"Life is only precious because it ends, kid. Take it from a god. You mortals don't know how lucky you are."
- Mars, from Son of Neptune, by Rick Riordan
. : WITHOUT MORTALITY : .
... "shibō nakute" ...
a detective conan x magic kaito au fanfiction
feat. immortal!Shinichi and immortal!Ran
Three And More
Disclaimer: I do not own Detective Conan nor Magic Kaito.
... tsudzukeru ...
Fingerprint tests claimed she'd shot and killed herself. Suicide.
Conan had expected nothing less.
Eyes narrowed it fierce concentration, Conan twirled his pencil around his fingers, wordlessly pondering the little crow's death. Quiet messages from their hidden raven slowly filled them in over the course of the week, small texts or emails, heavily encoded with inside references.
Baby crow. Sister, an adult. Cherries. Berries. For the millionth time since her death, Conan mentally touched the pieces of information together. And then broke it apart again, because it was information, only information. Nothing to act on, nothing to do. For cherries, little crow served. For freedom. Now, that adult crow wants to leave the crow's nest, for her sister had breathed her last. But bound wings will fail her. The silver crow will throw her into the abyss, because an unwilling crow is useless.
At least they did manage to retrieve the money, before the crows could take it away. It was the least Conan could do for Masami - which probably wasn't even her real name.
What shall we do about this crow's sister, trying to fly free?
Nothing, the cold reply hissed from the hidden raven's beak. If she flies in the wrong direction, you will be dragged down with her.
And if she makes for the right direction?
Hesitation. Tentatively whispered words. I cannot go against orders. But if she is deemed worth your protection, then I… Only if she stays true to direction. Should she slip, I will cut her from you. You will not fall because she does. But she is still here. We will see if she has the courage to fly -
"Hey, Conan-kun!"
Startled out of his thoughts, Conan jackknifed upright and spun around, searching for danger.
He was met with the curious gazes of two kids. Calming down and finding his voice, he asked, "Yeah?"
The little girl beamed at him happily. "We're going ghost-busting, want to come?"
Ghost-busting? Conan blinked, gaze softening. The bulkier little boy behind her - calling her Ayumi - complained about how Conan wouldn't be able to do anything even if he was brought along. Such carefree little pigeons… I wonder if any crows started out like this? Innocent, free of all things, before their intelligence and ambitions were chained by blood, to blood?
Shaking himself free of those thoughts, he asked, "Ghosts where?"
"Yonchoume!" Ayumi chirped. She proceeded to describe the house in all its creepiness, but Conan's mind went back to a case he'd heard about… It was still unresolved, if he remembered correctly.
He jumped again when Ayumi suddenly shrieked at the top of her lungs. A few moments later, she stopped and looked at him expectantly. "Well?" she asked excitedly.
"That's just a made up story," another boy, freckled and much thinner than the other, interrupted before Conan could respond. "There's no way ghosts exist."
"Mitsuhiko-kun…" Ayumi trailed off, a little downhearted.
The other boy scowled and stomped up to him. "Are you saying that Ayumi's lying?"
"Ah - no," MItsuhiko quickly said, putting up his hands placatingly. "It's just-"
"Then you're coming with us, and then you can prove that there aren't any ghosts in there!"
"Wait, what?!"
"Yeah, and we ain't inviting you, you have to come with us!"
Meanwhile, Ayumi turned to Conan with tears in her eyes. "You believe me, right?"
Instead of responding right away, he remained silent for a short moment. Then, he said slowly, "Ayumi-chan, whether I believe you or not, someone or something is causing things to happen. Whether or not it's a ghost remains to be seen."
She sniffled, but nodded.
"Great!" the larger of the two boys shouted. "After school tomorrow, we'll begin our assault on the mansion!"
That investigation, Conan recalled, had gone pretty badly. They'd tripped across the unresolved case, which led to Genta and Mitsuhiko getting knocked out and thrown onto the lawn, but Conan managed to protect and guide Ayumi until they came across the wife and imprisoned son. He lay out the series of events with a deduction, briefly interrupted by a knife scare, and convinced the wife that locking up her son to save him from the crime was, in fact, a terrible idea.
At least, with both mother and son confessing to the police, that case has finally been closed. Conan sighed, picking at the last remnants of his lunch, which was provided by the bullet train's services. But not before Ran laughed at me forever for going on a ghost-busting adventure, of all things. And to think those kids were targeting my house next…
Not to mention that after that, he'd tripped over three more cases. Almost day-after-day. It had taken some tiring maneuvers, but Conan managed to trick the adults into figuring out one of the cases by themselves. However, he was forced to resort to tranquilizing Kogorou for the other two.
Idly listening as Ran berated her father for trying to clean himself up on the go, Conan stretched in his seat, setting the finished lunch on his lap to the side. Kogorou cast him a look and turned his complaints to his presence and the lack of contact from his parents.
Speaking of whom, Conan thought, I wonder if they've even noticed… No, they must have. They'll probably contact me later. I know that Yusaku, at least, vaguely knows that something unsavory is going on.
Soon, he grew bored of watching Ran and Kogorou talk back and forth. Instead, he turned his gaze to the side and began to deduce random facts from nearby passengers. Not only was it good practice - not that he needed it, with his habit of running into cases like a blind deer into cars - but it also gave him some early information in case he did just that.
