AN: I accidentally stayed up until one in the morning hammering out the first chapter of a new Detective Conan story? Whoops dang how did that happen.
It should become quickly apparent exactly where in the timeline this story starts when you read it, with of course, the note that there are definite differences between the already existing timeline of this AU and the canon! I wanted to try and write a story with superpowers, but not a story that involved *superheroes*, per say, and I ended up with this as the result. I think I've got some pretty neat things planned, so I hope everyone enjoys and sticks around!
As always, your feedback is ever welcomed and fully encouraged!
Powered
Chapter One
In Medias Res
"Now, I'm certain that a number of our viewers today remember the strange events of the evening of the fourth of April, nearly eighteen years ago now." Began Okino Yoko's introduction as she faced the camera, a bright smile on the idol's face. "The mysterious night which has become known as the Night of the Falling Stars, would soon prove to have changed our world in ways we could have never expected!"
"Yes, of course, I'm speaking of the existence of what we have come to know as the Powered Children, or simply the Powered!" Nodding her head, the idol stepped back from the camera, letting it catch some of the backdrop behind her- though she still used her body to conceal the special guest that was waiting in one of two chairs on the set. "These mysterious children who were born after the Night of the Falling Stars quickly proved themselves to have unique, sometimes amazing powers. Approximately twenty percent of the babies born around that night were born with these unique abilities!"
"And our guest today is none other than one of those very children! That's right, the girl who has been in the news everywhere lately, and the daughter of my favorite detective, Mouri Ran-san!"
Stepping aside now so that the camera could zoom in on the face of her special guest, the girl in question felt her cheeks heating up in spite of herself. "H-hello." Ran stammered slightly, glancing around her, not entirely certain of where to look. She'd never been featured on TV like this, especially not next to an idol of Okino Yoko's fame. She could hear her heart pounding away a mile a minute on TV- and the fact that she could faintly hear her father shouting out words of encouragement to her from off camera really didn't help matters much. "It's a pleasure to be here."
"It's a pleasure to have you here as well, Ran-san!" Yoko beamed, effortlessly taking a seat next to the girl, doing her best to make her comfortable on camera. She had been excited when she'd agreed to be interviewed by her, so she wanted to do her best to ensure that she didn't feel stressed out in front of the camera. "How are you doing today? You seem a bit nervous!"
"Ah, it's my first time on camera like this." Ran confessed to her, fiddling with the folds of her skirt, before glancing over at the idol with a smile. "But I thank you for taking the time to speak with me today, Okino-san. Although, to be frank, I don't think I deserve all this attention."
"My, how modest!" Yoko said. "Many people owe you their lives, Ran-san. I'm sure everyone in Beika- no, everyone in Japan, is very grateful to you!"
"No, well, I was just doing what came naturally..." Ran trailed off. She could already hear Sonoko teasing her about being 'uncharacteristically sheepish', but she couldn't help it! It wasn't she had her father's confidence when it came to appearing on screen- and this was her first time! Frankly, if the offer had come from anyone other than Okino Yoko, who she knew to some degree from her father's work, she wouldn't have accepted it.
"Still, what you did is nothing to be sneezed at, Ran-san." Yoko told her with a smile, before turning back towards the camera. "I'm certain most of you watching right now know of the story that has put young Ran-san here into the spotlight, but for those of you who missed her daring rescue, we'll get right into it!"
Turning back towards Ran, Yoko pointed her microphone towards her. "Now then, Ran-san, can you begin to tell us the events of the morning of the eighteenth?"
"Ah, yes." Nodding her head, Ran took in and let out a deep breath, which served to calm her nerves some. "On that morning, I was accompanying Conan-kun, a boy we're looking after at the agency, and his friends to the aquarium. I won some free passes in a local lottery, so I thought I would treat them."
"But before you arrived at the aquarium, an incident occurred." Yoko briefly interjected, to which Ran nodded.
"Yes." Ran continued. "Just as we were rounding the corner, we suddenly heard the sounds of a blaring horn. At first I thought it was just an unruly driver, but as it turned out, that wasn't the case. It was actually a tour bus that had lost control of it's brakes and couldn't stop accelerating."
"What's more, the bus was heading straight downhill- is that correct?" Yoko asked.
"Yes, it was." Ran confirmed.
