A/N: Hello again, I'd say there's still about 1 or 2 chapters on Identity after this chapter, I hope you are enjoying this anfiction! Since I got less votes for "Revenge", so I decide to put some of that story and combine it with this one, which will make this one longer than I expect it to be when I start it. It's not that easy to write two fanfictions, construct two websites and work on your schoolwork at once, so my pace for this fanfiction might slow down... or even stop!? Just kidding.
I attempted to make this chapter as interesting as I can, but I'm not perfect. So please excuse me from all the grammar, spelling, and punctuation errors you may find in this chapter. Comments, suggestions, and pre-read editors will be highly appreciated, email me at fanfic_conankudo@yahoo.com
WARNING: This chapter contain solution to this case, so if you don't want to know it before you solve it yourself first, my suggestion is stop here and continue on when you are ready.
As always, Detective Conan belongs to the talented artist and my admirer, Gosho Aoyama, I only claim copyright to Ruki, Balkan and the story itself.
In addition, I apologize to the unexpected delay of this chapter's publish date. Go ahead, scream at me or even slaughter me if you want to (as long as you are not using the martial arts, I'm happy). But still, please review? *smile*
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Identity
Chapter 3 - The Game
By: ConanKudo
As Inspector Megure asked Kogoro again about the case, Kogoro gave him the same answer as what he did before. The criminal will show up at the warm spring. However, Conan didn't expect him to know anything. This case was more complicated than all others he had faced, and even to him it is a big challenge.
"Are you really sure warm spring is the place?" Inspector Megure asked once more.
"Of course! Where else?" Said Kogoro, arms crossing and unsatisfied with the inspector's mistrust.
"Indeed we can't think of anywhere else at this moment, but... If what you say is the truth, then...How come you...erm...didn't fell asleep?"
'How come I don't remember anything about fell asleep while solving the case?' Kogoro thought, feigning a laugh and quickly he came up with an excuse, "Nah.I'm already tired of that stupid sleeping pose, and a famous detective like me can't always use one pose, besides, don't you think this pose is much better that the old one? I should call it the "'Famous detective Mouri Kogoro's trademark pose!'"
Megure laughed alone with him, and rapidly moved closer to Kogoro and whispered with a hand covering, "Hey, don't lose to that Osaka kid again! I've got faith in you!"
Conan relaxed himself on the couch, revealed a little complicated and mature expression, fortunately, none of the others noticed except for his Osaka friend. 'The hottest place in Tokyo? hot...warm...fiery...burn...flaming...t-tropical!' Conan released the hand which was holding up his chin, and gasped loudly.
"Eh? What's up with that kid now?" Kogoro asked with frown.
There was no answer.
'Wait...wait a minute, if that's tropical. Then...the antonym for tropical is...!!!' Conan chuckled and slowly turned into a quiet laugh. 'Now I already know where we are going, but there's still something wierd...' He stared at his notebook once more.
"...???..." Kogoro and inspector looked at each other, wondering why a little kid would smirk like that.
"Tell me!" Heiji bend down and whispered.
"We are going to the amusement park, Heiji-san!" Conan said with a half moon eye.
"A-amusement Park? Are you insane? This is no time to play!"
"Oh you'll see...Oh yeah, we can't leave...yet..." Conan chuckled some more, eyes shining as if he had already seen through the case's truth, and whispered something into Heiji's ear.
------ First Floor of Kogoro's Detective Agency ------
The four kept on heading towards Conan's house until Ai stopped then before they had a chance to step on the stairs, "I'll take it now, it's getting late, you three better get home, I can handle those." She said while taking over those presents from their hand with out any permission.
Ayumi felt her hands empty and asked, "Why? We are already here! It won't take more than one minute to deliver those presents to his hand."
"Yeah!" Mitsuhiko finally got his chance to see things in front of him.
"Heehee, are you going to have a private conversation with Conan, Ai-Chan?" Genta asked and smirked.
Ai turned and glanced at Genta, "No. I just want to tell him something he asked me about." 'Those kids are becoming hard to get rid of!' She thought.
"O-oh, alright then...Let's go, maybe we'll still have a chance to watch the last episode of that cartoon show!" Mitsuhiko pulled Genta and began to run, not noticing that Ayumi wasn't with them. "Hurry, I don't want to miss that episode!"
"A-Ai Ch-Chan?" Ayumi asked with pink skin.
"Yeah?" Surprised that one of them actually stayed.
"Now that they are gone, can you please tell me why you want to go see...Conan-kun, by yourself?" She asked, giving Ai a feeling that she was jealous.
'I never knew kids today are that...naive!' "Take it easy Ayumi-Chan, I'm just going to deliver those presents to Conan-kun.
That's all!" Half of her words were a lie, she smiled at the real first grader.
"N-nothing else? You promise?" Ayumi still wouldn't let Ai go.
Ai nodded, "I swear, now I think you should go home, it's almost six!" She pushed Ayumi towards the direction of her house slightly.
The little girl looked back once more, biting her lips and finally went away home.
Ai watched her shadow vanish at the corner of the street and let out a sigh, lift up her little foot and stepped on the stairs with presents full in her hands. 'Sorry Kudo, for I didn't gave you the real antidote. The one you have in hand will only work for two to three hours, after that you will have a chance to live or die. I hope you will understand
that I can't gave you the real one until the whole organization is arrested...'
Heavy steps brought her upstairs and in front of the door, but instead of knocking on the door and go in, she dropped the presents next to it and went downstairs, into the coffee shop and then the bathroom. There she ate the pill---The real pill.
Steams and painful struggling were the last thing she knew before her short black out, "Kudo...I hope you know...I'm doing this...all this...f..o.r...y..ou..." She muttered before completely fellunconscious.
Meanwhile in the agency, there was an awkward atmosphere, which kept the three detectives and an Inspector under silence. When all of the sudden they heard the door bell rang.
"Probably someone here for a case." Kogoro murmured as he walked towards the door and turned it impatiently.
Without even look at who's in front of him, he denied, "Sorry, I don't accept any more cases today, please come back in..." He halted when he finally did look up. Not knowing what to do to apologize or what do to next, he just stared.
A young girl at the age of 18, reddish hair was some sweat drops on it. Her face was almost as red as her hair, some fast pants went out of her mouth. Black sleeveless woolen sweater suited her perfectly and a short skirt that was ruffled. However, her black and shank lengthen boot were still worn tightly around her legs even though it's mid-summer.
And yet she was another young woman Kogoro would "crush" on, slowly he revealed a smirked at her.
"...Never mind what I said before...Ahem...Hello there young lady..." Kogoro dashed into the closet, changed into a blue clean suit, a red rose in his hand, "How may I help you, miss?" He crossed his left leg over his right; Put one of his arm straight out by the wall and the other in his pocket.
"Uh..." Ai didn't know how to react for a moment, sweats dropped, "...Actually, I've come here to talk to Ku...I mean, Edogawa-kun." 'That was close...'
Kogoro glimpsed at Conan, who walked to them when he heard someone said his name. "You mean...him?" Kogoro pointed at him first then picked Conan up, disappointed that this pretty girl didn't come for him.
"Y-yes..." Ai was even more surprised when she saw Conan being 'picked up' that easily.
Conan amazed to see Ai in her older form for the first time. Although he had heard her real voice last time, but they never got a chance to see each other. {A/N: Ai returned to her true form for a while back in vol. 24 "Meeting again with the darkness organization" But Conan wasn't around.} Staring at the figure, which stood stilly before him, Conan looked up at her face, flushed slightly but quickly shook his head.
'Eh, what am I thinking?' When he finally got a chance to stand up again, still gazing up at her like he'd never seen her before, "You called me?"
"Yeah, it's about...um...your classmate Ayumi-Chan, I'm her older sister, remember?" She hinting at him to play along with her.
Inspector Megure called from behind, "Kogoro-san, is someone here for a case? If necessary, I can go back to my office."
"Hun?" Kogoro whirled back and replied, "Oh, no, it's just that brat's friend." He said while walking to the couch and sat next to inspector, went on with their conversation.
After Conan shut the door and finally calming down, he asked in his usual tone, "You could've warned me before taking the antidote! What's the point of showing up like this, what if those guys discovers you?"
Shiho smiled slightly and leaned down, "Since when did you start to worry about me?"
Conan glared back at her, "PLEASE! You know I'm just concerning about my identity!"
"Really? You swear you are not worried about me, not even a bit?"
Conan looked up at her, getting annoyed, "I'm going back to that room." He turned, but walking in a slow speed and waiting Ai to stop him and finally tells him her real destination.
"Fine, I'll tell you." She said before he stepped out, "But it's no big deal, really."
