This chapter is going to be a lot of talking, sorry. I want to try to flesh out who I think the characters are and what they're like.
"Haibara, can I come over? There's something I want to talk to you about." Haibara looked up in mild surprise but agreed, not showing any noticeable change in body language as they continued to walk to the professor's home. The kids had headed the other direction for a Kamen Yaiba event that the two not-children had opted out of.
Opening the door was met with a loud 'BANG', alerting the two to the fact that another one of the professor's inventions had failed. Both sighed and sat down inside on one of the professor's couches, Haibara giving Conan her full attention.
"What I wanted to tell you is that there was another victim of the APTX who's showing the same side effects as us." Her eyes widened then sharpened in interest that was not present at the beginning of the conversation.
"Who was it?" Haibara tilted her head curiously, hoping to be able to find a common trend in the victims of her drug who shrank.
"That's the thing. They've asked me not to tell you anything about them because they don't trust you and I'd like to not betray that." Haibara scowled and glared, not agreeing with his decision in the slightest.
"How can you be sure they can be trusted?" She was worried now, "you're so reckless that I have no reason to believe that your judgement should be a good method to decide whether they're trustworthy. If I don't know anything about them why should I believe that I'll ever be safe around them? Especially if they also know about me!"
Conan was expecting her outburst and as such did not give an obvious reaction. "It'll be fine because I know a lot about them. Like you said, I trust people when I know all their secrets and have complete control over them. I met with this person and we've talked… I know who they are, their family and their current situation."
"Still, you should be a bit more cautious." Haibara leaned back in the couch, "I don't like this whole you get to decide whether we trust them thing."
"Don't you think you're being a bit paranoid?"
"I'm cautious. Besides, it's not paranoia if there really are people after you."
"Need I remind you that they think you're dead? To them you were blown up in a train car with no possible means to escape."
"You still haven't explained every part of that whole adventure." A suspecting glare was sent Conan's way as he shook his head.
"I told you, Subaru's on our side. You don't need to worry about him." Haibara gave a resigned sigh knowing that was all she was going to get out of him.
"I want you to promise me something then." Conan looked up in confusion but motioned for her to continue. "I'm sure I won't be around next time you do something stupid and risky but as your voice of reason I feel it is my duty to try to keep you a bit safe. If I can to that by making you promise me something then that's what we'll do. Promise me you will keep yourself alive just as much as other people. I know you will try to protect other people more than anything but if you do that then get injured in the process, you have to be sure you won't die. If that means holding yourself to the same standard that you would for me or the professor then do that, just stay alive. I can't heal you if you're dead."
Conan gave a slight laugh at the last part but thought about her request. After a moment's thought he nodded his head in agreement. "Alright, I'll do that. What I think I can and should tell you is that this person is connected to Sera Masumi, the female detective, so I might be talking with her about something for that reason."
Haibara smiled in slight victory at getting her promise agreed to. It was not much but it would be better than nothing. At the very least he would put more thought into keeping himself safe than normal.
"Anything else you wanted to talk about?" Haibara's voice rose slightly to be heard over the frequent explosions in the back of the house. "You seemed like you had more than that on your mind when we were walking over."
"Oh, right. Takagi knows."
3, 2, 1…
"WHAT!" Haibara's reaction was exactly as expected, leading Conan to be glad he was already covering his ears when he told her. "How much does he know? How did he find out? Will he keep it a secret? Did anyone else find out? What will he do?"
Her rapid fire questions were tiring so Conan put one hand up to stop her and let him uncover his other ear.
"In order, he doesn't know I'm Kudo Shinichi I just told him an organization's after me and some people who are involved like you or the professor. He found out because I told him, he was injured and I agreed to answer one question from him. I can promise you that he'll keep it a secret. Sato and Megure won't be told. No one else found out so you don't need to worry about that. He said that now that he knows I can ask him for help on certain things and he'll give his assistance. He already knows me pretty well anyways."
Haibara let out a long breath hearing the reassurance he gave, leaning back further into the couch having leaned forward while asking questions.
Subaru Okiya was listening to the conversation as well, though only Conan knew that fact. He was not worried about admitting he was Kudo Shinichi as he already knew the man had figured that out. It was interesting to him that Kudo Shinichi and Miyano Shiho had such as family like relationship. He would have thought of them as work associates before considering the relationship they seemed to share.
