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The plot is moving along… Another chapter to type up before I need to start writing drafts for this story again :c). Enjoy!
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The Lion's Ruby.
By Dagron.

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Chapter 08: Shivers.

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After lunch, Conan informed the newcomers of what Heiji had told him on the phone. They wondered how he could talk to this Hattori without him being in the house. Until, that is, after some halting explanations Link decided it was thanks to something similar to Saria's song played on the ocarina.
Conan decided it was best not to ask about that.
After the newcomers had agreed that the case of the drunkard's death was most likely the work of Ganon's magic -Conan had hardly been surprised- they decided it was important to find the witness, Tsuki Ichigo.
Alas, Heiji had told Conan, after a quick check, that after being more or less 'kicked out' of the police station, Tsuki had not showed up at his home.
It was believed he was wandering around Beika, where the 'murder' had taken place, but no one had yet localized him exactly.
« Okay then, » said Link. « We're going to search for him around Beika, right? »
« Is Beika a big place? » asked Ruthan, who didn't like the idea of walking all afternoon.
« Well it's not that large, » said Ran, reassuringly. « If we know what we are looking for, it shouldn't be too long. »
« Hey, Detective Squirt! » went Kaito. The young magician relished the annoyed look he got as a response. « Did you get this Hattori guy to send you Tsuki's picture? »
Conan shook his head.
« No, but he gave me an internet address from which I could print it off. »
« Shall I do it for you now? » Conan gave the professor the slip of paper with the url.
« Where should we start looking? » wondered Ayumi out loud.
« Well, we could look around the games arcade… »
« Or the shopping mall… »
« Or the train station… »
As Genta, Ayumi and Mitsuhiko busied themselves enumerating various spots around Beika, Saria, Ruthan and Glink listened intently to the funny names these places had.
« Shouldn't we start by the place where the 'suspicious death' took place and split up from there? » asked Haibara. She was still rather sceptical about 'magic'.
Conan nodded. « Yes, that's what I was thinking too. »
« But how would we communicate if we find this man? » asked Impa, who's red eyes still made Conan nervous.
« We… Well , we can use our detective badges and split into five groups. »
« 'Detective badges'? » asked Rauru, looking confused.
« Tada! » Having heard his question, the Detective Boy threesome proudly presented their communicator badges.
« It's like a phone, » said Ayumi helpfully.
The older Hylians nodded, having understood 'similar to a magic ocarina'.
Once the professor had returned with five copies of Tsukis portrait, they proceeded to making the groups.

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In an alleyway, that had been corded off by the local authorities, lay a big slump of meat.
This was the orc. It had been too heavy and alien for the authorities to remove it's bulk. They had decided to cord it off and put an officer on guard to avoid over curious pedestrians.
That officer had been driven away by the stench.
With any luck, a small crane would be there later in the afternoon to remove the monster. By then, the monster would no longer be there.
A meaty hand was slapped onto the tarmac. The orc grunted as it shoved itself upright. Shaking it's malformed head, it got onto it's wobbly feet. The thing groaned when it noticed it couldn't find it's war axe. That had been removed at the same time as Malibu's corpse. Grunting, the orc managed to tear a metal bar from an overhanging fire escape ladder.
He ignored the bin container that had attracted him to this alley way in the first place. He sniffed the air, oblivious to his own smell. His beady eyes turned red as he found a scent he recognised.
Purposefully, he plodded through the police cords and back into the world of Japan.

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Vodka felt a shiver run down his spine.
'Odd,' he thought.
Another shiver followed the first. He frowned. Now there came a third. Vodka turned his head, trying to see what it was causing these shivers. Nothing behind him.
He glanced up at his boss. Gin looked dejected, but didn't seem to have felt any shivers. He glanced at Vermouth. She looked like she was sulking. Weird, but that didn't explain the shivers.
He looked at the two Gerudos. They gave him shivers, but of a different sort. The witch somehow managed to look even more repulsive in a black suit. And as for Ganon… He shivered remembering the bolt of fire and lightning that had killed Malibu. He'd only narrowly escaped that same fate.
He shook his head, trying to forget both that memory and the confounding shivers.
It came back to him as he readjusted his black glasses. He'd felt such shivers before, but it had been a long time ago. It had been before he had entered the organisation, before he had even started wearing sunglasses due to an annoying, yet safely not a handicap, eye disease.
It had been when they had bullied him in primary…
Vodka stopped short in his stride. Why the hell would he feel such shivers now?! If anything, he was the bully now. He had a gun, and he wasn't shy to use it. He looked behind him, as if expecting to see the answer there.
« What is it, Vodka? » asked Gin.
« Oh, er nothing… » Vodka resumed his pace, trying hard to ignore the cold sweat that had broken out on his neck.

