Chapter Text
After Kishi left, Conan’s group started walking along the beach, Kogoro begrudgingly. The beach wasn't particularly wide, but it stretched across the whole shoreline. The sea was calm and the tide was low.
“It's a shame that we didn't get to swim today,” Mitsuhiko lamented as they watched the sea.
“Yeah, Ayumi would love to go swimming too,” Ayumi agreed.
Ran smiled encouragingly at them. “We'll definitely go swimming tomorrow, okay?”
“Yes!” the children all agreed.
“Let’s get up early for that!” Genta added.
“Genta, you’re always the one who has the most difficulty to get up,” Mitsuhiko pointed out.
“Getting up early?” somebody asked. The group turned their heads and spotted a woman in the process of carrying a foldable chair across the beach. Judging by her clothes, she was a resort employee. “Ah, you’re going to see the sea caves at dawnbreak, then?” She smiled at them.
“The sea caves?” professor Agasa repeated, voicing a confusion that Conan saw was mirrored by the whole group. He understood them; he couldn’t see how the woman had made that leap of logic.
“Oh, I’m sorry, I just assumed,” the woman apologized as she saw their faces. “Usually, if our guests want to get up early during their stay here, it’s to see the sea caves at dawnbreak.”
“Why would anyone bother to go watch caves at the crack of dawn rather than at a sane hour?” Kogoro said skeptically.
“Dad!” Ran hissed at him.
The woman seemed to take the question in stride. “The sea caves here are wonderful at any time of course, but dawnbreak is special. As the sun starts to approach the horizon for dawn, a natural wonder takes place until the sun has properly risen.”
“A natural wonder?” Mitsuhiko asked in surprise.
“Really?” Ayumi asked in wonder.
The woman nodded and smiled at the children. “Really. At the sun’s early rays, a glow appears from the sea caves’ walls, as if the caves are coming alive. It’s one of the most special things about our island, something we recommend all our guests to experience at least once during their stay.”
The kids’ eyes had taken on a shine. Ran and the professor looked intrigued. Kogoro in turn looked openly skeptical, as if listening to a grifter’s tale. Conan felt some skepticism, but decided to keep his face neutral.
“Where are these sea caves?” Ran asked.
The woman pointed toward the hotel building behind them. “They lie at the east end of the island, at the bottom below some cliffs. The hotel has raised an observation deck close to the site, where we have a guide on-site every morning before dawnbreak. You just have to follow the walking path behind the hotel. And set the alarm to before dawnbreak tomorrow, of course. Our reception offers precise time stamps for sunrise any day in question.”
They exchanged a little more courtesy talk, then split up. The woman continued back toward the resort buildings with the foldable chair she carried, while their group continued the other way along the beach.
After a while, they reached the other end. A series of cliffs formed a natural barrier that walled off the far end of the beach. The group decided to take a break here and sat down on a cliff near the water to relax.
“It’s been quite the day, hasn’t it?” Professor Agasa mused as he rested his body against the cliff.
“Right,” Ran agreed on top of the cliff, massaging her eyes.
Kogoro groaned tiredly, lying on the cliff with an arm over his face. “A five-hour car trip. Rushing for the ferry. Even more hours spent out on the rocking sea. And that’s not bringing up the shoot-out.”
“There wasn’t a shoot-out,” Conan pointed out from where he sat next to Haibara against the cliff. “The robber used an empty gun.”
“Whatever,” Kogoro said, not removing his arm from his face. “Why did we even make this grueling trip?”
“To find out who it was that sent us that invitation,” Ran reminded him. “Which you should be thinking about instead of the local bar.”
“Hmph,” Kogoro grumbled. “Give me a day or two investigating, and I will get to the bottom of that letter. You’ll just see.”
Except I will be the one investigating, Conan retorted mirthlessly in his mind. And at this point, it felt like he still had nothing to go on.
“And regardless,” Ran added, “this island is beautiful. It’ll make for a nice vacation.”
“Yeah!” Ayumi chimed in. “With the beautiful beach and the big forest!”
“And the nice restaurant!” Genta said. “The dinner we had was a good thing that happened today!”
“There’s also those sea caves with the natural wonder we’re going to see tomorrow,” Mitsuhiko added.
“Bah,” Kogoro scoffed. “That’s just some tale they’ve spun up to put together a tourist trap.”
As Conan saw the kids look as if the happy air inside of them was starting to leak out, Ran hurriedly said, “I don’t think they would make the whole thing up. We’ll see how it is tomorrow morning. And regardless, we still have a day at the beach to look forward to.”
That seemed to mollify the kids.
“As for things that happened today, we also met Mr. Kishi,” Mitsuhiko pointed out after a few moments of silence.
