Ummmm….. please don't shoot me over the Waffy bits; it was a moral imperative that they be in there. Here goes, the last of the "relaxed" chapters before things get sticky. Disclaimers are as always; you know the drill!..… Ysabet

Chapter Four: Acceptable Losses

Suzuki Sonoko stared, her whitened face a picture of shock; the small bag that she was holding slithered down to the floor with a dull thud. Ran, Shinichi and Eri-san stared back.

There was a loooong silence…..

No one seemed either willing or able to make the least move; frozen in the moment, Conan/Shinichi felt oddly calm, thinking *Well, it was inevitable--- somebody was going to find out by accident sooner or later--- but did it have to be the Fastest Mouth in the East?*

That mouth seemed to be opening and shutting like a landed fish's right now; he had never seen such bugged-out eyes on a human being before.

At last Sonoko-chan spoke in a faint, faint voice: "You--- you're----- What--- I heard you-----" She couldn't seem to get an entire sentence out; after a few false tries, she blinked hard and closed her mouth with a snap. Then she looked directly at Eri-san and announced brightly: "I think I need to sit down."

And sit down she did, right there in the doorway, plopping down HARD onto the floor, *Thump!*. Eyes still saucer-like, Sonoko's fishlike gaze tracked from Ran to Shinichi, from Shinichi to Ran…..

Conan/Shinichi sighed. *If I don't do something she's going to panic, and if she panics it's Game Over. Better handle this now.* He stood up, dusting his hands off. In his best 'Conan-kun' voice he chirped "Be right back, Sonoko-kun; don't go anywhere....." All eyes followed the boy as he made his escape into the seldom-used kitchen; no one else said a single word.

*Let's see, glasses, glasses….. ah, there we go. Cold water? No, something with some sugar in it. What's in the 'fridge? Oh good, some sort of juice-blend; that'll do.* He poured four generous glasses of the liquid, setting them on a small tray that he found under the sink. A demented sort of humor seemed to be blooming in him, making nervous laughter rise in his throat. Or maybe that was just incipient hysteria? *I guess it could be worse,* Conan/Shinichi thought as he hefted the tray in both small hands; *She could be having screaming fits about now instead of going into shock; shock's okay, we can deal with shock…..*

The young detective wondered if he was getting jaded. Fighting back a slightly manic grin, he carried the tray back into the room.

No one had moved much as far as he could tell; solemnly the boy handed over each glass, feeling like the host at a party for lunatics. Sonoko took hers rather dazedly; she swallowed a huge gulp of the juice and seemed to relax a trifle. As Conan/Shinichi passed Ran's over, he met her eyes; dark with apprehension, they pleaded with him for help and widened enormously at his conspiratory grin and faint wink. *Nobody's fault, Ran-kun, nobody's fault; it just happened. Who knows? Maybe this is a good thing, that she found out so early--- that is, if we can convince her to keep her trap shut about it. That'll be your job, mostly.*

*Thank GOD it's not mine…..*

*.....and if you weren't with me right now, you know--- I'd really be panicking. All over the place, very loudly.* He sat down on a box, eyeing their visitor with an inquisitive stare; she was gripping the glass as if her life depended on it, her gaze still moving between himself and Ran in a continuous loop. After a moment's consideration he abandoned all attempts at sounding Conan-ish and spoke in what he thought of as his natural voice: "Ahhh--- Sonoko-kun? I guess it'd be silly to pretend you didn't understand what you just heard, wouldn't it-----?"

That seemed to catch her attention; the young woman's gaze rivited itself on the boy's face. After a few false starts, she was able to croak out a coherent sentence..... "You're--- Shinichi? Really Shinichi? C-Conan-kun? And Ran is-----" Her eyes swung towards the little girl who was now staring at the floor, fingers white-knuckled around her glass. Rising a little, Eri-san placed an arm around her young-old daughter's thin shoulders.

When she spoke, Ran's voice was very, very small. "I... couldn't tell you, Sonoko..... I'm sorry. The secret wasn't just mine to tell, or I would have----- I wanted to. You've always been my best female friend, and I *hated* keeping this from you." Conan nodded a little to himself, taking another swallow of his juice; he had figured as much. He fought back an urge to move to Ran's side--- this was something she had to deal with herself; his help would be no help at all, not right now…..

The small girl raised her huge eyes pleadingly to her friend's face; in that instance she seemed every bit the anguished child. "Please don't be mad, Sonoko-chan--- I couldn't tell you! Not just for comfort, not without real reason--- the more people know about us being like this, the more dangerous it gets!!" A single tear ran down her rounded cheek, followed a moment later by another. "… And now it'll be dangerous for you, too….." she added sorrowfully, wiping at her eyes.

And that got through even more than Conan's words had. Sonoko opened her mouth and then closed it, at a complete loss for words (not something that happened often, thought the boy). Slowly she rose to her feet, holding onto the doorjamb for support. As she approached Ran, the little girl shrank back against her mother for a moment--- and then, taking a deep breath, drew away and stood up.

Sonoko looked down at her friend's upturned, tear-streaked face; Ran's child-body barely reached past her waist.

"…..R-Ran?"

The little girl gave her a watery smile. "Afraid so….. Pretty funny, ne? Me being like this--- like--- this---" The last phrase broke off raggedly as, for the first time since her transformation, Mouri Ran burst into tears.

Conan/Shinichi found himself on his feet without being aware of having even moved; he started forward, feeling his heart wrenching and thinking *Ah, Ran--- I didn't mean to--- Ran, I can't stand it when you cry-----* but her mother motioned him back quickly. Catching the boy's arm she drew him down and whispered, "Let her cry. This has been hard on her, and sometimes that's exactly what a person needs-- to cry things out; I've been expecting it." The older woman's sharp eyes glimmered a little with her own unshed tears; Conan drew a hard breath and sat down quietly beside her, leaving Ran to sob out her tension and suppressed grief on the shoulder of her childhood friend.

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"Feeling better?" Eri-san handed the last refilled glass of juice to her daughter, who now sat on the living room couch between Sonoko and Conan.

"I guess….. I'm sorry--- I didn't expect to break down like that, not after I've handled everything so far without falling apart-----" Ran gave her companions an apologetic look and sniffed, wiping at her eyes with the back of one small hand.

Conan watched her, his heart aching in his chest; even with her eyes reddened and puffy, with her lashes starred together damply into points, he thought that she was the most adorable thing he had ever seen. What was that Western word for kids like her? Gamin, that was it, all pointy-chinned sharp-angled cuteness-----

And she had cried. Her situation had made her cry. In a way, he had made her cry by drawing her into this-----

The boy looked away.

