Wee-ooo! Wee-ooo! Wee-ooo!
Before long, the Minagawa house's entrance was packed with police cars.
Seven or eight officers strung up a cordon and combed the area for evidence.
"I've got it! You're the culprit!"
"Watanabe Yoshimi-san!"
Kogoro appeared out of nowhere, pointing at the short-haired girl, and confidently eliminated one wrong answer.
"Mouri-kun, why is it you again?"
Inspector Megure frowned, looking at him like he was some kind of plague god.
Wherever he went, people died!
"Heh heh, Inspector, actually, Ran called and told me to come."
"So I just—"
Fwip!
A tranquilizer dart shot straight into his neck.
Kogoro swayed unsteadily on his feet, then dropped perfectly into a seat on the sofa.
Behind him, Conan, hidden from view, switched on the Voice-Changing Bowtie and began his deduction.
"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry! I—I really had no choice!"
"If we couldn't get our hands on Katsuhiko's inheritance, my son and I would..."
The young mother sank to her knees, clutching her little boy and sobbing her heart out—running through the standard final routine of a confessed killer.
Behind the sofa, Conan let out a long breath of relief.
"To think it was such a ridiculous motive."
"Higashino-kun, do you have any thoughts?"
Inspector Megure looked to Makoto, hoping the celebrated high school detective might offer some insight.
"No thoughts at all!"
"Co—I mean, Uncle Mouri's deduction was dead-on. Mrs. Minagawa is definitely the killer."
Makoto had zero interest in this messy little murder case.
All he cared about was figuring out how to make use of Conan, the Grim Reaper Elementary Schooler.
Maybe Conan was the strongest weapon this world had to offer!
"Oh, I see!"
"Ha ha ha...well, case closed, then!"
Inspector Megure laughed, a little awkwardly.
Since even Makoto had said so, the case could be considered settled.
Thirty minutes to respond to the scene, thirty minutes back to the station—an hour of driving round trip.
Add another thirty minutes in the middle for the Sleeping Kogoro deduction show.
Wrapping up a murder in an hour and a half—that counted as lightning efficiency!
"Whew—"
Watching the young wife get hauled into a squad car by two burly officers, Conan let out a long sigh of relief.
He even turned to shoot Makoto a provocative look.
The look seemed to say—"I'm the real detective here!"
"Let's go home."
Makoto took Ran's hand and walked straight for the car door.
"Okay. So what do you want to eat tonight?"
"I want to eat you!"
"Stop it, everyone's watching, it's so embarrassing."
"Then you eat me!"
"You're so bad! But—I love it!"
...
The two of them kept up their flirtatious banter.
Conan's face turned green with disgust, grass practically sprouting from his head.
"Oh right, here's your Valentine's chocolate!"
"Mm...I'll save it for later, or I won't have room for dinner!"
In the car, Ran pulled out a carefully wrapped box of chocolates.
"Don't worry, as long as you made it, I could eat any amount."
Makoto drove with one hand, picked up the chocolate with the other, and polished it off in a few quick bites.
Soon, the car pulled up outside her house.
Ran got out and headed home to cook dinner.
Makoto, meanwhile, drove Sonoko home.
"You two really are so close."
Sonoko said, head down, a note of envy in her voice.
"Yeah!"
"Hang on a second, I need to buy something."
Makoto nodded and pulled the car over at a flower shop.
He came back out before long.
This time, though, he was holding two bouquets.
Both were huge bunches of red roses, so vivid they seemed to drip with color, their scent thick in the air.
"For Ran, right?"
"That's so nice. I'm so jealous of Ran!"
Sonoko smiled, though there was a trace of bitterness in it.
"Hm?"
Makoto let out a soft hum and held one of the bouquets out in front of her.
Her bittersweet smile froze in place, instantly.
Sonoko looked up at him, stunned.
"This one's for you."
Makoto nodded, dispelling the confusion written on her face.
"B-but, Ran..."
Sonoko had just reached out, then yanked her hand back in a hurry.
After all, the boy in front of her was her best friend's boyfriend.
She didn't want to betray Ran.
"It's just a bouquet of flowers. It's not like I did anything wrong—why would Ran be upset?"
"What are you even thinking?"
Makoto laughed easily and pushed the roses a little closer to her.
"Well...I'll take them, then."
"It's just accepting some flowers. It doesn't mean anything."
"I just think this bouquet is really pretty."
