Fic - The Mystery of Yomiyama, Part 3
Title: The Mystery of Yomiyama, Part 3
Fandom: Detective Conan/Another
Genre: Crossover, Mystery, Supernatural
Rating: PG
Characters: Conan Edogawa, Ai Haibara, Detective Boys, cameos from various members of the Another cast
Word Count: 3,477
Part 3
It had taken a bit of searching, but Conan had finally located a phone booth near the hotel they were staying at. He couldn’t use the phone in his room since it was impossible for Mitsuhiko and Genta to not listen in, or, if they happened to be out, to accidentally walk in on a conversation they shouldn’t be hearing. As he waited for Professor Agasa to pick up, the detective hoped there was some information he was missing about the case available on the internet.
“Good evening, this is the Agasa residence. May I ask who is calling?”
“Hakase, it’s me.” Conan smirked at the formal tone his friend was using - Haibara has obviously been on him about his phone manners, and he was being extra-polite in case she called.
“Ah, Shinichi! How is your trip going? Are Ai-kun and the others well?”
“Yes, they’re fine. Yomiyama is pretty nice, but I think I’ve uncovered a case and I was hoping you could do some online research for me.”
“Oh? What kind of case?”
As Conan explained everything that he had found so far, he decided that for now, he wouldn’t ask Hattori for help. Osaka was a long way away from Yomiyama, and he doubted the Great Detective of the West had even heard of the city. If there was no indication that something sinister was happening to outsiders, then there was probably no rumours that Hattori would be able to pass along.
Once he finished, the professor was silent for a moment. “A serial killer is a dangerous type of criminal to approach,” he warned. “Remember was happened in New York?”
Conan sighed, not wanting to get off topic. “Yeah, but everything turned out fine then. As long as I’m careful, I’m sure the same will hold true here. I will be careful, Agasa-hakase. I promise you that.”
“Very well, Shinichi. I’ll have a look and see if I can find out anything online. Call back Saturday night.”
“Alright, goodbye.” The professor didn’t seem too happy about the case Conan had unearthed, but the boy was confident that he would emerge from this unharmed.
Digging in his pocket for more change, he also took out his bowtie and fiddled with the dials on the back. Time to make the call he had been thinking about all evening. Once he finished dialling Ran’s number, he leaned back against the glass wall of the phone booth and looked up at the evening sky. The moon was up, just visible above the roofs of the buildings across the street, and he wondered if she was looking at it too.
“Hello?”
“Hi Ran.”
“Shinichi!” She seemed both surprised and happy to hear from him, and he grinned to himself, anticipating her next sentence. “You idiot, you should have called me sooner!”
“I’m sorry! Really, I am. It’s this case, it keeps me so busy that sometimes I simply can’t call.” He knew that Ran wasn’t really mad at him, since this type of conversation was normal every time they spoke.
“Jeeze, look at you. Off on a case when you should be in school. Everything’s going ok, then? You’re not in any danger?”
Conan bit his lip, wishing he could see her as Shinichi more often. Summoning a cheerful tone, he answered, “I can’t really talk about the case, but yeah, I’m doing alright. What are you up to these days?”
“Not much outside of school. Dad’s working on another case, so I’m alone tonight. Oh! Conan-kun is away on a class trip. Have you ever heard of a place called Yomiyama?”
“Yomiyama…no, I don’t think so. We had some good class trips when we were his age, so I hope he has a good time!”
They chatted for a few more minutes, then when Conan sensed that the conversation was coming to an end, asked, “Hey Ran? Is the moon up in Tokyo?”
“The moon? Uh…yeah, yeah it is. Why?”
“Ah…” He hesitated for a moment, raising his eyes to the rising moon. So she could see it too. “No reason, really. It’s just cloudy here, and I thought I heard someone say that it was particularly bright tonight.”
“I see…well, I can’t tell if it’s brighter than usual, but it looks nice. Shinichi? Come home soon, ok?”
Conan closed his eyes, wishing he could be there with her now. “I’ll…I’ll try, Ran.”
“Alright. I have homework to do, so I better go. Goodnight, Shinichi.” Ran sounded a little upset, and he couldn’t blame her. He should be by her side.
