SailorStar9: So, with Chapter 106 uploaded, this is Chapter 107 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 107: Taiko Meijin's Shogi Board, Checkmate
"It's been a while, boy, since I last met you wearing this face." Akai greeted, driving in front of Ramen Ogura when Conan got into his red Subaru 360.
"We didn't have a choice." Conan reasoned. "I doubt you had the time to disguise yourself."
"Yukiko-san certainly wanted to disguise me." Akai corrected. "So, do you know where my brother is?"
"He's probably being held in the culprit's home." Conan concluded. "But apparently, they moved recently. I could only figure out their phone number. They answered Yumi-san's call this morning, so I thought about calling and getting their address out of them, but they're on their guard and won't answer their phone. Naturally, I've been calling the Meijin's phone as well, but it's powered off."
"It's possible he expected the culprit to capture him and didn't take a phone containing information of his close friends." Akai surmised. "Although as his brother, I wished he'd consider how not to get captured."
"Who are you calling?" Conan asked, seeing Akai make a call.
"My brother's other phone." Akai replied. "We use it exclusively for secret conversations. Like a certain high school detective, officially, I don't exist. He picked up."
With the captured Shukichi...
"Excuse me." Shukichi voiced. "You seem to be waiting for something. We're both Shogi players. If you'd got nothing to do, would you play a game of blind Shogi with this Meijin? 4-5 P." he started his move.
"Same P." his captor countered.
"5-5 S." Shukichi made his next move.
"2-4 P." his kidnapper shot back.
"6-4 P." Shukichi continued.
"Same P." his captor countered.
"5-6 G." Shukichi voiced.
"2-5 P." the kidnapper fired back.
"Not bad." Shukichi praised. "In that case, 6-4 S."
"5-5 P." his abductor continued.
With Conan and Akai...
"They're playing blind Shogi?" Conan gawked.
"My brother must be up to something." Akai was used to Shukichi's mindset.
"He might be using the game record of that blind Shogi game to tell us where he's being held." Conan guessed.
"That's not necessary." Akai corrected. "Since I can complete this call, I can use this." he turned on the tracking app he had on his phone. "In any case, I'll hurry to this location. Could you listen to my brother's blind Shogi match while explaining to me how you identified the culprit?"
"The suspects are the following three people who said left the victim in the room to go shopping." Conan explained. "Hishinuma Kosuke, who went to a coffee shop to pick up coffee for everyone, Katsumata Mina, who bought freshly baked bread at a bakery, and Uryu Shoko, who purchased freezing cold ice cream. Even if they wanted to acquire what they purchased beforehand to fabricate an alibi, one of the three suspects could've used one of those tools to fabricate an alibi: the mixer. If you put room temperature water in a mixer and mix it for five minutes, the kinetic energy from the friction generated by the water molecules turns into thermal energy. Its temperature rises three degrees to 42-3 degrees Celsius. If you put instant coffee in the hot water, you can make lukewarm coffee. In other words, the culprit pretended to go shopping, and then claimed to have forgotten something and returned to the room. They put water in the mixer, and while it was mixing, they strangled the victim, Genda-san, to death with an electric cord. They placed the Shogi board missing two legs they'd hidden in the room next to the body, indicating that Genda-san was the second victim of the serial murders. They poured the lukewarm water heated using the mixer into cups they previously purchased from the coffee shop and made coffee. They placed the coffees inside a coffee shop bag and descended to the building entrance. Then he pretended the victim wouldn't let him in after he went to buy coffee. That's right, Hishinuma Kosuke must be the culprit."
With the captured Shukichi...
"3-3 G." Hishinuma continued his play.
"5-4 B drop." Haneda countered.
With Conan and Akai...
"When Genda-san's death by strangulation was being investigated, Kishimoto's house caught fire." Conan continued. "A Shogi board missing three legs was placed next to the body to confuse the order in which the murders took place. He killed Kishimoto before going to the second crime scene, the Beika City apartment where the study sessions were held. After killing him, he left the body in a room with the AC set to 37 degrees. As long as he made sure the house would catch fire automatically after Genda-san's murder was discovered, a body with a relatively high rectal temperature would be discovered at the wreckage of the fire. Naturally, the body was burnt, which broadens the estimated time of death, but he could use the number of legs on the Shogi board to convince us that it happened after the second murder."
"In other words, by leaving a Shogi board missing one leg next to Nishikido, his first victim, he was laying the groundwork to make it seem like he killed Kishimoto, his second victim, after Genda, his third victim." Akai realized.
"The GPS is pointing to that building directly ahead of us." Conan reported. "The question is, which room is the Meijin being held at?"
"He's probably playing blind Shogi in order to tell us that." Akai concluded and pressed the car horn to inform Shukichi of their arrival.
With the captured Shukichi...
"What's the matter, Meijin?" Hishinuma asked. "Need some time to think?"
"8-3 promote." Shukichi continued. "Wait, that's a bad move. Now my jeweled general will be taken by your incense chariot."
