Luck is definitely on my side! My mom hasn't seen my grades yet because our card giving was moved next next week due to bad weather! How close was that?! Now that it has moved, I have all the time I need to write more chapters while I still have my phone. I'm getting a lot of messages from readers saying that I should write MOTH now because they are itching for some fluff about CoAi. No can do, sorry. I will finish IABH first because this will most likely be the longest and most important part of the trilogy. This fanfic is the bridge from the events of MOTH to TNG. If I write MOTH or TNG now, it definitely won't make as much sense if IABH was still in progress. But never worry. Thirty-five chapters are done, and fifteen remain. It feels like I've just started writing this a month ago due to how fast I've been publishing new chapters. Back then, I was so slow in creating even a one-shot but now I am 3/4 quarters away from creating my greatest fanfic yet! And it's all thanks to you guys! 13k views here in this site is enough to keep me determined to write more and more chapters. Only seven chapters are left before we say goodbye to the Revenge arc and head on to the long awaited Truth arc, but until then, let's see how the BO will take their revenge. Oh, I almost forgot. Here are the summaries of both MOTH and TNG that I'll use when I publish them: (I hope they're good, write a review about them, please?)

Mystery of the Heart,

He has solved every case out there that needs to be solved. He has helped the police countless times, apprehending criminals is an everyday thing for him. Yet he doesn't have what it takes to solve the biggest problem that he has. Love. His feelings for his assumed one true love are dying, because of a reason he doesn't know. At the same time, a sarcastic and reliable friend is supporting him behind his back, and his feelings start to grow for her past friendship. Will he ever solve the greatest mystery in his life, which is his heart?

And for TNG,

10 years after the two organizations' downfall, Conan and Ai are the happy parents to two siblings. One is obedient and caring, while the other is rebellious but also smart. Shinichi Edogawa has always been envious of Conan and the original DB's heroic deeds, and he plans to create his own detective group, along with a few friends of course, to prove that he has what it takes to be a better detective. With a new threat about to rise and cause trouble again, what kind of adventures await the "DB.2"?

Summaries are done, now the next thing to do is to plan the chapters! In the meantime, I hope all of you can be entertained by this chap... It's hard to stay in detail and I apologize if it is short, but I have to crunch and separate events in the story in order to fit 50 chapters. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I said it before…

While everyone was safely riding the ship heading home, only Kazuha was smart enough to notice that they are one person short. "Hey, does anyone know where the old man went?" she asked. This made everyone stared at her first, then they began turning their heads left and right to see if he was with them, but he wasn't there. Nearly everyone shook their heads in denial. Kazuha widened her eyes. "Could we go back?" she asked out of concern. "Maybe he got left behind at the island..."

Mouri then spoke up. "We already left, and we're not going back. Besides, I saw him talking with the police earlier, he must have went with them. Understand?" Reluctantly, Kazuha nodded.

Back at the island, below the cliffs in the caves, a speedboat came out at full speed. The direction it was heading to wasn't west towards the mainland, rather east. The one driving wasn't a BO member, yet it wasn't a DS member as well. It was Nakamoto Hiroshi himself. But that identity didn't last long when he grasped his own face and peeled the skin off, revealing it to be a face mask. When the whols mask came off, blonde hair took over as one of the highest members of the Black Organization flashed a serious look at the ship which sailed off from behind her. 'I have faith in you, Cool Guy,' Vermouth thought to herself. 'This isn't the right time to tell you the truth, but I promise that I'll be watching all of your backs.' Her phone then rang because of a text message and when she saw who the sender was she decided to get back into the act. 'Look out for each other.'

While everyone was busy outside of the ship interacting with each other, the four detectives remained inside. Conan was getting impatient and he wanted answers now. Realizing that no one is with them at the moment, he figured that this is now the right time to ask his friends. "Guys?" he called out, earning the trio's attention. "Isn't this a good time to tell me what the hell happened to the three of you while I stayed behind?"

"Can't you wait a little longer, Kudo?" replied Heiji.

"I don't care," the boy snarled. "Just tell me what happened to the three of you! And what kind of information did you get anyway?"

