File Twenty-Three: Deduction Queen Sonoko
Morning found little Conan splashing water on his face. He had woken up a few minutes ago, drenched in cold sweat, after having the same nightmare ─ yes, again ─ and glanced at the clock, only to realize it was only four in the morning.
Conan raised his head, his small pale face staring back at him and closed his eyes. He still could hear the click of the safety unlocking, see the muzzle on his face, feel his chest contracting.
"I guess sometimes dreams can be easily misinterpreted, huh?"
He opened them again and frowned slightly, thinking about Heiji's casual words over and over again, standing silently still. Only the sound of the water rushing could be heard in the quietness of the night.
His hand went to his left shoulder, and squeezed.
It had been an ordinary day of July at Ekoda Hospital, and the receptionist sat behind the desk as usual with a satisfied smile on her face. She had just gotten to her spot after a very fulfilling break and a nice cup of coffee, feeling more than prepared for anything that life threw at her face...
At least, until he arrived. As soon as her eyes fell on the dark skinned teenager appearing behind the glass door, she had sighed, suddenly feeling exhausted and in need for another long break.
"I thought you have given up already..." she lamented, leaning her cheek against her open palm. "Hattori Heiji, right?"
Heiji only grinned, widely, as he leaned against the counter. "I had a bit of a trouble and couldn't come here for the last few days. Got shot in the stomach," the receptionist he was talking to merely rolled her eyes. "But now I'm back to business."
She let out a puff of breath, feeling irritation fill her entire body as she stood up. The woman was so annoyed, that she didn't even bother to wave back at the kind doctor passing by.
"Good, then let me tell you this, again," her eyebrow began to twitch, causing the doctor to send a curious look their way. "Watanabe-sensei died more than seven months ago because of an accidental fire."
The receptionist didn't notice, however, the way Hattori's eyes sharpened, and slowly moved to the doctor beside him. He could've sworn that, for less than a second, the man had flinched, before pretending that nothing had happened and disappearing into the hallway.
"... There's absolutely nothing suspicious about that," she continued. "So, I would be very grateful if you didn't bring this up again and stopped bothering everyone with-!"
"Okay, I understand!" he interrupted with a bright smile, which only confused the poor worker. "See ya!"
She could only blink, confusedly, as the teenager sprinted away. Not feeling in the mood to tell him that running in the halls was certainly not allowed, she dropped back into her seat, figuring that somebody else would soon scold him for her.
Right now, all the tired worker needed was another cup of coffee... And for her damned shift to be over.
"Huh, that's odd," Ran commented as they walked through the forest. "The villa should be right around here..."
Conan refrained himself from sighing as they walked, looking around for a moment ─ he could've sworn they had already passed by that tree around three times already. "Say," he asked with a grimace, fearing what the answer could be. "Could it be that we're lost?"
The girl visibly flinched at that. "No, not at all!" she tried to pretend everything it was fine. "W-We're just taking the scenic route."
"Which means we're lost."
"... Probably."
The kid shook his head, before rushing to a nearby tree. "What are you doing?" asked Ran, confused, watching the child latch into the lowest branches and pulling himself up. Once she realized he was climbing, she panicked a bit. "Get down from there, Conan-kun! You can get hurt!"
He didn't reply until he was in a higher position. "It's okay, Ran-neechan," he assured her, and started looking around. "I won't fall."
"But...!"
"Ah, I see it!" he suddenly exclaimed. "We were going in the wrong direction."
Only once Conan was safely back in ground did Ran release the breath she didn't know she was holding. They resumed their walk after that, this time around guided by the little child, until they reached a bridge. Looking closer, they noticed a man, in a peculiar black cloak, crossing it.
"I wonder if he's going to the villa too," Ran wondered out loud.
"Yeah, I think he is," Conan nodded.
When he turned around, glaring at them with a cold, murderous look, causing them to freeze in fear. His face was all covered by bandages, and the child couldn't help but shudder at the memory of that other case that also involved a bandaged man.
He looked away and continued his way, running this time around, disappearing from their sight.
"... I-I wonder if he's going to the villa, too..."
"M-Maybe not?"
Finally, they reached the villa and Ran knocked on the door. Not long thereafter, it opened, revealing a very irritated Sonoko behind. "You're so late, Ran!" she complained. "What were you doing?"
