A/N: Hello everyone, and welcome to the rewritten version of Before the Case! I was very unsatisfied about this story in its original view, so I decided to go back and make it better!
I hope you guys enjoy the new and improved Before the Case 2.0!
Takagi Wataru had once again found himself putting his nose where it didn't belong.
As he was working late one night, he had become incredibly interested in a thought that crossed his mind.
Specifically, about Conan.
He was always looking for a chance to learn more about the child, since it was very obvious that he was most definitely not one. He was too mature, too observant, and far too intelligent to be regarded as a normal kid. The way he would throw around little hints at crime scenes, how independent he was, and including the fact that rarely did he seem disturbed over the sight of a corpse, much less touching it. He seemed way too calm and collected with nearly everything he dealt with. Especially after Conan's nonchalant answer that Takagi was given in the elevator during the bombing incident. That had been the straw that broke the camel's back.
So, without realizing it, Takagi found himself logging onto a computer down in the filing department, seeing how far he would have to reach into the system before he could dig up anything on young Conan.
A search window popped up, and he wasted no time in typing out the name 'Edogawa Conan' in the bar.
He hit enter, and the program began sift through the database in order to retrieve the files. It was going to take a few minutes, given how there were millions of files in there, but hopefully it wouldn't come up dry.
He leaned back in the chair, entering back into his own thoughts again. He felt that he was being a bit invasive here, but he was a (police) detective. It was his job to be nosy, right? Besides, he felt that there was something the boy wasn't telling them- any of them. Anyone with eyes could see the glint of paranoia that was in the boy's eyes, no matter how hard he tried to hide it.
'Something must've happened before he came here.' A new thought crossed Takagi's mind. 'Is he in hiding?'
With any other seven year old, he would've dismissed that thought and called it a night. However, with all the times Conan had been shot at, kidnapped, and caught in all around dangerous situations, Takagi found it likely that the boy had had a bad run with someone in the past, and this was the result.
A small ding and a window that popped up on screen pulled the man from his thoughts.
'Ah, here we go,' He thought to himself, leaning towards the screen again. 'Now this is where it starts.'
The standard documents he expected came up- insurance, proof of citizenship...
Takagi gave himself a mental smack to the forehead. He had forgotten Conan was born and raised in America. Of course he wasn't going to find much on him in the Japanese citizen database.
Well, even if he wasn't going to be able to find much on Conan, surely his parents would have something. At least, under the safe assumption that they were born in Japan. If not, well, Takagi wasn't one to give up easily. He'd find some way around it.
Clicking to the next page, he had found a copy of Conan's birth certificate. Or, what appeared to be it. Taking a onceover on the other documents within the child's file, he had found them to be too..neat, in simple terms.
While the files were short, they were far too organized to be anything handled by the region, especially considering the fact that they were also handled by two separate nations entirely. There should have been some type of error- whether it be a typo or something completely lost in translation. There should've been something there, but there wasn't.
'No,' Takagi thought. 'No, this appears to have been forged.'
He had also found it a bit suspicious when there wasn't a single copy of Conan's fingerprints anywhere in the database either. Thinking back to the countless times the boy had been at a crime scene, be it touching an object or the corpse with bare hands, how the forensics team never gathered a single fingerprint from Conan was beyond the officer.
'I guess I'll let it slide, since, after all, Conan is still a child.'
At least, as far as he knew.
He returned back to his previous mission, which was finding Conan's parents.
'His parents aren't really all that active in his life, are they?' From the rumors that he had heard floating around the First Division, nobody had seen or heard from Conan's parents in over a year. There was one instance where his mother appeared, and after that an electronic check was said to be sent to the Mouri household every month. Other than that, no phone calls, no letters, nothing.
And then he realized, to say that Conan had spent mass amounts of time away from his parents without even a simple complaint was odd. Like he had grown used to his parents being absent and gave up missing them.
Shaking his head, he scrolled back to the birth certificate, which was in English. Using what he knew about the language, Takagi had managed to translate the names 'Edogawa Fumiyo' and 'Edogawa Masafumi'.
