The school day at Teitan Elementary was ending, the students were heading home.
Shiho was waiting for her friends near the entrance of the school, looking at the children reuniting with their parents with a slightly saddened look.
“Do you feel lonely, Shiho?” the Doctor said, while he and Conan were walking to her.
Shiho looked away, pretending to be offended.
“Doctor! Conan!” Genta called for them from the window of their classroom. “Come here, we need your help!”
“We have a new case!” Mitsuhiko said, “It’s from a…Very special client!”
the Doctor raised an eyebrow, “A very special client, you say? Let’s check it then.”
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A couple of minutes later, he, Conan and Shiho reached Ayumi, Genta, Mitsuhiko in the classroom.
There was a girl, their “client”, she had brown hair tied into two pigtail, purple-ish eyes and was wearing a light blue dress.
Genta and Mitsuhiko seemed to be smitten by her,
“She’s pretty, isn’t it? “ The former asked the Doctor and Conan, blushing. “It’s one more reason to help her!”
Ayumi seemed annoyed by that question.
“Yeah, I suppose.” Conan ignored the dumb question.
“No, it’s not.” the Doctor bluntly said. He turned to the girl “So, I heard you need our help. I’m the Doctor and these are my friends: Conan, Genta, Ayumi, Mitsuhiko and Shiho. What’s your name?”
“I’m Yuriko Matsunaka, nice to meet you.” Yuriko bowed.
“Lovely to meet you too, Yuriko.” the Doctor said, “Now, how can we help you?”
“You see, one day a man named Tokei came to my house.”
“Tokei? So his name was “Clock”?” Conan asked,
Yuriko nodded, “It doesn’t look like he has a name or a surname,
“Must be a codename.” Shiho commented, she glanced at the Doctor, “It reminds me of someone.”
“Shush.” the Doctor said, “Go on, Yuriko.”
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Tokei, a tall man with brown hair and wearing sunglasses, gave Yuriko a photo of an old man wearing a suit.
“This man is Gozoshi Isegawa. You never met him, but he’s your mother’s grandfather, thus your great-grandfather.” he explained.
“I didn’t know I had a great-grandfather…” Yuriko commented, as she looked at the photo.
“He was a cunning, brave man, making him an excellent stockbroker on Wall Street after the War. He quickly became rich thanks to his skills. However, he passed away last winter.” Tokei said, “In his last will, however, he planned an enigma. The relative that will solve it within 24 hours will inherit all of his fortune, if not, they’ll lose the right to the inheritance. You, Ms. Yuriko Matsunaka, are the 17th inheritor of Mr. Isegawa’s fortune, therefore it’s your turn to solve the enigma.”
“It’s…My turn?” Yuriko repeated.
“If you don’t wish to participate, you have the right to abstain from the challenge, of course.”
The girl seemed reluctant to participate in it.
“...However, if this may relieve you, I heard that a group of young Detectives, the Detective Boys, attend the same school as yours. They’re very skilled, especially the two of them. One of them wears glasses, the other is from Ireland.”
“So that’s why you asked for our help?” Genta asked.
“Fascinating, they also want to test our deductive abilities.” Conan smirked.
“What about your family?” Ayumi asked.
“My dad had an accident after I was born and my mum died from an illness. I'm all alone now.” she said.
“Oh…” Ayumi was mortified, “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to..”
“Don’t worry.” Yuriko smiled. “My family didn’t want to let my parents get married, so they had to run away to do it. You guys are the only ones I can talk about this with.”
“So? Do you want to accept the challenge?” Shiho asked.
“I’m a bit nervous, honestly…” Yuriko said, looking down, “But, if I accept, I could visit the mansion where my great-grandfather lived with my mum…”
“That mansion is also known as the “Mansion of the Angels”.” Tokei interrupted the conversation. “Good afternoon, miss Yuriko and good afternoon to you, Detective Boys.”
“I believe you are the “Tokei” fellow that Yuriko told us about.” the Doctor said.
Tokei bowed. “Indeed, it is a pleasure to meet you all.”
Later, the group were escorted by Tokei via a limousine to the Mansion of the Angels.
