Clue To The Code

The next day, Seigaku Tennis Courts...

Though it was Saturday, the team decided to resume their practice on the available courts since they need to get ready for the Nationals. Only one court had crime scene tape surrounding it and they even asked permission from the police to practice in the available courts. Though the investigation hasn't reached any closure, Inspector Megure permitted the tennis regulars to use the other tennis courts. The needed evidence had been gathered but the crime scene wasn't considered cleared yet so it was still an ongoing investigation.

As for the three regulars that Shinichi called last night, they also went to practice and brought Kourin along. While walking in the direction of the school, Kourin was still trying her best to figure out the loophole in the code. Ryoma secretly gave a copy of the code to Fuji and Momoshiro to help the girl solve it after he learned that Kudo Shinichi gave each a call the three of them all in one night. What surprised the freshman more was the fact that Shinichi asked the same favor from Fuji and Momoshiro.

They went to tennis practice and acted normal like they weren't doing some thinking about finding the loophole in the killer's code. They might not be as smart as Kourin (or at least that's what Momoshiro and Ryoma thought) but they wanted to help the girl and protect her in any way they could.

After doing practice matches for a few hours (more than 3 hours, to be specific), Tezuka gave them a few minutes breaks. Of course, that was exactly the time Fuji, Momoshiro, and Ryoma were waiting for. They immediately approached the young girl who was sitting on a bench near the court. The other regulars found it weird but they decided not to disturb them... for now.

"It's already past 11 and we can't even figure it out," Momoshiro complained in a soft tone. He needed to do that or else, the others would do some snooping at them and interrogate them.

"I'm sorry. I don't know what had gotten to that mystery freak cousin of mine to call the three of you last night and asked to help me figure out the loophole of the code," Kourin said in an apologetic tone before chuckling. "Or I guess he figured out that all this puzzle-solving kind of whacking my brain."

"He probably did figure it out," Fuji said with a smile. But then he noticed that Ryoma wasn't speaking the entire time and the freshman was just looking at the code. "Echizen?"

Ryoma was startled when he heard that. He faced Kourin and his two senpais who were all looking at him.

"Are you alright, Ryoma-niichan? You look even more frustrated than I am," Kourin joked which made him smile gently at her.

Fuji and Momoshiro were surprised to see that smile on Ryoma's face. Not only them but also the other regulars who were observing the situation, as well. How could a little girl bring out Ryoma's gentle—and possibly even his boyish—side that easy by making a joke despite the crisis they were dealing with?

Ryoma ignored the surprised looks from his teammates and tapped Kourin's head gently. "Sorry, I just can't help being frustrated with all this, that's all."

"I guess I have to blame that mystery freak cousin of mine named Kudo Shinichi for making you feel something like that. Maybe I'll just ask Ran-neechan to beat him to a pulp when he comes back," she declared with annoyance visible on her face.

The three regulars laughed at her remarks.

Kourin decided to check on her watch but noticed that the colon between the two numbers (the two numbers being the hour and the minutes) wasn't blinking. It was an indication that her digital watch had stopped functioning somehow.

"Oh, yeah. I forgot to wipe this down after it got wet yesterday." And then she opened her backpack to look for something. "Good thing I brought extra battery for this."

A few seconds later, she found what she was looking for. She took off her watch and changed its batteries in a matter of minutes. It wasn't hard for her to do something like that since she was used to it. Once in a while, she would change her other watches' batteries without a fuss. When she turned on her watch, the colon started blinking again. But the time she saw a while back stopped functioning at 17:56. Her watch was actually in a 24-hour format so it was read as 17:56 instead of 5:56 PM. She just left it like that since she had no trouble reading time in a 24-hour format.

As she was about to reset the time on her watch, the regulars' practice resumed much to the reluctance of Ryoma, Momoshiro, and Fuji. Yes, even Fuji hesitated to practice at that time. Of course, Kourin sensed this which made her smile.

"I'll call your attention once I managed to figure out the loophole of the code," she said, though it wasn't enough for the 3 regulars to go with their practice. "Go before your captain makes you run laps."

With that, the three went to the courts while Kourin started to reset her digital wristwatch. As she kept pushing one of the reset buttons on the right, she was resetting the time backward. But then she froze at the sight of the time 17:17, just at the same time she remembered something related to what she saw...

-x-x-

-Flashback-

1 ½ months ago, Teitan Elementary...

