A Small Problem
Disclaimer: Once upon a time, there was a girl named Panda who didn't own Detective Conan. She is sad to say that after 8 chapters, she still does not own it.
Summary: Introducing number 3; What on earth is going on?! Hooray for suspense!
Notes: Despite all of my stress, I am here to update once more. Go me! I finished my essay, so that's one worry out of the way. (Though to be quite honest I wasn't worried about it in the first place, I've always been pretty good at bullsh*tting essays bahaha).
More than one of you asked or commented on Conan's surprise at Kaisuke being the shooter. To this, I have two responses. The first: When aren't they surprised when they find things out in DC? Seriously. Second: They may have known that Kaisuke had to do with Shuu's shrinking, but that was it. The shooter could have been anyone, really.
Thanks to: Marie Ravenclaw, Mel72000, Miyanoai,and just anie6142 for reviewing. Especially Miyanoai, who gave up her laziness to review. I know exactly how it feels to be too lazy to review, trust me.
Onwards, my loyal dogs! I mean- oops! Read on, o faithful readers that I adore so much. -dodges knives- I love you?
Hakuba Saguru was currently standing in astonished silence as he and a hundred other people watched in horror as their iconic thief plummeted from the air towards the ground below him. Even Aoko, he noted, looked absolutely terrified. It was true that Kaitou KID was a menace, but he didn't ever do anything that deserved being shot over.
Hakuba found himself torn between going after the fallen KID, or finding out who shot him in the first place. The police were already on top of both things, running around in a frenzy through the crowd of rioting people. Girls were crying out and guys were yelling; to whom was undeterminable.
Hakuba made his decision when he saw the Osakan detective and his miniature along with another child running across the street to another building. They must be in pursuit of the shooter, he determined. Knowing their propensity for getting in trouble, though his deep-seated concern for whom he suspected to be his friend Kaito's safety, he followed the three.
When he arrived inside the building, he had already lost sight of them, but knew they had started to climb. There was nowhere else to go. So Hakuba took the elevator next to the one they were using as high as it would take him, and when he stepped out, found the stairs leading to the roof.
When he reached the door at the top, he could hear voices. At first, they were muffled through the door. Hakuba inched himself as close as he could go without being seen through the crack in the door. He strained his ears and managed to catch the tail end of the conversation.
"You cheated death, and we can't allow that," he heard a severe voice say. Deep within it, he could hear hesitation, a very slight unsteady sound that he wouldn't have heard had he not been listening so intently. As the words sunk in, his eyes widened. Whoever it was intended to kill them! But why? And what did he mean by "you cheated death"? How could two children and a troublesome Osakan teen have cheated death? And who exactly was "we"? Were there more of him? Was it some kind of gang? What on earth could those three have gotten themselves into? And did this have anything to do with KID being shot?
"K-kaisuke?!" he heard the mini-detective, Conan stutter incredulously. He knew the shooter, then? Hakuba shook his head; he couldn't keep questioning everything. He needed to do something!
"That's right, Conan-kun. Or should I say Kud-," but he never got a chance to finish, as Hakuba finally made a decision, albeit a dangerous one.
"Stop!" He yelled foolishly, "This is the police! Drop your weapon." He knew he didn't sound anything like a police officer, but it was all he could do.
Kaisuke stood a bit dumbfounded for a moment before he snorted. He tried to hold it in, but it just seemed to burst out of him. He outright laughed at the English detective's sad attempt at impersonating the authority of the police. His nerves seemed to temporarily wash away as tears sprung to his eyes from laughter.
Were they in any other situation, the three other detectives may have laughed at their counterpart's expense as well, but they remained silent and stood in a dazed sort of trance as they watched their potential killer break down in hysterical laughter. Meanwhile, said detective blinked in shock. Was the criminal seriously laughing at him? Was he that awful?
Apparently so, as the teenager just continued to howl with laughter. Hakuba became frustrated all too soon.
"Alright already! I get it! It was a bad attempt, now stop laughing at me!" he yelled through the door. He pushed it open, revealing an almost pouty face, were the boy capable of it. As the detective stepped out, Kaisuke instinctively pulled his cap back down over his face so that he couldn't see him. He quelled his laughter and wiped the tears from the corners of his eyes.
"Ah, that was too good. Thanks kid, that was exactly what I needed," he said with a chuckle. After that, the atmosphere settled back down to its previously severe state.
"You know, to begin with I really only anticipated the two midgets, but looks like I've hooked some extra fish. How exciting!" Kaisuke said, training his gun on the shortest detective. Though he didn't look it, he was definitely the most dangerous, armed with numerous ways to defend himself, though he didn't discount the mini-agent or the Osakan either.
