Second Wind

By Ysabet

Chapter Five: Show And Tell

Scribble, scribble, scratch….. Scribble, scribble….. *crumplecrumplecrumple---*

*WHAPPITA!!* The ball of paper bounced off the rim of the trashcan, spiraling its way in to lie with the rest of its fellows in the great Wadded-Up-Balls-Of-Paper graveyard. Conan swore under his breath, irritably chewing on the eraser at the end of his pencil.

*Crap.*

*Pattern, pattern….. There has got to be a pattern in all this, some sort of common element…..* Thoughts of missing kids, golden sovereigns and bloody flashlights shuffled through his mind like puzzle pieces, each one vying for a place. *Nothing quite adds up; I don't know enough--- not even the brightest detective can work in a vacuum.*

A *thump!* on the top of his head brought Conan abruptly out of his brown study. *Uhhh--??* Dark eyes looked directly into his from beneath long eyelashes as the small girl sitting opposite him ruffled his hair with a playful hand, having knuckled him a moment before. "Hey--- time to go to school, Conan-kun... What's wrong?" Ran quirked one eyebrow up, her expression inquiring.

He rubbed at his eyes tiredly. "Just thinking....." *...and not too well, I might add; this is driving me crazy!*

Mouri Ran studied him, heart-shaped face tilted a little to one side. "Mmm; about that boy, ne? The one we saw the other night?" She glanced at the clock and slid down from her chair, landing on the floor with a slight thud. "You can think about him while we're walking, can't you? We need to get going or we'll be late." She shrugged her backpack onto her shoulders, handing his to him. "Here we are, both of us heading off to gradeschool, and I *still* have to hurry you out the door... some things never change."

Conan had to grin. "You did the same thing a decade ago," he pointed out; "At least you've had practice."

Ran snorted, tucking a strand of chestnut hair back behind one ear. She waved at her parents, who sat arguing amiably over something in the living room; her mother waved back absentmindedly as the front door clicked shut.

This would be Ran's-- that is, 'Rin's'-- second day at school; Conan eyed her curiously. "You're awfully cheerful this morning..... You'd almost think you were enjoying the idea of going back to grade school. What gives?"

Walking shoulder to shoulder with him, the young woman/young girl shook her head. "Not exactly enjoy, but..... it is kind of interesting--- I feel like I'm sort of on holiday from my regular studies. And besides---" and now she smiled at him, Ran's smile on Rin's face. "--- It's kind of nice spending the day with you at school again; even grade school, you know?" She shot a slightly mischievous glance sideways at him. "I've missed you, Shinichi."

He flushed, ducking his head; he could feel his dark mood melting away little by little. "Umm, me too. I mean, I've missed you too..... sort of, that is--- you've been right here, but.... um. Well, you know what I mean....." The blush was creeping to his ears now (they were always next); time for a major change of subject before they met up with the kids, or he'd have Genta and Mitsuhiko teasing him too. Conan had learned over the past year that children could smell potential embarrassment a mile away….. "Ummm, Ran--- I had a visitor last night again."

She paused in resettling her backpack, an apprehensive look on her face. "Toshiro-kun? Was he in your room again?" She tightened a strap. "I wish you had woken me up-----"

He shook his head, kicking at a blown leaf on the sidewalk. "No, not in my room; he was down in the yard, playing with my soccer ball." The boy grimaced. "He said some pretty weird things, too..... You know, though, this is looking more and more like a coercion and kidnapping case all the time." He tilted his head back, hands in pockets, watching as another leaf whipped past on the wind; it was a blustery day. The morning breeze smelled faintly of ozone; *Hmm; storm on the way?*

Beside him, Ran frowned. "So if he's been kidnapped, how does he keep showing up? And why doesn't he go home if he can get away so easily?"

Conan shrugged. "From what he said last night, he's scared; there was something about somebody 'coming to get him again'--- he was obviously frightened half out of his wits. Poor kid....." His eyes took on a hardness behind the lenses. "He's got to be somewhere at our schoolj--- maybe in an office somewhere, or a disused classroom? Someplace out of the way--- someplace with one small window, someplace nobody but the kidnapper can access."

Those eyes darkened in determination, blue deepening; Ran watched in fascination as, for the barest moment, Shinichi's features seemed to overlay Conan's. "I don't know where he is yet… but I will know, one way or another." A wry smile crossed his face, and he glanced sideways at the girl. "Ready to learn a bit about detective work from a less-than-four-foot-tall perspective? It's not much fun sometimes, I'll warn you; when you look like this it's hard to get anybody to take you seriously….."

Ran frowned. "I always took you seriously!" she protested. She sneezed as a gust of exhaust from a passing vehicle blew into her face.

For a moment their footsteps rang across the pavement in unison; then they fell out of sequence as Ran's slightly longer legs broke the match. Conan shook his head. "Most of the time you did--- I could almost always count on that. But Ra-- um, Rin-kun, let's face it--- we're kids. There's really only a handful of people I could trust to listen to me: you, Captain Megure, Inspector Shiratori, Hattori Heiji, Professor Agasa, Ai....." His face darkened a little at that last, and he shook his head irritably as if dislodging a fly. "What I'm trying to say is-----"

"---- is that nobody listens to kids much, right, Conan-kun? And it's not fair!" The pair jumped at Ayumi's voice, coming suddenly from behind them. The child giggled at their expressions, dodging around them to walk on Conan's free side. "I guess Conan-kun's telling you about the Detective Boys, ne? It is kind of hard sometimes to make grownups pay attention." She sighed, tugging her jacket closer against the wind. "Sometimes it's tough to be a detective," Ayumi told 'Rin' solemnly.

Keeping her face straight, Rin nodded. "I guess it must be. But some people listen to you, don't they? Like Conan-kun was saying, there's Megure-san and Shiratori-san and the others. Right?"

The little girl nodded enthusiastically. "Mm-hmmm; they're nice. And it's a lot of fun, being a detective, even if you have to do a lot of running around and thinking hard and paying attention, and sometimes you see dead people's bodies--- that's yucky--- and sometimes you see bad people too." Ayumi's face drew down in a frown for a moment. "I think the bad people are scarier than seeing dead people's bodies, really; they're worse. You just usually feel sorry for people that get killed....." She brightened back up; "And we've been to a LOT of cool places, too-----" In quick succession she began a slightly garbled, rapid-fire listing of some of the sites that the young detectives' cases had taken them to, while Rin listened in amused (and slightly alarmed) interest.

*Rin-chan, it looks like you've made a new friend there; I'm glad. This lot can be awful pests, but they do make things a little better. And Ayumi's a good kid.*

Conan's thoughts wandered away from the two girls then for a while, back towards the matter of Nodomo Toshiro. As the three sets of small feet slapped against the pavement in a tripartate rhythm, his annoyance and irritation slowly returned--- along with a measure of resolve. *Nobody, but nobody is going to get away with a damned kidnapping right under my nose--- and the first thing I need to do about this is add to my data. Hmmmmm....." It was Conan who fumbled carefully in one pocket, but Shinichi lurked gleefully behind his eyes as he ran a careful thumb across the small translucent sticker-microphone "bug" that Professor Agasa had designed for him. *Cool. I thought I had remembered to take this with me this morning--- I'm glad I don't have to wear it on the button of that dumb jacket of mine anymore. It's a hell of a lot more convenient like this.* He slid the device back into his pocket, slipping his glasses off to check the side arm where the tiny speaker was hidden; it seemed intact. *Been a while since I used this--- but I can think of the perfect spot for it. And all I have to do is talk to my good friend the Janitor.....*

And as Genta and Mitsuhiko pelted up to join the three on their way down the last block before their school, Conan smiled to himself, a smile that had something sharp and fierce in it. *Hang on, Toshiro-kun; I'll find you, wherever you are. I promise….. I'll find you.*

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Gradeschool, reflected Conan, had its good points as well as its bad points; in gradeschool, no-one ever expected a kid to act like anything other than a kid. So his fidgeting passed unnoticed among all the other wriggles of bored school-children.

Recess couldn't come too soon. *Fifteen minutes--- no, twelve 'til the bell rings.....* he thought with an internal sigh.

He snuck a glance sideways at 'Rin'; as Teacher droned on in her cheerful monologue about the following week's field trip to the Tokyo Zoo, the young girl was carefully scribbling something down on a scrap of paper torn from her notebook. Watching her, Conan/Shinichi felt a wash of deja vu ease over him: *She's going to pass me a note.* How many times had just this situation happened to them both in the past, their private little written conversations and arguments?

