File Eight: Like a True Detective

"Damn!" Kogoro complained. "All because of that letter…"

"Who cares? We get to relax on a small island on the Izu Sea," Ran said, trying to appease her father, before turning to the little kid sitting right next to her. "Right, Conan-kun?"

Raising his head from the bento box Ran had bought for him a few minutes ago, and nodded, just as happy as her. She smiled back, turning back to Kogoro and leaving the child to enjoy his treat.

Occhan is right, though, thought Conan, sticking a bit of rice inside his mouth. We're doing all this because of that weird letter…

It all started that morning when Ran went to check their mailbox, only to find that inconspicuous, innocent-looking little letter sitting there, alone, and addressed to the one and only Great Detective Mouri Kogoro. None of them had thought much of it either, yet fueled by curiosity, they opened it the instant it reached the detective's hands.

What they saw, written with magazine clippers ─ which Conan found suspicious by itself ─ wasn't all that innocent as they had initially believed:

"On the next full moon, the shadows of Tsukikage Island will once again begin to vanish.

Your investigation is required.

─ Asou Keiji."

And that was the reason they were there, sitting on a train heading to the pier, where they would then take a boat to that island so that they could try, at least, to figure out the mystery behind that strange letter. Asou Keiji, thought Conan, letting his now empty bento box down. Why would he bother using magazine clippings if he was planning to tell his name, anyway?

Something was definitely fishy.

"I understand why you are coming…" Kogoro sounded a tad irritated. "But why is the brat here, too?"

Conan gave the man a silent glare that went completely ignored.

"We can't just leave him alone, can we?" Ran argued.

Seeing there was no point of it, the detective contented himself with just sighing, turning to glance out the window. After a while, he turned back to his daughter. "Haven't his parents or the detective brat gotten in touch yet?"

The boy flinched at the question, but remained quiet otherwise, even when he felt Ran's gaze settling on him for a brief moment, before her head dropped.

"No." A certain sadness coated her tone. "Not yet."

She fell silent otherwise, leaving Kogoro to awkwardly turn to the window again. Conan just observed them for a few beats until he, just like she had done a little before him, focused back on the ground. Of course Mom and Dad aren't going to call, he privately remarked, remembering that Agasa had told them he had let them know about the absence. Now that he knew what the old professor had promised his brother, however, he seriously doubted he had done that in the first place. Not that he was completely opposed to that idea ─ the last thing he needed was his crazy parents roaming around.

He couldn't say the same for the high school detective, however. Shinichi-niichan hasn't called yet. Even if time had passed, enough to worry anyone. Maybe he was busy, or maybe… No good. He shook his head, willing those thoughts away from his head. What am I saying? That moron doesn't even realize we… that Ran-neechan is worried!

I wish he would call her… His hands clenched against his shorts. Or me.

What do you think you're doing, you idiot?

"Conan-kun?" He jumped, startled at Ran's sudden call. "Is something wrong?"

Obviously she could tell something was wrong just by a glance. That's Ran-neechan for you, he thought, smiling at the girl with a shake of her head, before hopping off his seat. "I need to go to the toilet!"

Conan didn't wait enough for her to ask any more questions ─ he just needed to get away. To get away from that gaze that could guess what he was feeling, so accurately at that, so easily. Ran-neechan already misses him badly. He didn't want her to feel any worse because of him.

Just as he was about to open the door that led to the next compartment, the boy saw it doing it, seemingly by itself, until two men walked out. Conan's eyes went wide at that, and the shock made him freeze on his spot, unable to move out the way.

Black… He focused on the big black suitcase they were carrying before his gaze fell on their faces. The icy glare that the silver-haired man gave him made his hair stand on end ─ he wouldn't forget that gaze, ever. They are them…

Those are the men in black from the other time!

When the one with the sunglasses settled his gaze on him, Conan definitely panicked, not failing to remember him as the one that chased him that night with the gun. He worried he had, somehow, seen his face and now he recognized him.

So when he shoved him away harshly, Conan couldn't help but be relieved. In pain, yeah, but alive. Silently, and now feeling like he could breathe again, he watched the pair heading to their seats. He never stopped observing them, even when he returned to his own place beside Ran and in front of a snoozing Kogoro.

