File Thirty-Five: The Ace of Spades
"Do you want to talk about it, Conan-kun?"
More confused than ever, the young boy's gaze shifted from the remains of the helicopter that he had just been in to the girl's wide, expressive eyes. "What do you mean, Ayumi-chan?" he questioned, feeling genuinely lost.
He could see that Ayumi was concerned. She had looked that way ever since her eyes had fallen on him. At first, he thought it was understandable ─ he had just crashed a helicopter in the middle of their school yard ─ but then she had said that, and he couldn't really comprehend what it had to do with anything.
None of the adults had seemed to notice the way the children had surrounded Conan, too busy with tending to Tsuji Hiroki or calling the ambulance for him, since that at the moment they didn't have any idea of what had actually happened to him.
"Shinichi-oniisan," he couldn't help but wince at his name. "Haibara-san told us about... Well, everything."
Conan turned to give Haibara a light glare, but she didn't seem to be fazed at all. The girl just stared back, calmly. Which definitely wasn't the case of the other two boys.
"What are you doing, Ayumi-chan?!" Mitsuhiko panicked.
"Weren't we supposed to-?" Genta tried to add.
"It's just...!" Ayumi cut her friend off, suddenly, before she trailed off into silence. Her gaze fell on the ground for a second, clenching her hand against her chest. "It's just... We can't just pretend that never happened. We can't just keep it quiet," then, she looked back at her friends. "... Not when Conan-kun has suffered in silence for so long. It's not right!"
The boys paused, taken aback by her words, before fixing their gazes on their feet at the realization of her friend being actually right. The girl, content for being understood by her two friends, turned back to the bespectacled boy who just stared, wide eyed.
Before he blushed lightly at the attention he was receiving from all his friends.
"It's okay, guys," he tried to brush them off.
"How can you be okay with your brother being this 'Singani' guy?" Genta protested.
"Genta-kun! Don't be so insensitive!"
"But-!"
Conan shrugged. "I don't mind, besides," he let out a resigned smile. "He's actually right, you know. I'm..." the boy sighed. "I'm actually... not okay."
None of their friends said anything about that, just watched Conan shift, uncomfortably, while tilting his head up to gaze into the sky. The same one he had just been flying on before crashing down into the ground. Crashing down like the truth falling on me, huh? he would have laughed at the irony, but only managed a faint smile.
"You know, I kind of admired him," he confessed, smile still on place even if it did not match with the sourness of his voice. "Ever since I can remember, I had actually looked up to him. He was smart, kind, and honestly? The greatest detective I've ever met. I really, really wanted to be just like him when I grew older. But..."
He trailed off into silence, his lips now pressing together in a thin line, struggling to keep his smile in place yet only managing a grimace instead.
"But...?" Ayumi gently tried to get him to talk.
"... I was kidnapped," he admitted. "The next moment, I was suddenly away from this country and living in America, and we became distant. Then, I saw him again, moved with him, and weird things started happening. My brother started acting... different. And I tried. I really tried to believe in him. I wanted to believe that he was still... himself."
Judging by the way the three Detective Boys opened their eyes, widely, Conan could tell they were surprised to hear about his kidnapping. Haibara's face remained still throughout it all, on the other hand.
The boy's eyes closed, tightly, fists clenching.
"He lied. He lied to me, to Ran-neechan, to everyone... He did... He did all those terrible things... And so many more that I know nothing about," he then added, his voice soft and in the verge of breaking. "And I can't help but... I can't help but hate him for all that."
Haibara's eyes narrowed his confession, but said nothing about it. With that, an uncomfortable silence settled in within the group of young children, only broken by the loud sounds of the ambulance a few blocks away, finally arriving at the school.
"You hate him for lying to you?" Genta blinked, not completely getting it. "Isn't that weird coming from you?"
"Huh?" Conan blinked at him.
"Because you lie to us all the time!"
"Genta-kun!" Ayumi tried to scold him. "Be a bit nicer."
"Even that time at the cave," Mitsuhiko seemed to ponder. "I genuinely thought he was trying to make us hate him..."
Blue eyes widened, slightly, behind thick glasses, before they shifted towards the ambulance finally pulling up in front of them. The other children seemed to remain unaware of it, however, far too immersed in their own conversation to pay attention to something else.
