File One Hundred and Forty-One: The Red Woman
That year's summer holidays were dragging on longer than he had expected.
Certainly, Conan had never dreamt of the day he would come to think like this, but objectively, that might have been the most chaotic and stressful summer holiday he had ever had. And here he had thought last year's had been bad enough, when actually, nothing of major importance had probably happened apart from the usual, occasional murder of the week ─ or the day.
How did this become my life? the boy wondered, surely not for the first time.
And the feeling was especially potent now, as he walked in between the group of high school girls, like he had probably been doing for about an hour so already. Deprived of a nice day at home reading in peace ─ he would have to thank Kogoro for that ─ or to even drag his feet to express his unwillingness to be right there ─ because he would most likely trip on random branches or uneven grounding if he refused to walk normally.
Maybe school wasn't so bad after all.
"Ah~! This feels great!" Sonoko exclaimed suddenly, stretching out her arms to express her pure and utter delight. "Nothing beats a walk through the forest!"
"Actually, I can, in fact, think of a few things that can beat a walk through the forest."
And not even Sonoko's dirty glare could drive these thoughts from his mind.
"Now, now, Conan-kun, don't be like that," Ran tried to smile, trying to be as calm and soothing as possible. "After all the trouble Sera-san went through to invite us…"
Conan raised a single eyebrow. And I'm supposed to feel grateful towards her?
Even though he stole one swift glance towards the girl in question, she didn't seem even a little bothered about it.
"If you knew you would hate it this much," Sonoko's face crossed his sight, obscuring the female detective from sight. "Couldn't you have just stayed home?"
"Actually, I asked him earlier if he wanted to stay home instead," Ran said, her eyebrows knitted in confusion. "But he insisted on coming along."
Perplexed glances tore away from each other to fall back on his being. Conan pointedly ignored them, content to pretend there was no one there but himself and nature itself. But then, for whatever reason, Sera chuckled, making it impossible to delude himself any longer.
"Could it be…" Sera began, a broad grin popping up into existence, "... that Conan-kun was actually worried about Ran-kun?"
Maybe his wince had not been as noticeable as he thought it was, but he wasn't too hopeful. Not with Ran looking at him so closely, blinking in utter surprise as, ever so slowly, realization dawned on her. Once it finally did, a smile split her face in two, and the boy regretted ever coming there at all.
When Ran had told him yesterday that she was going to have lunch with her mother, he hadn't thought anything could go too wrong. He had never imagined Ran would be knocked out in a stranger's shower, lying over said stranger's dead body and under yet another stranger ─ a living one, thankfully. All because some stupid culprit decided it would be a fine day to frame his girlfriend for murder, and that it would be phenomenal to use an innocent bystander and some chloroform to make his trick work. Sera, who she had met there by chance, had figured it out easily enough, though.
She was caught in a case even though I wasn't there. Or my brother. Conan found it curious, actually. Ah, but then again, Sera-neechan was there, too…
Maybe it's a thing with detectives? Perhaps he should change his line of profession, thought the child.
"Cheer up, Conan-kun," Sera suddenly said. Conan replied with a bored glance. "I'm sure you won't regret coming here."
"I already am."
"That's because you haven't heard about it." Sera's little fang popped up into existence as she grinned, brightly so. "About the mystery of the rental villa we're headed to."
Conan perked up at that.
"Mystery?" Ran echoed. Just as surprised as Sonoko, she blinked owlishly at Sera.
"Yeah. One of my brother's high school friends asked him to solve it."
Brother? Conan internally parroted. He hadn't heard about Sera having any siblings ─ an older one, from the way she seemed to talk about him. Come to think of it, Ran said her mother heard her talking to someone on the phone, he remembered. And kept attaching 'nii' to his name…
So she was talking to her brother, huh? He halted for a single, imperceptible second as a thought suddenly crossed his mind. An older brother who has been interested in mysteries since high school at least…
Yeah. I have definitely never heard of anything even remotely similar to that before.
"It seems he's busy right now," she added. "And since I'm a high school detective, he asked me to go instead."
"Is your brother a detective, too?" asked Ran.
"No, but apparently he quickly took care of any incidents or mysteries that came up during high school."
The response had Conan's shoulders dropping, strangely relieved by the revelation. And was just about to sigh accordingly when he heard one, coming from somewhere outside his own being, perplexing him enough to stop mid action.
He didn't even know how to feel about Sonoko being so similarly relieved. Or the odd glance that Sera sent her right afterwards.
"But wait," Ran said suddenly, oblivious to everything else. "I thought your brother passed away."
It drew Conan's attention back to Sera, who continued smiling regardless of the question thrown at her. "That was my oldest brother," she clarified, a bit of a chuckle escaping her. "The one who received the request was my middle brother."
Conan observed her for a while, his eyes wide behind thick lenses. "Two older brothers and one younger sister," he murmured, more to himself than to anyone else. And one of them died.
She nodded at him, and he was unable to explain how she seemed to shine so brightly despite the subject at hand. But then, he would note there was a certain stiffness, hidden to the naked eye, that denoted a certain amount of acting and a good deal of lying. Whether it was to fool herself or anyone else, the kid had no way of knowing.
"We all have different surnames, though." Sera seemed to take genuine amusement in their visible confusion, though. "Things would happen, like our father dying… I use my mother's maiden name. My middle brother was Sera, too, until he graduated from high school."
Conan had a lot of questions, but even he knew how horribly insensitive it would be to ask any of them.
"Then, before he became Sera…" He couldn't help himself, though. Curiosity was nagging at him, stinging with an unrelenting force with every second he kept his words to himself. "What was his name?"
Emerald eyes flickered over his small self, but the sparkle within wasn't enough to chase the shadows framing her gaze.
