(;¬_¬) (^～^;)ゞ

Takagi glanced over his shoulder at the road behind him. This kid was really starting to bother him. Seriously, what kind of kid casually skateboards behind a line of police cars, acting as if he doesn't have a care in the world? Takagi had tried for the past ten minutes to get the kid off their tail, speeding up and slowing down, drifting left and right on the one-way road, but it was in vain. The boy kept up with every move Takagi made, persistently changing his speed and swiftly turning on the skateboard to stay directly behind Takagi's car.

Sato, however, was not nearly as annoyed with the boy as she was her partner. She started to worry when his speed suddenly began to drop, and she called his phone to make sure he wasn't drugged. No response. He started speeding up with collision-inducing acceleration, and she wanted to pull him over and give him a good whack and a hefty fine for speeding (and scaring the daylights out of her). She tried calling his phone again but yet again got no answer and it made her ticked.

She reached her limit when Takagi suddenly swerved to the side and pulled over, sending an apprehensive shiver down her spine. Immediately, she pulled over and got out of her car. She collected herself enough to remember to put the parking brake on before she slammed the door behind her and marched to Takagi's car, muttering something about an idiot and dinner.

As she glared at the stopped police car, a boy- about Ran's age, she guessed - came around the side of the car to the driver's door. Takagi got out the car, clearly angry- arms crossed, his normally open expression clouded by a darker one, and, as neither Sato nor the boy failed to notice, a pair of handcuffs in his hands.

Sato frowned. Was that boy the reason for Takagi's erratic driving? If so, who was he, and how and why was he tailgating a police officer on a skateboard?

Takagi, as soon as he looked at the boy, relaxed and smiled. He began chatting with the boy in the baseball cap as Sato walked up. She'd calmed down from her initial fury, but she wasn't going to let this go.

"Takagi-kun," she yelled at him, pulling him closer to her angrily by his ear and earning a yelp of pain and surprise from Takagi in the process. "What do you think you're doing? That sort of driving is going to make you crash, and then we'll have to deal with your death before this other murder case!"

Takagi sweatdropped, tears of pain welling at his eyes. "Sumimasen, Sato-san," he apologized, and the boy laughed.

Throwing a skeptical look at the boy, Sato pulled on Takagi's ear again, bringing his face near hers, and whispered in his ear. "Is this kid the reason why you were driving so strangely?"

Takagi nodded, rubbing where Sato's death grip had pulled his ear. "He was tailing me. I thought it was strange, but it's okay now. I was actually about to give him a ride to the scene since he's not busy at the moment."

Sato glared at her subordinate. "Seriously? What kind of kid do you bring along to a murder scene?"

The boy walked up from behind Takagi. "Excuse me Takagi-keiji, Sato-keiji, but the rest of the patrol is going to get worried if we don't start going soon."

Sato redirected her glare to the boy. "Who exactly do you think you are?"

"I thought you'd remember me for sure," the boy said with a slight frown. He pulled off his hat, and immediately grinned at Sato's look of shocked recognition. "It's nice to see you again, Sato-keiji."

Sato quickly composed herself and returned the smile. "Nice to see you too, Kudou-kun."

ヾ(*・-・)ﾂθ

He knew Ran was standing there before he opened the door. Sato and Takagi trailed off to talk with other officers. Shinichi stood alone as he turned the doorknob and went in, bracing himself for a well-deserved kick to the chest.

She was standing right there. Hastily collecting himself, rehearsing his situation in his head, he walked in without a word and traded his shoes for slippers. Ignoring the fact that there was a murderer here and that they had killed a man in cold blood, Shinichi took Ran by the arm and pulled her aside.

She stumbled, caught off-guard. "Shinichi, where are we-"

He stopped at the foot of the stairs and gripped her by her shoulders. "Are you okay?"

She nodded at his question. "Yes, I'm fine," she said softly. He relaxed, letting his hand fall from her shoulders.

"What about Hattori? Kazuha-chan? I heard they're here. Are they okay?" He crossed his arms, biting his lip. Conan might know that everyone was perfectly fine, but Shinichi wasn't supposed to have a clue.

