The Puppeteer

Chapter 3

"Irony"

Disclaimer: I do not own Detective Conan. The events mentioned here are purely fictional, any similar incidents and names are purely coincidental.

For your info: Puffer fish is a delicacy in some countries, as an exotic food. However, as it contains tetrodotoxin present in the fish, the cook has to prepare it cautiously. Eating raw puffer fish can have deadly consequences.

Warning: This is a VERY dark fiction with mature themes. Rated M for gore, violence, insanity, psychological horror and sexual references. The characters are OOC as well, since it's a dark fiction. However, I don't think they're capable of doing such deeds going to be mentioned in this fic, much more so that I've only written it for entertainment and as a practise for writing psychological horror. I do NOT condone such behaviour, deeds and characteristic traits I had written.

It is NOT for the faint heart. You have been warned.


"Come and play with me, in my wonderland, and I'll teach you how to paint white roses with red paint made from your enemies' hearts..." Conan was singing the verse softly, words not holding of any meanings to him as he rummaged through the pile of metal garbage in the abandoned house.

He was looking for the appropriate "apparatus".

"Oh, and Mitsuhiko? When is Haibara coming? Didn't Ayumi called her through the badge? Man, that was really troublesome. I really didn't want her to make a trip here. I destroyed those badges while you guys were knocked out, since none of you would need them again," he commented, "but since she's coming here, I would like to have fun with her."

"Conan-kun! You're not laying a finger on Haibara!" Mitsuhiko yelled, trying to get out of his restraints to his best ability. It was futile nonetheless, the effort only gaining his an exposed flesh due to the friction. The boy ignored him, picking up a heavy metal and examining its weight.

Lifting it up, he said in triumphed, "Aha! The right one for the job. Not too heavy, but enough to give damage."

Turning to the restrained boy, he said, this time, growling in menace, "and don't think I didn't notice how you eyed on me keenly whenever I go to investigations or even stare at her. I really wanted to keep it low profile so that you didn't notice; but the look of surprise on your face was so entertaining, I had to purposely drop some bizarre behaviour that only you could pick up."

"And you know what I'd do to her?" Conan added, in a taunting tone, "I'd do all the things you'll never do. I would -"

His speech was cut off by the sound of the creaking door being opened.

"Kudo-kun... Why this?" Ai whispered, tears welling up her eyes as she saw Genta laying motionless on the floor.

"Yo, Haibara..." he greeted.

"Ai-chan! Please help us out! Conan-kun has gone bonkers!" Ayumi screamed, her face reddened with exhaustive crying.

Ai took a step forward towards the boy. She couldn't believe what was right infront of her. The boy she loves was falling apart, right there, after all these years. Deaths were haunting him, causing the shell of protective self-righteousness to be destroyed, only then lie a product of his despair and jadedness with red splash. Ai took a step forward towards him and wrapped her arms around his neck, causing her dress to stain as well.

"Haibara-san! Be careful!"

Ai ignored the warnings. She whispered on the detective's ear, in a concerned tone. "Kudo-kun...Not them, too... We can work this out, we can make them promise that they won't ever tell your secret."

Then there. Ai's pleading hit Mitsuhiko like a ton of bricks. He thought that she was going to salvage them, but that glimmer of hopeful thought got smashed once he realised what was unfolding right infront of him. "Haibara-san... You knew..." that was all Mitsuhiko could mutter.

"Geez, Mitsuhiko, and here I am thinking that you'd actually improved in your deducing skills. Who do you think makes the poison when someone "accidentally" dies of a "stomach flu"? I'm a detective, an occupation that only functions with crime around, not a chemist. I'm not the only person who was shrunk to this state," he said, exasperated.

"Kudo-kun...do we really need to kill them too?" she asked, her head resting on his shoulder, she lifted up her head to meet his cold eyes, but she failed to do so, "they knew us for so long, this is different. We can't-"

Her words were cut off when her lips met with his, violently yearning for her. She responded back with the same hunger, it would always taste so good that it was like a drug for her.