"Red."
Both detectives' attention shifted to Sonoko, who had been mumbling to herself. Her pace had long ceased to be, her gaze fixed somewhere in the surrounding foliage, unmoving as if in a trance.
"Wasn't there a red person behind that tree a second ago?"
He hadn't noticed Ran had adopted the same stare until she nodded ─ hesitantly, as if she didn't believe what her own two eyes had just shown her. "A long-haired woman wearing a raincoat and red boots."
Conan raised his gaze, scanned every inch of the forest that was visible to him, and found nothing at all ─ not even a shift in the leaves, not even a shadow, nothing. Hoping to widen his field of vision, he took a tentative step forward ─ perhaps with a new perspective, he would be able to see something.
But to no avail. The forest remained dormant, their voices echoing through the silence.
Sera frowned. "The Red Woman."
Certainly, Conan had no idea what she was talking about. So, naturally, his mouth opened to ask for clarification, but not a single question left his lips . Instead, a startled, embarrassingly loud scream butted in and rushed out before anything else, propelled forward by the sudden lack of footing beneath his shoe, and the subsequent demonstration of the forces of gravity upon him.
Fortunately, he managed to catch himself just before Ran was able to use her voice to scream his name, out of well-founded concern. A cry that he clearly was obviously unable to answer, far too busy staring at the swamp that had suddenly manifested in front of his eyes ─ and into which he had narrowly avoided diving face first.
There was no denying that, when Sera extended her hand to him, he had been in too much of a hurry to accept her help. She pulled him back with astounding ease ─ not really, but he liked to believe that it took a little more effort than that ─ and soon he was left to kneel there, on safe ground, trying to collect himself after what might have been a tragic outcome of a harmless day off in the woods. He was probably being a little too dramatic, he later realized, but failed to care.
"Watch your step," Sera warned. "Apparently, there's quicksand in this forest."
"Seriously?!" cried Sonoko and Ran in unison.
And Conan merely hung his head in defeat. I should have stayed home, he lamented, not for the first time today.
"So that's how it's going to be? Fine, I'll find out for myself."
With an exasperated huff, the laptop was shut down, making use of fairly more force than strictly necessary. Silence rose anew with the end of the call, though the faint whisper of his thoughts remained, growing exponentially until it drowned out anything and everything his senses could perceive.
A hand rose, seeking comfort by pressing the heel of his hand to his forehead.
"I take it that didn't go well."
The words had not come from his lips, so naturally, the magician almost fell off his seat as he whirled around. A detective had suddenly materialized at his doorway, curiously waiting for a reply as he closed the front door behind him.
"How long have you been there for?"
A shrug was all Kaito got from him, but instead of asking for anything further, he stopped. There were certain differences from the last time he had seen Shinichi, such as the scratches and cuts decorating his skin at random places, and of course, the bandage that was wrapped around his head.
"Where… were you?"
"A birthday party."
Rare as it was, Kaito failed to put together a response to that. Shinichi omitted comment on such an extraordinary fact, choosing to slip back to the guest room he had abandoned for a few days now, likely to put back in place his far too light baggage.
"Is everything okay with Chikage-san?" he called from a distance.
"How did you know?" Kaito asked back.
"That weary expression you have. I've seen it several times before, in my own face."
Somehow, Kaito did not think of questioning that. He might not have known Kudo Yukiko all that well, but from what he had learned, personality wise, she bore some resemblance to his own mother. He shuddered.
"That, and I overheard the last bit of your conversation."
"That's cheating, Meitantei."
"I don't want to hear that from you."
Shinichi's steps foretold his arrival in the living room, but by that time, Kaito wasn't watching out for it anymore. Long, slender fingers fiddled with a black feather, indigo eyes following it as it spun back and forth in contemplation.
Next to the discarded computer, the detective found a photograph of a young boy. Takagi may have had the best intentions in mind when he left it in Kaito's care, but he had no idea. Its mere existence was like a ghost that haunted him ─ and those around him.
"It's the same with my dad," Shinichi finally said. "I showed him the picture, and I know he knows something. But he wouldn't say anything."
Kaito remained awfully quiet; a surreal, disconcerting sight.
"I don't think he helped Toichi-san escape death." Shinichi fell into a back-and-forth pace, his finger tucked under his chin, where it should be. "For three years, he genuinely did his best to find him."
"Desperately," remembered Kaito. While he had always wished the man had done much more, it was true that he had done everything in his power to see the case through; in the way a close friend would. "Until he suddenly dropped the case, and decided he was dead beyond a shadow of doubt… What did he see, I wonder, that prompted him to reach that conclusion?"
"Or maybe it was the contrary," Shinichi said. "He may have found your father and decided to keep the secret as well. Or even…"
"Or even help him."
Shinichi nodded. Once more, his eyes fell on the picture in question, sharpening upon contact.
"Detective Takagi is on to something," concluded Kaito. "Why did he get this photo in the first place?"
"We need to find out how much he knows," Shinichi said. "We'll start there, and then figure out the rest."
Kaito nodded, solemnly quiet. "I'll see what I can do."
It took them only a few minutes to reach their intended destination, and to be honest, Conan wasn't sure of what he had been expecting to see. The sea of trees they had been venturing into for so long opened wide to allow the rental villa house to peer out from its hiding place; it was just the right size, too, and if looks were anything to go by, seemed to be a cozy place to rest for a few days.
Of course, if you ignored the vivid red door that stuck out like a sore thumb. Sonoko had called it 'creepy', and Conan had no choice but to agree.
"Maybe someone was murdered in there," Conan commented after giving the door a long, analytical look. "And they couldn't get the bloodstains off it."
