There are many labels Kudo Shinichi had gotten throughout his life.

'Detective geek' by a certain one-brain cell heiress.

'Ran's doting husband' by the boys he comes across in school, and this was really the worst annoying label that is above his detective dream.

But being compared to Majima Michio who is easily swayed by a beautiful girl?! Now that is a low blow. Matsuyuki Moriko pointed out that the reason Ranran didn't submit the evidence to the 'higher-ups' is that he is no different than Michio.

"What are you talking about!? I ain't blinded by Mamiko!" Shinichi denied, shaking his head vehemently.

"Oh please, isn't that the reason why you broke into her house in the first place?! Because Mamiko stated she is using you as a stepping stone for her tantei career!? Let alone, decided to meet up with me?"

The cousin sneered before finally revealing the reason why.

"Anyone who tried to go against her suffered the worst kinds of hell through her puppets! And judging your hatred back at the parkour event, it's evident why she decided using you to ruin her was a great idea!"

"I-"

"When you confronted her, you mentioned Ranran was doing this to piss you off, right!? Those were the rumours you heard, 'cause it was all of that satan's doing!" Moriko then continued with her rants, "Did you not even wonder why soccer club members turned against you despite having witness your feud with Rokuro?"

Shaking his head, she elaborated further.

"Why not you go ask Mamiko's brother then?"

Wait! "Brother!?" His eyes snapped at her. "Mamiko has one?!"

"You didn't know? He was one of the boys you hung out with during the parkour incident, remember? Fuse Amaya?"

The more bombshells she dropped, the more his head was going to implode any second now.

Fuse Amaya...that bastard is her brother!? Shinichi was speechless as he was about to ask how is that possible?? From the bike parking application, he had a different surname with Ishibashi Mamiko. Also, it ain't possible since they are both the same age! What? Does this not make them twins then?!

As if she knew, she explains,"They both had different fathers, Kudo. If you bothered to do online researching, it is medically possible to be twins while having different fathers."

"Even so, why did he go after me-"

Then everything came crashing down. Suddenly, everything began to make sense now.

Everything fell into place for Shinichi at that moment. It was like the last piece of a jigsaw puzzle fitting perfectly in place, completing the bigger picture. Mamiko is the manipulator, the puppet master, who bugged their association in school because during that parkour incident, there was a public media outcry over the situation.

When the incident took place, there were press covering the event. After "Bastard-gate' the media titled it as happened, the public demanded severe punishment onto the boys involved, including Shinichi. While the rest of them including Fuse Amaya faced punishments by having thrown into the worst class, he get to retain his spot in 1-A, the smartest class for children thanks to his prestigious influence of his family. That was a good motive to go after him.

That was the reason why his soccer members and Rokuro turn against him, let alone, why Ranran hated him, because he was Mamiko's puppet.

For a moment, Shinichi was blind-sighted. This was an unexpected turn of events that he did not expect.

Right now, he felt his stomach hit the floor, along with his jaw.

..........

"I wonder how much Moriko-chan had told him..."

In Tantei association HQ back at Michio's place, Ranran was on her own sitting in front of the chessboard at their meeting table thinking about this. The rest of the members are busy doing their own thing, so she decided to play chess on her own amusingly.

Today is supposedly the day Ranran and he argued according to the biography in the projector, where the future her confronted him over why he treated her with such hostility in the same hallway. But that's about to change.

Staring silently at the pot of plants revealed to be Begonia flowers that Takuma brought, she thought about the day she discovered 'that secret'.

Several days ago, Ranran was hanging out in the student council office with her friend Reina, on respective sofas, they were about to talk about some mundane topics when her smartphone abruptly vibrated in her skirt pocket.

Wondering what it was, she took out to view, only her expressions switches from puzzle to horror. Stuffing the phone in her pocket, Reina was going to ask what was with her reaction before the detective girl warned her, by shushing her with her finger pressed to her own red lips.