"Thankfully the bus had managed to avoid any collisions with cars up until that point, but you realized that there was a huge obstacle ahead of it, didn't you?" Yoko asked.
"That's right. I know that area pretty well." Ran nodded again. "At the end of that hill there was a building that was under construction. I realized that if it hit that, it would probably cause it to collapse, and people would die. Once that thought got into my head, I acted without thinking."
"Yes, that's right!" Yoko said, beaming as she turned back towards the camera. "Our brave young heroine, sensing danger, decided to throw herself into the line of fire to stop it! Now then, Ran-san, can you clarify for those in our viewing audience exactly what your ability is?"
"Ah, yes!" Inclining her head, Ran turned awkwardly towards the camera. "Um, it's fairly straightforward, but I have super strength."
Somewhere in the background, her father's voice could be heard shouting 'my daughter's the strongest!', which caused Ran to flush a bright red color, especially as members of the camera crew moved to shush him. What if the people watching television could hear that too? Honestly, her father could be quite embarrassing!
"Super strength!" Yoko declared. "Then, for you, stopping a runaway bus must have been nothing to you!"
"It was actually a bit harder than it looked." Ran confessed, holding up her hands. "It had already gained quite a bit of momentum, and it was still heading straight downhill, so it was actually quite difficult. But I knew that I had to do something!"
"You have quite the wonderful sense of justice. No doubt it's something you gained from your parents, correct?" Yoko asked.
"Yes! Especially my mother." Ran told her, beaming a little as she mentioned her mother. "Ah, and of course, my father too!" She added, nearly as an afterthought.
"Of course, everyone knows that your father is the famous great detective, Mouri Kogoro, but your mother is a fairly famous lawyer in her own right, isn't that correct?" Yoko inquired, to which Ran nodded. "I see. Then, getting off the topic of your brave feat for a moment, do you mind if we discuss your childhood a little? I'm told that you used to struggled with your strength quite a bit as a little girl- is that correct?"
"Yes, it is." Ran confirmed. "It wasn't as bad when I was still real little, but once I started attending school, it began to cause me problems. A lot of the other students were afraid of me for awhile..." She admitted, glancing briefly away from the idol. "Ah, not everyone though! Sonoko and Shinichi were always there for me. Ah, they're my childhood friends!" She quickly added.
"That sounds quite difficult for any young child to go through." Yoko said, sympathy in her voice. "But, luckily you had someone by your side who would eventually help change that. Can you tell us a little bit about that?"
"I don't mind." Ran said, shaking her head. "The one who helped me was a man named Professor Agasa. He's an inventor who has lived by my friend Shinichi for forever. He saw how distressed I was, and what a problem my strength was shaping up to be, and stepped in to create something to assist me with managing it. These,"
Lifting up her wrists, Ran displayed a pair of bracelets, simple silvery twists of metal around each wrist. Facing the inside of her wrists was a simple dial, one on each bracelet, which could be adjusted from 'one' to 'five'.
"Of course, their appearance has changed from when I was a child, but their function is basically the same." Ran said, lowering her hands, placing them carefully on her lap. "At level one, my strength is basically no different from anyone else's. At level five, it's the same as the limiter being completely off. Because of them, I was finally able to interact normally with everyone else."
"Quite the invention!" Yoko said. "And quite a stylish way to conceal them as well."
"Yes, I helped him design this version when I entered into high school." Ran told her. "Of course, as the years went by, I learned how to manage my strength under my own terms as well, but I always keep them with me just to be safe. They also allow me to participate fairly in karate tournaments as well."
"That's right, you're the captain of your high school's karate club, aren't you?" Yoko asked. "It must be a pain, to have them examined before every match."
"No, not at all." Ran shook her head. "As long as I can assure everyone that I intend to fight fairly on the same level, it's not a bother at all."
"You're watching that again, Professor?"
The dry, only vaguely childlike voice caused the older man to start, switching off the television without thinking about. Quickly realizing who the sudden intruder was, he heaved a sigh, setting the remote back down.
"Well, what's wrong with that? It's Ran's important interview, after all." The portly man said. "Of course, I would want to watch it over and over again."
"Are you sure it's not just because she mentioned your name on national television?" Conan Edogawa observed dryly. "I know you've been getting a ton of business since then, after all."
"Well, what's wrong with that?" Agasa almost huffed, getting to his feet. "Since you're here though, do you want something to drink? I was just about get something myself."
