The pieces were in place, the evidence fit perfectly and just like that the case was solved.
Though the man wore a mask when he snatched the purse, obviously to hide his butt ugly face, the idiot hadn't even changed his pants. Mitsuhiko apparently was old enough to solve cases easily but not old enough to understand the concepts of unintentional entendres and innuendos.
That aside, it was pretty obvious that he did. The suspect had tripped on to a grassy knoll, before landing in a pebbled street corner. Somehow after that comedy of errors he escaped.
But not for long.
Mitsuhiko had a plan at first but at total random the suspect all but traipsed in tripping over himself. Funny how fate, karma, or aliens worked their strands that way.
Ayumi noticed the grass stains on the back and side of the white sweatpants. Thankfully he had time to recover his ego by previously examining the rocks in vicinity of where he fell.
So when the man pulled out a couple little pebbles similar in cleavage, quantity, and compression, with veins of quartz imbedded in the middle just like the tiny rock fragments found where he originally found at the scene, Mitsuhiko had a hunch that his suspicions were correct.
Of course, Ai breaking into the car and finding the mask plus the purse helped. Ayumi was aghast and nervous that they were going to be in trouble. Mitsuhiko himself didn't particularly like the ethics of it nor that Ai somehow knew how to do that.
Then again, they were in plain sight so they couldn't claim that the evidence was illegally obtained.
God, he over thinks things sometimes. Probably the reason for his constant headaches. No wonder his mother calls him an old man.
When the thief returned, he was furious and certainly would have given them a chase had Genta not kicked in the shins. Mitsuhiko may have been mature for his age but he wasn't old enough to understand the ethics of breaking more crimes in the act of solving one.
It was nothing like when they were six. This was a new game entirely.
Mitsuhiko used to think it was weird how Conan had acted sometimes, a bit too creepy for his liking. Ironically, he admired and respected that more then ever, getting childish glee at being compared to him.
Yet it made him sad as well. They would have become such awesome detectives if Conan was still there and he would never be able to rub it in his face. But he no longer wanted that really. He just wanted to see his best friend again.
The cops at the Koban weren't really surprised by their presence among them, with only the newbies now interfering at their adeptness at solving crimes. Of course they still got looks of disapproval, reminding Mitsuhiko of his nagging mom.
Good lord adults were such weirdos! They never wanted help from anyone, Mitsuhiko thought to himself. It must be an old person thing. The certainly didn't have a problem when Conan did it…
The woman whose purse was stolen was a blonde lady with green eyes and plump lips glossed with red lipstick. Mitsuhiko had a dual crush on both Ai and Ayumi but the looks of the lady made him forget about his future wives for a second.
The pretty lady then proceeded to kiss Genta and Mitsuhiko on the cheek as a token of her gratitude. Though Mitsuhiko's face was red and his palms were sweaty, for once he would not bare a grudge for the breach of his personal space.
Before Mitsuhiko could think of a way to embellish the moment for his classmates (Was this the so called "sex thing" the middle schoolers talked about?) Ai was happy to spoil the mood by pinching his cheek.
"Ow, baka! Why didn't you do to Genta?"
Ai pointed to the side where Genta was rubbing the cheek where he had been kissed, a grossed out look on his face. Typical.
Moving on, they talked amongst themselves excited for the spring festivals that were imminent, enjoying life at it fullest. The sun was starting to set, so they decided to make it home before the orange glow in the horizon turned into an ocean of black space and blue stars stretching into the night for all eternity.
They were sorta hampered by greetings from various neighbors and shop owners. They were local celebrities after all, having even solved a couple murder cases, nightmares be damned. It did annoying at times but Mitsuhiko couldn't help but be a little smug.
They even managed to get interviewed on the national news! Who else could say that except-
Conan-kun.
They all missed him. They all wished that they could talk to him, play soccer with him, be a member of their group. Even if it was only for a day, or even couple minutes, just to tell him how important he was to them.
But that was never to be. At least, not at the moment. He knew he was out there somewhere, just waiting to be found, Mitsuhiko dreamed about it sometimes, of waking up in a dungeon chained with Conan. He used to look the same as he was when he was six but now all Mitsuhiko could see was him as the same age as him, somehow taller by a couple inches.
