File One Hundred and Twelve: Just Your Ordinary Miso Soup
"Say, Kudo. How far have ya gotten with solvin' this case?"
"Still haven't got a clue."
"Ah, too bad. How about ya, kid?"
Conan shot the western detective a rather dull glance.
"What's with that attitude?" Heiji's hands went to Conan's head, ruffling his hair roughly. With a grin, he added, "Ah, I get it. Ya feeling a little left out, aren't ya?"
The kid's eyebrow twitched. "It's actually the opposite-"
"Why don't ya team up with yer brother?" suggested Hattori, inadvertently overriding the boy with his much louder voice. "I don't mind."
A snort broke through, impeding, again, Conan from voicing his opinion.
"So that you can brag about defeating us both?" asked Shinichi, thoroughly unamused. "Being confident about one's abilities is beneficial, but overestimating them? Not a good move."
You're the last person I'd like to hear it from.
Conan made sure to send a silent look to his brother, who, currently too busy locking eyes with his rival to pay proper attention to his surroundings, did not notice it at all.
Groaning, Conan swatted Hattori's hand off his head and spun around. He needed a break from them, like right now, so he walked away from the corridor they had been chatting in and further into the room, if only a few steps.
Currently, they were at Danny's Dining, a family restaurant Kazuha had wound up into in her search for some curry her mother was obsessed with. Now Kazuha had been friends with Hattori since childhood, and had tagged along with Ran long enough to be used to these things, so it was a wonder to Conan how she hadn't foreseen that her little, harmless errand would end with her stuck inside the restaurant. All because someone had decided to die today.
Right now, that appeared to be the most logical cause of death, as much as Conan had never dreamed of the day Kogoro would claim it was suicide without the child wanting to crack his head against the wall ─ if it was the old man's or his own, Conan wasn't sure, but probably both would work fine.
In the middle of the room was the person he had been looking for ─ that one foreigner, talking with Mouri and Megure, who had found the body first. Though that alone would've made him, at least, worth investigating in case he was the killer, all Conan was willing to do today was laugh, dryly, and feel pity for this unfortunate poor soul.
That's the second time, huh? Agent Camel being at the murder site, I mean.
Camel noticed he was being stared, so intensely at that, and tried to conjure an awkward smile. Conan barely batted an eye.
I wonder if I rubbed that weird trait off on him…
He definitely had. The man had just been using the toilet when he heard the victim, from the stool two doors down, presumably confessing to a past crime involving poison. Fearing the worst, and rightfully so, the agent had rushed to check, only to find him dead with a cyanide coated candy in his mouth.
Camel had found his speech weird, but later had recognized it was like Hattori's. That left him with the first important clue ─ the man was speaking in Kansai dialect.
And that was pretty much it.
Too bad for those idiots, thought Conan. It really sounds like a suicide case. His gaze narrowed. Unless it turns out he missed something important…
Now the stare was becoming a little too uncomfortable ─ Camel swiftly looked away.
A sigh escaped Heiji's lips. "That kid," he mumbled, arms crossed behind his head. "He's no fun."
"There's no helping it ─ Conan's always been like that." Shinichi offered a shrug. "It makes him uncomfortable to think about somebody else's death as a game."
Heiji winced. "Suddenly, I'm feelin' like the bad guy here…"
"Yeah. Been there before," Shinichi commented, off-handedly. "Once I called a case 'too easy'. He got all mad because of it."
It earned him a humorless chuckle that he paid no attention to. Curious, he sent one last, brief look at his little brother instead, noting it a smirk of his own that his hand was cupping his chin already, while deeply immersed in his own thoughts.
"So…" Hattori began. "Did ya really make no progress at all?"
Shinichi's look was definitely not the friendliest one around, but settled with that one, anyway.
"It's only a matter of time," he said. "Once we find out about someone named Abe who was poisoned to death in the Kansai region, I'll be able to progress…"
"In that case…" A broad grin lit his rival's face entirely. "I'm one step ahead!"
That had Conan's attention. Shock written all over his face, the little child twirled around, just to see that he hadn't heard things.
"No way!" His brother didn't look as if he could hide his surprise any better. "Don't tell me, you-!"
"Yeah, I've got the story," Heiji said, confidence brimming in his voice. "That the pops didn't commit suicide but was murdered, and that the culprit is still inside this family restaurant… It's all clear to me!"
"He didn't commit suicide?" Shinichi frowned. "How'd you figure that out?"
Triggered by sheer curiosity, the little boy quietly wandered back to the corner he had been previously at. He found they hadn't moved from their previous positions ─ backs against opposite walls, arms crossed in front of their chest, facing each other. The only obvious difference was their expressions ─ while there was a smug smirk plastered all over Hattori's face, Shinichi's eyes threatened to bulge out of their sockets, shaken beyond belief at what his ears had heard.
"That's because, Kudo…"
Shinichi inched slightly forward. Conan stood beside him, attentive to the western detective's every movement.
"I, unlike you…"
Hattori broke into a face-splitting grin.
"... am the great detective, ya moron!"
Silence.
It lasted for a few seconds, until the shock dimmed enough for Shinichi's eyebrow to twitch, even more violently than before. "Fine," he mumbled begrudgingly. "I'll admit you're the better one, so just tell me your deduction!"
"Hm? What'd ya say?" Hattori leaned forward, putting a hand to his ear as if to hear better. The other detective flinched back, a scowl plastered all over his face. "You were speakin' so softly I couldn't quite hear!"
"I said, tell me your deduction!"
"Before that part."
"I-I'll admit…" Shinichi looked on the verge of breaking his fellow detective's nose. "You're… the better one…"
Thus, when the joyous laughter erupted, the irritated glare arose, darkening with each of Hattori's nudges on his arm. Conan watched it all develop with a blank one of his one, seriously regretting coming back for this in the first place.
It transformed into a confused one soon thereafter, noting that Hattori's attention was on him right now. "Alright," he said. "Why don't you recount what has transpired in this incident so far for our clueless detective here, Conan?"
