SailorStar9: With Chapter 163 uploaded, I present Chapter 164 of this fic. (Sighs) Guys and girls, is it too hard for you to leave a review, instead of just putting this fic up on your favorited list and story alerts?

Disclaimers: I do not own Sailor Moon or Detective Conan, I only own this plotline and the pairing.

Pairing: Established!Furuya Rei/Mizuno Ami

Chapter 164: The Novelist Known as the Demon King

Time passes...

"It's 3:30." Mouri gaped in shock, looking at his watch, he and Conan were walking on a roadside one afternoon. "I need to go home soon or I'll miss out on my snack."

"What's going on?" Conan spotted the police car parked outside Tawake Shintaro's house.

"I believe the author Tawake Shintaro's mansion is around here." Mouri recalled. "Every book his publishes is a success. It's no wonder he's got such a nice place. Inspector?" he noticed Megure and Takagi at the gates. "If Division One is here, then..."

"The author Tawake Shintaro was found shot to death inside this residence." Takagi confirmed.

Inside the house...

"The victim is Tawake Shintaro-san, 55 years old." Takagi reported. "As you know, he was a mystery writer. According to Mizuno-san, the cause of death was blood loss from a gunshot wound to the abdomen. Mizuno-san believes the weapon is this shotgun found on the floor next to the body."

"The victim was shot while sleeping on the sofa." Megure noted.

"The windows of this room face north, so the lights were kept on even during the daytime." Takagi supplied.

"A room doesn't get sunlight with north-facing windows." Mouri remarked.

"According to Mizuno-san, the estimated time of death is around noon." Takagi added.

"He was shot by this shotgun, right?" Conan wondered.

"Most likely, since it was left on the floor here." Takagi nodded. "Since the glass door in the living room was partially open, we believe the culprit entered and exited through there."

"Have Mizuno take the body to autopsy." Megure instructed.

"We found no signs that the culprit searched the room, so we don't believe they were a thief." Takagi stated.

"What's this?" Conan pulled the curtains away to see blood splutter on the glass.

"It's a bloodstain." Mouri peered closely. "This must've spluttered here when he was shot."

"But, since there's no blood on the curtains, that means they were open then." Conan pointed out. "Did the culprit take the time to close them? If that's the case, why did they do that?"

"They were probably trying to delay the discovery of the body." Mouri retorted.

"But, who'd be looking through this window?" Conan asked.

"Inspector, there's blood on this as well, but there isn't a drop of blood on the floor or wall around it." one of the forensics officers reported a blood splutter on a wooden stool.

"Was that stand located elsewhere during the murder and moved afterwards by the culprit?" Megure wondered.

"Inspector Megure, I'm back from questioning the neighbors." Chiba walked in. "Nobody saw any suspicious persons. Also, in the neighborhood, there wasn't anyone who heard a gunshot."

"I'm not surprised no one heard anything with this racket." Megure commented, hearing the loud construction noises nearby. "The body was discovered by Tawake's apprentices, right?"

"We're having them wait in the living room." Takagi supplied. "These four are Tawake-san's apprentices." he introduced. "These two found the body." he gestured to Akaike Naoya and Degawa Miyuki.

"I'm Akaike Naoya." Akaike spoke.

"I'm Degawa Miyuki." Degawa bowed.

"These two are apprentices as well." Akaike turned to Bito Ryunosuke and Chigasaki Haruo. "They came as quickly as they could once we reached out to them."

"I'm Bito Ryunosuke." Bito spoke.

"I'm Chigasaki Haruo." Chigasaki stated.

"We took turns on a daily rotation performing odd jobs for Tawake-sensei." Akaike explained. "It was my turn today, so I'd been at the mansion since this morning." he recalled Tawake instruct him to return at 3pm and bring Degawa with him. "When the two of us returned..." he recounted how they found the body. "We rushed to call the police."

"Naturally, we haven't touched the crime scene." Degawa insisted. "By the way, Akaike-san, we should probably call them." she reminded.

"You're right." Akaike spotted the dental appointment marked on the calendar. "If we don't call them soon, it'd cause trouble later."

"Who would it cause trouble for?" Conan wondered.

"The dentist." Degawa answered. "Akaike-san was told to make an appointment yesterday."

"The Demon King won't have to worry about cavities anymore." Bito snorted.

"Why did you call him the Demon King?" Megure pressed.

"They'll find out as they continue their investigation." Bito laughed nervously, the four apprentices exchanging fugitive looks.

"Officer, to tell you the truth, Tawake-sensei was considered a brilliant hitmaker." Akaike revealed. "But there's no way he couldn't written more than ten books each year. The books he published over the past few years were actually written by us. He'd make us write them and then make a few changes."

"It's an open secret in the industry." Bito shrugged.

