A/N: I worked really hard to write this one up. And I did it in only two days! Yey! But you'll get a cliffhanger anyways. :D

Tsukiko seems to have deathwish...

by the way, some of you probably noticed that int he last chapter there is some lines missing from Uehara. I put a pagebreak there so it doesn't look so weird. I swear I wrote them back then though...

Chapter 37.

When inspector Yamato once again asked Kogoro's opinion about the odd crime scene, Tsukiko got up from the black chair and walked to the farthest corner of the room. There she dug out a small sketchbook she kept all the time in her bag nowadays, and a regular propelling pencil: Pilot Super Grip 0.5, green. She began sketching the room from there. First appeared the rough outlines indicating the floor and walls. Then the door to the corridor and the pair of chairs in the middle of the room. Next was the supply table with empty canvases behind it and finally the red paint on the wall pictured on the right. The spray bottle was drawn into the picture too and at the Tsukiko frowned.

"Isn't it weird?" She thought aloud quietly. "That the spray bottle is lying on the floor… Shouldn't it be next to the victim's chair since he used it?"

"Ah le le… What are you doing Tsukiko-neechan?" Conan hung on the girl's left arm that was holding the sketch book, like he had done when Kogoro had gotten the photos about the previous inhabitants of the house. But since the blonde didn't have strength to hold the boy up, she was dragged towards the floor.

"Tantei-chan… Don't do that please…" Tsukiko muttered when she was kneeling next to the boy.

"But I wanted to see what you wrote!" A childish whine.

"I didn't write anything. I drew." The girl showed the drawing of the crime scene. "Because some things you can see when you think like the one setting up them. In this case like an artist."

"An artist? Are you one then?" Conan had somewhat smug expression on his face. Like he was trying to belittle the girl.

"Of course I am!" The blonde huffed, puffing her cheeks proudly. "Even Mai-san says so."

"Miyoshi-neechan?"

"Yes. Since our class is full of stereotypes and Sawamura doesn't qualify as an artist, I get the title. Others agree to that, even the ones in art club for some reason…"

"Sawamura?" The boy frowned.

"She draws doujinshi about everyone in our class." Tsukiko grimaced. "This far I have been spared. Probably thanks to Mai-san… But go now and think like an artist." The girl shooed the kid towards the adults, slapping his back gently on the way.

"Red… White… and Black…" Conan said aloud to the two inspectors and the rest of the adults. "Maybe he wanted to use those three colors to tell us something? Because the other colors were thrown out of the window… Tsukiko-neechan says that they were thrown out so the culprit wouldn't mess the dying message. So all the colors must mean something!"

"Oh… Who's this young boy?" Morofushi asked Yamato.

"He's staying at Sleeping Kogoro's detective office… His name is Edogawa Conan." Came the explanation.

"Edogawa Conan…"

"Also…" Conan slipped to the corridor. "The cart that was stacked with boxes full of books and blocking the door… Who do they belong to?"

"They were Aoi-san's." Uehara answered. "We mentioned her earlier: the wife of Akashi Shuusaku-san, who was the man that died in starvation in this room. Three years ago, she died of natural causes in the storage room… Maiden name: Kobashi Aoi-san. These books were taken from the shelves in her room and put in these boxes. Given that she was formerly a novelist, she had a lot of books…"

"Then, could it be that a relative of Aoi-san hated Shuusaku-san because of her death and killed him?" The boy asked. "When Aoi-san had a heart attack in the storeroom, Shuusaku-san was drawing and only found out half a day later!"

"But, Aoi-san was an only child and since her parents died young…"

"Then, aren't the four men who used to live with these two suspicious?"

"Eh? Why?" Ran asked.

"Because who else would know that Aoi-san's room would have that many books? Enough to block a door. Who else would know that these door open only outwards and even consider using those books to block the door?" Tsukiko stated behind everyone else her back turned to them while sketching the room from another angle(from the door so she'd get the broken window too).

"In the other words, the culprit might be the actor, Midorikawa Naoki-san… The fashion designer, Yamabuki Shouji-san… The CG designer, Momose Takuto-san… or the musician, Naoki Shirou-san. It must be one of them…" Conan thought aloud, not even noticing the looks he was getting from the adults. When he did though… "Isn't it right, Kogoro-ojisan?"

