Surprise Twenty: Causes and Effects?

Kaito finally awoke the next morning and felt quite refreshed. He looked up and saw Heiji slowly entering the room.

"Ah, yer finally awake, Kuroba!" Heiji grinned and sat beside the magician. "How do ya feel after that sleep?"

Kaito smiled. "I feel much better…" He paused for a moment. "Just out of curiosity, how long was I asleep?"

For some reason, Heiji's grin faded. "Four days," he replied. "There was another victim found on that first day, so Kudou had gone to see it. After that, he sat at that desk an' wrote notes fer two days before I made 'im go to bed." He gestured to Kaito's other side, where Shinichi was tossing and turning.

Kaito was about to try and comfort Shinichi when the detective suddenly cried out, "Fujiko-chan, come back!" He broke out in a sweat and repeated the same phrase over and over. Kaito quirked an eyebrow when he noticed Heiji tense. "What's going on?" he whispered in Heiji's ear. "Who is 'Fujiko-chan?'"

Heiji's eyes darkened. "I guess he's experiencin' that case all over again… Ya see, it was a simple kidnappin' that happened not too long after he got that antidote. Simply put, it's the one case he didn't solve in time. I don't know the full details since I wasn't there, but I know it messed 'im up pretty bad."

Kaito frowned, for he didn't realize that Shinichi failed his job before. "I guess I'd be messed up too if that's the only time I didn't do my job right."

Heiji nodded. "My guess is that the cold he had 'long with 'im just takin' that antidote muddled 'is brain to where he couldn't think straight."

Both fell silent as the screaming continued for the rest of the morning and well into the afternoon. Kaito had chosen to wake Shinichi when his voice started rasping and cracking.

"Shin-shin, wake up!" Kaito sat Shinichi upright and shook him until his eyes opened.

"Kaito…" Shinichi faintly whispered as tears began to form. Trembling, he tightly wrapped his arms around Kaito and started to cry. Surprisingly to him, Kaito merely accepted it and stroked his hair.

The only sound in that room for the next few minutes was Shinichi's quiet sobbing. Eventually, he sat back up and wiped away the tears, his eyes red-rimmed. "Thanks, Kaito; I really needed that."

Kaito draped an arm around Shinichi. "Shin-shin…" He looked downward and spoke with a nervous tone. "C-can you tell me what happened?"

Shinichi gave a deep sigh. "Hattori probably gave you his interpretation, right?" He looked up to Heiji with a faint trace of a smile. "You want to know too, don't you? I know you've been curious ever since you heard the police report."

Heiji sat at the desk chair. "Well yeah, I wanna know but ya don't have to tell us if ya don't want!"

Shinichi shook his head. "You guys should know what happened; maybe that can help me cope with it…" He paused for a moment before explaining what really happened. He avoided eye contact the entire time, especially when saying the girl's final words. Once he was finished, the circles under his eyes seemed to be even darker.

"Are you okay?" Kaito couldn't help but ask. "You don't look well."

Even if he felt nauseous, Shinichi waved it off with a small yawn. "I'm fine!" His eyes suddenly widened. "But I do need to see that…" He grabbed his notebook from the desk, but Heiji grabbed his wrist before he could leave.

"Are ya sure yer okay, Kudou?" Heiji kept his gaze on Shinichi. "Ya know ya can always wait on somethin' like that…"

Shinichi cut him off with a slap to the hand. "Ba'arou!" he exclaimed, tears forming. "You know what happens if you wait with murder? More murder! And you guys will…" He blanched and leaned against the wall as his legs threatened to give out.

Heiji's eyes narrowed. "Whaddya mean, Kudou?" he asked.

Shinichi shook his head as he struggled to remain standing.

Kaito suddenly stood up and whispered something in Heiji's ear. Shinichi knew he wouldn't be able to hear any of it, so he chose to escape the room before his legs finally failed him partway down the hall.

As he sat there on the floor trembling from fever and sadness, he heard soft footsteps approaching him. Since he knew they weren't Kaito's or Heiji's, he stubbornly sat and waited for them to pass by. However, he opened his eyes after a few moments to see a hand.

"Are you alright?" From the voice, Shinichi figured it was a teenage boy. "If you're feeling unwell, I can help you to the infirmary."

Shinichi took the hand and stood back up. "Thank you, but I'm fine…" He was cut off when the boy pulled out a thermometer and placed it not on his forehead like most would do but under his tongue.