"All right, all right, taku… you seem pretty irritated today," he stated, causing Conan's eyebrow to twitch. "Get ready for a bit of story-telling…"

Flashback

In the dead of night, Heiji, Kaito, and Saguru were running across the forest in an attempt to locate the underground base of the BO. They had been running for fifteen minutes now and they were halfway to the first potential location, which was the island's electric generator. They stopped for a while and leaned on the trees near them as they panted. "How much longer until we get there?" asked Kaito.

"It's within… range… of our sights," said Saguru in between breaths. "I can see it from here. Let's just hope that the HQ is located there, otherwise we'll be running again to the cliffs." Kaito nodded.

"All right, break time's over," said Heiji as they continued on running. "Let's continue on, we don't know how much longer Kudo can keep the others' minds off of us.' Finally, they have reached the island's generator. Pointing their phones at it, the whole place was enclosed with a gate. "We made it. But how could an underground HQ in these parts?"

"It's best if we split up, Heiji-kun. You and Kuroba-kun can go check the other side, and I'll stay here, got it?" His two friends nodded and they went off.

Thirty minutes have passed and there was still no sign of a trapdoor or secret stairs. They decided to eliminate the generator from the options as they were now heading to the cliffs. At first, they were planning to check the ocean, but they figured that it would be impossible to have an HQ underwater. So righ now, the cliffs are their last option and best bet. Kaito checked the time on his watch, and it was 2:12 in the morning. "Hey, guys," he spoke, catching Saguru and Heiji's attention. "What if the HQ is not even in the cliffs?"

"It's either Gin is lying, or the base somewhere in this island," said Heiji. "But don't think about such negative things. We can't lose hope right now."

"Heiji-kun's right. We must think positive, Kuroba-kun. Right now, Kudo-kun's counting on us. The police are counting on us. The whole world is counting on us. And we can't let them down, do you understand?" Kaito nodded. "Good, I can see the cliffs from here. We're nearly there!"

As soon as they reached the cliffs, they had to stop being in a hurry, because who knows? The cliffs are so steep and the distance to the other side is unimaginable to cross. What's more, the river that flowed below must be deep, so they never know when someone could fall down. "Let's split up," Kaito suggested, as he went further into the cliff, away from the open ocean.

While the other two detectives were stumped in trying to find a secret entrance, the former magician caught sight of a strange object. At the bottom of the oppositr cliff, there were huge rocks/boulders compiled together, but that wasn't the strange thing. Kaito noticed that there was a boulder that is somehow situated higher than the others around it. 'Why is it like that?' he thought to himself. 'Wait, that must be it!' "Hakuba! Heiji!" he called out. When his two friends looked at him, he motioned for them to go where he was, and they ran to him.

"What is it? Found anything, Kuroba-kun?" asked Saguru.

"Check those rocks out," replied Kaito, as he pointed to the boulders he saw earlier. His two friends pointed their phones at it. "Isn't it strange? That boulder is elevated, unlike the others. The huge rock that's on top of the others, do you see it?"

"Now that you mention it, that is rather strange."

"I say we check that out. That may be our winning ticket!" Before he could even do anything, Saguru held him back.

"Try saying that when we know how to get there, idiot! Seriously, you're just going to launch yourself at there? How do you even expect that to happen when there's a deep cliff in front of you with a river waiting at the bottom." Kaito just shrugged in response.

While the two rivals were arguing, Heiji also noticed the strange boulder below. Like Kaito, he also wanted to check it if would bear a clue regarding the base's whereabouts. But the first question was how to get to the bottom of the cliff. That question was somehow answered when the Osakan detective laid eyes on a staircase out of rock near their side of the cliff. "You guys!" he called out to his friends, causing them to stop arguing. "Check out that rock staircase there," he pointed to the stairs that he found. "There's no doubt that the BO had used those while they were here. Come on!" The Osakan detective led the way down while Kaito and Heiji followed closely. Of course, they were careful with their steps because surely, the stairs haven't been used for a long time, and who knows if the staircase was still as durable as it is now. Luckily, it was still strong and it made Saguru wonder why.

'Wait a minute,' he thought to himself. 'If this staircase wasn't used in a long time, erosion surely would've consumed the rock there, but it's as strong as the day it was formed. Could it possibly be that —" his thoughts were cut off because of Kaito calling his name out.