The door separating the different carriages opened, Conan noticed absentmindedly. He turned to look at whoever was entering - challenging himself to deduce who the person was before they sat down - but black snapped at the edge of his vision, and he froze. Oh, no…
He plopped back into his seat and grabbed Ran's arm. "Ne, ne, Ran-neechan," he chirped - brightly, but quietly. Pointing out the window at a flock, he continued, "Look - birds! D'you think they're crows?"
"Brat." Kogorou rolled his eyes. "Do they look that color to you?"
Neither raven was listening, though. Ran stared into his eyes, and whispered, "Where?"
"Two seats back, other side of the aisle," Conan murmured, low enough that nobody else could hear him. "Don't look."
"I'm not stupid," she responded drily. Her fists were clenched. "What now?"
"Bugs fly everywhere, especially in the summer," he responded with forced lightness.
Out of the corner of his eye, Conan watched the two crows carefully as he continued rattling off happily to his 'nee-chan'. He identified them as the same two who'd poisoned him - Gin and Vodka, he recalled. The raven had told him about this pair.
They work together because Vodka, by himself, is simple, she'd scoffed. And then her eyes had sharpened. On the other hand, Gin is dangerous. He doesn't trust me, which is smart, but annoying.
Pulling the kiddy-act around himself tighter, cloaking and burying all traces of anyone but Edogawa Conan, the shrunken detective prattled on, hoping against hope that they'd leave soon, but return again, later.
A few minutes later, Gin check his watch and gestured to Vodka. They stood. And started moving, coming towards Conan and Ran's seats.
Don't look, don't look, Conan chanted to himself, gluing his gaze to Ran's face. She did the same, a forced smile plastered on, refusing to flick her eyes over to the crows. Don't react - don't even think -
They passed them without hesitation.
Conan held his breath until they exited the carriage. Until he could no longer hear the sounds of their steps over the rushing, freezing cold that slithered to his heart. Then, and only then, did he relax.
Breathe. Now, go. He casually pulled his glasses off and removed the little mic from its hidden area. After turning it on, he popped some bubblegum into his mouth - he'd gotten it from the hakase, but it was actually normal gum and not some gadget.
It worked with a gadget, though. Chewing it thoroughly, Conan stood up and told Kogorou that he needed to use the bathroom. When he received a gruff okay, he went off to do as he claimed.
Or so it seemed. After Conan locked the door behind him, he took the gum out and gave it a quick rise in the sink, hoping the running water would wash away the majority of the saliva. Blood type could be determined from any traces, after all, although he wasn't sure how much he managed to remove.
That done, he took the earpiece and wrapped it in the sticky gum, smoothing out any remaining fingerprints as he did so.
Finished with his preparations, Conan washed his hands quickly before exiting the bathroom. On the way back, he removed his glasses and wiped the lenses clean with a handkerchief.
He stopped by the seat where Gin and Vodka had been sitting, pretending to drop his glasses. Then, when he crouched to pick it up, he pressed the gum on the underside of the seat discreetly before he straightened, hopping merrily the rest of the way to Ran.
Plopping back onto his seat and resuming his endless chatter, he settled down just in time - Gin and Vodka returned, with a large suitcase - they probably switched the black attache case from before for that one.
Conan touched the left end of the glasses - the earphone part - to turn it on, and his rapid-fire child-speak lessened as he listened intently, gaze wandering to the window outside.
"Whew, I can finally take a smoke." Conan tensed as one man's voice reverberated in his ear, softly enough that nobody else would even hear a whisper, but it sounded loud and clear to him. "Pretty smooth transaction, right, aniki?"
"Shh! You're too loud, Vodka!" the other man scolded. If the first speaker was Vodka, then that meant that the other was…
"Don't worry, no one's listening. Still careful as always, aren't you, Gin?"
As always, Conan mused, she's completely accurate. Gin and Vodka. Brain and skill, brawn and muscle.
"Well, 400 million just for returning one little case - what was in that thing?" Vodka wondered.
There was the click of a lighter. "Information on gold," Gin responded. "And if used well, the 400 million paid to us for delivering it is nothing in comparison."
"I see… No wonder they were so excited, then."
"Yes, no doubt they're sitting back at their seat, having a great time, and checking out their last view."
Conan held his breath. "Their… last view?"
"The organization has no more use for them. So the case does not have information, but rather explosives. If bumped hard enough, it'll set off a bomb."
"Yeah, but what if they drop it or something?"
"It contains valuable information, or so our client believes. They won't drop it. Besides, it'll go off at around 3:10 anyway."
"It's a time bomb?"
"No. Actually, they'll set it off themselves, unwittingly. Ten seconds later… first the case, then their body, then the train - everything will be blown to smithereens within moments!"
Clenching his teeth, Conan forced his eyes to stay glued to the window, looking outside. Don't react, don't react. Now that I know about it, I can change it. Don't. React.
The intercom announced the stop for Nagoya. Gin and Vodka took the suitcase up and left swiftly, without a second look back.
Conan glanced at his watch, and hissed out a curse. He glanced at Kogorou - the ojisan had fallen asleep, thankfully. Leaning over to Ran, who looked on worriedly, he whispered, "Forty minutes. Bomb."
She tensed, and gave a stiff nod. "Go."
