A/N: "Let's see if I can finish this case by December 15th." Says past-me while cracking her knuckles in determination. Present-me sighs in disappointment and guilt as she watches her lazy muse sit in the corner, watching Rise of the Guardians while eating chips. "Sorry, everyone." Present-me states sincerely, bowing apologetically. "But she had to, otherwise she would have failed school, too." Future-me by a couple weeks says, still working on schoolwork. "We're sorry." They chorus together.
Disclaimer: I do not own Detective Conan or Magic Kaito in any way or form. (or shape!)
Chapter Twenty Three
"Speaking of this, I think I've seen these symbols somewhere before…,"
Conan started, turning to look at the professor clearer. "What? For real, Hakase?" He moved closer, "Where? Where did you see them, Hakase?" Wow, impatient much, I thought with bemusement. The professor seemed to reflect my thoughts, too. "Calm down."
"Hey, Conan-kun!" Mitsuhiko called, making me jump in shock as the voice rang from right behind me. My hand came up to press against my chest, feeling my heart pounding beneath my palm and my head tilted to send the boy a short, exasperated glare. "Come and think about this with us, too, would you! About the code that was written on the floor." He scolded, hands on his hips and Genta stood behind him, arms crossed. "Stop being lazy." The taller grouched before his eyes turned to me. "You, too, Koizumi!"
I sighed, swiveling and regarding the two with my own arms crossed. "Sorry, I was just listening to Edogawa-kun babble creepy nonsense." A breathy snicker left me as Conan sent me an annoyed glare – I think I'm really starting to get under his skin; should I worry? – before he turned to the kids with a somewhat helpless smile. "O-Oh. That?" He walked over to the characters written on the floor and I walked over, as well, flashing Ayumi a smile as she looked up curiously. Well, let's see his deduction skills once more. I smirked as he began.
"Mo-za-ri-sa-wa-so-de-ru." He read before looking up at the crouching kids, "I don't understand what that is, but these kinds of codes are usually written having the letters shifted either one before or one after the actual letter." He explained and I blinked in interest, peering down at the letters. So, it was somewhat like a Caesar Cipher except only one letter moving instead of fifteen? "So, just try shifting the letter back one and reading it." Ayumi's eyes looked up to the right, thinking.
"Ya-zi-ru-si Wo-ta-do-re." The kids' faces were adorned by excited grins when the words translated. "Follow the arrow!" They cheered and I whistled, impressed. "Alright! Let's go and follow the arrow!" Genta started, arms lifting happily. I grinned as the other two agreed, "Yeah~!" This seemed to be a type of cycle – excitement, confusion, explaining, and then more excitement. The kids began running around aimlessly and I flinched back as I tried to avoid being run over. "Oi, oi," I mumbled as I had to step back once more, bumping into Conan's shoulder.
"Wa-Wait a minute!" Conan hurried to intervene their mindless running, steadying me with one hand as I tipped slightly to the side. Regaining my footing, I moved away from his side a bit, though I flinched again as the kids immediately appeared in front of us once more. "What? What is it~?" A warm smile twitched onto my lips at their enthusiastic grins. I saw Conan's face also melt to show one, too.
"When we first entered this room, didn't we see an arrow?" The kids looked around, confused. "We did?" Genta questioned and my warm smile changed into a sharp grin. "I didn't see one." Ayumi stated, dejected. I cut Conan off as he began to lift his hand.
"The clock." I stated, gesturing my chin to it in a way that my sister said was somewhat boyish. Psh, I didn't really see why it mattered, but oh well. Heads turned towards said clock as Conan's hand pointed despite me cutting him off. I flashed him a smug smile as he sent me an annoyed glance.
"Wha?" Genta said, before being interjected by Mitsuhiko, "Clock? What's wrong with the clock?" I almost rolled my eyes but kept it to myself. They're just kids, I reminded myself, just kids. I knew this and usually the Detective Boys didn't bother me, but I think I clearly said the clock, so why did they have to question it? Did they not trust me, or did they just want more knowledge on the matter? Probably the later, but I couldn't stop the tiny scowl that adorned my lips.
