Case Closed AU
By: FunahoMisaki
(A/N: I own nothing and read last chapter)
It had been four days since Irene started referring to Rachel as her 'kaa-san' and Rachel had started taking to the part with gutso while Richard was very…very…VERY slowly getting used to being referred to as 'jiji' by the six year old that Rachel had all but adopted.
Right now the 'family' of three plus three very energetic members of the Junior Detective League were sitting on a train to go to a wedding for one of Richards friends and to go on a small vacation to get away from all the big city annoyances. Right now Rachel was scolding her dad for having gone out drinking the night before and therefore was being reduced to shaving on the train and getting his wrinkled shirt all dirty.
"You know I appreciate. You're glad to get out of the city too aren't you Irene-chan?" Rachel asked looking down at Irene who was happily munching on some lunch that Rachel had packed for her. Irene looked up with rice still on her lips and nodded in agreement, causing Rachel to giggle and begin to wipe the rice from Irene's lips when Mitch, George, and Amy ran by and acted around. Irene idly recalled that her glasses had a transponder and listening device added to them now courtesy of the scatterbrained Doctor Agase.
"What about those misfits why are they here?" Richard asked glaring at the seats holding the three goofing off 'junior detectives' while Rachel turned and tried to fix his tie, idly remarking about how their parents had paid for their tickets as the three asked Irene to explore with them before running off again.
"There's something wrong with parent's today. Drop off their kids first chance they get. Take Irene. Her folks hadn't even called us yet." Richard said causing Irene to look down before running off to the bathroom while Rachel hit her father upside his head and whispered about how his parents were dead into his ear. Irene watched wide eyed as two men in black coats that looked like the ones that had drugged her walked past her without sparing a glance. A few minutes later Irene was back in her seat and staring back as the two men stood up and walked into a different car on the train, her eyes narrowed as she wondered what they were doing on the train.
Irene took the fact that Richard was asleep while Rachel was staring out the window to her advantage as she hopped down from her seat and ran after the two men. It looked like they were meeting someone in the dining car, she smirked at this as she took out the transponder and then stuck it carefully in a wad of gum she had been chewing.
"Irene-chan what are you doing?" Rachel asked seeing Irene over by the two men's seats as Irene carefully wrapped the gum in paper and stuck it in the ashtray.
"These seats are empty so I thought it would be okay for me to put the gum in some paper and put it in the ashtray." Irene said in an innocent voice as she looked up at Rachel who smiled and patted her on the head.
"Come on Irene let's explore!" Amy said as she, Mitch, and George made another appearance and dragged Irene off.
"Okay Irene what's the scoop? Knowing you that gum was special so what was it?" Amy asked recalling how Irene had came up with the idea of letting the guys about to kill them have the gold a few days back…by dropping it on their heads from above. Irene only idly listened to George and Mitch give some outlandish ideas like the gum being a missile launcher. Irene quickly said that it was just regular gum which caused them to pout disappointed and take off exploring again.
"You're in the way brat." One of the men in black said walking up behind Irene who spun around startled before noticing their faces. She blinked, these weren't the guys who drugged her.
"Sorry misters." Irene said moving out of the way and letting them walk past her, blinking when she noticed that one of them had a different briefcase than he came in with. Irene followed after the guys and sat in her seat listening in on their conversation. She almost panicked when one of them started smoking and noticed the gum in the ashtray. She then listened in as the two of them talked about the briefcase exploding into multiple bits.
Irene's eyes narrowed as she thought quickly. Okay the two men gave the bomb case to someone else aboard the train, and they had done it in a non-smoking area if the black haired ones comment on smoking was to be believed. The exchange took place in the dining car earlier, but who was the one with the bomb. Irene smirked as she walked off, idly noticing the two men get off as her eyes narrowed further.
"How many cars on the train are for non-smokers?" Irene asked herself aloud softly as Mitch, George, and Amy followed her.
"That'd be eight. We counted while we were exploring." Mitch said causing Irene to look over her shoulder at them with a small smile, glad that they could actually help her with this. She knew no one would listen to a little kid even if she did talk about a bomb being on the train, most adults just discounted a kids opinion which meant it was up to them to save the train and everyone on board. Wait…that long haired guy said something about looking down on the scenery.
"Where can you look down at the scenery?" Irene asked turning to face the three behind her while Mitch thought about it for a second before answering.
"The second floor the first class seats." Mitch said causing Irene to smile, this might be easier than she thought.
