Chapter 1
A young woman stood in the rain not caring how the cold droplets of water matted her black hair to her back and made her black clothes hang limply on her thin frame. She stared emotionlessly down at a man with a single bullet wound. Right to the temple.
The man was slouched against the brick wall next to the soda machine, only his legs visible from the road, as cliché as it was for someone to be killed in an alleyway. That same alley way ended up being the place this man drew his last breath to spit out the word that kept repeating in the woman's head. "Murderer." She breathed out in unison with the resounding echo only she could hear.
The solitary female didn't blink as her expression morphed into one of sorrow. "I'm sorry you got involved." She muttered. The woman huffed a small sigh and turned her face to the sky. "At least the heavens are mourning death on this day." She said as she relished the feeling of the rain washing the blood from her face.
The sound of footsteps making their way through the puddles that littered the road towards the lone female broke the mournful silence. The feet splashed through one last bit of water before stopping two meters away from the soaked beauty.
A silent sigh escaped the woman's red lips before she acknowledged the shadowy figure's presence. "Gin." She pasted a mischievous smirk on her face as her usual cheeky façade slipped back in place, before turning around to face the man with long silver hair. 'His hair is way longer than mine.' The woman thought wryly as she silently studied the man in front of her.
He stood in a pose that to most may look relaxed but the woman could tell he was ready for a potential attack whether from her or from an unseen enemy she did not know, maybe neither maybe both. He had no openings what so ever in his guard.
"Martini. Let's go" The man, Gin, said addressing the woman. The woman's, Martini's, smirk only grew in size. "Ara, Gin, you seem to be in a good mood, like usual." Martini said sarcastically. She loved to annoy and infuriate others. It was the best way to hide your fear.
Martini met Gin's steely cold glare with a sharp look of her own, her blue eyes flashing in the dim light made them seem slightly surreal. A look of fake pity came on her face as she motioned to the man behind her. "I feel sort of bad for the poor guy his death will be written off as suicide."
Indeed, it did appear to be a suicide but was in actuality a murder. The man had a single shot to the head. Martini had made sure to press the gun to his temple to make sure there were burn marks left. No sign of struggle and a gun in the victims hand with gunpowder residue on his clothes, and a single bullet missing from the chamber. Although the gunpowder would most likely wash off before the police got here, Martini knew to be thorough after all the organization would not tolerate mistakes.
The organization. It was called many things but only high ranking officers actually knew what it was called. Cyanide only knew that it was a big crime syndicate. Cyanide wasn't near high enough in the ranks to know the name of the group she had practically grown up with but with all of her successful missions recently she should be high enough soon. High enough to earn an audience with the boss.
The boss was another mystery, no one knew who they were and referred to the mysterious person as That person or him.
Martini grinned a devilish smile as she sat at her desk in her apartment, her eyes trained on a computer screen. Rereading the email Vermouth had sent stating that an explosion aboard the Bell tree express blew Sherry to pieces. Martini did not necessarily believe her, after all Vermouth was most likely withholding information on other subjects.
Vermouth was an exceedingly secretive woman, after all her catchphrase was 'A secret makes a woman, woman.' Martini didn't get along well with Vermouth but she didn't hate the woman to the point that Chianti, ace sniper, did. Vermouth seemed to have her own agenda, similar to Martini, as proven when she defended Mouri Kogoro against Gin. Gin had been easy to fool but Martini was still suspicious.
Martini hadn't been permitted on that mission, but she had been doing a lot of missions recently mostly to get attention drawn to herself instead of Kir and Bourbon. Martini knew they were NOC agents (Non Official Cover). It was easy to find out, so they should be glad that she was the only one to learn their secret. Because Martini wasn't necessarily loyal either.
She hummed a tune under her breath as she typed another name onto a long list. A list of all the crimes the woman had committed in the past ten years working for the organization. It wasn't that she was vain and wanted to brag about all the people she'd killed nor was it that she was a perfectionist like That Person and couldn't stand to not note anything and everything down. No, it was more like Martini didn't want to forget.
Martini didn't want to forget any crimes she'd committed while being in the organization so she wrote down a diary of sorts. Detailing the crimes. Just the cold, hard facts. Martini could instantly recall the face of a person she'd killed without the help of a list or diary because she wouldn't allow herself to forget those she murdered.
Martini stood up and sighed, no trace of her grin left. She inhaled a deep, shaking breath as she slowly opened a drawer and pulled out a pistol. A pistol that no one knew she owned. It was the first thing she did to set her long thought out plan in motion. "It's almost time." She murmured as she felt the cool metal beneath her fingers.
Indeed the time for action was drawing closer. Martini had risen through the ranks, completing mission after mission perfectly in order to gain the trust of those high in the hierarchy. She had managed to get Vermouth to teach her how to create disguises and that was another part of an elaborate plan.
"Soon." She said softly before returning the gun to its previous spot. "Soon, it'll be show time."
Martini was walking back to the scene of that man's death from the day before. She was curious to see how fast it would be before the police wrote his death off as suicide. She huffed lightly, the only one who had ever gotten close to realizing her murders to actually be a murder was that high school detective, Kudo Shinichi but even then, there had never been evidence that pointed to being murder so he had to give up.
