Chapter 1: Prelude
A thief's Detective
Prelude
She ran. It was all she could do. She knew bone deep that if she were caught now she would die; slowly and painfully. The tall spruce trees of her childhood homeland seem menacing now and completely unfamiliar. Their heavy rain soaked branches snagged and tore at her clothes like angry hands. Her breath came out in harsh painful pants. Stumbling slightly she pushed her aching muscles harder to give whatever strength they had left. She hit a clearing and nearly toppled over the edge of a jagged cliff side. The river below was swollen and rushing rapidly. Slicing at the cliff side and the fatal rock it hid. She glanced back hearing heavy footsteps grow closer. Looking down at the water she flung herself off. Turning in midair the last thing she saw was her pursuer looking down. His silvery hair whipped away from his face and a violent scowl darkening his evil face.
Disclaimer: I DO NOT OWN ANYTHING! All belongs to Aoyama-san and a long list of whom ever else.
Chapter One
A very terrified thirteen year old Conan clung to the seat belt as Ran clung to him and Kazuha to her. Mouri Kogoro was whipping around another icy curve and sputtering curse as he missed the guardrail by mere centimeters.
"Old man! Go a littl' slower, will ya! I'd like ta graduate college in one piece!" Hattori snapped as he gripped the 'oh shit bar' a little tighter.
Ran whimpered and squeezed Conan tighter and smiled weakly at him. "Tou-san, please slow down a little."
"Shut up all of you! I need to concentrate!" The sleeping detective snapped.
Another hair pin curve and all occupants in the back seat slid into one another.
'If I live through this I'm going to …' Shinichi started to think. 'Nani?' "Oji-san, stop! Stop now!" He squeaked. His maturing voice as Conan cracked embarrassingly.
"NANI!" Kogoro shouted as he slammed on the brakes.
Everyone lurched forward and Hattori spitted out random curses as his head smacked painfully against the dashboard.
"Oi! Ku- Conan-kun!" Hattori called out the teen as he jumped out of the car and raced to the other side.
"Conan-kun!" Ran called out to him. She glanced at Heiji and took off after him. Once she caught up to him she saw he was crouched down to a sign and wiping of the piled snow.
"Brat what-"Kogoro started.
"You nearly missed the turn off." Shinichi interrupted before the old detective got started. "And it looks like we'll have to walk from here."
Heiji looked up to wear the shrunken detective was looking at. There was a tiny nearly useable dirt road ten paces down from them. They walked to the road and looked up at it. Branches and smaller weaker trees lay diagonally over the snow.
"It's like a barricade." Kazuha whispered to Ran.
The other girl nodded getting worried.
Shinichi narrowed his eyes. That's what it was. Even from this distance he could see that the trees didn't just fall over they were cut but why? Thousands of possibilities swamped his mind.
"You girls stay here wit' tha Old man. Me and the kid here will look on a head. Just ta make sure this is where we need ta be." Hattori said and swung an arm around Shinichi's neck.
"Be careful!" Ran called out to them as they walked off.
"Kudou …"
"I know, I saw. I also saw someone on a bike ride off in the other direction before we stopped." Shinichi said as he climbed over two fallen trees. It helped to be somewhat close to his original height but to go through puberty wasn't. He huffed impatiently and kicked one of the saplings down. Beside him Hattori flinched.
"Kudou … You've been taking lessons from Ran-nee-chan, haven't ya?" He said weakly.
"Mhm." Shinichi didn't look at him. "She said if I was going to stick my nose into dangerous cases I had better learn how to defend myself and the ones I'm trying to protect."
"I see …"
Silence fell around them. As they got closer the top of the hill the snow was getting thicker and the branches and trees disappeared. Shinichi felt his stomach clench and unclench. A sign he learned that there was something wrong. Stopping he looked around them quickly. It was unusually quiet. 'Where are the birds?' Shinichi thought. "Or the other animals? Did they get spooked … no, if they did some of them would have returned by now. It's like …'
"Kudou?"
"Yes?"
"Ya alright? Ya've gone pale." Hattori asked worriedly.
"Hattori … do you get the feeling as if you're not supposed to be here?" Shinichi asked and looked at him dead in the eye.
