Disclaimer: Anything I use from DC or MK belong to their respective owners. Other characters, however, such as Sandra Matono, belong to me.
One Truth
By: mysteriousangelgirl
Chapter 2: A New Ally
"You are my brother, Kudo."
The sentence kept repeating in Conan's ear. No....it can't be....it must be a joke.... His expression must have betrayed his shock because Kaito took one look at him and then began explaining.
"Okay, well, while I was researching, I found this hidden site, it was all accidental because I was surfing the net about info on, you know, the gem I'm going to steal, okay?"
"And...." Conan managed to croak out.
"And I came across this hidden site, it talked about a young boy, at the age of only 1, how he was found on the park benches in Tokyo. The person who found him, assuming they are the person who wrote that site, said they always wanted a child, but couldn't, and so they took the child and raised him as their own. They didn't know if the boy was left there, or lost there, and later, in the page, it said: 'If you know who this boy belongs to, please give him back to his rightful parents. Although it would be terrible to lose my only son, I would like for him to be happy with his real parents, if that is what he shall choose.' The message wasn't signed, but, it specified that to this site, after being read once, will automatically be destroyed, and then there was a link to the hospital in which they think the boy was born. I clicked on it and after searching through a whole bunch of files, there was one, that fit the young boy's description, and the names written on the mother and father line were........"
"Kuroba Meimi and Toichi?"
"How'd you....know?"
"Kuroba, you think I wouldn't be aware of who were my real parents?"
"You.....you know then......"
"How it all happened, no, but that I'm your brother, yes and that's all."
"I don't understand either, and I can't just confront my mom with this, plus the fact that my dad.....isn't here anymore....."
"Kuroba. Here, let me get this straight. You did research, and accidentally you found out about this boy's birth and adoption, let's call it that, okay?" Conan cleared his throat, but the lump in his throat just didn't go away. "And then you figure it must be me, because.......I don't know why, but you think it's me and then you come over here to tell me."
"Kudo, it has to be you. There's no one else. I checked hospital records; Kudo Shinichi was never 'born'. But Kuroba Shinichi was."
"Listen to me, and don't interrupt. I know that. I know my real name is Kuroba Shinichi and that your parents are really my parents, you think I hadn't figured that out by now?"
Kaito remained silent.
"When I first found out, it was looking through my parents files. I had never seen my birth certificate, didn't know if I even had one, but I was just cleaning, and then I found a disk. It was write-protected and it was buried so deep in the papers that it seemed like it wouldn't have been important. So I stuck it in the computer and voila! I see that page you saw about the boy. But the difference was that it was in a document, that had been deleted about a billion times already, but somehow it didn't delete properly."
"Then how did you know that was talking about you?"
"Well, dammit, it had my name on it!"
"But the site didn't mention....."
"Dammit, I meant on the document, it was saved as 'Shinichi's truth'. How could I have missed that?"
Kaito was silent again.
"And so I didn't know what to do. I was only ten, Kuroba!"
"I know, I know."
"So I did research, just like you did, found that site with your parents' names written as mine and then did research on them. After finding out about your dad, and all, well I was just, scared. I didn't know what to do. And that disk, with the document on it, erased itself, so I guess it was set to delete itself after being read. I thought, well if that's gone, and my parents never mention it, then I'll just forget about it. And I did. Until you brought it up again seven years later, right now."
"I'm sorry, Kudo. I didn't mean to do that, like ruin what you tried to forget, but I thought that you might want to know......and that since we're related by blood.....and that....maybe you'd understand me better........but......."
"Kuroba, nothing's going to change the way I think of you. I know what you've been through and I accept it, after all, I guess it happened to me, in an indirect way, too. But what I want to know......is why they just left me there to die, why my parents never said anything, why you never said anything, and why your mother never mentioned it to you."
"Kudo.....I don't know all the answers yet and this isn't something that can be solved tonight, or this morning. It'll take time. I think that....."
"I should go ask my parents first, and then you'll take me to see your mother and we'll sort everything out, right?" Conan managed a slight smile as he looked up at his brother.