And she needed a daily dose of that addiction.

"What did you say to me, back then when you walked in the room seeing me guilty of killing off the guy that murdered Hakase and my parents?" he demanded, now wrapping his arms around her waist behind her. His head nuzzling on the curve of her neck. She winced at the memory. Hakase was like a father to her, so the sight of his corpse made her infuriated as well. While the burning fury was prominent, the utter shock of seeing her first love done the same deed was more prominent.

"That I would've done the same..." she bit her lips, trying to suppress her arousal when his breath tickled her skin.

"And?" he added, his teeth slightly sinking onto her neck as his hands roam around her. He ensured that they were both backfacing the other two tied soon-to-be-victims. He didn't want to share the view of her with anyone else.

Struggling to suppress a moan, she answered weakly, "and that... I love you no matter what," her voice quivered in the end. She was silently crying now, the truth aching on her chest. She couldn't blame him, she was the one that got him to this mess. She was no different from him. How many people had actually died when they were forced to consume the APTX 4869? In her world of loneliness, he was the only one that could save her from it. She'd darn well lose her mind if he was gone too - that is, if she hasn't lost it. With her family perished, she was the only one that spoke to his heart, knew of what he struggled. She acknowledge the darkness within all humans, so she accepted his shadow that was continuously feeding his soul without any reluctance. Again, she reminded, she was no different. She only sinned differently. How many people she killed making that drug back in the Black Organisation, or even those moments she actually did enjoy killing of the lab test mices in creative ways? If he was Holmes, she would downright play the role of Adler and Watson. If he chose to be the ruler of the underworld, she'd darn well follow him to the depths of hell and play the role of Persephone. She knew better than succumbing to a man's control, but if dominance was what she had to sacrifice to share the heated passion with him she had longed for years, then maybe it's worth it.

He cautiously hushed her, wiping off her tears before his hands travelled to where she wanted to be touched. He smirked, as he knew that he had successfully changed her mood, the angst getting replaced by her yearning for him. It never got old, how she equally desired his intimacy like a persistent itch that needs to be scratched.

"There's still some temporary antidote in the basement lab right? I'd never get tired of ravaging your true self. I mean, you have always been cute, but your true self... you're fucking drop dead gorgeous" he whispered into her ear seductively, "once this is over, I'd treat you like a princes- no, a queen. I'd even be gentle if you'd request for it." Now, she was erupting in arousal that it was difficult to resist. What was she talking about? She can never learn to resist his advances. The teasing of her brassiere straps that he was doing right now, further drove her to her mad addiction that it seems easy to forgo the trio's association with her. What can the three compare to his presence in her life?

He was her world.


Meanwhile, though Mitsuhiko couldn't see what was happened behind their backs, he was smart enough to put the bits of pieces together. Conan's mind was well-transparent to him right now, something of which Ai seemed to be oblivious of. To her, it may have been just mad, twisted and unconditional loving devotion. But it was the famished lasciviousness that was always left unsatisfied. To the fool, it seems like only two lovestrucked teens embracing another. But to the wise Mitsuhiko, he saw a boy holding the heartstrings of the girl, playing her like a marionette doll. He had complete control over her thoughts and emotions, without her knowledge. He was selling her thirsty desire like a cheese for a mouse, only to lead it to a lethal trap.

Mitsuhiko watched in horror as the four-legged snake continue to whisper deviously into the girl's ear, influencing her to consume the forbidden red fruit. He knew well what strings to play, an impression that he had mastered being the puppeteer.

"Haibara-san! Snap out of it! He doesn't love you, he's using you as his tool. He snapped because Ran died, don't you get it? He loves her, not you. You're just a substitute to him, he can discard you if you're no longer convenient," Mitsuhiko yelled in despair, his last resort.

"Shut up! Shut up!" Ai screamed, crouching into a fetal posture and cupped her ears to block the hurtful words. She was in total denial.

