episodes 48—49 — diplomat murder case
Suzume frowned as she sat in Professor Agasa's home, having just filled him in on her current situation with the threat of the mysterious men in black hanging over them. She wasn't entirely too happy with what he had just suggested to her.
"Keep it a secret from them?" she repeated quietly. "Wouldn't it be better for them to be aware of the oncoming threat?"
Agasa sighed, shaking his head worriedly. "I don't believe so. Have you seen how high-strung you've been lately? You're worrying yourself sick! Do you really want to do that to your friends?"
Suzume thought it over before sighing, hanging her head as she saw where he was coming from. "Yeah, point taken and received," she said, looking out the window. "What should I do then?"
"Keep your investigations about these men in black quiet," he advised. "Talk to me if it gets too crowded in your head, like you always do. Act like everything is completely normal."
"Easier said than done," she told him as she pulled out her phone, frowning at the email she was sent. She got to her feet. "I told Ran I was going to hang out with her."
"Have fun!" he called out to her as she left. "And get better!"
~ — — — ~
Suzume stifled a sneeze as she spoke on the phone with Ran. "I'm gonna be a little later than I said I was gonna be," she told her, sounding nasally. "Mom called to check on me and the conversation went a little longer than I wanted it to."
"Ah, no worries, Suzume," Ran told her before pausing. "Oh, a client. It looks like a client is here, so I'll talk to you when you get here."
"Yep," Suzume said before hanging up, glancing at her watch.
Kogoro-san didn't mention any appointments...
Wonder who it is...
~ — — — ~
"No point in lying, Missy, I know she's here!" the boy insisted. "Where's Kudo Suzume?"
Ran smiled somewhat sheepishly. "She'll be here sometime later," she told him. "She's running a little late and has a bit of a cold right now."
The boy tilted his head. "A cold, huh?"
She sighed, putting her hands on her hips, and looked irritated. "Ah, I tell her not to overwork herself," she complained. "But she does it anyway and she gets sick all the time because of it! I don't know what to do with her!"
He sweatdropped, finding her rantings awfully familiar. "...sorry to hear that."
"By the way, who are you?" Kogoro interrupted, looking at the boy with narrowed eyes.
"Oh, right. I forgot," he said, smirking. He took off his hat. "My name is Hattori Heiji. A high school detective, just like Kudo."
"High school..."
"...detective?!" Kogoro put a hand to his chin. "Come to think of it, I have heard of a skilled detective in Kansai..."
"Yep. They call us Hattori of the West and Kudo of the East," Heiji said. "Kudo's been a little quieter lately, though. I got curious about why."
"Well, the east also has Mouri Kogoro—"
"What do you want with Suzume?" Ran interrupted her father, narrowing her eyes at Heiji.
He smirked at her protectiveness. She's definitely good for someone of Kudo's caliber... "Nothing much. I just wanna see for myself." They ignored Kogoro's self-musings. "I wanna see if Kudo Suzume's really worthy of being compared to me."
Maybe it'll be the other way around, Ran thought to herself.
"I hope you don't mind, but I'll be sticking around until I meet Kudo," Heiji said.
A knock came from the open door of the agency, and all three of them looked over to see a well-dressed woman standing there, looking a little irritated. "Do you know how long I rang the bell?!" she asked. "I see this agency isn't equipped to greet clients, either!" She took off her sunglasses. "I'm in a hurry, so could we make this quick?"
~ — — — ~
"A background check on your son's girlfriend?" Kogoro repeated.
Tsujimura Kimie handed over a file. "That is a photo of her and her history."
Kogor hummed and thumbed through it. "Katsuragi Yukiko-san, age twenty-four. Graduated Mitsuba Middle School and High School, top of her class, currently attends Tohto Medical University. Well on her way to becoming a woman doctor." He looked up at Kimie. "Something wrong with all this?"
"No. It's just..."
"Too perfect, so you don't like her," Heiji finished her thought. "People are inquisitive, jealous creatures. When they see something perfect, they naturally look for flaws." He spun in his chair to look at Kimie with a smirk. "Right, lady?"
"Who is he?!" she asked Kogoro.
