A/N: There may be a sequel to this, because I didn't get to use up all the material I had in mind. u.u

Update 2012: This trilogy takes place before Okiya Subaru entered the storyline.

Nichoume Haunted Mansion: Case One

by Shimegami-chan

"Guess what!" Genta enthused, shaking Conan's shoulder to jar him out of his pre-class reverie. "We've got a case!"

"Really. Lost cat? Missing homework? Suspicious older sibling?" Conan couldn't bring himself to look interested as he trotted down the sidewalk, Teitan Elementary School nearly in sight. It was too early in the morning to deal with that kind of stuff, after all.

"Haibara-san says," and with this Mitsuhiko looked at the girl in question as though to confirm her authenticity, "that she saw some suspicious movement in the house next door to the professor's!"

Conan became slightly more alert at this. He hadn't been back to his former residence in a couple of weeks, not since the last time he made his rudimentary sweep of it for wiretaps and bugs. After he'd discovered that Vermouth had been spying on him, he'd made a concentrated effort to check on the house as often as possible. Of course, he mused, if there really was someone poking around, it wouldn't have been Vermouth or any Organization member - they wouldn't have allowed their presence to be noticed. It was probably just prowlers again looking for easy pickings; no way they'd get past my father's alarm system. Nothing to fuss over, though I'll have to stop by later...

"So," Genta announced, "we're gonna put an end to this once and for all!"

Conan frowned. "Really. Well, count me out; I'm not interested in the place."

"No way! There's gotta be a mystery, and where there's a mystery there's...THE DETECTIVE BOYS!" Ayumi stubbornly put her hands on her hips. "I never would have thought you of all people would pass up a murder case."

"What murder case?" he questioned with raised eyebrows. "We don't have any proof that the guy who lived there is dead or even that he's missing." Fighting to keep a scowl off his childish features, Conan desperately wanted to add, 'he is, after all, RIGHT IN FRONT OF YOU.'

Mitsuhiko coughed to draw their attention. "Providing we clear the case of any paranormal activity - he probably wasn't eaten by monsters like we originally thought - then something else had to have happened to him. That makes it a case, and that makes it our duty to discover the truth."

Unbelievable. Conan didn't really know why he was hesitant to tell them that the house belonged to Shinichi-niichan - probably, he reasoned to himself, because it was just better if they didn't know to involve his older self in their overactive imaginations. Haibara sided with him for obvious reasons, but was of little help in convincing the other three members of the Detective Boys that they ought to leave well enough alone when it came to 21 Nichoume District.

If he didn't know better, he'd have thought she was amused at seeing him squirm.

Well, fine. If Haibara didn't want to continue doing her best to protect their secret, Conan wasn't going to go out of his way to talk the kids out of this one. Let her sweat a little, he thought with a smirk. "Whatever. I don't have any interest, though, and I'm going to the dentist tonight. If you want to investigate that old place, go right ahead."

Somehow, despite his backing out on the plan, Conan's almost-permission was instantly accepted as his blessing for the others to launch the Haunted House Investigation Team without him. "Okay, then!" Genta declared loudly enough to turn a few heads. "At seven o'clock, we'll meet at the Professor's place! Haibara, you bring the camera and sound stuff, and Ayumi-chan can bring the ghost-catching equipment. Just in case." He paused, looking very self-important. "I'll bring the snacks, in case we need to have a long stake-out."

Haibara sighed and assumed a neutral expression. "Who, exactly, decided that I was going to be involved?"

21 Nichoume looked as deserted as ever at first glance; dark, creaky, and downright scary if you allowed yourself to think too much about what might have gone on in there. The Detective Boys, minus their fearless leader, huddled nervously in the bushes alongside the mansion.

"Th-this might not be such a good idea," Ayumi said, unable to keep the tremor out of her voice. "Maybe we should have tried harder to get Conan-kun to come..."

Genta, for his part, courageously rose to the occasion. "Che! That guy was just scared. We'll prove to him that we're the better detectives, once we figure out this mystery!"

Unwilling to be shown up in front of Haibara, who looked nonplussed, Mitsuhiko assumed an expression of false bravado and nodded to emphasize his agreement. "That's right!"

