Bloody Rose

Master of Riddles

NOTE* Looking back at the second Challenge, I noticed an issue so I will be going back to fix that. Thank you to my reviewers for pointing that out to me! Enjoy this fifth part!

Chapter Twenty-Seven:

Battle of the Minds Pt 5.

KID POV

"Soooo~" Sang Kaito with a grin as he walked with his team towards the gallery. The time was five minutes after twelve and Kaito was once again happily human. "Any idea what the "murder" is going to consist of?"

"Not a clue, but I suspect we will find out soon enough", said Conan.

"Well, we know one thing. Kaito gets one of the riddles. He isn't in any condition to do an active one right now", commented Hakuba.

"Sides, I am the master of riddles", Kaito snickered happily.

"Yeah, yeah", muttered Heiji, "So which do I get?"

"How about we see what the challenge is first and then we decide."

"Fine", Hattori sighed, he felt useless amongst this group. Perhaps this challenge would allow him to prove his worth, he thought happily.

When all six groups had made it into the auditorium, the manager of the hotel welcomed them.

"The Host will now explain the case."

"Welcome ladies and gentlemen, Today's challenge consists of a staged murder. The murder will have four challenges within to make up the evidence needed for the accusation at the end. Should you succeed at the challenges and make the correct assumption of the killer, you will move on. Should you fail five riddles, combining the failures of the last two challenges, you will be removed from the premises. Now then, the case..."

A strangled yell sounded from the intercom. The manager gasped as grabbed the communicator he kept in his pocket and yelled into it.

"Master! Are you okay?! Master!"

The sound of faint gagging was heard before all was silent.

Everyone stood there stunned. The manager even looked unsure of what had just happened. Grabbing the keys from his pocket, he rushed up the stairs to the room that the participants guessed was the Hosts office and quickly unlocked the door. Everyone could only stare when they found the Chief of Security and the Secretary standing over the Host, CPR being done in order to revive him.

"Is this real?" whispered Rinji to Kaito.

Kaito looked around the room. The other participants looked spooked and the staff looked truly in a state of anxiety, however he noticed almost right away something was off with the body.

"I think we can stop the act", Shinichi stated suddenly.

He stepped forward towards the two doing CPR.

"We see the scene," he continued, "we have witnessed those in attendance and we clearly heard what happened at exactly 12:10pm. We also can tell that the body you are doing CPR on, is merely a dummy dressed to be the "Host" of the party."

Everyone stared at Conan before looking back at the secretary and Chief of Security who stared at him in surprise. A laugh sounded over the speaker.

"Brilliant deduction child", the voice said, the voice of the host. "Yes, this is the setup for the third challenge. I suggest everyone burn it into your memories because this will be the last you see of the attending. From here on out, the true challenge shall begin."

The voice was silent for a moment before it went on.

"The Host of the party is dead, someone murdered him. Who did it? Why did they do it? When did they do it? How did they do it? Where did they do it? And what did they do it with? These are the questions you must answer in your final deduction. Your accusation will depend on the information you gather to explain these six questions."