Using her phone, she secretly sent her a text and upon receiving it, Reina's message revealed:

Continue to talk as if it is normal, I think we are being bugged.

The head girl was going to react before another notification from her phone erupted once more, stating:

Don't show that expression, the person might know. Ask me to look for something.

With an expression to keep up appearances, she tells her best friend, "You know, there is this school album in this office. Legend has it that the principal here used to be bald as a kid."

Flashing an excited smile, Ranran hopped out of the couch to say, "Really!? Then if that is the case, I must obtain this for blackmailing purposes!"

And so, she put on her eager act, searching for the 'album' around the office, but in reality,  she was waiting for the phone to detect it. The closer she is to the bug, the longer it vibrates for about 10 seconds. It was an app she installed long ago during Fox and Deer to maintain anonymity for whoever tried to pry into their conversations.

"Neh Ranran! No need to look for it, alright? It's just a rumour!" Reina continued her charade, while she was worried internally whether the bug could be discovered.

Finally, as soon as Ranran stood closest to Reina's office desk, the vibration lasted 10 seconds.

So Ranran quietly approaches the table with caution.

(If one is to plant a bug, be it a camera or just solely audio, where would one put it? I would put it somewhere where I get a good view. Also, a good angle.)

"I should look for it! No way I am going to give up when such a photo exists!" Ranran argued, surveying the table high and low.

On the table were an array of photos that showed case Reina and her loved ones, including her boyfriend Takuma and best friend Ranran. Even her cousin Moriko is in it. Could it be hidden in one of the photo frames?

As experimentation, she places one photo frame after the other far apart from the table while pulling out drawers after the other to give the illusion she was searching for the album, yet, the vibration kept on remaining. Finally, all it was left is a pot of plants. A plant that Ranran saw before when Reina first started as student head council.

(What are these Begonia flowers doing here?) Ranran couldn't help but wonder.

With the vibration going on, and the drawers emptied out, it only leaves this pot of plant as the potential bug that is causing Ranran's phone to vibrate.

........

That's right.

In the Begonia flowers in Tantei Association, there are bugged cameras hidden among the petals. The reason the culprit picked Begonia flowers is that it doesn't require tons of water, even less so as since it is still Winter season. So it's easier to put cameras there without getting short circuits since it doesn't require tons of watering from the start on this period. And fortunately, the camera is on standby mode, otherwise, it could've alerted the idiot who planted this.

And Reina knew there is no way this camera belonged to Ranran since she and she discussed the placement of her own camera in the office for safety purposes.

Upon learning of this, Ranran inquired from Reina where this plant came about and learn that it came from her cousin Moriko, who besides having joined the Drama club is also a member of the Gardening club. And as she dug further, Moriko was stumped when she learns of this, since the Begonia plants were not supposed to be sent out to the rest of the clubs in their school till next week, so she had no clue how they got there.

So if Moriko wasn't responsible, who is?

Ranran then checked on her own bugs and soon figured out why this happened: Apparently, one of the members of the garden club had a crush on Mamiko, and he thought gifting her Begonia would be romantic.

And that idiot had no idea he had just gifted satan a weapon to use against the association.

Then Mamiko went with the bold move of having this plant sent to the office of the student council anonymously, under the guise of a 'secret admirer' to Reina. She knew Reina's boyfriend would be jealous, and usually, Reina would tell him to take it away and he gets to keep it of that sort. This thing was common knowledge to everyone who knew of their relationship in school.

Initially, Ranran was going to confront that prick with this pot of Begonia plant. How dare she exploited her two friends' relationship to plant bugs and spy on her association!? Worst, she could've endangered all 7 of the kids here!

But that would be a dumb move, after all, the 'Ranran' in the future biography would agree that this move is something she can easily deny and have fingers point back at her.

Suddenly, an idea lit her head.

Since it would be impossible to expose Mamiko upfront, why not use this pot of plants to expose her? Even better, this would be the perfect evidence to set that wench up and expose her unsightly self in front of Shinichi.