"Ah… Yeah…" The man stuttered when he couldn't do anything else than confirm the brilliant deduction that made sense to everyone.

"I see… Up to now, it's been the same as ours… The reason you didn't tell us is because you think that this level is easily done, right?" Morofushi smiled.

"Y-Yeah, well…"

Yamato's cell phone rang. Tsukiko lifted her gaze up from the sketchbook and looked into the direction of the man curiously. She was keen to know whether or not the three wannabe arsonists had contaminated the scene or not. According to yelling in the phone and afterwards they hadn't.

"Well, I hope you aren't being too hard on him, since he's only just recently made detective." Morofushi stated calmly. "Maybe he was just surprised to see a body for the first time, and ended up touching some items from the scene…"

"Then, you and the novice detective found the body?" Kogoro asked.

"Yeah, after finishing another case, I came here and asked him to stop in front of the house… Because I wanted to bring some flowers to the storage room…"

"F-Flowers?"

"Ah, forgot to mention that Yamato-keibu and Morofushi-keibu were classmates of the one who died here three years ago, Aoi-san…" Uehara told them. So Morofushi explained how he had found the body and mentioned the victim's prints on the art tools outside of the broken window.

"Well… Doesn't that make Morofushi-keibu on the suspect list then?" Tsukiko smirked, flipping a page of her book and starting to draw the remaining items on the supply table. "Although I don't get how the dying message could indicate to him. Or why the prints would be on the spray paint bottle but not on the listening device while the victim's prints are completely missing from both."

"Eh?" The people in the room exclaimed apart from the two inspectors.

"But assumptions are too early to make yet. Right?" The girl grinned over her shoulder. The sketch book was closed with a snap: there wasn't much to draw on the table.

"In any case, the ones on the art tools are from Akashi Shuusaku-san but the ones on the doorknob and spray paint can belong to you and your subordinate." Yamato had turned to address 'Koumei' once again.

"It's like the 'bamboo shoots in the snow'. How very interesting…" Koumei smiled. And once again Kogoro was baffled by a proverb. Ran explained it and made the sleeping detective question the rarity of the situation.

"Don't you understand? The victim was locked in this room, right? Normally when you want to leave, you would grab the doorknob, wouldn't you?" Yamato explained. "Painting a wall red with spray-paint should also leave the victim's fingerprints. The culprit didn't return to this room either."

"And since the victim's fingerprints are not there, then there must be a reason why he erased them… Or maybe…" Morofushi began but changed what he was about to say. "At any rate, it's best if we go see those four people. We need to get something out of them."

"Hmph! If you want to see them, then go by yourself. In my place how about you take that brat and the girl with you. Now that I finally have sleeping Kogoro here, I need to use his intellect to solve this case. Kids shouldn't hear these kinds of things…"

"Can I come with you, Yamato-keibu?" Tsukiko asked. "I suppose we need to get the video I have in my phone to be analyzed. And I can listen to music while you and Mouri-tantei discuss."

"Sure… And after seeing those four people, bring the brat and girl back to my house and report the results. You wouldn't get a reaction anyway."

"So?" Kogoro began. "You wanted to discuss the case with me…"

As a reply the detective got only snoring. Tsukiko stifled her laughter and continued drawing, this time the people she had met during the day, while listening to music from her cell phone.

"The case must have tired him a lot…" She smiled. "Not only because of its strangeness but also the silent competition going on in the investigation."

"You are right." Uehara smiled back via the mirror.

"Oh, you told them their fingerprints were found on the doorknob and watched their reactions…" Yamato asked Morofushi when they all were gathered in front of his house. "Any results?"

"T-There was! There was some strange!" Ran told. "He was very nervous and said he never heard of it, and then said he might've touched some drawing tools when he went there before!"

"W-Who was it?" Kogoro asked.

"It's Naoki Shirou-san!" Conan said.

"Say… He was also acting a little strangely when we asked him questions before…" Uehara remembered.

"Yeah… Although we have our eyes on him… But, we have no proof…" Yamato stated. "It's already late. Let's rest tonight, and get a few officers with us to question him tomorrow morning."

The rest of the occupants of the house had already gone to sleep. Tsukiko opened carefully the door of the room she and Ran shared and peeked on the corridor. No one was out there anymore. The girl glanced behind her. Ran was deep asleep.