"If you need a recounting of events, that doesn't make you any better, Hattori."
"Just do it for me! Please?"
Conan gave the detective a long, emotionless stare before sighing.
"Suicidal guy talking to himself. Was heard by Agent Camel. Dead."
"Straight to the point, I see," said the detective, unaffected by the annoyed glare he was being sent ─ from both sides. "This guy that talked to himself, what was he saying?"
"That he killed somebody else."
"The exact words, I mean. Come on, kid, work with me here!"
Why don't you say them yourself then?
Yet kept all his thoughts to himself ─ not that he didn't make them known by the face he was making, anyway. Eventually, though, he yielded, realizing that if he complied, the faster this thing would be.
"Even though we're childhood friends, I can't consider your request," he repeated Camel's words from memory. "The one who killed Abe-san with poison was me. So it fails to me to take responsibility-"
"Abe-chan, you meant."
"What's all this about anyway, Hattori?" intervened Shinichi. "Just tell us already…" His lips were pulled upwards by a smirk. "Unless you're just buying some time until you come up with a partially decent deduction?"
Rather than troubled, the other teenager was amused. "Ya heard the guy was speakin' in Kansai dialect, right?"
"So?"
"If we render the words into Kansai dialect, we get…"
Hattori's expression mirrored Kudo's.
"Even tho' we're childhood friends, I can't consider yer request. The one who killed Abe-chan with poison was jibun. So it fails to jibun to take responsibility!"
The Kudo brothers gasped in utter harmony.
"That's it, that's his speech!" Camel was yelling, pointing right at Hattori. "What I heard were those exact words!"
Yet, Megure's bewilderment, spreading all over his face as wildfire, took him off guard. The sense of confusion grew particularly stronger, noticing that so was the case with both Takagi and Kogoro as well.
"In Kansai dialect…" Only Sera bothered to explain it to him. "What he meant by 'jibun' was actually 'you'."
"How come? In Japanese, doesn't 'jibun' mean 'me'?"
Sera smiled. "Japanese is a difficult language, you see."
Slowly, the shock retreated enough for a focused frown to find its way to Conan's forehead.
If you replace the 'me' words for 'you', it transforms those suicidal thoughts… into condemnation for a past crime.
"By the way, the 'killed' in 'the one who killed Abe-chan with poison'," Hattori spoke to Camel. "Could it have been 'coated' that you heard?"
"Yeah… But I thought it'd be weird to 'coat' someone with poison…"
"In that case, 'Abe-chan' doesn't refer to a person… But 'ame-chan', referring to 'amedama'."
Amedama, or just 'candy' in English ─ it wasn't as far-fetched as Conan would've been inclined to believe, the more he thought about it. Since the words were similar to begin with, and the clueless expression the foreigner was making made it clear that he did not know that addressing a candy with 'chan' was an actual thing ─ a Kansai-only thing, but still valid nevertheless.
The entire thing was becoming clearer now to him, as much as it was to Heiji ─ and presumably Shinichi as well, yet fortunately kept to himself. The culprit must have arranged to meet the victim at the restaurant, yet did not sit at the same table. Most likely, he had called him to the restroom, then poisoned him with a cyanide-laced candy.
To do all that, no words are needed. Just needed to drop the phone to the toilet water, obliterating any incriminating data inside… And the deed is done.
Currently, the police were going back to their business, having heard everything that the western detective had to say ─ which, casually, was everything passing through the little boy's head right now.
The culprit must be in his 30s or 40s to be the victim's childhood friend, thought Conan, watching Takagi moving from table to table, investigating everyone in the room. That should narrow the suspects quite a bit…
In the meantime, what should I do?
He got his answer quickly enough ─ the feeling of Sera's gaze on him was hard to ignore. So he sighed, plucking his phone off his pocket and began typing.
It gathered his brother's attention. "What are you doing?"
By voice alone, Conan could tell he was confused.
"Pretending I'm writing to you," he replied, in something between a whisper and a groan. "Sera-san would definitely find it weird if you ended up winning without me keeping you updated on the case."
"I see," mumbled Shinichi. "Glad you have everything under control."
And fell silent once more, leaving the small detective to fake-typing for a little longer, before putting his phone away. Once done, he raised his head again to face his brother, yet, unlike the annoyed scowl he was fully expecting, or the glare aimed at the grinning Hattori a few meters ahead, Conan found none like that.
Arms crossed over his chest, his eyes were fixated on something far behind him, glinting in such a strange way that made it completely unreadable for the little child.
It did not mean he couldn't find out what he was looking at. A quick glance told him what, or rather who, it was, but it really threw him off. In record time, he recovered, and allowed his backside to rest on the wall, right beside the teenager.
"That's Agent Camel," Conan suddenly, prompting Shinichi to jump, startled. "An FBI member… Though I suppose you knew that since, you know, he said it himself earlier."
Shinichi hummed, absently.
"Then again, you might have already seen him," he added, shrugging. "That time with Hidemi-san and the FBI at the hospital, I mean..."
"Yeah."
And uttered no further word. Conan's eyes scanned for a long while, before a frown crawled back into his features.
"Do you even like the FBI?" he asked.
"I don't particularly like it or dislike it," replied Shinichi, his expression barely changing.
"But you don't trust them." It wasn't a question. "You were aware that Akai-san was an FBI member, weren't you?" At least, he didn't deny it, so the kid deemed it fit to continue. "Instead of going through all this trouble warning the people their death you faked, wouldn't it have been more efficient to have the FBI putting them in Witness' Protection?"
The somber expression his brother made told the boy it wasn't just something he had overlooked.
"Or the Interpol," he added. "The Japanese police might have been able to help, too-"
"I couldn't risk it."
Conan's words latched right on the depths of his throat.
"I assume you remember that Irish asked something from me when he took you."
He definitely did ─ that day was one that would probably stick in his mind forever. Because that was the day he almost lost the one thing he cared about the most.