After all, although Shinichi may have put aside everything to work alongside her, didn't mean they were close enough to be trusted the way he used to be with Ran and Sonoko. And she can't blame him, since he barely knew a thing about Ranran, which was what she intended.

So the first thing she did was provoke him first to his breaking point, then have the audacity to order him to return the very book Mamiko always secretly read to the library. Those records in this book would be one of the major turning points to be more alert over this sociopath.

When she shared her plans to push Shinichi to his breaking point two her friends, the first thing the athlete said to her was: "I think that is taking the plan too far, Ranran."

Ranran sighed. She knows Takuma was right, it would end up leaving Shinichi looking so confused and hurt after he took the courage to put away his pride to work alongside her.

But this plan itself wasn't something she came up knowing that he isn't completely blind to what she is doing. She knew that eventually, he will take notice that she was acting out of character without a reason. Shinichi isn't as much of an idiot unlike that blithering idiot Mouri to not notice something was wrong.

Now isn't the time to let him know the truth yet, for now, Ranran would just have to live with the fact that the boy who was buried six feet under in the U.K and she are the only two people who knew about its existence, as well as the 'evil children' Ranran and him punished severely to a point even redemption is not in their cards. They had that chance long ago, and it's too late to turn back. Like her mentor, she will wait till Shinichi has wisened up with this world, only then, she will let him know about it.

If he can't see this ruse Ranran set up for him, that meant he truly is not worth becoming a detective. He couldn't even see through Mamiko's true self in the alternate future, so let's see if the month they spent as mentor and apprentice made him sharper.

"Shinichi...let's see if you will wake up back to reality," Kudo Ranran took the black chess piece, the queen, from her side and knock down the white King where it stood in the place of the pawn, one that represented Shinichi as she slyly smiles, watching the white king falling to the floor with a huge thud.

........

Shinichi after having heard all of these developments, for the first time, couldn't stand up anymore. His hands trembled, his nails digging into his palm for so long that it started to bleed, but he was feeling too numb for the pain as it matched his feelings over what he had just learned.

He was in denial, as much of a denial as Ran was when he was with Ranran. But not to a point of deluding himself."W-why couldn't she just...tell me straight in the face rather than...scheme all of this..." he couldn't even finish his sentence.

"Why?! She wished she could! In fact, she would be more than willing to end all of this wanting a 4 minute conversation! But do you know why she didn't?" Moriko then lean forward. "Because deep down, she knew you still can't trust her! After all, you only knew as Kudo Ranran as The Fox, the infamous child detective. Your mentor."

"Wait, you knew?! She was The Fox?!"

"Of course I do! Reina and I don't hide things when it came to her!"

Another question formed in his head, "I always wanted to know...why did she hid herself behind the mask?"

"Simple, because Ranran never wanted fame as a child detective!"

"But then she no longer wears it in the association-"

"Because she didn't want people to form the connection that she is The Fox! Many people want her dead as The Fox since she locked up many high profile figures! And I bet you didn't even know....Mamiko's intense twisted hatred over that poor girl," she accused. Running her hand over her face, she turned away. "Oh God, poor Ranran," she muttered, shaking her head.

"Poor Ranran...?!" He found himself wondering what is with her sympathetic expression over his mentor. "What did Mamiko do to her?"

"After she ruined Mamiko's chances on becoming head girl, she removed all of the corrupt members of the council thanks to Mamiko's influence. So that satan had plotted to ruin Ranran in the worst way possible," she halts, "Since she knew bullying me is now off limits, she spread rumours about Ranran being a kingmaker in exchange for intel! An ambitious tyrant!"

"Wait! Didn't she do that initially to gain intel on the school?" Shinichi blinked.

"Partially! The reason she also put Reina in charge was to save majority of the other kids who were victims of their corruption! As a result, it cost Ranran the chance to even befriend anyone thanks to the real she-demon!"

After saying that, tears would trickle down from those eyes while Shinichi silently watched in horror.