Both Sonoko and Ran collectively flinched, but Sera laughed the comment off.
"Blood gets darker as time passes, so you'd better paint it black if that was the case. He's just messing with you."
Their reaction was loud, and so were their complaints, but Conan actually saw none of it. By then, he had already been on his way to approach the door, examining it with eyes sharp beyond their years.
By itself, the red color was nothing to be confused about. While it was sort of creepy, it wasn't strange for extravagant people, or those with truly weird tastes, to be roaming around on Earth ─ even at his young age, Conan had met more than a few of that kind. His parents, for one.
But there was something that kept him from looking away. Perhaps it was that 'Red Woman' Sera had mentioned, but neglected to explain before. The color was the same, that much was obvious, and she had been called to solve a mystery here, in this villa. It was simply too much to be called a coincidence.
"Are you Sera-kun's sister and her friends?"
With a pleased smile on her lips, Sera turned her attention away from the boy. There was a woman politely greeting the group, though behind her friendly smile hid the unspoken question concerning the identity of her friend's sister. The way her eyes shifted from Sonoko to Ran wasn't promising enough to her.
"I'm his sister, Masumi."
She hadn't been able to completely conceal her surprise upon the revelation, observed Conan. Deciding it was too early to invite himself inside, he lazily made his way over to the group.
"These are my classmates, Suzuki Sonoko-kun and Mouri Ran-kun." The girls in question greeted accordingly. "And this is the kid under Ran-kun's family's care, Edogawa Conan-kun."
Contrary to the others, Conan opted to stare up at Minegishi Tamami, offering no word at all. But his introduction seemed to be far from over, seeing how Sera grinned from ear to ear as she added, "He's an even sharper detective than me."
He would rather have skipped that part.
"Eh~?" Tamami leaned a little closer to him and smiled down at him. "Is that true?"
"No, it isn't," was his answer. Plain and simple. It had the woman hesitating, though, so he spoke in her stead, "Sera-neechan mentioned a request…"
She blinked, as if she had suddenly remembered it. "Oh, yeah. We took some photographs to document the strange occurrence at this rental villa," she explained. Conan wanted to ask what was this 'strange occurrence', but she had already turned back to the teenage detective, leaving him unable to do anything but to wonder to himself. For the time being. "Sumika said she'd have them printed and bring them here… Oh, there she is."
Just in time, too, the person who he assumed to be Sumika showed up. She was a young lady of quite a few words, so she had walked over to Sera to hand her the envelope with nothing but a brief "Do your best."
She entered the villa without further ado, and Conan was kind of tempted to follow her inside. But he doubted Ran wouldn't appreciate it ─ it was a little rude, after all.
Tamami was left behind to apologize on her friend's behalf. "Sumika's shy," she said. "She's always like that around new people."
Sonoko snorted. "Reminds me of someone."
Conan pretended he didn't hear that.
Right after her departure ─ or arrival ─ came Ninda Jinsuke and Hakuya Masaie, who, as predicted, did not even consider Sera to be the female detective they had been waiting for. In fact, they had assumed she was the boyfriend of the aforementioned sister ─ which, understandably, did not settle right with Sera at all.
At this point, even Conan was beginning to get tired of the same thing happening over and over again. He couldn't even imagine what it must have been like for the girl in question.
Yet none of them seemed to mind too much, and instead, fell back on a casual, friendly conversation ─ or rather, Ninda did. Hakuya was too busy being embarrassed after being exposed for getting stuck in a swamp in the middle of changing, and needing a helping hand from his friend there, for anything else.
Ninda let out a bark of laughter, adjusting the hold of the bag he had been carrying. It was strangely long and thin, making it hard for the only kid in the group to figure out its contents.
So he asked ─ of course he did.
"Oh, this? It's a bat. I bring it every year to drive them off."
Conan laded his head to the side. Drive them off?
"Are there any bears?" Sonoko asked, slightly worried.
Ninda was about to laugh it off.
"No." To his surprise, it was the little boy who had answered in his stead. "It's probably just the spirit of the Red Woman."
He didn't miss the way those three fell silent, still enough to blend in with nature.
Ran's reaction was widely different, though. "Conan-kun!"
"I was joking!" He grinned brightly. "You can't hit a ghost with that, can you?"
"That's… Nevermind."
The conversation was dissuaded between bouts of laughing and annoyed protests. Knowing that the introduction had long been over with already, the group of teenagers and child invited themselves into the villa. They wondered if Sumika, who was currently inside, needed help of any kind.
Sera stole one last glance towards the rest of the group just before entering.
They all, without exception, looked as if they had seen a ghost.
At least, the food was good.
Good, however, would be a simplistic way to put it; those hamburgers they had been served were, quite frankly, something out of this world. There was something about the way the egg yolk cascaded down onto the plate, about how it blended with the meat and the rest of the flavors, that had Conan pause in both contemplation and surprise.
"Tamami-san! These hamburgers are delicious!" praised Ran, in utter delight. "Right, Conan-kun?"
It took a moment longer for Conan to recognize he had been addressed. "It's… not bad."
Ran replied with a knowing smile that had him looking away. Okay, sure, he would admit it was delicious. But that didn't change the fact that he wasn't exactly overjoyed to be here.
In doing so, he caught sight of a certain female detective who, like the others, was enjoying her own hamburger. A knife sliced with astonishing ease, meat yielding to the blade's way just as easily as a pat of butter; Conan could not take his eyes away from the scene, surprised for some reason.
"You're good with a fork and knife," the boy pointed out.
She laughed lightly in response. "I was terrible when I was a kid, but I got used to it after living abroad for three years."
"You can tell she used to live in America," Sonoko commented.