"Hm, you have quite the fever to be wandering around the ship," the boy noted aloud. "Are you sure you're alright?"

Shinichi put a hand to his head as the world started to sway. "Actually, I am a bit dizzy…" He gasped in pain and fell to the floor. Luckily, the boy was able to get him standing and helped him to the infirmary.

"Oh!" The nurse looked quite surprised. "What seems to be wrong with him?"

"He has a serious fever and collapsed at least once, so he needs immediate attention." The boy helped the nurse get Shinichi to a bed and watched while she examined him. She knew he was watching but figured it was a worried friend and left it at that.

After checking basic things like blood pressure and temperature, she gave Shinichi some acetaminophen before turning back to the boy by the door. "I know you must be worried about your friend, but he should be fine after he rests up since he's quite short on sleep as well."

The boy smiled. "I don't know this guy; I just found him in the hallway like this and thought it best to help him."

The nurse watched as the boy left with a soft laugh. "I suppose it's nice to have that kind of person in this world; so many of them lose that good in their heart for the temptation and greed that turns them into monsters."

X

"Excuse me, but have you seen anyone looking ill down this hallway?"

"Um, yeah, I helped him to the infirmary since he collapsed…"

"Thank you!" Kaito and Heiji rushed down the hall before stopping in front of said infirmary. Quietly opening the door, they saw a nurse sitting beside the only occupied bed.

She smiled warmly. "Come in; he just fell asleep. Are you his friends?"

Heiji nodded. "Yeah, ya could say we know each other well. We were talkin' 'bout somethin' when he suddenly ran out. We've been tryin' to find 'im ever since an' luckily showed up here since that one guy helped 'im. That reckless aho…"

Kaito bent down beside the bed and felt Shinichi's forehead. "But his temperature is a lot lower, and he's not having nightmares just yet."

The nurse frowned. "Sorry for the change of subject, but just who are you three? I feel like I've seen you all somewhere."

Heiji grinned. "Ah, that's Kudou Shinichi, azuma no meitantei, an' I'm Hattori Heiji, nishi no meitantei. Over here is Kuroba Kaito, son o' Kuroba Toichi an' a trainin' magician."

The nurse's eyes widened. "So that's the famous child detective from Tokyo! I heard a story about him once quite a while back, and I've always been a huge fan of his parents…" They kept their light conversations until Shinichi finally awoke a couple hours later.

"Where am I…?" Shinichi let out a long yawn and rubbed at his eyes. "Did I fall asleep?"

Kaito ruffled his hair. "Nah, you just had to go to the infirmary since you collapsed!" Even if there was a smile on the magician's face, anyone would have known that he wasn't happy at all involving the situation.

"Um, how do you feel, Kudou-san? I gave you some acetaminophen before you fell asleep, and it seemed to greatly reduce your fever…" The nurse shyly spoke up as heat rose to her cheeks.

Shinichi waved it off with a reassuring smirk. "I'm okay; I have more important things to worry about than a bit of dizziness!" He tried to leave the room, but Heiji blocked the doorway, looking almost as mad as Kaito.

"Kudou, ya need to stop lyin' 'bout this stuff!" He gave a hug to his surprised friend. "If ya don't feel well, just tell us, an' we'll help ya get better. Ya shouldn't be puttin' so much toward this case that ya may not know everythin' 'bout."

Shinichi looked to the floor and chuckled quietly. "I appreciate your generosity, Hattori, but this case is far more important than my current state of health. If it gets bad enough, then yes, I'll go to bed and rest up, but it hasn't gotten critically bad yet." He attempted to leave again, and Heiji chose to let him go.

It took a very short time for Shinichi to rush his way to the crime scene, only to find the body not there. "Wha…where did the body go?" he wondered aloud in utter shock.

A familiar voice laughed. "I heard that someone told the police to dispose of the body after taking enough pictures since this case can't be solved quick enough."

Shinichi gasped. "Hey, it's you—the kid that took me to the infirmary!"

Sure enough, a figure stepped out of the shadows of the crime scene, wearing a large hooded coat and sunglasses. "Yeah, it's me. So what?"

Shinichi's eyes narrowed. "I know you're not a regular kid. Who are you?"

"What do you mean?" the boy asked, his head tilted in confusion.

Shinichi shook his head. "You know quite a bit of interesting things for being so young… and it's odd that someone as young as yourself is even here in the first place. Who are you?"

