"Woahh!" Ayumi shouted excitedly. "Look at that! It's the five-meter-long water slide!"
It was Thursday, 10.00am.
"It's super long just like in the advertisement." Mitsuhiko replied.
It was the day of their promised day out to the newly opened swimming pool. The real teenagers were too eager to go there so early in the morning.
Furthermore, they got the VIP tickets.
"Let's try it out!" Genta ran to the direction of the slide's stairs once he settled his stuffs on the VIP reserved loungers. Ayumi and Mitsuhiko followed after.
Yuuto was going to follow them too, but his attention was distracted by something– no, more like someone else. Right, he was stunned by the view of the strawberry blonde in her swimsuit.
Unlike Ayumi who wore a pair of girly cute pink bikini, Ai was wearing a simple low-back one-piece black swimsuit.
With the fair skin she had and the contrast color of the swimwear, in addition to that she had the curves and the queenly demeanor. She looked extremely hot considering she was still seventeen years old.
Oh, goodness.
He'd better get going to the slide rather than staying here and embarrassed himself with his reddened cheeks.
"Geez, where did they get that much energy from?" She sighed.
"You should be more like them." Shinichi walked to her side as he held Chiharu's hands. "While you have the chance to enjoy your teenage days."
If Ai was alluring in her swimsuit, then Shinichi would be the hunky guy in his swim trunk which showing much of his mature body– guessed, his training in the police had given him a tiny bit of muscles.
"You sounded like an old man there." She smirked.
Chiharu too was looking so cute in her little swimsuit. She had her mom as her fashion stylist after all.
Little did both of them realized that they were attracting so many eyes from almost all visitors of the pool with their looks; they looked so damn great together.
"Anyway, shouldn't you wear something more proper?" Shinichi moved the subject on purpose, commenting on Ai's swimwear with an annoyed eyes and a tint on his cheeks.
She was so tempting.
"Heh, we're at the swimming pool and I am wearing a swimsuit. Shouldn't that be proper enough?" She retorted.
Ugh. That was a hard truth.
If he knew she would be wearing this kind of swimwear, he would definitely do everything he could to make her wear more covered clothes even if he had to put on lots of love bites on her back.
"Dadda! A-a-ter!" Chiharu struggled to get into the water.
She raised one of her legs to the front; not sure whether she was trying to yank her hands from her dad's strong grip or trying to pull him with her altogether. She was so overly excited since this was her first time going to the pool.
"Alright, alright." Shinichi chuckled and led her to the toddler pool.
Ai smiled seeing how happy her daughter was. She sat on one of the loungers and started applying sunscreen to her arms and legs.
"Eh? You're not going in, Ai-chan?" Ayumi asked her from the edge of the pool.
The sweet girl had just done with the first round of riding the long slide. It took her almost two minutes to get down from it plus another minute to get to the top of the slide. Not to mention the long queue line if it wasn't for the special tickets Yuuto had won.
"Nah, I'll pass." She replied. "You can go ahead and play, Yoshida-san."
But the girl didn't budge.
"Hmm." She was staring at the strawberry blonde whose focus was back to the thing she was doing. "Did something happen to you these past few days, Ai-chan?"
It was such an unseemly question. They had only seen each other five days ago, why did she ask such query?
"Hm?" Ai looked up to Ayumi in wonder.
"Ah, no. It's just you look a bit different than the last time we met." Ayumi replied, smiling sheepishly. "You somehow look more beautiful."
Ai turned speechless as she felt her cheeks were getting hotter. Well, something did happen these past few days but what did it do to change her look even only for a bit?
"Did you perhaps fall in love with someone, Ai-chan?" Ayumi grinned. She wasted no chance to tease her best friend further. "I heard from my mom that being in love can make a girl more beautiful."
She was sharp, just like what Ai thought.
"Ayumi-chan! Let's slide one more time!" Yuuto called her from afar, waving his hand.
"Okay!" She shouted back.
"I'll go ahead then, Ai-chan." She smiled at the sitting girl and went to the stairs for the slide.
Ai saw the girl left, but the things she said to her were lingering in her mind.