Irish was after a memory card a murderer had taken by accident, he remembered that clearly. He asked Oniichan to get it back, using me as a hostage.
It went without saying that his intentions had gone far beyond that, but it was beside the point. The memory card was so important to the Organization, he thought. Because it contained all members they had… infiltrated worldwide.
His eyes went wide, finally understanding where Shinichi was getting at.
"Rye with the FBI, Kir with the CIA, even me, Singani, for quite a long while… Who knows how many of those members are still infiltrated without the Black Organization being aware of it?"
Finally, the teenager locked eyes with him.
"What's there to say it doesn't work the other way around, too?"
And just like that, Shinichi walked away, leaving the little boy to stand there, quietly still, unable to do anything but watch, feeling like all the words he would want to say, everything he wanted to inquire about, or press further, were, just, gone.
Because he caught sight of it, a fraction of a second before he turned away ─ a peculiar, unidentifiable kind of glint in his frigid gaze.
Conan's head titled, far more confused than ever before.
It passed eventually, seeing that his brother was already about to reach Hattori, who was casually chatting with Sera and began jogging to catch up with him. Before any of them could reach him, however, the western detective turned around, a broad smirk appearing the moment he spotted his rival.
"That's why, as for now…" he declared. "I'm one step ahead of that dude over there!"
Conan was a little slower to react, causing to bump into his older brother's legs, who had stopped dead on his feet. He barely complained about it . Eyes open in full capacity, the child peeked around them to gawk at the teenager staring back at them without understanding why they were both reacting so violently.
"This… dude over there?" It was only then that Hattori realized his mistake. "Aren't you competing with Kudo-kun?"
Conan did not resist the urge to scurry away to hide behind his older brother's legs when Hattori spun on his heels, horror displayed in his entire expression as their eyes momentarily met. It went without saying, all his efforts to stay out were thoroughly frustrated by a hand, forcefully dragging him away from his safe haven.
Sera's stare was remarkably strong. Conan felt himself shiver involuntarily.
"What I mean is, I'm ahead of Kudo-kun that this dude represents!" With a terribly strained grin slapped on his face, Hattori reached down to ruffle the kid's hair. "This brat, whenever he hears Kudo's deduction over the phone, he starts talkin' it out with a smug face. So I basically get the feelin' that he's almost like Kudo!"
Sera hummed in response, yet Conan had to wonder if she had been really convinced.
Unwittingly, Hattori's eyes drifted away from the glowering little boy and upwards. That raised eyebrow, together with the unamused chocolate gaze, definitely did the work much better than ordinary words could only dream of.
Idiot.
Had he been looking, he would have probably noticed the kid's scowl deepening, if possible, while doing his absolute best to tame his now horrendously disheveled hair. He did not bother to hold back a groan, escaping him right from the depths of his chest.
"Well, kid, you tell Kudo this for me…" At least, for this part, Hattori had his gaze stuck on the ground now, and fortunately away from Shinichi. "Sorry, but in this case, I'll takin' the win."
Though the wide grin was still there, plain in view for the child to see.
"If the culprit was childhood friends with that murdered man, then the culprit's likely from Kansai, too… So anythin' a Tokyoite like Kudo can't comprehend will be clear as day to someone from Kansai like me!"
Shinichi frowned deeply.
And Conan sighed again.
I wanna go home.
Out of all the customers, only three of them meet the criteria.
Although he found it ridiculous that it always ended up being three suspects, sans a few exceptions, Conan found a little comfort in the thought that this stupid challenge was reaching its end.
Now, if only Hattori hurried up a little…
Not that he was exactly rooting for Hattori, since he couldn't care enough about who was declared 'the better one', but yeah, kinda. If Shinichi solved it first, it would be a pain going through the deduction show himself and keeping his brother quiet during the entirety of it. Conversely, if Hattori won, all he would have to do was stand there as he did it himself, waiting for the grin to be wiped off his face over time.
And watching his brother sulk for the rest of the day, which didn't bother him as much as it should, Conan supposed.
Needless to say, it would seem that Megure was not any happier than the little boy about the entire situation. That was evident, considering that a brief glimpse of Hattori triggered an exhausted sigh, a roll of his eyes and a vain attempt to chase him off. All in that order. Rinse and repeat after the detective declared he would be the one interrogating the suspects.
"Don't be ridiculous! Why would we let a high school student-?"
Skip forward just a couple of minutes, Hattori was staring into the soul of the first suspect, intensely enough to make him inch back, clearly uncomfortable. A feeling that was probably shared by the unenthusiastic inspector who, unlike him, simply allowed it because he wasn't as proficient in Kansai dialect as he would like.
Though Conan had to wonder why he didn't seem to have any qualms about letting him and 'Hirai' snoop around in the investigation. His theory was, however, that the inspector had long passed the point of caring about the future ─ he did look exhausted beyond his years, after all…
In any case, the suspect Hattori was currently interrogating was Sugai Rakutoshi, born in Tokyo ─ lived in a condo in Beika City, too. Was sweating profusely the entire time, but after being questioned about it, it was revealed that the curry he just ate was extremely spicy.
"It's been an hour since the incident occurred, y'know?" Hattori pressed further. "Shouldn't you have finished it a long time ago?"
"I just finished it!" argued the suspect. "Since they wouldn't let me leave from here, I started getting hungry, so I ordered it then."
Heiji stared at him for a little while longer, and mumbled, "A person just died, so they shouldn't have kept takin' orders…"
Well, you gotta keep the business running. I suppose.
For the record, Conan was hungry, too. I didn't get to eat anything since this morning, lamented the kid.
The guy's plate was completely empty.
The child sighed dejectedly, and turned his head to the furthest corner of the small family restaurant, and stared longingly at that certain table of three that Ran, her father and Kazuha were sharing ─ it hadn't been long since he had seen a waitress approaching them, settling their lunch in front of them.
