File One Hundred and Forty-Two: A Ghostly Possession
The fact that the most solid working theory there was 'a ghost did it' was, frankly speaking, absolutely ridiculous.
Concerning the rest of the group, at the very least. Thankfully, Detective Uehara had undergone a proper investigation instead of buying the cheap horror story that had been circulating around ─ which shouldn't even be worthy of praise, not really, but since he had hung around some many kinds of police detectives and inspectors, Conan supposed his opinion was biased.
He blamed Detective Yamamura ─ yes, detective. He would rather lick the soles of his own shoes than call him inspector ─ for setting the bar so low.
Then again, there's little to support any other theory, Conan was reluctant to admit. Following Sera and Uehara around had proved to be of little use, and by the time night began to fall, he had been left with nothing but a baseball bat with an oddly sticky end, and a fan found at the same room, oddly enough considering there was already an air conditioner right there.
But besides being weird, there was no way for the boy to connect those things, let alone figure out the trick with the tomatoes and the dead body.
That was what he thought, however, until his ears caught a whispered, "Conan-kun."
Naturally, he turned over. Sera was waving him over, a broad grin fixed on her expression. It probably had to do with the case, and not Conan himself, so he thought there was no harm in approaching.
If possible, her smile grew wider. She raised her arm, motioning him to pay attention to the cuff of her shirt.
"What do you think of this?" she asked him.
Conan squinted. There were strange white spots ─ no, tiny crystals all over, causing him to hum in utter concentration. A gasp left him abruptly, finally realizing where she had gotten those.
"That's… from the scene of the crime," he whispered in shock. She nodded. "From when you submerged your hand to pull Hakuya-san up…"
"That's not the only souvenir I got from the crime scene." Conan blinked confusingly. She snickered, pulling something from behind her back ─ which she must have been hiding until now. Conan couldn't believe how he had not noticed that until now.
Especially since she had been carrying a tomato, of all things. He decided against asking any questions.
"You want to test it, don't you?"
Not that he would have stopped her if he said otherwise, but yes. He did want to test it out.
Since he had already been in England to begin with, it didn't take long for Hakuba Saguru to get there. Granted, it didn't take as long as it could have ─ even if it was the same country, getting from London to Dartmoor was quite the ride, but the detective never once did complain about it.
From the words Aoko had whispered into the phone, from the way they had been spoken, Hakuba knew of the seriousness of the situation.
Koizumi Akako might be in danger; it was nothing but a possibility, but Aoko had been certain of it. She had spluttered about, rambling about forests, screams, bloody little girls… and ghosts ─ about that last item, Hakuba was understandably skeptical. But as for the rest of the story, he could see where the concern was coming from, and to some degree, it was beginning to seep over him.
Having arrived at exactly two o'clock in the afternoon, Hakuba set off looking for a place to settle in and start on his investigations ─ in doing so, if his suppositions were to be proven correct, he might as well be killing two birds with one stone.
From what he had heard from Aoko, her trip had not been all that well planned off. They were in Dartmoor, and to his understanding, with summer settling in to stay for a long while, it was busier during late July and August ─ which meant the places where one could stay without proper reservations were limited. With that in mind, he didn't think it would take long to locate the place in question.
Twenty-six minutes in, he was already knocking on a door, in a hotel slightly far off town. A pointy nose, similar pointy ears and strangely sharp features ─ there was not a single corner of that man's face that did not feel, he dared to say, demonic. Yet, somehow, it convinced Hakuba that he had succeeded in his search.
Especially when the man perked up when he mentioned Koizumi's name. He nodded at the rest of his speech, which he didn't even get to finish, and ushered him inside.
They sat at the small table standing in the middle of the living room, in front of each other. As silence stretched over, the man before him began to shift in his seat ─ a feeling of dread and anxiety settling in, until finally, he decided to speak first.
"Would you explain what you were saying?" he said, eyes flickering over his hands, fingers latched onto one another. "Akako-ojousama… Is she in danger?"
"She could be," affirmed Hakuba, the epitome of calmness. He leaned forward, resting his chin against the back of his hands, before continuing, "But first and foremost, I believe I ought to introduce myself-"
"Hakuba Saguru-sama, high school detective. You are a classmate of Akako-ojousama." Hakuba paused for a split second before, through the rise of an eyebrow, inquiring further on the matter. "As Akako-ojousama's most loyal servant, it is my duty to understand the environment she spends her time in, as well as to be wary of any possible dangers that might befall her."
"That is… quite the commitment." Hakuba paused and found himself staring at the man, before shaking his head rapidly. "When was the last time you saw her?"
"This morning. She left this room at around eight."
"And you did not accompany her?" Hakuba was surprised he didn't, all things considered.
The man shook his head. "Akako-ojousama wished to go alone, and I had to respect that."
"Understandable. Aoko-san mentioned she was visiting Wistman's Wood, when she suddenly lost contact." Hakuba noticed the slight tension on this man's shoulders, but pretended not to. "Do you happen to know why she would go to such a place?"
There was something else, something Hakuba remained oblivious to, but whose existence stood out in between them, all too visible to pretend it wasn't there. The way this man's head lowered slightly, the frown that crawled up to his face.
All of it had the detective falling silent, patient despite the incessant ticking in the background from a random clock on the wall, whispering to him that time had not stopped. That it continued to flow regardless of how hard he may try to stop it; it was relentless, a force that humans could never dream of fighting against.
At the third tick, the man clasped his hands to one another.
"It all started with that day," he murmured.
Hakuba watched him, his expression unchanging, but his eyes restless in search of answers. "What day?"
"The day Hirai Arthur-sama came to see Akako-ojousama."
The talk with the strange man did not extend further than he had expected it to, and twenty minutes later, Hakuba was descending the stairs, an impassive expression set on his face despite his mind running miles per hour in an attempt to process what he had just been told. Or rather, figure out how everything pieced together.
He had known that Kudo had been doing a bit of investigation on his own, that he had a case in between his hands whose proportions were probably larger than any human being could manage on their own. Not even Kudo, probably not Hakuba either, even if he tried.
In any case, he was failing to make the connection. An odd tombstone in the middle of the woods ─ and Akako herself, somehow, who shared a surname with the unfortunate being that had probably found their own end there. He could understand her going out of her way to understand her roots, to find out where she had come from, but Kudo? Why had he asked her to share any information she might find on the matter?