Sunk into gloom, it took a moment Conan to notice that somebody was speaking to him. "Conan--- Conan--- what's----- Oh." He raised his eyes guiltily back to Ran's; at his expression, she sighed and, reaching across, took him by the shoulders and gave him a slight shake. "Don't you dare go all guilty and withdrawn on me now--- I need you! I already told you a thousand times: This was my choice, my decision; you're not responsible." Beside her Sonoko shifted on the couch-cushions, watching them both with raised eyebrows and an astonished look. Eri-san sipped at her juice, a slightly ironic smile on her face.

They made quite a picture, the two teenagers-turned-children; Ran still held the boy by the shoulders, her somewhat tear-stained face determined and ever-so-slightly angry. Her eyes flashed fire as she shook him again. "Whenever you start feeling sorry for me like this you get all useless; and if you get all useless on me, how are you going to help me with--- with everything? I mean….." She dropped her hands and managed a fairly convincing smile, "….. the Shinichi I've always known wouldn't sit there moping; he'd probably be arguing with me right now instead….."

He dropped his eyes again, grumbling: "The Shinichi you've always known is currently stuck in an economy-sized body; that tends to teach a person humility---"

On the other side of the couch Sonoko snorted involuntarily; "Humility? From you?" She smothered a slightly shaky laugh. "Get real, Con-, I mean, Shinichi-kun; even like-- like this, you are not the most humble person I've never met….. as Conan-kun or Shinichi." The boy made a "hrmph" noise under his breath in slightly affronted irritation; Sonoko swallowed the last of her juice and placed the glass on the coffee table with a clack; she settled back against the cushions, looking quite a bit calmer.

Eri-san muffled something that sounded suspiciously like a snicker. "Why don't you two get busy and explain to Sonoko-chan exactly what's going on? Before her head explodes, that is? I'm sure she'd appreciate an explanation….." The older woman stood, gathering their glasses to take them to the kitchen. "And in the meantime I suppose I could see about fixing some sort of dinner to take back with us for tonight….."

She placed the glasses in the sink and opened the fridge; "Let's see….. we have a little of this, a little of that; I could probably manage to do something with the leftovers….."

Three horrified faces stared at each other, current traumas forgotten in the light of this new and potentially disastrous situation; while Sonoko had not been present for the previous evening's 'dinner', she had eaten Eri-san's cooking before--- it was not an experience one forgot in a hurry. "A-Ahhh, no, Kisaki-san---! Actually, the reason that I came by was to drop off some of Ran's things that she left at my place and to invite everyone out to dinner with me; my parents made reservations at the Shiroi Shofuu for this evening, but their plane was delayed and they called ahead to say that they won't be in until tomorrow….. Everything's on their account--- you know my father owns stock in the restaurant--- and they said, well, why don't I ask you all to go out with me?" She smiled at Ran, still looking a bit wide-eyed. "Sort of a 'Welcome to Japan' dinner for little Rin-kun, you know?"

From the kitchen doorway Eri appeared, wiping her hands on a cloth and looking rather pleased and surprised. "That's terribly nice of you, Sonoko-chan, but we'd hate to impose---"

The blonde cut the older woman off with a nonchalant wave of a hand. "No, no--- really, it'd be great! I mean, I was feeling sort of down-in-the-dumps about Ran being gone and all, so-----" She stopped there, a peculiar expression on her face. "Uhhhhh….. Well, you know what I mean!" Conan flashed her a grateful look.

As Ran's mother turned back into the kitchen, she could be heard running water from the tap; Ran spoke very softly. "We'll convince her, Sonoko; what time do you want us to be there?"

The young woman's eyes were fixed on Ran's face. "Ummmm, seven-ish, I guess….. Ran? W-What does it feel like? Being little again? And how in the world did this happen to both of you?!?" Tentatively she reached out a hand to finger a strand of her friend's hair. "You look the same….. but younger, just like you did when we were kids….."

The small girl sighed, looking down at her knees. "It's a long story….." Unconsciously she scooted closer to the boy by her side, one hand seeking his. "Shinichi, would you start? Your part comes first-----"

He looked up from where he had been contemplating their linked hands with a slight smile; at the blond young woman's raised eyebrow Conan/Shinichi turned faintly red. "Alright, Sonoko-kun--- but pay attention; I only want to go through this once. Keep up with me, okay?"

Sonoko shot him what could only be termed a somewhat dirty look. "Don't push it, Chibi-chan…" she muttered. He grinned up at her and began: "It started a year ago, when Ran and I witnessed a murder at Tropical Land….."

Eri-san crossed her arms and leaned against the kitchen doorjamb, watching her daughter's face as the tale unfolded once more.

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"Wait--- let me get this straight. YOU'VE BEEN LIVING AT YOUR GIRLFRIEND'S HOUSE FOR A YEAR?!?"

"………………………..………….."

"I'm surprised Mouri-san hasn't turned you into fishfood by now….."

"Oh, thanks, Sonoko-kun--- that makes me feel a lot better….."

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Several heartbeat's worth of silence…..

Conan/Shinichi stopped pacing and cleared his throat. "Well….. that's my part." He cocked an eyebrow at Sonoko, who was looking (to put it mildly) quite stunned. "I left out a lot, but we can always catch up later. …..Ran?" He pushed his glasses up his nose with one finger and smiled at the little girl (who had, by now, curled up around a couch cushion as if for protection. She looked a little pale). "Your turn….."

(*And please God, don't let Sonoko remember Ran telling her about the hot spring resort…..*)

Ran took a deep breath. "My part starts out with flowers--- and a note." The child spoke to Sonoko, but her eyes were fixed on Shinichi's; he reddened again and ducked his head, sitting down cross-legged on a floor-cushion. Eri-san smiled to herself as she watched the interplay between them.

******************************************************************************************************************

An even longer silence…..

Shinichi winced; he just knew what she was going to say. *Here it comes….. five, four, three, two, one---*

"That is sooooo *romantic!!!*" Sonoko was on her feet, pacing back and forth and dabbing at her eyes with a tissue by now.

*I think I'm going to die of embarrassment. Or kill Sonoko-kun; maybe I should do that instead. No, then I'd end up trying to cover up the crime and I know that hardly ever works for long…..*

Ran was crimson. Conan suspected that they made a lovely matched pair. *Maybe she'd like to help me murder Sonoko? I can see the headlines now: "Gradeschoolers Caught Stuffing Body of Prominent Suzuki Family Member Into Incinerator--- 'Justified Homicide,' Claims Boy." Film at eleven.* He stuffed his hands into his pockets (to reduce temptation) and darted a glance towards Eri-san, who smiled back at him with far too much cheerfulness.

