At the Yoshida residence (Ayumi's house)...
The Detective Boys, minus Haibara and Kourin (again), decided to stay at Ayumi's house. Conan went to the police station earlier. But then, Detective Takagi and Detective Satou said that they didn't have any clue at all about how to solve the code. But they were trying their best to solve it to close the case as early as they can.
In addition to this, Conan was having a weird feeling about Kourin. Usually, when it comes to cracking codes, Kourin was the one who was enthusiastic about solving them. That was why they've always solved some of the murder cases with codes at the earliest possible time. But when he showed her the codes that Ares wrote, he didn't mind but then he saw her sigh wistfully. It was like she already had an idea on how to solve it... or she knew the answer to the code itself and the answer made her remember something.
'But if that's the case, Rin should've mentioned it to me. She always does that whenever she had an idea on how to solve the codes. Unless... she wanted me to solve the code by myself.' That was the only plausible he could come up with about Kourin's activities in this case. And with that, he looked at the coded message for the eighth time already since he arrived at Ayumi's house.
"Conan-kun, aren't you getting tired of looking at that paper?" Genta asked tiredly.
"Yeah. You've been looking at it for how many times. Aren't you going to do something more to solve it?" Even Mitsuhiko asked him in the same manner.
But it seemed that he didn't hear it. He was too focused on looking at the paper that he didn't even notice Ayumi handing him a piece of paper and a marker. If the girl hasn't pinched him on the cheeks hard, his attention wouldn't stop focusing on the paper.
"Ow!" he exclaimed. And then he rubbed his cheek that Ayumi pinched. "What was that for?"
"You're becoming too focused on the codes that you've forgotten about us," Ayumi said placidly. Then she gave the paper and the marker to Conan. "I couldn't find a pen so I thought the marker would do."
He smiled and everyone gathered at the table. Everyone gave out their ideas on how to solve it but it seemed that none of them worked.
It had already taken them two hours but they couldn't come up with an answer. Genta could only complain because he was hungry. Mitsuhiko tried to solve it in any way that he knew how but it didn't help and Ayumi could only look at Conan worriedly.
Conan, on the other hand, was becoming frustrated already because, at this point, he couldn't think of a way to decipher the code.
'What the heck is this code? No, I can't figure it out. I know it's his last message but I couldn't figure out who or what it pertains to.'
Ayumi took one of the coded papers and looked at it.
"But you know, I think this isn't a message at all. If it is also a coded message, then it should have been written in the same way as the first one," she just said while looking at the paper.
Conan then suddenly glanced at Ayumi who was holding the paper. 'It isn't a message at all? Then that means...' He looked at the coded message in his notebook. Then it struck him when he took the paper to Ayumi. 'Wait a minute... There are standing lines that separate the symbols and the letters. He only put the lines after a character and a letter. If that's the case, then these second codes are... guides!' He thought triumphantly as he took another piece of paper and the marker placed on the table.
"Now I get it! Thank you so much, Ayumi-chan."
The three kids became confused with what Conan said but then, they just kept quiet and let him do the code-deciphering.
It took him about five minutes before he finished changing the characters and symbols into their corresponding letters. But then, the result wasn't exactly what they had expected it to be.
Though it was written in the English alphabet, they still couldn't make meaning out of it.
'How come? The letters are exactly placed where their corresponding symbols are. I even checked it thrice. Then why did it come out like this?' Conan could only say in his mind frustratingly as he looked at the result.
"Conan-kun, are you sure this is the right code that Ares wrote?" Mitsuhiko asked, he was also frustrated but it wasn't obvious.
Conan nodded. "I copied the exact code right down to the punctuation marks used. I never did any changes or arrangements to it."
"Then why is it that we couldn't even make any meaning or word out of it?" Genta asked, now standing and opening the window just behind him. "Now I'm even hungrier than I was a minute ago."
"You are always hungry, Genta-kun. And stop complaining about you being hungry. We are solving a case that would help Ryoma-niichan and Rin-san," Ayumi suddenly blurted out which made the three boys quiet.
Genta lowered his head and apologized. "I'm sorry."
And then all of a sudden, a gust of wind entered the house and blew the paper with the result of the code from the table. The paper landed half a foot below a standing mirror placed near the bedroom.
Mitsuhiko and Genta closed the window and Ayumi picked up the scattered papers on the floor. Conan immediately looked for the paper with the result of the code.
When he was about to get the paper that he was looking for, he noticed the reflection of the paper on the standing mirror. As Conan was looking at the reflection carefully, he suddenly remembered what Kourin said about the code just this morning when she took a good look at it.