With a shake of his head, Hakuba finally stepped into the lobby. He could ponder about it to his heart's content later, maybe he could inquire about it, too. But it was hardly the time for it; he had to set his priorities straight.
I've got a starting point, he reflected. He thought he ought to ask for directions at the reception desk, to see if there was a way to get to that forest as soon as possible. I'd most likely lose my way if I simply set off searching in the woods for Akako-san.
But now, he knew what he had to focus on. A tombstone with a certain name on it ─ once he located that place, he would probably be a step closer to finding her.
Steps halting on their own, Hakuba raised his head to find that someone had beaten him on it. There was a woman at the reception desk already. Pale faced, disheveled ivory hair; she didn't seem to have slept well in a while. Because of a deep-rooted concern that kept her awake, at least, all night ─ Hakuba could see it, dancing behind those green eyes of hers.
"I see," she muttered in English. Her hand moved to her chest, and after a long, calming breath, she added. "Please, let me know if you see him around."
Hesitant, as if she truly did not want to leave that place, the young woman twirled about to leave. Hakuba set her with one long look, taking on how her body seemed to tremble, how her eyes darted from place to place like they were looking for someone.
"Lily!" They finally stopped at a figure a little farther away. Another woman ─ blonde, dark eyed, similarly aged ─ stepped up from the group, waving her over.
"No sign of him, yet?" she asked, though her voice gave off the impression that she was already aware of what the answer would look like.
Predictably, the woman shook her head.
The remaining two members of the group were male, noticed Hakuba, and it was the smaller one that spoke first ─ or rather, laughed first. "Maybe he went to the woods and a ghost finally got to him?" he said, breaking into another chuckle.
The other was taller, a glare as dark in color as it was in intensity, shooting from over from the frames perched over his nose. "It's not funny, Fred," he said in between a sigh. For better emphasis, he ran his fingers through his hair ─ reddish, curly, a little longer than his friend's. "He promised he wouldn't leave the hotel without us."
"There's a big difference between promising and acting on it."
"He didn't-"
"How do you know? You didn't even set foot in our room last night."
"Funny coming from the guy who was out drinking all night."
"Well, as his older brother, you, Harold, are the one who's supposed to do the babysitting. It's not my job."
Harold raised a single eyebrow in response. And would have probably added something else to the conversation, hadn't the blonde woman placed a hand on his arm.
"Are you okay, Lily?" she asked the one in the group that had gone still, her gaze stuck somewhere on the floor.
It took a while for Lily to answer, and she didn't even try to get a word out until she released a long, heavy sigh. "I'm just worried about him," she confessed. "You know how he's with directions. And he has never been here, either."
"He'll show up, eventually." Her friend offered a smile, taking her hand between hers. "Why don't we have some coffee while we wait for him?"
"But…"
"Jennifer is right, Lily." Harold had already started walking, not bothering to wait for anybody else. "He's like that, you know. Appearing and disappearing, and appearing again…"
"Yeah, just because he keeps on 'getting lost'."
"Fred. Shut up."
In a shuffle of feet and a mix of garbled mutter and laughter, the group disappeared in the way Hakuba assumed to be the hotel's cafeteria. Once they were gone, the reception desk was finally free for him to approach.
With a polite smile ready on his lips, Hakuba carried on with his day.
It wasn't the most elaborate experiment he had tried, in fact, it was far away from making it to the top of his list.
Really, there was nothing too extraordinary about it, all he had done was grab a large, glass jar from the kitchen and fill it with water. Next, Sera had grabbed the tomato she had 'borrowed' from the murder scene ─ more like stolen, but Conan wasn't judging her. To be fair, he would have done the same thing if he found what she found in the cuff of her sleeve ─ and, unceremoniously, let it slip from her hands.
It dropped like a corpse, sinking beneath the surface with no resistance besides a minimal, mostly imperceptible splash, and dived. Deeper and deeper.
Yet, unlike the dead, it did not rise back on. Just hit bottom and settled there, motionless and still.
None of the detectives present thought it necessary to share their thoughts, as they already knew they aligned to utmost perfection ─ echoed in perfect synchrony, whispering the name of the culprit, loud and clear as though it had been spoken.
Pitch black skies roared and struck with the force of a mind-blowing deduction, and then, there was nothing but darkness.
The sudden absence of light made Conan blink. A black out? he wondered, even though it was obvious enough. As if he needed confirmation, he turned his face to where Sera's eyes were supposed to be, but naturally, he saw nothing.
So he sighed. All he could do was wait in his spot, since he didn't want to trip and break something because he was too blind to walk.
Yet, soon, even that option was removed by fate. Because that was the moment when Sumika decided to scream, and then he was running.
They found her in her room; sprawled across the floor, a gash carved between her shoulder blades. Rain poured heavily from the outside, as it could be seen from the window directly over where she laid, wide open and becoming the many dangers that hid beneath the storm to the warmth inside.
Sera immediately peered outside, yet found nothing out of the ordinary.
"Are you alright?" Uehara had come to Sumika's aid, gently helping her into a sitting position. "Who did this to you?"
Sumika cracked her eyes open. Her voice was strangled with fear as she murmured,
"T-The Red Woman."
For a single heartbeat, even the rain seemed to still. Blue eyes widened behind thick lenses and, ever so slowly, drifted away from her ghostly pale features. The forest was quiet, eerily still, absolutely and irrevocably devoid of any signs of life.
But…
White momentarily chased the shadows away before it went away, allowing the darkness to return with vengeance and, as the patter of the rain began to reach his ears again, Conan found himself suppressing a shudder.
Though dead, the forest felt more alive than ever.
"After the power went out, someone was tapping on the window," he heard Sumika's frail voice explain. "When I opened it, a-a long-haired woman came at me with a knife. When I tried to run, she got me in the back."
"Was that person…" Conan murmured, his gaze still fixed on the storm ahead. "... really the Red Woman?"
"Did you get a good look at her face?" Sera asked.
"I didn't see it. It was dark, so I only saw her silhouette. But she had long hair and a knife. Wasn't it the Red Woman?"
Conan's features contorted into a thoughtful frown because, while he couldn't outright tell her the opposite, it was hard to point her out as the same person if she hadn't managed to get a good sight of her face. Murdery psychopaths were not exactly uncommon in Conan's life, so he guessed that there was a chance that it could be another person entirely roaming the forests in search of another victim to stab at. Though, he had to admit, it would be too much of a coincidence, but he supposed it could happen.
