Post by Crimson Amarone on Sept 14, 2014 0:48:26 GMT
The Case of the Beach Thief
Part One
Sonoko sighed as she dropped her beach bag onto the smooth white, sand. She watched her tomboyish classmate run off down to the shoreline with a group of very eager first-graders. All but one that is. The one little girl was instead dragged away reluctantly by the three most energetic of the bunch.AN: I decided to post part one of my Summer Adventure story. I have quite a bit for part two, but I'll refrain from posting the rest until I've decided whether I want to make a part three or not. We'll see how things go, heh. ^_^; Hopefully this helps all all the participants' motivation for their stories!
Part One
Although she wanted to go to her favorite private beach in Izu, Sonoko reluctantly agreed to come to this public beach with her friends. And that was only because she heard that her sort-of-boyfriend Makoto would be back home for the weekend. And this beach was the one conveniently nearby the Kyougoku family inn.
But of course, this particular beach had to be absolutely crowded with other people on their summer vacations. "Did we really have to bring the brats with us, Ran?" Sonoko asked as she shook out her beach towel and laid it carefully on the smoothest patch of sand she could find. She proceeded to plop down onto it, a little less gracefully than expected for the heiress to the Suzuki Zaibatsu.
Ran gave her best friend a small smile as she adjusted the beach umbrella just off to the side. "It couldn't be helped. I promised Professor Agasa I'd take them out this weekend so he could have a day or two to himself. It seemed like the kids have been at his place more than their own homes all break."
Ran, for one, didn't really mind taking Conan and his friends out for the weekend in the first place. She was just glad to get some time away from her father and out of the house. Their air conditioner was broken at home and if they had to suffer without it, at least she and Conan could spend the day at the breezy seaside.
"Tch. He had to beg you for this weekend of all weekends…" Sonoko leaned back and then got into the perfect sun tanning position. "Oh well, at least Sera-chan is keeping the brats occupied and out of our hair while we're here."
A few moments after Sonoko closed her eyes and started to bask relaxingly in the sun, she felt a rain of sand land all over her. She lurched up and saw the backs of two middle-school boys running off. "Watch it, you little twerps!" she shouted. The boys only turned around briefly while still running to laugh at her. Sonoko fumed for a few moments before wiping off the sand and lying back down in a huff.
Ran muffled a laugh from her friend. After finishing with the umbrella, she laid out her own beach towel besides Sonoko's and sat down. "Sera-sa, ah, I mean Sera-chan is sort of a big kid herself, don't you think?"
Sonoko opened an eye and peaked over. "You can san that again," she mumbled. "Hmph, what kind of high schooler would want to play with a bunch of seven-year-olds anyway?"
Although Ran was listening, she was also observing Sera apparently starting to teach the kids how to bodysurf in the near distance. "Hmm. I don't know. To me, it looks like they're having a lot fun." A smile formed on her face while watching the others. "I think I'm going to go join them." At that, she stood up and started heading down the beach to join them.
"H-Hey, Ran! You're just gonna leave me here?!"
Ran glanced back and waved with a big smile. "If you're going to stay there. Make sure to watch our stuff, okay?"
"Traitor!" Sonoko cried, gaining the attention of nearby beach-goers. She humph again and stubbornly lay back down. She refused to spend the day at the beach without getting the perfect tan.
* * *
"Sonoko!"
Sonoko lurched awake awkwardly from lying facedown on her stomach. To her great displeasure, a dream in which Makoto was just leaning in to kiss her, on the most beautiful tropical beach, during the most romantic sunset, faded… pulled away like in a rip current.
"Wha? Oh, Ran…" Sonoko groaned as she pulled herself uncomfortably into a sitting position. Her back felt like she put it against a scorching radiator. "You came back soon." It was so bright and she had to squint to see. She rubbed her eyes with the palms of her hands, wondering where her designer sunglasses were.
Not only was Ran back, but also Sera, Conan, and the others, who were all searching around as if they lost something.