Oh, America? The recent bout of knowledge surprised him at first, but the interest vanished in no time at all; the still not quite yet finished hamburger was calling out to him, after all. Having lived in America for a few years himself, Conan was also quite adept at using the utensils ─ especially with his mother right there, in every step of the way, making sure to drill in his head the etiquette proper of his country.
All the bit of good mood he had left him in a tired sigh, flashbacks of those days with his mother tormented him to this day. Though gently, so as not to be noticed, he dropped the knife and swiftly passed the fork to his right hand; if the bite was a tad more violent, thanks to the sudden surge of memories, no one thought to point it out.
Everything dispelled, and his muscles froze. The girl continued to munch on her food with an expression of complete bliss, too preoccupied with her task to notice the slight widening of blue behind thick glasses. She had quite a firm grip on her utensils ─ fork to the left, knife to the right ─ like it had been, ever since the food had been served.
Conan tilted his head, reasonably puzzled.
"You have food on your face, Conan-kun." A napkin pressing to his cheek prevented the boy from asking any questions, and forced a groan out instead ─ really, Ran could have just told him. He was pretty much capable of cleaning after himself, thank you very much. "By the way, why did you come here together?"
"Our high school outdoor club," replied Sumika, not bothering to explain any further.
Hakuya did it for her. "We used to go mountain climbing and camping together."
"Since we were in high school, most of what we did was summer break," Ninda said.
"But we had fun," Tamami added with a fond smile. "We only had five members, though."
Five members? There was something wrong with it. He could count perfectly fine ─ his intellectual gifts aside, he was in third grade. That much he could manage on his own, and he knew there were only four people in there, without taking into consideration his own group. "Was Sera-neechan's brother a member too?"
"What? Oh, no." Tamami could not keep herself from giggling at the thought that crossed her mind. "Sera-kun's interests were very different from ours."
"Then, if it wasn't him," Ran pipped in. "Does that mean that the woman in red we saw in the forest earlier is your fifth?"
It was that innocent question, just that one, that cut through the ambience with the precision of a razor blade. First came the clatter, then the realization that Tamami's grip on the tray she was carrying had slipped. Puddles of water formed under the glasses that, instead of shattering beyond repair like Conan would have expected, simply toppled over.
Tamami went pale with fear. Sumika, who usually preferred to stay out of the conversation, was shouting at Ran, desperately asking for clarification of her story. Which she, though shaken by the unexpected, different spectrums of fear and bewilderment, gave out without much protest. The girl told them about how she, alongside Sonoko, had spotted a woman in the forest. She described her as long-haired, wearing a red raincoat and red boots ─ and she hadn't even gotten to the end of it when Hakuya rose from his seat.
"No way!" he was yelling. "There's no way Satoko is alive!"
The unfamiliar name surprised Conan. From the way they were acting just now, he had been sure it had something to do with this 'Red Woman' Sera had been muttering about earlier. If a mystery like that haunted a villa like this one, one in the middle of the forest at that, Conan suspected that the possibility of this entity being just another ghost story that grew famous around these places was rather high. But for this entity to have a proper name… In fact, it seemed as though Hakuya had known this woman personally.
"Actually," Ninda spoke up, unsure. "I thought it might be the murderer from fifteen years ago."
Hakuya stopped dead in his tracks, as if he hadn't thought of that until then.
"Hey," Sera called them out from their little existential crisis, narrowing her eyes the moment she got their attention. "Could you tell me about that?" She glanced over at the little boy, and smirked lightly at the expression his face had, too, adopted. "Don't you want to know, too, Conan-kun?"
Conan flinched, then nodded ─ hesitation dripping from each and every single one of his movements.
And thus, the one story he had been wondering about for so long was finally revealed.
As it had been explained before, the events occurred fifteen years ago, when an office worker brought his mistress to a rental villa near the one they were currently inhabiting. Knife in hand, the wife had unexpectedly barged in with the sole purpose of ending it all.
Alerted by the noise, the police had rushed to the scene, but by then, it was too late. Upon opening the door, they found the husband's motionless body, all but sinking into a sea of his own blood.
And in the middle of it all stood the woman in question; her expression contorted unnaturally, a smile so wide it was painful to see fixed on her face.
Her raincoat, once spotless, pristine white, had turned bright red. It earned her the name she would be known by for the years to come. A menace that was said to be still roaming the woods, avoiding capture; perhaps waiting for the day when she could plunge her knife, covered in the long dried blood of her husband and the policeman who had tried to stop her, into the chest of yet another unsuspecting victim.
She was known as the Red Woman.
She wouldn't be spotted again three years later, by one high schooler, Imoto Satoko, who had come to this rental villa during summer vacation with the other club members. Whilst searching for her in the forest, her friends lost sight of their friend, and she wasn't found until a week later ─ covered in mud, having sunk so deep into the quicksand that she would not have been found had her shoes not been there, forgotten somewhere beside the swamp.
Since the knife used in the other murder had been found there, everyone had concluded that Satoko had been chased by the Red Woman and fallen to her death in the swamp.
For Conan, it took all of his power not to shudder at the notion that he, too, had almost fallen into the same swamp earlier today.
In any case, the reason Sera had been summoned had little-to-nothing to do with the Red Woman ─ well, sort of. Apparently there was a prankster that seemed to enjoy making life difficult for this group of friends, who had made it a tradition to spend the day here, each year, on the anniversary of the discovery of Satoko's body.
Broken windows, apples rolling around, rose petals stuffed into the water heater, red paint splashed all over the front door… It was hard to keep track of all the strange things that had been happening there for at least two years now.
And now, the Red Woman herself… This prankster was determined, it seemed.
