Chapter 3: And So It Begins
Hajime frowned as he reread the letter. It really didn't hold any obvious clues as to who could have left it, other than implying that whoever did was a guest of this house. It also seemed to contain a warning and a clue. Keep close that which is most precious to you. This was the warning. He knew immediately that the thing most precious to him was Miyuki. He fought the urge to go and check on her. She was sharing a room with two other girls. There was safety in numbers. But, he thought, at least one of those girls might be in the same kind of danger. If he was reading them right, Hattori and that girl Kazuha were close. The letters were the same, so Hattori would have gotten the same kind of warning. It was a safe bet that Conan's letter was the same as well. This baffled Hajime. Why on earth would a boy get a letter like this? And what would his most precious thing be? He remembered back to the ferry, watching Conan watch Ran. Something was not as it seemed, but he couldn't put a finger on it.
There was also the strange way that Hattori and Conan left suddenly, as if they wanted to talk while he wasn't around. Whatever was going on with that boy, Hattori knew about it. They obviously didn't want Hajime to see Conan's letter. Something in these letters had shocked him. Hajime flopped down on the bed and scratched his head the way he always did when he was frustrated. The boy was a growing mystery that didn't have enough clues to solve. It would have to wait till later.
Hajime considered the second part of the letter. The clue. Magic is the art of misdirection. Was this a clue to what they were going to have to solve, or a clue to who had sent them the letter? Hajime thought about some of the cases that he had been involved in, specifically, the cases involving magic. The murderer in the puppeteer case had gotten away, only to reappear later to lead Hajime on a wild goose chase. And if that wasn't enough, there was the time when he and Miyuki had been involved in that Russian doll case, where the same man had shown up for a third time. The one man that Hajime knew that used magic to misdirect people. Takato Youichi.
When Hajime first met Takato, the man seemed insecure and incompetent; a perfect cover for an adept magician and a murderer. Which is what he turned out to be. Hajime's eyes widened as he remembered that case. Takato had used Miyuki, or rather, a puppet that looked like Miyuki, to lure Hajime out of the hotel. Takato did connect with both the warning and the clue. But wait, he thought. In that last case, he and Takato had worked together to uncover the murderer at the Russian mansion. The man had not been a threat, and Hajime had almost trusted him, or at least trusted the fact that Takato had not been the murderer in that case.
Hajime sighed. He was forgetting something. Hattori and Conan had also received letters. Although it was possible, he doubted that either of them had ever been involved with Takato Youichi. Which left him right back at square one. Well, he thought. So much for a relaxing vacation.
The door opened and Heiji and Conan returned carrying cans of soda. Heiji tossed one to Hajime. "Figure anything out yet?" he asked.
Hajime shook his head. "Nothing but speculation. I did think of someone whom I've dealt with before that might do something like this." He gave them the short history of Takato Youichi.
Conan frowned. "But doesn't it make sense that all three of us would've been involved with who ever sent these letters? This person seems to know all three of us. And I've never heard of Takato Youichi."
"Very astute," Hajime replied, staring hard at Conan.
Heiji jumped in. "Conan-kun loves to read detective stories. He's pretty smart for his age. He's even part of a group of kids called 'The Detective Boys.' They like to try and figure out clues. Isn't that right, Conan-kun?"
Conan put on his best little kid face and smiled up at Hajime. He opened his mouth to speak, but was cut off by a piercing scream.
All three boys jumped. Hajime exclaimed, "That sounded like Miyuki!"
They were out the door and headed toward the girls' room in a matter of seconds.
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Miyuki, Kazuha, and Ran were all lying on their beds, giggling. Miyuki's face was beet red.
"I can't believe it. He actually said that?" Kazuha said between giggles.
"Well," Miyuki explained, "it wasn't supposed to come out like that. He was trying to tell me how he felt, but Hajime-chan is not so good with words when he's nervous. He was lucky that I gave him a chance to recover. So was I, for that matter. If I had gone with my first instinct and clobbered him, he would have never told me."
"Ne, Miyuki-san, may I ask a question?" Ran said softly. Miyuki nodded. "Well, was it worth it? I mean, you and Kindaichi-kun sound so much like me and Shinichi that I was thinking…" It was Ran's turn to turn red.
"To be honest, nothing much has changed between us since we had that talk. I've always known that he cares about me, and he's always been protective of me. Now we just have a different title, I guess." Miyuki hesitated. "And, well, there are other benefits."
"I was wondering when we'd get around to this," Kazuha said. "So, you've had your first kiss?"
Miyuki buried her head in her pillow and nodded the affirmative. Both Ran and Kazuha sighed longingly. Both were picturing certain high school detectives that they would be very interested in kissing.
"I hope you guys don't mind me sharing this stuff with you. Hajime-chan and I have been best friends for so long that I've never really had any girlfriends to talk to. Can you picture me trying to talk about first kisses with Hajime-chan?" This comment elicited another fit of giggles from the girls.
"We don't mind in the least," Kazuha said as she got up off the bed. "The three of us really do have a lot in common. It's nice to have a girl chat every once in a while." Kazuha's voice trailed off as she headed towards the bathroom.
"Ran-san," Miyuki said softly. "I'll tell you something. Things may not have changed much on the outside, but just knowing how we feel changes everything. It's definitely worth it. You should tell him."