"Oh, just a friend of my daughter's," he covered up with a nervous smile.
Kimie stood up. "In any case, we can talk in more detail at my home, with my husband," she said.
"Um, right now?" Kogoro asked. "Couldn't you have both come here?"
"As I told you, my husband is a diplomat," Kimie said. "If people found out he came here..."
Heiji opened his mouth to speak when he was interrupted by someone from the doorway.
"It would cause a scandal, yes?" Suzume finished, smiling behind her mask.
Heiji grinned at the sight of the Kudo. "Alright! I'm coming too!" he declared excitedly, his eyes going back to Suzume, who raised an eyebrow.
"What?!" Kogoro gasped.
"It'd be less suspicious if we went as a family, right?" Heiji said, walking over.
"Yes," Kimie agreed, putting on her sunglasses. "That would be best."
Suzume moved out of the way of Kimie, who looked her up and down before going down the stairs. She sighed before looking over at Ran and Heiji. "Who's he?"
"Hattori Heiji," he said, waving a hand at her. "I'd shake your hand, but..."
"Best not," she said, shaking her head. "So, Detective of the West, why are you here?"
He grinned at her as he stopped next to her. "To see if you're worthy of being compared to me," he said, repeating the same answer from earlier.
Suzume raised an eyebrow, having a feeling that was not entirely the case. "If you say so."
She turned to leave before Ran cut in. "You better not ride on that motorcycle of yours." Suzume froze and Ran groaned. "You have a cold! You shouldn't be riding around with the wind!"
Suzume just looked off to the side and grumbled under her breath.
Heiji watched the exchange. So that's Kudo Suzume, huh? He grinned. I might just grow to the idea of it.
~ — — — ~
"Welcome back, Madam," the butler, Koike Fumio, greeted Kimie as she led the others into the home.
"Where is my husband?" she asked.
"I do believe he's still in his study," he answered. "Who are these folks?"
"This is Mouri-san," she said. "An old friend."
"Mother! Hello there!" Katsuragi Yukiko said.
"Oh! You're from the pho—" Kogoro was cut off by both Heiji and Suzume quickly covering his mouth to keep him from saying too much.
Suzume grumbled under her breath, "You need to stop making a habit of this," with Heiji nodding in agreement.
"W-Why are you here?!" Kimie asked the young woman, surprised to see her in her house.
"I asked her here," Tsujimura Takayoshi said, putting a hand on his girlfriend's shoulder. "Dad won't see her, so I'm forcing him to. He still won't come out of his study, though."
"Umm, might these people be acquaintances of yours, Mother?" Yukiko asked kindly.
"That is none of your business!" Kimie snapped at her, shocking her. "And you have no right to call me Mother!"
Suzume frowned under her mask and shared a look with Heiji, who shrugged in response.
"I-I'm sorry," Yukiko murmured, looking down.
Kimie looked at her guests. "This way." She led them up the stairs.
"Sure acts big for a second wife," Takayoshi muttered as he stared at Kimie, making Suzume pause for a second before continuing up the stairs.
An elderly man walked towards the stairs, causing everyone to stop their procession. "Oh, Father," Kimie greeted. "I didn't know you were home."
"Come, now! You said you wanted to hear about the fish I caught!" he said cheerfully, pulling out and unrolling a paper with a drawing of the fish. "What do you think? A real whopper, wouldn't you say?"
"Oh, right. I'll be there soon," she said disinterestedly. He frowned and rolled the paper back up. "Please wait in the Japanese-style room."
"Yeah," he said, heading down the stairs as the visitors moved to the side so he could get down the stairs.
Kimie led them to a room where loud opera music was playing and knocked on the door. "Dear! He's here! Dear!" she called through the door. "That's odd. Is he not in there?" She pulled out a key from her purse and unlocked the door. She opened the door to show her husband, Tsujimura Isao, sitting at his desk, looking like he was asleep. "Oh, you are in here! Honestly now!" They all walked into the room. "Leaving the stereo on and taking a nap in here!"
"An opera?" Heiji muttered as he and Suzume walked over to it.