*I think--- no, I'm sure she's enjoying this. What IS it with that woman?!?*

Waving her arms, Sonoko burbled on: "I can't believe you did that just so you two could be together----- Ran, that's the most *amazing* thing--- and here I've been thinking Shinichi was such a JERK all year for hardly showing up at all----- and all this time he's been right HERE, and he's been really pretty clever for a guy, and I bet it's been awful for you, hasn't it Shinichi-kun---?" She stopped to draw a breath; then the Sonoko Express rolled right along-----

"--- and now you're both little kids all over again--- it's like some really romantic anime, you know?? Trying *desperately* to find a cure!! Hey-- I'll bet my dad's company could work on it for you, they've got all sorts of projects going on-----"

*Aaack!* Shinichi/Conan was on his feet, doing a little burbling of his own: "Uhhh, no!--- I mean, no thanks, Sonoko-kun--- t-that's not *necessary*, and besides--- one thing we HAVE to do is keep this a secret. Remember the Black Organization?"

Ran was right behind him, one hand reaching out to grasp Sonoko's wrist. Her eyes were pleading as she stared into her friend's face. "If anybody finds out about Shinichi still being alive, they'll---"

Sonoko-kun held up a hand expectantly; "--- don't tell me, they'll kill him, then you, then your mom and dad, then… umm, those kids you hang around with, right, Chibi-chan? And then Agasa-san, and then….. oh. Me." The blonde paused, slightly sobered. Then she brightened, looking around triumphantly. "Bodyguards! My dad can hire bodyguards! Perfect!" She punched the air. Across the room Eri-san rocked back slightly, an appalled look on her face.

"Right. I don't think so." Conan looked at Ran, telegraphing rather desperately with his eyes: *Ran, she's all yours….. please? I'm just not up to dealing with Sonoko-kun….. For one thing, if she keeps calling me 'Chibi-chan' I may be driven to extreme violence. Please?*

The little girl blinked at him for a moment. Then, as understanding dawned, she tugged at her friend's hand with a sigh and pulled her over to sit beside her on the couch. "Sonoko-chan, please listen….."

The next fifteen minutes or so were filled with escalating attempts to press the importance of absolute, total, rock-solid secrecy on someone that Shinichi had (with some justice) dubbed The Mouth With Legs.

Eventually the attempts succeeded.

Eventually.

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A marginally-subdued Sonoko-kun parted company with a wave to Ran and a cheerful "Abayo, Chibi-chan! Kisaki-san! See you all at dinner!" The thoughtful look on her face had inspired dread in Conan; he had the feeling that she hadn't quite dropped the idea of bodyguards entirely…..

After all, it would've been so romantic. The boy shuddered.

It was when they were passing by the streetlit area of Conan and Ran's school that his thoughts swung back towards the other problem in his life: the boy, Nodomo Toshiro. He gritted his teeth as the last lights of the school's playground flashed by; how the Hell had the boy managed to slip out of his room the night before? He just couldn't see it--- and for Kudo Shinichi, this was a blow to his pride. That little suggestion of Ran's..... no. Nope, no way, no how; he just didn't believe in ghosts.

He spared a glance at the quiet form beside him; Ran was leaning against the window, her eyes half-asleep. It had been a very long day, after all..... Conan smiled to himself, watching her eyes drift shut. Her long lashes lay softly on her cheeks, sooty-black in the dim light.

Back to Toshiro-kun.....

.....So how had he gotten away so fast?? It was like having a sore tooth; the peculiarness of the whole thing just kept niggling at him-----

Well, then; concentrate on what he knew. That always helped.....

Item: Nodomo Toshiro, seven or eight years of age, had borrowed a flashlight from Mitsuhiko-kun several days previously for unknown reasons.

Item: Toshiro-kun had not been back to school since that time; he had instead returned the flashlight to Mitsuhiko via an appearance in the park, from which he had managed to slip away.

Item: Said flashlight had been caked with a substance which seemed rather unfortunately like blood. Peculiarly fresh, too; blood tended (Conan knew) to dry relatively quickly into a rather tough, flaky residue, although it did separate out into its various consistancies if present in enough quantity due to uneven specific gravities..... This blood had been fresh, or relatively so. What did it come from?

Moving right along.....

Item: Toshiro-kun had shown up in Conan's room, speaking to both himself and Ran in a rather disjointed fashion regarding someone who was 'not nice'. There was also the matter of whatever the kid had seen; frowning fiercely, Conan/Shinichi let the soft voice replay through his mind..... I found out... about the bad stuff. Daddy said not to look, but I did..... Don't let him get you--- he tries to act like he's nice, but he's not; he's a bad man. Don't let him get you!

Item: Toshiro's father, one Nodomo Hidori, had apparently lied regarding his son's whereabouts--- or, to be charitable, he might have simply been ignorant of the fact that his son was not out of town, visiting relatives. Unproven. Unknown.

Conan bit his lip. Something was very wrong here.

What came next? *Hmmmmmm; the only thing I'm sure of is that there's something going on, nothing more.* What else had Toshiro-kun said, there in the darkened bedroom? .....It's time for school. It's always time for school for me now.....

So school was a place to start. If Toshiro was hiding someplace-- if he was in danger from the 'bad man', whoever he might be--- then that only left three major areas of investigation to begin with: Nodomo Toshiro's home, his father's place of work, and their school. This had all the earmarks of a kidnapping and coercion case.....

School, then; but that could wait 'til morning. They had a dinner to attend first.

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Mouri-san had been caught napping in front of the television in a litter of fast-food containers and beer-cans; Ran's short, annoyed lecture about allowing the trash to pile up all over the place would've been more effective had it not been delivered from someone less than four feet tall. However, Eri-san's patented Death Glare had added impetus, and the announcement of dinner at the Shiroi Shofuu Restaurant had been eagerly seized upon as a distraction.

His reaction to the inclusion of Suzuki Sonoko into their little band of People In the Know had NOT been so eager, however; there was much derogatory muttering regarding 'silly little spoiled brats' and 'rich schoolgirls'..... The detective seemed to take it as a matter of course that Sonoko-kun would keep the secret close.

*Shows what you know...* thought Conan/Shinichi, struggling into one of his good shirts. *We're going to have to watch her like a hawk. It's not that she's a bad person, or stupid or anything--- her tongue's just hinged in the middle; it flaps at both ends.*

He shrugged his jacket on and smoothed his unruly hair down, looking around for his favorite bowtie--- the one with Professor Agasa's little 'additons.' Where---? Oh, right; Ran had borrowed it the night before; it was probably either in her room or down by the phone.

The girl was not in her room when he stopped by; he poked his head around the corner, calling "Ran-neechan?" out of habit before he caught himself----- how many times, Conan wondered, had he called her that over the past year? Her open closet was still hung with her adult-self's clothing; from where he stood in the doorway he could see the dress that she had worn that night that the Kaitou Kid had taken on her appearance..... The boy shook his head; so much had happened over the past year.