"I see." Sera nodded after a moment of processing all the new information she had acquired. "I've got the big picture now. We need to solve the mystery surrounding the Red Woman."
"No," she was told ─ certainly not for the first time. "You should leave the Red Woman to the police-"
"Okay! I'm going to search the forest!"
Despite being told to stay put for about a dozen of times, Sera ran out the door with an excited grin covering her face. Tamami gasped at the sight, but reacted too late ─ by the time she had stretched a hand to stop the girl from going, she had already disappeared from sight.
Recognizing a lost case when she saw one, Ran released a lengthy sigh, deciding against stopping her friend ─ she was a detective. Experience had long since taught Ran how useless it would be to try to stop one when such an exciting case was unfolding before them.
"Ran?" Sonoko called, blinking in surprise. "I can't see the four-eyed brat anywhere."
After a quick scan of the room, to confirm what her friend had just told her, Ran pressed a hand to her head. She should have known this was going to happen, too.
For all he prided himself on his uncanny ability of keeping a level head in the face of danger and being absolutely capable of thinking logically at all times ─ unlike some people ─ it wasn't nearly the first time Conan caught himself thinking that he should have thought things better.
But after hearing that story, about the mystery that the figure of the Red Woman hid from everyone's eyes, he hadn't been able to help himself. And here he had thought he was nothing like some other high school detective he happened to know, one who was always eager to tackle a case head first if it caught his fancy… Maybe he wasn't built any differently, as he had hoped.
In any case, the chain of events led him to chase after Sera, and lend her a hand in a thorough search for clues in the woods ─ that returned no results whatsoever. Now that the excitement had faded, came the realization that she wasn't truly the best person to be alone with.
Not with those sharp eyes of hers, that seemed capable of unveiling the darkest of secrets that he had carefully hidden deep within himself. She appeared to be particularly interested in scrutinizing him today, which really, more than uncomfortable, it was just beginning to feel like an utter nuisance.
So, he replicated that look. Not that he was capable of seeing through just as well as she could, but he liked to pretend he could.
Finally, she appeared to be satisfied enough to grin. "You're good too."
Conan paused, then quirked an eyebrow back at her.
"You mentioned before that I was good with a fork and a knife, didn't you?" she explained. "Well, you're good too."
"Oh, um, thanks?" He had no idea where this was coming from, so abruptly at that.
"Have you lived abroad as well, Conan-kun?"
Ah, so that was what it was about. "For a while, yeah," he admitted. It wasn't like she wouldn't eventually find out, even if he lied to her, anyway. In fact, a high school detective pondering about the reason why he would try to hide that seemingly insignificant piece of information may bring all sorts of complications down the road he would rather skip.
"It was America, wasn't it?"
His eyes opened wide with surprise. "How do you know that?"
"I knew it from the way you switched your knife and fork while you were eating," she said, a bright grin etched into her features. She held up a finger, as she finished explaining her all-too-brief deduction, that could barely be called deduction, to the seemingly bewildered boy walking right beside her. "That's the American style."
"Which you weren't using." Sera felt herself hesitate, but Conan trotted ahead ─ giving off the impression of a cheerful little child enjoying a day in the woods in summer. "Does that mean you're not from America, after all?"
She fell silent for a moment, which Conan took advantage of. He stopped in his tracks a few steps ahead, twirling on his feet. Hands clasped behind his back, he gave her the most innocently curious expression he could muster and asked, "Where are you from, Sera-neechan?"
Now, Conan might have expected all sorts of responses to his inquiry. But somehow, he didn't expect her to chuckle ─ her smile still going strong and blinding. Canine tooth included and everything.
"Wanna guess~?"
Conan contemplated it for a beat, then spun back around. "I'll pass, thank you."
He knew better than to go down that road. His sudden lack of interest clearly disappointed her, judging by the click of her tongue ensued, but she did not pursue the case any further. Should he have, though? Conan wasn't sure. While the risk of exposing himself was remarkably high, there were some points he could not explain.
Like, Sonoko had mentioned that Sera lived in America, which was unlikely. Sonoko could be many things, and the way her mind worked was sometimes a true wonder for the child detective, but the truth still stood. There was no way she could have made that association out of the blue ─ not unaided, anyway.
Had Sera told her she came from America? Why would she do that?
Sera's steps halted, her gaze, overcome by a sudden wave of surprise, rested somewhere ahead of herself. "Over there. Isn't that….?"
The Red Woman? was his first thought. Turning his head just quickly enough not to snap his neck in half, the boy searched the forest, looking out for the silhouette of the person they had been trying to investigate for the past hour or so.
Right in front of them, separated from the woods by an unpaved road, there was a small market building, and instead of a woman, he found a man; arms full of bags upon bags of what Conan would assume to be groceries and other indispensable goods. Even though he had not met Ninda for a long time, Conan found the frown on his face foreign, but he didn't find it strange. It must be difficult to carry all of that by himself.
A pity, really. My condolences. Bowing his head solemnly, Conan started to walk in the opposite direction.
"Hey!" Sera's sudden yell almost had Conan jumping out of his skin. "Ninda-san! Over here!"
She was waving at him, doing the exact opposite of blending in with nature ─ as Conan would have much preferred. Unfortunately, and to no one's surprise ─ not Conan's, at the very least ─ Ninda spotted them, and his expression lit up. There was something like relief in there, and Conan wanted no part of it.
"I'm so glad I ran into you guys!" Ninda breathed out upon joining the pair. He motioned to his bags and smiled nervously. "Would you two mind giving me a hand?"
Yes.
"Not at all!"
Conan deflated with a huff ─ he knew this was bound to happen. He didn't get to comment on it, or rather, he chose not to. Instead, he silently walked up to the man and reluctantly held out his hands to retrieve his part of the job that had been nudged to him against his will.