"What is it?"
"I'm going to...gave up my identity and return to the organization." She looked away in order to avoid Conan's sight.
"Y-you're WHAT?" Conan's eyes widened.
She looked up, and replied, "Don't hate me Kudo, after nearly half year of consideration, this is the best I can come up with, for both of our future fate."
"B-But...WHAT ABOUT ME?" He shouted in infuriation.
Ai's smiling sight was then replaced by an unfathomable gaze, "Kudo, sometimes one has to face their own destiny and confront their situation. You heard what your girl friend said last time, we have to face those conditions with courage with confidence and resolution."
"What?" Said Conan, who was even more confused.
A white bottle flashed before his eyes, "This is what I mean."
Conan blinked, attempting his best to understand what she meant by using all of his logic and deduction, but still, he got no conclusion. So he just stared at her with puzzlement.
Satisfied with Conan's perplexity and her faintly hint, she turned and said, "Anyways, I'm suppose to deliver you those. Who knows if it'll be useful for you and Ran's child? As for that test, I'm obviously not going to university again! And I couldn't suggest you to, either. Well, Good luck with the case you are on!" She pointed at the presents, which she dropped off earlier.
Leaving Conan glaring at her with a blushing face, she began her way to Dr. Agasa's house. "Oh yeah, by the way, I heard them saying that something's going on in the organization. And I was just kidding about my identity part."
Conan watched her shadow slowly vanished from the staircase, and finally managed to yell out, "Wait! Come back, you owe me lots of explanations here!"
But there was no respond.
"What does she mean?" Conan murmured as he went back into the house.
At the first step in the house, a strong force came from Conan's back and all of the sudden he was in the mid air, and a voice came after, "What's the point of screaming outside the door, gaki?"
Conan looked back, slowly lift his sight to Kogoro's and gulped, heartbeat increased a little as he just realized what would happen next. Like he had expected, a hard red bun appeared on top of his head. 'Gez, what kind of family is this?'
----------In a Dark Room----------
A little girl sat in her red armchair, still smiling, she took another look at her cellar phone and whispered to it, "Now, you don't really think my game will be this easy, do you? Kudo Shinichi, you and your friends are going to lose this game..."
----------Ran's room----------
After another long chitchat, they began to feel a little exhaust and hungry. Ran checked her watch and gasped in surprise.
"You are not going to believe this, Kazuha-chan, but it's 7:30 already! I hope they didn't go out for dinner without us!" They quiet down and listened carefully for any sign of other people in this house except for them.
During the silence, they heard a mid-age man's stupid laugh and some teenager's murmurs. "I guess they forgot about the time." Kazuha said at last.
"Yeah...Well, I guess our chitchat time is over already. I'd better cook something before they realize how late it is!" Ran pushed herself forward to the kitchen.
Kazuha followed, and helped Ran on her way, "I'll help you."
Outside their room, the house seems like it had had a make over during their conversation in the bedroom, garbage were everywhere, cigarette ashes spread around the table and floor.
Kogoro sat in his chair, both feet on his desk, at least what he called a desk. His eyes filled with annoyiance and impatience. A loose blue suit on his body lowered the taste of his unkempt appearance. Inspector Megure looked a little calmer than Kogoro, crossing arms as usual and kept on sighing.
Conan and Heiji rested their heads in palms and just stared at the paper in front of them. Nevertheless, their vision were totally different from the others, they were waiting, waiting for something?
Ran's index finger ran across her lips and made a quiet sign to Kazuha, hinting her to be quiet while they sneak into the kitchen" without letting others notice. However, it was impossible because of Ran's wheelchair, just a moment later, a male voice called. "Where are you going?" 'Damn wheelchair!' Ran hammered the wheelchair slightly.
"Um...we're...cooking?" Kazuha rolled her eyes.
"cook?!" Kogoro got up to his feet, "Are you two insane? Ran! You are trying to go back to the hospital or something? And, you can barely reach the stove like this!"
"That's why I have Kazuha-chan here to help me!"
Kogoro stared for a moment, "We'll order something from other stores."
"But Kogoro-san...!" Conan pulled Kogoro's shirttail to get his attention. He was, yet, so used to whatever he will get from Kogoro after each one of his request or question. It sometimes makes him wonder if he's really *that* not welcomed in this family.
Kogoro glanced at the person behind him, impatiently and replied, "What do you want now, kid?"
'Well, I guess that was polite compare to others.' Conan felt a cold sweat drop down his face.
"I just thought that...you might want to know that...all stores are closed now...the ones with hot deli food I mean!"
"Dad! Honestly, would you rather starve to death or eat something we cook? Or...would you prefer me to call mom and you can enjoy her wonderful, delicious and absolutely trademark dinner?" Ran hid a smile.
The last "Or" changed Kogoro's mind completely about what he had said, considering that his stomach might have a huge remonstrate parade afterwards as always, he said reluctantly, "Fine fine fine, but you better be careful! Call me if you need any help!!!"
Ran tried not to show her laugh, but it was just too hard, soon, the whole room burst out a laugh. Everyone was laughing loudly and the volume was uncontrollable. 'A-ask him for help? on cooking? You got to be kidding me, Kogoro-san!' Conan snickered. Only Kogoro remain silent, scratching his head smoothly and attempting to figure out what everyone was laughing at.
After a while, as the laughs started fading away, with Kogoro sitting uncomfortably on the couch, he finally asked "are you people, err...finished?"
Everyone looked back at him, as if they had already forgotten that he was in the room with them and why they'd laughed so hard.
Then there was an awkward silence, one big party was afraid to begin the subject and the other was completely confused.
Before Kogoro's temper can reach its acme, Ran suggested, "We'll be in the kitchen, then."
Kazuha smiled and assisted her to the kitchen door, while they were walking, an eye behind an infrared telescope monitored their action carefully.
After the dinner was served without Kogoro's useless help, inspector Megure left the agency and headed back to the Tokyo police station for more crime research. Kogoro and the teenagers watched some television show and all went to bed early.
It took a long time for Kazuha and Ran to end their night chitchat, which was annoying the other two boys crazy in the next room, especially the subjects they talked about and the length of their "before-bed-short-talk".
Another hour passed by and they finally dimmed the light. The boys let out a sigh of relief, finally!
Conan removed his glasses and placed them on the night stand, turned and said, "We better get some sleep too, but our sleep won't be as long as theirs."
Heiji stared at Conan, who was sleeping next to him on his bed and asked, "How come?"
Conan looked back at him for a minute, "Idiot, we still have that person to find."
"There'll be plenty time tomorrow morning."
"Do you think we can go alone like the sender of your letter threatened us to, if we leave in the morning? I know Ran too well, it will be impossible to leave and convince them we'll come back without a single wound." Conan frowned.
"K-Kudo..."
"Especially in this body." He continued, "It'll be lot easier for you to tell Kazuha-chan about this case, but...a seven years old telling a seventeen years old not to follow me because I got a dangerous case to deal with? I'll be lucky if she doesn't think I'm insane!"
And then there was silence, a complicated one; one filled with thoughts.
The dim moonlight shone through his half transparent curtain, breeze smoothly brushed it and blew in some night freshness. Stars twinkled high up in the night sky, tonight, however, it seems so near but infinitely unreachable.
Heiji gazed into Conan's serious blue eyes, he was desperately in need of help. As a friend, he wanted to do something, but he know, perhaps too well, Kudo can only be comforted by the one he's thinking of.
"Maybe you should tell her, it can't go on like this forever." He finally said softly.
Conan sighed, it wasn't the first time he had heard this sentence from others. 'Is life playing a joke on me, or what? Why am I treated like this? It's so unfair! All I want is be in my *real* form, is that too much to ask?! Please, let this horrific nightmare end!!!'
Conan turned and lay crosswise, facing the darkened window. He slowly closed his eyes in distress and tiredness. As usual, his miserable history flashed before his eyes, had he really experienced this much in just a year?
"Look, it's not like you can get away with it forever you know." Heiji continued.
"...So? Lies are already made, I already betrayed my true self. I once told myself when I was twelve that I will never lie in my entire life, but look at me right now. I'm nothing but a helpless seven year old, who had already caused lots of people worrying about..." Conan whispered.
"But...If you don't tell, she's still going to find out one day, it's just the matter of time. Tell or not, Kudo, though I'm not you, but I do know that you already carved a wound in her heart, you left her with confusion, anger and hope. It's becoming impossible. Kudo perhaps you can see through a crime's mind easily, but have you ever *tried* to look through hers?" Heiji used his upper arm and elbow as sustain and rested his head in his hand, still facing Conan.