"I'm so sorry, Sonoko!"
"I go to the trouble of inviting you to my family's villa and then you show up late!" her gaze fell on the little boy and her shoulders dropped. "So you brought him, after all."
His eyebrow twitched a bit at that comment.
"Conan-kun, take a hint sometimes," she said to him.
"If I didn't come along Ran-neechan would have no other choice but to spend the night out in the woods," he told her, deadpan, before walking by her. "Why you trusted her, of all people, to come here alone with only a map is truly beyond me."
"Conan-kun!" Ran shouted at him.
Both girls watched the child shrug and welcome himself inside without waiting for Sonoko to do it instead. Ran sighed a bit, while Sonoko's eyebrow raised.
"That brat isn't cute at all," the Suzuki girl decided.
Once inside, Sonoko told them their room was upstairs and eventually they reached it, only after Ran accidentally opened every single door and witnessed every single male residenciding in the villa changing clothes.
Conan sighed. It wouldn't have hurt to knock before entering.
A very annoyed Heiji was currently walking through the halls while ignoring the curious glances the nurses were sending his way. He had lost sight of the doctor in that big hospital, and he didn't think he was going to find him soon.
"This is the last time," his ears perked up at that. "I'm definitely not doing that, you hear me?"
It seemed to come from behind the door he was just passing by, he realized. He was about to continue going his way, when another voice said.
"You better do as I tell you," the voice was calm and collected. "Or something bad will happen to you."
Upon hearing that sentence, which sounded terribly like a threat, Heiji focused his attention to the door and realized that this particular room should be unoccupied. Whoever was in there might not be a patient, he realized.
After glancing around to make sure that nobody was around, he rested his hand against the knob and, gingerly, opened it just a slit. Cautiously, he peeked through the partly open door and saw them.
The doctor from before was talking to a teenager, who wasn't older than Heiji himself. There wasn't anything particularly distinguishing about that character besides his brown hair, that barely reached his shoulders, and his dark chocolate eyes.
"Ah, is that so?" the doctor scoffed at him. "So, what do you think that will happen to me if I don't?"
"Death, definitely," the teen assured him, eyelids sliding close with a tired sigh. "Your loved ones' demise, most likely."
"I don't have a family, kid. You already know that."
His eyes opened and gave him a sharp look. "That nice lady at the reception desk," the doctor winced at that. "I saw you two sending looks each other a few days ago. And should I mention that both of you seem to have your break at the very same time, when you two completely disappear from everyone's eyes until your shift starts?"
The man was stunned, if the way his mouth opened and closed was something to go by. It took him a couple of seconds before he could compose himself again.
"I'm not leaving Momoka alone," the doctor's fists clenched. "I promised her that!"
Sliding his hands inside his pocket, the teenager said nothing as he let his head drop, and turned to the door. Instantly, Heiji moved away in order to not get caught, relieved that they hadn't crossed looks.
However...
"Say, Tanaka-sensei," he heard the boy say. "Didn't you close the door when you came in?"
Hattori flinched at that. Say you didn't. Say you didn't. Say you...
"Of course I did."
Damn it.
He heard a gasp from the other side, and that alone was enough to send him into a anxiety attack. Whipping his head from left to right, he searched for a place to hide. He cursed, finding nothing and hearing the sound of footsteps nearing closer and closer.
So, he did the first thing his panic-addled mind thought was the best idea. Hattori slipped into a random patient room, and leaned against the door, sighing in relief.
That relief vanished instantly when he looked up. The patient bed was already occupied and a pair of blue eyes were blinking at him, confusedly. At the sight of his face, Hattori couldn't help but freeze, shock filling him all over and making him forget about his previous fear.
"K-Kudo?!"
The puzzlement on this person's expression did not disappear. "... Uh, what?"
"What are you doing in a place like this, Kudo?!" Heiji rushed to his side, looking all over him. His leg was in a cast, as well as his right arm. His head seemed to be wrapped in bandages. "And how did you manage to land yourself in a hospital?!"
"... Who are you again?"
"Eh? Don't tell me you forgot about me already? I'm-"
"-Hattori Heiji?!"
