Chapter Three: The Red Invitation (Part Four)

Heiji's POV

My phone suddenly vibrated through my pants when I am talking to Kazuha. We both stop and looked at my pocket. We both looked at each other.

Kazuha motioned for me to answer the call. I nodded and answer the call with no hesitation.

"Hello?"

"It's me, Hattori."

My eyes widened as I glanced at Kazuha, who is frowning. "Where are you?"

"At the men's bathroom. Is the woman across you, perhaps, Kazuha?"

"You saw us?" I was shocked as I am still looking at Kazuha. She keeps that frown on her face with the hint of quiet questions in her eyes. I immediately mouthed, "It is Kudo."

Her eyes widened and mouthed, "Really?" I nodded and gavr her a thumbs up. She nodded at me as if she understands my message.

"Yes. The table you have with Kazuha is just across mine. Go to the bathroom right away," he said.

I stood up and put my phone away in a sec. "Kudo wants me to go to the bathroom."

Kazuha faked a laugh. "Ha-ha. Perfect meeting place, huh?"

"I'll be right back once I talked to Kudo, alright?" She nodded. I took back my phone in my ears as I started walking away from the table. "Hello? Kudo, are you still intact?"

"Of course I am, idiot. I want to talk to you about something once you got here."

"Is it about The Red Imvitation, Kudo?"

"So, you also noticed."

"Yeah. I noticed the three words. They're exactly the same."

"Come quick so we could continue to talk about it."

"Coming up," I said and then, ended the call.

I went to the men's bathroom. My eyes fixed to the only locked cubicle. I walk towards it and knock on the cubicle door.

"Kudo, it's me," I announced. The door slowly opened and my eyes fixed to the man who got out of the cubicle.

He ie wearing a dark blue suit. His hands was on his pocket and his aura is pretty much similar two years ago.

I smirked. "You drink the pill again?" I greeted him.

He smirked back and shook his head. "Nice to see you again, Hattori. How's courting Kazuha?"

"Yeah, right. Looks like you are changing the topic here," I mocked. I cleared my throat. "Well, as much as I want to tell you about going in between me and Kazuha, let's just talk about the important things. So, why did you want to talk about The Red Invitation?"

"As of you know, those three same words could define one thing: persons. That's the possibility." He sighed and looked at me to the eye. "We need to be cautious. This is a random pick. Kazuha might be picked."

"But there's no label involved here," I said. "Neither a male or a female could be chosen as the victim."

"Yeah, that's the point in here. Maybe we should--"

We stopped when we hear the door suddenly opened. I and Kudo slowly looked to see who it is.

My eyes widened as I saw a boy peeking through the door. Wait, that face looks familiar...

"Damn it!" Kudo pulled the boy from the doorway and looked at him dead in the eyes. "What did I tell you? I told you to not leave our table, idiot!"

Wait, so that means... "He is your partner, Kudo?" I asked him.

He looked at me. "Yeah," he answered without no hesitation.

Now, that's weird. "Why him? Is it not Ran?"

He shook his head. "She told me she will go on an event too so the only choice is to choose Kid to become my--"

"Wait, he is Kaito Kid?!" I shouted, eyes widening of what I hear.

"Shh! Don't shout. Someone might hear you," Kudo said and sighed. "Yes, he is Kaito Kid. The one and only."

I saw Kid rolled his eyes. "Yeah, right. Now, the detective jerk is giving my hidden identity to someone."

"Idiot, he could keep secrets," Kudo backfired at him. Kid just shrugged his shoulders.

"So, why is he here?" I asked Kudo, still looking at Kid. "I couldn't believe you'll ask a help from him someday."

"Me too, bro. Didn't expect that the famous high-school detective would let The Phantom Thief cooperate with him. I'm shocked too, you know."

"Shut up, Kid. You're too noisy," Kudo said irritatingly. I gave them a deadpan look. Now, that's rivalry. "Hatorri, Kid is here to help us get further in the case."

"You mean, I could lend some help to you guys," Kid corrected. "And also, there's no case whatsoever. There's only going to happen on the event."

"He has things with him," Kudo said, completely ignoring what Kid said. "We shall be cautious as much as possible. We need to guard the people. They might be chosen to be killed. We don't want that to happen."

"Bloody night is a bloody night, Metantei," Kid said. "There's no way that all of the people could live. They could die. You can't escape it even if you want to."

"It can if you can survive," Kudo backfired. "Maybe you want to be chosen huh? Like to be the first representative, Kid?"

"Oh, no. Not me. Aoko might cry if I die," Kid joked. Maybe Aoko was his girl. He looked at me and smirked. "You also have your girl inside the room, right? Protect her, Osaka Boy. She might get in trouble in just five minutes."