It wasn't until he felt the rain caressing the left side of his face that Conan noticed that they should probably deal with that. As the rest of the group finally got to the room in question, Conan silently dragged a chair closer and climbed up.
Shooting one last glance at the chaotic scenery outside, Conan firmly closed the window.
And for less than a second, he could have sworn he saw a shadowy figure in the distance, grinning maniacally back at him in the before it disappeared somewhere in the forest. But he couldn't say for sure if it had been real, or just a figment of his own imagination.
Conan's mind was racing as they were led to the living room to regroup, and of course, treat Sumika's wound ─ oozing with blood, vivid scarlet to his eyes despite the poor lighting. It was fresh, recently inflicted onto her skin in a position that she couldn't have reached, even if she wanted to. It wasn't self-made, which made everything all the more problematic and confusing. If Sumika-san did not do it… Then, who did it?
Under the dim light of a few candles Uehara, with the occasional help of Ran, set on treating the slash ─ a clean cut, as told by the police detective, yet not as deep as Conan had originally believed it to be. Which, by itself, was a relief, really.
But it served little to reassure him, especially with the notion of a factor he had not accounted for. That of an additional criminal outside their original murderer, whose identity and intentions were unknown to him, and to every single soul that was there, under the same roof as him, cooped up in a single room waiting for this nightmare to stop.
Or the power to come back up ─ as explained by Uehara, a transformer had been struck by lightning, meaning that it would take a lot. It didn't help that the fact also made things all the more confusing, since it couldn't have been predicted.
Does that mean the culprit took advantage of the coincidental power outage to attack her?
It was likely. But for her to be the Red Woman, specifically? Well, he couldn't say for certain. Especially since Detective Uehara was certain that she was dead, that the umbilical cord that had confirmed her demise, no questions asked.
That being said, Uehara confessed to finding the case strange ─ stranger than it already was, anyway. Apparently, for at least ten years, the police had kept on getting reports from other rental villas in that particular area; signs of a break in, mysterious figures in the forest, that sort of thing.
Conan pondered over her words for a moment. "Huh," he uttered, audibly surprised. "Then I wasn't actually seeing things, after all."
It drew Sera's attention right away, so, by that action alone, it fell on Conan that had not probably the best commentary he could have made. "You saw someone?" she asked, eyes wide with shock.
He nodded once, then had been forced to flinch backwards when someone suddenly exclaimed, "It's not funny!" And it took him no time at all to find Ninda, pale faced and a half-hearted glare fixated on him. "Listen, someone just died, and another was attacked. It's no joking matter-"
"I… don't think he's joking."
And really, it took him all his restraint to keep his mouth from hanging open ─ why was Sonoko, of all people, defending him? On her own will, at that. No, something must have gone terribly wrong, decided Conan. Perhaps this traumatic experience had a great influence in her psyche, bigger than he had accounted for ─ it would be likely, hadn't it been for the fact that this wasn't nearly the first time she had encountered a crime.
Before he could begin to question her sanity ─ or even suspect identity theft ─ she breathed out, audibly and extremely shakily. Her gaze drifted to the closest windows, piercing through the storm to reach the forest.
"I saw her, too," she murmured. With that single sentence, everyone went quiet, but she continued, "S-She was standing outside that window. Behind that tree, looking this way with her head tilted…"
"And a blood-thirsty grin plastered in her face," finished the boy, a frown crawling into his features. Slowly, she shifted her gaze to meet him, and nodded so faintly that it was almost imperceptible ─ as if she was too scared to even move properly. "A long-haired woman."
Of course, dramatic as always, fate decided it was the perfect time to let a random gust of wind cross the room and blow the candles off on its way. As darkness rose vigorously back again, settling over everyone's shoulders, the frightened shrieks of Sonoko and her dear friend did not take long to appear.
For there was no doubt she was the one who attacked Sumika ─ and the possibility of her being the infamous Red Woman began to grow in their minds. Like a small seed finally germinating after a long day of sun ─ only that there was nothing but shadows and uncertainty for the idea to feast on.
"If we don't get out of here, we'll all end up like Hakuya-kun!"
Now Conan could perfectly understand where that sudden burst of panic was coming from, but it didn't mean he couldn't ponder how illogical that had been. There was a literal storm outside, it was the dead of night and there may or may not be a psychopath with a pretty pointy knife lodged in the woods. Actually getting out of there was practically asking to be killed ─ whether by a murderer on the loose or by the forces of nature themselves, well, Conan lacked the resources to find out. Not that he was interested, that was.
"They don't exist." Sera's voice pierced through the chaos, settling everything back to order ─ at least momentarily, enough for everyone to listen to her words. "Ghosts and monsters… Witches and wizards…"
With a swift flick of her hand, there was light. The smallest of flames sizzled, reflected in her emerald orbs, "They only live in the world of fantasy," then expanded, danced as she lit up the candles back again, lighting up their world once more. "Not a single one of them exists in this world."
But nothing was brighter than her grin. "Right, Conan-kun?"
Conan blinked, refusing to respond. Why was she relying on the approval of a third grader concerning the paranormal, anyway?
But she seemed to deem his silence as a good enough answer. "So, don't worry," she said to Tamami this time. "Even if she's around, she's a flesh and blood person," then turned to Ran. "We can neutralize her with my Jeet Kune Do or Ran-kun's karate."
Ran found it in herself to nod, hopefully a little more confident now. If she was really convinced that their enemy was an actual human being, it was a mystery to Conan ─ but he decided to keep a hand free to reach to his belt, just in case.
"In any case, I called a car to pick us up," Uehara began, threading to the door, Sera following close behind without any kind of prompting ─ or complaint from Uehara's part, either. "Everyone wait in the living room until then. I'll inspect the other rooms."
"Uh, but…" Ninda began, unsure. "What about…?"
She took a moment to reply, looking over at Sera, who stared back just as blankly. "I want to ask this high school detective some questions."
"Yeah, right. But I mean…"
Uehara did not seem to understand right away what he meant until he resorted to pointing somewhere at Sera's legs. Following that particular direction, the police detective felt herself halt; big blue eyes stared back, unblinking, as if he was waiting for her to explain her odd behavior.
"You don't mind, right?" A dismayed groan left the boy when the high schooler promptly let her hand fall atop his hair, and carelessly messed with it. "He's useful to have around."
