Three Suspects, One Choice
Kazuha looked a little deflated, but with friends around her she recovered quickly enough. She shot Heiji a glare before picking up where he'd left off. "Heiji's not wrong, though. From what I know, the contestant who got targeted really is something else. Her dancing is gorgeous — honestly, she's one of the most beautiful dancers I've seen in the entire preliminary round!"
"I happened to pass by her practice room once, and through the crack in the door I caught a little of her routine. Her dancing was honestly mesmerizing." Even now, recalling that moment, a trace of admiration crept across Kazuha's face.
"Seriously?" Heiji sounded skeptical.
"Of course it's serious!" Kazuha insisted. "I saw it with my own two eyes!"
"In that case," Conan said, lowering his head in thought, "it's quite possible someone was jealous of her — and that's what set all this in motion."
"Everything so far is just speculation, of course. The actual investigation at the scene will tell us more." Subaru Okiya turned to Kazuha. "Miss Toyama, would an outsider be able to enter the competition venue?"
Kazuha shook her head. "Normally, no — outsiders aren't allowed in, to avoid unnecessary complications. Even today, I had to come out myself just to meet you all. Although……"
Just as the Detective Boys were starting to look disappointed at her words, Heiji Hattori cut in.
"Although…… I think I've got a way to get us into that venue. Just wait for the good news."
With that, Heiji strode off toward the officers stationed at the entrance to the competition grounds.
Everyone watched him exchange a few words with the officers, then turn around and wave them over, signaling them to come on through.
And so, thanks to Heiji's connections, the whole group slipped smoothly into the preliminary venue.
Once inside, Heiji turned to Kazuha. "Kazuha, do you know which room it happened in?"
"No idea," she said, shaking her head. "But I do know where Nilou — that's the contestant — usually practices. There's a locker in that room, see. Everyone keeps their personal stuff in the locker of the room they use most, so I'm guessing the dance shoes someone tampered with are still in there. That's probably the crime scene."
"So her name's Nilou, huh," Sonoko said with a nod.
"Such a pretty name, too," Ran added with a smile.
"Nilou?!" At the familiar name, Xiayu's voice rose despite herself.
She had already guessed seven or eight parts in ten when Kazuha praised the contestant's dancing, but hearing the name spoken aloud — real and unmistakable — still caught her off guard.
Paimon couldn't help worrying the moment she heard the news. "The victim is actually Nilou?! Is she okay?!"
"Relax — remember what Kazuha just said? Nilou spotted someone's little scheme ahead of time. She'll be fine," Xiayu reassured her.
"Phew, that's a relief." Paimon let out a sigh, then quickly worked herself up again. "But whoever did this has a rotten heart, messing with a sweet girl like Nilou! Traveler, you have to catch the culprit this time and teach them a proper lesson!"
"Leave it to me," Xiayu answered without hesitation.
The others, noticing how startled she'd been at the name, all turned to look at her.
"Xiayu — don't tell me this is another friend of yours?" Sonoko asked, eyeing her sidelong, the corner of her mouth twitching.
"If nothing's gone wrong, then yes," Xiayu admitted with a nod.
Subaru Okiya and Conan shot her an odd look before exchanging a glance of their own — and taking a considerably sharper interest in the case.
Before long, the group followed Kazuha to the practice rooms.
The door of the room in question stood wide open, and even from the hallway it was plain that the place was packed — contestants, police officers, staff, all crowded together inside.
It was then that Xiayu spotted a familiar figure.
She blinked in surprise. By all rights, the girl should have been at the Kamisato family's old estate at this hour, entertaining Zhongli and the others alongside her brother.
"Ayaka! Over here!" Xiayu waved and called out.
Inside the room, Kamisato Ayaka had been explaining the situation to the investigating officers when she suddenly heard her name. She turned — and to her delight, found the Traveler standing there.
A faint smile curved Ayaka's lips, and with a glance she signaled Xiayu to come in and wait; she would come find her the moment she finished here.
As for Xiayu running into yet another acquaintance, Ran and Sonoko had long since stopped being surprised. They simply didn't have it in them anymore.
Conan and Subaru, on the other hand, traded a look, then fixed their attention ahead, quietly studying the girl whose name marked her — in all likelihood — as the young mistress of the Kamisato family.
The Kamisato heiress had grey-blue eyes and snow-white hair gathered in a high ponytail. She wore a haori in shifting shades of blue over a deep-blue pleated skirt, patterned with falling cherry blossoms and flowing water.
Even at a distance she cut an elegant, graceful figure — composed and poised, every inch the dignified young noblewoman people imagined when they heard the words "young lady of a great house."
A red cord was bound at her waist, and at the center of the blue-violet bow at the small of her back hung a Vision — an ice-blue one.
Judging from the intelligence they'd gathered before, this had to be a Vision representing ice and snow.
The framing around it, however, was something neither of them had ever seen before. Conan guessed that she most likely belonged to some new division of the Teyvat organization.
Seeing that Ayaka would be tied up for a while yet, Xiayu went off with Heiji to get the rundown on the case first.
Heiji Hattori, true to form as the only son of Osaka's police chief Hattori Heizo, was on familiar terms with all these officers, and within a few exchanges he'd coaxed a detailed account of the incident out of them.
The story went like this: about half an hour earlier — around noon — Nilou had finished lunch and returned to the practice room to change her shoes and resume training, only to discover that the contents of her locker had been disturbed. Suspicious, she had examined everything carefully, and that was when she realized her dance shoes had been tampered with.
Yet those same shoes had gone into the locker only after her last practice session, right before she left for the cafeteria — and at that point they'd been perfectly fine.
In other words, the culprit had made their move during the roughly one-hour window between Nilou leaving the room at eleven and returning at noon.
And according to the hallway security footage, only three people had entered the practice room during that window — only three who could possibly have done it.
"Well, that narrows the suspect pool considerably," Conan murmured, stroking his chin.
He'd assumed that with this many people coming and going, pinning down a range of suspects would be the hard part.
By now Conan and Subaru had finished surveying their surroundings and drifted over to Heiji's side, where the officers were laying out the facts of the case.
"Indeed," Subaru agreed with a nod.
"So who exactly are the three suspects, mister? Come on, tell us!" Genta, who had been hanging on the officer's every word, tugged impatiently at the man's sleeve when he abruptly stopped mid-sentence.
"Ah! Oh — right, the three of them are……" The officer snapped back to attention and continued.
And so, from him, they learned the identities of the three suspects:
Suspect number one: a fellow contestant, Ai Mizuno — she, too, would be performing in the preliminary round, making her a direct rival of Nilou's.
Suspect number two: a member of the event staff, Yoko Murata, who'd had a dispute with Nilou over the stage setup.
And suspect number three: yet another contestant — Barbara……