I frowned. "I know that." I crossed my arms. "And even Kazuha be in danger, I'm sure she could handle herself."

"Girls can't do anything."

"Yes, they can do anything, idiot," I backfired. "Kazuha can beat her opponent down. She is a 2nd dan Aikido Player and she's doing fine in training these days, improving her skills."

"Ran is a Second Degree Karate Player. Surely, someone could be knocked off by her one punch," Kudo said and shrugged off his shoulders.

"So, I'm at a disadvantage here," Kid said. His shoulders go down. He sighed. "Aoko have no skills. Good for the both of you." He raised his both hands in the air. "Okay. I lose. You have better girls than mine."

"Well, let's stop talking about girls now and start talking about what will happen if the circumstances will really happen," I said and glanced at Kudo. "So, Kudo, what's the plan?"

Sera's POV

"Ran!"

Me and Ran looked to see who shouted Ran's name. We saw Sonoko waving at us. She is wearing a gold dress with a slit. She ran towards us.

"Ran, Sera. It's good you made it," she said.

I rolled my eyes. "Sonoko, for your information, I and Ran are the first one to got here. You and Makoto-san are the second."

"You look beautiful, Ran," Sonoko said, completely ignoring me. This short hair girl... "Gorgeous-looking, I may say."

"Hey, short hair girl, " I called Sonoko irritatingly. She looked at me. "Don't ignore me, jerk."

"Oh, did I ignored you?" she asked and looked at me innocently. "Sorry, I never heard you. Maybe what you said is not important so my ears didn't hear it clear."

"Then, your ears has a hundred percent dirt inside. You need to clean them sometime."

"Oh, I really should clean them so even what you said will also be heard by my ears." She smirked. "Or maybe, your words are really the ones who makes my ears closed on its own."

"How does even an ear closed by its own?!"

"Find it yourself." She stuck her tongue out. "You're a detective, right? You ahould know those things."

"But there's no scientific explanation or even a proof that ears could close on its own, idiot!" I shouted.

"Oh, so you know the truth? I thought you became a low-class brain girl a while ago. Oh, well. I changed my perspective."

She is mocking me and that's so irritating the hell out of me.

I was about to respond when I heard someone called Ran's name.

Kazuha's POV

It is so boring here. Waiting for Heiji to go out of the bathroom makes me feel some boredom in my seat. It was like my butt has been starting to itch.

I put my cheek to my palm as I looked at the crowd. I noticed a brown-haired girl wearing a red dress while talking to a short-haired blond girl. One girl in a blue semi-dress is beside the brown-haired girl while there's a man beside the short-haired girl.

Wait, they look familiar.

My eyes soon stared at the brown-haired girl. The way she smiles is so flattering that every man will fall in love with her. Her eyes... It looks familiar. As I stared at the girl for long, my eyes slowly widened as my brain took the time to process and modified who is the brown-haired girl.

I got out of my seat and walk towards their position. "Ran-chan!" I shouted as I waved my hand in the air.

I saw them stopped talking to each other and turned to look at my direction. The girl beside Ran also looked at me, same with the man whose beside the short-haired girl.

I stopped in front of them as soon as I got there. "Kazuha-chan," Ran called, shock and confusion are visible in her face. "Why are you here?"

"I would like to ask the same question," I said and looked at them. "Why are you all here?"

"This is really a coincidence. I never expected to see someone I knew here. Except for Ran and Sera, of course," the short-haired girl said.

"I reveived an invitation from Sonoko, which is literally been named to Sera. I am her partner," Ran answered. "Sonoko and Makoto-san had been invited as well."

"Specifically, only Makoto-san had beem invited. I am his partner to be exact," Sonoko corrected.

I looked at Ran and the girl named Sera. "So, you two are partners? Is it required that two people with the same gender could be partners?"

"It just says to have a partner," the girl named Sera said and shrugged off her shoulders. "Ran and I are just friends so this is just a normal 'thing' for us."

"Kazuha-chan, you haven't told your reason why you are also here," Ran said.

"Oh. I was being askee by Heiji to be his partner. He wants me to come with him."

"Hmm... I don't see Hattori-kun anywhere. Where is he?" Ran asked.

"Oh. He's talking to Kudo-kun right now," I answered.

Her eyes widened. "Shinichi?" She frowned, confused. "Shinichi is here?"

"Maybe. Heiji received a call from Kudo-kun a while ago. He's in the bathroom now. Maybe, he and Kudo-kun met there."

Ran looked perplexed. Well, who could habe thought that the famous high-school detective would reappear after two years of no trace?