Uehara stilled, settling him with one of those uncomfortably long looks that almost made him want to stand straighter. One that, honestly, Conan had no idea why she was giving him to begin with; like, the woman did barely know him at all. Why would she even consider taking him along?
"Conan-kun, come back here," Ran wanted to chastise him, even if her voice was breaking as a product of her own fear. "Don't bother Detective Uehara-"
"I don't see why not." Conan guessed he really did look stupid enough with that face, but Uehara offered a friendly smile, nevertheless. "Come on, then."
Conan could only nod his head and follow suit, way too bamboozled to even grin, or cringe, at the completely unexpected turn of events.
It had been a while since Kudo had fallen silent. Sitting at the table with a cup of black ─ probably too black to speak well of the detective's state of mind, actually ─ and staring at a random spot at the opposite wall; it was far from being an odd sight, or rather, one that Kaito had not grown used to over the past two years or so.
And experience had long taught him to let the guy be when he was in that deep, thoughtful state ─ especially when that frown had crawled up onto his features about fifteen minutes ago, a clear dead-away that he wasn't getting the answers he wanted to see. Whatever his problem might be.
So, Kaito dared to do nothing but plop back onto the couch, a computer set on his lap, producing no other sound than that of his fingers dancing across the keyboard.
"I… guess we could ask Detective Takagi himself." Finally, the detective had said something after about twenty minutes of solid silence. His face contorted in a grimace, though, speaking of little to no confidence in his own idea. "It's not like it would be easy with him ─ he's smarter than what he looks. But Detective Sato is plenty risky…"
Kaito hummed, his eyes flickering over his computer screen. "He's at his office," he stated. "If you wanna chat with him."
This earned a glance that, though silent, spoke louder than anything else. Not that he moved his own gaze away to receive it, but his lips curved on their own ─ not that he made any attempt to stop them ─ serving as an indicative that he knew he was being confusing. And he loved doing it.
His ears caught some movement before his eyes could, and Kudo promptly walked over to peer at his screen. He halted at the sight of it, and after a beat, muttered, "That's one of your doves, right?"
Because, to him, that must have been the most viable explanation to it all. Kaito found it pretty logical, actually, and a line of thought that sounded fitting for the brilliant detective he was ─ if lacking in the imagination department, in Kaito's humble opinion. Because there clearly were other reasons as to why they were seeing Detective Takagi's focused frown as he flipped through many documents, sitting at his desk at work, from a magician's beloved laptop. He just didn't try to think of them.
"They're on vacation right now," Kaito answered, waving a hand off at him. "Sightseeing the city, you know. Stretching their wings."
Kudo blinked at him, whether because he had never heard of doves having vacation or the whole situation in general, he didn't know. He was hoping for the latter, though ─ because, seriously, he wasn't that heartless. His hardworking doves deserved a nice break every now and then, did they not?
"So you…"
"Yes, I hacked the cameras." Kudo's bewilderment transformed into a stricter, pointed look that had him rolling his eyes. "Come on. I'm a wanted criminal ─ was, actually ─ and you're surprised I broke a rule or two?"
His response was lacking, but the same did not go with the staring. Eventually, he dismissed with a shake of his head, and a mumble Kaito didn't quite hear ─ or want to hear ─ before he went back to observing the live camera footage that had been unexpectedly presented to him.
Kaito, on the other hand, propped his cheek with a fist. "Even if we approach him, he doesn't look like he's gonna say anything."
Kudo crossed his arms over his chest, eyes slipping back closed. From where he sat, Kaito could swear he could see the gears turning inside his head, but he failed to see where productivity came to play a part.
And there they were, Kaito found it amusing in its own sort of way, if a little ironic. That one of the greatest detectives of his age and a former master phantom thief were struggling this badly to forge a plan just to get more information. But, after pausing for another second to ponder over it longer, he wondered if it should be this surprising at all.
There's probably a lot in Meitantei's mind already to focus on this.
And as for me… He cast a glance at the black feather once more, set over the ominous photograph after being contemplated for, at least, a dozen of times in the last hour. I'm out of practice, aren't I?
He could have laughed, but he didn't find it in himself to do such a thing.
"He said it appeared at his desk one morning, didn't he?"
Kaito was jerked back to reality by Kudo's abrupt question. When he faced him, however, he found that his face had not even moved an inch, every ounce of attention on the screen in his lap.
"The photo, you mean? Yeah, he said that," Kaito replied. "Most of the footage was erased, too."
Kudo arched his eyebrows. "Most of?"
"Don't bother." He may have hit that key on his keyboard rather too roughly, but Kaito figured it didn't really matter. "Look here."
Takagi disappeared from view, and the location was swapped by what seemed to be a waiting lobby; complete with a few waiting chairs tucked against one wall, a large reception desk at the other, and, of course, a large glass door at where the entrance was supposed to be.
"The data from this camera was erased. But, to reach Detective Takagi's office, you need to get…" Kaito's finger hovered over the screen, pressing against a random door somewhere at the back of the room. "... here, if I'm not mistaken."
Not that he thought he was, but he didn't clarify.
"Without the footage of this area, or the office ─ because, yep, that was erased, too ─ there isn't much you…" His words trailed down, eyes opening a slightly wider despite himself. "... can do with…"
Kudo quickly picked up on it. "What is it?"
Kaito paused long enough as if to put his thoughts in order ─ and when he finally managed, that certain snark-like grin spread all over his face.
"Oh?" he whispered. "Isn't this interesting?"
Before he could even be inquired about it, he changed the camera footage displayed. Now, Kudo was left wondering why he was looking at a random, ordinary corridor, of all things ─ and why Kaito had suddenly burst out laughing, for whatever reason.
"How did I miss this?" he said, pressing a hand to his head. "I can't believe I…"
"What's all of this about?" Kudo asked, unable to keep the growing irritation from his voice.
"See, this corridor here is the one that connects the door I just mentioned and the office," explained Kaito. "The footage here wasn't deleted."
"It wasn't?!" The detective's eyes opened wide, almost hopeful, Kaito dared to say. "Then-"
"There was nothing in it. After Detective Takagi left, nobody went through it again."
That was why he hadn't initially thought much of it at the beginning. As a magician, it was a huge oversight not to realize that the best of magic tricks usually hid in the most unassuming places. Could the perpetrator have, that way, gotten to the control room to get rid of the footage? Or they may have hacked the system, just like he had ─ which did not speak too favorably of their police force, actually.