"Mou, Sonoko…" Ran gave Sonoko a worried look, but she was relieved at the same time. "I can't believe you fell asleep so quickly. I thought you were going to watch our—"
"Ran-oneesan! I think Conan-kun found something," Ayumi said, trying to grab Ran's attention as quickly as possible. Ran turned around to see Conan jog off, hot on some trail—of course without mentioning anything himself to the rest of them—with Mitsuhiko and Genta not far behind. Ayumi waited until Ran looked over before she ran to catch up with the boys.
As they took off, Sera walked back over to where Sonoko was still sitting. The girl detective was torn between following Conan and sticking with Ran and Sonoko. The reason being, she had noticed something she assumed Conan must not have. The trail she wanted to follow didn't lead the same way the boy detective was heading.
Sonoko raised a hand to block out the sunlight as she looked up to her friends. She could gather that something was going on, though she wasn't sure as to what. However, she did have a guess. "Don't tell me there's some kind of case… again."
Ran and Sera stared down at Sonoko with similar expressions of exasperation. Though both knew she wasn't the most intuitive person, they'd at least thought she'd have figured it out by now. Ran crossed her arms and leaned over slightly. "Sonoko, if you haven't noticed, all our stuff is missing!"
Sonoko blinked as Ran's statement sunk in. She looked back over to where they had all left their beach bags, which had their wallets, phones, change of clothes, and bags with food for lunch and snacks. The only ones left were all of the kids' bags, with the sole exception of Genta's.
She all but shrieked when she realized what Ran said was true. "How did this happen?!" she shrilled, clearly bemused.
Sera was rather amused by the reaction. On the other hand, Ran was not enthused about explaining, let alone resolving this problematic situation.
"You sure get yourself into hot water often, don't you?" Sera said with a mischievous grin. Sonoko raised an eyebrow at first not getting it, but then frowned when Sera started laughing. "Did ya think our stuff just walked off on its own?" She chuckled at her own joke.
Ran just shook her head, and decided to spell it out for Sonoko finally. "Sometime after I left, you must have fallen asleep. We couldn't have been gone more than an hour. But it looks like all our belongings were stolen while no one was watching." Sonoko was speechless and wore a dazed expression. "It took ages for me to wake you. At first I thought you had been harmed by the thief, but we noticed you were still breathing and Conan-kun and Sera-chan said you were fine."
Besides feeling a little fried from lying asleep in the sun, Sonoko did believe she was unharmed. The sun and heat was starting to get to her, so he finally decided to stand up— doing so delicately since she was rather tender—and get into the shade of the beach umbrella. Realizing how thirsty she'd gotten, she couldn't help but moan pathetically after being unable to find a single water bottle among their remaining belongings.
"This sucks." Sonoko whined. "How didn't anyone catch this bastard thief red-handed?"
"You would think someone nearby would have noticed something fishy going on…" Sera added with a thoughtful expression. "Ayumi-chan, Mitsuhiko-kun, and Genta-kun were going to go ask around after we finished looking for clues around here."
"We should go inform the beach security. They might have stolen or are going to steal from other people here."
"Right. Why don't you do that? Sonoko-chan and I will stay here in case the Conan-kun and the others come back in the mean time."
Ran nodded. "Alright, I'll be back soon." She then took off in a hurry with an anxiously determined expression.
When Ran was far enough away, Sonoko started looking through the kids' bags to see if there was anything useful, like some aloe, or sunglasses, or a water bottle, or anything.
Sera decided she should take the opportunity to follow the lead she had found earlier. With Sonoko's back to her, Sera started walking off herself in the opposite way the kids had gone earlier.
Sonoko turned around to speak to Sera, and noticed her friend trying to sneak away. "Hey! Where are you going? I thought you told Ran you we're going to stay here and wait for the brats to come back."
"Oh. About that… Well, I don't think Ran-chan would have left if she thought you'd be by yourself again," Sera answered.
Sonoko pouted. "That's probably true…" she grumbled. "So? Do you have somewhere else to be?"