She finished what she was writing, folded it carefully, and surreptitiously slid it along towards him behind the cover of her elbow. With all the finesse of a cardsharp Conan palmed the note, opening it to read:

am bored to tears. can we find janitor at recess again? or are we going to look for toshiro?

Conan bit back a grin; that sounded like Ran, all right. Cupping the note behind one hand, he scribbled his reply:

planning to talk to janitor-- need to get into supply office. can you keep ayumi-chan and others busy? gomen...

The slip of paper made the journey back into Rin's hands unnoticed by Teacher; she opened it, read it, scowled dreadfully. Moments later her reluctant reply lay before Conan's eyes:

can do, though would rather investigate with you. be careful! don't take chances, o.k.?

Glancing sideways, he rolled his eyes; Rin crossed hers and stuck her tongue out in answer. Struggling to hold back a snicker, the boy drew a careful caricature of her face, eyes askew and tongue protruding; he passed it back over. Rin viewed it with a sideways glare--- and then, much to his surprise, folded it up and tucked it into her pocket. Drawing out another scrap of paper, she scribbled something else down, sliding it quietly across the desk for Conan to view:

A heart, with the kanji for 'Shinichi' and 'Ran' in its center. He could feel his cheeks burning, and a slow rush of something warm seemed to infuse his body from the knot in his throat all the way down to his toes. Deja vu once more brushed against Conan/Shinichi in a feather-light touch, recalling a day when he had seen the same thing drawn on the back of Ran's notebook some five or six years past.

*Ran, that's playing dirty…..* He could practically hear her silent chortling.

As he reached for the page, a larger hand slid into view, removing it from the desk; they both froze. Mildly disapproving, Teacher chided them: "No notes, now; you both know how to behave in school....." The classroom filled with giggles as the students regarded the unusual sight of Conan, usually a model-if-somewhat-bored student, under fire as it were. He was flushing beet-red now as Teacher examined the note; her frown softened into a look of surprise and understanding as she glanced down at Himitsu Rin, New Girl….. and at Conan. Folding the note, she placed it gently back down on the desk; "Your kanji's lovely, Rin-chan, but inaccurate; I'll show you how to write your and Conan-chan's names properly later."

Rin blushed; as if in answer, the Recess bell rang shrilly. Teacher turned her attention away from them both, calling "Everyone! Line up for Recess! Take your places, everyone--- no shoving, Genta-kun! Samatsu, get back in line--- you can talk to Aoshi later! Class---"

Conan picked up the paper, folded it, and stowed it carefully away in his jacket pocket. As chairs rattled and voices clamored all around them, Rin stage-whispered: "See you later, Shinichi; have fun!" And she was away, talking animatedly to Ayumi as she went. The boy stared after her departing form, shaking his head; *If I live to be a hundred--- if I have to repeat childhood a dozen times over--- I swear, I will NEVER understand women…..*

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"Toshiro? Skinny little boy, kind of pale, doesn't say much? His dad works in Supply? Nope; haven't seen him around here in a week or so. Why?"

Conan shrugged under the Janitor's casual appraisal. "Just curious. So he hasn't been around after school or anything like that?" They were both sitting on the steps just beyond the south hallway's main door; from where they perched they could easily make out the screams and shouts of Recess without being seen. The Janitor took another swallow from his thermos of tea, tugging his cap a little lower. Brown eyes slid sideways towards the boy's face, studying him surreptitiously as he thumbed through a magazine; behind them the pages of a logic puzzle riffled in the wind just inside the open door. "Nope; sorry. Might want to check with his dad….." suggested Hei-san, peering into the depths of his thermos.

The boy nodded. "Guess I could….. He doesn't seem to be around much either today." That had been his first stop when he had slipped out of the playground, but the door had been locked tightly.

*And the keys look to be in your pocket today, instead of hanging on your cart as usual. Crap. So much for "borrowing" them and sneaking a look at Nodomo-san's office--- I wonder if Professor Agasa knows anything about lockpicking? Guess I could ask him this evening...*

"I could leave him a note, maybe… if I could get in his office. But--- oh well;" Conan shrugged, tuning his 'little-boy' self up a notch and smiling brightly at the Janitor. "Toshiro-kun'll probably be back tomorrow. Thanks anyway, Hei-san!"

Hei-san the Janitor eyed him, tilting his thin face a little to one side. The creased features were oddly expressionless for a moment, the muddy eyes sharp; then everything slid back into its usual vapidity. "No problem." He yawned. "Long day, eh? Got to get back to work--- stupid stain won't come off the wall, got to scrub that again--- stupid grousing science teachers to avoid--- stupid idiots keep leaving all the windows open--- like I said, long day." As he reached sight-unseen behind him to gather the papers together Conan found himself watching Hei-san's hands; they worked, deft and effortless, shuffling pages like cards in a deck. *Good hands on him--- funny, though; somehow they don't quite match his face, do they? They remind me of something, the way they move…..* The thought had occurred to him in the past that the Janitor had more than his share of peculiarities *besides* his obvious intellect. *And maybe that's something I had better think about, soon as this case is over---*

As they stood, something slid from the man's pocket to land with a jingling clatter on the step: a ring of keys. Conan stared for a moment, then stooped to pick them up. "Hei-san---?"

The Janitor waved him off with a shrug as he tugged at the handle of his maintenance cart, pulling it after him. "I'll get 'em back from you later." The boy opened his mouth, then shut it with a snap, frowning. *Hei-san…?? what the hell---?* The keys slid between his fingers as they tightened around the bunch, each one neatly labeled with a room number. Conan shook his head; this was too good to be true. *Hei-san, I don't know what your game is here, or why you trust me with these….. but thanks; this'll make things a hell of a lot simpler.*

He had better use what time he had left--- what, fifteen minutes or so until the bell would signal the end of Recess? As Conan dashed breathlessly down the deserted hallway, he wondered how Ran was doing…..

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"--- and that's Surako-chan over there on the slide, and there's Ryuu-kun and Senma running over there--- Oh! Senma-kun, are you okay?" The little girl waved madly as she double-timed it across the playground, towing a slightly-overcome Rin-kun behind her. Her fallen sempai shrugged and pulled himself up from his tumble, taking off in a cloud of dust. Drawing a breath, Ayumi continued: "And over there's Hitomi, she's from Okinawa, and that's Saguru-chan--- Saguru-chan, this is Rin-kun, she's Conan-kun's girlfriend--- Rin, you're all red!" She paused to giggle, still dragging the other girl behind her. "Oh, and that's Shiba, watch out for him, he's sort of a bully--- and that's---"

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The sign on the door read SUPPLY OFFICE-R27. And, as had been previously noted by one small detective, the room was to all appearances locked and empty.

Welll; that was nothing that a set of keys couldn't fix. A quick insertion, a twist of the knob, and the door opened to reveal---

--- a particularly messy office. Conan frowned, shutting and locking the door quietly behind him. *I can't say much for Nodomo-san's organizational skills if his office usually looks like this* he thought absentmindedly, toeing aside a pair of empty coffee-stained styrofoam cups at his feet. The room really was a disaster area; papers were piled everywhere, fast-food containers littered countertops, the school-issued computer monitor needed a severe wipe-down and there was a suspicious hint of something stale and pungent in the air: the boy sniffed. *Beer? No--- a serious drunk usually takes their poison from a bigger bottle. Something else….. Souju? Cheap stuff, too.* There had been a spill of some sort recently, that much was clear. Nose wrinkling, he sniffed again. *Something else….. coffee?? LOTS of coffee--- huh; it's all over the carpet. No wonder the room stinks of it.* He knelt, running one small hand across the nappy surface; grounds were scattered everywhere underfoot. *So much--- hmmm, there's the boxes in the corner; 'Daisuke International Coffee Products'-- not a main brand, that's for sure. Sounds like something you'd use to clean out drains with…..*

Tugging his glasses from his nose and wiping at a smear on one lens with a shirttail, Conan surveyed the stack of empty boxes. *Fourteen cases? Of coffee?? Isn't that a bit much for one school in a country where tea's the preferred hot drink? I mean, unless he got a really good deal---* A bit of quick thumbing through a file-drawer or two produced a set of invoice files; Daisuke International's invoices were fairly numerous, reaching back for more than two years. *Since when do the teachers drink THAT much coffee? Hrmph; he ordered filters as well, but….. enough? And let's see--- two cases every two weeks on a regular basis, one hundred sixty pre-bagged allotments of coffee per case-- that's three hundred twenty pots of coffee over ten working days, which comes to thirty-two pots of coffee school-wide per day. No way; in America, maybe, but not in Japan, and not in a school this size.*

A quick look at the rest of the invoices indicated no other unusual excesses, though it would take a more detailed examination to be certain. The young detective closed the drawer gently.

