Meeting Again

Since the regulars knew they couldn't practice until the afternoon because of the murder, they just decided to head to Kawamura's sushi shop instead. The freshmen trio decided to tag along, as well, even Sakuno and Tomoka. After packing up and getting their tennis bags, they all headed to their destination. The police requested the principal to suspend the students' classes for the day for them to investigate the case without further commotion. That was why the students already went home or to wherever they just felt like going.

But as they headed towards the school gate, the regulars still couldn't help but let out their curiosity about the current situation.

"I can't believe I would see something like that first hand. And right here at our school, at that," Momoshiro commented.

"Yeah. Despite our warnings to the students, the serial killer managed to kill one of our members," Oishi said, slightly shaking his head.

"But no matter how much we warm them, I guess the killer's just that determined to kill his targets. It's a relief he wasn't targeting regulars even though it's still bad to think of it as such. But still, this is too much for us," Fuji added in another serious tone. "And that flower on the court... It surely means something, that much I could tell. The courts were clean when we left it yesterday."

"What flower?" Kaidoh asked.

"An orange lily," Fuji answered. "I'm not sure what it was for but I have a bad feeling about it."

"But that doesn't mean it came from the killer, right? I mean, the CD was the only item left near the bodies, right?" Eiji inquired, still hoping that whatever Fuji said wouldn't add another confusing puzzle piece to the murders.

"The police don't disclose full information of the case to the media, especially if there is evidence that shouldn't be made known to the public. That way, they could prevent anyone from copying the method of the culprit to commit similar crimes," Inui stated while scribbling some notes in his notebook.

"But no matter where you put it, it's still scary seeing something like that," Katsuo commented. Of course, the other two freshmen agreed.

But they soon noticed that one particular freshman's mind wasn't focused on their conversation at all.

"Echizen, what's wrong?" Kawamura asked in a concerned tone followed by lightly gripping Ryoma's shoulder to catch his attention.

Of course, the action caught Ryoma surprised that made him face Kawamura. When he looked at the others, he saw the concerned looks on all of his senpai's faces, even from his fellow freshmen. He shook his head to somehow answer the question even though he didn't hear it.

Their faces spoke it to him, anyway.

"I was just thinking... on how Rin and Edogawa-kun would think about this one," he said before proceeding ahead.

"Rin? You mean the kid who got shot 2 months ago?" Horio carelessly asked which made him earn a smack on the head from Tomoka and several glares from the regulars. Horio laughed nervously upon seeing that.

"Now that you mention it, those two kids have very curious minds. And I have to say they're really smart for their age," Momoshiro said with a smile upon remembering the black-haired fourth-grade girl from the Dark Rose case 2 months ago.

Fuji agreed to what the junior power player said.

Besides Ryoma who met Kourin through chance, Fuji and Momoshiro were considered to be connected to the 9-year-old girl.

"Nya! I wish I could see Kourin-chan again. I want to see her cute face. She's like a doll, you know. A very cute doll, nya!" Eiji said which earned him laughs from his teammates.

But as they walked further, Ryoma was sure he heard someone mention a familiar name. Not just him. Fuji and Momoshiro heard it, as well. Even though it wasn't said out loud, they were pretty sure.

"Oi, Rin, that's enough! What's wrong with you?"

'I know that voice! And he mentioned "Rin", right? Could it be...?' Ryoma immediately thought before deciding to look where the voice came from. Much to his surprise, he saw six familiar kids resting underneath the big tree. He saw Kourin simultaneously hitting her head with her hands as if she was frustrated of some sort.

"Are you alright?" Sakuno couldn't help but ask the black-haired girl.

Almost immediately, Kourin stopped what she was doing. So were the other kids and then they faced the person who said that. Their faces lit up upon seeing the regulars and some of the familiar people from Seigaku.

Before anyone could stop Eiji, he ran towards Kourin and carried her around before hugging her tight.

Though surprised, Kourin managed to appreciate the gesture and she smiled as she let out a giggle. Conan was glad that someone managed to make Kourin smile since he knew his cousin was beginning to become gloomy for some reason related to the case.

"Nya! I can't believe it! I just said a while back that I want to see Kourin-chan again and then all of a sudden, you're here. Nyaa! I'm so happy!" Eiji said with a wide smile, evident that he couldn't contain his happiness.