At the bottom of the closet lay her shoes, neatly paired; in front of them lay several little-girl sets of shoes, incongruously small in comparison. A discarded house-scuff sat forelornly on the rug in front of her bed, scarcely longer than his hand. He shook his head again, turned around--- and caught his breath.

The little girl standing shyly in the hallway was..... well, she was Ran, from a decade before, from a very, very particular memory.

(They had gone out to a play, he and his parents--- some musical thing, rather boring to seven-year-old Shinichi-chan. And then they had met up with Mouri-san, who had been a policeman up until recently; and there was Ran-chan, who he played with all the time. Except that Ran-chan was all dressed up in a green dress of some soft stuff, something that she told him was called 'velvet'. She had looked so pretty..... It was the first time that he had ever thought of his playmate as anything other than just plain 'Ran-chan', and the first real time that she had registered in his mind as a girl. Green velvet.....)

*She looked so pretty..... just like now. Ran-chan. Rin-kun.*

Rin brushed at her dress with one hand, fingering the velvet. "I found this the other day when we were shopping; do you remember, I had one sort of like it when I was little?" Her long hair was tied up with a ribbon of pale green silk.

Conan/Shinichi smiled a little, sliding his glasses up his nose. "I--- think I might remember it, maybe--- you look really nice, Ran. Rin-kun."

The little girl dimpled at him, dark eyes sparkling. "You look good too--- except--- oh, your bowtie! It's downstairs by the phone. Come on.... 'Chibi-chan'......"

He groaned. "Don't. Just don't. If Sonoko had any clue how close she came to being mauled----- Ran, I know she's your friend, and I know we have to get along now that she's aware of the truth, but-----"

Mouri Ran grinned back at him as they reached the living room. "I know, I know, I saw how you looked earlier; she can be a bit of an airhead, can't she? But she has a good heart....." Carefully the small hands fastened the tie at his collar.

*It's not her heart I'm worried about,* thought Conan, grumbling; *It's her mouth.*

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Dinner at the Shiroi Shofuu Restaurant, the White Maple; Sonoko was waiting for them in the lobby, eyeing several of the younger waiters as they hurried past. *If she didn't act so-- so predatory, she might get somewhere; doesn't she know that any guy seeing that kind of look is gonna turn and run?* Conan loosened his collar slightly with one finger as the hostess seated their party at a candle-lit table.

The cuisine was splendid, the view over the bay lovely--- it wasn't often that the Mouri clan managed to dine in such affluent surroundings. Sonoko in particular was in high spirits; she seemed genuinely glad of their company. Watching as she leaned over to speak to Ran, it occurred to Conan somewhat ironically that she might actually be rather lonely; after all, Ran had been her 'best female friend', as she had put it. Granted, the young woman was outgoing, occasionally cheerful to the point of obnoxiousness, brash--- but how many real friends did she have? Lots of acquaintances….. but maybe not that many real friends.

That sounded perhaps a little too... familiar; the boy shrugged to himself and took a drink from his waterglass. Over the brim he was uncomfortably aware of how both sets of gazes would occasionally fix on his face; well, that was to be expected. They both knew about him now, Ran had done a terribly romantic thing, and he was apparently the conversational Topic of the Day.

His eyes flickered uneasily in their direction; they both promptly seemed to lose interest in studying him, digging into their food with concentration. Only faint, smug smiles remained on their faces, identical smiles that seemed to say you don't want to ask us, really; you don't want to know what we were discussing…..

*Rrrrgh.* Conan hunched his shoulders a little, sweating.

Across the table Mouri-san murmured something under his breath to his wife that made her laugh; it looked as if the estrangement really had begun to approach an end. Funny how things happened sometimes--- you made your choices, you accepted the consequences..... *Those two're going through their own changes, just like Ran and I; you don't have to be a detective to see that.*

Behind the cover of his chopsticks Conan snuck another look at Ran and Sonoko; now Ran was looking a little pensive, her heart-shaped face ever-so-slightly sad. The candles reflected back from her dark eyes, glimmering softly; the pale silk of the ribbon in her hair seemed to flicker like a flame. For one long moment Conan/Shinichi seemed to see the face of the young woman she had once been; the illusion was oddly clear in the flickering glow.

She was so beautiful; watching her, Shinichi almost forgot to breath.

Then the moment passed, and a draft across the candleflames turned Ran back into Rin--- no less lovely, but still a little girl. He sighed as reality reasserted itself--- Shinichi became Conan once again, just a little boy out for dinner with his 'family' and friends. The boy dropped his eyes to his plate, stirring his glass-noodles with his chopsticks. Idly he ran his thumb over the imprinted silver-white maple leaves on the blunt ends--- the motif was everywhere throughout the building, imprinted on the linens, the rugs, carved into the woodwork, impressed into the ceiling tiles. As Conan ran his eyes idly around the room, his attention was caught by a shimmer of something golden, falling out of nothingness, descending through the air to one side like a shining mote of candleflame-----

**CLING-LNG-LNG-LNNNNG!!***

The sound rang clear and bright through the soft music and hushed voices of the restaurant. More than one head turned to look. The boy craned his head; something small and bright lay on the tiles at the carpet's edge, right by the next table over; without really thinking he slid from his seat and knelt, reaching---

What the--- a coin? Kneeling on the tile's edge, he examined the thing he held in his hand curiously. Half a coin, actually, with European writing (in Latin, he thought), bright and shining yellow---

He looked up at the man sitting alone at the small table beside him; the diner surveyed him with some distaste. "Ummm... is this yours, Mister?" he asked in his best I'm-a-cute-little-boy voice. The man snorted, a rather ugly frown creasing his face. "No" he said shortly. "Go away."

"But---" He held out the half-circle of metal; it had to have been dropped by the man in front of him--- there was no-one else nearby enough to have dropped it---

The man fixed him with a hard look. "I said 'Go away'. What part of that don't you understand, brat?" His eyes flickered across the bit of bright metal in Conan's hand without interest as he turned back to his meal; he stabbed at a bite as if it had personally offended him.

*Bad case of atitude you've got there, guy; what's your problem?* Affronted, the boy shrugged small shoulders and drew back; *No skin off my nose if you don't want it.* He had turned halfway towards his table when a growl of "CONAN!!" reached his ears, briefly, just before---

"THWAP!!!!" Mouri-san's fist impacted with the top of Conan's head as it had so many times over the past year out of exasperation, out of irritation or a thousand other reasons, good or bad. *Owwww....* The boy glared up at the detective. Mouri-san stood over him, glaring. "Stupid--- stop bothering the patrons, boy! Sit down!" His frown was thunderous.