*Well, I was looking for something unusual-----* Conan/Shinichi scowled up at the untidy pile of boxes. *--- and I guess I found it. Something else-- those boxes have all been opened, and a few of them are empty… but not all of them by any means. Why open a box without needing to? Coffee gets stale, right?* He bit his lip in frustration. *Hey, Toshiro-kun--- I don't suppose you're hiding out in those boxes, are you? That'd sure make this easier, wouldn't it? But no such luck.*

He glanced up at the clock; five minutes before the Recess bell was to ring. *Crap--- Get your butt in gear, Kudo; do what you came to do and get out before you get caught.* A quick pressure of the thumb, a moment's work with both hands to adjust the settings, and the small "bug" had a new home on the underside of the desk's computer keyboard. One more quick look around, then it was time to head out-----

Rattle-rattle… click

*Oh, SHIT!!!.*

The doorknob was turning.

It wasn't really a conscious decision that propelled Conan/Shinichi towards the pile of boxes--- it was more the sort of thing that sends cockroaches scurrying across the floor towards dark corners when a light is turned on in a decrepit kitchen. He slid into his coffee-scented haven of safety with a single thought in mind: HIDE!

Heart thumping, the boy peered from between two askew cardboard barriers as the door opened. If he had been even a little larger in size--- sometimes it was almost good to be short; it made hiding that much easier.

From his viewpoint he could pretty much see the entire office (it wasn't that big, after all); and as he watched the current head of the Supply department shuffle into the room, Conan congratulated himself silently on keeping his cool. *I mean, if I had planned this it couldn't have worked out better. Really. This is just perfect--- I can see everything, and I'm sure the opportunity to leave will present itself sometime in the next five minutes….. or not….. and I didn't really just leave my GLASSES LYING ON NODOMO-SAN'S DESK, did I? Nope, no way, of course not. I couldn't have been that stupid, could I?*

*Yes, I could have. I did. Those're my glasses right there by the phone, sure enough. I put them there when I planted the bug, didn't I? And now he's sitting down….. I am totally, completely screwed, aren't I? Stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid---*

The worn desk-chair creaked as Nodomo Hiroku took a seat; he wasn't a very intimidating sort of man--- as thin as his son, with wire-rimmed glasses hanging on a lined, prematurely-aged sort of face. Something traumatic in his past had carved those furrows in his skin, had grayed the hair early and given him those bags beneath his eyes; a small part of Conan's panic-numbed brain dimly recalled the fact that Toshiro-kun's mother had died some years earlier.

He looked tired. He didn't look like the kind of person who would end up with his son being kidnapped--- that sort of target was usually more affluent, more likely able to pay a ransom. So there had to be another reason for Toshiro-kun's disappearance than money-----

*Blackmail? That's usually the next most common reason; revenge comes next in line. I'd guess blackmail.*

*But what the hell does a missing child and a truckload of coffee have to do with blackmail? Or is there another motive? I mean, coffee?? And how the hell am I going to get out of here without him seeing me?* Conan could scarcely dare to breathe; the boxes were perched around him in a precarious enough manner that one false move would bring them down….. *God, don't let him succumb to a sudden burst of office-cleaning or anything like that-----*

Nodomo-san did nothing; he simply sat in his chair, staring straight ahead with the reddened, tight eyes of the habitual drinker. One hand fumbled in his jacket pocket, drawing out a small metal flask. Quickly, guiltily, he twisted the cap to one side and took a swig, and Conan's nose caught the scent of cheaply-distilled sweet potato whisky. *Souju; thought so. According to your records you've had a pretty good work history over the last few years. What's changed that, Nodomo? Your missing son? I don't think so; your office shows signs of being like this for a while. You haven't turned your calendar for two months, you've obviously been keeping the room locked or it would've at least been vacuumed, and if I'm not mistaken you've got one hell of a nervous twitch going on right now under your left eye. That looks pretty well developed, too. And look at your hands; you bite your nails down to the quick, your fingers are shaking--- something's been going on that you can't handle and it's come to a head. What--*

The Recess bell chose that moment to ring, and Conan nearly jumped out of his skin. Likewise Nodomo-san, who jolted backwards in his chair. The flask thudded to the ground, spilling the meager remains of its contents all over the carpet.

Breathing hard, the thin man grabbed at his flask, brushing ineffectually at the splatters of souju on his pants-legs; he capped the container and pocketed it, then rubbed at his eyes hard before slumping back in his chair. Conan tried to restart his heart without moving.

*Well, so much for class; Teacher's gonna be upset. Hope Ran doesn't blow a gasket when I don't show back up---*

His heart nearly stopped again when the phone on Nodomo-san's desk rang. But the older man seized the recorder like a damned soul reaching for his only hope of heaven. He swallowed hard, clutching the receiver tightly. "N-Nodomo here."

Conan/Shinichi listened. *Dammit--- I can't make out the words on the other end---*

"I'm here--- I said I would be….. Where is he?" The young detective froze at those words. Nodomo-san's face was white, shiny with a sudden sweat.

A scratching of sound on the other end.

"I did it--- everything you said--- I've been doing what you told me! God damn you, I want my son back!!! What more do you---" He was breathing hard now, the words coming out broken-edged and brittle. The caller on the other end took their time in replying. Then:

"How much more? I can't--- somebody's going to find out, and then we're--- No. No--- give me back my *boy,* dammit! I'll do whatever you want, just give him back--- give him back to me---"

Terror in his face, in his eyes, in the way he gripped the phone with shaking hands; terror in his words, filling the room with its stink and overwhelming the roar of coffee and alcohol. Terror and guilt.

A long pause then, full of the distant crackle of unknown speech. Nodomo's entire body was shaking by now, trembling finely in an agony of uncertainty. The fingers of one hand fumbled with the edge of the desk, gripping it until it seemed that the skin would split and the bones show through. At last:

"Sunset….. I- I'll be there….. I can't win, can I? I should've never agreed to do this in the first place….. Oh, I'll do it. What choice do I have? You know I won't go to the police--- I'd end up rotting in jail right beside you. Damn you--- Please, please, just tell me he's all right-----"

The silence following the click on the other end of the line was ear-shattering. "Damn you…" whispered Nodomo-san, cradling the phone in his hands as if afraid that it would go off.

Conan swallowed hard.

For a long, long moment the older man sat there, one hand still gripping the receiver, the other fumbling blindly across the desk for his glasses. Without seeming to be aware of what he was doing Nodomo rolled the sidepiece between finger and thumb, his agitation evident in the way he fidgeted with the frame and in his dazed, unfocussed stare---

*Oh God. He's still wearing his glasses. Those are MINE.*

Conan wondered if a seven-year-old could have a heart attack.

It was only for a few minutes that Nodomo-san sat there, toying unseeingly with the boy's glasses--- but they lasted forever and ever, those minutes. Finally he leaned forward, dropping the frames to lie forgotten to one side of the desk; he rested his head on his arms for a few moments, and the young detective thought that he saw his shoulders shake with weeping.

At last he sat back, wiping at his eyes. As he slowly rose and moved towards the door, it seemed that he was carrying more years on his face than he had brought in with him. The door shut behind his back with a double click, and Conan remembered how to breathe.

*He didn't notice. He didn't notice they were mine. He didn't notice at all.* Slowly, carefully, the boy eased out of his hiding place.

*Well, THAT was informative. I'll give him a couple of minutes to get away from his door, head out, drop Hei-san's keys back by, and get back to class. Maybe I can say I was in the bathroom or something. But first, I think I need to STOP PANICKING before I become the first prematurely gray grade-schooler in Japan.*

*Deep breaths. Deep, deep breaths. Open the door--- no-one around? Good. Now, down the hall before anybody sees---- remember, Kudo, you're just a harmless little boy on his way back from the bathroom, nothing else; don't scream if anybody sees you---*

He rounded the corner at a near-trot--- and ran right into the Janitor's cart. "AAAAAAGH!!"

