File Ninety-Two: A Magician in Black
So, Hades Sabara, is it? Shinichi, or rather, Arthur frowned, scrolling down the article he had found on his phone, pausing long enough to see a photo of his face. Doesn't look like the nicest guy around...
It was confirmed by the picture right beneath the one he had been seeing. Now, Shinichi was not a stranger to witnessing unsettling things, as bloody and messy murders had almost become his daily routine lately, but this reached a completely different level of disturbing.
Gross. The sight of bodies with their chest wide open in a gory mess made him grimace a little. He ripped his victims' hearts straight out of their chest…
Really, should a photo like this be so easy to find on the internet? Eyes still glued to the photos of the crime scene, Shinichi took a sip of his tea. What if some little kid accidentally stumbled across this and-?
"Isn't that a bit overboard?" Shinichi promptly choked on his tea. "Even for a serial killer's standards… Hey, are you alright?"
The teenager coughed for another minute straight before he could turn to see a little kid peering at him, with a raised eyebrow, propped up from his arms and hanging from his chair. "Just..." He wheezed. "... Just fine."
It was a little disturbing how the boy didn't even blink at the sight of him nearly dying from lack of oxygen ─ or maybe that was just him being overdramatic. Either way, Conan let that subject pass a little too easily and allowed his inquisitive gaze to fall back on the screen, prompting the older Kudo to quickly scroll the picture out of sight.
As much as he knew how little this kind of stuff affected Conan, he wasn't all that comfortable letting him see this ─ a kid of his age shouldn't be so impassive at a murder like this, he reflected with a sigh.
"What are you doing here, anyway?" questioned Shinichi, looking around to see no familiar faces nearby. "Hey, did you come alone?"
"No, the Professor and Ai-san are at the bookshop next door," said Conan with a shrug. "She said she wanted to buy something and told me to go ahead to meet you ─ we saw you from the door, after all."
Ah, yeah. There was a glass door at the entrance, allowing quite a nice view from the hotel's cafeteria inside. "Buy what?"
"Don't have a clue," replied Conan in all honesty, forehead creasing as he thought about that. "Asking Ai-san wouldn't help either."
"I see what you mean." Shinichi laughed awkwardly.
Emitting no reply to that, the little boy went back to his feet and went around his table. "I take it you already saw it on the news," he said, hopping into a chair without waiting for an invitation to join. "That the fingerprints that were on the paper the code was written on belonged to a serial killer on the run."
"Yeah, that Hades guy. I've been looking into him for a while now." Shinichi frowned, focusing back on his phone. "And if the fact that he left his fingerprints on purpose wasn't worrying enough… It looks pretty bad."
"I can see that," replied Conan, clearly referring to the photo he had just seen. "But why would he take their hearts out?"
"I guess because his mother died of a heart disease." The kid stared at him, as if he wasn't understanding something. "It seems that, in order to gather funds for her surgery, he borrowed from everyone he knew and heavily invested in stocks and bookies, but..."
"He lost it all." Finally, Conan seemed to figure out where this was going. "And his mother died because of that, didn't she?"
"Yeah, last July." The other brother confirmed with a nod. "Burdened with an enormous debt and having lost his mother and only blood relative, Hades' personality completely changed and he started his crime spree. First, his acquaintances who kept hounding him for money, then the friend who had suggested he invest in stocks, together with his entire family."
"And stole their hearts ─ not figuratively speaking."
"Blew up each of the hospitals that had refused to perform his mother's surgery, too."
"... Explosives," he mumbled, a bit shocked, leaning forward to see his brother's phone screen, and managed to see the photo of a woman. "Guess that one helped him with it."
"Name is Hestia ─ an explosive expert kicked out from the military. Blew herself up when the police discovered her hideout."
"Huh," the boy muttered. "And how is such a dangerous criminal still free? Plastic surgery, maybe?"
"Exactly."
"Oh."
He let that sink for a second, then opened his mouth to speak, only to get interrupted by a sound in his ears. Something was vibrating, and it took him no time to realize that it was Shinichi's phone ─ Ran-neechan, he read her name right away.
Shinichi also realized quickly, if the way he flinched was something to go by, but didn't move. Just stared at her name for long enough for Conan to wonder if his brain was functional any longer.
"Sorry." And then Shinichi offered it to his puzzled little brother. "Could you answer for me?"
At first, Conan was convinced that he was scared of her, and wondered what he could have done when they were alone to make things even worse… But, on a closer look, he noticed it. He doesn't look scared. His face was flushed, and a nervous smile had taken hold of his every expression. He is… embarrassed.
Slowly Conan's eyes began to widen. "No way…" He was so perplexed. "That cheap thief… was actually telling the truth?!"
Kuroba? Now, Shinichi had the feeling that he didn't want to know. "What 'truth' is this you're talking about?" But he asked, regardless.
"You finally confessed." The horror that showed in the older detective's face told Conan he was right. "You confessed to Ran-neechan!"
"What?!"
"Oh, I see!" Both brothers were completely ignoring the fact that the phone was still buzzing in between them. "The reason you're so embarrassed is that you didn't get an answer. You just told her all that… and ran away fearing confrontation..."
"Of course not!"
