SailorStar9: With Chapter 152 uploaded, I present Chapter 153 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 153: The Feuding Girls
Time passes...
"Let's shop." Sonoko brought Ran and Conan to the Beika Shopping Mall. "We're here for products available today only. Clothes and accessories."
"Happy Seal, go, go!" the promotion model girls for the new toy seals were on stage in the main hall.
"So, it's a seal toy." Sonoko noted, when a knee knocked Conan to the ground.
In the management office...
"I'm really sorry suddenly asking you to take some time off for us." Sonoko turned to Yasuda Kazuo, the event manager after they patched Conan up.
"It's fine." Yasuda assured. "We're much obliged to your father."
"Ayaka-chan, hurry up and move some stuff." Fukamoto Mai pressed Saijo Ayaka, who was painting her nails.
"But I won an audition for a commercial." Saijo whined. "I need to look pretty. Mai, you were rejected, weren't you?" she snarked. "That's too bad."
"I'll leave the stuff here." Oyodo Yuko pulled a trolley in.
"Mina-san, can I take tomorrow off?" Saijo requested. "I'd like to practice for my commercial."
"You can't suddenly ask for the day off." Komoro Mina chided.
"Just ignore her." Fukamoto scoffed after Komoro stormed off. "She doesn't want to do this tough low-paying job anymore."
"What are you doing?" Saijo mocked, holding out a leg and tripping Oyodo over. "You're so clumsy. What was that for?" she snapped when Fukamoto lashed out at her. "You're so annoying." she fumed at Oyodo who tried to play peacemaker and smacked the pink seal toy out of her hands and sending it flying onto Sonoko's coffee cup.
Afterwards...
"What was that?" Sonoko wondered, hearing a scream from the shopping mall warehouse.
"What's wrong?" Conan burst into the warehouse.
"Ayaka is..." Fukamoto stammered, backing off.
Conan turned to find Saijo lying on the ground, face-up. "Call the police, Ran-nee-chan." he informed Ran after feeling no pulse from Saijo.
After Megure's team was called in...
"Mizuno-san estimated the time of death to be around 2:30pm." Takagi reported. "This storage room within a shopping mall where the crime took place happens to be under construction. The victim Saijo Ayaka-san seems to have fallen from the construction scaffolding."
"Which means this is an accident." Megure concluded.
"Actually, about that..." Takagi cut in. "There were signs that the scaffolding the victim fell from was tampered with."
"Which means this could be a murder?" Megure echoed.
"Fukamoto Mai-san discovered the body." Takagi informed his superior.
"Could you describe the circumstances under which you found her?" Megure requested.
"Come to think of it, everyone was arguing with Ayaka-san." Conan pointed out.
"It's true that we argued with Ayaka." Fukamoto confirmed.
"But it's not possible." Komoro added. "We wouldn't kill Ayaka."
"Then, where we you around 2:30pm when Ayaka-san died?" Megure questioned.
"I was here preparing for the sale this afternoon along with the staff." Oyodo stated.
"I was actually skipping work to watch the concert on in the event space." Komoro added.
"Actually, we found this in the garbage can in the hallway." Takagi spoke up when Fukamoto reminded silent.
"'Dear Mai, sorry about earlier.'" Megure read the note in the evidence bag. "'I got carried away. I'd like to apologize, so please come to Floor 2, Section 3 of the storage room at around 3pm. From Ayaka.'"
"We also found this at the crime scene." Takagi added, placed the bagged brooch on the coffee table.
"That's Mai—san's..." Oyodo started.
"Are you certain this is yours? "Megure pressed.
"Is this what happened?" Sonoko suggested. "Mai-san received a letter from Ayaka-san, saying she wanted to apologize. She secretly when to the storage room and broke the scaffolding. Then, she feigned innocence and met Ayaka-san on the second floor of the storage room. But she dropped her brooch then."
"You're wrong." Fukamoto protested. "I didn't do that. It's true that I went to the storage room. Ayaka said she wanted to apologize, but I didn't do it. By the time I went, Ayaka was already dead."
In the warehouse...
After surveying the crime scene, confirming with the forklift operator that the boxes in the warehouse required one person to operate the forklift and another to secure the stacked boxes in place, re-affirming the suspects' alibis and the stained seal toy in the container box, Conan pieced together what happened.
