Nevermore
By: Hikari-chan (Chitsuki)
Disclaimer: Detective Conan and all its recognizable elements belong to Gosho Aoyama. This was written for entertainment purposes only and I make no profit from this.
Preface: This story follows "September Summers", meaning it happens in the same universe. If you haven't read it, don't worry. Even though I wrote this with the assumption that SS was read, you can probably pick up most of what has happened between reading this Prologue and the upcoming Chapter 1. The only things you really need to know are: Conan has moved back into the Kudo mansion, Conan & Ai have been together since the fall of their 3rd year of junior high, and officially, the Shounen Tanteidan was dispersed (although they all remain very good friends).
Musings: I'll keep this short. 1) I always write the process of Conan and Ai getting together and I wanted to write something where they are together. 2) I've never written a mystery and thought I'd give it a shot.
I welcome you to try solving this with Conan. :) Enjoy~
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Prologue
-o-o-o-o-o-
The bell at Teitan Junior High School ran at exactly 4:00PM, signaling the end of the school day. For the third year students, it also meant going home to pack for their junior high graduation trip, which would start the next day. The graduating class was headed up to a new ski resort about an hour out of Sapporo, and would get to partake in some history lessons about the town on top of skiing and snowboarding at the resort. To say the class was filled with animated excitement would be an understatement.
"Conan-kun! Ai-chan!" Yoshida Ayumi bounced over enthusiastically, her eyes sparkling with anticipation. "Are you guys excited?"
"Thrilled," Haibara Ai smiled. She stood up and started packing her books.
"I heard the Yukihome Resort has pretty good hills," Edogawa Conan added. "So it should be fun."
"Conan!" Kojima Genta jogged over with Tsuburaya Mitsuhiko to join their group. "I'm going to learn to snowboard! Then, I'm going to race you down that hill."
Conan grinned. "Remember to bring snowpants," he suggested.
"Edogawa-kun," a couple of female voices rang out.
Conan looked up to see some girls from the other class waving at him from the doorway of the classroom.
"See you tomorrow!" they called out before giggling and heading down the hall.
"Yea…." He trailed off. Confused, he looked up at his best friends to find them all staring at him. "What?"
"Conan-kun," Ayumi scolded. "You shouldn't encourage other girls like that."
"Huh?"
Mitsuhiko sighed. "Half the girls at this school have a crush on you. Ayumi-chan means that you shouldn't lead them on."
"They do?" Conan frowned. "But I haven't done anything. And it's not exactly a secret that I already have a girlfriend."
Ai sighed and rubbed his head affectionately, messing up his hair in the process.
"Hey!" he protested.
"I can't even be mad at you, can I?" she rolled her eyes. "You're so thick it'd be unfair for me to blame you."
"I haven't done anything!" Conan scowled at her.
"Come on, Casanova," Ai replied. "Let's head home. We all have to pack, and I have to cook dinner."
The group of five gathered their belongings and started to head out, stopping along the hallways to chat with some classmates about the graduation trip and other extra-curricular activities. Conan and Genta promised the soccer team to join them on a group skiing activity one afternoon and Ai agreed to be their judge if it turns into a competition. Mitsuhiko chatted with some of his friends from the computer club while Ayumi struck up conversation with practically everyone in the grade since she knew almost everyone by name. It was an hour later by the time they actually made it to the road and started their familiar walk home.
Ayumi, Genta, and Mitsuhiko separated from Conan and Ai at the usual intersection. The couple watched them cross the street, then Conan threaded his fingers with Ai's and headed in the direction of Professor Agasa's house and the Kudo mansion.
"So," Conan began. "Are you actually excited about this trip or just appeasing Ayumi-chan?"
Ai smiled. "Neither. I'm looking forward to it because I've never been on a school trip, but I wouldn't say 'excited', per se." She paused, then asked, "Are you going to be okay rooming with Kojima-kun?"
Conan sighed. "I hope so," he whispered.
She gave his hand a gentle squeeze but remained quiet for the rest of the walk, leaving him to his thoughts. They reached the professor's house first, and Conan released Ai's hand so she can grab the mail.
"Come over after you pack," Ai instructed. "I'll be making extra food so Hakase doesn't feel the need to binge on junk while we're gone."
"Ah, I'll see you in a bit then," Conan replied. He kissed her on the cheek and watched as she gave him a small wave and headed through the gates of the professor's home.
He smiled as he walked the remaining 20 feet to his own house. Some days, he really did wonder how he had ended up here; doing junior high school a second time with those energetic children he called his best friends, but still being pretty happy with life. He reached into the mailbox labeled "Kudo" and retrieved the mail before pushing open the gate and heading into the house.