"Mitsuhiko-kun!" the girl exclaimed.
"A-Ah," he suddenly realized his mistake. "... Sorry."
"Geez, guys..."
Conan couldn't help but chuckle at them, and was about to say something when Kogoro's loud voice called for him. Looking up and seeing the paramedics surrounding him, the child figured he might have to go through a checkup since he had been in the accident as well.
So, he briefly waved at his friends, before starting to head towards the place where the older detective was. As he passed by Haibara, however, he paused.
"Do you hate him, though?" he heard her whisper at him. "Or do you want to hate him?"
She didn't get a reply, because Conan didn't have one to give her.
At first, Kogoro had no idea about who the ninth target could be, but upon arriving at Sawaki Kohei's house ─ who they thought as the eighth possible victim ─ and learning that he had been put in charge at Asahi Katsuyoshi's brand new restaurant, a part of his Aquacrystal project, they had all realized, with a shudder, that the name 'Asahi' had a nine on it. Even if Kogoro had only met him once for a case of a missing cat.
Like so, they decided to come along.
The guy definitely had money, Conan couldn't help but think, as they all stared, in shock, at the very flashy and expensive-looking building in front of them.
Not that he had much time to ponder about it, because the entire group had to move to avoid being rolled over a red BMW ─ and certainly not cheap ─ car. Osanai Nana stepped out of it ─ Conan could recognize her as a famous model.
She wasn't the only famous person to arrive, however. Soon, other familiar faces stepped out of their respective expensives cars. They were Shishido Eimei, Nishina Minoru and Peter Ford and, apparently, they had all been invited by Asahi to that place.
Wait a second, realization suddenly dawned on the young detective's mind, as they headed towards the monorail. These four people right here...
Conan frowned, as he stepped inside, ignoring as the people around him commented that there was no driver, or that Ran had found a button with the label 'start' on it.
Number three and one are the only ones left, he glanced at Shiratori. I don't know Inspector Shiratori's first name, but if it happens to be something related to 'three'...
Ran pushed the button.
Then, all it's left is the number one. The only one I can think about is that person, as the door behind him started to close, the child couldn't help but chuckle a bit. There's no way. The same happened with Towako-san. Just because he has that name...
"Watch out!"
Next thing he knew, Conan was jumping back as a figure quickly crossed the door before it could close. Blinking confusedly, the child stared at the slightly tanned teenager. Vibrant blue eyes and long blonde hair, he noticed.
"Ah, I apologize!" he hurriedly said, briefly glancing at Conan, as the monorail started to move.
"And who are you supposed to be?" Kogoro asked, genuinely confused since they all were supposed to be famous people, but he had no clue of who this young man was.
"Nomura Seishi," the teen introduced himself. "I'm supposed to work as the head chef here so Asahi-san asked me to come so he could explain to me some details he wants me to work on."
"A chef, huh?" Kogoro raised an eyebrow. "You don't look like much to me."
"Hey, Mouri-kun!"
"Don't worry, it's okay," Nomura laughed, nervously. "I know I don't look like much, but I'm not afraid to say I'm pretty good at doing my job."
"Ah, is that so?" Conan grinned childishly at him. "Would you cook something for me sometime?"
He didn't miss the way the chef flinched. "Sure," yet, he managed to maintain his smile upright.
Soon the attention drifted away from him and towards the amazing sight of the water beneath them. Except for Ran, who was gazing at her father, a light frown of her face.
Before she glanced at Nomura from over her shoulder, who was staring at the distance with an unreadable look on his face. Her eyes narrowed slightly, yet didn't say anything about it.
Once outside the monorail they got into an elevator and went down, down and down.
The underwater restaurant screamed 'luxury', no matter where Conan looked. Fishes swam all around them, only being separated from the group by the thick crystal windows covering the walls. In the middle of the enormous room stood a red Ferrari, in all its glory, causing Nana to squeal over it.
Yet the host, Asahi, was nowhere to be found. Conan already feared the worst.
"Could it be that Murakami already...?" Shiratori voiced their concerns.
"Huh?" Shishido questioned. "What do you mean with that?"
"Ah, I have to explain the story to you," Megure nodded.
"Inspector, I'll go and look around," Shiratori informed.
"I'll go too," Kogoro said.