The residence was enormous, extremely enormous. It was divided into 4 large mansions, with 4 large pillars with statues of angels in the 4 cardinal directions.
“We the Southern Mansion was where Isegawa lived, the Western one was where his HQs were located, his children and their caretakers lived in the Northern Mansion. However, that one has been abandoned for a while, his children considered him a cold, uncaring father, so they left the residence as soon as they turned 18.” Tokei said.
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“Yet it doesn’t seem abandoned.” Shiho commented.
“I take care of the maintenance of the Mansion.” Tokei said.
“What about the Eastern Mansion?” Mitsuhiko asked, pointing at it.
“It looks haunted…” Ayumi added.
“Mr. Isegawa insisted that the Mansion should be closed and nobody should be allowed in.”
“And why is that?” Shiho asked.
“That’s a good question.”
“That’s a lot of statues of bulls here.” the Doctor commented, looking around. “It must be because he was a stockbroker.”
“Yeah, the bull is a symbol of power in the Stock Market.” Conan said.
The sun went down and suddenly the four angel statues emitted a light.
“What’s going on?” Ayumi asked.
“It’s one of the security systems of the Mansion wanted by Mr. Isegawa, the lights turn on the moment the sun goes down.” Tokei calmly explained.
“And they still do it even after his death?” Shiho said.
Ayumi, feeling intimidated, hid behind the Doctor, clinging to his arm.
“Something’s wrong?” He asked with a caring, soothing tone, hoping to calm her down from whatever scared her.
“It’s those angel statues…They’re really scary…” She said, “It’s like they moved…”
The group looked at the statues, Ayumi was right, they were really creepy. They looked like they were mischievously smirking.
“It must be the darkness.” the Doctor commented, he smiled at her. “Don’t worry, dear, everything’s fine.”
Ayumi slowly nodded.
“Anyway, “Tokei”, shouldn’t you tell us what’s the riddle we have to solve?”
“My apologies, but it’s still not the time.” Tokei said, checking his wristwatch. “Anyway, it’s dinner time, I believe you guys must be hungry. Let’s go to the Northern Mansion.”
So, the group went to the Northern Mansion to have dinner. It was very hearty, worthy of the rich man Isegawa was.
Then, it was 9 PM and Tokei entered the room.
“It’s time, this is the riddle Mr. Isegawa left you.” Tokei said, “ “When the bull loses its horns and his tail becomes his head, the angel will come down and play the horn. That melody is my treasure.”.”
Mitsuhiko took note of it, maybe it’ll be useful.
“So we have until tomorrow at 9 PM to solve the riddle.” the Doctor thought.
“I wonder which bull the riddle is talking about. Outside there are 3 statues of a bull and one of a minotaur, which could be considered as a bull.” Conan thought.
“I advise you to be careful during the investigation, certain parts of the security system are very dangerous. Some of the previous challengers were either heavily injured. Pay attention to where you’re going, the Mansion of the Angels is like an enormous maze.”
By Genta’s idea, the group split up to search for the solution (but the real reason is because he wanted to impress Yuriko and feared that the Doctor and Conan: Genta and Mitsuhiko, Shiho and Ayumi, Conan, the Doctor and Yuriko.
Ayumi and Shiho investigated in the Southern Mansion.
“You know,” Ayumi said, “Yuriko is a weird girl, I’ve never seen her smile, she always seems so sad.”
“I suppose it’s normal, considering her parents died.” Shiho said.
“I really want to solve the riddle, maybe she will finally smile.”
“Fair enough, but why aren’t you looking at the statue?”
Ayumi flinched. “It’s…It’s a bit scary.”
Shiho repeated the riddle in her head various times while walking around the bull, until she stopped in a position where the horns weren’t visible.
“Look.” She said, “You can’t see the horns from here.”
“Huh? You’re right!” Ayumi looked at where the statue was directed. “It must be the Angel of the West the riddle is talking about! Let’s go!”
The two girls left the room.
Genta and Mitsuhiko eavesdropped on their conversation. The former tried to climb the statue for some clues while the latter investigated the Eastern Mansion, feeling there was something sketchy there.
The mansion was dusty, so much that someone allergic to it would immediately die the moment they make a step inside.
