SailorStar9: With Chapter 35 uploaded, this is Chapter 36 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 the pairing.
Pairing: Developing!Furuya Rei/Mizuno Ami
Chapter 36: Metropolitan Police Detective Love Story 9, Confession
Sometime later...
"Sato-san?" Takagi caught up with his partner in the police headquarters' underground carpark. "What is it that you wanted to talk to me about?"
"Just get in the car." Sato instructed.
Wait, hold on a bit. Takagi recalled the prank Sato once pulled on him. Didn't this happen before? When I opened the door back then...
"What are you doing?" Sato deathpanned.
"I was prepared for another prank." Takagi blinked.
"I told you it was important this time, didn't I?" Sato chided. "Can't you tell just by looking? I'm still hesitating."
"Are you talking about that?" Takagi exclaimed.
"It's embarrassing, so don't tell anyone about it." Sato blushed. "But, what should I do? It's a big responsibility."
"I'll take full responsibility." Takagi declared, grabbing both of Sato's hands. Hold on a minute, we're both police officers. We work under the same department, too. In reality, working as a couple could prove difficult depending on the case and either of us can get transferred somewhere else. If Sato-san, the idol of Division One, were the one to get transferred, my seniors could put me through hell. Maybe I should get relocated, or I should just quit being a detective.
"Roger that." Sato responded to her call. "We're on our way. We received a report of a suspect in Beika Prefecture. We'll head to the scene immediately."
"Miwako is having a baby?" in the patrol car, Yumi gawked as Sato and Takagi drove off.
"We need to congratulate her." Miike gushed.
On the streets...
"All of you yawning together?" Conan rebuked, seeing Mitsuhiko, Genta and Ayumi yawning in unison. "You're like Haibara now?"
"I apologize for being the yawn girl." Haibara was not amused.
"Titan Hunter was really cool." Genta defended.
"We couldn't stop playing." Mitsuhiko added.
"Seriously." Conan snorted. "You're spending your summer vacation on video games?"
"I forgot to tell you." Ayumi piped in. "My dad helped me and I leveled my rank up."
"I always get eaten by the blue titan." Mitsuhiko complained.
"Just what kind of game is that?" Conan wondered.
"It's an RPG where you defend your castle against titan clans." Haibara explicated.
"Wasn't the guidebook supposed to be put on sale today?" Mitsuhiko remembered.
"Why don't we see if that store is selling them?" Genta spotted a convenience store nearby.
"That really surprised me." Takagi walked out of the Nostalgia Flower Shop with Sato. "He didn't resemble our suspect at all."
In the convenience store...
"Awesome." Genta gushed, flipping through one of the guidebooks on display. "It says 'the ruler's sword'."
"It's attack strength is around ten thousand, and it says it's the only justice sword feared by the titans." Mitsuhiko read the stats.
"But the picture's black and white, so we don't know it's true color." Ayumi noted.
"Rank eight and you can't get it until you beat the red titan." Genta read the conditions.
"I have that sword." Makabe Noriya cut in. "It's grip is in gold and the blade has red carving. I still have to gain a lot of items to develop it further."
"That's amazing." Ayumi gushed. "Then, you must've reached rank eighteen."
"Aren't you from the class next to us?" Genta recalled.
"You can't be lying to us, can you?" Mitsuhiko was skeptical.
"I'm not lying." Makabe protested. "Right, Toshinari-nii-chan?"
"Noriya worked hard." Shiga Toshinari confirmed.
"If you really have the ruler's sword, we want to see it." Mitsuhiko requested.
"Then, will you guys come over to nii-chan's place?" Makabe offered.
"Then, can all of you wait in the car since I'll have to pay first?" Shiga produced his car keys.
In Shiga's apartment...
"It's the real ruler's sword." Genta gawked, Makabe opened the weaponry window.
"Haibara." Conan called out. "Didn't you smell something strange?"
"Not really." Haibara responded, looking up from the tied-up trash bag.
"I'm talking about the corridor." Conan corrected.
"I don't know." Haibara stated. "I didn't sense anything."
"Noriya-kun." Conan spoke, after checking the cabinet under the kitchen sink, finding it empty and the fridge contained only two beer cans. "Did your nii-san just move in here?"
"He moved in about a month ago." Makabe replied. "We're living in our mansion until summer vacation. Also, Toshinari-nii-chan isn't my biological brother. He's my aunt's son. My dad is on a business trip overseas, so my mom went to check on him for a week and said I should stay somewhere else. Toshinari-nii-chan is keeping me until then. Toshinari-nii-chan's sister died in an accident half a year ago, and he got really depressed after that. That's why my mom sent me to help cheer him up. He showed me her picture before." he flipped open the photo album. "She was really nice and we went camping together. Were there that many pictures?"
"Let me see it for a bit." Conan requested.
Just then, they heard Shiga's scream.
In the corridor...
"Conan-kun?" Ayumi asked, Conan having rushed out of Shiga's apartment towards the unit next to it and saw the stabbed Yasutomi Hiroto lying at the corner of the kitchen sink counter.
"You guys, don't come near." Conan instructed. "Haibara, call the police. We have a corpse here."
On the road...
"I didn't expect they've progressed so far." Yumi mused.
"It's settled now." Miike grinned.
"But I feel bad for Takagi." Yumi sighed. "The other detectives won't keep quiet about this."
"You're right." Miike agreed. "Sato-san has a large fanbase."
In Yasutomi's apartment...
