Taking shelter from the rain beneath the canopy raised above the entrance to the now closed L'Etincelle, which had been a French restaurant that closed about two years ago, she took another good look at the phone in her hand.
It was a Samsung Galaxy S10, by this time two or three years dated but still nicer than any phone she'd ever had.
She looked up at the rain.
Should I call her? she wondered, referring to her grown daughter, a successful realtor. Do I really want to bother her with this now?
Having been diagnosed with severe Bipolar Disorder from a young age, she got pregnant at 17 and dropped out of high school. Unable to hold a job for more than a month or so, the state took her kid from her. She also ended up burning all bridges with her immediate family, so she was left with no one and nothing to shield her from the harsh realities of the street.
She was only 48, but she looked much older than that. Maybe even 60. Probably the only thing she had going for her was that, with as much walking as she did every day, she was in reasonably good shape.
Well, that and the phone.
With this she could make phone calls to whoever, or use it to surf the internet, for the next six months. Or at least, that's what that certain person told her.
She hesitated: the phone had been given to her for no cost, but her benefactor had one string attached:
"For the first three days do not call or text anybody with this phone," he had instructed her.
That was yesterday.
But what kind of person was he? Apparently he had deleted all of his texts, received and sent, and cleared his internet browsing history, before handing it to her.
Did he have something to hide? she couldn't help but wonder.
She put the phone back in her coat pocket.
No, she thought. He gave me this for free, only asking that one little bitty thing in return. I can wait another day or two.
*urmph urmph urmph*
Purring, a grey alley cat went up to her. She gently stroked its neck, back, and tail.
Looks like I'm not the only one in need of some companionship, she thought with a smile.
And then, the cat paused, and then suddenly scampered off. She looked up: a person was headed her way.
It was a man, tall and slim, dressed in all black, with long flowing silver hair and a cigarette in his mouth. Accompanying him was another man, chubbier, wearing sunglasses and probably bald. Both had black hats.
Their names, or course, were Gin and Vodka.
Gin stopped about two front in front of the woman.
"...It's here," Gin said, putting his phone in his pocket.
The woman stood up and took a step back.
"Who are you?" she demanded. "I don't have any money on me, but all the goodies here are mine, you hear me? I'm ready to defend my territory with all I've got! I don't look like much but I'm quite the fighter! Even took on the Shinjuku Scrappy Boys once, I'm proud to say."
"...Hey, Aniki, any idea what she's talking about?" Vodka asked.
"No clue," Gin said, flicking his finished cigarette on the ground. "Hey, lady, do you have a smartphone on you?"
"Y-Yeah?"
"May I see it?"
She shook her head. "I'm not letting anybody take from me what's mi-
Before she could respond Gin reached into her pocket and took her phone out.
He turned it on and examined it.
"Is that the one?" Vodka asked.
"Who gave this to you?" Gin asked coolly.
She shrugged. "Some gent who ran off in a hurry. Didn't catch his name."
Gin gave her the phone back. "Thank you for your time, ma'am."
Ma'am? Vodka thought, confused at Gin's very out of character way of wording that.
The woman, quite uncomfortable around this strange man with the steely eyes of a killer, turned around and began to walk away.
Gin looked in all directions, and then:
*pew*
He tucked the smoking silenced gun back in his belt. He stood over the fresh corpse, crouched down, and retrieved the phone.
"We don't want this falling into the wrong hands," Gin said. "Who knows what data might still be recoverable from it?"
"So this was just...a diversion?" Vodka asked.
"Pretty much, yeah. He knew the first thing we'd do was to track the whereabouts of his phone, so he acted accordingly. That person has a 24 hour head start on us. To even begin the chase, we're gonna need a blood hound to pick up the trail. I still don't fully trust that runt, but..."
He turned to Vodka. "Our work here's done. Let's move."
"Huh? We're not gonna dispose of the body?" Vodka asked.
"We have bigger priorities," Gin said. "I must make a report to the Boss right away."
Opening
(Angel Night by Psy-S, an opening to City Hunter, performed here by Garnet Crow)
(To act decisively is a prerequisite to victory! Seize the day or die trying! An assignment overseas! A summoning by the people I hate to carry out my biggest mission yet! Working with my allies can we turn this into a major blow to the Men in Black? Perceiving the one and only truth! With the body of a child but the mind of an adult, my name is DETECTIVE CONAN!)
