SailorStar9: With Chapter 153 uploaded, I present Chapter 154 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 154: Murder at the Townhouse Café


Time passes...

"What a pretty yard." Ran gushed, stepping into the Japanese-style sweets café Sonoko brought her and Conan to.

"Seriously." Sonoko agreed. "A place like this is sure to look amazing."

"Our staff member, Sakai, takes good care of our yard." Tomita Satoshi, the café's manager, greeted his new guests. "It's truly impressive. I'm proud of it. I'm the manager, Tomita. I'll show you to your seats."

"What was that?" Sonoko wondered, hearing a scream and looked up from her tea cup after the trio finished their donuts.

"What's wrong?" Conan hurried to the back where the toilet was located.

"It's an emergency." Nonaka Kenji stammered. "The manager..." he gaped, seeing Tomita collapsed on the ground.

"In any case, let's call an ambulance and the police." Sonoko suggested.


After Megure's team was brought in...

"The victim is Tomita Satoshi-san, the owner of this café." Chiba reported. "According to Mizuno-san, he was struck on the back of the head with a blunt object while in the café's bathroom. At that time, these people were inside the café. Could you tell us your names?"

"My name is Sakai Chitose." Sakai started. "I'm a student. As you can see, I work here part-time."

"My name is Furukawa Yoshihisa." Furukawa continued. "I happened to be having tea here. There's nothing suspicious of me."

"My name is Nonaka Kenji." Nonaka stated. "I operate a café in this neighborhood."

"Come to think of it, you always come to scout out our café and steal our recipes." Sakai recalled.

"My recipes are the product of my own creativity." Nonaka protested.

"No one cares about that." Furukawa retorted. "You gathered us here because you think one of us is the culprit."

"We haven't said that yet." Megure remarked.

"We just thought we'd like to ask you some questions." Takagi requested.

"For someone to attack the manager in the bathroom, they would have to pass through this café where you could've seen them." Megure stated.

"The only person who left this room while the manager was in the bathroom was..." Sakai recalled. "Nonaka-san, I think."

"I didn't do it." Nonaka insisted. "More importantly, Furukawa is more suspicious than me. He seemed nervous and had been behaving oddly since he entered the café."

"Tell us one at a time." Chiba intervened. "What did you do after the manager went to the bathroom?"

"I was frying donuts in the kitchen." Sakai replied. "I never visited the tables during that time."

"I was at my table the whole time." Furukawa answered.

"I certainly went to the bathroom." Nonaka admitted. "By the time I entered, the manager was already on the ground."

"Aren't you the manager of a rival café?" Sonoko pointed out.

"This place sells donuts." Nonaka explained. "I sell waffles. They're totally different genres of food."

"We'll like to ask you to wait elsewhere." Takagi requested, after one of the forensic officers reported in.

Looking at the floor plan, Conan envisioned the possible ways each suspect could have committed the murder when he spotted the yard outside and everything clicked. "Detective Chiba." he tugged Chiba's pants and whispered something into his ear. That done, he knocked Sonoko out with his tranquilizer dart.

"Inspector Megure, could you wait to escort him away?" Conan took on Sonoko's voice. "At first glance, all the evidence in this case seems to indicate that Nonaka-san is the culprit. But if Nonaka-san is really the culprit, don't you think it's a little too sloppy? Furukawa-san, like us, you didn't go to the bathroom. Considering that, your alibi seems perfect. And finally, the part-timer, Sakai-san, you said you were in the kitchen the whole time, but we didn't see you. Then, let's recreate Furukawa-san's actions." he suggested after Takagi reenacted Nonaka's possible path.

"It wouldn't be possible for him to do it without us noticing." Ran pointed out.

"Finally, let's recreate Sakai-san's actions." Conan stated.

"There's only route Sakai-san could've taken to reach the crime scene in the bathroom without passing by the tables." Takagi related. "He exited through the kitchen window, crossed the yard, entered through the front entrance and reached the bathroom through the hallway. He followed the same route to return to the kitchen." with that explanation down, he tracked back the route.

"Two minutes, 50 seconds." Megure timed the go-and-return route.

"The sound we heard." Ran realized when she heard the beeping alarm on the wall timer. "Was the timer in the kitchen."

"This means you don't have an alibi anymore." Conan declared. "You said you were in the kitchen frying donuts when the crime took place, but you could have gone anywhere during the three minutes after you put the donuts in the fryer. If you assume Sakai-san set everything up, won't that explain why Nonaka-san's gloves were at the crime scene? Your leading statements made me suspicious of you from the start."

"Don't you think there's a big hole in your reasoning?" Sakai asked. "While you were having tea here, how do I cross this section of the yard? No one could pass through here without being seen."

"That's not true." Conan refuted. "You're able to pass through this area without being seen."

"Show me the evidence, then." Sakai insisted.

"The evidence has been standing in front of us this whole time." Conan answered. "Take a close look at the yard. Apparently, you took care of that yard." he added, everyone's eyes focused on Chiba's back, said Detective was wearing one of the staff's uniforms and standing in the yard. "Making it the same color as your uniform must have taken a lot of patience. It takes only a moment to cross. Since everyone was focused on their donuts and tea, it's unlikely anyone would notice. If you need more proof, then there's the scratch on your thigh. You got caught on the nail sticking out of the wall on your way back. Detective Takagi." he ran in, with the removed nail in the evidence bag. "Detective Chiba said this cloth was stuck to a nail outside. If the police examine that cloth, they'll find that it came from your uniform/" he revealed. "There's even more evidence. Apparently, forensics found the laxatives you gave Nonaka-san so he'd go to the bathroom in his water on this table."

"My plan was perfect." Sakai muttered.

"It was the donuts." Conan stated. "This café's donuts were made to order. You began frying new ones when no new customers had entered."

"It was all his fault." Sakai spat. "I came up with the menu, the concept and the eye-catching yard. He kept me working part-time. He didn't give me anything."


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