"So how was it, singing on stage?" Minami asked.

"The best!" Ayumi exclaimed.

"It was very exciting." Mitsuhiko said.

"I wouldn't mind doing it again." Genta remarked.

"It was terrifying." Conan deadpanned.

"Oh, come on!" Minami laughed and ruffled his hair. "It couldn't be that bad."

"Don't be mean, Conan-kun." Ayumi said. Mitsuhiko and Genta immediately nodded in agreement.

"So you're telling me that none of you were even a little nervous singing in front of all those people?" He asked them.

"Well.. you get used to it after some time." Minami said.

"Of course it was a bit scary, but it was mostly fun!" Ayumi cheerfully said.

"Well... Okay, I guess it was a little fun." Conan admitted with a blush.

"That's more like it!" Minami slapped him on the back.

They all laughed and had fun talking with the idols. Minami gave them free tickets to the next concert (which Conan decided to give to Ran who was more of a fan of the two) and took a photo with them.

The detective boys' rides soon arrived and they all headed home. Conan found Ran and Sonoko and started walking home with them.

Sonoko started complaining about how Conan got to sing on stage with Two Mix and not herself or someone who would've appreciated it more, which Conan and Ran both ignored. She then soon broke off down a separate street to head home, leaving Conan and Ran to themselves.

Their conversation stagnated, and they continued back to the agency in a comfortable silence.

As they passed by a bulletin board with all sorts of various papers and signs on it, Conan couldn't help but be drawn to one in particular.

A Sherlock Holmes contest, huh? Choosing the best of the best Sherlockians to compete for a special prize.

After reading a few of the books, Conan had started to become quite the fan himself. Although he knew he wouldn't stand a chance (having only read a few books), he still looked at it with interest.

"Hmm? What's this?" Ran asked, noticing what the boy was looking at. "A contest? Wanna enter?"

"Ah, no. It's okay." Conan quickly said.

"Why not? Don't you like Holmes too? It's free to enter."

"Ah, well..."

She was right. Why not?

"Sure." He agreed.

"Okay! I'll enter us in." Ran brought out her phone and they both started walking again.

"Well, it's not like we'll get in or anything." Conan dryly said. "It said the best of the best."

"Don't say that." Ran said. "You never know until you try."


Conan sat in the front of a large car along with Ran and Kogoro, driving to a mansion along with a few others, who were excitedly talking about Holmes and the upcoming contest.

Ran was right (again). You never really know until you try.

Well, to be fair, Conan never expected that they would've been chosen as a special guest. He thought that the surname Mouri was common enough, but he guessed that the full name Ran Mouri wasn't. Her name has probably shown up a couple times in the paper as the famous detective's daughter, and the contest holder, who was probably a detective fanatic, would know that.

But, Conan was quite excited. There's no way he'd actually want to participate, with his limited knowledge, but being able to watch from the sidelines and maybe even bring up the little he knows, sounded quite fun to the boy.

Although, it didn't seem everyone was happy. Kogoro was slouching in his seat, with an annoyed expression plastered on his face. (Well, Conan thought he deserved to put up with his antics once in a while.)

Conan turned around in his seat to pay attention to the conversation.

"So your favorite's A Study in Scarlet? That one's a classic."

"I like The Red-Headed League."

Oh, they were talking about their favorite books. Sounds interesting.

"Me, me ,me!" Conan piped up. "My favorite's The Sign of the Four." (His favorite was actually A Study in Scarlet, but gotta be accurate.) Kogoro gave him a slight glare, which Conan ignored.

"Ah, that one's world renown."

"Yeah, that one's good. But you can read kanji, boy?"

"Sorta. But I read the English versions." (Not like he had a choice really. Shinichi, being the die-hard fan that he is, had the books in their mother tongue. And, he only knew a little kanji, too.)

"Oh, impressive!"

One of the participants tapped Kogoro on the shoulder and asked, "Say, what's your favorite?"