"Why are they in the bathroom?" Sonoko asked, frowning. Suddenly, her eyes widened as she clasped her mouth with her hand. She looks terrified. "Wait, don't you mean that--"

"Suzuki-san, if you continue what you will say, I'll break your bones," I threaten her. She puts her lips in a thin line. I sighed. "Heiji and Kudo-kun will not do what you are thinking."

"How sure are you?" she said, eyes turning into slits. "The impossible could be possible. Maybe, they--"

"There's no way Heiji could be gay because he is courting me," I cut off, her stilled. Ran snapped out of her trance.

"Wait, what? Hattori-kun is courting you? Since when?"

"Since two years ago," I answered Ran's question. "He even confessed his feelings for me. Now, what I need to do is just to answer him for me to be his girlfriend and reciprocate the feelings he had for me."

"But you already did, Kazuha-chan. Did you still not confessed?"

"Not yet. I'm finding the perfect timing."

"There's no perfect timing in confessions, Kazu-- Kazuma-kun," Sonoko said.

"It's Kazuha, Suzuki-san," I said and glared at her.

She rolled her eyes. "Whatever. Oh, look. There's your lover, Kazuha-chan."

I turned around and she is right. Heiji is there with two other boys. The other boy must be Kudo-kun but what's weird is there is another boy.

"Shinichi is there too," Sonoko announced and suddenly, she frowned. "Who's that boy with them? He looks familiar."

"Kuroba Kaito from Ekoda High School. He is the famous kid in their school because of his famous magic tricks that taught by his deceased father, Kuroba Touichi," Sera explained. "Some said that he resembled Kaito Kid's magic so suspicions about him being Kid is really high."

"There's no way that boy is Kaito Kid. Kid is much cooler than him!" Sonoko defended.

"Hai, hai. Calm down, Sonoko. People might hear you," Makoto said.

Sonoko's cheeks blushed. "Sorry," she apologizes, embarrassment hints on her tone.

"Heiji!" I shouted at him. I saw him looked at our direction. I started to wave at him.

Heiji's POV

Damn it! She saw Kudo!

I am started to panic inside my head. I stayed calm outside. Relax, Hattori Heiji. Deep breaths.

I looked at Shinichi whose staring at the direction of Kazuha. "Ran is here," he blurted out.

My eyes widened. "W-What?"

"Ran is here," Kudo repeated. "She is here with Sonoko and her boyfriend, and Sera."

"Ha, looks like you are in trouble, Metantei," I heard Kid mocked. His hands are in the back of his hand like he is enjoying a movie. "If I were you, I could've said the truth right now and talk to her about it."

"It's not that easy," Kudo said.

"It does."

Kudo gritted his teeth. "It's not." He looked at Kid. "Did you tell Aoko the truth when you had the chance to tell her? No, because you don't want to exposed your hidden identity yet so don't make me do the things you didn't do in the first place. We are in the same situation before, Kid. You know the struggle to hide your identity to someone."

Kid stayed silent. It was unbelievably shocking he became silent to what Kudo said. Good thing no other people heard it except us.

"Kudo, what are you planning to do. Your girlfriend is here," I said.

He sighed deeply. "She's not my girlfriend."

"Okay. Your love is here," I said. I saw him glared at me. "What are you going to do now?"

He sighed. "I will explain to her why I am here."

"Going to put another lie in the jar?"

"If that's the only way I could hid my identity to her," he replied. "I don't want to see her getting in some trouble anymore."

"Are you not scared that people judge you if they see you? I'm sure they'll--"

"I'll be fine," he cut me off. He looked at me. "Their opinions are theirs. They could throw it to me however they want. I deserved it. They waited for two years and now, I'm just reappearing in an event."

"Well, good luck to you then."

He smiled. "Sure. I will."

We walked towards the girls. Kid decided to wait on his and Kudo's table. Once we got there, my eyes instantly focused at Ran, whose looking intently at Kudo with glassy eyes.

"Shinichi..." she whispered softly. Her tears is in the brink of falling down. Looks like she's forcing it not to come out.

Kudo is just looking at her. Face blank while looking at her intently. If you will dive deep into his eyes, you could see the raw emotion in there. The raw emotion he's feeling right now for Mouri Ran.

I saw Ran smiled. "Can we talk? Only the two of us?" Kudo nodded. "Excuse us for a while." And they left.

Kazuha wrapped her arms on my arm. "I'm sure Ran-chan's feelings are too unbearable to even hide. It is too obvious that she misses him. Would they be alright?"

"Yeah. I'm sure they could talk properly now," I said as I watched them walking away from the position we're in right now.

I smiled. Good luck, Kudo.