A Third Secret Chapter 1

By Pochama-chan

"Game over…"

"Kuso…" muttered Conan, "when will I ever beat this?" He had been practicing Pac-man for the good portion of three hours, and still had not managed to beat the game past the second time. Suddenly, his earring cell phone began to beep. "Hello?" Conan spoke, and was greeted by a nervous and excited voice of Dr. Agasa. "Shinichi-kun? You've got to come right now, something happened!" "What…?" Conan began, but the professor had already hung up. Better go and see… Conan thought, and after telling Ran hastily that he was going to Dr. Agasa's place, he sped towards Agasa's house on his turbo-powered skateboard.

Dr. Agasa greeted him at the door, still looking excited, and led him into the living room where Haibara Ai sat, though with a small girl Conan did not recognize. She had black shoulder-length hair, kind of like Ayumi's but a little longer. Her black eyes shone with happiness as she chatted with Haibara, who, Conan was very astonished to see, was smiling as she talked. He knew something must be going on, since Haibara wouldn't smile genuinely like that just to entertain a kid. He stood gaping at them, and after a while the girls noticed his presence. The new girl's eyes immediately flashed with something like fear, and stopped talking at once, glancing at Conan mistrustfully.

"Dr. Agasa, this is…" inquired Conan, looking at the girl he had never seen before. "This is Horikawa Kumoko-kun, she is also a victim of the APTX 4869," replied Dr. Agasa. "WHAT??" yelled Conan, in utter disbelief, "The Organization's still got more Apotoxin to use?" "I suppose so," said Haibara with a hint of worry in her voice, "When I finished making the Apotoxin, Gin took about a dozen from me, and I think he might have kept them despite the Organization burning everything else about the drug." And Conan remembered how, before he had been knocked out, he had seen Gin pull out a small black box with several pills in it. "Uh…well…Kumoko-chan…how old are you?" asked Conan uncertainly. The girl didn't reply. Haibara leaned over and whispered something in her ear, and her expression seemed to relax a bit.

"I'm eleven now, but I'll be turning twelve next month," she replied, looking cautiously at him. "Eleven," repeated Conan thoughtfully, "but doesn't one pill shrink you about 10 years?" He looked down at Kumoko, who resembled a six or seven-year-old. "Yeah, but when Gin forced me to eat the pill, I struggled, bit it open, and managed to spit out about half of it. I don't think he noticed anything, because he was busy setting our house on fire…" her voice trailed away, and she looked suddenly very sad. Haibara took her hand and patted it lightly. "Oh…" Conan said, slightly embarrassed that he had made the girl sad. Ran, Haibara, and now this kid. Why do I always seem to depress the girls? "Um…Kumoko-chan, will you be going to school with us?" he asked, changing the subject. "Yes, we are planning to enroll her as Shirai Chihiro, since, like you two, using her original name will make her traceable to the Black Organization."

"Shirai Chihiro…" Conan pondered the name, "It's not related to any famous detective, is it?" Both "Edogawa Conan" and "Haibara Ai" had been made up of either famous detectives or writers that wrote about detectives. "No…Shirai is the surname of one of my friends and Chihiro is the name of my little sister," she said with her eyes downcast again. "Your little sister?" asked Conan, but regretted it immediately when Kumoko replied, in a small voice, "She didn't survive when Gin gave her the drug…She was only five, and she had not been able to take the shock the pill created. Or else I guess she was shrunken 10 years and is now five years before birth…" "Oh…I'm sorry to hear that," said Conan. "It's fine," said Kumoko, "It's not your fault she's dead. Gin and Vodka are the ones who worked to kill us all." Kuso…Conan thought, the Organization has torn apart so many families…

Suddenly, the phone rang again. This time, it was Ran. "You didn't tell me how long you were going to be gone, Conan-kun! Do you want me to make dinner for you?" "Uh…okay Ran-neechan, I'm coming back home now!" Conan said in his innocent, cute little-boy's voice. "Okay then, come back quickly!" the girl said, and then hung up. "Alright guys, I have to go now, see you two at school tomorrow!" he called hastily as he ran out the door.