So those rumours of Ranran putting her best friend to have control over everyone in this school, while it might be the case she benefitted intel from all of this, in the process...it was a deal that also benefitted protection for Reina and her cousin as well.

The entire student council members before this consisted of corrupted children who abused their authority, so it's probably the reason why Ranran prepared this scheme. In exchange for intel, she was also saving the majority of kids like Reina's cousin from the injustice they have been enduring.

And to think at some point, Shinichi judged her for being overly ambitious on being a dictator.

Shinichi felt ashamed of his shallowness. As he listened to her, he could feel every word of the young girl seeping into his heart.

Really, he is seriously the worst.

.....

With his world collapsing around Shinichi, Kudo Ranran was silently delighted that things are coming together.

She received text from Reina that she had sent her cousin over, so he should've known at least 70 percent of the evil deeds that girl has caused.

After Ranran watched the part in the future projector where that blonde woman read out all the horrible things future Mamiko bragged about from prison, she honestly wanted to do things to her, like maybe dumping a corpse of a dead animal in her bedroom as it decomposes, leaving a rotten smell so that if anyone walks past her house, people will stay away and be aware she is a murderer.

In the future, Mamiko made Mochizuki Moriko lose contact with all of her friends one after another. Reina grew helpless at first and tried to frame Mamiko doing one of those crimes, only for her to twist it back at them. Eventually, the two lost everything thanks to Mamiko's lies.

That was the ending Mamiko had planned towards her object of jealousy from the very beginning.

But the thing is....Mamiko is exactly like her late mentor's ex-fiance: Diabolical, twisted, deranged and shrewd at its worst. And Ranran won't stand there and do nothing.

Even so, she will do it discreetly behind her back.

Cause Shinichi has yet to discover one more thing that will completely give a clean cut to all the strings of manipulation between him and the Satan. Once and for all.

Still staring at the fallen chess piece, The King, that remained on the floor, a thought ran through her little head.

Now...let's see if you will remain lying down or pick yourself back up.

.....

Within several minutes, Shinichi finds himself breaking into one office he never thought he would do.

Journalism club of Teitan Elementary, run solely by Ishibashi Mamiko.

According to Reina, shortly after leaving the student council office and ending the interview while Moriko requested to be left alone, she who had listened to all of this suggested to him to look into that girl's office should he not believe them.

"About what Moriko-kun said...though Ranran could've submitted the video, you would've assumed that she did it to gain something out of you," Reina told him, quietly. She looked away for a moment, her shoulders stiff. "Ranran wants to go after her, but she didn't want her to be tipped of by her puppets that she is looking into her," she admitted, his voice thick. "Mamiko had such influence over the two people you trusted the most. If she is capable of that, then Ranran deemed the puppets she control as untrustworthy no matter what she says, it's pointless. Because all of Mamiko's victims....never believed a word one says."

"Is that so?" Shinichi asked, sounding hoarse as if he had just finished swallowing something much too large for his throat.

She nodded, staring off at something for a moment before she cleared her throat. "If you don't believe any of this..."

Sneak into her office they said. Everything he wants to know is on the laptop.

Thanks to Ranran's bugs, Shinichi learn through Reina that it appears Mamiko has a habit of leaving her laptop on before heading for meeting. Rarely anyone entered her office in school because most of the children has either headed home, attend after school activities, or fear the rumors surrounding Mamiko.

Mamiko's office is on the highest floor in their school, 3rd floor, which took a lot of leg power for Shinichi's feeble legs to get there despite having played soccer for almost a month, it was too much for him. After Reina became head, she intentionally arranged her office to be placed there to make Mamiko suffer physically. 

That was how Ranran was able to get the association office placed on the ground floor in their school to begin with, connections sure to do wonders for her.

Shinichi mused of this as he unlocked the door slide open with a key. Now it would've been a no brainer for someone as manipulative as Mamiko to lock the door, but Reina had spare keys since becoming head. Plus, Reina pressured her to join the weekly meeting regarding applying for certain facilities for their club today. The head mentioned the meeting will be running for 2 hours, so he is going to spend it wisely to inspect around for clues.