His stomach growled, but everyone else was too focused on the case to notice it.
Wish I could join them. Settling his hand over his belly, he shot his older brother a glare. But if Oniichan were to solve the case without me around to 'explain the situation' to him, Sera-san would definitely find it suspicious.
Predictably, Shinichi acknowledged none of that, too focused on the next suspect to pay attention to anything else.
"I'm Amakasu Tooru. My buddies call me Ama," said the man, grinning from ear to ear as he held a cigarette with his left hand. "Right now, I'm living in an apartment in Haido, sa."
Despite it all, something external did end up brisking his attention away from the suspect, to the movement he caught in the corner of his eye. To his surprise, that 'something' turned to be a 'someone' ─ a small someone, that was, approaching the table, eyes perfectly trained on the man's ramen.
Conan was staring hard at it. Shinichi found it a little weird.
"I was born and raised in Tokyo." Amakasu was sneering. "Are you satisfied now, Osaka bloke?"
Shinichi found he couldn't pay proper attention to it. Could he be looking at the chopsticks? he thought. They're on the right, but the man is holding his cigarette on his left.
Yet, Conan being Conan meant that, whenever Shinichi thought he had figured him out, he would be proven otherwise. Such was the case now, as the child had ducked under the table out of the blue, reappearing on the seat right beside the suspect, who did not notice a thing. Just as he wondered what he was trying to do, the little hand seized the chopsticks…
And promptly stuck some of this person's food inside his mouth.
Shinichi rubbed his eyes and blinked.
"It looks like you're sweatin', too.'' Hattori appeared to remain absolutely oblivious to his rival's internal dilemma. "Are ya nervous 'bout anythin'?"
A startled yelp guided everyone's attention to the young boy who, unwittingly, had seemed to drop those chopsticks so he could place both his hands over his mouth.
"No wonder you were sweating, ojisan!" he exclaimed, his voice still partly muffled with his hands. "This ramen is really spicy, isn't it?"
"It sure is!" Amakasu loudly agreed, then paused, staring at him for a while, until realization finally struck. "Hey, brat! Why are you eating my food?!"
It was almost disturbing how quickly his startled expression smoothed into an emotionless stare.
"I was hungry," replied the boy with a shrug.
Shinichi laughed dryly.
"Get your own food, sa! This is-"
"Hey, you…" Hattori interrupted him. "The way ya talk like that…"
"What's strange about it?! Just your ordinary Tokyo dialect!"
"Nothin' strange 'bout it, but…" His eyebrow was twitching. "It irks me, ya moron!"
Promptly ignoring the irritated detective, Shinichi shot his younger brother, who, catching it right away, offered him a sheepish grin in return. He did not seem to mind the glare coming from the suspect, seeing that he simply hopped off his stolen seat without even gracing him a single look.
As he skipped ahead, hurrying to the last suspect, Shinichi could not help but note the tiny smirk peeking out of his lips. He seriously doubted the kid noticed it himself.
Naturally, it did not escape Sera either ─ she smiled quietly at the sight.
Looks like we have a winner.
Conan barely paid any attention to the last one, however.
The name was Toujou Sanpei, and he considered himself a 'third-generation true Tokyoite' ─ that much information the boy was able to retain, somehow. Hattori, at some point, noted that he, too, was sweating, yet this time around was not because of his mostly intact mapo tofu, but rather, a condition he suffered that made him perspire a lot. He had eaten nothing because it made him extremely uncomfortable ─ understandable, thought Conan, since someone had died. Although, he guessed he wouldn't exactly mind if anyone offered something to eat right now…
In any case, for that reason, Sanpei had claimed he had even canceled the 'juicy sweets' he had been planning to have after his meal.
"Well, it's a good thing you've canceled it," Heiji said, tickled off even if the man had done nothing wrong, really. "Since sweets will fatten ya up!"
Conan seriously doubted Hattori had the slightest idea of what the man had tried to say.
Giving any of them a hint would make them mad at me, right? Conan hummed to himself, giving the western detective a blank look, which he later sent to the eastern one, before shrugging.
This is dragging too long…
"Conan-kun?" called his older brother, noticing that the kid had spun on his heels and away from the suspects. "Where are you going?"
"With Ran-neechan and the others," he replied nonchalantly. "I'm gonna ask her if she could buy me something to eat."
Shinichi's head rose to where the others were, and stopped, blinking dumbly.
"Geez," they heard Hattori grumble from behind. "While we're workin' our asses off investigatin', they're just leisurely havin' a meal?"
Can't blame them, Conan kept to himself.
But just as they were about to return to their own business, something seemed to catch Shinichi's eye. "Those dishes they're eating…" he mumbled, more to himself than to anyone else. "Aren't those dishes the ones that the three suspects ordered?"
Surprised, Hattori glanced back at the suspects and muttered, "They are…"
"Maybe they wanted to investigate them, in some sort of way?" inquired Conan, arms crossed behind his head. "See, Kazuha-neechan's eating curry, Occhan the salt ramen and Ran-neechan mapo tofu…"
Hattori's eyes squinted. "Are ya sure?" he said, almost distrusting.
"You could ask." Conan shrugged. "Kazuha-neechan won't bite… Probably."
"What did ya mean by that, little brat?"
Little did the western detective notice that his contender had halted suddenly, eyes marginally wider than ever before. It disappeared right away, hand sliding inside his pocket, plucking off his phone ─ smirking all the way.
He did not note, either, that the little kid walking beside him had craned his neck, flashing his older brother a grin from over his shoulder.
Took you long enough.
"Like I said, I know that one of ya guys is the culprit from the Kansai region!"
As Hattori's yelling resounded through the walls of the small restaurant, all the attention naturally was dragged to himself, prompting Conan, who unfortunately was standing nearby, to cringe. He took a step back, and away from the boy that continued to shout at the three suspects.
Hattori was desperate, decided Conan.
"If you're a Kansai person, you should act like one and man up for yer crimes!"
