Almost two hours later, in Beika Central Hospital...
The Detective Boys waited inside Doctor Miyuzaki's office for the results of the operations done to Ryoma by Doctor Yanai and Doctor Miyuzaki themselves. The kids were uneasy and worried about Ryoma's situation.
Mitsuhiko, Ayumi, and Haibara talked about Ryoma's possible situation. Genta could only complain because he was hungry again.
Conan and Kourin changed their wet clothes with the spare clothes left in the hospital. When Kourin had finished changing and came out of the comfort room, Doctor Miyuzaki entered the office, along with Doctor Yanai.
"How is he, Yanai-sensei?" Ayumi immediately inquired as soon as the two doctors entered.
"He's fine now. The gunshot wound he had on his arm was only a minor one. Though the wound he had on his thigh was a little deep. And in those wounds, it seemed that the bullets used to shoot him contain chemicals that could—" he paused. "—cause paralysis to his organs."
"Eh?!" The kids stared at him, as if not wanting to believe it. But Doctor Miyuzaki's serious face made them believe it in the end.
"Are you serious, Yanai-sensei?"
He nodded. "But it will take us some time to know what are the particular chemicals used in that bullet."
All of them fell silent. And then they heard Kourin heave a heavy sigh.
"What's wrong, Rin-chan?" Doctor Miyuzaki approached her.
Kourin shook her head. "I'm just worried about Ryoma-niichan. He's dedicated to playing tennis and he became the key player of Seigaku. And yet, he's facing this kind of predicament..." She gave a faint smile when she saw her friends looking at her with worried eyes. Then she faced Doctor Miyuzaki. "By the way, will he be alright? What about the traces of chemicals you found in his wounds?"
Both the doctors smiled at her. "We managed to remove those chemicals outside of his wounds. Don't worry. The bullets seemed to have just grazed his body. It's probably because he was running from his perpetrators. But the chemicals inside Ryoma's wound on his thigh will affect his walking capability. However, it will only be temporary."
Both Kourin and Conan sighed in relief. While the others smiled at what they heard. Genta rubbed his tummy.
"Now I feel even hungrier because of that."
Mitsuhiko sighed and shook his head. "Not again, Genta-kun. You're always like that..."
The others laughed. And then Kourin approached Doctor Miyuzaki who sat on the swivel chair.
"Sensei, will it be okay if I should just go out and buy some food? You see, after swimming in a cold river, I felt kinda hungry, as well," she said with a shy smile.
Both the doctors laughed. Instead of Doctor Miyuzaki, it was Doctor Yanai who handed her some money. And honestly, it was a huge amount, though Kourin had no fear of handling such a big amount of money.
"You can buy as much food as you can, but don't forget to buy some for me and Shouda, okay?"
She nodded and then bowed down. "Thank you very much, Yanai-sensei."
Haibara and Ayumi stood up from their seats and approached her.
"Then I guess we should help you. I'm having a bad feeling about the money you're handling," Haibara said in a bland tone.
"Haibara-san, you don't have to worry about that. Rin-chan knows how to keep that money away from thieves. She's good at hiding money in her possession," Doctor Miyuzaki said with a smile.
"Is that so?" Haibara glanced at her. "Well, will it be okay if Yoshida-san and I accompany you?"
Kourin agreed. She then made a list of what are the foods she was going to buy so that she wouldn't forget anything along the way.
XXXXXX
On the tennis court of Seigaku...
The practice that day continued even without Ryoma. Though a lot had wondered why he didn't appear in the practice, no one could provide an answer.
Although the Regulars didn't want to, most of them found it odd for Ryoma not to attend the practice. And because of that, most of them were worried. They wanted to know what was going on.
But because of the upcoming tennis tournament, they couldn't do anything, for now, other than practice.
Until later that day, someone managed to provide them with an answer. But of course, it was an answer that had never crossed their minds.
The tennis practice that day ended earlier than it was expected. The reason for this? They couldn't concentrate on the practice itself. While fixing their things, the Seigaku Regulars gathered at the tennis court, much to the curiosity of the other members.