"I'm going to assume that you were the one that shot Kaitou KID. If that is so, then I can also assume from what I overheard – which admittedly isn't much – and from what you've said so far, that you did so in order to lure the two children over here to you. If this is true, I can't even imagine why you would want to do something like that. What awful thing have they done to warrant such a thing, Kaisuke-san?" Kaisuke glared at the teen in front of him, though he couldn't see it. The detective had indeed overheard at the very least the latter half of their conversation.
"You will address me as Absinthe. Kaisuke may be the name that these children know me by, but it is by no means my real name. I would also prefer that you not make yourself so comfortable with me. In answer to your question, it isn't my place to tell you what it is they did. I'm merely their executioner. If you wish to ask them now, feel free to do so. Or, if somehow you live to tell the tale, you can always find my boss," Conan quickly noted the emphasis Kaisuke put on the word boss, "and ask him yourself. But I can guarantee you won't live to tell about it." Hakuba blinked in astonishment, along with the other three. They were partly surprised that Kaisuke would keep their secret, but what he said made sense. It really wasn't his place to tell.
Conan poked around at Kaisuke's words, and focused on his seemingly intense dislike of his boss. At least, it sounded like dislike. He decided to give it a go.
"Why don't you like your boss?" Kaisuke's expression changed. Conan, unfortunately, was blocked from seeing as he lowered his head even further from view.
"I-I..," Kaisuke stuttered. He sounded.. uncharacteristically afraid. He sounded just like he did on that night when he got the phone call. Seconds later, as if on cue, that familiarly embarrassing ringtone sounded around them. Without hesitation, Kaisuke picked it up. Hakuba and Hattori were shocked that the boy would answer his phone in this kind of situation, but Shuuichi and Shinichi were starting to piece things together.
"Saia," he let out in a worried voice, but his breath notably hitched after what was probably the response.
On the phone, Kaisuke was met with a terrifying voice, "I'm watching you," it said, "If you don't kill them right now, she's dead."
Kaisuke trembled, with fear and with absolute loathing. "Don't you dare touch her," he seethed.
"She won't be harmed if you do as I say. Stop talking about us, and start shooting now," came the reply. Kaisuke's mind was spinning. He aimed the gun with shaking hands, dropping the phone to the ground. Amazingly, it stayed in tact. His bright eyes tried to focus on the three in front of him, but his vision was being blurred by tears; tears of fury, tears of sadness, and tears of frustration all jammed into one.
Conan readied himself, hand on the button of his tranquilizer watch, but he could see the emotional wreck before him that was Kaisuke. There was no way that he was doing this because he wanted to. Someone was threatening him, and it wasn't in Conan's nature to let something like that happen. Someone might die if he darted Kaisuke, and it would be his fault. But if he didn't do it, then they would die. What was he supposed to do in this kind of situation?
At the same time, Shuuichi was having similar thoughts. His hand itched for the gun he would have usually carried with him, but tonight he didn't have it. Tonight was supposed to be just an innocent KID heist, nothing more.
A few moments passed by, and Hakuba instinctively took a step backwards. In that instant, a gunshot went off, and they all squeezed their eyes shut in anticipation. But after another moment of nothing, they opened their eyes to reveal a shell-shocked Kaisuke. His gun was lax in his hand and his eyes wide. Kaisuke hadn't fired his gun, so who had?
He finally dropped the gun in his hand, and fell to his knees. He picked up the phone slowly, and put it up to his ear, accidentally hitting the 'speaker phone' button in the process.
"I meant it when I said now. Your sister is dead, consider yourself next." The line went dead, and for a few short moments, the only noise was the sound of the helicopters and the dial tone of the phone.
Even though he felt an absolutely overwhelming grief, Kaisuke kept his senses in tact, and stood up. He grabbed the gun, causing Conan and the others to once again stiffen, but relaxed when he tucked it away into his jacket. He turned up the bill of his hat, revealing a carefully masked, emotionless face.
"We have to get away from this building, and fast," he said, and they all wasted no time in turning on their heels and racing down the stairs.
"Why do we have to get out of here?" Hattori asked as they went. He kept his suspicions close, but knew that when someone said 'we have to get away' to at least show an inkling of trust. He kept his pace even with Kaisuke, in order to make sure that he didn't try pulling the gun back out, but was relatively unworried about it.
