Death In The Family 10

The Mouri's extended family knew something had gone wrong inside Hinata. While they didn't know what, they noticed the apparent changes she exhibited around them.

The woman had gone to apologize to every single woman in Kogoro's harem, but the way she expressed her apology seemed way too sincere, if that even made sense. Her words were heartfelt, and her tears really dropped from her puffy eyes, but they felt like they were watching a movie instead of interacting with a normal human being.

They also noticed her growing attachment to the boy, Conan, who they had painstakingly looked for when he went missing. The woman learned that Hinata had adopted the kid, and assumed the role of his mother even though they were all staying at the Mouri household. Again, her motherly behavior was so natural that it looked unnatural.

In essence, the woman called Hinata Yamashina was a shell of her former self, and it successfully dissuaded any resentment left from when she basically betrayed their man.

This afternoon, Rukia, Yuko, and Yoko came to the Mouri Detective Agency instead of to their workplace across the street. Ran and Velma were doing a follow up investigation on their first case, while Eri was taking Hinata and Conan to shop for her necessities now that the raven-haired woman had moved in with them. Miwako, meanwhile, was busy with the case from the hospital. The police were apparently stuck, and the only reason she had not asked Kogoro for help was because she was worried about his recovery.

'Which she shouldn't!' Kogoro mused in his mind.

Now, the RSTA core members had Kogoro deliver the verdict on whether or not Hinata could stay as one of their sisters. As they argued back and forth about the merit of having said woman inside their circle, Kogoro revealed the decision he had made prior.

"She's staying."

Before any of the three could object, Kogoro continued.

"I'll break down the reasons for you girls so that there won't be any ill-feelings between you. First…"

Like that, Kogoro extrapolated the situations as he knew them.

Vermouth had Hinata kill her own father in exchange for Conan's life. Not only that, the blonde assassin was lying the whole time, and Hinata had killed the man for nothing. All the guilt and stress made her snap, and what they saw now was basically just her body which was now living through autopilot.

But what made Kogoro accept Hinata's apology was anything but pity. It was the fact that he succeeded in taming one of the mid-tier boss characters in this world. He was aided by the Basic Psychedelic Card, true, but what mattered was the result; Vermouth was firmly on their corner now. She might not mesh well with the rest of his girls, but her addition to the team was extremely important. Kogoro made sure that all of the people inside the room understood what he meant by repeating it a few times.

"…So I pretty much planted myself as the number one person that she should please inside her mind. Now, we don't need to worry about Vermouth anymore. We still have to watch out for the B.O, of course, but Vermouth's on our side, and so does the Yamashina family."

Rukia, who was silently listening the whole time, finally opened her mouth. "Why would the Yamashina family be on our side? Unless…"

She left her words hanging, and Kogoro nodded, quite pleased by how quick she got it.

"Vermouth is a master of disguise. She was apparently ordered by the higher up of the organization to assume the identity of the Yamashina family head, Morita Yamashina." Seeing the light-bulbs inside the girls' minds lit up, Kogoro continued his explanation.

"We are lucky that we got her before she executed her plan, because if we didn't, we might never know that it was her disguised as Hinata's father. It could have been much, much worse."

The idol duo, who had a conversation by themselves chimed in at that.

Yuko asked, "How much worse?"

And Yoko added, "Why are the… Black Organization, was it? Why are they trying to replace Hinata-san's father?"

Kogoro sipped his coffee, and then replied. "Who knows? But I assume it has something to do with the drug that the Yamashina old man apparently developed underground. I haven't received an update from that woman yet, so I couldn't be sure. All I know was that they took Conan's blood to possibly perfect the drug."

As he was speaking, Kogoro stroked Rukia's left thigh as he leaned back on his seat. The woman in question was blushing red as she sat on his lap. He loved how smooth and supple her skin was. An idea suddenly popped up inside his mind, and the man smirked deviously. He grabbed the petite beauty and gently put her aside, off of his lap.

"So… I haven't thank you all yet. How about we skip all this stuff and go straight to the bedroom?"

Immediately, all the eyes of the women in the room zeroed in on the jutting spear in his pants, and like fireworks, they gained a bright hue on their cheeks. After looking at each other, they came to an agreement, and surrounded Kogoro with evil intentions plastered across their faces.

***

A few blocks away from the Mouri Detective Agency, a commotion happened in front of one of the houses there. Beside the parked Police Car, the plate at the fence showed the name 'Kazo'. A middle aged woman was sobbing uncontrollably as she failed to take another step into her house, while relatives and friends tried consoling her to no avail. She was too distraught by reality to even move.

Her husband, Kuno was killed just a few days ago, and now her son, Kubo was found dead in his high school's toilet. Not only did he die, the body's condition was so horrific that they did not let her and her eldest daughter see it for themselves in fear of traumatizing them further.

In front of the grieving mother, Officer Miwako finally could not bear it any longer.

'Surely he must be okay now!'

She opened her phone, and dialed the first number on her contact list.

[Mouri Detective Agency]

~To Be Continued~

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A/N: I couldn't sleep, even though I feel tired. I've been reading Q.E.D. Iff to study the style, but the cases in the series were so psychologically brutal they made me anxious.

Chapter 62 is up on patréon and ko-fi. Search for the username segalengko69 to support me there.

Big thanks to my patrons, Dragon_knight240, phil, and omar amurrio, and also to the loyal readers of KMPE.

Stay safe and healthy!

segalengko69