Chapter Forty-One
Taking a break from playing Undertale to update Something Taken, Something Given. (still can't get past MUFFET) ALSO, I'll try not to spoil anything for you, jaminjess8! Sorry! DX Also, bringing back the quote thing just for this chapter because I feel like some people need a little push and confidence.
"Despite everything, it's still you."
-Undertale
"Do you really think this the murder weapon?" Ruri asked.
Conan nodded. "It would make sense. Kogorou was saying last night that Yamaguchi-san just went up in flames all of a sudden."
"So it's definitely spontaneous combustion," the girl concluded.
"We just have to find a suspect and a how," Conan added.
"Well... there's Miyako-san... I haven't met anyone else..." Ruri thought aloud.
"What are you two kids doing in here?" a voice asked, interrupting their conversation.
The brunette turned around and came face-to-face with a young man holding a large canvass.
"Um, we're with, um, Mouri Kogorou-san... the private detective..?" Ruri stuttered.
"Oh," the man grunted. "Well, whatever. I was just in here to get some more paints."
He pushed passed her and started down the hall.
"Hey, onii-san! I think you dropped a brush!" Conan suddenly called, making the man stop.
The man turned and came back, inspecting the brush the little boy held out.
"Yeah, that's mine," the man snatched the brush away.
"Um, do you paint?" Ruri asked.
He glared at her. "No. I just like collecting paint brushes- of course I paint!"
"S-Sorry..." the girl mumbled.
"What's your name?" Conan asked.
The man hesitated before replying, "Yamaguchi Kiri."
"Are you related to Hasuta-san?" Ruri asked, trying to gather the remains of her courage.
"...He's my brother."
Ruri and Conan had somehow managed to get the antisocial Yamaguchi Kiri to let them see his works.
"These are amazing!" Ruri breathed, looking at a painting of a swan in winter.
Kiri grunted and set down his canvass on the easel. "My brother doesn't think so."
"Why not?" Ruri turned to look at the man.
He didn't answer, instead picking up a pencil and sketching on the canvass.
As Ruri inspected another painting that looked a little avant-garde, she noticed something moving out of the corner of her eye in the window.
"What is that?" she asked, pointing to a large flapping sheet.
"It's an experiment," Kiri replied after glancing over to see what she was talking about.
"For what?" Conan thankfully voiced.
"A new type of drying," the painter grunted, clearly annoyed.
When he went back to painting, Ruri pulled Conan over to the side.
"I don't think he likes me, so I'm going to just leave..." she told the little detective.
Conan looked over at the painter and nodded. "Call me if you find anything out of the ordinary."
Ruri wandered the woods for a little while, always making sure she could see the cottage.
As she stopped on a hill, the brunette pulled out her phone to take a picture. The scenery was too pretty to pass up.
The shutter snapped and the picture of the winter wonderland flashed on the screen before returning to camera mode.
Ruri sighed as she debated whether or not to send to Aoko. She hadn't talked to her in a while.
Eventually, she sent the picture along with a message of:
"Here in Karuizawa with some friends
Pretty isn't it? The snow is so clean and white"
As she looked around the area, she found herself thinking about a certain phantom thief.
What am I supposed to do? He probably suspects me of knowing something now that I transferred but... I couldn't face him after that kind of thing...
The girl fiddled with the blue ribbon in her hair until a familiar sound of a new text snapped her out of her thoughts.
"So lucky!
We're glad you're having fun with your friends from Beika, but come and see us sometime, ok?"
Aoko had replied.
Before Ruri could text her back, there was another new message from Conan.
"Hurry back, I've already deduced who it was and helped out"
"Ok" She replied before heading down the hill.
How long was I up here? Ruri wondered, glancing at the time.
3 1/2 hours? Wow. I must've really been lost in thought...
The ride back had been quite uneventful, except for the fact that Kogorou was boasting about how he solved the attempted murder.
It turned out to be Kiri. Hasuta had been so harsh on his brother's artwork and that it had made Kiri angry, thus trying to kill him.
Kiri had doused all of Hasuta's clothes in linseed oil (which he used to make some of his paints) so whenever he went outside, bundled up long enough, he would have started smoking and eventually burst into flames.
Apparently, Hasuta had been harsh because Kiri was actually very good and he didn't want his brother to get a swelled head.
"Are you ok, Ruri-chan?" Ran finally asked. "You were gone for a long time..."
"I'm fine, Ran-san," Ruri tried to assure the other girl.
So, I know this is shorter than usual, but I've got a big serial murder case planned and I really want to get started on it soon. It's a rather long arc, that involves some more Shinichi and MAYBE a KID appearance.
Anywho, I participated in my local All Souls day parade for the first time and I have to say... I'm not doing that again. Yeah, it was kind of fun... but the work effort that's needed is just- ugh.
NEXT TIME: RURI GETS SICK...AGAIN
DFTBA GUYS!