Detective Tennis 2: Tennis Court Murders

Chapter 8

The next day, Seigaku Tennis Courts…

Though it was Saturday, the team decided to resume their practice on the available courts since they need to get ready for the Nationals. Only one court had crime scene tape surrounding it and they even asked permission from the policce to practice on the available courts. Though the investigation hasn't reached any closure, Inspector Megure permitted the tennis regulars to use the other tennis courts. The needed evidences had been gathered but the crime scene wasn't considered cleared yet so it was still an on-going investigation.

As for the three regulars that Shinichi called last night, they also went to practice and brought Kourin along. While walking towards the direction of the school, Kourin was still trying her best to figure out the loophole of the code. Ryoma secretly gave a copy of the code to Fuji and Momoshiro to help the girl solve it after he learned that Kudo Shinichi gave each a call to the three of them all in one night. What surprised the freshman more was the fact that Shinich asked the same favor to Fuji and Momoshiro.

They went to tennis practice and acted normal like they weren't actually doing some thinking on finding the loophole on the killer's code. They might not be as smart as Kourin (or at least that's what Momoshiro and Ryoma thought) but they wanted to help the girl and protect her in any way they could.

After doing practice matches for a few hours (more than 3 hours, to be specific), Tezuka gave them a few minutes break. Of course, that was exactly the time Fuji, Momoshiro, and Ryoma was waiting for. They immediately approached the young girl who was sitting on a bench near the court. The other regulars found it weird but they decided not to disturb them… for now.

"It's already past 11 and we can't even figure it out," Momoshiro complained in a soft tone. He needed to do that or else, the others would do some snooping at them and interrogate them.

"I'm sorry. I don't know what had gotten to that mystery freak cousin of mine to call the three of you last night and asked to help me figure out the loophole of the code," Kourin said in an apologetic tone before chuckling. "Or I guess he figured out that all this puzzle-solving kind of whacking my brain."

"He probably did figure it out," Fuji said with a smile. But then he noticed that Ryoma wasn't speaking the entire time and the freshman was just looking at the code. "Echizen?"

Ryoma was startled when he heard that. He faced Kourin and his two senpai who were all looking at him.

"Are you alright, Ryoma-niichan? You look even more frustrated than I am," Kourin joked that made him smile gently at her.

Fuji and Momoshiro were definitely surprised to see that smile on Ryoma's face. Not only them but also the other regulars who were observing the situation, as well. How could a little girl bring out Ryoma's gentle—and possibly even his boyish—side that easy by making a joke despite the crisis they were dealing with?

Ryoma ignored the surprised looks from his teammates and tapped Kourin's head gently. "Sorry, I just can't help being frustrated with all this, that's all."

"I guess I have to blame that mystery freak cousin of mine named Kudo Shinichi for making you feel something like that. Maybe I'll just ask Ran-neechan to beat him to pulp when he comes back," she declared with annoyance visible on her face.

The three regulars laughed as her remarks.

Kourin decided to check on her watch but noticed that the colon between the two numbers (the two numbers being the hour and the minutes) wasn't blinking. It was an indication that her digital watch had stopped functioning somehow.

"Oh, yeah. I forgot to wipe this down after it got wet yesterday." And then she opened her backpack to look for something. "Good thing I brought extra battery for this."

A few seconds later, she found what she was looking for. She took off her watch and changed its batteries in a matter of minutes. It wasn't hard for her to do something like that since she was used to it. Once in a while, she would change her other watches' batteries without a fuss. When she turned on her watch, the colon started blinking again. But the time she saw a while back stopped functioning at 17:56. Her watch was actually in a 24-hour format so it was read as 17:56 instead of 5:56 PM. She just left it as that since she had no trouble reading time in a 24-hour format.

As she was about to reset the time on her watch, the regulars' practice resumed much to the reluctance of Ryoma, Momoshiro, and Fuji. Yes, even Fuji hesitated to practice at that time. Of course, Kourin sensed this which made her smile.