Conan slipped out of his seat and rushed down the aisle. I have to find their client and that black case before everyone gets caught in the blast - where could it be? I can't just ask the attendants to help, they'd never believe me. And I can't send Ran either, since if They catch wind of her being the one to prevent the explosion, she'll start to stick out just like Kudo Shinichi did and become a target. But if I don't find it in time, so many people will die…
And that was one thing he wouldn't allow.
Ten minutes, he decided. If it's down to ten minutes and I can't do it by myself, I'll get Ran to help me.
So, alone for now, he went up to a mapped-out diagram of the different cars, each labeled with their respective features and characteristics, along with the color and number. The one he was looking for, he knew, was one of the non-smoking cars. That was an easy enough deduction for Conan, considering Vodka's statement of, "Whew, I can finally take a smoke." But there were eight such cars, and he doubted he had enough time to thoroughly check each of them before someone noticed he was up to something.
Looking carefully at the diagram again, Conan narrowed his eyes in thought, turning over the pieces of information he'd overheard.
Gin said something about checking out the view… Which means it must be one of the three green cars, since they're the only ones with a second floor and therefore high enough to actually see the scenery. And the only one of those that's a non-smoking car is… There!
Destination decided, Conan whipped around and dashed over to the second level of car number seven.
There were four people with a black attache case in that area.
A salaryman who was using the case as a surface for his computer, a career woman with the case on the window seat, a hefty old man hugging his case, and a yakuza with his case in the overhead. All were suspicious in some way or another, so Conan had resigned himself to check them out one by one.
Several minutes later, he edged out of the car and waited just outside its door, thinking. His obnoxious child act was a bit too annoying, and he'd quickly left before anything escalated - but now he knew for sure that the yakuza was not the one with the bomb…
Amusement bubbled up as he recalled tricking the guy to bring it down, having a brief scare when it slipped out of his hands to hit the floor, too far to catch it, only to end up rolling his eyes when it burst open to reveal embarrassing undergarments and the like.
He glanced at his watch - and laughter chilled to fear.
Twelve minutes. Where did all that time go? Conan wondered incredulously. Manipulating those people took longer than I thought, then. Shit. It was the jewel - it slows our perception of time, Ran was always better at adjusting to it than I was… Gritting his teeth, he turned away from car seven and walked quickly towards his original seat. Well, it's almost ten minutes now, I'll have to ask Ran to convince the -
"I can't believe I missed the sea," a little girl whined as she passed Conan.
"You were asleep, Vuiki-chan," the father responded, putting a hand on her head as he guided her to the restroom. "Besides, we were sitting on the mountain side, we wouldn't have been able to see it anyway."
Conan stopped mid-step.
Mountain… side? Come to think of it, didn't that career lady talk about Mt. Fuji? But how could she have seen it? She was definitely sitting on the side facing the ocean… His eyes widened. Of course, wherever the transaction took place! And she claimed not to have left her seat sans once to use the bathroom, and the only reason she would've lied about that is if she was covering up something - like an illegal transaction!
Mind made up, he whirled around, about to charge back to that green car. However, he automatically paused in his tracks when the intercom beeped and came on. "Attention. All passengers who would like to use their cell phones, please step outside so as to not disturb other customers. Thank you."
That's it! Conan lunged forward, looking for the deck frantically. If they gave her a number to call, but it was actually linked to the explosive, not a phone, then she'd be unwittingly inducing her own death!
He skidded around a corner and found what he was looking for - the lady on the phone, the case at her feet.
On it, little digital numbers blinked down from 0:08 to 0:07.
Kneeling, he snapped, "Get out of the way!" while he turned up the dial on his sneakers.
Shimmering, the shoe glowed briefly and sparked to life beneath his fingers. He ran forward, aiming for the case with the timer - 0:05, it said. Then, 0:04.
He slammed his foot into it, the case crunching under the impact, as it read 0:03.
At 0:02, it sailed out the window with a loud shattering sound.
0:01 and 0:00 passed in midair.
Boom, Conan thought, relieved. In the distance, the case exploded in a huge pulse of energy - safely away from the train. He fell onto the ground and heaved a deep breath. "That," he pronounced, "was too close."
The career lady was still gaping - though whether it was from his actions or from the case's explosion, Conan wasn't quite sure, and he wasn't pressed to figure it out. "W-who are you?" she stammered.
"Edogawa Conan," he responded, tilting his head back to look at her. "Tantei sa. Oh, hi, Ran-neechan!"
Ran was giving him a certain look, picking him up off the ground. "You're okay?" she asked.
"Yeah," he assured. Then, as she carried him away, he glanced back at the woman and added chirpily, "I'm just a grade school student, though!"
Her incredulous expression was so worth it.
In the end, as expected, police came and interrogated everyone, especially the lady. She, however, didn't know much about the Organization at all - which was good, Conan decided, because then they wouldn't think her worth killing. Maybe.
(A few months later, she mysteriously committed suicide for reasons unknown, the raven in the crow's nest whispered to them. Quiet affair. She still felt guilty, etcetera, etcetera. Case closed. They could still hear the mocking laughter in her tone.)
Currently, though, he was hovering at Ran's side while the other kids - Ayumi, Genta, and Mitsuhiko, those three classmates from that haunted house case - ran to get their reward for solving a code. Which Conan had actually solved for them, but it wasn't like he was interested in the prize of a Kamen Yaiba figurine.
