The day for the camping trip arrived in a flash.
"Whoa, look! It's Mount Fuji!" The three little ones—Ayumi, Mitsuhiko, and Genta—were pressed against the windows of the Professor's yellow Beetle, shouting with glee as the iconic peak came into view.
From this stretch of the highway, one could not only admire the breathtaking scenery of Mount Fuji but also see the newly completed Twin Tower Skyscrapers of Nishitama City looming in the distance.
"Nishitama City…"
"That guy's name was Teiji Moriya, wasn't it?"
The atmosphere in the red pickup truck following behind was a bit more subdued. Tsuneo glanced at the towering structures in the distance and tossed a question toward the "Great Detective" sitting beside him. He was referring to the man with the distinctive mustache who had once planted bombs all over Tokyo.
"Yeah. The redevelopment plan for Nishitama City was interrupted because of me…" Conan sighed, staring at the distant towers while scratching his head.
Even though the two buildings looked nearly identical at a glance, a closer look revealed they were of completely different heights. Still, Moriya was safely behind bars, and since he hadn't designed these particular towers, they weren't likely to be blown up just for the sake of his twisted sense of symmetry.
"Now that both of you have laid eyes on them, those towers are probably doomed," Haibara remarked dryly, flipping through a promotional brochure for the Nishitama skyscrapers.
According to the pamphlet, they were the tallest twin towers in Japan, standing at 319 meters and 294 meters respectively. It seemed they were fated for misfortune; having only just been completed, they were already being scouted by two of the world's most potent "jinxes."
"Hey, I didn't pick the location…" Conan muttered, resting his chin on his hand. Maybe if I just look at them less, nothing will happen…
"Nishitama City, the Twin Towers…" Tsuneo's expression was equally peculiar. What kind of broken lottery machine did the Professor build anyway?
The two vehicles arrived at the campsite one after the other.
This area was well-developed, offering a much more comfortable environment than the deep, primitive forests they usually frequented. While the Junior Detective League might have found it a bit lacking in "thrills," the adults found it far more relaxing. At the very least, they likely wouldn't stumble upon hidden treasures or serial killers here.
While Tsuneo was busy pitching the tents, the Professor had already settled by the river to start fishing.
"Don't worry, kids! I'm definitely catching something today!" the Professor called out.
"It's okay, Professor," Mitsuhiko said sensibly, bringing over an ice bucket. He had already bought fish in advance, just in case.
"Genta-kun, could you help me bring the vegetables over?" Akemi, who was in charge of the cooking, was preparing to start the fire.
"On it!"
With everyone chipping in, preparing the meal became a leisurely, communal affair.
"Eel, eel, grilled eel~!"
By evening, Genta was sitting at the table in high spirits. Tonight's menu featured both curry and his favorite—eel over rice!
"I'm stuffed!" Mitsuhiko said, setting down his bowl with a satisfied sigh.
"Mitsuhiko, you didn't finish every grain!" Genta pointed at the bottom of Mitsuhiko's bowl while stuffing his own face. "My mom says that if you leave even a single grain of rice, the heavens will punish you!"
"He's right," Tsuneo added, nodding as he worked through an extra-large portion of his own.
"Rice is made through eighty-eight laborious steps by farmers," the Professor explained with a smile. Wasting food was simply not an option.
"Eighty-eight steps?" Ayumi tilted her head, confused. "Is it really that complicated?"
"If you break down the kanji for 'rice' (rice), it looks like the characters for 'eight-eight' (88), right?" the Professor explained, launching into his trivia mode. "That's why an eighty-eighth birthday is called the 'Rice Jubilee.' A seventy-seventh is the 'Joy Jubilee,' and a ninety-ninth is the 'White Jubilee.'"
"Do you know why seventy-seven is called the 'Joy Jubilee'?"
Facing Professor Agasa, who was clearly gearing up for a series of puns, the "dog-headed" detective Conan gave him the satisfaction of an answer: "Because the cursive script for 'Joy' looks like the characters for 'seventy-seven' stacked vertically."
"And the ninety-ninth birthday, the 'White Jubilee,' refers to taking 'one' away from 'one hundred,'" Haibara added seamlessly. If you remove the top stroke from the character for 'hundred', you're left with 'white'.
"Exactly right!" Tsuneo was still eating…
"Eh?!"
"I've always thought you two knew way too much," Mitsuhiko said, looking at Conan and Haibara with awe. Even though he spent time every day studying extracurricular materials and reading the news, he still felt leagues behind these two and their bottomless well of random knowledge.
"Are you two sure you didn't lie about your age?" Genta asked, squinting suspiciously. "Are you actually monsters from the mountains pretending to be elementary students?"
Conan: …Well, you got the first half right.
"Tonight, after you're all asleep, I'm going to rip open your tents and eat you one by one," Haibara said in a perfectly flat tone, taking a sip of her tea.
"Eek!" The three kids paled instantly.
"Alright, alright! Next up, a riddle!" the Professor clapped his hands to redirect their attention. "If someone is celebrating their forty-fourth birthday, what should they be called?"
"Forty-four?" The kids knit their brows in thought.
"Here's a hint: the answer consists of one kanji and three katakana characters. You can ignore the word 'Jubilee,'" the Professor said, grinning widely. He lived for these moments.
Forty-four, eighty-eight… give me a break… Conan figured it out almost instantly and let out a weary sigh. As usual, it was a painfully "low-nutrition" pun.
Seeing that the kids were stumped, the Professor laughed and revealed the answer: "The answer is… since forty-four is exactly half of eighty-eight, and eighty-eight is 'Rice,' and the English for 'Rice' is RICE… half of rice is HAN-RICE (Half-Bowl of Rice)!"
Half-rice. Get it? It's perfect, right?
"…"
The silence was deafening. Who on earth would want to be called a "half-bowl of rice" on their forty-fourth birthday? Could that person even stomach their meal after that?
The three kids hung their heads, suddenly feeling a chilly breeze as if someone had cranked the air conditioning to the max in the middle of the wilderness.
"Are you guys okay?" Akemi asked, noticing the awkward atmosphere.
"It's fine! If you have three bowls of rice, it becomes 'Sun-Rice' (SUN RICH)!" the Professor sang out a random tune, then helpfully refilled his own bowl to suit the mood.
Tsuneo reached out and handed his empty bowl over as well, signaling for a refill.
"No problem, no problem! If it's three big bowls, then it's an extra-large portion of sunshine!"
"Professor, please stop singing…"
The day and night passed quickly.
The next morning, the group packed up and set out on their return journey. They had agreed to stop by the Twin Towers in Nishitama City on the way back. Having just finished breakfast, they departed early—though Genta had managed to polish off five bowls of rice by himself before they left.
"It's so tall!"
"I can't even see the top."
"It's like it's poking right into the clouds!"
The three kids hopped out of the cars as soon as they arrived at the base of the towers, craning their necks in awe.
"It's not officially open yet, right?" Tsuneo asked, looking around.
Hopefully, maybe, probably… nothing will go wrong today, he thought. Since the building wasn't open to the public yet, surely just standing outside and looking at it wouldn't cause any chaos. At least, maybe not today.
Just as he was thinking this, a taxi pulled up in front of them. A certain "uninvited guest" stepped out of the vehicle.
Tsuneo's eyes twitched. "Well… this building is definitely doomed."
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