He waited and waited for the opportunity to act, and eventually it came. The two had, at some point, gone to the dining car, allowing the boy to slip away from his seat and sneak closer to theirs.

After the professor had, albeit reluctantly, finally agreed to aid him on his chase, he had conceded him three brand-new, fully operational gadgets that, Conan was certain, would prove to be of so much help to him. First came the Power-Enchanting Kick Shoes, which allowed him to kick objects with such a strength that, being a kid, he wouldn't get otherwise. Second, the Stun-Gun Wristwatch which could shoot a very potent anesthetic needle if he was in trouble. And last but not least, his tracking glasses that, after a few modifications, now included a miniature microphone he could hide somewhere to peep into others' business...

But, sadly, there was not such a thing as 'perfection'.

This is degrading, he lamented inside his head, glaring at the chewing gum stuck on his fingers. Sighing, he hid the microphone inside it. And gross.

Not that he had much choice. Reluctantly, he stuck the bug under their seat.

"Conan-kun!" He was surprised to see Ran behind him, looking rather angry. "What's gotten into you? This is so unlike you."

Of course it is! he wanted to say, but, as things were, he could only watch in horror as the girl took the gum. But when she placed it inside the ashtray, instead of throwing it away somewhere else, he barely held a sigh of relief.

He chose to lower his head, obediently following her back to his seat. There, pretending to be embarrassed by his actions, thus afraid to utter a word, he just listened through his glasses. Not even seconds after he had sat down, the two men in black returned to their seats.

"I finally can take a smoke." A rough laugh crossed his ears ─ it was the one with the sunglasses, Conan thought, taking note of his voice. "Pretty slick transaction, eh?"

"You're too loud, Vodka."

"Careful as always, Gin?"

Sherry, Vodka and Gin. He was noticing a pattern there. Alcohol-themed codenames.

"They're probably back in their seat, checking out the view, laughing to themselves." Gin's gelid sneer sent a chill down Conan's back, leaving him shivering as if he was cold himself. "Their last view."

Their last… view? As he continued to listen, the more he was trembling now. Those two had struck a deal with someone on the train, but they were planning to kill them, along with every single passenger in there. Everyone would be murdered at 15:10 by a bomb explosion ─ if he didn't know any better, the kid would have screamed.

But he didn't. Instead, he was forced to watch, in complete silence, as they both stood up at the next stop and left as if nothing had happened.

So frustrating. He wanted to chase after them, interrogate them until they croaked out everything they knew about Kudo Shinichi, but he knew that was only a fantasy ─ like a seven year-old could intimidate someone like that. Thus, he was forced to watch them disappear in the distance from his spot behind the window.

Just like that, the only lead he had to his brother's whereabouts just slipped away from his fingers.

Cursing inside his head, Conan stood up from his seat. I will worry about it later. His eyes fell on the door leading to the dining car. If this keeps up…

His little fists clenched ─ the question was how he was supposed to stop this. Experience had taught him well that, if he were to tell the guards or any other adult, his story about bombs and explosions would be waved off as a product child's overactive imagination.

Yet time was tickling.

"Hey, where are you going, Conan-kun?" Ran's tight grip had stopped him before he could even take a step. "You can't just go around bothering other passengers-"

Ran stopped there, startled by the severe look that had taken hold of the boy's face. "Listen, Ran-neechan…" he then said. "I don't have much time to explain."

She was obviously worried at that tone he had used. "What's wrong?"

"A bomb." Understandably, her eyes went wide when she heard that, but Conan didn't allow her mind to process it before continuing. "I heard two men talking about it, but they were gone before I knew it."

Turning around to face her fully, he locked eyes with hers. "I don't have proof, but I swear it's true!" He worried a little when she didn't react, but it only drove him to keep trying. "So, please, Ran-neechan, you have to believe me!"

His gaze didn't waver under the girl's stern gaze, just carefully observed her eyebrows sliding together in a frown. Fully expecting her to scold him for making up stories, the child let his shoulders drop, as if resigned, but it never came. Instead, her hand went to rest on top of her father's shoulder, shaking it firmly to awake him up.

Immediately after she told him everything the kid had entrusted to her, Kogoro copied the girl's expression, fully awake.

"Ran, go tell the personnel that there's a bomb somewhere on this train," Kogoro commanded her daughter.

