The calm in the center of the storm
He moved his head in small circles, his muscles arching down to his chest and back before he placed it back on the small "cushion" he'd been granted.
'Damn…'
Slowly, he opened his eyes, staring at the ceiling. Not that it made a big difference, because everything he saw was deep pit black darkness.
Black.
Jeez, he really started to hate that color.
His very existence had been reduced to sounds, voices, hands touching him, and needles stabbing him, along with other things he preferred not to think about for too long.
The world he knew had stopped to exist.
Shinichi swallowed, blinked, and noticed how the darkened contact lenses burned in his eyes.
He could only estimate how long he'd been kept in this hole of darkness. The scientist's coming and going was the only thing for him to measure time, but he could tell that it was way too long.
Eight, ten days, maybe.
Ten days without a visit from "Bell", without that – whatever they gave him worked the way it should. A bitter smile crept to the high schooler's dry lips; he didn't know if he should be happy or disappointed that they couldn't solve Conan's "little secret". Even though it sometimes felt like they were damn close. The unbearable heat, sweats, and muscle spasms had almost been the most harmless side effects of their mixture. A few times, they had to hurry to flush the stuff out of his system because they figured that it was about to kill him, and they would not get further with their research. At least his consciousness had failed him at those "lucky moments", releasing him from the pain.
But no matter what they did, no matter how close they came to Sherry's formula, their efforts still failed.
The high schooler swallowed, felt how his tongue stuck to his dry palate, and longed for the little plastic cup of stale water, with which they had apparently tried to humor him. Because since a few days or hours, he hasn't seen a hint of them.
'Oh, screw your humor, Kudo!'
He rolled his eyes, ignore the growing urge to talk to himself or laughing about his own humorless jokes. Because he knew the answer to their sudden absence and the missing of his daily checkups, and it actually conjured a smile on the detectives' lips.
'Finally.'
A relieved sigh escaped his throat, and he even managed to enjoy the peace and quiet around him for a moment.
He made it…
He managed to get this damn video to the public. No matter what happened now, the organization would have a hard time gaining a foothold in the world again.
He could taste the old nausea on his tongue when he thought of the day he'd finally managed to persuade Tracy to film him. Of course, he'd always hoped that he wouldn't have to use it, that he could bring the organization down himself. But he needed this backup, in case he was no longer able to protect everyone from these black shadows.
He used the video similar to an old interrogation trick, to put the weak suspect under enough pressure for them to reveal the big fish behind them; you only needed suitable leverage. Well, he guessed that the tape would be good enough. He always carried a copy on a small SD card with him, and once Vermouth had left him alone in the journalist's office, he'd used the old pipe mail system to send it to the next best office.
The only thing left to do was wait and hope that the FBI, the police, and the CIA would do their job.
That they made sure his friends and family were safe.
Maybe there even was some hope that they would find him here so that he could pick up what his "bombe" had left from his life… and hers.
'Ran…'
Shinichi closed his eyes and took a deep breath, even though each godforsaken fiber hurt beneath his movements. He was still alone, the scientists were late, but the detective wasn't sure anymore if he should be happy about it. His body hurt yet seemed somehow numb, and he sometimes wondered if the world around him even existed.
"Your mind is starting to crumble, Kudo, due to the sleep deprivation and dehydration."
'Fantastic.' Shinichi had to stop himself from answering his own rough voice with his own.
Damn, he'd really been in this hole for too long already.
He closed his eyes, trying to relax his face to get rid of the boss's annoying voice in his head. Bell, who abused "his" voice to cover him so that he wouldn't recognize him.
It was someone he might know, who'd been in front of him the whole time, without him knowing anything.
The man's words were still lingering in his head while he desperately tried to figure them out.
"It seems that Bourbon was an undercover agent as well after he quit working with the police. We didn't know - he was good, and we were pleased with his work. However, the incident with Akai sadly forced us to deal with him ourselves."
'So Bourbon had been working with the police at some point? Had someone of the department known him? Why haven't I seen this guy before?' His fingers drummed on the table thoughtfully, causing the handcuffs to clatter, which the detective deliberately ignored.
'Must have been before my time… but what sacrifice had he been talking about?