Kaito grinned. Great minds do think alike. "Yeah, so since it's almost 2 now, you'll want to get home, so will I, and I'll see you around." Kaito hopped up from the bench in the park that the two of them had been sitting on, and ran off. He turned back once to see his true brother waving and grinning slightly. Kaito ran home with a smile on face.
-the next day, at Teitan Elementary School-
"Conan!" It was Ayumi whispering. "Teacher's coming."
Conan was half-asleep. Ehh??
"Edogawa-kun!"
"Mmm?" Conan blinked and looked up at the teacher who was glaring at him.
"That's the third time you've fallen asleep in math class today! Now since you think you don't need to pay attention, answer my questions!"
Conan stood up. "Okay."
Behind the teacher, Ayumi, Genta, and Mitsuhiko looked scared.
The teacher eyed him. He's smart, but he can't be that smart. How about some algebra? That'll stump him! "3x5x2x=100. How much is x?" The teacher smiled, knowing that a first grader could never come up with an answer and saw out of the corner of her eye, that all the students were staring, afraid the smartest kid in their class would fall prey to their teacher's questioning.
"X=10, teacher." Conan smiled. "Am I right?"
The teacher sputtered. How? How could he get that right? A first grader could never figure that out......Whatever, I'll test him again. "What's the square root of 25?"
"Five."
"Uhh......it's a right triangle, and one side equals 3, one side equals 4, what does the last side equal?"
"Five."
"Um......Uh.......what's 13 squared?"
"169."
"Umm....that's all for now....." The teacher sweat dropped as she walked back to the front of the room and resumed her teaching. All the students, except Haibara, were amazed. Conan put his head back down on the desk and was asleep again within seconds. The teacher eyed him, but didn't say anything.
-over at Kaito's school-
Kaito was sleeping in class like usual, where Aoko suddenly poked him in the ribs, causing him to blink. "Huh?"
"How come you're so tired, today? Usually you only sleep until science class, and it's already math class. You're not sick or anything, are you?" She whispered from her seat to the left of Kaito, glancing toward the teacher to make sure he was still lecturing the class.
"Nah.....just extra tired yesterday....." Kaito yawned and went back to sleep.
Aoko just looked at him, then turned back to the teacher to take notes. Akako glanced backwards from her seat diagonally in front of Kaito's and raised her eyebrows. Then she looked back at the teacher, to show that she was listening. Hakuba was quite bored, twirling his pen and looking at the teacher, and when Kaito went back to sleep, he glanced at the seat to the right of him, and blinked. Then he resumed his pen twirling and scribbling on paper. Nothing was said after that.
-after school, outside Teitan Elementary School-
"Conan! Wait up!!" the high-pitched child's voice called, as the short haired girl ran to catch up with Conan.
"What's up, Ayumi?"
"Well, I just wanted to tell you that, you were really cool today in class. Did you just guess the answers or did you peek at the answer sheet?"
"Well.........I guessed......" Conan said. They'll never believe that I already learned this stuff.....
"Oh! You're a good guesser then!!! Well, I have to go now, I have a doctor's appointment, I'll see you tomorrow, Conan-kun!!" She ran off, looking behind her and waving until she disappeared around a corner.
Conan sighed.
"So, tantei-san. Penny for your thoughts," a voice said behind him.
"No, even a million yen wouldn't cover it, Haibara."
"Oh, really?"
"Yeah....." He sighed again.
"Alright then. Well, I have to go back to Hagase's house and work on that antidote, you coming?"
"No, not yet. I'll come over tomorrow. Tonight, I....err, have some phone calls to make, okay? I'll see you!" Conan ran off, very aware of the person stalking him, and was trying to lure the person out.
As he neared the park, he suddenly changed directions and ran back the same way he had come. The stalker was taken by surprise and was trying to climb a fence and get away when Conan got near enough to him and shot a dart. The man, however, stopped climbing the fence and caught the dart between his fingers. He smiled. "So you finally caught up to me, huh?"
"Who the hell are you?"
"Someone you wouldn't care about, tantei-san." The man removed his sunglasses. He smiled down at Conan, as Conan's eyes widened.
"You......"
"Me what?"
"You......I don't know you......"