Another long sigh came out between Conan's lips, abandoning all his deduction and logic skills at the moment, for none of them could help him on this 'case'.
"Good night Heiji, we've got a lot to do tomorrow." Conan ended their conversation, then buried his face in his pillow and two hands holding his head on both sides, he was afraid that Heiji would say anything after it.
Heiji saw his friend, understood that he doesn't want to hear anything else at the moment. So they slept, and soon both fell into a restless sleep.
*~*
At dawn, with the first sight of sunlight, Conan woke up Heiji. When they are both ready to leave, Conan hesitant before Ran's door, he halted his steps and looked at the door, hands moving slightly up, wanting to knock on the door.
'Ran...Maybe you *do* deserve the truth...' Conan looked back at Heiji.
The great detective of western saw Conan's falter expression, and managed to decide for him. He grabbed Conan's hand, pushed the girls' door open and pushed him inside.
No more than a few second later, noises of arguments, feigned laughter, yawns and continuous apologies came out of their room. Apparently, Heiji's plan of making Conan to spill out the truth to the girls was a total failure.
"Heiji, are you insane, or did your IQ suddenly drop to the level that you can't even read the clock?" Kazuha said, while smacking Heiji on the head.
"Conan-kun! What do you think you are doing up at the crack of dawn? School doesn't start until seven!" Ran questioned in a sleepy tone.
"It's all his fault!" Heiji and Conan pointed at each other, and shouted out at once.
"I wouldn't say that if I were you!" Conan whispered and shot a glare at Heiji.
A man still in his pajama leaned at the doorway. His hair was indescribable messy and his eyes were still half shut with tiredness. Though the four of them can only see a little part of his eyes, but it was enough to tell them that he was not pleased with whatever was bothering him.
'Uh-oh...' Conan gulped. After living with Kogoro for such a long time, Conan had learned a lot about his personality. 'Here we go...5...4...3...2...1...' He winced slightly.
Taking a deep breath, Kogoro lost control of his temper and yelled out, "Just what do you think you four are doing in the same room, shouting to each other!?!"
The rest of the morning was, to put it briefly was filled with events.
----------------------- Back to the mysterious girl ---------------------------
"Master, I have just arrived." A young man's voice in fluent English sounded behind the little girl.
"Hmm...Good. Now we can finally start this game." The little girl smiled, replied, also in fluent English, and turned back to look at the young man.
---------------------- Mouri's detective Agency ----------------------
The sun brightly shone into their house, all five of them were still in Ran's room, and none of them would give up on the arguments they had started.
It was noon already, but none of them ate anything since last night. The argument had kept them fairly busy all morning, and when they finally realized the time, all of them were in shock.
Almost instantly, Heiji and Conan looked at each other, jaws dropped open and closed it with an audible sound. Quickly, they looked at the digital clock on Ran's nightstand table, and yelped when they saw the time
showed upon it.
"T-t-two thirty!" They cried out at once.
'That means we only have...about...four hours and thirty minutes left! DAMN!' Conan tightened his fist. After a grab of his solar powered skateboard and his backpack, they rushed out the door and began to run as fast as their legs can carry them. Of course, Heiji had to follow Conan, since he has no idea where the Tropical Land is. Though he'd heard of it many times, but he'd never been there himself.
"Oi! Kudo! Can't you run faster? With this speed, we can never get there in time!"
Conan halted his steps and looked up at Heiji, "What does that suppose to mean? How fast do you expect a seven year old to run?"
"Sorry, I-I forgot about that." He snickered. "Never mind that, isn't there any other way we can get there faster?"
"Well, I could use the solar powered skateboard, but this way you'll never catch up with me. And if you ride with me, I'm pretty sure my skateboard will collapse by overloaded weight in seconds!" Conan glanced at the skateboard under his arm.
Heiji glared at the boy at his waist height. "Well, yeah, and you can't expect me to chase after a skateboard at the same speed as any car on the street. I'll be fortune enough not to have people pointing at me and think I'm insane or something." He sighed, holding up his exhausted arm to hold his head.
Conan felt a little hard, round thing in his pocket. 'Hun? What's... ohhh...' He smiled slightly, "Keep on running will not do either. There's a parade today in Tokyo, and they should pass this street any minute now. However, I think I have a solution." A 'Kudo Shinichi trademark smirk' rose upon his face.
"Ah?" Heiji blinked.
Still smiling, he dashed into the nearest rest room. Leaving his Osaka friend in complete confusion of what he's doing, he slowly opened the bottle Ai had gave him the day before in school.
Suddenly he paused. Recalling what Ai had said, "Use it wisely, don't waste it like last time." (I wonder if this is worth it...Ha, of course it is! What's more important than the whole Tokyo residence's life? But...if I use this all up...I won't be able to see her in my old form...)
He stared intensely at the bottle in his hand, turning it around and around. He groaned as a headache arrived in his head. Trying his hardest to decide whether he should take the drug or not, if he does take it, Tokyo will be saved, but on the other hand, why would he use it on a case, instead of something he really want to spend it on, something else that he would actually want to use on without regret?
Leaning against the wall, and looking into the mirror before him, his own reflection gazed back right at him. A boy with some sort of expression that even he couldn't tell if it belonged to an adult or child. Perhaps it was only a mixture of both, or was it because his mind was so blurry and he was seeing things?
A soft but complex sigh sounded in the room. It came from no one but the little boy. He stared into the boy's deep sight in the mirror, reading his own mind for a moment. After a last look around the room, and at himself, he carefully opened the bottle, and swallowed the pill with one gulp. Then he sat down, and waited.
Waiting was even worse than making the decision. Knowing that the pain would arrive any minute, and there's nothing at all he could do to stop it, his heartbeat increased as the time passed by. Anxious and nervous, he couldn't wait to see his former form again, couldn't wait to see himself in the mirror, as tall as he had wished to be. But at the same time, he did not want to experience the pain of forced growth for the second time. It was worse enough just thinking about the whole idea of eating some kind of not-yet-fully-developed-drug and stretch out your bones and flesh into an adult form in less than fifteen minutes.
Outside on the open streets, Heiji stood where Conan had ran off. Checking his watch every other second, his walked in circles and murmured. "What the hell is that idiot doing? It's been half hour already!"
Back in the well-hidden place, columns of steam rose up in the air, and disappeared above the ceiling. More and more columns formed a room filled with vapor, and in the middle lay a little boy, already unconscious due to the intense heat, and extreme pain in his bones.
"Kudo! Oi! Kudo! Where are you? Oi!" Heiji finally managed to search around the place for Kudo. Unaware that he'd passed a room with steams coming out of the windows, he ran on.
Gaining more and more conscious as the pain slowly passed, and steams scattered. Conan... no, Shinichi's eyes opened, two hands supporting his body up to his feet, and he looked into the mirror. Just as he expected, Shinichi Kudo, at the age of 17 appeared. Although his face was covered with sweat, that appearance was still recognizable to everyone.
After a while of rest, he washed his briefly washed his face, and changed into his seventeen years old clothes, which he had packed inside his backpack's secret layer all the time. Just in case, if he needed it.
"Kudo! Can you hear me? If so, come out! It's no time to play hide and seek! And we are a bit too old to play this game, don't you think? Kudo! Kudo!" still screaming all over the streets at the top of his voice, he stopped and took some breath.
A voice on the left side of him replied, "What're you trying to do? Get all the people in Tokyo to search for me? It's nice to know that you care about my presence, though." He grinned.
Heiji whirled his head towards the voice, his eyes widened at the image before his eyes. Still panting, he answered back in a rather irritated tone, "Watch your choice of words. What are you doing in that... that... body anyways?"
"What are you talking about? This IS my body, at least it is supposed to..." Shinichi saw the look on Heiji's face, and immediately added, "Hey! I did risk my life to take the pill you know! So you better appreciate the fact that I used my only pill on this case, rather than on something I really want to waste it on. So come on! This form is not going
to stay forever." Shinichi pulled Heiji on his sleeve, and dragged him forwards the streets again, unaware that his glasses in his pockets had fallen down to the ground.
"E-x...cuse me! Please...let...me...through...ah!....Don't push...whoa!"
After passing through the huge crowd of the parade and visitors from all over the country, Heiji and Shinichi were already out of breath. But considering the fact that you are in a rush, tiredness wasn't that important. Both of their face was covered with sweat, but there weren't anytime left to even thinks about taking a second of rest.
--------- Mouri's Detective Agency ------------
"Kazuha-chan, did Heiji-san tell you where the two of them are going?" Ran asked while drinking tea with her newest friend.