Kourin laughed at that. The regulars smiled at the sight before saying "hello" to the other kids. Eiji put her down before Momoshiro and Fuji approached her.

"I'm glad you can smile like that now," Fuji said. The girl answered with a smile, stating her gladness.

"Yeah. I agree with Fuji-senpai on that. Your smile right now is different compared to when we first met you," Momoshiro added.

Kourin tilted her head to one side with an innocent smile. "Is that so? I thought my smile before is almost the same as my smile now."

"The keyword there is 'almost'..." Conan interrupted which earned him a glare from Kourin. The boy just shrugged it off, though.

"Well, a lot can happen in 2 months. Besides, I made new friends so there's more reason for me to be happy, right?" Then Kourin faced Ryoma, who was still quiet. His face was serious while looking at her intently. "What's wrong, Ryoma-niichan?"

It took a short while before Ryoma said anything. The atmosphere became somewhat tense for some reason. But it immediately faded when Ryoma smiled gently as he approached the girl.

"I'm glad I get to see you again," Ryoma said with a gentle smile. The other regulars were surprised to see that from the freshman.

Kourin soon smiled after he said that. "Me, too, Ryoma-niichan."

"But why were you hitting your head a while back?"

That was when Kourin remembered what she was thinking a while ago, making her slap her forehead. "That's because I realized what kind of idiot I am."

Ryoma frowned at her words. "I don't think I know you as such, Rin. Is something the matter? What do you mean by calling yourself an idiot?"

"I'm an idiot for overlooking something extremely crucial from the coded music that led us here."

Those words caught everyone's attention—especially Haibara, Conan, Fuji, and Ryoma.

"What do you mean, Rin?" Conan asked.

The girl sighed before answering. "I asked a while back about the victim's estimated time of death, right?" Haibara and Ayumi nodded. "The reason I asked that is because of the words from the code. The killer didn't only state a clue about his next target's location but also the time when he would strike."

"What was the code about?" Fuji asked in a serious tone.

"The code was hidden in the music recorded in the mini-CD that the murderer was leaving near his victims. If I haven't heard the fourth music accidentally played during the interview yesterday, we couldn't figure out that the next location would be this school, Seishun Gakuen. But we overlooked something from the code. That mistake made us unable to stop the murderer from killing somebody again." And that was when Kourin noticed that everyone's attention was on her. The freshmen trio gaped and the two freshman girls were looking at her in awe. So were the other regulars.

But she just chose to ignore that for now.

"What part of the code did we miss?" Haibara asked.

Kourin faced the sandy-blonde girl. "The words that mention the full moon. 'Silver moon, enlighten me in full as I end their journey with my tool...' It states that the murderer killed his fifth victim during the full moon—10:49 PM last night, to be exact. And the estimated time of death was between 10:00 and 11:00 PM. You would never call that a coincidence at all," she stated gravely.

No one could say anything about that—well, only the Seigaku students, that is. Not only because of what they've heard but also because of Kourin. How come a kid like here even thinks like this?

But Conan and Ryoma knew better. Kourin's mind had always been like this—a mind that had been more advanced than the mind of a normal kid. The other kids were used to this so it was just a normal event for them. Conan smirked at that.

'As expected of Rin. Well, what can I say? She is a Kudo, after all—a Kudo that will soon surpass me in terms of deductive ability. Not to mention, the minds of the Shinomiya family members isn't something to be taken lightly...' And man, he was proud to have Kourin as a cousin. Conan could see himself in her, only Kourin was probably twice as smart as he was when he was a kid. 'Oh, right! I forgot. Right now, I am a kid... But at least Rin doesn't treat me as such most of the time.'

"You know, for a kid, your way of thinking is ahead of that of a normal kid," Oishi commented.

'Of course, she does. She's not a normal kid, after all.' Conan would've said that out loud but he still doesn't have any plans to be killed by his cousin.

"She just has a knack for solving puzzles and codes, besides having the ability to isolate different sound waves from each other. If it wasn't for that second ability, we wouldn't be able to figure out the message hidden in the mini-CD," Conan explained. "But I guess we couldn't outwit the murderer like this. He already went ahead of us."