Kudo fell quiet, probably trying to fit together the new pieces he had just been given in the bigger puzzle he had been working with. "What…" he mumbled, out of breath. "What are we dealing with?"
"Spirits?"
"Spare me." Not giving him a chance to reply, he added, "Can you access the data?"
"I'm pretty sure I just said it was missing. And I told you, there's nothing in the corridors, either."
"I don't need to see the hallways," Kudo said, his gaze narrowing. "Neither do I need the deleted footage."
"Then…"
"I want to see the moment just before the footage was cut off, and the moment after. Can you do that?"
The magician smirked. "Who do you think you're talking with?"
As the detective lowered into the empty space beside him, the magician quickly typed something in the computer, and in an instant, he was staring the waiting lobby again, only that this time, there was not a soul despite the weary, very-obviously sleep deprived young intern who sat behind the reception desk.
Kudo wordlessly accepted the computer when Kaito passed it to him and made no further movement. His eyes, sharp as like that of a hawk, flickered at random spots of the screen as the video played ─ just stopped once on the intern when he realized he dozed off on his seat, before they went back, darting back and forth across the room when, suddenly, that happened.
The place remained ominously still; the intern had not even shifted in his sleep, but the numbers at the upper corner spoke of a different story ─ fifteen minutes' worth of footage had been thrown into the abyss, not to ever be seen again.
"They moved," Kudo suddenly said, surprise illuminating his once stoic features. When Kaito did not show any signs of understanding, he pointed at the waiting chairs next to the walls on the right. "Those chairs. Their position was slightly different."
He was right, realized Kaito after a quick glance. "Could they have bumped into it?"
Kudo only stared back at the screen, unblinking.
"I wonder," was all he said.
Edogawa Conan was one strange child.
That notion hadn't been too hard to achieve, and certainly, just a couple of minutes in the boy's vicinity had Detective Uehara Yui convinced that was the case. As in, the child appeared to be somewhere between eight and nine years of life, which was more than enough to grasp the concept of death, but probably not old enough to process tragedies as easily as adults would.
But this boy was mostly unfazed after walking in a dead body. Although the other witnesses were, at least, twice his age, even they had shown some decent amount of unease as they told her about the incident, but not Conan. He, alongside that high school detective, had been the ones with the most detailed recount of the events, the embodiment of calmness even as they described a properly traumatizing tragedy.
Maybe the boy had been through enough to be desensitized over the whole thing ─ even though he, at times, showed signs of being genuinely disgusted about the deed, so she guessed it was a good thing. This little one had always been hanging around the famous detective Mouri Kogoro, or so she had heard, so it made sense that he would be used to death.
Such a discomforting thought.
However, she had decided against giving it any further thought. Not that Kansuke had let her indulge in such a respite. It had taken her one call, just one, for her thoughts to go spiraling back to the mysterious elementary student once more.
"What did you say their names were? The girls that found the dead body."
Yui remembered having paused in confusion, unaware of the direction this conversation was going to take next. "Kawana Sumika, Suzuki Sonoko and Mouri Ran," she had answered regardless, arching an eyebrow even though he couldn't see her. "I believe I just told you."
"Mouri Ran…"
"Yeah, I believe she's the daughter of that famous detective… Mouri Kogoro, wasn't it? Talk about a coincidence."
"She couldn't have done it to herself."
Brought out of her little, internal daze, Yui looked back up sharply. There, she found a little boy, staring at her with eyes so wide and innocent that made it hard for her to believe how much they had seen throughout his short life ─ things she did know, things she wouldn't know at all.
"It was a single clean horizontal cut," he explained. Then, threw a hand over his shoulder, as if he wanted to reach that one certain, awkward spot in his back. "I don't think it's possible to do it, even if you tried."
He did make a good point, though.
The implications of that fact did not make things clearer to her, in any case. They had discovered no signs of Tamami ever leaving her room, and her clothes had been dry, too. It would have been impossible for Ninda, too, since he had been all over the second floor around that time.
Then, who in the world could have done such a thing to Sumika?
"Maybe… the culprit isn't inside the villa."
Raising her head, she found Sera, gazing out of the window to the heavy rain that poured down outside. Conan followed right after, approaching the girl before him to adopt the same ominous posture.
Quietly, as if lost in his thoughts, he murmured, "Maybe there really is something in the forest…"
"... hiding out there," Sera finished his sentence. "Coming to get us."
They both broke out of their thoughts when a shriek left the confines of her throat and turned to stare, rather disapprovingly, at the full-fledged police detective hunched against the wall, sitting on the floor after her legs had gone weak, her eyes wide open with fear she could not hope to hide.
Sera raised an eyebrow. "I'm joking."
"Oh," Conan pipped in, his voice adorably high pitched. "I wasn't."
Uehara decided not to question it, for the sake of her own sanity rather than anything else. Forcing herself to focus back on her work, she stood back up on shaky legs and faced Sera again. This time, she did not stammer ─ too much ─ as she inquired what she had meant for a long while now.
Sera had agreed easily to her request, and in no time, she had spread the pictures all over a table. Apparently, the suspects and victim had entrusted her with those, hoping that she would be able to deduce the identity of the prankster that had been making things harder for them for so long. As such, the photographs were pretty much what she had been told ─ a door splashed with red paint, the red petals, the red tomatoes…
Red was everywhere the feeble light of a candle could reach. Red, red, red…
"Not red."
A flash of blue overrode everything as Conan lifted his head to face her, meeting his eyes for a moment all too brief, before it flickered back to the high school detective hovering curiously over her.
He pointed over at the last picture. "All the other photos are of things that are supposed to remind you of the Red Woman," he said, a frown pinching his face. "But this one is different."
For there was a lack of that color her eyes had grown used to by now. There was just a group of teenagers huddled together, smiling at the camera without a care in the world. From the background, she could tell they were posing in front of the same old rental villa they were trapped in, only that the vivid red door had apparently not been painted at that time.
"Apparently they took that twelve years ago on the afternoon their classmate went missing."
It made sense to Uehara ─ even though the people in this photograph had changed over the years, their features remained the same, thus allowing her to identify them as the younger versions of Sumika, Tamami, Hakuya and Ninda. There was another girl, though, she could not recognize. But considering what Sera had told her, it didn't take that much of an effort to put two and two together.
Yet, Sera clarified just in case, "The person in the middle is Imoto Satoko-san, the girl found in the swamp."