Martini didn't expect him to be at the crime scene like he used to be. Because about a year ago Gin gave him the apotoxin that ended the life of Kudo Shinichi. Supposedly. She didn't doubt that Gin had given him the drug, but she did doubt that the detective died after all there had been no reports of his body being found. No police search for him and his parents looked perfectly happy on TV. Not the faces of people who had found out that their son had been mysteriously killed. Not to mention that Kudo Yusaku was known for being a detective as notorious as his son, meaning he would have thrown himself into his son's case and eventually they would have had to get rid of him because more likely than not he would've found out about the organization.
Martini smirked slightly as she saw the yellow tape that blocked off the alley. Looks like the he was found. She walked up to the barrier but didn't cross into the crime scene like many criminals do. After all, there was no evidence that could be used against her and therefore no reason to mess with the crime scene.
Martini let her hat cover her face a bit more, she'd rather not have anyone see her face even though she's not on any security camera footage and there is no chance of anyone other than an organization member recognizing her.
The young woman narrowed her eyes as she scanned the alley, there lay the corpse just as she had left it, meaning it hadn't been that long since the police got here. Martini's eyes wandered and she winced when she noticed a sobbing woman. A quick glance at the woman's hands revealed a gold band on her left ring finger. With her age, it would be impossible to be the man's daughter and he was an only child, not to mention with the way she was grieving his death, she must have been the man's wife.
There stood a fat man with a trench coat she'd come to recognize as inspector Megure and Mouri Kogoro, the detective Bourbon was so fond of was here too. Speaking of Bourbon, Martini pursed her lips when she saw him standing beside the sleeping detective.
"It's suicide!" Yelled detective Mouri. "But we can't ignore the possibility of a murder disguised to look like suicide, Mouri-sensei." Bourbon answered calmly. Martini was curious as to why he said that. He knew it was the organization that had killed the man and he couldn't afford any mistakes either, especially since Gin had been suspicious of both him and detective Mouri before.
Martini blinked in shock as her eyes found a young child scampering around the alley looking intently at everything. Why would a child be so comfortable at a crime scene, even more so a murder? The answer to her question came when detective Mouri started lecturing the boy about wandering around. The kid must be related to the detective in some way. She knew he couldn't be the detectives son because the man had been separated from his wife for ten years and considering the boy's age must be around eight he would have been born only two or three years after their separation.
But that kid was familiar, something about him was so familiar it was like an annoying buzzing in Martini's ear telling her she knew who that boy was but she had never seen him before.
Martini furrowed her brows as she tried to remember who the seven year old reminded her of. The kid was more interesting than any police officer she had seen. Not to mention he appeared to be smarter, noticing little things that the adults hadn't noticed.
Martini's lips twitched in to a smirk as the idea of the kid replacing Kudo in investigations came to her mind. It wasn't that ridiculous of an idea because the kid and Kudo were very similar in their method of going around the crime scene. If not for the age, she would have thought they were the same person.
"Why are you smiling, Onee-san?" Martini was startled out of her reverie by a childish voice. Blinking slightly she looked down and her smirk widened slightly as she took in the boy who was staring up at her with an innocent look that hid his intelligence.
Martini crouched down so she was level with him. "I'm looking forward to a game I'm gonna play soon." She answered the kid's question as vaguely as possible. Martini's mind was meanwhile whirring. This kid had noticed her in the crowd, had picked her out and approached her. What was it that gave her away? The smirk? Her body language? Her hat?
Martini had to force herself to remain calm. Although her smile never faltered and she didn't grow tense she couldn't help feeling that maybe the kid had figured it out. That maybe this kid knew she was the murderer. But then, that was ridiculous. A seven year old wouldn't be able to find out, much less actually accuse her of killing someone. But still Martini couldn't completely diminish her doubt of the boy not suspecting her.
Martini's facial expression didn't change but she made a decision. "What's your name, boy?" She questioned. "My name is Edogawa Conan." He stated in his childish voice that was unnaturally childish for someone so sharp. This was the kid that had tangled with Irish on the Tokyo tower, had cornered Vermouth (Though Vermouth denied his involvement) and had helped the FBI that time when Kir was captured.
She had heard of him through Bourbon and apparently, he was helping Sherry. Martini was no fool and she had managed to piece together what had happened that night Vermouth almost got Sherry. However, she hadn't realized he was so young. She'd only heard the name.
"What's your name, Onee-san?" Martini for a moment considered giving him her real name but quickly decided against it. Instead, she got a better idea. This kid was obviously using an alias; Edogawa Conan was no name anyone could possibly realistically have. Therefore, if he gave a fake name she would too.
Martini put her finger to her lips. "A secret makes a woman, woman." She said in English before continuing, regardless of little Edogawa Conan's horrified face. "I'm known as Martini." She wanted to bait him. To see how well he would react if faced with a member of the organization.
The boy froze and his eyes filled with hate, his body as tense as a coiled spring. Martini wasn't entirely surprised at this reaction, she half expected it but what she didn't expect was the smirk that came on his face.
She felt a smirk come on her own lips, matching his. "Catch me if you can." She said lowly to him. "When, not if." He stated in a more mature voice than before. Martini's smirk grew until it was a full-blown grin as she patted his head before slowly stood and left, the boy making no move to stop her.
"Let's see who you really are, ne, Edogawa Conan-kun." Martini mumbled to herself as she disappeared into the crowd, wrapping a fine brown hair in a handkerchief and putting it in her pocket.