The other teenage girl thought for a moment, that desperately shook her head, "No......Wait! Last night when we were making dinner, I think I overheard their conversation...if I recall, I think Heiji said something about going to Tropical Land today...Humph! That baka, he'd better not going somewhere to play without telling me!"
Startled, Ran repeated, "T-tropical land?"
Kazuha nodded, and said, "Yeah, I'm quite confident now."
'Conan-kun...' An unusual feeling rose upon her body, "Come on, let's follow them and see what they are up to."
She silently agreed, "Don't we have to tell Mouri-san first?"
"Doesn't matter, he probably won't even notice that we are gone."
Before long, Ran and Kazuha were already on their trail to Tropical Land. But soon, they will realize, that could be Kazuha's first, and their very last trip, to the best amusement park in Japan.
--------- Somewhere in Tropical Land ------------
"Master, everything's prepared. The two of them have arrived as well." The same man reported, and turned to leave right afterwards.
The little girl, who stood before the foreign man, and she was still smiling, "Why don't you stay, Balkan, and make yourself comfortable while watching this interesting show. It'll be fun, I promise." She chuckled, reached into her pocket.
--------- Somewhere else in Tropical Land ----------
"Hey, I thought you said this was a popular amusement park. If so, then how come we are almost the only two here?" Heiji asked while looking around, rating the park from his point of view.
Taking the lead in the front, the former form of Edogawa Conan looked back at his friend, "The parade...absorbed...most people's attention..."
"Oh...Where are we going anyways? It feels like we've been running around here for hours already!" Heiji complained. Indeed, he was more than tired already, but there wasn't a second choice than keep on running.
The teenage boy at Heiji's size stopped running, and leaned against the wall, litting the heat of his body pass away by the continuous cold wind, and sweat drops trailing down his face. "To be honest, I don't know either."
"Y-you...What do you think you're doing!? First leading me around this park and exhausting me half to death, and now you tell me you don't know where we are going?" Heiji nearly screamed out.
Kudo shook his head, "Sorry, but that's the truth."
The Osaka detective groaned, 'No matter what good friends we are, Kudo, there are just times that I want to kill you so badly.'
All of the sudden, a cellar phone rang, but it was Heiji's. He picked it up abruptly, "Moshi Moshi."
"So you have arrived. I guess next time I'll have to make my puzzle harder for you to solve. But anyways, I'll give you another hint of where I am. Find me at the place where it raises the rainbow, the place where only human being can enter, and the place, where your fate lays. In addition, I just want to tell you that I am indeed very anxious for your arrival, don't be late, you still have two hours." And the connection was cut.
"Well? what did she say?" Shinichi wiped away some sweats on his face. It doesn't take much skill from a detective to know who that call was from.
"Kudo, do you know anywhere in this park that raises the rainbow, only human beings can enter?"
"Yeah, the place where the rainbow rises is the fountain in the exact central of this park. As to the second part...I've never heard of such place." The Kudo-Shinichi-trademark-deep-in-thought-expression was already up on his face. 'Only human beings can enter...but Tropical Land is completely open, birds and insects should be able to go to anywhere where we can. Unless there's a secret hideout I haven't discovered.'
"Where's the fountain?" Heiji asked.
With a sigh, he took the lead once again without another word.
The sky was already dimly lit, blood-red sun behind those high mountains were more beautiful than ever, but they knew, it wasn't time to stop and adore that scene.
"Here...is the fountain." Kudo said at last, after another long run around the park.
Heiji's eye brow were lifted up, "Fountain? I don't see any water."
Regretting that he'd introduced the place to Heiji and now he had to explain, he replied, "It's timed. The water goes off every 2 hours."
"And exactly what does this have to do with the rainbow?" Heiji asked, even more confused.
Blushing slightly as he regretted even more about this conversation, but still carried on, "Ever since our childhood, I've been inviting Ran to this fountain to play. We were always in the middle of the fountain when it went off, indeed the water was beautiful and all, and when we raised our head to look at the climax of the fountain, a large, but faint rainbow was crossing the sky above our head. As matter of fact, rainbow exist upon the sky every two hours here."
Heiji found him snickering as he asked, "Since childhood, eh? You sure know lots of things when you are little." He said in a teasing manner.
Shinichi glared at him for a second, if there were any words to reply to the teasing, it wasn't in his mind at the time. All he could do was covering up his flush.
"Oh, I see. When it happens, don't forget to inform me, I'd be more than glad to go." He laughed.
"When what happens?"
Heiji winced before replying, "Oh come on. The wedding of the great detective of eastern of Japan of course! So, where are you two going for the honey moon?" His eyes were half moon like, and the smile on his face grew larger as he spoke the whole sentence.
Blushing even deeper, he answered, "Why you..." He walked towards the wincing teenage boy, eyes glowing with fire, but Heiji just kept on smiling and wincing. "Hey, calm down! Can't you take a little joke?" Heiji said in a half apologizing tone, who also stopped walking when his feet touched some little round thing, which he thought was the sprinkler of the fountain.
"Sure I can, but not this time." His fist was already over Heiji's head, only ten more centimeters down, and there would be a nice, round, bun on top of his head, like what Conan usually gets. But at the point where his skin almost touched Heiji's hair, all of his actions halted abruptly.
'Oh no...' His heart was beginning to heat up, intensely and rapid. His bones were beginning to feel as if they are going to melt like a snowman in the summer sun in any second. The pain was making him shiver and gritting his teeth. (Damnit, Ai, what did you give me? Isn't this supposed to last for 24 hours? It's not even 6 hours yet!)
Heiji blinked at the sudden change on Shinichi's face, something's wrong, he knew. Something's really wrong. Even the ground below them, it was...sinking...
Shinichi seized his own shirt by his heart, as if it can cease the pain he is experiencing. (What did you do to my pill, Ai? WHAT DID YOU DO?) He gulped, he was almost at the edge of holding his control of this pain.
The Osaka teenage boy stood there, don't know what to do at all, he just stood there and stared at Shinichi, and the still sinking ground.
The heat was still burning inside him, everything went blur for a moment, and then back to normal, his ears were buzzing slightly. He gasped as he leaned over a little to Heiji, astonished apparently.
Finally, his legs were too weak to support his adult form body, but just before he can kneel down on the ground in pain, Heiji caught him. "Kudo! Kudo! Are you all right? Answer me! Tell me what's going on! Why do
you feel so... hot? And why are we sinking?!"
'D-did he just say we're sinking? I thought I was the only one feeling that way because the time was up for me.' ...Sinking?" He finally let out that word.
Something cold went through his whole body, but there weren¡¯t' any ice, water, or anything near him. All of the sudden, the pain was gone, and so was the heat. (Was I just dreaming about that...that I was going to shrink back to Conan? No, it couldn't've been. Then, how come it doesn't hurt anymore?)
No more than a few seconds later, an urge of energy pushed him up to his feet again. His action made Heiji wince once more. "Whoa! Oi, was that a prank or something? I thought you were going back to Conan's form."
He replied almost emotionlessly, "I was, but now I am not." Even he didn't understand what he just said. Quickly, he looked at his hands, body and legs, and felt his head with both hands. He was still he, the one in seventeen years old form. Does that mean... Ai finally found the real antidote? No, wait, I remember last time...
A flashback was brought back to his mind, the time at their school play, he'd fainted and thought he was going to shrink in front of everybody, and scare everybody's gut out, but at the end, he was still... Shinichi sighed. (So that was only temporary.)
"Kudo! I hate to say this right now, but I think...we're...going...ddoooooowwwwwwwnnnnnnnnnn!!!" Before he could finish, the ground below them almost dropped like the raindrop in the midway. Both of them fell to their hands as the floor slid sideways, but still going deep down.
When they finally hit the bottom, it was dark, hard and cold. They shuffled moans were the only sound they can hear until a little girl's voice came. "Ow, Kudo, what kind of place is this? Please don't tell me its part of the amusement park, I don't want to ruin my dream amusement park in the first visit!"
"I swear I have no idea about where we are..." The little girl, who stood right before them, then cut him off. She was smiling, an evil smile.
"Hello there... Kudo-san, and of course, Hattori-san. I've been expecting you for quite a long time. Why don't you hurry up? The game already started." Her finger snapped, torches of fire lit the place at once, and it was just then, Shinichi and Heiji had realized where they really were...
---To be continued...
A/N: Next chapter will come out in about 5-8 weeks, it's already partly written, and shouldn't take as long as I did on this chapter. More exciting stuff ahead, as well. Keep in mind that the secret passage way under Tropical Land is not one of the stories included in Detective Conan comics or movies so far, so please don't ask me where I found the information about it. Shinichi isn¡¯t going to go back to Conan¡¯s form in a while, and none of them are going anywhere soon. As matter of fact, more people will come to this ¡°game¡± in the next chapter. There's nothing else for me to say, except for...R/R~!