A quick nod later, Ran was on her feet, hurrying to do as she was told. Conan watched her go, unsure of how he was supposed to react. "Conan." He jumped, startled, when he was addressed by the detective. "What did those people say? There might be something that could let us figure out where the bomb is."

Do they really believe me? Conan blinked twice. Just… Just like that?

"Anything you remember can be of help."

The kid stared for a few seconds before he frowned and nodded. "The bomb is in a black case," he said. "They did a transaction with somebody in the dining car who they were planning to kill afterwards." Forcing himself to remember every single detail, he closed his eyes, finger stroking his chin as he thought. "One of them was relieved that he could finally take a smoke… So I suppose this person might not like it." He opened his eyes and locked eyes with Kogoro. "They might be in a non-smoking car."

"That makes sense," replied the man. "There are eight non-smoking cars on this train, though. If we could reduce it even more…"

Humming to himself, Conan crossed his arms in front of his chest. "They are probably back in their seat…" Gin's words echoed in his mind, prompting his eyes to widen. "… checking out the view, laughing to themselves."

"Brat, where are you going?!"

The kid had just taken off running, without even gracing him with a word to explain such a sudden action. So, Kogoro just cursed under his breath before pursuing the reckless child. No matter how fast he ran, he never caught up with the boy, until he stopped, panting lightly, when he reached his destination.

It was a non-smoking car alright, but Kogoro failed to understand why, out of the other eight, this was the one.

"The man from the other time commented that the target was probably 'checking out the view, laughing to themselves'." Apparently, the kid had noticed his confusion, because he explained it right away. "There are only three cars where you can see the scenery. Among them, the only non-smoking car is this one."

Only then did the detective finally understand what his reasoning was. With a nod, he walked past him, studying the passengers as he strolled through the corridor. "There are only four people carrying black cases," he noted. "I we check all those we can make it-"

"Fourteen minutes."

"Eh?" He turned to the boy, who was frowning at his wristwatch.

"The bomb is set to go off at 15:10."

"Why didn't you say so earlier?!" Groaning, he approached the passenger that looked like a yakuza first. "Damn it!"

In return, the child said nothing, just went to survey the other three with his gaze ─ a woman, a man with glasses and an old man. It could be any of them ─ obviously, he excluded the yakuza one since Kogro had, somehow, managed to drop his suitcase to the floor, revealing a bunch of heart-patterned underwear. While Conan found it weird that he would carry all that inside, a sense of relief invaded him. Had that been the bomb, they would be pretty much dead right now.

"Excuse, miss." He decided to try with the woman first. She turned to him with a friendly attitude, which he replied with a sweet, innocent smile. "Have you been to the dining car?"

"No, I haven't," she replied, confused at the unexpected question. "Why is that?"

"Oh, it's just that… Woah!" Conan suddenly exclaimed, running to the woman's free seat next to the window, aweing at the sight behind the glass. "This view is so great!"

More than bothered, the woman seemed to be amused. "Yes, today's weather is lovely," she said, giggling a little at the cure boy. "You can even see Mount Fuji perfectly."

"Ah-le-le? Isn't that weird?" The kid tilted his head. "There's no way you could've seen it!"

"What?"

"This is the ocean side." In a blink of an eye, his gaze had sharpened, and that cherry and sweet demeanor had vanished completely. "Are you sure you weren't in the dining car?"

Silenced by shock, the woman stared at the child, eyes open like two plates, letting him know he had hit the nail on the head. She watched him stand on the seat he had usurped to give Kogoro, who was uselessly trying to get the deaf old man to listen to him.

"Occhan, I found the bomb."

"Eh?!" both the woman and the detective cried in surprise.

And like that, danger was finally averted. It wasn't long after then that the train was stopped to evacuate all passengers and let the bomb disarming squad do their job. No explosions followed it, and soon, everyone was back on their way in another train, except for that certain lady that had to be taken into custody.

Conan had tried to question her about those men she had made a deal with, yet there was nothing she could tell him about them. Apparently, she was as much in the dark as he was.

Not a trace was left about Gin and Vodka ─ they were just gone, as if a deep dark fog had enveloped them, making them disappear from his reach.