Horio, Kachiro, and Katsuo decided to stay with them. Even Tomoka and Sakuno stayed. Coach Ryuzaki, however, decided to stay in her office for a while.
Like the others, she couldn't help but worry about Ryoma, as well.
"Nya, this is weird. Ochibi can be late sometimes but to think he wouldn't attend a whole day's practice..." Kikumaru said
Oishi agreed. "It's not even his type to be absent in something as important as this when it comes to tennis."
"You're right, Oishi-senpai!" Horio agreed loudly to Oishi.
"But really, what happened to Ryoma-kun?" Kachiro most likely asked himself.
"Do you think something bad might have happened to him?" Sakuno mumbled thoughtfully but unfortunately, it was loud enough for the others to hear, much to her surprise. So she tried to laugh to hide it.
Even Tomoka laughed. "There's no way something bad would happen to Ryoma-sama."
"But there is a possibility that it happened," a person said in a serious tone.
The others looked at the one who spoke. It was Fuji.
All of them fell silent and thought something about Ryoma's actions the last time they saw him.
Then Momoshiro snapped when he remembered something about last night. "Now that you mention it, Echizen seemed to be running pretty fast yesterday even though the road was slippery because of the storm. There were times, as well, that he looked cautious of his surroundings, especially when we're going home together."
"Really?" Momoshiro nodded.
They continued to talk about it. Most likely, they were talking all about Ryoma's odd actions, especially when going home after practice.
But this was disrupted when they saw someone approaching. It was Inoue and Shiba, a journalist and a photographer respectively from Monthly Pro Tennis.
"Inoue-san! Shiba-san! What's wrong? You seemed to be in a hurry," Tomoka approached them as they stopped running.
Even though they were catching their breaths, Shiba managed to say something. "Have you heard the news about Ryoma-kun?"
"News?" Everyone became interested to listen when they heard Ryoma's name. "What kind of news?"
"What about Echizen? Did something happen?" Kawamura inquired in a worried tone.
Inoue was surprised. "You mean, you don't know anything about what happened to Echizen since last night?"
The others stared at each other and then shook their heads. The journalist and the photographer just sighed and looked at them seriously, which gave them the creeps.
"What happened to Echizen?" This time, Tezuka asked them placidly.
Inoue was the one who answered the question. "Echizen-kun was missing since last night, according to Nanjiroh-san."
"Eh?!" All of them opened their eyes wide as their mind tried to absorb what Inoue said. "Are you serious?"
Both Inoue and Shiba nodded.
"That could have been the explanation for Echizen's odd actions these past weeks," Momoshiro said quietly.
"What do you mean?" Shiba asked Momoshiro.
"We shouldn't tell you about that for now. Right now, we need to help Echizen's family to look for him. Inoue-san, Shiba-san..." Oishi looked at them. "Please don't put this to your article. It might make the case worst than we could have ever thought."
They agreed. And that time, they devised a plan to look for Ryoma, even if they would look throughout Tokyo.
The Regulars were divided into groups of pairs by random picking to look for Ryoma's whereabouts. Coach Ryuzaki, Tomoka, Sakuno, Horio, Kachiro, Katsuo, and even Shiba and Inoue participated in the search.
The pairs were: Kikumaru and Oishi, Tezuka and Kawamura, Fuji and Momoshiro, Kaidoh and Inui, Coach Ryuzaki and Sakuno, Horio and Tomoka, Kachiro and Katsuo, and Inoue and Shiba.
And their plan will begin tomorrow. They needed to rest so that they could search vigorously.
"Just wait, Echizen... We're coming..." Momoshiro mumbled.
XXXXXX
Back at Beika Central Hospital, 7:00 in the evening...
It was already night time but Kourin and the others were still in the hospital, watching over Ryoma who had just come out of the operating room a few hours ago, and now he was sleeping in one of the private rooms there.
And then Professor Agasa arrived at the hospital since Conan reported to him about the event happening. Kourin decided to stay there to watch over Ryoma since she was worried about him. She was the one who was taking care of the Himalayan cat.