Conan glared back sullenly; usually he would've backed down at this point and played the irate gradeschooler, but... not anymore. Rubbing at the sore place on his head, he fixed the older man with a very steely, very Shinichi look and hissed : "You do that to me one more time, Mouri-san, and you're going to get an eight-year-old fist in a place you won't want to get hit in! You understand me?"

Kogoro Mouri froze, visibly backtracking; Conan could almost see the wheels in his mind turning. *"Oh, right-- this isn't a little kid--- I just popped Kudo on the head, not 'Conan'---" Idiot.* "Ahhh--- erm--- " he sputtered, trying to form a sentence; "Right," said the boy firmly, pushing past him to his own chair. The three woman of varying ages at the table eyed him uncertainly; muttering, he hopped up onto the seat and returned to his meal. Across the table Mouri-san sat back down, uncharacteristically quiet.

*He's probably trying to count up how many times he did that over the past year. Looks kind of worried, doesn't he? Serves him right. I am SO damned tired of being bopped on the head!*

The rest of the meal passed fairly calmly; Eri-san joined Sonoko and Ran in a discussion regarding Summer vacation--- Sonoko was all in favor of the beach again, while Eri had her sights set on someplace in the mountains. They were both obviously trying so hard to distract Ran (who seemed to be feeling a little depressed--- occasionally a saddened look would cross her face when speaking with Sonoko. Deep inside Conan, Shinichi's heart worried for her) that the boy did his best to stay out of things.

The thought of Europe led in turn to the half-disk in his pocket; as the meal drew to a close, he slid it out onto the tablecloth to get a closer look. *Huh; sure looks like gold, and all the way through, too! Who the hell dropped it? I didn't see anyone else--- we're sort of in an alcove, that guy at the other table and us. Somebody must've thrown it, or---?* Conan squinted at the ceiling; in the dim light it was difficult to be sure, but he could detect no holes in the ceiling or small ledges to hold the bit of metal.

Curiously he turned the thing over in his fingers; worn with age, the picture and writing were difficult to decipher. However, he could just barely make out VICTORIA:D:G: running along the half-circle curve, along with a partial profile of a stern-faced woman with an imposing pearl-wound bust. On the back the picture was less clear--- some sort of mounted warrior, a snaky something being trampled underfoot by his horse---? And beneath it all were the Romaji numbers '89'. Part of a date, he supposed..... The shorn edge had once upon a time been rough--- no saw had neatly sliced this from its mate; probably an axe or something similar. Time had smoothed the crude severing into an acceptable roundness, time or wear; for at the top of the half-disk was a small hole, pierced for the link of a chain.

A luck-charm of some sort? It had seemingly appeared out of thin air; granted, neither Conan nor anyone else had evidently been looking that way at the time, but….. He ran his fingers along the worn edges of the coin; odd. If somebody had tossed it across the room, why hadn't they come to retrieve it? Surely they had seen him pick it up….. and it was gold, after all…..

Another mystery. There seemed to be a lot of them lying around lately.

Conan fidgeted in his chair, aware of Ran's eyes upon him. When he glanced up, she quirked one eyebrow enquiringly; he passed over the half-coin for her to examine. Frowning, she ran one small finger across the stern profile. "This looks like--- I don't know, a British coin, maybe? European, anyway….. is it actually gold?"

The boy shrugged; "Don't know--- it looks that way, though. Did you see anybody drop it?" Beside Ran, Sonoko leaned forward for a closer look and bit off an exclamation. "I know what this is--- my mom's got one that belonged to some sort of moldy old aunt or something; it's a gold Sovereign. Look, that's the English Queen Victoria there---" and she took it from Ran's palm, turning it to display the back; "--- and that's Saint George, killing the dragon. And it is gold, or at least my mom's is….."

The blonde looked puzzled. "But why cut it in half? It's not worth nearly as much that way….."

Eri-san reached across the table for the small, glinting bit of gold; she frowned briefly, looking remarkably like her daughter. "In the past, it was customary occasionally for sweethearts to cut a coin in half, each one keeping part of it as a keepsake," she said slowly; "It was more a European custom than an Asian one, and not usually done with something as valuable as this….." At Conan's questioning glance she smiled a little, handing the half-disk back. "One of the secretaries in my office has a half-farthing on a charm-bracelet, left to her by her great-grandmother; it was the sort of thing one did back in Victorian England."

Beside her Kogoro Mouri grunted a disapproving grunt; he seemed to have recovered his share of aplomb. "Damn fool thing to do to something valuable….." His wife turned to look at him, one amused eyebrow arching. "Oh? And who, may I ask, still has a coin from the first payment he ever received as a private detective on his key-chain, hmmm?" Mouri-san reddened slightly as his fellow diners muffled snickers or hid their grins behind discreet hands.

Dinner ended quietly. As they were leaving, Eri-san spoke to the hostess regarding their 'find', leaving a number for contact should anyone claim the half-coin. Shrugging on his jacket, Conan glanced back at the sour-faced customer at the nearest table. *Funny; that guy looks sort of familiar….. Now, where do I know a jerk like that from? One of Mouri-san's clients? Or suspects, maybe? Somebody from the police station?* His detective's eye noted the well-fitting suit and expensive watch; it also caught the stains on the man's fingertips as he wielded a knife and for Western-style as he attacked his steak dinner. *Steak? Well, he's not poor, that's for sure. Now where do I know him from---?*

He eyed the diner's fingers; the stains could be from any number of things from what he could see--- ink, chemical burns--- it was hard to tell. Scratches, too; even from here it was easy to see the jagged weals that ran across the back of his right hand, disappearing under his shirt-cuff.

As if feeling the touch of Conan's gaze against his skin, the dour face suddenly jerked up from his meal; the young detective found himself spotlighted by a pair of angry eyes. He actually took a step back for a second--- there was a level of paranoia and disdain in those eyes that was unnerving to see. *What the hell's wrong with him?!?* Then a merrily chattering group of fellow diners passed between them and the moment was broken.

"Conan-kun?" Ran's clear voice called to him from the exit; shrugging, the boy turned away, fingering the smooth half-circle in his pocket as he went.

******************************************************************************************************************

It was much later; outside in the street the noises of passing autos had dropped and dimmed to near-silence, and there was only the faint, persistent rush of distant traffic deeper in the city to break apart the quiet. Eri-san had driven off to her apartment to stay the night there--- she needed to pick up several changes of clothes if she was to continue on at the Mouri's home as she had been for the last few days. The sound of the door closing behind her had long since faded, and for the moment all was peaceful.

"Kudo."