Definitely desperate. He sighed ─ he had lost count of how many times he had done it in the past hour. Well, it should be a matter of time-
He was stopped by a light buzzing against his leg.
Oh, finally.
It was a matter of time until Kazuha stepped up, really. "Heiji, you're out of yer mind!" Somehow, she managed to scream louder than her friend. "Why're ya so worked up?!"
"Of course I'm worked up!" He made no attempt to lower his volume. "I'm finally takin' the lead now, y'know?"
Kazuha's eyebrows rose far above her hairline. "Lead?" she repeated, confused.
"If I don't solve this soon, he's gonna take the win away from me again-"
"Eh~? I got a text from Shinichi-niichan!"
Slowly, Heiji's head turned away from Kazuha's surprised eyes, allowing his eyes to drift to where that certain childish exclamation had come from. They met the form of a little boy, grinning widely at the phone he held.
"Look!" he heard the child say to the person crouched down behind him, who, in a plain display of sheer curiosity, was peering out at the screen from over the boy's shoulder.
"Look, look, Arthur-niichan!" Conan continued. "He says he knows who the culprit is!"
"Ah, that's true!" Shinichi's eyes widened, as if aweing about what they were seeing. "So it was that one person! That sure is quite the surprise!"
Hattori blinked, silent for a while, until he noticed Kudo glancing over to where he was ─ and had the gall to smirk in victory. Thus, the western detective could not help what came next…
"EH?!"
Naturally, it only made Shinichi's cocky grin much more noticeable.
"Well?" Sera stepped forward, arms crossed over her chest. "What did Kudo-kun have to say?"
Conan hummed, browsing through the insanely large message his older brother had sent him. "The murderer is the one who's hiding the fact they're from Kansai," summarized the boy. "So-"
"Wait a minute!" The boy held back another sigh when Hattori interrupted ─ not looking exactly pleased. "You're a Tokyoite, arencha?! How the hell'd ya know anythin' 'bout Kansai?!"
"I'm not Shinichi-niichan, you know."
Truthfully, Conan knew what he knew, but guessed that it was better to let everyone ─ and Sera, especially her ─ believe his anger was misdirected, and he was talking to Conan and not the detective idiot snickering from behind him.
Said idiot leaned forward, "Oh, did you look at what Kudo-san wrote?" and added, eyes fixated on the message he had just sent.
Conan's eyebrow rose. Kudo… san?
"Right here, he said…" Shinichi flashed Hattori a quick smile. "This will be the game winning home run, you know~"
That promptly infuriated his fellow high school detective.
Does this guy even know the first thing about baseball? Conan privately wondered.
Though, thinking about it, that might be what irritated Hattori the most ─ besides losing, naturally.
"Ah, right." Deciding to ignore them for the sake of his own mental health, the kid turned to the inspector. "Shinichi-niichan said to ask the family restaurant staff to make a certain dish."
Takagi grew curious. "What kind of dish?"
Conan gave his screen one last glance.
"... a magical dish that will unveil the true precedence of our murderer.
Please, make sure to repeat that, word for word.
It sounds cooler that way."
"Just your ordinary miso soup… With a few modifications."
Having said that, the child promptly got closer to the police detective in question, whispering the details to him.
Once finished, the boy grinned and stepped out, allowing the police to do as he was tasked, all the while ignoring the glare burning holes in the back of his head. Idiot, he thought, despite the childish smile hung on his lips. Give your deduction yourself if you don't like it…
Ah, right, you can't…
My bad.
Conan had to admit that he hadn't given this small family restaurant the credit it deserved because, really, a little over half an hour, the waitresses had settled a total of eleven bowls on a table.
The kid immediately climbed over the seat, grabbed one between his hands and took a little sip. He smiled contently, then passed it to Shinichi, who was staring at the contents as intensely as he was.
"Make sure to drink it all in one gulp," he said, then turned to the rest. "Shinichi-niichan said everyone was to do so, just like the suspects, of course."
With a dry chuckle, the eastern detective accepted it. Now I get why he asked for an extra one, he thought. I completely forgot I was supposed to take one myself…
Hattori was shooting him a wary look, so he made sure to send him a smirk in return. He didn't take it well.
"No way we'd learn who the culprit is with somethin' like this…" he grumbled, putting the bowl to his lips.
All at the same time, everyone took a large gulp, just as instructed. Their reaction was instant, noted the little kid, as every single one of them immediately realized that there was something amiss on what they had been served.
Nobody had been as expressive as Hattori, however, who pulled back as if being subjected to a sudden jolt of electricity.
"SPICY!" had been too vocal, too, as Conan had predicted. "What's with this miso soup?!"
"Really!" Kazuha agreed wholeheartedly. "I knew Tokyo food was flavorful, but this is just…"
"It's just as they said!" Amakasu pulled back, eyeing the bowl with a scowl on his face. "It's so spicy, I can't drink another drop!"
Everyone looked at them, stunned at their words.
"What?" Heiji was understandably confused. "You guys don't think it's spicy?"
"Well…" Kogoro eyed his own bowl. "While I do think they put too much salt in it, I wouldn't call it 'spicy'..."
Conan opened his mouth to explain, "It's salty," then closed it with a groan when his older brother spoke up, a grin spread all over his face. "Now, I think I understand what Kudo-san is trying to prove."
The boy brought a hand to his eyes.
"While in Tokyo we call dishes that are prepared using hot spices, 'spicy'... Dishes that are fully salted…" He shot Hattori yet another glance. "We call them 'salty', right?"
The faces both Kazuha and Heiji made confirmed that they had never heard that word before.
"S-Something like that ─ I merely picked the wrong word!" Amakasu stuttered, nervously. "I was actually gonna say it was 'salty', but was misled by that Osaka bloke and girl is all, sa!"
"Oh, right!" the boy pipped in before anyone ─ he gave Shinichi a pointed look ─ else could. "About your speech ending with sa…"
"Isn't that normal Tokyo dialect like you just said yourself earlier?!"