With that, the two men rushedly went out the room, while the other inspector turned to the guests, so he could inform them what was going on. Knowing everything that he was going to say, Ran turned to Conan to say something to him yet paused upon the realization that, unsurprisingly, the little boy was gone.
When she did that, however, she saw something entirely different. Silently, she noticed Nomura trying to slowly slip away unnoticed. "Nomura-san?" Ran called, prompting the boy to flinch, muscles freezing completely. "Where are you going?"
"U-Uh..." he laughed, nervously, before focusing on the red car in the center of the room. "I was kind of enchanted by that Ferrari and wanted to take a look."
Her eyes narrowed, slightly, for less than a moment. She let out a polite smile, however.
"Maybe you can check on it later," she commented. "This is pretty important, so you should listen."
"Y-Yes."
Not long after Megure had explained every single detail to the guests in the room, Conan returned along with the other two men, without any new information more than the wine cellar was, strangely, the only door around to be locked. Nobody saw anything else unusual, though.
"Hmm... That means I'm number six," commented Shishido, with a shrug. "There's a six in my name."
"In fact," every turned towards the child at the sound of his innocent voice. "There are more people who also have numbers in their names," at the confusion that had settled in the room, he explained. "Look, Nana-san is seven, and Nishina-san is two. Ford-san's name sounds like 'four' in English."
"I see," Kogoro, who had the number five in his name, mumbled, deep in thought. "So, if we have a three and a one, we have all the numbers."
"There's a three," Megure informed, glancing towards Shiratori.
To their surprise, his name was actually Ninzaburo, which happened to have the character for 'three' in it.
Just as I expected, Conan's eyes fell on the chef, eyebrows furrowed together as he watched him quietly, stroking his chin as he thought. Then, all that there is left is...
"But I guess there's no number one, though."
Nobody expected, however, to see Ran suddenly standing up. It was that unexpected that, for the longest time, the room was silent, blinking at the girl in confusion.
"There is a number one," when her fiery gaze rose to meet Nomura's eyes, causing the teenager to pale. It was as if he knew what was coming. "And he is..." she went around the table. "... right here."
Conan watched as the blood drained from the teenager's face the moment the girl stood in front of him. "Isn't that right..." then, her hand fell on his long hair.
And pulled.
"... Shinichi?!"
The wig was now on her hands, letting everyone see the face of the startled, and pretty much terrified, high school detective. As a result every single person on the room stared, wide eyed, as the boy tried to articulate, in vain.
Conan fists clenched a tiny bit inside his pockets.
"It's you!" Kogoro yelled, shocked at the revelation. "What are you doing here?!"
"Inspector Megure told me over the phone when I called him about an hour ago," he explained, taking out a napkin from his pocket to wipe out the make up he had applied on his face. "He told me about Asahi-san, so I decided to tag along."
"You did?!" the detective turned to Megure, who just offered him a nervous laugh, before turning back to the boy. "But how did you get here so fast?"
"I was around here already," he glanced at Conan, who simply chose to avoid his look. "I've gotten the word that I might be a target because of my name."
Conan wouldn't meet him in the eye, he realized. Which was, honestly, understandable considering everything that had happened last time they met. So, he didn't even try to get him to look at him, just sighed heavily, focusing back on Ran.
Who gave him a furious glare, before doing the same than the child. Guess I should be glad she didn't choose to use her karate on me instead.
He wasn't so sure about that either, though.
Before he knew what was happening, Nana and Nishina were arguing about wine. Turned out, the author couldn't tell what wine she had brought with her as a gift. Kohei, the sommelier, could easily tell, however.
Ford then commented that he wanted to drink some wine, and Shishido some beer. As a result the latter, together with Nana, decided to go get some drinks at the kitchen. Conan tagged along, hoping that he could find some juice or something.
There was also the fact that he was feeling a bit uncomfortable with his brother around, but he wouldn't admit that.
Yet, Shinichi knew. That didn't mean he had the courage to say something about it, so he just watched Conan disappear from the room.
Conan doesn't have a number on his name, he thought. He should be fine.
Glancing briefly at the girl sitting beside him, he came into another conclusion. It's me who isn't going to be fine...
