A/N: And this chapter is finally rewritten. Yay. \o/ No much changes aside from general improvement to the grammar and stuff.
Chapter 20.
Morning around 7 o'clock. Tsukiko woke up and checked the time from her wristwatch she had placed on the bedside table. Due the lack of proper clock, it sufficed. The girl yawned and sat up.
"Hnh… What was I going to do today again?" Tsukiko thought while rubbing sleep away from her eyes and then ran a hand through her hair. "Ah, right! Today is that day. The 6th of October."
The blonde girl stood up and took a look at the clothes laid out on her chair. Simple jeans and long-sleeved t-shirt. She changed into them quickly and went to kitchen to make something for breakfast.
"You are early, Okiya-chan." Jodie stood at the kitchen door, yawning.
"Good morning, Jodie-san!" Tsukiko smiled, in the midst of making sandwiches. "It seems you are too."
"Hmh… I'm going back to sleep. Don't make much noise, okay?" The woman turned around and shut the lights of her own room.
"Okay! See you later tonight!"
Late, late, late… She was almost late again. So she ran. It was pretty amazing though… Tsukiko had woken up so early but still managed to be late from her meeting… But only almost.
"Tsukiko-san, you are late." Was the first thing greeting the girl when she arrived to Mokuba-sou. The one to say it was Mitsuhiko in his polite yet childishly blunt way.
"Well, I underestimated the time I had and needed to come here." Tsukiko laughed but sobered soon. "But now I think we should concentrate on the subject at hand…" The six of them turned to look at the house Mokuba-sou. Or what was left of it. "Who is the suspicious person of this house and what is he doing every night…" The girl paused. "Or should I say… What is it that the person used to do and why this house looks like this now?"
"Well, those questions do hit the mark well." Ai spoke up as they all stared at the charred remains.
"Are we even in the right place?" Mitsuhiko asked. Not to doubt but to assure himself that Sugiura Kaito was alright.
"That reminds me, sirens were ringing last night…" Ai mentioned. "But I didn't even dream that it could be from here."
"Then what about the boy we met yesterday?" Ayumi had tears in her eyes. "What happened to Kaito-kun?"
"Maybe he got caught in the fire…" Mitsuhiko muttered.
"It… It can't be…"
"No… The boy named Kaito is safe." Inspector Yuminaga appeared behind the kids and Tsukiko. "He had some minor burns… But he was rescued by a firefighter and is sleeping at the hospital right now."
"Thank goodness!" Ayumi smiled in relief.
"Yuminaga-keibu!" Conan greeted the officer.
"Hey, you're the kid from Mouri's place. Haven't met ya since the Red Horse case."
"So? Did anyone die in this fire?" Conan asked immediately.
"Fortunately, no one has died yet… But Kaito's father has been severely burned and is barely breathing right now at the ICU." The inspector explained gravely.
"Then, when the fire occurred, the kid's family and the rest of the people living in the apartment were able to get away?"
"Well, no… The kid's mother was just on a trip with her friend… And when we called the hotel she was staying at, she seemed surprised and said she'd come to the hospital right away. Also, there are three people living here but none of the three were home when the fire occurred, and they came back this morning…"
"If none of them were home during the fire, then it's possible that one of them was the one to light it." Tsukiko stated suddenly.
"And what makes you think so?" The police inspector asked the girl.
"These kids were asked to investigate what one of the inhabitants of this house was doing every night. Although Kaito-kun didn't tell who it was or what kind of weird those things were. But it is still suspicious that something like this happens when one of the …three people living here is already noted to be suspicious somehow." The blonde explained.
"But it would help a lot if we could see those tenants and hear more about them." Conan continued.
The three tenants were brought closer and Ai hid immediately behind Conan. She was shaking and sweating really hard until inspector Yuminaga asked those three men to answer his colleague's questions. Tsukiko also took a closer look at 'Okiya Subaru' and noted him glancing at her too. The girl let herself to smirk a bit before turning away.
"It has been a while, hasn't it Bakai?"
"Ano... You okay, Ai-chan?" Tsukiko kneeled in front of the auburn girl and watched her carefully. In the same motion she blocked the view between the girl and the men.
"Yeah… I'm fine." Ai mumbled, being surprised how her bad feeling was over so suddenly.
"Who are those three?" Conan aske Yuminaga once he was back with the kids.
"From right to left they are Hosoi Ryuhei-san, a carpenter; Okiya Subaru-san, a graduate student and Makabe Ginya-san, a freelance worker." The inspector answered.
"Okiya Subaru-san?" Ayumi noticed. "That's the same family name than Tsukiko-neechan's."
"That must be a coincidence." Tsukiko tried to explain, though smiling. As she hadn't talked to him yet, she couldn't just go and claim him being her brother. Even if that was the girl's plan…
"But you two even look alike." Genta pointed out. Luckily at that point one of the police officers at the scene brought Kaito's diary from the ruins of the house to the inspector, thus distracting everyone when Yuminaga began reading it aloud. Tsukiko was 'saved'.
5th October
The weather's been dull since this morning. I have to go to school early but I bet the Red Person can sleep late.