With Conan and Akai...
"Akai-san." Conan understood Shukichi's hint.
"Impressive work, boy." Akai nodded.
With the captured Shukichi...
"I knew Haneda Meijin wouldn't make such a bad move." Hishinuma sneered, smashing the discovered phone with the knife butt. "You tricked me so you could tell someone about this location. If the police found the written confession, and you agreed not to tell anyone about me, I planned to release you and go into hiding, but it looks like I'll have to kill you."
On the rooftop...
"I knew it, he's being held in the living room." Conan dangled his phone over the unit's window and took a photo. "In English, the incense chariot is called the 'lance' or L for short. Living room started with L, too. But how can we rescue him?"
"Boy, you see that clothesline pipe on that apartment's balcony?" Akai asked, an idea coming to him. "Could you use your ball to change its angle? Then follow along the plan I'm about to describe." he pulled out a silencer-attached revolver.
With the captured Shukichi...
"Perhaps it's none of my business, but you should turn yourself in soon." Shukichi advised. "It's not too late."
On the rooftop...
Kicking the soccer ball from the Anywhere Ball Dispensing Belt, Conan toppled the clothesline frame on Hishinuma's balcony.
With the captured Shukichi...
"What just happened?" Hishinuma wondered. "Where'd that ball come from?" he spotted the deflating soccer ball.
"This is the MPD." Akai borrowed Conan's Voice-Changing Bowtie to project Megure's voice via the loudspeaker of Conan's phone. "We're the Special Assault Team. Hishinuma Kosuke, we're watching your every move. Discard your weapon and give yourself up."
"Shut up." Hishinuma snapped, resting his knife on Shukichi's neck. "Stay away from me. Or don't you care what happens to the Meijin?"
On the rooftop...
Reaching over the railing, Akai fired a bullet straight into the mangled clothesline frame, using the curved metal to shoot a hole through the window. "That was a warning shot." he added, using the Voice-Changing Bowtie. "A detached force is on its way to your location. Stay there and wait quietly until they arrive."
With Hishinuma...
The now frightened Hishinuma threw away the knife and fled out of the unit, only to be shot by Conan's tranquilizer dart which knocked him out.
With the rescued Shukichi...
"Thanks for saving me, Conan-kun." Shukichi smiled.
"It's was me." Conan blinked. "It's all Akai-san."
"I suppose so." Shukichi remarked, Akai was tying up the snoring Hishinuma.
"But why did the culprit Hishinuma-san stay here instead of immediately running away?" Conan was puzzled.
"He was waiting for the police to find the written confession." Shukichi replied. "A letter confessing that those four Shogi players were cheating. Nishikido Kimiharu, Genda Yasukiyo, Kishimoto Yuhei and Uryu Kinji kept pens equipped with miniature cameras in their pockets. They sent their matches to their accomplices' phones, who searched the web for expert moves. They won a bunch of games by casually informing each other about the moves when they passed each other in the bathroom or hallways. Nishikido ranked up without getting caught, but someone from the Shogi League warned Uryu that he was going to the bathroom too many times. When he asked the others what he should do, they apparently responded coldly; they told to follow the rule of silence and die. The legs of Shogi boards are modeled after gardenia fruit; it comes from the ban against speaking during someone else's match. They made their own agreement modeled after the gardenia. If any of them were in danger of being exposed, he'd keep the group's secret and protect the others by killing himself. Because of it, Uryu was forced to commit suicide. He found his suicide suspicious, so he tracked down their cheating." he turned to the bound Hishinuma. "And made the first victim, Nishikido, confess. In order to avenge his friend, Uryu, he killed the three of them and left Shogi boards missing their gardenias at the crime scenes. Before we began our blind Shogi game, he actually told me to sit quietly and listen so he could tell me why he did it. Nishikido, in particular, used their cheating to fix matches. He called him a disgrace to Shogi players. The confession was meant to frame Kishimoto who was found dead in the burnt wreckage. It apparently said he killed the other two, and himself in order to atone for their cheating."
"Then, why haven't the police found the confession?" Conan was confused.
"Because I got to it before them and took it." Shukichi beamed. "At the time, I knew Hishinuma was responsible for the serial murders. Hishinuma might've burnt down Kishimoto's house, too. If that were the case, I thought he must put a confession in the apartment's mailbox, so it would seem like Kishimoto came to the apartment to kill Genda before setting fire to his own home and killing himself."
"Camel?" Akai made a call to Camel. "There's something I'd like you to take care of while the police are escorting the murderer to their car. One broken glass window and a bullet stuck in the wall. Thanks for taking care of this, Camel."
"Nii-san, I have a question about Mom." Shukichi voiced. "She's refusing to meet my girlfriend. She won't even answer her phone."
"You haven't told her I'm alive, have you?" Akai chided. "Don't worry. You'll get to see Mom eventually."
SailorStar9: Any OOC-ness is regretted, by the way. *Sighs* Don't you just hate plot bunnies sometimes? Read and review.