Both boys directed their attention at the person standing on the doorway. There was a girl, who reminded Hattori of Mouri Ran an awful lot, with a stunned expression on her face. "You're him, right?" she asked further, stepping inside, a grin present on her face. "The Great Detective of the West, Hattori Heiji-san?"
Before he could say anything, the boy beside Heiji spoke up. "Aoko!" he shouted, annoyed. "Tell this detective my name is not Kudo!"
"Kudo? As in Kudo Shinichi, the Great Detective of the East?" she then looked at the boy that resembled Kudo an awful lot. "Wow, now that I look at you, you really look like him."
"Aoko!"
"Yes, yes, that idiot over there definitely isn't Kudo Shinichi," she said with a sigh. "As if Bakaito would actually fit in the shoes of such a great detective."
"Speak for yourself, Ahoko! You can't even say my name right, can you? It's Kaito. Kaito."
"But Bakaito fits you a whole lot better."
Hattori blinked, then shifted his gaze to the doorway when he heard a loud sigh. He panicked for a moment when he met eyes with the same guy from before, until Kaito spoke up.
"Oh, finally," it was then that Heiji realized the boy standing in the doorway had a can of orange juice on other and a canned coffee on the other. "Where did you go to get those? China?"
The guy pointedly ignored that and went to the girl, handing her one. "Here you go, Nakamori-san."
The girl in question smiled at him, with a nod, before the boy opened his and gave a long glup, ignoring as Kaito complained about getting none.
"By the way, I think we haven't met yet," Hattori flinched when he turned his attention to him. "Are you Kuroba's friend?"
"Oh, no, no," he shook his head, forcing a smile. "I just went into the wrong room and I was about to leave," he turned around and went to the door. "Sorry for the intrusion!"
He closed the door behind him and let out a shaky sigh as he rushed through the halls, ignoring the chill running down his back. He could have sworn that guy had sent a suspicious look his way just before he left.
Hattori left the hospital right after that, figuring it would be best if he continued his investigation another day.
Preferably, when that suspicious ─ and most likely dangerous ─ guy wasn't around so he could interrogate the doctor in peace.
"I can't believe Ran. She already has Shinichi-kun!" Sonoko frowned under her umbrella, as they watched the girl and Oota Masaru ─ a member of Sonoko's sister's college movie making club, and the guy Sonoko had wanted to make a move on ─ taking a walk. "I guess I'll just have to go after Shinichi-kun."
Conan could've laughed at that, if the mental image of his brother and this particular girl together wasn't scarring his mind enough. "Why am I here, anyway?" he complained. "Isn't dangerous to be out there in this storm, anyway?"
"Come on, brat, aren't you a bit annoyed at least?" she said to him. "That's your brother's wife. You should be, like, their biggest shipper by now."
"Even if I was their 'shipper', as you put it, I'm not a stalker," Conan sighed, audibly, as his gaze fell on the couple walking in the rain under a single umbrella. It seemed like Ran truly didn't want to be there. "Besides, I saw plenty of Ran-neechan's karate on my brother and I definitely don't want to be in the receiving end of it."
Sonoko was about to point something out, when he noticed that Conan's attention was somewhere else, mouth open in disbelief. She was shocked when she saw Masaru leaning forward, closer to the lips of a hesitant Ran.
A thunder suddenly stuck nearby, blinding everyone for a moment. When it disappeared, both Conan and Sonoko looked up, still a bit shaken because of it.
"T-That scared me!" the girl commented. "That thunder was really close just now, wasn't it?"
"Truly surprising," Conan rolled his eyes. "I wouldn't have expected a thunder to strike in a terrible storm like this one."
"What do you meant with that, brat?"
"Oh sorry, I forgot you're missing a few brain cells, causing you to become unable to understand a child half your age."
"Half my age, and a quarter my height, you four-eyed midget."
"And probably twice your mental age, considering your brilliant answer just now."
Sonoko opened her mouth to spat something back to the little brat, when she noticed something. "Eh?" she blinked. "Where are they?"
"Huh?"
Conan turned to look and noticed they were gone. Just as he was about to stand up and look for the girl that had surely gotten lost, they heard a scream.
Ran's scream.
They arrived at the scene, just to find Ran on the floor, and the bandaged man from before raising an axe far above his head. Luckily for all of them, when he saw that they had company, he ran away from their sight.
Ran lied on bed, gaze focused on the ceiling, unable to sleep.