Of course as a scientist, she didn't totally believe in nonsense stuffs Ayumi uttered just now although she clearly knew that falling in love could create a change in the hormone of a girl's body.
Still and all, Ayumi's assumption wasn't exactly wrong either because she had actually have this feeling for years.
The only difference was he returned it this time.
Perhaps receiving his love and affection had changed her insides too.
.
.
.
The swimming pool was getting crowdier as the sun raised up higher overhead. Everyone enjoyed the chill of water splashes on their skins and laughter echoed through the clear sky. It really smelled like summer school holiday– it was summer holiday!
"It's so tasty!" Genta moaned to his rainbow shaved ice.
"It really is~" Ayumi chomped on her strawberry ones happily.
They were all thirsty from playing the slides so many times over. And nothing was better than eating a bowl of shaved ice in the summer.
"Do you guys want to try mine?" Mitsuhiko offered his melon flavored.
"Me! Me!" Yuuto scooped his spoon into the freckled boy's ice while offering his coconut ones. "You can try mine too."
They all sat in a circle and test-tasting each other shaved ice.
"Aa- Aa-" Chiharu suddenly crawled to Genta's lap. She was interested with the rainbow color of his shaved ice and asked him to feed her.
"Here you go." He gladly shared it with her. The little girl fell in love with the flavor once she ate it, so she asked for more.
In that instant, Chiharu formed an attachment with the fat boy. The rest of the teenagers were laughing at that.
Such an easy baby she is. Ai laughed dryly to herself.
Shinichi also smiled as he ate his mango shaved ice. It had been so long since he had this holiday pleasure.
"What flavor is yours, A– I mean Haibara-san?" He asked his wife who was going to put a spoonful of her purple colored ice to her mouth.
"It's grape." She replied plainly. "Want to try it?"
She extended her bowl of shaved ice for the detective to scoop.
"Sure." He said as he instinctively grabbed her right wrist– the one hand she was using to hold her spoon– and leaned forward to shove the scooped shaved ice right into his mouth.
Ai was taken aback by his sudden action and at how close his face was to hers; she felt her blood rushing to her face. She didn't expect he would take it from her spoon instead of using his own to scoop down.
She wouldn't reacting this much if he did that when they were alone, but they were with the kids, for God's sake.
"It's sweet." He pulled back smiling as he licked the excess syrup on his lips.
As dense as he was, he didn't notice the burned cheeks on Ai's face. He barely remembered that they were not alone in a public place.
Not until a second later.
Oops.
Yuuto and the detective boys– except Genta who was too caught up with Chiharu– were all surprised witnessing such intimacy between the two people before their very eyes. Blushes of red shades appeared on their cheeks; it was too much of a scene for the (still-single) high schoolers to watch.
Above all, they were more surprised seeing how red the strawberry blonde could get. But it wasn't that surprising either, because who wouldn't blush when someone of their opposite sex did that to them?
"Ah, that–" Shinichi was flustered. He tried to find words of explanation, but he kept on blabbering incoherent words.
"Um, excuse me."
They heard a girl's voice rang in between their awkwardness. Everyone turned their heads and saw a bunch of girls were approaching their seats.
"Are you perhaps Kudo Shinichi, the detective of the East?" Those girls were shyly waiting for his answer.
The detective cursed himself in his head. He knew so well what was coming to him once he heard that certain question.
He glanced at Ai, hinting her to help him get away from this. However, she chose to silently mouthing him a good luck and returned to her shaved ice to cool herself down. She rather escaped from their problematic situation by sacrificing him to his fans than helping him out now.
Who told him to be careless anyway?
This was what it meant to dig a hole to cover another hole.
"Yeah, that's me." A vein popped up on his skull due to Ai's ignorance. Nonetheless, he manage to give his smile out of courtesy, back to the ladies.
The girls were squealing happily, asking him for autographs and some pictures; also handshakes. It seemed he had to sacrifice his holiday pleasure too.
He offered his slightly touched shaved ice to the teenagers, which they gladly received, before he walked to a little farther spacious area from their seats with his fangirls in order to not disturb the detective boys and the gang.