"If you're sure..." Ayumi said hesitantly.

"No problem! Just watch, we'll just walk in and wrap up this case, no problem!" To illustrate his point, Genta trotted over to a nearby Victorian-style window and inspected it briefly before heaving it open. "See! This won't take any time at all. I guess that Kudou guy didn't bother to lock up his basement, huh?"

"It's a sitting room," Haibara commented, but none of the others seemed to pay attention. Genta was already boosting Mitsuhiko up for him to enter. Sighing, she came obediently when Genta extended a hand to help her climb over the sill. "Oh well," she said aloud, accepting his assistance. It wasn't like they were actually going to find anything of use to their 'investigation' in there, though Haibara briefly worried about the unlocked window. Kudou was careless sometimes, but usually not in that way. And hadn't he mentioned something about his parents installing alarms the last time they were home...?

For a moment, Haibara was nervous, but she calmed her quickened pulse and smoothed away her frown. What I saw last night was probably just the shadows and the wind. Of course she had intended to tell Kudou herself in private, but Ayumi had overheard her conversation with the Professor and immediately reported it to their other friends. I don't even know if I imagined movement or not. The Organization wouldn't be this careless...and I would have thought that Kudou-kun had secured the house from petty thieves. Idiot.

At the very least, if the house had been burglarized, the culprits were long gone, and who knew? Maybe the Detective Boys could pick up a few clues without Edogawa. Haibara smirked at the thought as she crossed her arms and watched the others sweep the room with their flashlights.

"Someone's been here!" Ayumi squeaked, her watch illuminating an area on the floor. "There are some slipper-prints in the dust!"

"What polite murderers they are," Haibara said dryly, "remembering to put on their slippers."

Mitsuhiko inspected the prints as well. "But these aren't all that recent. There's more dust settled on top of them, so whoever made these prints was here quite some time ago. Months, it has to be."

"Hey, they said that a high school student lived here, right? But these prints aren't the right size for a teenage boy." Ayumi squatted down to get a closer look. "This person had small feet - probably a lady, right?"

"That just means that the murderer was a woman!" Genta said enthusiastically. "It'll make her easier to find!"

If they don't belong to Kudou-kun's shrunken body, Haibara thought, recalling from her last visit that there were no child-sized guest slippers in the front entryway, they probably belong to Mouri-san. And this room has valuables that would have been looted if the house was burglarized. We're probably safe in here after all.

Genta had set down the bag of food on a daybed in the sitting room, patting the top of the knapsack. "This room will be our Home Base, got it? If anyone gets lost or we need to make a fast getaway, come straight back here!"

"Understood!" Mitsuhiko saluted and deposited his own bag of supplies on the pillow. "Then, let's follow those prints!"

Haibara and Ayumi allowed themselves to be led to the door by the boys, who opened it with the barest of creaks and listened carefully for movement before slipping into the pitch-black hallway.

"Mitsuhiko, the lamp!" Ayumi hissed.

"Oh, right!" A second later, the bulb-powered lantern flared to life in his hands. "Sorry."

The tracks were unclear, since the person who had entered the sitting room at that time had obviously lingered and paced the hallway in both directions several times. "Which way do we go?" Ayumi asked worriedly.

"Let's split up," Genta suggested. "The footprints are really old so it should be safe now, right? Ayumi-chan and I will go this way, and Haibara and Mitsuhiko will go that way."

Mitsuhiko opened his mouth but seemed unable to protest the arrangement, and Genta took his silence as an affirmative and switched on his watch-light again. "Call us on the badges if you find anything!"

"Right, the badges!" Ayumi looked immensely relieved and followed Genta and the path of footsteps. "See you soon!"

Haibara sighed. "I guess it can't be helped, then." She ignored her companion's nervous expression and took him by the wrist, leading him down the red-carpeted hallway and around the corner. The kitchen was just ahead, and it was worth checking just to make sure that the back door at least was securely locked. The fair-haired young girl kept her thoughts to herself, still, trying not to form conclusions without solid evidence. Why should I be afraid to be in here? Kudou-kun doesn't care; he said as much. And I've been in the house before, so I should hardly be frightened by unfamiliar surroundings. Besides, I'm increasingly sure that what I saw last night was nothing, so it's my own fault that they made my imaginings into fact, isn't it?