I attempted to make this chapter as interesting as I can, but I'm not perfect. So please excuse me from all the grammar, spelling, and punctuation errors you may find in this chapter. Comments, suggestions, and pre-read editors will be highly appreciated, email me at fanfic_conankudo@yahoo.com
WARNING: This chapter contain solution to this case, so if you don't want to know it before you solve it yourself first, my suggestion is stop here and continue on when you are ready.
As always, Detective Conan belongs to the talented artist and my admirer, Gosho Aoyama, I only claim copyright to Ruki, Balkan and the story itself.
In addition, I apologize to the unexpected delay of this chapter's publish date. Go ahead, scream at me or even slaughter me if you want to (as long as you are not using the martial arts, I'm happy). But still, please review? *smile*
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Identity
Chapter 3 - The Game
By: ConanKudo
As Inspector Megure asked Kogoro again about the case, Kogoro gave him the same answer as what he did before. The criminal will show up at the warm spring. However, Conan didn't expect him to know anything. This case was more complicated than all others he had faced, and even to him it is a big challenge.
"Are you really sure warm spring is the place?" Inspector Megure asked once more.
"Of course! Where else?" Said Kogoro, arms crossing and unsatisfied with the inspector's mistrust.
"Indeed we can't think of anywhere else at this moment, but... If what you say is the truth, then...How come you...erm...didn't fell asleep?"
'How come I don't remember anything about fell asleep while solving the case?' Kogoro thought, feigning a laugh and quickly he came up with an excuse, "Nah.I'm already tired of that stupid sleeping pose, and a famous detective like me can't always use one pose, besides, don't you think this pose is much better that the old one? I should call it the "'Famous detective Mouri Kogoro's trademark pose!'"
Megure laughed alone with him, and rapidly moved closer to Kogoro and whispered with a hand covering, "Hey, don't lose to that Osaka kid again! I've got faith in you!"
Conan relaxed himself on the couch, revealed a little complicated and mature expression, fortunately, none of the others noticed except for his Osaka friend. 'The hottest place in Tokyo? hot...warm...fiery...burn...flaming...t-tropical!' Conan released the hand which was holding up his chin, and gasped loudly.
"Eh? What's up with that kid now?" Kogoro asked with frown.
There was no answer.
'Wait...wait a minute, if that's tropical. Then...the antonym for tropical is...!!!' Conan chuckled and slowly turned into a quiet laugh. 'Now I already know where we are going, but there's still something wierd...' He stared at his notebook once more.
"...???..." Kogoro and inspector looked at each other, wondering why a little kid would smirk like that.
"Tell me!" Heiji bend down and whispered.
"We are going to the amusement park, Heiji-san!" Conan said with a half moon eye.
"A-amusement Park? Are you insane? This is no time to play!"
"Oh you'll see...Oh yeah, we can't leave...yet..." Conan chuckled some more, eyes shining as if he had already seen through the case's truth, and whispered something into Heiji's ear.
------ First Floor of Kogoro's Detective Agency ------
The four kept on heading towards Conan's house until Ai stopped then before they had a chance to step on the stairs, "I'll take it now, it's getting late, you three better get home, I can handle those." She said while taking over those presents from their hand with out any permission.
Ayumi felt her hands empty and asked, "Why? We are already here! It won't take more than one minute to deliver those presents to his hand."
"Yeah!" Mitsuhiko finally got his chance to see things in front of him.
"Heehee, are you going to have a private conversation with Conan, Ai-Chan?" Genta asked and smirked.
Ai turned and glanced at Genta, "No. I just want to tell him something he asked me about." 'Those kids are becoming hard to get rid of!' She thought.
"O-oh, alright then...Let's go, maybe we'll still have a chance to watch the last episode of that cartoon show!" Mitsuhiko pulled Genta and began to run, not noticing that Ayumi wasn't with them. "Hurry, I don't want to miss that episode!"
"A-Ai Ch-Chan?" Ayumi asked with pink skin.
"Yeah?" Surprised that one of them actually stayed.
"Now that they are gone, can you please tell me why you want to go see...Conan-kun, by yourself?" She asked, giving Ai a feeling that she was jealous.
'I never knew kids today are that...naive!' "Take it easy Ayumi-Chan, I'm just going to deliver those presents to Conan-kun.
That's all!" Half of her words were a lie, she smiled at the real first grader.
"N-nothing else? You promise?" Ayumi still wouldn't let Ai go.
Ai nodded, "I swear, now I think you should go home, it's almost six!" She pushed Ayumi towards the direction of her house slightly.
The little girl looked back once more, biting her lips and finally went away home.
Ai watched her shadow vanish at the corner of the street and let out a sigh, lift up her little foot and stepped on the stairs with presents full in her hands. 'Sorry Kudo, for I didn't gave you the real antidote. The one you have in hand will only work for two to three hours, after that you will have a chance to live or die. I hope you will understand
that I can't gave you the real one until the whole organization is arrested...'
Heavy steps brought her upstairs and in front of the door, but instead of knocking on the door and go in, she dropped the presents next to it and went downstairs, into the coffee shop and then the bathroom. There she ate the pill---The real pill.
Steams and painful struggling were the last thing she knew before her short black out, "Kudo...I hope you know...I'm doing this...all this...f..o.r...y..ou..." She muttered before completely fellunconscious.
Meanwhile in the agency, there was an awkward atmosphere, which kept the three detectives and an Inspector under silence. When all of the sudden they heard the door bell rang.
"Probably someone here for a case." Kogoro murmured as he walked towards the door and turned it impatiently.
Without even look at who's in front of him, he denied, "Sorry, I don't accept any more cases today, please come back in..." He halted when he finally did look up. Not knowing what to do to apologize or what do to next, he just stared.
A young girl at the age of 18, reddish hair was some sweat drops on it. Her face was almost as red as her hair, some fast pants went out of her mouth. Black sleeveless woolen sweater suited her perfectly and a short skirt that was ruffled. However, her black and shank lengthen boot were still worn tightly around her legs even though it's mid-summer.
And yet she was another young woman Kogoro would "crush" on, slowly he revealed a smirked at her.
"...Never mind what I said before...Ahem...Hello there young lady..." Kogoro dashed into the closet, changed into a blue clean suit, a red rose in his hand, "How may I help you, miss?" He crossed his left leg over his right; Put one of his arm straight out by the wall and the other in his pocket.
"Uh..." Ai didn't know how to react for a moment, sweats dropped, "...Actually, I've come here to talk to Ku...I mean, Edogawa-kun." 'That was close...'
Kogoro glimpsed at Conan, who walked to them when he heard someone said his name. "You mean...him?" Kogoro pointed at him first then picked Conan up, disappointed that this pretty girl didn't come for him.
"Y-yes..." Ai was even more surprised when she saw Conan being 'picked up' that easily.
Conan amazed to see Ai in her older form for the first time. Although he had heard her real voice last time, but they never got a chance to see each other. {A/N: Ai returned to her true form for a while back in vol. 24 "Meeting again with the darkness organization" But Conan wasn't around.} Staring at the figure, which stood stilly before him, Conan looked up at her face, flushed slightly but quickly shook his head.
'Eh, what am I thinking?' When he finally got a chance to stand up again, still gazing up at her like he'd never seen her before, "You called me?"
"Yeah, it's about...um...your classmate Ayumi-Chan, I'm her older sister, remember?" She hinting at him to play along with her.
Inspector Megure called from behind, "Kogoro-san, is someone here for a case? If necessary, I can go back to my office."
"Hun?" Kogoro whirled back and replied, "Oh, no, it's just that brat's friend." He said while walking to the couch and sat next to inspector, went on with their conversation.
After Conan shut the door and finally calming down, he asked in his usual tone, "You could've warned me before taking the antidote! What's the point of showing up like this, what if those guys discovers you?"
Shiho smiled slightly and leaned down, "Since when did you start to worry about me?"
Conan glared back at her, "PLEASE! You know I'm just concerning about my identity!"
"Really? You swear you are not worried about me, not even a bit?"
Conan looked up at her, getting annoyed, "I'm going back to that room." He turned, but walking in a slow speed and waiting Ai to stop him and finally tells him her real destination.
"Fine, I'll tell you." She said before he stepped out, "But it's no big deal, really."
"What is it?"
"I'm going to...gave up my identity and return to the organization." She looked away in order to avoid Conan's sight.
"Y-you're WHAT?" Conan's eyes widened.