His head tilted and blinked innocently. "Tokyo dialect?" he repeated, then turned to look at Takagi with wide and confused eyes. "Have you ever heard anyone referring to it as such? Besides Kansai people, obviously…"
"To be honest," replied the police detective. "I never realized that adding sa to the end of speech is actually a Tokyo thing…"
"Same here," nodded Ran. "I thought it was normal, casual Japanese."
Shinichi blinked, watching as the kid hummed to himself, hand rising to his chin as if mulling over about it. What is he doing? he wondered. He definitely had not told him to do any of that.
For a fact, he had realized the 'sa' thing was weird, but had forgotten to type it out, but Conan had decided to incorporate it to the deduction, nonetheless.
"I heard somewhere that most people in the Kanto region do add 'sa' to the end of their speech," he mumbled. "But it felt so unnatural…" Then grinned brightly at the prime suspect, who winced at the sight. "Like you were trying too hard, ojisan."
"I-If you're going to pick on my speech, that guy also said something weird!" Desperate, Amakasu pointed at Toujou, another of the suspects. "He said he was planning on having some juicy sweets after his meal, but you actually ordered a fruit platter, didn't you? No way it could've been sweets!"
The confusion was evident on the other man's face. "That's what I was talking about, fruits."
A light giggle had them looking at the little kid again. "Sorry, but it's so funny," commented Conan, covering his mouth as if trying to keep his laughter in. "Because, in trying to defend yourself, you're only proving you can't be from Tokyo, like you said before."
Hattori leaned closer. "Is that a Tokyo dialect, too?"
Though, the way his eyebrow twitched let Shinichi know that his little brother was getting on his nerves, too.
"It's an old Edo term. Only true Tokyoites still use it nowadays," he replied. "Since you thought it was sweets and commented on how it's sweet and fattening… People don't use it in Osaka, right?"
The sight of Conan beaming prevented Shinichi from participating any longer ─ the case was about to be wrapped up in a matter of seconds, so he didn't see any harm in letting him have fun until then. He said he wasn't interested, but he's enjoying it in the end?
For someone who doesn't like the spotlight, he's managing pretty well, huh?
Probably, Shinichi observed, the boy was so absorbed in his deduction he was not fully rationalized that all eyes were on him right now. He chuckled at the thought.
Conan faced the suspect again, his smile intact.
"So that's why, sa… Amakasu-san, no matter how I look at ya…"
As for Shinichi's, however, it faded as confusion settled in.
"It seems ta' me dat yer an Osaka person through 'n' through!"
Just as he was trying to deduce what was going through the little boy's mind ─ because, since when did Conan talk in Kansai dialect anyway?! Such an awful one, at that ─ he felt a particularly strong stare drilling through his head so he, silently, turned around, just to meet with Hattori's bewildered gaze.
He shook his head rapidly, hoping that the western detective got the message ─ he had nothing to do with it, therefore he was not to be held responsible for his actions.
Though Hattori was trembling already ─ Shinichi pondered how long Conan had before he exploded.
"Not ta' mention, you were holdin' dat cigarette with yer left hand, pops. But arencha really right-handed?" Conan continued ─ whether he noticed Hattori's distress or plainly ignored it, Shinichi did not know, but assumed it was the latter. "Since ya have put de ramen chopsticks on yer right-hand side!"
Hattori stepped forward. "Hey, stop your funny accent alr-"
"De reason ya deliberat'ly did dat is a simple 'un!" Now he was sure it was on purpose. Eyebrows twitching over being interrupted, Heiji glared at the little kid. "I bet ya were scared, nah? Of usin' de hand ya touched de poisoned ame-chan ta' hold yer cigarette!"
At some point, it seemed like he couldn't hold it in anymore. "Hey!" Thoroughly pissed off, Hattori's hand latched onto the back of Conan's shirt, roughly pulling him back. "Cut it o-!"
"Cut it out already, will ya?!"
He gaped, not expecting the feeling that came next ─ that of the fabric slipping from his fingers, caused by the man who, in a moment of utter fury, had lunged at the child, hands clutching the shirt.
Although, on the other hand, the child had pretty much expected a similar outcome, he would have been lying if he said he wasn't slightly shocked when his feet left the floor ─ more than slightly, he remarked mentally, but uttered no word.
He had expected to be yelled at, but he had definitely not signed up for this. Let alone being thoroughly irritated, this man seriously thought it would be an excellent idea to fight a kid just because of something so trivial like that.
"All of a sudden spoutin' bizarre Kansai dialect!" Conan cringed when the man shook him, glaring at him so intensely that made him worry he had pushed things just a little further than he should have. "What de hell's ya problem, ya moron?!"
"Ka-Kansai dialect!"
He froze, gaze sliding away from the poor boy to the shocked stares drilled into his soul, slowly becoming aware of his crucial mistake. His lips curved in a nervous smile, words stumbling into one and another in a sad attempt to conjure a believable excuse.
But, suddenly, it all stopped.
Something curled against his wrist. Another set of eyes was on him but, unlike any of the others, it was significantly darker.
Surprised, Conan watched his brother's frown deepening. His grip on the criminal must have tightened, judging by the shriek of pain that followed.
Soon after that, he found himself yelping as he landed back on the floor, right in his rear. He let out something akin to both a grimace and a groan, faintly noticing Heiji who, in some sort of unbelievable miracle, had forgotten all about the competition, and crouched next to him to check for any injuries. Had heard Ran saying something to him, too, somewhere in the background, but given her position, he did not give her as much attention as he should.
Though it might have been, too, that his attention was captivated by something else completely.
There was this severe ─ dangerous, even, as much as the child was shocked to realize ─ glint in Shinichi's eyes as he looked at the man, whose wrist he had yet to let go.
"It seems this is the end of the line for you." His tone had changed, as well. "Getting irritated when people speak bad Kansai dialect is also characteristic of Kansai people. You, lashing out at a child just now, only demonstrates it."