Irumine shon mashita ni mioroshi
Yoru wo nobotte ku ESCALATOR
Kooritsuita BIRU no tanima wo
HEADLIGHT no kawa ga nagareru
Saisho ni suki ni natta no wa koe
Sore kara senaka to totonoerareta yubisuki
Tokidoki damarigachi ni naru kuse
Dokoka e itte shimau kokoro to MELODY
ANGEL VOICE na wo yonde mimi sumasu ECHO
SHINING SMILE kaze ni chiru hanabira to KISS
ANGEL VOICE atarashii natsukashii ECHO
SHINING SMILE isogazu ni ari no mama KISS
Flight of the White Hat! Part One!
*click*
Well, it's been a month, Conan thought. Maybe he won't still be-
"YA MORON! WHODAHECKDYA think you are?!"
Nope, he's still mad, Conan thought with a groan. "H-Hey..."
"Don't you 'hey' me, Kudo!" Heiji's irritated voice said. "What were you thinking, trying to play matchmaker? I thought I made it clear that I didn't want things between us to become serious under conditions like those there."
"Well it worked out for you just fine in the end, didn't it?" Conan countered. "You and Kazuha are a couple now...wait, don't tell me that it's-
"Nah, we're both doing good," Heiji said. "She keeps dragging me out to couples' spots and stuff. Well, it's not like I don't enjoy it when we go on dates, but..."
"But nothing," Conan said with a casual shrug. "You could've kicked things off with her a long time ago if you just weren't so petty. Trying to outdo what I said to Ran in London: does everything between us have to be some kind of contest?"
"Darn right it does! And of all things Osakans are better at love than you uptight Tokyoites."
That's a new one to me, Conan thought with a deadpan look. "So...did you really just call to chew me out?"
"No," Heiji said, more serious now. "You haven't called me in a month. What's going on? Last time ya told me about that girl who used to be in your class but now's in jail."
"Naomi?"
"Yeah. Any updates on dat?"
"Um, yeah," Conan said. "I met with the prosecutor and her lawyer to try and hammer out a lenient plea bargain for her. But really, I haven't had a whole lot of time to devote to that matter."
"Why? There been a lot of cases in the past month?"
"Actually, no. It's been unusually quite in that regard," Conan said. "I'm actually starting to worry Uncle's gonna start going through withdrawal if I don't tranq him sometime soon."
Heiji laughed. "Well, I got you beat there. I've had three big cases since Aokigahara."
"Really? I would've thought you'd want to spend all your time with Kazuha."
"I do," Heiji said with an exasperated sigh. "But whaddya expect me to do? Just ignore a case when one just comes up outta nowhere and lands on my lap?"
"Colorful metaphor."
"Thanks. But as for my question, what is it that's taken up so much of your attention this past month?"
"Huh? Surely you haven't forgotten that I'm working undercover within the Organization?"
"Oh yeah. Heavy stuff. What about that? It demanding all your time?"
Conan nodded. "Things have really heated up lately. Their calls used to be rather infrequent, and I had a lot of free time, especially when you throw in how laughably not hard primary (elementary) school is.. But this whole past month they've stuck me with one heck of a Herculean labor."
"Oh? Details or I'm calling bull."
"What? Why would you...*sigh* never mind. To make kind of a long story short, there's somebody they asked me to investigate. Or, rather, find. The catch is, the guy in question was living under a fake name. Despite that he somehow managed to gain the trust of the Organization. And then recently he ran off with a flashdrive containing an estimated six gigabytes of sensitive into on the Men in Black. Including the names of all of their operatives, past and present."
"Including you," Heiji surmised.
Conan nodded. "Needless to say, I've taken this assignment very seriously. Elena-san is adamant something like this shouldn't fall into the hands of law enforcement or a government. Says she has some master plan which could be derailed by this. And in any case, I have to get my hands on that drive...as far as anybody knows, Higo-san is dead, and that drive might contain the fact I'm the one who originally killed him. In that event, as nobody could know the real truth behind what happened, I could be facing charges for first degree murder. I will not under any circumstances let my life end like this, or rather, I cannot..."