It's alright, thought the kid, letting his gaze lose itself on the sea that stretched from side to side in front of his eyes. I might have lost them, but next time, surely…

He wasn't going to let them go again, that was for sure.

"Such a pleasant view, huh, Conan-kun?" Ran had approached him, smiling as he, like he, enjoyed the sight that greeted her eyes. "Can't wait until we reach Tsukikage Island!"

Conan said nothing, just stared at her, mouth opening to say something, yet ultimately deciding not to. There was something that had stopped him from speaking ever since they boarded the ship. Something that his mind couldn't let go, perhaps prompted by his own nature, the detective blood that coursed through his veins that craved for an answer.

"Ran-neechan." Finally, he decided to put his mind at rest, realizing that he wouldn't be able to find the answer on his own.

"What is it, Conan-kun?"

"How did you know I was telling the truth?" With no kind of proof, the child found it astounding that she still had believed him.

Ran contemplated him for a beat before a giggle escaped her. That action prompted the boy to stare back, cluelessly. "Because I trust you, Conan-kun."

Though it didn't explain everything for him, Conan couldn't help but be surprised by her response. It had left him out of words, giving Ran the opportunity to kneel in front of him, offering the confused boy one of her signature kind smiles. When he didn't seem to react, she poked him on the nose, playfully, stealing a startled gasp out of him ─ which she obviously found very endearing, and made her giggle again.

"You're a very smart little boy," she said. "You wouldn't say something like that unless it was the one and only truth, would you?"

"… No," he replied, softly. "I wouldn't."

"There you go, then!"

Her grin became wider and brighter, so much that he was sure that his brother would be reduced into a stuttering mess if he ever saw it. Conan stared at her for a couple of seconds until a shy little smile of his own curved his lips and nodded his head to let her know he understood her completely.

It felt good to be trusted by a grown up once in a while, Conan realized.

Asou Keiji was dead.

And had been like that for a long time now. Such a shock had it been when they were told that twelve years ago he had murdered his daughter and wife, for motives that none in that island had ever learned about, before he committed suicide ─ playing Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata on his piano while the flames enveloped him until they, eventually, burned him alive.

"What a terrible prank!"

Because of all that, the trio found themselves sitting on a bench at the park, wondering about that mysterious letter, whose presumed sender was most likely over ten feet underground right now.

"I don't think that's the case," said the kid, nonchalantly. "If it was, the sender wouldn't have paid all our traveling expenses, besides…" He motioned to the crumbled letter in Kogoro's hands. "The postmark is from this island."

Alongside his daughter, the man blinked at the letter in surprise. "You're right…"

"But I bet you had already figured it out." His smirk, however, said he actually didn't. "Right, Occhan?"

Kogoro glared at him, probably tickled by the way he had addressed him, again. "Have more respect for your elders, little brat."

"Oh, I'm truly sorry, Jii-chan."

The man didn't respond verbally, but his disagreement certainly made itself known when the kid felt the pain on top of his head, causing him to cry at the impact. Kogoro didn't seem at all affected by the glare he received from the kid, whose hands remained settled on his sore spot.

"Dad!" Ran was quick to scold her father, hovering over the grimacing little boy. "Be a little easier on him!"

"It wasn't that bad!"

Conan glared. "It hurts a lot, actually."

"Come on, don't be such a wimp."

He was about to shoot something back at him, but was interrupted by a hiss that escaped him when Ran gently touched a certain spot while checking on him. "This will leave a bruise," she muttered, turning to give her father a rather dark look. "Looks like it does hurt a lot."

"... O-Oh." He winced. "I'm sorry."

As much as Conan was tempted to stick his tongue at him, he had to refrain himself from doing it, knowing better than to test his limits any further. So he opted to stay quiet, even when Ran scooped him in her arms, frowning at the developing bump on his head.

"We need some ice," she muttered, raising her gaze to look around. "I wonder where…"

Her voice trailed down into silence, and immediately started to walk, crossing the street in a few steps, with her father obediently following from behind. Conan was puzzled about what she had seen until his eyes fell on the words 'Doctor Asai Narumi' visible on the front of the small building they were approaching.

"Excuse me." The girl knocked lightly on the door.

Not even a second after, the door opened, causing Conan to blink, confused at the sight. Instead of a woman, like the name 'Narumi' suggested, a young man appeared in the doorway.

