A/N: Alright, after way too long time, this chapter is here. As probably guessed from the title, this case will be divided in two parts. Been a while since two parters...

Chapter 7

Tsukiko clipped her backpack shut and tied her hiking boots. Masumi had invited her, Ran and Sonoko (+ Conan) to join her investigating some case that the tomboy's older brother had relayed to her from the man's school mates. They'd go to Nagano to some villas but apparently the route there could be hiked from other direction as well. And that was the route that Masumi had chosen.

It had been a while since Tsukiko had been on any sort of camping. As Jade she'd been part of a local scout group but her activity had dwindled once starting high school. The weekend trips and summer camps had been very enjoyable though and thus Tsukiko was glad for the opportunity… Even if the actual nature part was very small. Well, maybe she could try to join the Detective Boys someday… Preferably without a murder occurring… but she'd take what she could.

Oh, and now that she still remembered, she had two things to do.

First was simple. Tsukiko opened the drawer in the hallway and slipped one of the envelopes there to the inside pocket of her jacket. She had delivery number two to make.

The second task was also simple. The girl took her own phone and changed the lock code. 1-6-3-2. There, done. Hopefully this one would be harder to crack even if Tsukiko doubted that anyone would try…

Masumi had invited Shugo as well. That was… surprising.

"How well do you know each other?" Tsukiko asked the tomboy as they travelled on a train.

"Met a couple of times. Stalked Shuu-nii the latter time. I wanted to keep contact with him when we moved America but mama didn't let me." Masumi grinned.

"I see…" It was weird to see how easily Shugo folded into the group. And with a startling clarity Tsukiko realized that Shugo had known these people for years. He might've stayed out of sight because of her but that didn't discount for the history he had with them. Tsukiko only had a couple of months plus few meetings beforehand while Shugo… Shugo had been on the same class with Ran and Sonoko and Shinichi when they started elementary school. Given the topics, Shugo had later been in middle school with Heiji and Kazuha and had even known Eisuke while living in Osaka… Not to mention Kaito and Aoko (+Hakuba, Akako and Keiko and others) from Ekoda who were his current classmates.

And Tsukiko knew nothing of him anymore. He wasn't anymore Lari who was only twelve and sort of reticent about telling about his interests to her though many – like Finnish baseball, photographing and firefighting – were obvious. But it had been… fifteen years between her leaving and Shugo finally making a contact. Five in their world and ten in this one. And Tsukiko was still sixteen almost seventeen while Shugo… Shugo was practically twenty-seven now.

It was disquieting but Tsukiko just bit her tongue and smiled at others. She could try and interrogate him later.

"Ahh, this is the life! " Sonoko gushed aloud, spreading her arms like she was embracing the nature and fresh air. "Walks through the woods are the best! "

"You said it." Tsukiko sighed contently. "It has been far too long…"

"Thanks for inviting us, Sera-san!" Ran smiled at the tomboy.

"I'm also glad you guys came along!" Masumi chirped back.

"Though you don't seem the type to take peaceful walks through the forest…" Conan snarked.

"Well, I came here because I was asked to…" The female teen detective started to explain.

"A-Asked to? You don't mean…" Sonoko caught on but wanted a clarification.

"As a detective?" Ran gaped.

"Well, to be honest, my brother was the one who was asked to come. His friend from high school asked him solve a mystery at the holiday villa where we're headed. But since my brother was too busy to come himself, he asked me, the female high school detective to come in his stead. So here I am." Masumi summed up.

"Then your older brother is also a detective?" Ran asked.

"Is this the one who's 'fairly good at memorizing' or the one who had a 'scary face'?" Tsukiko cut in.

"The one with good memory!" Masumi grinned at the inside joke and turned back at Ran to answer her question. "He isn't a detective but he often solved mysteries and puzzles that occurred in class like they were nothing back when he was still in high school, it seems…"

"Wait a sec… Didn't you say that your brother was dead?" Ran remembered.

"That's my oldest brother! He had scary face in Tsuki-chan's mind. But the one who was asked to come here is the second-oldest! We're three siblings: my two older brothers and me, their little sister! Although we all have different last names…"

"Why are they different?" Conan queried.

"Various things happened, our father dying being one of them… I took my mother's last name, Sera. My second-oldest brother was also called Sera until he graduated from high school."

"Then, before your last name became Sera, could it have possibly been…"

"Akai…" Story-telling wise, Sonoko's interjection was brilliant. "A red person… A moment ago, there was a red person behind that tree, right?"

"Y-Yeah… Wearing a red raincoat and red boots… a woman with long hair!" Ran agreed.

