SailorStar9: With Chapter 40 uploaded, this is Chapter 41 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 41: The Unfriendly Girls Band, Part 1

Time passes...

"A band!" Sonoko insisted enthusiastically in Cafe Poirot. "We should start a high school girl band."

"What?" Ran and Sera blinked.

"Where did that come from?" Sera chuckled.

"The high school girl band I saw in a movie last night was super cute." Sonoko gushed.

"And?" Conan echoed. "Sonoko-nee-chan, what instrument are you going to play?

"The drums, of course." Sonoko replied. "The drummer in the band look like me. She was so cool."

"Then, I would play... "Ran mused.

"Ran, since you have long black hair, you'll play the bass." Sonoko cut in. "The band's bassist had the same kind of hair."

"But I've never played the bass before." Ran gawked.

"Ran-nee-chan is better at the piano, right?" Conan reminded.

"Want me to play the bass?" Sera offered. "My brother's friend taught me a long time ago."

"Then, Sera-chan will play the bass." Sonoko decided. "Ran, can you play the keyboard?"

"Sure," Ran replied. "But where are we going to perform?"

"Tada." Sonoko flashed the 'Beika City Countdown Talent Show' poster. "We'll perform at the end of the year talent show in Beika City and walk off with the title."

"But won't our band need a guitarist?" Sera reminded.

"Yes, but there doesn't seem to be anyone in our class who can play the guitar." Sonoko sighed.

"Azusa-san." Amuro voiced. "Could you wipe down this table?"

"Our guitarist." Sonoko pointed to Azusa. "The high school band has a girl named Azusa who was good at guitar." she rushed over to the counter.

"But I've never touched at guitar." Azusa blinked. "And I'm not a high school girl."

"No one will be able to tell if you put on a uniform." Sonoko insisted. "Besides, you have a pretty loli face."

"But isn't playing the guitar hard?" Azusa stammered.

"You'll be fine." Sonoko assured. "With a little practice, you'll be able to play in no time."

"You play it then." one of the male guitarist in the cafe taunted. "You can borrow my guitar. We'll hook it up to our portable amp. You can play right away. Here." he held up the electric guitar. "I thought that with a little practice, you could play in no time. So, why don't you show us that right now, miss?"

"Let me see that." Amuro took over. With the guitar strap over his shoulder, he started strumming like a pro.

"Tou-san..." Fumio gawked, utterly speechless.

"With some practice, even these girls can learn to play like that." Amuro returned the electric guitar. "Sonoko-san, you should watch your big mouth." he whispered.

"Hey, Amuro-san, you should join our band." Sonoko voiced.

At that, Fumio choked on his juice and started coughing. "Sorry, wrong pipe." the blond boy apologized.

"I can help you practice, though." Amuro offered. "Would you like to go to a rental studio and practice a little right now?"

"Hey, you." Sera started. "Have we met before?"

"No." Amuro replied. "I believe today's the first time we've met."

"Sera-chan, that was amazing." Ran applauded, the group hearing Sera strum a basic chord on the rental guitar.

"Didn't Sea-nee-san just play a simple chord?" Fumio pointed out.

"Well, that's all my brother's friend taught me." Sera admitted.

"Do you remember what the man who taught you bass looks like?" Amuro asked.

"More or less." Sera answered. "But how do you know my brother's friend was a man?"

"Just a hunch." Amuro replied.

"Fumio, what are you listening to?" Conan noticed the other boy had been silent the entire time.

"Ah." Fumio removed his earphones and paused the recorded song he was playing on his smartphone. "All this music talk made me want to replay kaa-san's harp solo piece."

"Your mother plays the harp?" Sonoko gushed.

"Though, she's been branching out to the koto and the Chinese guzheng lately." Fumio supplied.

"Fumio, isn't this piece..." Conan listened to the song piece. Unplugging the earphone, he unpaused the song, the starting verse of Inuyasha's 'Love Across Time' continued to play. "The ending theme of the Inuyasha's animated film?"

"Come on!" Kibune Someka's sharp retort from the other caught the group's attention. "At this rate, we won't make it in time. We have only a week until the concert. Tadako, your bass is offbeat and I couldn't hear you at all. Rumi, your keyboard was off in places. You didn't cut your fingernails, did you? And Hagie, your drums felt more sluggish than before. Get it together, girls." she chided, Hagie letting out a yawn.

"But, Someka, your guitar was too fast." Fuekawa Tadako pointed out.

"You seem irritated." Hagie noted.

"Because we're running out of time." Kibune urged.

"And you haven't noticed that your button's nearly fallen off." Hagie added. "On your left breast pocket. In any case, we'll resume once we've cooled our heads." she stood up to leave. "Until then, I'm going to take a nap in the studio. I should be better after a ten minute nap."

"What should I do about my nails?" Kogure Rumi sighed.

"Want yo use my nail cutters?" Fuekawa offered. "Someka, want me to sew your button back on? I brought my sewing kit."

"Tadako, you're like a mom." Kogure noted. "You're so good at sewing."

"I'm not as good at Akane at knitting, though." Fuekawa reminded. "She made the knit hat Hagie is wearing."

"That's right." Kibune stated. "This is a tribute concert for Akane, so we have to make it a success. But Hagie's taking a nap. Does she really get it?"

"Now that we've decided you'll be playing Okino Yoko-san's 'Dandelion', who's going to sing the vocals?" Amuro posted a question.