Ran smirked at him. "Feeling a little old, Conan-kun?"
"Hush it," he returned. "You have no idea how much kids these days talk about that one show."
She hummed, turning her attention to the binoculares. "Hey, I remember the last time we were here…"
Now paying attention, Conan looked around. "Oh yeah… Huh. Too short to smack your face with a soda can now, but I'll do it later. Wait, no… Hold on a mo'."
He left her and went over to the nearby vending machine and purchased a couple of drinks. When he returned, it was to Ran staring out the window wistfully. Hopping up onto the tall guardrail, he pressed one of the cold cans against her cheek, causing her to jump away. "Did I scare you?" he asked innocently, parroting the same words he'd spoken the last time they were here.
Rolling her eyes, she took the can from him. "Come on," she said. "Let's make sure your classmates don't get into too much trouble."
Of course, they were wrapped up in all sorts of trouble by the time they found them again. "You lost your figurine?" Ran repeated to the teary Ayumi, who nodded.
"I put my bags in front when I went to the restroom, but when I came back, it was gone." She sniffled.
Conan rocked his weight to his heels. "Someone must've switched them on accident."
Genta peered into the bag, the dumped its contents out, saying, "Might as well take a look."
Opening his mouth to protest at the disrespectful action, Conan paused upon seeing the items.
"Huh, a map, binoculars, and a flashlight," Genta noted. "But something's stuck here," he added, holding a loose sheet of notebook paper in his hands. Various symbols were scribbled over its surface.
A code? Conan leaned in for a closer look, but then a stranger approached. "Excuse me," he said uncertainly, and Ayumi instantly perked up.
"Ah! That's my bag!"
A quick switcheroo and apology later, the man went off on his way and Ayumi was left hugging her Kamen Yaiba doll in joy. Conan watched the man leave, somewhat suspicious of him.
His thoughts were confirmed a while later, when the man re-approached, asking for the sheet of paper. Genta hid its existence, but the way he rummaged through Ayumi's bag without a second thought, rather desperate for a coded piece of paper… Thankfully, Ran seemed to take notice of that as well and chased him off quickly, but…
Conan let his eyes drift to where the man was standing - beside two more, very shady-looking people.
Why am I not surprised.
The next morning found Conan with the three kids, about to go treasure hunting. Although he told them otherwise, he had informed Ran about it, just in case they ran into trouble.
Those men from the day before were making him paranoid. Then again, it's only paranoia when it's wrong.
He looked up from his thoughts, just in time to see the other children puzzled and arguing as to where to start searching.
With a sigh and a quick look around, he eased his child act just a little bit, and took control of their conversation. Slowly, he steered them down the lane of deciphering the coded message.
Very, very slowly.
(They absolutely refused to hear him out completely, and were always intent on bouncing away to search for their 'treasure' before he finished his sentence, dammit.)
It wasn't until later, when the little ones were complaining over how that one isn't it either, that Conan truly examined the sheet of paper.
The little three-letter word at the end, 'oro', rang a faint bell. He tried to think back - it was probably some other language that he hadn't used in a while -
"Cosa ne pensi?"
"Troppo oro."
He froze. Gold?
Flashing back to the news he'd heard earlier that morning, something about a group of people stealing gold leaf coins and something about Italy, Conan quickly pieced everything together.
He glanced over his shoulder.
As expected, a group of people were discreetly tailing them. Those criminals…
A couple of blunders and mistaken deductions later, at night, Conan finished guiding the kids through the coded instructions by following the neon signs, arriving at where the gold was supposed to be hidden at last. Who would've known that it actually was a treasure map?
However, as Genta foolishly ran at the band of thieves instead of running away, like Conan instructed him to do, they were all caught and tied up by the people who'd been tailing them all day (and half the night).
Technically, he could've escaped rather quickly, but there was no way he'd leave three first graders alone with those people. Better to stay and watch over them.
Click.
Then again, Conan thought annoyedly, glaring at the gun pressed to his forehead, this isn't exactly such a great plan anyway.
"So, where's the gold?" the man asked. Silence. He grew aggravated. "Do you want to die? I know you found the gold - where is it?"
"… The fish," Conan finally relented. "Where you can see the fish as it's drawn." Neon lights on the bridge. Reflected by the river.
The man moved away to look for the treasure, and Genta hissed to him, "Why'd you spill? Now they're going to kill us after they find it!"
"What do you think they would do if I didn't?" Conan snapped back, tired of dealing with them. "Kill me. Then, if they're smart, they'll probably point the gun at Ayumi, and tell you two to spill or else they'll shoot her." The three of them cowered away, but Conan wasn't done. "Think before you speak. Think before you act. If you ran when I told you to, we wouldn't be in this situation, now would we?"
He bit back some more cutting words, reigning in his anger before Pandora expressed it through his eyes. Seeing the kids whimper and cry, he felt the last of his fury fade.
"Look," he said softly, catching their attention. "It's too early to give up. I have an idea. But you're going to have to listen to me for it to work, alright?"
They nodded meekly.
"And then I got them all to stand up and follow me to the bar that the ropes holding the bags of gold up were hooked on, and you won't believe how much of a miracle it is that they didn't notice our shuffling," Conan griped to Ran. "I swear, each step of theirs echoed."