Hei-san flailed his arms on the other side of the cart, trying not to fall over in shock. "What?!? What?!?" The faded eyes were wide with alarm.

Panting, Conan hung onto one of the cart's handles, fanning at his face. "N-nothing, nothing--- I, I, I just didn't know you were there----" He slumped back against the wall in relief. Twenty feet or so away, an alarmed teacher's face stuck out through a door; seeing no problem, whoever-it-was shrugged and disappeared back into their classroom.

The boy fumbled in his pocket. "Hei-san--- here---" He held out the keys. The Janitor took them back gravely, the faintest hint of a smile crossing his impassive face. "Thanks for hanging onto them, kid. You heading back to class now?" Hei-san jerked one thumb over his shoulder in the general direction of Conan's classroom; the boy nodded. "Good. You look like you saw a ghost. Better get moving."

*No, no ghosts. I don't believe in ghosts. Just kidnappers and blackmailers. And murderers, of course.*

Heart still drumming beneath his ribs, Conan slipped cautiously through the halls back towards his classroom; he'd have to tell Teacher that he had really, really needed to go to the bathroom, he supposed….. He was just about to slip out the last door and down the steps towards the playground when a scent caught his attention: bleach, and something else underneath... something bitter….. Oh; the stain on the wall next to Storage-3B. *Right--- Hei-san was scrubbing it the other day. Weird, it almost looks like a---*

His fingers came away darkened, and he stared at the color. *It DOES almost look like it's----- Hm. That's not good. That's not good at all. And why does it look so fresh?*

Carefully he glanced from side to side; no-one was watching. A moment's work with his pocketknife produced a few flakes of heavily-stained paint, which he wrapped gently in a scrap of paper from a nearby wastecan and pocketed.

*I'm not… quite sure… what to make of this; guess I can ask Agasa-san to take a look at it later. In the meantime, I'd better hightail it to class before Ran spontaneously combusts.*

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Standing just inside a sheltering doorway, Hei-san the Janitor watched as the boy broke into a run across the playground. Slanting beams of light striped the thin man's expressionless face bright and dark; as the footfalls died away he smiled slowly, then glanced slightly up as a dove fluttered down from the eaves overhead to land on his shoulder. The bird sidled over to nibble peacefully on his hair, and he stroked its snowy breast-feathers with one careful finger before shooing it gently away and returning to his work.

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Lunch; the cafeteria was perhaps a little calmer today (meaning, of course, that Teacher only had spend half her own lunch-time corralling children and sending the little dears back to the table). Conan stole a sideways look at Rin, who sat between himself and Ayumi and who seemed to be looking slightly desperate at this point. Ayumi-chan was still in full spate:

"--- and Hokuto-chan over there has a pet mouse, it's cuuuute!, she brought it to class one day and it got loose and we had to catch it and Genta chased it under Teacher's desk and made her scream--- and Ken-kun at the end of the table, he's from America, maybe you know him Rin-kun?--- and Naoko over there is new too, she just came here last month from Nerima--- and that's Seishirou at the end of the table and Subaru-kun and Fuuma and Kamui, they fight a lot--- and that's Omi, we call him 'Neko-chan' to tease him, he's cute, isn't he? though he's not as cute as Hokuto's mouse; and---"

Rin leaned slightly towards Conan (either to whisper or to fall over, one or the other). "Does she know everybody?!? When I asked her to introduce me around, I didn't expect---!" she hissed, her small face worried. "Will she stop soon?"

The boy tried not to laugh. "Sure; just ask her something else. Guess I should've warned you: Ayumi has a very good memory." He stirred his noodles, wincing slightly at a yell from the far end of the table (Subaru-kun had apparently just beaned Seiichirou-kun square in the forehead with a chopstick and retaliations were commencing).

Rin rolled her eyes, then turned to Ayumi, cutting her off mid-sentence: "Ayumi-kun?"

"And that's Aya and that's Nagi-kun and that's--- what?"

The young woman/young girl paused, realizing that she had no idea what to say. "Ummmmmm….. do you know my, my cousin Ran?"

Genta and Mitsuhiko leaned to peer around Ayumi. As the little girl opened her mouth to reply, Genta boomed "Of course we all know her--- she takes care of Conan-kun. But she hasn't been around lately--- did she go somewhere?" The large boy looked a little worried. Behind him the end of the table erupted in wholescale warfare; chopsticks went airborne in all directions.

Rin drew a deep breath. "Y-yeah. She's… gone to America, to help take care of, umm, my new little sister. She… won't be back for a long while." Dark eyes dropped their gaze to the remains of her lunch; the young-woman-turned-young-girl picked at her rice with the point of one chopstick.

Exclamations of dismay broke out from the three kids; Rin looked up in surprise. They were honestly upset! Were they going to miss her that much? Ayumi was nearly in tears, and the two boys looked despondent; Conan sat quiet, a curiously intent look on his face.

Rin hastened to reassure them. "It's okay--- she told me that she'd call once a week to speak to Conan-kun, so you three can talk to her then too. Will that help? She… I know she misses you too."

They looked relieved. Then, one after the other, each child looked at Conan. "You'll miss her the most, won't you, Conan-kun? She's always been with you since you came here, hasn't she?" offered Ayumi, almost timidly.

He gave the little girl a faint, almost wistful little smile. "I'll miss her, sure… but so long as she's happy where she is, doing what she's doing--- then I can be happy for her too. Just as long as she's sure that's what she wants….." He spoke to Ayumi, but his words were for someone else.

Rin smiled; her eyes were warm. "She is. I think she can learn to be happy there. And someday she'll come back, and you can all see her then, right?"

Ayumi grinned her infectious grin. "Right! And we can write her letters and draw pictures for her and send them in the mail--- I've never sent stuff to America before--- Mitsuhiko, you have, haven't you?--- and we can tell her about new detective cases and---"

Mitsuhiko cut in at this point, frowning ferociously. "Yeah…. New cases. Hey, Conan-kun--- are you investigating something you haven't told us about? You've been acting awfully sneaky lately."

The boy tried to look innocent, glancing nervously at Rin. "Sneaky? Me? How? I'm never sneaky---"

The owl-eyed silence (well, relative silence) that followed Conan's words was enough to make Teacher's head whip around towards his general direction; she frowned for a moment, wondering at an accompanying burst of laughter that was actually loud enough to momentarily drown out Suriya-chan's attempt to sing the Pokimon theme-song while drinking her milk. Shrugging, she swallowed another antacid tablet and tried to finish her lunch.

*I really don't see what's so funny…* thought Conan, crossing his arms and glaring; he could feel a sulk coming on. Mitsuhiko and Genta were leaning on each other and gasping for breath, Rin was wiping her eyes--- even Ayumi-chan was giggling so hard she couldn't speak. At last, still half-laughing, Rin managed to speak: "Oh, you have got to be joking! You've always been the sneakiest person on the planet, ever since we were kids! I mean, do you remember when you---" she paused then, realizing what she was saying…..

The three kids' ears perked up. "He has?? Heh heh heh….." Genta grinned, looking eager. "I bet you could tell us all sorts of things about Conan-kun when he was really little, couldn't you, Rin-chan? And maybe if he doesn't tell *us* about what he's been investigating you should tell us something good….. Or maybe we could tell Ran-chan something when we talk to her, like about that time we sneaked out after dark and broke into the library so you could use their computer when the Professor's was broken---" Mitsuhiko punched him in the shoulder, and they both beamed at the young detective. Ayumi shook her head, still giggling; Rin's eyebrows went up and she looked at them all suspiciously.

*Blackmail--- why, you little rats!* Conan's mouth dropped open. "Listen," he said hurriedly; "Not now, okay? After school, I promise---"

About then Teacher began the difficult process of rounding up her charges to head back to class; four sets of eyes stared Conan down severely, and Mitsuhiko spoke for them all. "You had better, Conan-kun! We'll be waiting….."

The boy swallowed, then looked to Rin in appeal; she folded her arms and glared at him right along with the other three. "I want to know what you found out too, you know….." The corner of her mouth twitched as she fought off a grin.

Conan sighed and surrendered to the inevitable, trudging back to class with all the eagerness of a convict in a chain-gang. Behind him Mitsuhiko, Ayumi and Genta crowed their success while Rin followed along, smiling to herself.

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

"--- and that guy over there, he sometimes lets us come in and read Shonen Sunday for FREE if we don't make a mess or anything. It's a cool bookstore, ne, Conan-kun?"