"I'll call your attention once I managed to figure out the loophole of the code," she said, though it wasn't enough for the 3 regulars to really go with their practice. "Go before your captain make you run laps."

With that, the three went to the courts while Kourin started to reset her digital wristwatch. As she kept pushing one of the reset buttons on the right, she was resetting the time backwards. But then she froze at the sight of the time 17:17, just as the same time she remembered something related to what she saw…

-x-x-

-Flashback-

1 ½ months ago, Teitan Elementary…

Kourin was busy reading a book—an English novel with a romance-fantasy genre to be exact—when a boy approached her. She didn't think of it as weird since she started regaining her true self—her friendly, and cheerful self—after she was discharged out of the hospital. Her number of friends started adding up—most likely acquiantance kind of friends—after all that commotion.

"Shinomiya-san, can you answer this?" the boy asked with a grin as he laid a piece of paper on her table.

She then put down her book before she looked at the paper. She frowned at the sight of 7, 0, the plus symbol, the equal symbol, and the word "MOON" written on it. She faced the boy who wa grinning at her. She smirked inwardly. The boy probably didn't know that she already knew how 7 + 7 + 7 + 0 + 0 + 7 + 7 could form the word "MOON".

The truth was her brother once gave her the very same "code" to answer before when she was still in Florida.

And with that in mind, she took her pencil from her pen case and began writing the answer to the trick. She came up with an answer that put the 3 seven's close together—forming the small letter "m"—then the two zeroes that formed the two "o" followed by the last two seven's put close together once more to form the small letter "n".

After that, she gave the paper back to the boy who was eyeing the paper then at her simultaneously—his eyes were opened wide. A small smirk appeared on her face as she resumed to read her book.

"Next time you showed a riddle to me like that, I'll make sure you won't only see stars in your head but you'll see the moon, as well. Got it?" she said nonchalantly without looking at the boy.

Next thing she knew, the boy walked way holding tight onto the piece of paper. She giggled when she saw that and realized that she must have scared the boy unconsciously.

"I guess I overdid that one, huh?" she mumbled as she continued to read her book.

"Overdid what?" a girl sitting on a seat on her right asked innocently. The girl must have heard Kourin mumble those words.

Kourin shook her head and smiled. "Nothing."

-End of Flashback-

-x-x-

"Don't tell me the same pattern applies to this code?" Kourin murmured that Ryoma managed to hear, making him face the said girl.

Though he knew Kourin was just resetting the digital wristwatch, something must have come up for her to look at the watch intently. He stopped to his tracks proceeding to the tennis court when he heard that. Fuji and Momoshiro sensed this so they, too, stopped to their tracks to look at Ryoma.

"Echizen, what's wrong?" Fuji asked, almost in a whisper.

Without looking, the freshman answered, "Something came up with Rin."

The two regulars immediately understood that so they faced Kourin who was busy writing something on a piece of paper.

Kourin wrote the pattern that she remembered and the time 17:17, as well.

If the same trick applies to this code, then the two '17' would form two "n". But there isn't a word that had only two "n" so I still need another clue. And then she noticed the colon. She frowned as she thought about something.

What if… I do something with the colon? She thought about it for a few seconds before she finally came up with an answer. If I flip the colon and place it horizontally, it would form two consecutive dits. Of course, I know he wouldn't just simply write it as that. There's something else to these two dots. And it could form two "o", as well. If that's the case, as I apply the trick to the code that the boy once made me see, then the time 17:17 actually meant… "NOON"!

Upon coming up with that answer, her eyes widened and faced the three regulars who were staring at her the whole time. "Ryoma-niichan, do you know what time is it?"

Though confused, he shook his head since he didn't have a watch. It was Oishi who gave her an answer.

"It's already 11:27 in the morning. But why are you asking for the time, Kourin-chan?"

"Damn it! We only got 30 minutes to save An-san?" she blurted out in her frustration before she pulled out her rollerskates from her backpack.