"Kazuha-chan and the kids are okay, but-" She gave a shuddering sigh. "Conan-kun and Hattori-kun. They both went out last night to find Ayumi-chan, but Hattori-kun broke his leg and Conan-kun-" She buried her face in her hands, dropping her voice to a whisper. "Conan-kun, we thought he just had a normal cold, but he got really sick all of a sudden, he was burning up and in so much pain-" her eyes met his, despair painted plainly and painfully on her face. "He was in so much pain, Shinichi, and there was nothing I could do!" Her voice had risen again, almost to a shout.

Shinichi only hesitated for a second before he wrapped my arms around her and pulled her into a tight hug. Her breath hitched in surprise, but she didn't try and pull away. He held her tightly until her breathing slowed to a normal pace. He murmured soothingly, "Don't worry about the kid. You know, he's a lot stronger than he looks." Because he's older than he looks.

After a moment, she nodded into his shoulder. "You're right. Thank you, Shinichi."

Shinichi opened his mouth to reply, but a storm of footsteps ruined the moment. The not-yet-a-couple separated to see the Detective Boys standing at the bottom of the stairs. "Conan-kun's gonna be real upset when he finds out his Ran-neechan already has a boyfriend," Genta said with a mischievous smile.

Ran flushed beet red at the comment. "It's not-" she stammered.

"We're not dating," Shinichi interrupted coyly, sending a wink to Ran. "Yet."

"Shinichi!" She glared at him, a smile in her eyes as she punched his arm, and he took the well-deserved hit gracefully with a yelp of pain. As Shinichi flinched away from her, he heard a snort of laughter and glanced at the kids. Genta and Mitsuhiko exchanged a look that Shinichi knew would only lead to trouble, so he changed the subject before they could cause any more mischief.

"So you kids know the four-eyed brat, do you?" Shinichi asked.

Mitsuhiko nodded. "Conan-kun's our best friend. We wouldn't be the Detective Boys without him."

"Hai. He's really smart and cool, and he's saved us from getting really hurt a lot of times," Ayumi added, a blush on her cheeks that (thank the heavens) went unnoticed by the other two Detective Boys.

Shinichi put a hand on his chin, pretending to think. "He's talked about you guys before. 'The Shonen Tantei-dan, a group of kids who follow me around and take all sorts of cases,' he said."

Squatting down, he got level with the kids, pretending to examine each one before letting his gaze rest on Mitsuhiko. "'Tsurabaya Mitsuhiko-kun. More freckles than the rest of the Detective boys combined, I can always rely on him to be quick and accurate with his deductions. He's smart and observant and incredibly prepared, and he's got a strong sense of right and wrong.'" He gave his friend a smile. "From what the kid says about you, you've got the makings of a great detective."

Mitsuhiko nodded, blushing slightly at the praise. "Th-thank you, Shinichi-san."

Shinichi patted Genta's head next. "You have to be Genta. 'Kojima Genta-kun is loud and energetic, towering over the rest of us with not only his height but also his voice. While he does get overexcited when it comes to food, he'll stand up against anyone who tries to hurt his friends, and I can always count on him to keep everyone safe.' That kid talked about you, I thought you were some sort of buff bodybuilder."

Genta puffed up with pride. "Obviously. I'm gonna be like my dad when I'm older, really strong and really cool."

Shinichi laughed and gave Genta's head a playful whack. "Obviously."

"Um, Shinichi-oniisan," Ayumi said, tugging on his sleeve, "what did Conan-kun say about me?"

Shinichi met Ayumi's eyes and gave her a warm smile. "'Yoshida Ayumi-chan, the first girl Detective Boys, is incredibly cheerful. With a smile and a personality that brightens any room, she's one of the few people I know to be able to make friends with Haibara. Ayumi-chan's a very brave person and I hope I can always be friends with her.'" He cleared his throat. "That is what Conan-kun said about you." Ayumi nodded, hiding her little smile behind her hands, and he stood up, looking down at the Detective Boys, Conan's best friends. My friends.