"Okiya, what is it?"

The blonde almost jumped when she heard the quiet voice. When she got her heart to calm down, she looked at the speaker.

"Kudo… Don't do that."

"Why are you awake?" Conan asked.

"Why are you?" Tsukiko asked back.

"Looking for you."

"Same. Let's go somewhere else to talk. I want to hear all the details of the interviews." After all she had forgotten the exact details a long time ago.

The two sat by a low coffee table/dining table in the living room and slipped their legs under the kotatsu. Tsukiko reached to lit the lights. Hopefully no one would notice the duo.

Conan relayed the details of each interview and Tsukiko wrote down the main points of each. Then they went through the notes gathered about the circumstances of the crime and Tsukiko's drawings. The girl also showed the video to the boy finally. Conan had sense to grimace at least when he saw the part with the corpse. Otherwise he was quite unfazed.

"Do you have any ideas yet?" The boy asked when returning the phone. Tsukiko shrugged.

"A few… How about you?"

"Naoki Shirou-san seems suspicious but…"

"Could the dying message really be that simple? Even Mouri-san can deduce that."

"Yeah… What is your other idea?"

"Who says that one was my idea at all?"

"You stated it. It must have gone through your mind at some point."

"…True."

"Well?"

"The missing prints and the place of the spray can… Since the culprit didn't return and the victim had no reason to wipe the prints… What if there was a third person who did so? Stumbled upon the body, touched the doorknob and spray can but wiped their prints away. A third part like those idiots on my video."

"Are you sure that those three didn't wipe the prints away?"

"They wore gloves: no reason to. And the video wasn't cut at any part so it's all one shoot."

"That's true too…"

"But there is one other idea that I got earlier… I need to test it first though…"

Neither of them noticed the owner of the house standing in the shadow of the corridor near the rice paper walls and listening carefully to every single word said.

"What? You know who killed Shuusaku?" Yamato asked next day when they all were in Uehara's car once again. "Really?"

"Yeah, I was thinking about it while going to sleep last night, and I think I've got it!" Kogoro told him happily.

"Then, who is the culprit?" Ran asked.

"It's the one you said was weird last night: Naoki Shirou! The victim, Akashi-san, was sitting on the white chair facing the red wall. That is to say… He's telling us that he's red!"

"Then, what about the black chair?" Conan asked.

"Black is, of course, the culprit! What will you see if you sit on the black chair?"

"A white wall!" Ran realized. "I see! He wanted to tell us the culprit is the person who's called white: Naoki Shirou-san!"

"Bingo!"

"I don't want to disagree with you… but, that deduction…" Uehara began.

"Ignore him, Uehara… So annoying…" Yamato muttered.

"But…"

"Could it really be that simple then?" Tsukiko thought aloud. "After all there is the case of missing prints, paint tools outside of the window and… wouldn't it just be easier to paint the chairs? Red dedicated to the victim and white for the culprit." She was holding three fingers on her knee while bending the thumb and forefinger to hide under her palm. Conan was the only one to notice it though, recognizing the reference to her theory about the third party.

"Hm? In front of Naoki Shirou's apartment… Quite a few people have gathered…" Yamato noticed when they were approaching. The car stopped and they all got out. "Has something happened?"

"K-Kan-chan, look!" Uehara pointed to the second floor.

"Ko-Koumei!?" The inspector hurried the stairs up to his colleague. "Hey, don't tell me…"

"Yeah… I had this 'worried' feeling for some reason, so I came to have an early look, and… It was already like this." Mmorofushi told the tanned officer.

"R-Red Wall!?"

"Must have seen our movements last night and decided to take action first…"

"Swift as the wind, eh?"

"Yeah… 'The object in our palms might not be within our grasp'… we were careless…" At this point the rest of the group was up too. And this time it was Conan who explained the proverb to Kogoro.

"Even if it was placed in our palms… that doesn't mean we can absolutely grasp it – that's what it means…"

"The victim is the musician, Naoki Shirou-san… The time of death is deducted to be between 10:00 and 11:00 last night. The cause of death is suffocation due to constricting pressure on the neck. Apparently, he was strangled… From the seat of the victim we can see that the main wall has been painted by the spray paint can to a bloody red color…" Inspector Yamato listed the facts of the scene of crime. "Based in this, it's very likely that the culprit of this case is the same person who starved the imprisoned Akashi Shuusaku a few days ago…"

"So, does this mean that this red wall is also the dying message of the victim?" Kogoro asked.

