Disclaimer: I don't own DC or MK. I would've moved the storyline along much faster. And now, for this case's exciting conclusion...

xxxxxxXXXxxxxxx

"Heiji-niichan's a pervert." There were several voices giggling near the door. I'm never having kids, Heiji swore with a groan, sitting up to deal with the freakishly early risers.

"Oi, what are you guys doin' in my room?" Without disturbing the still-sleeping Conan, Heiji got out of bed and shooed five kids into the hall, closing the door behind him.

Hiroshi answered for them, smug grin on his face. "We wanted to go get breakfast early, but we didn't know you and Conan-kun were being special together."

I don't think I want to know, but… "'Special'?"

"My mom says that two people sleep in the same bed only if they really like each other. Chikao and Toshihiro's sister said that her husband does special things to her at night and that's why they live together. Kids aren't supposed to do those things, she said. So…"

It had taken Heiji's sleep-addled brain a moment to catch up, but when he realized what he was being accused of, he vehemently denied the assumption, waving his arms wildly. "No no no. No. Conan's related to me." Well… close enough. "It's okay if siblings or cousins sleep in the same bed. I did not do anything 'special' to him. You're right that kids shouldn't know anything about that. We were talking and he fell asleep, so I let him stay."

"You're getting very defensive," Botan noted, never looking up from his book. Conan opened the door a moment later, groggily setting his glasses on his nose, and the conversation ended.

Heiji pretended not to notice when Conan slipped away from the groups' calligraphy session, but made sure to "yell" at him when he returned. The boys would have found it odd otherwise, and might have taken it into their heads to disappear themselves. While Conan was sitting next to Heiji in "time out," the Eastern detective whispered what he'd found.

"There was no one suspicious near the kitchens when Fujita or Taketa were killed. I confirmed that with three kitchen workers independently. They said that the cook hadn't done anything different from usual while preparing the food, and if she had, she'd have risked poisoning everyone who took the same foods as the victims. They had a valid point."

"So we're back to Seto-sensei."

For some reason, Conan colored. "Ah, no, he alibis out of at least the two murders."

"What's his story?"

"I didn't hear it from him but… the three ladies told me that one of the kitchen girls knows exactly where he was during both of those times." When Heiji gestured for him to continue, he reluctantly added, "Her cabin."

Oh. "The mad scientist and the cafeteria girl? Are you serious?"

"He's not as old as I assumed, though it's still illegal. He's twenty-seven."

"That's – they're at least ten years apart. I can't imagine why she'd – that'd be like Neechan having sex with you in that body."

"No it wouldn't, dummy. They're both physically mature enough; we would have the same mental maturity. And thanks, I didn't need that special image, Hattori."

Heiji growled. "You were awake? Why'd you let me deal with that conversation alone? I thought we were workin' together here!"

"The notion that you would do anything physically intimate to me in this body was so disturbing that I couldn't keep a composed expression. I'm on your side of this, remember? And anyway, I told you that children are a handful."

xxxxxxXXXxxxxxx

"Kudo, we're goin' to look more suspicious if we keep disappearing like this. The other counselors probably think I'm horrible at counseling, and Okazaki's probably sick of me leaving 14 with him."

Conan finished picking the lock to Taketa-san's cabin again. "You are horrible with kids, and I thought you were the one who wanted to solve this quickly. I certainly don't want to stay any longer than we have to. Let's take a closer look at those chemicals and then go find the other victims' rooms." Gloves on, they pulled out the tray of chemicals and perused them, Heiji taking notes on which ones were present as Conan rattled off the labels. Someone's got quite the collection, Heiji thought.

"Oi, there's a test tube missing from the rack. Maybe it rolled under the bed?" Heiji lay down and looked under. He didn't find the test tube, but he did find something strange. Standing up, Heiji lifted the mattress and removed the notebook hidden there. Conan hopped on the bed so he could look over the Western detective's shoulder.

"Lab notebook," the Beikan declared. "The handwriting matches the tags on Taketa's luggage. That means…" The Osakan nodded grimly. Heiji flipped to the end of the book, where there was a chart of chemical names, dosage amounts, people's names, and results. All of the names matched those who had been poisoned. The results box for the last name on the list, Fujita Aiko, was left blank. She'd been the eighth victim and the first to die.

