Hi again! This was ready sooner than I thought. It might be kind of short, but I hope you like it. A little ease up from the two before. Thank you again for reviews! It's nice to read you're opinions and reactions.

CHAPTER TEN

"You know… Yoshida Ayumi asked me ghostbusting tomorrow"

Marie lowered her book to blink at his brother, who was doing some homework.

They're doing that already? Sounds pretty fun…

"Can I come too?"

It was Conan's turn to blink.

"I don't see why not", he shrugged.

Marie smiled and resumed her reading. It was one of those murder mysteries Conan liked. She had wanted to know what they were, so she read one and decided it was good. Not that she could figure out the murderer beforehand as his brother seemed to be doing.

"Is this your third today?"

She shrugged.

"I was bored. Ran-neechan didn't let me do almost anything, because I'm still 'recovering'"

Marie hadn't been to school today, even though she said she was alright. Ran hadn't let her. Conan chuckled.

"Must have been annoying"

"You tell me. She came to check on me every ten minutes"

"Wow. That's a little… I don't know… overboard?"

Ran took that moment to stick her head to the bedroom to see Marie lying on her back on the bed nose in the book and Conan doing homework sitting at the edge.

"Marie-chan? Do you need anything?"

"No thank you, Ran-neechan!", Marie said cheerfully.

"Okay then", she disappeared only to appear three seconds later, "Tell me if you start feeling bad"

"Okay!"

The door closed again leaving the two to the room in a long silence.

"How many times has she done that today?", Conan asked turning to her sister.

Marie groaned and let the book drop on her eyes.

"I lost count at forty eight"

"...You're kidding me"

The look Marie gave him told otherwise.

XXXX

"Okay everyone! Let me see what you brought!", Kojima Genta commanded the little ghostbuster group before showing his own equipment.

"I brought my metal bat to bust the ghosts up!", he declared.

"I brought snacks for when we're hungry!", Ayumi showed her bag.

"I brought flashlights for everyone and a compass so we won't get lost", Mitsuhiko said showing the compass.

Everyone turned to Conan.

"I… uh…", Conan looked for something before his eyes found it beside him, "Brought a crazy monkey!", a false cheerful act and a pointed thumb to Marie's direction.

The kids turned to the shortest and youngest of the group, who shot a glare at Conan. That disappeared quickly with her clinging to Conan's arm and cheering.

"I brought my big brother!", she exclaimed and you could almost see the flowers in her voice.

Mitsuhiko and Ayumi exchanged glances.

"Doesn't that mean Conan is a monkey too?", the boy asked.

Conan had an unimpressed look on his face as he glanced at his sister.

"Nope! He's a gorilla", Marie continued her false cheer.

Now you could practically see a tic mark on his forehead.

"Marie…"

The girl acted oblivious to his annoyance. Conan sighed giving up. The kids stared at them for a little longer before moving on to continue the ghostbusting.

It didn't take long for them to get inside the gates and open the front door slowly. It was dark inside. You could only see the dusty floor from the door. Marie gulped. Even when she knew there weren't ghosts it was still kind of scary. Even more scary when she knew there was someone still living there.

"You scared?"

The voice made her jump and she turned to bump her head to Conan's.

"Ow", she rubbed her forehead before glaring at her brother, "I'm not scared"

Conan seemed amused and lifted one eyebrow, "Really?"

Marie turned to face the darkness again. She would not admit to a gorilla she was scared. Unfortunately that was when the lightning hit and Ayumi screamed 'Kyaaaah! Thundeeer!' making Marie shudder and crouch covering her head with the hood. She was not going to scream. Someone touched her shoulder making her yelp and shoot up and inside the building turning to face the boys with a horrified expression that melted soon with relief. Mitsuhiko had touched her. Not a monster. Not that monsters existed.

That was when Ayumi screamed again.

Marie felt a shiver run down her spine and jumped behind Conan's back eyes squeezed shut.

"Changed my mind. I'm scared"

"Why did you come if you're not good with these kinds of things?"

Marie felt her ears heating up from embarrassment. Good thing her face was covered with the hoodie.

"Let's just go and get it over with!", she hid the embarrassment pushing Conan forward never letting go of his shoulders.

XXXX

Marie was becoming more comfortable with the darkness and scary statues as time went on. She was still walking quite close to Conan though. She couldn't help but feel that he was the most comfortable presence in this 'haunted' mansion.

"Hehe… Look at us walking around in here… It's like we're playing a role playing game or something", Genta said suddenly.

That made Marie smile. It was true.

"Yeah! We're a party of adventurers!", Mitsuhiko voiced his thoughts.

"I'm the hero, of course!", Genta pointed a thumb at himself.

"And I'm the cute little fighter girl!", Ayumi said and Marie could almost see a heart floating after the words.

"I'm the sharp headed magician!", Mitsuhiko seemed proud of his choice.

"Then I'm…", Conan was cut off by Genta pointing at him telling he's a villager.