“Goodnight, Ran.” Stepping out of the phone booth, he looked up at the moon again, telling himself that he would return to being Shinichi soon.
- - -
“See you at the hotel!” Ayumi waved to Conan and Haibara as she walked off with Genta and Mitsuhiko, and the detective turned to his partner. He had given the case some thought during class, and had decided on a plan of action. “Since the serial killer is targeting Class 3-3, they must have a connection to it. We need to find out who was in that class and start investigating them.”
Haibara nodded in agreement and asked, “How far back are we looking?”
“Hm…” He frowned, knowing that what he was going to say was all speculation. “Assuming that the serial killer has only been active since 1990, that’ll give us three years to look at, since no murders occurred last year or in 1991.” He couldn’t imagine that the murders had been going on longer than six years - with the large number of deaths involved, the police would have done something already if it had started before that.
“That’s a large amount of people to investigate, especially since we can’t access Yomiyama North’s records.” Conan narrowed his eyes at that. He would have to make another trip back to that school, since there was still information there he needed to look at. But this time he would be much more careful now that he had an idea of when the librarian closed the library down.
“I was thinking we could start with the families of the deceased to see if they knew anything,” he said at last, digging his notebook out and looking at it for a moment. “We’ll make a stop at the library to get the complete list of names, then start from there on Sunday.”
“Right, Yoshida-san and the others wish to do something after class tomorrow…” Haibara trailed off, her expression unreadable as she looked at him.
“I don’t mind playing with them for an afternoon,” Conan replied with a shrug. “Sure, it takes time away from the case, but we are children at the moment. It would be odd if we didn’t have fun once in a while. As long as we don’t play baseball all afternoon, I’ll be fine.”
“And if it is baseball, you’ll just have to manage, won’t you?” she said with a smirk, making him huff in annoyance.
“Come on, let’s hurry and catch the next bus. I don’t want to walk today,” he said quickly, glancing up at the sky. It was overcast, and the clouds had the look of rain.
- - -
Raindrops flew off his hood as Conan flipped it back, closing the door of the phone booth behind him. The rain had held off until after supper, so the Detective Boys had been able to play outside all afternoon. Thankfully, while they started with baseball, enough of their classmates had joined them to be able to play soccer later. The boy had been surprised by how much fun he had had, although he never fully forgot the case he was working on. As he waited for Professor Agasa to pick up, he hoped he could solve the case in the week he had left.
“Good evening, this is the Agasa residence. May I ask who is calling?”
“Good evening, Hakase,” he said with a smile.
“Ah, hello Shinichi! How is the case going?”
“Slow. There’s a lot to investigate, and not much time to do so.”
“Hm, I see. I’m afraid I can’t be much help to you. All of the official information is pretty generic, designed for tourists and the like. But I did discover something interesting on a message board.” Agasa sounded both happy and hesitant, and that made Conan wonder what he had found.
“Oh? What is it?” he prompted after a few moments of silence.
“Well…some people were talking about how Yomiyama was a cursed place for teenagers to live in, because so many of them ended up dead. People on there said that some students had formed a cult years ago, and the vengeful spirit they had called up still lingered in the town, devouring the souls of unfortunate teenagers who happened across it.”
“Hakase…” Conan sighed, slumping against the side of the booth. There was no such thing as a curse, so there was no point looking into it.
“I know it’s not really true, but that’s the only unusual thing about Yomiyama I could find. There was no mention of a serial killer on the loose.”
“Oh well. Thanks for looking around. I really appreciate it.” If nothing else, the walk from the hotel to the phone booth and back gave him some exercise.
“You’re welcome, Shinichi. I hope you solve the case, but please be careful.” The Professor sounded worried, so Conan summoned some cheer as he answered.
“I’ll be fine, don’t worry. I can call you again early this week to check in if you want.” Agasa agreed to that, so they said their goodbyes and hung up. As he prepared to go back out into the rain, the detective resolved to focus as much as he could on this case. If no one in town could stop the serial killer, then it was up to him to do it.
- - -
“Are you sure you don’t need my assistance?” Haibara asked as they stood in the lobby of the hotel.
