't react because I already knew, so instead, I look for the level of emotion in the room?

I tuned back into the deduction show when Heiji mentioned the kitten. My hand immediately went for Ran. "What?" I stage whispered.

Ran half-heartedly smiled. "He was saying the kitten had been there when the culprit committed the crime."

"What!?" I gasped.

"As I was sayin'..." Heiji grumbled. "After plannin' ahead of time by usin' a popular brand of mix, that had been trusted by the hotel before, that person knocked out the hotel. Except it wasn't the culprit who put you all to sleep, it was the victim."

"The reason being," Kogoro branched off. "That Fujiwara originally planned to commit suicide himself, in this very place where his wife died years ago."

"So... it was a suicide?" Jun asked.

"No, because Fujiwara packed cyanide in his briefcase beforehand, a method entirely different. Meaning someone in this room hung him while we slept."

"Who would do such a thing?" Kazuha asked. "If anything, that person should have saved him."

Jun tensed.

"While Fujiwara planned to commit suicide," Kogoro added. "He backed out. We found an empty cyanide bottle. Its contents had been drained into the toilet. But even still, the tables had turned, and his attempts to forfeit suicide led the murderer to take matters into his own hands."

"During the struggle for his life," Heiji paced. "A cologne bottle toppled. Forensics found residue of it in the floor, as well as on the kitten Fujiwara had taken in. The same cologne the murderer accidentally spilled onto himself. And that murderer..." Heiji pointed to the man. "Is Hamasaki Jun!"

I went rigid before taking two broad steps away from him.

"An' the reason-"

"No! Please... It... it's me who-" Jun swallowed, glancing at Akame, his one hand extended before it became a fist. "-killed him, and I'll explain, but not here. Please."

A confession is a confession, and the police took him in. Respectful enough that they waited until they arrived at the station to demand more details.

Jun began by telling them that Fujiwara's wife died during childbirth, an unfortunate consequence of a storm that trapped them there for the night at Iyashi Hot Springs. Graced with the gift of parenthood, but cursed with the loss of his lover, Fujiwara knew he would not be fit to raise the child.

So he begged his sister, Hamasaki Yuki and her husband Jun, to take his daughter in. Only asking that she experience the tinder years of her life in a healthy household. They accepted, and grew to love her, naming her Akame. However, in recent years Fujiwara began piecing his life back together. He began visiting Akame, all the while keeping her in the dark about him being her father. Eventually, Fujiwara even went so far as to ask for his daughter back.

[Flashback]

"She's not a momento of your wife," Jun had told Fujiwara. "I can't just... hand Akame over. She's happy here. We're happier with her."

"She's my daughter," Fujiwara bit out. "She deserves to know where she came from, and I deserve a glimmer of what my wife left!"

"You're going to make her miserable! She's lived her entire life here, she's had friends, she has us! You never raised her, and have barely decided to visit, how can you expect her to cope knowing you now?! After all this time, the only thing between you two is blood, otherwise, you're a stranger!"

[Flashback End]

Fujiwara broke. The truth struck so keenly that in that very moment of realization, he looked lost under a sea of isolation. It's soon after that he told Jun of his plans to take his own life. To meet with his wife once more. Part of Jun couldn't take seeing Fujiwara so gone. Jun brought his daughter as a final attempt to talk Fujiwara out of it.

However, he never imagined that it would work. That in a moment of desperation, Fujiwara couldn't do it. Selfishly, Fujiwara wanted to know if Akame really would reject him. Jun lashed out. If she didn't accept him, then ruining the happy Hamasaki family would be for nothing. He couldn't allow it, and took Fujiwara's life to keep the secret concealed.

"These cases are always the most saddening," Ran sniffled as I patted her back. "I mean, who's right, and who's wrong when it comes to the child."

Kazuha exhaled. "Either way, it's terrible that it led to the loss of a life..."

"You know what's odd though," I began. "From his reactions I kinda figured out who the murderer was."

Kazuha raised a brow. "Pick up a few deductive tricks from the detective of the East, eh?"

I scoffed. "Hardly. If I've learned anything from him, it's how to hide my tracks. You'd think he'd been trailing people for weeks with what he knows about them in a second."

"Never get away with anything?" Kazuha deadpanned. I nodded solemnly. She put a hand to my shoulder. "I understand."

"Ah-le-le," Conan chirped. "Heiji's only wearing one slipper. How sloppy."

Heiji clenched a fist and clamped his eyes shut in an attempt to reel in his anger.

"What a perceptive child." Kazuha smiled and happily ruffled Conan's hair.

On the car ride home, it slipped my mind. Shouldn't have, but did. I opened my bag for my phone, to mail Shinichi on the events that took place, and there it was. It stretched. Yawned. And turned its piercing eyes on me. And with a flick of the kitten's tail, I screamed.

Ran would tell me later when I awoke, that I fainted, and successfully sent the old man swerving off the road. Then something akin to chaos ensued as the kitten panicked from the sound of my violent reaction. It pounced for freedom, running to every window. Despite Ran's attempts to quell it, it only settled when it found its way back into my lap. Napping there as I sat out cold. The knowledge of that alone nearly knocked me out again.

And later when I finally had the chance to tell him over the phone, Shinichi laughed until I was forced to end the call...