Kaiya POV

"It's surprising that the clumsy kid decided to study abroad in America." Sonoko commented as we walked home from school after eating lunch. We had early dismissal hooray!

"Yeah, and so suddenly after all the trouble Eisuke-kun went through to come back to school for a short while he decided to study abroad." Ran said concerned. "Still I wonder how he's doing after all these days."

"I'm sure he's alright Ran-chan. But his clumsiness may be a problem." I laughed.

"Speaking of someone, how's Shinichi-kun doing?" Sonoko asked. "He still hasn't come back yet?"

Ran and I shook our heads.

"And while she waits for Shinichi-kun, who's never coming back, Ran sets out willingly to clean again." Sonoko placed her hand over heart theatrically.

"I'm not doing it all willingly!" Ran blushed.

"Oi Sonoko-chan you're being too dramatic. " I sweatdropped. "As for me, cleaning the house is the least I can do for him since he let me stay at his house."

"But still hasn't this become a monthly event?" Sonoko asked as we stopped in front of the house.

"Now don't say it like that. Didn't I tell you where they had that delicious sandwich?" Ran reminded her. Ran did have to bribe Sonoko to help her hehe...

"That was delicious but still, why would do this for free for that deduction guy who hardly ever contacts you." Sonoko complained.

"Oh c'mon it seems he has his troubles too." Ran brushed it off and stepped inside before stopping.

"What's wrong?" Sonoko asked.

"Is it just me or is this house cooler than before?" Ran looked around. "Is Shinichi back?" she started calling for him.

Oh no I thought Shuichi left the house already. I ran upstairs to find him, but he wasn't there. I went downstairs to hear Sonoko calling Shuichi a thief.

"Sonoko-chan, Ran-chan wait he's actually my housemate." I said.

"Eh?! Your housemate?" Ran exclaimed and called Conan-kun, who also told her the same thing.

"Yeah he's a graduate student. His apartment recently burned down so Kudo-kun let him stay here." I explained.

"Subaru-san, these are my friends Ran-chan and Sonoko-chan." I introduced them after he finished brushing his teeth.

"We're very sorry Subaru-san! For kicking you so suddenly!" Ran and Sonoko apologized.

"Exactly Ran, there's no way a good-looking guy this could be a thief." Sonoko added.

"What was that Sonoko? Weren't you the one who said 'serves you right'." Ran deadpanned.

"Ah well, it's really my fault too for not managing to explain right away." Subaru said.

"By the way Subaru-san, which graduate school are you attending?" Ran asked.

"Touto University's engineering department." he responded.

"Say would it be OK if I took a picture? And could you tell me your phone number too?" Sonoko asked and took out her cell-phone.

"Sonoko!" Ran chided.

"I should tell Makoto-kun!" I reminded her.

"In that case, just a picture then." Sonoko said, a little embarrassed.



"I don't mind." Subaru said and I looked at him in surprise. He wouldn't mind? "But before that is it OK if we grab something to eat first? I haven't had anything to eat since I woke up."

"Jeez your sleep schedule." I sighed and shook my head. Well to be fair he was quite a busy person, being a graduate student and an FBI agent. Sometimes James-san asked him to go on missions as well.

"Then let us, in apology for what happened earlier." Ran said.

"How about that Welcome Burger place you ate at earlier." Subaru suggested.

"Huh? Did we mention we went to Welcome Burger?" Ran asked.

"No but it was simple enough. You with the brown hair, Sonoko-san was it? Back when you suspected I was a thief, you were cursing at me with defiant words. But when you figured out that wasn't the case, you kept your distance from me and tried to hide behind your long-haired friend Ran-san. This is most likely because you felt considerably impressed by me as a member of the opposite sex and you were concerned about me smelling your bad breath. In short, that's why I thought you had eaten the new garlic sandwich product."



"Your deductions are impressive as always, Subaru-san." I said and Ran and Sonoko exclaimed in surprise.

"But there are other foods that have garlic." Ran noted.

