A/N: Onwards, my good readers! Some view on Chiyuki and Ai's friends' thougths on them and then we go forwards to Chiyuki's official involvement on a case!
31
Even after meeting with Shiho – Ai – properly, Chiyuki did not start actively hang out with the Detective Boys. She is introduced to them, yes, as Ai's cousin to explain her calling the auburn-haired girl 'neesan', and even invited to join their little detective club but she had her own friends already.
Besides… Genta was way too loud, Mitsuhiko too snobby and Ayumi too saccharine sweet in Chiyuki's tastes. Not to mention that Conan was way too nosy. So, Chiyuki declined the invitation and the DB badge that would track her movements. They were still sort of friends… in a… "Cousin of Haibara-san is a friend of ours" way.
Well, at least Ai was fond of them in a big sister sort of way.
32
Ayano, Kaito and Toshiya were also told about Chiyuki's cousin. They took it in stride and understood when Chiyuki explained that last time, she'd seen Ai was when her mother was still alive and that's why she'd started crying and had run away from the Detective Boys when the other girl had enrolled Teitan.
Toshiya invited all three of them over his place to play a new board game his brother had bought for him as an apology for worrying him. The game was called Go for Broke where the aim was to spend one million dollars as fast as possible. It was a fun game. And ironic considering what had happened with the brother. But good they were getting over it.
33
A bit later there was a threat of a shootout happening at a football game. Everyone heard everything about it the next day at school since the Detective Boys had been involved in finding the culprits.
"Dangerous stuff." Kaito mused.
"Yeah, but they really like mysteries." Toshiya agreed, having been in danger himself when he'd been with DB looking for his brother.
"But do they do it for the mystery or for the reward?" Ayano asked.
"Bit of both really I think." Chiyuki smiled. "Kojima-kun wants reward, Tsuburaya-kun likes the intellectual challenge, Yoshida-san has thirst for adventure, Edogawa-kun is the trouble magnet and Ai-neesan is their babysitter."
"True…" The other three chorused.
34
Then came the first murder case where Chiyuki was involved in. She'd been chatting with people on Magic Lovers Forum and enjoyed their talk. As it was online and behind a username, she could talk as she wished and let the other members draw their own conclusions of her age and gender. And now Chiyuki wanted to attend their face to face meeting, if only to see their faces when they realize a grade schooler was chatting with the adults.
It had taken some time to convince Nabiki but finally a compromise had been achieved. Nabiki would take Chiyuki to the lodge and see the other people in the meeting herself and then decide whether or not she'd leave Chiyuki with them for two nights. Thankfully at least Fake Child, Illusion and Magician's Apprentice were obviously girls and Magician's Apprentice was taking a friend – another girl – with her to the meeting so it wouldn't be just males.
And Nabiki was a good judge of character so she'd be able to easily determine whether or not Chiyuki would be safe.
35
It was funny how after ringing the doorbell, the owner of the lodge, Ara Yoshinori aka Silent Ventriloquist, addressed Nabiki as Ace of Spades – Chiyuki's username.
"No, Ace of Spades is my daughter. I'm here only to see if it's safe for her two stay." Nabiki retorted.
"Konnichiwa!" Chiyuki smiled next to her.
"Ah, my apologies." Ara replied. "We thought you were at least in twenties based on some of the words you used."
True, Chiyuki as a first grader wasn't supposed to know that much kanji but that's what a dictionary and Nabiki was for.
"I asked kaasan about kanji and she helped." Chiyuki grinned. "And sometimes I thought how would kaasan say this when chatting."
"That was a clever trick." Ara praised the girl.
"You pass." Nabiki stated then. "Where are other participants?"
"Dining room for now. Many people arrived only recently so we're getting to know each other." the man led them to the dining room where three people were gathered. Two women and one man.
"Ace of Spades? Nice to meet you." The man got up from his seat and offered a hand to Nabiki. "You are as beautiful as I imagined." He kissed the back of her hand and winked at her then. Chiyuki and Ara exchanged an exasperated look.
"…You pass." Nabiki decided then. Apparently, the man was casual flirt and since Chiyuki hadn't talked with him via PMs or had ever hinted anything in regards her own looks… Casual flirt, not a pervert. Likewise, Ara hadn't known it was Chiyuki chatting so he was discounted as a pervert luring a child into a remote ski lodge as well.
"Pass?" The flirt asked.
"Ah, Ace-san, you didn't mention you were taking your daughter with you." One of the women, with glasses, said. Ace-san was the way Chiyuki had asked to be addressed as online since her username was a bit long to write out every time direct addressing was needed.
Nabiki just smiled at the two of them. "Of course not."
"…Is there a trick going on?" The last woman asked after a bout of silence and confusion.
"Indeed." Nabiki nodded. "My name is Harumori Nabiki. My daughter Chiyuki here is the one behind the username Ace of Spades. I came here to see what sort of people are meeting and if it's safe to leave Chiyuki here for two nights."
"Konnichiwa!" Chiyuki greeted again. "My name is Moroboshi Chiyuki. Nice to meet you all finally."
Stunned silence followed.