A lot had happened after the mysterious bandaged man had tried to kill Ran in the woods. They had been getting everything ready for dinner, when Takahashi ─ the ex-handyman from the club who was fixing the rooftop ─ suddenly screamed, terrified, and claimed there was someone outside.
They hadn't realized what was going on until something passed by the window. It had been the bandaged man, carrying Chikako ─ the screenwriter. Conan and the other three males had ran after him, only to find her several body parts scattered through the forest.
A soft whimper drove her out her thoughts and prompted her to look at the bed beside her. Her gaze softened and, with a resigned sigh, she got off her bed, only to sit on the other one.
"Shh, it's alright," brushing his hair away from the boy's face, the girl shushed him. "It's just a bad dream, Conan-kun."
It pained the girl to see the child like this.
Mostly because she knew it wasn't the first time ─ she had heard him walking around the house in the middle of the night and stay in the bathroom for hours.
Also, because she knew these weren't just childish nightmares with things like darkness and monsters that most kids would have ─ even if Conan had refused to tell her, she could only imagine what these dreams were about. The kid had been surrounded by death ever since he was born, so stuff like this was bound to happen, she supposed.
His brilliant blue eyes blinked open, then shifted to Ran's figure. She smiled sweetly at the sleepy confusion pinching his face. "Ran-neechan...?" he slurred tiredly, once he began to become aware of his surroundings. "Sorry, did I wake you?"
"I was already awake," she shook her head. "I was having trouble sleeping."
At that moment Conan would've pointed out that she was scared, if it wasn't terribly hypocritical from his part. Ran hadn't been the one having nightmares up until ten seconds ago.
Then Ran slid inside his bed, taking the young boy by surprise. Yet, he said nothing as the girl rested a hand behind his head, gently pressing his face against her chest. "Everything is okay," she assured him, whispering on top of his head. "I'm here for you, Conan-kun."
Without fully meaning to, he found himself relaxing against the older girl, and his little hand lazily latched on her shirt. He allowed his eyes to close and his breathing to slow, as well as his always running mind, lulled to sleep by the sound of her heartbeat.
His rest was short lived, however, when the cold summer breeze caressed his cheek, awakening him from his light slumber. Drowsily, the child looked up to see someone standing at his bedside. At the realization that it was a bandaged man, gripping his axe between his hands and readying himself to cut Ran in half, the child gasped, wide awake now, and quickly kicked Ran away from danger.
Conan honestly didn't know if he was supposed to feel impressed, disturbed or full-out panicked when Ran, after falling into her own bed, slept right through it.
The attacker merely glared at him, before turning back to Ran. Why is he trying to kill Ran-neechan?
The child, fearing for her life, screamed her name, but she wouldn't wake. Impulsively he threw himself to the man, clinging into his waist before he was thrown away. Conan felt the air knocked out his lungs when he hit the wall, and his ankle twisting painfully due to the impact.
But he paid no attention to it, more preoccupied to the killer walking closer to the girl. Looking around for something, anything, he came across his bowtie and, without thinking about it twice, he turned the volume up full blast.
"WAKE UP!" he yelled.
And if that didn't wake every single soul on the villa, Ran's terrified shriek after she woke up to see the killer right in front of her face did. Soon after that, Sonoko was banging on the door, demanding to know what was going on.
Similar to what had happened earlier, the man fled. Conan wanted to go after him, but a wave of pain shot through his ankle when it couldn't stand his own weight.
"You need to solve this case, Sonoko-neechan."
The girl's head snapped to the child sitting on the bed, raising her eyebrows as if he had just gone crazy. Ran had rushed to get the first aid kit for Conan ankle a few seconds ago, and the others were still looking around, trying to understand what had happened.
"Hey, kid, did you hit your head or something besides your ankle?" she placed her arms on her waist and leaned forward, closer to him. He didn't even blink. "What makes you think I, of all people, would make a good detective?"
"Not a good one, but the only one available."
"What did you say?!"
Conan sighed, feeling annoyment seeping his energy away.
"Look, I'm not happy with it, but right now you're our only option," he told her, a very serious expression adorning his features. "Right now, Ran-neechan, you and I are the only ones that can't possibly be the Chikako-san's killer."
"Eh?!" Sonoko was alarmed. "Do you think he's one of us?!"