~"All I can say is the arrow that was placed there probably indicated that the code had to be read backward. That's what the RB should mean, I think..."~
And then he picked up the paper and raised it facing the mirror. His eyes widened because he now saw what his cousin meant about the code. 'Now I know what you mean, Rin!'
Conan rushed to the table and took another piece of paper and the marker.
"Conan-kun, what's wrong?"
"Have you figured out the code?"
He didn't answer but he continued to rewrite the code in the same order as what he saw in front of the mirror a while ago. All the letters were placed in the right order, even the punctuation marks used.
And when he was finished, he began to read it only to get surprised to see the outcome of the code.
The answer was written like this:
FIND ZEUS.
HE WAS THE ONE WHO KILLED THE SHINOMIYA FAMILY.
IT WAS HADES WHO WANTED ME DEAD.
SAVE THE SURVIVING TULIP AND THE SAMURAI JUNIOR.
'Surviving tulip? Samurai Junior?' Conan could only ask himself since he wasn't sure what Ares was talking about with his code.
"Is this another code for us?" Mitsuhiko asked disappointed.
He shook his head. All of a sudden, he remembered something that his father said a while ago while telling him about Kourin's past.
~"This is the only way we know so we could protect your cousin, who is the last surviving tulip. I'm sorry is we kept it a secret even from you..."~
Conan couldn't help but feel sad for Kourin. His cousin had been through a lot. And his parents knew how hard it was for her to keep it.
"Conan-kun, what does the code mean by 'surviving tulip' and 'Samurai Junior'?" Ayumi inquired as she also looked at the answer to the coded message.
"Is it some sort of symbol?
"Nope." And then Conan placed the paper on the table and looked at the three kids. "It is the nicknames of the two people that they are currently targeting and it's already somebody we already know."
"I don't get it at all," Genta said. "And who is this 'Zeus' and 'Hades', anyway?"
"Zeus and Hades are two of the members of the Dark Rose Agency. Zeus is the leader and Hades is his right-hand man and at the same time is the secondary leader. But that's according to their profiles I've read when I was at Hakase's house a while ago."
"But what does the code mean by 'surviving tulip' and 'Samurai Junior'?" Ayumi confusingly asked. "If it is the nicknames of somebody we knew, then—"
"It was talking about Rin and Ryoma-niichan," Conan said. "The 'surviving tulip' mentioned was referring to Rin since the flower emblem of the Shinomiya family happened to be the purple tulip—the flower which means royalty. It also meant nobility, strength, passion, and love. And Ryoma-niichan was nicknamed 'Samurai Junior' because of his tennis skills that nearly matched his father who was once called 'Samurai Nanjiroh' when he was still a professional tennis player."
"Is that so?" Ayumi could only say.
Mitsuhiko and Genta then looked at the paper with the answer to the code.
"Then the reason why Rin-san was always sad..."
"...was because her family was killed a year ago. Is that it, Conan-kun?" Mitsuhiko finished Genta's sentence.
Conan sadly nodded. Then he folded the paper and put it in his pocket. After that, his cellphone rang.
The call was from Professor Agasa.
"Hakase, what's wrong?"
"Shinichi, have you already solved the code?" the professor asked.
"Well, we're just finished decoding it. But why are you asking this, hakase? I could've given you the answer since we'll be going there right now."
"Your parents wanted to see you right now. Ryoma-kun decided that he has to go back home when the antidote had taken effect. They thought that you might still have some questions about this case, so they wanted to know if you want to come along with him."
He went silent for a moment. Then he subconsciously touched his pocket where the answer to the code was placed.
"Conan-kun, what's wrong?" Mitsuhiko asked worriedly.
'Rin has gone this far to protect Echizen-kun from the same danger she's dealing with. And I will go even further to help her live a normal life like she has been before the tragedy took everything away from her. I'm not going to stop now!'
He sighed and then said, "I'll go with him. I know Rin would want me to do that. She was protecting Echizen-kun ever since she found him; that's why I have to do the same thing. In a way, I know he became so special to her that she would do everything she can to end this."
"Shinichi..." Professor Agasa muttered. And then Conan heard him sigh. "Alright then. You have to come here now. Ryoma-kun had already taken in the antidote three minutes ago. We just have to wait for sixteen hours for it to take effect."
"Okay, I will." Conan turned off his cellphone and placed it in his pocket.
He faced the three kids. "We need to go to hakase's house right now. Ryoma-niichan might need our help in some way."
The kids nodded and followed Conan.