Now, there wasn't anything remarkable about his appearance that stood out from the generic Japanese teenager ─ if he wasn't mistaken, this guy was around Ran's age. Probably the sun-kissed look on his skin was the only thing somewhat remarkable about it all, but besides that, he was plain looking. Chocolate hair that barely reached his shoulders, dark brown eyes and average height ─ pretty boring, Conan would say.

But for some reason, the little boy couldn't stop staring. Maybe because the teen's eyes had for less than a second ─ Conan could swear he saw it ─ went wide upon seeing them there. Maybe because it was almost impressive how quickly he waved it off, returning to his neutral expressions before he could even blink.

Or, perhaps, there was something so strangely familiar about him that Conan couldn't identify.

"Asai… Narumi-sensei?" Ran was confused about the name she read, and the boy she met.

"Oh, no, no." Laughing, once he seemed to understand what was going on, he waved his hands in front of him. "Narumi-sensei is out, but she will be here any minute now. Would you want to come in?"

He didn't wait for an answer, just stepped out of the way, allowing the trio to come inside. Conan's curious gaze instantly roamed around the entire place, taking into his surroundings.

"By the way, I'm Hirai Arthur," the teenager introduced himself. "I just help Narumi-sensei around."

Without fully meaning to, Arthur flinched when the child's all-too-knowing gaze shifted away from a random health-care poster on the wall to his face at the mere mention of his name.

"So…" All in all, the older boy seemed to keep his cool just as perfectly, smiling amicably at Conan, who was still staring. "Is there something wrong with this young man over here?"

"Nothing serious," Ran explained. "He just hit his head."

"I see. Let me take a look."

Conan was lowered to the couch then, allowing Arthur to sit behind him so that he could check ─ who, in turn, fought a relieved sigh when his gaze tore away from his face so that he could do his work. "Well," said Arthur, after a while. "It seems like you managed to hit your head pretty hard."

"Oh, really?" Ran glared at her father. "I wonder how that happened."

Kogoro looked away, pointedly ignoring that comment.

As Arthur treated his bump with utmost care, Conan remained completely still, mouth shut closed and gaze stuck on an empty spot on the wall, but not really seeing. Eventually, he reacted, if only to frown at whatever had just crossed his mind, but still refused to say a word.

"Press this against your head." He was startled out of his thoughts when the young doctor's assistant instructed him, offering him an ice pack.

He nodded, accepting it and doing as he was told, wincing a little at the cold contact against his head. "Say, Arthur-san," he called, smiling at the teenager. "Do you know where the community center is?"

Not only Arthur gave him an odd look, but Kogoro as well. "I see!" Ran, unlike them, brightened. "The mayor might know something about Asou-san. They said they used to be good friends."

Still confused about it, Arthur opened his mouth to reply when the door suddenly opened, causing four sets of eyes flickering in its direction, just to see a woman walk inside, then pause, staring at the people she didn't remember seeing before.

"Narumi-sensei," Arthur greeted. "Welcome back."

"Oh, hello, Arthur-kun." When she focused on Conan, or rather, the ice pack he held against his head, she seemed to finally realize what those people were doing there. "Who is our little patient?"

"He's Edogawa Conan-kun." Ran stood up, then motioned to her father. "That is my father, Mouri Kogoro, and my name is Mouri Ran."

"They were asking where the community center is," Arthur added.

"Oh, are you from the mainland?"

"Tokyo," Conan replied easily.

It turned out that the doctor also was from Tokyo but had moved to that island a few years ago. They fell into friendly chat afterwards, where the trio learned that the elections were going to take place soon, and that today was the last mayor's death's anniversary. Once they learnt that, it was clear what their next course of action should be.

Passing through the crowd that manifested against the current mayor had been, to say the least, hard. For such a quiet island, as Narumi had described it before, the locals could be pretty vocal when they wanted to, Conan had noticed. Now, he didn't know what the mayor could have done to earn the anger of all those people but, if he was certain about something, it was that people didn't like him.

But, at least, they managed to get to their destination in one piece.