"No one likes to sacrifice a pawn, even if it's a foul one, but sometimes it's simply necessary to keep the game going."
The detective's frown created deep lines on his otherwise youthful face.
'A victim of the organization… or the police? But why would he compare it to a pawn-'
His breath got stuck in his lungs; Shinichi felt how blood was fleeing his face, while his fingertips turned to ice.
'-useless…'
Black.
Alcohol.
Nanatsu no ko.
Crows.
A familiar face.
'The police…?
Shinichi groaned, pressing his eyes shut while he tried to order the mess in his head.
'How? How does all of this fit? Gin, Vodka, Vermouth, Bourbon, Chianti, Korn, Kir, Sherry, Tequila, Pisco." A lopsided grin flashed over his lips. Well, it didn't seem like making a list of the alcoholic content of a poorly stocked bar was particularly helpful.
'A dark syndicate, a poison that kills, leaving no trace, something Sherry's parents had been working on before her. Shelling Ford, an incomplete detective. As well as a poison that was able to shrink the human body, or rather rejuvenate it about ten years.
'Kudo Shinichi and Edogawa Conan.
Myano Shiho and Haibara Ai.
Sharon Vineyard and Chris.'
"We can be both of God and the devil. Since we're trying to raise the dead against the stream of time."
The detective swallowed, trying to ignore her childlike and yet cold voice in his ears. She thought they were reading a fantasy book. At least that was what she told them because he doubted that she'd never heard it before, not after what she'd said during the soccer game back then.
"Humans can't reverse the flow of time. If you try to twist it against its will… You'll be punished."
He could still see her face, her green eyes, looking empty, and yet remembering things he had no idea of. Things she kept from him because she thought it was too dangerous for him to know.
'Damn it, Haibara!'
Honestly, he could have used a few more pieces of information. He'd been so close to catching them, so close to figuring out who was hiding behind Bell's voice and his clouded eyesight.
So close.
"Who are you…?"
Even before he'd voiced the question into the dark room, he felt his muscles growing tense, his heart rate escalated while he finally heard what he'd been waiting for. Steps that were slowly coming closer before the door opened and closed again.
Shinichi knew who stood in front of him without that he needed to say a thing; his dark aura alone told him enough. Besides, he had been waiting for him, the head of the organization.
XXX
He took a deep breath, stopped for a second to let his eyes wander over the young detective, who was destroying his life's work without lifting a finger. His lips twitched, showing a hint of a smile when he saw the condition this "modern Sherlock Holmes" was in. Seems like his scientists had done their work.
The boy's silhouette could be seen beneath the thin blanket. His hands and ankles rested in iron handcuffs, especially his wrists had suffered, while dark rings were visible underneath his eyes. The neon tubes on the ceiling showed his pale complexion, while the cold light provided the lab with a certain atmosphere.
Yes, it would be fun to work here.
But before the cold grin could reach his face, his gaze fell back to the detective, who's blue but blind eyes seemed to look right through him.
He cleared his throat and crossed the short distance between him and the high schooler.
"Kudo Shinichi…"
Bell's voice echoed in the small lab while he tugged a key from his pockets. He loosened one handcuff from the table only to pull Shinichi's arm over his head, replacing the handcuff there before he repeated the procedure with his other arm. Shinichi himself wasn't able to move, even if he could have. The sudden movement after the stiff position over the past days was too much for his muscles to take, but the boss didn't care about his prisoner's moaning.
"I suppose you know why I'm here?" On the pain-distorted face of the detective appeared a sarcastic smile.
"Guess you've been longing for my presence?"
He couldn't see how the bushy eyebrows rose before Bell's voice released a hoarse laugh.
"That is one way to put it." Shinichi swallowed. He could hear how Bell prepared something else in the room since he had his back turned to him while he spoke.
"However, I fail to congratulate you for this little move of yours since it's a rather cheap trick… don't you agree?" The detective laughed, his voice rough while it itched in his throat when his dry lips moved.
"Sometimes, we all need dirty tricks to reach our goals." He forced a smile on his face, but they both knew that Shinichi was just buying time to figure out what the boss was up to. The detective swallowed, forced himself to take a deep breath to cover the panic in his voice with irony.
"But I guess I don't have to tell this to you."