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Vodka wasn't the only one to shiver.
The metal container shuddered, shivered, and started to move.
Rauru looked as if he were about to faint. Impa sat beside him, still as a statue, a fetish look in her ruby-red eyes. In front of her, Zelda bit back a squeal of fright. She clasped her hand around Link's, but he seemed oblivious to her torment. Staring out the window, he shared Glink, Saria and Ruthann's enthusiasm at riding on this contraption the locals called a bus.
The four were as thrilled as a small child on an airplane. Even the detective boy threesome looked embarrassed by the newcomers' reactions.
'Maybe the bus wasn't such a good idea after all…' thought Conan somberly.

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Ichigo Tsuki had stopped moaning.
In fact, he had even stopped caring.
He had lost his sanity, and what a relief that was, he thought.
He was snickering now, as he made with all stealth to where his life had been shattered only two nights before. His skittish eyes scanned the area.
He was in a dead end street, blocked by big bin containers and too narrow and dark for cars to park there. Even now, in the early afternoon, the sun's rays couldn't reach the tarmac.
He passed by a door, very familiar to him. He had been kicked out of the pub more than once through that door. He had always been with Ihara on those occasions. They had been kicked out together on that night. Ihara had been recklessly drunk.
He wouldn't be going through that door ever again.
Tsuki looked at the stain indicating where Ihara had died. The mark left by dry blood and the scorching flames was not what he was seeing though.
In his madman's eye he could see his mate, drunk as usual, smirking.
« We'll pay them back, Ihara, » he whispered. The dead man mouthed the words back to the mad man, « We'll pay them back, » and winked.
Together, Tsuki and Ihara bent down. Tsuki's bloodshot eyes gleamed when they spotted what they had been looking for.
His greedy hands shot out and gripped their eager fingers around the stone.
He knew, somehow, that Ihara's murderer would be after this. He knew they would end up coming for it, coming after him.
He laughed.

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It took them some time to find the dead-end street. Somehow, Kaito wished they hadn't. It was bleak and awful looking.
He shared the kids' reticence to enter the shadows. Conan and Haibara seemed impervious to them. Koizumi had followed them, whispering about an evil aura. Ran and Zelda didn't. Nor did Rauru or Agasa. Link and Impa followed cautiously. Somehow, they seemed more wary of the bin containers than the ominous stain on the ground or stink in the air.
Kaito wished he knew some of the evil-warding spells Koizumi seemed to be whispering. Instead, he whispered his anti-fish prayer.
« Keep their glassy eyes away,
May their scales disappear,
And their white flesh burn in hell.
If I ever see a fin,
I swear to pin it down… »
He whispered it again.
Then Saria prevented him from saying it a third time.
She had taken out an ocarina.
Kaito stared at her. This was not a place where one should feel inclined to play music. She never the less began to play her song.
Suddenly, the bleakness seemed to fade, and Kaito's uneasy feeling vanished. He actually felt like laughing at how silly he just felt.
He smiled at the young girl.
« Thanks! » he said.

Meanwhile, Conan had examined the place of death. He and Haibara had come to the same conclusion. The newcomers' theory held true, and they didn't like it.
Unheard by them, or Koizumi, Impa whispered. « He was here only a short while ago… »
« Who? » asked Link. He alone had heard her. « This Tsuki guy? »
« Probably, » she answered, « but I was thinking of the dead man's shade. »
A few meters away, Koizumi Akako, known for her dabbling with the dark arts, had come to a similar conclusion.
She also noted the remnant threads of magic, suggesting the recent presence of a mineral of great power. She smiled.
Although the ghost's wanderings were worrying, she felt she had a trail to at least one of the missing rubies.

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