"It's really cold in here," Haibara commented with a shiver.

"Of course. The heat would be turned off," Mitsuhiko replied, rubbing at the arm that held the lantern with his free land.

"No...just in here. The sitting room was perfectly fine, wasn't it?"

"That's true..."

Haibara really didn't have any rational explanation for it. No air conditioner was on, of course, and the fridge was tightly closed. "How strange that it's only in this room."

Stranger still was the thin layer of frost on the windows and other glass surfaces. It was undeniable that something odd was happening in the house. Taking the lantern from her companion, Haibara inspected the floor, but on the white tile it was difficult to see any dust. Kudou-kun uses this room when he's home, Haibara reminded herself. He probably keeps it as clean as he can.

Mitsuhiko was opening cupboards and peering inside using his watch-light. "All this stuff is expired. Some of it's been gone for years." He held up a package of instant curry that still bore its manufacturer's older logo.

Then again, he doesn't seem like the domestic type, Haibara noted irritably, sweeping some dust off the counter with her hand.

"Haibara-san," Mitsuhiko squeaked suddenly, backing away from the cupboard he'd just opened, "t-there's...in there is..." He pointed, frantically, his expression extremely alarmed.

"What?" Haibara asked irritably, still resentful of Conan for not nipping this entire 'investigation' in the bud when he had the chance. "Something growing in there?" She marched forward and held out the lantern to better illuminate the contents of the counter above the sink.

...hair. Masses of what definitely seemed to be human hair of several shades, with a strange brown glue clumping much of it together. "What on earth?" she whispered, prodding at their discovering. It was definitely hair, and the dark, flaky substance...

Blood?

She couldn't tell for sure, even in the lantern-light. Haibara could easily identify the metallic smell of newly-shed blood, having seen so many crime scenes, but without the right items to test it identifying long-dried blood was significantly harder. What's going on here? Kudou-kun's never really struck me as the psychotic type. But who else could have left this here, if it wasn't around when I searched the house with the Organization? Was this planted by someone who gained entry after that?

Vermouth?

"Check the other cupboards," Haibara said briskly. "It's strange, but there's probably a rational explanation for it..." And I can't wait to hear it. She opened the next cupboard over and, finding nothing, opened the fridge instead.

And immediately closed it, wide-eyed.

"Haibara-san?" Mitsuhiko sounded troubled once again, but his voice was more controlled now, and she barely sensed that he was across the room with his back to her. "There's something else strange over here, I...uh...Haibara-san? Did you find something?"

"Eyes." The fair-haired girl had set down the lantern and was fumbling for the transceiver attached to her backpack. "The fridge is full of jars of eyeballs."

Mitsuhiko had his badge out before Haibara's shaky fingers could detach hers. "Genta-kun! Ayumi-chan! Come quick, we've found something in the kitchen! Genta-kun?"

He paused, his face closing over. He turned his head so Haibara wouldn't see the expression. "Ayumi-chan? Genta-kun? Someone answer, please! Come on..."

"It's no use," Haibara said in a choked voice. "Your transmission isn't even coming through on my badge. We can't contact them."

On the other side of the house, Genta and Ayumi were investigating the library, a room that normally would have excited Ayumi greatly, if she wasn't so nervous. Genta had been dragging her from room to room, frustrated at the lack of clues they were finding. Even now he was preparing to exit with a scowl, completely missing the strange phenomenon that was taking place right at his feet.

"G-Genta-kun." Ayumi suddenly held her ground, forcing him to stop as well. She pointed at a bright pool of something glittering at the base of the entrance that they had come in by...and spreading. "There's...some kind of liquid... there, on the floor."

Genta shone the light from his watch at the puddle and stepped back to avoid coating his socks with the stuff. "What is it?"

It was coming faster now, pooling in the cracks of the hardwood floor but still rolling determinedly toward them at several millimetres per second. "It...looks like blood."

"Okay! Time to regroup!" Genta cried abruptly, his face a ghostly white. "Let's get the others and get out of here!" Leaping over the strange puddle, Genta hurtled out into the hallway and crashed head-on into the wall across from the door. He was back on his feet and pounding down the hallway a second later, before Ayumi had time to cry out.