The boss of the organization didn't reply. Instead, Shinichi could hear the squeaking of a faucet before the noise of running water made his dry throat itch. They remained silent, "Bell" turned the water off before he went back to the detective. Shinichi could feel his breath on his skin; Bell's words holding a bitter touch, one that Shinichi would have never been able to put into it.
"No, no, you don't have to, however-"
Strong hands gripped his hair, lifting the detective's head without warning so that his joints cracked painfully before he placed his head back into some device he'd put beneath it. Shinichi gritted his teeth, ignoring the pain and the strange "pillow," which reduced his head's movement to a minimum. Whatever this guy had planned for him, it wasn't good.
Bell continued to speak, and not for the first time, his voice held a demanding tone.
"- it's time to talk, Kudo-kun."
Shinichi swallowed; he heard how a chair was pushed beside him, groaning under the weight of the man taking a seat with a sigh.
"You know, I've spent my time thinking about what to do with you. While the press is cleaning your dirty laundry in public, the police and the FBI are currently destroying my life's work. Even though we sometimes have some explosive surprises for them." But the sweet grin that accompanied Bell's speech vanished again.
"I hope you didn't believe that I'd forget you down here? All helpless and alone?"
Shinichi made a face, a suitable answer rested on his lips, but he knew better than to play with fire right now. Apparently, the boss wasn't about to kill him right away, so the best he could do was to earn some time, perhaps even digging for another clue to identify the man next to him.
However, Bell seemed to be annoyed by the silence of his prisoner, his tone growing bitter.
"Of course, I'm far from pleased by this development. Nevertheless, I can assure you that I don't need to worry for my own life right now. Those who knew about me would rather give their lives than betray the organization. I am sure you understand this kind of loyalty."
Kudo just stared at him blankly, tied up, with no way to move or escape, but yet the detective who'd destroyed his syndicate was far too calm for his taste, well… that was about to change.
"However, the good thing is, if they don't find me, they won't find you either, so that we're about to spend some more time together." The irony in Bell's voice caused goosebumps in his neck.
"Of course, I would like to show you my gratitude for what you've done; I owe it to you after all."
Shinichi waited for the punch in the stomach, for a slap in the face or some other form of physical violence the boss had announced, but nothing of this sort happened. Instead, the man beside him had reached for his file, which Shinichi knew, was somehow attached to the side of the table. He heard him going through it, from one page to another, before he closed the folder again.
"You would have been in better company with my scientists. You could have lived longer, or maybe even died faster… but you've asked for this." Bell's voice changed, from a fake warmth to a cold and bitter tone, so that the frost in his voice crawled beneath the skin of the tied up high schooler, causing him to shiver.
"So I thought, if you could use such an old trick to destroy my machinations, I could use something similar to turn the tables."
Once again, the sound of something metallic right beside him could be heard before the boss adjusted something that seemed to be right above him, then turned back to his prisoner.
"Because even though I might not be able to revive my syndicate, I am sure that there is enough information in this pretty head of yours to get revenge on your friends and the FBI."
Amused, he observed how the boy's lips grew thin while his eyes stared at the ceiling stubbornly.
He would clearly enjoy breaking that spirit.
XXX
She was hiding her face in the pillow that rested between her pulled up knees and her chest. She could hear her mother beside her, slowly combing through her hair with her fingers, waiting for her daughter to move, even though Ran seemed to be frozen since yesterday. Her father had complimented her out of her room this morning and accompanied her to the breakfast table, where she'd picked at her food with little interest. After that, she'd gone to the living room with her, by now, cold tea in her hands, not moving at all.
Eri sighed. Not for the first time, she looked over to Yukiko, who sat opposite them on the couch, holding the remote tightly, while her eyes never left the TV.
She'd been like that all day.
A heavy breath escaped Eri's throat.
'Ran… you can't go on like this…'
However, another part of the lawyer wished that this shock-induced paralysis would continue, at least so long until the organization was no more.
Until they found him.
Ran didn't notice her mother's concern, was numb to any movement or emotion. Even Haikuro wasn't able to change this. The only sound that made the young woman twitch was the ringing of Stuard's or Tracy's mobile before their eyes met with a brief shake of their head.