The regulars who hadn't really started their practice heard the words that Kourin said. They exchanged confused glances at each other before looking at Fuji, Momoshiro, and Ryoma who they knew had an idea about the words that the young girl had spoken. Of course, surprise was written all over their faces.

But before any of them could say something with regards to it, they saw the 3 aforementioned regulars placed their rackets on the bench and followed Kourin. They had no idea what was going on but they knew it had something to do with Fudomine captain's sister.

"Nya, Oishi, do you think we should follow them?" Eiji asked, his voice had hints of concern in them.

It didn't take long for the Seigaku's vice-captain to answer. "I think we should. I'm having a bad feeling about this." And then Oishi faced Tezuka. "What do you think, Tezuka?"

The Seigaku captain sighed before facing the direction that his teammates and Kourin went to. "Let's go. Something tells me they're going to need some help."

Though it was quite unusual for Tezuka to agree on such crucial issue, the rest of them understood why. With that, they left the courts and decided to follow Kourin and the others to reach Fudomine as fast as they could!

-x-x-

"Kourin-chan, what do you mean we only got 30 minutes to save An-chan?" Fuji asked while riding the bike that he borrowed from Kawamura.

Momoshiro was riding his own bike along with Ryoma. Kourin was using her turbo rollerskates to travel.

Kourin faced Fuji who was just riding beside her. "It's the time in the code. 'At 17:17 tomorrow, I will spill the blood of the light year's princess from Fudomine over the field of orange lilies.' That's what the code said, right? But Shin-nii mentioned that there's still something wrong with the code—a loophole, he said. I figured it out as well when Shouko-san sent me the code yesterday. I said to myself, 'The killer wouldn't just state the time in his code just like that.' While I was fixing my wristwatch a while ago, I remembered a trick that a classmate of mine made me solve. That's when I realized that the same trick could be applied to the code in order to reveal the time's answer. The killer is going to strike at Fudomine to kill An-san at noon!"

"So that's why you asked for them time," Ryoma commented.

"Do you think we could be able to reach Fudomine before noon?"

Momoshiro tightened his grips on the bike. "We need to reach it in time." And with that, he sped up his pedalling on his bike much to Kourin and Fuji's surprise. All Ryoma could do was to hold tight on Momoshiro's shoulders.

Kourin turned on his rollerskates' turbo mode and adjusted its speed. "Try to catch up with us, Fuji-san." And then her rollerskates charged up that allowed Kourin to speed up.

It only took them 15 minues to reach their destination. Surprisingly, Fuji managed to keep up with Kourin and Momoshiro. As soon as they reached Fudomine, they heard a scream that was most likely familiar to Momoshiro.

"An!" he exclaimed before they all followed the direction where they heard the scream.

The direction, however, was leading them to the tennis courts. They were all surprised to see a katana pointed at An's neck—just like what they saw with Yuuta at St. Rudolph the other day. The masked man was grinning evilly at the girl who was now trembling because of fear. Tachibana, Kamio, and Ibu couldn't move too much because of weakness and injuries they received from confronting the culprit and they could only watch for they knew that one wrong move could lead to An's death.

Kourin was about to take out her tennis racket when she saw a soccerball coming fast from out of nowhere and knocked out the katana from the culprit's hand. Of course, the masked man yelped in pain as he held his hand that the soccer ball had struck. An took it as an opportunity to get out of there as soon as possible and go to her injured brother.

That was… Shin-nii's soccerball… she thought as she looked around to find where the soccerball come from. But as she did that, more thoughts were rushing in her mind. This is just the repeat of what happened at St. Rudolph yesterday. And his voice… Why do I have a feeling that I've heard it from somewhere? Furthermore, was he really aiming to kill An-san at daytime?

Before she could think of anything else, she saw Shouko entered the tennis court and and started confronting the culprit in a combat. The three Seigaku regulars took Tachibana, Kamio, An, and Ibu out of there before something else could happen. Conan led them inside the school building while Kourin could only stand there and watch the duel between Shouko and the culprit in that four corners of the tennis court. At that moment, realization struck her especially when she saw the culprit's fighting style and finally recognized his voice.

