Flower Emblems

After they finished eating at Kawamura Sushi, the team and the kids went on to their separate ways. The rest of the Detective Boys headed to Beika District but not without Kourin reminding Haibara to keep their conversation a while back a secret for a while. Of course, the shrunken scientist agreed since she knew the gravity of the case from the beginning.

As for Momoshiro and Fuji, they decided to accompany Ryoma and Kourin just until they reached the Echizen residence. Momoshiro used the reason for carrying the 4th grader's luggage even though Ryoma could carry it himself. Kourin figured that Fuji and Momoshiro were worried about their safety so they wanted to assure that she and Ryoma reached the household safe and sound.

"Kourin-chan, do you still have our phone numbers with you?" Momoshiro suddenly asked while they were walking.

The girl nodded. "I still have them, even those from the other Seigaku regulars. But even though I have them, I never had the time to at least give you guys a call. I've been doing a lot of things lately so I barely noticed how days passed by so fast."

"What kind of things?" Ryoma inquired.

"I have a lot of things to learn with regards to my duty as the heiress of the Shinomiya family. Martial arts, music, etiquette, language—just to name a few. It makes my brain go whacked but I guess I can still handle it. My tutors weren't pressuring me about it so I guess it's okay."

"Saa... For a kid, you sure have a lot of responsibilities," Fuji commented.

"This is what I chose to do. It's not like I did all these because I don't have a choice. Besides, I'm the only one left so I need to do what it takes to uphold my fallen family's honor. I have to restore it in any way I can. I can't afford it to go down along with my family who was taken down just to protect what they had to protect." Kourin sighed before smiling. "But even though I have to learn so many things, I never forget to do other things that I love to do."

Momoshiro frowned. "Do other things?"

"Yup! I'm still practicing tennis. I'm a member of the tennis club at Teitan Elementary. Since I'm already a 4th grader, I'm able to participate in the tournament last month. To tell the truth, I'm the youngest regular in our tennis club—and also the only fourth grader. But I guess I still have more to work on."

"You can do a lot more than that, I know it," Ryoma said with a confident smile on his face as she peered at him. "Just don't stop." Although those words had surprised his senpai-tachi, they were left with no choice but to agree. Ryoma was right when he said those words, anyway.

Ryoma wasn't the type of person who would verbally cheer or encourage anyone. But Kourin wasn't just "anyone" to him to begin with. She had been someone special to him ever since. Including the regulars, he also considered Kourin as his friend besides being his savior.

When they reached their destination, Kourin noted that they stopped in front of a temple gate. She faced Ryoma with a confused and a bit amused look.

"Are you sure we went to the right place?" she asked.

Ryoma groaned to show he was annoyed. "Don't ask about it. Long story."

"If you say so, then," she replied, shrugging. Then the four of them proceeded to the house.

Despite being an old, worn-out-looking temple, the place was still amazing from Kourin's perspective. Though she didn't express it out loud, Ryoma could still see the amazement in her eyes. He smiled at what he saw, even though he did it in just seconds.

"Tadaima!" he said as soon as he slid the door open and went in along with Fuji, Momoshiro, and Kourin. Soon after, footsteps were heard—running footsteps, to be exact.

"Oi, Seishounen! You're early. I thought you still have class and practice until 6 later so how come you're—" But Nanjiroh stopped talking when he saw the people standing at the entrance of the house—most of them greeted him with a polite smile.

"It's nice to see you again, Nanjiroh-san," Kourin politely greeted and bowed, before facing the man once more with a warm smile.

Before she knew it, Nanjiroh approached her and gave her a big hug which she didn't expect. Even still, she appreciated the gesture and laughed.

"I never thought you'd come here this early. Shouko said you'd arrive later this afternoon. What made you come here early?"

"Hmm... Certain events made me come here earlier. That's all I can say for now," she replied vaguely before glancing at Ryoma.

Nanjiroh playfully ruffled Kourin's hair while smirking. "Heh. Keeping a secret like that, huh? You're one sly princess."