"He's probably just a step ahead. You've finally figured out how to locate him and his target, right? I know you'll be able to do something about outwitting him," Fuji said.

'I hope you're right, Fuji-san... But if we don't do something more than just solve his code, I doubt we'll be able to put an end to this. There's still the possibility of a threat that the murderer's real target is a tennis club regular. We couldn't let that happen at all,' Kourin thought as she looked at Fuji for some seconds before sighing. "I guess you're right. I just hope we could do that before his hatred toward these tennis players intensify tenfolds that could make him do something that we might never be able to stop at all."

"Rin, can I ask you something?" Ryoma inquired, breaking his silence since a thought hit him. Kourin nodded as an answer. "It's about the flower that Fuji-senpai spotted on the court. Do you think it has something to do with the murders?"

"If you want to consider the orange lily's meaning in flower language, we believe it has. Orange lilies mean 'revenge, hatred, and disdain' and if you associate it with the murders happening right now, then you could easily identify the general motive of the murderer. It also means 'wealth' and 'pride' but I'm still not that sure if it has anything to do with this case. Lily is the flower of purity so it's not a surprise that the murderer is mockingly trying to convey to us his genuine hatred towards the people he brutally killed," Kourin explained which made everyone look at her in awe once more.

"Nya! You're amazing, Kourin-chan!" Eiji exclaimed in amazement. "For a kid, you sure know a lot of things. You read a lot of books, do you?"

"I don't have that much to do, anyway. It's better that I read books other than the mystery novels that my uncle recommends. That way, I won't end up as a mystery freak like someone I know." Kourin glanced at Conan after saying that. She giggled when she saw the bespectacled boy glowering at her. "I guess I should call it a day for now. All this thinking and puzzle-solving makes me a bit hungry."

Haibara sighed. "Of course, you would be hungry. You haven't eaten anything since dinner last night."

"Again?" Mitsuhiko exclaimed. "You know you easily get sick when you're neglecting your meal time, Rin-san. The effect of the gunshot you got 2 months ago isn't going to fade away as easy as that so you have to take care of your health, as well."

"I know that. It's just that I couldn't bring myself to eat anything especially if there's something that's bothering me. Especially if it's about a code from the criminal who treated lives as if they were just mere toys. It's something I won't ever forgive and let go of." Saying those words, however, made them notice the fourth-grader clenching her fist on her side.

"Then why don't you come with us?" Kawamura suggested that made the kids look at him.

"To where?"

"To Taka-san's sushi shop. We're about to head there," Momoshiro answered with a grin.

As soon as they heard "sushi shop", the kids (just Ayumi, Mitsuhiko, and Genta) suddenly became enthusiastic. Conan looked at them with half-eyes while Haibara sighed. Kourin just smiled at the sight. Of course, those reactions only meant they agreed to the suggestion. But before that, Kourin left and headed towards the nearest vending machine that she just passed by a while ago.

"I guess she'll be buying Ponta again. She likes drinking that stuff," Genta which caught Ryoma's attention.

"Did you say 'Ponta'?"

Ayumi nodded. "She usually buys that when she wanted to calm her mind from thinking too much. She must be worried about this case too much."

"It's already expected," Haibara said placidly. "The victims, in this case, are those who played the sport she loved so much. Anyone who tainted that sport with this kind of brutality and blood spill isn't going to just get away from her like that..."

"Is tennis that important to her?"

Conan eyed the direction that his cousin went wistfully. "...more than anything... After all, it was the sport that reminds her of everything in her life..." Conan answered with sad eyes. "Tennis held everything about her past... her present... and maybe even her future..."

With that, both Ryoma and Momoshiro (since somehow they agreed to do so) followed Kourin which confused the others. Fuji just smiled.

"Did we say something bad?" Ayumi thought out loud, most likely to herself.

"No, no one did something like that. But I think they wanted to do what they could to divert Kourin-chan's attention away from her worries," Fuji answered.

Conan thought about the words that Fuji said. And after a while, he then figured out that the tensai has a point. "You're right. They might have that ability, to begin with."

-x-x-

"It'll take time for you to reach it."

Kourin turned almost immediately as soon as she heard a familiar voice that made her smile. Ryoma was looking at her with a smile as if saying that he agreed with what Momoshiro said.

