Author's Note: I doubt that there's anyone out there following all my stories since I have yet to post twice in the same category, so I suppose that all who read this will be new to me. This story started out in Japanese—I was going to write a story in Japanese about Ai's feelings for Conan, but it underwent a number of changes, and once it turned in to a sort of mystery/adventure type of story, I decided to do it in English. I doubt that there are many people out there who would read a long story in Japanese on this site. Sometimes I wish I knew French, or Spanish, or something used more in the west.
Anyway, this is something of my imagination working to formulate the end of Detective Conan. I don't have any of the books past 47, so I apologize if anything does not match with any books past that one.
This prologue is short, so I intend to wait to post it until the first chapter is finished. Hope you enjoy it!
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters, nor places mentioned in this story. The characters and places that do not exist in real life belong to Aoyama Gosho, and the real places no doubt belong to some rich person somewhere in Japan or to no one at all. This goes for the entire length of the story.
Perilous Danger
Prologue
"Professor!"
"Shinichi-kun… There really isn't anything that I can do. You're better at this sort of thing than I."
"But there must be something… Like, maybe on Chris Vinyard's fan site…!"
"Really, Kudo-kun," cut in a brown-haired girl, coming up the stairs from the underground laboratory. She went by the name of Haibara Ai, and her calm, collected demeanor was enough to tell anyone that she wasn't just any child. "You can't honestly expect someone like that, in an organization like that, to just put hints about a secret organization up on her website."
"But she does tend to like puzzles," Conan objected. "She enjoys a challenge—putting a large hint up right in front of us with the knowledge that we're ninety-nine percent sure to miss it. Come on, she was walking around in the open right in front of us for months! She'll be expecting us to go looking in the most obvious places now, and she's sure to leave some hints there."
"And you just said it yourself," retorted the brown-haired girl, crossing her arms over her chest. "They would be hints with a ninety-nine percent probability that you're going to miss. You're helpless against them, Kudo-kun."
"Haibara, you say that all the time! Honestly, you have more faith in them than you do me!" Ai raised an eyebrow at the boy known as Edogawa Conan, whose observation skills, knowledge, and quick mind also gave him away as not being just any child.
"Of course I do. After all, they've outsmarted you without fail until now, haven't they? And they plan their movements quite well, too." Conan gave the girl an exasperated look.
"Really, do you two always bicker like that? If it weren't for the topic of conversation, I would have thought that you were both the age that you look to be."
Spinning around at the unexpected voice, Conan and Ai found themselves facing a dark-skinned teenager, who looked to be about the age that Conan was supposed to be.
"Hattori? What are you doing here?" asked Conan in bewilderment.
"Well, I thought you'd be a bit happier to see me, Kudo," said the young man with a smirk. "I hear that you're in quite a bit of trouble."
"I've been in quite a bit of trouble for ages," retorted Conan with narrowed eyes.
"Well, now that this woman knows who you are, you're in more trouble than usual."
"She's known who I am for a very long time—remember that ghost ship you went on, disguised as me?" The dark skinned youth nodded in response. "The invitation and the envelope were addressed to Kudo Shinichi, but the letter was addressed to Edogawa Conan."
"Why is this, six months later, the first time that I've heard about this?" asked the youth indignantly. Conan rolled his eyes as though the answer was obvious.
"I didn't want you sticking your nose into my business, naturally."
The dark-skinned youth crossed his arms.
"I never stick my nose into your business, as you put it! I occasionally invite you to Osaka, and we solve mysteries together, but I never delve into your problems."
Conan gave a loud, clear snort that clearly said what he thought of that statement.
"Oh, don't be an idiot. When was one time that I got into your business?"
"Remember that time when you rashly decided to go and meet Jodie-sensei, just because she was foreign? Or the time after I was shot, at that school play, when you dressed up as me—and allow me to comment that your makeup was terrible and you didn't even bother to try faking your accent—or that-"
"Oh, come on, Kudo! I was trying to help you!"
"And in the process sticking your nose into my business and getting me into deeper trouble than I already was."
"You're being ridiculous. Those things caused you no problems what so ever!"
"Apart from the terrible anxiety that I went through with each of your stunts, thinking that you'd give everything away in one wrong move? No, they didn't cause that much trouble."
"If anyone walked in at this particular moment, Hattori-kun would probably be arrested for child abuse," Ai commented lightly to the professor.
Professor Agasa frowned. The girl always did have a tendency to envision the worst.
"Ai-kun, you don't have to be so dark all the time…" The girl shot him a sharp look in response.
"I'm not dark," she said in a cool, calm voice. "I only speak the truth that everyone else seems to feel the need to gloss over.
"Hey, professor!" Hattori suddenly called, abruptly halting his argument with a surprised Conan. "Can I see the internet? I want to look at Chris Vinyard's website."
Conan rolled his eyes with an exasperated sigh.
"If you'd been listening, you may have heard that that's exactly what Haibara wanted me to not do!" he called, but was not surprised when his words met deaf ears. Actually, he corrected himself, Haibara had heard, judging by the way one of her eyebrows shot up and she fixed him with a look that clearly said, oh, so now you listen to me. The youth at whom his words were directed, however, was already sitting on the chair before the computer, a confident, happy grin on his face. The professor, who had gone onto this particular website many times at Conan's request, showed the dark-skinned man how to navigate the site.
With a hopeless sigh, Conan walked out of the room, not really caring where he went as long as he was away from that annoying nuisance from Osaka that called himself a detective.
Passing by the bathroom, he paused and decided to use it. It was when he was glumly washing his hands, however, that he caught sight of his own reflection.
His heart leapt into his throat, and it was a moment before he even recognized his own face.
His cheeks were so thin that they were almost hollow from lack of food, there were bags under his eyes from lack of sleep, his glasses were gone, he was covered in small scrapes and cuts and he could almost swear that wrinkles were about to develop on the soft child's skin of his forehead from his constant anxiety. It was a wonder that Hattori hadn't commented on his appearance's resembling a zombie.
Then again, he thought to himself, the professor probably warned him before hand, and told him not to draw attention to this.
He smiled grimly down at his hands, watching the water rush over them. To think that just three days of constant anxiety could do this to a child's body, he thought wryly. His eyes narrowed in sadness. His right hand reached up to stop the flow of water. Looking back up at his reflection, he marveled once more at the change that the short span of three days had brought upon his body.
Then again, maybe I shouldn't be so surprised. It was bound to happen sooner or later. He saw his mouth twitch at the corner.
Still staring at his transformed body, he looked back on the events that had brought this about…
