Conan was riding his skateboard to Agasa's, without using the turbo-engine function because it had malfunctioned a couple days ago, and he needed to get it fixed. The Kudo's had left for the airport thirty minutes ago, so he thankfully wouldn't have to deal with them.
Conan had soon arrived at his destination and flipped the skateboard into his hands. He opened the door, walked into the living room and called out, "Hey, Agasa!"
But, Conan gasped and his eyes widened in fear when he saw the person who walked down the stairs.
"Oh, Shinichi. Perfect timing." Yusaku said, making his way to the kitchen. "I was hoping to talk with you before we left."
Conan quickly collected himself and asked, "W-why are you here? Weren't you supposed to leave thirty minutes ago?"
"Your mother had to go get something at the store, and Agasa went with her. We should still have enough time to make it to our flight. Anyways, I want to talk more about this organization. Your mother might be a while so I'll go get some tea."
"O-okay..." Conan set down his skateboard and sat down on the couch, nervous of the future conversation.
A couple minutes later,Yusaku came out with a platter of tea and cookies. "I got oatmeal raisin, your favorite." He said as he set down the tray on the table.
Conan made a slight face. Oatmeal raisin? Shinichi had bad taste.
"Oh, thanks." Conan grabbed a cookie and took a measly bite, trying to put a look of enjoyment on his face.
"So, did you know..." Yusaku began. Conan looked up at him. "Shinichi absolutely hates raisins. He can barely even stand the sight of them." Yusaku finished with a knowing smile.
Conan dropped his cookie, shocked.
"You're not Shinichi, are you?"
Shit!
He's been caught. Conan gaped and stared at Yusaku, trying and failing to come up with an excuse. He sputtered and then sighed in defeat. "H-how did you know?" He surrendered, looking down at his lap, refusing to look the man in the eyes.
"Well, it was mostly just a hunch, but you never once called me or Yukiko, mom or dad."
Oh, yeah. Probably should've done that.
"And, I find it quite hard to believe a drug that shrinks people would exist. It makes much more sense that it's just something a child made up." He did with slight disappointment in his voice.
"Well, it wasn't entirely a lie." Conan mumbled crossing his arms, wanting to keep at least some of his pride intact.
"Hmm? What do you mean?" Yusaku asked.
Conan then explained what had happened that night at Tropical Land and what he knew about the Black Organization.
"But, I don't know where Shinichi actually is, so..." Conan finished.
"That's quite troublesome..." Yusaku murmured.
"Oh, but I did see him a few days ago for a case. I don't know why he was there, but I know Ran-neechan contacted him, so she has his number."
"Oh that's good. I should ask her soon." Yusaku mumbled.
After a beat of silence, Conan nervously began. "S-so... Did you tell the others?"
"Huh? Oh, not yet."
"O-oh... So I'm gonna have to tell them when they come back." Conan looked down dejectedly.
"Actually, I was thinking of letting you keep doing this." Yusaku said.
"Huh!?" Conan shouted in surprise.
"Under two conditions." Yusaku said, erasing any excitement Conan had previously felt.
"Firstly, I want you to help me search for Shinichi and, secondly, I want you to tell me anything and everything you learn about this organization and my son's whereabouts." He brought out his phone. "I'll also need your phone number."
Hmm.. those were actually some pretty easy conditions.
"O-of course!" Conan said, handing over his phone. Yusaku punched in his number and handed it back.
"But, why..?" Conan meagerly asked. "Why do you trust me so much? I'm just a kid."
"Well, you're quite a smart kid aren't you?" Yusaku answered. "I don't believe it's just a coincidence that the 'Sleeping Kogoro' started solving all sorts of cases right as you show up."
"Ah..."
"You also make quite a convincing shrunken Shinichi." Yusaku continued. "I hadn't realized at first and I don't think Yukiko has any suspicions." After a beat of silence, he asked, "Also.. I want to know, why are you doing this?"
"Huh?" Conan asked. "What do you mean?"
"I mean, what is there to gain from pretending to be my son?"
"Uh... I-I mean, it gives me a place to stay, doesn't it? I-it's also kinda fun to solve all those mysteries and stuff." He admitted.
"A place to stay..?" Yusaku pondered. "Are you homeless?"