"Yeah, some coffee, if you don't mind." Conan requested, taking a seat in the Professor's living room, a troubled expression on his young face. "By the way, where's Haibara?"
"If I recall, she's deeply engrossed in her research right now." Agasa said, quickly pulling down two coffee mugs. To some, it might be strange to hear a seven year old child request coffee, but Agasa knew that Edogawa Conan was child- rather, his true identity was that of seventeen year old Kudo Shinichi, a high school detective of no small amount of fame. "Why do you ask?"
"I'd rather she not hear what I've got to say." Conan said simply, glancing down towards the basement of the professor's place. He knew that was where Haibara Ai, formerly known as Sherry, who had been a member of the shadowy Black Organization until she betrayed it and ran away, did most of her work.
"Then, I take it your visit to Jodie-san's apartment turned up some kind of results." Agasa observed, glancing over towards the shrunken detective. "Did you find anything out, Shinichi?"
"Nothing conclusive." Conan shook his head. "But there was one thing I was able to confirm for certain while I was there. There's no mistake about it, she's definitely hiding someone else in that apartment."
"Someone else?" Agasa asked, pouring coffee into a cup, offering it to the grateful not-child. "Are you certain, Shinichi?"
"Yeah." He nodded his head. "Well, we got involved in a bit of trouble with a case, so I wasn't able to look around as much as I would have liked, but I'm quite certain there was someone else in that apartment. She covered up most of their traces fairly well, but I found some dark hairs in the bathroom drain that couldn't have possibly belonged to Jodie-sensei."
"Couldn't they have just been from a guest?" Agasa asked, taking a seat next to him.
"No, I don't think so. There were other faint traces of someone else living there as well. There were too many dirty dishes for just one person, especially since she said she washed them every day. When I asked the neighbors, they all said they sometimes saw a suspicious man enter and exit from her apartment."
"Suspicious? Did any of them see his face?"
"No. He kept his face covered with a hood and a cap." Conan shook his head. "He had dark skin, though, and they seemed to think he was fairly young."
"Certainly, that seems a bit strange..." Agasa trailed off, putting a hand to his chin. "And? From the way you're talking, it doesn't seem as if you found anything that connects her to that Organization, did you?"
"No." Conan said, taking a sip of his coffee. "But if I act too aggressively, I might attract unwanted attention. The last thing those guys need to realize is that Kudo Shinichi is still alive."
"That's for sure." Agasa nodded his head. "You should consider yourself lucky that you didn't die right then and there, Shinichi. Both you and Ai-kun."
"You don't need to keep reminding me, Professor." Conan observed dryly, glancing over towards the portly man. "Well, it's true that as it stands, I don't really know why we shrunk instead of died. There was the theory that Haibara had running awhile back that it was because we were both Powered, but didn't seem entirely convinced of that."
"Speaking of that, nobody's realized that yet, have they?" Agasa asked, setting down his coffee cup. "It would be bad if anyone realized that what they thought were a pair of seven year old children had special powers. The only ones affected by the Night of the Falling Stars were either newborns or those still in their mother's bellies, after all. It's too early for any of the Powered Children to have children of their own, especially one that's already seven."
"Idiot, of course not." Conan said, taking another sip of his coffee. "Haibara and I don't have very flashy, obvious abilities anyways, not like Ran and Sonoko. Well," he paused, taking another sip of his coffee, "I might have not used it much when I was Kudo Shinichi, but my voice changing ability has certainly come in handy since I shrunk down to this size. Even if can never get used to that old man's voice coming out of my throat."
"Honestly, I still can't believe I'm stuck giving that idiot detective all the credit for my cases." Conan muttered, his lips twisting into a frown. "I don't really like lying to Ran either."
"It's necessary to keep her safe." Agasa noted simply.
"She can stop a runaway bus with her bare hands." Conan retorted.
"But a bullet or poison would still kill her, neither of which either of us wants to see happen." Agasa responded in kind, picking up his cup of coffee again. "I understand your frustration, Shinichi, but I'm certain Haibara's working as hard as she can to find you a true antidote."
"I know, I know." Conan heaved a sigh. "Honestly, you don't have to keep reminding me every time, Professor. I know the reason why I have to keep it a secret."
"Well, I just worry." Agasa frowned. "So? Do you have any theories as to who it is that Jodie-sensei's hiding in her apartment?"