"Huh? What?" Kogoro startled a bit, not expecting to be brought into the conversation. "A-ah, well.. maybe And Then They Wanted None?" He said with a shrug.

Conan sighed and brought a hand to his forehead. Before he was even into mysteries, he already knew that wasn't the title. And it wasn't even a Sherlock book.

"Don't you mean And Then There Were None?" Someone dryly asked.

"And that's by Agatha Christie, not Conan Doyle."

"How disappointing." They all gave him an unapproving look.

Kogoro glared back and grumbled to himself.

"Hey, do we really have to spend three days with these people?" He silently asked Ran.

"Actually, there's more coming in a separate car." The driver overheard and answered.

"More?" Kogoro sighed.

"Well, the more the merrier." Conan said.

"Shut up." Kogoro angrily ordered, giving the boy a harsh glare.

They soon arrived at a large manor on the cliffside, overlooking a beautiful ocean view.

All the participants convened inside the house and the owner, Kanaya, introduced himself and the special guest, Kogoro.

"Ah, you're Mouri Kogoro?" One of the participants recognized. "I think I've seen you on TV. Well.. I'd bet we're all just as capable." The man jibed.

"And you'd be no match for Holmes." The woman next to him said.

Kogoro furiously clenched his fist. "You're one to talk." He gritted out.

"Well, it's Holmes we're talking about. That's to be expected." Conan assured.

"As if I'd lose to some fictional character!" Kogoro yelled and brought down a sharp fist onto Conan's head.

"Ah, Conan!" Ran worried.

"Conan!?" The others yelled out in surprise.

Conan was suddenly surrounded by the group of exuberant Holmes enthusiasts.

"Conan's your name!?"

"Really?"

"That's lovely!"

Conan shrunk back a little from all the attention, but soon a bright smile formed on his face.

"Yeah, isn't it great!?" Conan happily exclaimed.

Usually he got made fun of for his weird name, so this was a nice change.

From aside, Ran looked upon the scene with a fond smile.

"I'm glad... I was so worried." She said.

"Huh?" Kogoro looked over, confused.

"Ah, well.. Conan is always so mature for his age, so it's nice to see him with such an innocent smile." She explained. "But to think he's such a Holmes fan, just like him."

"Him?"

"Oh, you know. That show off detective, Holmes freak-"

"-great at soccer, but horrible at music, although he can play the violin." Someone interrupted. "He beat me last time but just suddenly left. You're talking about Kudo Shinichi, aren't ya?"

Conan looked over at the familiar voice.

"Hattori!?" Ran yelled.

Oh, this guy again.

Conan vaguely wondered how he knew so much about Shinichi. Was he researching him or something?

"Are you a Holmes fan too?" She asked.

"Nah, I just thought Kudo might show up here." He answered. "And besides, I prefer Ellery Queen." Hattori was met with several angry glares. "..but I guess Conan Doyle is still the best." He hastily added on. Hattori sighed in relief when the glares changed to looks of approval.

Since everyone had arrived, the owner then explained to everyone what they'd be doing. All participants would take a 1000 question long quiz about Sherlock, and, whoever got the most correct, would win a first edition copy of A Study in Scarlet. Conan could admit that he quite wanted the prize. However, anyone who got less than 900 correct would be kicked out of the house, which made Conan quite thankful that they were just a special guest and didn't have to participate. And, of course, everyone had to give up their phones and had to be under constant surveillance to prevent cheating.

After the explanation, everyone went off to complete their quizzes and go off to bed.

The next day, everyone gathered at the table for dinner and eagerly awaited for Kanaya to arrive and grade their quizzes. However, he never came. Many of the guests got angry and went back to their rooms, but Conan waited it out with Ran, Hattori and a couple others.

Fortunately, the owner soon arrived. But unfortunately, he was driving in a car slowly heading off towards the cliff.

Before the car fell off and got destroyed in a giant explosion, Conan noticed a couple of odd things: the blanket over the dashboard, and a strange sound that didn't sound like the engine.

