SailorStar9: With Chapter 110 uploaded, I present Chapter 111 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 do not own Sailor Moon or Detective Conan, I only own this plotline and the pairing.

Pairing: Established!Furuya Rei/Mizuno Ami

Chapter 111: The Kendo Tournament of Love and Mystery, Part Two


"Now that I've caught you, you're not getting away." Hattori readied his shinai.

"It is I who have come to find you." Okita corrected.

"Come and get me." Hattori challenged. "My throat is wide open."

"You're exposing your left shoulder." Okita pointed out. "The tip of your sword is low and to the back." he readied his stance. "That's the Yagyu Shinkage-ryu cleaving stance. In that case..."

"That's the Tennen Rishin-ryu hiraseigan stance." Hattori noted. "Your blade is sharply inclined as you aim for your opponent's left eye."

"Shut up already." Okita retorted. "If you don't want to hit me, I will."

"Stop it." Sato stood between the two fending boys. "I wish I could keep watching, but I can't let you mess up the crime scene anymore than you have. If you can solve this case by the time the matches resume, then we won't have to cancel the tournament. Those three are our only suspects."

"Did you find a box cutter in the bathroom?" Conan asked.

"Not yet." Takagi admitted.

"Then, we'll be checking your belongings." Sato informed their suspects. "We'll start with your sword bag." she told Norimura. "Why did you bring your bag to the toilet?" she wondered.

"The same as these boys." Norimura answered. "I have a match tomorrow, so I was going to do some practice swings after using the bathroom."

"Well?" Sato turned to Ami and the two forensics officers, the items the suspects were carrying were laid out on a piece of cloth.

"We took apart the two swords that were in the bag." one forensics officer replied. "We didn't find a box cutter. We were curious about this thing that was in the bag, though." he showed the two detectives a bottle of ink.

"India ink?" Sato echoed.

"Since I'm a referee, I keep a spare bottle in hand." Norimura explained. "At this tournament, we paint over the name of the losers."

"There isn't a box cutter in my backpack." Sadamori retorted.

"This chocolate has melted." Conan spotted a piece of melted chocolate in the box."

"Just the ones on the edge are really melted." Hattori added.

"I had it inside my jacket pocket." Sadamori explained. "My body heat must've melted it."

"You seem to like taking photos." Sato went through Yokote's photo gallery in his handphone. "But the month's almost over and you've hardly taken any. Last month and the month before that, you took close to 200 photos."

"I can do what I want." Yokote protested.

"Someone's calling." Sato blinked as Yokote's phone rang. "I'm answering it. Cutters?" she echoed, hearing the male voice on the other end.

"As in those huge sailboats." Yokote replied. "I've been into sailboats lately. It's got nothing to do with the murder weapon. Didn't this old man hear the culprit mention box cutters?"

"Now that I think of it, I think they said 'cutter'." Yasuoka spoke.

"We didn't find a box cutter in the victim's bag." Takagi pointed out.

"Inside the bag, we found a wallet, a towel, a phone, a magazine, an empty bag of stomach medicine and the box it came in." one of the two forensics officers reported.

"There are still traces of the medicine around his mouth." Ami added. "His throat should've cut right after he took it. Wait..." she frowned. "Is that... can one of you get me an evidence bag and some tweezers? There." she removed a minuscule wooden shard from the open wound and bagged it.

"Did you hear any strange noises inside the bathroom?" Takagi turned to the three suspects. "Like the blade of a box cutter being broken."

"I heard rustling outside the bathroom." Sadamori answered.

"That was probably the sound of them throwing the armor out of the bathroom window." Norimura reasoned.

"I heard a scratching sound after that." Yokote supplied.

"They cut the throat of a ranked swordsman with a single blow." Sato spoke. "As another ranked swordsman, that makes you the most suspicious."

"Don't be so sure." Okita corrected, being put on the suspected armor. "If they were wearing this outfit, maybe they thought he was a student in the tournament and let his guard down."

"Okita-kun, please be reminded that it is still evidence." Ami chided.

"I was curious." Okita pouted. "There's blood on the thigh armor, but none on the gauntlets. There's some on the butt of the skirt. Don't you think that's weird? I knew I recognized this old man." he approached the victim. He was the referee for my quarter-final match. He crashed into the guy I knocked back with my sword and was bleeding from his nose."

"I remembered something." Yasuoka added. "it was the way they spoke. The hoarse-voiced man who asked his friend to bring them another box cutter spoke like a Kansai accent like you boys."

"You said the victim's wife was on her way." Hattori turned to the forensics officer still onsite. "Is she bringing him a change of clothes?"

"She said she was." the forensics officer replied.

"Ten minutes until the semi-finals start." Sato looked at her watch. "We don't have a choice. Could you have them cancel the tournament and bring the tournament organizer here?" she requested.