"While yours were silent?" she inquired, stifling laughter, and he nodded frantically.
"Yeah, and after we finally got over to the stupid thing, I had to practically drag Ayumi around to the other side to hook the rope onto it. And when I told them to run forward once the thieves noticed the bags and let their guard down, once that happened, Genta screamed 'Run!' out loud, and they're so lucky those guys weren't smart enough to figure out what was going on until the bags crashed on their heads," Conan ranted. "Not to mention how many times we tripped over each other in getting the police!"
"Well, everything's fine now, isn't it?" Ran chuckled, patting the detective on the head condescendingly. "Forgive them, they're children. And admit it. You had fun."
He huffed and turned his head away, but he was smiling a little. "I guess," he allowed grudgingly. "At least they weren't quite as loud as they could've been, and they listened to me. I hope they learned something from that experience."
"I'm sure they did."
Rolling his eyes at her nonchalance, Conan rolled over on the bed. At least she wasn't freaking out anymore. Ran's always feared spiritual things, he mused. Ever since she was accused of it… Heh, even I got a little phobia from that. That was a dark time.
Well, the present wasn't exactly some bright thing, either. Conan put his hands behind his head and pondered the recent events - Sonoko, Ran's classmate, had invited them over to her villa. As a part of the Suzuki family, she was even richer than the Kudo's were. Upon arrival, he and Ran noticed a bandaged man, but dismissed it - however, a later series of events led to the murder of one of the other people Sonoko was hosting. Some sort of friendly reunion. Not quite so friendly anymore. And with the phones out of range, the landline cut, and the bridge taken down, nobody was sure what to do. They decided to sleep on it.
The lights clicked off, and Ran silently slipped into Conan's bed instead of returning to her own. He allowed it without question, knowing she was still rattled from when the bandaged man had tried to attack her. With an axe, of all things. While she slept, he continued to assess what had happened.
And thank goodness he stayed awake, because he noticed the bandaged man come in just in time, and kicked Ran off the bed, out of the way of the axe as it was thrown down, saving her from a very unfortunate wound and yet another bad memory.
"Ran!" he shouted, scrambling to his feet. Damn, I don't have my shoes, I think my ankle's sprained anyway, and the watch's dart can't pierce through that cloak!
The tumble she took woke her up quickly, and she jackknifed upright in alarm. She gave the axe-wielding attacker a single look of terror before rolling to the side, avoiding the weapon again. Then, without hesitation, she struck at the attacker furiously, shrieking at the top of her lungs to attract the others' attention.
Conan's brain continued to turn gears even as the disguised man fled and the other people arrived.
Solving the case was a snap.
After Ran had gotten attacked yet again - geez, he really was desperate - all Conan had to do was piece together the parts of the trick. And instead of struggling to work with the police force or the occhan, all he really needed was to whisper the explanation into Ran's ear while she carried him on her back (since his ankle was swollen and couldn't hold any weight).
Really, if the guy had just done nothing but hoped and prayed that Ran wouldn't remember, she never would've thought too hard on it. Neither would Conan. They'd have had a much harder time unraveling the case, though it would've come apart eventually. Just a bit later than it did this time.
The almost-suicide on the culprit's part was frustrating, but Conan managed to use his bowtie to yell at him in Ran's voice - fortunately, she caught on pretty quickly and lip-synced with his shouting.
The problem was what happened after that case. In other words, another case.
Sonoko had invited Ran and Conan to see a famous singer live, before his show, probably to make up for the murder incident at the villa. That idea didn't go quite as well as it could've.
The singer ended up dead. Of freaking course. Confusion and accusations and assumptions flew through the air for a long time before Conan solved it, informed Ran, had her explain it to Megure-keibu, and close the case. But it was a depressing series of events that led to the murder, filled with mistaken thoughts.
Conan had no doubt that neither Ran nor he were going to be listening to any of the band's songs anytime soon. Or ever. Lex would forever be scratched off the list.
Bloody Venus ended up being a fitting last song - blood for death, Venus for the Roman goddess of love. Conan kicked a rock grumpily. Now, if only I could stop running into these cases…
"Cheer up, Conan-kun," Ran chided softly, patting his head in a mock-condescending manner. "It's Christmas."
That only made him even more annoyed. It was Christmas. Christmas was supposed to be merry and carefree, not plagued by his streak of bad luck with running into cases.
At least he managed to buy a quick gift for Ran - a scarf, which she was currently wearing. She'd returned the gesture with a pair mittens, which were adorable and humiliating. But warm. And they could be changed into fingerless gloves by pulling back the top part, so he didn't complain too much.
"Please tell me we won't run into another case today," Conan sighed to nobody in particular.
Shrugging, Ran offered a light, "We'll see," before they arrived back at the Detective Agency, arms heavy with groceries.
Tromping up the stairs, Conan scurried ahead and waited impatiently at the door, the perfect picture of an eager child at Christmastime rushing ahead of his neechan. She laughed at him, balancing the bags in one hand as she searched out the keys. With a click and turn, the door swung open, and Conan rushed inside. He plopped everything onto the table.
"My arms hurt," he complained, rolling his shoulders.
