Coded Melody

The next day…

Just like how it was the first time the murder was committed, it was a media frenzy. Several news networks made the recent murder their top news since it was done brutally—only a cold-blooded killer could do such a horrible thing. The police couldn't do anything to locate the culprit with little evidence they had so far.

And to think this was already the fourth time the culprit murdered someone. But thanks to that, they now had an idea of the main target of the culprit.

The target: A middle schooler who was a member of a tennis club. By far, the culprit wasn't targeting tennis regulars but he was targeting those who were having late-night practices. For this reason that the police told the media, every middle school in Tokyo was asked not to have late-night practices. Of course, not all schools heeded the police's warning but there were still more who were cautious and decided to follow orders.

One of those schools was Seishun Gakuen.

All of them heard/watched the news about the recent murder. No one could tell the culprit's motive for doing such a thing but they concluded one thing about all this.

The murderer held a heavy grudge toward the middle school students who were a part of the tennis club. The intensity of his grudge could be seen by just how brutal he killed his victims who couldn't even fight back. Whatever was the root of the culprit's grudge, no one could tell.

Meanwhile, at Teitan Elementary School, the last periods for Grade 1-B and Grade 4-C were just about finished and the Detective Boys decided to play some games after class at the park. But Kourin and Haibara decided not to participate that day.

"I'm sorry. I have to head home early to finish something," Kourin said apologetically to the other kids.

"But why? Is it urgent?" Ayumi asked.

Kourin nodded before smiling. "I'm sorry about this, Ayumi-chan. Agasa-hakase still has something to do later at 6:00 so I have to hurry home to finish what I had to do before that."

"Is it your project again?" Mitsuhiko then asked, disappointment was evident on his face.

But she just shook her head. "No. I'll have a lot of free time after exams for me to do my project. But I need to ask for the professor's help for me to complete it."

"Is that so?"

They continued walking on the sidewalk of that mall when suddenly, both Kourin and Conan's attention was caught by a piece of very disturbing news that they saw on TV.

"The 'Tennis Court Serial Killer' had struck yet again, with him already leaving four brutally murdered victims for the past 2 weeks. The same pattern he did to kill another middle school student was used. Just like before, a mini-CD was placed on the victim's lap with a melody recorded in it. But the police admitted that they're having a hard time figuring out what it means. They knew it was a message, according to Megure-keibu of the Metropolitan Police Department's First Division…"

Those words that the reporter stated made Kourin stop to her tracks and decided to listen to the news further. When the other kids noticed this, they too decided to do what Kourin was doing. They were watching it from one of the TVs displayed near the window glass of the establishment.

This time, they saw the reporter interviewing Inspector Megure.

"Megure-keibu, are there any other clues left by the killer to help you solve this series of brutal murders of the middle school students?" one of the reporters on the TV asked.

"The murder remained to be relatively the same if we're going to base it on the first three murders. It was easy enough for us to conclude that it was the same person who did this fourth murder because of the very same clues he left along with the victim. Now with regards to the melody recorded in the mini-CD, we knew it held some sort of message in it. But until now, we're doing our best to figure out what message lies in it," Inspector Megure (in the interview) calmly answered.

But then the kids saw the portly inspector enraged upon hearing a melody. Though it was faint and with the distraction of the reporters' voices from the scene of the interview, Kourin heard it loud and clear. Unknown to many people (except her cousin), she can isolate different sound waves from each other.

As she tried concentrating on what was listening to, she was then struck with something when she heard the incomplete melody since the inspector ordered the officer to turn off the player where the mini-CD was probably placed.

"Hell of fire will spread again as you enter my vengeance's den…" 'What the heck does the killer mean by that?' She thought in distress that Conan noticed and made him feel worried for her.

For the past 2 months after the Dark Rose incident, this was the first time after that event that Conan saw the distressed expression of his cousin again.

"Oi, Rin, what's wrong?" he couldn't help but ask.

But he got no answer from her which made the other kids worried for her. Before any of them could say something, they saw Kourin take something from her jacket pocket. Much to their confusion, it was her cellphone.

"Pick it up… Pick it up… Pick it up…" Kourin mumbled as if in a hurry as she waited for the person on the other line to pick up the phone and answer it. She sighed fast in relief upon hearing someone say "hello" from the other line. "Hakase, it's Kourin. I might not be able to make it there early today."