"Oh.. well, kinda..." He sheepishly answered. "I have one back in America, but since I had just snuck into Japan, I don't have one here."
"But.. if you had a place to stay in America, why would you sneak into Japan?" Yusaku asked.
"Just felt like it."
Yusaku stared and gave him an incredulous look. "But, what about your actual parents? Aren't they worried?"
"No, they're dead." Conan blatantly said.
"O-oh... Sorry." Yusaku said and gave him a pitiful look.
"No worries. It was a while ago." Conan immediately blew him off. He didn't like being treated with pity.
"Okay, uh... I was also wondering, is Conan actually your name?" He asked.
"Yeah, but Edogawa isn't my given name, it's actually Takayama."
"Hmm... That's kind of uncommon."
"Yeah.. well, Edogawa is much worse." He looked to the side and gave a dry laugh.
They were interrupted when they heard the door open. They both looked over to see Yukiko and Agasa come in. When Yukiko saw Conan her face lit up.
"Oh, Shin-chan!" Yukiko excitedly greeted, running towards him and gathering him into a big hug.
Conan slightly struggled in her grasp, and, after remembering the past conversation, sputtered out, "M-mom..." The title left a.. weird taste in his mouth. It felt almost wrong to call her mom when he was only pretending to be her son.
"Aw, did you come to say bye to us?" She snuggled him closer.
Conan gave a silent plea to Yusaku and was met with an amused look. The traitor.
"Y-you're crushing me..." Conan squeaked out.
"Oh, I just can't help it!" She brought him out of the suffocating hug to painfully squish his cheeks. "You're just so adorable looking like this."
"Don't you have to leave for your flight?" Conan asked, hoping to end his torture.
"Ah! You're right!" She said, checking her watch and finally releasing Conan. "We have to go!" She looked over at Yusaku and rushed back to the car.
Conan massaged his sore cheeks as Yusaku started walking after them.
"Oh!" Conan stopped him. "I just wanted to say.. s-sorry about pretending to be your son."
"Ah..." Yusaku smiled down at Conan. "Sorry about pretending to kidnap you."
Conan smiled back at him and waved, watching the car drive off.
Agasa walked up next to Conan and said, "You two seem to have made up, huh?"
"I guess." Conan said and walked back inside with his hands behind his head. "Anyways Agasa, your skateboard stopped working."
"Oh, really!?" He said with surprise. "Hmm... I'll have to take a look at it." Agasa picked up and examined the skateboard.
Conan plopped down on the couch and picked up a newspaper that was left on the coffee table. After flipping through a few pages, he said, "Man, there's been a ton of cases. Murder. Kidnapping. Robberies."
"Oh, that reminds me, I made you something." Agasa ran over to Conan with a pair of glasses, identical to the ones he was currently wearing, in his hands. "Criminal tracking glasses."
Conan took them from the Professor and tried them on. "Wow!" He exclaimed when he pushed a button on the side of the frames. "What can it do?" He asked.
Agasa then explained to him about all the functions of his new glasses.
"Thanks!" Conan said, satisfied with his new gadget. He soon left Agasa to repair his skateboard and headed back to the agency.
It seemed Conan couldn't go a week without a case happening, as there was already a client when he had gotten back. Her name was Hirota Masami and she was desperately looking for her missing father, Hirota Kenzo. When he was attempting to try his new tracking devices out on Ran, Conan had accidentally tripped and stuck one of them on the poor girl's watch.
She then explained all she knew and gave lots of information, so Conan and Kogoro both thought the search was going to be pretty easy, but it seemed it was going to be much harder than they thought. The man was practically a shut in and not even his neighbors or coworkers knew much about him. Even after three days, they had zero leads.
One day, Conan was absentmindedly watching the horse races on the TV, when the announcer mentioned a horse named Goukaiteiou. That name sounded familiar. He wrote down the names of the four cats that Hirota said her father owned and noticed they all made up the name of the horse. Conan sighed. He thought he might've found a clue, but there's no way that could mean anything.
Ran looked over his shoulder and noticed what he had written. "That's it!" She exclaimed, picking up the paper. "He must be at the horse races!"