The father's name caught him off guard. 'Masafumi*? How ironic...'
Reminding himself of what he was supposed to be doing, Takagi opened a new window. He decided to start with searching the mother first.
Again, save for any standard documentation that was meant to be there, the file of Edogawa Fumiyo had been the same as, if not shorter than Conan's. Even then, the information it did give was very sparse. Her records mentioned Conan and her husband, Masafumi-san, as relatives, but said nothing more after that.
At least with the mother's profile, he got somewhat of an answer. Searching up Edogawa Masafumi only gave him a message saying that the person could not be found. It caught the young man off guard. If Masafumi-san had been born in America, he could see that, but even then, there would some potential proof of citizenship within his name.
Instead, there was nothing.
'So, two short leads and a dead end.' Sighing to himself, Takagi closed out the tabs and logged out of the computer with the intent on heading home for the day. This was exhausting. He had spent close to two hours attempting to search up the mystery that was Edogawa Conan, and had nothing to show for it. Only when he reached the lobby of the police department did he remember that Conan was related to Kudo Shinichi, and was tempted to go back and run a quick search, but decided against it.
Surely, he could ask Conan anything he needed the next time they saw each other. And, taking into account the sheer amount of bodies the boy stumbled upon, it would be fairly soon.
Alas, Takagi's wish did come true, and he met with Conan the following week.
A murder in a restaurant. Conan was there.
Figures.
As the last of the crime scene was being cleaned up, the reminder to ask Conan the questions sprung up to the front of his head.
He approached the boy from behind, and even at a distance, he noticed the intense expression that lay on his face. Yet another reason why he had to interview Conan. There was no way a seven year old should have a look like that without knowing something.
Though, Conan seemed to already know that the police detective was approaching him, and turned before he said anything. The look on his face immediately dropped, being replaced with those innocent eyes that mimicked a child's.
"Ne, Conan-kun," Takagi started, unknowingly crouching down slightly. The child tilted his head in response. Even behind those eyes, he could see the boy going on alert immediately. "Is it okay if I pull you to the side and ask you a few questions?"
While the attentiveness within his eyes didn't drop, Conan gave a small smile. "Yeah, it's alright."
The two walked to the corner of the of the restaurant, and Takagi began leaning against a spare table. Conan, on the other hand, kept his hands in his pockets, his posture rigid.
'Such an offensive stance.' Takagi remarked. Then again, Conan always took that stance. Poor kid, it was almost as if he were always on edge. From seeing so many murders, perhaps?
Once again, the child tilted his head, a curious look forming. "What is it that you wanted to ask me, Takagi-keiji?"
The older man was pulled from his thoughts, almost forgetting for a moment that he still in a conversation that he initiated.
"O-Oh, sorry! I was just thinking about something." He cleared his throat, trying to regain a more professional composure. "Anyway, over at our department, we're updating a few of our records, and we would like to know...um, what are the names and current whereabouts of your parents?" That felt a lot heavier to say than he thought it would be. He almost felt bad for putting the young boy on the spot like that, and felt even worse for realizing that he was lying to him.
It didn't go unnoticed, however, when Conan's eyes widened, and visibly, at that. Had he struck a soft spot? Maybe Conan didn't like discussing this specific topic...
Well, that was obvious enough, but his reaction most definitely seemed a bit extreme.
On Conan's end, however, his mind suddenly refused to work. He felt like one of those old computers that would crash and take a million years to restart again when it was needed the most. Honestly, the question had hit him from behind. Out of all the things he was expecting, that certainly wasn't it. Maybe if he gave some type of sympathetic sob-story, they would quit asking.
Conan purposely slipped into timid child mode, fidgeting with the hem of his shirt and shifting his shoes. Thank God for his mother's acting skills.
Takagi had never seen Conan act so small. His body language screamed nervousness, and it made the officer feel guilty. Maybe he was wrong, and Conan did miss his parents, but he just didn't show it. And while it was a sensitive topic, it had to be asked for the sake of figuring him out.