"No… This wall had to have been dyed red after Naoki Shirou-san was strangled… It's not like he would have painted it before he even met the culprit." Morofushi told them.

"Then, does that mean the red wall is actually…"

"Yeah… The culprit probably painted the wall red on purpose…" Uehara stated.

"Hey, hey, this is too weird! Why would the culprit purposely leave a dying message like that?"

"He's probably challenging us the police!" Yamato fumed.

"True… The culprit probably made this death scene to look like that of Akashi-san's on purpose." Morofushi agreed. "To send us a challenge notice… Come solve this mystery and catch me if you can…"

"But why leave the bottle here?" Tsukiko asked, her eyes once again fixed on the colored wall. "I can just barely understand it on the first scene where the victim painted the wall although the place of the bottle is weird as is the lack of fingerprints. But here… Why is the bottle still here? Isn't the wall a message enough? And by the way, this means that Mouri-tantei's deduction of the dying message was definitely wrong…" She flashed a quick smirk that was gone soon due the entire situation's gravity.

"Yes, it'd confuse people if the wall and Akashi-san's chair were both white!" Conan added.

"Th-That's true…" Kogoro muttered. "Then, what exactly does it mean? This red wall…"

"In any case, we know one thing!" Yamato stated. "The primary suspects are those who lived in the mansion with Akashi Shuusaku: Midorikawa Naoki, Yamabuki Shoji and Momose Takuto, these three people!"

"Eh? Why's that?" Ran asked.

"Because besides the victim here, only those three knew about the scene of Akashi-san's death…" Uehara explained. "The bloody red dyed wall… And that Akashi-san died on a chair… However, we didn't tell them that Akashi-san died on a white chair with a black chair behind him, and that the chairs were nailed to the floor. Therefore… although he wanted to recreate Akashi-san's death scene the culprit only managed to put the victim on the chair and dye the wall red."

"But isn't the culprit going to worry?" Conan asked. "Imitatin the dying message without fully acknowledging the last death scene?"

"Th-That's true…"

"There's definitely some significant parts of the dying message missing…" Tsukiko dug out her sketchbook to sketch her drawings and the details of the previous scene. "Seeing that the message can't be simply the red wall… You have to consider the entire room…" She flipped on the right page but when the girl was about to focus her gaze on it, she had to squeeze her eyes shut. "Dammit, I did it again…" Her hand found its way to rub her eye lids again.

"Anyway, let's go ask those three were they were and what they were doing between 10:00 and 11:00 last night… I still have things to discuss with sleeping Kogoro about this case." Yamato stated. "Sorry Koumei, those two are still going to tagalong in your car."

"Hm… I must reject your kind advice to prevent self-disgrace…" Morofushi replied. "Kansuke-kun… you want me to bring this bright young boy along again… I'll decline this time. Just let me investigate alone. Once I discover the truth, I'll contact you."

At that point – was it just her imagination? – the inspector met Tsukiko's eye. The girl blinked once before letting her glasses to fall back in place. She smirked.

"Understood…"

Everyone's attention went to Ran's explanation of the proverb once again. Seriously, Kogoro… Meanwhile Morofushi walked to his car, Tsukiko slipping after him quietly and unnoticed. The girl got on the passenger seat right before Yamato Kansuke limped outside of Naoki Shirou's apartment and could spot her. No one of the people up there noticed her disappearance.

"Tell me… What exactly made you come with me?" Koumei asked when they had driven for a moment.

"Tsk… Don't try that. You got an idea from Edogawa-kun's words and my actions. I also have an vague idea of what's going on since I'm capable of thinking in about the same mindset than the artist, Akashi Shuusaku himself." Tsukiko chuckled. "Besides you practically invited me to come."

"True. But I don't think you've told me your name." The inspector glanced at the rear mirror.

"Okiya Tsukiko. I'm friend of Ran-senpai and Edogawa-kun." The blonde girl introduced. "Uehara-keiji is following us." She stated then and took out her cell phone, typing a message to Conan.

"Say… Where is Tsukiko-chan? I haven't seen her since the last crime scene…" Ran noted when they were driving to the house of Midorikawa Naoki.