Boy where they going to rag on him when he came back. But in a way he didn't want to do that. What he did want to do was beat the bastards who took him to a bloody pulp, pour chilly powder in their eyes and nose, only then giving them to the police.
The funny thing was, that thaw was the catalyst that made them better detectives. They had never felt so useless.
They actually used to believe that Conan had a bowtie that could imitate anyone else's voice or monogram tracking devices that could track anyone it was imbedded in. They had begged and begged the police to believe them but in the end it was just a childish fancy. Even Agasa said so.
So it was that day that they promised each other that they do better, so Conan-kun would have something to be proud of when he got back.
"Ah shit! I lost my candy!" Genta said out of nowhere, snapping Mitsuhiko out of his daydreaming.
Ai sighed and rubbed her head in exasperation, while Ayumi covered her mouth in shock.
This was his chance to look cool in front of the girls! Mitsuhiko definitely wasn't old enough to know how to properly cuss nor did he know how immature and stupid it made him sound but that didn't mean he wasn't going to try anyway.
"Genta-kun! You shouldn't curse like that." Ayumi said wagging her head in utter scandal, making Mitsuhiko pause his rather colorful stream of expletives.
When Conan-kun disappeared, Ayumi would cry incessantly, banging her fists against the floor and saying she wanted him back. At that age, it was impossible to grasp unfair things like death and disappearance. That made the trio make sure to never allow her to cry again, not only because it was always a wrong mean crime to make a girl cry but also because all they had left was each other.
The men bowed in apology but it was Ai that broke the awkward silence. Or maybe she just made it even more awkward.
"What do you expect from those two?," the ever dolorous yet droll ten year old Ai Haibara exclaimed with an almost invisible hint of a smirk, "don't they still watch Yaibahman?"
"Do not!" Mitsuhiko and Genta screamed in unison, denying the obvious truth.
"But Haibara-chan… Don't you still wear Digimon pant-"
Haibara's mouth stood agape with her cheeks rosy red before shakily covering Ayumi's mouth. Genta and Mitsuhiko smiled wickedly. There was no way in hell they were ever going to let that go.
Oddly enough, Haibara Ai changed the most but in a rather bizarre way that no one could expect.
Instead the shy scary know it all she was as a six year old she was replaced by more friendly and outgoing but still nightmare inducing red head. She was much more inclined to be happier now, but it had come at a great cost.
Ai was ultimately the one who took it the hardest. Its funny how you don't realize how close someone is to another when you're that young. They all knew that Ai and Conan were close but they didn't know how close until Conan was abducted.
She isolated herself completely, hiding her pain and misery like it was a easter egg. She refused to come out of her room despite their begging pleas. They tried to make her feel better but all that accomplished was her lashing out.
"SHUT UP, THE THREE OF YOU JUST SHUT THE FUCK UP!" Ai screamed at the top of her lungs, reverberating all throughout the Agasa Household like a gong being struck.
They all froze.
Don't any of you get it? Ai hissed in tantamount fury. "None of you…" Ai paused for a moment to catch her breath while hyperventelating, "Can possibly understand what I'm going through?"
Genta snapped back. "Of course we can!"
Ai's laugh was cruel and bitter, full of ice and salt. "No you don't! You idiots still don't get it. Can any of you comprehend how important he was t…" Ai stopped herself, shaking her head in disgust. Get out.
Ayumi came forward next." Please Ai, you're scaring us! What is Conan going to think when he gets back!"
Ai's eyes were flinty, full of brief cruelty and sharp as a Katana. "He's dead Ayumi. Forget about him and move on."
The group moved like flies in honey, utterly baffled at what Ai had just said. Ai was a bit of a jerk but never had she said anything as mean as that before. Ayumi ran out crying with Genta following in tow, leaving Ai and Mitsuhiko alone.
Ai's face changed as she realized what she just said. Tears ran down her rosy cheeks as she tried to apologize but Mitsuhiko didn't want to hear or see it. He would have hit her if she wasn't a girl.
Before slamming the door shut, Mitsuhiko said something he knew he would regret for the rest of his life, an additional weight to be borne to his dying day.