"How many of the first class cars are non-smoking?" Irene asked causing Mitch to say that it was only number seven, PERFECT! Now she knew which car the bomb was in! She only idly heard Amy and George comment on a prize and hide and go seek.
"No I was just curious." Irene said giving them a disarming smile to hide her nervousness. They didn't hear her as they exclaimed about the Junior Detective League being on the case before running after Irene as she made her way to the top floor of number seven and noted who all had briefcases. There were only four possible suspects. Hmm now if she were going to use someone as an unwitting accomplice to blow up the train she would use someone no one would think to question. That narrowed out the man working on his laptop and the one reading his magazine which left only the old man and the woman. If it turned out it wasn't either of them then she would check out the other two.
Irene didn't notice that she was surveying the two main suspects with her head tilted to the side until the female that had been reading the newspaper looked up and saw her.
"KAWAII!" The woman screamed, causing everyone to jump three feet into the air as she flew forward and glomped Irene.
"You are so adorable with your head tilted to the side. Just like a cute little puppy!" The woman said squishing Irene's face into her breasts. Oh man if Irene were back to her teenage Jimmy self she would be enjoying this but right now she was suffocating!
"Ack! I think Irene is dying. George go get Ms. Rachel!" Amy said causing George to nod as he ran off to get the teenager.
"Oh your name is Irene then? An adorable name for an adorable girl." The woman said pulling back from Irene enough to smile down at her while Irene merely blinked and looked up at the woman with her head tilted to the side again and her glasses knocked slightly askew.
"Kawaii! So adorable!" The woman said squishing the child in a hug again while the three men in the section gave the child envious looks before the guy working on his laptop got fed up.
"Hey lady! Some of us are trying to work here! Why don't you go back to the dining car and treat the kid to lunch or something? Just get out of here so I can concentrate!" The man yelled at the woman while Irene noted the wording, 'back' to the dining car? That means the woman had been to the dining car once already.
"Great Idea! You must be hungry little one. Let me go get you something to eat." The woman said picking up the child and walking to the door just as Rachel came in and looked around.
"Irene-chan are you okay? George said that you were dying?" Rachel asked panicked when she caught sight of Irene being held in a strangers arms.
"Yeah the brat was dying alright. That lady kept trying to hug the kid to death." The man with scars on his face reading a magazine said snorting while Rachel relaxed slightly before she heard the guy mutter 'lucky little brat' under his breath.
"I'm sorry mister but I didn't hear you. What were you mumbling?" Irene asked moving to look over the womans shoulder at the scarred man curiously, obviously having heard the man.
"Will you lot just shut up and leave already? I'm sick and tired of little bastards running around while I'm trying to work!" The man in the blue business suit shouted setting his laptop to the side and standing up angrily.
"You wanna say that again?" Rachel asked her eyes narrowed dangerously as she slowly turned her head towards the man who wasn't fazed by her dangerous stare one bit.
"Um miss." Irene said tugging on the womans sleeve to get her attention when she noticed what Rachel was about to do.
"Yes little one?" The woman asked looking at the child in her arms curiously while Amy, Mitch, and George were cowering behind Rachel at her tone of voice.
"Can we get out the way? Kaa-san's about to hurt him and I don't want us to be caught in the crossfire." Irene said causing the woman to glance at Rachel's dangerous expression before paling and moving to the side so that Rachel had a straight shot at the blond man.
"I called them little bastards because they keep running around screaming while I'm trying to work!" The man shouted at Rachel before he was knocked clean across the car and hit the wall with a thud.
"Listen here mister. Don't you ever insult a child, especially not my Irene-chan, again or else I'll do much worse. Do we understand each other?" Rachel asked with a dangerous aura appearing around her and giving her a demonic look that terrified those that saw her.
"Huh that guy got off lightly. Although it's probably cause he only insulted us instead of threatening us." Irene noted aloud as she looked over at the blond man that was trembling in fear.
"Can you explain that little one?" The woman holding Irene asked looking down at the child who blinked and looked up at her.
"A few days ago the four of us were leaving the museum and found what looked like a treasure map. We figured it out and found the gold the Italian mafia guy was hiding as the other mafia guys followed us and threatened to shoot us with a gun if we didn't tell them where the gold was. We knocked em out by dropping the bags of gold on their head but when Kaa-san found out that they had had guns pointed at us…" Irene trailed off causing a shiver to go up the womans spine as she imagined what the protective teenager had done to the poor poor idiots that had threatened the cute kid in her arms.