Of course, that statement made the other kids surprised.

"But why, Rin-san? Aren't you supposed to finish something?" Ayumi asked despite her confusion.

But the said fourth-grader didn't say anything and just waited for the professor to answer back.

"But I thought the invention we're working on should be finished today. And you know that I'm leaving at 6 later tonight. What seems to be the reason for you to cancel it?" Professor Agasa inquired, making Kourin heave a sigh. Her action was enough for the professor to realize that something was wrong.

"I'm going to talk to Megure-keibu about something important," Kourin said seriously. "It's about the recent tennis court serial murders."

Though surprised, the others—particularly Conan and Haibara—could finally understand why she suddenly made such a decision. It took a while for the professor to say something after Kourin said something so serious.

"Hakase?"

"Alright, then. I'll inform Megure-keibu about your intention to visit. But be sure to go home as early as you can. Yuusaku and Yukiko would kill me if something bad happen to you again."

Kourin smiled upon hearing that. "Thank you, Hakase. Don't worry. I'll do as you say." With that, she ended the phone call and faced her friends. "I'm sure you'll go with me so let's go before it gets too late."

The rest of the Detective Boys headed to the Metropolitan Police Department along with Rin. Unbeknownst to them, the coded music would only lead them to another danger that they must face head-on.

-x-x-

Metropolitan Police Department…

"Keibu, there are kids who wanted to see you. They said it's quite important so I let them in here," a police officer informed Inspector Megure that making the said person raise his head from whatever he was reading at the moment.

"That must be them. You can let them go here."

The officer obliged and after a few moments, the Detective Boys entered the office. Like what Professor Agasa had stated to Kourin earlier, it would appear that Inspector Megure had anticipated the kids' arrival.

"Conan-kun! Maa, it was a surprise for you to be here at this hour when you're supposed to be going home and doing your homework," the inspector jokingly scolded to the kids.

Kourin could only smile at that while Conan laughed weakly and a bit forced.

"I'm sorry for that, Megure-keibu," Kourin said which changed the said person's focus from Conan to her.

"Ah, it's okay. Agasa-hakase did say that you have something to tell me about the tennis court serial murders. But for a kid to say something as crucial as that, I don't know."

"It's the coded melody," Kourin replied. "The killer left a message in it and if you're careful enough to listen and decode it, you'll be able to figure out what he wanted to say to you."

What she said made the inspector face the girl. What he saw gave him a bit of a surprise, though. Kourin had a grave expression on her face that he saw only once—during the case about the Dark Rose Agency 2 months ago. It wasn't a surprise for him to know that Kourin was as extremely smart as Conan (since he heard from Professor Agasa and Kudo Yuusaku that those two kids were cousins) despite her young age of 9. A few months from now—to be specific, December 25—she would be turning 10. But for her to decode the melody—

Wait a minute! How did she decode it anyway?

Seemingly clear enough to read the inspector's mind, Conan answered his unspoken question.

"I think Rin managed to decode parts of the music when we watched your interview a while back. An officer accidentally played the music in the CD player where the mini-CD was placed, right?"

Despite the confusion, Inspector Megure nodded. Conan continued.

"Even though it's faint and with many voices speaking in the background, Rin managed to hear it. She can isolate different sound waves from each other, making her able to distinguish the different sounds in one environment. She had that ability at that age although it wasn't fully developed yet."

"I only heard parts of it, just until the part before you ordered the officer to turn off the CD player," Kourin added. "Keibu-san, would it be alright if I hear the rest of the music?"

Inspector Megure only looked at the determined fourth grader's face for a while. For Kourin, it was obvious that the man was having doubts as to whether he would do what she had asked or decline it.

'I guess I have no choice but to do this.' After taking a deep breath, she started speaking. "'Hell of fire will spread again as you enter my vengeance's den…' That's the message hidden in the first part of the music accidentally played in the interview earlier. Though I stated it in Japanese, the original code was stated in English."

"Could it be that the culprit is a foreigner?" Genta speculated.

"Not necessarily. It could be anyone fluent in English and knowledgeable about music," Conan said before facing Kourin. "Rin, could it be that you decoded that music by making each key on the piano a letter starting from the left?"

She nodded. Then she remembered something. "You encountered this kind of decoding system before, right?"

