Detective Conan: Midori

CH 12: ARE ALL RELATIONSHIPS DOOMED TO FAIL?

Ran and [Name] had always enjoyed going to all sorts of places when they could. Sonoko and Shinichi would usually be with them, though not always. Now, the person who would always follow them was Conan. The kid had turned into a little tail that went everwhere they went. Much to Mouri's dismey. 

For this last trip, they had gone to an island, and nearly got stuck there.

Despite enjoying the sunset view from the large ship that had saved them, Ran still angrily glared back at her father who was none the wiser. The man just sleeping on a recliner with his Hawaiian shirt. "We sure were lucky. I was worried for a while there."

"Yup! Ojisan forgot what time our return ship left, so we got to ride on this big one instead." Conan made it sound like he was happy for the mistake, as most children would, but the laughter directed at the man could still be detected.

"It's fascinating how someone who is able to solve such difficult cases can forget his own schedule." muttered [Name]. Luckily for Kogoro, the replacement was better than the original so the trio wouldn't bother him too much over it. Otherwise, the man would never hear the end of it.

The trip was a short one and they were meant to return on the same cruise ship. However, since Mouri got the time of departure wrong, all four were nearly stuck on the island for three whole days until the ship came back.

As they were debating under which tree they would sleep under while standing by the pier, they met some nice people who saw they were in trouble and agreed to help after hearing the story. Anyhow, this group of four had two teenagers and one little boy. No one with a heart would just leave them be or think they were up to no good.

The luxury cruise ship they were on had six floors, three of which were above the deck. It was even larger than the ship they had previously taken despite this one having fewer people. The decorations were elegant and refined with a more western style.

It was really a beautiful ship. Although they had no idea whose it was.

"But I wonder what kind of people would reserve a ship like this..." Conan was really a bit curious. A ship like this wasn't cheap, after all.

"It's hard to say. Sonoko would probably know them." The jobs [Name] received rarely had anything to do with learning about the members of powerful families, so she didn't really know that many. But right, her mind was somewhere entirely.

Ah, she really felt so stupid and paranoid. [Name] had looked everywhere, even in Agasa Hakase's lab. Although she was interrupted, she still didn't find the slightest trace of something capable of shrinking people in Agasa's place.

If Shinichi had purposely shrunk himself because he got into some serious trouble, Agasa Hakase was the most likely person to have helped him. Were that to be the case, there would be some trace of the drug or the antidote in his lab or at least some research about it. [Name] didn't find anything like it. If anything, the lab was only filled with machines which is exactly what an engineer like the Hakase was more capable of.

The other option might be that someone else gave Shinichi a drug like that. But why would they? In the end, she found nothing and just decided to directly check what had made her suspicious in the first place.

Conan's intellect wasn't enough for [Name] to jump to the insane conclusion that her friend had turned into a child. There were two main reasons why she had thought so at first.

One of them was that Conan appeared on the same night that Shinichi disappeared. [Name] wasn't an expert hacker but she did find all of Conan's records. All the paperwork on the boy's identity was there. His parents' documents were also there.