She insisted on staying and no one could convince her to leave him. Until Doctor Yanai and Doctor Miyuzaki made a plan. She mentioned this to both Conan and the professor. And because of Ryoma's mystery about what happened to him the night of the storm, and Kourin's concern for the guy made them agree to the two doctors' plan.
And if their intuitions were right, Ryoma's life was in danger that night. Cases like this which it was full of mysteries were the ones Conan wouldn't let go and pass.
Professor Agasa and the Detective Boys entered Ryoma's room in which Kourin was staying there and watching him.
"Rin-chan..."
Kourin heard it and turned around. "What is it?"
"Miyuzaki-sensei and Yanai-sensei said that we could take care of Ryoma-niichan in Agasa-hakase's house. That way, we could even investigate this case discreetly. If someone wants him dead, we need to hide him somewhere and we need to do it now," Conan said.
She was stunned because of what she had heard. "Miyuzaki-sensei and Yanai-sensei said that?" Everyone nodded.
She then looked at the professor. "But wouldn't it be a bother to you, hakase?"
Professor Agasa laughed. "Don't worry about things like that."
"Besides, we're here to help you take care of him and at the same time, we're here to help you and Conan-kun investigates this case," Mitsuhiko said.
"I'm also worried about Ryoma-san because of the chemicals from the bullets used to shoot him," Haibara said placidly.
Ayumi and Genta agreed on that.
Kourin smiled. "Thank you very much, everyone."
That night, with the hospital management's consent, Ryoma was transferred to Professor Agasa's house.
Inside Doctor Miyuzaki's car, Kourin was in the back seat and Haibara in the front seat. She glanced at the unconscious Ryoma whose head was placed on her lap.
'Don't worry, Ryoma-niichan. We'll find the ones who did this to you... So just take a rest for a while, okay?'
XXXXXX
The next day...
The designated pairs had gone off to their task of finding Ryoma. But we were just going to take an inside look at Fuji and Momoshiro who had gone off to Beika District as their first destination.
These two will meet someone who became involved with the one they were looking for.
It was approximately nine o'clock in the morning when Fuji and Momoshiro reached Beika City. But there was one problem.
They didn't know where to start looking.
And honestly, they have taken the whole day asking if they saw Ryoma there by showing them his picture. All of them answered one thing... they didn't see him and they have no idea where he was.
It was like that until they decided to stop in an alley where they could rest for a while and talk about it.
"I'm tired," Momoshiro whined as he rested his back on the wall. "I guess we can't find Echizen here. And we haven't even looked at the whole city."
"I know but this is just our first day looking for him. We might have done some sacrifices for the upcoming tournament but we're doing this for ourselves, as well. And we need to know what's going on, to think that Echizen had gone missing since last night."
Momoshiro stared at Fuji who was sipping pineapple juice. He sighed and took his sandwich into his bag. In one bite, he had eaten more than half of the sandwich. Well, that was his way to ease up his tension (I guess).
And Fuji found it quite amusing. He took one sandwich from Momoshiro and ate it as well.
It was almost sundown when they decided to look for a room for them to stay for the night. And while they were walking in a certain alley, they saw a little girl, maybe about 10-11 years old, who was being bullied by some teenage punks. Most likely, these punks were middle schoolers like them.
These guys were forcing the long-haired little girl to give them her groceries and wristwatch. When she resisted, one punk, the red-haired one, grabbed the girl's bandaged left arm and forcefully slammed her against the wall, and went near her. Since the impact had put quite a pain on her body, she couldn't move much or resist.
"I told you, if you don't want to get hurt, you should just do what we want you to do," the red-haired punk said while grinning. His friends laughed at that.
And all of it was seen by Fuji and Momoshiro.
"That jerk! How dare he do that to such a young girl?" Momoshiro gritted his teeth because of what he had seen. And then he glanced at Fuji. "Fuji-senpai... What are we going to do to help her?"
But it stunned him to see a tennis racquet and a tennis ball in Fuji's hands. "F-Fuji-senpai... you brought a tennis racquet with you."