I'd never been very good with kids, anyways. There were only two kids that I partially got along with – if you could call it that. One was a little boy, who was so masochistic it wasn't even funny. He would purposely trip over my leg three times before throwing a hissy fit. I had been trying to trip him, but, hey, he knew it was there and didn't stop, so it was hardly my fault. The other was a little girl a bit younger than me – her and I would battle it out like warriors. She'd get on my nerves and we'd usually be driving each other up the walls, but sometimes I would play with her. The last time we had, we'd been playing lions or something and she had actually bit me on the back. The only thing that saved her from getting a big chomp in return was my mom catching me just as I literally launched myself at her, arms out to catch her and hold her still so I could get a firm hold on her.
So, yeah…Not good with kids equals me; the absolute personification of not getting along with kids.
"Haven't you noticed that there's something oddly strange about both arrows pointing to six o'clock?" Conan continued again after he noticed my expression. "How is it odd?" Genta countered and they all turned back to look at him. I schooled my face into a calmer one, not wanting the kids to know of my exasperation with the whole situation. That's it, I'm going to stop avoiding cases at all costs. It'd be bad later on, anyways, what with my plan of how to get the gem back. Detectives would be an endangerment of my species.
I stifled a chuckle at the thought and turned my brown eyes to Conan, who was now back into explaining mode. Explaining mode…Huh, he's stuck with that title for that mode now~! I only caught the end of Mitsuhiko's sentence, "–have broken down…,"
"Look at it again carefully. On a normal clock, if it was 6:30 then the two arms should be separated and not together at that point. But look at that, both arms of the cock are overlapped." He turned deadpanned eyes towards the professor with an unimpressed smile. "That means that someone has played around with the arms of the clock, probably the same person who hid the treasure." I saw the professor give him a surprised look before he coughed into his hand in embarrassment.
"So, in other words, the arms of that clock's the arrow which the code was talking about?" Mitsuhiko smiled brightly, excitement leaking from his voice. Unlike the Heisei Holmes' excitement, there was nothing creepy about it. "Right." Conan and I replied lightly. I didn't even bother turning to look at him; this was obviously going to be something that happens often. "Then let's check what's underneath the clock!" Ayumi grinned and soon they all made their way towards the clock.
"There's a pile of cards here!"
"Look at that Ace of Spades in the middle of the pile." Conan gave lopsided smile – fond – and I walked closer to him as the kids did as he said. "Who knows why that card is pinned to the table?" He questioned and turned to me with inquiring eyes as the children pondered on that. I absently heard Ayumi say the right answer; that the A was the arrow.
"You're very patient with them." I stated softly, a smirk crawling on my face. He raised a brow and I saw the kids move to the chess board. "What's that supposed to mean, Koizumi?" He had stopped adding 'san' a while back. But it wasn't to make it rude, but it was more to describe a mutual respect for each other. It was strange, but it was also how he addressed Ai and Heiji in the future, so it made me feel happy that I'd finally been accepted, although not at the same level as the kids, but like Ai and Heiji. I didn't know if I should be worried about that – does he know? – but I decided it wasn't worth it. If he knew, he would have confronted me about it by now, always obsessed with the 'one truth' of things.
"Well, you seem very mature for your age, Edogawa-kun. One would expect that you would be more…I dunno – impatient." I elaborated, shrugging my shoulders. He sent my wry smirk and shook his head. "I've gotten used to it; if anyone is impatient, it's you." He joked and I rolled my eyes, though I couldn't stop my smirk turning into a genuine smile. "I suppose so. Hey, the treasure is under–" I stopped midway, startled as something buzzed in my pocket.
I blinked before looking down and pulling the sleek black phone from my pocket. I had a text from Akako. I made a curious hum in the back of my throat before shooing Conan away when he tried to see who it was. He frowned in suspicion – oh, there you are, old friend! – but backed off all the same. "It's just a friend." I informed him truthfully. Conan stared at me a minute longer, meeting my defiant gaze, before he sighed and went to join the kids in the room they were entering with the professor.
Alone now, I opened the phone to read the text. "Alice, I need to discuss something with you. Come here whenever possible…," I mumbled aloud, quiet enough for it to sound merely like garbled nonsense. I read the text once more, making sure it was asking me to come over to Akako's house, and then nodded. I typed back slowly, 'Sure, I'll text you before I come over. Don't know when I'll be able to, though.' And then shut it with a click and shoved it back into my pocket.
Something we needed to discuss? Had I done something wrong recently? Maybe something that could change the course of events? I came up blank and chewed on my bottom lip gently, even though it still ended up breaking under the ministrations. I shrugged and licked the blood off before loud, shocked gasps broke me out of my thoughts.
