A Relative of Kudo Shinichi
Matsumoto Sayuri stared at Takenaka Kazumi with a flicker of surprise. “Ka-Kazumi?”
Kazumi held Sayuri's gaze for a moment, then finally couldn't hold it in any longer and burst out laughing. She waved as she turned to go. “Just kidding! Well then, see you in a bit.”
Sonoko blinked, bewildered. “Who was that, anyway?”
“Kazumi is a good friend of mine from my university days,” Sayuri said, watching her friend's retreating back.
Observing the wistfulness in Sayuri's posture, Xia Xi spoke up. “Miss Matsumoto, you really don't have to keep dwelling on that. I can tell that Kazumi has already let go of Toshihiko.”
“Eh?” Sayuri looked at her strangely, wondering how she could possibly know that.
Xia Xi met her puzzled eyes with a small smile. “Because if she still cared about that whole thing, she never would have brought it up as a joke just now. It's obvious that you two are very close—I'd say that in her heart, her friendship with you matters more than Toshihiko ever did.”
The melancholy drained out of Sayuri's face at once. “So that's how Kazumi feels.” She gave a small nod. “Mm, you're right. She's already moved on, so I should too.”
Then she glanced into the bag Kazumi had left her and found a bottle of lemon tea inside. She turned to Xia Xi, Sonoko, and Ran. “There's still one bottle of lemon tea here. Would anyone like it?”
Curious what kind of lemon tea her teacher favored, Sonoko raised her hand. “Then I'll give it a try!”
Watching the bottle in Sonoko's hand, Xia Xi asked abruptly, “Miss Matsumoto—the childhood sweetheart who gave you lemon tea back then was Toshihiko, wasn't he? The groom you're marrying today?”
Sonoko and Ran: “Eh?!!”
Even Conan's head whipped around toward Xia Xi.
How on earth had she connected Miss Matsumoto's first love to today's groom? Had she noticed some detail the rest of them had completely missed?
“How did you know?” Sayuri blurted out, just as astonished.
“It's actually quite simple. First of all, the look on your face just now when you talked about your first love—combined with the fact that you're still drinking lemon tea, the very drink tied to him—suggests you never forgot him at all.”
Having raised one finger to make her first point, Xia Xi immediately raised a second. “Then there's point two: I just heard Kazumi say that the groom used to be her boyfriend.”
She looked earnestly into Sayuri's eyes and smiled. “I trust in the bond between you and Kazumi. Without some special reason, you would never have gotten involved with her boyfriend—even if they'd already broken up at the time. And judging by how utterly unbothered Kazumi seemed a moment ago, she must already know about it. Otherwise, no matter how close you were, she couldn't possibly have minded so little.”
Sayuri stared at Xia Xi in a daze, then after a moment, carefully dabbed at the corner of her eye with a fingertip. “Honestly, summer Xi—no, let me just call you Xia Xi. You really did get every single thing right, didn't you?” She lowered her head and gave a soft laugh. “You're right. Toshihiko really was my first love from when I was a girl. After I met him, he resembled that boy from my childhood so closely that Kazumi looked into it for me—she's actually the one who told me. Toshihiko himself has no idea.”
Xia Xi noticed a trace of sorrow cross Sayuri's face.
But before she could ask about it, the teacher brightened with a complete change of tone. “That was amazing—you figured out my secret in just a few sentences. You're like a real detective. Honestly, you seem even sharper than that smug little Kudo kid.”
Hey, hey—picking me out to knock me down a peg when I'm not even standing in front of you?
Though I'll admit, that angle never occurred to me. But it's not like you can blame me—there wasn't a single clue to work from. How was anyone supposed to guess that?
Xia Xi got there purely through reading expressions and psychology. If we were talking evidence-based deduction, I'd never lose to her.
A little deflated that Xia Xi had thought further than he had, Conan mulled over the teacher's words.
“Wow, that's so romantic! A first love you lost track of as kids, meeting and falling for each other again out of the millions of people in the world, and now finally getting married—Miss Matsumoto, you and the groom are truly fated for each other. You're bound to be happy together!” Sonoko declared, hands clasped in fists at her chest, eyes shining.
Hmm, I wouldn't count on it, Xia Xi thought to herself. That's assuming the wedding makes it through the day in one piece—at the very least, the bride and groom need to stay out of any case.
Suddenly the lounge door swung open, and in strode a tall, stern-faced middle-aged man with a scar over his left eye. He walked straight up to Matsumoto Sayuri.
Worried for their teacher, Sonoko and Ran immediately planted themselves between the two, confronting the stranger sharply. “Who are you? You can't just barge in here!”
Just before Ran could hurl him out the door, Sayuri and Inspector Megure, who had hurried in right behind him, quickly explained who the man was.
He was none other than Sayuri's father—Matsumoto Kiyonaga, and also Inspector Megure's superior, a managing officer in the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department's Criminal Investigation Division One.
The inspector-cum-father was plainly less than thrilled about the man his daughter was about to marry, and the two of them bickered for a while. In the end it was Matsumoto Kiyonaga who gave in first, and he left the lounge.
Not long after, as the clock in the lounge crept toward one-thirty, another visitor arrived: Umemiya, an upperclassman Ran and Sonoko knew from school. He confessed his long-held admiration for Miss Matsumoto, then took his leave as well.
Well, looking at the situation now, every single buff is stacked: a best friend who used to date the groom, plus a student who may well be carrying a torch for the bride. All three candidates are accounted for, and it's one out of three. Something tells me this bride is in genuine danger today.
So far the only one I haven't laid eyes on is the groom himself, this Toshihiko. Honestly, based on what I've seen, Kazumi and that Umemiya senior don't seem all that suspicious—but you never know. That sorrowful expression on Miss Matsumoto's face when she mentioned the groom just now... please don't let it actually be the groom who means to do something to the bride. Otherwise Miss Matsumoto's fate would just be too—
“Oh no, the camera battery's about to die!” Ran, who had been filming with the video camera, suddenly noticed the low-battery indicator flashing in the upper corner of the screen. She set the camera down on a nearby bench, let Miss Matsumoto know, and headed out with Sonoko to buy batteries.
That left Xia Xi and Conan alone in the lounge.
Without warning, Matsumoto Sayuri reached out and plucked the glasses right off Conan's face. He instinctively turned to look back at her.
“I knew it. Little boy, you look exactly like Kudo Shinichi,” Sayuri said, studying him without the glasses.
“Oh wow, it's true! I thought Conan seemed familiar the first time I saw him too, I just couldn't place it. Now that the glasses are off, I can see it—he really does look just like Kudo Shinichi. Say, Conan, what's your relationship with him? Could it be that—”
Xia Xi watched Conan standing there, glasses seized and face struggling to catch up, and a mischievous urge welled up inside her. She decided to play along, feigning curiosity about his identity.
Crap—Xia Xi is right there. She's seen my face. She's usually so sharp—there's no way she'd suspect I have some connection to Kudo Shinichi, right?
Cold sweat prickled on Conan's brow.
“Could it be that you're actually Kudo Shinichi's...” Xia Xi said slowly, drawing out each word as she watched the alarm spread across his face. Pausing deliberately at the end, savoring his widening eyes, she finished— “...relative?”