The Detective Boys were pointing out the more *important* bits of their city to Rin on the way home.

Mitsuhiko nudged Genta out of the way, intent on having his turn. "And there's a really, really great arcade down there--- my dad says that the guy who runs it is a 'no-good goofball', but I think that's just because he works with his

dad, 'cause it's a fantastic arcade!, so I can't see how he could be a---"

It was something of a learning experience for Ran, to see the place that she had grown up in all over again through the eyes and priorities of a child. Conan watched the whole process with a certain half-guilty enjoyment. *She's taking this so….. well; does having somebody else around to share your secret make it that much easier? Or is it just her? Either way, I'm glad. I think it helps a bit that the kids are going to miss her, too; I never had that, not really. The only one who missed me was Ran.*

Beside them, Ayumi rolled her eyes and put her hands on her hips. "Are you two finished yet?? If you don't quit talking so much, Conan-kun won't be able to tell us about the mystery he found." Two mouths shut; three pairs of eyes focused intently on the shortest boy of the group, who sighed. Rin smothered a laugh behind her hand.

"Ummm. Thanks, Ayumi-kun….. Okay; it's like this. But you three have to promise not to do anything without telling me--- this isn't a regular murder case, or a missing cat, or-- or anything like that……"

As they walked, the young detective laid out the facts as neatly and simply as possible for his compatriots; Rin listened closely, a rather surprised half-frown on her face as the boy systematically ticked off the points on his fingers.....

First: Nodomo Toshiro was missing; he was apparently hiding or being hidden some place from which he could escape for short periods of time, but seemed unwilling to stay away due to fear of a "bad man getting him." (Rin kept silent at that, her eyes somewhat troubled; she had her own ideas regarding Toshiro-kun, ones that she preferred not to think too hard about.)

Mitsuhiko looked worried--- Toshiro-kun had been his friend, after all; it was different when a crime happened to a friend. He stayed uncharacteristically quiet during most of the rest of the conversation.

Second: His father had something to do with something illegal--- the overheard phone conversation made that fairly clear. Therefore, their sempai's disappearance was probably due to blackmail. (Conan spent a few extra minutes explaining 'blackmail', with particular emphasis on smarmy little schoolkids who were willing to rat on their classmates about the perfectly harmless usage of a library computer after closing hours in order to get their way.)

Third: Chances were good that Nodomo-san's illegal activities had something to do with coffee--- lots of coffee. It had occurred to the boy that boxes of coffee would make an excellent vehicle for smuggling things in from out of the country; the company's logo had read 'International', after all. But--- why coffee, of all things?

Mitsuhiko blinked at him. "Maybe Bad Guys drink more coffee than Good Guys?"

Conan opened his mouth to make a scathing remark, then reconsidered and frowned thoughtfully. "I… don't think so, though it would explain a lot….." With a jerk he yanked his own wandering attention back to the subject and continued.

"So--- this means we have several targets to keep an eye on: Nodomo-san himself, his home and his office. We can't do much during school, but we can watch to see where he goes when he leaves--- and today I overheard him say that he had to be somewhere at sundown." He cocked an expectant eye at his troops. "You remember how we tracked that guy a few months ago, the one on the motorcycle?"

Three young faces began to grin. Rin looked from one to the other, curious; it was Genta who answered her, his round countenance excited. "We were sort of scattered around, and we talked on our badge-radios--- when one of us saw the motorcycle go by, they told the others which way it went. Then Conan chased him down….. It was kind of fun, except Conan-kun got all the exciting parts. No fair!" He glared momentarily at the smaller boy, who shrugged.

Rin looked a bit skeptical. "'Conan chased him down?' On what?"

Three voices chorused: "His skateboard!" Conan had the grace to look embarrassed as Rin turned to him, one eyebrow raised. "It's--- well, Professor Agasa sort of fixed it up for me. I'll show you later, I promise…" She looked at him sideways, just a little dubious; he grinned, laughter sparkling in his eyes. "Do you remember that time you rode in my mom's car with me in New York? It's a little like that….." Rin's eyes widened as she recalled a terrifyingly fast screech around a curve with both of them hanging out the window, using their weight to balance the car at Shinichi's mother's rather nonchalant request. "Oh no….."

"Trust me." He grinned wickedly.

Genta was still talking. "It's really, really fast-- you'll see. Sure wish Agasa-san would make me one---" He sulked slightly, and Mitsuhiko sighed with envy. Visions of Conan/Shinichi darting and dodging through traffic were obviously passing before Rin's eyes from the look of consternation there; she stared at him and started to say something--- then closed her mouth abruptly. "What's wrong, Rin-kun?" asked Ayumi in concern. "You look like you swallowed a bug."

"Umm, nothing…. So now what?" Conan paused to tie his shoelaces; the other three sat down on a bench while Rin looked down at his crouched form, hands on hips.

"Now we meet near his house. He lives near Kentou Park--- why don't we meet there at five o'clock, by the swings?" He finished knotting the laces and looked up. With his glasses sliding down his nose and his hair in his eyes, Rin thought he looked absurdly young.

*Absurdly cute, too.* She crossed her arms, watching as he stood and dusted off his hands.

Three voices chorused their various affirmatives, and the small group divided up for the rest of the walk home. Side by side, Conan and Rin continued down the sidewalk; their shadows stretched long and thin before them in the afternoon sunlight. Glancing at the adults passing on either side, Rin muttered softly, "'Trust you', hmm? I remember that ride with your mom--- I thought I was going to have a heart attack when you grabbed me and leaned out of the window….."

Conan chuckled.

Their tennishoes were nearly silent on the pavement as they walked. Rin watched as a handful of leaves fled across their shadows, chased by the wind. "You know," she continued under her breath, "for a minute there I almost started to talk to you like--- well, like I was 'Ran-neechan' and you were little Conan-kun again; I had to stop myself."

He shot her a sideways look. "When?"

"When you were talking about the skateboard. I knew you rode one, of course, and I knew that the Professor had done something to it, but….. Is it really that fast?" Her soft voice was half-alarmed, half-eager.

"Pretty fast; it's powered by solar cells. I keep telling Agasa he needs to market it, but somehow he's never quite gotten around to it. I needed something I could use to travel on--- these damn short little legs just aren't fast enough." His voice had softened, changed timbre now that Rin-- Ran--- was the only one paying attention; the tones were longer, lower, his words more precise. "It's funny--- when I was *really* a kid, I would've done almost anything for a toy like this one. Guess I finally hit the big time….." The boy actually laughed, and Ran felt her own lips curve in answer.

"Good; you can show me how it works on the way to the park this evening." Her hand slipped shyly into his; Conan glanced down in surprise, then laced his own fingers gently with Ran's.

A passing middle-aged couple smiled indulgently down at the small pair walking hand-in-hand; their own hands slipped together in response, and they glanced at each other with the familiarity of love as the four passed each other in the street. Each couple walked on their way towards their own destination, content; the shadows stretching before and after might have been the same shadow, one set no taller than the other.

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

"Dad? Mom?" Quiet; even the everyday chatter of the television was silent. Tentatively Ran poked her head around the corner of her father's doorway, noticing that her mother had apparently managed to shovel the worst of the debris into some semblance of order. *Nobody in here...*

"Ran? Here's a note---" Conan waved a piece of paper at her; he had been raiding the refrigerator and had found the note taped on the door. "They've gone out for something--- your dad has the worst handwriting---" The young girl scowled at the piece of paper held in front of her nose. "Mmm; I could swear it says something about a computer..."

"It doooo-ooes!" Sonoko's head popped through the open doorway, making them both jump. "They've headed out to pick one out.... Hiya, Short Stuff! Hello.... Rin-kun..." She giggled, leaning over to tap Ran on the top of the head lightly with one forefinger. "I just can't get used to seeing you like this--- you're so, so, ummm….."

Her friend raised an eyebrow. "Would 'little' be the word you're looking for?" Sonoko grinned. "Well....." She reached across again to tweak the child's nose; Ran swatted at the offending hand, laughing somewhat ruefully. "Tell me about it. Did you say--- they've gone to pick out a computer?? My dad can't even type! What on *earth* is he going to do with a computer?!?"

Sonoko-chan tossed them both a somewhat smug smile. "Well, it seems that somebody here volunteered their services as your dad's *assistant*... and he decided that a case database and internet linkup sounded like a good idea."

Both small figures stopped what they were doing and STARED. "My DAD decided this?" said Ran slowly…..