"So your man," Heiji said, trying to keep Kudo out this dark frame of mind. "Did you find him?"
"I did, after an insane amount of investigating. Well, I have to give some credit to Haibara and the Professor."
"I see. Are they gonna make you do the...you know?"
Conan sighed. "Yeah. Amuro, representing the Council, told me this is my big test as to whether I'm fit to use the codename Rum. So there's probably no way out of it for me. Well, I talked to Elena-san about it and she agreed that her people would have him revived and relocated later."
"And if the day should come that this is not possible?"
"I...would rather just not have to think about that..."
"Just saying. Whether they can be revived or not, don't get comfortable with what you're being made to do," Heiji said.
"Never," Conan vowed. "If I was made to do it a hundred times I'd never feel comfortable about taking a life, for any length of time, for any reason. In any case, I'm gonna give Elena-san's people a head start, so they can get to Hong Kong first and be ready as soon as the deed is don-
"Wait, what? Did you say Hong Kong?"
"Yeah, that's where our man is," Conan said. "I'm going to China."
Scene Transition
The lights went out in the Aohashi Convention Center; thanks to the room's massive size, sporting a seating capacity in excess of 18,000, this produced a kind of surreal yet subtle effect.
"Hailing from the land of Confucius and panda bears, ladies and gentlemen give a big round of applause for the Zodiac Traveling Circus!"
And then, there was a brilliant whirling flame. The light shone on a man dressed like a male ballerina, a flaming baton in hand, spinning it to and fro in a highly choreographed manner, even tossing and catching it. Overhead, a woman was suspended up in the air by some kind of wire or trapeze, and she began spinning like a pole dancer on steroids, up and down, left and right, a combination of these, slowly descending. A man on a unicycle boldly juggling daggers and even one big sword. A woman on a tightrope spinning plates balanced on sticks.
In short, it was exactly the kind of awesomeness you'd expect from a Chinese circus.
Ayumi, Mitsuhiko, Genta, and the Professor clapped eagerly at the spectacle.
Haibara turned to look as Shiro sat back down beside her.
"You were in there a long time," she said.
"I was going number two," he said. "Or at least I tried to. Nothing was coming out so I just called it quits."
She smirked. "What's the matter? Too many other people? Can't perform under pressure?"
He scoffed. "No way I could've survived several years of pro soccer were that the case."
She stared at him, dumbfounded that he'd say something like that.
Or maybe she heard him wrong? It was pretty loud in here, after all.
"...Yeah, I know that you know, and I'm pretty sure I know who you really are," Shiro said casually, leaning back in his seat and putting his feet up. "Just got tired of keeping up this pointless charade. You can tell the FBI if you want. Doesn't matter. I've known for well over two weeks, assuming they did *that* thing to me."
He looked up at her and saw that mortified look on her face.
"Pfft, don't act so surprised," he said. "If they were able to shrink me to a kid's body then it really doesn't take much of a leap for me to suspect they did the same to you. I heard you ran away from the Organization. What happened? Did Kudo's associates capture you too? Are you a prisoner like me?"
He even knows about Kudo-kun? Haibara realized.
She calmed herself, and said:
"What are you talking about? Shiro-kun, you're not making sense."
He shrugged. "Keep that up if you want. But I'm not your enemy. They say I ran away from the Organization too. Not sure if that's true or not, but I don't wanna take a chance with my life by showing my face to them, and at any rate if they find out I was in enemy hands then they're inevitably gonna wonder whether or not I squealed or turned. Might be rather hard to convince them I didn't. So for the time being I'm stuck here, hanging around little kids and watching Saturday morning cartoons."
He turned towards the three Detective Boys, who were all fixated on the show and didn't hear a word of what was being said here.
"Looks like you've grown rather fond of them," he noted. "And the Professor too. It's understandable, I guess. It must be eating you up inside, having such a dangerous, unpredictable person as myself around them all the time."
Haibara tensened up, half expecting some kind of threat to follow.
"Well, for what it's worth I'm fond of them too," Shiro said with a smile. "And I'm guessing that's why you haven't said anything. About that person hanging around the school. You want to keep them safe, out of this giant mess we call our old lives. Our past that we just can't seem to shake, can we?"
