SailorStar9: With Chapter 171 uploaded, I present Chapter 172 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 172: Momiji Ooka's Challenge, Part One
Time passes...
"I'm home." Ran declared, returning to the Mouri Detective Agency after school. "What should I make for dinner? I already spent a lot this month, so I need to save money. A coupon for jingisukan." she found a grilled mutton coupon in her wallet. "Summer vacation starts tomorrow. We can build up our strength to fight the summer heat." just then, her ringtone sounded, indicating she had an incoming message. "From Momiji-san?" she noticed the sender's name. "A code?" she read the text, Momiji having requested Shinichi to decipher a code for her. The following paragraph then detailed the related case. The last paragraph stated that she would be explaining the case in further detail on the Haido Chou Building roof at 4pm.
"I'm home." Conan called out, returning about an hour later. "Shinichi-nii-chan called me." he informed Ran. "He said he's too busy to go to Haido City Building, so he asked me to go with you instead."
Later...
"Hattori-kun and Kazuha-chan?" Ran blinked, finding the Osaka pair on the rooftop. "What are you two doing here?"
"Did Momiji invite you, too?" Kazuha realized.
"She did." Ran nodded.
"Does that mean Momiji asked Kudo-kun to sovle a code?" Kazuha pressed.
"She did." Ran blinked.
"I knew it." Kazuha moaned.
"Which means this is a contest between me and Kudo." Hattori gave a knowing grin at Conan.
Just then, a drone of a helicopter signaled the arrival of Momiji.
"Skip the formal greeting." Hattori insisted. "Fill us in on those details you promised us."
"Those details are only a few additional words." Momiji replied. "The message 'From your football-loving mother' was written on the code, but she apparently never watched a soccer game once in her life."
On the streets...
"Haido Harbor Warehouse 4." both Conan and Hattori chorused at the same time, having received a hint from Momiji.
"The key to solving the code was in the word 'football', after all." Hattori explained. "In the first three codes, the characters spelling 'foot' were bolded. The character for 'foot' can also mean 'add'. When you lay the three codes over each other, they form a series of odd characters."
"I can't read what it says." Kazuha complained.
"That's why you need the arrows from the fourth code." Conan supplied. "In the fourth code, the characters spelled 'ball' are bolded. 'Ba' sounds like bow here, so you're meant to subtract; which means we have to erase the arrows from the odd characters made from overlaying the first three codes which turns them into characters we can read."
At the warehouse...
"Anyone here?" Hattori hollered into the partially opened warehouse. "If you're here, you should've said..." he chided, the group entering the warehouse when they saw three men crowded around something. "What's going on here?" he demanded, seeing the dead man on the ground.
"I don't know." Kashiwagi Suguru stammered. "I came here at my brother's instructions and found him like this."
"I also came here because I received a message from my brother." Kanda Katsunobu added.
"Me too." Jinya Saisuke gulped.
"Then, you guys must be the three of four brothers who received a code from their mother." Conan realized.
"Which means the dead guy is the eldest brother." Hattori concluded.
"Do you have any idea why your brother ended up like this?" Iori asked.
"He probably lost his footing up there." Kashiwagi guessed.
"And then fell to his death." Jinya added.
"We don't know if it was an accident or suicide, though." Kanda admitted.
"Has anyone touched the body?" Conan inquired.
"We haven't." Kashiwagi assured.
"Then, it wasn't an accident or a suicide." Hattori declared. "It was a murder." "And it seems like one of you brothers is the culprit."
SailorStar9: Any OOC-ness is regretted. *Sighs* Don't you just hate plot bunnies sometimes? Read and review.