"Sonoko, right?" Ran blinked.

"I can't multi-task." Sonoko replied. "Sera-chan, can you sing?"

"I'll pass." Sera smiled. "What about your boyfriend, Shinichi-kun?" she turned to Ran. "I bet he can play the guitar, too."

"Shinichi can play the violin, but I don't know about the guitar." Ran admitted. "And his singing... he sings like Conan-kun."

"In other words, he's totally tone-deaf." Fumio teased.

"Sorry about that." Conan deathpanned when a female's scream rang from the studio.

"Aren't those the screams from the girl band we saw just now?" Sera recognized the scream.

"It came from the studio upstairs." Amuro noted and the detective trio dashed to the crime scene.

"Yoshikawa lines on her neck." Amuro peered closely at the victim.

"She was strangled." Sera concluded.

"Who would strangle Hagie?" Kibune asked.

"I think we''ll know right away." Conan pointed to the security camera in the studio. "We can view the footage from the security camera on the ceiling."

"What is this?" Sera demanded, the counter clerk played the recorded footage and a blacked-out half screen appeared on the TV screen. "Half of the image is black. And the drums are blocked entirely."

"That might be the back of a phone." Kogure explained.

"We were filming ourselves practicing." Kibune added.

"We stuck a selfie stick to the mic." Fuekawa supplied.

"I see." Amuro noted. "Under these circumstances..."

"Even if someone did something next to the victim..." Sera continued.

There's no way for us to know what it was. Conan finished.

"I see." Inspector Megure's team was called to the scene. "Because of the cellphone on the selfie stick, you attached a mic stand to record your performance, the security camera's image is cut into half, obscuring the area around the drums, and preventing us from knowing who killed her.""

"By the way, who put this here?" Takagi inquired, pointing to the selfie stick.

"It was me." Fuekawa replied. "I wasn't trying to block the security camera. I just put it where I was told to."

"While watching the image on the phone, we told her to move it to the left or further back." Kibune explained.

"Although in the end, I think we decided where to put it when Hagie said, 'There's fine. Let's start practicing'."

"Which means this situation was just waiting to happen." Inspector Megure mused.

"Yes." Amuro agreed. "The culprit must've been expecting this situation so they could use it in their crime. If I can offer a detective's perspective, that is." he beamed.

"In any case, we should probably question the three girls while watching the security camera footage." Sera suggested.

"Apparently, the three of them came to this studio one at a time to wake Hagie-san." Conan added.

"It's the cafe detective, the high school girl detective and the boy who thinks he's a detective again." Inspector Megure sighed. "Tell me if this sounds right. While the four of you were taking a break in the basement, Hagie-san said she was going to take a nap in the studio. One at a time, you went to wake her, but she remained asleep. Since she's been sleeping for more then thirty minutes, you finally decided to go wake her together. But when you got there, she had been murdered. Who went to wake Hagie-san first?"

"It was me." Fuekawa replied. "I called out to her a few times, but there was no answer. She was still asleep by the time I finished reattaching the button, so I went back to the break room where Someka and Rumi were waiting."

"That must be it." Takagi noted as Fuekawa's segment came on. "When Takedera-san entered the room. Half of her body is hidden, but you can tell she's sewing something onto the jacket."

"You were there for more than ten minutes." Inspector Megure pointed out. "Does it really take that long to sew a button?"

"When I looked more closely, I realized her cuffs were frayed." Fuekawa explained.

"Who went to wake her next?" Inspector Megure questioned.

"Me." Kibune answered. "My guitar's out for maintenance, so I borrowed one from the studio. But one of the strings broke during practice. I thought I'd try waking her while I replaced the string."

"This is Someka-san, right?" Takagi confirmed as Kibune's segment entered the screen. "This is you replacing the string and tuning the guitar. But doesn't tuning make noise?"

"And you're standing pretty close to the drums." Inspector Megure stated. "How did Hagie-san seem then?"

"She was sleeping with her face on the high tom-tom and covering it with her face." Kibune replied. "Hagie always slept like that."

"So if she was already dead by that point..." Sera stated.

"You wouldn't have known." Amuro added.

"Are you trying to say I killed her when I went first?" Fuekawa protested.

"We're just speaking hypothetically." Amuro defended.

"Rumi-san, you were the last one to go wake her?" Inspector Megure asked.

"Yes." Kogure confirmed. "During practice, there was actually a section of the song I wanted to change. I thought I could wake her while working on the song. You'll see if you look at the sheet music that was in the studio. Although with Hagie dead, we might not be get to perform that song anymore."

"She's in the video." Takagi reported. "But Rumi-san, you're moving the keyboard."

"I moved it away from the drums so I won't wake Hagie." Kogure explained. "I called to her when I finished, but she didn't answer."

"Well, we're going to look for the string used to strangle Hagie-san." Inspector Megure declared. "After undergoing a body search, I'd like the three of you to wait in the break room in the basement."

"You can't find the weapon?" Inspector Megure echoed after Takagi reported. "Did you search the entire area?"

"Yes, from the studio to the drains." Takagi confirmed.

"The estimated time of death is when the three of them were to the studio to wake the victim." Inspector Megure stated. "According to the store's security camera at the entrance, the three of them haven't gone outside. And if a body check didn't produce the weapon, then it must be around here somewhere. Search harder."

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