She swallowed, putting the cold cup of tea aside to hug the big old pillow. The musty smell clouded her mind even further while her eyes tried to follow what was happening on TV. She knew the reporters' names by now, the private channels battling for the better story, as always.
A young psychologist looked straight into the camera, answering questions with a charming smile on her glossy pink lips. She was about to explain the impact to one's psyche, suddenly thrown back into childhood.
"I'm sure it was rather traumatic for him. A young man who just got a name within the police and the media, suddenly becoming a seven-year-old again." She swallowed, shaking her head before a small smile appeared on her lips.
"Of course, for some of us, it might be a wish, a wonderful miracle even to be young again, but let's not forget the problems accompanying this mysterious drug." The young woman made a theatrical pause, and by then, Ran knew that she didn't like her. Her eyes narrowed while she watched her explain what she already knew with fake empathy in her voice.
"Children are easily overheard or overseen. They have to submit to the will of adults. You take their hand to cross the street, and they have fixed times they need to go to bed. Many everyday items are too high up for them to reach, so they have to ask for help. For example, things like a doorknob or the ticket machine of the subway." A heavy sigh interrupted her monologue.
"Those things don't change, even if the person just appears to be a child from the outside…"
Her voice grew serious, her gaze wandered back to the camera.
"You have to take someone like that by the hand, so he won't be swallowed in the crowd. You have to help in everyday situations because it's no longer possible to manage them independently. And of course, a child's body will also demand it's needed sleep. I think most people are ignorant of the fact that this youth isn't only beneficial." She sighed, pausing again with sorrow on her face, but a smile hidden beneath it, causing Ran to dig her fingers deeper into the poor pillow. A sour taste crept up her throat while she continued to listen.
"No, I don't want to imagine what it must have felt like to be treated that way, how much he must have suffered…
Waking up in a body he must have hated, to continue an act he couldn't escape from." She swallowed, turning her glinting blue eyes to the audience.
"I wouldn't want to trade with him… would you?"
A heavy silence stretched on the TV until the reporter started to speak again, asking further questions, but Ran didn't listen any longer. Because even if this fame-hungry psychologist obviously didn't care for Shinichi, she still knew that her words were possibly true.
Ran pressed the pillow closer to herself; she could feel new tears lingering in her dry eyes. Since she'd found out about Bell, in all the former chaos and her wish to be with him again, she'd nearly forgotten what he'd been through. It sickened her that a stranger was needed to remind her of that. He had always been good at hiding his feelings from her, his own pain, while he was by her side, comforting her as Conan. Always able to put a smile on her lips. While he suffered silently, right in front of her. Now, however, there was no way for him to hide. His pain, his faults, and his life were public.
Was that the world he wanted to return to when they finally found him?
Her heart hammered in her chest when she finally pushed the pillow aside and rose from the sofa with trembling knees.
"Ran?" her mother's voice echoed in her ears yet sounded far away. She managed to shake her with a small smile on her lips.
"I'm fine. I just need some fresh air."
Eri nodded, saw from the corner of her eyes that the FBI agent rose from his place at the table to accompany Ran outside.
"Alright."
The world outside greeted them with heavy clouds hiding the sun. Still, the cold air couldn't rid her mind from her thoughts. Ran swallowed, ignoring Stuart's gaze on her skin, before he let his eyes wander into the distance. Even though she knew the American was meaning well, she was glad that he remained silent.
A heavy sigh escaped her lungs while her heart felt heavy in her chest.
'Maybe you're right, Shinichi… maybe there are things I don't want to know - things I shouldn't know."
XXX
Yukiko hadn't noticed that Ran had left or how Eri called for her before vanishing into the kitchen. Her eyes were fixed on the TV, her fingers tense around the remote.
She'd changed the channel to get rid of the arrogant bitch who dared to tell her how her son must have felt.
However, she wasn't sure if she liked the little man with the white beard and the nervous look any better. She presumed him to be a scientist, at least he sounded like one, while he tried to explain how it could be possible to rejuvenate a human body.
The world wanted an explanation, after all.
Yukiko sighed and sapped from the rusty voice of the bearded man to another channel.