"I'm going to look into something. Don't worry about it." Sera looked over her shoulder and with a smirk waved her friend off. "Just tell Ran-chan that I had to go to the restroom if she comes back." If I'm right, this time I'll be sure to beat the Wizard.
Sonoko tried to protest Sera leaving, but the girl went about her way regardless. "Great. Just leave me by myself again. Tch. Detectives… they're all the same," she mumbled to herself. Feeling about useless, after all there wasn't much left of worth stealing anyway she thought, Sonoko plopped back down in the shade of the umbrella. "Ran's not going to be happy when she gets back…"
Part Two
After about a minute Sonoko heard someone call, "Sonoko-neechan." She cringed slightly at the high-pitched voice and turned to see Conan jog up to her alone. She wondered where the rest of the kids were since they almost always kept together when playing detective."What's up brat? Where are the rest of your little friends?"
Conan took a second to catch his breath. He groaned internally, a little annoyed that he didn't find Ran or Sera still there. Although used to Sonoko treating him like this, he still found it even worse to deal with her as a kid than as his regular self. However, by now he'd learned to cope with a lot of these bothersome aspects of pretending to be a kid.
So he just shrugged off her comment like he usually did. "Ah, we lost the trail we were following. But Haibara and the others are going to ask around if anyone had saw someone suspicious or if they had anything stolen." He didn't want to bother trying to explain much else to Sonoko. He believed it would be more trouble than it was worth and just make problems for himself.
Instead, he quickly decided misdirection was the next best option. "Where did Ran-neechan and Sera-neechan go?"
Sonoko huffed, crossed her arms, and turned up her nose. "They went off to take care of this mess, while I got left behind."
Conan scowled and tried his hardest not to make any comment aloud. The mess you made by letting someone run off with all our stuff. "So do you know where they went though?"
"Ran went to tell the beach security." She shrugged. "Like hell if I knew where Sera-chan went. Geez, that girl is starting to remind me of you, always running off her own like a kid, and other times she reminds of that jerk Shinichi, trying to take care of cases without telling anyone anything. Hmph! Detectives."
Well, sorry. Would you rather us be more like Occhan? Conan thought in response giving her a deadpan stare, which went conveniently unnoticed. While Sonoko had been talking he started sifting through his pack he brought with him to grab something he should have earlier. He found it easily and was relieved that none of his or the kid's stuff—besides Genta's bag which he'd imagined was only filled with snacks anyway—had been stolen.
"Oh, well, which way did Sera-neechan go then?" Work with me here for once, please, he silently begged.
Sonoko pointed with her thumb in the direction Sera had headed, opposite the way Conan had come from. "She only left about a minute or two ago."
Without waiting around, Conan took off to try and find Sera before she got too far. Sonoko called out for him not to run off and that it wouldn't be her fault if he got lost, but he just ignored her.
After a couple more minutes of dodging around the legs of numerous beach-goers on the other side of the beach, Conan finally spotted the girl he'd been searching for. Sera seemed busy speaking with two kids, a somewhat chubby boy who was about early middle school aged and a girl around the age of the Detective Boys resembled one of the girls from Conan's first grade class. They had appeared to have been starting to build a sand castle, but hadn't gotten very far. There were a few bucket shaped piles of sand and a few buckets filled with more sand ready and waiting to be upturned.
When Conan ran up to her, she looked surprised to see him. "Oh! Conan-kun. Did you figure something out already?" she asked. Realizing that the boy came to find her, Sera felt a little disappointed that she wouldn't be able to solve the case on her own. But then again, she didn't mind working together, and perhaps Conan actually needed her assistance.
Conan briefly hesitated like usual around Sera, with how she always talked to him so casually. Almost treating him like she knew he was more than he appeared to be, unlike almost everyone else. It didn't help with the constant, unresolved questions between them lately and that he was sure he must have met her sometime in the past. At times, he was almost certain she was on to him, but other times he had no idea what to think.