"I wish they took you instead of Conan!" He could Ai crying as he stomped down the stairs but he was much to angry to care. What she said was unforgivable.
Two days later Ai was taken to the hospital.
Agasa said that she fell down the stairs and split her head open. When Mitsuhiko heard the bad news the first time, he felt absolutely sick and morose, unable to bring himself to face her comatose body. Mitsuhiko knew that he would bear the guilt for what he said, even if Ai didn't remember it and he never told anyone else what he countered Ai's vicious but understandable sorrow. Had he never said it, Ai wouldn't have lost so much of her memory… And herself.
Suddenly he felt arms wrap around his chest. Mitsuhiko thought it was Genta about to screw with him, so struggled a bit until he heard a high pitched whimper, the obvious tell for either Ai or Ayumi.
It was amazing how a freckled, pockmarked face could turn from slightly peach to strawberry red. It was just like how he fantasized it, like something out of those Shojo manga he totally didn't read!
Mitsuhiko wished he could see behind him, just to see the jealous frown on Genta's face. Of course having a girl wasn't totally awesome as he thought it would be, as he wasn't prepared for it, and he definitely didn't want take advantage of the girl's fear.
He turned his head, revealing short red hair distinctive of the yawny faced devil woman. Mitsuhiko gently tried to slide out of Ai's caress, apologizing. Now Mitsuhiko felt really bad for enjoying it, as Ai looked like she was going to cry.
"Ai-chan… Why are you crying?" Ayumi and Genta was getting closer, worried and wondering why she had ended her four year streak of never crying even when she have.
Ai sniffled. "I don't know!"
That was until Ai pointed to the front, behind Mitsuhiko. Everyone else suddenly froze with a frightened look in their eyes. He turned around, now realizing that he, while in the midst of having fun with his friends, wandered haphazardly into a place not a single one of them wanted to go.
None of them liked going to go this way. Near here was the telephone where Kudo-kun was murdered. It was now almost permanently shunned due to fears that his ghost still haunted the place. It made them all feel sorry Mouri-chan, whose boyfriend Kudo-kun had been, though she denied it every time.
Mitsuhiko both hated and admired the deceased teenage detective. Despite everyone claiming that Conan considered Kudo-kun a hero, he honestly never talked about him that often. Come to think of it, Conan barely talked about himself. His parents must have been really mean though, as they never showed up to grieve for their son. Maybe that was why Conan didn't talk much. That made Mitsuhiko sad.
Watching the videos of Kudo and Conan separately proved how little he knew his friend. Conan copied his mannerisms and expressions to the last smirk.
In a way, Mitsuhiko admired him for that… But he had left Mouri-chan all alone! She was so sweet and kind, and Kudo-kun just abandoned her for the next case, probably murdered by the Yakuza like his parents and all the adults said he was.
Adults also said that he was a idiot for doing something he wasn't ready for and blamed him for his own death. That wasn't fair. He died trying to help people, why would they ever say something so cruel? Sometimes, Mitsuhiko thought that adults are a bit too pessimistic for his liking. His mother and all of the other member's parents openly disapproved of what the Detective Boys did, trying stint their job at any opportunity.
But then Mitsuhiko realized that he wouldn't ever be as brave as Sato-kun, Ran-chan, Kudo-kun and particularly Conan. If he had to choose between solving a dangerous case on his own or going to the proper authorities, he probably choose the latter. The boy just couldn't bare leaving his parents, friends, and future/potential girlfriends to cry over his demise.
He doubted he would ever do anything that selfish.
So with a sigh, he lead Ayumi away, ignoring any embarrassment for the time being. It was time to go.
The dark permeated through the town, making it look like the corners were draped in black bedsheets. It was right between the interstice colliding along the setting of the sun, a faint red glow being the only source of natural light. Street lamps were alight, bringing forth a swarming cloud of moth's and beetles. Fireflies buzzed around the small group, creating miniature torches to swipe at while their real target the mosquitoes gnawed on their vulnerable flesh.
Their parents were going to be so mad when they got home! Mitsuhiko visibly winced at the pace they were going. They had to circumvent around the city in a rather illogical and time consuming way because the street with the booth had been the quickest route.