He just smiled at him. "Saa, I thought it might be helpful and come in handy." And in a flash, Fuji made a serve so powerful that it came so fast to the red-haired punk's face before he could touch the girl who was hurt for the second time.
All of the punks looked at the one who hit their friend's face with a tennis ball. Only to get surprised when Momoshiro made a service that almost hit one of the other punks' faces which made them scared out of their wits.
Momoshiro snapped his fingers and shook his head. He then tapped the tennis racquet on his palm. "Sorry about that. That was supposed to hit to your ugly faces but my hand slipped."
"If you don't want to get hurt any further, you should just do what we want you to do," Fuji said in an angry tone, warning those punks. "Leave the girl alone and get out of here! Take your friend with you, as well."
The red-haired punk stood up slowly and tried to grab the girl who could barely move and stand because of pain throbbing her. But before he managed to lay his hand on her, both Fuji and Momoshiro made another powerful serve... aiming to hit that punk. Thankfully, he managed to dodge it but the balls destroyed the three-layered plywoods on his back because of the service's power.
All of those punks ran away as fast as they could.
Both Momoshiro and Fuji sighed and went near the girl and her groceries which were scattered on the pavement. When they finished picking up the girl's things, they approached her.
"Are you okay?" Fuji asked the girl in a worried tone.
XXXXXX
'They're awesome! That was some tennis power they've demonstrated earlier,' Kourin could only think as she watched the two guys helping her pick up her things.
"Are you okay?" The guy with light brown hair and eyes closed, probably due to his weird smiling nature, asked her as he approached.
She could only nod. He smiled and helped her try to stand.
It was a good thing that the way she was slammed to the wall didn't affect her feet in some way. She managed to say "thank you" to him.
The other guy, who seemed to be his companion, gave her the groceries scattered earlier.
"Thank you very much, Oniisan-tachi." And then she bowed. "Sorry about the trouble."
Both of them smiled. "Don't worry about it. We just happened to pass by and then we saw you with those punks. By the way, I'm Fuji Syuusuke," the guy with light brown hair said.
"I'm Momoshiro Takeshi," the other guy said in a lively tone. "That guy better not had done worst to your hand. Are you hurt before this? Your left hand had bandaged in them."
Reluctance became evident in the girl's features, which piqued Fuji's interest. Could there be something more to that bandaged hand that she didn't want others to know?
"It doesn't matter that much." Kourin smiled and bowed. "My name's Shinomiya Kourin. Nice to meet you, Fuji-san, Momoshiro-san."
'Shinomiya? That's weird. I've heard that name from somewhere. Where have I heard that name before?' Fuji thought with a slight frown since the surname Shinomiya wasn't such a common surname for an ordinary person. 'Could this girl be...?' But then he chose to let that thought go away for now. "Nice to meet you, too."
Then she looked at her wristwatch, only to get surprised. "Eh?! It's five o'clock already?" She then glanced at Fuji and Momoshiro when she remembered something. "Now that you mention it, you two are the regulars of Seigaku Tennis Club. Am I right?"
"You know about us?" Kourin nodded.
"Then can we ask you one thing?" And then Fuji handed her a picture. Much to her surprise, it was Ryoma's picture. "Have you seen him here yesterday or today?"
It took her a few moments before she answered. "No. I'm sorry, but I haven't seen him. But if ever I see him and finds out where he is, I could give you a call."
The two guys agreed and gave her their numbers. And in return, Kourin guided them to a hotel there near that alley found in Beika City where they can stay for the night. She said goodbye and went home using a bus.
She hid the paper with Fuji's and Momoshiro's numbers and e-mail addresses written on it inside her bag. And then she sighed heavily because she lied to them about Ryoma and his whereabouts.
'But I have to do this. Until we couldn't find an answer to this case, I have to keep it a secret. I couldn't let Ryoma-niichan be involved in any more danger. So I'm sorry... Fuji-san... Momoshiro-san...'
And then she glanced outside the bus window.