"Too bad," Ran returned, setting her things on the table as well. "They had great discounts today, so we're stocking up for a while. Anyway, what - "
The doorbell rang. "Ran!" Kogorou shouted from his desk. "Can you get that?"
"Hai, hai," she responded, going over to the door with Conan at her heels. She opened it to reveal a woman holding her purse and smiling lightly at them. "Ah, hello." Mental alarms went off - she was wearing black.
"Hello, dear," the stranger said perkily, and then looked down to see Conan, who was playing a shy boy act and hiding behind Ran's legs, peeking at the woman every now and then. "Conan-kun! Momma's here!"
What the hell?
Conan froze, eyes wide. But - how - what - that makes no sense - how did she - Conan doesn't have a mom, dammit -
Ran clamped a hand on his shoulder reassuringly as the woman continued, "I'm so sorry, Conan-kun, you must have been so lonely by yourself, but don't worry! Momma's here now - so come home with me!" She opened her arms, obviously expecting a hug.
"Ah - um," Conan stuttered. Barely choking back a who the hell are you?!, he managed to say, "Uh, what?"
Blinking, Ran said carefully, "You're his mother?"
"That's right!" the woman said, pulling out a business card. "Edogawa Fumiyo - Conan-kun's mother!"
Freaking liar, Conan thought sourly. He flinched when she suddenly grasped his wrist and pulled him into a tight embrace. He opened his mouth, about to scream, when a distinct smell hit his nose, and he stopped.
That's makeup! Scrutinizing the edges of the woman's face, he recognized the little signs of a mask. The only one who'd do this is our bird, I suppose, since I've covered my tracks, but…
"Ah, Ran-neechan, it's okay," he said hurriedly, before the karate champ could drop the woman to the floor.
She eyed him, but relented, letting go of her clenched fists. "You're leaving now?"
"Maybe. 'Kaasan, can I go pack my stuff?" Conan asked his 'mom'. She nodded, releasing him, and he dashed away.
"So." Sitting in the car, safely in motion and away from the detective agency, he glanced at the woman carefully. "What's so important that you came to see me in person?" he inquired, leaning back in a relaxed position. He chose his words carefully, in case she was under watch.
"What do you mean 'what's so important', of course this is important - " Suddenly stopping, 'Edogawa Fumiyo' blinked at him in total confusion. "Wait… I didn't freak you out or anything?"
"You should know that just wearing black isn't enough to make me run away screaming," Conan responded dryly, but the hints of doubt began to take root. "Not even after all of this crap happened," he added, gesturing to his body with a look of annoyed disdain.
"How did you know it was me?"
Is she really asking that? "Come on, I've lived with you for long enough to know what a mask looks and feels like. You smell like someone drowned you in makeup, too. Now, quit beating around the bush - what's the raven doing so far from her nest of crows?"
"Raven?" the woman echoed, looking utterly lost. Conan raised a brow at her, and she shook her head with a childish pout - which looked familiar, but wrong. And then he realized, This isn't her. "Mou, I get that you saw through it, but there's really no need to tease me with random words like that!"
Conan's 'mom' grasped the edge of the mask and tore it off fluidly.
He immediately sat up in alarm, spluttering out, "Oi, kaasan?!"
Kudo Yukiko raised an eyebrow. "What, you weren't expecting me? Then who did you think I was?"
"N-nobody," Conan replied shakily. Okay, I totally forgot about her, but okay. "Then, if you're here… Dad's probably around somewhere, too. Where are we going?"
"Beika hotel," she responded. "Your dad's waiting there - we were hoping to stage a little something for you, but you saw right through me! I'll have to make sure my skills aren't getting dull, I can't believe I forgot…"
Already piecing together what that 'something' would've been, Conan facepalmed.
They exchanged small talk - mostly Yukiko explaining how they came to know that Shinichi was Conan; so much for secrecy, hakase - for a while, before arriving at Beika hotel. Yukiko took him up to room 301, opening the door and ushering him in quickly.
Conan deadpanned at the masked man sitting on the couch, "You're tousan, aren't you."
Taking off the mask, Kudo Yusaku asked with a chuckle, "Was the Night Baron reference a giveaway?" He tapped the mask with his hand.
"Nope, I just happened to notice that kaasan was wearing a face mask." Conan hopped up to sit beside his father. "What did you need to talk to me about? And were you trying to scare me?"
"Yes, actually," Yusaku said, smiling at his son. "So come back with us to America, and have a carefree life."
Conan wasn't sure he could keep handling surprises like these. "What?" He did not squeak.
"Shin-chan, this is really very dangerous," Yukiko said, hovering over her son. "We were going to show you by staging an act, but - well, you saw through that."
"That doesn't eliminate the danger, however," Yusaku continued. He pat Conan's arm. "Come on, we'll be safe together. And don't worry. I've got friends in the Interpol, I'll ask them to search for this organization - "
"And condemn them to death?" Conan regarded his father cooly, recomposed. "No. I'll not have any deaths on my conscious, tousan." At least no more than I already have… "I'm not going. This is my case. And it's not just that, I have other reasons not to leave Japan." Ran,
Yukiko protested, "Shin-chan!", but Yusaku only sighed.
"Well, if your mind is set… Besides, I'm sure your other reason is very important," he added with a wink.
Conan fought the urge to stick his tongue at them. He had much better ideas for revenge.