"May I know the usernames of each of you?" Nabiki enquired.
"Of course." The woman with glasses nodded, getting up from her seat as well. "My name is Kuroda Naoko. I go by Illusion."
"Tanaka Kikue. I'm called Fake Child." The other woman smiled, offering a wave to Chiyuki.
"Hamano Toshiya. I'm Disappearing Bunny." The rebuffed man smiled too and then bent to address Chiyuki directly. "Nice to meet you Chiyuki-chan."
"It's Ace-san to you, she-male." Chiyuki replied, in reference to the fact that Hamano had pretended to be a woman online. Naoko snorted at the reply and the others smiled too at the exchange.
"Who else are coming?" Nabiki asked Ara then.
"Magician's Apprentice and her friend, Red Herring, Shadow Manipulator as well as our admin Escape King."
Right on point, the doorbell rang again. Ara went to answer while Nabiki gently interrogated the other participants about their occupations and lives in general before being satisfied.
The newcomer was Doito Katsuki aka Red Herring. He glanced between Nabiki and Chiyuki for a moment before asking which one of them was Magician's Apprentice.
"I'm Ace of Spades, Doito-san." Chiyuki answered. "Kaasan just drove me here."
"Oh, I see." Doito nodded.
"You pass as well." Nabiki stated then. "Chi-chan, I'm going to get your bag from the car, be nice with your new friends."
"Hai."
36
Nabiki had Chiyuki settled in one of the rooms before leaving. Chiyuki promised to call home with the lodge's landline before going to sleep and the first thing in the morning.
Then she and the other magic lovers settled down to wait for the rest to arrive. It didn't take long before the doorbell rang again. This time it was the Magician's Apprentice and her friend that arrived. Suzuki Sonoko and Mouri Ran. There was discussion about how people's mannerisms online had managed to confuse people of their age and gender. Sonoko had been obviously girl pretending to be a man, Kikue had seemed like a man convincingly (thought Chiyuki knew the owner of the username had changed recently), Hamano had been so convincingly woman that even Naoko had been fooled. And of course, there was Doito who was excited to meet Sonoko who in turn had hoped to meet a dreamy prince and…
"You sound like an otaku who's never scored a date in his life." Chiyuki bluntly informed Doito.
"Okay, I can see how she managed to seem like one and half decades older." Naoko mused. "Her phrasing is well above her age."
Chiyuki just ignored the remark and glanced out of the open doorway. Conan was there. She didn't feel like talking with him though.
Sonoko asked as well who else were coming to the meeting and was informed that only Shadow Manipulator and Escape King were missing.
"Eh, Shadow Manipulator is coming as well?" The girl asked, shocked, and then went to explain to Ran that the user behind the name was creepy.
"I think they're funny." Chiyuki stated. It was true. She'd talked a lot with Shadow Manipulator when she'd come home and other users weren't present yet due their work or in Sonoko's (and Doito's) case school. Shadow Manipulator was always courteous towards her and it was nice to talk with them about favourite magicians and impossible feats. With them Chiyuki had also talked about death of Ayano's father and asked how to comfort her friend afterwards. Which probably tipped Kikue about her true age and saw through Chiyuki and Nabiki's ruse.
They went to set their beds in the lodge. Ran and Sonoko were sharing a room so Chiyuki went to shyly as Naoko if she could share a room with her as well. The woman agreed and as there were two beds in each room, it was no problem space vise.
37
It was after eating a delicious lunch and conversing about their favourite magicians when the start of the case began. First Hamano, who wanted to try calling Escape King again, noticed that there was no dial tone in the landline. Then Ran found Conan in the snow in front of the lodge.
When discussing about the situation and Ran telling others Conan's warning, Kikue suggested it having something to do with Shadow Manipulator and Escape King. Unfortunately, though even when Ara tried to call Escape King again, there was no dial tone, meaning that the phonelines were having problems.
"Or have been cut…" Chiyuki thought but asked aloud. "Ran-neesan, if Edogawa-kun is here, is your otou-san nearby then too?"
"I don't think so… He would've been with Conan-kun and rang the doorbell otherwise." The karate champion replied. Okay, so no one was willing to go investigate the bridge then. Fine. Chiyuki would do it herself then.
The girl went to downstairs while adults were worrying about Escape King's absence and evening program. And eventually deciding on selecting a new leader. Meanwhile Chiyuki took her coat and boots from the front hall, found a flashlight and exited via backdoor. The door she left open with an umbrella between it but packed snow on the outside so wind wouldn't slam it open.
And she went to see the burnt bridge.
38
Snow was crunching beneath Chiyuki's boots as she walked around the house and towards the bridge. The wind blew in the woods and snowflakes fell gently down.
Chiyuki stopped and looked up. It was so pretty. Dark, cloudless night sky with stars twinkling far above her. No light pollution messing with the scenery.
"Pretty…" She breathed. Then she continued walking on… While singing softly.
"Twinkle, twinkle, little star… How I wonder what you are… Up above the world so high… Like a diamond in the sky… Twinkle, twinkle, little star… How I wonder what you are…
She arrived to the ravine and the collapsed bridge. Across seemed to be marks of a car being parked there but it was hard to say in the dark. Well, Mouri Kogoro had gone to get some help then. Chiyuki turned around to get back to the lodge.