"The victim is Yasutomi Hiroto-san." Takagi read off his notes. "31 years old, unemployed. According to Mizuno-san's initial prognosis, the estimated time of death is last night from 7 to 9 pm."
"Seems he got stabbed in the abdomen." Sato noted, immediately recognizing the location of the fatal wound. "So, the first to discover his body is his neighbor, Shiga Toshinari-san."
"When I was on my way back to the apartment after I parked the car, I smelled something strange from here." Shiga explained. "The door wasn't locked, so when I opened it to check it out, I found him in that state. I was shocked, but one of Noriya's friends entered the room on his own."
"Isn't it Conan-kun?" Sato blinked at the Detective Boys. "The girl who called us must be..."
"It was me." Haibara replied.
"We came today to play with Noriya-kun in his brother's apartment." Conan explained.
"Looks like your Shinigami won't lose to Mouri-san's." Sato teased. "You're always there whenever a crime scene is around."
"But, you guys came here rather quickly." Conan pointed out.
"We got a suspect report of a possible suspect from a floral shop owner today." Takagi stated. "Though, in the end, it was only a stranger."
"He meant we only arrived fast because we were luckily investigating nearby." Sato retorted.
"More importantly, since Mizuno-san estimated the time of death to be around 7 to 9 pm, why don't you ask Noriya-kun and Toshinari-san about it?" Conan suggested. "Since they're neighbors, they could have heard something."
"We were watching TV at that time last night," Makabe replied. "They were airing the Kamen Yaiba movie."
"Didn't you hear strange noises or anything suspicious at the time?" Sato questioned.
"The old man was pounding on the door and screaming 'keep quiet' midway through the film." Makabe recalled.
"When was that exactly?" Takagi turned to Shiga.
"I think it was probably around 7.30pm." Shiga recollected. "I apologized to him behind the door and lowered the volume."
"Then, Yasutomi-san was alive at the time." Takagi pondered.
"Sato, Takagi." Ami informed the two detectives. "I'll have to bring the body back to the autopsy theater to determine the exact cause of death."
"Understood." Sato nodded. "Did you hear anything after that?" she turned to Shiga after the female coroner left with two accompanying forensics personnel.
"I don't know." Shiga replied. "Kamen Yaiba is a hero-themed movie and there's always screams and explosions. We can't notice anything strange with that on. There are also two rooms between us and the kitchen he was at. I do remember I saw him at the convenience store in the evening. "
"When did that happen?" Takagi asked.
"I'm not sure, it was time for dinner." Shiga answered. "I was worried about the product date of the food, so I asked Noriya-kun about the date."
"I was carrying the basket." Makabe supplied. "We had a newspaper there, so I figured out the date and told him it was August 13th: the date they're broadcasting the Yaiba movie."
"Was anyone there with Yasutomi-san?" Takagi inquired.
"I believe he was alone." Shiga replied.
"Noriya-kun, while the movie was on, did Toshinari-san go to the toilet?" Conan asked.
"No," Makabe replied. "I was beside him the entire time of the movie."
"What did he do after the movie was over?" Conan inquired. "It ended at nine o'clock, right?"
"I went to take a pee, then we continued to play video games." Makabe answered.
"Continued?" Conan echoed. "Were you playing before?"
"Right when we got back from the convenience store until the movie." Makabe nodded. "That's when Toshinari-nii-chan looked at his wristwatch and said 'It's seven o'clock already. The movie will start, so let's save our progress.' When we saved the game and turned on the channel, the movie had just started."
"Does that mean that Toshinari-san stayed in the room even when you went to the bathroom?" Conan asked.
"He asked me what sweets I wanted from behind the door." Makabe nodded.
"And you two kept playing video games after that?" Conan gawked.
"It was getting late, so we slept until it was morning." Makabe answered. "Toshinari-nii-chan went to buy breakfast, but I kept playing until it was evening. I got sleepy and took a nap after having lunch. When I woke up, I went back to playing and got hungry again. So, we went to the store again. That's when I met you guys."
"So, what happened to your lunch?" Haibara cut in.
"I only had sweets, so it wasn't much." Makabe replied.
"Does that mean you were with Toshinari-san all of today as well?" Conan wondered.
"After we had breakfast, he said he had to go somewhere and asked me to play quietly." Makabe thought back. "He told me to use headphones so we wouldn't upset the old man again."
"When was that?" Conan pressed.
"I'm not sure..." Makabe recollected. "It was about 6 o'clock when we came back from the store. We had breakfast right after that, so I think it was around 7. The clock behind the clerk was a bit after 6 o'clock."
"We want to check the contents of your trash." Sato expressed. "Is that okay with you?"
"I don't mind." Shiga gave the go-ahead.
"I recognized your back." Takagi suddenly spoke up. "Weren't you beside the flower shop before?"
"That's right." Shiga blinked. "I bought flowers, too."
"I knew it." Takagi noted. "When I asked the owner which flowers I should get to make my wishes come true, he turned back and pointed 'How about the ones that customer bought?' I recognized your figure from back then."
"Onii-san bought flowers, too, right?" Conan looked at Shiga. "Then, can you tell me did your wishes come true?"
"Kind of..." Shiga stammered.
"Then, Shiga-san, let's go to your room." Sato gestured.
"Detective Takagi." Conan whispered as Takagi walked past. "I want you to investigate something for me. Toshinari-san placed a flower bouquet in front of the flower shop, so I was wondering if an accident occurred there."
SailorStar9: Any OOC-ness is regretted. *Sighs* Don't you just hate plot bunnies sometimes? Read and review.