Again, Haibara said nothing, not wanting to confirm what at this time had to be just a suspicion on his part.
He shifted his eyes uncomfortably and then leaned in close to her.
"W-What are you-
"Not too terribly long ago, I wouldn't bat an eye about threatening you, threatening them," Shiro whispered. "Especially in the pursuit of self-preservation. But I like to think that that's not who I am anymore."
"...Spare me the crap," Haibara said, angrily breaking her facade. "What do you want, a medal? A pat on the back? You haven't changed one bit from who you were before, because scumbags don't change. You were the Number Two of that Organization. You gunned down people in cold blood. You made widows, orphans. I'll bet you went home at night and got a good night's sleep after each time you made a new victim."
"And you think I had a choice? You made a murderous drug, because that's exactly what they wanted you to do. How are you any different from me?"
She was silent.
"The way I see it, we're both terrible people," he said. "Let's just own up to it, and hope that there's still hope yet for scumbags like the both of us, somewhere in this world or beyond."
Scene Transition
Torishima-sensei blew his whistle. Accordingly, the students on his team, as opposed to those on Kobayashi-sensei's, huddled.
"Alright, it looks like we're down three points now," he said calmly. "That they have Shiro-kun on their team seems to be the deciding factor, to absolutely no one's surprise."
Conan looked over at Shiro, who on the other side of the field was casually dribbling a ball with his knees and head.
That smug b****rd, Conan thought, teed off.
"In any case," Torishima continued, "this time you need to try and outmaneuver Shiro-kun so as to keep him away from the ball, and Conan-kun can handle the rest. What I'm about to repeat to you is the plan of attack."
He whispered it to them. It apparently took him a long time to explain, because before too long Kobayashi walked up to them and said:
"Hey, are you guys about ready yet?"
"Just about," Torishima promised.
As soon as Kobayashi left he turned to Conan. "Can I count on you?"
Conan nodded.
"Very good. Now go out there and give it your one hundred percent!"
And with that the game resumed.
The ball was put in the middle of the field, and the whistle was blown.
Shiro ran towards the ball, and once again he got his hands (or rather, feet) on it before anyone else could. But then he found himself surrounded from all sides. He saw an opening to a teammate (Genta) and kicked it to him.
But then Conan intercepted the ball with his head, which sent it flying several feet. Disregarding his aching head he ran to claim it before anyone else could.
But then Nancy, who was on Kobayashi's team, got it first. She began to run towards the other team's goal.
Conan dashed after her, managed to kick the ball a few feet out, got very slightly in front of her, and-
*thud*
Both of them ended up on the ground.
"Aah...!"
Gripping his ankle he sat upright, bending forward slightly, clenching his teeth and shutting his eyes.
Torishima and Kobayashi came running up to him.
"Hey, Conan-kun, are you hurt?" Kobayashi asked, concerned.
"No!" he blurted out. "Nancy, what the heck?! You tripped me! I think my ankle's twisted!"
"I-I'm sorry," Nancy managed, looking down at the ground. "It was an accident..."
"Alright, this game's over," Torishima said. "Conan-kun, do you need me to take you to the nurse's office?"
"Yes please...uhh!"
Scene Transition
Torishima slid the door open and set Conan down on the examination table.
There was a Caution: Wet Floor sign, and the door to an adjacent room was cracked open.
Iroha Namiki, upon hearing the door open, turned around to see Torishima-sensei.
"This boy hurt his leg," Torishima said. "If you could just take a look at..."
And then he realized: Namiki was staring at him intently, with clear hostility, her fists clenched, her breathing irregular.
"Ma'am is something wrong?" Torishima asked.
"...No, it's nothing," she said. "You just seem very much like somebody I was warned about."
"Oh?" Torishima said. "And why would you feel the need to be wary of me? I've done nothing wrong."
"One must wonder."
Torishima sighed. "I see what this is. I've come across people like you before. They didn't scare me then, nor you now. Just know that I'm here to stay, until the time that my job here is complete."
They stood there silently, staring at each other, waiting to see who would blink first.