When I came home from school, I tripped at the doorway. Thank goodness the White Person was just about to leave!
In the evening I saw Green Person. He was visiting his friend but still wouldn't tell me who it was!
Tonight Red Person, White Person and even Yellow Person aren't home. I'm all alone with just my dad! I want to play more, but the detectives are coming tomorrow so I guess I'll go to sleep early!
I wonder who that is. Someone came home late tonight and he's arguing with my dad…
It's the Yellow Person… I wonder if his strange actions were found out by dad.
This is scary so I'll block my ears and try to sleep.
I have to talk about this to Edogawa after I get up tomorrow.
"Then it's definitely the yellow one who set off the fire!" Genta announced.
"Yeah! And he's even lying about coming back home in the morning!" Mitsuhiko added.
"But boys…" Yuminaga sighed. "This yellow person… Who is he?"
The investigation continued and inspector Yuminaga (+ Conan) asked some questions from the three tenants who now were suspects. The kids brainstormed hard, too, to find out what those colors – Red, White and Yellow – could mean. And Green. But that was Tsukiko's main concern. Just who was the Green Person? It wasn't part of the original story. While it could just be a fluke, a little wrinkle in the fabric of this world, it could also be something else. Tsukiko didn't believe it was her fault though. While butterfly and ripple effects were relatively unpredictable, she seriously doubted that she could've spurred an appearance of completely different person at this point of timeline.
But still… who was it? And who had this person been visiting?
"Ano, keibu-san… I thought about it a little and… Isn't it a bad idea to base our investigation off of what's written in a kid's diary? Three people who are red, white and yellow… It's true that this seems to hint about the residents but… It's still a kid's diary so this could just be a kid's fantasy…" An officer with a funny looking face whispered to Yuminaga.
"That can't be!" Ayumi protested immediately.
"He told us there's someone who does suspicious activity every night!" Genta continued.
"I don't think he's making that up!" Mitsuhiko concluded.
"In general, children are sometimes disturbingly honest about people around them." Tsukiko shrugged. "Especially when they can get away with it, like in a diary."
Then came Conan's Sherlock Holmes quote. And Subaru's answer to it.
"Oh! You also like Holmes!" And the boy was thrilled for finding another person on the same wavelength than he was.
"Yes… I used to have all the novels. Unfortunately they all are in ashes now." The man answered. When Yuminaga agreed with Holmes's words thus drawing attention to himself, Okiya turned to look at Tsukiko.
"It has been a while." The girl smiled at him.
"I'd like to know how you found me." He said quietly. The tone wasn't angry, just curious while the man tried to make sure no one else around heard them.
"Once the case has been solved, then I'll answer to any questions I can. Just like I mentioned in the mail yesterday." Tsukiko crossed her arms on her chest and changed the weight from her left leg to the right one.
"I can't wait…" He muttered with a hint of sarcasm. Just a smidge.
"But here and now I have question to you though… Is it okay if we pretend to be siblings? After all we share the same family name." The girl asked quietly. "Besides… I have told Jodie I have a brother and those kids already think that we two are related somehow."
"…"
"And it'll help us both to keep our covers up."
"Covers… You mean you aren't who or what you claim to be?" Subaru asked.
"More or less, yes…" Tsukiko sighed but gave a faint smile at him then. "But what do you think? Is it okay?"
"…Considering the circumstances and how the situation has developed already, it's better to go along with it." The man sighed inaudibly. "But you really do owe me an explanation."
"Sure. You'll get one." And Tsukiko stepped towards the kids while Subaru headed to the other two tenants of the house.
During the conversation Conan got his crucial clues in order to solve the meaning behind the nick-names and thus the case itself too.
Minicars, 'Kuroshiro-kun' and Kaito's behavior in general.
And the boy solved the case.
Okiya Subaru was the Red Person since him watering flowers reminded Kaito of a fire-engine.
Hosoi Ryuusei was the White Person since he always had band-aids with him and thus was like a walking ambulance.
And finally… Makabe Ginya was the Yellow Person with dirt under his nails from digging the yard, like a construction vehicles. The motive was the monies hidden in the garden from day-trading that the apartment owner had found.
(And apparently the Green Person was some acquaintance of Subaru's who owned a green motorbike. Tsukiko had a feeling though that she wouldn't find out anything else about them in the near future.)
After good news from the hospital, everyone scattered about on their own ways. The kids went to meet Kaito at the hospital with professor Agasa and Conan handed Subaru the key of 'Shinichi-niichan's' house. While Ai didn't really agree with idea of the suspicious tenant living next door, she was quickly shut up with Conan's comment about Holmes fans who couldn't possibly be bad people. Bullshit excuse but… Oh well…
Tsukiko wasn't at the present when all that happened, just recalled everything from memory and waited until Subaru entered the European styled house and the kids had left with Agasa to the hospital. The girl stepped out of the shadows of the buildings opposite the Kudou residence and walked to the gate. She rang the bell once and was granted an entrance.
"I guess I owe you, Akai-san."
"You have a lot to explain."
"We have time, don't we?"
A/N: Alright... Two more chapters until I've handled everything I wrote... five years ago. Whopee!