SailorStar9: With Chapter 45 uploaded, this is Chapter 46 of this fic. (Sighs) Guys and girls, is it too hard for you to leave a review, instead of just putting this fic up on your favorited list and story alerts?

Pairings: Established!Furuya Rei (Amuro Tooru)/Mizuno Ami

Disclaimers: I own absolutely nothing, except this plot and pairing.

Chapter 46: The Marriage Registration's Password, Part One

Some timer later...

"Huh?" Mitsuhiko blinked, the Detective Boys spotted Sato and Yumi in front of the garbage disposal center of Yumi's apartment.

"It's Detective Sato and the patrol lady." Genta recognized.

"What are you doing?" Mitsuhiko asked.

"Are you on case?" Ayumi inquired.

"Yeah." Sato replied. "Yumi threw out something important with the garbage."

"You must be stupid." Genta scolded. "You shouldn't throw it away if it was so important."

"It was a mistake." Yumi defended.

"You accidentally put it in the garbage?" Fumio deathpanned.

"It was stuck in a fashion magazine." Yumi explained. "I bundled it up with some other magazines and threw it out."

"But apparently, they don't collect recyclables today." Conan looked at the disposal schedule.

"You're as negligent as ever." Sato chided.

"You're one to talk." Yumi fired back.

"But if that bundle of magazines isn't here, then the building manager might be keeping them somewhere else." Conan reasoned. "If he identified it as your garbage, it might be in front of your apartment."

"It's here!" Yumi gushed, finding the stack of magazines by her doorstep.

"You've got a responsible apartment manager." Sato noted as Yumi hurried to untie the magazines. "He even left a note telling you that recycling is on Tuesday."

"I'm pretty sure I left it in here..." Yumi took a magazine and started flipping through it.

"I'm surprised the manager knew it was Yumi's garbage." Mitsuhiko noted.

"If he's been working here for a while, he probably knows which magazines his residents buy." Conan stated. "Yumi-san's probably the only one who gets a mix of fashion and mahjong magazines."

"It's not here!" Yumi exclaimed. "I can't find it anywhere."

"By the way, what are you looking for anyway?" Fumio asked.

"A hundred million yen!" Yumi snapped.

"Yumi left an important envelope inside a fashion magazine as a bookmark." Sato explained.

"You mean an envelope containing a marriage registration." Haibara remarked.

"Probably." Sato laughed nervously. Even the kids figured it out.

"Was there anything written on the envelope?" Conan inquired.

"The word 'seal' was written along the opening on the back and his name was written on the front." Yumi replied.

"Then, some woman may have picked it up, written her name in the wife field, and submitted it to the ward office." Mitsuhiko gasped.

"I won't hesitate too, if it meant marrying Master Taiko." Haibara shrugged. "I'm joking." seeing Yumi's startled expression.

"Haibara-san, don't bully Yumi-san like that." Fumio chided.

"In any case, let's go talk to the manager." Conan suggested. "He may be holding on to it if it's important."

"Excuse me." Yumi spoke into the apartment manager's intercom. "It's Miyamoto from Room 308. I have a question about the garbage."

"Give me a minute." Hachitsuka Koroku answered his door. "You've finally arrived, Cha-cha."

"Cha-cha?" Genta echoed.

"I told you to stop calling me that." Yumi rebuked. "It's annoying."

"Yumi, what's Cha-cha?" Sato wondered.

"I don't know." Yumi admitted. "When Chukichi came here before to hang out, we ran into the manager. He started calling me Cha-cha after that."

"You're no different from that evil woman who stole Taiko's spine." Hachitsuka retorted.

"Oji-san, do you like Shogi?" Fumio asked.

"I thought I was as good as a professional." Hachitsuka admitted. "But he taught me a lesson. Ten years ago, I heard a middle school aged pro was coming to an event being held at a department store. I thought I'd beat that kid good. Instead, I suffered a thorough defeat at his hands. I fell in love with his style. I'm a huge fan of Master Taiko now. Each time he won a title, I was as pleased as though I won it myself. I was living a carefree life. Until this Cha-cha arrested me anyway."

"This old man used to be a pickpocket." Yumi related. "I caught him trying to steal my wallet on a train and sen him to jail. But he said he couldn't find a job once he finished his sentence, so I helped him get a job managing the building here. More importantly, where's the envelope that was stuck in the magazines I put out this morning?"

"You mean this?" Hachitsuka showed her the photo he had taken of the marriage registration form using his phone camera.

"Did you look inside the envelope?" Yumi glared.

"Why do you care?" Hachitsuka snorted. "You threw it out with the trash."

"That's good news, though." Sato noted. "It really was a marriage registration form."

"Give me back my registration form." Yumi demanded.

"Now where did I put it?" Hachitsuka wondered. "I thought I put it in my bedroom, but I've been so forgetful lately."

"Move!" Yumi pushed her way in. "I'm going to look for it. It's not on the desk or in any of the drawers." she remarked, searching the work desk.