Their high-pitch voices were getting louder by minutes that some other visitors had also started to recognize the famous detective. In no time, there was quiet a crowd of people surrounding him. Even guys who were also his fans started joining in the line too.
"Woah, look at that." Mitsuhiko said to the rest of them, astonished by the popularity of his role model. "Lucky we don't have to get in that line just to get his autograph."
They had finished all the shaved ice, yet the detective hadn't return to his seat yet.
"It seems his fame increased greatly after he got his official rank in the police force five years ago." Yuuto replied.
"Ah, I remembered that time." Ayumi replied. "He made it to the newspaper headline for almost a week. Not to mention the online news too."
He was the youngest officer to receive the rank of a sergeant upon his commencement from the training that year. So the media won't definitely miss the chance to cover the news.
And it was a living hell for Ai because she had to see his face and heard his name on every corner of the street; everyone was talking about him.
"Ah!" Genta let out a sudden yell.
Yuuto and the detective boys looked to the direction of his eyes; he was looking at the flock of fans who surrounded Shinichi. Then they noticed one of the girls from the crowd got pushed backwards. She lost her balance and was going to fall into the pool if it wasn't for a hand pulling her in.
"Careful, there." It was Shinichi who saved her; cutting up the crowd to make way for the girl. The girl yelped, almost stumbled into his arms before he sustained her with his other hand.
She blushed realizing how close she was with her idol and let out a cry of happiness, as well as thanks. That scene made the other girls more hyped up, and a bit jealous of the almost-falling-girl.
Ai saw it too– she laughed derisively to no one. This husband of hers indeed loved to play his part as the white knight.
"Arghhh!"
Someone let out an agonizing abnormal scream all of a sudden. It was from the direction of the slide. Everyone turned their heads immediately to the loud voice and saw a body floating after it splashed on the water.
Those who were in the pool moved back to the edge at once while the others on the ground followed to give more space. They were all too afraid to get nearer to the strange occurrence except for Shinichi.
He jumped into the pool as soon as he saw the body float. He pulled it out from the water and lied it down on the ground near their seats to inspect it further. It was a dead body of a girl in her early twenties.
Everyone gasped in shock. Some of them started to talk how scary the slide was, some of them were trying to leave, and some of them were curious to see how the detective was working on the crime scene.
Ayumi instinctively took Chiharu into a hug, preventing her from seeing the ungodly sight, while the boys stood by in front of her.
Shinichi habitually turned his head to the strawberry blonde with his serious look.
"On it." She responded even before he opened his mouth as she took out her phone to dial the police.
He then told Ayumi to bring the baby to the VIP changing room and instructed the boys to guard the exits as well as to inform the security to close the slide.
A second later, he and Ai heard the girl– the one who Shinichi saved from falling– was crying while shouting for the dead's name. She fell onto her knees near the body.
It turned out the victim was her best friend. She came to the pool together with the deceased and another two female friends who approached her shortly after, with shocking expressions upon realizing the identity of the victim.
From the bruises, the detective could tell that the cause of the death was a concussion from several violent blows on some random spots of the head with a blunt object. The most fatal and final blow was predicted to be just right on the upper back part of the head which caused a severe parietal bone fracture.
She probably got it when she was sliding down the water slide. But how?
The safety of the slide had surely been tested before the grand opening of the pool based on the public regulation, and many people including the detective boys plus Yuuto had been using the slide without suffering from any injuries.
Unless the victim wasn't in the right position to slide.
"I've told her not to ride the slide because she didn't look so well after drinking her medication, but she insisted!" One of the victim's friends shouted to her other friend.
"Then you should have stop her from going by all means!" The other one replied. They were arguing over their friend's death, it seemed.
"Stop it, you two! It's no use to argue over this now." The one who was Shinichi's fangirl tried to break the two arguing friends apart.
Of course, the detective didn't miss this chance to find more clues.
"Excuse me, but can I see that medication she consumed?" Shinichi asked them from his spot.
One of the girls nodded and hurried herself to get the medicine box from the victim's stuffs to show it to the detective.