"Hey, Hakuba!" Kaito said. "Stop daydreaming and focus on the task at hand, okay?!" Saguru threw up his arms in defeat, as he didn't want another argument to spark between him and Kaito.

"Can't you two stop fighting for a second?!" Heiji asked. "I just found a way for us to get to the other side without going through the river!" The two suddenly went closer to him, as he pointed to small rocks barely visible at the surface of the water. "We can cross by stepping on those rocks!" Before Kaito and Saguru could even lunge at Heiji for being an idiot to think of a stupid idea to get them killed, the Osakan detective already spoke. "Before you kill me, think about it. Would you rather risk getting wet and get suspicions from the others or would you rather be careful in stepping on all of these stones?" He looked at his two friends. "Hmm?" Saguru and Kaito grinned embarrassingly. "That's what I thought. Come on, let's cross it."

It was easier said than done, because Heiji almost fell into the water when he was losing his balance. But luckily, Kaito had a firm grip on his shirt before he could even fall into the water. Saguru just kept a calm demeanor which helped him greatly. It took them about five minutes to cross the river, and as soon as they reached the other side, Heiji and Kaito collapsed on the ground, panting in both relief and exhaustion. Saguru knelt down and smirked at both of their faces. "What happened to the confidence that you had earlier, Heiji-kun?" he said.

Unwilling to accept what he said, the Osakan detective immediately stood up. "I don't have time for your games," he replied. "Let's move on." Kaito stood up as well, as they continued walking.

They were now at the area where the boulders were compiled together. Underneath the top boulder was a doorway-shaped hole; they first looked at each other, before running towards it. There was also another staircase heading directly to the hole. "It looks like we hit the jackpot, guys," Saguru remarked. They went inside and a door greeted them. Their eyes widened when they saw some chains and a huge padlock just in front of them. "They're here?!" Kaito shouted, prompting Saguru to slap a hand to his mouth.

Heiji turned to them both. "Look, we have no idea if they're inside or not," he said. "And we don't have any weapons with us, but if we stick together, I'm sure we can topple even the toughest member they can dish out. We are not gonna split up inside, okay?" Saguru let go of Kaito's mouth as the both of them nodded. "Then let's get a move on." Heiji opened the door as they went inside.

As soon as Kaito laid his eyes in the whole interior of the HQ, he raised an eyebrow. It had the same design as the HQ in Mt. Fuji. Realizing his advantage, he smirked. Between the three of them, he was the only one who fought against the BO, so he knew where to go. Seeing both Heiji and Saguru scratch their heads in confusion, he stepped forward. "Follow me, I know where to go," he said. Heiji and Saguru looked at each other, before the blonde detective shrugged his shoulders.

The former magician immediately headed for the Boss's room, which was straight ahead. Heiji and Saguru kept turning their heads to different directions in case that a member would be spying on them. Shakingly, Kaito opened the door, and he was shocked to see that it wasn't locked at all. Because if it was, he would've broke in by shattering the see-through glass of the room. The blonde detective saw a light switch by the door and he turned it on. They turned off their phones and started to split up and search the area.

While Kaito and Heiji were busy searching closets and drawers, Saguru checked the computer at the desk in the middle of the room to see if it was still working. To his utmost surprise, it was! However, this confused him because of its capabilities. 'How can this computer still work?' he thought to himself. 'If we assume that many years have passed since this was used, then this should not be working anymore! But it could be still accessible like it was just bought yesterday! Is it possible that someone is sneaking in here?' He was cut off from his thoughts when he saw that the computer needed a password in order to access it. He narrowed his eyes and turned it off. 'Smart of them, indeed. What else could we find here?'

"Guys, I found something!" piped up Heiji, causing his two friends to head over to where he was. "Check this record book out." When Kaito and Saguru opened the material, they widened their eyes.

"T-this is…" said Kaito.

End of Flashback

"And that's how we got this record book of BO members," Kaito finished, as he brought out a book the size of a regular logbook but it was as thick as an encyclopedia. "With this, we can easily track other members of the BO."

Conan was wide-eyed throughout the whole flashback of events. Although it was a little hard to keep track of everything his friends just said, he was still able to understand. "Is there any other information that you've gotten besides this book?"

