"Well, I don't really do anything special to take care of my skin. I just stay indoors a lot, so no sun or wind—it makes my skin look better," Hattori Shizuka said, picking up on the awkward vibe and smoothly following Ran's lead to change the topic.
"Ahem," Fujino coughed lightly, cutting in before things got weirder. "By the way, Ran, weren't you cleaning the room earlier?"
"Yep," Ran jumped in quickly. "I was tidying up, and there's still some dust floating around…"
Sharp as ever, she caught Fujino's intent. If she was reading him right, he was helping her help her mom stake her claim.
Nodding to herself, she marveled at how Fujino-senpai was always so helpful. "It's gotta be the dust making you cough, right, senpai?"
"Yeah," Fujino said, relieved to have a sharp ally. "Lately, my nose has been acting up. Dust just sets off a coughing fit."
"Cough, cough. That explains it," Hattori Shizuka chimed in, catching the subtext and covering her mouth with a delicate cough.
As a married woman, being flirted with wasn't exactly pleasant. But her current persona was single, so she felt a bit stuck. After a moment, she added, "My bronchial tubes have always been weak. No wonder I've been feeling off since I got here."
"In that case, let's move somewhere else," Fujino said, standing. "We should probably discuss the case anyway."
"Mm-hmm!" Ran nodded enthusiastically, shooting a resentful glance at Mouri Kogoro. "Dad, you're unbelievable. She's here to consult about a case, and you keep going off on irrelevant tangents."
"I *was* getting to the case…" Mouri Kogoro muttered, completely missing the group's subtle coordination.
Conan, meanwhile, rolled his eyes, inwardly groaning at how clueless Uncle Mouri was. But then his gaze drifted to Hattori Shizuka's fingers, and he asked curiously, "By the way, Ikenami-san, what's with the injury on your hand?"
"It's just a cut from chopping vegetables," Hattori Shizuka said, lifting her head. "I'm not great in the kitchen. Haven't used a knife in ages, so I ended up nicking myself."
Conan frowned, sensing something off. Band-Aids covered her index, ring, and thumb fingers. Cutting the thumb and index while cooking made sense, but the ring finger? How did that happen?
"Not good at cooking, huh?" Mouri Kogoro seized the chance to keep flirting. "That's no big deal. A woman with a few flaws is way more charming than someone perfect."
"Well, I've got plenty of flaws," Hattori Shizuka said, feeling the ring finger injury was a bit odd herself. To play it safe, she added, "Otherwise, I wouldn't still be single at my age."
"Eh?!" Mouri Kogoro gasped. "You mean you're not married, Ikenami-san?!"
"Y-Yes…" Hattori Shizuka faltered, caught off guard, a hint of her Kansai accent slipping out.
"For no one to notice a refined lady like you…" Mouri Kogoro said indignantly. "I'd say the men around you must all be blind!"
Hattori Heizo: "???"
Hattori Heiji: "???"
Fujino couldn't help but picture Osaka's police chief and that "black rooster" looking utterly baffled at those words.
"Ahem!" Ran coughed pointedly, cutting Mouri Kogoro off. "You know, my mom's not great at cooking either. You two are kinda similar."
She paused, squinting meaningfully. "But yeah, I wonder if some people are actually blind, ignoring a beauty like her. Who knows what they're thinking?"
"Hey…" Mouri Kogoro shot his cheeky daughter a look, exasperated.
"What, am I wrong?" Ran turned to her dad, eyes narrowed like a sly fox.
"Ahem," Fujino coughed again, breaking up the father-daughter standoff. "Shouldn't we move somewhere else to talk?"
Sometimes, he couldn't fathom why Mouri flirted with every pretty woman he saw. If he were divorced, fine, but technically, Hii Eri was still his wife. Sure, there was no real "crossing the line," but it was still uncomfortable. No wonder Ran kept bringing up her mom every three sentences. If it were Fujino, he'd have already knocked some sense into the old man.
"Yeah, the dust here's getting worse," Ran said, her smile radiating nuclear-level kindness. "Right, Dad~?"
"Uh… yeah…" Mouri Kogoro stammered, a chill running down his spine.
Fujino shook his head helplessly. Looked like Uncle Mouri was in for a lecture tonight.
---
The group relocated to Snow King Ice City.
"The reason I want to find him is to recover a photo," Hattori Shizuka explained. "It's the only picture from my third year, taken at the Shimonoseki Tournament. It shows me holding the championship trophy. A while back, my grandmother accidentally lost the medal, so I want that photo back—at least as a memento."
Fujino listened quietly, inwardly marveling that she'd missed her calling as a screenwriter. If he remembered right, this was all a setup orchestrated by Hattori Shizuka herself—her identity, the photo, the commission, all of it. The goal? To test his and Mouri Kogoro's character.
From the looks of it, he'd passed the test. Mouri? That was less certain.
"Have you all decided what to order?" Miyano Akemi approached, wearing a pink apron and holding a notepad.