"I had a burger instead of the sandwich." I told him.

"I figured it out from the way you handled your cellphone earlier. The reason you were using your ring finger, even though it was difficult to do so, was that when you were eating French fries, there was still oil stuck to your right thumb and middle finger. Besides, you with the long hair, there's still some salt stuck to the sides of your mouth." Subaru explained.

"Ah! Excuse us!" Ran said and dragged Sonoko with her to the restroom. Subaru and I looked at each other in confusion.

********

"You want Subaru-san to solve a case?" I asked as Sonoko handed Subaru a paper plane.

"I found one of these paper airplanes in my garden." Sonoko said.

"Come to think of it, these paper airplanes are everywhere in the city aren't they?" Ran remarked.

"I'd like to know for what reason the annoying prankster has for spreading these, whoever they are." Sonoko told us.

"There's weird markings on the paper airplanes." I noted.

"I see. This is a very interesting code." Subaru said after inspecting the plane. "Most likely it's an SOS."

"An SOS?" Sonoko asked.

"Then someone needs to be rescued!" I said.

"Yes, and it seems that immediate action is required." Subaru said. "If there's a paper plane with a different pattern, I'd like you to show it to me. I remember in the news that close to a 100 had been recovered in the city yesterday morning and the one before. If the patterns were different, we might be able to narrow down the location of the person who sent the SOS. By the way, when did you find this?"he gestured to the airplane.

"The morning before yesterday." Sonoko answered. "But before that, how could you tell it was an SOS?"

"It's the pattern drawn on the body. The size of the circles on the top and bottom are roughly the same. And the lengths of the lines are three times the width of the circles. Also the width from circle to circle is roughly the size of a circle. So these are symbols of Morse code, which is frequently used as a means of communication." Subaru opened up the paper airplane to explain.

"Morse code? As in the things we see in the movies?" Sonoko asked.

"That's right. The circles are the short sounds, or dots. The lines are the long sounds, or dashes. Three dots mean an S and three lines mean an O."



"In other words! That's an SOS!" Ran said and looked up from her phone. "That's what he said."

"He figured it out too?" Sonoko exclaimed.

"Yeah, and Shinichi also asked me to send him a picture of an airplane if there was a different pattern." Ran showed us her phone.

"Shinichi-kun? Come to think of it, wasn't the name of the house owner Shinichi?" Subaru asked.

"You don't know? He's- " Sonoko started to say.

"Kinichi-kun! He's a regular high school student, and he's a mystery lover." Ran interrupted.

"For some reason, there's no evidence of him living here at all." Subaru asked. Yikes he's so close to finding out. He asked me the same question some time ago.

"Maybe he cleaned everything up because he knew we were coming over and he was embarrassed that we would see them." Ran said.

"Speaking of cleaning, when we were eating at Welcome Burger, didn't the manager ask an employee to remove an airplane from the roof?" Sonoko recalled.

"That's right. Maybe they still have it." I said.

"Let's hurry and get it!" Ran dragged us with her.

Subaru looked at us with an unreadable expressions.

********

"Now the pattern looks like a triangle with a line through it." I noted after we got the paper airplane.

"It's an antenna mark when there are zero radio waves." Subaru said. "Adding that to the previous SOS, the person must be help captive in a place were radio waves don't reach. But still that's all we know about the person so far..."

"Hmm a place with no radio waves, maybe a cave?" Sonoko said.

"But they were found in the city." Ran told her.

"What about underground then?" Sonoko pointed to the floor.

I shook my head. "Then it would it impossible for the planes to land in your garden."

"Ah that's it the news!" Ran suggested.

*******

"The identity of the kidnapper, who committed suicide by leaping from the building this morning, has yet to be established. The whereabouts of the naval construction company president, Daita-Ikou-san, is still unknown." the TV announcer said.

"Could the airplanes be related to this case?" Ran asked.

"So he's the paper airplane prankster then!" Sonoko summarized.

"It wouldn't be surprising. If he was a naval officer, he would be familiar with Morse code."