"- in front of the very same primary school Edogawa Conan visited as a pupil ten years ago." The young red-haired reporter stood in front of the Teitan elementary school. In the background, cheerful young voices could be heard while the camera filmed the schoolyard.
"My colleague managed to meet his former teacher this morning." The picture changed, showing a rather frantic Kobayashi, who struggled with her car's key with trembling hands, while numerous voices fired questions at her.
"Did you know?"
"How did he behave towards his classmates?"
"Shouldn't you have figured out that he had the mind of a high-schooler?"
"Why didn't the school figure out that his papers were fake?"
"Was he a good student?"
While the teacher tried to ignore the questions thrown at her, this last one made her pause for a second. She squared her shoulders and looked up, the camera causing her to blush, but her gaze was firm anyway.
"Yes."
That was all she said, but it was enough to put a brief smile on Yukiko's lips before she broke eye contact again, ignoring any further questions, and disappeared into the school, her cheeks still bright red.
The next channel, however, wiped the smile from her face as quickly as it had come.
"- who could have guessed that the brat clinging to Mori's coat-tails was Kudo?" One of the other young men shared a laugh along with a dirty grin. "That should have been our clue," could be heard in the background.
"And besides-" the tallest of the three pushed himself into the picture. His voice made it clear that he didn't want to answer any further questions.
"- I don't believe any of this shit anyway. Maybe Kudo want to use this crazy tale to push his career, or his father's latest book, after all- "
But Yukiko's finger stopped any more stupidity coming from him. She didn't know the faces of the three men, but due to her age, she suspected that they must have been some of Shinichi's former classmates.
Seems they just dug up the right ones.
She swallowed, felt how her anger overshadowed her fear for a few minutes. But the anger made her fingers restless. Without paying any further attention, she sapped from channel to channel again.
"… it's unclear how many cases Kudo had actually been involved-"
"… the past ten years-"
"… criminals among us-"
"… when they find him, will they also find the answer to immortality?"
"… a rare phenomenon in science."
"… unimaginable, not yet grown up only to be a child again,…"
"… we'll keep you informed as soon as the police can provide further information on the case."
The calm voice of the newsreader finally managed to freeze her finger on the button again. The man with the grey speckled hair didn't make a face, told a dumb joke, or made any dubious insinuations.
"Of course, it's uncertain whether we'll ever get an answer to our questions. Because even if the police and the FBI will manage to find the detective, we all got to know what kind of hell had been burning beneath Japan's feet all along." He swallowed, and Yukiko could feel goosebumps crawling on her skin.
"We can only hope that Kudo Shinichi will survive this deadly situation so that we will soon have the savior of the Japanese police among us well and healthy again."
XXX
To say the past days have been chaotic would be an understatement. The media had gone head over heels, especially after the police had given them the needed information to confirm the truth behind Shinichi's words. But of course, these blood-sucking paparazzi demanded more about the possibility to rejuvenate the human body.
This and other less friendly formulated headlines were found in Japan's gossip pages, spreading over to America and then the rest of the world, even though most still doubted the truthfulness of this absurd Japanese story.
Far less crazy, but just as speculative were the reports about the organization. After the criminals slowly crawled out from their hiding places, the police managed to take apart one headquarter after another. Of course, not every lead had been a success, but lots of the little criminals were unsettled about the ominous organization that the police was hunting now. It was a laborious process. Names had to be checked, traces had to be followed, and information was collected to cause the organization's delicate spiderweb to collapse.
They were already planning the next coup for this week right now. The air was thick and heavy with cold cigarette smoke still sticking onto some officer's clothes. All seats in the room had been taken, and a few of the FBI agents beside Akai and Jodie had to stand, crowded near the small window to catch a breath of fresh air. The table was littered with coffee cups and case files. The pinboards were filled with pictures and information, yet Heiji's eyes wandered to the photographs of William Bell, Kudo, and Conan.
He sighed, sipping his fifth-, no sixth coffee?
'Well, fuck.' His caffeine level was the last thing he cared about right now.
'Ya really got yourself into trouble this time, Kudo.' He swallowed the dark bitter broth and observed how Odagiri tried to negotiate with the FBI for new information. However, the hell didn't only break loose in Tokyo, but in Osaka as well. He wasn't surprised that the black coats had been comfortable in his hometown, but he couldn't prevent that it somehow hurt his ego. His eyes wandered through the room. He'd hardly seen so many high-ranked officers in one heap; even the former chief Matsumoto had offered his help on this case.