Kourin was busy reading a book—an English novel with a romance-fantasy genre to be exact—when a boy approached her. She didn't think of it as weird since she started regaining her true self—her friendly, and cheerful self—after she was discharged from the hospital. Her number of friends started adding up—most likely acquaintance kind of friends—after all that commotion.

"Shinomiya-san, can you answer this?" the boy asked with a grin as he laid a piece of paper on her table.

She then put down her book before she looked at the paper. She frowned at the sight of 7, 0, the plus symbol, the equal symbol, and the word "MOON" written on it. She faced the boy who was grinning at her. She smirked inwardly. The boy probably didn't know that she already knew how 7 + 7 + 7 + 0 + 0 + 7 + 7 could form the word "MOON".

The truth was her brother once gave her the very same "code" to answer before when she was still in Florida.

And with that in mind, she took her pencil from her pen case and began writing the answer to the trick. She came up with an answer that put the 3 seven's close together—forming the small letter "m"—then the two zeroes that formed the two "o" followed by the last two seven's put close together once more to form the small letter "n".

After that, she gave the paper back to the boy who was eyeing the paper and then at her simultaneously—his eyes were opened wide. A small smirk appeared on her face as she resumed reading her book.

"Next time you showed a riddle to me like that, I'll make sure you won't only see stars in your head but you'll see the moon, as well. Got it?" she said nonchalantly without looking at the boy.

The next thing she knew, the boy walked away holding tight onto the piece of paper. She giggled when she saw that and realized that she must have scared the boy unconsciously.

"I guess I overdid that one, huh?" she mumbled as she continued to read her book.

"Overdid what?" a girl sitting on a seat on her right asked innocently. The girl must have heard Kourin mumble those words.

Kourin shook her head and smiled. "Nothing."

-End of Flashback-

-x-x-

"Don't tell me the same pattern applies to this code?" Kourin murmured that Ryoma managed to hear, making him face the said girl.

Though he knew Kourin was just resetting the digital wristwatch, something must have come up for her to look at the watch intently. He stopped in his tracks proceeding to the tennis court when he heard that. Fuji and Momoshiro sensed this so they, too, stopped in their tracks to look at Ryoma.

"Echizen, what's wrong?" Fuji asked, almost in a whisper.

Without looking, the freshman answered, "Something came up with Rin."

The two regulars immediately understood that so they faced Kourin who was busy writing something on a piece of paper.

Kourin wrote the pattern that she remembered and the time 17:17, as well.

'If the same trick applies to this code, then the two '17' would form two "n". But there isn't a word that had only two "n" so I still need another clue.' And then she noticed the colon. She frowned as she thought about something.

'What if... I do something with the colon?' She thought about it for a few seconds before she finally came up with an answer. 'If I flip the colon and place it horizontally, it would form two consecutive dits. Of course, I know he wouldn't just simply write it like that. There's something else to these two dots. And it could form two "o", as well. If that's the case, as I apply the trick to the code that the boy once made me see, then the time 17:17 meant... "NOON"!'

Upon coming up with that answer, her eyes widened, and faced the three regulars who were staring at her the whole time. "Ryoma-niichan, do you know what time is it?"

Though confused, he shook his head since he didn't have a watch. It was Oishi who gave her an answer.

"It's already 11:27 in the morning. But why are you asking for the time, Kourin-chan?"

"Damn it! We only got 30 minutes to save An-san?" she blurted out in her frustration before she pulled out her rollerskates from her backpack.

The regulars who hadn't started their practice heard the words that Kourin said. They exchanged confused glances at each other before looking at Fuji, Momoshiro, and Ryoma who they knew had an idea about the words that the young girl had spoken. Of course, the surprise was written all over their faces.

But before any of them could say something with regards to it, they saw the 3 aforementioned regulars place their rackets on the bench and followed Kourin. They had no idea what was going on but they knew it had something to do with the Fudomine captain's sister.

"Nya, Oishi, do you think we should follow them?" Eiji asked, his voice having hints of concern in them.

It didn't take long for the Seigaku's vice-captain to answer. "I think we should. I'm having a bad feeling about this." And then Oishi faced Tezuka. "What do you think, Tezuka?"

The Seigaku captain sighed before facing the direction that his teammates and Kourin went. "Let's go. Something tells me they're going to need some help."

Though it was quite unusual for Tezuka to agree on such a crucial issue, the rest of them understood why. With that, they left the courts and decided to follow Kourin and the others to reach Fudomine as fast as they could!