"And that's what happened," Conan concluded with a bright smile.
Ran scoffed, choking on her laughter. "And what, pray tell, was that ingenious idea for revenge?"
"I told the people waiting on his manuscripts exactly where he was," Conan answered smugly. "Serves him right for trying to fool me, failing to, and for trying to drag me away. Though the ten million yen paid to the occhan helps, too."
It was late, but this was the first time in a while that they'd been able to exchange free words. Things kept popping up one after another; Conan had guided the newly-dubbed Detective Boys through a case, puppeted the old man in another, and desperately hoped that everything he fabricated - from his leading the kids to pretending to be Kogorou - wouldn't fall apart.
Stress, stress, and stress.
With any luck, this case wouldn't be quite as frustrating. However, the client's message kind of indicated otherwise, with the whole 'hey I sent some money to you, come to this island or else' sort of vibe.
Conan peered out to sea, quickly spotting their destination - Tsukikage island - looming ahead. "Want to bet that something will happen?" he asked Ran.
"What, on a relaxing little island in the middle of the Izu sea?" Ran returned. A moment later, she added with a roll of her eyes, "Yeah, I'm not stupid enough to take on that bet."
The ship's horn sounded, indicating that their ride was coming to a close. Conan hopped down from the railing. "The ojisan still in the bathroom?"
"Mhm. He'll be out in a moment, I'm sure."
Once the detective reappeared, the three of them disembarked, headed for the reception center.
The fact that the person they were searching for, their client named Asao Keiji, was dead, almost wasn't a surprise. Listening carefully to the retelling of his death, Conan frowned. Obviously, someone wanted them to take a look into this pianist's death - but why? Sure, the Moonlight Sonata thing was strange, but… Insanity wasn't all that uncommon.
Still, tugging on Kogorou's clothes, he managed to convince him to take a deeper look into the case. By asking a resident doctor called Narumi-sensei, they discovered a few more things, particularly the upcoming election. Conan had long since learned that politics influenced too many things to be healthy. Couldn't be helped, but it always resulted in a huge mess. Inevitably. Thus, they went to visit the current heads.
Curiosity and boredom got the better of Conan as the three of them waited to meet the mayor, so he wandered off a little, discovering a room containing an extremely dusty piano. Ran and her father trailed behind him, scolding at first, but they were intrigued by it as well.
"Couldn't they have been bothered to clean it, at least a little?" Ran mused, reaching out to wipe off a bit of the dirt - only to be stopped by a frantic official. While he explained the 'curse' on the piano, as well as its unhappy history, Conan fought against the childish urge to touch it, just to see if the man would scream. He lost. Badly.
Do re mi fa sol la si do - si, la so la, si sol mi sol re, mi re si re mi sol la…
Ran clapped a hand over her mouth to muffle her gasp of laughter, while the official startled, violently, and stared at the child on the piano with a horrified look.
Sliding off of the bench and grinning cheekily at the man, Conan strolled out like nothing had happened.
However, once safely out of sight, his gaze sharpened, casting off the childish light. That piano was perfectly in tune, which is impossible if it truly hadn't been touched since the first layer of dust began building up. Someone's been taking care of it, and leaving the dust in place to ensure secrecy. But why?
One death, two deaths, Conan thought coldly, watching the doctor examine the second body as Megure-keibu and everyone else looked on. Though they're all red…
Shaking the thoughts away - he blamed the Moonlight Sonata's presence for putting random nursery rhymes into his head - he refocused himself onto the crime. It was downright despicable to issue a letter to Kogorou foretelling of the murders, and then carrying them out. Whoever the culprit was, Conan was not about to let the person walk free.
Last night, he recalled, Ran found some sheet music at the murder scene and later discovered that parts of it were different - altered by the culprit, most likely. We slept there overnight to dissuade further murders around the piano, but it seems that's not going to stop the culprit.
His eyes travelled over to the music notes painted on the floor in blood. It was long dried, by the look and feel of it. "Some of those are… sharps and flats, right?" Conan asked Ran, glancing over at the musical notations. He learned songs by ear, so he wasn't sure of the symbols.
"You're right," Ran nodded. "They move the notes up and down on the keyboard, as you know."
"The key… Oh." Suddenly, more pieces clicked into place, and Conan slowly read out loud from memory, "'You understand. Your turn is next'."
Everyone turned to look at him, startled.
"It's a code," he explained, somewhat impatiently. "By assigning the alphabet to the piano, one letter to one key, from left to right. Those weird notes from last night read, 'wakaterru na, tsugiha omae no ban da'."
"Then…" Ran examined the one in front of them. "This one - ah, 'goukano onnen koki ni hara seri' - which, put together, reads as 'hellfire's anger has burned away'."
As everyone snapped back and forth as they discussed the new developments, the old officer assigned to the island entered the conversation, offering some information on the deceased Asao. Conan volunteered to walk back with the policeman to fetch the keys for the music notes, but by the time they arrived and actually found the little metal thing, everyone back at the building had left in impatience.
Ran reported that they thought the murders would be over, since the anger had 'burned away', but Conan pointed out that there were three more movements of Moonlight yet to be played.
When they went back to unlock the notes, hoping to get a jump start on the next day, they were interrupted by a noise - which Conan went to investigate and found one of the people lying on the ground, not quite dead - and a scream from Ran, as she and the officer opened the storeroom to reveal a hanging body.