"If I know him, and by now it's safe to assume I do better than anyone, he's rigged this place to explode. In fact, if we don't pick it up, we're undoubtedly not going to make it," and with this said, everyone picked up their pace. When they finally reached the bottom, Kaisuke held up the rear of the pack, which really made Conan's mind work in overdrive – because why would he do that? – but given the situation, he shook the questions off and continued out the door. Hakuba got out first, followed closely by Shuuichi, Conan, and then Hattori. Kaisuke was the last to get out, and not moments after, the building began to explode – first the roof, where they had previously stood, and then each floor one after the other in quick succession. The five boys weren't twenty steps away when the bottom floors exploded, hurtling them forward several feet.
The explosions drew in the crowd from the KID heist, as well as every officer that had originally been looking for KID's shooter. Citizens in nearby apartment buildings and offices peered out their windows and balconies and looked on in awe along with the rest of the city. Smoke filled the sky as the flames licked the air and reached up unbelievably high.
Conan wiped away the blood on his face he received after the five had hit the ground. His fall had been blocked quite a bit by Hattori, who had shielded him from most of the impact in a strange bout of brotherly instinct. Meanwhile, Hakuba lay a few feet ahead of them, though having flown farther, he was in better condition than Hattori, and Kaisuke as well, he noted as he turned to look at the criminal.
Kaisuke had, for some unknown reason, latched onto Shuuichi much like Hattori had to Conan, and shielded his fall. Other than a few scratches from the blast, Shuuichi found himself relatively unharmed. Kaisuke, on the other hand, was in very much the same condition as Hattori. Each had severe wounds from their attempts to shield their smaller counterparts and the impact from sliding across quite a few feet of concrete. The wounds, though quite bad, were all superficial. Unfortunately, their ears were all ringing from being so close to the explosion, and it was nearly impossible to hear what was going on around them as they began to sit up slowly.
Sirens rang out in the night as fire trucks and ambulances approached. A few police officers had already arrived and were attempting to help the already recuperating boys. Each of them was temporarily partially deaf, though, and could hardly hear anything they were being asked.
Kaisuke eventually let go of Shuuichi. Had either of them noticed that Kaisuke had grabbed onto him, neither made mention of it. All involved were a bit dazed at the moment, but Kaisuke kept just enough of his wits about him to stand up on unsteady legs and stumble away. He ignored the calls he was receiving as he walked away, pulled away from anyone bold enough to actually grab onto him, and eventually managed to flee the scene.
The four remaining sat in the very same places as paramedics arrived on the scene and picked them up, racing them off to the nearest hospital.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
"Conan-kun!" Ran cried out as she bolted into the room. Conan was sitting up in his bed, and smiled gently as Ran appeared at his side.
"I'm fine, Ran-neechan. I only had a few cuts. The explosion kind of messed with my hearing a bit, but it's only temporary." Ran looked about to cry, but she held herself together for Conan's sake. Detectives Satou and Takagi entered the room after her and stood awkwardly at the back of the room. Conan understood that they wanted to take his statement; at this point it had become routine, but for a few moments, they just let Ran sit with him, to relieve her worry.
"Are the others okay?" Conan asked. Ran's expression was unreadable as she searched for her words.
"Well, Shima-kun is fine, he's in relatively the same condition as you, I think the doctor said. As for Hakuba-san, he's all right, a little worse off, but he'll be fine. Hattori had a bad burn from the force of impact, but they said it was fixable. He hasn't come out of surgery yet, though," she explained. Conan frowned, but nodded. He decided not to worry about it just yet.
"And Kaisuke-niisan?" he asked. Ran looked confused, and then worried.
"Kaisuke was there as well?" her tone was that of concern, and if Conan didn't cover himself, she might go into her usual panicky mode.
"O-oh, um, nevermind! I was just thinking of Hakuba-niisan!" Ran looked unconvinced, but let it be anyways.
It was then that the two officers decided to interrupt, and Ran reluctantly left the room for Conan to give his statement.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Meanwhile, Kaisuke stumbled through back alleys, avoiding the streets. He couldn't go back to his apartment, not when his brother would be out looking for him. At the same time, he had to keep away from civilians; they would certainly try to help him when he didn't need it. No, for now he needed to find some place to stay – some place that wouldn't ask him too many questions.
He quickly came up with a solution. He didn't like it, but he knew that the person would open their arms to him and accept him, no questions asked. He winced, just thinking about her. She wasn't exactly the ideal host, but she would most certainly keep him safe for the night. The twisted, backwards, hard-to-figure-out woman who had so many identities it was hard to keep them all straight. The woman known as Vermouth.
Well how's that for interesting and unexpected plot twists? Don't you just love it?
I know I do.
Review please, my loves! Kookaburra sits in the old gum tree~
ps. I forgot to tell you guys I put that picture of Kaisuke my Jenkars drew me on my profile. It's at the very bottom if you wanna go see it.