The blonde giggled. "Well--- *actually* your mom came up with the idea, and I helped convince him. It wasn't too hard--- he said something about somebody 'earning their keep', started laughing, and really caved in pretty quickly after that."

Conan crossed his arms and scowled; *This does NOT bode well.....*

Sonoko smirked down at him. "What's the matter, Chibi-chan? Cat got your tongue? …Sure hope your typing skills are up to date!" She leaned back against the table, hands bracing her weight against the top of a chair.

The boy shook his head, glowering up at her from beneath his brows. "Sonoko-kun..... if you keep calling me 'Chibi-chan', we're going to have words."

She beamed down at him. "I can finally see what Ran sees in you, Shinichi-kun--- you're so cute when you're mad….." Ran smothered a snicker behind her hand, then turned to look inquiringly at the boy. "An 'assistant'? How about making that two assistants? It'll make me feel a little better about forcing my parents to pay for another decade's child-raising costs."

Conan hopped up onto the couch. "Sounds good to me; that ought to make your dad happy, too. I use the Professor's computer a lot--- I should be able to set up a database pretty easily; we can ask him about software when we stop by this evening. Hope Oji-san gets a good one; your mom has one at her office, doesn't she?"

Ran slid up onto the couch beside him. "Mmm-hmm. Don't worry, she won't let him buy a lemon." She tucked up her feet to sit indian-style beside him while Sonoko lounged in Mouri-san's battered overstuffed chair, hands behind her head. The blonde young woman blew out a long breath. "Whew! Ran, I don't really remember what it was like going to grade school, but you sure missed a monster of a Chem test today… it almost makes me wish I could shrink down into a cute little Sonoko-chan. It'd be kinda fun, wouldn't it? I mean, if it was temporary, that is---" Ran looked amused in a resigned sort of way, and the two friends spent a little while discussing school and classmates.

Trying to ignore the horrifying mental image of a chibified Sonoko, Shinichi/Conan watched as a slightly wistful-looking Ran asked after her former sempai; Sonoko promised faithfully to deliver notes to several, and Ran slipped out of the room for a bit to write them.

For a time there was only a slightly awkward silence in the living room; Suzuki Sonoko eyed the young boy/young man who sat staring after Ran, a thoughtful look on his face. His eyes had softened, and there was a faint, crooked smile curving his lips; in that moment he looked very little like the child she had known for a year. The blonde considered for a moment, then cleared her throat.

"You really do care for her, don't you?" she said abruptly, discarding any attempts at tact. Conan's small body started slightly at her words, but it was Shinichi who looked at her from behind his dark blue eyes. "Yeah… I really do….. not that it's any of your *business*, you know…" he muttered, slightly embarrassed.

Shinichi expected Sonoko to break out into a gleeful chorus of 'Oooo, that's so romantic!' or some such; he was therefore somewhat surprised at the serious way she stared him down. "Good." She drew a deep breath. "If you didn't, well--- I'm not sure what I'd do to you, but I think I could think of something….." He shifted nervously against the cushions; that had an ominous ring to it. Sonoko's 'somethings' were usually dire in the extreme. "Well, you don't have to worry."

The blonde young woman smiled at him in a satisfied sort of way. "Soooooo..... you're both together again; wanna tell me a little about your intentions towards Ran? Are you going to ask her to marry you? If you *don't,* her dad'll probably bury you in an unmarked grave somewhere, you know....." Her voice trailed off as she took in Shinichi's outraged, red-faced glare. "Oh, don't tell me you didn't expect somebody to ask you about this! What, didn't her parents make things pretty clear? I can't see Eri-san just letting you off the hook like that---"

Shinichi shook off his shock long enough to retort, "She didn't! I mean, they didn't--- uh, well, they---"

Sonoko clucked at him. "So they did talk to you about marrying her! And since you're still alive, I guess you agreed, ne?" An expression of utter bliss spread across her face; she clasped her hands before her. "Ran's gonna get married!! ...Of course, it won't happen for a decade or so, will it? Unless Ai-chan comes up with a cure or something, that is. Coooool! I'm gonna be a bridesmaid!!! Well, in a few years, anyway....."

Scarlet-faced, Shinichi sputtered.

Sonoko raised one eyebrow, brushing her hair back. "What's wrong, Chibi-chan? I thought you loved her and all that---"

The boy waved agitated arms above his head. "I do, I do! But--- Sonoko-kun, has anybody ever talked to you about tact? Or manners? Or minding your own business, for that matter?? Or did your parents just hand you over by the scruff of the neck to be raised by their housecats?"

She waved that away airily. "Ran's my best friend; this IS my business. So *watch* yourself, Shinichi-kun; I'll be watching you too."

Sonoko grinned in the face of his discomfort as Ran came around the doorway, a sheaf of hastily-scribbled notes in her hands. The small girl paused, eyeing her two companions suspiciously. "Now, what have YOU two been talking about, I wonder?"

"Nothing! Nothing at all!" "Right! What he said!" The innocence beaming from the two faces could have powered half of Japan through a two-day electrical outage. Ran sighed and shook her head. "..... Right."

*...Maybe I'm better off not knowing, just this once.....*

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

"Ready?"

The two transformed teenagers were slightly down the street from the Mouri residence, standing in a side alley. Perching, actually; they both balanced carefully on Conan's skateboard. He grinned over his shoulder at the girl, who tightened her grip comfortably around his waist. "Does it really go that fast?" Ran sounded a little apprehensive; she almost wished Sonoko hadn't had to go so soon--- a little moral support would've helped to bolster her courage.

Conan chuckled. "Hang on and you'll see. Don't worry; it's just like that time in my Mom's car--- it's only scary at first!" And he pressed the power button with his foot.

*Vhrrrreeeeeeeeeeeeeeee------* A wave of small debris blew from underneath the skateboard as the tiny turbins engaged; Conan crouched, adjusting his stance to allow for Ran's added weight and ballast as the wheels began to turn.....

"YEEEEEEEEEP!!!" They came screeching out of the alleyway onto a mercifully-clear sidewalk, arcing in a wide, curb-edged curve that sent them shooting across the concrete at a fast clip. A portly businessman yelped and leaped out of their way--- they passed him with a trailing shout of "Gomeeeeen....." Ran clutched the small, strong body in front of her with a white-knuckled grip, hanging on for dear life; Conan's whoop of laughter rang in her ears as they tore off in the direction of Professor Agasa's.

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

The professor frowned, one hand smoothing his moustache. "Lock picking?" His round eyes gleamed at his two guests through his glasses. "What a coincidence that you should ask; it just so happens that I've been working on just such a project lately....." Shooing Conan and Ran before him like chickens, the scientist ushered them into a small workroom to one side of the main lab.

The young detective glanced uneasily up at the clock; they had barely a half-an-hour before their meeting with the Terrible Trio at the park. *Better not be late--- God only knows what those three'll get up to if we don't show. I think Mitsuhiko's a little upset about all this, since Toshiro's a friend of his.*

The professor rummaged around on one of his more crowded work-benches, eventually pulling out a small, oblong box about the size of a pack of cigarettes. A press of a thumb on one end slid a small metal tube out, which he inserted into the key-slot of a solitary doorknob-setup which lay on the bench. There was a tiny, rising whine..... "Observe an application of sonics in action! The tube acts as a tiny, high-frequencey emitter--- the multiple super-and-subsonic tones vibrate the tumblers in the lock, making them follow the path of least resistance--- and voila! The lock opens-----"

The lock exploded. Pieces ricocheted in all directions, bouncing off the walls, the ceiling, the floor-----

Silence filled the lab, along with rising wisps of smoke and falling scraps of ceiling-tiles. Two wide-eyed children and one disgruntled Pioneer of Science rose from behind the overturned workbench. "Is it safe now? Can we come out?"

Ran hushed him absently, blowing a strand of hair back out of one eye. "Oh, be quiet, Shinichi-kun; look, it's not even on fire anymore. Well, professor? What happened?" The portly man grumbled and reached for the remains of his device, hissing and pulling back as his fingers were scorched. "Eiyipe! Must've miscalculated the frequencies..... ah well; back to the drawing board.....ow….. Er, Shinichi? Would you be interested in an old-fashioned set of lockpicks and an instruction manual? I have them around here somewhere....." Agasa-san lurched off in search of the promised items, antiseptic salve and a box of Band-Aids.