"But a villager isn't an adventurer, right?", Conan protested, but the kids didn't let it go.

Conan was stuck as a villager.

"What am I?", Marie asked the trio ahead of them.

"You're…", they didn't seem to know what she was.

"Hmm… Oh, I know!", the girl pulled her light blue toy Magic Wand out of her pouch and waved it, "I'm a monkey fairy!"

Conan tried to hide a snigger. The three in front of them just stared at her for a good while before busting into laughter. Marie only grinned at them. Her fears really started to ease up. It was a good sign. Then a door in front of them creaked and the three kids hid behind Conan's back pushing the monkey fairy away from there. Marie yelped and blinked at the shivering trio.

Her turn to hide a laugh.

Or maybe not.

"Pfffft… You do realize you're hiding behind a villager's back, right?", she giggled at them getting three glares from behind Conan.

"Shut up! Conan, hurry up and go!", Genta ordered behind the boy who looked as amused as Marie.

The girl giggled.

"I'll go first. Monkeys are curious creatures", she gave them a wink and skipped towards the open door.

She thought she heard something like 'how come she's not scared anymore' from behind her, but she wasn't sure. Quietly peeking from the door Marie saw an open window and a pretty empty room. She dropped two hand signs to Conan, 'All clear', and stepped in the room hearing Conan's quick translation to the other three. It was amazing how fast he was learning the new language!

After everyone was in the room and Mitsuhiko explained that the door moved because of wind, Marie noticed Conan looking at something under the window. Now the children would start disappearing. She wondered if she should too.

Maybe I'll just stick with Conan.

She shrugged it off for the time being just in time to see Mitsuhiko disappear through the door to go to the toilet.

That's it, he's going to disappear.

XXXX

Well… This was kind of scary. They were now hiding behind a closet beside a cell that had a pretty insane man inside it. Then there was the insane man's mother, who was crouched in front of the cell offering him food. The same woman who had dumped Mitsuhiko and Genta outside the mansion.

Conan was right in front of Marie and Ayumi was at the safest corner looking teary eyed. She couldn't blame her. It had been scary to hear the boys scream even though Marie knew they would be alright. It also was pretty exhausting to run after Conan everywhere. He had told her when she followed him that there was someone living in the mansion (she already knew that, but pretended to be shocked anyway) and Conan actually let her help him try and find where that person was. Progress in getting Conan to trust her more.

Then they had saved Ayumi and watched the woman go and disappear to thin air (underground) and went after her to find the cellar and the cell where the man was. Then they hid behind the closet before the woman came.

And then the bucket fell.

Conan started his deduction.

Conan in the middle of deduction.

Conan introducing himself in the middle of deduction and stepping out of their hiding place.

Conan ending the deduction and angering the woman.

Marie hopping on the tips of her toes activating the shoes and bouncing from a wall to trip the said woman and Conan kicking the knife she had aimed at him away. Marie ended up sitting on top of the woman and glaring down at her.

"Do not hurt my brother!", she narrowed her eyes before slowly getting up and letting the son talk to his mother.

Case closed. They turned themselves in, as it happened in the manga.

XXXX

Later Conan and Marie were in Ran's room this time Marie doing homework and Conan reading a mystery novel. It had been like that quite a while when Conan opened his mouth.

"That's two beatings you've saved me from"

Marie looked up, surprised.

"The Abe Yutaka case and yesterday", Conan looked at her lifting his gaze up from the book, "Thanks"

The girl gave him a warm smile.

"You've saved me too"

A frown, "How?"

"By being here"

This time a questioning eyebrow. It was so Conan that Marie had to giggle.

"Let's face it. I could never have faced this kind of thing alone. I'd have probably gotten myself killed three times in a row if left alone in the situation", she gestured down at her small body.

Then Marie looked at a wall in front of her still smiling.

"And you've given me what I was looking for all along. A family. I don't know about you, but I have a hard time not to think about you as my brother"

She could feel her ears getting a little flushed, but she didn't care at the moment. It was true after all. When Marie spared her brother a glance she could see that he had a little blush on his cheeks as he stared at his book. Then he lifted his gaze to meet her's.

"Ba'arou! That doesn't count as saving... Me too. Like it or not, you're stuck as my sister now", he muttered glancing sideways after it.

Marie giggled again. Her brother really wasn't used to these kinds of things.

"I like it!", she announced jumping beside the boy with her books and continued the homework.

Conan flushed a little beside her but relaxed right after that. It really was funny how they got along so well.

XXXX

Next stop: No idea. I'll figure it out somewhere along the week or after it. Yay for irregular updates! (They're not great at all except when you update almost every day) This was an easy going chapter. I'm not sure if I'm happy with that last bit, but... I don't want to change it. It's okay like that (Tries to convince herself it's ture). Anyway, it was pretty fun to write. Again, let's see where the story goes and thank you for reading this far! Hope you liked it!