"Dear! Hey! Please wake up!" Suzume looked over to see Kimie shaking her husband. "Dear! Dear—" She gasped as her husband's body fell out of the chair and onto the floor. "Dear! Say something! Dear!"
Heiji crouched down and checked the diplomat's pulse. "Too late," he said. "He's already dead!"
"Ran, get the police here now," Suzume requested of her friend, who nodded and ran out of the office. She looked back at the body and noticed the victim's lips were beginning to turn purple. Body's still warm. And his lips are turning purple. She glanced at his neck and saw a red dot. Is that an injection mark? She looked under the desk and saw a needle on the floor. She shared a look with Heiji and they gave each other a nod.
~ — — — ~
"The deceased is Tsujimura Isao-san, age fifty-four and a diplomat," Megure listed out. "And the detective who happened to be here when the body was found..."
"Was I, Mouri Kogoro, Inspector Megure!" Kogoro gave a salute.
"So, is it another murder today, great detective?" Megure asked him, though he did glance at Suzume as he asked his question.
"Well, as there are no signs of foul play, it's probably—"
"Take a closer look at the body," Suzume interrupted from where she was crouched down.
"He was poisoned," Heiji added after her, leaning against the desk with his arms crossed. "Someone killed this old man with poison. There's a red dot by his hairline and a needle lying next to the body. The old man died propped up, but he was probably set that way after someone poisoned him."
"But it could've been suicide," Kogoro said.
Suzume sighed. "Check out the body. Tsujimura-san's lips and fingers are turning purple, and his eyes have excess blood."
"This is proof he suffocated," Heiji concluded. "Yet, there are no signs at all of strangulation, drowning, or suffering. The only possibility left is that he was paralyzed and then suffocated with powerful poison that can kill instantly!"
"Adding in the body's warmth and lack of rigor mortis, I'd say he was killed about half an hour ago, before we came into this room," Suzume said, standing up. "And it was someone who stopped by this room."
Megure looked at Suzume. "Kudo-chan, who is this lad?"
"Inspector Megure, this is Hattori Heiji, a fellow high school detective," she said, waving a hand at Heiji.
"Hattori Heiji?" Megure repeated. "Oh, you're the son of Hattori Heizo-san, Osaka's chief of police!"
"Osaka's chief of police?" Kogoro echoed.
Ran looked between Suzume and Heiji, who stood next to each other. It's a little strange. They act so alike...
Suzume sneezed under her mask, Heiji looking at her with a raised eyebrow.
"Should you really be here if you're sick, Kudo?" he asked her quietly.
She sighed. "I'll rest once this case is done," she said with a tone of finality. She was used to having this argument. I think my cold's gotten worse...
Megure sighed. "All the windows are locked from the inside. Entering from outside is impossible." He turned to the other residents of the house. "Which means one of you entered through the door with a spare key." He looked at Kimie. "Madam. I assume there are several spare keys to this study?"
"No, only two," she answered, pulling her keys out of her purse. "I have one here. My husband has the other."
"Y-Your husband!?"
"Yes. He always kept it in his pants pocket."
"Let's have a look." Megure kneeled next to the body and pulled out Tsujimura's pocket, where there was a second pocket that his key fell out of onto the floor. Everyone gasped. "I-Impossible!"
"Eh? What is?" Kogoro asked, not understanding.
"Don't you get it?!" Heiji said. "The door was locked when we arrived! In other words, the killer locked the door and left!"
"One of the keys was with his wife, who came into the room with us, and the other was in a double pocket of the victim's pants," Suzume listed before sighing. "It looks like we have a locked room murder."
"A locked room murder?!" the people associated with the diplomat repeated in shock.
"That can't be..." Kogoro murmured.
Heiji's eyes narrowed at Kogoro. Just as I thought. The papers keep saying the Mouri Detective Agency was solving all of these crimes. He glanced at Suzume. Why is she keeping her name out? Why the secrecy? Suzume met his gaze and smiled at him, making him blink at her. Let's see who solves this locked room murder first, Kudo Suzume...
Suzume scratched her neck under her right ear, furrowing her brows at the continued ringing in her ears. I need to solve this fast before I collapse on the floor. She looked at Heiji. Maybe having him here will speed everything up...