"Of course yes." With that, he plucked the phone from Shinichi's feeble grip and smiled ─ Shinichi decided didn't like that smile. "Alright then. If you don't want to answer me… I will get that answer on my own."
"How are you going to-?"
"By asking Ran-neechan herself, obviously."
His reaction was instantaneous. "Give that back here!" He stretched his hand to snatch the phone from him, only for the boy to jump back, grinning mischievously, just like the little imp he was. "Conan, I swear-!"
But it was late. At the sight of Conan pressing the phone against his ear, Shinichi felt all color disappearing from his face ─ and the brat didn't even have the decency of looking away.
"Hello-"
"IF YOU'RE THERE PICK UP THE FREAKING PHONE, YOU MORON!"
Hissing in pain, the child turned to the phone that he was now holding as far as possible. Even Shinichi had heard it from his spot, making him worry momentarily that his little brother had gotten hearing damage from the booming voice that had greeted him.
Before long, Conan's expression morphed to annoyance. "Occhan?" he said, glaring at nothing in particular. "What are you doing with Ran-neechan's phone?"
There was a pause, which the kid could attribute to the man glancing at the number to confirm he hadn't gotten mistaken. "Ran kept hesitating and didn't want to make the call," he answered, after a while. "So yours truly had to do it."
"Same here," he said with a plain tone, giving Shinichi a raised eyebrow. He heard a groan on the other side, letting him know about his agreement. "Why were you calling, anyway?"
"Well, since this is something to do with Sherlock Holmes and he's the number one expert..."
"What?" Conan was genuinely outraged. "I am the number one expert."
A snort on his side had him scowling. "Beg to differ."
"Unless you want me to put Ran-neechan on the phone so that you two can talk, no, you are not." That worked just perfectly, Conan realized with a smug grin. "So, what is it?"
Kogoro hesitated a bit before finally giving in. "The 'egg' in the third line was the egg-shaped City Hall." Shinichi shuffled closer, trying to hear what they were talking about, yet Conan said nothing about it. "The 'pickles' in the fourth line was the building in the shape of a young cucumber, called the Gherkin." As he listened, Conan noticed a focused frown slowly taking over his brother's embarrassed expression. "That much we've figured out, but the problem is that there were Holmes-related items scattered near those places..."
Now it was time for Conan to frown. "Such as?"
"At City Hall, there were dolls with words about some sort of jewel on their chest-"
"It was Mazarin Stone!" The child blinked, not quite expecting the female voice that supplanted Kogoro's. "In that story, Shinichi said there was a scene where Holmes said 'Everything besides the brain is an appendix' so I pulled out the doll's head and the letter 'T' appeared!"
For a moment, the kid was silent, eyes opening slightly at her words. If what she was saying applied to each of the locations specified in the poem… In each location, the title of one of Holmes' books would be there… His mind came back to the time he had tripped on the Westminster Bridge.
"Take care of the second line, Ran-neechan!" Conan suddenly said, startling Shinichi quite a bit. "The Professor, Ai-san and I will figure out the other three!"
"Wait-!" He didn't let her finish, shoving the phone back to its original owner. "Conan-kun, are you there?!"
Shinichi didn't respond immediately, merely watched cluelessly as the child bolted out the table and to the exit, just in time for a certain little girl and old professor to walk inside. They looked as confused as he did when Conan, without pausing to explain a thing, grabbed their wrists and dragged them back outside.
Slowly, he calmed down, gaze narrowing again. "Ran," he said, and heard the girl gasping quietly in surprise. "Tell me what you found at the Gherkin."
For a beat, she stayed in silence, "Okay," but then she seemed to focus as well.
"I take this is the place, right?" asked Ai, crouching right beside the boy and surveying the letters engraved on a side of the drain Conan had tripped the night before.
"The Valley of Fear"
As the boy hummed, thinking deeply about it, Agasa rested his hands on his knees, leaning closer to see what the two children were doing. "To think we stumbled into one of those clues by accident…" he commented. "But isn't this cheating? The criminal didn't mention Westminster Bridge at all in his poem, did he?"
"It was the 'loud sound of a rolling bell'," explained Ai, leaving the boy to continue pondering over it. "When we passed by Big Ben earlier, I noticed an arrow pointing to the bridge here."
The professor nodded slowly, leaving the girl to turn back to the boy. "Anything yet, Conan-kun?" She received a shake of his head in response.
"That was a long story… But I don't remember a bridge somewhere in it."
Ai could only frown at that. She hadn't gotten to read The Valley of Fear yet, so she couldn't really tell. "It doesn't have to be a bridge..." she said. "Could it have been a drain?"
Conan looked at her, but said nothing. Drain… River… Water… His eyes went wide. Water?!
"... 'When water is near and a weight is missing, it is not very far-fetched supposition that something has been sunk in the water,' is a line that Holmes said," he explained before Ai could question what he meant with it. "There should be something sunk into the River Thames, but..."
"There!" The girl jumped into her feet instantly, quickly approaching a street lamp not too far from their position. "Professor, help me out."
"S-Sure!"
Without asking why, he helped her up and held her as she held onto the fishing line tied to the lamppost ─ and realized that, at the end of the line, there was something sunk in the river. In no time, she had reeled it in, and the missing drain cover was in her hands. "An 'A'!" she exclaimed, turning to the boy standing next to them. "An 'A' has been carved into it, Conan-kun."