"I'm not sure what these pills are, but I saw her taking one from this box." She said. "She told me it was just a food supplement because she was on her diet."
Shinichi took one of the pills and examined it.
"It's temazepam." Ai broke the detective's train of thoughts. She was standing beside Shinichi now. "One of the drugs that belongs to benzodiazepines."
"Benzodiazepines?"
"It is a prescription to treat insomnia and other severe sleeping disorders. The effects begin within an hour of consumption and can last up to eight hours or more depends on the consumer." She explained. "Some of the side effects are including dizziness, confusion, drowsiness, headache, and lethargy."
"Well, you can say it's a kind of sleeping pills." She concluded.
"But why did she consume this during the day?" He held his chin with one of his hands, thinking, while his eyes were focusing on the pill in his other hand. "A person who were planning to play all day definitely won't take her sleeping meds in the afternoon, would she?"
Their discussion was ended abruptly when they heard a familiar female voice from behind the crowd; asking the people to give her way. Their focus darted to the divided crowd and saw (the female) inspector Takagi with the forensics team from TMPD coming through.
"Heh, still with the magnet even on your leave, Kudo-kun?" She greeted Shinichi jokingly once she got out from the flock.
Ai let out a stifled laugh upon hearing the witty remark.
Shit, he really had to cleanse himself from bad lucks.
"I'll go check on Yoshida-san at the changing room." She coughed to recompose herself, then took her and Ayumi's belongings for them to change.
"Okay." He replied as he put on his shirt.
"Nice to meet you again, Ai-chan." Miwako said before Ai parted. The latter nodded and bid her goodbye to the female inspector.
Thanks to her help again, this case would be solved in no time. Probably.
.
.
.
"Let's hurry up and get changed before the deduction show started." A guy said to his friends as they walked toward the changing room.
They were passing by the vending machine where the strawberry blonde stood still. She was buying a drink before going to the VIP changing room.
"Aww, did you see that?" She heard a group of girls giggling as they walked passed her back by. "He looks so cute when he gets into that serious face."
Ai sighed. Looked like every corners of this premise were talking about him now.
Also, the non-VIP changing rooms were getting more people since the pool was forcibly closed. She had to hurry before she was stuck with the swarm.
She put in some coins and pressed a button.
"But that girl was so lucky." Another group of girls was passing her. "I wish it were me who he caught."
Screw her ears. Couldn't she just get her drinks without listening to these chit-chats about him? Because of that, her head had ignorantly recalled the scene those girls were talking about.
"Lucky my ass. Her friend had just died, you know." Some boys passed by, joining those girls. They were all waiting in the queue outside the changing rooms; both the male's and female's were full now.
Clang!
Finally, the drink came down to the opening of the machine.
Ai squatted to her knees and took it.
"The more she can use this chance to get closer to him then." The girls replied kiddingly.
"How shrewd!" Everyone in their circle ridiculed the idea.
Clink-a-clink!
The loud sound of falling coins startled them. They glanced toward the vending machine and found a lot of coin scattered around the squatted strawberry blonde.
Ai dropped her coin purse by accident. It somehow slipped from her hand.
She began picking her coins as soon as she realized it was scattered almost everywhere. She had that troubled look on her face.
"Here you go." Someone from the gang approached her and gave the coins they had collected from the floor. She appreciated the help so much.
It took her a minute to gather all of her small change before she continued walking down the hallway.
It was weird.
She, being absentminded even for a split second, was weird.
And why was that again?
Ai dismissed her thought as she closed the door to the VIP female changing room.
Maybe it was just her bad luck today.
Author's note: Oho, what's wrong with Ai? (grinned mischievously). Again, I'm so sorry with the weak plot of the case. I've done my research, really. But the point is she helped Shinichi with his case, and I really like it when she did that (haha).
And thank you so much for all of you who are willing to wait for another week to read the update of this fic! It was a long week for me too, but your comments really give me a lot of support (hugs).
Do not forget to give your comments and reviews. Happy reading!
Disclaimer: All characters of Detective Conan are belong to Aoyama Gosho. I don't own any single of them.