I hurried over to the room the others were in quickly, my shoes kicking up dust and I grimaced, trying to ignore the uneasy shiver up my spine as I got closer to the room.
ooOOoo
I stop running when I make it to the room, skidding to a stop as I looked at the kids surrounding a box of some sorts. I see Ayumi holding a marred teddy bear in one hand, looking at it in disappointment and sadness. "…a knife and wrecked all of these." I heard Ayumi say. She sounded extremely dejected and the emotion was mirrored on all the other real kids faces while Conan's was calculating and Agasa just looked plain shocked – maybe a bit angry, too. But, hey, who could blame him? He had been the one to buy all those toys, after all – even indirect, but he paid for them. Ouch, that must have been a big waste of money…
"Yeah…,"
"The person who hid the treasure just wanted to scare us…," Bzzt! Bzzt! You have officially gotten one life point dropped, Mitsuhiko. "What's going on?" I questioned, finally making my presence realized. The kids turned to me with sad looks on their faces and I winced at the receiving end as my heart strings tugged at the sight. "Wrecked toys were the treasure. Someone just wanted to scare us…," Genta stated desolately.
"No. The professor wouldn't do such a thing." Conan interjected and I nodded in agreement, though no one seemed to notice as their attention turned to the shrunken Heisei Holmes. "P-Professor?" Ayumi stuttered in disbelief and I had to hold back an amused smile. "So, you're saying that these toys were hid here by the professor?" Mitsuhiko jumped in. Conan nodded seriously, "He wanted to create a little hunting game for you guys."
There was a shocked silence before Genta spoke up uneasily, "So, after Hakase hid the toys…," "Someone came while we were still driving here and did this?" Ayumi finished.
"Right. I'm guessing that whoever did it must have seen a little of the code which the professor wrote and found the treasure. But when he realized the treasure was actually toys, he got mad and wrecked everything with his knife. The airplane that the professor had put on the table must have fallen on the floor at that time." I stuffed my hands in my pockets with a silent sigh. "Serves him right, for being a greedy jerk. Messing up toys, now that's just ridiculous." I grumbled as I gently took the ruined bear from Ayumi's hands. I smoothed over its fluffy fur with tiny fingers, pushing the stuffing back in now and then as they continued.
"But who would come here?" Conan shifted so that he was looking the other way as I continued to examine the damage. It could still be salvaged if I sewed it back together – it would be kind of patchy, but hey. I could name him Patch. "I'm not sure, but that person should have just been passing along. He was, so he came in…or maybe… he purposely came in here to search for something." Yup, I'll do that. It would be too cruel to just toss him in the garbage. The bear's button eyes seemed almost sad as I thought of the notion and I offered it a smile before turning my attention back to the matter at hand. No need to get distracted, I berated myself, making a note to myself to grab the bear before we left as I placed it back down in the box of broken and marred toys.
"Maybe it has something to do with those symbols." Conan answered. Apparently, I missed a question. My bad. "Symbols?" Conan's hands were put into his pockets. "Those symbols you found. The symbols of the sun, moon, and stars."
"So you're saying those symbols are a code?" Mitsuhiko asked. "Probably." Conan replied. "Like the dancing men in Sherlock Holmes." I added with a smirk. Conan rolled his eyes as he deadpanned, knowing I was referring to the earlier conversation I had eavesdropped on earlier.
He got back down to business quickly and I almost rolled my eyes right back at him. He was too serious all the time. "Let's see… Maybe there really is actual treasure in this house." His hand was on his chin again in that familiar pose and I let out a breathless laugh that went unnoticed as the kids brightened.
The professor walked back in as I saw the kids start to look through things. Weird, I hadn't even noticed him leave, I thought in bemusement. Too enthralled with the messed up teddy bear, I guess, at the time. I didn't know if that was funny or strange. I decided on both. "Ah, Hakase, what did the police say?" Conan inquired. "The police said that this was most likely done by a thief. They'll come and investigate tomorrow. So it'll be best if you guys leave everything as it is right now. Everything would be best that way." He explained as he walked further in and I nodded, though my eyes strayed to the bear in dismay. Guess that means I can't take it…
My heart jolted and I straightened from my relaxed stance as if electrocuted, sucking in a sharp breath as if I had been drowning a second before. The horrible feeling that I had just endured vanished from my chest a second later. The others looked over to me, so I covered it up by bringing my hand up and coughing twice into it. "Uh…it must just be the dust finally getting to me." I reassured them, coughing once more for good measure. They seemed to take it, except for Conan – of course he didn't buy it – but his own deductions saved me from any questioning as he focused once more, going into his familiar pose.
