"Someone's there!"
Ran and Sonoko gasped and quickly turned off their phone flashlights, feeling their way along the wall in the opposite direction.
Neither girl was stupid. In a secret passage that clearly had no one in it, a person suddenly appearing—whether they were good or bad was unknown, but they had to hide first. So when they heard footsteps and saw the flashlight beam, they were ready in an instant.
Amid the tap-tap of footsteps, Kurosawa Hoshino finally got a clear look at the person walking toward him—the culprit from this episode, a woman who had undergone plastic surgery to look like an old lady. She was probably just doing a routine patrol, checking if anyone had discovered the secret passage's secret. After sweeping her flashlight around, she started heading back.
"All right, time to find those two." Kurosawa Hoshino followed the direction the girls had just taken, striding after them.
With "Scene Replay" at his disposal, he wasn't worried about losing them and walked quite quickly. He watched as they cautiously felt their way through the dark, occasionally glancing back to see if anyone was following. Once they confirmed no one was there, they turned their phone lights back on.
"Sonoko, should we go back?" Ran asked nervously.
"Let's wait a bit. I don't know if that person has gone far yet." Sonoko didn't want to go back now, afraid of running into that person.
"Okay," Ran nodded.
The two girls stood there, nervously watching both sides of the passage.
They didn't know how long passed. They heard footsteps again—this time very fast, accompanied by a light.
"Run!"
"Did they find us?"
With that, they held hands and ran forward without stopping.
"Uh—" Kurosawa Hoshino saw this and rubbed his chin, muttering, "Don't tell me they saw me coming?"
He waited a moment, standing still. After about ten seconds, his own figure appeared in the replay, overlapping with him.
"Okay, looks like I scared them." He shook his head with amusement and found Ran's number on his phone, dialing directly.
Meanwhile, the two girls, who had been running desperately, realized there was no sound behind them and finally dared to lean against the wall and catch their breath.
But the next second—
Their phone rang, startling them.
"It's Hoshino's call!" Ran looked at the caller ID and was overjoyed.
"Answer it! Answer it!" Sonoko said, then patted her forehead with a bitter smile. "Ran, we're so stupid. We forgot to call!"
"Yeah~" Ran blushed a little too and quickly answered. Just as she was about to explain their predicament, Kurosawa Hoshino spoke first. "Stop running. That was me just now. Come back."
Instantly, cold sweat broke out on Ran's back. The dark surroundings and this phone call reminded her of a horror story she'd heard—a ghost calling the protagonist to trick them into coming back so it could kill them.
Of course, it was all just her imagination, but it still made her ask warily and fearfully, "Ho-Hoshino?"
"Who else would it be?"
"It could be a ghost," Ran said boldly.
Kurosawa Hoshino on the other end was speechless, as if his very breath had vanished.
Sonoko was also speechless. She hadn't expected her best friend to relapse again—her mind was probably spinning supernatural tales again.
"Why aren't you saying anything?" Ran asked nervously.
"Stand still and stop spouting nonsense." Kurosawa Hoshino's roar came through the phone and from the dark corridor ahead.
They weren't far apart now.
After a moment, the two girls saw the light and heard clear footsteps. A figure was slowly walking toward them.
Finally, Kurosawa Hoshino stood before them and said with amusement, "Honestly, what were you two running around for?"
With that, he reached out and pulled them into his arms.
Ran and Sonoko felt the embrace was so warm and secure. Their previously panicked hearts calmed down in that moment.
After a while, Kurosawa Hoshino let them go and looked at their flushed, slightly dazed faces. "What are you thinking about?"
"Nothing," the two girls said in unison, shaking their heads.
"Hoshino, how do we get out?" Sonoko patted the wall beside her. "That door we accidentally opened—we have no idea how to open it from here."
Kurosawa Hoshino waved his phone and smiled. "If we can't open it, we'll just call Uncle Mouri and have him reopen it from the restroom."
Ran said embarrassedly, "So you came in from there too?"
"Yeah. When I found you two were missing, I found the restroom. Then I accidentally touched the wall lamp next to the sink, and a door appeared in the wall. So I came in."
"Hoshino, do you think the treasure is hidden at the end of this passage?" Sonoko asked excitedly.
"Probably not." Kurosawa Hoshino pointed his phone at the ground. "Look at the passage under our feet. The middle section is very clean, while the sides have more dust. That means someone walks through this passage regularly. If there were treasure here, it would have been found long ago. No one would be strolling through here so often."
"Oh right, there's someone in this passage." Ran quickly told him what had happened earlier. "Not long after Sonoko and I accidentally came in, we saw a light and heard footsteps."
"Yes, yes." Sonoko looked scared. "So when we heard your footsteps later, we thought that person was coming back, which is why we ran."
"All right, let's—"
Before Kurosawa Hoshino could finish, they suddenly heard an "Ouch!" from around the corner ahead.
Ran and Sonoko trembled in fright and hid behind him, peeking out with their little heads, staring intently ahead.
"Hoshino, there really is someone," Sonoko said uneasily.
"From the sound of it, it's a child's voice. How could there be a child here? Could it be a ghost in disguise?"
Kurosawa Hoshino's mouth twitched. He tapped Ran's forehead. "Stop spouting nonsense about ghosts. From the sound, I think it's Conan."
"Conan?" Ran and Sonoko didn't believe it.
"Let's go. We'll see." Kurosawa Hoshino walked ahead. The two girls each clutched a corner of his clothes, and with someone to rely on, they weren't as scared as before.
Soon, they reached the corner. Before them was a staircase curving upward, but at the bottom of the stairs lay a skeleton.
Ran and Sonoko naturally saw the skeleton, and their hearts skipped a beat. They both clung to Kurosawa Hoshino's arms, seeking security.
Coincidentally, footsteps came from the stairs at that moment, along with a light slowly descending.