However, since he was the one to come find her this time, he resolved to just go through with it. "Yeah. Maybe," he replied vaguely. He gestured to the two kids who were quietly waiting out their exchange. "How about you?" Conan was really curious to find out why Sera had went to investigate on this side of the beach in the first place.
"Same," she replied. "I was following a lead of mine own when I overheard these kids mention something that caught my attention." Turning back to the kids, she said, "Can you explain to the both of us what you were starting to tell me?"
The middle-school boy glanced to the newcomer, and then back to Sera with a nod. "Like I said, my mom went back to the car because she forgot the bottle of sunscreen. My sister," gestured to girl with him, "couldn't wait and ran off to play in the ocean. I promised mom I would keep an eye on Hareko, so I followed her. We were only playing for maybe ten minutes before mom came back and found us in the water."
At this point, the boy's expression turned somewhat stressed. "Mom was really angry because all of the snack foods were gone. But I told her Hareko and I were playing the whole time! I don't think she believed me though."
"Mommy told us to go play some more so that way we'd be hungry again by lunchtime. But neither of us ate any of it!" Hareko added, clearly upset for having been scolded by their mother. Her short ponytail swayed as she bobbed her head speaking.
The sister looked at Sera pleadingly. "You believe us right, Onee-san? That's why you asked us if our food was stolen, right?"
Before Sera could reply to the girl Conan asked the other boy, "Wait, does that mean the only thing that was stole was some food?"
The boy was a bit taken aback by Conan's sudden inquiry. He spent a moment thinking before responding. "U-uh, yeah I'm pretty sure nothing else was missing."
With that confirmation, Conan took up his pensive pose, with his chin resting is his hand. Sera watched him think to himself realizing that he was only now starting to realize what she had considered to begin with. She smirked believing she really was one step ahead of him for once.
Finally addressing the little girl Sera said, "I believe you. We had our food stolen too, so we're trying to figure who the culprit is. Right, Conan-kun?"
Conan was distracted from his thoughts and glanced back up to Sera and nodded. "Why don't you take us to your beach-site and we can look for something that might lead us to finding this thief," he said to the siblings.
"A-Alright," the brother replied glancing nervously at his sister. He wasn't enthused about heading back while their mother was still upset. But then he quickly brightened up at the idea. "Oh! You guys can explain to our mom that this was someone else's fault too."
Sera smiled a snaggle-toothed grin with her hands on her hips. "Sure. We'll help you clear this up with your mum, no worries."
Both the siblings smiled brightly. The little girl grabbed Sera's hand with one of her own, tugging her to lead them in the right direction. "C'mon, it's this way!"
Their destination was not that far. However, in the time it took to get over there, Conan had explained to Sera that Haibara and the Detective Boys still were busy investigating together on the other side of the beach. He showed her that he had his Detective Badge, which he'd picked up after stopping back at their own spot on the beach before he came looking for her. Luckily, Haibara always had hers with her, though the rest of the kids had left their badges in their packs for safekeeping.
When they arrived, it didn't appear that the mother was around. So Conan began searching for clues right away, while Sera asked the kids a few more questions. They didn't do so for long. Soon enough, the boy noticed his mother approaching and called out to her. She was carrying a clear plastic bag, which held three to-go food boxes, and a cup carrier with different colored fruit smoothies.
As she walked up she said, "Ah, Haruo, Hareko. Good, you two are here. I hope you two made room for lunch by now." Despite her obvious reminder about the earlier incident, she didn't appear that upset.
At the mention of lunch Conan and Sera's stomachs decided to tell them they were hungry too by growling loudly. The noise caused the kids' mother to notice their presence. She raised a brow, wondering who the two unfamiliar children were.
"Ahaha, sorry. We didn't mean to intrude, miss," Sera said. "You see, my little cousin here and I are investigating the beach thief who is going around stealing people's food while they aren't watching their belongings. We had our own food stolen too."
Conan gave Sera a sidelong glance when she called them cousins. But he brushed it off, supposing that it was easier than explaining their actual relation. Not that he knew how to define their relationship anyway.