She looked up, and replied, "Don't hate me Kudo, after nearly half year of consideration, this is the best I can come up with, for both of our future fate."
"B-But...WHAT ABOUT ME?" He shouted in infuriation.
Ai's smiling sight was then replaced by an unfathomable gaze, "Kudo, sometimes one has to face their own destiny and confront their situation. You heard what your girl friend said last time, we have to face those conditions with courage with confidence and resolution."
"What?" Said Conan, who was even more confused.
A white bottle flashed before his eyes, "This is what I mean."
Conan blinked, attempting his best to understand what she meant by using all of his logic and deduction, but still, he got no conclusion. So he just stared at her with puzzlement.
Satisfied with Conan's perplexity and her faintly hint, she turned and said, "Anyways, I'm suppose to deliver you those. Who knows if it'll be useful for you and Ran's child? As for that test, I'm obviously not going to university again! And I couldn't suggest you to, either. Well, Good luck with the case you are on!" She pointed at the presents, which she dropped off earlier.
Leaving Conan glaring at her with a blushing face, she began her way to Dr. Agasa's house. "Oh yeah, by the way, I heard them saying that something's going on in the organization. And I was just kidding about my identity part."
Conan watched her shadow slowly vanished from the staircase, and finally managed to yell out, "Wait! Come back, you owe me lots of explanations here!"
But there was no respond.
"What does she mean?" Conan murmured as he went back into the house.
At the first step in the house, a strong force came from Conan's back and all of the sudden he was in the mid air, and a voice came after, "What's the point of screaming outside the door, gaki?"
Conan looked back, slowly lift his sight to Kogoro's and gulped, heartbeat increased a little as he just realized what would happen next. Like he had expected, a hard red bun appeared on top of his head. 'Gez, what kind of family is this?'
----------In a Dark Room----------
A little girl sat in her red armchair, still smiling, she took another look at her cellar phone and whispered to it, "Now, you don't really think my game will be this easy, do you? Kudo Shinichi, you and your friends are going to lose this game..."
----------Ran's room----------
After another long chitchat, they began to feel a little exhaust and hungry. Ran checked her watch and gasped in surprise.
"You are not going to believe this, Kazuha-chan, but it's 7:30 already! I hope they didn't go out for dinner without us!" They quiet down and listened carefully for any sign of other people in this house except for them.
During the silence, they heard a mid-age man's stupid laugh and some teenager's murmurs. "I guess they forgot about the time." Kazuha said at last.
"Yeah...Well, I guess our chitchat time is over already. I'd better cook something before they realize how late it is!" Ran pushed herself forward to the kitchen.
Kazuha followed, and helped Ran on her way, "I'll help you."
Outside their room, the house seems like it had had a make over during their conversation in the bedroom, garbage were everywhere, cigarette ashes spread around the table and floor.
Kogoro sat in his chair, both feet on his desk, at least what he called a desk. His eyes filled with annoyiance and impatience. A loose blue suit on his body lowered the taste of his unkempt appearance. Inspector Megure looked a little calmer than Kogoro, crossing arms as usual and kept on sighing.
Conan and Heiji rested their heads in palms and just stared at the paper in front of them. Nevertheless, their vision were totally different from the others, they were waiting, waiting for something?
Ran's index finger ran across her lips and made a quiet sign to Kazuha, hinting her to be quiet while they sneak into the kitchen" without letting others notice. However, it was impossible because of Ran's wheelchair, just a moment later, a male voice called. "Where are you going?" 'Damn wheelchair!' Ran hammered the wheelchair slightly.
"Um...we're...cooking?" Kazuha rolled her eyes.
"cook?!" Kogoro got up to his feet, "Are you two insane? Ran! You are trying to go back to the hospital or something? And, you can barely reach the stove like this!"
"That's why I have Kazuha-chan here to help me!"
Kogoro stared for a moment, "We'll order something from other stores."
"But Kogoro-san...!" Conan pulled Kogoro's shirttail to get his attention. He was, yet, so used to whatever he will get from Kogoro after each one of his request or question. It sometimes makes him wonder if he's really *that* not welcomed in this family.
Kogoro glanced at the person behind him, impatiently and replied, "What do you want now, kid?"
'Well, I guess that was polite compare to others.' Conan felt a cold sweat drop down his face.
"I just thought that...you might want to know that...all stores are closed now...the ones with hot deli food I mean!"
"Dad! Honestly, would you rather starve to death or eat something we cook? Or...would you prefer me to call mom and you can enjoy her wonderful, delicious and absolutely trademark dinner?" Ran hid a smile.
The last "Or" changed Kogoro's mind completely about what he had said, considering that his stomach might have a huge remonstrate parade afterwards as always, he said reluctantly, "Fine fine fine, but you better be careful! Call me if you need any help!!!"
Ran tried not to show her laugh, but it was just too hard, soon, the whole room burst out a laugh. Everyone was laughing loudly and the volume was uncontrollable. 'A-ask him for help? on cooking? You got to be kidding me, Kogoro-san!' Conan snickered. Only Kogoro remain silent, scratching his head smoothly and attempting to figure out what everyone was laughing at.
After a while, as the laughs started fading away, with Kogoro sitting uncomfortably on the couch, he finally asked "are you people, err...finished?"
Everyone looked back at him, as if they had already forgotten that he was in the room with them and why they'd laughed so hard.
Then there was an awkward silence, one big party was afraid to begin the subject and the other was completely confused.
Before Kogoro's temper can reach its acme, Ran suggested, "We'll be in the kitchen, then."
Kazuha smiled and assisted her to the kitchen door, while they were walking, an eye behind an infrared telescope monitored their action carefully.
After the dinner was served without Kogoro's useless help, inspector Megure left the agency and headed back to the Tokyo police station for more crime research. Kogoro and the teenagers watched some television show and all went to bed early.
It took a long time for Kazuha and Ran to end their night chitchat, which was annoying the other two boys crazy in the next room, especially the subjects they talked about and the length of their "before-bed-short-talk".
Another hour passed by and they finally dimmed the light. The boys let out a sigh of relief, finally!
Conan removed his glasses and placed them on the night stand, turned and said, "We better get some sleep too, but our sleep won't be as long as theirs."
Heiji stared at Conan, who was sleeping next to him on his bed and asked, "How come?"
Conan looked back at him for a minute, "Idiot, we still have that person to find."
"There'll be plenty time tomorrow morning."
"Do you think we can go alone like the sender of your letter threatened us to, if we leave in the morning? I know Ran too well, it will be impossible to leave and convince them we'll come back without a single wound." Conan frowned.
"K-Kudo..."
"Especially in this body." He continued, "It'll be lot easier for you to tell Kazuha-chan about this case, but...a seven years old telling a seventeen years old not to follow me because I got a dangerous case to deal with? I'll be lucky if she doesn't think I'm insane!"
And then there was silence, a complicated one; one filled with thoughts.
The dim moonlight shone through his half transparent curtain, breeze smoothly brushed it and blew in some night freshness. Stars twinkled high up in the night sky, tonight, however, it seems so near but infinitely unreachable.
Heiji gazed into Conan's serious blue eyes, he was desperately in need of help. As a friend, he wanted to do something, but he know, perhaps too well, Kudo can only be comforted by the one he's thinking of.
"Maybe you should tell her, it can't go on like this forever." He finally said softly.
Conan sighed, it wasn't the first time he had heard this sentence from others. 'Is life playing a joke on me, or what? Why am I treated like this? It's so unfair! All I want is be in my *real* form, is that too much to ask?! Please, let this horrific nightmare end!!!'
Conan turned and lay crosswise, facing the darkened window. He slowly closed his eyes in distress and tiredness. As usual, his miserable history flashed before his eyes, had he really experienced this much in just a year?
"Look, it's not like you can get away with it forever you know." Heiji continued.
"...So? Lies are already made, I already betrayed my true self. I once told myself when I was twelve that I will never lie in my entire life, but look at me right now. I'm nothing but a helpless seven year old, who had already caused lots of people worrying about..." Conan whispered.
"But...If you don't tell, she's still going to find out one day, it's just the matter of time. Tell or not, Kudo, though I'm not you, but I do know that you already carved a wound in her heart, you left her with confusion, anger and hope. It's becoming impossible. Kudo perhaps you can see through a crime's mind easily, but have you ever *tried* to look through hers?" Heiji used his upper arm and elbow as sustain and rested his head in his hand, still facing Conan.
Another long sigh came out between Conan's lips, abandoning all his deduction and logic skills at the moment, for none of them could help him on this 'case'.