The boy vaguely waved a hand. "Oh, just an average mystery fan." He paused. "A better question is what are you doing here? You're only a few years older than me and ill at that, so you shouldn't be mad at me for being here."

Shinichi smirked. "Don't you know who I am? I'm Kudou Shinichi, a detective that never leaves a case unsolved! You think I'm going to let the police try and solve it themselves? Heck no!"

The boy turned away to face the scene. "But isn't it strange? I was thinking that the two cases had to be connected since so few people are onboard, yet they are hardly alike. Maybe there's something I'm missing?" He walked over and picked up the metal bat with gloved hands. "Meitantei-san, come feel this; it feels odd!"

Shinichi quickly slipped on a glove and felt the bat. "You're right; it's fake blood. But how did he die then…?" He put a hand to his chin as his thoughts raced about not the case but the boy standing next to him. He knew that the boy could tell it was fake blood from just a glance, which was quite odd.

Who is this kid? Is he a child detective like Hattori and I were, or…? He blew away the thought and returned to the case. He tried to figure out how the victim was killed but came to no conclusion since there were no signs of strangulation, poisoning, or external injuries large enough to be fatal. He felt that he had no other choice but to call Heiji.

For some reason, Kaito answered. "What's up, Shin-shin?"

Shinichi frowned. "Where's Hattori? I need to talk to him about something important."

Kaito hummed thoughtfully. "Heiji-kun just fell asleep on our couch while reading something out of his notebook. Do you need me to wake him?"

Shinichi could tell Kaito was growing worried. "Um, no, you can just call me when he wakes up." He was just about to press the "end" button on his phone when Kaito cried out, "Wait!"

"Shin-shin, let me help you with this case; I can tell it won't be easy!" It sounded as if Kaito was about to burst into tears. "That's why you called Heiji-kun, right? Because you finally need someone to help you."

Shinichi pinched the bridge of his nose. "Fine, fine, you can come…" He stopped as he realized something. "Hang on, you're a good magician, right? How good are you at seeing out tricks?"

Kaito hiccuped. "I guess I'm pretty good, but is the b-body still there? I get queasy when I see them."

Shinichi chuckled softly. "Don't worry; I think Hattori made the police dispose of it after taking tons of pictures. But will you be okay coming down here and seeing the scene itself?"

"I'll be fine as long as there's no body or too much blood!" Kaito hung up and ran down the hall to the scene of the second murder, where he found his Tantei-kun deep in thought standing next to a strange hooded figure. "Shin-shin, who's your new friend?"

Shinichi jumped a bit as he snapped back to reality. "That sure was fast…" he muttered under his breath before recomposing himself. "This is the guy who helped me to the infirmary earlier, and he's a fan of mystery novels who wanted to help." He paused and turned to the boy. "Actually, what's your name? I don't think you've said it yet."

The boy turned to them and gave a quick bow. "I'm Shimada Koichi."

Kaito bowed in return, noticing Shinichi's eyes narrow again. "So Shin-shin," he changed the subject. "Can you tell me what we know so far?"

Shinichi put a hand to his chin and surveyed the scene. "Well, it's not very much just yet. There was what appeared to be a bloody metal bat that we thought was the weapon, but it has been recently discovered that it was fake blood, meaning it wasn't used to kill the victim. I looked closely, yet I can't find any signs of strangulation, poison, or any external injuries. If a medical examiner were here right now, he'd tell us exactly how he died…"

Kaito frowned. "Is it possible for him to have died of natural causes?"

Shinichi shook his head. "Then why would the bat be here then? It was a well-planned murder that somehow hid the cause of death…" He stopped when he saw Kaito's eyes light up.

"Shin-shin, did you look for any tiny prick-marks that could be from needles?" he asked. "It may have been some kind of poison that was injected instead of ingested."

Koichi laughed. "So that's the answer; it was that simple!"

Shinichi quirked an eyebrow. "What do you mean? Are you saying you found a prick-mark on the victim's body? Show me!"

Koichi pulled out a small camera and set it to a certain picture of a tiny red mark. "I found it on his arm and noticed it was quite recent, so I thought it may be possible."

Shinichi's eyes sharpened as he handed the camera back to Koichi. "Why didn't you tell the police about this?" he inquired. "If they knew, we could have solved that mystery ages ago!"

Koichi flinched. "H-how could you tell?"