The former magician shook his head. "No, we had no time left. What's more, we heard some strangs noises in the hallways of the HQ. So we had to hurry back with what we've got."

Conan stroked his chin. "Kaito, you and I both know that almost all of the members of the organization died when we fought them. That record book must be showing us the members that are now dead. Our trip to the island is wasted if the information you got is out of date."

"Have a little faith, Shinichi! You're right, this book may be out of date with the information it has. But right now, every information is crucial if we are to be declared the victor." Conan looked at the ground before finally nodding.

"But what's confusing me right now," said Heiji. "Is the fact that the main door to the HQ was unlocked. Did someone go there, or was the last member who left the base too stupid to even lock their dangerous HQ up?"

"The most probable answer to that," said Saguru. "Is someone must have went there. They are too smart to even let it become unlocked for anyone to go inside. But the questions are who, when, and why?"

"You guys," said Conan. "Let's not worry about that for now. What's important is that we have information with us. Let's focus on what's happening with us currently." The trio nodded. "Now let's get some rest, I haven't even slept yet. We still have tims before we get back to the mainland." The boy yawned as he went down the stairs to some bedrooms, and he was followed closely by his friends.

Six hours later, Hakase's house…

"Ai-chan, can you please check the time on your watch?" asked Kazuko. The two teenage girls were on their way back home after another boring day inside of their school. It was even more boring since Conan wasn't there.

Looking at the watch Conan gave her as a gift weeks ago, she announced the time. "It's 12:27. Are you in a hurry, Nomura-san?"

Feeling quickly embarrassed, a faint blush tainted her cheeks as she looked away. "N-no, I just wantes to know what time it is, nothing special."

Flashing her signature smirk, Ai decided to press things further. "You and Fujimoto-kun just want some alone time, don't you?" Kazuko's cheeks burned red as she tried to hide her face. "You two already had your first date a few days ago and now you're having your second date already?"

"It's not like that!" Kazuko pouted. "I just promised him earlier that I'd meet him later on because he needs help with some essays that a few teachers assigned him to do. There's nothing romantic about that!"

Ai's smirk widened. "Oh, really? Maybe I should tag along with you two later on with a camera so that I'll take pictures of whatever you two are going to do…"

"You better stop it, Ai-chan! Or else I'm telling Shinichi-kun to tease you non-stop for the rest of the week!"

"Geez, calm down," the scientist stated with a chuckle. "I was just messing around with you." Kazuko crossed her arms and snorted, clearly not pleased with how Ai was acting right now. "Come on, Nomura-san… Can't you take a little joke?"

"What happened to the old Ai-chan that Ayumi-chan and the others have been telling me about? They said that you're different now, when compared to when they first met you. They told me that the old Ai-chan was sarcastic, quiet, and a bit cold." This made Ai raise an eyebrow at her. "But now, you're more talkative, a bit boisterous and loves to mess around."

"Don't talk like that, I'm still me!" the scientist defended. "I'm still the same, I just underwent a few changes courtesy of Shinichi. And why do you care about the way I act all of a sudden?" She didn't even give Kazuko time to answer as she spoke again. "Anyway, let's just get back home, I need to continue working on the antidote." Kazuko groaned as they continued walking back.

As soon as they got inside the premises, Ai knocked on the door, waiting for Hakase to open it. When no one answered after half a minute, Kazuko knocked, this time it was louder. But there was still no response. Ai knocked again, and when there was still no answer, she opened the door, shocked to find out that it was unlocked. But what shocked her more, as well as Kazuko, was seeing the whole house in a mess in front of them.

The couches were toppled over, as well as the tables. The bookshelves were taken down and Hakase's computer was broken down into little pieces part by part. They looked at each other, before splitting up to check each section of the house.

Ai checked the kitchen, and boy was it trashed. The contents of the garbage bin there was scattered on the floor. The food inside the refrigerator was scattered on the table. She covered her mouth with both of her hands to suppress the gasps that were coming out of her mouth.