"Good night Heiji, we've got a lot to do tomorrow." Conan ended their conversation, then buried his face in his pillow and two hands holding his head on both sides, he was afraid that Heiji would say anything after it.
Heiji saw his friend, understood that he doesn't want to hear anything else at the moment. So they slept, and soon both fell into a restless sleep.
*~*
At dawn, with the first sight of sunlight, Conan woke up Heiji. When they are both ready to leave, Conan hesitant before Ran's door, he halted his steps and looked at the door, hands moving slightly up, wanting to knock on the door.
'Ran...Maybe you *do* deserve the truth...' Conan looked back at Heiji.
The great detective of western saw Conan's falter expression, and managed to decide for him. He grabbed Conan's hand, pushed the girls' door open and pushed him inside.
No more than a few second later, noises of arguments, feigned laughter, yawns and continuous apologies came out of their room. Apparently, Heiji's plan of making Conan to spill out the truth to the girls was a total failure.
"Heiji, are you insane, or did your IQ suddenly drop to the level that you can't even read the clock?" Kazuha said, while smacking Heiji on the head.
"Conan-kun! What do you think you are doing up at the crack of dawn? School doesn't start until seven!" Ran questioned in a sleepy tone.
"It's all his fault!" Heiji and Conan pointed at each other, and shouted out at once.
"I wouldn't say that if I were you!" Conan whispered and shot a glare at Heiji.
A man still in his pajama leaned at the doorway. His hair was indescribable messy and his eyes were still half shut with tiredness. Though the four of them can only see a little part of his eyes, but it was enough to tell them that he was not pleased with whatever was bothering him.
'Uh-oh...' Conan gulped. After living with Kogoro for such a long time, Conan had learned a lot about his personality. 'Here we go...5...4...3...2...1...' He winced slightly.
Taking a deep breath, Kogoro lost control of his temper and yelled out, "Just what do you think you four are doing in the same room, shouting to each other!?!"
The rest of the morning was, to put it briefly was filled with events.
----------------------- Back to the mysterious girl ---------------------------
"Master, I have just arrived." A young man's voice in fluent English sounded behind the little girl.
"Hmm...Good. Now we can finally start this game." The little girl smiled, replied, also in fluent English, and turned back to look at the young man.
---------------------- Mouri's detective Agency ----------------------
The sun brightly shone into their house, all five of them were still in Ran's room, and none of them would give up on the arguments they had started.
It was noon already, but none of them ate anything since last night. The argument had kept them fairly busy all morning, and when they finally realized the time, all of them were in shock.
Almost instantly, Heiji and Conan looked at each other, jaws dropped open and closed it with an audible sound. Quickly, they looked at the digital clock on Ran's nightstand table, and yelped when they saw the time
showed upon it.
"T-t-two thirty!" They cried out at once.
'That means we only have...about...four hours and thirty minutes left! DAMN!' Conan tightened his fist. After a grab of his solar powered skateboard and his backpack, they rushed out the door and began to run as fast as their legs can carry them. Of course, Heiji had to follow Conan, since he has no idea where the Tropical Land is. Though he'd heard of it many times, but he'd never been there himself.
"Oi! Kudo! Can't you run faster? With this speed, we can never get there in time!"
Conan halted his steps and looked up at Heiji, "What does that suppose to mean? How fast do you expect a seven year old to run?"
"Sorry, I-I forgot about that." He snickered. "Never mind that, isn't there any other way we can get there faster?"
"Well, I could use the solar powered skateboard, but this way you'll never catch up with me. And if you ride with me, I'm pretty sure my skateboard will collapse by overloaded weight in seconds!" Conan glanced at the skateboard under his arm.
Heiji glared at the boy at his waist height. "Well, yeah, and you can't expect me to chase after a skateboard at the same speed as any car on the street. I'll be fortune enough not to have people pointing at me and think I'm insane or something." He sighed, holding up his exhausted arm to hold his head.
Conan felt a little hard, round thing in his pocket. 'Hun? What's... ohhh...' He smiled slightly, "Keep on running will not do either. There's a parade today in Tokyo, and they should pass this street any minute now. However, I think I have a solution." A 'Kudo Shinichi trademark smirk' rose upon his face.
"Ah?" Heiji blinked.
Still smiling, he dashed into the nearest rest room. Leaving his Osaka friend in complete confusion of what he's doing, he slowly opened the bottle Ai had gave him the day before in school.
Suddenly he paused. Recalling what Ai had said, "Use it wisely, don't waste it like last time." (I wonder if this is worth it...Ha, of course it is! What's more important than the whole Tokyo residence's life? But...if I use this all up...I won't be able to see her in my old form...)
He stared intensely at the bottle in his hand, turning it around and around. He groaned as a headache arrived in his head. Trying his hardest to decide whether he should take the drug or not, if he does take it, Tokyo will be saved, but on the other hand, why would he use it on a case, instead of something he really want to spend it on, something else that he would actually want to use on without regret?
Leaning against the wall, and looking into the mirror before him, his own reflection gazed back right at him. A boy with some sort of expression that even he couldn't tell if it belonged to an adult or child. Perhaps it was only a mixture of both, or was it because his mind was so blurry and he was seeing things?
A soft but complex sigh sounded in the room. It came from no one but the little boy. He stared into the boy's deep sight in the mirror, reading his own mind for a moment. After a last look around the room, and at himself, he carefully opened the bottle, and swallowed the pill with one gulp. Then he sat down, and waited.
Waiting was even worse than making the decision. Knowing that the pain would arrive any minute, and there's nothing at all he could do to stop it, his heartbeat increased as the time passed by. Anxious and nervous, he couldn't wait to see his former form again, couldn't wait to see himself in the mirror, as tall as he had wished to be. But at the same time, he did not want to experience the pain of forced growth for the second time. It was worse enough just thinking about the whole idea of eating some kind of not-yet-fully-developed-drug and stretch out your bones and flesh into an adult form in less than fifteen minutes.
Outside on the open streets, Heiji stood where Conan had ran off. Checking his watch every other second, his walked in circles and murmured. "What the hell is that idiot doing? It's been half hour already!"
Back in the well-hidden place, columns of steam rose up in the air, and disappeared above the ceiling. More and more columns formed a room filled with vapor, and in the middle lay a little boy, already unconscious due to the intense heat, and extreme pain in his bones.
"Kudo! Oi! Kudo! Where are you? Oi!" Heiji finally managed to search around the place for Kudo. Unaware that he'd passed a room with steams coming out of the windows, he ran on.
Gaining more and more conscious as the pain slowly passed, and steams scattered. Conan... no, Shinichi's eyes opened, two hands supporting his body up to his feet, and he looked into the mirror. Just as he expected, Shinichi Kudo, at the age of 17 appeared. Although his face was covered with sweat, that appearance was still recognizable to everyone.
After a while of rest, he washed his briefly washed his face, and changed into his seventeen years old clothes, which he had packed inside his backpack's secret layer all the time. Just in case, if he needed it.
"Kudo! Can you hear me? If so, come out! It's no time to play hide and seek! And we are a bit too old to play this game, don't you think? Kudo! Kudo!" still screaming all over the streets at the top of his voice, he stopped and took some breath.
A voice on the left side of him replied, "What're you trying to do? Get all the people in Tokyo to search for me? It's nice to know that you care about my presence, though." He grinned.
Heiji whirled his head towards the voice, his eyes widened at the image before his eyes. Still panting, he answered back in a rather irritated tone, "Watch your choice of words. What are you doing in that... that... body anyways?"
"What are you talking about? This IS my body, at least it is supposed to..." Shinichi saw the look on Heiji's face, and immediately added, "Hey! I did risk my life to take the pill you know! So you better appreciate the fact that I used my only pill on this case, rather than on something I really want to waste it on. So come on! This form is not going
to stay forever." Shinichi pulled Heiji on his sleeve, and dragged him forwards the streets again, unaware that his glasses in his pockets had fallen down to the ground.
"E-x...cuse me! Please...let...me...through...ah!....Don't push...whoa!"
After passing through the huge crowd of the parade and visitors from all over the country, Heiji and Shinichi were already out of breath. But considering the fact that you are in a rush, tiredness wasn't that important. Both of their face was covered with sweat, but there weren't anytime left to even thinks about taking a second of rest.
--------- Mouri's Detective Agency ------------
"Kazuha-chan, did Heiji-san tell you where the two of them are going?" Ran asked while drinking tea with her newest friend.
The other teenage girl thought for a moment, that desperately shook her head, "No......Wait! Last night when we were making dinner, I think I overheard their conversation...if I recall, I think Heiji said something about going to Tropical Land today...Humph! That baka, he'd better not going somewhere to play without telling me!"