Uehara picked up the photograph to study it further. The distinct lack of red was somehow disconcerting, now that she had grown used to it in this case ─ and that presented a huge problem on itself. "She's wearing a beige cardigan," she observed. "But when her body was discovered, she was wearing a long red coat."
None of them appeared to have seen that coming, but she carried on regardless. She told them that Inspector Yamato had gone to talk to the now retired policeman who had shown up at the scene fifteen years ago, so hopefully they would have more information regarding that case soon.
Having finished talking, the two of them exchanged a silent look before they went their separate ways. Sera, lacking enough information to piece everything together, walked back to her spot next to the window ─ keeping watch, attentive to any movements that might go easily unnoticed if she so much blinked at the wrong time.
Meanwhile, Conan went back to the photographs. Hands resting atop the table, body propped upwards, his eyes darted back and forth, sharpening and narrowing as if they could dissect the truth out of them if he tried hard enough.
It was a curious sight to Uehara herself.
"Is there a boy with her? A boy with glasses, Edogawa Conan."
"Eh? Yes, he's here. Why?"
"Keep an eye on him."
Her phone rang back to life, attracting the attention from those two certain someones she had thought long lost in their own mind by now. Kansuke barely even greeted her when she picked up and immediately told her about what he had found out. About the officer he had interrogated confessing to being too terrified to report the right thing; he had never been attacked by the Red Woman, just got her knife thrown at him. Then she had run away, leaving him with nothing but years' worth of traumas in her stead.
And for Uehara herself, she failed to understand how this change in the officer story changed anything at all. But, even if she could not see where, she supposed there was something out there she had overlooked.
Seeing the smirk ─ far too similar to Sera's, all too knowing ─ that had drawn itself on Conan's lips, she could tell.
"I've got the feeling you'll see something interesting if you keep him around."
For the better or the worse, she had the feeling that this case would see its end in no time.
And so, she didn't even question it when Sera suggested that they should go back and gather with everyone else, thus seeing no use in dragging in the investigation any longer. She asked no questions at all, merely followed along the pair until they got to the living room, as previously agreed.
Ninda was the first to stand up, desperate for any leads to his friend's killer ─ or rather, something that would grant him some well-sought peace of mind, reassurance that he wasn't getting murdered tonight. But sadly, she had no answers to give him.
She had none, in any case.
"I knew it…" Sumika whispered, hugging herself from the other corner of the room. "It was an evil spirit. The ghost of the Red Woman-"
"-is right here." Conan's head peeked out from the other side of the table ─ having gotten there before Uehara herself could realize. "That's what they call a ghostly possession, right?"
Sumika jumped back, her eyes snapping open as she stared back at the young boy that had suddenly appeared in front of her. His hands were latched with one another behind his back, his expression open, honest like children were known to be. But there was something more to it, something that made her hair stand to an end.
"Hatred, pain, desperation… Those twisted emotions of hers, those she had clung so desperately in the last moments of her life… They did not die that day, in that swamp."
Her breathing, having escaped her body a while back, refused to return home. The boy before her had dipped his head forward, as minutely as the action had been, allowing the gentle candle light to bounce back onto the lenses, hiding his expression from plain sight.
"No, emotions never truly disappear. They grow stronger, they grow fiercer. They grow… deadlier."
His voice had, too, dropped an octave lower ─ suddenly, he sounded much older, like an entirely different person altogether. As if he, too, had been possessed by another entity in order to relay that message to her. In order for its voice to be heard.
"But the thing is, you never know you've become a victim to it before you're too far off to turn back."
A small hand reached forward, and instinctively, Sumika felt her body jerk backwards. His palm rested against her chest and did nothing but stay there ─ as a warm harmless pressure that reminded Sumika of his presence.
"It is gentle at first ─ just like the warm embrace of a beloved friend you haven't seen in a while. But then," The hand closed abruptly around a handful of Sumika's shirt, and a disturbing smile crawled up in the boy's face, "it turns into a tight, squeezing, smothering hold you can't, and don't want, to escape from."
Sumika desperately tried to free herself from his grasp, her struggles waning when he saw that gelid blue again, piercing through lenses to contemplate whatever she tried to hide deep inside her soul.
"And before you realize it…"
The wound in her back burned and ached, pain flaring back to life for no good reason.
"You're already sinking deep in the scarlet-dyed waters of vengeance."
Unable to formulate a single word, the young woman stared back, her mouth wide open as if she had tried to vocalize any sound, yet failed horribly. His grip on her loosened up, and the boy stepped backwards ─ a sunny smile popping up to replace whatever had coated his expression just now.
"That's what Sera-neechan said, anyway!"
Nobody was sure about what to say.
After a moment of contemplation, Sera snickered. "While I can't say that was wrong, I think there's something you might have misunderstood, Conan-kun," she said, plopping the candlestick she had been carrying in the middle of the table. "It wasn't a ghostly possession."
Lifting her head, she allowed a massive grin to curve her lips upward.
"Since ghosts do not exist."
"B-But!" Ninda protested, frantically moving his hands around as he spoke. "You don't know who attacked Hakuya and Sumika, right?"
"No, I do know who killed Hakuya-san in the bathroom."
Their bewilderment was palpable, and certainly, the chaotic mess their minds were rendered to was audible from where Conan stood, but he gladly let Sera do the explanation for him. Not that there was much explaining to do ─ it was merely a logical conclusion, really. As they had stated before, neither Ninda, who had been physically far away from the scene of the time, nor Tamami, who had been confirmed to have been preparing dinner at that time, could have done it. Simple math indicated that, if there had been three suspects to begin with and then you take out two, you were left with a single valid option.
A beat of thoughtful silence ensued, which Sera took the opportunity of to briefly catch her breath. Conan glanced up curiously at Sumika, who quickly stared back, a little put off, and moved closer to whisper, loud enough for the entire room to hear,
"I think she means you."
Her shock was too sudden, too violent to try and hide it.
"What are you talking about, Conan-kun?!" exclaimed Ran, similarly surprised by the seemingly far-fetched conclusion he had jumped onto. "I found nothing amiss when I checked the bath water, and we were with her all the time afterwards."
Conan kept his gaze fixated on her, his mouth gaping a little open, before confusion pinched his face. "Yeah, that's weird…"
Ran laughed half-heartedly. "Right?"
"If Ran-neechan checked the water… How come she's the one with those on her sleeve?"
This time, it was time for Sonoko to parrot a very perplexed "Those?"