"Let's… hurry onwards then… A prelude like this won't bode well for this weekend." Shugo suggested and then hurriedly grabbed Conan's arm when the kid accidentally started to slide downhill towards the swamp at the bottom.

"You'd better watch your step. It seems like there are bottomless bogs in this forest." Masumi remarked.

"You're kidding, right?!" Sonoko exclaimed.

"Shugo… Did you see the woman?" Tsukiko asked quietly while the other three were focused on fussing over Conan.

"Yeah… This one was the culprit if I remember correctly…" The boy replied back.

"Right…"

The villa/cabin was big. Tsukiko had initially worried if they'd all fit in since she and Shugo were extra in this story but apparently the villa was very spacious. All bedrooms could hold three people there were four of them. And people-vise there were ten of them so if needed they could spread a bit.

With the case character introductions out of the way – and them apparently not minding the horde of teenagers among them as more people against things lurking in the forest, the better – they all settled in the dining hall. Minegishi Tamami made them food, hamburger steak with egg and some vegetables. It was very good.

"Sera-neechan, you're really good with knife and fork." Conan observed.

"I couldn't use them at all as a child but after spending three years abroad I kinda got used to them." Masumi replied.

"As expected of someone who lived in America." Sonoko complimented the girl.

"I don't know if I should be offended or flattered that no one comments on my knife and fork usage." Tsukiko joked.

"It's because you abandon your knife in most of cases and eat with only fork." Shugo snarked.

"Yeah, well I'm right handed so I rather eat with the fork in my right hand. But I'm perfectly capable of using the knife in conjunction with the fork." Tsukiko shot back.

"Elbow." Shugo pointed his fork at Tsukiko's left elbow that had risen on the table when she'd leant forward to talk with him. She dropped it with a huff. The young man just smirked. Some things just didn't change despite the years. Lari and Jade's father had always been pointing at Jade's elbow as well.

"Why are all of you meeting here, anyway?" Ran asked Kawana Sumika.

"We were in the outdoor club in high school." Sumika answered.

"W-We went hiking and camping together…" Hakuya Masaie continued.

"Well, since we were in high school, club activities were in the summer holidays, really…" Ninda Jinsuke added.

"We had a lot of fun. Even though the club only consisted of the five of us…" Tamami explained.

"Five you say…" Ran smiled. "Then the fifth member must be that woman dressed in red that we saw earlier!"

The reaction was instant. All four of them froze and paled. And one of them… Hakuya, started to really sweat.

"Where did you see that?!" Tamami demanded.

"In the forest, together with Sonoko…" Ran stammered the reply.

"She was really wearing red clothes?" Sumika asked.

"Y-Yes. A woman with long hair, wearing a red coat and red boots. Red from head to toe…"

"O-Oi, that… Could it be…" Ninda stuttered.

"That's a lie! There is no way Satoko could be alive!" Hakuya shouted then, raising from his seat.

"Ah, no, I thought it might have been that murderer from fifteen years ago…" Ninda corrected.

"I'd like to hear that story in detail…" Masumi butted in. "You'd like to as well, wouldn't you, Conan-kun?"

Geez, Masumi really liked to bait him…

Tsukiko and Shugo helped to clear the table while Tamami brewed tea for the conversation where the old case and thus the background of their friend's demise would be explained.

"That's right, it was 15 years ago… There was a murder at another holiday villa not far from here. Some company employee was killed, after coming to the villa with a woman he was having an affair with. His wife, carrying a kitchen knife, fell upon him. When a nearby police officer, who had heard the commotion, entered, the room was a sea of blood. The white rain coat that the wife had been wearing was completely red. She kept stabbing her husband again and again, earning her the nickname 'the red woman'." Tamami told them. Ran and Sonoko were understandably horrified, while Masumi and Conan were intent. Tsukiko and Shugo in the other hand… bored.

"A-And? Was this red woman caught?" Ran asked right away.

"No… She attacked the police officer who was there with her kitchen knife and fled into the forest. She's still on the run to this day…" Sumika stated.

"Sounds like an urban legend…" Tsukiko observed. "Tokyo had one too. About the hammer man, right?"

"True. But that case was closed a bit after you were released from the hospital." Shugo pointed out.

"That's what we would've thought by now as well…" Ninda began. "But three years later from the incident, when we came here during the school holidays. We all went into the forest to look for the red woman because Satoko said that she had seen her. While we were searching, Satoko somehow got lost… When it became dark, we contacted the police to help search for her but…"

"She was found one month later…" Sumika told. "Her drenched and dirty corpse, that is, at the bottom of a bog. The body was found because Satoko's shoes were next to the bog… But the kitchen knife that was used in that murder was also lying there. So everyone thought that maybe Satoko had been chased by the red woman lurking in the woods and got caught in the bog and died!"