Kazuko went upstairs to check on their bedrooms. Her gasps of horror were spot on because the bedsheets looked like they were ripped by claws. Their cabinets were lying on the floor with all of their clothes. The same happened in all three bedrooms. In a hurry, she went downstairs and met up with Ai. "What the hell happened here?!" Kazuko asked.

"I don't know!" replied Ai. "Have you seen Hakase?"

"No, he wasn't upstairs. Wasn't he down here?" Ai shook her head, causing Kazuko's eyes to widen. "Have you checked the basement yet?" Ai shook her head, she didn't look inside her lab yet. Kazuko led the way downstairs while Ai followed closely.

They hesitated in opening the door, as they were terrified of what was inside. They were shivering in fear before Kazuko took out her phone and turned on the flashlight, knowing that Ai never had any light source whatsoever in her lab. They opened the door but they didn't barge in instantly.

"Hakase?" Ai called out, but nobody answered. "Hakase, are you there?" Again, silence took over. The two girls took a deep breath before going inside. Ai had to cover her mouth in order to muffle the scream she was emitting.

The test tubes containing the samples of the antidote were shattered and the liquid was freely flowing all over the floor. When Kazuko turned her phone to Ai's rats that were her test subjects, they were mutilated with some body parts missing, causing the girl to widen her eyes in disgust and fear. They knew for sure that Hakase wasn't in the house right now, since they have checked every room there is to check. Lastly, when they shone the light to Ai's computer, they saw that the monitor's screen was shattered, but there was a small piece of paper stuck on it.

When Ai took and looked at it, two words was enough to erase the serious look on her face, make her collapse to her knees and sob loudly. Kazuko widened her eyes and raised an eyebrow in confusion. She checked first if her friend knelt on the shattered glass from the test tubes. Seeing that Ai was safe, she took the paper from the crying scientist and looked at it herself. Her eyes widened more as she threw an arm around her friend to try and ease the pain she was feeling, all while resisting the urge to cry as well.

Two words were enough to make the unbreakable scientist "break". At first, only Conan was the only one whom she could fully reveal her feelings to, but she thought wrong when a thing from her past made her cry again. But what did the letter say?

Hello, Sherry…

Meanwhile…

Kaito, Saguru, Aoko, and Akako all bid their farewells at the station, as they were heading back home. Kazuha and Heiji however, wanted to stay for one more dinner before going back to Osaka. Right now, they were setting down their bags at the agency. While everyone else was tired, Conan didn't waste any time as he immediately grabbed his skateboard to go to Hakase's. Just as Conan went out the door, Ran noticed him and stood up. "Conan-kun!" she called out.

"Don't!" said Heiji, interrupting the girl in her tracks. "I can tell he's just itching to see his girlfriend, you should just rest." Ran nodded as she sat back down on the couch.

Excited at the thought of seeing his beloved Ai again, it took him mere minutes to get to Hakase's home. He got off his board and decided to walk the rest of the way. But what he saw outside of the house definitely confused him.

There were two police cars, and he could point out that Takagi-keiji and Shiratori-keibu were there. He also saw some policemen placing police tape just at the gate. He then saw Ai and Kazuko, albeit only their faces, because they were in cloth that acted like hoods for them. Weirded out with what was going on, he decided to ask the two inhabitants of the house personally. He leaned his board at the wall and started to run.

Ai, as soon as she heard footsteps, turned her head to the direction of the sound, and her eyes widened at seeing her beloved detective. His arms were already wide open and she lunges herself at him, tears flowing from her eyes freely. They hugged each other like there was no tomorrow as she began to sob into his shirt. He started to wonder why she was crying. Kazuko then went towards him and just warmly smiled, not wanting to separate the couple from their moment. "What happened here?" the boy asked, causing Kazuko to look down on the ground. "Why are the police here? Why are they putting police tape all over Hakase's gate? And where is that old man?"

Kazuko gulped heavily before finally answering. "The Organization made a move," she breathed out, causing the boy's eyes to widen. "The house looks okay on the outside, but it's destroyed at the inside." Kazuko looked up to see Conan's shocked face before continuing. "Everything is so messed up, even our rooms, and Ai-chan's laboratory. Speaking of her lab, the antidote's data has been deleted, the BO literally killed her test subjects, broke her samples, and destroyed her computer."