"Oi, Rin! What are you still doing there? Come on!" Conan shouted but she didn't seem to hear anything at all.

The other Seigaku regulars arrived just at the same time the culprit managed to escape from Shouko, but not after he went near Kourin and whispered something that only intensified the young girl's desire to put an end to this once and for all.

"So that's how it's going to be, huh?" she mumbled with her fist tightening out of her anger. "Then so be it!"

Ryoma couldn't help but to approach the little girl and console her, even though he actually sucked at that field. He was surprised to see Kourin's face that looked deep in frustration and anger—which was the first time he saw something like that to her.

"Rin, are you okay? What's wrong?"

The girl was startled inwardly before sighing heavily. With that, she left the court and headed towards the school building near that place. But that alone made Ryoma knew that Kourin must have finally realized the real situation. When she finally entered the building, she saw the worried faces of the Seigaku regulars and Conan all looking at her.

"We'll end all of this today… even if it means I have to deal with them again…" she said in a low voice that made Conan's eyes narrowed.

"What do you mean?" the bespectacled boy asked.

Kourin faced Conan with a grim look on her face. "He'll go to the place where it all began—the place he dubbed as the 'field of orange lilies'."

"And that place is…?" Momoshiro asked.

"Hyotei Gakuen—the school that has the orange lily as its original flower emblem," she answered in a grave tone. "That school was his first ad will be his last target…"

Her statement undoubtedly brought surprise to those who had heard her. But she ignored those surprised looks on their faces as she approached An who was sitting on the bench with her brother. Kourin smiled and bowed in front of An which caught the older girl off-guard.

"Sorry we came a little late," Kourin started in an apologetic tone. "If only I just realized the real answer to the code earlier then maybe—"

"You don't have to apologize," An said with a smile and gently tapped the younger girl's head. For some strange reason, An's earlier fear vanished as soon as she did that. But while doing that, she noticed a discoloration on Kourin's jacket—particularly on her left arm. "You're bleeding. Are you hurt? Did that man hurt you?"

As soon as they heard that, Ryoma immediately rushed to Kourin's side and checked on the girl. He saw a part of her jacket that was cut with a knife. The surrounding part of the cut was soaked in blood. How could she had not felt this?

"I'm fine, Ryoma-niichan. It's not that painful," Kourin reasoned but Conan was already glowering at her that made her heave a sigh. "He's just giving me a message."

"By injuring you like this? It may not be that deep but you're still injured, okay? You don't have to bear this all by yourself. If you're hurt, tell us so we won't have to worry," Ryoma said sternly that the others weren't used to hear from the freshman.

Kourin lowered her head, feeling guilty. "I'm sorry. It's just that… I'm actually used to bearing the pain I've felt all by myself. I felt that I couldn't just trouble you or the others about what I feel. As long as I could bear it, then I wouldn't tell. I'll keep it to myself if that's—"

"But that's not the case now, Rin," Conan interrupted that stopped her from talking and made her look at the others. That was when she realized that they were all looking at her with concern.

"Edogawa-kun's right, Kourin-chan," Momoshiro said. "You don't have to bear it all alone because you already have a lot of friends who cares about your welfare now. It's natural for friends to worry about each other, right?"

"We know you finally understood the real situation but that doesn't mean you have to keep everything to yourself," Fuji added with a smile. "A lot of people who will be worried about you if you keep on doing that."

When Kourin faced the others once again, she saw it on their faces that they really cared for her welfare. She tried to hold back her tears because of joy and somehow she succeeded. She still didn't want anyone to know how happy she was because of her newfound friends. What she didn't know was that a certain bespectacled seven-year-old boy already knew that.

After that, she saw Kaidoh approaching her. If no one would look carefully, they would think that he was about to hurt her. But Kourin knew better; behind that scary look lies a caring and gentle heart. Ryoma stood up and let Kaidoh crouched down a little in front of Kourin. Without a word, Kaidoh removed the bandana on his head and faced her.

"Can you take off your jacket?" he asked. Kourin complied to that.