"I know. It's just that I never get the chance. He's always off solving some big mystery, and when I do get to see him, something else always interferes. Then I'm afraid of what he'll say."
"I know how you feel. I'm extremely shy and when we…" Miyuki's voice was cut off by a commotion in the bathroom. She sat up on her bed. "Kazuha-san?"
The next noise they heard was a shriek of pain, followed by the bathroom door flying open. A large man had been kicked through it and landed right next to Miyuki's bed. He quickly got to his feet, and Miyuki's confused expression turned to one of horror as she saw the bloodied knife in the man's hand. Before she had a chance to scream, the man lunged towards her and cut her on the arm with the knife. She fell back against the bed, grabbing her arm in pain.
Ran had jumped to her feet as soon as she saw the door fly open. She approached the man cautiously, aware that he was quick and that there wasn't much room for her to move around. She could do nothing as the man sliced Miyuki's arm, but he didn't seem to be interested in hurting her any more than he already had. The man's gaze fell on Ran, and she knew that she was next on his list.
He lunged at her, and she dodged to her left, planting her right elbow in the man's side. He grunted but took the blow, turning around, swinging his knife hand towards her. It caught her on the back of her leg. She shouted in pain and fell. She saw Kazuha emerge from the bathroom, holding onto her left shoulder. The man, his job finished, bolted from the room. He was out of the room before any of the girls could react. It was then that Miyuki finally found the ability to scream.
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The scene that greeted the boys when they reached the girls' room was this: the door was wide open; Ran was sitting on the floor against the wall, holding her leg. Kazuha was standing in the bathroom doorway, leaning up against the frame. Blood was running down her arm from her shoulder. Miyuki was sitting on the edge of the bed, grasping her cut arm and crying silently. Both Kazuha and Ran looked tired.
"Miyuki," Hajime whispered as he hurried over to her. She didn't look to be that hurt except for the cut on her arm. He sat down next to her and asked, "Are you alright?"
She nodded silently and put her head on his shoulder. He held her gently as she continued to cry.
"What happened in here?" Heiji asked as he approached Kazuha. He turned her around so that he could see the cut on her shoulder. His voice lowered when he asked, "Who did this to you?"
"Some bastard that was hiding in the shower. I went into the bathroom and then he jumped me." She craned her neck to try to look at her shoulder. "Is it a bad cut?"
Heiji shook his head. "It looks pretty shallow. I think all it needs is some first aid." He tried to smile at her.
"I was lucky to get a kick off. Sent him through the door. That's when he attacked Miyuki-san."
Miyuki had calmed down a bit, so Hajime pushed her back so he could see her arm. "Let's see. It's not too deep. I think you'll live. Can you tell me what happened?"
"Kazuha-san went into the bathroom, we heard a noise, and then a large man came flying through the bathroom door. I barely had time to register what was happening when he reached up and cut me."
Hajime frowned. "He didn't try to hurt you anymore than that?"
"I don't think his intention was to hurt us too badly. He came right after me as soon as he saw that Miyuki-san was cut," Ran said, speaking for the first time. "And as soon as he got me, he ran."
Conan was standing next to Ran with his hand on her shoulder. He could see the blood dripping onto the floor from where she had been cut. "Ran, did you see what he looked like?"
Ran sighed. "He was big and he moved extremely fast. He was wearing a mask so I couldn't see his face. He was pretty strong. He went through the door like it was nothing, and then he absorbed one of my elbow strikes in order to make sure that he cut me with that knife. After he did that, I was on the ground, and he was leaving."
It was during this part of the conversation that Ran's father, Inspector Kinmochi, and Hiromi appeared. "Ran, what happened in here? Are you hurt?" Ran's father exclaimed loudly.
The girls repeated the story for the newcomers. Hiromi said, "There's a first aid kit downstairs. I'll get it."
"Kindaichi, what do you think is going on? Was this a random occurrence?" the inspector asked.
"Not by a long shot. There was intent here, but I don't think that the intent was to seriously hurt them. I think that this large man's job was to cut each of them with that knife only to scare them."
"He was apparently waiting for them. He was specifically targeting Kazuha and the others. I agree with Kindaichi. But if he was just going to scare them, why the knife? That seems a little excessive. Something about how he made sure each of them got cut bothers me," Heiji added.
Hajime looked directly at Heiji. "I don't think he was targeting the girls." He watched as Heiji's eyes widened as he put two and two together. The letters. The warning.
Hajime looked over to where Conan was standing next to Ran. His hand was still on her shoulder, but he was looking down at the floor.
Hiromi reappeared with a first aid kit. "Why don't you gentlemen excuse us while I fix these cuts. It shouldn't take more than a few minutes."
Conan finally looked up. "Are you okay, Ran-neechan?"
She smiled at him. "Always so concerned about me. Yes, I'll be fine." As soon as he felt satisfied that she was, Conan turned and left the room, the others in tow.
Hajime stood up. He looked down at Miyuki, who smiled up at him. She had stopped crying, but she still looked shaken. He reached out and tucked a stray hair behind her ear. On impulse, he bent and kissed her forehead. "I'll be just outside." And he turned and left.
The other women in the room stared at Miyuki, who was beaming. She finally noticed the others and began to blush.
"Mou," Kazuha said. "If all it takes to get Heiji to treat me like that is one embarrassing conversation, you can bet we'll be having one tonight."