"That's right. Even though that code is mysterious, I wouldn't want to do anything to the scene." A bark of laughter escaped me as I jabbed my thumb behind me. "A little late for that." The professor and Conan started in surprise as they finally took a look to the kids rummaging through a certain desk thingie, cabinet thing…, or….whatever it was called.
"Oi! What are you guys doing?" The not-child called in an annoyed tone. Genta turned with an angry looking face – or was it determination? "Do you still have to ask? We're going to look for more of those symbols and then find the real treasure!" Yup, determination.
"Don't be stupid!" The shout caught me off guard, making me flinch. "The criminal may be somewhere near here!" I swallowed thickly. Probably, considering that feeling earlier. The same one I got with the Library Murder Case.
"Ah! I found another one, Conan-kun!" Ayumi smile brightly, and I turned to see that she was waving around a playing card. "There's the same symbols on this card~!" Conan ran over and I followed closely in interest. "You serious?" He asked and I hummed in amusement as we finally reached her. Who had been scolding them just a minute earlier? "Look." She handed the card over to him and I leaned over his shoulder once more to get a look at the symbols, too. I grinned as I gazed at the artistic drawings. "Good work, Yoshida-san!" I crowed in English, earning a surprised look, but she ended up taking it as the compliment it was, beaming in glee.
Conan clenched his fist in excitement. "Alright! Ayumi-chan and I will be a group! Genta and Mitsuhiko, you guys be the second group, let's go search for more!" The kids cheered their agreement as he turned to me. "Koizumi, you'll–" "Supervise." I cut him off smoothly, retreating to Agasa's side, hands in my pockets lazily. "You have fun now, 'kay?" He gave a friendly look of annoyance – how that was possible, I'm not sure – but went to work with the others.
I glanced up to Agasa's deadpanned face and offered him a smile as he looked down. "Don't worry, I'm sure it'll be fine." I soothed before stiffening as a noise came from the window. The professor looked to it curiously and moved forward, opening the window with only a bit of struggle. He peered around before shrugging and closing it again, moving back to me. "Are you okay, Alice-kun?" He questioned when he noticed my pale face. I mustered up a shaky smile. "I'm fine. Just…," I trailed before turning to stare at the ones running around, looking for clues. "…fine."
ooOOoo
They had gathered, what I'm guessing, every object with symbols on it. They were all piled on the floor, all of us surrounding them. "So, now we have found a total of seven different codes. On a card, a French dictionary, a record, an airplane, a wine glass, a painting, and this mechanical doll." He picked up the mechanical doll I had seen earlier.
"Now that I think about it, I've heard my aunt say that when my uncle was still alive, he really treasured that mechanical doll." Agasa informed, contemplating on something. "And the three which we've found earlier: a plate, a candlestick, and a flower vase. So, a total of ten objects." Ayumi leaned down onto her knees. "But after having gathered all these objects, we still don't understand." She mumbled, staring at them much like everyone else. Well, everyone but me. I was currently observing them.
"Yeah." Conan agreed somewhat broodingly. "If only the code would be longer, and more similar to regular writing, that'd make things easier. Like for example, maybe having the code written in a diary or maybe a letter of some sort." The professor blinked. "Letter?...Oh yeah! Now I remember!" He announced, pounding one closed fist into his other hand. "There was a letter! A letter!" The others finally turned their attention to the professor, voicing their confusion as I smirked. Here we go.
"Didn't I mention that I've seen that code somewhere before?" He started to stroke his mustache again. "A while ago, my aunt showed me, but I completely forgot." Conan glanced down at the painting that they had taken down a little while ago since it had a code on it as well. He pointed one tiny finger down to it. "Are you talking about the lady in the painting? That person who you said had once worked as an elementary teacher?" He asked. Agasa walked forward a bit, "Yeah, that's right. That happened around five or six years ago." He started.
"She had received a letter every year for ten years that didn't have the sender's name on it. But the address and letters were for her. Since it was so strange, my aunt had let me see it. I still remember that the content of the letter was written was written entirely with hiragana. 'How do you do?', 'God bless', ect." He explained with a hand to his chin in thought.
"Maybe one of her students sent it to her?" Genta guessed.
"No, since all of the letters within the ten years that have been sent were only written using hiragana." My brows furrowed in confusion. Hadn't he just said that? I heard gasps and turned my gaze to the kids. "That's indeed strange." Mitsuhiko said.