Mitsuhiko's attempt failed. Boy, he was exhausted, having dehydrated for hours. There was still so much years ahead of him. His heart sank, at the realisation that he could've spent his years being himself, instead of attempting to live like someone else. He wanted to be Conan so badly, but right now, he was the last person he'd ever want to emulate from. The power of intelligence was indeed beneficial, but that path can be self-destructive -one needs extreme mental strength to indulge and deal with the power. How many fallen genius scientists ended up playing with the lives of dead mice, instead of advancing science for the better mankind? Ironically, Mitsuhiko was turning into like Conan, the days where the boy helplessly held onto the hope of humanity. He could see himself in the sandpit right now, delving into madness and sickened defeat. Mitsuhiko wasted his life.

But!

Just when his nose was about to sink into the sandpit, a far more twisted truth was forming in his head. It gave him a migraine just thinking of the possibility. But it all makes sense- Ran's death, involving toxins, the way Ai is slowly delving into her guilty addictive pleasure...

He could turn this situation around. If he can't make Ai betray her puppeteer, he'll convince the puppeteer to throw away his doll. He started to laugh, like a demented child. This earned a surprise from Conan. "Conan-kun! I'll tell you the truth now! The reason you couldn't solve Ran's murder case was because the cul-"

His speech was cut, having to have his jaw removed from him. The last sight he ever saw was the beautiful Ai, no longer the same girl, with what seemed a sharp antique sword found in the house; before his vision blurred. Ayumi remained speechless, seeing the freckled boy's irises became soulless. The lump in her throat was in the way, so she released an arc of her half-digested breakfast on the floor. She was beyond sickened. Even if she survived now, she doubted her mind surviving this. With the obstruction gone, she finally let out an ear-piercing scream and cried helplessly. Conan irked at the noise she was giving.

"Continue, dollface," he ordered Ai, gesturing at the tied-up girl.

"But-but... Kudo-kun..."

"We need to get out of here. If we get caught, there's a high likelihood we'll never see each other again-"

She hesitated. She looked at the weeping girl apologetically and started to cry as well. She didn't know what to do. She wanted to be with him, hell, she wished for it. But the fairy that granted her wish must've been cruel, playing twisted jokes on her. Conan is technically hers now, but in such a sickened fate.

"And make it quick. I don't like to hear girls screaming. The only screams I enjoy hearing is yours, Haibara."


"The antidote effects seems to be lasting shorter as time passes," Conan lamented, embracing the nude girl that was with him and kissing her cheek softly. He gave the extra flesh on her torso a light squeeze, which earned a submissive whimper from her.

Pulling the light blanket on top of her, she replied sardonically, "overtime, we'll be immune to it. The irony here is that gladly, you're not that psychotic to indulge in pedophilia. Just give it 3 years or so, we'll be back to the bodies the same age as the time we've shrunk." She proceeded to twirl his hair around her fingers, a mischievous grin forming on her perspired face.

They were in the Kudo residence, as he promised. The room reeked of aroused hormones, the bed sheets as messy as the paraphernalia that were displaced in the heat of the moment. Their clothings were everywhere, with most of Ai's ripped from exceeding excitement and impatience from the boy she was so infatuated with. The whole bedroom was a visual representation of the disorientation in their values and minds that both acknowledged, yet didn't give a damn about it. Among the shattered glass pieces and vases - an illustration of their souls - lay the daily newspaper. As Ai nibbled on his ear lovingly, he eyed on the headlines of the newspaper.

"Firehouse accident, a man and 3 teens found dead, burnt to crisp"

He chuckled at the incompetence of the Tokyo Metropolitan Headquarters. To be fair, he did solve most of the murder cases there, so if he wasn't gonna solve the case he was guilty of, who would? "There was something I'm curious of though, what was Mitsuhiko trying to say, before you hacked his face?" he muttered lazily, not really thinking deeply into it.

Ai's heart stopped beating for a second. The truth is, Mitsuhiko left her with no choice. He was going to reveal the mystery behind Ran's death.

It was an accident.

She didn't mean to.