While going further in the mansion, Mitsuhiko started feeling frightened. He felt he was being observed by someone…Or something. But the desire to impress Yuriko made him continue
Other than the usual bull statues, this mansion had something different, there were a couple of statues of angels, with their hands covering their faces as if they were weeping.
He accidentally rested his arm on a wall with a bull symbol. It suddenly moved, granting access to a secret room.
Meanwhile, Shiho and Ayumi were checking the Angel of the East for a secret passage.
“What do you think we should do now?” Ayumi asked.
“Don’t worry, I’m sure we’ll find it ou-” Shiho noticed a knife coming at them. “LOOK OUT!”
The two managed to dodge it and the knife hit the electric field around the tower.
“W-What was that?!?!” Ayumi was panicking.
“It’s…It’s better if we return to the Mansion with the others.” Shiho regained composure.
Mitsuhiko regained consciousness inside the secret room he found.
He checked for clues, he took a look at the chimney and accidentally freed the path to what seemed to be a maze.
“Is anybody here?” His voice echoed, no response.
However, he noticed that in this section of the Mansion, there were more statues of angeling covering their face with their hands.
Mitsuhiko started panicking, he blinked…And the statue came closer to him.
Understanding what was going on, he kept his eyes wide open while slowly retreating to where he entered.
There, he met Genta and Tokei.
“G-Genta! Mr. Tokei!” Mitsuhiko said, “Dear God if I got scared, the statues down there are moving!”
“What? Moving?” Genta said.
“Perhaps you didn’t see clearly, it’s impossible that a statue can move.” Tokei said.
“But I swear! I saw them moving after I blinked!” Mitsuhiko insisted.
“Maybe we should ask the Doctor, he could know about what you saw down there.” Genta said.
“...Maybe you’re right.” he said.
The day arrived. They still had 10 hours to solve the riddle.
They stayed up all night, so some of them were quite sleepy. Nevertheless, they started their briefing.
“You know guys, I don’t think we can trust Mr. Tokei.” Genta said.
“What do you mean?” Ayumi asked.
“I mean, if Yuriko really is the seventeenth candidate, why didn't we find notes or clues left by the previous 16?” The round boy asked.
“Perhaps he cleaned the mansion of every single clue, so that we couldn't ‘cheat’." Shiho said.
“...” Conan remained silent, thinking about the riddle. Then, he got an idea. “I don’t think that the “horns” refers to the bull statues in the Mansion.”
“Huh?” Genta said.
“Follow me!”
The group went outside the mansion, while being observed by Tokei, without getting noticed.
They went to the Angel of the South tower.
“I see, if you partially cover the kanji for “bull”, it becomes “horse” and in the zodiac is symbol for the South.” Shiho said.
“I don’t think it’s safe to come closer, the tower is electrified…” Ayumi said.
“Don’t worry, if my deductions are correct, I should be fine.” Conan said, “You see, the kanji for “horse” can also mean “midday”.
The clock hand on the tower reached the 12: It was now midday.
Conan came closer to the statue and started touching its bricks until he found the right one, opening a secret path.
The group went in.
Inside the tower it was dark, with a beam of light illuminating the centre.
The Doctor opened it and took the shard.
“A black crystal.” He said, checking it with his sonic screwdriver, “Do you think this shard is important for the resolution of the riddle, Conan?”
“I certainly do.” Conan said, “You see, by ““When the bull loses its horns and his tail becomes his head”, it mean that have to look at the opposite direction.”
“So, we have to go to the Angel of the North!” Ayumi said.
“Huh…Guys? Who put those angel statues here?” Mitsuhiko said and the group noticed at the statues of the angels, with their hands covering their face.
The Doctor seemed to recognise them and immediately panicked. “DON’T BLINK!” he yelled, “DON’T LOOK AWAY FROM THOSE STATUES AND DON’T BLINK!”
The group, hearing their alien friend’s worried tone, immediately obliged.
“What are they?”
“Weeping Angels!” the Doctor said.
“Guys, look!”
Those who could look away saw that Yuriko was being dragged away by…No other than Tokei.
Then, the floor beyond the TARDIS team opened and they fell in the abyss of darkness.
<-------To Be Continued---------