"Hold on." Hattori voiced. "In ten minutes, we'll get more than our money's worth."

"In that case, I've also figured it out." Okita added. "Since we can't find the murder weapon, the killer is that old man." he pointed to Yasuoka.

"And how would he kill someone when he's blind?" Ami deathpanned.

"Isn't it obvious?" Okita grinned. "That's a sword cane. He senses his opponent like Zatoichi and slashed his throat with a backhanded slice."

"Okita-kun, that's enough out of you..." Ami sighed, dragging the overzealous teen off.

"So, do you know who did it?" Hattori turned to Conan.

"No." Conan admitted. "But I do know is the victim Nukitani-san had some kind of beverage in his bag. After he was killed, someone took it out. That person who took it was probably former Self-Defense Force official Sadamori Akane-san. Nukitani-san took a powdered medicine just before he was killed, but he doesn't have a beverage on him. Since the chocolate in Sadamori-san's bag was melted, she probably had a plastic bottle containing a warm beverage inside. Though, I don't think she did it. If she was in the kendo club, she'd know how to put on a skirt. It seems like the killer wore the skirt backwards."

"Then. We're all innocent." Yokote declared. "I used to practice kendo, too."

"Did you really, Yokote-san?" Conan questioned. "You didn't even know you're not supposed to strike victory poses during a kendo match."

"I practiced kendo for a little while, so I'd know how to wear a skirt." Yokote defended.

"Why don't you put on that thigh armor?" Hattori suggested. "You're supposed to tie it under the front to hide the knot." he readjusted the belt. When your tie it correctly, you can see the blood on the front of the armor. Someone who knew how to wear the armor deliberately put the skirt backwards to make it look like the work of someone with no kendo experience. Among the three of you who'd need to do that is the man dressed as a referee who's obviously a ranked swordsman, Norimura Nenji-san, you're the only one."

"Didn't the culprit use a box cutter?" Norimura reminded. "I don't have one either."

"We had it all wrong." Hattori explained. "Is this what the victim Nukitani-san actually said while talking to someone on the phone: 'This cutter is bloody and useless. Bring me another one.'"

"That's exactly right." Yasuoka nodded.

"In Kansai, a cutter refers to what you call a dress shirt." Hattori explained. "In other words, he said 'My nose bled on my dress shirt, so I can't wear it anymore. Bring me a new dress shirt.' Though, even if his nose hadn't bled on it, you probably meant to spill ink on Nukitani-san's shirt so he'd come here."

"What about the weapon?" Norimura pointed out. "I don't have a blade."

"You're carrying it." Hattori snorted.

"You're saying I cut a man's throat with a shinai?" Norimura echoed.

"Not an assembled sword." Hattori corrected. "If you sharpen a single piece of bamboo and swing it horizontally, the centrifugal force can cut a person's throat. The scratching sound heard in the bathroom was you dulling the pointed tip against the wall. Nukitani-san's blood must be stuck to the inside of your sword bag."

"We're going to check your bag." Sato voiced.

"I'm sure you'll find some, even though I tried to wash it in the bathroom." Norimura sighed.

"Why a shinai?" Sato was confused. "Wouldn't a blade be better?"

"That bamboo sword was my son's." Norimura admitted. "Two years ago, Nukitani-san drove him to suicide. Two years ago, during this tournament's team match finals, my son won a decisive bout, but he accidentally struck a victory pose and his victory is invalidated. Their opponent's team made a comeback and my son's team was eliminated. My son had a strong sense of responsibility. Unable to handle the humiliation, he took his own life. That match was refereed by Nukitani-san. I thought Nukitani-san made the right call, too. Until I saw him ignore the victory pose struck by Toto Senshin High School's second man during yesterday's team match final. Not only did he not invalidate his victory, but he gave the student a pep talk. He showed favoritism since they're both from Kansai. So, I killed that biased man with my son's shinai."

"He was probably holding this good luck charm." Okita blinked, pulling out the amulet from his neck. "That first year second man said he really wanted to win, so I let him borrow my good luck charm. This Hachidai Shrine charm's been in my family for generations. I've never lost while wearing it. After winning his match, he noticed it sticking out of his uniform. While putting it back, he said he thanked god while holding it with tears in his eyes. Maybe you mistook it for a fist pump. Apparently, the referee told him not to cry during a match."

"You're lying." Norimura snapped, snatching the shinai from Sato's hands and charged towards the two boys.

His charge was stopped mid-way when a senbon needle was stuck to the back of his neck, knocking him out.

"Still so accurate, Hakuizumi-dono..." Okita breathed.

Just then, Ran dashed into the scene, grabbed Hattori and Okita and hurried to the gymnasium.


Later that night...

"So, in the end, those two didn't manage to get to their matches on time." Amuro remarked.

"Unfortunately." Ami sighed.


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