He nodded, quickly typing something on his phone. "Occhan said they found another two letters," Conan said, immediately after it beeped with another text. "So far we have 'T', 'N' and 'A'... two times, I suppose."
Then he tapped something else. Ai approached him, glanced over his shoulder at the poem on his screen, before stepping away, digging for something inside her purse.
"Next should be a building that looks like a cake-"
"St. Bride's Church."
"Eh?"
"St. Bride's Church," she repeated, turning the book in her hands to him. "Wedding cakes are said to be based on this building."
Both the professor and the boy came closer, and were astounded to see the photo of a building that looked exactly the same as a wedding cake. "Where did you get this, anyway?" mumbled the boy, eyebrow raising in question.
"Ah, we bought it while you were with Shinichi," explained Agasa. "Considering that the first clue was Big Ben, Ai-kun thought a guidebook would be useful for us..."
"Oh, I see." It was, indeed, quite useful, he thought, taking the book from the girl's grasp without permission, but she allowed him anyway. Conan gave it a long look before frowning. "Professor, go call a taxi."
"Right away!"
"We can't get anywhere over the phone! Wait there, I'm on my way!"
Shinichi… is going to come here? The mere thought of it made her cheeks warm rapidly, "I-It's alright," and stutter nervously, hoping that her father beside her wouldn't notice it. "We can do it over the phone… s-since we've already managed to find two of them..."
Her father did notice, though, judging by the odd look he sent to her. To tell the truth, having him there would be the sensible thing, and it would make everything much faster, but she just couldn't help it ─ not after what he had said yesterday. Just the thought of it made her heart beat nervously, and the fact that she hadn't answered yet made it all the worse ─ especially since she had not a clue of how she was supposed to do so.
Sighing, she wondered if it would have been better if she had stepped out and said it first. Now it was just awkward.
"Oh!" Ran jumped, startled by the sudden voice. "If it isn't the girl from last night!"
Her shock only increased when he saw who it was. "M-Minerva Glass-san!" she exclaimed in surprise. Minerva just smiled in return as she approached them, together with her younger brother holding her hand. "Is it alright for you to be out and about? The ladies' singles final is tomorrow, isn't it?"
"Yeah, I'm just taking a short break from training." Minerva replied. "And how about you? About that thing from last night, are you alright now?" She glanced at the man standing next to the Japanese girl, who just stood there, astonished to see that his daughter was talking so casually with the Grass Court Queen. "Could this person be your boyfriend?"
"He's my father." Ran shook her head rapidly. "And what's bothering me now is a code..."
"A code? Then you're like my little brother Apollo!" They all turned to the blonde boy that silently listened to their conversation. "It seems he got a code from a strange person, and gave it to a child who called himself Holmes' Apprentice."
"Holmes' Apprentice?"
"Yeah, but he hasn't contacted me since then," Apollo said, annoyed at the prospect. "I think his name was Conan."
From the other side of the phone, Shinichi's eyes opened slightly at the mention of his little brother's name. I see, this must be the Apollo kid Conan told me about. Resting his hand against his fist, the detective continued to listen to the conversation. Typical of him ─ promising to call this boy then forgetting altogether...
He didn't fight the small smile that drew itself in his face.
So Holmes' Apprentice it is, huh?
It disappeared, however, when his eyes caught something, or rather, someone. Ran was talking to him, but there was no way he could properly respond to that, especially when he saw that person entering the hotel he was in. "Shinichi?" The girl sounded concerned. "Are you still there?"
He turned his head around, hoping that he wouldn't be seen. "Sorry, an urgent matter came up," he blurted. "I won't be able to meet up with you."
"R-Really?" Shinichi could swear she sounded relieved somehow. "W-Well, if it's an urgent matter, I guess there's no helping it..."
"At any rate, text me whenever you need to. If that Apollo kid is there, have him go with you. He's probably more familiar with London than you two are!"
"O-Okay, got it!"
Followed by that, Ran hung up, leaving Shinichi to sigh, tired even if he hadn't gotten out of that table for a long time now. Guess everyone has everything in order for now…
Hades Sabara. Shinichi frowned. What is he-?
"Oh, if it isn't Hirai-kun."
A startled gasp escaped Shinichi as he, with a crazed look, spun around to see the detective sitting in front of him, Hakuba Saguru, strangely pleased for some reason he certainly didn't intend to be aware of. "You're up quite early." Obviously, since he wanted to investigate the criminal without Aoko and the others roaming around. "I didn't expect to see anybody up and about."
"Yeah?" Shinichi smiled politely. "Well, you're rather early as well. Especially if you consider you aren't staying here, so you should have gotten up even earlier."
"I just wanted to enjoy a cup of tea ─ I love how they make it here." Hakuba paused so that he could call the waitress over. "Mind if I join you?"
"No." When Hakuba wasn't looking, Shinichi's gaze narrowed. "Not at all."
He never let his eyes stray away from his form, watching carefully him smile at the waitress and, calmly, order some Earl Grey. He watched his every movement, from when he thanked the waitress, to when he slowly turned to him, a smirk still fixated on his face, before resting his elbows on the table, fingers tangling together and supporting his head.