"Taketa-san was the poisoner," Heiji breathed. "He was testing on them or somethin'."

"Someone found out what he'd done and killed him," Conan asserted.

"I guess it wasn't so hard to find the person who'd been at every incident after all."

Conan frowned. "That means we have two culprits, and it doesn't matter where the second one was during the other poisonings. He or she could have airtight alibis for all of them and still have murdered Taketa-san. That person –" he broke off as the door to the cabin was pushed open.

"Hey, someone's already in here," a child's voice said. There were some murmurs of surprise from other children. Conan shoved the chemicals under the bed and Heiji hid the lab notebook in his jacket. A gaggle of children appeared in the doorway, their counselor behind them.

"Hi," Conan chirped. "Uncle Heiji and I are here on a realllly important mission." Heiji shot a glance at the smaller detective. "We're s'posed to count all of Taketa Hideki-niichan's stuff and write it down. Director-san said that we're like mathemagicians."

Heiji bit his lip to keep from laughing. "I think you mean mathematicians, Conan-kun," he corrected.

Conan pretended to frown. "Oh yeah, that!" He turned to the other kids. "What are you guys doing here?"

"We're looking for Hideki-niichan's Frisbee," one of the boys said shyly. "It's a special Frisbee an' we wanted to play with it. Isamu-niichan said we could," he added, gesturing to the counselor.

"Why is it a special Frisbee?"

The boys looked at each other. "We don't know," the same boy replied, "but Jiro-niichan said it was. He came to borrow it just before dinner a few days ago."

"We're not supposed to tell adults," another kid hissed, scandalized.

"I'm not an adult," Conan lied, "you can tell me."

"There's nothing else to tell. We were all playing in our room and Jiro-niichan said he was going into Hideki-niichan's room for the special Frisbee. We thought he might have returned it after Hideki-niichan went away."

Heiji and Conan's eyes snapped to each other. It makes sense, Heiji thought.

"He has the kids right now," Conan realized, horrified. Not pausing to explain themselves, the two detectives bolted from the room, Heiji dialing his father's number as he ran and saying that he'd found the culprit. They found Group 14 at the badminton courts, smacking the birdie around at each other playfully, forgetting about the net. Jiro was seated at one of the benches with a reading Botan.

Heiji snatched up Botan while Conan quickly herded the other kids. "You need to go back to our rooms," Conan said in a low, serious voice, pointing. The badminton courts were adjacent to the archery range, and beyond that was Group 14's cabin. "Go there and stay until either Hattori or I tell you it's safe."

"You're not the boss of us," Toshihiro retorted, crossing his arms.

"Do it," Heiji commanded, letting Botan down next to the other boys. "This is important, and I'm not gonna to tell you twice."

"What's wrong?" Jiro asked as the boys sprinted off. If Heiji had been less observant, he might have thought the other counselor was genuinely confused. Heiji kept his eyes on the culprit until Conan nodded that Group 14 was inside the cabin.

"We know that you killed Taketa Hideki," Heiji revealed.

"Taketa-san? He was killed by the poisoner, and I can prove that I wasn't responsible for those attacks."

"Taketa was the poisoner, and you found out after he killed your friend, Fujita Aiko. You'd probably been lookin' for him for a while, since you mentioned that you're friends with one of the earlier victims too. When you discovered that he was testing chemicals on the other counselors, you decided that he should die the same way, in an ironic, twisted form of 'justice'."

Conan took up the explanation. "Everyone would suspect that Taketa-san was just the latest victim in the string of poisonings, and since you had alibis for the poisonings committed by Taketa-san, you would be taken out of the suspect pool."

Jiro didn't look worried. "That's an interesting theory, but that's all you have."

"We have eight children from Taketa-san's group that saw you go into his room just before the murder. His chemicals were kept in there, and one test tube is missin'. Would we find it in your room, Okazaki-san?" Heiji bent his knees, ready to spring into action if Jiro so much as twitched.

