SailorStar9: With Chapter 16 uploaded, this is Chapter 17 of this fic. (Sighs) Guys and girls, is it too hard for you to leave a review, instead of just putting this fic up on your favorited list and story alerts?

Disclaimers: I own absolutely nothing, except this plot and potential pairing.

Pending pairing: Furuya Rei/Mizuno Ami

Chapter 17: The Jet-Black Mystery Train: Departure


Time passes...

"It's awesome." the Detective Boys gushed upon arrival at the Bell Tree Express Tokyo Station.

"It's the first time I've seen a steam locomotive." Ayumi was impressed.

"Although the SL appearance is just a front." Haibara stated. "Inside is a state-of-the-art diesel engine, I hear."

"Ai, you're still not better?" Ayumi was worried, seeing Haibara cough.

"Somebody's germs are pretty stubborn." Haibara leveled a look at Conan.

"Then why aren't you staying at home and resting" Conan deathpanned.

"You brats." Sonoko voiced. "You could at least show thanks for the owners of the Bell Tree Express, the Suzuki Financial Group. We especially reserved seats just for you. Of course, unlike yours, our seats are in the luxurious first-class seats."

"Speaking of which, isn't that the same first-class car that Kid announced he'd target soon?" Ran wondered.

"That's right." Sonoko beamed. "As a rule, this train only runs once a year, but this year, Uncle Jirokichi's going to run it specially one more time to exhibit some jewel in the first-class car and Kid-sama's sure to ride it. So I decided to be a step ahead of him and leave a love letter to him in the train car."

"I doubt Kid would have time to steal a letter." Ran blinked. "Besides, Kyogoku-san would be pretty upset."

"My love for Kid-sama is different from my love for him." Sonoko declared.

"What I'm interested in isn't any thief." Sera cut in. "But the deduction quiz they always do onboard the train. Isn't you dad with you?"

"He was right here a moment ago." Ran looked around.

"Good to see you, Ando-sama." Car 6's conductor greeted the newly arrived passenger. "It's been a long time. May I take your luggage?"

"Don't worry about this." Ando Satoru assured. "It's a valuable item my client entrusted me with, and it's quite heavy. The heavy part is the solid-gold picture frame. The painting's just a counterfeit. The appraiser had finished with it, so I'm escorting it back to my client in Nagoya."

"But this is the Mystery Train, destination unknown." the conductor blinked. "Why would you think it's headed to Nagoya?"

"Come on now, conductor." Noto Taisaku chided. "How many years have we been meeting like this?"

"Anyone can deduce that by checking which trains have had their schedules changed today." Idenami Mari pointed out.

"The crux of what stimulates our intellect is the mystery acted out on board this train." the wheel-chair bound Komino Natsue added. "Isn't that right, Sumitomo, Ami-san?"

"Yes, mistress." Sumitomo Hiruka responded.

"Quite true, grandaunt." Ami nodded.

"I should've expected no less from mystery connoisseurs like yourselves." the conductor was impressed. "I underestimated you."

"You." Murobashi Etsuto barked, running up. "What's going on here? I know I reserved my usual room on the first-class car, Carriage 8. so why'd I'm moved to Carriage 7?"

"I do apologize." the conductor replied. "As we mentioned a few days back, we had accidentally double-booked the room, so we had to move you."

"That's my favorite room and I book it every single year the moment the tickets go on sale." Murobashi snapped. "Where's the jackass who muscled in on my room?"

"I'm the 'jackass' in question." Mouri intervened. "Please excuse me, my daughter is a friend of the owners of this train. You can be assured that with me on board, no matter what the case awaits aboard this train, I, the great detective Poirot Mouri, will instantly bring the truth to light."

"Dad, what are you doing?" Ran chided. "You're not allowed to smoke here." she snatched the cigarette from Mouri's mouth. "And what's this 'Poirot' thing about? You're Mouri Kogoro. Everyone's waiting for you in front of Carriage 6." she pulled her father off.

Sometime later, the train rolled out of the station.


In the 6B car...

"Awesome." the Detective Boys looked out of the window.

"All the stations are just flying past." Genta gushed.

"It's supposed to be almost nonstop until we reach the destination." Mitsuhiko added.

"Of course, where the final stop is located is a mystery." Professor Agasa noted.