'Sorry, Conan.' He thought shamefaced.
"W-Well..." The boy finally stuttered, never looking Takagi in his eyes. "My mother's name is Edogawa F-Fumiyo, and she's currently with my d-dad, Edogawa Masafumi in America. My dad's still in the hospital, though."
"H-Hospital?" Takagi asked, flabbergasted. He took back everything he assumed about the Edogawas earlier. He thought they were just irresponsible parents leaving their child for someone else to take care of, but they actually had a reason for doing it.
Conan gave a small nod. "Yeah," He continued. "They were in a really bad accident l-last year. My mom's alright now, but my dad's in a coma. That's why I'm staying with Ran-neechan. I'm just waiting for him to get better."
The guilt hit him like a passenger train. Takagi felt like a premium jerkass for bringing up such a painful topic for Conan. No wonder the child didn't like people meddling in his personal life if it meant discussing things like this.
Takagi's face fell, his face scrunching up with pity. "It's alright, Conan-kun," He assured, giving a small wave of his hands. "You don't have to go on anymore, if you don't want to. I'm sorry I brought such a personal topic."
"It's fine." Conan shrugged, and he suddenly appeared more relaxed. "I'm used to people asking."
'That's one thing you shouldn't be used to.' Takagi wanted to say, but bit back his tongue.
The two said their goodbyes, and he watched as Conan ran back over to Ran, a smile plastered on his face.
'But, is it real?'
The next day, Takagi once again found himself back on the path to the files department. There were a few more questions that he needed to answer. Namely, Conan's relation to Kudo Shinichi.
Being so wrapped up in the question regarding Conan's parents the previous day, Takagi hadn't remembered to ask Conan about his relation to Shinichi. While he could always ask him the next time he saw him again, he didn't want to risk it if it meant another heart wrenching story about his personal life.
So, Takagi had logged back onto the computer within the department, and headed straight for the file of Kudo Shinichi. Within a few minutes time, the file of the young detective popped up. This wasn't the first time that Takagi had viewed his file, so he knew exactly what to look for.
Only, it was something that couldn't be found. There was absolutely no mention of Conan, or any Edogawa for that matter, in the entire file. The same went for Shinichi's parents.
'Perhaps they're distant relatives instead?' He ruled out the scenario that they were lying. Shinichi had admitted himself that he and Conan were related. The only thing plausible, then, was either, A) They were too distant to have any relation on file, or B) The Edogawas didn't exist at all.
As much as Takagi hated to admit this to himself, it was pushing more towards the latter than anything else. Given the vague and few-and-far-in-between information given about the family, there was almost no doubt that Conan was, in fact, not who he said he was.
Yet, something pushed the officer to check the child's file once more, to be sure that he didn't miss anything. He typed the name out into the search engine, and expected to wait a few minutes will the information was being collected.
Only, this time, something different happened.
Takagi found himself staring at the screen in confusion, but in alarm more than anything else.
The computer read that an 'Edogawa Conan' could not be found.
He went back and searched the name multiple times, including with mispellings or typos. But, no matter how many times he searched it, nothing on Edogawa Conan came up. The screen stayed empty every time.
There was no way his file disappeared that quickly. It had only been one day! Had something happened? Were they being compromised again?
Takagi was about to close the tabs when he noticed a footnote with a link at the bottom of the screen. Upon further inspection, he recalled that it had not been there the previous day. With a new sense of wariness, he clicked on it.
He was redirected to a different file, only, it hadn't been within the citizen database. In fact, it had been a cold case that had occurred a year prior. One that nobody bothered picking up again.
He had heard about this one. A young boy was found beat up behind Tropical Land. The officers who dealt with the case said that the kid probably had a concussion, since he seemed to be confused as to who he was. Before anyone could question him- or help him, for that matter- he ran away, and disappeared into the night.
With his mind beginning to assemble the pieces for him, his stomach tied up in knots. Takagi was praying that he were wrong.
