Detective Conan characters are the intellectual property of Gosho Aoyama.

Conan walked slowly behind his friends as they left school for the day. The sun was shinning brightly above them with not a single cloud in the sky. It had been a shame that they were made to spend any time at all inside. The children ahead of him were chatting cheerfully about what they were planning to do for the rest of the day.

Mitsuhiko was slightly ahead of the rest of the group, leading them slowly away from the school. His tone was cheerful, as always. Of the children, he was definitely the brightest. If Conan hadn't been around, he probably could have solved some of the easier cases they had faced on his own.

"Maybe we can go to the park and practice soccer?" He suggested. "We do have a game coming up soon."

"I don't care what we do," Ayumi replied, smiling wistfully. Her wide eyes sparkled with her exuberant innocents. " I just want to be able to spend time outside. It's been so beautiful out!"

Genta's stomach rumbled loudly, interrupting their conversation. Everyone stopped and looked toward at him. "Can we stop and get food first? I'm hungry, and there's a place not far from here that has great eel. Please?"

"Genta, food is all you think about," Mitsuhiko said. "We can't play on a full stomach like that. It would make you sick."

"But I'm hungry!"

Conan smirked slightly and laughed to himself. Genta, you are reliable as ever.

He worried about Genta deeply. His insatiable hunger was destined to lead to future issues if he did not take care of himself properly. If he had not always been willing to play football with them, he would have been more concerned. As long as he stayed relatively active, he would be okay, for now at least.

The group moved slowly down the road, chatting joyfully among themselves, though it wasn't quite a stimulating enough conversation to hold his attention. Instead, Conan was lost in thoughts, only vaguely hearing what else they were saying. Relating to peers had always been an issue for him. He'd never truly understood other children, even when he was on of them. They were foolish and had no idea of how the world worked. It was frustrating to see how naive they were. At least now that he was older he was able to pretend to be the same as those in his class.

Despite being able to act the the youth that he was surrounded by each day, he wanted to regain his former life. Being stuck as a child, while being a humbling experience, was not anything he wanted anymore. He was desperate to find the Black Organization and bring them to justice for all of their crimes. It was exhausting hiding who he was from the people he cared about, especially from Ran. The first thing he planned to do was tell her everything and how sorry he was. He knew that if he could only find them, that everything would go back to normal.

His phone buzzed in his pocket, pausing his thoughts. Shinichi, when am I going to see you again? There's so much that I want to talk to you about, preferably in person. Please?

Ran...

Soon.

He wanted to get back to himself so that they could go back to normal. Yet, there was a nagging feeling in him that would rise up periodically: maybe he was doomed to be stuck in this body.

I can't think like that. I'm going to get back to my life. I have to get back to my life.

"Why so quiet today, Kudo-kun?" Haibara asked in a low tone, causing him to jump. He was so absorbed in his thought process that he had forgotten that she was there beside him. She always tended to be the strong, silent type. She understood him in a way that no one else could. Being stuck in the bodies of children with the minds of adults seemed to be a bonding experience.

"I was just thinking..." was all he was able to get out before he was cut off.

A blood curdling scream came from a nearby street, stopping the group in their tracks. The pitch of it made it impossible to determine if it was a male or female that the sound had come from. This can't be good.

Instinctively, Conan began running in the direction of the sound, the echo of four pairs of feet following closely behind him. He was hoping that he would be able to find whoever had yelled out quickly. In his experience, anyone who made that noise would surely be near a case. At this point he hoped that he wasn't too late.

He skidded around a corner and came to a halt so suddenly that his friends collided into him, almost causing him to fall to the ground. A young woman was collapsed on a second floor apartment walkway, tears streaming from her eyes with her hand over her mouth. She was staring across from her, eyes full of terror. He quickly got to his feet and raced next to the woman, stopping in front of an open door.