The man laughed and then grabbed Conan by the arm, causing him to go on alert again. Conan was just about to yell for help, when the man put a hand over his mouth and whispered, "Shh.....if you don't want to attract more attention than you already did, shut it." Something about the man told Conan not to panic, so he cooperated. The man picked him up and together they rounded a corner, and then another, and another, until Conan had absolutely no idea where he was. Just as he was going to bite the man's hand and ask him what's going on, the man let the hand over Conan's mouth drop, and he fumbled to open the black car's door. He finally got it open and shoved Conan inside and then shut the door. He ran around to the driver's side and let himself in. Just as Conan turned to him and was about to ask, "Where are you taking me?" the man said, "I'm not taking you anywhere," and started the car. He drove down the street for a while and then turned onto the freeway. Once they were coasting at about 80mi/hr, he finally glanced at Conan.
"You wonder where I'm going?"
"Well, dammit, that was what I was asking you about 20 minutes ago!"
"I'm not taking you anywhere, just driving around so we can talk."
"Talk? I don't even know who you are."
The man smiled. "You're not supposed to. So don't you wonder what I'm going to talk to you about? About your parents and your 'adoption' or your connection to the Kid and the organization?"
"How.....how did you know that?"
"Hey, it's not like I don't keep my targets bugged....." the man said as he reached over and plucked a small round bug from Conan backpack.
"Targets?" Conan tensed.
"I'm not from the organization, trust me."
"Then where are you from, and why would a guy like you, an agent, get caught by a kid like me?"
"For starters, I'm a woman, not a guy."
"What?"
"Hey, agents do have to go undercover."
"Agents? You're from the FBI."
"Yeah, what did ya expect?"
"But what about......"
"What about what, Kudo?"
"You sure know me well."
"Of course. I memorized your entire file before I was formally assigned to come and watch you."
"Watch me.....what for?"
"Don't you know you're being stalked?"
"Well, I thought that was you."
"Nope, it was someone else."
"From the organization?" Conan was surprised he was still so calm after being told that he had two stalkers.
"Can't tell for sure, but I suspect so."
"Then what are you doing here?"
"I was sent to protect you, whether your stalker is on your side or not."
"Then you know about my chat with Kuroba?"
"Of course, every word."
Conan groaned. And I thought that the stalker was gone. "Then......"
"By the way, name's Sandra. Sandra Matono."
"Matono? You're Japanese?"
"My father. My mom's Chinese."
"Oh. Then would you mind not talking in a girl's voice when you're still dressed as a guy?"
Sandra smiled and ripped off her mask along with the hat she had been wearing. Her long brown hair fell to their normal shoulder length. Then she yanked off her shirt, along with her pants, to show that she had a black dress on underneath. "Better?"
"Yeah...."
"Okay, back down to business." Sandra whipped out a FBI badge and showed it to Conan. "There's proof. Now comes the explaining."
"What explaining?"
"Hang on, can you hand me that black jacket in the back seat?" Sandra asked, pointing to the jacket behind Conan's chair.
Conan grabbed it and handed it to her. Sandra put it on, letting go of the wheel with both hands, causing Conan to raise his eyebrows. "And you're sure you won't get into an accident, first?"
"Nah.....and about explaining.....it's about what you have to do. I have to bug you, whether you want me to or not, it's safer and then I'm going to trace you for a while." Sandra exited the highway and then made a U-turn onto the highway going the opposite way, back the direction which they came from, and then began speaking again. "And so.........shit!" Sandra had glanced in the rearview mirror and caught sight of another black chair right behind them.
"What?" Conan looked and when he sat back down, asked, "Is....is it....them?"
"Them as in the organization, yes, but they're just trying to get me, not you, so chill." Sandra whipped the wheel to the left, making a sharp turn behind a pickup truck and then floored the accelerator, shooting the small black car's speed up to 90mi/hr.
"But how do you know it's them? Your car's black too."
"Which is exactly why I know it's them. I'm the only agent that drives a black car, because I usually work at night, but you're a special case and I didn't have time to get a new car, and you also know that they are one of the only people who drives those antique cars, right?" Sandra made another sharp turn onto the shoulder to pass the row of cars moving at like 20mi/hr. The second black car followed.
