We watched the fireworks, and Sonoko took photos here and there with her camera. Of course, we also gathered together and took plenty of pictures. In the middle of it, Sonoko said regretfully.
"They were pretty, but it ended so quickly..."
"Then how about we do our own fireworks on the beach?"
"Okay~"
I bought some fireworks at a shop near the inn, and we went to the beach with the others to set them off. Then we returned to the inn, washed up briefly, and rested.
The next morning, everyone seemed tired and slept past 8 o'clock. I was passing time watching TV in the lounge when suddenly Kyogoku set a drink in front of me and sat down.
"I watched you yesterday. You must have worked hard taking care of the people with you. This one's on me."
"Well, I'm a man. I should handle the physical work. Anyway, I'll enjoy it, thank you."
"You're a good person."
"You flatter me."
Kyogoku hesitated for a moment, then asked me.
"May I ask you something?"
"Go ahead."
"Um... What is your relationship with the woman with short brown hair..."
Kyogoku already knew about Sonoko. Sonoko and Ran had once gone to cheer for him at a competition, and seeing Sonoko cheering for him, he had fallen for her at first sight.
"Ah~ You mean Sonoko. She's just a classmate. The woman with long hair next to her is my lover."
"Phew... What a relief... Ah, never mind."
Kyogoku seemed flustered that his inner thoughts had slipped out unintentionally.
"Oh~ I see. Are you interested? Shall I help you?"
When I said with a smile, Kyogoku's face turned red and he was very flustered.
"I-If you would..."
"In return, since I don't know you well, would you mind if I take a look at your spirit for a moment?"
"You mean... your OnmyĆ arts?"
"Yes. I just put my hand on your head, so it won't be uncomfortable."
"Well, if it's just that, I don't mind."
With his permission, I placed my hand on his head and read his memories for a moment. Kyogoku was sincere, persistent, and had a strong spirit. His immense strength was also the result of continuous effort.
'Hmm... He's a guy like Steve Rogers (Captain America).'
I took my hand off and spoke.
"You are very just. And sincere at that... But you have no romantic experience, and you have a very conservative personality, so your partner might find it difficult."
"I-Is that so?"
He didn't particularly deny my words.
"Will you make me one promise? If you do, I'll actively help you."
"What kind of promise?"
"If you end up dating Sonoko, you must 'invest a lot of time in her.'"
"I will! I promise."
Kyogoku answered immediately.
I had a separate reason for setting this condition. He often went abroad to seek out strong opponents, so he didn't have enough time to spend with Sonoko. But if I set this condition, I thought he would be able to sufficiently protect Sonoko, who was frequently exposed to danger because of Conan. Plus, he would become a reliable ally for me as well.
"Good. Then do you have time today?"
"I'll help at the restaurant until lunch, but I'm free in the afternoon."
"Then I'll introduce you to Sonoko in the afternoon. As it happens, she asked me to introduce her to a good man if I knew one."
Then Kyogoku said, flustered.
"T-Today, right now?"
"Yes."
This guy, despite having such a strong spirit, seemed really clumsy when it came to romance.
"Do you need more time?"
"Ah, no. Then I'll leave it to you at that time."
With those words, Kyogoku stood up and went back.
After a while, the others woke up one by one and came out to the lounge.
"Ugh~ I must have played too hard yesterday. I'm tired."
Sonoko said with a yawn.
"Sonoko, I have good news today. You asked me to introduce you to a decent guy if I knew one, right?"
"Yeah, that's right."
"I got in touch with him today, and he's agreed to come here this afternoon."
"What? Really?? Is he handsome?"
"Yeah."
Then Sonoko started fidgeting restlessly. The tired, droopy look from just a moment ago had completely disappeared.
"Ah... This is a problem. I don't have any clothes, what do I do? Jin! Lend me some money, quick, to buy a dress..."
For a moment I couldn't believe my ears.
"What? What did you say? A dress??"
"Yes, a dress! Hurry, come with me to buy a dress. Or at least a formal suit..."
It was truly absurd, but I calmed Sonoko down and spoke. This girl was also clearly lacking in romantic experience.
"You don't need that. Just put on a little makeup and wear the clothes you usually wear."
"W-Will that be okay? What if he doesn't like it?"
I thought about saying, 'It'll be much better than that leopard-print swimsuit you wore,' but I held back.
"If you dress up too much, it might actually make him feel pressured. Just dress neatly."
"Really?"
Ran also added to Sonoko.
"That's right, you don't need to dress up too much. I'll help you with your makeup."
"Really...? Okay. I'll leave it to you."
While we were making all that commotion, I looked at the clock and saw it was already past 10 o'clock. We rested a bit at the inn, then moved to the restaurant run by the inn to eat. Sonoko kept fidgeting the whole time. Conan and Haibara looked at her with pity.
"This... Might be a problem even if we introduce her?"
"I know, right."
We ordered simple yakisoba at the restaurant. Kyogoku was still serving, helping with the restaurant work. Then suddenly, some men at the next table started talking loudly.
"Hey, did you hear? They found another one in the forest by the railway tracks!"
"A ghost?"
"A body, a body! They say it was a woman with brown hair, stabbed to death!"
"What? Really?"
Hearing that, Conan, his meddlesome nature kicking in, quickly stood up and ran outside, saying.
"I'll be right back!"
"Conan-kun! No!"
Conan ignored Ran's words and ran off to where the murder had taken place. As expected, this guy really seemed destined to marry a case.
