"URH, WHAT?" Stroganov could only cry in response to Susato's outrageous claim.
"That's right! There's only one way to explain this murder given all the contradictions we've heard up until now, and that's that we're dealing with two different ships here," said Susato. ""Detective" Ooishi, you are the only one who could have done it. Last night, you came into the first class area on two occasions. The first time, when you claim you discovered the murder, what you actually did was take all of us out of our cabins!"
"Ehh?!" shouted Stroganov. "How you not notice this?"
Susato didn't consider this, but fortunately, Holmes was willing to step in to help with this point.
"What I believe happened is that Ooishi drugged our dinner. You see, I noticed that Ooishi's second class cabin is the closest one to the first class one. While you were serving him and weren't looking, he was busy spiking all of the other dishes. Since only we were left, there would be no risk of those dishes belonging to anyone else!"
Ooishi started humming anxiously as Susato continued making her case.
"While you were gathering us all up, this second ship arrived and positioned itself so that it was right next to the S.S. Alaclair. Then you threw all of us onto this second ship - you threw us out of one window and in through another!"
"I don't see why I should be confirming any of this," said Ooishi. "Besides, where would I even get a ship like that anyway?"
Susato took the flier out of Holmes' hands. "The S.S. Balabrook. It's known that there are many ships just like the S.S. Alaclair, and this is clearly one of them. We found this in your pocket, you know, so you're clearly familiar with it."
"N-Nfu fu fu, I just dug that out of a trash can, really!" Ooishi started sweating profusedly. Susato ignored his excuses and continued.
"Since you're too big to fit through the window, you left this area through the door. This explains why Stroganov didn't see Naruhodou. You then boarded the Balabrook and put all of us in the cloned versions of our respective rooms. It was while you were doing this that you killed Haori, changed your clothes and formed a plan to frame us all for it," Susato's glare turned cold as she got to the actual murder. "After "arresting" Naruhodou and we all fell asleep, you came back, drugged us again and put us back on the S.S. Alaclair in the same manner you put us on the S.S. Balabrook!"
"Obviously," Holmes butted in again, "Ms. Susato had made a mess of my cabin, and you had to recreate that on the S.S. Alaclair or we'd catch onto your trick. But what you didn't realize was that, in the middle of her rampage, she plugged the lamp out!"
For the first time, Ooishi gaped in shock. "The lamp had been plugged out? What kinda stupid shit is that?!"
Susato couldn't help but grin as she ensnared the bastard. "We wondered who it was that plugged the lamp back in, but in truth, nobody did it, because the lamp had never been plugged out in the first place. In truth, it was really the lamp on the S.S. Balabrook that got plugged out, and the killer, unaware that this happened, failed to reproduce this. And the only person who could have made this mistake was the only other person who accessed the first class cabin that night... you, Kuraudo Ooishi!"
Ooishi laughed like a madman for a solid minute before Stroganov realized he should probably arrest this man.
"Where you put Japanese boy?" Stroganov shouted as he tried to get a firm grasp on the fake detective.
"I'll show you exactly where that boy is," Ooishi grinned. And then the boat shook and a giant cannonball blasted through the wall where the window was, knocking Holmes and Susato off their feet. Susato pulled herself up to see the S.S. Balabrook outside, and it had a giant smoking cannon on the deck.
"CAPTAIN! GET ON BOARD!" someone shouted.
Ooishi punched Stroganov in the face and jumped out the hole in the wall, swimming to the safety of the second ship.
"It seems we were right on the money," said Holmes. "And also that we're dead. They mean to sink this ship as a last resort to kill us all."
"There must be something we can do," said Susato, all while Ooishi's crew were busy reloading the cannon for another shot.
But then one of the crew members smacked the others and they all fell overboard! Holmes grabbed a telescope from a display case and used it to identify this mutineer.
"It's John Ryuunosuke!" he gasped.
Indeed, John Ryuunosuke had snuck himself onto the S.S. Balabrook and he was now fighting Ooishi and his goons.
"We've got to get over there and help him! I'm trained to fight," said Susato.
"But we'll never be able to swim over there in time," said Holmes.
Just then, the door opened and a penguin walked in.