"That's strange." Hachitsuka taunted. "I'm sure it's inside this room... if it isn't Mizuno Fumio?" he adjusted his glasses and peered closer at Fumio.

"Oji-san?" Fumio blinked in confusion.

"You were too young to remember." Hachitsuka chuckled. "But I once played Shogi against your kaa-san and she trounced me really good; you were about two years old at that time. I see, the two of you have returned to Japan."

"I'm sure he'll give it back once we find it." Sato stepped forward.

"You don't have that much time." Hachitsuka reminded. "He wrote that his profession was 'Shogi Master, Seven Crowns' on the form. He must've written that with great resolution and determination. But Master Taiko is currently struggling in the championship match. It's probably because of the registration form. He mentioned it in a magazine interview that he couldn't think of Shogi right now, since he still hadn't received a response from the person dearest to him. If Taiko loses the championship match, this marriage registration with 'Seven Crowns' written on it will become invalid."

"Then call him right now to tell him you want to get married." Sato urged.

"You can't." Fumio cut in. "Masters can't keep their phones on them during a match."

"Fumio is right." Hachitsuka agreed. "The only time you'd be able to see him is during his lunch break. If you appear holding the marriage registration form, he'd defeat all enemies with the strength of a million men. There's about an hour left before lunch." he looked at his watch. "Then show me your resolve: the resolve to stand by Master Taiko's side, no matter what happens. If you're desperate enough, you'll be able to find an envelope or two."

"Isn't this it?" Conan voiced from the laptop. "It says to enter the eight digit password."

"Indeed." Fumio looked over Conan's shoulder. "It even says it has to be entered by Yodogimi."

"Yodogimi?" Ayumi echoed.

"Taiko Hideyoshi's wife, also known as Cha-cha." Haibara supplied.

"But what's the password?" Mitsuhiko wondered.

"Won't we get it right eventually if we just enter a bunch of random numbers?" Genta suggested.

"We can't." Conan cut in. "Only Yumi-san is allowed to enter the password and it says no mistakes are allowed. Apparently, it locks up if you get it wrong even once."

"Then, what are we supposed to do?" Mitsuhiko inquired.

"It's simple." Fumio smiled. "If we can find the eight digit number hidden somewhere in this room and get Yumi-san to enter the password into the computer, then we'll know where the envelope is. Isn't that right, oji-san?"

"Now that we know what to do, let's split up and look for it." Conan hopped off the chair.

"Genta, don't flip over the garbage can." Ayumi chided, seeing Genta turn the trash bin over.

"But we don't know where it's hidden." Genta remarked, shaking the bin and causing a piece of paper with squishy drawing to fall out. "There was a weird piece of paper in the trash."

"Wait a minute." Yumi whined after Genta handed the paper over. "What is this? I don't get it."

"But it looks like what's written on that paper is some kind of code and we'll find an eight digit number once we solve it." Sato noted.

"You'll probably will be fine." Haibara assured. "That code looks a lot like the 'Dancing Men' code from Sherlock Holmes. The two Sherlocks looking at the photo they took of the code have probably already solved..."

"Not even you two can solve it?" Mitsuhiko peered over the photo as Conan and Fumio antagonized over the photo.

"Wait, don't some of them look like numbers if you cover part of them?" Fumio pointed out.

"If you hide this part, this looks like one." Ayumi covered a figure with her finger.

"But what are we supposed to hide them with?" Genta wondered.

"I know." Mitsuhiko spotted the Shogi board on the floor. "It's Shogi pieces." "If we put Shogi pieces in the right places on top of the paper, we might find the eight digit number."

"Now that's settled, let's solve this code together." Yumi sat by the Shogi board and opened the Shogi piece box. "It's not that they don't look like numbers, but it doesn't seem right." she moaned, after trying for a while. "I don't know which numbers to start with either."

"Maybe the code can't be solved with only that sheet of paper." Conan surmised. "Maybe there's a second code sheet the creates an eight digit number when you overlap them. Or maybe it reveals a sentence that's a clue to the code."

"So, we should look for a second sheet, right?" Yumi asked. "Let's search the room again. Searching for something reminds me of that time, though." she recalled, the group redoubling their efforts. "When we went bamboo shoot hunting; when I went to hang out at Chukichi's apartment, he was panicking because he couldn't find an important fan, so I found it for him."

"How is that bamboo shoot hunting?" Sato wondered.

"Fan are made of bamboo." Yumi stated. "And the fan was stuck in a pen holder. Only the tip was visible. So I told Chukichi he couldn't find it because he was looking for a fan. If you imagine you're looking for something that's mostly hidden, it's easier to find. All you can see of bamboo shoots are the tip since most of it's hidden in the dirt. I'm the one who stuck the fan I found on his desk in the pen holder while he was in the bathroom, though."

SailorStar9: Any OOC-ness is regretted, by the way. *Sighs* Don't you just hate plot bunnies sometimes? Read and review.