Sandra glanced in the mirror again and said, "Kudo, we're going to be on a chase for a while, so buckle up and keep your head down. If they don't know you're here, then it's safer, since there's still the chance that your stalker is in that car." After said, Sandra pressed the accelerator down farther, making their record speed 100mi/hr.
Conan crossed his arms and looked over at Sandra. "Now since I'll be here for a while, can you let me make a call home so my neesan doesn't worry herself too much?"
Sandra managed a grin. "No, let me handle that." With that she got out a cell phone from inside her black jacket and dialed.
She knows the agency's phone too?? Conan thought as Sandra held the cell phone to her ear with one hand and with other, turned the car in a 360 turn and shooting the car down the highway against traffic. The black car trailing Sandra had not expected that and so they turned to the left, crashing into the railing, as Sandra's car shot past it. Just ahead was an exit (actually just a ramp to get ON the highway, but she's going the wrong way), so Sandra flew up the ramp, and landed on the right side of the street. Then she lowered the speed to 45mi/hr and said, "Hello?" into the cell phone, as Ran must have just got home and picked up.
"Hello, Ran-neesan?" Sandra said, imitating Conan's voice with absolutely no flaw.
"Yes, I'm fine, it's just that today, I might be a bit late coming home because I'm......" Sandra trailed off, stopping at a stop sign and then turning left onto a street that Conan's never seen before.
Conan could just tell that Ran was saying, "How come?" because Sandra answered, "Well, you see, I met this lady, she's this teacher, and I've been having trouble with math, so she wanted to help me and it might take a while.....so.....uhh......"
There was pause as Sandra listened to the response. Then she grinned as she said, "Okay, then, I'll be sure to be back by 9, okay? Alright, bye, Ran-neesan!" Sandra hung up with the grin still shining as Conan glared at her.
"It's not very nice for you people to imitate other people's voices, you know."
"I know, it's just, well, I do have to practice to maintain those skills you know." Sandra stopped in front of a warehouse. "Come on," she said, as she got out of the car. Conan followed reluctantly. As they entered through the back door, a soft clicking noise brought Conan back to alert. He glanced around, still following Sandra in the dark, but couldn't see anything.
Sandra stopped, reached down and picked Conan up. She fiddled with his watch and turned on the light. Then, stilling holding his arm, she flashed the light around. Then she turned off the light, before Conan could catch anything, and dropped his arm.
"Computer, voice recognition, agent Sandra Matono," she said. A red light above her head flashed and a door, to the left of where they had come in from, swung open and Sandra half-dragged Conan through. After they had gotten through the doorway, the door slammed shut, and Sandra pressed her right thumb into a specific brick on the right. The brick lit up, and a blue beam ran from the top to the bottom, scanning her fingerprint. Another door opened and the two hurried through it. The door slammed shut behind them too, and a light above them lit up.
Conan glanced around and saw a big empty room with about a million stacks of paper and computers lined against the wall. There was only one computer, somewhere near the left, that was on.
"So, Kudo," Sandra said, glancing at her watch that read 7:10 and then walked over to the only computer on. "You ready?" She beckoned for him to pull a chair over and he did so.
As he sat down, and Sandra began some downloading program, he said, "Ready for what?"
"Well, to hack the organization's files and to get the antidote and a whole ton of other info that you and I need!"
Conan's eye grew wide as the words sunk in. "What did you say? Say it again."
Sandra stopped typing and clicking to look at the boy. What? Does he not want to? "I said, we are going to hack the organization's files, get the info needed for an antidote for ATPX4869, and anything else that will help in bringing those men down...." Sandra trailed off, not knowing what to expect from Conan.
Conan stared at her and then smiled. "Bring it on."
-to be continued-
Okay, I know this is sort of drifting off about the connection between Kaito and Conan, but I'll find a way to get it together, hopefully. I'm terribly sorry it took so long to update, I had it all written, but I moved recently, and there's no internet access at my new house yet, so I couldn't upload this. Anyway, I hope you liked it so far and please review!!!!