"What're you doing?" Heiji asked Megure and Kogoro, irritated. "The murder took place between 3:30 and 4:00, like Kudo said. Shouldn't you start by asking all the suspects for their alibis?"
"T-That's right!" Megure agreed nervously, seeing Suzume's eyes narrow at him.
First was the butler. "So you spoke with neighbors at the front door between 3:00 and 4:00?" Megure questioned.
"Yes."
"Is it true Takayoshi-san and Yukiko-san arrived just before his wife?"
"Yes. That is correct."
Megure looked at the couple. "So where were you two while he was greeting her at the door?"
"My dad's study," Takayoshi replied. "But the door was locked and he wouldn't respond, so we went back downstairs."
"Then we saw Mother at the front door," Yukiko continued.
Megure looked at the victim's father. "It was shortly after 2:00 when you arrived, yes?"
"That's right. I came all this way, but Isao was holed up in there, and Kimie-san had left," Tsujimura Toshimitsu said. "With nothing else to do, I went to the next room and watched TV."
Megure turned his attention to Kimie. "What time did you leave?"
"An hour ago," she told him.
Which means that only those three could've gotten near the victim at the time of the murder, Heiji thought.
Megure peered at one of the bookshelves. "Oh! What an impressive number of CDs!"
"Yes. He loved classical music," the butler said.
There was an opera playing when we came in, Suzume thought, tilting her head as she sniffed.
Megure was looking along the shelves when he came across a picture and picked it up. "Oh? Madam." He looked at Kimie and showed her. "What is this photograph?"
Suzume rubbed at her eyes as her eyesight became blurry and she felt her body heat up. Damn it...!
"This photo is twenty years old! What does it matter?!" Kimie asked indignantly.
"Inspector! What shall we do with the books on the desk?" an officer asked.
"Oh, just leave them."
Suzume stopped rubbing her eyes and glanced at the desk. Books? Now that I think about it, there were irrelevant books stacked by the body. She looked at a space on one of the shelves. Almost like they had been pulled right from the bookshelf...
"Inspector. We found something odd about the victim's key."
"What?!"
The officer opened it. "The key holder opens to reveal..."
"Scotch tape!" Megure finished, surprised with what they found.
Heiji leaned over Megure's shoulder to look at it. What's that thin bulge in the middle?
Suzume opened her mouth to speak but almost immediately shut her mouth as a sudden wave of nausea came over her.
"Wait! Could it be?!" Heiji gasped before running out of the room.
The unnaturally stacked books in front of the body and the opera playing at the scene of the crime, Suzume began to breathe heavily.
The tape on the key! Heiji crouched down on the floor. The mysterious bulge in the middle of it! And the slit under this door!
The two teenage detectives came to their conclusions. That's it! I figured out the locked room trick!
Suzume's heavy breathing caught Ran's attention and her eyes widened. "Suzume!" She rushed over to her friend's side just as Suzume's legs gave out under her. "Suzume!" She put a hand on Suzume's forehead and her eyes widened. "You're burning up!"
"Get a doctor here now!" Megure ordered one of the officers. "Wait, where's Hattori-kun?"
"He asked where the Japanese-styled room was, then left," Koike said.
Ran looked at Takayoshi and Yukiko. "I'm sorry, but is there anywhere she could lay down?" she asked, worried for her friend.
"You can use the bed in my room," Takayoshi said. "It's at the end of the hallway."
"Thank you! I appreciate it!" Ran told them before beginning to lead her friend out of the room. She stopped when Heiji came back. "Hattori-kun."
"I figured it out," he said. "The locked room trick, and who did it."
This statement shocked everyone, including Suzume, whose brows furrowed together.
"You solved it already?" Kogoro was surprised.
Heiji walked into the room, though not before sending Suzume a concerned glance that she shook her head at, wanting to hear what his thoughts were. "I'll show you the proof right now," he said.
Despite her inner wishes, Ran took a reluctant Suzume down the hall when Suzume caught sight of something in Heiji's pocket. Fishing line?
"Inspector Megure. Hate to ask, but could you play the role of the body?" Heiji requested.