Maybe they could ask Agasa for a ride. His house was the least far, only 45 minutes or so away. He considered the Mouri's but then he remembered why that was a bad idea
Oddly enough, this would prove beneficial but not in the way the gaggle believed it would.
While walking a leisurely yet brisk pace, Mitsuhiko started to remember microscopic little details that nagged at his subconscious, that he was too young at the time to understand. that he was too busy being a kid to properly notice, that was now finishing its four year long processing
Deja vu was setting in. Something about his surroundings didn't appear to right. His intuition was kicking in and it all centered on that house.
There was a house in the corner of the street. It was largely overgrown with thickets of weeds, but the basic structure and architectural details remained the same, even if the roof tiles were falling down and the windows were all broken. Upon the door was a yellow saltire with black Kanji glossed upon it, indicating that no one was supposed to enter.
The young sleuth made a pose that was reminiscent of Conan. Everyone noticed it.
Mitsuhiko-kun? Whats wrong?
Everything was wrong though he was the only one who noticed it right away. Memories withheld and dissipated like morning fog were starting to return, unbidden.
Just weeks before Conan was kidnapped, he had seen a foreclosure sign on that same house. Mitsuhiko only remembered it because while walking home with the other three (No, four, it was four!).
Ayumi had said that the house that she got a bad vibe going past that house. Mitsuhiko himself got the creeps more then once. Ai went on a rant about the "anticulated" (that was what it sounded like.) resident laws.
Processing his thoughts felt like rewinding a Betamax tape. Everything, from the photographic memories to the blurry scenes he had experienced came out with static as he picked out minute details he never observed the first time speeding past him.
An average human male could run 100 meters in ten to twenty seconds.
A city block is around 200 meters…
Agasa's house was only a 45 minutes walk away from here…
This house would be the perfect place to hide if no one knew where to look…
This place was creepy as hell...
Then came the stinger, the tragedy now apparent as Mitsuhiko gulped.
They were totally going to investigate that house. Genta had planned it a few days before Conan was kidnapped, thinking there would be ghosts and Yokai to discover hidden within the mysterious confines. But they never went there.
Mitsuhiko ran, tears gushing out of his eyes, glistening. Any rational thinking that Conan would have possessed was overtaken by raw emotions. His mind was not thinking in terms of coherent thought but of instinctual sense. Adrenaline, guilt, shame, regret, and finally fear. Well at least not fear for himself.
"Conan!" Mitsuhiko yelled incessantly, perhaps out of some foolish childish safety mechanism as if crying out for his friend would bring him back.
Conan he screeched again, ignoring the worried cries of the Detective Boys as his name rang around the.
Conan he yelped, as imaginative fancies of him being locked in some dungeon waiting to rescued evaporated like morning mist.
Conan, he cried out wanting and wishing his friend to be alive.
Conan, Mitsuhiko sobbed now knowing he would never explore, play, or talk to his friend again.
But he needed to see it, or so he believed at the time. In retrospect Mitsuhiko would forever be haunted by what he discovered in the house that would take more and more of his innocence.
As he went to the door, a simple push slid it open rather easily, the tape having clearly been cut off where it kept the door closed. The ground was covered in grime and broken glass, the worn dust covered furniture full of holes, and the remnants of the carpet wouldn't have protected his feet if he wasn't wearing sneakers.
They had walked past this house thousands of times, before, during, and after. Was he here this whole time and they never even gave it a second thought as to why this particular home gave them all ill feelings?
Was Conan's body-
Oh god. Mitsuhiko had to clutch a corner of dilapidated wall to steady himself, leaning his back to rest. Problem was that most of the paint was chalking, and likewise stained his clothes and left hand. Plus he made the sorry error of resting his other hand into a spider web. He jerked his hand back as he felt a sharp pinprick on the top.
"Ow!" It really hurt but he didn't have time to ponder it. He stared listlessly at the ground, watching Silverfish, Cockroaches, Pillbugs and Earwigs scurry about on the ground. Had it been any other time or place he might have gazed in wonder, maybe been a more inquisitive about the fauna living here.
Did Conan really die in such a filthy place?
The detective boys were coming he knew. Mitsuhiko only had a few seconds to get a look at the interior. The room he was in seemed to be the only room in the downstairs, given the lack of further debris and wall remnants. His eyes inclined to the right…
The stairs!