Conan and Kogoro both stared at her incredulously. There's no way he'd actually be there. But, surprisingly, when they arrived at the stadium, they found him, just nonchalantly watching the race. They were able to follow him back home and get his address, and contacted Masami soon after. She immediately rushed over and Conan thought she somehow looked.. different than before, almost more mature, but he didn't pay too much mind to it.
A few days later, they unfortunately heard that her father had gotten murdered just a day after and Masami had gone missing.
Conan forgot about the tracking device he accidentally placed on her for an embarrassing amount of time, but, after following it, it didn't even help much anyway. He wasn't led to Masami, just some random pachinko parlor, and his glasses died before he could even pinpoint the signal. He dejectedly went over to Agasa's to get them recharged.
However, just a day later, they soon found a new lead. Another detective was hired to search for Kenzo, and Conan recognized the man's client; he remembered bumping into him at the parlor. Conan then rushed back to Agasa's to get his glasses, and saw that the tracker was moving very fast; she was in a car. He sped down the road on his newly repaired skateboard back to the agency.
Him, Ran, and Kogoro followed the signal in a taxi and were taken to a nondescript hotel. They accidentally bumped into an employee and knocked over the suitcases she was carrying, wasting precious time. After they helped her, they rushed to the man's room and surprisingly found the door unlocked. Unfortunately, they found the man dead.
Conan looked around the room and noticed there were many empty suitcases piled together. After thinking back on the one billion yen robbery he remembered seeing in the newspaper, and the woman they bumped into in the elevator, with a jolt, Conan realized the truth of the case and where Masami was. He rushed out of the room, with Ran quickly following behind.
They managed to get a taxi and arrived at an abandoned sea port. Ran and Conan ran around the crates searching for Masami, when they startled, hearing a gunshot sound throughout the port.
"Ran!" Conan looked over and yelled. "Call the police! And get the others!"
"Y-yeah!" Ran said and rushed back.
Conan continued to search and soon found Masami collapsed on the ground with blood pooled around her.
"Masami-san!" He shouted, rushing over to her side. He turned her around and his stomach lurched when he saw the gun wound on her chest, still gushing blood. He frantically tried to stop the bleeding, but nothing he did could help.
"It's no use..." Masami managed to croak out.
"D-don't speak. It'll make it worse."
Masami looked up at him and her eyes slightly widened. "Y-you're.. the.. the boy from the detective agency..." She sat up, weakly clutching her stomach. "How did you know I was here..?"
"A transmitter." He answered with a downcast expression. "I accidentally stuck it on your watch. I followed it to the hotel and when I met you there, I realized you were taking away the stolen one billion yen in those suitcases."
"Wh-who are you..!?" She asked in surprise.
"Edogawa.. no... Takayama Conan." He answered, deciding to be honest with her, and after some consideration he added on, "A detective."
"Takayama?" Her eyes lit up with faint recognition. "Ah.. so you're..."
Conan looked at her in confusion.
"Our plan was perfect..." She said with a sad smile on her face. "But we all died." Her expression turned to anger and she grimaced in pain. "I-it's all that damned organization's fault..."
"O-organization..?" Conan asked, hoping it wasn't the one he was thinking of.
"A very large organization..." She weakly said, her breathing becoming heavier. "I-I was only a lower pawn... All I know.. i-is that their color.. is black." She strained out.
"Black!?" Conan yelled in surprise.
"Y-yeah... They all wear the color black."
No way. Right as he found a lead, she just had to go and die on him.
She suddenly grabbed his hand and said, "W-will you hear.. my last words..?"
"Last words?" She collapsed back onto the ground. "Wait! ... Don't!" He yelled out, clutching her hand, with tears forming in his eyes.
"I-I put the cases with the stolen money.. under the hotel's front desk..." Her grip on Conan's hand lessened. "C-can you get them before they do..?" They faintly heard sirens coming into the port. "I d-don't want to be used.. by the organization anymore..."
Conan heard the sirens getting closer and closer.
The life in her eyes started to fade. "I'm counting on you.. small detective..." She finished, her voice barely a whisper.
Conan could now hear the voices of everyone else as they arrived. Her eyes shut and her hand fell limp to the ground. Conan stared at the blood on his hands, while silent tears flowed down his face.