A/N: I wrote this in its entirety today. I hope you like this.
41
They were all gathered in the dining room. after Chiyuki's outburst, it had been ironically Kikue aka the culprit of the day, who had comforted her.
"Okaasan is going to be worried." Chiyuki spoke up after Sonoko professed her guilt over choosing Hamano to be the entertainment of the evening and thus gotten killed because of that. Doito had comforted her.
"Yes, you did promise to call on the evening…" Naoko remembered. The girl nodded mutely.
"Maybe she has contacted the police then?" Conan suggested. "After the bridge burned down, Kogoro-ojiisan told me from the other side, that he'd bring help from the police as soon as possible and told be to come and wait here! So, the police should be here by tomorrow morning!"
"It's good to heart that…" Kikue mused. Chiyuki looked up at the woman. She'd liked the woman as Shadow Manipulator but as Fake Child, she was… weird. And here she was Fake Child while Shadow Manipulator was the murderer… Chiyuki didn't know what to think…
"But why was Hamano-san and Nishiyama-san murdered?" Ara thought aloud.
"If Shadow Manipulator is the culprit, then… Is the chat from the other day the cause?" Naoko asked. The conversation then went to explaining the concept of chat to Ran. Considering that at this point of time the Detective Agency didn't even have a computer, it was quite believable that the teen hadn't used chat before… still, timelines and the development of technology was weird. Chiyuki didn't have her phone cellphone yet, people still used pagers and fax machines… Landline phones were everywhere, internet and computers – especially laptops – were a novel concept that only rich and office workers used.
Then the dispute was explained. Escape king Harui Fuuden and Shadow Manipulators comments accusing them all. Chiyuki bit her lip. She felt sorry for the deceased magician. At such advanced age he still wanted his fans to experience the thrill of seeing an escape trick. And died for that.
The girl had seen the comments Nishiyama and Hamano made of the late magician after the disastrous trick and tried to have them show more respect and cease their joking. But they hadn't listened.
Chiyuki had liked the original Fake Child. Though old fashioned with his words, he had been an enjoyable conversation partner. And had gently corrected Chiyuki's grammar when it had been just the two of them online. After Harui Fuuden's death, Chiyuki had ceased more personal communication with Fake Child. It wasn't the same after all. Instead, she'd started talking with Shadow Manipulator who'd joined the chat not long after the fact.
42
Kikue, Ran, Conan and Doito went upstairs to get some warm clothes. Meanwhile Sonoko and Naoko went to bathroom. Suddenly they could hear windows breaking. Apparently both Kikue's room's balcony window and the window of the bathroom had been shot through with a crossbow arrow.
Apparently. Meaning that it wasn't as it seemed.
Kikue went to chase for the culprit in the woods. Everyone followed her.
Everyone but Chiyuki.
43
Chiyuki had bundled into her jacket again as she went to the opposite direction from the others. She left through front door though, as to not leave any prints when she rounded the lodge and went to search for the tree with the other arrow of the trick.
Finding the arrow was easy. Pulling it out was hard. Chiyuki had to brace her both feet against the tree trunk in order to get enough leverage to pull the arrow out. And naturally fly and fall into the snow once it loosened.
But it was out now. Time to join the others and hid the arrow itself.
44
They had found a crossbow in the woods as well as an arrow. It was a different kind of arrow to the one Chiyuki had found. Chiyuki's had a hole with a string looped through it while the other arrow had none.
And thus, they all returned inside and Conan began his investigation at earnest. He started with asking everyone's alibis. Ara was astonished, Naoko and Kikue amused. Doito was the first one to answer his questions though.
"When Hamano-san was killed, he was alone in his room. Kuroda-san and I were setting up the dinner table and preparing the party. Isn't that right, Kuroda-san?"
"Yes. After I finished, I went to help Sugama-san in the kitchen. Chiyuki-chan had joined us in setting the table… presumably after she came back from the bridge." Naoko agreed. Chiyuki nodded in confirmation.
"Help?" Conan asked Sugama the creepy part-time helper.
"Ara-san told me to prepare dinner, so I was in the kitchen." Sugama answered.
"When Kuroda-san and Sugama-san were in the kitchen, what were you doing?" Conan asked Doito then.
"Ah, I went to bring crackers for everyone."
"Heh… Crackers…"
"I went to see Conan-kun and Ran in the room…" Sonoko joined in.
"That's right. Then I came to the party with Sonoko and left Conan-kun alone in the room." Ran continued.
"I was in charge of preparing the baths, so I used wood to heat the bath." Kikue told the little detective.
"I went to fetch some wine from the wine cellar." Ara added.
And from there on Conan led the investigation to outside, first to the wine cellar and then to the furnace used for heating the bath water.
45
"Naoko-oneesan, I want to take a bath." Chiyuki told the bespectacled woman once everyone came back inside.
"Are you sure?" The woman asked.
"Yes. Kikue-oneesan went through a lot of effort to warm the water. It would be pity if it went to waste. And Sugama-san already taped the broken window shut, right?"
"That's true." Sugama the creep nodded.
"Alright, then. But you are not going alone." Naoko stated.
"Of course."
And the thus those who wanted to bath, drew lots on the order and went in pairs. First Chiyuki and Naoko, then Sonoko and Kikue. Others weren't feeling up for a bath and thus declined.
Meanwhile, Conan solved the mystery and began preparations for solving it.
46
"Say… Why are you Doito Katsuki? Wouldn't Toki Kida been easier and less suspicious to be?" Chiyuki asked Doito after her bath, her fingers clutching onto the pocket of his jeans. While asking, she slipped a playing card into that pocket without the moonlit magician noticing.