The child gave her a blank look, before turning to the window. There was a hole close to the safety lock, which had prompted everyone to think he had sneaked inside from the outside. "It's pouring rain outside," he explained like an adult to a child, rather than the other way around. "You would think that the floor should be covered by mud if somebody came in from this weather."
"That's right..." Sonoko realized, wide eyed, before turning to the child. "But shouldn't Ran be more fitting for this job? I mean, her father is a great detective and all..."
"Right after we arrived Ran-neechan accidentally opened the door to every single room," Conan turned to the three men currently inspecting the room. "She saw all three of them changing clothes."
"... Ran did?"
"She must have seen something, and the killer wants to silence her. His guard must be up around her. You, on the other hand..."
Sonoko didn't say anything, hesitating for a moment, as she gazed at the bed Ran and Conan had previously been sleeping in. The mattress had been slashed cut. Hadn't Ran been saved on the nick of time she would have...
Sonoko didn't want to finish that thought.
"Sonoko-neechan," the girl's eyes met with the child's determined ones. "Don't you want to protect Ran-neechan?"
And frowned, determination filling her features as well, nodding her head. "But you better help me with this, pipsqueak," she pressed her index finger against his chest. "You're not leaving me alone in this, understand?"
"... Wouldn't dream of it."
On their way back they found Sonoko's sister with Chikako's choker, claiming that she had found it close to the front door a few hours ago. The kid had pondered over it for a bit, until he felt himself being hoisted up, rather roughly.
Conan shifted uncomfortably on Sonoko's back. "Hey, you better not drop me," he huffed, irritably, then squeaked when the girl adjusted his weight, violently. "On a second thought, let me off. I can walk by myself."
"Don't be stupid, brat. You have a sprain, don't you?"
"Yeah, but I don't want a concussion on top of that."
"You little-!"
Ran, who was walking beside the bickering duo, smiled awkwardly. "It's okay, Sonoko," she tried to calm her friend down. "I can carry him instead."
"There's no way I'm letting this brat burden you when there's a killer on the loose targeting you," Conan tried to ignore that comment for the sake of his own sanity. "How are you going to use your karate with him on your back?"
Just as they were saying that, they reached the living room and Sonoko set the child down on a chair beside them. "By the way, Ran-neechan," he spoke to her. "Why didn't you beat him up when he attacked you?"
"That's because I'm scared of things like ghosts and monsters..." she blushed a bit as she said that.
Oota smirked, standing up from his seat and walking around the table. "You don't need to worry," he placed a hand on her shoulder, and the girl flinched away at the contact. "There are six of us and only one of him. No matter how scary he is, if all six of us team up-!"
He then hissed in pain when something hit his shin, hard. The girls looked down to notice that Conan was also in the floor, cradling his injured feet, and realized he must have kicked him.
"Do you even know how to count? There are clearly seven of us!"
"Little brats don't count!"
"Pushy idiots don't either."
"What did you-?!"
"You can't say that," Ran argued, clearly ignoring what Conan had shot back at the man. "When I was attacked, he did his best to protect me. Thank you, Conan-kun."
Conan smiled at Ran, sweetly, before sticking his tongue at him when the girl had turned around. Sonoko, who had seen all of that, just sighed before raising him from the floor and setting him on top of her lap.
"Say, Ran," she decided to begin her detective work. "When you were attacked, did you get a chance to see his face or anything?"
"Not really..."
"I know something about him! I grabbed around the stomach so I know his figure now," Conan chirped, then held his arms up. "It was around this size. He wasn't very skinny, or very fat either."
Sonoko blinked twice, before leaning closed to the child, an irritated expression on her face.
"Hey, why didn't you tell me anything about this?" she whispered to him. "Wasn't I supposed to be the detective today?"
"I thought we could get the culprit to have a reaction out of it," he shrugged. "But either the culprit is quite a good actor or..."
"Or that description isn't accurate enough to be worrying, huh?" Sonoko pondered. "Geez, this is giving me a headache."
Thunder struck suddenly and, with that, all lights were gone. For a moment, all the people in the room looked at each other, only to realize that the darkness that surrounded them didn't let anyone see a thing. Because of that Ayako ─ Sonoko's sister ─ decided to go get some candles on the kitchen. Ran soon offered to go with her, so she wouldn't be alone.