The others soon arrived and Kogoro immediately blew it off as suicide. Conan had to resist groaning in frustration because of course he would think that despite all the evidence pointing towards murder. But thankfully, the others were competent enough to notice that.

Conan put his hands in his pockets and stayed on the sidelines.

Hattori eventually brought up that weird sound that they heard and someone said it was probably the air conditioner, which.. yeah that did make sense. It was quite hot out.

Conan took his hands out of his pockets to go and walk over to Ran, but he felt something accidentally fall out. He looked down to find it but he couldn't see anything; it was too dark out. He sighed and got down on his hands and knees to search. But he didn't get very far when he felt a pain on his head that knocked him to the ground. He groaned and clutched his head for the second time that day. He looked up and saw Hattori doing the same.

"Are you two looking for something?" Ran asked.

"I was tryin' to see if the air conditioner was actually on, but this guy got in my way again-" Hattori suddenly stopped and, out of the corner of his eye, Conan noticed he was giving him a.. strange look. He pretended as if he didn't notice and got back to searching for his lost item.

(You could tell if the air conditioner was on based on the tire tracks? He never knew. That would be quite useful to know, but it's not like he'd know what he's looking for and he could probably just leave that to Hattori.)

"It's too dark. Can't see anything." Conan complained.

"Yeah..." Hattori said, still giving him a weird look.

Suddenly, they heard the sound of a lighter from behind, and their surroundings were shrouded in light.

"Is this better?" The girl, Ayako, said handing out the lighter.

"Ah, yeah."

"Thanks."

The two then got back to searching for their respective things. Conan soon found one of the transmitters that Agasa made for him, on the ground. It was no wonder Conan couldn't find it without the light, it being so small.

It seemed Hattori (who was still giving him the occasional glance) didn't find whatever he was looking for as he had given up his search, and Conan could conclude that meant the air conditioning wasn't on, which was another odd point to add to the list.

The two soon headed back inside and met back with everyone.


Well, apparently, the murderer wasn't done yet, since Ayako had been soon killed in an explosion and another one of the participants, Fujisawa, was attacked during a black out.

There was a huge hole in the window with glass shards scattered around it, suggesting that the criminal escaped through it. But, Conan doubted that; the culprit was most likely already among them, and breaking the window to make it look like an outsider, could easily have been done during the blackout.

However, everyone was convinced that the culprit was the owner, despite Conan and Hattori having clearly seen him in the car.

"Ran!" Conan heard Kogoro suddenly yell. "Let's go after the owner!"

Conan just sighed, but thankfully, before they could rush out, Hattori said, "You're wasting your time. You won't find him."

"Huh." Kogoro looked over at him.

"Look, this chair's out of place." He pointed at a slightly askew chair. "It's clear that the culprit hurriedly pushed it in after breaking the window."

Conan walked over to look at the chair. "He's right. There are some glass shards in it." He pointed out with a smile.

"But, that just means they used the chair." Kogoro said.

"Idiot!" Hattori quickly refuted. "Why would they bother putting the chair back when they're trying to leave?"

He then explained how the culprit was trying to conceal the fact that they used the chair, since they had to remove their fingerprints from it, which meant that it was someone in the room and not the owner.

They soon headed to the kitchen and found out that someone set it up so that it would cause a short circuit when something was plugged in.

Since the only people that were in the kitchen at the start of the blackout were the maid, Kawatsu, and Toganou, and since the maid and Toganou had alibis for the first murder, Kogoro painted Kawatsu as the culprit. And, as much as Conan disliked agreeing with Kogoro, he seemed to be pretty much right. But something still felt off...

"Hmm..." Hattori pondered. "Somethin' feels off. Right kid?" Hattori said and looked down at the boy, saying Conan's exact thoughts.