Ran wasn't even looking at him, brows furrowed and her eyes staring at the spot right in front of her head, clearly avoiding to look at him. If that wasn't enough, the way her arms were crossed in front of her chest, tightly, also let him know how unwilling she was to have a conversation with him.
Briefly, he wondered if it would be better to leave her alone or try to say something.
"S-Say, Ran. How have you been?"
Of course, he had chosen the more stupid option. He realized that soon enough, right when she finally turned to face him, anger glimmering behind her eyes.
"How have I been? You are asking how have I been when I haven't heard a word from you in an entire month?!" she snapped, causing Shinichi to wince, violently, and the rest of the people in the room to stare at her, surprised.
She turned to glare to everyone that was looking at her. All gazes instantly drifted away from their conversation, letting Ran to sigh, tiredly.
"Your concern is showing a bit late, Shinichi."
"Sorry," he choked out. "I have been busy lately."
Ran just gave him the longest look and shrugged. As if she was about to complain about it any longer, but decided against it. She figured out this wouldn't change, no matter what she said.
"I heard you and Conan-kun got into a fight," the girl pointed out, causing Shinichi to stare into his hands, balled into fists while resting on the tablecloth. "What did you even argue about? Conan-kun is still angry with you."
Shinichi frowned a bit, and didn't speak for a second or two. "You wouldn't understand," he finally conceded her, which caused Ran to scoff at him, then turn her head to the wall, avoiding eye contact.
"Whatever," she huffed. "Just make sure to do something right for once and actually apologize to him," then paused, her angry expression dropping, overtaken by something akin to concern. "Conan-kun is hurting. I don't want to see him like that anymore."
His eyes closed. "I know that."
Before they snapped open upon the pain on his right arm. Startled by it, he looked down to see his one and only brother, painfully pressing a can of orange juice against him. There was a plain look on his face and his voice, laced with annoyance, simply said to him: "Here."
"A-Ah," he stuttered, clearly taken off guard. "Thanks, Con-"
Before he could complete his sentence, the child had turned around to face Ran, probably to offer her another of the two juice cans in his arms. "Thanks a lot," Kogoro's hands were faster, and they took them away from him.
"Huh?" the boy blinked. "Ojisan, you're not drinking beer?"
"Of course not. We can't predict when Murakami will attack," he replied, before offering one to Inspector Megure.
Conan sighed, feeling rather irritated by the older man, before going to the kitchen to get another two.
The child didn't expect, however, to see Sawaki tasting what it seemed to be chilli-powder, of all things, as soon as he entered the kitchen. He pretended not to notice a thing, and went to fetch what he had wanted to get.
Even if his head wouldn't stop thinking about it afterwards.
Conan's eyes did not leave Sawaki's form after what he had witnessed. He watched him for what it seemed to be half an hour drinking plain mineral water, promptly ignoring Nana commenting that she had been given a nail polish, made in France and probably worth more than the child's entire life.
She had even used it to draw a cat ─ even if Shishido claimed it was a raccoon ─ in the wine cork. If that wasn't wasting money, Conan didn't know what it was.
Ford found a note in the floor, which was apparently for Sawaki. It said that Asahi was probably going to be late, so he was asking him to take any wine from the wine cellar.
Everyone decided to go along.
That was where Sawaki was attacked, narrowly avoiding a bobby trap by Conan's quick reaction, shouting at him to "Watch out!" just in time for an arrow to wheeze past his head.
While the inspector and Mouri were staring at the arrow, stuck in the wall, Shinichi found the crossbow right away on the other side of the room. Next to the weapon, he found something. "The Eight of Spades," he pronounced, picking the card up with a napkin.
"That means Murakami rigged this," Shiratori pointed out. "And that note was also his."
"If that's the case," the inspector frowned. "Why did Murakami skip number nine and go after number eight, Sawaki-san?"
"He didn't," the high school detective said, prompting everyone to stare at them, horrified looks on their eyes. "Most likely, the reason Asahi-san is not present is not because he's running late, but rather..."
"Then... Could it be...?"
His theory didn't take long to be proved right, because they found Asahi right away. Swimming with the fish around the building, pretty much dead, a card peeking out his breast pocket.
The Nine of Spades.
To their horror all doors had been locked electronically, making it impossible for them to escape. Their mobile phones were completely out of range, and the phone line's in the reception desk had been cut. The emergency exit had been blocked by cement, also.