Megure resigned to his fate, reminded of the Mystery Coaster case not too long ago. "Okay."
Don't tell me he's...
~ — — — ~
After Ran got Suzume situated in Takayoshi's bed, she couldn't help but worry. "Don't worry, Suzume!" She tried to reassure both of them. "A doctor will be here soon!"
Damn it! Suzume hissed in her mind as sweat dripped down her face. Having a cold at a time like this! A sudden bout of coughs ripped from her throat that made her have to sit up.
"Suzume!" Ran panicked. The doorbell rang and Ran let a relieved smile break free. "That must be the doctor!" She quickly left. "Hang in there! I'll bring him right here!"
This isn't a normal fever! Suzume curled in on herself into a fetal position as her body screamed in pain. What the hell is this?! Her eyes snapped open. Don't tell me...! Her eyes narrowed. Oh, I'm gonna kill him!
She forced herself to sit up, throwing her legs over the side of the bed, ignoring the drums assaulting her skull. She forced herself onto her feet and put a hand to her head before smacking it. The drums stopped and she heard herself let out a breath of relief. Hopefully that helps him just a little bit...that asshole.
She walked to the office, ready to complete her showdown with Heiji, who had just accused the deceased's father of being the murderer. As Toshimitsu was about to admit to the crime, Suzume appeared in the doorway.
"I'll have to stop you there," she said, interrupting the fake confession before it really began.
"What?!" Everyone cried out in shock at her standing there, looking much better than she did a few minutes ago.
"You've got it all wrong!" Suzume smirked.
"Kudo-chan!" Megure said. "Should you really be standing up right now?!"
She waved a hand, leaning on the doorframe. "I'm feeling better now, thanks."
"What makes you say I'm wrong?" Heiji asked with a smirk, though he was genuinely curious about what Suzume had to say. Her eyes snapped to him and widened the smallest bit had his smirk widen every so slightly. Ah, so you finally noticed it, huh? "Are you saying my theory is faulty?"
Suzume walked into the room, and everyone could see that she was still struggling with her fever. "The trick you just explained is armchair theory," she said. "It's completely impossible!"
He paused. "S-Say what?!"
Megure stepped between the two. "Hold on, Kudo-chan. I hate to interrupt, but his locked room trick works perfectly! We even tested it out with my own pants!" Her face twisted at that final sentence. Little too much information there, Inspector... "You take a needle-ended line, tape the other end to the key holder, and put the needle end through the pants pocket from the inside. Then you pull both ends outside the room, lock the door, and by pulling the needle end, the key will enter the pocket on its own! One last tug and the line breaks free of the tape. Then, by simply winding it up, the evidence disappears and creates a locked room!"
"Is the key really in your pocket, Inspector?" Suzume's question made them pause. "The key was in a double pocket in the victim's pants."
"Y-Yes."
"Of course it is!" Heiji said. "If you think we're lying, see for yourself!" He stuck his hand into Megure's pocket. "See?! It's in his double—" He pulled the pocket inside out, showing that the key was, in fact, not in the double pocket as it fell to the ground. "That...can't be! I'm certain I put the line through his double pocket!"
"That's because Inspector Megure was sitting when you put the key in," Suzume explained.
"What?!"
"Because he was sitting," she repeated, "the pocket folded and blocked the key's path, and the tape came off before it got into the double pocket. And the victim was heavyset, like Inspector Megure."
Megure put a hand to his chin. "Now that you mention it, when I put my hand in the victim's pocket..." He recalled commenting on how tight the victim's pants were.
"But it could happen 1 in 10,000—no, 1 in 10 times!" Heiji insisted.
"The result would be the same each time," Suzume said. "Remember the key's direction when it was in the victim's double pocket."
"The key's direction?" Heiji murmured before gasping as he remembered.
Suzume nodded. "Even if it did get in his double pocket 1 in 10,000 times, it would only be the key holder. The key wouldn't be able to flip over to join the key holder in the pocket. The fact that the key was fully inside means the killer put it in the double pocket beforehand."
"Then what about this needle-ended fishing line I found?!" Heiji asked her, pulling it from his pocket.
