Gôka no Himawari - reboot

Hi there ! Time for a new project, a shorter one than usual (10-15 chapters), for a change ; )

To be honest, I've been thinking about that fic for quite a while already but I was so sure someone would do it I didn't dare to begin. But well, the 20th movie is soon coming, and the little game of what will be in the movie and what won't (compared to the trailers) is starting again, so that idea tickled me once more, I had to do it ! : )

So here is the version of the 19th movie just as I was kind of expecting it to be. I was so hyped after the trailers that I had to look at the movie twice to know if I liked it or not. One view wasn't enough, I hated it the first time : the trailer had even been showing fake scenes, I was so frustrated... o.O

I'll be trying to put in that story most of the things we saw in the trailers : ) I also got rid of all the things that annoyed me (bye bye DB - sorry for the CoAi, guys :p, useless tears from Ran, plot holes - since when Sonoko is representing the Suzuki Zaibatsu ? o.O And how old is Jii ? Dear, even if he was 20 when the painting was burnt in 1945, he'd be 80 now ? And still working as a bartender and jumping everywhere as the assistant of the Kid ? The hell of a health o.O, etc...).

From Conan's perspective, the story will kind of look the same until the action in the Lake Rock Museum. But we'll also have Kid's... ; )

I'd like to thanks all the fans who subbed the movie and also bobbyneko for the translation of the book, it was very useful to me to follow the time line : )

Well, enough chit-chat, time to begin !

I'll start with two chapters today, and will try to publish twice a week... Else it'll be once, I'll see.

Personal PS : Nooo my first fic without Heiji ! ;_;

SUMMARY : Same than the movie... xD

CHARACTERS : Conan, Kid as main, second will be the like the movie (Ran, Sonoko, Jirokichi and his 7 'samurais', Jii, Nakamori)

SPOILERS : None

PAIRINGS : Canon

RATING : T (safety measure :p)

Prelude

"To the Kaitou Kid.

I'd like to employ your skills to steal the second "Sunflowers" of the Van Gogh's series.

The painting will be sold in two days in an auction in the New York World Trade Center.

Your price will be mine."

Kaito smirked as he paused the voice mail he just had Jii to listen to through his phone.

"- See, I'm world-famous now ! ... Jii-chan ?" He asked, when he could only hear silence at the other side of the line, not exactly the reaction he was expecting.

- ... That's impossible." Konosuke whispered unbelievingly.

"- What's impossible ? Hey, with the quality of my shows, of course someone would notice me !" The teen pointed out with a slightly pouting voice.

"- No... It's just... The painting, it shouldn't...

- Jii-chan ? Are you alright ? " The indigo-eyed asked with concern, feeling there's was something wrong with his old partner. He quickly decided this chat had to be done face to face. "You're at the Blue Parrot ?

- Yea but...

- Don't sweat about it, I'm coming."

o.O.o

The two men were now facing each other at the bar, Kaito sitting on one of the high chairs in front of a glass of lemonade while Jii was having, and that was quite unusual to him, a glass of brandy.

After one last sigh, the old man finally began his storytelling.

"- This is a story from my father. I told you he kind of raised me alone, right ?"

The man went on at the teen's nod.

"- This happened quite before I was born thought..."

"It was during WWII. My father had been hired as a servant a few years beforehand by a wealthy family in Ashiya. On that day, the 6th August of the year 1945, he unfortunately got trapped in the middle of the air raids that targeted that city and witnessed how it turned it in a blazing hell. He had befriend a carpenter who was also working for that family, Azuma Kiyosuke, and, when he saw him running to the living room he knew what he was wanting to do. The Sunflowers. That merchant family was rich but not that much so they were extremely proud to have been able to get that painting. It was displayed in their living room, fixed to the wall to prevent any theft.

But what had been protecting the artwork was going to destroy it : it would burn down with the house and my father and that carpenter understood it quickly. They had to fight against the other inhabitants who were escaping, being the only two mad enough to want to go back to the house.

Azuma arrived a few minutes before my father who had been slowed down because he walked into the young mistress of the house, Umeno, and the girl had wanted to come with him.

And when they entered the living room, they knew it was already too late. The ceiling had fell across the room, cutting it in half, them and the exit on one side, Azuma and the painting on the other. The carpenter had been hurt, his head was bleeding and his legs were in bad shape but he was still fighting against the painting's fixations, desperate to free it from the wall.

"Azuma-san !" The girl had yelled.

"Don't come any closer ! ... Come on !"

With one last groan, the man finally succeeded and threw without a second thought the "Sunflowers" to my father.

They both exchanged a look. And both knew the man wouldn't make it.

"Ojou-sama" The carpenter finally said after a pained grimace when he fell on his knees. "Please look after the "Sunflowers" !

"No, Azuma-san ! Azu..."

My father stopped her at the last moment to rush into the blaze and that probably saved her life, since more debris fell from the ceiling barely seconds after.

"Azuma-saaan !"

"Ojou-sama, we need to get out !" He ordered after releasing her while he wrapped the painting in his jacket.

"Even if we lose this war…..we can't let that painting be taken away…." The carpenter said after a little cough. "That "Sunflowers"... It should be displayed in a museum in Japan, for all the people from the world to be able to admire it..." He concluded with a little smile, his eyes looking intensely at the girl's.

My father had grabbed her after that, half dragging her while she put horrified eyed on the flames that just swallowed Azuma whole..."

The old man paused, grabbing his glass and finishing it in a long gulp.

"- That's quite the sad story..." Kaito concluded as he watched Jii filling another glass with a sad face. "What happened to the painting ? Your father hid it? Or the girl took it ?

- They decided to send it to Europe, saying it was a fake, so the Allies wouldn't get it. Apparently Umeno had a couple of relatives there.

- And then, any idea of where the painting ended ? It should have reappeared after the war, right ?

- Yea, that's the problem..." Konosuke agreed with a long sigh. "Umeno and my father had always wanted to grant Azuma-san's wish, to have the "Sunflowers" displayed here, in Japan. After a few years, my father tried to look a bit into it and learned that Umeno's relatives had been living in France but they died just at the end of the war. No one knew anymore were the painting was. Even later, I could feel that my father wanted to go to France to look for it. But my mother died when she had me so he never had been able to. That was a bit the unfinished task of his life... " The man stated, his eyes now dreamily looking at his glass.

The teen got up to put a hand on his shoulder.

"- Cheer up, Jii-chan, your father's and his friend's wish is pretty close from being granted. I've never really liked to work for someone... This artwork hasn't been painted to be hidden in an illegal collection..." Kaito added with a dark look.

Konosuke looked up at him with hopeful eyes.

"- Kaito-bocchama...

- Time to prevent a theft, for once !" The teen grinned maliciously.