SailorStar9: So, with Chapter 115 uploaded, this is Chapter 116 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 116: The Spark That Fell on the Ranch, Part One
Time passes...
"I'm sorry." the trapped Kazami was on the phone with Furuya. "But I don't know where I am. I was pursuing a man suspected of stealing a large quantity of explosives, but I was caught off-guard and when I came to my senses..."
"No GPS?" Furuya asked.
"My phone seems to have been taken by that man." Kazami answered. "My only option was to borrow the flip phone on the body abandoned in this basement. It doesn't have much battery remaining."
"Was the dead guy killed by that man?" Furuya pressed.
"Most likely." Kazami responded. "I'll be fine. I'll find a way out of this basement myself."
"Don't do it, Kazami." Furuya cut him off. "If you act carelessly or call for backup, you could provoke the culprit into causing the worst possible outcome. I'll go, before you end up dead, too."
"I'm so excited to see the new chickens." Ayumi beamed, the Detective Boys were on a bus to Hatoyama Ranch accompanied by Kobayashi-sensei and Wakasa-sensei one weekend afternoon.
"I hope the new chickens are full of energy." Mitsuhiko added.
"The two that died the other day were sick forever, so we barely got to take care of them." Genta mused.
"Weren't they already pretty old?" Fumio wondered.
"Those two had been around since I was in first grade." Conan supplied.
"Conan, you are in first grade." Fumio sweatdropped.
"Listen up, children." Kobayashi-sensei cut in. "Make sure to learn proper husbandry from the ranch that's giving us the chickens. Will they really be okay?" she sighed.
"But why did we bring the children?" Wakasa-sensei wondered. "We could've gone alone if we just wanted to learn proper husbandry."
"Wakasa-sensei, I was planning on taking this secret to the grave, but I don't like birds." Kobayashi-sensei revealed. "Even since I saw a flock of vultures crowd around and devour a dead zebra on TV as a child, I've been terrified of their bulging eyes and pointed beaks. So, even if I don't do it, I thought it'd be easier to explain their care if I took a video of the children looking after the chickens."
"Isn't the detective you're dating named 'white bird'?" Wakasa-sensei teased.
"That's just his name." Kobayashi-sensei protested. "Would you assume someone named Karasuda-san is a crow? Come to think of it, the owner of the ranch we're headed to is Hatoyama-san." she recalled.
"I hope they're peaceful, like a dove." Wakasa-sensei remarked.
"Are you two headed to Hatoyama Ranch, as well?" Hitsuka Junya overheard the two teachers talking. "What a coincidence. I'm actually on my way to that ranch, too. I'm gathering a bit of information for a story. It's sort of like visiting a power spot frequented by regulars. Judging by your appearance, that's what you're doing too, right?" he turned to Nanbu Takashi.
"I'm just going to do research." Nanbu replied. "I'm not like you people who are in it for the money."
"He's watching a movie." Ayumi spotted Kanou Shougo watching a film on his smartphone.
"Is it science fiction?" Mitsuhiko pressed.
"Quit looking over my shoulder." Kanou warned. "Get out of here."
"It's alright." Mitsuhiko grinned. "I took a video of his phone screen. Let's look it up online."
"Mitsuhiko, do I have to go through privacy laws with you, again?" Fumio moaned.
"Erase that video right away." Kanou demanded.
"Tou-san." Fumio sighed in relief, Amuro having pulled Kanou off.
"Why don't we call it here?" Amuro smiled, his left fist paused in an uppercut mid-way. "Mitsuhiko-kun, you should erase that video that made him upset in the first place."
"You're Amuro-san?" Kobayashi-sensei was surprised. "I'm Kobayashi, their homeroom teacher. I've heard so much about you from Fumio-kun. Amuro-san is apparently a detective that works at a café." she informed Wakasa-sensei. "He's also Fumio-kun's father."
"I'm Wakasa, the assistant homeroom teacher." Wakasa-sensei introduced herself. "Nice to meet you."
"Where are you taking this bus to, tou-san?" Fumio asked.
"Like you guys, I'm going to Hatoyama Ranch." Amuro told his son. "I've got business there."
"Don't tell me that guy got into trouble, again?" Fumio stated flatly.
"Okay, I won't tell you." Amuro grinned.
At Hatoyama Ranch...
"No one's answering." Fumio noted, Amuro having rang the doorbell twice with no response.
"The gate was left open." Mitsuhiko stated.
"Not a single cow in sight." Genta added.
"They're planning on shutting down the ranch and making this area part of a golf course." Kobayashi-sensei informed the kids.
"That's why there aren't any employees anymore." Fumio looked around the deserted ranch.
"So, that's why they're giving our school chickens for free." Wakasa-sensei noted.
"Then, let's go check out the chickens we came for until the owner shows up." Conan suggested.
"You know where they are?" Ayumi blinked.
"Isn't it written clearly on that signboard?" Fumio pointed to the wooden sign that indicated where the chicken ranch was.
At the chicken ranch...
"Seriously?" Genta exclaimed, the group finding the ranch empty. "There isn't a single chicken here."
"Maybe they moved the two they're giving to the grade school elsewhere and sold the others already." Amuro pondered.
"Take a look outside." Mitsuhiko voiced, locating a large hole in the ranch wall. "There's a huge hole in the side of the building. Maybe they escaped through here. There's a bathroom here." he turned the corner and spotted a portable toilet.
A chicken. Ayumi heard a chicken chuckle and turned to the roaming bird. It'll run away if I don't do something. She looked on worried as the chicken walked off. Quietly... she followed after the chicken.
"Yoshida-san is missing?" Kobayashi-sensei echoed, after Fumio informed her that Ayumi was gone.