"So, what was special about that letter and the code?" Conan queried. The professor's face darkened and he looked somewhat sinister. "The code was drawn everywhere, starting from the four corners of that hiragana letter. Just like a fancy pattern." The shrunken detective looked down in thought for a moment before looking back up, "So what did the letter mean?"
"I really didn't know, so I went to ask that person. Your da–no, er…my good neighbor who worked as an author." Hakase stumbled over his words and I let through a grin as Shinichi's expression grew shocked – like, seriously shocked, as if the notion was ludicrous. Which, maybe it was. Perhaps he knew that his dad would beat him, I wondered with an inaudible snicker. "Though even that author didn't even know what that letter had meant. At first, he didn't seem too happy about it, but once he saw the letter, he got really excited." He continued.
"He took the letter with him back to his place and came back out within a few minutes and told me, 'Give these letters back to your aunt for me. This is just too exciting. Hakase, you're just like the sun. You always turn my horrible mood around.'" He did a laugh before going silent. I'm guessing the laugh was Yuusaku's, judging on the way he did it. "What did the letter say?!" Genta gruffed, impatient to know the answer. "I have no idea." The professor replied awkwardly.
"My guess is that it must have been the answer to the code." Conan spoke up and all of us turned to see his glasses glinting brightly, covering his intelligent eyes and making him look kind of evil – or maybe that was just me. "That's right. That author had figured it out that…," He trailed, lifting his face to reveal a knowing smirk. "The code was also written in hiragana."
There was a surprised jolt, and I absently wondered why they were all surprised. It wasn't too far of a leap, since the whole letter was written in hiragana. It was an almost obvious clue. "Hiragana?" "Are you for real, Conan?" No, he was joking. The sarcastic thought had me holding back a chuckle.
"Yeah." He nodded, smirk gone, replaced with a serious face. "The letter was written using hiragana, so you just need to use hiragana to read the symbols of the four corners." He explained. "I see." Agasa mumbled from somewhere behind me. "Judging by the code on the letter and painting, it should be the same person who did all this."
"But why does that person need to write that code, to my aunt?" The professor asked.
"The person probably didn't want other person to know besides her. For example, if he was being chased by someone at that time." Conan replied and I felt realization wash over me. I remember a bit more now of the case! There was a skeleton and…a gun – I think. Great, my first gun encounter. Prepare yourself for that, I thought with a wry grin. I knew everything would be fine, though, so at least I didn't have to panic about anything, right? Right.
" –had said that there was often a strange person who'd go and steal her mail." Of course the person was strange. They were stealing mail. I swallowed another bout of laughter, that may or may not have come as kind of hysterical to them; after all, it would be random in their eyes.
I saw Conan think over something for a second before he smirked that smirk. The one that makes me want to go far, far, far, far – did I say far? – away from him. But, this time, it just made me feel excited. My grin switched into one of sharp amusement.
Let the games begin.
Review Replies:
To: Iriss-sama – Yay~! I'm glad you didn't regret reading it instead of going to sleep. XD I do that a lot, deciding if I should read something or not. (Laughs) Reading usually wins out, and then before I know it, it's, like, five or six in the morning and then I'm like, "Well, shit." XDD And thank you~! I'll try my best to keep it up~! And cool~! If you write some DC stories, I'll definitely check them out! ^^ Thanks for the luck~! (Catches in Bottle)
To: Kudo Shinichi Tanteisan – Aww, well, math is always hard. (Nods) You did your best, though, so that's what counts! ^^ And no problem, anytime~! X3 (Grins as snowflakes fall and eats cyber cookie) Thank you, E-chan!
To: MagicMilkbone – Yup, I like this case as well~! I remember watching it with my sister and her complaining how much Conan explains things. XDDD And yup, lol. I agree, who wouldn't? XD Will do~! ^^
To: Lia Alcona – (Laughs) I suppose they can be. (Nods) But, oh wells. That's how we have Conan explain things so that we can understand, too. XDD
-Happy New Year, everyone! Here's to hoping that your 2013 will be productive, prosperous, fun, and overall, GREAT! 8DDD (We survived 2012, lol. XD) Also, this chapter was short-ish for a case chapter, but the next one will be super long and wrap this case up! ^^ Hope you all had a good holiday season! Fallen – out~! (Salutes)
"Next Conan's Hint: A twenty dollar bill!"