"And you want Sera-san to find this red woman?" Sonoko asked with tremble in her voice.

"That's the job of the police!" Thank god, someone had sense. "Even after we graduated, we've been coming here once a year on the day Satoko's body was found. But since the year before last, strange things have been happening. One time the window was broken and a huge number of apples were lying in the room. Another time the water stopped working and when we investigated, we found the heater tank was filled with red rose petals and red paint was splashed onto the entrance door. The owner of the villa had the door painted red afterwards but…"

"Well, most likely these things and the red woman you saw in the forest earlier are some kind of prank. But since we'd like the perpetrator to stop, we thought we'd as Sera, who's always had a sharp mind…" Ninda explained.

"Then I'll go take a look in the forest!" Masumi rushed to the door.

"Me too!" Conan shouted, a step behind the tomboy.

"Ah, wait a s-…" Ran tried to stop them.

"Don't worry, Ran-chan… I'll follow them." Shugo got up lazily and ambled towards the door. "I'll try to bring them back within two hours."

"He is just skiving off from chores." Tsukiko grumbled and got up from the table as well. She grabbed a tray from nearby and started picking up the tea cups. Everyone scattered to do different chores around the villa in order to have an enjoyable weekend. Ninda to shopping, Tamami to do the dishes, Hakuya to clean the toilet and Sumika with Ran and Sonoko to clean the other rooms. Tsukiko joined them while Shugo headed out to take a look at the other villas. Something about mapping out the locations and figuring out the layout of the area.

While Ran and Sonoko were cleaning the living room/dining room, Tsukiko was working on the hallways of the first floor. Above her, she could hear the loud vacuum cleaner that Sumika was presumably using as well as how the bat and paper contraption kept hitting the pole. It sounded admittedly pretty convincing.

Tsukiko was just finishing mopping the genkan and about to toss the water out when Sumika came down the stairs.

"Ah, you are finished here? Would you come help me and the other girls setting up the rooms?" The woman asked.

"Sure." Tsukiko nodded. "I'll just toss the water to the woods. Be there soon."

Once done, Tsukiko headed upstairs as well. She'd visited the rooms once when bringing her backpack to a room she'd share with Sera and Shugo.

"Hm…? Where are you guys?" She asked to the empty corridor.

"Over here!" Ran called from the bathroom. Tsukiko peered into the room where her friends and Sumika were. "Hakuya-san has prepared a bath so we were checking the temperature of it."

Tsukiko looked at the water made green with bath salt and refrained from making a face. The body in hot bathtub… It was probably doing wonders to the recomposing rate…

"Ah, I see. Masumi-nee and I can probably be in the second shift then. I doubt four people can fit in there comfortably." She said instead.

"Sure."

They finished cleaning the rooms and Tsukiko made her way to downstairs to wait for others whilst the other three prepared to go bathing.

"We're back!" Ninda called.

"Oh? Were you together?" Tamami asked her friend. Tsukiko glanced to the genkan. Apparently Shugo, Masumi and Conan had all returned together.

"Yeah, I happened to meet these three on the way back…"

"Although we didn't discover any clues…" Masumi griped.

"You didn't happen to see Hakuya-san?" Tsukiko decided to ask.

"No… Hakuya was supposed to clean the bathroom, right?" Ninda frowned.

"Yes but… after cleaning, he seemed to disappear so I wondered if you had seen him." The girl shrugged. "This day seems to be following the usual route though…"

"Tsukiko…" Shugo elbowed her.

"You know it's true! We go somewhere, we get introduced to four people or more, we find out more about those people and most of times also of some accident, suicide or murder that has hurt an additional person… Then comes moment when none of the four people are seen and one of them is found dead. Tamami-san, Sumika-san and Ninda-san are all here but Hakuya-san is missing. I just hope we won't end up with a-…"

"WHA-WHAT IS THIS?!" Sumika shouted in upstairs. Masumi and Conan dashed upstairs, with Tsukiko and Shugo following at more leisure pace but hurrying nonetheless for looks.

The bathtub was filled with tomatoes. And as expected, Masumi and Conan immediately investigated the tub for a body. Which was, predictably, Hakuya.

Tsukiko leant against the door frame while Shugo headed out to call the police. Ran and Sonoko screamed in choir and Tsukiko couldn't help but roll her eyes.