"No clue." Conan admitted, seeming to almost grumble a little about it. If there was one thing he didn't like, it was when he didn't know something. "Whoever it is, they're obviously trying to stay hidden. But whether they're related to that Organization or not is a different story."
"Do you want me to observe her apartment for awhile?" Agasa asked, watching as Conan quickly shook his head.
"No, it's too risky. If they really are linked to that Organization, they might realize they're being watched." Conan said with a frown. "Well, even if they aren't, they might still realize it. Then again, I'm pretty sure that Jodie-sensei knows something, otherwise she wouldn't have worked so hard to conceal this other person's presence from me."
"Well, just be careful, Shinichi." Agasa warned him. "Ah, that's right though, while I still remember- apparently Ayumi invited Ai-kun over to her apartment this Sunday. Apparently her mom's friend will be teaching the both of them to make cake. I recall she said Genta-kun and Mitsuhiko-kun are also going, but I don't suppose you'd also like to tag along, Shinichi? It might do you good to get your mind off of this, if only for a moment."
"Cake?" Conan asked, an incredulous note on his voice- before he heaved a sigh. "Well, why not. Those three wouldn't shut up about it if I said no anyways. Why Ayumi-chan's sudden interest in baking cake, though?"
"Apparently she wants to make it as a gift." Agasa shrugged his shoulders. "Probably to that nice young man who helped her out the other day."
"Helped her out...?" Conan tilted his head, quickly filtering through his memories. "Ah, you mean that guy who spoke with the Kansai dialect. I heard about him from Ayumi-chan. Well, I suppose I should be grateful. If he hadn't shown up when he did, she might have been taken away somewhere. I would have liked to have met him though. From the way Ayumi-chan describes him, he sounds like quite the character!"
"Are you catching a cold?"
"Nah, I don't think so. Probably someone's just talkin' 'bout me. An' can ya drop the weird Japanese when we're in private, at least?" Irritation was crystal clear in the blue eyes that glanced across the table at the blonde woman in front of him. "I know ya speak it just fine, so what's the point, Jodie-sensei?"
"Sorry, sorry. It becomes a bit of a habit after awhile." Jodie gave the young man a quick smile. "Although I don't really think you're one who can lecture me on strange Japanese, Hattori-kun."
"Like I said, Osaka-ben is perfectly good Japanese!" Folding his arms in front of him, Heiji's lips twisted in a tight frown. "Honestly. First there's a murder across the hall, and I'm not allowed to go solve it, an' now I have to listen to ya insult my dialect? What a lousy day this one's shaped out to be."
"Well, don't say that. I'm sure I don't have to remind you why it is you're hiding in the first place, Hattori-kun." Jodie said. "Besides, you sneaked a peek at him, didn't you? That cool kid."
"I know, I know. Ya don't have to keep harpin' on about it all the time. It's like ya think yer my old lady or somethin'." Heiji grumbled, though he quickly perked up at the mention of the visitor from earlier. "Ah, ya mean that boy with glasses? I sure did get a good look at him when he wasn't payin' any attention. Did that deduction from earlier really come from him?"
"So it seems." Getting up from the table as she heard the kitchen timer go off, she busied herself with silencing it and pulling out some dishes. "He's amazingly smart, isn't he?"
"He's definitely not a normal kid, that much's fer sure." The dark skinned boy observed, getting up. "Can I help ya with anythin'?"
"No, it's fine. You're my guest after all, Hattori-kun." Jodie glanced back at him.
"Well, guest is one way of puttin' it." He observed, rubbing the back of his head. "Ya sure none of yer associates know I'm here, right? It's not that I don't trust you guys, but well..." He trailed off, idly rubbing his right shoulder. "Ya did kind of shoot me the first time we met."
"And I said I was quite sorry." Jodie noted, glancing up at him. "Besides, you got better. Remarkably so."
"It still hurt, ya know." Heiji huffed.
"Yes, I know. But no, to answer your earlier question, aside from my boss, nobody else knows you're here, Hattori-kun. Well," she paused, tapping a wooden spoon against her chin in thought. "I'm quite certain Shu suspects something, but if it's him, you can trust him."
"Ya sure do speak highly of him whenever that guy gets brought up." Heiji observed, a wry grin appearing on his face, his tone going from serious to teasing in a split second. "Do ya like him or something, sensei?"
