Takagi... Miwako
It took Charlotte a great deal of talking before she finally talked him out of it.
Only after Charlotte and Editor-in-Chief Takeuchi had brought their topic to a close did Mizunashi Rena ask with curiosity, "Have you been running into some trouble lately too, Miss Charlotte?"
Takeuchi Koichi, thinking nothing of it, briefly recounted the threatening letter incident.
"I had no idea this Miss Xia Yu was also a detective of considerable skill," Mizunashi Rena said, shifting her attention to Xia Yu at last.
She hadn't paid much mind to the woman before — one glance had told her only that Xia Yu was beautiful and gentle, and Mizunashi had assumed she was simply a friend of Mouri Ran and Charlotte's. To learn from the Editor-in-Chief's words that she was also a detective with real talent — appearances really could be deceiving.
Granted, Xia Yu had solved a fair number of cases and had made something of a name for herself, but thanks to a certain someone, very few people ever connected the solver to Xia Yu herself. That was why Mizunashi Rena had no idea she was looking at a genuinely capable detective.
And so, though she spared some attention for Xia Yu, Mizunashi's focus remained chiefly on the great detective Mouri Kogoro.
Meanwhile, while the others chatted with Mizunashi, Conan slipped back to the apartment entrance and, using chewing gum as an adhesive, planted a bug on the outside of the door.
"On the Tuesday after the October holidays ended, the doorbell rang again — and this time there was a bottle of some unknown drug sitting at my door. I had a doctor friend of mine examine it, and he said it was sleeping pills."
By the time Conan made it back to Mizunashi Rena's living room, she was detailing the recent events with an uneasy expression.
Sleeping pills — one mention of the stuff and anyone's mind jumped straight to a stalker.
"So it really is a stalker, then," Mouri Kogoro conjectured.
At his words, Takeuchi Koichi glanced at Charlotte, and seeing the way she averted her eyes, understood that she still had no intention of moving. He couldn't force her, so all he could do was quietly resolve to keep a closer watch on her situation from now on, and drop by when he had the time.
"Miss Mizunashi," Charlotte said, "besides the sleeping pills, has anything else unusual happened?"
Charlotte — still blissfully unaware of how much of her freedom was about to evaporate — was pondering this latest doorbell incident of Mizunashi's.
"Ah!" At Charlotte's question, Mizunashi lowered her eyes and thought for a moment, then suddenly looked up in surprise. "Three nights ago — Tuesday, that is — I thought I saw someone inside the house next door. The one that should be empty."
"Then it seems our stalker may well have a key to the place next door. That would explain how he could ring your bell and vanish in an instant," Mouri Kogoro reasoned gravely after hearing her out.
To test his theory, the group went next door — and sure enough, the door was locked.
If they could just find a way inside, they might dig up some clues about the stalker.
Suddenly, a strange sound came from the lock before them — as if someone were unlocking it from the inside.
Everyone recoiled a step or two in alarm.
"Miss Mizunashi, are you certain no one lives next door?" Mouri Kogoro stared warily at the door about to swing open, asking over his shoulder without turning around.
"Yes, I'm certain." Mizunashi was every bit as startled by the situation, but of one thing she was sure — the unit next door was definitely vacant.
Under the bewildered stares of the group, the door opened, and out stepped the very last person any of them expected to see.
"Xia Yu? / Xia Yu, big sis? Why is it *you*?!"
Ran and Conan cried out in unison.
"Yes — Xia Yu, why were you coming out of *there*?" Mouri Kogoro demanded, equally stunned.
Faced with everyone's frightened expressions, Xia Yu couldn't help an amused little smile — though only for an instant. To spare them any awkwardness, she quickly composed herself, shrugged, and explained:
"I figured you'd never get that door open, so I climbed over from my balcony to this one, let myself in, and opened the door for you from the inside."
Everyone: "..."
Mouri Kogoro was silent a moment. "Xia Yu... the next time you do something like that, maybe give the rest of us a heads-up first."
That way, at least, they could brace themselves in advance. It was rather unseemly, how she kept startling him out of his wits.
Conan, for his part, wasn't especially surprised. In truth, the moment he'd seen that the neighbor's door wouldn't budge, he'd been planning to climb over the balconies himself — he just hadn't been quite as quick as Xia Yu, who had apparently acted without a moment's hesitation.
Conan shot a deadpan glance at Charlotte, who was stealthily giving Xia Yu a thumbs-up behind the others' backs, plainly full of approval. Figures. Now he understood exactly why the two of them had become such good friends.
The group entered the neighboring apartment, and their search turned up exactly what they expected — clear signs that someone had been inside recently.
"Ki-mi-wa..." Mouri Kogoro murmured, reading the writing left on the balcony glass. "What is that supposed to mean?"
"Takagi... Miwako?" Xia Yu ventured, her tone uncertain.
She couldn't help it. The moment she saw the characters for "Miwa," her mind jumped to "Miwako," and paired with that "Takagi" — well, her brain had instantly connected it to Officer Takagi, the one so hopelessly smitten with Officer Sato.
Still... putting the surname "Takagi" in front of the name "Miwako"...
"I never imagined Officer Takagi looked so honest and mild-mannered on the surface, but was dreaming this big underneath," Xia Yu said, genuinely impressed by him in a whole new way.
Conan stared at the three characters with an odd look in his eyes, the corner of his mouth twitching. "Heh. Yeah, imagine that."
But still... Takagi... Miwako... If he and Ran got married someday, would she become Kudo... Ran?
Xia Yu noticed Conan lost in some thought or other and started to giggle. Something about his smirk this time struck her as distinctly sleazy.
A familiar itch took hold of her palm, and she saw no reason to fight it. Ignoring Conan's protests, she planted her hand squarely on his head and ruffled his hair hard, scattering his daydream to the wind.
Later, a phone call to Officer Takagi confirmed everything: the person who had been staying next door to Mizunashi Rena those few days was indeed Officer Takagi, and the words he'd written on the glass really were "Takagi Miwako."
Amid his mortified, squirming cries of protest — that now more than one person knew his secret — Edogawa Conan decisively hung up the phone.
"That Takagi, the nerve of the man. Dreaming up nonsense like that while he's supposed to be on the job," Mouri Kogoro scoffed.
"Oh, I don't know. A beautiful romance is something everyone longs for — isn't that right, Ran?" Xia Yu said, casting a teasing glance at Mouri Ran.
"Y-yes, I suppose so." Ran flushed faintly and fidgeted, steering the conversation elsewhere. "It's still better than a certain someone who doesn't even pay attention to his own wife."