It didn't take them long to realize they were trapped in an underwater prison.
"This is all your fault!" Nishina screamed at Kogoro. "It's your fault we got involved in this!"
"That's right!" Nana loudly agreed. "What are you going to do about it?!"
Apparently, all Kogoro could do about it is frown, look away, and remain silent.
"I don't think it is," Shinichi suddenly said, causing every single person in the room to stare at him. "If these murders had been committed because of a grudge against Detective Mouri, as Inspector Megure has explained to me over the phone, it makes no sense."
Megure blinked. "What do you mean with that, Kudo-kun?"
"I can understand the first three targets, but the rest of the victims had not that much of a strong bond with him," he explained. "If I were the killer, I would go for people that are closer to him, such as Ran or even Conan, who has been living with him for more than a year."
As the others seemed to agree, nodding with each other, Shinichi felt a burning sensation in the back of his neck. Turning around, he found himself holding Conan's intense stare.
You seem to know a lot about the way a murderer's mind works, he could almost hear him say.
"That's ridiculous!" the model suddenly screamed. "Why would someone I don't even know have a grudge against me?!" she then paused, hesitating. "It... It doesn't make sense."
"There's something, right?" Conan asked, innocently. "Something has been bothering you for a while."
Her gaze lowered to the ground. "It doesn't matter."
"Let us determine if it does or doesn't matter," Megure pressed.
So she told them. It all had happened too suddenly, one moment she was talking over the phone with a friend while driving and the other her foot was slamming on the brakes because of a light she had missing. A man in a bike had been hit, falling into his head, breathing hard as he stood up. She drove away in a panic.
Coming into the conclusion that her confession had absolutely nothing to do with the case, Kogoro decided they should think about a way out instead. Megure agreed instantly and Ford suggested to split up to look for it.
"Listen," Kogoro said, with a stern tone. "Ran and Conan, stay here. Nana-san, please don't wander off."
Nana nodded, strangely quiet, while Ran only fixed her look on her lap. Conan rolled his eyes, however, sipping a bit of his orange juice and watching his brother leave with the adults.
Once the two girls started talking, Nana complaining about how much time they were taking, Conan figured that was his chance to slip away. So, silently, he started to tiptoe away.
He leaned against a random piece of furniture, hidden from plain view. I guess I'll go look too, Conan grinned, setting the can into the floor.
But as he was trying to get to the door, the child found himself face to face with Ran. "Hi, Ran-neechan," he offered, pitching his voice into a innocent tone. "Do you want something?"
"Don't play dumb with me," which didn't work on her. She placed her hands on her waist, just like a mother would scold her child. "Weren't you told to stay here?"
"I have been told a lot of things, actually."
Ran sighed, clearly exasperated. "Come on," she grabbed his hands and started to drag him away. "Geez, you're so full of curiosity..."
Before he could even complain, the lights suddenly went off. Both of them looked around through the darkness, confused about the sudden black out.
"What?" Conan directed his sight to Nana's direction and realized, with a gasp, that her nails were glowing on the dark. "What's going on? Why did the light-?"
"Nana-san!" he shouted. "Cover your-!"
Her screams resounding on his ears caused him to come into a stop, watching as the hand suddenly dropping lifelessly into the ground. He also heard the juice can he had left on the ground clattering, as if someone had kicked it, yet paid no attention.
When the lights back came up, he found himself standing in front of her dead body. The knife stuck on her back her the lifeless stare were proof enough of that.
Soon, the rest of the people came into the room, before horrified expressions overcome each of their faces.
"The Seven of Spades," Shinichi noted, eyes narrowing at the sight of the two cars that lied at her side. "And the Joker."
"Murakami was known as the Joker at the casino," explained the inspector. "This means that this was made by him."
Even as they discussed about Murakami being in the building and Kogoro went out to look for him, followed by Shiratori, Shinichi's eyes hadn't yet left the card. His hand raised to his chin, thinking deeply.
He did look away, however, when a little hand crossed his line of view. Blinking twice, he watched Conan pulling her shirt back so he could see better. There was a hand print.
"Right-handed," he heard the child mumbling to himself.
Realization hit the high school detective hard, earning a confused look from the child due to his startled gasp.