Megure finally took his seat, clearing his voice to gain the attention in the room.
"Alright, I guess everything is set. Of course, I expect absolute concentration from everyone; we can't allow any of them to escape." The officers nodded with a grim expression. They all still had the last time in mind when they hardly escaped with their lives.
Megure massaged his nose's bridge so that his voice held a slightly nasal tone when he directed his question to Takagi.
"What about the documents on Kudo's data, Takagi? Anything we can use?"
The officer swallowed, scrolling through his flies while he spoke.
"Not really, most of this information has been with the FBI already. Our IT colleagues tried to follow the email address Kudo has given us, without any result. The IP address keeps on jumping from place to place, so we're not able to track it." Takagi swallowed; he could hear how the blonde FBI agent muttered a comment that sounded suspiciously like "as if we hadn't tried that already" before he continued.
"Right now, we're trying to figure out a possible meaning to the song of the crow, but we only managed a little success so far."
Megure waited. He recognized by Takagi's body language that there was something more.
"Anything we can work with?"
"Ah well, of course, we all know the crow as a symbol for darkness. This public view of these animals is probably owed to the fact that they're also carrion-eaters." Heiji's dry laugh made the officer look up briefly.
"A symbol for death and darkness, what a coincidence." Takagi didn't mirror the smile of his young colleague but nodded with a grim expression.
"Hardly, no. However, there is a certain peculiarly in the Japanese symbolism that our American colleagues might not be aware of. Despite its dark characteristic, the crow is also regarded as a messenger from above, and it is said that it was a crow that led the army of the Japanese emperor Jimmu-tennô."
Megure nodded, hiding two fingers beneath his hat, while he continued Takagi's argument thoughtfully.
"But in Jimmu's case, it wasn't just any crow, but a three-legged one."
"A three-legged crow? What's that supposed to mean?"
Jodie's question conjured a bitter smile on Heiji's lips. Of course, the Americans had no idea, so it was Matsumoto who started to enlighten them.
"The sun." He started but then gave the word back to Megure again.
"That's right, the three-legged cow was considered as a leader and protector of the first Japanese emperor, as a symbol of the sun." The American frowned, drumming her fingers on the table in annoyance.
"So we've got both a symbol for darkness and light, but what now?"
Jodie's question was followed by a disorderly murmur between the officers that only could be stopped by Odagiri's harsh voice.
"It's pointless to worry about it any further. It would be a surprise if the head of the organization would choose something that could lead us to its core." Heiji frowned, crossing the arms in front of his chest.
'A surprise… or pure arrogance?'
"So we're back to square one…" Megure sighed, rubbing his throbbing temple. Matsumoto laughed dryly and shook his head with a bitter smile before he put a hand on the shoulder of his former employee.
"I guess you're getting an idea of why retirement lured me in that early, huh?" Megure grimaced at the whispered words and was about to reply when Odagiri's voice disturbed their private talk.
"Any results from the search teams? Have they found anything in the last headquarter? Any traces of him?" Shiratori, who led said teams, just sighed and answered, even though he was sure that he wasn't about to please anyone in the room.
"Nothing new and no reliable statement about Kudo's whereabouts after we've followed the new instructions."
Heiji bit his lips. The "new instructions" Shiratori was talking about ordered them not only to look for the high schooler but also for a kid as well as a twenty-seven-year-old adult, who might resemble Kudo in any way.
It had been a suggestion of the FBI, who told them what the organization might need Kudo for. What these guys might be doing with him, maybe even right now.
The detective gritted his teeth. They had to find him. Fast!
I know, I am late and I am so so sorry...
To be honest I nearly forgot to upload. Corona is on it's move here in germany again, so I struggle to keep up work with making sure no one get's to close while we have some new furry family members of our own (saved them from beeing killed) so it's all a little crazy right now.
Anyway, I hope you had fun reading it! As always I want to thank my friend, amazing writer and beta Tobina for her work on this chapter!
I would love to see your thoughts!
Till next time!
Stay safe
~ Shelling