"When the blazing sun is gone… When he nothing shines upon… Then you show your little light…Twinkle, twinkle, little star… How I wonder what you are…"
She stopped at the corner of the lodge and clicked the flashlight shut. A shadow was slipping down from Hamano's rooms balcony to the middle of the yard. The girl swallowed and then ran along the wall of the house back to the backdoor, her eyes firmly not looking at the corpse. She was silently thankful that the hallway window and the bath heating system were at the other end of the house and thus Tanaka Kikue could not see her.
39
Chiyuki slipped back in and put the flashlight back where she'd taken it, then taking her shoes and coat to the front hall and slipping back in to help with dinner preparations. No one had noticed she was gone, assuming she'd gone to bathroom.
Okay. Bar Ran, none of them had experience in childrearing. And Ran was preoccupied with worrying about Conan and thus not leaving his bedside.
Eventually Sonoko did drag Ran down for dinner which looked at least delicious as well.
"Escape King and Shadow Manipulator haven't come yet, it seems." Kikue commented as they sat down to eat.
"Both didn't get along well together. They might've met somewhere earlier and had a fight." Naoko suggested.
"They didn't get along well?" Ran frowned.
"Yeah. They once got into a flame war about a magician." Sonoko began.
"I remember that too!" Chiyuki blinked. "King-san called Shadow-san a hypocrite and pretentious liar and Shadow-san called King-san and Bunny-san murderers."
That had actually happened in the conversation once. Those exact insults had been said very late in the evening though that Chiyuki hadn't seen the continuation of the argument once Nabiki ushered her to bed.
"That's old stuff." Ara intervened. "Let's not talk about that right now… Don't know about Shadow Manipulator but Escape King, our board leader, will eventually…"
"He's not coming either…" A voice interjected from the doorway. Conan was up. "He was murdered in his apartment."
"Murdered?!"
"His name is Nishiyama Tsutomu, right?"
"Yeah…"
"Then what I heard on the radio should be correct. I rushed back here to warn everyone that all of you are in danger right now."
"How are we in danger?" Naoko asked.
"Because there was a message left on the monitor next to Nishiyama-san's body… 'The first one – Shadow Manipulator'…" Conan informed them. The adults were shocked.
"If it's because of the thing they argued about, then Hamano-san was involved as well." Kikue muttered.
"Then he might also be…" Ara began and thus everyone hurried upstairs to check on the absent man.
40
Hamano was lying in the middle of the yard in untouched snow. Doito pronounced him dead and then told the rest not to approach and disturb the crime scene.
"Crime scene?" Ara asked.
"Don't you get it?" Conan asked. "The body's found over 30 feet from the lodge but the only foot prints around the body belong to us."
"Yes, this is a murder that people without wings like us shouldn't be able to commit. This is an impossible crime." Doito said which, considering who he actually was beneath that disguise, was quite ironic choice of words.
Next people were bantering back and forth about the possibility of murderer being nearby, with Doito saying that murderer might be one of them. Then the creepy assistant/part timer Ara had hired mentioned the missing Shadow Manipulator being a likely suspect. Kikue wanted to leave the whole place when Conan told her that the bridge had burnt down and there was thus no way out.
Naoko spoke of the cut phonelines. Doito mentioned no cellphone coverage. There was no way to call for help.
"Is it Shadow Manipulator then?" Chiyuki asked quietly drawing attention to herself. "After Edogawa-kun came here, I went to see the bridge if Mouri-san was nearby… The bridge was burnt and collapsed and when I came back…" She bit her lip. "When I came back, I saw a shadow flying out from Hamano-san's balcony!"
A/N: I used Shadow Manipulator since it fit best. It is the version at mangareader. Other options were Shadow Maker from Korn Scans, Dark King from DCW info and Shadow Priest from a version my internet friend has.
Replies to Reviews:
-OTrizy:
Thank you! I'm glad you liked the scene. Unfortunately I didn't include Ai here but in the future they'll interract more.
Haha, I only properly remembered Sugiura Kaito of the sidecharacters at the time I was deciding on which class I'd put Chiyuki on. I didn't want her to be part of DB since that is basically a cliche, so I looked at other canon characters for her friends. And found a nice selection on class 1-A.
-Eterna the water phoenix: (chapter 1)
Yes, they finally met. I'll try to write their interractions more in the future chapters.
-Mekutakito:
Child logic utilized is the most dangerous weapon. As you can see from this chapter as well.
Since the chapters for both Colibri and Star are quick to write I might be updating simultaneously but I might not. Depends on my mood really. I'm glad you like both fics :D
-Tsuki:
Thank you very much. I'll try to update when I can.
-Erza Scarlet Belserion:
Updated! Sorry, no Ai here this time. This case ate the numbers before I could get any further. But hopefully in the next one I get to have some proper family interractions.
()
I think the next chapter will be in similar style than the chapters this far, to round up the numbers to 50, and afterwards they'll go to "normal" chapters.