Unable to handle the unrequited love, she wanted to take her own life. She knew she made Conan promised to not escape her fate, but the unreciprocated love she bore was toxic in her veins. She wanted to disappear and not be a bother to the two fated childhood sweethearts. So she placed the most recent poison she came up with -the one that never leaves a trace in the victim's body, despite forensic testing. She placed it on her cup, because she wanted to die as a publicised cold unsolved mystery that will leave others baffled for. It just so happens that the absent-minded Ran was eating the puffer fish meat and drank on hers secretly, out of wanting to taste the "homemade iced coffee" Ai made.

Ai had made it clear not to touch her cup.

But she didn't fucking listen.

As the girl collapsed, void of life, it left Ai struck. She had never been in a much difficult position, seeing Conan in an extreme frantic. She gradually watched him descend to a deranged monster she now gets a taste of. It was her obligation to nurse his wounds, she was responsible of it anyway.

Wanting to distract him, she licked his eyeball in affection. It worked. She had the capacity to control his thoughts, just as much as he could. As mentioned, they were no different. The only contrast she could make is that he doesn't know that she could.

He rolled over, hovering above her. He gave another ferocious kiss, where their tongue battled for dominance. Of course, she knew how much he wanted her to be his, so she would purposely let him win after a seemingly "worthwhile" tug-of-war in their game of power. He proceeded gritting on her lower lip. Breaking it off, with their nose touching each other, he reassured her, "you know what Mitsuhiko said about me using you? You do know it wasn't true right? You dictate my mind as much as I pull your heartstrings. We're both equally in authority here."

Lies, lies, lies.

She knew it was a convincing lie for him. But to her, it wasn't. With her delusion aside, one thing he would never know is her secret regarding Ran's death. It was an accident, but the following events, took toll on his mentality and morals. The only person he could lean on is Ai herself, so if anyone was pulling the neurons in his brain, it was her. Her very sin had caused not only his downfall, but granted her wish to be able to hold him close. She was aware that he only wanted her because he needed her - as a substitute lover, a satisfaction to his cravings, a glimmer of life in his abyss - but it's better than nothing.

She giggled at the cheesiness and irony in his statement. He may think she's the doll here, but not in the whole picture.

"Come on, what's the comedy this time?" he asked, kissing her neck. He smiled against her skin, hearing her giggle even more. He'd found it really adorable, which held a reminder as one of the reasons why he desired her too. She was so sweet yet feisty, so beautiful yet dangerous, so faithful yet mysterious. She was the unique woman he had to chain down and fuck her senseless. Whether it was him tickling her neck or the joke itself, he was uncertain. He then rested his head on her chest, finding momentarily peace in their most intimate moments. She responded by tugging the strings of his raven hair.

"Nothing. It's just, I realised how awfully true that we're both equally in authority-"

"You darn know that I'm always right-"

"I love you, tantei-san. I surely hope that you'd say it back, or else-" He cut her off with another kiss, pulling in for another fierce battle for authority to avoid replicating the words back.

And he knew none the wiser, of who was the real puppeteer here.


A/N: So how was it? Please don't be too harsh, aite. I did warn you that there's going to be some mature themes and OOC. I DO NOT PERCEIVE AI TO HURT RAN. After all, it was by accident. I wanted it to have some irony and plot twist in it. I'm unsure if I'm ready to write up a psychological horror-mystery novel of my own on fictionpress. Like I said, my work "Kiss of Death" is more true to its character depiction. This was a mixed inspiration from seinen mangas, Suicide Squad theme songs, Melanie Martinez's songs and the world of DC comics. I DO NOT SUPPORT THE RELATIONSHIP AI AND CONAN HAVE HERE. It's sick and twisted, something a person shouldn't be in a sort of relationship.

One more thing, DO NOT lick someone's eyeball. You'll risk eye infections. It was a tribute to Eto's show of affection to Kaneki in Tokyo Ghoul.

Recently, there is this university that offers a minor in creative writing. Should I sign up?

Do read and review. I am working on the "kiss of death" fanfiction, update will be after my next batch of exams.