“No, I’ll be alright. I’m just going to talk to some of the families and check out the graveyard. Besides, I need you to keep the others busy.” While it might be better if there were two of them, he was confident he would be fine on his own.
“I’m sure I’ll think of something, then. Good luck, Kudo-kun,” Haibara answered, giving him a mysterious smile as he turned to leave.
“Thanks, but I think you’ll be needing more luck than me,” he said, waving goodbye as he walked toward the doors. It was still raining, but this time he had an umbrella with him.
- - -
“Don’t remember anything, huh?” Conan muttered to himself as he left the house of another family who had lost a child to the serial killer. He had gotten much the same response from everyone else he had interviewed so far - they either didn’t remember anything strange occurring or refused to talk about it altogether. He understood not wanting to talk, for the wound was still fresh for many of the families.
Shifting his umbrella so that water wouldn’t drip onto his notebook, he looked at the list of names again. While he had written down all the names of those who died and as many names of their classmates as he could find, there was no way he could interview them all by himself. He would have to be more selective.
“Akazawa Kazuma…” he murmured, gaze landing on the name of the most recent victim. He hadn’t talked to his family yet, but perhaps because the death was so fresh, they would remember something that the other families had forgotten with the passage of time. He was going to stop by the graveyard anyway, so there was no point in delaying any longer.
The rain had tapered to a light drizzle by the time he reached the graveyard, but he put his umbrella up anyway as he started to walk among the rows of graves. He had no idea were the Akazawa family plot was, so he would have to search until he found it. As he walked among the graves, Conan wished that the Japanese had the custom of listing the birth and death dates of those they buried instead of just grouping everyone under the same family name. It might make finding information about this case a little easier.
Even so, he recognized some of the family names of the victims on his list, and a closer look at the graves confirmed that their names were carved there. On occasion, a parent was listed as being buried as well, and he was saddened at the sight of the red kanji alongside the name of the deceased spouse. No parent should have to bury both their child and their partner
Spotting a person with an umbrella standing before a grave a few rows over, Conan kept an eye on them as he continued to look for Akazawa’s grave, wondering who they were visiting. As he walked down the row where they stood, he realized that he recognized the person as the sad-looking girl in pigtails who he had saw leaving Yomiyama North a few days prior. Conan slowed as he approached the girl, not wishing to intrude too much. Then he saw the name of the family plot and stopped in his tracks. Akazawa.
“Stupid oniisan…” she said, clearly not realizing that he was there. Everything clicked into place at her words, and Conan glanced between her and the grave of Akazawa Kazuma a few times.
“Is your brother buried here?” he asked, hating to bother her but knowing he had to confirm the information.
“Yeah…” the girl murmured, eyes fixed on the grave of her bother. Fresh flowers sat in front of it, as well as the remains of incense sticks. It was too wet to burn any today, so someone had clearly been here frequently before this. Her, if he had to guess.
“I’m sorry.”
“Stupid, selfish oniisan, leaving me alone like this,” she said, voice filled with bitterness. Conan reflected that she either hadn’t heard him or didn’t care to hear pity from a stranger. Her next words proved him wrong. “Thanks for thinking of him,” the girl said in a slightly kinder tone. “Did you know him somehow?”
“Ah, no, no. It’s just so sad to see someone his age here. I don’t mean to bother you, oneesan,” he said quickly, not having to fake looking sad. Her brother shouldn’t be here at all, and that just made him ever more eager to make sure no more teenagers were buried this year.
“I see…and it’s alright, I don’t mind. It’s rather nice to have someone else here with me. I’m Akazawa Izumi,” she said, looking down at him.
“Edogawa Conan. Pleased to meet you, Akazawa-san!” he replied, flashing her a smile.
“And what are you doing here, Edogawa-kun?”
“I’m just looking around…” he replied, looking back her brother’s grave.
“A young child, alone in a graveyard?” she mused, and he tried not to fidget.
“My parents don’t mind, and I think this place is kind of neat,” he offered by way of explanation. They probably wouldn’t, now that he thought about it.
“I see…I’m about done here, so would you mind walking to the gate with me?” the girl asked, and Conan looked up at her curiously. She still looked sad, and he realized that she was probably lonely.