Shocked with Kazuko's statements, he patted Ai's back to try and stop her from crying at least. "When did this happen?" he asked in a serious tone.

"Maybe earlier. This morning, everything was so normal until we left the house to go to school. Then an hour ago, we came back and the result was what I told you earlier."

Conan gritted his teeth while resisting the tears to flow out of his eyes as well. "This is all my fault! How could I let this happen?!" he cursed himself. "I'm such an idiot! I thought for sure that you two would be safe if you had stayed behind! But I was wrong! I'm sorry!"

Kazuko stepped forward and patted his shoulder. "It's not your fault, Shinichi-kun. We didn't know that they would make their move. And it was unexpected." She brought out the paper that they found at Ai's computer and handed it to Conan. "Here, look at this."

Once Conan saw what was written on the paper, his eyes widened to the size of dinner plates as he clenched his fists. It was only then that he noticed that someone was missing in the place. "Where's Hakase?!" he asked frantically. Before Kazuko could answer, the two of them heard Ai's muffled voice through the boy's shirt. "What?"

Ai finally separated from their hug and looked up at him with teary green eyes as she spoke. "He's… gone," she whimpered.

That was all Conan needed to hear. Before the two girls even knew it, he took his skateboard and started to head for the police station. He even passed by Ryuuichi, who was going to Hakase's home as well. The prodigy tried to call out his name, but Conan didn't bother to turn around. Ryuuichi raised an eyebrow before shrugging his shoulders and continued on to his destination. Afterwards, he saw Kazuko and Ai outside of the house and the same thing that happened to Conan happened to him as well.

Going inside the station, the boy ignored Megure's greeting and continued on walking towards Gin's cell. At first, the inspector tried on stopping him, but when he knew where the boy was trying to go to and observing the look on his face, he decided to just follow Conan.

The door burst open, causing Gin to look up at whoever was going in. He had just woken up from a nap as he was rubbing his eyes since his vision was a little blurry. When his eyesight became clear, his eyes met the gaze of Conan, who was glaring daggers at him. He looked outside and saw Megure-keibu, who was just watching them. "Look who's back," Gin spoke. "How did the trip go, Kudo Shinichi?"

"Shut up!" Conan snapped, pointing his index finger at Gin, causing the latter to raise an eyebrow at him. The brough out the paper that was in his pocket, uncrumpled it, and showed it to Gin. "What the hell is the meaning of this?! I found this at my neighbor's home! That damn organization destroyed his house from the inside!"

Reading the text on the paper made Gin lean back on the wall, close his eyes and cross his arms. Conan's eyebrows furrowed at his sudden action. Gin sighed first before he opened both of his eyes and spoke. "Seems they have made their presence known…"

Next on I'll Always Be Here…

"Are you somehow involved in this?!"

"Let me give you a hand…"

"I never laid a hand on Sherry…"

"Arigato…"

CHAPTER 36: GIN SAVES A BOY?

How was this chapter? I'm sorry if this was mostly a flashback, but I just can't add Kaito, Heiji, and Saguru's little journey in the last chapter. Because… Dun dun dun! Chapter 34 set the new record for the longest chapter with 8,411 words. And it would certainly tire me out if I add the trio's journey there. What's more, I needed to have a good stopping point. That's why I had the flashback told here. To clear everything up, the year in which this fanfic started is 1994, which is the year that the first manga of the franchise is released. Let's assume a year still hasn't passed since Conan shrunk. TNG, which is held 10 years after, will be 2004. Man, it's hard to be in full detail for this fanfic, it's like I'm creating a new anime here! I am also grateful that the idea of Kazuko and Ryuuichi popped into my mind! I don't even know if I could complete this chapter without Kazuko! I hope you all get the mystery behind Nakamoto Hiroshi at the beginning. Anyways, there are now only six chapters left before the Revenge arc is completed. If you got the time, tell me what arc is your favorite? Please? So here's the rundown so far. Hakase is gone, it's unknown if he's dead or not; Ai's lab is destroyed, erasing all data on the antidote; the house is an absolute mess, with only a note left as evidence; which leaves Conan and the gang stumped! What will happen next? Goodbye… and good night! BANG! *too sweet gesture*

-Lance