It was a few days later and finally the day of the play. Both Reiko and her mother ended up coming. Though, Haruna was currently in disguise as a blonde foreigner. It was rare for her to go out in public without some sort of disguise as she had no need or want to draw attention to herself. They had just met up with Kogoro and 'Conan' at the entrance and were making their way over to where they saw Ran, Sonoko, and Kazuha. 

Reiko and Haruna had already been made aware of the plan and had even helped contribute a bit. Reiko had actually been the one to place the Conan disguise on Haibara. Originally, Yukiko was going to be the one doing Haibara's disguise,  but they ultimately decided to let Reiko do it on the off chance that somebody walked in as she'd be the easiest to come up with an excuse for. Plus, it was good practice for the young girl. 

"... Where's Kudo?" The four heard Kazuha ask the other two as they got closer. "Didn't ya' invite him?"

"We didn't," Ran waved off her question with a smile. It wasn't as if she could tell her that he was coming but had somehow managed to shrink himself, so he couldn't come in his normal body. 

"She invited her old friends and neighbors," Sonoko told the Osaka girl with a slightly annoyed and exasperated expression. "But she didn't invite him."

'Conan' took that moment to cut in. "Oh, so you didn't just invite me." The shrunken teenager noted as 'he' coughed.

"Conan-kun!" Ran turned around to see the somewhat strange grouping of people. Seriously, though, there was a famous detective with little to no class, a famous actress in disguise, a shrunken scientist in disguise, and Reiko… a small child in need of a nap. 

"He still has a cold," Kogoro told his daughter while putting a hand on 'Conan's' head. "I told him to rest at home, but he said he had to come."

"How's your cold?" Ran asked him, a bit concerned as she bent over to be at eye level with the shrunken scientist. 

"No problem."

Ran looked like she wanted to say more, but she ended up being called over by Dr. Araide. As she went over there, Haruna and Reiko couldn't help but stare with narrowed eyes at the 'doctor' that had called the girl over. Haruna may not have been as good as Reiko at seeing through disguises, but she would know that kind of handiwork anywhere.

The pair's focus was only broken when Kazuha hesitantly tried to get Haruna's attention. 

"Um," Kazuha started, looking at the woman in a bit of confusion. "Are you by chance Reiko-chan's mother?"

The Osakan girl had managed to meet the blonde girl briefly at the hospital the other day, so she already knew about Reiko and her relations to Kudo Shinichi. However, this would be her first time meeting the girl's mother, who she had been warned was rather eccentric. 

"That's right," Haruna smiled, tearing her eyes away from the supposed doctor. "I'm Nomura Haruna. It's a pleasure to meet you!"

"Ah, uh, likewise," Kazuha nodded her head in greeting. So far, she wasn't really understanding why she had been warned about the woman's eccentricity. She seemed pretty normal from what she'd seen so far.  "I'm Toyama Kazuha, by the way."

"Oh!" Haruna clapped her hands as though she was just recognizing who she was. In truth, she had already heard all about her from Reiko and the Kudo's, barring Shinichi. "Are you by chance the daughter of Toyama Ginshiro?"

Kazuha's eyes widened in surprise. Not many people outside of Osaka would have made that connection. "Um, yes, ma'am."

"I see," the older woman smiled. "You'll have to tell him that I said hello. It's been quite a while since I've seen him!"

"Eh?" Kazuha's surprise turned to confusion. "You know Otou-chan?"

She'd admit, she wasn't expecting Sonoko to burst out laughing at her question. Even Reiko and Haruna gave small smiles that you could just barely detect the slightest hints of mischief in them. 'Conan' and Kogoro had already gone to find some seats to sit in whilst they were talking, so there were, of course, no reactions from them.

"You'll come to find out," Sonoko started with a grin. "That Haruna-san knows anybody and everybody. It's almost scary how many connections she has!"

The said person only grinned in agreement as Kazuha looked a little dumbfounded. 