“Ah, yes, young Kishi,” Professor Agasa said.
“I never thought we’d meet a real ronin,” Genta said.
“There are no actual ronins around in the modern day, Kojima,” Haibara commented. “Like the samurai, they belonged to an older time.”
Genta looked at her, a little confused. “But, he didn’t say no when I asked. And he said he travels from place to place.”
“He’s also brave,” Ayumi chimed in. “Like when he faced that robber.” She frowned in confusion. “But he doesn’t think so himself, which Ayumi thinks is odd.”
“Someone doesn’t have to be a ronin to travel from place to place or be brave, even if they have things in common,” Conan pointed out to them.
Kogoro huffed, still not removing his arm from his face. “He’s just some brash teenager. Weird too.”
“Dad!” Ran admonished him.
“He did say some strange things,” Mitsuhiko allowed. “And have some strange habits.”
“And he seems to know things,” Genta added. “Like at dinner. Something like that hasn’t happened before, and it was because of what Mr. Kishi said.”
How much wonder do you place in feeling full before you’ve emptied your plate? Conan asked in his mind.
“And yet, except at dinner, he doesn’t talk much. He’s kind of like a mysterious wanderer,” Ayumi said. “Like on TV.”
As the kids began to have a conversation centered around this idea, Conan filtered them out and stared out at the sea as he thought about what he knew about Kishi.
Making an observation Conan himself hadn’t. An odd absence of fear in a seemingly dangerous situation. A claim of traveling from place to place. Mostly succinct and sometimes cryptic statements. Speech that implied an unconventional lifestyle. An disheveled appearance. Worn-out, ill-fitting clothes. A small amount of literal pocket money. No luggage. No mobile phone.
An enigmatic drifter of low means with a strange attitude. That was the image that summarized what Conan knew about the young man known as Robert Kishi.
“I did realize something about him earlier,” Haibara suddenly admitted to Conan, her voice low so only he could hear her as the kids talked.
“Hm? What?” he asked her, subtly turning his head towards her.
Haibara looked out at the sea as she silently talked. “The look he has in his eyes when he talks or listens to you. I think he doesn’t say everything he’s thinking. Or rather, he thinks much more than he says out loud. Much more. So, it’s not that he has nothing to say; he makes sure to not let anything he thinks out. Keeping things to himself. It makes me think that there is something he really doesn’t want to say. Some secret he doesn’t want revealed.”
Conan looked at her, keeping silent, but thinking, Are you describing Kishi… or yourself?
As time went by, the sun slowly set and the sky turned orange, while the air cooled and the gentle breeze flowing out to the sea became stronger. The sounds of the ocean changed and the waves sounded louder. For a while, everyone just sat in silence and took in the sunset.
Finally, Ran turned to the children with a tired smile. “It's getting late. Let's hurry up and finish our walk.”
They left the cliffs and made their way back across the beach line. After a while, they reached the area around the resort satellite buildings and the land end of the cement pier. Arriving from this side, they could more clearly spot the lifeguards’ hut positioned to the side of the pier.
Their walk took them to the forest entrance behind the resort satellite buildings. They were now in the shadow of the trees, which grew denser and taller the deeper into the forest they looked. The shadows of the trees began to grow longer as the sun continued to set. To the side of the forest entrance, the resort had placed a sign that warned about entering the forest without proper preparation and during times other than full daylight.
“It's so dark in there,” Ayumi remarked with a worried frown.
“And it's not even that late yet,” Mitsuhiko added.
“Yes, but clearly, it's already dark enough inside the forest that we shouldn’t venture any further,” Ran noted.
“Okay, let's stop here for today,” professor Agasa suggested.
They all agreed with that, and left the forest entrance to make their way back to the hotel.
The next morning, Conan woke up early, before the alarm Ran had set for the cave visit. The lack of city sounds really made for a good night’s sleep. Soon, the alarm set off, waking up Ran and disturbing a Kogoro who seemed set to keep sleeping despite Ran’s moderate attempts to get him to go with them.
After giving up, she and Conan got dressed, then carefully left the room to not make any noise. Outside in the hall, professor Agasa was waiting with Haibara and the still very sleepy Ayumi, Mitsuhiko and Genta. They took the stairs down to the bottom floor, then made their way to the lobby.
“You’re all up early,” a voice said.
Many in Conan’s group started, and each of them turned their heads along with Conan. Kishi was sitting on a sofa, watching them.
“You too, mister,” Conan pointed out.
“Well, I went to sleep early. I wish I had more time for it, though.” Kishi sighed.
“You still didn’t go back to sleep despite that?” Mitsuhiko asked curiously.