The puddle was simply too large for her to get through; it had stopped spreading, but it lurked there as though waiting to devour her whole. Ayumi touched the badge on her shirt. "C-Conan-kun..."

But Conan wasn't here, she realized a moment later. "Mitsuhiko-kun! Genta-kun! Ai-chan! Can you..." she sniffled loudly, wondering why the badge was sounding so staticky, "can you come help me? I'm stuck..."

No reply came back to her. Ayumi shuddered and backed up against one of the bookcases, relieved to put some distance between her and the pool of blood, and reassurance that no one could sneak up behind her. "Conan-kun...someone...help me..."

A moment passed, and then another, without any response or even a sound from elsewhere in the house. What if Ai-chan and Mitsuhiko-kun are in danger? Ayumi wondered. What if they don't realize that something scary is in the house?

She bit her lip. Genta hadn't even come back for her, after all this time!

Or, they got him too...

Suddenly getting back to the sitting room didn't seem like such a bad idea. Ayumi gathered her wits along with a deep breath and then ran at the doorway, not quite clearing the puddle, her sock feet skidding in it as she landed. It was warm, and that made things even worse. She couldn't help but let out a terrified scream as she changed direction and ploughed blindly down the hall, and then suddenly-

"Ayumi-chan!" Mitsuhiko's head jerked up at the sound of the cry. "The others are in trouble!"

Haibara quickly collected herself and snatched up the lantern once more, leading the way to the part of the house where the scream had come from. Halfway there, she collided bodily with Genta, whose face was extremely pale. "Kojima-kun!"

"Where's Ayumi-chan!" Mitsuhiko gasped, looking panicked.

"I, I lost her!" Genta cried. "There was blood on the floor and we ran and when I looked back she was gone!"

Haibara felt like she'd been punched. "Blood? Where?"

"The library..." Genta pointed over his shoulder.

Mitsuhiko elbowed past him with his flashlight turned forward. "Don't just stand there! What if the murderer got her?"

Haibara wanted to say "There IS no murderer!" but even she wasn't certain anymore. Following the freckled boy, she held the lantern aloft and charged down the hallway, barely able to halt her flight when Mitsuhiko abruptly stopped with a sharp cry.

There, on the floor...bloody footprints, obviously belonging to a small child who hadn't been wearing slippers. On the far side of the tracks was the puddle Genta had described, still spreading slowly toward the wall.

And the tracks...the person who had made them seemed to have vanished into thin air, for they extended no more than a few paces before abruptly stopping in mid-run, as though the child had simply disappeared.

"They just...stop." Mitsuhiko's voice trembled. "Like the floor just opened up and swallowed her...we have to get her back! What do we do?"

"Call the police!" Genta said immediately. "We can't split up to look for her, or we'll all get eaten! We'll get the Professor to call..."

"No good," Haibara told him from her spot on the floor where she was inspecting the bloody prints. She touched a finger to the substance, sniffed it and frowned. "The badges aren't working. Something is jamming them."

"Then, we should go next door and dial 110!"

"And leave Ayumi-chan here?" Mitsuhiko looked outraged.

"I'll call the police," Haibara instructed, getting to her feet and handing Mitsuhiko the lantern. "You guys keep looking around. But be careful."

The two boys tried their best to look brave for her sake, so she responded in kind, giving them a reassuring smile. "I guess that'll teach us to mess with haunted houses from now on. When we find Ayumi-chan, let's promise to stay away from here for good, okay?"

Genta nodded emphatically. "Fine by me."

"Then, I'll see you soon." Haibara turned her back on the scene of the abduction and continued back to the huge foyer of the house, turning on her watch so she could keep an eye out for other nasty surprises. They had apparently missed a "get out!" sign written in something luminescent on the foyer mirror in their hurry, and cobwebs were hanging all the way down from the chandelier to tickle her cheek as she passed under it to reach the stairs.

Conscious of the door less than twenty paces behind, Haibara held her head high and ascended the stairs, turned at the landing, and briskly marched toward the closed door at the end of the hall, throwing it open without announcement.