Slightly similar than their 2nd Tantei Association HQ based in school, the interior arrangement is no different, though he was surprise to learn that it was neat. 

Too neatly organized....it was very much OCD level. It made him feel the eeriness of it. It didn't made him feel as if this room was a journalism office, but rather...a place with no warmth nor characteristic. Even with the newspapers cuttings Mamiko made, over her having discovered a missing rabbit when there was a rabbit outbreak within their school, the photo of Mamiko's smile was...wrong.

There is some sort of uneasiness to it, maybe because the rabbit in the picture too was rather fearful and looked eager to leave her.

The association they had back in school and at Michio's place is messy, but it wasn't to a point of a hoarder's level. Anyone who enters it could tell it was a lively place for 7 children. Even though Ran and Junko organized it neatly, it wasn't as rigid nor as unwelcoming as...this place.

The books organized on the shelf, it was either A-Z, or 0-100 based on the titles. The color of the boxes are arranged from light to dark. The writings on the board, presumably it is Mamiko's, it looked very formal with no characteristics. Including the files on the school laptop she misplaced on the table while on a rush to the meeting...damn, like...what is he even reading right now?

It's surprising this girl didn't set up a password like Ranran does, Ranran is always surrounded with secrecy, and always made sure no one is able to pry into anything. Let alone, her smartphone, even all of her close friends had no clue what the password is. Before coming here, he had some concerns that it wouldn't be possible since Mamiko could've set up a password, but as it turns out, Reina is right about the laptop not having a password. The laptop was after all school property, so she had no administration rights to set up her own.

The desktop background strikes nothing out of the ordinary, except for the folders and files.

All of her labelling were arranged in alphabetic order and in English, and yet, reading all of this felt disturbing to Kudo Shinichi. For starters, the two folders that stood out read 'Black', then 'Red'.

Black and Red...what does that even mean!? It's just a color! 

And then he saw a software that made his thoughts all frozen still, Spycam.

Spycam app was something Shinichi was familiar with, since his neighbor professor Agasa mentioned this to him once as one of the most affordable yet user-friendly CCTV bugs in Japan. It was so cheap, even a child can afford it he jokingly once said.

But now that he mentioned it, what is this app doing in Mamiko's computer?

As soon as he hover the cursor over and double clicked, he had to know. He was hoping in the back of his mind that Mamiko didn't logout of her user account in this software

As soon as he did, he was speechless. 

For the laptop revealed Spycam, or the bugged linked to the app, having a perfect view of Tantei Association based in Michio's place, where Ranran could be seen playing chess on her own.

"What the hell is THIS?" Shinichi's eyes bugged out of his sockets after realizing what he had discovered. 

If Mamiko's laptop was able to reveal their meeting room, that meant...she knew everything!

All about their Ruby case, Genzo's words about the case, The Snake's daughter....everything!

Their office was bugged! The entire time! By this bloody Mamiko girl! Not only that, but even during the stakeout...she used her brother's bike to film all of this! To write newsworthy content!

The more Shinichi digs into this, the more flabbergasted he was feeling. Suddenly, Mamiko's words about Ranran using them as stepping stones...all of those words were meant to ruin Ranran's reputation! And she was using him to ruin Ranran!

But wait, if Mamiko was doing this...did Ranran knew?

........

Suddenly, Ranran could feel the sudden vibration against her skirt pocket, stopping her little game of chess on the table. Fishing out her phone, she didn't even need to check the caller ID to know who it was, for she was expecting this. "Hello?" Ranran responded.

"Ranran, are you playing chess now?"

It was Shinichi, and from his tone, it sounded urgent. "Yes I am. And how did you know-"

"Our association is bugged!"

"I know. In the pot of plant Takuma brought over."

Shinichi furrowed his brow. "You don't sound shocked. How are you not shocked?! I thought-" his eyes widened before he bitterly guessed,  "You knew about this too, didn't you?"

