SailorStar9: With Chapter 25 uploaded, this is Chapter 26 of this fic and I'm officially restarting this. (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: Furuya Rei (Amuro Tooru)/Mizuno Ami

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

Chapter 26: The Tense Tea Party, Part 2

"Inspector Megure." Takagi reported in. "We finished examining the hospital room, but we didn't find a container or bag that could have contained the poison."

"I see." Inspector Megure noted. "It's likely the culprit threw it away outside."

"Also, we didn't find poison in the spilled tea." Takagi added.

"Then, how was she poisoned?" Inspector Megure wondered.

"Actually, the poison was on..." Takagi answered.

"Was it on the teacup's..." Conan voiced.

"Hey!" Ran snapped, grabbing the boy by the back of his collar. "What are you doing? I looked all over the hospital for you. I told you not to wander off like that."

"But..." Conan whined.

"Not the time for one of your flashbacks, love." Ami chided, recognizing Amuro's faraway expression on his face.

"Sorry." Amuro apologized.

"Come on." Ran pulled Conan away. "We're leaving."

"But the case..." Conan complained. "A lady was poisoned and died." he freed himself. "Inspector Megure, Detective Takagi and Kogoro-ojisan had no idea who did it."

"But Conan-kun, look outside." Ran reminded. "The blue sky turned bright red. It's time for children to go home."

"What?" Conan blinked, his mind churning until he arrived at the culprit's trick.

"So let Dad and the police handle the case." Ran stated. "Come on." she scolded, noticing Conan had ran off again.

"I know that face." Ami grinned, seeing Amuro's pleased smile as the couple looked out of the window.

"So do I, kaa-san." Fumio beamed in his mother's arms. "Tou-san figured it out, right?"

"The lip of the cup?" Kosaka echoed. "There was poison there?"

"Yes." Takagi confirmed. "Just around the lipstick stain. When the victim Suto Reina-san brought her cup to her lips, she drank the poison along with the tea. There were no traces of poison inside the cup."

"You think one of us poisoned the cup just before Reina drank her tea?" Beppu questioned.

"Wouldn't someone have noticed?" Happo asked.

"Nobody did anything like that." Kosaka assured.

"Weren't you listening to Amuro?" Mouri retorted. "The culprit didn't poison her cup. They poisoned their own cup and switched it with the victim's."

"And we're saying that's not possible." Beppu insisted. "I was drinking yellow chamomile."

"I was drinking brown peppermint tea." Happo repeated.

"And I was drinking blue butterfly tea." Kosaka added. "Even if one of us swapped our tea with the red hibiscus tea Suto-san was drinking, she would've noticed immediately."

"But only the victim had a lemon slice in her tea, right?" Mouri inquired. "If her view is limited, she may not have noticed the change in color."

"They look nothing alike." Beppu retorted.

"In any case, it's a fact that the culprit killed Suto-san by poisoning her cup." Inspector Megure stated. "Because we didn't find the container for the poison in this room, Beppu-san and Happo-san, the culprit must be one of you two, who left the room one after another."

"I see." Mouri mused. "After poisoning the cup, the culprit left the room and disposed the container."

"Wait a minute." Beppu voiced. "I just went to the restroom."

"And I went to the convenience store to buy snacks for the tea." Happo defended. "I even have a receipt."

"A search of the restroom's plumbing and the way to the convenience store should tun up something." Mouri concluded.

"But the culprit must be pretty bold." Conan noted. "If I poisoned the cup, I definitely wouldn't leave. If someone wiped the cup, moved it, or poured a new type of tea while I was gone, I wouldn't know which cup was poisoned anymore."

"The, how and when did the culprit poison the cup?" Takagi wondered. "And where did the container for the poison go?"

"We'll have to search the room again." Inspector Megure noted.

"That's not necessary." Fumio cut in. "Since there's only one person who could've openly poisoned the cup without leaving."

"Isn't that right, Zero-nii-chan?" Conan beamed at Amuro.

"Well?" Mouri asked the younger man. "Do you know who it is?"

"I think I know, thanks to Fumio-kun's hint." Amuro replied. "She was able to poison the cup and dispose the container. Without leaving the room, she applied poison to her own cup, and watched for an opportunity to switch it with the victim's. Only you could have done it." he turned to Kosaka. "Kosaka Juri-san."

"Wait a minute." Happo started. "How could she have poisoned her own cup? Juri was drinking tea from that cup the whole time."

"Did you forget?" Amuro reminded. "The poison was on the side you'd drink from when holding the cup in your left hand. As long as you're careful not to use your left hand, you'll never touch the poison."

"Then, when did she poison the cup?" Takagi asked.

"She probably brought the poison to the hospital before she was hospitalized." Amuro reasoned. "She poisoned her own cup the day her friends were visiting and threw the container away outside her room somewhere."

"You're the one who's forgetting." Beppu retorted. "Juri was drinking a blue herb tea, and Reina was drinking a red herb tea. Even with a lemon, she couldn't have swapped them."

"That lemon is the key to her trick." Amuro stated. "The truth is..."