Both detectives stared at each other, yet none said nothing at all.
"Amazing!" the professor exclaimed, amazed at the church in front of him. "It really looks like a wedding cake!"
"Of course it does," replied Ai with a raised eyebrow. "We stated that before, remember?"
"Yeah, I know." Agasa laughed awkwardly. "But seeing it from up close it's so impressive that… Huh? Where's Conan-kun?"
Instead of answering, the girl walked right past him, towards the boy in question, who had taken the initiative of asking people around, it seemed.
"So, no luck so far?" she asked, despite the sight that Conan let out, a clear sign of his failure.
"Nothing," he groaned nevertheless. "The people around here don't seem to have noticed anything."
"Should we try going around the church?" the girl suggested. "Maybe we can see something there-"
"Excuse me."
Before any of the children could react they saw, from their peripheral vision, something pink in between their heads. Twirling around, they noticed someone was offering a strange letter. "I suppose…" They turned to look at the man standing behind them, with a top hat and glasses covering most of his face. "This might interest you."
Ai hesitated, studying the odd man for a second, but failing regardless ─ she could see any distinctive factions from him besides the pencil mustache that framed his amused smirk. Before long however, she accepted it, eyeing him warily. The man was unaffected by this. In fact, he smiled in return and stepped back, hand on the rim of his hat, tipping it forward as he bowed slightly.
"Wait!" Before he got to leave, Conan shouted, a deep frown carved on his face. "Where did you get this from?"
"There were a lot of these around the church," he answered, unbothered by the glowering kid. "The piece of paper has the title of a Holmes' story written on them."
The girl immediately glanced at the pink piece of paper in her hand. "A Scandal in Bohemia," she read out loud.
Conan, however, didn't tear his gaze away from him. "Who are you?" he asked, slowly, biting all his words.
It seemed to amuse the mystery man for some reason. "Do not worry, I'm a friend."
Despite all his efforts to focus on him, his eyes found themselves travelling to his hand when he raised it. His eyes widened in amazement at the sight of a bird that had come from nowhere. "In fact..." Upon closer inspection, Conan could see that it was a crow ─ a fact that, understandably, unsettled him a little. "... I would say I am your older brother, Conan-kun."
That unsettling feeling grew exponentially, eventually morphing into pure horror in seconds. He heard Agasa gasp from behind him, but Conan couldn't even do that. How… People were beginning to turn around and stare, amazed by the crow resting on his hand so calmly. How does he know?!
From the corner of his eyes, the boy saw Ai stepping in front of him. "You didn't answer his question." Her eyes narrowed. "Your name, now."
It was such a shocking sight to see the girl actually standing up so confidently, instead of the terrified approach she would usually have at moments like this one. Does this mean…?He turned back to the strange man. This person is not one of Them. And while it was such a comforting thought, it didn't make things any clearer for him.
The man didn't answer, merely smirked. Conan's eyes widened slightly ─ he had seen that expression before. "I'd love to chat with you, little lady, and your friend there..." The surprise gradually vanished, and a frown formed. "But I'm a little busy at the moment." As the man turned around to leave, the boy gritted his teeth, lowering onto the ground so that he could activate his shoes. "So then, if you excuse me-"
"You're not getting away!"
"W-Wait!" Agasa panicked a little. "Hold on a minute, Conan-!"
Yet, he didn't get to stop him. With a scream of anger, the child promptly took off running towards him, his hand reaching for his belt. Before he could even reach him, the man had the time to look over his shoulder and smile, as if amused.
In a swift movement, he removed his jacket. Conan could barely contain a startled shout when, out of the blue, he was covered by what seemed to be a black wall. Later he registered it was just a flock of crows ─ about a dozen of them, flying around the mysterious man, thus shielding him from plain sight.
Conan had been too close to the scene, meaning he was badly started by the birds. Out of instinct, he covered his face with his arms, falling ungracefully on his rear in the process, leaving him to wonder what was going on. Before he could even determine it, the sound of cheering, along with the excited murmurs in English of those who had witnessed it, didn't take long to reach his ears.
"Amazing~!"
"Say, say, Dad! What was that?"
"Are they filming a movie?"
"No way, there aren't cameras around!"
"Maybe it's one of those telly shows… You know, the kind where they hide cameras to see how people react to things like this..."
"Man, I should've filmed that! It would have gone viral, for sure..."
At first, the kid was confused about what all those were talking about, but when he opened his eyes, he definitely understood what was going on. Not minding Ai and Agasa shuffling closer, worried that he had gotten hurt somewhere on the fall, the kid continued blinking at the empty space that now was in front of him.
What… He still couldn't fully process what had happened. What in the world…?
The amused smirk from beside him woke him up from his stupor. "Looks like, no matter where you go..." Ai crossed her arms, glancing with a certain degree of amusement at the place where this person had just been. "Weird people keep popping up like moles."
Conan snorted. "Does that make you a mole?"
She shrugged, showing that his remark hadn't as much effect that he had intended. But when he looked at her, he noticed the smirk wasn't as strong as before, gazing at a certain spot on the floor. "I'd rather be a mole than a crow," she mumbled so softly that it made the boy wonder if she had been aware that she had opened her mouth.
Either way, he didn't comment on it, just directed his gaze to where she was looking, and realized that there was something in that spot that he had thought completely empty.