He didn't need to phrase it as a question. He knew it as fact. Why didn't his own mentor stop any of this!? Before opening Tantei Association! "Why didn't you say anything!?"

"You could've been influence by Mamiko one way or another, so-"

"Alright, then what about our lives?! All 7 of us!? By her leaking out info of our operation!? We could've died!" he asked softly, his voice cracking from emotion. "Did you not trust me to such a point...you had to go as far as to scheme me to end up in her bloody office!?"

"I do, but you are missing the point here. Anyway, Tak-san also knew about it-"

"He knew!? He knew the entire time!? And you didn't stop him from bringing the plant over to our association-"

"There is another reason I did this, Kudo." Ranran took a deep breath, before explaining, "Could you check the folder where the videos of any recordings within the association are stored?"

Confused, he checked the source path where all the video recordings were saved in through spycam with one on his left hand holding the phone, while his dominant hand using the mouse to browse. To his surprise, it brought him to multiple subfolders, where the main folder reads 'Black'. The names of the folders much to his livid, read 'Student Council office', 'Gardening Club', 'American Football Club', 'Soccer Club' etc.

Hell, even the folder 'Tantei Association' was in there!

A lot was running through his mind at that time, how long...how long as she been spying on their association!?

He then thought of Ranran's comment, regarding the plant he brought it. Wasn't it some sort of flower? When did it arrived to their HQ? Around the start of their first major case?

Then he thought about it upon opening the folder to check, the date of the recordings confirmed his suspicion, no, it arrived not long after the ruby case. Therefore, Mamiko didn't had much newsworthy material to write about-

Wait, Shinichi then recalled the other day when he argued with Ranran when he confronted her about the sabotage...playing the video of the recent date, his eyelids flicker further when it played in the media player, revealing their argument on the laptop.

Oh hell no! That Mamiko recorded this!? He is deleting this! Definitely!

"Don't bother, deleting it will make her realize you broke into her office, Shinichi." 

That stopped him before barking over the phone, "If I don't, she is going to publish spiteful news about us! And the association's reputation would be in ruins!"

"First of all, could you afford it if she finds out you deleted the video?" Ranran confronted.

"Excuse me?!"

With her leaving her own seat, she paced while on her phone in the HQ, "First of all, when you decided to enter her office while she is off meeting, did you have her permission to search through her laptop?"

"You-"

"Second, can you even afford to go after her if you bring this laptop with all of the evidence to the principal or teachers?"

The enraged blue eye boy blinked a blank expression while side staring his phone, "What is that supposed to mean?"

"Mamiko's manipulation, when she decided to manipulate you...it wasn't going to be easy since you were wary of others around you."

"What are you trying to say, Ranran?!"

"You know what?" Ranran facepalmed in frustration over how slow his thinking was before instructing, "Open the 'Red' folder."

"Hah!? Why?"

"Just do as I say. Scroll down till you see Moriko's name, then play the video."

Further puzzled, he opened the red folder as she had ordered. To his surprised, the contents burst open to reveal more subfolders. This time, unlike the folder 'Black', it had names of the students of Teitan Elementary, and to his shock, he spots under the 'M' section, her name was there.

And surprisingly, Ranran's name isn't listed under the 'Red' folder.

Having opened it, he is surprised to find one video of one's kind. As the video began to play, he was astonished to reveal it a disturbing video.

"No. No, please don't film this, this is already bad enough as is, please-"

"Shut up! You have no right to say a word!" Mamiko could be heard cutting Moriko off, and the next thing he knew, she could be seen shoving her head into the toilet bowl. " You see? This is what happened when you think you are above me for stealing the boy I like. Do you want me to lower you further to remind you who you are!?" 

"I did not steal him! He was just smiling-"

"Shut up!" 

Mamiko kneeled then and took Moriko by the hair, yanking her head down so Moriko is face down, making distress noises while being forced into the toilet seat as he heard a ripple of laughter in response to her plight. 