"*ahem*, Namiki-sensei?" Conan asked.
This was enough to break her gaze from Torishima and have her pay her attentions towards Conan instead.
"Well, I'd better be getting back to my students," Torishima said, turning around and closing the door behind him as he left.
Scene Transition
"Again, I'm so sorry," Nancy said. "Didn't think that I'd-
"Gah. I still have a couple days before the trip so it should be fine," Conan said, walking with a limp. "In any case, you did your job. I think the timing could've been better, but whatever. It all worked out the way I hoped, with the obvious exception of my ankle."
"Have you decided what you're going to tell them?" Nancy asked. "To cover for your absence. Ai-chan said she can't skip another day of school."
"I already got my mom to cover it," Conan said. "She's gonna talk to Uncle and tell him she wants to take me somewhere for a couple days."
"Where?"
"Well I don't know! Figured she'll think of something. She is a world-famous actress, after all."
"I see. And you already ordered a plane ticket?"
"Yeah," Conan said. "My flight leaves in four days. I couldn't order a ticket under I managed to get a Hong Kong visa, so there was that. I already informed both Elena-san and the Organization of this. The latter was quite unhappy that I should've had to put this off so long, but...yeah."
They made it back to the Mouri Residency. Nancy helped Conan up the stairs and then he crashed on the living room couch.
Five Hours Later
The credits rolled on the movie length finale of Attack On Titan.
"Huh, they were all in purgatory the entire time," Conan noted, sitting up straight on the couch. "Could've just told us that from the beginning and saved us eight years of our lives that we're never getting back."
There was a knock on the door. Conan got up, hobbled across the room, and opened it.
It was Mitsuhiko.
Conan stepped aside so Mitsuhiko could enter.
"Hey," the freckled boy said. "Where's Nancy?"
"She went with Auntie Eri to buy some groceries," Conan said. "Uncle's out investigating a cheating husband. So right now I'm holding down the fort, or so to speak. What's this about? Did you want to ask me about something?"
"Um, yes. Have you gotten everything packed yet?"
"Huh? For what?" Conan asked.
"What else? The big trip to Hong Kong!"
Upon hearing this Conan did, in spite of his injury, and in spite the fact that he was dealing with a child, grab Mitsuhiko's shoulders and slam him against a wall.
"W-What are you...?" Mitsuhiko protested, very confused.
"Who told you about that?!" Conan demanded.
"Huh?"
"Mitsuhiko, answer me now!" Conan barked. "Was it Ran? Did she tell you about it?"
"I-I don't get what you're...Have you really forgotten? The Professor won us all a free trip to Hong Kong!"
Conan let go of him. "Wait, huh?"
"Yeah, we've been talking about it all month!" Mitsuhiko said. "He entered his name into the raffle contest at that Chinese circus, and later he got a letter in the mail telling him that he won. Have you not been paying attention at all?"
I...do kind of remember them mentioning something to that effect, Conan thought sheepishly. And they have been having some weird conversations over the past month that didn't make sense to me. I must've been too distracted all that time.
"Uhh, Conan," Mitsuhiko said, "did you just...ask me about Ran? She's...well, she's...gone, isn't she? How could she tell me anything?"
"W-Well uh, I, uh...it must've been a...slip of the tongue!" Conan mustered.
"Huh?"
"Mitsuhiko, you know Ran-neechan was like a big sister to me," Conan said. "I still think about her a lot. Sometimes it doesn't seem like she's really gone, and I catch myself asking where she is and stuff like that, forgetting that she's no longer with us. So if you ever catch me saying something like that again..."
Mitsuhiko nodded. "I think I understand. So about the trip..."
Conan nodded. "I'll be sure to finish packing before..."
There was an awkward pause.
"Uh, when is it?" he asked sheepishly.
"The Professor said our plane leaves in five days," Mitsuhiko said. "I just came by to ask about the trip so I'll be going now."
He opened the door but then stopped and turned to face Conan once more.
"Listen, I don't know everything you're going through, but just know that you always have my back," Mitsuhiko said. "And wherever I can't do anything to help you, I'm rooting for you from the sidelines."
Conan smiled. "Thanks. That's a very grown-up thing for you to say. And, um, sorry about...you know."