Cue chaos. Megure-keibu and Kogorou making mistaken deductions, or perhaps just naively hoping.
Conan found a tuning hammer by the unconscious-but-not-dead guy, and realized that he must've been going to tune the piano. And this night, in doing so, he probably came across the culprit unluckily, and was attacked.
But what had the culprit been doing with the piano? Standing under the large instrument, Conan reached to the underside of the piano and prodded it, searching for anything out of place.
"Conan-kun, what are you doing?" Ran asked, kneeling to watch him work.
"The weird guy I saw who jumped out the window, he had his hand under the piano for some reason," Conan answered. "I think something's here."
A moment later, something clicked and slid open, revealing a secret compartment.
Moving to the side to let Ran examine it more thoroughly, being tall enough to peer into the actual compartment, something on the floor caught Conan's eye.
He crouched beside it, poking the substance with his finger. Some sort of white powder, huh? I wonder… Carefully, he brought it to his mouth and touched the residue with his tongue. As soon as he registered the taste, he flinched back. That's cocaine!
Mind whirling, Conan shot out of the broadcasting room he'd been using to announce his deductions with Kogorou's voice, running towards the community center with the sheet music that had been locked up for years clutched in his hand. He prayed he wouldn't be too late, since the fact that Narumi-sensei was gone so fast meant she had a plan, she had something she needed to do -
Suicide.
No!
Conan ran faster.
He saw the blazing building and the people gathered around it - and he pushed through the crowd, stumbling a little, but ducked out of everyone's immediate view and charged into the inferno, covering himself with his arms as he barged into the hallways.
The piano room, the piano room, he thought frantically, skidding around a corner and reorienting himself. Smoke hazed the air, choking the breath out of his lungs, but he had to keep going, he wasn't going to let her die in this blaze, he wanted her - him - arrested, not dead.
Coughing harshly, Conan staggered for a moment, but his free hand brushed a door frame, the piano room's door frame, he was so close, just a little further…
"It's over, otousan," he heard Narumi-sensei whisper. "It's all over…"
"No, it's not!" Conan retorted, voice rasping. He stepped towards him, offering the sheets. "Look, your father's sheet music, it says, 'Seiji, you must live a full life', so - cough - come on, let's get out of here, we can still make it!"
He gazed at the papers quietly for a moment. Then, he began to speak - not, Conan realized, horrified, intending to escape at all. When his voice became broken by the smoke, Conan took the break in words as an opportunity to surge forward, grabbing the doctor's arm.
"Come on," he begged, eyes stinging as he yanked on his arm. "Please, come on, let's get out of here, Seiji-san - " He coughed again, gasping for air. Ice flooded his body, trying to drive away the burning heat, but it only made him dizzier.
Gently, Seiji lifted Conan up and looked him directly in the eyes. "It's too late," he said softly. "My hands have already been soiled by the blood of those four…"
"N-no," Conan protested around a wheeze. But he couldn't do anything, his vision was already darkening at the edges as his body threw itself into a panic, struggling for air, because it wasn't smoke he was breathing, no, he was inhaling polluted seawater that scraped against the inside of his lungs, a weight chained to his ankles and hands and dragging him down, the jeers of the town citizens fading as he sunk deeper and deeper into the cool darkness, crimson eyes clenched shut, those eyes were the motive -
And suddenly he was flying, shattering the window as he hurtled through the air, slamming into the unkind ground with the heat at his back and cool winds blowing fresh gusts of wind into his mouth. He took only a moment to recover, panting. Once he could vaguely see the moon in the sky, he decided he was rested enough and forced himself into an upright position, trying to get his feet beneath him.
"Conan-kun!" Ran grabbed his wrists and held him still when he tried to re-enter the blazing building. "Stop."
He writhed in her hold, weakly fighting to free himself. However, several notes resounded through the air, and he paused to listen - and then collapsed in Ran's hold the moment they stopped, easily decoding them in his head.
"Thank you, little detective."
... tsudzuku ...
Author's Note:
Slooooowly moving through the volumes. Very, very slowly. You have no idea how tempted I am to skip all the way to Heiji (...is he even that far away?), so I will be jumping cases because the explanations take too long and are boring because you all already know how it ends! I did want to include the Moonlight Sonata one, and I added some little things in there. Hinting at some past experiences and stuff. Word count for this one is a bit over 8,000, which is nice.
A review response, which I forgot last time, sorry:
Ar: Thank you for reviewing both chapters! Since I'm speeding up the plot, I am also assuming that their technology is much, much better than what it is in canon, so yeah, they get proper cell phones, not... those old things. XD
Challenge! Who knows who the raven is? Guess all you like, but I'm not revealing it until later. I just want to see how obvious it is.
And yes, I'm posting this early. Why? Because I'm doing NaNoWriMo, which I'm super excited about, so my November installment will probably not happen.
Did you hear that?
NANOWRIMO IN NOVEMBER SO PROBABLY NO CHAPTER THEN.
Great, thanks! Drop a review if you'd like, I promise you the recap will be skimmed as much as possible so we can get to the actual fun plot.
Until next time~ Thanks again for reading, and if you reviewed, special thanks to you!
*posted: Oct. 15, 2014