The boy paused on the way to bed; ever since Mouri-san had cleared out a spare room used previously for file storage to house their erstwhile 'dependent', he had prized his privacy. Granted, the room was small and the window leaked something fierce in the winter--- but it was his, and tonight he needed a haven badly. It had been a long day. Conan was tired, his nerves were frazzled, and he felt like nothing more than a long, in-depth session with his pillow. *If I really WERE a little kid,* he reflected wryly, *I'd want my teddy bear about now. And maybe a hug.*

But---

*Somehow I just don't think that's gonna happen…..*

Kogoro Mouri sat on the couch in the darkened living room, fluctuating light from the window his only illumination; beside him a beer can sat in close attendance. He slouched there, arms crossed, glowering at Conan.

*Uh oh….. Wonder what he wants now? Gonna chew me out for acting my age, Oji-san?* Silently the boy paused against the doorjamb; tugging off his glasses, he crossed his arms in unconscious imitation of the older man and cocked his head to one side.

The detective looked away from the piercing young eyes; his own looked a little older than usual tonight, despite the beer's influence. "Kudo--- " he began, his voice raspy and abrupt; he cleared his throat. "Ah, well….. that is----" He stopped again.

Conan gave a mental shrug. "Was there something you wanted to tell me?" he asked, trying not to sound as tired as he felt.

The older man was silent for a moment, still looking out the window; the flicker of a neon sign a street away made strangely-colored reflections in his eyes. After a moment he spoke. "Look--- boy--- Kudo. One thing I've never been good at is, erhm….. saying I'm sorry--- that's not, well….." His eyes shifted back momentarily towards the small, waiting figure, then away again. "--- Don't think you're going to hear that sort of thing much--- But---- errhm….."

Now he swung around, facing the boy squarely. Black eyes met dark blue; after a long pull on the beer, he cleared his throat again. "That--- hitting you on the head thing--- hrrmph; won't say you didn't deserve it, but… it wasn't--- well-----" Mouri-san floundered for words, his face growing red, his eyebrows clenching.

*I can't believe what I'm hearing….. is he actually trying to apologize for bopping me on the head?!? Oh man, this is too good to be true!* Conan was becoming more interested with each word. He finally decided to give Oji-san a break before the man worked himself into a coronary. "Never mind--- tell you what: you don't give me any more lumps on the head, I'll try to be less of a brat, okay?" He grinned a rather unchildlike, sardonic grin at the detective. "I won't say I didn't deserve a few of those either, now and then; it's been a rough year."

The older man snorted in agreement. His sharp eyes focused on the young detective's deceptively innocent face; "Kudo….. Tell me. How many times--- really--- did you help out on cases? Besides what I saw, I mean?" The gruff voice dropped dangerously low. "….. professional pride---" he growled.

Conan sighed, dropping his chin to rest on his crossed arms. "Yeah, I know. Tell me, though----- do you really want to know the details? That's all past; it won't help for you to know, and it won't help for me to tell it. You'll just get pissed off at me and I'll just get paranoid." He managed a crooked grin; his face looked remarkably older in that moment. "If I say too much I'll end up sitting up nights waiting to be suffocated with a pillow or something….. Anyway, who cares? They got solved." He shrugged. "If you're really going to let me continue staying here with you we ought to work out how I can help you now. Sort of a way to earn my keep, huh?"

Mouri-san blinked, a frown darkening his face even further. "…Help me now? What makes you think I'd want help from you at all? You're a---"

The boy nodded; "---a kid, Mouri-san; one who's already known to the police, a kid who can get into places without people paying much attention--- who notices what a little boy does? A kid who can shadow suspects and just look like he's playing like any other kid, who knows what to listen for and can think, not just react." Conan looked the older man squarely in the eye--- and Kogoro Mouri almost shivered; there had been a second, just the barest second when he could've sworn that he was staring Kudo Shinichi down, not that little twerp Conan. It had to be a trick of the light…..

Conan took his momentary silence as encouragement to go on; he smiled wryly at the detective. "I'm more of a 'work alone' type too--- but hey, I'm here; why waste my skills? I have helped out over the past year--- you were right about that when you asked me about it a few days ago… I couldn't help it. So….." He shrugged, an oddly adult gesture, tugging nervously at his bathrobe sash; "….. why don't we work together?"

Kogoro Mouri's brow wrinkled; he smoothed his moustache down, thinking. "Hrrrmph; I don't know, boy….. What makes you think we can manage without my tossing you over the side of a bridge after a case or two?" He looked down his nose at the small, pajama'd figure, who smirked back up at him.

"Simple. You already told me, 'Oji-san'--- you need me to help take care of Ran. Remember?" The boy beamed up at the detective, all innocent cuteness. Then the boyish smile slid sideways into a chuckle. "C'mon, Mouri-san--- make me earn my keep! Why the hell not?….. You can always say that you're training me up as, I dunno, an apprentice or assistant or something."

*…..and if you can stand it, I can….. though we'll just have to see who trains who…..*

Mouri-san took another pull on his beer, considering; the tips of his moustache turned up a little as he worked his way through and around the idea, looking at it from all sides. Conan waited, leaning casually against the doorjamb; only his hands displayed his nervousness as they knotted and reknotted his bathrobe sash. *This just might be okay, if he can get past that damned pride of his; I mean, unofficially we've been working together for a year now, even if he didn't know it. I don't think this'd be a good time to tell him about the sleeping darts…..*

For several long moments the room was filled only with the distant traffic sounds, surging and receding like the faint, hushed murmur of an urban sea. Then the older man grunted and upended his beer, finishing it and tossing the can towards the garbage; it hit the rim and spiraled in. "Earn your keep, hmm?….. We could--- try that, I suppose….." He eyed the boy, who stared back with one eyebrow raised, not giving in a bit.

Arms still crossed, Conan nodded. "S'pose we can." *Better not push it, Kudo; be smart and leave it at that.* He stretched a little, yawning. "We can figure it out later, I guess. Good night, Oji-san….."

The detective also nodded, eyes a little wary…. and, just perhaps, a little relieved as well. "Good night….. Kudo."

******************************************************************************************************************

His hand was actually on the doorknob to his room when he heard the sound: sobbing, very soft. It tore at his heart and pulled him away from any thoughts of sleep, down the hall towards Ran's room.

Her door was closed; it was a wonder that Conan had heard anything at all (but then, hadn't he been expecting just such a sound? Hadn't he been listening for it all along?) Very gently the boy pushed it open.

The little girl lay huddled on the bed, arms wrapped tightly around a pillow; her face was buried in its depths and her narrow shoulders were shaking. For the longest moment the young man/young boy hesitated, fighting a strong urge to back out of the doorway….. But then, closing the door behind him, he knelt beside the bed. "Ran…?"