"Yeah, unlike the first and second cases," He started to explain absentmindedly. "The culprit left all sorts of clues when they attacked Fujusawa. It's almost as if they didn't originally plan for the third case." As he finished, he looked up and saw everyone staring at him with an odd expression. "Huh?" He shrank back a little, confused.

"Ah, sorry." Ran said, crouching down to Conan. "He likes to play detective." She dragged him off towards the side of the room.

Oh, so that's why they were all surprised.

As she was fussing over him, he noticed Hattori staring at him, even more intense than last time. Conan gave him a quick sidewards glance.

What is with this guy?

They all went back to the living room, and Hattori brought up that, while he had solved the second case (which Conan would've found impressive if he hadn't as well, like it wasn't that hard if you just thought about it) and the odd points from the first case. He mentioned something new, that the owner looked very stiff meaning that rigor mortis had already set in and he was killed before dinner.

Eventually, Kogoro had started to suspect the fortune teller, saying that she hypnotized the owner and made him drive off the cliff. But, fortunately, Conan had solved the case, and Hattori too based on the look on his face.

Conan wanted to tranquilize Kogoro and stop him from spouting more nonsense, but it was too risky with Hattori around, and it'd be way easier just to leave it to him.

But, Conan waited and waited and Hattori still hadn't said anything.

Fine, if he was going to be like that...

"Hey." Conan said, looking up at Hattori. "What happens to rigor mortis when it gets hotter?" He asked with fake childish curiosity.

Hattori just looked at him for a second then said, "I don't know. I'm stupid. I have no idea what you're talking about." Seeing through Conan's facade.

Conan gritted his teeth and glared at him. Fine then. If he wanted Conan to solve it himself, then he certainly will.

"I'm going to the bathroom." He turned around and walked towards the door.

"Oh, then I'll go too." He heard Hattori say from behind him.

As soon as he left the room, he hid behind the door and readied his watch. Hattori soon came out and looked around, confused of where the boy could've gone. Right when he started to close the door and he was in view, Conan shot the needle at him.

Then, as he was passing out, Hattori leaned against the door and kind of maneuvered himself back into the room, almost as if he knew what was happening, which was worrying to Conan, but he decided to deal with that later.

"Mouri, stop talkin' nonsense." He spoke into the bowtie, emulating a kansai-ben accent as best as he could. (He didn't think he did too well, considering he doesn't know the Japanese dialects too well, but he hoped no one would notice.)

"What!?" Kogoro angrily yelled at him.

"I already know who did it." He continued.

"Huh?"

"The culprit..." He grabbed Hattori's arm from underneath and brought it up to make it vaguely look as if he was pointing at the group of people. "-is ya, Toganou!"

A look of panic befell Toganou's face. "W-wait a moment!" He nervously began. "I have alibis for both of the first two murders."

"Yeah!" Kogoro agreed. "You stop talking nonsense!" He punched Hattori straight in the head. Conan panicked thinking that he woke up, but thankfully the detective didn't seem to rouse.

"And what's with that strange accent you're using!?" Kogoro yelled.

Shit, they did notice.

"I bet he's just trying to make fun of us." Kogoro said.

"Toganou-san," Conan continued, ignoring Kogoro and trying to speak with less of an accent. "-you took advantage of rigor mortis to start the car from elsewhere, didn't ya?"

Toganou glared at Hattori, with sweat dripping down his face.

Conan continued to explain how he put the heater on to speed up the rigor mortis so that the victim's foot would loosen and ease up on the brake, letting the car start moving. The blanket on the dashboard was to cover up the fact the heater was used, and that also explained the odd noise they heard. He also explained how the second incident was created. He told Ayako that the first edition book was in the car so that she would go looking for it, a trap initially meant for Fujisawa, which was also the reason for the third case. The garage, being very dark, she brought out her lighter to see better, which ignited the fuel that had evaporated off the floor.

"And that is why I believe Toganou was the only capable of committing all three murders." Conan finished, having eventually ditched the accent during the deduction.