A single black feather was all it was left of that mysterious individual from less than a minute ago. Curiously, the boy leaned forward and picked it up, allowing his gaze to linger on it for a while.
The delighted grins and hushed whispering hadn't ended ─ it was clear that the audience had gone crazy over the seemingly uninteresting man vanishing into the thin air in the middle of the street. But Conan, unlike them, was fuming now, glaring at the feather intensely enough to kill.
There was only one person in this world that could pull a disappearing act like that.
And he was going to murder him soon.
"Well then, are you enjoying your stay in London, Hirai-kun?"
Shinichi paused, watching Hakuba take a small sip from his cup. "Yeah." It made a soft clatter when he put it back on the table. "Guess I'd have to thank you for that."
"No need, it was nothing." Shinichi wouldn't doubt it for a second. "But I suppose this might be almost nostalgic for you…" He continued to smirk. "Since you lived here before. Didn't you say that before?"
He coughed a little in response, desperately trying to hide the nervousness that struck him suddenly. "That's right."
"Though, looking at you the other day, I would've sworn you were just an excited tourist, just like any of the others."
"Can't help it... I was a just a little kid when I lived here-"
"How old?"
"Huh?"
"How old were you when you moved out of London?" he asked, leaving Shinichi to pale, unable to respond. "If I'm not mistaken, you moved from London to Tsukikage Island. where you worked for a little under a young doctor called Asai Narumi."
Despite trying to look as natural as possible, Shinichi couldn't help but gape at that. He didn't remember telling him all that. His confusion seemed to amuse Hakuba, however.
"The day you arrived at our class, you said you had just moved to the mainland. Just a few weeks prior, I came across a peculiar article in the news… They called him the Moonlight Sonata Murder Case. Does it ring a bell?"
Definitely, but he wasn't going to admit it so easily.
"I took the liberty to visit that place not that long ago. Such a beautiful island, I suppose it might be quite a peaceful place to live in." This time, Shinichi didn't bother to hide the frown on his face. "This case seemed to have caused a great impact on the people living there, since everyone was more than willing to explain it to such a curious detective as myself… Now, I don't believe it necessary to explain it to you, right? Since you solved it, or so I've heard."
"I got lucky, just that."
"Lucky, huh?" Hakuba snorted, as if thinking about a great joke before continuing. "Well, it was quite an interesting case. Elaborate, too, I would say, but, unfortunately, there's something that I couldn't find about, and my mind can't rest until I find out about it."
"What is it?"
"The motive." He should have known this was going to come up, eventually. "When you were giving your deduction, splendidly, according to what I've heard, you were interrupted to avoid a tragedy. The culprit tried to set herself on fire, and a courageous elementary school student had run inside to save her… They said you heroically dived in and rescued him."
Of course people would remember him going into the flaming building to save his intrepid little brother. "Well, I couldn't look the other way..."
"It seems like Conan-kun has always been quite a reckless little child, right? Like that time at the Nishitamashi Twin Tower Buildings." So, he even knew it was him, it seemed. "Luckily she ended up living, but only to get imprisoned for her acts. Since you couldn't work there any longer, you had to move again, to Japan this time… You know, the locals told me they miss you so much, even if you hadn't been there for long."
"Ah, is that so?"
"Which begs to the question, again, how old were you when you moved out of London?" Shinichi couldn't respond. "You couldn't have been a little child, now could you?"
There was no way he could possibly answer that without making things worse. In the privacy of his mind, Shinichi allowed himself to curse ─ he should have known better, of course Hakuba would eventually try something like this, question him until he inevitably fell victim to his own lies, tangled in his own thread of deception and unable to hide the truth any longer. Yet he couldn't just let it go.
Thus, he stubbornly kept his lips tightly closed.
Hakuba's smirk remained unaffected through it all. "Well, if you don't want to tell me about that case, I suppose I can investigate on my own."
Shinichi's head raised sharply. "What?"
"I'm a detective if you haven't forgotten," he said, leaning further and closer to the horrified teenager. "I haven't gotten to investigate Asai Narumi yet, but…" Shinichi's eyes began to grow wider and wider. "... if I make a thorough check in her past, surely, I will surely-"
"DON'T!"
His scream boomed through the entire place, silencing the entire room all at once, until, ever so slowly, hushed whispers from the startled customers filtered the air, not keeping their eyes away from the boy who, out of the blue, had stood up from his seat, face white as if he was a ghost, slamming his hands against the table. "You can't do that," he said, in Japanese ─ a language that most of the people eavesdropping couldn't understand.
Even Hakuba remained stupefied for a few beats, letting his confident smirk drop at such a display. Gradually, as minutes passed by without none of them saying anything else, the curious audience of their little show soon lost interest, falling back to their normal routine with relative ease.
Before long, the shock passed, allowing a deep frown to carve itself on Hakuba's features. "Why not?"
"Because you will die." He wasn't joking, Hakuba could tell. "If you dive in any further, there will be no way out."
"I assume you're speaking from personal experience, am I wrong?"
While debating how to respond, Shinichi slowly lowered back onto his chair. "I'll say it again, Hakuba," he bit, locking his gaze with his. "Do not pursue this any further, or you will regret it."