Conan motioned back to the woman in question, who recoiled instinctively. It didn't evade Conan's attention that her sleeves had been rolled up ever since the incident took place, and that she was all but hugging herself, as if hiding said sleeve from plain sight. Not that Conan thought it would work, though.
"Salt crystals." Sera's remark did not fail in making Sumika shudder. "That's from when she stuck her arm inside the water after adding bath salts to it."
"Why would she do that?" questioned Uehara.
"Why, to make the tomatoes float, of course."
For tomatoes ─ as demonstrated by Conan and his little science experiment Sera had tasked him with ─ usually sank in water, provided they had enough sugar content. Adding some salt would result in the exact opposite, on the other hand, allowing Sumika to see her plan through.
First, she had used Ninda's bat to fabricate her alibi ─ stuck to a cardboard and hanging it in a column, all that would be left was to leave the rotating fan to create a constant thumping noise anyone would mistake as her vacuum bumping into walls. With that out of the way, she knocked Hakuya with a dumbbell, which she used, alongside several more, to keep his body from floating after she placed him into a filled bathtub. Then, she put the tomatoes in, increased the salinity with bath salts ─ just enough to keep them from floating ─ and went on with her day as if she hadn't just killed another human being.
After having Ran check that there was nothing in there, they left ─ but she entered, one more time, and had the tomatoes float back again with the use of some more bath salts.
And there, all done ─ horror story completed and revenge fulfilled.
But she had made her mistakes, and her deeds had eventually been discovered ─ it wasn't too bright, thought Conan, that she decided to do this the same day a detective was invited to hang out with them. And really, she had made herself suspicious from the very beginning ─ someone capable of identifying Sera as their classmate's detective sister? Just like that, even though the others had failed horrendously minutes before? Yeah, no way. Clearly, she had been eavesdropping on them, dressed as the Red Woman to scare the living daylights out of Sonoko and Ran.
Her expression had smoothed out into something unreadable as Sera's deduction progressed, probably seeing that there was no use in feigning ignorance for much longer. The unbelieving gazes of her friends fell on her the moment the detective had finished, and she raised her head ─ something darker, full of hatred crossed her face as she admitted having put on a long-haired wig, a red raincoat and red boots; with just one motive, just one reason to keep on going forward,
"... to draw the coward who left Satoko to die."
Her friends were clueless to what in the world those words meant, so she told them everything. About learning that Satoko had been found dead wearing a red coat ─ leading her to the conclusion that her dear friend had been playing the role of the Red Woman for a prank that went horribly wrong. That meant, without a doubt, that she must have had an accomplice, or it just wouldn't have worked.
It wasn't until a few years later, today's date, that she would finally uncover the identity of this accomplice ─ Hakuya, who had blurted out Satoko's name unprompted at the mention of the Red Woman.
She had forced a confession out of him while in the bathroom. He had told her he and Satoko had missed each other, but had been too scared to say anything. Knowing his actions might have saved her dear friend from such a tragic friend, she had seen red.
Red ─ just like the Red Woman, she had tainted her hands with someone else's blood.
"Then," Uehara spoke up after Sumika was finished with her confession. "Who was the woman who attacked you?"
"It was probably either Ninda-kun or Tamami once they realized what I had done."
Alas, they did not admit to it. They both stared back in equal perplexity, as if trying to elucidate who had been the responsible for it, but they found no answers in their respective gazes.
Ran and Sonoko held hands, knowing fairly well where that was going.
Conan's eyes narrowed, muscles tensing up as the platter of the rain against the roof became louder and louder.
"There's one more person closely related to the case," Sera informed. "One whose fate is still unknown."
White momentarily blinded their sight, but then instantly after, it dimmed enough for their eyes to be drawn to the window ─ to observe the face that now pressed against the window, a sadistic, unnaturally wide grin stretched all over their sight.
With a sudden gust of wind, what little light those candles were able to offer was extinguished. The figure jumped off the window, her steps resounding in the newfound darkness as she approached her victim.
Ran held her head as she screamed.
Sera grunted from the opposite side of the room.
And a subtle crackle of electricity sparked back to life.
Once stopping in front of her target, the woman's head tilted slightly to her side. A whisper, rough by disuse, devoid of any emotion besides the most twisted kind of joy filled the room:
"I found you."
Seeing the glint of the knife raised in front of her, Sumika scrunched her eyes closed.
When suddenly, there was a painful thud sound, followed by the clatter of steel to the ground. Blinking several times, she tried to think of a reason as to why she could see, as minimal as her field of vision was.
The knife was on the ground, and so was the long-haired woman, sprawled across the floor alongside what seemed to be ─ she strained her eyes ─ a… deflated soccer ball.
Her confusion was not assuaged, and rather, grew exponentially when she realized that bespectacled, creepy kid standing close, shining down a light to the scene with a ─ wait, was that a watch?
Conan replied with nothing but a sheepish smile, and did not even ask her if she was alright ─ because she obviously was. At least, better than what she would be with a knife stuck to her chest. Maybe he should take the deflated ball with him before other prying eyes ─ namely Sera ─ could spot it.
Which meant he didn't have much time-
Steps followed several men, bursting into the room before they skidded to a halt. Raising his head, Conan found face to face with that one disturbing one-eyed inspector from Nagano ─ a crutch held high above his head and a clueless glint in his eye ─ and stilled.
Oh, this would be fun to explain.
Note the sarcasm here.
Maybe a wave and a grin was in order, yeah, that was what he was gonna do. It didn't help that his taller friend ─ what was his name, again? ─ was looking at him as if he had knocked out a serial killer or something… Yeah.
Fortunately for him, there were more important things to deal with than the odd kid with the killer soccer ball. Moments later, the raging storm outside had ceased to be, in a way that was not dissimilar to how this woman's rage finally quelled after years of torment. It was abrupt, it was unexpected, but once the first few tears escaped her eyes, a sense of peace floated back to the surface.
Because, as the Nagano's detective ─ whose name Conan was yet to learn ─ had reassured her, the hunt was over. Kawana Shinobu, the mistress of the murdered company employee, was just another victim from the Red Woman case.
Realizing that the bearer to all that hatred, the cause of all her suffering, had long been gone from this world, she allowed herself to be taken away. Conan's eyes followed her figure as she was escorted to the car, and couldn't help but wince at the red imprint of a ball on her left cheek.