Kishi shook his head. “It wouldn’t have been restful at that point. Still, I might do it in a while. It’s almost daybreak.” Kishi turned his head to look out into the dark outside the windows. “The day is my time.”
Everyone in the group looked at him, none of them seeming to know what to say to that any more than Conan himself did.
Kishi turned his gaze back to the group. “Well, that’s my reason. Why are you people up at this hour?”
“We’re going to watch the sea caves,” Ran answered.
Kishi tilted his head. “In the dark of the night?”
“Apparently, some kind of natural wonder takes place at the caves for a short time at dawn. It is a local tourist attraction.”
Kishi raised an eyebrow and rose from the sofa. “I think I’ll join you in that.”
Ran looked taken aback for a moment, then rebounded. “Sure, the more the merrier.” Ran turned to the kids. “Shall we be on our way?” she asked them, and the kids made a tired agreement.
They made their way to the entrance.
“Where is Mr. Mouri?” Kishi asked casually as they walked
“He is sound asleep,” Ran said, shaking her head, dismayed.
They exited the hotel and entered the darkness outside. They followed the direction the hotel employee had indicated, and soon found a walking path marked by small lamps that led them to the east point of the island.
What awaited them at the end of the walking path, was a cliff with a fenced observation platform, where a number of other tourists had already arrived before them. With them was a hotel employee, different from the one Conan’s group had met yesterday, who acted as a guide and directed their group to a free spot on the observation deck that faced the sea caves.
In the darkness of the night, even with a little light from the small lightbulbs incorporated into the observation deck, none of them could really make out the sea caves below them, even when the guide pointed in their direction. The sound the waves made as they swept towards the point of the caves did sound as if they moved through sea caves though, as far as Conan could judge an unfamiliar sound like that.
The minutes passed slowly in the night’s darkness as everyone awaited the time of daybreak, when this natural wonder supposedly would happen. Finally, the guide, after checking his watch, announced that only a few minutes remained, and everyone renewed their focus on the spot below.
It was weak at first, but by the second, the mouths of the sea caves started to light up in vivid colors of all kinds, creating a rainbow effect across them. Conan turned his head to the sea. The sun was slowly starting to rise above the horizon. The tourists around him, not to mention Ran and the kids, made surprised and cheerful exclamations. Even Haibara had widened her eyes a little.
“It’s astounding,” professor Agasa said in admiration, and Conan had to agree.
“It is an interesting collection of colors,” Kishi admitted while looking at the caves. “Some form of luminescence prompted by the sunrise. I can guess some of the sources for them. Those blue tints would appear to be from scheelite.”
“Scheelite?” Mitsuhiko repeated in confusion.
“A mineral. It glows like that when exposed to ultraviolet radiation, which there is an increase of right before the sun rises. It’s mainly sought after as a source of tungsten.”
“What tongue?” Genta asked.
Kishi sighed exhaustedly. “Tungsten. It’s a metal with the highest melting point known to man. It’s an important material in technology.”
“You seem knowledgeable on these subjects,” Haibara pointed out.
Kishi didn’t take his eyes off the caves, but the muscles around them shifted a little. “Yeah.”
In the dim light from the caves that reached the observation platform, Conan noticed someone moving in the corner of his eye. When he looked, he saw a large figure. After a few moments, he could make out the figure; it was the heavy half-bald man he had seen arguing with the reception worker yesterday. If Conan remembered correctly, his name was Mr. Yakushima. The heavy man was looking in their direction with a frown.
The phenomenon from the caves persisted for several minutes, but as the sun had made it halfway over the horizon, the colored lights slowly faded back into nothingness, their moment passed. Everyone at the viewing spot started to disperse from the edge of the observation platform.
In the light of dawn, Conan could see Mr. Yakushima more clearly. The man, dressed in his business suit, looked out of place among the more casually dressed tourists that surrounded them. Conan then took notice that the guide was glaring at the half-bald man, not being discreet at all. Clearly, Conan thought, more than one worker at the resort hadn’t taken a shine to Mr. Yakushima.
The next moment, the guide turned his attention towards the whole gathering with a more amiable face. “That was Kaishokudou Island’s dawn-glowing sea caves. Isn’t it a right wonder?”
The tourists made several different affirmative remarks at the same time in answer.
“Quite right,” the guide nodded. “It is rightly Kaishokudou Island’s second most mysterious thing for a reason.”
Conan observed how everyone turned puzzled. He did feel it somewhat, himself.
“The second?” one of the tourists asked at length.
The guide suddenly grimaced, turned his head and scratched his chin. “Oh my. Maybe I shouldn’t have mentioned that. There’s just this story that goes around on this island. Nothing to care about.”