He sat there in silence before speaking again. "It has come into my attention, however-"
"Like I said-"
"-that your phone is ringing, Hirai-kun."
All that sternness disappeared when those words reached his ears, causing him to blink in confusion before realizing that, indeed, his phone was ringing. Geez... Didn't I tell her to text me instead?
… Come to think of that, she probably did, and I didn't answer.
He halted when he didn't see Ran's name on the screen, but Conan's.
"So, aren't you going to answer?" Hakuba crossed his arms in front of his chest. "Go ahead. I don't mind."
The look in his fellow detective's eyes told him that, even if he chose to go to the restroom to pick it up, he would follow. So, there was no other choice but to pick up in front of him ─ and hope it would be fast.
"Ah, Conan-kun. What's wrong?"
Conan paused, definitely taken aback by the way he had been addressed. "Someone else is there, isn't there?"
"Yeah." Shinichi turned his head away from Hakuba, who, seemingly not grasping the concept of 'private conversation', kept his gaze glued to him. "But it's okay, don't worry about it." Conan didn't seem completely convinced, judging by his silence. "So, what is it? I thought you said you would solve three clues on your own."
"Leave me alone," Conan huffed, causing Shinichi to snicker. "Ai-san, the Professor and I solved two of them." Soaking the strange pink paper with water that the children had forced the professor to buy, rather harshly, washed all the letters in A Scandal in Bohemia, except for a single letter. "We got two 'A' and a 'S'..."
Shinichi hummed, thinking about those letters. If we consider the 'T' and the 'N' Ran got… His eyes opened slightly. "Satan."
Hakuba perked up, surprised to hear it.
"What are you talking about?" Conan said, probably raising an eyebrow. "There are still two letters left."
"Yeah, sorry…" The child sighed in return. "Ran-san and Mouri-san are already at Elephant and the Castle, but still haven't found anything."
"There's the last line, too." Conan glanced at Ai, watching her flip over the pages of her guidebook for the fifth time already, with no success. "We haven't got a clue of where it could be…"
"Wait a minute," he said, turning back to Hakuba, who was still focused solely on him. "Hakuba. Do you have a map?"
Hakuba nodded instantly and took his phone out. "Here," he said, passing him a map of London he had found on the internet.
"So… 'It tells me to finish everything by piercing the white-coloured back with two swords,' wasn't it?"
"Yeah."
"Let's see…" He scrolled through the map for several seconds. "How about the Old Bailey?"
"Stupid. Lady Justice has only one sword."
Shinichi's eyebrow twitched. "Give me a break, I'm trying."
"Try harder, then."
"That goes both ways, you brat."
All the while the two brothers argued, Hakuba leaned closer, trying to get a look of the map as well. White back, two swords, he thought, frowning when he realized that there wasn't a building like that. He glanced back at Shinichi ─ it didn't seem like he was any better off than him, if the way he groaned, out of frustration, was something to go by ─ and watched him hastily grabbing his cup, downing it in one gulp, unwillingly prompting his eyes to widen.
"For the time being, Conan, check if there's something there. Maybe the 'two' means to consider it two times… Though, I don't know what the 'white-colored back' could… Hakuba, what are you doing?"
The detective in question, who had just fetched Shinichi's empty cup, was eyeing the back of it with a smirk etched in his features. "Solving the case." Then, clearly noticing Shinichi's puzzlement, he turned the object in his hand, stealing a startled gasp out of him.
Engraved on the bottom of the white cup, Shinichi could see two swords.
"Meissen!" He shouted at the phone suddenly. "There's only one store in London, so you should-"
"It's Meissen," he heard Conan say to somebody else, and the Ai saying something back to the Professor. "Alright, we're on our way."
Shinichi sighed in relief. "Then, I'll call you later."
There was a hum, then a pause, that confused the older detective quite a bit. "Oniichan?" he began. "Can I ask you something?"
"What is it?"
"Is KID there with you?"
Shinichi blinked in confusion, taking a good look around before replying. "No, he isn't here yet..."
Conan kept quiet for a while before he huffed. "I see." He sounded annoyed ─ Shinichi wondered why. "Thanks."
With a click, he hung up, not bothering to explain things a little further. That kid…Shinichi eyed the phone a little warily, then shrugged. Probably it had something to do with the rivalry they had developed over these two years. Considering Conan knows he's in London, too, maybe-
"So, Hirai-kun..." He looked up to Hakuba ─ somehow, he had almost forgotten he was still there. "Should I stay away from this case, too, or…?"
Shinichi made a face. "Actually, I wonder about that, too…"
Hakuba looked as if he wanted to ask about it. "Ah!" But a voice interrupted him before he had the chance to. "Hirai-kun and Hakuba-kun are there!"
At the sight of the two girls, plus the boy, who looked rather unwilling to be there, approaching them, the disguised detective instinctively hid his phone away from sight. "Good morning, Aoko-san, Akako-san..." Unlike him, however, Hakuba calmly retrieved his own phone and smiled at his three classmates. "... and Kuroba-kun."
Kuroba barely groaned at that, dragging a chair from a nearby table and plopping down next to Shinichi.
"Good morning!" chirped Aoko, grinned from ear to ear. "I didn't expect you to be here already, Hakuba-kun."