"That's alright."
After Mitsuhiko left, Conan whipped out his phone, first to call Dr. Agasa and then his mom.
Scene Transition
Three Days Later
The man, Sadachiro Inaba, looked at the time on his smartwatch, and then his surroundings.
This was a man who always paid close attention to his dress and grooming habits. It was instinctual, of course; for human males, displays of health and wealth were conducive to success in finding a mate. But like many things, it took on a life of its own, and men took care of their appearance simply for reasons of vanity, to flaunt before each other.
Unlike most men, Sadachiro felt downright comfortable in a three piece suit. He felt clean, pristine. Powerful. Energetic. More confident. He could've sworn that his mental faculties were sharper in that suit.
But now, he was in a strange position. Attached at the hip to his present position was a degree of vulnerability unfamiliar to him.
A Japanese Literature teacher at a prep school for kids from well-off families, he'd recently mustered up the nerve to ask out the barrista at a local coffee shop, a woman who he'd been buying his favorite caffeinated beverage from for almost three years now. They interacted enough that he referred to her as "Chiharu-chan".
Having put on airs of being her superior for so long, he finally realized not too long ago that being honest about how he felt was the best, and perhaps only, way to be with that person in the way that he wanted.
And now here he was. He had foolishly given her the power to break his heart, or even to humiliate him. She was his superior now, if only for the time being.
He looked at his watch again. Chiharu was now running nearly an hour late.
Well, then again, she gave him no assurances that she would show up. For all he knew, she may've just decided not to.
"Thirty more minutes," he mumbled under his breath with a sigh.
And then, the door opened, and a woman (wearing a modestly priced velvet red knee-length dress that exposed the shoulders and collar bone area, along with lipstick and makeup to compliment her long brown hair fixed back in a ponytail) stepped inside the nice restaurant, walking past the unusually large aquarium filled with exotic and generally non-edible fish and other marine life.
Chiharu Kuramote, age 27, sat down right in front of him.
"...Sorry," she said with a nervous smile, breaking the ice. "This was just about the only nice thing in my wardrobe. I got a little preoccupied and lost track of the time."
Scene Transition
And thus was the start to a nice dinner that lasted about forty minutes. Finally, Chiharu excused herself to attend to some business at home, expressing to her date her hopes that they might go out again soon. Sadachiro drove her home.
She entered her house and slammed the door behind her, sighing.
"...How'd it go?" the old man in a newsboy cap asked.
"Good," Chiharu said, suddenly in a masculine voice. "I don't think he suspected a thing."
"She" ripped a mask off "her" face, revealing that this person was in fact Shinichi Kudo. He also stood up straight, whereas before his knees were bent.
He looked at the real Chiharu, who was asleep on the couch. "How is she?"
The old man, who was the BO agent known simply as Merlot, shrugged. "She's out cold. Won't remember a thing when she wakes up. I bet she'll be more than a little confused at the way that guy acts around her next time they meet."
"I think he'll be even more confused," Shinichi said. "But phew, that was...
"Exhausting?"
"Disgusting," Shinichi corrected. "I feel so gross right now, wearing this, having been that guy's date."
That last part left a particularly bad taste in his mouth.
"Well, at least now we know you're ready," Merlot said. "I won't say I'm pleased with how long it took you to do your disguise, but I think you've definitely made progress from when we first began. You now have what it takes to carry out your duties as Rum. Now you just have to prove it to my compatriots."
Shinichi nodded. "I won't let them down."
"Good. Your flight's tomorrow, you said?"
"Yeah. I'd better go home and pack now."
"I'd recommend changing back before you leave."
"Of course."
Scene Transition
The Next Day
Shinichi boarded his flight at 5:20 in the evening. According to his ticket, time of arrival was 9:40 at night.
He was lucky in that his flight had been late in the day; had he been made to miss school that would've made his young friends suspicious. After all, they were all supposed to board their flights on the same day. Of course, heading to Hong Kong one day ahead of them they would've doubtlessly wondered why he wasn't there with them; the excuse he had the Professor give was that the flight that the Detective Boys would be boarding was booked to capacity, thus Conan would be taking a flight earlier in the day. Nancy would be swinging by the Professor's house sometime that night disguised as Conan (who'd helped her with the costume shortly before leaving for the airport) to present herself to the Detective Boys and provide him with an alibi.