By chance, Conan had stumbled upon a piano, innocent and completely ordinary, if dusty, one would say. Yet Hirata, the secretary, had strongly disagreed, stopping them from getting any closer when he saw them there. That place was, after all, not only the piano Asou Keiji had played during his last concert but also the place where the recently deceased mayor had been found, hunched over an old piano after suffering from a heart attack. That was, by far, the least disturbing thing about this entire case.

He called it a cursed piano.

The secretary then explained what he meant with that, but what he told them next had Ran paling, body trembling with fear as Hirata described what had happened. A melody, soft but somewhat sad, had reached his ears, guiding him to where the mayor was ─ cold, unmoving, dead.

"It was the same song Asou-san played as his house burned around him..." It didn't help Ran's latent fear in the slightest. "Moonlight Sonata."

Ran had to cover her mouth to hold back a scream. "It's cursed…" she breathed out, lip quivering as she pronounced those words. "It really is cursed."

Out of the blue, the sound of piano keys resounded through the air, and this time, Ran couldn't hold herself from shrieking, terrified out of her mind. When she twirled around to the source of the noise, however, he found a certain little kid, hitting the keys without a care in the world.

"Doesn't look too cursed to me," Conan commented casually, before he felt the ground suddenly leaving his feet. It took him a moment to realize that the girl had plucked him from the ground. "Don't tell me..." He grinned mischievously at Ran from over his shoulder. "... you're actually scared of ghosts, Ran-neechan?"

"Of course I am," she huffed, walking outside the room, still holding the kid in the air by his armpits. "And here I thought you were the sensible one, between you and that detective freak-"

A loud sneeze stopped her from continuing her scolding and prompted the two of them, plus Kogoro, who had been trailing behind in silence ─ probably fearing his daughter would bite him if he made a noise while she was in that state ─ to turn around. Two familiar faces, and another they didn't know yet, meet their eyes, surprising them all without exception.

"Narumi-sensei and Hirai-san?" Ran said, settling the child back to the ground. "Are you coming to the funeral?"

"Only Narumi-sensei, actually." Conan noticed Arthur wiping his nose, quite viciously so, while he spoke, but chose not to emit any kind of comment. "I wanted to check something out."

Conan grew curious about that. "Check what?"

"The cursed piano." The older boy grinned, peeking inside the room to glance at the piano Conan had just been playing with. "They said its sound could be heard moments before, not one, but two people died, on top of that same piano. Now, isn't that mysterious?"

Ran made a face. "I'd say it's creepy."

Arthur let out an awkward laugh and let it go just like that ─ but Conan didn't. Even as the man that accompanied them introduced himself as Shimizu Masato, he paid little attention. All he did was study with his gaze the suspicious teenager, who remained completely unaware of the attention he was receiving.

This guy… His gaze narrowed, watching his every movement. Arthur was laughing about something as he accompanied the Mouri family outside to wait for the funeral to be over. Could he…

Could it be?

Eventually, Arthur turned around, and froze on his spot upon the sight of the child, still staring so intensely that it made him afraid that he could, somehow, see his own soul. Yet, he said nothing, just held that inquisitive gaze, waiting for him to speak first.

If this guy wanted him to talk, he definitely would. Frowning, Conan opened his mouth to finally voice those questions he had been meaning to ask since their first meeting, but couldn't.

Not because he lacked courage, or determination, none of that. It was because the Moonlight Sonata had started playing.

And, with it, someone else had ceased to exist.

Hirai Arthur was a very interesting individual, Conan decided.

Once his eyes fell on the body, his eyes had narrowed, calmly taking into the scene without letting himself panic, not even for a moment. He did not move a muscle until Kogoro confirmed Kawashima was dead, and only then he had turned to Ran, asking her to go to the police station, and requested Narumi to do an examination.

Followed by that, his hands had slid inside his pockets and approached the body, not caring about Kogoro complaining about him doing his job ─ which, Conan had to admit, he found quite amusing.

Taking advantage that the detective was too annoyed with the teenager to pay proper attention to him, Conan also got closer to the scene of the crime. Strangely enough, there was a puddle of water under the body, he noted, while kneeling down next to it. Wasting no time, he stuck a finger in it and licked.

"What are you doing, Conan-kun?" He was not surprised to find Arthur crouched beside him after raising his head. "Did you find something?"