"Oh, honestly... We need to get ready for the introduction soon. What do we do?"
"Let's go for now. We can't just leave Conan. If he gets lost here, it'll be a problem."
"He's really impossible..."
We finished paying and moved to the location where the incident had occurred. Conan was already at the scene. Ran, with an angry face, flicked Conan on the forehead.
Thwack!
"Ow!"
"Conan, you heard us. Sonoko has an important introduction today! How can you just run off like that?"
I also added.
"This guy, does he just want to satisfy his own curiosity and forget about others?"
Conan rubbed his head and apologized.
"Sorry... I was just too curious..."
We dragged Conan back to the inn. But even while being dragged, Conan kept fidgeting restlessly, showing he was completely preoccupied with the case. This guy really couldn't be helped. Seeing that, even Haibara said incredulously.
"Wow~ He's seriously addicted... How about tying him up?"
"Shall we? That would be funny."
"Hehe~! Right."
Conan must have heard that too, because he said to us.
"You guys are so mean! Why am I being treated like this? I'm not an addict... I won't think about that case anymore. Don't worry!"
At that, Haibara giggled. We went into the room and waited for Sonoko to finish getting ready. I went to Kyogoku and told him.
"So, the café two blocks away from the inn."
"Yes, that's right."
"Understood. Then I'll get ready and go as well."
"Then I'll see you there."
After telling him, we went to the café first and waited. But no matter how long we waited, Kyogoku didn't come. We had already drunk two drinks each.
"Why is he so late? Is he not coming?"
Sonoko tapped her foot impatiently, so I stood up and decided to go check.
"Maybe something happened? I'll go call him. Wait here a moment."
"Okay."
I immediately went outside and ran quickly to the inn. But the front of the inn was surrounded by police cars, and Kyogoku was receiving treatment in an ambulance. So I asked Kyogoku what had happened.
"What on earth happened?"
"Well, you see..."
Hearing the story, Kyogoku said that after finishing his work, he had tried to go to his room to change clothes, but knowing that we had already gone to the café, he thought the room would be empty. But he heard something rustling inside, went in, and found someone rifling through Sonoko's luggage. He managed to catch the thief after a fight, but since the thief had a knife and the room was dark, he couldn't dodge and was slightly stabbed.
"I see..."
"Is Sonoko still waiting?"
"Yes, she is."
"Hoo... I realized that I am still lacking in training. To be wounded by such a thief. So I have decided. I'm sorry to her, but I will go abroad and train more before coming back."
"Huh? Then..."
"Yes, I'm sorry, but please tell her 'I'm sorry.' It seems it's not yet time for me to meet a woman. Even if I did meet someone, I don't think I could keep my promise."
'Wow... This guy is also like Conan...'
As expected, this guy was also a narrow-minded type. He seemed the type to focus only on his own pursuits. Still, seeing him firmly decide on his own path like this, he seemed better than Conan, who couldn't easily let go of attachments.
"Understood. I'll tell her that."
I was about to go back to the café, but then I thought about it: Sonoko's mental state would be shattered when she found out she'd been rejected. So I decided to think of another method.
'What should I do...'
After thinking for a moment, I summoned a clone, transformed him to resemble movie actor Eric Roberts in his prime, and decided to introduce him as a foreign friend. I took the prepared clone and entered the café. I put plenty of money in a luxury wallet just in case.
"Sorry, you waited long, right?"
"I apologize for being late. There was some incident and the roads were congested."
Sonoko couldn't take her eyes off the clone next to me, and accidentally blurted out her inner thoughts.
"Wow~ Such a handsome man... Ah! Sorry..."
Realizing her mistake, she became very embarrassed and immediately apologized.
"Haha, it's fine. You're quite a beauty yourself. At any rate, nice to meet you. I'm Morgan West. Just call me 'Morgan'."
"A beauty... Ah, I'm Suzuki Sonoko. Nice to meet you."
That Sonoko, who had been going on about men, was losing her composure when faced with the real thing.
We moved to another seat to let the two of them talk. Then Ran, curious, asked me.
"Wow~ He's really handsome. Who is he? A friend?"
"He's an American friend. I called him since he was in Japan. He's going to stay at my place for a while. Actually, I met him because of the yacht. He's a navigator."
I decided to use the identity I had prepared in America related to yacht operation. The identity was originally meant for an android, but this was how things turned out.
"I see. What's his personality like?"
"Good. He's also capable. He speaks eight languages, apparently?"
"Wow, he's really smart."
"He says his dream is to work as a navigator and travel all over the world."
"I see."
We watched from the side to see how Sonoko was doing. She was stammering, her face bright red. Seeing that, Ran fidgeted, wanting to help.
"Calm down, Ran. If you interrupt now, it might backfire. From what I can see, my friend also seems to like Sonoko, so just leave them be."
"You think so? Okay."
But if things turned out like this, that meant I was dating both Ran and Sonoko. Since the clone was also me. I never thought I'd use my shadow clones for romance like this.
'Well, it's not bad. Sonoko is a beauty and has a good personality anyway. The problem is I feel a bit guilty toward Ran...'
At any rate, Sonoko and Morgan (clone) seemed to have finished talking; they stood up and came over to us. Seeing Sonoko's bright face, it seemed like doing this was the right thing.
"Let's stay one more day! Morgan-san says he wants to hang out with us since he's at the beach!"
"Really? Then let's do that."