"I believe I can help with that, Mr. Watson," said Detective Pennington from The Thousand Year Door. (A/N some guest reviewer wanted him to appear so here he is.)
Several crew members piled on John Ryuunosuke in a vain attempt to subdue him, but he shrugged them all off easily because they were small and weak. One of them tried to crawl back to him but John Ryuunosuke grabbed him, swung him around and threw him into a crowd of crew members and they all collapsed like bowling pins.
"Yowch! He's too powerful to stop!" they cried.
"Damn right, now where is my father, Ooishi!" yelled John Ryuunosuke, and he threw his fist into Ooishi's stomach. The man started moaning and hopped backwards a few times before falling on his back.
"M-Mercy! He's locked in the captain's quarters," Ooishi cried.
John Ryuunosuke turned and started to run there with haste, but that was when someone dropped out of the sky and his head suffered a burst of pain! John Ryuunosuke fell to his knees, which shocked both him and the crew members who he had mercilessly beaten before.
"You people can't fight, that was embarrassing to watch," said the voice of a woman. John Ryuunosuke looked up. All he could make out were the woman's deep blue eyes before her face was obscured by the barrel of a gun. "Die, John Ryuunosuke!"
Before she could fire, though, Susato sprung out of the sea and Susato-tossed the woman. Ooishi ran to catch her, and when he did, John Ryuunosuke was back on his feet.
"We can't win this fight, boys, retreat!" Ooishi cried. He turned to run to a speedboat that the remaining members of his crew were rushing to board when a penguin jumped onto the ship with Sherlock Holmes on it's back. Holmes jumped off the penguin towards Ooishi, who raised his arm to defend himself, but that was useless as Holmes kicked him so hard he and the enigmatic woman flew away into the horizon!
"Thank you for the help, my family," said John Ryuunosuke.
"Ha ha, you're very welcome," said Pennington, who had not been thanked. "After all, it was me who, as a penguin, was able to help these two swim on board this ship, allowing them to save you in your moment of need."
Without another word, Pennington dived into the sea, never to be seen again. Nobody cared, because John Ryuunosuke had already started running to the captain's quarters, Susato and Holmes following behind him.
"I'm absolutely brimming with the desire to kick down a door!" Holmes yelled, so he kicked the door down and found Ryuunosuke unconscious.
John Ryuunosuke was sitting in the captain's quarters. After finding his father, Holmes had grabbed him and took him down to the first class cabin. Susato was on the deck, being sadder than sad because Haori was dead. He left the cabin and went to where the wheel was.
"John Ryuunosuke, you should rest," said Holmes. "Don't you worry about your father, he will be fine and he's very grateful for all that you've done. With luck, we'll all be safe at home in London shortly and nothing like this will ever happen to us again."
John Ryuunosuke nodded and turned to head to his cabin. As he crossed the deck, Holmes put on his captain's hat and continued his great journey across the sea on his new personal ship, the S.S. Balabrook!
"Ah, USELESS! You're all USELESS!" cried Dylan. Ooishi had just crash-landed into his hideout after Holmes kicked him off the S.S. Balabrook and Dylan was not happy to hear about his failure. "Maybe if you weren't such a fat fuck you wouldn't have been beaten by a -YOW!"
Ooishi grabbed Dylan by the ear and looked at his son sternly. "Hey now, Durano. I've raised you to be rude, but not to me. Say you're sorry right now!"
"Stop it Father you bastard I'll kill you!" Dylan roared in a mix of anger and pain as Ooishi shook Dylan's ear.
While the father and son were squabbling, Regeria was sitting at Dylan's desk, planning their next move. The S.S. Alaclair had been scheduled to arrive in London just after the New Year, but the S.S. Balabrook was quite a bit faster, and they wouldn't have to stop elsewhere along the way. That being the case, she expected them arrive back in London in just a few short days, about a week before Christmas.
She thought about how easily she got the better of young John Ryuunosuke. In that moment, she felt disappointment, but maybe she expected too much of the child in the first place?
Regeria looked back at her plans. Before Christmas... that worked out just fine. A sinister grin formed on her face.
EPISODE 2: THE VOYAGE OF THE GREAT DETECTIVE
END