"N-no, it's not like that." Jodie stammered, vaguely turning a light shade of pink. "I just think he's a very reliable, very talented coworker of mine who I trust very much. That's all." Coughing into one hand, she leveled her gaze back at the dark skinned teenager in front of her. "And what about you, Hattori-kun? I'm certain there must be someone you have feelings for you left back at home."
"No way." Heiji waved a hand, giving her a blank look. "The closest thing I've got to somethin' like that is Kazuha, an' she's just my childhood friend. I don't got any feelings fer her like that."
Probably.
"Speaking of the Toyama girl, are certain you don't need to tell her anything?" Jodie asked, frowning. "I know the world needs to continue to think that Hattori Heiji is dead, at least until we do something about those guys, but the way that girl is searching for you worries me. What if she accidentally attracts their attention?"
"It's fine, it's fine." Heiji reassured her. "It'll only be a problem if she finds evidence that I'm really alive. I didn't intend to let that happen. If anythin', I'm more worried about my old man findin' me."
Well of course he felt more than a little bad about it- he had basically vanished off the face of the earth, after all- but he had his reasons that he needed to remain hidden. The last thing he wanted to do was drag Kazuha or anyone else into the mess he'd found himself knee deep in.
"Besides, if she gets real deep into danger, she can just poof away, ya know?" Heiji shrugged his shoulders.
"Ah, that's true." Jodie said. "It's easy to forget about that sometimes. We don't really have any Powered back in America, after all. Probably only five percent of the babies born around the Night of Falling Stars were affected in my country. She can teleport, right? Your childhood friend?"
"That's right." Nodding his head, Heiji tucked his hands into his pockets, heading over into the kitchen to take a whiff of the curry that Jodie had just uncovered. "Oh, not bad. But yeah, Kazuha can just teleport around like that. She needs a photograph if it's a place she hasn't been before, but she can pretty much go anywhere she wants."
"That sounds like it would save you a ton of money on travel expenses." Jodie mumbled, her eyes narrowing in thought. "I'd go for that, if I had a superpower."
"Honestly, same." Heiji confessed.
"Hattori-kun, you do." Jodie observed, quirking an eyebrow.
"Yeah, an' it sucks." Heiji retorted, returning the look. "Teleporting's much better."
"Now don't say that," Jodie remarked, carefully removing the curry pot from the heat. "There are plenty of people in this world who would kill for your kind of ability, Hattori-kun."
"I know, that's why I'm in this mess in the first place." Heiji noted.
"Ah well, point taken." Jodie admitted. "Can you get the rice ready?"
"I thought ya said ya didn't want to make yer guest work." Heiji quipped, though he nevertheless complied.
"That was before my guest forgot himself and tried to tease his elder." Jodie wagged a finger. "It's very, very rude, you know~!"
"Like I said, quit it with the weird Japanese already."
"Sorry! Really, really sorry!"
"Like I said, it's fine already." Ran gave the girl in front of her a reassuring smile, hoping to assuage her worries at least a little. "It was just an accident, right? As a fellow Powered, I can at least understand that much."
Well, it was true that she had been surprised when a girl her age had suddenly popped into existence in front of her. She had narrowly avoided colliding with her, but had slipped on the pavement in the process, scraping her knee pretty badly. But Ran had never been the type to hold grudges over something like that to begin with, so she really didn't mind.
"I still should have been more careful!" The girl looked up finally, and Ran noticed now that she seemed to be speaking with an Osakan dialect. Slowly, the girl in front of her seemed to recognize the girl she had nearly collided with, and her eyes went wide. "Are you possibly Mouri Ran?"
"Yes, I am." Nodding her head, she felt her cheeks flush a little in spite of herself. It had been at least a month since that interview had aired, and she still wasn't able to get used to random people recognizing her so easily. "Um, did you perhaps come here to see my father about something?"
"Oh, that's right, I did!" The girl said quickly. "I'm Toyama Kazuha. I came here in order to make a request from your father. Is he in right now?"
"He should be. I don't think he has any other cases today." Ran observed, smiling at the girl. "What did you need my father for, Toyama-san? I'm certain that he would be happy to help you. Ah, it's this way." Ran noted, heading up the stairs to the detective agency, praying that her father had kept the place marginally clean since she'd left.