"You're not really a counselor, are you?" Jiro smiled. "And this kid's not like any kid I've ever met."

"We came here to uncover the identity of the poisoner," Conan declared.

"And you did. Taketa Hideki was a bastard who hurt all those people, and I'll bet you have the lab notebook to prove it. He must have killed himself out of guilt after Fujita-chan died."

"How did you know about the lab notebook?"

Jiro paused. "Of course there was one. You just said he was running experiments."

Conan's hand inched toward the switch on his shoes. "Taketa didn't have the missing test tube on his person when he died. There would have been a note in the records. That means someone else did it. You had motive, an opportunity at dinner, and access to the weapon."

"Isn't the world better off without a sicko like him? He experimented on people without their consent; even if I did kill him, which I'm not saying I did, would that really make me a bad person?"

"You could've turned him in," Heiji answered. "It isn't your job to dispense punishment. You decided to retaliate."

xxxxxxXXXxxxxxx

Group 14 looked bereft. "So, you're leaving?"

"We were just here to solve the case," Conan explained as they loaded their bags into Hattori-keibu's trunk. Jiro had been taken away in one of the squad cars when the officers found the capped test tube in his room.

"An' it's not like you wanted us here. You dumped paint on my head."

Shogo giggled. "That was just 'cause you made us go to bed. Other than that you were fun, Heiji-niichan. We got to skip band lessons and eat candy and stuff. You shoulda seen what we did to the counselors we didn't like." The other kids snickered at that.

"I'm going to teach all my friends at school the hand signals," Botan declared excitedly. "It'll be awesome."

"As long as you don't use it to cheat on tests. Remember, detectives are a force for good." The kids smiled.

"Wait a minute," Hiroshi interrupted suddenly. "So you and Conan-kun aren't actually related?" Heiji and Conan froze. "I knew it! You were being special!"

"I would never be special with him, there's absolutely –"

"That idiot? Gross! There's definitely –"

"No way that would ever happen," both of the detectives finished. Fortunately, Hattori-keibu reappeared and the two teens escaped into the vehicle. The car ride was silent for a while as both detectives emphatically looked out their respective windows.

"You were right, Kudo," Heiji finally said, voice lowered so his dad wouldn't hear them over the radio. "There's no such thing as peaceful when it comes to kids. Were you such a trouble magnet when you were in your original body?"

"Are you implying that I'm a trouble magnet because I look like a child? I can be perfectly peaceful. It's just events around me that aren't."

"Hmm."

"Was that disbelief I just heard?"

"Maybe. I thought you were a detective or something; figure it out."

Conan stuck his tongue out. "I'd like to see you lead Mouri around and solve cases with nothing but a bowtie, a tranquilizer watch, and a soccer ball."

"And power-enhancin' shoes, and glasses with special modifications, and a Detective Boys badge –"

"Okay, I get it, you can stop now."

"–and a turbo-powered skateboard, and those elastic suspenders, and –"

"Shut up! You've made your point. However, I have an evil syndicate after me, go through torture every time I want my teenaged body back, and have to live through elementary school again. So I think I win whatever who's-the-better-detective game you're playing here."

Heiji grinned. "You 'think' so, huh? Geez, Kudo, you're getting sloppy there, making claims without having evidence to back up your theory."

The Eastern detective smiled sunnily. "Hattori, they will never find your body when I'm done with you. Want to see my evidence?"

xxxxxxXXXxxxxxx

From Meri: Ah, the banter! I hope you thought Conan's "syndicate, torture, and elementary school" thing was funny. As I was writing, I was reminded of the trope "ArsonMurderAndJaywalking" (the TVTropes website is a wonderfully amusing place to lose oneself). Regarding Taketa's motive for picking counselors: Jiro didn't know it so he didn't mention it during his confrontation with Heiji and Conan, and my attempts to work in the explanation didn't fit well. Basically he didn't want age to be a variable in his experiments, so he picked people about the same age. He didn't have a grudge against his subjects, he just wanted to mess around with chemicals For Science. On a different note, I don't know when I'll have the next case written. Thanks for reading and please review!