"Sonoko-neechan," Reiko grabbed the girl's attention, interrupting the conversation and causing the grin to slide off the teenager's face as she looked at the little girl in confusion. 

"Hm? What's the matter?"

"There's only fifteen minutes left," she pointed at her watch that she had just glanced at seconds prior as Sonoko's face changed to that of panic. 

"Ah!" She ran over to Ran and grabbed her friend. "We still need to go change!" She turned back momentarily in the direction of the three girls she had just been speaking to. "We'll see you guys later!"

The three only waved their goodbyes as the two teens ran off to go get ready. 

"Shall we go find our seats?" Haruna asked, smiling sweetly at the two girls next to her.

"Okay!"

****

"Next up is Junior B-Class' 'Excessive Love Romantic Drama.'" Everyone had finally taken their seats and the play was about to begin. Luckily, 'Conan' and Kogoro had saved Reiko, Haruna, and Kazuha seats, so they were all in the same row. There was even an empty seat still leftover next to Reiko. "I hope everyone will enjoy it!"

And so, the play began with Ran being the first to speak and enter onto the stage. Throughout the play, Kazuha and Kogoro were yelling here and there in support of Ran. Reiko found Kazuha's shouts of encouragement particularly amusing with her telling Ran to use her karate. If asked, Reiko would vehemently deny that she was admittedly ecstatic upon seeing the Black Knight enter the scene and 'protect' Ran. Though, she would have no problem admitting to snickering when Kazuha had to hold back Kogoro when Shinichi, who was dressed as the Black Knight, hugged Ran.

Unfortunately for the young girl, however, she was distracted from watching the rest by a certain young man taking a seat beside her. Her eyes immediately narrowed in both annoyance and exasperation, and she reached into her backpack and grabbed some makeup wipes that she almost always made sure to carry around. 

The smirk on Hattori Heiji's face was almost literally wiped off as Reiko started scrubbing the makeup off of the Osakan boy's face as discreetly as she possibly could.

"Oi!" Hattori whisper-shouted as he leaned back, trying to get away from Reiko and her wipes. "Whaddaya' think you're doin'?!"

Reiko paused before looking up into Hattori's eyes with one of the most dry stares the boy had ever seen. "Making sure you don't humiliate yourself."

The teenage detective went to rebuttal but wasn't given a chance as a scream rang out through the room, causing both of them to pause in place as they looked for the cause of the disturbance. 

"Oi, oi," Hattori muttered. "Don't tell me…"

Once again, death followed them like a shadow. 

****

Soon enough, all of the lights had been turned on, and the police had arrived. In particular, Megure Juzo and Takagi Wataru were both on the scene where a doctor had collapsed and died.

"The victim is 28-year-old Kamata Kohei," Megure-keibu began to confirm with the witnesses who were also the deceased man's friends. "He works as a doctor at the Kyoto Hospital. Was he watching the play when he collapsed?"

"Yes…" A woman, who was known as Noda Yumemi, confirmed for the inspector. "He was just suddenly in pain."

"Could it be that he collapsed after drinking this beverage?" Takagi-keiji speculated as both men knelt next to where Kamata had dropped his drink.

"I was engrossed in the play…" Noda said, which meant that she essentially knew nothing of the possibility of the drink being the reason behind Kamata's collapse.

"He drank almost all of it," Megure-keibu noted before standing up and turning to face the woman they had been speaking to. "Do you know the approximate time of death?"

"Well, the play started after two o'clock…"

"It was around 2:40," The trio turned in surprise to see Ran standing there and answering the inspector's question. "We heard the scream around the climax of the play. Right, doctor?"

Ran's face turned to an expression of confusion at the lack of answer as she furrowed her brows at the person she thought was Dr. Araide.

"Ah, that's right!" Takagi exclaimed. "This is Ran-san's school!"

Megure-keibu gained an exasperated look as he started looking around. "Then that means that man also…"

"Are you looking for someone,  Megure-keibu?" The said man gave a dry laugh as the person he was looking for obliviously spoke up. At this point, the inspector really was sure that Mouri Kogoro was a jinx for disaster. 