Underneath what appeared to be a scan of the original document, a letter was typed out below. It had been written in white font, almost impossible to read if not for the darkly tinted background.
His eyes scanned the letter.
'Welcome. I'll skip the formalities.
You have something I want. In fact, someone.
Edogawa Conan.
You've let him play you for fools. It hurts, right? To be made a fool of?
I'd figure, since he causes pain to those around him, let's give some it it back.
An eye for an eye, right?
Hand him over, no one gets hurt.
Defend him, well...there are multiple ways to get away with murder.
I've come to kill him. And this time,
He won't get a second chance.
This link will expire in the next 24 hours,
So be thankful you found it.
Who knows, maybe you've extended that kid's life,
Even if it's only by a few hours.'
Takagi had to take a moment to calm himself down. His throat clenched uncomfortably, like someone had came and knocked the wind out of him.
This was...disturbing, to say the least. This wasn't a coincidence, either. This was a deliberate action.
Someone had been watching him search through these files.
Someone had kept tabs on this.
Whoever this person was, they knew.
If he had doubts before, they were all washed away now.
Conan most definitely wasn't who he said he was. That, and more. He was hiding something. Whatever he did to make the anonymous writer angry enough to plot murder against him, it must've been pretty serious.
He had to alert his seniors right away. There was no time given as to when the murder could strike, and he didn't want to take any chances by thinking they were allotted more time then they actually had.
Takagi rose from the chair, but was pulled back down again by something he had seen in the corner of his eye.
Setting his hand back down on the mouse, he moved the cursor down in order to view the full image of what he was looking at.
His stomach dropped.
There, on screen, was the image of a little boy, blood leaking down his face and clothes that fit him entirely too big. Quite uncomfortably, he appeared to be shielding his face from the camera, one eye closed and all, as if wanting no one to get a clear look at his face.
But, there was no doubt about it. That boy was Conan. The boy from the cold case was Edogawa Conan.
The picture was dated exactly one year prior.
A/N: I'm done! Wow, I never before realized that fanfiction took so long to write. This took me about two hours just to revamp the whole thing!
Anyway, I really hope you guys enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it! I'm much prouder with how this came out the second time around.
If you read the original thing in addition to this, you may have noticed some major changes:
-Changing Satou to Takagi. I love Satou and Takagi equally the same, but it's so much fun writing Takagi! I couldn't pass up the opportunity!
-Adding a larger vocabulary. You could really tell my age with the last version of the story I wrote. I also decided to take on a more vague approach when it came to writing about the 'Citizen Database'. It gives the reader more room to imagine how they think it would work, and I don't have to be exact with the information. So, I do apologize if any of that is inaccurate, hehe!
-Increasing the length of the story noticeably. This story, I think, was originally 1k words (if not that, then less). That's probably why this version took me longer to write lol
*The reason why Takagi made that comment about Edogawa Masafumi's name because Masafumi means 'Goverment Writings', which is sort of like what Takagi was sifting through in order to find out more information about Conan. Interestingly enough, I had no idea what the name meant until AFTER I finished writing the story! I picked it at random, mostly because I liked the way it rolled off the tongue. How relatable to the story, though, am I right (or, as I should say, am I write- /is shot/)?
Okay, so news regarding Traitor's Tone: I'm still going to write it (in fact, I might start on it at the end of August, depending on how much spare time I can find, and also depending on whether or not I finish my other fanfictions, first. Don't wanna start anything new while I still have stuff to work on). I still need to change a lot of things in the plot, but so far I have the basic foundation. However, I also need to go back and find the original notes on the story, since they're buried deep within my flashdrive.
In case you're wondering: You do NOT have read this in order to understand Traitor's Tone. I really only wrote this in order to set the tone (haha, get it?) for the main series. So, yes, you did just waste your time reading a story that has nothing to do with the later plot. I'm sorry.
/shot again/
Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the story! I really hope it was a lot more tolerable to read the second time around, too!
So, I'll see you guys next fanfiction!
.
Now, let me go close these bullet wounds before I bleed out.