"I wanted to ask him to help find my childhood friend, actually." Kazuha told her.
"Ah, so you can reconnect with him?" Ran hazarded a guess.
"No, that's not quite it." Kazuha shook her head. "We've been together basically all of our lives up until now. But he suddenly went missing, six months ago."
Something in the girl's voice, in the expression she wore, stirred Ran's heart. She knew full well how it felt to have one of your childhood friends suddenly disappear without warning. After all, the very same thing had happened to her, around five months ago. But from the sound of it, she didn't think this girl's friend had contacted her even once during these past six months, even the ever absent Shinichi made an occasion to call her. He'd even appeared in person not that long ago.
She couldn't help but feel completely sympathetic to this girl's plight. Turning around, she quickly took Kazuha's hands in her own, giving them a reassuring squeeze, her limiter at work to make sure she didn't do anything beyond that. "Don't worry, Toyama-san! I'm certain my father will find him for you!"
"Find who?"
"Ah, Conan-kun!" Dropping Kazuha's hands, Ran smiled brightly at the young boy. "Did you finish playing over at Ayumi-chan's place? How did cake baking go?"
"...it went." Conan noted, glancing away from her. The last thing he wanted to admit that every other member of the Detective Boys had managed to make at least a passable cake, other than him. His was barely even edible, much less presentable.
"That bad, huh?" Ran noted. "Ah, that's right. Toyama-san, this is Edogawa Conan, a boy who is living with us right now. Conan-kun, this is Toyama Kazuha, she came to employ my father."
"It's nice to meet you, Kazuha-neechan!" Conan flashed a smile, even as he inwardly groaned about having to call a girl his own age 'neechan' again. "I'm sure uncle will be able to help you!"
Well, if he can't, I will, the not-child thought dryly.
"I hope so." Kazuha said, doing her best to give the pair a smile.
"Come on, let's talk to my father now. Father?" Ran knocked on the door to the agency, before cracking it open. "You have a client!"
"Oh, Ran, welcome back." Kogoro observed, putting out his cigarette. "A client, you say?" He asked, getting to his feet, watching as the trio entered into the agency. "Then welcome to the Mouri Detective Agency, young miss. What brings you to my doorstep?"
"She's looking for her missing childhood friend." Ran told her father, leading Kazuha to one of the couches.
"What, another one? Don't tell me this one is an amateur detective too?" Kogoro grumbled, taking a seat across from Kazuha. Really, he hadn't meant anything from that remark, but from the way the girl perked up, he couldn't help but wonder if he'd hit the bullseye.
"That's right!" Kazuha nodded his head, before she glowered, mostly out of habit. "But he's not just an amateur detective. Heiji was making quite a name of himself back in Osaka, I'll have you know!"
"Heiji?" Kogoro frowned, putting a hand to his chin. An amateur detective named Heiji from Osaka... for some reason that sounded vaguely familiar to him. "Well, I'm not disputing what talents your friend might have, but why don't you tell me more about him?"
Her words had caught Conan's attention as well, and he carefully slid in next to Kazuha on the couch. What were the odds that two teenage detectives had disappeared over the course of a few months, after all? Well, it might not have anything to do with them, but it caught his interest nonetheless.
"His name is Hattori Heiji." Kazuha began, reaching into her jacket and pulling out a photograph, placing it on the table in front of them. Glancing down at it, Conan noted that it was a young man with noticeably dark skin, and dark hair. For some reason that nagged at him, but he couldn't place the reason why at the moment. "He's a high school detective, and has solved a number of cases in his own right. We've known each other since we were babies."
"He seems like the type who's hard to miss." Kogoro observed, picking up the photograph. "If you don't mind me asking, is he possibly mixed?"
"No, he's Japanese, all the way through." Kazuha shook her head. "Well, people make that mistake a lot. He gets his dark skin from his grandfather."
"I see. Now you're saying that he went missing?" Kogoro asked, unable to help but spare a glance over towards Ran. "Are you sure he didn't run off on some case or something?"
"Even if that was the case, you would think he'd call someone after awhile. He can be pretty reckless at times, but even Heiji's not that inconsiderate." Kazuha said. "It's been six months without a single word from him. Even his father can't seem to find him."
"His father?" Ran asked, looking at the photograph herself. "Is he also a detective?"
"You don't know?" Kazuha blinked. "His father is Hattori Heizo."