"Hello there, it's a guest," a feminine voice said in a sultry alto, drawing her attention to the figure standing in the corner. She had long, matted black hair that hung to her knees, and her eyes glittered red in the light of Haibara's watch. "Dear child, haven't you brought your friends?"

Haibara closed the door with a faint click and tried the light switch, unsurprised to find that the power had been cut. "Why don't you tell me that? Where is Ayumi?"

The woman paused, but didn't falter, raising her head slightly so her eerily pale face was more visible. "She's gone somewhere peaceful. Come closer, girl, and I'll take you to her."

"As long as your son's with her, I'll assume she's safe," Haibara replied, deadpan. "On that note, I highly suggest that you bring him here so we can have a nice chat."

Again the woman fell silent for a moment, and then she leaned forward to get a better look at her victim's face. Her voice rose in pitch after she made a hmmm noise, and then she finally said, "Oh, it's Ai-chan. Shin-chan didn't mention you'd be coming."

"Nevertheless, I am here," Haibara said dryly. "And where is 'Shin-chan'?"

"He's in his room with Ayumi-chan." Kudou Yukiko looked slightly embarrassed. "She fainted when she ran into Yuusaku downstairs."

Haibara looked scornful. "At least he had enough conscience left for that."

"Oh, come on," Yukiko cajoled, her sweet voice greatly detracting from the frightening costume. "He didn't mean for that to happen. He just didn't want the kids snooping around the house, so he asked us to help him out. It was mostly my idea, actually." A blush snuck past her white makeup. "He was just going to plant some clues to make them think that the people who lived here left willingly. I made him spice it up a bit."

Haibara folded her arms and switched off the watch, allowing the moonlight to illuminate them both. "I admit that I was fooled by the items in the kitchen."

"You'd better be." The actress put her hands on her hips. "I had to cut locks out of some of my best wigs to make the hairball."

"And the eyes?"

"I was taught in acting school how to make fairly realistic props out of the oddest things. Liquid latex, ink, a few other things...the cobwebs are shredded wool."

The grade-schooler looked appreciative. "I'll admit that I was fooled by the dried blood. The fresh blood was an obvious trick, however. Clear corn syrup and red food colouring?"

"I work with what I have." Yukiko shrugged.

Abruptly Haibara knew the answer to the question that had been bothering her most. "And I suppose the Professor assisted? The badges..."

Now it was Yukiko's turn to look impressed. "You don't miss a single detail, do you?"

"And who do you suppose taught me that?" She glanced over her shoulder at the door and smiled. "In any case, you've put my worries to rest, I suppose. It was you and your husband that I saw moving about last night in the house."

Yukiko didn't look surprised that Haibara had been the one to take notice. "Yes, we thought we'd make a surprise visit, Shin-chan just hates it when we do that...we're still on Los Angeles time, though, and ended up cleaning most of the night. Not much housekeeping's gotten done since...well, you know."

"Of course."

"So...you understand, right, Ai-chan?" Yukiko winked. "Don't get too mad at Shin-chan. He's just trying to protect the kids."

"Oh, I know." She tilted her head. "Just return them in one piece, that's all I ask."

"Ah, well, you see, Yuusaku is disguised as the Night Baron, who has a reputation for slicing up his victims..."

"Ah." Distinctly Haibara could hear faint cries from downstairs and knew that the boys had discovered Edogawa's father. "I understand, then. And I do appreciate your efforts to keep Kudou-kun's secret safe." She didn't need to add that it was her secret as well; for some reason she felt that if she talked about her true identity with Kudou's mother, she would be somehow losing face.

If Yukiko thought the same way, she didn't say so, she merely spread her arms and slipped into the deep voice she'd used when Haibara first entered. "Why don't you help by vanishing as well, then, young miss?"

"Fine." A smile cracked Haibara's mask of pretended nonchalance. "I'll leave the rest to you and your 'Shin-chan'."

The next day, Conan found himself assaulted on all sides by the other Detective Boys, breathless from retelling their incredible adventure and clinging to him to emphasize their words. They kept looking over their shoulders to ensure that the ghost woman wasn't coming up behind them on the sidewalk.