"She wandered off somewhere during our bathroom break." Fumio reported.
"Let's split up look for her." Kobayashi-sensei suggested.
In the forest...
"I'm Hatoyama Umisuke, younger brother of Hatoyama Ranch manager, Hatoyama Gisuke." Umisuke introduced himself to Kobayashi-sensei's group who were looking for Ayumi. "I haven't been able to get in touch with my brother since two days ago, so I came to check up on him."
"We're looking for a girl we came with." Mitsuhiko informed.
"I saw her." Umisuke replied. "Is she the one you're looking for?" he pulled out the gagged Ayumi from his backpack. "Don't move. Throw your cell phones down here. Then, start walking according to my directions. If you try anything, the girl dies."
In the ranch's underground basement...
"Furuya-san?" Kazami's torchlight shone on the captives.
"I've been captured, too." Amuro sighed. "Your situation hasn't changed. This is my assistant." he introduced Kazami.
"More importantly, there is a corpse on the bed." Conan voiced. "This corpse's face looks just like the guy who trapped us down here."
"The body looks a little older, but they do look similar." Amuro agreed.
"That's Hatoyama Gisuke." Kobayashi-sensei instantly recognized the body.
"You've met him before?" Amuro asked.
"We just spoke over the phone." Kobayashi-sensei answered. "When I looked him up online, I saw a photo of him."
"Wouldn't now be a good time to tell the real reason you came here, Amuro-san?" Conan prompted.
"Kazami, tell them." Amuro instructed.
"Thirty hours ago, I learned a large quantity of explosives has been stolen from a construction site." Kazami revealed. "I determined there was a risk of a terrorist attack, so I followed the footsteps of a suspicious worker named Hatoyama Umisuke to this ranch. He got me off-guard and hit me. When I woke up, I was in this basement. I used the dead man's phone to call Amuro-san."
"I came here to rescue him, but ended up getting caught instead." Amuro added.
"What was Hatoyama Umisuke trying to do that required him to kill his own brother?" Kazami wondered. "He even stole those explosives."
"Actually, I think this man killed himself." Conan refuted. "Even though there are signs he was strangled to death, there are no signs he resisted. It'd be a different story if his hands are tied, but there aren't any signs they were bound."
"If he were fed sleeping pills, had a rope placed around his neck and pushed from a high place..." Kazami proposed.
"I doubt that happened." Conan objected. "He probably hung himself next to the desk in this room; since he was not wearing shoes, he must've been wearing those boots next to the desk. I don't know who moved the body to the bed, but if they removed the boots when they put him there, then they'd be next to the bed. The only conceivable explanation is that he removed his boots himself when he climbed on the chair to hang himself."
"The question is why he killed himself." Amuro wondered.
"He may be researching something." Conan guessed. "There are a lot of highlighter marks on his left pointer finger and thumb. What's strange is that the ink on his left hand is pink, light blue and yellow, but there's no yellow highlighter in his breast pocket."
"Since it doesn't seem to be in this room, he either forgot it somewhere or something made just the yellow pen fall out of his pocket." Amuro searched the drawers.
Outside...
"You're locked inside the basement beneath the ranch office by the owner's younger brother?" Haibara gaped into the Detective Badge.
"Not only that, the ranch owner's body is down here in the basement with us." Conan confirmed.
"Then, we'll head over to rescue you right away." Genta spoke.
"Hold it." Fumio voiced. "Let's not be reckless."
"Fumio is right." Conan agreed. "The guy stole a large quantity of explosives from a construction site. There's no telling what he'd do if we aren't careful. It's the ranch owner's younger brother, Hatoyama Umisuke, who locked us in here. He's a thin man in his thirties wearing a white safari hat. Try to call the police without him noticing."
"Excuse me." Umisuke spoke. "Are you looking for someone?"
"Actually..." Genta started. "Fumio, that hurts." he hissed, the leaner boy stepping on his foot to silence him.
"We're looking for a group of tourists with kids like us who were on the bus with us." Haibara responded. "We were hoping we could be friends."
"When I told that family my brother, the ranch owner isn't here right now, they left disappointed." Umisuke replied.
"You mean he's not here, after all." Hitsuka sighed.
"No wonder there's no one at the office." Nanbu noted. "This is my first time in the area."
"I don't know this area too well, either." Hitsuka protested. "So, I wanted to ask Hatoyama-san a bunch of questions since I'd met him once before."
"Something shocking happened to him recently and he ended up in hospital." Umisuke explained. "He seems to be recovering, but I have a message from him. 'Go to a certain spot on this mountain. If you find it, secretly bring it home with you and hold onto to it until I'm out of the hospital.'"
"What is 'it'?" Wakasa-sensei asked.
"Who knows?" Umisuke shrugged. "He said I'd know when I found it."
"Use my phone." Wakasa-sensei offered, after Umisuke led Hitsuka and Nanbu off.
"Wakasa-sensei, there's hole on your pants pocket." Fumio pointed out.
"Did you drop something?" Haibara asked.
"Nothing significant." Wakasa-sensei assured.
"Now that I think about it, I do recall tou-san pick up something." Fumio remembered. "It had the shape of a shogi piece."
"More importantly, call the police." Haibara urged.
"That's right." Wakasa-sensei brought out her phone, only to have it slip out of her fingers and drop into a bucket of water.
"Conan, my deepest apologies." Fumio sighed. "We can't call the police anymore."
"In any case, the four of us will head to the office." Haibara took over. "We'll talk again once we get there."
SailorStar9: Any OOC-ness is regretted, by the way. *Sighs* Don't you just hate plot bunnies sometimes? Read and review.