Instead of the bags, however, there was a strange chilly feeling against his fingertips. Conan found himself blinking at a can, which he turned over from side to side to examine. It wasn't coffee ─ of course it wasn't ─ but an ice-cold can of orange juice seemed just ideal considering the sweltering summer heat that was dragging him down.
"You can have these," said Ninda, smiling from ear to ear as he passed another to Sera. "In exchange for helping me out."
Sera grinned ─ maybe a little too widely for a can of juice, but Conan wasn't judging her. He contemplated the offering for a moment too long, then with a muttered 'thank you', popped the tab on his can.
Okay, maybe it wasn't all that bad ─ he had to stay positive, he told himself.
Only a few minutes later, however, Conan found himself fumbling with a bag of oranges and a frown of concentration etched onto his little face out of determination, so as not to let anything fall. In this swamp they were in, anything that slipped out of their grasp might as well be lost to the forces of nature ─ nobody in their right mind would eat that.
Several times, Sera asked if he wanted her to carry his share instead. Each time, he refused, the frown deepening.
Tamami had been surprised to see the three of them upon opening the door to the rental villa. Conan understood the feeling; he was, too.
They fell into a casual conversation afterwards, as Sera commented that their search had been deemed a failure. Not that Tamami seemed to mind much, and went on her way to announce that dinner would be her speciality, and probably a lot more that Conan should have paid attention to, but did not.
For there were still several people missing in the room. After setting the oranges safely on the table, he took a good look around, but found nothing ─ nothing new today.
"Where is Ran-neechan?"
"She should be in the bathroom with Sumika and Sonoko-chan. They said they'd take a bath since they finished cleaning."
That actually sounded nice ─ a warm, relaxing soak after an entire day of doing nothing but walking around the forest looking for ghosts or whatever. Conan wondered if he would get the chance, too, after the girls were done with theirs.
"W-WHAT IS THIS?!"
Okay, maybe not so relaxing. Wondering what had happened now, Conan bolted in the direction of the bathroom without waiting for anyone, although he knew that Sera was pretty close behind. He stumbled inside without any warning, and sure enough, he found the three girls, their bodies covered in towels, as they cuddled together with their backs facing him.
Curious, and sort of worried, Conan carefully threaded into the mist and paused to take a long look at the bath ─ or rather, the several dozen tomatoes that floated into the surface, dying over the green-colored water with the vivid red he had expected to encounter sooner or later during his stay there.
The prankster… already made their move. And… had somehow found their way up to the bathroom on the upper floor with a bunch of tomatoes just for this? No, that made no sense. The prankster had to be one of them ─ the residents of this house.
Kawana Sumika, who stood in front of him, pale as death as she contemplated, in horror, the scene.
Minegishi Tamami who, just like her friend ─ only that more comfortably dressed ─ could not believe what her own two eyes were showing her.
Ninda Jinsuke, who kept screaming from behind the bathroom door, demanding an explanation for the situation he was unable to witness.
And, lastly, Hakuya Masaie, who, uh ─ Conan blinked ─ where was he again?
In his confusion, he didn't notice Sera asking the same thing until Tamami replied, a bit hesitant, too frightened, "Come to think of it, I haven't seen him since lunch…"
"Where did he go?" Sumika wondered aloud, her eyes not leaving the sink full of tomatoes just yet. "He was cleaning the bathrooms, right?"
That... didn't sound good. A glance at Sera let him know that his fears weren't so unfounded, but the confirmation came only after the aforementioned detective approached the scene and dipped her hand deep into the green waters.
And pulled the missing Hakuya's head ─ attached to his body, Conan would deem it appropriate to clarify ─ out of the bathtub. The usual bout of screaming did not take long to emerge. Sera remained calm and composed, though, checking his pulse ─ just in case, but it was obvious just by looking that she wouldn't find any.
She didn't.
"That's…" Ran's voice came small and shaken. "That's Hakuya-san, isn't it?"
Which she could tell just by looking ─ but since it hadn't been Sonoko but Ran who asked, Conan chose to keep it to himself. Instead, he busied himself with taking a good look around at his surroundings, but frankly, he did not find much. Just a tin of bath salts, and maybe the girls' clothes neatly put away for future use, but nothing particularly relevant, either.
At the shock that came with the realization of Hakuya's death, Ran lept backwards. The sudden movement brought Conan's attention back to her, just in time to see her towel slip from her slaking grip.
Conan blinked at her emptily, then crouched down to pick up the towel that had just fallen at her feet.
He grumbled all the way down, though. "Here, Ran-neechan," he said as he handed it back to her. "You have to be more careful."
"Yeah," she laughed awkwardly, flushing lightly with embarrassment as she hurried to cover herself again. "Sorry about that, Conan-kun."
"Nah, it's fine."
With that out of the way, Conan thought he ought to turn his attention back to the body, but he couldn't even do that, apparently. Sera was staring again, her eyes a sliver wider as opposed to the suspicious, usually narrowed glances she would shoot at him.
Lips that had parted slightly clicked closed back together, and the gaze sharpened again. She went back to the body as if nothing had happened, but Conan was too shaken to even do that. He stood there, head tilted in confusion, struggling to piece together what that reaction could mean. Surprise was his first guess, but then he realized that didn't quite cover it.
For whenever someone went through a shocking experience, for less than a second, they would be confused, unable to decipher what lay in front of their eyes.
Not even once had anything remotely similar to confusion danced in her eyes. For Sera, there had been nothing there for her mind to piece out together.
Probably. Conan had to admit he wasn't making sense to himself, either.