Silence; but the tension in the shoulders relaxed a little, became less rigid. From the general area of the pillow's expanses came a rather muffled voice. "Sorry…" She drew in a long breath, one that choked off in a sob. "--- feel so stupid--- I'm not r-really that upset, it's just-- just that, seeing S-Sonoko tonight-----" The words trailed off into a hiccup.

Still Conan knelt there, wondering what to do. Tentatively, gently, his hand seemed to move of its own accord, coming up to stroke her dark hair with a feather-soft touch. She went on, her voice still the quavery tones of a very small girl. "I didn't mean to--- to break down like this." Ran gave a little self-depreciating laugh into the pillow, turning her head. From where he knelt helplessly Conan/Shinichi could just see a single dark eye, lashes spiked with tears. "I guess…. that….. I'm just really beginning to understand what I, what I've given up….. to understand what I'm going to miss."

The boy drew a hard breath, sinking back onto his heels. *She--- Ran, I knew you'd regret this, I knew it--- and there's nothing I can do----- I wish I could-----*

Her next words seemed almost an echo of his thoughts. "…it's not that I regret it, and I don't, not really--- but I wish….."

"….. I wish I knew how long it'll take before it stops feeling so, so strange….. Tonight it was like Sonoko and I were on two opposite ends of a bridge--- I mean, we're still the same people, we can still talk to each other and all that, but she was over there, and I was over here---"

"A year."

The words slipped out before he really realized what he was going to say. Ran turned her head on the pillow, blinking at him. "What?"

He sighed, a long sigh full of twelve months' worth of loneliness that he neither would nor could ever quite acknowledge, even to himself. "A year. When… when you changed… that's when I stopped feeling like the whole world was at the top of a cliff while I was at the bottom. When I stopped feeling like--- when I stopped feeling---" His words ground to a halt as he groped for a way to explain. "It hasn't been all bad, not all the time--- mostly because of you--- but sometimes I've felt like I was standing outside, looking in a window; and everybody in the world besides me was on the other side of the glass." He smiled crookedly, staring at nothing.

Now Ran sat up, staring at him; the strands of her hair slid from his fingers like silk and his hand dropped to hang at his side, limp and empty. Her heart-shaped face held the traces of tears, but the large dark eyes were intent only on Shinichi--- her own sorrows seemed forgotten. "But--- but you had me, sort of-- 'Ran-neechan'…" A trace of a smile crossed her eyes. "And there was Haibara Ai… she knows what this is like too. Didn't the two of you have that in common? Didn't that make things… less lonely, Shinichi?"

He shook his head, his smile fading. "But you didn't know, Ran; and I had to lie and lie and lie to you the whole time. And as for Ai--- well, she's got her own issues; she's not exactly the easiest person to talk to…... I don't see that improving much, considering what she did to you….." Shinichi's small hands clenched into fists, white-knuckled, and he raised his head to stare her in the eye.

"I know you say you don't regret this, but… but Ran, how can't you regret it? I mean, I've been there. I remember how it was, the first few days….. sometimes I almost wished that that damned capsule had done what it was supposed to do-----"

At that her jaw dropped. "Shinichi--- that-- that's stupid. You could've told me---!"

Shinichi shook his head again, slumping even farther back onto his heels. "Told you? It was hard enough even thinking about it at first; I think I spent the first few days in a sort of shock. If it hadn't been for that mystery with the little kidnapped girl--- you remember?….. Ran, if there was a way that I could, could reverse what you've done---"

"--- if you did, I'd wring your neck!!" she said fiercely, making his head jerk up in surprise. He stared wide-eyed as she leaned forward, an angry look on her small face. "Shinichi, I swear, sometimes Sonoko's right--- you are a jerk! How many times am I going to have to tell you that I made up my own mind here?!? Honest to God, if I have to *smack* you one I'm going to get that through your head! Regrets? Of course I have regrets! Don't you?? I mean, no more 'Ran-neechan' anymore either, just 'Rin-kun.' But.…. just because I don't like losing some of the things I've lost doesn't mean that I'm not happy about some of the things I've, well, gained."

"Shinichi….. It's been a lonely year for me too." She looked down at the coverlet, the smallest of smiles curving her lips. "So-- so stop being such an idiot about this or, or I swear I *will* smack you!"

The boy started to answer, then stopped; he stared into her eyes for one long second, then grinned a lopsided grin, faint but there. "Don't you start….. I think I finally broke your dad of the habit of bopping me on the head tonight….."

Ran sniffled a bit and attempted a smile, brushing the hair back from her face. "I know you said something to him at dinner; what was it? He looked, um, kind of surprised…"

Shinichi told her.

"What?? You didn't..... You threatened to hit him right in the----- umm----- Shinichi! That was---"

He snickered, glad to see her giggling. "---that was effective. Did you see his face?"

Ran bit her lip, trying to fight back her laughter. "Well, I can't say he didn't deserve it..... but you know, 'Conan-kun, sometimes you were an awful pain in the---" she paused, clearing her throat.

He widened his eyes, trying for his best 'Innocent Puppy-Eyes Conan' look. "Me? Hey, I'm just a cute little boy---"

Ran cut in severly. "---who's going to get himself beat up at school by a GIRL if he tries *that* look on me again....." She made a fist and a mock threatening gesture at him and he laughed, climbing to his feet. Folding his arms Conan/Shinichi nodded; "Feeling better now?"

Ran smiled. "Yeah. Better..... I won't say it won't be hard, but--- well, it's okay. I'll manage." When she looked at him then, her face held a sort of wonder. "It really... has been a lonely year for me, Shinichi; I've been at loose ends, a bit." She ducked her head a little, small fingers picking at the threads of her blanket. "I think that's why... why I did it, mostly. So neither one of us had to be lonely anymore."

Conan swallowed a lump in his throat. "Ran..."

Looking up, the little girl shook her head. "Oh, go to bed, Shinichi-kun--- Conan-kun; you look worn out. It's okay; really, it's okay."

The boy smiled back, slipping through her door. "Goodnight, Rin-kun."

"Sweet dreams..." he whispered softly to the closed door.

******************************************************************************************************************

His room, finally. As the door shut with a welcome click, Conan leaned against it with his eyes shut, drinking in the relative silence and privacy of his small sanctuary. Palms spread flat against the wood, he sighed a long sigh.

*God. This has been the longest day since the dawn of time. Missing kids, Way Too Much Sonoko, weird coins, surly diners----- I want my BED.*

*Right. Now.*

Glasses went onto the nightstand along with the gold half-coin, house-slippers were kicked flying across the room, and one very weary young boy/young man went to bed at last. His final thought as the world faded away was a reflection that nothing, nothing short of the house burning down around his ears was going to drag him from sleep; he had had far too many interrupted nights lately.