"Ha-Hattori Heizo?" Kogoro blinked, his eyes going wide. "I see, that's why his name sounded so familiar! I'd heard that the son of the Superintendent Supervisor of Osaka's Prefectural police was doing the high school detective thing as well, but who would think he'd pull a vanishing act too?"
"Too?" Kazuha blinked.
"Yeah." Ran nodded her head. "Well, in Shinichi's case, he hasn't really vanished as much as become difficult to get in touch with." She told him, scratching her cheek.
"Shinichi?" Kazuha asked. "As in Kudo Shinichi?"
"That's right, that's the one." Ran nodded her head. "He's actually my childhood friend."
Well, I actually haven't gone anywhere. Conan noted, looking towards Ran, before he looked back towards Kazuha. "Shinichi-niichan is investigating a really hard case!" He chimed in. His mind was already turning over the facts that he'd been given- if this Hattori Heiji had vanished six months ago, then that was a full month before he had become Conan. If that was the case, there was a chance Haibara might know something if he'd gotten involved with the Black Organization, and made a mental note to ask her.
"I see." Kazuha blinked, before looking over at Ran, giving her a small smile. "I guess that makes us kindred spirits in a way, Mouri-san."
"Ah, just call me Ran." Ran told her. "My father is Mouri-san, after all."
"Ah, that's true." Kazuha noted. "Then, in that case, you can call me Kazuha, Ran-chan."
"I'll take you up on that offer then, Kazuha-chan!" Ran said.
Clearing his throat, Kogoro quickly brought the attention of the two teenage girls back to him. "Then, Toyama-san, can you give us any further details about the circumstances surrounding your friend's disappearance? Was there anything unusual going on around that time?"
"No, everything seemed normal." Kazuha told him. "It's just that one morning, he didn't come home. When we searched his room, we noticed that some of his stuff was missing. A duffel bag and some clothes, as well as his wallet and some other odds and ends. But nothing really looked out of place."
"Didn't he just run away?" Kogoro asked, which earned him a fierce glare from Kazuha.
"Heiji wouldn't do something like that! Not without telling someone where he was going!" She snapped, crossing her arms in front of her chest. "He's not that sort of person."
"Right, right, I got it. No reason to get so angry." Kogoro held up his hands, trying to defuse the girl's temper. "Then, was there anyone who had a grudge against Hattori-san?"
"Well, probably." Kazuha admitted. "But nobody who wasn't already in jail. He was a detective, after all."
"That's true..." Kogoro trailed off. "Well, in any case, I would be more than happy to take your case, Toyama-san. If you would like to write down your contact information?"
Relief washed over Kazuha's features, and it looked like a burden had been lifted off of her shoulders. "Thank you, Mouri-san!"
"Hey, is this Hattori-kun a Powered as well, Kazuha-chan?" Ran asked.
"As well? Kazuha-neechan, are you a Powered?" Conan asked, glancing over at the girl. He had, after all, missed her little teleporting act from earlier.
"I am!" Kazuha nodded her head, a proud smile flashing on her face. "I can teleport anywhere I want! It's quite a handy power to have!" She told them, finishing writing down her contact information, and sliding it over towards Kogoro. "But as for Heiji, he's completely normal. He would always complain about it too when he was a kid."
"Now that you mention it, there sure were a lot of Powered born in Osaka." Kogoro observed offhand, glancing over the contact information Kazuha had given him.
"There were quite a few of us at our elementary school." Kazuha said, chuckling slightly as she remembered. "Heiji always felt that he had gotten cheated."
"Is that so?" Ran chuckled herself, recalling vaguely how Shinichi as a child had always been jealous of her own power, declaring that it was much cooler than his own. "Well, you don't have to worry about a thing, Kazuha-chan. I'm certain my dad will find him! He's a great detective, after all."
"You got that much right!" Kogoro flashed a wide smile, letting his ego surface again. "A case like this will be solved by the great Mouri Kogoro is a flash!" He said, snapping his fingers. "I guarantee it!"
Well, Conan thought, unable to keep the incredulity out of his gaze as he looked at Kogoro, at least one of us will work hard to find him. Who knows? Maybe finding this Hattori Heiji guy would help make him feel a little less guilty about having to pull a disappearing act on Ran, if only by proxy.
Well, that is, provided he wasn't mixed up with the men in black.