“I’ll come with you,” he agreed with a nod, and was pleased to see her expression lift a little. They both said a final prayer for Akazawa’s spirit, then headed back towards the main entrance.
“Do you have any siblings?”
“No, but I do have a close friend who’s like a sister to me. What about you?”
“Oniisan was my only one,” she replied quietly, and Conan gave her a sympathetic look. Akazawa then said in a sharper tone, “If your friend is that close to you, you should do everything possible to protect and cherish them. Otherwise they might slip away.”
“I know…I will.” The detective looked down at the wet path and frowned. Ran was dear to him, and he was already doing everything possible to protect her. Hopefully it would be enough.
“Good,” she said firmly, and they walked together in comfortable silence until they reached the gate. “Thank you, Edogawa-kun, and goodbye. Be careful going home.”
“Ok, I will. Good luck, Akazawa-san,” he said, and she nodded before walking away. He should have taken the opportunity to interview her, but something in her expression had made him swallow his questions. Conan watched her until she was out of sight, desperately hoping that she would be able to smile again one day.
- - -
“Hm?” Conan had been walking at random, trying to think of a new angle to approach the case by when he realized that he was in a familiar part of town. Tilting his umbrella back, he looked at the building that housed the Studio M. doll shop. After staring at it for a few seconds, he got an idea. Perhaps the old lady who ran it might have some valuable information.
“Welcome,” the old woman said as he entered, shaking the rain from his umbrella. “My, it’s unusual to see children your age here. Are you a customer?”
“No, obaasan. I was hoping you could answer a few questions for me, if you’re not busy.” As before, the shop was deserted except for her, and the multitude of dolls seemed to be staring at him in the dim light.
“Not as customer? Understandable, since I doubt you could afford even the cheapest doll here. But I will answer your questions if I can. Would you care for some tea?”
Conan blinked at the familiar-sounding dialogue, then nodded. “Yes please.” As the shopkeeper vanished into a hidden back room, the detective waited by the counter, not wishing to venture further into the shop unless he had to. Still, he had to admit that the dolls were nice to look at in their own weird way, so he passed the time by examining those closest to the door.
When the old lady returned, tea tray in hand, she also brought along a stool and set it on the side of the counter Conan was on. After he scrambled up onto it, she handed him a cup of tea. “What do you wish to ask me, child?”
“Um…I know this will sound weird, but do you know of any strange things happening in the last five years or so?”
“Strange things, hm? Many strange things happen in this town. Even the name of this town is strange. Yomiyama. Care to be more specific?” She sipped her tea calmly then, as if she had all the time in the world to talk. Perhaps she did.
“Well, I heard someone say that a lot of people die for a town this size, and I wanted to know if it was true,” he asked carefully, watching her closely.
The old woman froze for a moment, then set her tea cup down. “Do you believe in curses, child?”
“No.”
“No, of course you don’t. You’re too small to be possessed, anyway.” She chuckled at that, then continued in a more serious tone, “You should believe in them, because this town is cursed. Cursed with death, that is.”
Conan took a drink of tea, using the motion to hide a smile. This again. He supposed he should have known better than to ask an old lady about strange occurrences. “How so?” he asked as politely as he could.
“Some say that a group of teenagers summoned a demon many years ago to get revenge on one of their classmates, but I don’t believe that. No, Death itself resides in this town, killing people and taking their souls in revenge for being forced to stay here. And it has been here for a long time, too. Who called Death here and why it continues to stay, I cannot say, but that is the reason for all of the deaths.” The shopkeeper paused to take a drink, then waved a hand at the shop. “It’s why I like being around all these dolls, you see. There is no way Death is going to get my soul!”
Conan spent a few more minutes with the old lady, then left once he had finished his tea. The rain had stopped, so he tucked his umbrella under his arm and went through his notes again. Blaming everything on a curse seemed typical behaviour for a small town like this, but he knew that the serial killer was still out there, no doubt already planning to kill their next victim.
Footnote
On traditional Japanese family graves, when a widow or widower buys a grave for their deceased spouse, their names are sometimes carved into the stone at the same time to cut down on costs, with the living spouse’s name in red to signify they are still alive.