Hakuba merely smiled, raising his cup to his lips.
"I'm surprised to see you up before us, though, Hirai-kun," Aoko said, stealing a glance at the boy sitting beside him and raising an eyebrow. "Can't say the same about Kaito, though…"
Kuroba merely glared and prompted his head with a fist ─ by the way he groaned, barely opening his eyes, and his overall disheveled appearance, Shinichi thought it would be safe to assume Aoko had just brought him off his room, forcefully.
Shrugging, he turned back to the girl. "All I did yesterday was sleep, so I thought I'd get up earlier today," he said. "Besides..."
"Oh." Akako smirked, crossing her arms in front of her chest. "It sounds like something interesting has happened."
The teenager was about to deny completely, but Hakuba's eyes narrowed, his sharp gaze piercing through his body, not willing to let go at all. The two girls were staring now, curiously, to which he couldn't help but sigh, giving up completely. And Kuroba slowly turned to him, almost as if afraid that he had brought trouble into himself, again.
"There will be a mass murder," Shinichi finally said, frowning deeply. "Here, in London."
Meissen it is, huh? Conan let his head rest against the glass, eyes lingering on the many cars on the street that they passed in a hurry. Even though Ai had told the driver they needed to get there as fast as they could, the child was sure it would be a fifteen or twenty minute-trip, at least. Wonder how I didn't think about it before.
He sighed heavily ─ there was no use wondering about it anymore. Though, there was a small part of him that still couldn't let go, that was a little peeved over not being able to solve it all on his own. Quit it. He scolded himself. You're sounding like-
"Your older brother." Conan couldn't help but jump, startled to hear Ai's voice so suddenly. "Doesn't it make you wonder, how many relatives you have out there?" The boy paused for a second, giving the girl an odd look, until she eventually sighed out of frustration. "That's obviously a joke, Conan-kun."
"O-Of course I knew that." Conan laughed awkwardly.
"I was talking about our self imposed 'friend'." Ai suddenly became serious as she turned to look ahead of her, frowning at nowhere in particular. "That mysterious raven-black magician."
Instantly, the boy stilled, turning to the window once more. "Yeah," he mumbled absently, hand sliding inside his pocket as he just sat there, frowning at the memory of that magician and, more specially, the crows that accompanied him.
"You shouldn't have done that, though, Conan." Agasa scolded him lightly, to which the boy could only blink in confusion. "Trying to face a dangerous person like that..."
"I don't think he was actually dangerous," Ai added calmly. "Despite how he looked, he wasn't one of them. Besides..." She turned to look at the boy, smirking lightly. "Judging by the way he asked Shinichi-san if KID was with him, I'd say he has quite a good idea of who it was."
"Eh?" The Professor's eyes widened considerably. "Is that true?!"
Conan took his time to reply. "Actually..." His grip curled around the object inside his pocket, careful not to ruin the fragile thing. "I'm not all that sure myself."
But he was going to ─ he was definitely going to solve this mystery. Yet, it seemed that would have to wait, considering that the small porcelain shop in question was just around the corner, Conan noticed straightening up at the sight of it, instantly.
The moment the car stopped right in front of it, Conan rushed out, Ai following right behind, leaving the professor to hurriedly pay the taxi driver and chase after the two children. By the time he had caught up with them, they were already interrogating the workers, inquiring if something weird had happened earlier.
Unsurprisingly, it had. For a while, they had been having problems with someone hanging strange decorations on the signboard every day.
Conan hummed, eyes narrowing as he inspected the strange object Ai had in her hand, or more specifically, at the threads of various colors that were attached to a bell, with a letter in each of them, tied together into something akin to cork. "There's a title in there," observed Agasa, doing his best to be useful somehow. "But I can't read it."
The boy glanced at the stained letters and smirked. "That's A Study in Scarlet, most likely," he said, and immediately started untangling them. "There's the scarlet thread of murder running though the colourless skein of life, and our duty is to unravel it, and isolate it..." Grinning, he held the bell with the vivid red thread up for the other two to see. "... and expose every inch of it."
"I see," mumbled Ai, gently taking the bell from the boy's fingers to have a look herself. "On the bell attached to the scarlet thread, the letter 'R' is written."
Conan nodded, turning back to his phone, typing something out ─ he was texting his brother, that was Ai's best guess. "Apparently, Ran-neechan and Occhan found an 'U' at Elephant and the Castle."
"Then..." Agasa frowned. "The keyword's seven letters are 'T', 'N', 'A', 'A', 'S', 'U' and 'R.'"
"No." The boy looked so serious as he said that. "It looks like we can leave it as just one 'A'."
"Have you figured it out?" Ai asked, and he nodded in return.
"The letters are arranged as 'S', 'A', 'T', 'U', 'R' and 'N', meaning..."
"WHAT?!" Aoko suddenly raised from her seat, eyes wide and thoroughly terrified. "What do you mean by 'Saturday'?! That's tomorrow!"
"Hey, hey..." Kuroba was unquestionably awake now. "Didn't you say that Conan-kun just got the letter 'N'?" The nod he received just made things even more confusing for him. "That doesn't spell 'Saturday', does it?"
"Of course it doesn't." Shinichi rolled his eyes. "It spells 'Saturn'."