Hattori sighed and scratched the back of his head. "I was hopin' ya wouldn't say that but yeah, I do feel it. Right here." He said pointing to his gut.
Shinichi's jaw tightened visibly and nodded. Now that they had gotten it out on the open. It was as if the presence multiplied. The feeling of being watched was suffocating.
"Carw!"
Shinichi and Hattori jumped and spun on to a crow staring at them from the tree behind them. It watched them with beady eyes and cawed again them.
"Damn thin' scared the hell out of me." Hattori sighed.
"Let's go. There is no way we can get through this mess without tools." Shinichi said quickly and started to make his way back down to the others.
"Oi, Kudou! Don't"
"Look Hattori, I am not superstitious at all. It's just not me but when things start line up to something that was warned to me earlier I'm gonna get the hell away." Shinichi muttered and slipped.
"Huh?"
Shinichi sighed. "It was at the last Kaitou KID heist. I don't who in the hell it was so don't ask but … She knew about me. Who I was, who I'm after. Everything. She warned me that I was going to take a trip up north after a heavy storm. There I'll find not only myself there but crows, lots of them and every one of them will as a warning. If I was to see one I am to turn away from what I was doing and hide."
"Kudou …"
"Look I know it sounds nuts but …" Shinichi exasperated as he ran one of his hands threw his hair and sighed.
Hattori fell in step with the teen. Being gentle he placed a hand on his shoulder. "Kudou whateva' works for ya to stay alive, do it. I'm not going to say that isn't one of the weirdest things to come from ya, cause it is, but Kudou your life is anything but normal. So I have'ta throw in some paranormal just ta keep myself from goin' crazy."
"Hattori …"
Hattori grinned cheekily and hooked an arm around Shinichi's neck. "Don't worry. Whateva happens I'm here with ya!"
"Hat"
"But if I get in ta trouble you're gonna have'ta bail me out with ya new karate skills~" The Osakan whistled and walked off.
'Oi, oi …' Shinichi twitched.
"That is the last time I have ya drive Old man!" Hattori shouted as he slammed the car door closed.
Conan helped Ran out of the car as Hattori yelled at her father. The car ride from their turn off just became worse. The roads were icier and on the side the snow was piled so high it looked as if it had been there for a while. Looking around he saw that all of the vehicles were all terrain trucks or snow mobiles. 'Just how far north did they go?' He thought.
"Conan-kun, were going inside." Ran said.
"Coming." Shinichi replied and grabbed his bag from the trunk. Closing the door he glanced up and noticed the same bike that had rode off earlier.
"Conan?"
"Ah, coming." He said hurriedly and ran up to the porch.
As Shinichi walked in after them he noticed that those that were in the room were staring at them. It was the same edginess he felt when in was in the forest. He blinked and stepped to the other side of Ran as Hattori went to Kazuha's side. He felt Ran's hand grip the back of his coat. As one of the men stood up and stepped toward them Shinichi moved ever so slightly in front of her and glared. The man towered over him by a good foot and a half but after his ordeal with Irish this man seemed like nothing.
"You must be Mouri Kogoro? The Sleeping Sleuth, right?" a feminine voice piped up over the big man's shoulder. The man stepped to the side and allowed the woman through.
"It's alright guys. They're detectives. I invited them here." She said looking around to everyone there. "Sorry about that. They are all really good people, just protective of their own."
The atmosphere lifted instantly and the small group sighed. The woman stepped past Kogoro and stopped in front of Conan and grinned. Instantly Shinichi was reminded of a certain thief. He blinked.
"You've got guts I haven't seen anyone stand up to Takeshi in a long time." She said and placed her hands on her thin hips. "My name's Touto Kayo."
"Edogawa Conan. This is Mouri Ran, Toyama Kazuha, Hattori Heiji and"
"Mouri Kogoro" He glared at the shrunken detective. "The one you invited. The other's just tagged along and are. Not. Needed."
"I wouldn't say that. The more the merrier on this case." She laughed.
"What exactly is the case?" Conan asked. "You didn't exactly explain it in your letter."
She looked at him measuring. "Well … people in our town have been going missing. All of them females around you to girls age." She said nodding her head to Ran and Kazuha. "Our police department is looking for them but with the recent storm they had to stop."
