Cracking the Cipher
By the time the next day arrived, Conan—far away in London—had no idea what had happened in Osaka. He was still completely absorbed in the thrill and frustration of cracking the cipher, though thanks to yesterday's sudden complications, he was currently wearing the body of Kudou Shinichi.
With no way of knowing when the temporary antidote to APTX4869 would wear off, he couldn't afford to wander around outside. He had no choice but to stay holed up in the hotel with Professor Agasa, scouring the internet for information.
As for Ran, she seemed to have been overcome by shyness. The morning after his confession, she simply couldn't bring herself to face Shinichi, and instead dragged her father off to hunt for clues on her own.
They weren't alone in the effort, either. Once Lyney and Lynette learned what was going on, they had volunteered to help, and so the search for clues split into two parties—one led by Mouri Ran, the other by the twin magicians.
The first line of the cipher read: The roar of the great bell woke me from my sleep.
Kudou Shinichi had already solved that one yesterday—it pointed to Big Ben. But Ran had come rushing over before he'd had the chance to search the area for any trace the culprit might have left behind.
Fortunately, just moments ago, Lyney had called him with news.
The twins had also deduced that the first line referred to Big Ben, and so that was the very first place they'd gone. Sure enough, on the bridge they found a manhole cover tied with rope and suspended over the water, the letter A carved into its surface.
"If something heavy has been removed from the riverside, then something must surely have been sunk into the river. That conclusion cannot be wrong."
The moment Conan heard the report, he recognized the line at once—it came from "The Valley of Fear" in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.
Which meant the rest of the cipher should reference other famous words spoken by Holmes. Follow those quotations, and the hidden letters would reveal themselves.
The second line read: I am a long-nosed sorcerer who lives in a castle.
He couldn't pin down which specific building it referenced, so for now he set it aside.
The third line read: My appetizer is a boiled egg, cold as a corpse.
By questioning passersby, Ran tracked down a building shaped remarkably like a boiled egg—London City Hall.
Nearby they discovered a crowd of dolls, and the sight jogged Ran's memory of something Shinichi had once said—everything except the head is mere accessory.
Without hesitation, she pulled the head off one of the dolls, and there it was on the neck: the letter T.
The fourth line read: And in the end, it's enough to simply eat every last pickled cucumber.
Ran and Mouri Kogoro's group had just as little trouble locating the cucumber-shaped building—the Gherkin—and, following Conan's hints over the phone, discovered the letter N scratched onto a pen covered in marks.
After that, Ran crossed paths once more with the famous tennis star Minerva Glass and her little brother Apollo—and from Apollo's mouth she learned that Conan had been calling himself Holmes's apprentice, which earned a contemptuous curl of the lip from Mouri Kogoro.
Just then, the antidote ran its course, and Kudou Shinichi shrank back into a small child.
Out of options, Conan asked Ran to recruit Apollo's help. As a local, the boy was bound to know London's buildings far better than any of them.
Apollo gladly agreed.
His sister Minerva had business of her own and couldn't come along, so she entrusted Apollo to Ran and the others' care.
The fifth line read: Oh, right—we should order a cake in advance to celebrate.
Guided by Apollo's suggestions, the group found the building shaped like a wedding cake—St. Bride's Church.
"Lyney! Lynette! You two found this place too?!" Mouri Ran cried out in delight as she spotted the familiar figures just ahead.
Lyney turned at the sound of her voice and waved, a smile playing across his lips. "Indeed. We heard the wedding-cake design was modeled on this very church, so when cake came up, St. Bride's was the natural place to look."
"Mm-hmm," Lynette nodded, giving a small round of applause. "Big brother's deductive skills are nearly as good as his magic."
"Sister, that praise of yours is a touch excessive."
"Ran-neechan, who are they?" Apollo tugged at Ran's sleeve, eyeing the strangers curiously.
Before Ran could explain, Lyney crouched down in front of Apollo and, with a flick of his wrist, produced a whimsically shaped cat plushie from his hat and handed it over. "I am Lyney, the magician, and this is my little sister and assistant, Lynette. A pleasure to meet you, young man."
Apollo gazed at the plushie in wonder, then solemnly introduced himself in return.
"Glass?" Lyney repeated the surname, a hint of curiosity entering his voice. "Apollo—could it be that you're the little brother of that Queen of the Grass Courts, the famous tennis player Minerva Glass?"
Apollo nodded in astonishment.
He was just about to ask how on earth the man had guessed, but Ran beat him to it. "Eh?! Lyney, how did you figure that out—from just a last name alone?"
"I had no choice," Lyney said, rising to his feet with a helpless shrug of both hands. "Wimbledon is all anyone can talk about these days. The moment I heard 'Glass,' I couldn't help but think of their star player, Miss Minerva Glass."