"Another trap set by the killer to place the blame on the old man," Suzume said as the man gasped. She pulled some fishing line from her own pocket. "I found a handful of others throughout the house. The killer planted them in other rooms, too. So it wouldn't matter where the old man was during the murder."
"But he admitted to the crime!" Heiji reminded her.
"He knowingly stepped into the killer's trap," Suzume told him, glancing at Toshimitsu. "Though I don't know why."
"This room was completely locked! You're not suggesting it was suicide?!" Heiji gasped.
"Of course not." She shook her head. "The killer's real trick is still here."
"Real trick?"
Suzume looked at Heiji. "Did you forget? When we found the victim, an opera was playing and there were books stacked next to the victim. The opera was to drown out the victim's possible screams after being poisoned with the needle. The books were to hide his possibly contorted face."
Heiji laughed at that. "Yeah, right! Whose eyes and ears needed to be fooled?!"
"Yours, Hattori Heiji."
"Say what?" he gasped.
"Not just yours, though," Suzume continued. "No one else who came in with us noticed, either."
"Wait, you don't mean—!"
"When we entered the study, the first to approach the victim..." She took a breath, turning around. "Yes. The killer was you, Madam."
Kimie's eyes widened.
"She killed her husband?!"
"You can't be serious!"
"You mean the victim was still alive then?" Kogoro asked.
Suzume nodded. "Yes. She only knocked him out with drugs or something along those lines," she said. "Then she poisoned him with the needle when pretending to wake him. It was only natural that no one noticed. If the sleeping drug and the poison were both powerful enough, the victim would die immediately after being pricked, as if asleep. She set up the opera and the books just in case."
"But if this sleeping drug turned up in an autopsy, this trick would've..." Megure started.
"No, we wouldn't know," Heiji interrupted him, looking at Suzume. "We assumed he was dead before we entered. We only would've known he was knocked out before he was killed. In other words, this was a psychological locked room murder, based on our assumption that no one would ever invite a detective to a locked room and then kill someone in it!" He paused. "That what you wanna say, Kudo?"
"Yeah." She nodded.
"Then let's see some proof!" Heiji said. "Plus, I didn't see her pull out a poisoned needle!"
Suzume bent down and grabbed the victim's key from the floor. "Yes. She took out the needle in a way no one would notice." She held up the object with a smile. "Together with her key!"
"H-Her key?!"
"Yeah. Her key holder is the same design as the victim's," Suzume pointed out. "Naturally, hers should also split in two." She looked at Kimie. "Now then, please show us your key and the inside of your key holder!"
"If you don't mind, Madam," Megure said, walking over to Kimie.
Kimie was silent before she handed over her purse.
~ — — — ~
Suzume had been correct—the poisoned needle had been put inside a groove into the key holder that belonged to Kimie.
Yukiko was the daughter of Kimie from the woman's first marriage with Yamashiro Kenji, who used to be a diplomat before getting thrown into prison by Tsujimura Isao. While Kimie was grieving the loss of her husband, Isao came into her life after divorcing Takayoshi's mother and forced Kimie to marry him.
When Takayoshi brought home a photo of Yukiko, Isao was horrified as he recognized her in the photo. After Kimie realized the same thing and pressed her husband, he admitted that he had framed her first husband for corruption and that Toshimitsu helped him do it, which is why the elderly man willingly confessed to a crime he didn't commit.
Before Kimie was taken away by police, she said, "Takayoshi-san."
"Y-Yes?" he stuttered.
"I know I'm not fit to say this now, but please take care of Yukiko," Kimie requested.
"Y-Yeah." He nodded as Yukiko burst into tears.
Suzume had a fit of coughing as Kimie was escorted out.
"Kudo!"
"Suzume!"
She gave them a weak smile as she leaned against the bookshelves, looking pale. "Just my cold," she managed to say before collapsing on the ground, everyone screaming as she fell unconscious.
~ — — — ~
She slowly woke up to the sound of a loud voice shouting outside her room.
"What do you mean she fainted?!" the voice practically shrieked and her eyes snapped open as she recognized the voice. "What the hell were you thinking, letting her go to a crime scene in her state?!"