Startled, Ran repeated, "T-tropical land?"
Kazuha nodded, and said, "Yeah, I'm quite confident now."
'Conan-kun...' An unusual feeling rose upon her body, "Come on, let's follow them and see what they are up to."
She silently agreed, "Don't we have to tell Mouri-san first?"
"Doesn't matter, he probably won't even notice that we are gone."
Before long, Ran and Kazuha were already on their trail to Tropical Land. But soon, they will realize, that could be Kazuha's first, and their very last trip, to the best amusement park in Japan.
--------- Somewhere in Tropical Land ------------
"Master, everything's prepared. The two of them have arrived as well." The same man reported, and turned to leave right afterwards.
The little girl, who stood before the foreign man, and she was still smiling, "Why don't you stay, Balkan, and make yourself comfortable while watching this interesting show. It'll be fun, I promise." She chuckled, reached into her pocket.
--------- Somewhere else in Tropical Land ----------
"Hey, I thought you said this was a popular amusement park. If so, then how come we are almost the only two here?" Heiji asked while looking around, rating the park from his point of view.
Taking the lead in the front, the former form of Edogawa Conan looked back at his friend, "The parade...absorbed...most people's attention..."
"Oh...Where are we going anyways? It feels like we've been running around here for hours already!" Heiji complained. Indeed, he was more than tired already, but there wasn't a second choice than keep on running.
The teenage boy at Heiji's size stopped running, and leaned against the wall, litting the heat of his body pass away by the continuous cold wind, and sweat drops trailing down his face. "To be honest, I don't know either."
"Y-you...What do you think you're doing!? First leading me around this park and exhausting me half to death, and now you tell me you don't know where we are going?" Heiji nearly screamed out.
Kudo shook his head, "Sorry, but that's the truth."
The Osaka detective groaned, 'No matter what good friends we are, Kudo, there are just times that I want to kill you so badly.'
All of the sudden, a cellar phone rang, but it was Heiji's. He picked it up abruptly, "Moshi Moshi."
"So you have arrived. I guess next time I'll have to make my puzzle harder for you to solve. But anyways, I'll give you another hint of where I am. Find me at the place where it raises the rainbow, the place where only human being can enter, and the place, where your fate lays. In addition, I just want to tell you that I am indeed very anxious for your arrival, don't be late, you still have two hours." And the connection was cut.
"Well? what did she say?" Shinichi wiped away some sweats on his face. It doesn't take much skill from a detective to know who that call was from.
"Kudo, do you know anywhere in this park that raises the rainbow, only human beings can enter?"
"Yeah, the place where the rainbow rises is the fountain in the exact central of this park. As to the second part...I've never heard of such place." The Kudo-Shinichi-trademark-deep-in-thought-expression was already up on his face. 'Only human beings can enter...but Tropical Land is completely open, birds and insects should be able to go to anywhere where we can. Unless there's a secret hideout I haven't discovered.'
"Where's the fountain?" Heiji asked.
With a sigh, he took the lead once again without another word.
The sky was already dimly lit, blood-red sun behind those high mountains were more beautiful than ever, but they knew, it wasn't time to stop and adore that scene.
"Here...is the fountain." Kudo said at last, after another long run around the park.
Heiji's eye brow were lifted up, "Fountain? I don't see any water."
Regretting that he'd introduced the place to Heiji and now he had to explain, he replied, "It's timed. The water goes off every 2 hours."
"And exactly what does this have to do with the rainbow?" Heiji asked, even more confused.
Blushing slightly as he regretted even more about this conversation, but still carried on, "Ever since our childhood, I've been inviting Ran to this fountain to play. We were always in the middle of the fountain when it went off, indeed the water was beautiful and all, and when we raised our head to look at the climax of the fountain, a large, but faint rainbow was crossing the sky above our head. As matter of fact, rainbow exist upon the sky every two hours here."
Heiji found him snickering as he asked, "Since childhood, eh? You sure know lots of things when you are little." He said in a teasing manner.
Shinichi glared at him for a second, if there were any words to reply to the teasing, it wasn't in his mind at the time. All he could do was covering up his flush.
"Oh, I see. When it happens, don't forget to inform me, I'd be more than glad to go." He laughed.
"When what happens?"
Heiji winced before replying, "Oh come on. The wedding of the great detective of eastern of Japan of course! So, where are you two going for the honey moon?" His eyes were half moon like, and the smile on his face grew larger as he spoke the whole sentence.
Blushing even deeper, he answered, "Why you..." He walked towards the wincing teenage boy, eyes glowing with fire, but Heiji just kept on smiling and wincing. "Hey, calm down! Can't you take a little joke?" Heiji said in a half apologizing tone, who also stopped walking when his feet touched some little round thing, which he thought was the sprinkler of the fountain.
"Sure I can, but not this time." His fist was already over Heiji's head, only ten more centimeters down, and there would be a nice, round, bun on top of his head, like what Conan usually gets. But at the point where his skin almost touched Heiji's hair, all of his actions halted abruptly.
'Oh no...' His heart was beginning to heat up, intensely and rapid. His bones were beginning to feel as if they are going to melt like a snowman in the summer sun in any second. The pain was making him shiver and gritting his teeth. (Damnit, Ai, what did you give me? Isn't this supposed to last for 24 hours? It's not even 6 hours yet!)
Heiji blinked at the sudden change on Shinichi's face, something's wrong, he knew. Something's really wrong. Even the ground below them, it was...sinking...
Shinichi seized his own shirt by his heart, as if it can cease the pain he is experiencing. (What did you do to my pill, Ai? WHAT DID YOU DO?) He gulped, he was almost at the edge of holding his control of this pain.
The Osaka teenage boy stood there, don't know what to do at all, he just stood there and stared at Shinichi, and the still sinking ground.
The heat was still burning inside him, everything went blur for a moment, and then back to normal, his ears were buzzing slightly. He gasped as he leaned over a little to Heiji, astonished apparently.
Finally, his legs were too weak to support his adult form body, but just before he can kneel down on the ground in pain, Heiji caught him. "Kudo! Kudo! Are you all right? Answer me! Tell me what's going on! Why do
you feel so... hot? And why are we sinking?!"
'D-did he just say we're sinking? I thought I was the only one feeling that way because the time was up for me.' ...Sinking?" He finally let out that word.
Something cold went through his whole body, but there weren¡¯t' any ice, water, or anything near him. All of the sudden, the pain was gone, and so was the heat. (Was I just dreaming about that...that I was going to shrink back to Conan? No, it couldn't've been. Then, how come it doesn't hurt anymore?)
No more than a few seconds later, an urge of energy pushed him up to his feet again. His action made Heiji wince once more. "Whoa! Oi, was that a prank or something? I thought you were going back to Conan's form."
He replied almost emotionlessly, "I was, but now I am not." Even he didn't understand what he just said. Quickly, he looked at his hands, body and legs, and felt his head with both hands. He was still he, the one in seventeen years old form. Does that mean... Ai finally found the real antidote? No, wait, I remember last time...
A flashback was brought back to his mind, the time at their school play, he'd fainted and thought he was going to shrink in front of everybody, and scare everybody's gut out, but at the end, he was still... Shinichi sighed. (So that was only temporary.)
"Kudo! I hate to say this right now, but I think...we're...going...ddoooooowwwwwwwnnnnnnnnnn!!!" Before he could finish, the ground below them almost dropped like the raindrop in the midway. Both of them fell to their hands as the floor slid sideways, but still going deep down.
When they finally hit the bottom, it was dark, hard and cold. They shuffled moans were the only sound they can hear until a little girl's voice came. "Ow, Kudo, what kind of place is this? Please don't tell me its part of the amusement park, I don't want to ruin my dream amusement park in the first visit!"
"I swear I have no idea about where we are..." The little girl, who stood right before them, then cut him off. She was smiling, an evil smile.
"Hello there... Kudo-san, and of course, Hattori-san. I've been expecting you for quite a long time. Why don't you hurry up? The game already started." Her finger snapped, torches of fire lit the place at once, and it was just then, Shinichi and Heiji had realized where they really were...
---To be continued...
A/N: Next chapter will come out in about 5-8 weeks, it's already partly written, and shouldn't take as long as I did on this chapter. More exciting stuff ahead, as well. Keep in mind that the secret passage way under Tropical Land is not one of the stories included in Detective Conan comics or movies so far, so please don't ask me where I found the information about it. Shinichi isn¡¯t going to go back to Conan¡¯s form in a while, and none of them are going anywhere soon. As matter of fact, more people will come to this ¡°game¡± in the next chapter. There's nothing else for me to say, except for...R/R~!