"Oh is it almost 3:10 already. Sorry little one but I need to go do something important okay? I'll treat you to lunch some other time." The woman said glancing at her watch before setting Irene down and picking up her case before walking off. Irene looked at Rachel still threatening the man, the two cowering adult men in their seats, and the three scared six year olds hiding from Rachel before she took off after the business woman. Irene only idly heard the announcement about cell phone calls being placed in a designated area as she took off.
"Wait miss!" Irene called running towards the woman who had just finished pressing the numbers on her cell phone, only to look up at the child curiously. Irene's eyes widened as she realized she was too late then noticed the window as she crouched down and spun the hidden dial on her shoe, causing it to glow slightly
"Oh no I'm too late. Hope this works." Irene said to herself before running towards the woman and her briefcase, which had a timer on the side counting down from 10.
"Little one!" The woman said shocked at the sight of the child running towards her with a serious face.
"Duck!" Irene said causing the woman to dive to the side on reflex as the child kicked the suitcase clear out the window and into the air a ways above the train just in time for it to explode above them, shaking the train. Irene stood there with her leg outstretched for a moment, glad she had worn her blue jeans today, before sighing in relief as she lowered her leg. The woman a little ways away was just sitting there staring at the child in shock.
"What kind of kid are you?" The woman asked staring at Irene wide eyed and glad she had moved, if Irene had kicked her by accident she didn't want to know what would have happened.
"The detective kind. My name's Irene. Hi." Irene said grinning disarmingly at the woman who could only continue to stare in shock while Rachel ran up behind Irene and picked her up, checking her for injuries before growling.
"Please tell me you had nothing to do with that blast." Rachel said narrowing her eyes down at her pseudo daughter who smiled up at her.
"I saw some bad men talking in the dining car earlier and over heard something about a bomb in a briefcase that would go off when someone pushed a certain set of buttons, which could only be a phone call without being suspicious. I found out they snuck it in with some documents without the other persons knowledge so I had ta save everyone kaa-san. When the mean guy back there said that nice lady should go back to the dining car I thought it could be her and since I overheard them talking about the bomb going off at 3:10 which is when she made the call I knew the bomb was in her briefcase. So I kicked it out the window." Irene said grinning proudly up at Rachel who blinked while the other woman looked close to passing out from shock.
"You…kicked…it…Those karate lessons you asked me for must be coming in more handy than I thought Irene-chan. That's an impressive kick and your detective work was top notch." Rachel said blinking slowly before smiling proudly and hugging Irene who caught sight of the still shocked woman and motioned to be put down.
"Hey nice lady! Are you okay? You haven't moved for a while now. Don't worry the cops won't take you away. You didn't know about the bomb." Irene said grinning up at the woman who finally collapsed in shock, causing Irene to let out a squawk of surprise when the woman fell on her.
True to her word Irene explained everything to Inspector McGuire and told him that the business woman couldn't be punished for the bomb, cause she didn't set it off on purpose and had no knowledge of it. He looked it up and noticed this was the womans first offense, and with a puppy dog pout in full force from Irene he agreed that the woman would only get away with a warning to be careful when making further business deals, something the woman agreed with whole heartedly. Irene got a shiny medal from Inspector McGuire for saving the train and one of his men, a nice pretty lady Irene knew to be Patrol Officer Yumi, snuck her some candy as a prize too. The woman also had to remain under watch in order to get back on the train to get to her destination, Irene was more than happy to volunteer herself and with a protective Rachel keeping an eye-out…McGuire had paled and told the woman to not hurt Irene or else she'd only go to jail if they could find out where Rachel had stuffed her body.
Right now Irene was sitting on the train again with Richard laying down in the seats across from Irene and Rachel was reading next to her while the business woman was actually underneath Irene, the small girl sitting on her lap while Rachel kept a close eye on the woman.
"You're a genius though Irene! I don't think anyone could have figured out which one person on the train had a bomb in their briefcase out of all the people with one on here!" Amy said over her seat as she, Mitch, and George beamed down at Irene who blushed slightly under their awe filled looks.
"Well I guess it comes with the name." Irene said referring to a certain Sherlock Holmes character, not that Richard or the three kids knew that while Rachel realized what she was talking about as had the business woman.
"I knew your name sounded familiar. You're named after the only woman who could ever match Holmes in an investigation, as well as the only woman he ever loved. Irene Adler from Sir Conan Doyle's books right?" The business woman asked causing Irene to look up at her with a freshly unwrapped sucker in her mouth and nod which caused the following reaction.
'Oh great here we go again!' Irene thought as she was being squished while a loud "KAWAII!" filled the train and Richard nearly fell out of his seat laughing.