"The planet Saturn, or the Soil Planet..." Akako hummed for herself for a couple of seconds. "It's related to the Soil Day, or Saturday..."
"Wait a minute," Aoko said, slowly lowering back to her seat. "Here in London, they wouldn't call it the Soil Planet or anything, right?"
"Saturnus." They all turned to Hakuba, whose eyes were closed while he thought. "The word 'Saturday' comes from the Farming God of Roman mythology. Saturnus' Day became Saturday. And considering that 'Saturnus' is pronounced 'Saturn' in English, thinking that something is going to happen on Saturday is the natural outcome." Once he opened them again, he focused on the detective in front of him and frowned. "That was what you were thinking, weren't you, Hirai-kun?"
"But even if we know when-!" Kaito suddenly exclaimed, cold sweat collecting on his forehead, at the thought..
"We still don't know where," Akako completed, drastically calmer, shifting her attention to his silent classmate. "That would prove to be troublesome."
All the while, Shinichi could only sigh, hastily closing his brother's text to open the map application. London is enormous. He wanted to tear his hair out of frustration, scrolling around the city rapidly, hoping that he could somehow deduce the localization, but to no avail. And we don't have much time, either… Damn it!
What are you scheming, Hades?!
"Apollo!" someone cried in English. "That's Apollo's voice!"
When she heard, Ran raised her head to see a car stopping right in front of them, just for a window to lower, allowing her to see the face of a woman, blonde as the little boy tagging along with them, and wearing sunglasses. Immediately, her mind went back to when Apollo told her that his mother was blind, and wondered if she was the woman he had been talking about. Sure enough, the boy ran to her, calling her 'Mom', and asking how she knew he was there.
"I was solving the code you told me about. I figured the second line meant this place..." she replied, smiling in the driver's direction. "See? It's just as I said, Ares."
Ares nodded his head. "As expected of a Sherlockian."
Blinking a bit, she focused on the man in the front. Ares, she remembered that name, clearly. Just as she had commented to her father that Conan had gotten a clue at St. Bride's Church, the blonde kid had perked up, commenting he knew that place very well. In fact, he used to come with his sister a lot when he was younger. She used to say that she and Ares would get married there someday.
That, of course, had been before her father, and Ares' coach, passed away in an accident while he was heading towards his match. Shaken by his death, and blaming himself for it, he had begun training her, so that she would win at Wimbledon, thus fulfilling her father's dream. Then, he just quit and broke things with her altogether.
"In tennis, love is zero," he had said then. "No matter how much you add to zero, you'll just lose miserably."
Those words had been carved into Minerva's heart ever since, living up to them until that day. Ran, too, had come to believe those words… But then...
Shinichi's determined gaze from the other day flashed in her mind for a second, causing her to frown, hand raising to rest on top of chest. Next time I see Minerva-san… She smiled to herself. I will tell her that.
"Let's head back to the hotel," Apollo's mother said to her child. "You can continue this after we all return from cheering Minerva on tomorrow."
"But, Mom, tomorrow-!"
That confused Ran by a lot. "Say," she said, crouching closer to the whining boy. "If I remember correctly, your mom's eyes..."
"Even though she can't see, she can tell by sound!" Apollo replied, grinning as if nothing had happened. "That's why Mom always goes to only the finals!" Then his smile faltered, remembering something. "Last year, Mom didn't go to cheer at Roland Garros and Minerva lost-"
"Apollo!" she interrupted him. "Do as I say and get in the car!"
"But, even though we've already solved the entire code and gotten the keywords, we still don't know where, or what's going to happen!"
Little did he know that, from around the corner, a shadowy figure was observing him. That's because you haven't solved it yet, he thought, giving the woman in the car one last look, letting a rather sinister smile draw on his face. Well, I've extended you the proper courtesy. He turned around to leave them alone. The blame for not being able to stop my final act of revenge is on all of you.
You, who have not been able to understand my Book of Revelations. You should curse your incompetence...
"Well, Holmes' Apprentice is on the case, right?" He stopped short in his tracks, head snapping to look at the smiling woman from over his shoulder. "I'm sure that child will solve it for you."
He watched them talk for a full second before he relaxed.
Holmes' Apprentice? Doing his best to contain his laughter, the man subsequently left. Don't make me laugh.
A/N:
CherryGirl 21-6:
Unfortunately, it seems I'm not using that case, but as you said, I suppose it could be used somewhere else ─ come to think of it, Conan really gets hurt quite a lot, doesn't he? xD Thank you for suggesting it, I will think about it ;)
Rene:
Is there a picture like that? I don't think I have seen it, I just thought it would look cute on her… Anyway, I'm glad you liked it! And yeah, she will use that tulip again at least once in the future.
F. C. Meyer:
Well, I might have made another mistake there xD. I was so sure that I had put it there, apparently I didn't, but Shinichi actually has a slightly darker skin color when he is in disguise. Last chapter, he hurriedly wiped the makeup off his face before going to meet her. I had to edit that one and add it in the last chapter since it was supposed to be something important later on… Sorry.
About the grammar mistakes, I fixed a few of them. Since you mentioned that the 'he/she' one appeared at least twice, I suppose there still is at least one of them, but I keep reading over it without realizing… Anyway, thank you a lot for letting me know!