Ran clutched her phone tightly, listening to Shinichi's voicemail one last time.
"Hello, you've reached the mobile of Kudo Shinichi. I can't answer right now, but leave a message and I'll call you back. If this is an emergency, please call 119."
She chuckled even as tears leaked down her cheeks. She'd teased him endlessly when he'd first made that voice message in his squeaky thirteen-year-old voice. Who would call Detective Geek Shinichi about an actual emergency? But it had gotten less funny every year as he updated the message and it became more and more appropriate. Until he was gone.
Ran clicked up her contact list to a second name. Conan.
"Hello. If this is an emergency, call neechan or the Professor."
No matter how many times she'd told him he needed his name in the voicemail, Conan had stubbornly left his message exactly as it was. The tinny recording didn't even sound like her pseudo-brother. Except the cheery yet exasperated tone. That was very him.
Ran pulled up the options menu. It had been over a year.
They were never going to answer.
ooo.ooo.ooo
Heiji tugged at the knee of his suit. It was just a little too tight to crouch comfortably. How had Kudo put up with these things? Heiji would wear the occasional tux for an event, but suits were not appropriate case-wear. Unless you were unfortunate enough to run into a case on the one night you were in Tokyo for a university networking event. Which Heiji was. Of course.
The body had come crashing through the roof of the outdoor gazebo, and for a moment Heiji had looked around, expecting to exchange a knowing look with Kudo...
But Kudo was gone.
ooo.ooo.ooo
Ayumi had noticed. Ai didn't smile much anymore. She used to smile more, when Conan was still here. Everything had been better when Conan had been here.
Genta was hanging out with the older kids a lot now. He never had time to play after school. Mitsuhiko was always on his computer, talking to people he had never met in person, people on the other side if the world.
Ayumi had tried to keep the Detective Boys together. She still put up flyers, and Mitsuhiko and Genta still helped... sometimes. Ai always helped, at least, and Ai was almost as good as Conan at solving things.
Conan hadn't replied to any of her letters. Ai said maybe they just had the wrong address... but Conan hadn't sent them any letters either, and he'd never called.
He was probably just busy in America...
But Ayumi was a detective.
ooo.ooo.ooo
Kaito sat on the hotel roof, tossing the Dragon's Tear between his hands. He wasn't in his usual white, not for this one. He'd really thought he'd found it this time. Pandora. (Of course he hadn't.)
The last few months Kaito had felt himself getting more and more exhausted. He wouldn't give up his mission, not ever, but...
They had killed Tantei-kun. Or at least, that was Kaito's best guess. None of his investigations (Investigations! Like a detective!) had turned up any hint of what had happened to the little detective (the not-so-little detective). Sure, the story was that he had left for America, but there was nothing to indicate he had actually arrived.
He had seen Kudo Yukiko in her latest interview. She was a stunning actress, of course... but so was Kaito.
He didn't host any heists for fun anymore (when had vengeance become so fun?). He didn't risk being seen if he suspected he might have truly found Pandora (did it even exist?).
Kaito wondered, sometimes, if he could have saved Kudo Shinichi. If he had reached out, had trusted just a little...
(But he hadn't.)
ooo.ooo.ooo
Ai stared at the capsule on her lab table. It was done. A year too late. She finally had a real, working cure. One that wouldn't kill the subject.
A little over a year ago she had assured Conan that this was the life she'd wanted. Miyano Shiho was dead, Haibara Ai lived.
Haibara Ai was supposed to have an elder brother... not that she would ever have admitted to thinking that. She was supposed to have a brother, but instead she had killed him.
Ai picked up the capsule. She didn't have any test subjects for this cure, but that had never stopped her before, had it?