SailorStar9: With Chapter 33 uploaded, this is Chapter 34 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: Furuya Rei (Amuro Tooru)/Mizuno Ami
Disclaimers: I own absolutely nothing, except this plot and pairing.
Chapter 34: Pitfall of Fire Precautions
Time passes, one night...
"Fire safety!" the Detective Boys were on fire safety patrol duty.
"This feels so nostalgic." Ayumi remarked.
"It's like a historical drama." Genta noted.
"No, this is what you call Showa." Mitsuhiko corrected.
"It's been bothering me for a while." Fumio voiced. "There's been a string of them, right? Arson cases?"
"There was one four days ago." Conan recalled. "And another two days ago."
"And once every two days means..." Haibara trailed.
"Yeah, tonight..." Conan confirmed.
"What's going on?" Genta gawked, the group stopping when they spotted a dark shadow fleeing in front of them.
"Is that..." one of the two adults on patrol gasped, seeing the blaze in the corner.
"Seriously?" Conan echoed, unable to believe he was spot on.
"Hello?" the adults called the fire department. "There's a fire."
"Was that man we saw earlier..." Conan gasped, the group hurrying over to the playground where the jungle gym was burning.
"He could be the arsonist." Haibara agreed.
"I know that guy." Genta voiced.
Meanwhile, in Ami's apartment...
"Does this mean I'm forgiven?" Amuro asked, grinning as he traced an idle finger down his lover's inner thigh.
"What makes you think you weren't?" Ami grinned back.
"About what happened to Akai and myself..." Amuro let out a breath.
"Tell me." Ami implored, nestling her back into her lover's body. "And you took what Akai-shishou said at face value?" she deathpanned incredulously. "Really?"
"How would I know what he said wasn't the truth?" Amuro argued.
"And how would he know it was you running up the fire escape and not one of the other agents?" Ami fired back.
"Point." Amuro conceded.
"The two of you really need to sit down and talk this whole thing out." Ami sighed. "You, especially," she jabbed Amuro's nose with her finger. "Need to hear Akai-shishou's side of the story."
"Fine." Amuro huffed, not very happy that he was backed into a corner. "When are you meeting him?"
"Next Saturday afternoon at the shooting range." Ami replied.
The next day...
"Found it." Conan pulled out the newspaper article from his cellphone, the group having stalked out Kamaishi Suguru.
"That's last year's case." Haibara breathed. "It's been bothering me, too. It's been happening at the same places, including yesterday's location."
"Yeah, they're children's parks in a three by three kilometer area." Conan agreed. "The fires started over the course of two weeks."
"Although the fourth case produced a casualty, and the suspect was never arrested, the arson incidents stopped." Fumio noted
"And one year later, in the same places, using the same methods, it's started again." Conan added.
"A copycat crime?" Fumio suggested.
"Yeah, but it could also be that last year's arsonist is back." Conan reasoned.
"This is where the fourth fire started." Conan led the group to the playground after a day of stalking. "Last year, the first victim was found here." he turned to the construction crates lying at the side.
"A drunk office worker sleeping while wrapped up in a construction tarp died." Haibara added.
Just then, Mitsuhiko, Genta and Ayumi started screaming as a lighted sheet started burning on the top of the slide. The trio then started running back to the others when the flaming sheet was caught by the wind and flew towards them. It was then Kamaishi tackled the three kids to the ground, causing the sheet to fly over to the water fountain and dousing the flames.
"It's out." Kamaishi sighed in relief.
"The arsonist!" Mitsuhiko, Genta and Ayumi chorused.
"I just saved you." Kamaishi chided. "Don't call me that. Wait." he looked around. "He got away again."
"Is that what happened yesterday?" Conan asked.
"Yeah." Kamaishi replied. "I was so close."
"Did you think this could be related to last year's fires, too?" Conan inquired. "Is that why you've been on the lookout?"
"Yeah..." Kamaishi looked away.
"So why would you do that?" Haibara pressed.
"Well..." Kamaishi trailed. "It's only natural. If it's the same person as last year, I need to catch him myself."
"I see." Takagi was put on the case. "That's all of today." he took down Kamaishi's statement.
"This is the scene of the first fire." Ayumi declared, the group, plus Kamaishi returned to the first arson scene.
"Last year, that swing was set on fire." Mitsuhiko pulled out the news article on his cellphone. "And this year, it was the see-saw."
"So, what are we doing here?" Kamaishi asked.
"We're reviewing the case." Mitsuhiko answered. "For example, how did the fire start?"
"And we'll find witnesses to question." Ayumi added.
"But if there were witnesses, wouldn't the police have already arrested the arsonist?" Fumio wondered.