In any case, a call to the emergency services later, Detective Uehara was inviting herself into the crime scene, accompanied by a few other investigators and determined, to no one's surprise, that the victim was drowned ─ he had probably been knocked unconscious, too, by a blow from a blunt object to the back of his head.
The victim was Hakuya Masaie, 29 years old, a guest at the rental villa who had been killed while cleaning the bathrooms. It had always been his role, as explained by his friends, assigned to him years ago, and his duty to fulfill each time they stayed there. Similarly, Minegishi Tamami was the one who cooked for everyone, Kawana Sumika cleaned the rooms and hallways, and Jinsuke Ninda did most of the shopping at the nearest store there was ─ which was almost a kilometer away from their position, for the record.
"Once we finished our jobs, we would help the others," Sumika clarified.
Ninda punched the wall in pure frustration, cursing loudly. "If I had helped Hakuya instead of going shopping, this wouldn't have happened!"
Conan was very much inclined to point out that it would have happened either way, somewhere down the line. Taking another look at the elaborate crime scene their criminal had pulled out, he had the feeling that Hakuya had not died because of a stroke of terrible luck, but rather, because of a personal vendetta the killer had against him.
Then again, he was just guessing here. That, and the fact that it would be highly insensitive to point that out, convinced Conan to keep quiet.
Apparently, Tamami had not seen him after he'd left the living room to clean the bathrooms after lunch, but Sumika could have sworn he hadn't been there when she'd checked earlier ─ she had taken a peek while in the company of Ran and Sonoko, drawn by the steam leaking from the room. She had believed he had been thoughtful enough to draw a bath for them, but obviously, she had been wrong.
TThe thing was, they had not noticed anything strange at the time. No floating tomatoes, bright green water due to the bath salts. The temperature had been nice, too ─ as per Ran's account, who had dipped her hand under the surface to check.
"After that, we finished cleaning the rooms and decided to take the first bath together," said Ran.
Sonoko nodded, adding, "And Sumika-san found all those tomatoes in the bathtub. "
Just imagine there were no tomatoes, and that they had actually stepped inside the tub with a dead body right there, sunk in the bottom, kept from floating and thus being noticed by some dumbbells placed atop. Conan cringed at the thought ─ maybe adding the tomatoes had not been that much of an unwelcome move, all things considered.
Now again, the tomatoes were hiding the body from view, Conan realized. Had those not been there, I wonder if they would have seen Hakuya-san either way…
Conan shrugged the thought off, because it wasn't important right now. What he had to figure out first was how. How did the murderer manage to carry a bunch of tomatoes to put in the tub after drowning Hakuya?
Ran looked over to Conan, curious as to why his gaze had fallen on her, and Sonoko, so abruptly. "In what order did you come in?" he asked, only to receive bewilderment in return. "I mean, if the first person to enter had a bag of tomatoes, she could have put them in the tub."
A beat later, maybe two, his words finally dawned on Sonoko. Conan knew, because her face scrunched in a scowl, and her hands went to rest on her waist.
"Don't tell me this kid suspects us," she mumbled, lifting an eyebrow.
"I don't know," Conan didn't even blink. "Should I?"
"Why, you-"
"Sumika-san-" Ran placed her hands on her friend's shoulders, and pulled her back firmly, "-was first. She entered wearing just a towel to uncover the tub."
Sonoko finally yielded, crossing her arms over her chest. "Yeah. Besides, someone would have noticed a bag containing tomatoes." It didn't stop her from glancing over to the little boy with half-lidded eyes. "Are you happy now?"
"That's impossible with you here."
She went for a full-blown glare next. Which, naturally, Conan paid absolutely no attention to, finding the case far more interesting than the glowering girl in the room ─ besides, Ran was already giving them both the look; the one that ordered him, using no words at all, to quit fighting. Seeing that Sonoko wasn't going to stop on her own accord, Conan decided he would be the mature one today and let it go. For now.
If there was one thing he could be sure of, it was that the crime must have taken place in a certain window of time, between Ran and the others checking the water and entering the bathroom after cleaning.
Ninda had been shopping at the time. "It's about a fifteen-minute walk to the store a kilometer away," he explained. "I ran into those two on my way back."
Those two being, of course, Sera and Conan himself. And they could pretty much confirm everything he had said ─ he had even given them canned beverages to drink, to scream out loud. He said he had bought them shortly before their encounter, and considering how cold they were, Conan believed him.
Tamami, however… Her alibi wasn't as solid as Ninda's, since she had been cleaning up after lunch and preparing for dinner, all alone in the kitchen. But, fortunately for her, she had spoken to Ran and Sonoko through the door, inquiring about their opinion for dinner ─ a story they both confirmed.
Looking at the situation like that, Conan could see why Detective Uehara was leaning towards Tamami being the murderer, but Sumika found the logic extremely flawed. Tamami was aware that Sumika usually cleaned the hallways as well, so it would be weird for her to go and kill someone on the first floor.
"Besides, Tamami could never do something like that!"
Conan found it curious that she, her close friend, would say that in the last place, instead of at the very beginning of the argument ─ like nothing but an afterthought. But valid, he supposed.
Uehara's gaze lowered to the floor, deep in thought. "Who did this, then?" came out of her lips, troubled and confused all the same.
"It's obvious," Ninda said. A frown was carved onto his features, his face going even paler than it had been when he found his friend dead in a bathtub. "Hakuya could have only been killed by the Red Woman. It must have been her."
The room plunged into a deadly silence, which Conan could not help but roll his eyes at ─ it was getting ridiculous.
"Yeah, that makes sense," he spoke up. Everyone turned to look at him, but he was too busy shrugging his shoulders to notice the abrupt bout of attention he had gathered. "She obviously lured him into a forest and, after killing him, transported him and several dozen tomatoes back to the bathroom with her fancy supernatural powers. That's why nobody noticed her."