Conan was about to say that he also wanted to come along, when he felt himself raised into the air. "Alright," he heard Sonoko's voice from above his head. "We're coming along as well."
Unsurprisingly Ran was attacked on their way back, yet this time around she reacted on time, spinning around and giving a powerful kick at the attacker.
The axe snapped in half, falling squarely their feet, and the killer disappeared into the darkness. Like so, the four found themselves completely alone, even after the lights had come back.
When they arrived back at the living room, they found the window of the second floor completely broken, covering the inside of the building in shattered glass. Sonoko leaned closer, holding the child tightly against her chest, and gasped. "One of the doors is unlocked," she said to the kid, and he nodded. "Why?"
"Maybe he wanted to pretend he came from the outside, when he was actually inside."
Letting his words sink in, the girl hesitantly stepped outside, where the men were looking for clues ─ they had come into the conclusion that the culprit had climbed a tree and then jumped on the veranda ─ when Conan's eyes fixed on another random spot.
There were a pair of grooves in the veranda. Sonoko failed to see how was that relevant.
"Say, Sonoko-neechan," the child looked up, blinking innocent eyes at her. "If you wanted to kill me and carry my body around, how would you do so?"
The girl winced at that, and stared at the boy with a weirded expression on her face. "Why would I do that?" she seemed to be a bit irritated, and disgusted at the prospect. "I think you're really annoying, but to the point of actually killing you..."
"It's an hypothetical question. Just answer it."
"Geez, you're weird, kid..." then, she pondered. "I'd probably carry you in a big bag."
"That's too suspicious. Think harder."
"Umm... Considering you're so small, I would probably hide you inside my jacket or something... But that would make me look like I have gained a few pounds so suddenly so..." she trailed off, eyes widening dramatically. "... Oh."
The kid smirked, as he noticed her eyes travelling to the mark on the veranda, with a shocked expression on her face. "But, it it was there... How did he...?" she then sighed, laughing a little to herself. "That's impossible. No matter how fat he pretended to be, he wouldn't just be able to carry Chikako-san's body around."
She watched the kid placing a finger on his chin, as he seemed to be thinking. "Now that I think of it, wasn't it weird?" he wondered out loud. "Her body was completely covered in a black cloak, but she was wearing normal clothes when we found her body parts. Why would the killer put it on her?"
Her eyes opened widely at that, her gaze flickering at the culprit for a moment, before releasing a deep breath. "You look like you know who the killer is, don't you?" Conan questioned.
"I-I can't do this," she argued. "I'm not Ran's father nor your brother. What if I'm wrong?"
"Even if she gets out of here alive, the criminal isn't going to stop there," he told her, with crude honesty. "What would you do if one day Ran-neechan is found lying dead on her room, with her head severed from the rest of her body?"
He noticed Sonoko shivering at the thought, and he couldn't really blame her, since that mental image made him sick on the stomach. But he figured Sonoko needed this.
Her grip on him tightened and took a deep breath before heading back to the living room.
"Everyone, can I please have your attention?" she called, loudly, setting the child on top of the table. "I figured out who Chikako's murderer is!"
Even if she was puffing her chest out and sneering at everyone, confidence in her entire posture, the kid could see the girl was terrified. And there was little reason not to, her best friend's life went with this, after all.
Instead of saying anything about it, Conan settled on watching the girl give out her deduction show, exactly the way he had thought she would. By the end of it, she had correctly pointed Takahashi as the culprit.
"The evidence are the two marks on the veranda railing left by the piano wires," she glared at him, genuine anger showing on her eyes. "You're the only one who could've done something like that! The one who used to make sets during college for the movie making club!"
"S-Stop playing around," he tried to laugh it off. "Then what did I do with the body after I supposedly pulled it up?" he turned to the others. "When we were looking for Chikako I wasn't carrying a body, was I?"
"Y-Yeah," Hiroki nodded.
"Then what about the choker, huh?!" she yelled at him. "My sister found it next to the front door. And when she was taken, Chikako-san still had it on her neck. That means someone carrying her body passed through there!"
"Like I said, I didn't have anything in my hands," at this point, Takahashi was beginning to sweat, nervously. "There's no way I could've carried her body without anyone noticing."