"That's… Hakuya-san, isn't it?" Conan asked Masumi.

"Yeah… Seems like Tsuki's morbid observations were on point." The tomboy replied.

"I-Is he dead?!" Ran asked Conan. Tsukiko eyed the towel covering the older girl. It was slipping already. She moved into the bathroom proper. This was little something that she could prevent no problem. Honestly, Gosho's choice of humor was so… antiquated sometimes.

"Yes, looks like it…" The shrunken detective was turning around the address the girl, completely forgetting where they were.

"Alright…" Tsukiko's hand shot out to grab the front of Ran's towel, securely holding the parts together. "Let's clear out from this room and put some clothes on. Police have already been called."

"Ah, a good idea." Sonoko nodded, hurrying out of the room, Ran and Sumika following.

Tsukiko let out a sigh. That was one disaster averted. And given Conan's red cheeks, he could guess that too. She looked at the corpse and sighed then.

"Here we go again…"

The police officer of choice to be in charge of the crime scene was Uehara Yui. Tsukiko hadn't seen her since Red Wall case. On the other hand…

"Ah, Shugo-kun! Long time no see!"

Shugo was a familiar face to Yui. Yet another acquaintance in his… network. This was getting ridiculous… Though Tsukiko didn't really have much room to speak either. Instead of questioning Shugo about the matter immediately, Tsukiko silently asked him about another thing prudent to the situation while Yui was taking statements from the rest of the people in the cabin.

She pointed at Yui with her forefinger and then with her thumb at between herself and Shugo and tilted her head in question.

Does Yui-san know we are siblings?

Shugo shook his head and made a small slashing motion with his hand.

No, and we're not bringing it to this.

Considering that they were in the middle of a case and they were known as Okiya and Midorikawa to Yui instead of Kagemiya… It made sense.

Tsukiko lifted her finger beneath her nose and then crossed her forefingers below her left eye before pointing at the floor.

What about when Koumei-keibu and Yamato-keibu arrive?

Shugo made a so-so motion with his hand before crossing his arms.

Maybe. Conversation end.

And Tsukiko tuned back to the conversation going on around them.

"So you're saying that until you fished it out, the corpse couldn't be seen, is that right?" Yui was asking Masumi.

"Yeah… Since tomatoes were covering the surface of the tub and bath salt had turned the water green." Masumi described. "The body was sunk to the bottom with a dumbbell so that it wouldn't float up to the surface…"

"To sum it up, after sinking the victim to the bottom of the bath, the culprit covered up the surface completely with tomatoes, so that the corpse couldn't be seen at all…"

"The corpse could've been there before tomatoes too." Tsukiko pointed up. "The bath salt made the water so strongly green that you couldn't see the bottom at all."

"What order did you enter?" Conan asked Ran and Sonoko.

"Could it be that this brat is suspecting us?" Sonoko glared down at the boy.

"Sumika-san entered first. But she had nothing but a towel on her, right?" Ran remembered.

"Yeah. And honestly, if someone was carrying a bag with that many tomatoes in it, I think we'd notice." Sonoko agreed.

"In any case, we know that the murder occurred between the time you checked the temperature or at least when you broke off to do tasks separately and the time you entered to take a bath after finishing the cleaning." Yui concluded. "Would the two of you mind telling me what you were doing during that time frame?" She asked Tamami and Ninda.

"O-Of course… As Tamami said earlier, I was out shopping at the shop about one kilometer from here. Walking there takes about 15 minutes. I didn't buy beer or anything…" Ninda told. "I bumbed into these three on the way back. Isn't that right?"

"Yes." Conan agreed while Shugo simply nodded.

"That juice cans I gave you then were ice cold, right?" The man confirmed.

"Yeah…" Masumi agreed as well.

"That's proof that I'd just bought them at the shop! Since we met near the shop…"

"Why were the three of you in the forest?" Yui asked Masumi.

"There were various things we wanted to investigate." The tomboy replied.

"I was just chaperoning them." Shugo shrugged.

"And what were you doing?" Yui directed at Tamami.

"I was doing the dishes and started the preparation for dinner as well." The woman answered.

"Alone?"

"Yes, I shut myself in the kitchen…"

"That's not a very good alibi, then." True. Compared to Sumika and Ninda, no one had seen Tamami and thus her alibi was quite shaky…

"Ah, but I talked with these two girls through the kitchen door!"

"Is that true?"

"Yes! The two of us were cleaning the living room next door at the time." Sonoko confirmed and then proceeded to tell the conversation they had with Tamami. And so went the conversation with the conclusion that all the suspects had alibis strong enough even though they weren't seen all the time.