"Last year, these money bars were set on fire." Mitsuhiko noted, the group were now at the second arson scene.
"And that arched bridge was the second fire." Ayumi remarked. "This is the third and the day before yesterday's crime scene." she expressed, the group were now at the third playground.
"The jungle gym was caught on fire." Mitsuhiko stated. "Last year, it was this horse." he looked at the spring horse rider.
"His obsession did seem unnatural." Conan mused, Kamaishi having given the children the slip at the Unadon eatery.
"Either way, he's definitely connected somehow." Haibara concluded.
"That's right." Fumio pulled out his phone. "Last year..."
"This is..." Conan gasped, reading the article over Fumio's shoulder. "Guys, let's go."
"This is yesterday's crime scene." Mitsuhiko noted, the group had returned to the earlier playground.
"You guys stay here." Conan instructed and ran into the apartment building with Haibara in tow. "I knew it." he muttered, looking out of the building from the fourth floor.
"So that's how it is." Haibara came to the same conclusion. "So where did the key figure go?"
"That's the question." Conan mused. "That's it." he spotted the familiar sign. "Yesterday, we couldn't see since it was nighttime." he informed the others. "But it isn't a coincidence. It's a countdown. The letters circled in red were left at every crime scene. Suppose you read that character as 'To'. At the second crime scene, "He'. At the third crime scene, 'Ho'. And this is the fourth crime scene, "Ni'."
"Is this counting down to 'irohanihoheto' backwards?" Haibara gasped.
"Yeah." Conan confirmed. "In other words, the crimes will continue. He's planning a fifth one. At the fifth crime scene, there's probably..."
"But why does he always choose children's parks?" Haibara cut him off. "And set fire to playground equipment like seesaws and slides?"
"Actually, I noticed a common point about the affected equipment." Fumio voiced. "Look." he led the group to the playground equipment where all of them had a similar manufacturing logo plate attached to them.
"Iroha Toys..." Conan read the name plate.
"It's likely the equipment burned at the other parks were made by the same company, too." Haibara agreed to Fumio's assessment. "Look." she pulled out the manufacturer's webpage. "Their factory is nearby."
"It's closed because it's Sunday." Ayumi noted, the group arriving at the front gate of the Iroha Toy's factory.
"Isn't that...?" Conan spotted the bento shop delivery van Yatabe Harue was working at.
"Look." Haibara breathed, seeing someone holding a lit torch from the window.
"Fumio." Conan turned to the group's authority alert person.
"On it." Fumio started calling 110 and 119 which he had both numbers on speed dial.
"Conan!" Ayumi exclaimed, the bespectacled boy jumping over the fence and entered the factory.
"The police will be here soon." Conan declared, using his soccer ball to kick the touch out of the window before Yatabe could light the kerosene. "You should give yourself up, arsonist and bento shop lady.
"No way!" Genta was shocked, the others having entered the factory and turned on the lights. "Then, what about the guy?"
"They're both left-handed, but she's the one who could drive that van, not him." Haibara explained.
"I knew it." the bound Kamaishi struggled off his gag. "Why, madam?" he was puzzled, he himself had began suspecting Yatabe when he smelt the kerosene on his sleeve after purchasing the bento box the day before.
"A year and a half ago, a child playing at the park was badly injured because of a defect in the equipment made here." Yatabe confessed outside the factory. "The factory dumped all the blame on me, the factory manager, fired me and denied all knowledge of the matter. It was no joke."
"Why did you leave the Iroha countdown?" Conan asked. "Why bother?"
"To get my revenge." Yatabe answered. "To make them regret what they did. I they'd offered a single apology, I would have stopped. But it looks like you were the only ones who noticed. I'm an idiot."
"Don't be ridiculous!" Kamaishi snapped. "Because of you, a man is dead. Arrest me, too." he held out his hands after Takagi and his arresting officers arrived to take Yatabe into custody.
"You actually witnessed last year's forth fire, right?" Conan guessed.
"He's right." Kamaishi confirmed.
"This." Haibara scrolled down the news article to the 'Nearby House Robbed' headline.
"I did that." Kamaishi confessed.
"And that place was the scene of his crime." Conan nodded. "Right next to the crime scene where the man died."
"Since then, I stopped robbing houses, but I was afraid of being arrested." Kamaishi admitted. "I didn't report it until now. I told myself I didn't see the arsonist's face clearly and lied to myself. But I always regretted it, thinking if I'd turned myself in then, the arsonist would have been arrested sooner, and the man would have been avenged. Then, the fires started again. That's why I decided to capture the arsonist myself and then turn myself in."
SailorStar9: Any OOC-ness is regretted, by the way. *Sighs* Don't you just hate plot bunnies sometimes? Read and review.