"The usual green tea?" she asked Fujino.
"Green tea's fine," he replied.
"Got it," Miyano Akemi nodded, turning to the others. "And for you?"
Mouri Kogoro thought for a moment. "Coffee."
Ran grinned. "Snow King's special lemon juice."
Conan hesitated, still deciding. "I'll have…"
Hattori Shizuka glanced around. "RELKO…"
"Huh?" Conan blinked, turning to her.
"Reiko?" Mouri Kogoro looked confused. "Who's that?"
"Oh, nothing. It's just what he used to call me," Hattori Shizuka said, startled. "He said my personality was like the main character in the book he borrowed—the one with the photo tucked inside—so he nicknamed me Reiko."
Miyano Akemi turned to Conan. "What about you, Conan-kun?"
"Ice coffee!" Conan said in his childlike="Ice coffee!" Conan said in his childlike tone.
Hattori Shizuka froze, glancing at Conan. RELKO was Osaka slang for iced coffee, and she'd slipped up, saying it instinctively. Realizing it could blow her cover as someone from Osaka, she'd quickly covered it up. But now this kid was ordering iced coffee too? Had he noticed something?
"I'll have an iced coffee too," she added, dismissing the thought. He was just a kid, after all.
"By the way, Ikenami-san, I don't think I caught your first name," Mouri Kogoro said suddenly, realizing he only knew her surname.
"My apologies, I forgot to introduce myself. I'm Shizuka, Ikenami Shizuka," she said reluctantly.
She was cautious about revealing her identity, having hidden anything that could expose her. Her name, though… that should be fine.
"Shizuka? It suits your elegance perfectly," Mouri Kogoro started to say, but Ran cut him off.
"Dad, any ideas about finding Shibata-san?" she asked pointedly.
Mouri Kogoro sighed, studying the thirty-year-old photo on the table. "With just a name and this old picture, we're short on leads."
Conan, meanwhile, was piecing together clues about the photo. He'd just found a breakthrough when Hattori Shizuka interrupted, "That's exactly why I came to you two famous detectives. A regular detective wouldn't stand a chance."
She paused, then added, "If you two can't find him, could I trouble *that* detective? I've heard the high school detective, Kudo Shinichi, often visits your agency."
Indeed, besides Fujino and Mouri, Kudo Shinichi was also on her list to test. Her son was always going on about "Fujino this" and "Kudo that." She'd met Fujino; now she was curious about Kudo.
"Ha!" Mouri Kogoro waved dismissively. "That kid hasn't been around lately."
"Yeah," Ran said, smiling. "He just calls and rambles nonsense."
"Mm," Fujino nodded. "That guy's always off somewhere, probably chasing a case."
Conan: "…"
*Am I really that invisible?* But then he started worrying. If this woman was bringing up his name, had his reputation spread again? He'd need to rein in his deductions to avoid slipping up.
"Is that so?" Hattori Shizuka murmured. Heiji had said Kudo was a regular at Mouri's place, but apparently not. Fujino seemed kind and polite, not the type to bully others. Mouri, despite his antics, got along well with Fujino and didn't seem like a bad senior. *Did Heiji lie?* She frowned, sensing something was off.
"Conan, what do you think?" Ran asked, noticing he'd been about to say something, recalling how he often spotted things adults missed.
"What's a kid gonna notice?" Mouri Kogoro scoffed.
"He always picks up on stuff adults overlook," Ran said, turning to Fujino with a smile. "Right, senpai?"
"Yep," Fujino nodded. "What'd you spot, Conan-kun?"
"I did notice something," Conan said, perking up, feeling validated. Time to show off his reasoning! Forgetting his earlier resolve to hold back, he said, "If this guy was a champion at a tournament thirty years ago, he might still be competing in kendo now."
Everyone paused, a spark of realization hitting them. Fujino, though, looked at Conan with interest and cut in, "I thought of that too, but it's a long shot."
"Huh?" Conan looked up, puzzled. He'd thought Fujino wouldn't interrupt this time, but here they were. Curious, he wanted to hear why his idea wasn't solid.
"Kendo tests your spirit as much as your skill," Fujino explained. "A kendo prodigy from thirty years ago might not still be practicing. If their spirit broke, they could've quit altogether. I've seen it—guys called geniuses who retired after a single match."
Conan: "…"
*That's only because they ran into a monster like you.* He hadn't seen Fujino compete, but he knew Fujino's impressive record by instinct.
"I remember you practice kendo too, Fujino," Mouri Kogoro said, sighing. "If that's the case, the lead's a dead end."
"Not entirely. It's still a decent angle," Fujino said. "For kendo matters, Master Suwa at my dojo might know something."
He pulled out his phone, ready to call Suwa Yuji. Though he knew this was all Hattori Shizuka's staged act, he'd taken the commission fee, so he'd play along. Plus, he recalled that Shibata Shiro, the "actor" she'd arranged, had been dead for six or seven hours by now. If he didn't move fast, the body would start to stink.