Picking tile-fragments from their hair, the two wandered somewhat unsteadily back into the main lab; Ran picked up a radio-badge from a table, pinning it carefully to the front of her blouse. An engraved pendant on a chain caught her attention, and she ran her fingertips gently across the kanji character on the front; the horoscope character for Dog gleamed up at her. "It looks like the professor's made me a few little toys; I wonder what this does? And if it's for me, why is it the Year of the Dog? You and I were both born in the Year of the Rat---"

Across the room, Shinichi finished wiping the dust from his glasses; he looked at her, a slightly pained expression on his face. "Think about it….."

"Oh, right. 1984 versus 1994….. Well, I never did like rats; I'd rather be a dog anyway."

"Mrmph." The boy slid his glasses back up his nose. "A pendent, huh? I wonder if it's like my watch?"

Ran flipped it over curiously; it was no more than an inch long but oddly thick, with a small bump on the back and a tiny hole at the bottom edge. A thin glass shield covered the engraved kanji, attaching at the top loop with a near-invisible catch. "Let's see….. if I press this, the glass flips up--- oh, look at that! Little tiny cross-hairs! And if I press the bump--- hmn; nothing's happening. Wait, the sides squeeze in---"

"Uhh, Ran---"

"So if I squeeze the sides first, and then press the bump on the back---"

"--- Ran, wait---!!"

*thwipp!!* "AACK!"

"….. Ooops….. Shinichi? Shinichi??….."

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

Fifteen minutes or so later, a slightly groggy Conan-kun arrived at the park, clinging to the waist of a very apologetic Rin-kun. The skateboard slowed to a halt; she had piloted it at much slower speeds than those of their initial trip, but the look in her eyes promised further practice sessions in the future--- and perhaps a few large bribes of chocolate-chip cookies for the professor.

"I said I was sorry….."

Conan sulked, rubbing at the tiny pinprick beneath his shirt. This was the first time he had undergone one of his own sleeping darts; he had decided that he didn't like it one bit. *No wonder Mouri-san's such a grouch after his 'sleeping detective' episodes--- these things pack quite a wallop. Good thing they wear off so quickly.* He privately resolved to stay out of Ran's range anytime he saw her fingering her new 'toy.'

*Especially when she's mad at me; wouldn't want to become 'the Amazing Sleeping Edogawa', now, would I?*

The kids were already at the park; three swings sang their creaking songs into the evening air, breaking off into random jangles as their occupants abandoned them for more interesting pursuits. Genta snorted as he eyed Conan's flushed face and sleepy eyes. "You're late--- what'd you do, take a nap?"

"Guilty as charged," sighed the boy, earning a mystified look. Ran-- Rin--- hid her smile behind her hand. "Never mind. Are you lot ready? Then here's what we'll do….."

Battle stations were assigned, and the small contingent of detectives scattered to their various locations. As the only one with a vehicle, Conan positioned himself at the nearest traffic light; a block away, Rin waved to him from where she perched in a doorway beside a fruit stand, obviously just one more child waiting for her mother to finish shopping.

Behind Conan's eyes, behind the lenses, Shinichi smiled to himself; even from a distance, he would have known it was her-- Ran--- There was something about how her long hair fell, or the way she held herself poised, or maybe it was the way she turned her head to watch a bicyclist go by---

Never mind. He would always know.

A crackle of static made him start slightly; that was Mitsuhiko, doing his usual "Testing, testing, ichi, ni, san, shi---" It was getting late, and with any luck Nodomo-san should be heading out pretty soon.

"***crackle, crackle*** Conan-kun--- there he goes…" Bingo! That was Ayumi, sitting quietly on a bench less than fifty feet from their quarry's door. "**szzt*** He's walking, not driving--- he's carrying a bucket and a fishing pole--- ***zzzt, crackle***"

The boy's eyebrows went up. *Fishing? And on foot? There's only one or two places within walking distance around here that allow public fishing--- and we just came from one of them---*

Another burst of static cut in as both boys tried to talk at the same time. Conan swore under his breath, earning a startled and disapproving glance from a pedestrian who had just crossed with the 'WALK' signal. "Little heathens…" muttered the man, trudging past.

"***sputter, crackle, zzzzzt!!***---'s going now… I think he's coming towards you, Rin-kun---" And he'd be in sight of Conan after that… He was heading for Kentou Park. From his vantage point the boy could see the girl's small form vanish into her doorway; good, she was taking precautions. Come to think of it, he had better take a few of his own… A nearby newstand provided cover, and the young detective wedged his small form comfortably between an empty packing crate and a batch of used wooden pallets.

"***crzzzzz***crackle, crack!*** There he is--- he looks nervous--- he's heading your way now, Conan-kun---" That was Rin. The boy drew himself even further back into his niche.

His first sight of their quarry was the butt of a fishing pole, held downwards and at an angle that allowed it to be propped across Nodomo-san's shoulder. *Stupid--- it's a sectional pole--- why doesn't he take it apart? Much easier to carry it that way. He must not fish much.* The brief glimpse that he caught of the man's profile told him very little, save that he did not look like someone planning a relaxed bit of sunset fishing in a park.

In fact.....

..... he had looked terrified. Desperate.

Like a man who had lost the only thing of value in his life, and who would do anything to get it back..... anything at all.....

Conan felt himself grow still, felt his jaw clench in determination and growing anger. *Don't worry, Toshiro-kun; we'll find you soon.* He brought his badge close to his lips. "Rin-kun, Genta, Mitsuhiko, Ayumi--- he's heading for the park. Follow, but… slowly."

Tucking his skateboard under one arm, Kudo Shinichi set off in careful pursuit.

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

(Five hours or so later, he lay on his back and stared into the dark, remembering…..)

It hadn't exactly been the hardest bit of shadowing that he had ever done; the man's lack of paranoia was almost refreshing. Nodomo-san had quite simply been so focused on the task at hand that very, very little else was worth paying attention to… and that included a small hoard of pint-sized detectives. Especially ones who had watched his actions while hanging upside down from the monkey-bars.

(It had all been so quick; in and out, and more pieces had been added to the puzzle…..)

"He's…. fishing? But I didn't see him bait a hook or attach a lure or anything---" Her hair dangling below, Rin had turned a puzzled, inverted face to Conan's own. The boy's eyes were fixed on Nodomo-san's movements; moments before the man had sat down on the shore of the park's small pond, arranging a number of items from the bucket on the ground beside him.

*Must be a popular spot for fish….. that's exactly where Mitsuhiko and Genta said they saw somebody fishing the other day. Come to think of it, they said something about the fisherman leaving something in a PVC pipe, too; we took a look at it, there were all those scratches along the inside of the pipe….. Was that really only a couple of days ago? Seems more like weeks.*

Beside him the other children stared, unusually quiet; that wasn't good. Quiet was different, quiet stood out--- but at about that time Mitsuhiko's urge to climb to the top of the monkey-bars apparently overpowered his good sense, and he stepped on Genta's hand as he swung up. With a yelp, the larger boy clambered after him; Conan relaxed. *Good; background cover. Couldn't have asked for better.*

Ayumi flipped over to drop onto the ground. "He's not catching any fish… but he brought an awful lot of stuff with him, didn't he? I wonder why?" She frowned, toeing the dust with one tennishoe. "And he keeps fidgeting with it….."

She was right. Very little attention was being paid to fishing, though the pole's line dangled listlessly in the water; instead, Nodomo-san's hands were furtively moving the items around beside him on the ground, shuffling them, scooting one past another---

---but *now* he seemed to be particular about how the pole sat, shifting it, seating it first forward, then back---

*…WAIT a second….. The pipe; he's not moving equipment around--- he's putting something inside the pipe! It's too dark to see whatever it is, but he's using the butt of the pole to shove it backwards in through the opening! Something long and not too thick….. GOT you, Nodomo-san! Now: what have we got, actually? Must be some sort of a drop-off. I wonder who's going to be the pickup man?*

They didn't have to wait very long to find out. Barely ten minutes after he had arrived, the supply clerk was packing his fishing equipment up--- and this time he broke the pole down into its sections, strapping them together for carrying. He slowly rose to his feet, brushing off his clothes and stowing the rod in the bucket he was carrying (a bucket which, Conan would bet, was a lot lighter now); as he climbed the low slope of the bank Nodomo-san's steps faltered, and he looked behind him…..

….. at another fisherman, who was even now calmly walking across towards the pond from the far side of the park.

