T.A series volume 1: The Extinction Heist

Chapter 8 - The slick Panther and inspector

Now Shinichi has his motives for looking into The Fox.

One of his motives includes trying to fish out the case Ranran has managed to silence Takuma for. With his capabilities, he shouldn't have any problem figuring out what that case was, after all, he too had witnessed what happened at the riverbank last Sunday.

That day was like any other as he had soccer practice to catch up at that time, and the soccer venue was held not far from where the riverbank was when an unexpected 'bang' sound erupted. Being the curious boy he was, he ran over to check what had happened. Of course, being a smart little boy, he hid at the corner of the slope to take a peep from his hiding spot.

What he saw, later on, shocked him.

A dishevelled looking man whose face he couldn't see clearly was being forced into the car, Ranran and Takuma having fled with some bullet shells he was able to make it out (thanks to his dad taking him to many, many crime scenes growing up), and a tinted car having fled the scene.

Because things were happening at a fast pace, he did not have a good look at what the man looked like. He was able to make it out that it was some homeless man with a scar on his face, but that was about it. This is why he was puzzled why would a mysterious driver fire bullets in front of the two children while kidnapping this man? Does it make any sense? He is a homeless man after all. Why couldn't the kidnapper just wait till the two kids leave?

"Unless....he knew this was the only chance to kidnap him. Plus...." His eyes widened," He had no intention of leaving the witnesses alive, cause the kidnapped victim is someone one would easily recognize."

But who could he be? At that time, Shinichi has no clue.

Then shortly after hearing rumours that Ranran could be The Fox while browsing about fox related news, a news suggestion popped up next to the search results. This one reporting the runaway jailbird who broke out of prison, Watanabe Ikeda, a 60-year-old scar face criminal, well known for pick-locking safes of all kinds. This theory fits since the timing of his escape tallies. Not to mention, the distance between the prison and riverbank ain't far off given his timing of escape.

If what he deduced was the truth, that explains why Ranran silenced Takuma and Reina the other day when Takuma brought up 'the case'. But there were many obstacles ahead of Shinichi. Starting with the fact he didn't have much to go about on whether that was really Watanabe. If it wasn't, he'll be wasting a large amount of time trying to locate him. This is when the idea of trying to identify Ranran as The Fox comes into play. If he can prove this, he can get her to share more details about the case.

The problem was how is he going to get her to admit this? As far as he had known, Ranran had always been tight lip.

So the other way to get her to talk was exposing her as The Fox.

Sometimes Shinichi is certain Ranran is Pink Panther while he is the unfortunate inspector.

Growing up having watched the said cartoon around the age of 5, he had always assumed that as much as someone as incompetent Inspector Clouseau would likely exist in real life (Ran's dad probably), there is no way someone can easily slip past anyone at ease as Pink Panther would. The panther just got lucky because of a dumb inspector who isn't capable of using his brain cells. Investigating someone like Kudo Ranran, how hard can he be?

But that is when he realized how much he underestimated the said girl.

For starters, Shinichi didn't have much research luck regarding Ranran's life back in her old neighbourhood in London (regarding the rumours of her having a backer), let alone, has any link that associates her with The Fox. With all the free time he had in the world now that he is no longer with Ran or with Sonoko, he put his energy into looking into her background through social media. Of course, many in his shoes would say 'just ask the family' or ask her personally, since they are both related.