The girl responded with a laugh—a heartfelt laugh that Ryoma heard for the first time.

The freshman was surprised to hear that. Then Fuji said something.

"Kourin-chan must have missed having a father since it's been more than a year since her father was killed."

"Looking at her right now, I guess I have to agree with what you said, Fuji-senpai," Momoshiro responded as he continued looking at Kourin talking to Nanjiroh.

Ryoma didn't say anything about it, though. He was thinking of something else—an idea, to be exact. Probably one of the craziest ideas he could ever think of in his lifetime. But he didn't have any plans of voicing it out to anyone for now. Momoshiro dropped the duffel bag to the floor as soon as they saw Rinko and Nanako coming.

"It looks like Oji-sama is having fun talking to Kourin-chan," Nanako commented that causing the two aforementioned people to stop their conversation and focused their attention on the two women.

"Sorry about that, Nanako-san. It looks like Nanjiroh-san missed me," Kourin joked before she bowed to the two women. "It's nice to see you again, Nanako-san, Rinko-san. It's been a while."

"You're right. By the way, lunch is ready. Why don't you and your friends come in and join us?" Rinko offered which delighted the two older regulars. Ryoma shrugged and carried Kourin's bag.

"I'll take this upstairs first," the freshman said without even facing the others.

"Does he always acts this strange?" Kourin asked as she looked at Ryoma heading upstairs. 'Why do I have a feeling that something's bothering him?'

"If you call indifference as strange, then ye. Well... most of the time," Nanako answered before she approached Kourin and the other two regulars. "Come on in. You can join us for lunch."

"Don't mind if I do!" Momoshiro exclaimed excitedly which made the others laugh.

Momoshiro and Fuji were about to proceed inside when they heard something that rang. To be specific, Kourin's familiar classical ringtone of her cellphone.

"Isn't that Brahm's 4th Symphony?" Fuji inquired with a slight frown.

Kourin just nodded without looking at the tensai since she was busy taking out her cellphone from her pocket before she finally stopped the ringing by pushing the Answer Call button.

"Hello? Kourin here speaking," she started as she walked slightly away from the others.

"I wonder who would call her right now," Nanako muttered.

"It might be Edogawa-kun. He did say that he'll call her once he found something reliable to solve the case," Momoshiro stated as he remembered the bespectacled little detective's words to Kourin before they separated.

Fuji just nodded as he watched Kourin.

"Ah, it's Conan. Sorry if I called. Did I disturb you?"

"No, you didn't. Don't worry. Why did you call? Did you find anything?"

"About that... I haven't found anything yet with regards to the killer. But I did find something about the orange lily."

Kourin frowned. "You mean, besides its meaning?"

"Ah. But this is something that might have a relation to you, as well."

"To me? What do you mean?"

But weird enough, she didn't hear anything from him until a few seconds later.

"Sorry about that. Shouko-san just asked me about something. About your question, my answer to you might still be unclear but I have to say it. The orange lily doesn't only mean 'hatred and disdain', right? It also means 'wealth' and 'pride' but you said that it doesn't have any relation to the case."

She nodded once. "That's right. I said something like that a while back. But what does that has something to do with me?" She was curious to know since... well... she was just curious. Or at least that was what she wanted to think for now.

"You know there's another meaning for orange lily, right? In the language of flowers, orange lily also means 'I burn for you'. 'Burn' which is related to 'fire'."

"And?"

She heard Conan sigh on the other line. "I guess it can't be helped since you've just started learning about the family matters after the Dark Rose case."

Kourin glowered at no one when she heard that. "I don't know if you're insulting me or complimenting me when you said that."

"Neither. But it's for the best if you know this now. You know the four items among the 14 ceremonial items that represent that 4 classical elements, right?"

She went quiet for a while to think about what Conan had just asked. "I do. The Fan of the Fire, the Mirror of the Waters, the Horn of the Winds, and the Crown of the Earth—those were the items. But what does that have to do with anything with regards to me?"