It was drastically colder, yet in some strange sort of way, not entirely devoid of emotion ─ because Conan could feel it.
He's angry.
He slowly rose back to his feet, yet his eyes never attempted to break contact with the scene in front of him. The man did not either, but was sweating even more profusely than minutes ago, under the claim that his salty ramen was 'salty'. And, truly, Conan did not find in himself the will to blame him ─ he wasn't sure how he would act either, had he been in his spot.
Even though Shinichi's hand released him, sliding back into his pockets, the suspect did not seem to calm down. "Come to think of it, the reason you ordered ramen after the crime was because you wanted to get a hand towel, right?" Shinichi. "Since they'd give you one if you said you spilled some soup."
Conan took a tentative step forward. His nose bumped into something which, after taking a good look at it, turned to be his older brother's legs, who had stood in front of him, uttering not a single word.
It made him sigh. Alright, alright, I get it. He shook his head. Won't get any closer to him.
But did peek at the criminal from behind, noting how pale and horrified he was after being so exposed ─ maybe that was the reason Shinichi thought things could nasty if he got any closer, Conan guessed. This guy did prove to be of the volatile kind, after all.
"You couldn't wash the poison off your hand, so you needed the hand towel to wipe it off."
But is this okay? Naturally, Sera's eyes were on Shinichi now, looking stunned at his deduction. For him to be showing off this much…
"Agent Camel, right?" Shinichi turned to the agent in question, a pleasant smile now on his lips. "Did you happen to flush the toilet?"
Admittedly, it took the man a moment longer than usual to answer. "Yeah," he said. "I left my stall to check on the man after he let out a groan."
"That's the reason the culprit didn't wash his hands there." Shinichi nodded. "The flushing sound also drowned the sound of his footsteps while leaving."
"But if he had already used the hand towel," said Takagi. "Why did he hold his cigarette in his left hand?"
"Would you risk it?" Shinichi asked back, only to receive confused blinking in return. "The poison is invisible, so there's no way he could be sure whether he'd gotten all the poison or not."
Figuring that he had made his point across, he turned back to the culprit. Conan observed his gaze had taken that unsettling, severe turn once more.
"The fact that the hand towel isn't on the table means you've hidden it in your pocket." The way Amakasu scowled, his entire attention on the floor he was stepping in, told the detective he had hit the nail on the head. "If the police investigate that hand towel thoroughly, I'm sure they'll figure it out." His eyes narrowed. "That you, Amakasu-san, were the culprit who used the poisoned candy to kill that man in the restroom."
It was all gone, however, as he glanced over his shoulder where Hattori stood, teeth clenching together while he attempted to burn his rival alive just with the help of his deadly glower.
Too bad that glares were no use as a murder weapon ─ but made Shinichi grin broadly all the same.
"Well, that's what Kudo-san said, anyway!" he laughed. "I got to read his text from Conan-kun's screen earlier today."
As Hattori's murder intent exponentially grew, so did Conan's misery. A raise of his eyebrow was all he gave his brother, who, rather than really being bothered by it, chuckled, then turned back to the guy he had just pointed as the murderer.
His smile vanished. The man's teeth were gritted, his entire body inching forward.
Shinichi had barely had the time to pull Conan out of the way from his hood before the table came hurling towards him.
Huh? The little boy was left to hang in the air, eyes wide and shocked, as if not entirely understanding how he had gotten up there. Huh?! What's-?
"Move it!" The man had pulled out a knife, was the first thing Conan noticed out of the entire situation. "Outta my way!"
The guy was now charging at Ran, who stood there, just watching without moving a muscle. Despite the murderer being armed and threatening to stab his beloved childhood friend, rather than worrying or screaming, Shinichi inwardly cringed.
"You'd better not go that way-"
He didn't get to end that sentence, before a sharp glint took over Ran's once confused gaze. In a split of a second, the girl had twirled around and struck a powerful kick to his hand, promptly knocking the weapon off his grasp.
The criminal stumbled back, shivered just by looking at her, and decided to change plans.
Fist high in the air, he lunged at Kazuha instead.
Now, it was Hattori's turn to wince. "Better not do that, either-"
A judo throw later, the criminal was on the ground for Conan, gratefully now back on the ground, to raise an eyebrow at.
Out of everyone, the two people he chose to attack had to be the karate champion and the 2-dan in aikido?
He figured he should feel pity for this unfortunate soul, but snorted instead.
To be the unluckiest one in the room, with us three murder magnets here…
Yer somethin' else, arencha, pops?
Grinning devilishly once more to himself, Conan turned around to leave, ready to join the other two detectives ─ Hattori was still glaring, Shinichi was still grinning from ear to ear. Conan was barely surprised.
Well, at least that settles it…. Can I please go back home now?
With one last shrug, he went up to join them.
Little did any of them notice the female detective looking away from a smiling Kazuha and straight at them.
Her eyes narrowed.
Hirai Arthur-kun, huh?
"Eh?! How come it's a tie?!" exclaimed Shinichi. "Wasn't the one who named the culprit and solved the case Kudo-san-?"
He bit back a cry out of pain, in favor of glare to the little kid pinching a sliver of skin from over his shirt, right on his backside.
If glares could form words, his would probably yell something along the lines of 'be quiet, you moron'. Though being fair, after what happened today, did it even matter? Shinichi wasn't so sure anymore.
"Well, it was only thanks to Hattori-kun from Kansai that we'd been able to obtain the first clue for the case, and building upon that, only Kudo-kun the Tokyoite would have been able to reach the truth," Sera explained, then added with a broad grin, "So isn't it fair to deem it a tie?"
The looks of both high school detectives did not match with the girl's. They groaned, not pleased in the slightest, and turned to exchange one last, annoyed glare that had the little boy sighing, exhausted over the whole thing. Far from letting it bother her, Sera chuckled, spun on her heels, leisurely walking closer to the other two girls, probably ready to leave.
Snorting, Kogoro left, too.