Instead of admitting to the crime, Toganou did what every murder does. "You can say whatever you want, but you can't blame me without any proof." he said with a smirk.

"Why don't you go get your Sherlock quiz?" Conan asked, getting straight to the point.

"Huh? Why are you bringing this up all of a sudden!?" He angrily asked.

"Did you forget? Yesterday, Ayako found something in your room." He began. "And, if I'm correct, it was probably your quiz, completely blank with absolutely nothing filled out." The culprit's eyes widened in fear, confirming Conan's deductions. "Now tell me, why would it be blank? It's almost as if you knew it would be pointless, that the owner wouldn't be able to grade them."

Toganou collapsed to the ground.

Fujisawa furiously grabbed his collar and yelled, "Why!? Why did you want to kill me and the owner!?"

Conan was actually quite curious as to the motive; he had no clue.

"That book you and the owner wrote..." Toganou growled. "The Scorn of Irene Adler."

In the book, Irene Adler had ridiculed Holmes, which Toganou had thought a horrible mischaracterization, because she was the only woman Holmes ever loved (which Conan thought was, quite frankly, the most idiotic motive he's ever heard). And apparently, he was mad enough to kill multiple people over it, including his girlfriend.

It was no wonder Conan couldn't figure out the motive.

Toganou started sobbing as he was led out of the room by the others. Conan heard Hattori take a huge yawn from the other side of the door.

"Wow, Hattori!" Ran said. "That was really impressive."

Conan waited with baited breath until Hattori loudly said, "It was nothin'!"

But, Conan was not going to be tricked. As much as he couldn't replicate the accent himself, he could tell that Hattori was exaggerating it to sound like how Conan did in the beginning of the deduction. He definitely knew. (He should probably break this habit of his where he sees a problem he needs to deal with, puts it off, then is surprised when he has to deal with it later.)

Everyone else soon left the room.

"Hmm? Conan?" Ran called out. "Where'd you go?"

"Right here." Conan poked out from behind the door and instinctively answered.

Conan suddenly realized his mistake and nervously shifted his gaze up to the detective. He blanched at the intense stare he was met with. Any doubt that Conan had of Hattori knowing about his mystery solving stunts, was certainly gone at this point. Despite his hesitation, Conan matched Hattori's sharp glare.

"You..." He began. Conan awaited for his secret to be revealed. "You're Kudo Shinichi, aren't you?"

Huh?

What?

Conan just stared, completely stunned.

Does- does he really think..?

"W-what..?" Conan managed to squeak out.

"Come on. You can't trick me." He crouched down to Conan's level. "Your accent was horrible." He suddenly reached out and grabbed his bowtie. "Ah, so you used this to imitate my voice. I thought I saw you using it out of the corner of my eye."

Conan was finally able to collect his words (especially now that Hattori was talking about what he expected). "W-when did you wake up?" He grumbled.

"Around when you started talking about rigor mortis." He answered. "But, your way of thinking, and your deductions are the same as Kudo's. I'm sure of it!"

"Really?" Conan asked, surprised.

They couldn't be that similar.

Could they?

That made what, five people who thought he was Shinichi at some point (including Ran).

Ok, maybe they were a bit similar (especially considering Kudo Shinichi's own mother still thinks Conan's her son).

"But, hey!" Conan finally realized a crucial point. "I'm a child. Last time I checked, Shinichi-niichan was a teenager. As far as I'm concerned, there's no way to just shrink like that."

"Hmm..? Then you won't mind if I go talk with your nee-chan for a second." He said, pointing a finger over at the girl.

"Go ahead." It's not like she'd believe him anyways.

"Alright." He stood up and called out to the girl. "Hey, nee-chan!" She turned to him. "So you know the deduction I just gave, right?"

Wait.

She nodded her head in acknowledgement. "You would not believe what I just found out."

That's what he meant!?

Conan glanced down at his bowtie. He quite literally had the evidence to prove it.

"It actually wasn't m-"

"WAIT A SECOND!"