"Those four items represent the four of the highly regarded and distinguished families in Japan. One of the items represents the Shinomiya family—the Crown of the Earth. The other three items represent the three families that guard your family, Rin. Those three families were also regarded as the 'Knights of the Sky' namely the Moon Knight, the Sun Knight, and the Star Knight. One of those 3 families has the Fan of the Fire as their representative elemental item and the Sun Knight as their title—both have something to do with 'flame' which is the other meaning of orange lily."

"O... kay... Now you're confusing me. And how come you know that much about my family? Why are you asking me about the items?"

"Because the Fan of the Fire and the Sun Knight has something to do with one of the families in charge of protecting you given the fact that you're the last surviving member of the Shinomiya bloodline to live this far. Rin, that family I'm talking about might have something to do with the tennis court murders."

Kourin's eyes widened when she heard her cousin's statement. "So you're telling me that this family is the culprit?"

"I didn't say that. I only said that they might have something to do with the case. They are connected to this, I can tell you that. But that's as far as I can tell."

She went quiet after that. That was what Ryoma saw as soon as he went down. He frowned at the sight before facing his two senpais.

"What's going on?" he asked.

Fuji faced the rookie. "Edogawa-kun called her. I'm not sure about the topis of their discussion but she had this serious expression right from the start."

"I'm kind of worried but I can't just barge in and ask her about it," Momoshiro said, still looking at the serious-looking and quiet girl.

Then they heard her speak after a few moments of silence. Their attention then focused on her.

"You're talking about the Azuraya family, aren't you?" she asked the person on the other line. No answer other than an agreeing sound came from Conan. "Now that you mentioned it, Shouda-sensei did say something about the items—the elemental items, to be exact."

"You studied about them?" Conan asked.

"Sort of. I just started in-depth learning about them about a week ago. The Crown of the Earth represents my family. The Fan of the Fire represents the so-called Sun Knight which is the Azuraya family. The Miyuzaki family is the Star Knight and the Mirror of the Waters represents them. The Moon Knight is the Yumemiya family and they're the silent and also the invisible messenger of our family—thus having the Horn of the Winds as their representative elemental item. You said that the orange lily has something to do with the Azuraya family. How so?"

"About that... The orange lily—to cut the story short—is the flower emblem of the Azuraya family. Not only that, but it's also the original flower emblem of the school where most of their family members had been the alumni—Hyotei Gakuen."

She frowned at that. "Hyotei Gakuen?" As soon as those words were absorbed in her mind, she realized something. "Wait a minute! You couldn't mean...?!"

"I'm not sure. I told you, that the information I'm giving you now might still be unclear. Once I had clearer and more reliable information, I'll call you right away. Until then, you have to be careful. Okay?"

"Okay. Be careful, too. Later." Then the phone call ended.

'Hyotei Gakuen? They would possibly be another target but I doubt if it has something to do with their original flower emblem. And the Azuraya family... Why would that name pop out in this case?'

When Kourin couldn't think of an answer to her question, she just heaved a sigh and placed her cellphone back in her pocket. Maybe her cousin could provide the necessary clues to solve all this.

She was surprised to see the people in that house staring at her when she turned around and faced them.

'Oh, right! I forgot they're here.' She walked toward them with a hesitant smile on her face. "I'm sorry about that."

"What was the conversation all about?" Ryoma immediately asked.

But Kourin answered with a shaking of her head and a sad smile that curved her lips. "I guess it's better if I should keep it to myself for now... since it has something to do with a family friend."

"But Kourin-chan—" Momoshiro was cut off when Fuji tapped the junior powerhouse player's shoulder, thus stopping him from continuing what he was supposed to say. Momoshiro looked at his senpai with questioning eyes.

"Not now, Momo," was all Fuji said soberly. Left with no choice, Momoshiro nodded after taking a deep breath.

With that, they all proceeded to the dining area where lunch was served.