Mitsuhiko ran, just as his friends got in. Before they could stop him, he was almost halfway up the rickety steps. Then he tripped, grazing his knee on the bare room. Somewhere, Ai and Ayumi screamed but he was not in the right mind to care whether it was due to him or the various insects and arachnids.
Somehow he made it and his eyes were fixed on some object he was too dazed to visually comprehend.
"Mitsuhiko-kun!" Ai-chan said seriously. "We're not supposed to be here! Breaking and entering is a crime! If we don't leave-"
Mitsuhiko wasn't listening to his peers. Nor was he particularly paying focus to how fast his heart was beating. His vision and mind was clear enough to finally see the image in front of him.
It was a box. More specifically one of those fancy ornate boxes that were use for toys. It had a lock on it and everything. But it appeared the lock was unlatched, whether from the deep scratches on the clasp or the rusted hinges he would never find out.
Ai grimaced when she saw the spider bite, but Mitsuhiko was panicking. With last of his politeness he gently pushed her away, bolted to the chest and lifted it up with both hands.
That was when everyone else realized what Mitsuhiko expected to find.
Mitsuhiko sucked in his breath as his friends froze when the box was finally opened. The acrid scent of bleach topped off with the rather faint smell of copper made all in the abandoned building want to hurl.
Inside the mostly empty box were clothes. More to a point a blue suit with suspenders. Well fitted for a six year old.
Mitsuhiko wasn't old enough to understand many things. But he knew perfectly well when he came across a murder victim.
.
.
.
End of Act I
There. You are officially caught up.
Hello, RevolverOtacon here, I'd like to congratulate you for reading this far. If you new, thank you for the support! If you're old well I have a message for you.
First of all, I am officially Highschool graduate!
Secondly, I didn't disappear. I've been writing. Weird isn't it? The difference here is that I've been unusually productive, working on this story and many others. Sadly this was the only I managed to release in time and on a different website, AO3 to be exact. I love it but don't worry I am not leaving you guys! I would have posted a link but Fanfiction is weird about that for some reason. So I made the decision to bring it here.
Sadly, I woke up this morning depressed. I haven't really wrote anything in the past few days. Luckily the excitement of giving you guys a new story has propelled me to new emotional heights! Still gonna take a break though. Sorry!
Act 1 Notes:
1. The original reason why I didn't upload this to Fanfiction is because I got annoyed by the amount of stories with T's in the beginning. It seemed uncreative but I forgot the new name I came up with on this fic, so I just went with the tentative one. Hopefully there won't be any more T's!
2. There are lots of Gun's going off. Specifically Checkov's Gun's. There's a lot of red heirings as well.
3. To get it out of the way now, I'm shipping Eisuke x Ran. I know some shippers are tribalistic about it, so if you do not care that much for it, then I apologize but I'm not changing my mind. Honestly Shinichi's jealousy kind of makes me think he's a asshole at these moments. I get it when it's a obvious pervert or jerkass but what the fuck did Eisuke do to deserve it? He's a nice guy, Shinichi could be less of a prick about it, it just makes him look possessive and non caring about Ran's own personal choices. I also thought that with Shinichi dead, who else would be a perfect match? Don't get me wrong, I like Shinichi (especially since he is autistic.) but sometimes I can relate to Eisuke more in these moments. Don't worry its a long haul until they're actually a couple.
4. I based the killer off of Tsutomu Miyazaki. I based the letter off of the Axeman's and Albert Fish's letters. They are actually real, so learn about them on your own risk.
5. This fic was inspired by a multitude of idea's I saw in other fics that weren't approached the way I wanted them to. (things like Shinichi's lies imploding, what would happen to Ran if Conan disappeared or Shinichi was murdered, the detective boys being competent while wondering what happened to Conan, etc.)
6. This isn't just a serial killer fic. There will be a lot more going on then that.
7. I will include as many fan favorite DC characters that I can, but here's the problem. I simply don't have time to read all 1000 chapters and 900 episodes so I have to cut a few I don't know. However, since I am watching Magic Kaito and it is significantly shorter, I can say that he will be in here!