"We were paid for our work, but we didn't want to be ghostwriters." Degawa declared. "But we couldn't defy him. In any case, his books are popular. His influence in the publishing industry was absolute."

"But he lied about helping us debut." Chigasaki sighed. "We jumped at the opportunity to apprentice with an author we admired, but this place was like a labor camp."

"In other words, you resented him." Megure concluded.

"You're saying one of us killed him?" Akaike gasped.

"That gun..." Chigasaki spotted the shotgun that was bagged as evidence.

"It's not inside the locker." Akaike opened the weapons cabinet in Tawake's bedroom. "I knew it. That gun belonged to Tawake-sensei. He secretly stored his unlicensed gun here. I'm telling you we're innocent." he insisted. "We knew suspicions would fall on us if we used it."

"Won't suspicions be cleared once your alibis are verified?" Conan piped in.

"Then, could you tell us where you were and what you were doing around noon?" Megure questioned.

After a while...

"The autopsy found sleeping pills in the body's system." Megure informed, after Takagi and Chiba returned to confirm that while Akaike's alibi was confirmed by several people, they could not affirm the alibis of the other three.

"The Demon King never took sleeping pills." Bito frowned.

"The culprit probably secretly fed them to him." Degawa reasoned. "But why was it necessarily to put him to sleep?"

"More importantly, if it was possible to feed him sleeping pills, then they should've been able to poison him, too." Akaike pondered. "But they shot him. There must be some reason the culprit did that. I see; by using that gun, the culprit was trying to make it look like one of us was the culprit."

Conan entered the house next door and discovered a piece of aluminum foil in the living room. After making a trip to the dentist's office, he finally pieced together what happened.

The next day at around noon...

With everyone concerned gathered, Conan tranquilized Mouri and began his deduction. "Everyone, we were distracted by the whodunnit of who killed Tawake and overlooked something important: the howdunnit. How did the culprit kill Tawake? First, Detective Takagi, remember what I told you this morning."

"Chiba." Takagi voiced.

"That looks about right." Chiba heaved in a whale plush and put it on the sofa to represent Tawake.

"Next, the gun had been tied to the stand that was by the entrance of this room." Conan continued.

"The gun has been loaded with a paint ball instead of a live round." Takagi supplied.

"Oji-san, I'm opening the curtains." Conan called out, drawing the curtains aside.

"A mirror?" Megure gawked at the large mirror in the living room of the neighboring house.

"it's a concave mirror." Conan explained. "A handmade one by wrapping a wooden frame with aluminum foil. The culprit who shot Tawake would appear soon."

As if on cue, the reflected sunlight centered on the bolt and causing the shotgun to be fired straight at the whale plush.

"This phenomenon occasionally causes fires." Conan related. "Since the culprit didn't want anyone to notice the gunshot and look into the room, they waited until this time of day when the sound would be drowned out. In order to conceal this method, after committing the murder, the culprit moved the stand used to fix the gun in place. In order to allow the focused sunlight into the room, they had to leave the curtains open. To keep their trick from being discovered, the culprit closed them after committing the murder. While any of the apprentices could have used this method, the reason they used this method was because they had to fabricate an alibi for Tawake's death so that they wouldn't be considered a suspect. In other words, the real culprit is the one with an alibi."

"But, Mouri-san..." Akaike started.

"It was your turn yesterday to perform odd jobs." Conan reminded. "You secretly fed Tawake sleeping pills. You took the gun out of the locker, attached it to the stand, opened the curtains, opened the shutters of the house next door, set up the concave mirror, fabricated an alibi around noon and killed Tawake. Then, you returned to the crime scene to clean up your trick and left the glass door in the living room slightly open so it would seem the culprit entered through it. You destroyed the concave mirror made of aluminum foil in the house next door and closed the shutters. You had Degawa Miyuki accompany you and discover the body first so she could testify that you didn't touch the crime scene."

"This is all speculation, Mouri-san." Akaike protested.

"I borrowed the key from the real house estate office so I could examine the house next door." Conan revealed. "Apparently, you did, too. You claimed that Tawake was thinking about buying it and wanted to take a look inside and made a spare key. You gave yourself away, Akaike-san: I'm referring to the dentist appointment. I confirmed with them that no appointment was ever made for Tawake. When you made the appointment the other day, you were just pretending, like you did when you called to cancel yesterday. You pretended to call. It's because you knew there was no point in making an appointment. You knew beforehand that Tawake would die: you knew something only the culprit would know,"

"Tawake-sensei had plenty of missed appointments until now." Akaike admitted. "If I made an appointment I knew would be canceled, I would've caused trouble for them again. That's why I decided to take down the Demon King that caused nothing but problems for others myself. I wanted to free the four of us."

SailorStar9: Any OOC-ness is regretted. *Sighs* Don't you just hate plot bunnies sometimes? Read and review.