Part 2 | Master Post | Part 4
Fandom: Detective Conan/Another
Genre: Crossover, Mystery, Supernatural
Rating: PG
Characters: Conan Edogawa, Ai Haibara, Detective Boys, cameos from various members of the Another cast
Word Count: 3,477
Part 3
It had taken a bit of searching, but Conan had finally located a phone booth near the hotel they were staying at. He couldn’t use the phone in his room since it was impossible for Mitsuhiko and Genta to not listen in, or, if they happened to be out, to accidentally walk in on a conversation they shouldn’t be hearing. As he waited for Professor Agasa to pick up, the detective hoped there was some information he was missing about the case available on the internet.
“Good evening, this is the Agasa residence. May I ask who is calling?”
“Hakase, it’s me.” Conan smirked at the formal tone his friend was using - Haibara has obviously been on him about his phone manners, and he was being extra-polite in case she called.
“Ah, Shinichi! How is your trip going? Are Ai-kun and the others well?”
“Yes, they’re fine. Yomiyama is pretty nice, but I think I’ve uncovered a case and I was hoping you could do some online research for me.”
“Oh? What kind of case?”
As Conan explained everything that he had found so far, he decided that for now, he wouldn’t ask Hattori for help. Osaka was a long way away from Yomiyama, and he doubted the Great Detective of the West had even heard of the city. If there was no indication that something sinister was happening to outsiders, then there was probably no rumours that Hattori would be able to pass along.
Once he finished, the professor was silent for a moment. “A serial killer is a dangerous type of criminal to approach,” he warned. “Remember was happened in New York?”
Conan sighed, not wanting to get off topic. “Yeah, but everything turned out fine then. As long as I’m careful, I’m sure the same will hold true here. I will be careful, Agasa-hakase. I promise you that.”
“Very well, Shinichi. I’ll have a look and see if I can find out anything online. Call back Saturday night.”
“Alright, goodbye.” The professor didn’t seem too happy about the case Conan had unearthed, but the boy was confident that he would emerge from this unharmed.
Digging in his pocket for more change, he also took out his bowtie and fiddled with the dials on the back. Time to make the call he had been thinking about all evening. Once he finished dialling Ran’s number, he leaned back against the glass wall of the phone booth and looked up at the evening sky. The moon was up, just visible above the roofs of the buildings across the street, and he wondered if she was looking at it too.
“Hello?”
“Hi Ran.”
“Shinichi!” She seemed both surprised and happy to hear from him, and he grinned to himself, anticipating her next sentence. “You idiot, you should have called me sooner!”
“I’m sorry! Really, I am. It’s this case, it keeps me so busy that sometimes I simply can’t call.” He knew that Ran wasn’t really mad at him, since this type of conversation was normal every time they spoke.
“Jeeze, look at you. Off on a case when you should be in school. Everything’s going ok, then? You’re not in any danger?”
Conan bit his lip, wishing he could see her as Shinichi more often. Summoning a cheerful tone, he answered, “I can’t really talk about the case, but yeah, I’m doing alright. What are you up to these days?”
“Not much outside of school. Dad’s working on another case, so I’m alone tonight. Oh! Conan-kun is away on a class trip. Have you ever heard of a place called Yomiyama?”
“Yomiyama…no, I don’t think so. We had some good class trips when we were his age, so I hope he has a good time!”
They chatted for a few more minutes, then when Conan sensed that the conversation was coming to an end, asked, “Hey Ran? Is the moon up in Tokyo?”
“The moon? Uh…yeah, yeah it is. Why?”
“Ah…” He hesitated for a moment, raising his eyes to the rising moon. So she could see it too. “No reason, really. It’s just cloudy here, and I thought I heard someone say that it was particularly bright tonight.”
“I see…well, I can’t tell if it’s brighter than usual, but it looks nice. Shinichi? Come home soon, ok?”
Conan closed his eyes, wishing he could be there with her now. “I’ll…I’ll try, Ran.”
“Alright. I have homework to do, so I better go. Goodnight, Shinichi.” Ran sounded a little upset, and he couldn’t blame her. He should be by her side.