"What are you talking about?" The otaku-ish man asked.
"Red Herring isn't exactly conspicuous, you know. It basically screams that you are fake or at least a distraction." Chiyuki continued on. And she probably would've continued her line of one-sided conversation if Conan hadn't screamed upstairs. Everyone came running from the dining room and went to upstairs, sweeping Doito and Chiyuki with them.
"Tch…" The girl frowned. "He got away…"
Glass broke. They ran outside, towards the tree from which Chiyuki had pulled the arrow free from.
Sonoko collapsed the snow and began "solving" the case.
47
Ran was sent back to the lodge, to the upstairs to perform the trick Conan instructed with Sonoko's voice. Then Doito appeared there as well, to perform the shooting of arrows in her stead.
And thus, a triangular sail lookalike was arranged in the middle of the yard, hanging in midair. With it, a rolled-up blanket was cleanly lowered to the center of the yard without disturbing the rest of the snow.
"Most likely the shadow Chiyuki-chan saw flying from the balcony was Hamano-san's body being moved down."
One last arrow was shot into the woods to get rid of the strings and then "Sonoko" named the culprit.
Tanaka Kikue.
Naturally what followed was back and forth banter whether or not it was possible for her to have done it all as she'd been warming the bathwater and she had been shot at with the crossbow… all of which "Sonoko" disproved.
Finally Kikue confessed. And told about Harui Fuuden being her grandfather. About the disrespectful comments Nishiyama and Hamano both made after her grandfather's death. About the fact that only Chiyuki had tried to make them stop.
"You guys probably don't know that my grandfather intended to reveal himself if the show was successful… "I somehow managed to pull it off! Did you enjoy it, ladies and gentlemen? Fake Child aka Harui Fuuden" … I found this unsent comment left on his PC and felt sad and frustrated. And thus, I was unable to stop myself…" Kikue explained.
"But if those two had known who Fake Child was, they wouldn't have…" Naoko began.
"True… But it seems that 'he' noticed…"
"'He'…?"
"Doito-kun… He sent grandfather a message encouraging him the day before the show…"
"But how did he know?" Ara asked.
"Maybe because he's also a magician?" Sonoko's voice continued. Chiyuki had her eyes on the balcony.
"He is?"
"My, you haven't noticed yet? His name, Doito Katsuki, is an anagram… If you rearrange the kana…"
Personally, Chiyuki would've used romanji. The tsu-syllable made it all bit too obvious in her opinion.
48
Kaitou Kid flew away from the lodge when the sun began rising behind the mountains. A police helicopter arrived to the scene with Nabiki and Kogorou with them.
"Okaasan!" Chiyuki couldn't help but cry in relief when she ran for her mother. Nabiki caught her into a fierce and relieved embrace.
"Oh, Chi-chan, I was so worried. I heard the radio and when I headed back, I came across with Mouri-san and he told me about the bridge…" The woman spoke, not really caring whether or not Chiyuki listened to her. The girl burrowed against the woman's winter jacket and just hummed at appropriate moments. While this case wasn't as bad as some others that Conan came across – there was no decapitation, witnessing or poisoning, blood, or other gruesome features – just man in the snow, already dead and due cold not even decomposing yet.
It was a clean case so to say.
But it didn't mean that Chiyuki liked it.
49
Kikue turned herself in and confessed to the police. Statements were taken from everyone from the lodge. Miraculously Sonoko wasn't required to explain everything all over again.
Chiyuki told her observations to Takagi and was scolded by Nabiki for leaving the cabin while it was dark out. Then she yawned and was ushered by Nabiki to upstairs to get her bag so they could go back home.
The police didn't notice until she was already gone that there was no second arrow with a string loop anywhere in the scene. It was gone like magic.
In reality, Chiyuki had hidden it among her things after the magic lovers had gone back inside after the first window breaking episode. And now it was in the bottom of her wardrobe, hidden.
50
Ai was understandably worried after she heard Chiyuki had been pulled into one of the Conan's cases. She did calm considerably when Chiyuki told it had been clean scene and the culprit had not wished any ill to her. On the other hand, Ai was also quite worried when her niece described her own conflict over the culprit. Chiyuki had genuinely liked Kikue. She had liked Harui too but she'd talked with Shadow Manipulator more in the end.
And thus, as a result Ai insisted on Chiyuki spending breaks with her and Detective Boys. So naturally Chiyuki's friends joined them as well. It went on like so for a while. Until Genta declared 1-A kids too boring and Ayano 1-B kids too wild. Well, at least they weren't on each other's' throats and the relations remained amicable.
Also, about a week after the case, Chiyuki got her playing card back. It was in the mailbox, in a letter without a stamp. And on the card – an Ace of Spades – was Kaitou Kid's autograph.
It became the gem of Chiyuki's magician autograph collection.
A/N: Toki Kida is a nod to the Finnish edition version which in my understanding it taken from German edition... Either way, I like the name way more than Doito Katsuki.
Replies to Reviews:
-Topaz Leaves: (chapter 1)
Indeed. I can't wait for the FBI either. Will take a bit of time though.
Conan won't figure it out until Clash as that's when he hears about Akai's relationship with Akemi and about his covername. Things still up in the air whether or not Chiyuki will be lurking at the hospital... following Eisuke or something...
Akai figuring things out... I'm a bit indecisive about this. At one hand, he is definitely smart enough to do so. On the other hand, Chiyuki looks more like mini-Akemi and Akai most likely has no idea what Akemi looked like as a child... I mean, Amuro has better chances at that... But he will find out... the latest when the arson case happens at Sugiura Kaito's home where Subaru was as a tenant.
But look forward to it!
-Tsuki: (guest)
You're welcome.