"And we were so lucky to get away alive!" Mitsuhiko gasped. "The Night Baron had carried Ayumi off and was going to slice her up! And Haibara was kidnapped by a ghost when she tried to call the police!"

Nonplussed, Conan held back a yawn. "Really. And how did you get away?"

"Well, that is..."

Hanging a few steps back, Haibara was observing Ayumi silently, a little worried at the effect the previous night's performance might have had on her friend. The brunette was strangely quiet, though, and seemed to be thinking hard.

"Is something wrong?" the scientist-turned-grade-schooler eventually asked, knowing that Ayumi was unlikely to broach the topic unless someone else did so first.

"Well, it's just the Night Baron..." She trailed off quietly. "I didn't tell the others, but when I woke up, the Night Baron was there and he was talking to someone in the room in the dark, and that person was a boy who had a familiar voice...but I can't figure out who it was."

"What did they talk about?" Haibara asked with interest. No doubt one or both of the Kudous had noticed the change in Ayumi's breathing and avoided sensitive topics. Or so she hoped.

"About...themselves. They were talking like they didn't see each other for a long time. The Night Baron was saying stuff like, 'I worry about you getting into stupid things' and the boy kept saying he could take care of himself, he could take care of himself...but Haibara, I think the boy was a ghost. I think he was the ghost of the person who disappeared from there."

"Oh?"

Ayumi took a deep breath. "He had a mask on too, but his clothes were all white. I could even see him without any light because he...glowed."

Another of Kudou's mother's little tricks, no doubt. Haibara couldn't stop herself from being impressed, nevertheless, not to mention appreciative of Conan's careful planning in using a disguise and a voice-changer. "So the boy was reunited with someone, then."

"I think so. And..." She hesitated. "When he thought I was still sleeping, the boy came over and stood by me and said something like, 'I can move on to the Other World peacefully now. I want to be with you and Mother.'

Haibara suspected that the acting in this scene had been bad, particularly if Conan had ad-libbed it, but Ayumi seemed convinced enough. She smiled as she continued to remember what she'd heard. "Then the Night Baron said 'We'll leave this house forever. Come, let us return the girl to her friends, for she has done us no harm.' He picked me up and carried me downstairs, and I kept pretending to be asleep, and then Genta and Mitsuhiko came in running away from the ghost lady, and then our badges started working again. That's when you called, Ai-chan, and we all escaped."

"Yes, it certainly was lucky," Haibara said with a secretive smile, her eyes focused on the dark hair of the boy who walked several paces ahead, listening to Genta and Mitsuhiko with feigned interest. He seemed to sense her gaze, or caught the barest end of her words, and looked over his shoulder at the two girls.

Ayumi nodded. "That's right!"

"And," Conan prompted, "what have we learned from this? Don't go into haunted houses? Exercise caution in your investigations?"

"That ghosts aren't so scary after all!" Ayumi beamed.

The bespectacled boy almost fell flat on his face. "What?"

"Well," she continued, somewhat apprehensively at his reaction, "we cleared the ghosts out of that house, right? Now that boy is going to be all right, because he's with his mother and father...so that means that we could do that to other haunted houses! We could be like exer- exar- ...um...exorcists!"

Haibara couldn't miss the growing horror on Conan's face. "Ayumi-chan..."

"Plus," she added gaily, "now that they're gone, we'll have a real chance to investigate and find out who murdered that boy!"

Mitsuhiko clapped his hands together. "Great thinking, Ayumi-chan!"

"We're even more talented than we thought!" Genta crowed.

Conan just groaned and fell back a few steps to walk beside Haibara. "You guys...you can't be serious."

But they ignored him, chattering eagerly about their newest plans to sneak into the Kudou mansion, and their new goal of becoming ghostbusters. Hanging his head, Conan kicked a pebble and watched it splash into a puddle on the sidewalk. "Great. I've set myself up as a murder victim, cured Ayumi-chan's fear of ghosts, and given my parents a brand-new source of amusement. They may never leave if 'Kaasan thinks she can get a repeat performance of last night. Where did I go wrong?"

Haibara held back a snort of amusement. "Kudou-kun, oh, Kudou-kun...please, don't ask such questions when you're so obviously not ready to hear the truth."

-end-