This sort of story suits mt usual style better than the last one I wrote did... I hope people enjoy this one as well... I figured I'd be writing another Metantei Conan fanfic soon, but I thought I'd wind up waiting more time than this before starting... well whatever
Well... 'Shinichi' will seem a bit ooc in this chapter (and probably in future ones as well) but there's a reason for it which will probably be explained in chapter 2. It'll be a bit dialogue driven in the beginning but if it's anything like last time it won't be by the end. There is a lot of weird stuff coming up so... be prepared!
I hope you enjoy and please review.
-._.-._.-
1. The Honest Imposter
"Hey Ran-neechan, why are you smiling?" I asked in my usual childish tone, "Did something good happen?"
Ran had come home from school looking extremely happy, I guess there's really no reason for me to be suspicious because of something like that, but it just seemed odd for some reason.
Her smile was even brighter when she replied, "Shinichi is back, he came to school today."
Eh? Impossible... I'm Shinichi, I wasn't there. It has to be an imposter...
"Ran-neechan, did Shinichi-niichan act weird at all?" I asked, probably sounding a little bit more worried than I meant to.
"Well... he was acting kind of weird... but I think he was just nervous to be going back to school after missing so much a long time," She responded.
Who on earth is this fake...? I figured it would be best to just ask directly, "I'm going to go say hi to Shinichi-niichan!"
I dashed out the door and was quickly in front of the house that had at one point been considered mine.
I rang the buzzer, half expecting that the imposter wouldn't pick up, but through the speaker I heard a voice that sounded just like I had when I was Shinichi Kudo, "Who's there?"
There have been several times when people have tried to pass themselves off as me, but this could've only been one of them. Hattori had tried to disguise as me twice but he was easily caught without my help, Okuda Makoto got plastic surgery to look exactly like me but his voice was notably different than mine, Kaitou Kid however had a face similar to mine without the use of a mask and he was able to manipulate his voice at will. I couldn't be sure why, but this was probably Kaitou Kid.
"Shinichi-niichan, It's me Conan," I replied.
He laughed as something I'd said was funny, "The door isn't locked, come in if you'd like. You're here to be sure I'm not a dangerous person right?"
I didn't answer, I accepted the invitation and went inside to confront the imposter.
As far as appearance went, if I didn't know any better I would have thought he really was Shinichi Kudo, but because I knew without a doubt that I was the real Shinichi Kudo I understood that he was just a very skillful fake.
"Who are you?" I asked.
He replied with a smile, "Shinichi Kudo."
"That's impossible." I asked again, "Who are you?"
"Kudo Shinichi."
"Changing the order of the surname and given name doesn't make it any less impossible," I sighed. It seems like this guy is pretty hard to deal with, but I don't think he's Kaitou Kid.
"I can't prove it to you at the moment, but it's the truth," He said in a somewhat serious tone, but it seemed like he was still laughing to himself a little bit as he continued, "I'd rather you just go along with it and not ask too many questions... but I realize that I'm not in a position that you'd easily trust me, so I promise that I'll answer you honestly as long as it's something I can answer."
What is he talking about?
"By the way I know that you are Shinichi Kudo too," The imposter that so strongly claimed to be me admitted.
There would be no point in denying it to a fake, "Then why are you claiming to be me?"
"I told you that already, 'because it's true'."
"Then are you saying that in this room there are two Shinichi Kudos?" I asked, curiosity beginning to get the better of me.
This guy keeps becoming more and more suspicious... he's obviously lying about who he is, but how is it that he can look and sound exactly like me, what does he think he'll get out of pretending to be me, and how does he know who I am?
"Exactly," He said as if I had just asked if it hurts to get hit by a car, "Though I'm afraid I can't tell you how it's possible that we're both actually Shinichi Kudo, you'll have to figure that out on your own, but please don't get in my way while you're investigating. I'm actually doing something really important."
Suddenly the cell phone that I used for calling as Shinichi Kudo began ringing, I checked the caller ID, It was Hattori.
The imposter grabbed the phone and answered it, putting the phone on speaker phone. He gave me a look as if to say 'it's easier this way right?'
"Yo Kudo!" Hattori said, he sounded excited which probably meant he had a case that was going to bring him here for a visit.
"Hey Heiji, long time no see," The imposter said calmly.
"Eh? Kudo... yer voice is..."
"It's an imposter, Hattori, there's a fake here claiming to be me," I said.
"Hey, I told you. I really am Shinichi Kudo!" The imposter said insistently, "Stop calling me a fake already."
"But you can't prove it, besides I'm Shinichi Kudo."
Hattori seemed to be confused by what was going on, "One of ya has ta be a fake."
"He is," I said.
At the same time the imposter said, "Neither of us is fake."
"Well, I'll be in Tokyo tamarra' so let's try and sort dis out den..." Hattori hung up.
I sighed and looked at the imposter, "You wouldn't happen to be Kaitou Kid would you?"
"Is that what you've been thinking? Kaito has better things to do than pretend to be me for seemingly no reason," Suddenly he trailed off, "Crap... I shouldn't have said that."
"What do you mean by that...?" I wondered aloud.
He seemed to be thinking something over very seriously, he ignored me and had started talking to himself quietly, "It's harder than I expected... I've got to be more careful not to say anything that they wouldn't know about... If I keep this up I'll be exposed..."
"Exposed of what?" I asked, "So you are hiding something then?"
He seemed to jump at the thought that I now had reason to believe he was hiding something, he realized that I wouldn't give up until I was able to figure out what he was hiding, "Really, it can't be helped. I'm only hiding things because it'd be dangerous if anyone -especially you- found out about it. But it really is true that I'm Shinichi Kudo, you can check my fingerprints or DNA if you're that set on not believing me."
I wanted to call him on his bluff, but he looked so serious that I couldn't. He should have known that if he wasn't telling the truth and I did try and test his fingerprints or DNA it would all be over for him, normally no one would take that kind of risk without much reason, besides he said he was doing this for something important before. It's not like I carry around the kind of equipment I'd have needed to check anyway.
"For the time being why don't you go home, I'll still be here in the morning so you and Heiji can investigate me when he gets here," He said when I was taking long to reply.
What he said made sense, I hated that by going home I was doing exactly as the imposter had asked, but it was the best course of action- Ran would get upset if I weren't back before dinnertime when I was supposedly just going over to say hello.
Seriously... who is that guy?