Yet Conan stood rooted on his spot. Arms crossed behind his neck, he mumbled, mostly to himself than to any of the other two, watching him curiously, "I don't get it."
Hattori raised an eyebrow. "Why do you mean?" he asked. "From how ya were givin' that deduction in Kudo's place-"
"Not the deduction," Conan interrupted, with a plain voice. "I mean… Someone died today, you know."
Shinichi's smile faltered a bit. Here it goes again, huh?
"But justice prevailed in the end." Surely, he did not expect those next few words. "Today, you two made sure a murderer did not walk free of guilt…"
He took a few tentative steps forward, but stopped right afterwards. "You're detectives ─ that's basically in the job's description," he said, not bothering to turn back around to face them. "To make sure the truth shines through that thick, unrelenting darkness we call 'deceit'."
Neither Hattori nor Shinichi uttered a single word, watching in equal surprise as the little boy chuckled, for reasons yet unknown to any of them.
"If you think about it…" His head rose, gaze resting on the clear blue sky above them. "Words like 'winning' or 'losing' kind of lose their meaning, don't they?"
And stood there, quietly still, keeping an ear out for the reactions that did not seem to be coming. His eyes slid close, sucking in a deep breath, before shaking his head to himself. Arms dropping back to his sides, and hands sliding inside his pockets, the boy thought it would be better to join Ran and the others, too.
He did not expect a hand landing on the top of his head. "What's with that?" Through his own groan, as his hair was ruffled around, he heard his brother say, a mix between a sigh and a chuckle coloring his voice. "Trying to look so cool, using my words…"
Genuine confusion glimmered in the child's eyes.
Shinichi only then realized he had never said them in front of Conan.
"In detective work, there's no winning or losing." Both brothers turned to see the other teenager approaching them, a smirk plastered all over his face. "There's no being superior or inferior. That's because…"
Then he kneeled down in front of the kid and winked.
"There is always one and only truth, sa."
Conan just stared at him, eyes slightly widening.
"Hey, I don't speak like that," complained Shinichi, though his tone didn't sound all that angry. "Your Tokyo dialect is terrible, Hattori."
"Eh? Ya think so?" said the boy in a teasing tone. "That's how it sounds in my ears, anyway."
"Wait, did he…" Still surprised, Conan's head rose to meet Shinichi. "Did Oniichan say that?"
"The day we met. Ya know, that case with the diplomat," answered Heiji. "Ya were outta commission, come to think of it. It's no wonder you didn't get to hear it."
Dumbfounded, the little boy nodded, still unable to stop gawking at his older brother. He went up to Hattori and said all that… It all drained, however, leaving a dull gaze in its place. Then forgot all about it the moment he got a chance to test his abilities?
What a moron.
Far from noticing it, Shinichi scratched the back of his head. "It's a little embarrassing," he admitted. "To have my eight-year-old brother remind me about my own principles…"
"I feel ya," Heiji sighed, standing back up. "Havin' a kid lecturing me is kind of irritating."
Conan's eyebrows rose far above his hairline.
"But it's the truth ─ there's only one, right? So there's no helpin' it." Hattori stretched a hand to Shinichi. "We gotta accept it."
With a nod, Shinichi took it. "Good job there, Hattori."
"Back at ya, Kudo."
As the two detectives shook hands, smirking at each other, Conan could but chuckle at the sight. Well, he thought, a broad grin on his own stretching all over his face. As long as they understand now.
"Heiji!" they heard Kazuha shout from a distance away. "What're ya doin'? We'll leave without ya!"
They stepped back from each other, turning around to the rest of their group. "I'm going, I'm going…" he sighed. "No need to yell, geez."
Sera looked at the pair for a second, before her gaze fell on the little child. Upon noticing it, Conan stopped in his tracks, confused.
At least, until she approached him, a smile on her face.
"By the way, good job there, Conan-kun," Sera said, giving him a thumbs up. "But, really, you should've told me you already knew who the culprit was!"
Conan paused, blinked twice, until he finally realized what she was implying.
"But, Sera-san…" He was hoping he didn't sound as nervous as he actually was. "I was just reading Shinichi-niichan's message, remember?"
"Did he tell you to drink from the culprit's soup, too?"
Silence was her only answer. Her grin widened dramatically.
"It was clever, too," she said. "To describe it as 'spicy' to trick the culprit. Since you tasted it, you must have already known it was just salty instead, right?"
He refused to emit any kind of response.
"Eh?" Ran awed, then glanced at Conan, eyes wide in surprise. "Did you really, Conan-kun?"
Conan managed an awkward laugh, his face warming up at the sudden attention.
"Woah! That's impressive, Conan-kun!" Kazuha leaned forward a little, grinning from ear to ear. "Yer almost like a detective!"
Almost? Conan's eyebrow twitched, yet it let it pass.
Kazuha's smile dropped, blinking owlishly at space as if a thought had just crossed her mind. "Wait a second," she said, turning to Sera. "Didn't that happen before Conan-kun got Kudo-kun's message?"
Sera pondered over it. "Come to think of it, yeah, it did."
"Then shouldn't Conan-kun be the winner instead?" she said. "Since he figured it out first…"
It took a moment for Conan to react, but when he did, moving his hands back and forth to try to wave the comment off, Sera was already grinning.
"Maybe he is," she said, turning to the little boy. "Let's just declare Conan-kun as the better detective today."
"W-Wait…"
But his mumbled protest came to an end, seeing that his words had fallen on deaf ears.
"Congratulations, Conan-kun!" smiled Kazuha.
Ran smiled at him, but there was a more nervous turn to her entire expression. He wondered for a moment what that meant, but he got his answer much quicker than he would have ever expected.
Two sets of holes were burning themselves on the back of his head, stealing a long sigh out of him.
There are things in this world that will never change.
A/N:
CherryGirl 21-6: Yeah, it's getting closer now! But I'll have to make you wait a little longer still, so sorry about that…