*After all, I'm a growing boy….. snzzzzzzzzz.*

Sleep.

******************************************************************************************************************

Dawn.

Faint, gentle rays slipped between the buildings and through the open window of Conan's room; they slanted easily across his rug, creeping up to stroke his closed eyelids like curious fingers. The boy stirred slightly, mumbled something indistinct and turned over in his sleep.

*bump!* .. *bamp!*….. *b-bump!*….. *whump!*….. *bwmph!*-----

The noises were jarring; not that loud, but peculiarly invasive and sleep-destroying. Vague dream-thoughts of soccer matches past dredged Shinichi up from the depths of sleep, and he opened Conan's eyes to blink at the light.

*Rrrrrgh?? Somebody's--- practicing their kicks? Really bad soccer player, their aim's all off, you can hear it---- never make a goal with a kick like that-----*

Slowly it registered that soccer games were not usually played in his bedroom, and that whoever was making the noises was probably outside on the miniscule scrap of grass and trees that served as the Mouri apartment's backyard. It also registered that the unknown soccer player was probably using his ball. Stifling an urge to bury his head under the pillow, the boy slid out from under the covers and stumbled across to the window. *This had better be worth getting out of bed this early--- damn, the sun's hardly up--!* He leaned out the window, yawning. *Thought this was closed when I went to bed….. Now, who the hell's kicking my--- Oh.*

The boy on the grass below was crouched down, involved in fishing the soccer ball out of a bush; but even without seeing his face Shinichi knew who he was. *Toshiro-kun. WHY does he keep showing up here?…… And no, I'm not thinking about what Ran said, not one word of it. I don't believe in ghosts. And since when do ghosts play with soccer balls?* He cleared his throat and put on his Conan-face, slipping into persona with the ease of a year's worth of practice. "Uhhh… Toshiro-kun? What are you doing here?" The words came out a little more abruptly than he had planned, but the face that turned up to his showed no upset; in fact, the kid looked sort of glad to see him.

With a half-smile on his thin face, Nodomo Toshiro rummaged around in his pocket and held up something that reflected the early sun's rays back brightly. "I came to get my coin….. It's neat, isn't it? My mama gave it to me when I was little." Shinichi/Conan opened his mouth, but the boy went on conversationally, turning the half-coin over in his fingers to trace one side with his thumb. "She kept the other half. It's real gold, you know; Daddy said it's called a 'Sou-fu-ren'." The boy pronounced the foreign word carefully. "You're supposed to keep it with you so you remember the person who has the other part. My mama--- she died when I was a really little kid." Carefully he slid it back into his pocket, hitching up his pants with the other hand.

Conan blinked down at the gradeschooler, then turned to look back at his nightstand; the half-coin *was* gone. "Toshiro-kun? Are you… okay? You haven't been staying at home, have you? Where have you been?" *And how the hell did you get your coin without my hearing you? For that matter, how'd you toss it into the middle of the restaurant without my seeing you in the first place?* This was giving him a 17-year-old's headache in a 7-year-old's skull…..

The smile melted from the boy's face like frost from a sun-warmed window; a look of distress replaced it, and he shook his head. "I don't--- it's kind of hard to explain---" *Bump!!* went the ball as a particularly hard kick sent it against the wall. Toshiro ducked his head, frowning hard; he dug one toe into the grass underfoot, then looked back up at the other boy.

The words burst from him like the outpour from a broken dam, half-angry, half-despairing. "I don't like it where I am now--- I don't like it! It's dark all the time, and there's only one window, and I can't reach high enough to open it and---" He stopped, a distracted, unhappy expression on his face; "I don't like it…." muttered Toshiro, stooping to pick up the ball. He hugged it hard to his chest as if for comfort.

"…I want out. I don't want to be there anymore….." The boy's whisper was scarcely audible even in the quiet of a city dawn.

Conan was silent, mind racing. Something about the look on Toshiro-kun's face… where had he seen that look before?

At last the child looked back up at him, pleadingly. "Will you help me? I HATE being shut away….. My dad always opens my window for me so I don't feel so, so closed in when I go to bed, but now I can't reach the window---" His thin voice cracked and he looked back down at the ball. "I can get out for a little while to talk to you, but I always have to go back--- if I don't, he'll come and get me again, I know he will!" Toshiro shivered, dark eyes filled with anguish.

The light was growing ruddier, more golden; it filtered across the lawn, casting shadows of buildings and lamp-posts, of trees and bushes, of a ball. And Conan remembered where he had seen that look before: it had been on his own face, every time he had looked in the mirror during the first few days after his transformation, when things had been… hard. That was the face of someone in a trap.

At last Toshiro sighed; he seemed a little calmer now. With a resigned look that sat oddly on his face the child hugged the ball in his arms for a second more. "The sun's up…. the teachers will be coming to school soon, so I've got to go. Here--- catch!" and he tossed the soccer ball up towards Conan with fairly creditable aim.

Conan caught the ball; it was warm to the touch. "Go where---??"

He was talking to an empty yard. Toshiro-kun was gone….. again. Undeniably, completely, unexplainably gone.

And this time he had been actually *talking* to him when he had disappeared.

*That's….. not possible. He was right here…..* The ball dropped unnoticed from his hands to the grass below, bouncing over to lie in the shadow of a bush. *He was right here.*

*Not possible.*

At first it was pure disbelief that kept Conan kneeling there, staring out the window. But as the light in the East brightened, disbelief became wonder, and wonder turned at last to speculation. The facts ran around and around in the young detective's brain like squirrels in a cage; coins, soccer balls, missing children….. And then there was that trapped look; somehow, for some reason, it cut through everything with its sense of urgency.

In the end, Ran had to call him three times for breakfast before the young detective noticed; when Conan finally walked away from the window where he had been for the past hour his gaze was still turned inward, deep in thought.

*To hell with this; I need answers.* It was time for the investigation to really begin.

****************************************************************************************************************************

End of Chapter 4

Ready for the next chapter? I'm working on it, I'm working on it….. and I promise: no more "Shinichi gets all angsty about Ran taking the capsule" anymore!! Enough, already; but you know, the guy'd HAVE to feel pretty damned guilty, and as for Ran's being all weepy in this chapter, ummmm….. shock will come out, sooner or later. For the sake of realism, I had to include those bits. So there! (Author makes a face, sticking out her tongue and pulling down one lower eyelid in the time-honored Anime tradition.) Next chapter will start out with the real flesh and bone of the mystery; I promise you skulkings and shadowings, hidings and clues and more peculiar janitorial goings-on. And, quite possibly, blood. Oh, yes. We'll see, won't we?…….. Ysabet, smiling sweetly (Hey! I kept this chapter under 11,000 words! I'm getting better at this! Just barely over 10,000 this time!)