"Yeah. But the music that I encountered at that time was slower than this since it's classical music and it was written in music sheets. But I'm amazed that you managed to read the code without the help of the music sheets. I couldn't hear the song properly when I was listening to it on TV."

'That's because I was trained to listen to this kind of music, Shin-nii… especially those that have hidden messages in them…' But Kourin decided against telling him about that. She just smiled at him.

"I see," Inspector Megure could only say. He, too, knew what Kourin and Conan were talking about. "If that's the case, then I'll let you come with me."

Both Conan and Kourin exchanged a surprising look before nodding and then they followed the inspector to wherever he would take them. A few moments later, they reached a certain room where some of the evidence from the serial murder were laid. All of it was covered in plastic bags used in safeguarding evidence to prevent contamination.

"This must be the layout room," Kourin said in a soft tone as she looked around the place.

They suddenly stopped walking when they saw Inspector Megure taking something from one of the laid evidence on the table. After wearing a pair of gloves, Inspector Megure placed the mini-CD in the CD player and waited for it to load and play. Knowing what was about to happen, the other kids and some officers who were there in that room—that includes Detective Satou and Detective Takagi—went quiet and intently listened and observed the events.

Like what Conan said, Kourin decoded the music code the way he stated it since the music was played on a piano. Conan and Inspector Megure also tried to decode the music in their minds. Though the music was played a little fast, they managed to do so. But as it continuously played, the three of them—even Haibara after analyzing the music and how it should be decoded—were shocked upon realizing the message lying hidden within that beautiful music.

"He's telling us his next target," Haibara subconsciously murmured in surprise.

The other three kids were surprised to hear that. Detective Satou and Detective Takagi approached Haibara as they heard what she said.

"How can you be so sure about that?" Detective Satou asked.

"She's telling the truth," Inspector Megure said after the music was played. Conan was gritting his teeth with his fist clenched tightly to his side. Kourin was frowning while massaging her right temple.

It would appear that listening and decoding the message of the music code became too much for her mind to bear.

"Rin-san, are you alright?" Mitsuhiko asked concerningly.

Kourin heard it and she nodded before forcing a smile on her face. But it was just for a while. Her face turned serious again.

"Ne, Rin-san, what does Ai-chan mean when she said that the killer was telling us his next target?" Ayumi asked despite the slight fear she could sense in the young girl's voice.

Even though Ayumi had been to this kind of situation a lot of times, it was still evident that it didn't help any of those kids (except Conan and Haibara, of course) to conquer that fear. Kourin understood that.

"Ai-chan was telling the truth. I guess she managed to decode it, as well. The killer told us through this coded music about his next target. But no specific person was mentioned in his code—only the location where he would kill his next target."

"What did the code say?" Detective Takagi inquired, causing him to receive glares from Detective Satou and Inspector Megure. But it was obvious that he was unmindful about it. He was intently looking at both Conan and Kourin as he was waiting for one of the kids to answer his question.

The black-haired fourth-grader sighed before she spoke. " 'Hell of fire will spread again as you enter my vengeance's den. Silver moon, enlighten me in full as I end their journey with my tool. My next target, I shall now reveal. 'Tis where the samurai forged his sword's steel.' That's what the code says. But…" her voice trailed off as she frowned again as if she tried to think about the aforementioned riddle.

" 'Where the samurai forged his sword's steel'? So he's targeting a swordsmith now?" Mitsuhiko mumbled that they still heard.

"No, he's not. He's only targeting middle school students who happened to be a member of the tennis club. He wasn't killing random people for this purpose. But the last phrase… There must be something to it that we have to figure out. After all, it's a location, right?" Conan said and then he looked at Kourin. "But the problem now is where could be the location he mentioned in the code. 'Where the samurai forged his sword's steel…'"

"It could be a school where a son or daughter of a known swordsman was studying and who happened to be a tennis player," Ayumi suggested which the other kids (Genta and Mitsuhiko) agreed.

'Known swordsman… who happened to be a tennis player?' Kourin's eyes widened when she realized something from what Mitsuhiko said. 'Don't tell me… he's going after that school?'

"Oi, Rin! What's wrong?" Conan inquired upon seeing his cousin's facial expression. By the looks of it, her face could tell something that wasn't good.

"There's only one school here in Tokyo that I know so far where a samurai resides," Kourin uttered despite her surprise upon realizing something.