The moment he was gone, Haibara turned to look at the younger girl. "Well, what do you think, is he the type of person you can trust?" she asked with a small smile on her face. "I don't know…" replied Kumoko, "He doesn't seem all that reliable at first glance…How old is he?" "He's seventeen," said Haibara, "And you won't think he's not reliable after you've seen his detective skills." "He's a detective?" asked Kumoko. "Yes, and he's so good, he's called the Sherlock Holmes of Heisei," replied Dr. Agasa, coming back from the bathroom, "What do you guys want for dinner?"

"Class, quiet down, we have a new student today!" the Sensei said to the group of first graders fidgeting around before the start of class. At once the noise died down and everyone looked up in anticipation, but especially the members of the Shonen Tanteidan. They, especially Ayumi, were reputed for welcoming new students. As the Sensei led (who she and the rest of the class thought was) Chihiro to the front of the class, the class let out several squeals of "she's so cute!" and "I'd like to be her friend!" The Sensei wrote her name, "Shirai Chihiro", on the board, and asked, "Chihiro-chan, where would you like to sit?" "Sensei, she can sit next to me!" piped up Ayumi. Actually, there was only one empty seat in the room, and that was next to hers. "Okay," replied Chihiro, since the empty seat was not only next to Ayumi, but also next to Haibara, who was sitting with Conan. She walked down the isle to the seat and sat down, while returning Ayumi's beaming with a friendly smile. "Alright class, settle down, and we'll start the math class."

"Chihiro-chan, my name is Yoshida Ayumi," the small girl next to her happily announced as the bell rang and the Sensei dismissed them, "this is Tsuburaya Mitsuhiko, and that over there is Kojima Genta!" "Hello," Chihiro smiled at Mitsuhiko, who blushed. "Chihiro-chan, how do you like this school?" Ayumi asked. "Well…I like it okay, I guess," replied Chihiro, "It's a nice environment to study in." "Which school did you go to before this?" asked Genta, joining them with a rice ball in his hand. Chihiro glanced at Haibara nervously, since she didn't want to tell them where she really had been before here. Haibara answered in the calm voice of hers, leaving her younger and more innocent classmates in no doubt that she was telling the truth, "Shirai-san's been in America for four years, and came to Japan after a brief stay in China." It was, after all, partially the truth. Chihiro, as Kumoko, has indeed stayed in the United States the first more-than-half portion of her life, moved to China, and has come to Japan about a year ago. If only the Black Organization had let Otousan stay in China or the U.S., Chihiro thought to herself miserably, then Gin and Vodka will never have been able to track us down…

"Chihiro-chan, what happened?" Chihiro came out of her reverie looking at Ayumi's worried face. "What? Uh…nothing," she answered, avoiding Ayumi's gaze. She regretted using her sister's name as her alias. Having the name repeatedly called at her did nothing better to stem the flow of sadness that seemed to run through her every time she thought about her sister, her family, and of the horrors the Black Organization had brought to her family. "We heard from Conan that you're living with Haibara-san at Dr. Agasa's house," Mitsuhiko said, and directed his next question more at Haibara, "can we all go to your house together? The professor says that he's close to finishing a new game, and that we can all go play." "Okay, if the professor said you could," replied Haibara indifferently. "Yay! Let's go!" exclaimed Ayumi cheerfully. As they walked out of the school yard, Conan looked back instinctively, just in time to catch the glimpse of a black figure behind the bushes. He ran towards the bushes, but all he saw on the other side was a mass of parents and students walking out of the gate. "What is it, Conan-kun?" Mitsuhiko asked. "Ah…nothing," Conan replied as he ran back to join them. It was only a teacher or a parent, he thought, shrugging, but an uneasy feeling had begun to creep up his mind…

What relationship does Kumoko's family have with the Black Organization? And who was the black figure Conan saw? To be continued…

Note: This is my very first fan-fic! It's not much, but I'll add to it soon and it'll probably be really, really long. Please read it and review, I'd really appreciate tips on how to make my writing better! Thanks!