"It's Nagoya." Conan supplied. "If you look up the train schedule on the Internet, you can figure out this train's route. What I'm interested in is the deduction quiz that's gonna take place aboard the train in the meantime."

"The rumor goes that a culprit and victim are picked from the passengers at random and an incident occurs between them." Haibara explained. "The rest of the passengers become detectives with the goal being to figure out the culprit before the train reaches its destination."

"Who is it?" Professor Agasa asked, hearing a knock on the door. "Nobody's here." he looked outside.

"A letter?" Conan noticed a sealed envelope on the floor.


In the corridor of Car 7...

"'Congratulations, you've been selected to play the role of the detective. In 10 minutes, an incident will take place in Carriage 7, Boom B, so please investigate it.'" he read the card, the Detective Boys following him.

"Carriage 7, Room B..." Mitsuhiko eyed the carriage doors. "It's this room, right?"

"Excuse me..." Conan knocked on the door and opened it.

"Don't come in, moron." Murobashi warned.

"Awesome." Genta gushed, Murobashi was shot twice in the chest and the masked shooter ran out. "It's just like the real thing."

"Let's go after them." Mitsuhiko suggested.


In Car 6...

"We lost them." Genta started, turning the corner of Car 6.

"All the rooms are private, so we can't tell if they went into one of the rooms." Mitsuhiko noted.

"You guys." the Car's conductor started. "Is this your first time on this train? In that case, you better stay in your room. The deduction quiz will be announced via the speakers in each room."

"So the case hasn't started at all yet?" Conan was confused.

"It won't start for another hour, I believe." the conductor referred to his watch.

Could it be... Conan realized and dashed back.


In Car 7...

"Conan, what's wrong?" Ran asked, she, Sonoko and Sera were drinking tea in the room Conan just burst into.

"You should at least knock before you enter a lady's room, you know." Sonoko chided.

"This is Carriage 7, right?" Conan asked, the rest of the Detective Boys had also caught up.

"What are you talking about?" Sera chided. "This is Carriage 8. I've just come to visit."

"That's strange." Conan pondered. "I don't think I miscounted the carriages.

"It can't be helped." Mitsuhiko replied. "The carriage numbers are only written on the outside of the train. And the only thing displayed on the room doors is the single alphabetic letter."

"So, how'd you do on the deduction quiz?" Professor Agasa poked his head out.

"Professor," Conan breathed. "Is this room, our room, on Carriage 6?"

"Yeah." Professor Agasa nodded. "The snacks you all were just eating are right where you left them."

"We only moved down one carriage from Carriage 8." Mitsuhiko was mystified.


In Car 6...

"Carriage 7 disappeared?" Car 6's conductor scoffed when the Detective Boys informed him. "That's ridiculous."

"There was a guy who just got shot in Carriage 7." Genta insisted. "We chased the culprit who shot him after they flew from the room, but we lost him."

"And when we go back to Carriage 7 where the passenger who got shot was, it was Carriage 8." Mitsuhiko added.

"Shot?" the conductor echoed. "If that were the case, why didn't you immediately tell that to one of us conductors?"

"At the time, we all thought it was part of the deduction quiz." Conan explained. "Anyway, please check at least. Carriage 7 disappeared, along with the passenger that was shot."

"Then, you should ask the conductor in each carriage." the conductor suggested. "They'll be sitting in the rearmost part of the hallway in each passenger car, like I am. But I'm sure you all just got the wrong idea." he heard a bell ring. "In compliance with the owner's specifications, the carriage numbers aren't displayed inside the train. Though it means that many passengers can't tell which room is theirs, and it's a lot of work for us conductors." he turned off the lamp of Room F. "How may I be of assistance?" he knocked on the door.

"So, if you ring the bell like that, the lamp above the room lights up and the conductor will come." Mitsuhiko remarked.

"The missing Carriage 7 comes first." Conan reminded. "Let's go check."

In Car 7...

"Carriage 7?" Conan exclaimed after confirming with the conductor. "This is really Carriage 7?"

"Carriage 7 must have reappeared while we were distracted." Mitsuhiko gaped.

"Let's go to Room B and take a look." Genta suggested.

"I'm opening it." Conan stopped in front of the door. "Is this really..." he entered the girls' room.