"Because of the storm? That seems a littl' ... I don't know … weak on their part." Hattori said and stuffed his hands into his pockets.
"Yes, we thought that too. Our town is doing what it can." She looked over her shoulder at the large group of burly men in the corner next to the bar. "And now the one person we thought could find them has turned up missing as well."
"And who would that be?" Shinichi asked.
She looked at him. "I can't say there name I'm afraid. All I can say is that they are a High school detective."
The group looked at each other for a moment.
"They just showed up one day during the storm and offered their help. In any way they could." She explained.
"Were they male or female?" Hattori asked.
Touto looked up at him. "I'm sorry I really couldn't tell. They were bundled up pretty good and they sounded pretty sick so their voice raspy and broken up. They did though own that bike you see out there."
Shinichi looked at Hattori. "May we see it?"
Touto blinked at them. "Sure." Then looked at Kogoro. "I wonder who the detective here is."
Shinichi barely got out the door when he felt a hand clamp down on to his shoulder. He yelped when I got swung backwards into the room.
"Stay out of my way brat." Kogoro spat. "I'll go check the bike."
Shinichi swung on him. "Fine then, what are you looking for?"
Kogoro sputtered and punched him hard on the head. "I'm not an idiot … I know what to look for."
"Tou-san!" Ran shouted and glared up at her father.
"Damn it, Old man I have had about enough of that! I meant the type of bike. Wither the engine is warm or not and if there are chains on the tires. If that is that same bike I saw we may have found some lead to them." Conan snapped.
Kogoro stared at the young boy in shock.
Ran placed a gentle hand on Conan's arm. "What do you mean Conan?"
Shinichi took a deep breath to steady him and remembered that he had to act like Conan. "Back at the turn we were supposed to take I saw a bike take off as we stopped. You saw the pass it was covered in branches and saplings. Seeing as how that was the only bike I managed to see outside my guess is that it may be the same one but I have to see first. If it is it mean that through that pass may be a lead."
"Didn't you and Hattori go up there earlier?" Kazuha asked.
"Yeah … well we got up to the top of the hill. It's a pretty far walk and from what we saw it looked like it would have been longer before we came across anything." Hattori explained.
"You guys keep saying a turn. You don't mean the turn about 3 miles from here do you?" Touto asked.
"We do."
"I wouldn't go into those woods if I were you. There is an ancient curse on that land." She said seriously.
"Curse?" The girls squeaked.
"Hm … A few years back the shine on top of the mountain caught fire. The priest at the time was in town and only saw the smoke. His wife and child was trapped in the flames. By the time the fire department arrived it was too late. The flames had engulfed the entire temple. He swore that he wouldn't forgive whoever did this and took his life. Ever since then the day he died the animals disappeared and wouldn't go anywhere near the land and whoever ventures into the forest never come out."
Shinichi placed a hand to his chin and thought about what Touto just told them. 'If it is a curse it out of our hands but if it isn't just how many people have gone missing already and how do we keep it from happening again?'
"How many people have gone missing already?" Hattori asked.
"I don't know dozens of them over the years but only five here this time." Touto said shaking her head.
"Well seeing as how you two have everything all together! I'm gonna get a drink!" Kogoro snapped verminously.
Shinichi bit his tongue as he watched the drunk saunter off to the bar.
"Sorry about him." Ran said bowing.
Touto glared at the man as he left. "Don't worry about it. I'm sorry you have to put up with that kind of abuse." She smiled at them and walked hurriedly past them.
Shinichi sniffed the air and stared after her. She didn't smell as if she was working behind a bar. She smelt like the spruce pines and the winter air. He watched her grab a heavy females white winter coat and a dark blue scarf. She was taller than him at the moment but if he was normal they'd be close to the same height and she was all legs with a right amount of curve. She had healthy looking skin and violet blue eyes. Chocolate colored hair was long and pulled back into a messy pony tail. Yet despite the messy look to her it looked perfect. As if this was the look she wanted. Shinichi smirked and held back the question for a time when he had "her" alone for now he'd leave 'Touto Kayo' alone.
"Shinichi?" Ran whispered.
