Chapter 4: Ran's Revenge

Sorry about the late update! Really! I haven't had much time these days (I think I only had an hour on this chapter) because of band. Argh I sometimes wish I hadn't joined, but then I would be very fat.

So hope ya enjoy this chapter, since I made the best use of my hour to make an interesting story for ya. So enjoy!

The car ride to the hot tubs was a quiet one (they were in a taxi). Conan (Shinichi) squirmed regularly. He was sitting in the back with Heiji, who wondered why Ran refused to sit next to Conan. There seemed to be a very disturbing mood in the air that Kazuha couldn't help but notice. Ran seemed to be ignoring Conan entirely while Conan tried to avoid Heiji's suspicious glance. Although she wondered what was going on, she decided it was best to leave it alone.

When they finally arrived at the hot tubs, Kazuha suggested that they stay overnight. She knew that this would make the atmosphere more relaxed. Ran huffed out a reply while Heiji reluctantly agreed. Conan kept silent and fixated his gaze at the ground. There is definitely something wrong here. She thought.

Heiji finally dragged Conan away from the group to talk privately. "Oi Kudo! What is going on here?" he asked.

"Nothing, except Ran saw me change to my little self."

"WHAT! Oh geese, I knew this 'I'm going to stop the date' attitude would get ya in trouble. So how much did ya tell her?"

Conan shot him a glance. "Well, I told her about everything, except for the fact that I saw her in the HOT TUBS until YOU had to go and remind her!"

Heiji burst out laughing. "Ya mean she… Ahahahaha! Great job Kudo! Ya should have known it would bite ya in the butt sometime!"

"Ha ha ha. Now stop laughing and help me."

"Of course! Of course!" Heiji said, wiping a tear away. "Well, the way I see it, ya should just wait until she cools off. Then, ya could tell her how much ya love her!"

"I already did."

That stopped him short. Heiji just stood there mouth open at his sudden change of attitude. "Really! If it was you, I would have expected ya to keep it to yerself until the end of time."

"I could say the same to you." Conan replied coolly.

Twenty minutes later, after the Osakan had finished arguing with the shrunken teen, they headed back to the check-in desk, where they had left Ran and Kazuha. Looking around, they saw that they were nowhere to be seen.

"Excuse me nee-chan!" Conan asked the check-in lady. "Have you seen two dark-haired one-chan? They were here not too long ago."

"Ah, if you mean the two young ladies, they booked two rooms and told me to give this to you." With that she handed them their room key. "Hope you have a nice stay!"

"So she really is pissed." Heiji said, as they walked down the hall to their room. "I mean, separate rooms for her and Kazuha? Ya really need to let her cool down."

"I know, I know." Conan replied. "I just hope she never remembers anything else that is embarrassing."

Normally, Heiji would have teased Kudo into a rage, but he felt that he needed some lightening up, so he tried to comfort him. He later realized how awful he was at it.

"Come on Kudo. I'm sure she wouldn't stay mad too long. It's not like ya did that much, did ya?"

"Oh sure Hattori. I made her confide with me, left her waiting, turned her dad into a horrible person, bathed with her, kissed her, let her hold me, saw her in ridiculous outfits, and…"

Conan glared at Heiji who started shrieking with laughter. He stopped immediately when he saw the glare. Well so much for comforting. I think I'll just stick with teasing.

When they were finally settled into their room, they got a call from Kazuha telling them to come over to the outside restaurant on level two. "Don't forget," she warned, "that you're paying for it!" and she hung up before he got a full protest through the phone.

"Darn that Kazuha! Always making me pay for stuff when she is the one who suggests these things!" he threw the phone onto its stand, where it bounced off and fell to the floor. Heiji looked at Conan, and found him deep in thought. He chuckled. "So Kudo, still trying to figure out a way out of this business?"

Conan sighed and nodded. "I just don't understand girls! They can forgive you for betraying them for a year and they can't forgive you for seeing them naked! What am I supposed to do? It's not like I saw her or anything. It was her fault for forcing me."

"And ya agreed when she asked ya again later? I think she remembers that."

"Oh, right."