"This is Carriage 8." Sonoko insisted. "Brats like you should just go back to your room and stay out of trouble."

"Maybe that conductor got confused?" Ayumi wondered.

"He looks pretty sleepy to me." Genta agreed.

"This room is really Carriage 7, Room B." Conan reentered the room, recalling the card in Sera's hand. "Sonoko-nee-chan, you guys got one too, right? A card just like this. And you were doing what the card said, right? To temporarily switch rooms with the person playing the victim role and confuse the detectives that would come to visit."

"You're amazing, Conan." Ran applauded. "Someone knocked on our door and when we opened it, there was an envelope on the ground and the card inside it said 'Congratulations, you've been chosen to play the role of the accomplice.' And the rest is just as you said."

"'The guest playing the role of the victim is Carriage 7, Room B, was waiting. So switch with them to help enliven the deduction quiz.'" Sonoko snapped.

"And just as the passenger who was playing the victim role and Ran's party was switching, I passed through and joined them." Sera added.

"So the person who played the victim role is probably relaxing in our room in Carriage 8 now." Ran surmised.

"Then where's Kogoro-oji-san?" Conan asked.

"The victim guy told him to go to the dining car." Sonoko replied.

"He wanted dad to play the role of the detective who explained the answer to the deduction quiz in the end." Ran supplied. "So he asked dad to standby in the dining car."

"It's nice to meet you finally." Sera peered at Haibara. "You're that girl called Haibara, right? I've wanted to talk to you. Who's there?" she demanded, sensing a presence at the door. "Just now, I thought someone was peering in through the crack in the door." she looked outside. "Did I imagine it?" she closed the door behind her.

"You figured out the trick behind the disappearing corpse?" the Car 6 conductor chuckled. "We haven't released the deduction quiz for this journey yet."

"But I got this card." Conan showed the conductor the card.

"We did too." Sonoko handed over her card.

"They do look like the instruction cards we usually use but the trick for this journey wasn't anything like that." the conductor inspected both cards.

"I guess I'll have to go to Carriage 8 and ask the victim ourselves." Sera remarked.


In Car 8...

"Noto-sama, how may I be of assistance?" the conductor knocked on Room A.

"What's going on?" Noto opened his door. "I didn't call for you."

"But the bell just..." the conductor gaped.

"Don't know about it." Noto scoffed. "When I call you, no one comes. But when I don't need you, you come."

"It's fine." Murobashi assured, talking into his phone as he sneakily opened his door. "There was some kind of trouble in the room next door, but it looks like the conductor just made a mistake."

"Coming." the conductor called out, hearing the bell ring. "Idenami-sama." he knocked on Idenami's door.

"Can't you do anything about this?" Idenami snapped, opening her door. "The sound." she pressed. "There's a strange sound in my room."

"I don't hear anything." the conductor admitted.

"It was just sounding earlier." Idenami insisted, Sumitomo exiting their room with Komino. "Are you calling me a liar? This sound. You hear it, right?"

"It's probably a mobile phone or similar that someone left behind." the conductor reasoned.

"I'll find it myself." Idenami pushed the conductor out of her room. "What I want to know is why didn't you find the mobile phone before the train set off?"

"Is something wrong?" Ando inquired, leaving his room.

"Here it is." Sonoko led the rest down the hallway. "This is our room. Ojii-san." she knocked on the door. "The trick's been found out. Come out and explain. No way." she blinked, opening the door to find it chained-locked. "Ojii-san, wake up and undo the chain lock."

"What's wrong?" Ran asked.

"He's taking a nap on our sofa." Sonoko replied, seeing Murobashi slumped on the crouch. "There's blood coming from his forehead, it almost looks like he's really dead. I'm sure it's just some sort of deduction quiz clue again."

"Let me through." Conan barked, as he and Sera peered through the crack. "It smells like..."

"Gunpowder." Sera confirmed.

"Let's break down the door." Conan suggested.

With the chain broken after a harsh tug, both Conan and Sera rushed in.

"Another deduction quiz?" Mitsuhiko asked.

"No, he's really dead." Sera replied, feeling no pulse from Murobashi's neck.


SailorStar9: Any OOC-ness is regretted. *Sighs* Don't you just hate plot bunnies sometimes? Read and review.