The woman stared at Sera for a while, not sure what to think. Eventually her eyes widen and she asked, "Did Haruo, put you two up for this?" She didn't even bother to turn and look at her son.
"Mom!" Haruo interrupted, throwing his arms up. "They really had their food stolen too. I'm not making it up." His shoulders fell as he finished.
"Yeah, mom. This Onee-san and, uh, Conan-kun are gonna find the thief and get all the food back!" Haruo smiled in relief when his little sister backed him up.
Their mother finally looked over at the two due to their combined protests. She was starting to reconsider whether Haruo and Hareko's story was actually the truth. Haruo was a bit of a troublemaker at times but he wasn't a very good liar. It wasn't like him to go and get some strangers involved either.
"Well then. If what you say is true. All four of you must be pretty hungry then. Would you like to join us for lunch?" She set the bag and the cup carrier she'd been carrying onto their beach blanket and began to set up the place settings. Not sure if she even bought enough for the five of them she said, "I can go back to the food stand and get some more."
"Ah, that's alright Oba-san," Conan answered. "We came here with six others. So we shouldn't eat without them all. But we have to find the thief first! Right, Ser—, uh, Masumi-neechan?" he explained, upping the childish act around the adult. He was starting to wish Sera had not mentioned the cousin thing about them.
The two other children looked at him oddly due to his strange change in behavior. On the other hand, the mother all but cooed in response. "Oh, that's very thoughtful of you, boy. And you're quite the little detective, hmm?" she smiled and leaned over to ruffle his still damp hair.
Haruo laughed a little, finding it amusing that his mom was coddling some little stranger kid. Hareko watched him with a hint of curiosity like most of the kids at school did, realizing he was kind of smart and a detective at that. Conan blushed in embarrassment, though he ought to have been used to that kind of treatment.
Even Sera tried her hardest not to snicker watching his reaction, but Conan still noticed and knew his self-image dropped even lower. He stepped away and turned so that neither could see his face while he grimaced and grumbled to himself.
"Don't let Conan-kun fool you. He's one of the best investigators I know," Sera praised. "We'll find this beach thief in no time. Well we better be off before the culprit gets too far ahead of us."
"Yeah! Go get 'em before he strikes again!" Hareko cheered. She beamed at Conan, and he desperately hoped another little girl didn't have a crush on him.
"Let us know if you catch him," Haruo added. "I still want my snacks back."
Haruo's mother mildly scolded him for worrying more about the snacks than anything. She then sent Sera and Conan on their way. Conan for one was happy to leave.
As they walked further, neither said where they were headed next. But it seemed like both silently agreed on the same path. The trail wasn't quite the same compared to when Sera first picked it up from their own beach spot, but she was still sure it was right lead. She was about to discuss the case with Conan, but the beeping of his Detective Badge interrupted.
Conan took the badge out of his swim trunks pocket and answered. "Haibara? That you?"
"No moron. It's me." Genta's voice boomed through the tiny device. Conan glared at the badge and mumbled, "Shoulda guessed… Of course he just had to take charge after I left…" His displeasure soon washed away though and he just rolled his eyes and gave a few curt laughs. Kids will be kids, he thought.
"Ah, Genta. Did you guys find anything new?"
Sera crouched down a bit to listen in to the conversation. Both of their curiosities were piqued now.
"Darn right we did! We found an Onee-chan and an Onii-chan who had their purse and bag, with their wallets and stuff, stolen. They were so busy playing volleyball with some friends that they let the criminal get away!"
"The couple said the net was quite far from where they left their belongings, so they could not have seen if anyone approached to commit theft," Mitsuhiko added. He and Ayumi were hovering close to Genta to talk when needed. Haibara—who was off to the side with the same couple—was preoccupied with getting as much information as she thought necessary to help with the case.
Conan stared at the badge for a moment with a puzzled expression. Wait a moment, he thought, could this mean? He glanced up to Sera to see that she was wearing her familiar snaggletooth grin. So it really is like that. He realized that this case was even more trouble then he thought. But he smiled, because to him, this made the case even more intriguing.