"I know I'm still dealing with height issues."

'Height issues? Are you kidding me?' Ryoma could've said that out loud if he didn't restrain himself from doing so. He didn't know if he should feel insulted or amused with the way Kourin said those words. Kourin doesn't have height issues... or maybe she does, if one would consider the fact that the girl was quite tall for her age. If one would look at her for the first time, maybe they'd say that Kourin was a ten-year-old kid and already in her 5th grade because of her height. But then again, her mind wasn't also something that could be ranged as normal.

Okay... maybe he does feel insulted since he doesn't have her height when he was at Kourin's age. As if he would admit that to anyone other than himself. 'I wonder what this girl did to attain such a height at that age...' Maybe he could ask her about that one of these days.

Kourin was about to put coins in the slot when someone beat her to it. When she looked up, she saw Momoshiro. She just let the two regulars do what they wanted.

But as she watched them, she was slightly surprised to see that Ryoma also bought the same item she was supposed to have.

"Could it be that... you like Ponta, Ryoma-niichan?" she asked.

Ryoma raised his head and nodded as he looked at her. Soon after, he took 2 Ponta from the vending machine and gave one to her. She smiled as she accepted it. As she was about to open it, she felt her phone vibrate in her pocket. When she took it from there, she frowned a bit when she saw Detective Takagi's number on her cell phone's LCD screen.

'Takagi-keiji? But why would he call me at this time?' Kourin asked herself. The regulars had the same question in their mind as they also saw the name on the screen. Ryoma and Momoshiro looked at each other for some reason before they saw Kourin answer the call.

"Moshi moshi? Takagi-keiji?" she started as she took a sip from the Ponta in her hand.

"Ah, Kourin-chan! Thank goodness you answered my call. I can't seem to contact Conan-kun so I called you instead."

"Is there something wrong?" The frown on her forehead hadn't dissipated even for a bit when she heard that. "Conan-kun left his phone at Mouri-san's since we were just supposed to play baseball today instead of going here at Seigaku. Is there something you need me to tell him?"

"Oh, that's right." Detective Takagi's voice suddenly became sober as soon as he started speaking. "I just thought I might ask for both of your help to figure out what's wrong with the new code. It's just that you've helped us with the other codes so I thought it would be best if I ask for a few more help on this one."

Kourin's frown deepened at the words that Detective Takagi said but she let him continue.

"It's better if I let you listen to the music. If it's not clear to you, then I'll just send the riddle through text message. Is that alright with you, Kourin-chan?"

The girl let out an agreeing sound and waited for the music to play. The two regulars couldn't do anything to get Kourin's attention since it was obvious to them that she was concentrating on listening to whatever the detective was telling her. To their confusion, however, she didn't say anything to the person on the other line for full three minutes.

They noticed one strange thing, though. Kourin's fist was clenched tight on her side as it quivered.

And then...

"Thank you for making me listen to that, Takagi-keiji. I'll let Conan-kun know about that," Kourin said in a soft voice.

"Okay. Take care, okay?" Then the phone call ended like that.

"What was that about, Kourin-chan?" Momoshiro immediately inquired as soon as Kourin removed the phone from her ear. The girl didn't say anything, though.

This only made Ryoma worry for the girl even more.

It didn't take them long enough to hear another tone coming from Kourin's phone. This time, they saw her open it and pushed some buttons.

Her frown remained there as she read the text message sent to her by Detective Takagi.

Try to catch me as fast as you can

Solve this riddle to find me again

Tears will fall from gray skies

For it will mourn when one dies

My blade will slice through its heart

To St. Rudolph is where I'll do this part

Just like the other code, it was stated in English. Kourin's hand started quivering as she gripped her cellphone tight in a seething manner—something that Ryoma noticed.

"Rin, what's wrong?" he couldn't help asking.

"He's taunting us. He's doing all these murders as if it was just a simple game," she answered with fury obvious in her tone.

Of course, what she said surprised the two boys who were listening to her.

"He already stated the next location. Now we just have to figure out the time when he will strike and proceed with his plan to kill another middle school tennis player."

"And that location is...?" Momoshiro uttered.

Kourin took a deep breath before answering. "St. Rudolph..."