"He's probably somewhere where he can reach a magazine then, and fly the paper airplanes out at night." I observed.

"And he could call for help without drawing suspicion because it would look like a harmless prank from a kid." Ran finished.

"However, that means the President is in grave danger! He must have been held captive somewhere for 2-3 days! And possibly without food or water." I realized.

Subaru looked at the pattern of the new paper airplane displayed on the TV and started folding a piece of paper.

"It's shaped like a squid." I looked at the paper he held after trying various creases.

"This is the Japanese way of writing Morse code." he pointed to the paper. "It's possible that he's held at a high rise building, such as a hotel or an apartment. But it would be difficult to confine someone in a hotel where a large number of people come and and go... so the Beika Tower Apartments are the more likely location."

"No way that's close by!" we exclaimed.

"In any case we should the call the police." Subaru said.

Then my phone rang. "Can you head over to Beika Tower Apartments right away? That's most likely where President Daita is being held." Conan rushed through his words via voice changer.

"Shinichi? Then you solved the case?" Ran grabbed the phone from me.

"Yeah I'll explain later." Shinichi said. "There are some binoculars in the drawer of my desk. Take those and go to the observation elevator at the Beika Hotel as fast as you can."

********

"What if we can't see anything from this side?" I asked Shinichi as Ran and I got on the elevator.

"Yeah if it is on the other side, then we can't do anything about it." Shinichi agreed.

"Look at that apartment!" I pointed as Ran and I looked through our binoculars.

"Did you find it yet?" Shinichi asked.

"Yeah it's the apartment on the far end on the east side on the 36th floor." Ran told Shinichi. "The window is open a little and there's paper planes scattered all over the veranda."

"Even if you found the place, don't try going there alone." Shinichi told us. "The possibility may be zero, but there still might be an accomplice there."

"Okay then we'll inform the police." Ran said.

"No way! Another paper plane just flew by!" I exclaimed as I looked at the paper plane in my hand. "It's a 10,000 yen bill."



"There's nothing written on it." Ran told Shinichi. "Did President Daita send this too?"

"Probably. But if money comes raining from the sky, then people would notice it for sure and alert the police. If he's taking on the risk that the culprit will notice, that means it's come to life and death!" Conan said urgently.

"His condition must be really bad then." I said. "We should go help him!"

"No stay there and let the police handle it!" Shinichi told us as we ran inside the apartment building.

"If you were in our shoes what would you do Shinichi? I'm sure you would do the same!" Ran replied.

*****

"Please let us through miss!" we panted after running to the apartment above the place President Daita was held. "We saw a suspicious person in the veranda below."

Following Shinichi's instructions, we ran down the escape ladder to the veranda below. President Daita was lying barely conscious in the apartment, handcuffed.

"Who are you guys?" he said weakly, as we laid him down on some cushions and wet his mouth with lukewarm water. "The ransom. Has it been paid off yet?"

"Don't worry, it's been taken care of." Ran told him.

I tried to undo his handcuffs. "They're stuck." I told Ran. "We need some tools to cut the chains."

"Let us handle that." some police came in.

"Ah, we're- " I began.

"We heard the story already. You're Ran Mori-san and Kaiya Matsuki-san right?" they asked.

We nodded in response and stepped back to let the police do their work.

"The high schooler who called us, is he your boyfriend?" one policeman asked Ran. She looked at me and back at the policeman and blushed.

"Could you pass something along to him? I can understand him being impatient, but tell him that there's no need to rant."

*******

"Really? Shinichi-kun got all upset and ranted to the police?" Sonoko asked. Ran and I nodded.

"Yeah, but he was so calm when he gave me and Kaiya-chan directions over the phone." Ran replied.

"That's because his beloved wife was in a crisis!" Sonoko reasoned.

"It can't be, it's so unlike his personality." Ran said.

I looked at Conan who was blushing. "Love does wonders right?" I whispered and elbowed him.

Everything turned out alright in the end. President Daita made a quick recovery and was reunited with his family.