When they arrived at the open restaurant, they saw that Ran and Kazuha were conversing with some unfamiliar people. "Oh! Conan-kun and Heiji! Meet Takami Misho and Kutaba Hina!"

The two people rose and greeted them. Misho was a guy in his early twenties with a small mustache. Hina was a woman around his age with soft black hair and tan skin. "Hi! You must be Conan-kun!" said Hina. "And the famous detective, Hattori Heiji!" she said, addressing Heiji.

"Uh, yeah! Uh, so who are ya?"

"Heiji!" Kazuha snapped and glared at him for being so rude.

"Oh don't worry! After all, we were the ones who intruded. Let me make a proper introduction. My name is Kutaba Hina, and I am a veterinarian. And this is Takami Misho, who is a teacher. We're getting married!" said Hina, grabbing Misho's arm and squeezing it tightly. Misho blushed slightly at his girlfriend's openness. "Sorry for intruding, but me and my girlfriend are into mysteries, and we identified Ran here as the daughter of Mr. Mouri Kogoro. We were overjoyed when we heard that the famous Osakan detective was here also."

"Yup! Sorry for intruding~"

All of them sweat dropped slightly at her openness, but they didn't mind. Kazuha asked them to dine with them, and so they ate at a big table. They learned a lot about these newcomers without too much trouble. Hina-san spilled it out.

"Actually, we were waiting for our friend, but he is more than 30 minutes late." Hina explained. "We just kept waiting, but he never showed up!"

"But shouldn't you keep waiting? I mean, he might just be coming late."

"Well it's his fault for not showing up! If he has the nerve to make us keep waiting, I say we ditch him!"

"Oh, is that so?" Ran replied, and gave a dangerous glance at Conan, who was sweating nervously. He was beginning to think of excusing himself when they all heard a loud scream from the direction of the bathrooms. Conan and Heiji sprung into immediate action and raced to the bathrooms. When they arrived, they were met with a horrifying sight. There, sprawled on the floor of the bathroom, was a dead body. A women (It was the girl's restroom o_O) was screaming at it. Conan stopped a man who was about to enter and said, "No one enter this bathroom! This man here was murdered! Someone call the cops!"

The man, who only wanted to see what the commotion was about (pervert!) was surprised to see a little kid yelling orders. However, upon hearing the word "murdered", he decided to take heed of his orders.

Conan looked at Heiji, who was putting his fingers on the victim's neck. Heiji looked up and shook his head. Conan cursed under his breath and began checking on the body.

When the police finally came, it was already 8:00 in the afternoon. Takagi and Sato had come. They took one look at Conan and Ran and started asking if they really were cursed. After they reassured them that they had never taken anything from a temple, they started filling them in on what happened.

"I see, so since there were only you guys and a couple of people in the restaurant, the suspects are very few. Furthermore, the deceased is Keiji Fuhara-san, who is the friend that Hina-chan and Misho-san were waiting for 30 minutes. Is that correct?"

"Yes," replied a very teary Hina-san. "We were waiting for him at about 6:50 to 7:20. Then we met Ran-chan and her friends at about 7:30."

"What were you doing during that 10 minute interval?"

"I was convincing Misho to ditch Keiji, and we started wandering around and looking for a table."

"I see. And Keiji-san died at approximately 6:00. May I ask what you were doing before 6:50?"

"Yes, we went to separate hot tubs."

"I see. That makes it so that everyone in this restaurant has an alibi except for you two, since no one can exactly testify who they saw in such a foggy climate."

"Are you saying you suspect us?"

"For the time being. No one is sure if anyone left this restaurant around 6:00, so we can't be sure."

"Oh."

Conan listened closely to the conversation and started to make mental notes to himself. Ran, suddenly realizing the concentrated expression on both tantei's faces, suddenly got an idea. She smirked, seeing how Heiji and Shinichi were both intent on the case. She knew what she was going to do.

She was going to expose Shinichi to Heiji.

DUM DUM DUM! Again! Ran is going to "expose" Shinichi to Heiji! How will that work out?

Next chapter! Ran's Revenge part 2! look foward to it!