"I have looked into Murakami before coming here," he explained. "I saw photos of him. He was definitely left-handed."
Conan's eyes widened, in horror, when he understood what that meant, before looking over his shoulder. Shinichi had no idea what that spilled drink on the floor had to do with anything. The next instant, the child was back on his feet and running around the place, desperately looking for something on everyone's legs
He watched his younger brother's eyes sharpening at the sight of the stains in Sawaki's pants. Only then, he got what had been going through his mind and understood who the killer was.
But why? Shinichi couldn't help but wonder. Why would Sawaki-san...?
Even if he had no idea of why, it seemed like Conan had realized something as he suddenly slipped away from the room, rushing towards the kitchen. Curious about what was in his mind, he gave a last glance towards Sawaki before following the child.
He found him right away, pulling a bottle of mineral water out of the fridge with a smug grin on his face.
"What are you doing?" Shinichi asked.
Conan jumped, clearly startled, and almost dropped the bottle. His head snapped his way and it didn't even take a second for the shock to dissolve into a blank expression.
The child said nothing, just stared at him for a moment, before continuing his work. Shinichi couldn't help but sigh, watching him fill seven glasses with water.
Before reaching for the salt.
Seemingly noticing the puzzled expression on the detective's face, he decided to talk. "I caught Sawaki-san trying out some spices not that long ago," Conan didn't even look at him. "Including chilli-powder."
"Oh..." realization came to him in an instant. "Oh!"
"Oh," Conan rolled his eyes, before setting the glasses in a tray and leaving.
He didn't even need to look to notice that his brother was following, and he didn't even try. He just approached Kogoro, who raised an eyebrow at him, and offered him a glass of water.
"Idiot," Kogoro yelled. "Don't move around by yourself! We have no idea where Murakami is hiding!"
"But my name doesn't have any numbers," he explained. "Besides, Shinichi-san was with me the entire time, even if he is a potential target."
Ran's eyes shifted away from Nana to the child when she heard those words, a bit stunned. Did Conan-kun just call Shinichi...? her eyes softened, watching the child offering water to every single adult in the room, a wide smile etched on his face.
An incredibly forced and equally fake smile, that was.
She then turned to look at Shinichi whose gaze hadn't yet left the child. Ran didn't miss the way his lips were pressed together in a thin line, or the way he closed his eyes, sighing as if he was actually regretting all his actions.
Any other day, she would have walked up to him, tried to talk to him and try, with all her might, to make him feel better. Today was different, though. Because she knew he had brought this down all by himself.
So she ignored the urge to go comfort him.
Conan, on the other hand, never even noticed he had been watched, so he leaned once more over the body. His eyes fell on her hand, taking notice of the fake nail that had gotten off, in the struggle. Or maybe... looking around, he noticed there was a particular little thing missing. It wasn't anywhere on the floor or in her pockets. That means...
Before he could finish his line of thought, the ground started shaking before a violent explosion somewhere in the restaurant. The lights went off again as a result, so Shiratori took into his own hands to protect Shishido, the next victim.
So, they waited for the killer to strike. He didn't. Instead, the emergency lights went on.
Followed by another explosion, shattering the glass that had protected them from the water all this time. Before they knew it, all people in the room found themselves trying to run away from the giant waves that threatened to swallow everything in sight.
Only that there was nowhere to run. It wasn't long before, one by one, they got themselves dragged away by the incredibly powerful strength of the sea water.
Everything was too sudden the little boy. Next thing he knew, he was being pulled down by the force of the water, then shaken around to the point he wasn't able to tell right from left. But managed to stabilize himself against the wall, so he pushed himself with it and began to swim towards the surface.
Because of the surprise, however, he hadn't had the time to a deep breath before staying underwater for so long. That was why, in mere seconds, his lungs began to burn. They screamed at him, begged for some air.
Damn it, he cursed inside his mind, forcing himself to swim faster. I can't...
Air bubbles soon covered his sight and he found himself sinking instead of going up, his body growing weak and limp as the lack of oxygen deprived him from what little strength he had left.
Then, everything began to fade away as he felt himself drifting in the water, unable to keep up this fight any longer.
A/N:
ajjr12: Yeah, you're right about that. In fact, I don't think I will cover a lot of movies after this one.
Dy: Thanks for pointing that out! I've fixed it already.