Of the four shrunken members of their group, only Conan had an adult form suitable to try to board an international flight. Ran Mouri and Ryusuke Higo were both presumed dead, and Shiho Miyano simply could not appear in public for any reason, lest the Organization be able to track her down and kill her. So Nancy, Haibara, and Shiro would be sitting this one out, basically making this trip like one of the earliest days of the Detective Boys (ep. 4-129). Dr. Agasa would be coming with them as their legal guardian, making it 5 people who were going. Whenever they all arrived, they would be met at the airport by a guide, and later check into the "Golden Goose Hotel".
Upon arriving in Hong Kong and passing through customs, Shinichi would have until tomorrow around 4:00 PM to investigate with a free hand. After that, he would have to return to his child body and return to the airport to greet his friends, pretending that he had just arrived maybe an hour or two prior. He would probably just have to rent a motel room somewhere tonight; if he did so on the credit card provided to him by the Organization then that would also serve as hard evidence that he was indeed carrying out his mission.
He was situated in the bare middle of the plane, so he couldn't see outside a plane window, but he took that distinct popping sensation in his ears as a strong indicator that this aircraft, a Boeing 787, had taken off the ground and ascended high into the atmosphere.
He had four hours to kill. He slumped back in his seat.
I haven't been getting enough sleep lately, he thought. Maybe I should take a nap now? That way I'll be well-rested and better able to wake up early tomorrow, so that I'll have plenty of time to conduct my search then.
His prey had already shown himself to be quite elusive, and he had now sought refuge in a city with more than 7 million inhabitants. This wasn't going to be easy.
Scene Transition
"My name is Shen Rixin. I am a journalist who was formerly employed by the Asahi Shinbun, a Japanese newspaper headquartered in Tokyo. If you are watching this, then I am dead. My unnamed associate, who has been there supporting me every step of the way in this endeavor, assured me that, should anything happen to me, they would upload this onto the internet. If I should fail in my mission, then I imagine that very few people will ever watch this. But maybe I succeeded. In either event, this video is an explanation of where I come from and an account of my actions, but perhaps more importantly this is a fail-safe measure to ensure that the truth will get out in one way or another. For whatever parties may be watching this, in the description is a link that'll take you to a massive download. If you're interested in taking a look at that, make sure you have lots of available space on your device. Anyways...
I was born in the British Overseas Territory of Hong Kong on June 5, 1989. When I was just eight years old the British handed over control of Hong Kong to the communist government of mainland China. This was a controversial development: many people cheered that our city was now reunited with our brothers in China under one nation. Others were upset and afraid, because the deeds of our new overlords are well known to the world; there should be no need to elaborate on this. Of the many grotesque and tragic things that had befallen mainland China in the decades prior, only the fact of British sovereignty over Hong Kong shielded us from these. But now our future was up in the air.
Fortunately for us, when the Chinese government received control of Hong Kong they agreed to respect our autonomy for a period of fifty years. This means that the denizens of Hong Kong presently enjoy freedoms and protections unafforded to Chinese people who live outside the bounds of the city. For many mainlanders fleeing persecution the city became a safe haven. I was fortunate enough to enjoy a privileged childhood, not having to fear or want for anything. I always had a knack for public speaking, demonstrated by a contest that I won in high school, and for a considerable cash prize no less. That was what spurred me to become a journalist.
Upon graduating high school I received in the mail a scholarship inviting me to receive my higher education abroad at a Japanese university. I was excited by the prospect of studying in a foreign country and gladly accepted.
As I grew older, I became more aware of the shadow that loomed ominously over Hong Kong. At any moment the government could renege on its agreement and crack down on all modes of free expression even within my city. If I was to pursue a career in shedding light on corruption, it would not have been the best idea to remain within a jurisdiction where those I sought to expose could imprison me for my work.