Conan made his way into the quiet corner unit apartment. It looked like any other apartment. It wasn't dirty, just disorganized. There was a jacket thrown over a hook, and a shirt that was lying next to a basket of what appeared to be mixed clothing in a small closet. The walls were adorn with photos of a young man and woman in different locations. One was a photo at the beach, the sky shades of orange and purple as a backdrop. There was another that was from what must have been the peak of a mountain with lush green trees sprawling on the hills behind them.

A gust of wind blew through the home as he moved his way deeper. There was a table next to the bathroom with two sets of keys on it along with what looked a little like drywall. He could see a pair of motionless legs sticking out from the doorway not much farther away. He figured must have been a bedroom. The legs belonged to a man he estimated was in his mid 20's. He was the same man in all of the photos, though the clear difference was the man in the pictures did not have a rope wrapped around his throat, while this one did.

He crept forward and check the man for a pulse, however there was none to be found.

"Haibara," he said in a stern voice, looking back at his group of friends that had followed him in, "call the police."

"Okay," she said curtly before turning and walking from the apartment.

He turned his attention back to the on the man laying laying on the ground. It didn't look like the man had struggled against his attacker. If there had been a fight, the attacker must have put the room back to the way it was, which he highly doubted happened. There were no apparent scratch marks from him attempting to free himself the the rope that was choking him, increasing the unlikelihood that the man had fought back.

There was a sliding glass door that lead to a balcony, but that was locked from the inside. When the police arrived he would take more time to look into it. Instead,Conan made his way out of the room and over to the open window. It looked to drop straight down into a parking lot. It would be possible to jump, but the person would have to be on the smaller side, and most likely end up hurt and not being able to get away smoothly.

As he exited the apartment, he looked at the door frame. It did not appear to be damaged in any way, meaning the person had a key or was let in. He must have known his assailant.

The woman who screamed was still on the ground, leaning against the rail where they had found her. He noted that there were tears in her eyes but no noise now coming from her. In his experience, most people who were the first to come across a scene like this were in a state of shock, but also tended to be the ones that were guilty. They were the first on scene so that the victim would be found by their terms. He would have to continue to watch her closely.

"Ma'am, are you okay? Have you been hurt?" he asked, feigning childhood innocence with his sincere concern.

She looked up, startled, finally realizing that she was not alone. It took her a moment to compose herself to answer. "I'm okay. I wasn't hurt or anything."

"Do you know who this man is?"

"Yes, he is my ex-boyfriend, Hironaka Nobuo."

"So, he lives here?"

"Yes. I came over because he called me and asked me to."

He nodded, but decided not to push the woman for more information at the time. Instead, he slowly turned, taking in every aspect of his surroundings. People were starting to make their way towards where her screaming had originated. They looked baffled, as though violence was unheard of in their quiet area. Some of the neighbors in the apartments came out as well.

While the bystanders were worth a second look, Conan was unable to help noticing the doors that failed to open. A few doors stayed firmly shut, which was probably due to the occupants being out, though one of the homes did draw his interest. No one came out of the apartment next to the victims, but he swore that one of the curtains fluttered and the flash of a face was briefly in view.

Within minutes the sound of sirens approached and he was sure that Inspector Megure would be with the investigation team that was about to show up. While he was a capable man, the Inspector was always willing to take help when it was offered.

Conan just hoped that the Inspector would come alone...

"Brat! What are you doing here?" came a familiar voice of anger and hand to the back of his head. There was no need for him to look behind him to know that it was Mouri Kogoro. "Did you hear sirens and run to the scene like you always do?"

"Conan-kun and his friends are the ones that alerted us to the incident here today," Inspector Megure answered for him, allowing Conan to just smile and nod.

At least with him here he can be used to reveal the perpetrator of this assault, Conan thought to him self, smirking a little.

"Well, just stay out of his way while we investigate, got it?" Mouri said, lifting Conan by the scruff of his neck and roughly moving him away from the unconscious man.

"When do I ever get in the way?" he said, receiving glares from Mouri.