Utter cold reaches Shinichi's chest at Mamiko's words as he feels another rush of emotion through him. How could that girl-

As soon as she pulled Mamiko's head out who is gasping for air, she toss her down to the cold hard floor like a bag of potatoes, along with the other girls. From their faces, Shinichi recognizes them.

They were the group of morons who went after Ranran, the same group who open that silly little make-up club and went after Shinichi.

"Next time if you ever try to be all so righteous, or even high and mighty, remember that this video of you will be a good reminder to humble you!" Mamiko hummed condescendingly.

Shinichi feels a burst of anger fill him, "How dare she?"

"Continue to watch the videos inside the 'Red' folder, that is only minor for what she did."

And so Shinichi did, for the next hour, every video was far worst than the next. It's mostly Mamiko tormenting every single child miserable both physically and mentally, he started to wonder how is it that he didn't notice all of the things she did. He is a bloody detective for God sakes! And yet he didn't notice the amount of evil this girl is capable of!

But all of the videos of bullying were merely humiliation level, unlike the rest of the videos he was about to watch. To his surprise, even teachers' names were named on the folder, where she allegedly made shady deals that not even he himself thought was possible. Even the video of the night of the stakeout, he was surprise to see the Atsuko Gallery, indicating to him that Mamiko is the one who planted the bike there.

The only conclusion he could guess why Mamiko is able to do all of this, is because Mamiko's family is wealthy.

But the wealth had to come up from somewhere, and through the vague conversations, it seems like they have some sort of connection to her mother, as she intentionally brought up her mother's name in front of the teachers before telling them to call off the punishment, which is why she is always able to get away scot-free while bullying the children in the video.

Which also made Shinichi ponder...what sort of job Mamiko's mom held that even the teachers of this school were intimidated by her mother's name, Uehara Hiromi?

Cause till now, this name does not ring a bell to him. He would have to look into this later, or maybe ask Ranran about it. 

"If you are worried about Shinichi's life, then why not tell him upfront about it?"

"Eh?" That suddenly broke his trance before focusing his attention back on the laptop which he forgot was set to auto-play, revealing a rather familiar face.

To his surprise, it was the one brain cell heiress in the video, Suzuki Sonoko.

What the hell...what the hell is this girl doing in the video!?

Hearing his gasp, Ranran became curious over his response, "What?"

"T-t-that girl-Suzuki-"

"What!? She is in the video!?" Ranran suddenly blurted out.

From the looks of it, she doesn't seem to realize she was being recorded. They appeared to be in a cafe at some mall, where they were dining out together. "How?" She could be heard asking at the recorder with a frown, "Shinichi rarely listens to any of us anyway."

"Spread rumours that this person who is doing his dream as a detective is better off than him, let alone, the name of someone he hates the most. That way, this will discourage him." Mamiko's voice could be heard speaking in a sweet and helpful tone from what Ranran could make it out of.

But secretly, Ranran knew...that was a sickly tone.

A sickly sweet tone with no mercy, no emotion, let alone, had any redeeming quality. Similarly like 'The Fiance' who killed her mentor in cold calculative manner.

Unbeknownst to Ranran, a skeptical voice over the phone pressed while struggling to contain a wave of nausea over what he was hearing, "If you were able to tell me to locate the video from which folder, why aren't you aware about Suzuki's video with Mamiko?!"

Ranran rolled her eyes to refute without hesitation."I mean I had a life besides being a kid in this school, Kudo. I am The Fox having to spend many hours juggling between school and as a child detective, have you forgotten? I didn't even have the luxury to watch every single video as you are doing now, since Mamiko has become wary over me after crowning Reina head girl." 

"Oh...right..." At some point, he nervously scratch the back of his head and forgotten about her old life as 'Fox'. Judging Ranran's tone, she seems to be genuinely telling the truth and sincerely has no idea about Sonoko's interaction with Mamiko.