Upon doing that, the others saw Kourin's left arm bleeding—but not too much. Though she could still move it, she then felt that every movement she did with it would leave a strong sting of pain. She didn't show it to anybody. Kaidoh raised her arm a little to cover up the bleeding wound with his bandana.

"At the very least, we need to stop it from bleeding or you won't be able to move your arm at all," Kaidoh said, almost in a whisper. She was touched by the man's concern, making her smile a little.

She then looked at the bandana that covered her wound. It was large enough to cover the wound entirely so she had nothing to worry about if ever it bled out again. After that, she wore her jacket back and faced Kaidoh. "Thank you, Kaidoh-san."

Kaidoh only responded with a grunt and stood up without a word.

"Wow! I never thought Mamushi have this kind of trait," Momoshiro teased, probably with the intention to lighten up the atmosphere.

"Shut up!" Kaidoh snarled that he left the girl there.

Kourin laughed at the arguing Momoshiro and Kaidoh. Soon after, Ryoma handed her his Fila cap. She eyed the cap confusingly before looking at Ryoma with questioning eyes.

"Use it to hide your hair. Something tells me the killer isn't the only one who was about to get you and know that you're still alive," he said in a serious tone.

She realized that he had a point about it. Her hair—which was jet black and really long which already reached her waist, not to mention completely straight—was one of her defining features as a Shinomiya princess. The Dark Rose Agency wasn't the only one who was after her life. She already brought the Seigaku regulars to danger before; she couldn't afford to let it happen again.

But with all this commotion and murders going on, she couldn't help but to doubt if she could still prevent the dangers from approaching them.

The fourth grader sighed and took the white Fila cap from Ryoma. She then fixed her hair and put it up to a bun before wearing the cap to hold it down and hide it at the same time. After that, she faced Ryoma. "Thank you. You really have a way to at least ease my fears. You probably didn't realize it yet, though. But how can you tell that the killer isn't the only one who's after me?"

Ryoma shrugged and put his hands behind his head. "Just a feeling."

And she then faced Conan. "Have you found anything else?"

"Other than the information I gave you yesterday, we haven't found anything yet," Conan replied simply.

"Why did you have to keep it from me?" she muttered, making Conan face her as he heard it.

"Eh?"

"Why did you have to hide the fact that Zeus is after me? That he was the one committing the tennis court serial murders just to lure me out and finally kill me because of his agenda?"

Conan didn't say a word as he looked at Kourin intently. While the others has a mixture of confusion, shock, and worries on their faces as they looked at the two kids. Then then boy sighed.

He faced Kourin, determination was written on his face. "You know full well the reason why I kept the truth from you. I'd do the same thing to Ran and Haibara if something similar happened to them. Besides, you don't have to face this danger alone, Rin. You're my cousin and I'm going to protect you till the end—the same way Otou-san and Okaa-san protected you that night. The same way your family defended you till their last breaths," Conan answered, breaking the silence between them.

"But that doesn't mean I want you to protect me only to end up dead like them. I've already dealt with so many deaths for one lifetime. I couldn't afford to deal with another because of this," she gravely but sadly said as her head lowered before she walked towards the building's entrance. She halted to a stop when she reached the entrance's shed. "What are you waiting for? We still need to head to Hyotei Gakuen. We have to end this… no matter what it takes…" And then she continued walking.

But can we really end this as easy as that? This case still has something to do with the Dark Rose's ancient agenda. And probably one more reason… But what is it? Conan thought as he looked at Kourin walking away. He could only see her back but all of it illustrated everything she was feeling at that moment.

"She's really determined to end this, huh?" Oishi commented.

Ryoma sighed before deciding the follow Kourin. "It was the only way for her to have her freedom—to live without fear like normal kids do… even though we already know Rin isn't a normal kid to begin with."

"Ending this case is probably the only way then, huh?" Momoshiro said, more of a statement.

The rest agreed to that despite the fear they'd felt with just the thought of the danger connected to the case that they needed to put an end once and for all.