Ninda brought up the Red Woman as possible culprit and started promptly panicking despite Sumika and Tamami's attempts to calm him down. It wasn't until Yui shut down the course of thinking with the information that Red Woman was dead, that they calmed down. Though not much. The identity of the culprit was still a mystery after all.

"It couldn't be the spirit of the red woman, could it?!" Tamami exclaimed.

"If we're talking about a ghost, the self-defense bat I brought won't help at all!" Ninda added.

"You're going to protect us, right, officer?" Sumika added.

"In any case, please calm down… I'll decide what to do once we've investigated the villa a bit further…" Yui instructed. "Please wait in your own rooms until then…"

The case characters scattered and Conan and Masumi accompanied Yui to the investigations. Shugo and Tsukiko settled to living room with Ran and Sonoko in the meanwhile.

"I didn't realize how superstitious Japanese are…" Tsukiko noted. "I mean… I'm used to Ran-san's fear of ghosts but seeing those three panicking and actually coming up with a possibility of a spirit…"

"You are Japanese too, aren't you? You've stated yourself that you've lived in Kyoto almost your entire life." Sonoko scoffed.

"Yes, but my memories are still shaky of that time. And I identify myself as much European as Japanese. I may get through culturally appropriate customs without stumbling but they don't… they don't hold as much significance to me as they do to you. I understand that in Shinto religion and Japanese culture in general you believe in the various kami and the spirits of your ancestors but…"

"It feels distant." Shugo helped when his sister started struggling in her descriptions. "I thought the same for a while… But after you've felt the icy cold influence of Yuki-Onna in the mountains and seen shadows of death and lack of regret upon murderers… Had a witch as a classmate and literally witnessed magic happening… Such qualms are quite soon dashed."

"Witch…?" Tsukiko frowned. Now that she thought about it… Akako had given her a prophetical warning, hadn't she?

"Yuki-Onna? You mean that time when we met at Yamagata?" Ran asked with wide eyes.

"Yes. I could feel the icy grip on Minowa Shouhei and Mimata Kousuke both." Shugo agreed and looked aside in hesitation. "It is a family thing. To sense auras. I hear okaa-san was the same."

"…Ability which I thankfully lack." Tsukiko muttered. Ran and Sonoko began drilling Shugo for information about his ability and things he'd seen. Red String of Fate? Really? Tsukiko in the other hand pondered Akako and her warning.

One steps on forbidden area but is invited.
One lets lies slip past their lips.
Thou are one, thou are three.
No one knows whether to trust thee.
Thou aren't from here,
but from space between spaces.
Thou must step warily in the midst of your lies.
Reality shan't be disturbed when thou flee.
Lies must not make thee.
Once they do, thou can not return.

First six lines described herself and her situation. The rest… warned her to stop lying unless she'd need to escape from everyone. Reality… It was bending around her. As she unraveled lies that she'd not even been aware of, the reality moved to accommodate her. Her lies became reality or then a cover story to hide her amnesia. But wasn't she avoiding fleeing? She was rediscovering herself.

It was all very strange.

Faint drumming noise began and increased rabidly in beat.

"Oh no! It started to rain…" Ran sighed.

"It really looks like the Red Woman could appear." Sonoko grinned.

"Stop saying things like that Sonoko!" Ran protested. Sonoko was about to quip something else back at her friend when she froze. The polka-haired girl got up from her chair and moved towards the window.

"For a second I saw a woman with long hair standing outside…"

"Really! If you don't stop this I'll get angry!" Ran retorted.

"Where did you see her?" Shugo came up to the window as well. But then the lights went out.

"A blackout? Now of all things?" Tsukiko frowned at the ceiling. Wait a minute. Was this…?

Kyaaaa!

The kitchen door slid aside with a rattle and Conan's wristwatch flashlight gave a beam into the living room.

"Th-That voice…" Sonoko gasped.

"Sumika-san?!" Ran trembled. Masumi and Conan rushed to the hallway.

"Where is Sumika-san's room?!" Tsukiko heard Masumi ask Yui.

"The last room on the left…" Came the reply.

They found Sumika slashed but alive. The woman identified her attacker as the Red Woman. Everyone was shocked. Even Shugo put on appropriately astonished face on. And Tsukiko… Well, she pondered if she should go and pick a book from her backpack. After all the only reason she'd really agreed to come on this trip was to deliver the letter.

A/N: I hope to get the second part done soon... but we'll see how my attention goes.