Surely, there had been better ways to deal with that. But with the only two people who actually knew how to put on a fight unavailable ─ one too frightened to move, the other all the way to the other side of the room ─ he had thought he had no other choice. In retrospect, though, maybe Detective Uehara might have done something, with her being a cop and everything… And even then, that one-eyed inspector and his friend were there, prepared to fight her off and everything ─ but, come on, how was he supposed to know that there was actual help coming?
At least there were no more deaths. Conan supposed he ought to feel happy about that.
He wasn't happy about the glances Sera kept sending his way, though. Perhaps he should do something about that.
"Hey, by the way," Conan said. "Don't you need to report to your brother about the incident?"
"I thought I would, but I lost my phone," Sera replied, smiling as if she had been expecting that question to be asked ─ adding to Conan's regrets for the night. "Could you call it with yours? We can probably find it by following the sound."
He figured as much. Blankly, he stared at her for a few minutes before, uttering no more words, turned to Ran instead.
"Ran-neechan, could you please call Sera-neechan's phone for me?"
Because, even if the last few hours had already been filled with nothing but poor decisions, he wasn't about to add another one to the list. Accidentally leaving his phone number in Sera's phone would be ranking on top.
Thus, ignoring the raised eyebrows from both girls, the boy thanked Ran and set off looking for the phone.
Which did not take too long to find ─ in fact, he was left wondering if Sera had even tried to begin with. Also, it left him questioning the girl and her abilities to lose her phone under a cupboard. Seriously, that took some skill…
Groaning all the way down, he pulled the object out. He was just about to shout at Ran that she could end the call, but his fingers moved on their own, hanging up on her using Sera's phone. In doing so, his eyes caught something else.
Blinking, he stared at the young, platinum blonde girl displayed in the phone screen, tucked into bed and with an irritated expression on her face ─ that Conan could totally empathize with, seeing that there was Sera there, too, pressing her face to this girl's cheek with that broad grin of hers.
Narrowing his eyes, he took a second look at it. There was something about the dark bags under her eyes, the sharp glint in that green gaze that struck her as familiar…
Soon, he couldn't study the photo anymore, as Sera had come out of nowhere and plucked it out from his grasp with a loud, "Thank you for finding it!"
He hesitated even as he nodded.
"By the way, Sera-neechan…"
"Yeah?"
"Who's that girl?"
"Huh?" She paused to give the picture in question a long look before her eyes opened slightly, seemingly in understanding. "Oh, that's just my mom."
Conan's mind stuttered for a moment, before his eyes slid lower.
"Am I a joke to you?"
Sera only graced with a snicker, which was basically the same as having said nothing at all, and promptly walked away. And while Conan would usually be elated to see that she was leaving him alone, he felt the impulse to stop her, to ask more.
Because he was drawing a blank right now. Considering she had left the phone showing that picture, him seeing it had been no accident. She wanted him to see that girl with his own eyes.
Why, though?
The world refused to answer.
Looking at this place, Hakuba could understand while the fear of the supernatural had been so present in Aoko's mind, back when she was trying to put into words what little she knew of her friend's fate. Granted, the detective was not prone to believing in it, but if there was a place in this world where he was allowed to fester in those feelings of discomfort and unease, this might as well be the perfect place.
It was no wonder that there were so many legends that revolved around Wistman's Wood, he realized, carefully stepping another stone, skillfully avoiding the layer of moss that swallowed most of the surface. Even he was starting to feel the weight of eyes that could not be seen, somewhere further inside the forest, beyond oak trees that stood firm between the sea of rocks, and the sea of branches that extended like gentle waves.
Hakuba decided not to give that much transcendence, for there was nothing but his rising paranoia keeping him company.
That besides, of course, a certain stone that rose above the rest. He hastened his pace, making sure not to misstep in his hurry, in order to see the object with his own two eyes.
Eyes narrowed slightly, his fingers tracing the name carved into stone. Hinata Koizumi. No doubt, this was it.
Only, that it was only that. Him, and the tombstone; no trace of the scarlet-eyed high schooler he had been entrusted to find. Which was nothing beyond what he had been expecting, but it would certainly make everything infinitely easier for him.
He shook his head; no use pondering about it now. Might as well make this trip worth it by finding a lead to her whereabouts-
Hakuba froze.
He… hadn't expected to get a clue like that one ─ or rather, he had hoped he wouldn't get one. Because, thinking about what Aoko had said about a little girl covered in blood, it made sense that he would find some of it there, at the place where Akako had last been heard of.
Yet, there weren't even just a few droplets of blood, but bloody footprints ─ too small to be Akako's, but if it were the little girl's, it would certainly fit. They did not originate in the spot where he was, and they didn't stop there either ─ if anything, whoever did this seemed to have been heading this way, paused, then ran away somewhere into the forest.
This… No way.
For the first time since he ventured into the woods, Hakuba felt his blood going cold; the more he looked at that trail of footsteps, that certain feeling grew more prominent. Hair stood to an end, as an aftermath of the chill that ran down his spine.
And somehow, it felt as though he was not alone.
Still, he forced himself to stand back up, venturing further inside with the bloody footsteps as a guide, his own reverberating against his ears. Keeping his breath in, as if afraid it would be heard if he allowed it out, lips pressing into a thin line, Hakuba dreaded what he might discover.
The trail vanished into thin air a few steps later, and Hakuba was not sure whether to feel frustrated or relieved. She must have taken her shoes off, he realized, surveying the place one more time, before turning on his heels back to the starting point. Which doesn't make sense.
Because, looking at the bloody footsteps and recalling the screams Aoko had talked about, Hakuba could only imagine a chase scene.
Stopping at the tombstone long enough to let his breath out, and then in again, Hakuba set off, following the footsteps once more. Only this time, he would follow them all the way backwards.
She, the little girl, must have run into something, and the perpetrator must have chased her to silence her. In her way, she might have stumbled upon Akako, unwittingly turning her into yet another unexpected witness of the crime that must have occurred there, only this morning.
And that crime must be…
Hakuba's steps halted, a frown etched into his face. Dried blood collected in a pool, dripping from the rock in a faint trail that he could not see the end of.
And lying face down, was a mop of reddish hair; a body that, silently still, blended in with the forest, easily as if it had always been there to begin with.
Murder.
A/N
Gamelover41592: Sorry, I'm not sure I know what you mean.
Rene: I haven't really given that much thought, but I think they would. Mostly because that's what I would've done xD