The lack of verbal response had him lifting his head, and felt himself stepping back at the several pairs of unreadable gazes that had fallen onto him, that refused to look away.
Ran had that nervous tug on her lips, reminiscent of a smile that never came to be. "That… was a joke," he added, unhelpfully.
She blinked, then strained out a giggle. "Oh, I knew that, Conan-kun!"
He raised a single eyebrow. Did she really?
"T-This isn't a joking matter!" Ninda choked out. He glanced over at his hands to find them trembling. "The… The Red Woman is alive… Somewhere in this forest."
That was about right, remembered Conan. But the vibe he got from Sera's cryptic mumbling of the name, and the story they had been told little after arriving at that rental villa, kind of gave the impression of yet another cheap ghost story, so he couldn't help it.
So the Red Woman was still alive. Got it.
"That's not possible. The murderer known as the Red Woman, Takeno Komayo, is dead."
Or maybe not? Everyone was looking at the police detective in utter bewilderment as she explained.
It turned out that Satoko had not been the only one found in the swamp that day. A three-year-old corpse had also been discovered, which they had assumed to be Takeno's, thanks to the murder weapon found next to it. They hadn't been able to perform a DNA test until now, when her mother died, leaving behind the umbilical cord she had so jealously guarded all her life.
"The Red Woman died long ago," concluded Uehara, to everyone else's horror. "We were planning on announcing it to the media tomorrow."
Tamami brought her hands to her head. "T-Then, who killed him?!" came out from her lips, shaken beyond belief. "Don't tell me… it is the ghost of the Red Woman."
Conan froze for a second, and then, "Wait, hold on-"
It had been a fine morning like any other when Akako wandered into the forest. Which was not unusual, but rather a behavior that had been repeated ever since she had arrived in this country at the request of a certain prying, yet surprisingly helpful, detective she happened to be acquainted with.
Surprisingly, or not, the traces of those words in stone had not lost their strength over time. Hinata Koizumi, that was the name he had uttered, and so was the name her scarlet gaze could not let go of. Yet the stone felt cold against her fingertips, just like the day before. Or the day before that.
Because, at a large, a name was nothing but a word. It would not, by itself, reveal those secrets she had come here seeking.
It was pointless to come here, thought the girl, a grim smile hung on her lips. She rose to her feet, and granted the stone one final look, as if the spirits of this forest would respond to her wishes and whisper those truths they hid within.
Nothing happened.
That was true, to some degree. Something did happen, something far beyond her own expectations, breaking the silence that had settled on her shoulders. But far from the voices of the dead, Akako confirmed after plucking the device out of her pocket, it was but the call of the living, in the form of a loud beeping that wouldn't stop.
Meaning she had a call. From Nakamori Aoko, oddly enough.
"Akako-chan!" she heard upon picking up. "I'm so glad to get a hold of you!"
She blinked in surprise. "What seems to be the matter?"
"Eh? No, it's nothing…" Her eyebrow rose, not failing to note the hint of sudden embarrassment coloring her caller's words. "I… wanted to know how things are going over there."
Akako fell silent. She couldn't say things were going in an unfavorable direction, yet she could not say the contrary, either.
"Kaito mentioned you were in Devon," continued Aoko. "What are you doing now?"
"I am currently in the woods," she replied, almost hesitantly. "Wistman's Wood, in case you are curious."
"Oh! I think I heard of that place!" Aoko exclaimed, then paused. At a more subdued, almost fearful tone, she added, "Will… Will you be okay, though?"
"Why wouldn't I be?"
"Because they say it's haunted! There are all sorts of ghost stories and legends about that place… Doesn't it bother you?"
Akako could barely keep herself from smirking. It is actually the contrary. She kept her thoughts to herself, opening her mouth to reassure the girl on the line that it would be okay. She knew what she was dealing with ─ or rather, she would know what to do in case the situation arose.
But the words never left her mouth, lips pressing in a thin line at the distinct sound that had reached her ears. That of the crunching of dry leaves and fallen branches that spoke of company arriving ─ at a much quicker pace than she expected it to be.
Sensing that something was coming, Akako twirled around, and just in time, too. She barely caught a blur of white before she felt it ram into her without warning.
Catching herself from an unexpected fall took priority over the phone that had slipped from her grasp. And even as she regained her footing, her gaze was drawn to the small, trembling figure that had unexpectedly clung to her.
A little girl was holding onto her shirt, her face buried in her torso. Akako froze in time for a second, unable to make sense of the situation until she took a closer look. She was wearing what she assumed had once been a pristine white dress, now tattered and stained with what she suspected to be dirt and mud.
It took Akako another look to realize that her clothes were caked with blood.
"Little girl…" she found herself muttering in shock. It seemed to work, as the girl slowly lifted her head; large, round eyes found their way to hers, scarlet as if looking through a mirror. "Why… are you covered in blood?"
All the way to the other side of the world, Aoko clapped a hand over her mouth to mute a scream. She lowered into a couch at home when her legs suddenly weakened, doing her best to keep on listening despite the rush of blood in her ears.
In the realms of her mind, however, she was free to scream.
Wha-What did she say? A… A little girl? Blood?!
Aoko did not have the time to ask anything. A bloodcurdling scream rang through the intercom, and for a second, Aoko forgot how to breathe.
The line went dead right afterwards.
A/N
Rene:
Thank you! I'm glad you're liking it so far.
Yeah, the dress she was using is the one from ending 60, since this scene was planned long before the other one came out. If I had to choose one, it would still be that one, though. But the dress from the last ending was pretty, too!
shahralSAH699:
I wonder... xD