"You know, the kid really had a hard time after he... moved here. After he had to leave his old school and friends behind and moved in with Ran here, he was really upset. You kids, you really helped him out. From what I hear, you've even saved his life a couple of times. He'll probably never say it, but, thank you." He took a deep breath. "Thank you for being"-my -"Conan-kun's friend."

The kids looked between each other. "Hey, maybe we can solve the case here and tell Conan we did it ourselves," Genta suggested, his eyes still shining with the ego boost he'd just received.

Ayumi glanced at Shinichi warily. "Are we allowed to help out?"

He raised his eyebrows. "When has my lack of permission ever stopped you?" They broke into grins and scurried away to pester Takagi-keiji.

Turning back to Ran, he murmured, "Sorry. They've been putting up with him for a year now. I thought they needed a bit of a pep talk."

Ran shook her head. "I think you did well. It's nice to see some emotion out of you every once in a while." Her hand brushed mine, and we interlaced our fingers. "He's going to be okay, right, Shinichi? He's going to come back, right?"

He squeezed her hand. "Don't worry, Ran. He'll be fine."

They stood together in a comfortable silence for a short moment before Ran squeezed his hand as if in goodbye. "The police are probably going to start examining the body soon, so you should go."

He nodded once, rubbing the back of her hand with his thumb. "I promise, I'll come back for you."

She nudged him with her elbow, an almost smile on her face. "You better. Now get out of here, meitantei, and go solve this case."

"See you soon, Ran." He paused before letting her hand drop from mine. He was about to walk away when an idea flashed through his mind. Shinichi hesitated. The thought of turning back to Conan reminded him that he wasn't going to be around her forever. He leaned over and kissed her cheek. "And thank you."

ヾ(*・-・)ﾂθ

"The victim is Akagi Taichi-san, age 37. The cause of death is suspected to be the stab wound directly to the heart, and the time of death is from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m. last night. Akagi-san was discovered by Kazuha-san, Ran-san, and Mina-san," Takagi-keiji read off his notepad.

Examining the body, Shiratori-keibu nodded and rose from a crouch as another officer zipped the body bag shut. The forensics carried the body away, and Shiratori-keibu faced the two high school detectives. "So? What exactly are you all doing here, anyway?" He asked Heiji and Shinichi, hardly making an effort to mask the look of displeasure on his face.

Heiji spoke up first. "We were campin' nearby, an' Nakano-han brought us back to their house after Ayumi-chan, Conan-kun an' I got caught up in a flash flood that gave me this," he lifted his bandaged leg, "an' the kids a pair of nasty colds."

Shiratori-keibu frowned. "That explains why Conan-kun isn't here, then. He's resting inside, I assume?"

Takagi-keiji tapped Shiratori-keibu on the shoulder. "Actually..." he whispered into Shiratori's ear, and the inspector's arrogant expression darkened to one of confused concern.

"The hospital? In that case..." He muttered something else to Takagi that I couldn't hear, and Takagi nodded and ran back to the hill with a quick "Wakata."

Shiratori-keibu, after watching Takagi leave, fixed a withering stare on Shinichi. "Good to see you're still alive," he commented dryly. "Why are you here?"

Shinichi made a vague gesture to the forest. "I was in the area. I heard the sirens, so I flagged down Takagi-keiji."

Shiratori shook his head. "Honestly, does he have no sense of professionalism?" he muttered for no one to hear. Drawing another breath into his lungs, Shiratori gestured to the scene. "So, Kukou-se tanteis, what do you make of this scene?" His tone was light, almost joking, but his expression implied he really did want their opinion. Shinichi slipped on a pair of gloves and went to the boat to investigate the scene. Heiji had seen it before, but this was Shinichi's first real look at the dead body. He was a bit too focused on the large amount of pain he was in last time.

Skimming over the scene, Shinichi drank in the facts: Excessive amount of blood, but none on sides; mainly on bench. No indent in bench where knife should've gone through. Unable to tell if major struggle occurred in the area due to damage caused by storm, but no sign of struggle inside boat. "Akagi-san wasn't stabbed in the boat, but someone put him here after the fact. Not sure how close to here he was attacked."

No money was stolen; keys to the house were left untouched; fish were in cooler. "Wasn't an attack for food or money, either."