Sonoko smirked at that. "What about her head?" then everyone gasped at that. "We didn't see her body because of the black cloak covering her body, right?"
"That's absurd!" he yelled at her. "Why would I kill Chikako?! Why would I have attacked Ran-chan?! A-And..."
"He's right, Sonoko-neechan!" she blinked, surprised, when Conan pipped in. "It couldn't have been him," then he smiled a bit. "Haven't you been listening to me when I said the killer wasn't fat?"
"Huh?" she looked at him, strangely. What's that brat trying to do?! she wondered, worrying a bit, until his eyes seemed to open behind his glasses and turn to the killer with a curious look.
"Why didn't you say anything about that, Takahashi-san?" he questioned. "You could've been easily discarded as a culprit."
Takahashi froze on place, and only then did Sonoko understand his intention.
"Well, Conan-kun, that's because," she looked at the killer on the face. "He's not overweight at all."
With that the truth came to light. Seeing no way out, he finally confessed having brutally murdered Chikako in the forest before chopping her in pieces. All of it was because of Tokumoto Atsuko, their beloved friend and member of the group up until her suicide. It turned out it was all because of Chikako, who had stolen her ideas and became a famous screenwriter due to that.
"It's all over. Everything is over," then, in tears, he let the dummy he had used fell into the floor, revealing his true body complexion. He then revealed a knife, which he tightly held on. "I'm going to join Atsuko."
Sonoko paled at that, instantly jumping back as he started to wave the blade around, so nobody would come closer, before pressing the pointy end to his own chin.
"I-I'm going to spend eternity with Atsuko a the messenger of justice who avenged her death!"
"Are you stupid?!"
They all turned to the child, including Takahashi, who flinched at the very dark and angry look that little Conan had on his face.
"When you attacked Ran-neechan, was it for Atsuko-san's sake?!" the criminal's mouth hung open at that. "You didn't. It was because you were scared of becoming a murderer! That doesn't make you a messenger of justice, just an ugly murdering monster hungry for blood."
There wasn't anything Takahashi could say about that. Just dropped into his knees, tears soaking the floor. The knife was left forgotten at his side.
"It's good news that your sister is doing alright now," commented Ran, as the three made their way back home from school.
"It's really good news," Sonoko agreed. "She stayed in bed for a week after all that."
"But it was all solved thanks to your great deduction, Sonoko!" the girl elbowed the other, with a grin on her face. "It was cool seeing you act like a detective!"
When Sonoko smirked, arrogantly, Conan realized it had been a bad idea to ask her, of all people, to solve the case.
"What can I say? If i'm involved, then that type of case is open and shut! Shinichi-kun and your father can't compete," she laughed so loudly that a few passerbys stared at them, weirded out, before continuing their way. "The time has come for the Deduction Queen Suzuki Sonoko!"
Conan raised an eyebrow at that. Deduction Queen? he continued his way, his face indifferent as they crossed the street. How tasteless...
A hand suddenly rested on his head, startling him. "There's also this little pipsqueak," he messed his hair, prompting the boy to groan. "He can be a pain, but I guess he makes a decent assistant."
He could practically feel a vein popping up on his head, but he concealed it pretty well by giving the older girl a blank look.
"It felt more like you were my assistant, instead."
With that the two broke into another argument.
Unable to stop them, Ran decided to simply sigh and continue her way, pretending she didn't know the pair.
A/N:
Gamelover41592: Actually, no, it didn't. Some cases will happen in a different order than it did in both manga and anime. Partly because I wanted some of them to make sense in a non-floating timeline, and partly because I thought they would fit there.
XxThe-Crest-Of-AnubisxX: She probably will, eventually.
Lieutenant Myst: I don't think Gin and Sherry will have the same relationship than in the canon, since Haibara is a child in this story and, you know, it would make it quite weird if Gin had and infatuation with her... And about the Mystery Train Arc, that's a very cool idea! At the moment, however, not even I have a clue what is going to happen, lol!
Dy: Thank you for pointing out that mistake! I've fixed it up, so there shouldn't be any other errors in that chapter (hopefully). About what you said about Hattori, I agree that it probably doesn't add in anything his relationship with Kazuha without Shinichi around, but I wanted to use those episodes to develop Heiji's relationship with Conan, so yeah.