Before Megure could bring Fukamoto in, Sonoko was tranquilized by Conan. "Are you okay, Sonoko-nee-chan?" Conan hurried over to the knocked out Sonoko. "I'm fine." he borrowed Sonoko's voice. "I'm just feeling a little dizzy because I figured it all out. In order to confirm my suspicions, could you go up to the second floor where Ayaka-san fell, Detective Takagi? There were two tricks set inside this storage room. The first was applied to the scaffolding that made Ayaka-san fall. And the second was..."
"Sonoko-san, I'm here." Takagi called out.
"See the boxes stacked over there?" Conan voiced. "Don't they seem unsteady, like they're about to fall over?"
"You're right." Takagi agreed.
"Where was Mai-san's brooch?" Conan posted a question.
"In front of the boxes." Takagi looked at the marked space.
"Detective Takagi, could you look at the clasp on the belt securing those boxes?" Conan requested.
"There's some kind of paint or something on it." Takagi peered closer.
"Is there anything on the floor nearby?" Conan asked.
"I found something." Takagi bagged the artificial nail in the back. "Is this an artificial nail?"
"That's Ayaka's." Fukamoto recognized the nail color.
"In other words, based on what we just confirmed and Mai-san's testimony relating to her brooch, and on conjunction with the letter Ayaka-san wrote to Mai-san..."
"Ayaka-san stole Mai-san's brooch and left it here." Takagi realized. "She summoned Mai-san here with that letter and planned to send her and the scaffolding crashing to the floor by knocking over the boxes."
"And something made her lose her footing on the scaffolding she tampered with and she fell." Megure added.
"Wrong." Conan corrected. "Boxes can't be stacked on the second floor without two people. One lifts the boxes using the crane, while another stacks them up. Someone was controlling the crane: an evil seal who incited Ayaka-san and got her caught up in this murder plot. For example: she's planning to injure you and steal your commercial job. She did the same thing to me before and took one of mine. At this rate, she'll continue to escalate and harm the two of us. We should kill Mai-san together. Then, the evil seal instructed Ayaka-san to do the following: write a letter to Mai-san inviting her to the storage room. Leave this brooch I stole from her in front of the boxes. Once Mai-san comes to the second floor, she'll spot her brooch and approach. Then, I'll push the boxes onto her from behind and she'll fall. It'll look like an accident. During that time, you'll fabricate an alibi."
"But, it was Ayaka-san, not Mai-san, who ended up dead." Megure pointed out. "Something must've made her fall from the scaffolding she tampered with."
"You're wrong, Inspector Megure." Conan refuted. "It was the evil seal who tampered with the scaffolding. Ayaka-san climbed the scaffolding without realizing that and fell. The true goal of this murder plot is to kill Ayaka-san. This trick is bait meant to draw in Ayaka-san. By luring Ayaka-san into a fake plot to murder Mai-san, they don't have to worry about her telling anyone. The odds that suspicion would fall on the evil seal would be reduced to nearly nothing."
"Then, how did this evil seal get Ayaka-san to climb the scaffolding that has been tampered with?" Megure inquired.
"Conan-kun." Conan voiced and he ran out from his hiding place. "There are a lot of stuffed seals." he peered into the container. "Those stuffed seals can apparently be controlled using a smartphone." he revealed. "They told Akaya-san exactly when to put the brooch there and at that time..." he related how one of the toy seals started squeaking and Saijo stepped onto the scaffolding and fell to the ground.
"In order to control those stuffed animals, you need to register it on your phone." Oyodo stated.
"The stuffed animals over there haven't been sold yet." Komoro added. "So, they can't be controlled using a phone."
"This seal has a stain on it." Conan picked out the dirtied toy. "Isn't this a coffee stain?"
"Yuko..." Fukamoto turned to Oyodo.
"Yuko-san, why is that stuffed animal here when you said you hadn't been here all afternoon?" Conan asked. "I'm sure if we examine your phone, we'll find that stuffed animal registered to it."
"She stole the man I liked and tossed him aside." Oyodo confessed. "He killed himself because of it. So, I avenged him. I'm sorry, Mai-san, in truth, it could've been anyone. Anyone who might've argued with her."
SailorStar9: Any OOC-ness is regretted. *Sighs* Don't you just hate plot bunnies sometimes? Read and review.