So after graduation from the university in question I remained in Japan, by this time having become fluent in the language of that country, so that I would be free to say and write anything I wanted, about anyone. But as to be a journalist often requires field work, I was at an impasse. How could a person living in Japan investigate things happening under the radar in China? The answer was obviously that I couldn't. So for the time being, at least, I devoted myself to advancing the cause of government transparency in Japanese society. I found work with the Asahi Shinbun, and after several years of diligent work they finally gave me free rein to chase after the stories that I was interested in. For those of you who may accuse me of abandoning my country, know that I never pursued Japanese citizenship, as doing so would require me to renounce my Chinese citizenship. I always planned on one day returning to China so that I could give back to my home country as I did, or at least tried to do, for the Japanese nation that took me in so graciously.
Eventually, my digging led me to what would turn out to be only the tip of the iceberg of a massive criminal conspiracy, one with unfathomably large consequences for the human race. This is so much bigger than anything I ever thought I might uncover, even in my wildest dreams. I assumed a false name, Kenzaburo Wakatsuki, and infiltrated the ranks of the conspirators, the so-called Black Organization. After about a year and a half an opportunity showed itself for me: a large cache of digital files describing, in great detail, the operations, expenditures, and even the identities of the members of this Organization, some of whom include prominent Japanese politicians and even a former Russian naval officer. They have attempted to steal state-of-the-art weapon systems, tanks even. But even this pales in comparison to the literal doomsday device that they've sought to build, a weapon that can down the power grids of entire nations in the blink of an eye or even hijack nuclear arsenals. I still do not fully understand who these people are, as I have not had time to review the entirety of the cache that I was able to download in compressed format onto a flashdrive, but what I do know is that "extremely dangerous" does not even begin to do justice to them. They are the worst of the worst, the lowest of the lowest. Their actual aim, their primary objective is a worldwide apocalyptic event, one that would render dead the vast majority of people alive today on planet earth. They would kill everybody, all of you, the moment it might become within their power to do so. They are evil incarnate.
Upon lifting the information that I did from one of their computers, I fled for my life, because I knew that they would find out what I had done within a very short time. I regarded this threat to my life so seriously that I left Japan and returned to Hong Kong. I spent the next month in hiding, scouring the deep web trying to make contact with somebody who could help me. I knew that if I simply posted the information online nobody would take it seriously: why would they, after all? No, what I needed was for this information to be presented to the world by a credible source. I made contact with a representative of Wikileaks and a real life meeting between the two of us was scheduled so that I could hand him custody of, and responsibility over, the critical information that fate has entrusted me with. As of the time that I am recording this, I am just three days shy of the scheduled meeting time.
In case things go sour and I don't make it, I'd just like to take this moment to thank my mom and dad for giving birth to me and raising me for all those years. I wouldn't be here if not for you, and I'm sorry that you had a son so inconsiderate as to leave this earth before either of you. I'd like to thank Yueling for being an awesome big sis, and I hope that you're able to find somebody who'll make you happy before you hit middle age, because you deserve it. There are other people as well, a whole lot of people, but it looks like the camera battery is running low, so...you know who you are. I love you all, even if I haven't always shown it.
I, Shen Rixin, humbly offer up to you this short life of mine in the name of truth, freedom, human dignity, and every good value that we hold to as a species, in the eternal struggle against those who would seek to rob us of these. Thank you for your time. So long. Farewell."
Shaking, that person's hand moved the mouse to the "Upload" button and clicked.
Ending
(In the Storm of my Mind by Sayuri)
On that day they trekked to the mouth of the great river
Leading the procession, the elder donning black vestments
His wrinkled face, an old, sad story etched into its creases
With a thousand yard stare, he uttered the old utterances
"Take to heart, ye of few days, what you have witnessed!"
His words carried no weight as we played quietly in the back
The years passed, and our style of play grew more refined
Anywhere, anytime, you were the only company I needed
But watching you gasp for air was a sudden slap in the face
It was from then that I could hear the crescendo of the bells
Trapped in the storm of my mind none can hear me scream
I know our bodies shall be threshed at the foot of the altar
And our ashes sprinkled on the lips of the grinning demon
This happy dream is naught but the vapors of a dying flame
I want to cherish these moments always, but I am reminded
The strongest among us must yield to the turning of the hour
Its ticking, like nails on a chalkboard, like cascading thunder
The stroke of midnight shall do us apart, forever and ever.