"I was talking about you…" the inspector muttered before continuing with the case. "No one came near the body, right?"

"Of course," Kogoro reassured him. "No one came near the body before forensics."

Takagi turned to one of the forensics people who were nearby. "Do you know the cause of death?" 

"Yes, it should be…"

"Potassium cyanide."

"What?" They all turned around at the sound of three voices speaking up at once. Two of the three people were immediately recognized. 

"Heiji?!" Kazuha exclaimed immediately going to the boy that was now panicking. He was pretty sure that he had told the girl to stay home. "What are you doing here?!"

Reiko was honestly surprised the two hadn't noticed each other earlier. 

The two teenagers stepped aside as Hattori tried to sputter out excuses.

"Hattori-kun! Reiko-chan! And…" Takagi looked at Reiko's mother in confusion. 

"Ah, you must be Nomura-san!" Megure realized, not by seeing through the disguise but by noticing how Reiko's was clasped with the woman's. 

"Yup!" Haruna gave a cheeky grin. "It's nice to see you again Megure-keibu!"

"Ah, likewise," Megure said but still sweat dropped a bit when he remembered how often Haruna tended to get involved in cases, and from the looks of it, she was starting to pass it on to her daughter. "You said potassium cyanide?"

"Mhm," Reiko nodded, not giving Hattori, who had finished speaking with Kazuha, a chance to speak even though he looked like he was ready to burst with info about how they knew. "Forensics should be able to confirm."

"Ah, uh," the guy stuttered as attention turned to him. "Well, yes, the three are correct."

"How exactly did you three know?" Kogoro asked with narrowed eyes. 

This time, Haruna spoke just as Hattori began to open his mouth. "Cyanide poisoning shows very specific symptoms that are easily noticeable on this man's corpse."

She didn't feel like dealing with any of Hattori's long winded explanations that she knew he liked to go on to show off. Him and Shinichi were very similar that way. 

"Ahem, continuing our work," Megure grabbed back their attention as he turned to look at the witnesses. "Did the victim buy his own drink?"

"No, I bought it,'' another one of Kamata Kohei's friends, Kogami Mai, admitted to him. "I bought drinks for the four of us at the snack stand before bringing them back to our seats over there. Then I gave the drinks to Mitani to hold while I went to the restroom." She turned to Mitani Yota, a larger man who was also friends with the victim. "Right?"

"Yes," the man answered nervously, sweat dripping down his face. 

"Then you gave the drink to Kamata-san?" Megure questioned. 

"She told me to pass out the drinks," Mitani fidgeted. "I only kept my Oolong tea and Kogami's iced coffee." He turned to look at Noda. "The rest, she…"

"Mitani gave me my lemonade and Kamata's iced coffee," Noda continued for him. "And then I gave Kamata his drink."

"I didn't give you anything," Mitani corrected, looking a bit confused. "You took it yourself."

"What's the difference?" Noda's eye twitched in annoyance 

"Excuse me," Takagi interrupted nervously before anything could escalate. "What was Kamata-san's relationship with the three of you?"

The witnesses/suspects began telling the police how they knew the victim, and they continued to answer the various questions they received. Meanwhile, Haruna leaned down to whisper in her daughter's ear.

"Why don't we leave this to the boys?" She suggested. She had no doubt that with both Shinichi and Hattori there, the case would be solved with ease. "There's something I'd like to speak about with a certain aunt of yours."

Reiko sent her mother a discrete nod before the two slipped away into the crowd and made their way to where one Dr. Araide stood. The two, however, seemingly only walked past him, not even pausing as Haruna slipped a piece of paper into his pocket. 

With that, they exited the building like they were never even there. 

.
.
.

Hopefully, they wouldn't get into too much trouble for not leaving a statement.

*****

2225 words excluding A/N's

Finished- September 6, 2021

Bye~