Dinner at the Twilight Mansion
"You seem to know quite a lot, Mr. Morikawa. I have to admit, I'm curious about who you really are. How is it that you're aware of things that should be strictly guarded secrets among the parties involved?" Hakuba Saguru came right out and questioned Morikawa's identity. His suspicion of this man who had appeared out of nowhere was growing by the minute — after all, as the son of the Commissioner General of the Metropolitan Police, even *he* didn't know as much about this affair as Mr. Morikawa apparently did.
"Live long enough, and you naturally come to know a great many things." Morikawa Shiro offered no direct answer, only a response that wasn't really one at all.
Hakuba could tell that Morikawa had no intention of elaborating, and that pressing further would get him nowhere, so he let the question drop for the time being.
The group made their way to the dining room, where they found the table already laid with place settings — and before each one, a little name card bearing their respective names.
There was, however, one rather awkward wrinkle: because Morikawa's arrival had been completely unexpected, Ougami Shukuze, who was in charge of preparing dinner, had no idea an extra person had shown up. The maid was even apologizing to Morikawa beside him — she had forgotten to tell Ougami about the additional guest, so the dinner prepared according to the headcount was one portion short.
The tableware and chair were easy enough to solve; the maid, Ishihara Aki, said she could bring another set. But there was no spare dinner to be had.
"Um, I could share part of my dinner with Mr. Morikawa. I'm a girl, so it's fine for me to eat a little less at night." Seeing how downcast Morikawa looked, Xia Yu couldn't bear the thought of him going hungry, and offered to split her portion with him.
Ran said she didn't have much of an appetite at the moment anyway, and could spare some of hers as well.
Watching Ran prepare to hand part of her dinner over to a man she didn't even know left a sour taste in Conan's mouth, and he spoke up of his own accord: he was just a kid, kids didn't need to eat so much in the evening, so he could share some of his with the mister.
Morikawa blinked, then declined both Xia Yu's and Ran's offers. "I'm a grown man — how could I possibly bring myself to take food from young ladies? This little guy can't eat that much anyway, so he and I will split it. There's nothing wrong with eating light at night."
Conan was speechless after hearing that. Oh, wonderful. So it's beneath you to take food from girls, but perfectly fine to take it from a kid.
With the dinner problem settled, everyone finally had a chance to take a good look at their host seated at the center of the dining room.
The figure wore a hood pulled over their head, not a trace of their face showing. One by one, the guests took their seats behind their respective name cards as instructed, while a new place was added for Morikawa at the end.
Then the faceless host announced the purpose behind inviting all these detectives to the Twilight Mansion — to find the treasure hidden within it.
The moment the others heard that the master of the mansion's goal involved treasure, their eyes were drawn, almost involuntarily, to the one person who had just been telling them all about the treasure's history.
Sensing everyone's gazes settle on him, Morikawa propped his chin on both hands and gave the group a small smile.
But events soon overtook any further curiosity about his identity — in order to drive the detectives to risk their very lives hunting for the treasure, the master of the mansion blew up every one of their cars, along with the only bridge leading to the outside world.
"Well, great. I was only planning to stay the night and be on my way, but it looks like I'm not going anywhere now." Morikawa heaved a sigh of despair.
"And yet, Mr. Morikawa, you don't seem terribly worried," Motegi Harushi remarked.
Morikawa answered with a smile. "It's already happened. Getting worked up about it won't change anything. What matters now is finding a way out of it, wouldn't you say?"
Motegi stared at Morikawa's nearly unchanged expression, clicked his tongue, and said nothing more.
It was then that the group made another discovery: the master who had been speaking with them all along was nothing but a dummy fitted with a loudspeaker, every word a pre-recorded audio track.
The conversation turned to the signature on the invitations each of them had received — "the Phantom of the Son Abandoned by God" — a reference to none other than the Magician under the Moonlight, Kaitou Kid.
At the mention of that name, the detectives stole glances at Morikawa, some subtle, some not — clearly, they suspected he might be the Kaitou Kid himself.
Even Conan was carefully watching Morikawa's reactions. Ever since Chikuma Fukuyo had pointed out, back in the car, the oddity of Mouri Kogoro's smoking habits, Conan had suspected that the old man was Kid in disguise. But now that a second suspicious candidate had surfaced, he found himself wondering whether this one might be Kid's accomplice.
The very same suspicion flickered through Chikuma Fukuyo's mind as well.
"Kaitou Kid? From what I've heard, he's a thief who specializes in stealing jewels and first started operating eighteen years ago, though he vanished from the scene about eight years back. Apparently he's turned up again recently? In that case, this one would have to be the second-generation Kid, wouldn't it?" Morikawa Shiro remarked offhandedly.
"Morikawa-oniisan, do you know a lot about Kaitou Kid? How can you tell the current one is the second generation, and not the original Kaitou Kid himself from eighteen years ago?" A white gleam flashed across Conan's glasses as he asked, his voice full of innocent curiosity.
Morikawa explained without so much as a flicker of expression. "I've been to a Kaitou Kid heist scene recently, and you can tell from his voice alone that he can't be over twenty. Eighteen years ago the original would still have been a child, so there's no way he could be the first Kid. Their methods are different, too. The current Kid's style is flashy and theatrical — he goes out of his way to court everyone's attention, sometimes chasing spectacle without any regard for the consequences. He's blown up a power station, for instance. Hmm... he's honestly just like a kid who hasn't grown up yet, desperate to show off what he can do."
He shrugged. "My guess is the current Kid is a disciple of the original — or maybe his son — who inherited the name eighteen years later."
"Kaitou Kid" — that is, Kid wearing Kogoro's face — was sweating inwardly. Who on earth is this guy? He's got the truth down to the letter. No — I can't let him keep talking.
"You know an awful lot about him. Don't tell me you're actually Kaitou Kid himself?" Kogoro slapped the table, rose to his feet, and jabbed a finger at Morikawa.
Morikawa didn't bother to deny it. He stared at Kogoro for a moment. "If you say so."
Hey, hey — why are you staring at me like that? Don't tell me you've noticed something?
Morikawa's non-denial denial left Kogoro at a momentary loss for words, and he could only slink sheepishly back into his seat.
Just then, the maid knocked on the dining room door, ready to serve the meal in sequence as the master had ordered earlier.
The detectives, however, had no intention of dancing to someone else's tune. After a quick discussion, they decided to shuffle the seating order and choose their places anew, and to guard against poison on the tableware, Hakuba suggested wiping every piece down with a handkerchief first.
Once dinner was over, they all listened, somewhat exasperated, as the loudspeaker-wearing dummy recited the whole tragedy that had unfolded at the mansion after Karasuma Renya's death. To be fair, they did pick up a few details Morikawa hadn't mentioned earlier — otherwise hearing the same speech twice would have been unbearably dull.
Only at this point did the detectives finally believe that Morikawa probably had no connection to the master of the mansion who had summoned them here — otherwise, how could he have told them all about it in advance?
As for whether he had ties to Kaitou Kid, however, a faint thread of doubt still lingered in each of their minds.