For one long, long second, the clerk hesitated; Conan heard Ran draw in a sharp breath beside him at the look of longing and agony that drew deep creases down Nodomo-san's face. He paused, half-turned; the other man kept walking: short, choppy steps that bounced the bucket he carried…..

The second ended; Nodomo-san faltered and turned away, hurrying up the bank and across the park towards his home as if pursued by all the Furies.

(Conan closed his eyes, remembering the pain in the man's face as he blindly passed by…..)

*Crunch*Crunch*Crunch*….. The shorter, stockier man's footsteps seemed oddly loud on the late-summer grass, as if he were stomping the world down into submission with his fisherman's boots. Unlike Nodomo-san, he took the time to glare at the children playing on the park's equipment (by now Genta and Mitsuhiko were clambering across the top of the Jungle Gym, risking life and limb with an impromptu demonstration of How Gravity Works (i.e., they were falling off a lot)). The last rays of light from the setting sun dyed everything a faintly crimson hue, and Conan felt his throat catch as he recognized the sour-faced fisherman who was now taking the place that Nodomo-san had so recently held….

"…the restaurant… he's the bad-tempered man from the other table---" whispered Rin, still hanging upside down beside him. The boy nodded a grim, inverted nod. Beside them both Ayumi wrinkled her brow. "He looks nasty," she offered, her voice subdued.

As if he had heard her, the man's head swung around menacingly; she squeaked, drawing closer to Conan. The boy flipped over, dropping beside the child and casually stepping in front of her quaking form. "C'mon, Ayumi-chan, Rin-kun--- let's go play on the swings!" he said in his brightest "little boy" voice; silently Rin pulled herself up to drop off the bars onto the ground beside him, and the two of them moved quickly away on either side of Ayumi.

Behind them the man stared narrow-eyed after their retreating forms; paranoia produced a sheen of sweat across his brow, and his fists tightened around his fishing rod. "Go play in traffic, you little brats….." he whispered at their retreating backs.

(His eyes had been so full of venom; what kind of thought produced that sort of-- of wrongness? The boy shivered, half-asleep, and he pulled the covers tighter around him in the dark…..)

Conan could feel Ayumi quivering slightly against his shoulder; on her other side, Rin watched with concern. "Are you okay, Ayumi-chan?" It was Ran rather than Rin who reached across to hug her young friend's shoulders, the maternal instincts of her older self showing through; she brushed the dark hair back from the child's forehead and Ayumi nodded. "I'm okay; he's just a scary man. I know who he is, too--- I wasn't sure at first, but---"

As gently as possible, Conan broke in. "Who is he, Ayumi-kun?"

Genta and Mitsuhiko came pounding up beside them at this moment, out of breath and red-faced. "That's the GROUCH (gasp, gasp) we saw out here (pant, gasp) last week--- he was fishing then (pant, pant, pant) too… You know him, Ayumi-kun?" Genta fanned at his round face with one oversized hand, while Mitsuhiko stared after the fisherman with furrowed brows.

The man glanced their way one more time; his face darkened, and he began gathering up his equipment to leave.

Ayumi blinked. "I remember him from school--- he teaches science and stuff like that to the big kids in the South hall; you remember, Mitsuhiko-kun? He wouldn't let you look at those yucky things he keeps in his lab---"

The freckled boy's eyes opened wide. "Riiiiiight!! He's got all these jars with dead animals in 'em, 'specimen jars' Teyumi-kun said they were called, and there's supposed to be one with a two-headed kitten in it and I just wanted to see it and he was really mean about it and told me to go back to the playground and leave him alone--- I didn't recognize him either, Ayumi-kun! That was smart---"

Conan rounded on them both then, glaring. "For crying out loud, never mind that! Who is he??" The snap in his voice made them falter and blink at him, and Rin placed a calming hand on his shoulder.

Looking a little hurt, Ayumi stuck out her lower lip. "You didn't need to yell at me, Conan-kun….. I think his name is Ojiwa-san, and he teaches at our school." Beside her Mitsuhiko nodded enthusiastically. Genta looked puzzled, but fell in with the small group as they began walking towards the park's main gate.

*Ojiwa-san….. so that's your name.*

The man had left on foot as well; a stop on the way home at the telephone booth outside the park produced only one 'Ojiwa' within the directory that lived within walking distance: Ojiwa Ryu, instructor.

*And if we checked the pipe right now, it'd be empty; no doubt about that. So Nodomo-san brings something in, hides it in the pipe and leaves; then Ojiwa-sensei sits down to fish, picks it up, and leaves. But… he was heading north of the park, and he lives to the west; I wonder where he was going next? Should we follow him?*

No….. It was way past time to head home; much later and he'd have three sets of worried parents tearing burning a hole in the Mouri's telephone lines, wondering where their kids were. It was likely the pickup item was being moved to another drop-off point; that was interesting, but it didn't do Toshiro-kun much good. Still…..

What was it? Laundered money? No, not bulky enough. Drugs? Possibly….. What was it that Toshiro-kun had said early on?

(The boy turned over restlessly, soft echoes of words haunting him…..'I found out… about the bad stuff. Daddy said not to look, but I did… Don't let him get you…..')

*'Don't let him get you'….. Who 'got' you, Toshiro-kun? Was it Ojiwa-san? I keep thinking about that bloody flashlight…..*

The walk home was relatively quiet. The kids discussed the case in their own ways (Mitsuhiko was sure it had something to do with the specimen jars--- it was a beautifully gruesome notion, and he was unwilling to let go of it) while Rin and Conan held their piece. Unthinking, Rin had slid one hand into Conan's for comfort, until the giggling behind them made her turn a rather adult-like glare on the two schoolboys. Genta and Mitsuhiko gulped, then quieted down save for the occasional snicker.

It was dark by now, so rather than splitting up the kids walked each other home. Ayumi's apartment was the last stop; as she turned towards the entrance, she looked back at Conan. Her young eyes were clouded with worry and the smallest touch of fear. "He's not a very nice man, is he, Conan-kun?"

His own eyes locked on hers, and beside him he could feel Rin shiver slightly.

"No….. No, Ayumi-kun; I don't think he's a very nice man at all."

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

(and now the boy was sinking deeper; sleep closed over his head like still, dark waters, drawing him down and down and down into dreams…..)

….. "Shinichi? Hey, Shinichi?"

He looked around, bewildered. The amusement park was as deserted as always, but it had never looked so… cold before, so abandoned. It felt….. odd.

Where was his other self?

He felt the shadow loom over him before he saw who cast it, felt the young man that was his other half come up behind him. "Right here----- hey; does the park look *different* to you tonight? Or is it just me?" Shinichi moved up to sit beside him on a bench next to the Arcade; the lights blinked on and off in complicated patterns that seemed ever-so-slightly more subdued than usual.

"No…" The boy shivered; "…it's not just you. Something's wrong; something's different." He shifted uneasily. "It almost feels like we're not alone here….. but I don't think Ran's coming; it--- doesn't feel like that….."

Thunder growled angrily overhead; the wind was rising, pushing the shadows before it but leaving larger, darker ones in their place. Both selves raised their faces to the skies as a patter of rain began. "It's never rained here before for us, has it?" The boy sounded a little shaken. The older youth frowned, staring upwards silently.

Large and heavy, the first drops splashed on upturned glass lenses; Conan gasped, jerking back. Simultaneously Shinichi licked at his lips and choked, wiping his mouth hurriedly. In one instinctive move they huddled together beneath the Arcade's overhang, staring upwards in horror while droplets left dark marks on their clothing and their surroundings.

"The rain….."

"The rain's blood. It's blood. The sky is raining blood-----"

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

On his narrow bed, a little boy twisted in tormented dreams; one word escaped his lips, just barely audible in the darkened room: "…..blood….."

And not too far away, a stained piece of hallway plaster began to bleed once more…..

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

End of Chapter Five

Okay, I creeped myself out a bit there. That's what comes of finishing things after midnight while ferrets bite your socks and you're on a vanilla-icecream-high and you've been reading Becky Tailweaver's DC stuff (which, by the way, I HIGHLY recommend! Read! Read!) and Yami No Matsuei manga and who knows what else over the last hour….. Things are getting darker; I think the next chapter may cause some of you to want to bash ME over the head with something, but it has to be done. Sorry….. Hope you liked this one; I'll have Chapter Six ('Cold Comfort') up as soon as it's finished!………… Ysabet (and this time the chapter ran to more than 13,000 words. Sigh. Oh well…..)