"Where a samurai resides?" Conan's eyes widened upon immediately realizing the answer. "You couldn't mean…!"

Kourin nodded gravely as an answer. It would appear that both of them reached the same conclusion—a terrifying conclusion.

"The killer's next target will be from Seigaku Tennis Club."

As expected, everyone in that room was surprised to hear that.

'I guess my friends there will be facing another danger. Ryoma-niichan, Momo-chan, Fuji-san… Kami-sama, keep them safe…'

-x-x-

The same day, Echizen residence, 9:30 p.m.

Ryoma was in his room for the past 2 hours since he got home and had dinner and to be honest, he was bored big time. There was supposed to be a late-night practice for another upcoming tennis tournament even though the Nationals were over. He anticipated all that but then he guesses he couldn't help it. Middle school students who happened to be members of the tennis club were being targeted by still an unknown serial killer. Tezuka and Coach Ryuzaki didn't want something like that to happen to the rest of the Seigaku Tennis Club—regulars and non-regulars alike. Even he would fear something like that since he hadn't fully recovered from the trauma he received during the Dark Rose case.

There would come a night that he couldn't fully sleep because of recurring nightmares with regards to the incident. Truthfully, he managed to go on since there was something that helped him at least forget the fear he felt from that time.

Upon remembering that, he sat up from his bed and peered at the study table where the item that calmed him down was placed. A smile—a gentle smile, not the usually confident and cocky one—carved his face as soon as he laid his eyes on the item. He then stood up and went near the study table to have a closer look. He sat on the chair in front of the table.

Beside the table lamp placed there was an expensive-looking music box.

According to Kourin, it was her favorite music box since her brother Hitoshi gave it to her on her 5th birthday. She gave it to him after Kourin got discharged from the hospital. Of course, at first, he didn't accept it since he learned that the item came from Hitoshi but she insisted. She said that her dead brother would be very happy if she handed that music box to him. And it also appeared that she predicted something about his recurring nightmares so she said that he should open the music box to let the song play.

Though he wasn't feeling anything ominous at the moment, he opened it and let the music play.

He wasn't fond of having a music box but that particular music box somehow worked like a charm to him. It did calm him down and ease his fears after waking from nightmares. But at that point, he just wanted to play it and allowed his mind to travel somewhere.

But before he could do so, a cat's meow woke him up from his trance. When he looked down, he saw Karupin meowing as the music continued to play. Then Karupin jumped to his lap and meowed again.

"I guess you miss Rin, huh?" Ryoma said as he continued to stroke his cat's fur. Karupin meowed as if it was answering his master's question. "Me, too. I wonder how she is. It's been 2 months since then."

But then Ryoma chose to listen to the music played in the music box. And just like before, it never failed to calm him down—just like what Kourin had promised to him when she handed the music box to him. With the thought of that girl, he pulled one drawer open and took something from there.

It was a picture frame.

He smiled when he saw the picture of him and Kourin in that frame. It was taken during Doctor Yanai Shinichiro and Doctor Akira Shouda's wedding celebration. Besides him and Kourin, the Detective Boys and the Seigaku Regulars were in that picture, too. But his feline-like eyes were focused more on him and Kourin. Her smile had life on it the last time he saw it from her. It wasn't a sad and painful smile anymore. She probably had come to terms with her family's untimely and gruesome deaths. According to her, she did… right after she saved him from being shot by that Dark Rose sniper.

Remembering that incident again made him sigh. 'I guess I'll never be able to forget all that, huh?' Ryoma thought and decided to stand up to go to bed so he wouldn't oversleep again. But for some weird reason, Karupin suddenly moved and jumped on his head startling him. With that sudden action, he inadvertently dropped that picture frame he was holding that surprised him most.

When Karupin finally left his master, Ryoma immediately crouched down to check on the picture frame. Disappointment… and unnamed fear ran through him when he saw that the glass had a crack on it—two cracks, to be specific. He saw where the two centers of those cracks were located—one on Kourin's face and the other on Kikumaru's face. He couldn't tell why but this told him something about those two people.

Something foreboding and probably inevitable…

'I just hope nothing dangerous happens again.'

He wasn't the type of person who believed in premonitions but this particular feeling he was having right now made him want to do otherwise. But he would continuously hope that nothing dangerous of some sort would occur to his friends again…

…especially to Kourin.

'Stay safe, Rin.'