Truth to the matter, she did know through Takuma that Sonoko was responsible for spreading the rumors that Ranran is The Fox. And if she had the chance, she wished she copied everything in that laptop. But she did not know of the existence of the video between that girl and Mamiko at all.

"I don't know...it's wrong to spread rumors about others that ain't true." Sonoko's voice sounds of hesitation, the same one who Shinichi deep down had some tiny hope that she had nothing to do with this.

"Relax, Suzuki. It won't be that bad. After all, this boy is always obnoxious who always brushed off anything that is said about it anyway. Also, what harm could it do to him anyway? He doesn't get jealous of anyone who does better than him. Plus, look on the bright side: Would anyone die literally out of the words one said? If he quits, he can end up becoming your best friend's husband."

That really struck a nerve to the blue eyed boy. How dare this girl-surely Sonoko isn't that much of an idiot to- "You know what? It's about time someone put him back to his place, remind him to be humble."

Shinichi gasped, even Ranran who is hearing all of this the first time over the phone was gobsmacked. Is this really the same girl the future 21st Century Sherlock Holmes praised as one of her strong loyal friends in the future biography!? 

The more Ranran hears of this, the more she grew livid over their future in the projector.

How much more lies is Shinichi not told about from those two girls!? How much more hypocrisy are they hiding that would even put that 'Ranran' in the book to shame!? How can those two even be called 'heroines' even all of this happened!?

But her reaction was nothing, unlike Shinichi as he cursed in a raspy voice before he stood up abruptly. "No. No that's not possible."He began to rage pace, as anger was showing through his blue eyes.

"Kudo-" Ranran tried to put of his rage over the phone, "Maybe there is an explanation-"

"There isn't!" He decided, still talking over the phone.

"Shinichi-"

"Don't interrupt me! She had intentional malice towards me! What more is there to defend about her!?" The whole world came to a stop as his frantic monologue came to a close.

"Kudo-"

"So she is the one! She was the one who spread those rumours about to discourage me from my dream! And I was so blind!"

Shinichi scrunched up his face and try to be in control, but just barely. Even Ranran was not expecting this outcome.

What was wrong with him? What kind of detective was he? Was he really that dismissive of his friends that he hadn't any idea what was going on inside their little heads?

When did things change so drastically?

And that's when Ranran knew...this is going to be life altering for him, one way or another.

....

By the time Ishibashi Mamiko returned to her office thanks to 2 hours dreaded hours of the head girl's words later, a loud voice could be heard erupting upon arrival.

"WHO THE HELL TRASHED MY OFFICE!?"

It was a mess no matter where she directed her gaze. 

Her precious little office space was completely unrecognizable.

A complete mess was even to her an understatement; files and papers turned over, shredded, trampled about, crushed and littered everywhere. But there are more documents scattered in no discernible pattern, every piece of furniture damaged beyond repair. It literally was triggering Mamiko's OCD one way or another, for she can't tolerate messiness.

But it wasn't as bad, comparing to the laptop that was previously on the table.

The school laptop was completely unrecognizable; As if the Hulk exist in real life, it was badly battered to a fault that she couldn't even recognize that was actually a laptop, on the floor with the motherboard and graphic cards fallen out.

"Just what in god's name happened?!" Her jaw hung low in shock. Then she exclaimed in realization, "Wait, could it be....that KUDO RANRAN!? THAT SHE FOUND OUT ABOUT MY LAPTOP!?"

The more she thought of it, the more it would make sense. After all, she had a huge detest for that Kudo Ranran for standing in the way everything she should've been blessed with!

If that is the case, she is going to- hmph? Wait-

Before she could leave, she accidently felt a paper stuck beneath her shoes. Curious, she unglued the paper that was beneath her before trying to make out the contents.

To her surprised, she recognized this writing.

"N-no way....my damn brother!?"

And it finally made sense that her idiot half-brother did this, since they were not on speaking terms at home or in school. Where is the bastard? He is going to confront him now!?

But little did she realize, it was all a set-up.