"What?" Shinichi replied without taking his gaze off of Touto as she and Kazuha exchanged a few words.
"You keep staring at her? Do you have a crush?" Ran asked in a normal volume.
Touto, Kazuha, and Hattori looked over at them right as Shinichi blushed to his hair line and sputtered out a coupled of broken no's. Ran laughed and grinned at him. Touto called out to one of the people behind the bar to grab their bags and to place them in room's closet to hers.
"Why close to yours?" Kazuha asked.
"Because it'll put the town at ease and because of all of the disappearances it has been hard for them to accept strangers so, the ones that do come get placed to those that are from the town." Touto explained and walked down the steps. "Careful it's a bit icy." She said and extended a hand subconsciously to Kazuha and Ran.
Shinichi's smirk grew wider. Hattori noticed it and took a couple steps away from his friend.
"That's the detective's bike?" Hattori asked jutting his chin out toward the bike on the lot.
"Yes." Touto said looking over her shoulder. "I feel horrible. If I had told them just to wait then maybe they would have disappeared like the others."
Shinichi walked over to the bike and place a gloved hand on the engine. "It's warm."
"That means this was the one you saw." Hattori said and looked around the lot.
"Yeah." Shinichi stood and looked out to the road. Noticing a small path that cut into the forest he started for it. "Touto-san, where does that path lead?"
"Up to the old temple. It's a pretty walk … I used to do it every day for exercise but with everything happening."
Shinichi nodded. "Would you be willing to take us up there?"
Her eyes widen for a moment. "Sure I can take you but do you mind if bring someone with me?"
"Sure."
Touto smiled and began to walk around back. "You guys can follow me if you want. There is a way to get to the trail just around back."
The group followed her around to the other side and watched her run up to a dog on a cord. She untied the cord and watched it take off like a bullet toward them. The girls froze for a moment, Hattori tensed, and Conan took a massive amount of fur strait to the chest and landed in the snow with his glasses flying.
"Conan-kun!" Ran surged forward but Touto calling out to her stopped her.
"It's alright he won't hurt him. He's just saying hello."
As if on cue they heard Shinichi's laughter and soft urges to get off. They watched the massive dog leap over Shinichi's head and crouch in a playful position. It barked a couple of times before running up to the others. The girls squealed as the dog stopped in front of them and sat. Tail wagging like crazy. As the others got aquatinted with the dog Touto jogged up to Shinichi laughing. Picking up his glasses carefully she handed them to him.
"Sorry about Jiro, but feel lucky. He'll only jump on those he immediately likes. You're the first one in months. The only others was myself and the missing detective."
"I see. Ah … he won't do that every time, would he?" Shinichi asked eyeing her side ways.
She grinned wildly. "I'm not Jiro so I can't say."
"I'll keep that in mind" Shinichi said standing up. Stuffing his hands into his jacket pockets he turned the smirk on to her. "KID."
Touto's grin didn't falter nor did it reach her eyes any more. "Hm?"
"What are you doing here?" Shinichi asked as plainly as if he had asked for the weather.
"It's the missing detective." Touto asked now sounding as how Shinichi remember KID's voice to be. "I am or was supposed to have a heist here in a couple of days. The missing detective that was here for the missing people asked for my help on the case. We were working pretty well together. She knew who I was and didn't care. She said everyone has to making a living somehow and didn't press for details. Nor did I ask for her back ground. A couple of days ago …" He took breath and turned away from the three they had been watching to look at the tree line. "A group men and women in black arrived into town. By then I had taken up my disguise as Touto Kayo and she and I were only meeting at night in the forest. We had gotten close to the site where the people have been reportedly going missing. It didn't turn out well. I had kept to the higher parts of the trees while she to the ground. The last thing I heard from her was to stay safe then static."
Shinichi looked at him now and could see the thief behind the mask. "Which is why you sent for Kogoro? To get someone else on the case faster. To find them before they are killed or more people go missing."
KID snorted and nodded his head to the group. "Not Kogoro. You, tantei-kun."
Shinichi looked back just in time to see the dog racing toward him again. Holding up a hand Jiro screeched to a halt and wagged his tail at them.
"Ready for a walk?" KID asked sounding like Touto again.
The dog barked happily and race off toward the trail.