Conan watched the guide with an unamused look. His mother certainly wouldn’t give a thumbs up for this guy’s acting.
Still, somebody decided to take the guide’s ill hidden bait. “What story?”
The guide looked back at the gathering. “Well, there are local legends, older than this resort… Some say that on rare occurrences, in the dark of the night, one might catch a glimpse of…” The guide paused dramatically. “‘The Walking Ghost.’”
Each person in the gathering reacted differently to the guide’s words. Some looked intrigued. Some, like Ran or the kids, suddenly looked white in the face. In Conan’s case, he suddenly felt even more disinterested than before with the guide’s crummy acting.
“‘The Walking Ghost?’” someone repeated.
The guide nodded, then paused, as if weighing his words. “The local legend goes that long ago, this island had a visitor from the outside. They aimed to explore the sea caves, but in the middle of their endeavor… they vanished without a trace.”
The guide paused, looking around at the gathering dramatically.
“Since then, sightings have popped up of an otherworldly figure walking the island at night, clad in an eerie glow, not unlike a pale imitation of the sea caves at dawn. The locals believed that the visitor’s spirit, caught between worlds, wanders the island at night—revealed by his eerie glow.”
The guide looked at the gathering—some, like Ran and the kids, looked downright terrified now—then shifted from his dramatic guise to a comforting one.
“Of course, this is just a tale to add mystery to our beautiful island. Since the resort was built, certainly neither employees nor visitors have spotted anything looking like a glowing man.” When the frightened began to relax, the guide adopted his dramatic facade once again. “But sometimes, truth hides behind a legend. Maybe if you look outside at night… you might spot a mysterious glow.” The guide looked around as he talked. When his gaze passed over Conan’s group, he added, “Who really knows what lurks in the dark of the night?”
While Ran and the kids had their knees shaking, Conan looked boringly at the guide. He’d heard his share of ghost stories and yokai tales during many of his investigations. More than a few of them had been used by culprits in bizarre attempts to get away with their crimes. He supposed that if a murder happened on the resort, he should be prepared if the culprit tried to make use of the local ghost story of the Walking Ghost.
“Excuse me?” somebody spoke up. After a moment, Conan realized it was Kishi, holding a hand into the air.
“Yes, sir?” the guide asked.
“These sea caves. Do they contain radioactive minerals?” Kishi asked, looking seriously at the guide.
The tourists around them started, several of them suddenly moving further away from the edge of the observation deck closest to the caves, while the guide blinked at Kishi, taken aback.
“I can assure that the glow from the caves aren’t dangerous,” the guide finally said in a placating tone. “We’ve held these sightings for years without incident.”
“That’s not what I asked,” Kishi said. “Do they contain radioactive minerals?”
The guide’s face twitched, like he was suppressing a frown. “Some studies were made of the caves in connection with the construction of the resort. Whether during the glowing at daybreak or any other time, the cave mouths give off natural levels of radiation that can be found anywhere. We’re at no risk here at the observation platform.”
“What about further into the caves?” Kishi persisted.
The guide was properly frowning now. “The interiors of the cave system remain mostly unexplored. The locals, while they still lived here decades ago, refrained from entering the caves. The construction teams only studied the mouth of the caves to check if they posed any concern for the resort. We working at the resort certainly don’t intrude upon them. And no visitors are allowed into the caves themselves.”
The guide suddenly glared at Mr. Yakushima, who seemed to have been following the conversation between him and Kishi. “No visitors. At all. Are allowed into the caves.”
Mr. Yakushima scowled at the guide, then huffed and promptly stomped off the observation platform, following the walking path back to the hotel.
The mood properly soured, the guide made a half-hearted attempt to properly end the sightseeing event and sent everyone else off. The gathering slowly dispersed and began making their way back to the hotel. Conan’s group was among them.
“Mr. Kishi?” Conan asked the young man as he walked in silence beside them. “Why did you suddenly ask about radioactive stuff? Because of the glowing?”
“There’s that, too,” Kishi answered after a brief moment. “But mostly, it was about that local legend.”
“The local legend?” Conan repeated, puzzled.
“About the Walking Ghost. When I heard that name, my thoughts went to radiation.”
Nearly everyone looked at Kishi with baffled eyes.
“What does radiation have to do with ghosts?” Mitsuhiko asked.
Kishi shook his head. “It’s an expression in medicine. And it’s not a proper thing to explain to children, so please don’t ask any more.”
Dissuaded by Kishi’s attitude, the group made their way back to the hotel in silence. Conan suspected that everyone, like himself, intended to take a morning nap before taking on the rest of the day.