"Tsukiko-neechan said she's doing some investigation on her own and will contact us when she gets a good idea." Conan looked at the screen of his phone. "Or that's what she says in this message."

Tsukiko and Morofushi visited all three suspects. Every one of them noticed her blonde hair but no one commented it. They didn't even comment her presence. Probably because Ran and Conan had been with Koumei last night.

"Where to now?" Tsukiko asked when they were leaving Momose Takuto's studio.

"I think we should take a look on the original Red Wall once again." Came the reply. The girl smiled faintly. This was getting dangerous now but there was no backing off anymore.

"Sounds like a plan."

Koumei was sitting on the white chair, staring at the red wall deep in thought. Tsukiko was sitting on the black chair, looking up at the white wall.

"Think like an artist." The girl said while typing it to the message to Conan. The inspector looked back, at her and in process happened to get a glimpse of the white wall. The realization came to him immediately as he already had all the pieces of the puzzle in his hands.

"The both times you rubbed your eyes after staring at the red painted wall were unintentional… second time more so than the first time." Morofushi stated. "You already had an idea about the true meaning of the dying message."

"A vague one yes. Complementary colors were what struck me when I saw these chairs but I couldn't be sure. It wasn't until last night when Tantei-chan told me about chess that it came to me." The blonde took off her glasses and put them into a glasses case in her bag. "But without a proof… I didn't dare to open my mouth."

"I see…" The man got up to write a message to Yamato. But then…

"Look out!" Tsukiko exclaimed as soon as she spotted the culprit of this all, Midorikawa Naoki, to raise the metal pipe. She was too late though and the inspector was knocked unconscious. The girl got on her feet immediately and ran out of the room. The actor came after her, reached by the time she was going to the stairs and tripped her with the same pipe that was used the assault Koumei. The blonde stumbled down the stairs, the both flights, and slipped into darkness.

"WHAT!? Koumei's disappeared!?" Yamato yelled to his phone. They were driving away from the three culprits' houses and were quite worried since they'd heard Tsukiko was with the other inspector who wasn't cleared from the suspicions yet. "What were you doing, Uehara? … Gojou forest, that's where the mansion is! Koumei must've gone to the mansion! Get over there immediately!"

The call ended just in time for the e-mail message to arrive.

"Hm? Koumei sent a message…"

"Maybe he already knows who the culprit is..." Ran smiled. The inspector opened the message and his expression changed immediately.

"What? What's written in the message?" Conan asked in worry. He had gotten that one message from Tsukiko earlier but it had only repeated what she had stated earlier.

"The late Koumei…"

"Hey, hey, don't say unlucky things…" Kogoro stuttered but the inspector was already dialing Uehara's number.

"Hey, Uehara! Have you found Koumei!?"

"I've arrived at the mansion… But it's on fire… That mansion of death…"

A/N: And time for the review replies once again!

-Hanako875:
Thank you. I was thinking for a long time how she could get into the action. The video seemed the most plausible one since Yamato wouldn't just let ehr in unless she had some information related on the investigation. Yesh, Conan is awful at lying, proved on several occasions in the manga. XD
Yamato is also one of my favourites. It's pity he isn't seen that much...
Yeah, that 'case' was kinda funny. I was fooled too!
Yes, they should listen to her! But they can't fight against the Plot like she can. Although she also tries not to draw too much attention to herself. But sometimes she just can't keep quiet.
Thank you. The second part is here now!

-chibianimefan26:
Yes, I must. Well, not all my the longest ones. Sushi case was one-parter. Why? Don't you like cliffies? X-)
And I agree that some. London one was kinda blegh... Well, the mystery was great but the motive and the bad guy was sucky.
Yea, and I think that Conan is beginning to get some cockiness back. I mean, the latest BO cases... He is just smiling and obviously isn't considering the org as big of a threat anymore. *facepalm* I just hope the newest chapters, Scarlet Series, will knock him off from that pedastal he is standing on.
I don't know about Tsuki... But Takuya could definitely be Watson. Although he works for Mai rather than for Shinichi... If we compare this to the BBC Sherlock, Tsuki could be Anthea maybe... And Takuya Lestrade while Heiji is Watson... I dunno... Hanajima can be Donovan.