“Goodnight, Ran.” Stepping out of the phone booth, he looked up at the moon again, telling himself that he would return to being Shinichi soon.
- - -
“See you at the hotel!” Ayumi waved to Conan and Haibara as she walked off with Genta and Mitsuhiko, and the detective turned to his partner. He had given the case some thought during class, and had decided on a plan of action. “Since the serial killer is targeting Class 3-3, they must have a connection to it. We need to find out who was in that class and start investigating them.”
Haibara nodded in agreement and asked, “How far back are we looking?”
“Hm…” He frowned, knowing that what he was going to say was all speculation. “Assuming that the serial killer has only been active since 1990, that’ll give us three years to look at, since no murders occurred last year or in 1991.” He couldn’t imagine that the murders had been going on longer than six years - with the large number of deaths involved, the police would have done something already if it had started before that.
“That’s a large amount of people to investigate, especially since we can’t access Yomiyama North’s records.” Conan narrowed his eyes at that. He would have to make another trip back to that school, since there was still information there he needed to look at. But this time he would be much more careful now that he had an idea of when the librarian closed the library down.
“I was thinking we could start with the families of the deceased to see if they knew anything,” he said at last, digging his notebook out and looking at it for a moment. “We’ll make a stop at the library to get the complete list of names, then start from there on Sunday.”
“Right, Yoshida-san and the others wish to do something after class tomorrow…” Haibara trailed off, her expression unreadable as she looked at him.
“I don’t mind playing with them for an afternoon,” Conan replied with a shrug. “Sure, it takes time away from the case, but we are children at the moment. It would be odd if we didn’t have fun once in a while. As long as we don’t play baseball all afternoon, I’ll be fine.”
“And if it is baseball, you’ll just have to manage, won’t you?” she said with a smirk, making him huff in annoyance.
“Come on, let’s hurry and catch the next bus. I don’t want to walk today,” he said quickly, glancing up at the sky. It was overcast, and the clouds had the look of rain.
- - -
Raindrops flew off his hood as Conan flipped it back, closing the door of the phone booth behind him. The rain had held off until after supper, so the Detective Boys had been able to play outside all afternoon. Thankfully, while they started with baseball, enough of their classmates had joined them to be able to play soccer later. The boy had been surprised by how much fun he had had, although he never fully forgot the case he was working on. As he waited for Professor Agasa to pick up, he hoped he could solve the case in the week he had left.
“Good evening, this is the Agasa residence. May I ask who is calling?”
“Good evening, Hakase,” he said with a smile.
“Ah, hello Shinichi! How is the case going?”
“Slow. There’s a lot to investigate, and not much time to do so.”
“Hm, I see. I’m afraid I can’t be much help to you. All of the official information is pretty generic, designed for tourists and the like. But I did discover something interesting on a message board.” Agasa sounded both happy and hesitant, and that made Conan wonder what he had found.
“Oh? What is it?” he prompted after a few moments of silence.
“Well…some people were talking about how Yomiyama was a cursed place for teenagers to live in, because so many of them ended up dead. People on there said that some students had formed a cult years ago, and the vengeful spirit they had called up still lingered in the town, devouring the souls of unfortunate teenagers who happened across it.”
“Hakase…” Conan sighed, slumping against the side of the booth. There was no such thing as a curse, so there was no point looking into it.
“I know it’s not really true, but that’s the only unusual thing about Yomiyama I could find. There was no mention of a serial killer on the loose.”
“Oh well. Thanks for looking around. I really appreciate it.” If nothing else, the walk from the hotel to the phone booth and back gave him some exercise.
“You’re welcome, Shinichi. I hope you solve the case, but please be careful.” The Professor sounded worried, so Conan summoned some cheer as he answered.
“I’ll be fine, don’t worry. I can call you again early this week to check in if you want.” Agasa agreed to that, so they said their goodbyes and hung up. As he prepared to go back out into the rain, the detective resolved to focus as much as he could on this case. If no one in town could stop the serial killer, then it was up to him to do it.
- - -
“Are you sure you don’t need my assistance?” Haibara asked as they stood in the lobby of the hotel.
