SailorStar9: With Chapter 162 uploaded, I present Chapter 163 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 163: The Man Who Loved Too Much
Time passes...
"Smells good." Sakuragawa Erina took a whiff at the curry that was boiling in the pot one evening. "How's it coming along?" she ladled a portion into a mamezara for a taste test. "It's delicious. All that's left is to add the secret ingredient."
On the road...
"Let's see." Mouri had brought Conan grocery shopping. "Pork, potatoes."
"Carrots, onions." Conan added.
"Daikon radish?" Mouri blinked.
"Burdock root." Conan piped in.
"Burdock root in curry?" Mouri echoed.
"Like daikon radish, it's a root vegetable." Conan pointed out. "It's got good texture and tastes good, too."
"Chicken, beef, seafood." Mouri listed. "Enoki mushrooms and spinach. And finally, plenty of love."
Just then, the two males spotted a small crowd gathering around the Sakuragawa household.
Inside the Sakuragawa living room...
Megure's team was already present.
"That's right." Sakuragawa Shohei, Erina's husband confirmed. "I'm absolutely certain. I did it for Erina."
"Shohei-san did nothing wrong." Erina defended.
"Please calm down." Megure insisted. "Tell us what happened."
"Excuse me, Inspector Megure." Takagi voiced.
"Mouri-kun, when did you get here?" Megure gawked.
"Whenever there's a case, Mouri Kogoro is here." Mouri declared.
"This might not be a good thing, senpai." Ami chided.
"Anyway," Mouri coughed. "What do you put in your curry, Coroner Mizuno?"
"Shrimp." Ami barely looked up from her diagram.
"Mouri-kun, is this really the time to be asking that question?" Megure rolled his eyes.
"Let's review what happened." Takagi started questioning the Sakuragawa couple. "This afternoon, you went to the department store to buy a present for Erina-san. When you returned, you noticed the window by the entrance was broken. You quietly entered the house and looked into the living room when you noticed the dead man ransacking the room. The man noticed you, raised his knife and came towards Erina-san. However, Shohei-san fought back using a golf club that was in the living room. When the burglar fell, he hit his head on the object and died.
"It was me..." Shohei muttered.
"But Shohei-san was preoccupied with protecting me." Erina protested.
"We identified the man by checking his phone." Takagi reported. "Masuoka Susumu, 38 years old. He previously committed forcible entry and theft on three occasions and had a criminal record."
"Did that bag belong to the dead man?" Megure spotted the backpack beside Masuoka.
"That jewelry is mine." Erina peered over Takagi's shoulders to see the assorted trinkets in the backpack.
"That matches their statement." Megure concluded. "There are a few other things I'd like to confirm."
After exiting the house, Conan spotted the fallen birthday card and the trail of footprints leading to the house's backdoor. Using the excuse that he needed to use the bathroom, he snuck back into the house. After surveying the crime scene, he realized it was not a normal burglary.
"I knew you were taking too long." Mouri chided, grabbing Conan by the collar. "We're leaving."
From his new vantage point, Conan spotted a torn off corner of paper that was hastily burnt in the sink before noticing the notepad on the dining table. "Oji-san, look at this." he showed Mouri the top of the notepad. "There's something written on this notepad."
"'I love you.'" Mouri read the message. "'I truly love you.'"
"I wrote that." Shohei spoke. "Go ahead and read the rest."
"'So, let's go to Lake Yamanaka today.'" Mouri read the rest of the message.
"I planned to take her there as a birthday surprise." Shohei explained. "I was too embarrassed to tell her directly, so I'd been practicing by writing on that paper."
"Shohei-san, don't you tell Erina-san that you love her every day?" Conan was confused. "I don't see why you have to practice.'
"Shohei-san wrote this." Mouri confirmed. "He's the only person who would write that he loves Erina-san."
Conan recalled the handwriting that was on the birthday card and realized it was not Shohei who wrote the message on the notepad. "The culprit died when he hit his head on that, right?" he pointed to the metal boat weight. "Isn't that a boat weight? It says three kilograms on it. Shohei-san, Erina-san, why is this in your living room?"
"You bought it." Mouri noted. "You must have a boat."
"I was thinking about buying a boat." Shohei smiled awkwardly.
"Could the culprit have brought this here?" Conan asked, noticing rope fibers on the weight's roller.
"Shohei-san, I'm sorry." Megure instantly realized something was off. "Could you and Erina-san come down to the station and tell us more about the case?"
After eavesdropping on the Sakuragawa couple's conversation in their bedroom, Conan pieced together what had happened and tranquilized Mouri to begin his deduction. "Self-defense, it sure looks that way. But Shohei-san and Erina-san lied about the entire case. The two of them are fooling us. I found something: on my way here, I found a birthday card for Erina-san by the entryway as well as Shohei's footprints leading to the back door. Shohei-san, you left alone and returned alone through the back door. You've got mud around the back door on the hem of your pants. Meanwhile, Erina-san was meeting with Masuoka in the house. In other words, Masuoka wasn't a burglar. Masuoka most probably told Erina-san to invite Shohei-san on a trip. At their destination, he'd kill him using a knife, use ropes to tie a weight to him, and submerge him in the lake. But Erina-san had a problem. She didn't know how to invite Shohei-san on a trip. After all, she'd never told him she loved him. Masuoka had Erina-san practice by writing a note and that was the note we found. That's why tragedy struck. Shohei-san came home. He mistook their meeting for an affair. Then Shohei-san's rage was directed towards Erina-san. While looking for Conan, I happened to overhear them speaking in the bedroom. Erina-san asked Masuoka to kill Shohei-san. Detective Takagi, could you check inside the curry? Erina-san, isn't this the secret ingredient you included for Shohei-san?" he asked, when Takagi pulled out the stacks of money inside a plastic bag that was hidden inside the cooking pot. "Erina-san intended to use that money to pay Masuoka for Shohei-san's murder. She invited Masuoka here while Shohei-san was out. There's blood on those bills which probably belonged to Masuoka. If thoroughly examined, Erina-san's fingerprints may turn up, too."
"It's not my fault." Erina muttered.
"It's all my fault." Shohei sank to his knees. "It's my fault that I couldn't become Erina's ideal husband."
SailorStar9: Any OOC-ness is regretted. *Sighs* Don't you just hate plot bunnies sometimes? Read and review.