There was also the matter of the APTX that was mentioned in that conversation. He was fairly certain he had heard the two whispering about that from time to time but as Conan would never answer any questions he had on it Subaru had no choice but to see what information he could get from listening. How frustrating.
Not that there was much he could do, he needed Conan and was in debt to him for both saving his life and giving him a place to watch over the one he wanted to protect from.
The most important part to him was how his sister had been mentioned in the conversation. She knew a victim of the APTX? How? His family was not supposed to be involved in the hunt for the organization at all, now his little sister was in danger?
Was anyone else in his family involved with the organization? After all the work he had done to keep them safe why would they start being involved?
No, wait. Maybe he was overthinking it. It might be safest if he just asked Conan questions on how his family was involved.
Would those questions even be answered if he asked? Did the boy even know the answers to most of those questions? And was there any way to ask without letting him know who his family was? Leading another life was starting to become taxing.
No, those questions would probably not be answered. All he could do is try to protect everyone he knew from the shadows.
Even more frustrating.
Saying goodbye to Haibara Conan began heading home. Pulling out his phone he decided to make a call out of need to have someone to talk to.
"Hey, Kaito."
"Conan, why are you calling?"
"Are you busy right now?"
"No, I'm just thinking of a trick for my upcoming heist. What did you want to talk about?" Conan took a deep breath, again wondering if a phantom thief was the right person to call in his situation.
"I… I just wanted someone to talk to. Everything's getting a bit crazy around here."
"I'm sure, you are trying to take down a massive crime organization while you look like a six year old child."
"But I've been doing that for a while. I just… I know my life as Kudo Shinichi is gone and that might have something to do with it but I always felt like I had a normal side to my life as Conan too. I had the detective boys and school and was always being taken on cases with Kogoro, that was Edogawa Conan's normal life." Conan continued to walk forward, picking up a rock with his feet and kicking it as he made his way home.
"Was?"
"I feel like I'm losing it. Like Edogawa Conan's civilian side is disappearing. It was fake- it always has been, but I feel like the whole air of normalcy is becoming more and more fake as time goes on. Actually, now that I think about it Hattori's death might be playing a huge role in this. He might have been one of the only people who I could be completely myself around and was in no way connected to the organization except through me. He's just gone now, I don't have that anymore."
On the other side of the phone Kaito scowled. Organizations. The same kind as the one that took his dad away from him. All killing people did was bring about unhappiness and anger, it never turned out well.
"Don't you still have that Haibara girl though?" Kaito hoped bringing this point up would help, "She is living the same life as you, going to school in a world of fakeness."
"She didn't have another life at the same time though. I was being Kudo Shinichi at the same time as I was being Edogawa Conan for a while. I had friends as Kudo Shinichi that I still saw every day, I think that might be part of what's messing with me." Conan gave the rock an extra hard kick and sent it flying to a park where the detective boys brought him to play games.
Kaito paused, "I may not know exactly how you feel but I think I get some of it. I'm a magician, our whole lives are dedicated to trickery and letting people experience happiness from a lie, even if they know it's fake."
Kaito heard Conan give a hum of understanding and continued, "at school almost nothing is real. I have friends, of course, but I'm a prankster around them and I never feel like I'm being completely genuine. Then there's my life as Kaito Kid. I feel like that's where I really shine, it puts all my skills to the test and lets me act to my farthest ability. I feel more real there than any other time because while I'm still acting I'm acting how I want to. I have more fun there than in real life so sometimes school and normal life feels… fake. Like it's the one I'm pretending to be so I can live my kid life and not the other way around."
"God, I can't believe I'm talking to an internationally wanted thief about my identity problems." the complaint made Kaito smirk as he listened to Conan groan.
"Don't be like that. I'll have you know people all around the world love me!"
"Mmhm. I'm sure." Conan paused, "thank's for listening Kaito."
"Anytime my dear rival." Conan laughed at that, causing Kaito to grin. There was almost nothing he liked more than causing his favorite critic to laugh and actually enjoy something. It meant that he had really succeeded in what he was planning.
"Well I suppose that our conversation is done so that we can go back to our real, normal, not-actually-so-genuine lives." Kaito heard Conan start to walk up the steps to the Mouri residence from the other side of the phone. "Bye my dear rival! :)"
"Bye."
One reminder. I'm not going to do anything KaiShin so don't ask me to do that. Sorry :(
Please review! :)