“No, I’ll be alright. I’m just going to talk to some of the families and check out the graveyard. Besides, I need you to keep the others busy.” While it might be better if there were two of them, he was confident he would be fine on his own.
“I’m sure I’ll think of something, then. Good luck, Kudo-kun,” Haibara answered, giving him a mysterious smile as he turned to leave.
“Thanks, but I think you’ll be needing more luck than me,” he said, waving goodbye as he walked toward the doors. It was still raining, but this time he had an umbrella with him.
- - -
“Don’t remember anything, huh?” Conan muttered to himself as he left the house of another family who had lost a child to the serial killer. He had gotten much the same response from everyone else he had interviewed so far - they either didn’t remember anything strange occurring or refused to talk about it altogether. He understood not wanting to talk, for the wound was still fresh for many of the families.
Shifting his umbrella so that water wouldn’t drip onto his notebook, he looked at the list of names again. While he had written down all the names of those who died and as many names of their classmates as he could find, there was no way he could interview them all by himself. He would have to be more selective.
“Akazawa Kazuma…” he murmured, gaze landing on the name of the most recent victim. He hadn’t talked to his family yet, but perhaps because the death was so fresh, they would remember something that the other families had forgotten with the passage of time. He was going to stop by the graveyard anyway, so there was no point in delaying any longer.
The rain had tapered to a light drizzle by the time he reached the graveyard, but he put his umbrella up anyway as he started to walk among the rows of graves. He had no idea were the Akazawa family plot was, so he would have to search until he found it. As he walked among the graves, Conan wished that the Japanese had the custom of listing the birth and death dates of those they buried instead of just grouping everyone under the same family name. It might make finding information about this case a little easier.
Even so, he recognized some of the family names of the victims on his list, and a closer look at the graves confirmed that their names were carved there. On occasion, a parent was listed as being buried as well, and he was saddened at the sight of the red kanji alongside the name of the deceased spouse. No parent should have to bury both their child and their partner
Spotting a person with an umbrella standing before a grave a few rows over, Conan kept an eye on them as he continued to look for Akazawa’s grave, wondering who they were visiting. As he walked down the row where they stood, he realized that he recognized the person as the sad-looking girl in pigtails who he had saw leaving Yomiyama North a few days prior. Conan slowed as he approached the girl, not wishing to intrude too much. Then he saw the name of the family plot and stopped in his tracks. Akazawa.
“Stupid oniisan…” she said, clearly not realizing that he was there. Everything clicked into place at her words, and Conan glanced between her and the grave of Akazawa Kazuma a few times.
“Is your brother buried here?” he asked, hating to bother her but knowing he had to confirm the information.
“Yeah…” the girl murmured, eyes fixed on the grave of her bother. Fresh flowers sat in front of it, as well as the remains of incense sticks. It was too wet to burn any today, so someone had clearly been here frequently before this. Her, if he had to guess.
“I’m sorry.”
“Stupid, selfish oniisan, leaving me alone like this,” she said, voice filled with bitterness. Conan reflected that she either hadn’t heard him or didn’t care to hear pity from a stranger. Her next words proved him wrong. “Thanks for thinking of him,” the girl said in a slightly kinder tone. “Did you know him somehow?”
“Ah, no, no. It’s just so sad to see someone his age here. I don’t mean to bother you, oneesan,” he said quickly, not having to fake looking sad. Her brother shouldn’t be here at all, and that just made him ever more eager to make sure no more teenagers were buried this year.
“I see…and it’s alright, I don’t mind. It’s rather nice to have someone else here with me. I’m Akazawa Izumi,” she said, looking down at him.
“Edogawa Conan. Pleased to meet you, Akazawa-san!” he replied, flashing her a smile.
“And what are you doing here, Edogawa-kun?”
“I’m just looking around…” he replied, looking back her brother’s grave.
“A young child, alone in a graveyard?” she mused, and he tried not to fidget.
“My parents don’t mind, and I think this place is kind of neat,” he offered by way of explanation. They probably wouldn’t, now that he thought about it.
“I see…I’m about done here, so would you mind walking to the gate with me?” the girl asked, and Conan looked up at her curiously. She still looked sad, and he realized that she was probably lonely.