"Sea water," he said, motioned to the puddle he had been inspecting, when he realized there was a trail of water leading to the door. "Most likely he was drowned at the beach, then brought back here to the killer."

"That's what I thought as well," the teen confirmed, glancing at the windows that faced the sea outside. "The windows are locked, so the killer must be inside this room."

"A woman couldn't have drowned and carried a grown man back inside in such a short period of time all by herself," Conan added. "That leaves Kuroiwa-san and Narumi-sensei out of the suspect list."

Arthur's eyes narrowed, however, and a sigh escaped him. "Narumi-sensei is still a suspect."

"Huh?"

The boy looked at the kid in his eyes. "She's trans."

Soon, Narumi's examination confirmed that, indeed, there was a big possibility that the victim had been drowned, but couldn't say for sure without a proper autopsy. Nodding at her, Arthur stepped away and claimed that he would begin to interrogate all people inside the room.

As he worked, Conan could only silently watch. Hirai Arthur moved quickly and very efficiently.

Like a true detective.

His attention was momentarily brought away from him when Kogoro claimed to have found something lying right beside the dead body. It was a strange music sheet, presumably a code, that they couldn't decipher, but didn't fail to frighten a guy called Nishimoto, prompting him to run away as if a ghost was chasing him, or something.

Nevertheless, the case was getting nowhere, so they found it fitting to call it a day and head back to the inn. But before Conan could even take a step out of the building, he had frozen in place, eyes widening as he stared at the shadows that, after night had settled, were covering their path.

"The shadows of Tsukikage Island..." he mumbled, more to himself than anyone else. "... will once again begin to vanish."

Narumi looked confused. "What are you talking about?"

"There was a letter addressed to my dad. That was what it said..." Ran explained to the doctor and her assistant. "It said it was from Asou Keiji, but..."

At those words, Arthur felt his eyes narrowed, turning back to the kid, whose hand had been brought to his chin, still deep in thought. "Shadows vanishing might mean being surrounded in light," he reasoned quietly. "The Moonlight Sonata was playing right after Kawashima-san was killed, while Asou Keiji was dying, and before Kameyama-san had a heart attack..."

"Wait a second!" Ran's eyes widened, thoroughly terrified. "If the letter says 'begin to vanish', then..."

When realization sank in, Kogoro gasped, while Arthur frowned deeply. Clearly distressed, Narumi brought a hand to her chest, taking a step back out of fright.

"Yes." A serious expression had taken over Conan's face. "The murders aren't over yet."

Unfortunately, it didn't take long for Conan's theory to be proven right. Sooner than anyone would have preferred, the second movement of the Moonlight Sonata had reached their ears and, expectedly so, someone else had been found dead ─ Kuroiwa Tatsugi, stabbed in the back by a knife at the broadcasting room. Like the last murder, a music sheet had also been left.

But this time around, Conan finally comprehended what it meant.

"You realize it, don't you? You're next."

Once he understood the trick, Arthur also realized the message left behind on the last murder.

"The hellfire of hatred has made you pay."

Nishimoto had freaked out again, terrified at the thought of Asou Keiji being still alive, until the policeman informed them that was impossible ─ his remains had been found in that burned house, so there was no mistaking it.

"All that was left from that fire was the sheet music he put into a safe."

"Where is it?!" Kogoro yelled instantly. "Where is that sheet music?!"

"I-In the storeroom in the community center storeroom..."

"Okay, go and bring it back!" Megure ordered.

"Wait a moment, please." The policeman stopped in his tracks, confused, turning to Arthur. "I'll help you look."

The policeman seemed relieved for the extra help. "Thank you so much!"

"No, it's okay."

Instead of leaving right away, the teenager just directed his gaze to somewhere else. It took Conan a moment to realize he was looking at him and to blink in return. "Are you coming with us, child detective?"

It took an even longer moment for the kid's brain to process those words properly, but when it did, he beamed and nodded eagerly. Arthur smiled at the sight, and promptly accompanied the policeman outside the building, allowing the child to follow close behind.

Had they been looking, however, they wouldn't have missed the way Conan's sharp eyes narrowed in suspicion, burning holes into the back of the young doctor's assistant.

A/N:

Published: 03-17-2020

Last edited: 06-27-2021

Based on The Shinkansen's Bomb Case and Moonlight Sonata Murder Case.