Fallen Angel 15

Kogoro’s recovery was fast; even faster than he himself expected. His list of injuries were extensive; from the multiple bone fractures, the laceration on his skins, the cuts and gouges on his back, and of course the brain trauma he suffered from the repeated blows to the back of his head. But none of those things kept him from moving for long.

The night he was unconscious in the hospital, except for Miwako who was summoned by the Inspector to investigate the second bombing of the week, all of his women stayed by his side. When Kogoro finally woke up early in the morning, he was greeted by the teary-eyed Yoko, Yuko, and Rukia. Eri, Ran and Velma were nowhere to be seen. The oldest of the three present went to call the doctor handling his sorry ass, while Kogoro had to somehow calm the two crying idols down.

When Rukia returned, she was accompanied by two nurses and a female doctor who he remembered as the one Miwako got when he blacked out before. He did not know why, but he felt like he saw her face even before that.

Then, the doctor introduced herself while checking his vitals. “Hello, Mouri-san. My name is Narumi Asai, and I’m the doctor in charge of you.”

She- or rather he, was the future serial killer Seiji Asou! Kogoro felt the tip of his mustache twitch like crazy during the whole examination. Dr. Narumi asked him a few questions, before telling the nurse to be on standby in case something happened with Kogoro. The doctor exclaimed to the worried mistresses of the detective that his recovery rate was outstanding, and they did not need to be worried.

After Narumi left, Kogoro found out from Rukia that she could not reach Hinata through her phone. Even worse, Ran told her that she could not find Conan anywhere!

All of this made his mustache, which had calmed down, started twitching even crazier than before.

‘There must be something wrong for me to be this worried. Still, I don’t even know who sets up the bomb above Hinata’s living room.’ As he was thinking, Rukia got a call from Miwako. Apparently, the forensics were telling her that there were more explosives at the crime scene than they were expecting. If all of them blew out, the whole building could have collapsed. Thankfully, the majority of the bombs were duds.

She also revealed that the police had put greater emphasis on the security cameras outside and inside the building this time around. The result was two possible suspects, who interestingly enough used to work for the Katou brothers.

Yoko’s face paled at that piece of information. Yuko, seeing her ‘sister’ was shook, extended a hand and grabbed the sweaty palm of Yoko. While they comforted each other, Kogoro’s head was throbbing not only from the previous injury, but also from how the situation got worse and worse the more time he wasted laying on the bed.

As Kogoro agonized on how he was supposed to move, Rukia’s phone rang again. Seeing the name on the screen, her forehead creased, and went outside of the room to take the call.

“Who is that, I wonder?” Yuko questioned, not expecting any answer; but she received one from Kogoro.

“I might be wrong, but I think that was Hinata.” Hearing this, the two actresses were sharing a look that told him they got the reason why Rukia took the call outside, without him saying anything about it.

As he expected, Yuko was about to explode, but fortunately, Yoko was there to douse her fire of fury. Among his lovers, Yuko was definitely the one with the worst temper. Only god knew what she would have said to Hinata if they were to meet again.

Thankfully, the three did not have to wait for long, as Rukia came back just a moment later. But Kogoro couldn’t tell whether that was a good thing or a bad thing, because her expression right now was calm.

Too calm.

Almost like someone who was about to explode.

So Kogoro did the only thing he knew would be effective.

He pulled the petite woman into his embrace. Wincing at the pain from his yet healed ribs, Kogoro patted and stroked Rukia on her back. Flushing at his sudden move, the black-haired woman then let out a tiny smile, happy at the affectionate gesture from her man. She looked at his face, the bandages on his head failed to hide his charming features, and leaned her own face closer to give Kogoro a peck…

Only for their moment to be interrupted by the other two in the room.

“Kogoro-san!”

“Rukia-nee!”

The flushed Rukia fled Kogoro’s arms so fast, he swore he could hear someone yelling shunpo! in the background. Kogoro rubbed his bandaged head, and thought, ‘As I thought, getting buried under the ceiling of a room is not good for my brain.’

Then, Kogoro waved his hand to the three to stop squabbling. “Rukia, who was the one calling you before?”

Hearing his question, the quarreling trio finally stopped, and Rukia was suddenly surrounded by three inquisitive gazes. She felt her stomach churning, then answered while looking down on her feet.

“That woman… Yamashina-san called me… She told me that she wanted to talk to you, but I refused her request. I’m sorry, Kogoro-san!” She looked up when she apologized, so Kogoro knew that Rukia was genuine with her apology.

Still, he needed to talk to Hinata, so Kogoro asked Rukia for her phone. She looked sad, until she felt his hand briefly stroking her head.

Rukia handed the phone, and Kogoro fumbled with the strange interface for a minute, before he successfully made a call.

‘Damable Android custom skin!’ Kogoro cursed in his mind as he waited.

After a click signaling the other party picked up, Kogoro spoke to the speaker. “Hinata?”

A murmur answered him, and Kogoro immediately asked her, “Where are you now? And where’s Conan!?”

Silence momentarily greeted him, then Hinata uttered that the thing he feared happened.

Vermouth had Conan as a hostage, and the only things the blonde left as clues were a picture and a word.

But then, Kogoro’s mustache twitched so fast, it looked like the wings of a hummingbird. That was because the picture was something he saw before!

The picture consisted of a series of signs that the Boss of the Italian Mafia, Dino Cavane used as a map to show where the maple leaf gold coins he hid were located.

Still, the word that Vermouth left them was not ‘oro’. It was not even Conan.

The word was ‘candi’.

A word that he was not aware of its meaning.

And that one word just made his knowledge of canon as useful as a chocolate teapot!

~To Be Continued~