Jacket unzipped; shirt buttoned up, but no cut in shirt where knife should've gone through in either front or back; buttons aligned; space between buttons too small for knife to fit through. "And the culprit somehow managed to get his shirt off of him before they attacked, and had enough time after stabbing him to get his shirt and coat back on. It was probably someone he trusted, seeing as he didn't seem to struggle too much."

"I'd say we're lookin' for a man or real strong woman," Heiji added. "It's no easy feat, movin' a man like this otchan."

Shinchi tapped the shoulder of a forensics officer. "Could you test his body for this, too?" He whispered a question into his ear, and the officer nodded before continuing his work.

With a thoughtful nod, Shiratori-keibu motioned for one of the other officers to come over. "Here's something else the two of you might find interesting." Taking a pair of evidence bags from the officer, Shiratori held them up to the detectives. Shinichi took one, Heiji the other. "These were found in his zipped up coat pockets, the pocket knife in the outer pocket and his phone in the inner pocket. The inner zipper pocket has blood on it, and because the only fingerprints on it were Akagi-san's, we believe he hid both these items from his attacker."

The bag Shinichi held had a cell phone, the kind that could slide out to reveal a small keyboard. The face of the phone was clean, scratched slightly from someone with too-long nails (recently painted, as the tiniest fraction of clear polish was caught in between two of the keys). Akagi-san's nails had been bitten to stubs, so someone else had handled this phone regularly enough to leave their mark on it.

Shinichi pressed the power button and found that the phone still had charge. Combing through the phone's different features, he searched for anything Akagi might have left behind that might point to his killer.

A dying message.

Shinichi's fingers flew across the buttons until he opened the call history, and there it was. Three calls made at 7:14, each made with no reply. It was the man's final words, and the other end hadn't even picked up. It seemed a sad, unfortunate end for Akagi-san until one read the numbers he dialed: 43*8727733*63 was the first code, followed by 48*927*52534 and, finally, 3674483*437.

These were intentionally typed, left here on his phone for someone else to find. It wasn't a simple code, Shinichi could tell that much, but they were Akagi-san's voice echoing from the grave in the hopes that his killer would be found. He wrote the code down in his notebook, resolving to solve it later.

"Shiratori-san!" Takagi called out, running down the hill. He all but slid to a stop next to Shiratori, the ground slippery with mud and the hill steep. Takagi pointed to the house. "We may have found where the murder occurred."

Shinichi and Heiji exchanged glances, a silent agreement passing between the two of them to discuss their findings later. Taking a step forward, Shinichi asked, "Where?"

Takagi pointed back over his shoulder. "It's this way."

Heiji crutched closer to his eastern counterpart and murmured a question in his ear. "How long ya got? That little nee-chan's good, but this can't be permanent."

Shinichi sighed, failing to meet Heiji's eyes. "At least six hours, she said. The most I'll get would be eight, but that's being optimistic," he said wearily. "I wish it would last for at least a day, but this new antidote Haibara made is experimental. Anything could happen."

Heiji flashed a joyless grin. "Isn't that true fer any time ya get a growth spurt?" Heiji's expression darkened as Shinichi rolled his eyes. "We'll hafta split up, ta cover ground faster. You go with Takagi-keiji, an' I'll go find Sato-keiji an' get info from the questionin'. Can ya handle bein' my legs this time?"

With an amused smile, Shinichi nodded, remembering the case Heiji referred to. "We'll compare notes later, okay?"

"Meet me in the house. It's gettin' ta be a real pain, havin' ta walk everywhere. I don't know how you deal with having short legs like those all the time."

At least you have your height. Shinichi shrugged without pity. "You get used to it."

A/N: Thank you to Smiley Nami for catching that error with the fiirst person. Only the first handful of chapters were in first person, and as I crosspost this fic to here, I've been changing it to third POV. If you see any other errors, please point them out to me! I love feedback (esp. constructive criticism) (but no hate please, I have fragile self-esteem)

apparently won't let you type the little arrow to the left, so now I have to change by sign-off emoji :(

New chapters are in the works, and Komori-kun (the third story in the Hakuboar series) is almost done.

See you guys soon with new content!

-3- Kencha