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Shinichi was a detective who had solved hundreds of murders, many of them happening while he was on the scene. He was good at telling when another would occur. He knew the signs: a mysterious event that had happened in the past, usually involving the death of a former group member; glares aimed across the room at each other; etc. There was no way a murder (or at least an attempted murder) wouldn’t occur if all these things were happening.
Unless, of course, Shinichi found a way to prevent it.
Something which… he wasn’t really good at, he had to admit.
This time, the ‘about to be a murder’ scene was at an inn Shinichi was staying at with his girlfriend, Shiho, and his boyfriend, Kaito. (He was dating the two of them, but they weren’t dating each other.) Shinichi was at the front desk, securing keys for their room, when he heard an argument break out behind him.
“This crappy inn again?!” a woman demanded. “Really, I thought you knew better after what happened last time!”
“C-calm down… I-I thought it would be fine…”
The keys landed in Shinichi’s hand, and he sighed and turned around to see a woman shouting at a cowering man. He wished his partners were here, but they were getting the luggage from the car. Shinichi was alone.
Walking up to them, he said, “What’s wrong?”
The moment the woman caught sight of Shinichi, a smile formed on her face. “Oh! I’m Akamine Yasu! Sorry about that, this idiot here just made a terrible error.”
“This idiot has a name,” the man sighed. He gave Shinichi a hopeful look. “I’m Mayeda Izanagi. Akamine-san and I were in the manga club in high school.”
“I see,” Shinichi murmured.
“We decided to take a vacation week again,” Mayeda said. “It’s our custom every year.”
“Even after what happened last year?” Akamine muttered, shooting a glare at Mayeda.
Shinichi almost felt like walking away. It would be so much more convenient to not interfere with this and enjoy his time here with his partners. But he knew what would happen soon, and he could not let a murder happen. He was determined to stop it, and he was sure Shiho and Kaito would agree.
“Well, you’re already at the inn,” Shinichi said. “So maybe stop arguing about it and try to enjoy the rest of your time?”
Shinichi was horrible at this, wasn’t he.
Akamine muttered under her breath and left. Mayeda shot Shinichi a grateful look before he followed her.
Shinichi hoped it was just the two of them, because if there were more, stopping this murder definitely got a lot more complicated.
Shinichi told Shiho and Kaito about the inevitable upcoming murder the moment they had gotten settled in their room. Kaito was laying on the bed, watching Shinichi, engaged in the story, while Shiho, despite being engaged, had turned her back on Shinichi and was rummaging through the bags.
“So you want to stop a murder,” Kaito summarized, a grin on his face. “Well then! Did you find out what high school they attended?”
Shinichi shook his head. “Well… no.”
“But you have two names, Akamine Yasu and Mayeda Izanagi,” Kaito said. He brought out his phone and began searching. “And they were in the manga club… ah, here! An article from one year ago.”
Immediately, Shinichi was at Kaito’s side. “What is it?”
“There were six of them,” Kaito said. “The president, Akamine Yasu. The vice president, Mayeda Izanagi. And then there were Murai Yoichi, Terada Katsu, Kanno Aoi, and Fukui Fuji.” He gave Shinichi a grave look. “Terada Katsu is dead.”
“That’s what must have happened last year, then,” Shinichi said. “How did he die?”
“An accident,” Kaito said. “He was swimming in the nearby lake, but ended up drowning. His girlfriend, Fukui Fuji, claimed it was murder, and Akamine Yasu agreed. Murai Yoichi and Kanno Aoi claimed it was just an accident, and Mayeda Izanagi refused to take a side. The true cause of death has yet to be discovered.”
“But if either Akamine-san or Fukui-san found out a plausible suspect, then they could very well be after their life,” Shinichi said. “Or the killer could be after someone else’s life…”
“We need to keep an eye on them.” The statement came from Shiho, finally looking up from the bags. “If we truly want to prevent a murder, that is what we must do.”
“Let’s go to the dining area,” Shinichi suggested. “They may be there.”
Shiho and Kaito voiced their agreements, and then they were all going to the dining area.
They were in the dining area, which gave Shinichi a sense of satisfaction and relief. He didn’t want to run around the whole inn looking for a group of soon to be suspects. He recognized Akamine and Mayeda easily. Murai was also easy to identify, due to his being the only man other than Mayeda present, but Shinichi wasn’t too sure which was Kanno and which was Fukui.
He settled for walking up to the group and saying, “Hey, any more problems?”
“Problems?” One of the women echoed, seeming confused.
“Problems like my boyfriend getting murdered?” the other woman muttered, and Shinichi immediately knew she was Fukui.
Feigning innocence, Shinichi blinked in mock surprise and said, “Your boyfriend was murdered?”
“He’s talking about a little disagreement Mayeda-kun and I had earlier,” Akamine said, giving Shinichi a look. “I’m afraid neither of us got your name. Who are you?”
Immediately Shinichi raced to come up with a name, knowing he couldn’t tell them that he was Kudo Shinichi, a detective. It would put any murderer on guard. As he saw Shiho and Kaito walking closer to him, he quickly blurted out, “Shimada Edgar.” Then he internally hit himself over the head. Shimada Soji and Edgar Allan Poe. He was horrible at this.
“I’m Kiyabu Tetsuo!” Kaito claimed, standing at Shinichi’s side with a grin. (Shinichi wondered why Kaito felt the need for a fake name. Kuroba Kaito wouldn’t alert a murderer. Then again, perhaps Kuroba Kaito was too closely associated with Kudo Shinichi.) “This beautiful woman here is Arai Ryoko!”
Kaito was good at this fake name thing. Meanwhile Shinichi was Shimada Edgar.
The rest of Akamine’s group introduced themselves, even though Shinichi knew exactly who they were. “Can we join you?” he asked at the end.
“Of course, Shimada-kun!” Murai laughed. “We could use something to lighten up the mood anyway!”
Shinichi and his partners sat down at the table, the former determined to keep track of any suspicious behavior.
He would stop a murder from happening. He knew it.
In the end, it turned out that Fukui was planning to murder Murai, and that Mayeda was in on the plan, and they deliberately chose this inn again in order to make Murai remember his crimes.
Which were nonexistent, because apparently Kanno was the killer, and she had her own plan to murder Fukui as revenge for stealing Terada from her.
It was a wild ride, but at least no one died, because of Shinichi.
“You did good,” Shiho said as the two of them relaxed on the bed. Shinichi yawned and stretched.
“Fukui has a knife wound,” he pointed out.
“At least it isn’t fatal,” Shiho replied, and Shinichi had to admit she was right.
“Now that we stopped a murder,” Kaito said from the floor (Shinichi did not know why he was there), “we can enjoy ourselves, right?”
Shinichi smiled. “We can.” It was the purpose of their trip, after all.
Though the almost-murder did cause them an inconvenience, they would still enjoy their time here together in the end.