“I’ll come with you,” he agreed with a nod, and was pleased to see her expression lift a little. They both said a final prayer for Akazawa’s spirit, then headed back towards the main entrance.
“Do you have any siblings?”
“No, but I do have a close friend who’s like a sister to me. What about you?”
“Oniisan was my only one,” she replied quietly, and Conan gave her a sympathetic look. Akazawa then said in a sharper tone, “If your friend is that close to you, you should do everything possible to protect and cherish them. Otherwise they might slip away.”
“I know…I will.” The detective looked down at the wet path and frowned. Ran was dear to him, and he was already doing everything possible to protect her. Hopefully it would be enough.
“Good,” she said firmly, and they walked together in comfortable silence until they reached the gate. “Thank you, Edogawa-kun, and goodbye. Be careful going home.”
“Ok, I will. Good luck, Akazawa-san,” he said, and she nodded before walking away. He should have taken the opportunity to interview her, but something in her expression had made him swallow his questions. Conan watched her until she was out of sight, desperately hoping that she would be able to smile again one day.
- - -
“Hm?” Conan had been walking at random, trying to think of a new angle to approach the case by when he realized that he was in a familiar part of town. Tilting his umbrella back, he looked at the building that housed the Studio M. doll shop. After staring at it for a few seconds, he got an idea. Perhaps the old lady who ran it might have some valuable information.
“Welcome,” the old woman said as he entered, shaking the rain from his umbrella. “My, it’s unusual to see children your age here. Are you a customer?”
“No, obaasan. I was hoping you could answer a few questions for me, if you’re not busy.” As before, the shop was deserted except for her, and the multitude of dolls seemed to be staring at him in the dim light.
“Not as customer? Understandable, since I doubt you could afford even the cheapest doll here. But I will answer your questions if I can. Would you care for some tea?”
Conan blinked at the familiar-sounding dialogue, then nodded. “Yes please.” As the shopkeeper vanished into a hidden back room, the detective waited by the counter, not wishing to venture further into the shop unless he had to. Still, he had to admit that the dolls were nice to look at in their own weird way, so he passed the time by examining those closest to the door.
When the old lady returned, tea tray in hand, she also brought along a stool and set it on the side of the counter Conan was on. After he scrambled up onto it, she handed him a cup of tea. “What do you wish to ask me, child?”
“Um…I know this will sound weird, but do you know of any strange things happening in the last five years or so?”
“Strange things, hm? Many strange things happen in this town. Even the name of this town is strange. Yomiyama. Care to be more specific?” She sipped her tea calmly then, as if she had all the time in the world to talk. Perhaps she did.
“Well, I heard someone say that a lot of people die for a town this size, and I wanted to know if it was true,” he asked carefully, watching her closely.
The old woman froze for a moment, then set her tea cup down. “Do you believe in curses, child?”
“No.”
“No, of course you don’t. You’re too small to be possessed, anyway.” She chuckled at that, then continued in a more serious tone, “You should believe in them, because this town is cursed. Cursed with death, that is.”
Conan took a drink of tea, using the motion to hide a smile. This again. He supposed he should have known better than to ask an old lady about strange occurrences. “How so?” he asked as politely as he could.
“Some say that a group of teenagers summoned a demon many years ago to get revenge on one of their classmates, but I don’t believe that. No, Death itself resides in this town, killing people and taking their souls in revenge for being forced to stay here. And it has been here for a long time, too. Who called Death here and why it continues to stay, I cannot say, but that is the reason for all of the deaths.” The shopkeeper paused to take a drink, then waved a hand at the shop. “It’s why I like being around all these dolls, you see. There is no way Death is going to get my soul!”
Conan spent a few more minutes with the old lady, then left once he had finished his tea. The rain had stopped, so he tucked his umbrella under his arm and went through his notes again. Blaming everything on a curse seemed typical behaviour for a small town like this, but he knew that the serial killer was still out there, no doubt already planning to kill their next victim.
Footnote
On traditional Japanese family graves, when a widow or widower buys a grave for their deceased spouse, their names are sometimes carved into the stone at the same time to cut down on costs, with the living spouse’s name in red to signify they are still alive.
Part 2 | Master Post | Part 4