Sonoko took the flowers and hugged them tightly to her chest.
A wave of warmth surged up in her heart!
"Oh, right, um..."
"Let me pay you for it!"
"For the flowers!"
Still not quite at ease, Sonoko opened her wallet—inside was a thick stack of Fukuzawa Yukichis, all ten-thousand-yen bills.
Tucked into the card slots were black cards with staggering credit limits, one after another.
A woman from the Suzuki family never wanted for money!
"No need, it was hardly anything."
"But if you really want to settle up..."
Makoto's gaze drifted over her body as he spoke, making Sonoko's face flush and her pulse race.
"Can I have that chocolate?"
"Call it payment for the flowers."
"That way we're even. Nice and fair."
Makoto said with a smile.
"Right!"
"You're the one who said it!"
Sonoko excitedly handed over the chocolate, not even noticing the problem herself.
Or maybe she was deliberately avoiding it.
A heart-shaped chocolate!
Identical to Ran's—probably bought together and made side by side in the kitchen.
Except Sonoko's piece seemed to have been kept close to her body—still carrying a warm heat, nearly melted.
"Can you still eat this?"
Sonoko asked, worried.
She hadn't thought about it earlier—she'd kept the chocolate in her pocket the whole time.
And not just any pocket—the inner pocket of her short skirt.
Warmed by her body heat, it had melted into a shapeless mess.
"Of course you can!"
"Chocolate is chocolate. Doesn't matter what shape it's in, you can still eat it."
"Besides, this is chocolate you made!"
Makoto gritted his teeth and wolfed it down in a few bites.
Two whole chunks of chocolate down in a row, his stomach was churning—he nearly threw up.
Still, as an upright, kind-hearted good man, he kept a smile on his face and put on his best "oishii" expression.
For a girl, even chocolate that tasted like something out of a dumpster demanded he mentally cue up the Cooking Master Boy soundtrack and cry out, utterly rapturous—"Absolutely delicious!"
"Makoto—"
"No, H-Higashino-kun!"
Sonoko gazed at him, eyes brimming with feeling, the name slipping out before she could stop it.
But the next second, she clapped a hand over her mouth, realizing she shouldn't have said that.
"It's fine. You call Ran by her given name too, don't you? Just 'Ran'?"
Makoto helpfully explained it away for her, offering an argument that sounded thoroughly convincing.
"Ran?"
"Makoto?"
"Right, we're good friends too, and classmates besides. It's no big deal to just use each other's names."
Sonoko nodded happily, convincing even herself.
The white Cayenne slowly rolled to a stop outside a mansion.
More precisely, it looked like some ancient European royal palace—absurdly, almost comically enormous.
"Sonoko, we're here."
Makoto said.
"Oh, that was fast!"
Sonoko bit her lip and reluctantly pushed open the car door.
She found herself almost resenting the car—why did it have to drive so fast?
If only it had broken down somewhere along the way, stranded for half an hour, an hour—that would've been perfect.
"Wait!"
Suddenly, Makoto caught her by the hand.
Sonoko's face flushed hot in an instant, like a startled fawn, completely at a loss.
"W-what are you doing?"
She kept her head down, desperately wanting to pull away, and just as desperately not wanting to.
The conflict inside her only made her heart race faster.
Makoto didn't say anything. Instead, he reached out and gently slipped off her hairband.
In an instant, her hair tumbled loose.
Sonoko, who usually looked so sharp and spirited, suddenly seemed soft and gentle.
Just like a JK beauty straight out of a manga—utterly, irresistibly charming!
"You really are adorable like this."
Makoto placed the hairband in her flustered little hand.
Before she could gather her wits, the white Cayenne had already pulled away.
'Makoto!'
'Just which one of us is worse—you, the bad man, or me, the bad woman?'
Sonoko stood there holding the flowers, clutching the hairband, staring after the direction he'd gone for a long, long time.
…
…
Edogawa Conan — Shinichi's alternate identity. Series: Detective Conan.
Higashino Makoto — Protagonist. Transmigrated.
Megure Juzo — Police Inspector. Series: Detective Conan.
Mouri Kogoro — Ran's father. Series: Detective Conan.
Mouri Ran — Shinichi's childhood sweetheart. Series: Detective Conan.
Suzuki Sonoko — Ran's childhood friend. Series: Detective Conan.
...
...
I apologize for making you guys wait. I have a situation to deal with.
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