"It's really blue." Conan noted, having borrowed Kosaka's butterfly tea bag and prepared a a cup of blue tea. "This butterfly tea sure is mysterious."

"You're touched evidence again." Mouri scolded.

"We just got the water from the hospital." Fumio informed, a slice of lemon in hand. "This lemon, too. What do you know?" he mused, dropping the lemon slice into the tea and watching the liquid turn red. "The blue tea starts turning red after dropping a lemon in."

"The acid in the lemon causes it to change color." Amuro explained. "There are other herb teas that react the same way, like the blue mallow tea you're always drinking." he cast a look at Ami. "Naturally, if acid makes it turn red," he walked over to the cupboard. "Then adding alkaline baking soda," he took out the pack of baking soda from the shelf. "Kosaka-san used to clean her cups." he removed the lemon slice and poured in the baking soda. "Makes it blue again. In other words, these are the steps Kosaka-san took. First, knowing your friends were visiting, you asked Suto-san to come a little early. You had her go get hot water so you could have a tea party. While she was gone, you poisoned the side opposite the one you were using with the poison you brought to the hospital and threw the container away outside your room. Once your friends arrived, you suggested comparing teas and wait for Suto-san to choose the hibiscus tea. The hibiscus tea is a purplish red which looked very similar to butterfly tea when lemons are added. After Suto-san chose the hibiscus tea, you put in her cup a teabag whose contents were switched out for butterfly tea beforehand, put a lemon on top, and added water, allowing you to serve Suto-san butterfly tea the color of hibiscus tea."

"Then, how did she switch the cups?" Mouri asked.

"She did it when Suto-san and her friends were looking at the pictures on her phone." Amuro replied. "First, she put a lemon in her own poisoned cup of blue butterfly tea to make it turn red and nudge Suto-san's cup with her own. She pretended to take her own cup while actually taking Suto-san's, removed the lemon and adding baking soda, making it blue again. Then, she nudged the poisoned cup with her own again, putting the cup handle on the left side from Suto-san's perspective, because Suto-san was distracted by the phone, she knew she could make her pick up the poisoned cup with her left hand. Am I wrong?"

"You make it sound as though you were watching, but what proof do you..." Beppu pressed.

"Your left thumb is red." Conan turned Kosaka's hand up, spotting a smudge of lipstick on the thumb.

"There was one other thing the culprit had to remove from the crime scene." Amuro added. "The lipstick from Suto-san's original cup. It would be strange to find lipstick on Kosaka-san's cup. She quickly wiped it off with her finger, but lipstick can be difficult to remove without soap."

"In other words, if this red color matches Suto-san's lipstick, it will prove she did it." Inspector Megure noted.

"If you examine Suto-san's cup, you'll find proof as well." Amuro stated. "A significant amount of baking soda was mixed into the tea."

"But how did she add the baking soda?" Mouri queried.

"It's simple." Ami shrugged. "She just sprinkled the sugar cubes on the table with the baking soda and hid it in the bottom of the container; there's nothing suspicious about adding sugar to herb tea, after all."

"But Juri had no motive to kill Reina." Happo protested. "She may have hated Reina for making her son fail the exam."

"But she won't kill someone over that." Beppu agreed.

"It wasn't just my son that caught Suto-san's son's flu." Kosaka stated.

"Did you get it too?" Happo blinked.

"Yes." Kosaka admitted. "I was pregnant then. My doctor told me the flu can negatively affect the fetus. I developed neurosis and miscarried. At first, I thought I was careless or just had bad luck. But then when I heard what Suto-san's son had to say..." she recalled what Suto Tsuneo had told her, that it was Reina's idea to have him spread his influenza to Kosaka's son to cut down the competition.

"How awful..." Happo breathed.

"But that sounds like Reina." Beppu noted.

"I'm just as awful." Kosaka sighed. "I let you fall to suspicion so I could get away with my crime. It's too bad, though. I chose butterfly tea for it's detoxifying effects. I thought it might erase the dark murderous intent inside me before I committed the crime."

"I can't believe she poisoned her own guest." Mouri noted, the group were now heading out of the hospital.

"I wonder if this hospital is cursed." Takagi wondered. "It sounds like something happened here before."

"Like what?" Amuro prompted.

"The announcer Mizunashi Rena was a patient here." Takagi replied. "An injured man caused a panic trying to force his way into a room. There was a bomb scare, too."

"Detective Takagi." Conan cut in before Takagi gave away too much. "Shouldn't you go back to the station?"

"I don't have time to be hanging out here." Takagi looked at his wristwatch.

"You don't know anything about a man called Kusuda Rikumichi, do you?" Amuro asked before Takagi ran off.

"Come to think of it, we found a damaged vehicle a few days before the bomb scare." Takagi remembered. "It belonged to a Kusuda Rikumichi. Apparently he was a patient here, but he suddenly disappeared. It's a mysterious case. There was blood all over the inside of the damage vehicle. Some of the bloodstains were less than a millimeter across. According to forensics..."

Both Amuro and Ami tuned out the rumbling Takagi and exchanged a look, not noticing Conan was watching them intently.

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