"It hadn't been that serious when we left!" Ran cried as Suzume forced herself to sit up and get out of bed, stumbling towards her door. "It just started getting worse while we were there!"
"That's how it normally works with her! It starts out mild before becoming even worse if she strains herself too thin!"
Suzume ripped her door open, glaring at the three people who stood outside her room. "If you're going to argue, do it downstairs, damn it!" she yelled, making them fall silent.
"Oi, Kudo," Heiji said, frowning. "Why are you out of bed?"
She scowled at him, making him flinch back. "Well, if a certain someone wasn't screaming outside my door, maybe I wouldn't have woken up," she snarled.
The man winced, looking away awkwardly. "Sorry," he muttered.
She sighed and let him guide her back to bed. "Why are you here?" she muttered into his ear. "You aren't supposed to be anywhere near Beika!"
He sighed. "I got concerned when I heard over the scanner that you had collapsed at a crime scene," he explained quietly, getting her settled under the covers of her bed again. "And, that Hattori kid needs to talk to you about something important."
"How important?"
He gave her a knowing look. "Important enough that it can't be put off until after you nap," he replied. He walked over and guided Ran out of the room, leaving Suzume and Heiji alone.
Heiji looked around the bedroom. "You know, when I imagined what your room could look like, this was actually kinda what I had in mind," he started awkwardly.
Suzume let out a laugh. "Don't force yourself," she joked before waving a hand at her desk chair. "Sit down. I'm not gonna kill you."
He laughed nervously as he sat down, dragging the chair to her bedside. "Well, you might change your mind about that when you hear what I have to say," he told her and she raised an eyebrow.
"Oh?" She hummed. "What is so serious and important that it can't wait until I rest more?"
"Well, for starters, why did it take so long for you to figure it out?" Heiji asked.
Suzume knew what he was referring to and sighed. "That's not something I'm fully ready to talk about," she admitted quietly. "I'll just say that something cracked, and I don't know if it can be fixed."
His eyes narrowed at what she was implying but moved away from the topic. "Can you guess the real reason why I came today?"
She tilted her head, her eyes starting to droop. "You wanted to see if I was worthy enough for a bond," she answered.
He snorted. "More like the other way 'round." He sighed at the confused look she gave him. "Look, people like you are incredibly rare. It's intimidating to approach you and ask about forming a possible bond."
She was silent before holding a hand out to him. He raised an eyebrow but grabbed onto it, gasping as he felt it snap into place like a puzzle piece. He looked at her in complete shock.
"You did it that easily?" he whispered. "Why?"
She smiled at him, shutting her eyes but still fully conscious. "I trust you, Hattori Heiji," she said. "You've got a good heart and I like being around people who have good hearts."
"Like that Mouri girl?"
"Ran. Yeah. She was the first, you know."
"I figured as much," he said.
Suzume sighed. "We've known each other since we were four and have been together ever since." She gave a shy smile. "It's nice, not feeling as alone anymore, right?"
He exhaled softly, giving her hand a gentle squeeze as he heard her breathing even out. "Yeah. It does."
~ — — — ~
He winced as he vaguely listened to the shouts coming from his phone, ignoring the amused gaze of his partner/superior. It would seem that his worst nightmare has become his reality—something happened to one of the operatives and Suzume had felt it.
That spelled all kinds of trouble that he really didn't want to deal with, but here he was, listening to her ranting and looking like he had accepted his fate.
"Isn't that interesting?" his partner/superior whispered, glancing over at the brooding man in the corner of the room, smoking a cigarette. "Only one meeting was all it took, hm?"
The man in the corner sent her a sharp look, not saying anything as there was nothing to be said.
Shutting the phone with a sigh, he narrowed his eyes at the man in the corner before leaving the room, not wanting to be around anyone for the time being.
Fun Facts —
— Ah, Kudo Suzume and Hattori Heiji...Sky and Cloud. Oh, I'm looking forward to the Osaka Double Mystery chapter.
— Yeah, let's just say that Triple Face is not too happy with a certain BO member who only met Suzume once...
— Who do you think that mysterious man that was yelling at Heiji and Ran is? I'll give a little hint: he appears in file 010.