A/N: Finally, Conan's reaction to the supernatural! Thanks to everyone who's been reading this, my new followers and favorites, and my awesome reviewers, Fluehatraya and Alyss Penedo. You guys are great!

Conan

"I can't believe this. Ghosts? The evidence is telling me that everything I've thought about them is wrong. Could this really be the only truth left for me?"

Conan's mind was a haze of white noise. He went back over what he'd just seen again and again in his mind. He tried to keep it down to pure observation, without any of his own assumptions to cloud the facts.

He had been in the back of the jewelry store. Dean's brother had called his name and Dean sprinted into the other room. Conan followed, and once he was in the main room, he had seen…

This was the part Conan was having trouble with. He didn't think that what he had witnessed was possible, but he knew what he had seen. His observations were never off; he counted on himself for that, at least.

That was a ghost, the assembled facts and observations told him. Ghosts are real.

I can't believe I'm really accepting this, Conan thought. He squeezed his hands into tight fists. He didn't need to pinch himself to know that this wasn't a dream, but he wished to god that it was.

"You all right?" Both of the brothers had crouched down to Conan's level, and Dean had reached forward and grasped his shoulders in his hands.

Conan hadn't protested much when the brothers had led him away from the jewelry store. He barely even registered the path they had taken, though now that he looked, he thought the park they had stopped in seemed familiar. There was no one else around, and for that Conan was thankful.

"I'm okay," Conan managed to say. "But that was…a ghost? You weren't lying before?"

"That would be what we were trying to tell you." Dean stood up, apparently satisfied with the state of Conan's mental health.

Sam offered him a weak smile. "Unfortunately, it's all real. Really, it would have been better if you didn't know…I wish I didn't, but you can't go back now."

"But you know how to stop the…" Conan's rational mind struggled to use the word "ghost" in serious conversation. "…the killer?"

Dean nodded. "That's our job."

Conan would have thought it strange that two people as young as these brothers had such a rough job—that is, if Conan himself wasn't living proof that you were never too young to be good at what you did.

"What do we have to do, then?"

"That's it? No more freaking out, or denial, or anything?"

Conan smiled. "If it's the truth, denying it will only delay the inevitable. It's easier just to accept it and work with it. So, what do we have to do next?"

Dean grinned and glanced at his brother. "I think I like this kid."

Sam sat cross-legged on the ground. "So, we have to find out what Michiko Morikawa's soul is bound to—what's holding her in our world. Usually, it's the body, but since she was cremated, it must be something else. An object that means something to her. Then, we salt and burn it, and that's it. She's free."

"No more revenge from beyond the grave," Dean added.

"But…if this is for revenge, what took her so long? Why wait? It's been over a year since she died, right?"

"Maybe she was a good person in life," Dean said, though from his tone it was obvious that he hadn't spent much time thinking about it. "It could've taken a while for her to build up all that anger, enough to drive her crazy."

"You mean she wouldn't have murdered anyone if she hadn't become a ghost?"

"Probably not. Death does things to people, lets their violent emotions take control. And most of the ones that stay have a reason," Dean told him. "Enough time as a ghost would make anyone into a potential murderer."

The thought made Conan uncomfortable. He'd never understood what drove people to kill, and had always sworn that he'd never kill, or even let anyone die. But if he died himself, and became a ghost…would he turn into a murderer?

No, stop. Focus on the case.

"Right. So we need to find something that was important to Michiko in life. I can help, right?"

Sam frowned, but Dean cut him off before he could say anything. "Yeah, why not? You've been a big help so far."

"There could be something in that photo album you picked up, right?"

For a moment, Dean just stared at him blankly. Then, his face brightened, and he reached into his jacket. "Jeez, I almost forgot I had that! Thanks." He pulled out the small booklet of plastic-enclosed photos and laid it out on the ground in front of Sam. He took his place beside him, and Conan followed soon after.

As they flipped through the pages, Conan kept an eye out for any patterns. At the same time, though, he found himself watching the girl, Michiko, grow up. She looked so happy in all of the pictures, as did everyone around her.

But now she's dead, and a killer besides.

"Hey, what about this?" Conan pointed at something dangling from Michiko's neck in one of the more recent photos. "I've seen that locket in every picture since she looked like she was five years old. Could that be it?"

The brothers scanned back over the photo album. Seeing that Conan was right, Dean grinned at him and patted him on the shoulder.

"That looks like a very strong possibility. I think you got it, Conan," Sam said, smiling at him. He turned to Dean. "Hopefully, it's still in the jewelry store. Shouldn't be too hard to get to, considering how easily we got in tonight…"

"Awesome. We can go back right now, destroy the thing, and be done tonight! Easy."

"Wait, wait!" Conan said. "That's it? That's all you're going to do?"

"That's all there is to do," Dean insisted. Conan shook his head.

"But you think she got murdered, right? That the suicide was faked?"

"Yeah, and?"

"And don't you want to find out who really killed her? Bring the murderer to justice?"

Dean laughed. Actually laughed at him, much to Conan's frustration. "Sorry, kid, but that's not really our job. We're just trying to stop the ghost. We're not detectives."

"Well I am," Conan said. He caught Dean's gaze and didn't look away. "And I think it's only fair to catch the killer that we can expose. I understand why Kazuko and Rintaro's deaths have to go unexplained, but can't we solve what we can?"

"Conan, I'm sorry, but we can't. We can't get the police involved, and we're not equipped to handle human murder cases," Sam said.

"Give me a day."

"Huh?"

"Give me a day to solve the murder. Just wait that long. I swear I can find the murderer and the evidence to convict them. I just need a little bit of time. I can do it without getting the police involved until it's time to bring the killer in, I swear."

Conan knew he shouldn't be saying all of this. He'd completely blown any impression they might have that Conan was a normal seven-year old, but at that moment he didn't care. They had shared their secrets with him, after all, and he'd probably never see them again after they left for America. All he wanted was to be able to catch a real criminal.

For a moment, Dean just watched him. Finally, he nodded. "Fine. One day. We'll give you any help we can, though."