Tossing his school bag onto the floor of the foyer, he deftly flipped through the letters. There were some bills, a couple of advertisements, and at the end of the stack, a plain black envelope. Conan blinked curiously and set the rest of the mail onto the foyer table. The black envelope was made of high quality paper – he could tell just by feeling the weight of it – and unaddressed, with no stamp or postmark. He turned it over and ripped it open. Inside was a single black card. In ornate white lettering, the card read:
"All that we see or seem
Is but a (dream within a'' dream)
CL"
Conan frowned at it. He looked inside the envelope; there was nothing else. Reading the card again, he mentally translated the message from the English into his native Japanese. It seemed…odd.
Turning around, he put his shoes back on and made his way back out the gates and down the street, stopping in front of Agasa's house. He opened the door with the spare key the professor had given him and headed inside.
"Ai?" he called. "Hakase?"
"That packing was fast," Ai's voice replied as she came into the foyer with a wet mixing bowl in her hands. "I realize you're not good at anything but deduction and soccer, but tossing everything haphazardly into a suitcase is not packing."
"Uh, no," Conan said. "I didn't start packing yet." At Ai's questioning look, he held up the card he received in the mail. "I got this in the mail and I'm not sure what to make of it."
Ai signaled for him to follow her into the kitchen. Agasa was sitting at the kitchen counter, flipping through some research notes. He looked up when Conan and Ai walked in.
"Ah, Shinichi," he greeted Conan. "How did packing go?"
"I haven't started," Conan repeated for the professor. "I got a weird card in the mail."
The professor looked curious as Conan handed Ai the note. She read it, blinked in puzzlement, and read it again before looking up at them.
"It's Poe," she announced.
Agasa frowned. "What's a poe?"
"No, I mean it's Edgar Allan Poe," Ai clarified. "From the poem 'A Dream Within a Dream'. He was a famous short story and poetry writer in the 1800's."
Conan took the card back and read it again. Yes, that's right. Since it was poetry, it made a lot more sense to read it in its original English. "Poe is credited with the creation of the detective genre of literature," he added for the professor's benefit. "Arthur Conan Doyle credited the origins of Sherlock Holmes to him."
"I'm surprised you didn't recognize it right away," Ai commented. "Of Poe's work, this one is often quoted."
Conan looked up from his examination of the card. "I automatically translated it," he admitted. "Plus, I'm actually not as familiar with him as Arthur Conan Doyle. Poe's work was a little...macabre...for my taste."
"So what does it mean?" Agasa asked.
"No idea," Conan conceded.
"Your puzzle maker isn't as smart as he or she seems though," Ai pointed out. At Conan's confused look, she pointed to the bottom of the note card and continued. "They cited it incorrectly."
"And punctuated it incorrectly too," Conan mused. "Maybe it means something else..."
Ai and Agasa exchanged smiles as Conan fell into detective mode, his eyes focusing on the note and his free hand coming to rest under his chin. Ai shook her head and returned to the stove to make dinner. Agasa reached out and clasped Conan's shoulder, breaking the latter's concentration and making him look at the professor.
"Why don't you just leave it for now?" Agasa suggested. "You're going away for a whole week starting tomorrow. You won't be around to do anything about it anyways."
"I guess so," Conan agreed slowly, still frowning at the note. "Hey Hakase, since this was hand delivered, do you mind keeping an eye out for suspicious people while we're away?"
"Consider it done," Agasa grinned. "Oh, and your snowboard's fully charged too."
"Great! I'll go pack and come back for dinner then."
-o-o-o-o-o-
An hour later, Conan had packed his suitcase for their junior high graduation trip with warm clothes, snowboarding gear, necessities, and various knick-knacks from Agasa. A shoulder bag was laid out with his solar-powered snowboard. He looked at the black card on his night table and picked it up, reading it again.
Something about that note wasn't sitting well with him.
He went downstairs to the Kudo library and quickly browsed through the shelves. Even though he hadn't read Poe with the enthusiasm he had for Doyle, he still remembered flipping through some of the work. His father had both the original and translated versions of Poe's work. Locating the right shelf, he reached up to grab the Japanese version and paused, his fingers just grazing the spine of the book.
The note had been in English. He wondered if there was any significance to that.
His hand moved to the left and he grabbed the English version of "The Complete Stories and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe" off the shelf. He slipped the note into the massive book and went to add the book to his luggage.
"Just in case..." he muttered.
End Prologue.
Word Count: 1,613
Note: I'm curious. Do you readers prefer I update as I write the chapters? (And risk my flightiness with writing...) Or would you rather I write all of it before I start posting so at least you know there's an end? Let me know~ (Or don't...and I'll just do whatever. :D)