Shinichi rolled his eyes. "Even if some of the officers don't seem very smart, I know some of the best that can do just about anything at any time or place; they could have found out the cause of death if they knew about that…" He trailed off as he began to cough.

Kaito wrapped an arm around Shinichi. "I think that's enough running around for you! Let's go back to the room, and you can do what you need in there." He began to lead Shinichi out of the room when the detective spoke up.

"Koichi, be careful. If the culprit knew how smart you were, you could wind up as his next target."

Author's Note: Ooh, so a new character appears...(again, a made-up one, but an interesting one at that!). Thanks for all the support thus far; I am quite surprised that so many of you are reading my story! I know some will be happy when I say this arc will end soon-mainly because of certain upcoming circumstances and the fact that I was getting tired of it after so long (don't forget the fact that I wrote all this a while ago...I'm literally writing Surprise Forty right now as I type this note. The only reasons that I don't update to what I'm doing now are that I need to proofread and such as well as the fact that I don't want to feel pressured to write a chapter a week since I have Christmas to get ready for. Talk about spending all your money on presents for ungrateful people and using your hand as much as possible to draw handmade Conan cards.) But that's enough of me rambling; this is getting long. I hope you have enjoyed the story so far, and let me know if you have any ideas for a possible sequel...oops, I shouldn't have said that. But I guess that's your reward for reading this extremely long and unimportant paragraph. Now back to that drawing of Ayumi in a Christmas dress and Kogorou saying he forgot about Ran's gift... ;) Actually, that's almost as hilarious as the Kaitou Kid card my fangirly cousin made for me with the secret message on the back (except I did the same thing but wrote it in Japanese...I am a nerd.).

Also, in celebration of Christmas, I will give you a parody of the poem "Twas the Night Before Christmas"...Conan style. I had to do it in English class and felt you guys should celebrate its...(awkwardness?) uniqueness.

Twas the night before the concert, and all through the agency

There was utter chaos caused by one of the three.

You see, he was a BIG fan of the popstar idol Yoko,

So when he got free tickets, he went completely loco.

He forced awake Ran and Conan at half-past three A.M.,

And without another word, into the rental car he put them.

It took them many hours, but they arrived at the hall,

It was just in time, in fact, for Conan had received a call.

It was his detective friend Heiji with some interesting news,

Apparently he was at the concert with his love interest too.

"Who was that?" Ran asked as she stared at the young boy,

For he wore an expression of abundant joy.

"It's Heiji-niichan!" he exclaimed, "he's here too!"

But he didn't know there'd be a situation soon.

While the bumbling Kogorou searched for his obsession,

Conan spotted Heiji with a bit of depression.

"Oh, Kudou," he said, a glazed look in his eyes,

"There's somethin' over here ya may recognize."

So to the dressing room he led the boy with a deadpan,

For inside was the body of a 23-year-old man.

"How'd he die?" Conan asked, the annoyance clear on his face,

For many times in his life had he stumbled upon a case.

Heiji merely laughed as he examined the crime,

He knew the boy had a secret he'd been dealing with for a long time.

"I think that knife's what killed this guy,

So we should go check everyone's alibi."

Yoko, his girlfriend, had plenty of confirmation,

Since millions had seen her on live television.

There were three others, however, with not-so-solid grounds;

Not a soul had seen or heard them around.

"So what now, Kudou?" Heiji looked to his friend,

Who was confused and amused in a rather odd blend.

"I don't get this case, but I know where to look."

The detectives searched some more and discovered the crook.

"So it's that person," Heiji grinned as he eyed the room,

"An' all we need fer evidence is that costume."

Conan raised an eyebrow, his eyes filled with mystery.

"Is that all we need for truthful victory?"

Heiji ignored him and looked along the rack,

But what he was looking for was in lack.

"What's goin' on?" he grumbled, running a hand through his hair,

As he watched Conan run over to the tall stool chair.

After a moment, he returned with a faint smile,

And said, "Missing a deduction just isn't our style."

Heiji nodded in agreement and searched once more

Before finding something odd lying there on the floor.

"Hey, Kudou," he spoke as he picked up their clue,

"I think this case is finally through."

So they went to the cops and gave their theory,

Fully aware that Kogorou was a little too cheery.

"Wait, there was a case?" he cried, his reputation ruined,

For he was a "great detective" that now felt disillusioned.

A phantom thief laughed as he whisked away into flight,

"I hope you had fun, my Tantei-kun. Good night!"