File 12: Homecoming and Impact


What frustrates us and robs our lives of joy is the absence of meaning. Our lives go on day after day. They may be successful or unsuccessful, full of pleasure or full of worry. But do they mean anything? …Would our disappearance leave the world poorer or just less crowded?

-Rabbi Harold Kushner

What I do today is important because I am exchanging a day of my life for it.

-Author unknown


Ran walked out of the school after a long, and rather embarrassing, day. All day she and Shinichi had been hounded and grinned at with knowing smiles. After lunch, the two of them discovered that one of the school busybodies had seen them leaving the restaurant together. Ran shook her head as she sighed to herself.

What a day, Ran thought.

Springing up right in front of Ran, Sonoko squealed with a rabid look on her face, "Tell me! Tell me!"

"ACK!" Ran jumped. "Sonoko, you don't have to scare me half to death!" she said watching her friend bounce up and down like a crazed rabbit.

Sonoko, babbling about wanting the all the 'sordid details', grabbed Ran's arm and started to drag her away from the school. The look on her face said that almost nothing would stop her from getting the information she wanted.

"Hey! Sonoko! Where are you taking Ran?" yelled a familiar voice.

Sonoko stopped and turned around to see Shinichi standing a few yards away. "Ohohohohoho," laughed Sonoko. "I'm just going to have some girl talk with Ran. You can't come," she said at his questioning glance.

Shinichi felt helpless in the wake of Sonoko's information collecting warpath as Ran threw back a 'Help me!' look back at him.

Two guys from Shinichi and Ran's class walked up and gave him a hardy thump on the back. "Hey, Kudo-kun. Why don't you tell us about your date last night?" they grinned malevolently.

Giving an 'uh-oh' look, he quickly fabricated a lie, "Uh…sorry, but I need to finish unpacking and getting the house livable. I've been out of town for a while." He comically shot off in the direction of his home but in reality was intending to go to Professor Agasa's home.

Intent was the keyword but that was until he saw three familiar, if seemingly shorter, figures walking towards him. He could hear them arguing about something but they were speaking too fast for him to understand what they were saying. The children didn't notice Shinichi until he was standing right in front of them as they about ran into him.

"Ack!" said Genta, as he came closest to barreling into Shinichi, due to his greater mass in relation to his friends.

The three of them yelled in surprise "Shinichi-niisan!" slightly out of sync with each other. Relative silence reigned for a few moments before Genta abruptly asked, "When'd did'ja get back?" Grinning slyly he added, "Did Ran-neechan beat you up like I heard her say she would when you came back?"

Feeling relived that Ran had not carried through with that threat, Shinichi replied, "She didn't and…two days ago. So…where are you going?"

Looking somewhat down Ayumi answered, "Well, we were going to get Ai-chan to play but she and the professor aren't home."

Well, I guess I won't be visiting the professor for a while, Shinichi thought, murmuring sympathetically to the kids.

Mitsuhiko picked up for Ayumi. "We're looking for a haunted house. And we wanted to see if she wanted to come, right?" he said turning he looked at his friends for confirmation. Nodding they agreed.

"But…," added Ayumi sadly, scuffing a foot on the ground, "we don't know where any close ones are."

"Hmmm," said Shinichi, thoughtfully.

The three children looked hopefully at there 'niisan' with begging puppy eyes, wanting to know what he was thinking. He appeared be considering something.

Heh, he laughed internally, bet they'd love to go to my house…they thought it I was haunted a while ago. Speaking he told them, "I don't know where any haunted houses are but if you want you can come to my house."

"Cool!" said Genta. "Where do ya live?"

Evasively, Shinichi said, "Really close to the professor's."

"Awww man…that means we haftta go back," grumbled Genta kicking a pebble that was on the ground.

Shinichi walked slower than usual so the Detective Boys would not be left behind. He remembered all too well having to walk quickly to keep up with adults who did not realize how fast they walked.

"What's your house like?" asked Mitsuhiko curiously.

"Well, it's pretty big…it has a library…um, and all the other things normal houses have. It's also pretty empty because it's just me living there."

"Do you have good science books?" Mitsuhiko inquired.

"Some, but most of them are probably over your head," Shinichi said absent-mindedly.

"How boring," said Genta. "I'd rather have food."

"I'm sure you would," Shinichi muttered under his breath.

"What'd you say?" asked Genta.

Thinking quickly, Shinichi said, "I was just wondering to myself how you guys are doing?"

Genta and Mitsuhiko looked at each other and shrugged their shoulders. Ayumi looked up at Shinichi and asked in a puzzled voice, "Doing? What do you mean, Shinichi-niisan?"

Oops, thought Shinichi sarcastically, why don't I go from creating one problem for myself to another? "Uh…nothing. I'm not really thinking about what I'm saying."

By now they had just passed the professor's house and were coming up to walled and gated home of Shinichi Kudo. Shinichi paused at the gate to unlock. Walking into the yard, he felt that he was alone. Looking behind, he saw that Genta, Mitsuhiko and Ayumi were standing in the entrance with surprise written on their faces and a little nervousness.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

Looking at each other, the boys laughing nervously, and Ayumi looking a little embarrassed, they said in unison, "Nothing."

Shinichi knew they were remembering the time they thought that his house was haunted and he was haunting it. Grinning deviously, he said, "It's alright to come in. It's not like the house is haunted or anything." Watching their embarrassed movements and expressions, he knew he had hit the mark.

Turning away, he saw the surprise and embarrassment change to sadness. Shinichi immediately turned back around and walked to them. He knelt in front of them and put a comforting hand on Ayumi's shoulder because she was the saddest looking.

"What's wrong?" Shinichi asked.

Ayumi sniffed a little. She looked at Shinichi but could not say anything. Shinichi carefully lead the three children into the house even though they had not said anything. He walked into the kitchen, grabbed a four glasses and a pitcher of lemonade and returned to the living room where he had them sit.

Sitting down opposite, he poured lemonade into each glass and handed one to each child in silence. He gave them a few minutes to drink their lemonade and to calm down. Then he asked again.

"What's wrong?"

Mitsuhiko took the lead, feeling that since he was the most scientific he could offer the most logical explanation. "One time, after we found a house that wasn't really haunted, we kinda came over here. Only Conan-kun didn't want to come. He thought it was stupid or something."

"Yeah," agreed Genta.

Awww crap! Shinichi thought, grimacing. I completely forgot about that staying here might make them think of Conan. All I've done is bring up unhappy memories.

Silence reigned in the room for a few minutes while Ayumi, Mitsuhiko and Genta began to look a little less sad, which they then began looking around the room. Shinichi could see curiosity beginning to glow in there eyes.

"So…," he said getting their attention, "Would you like to look around?"

"Yep!" they said all nodding enthusiastically.

Wandering around on the first floor the Detective Boys showed off their detecting prowess by making good observations. Some observations were a little to close for comfort for Shinichi. In the kitchen, Genta, being the tallest, noticed that there was a lot of trash in the trashcan for someone who had only been there two or so days.

Shinichi, looking desperately for a good excuse, said, "The professor kinda knew I was coming back and as a joke he'd thought it would be funny to dump some of his trash here."

In the laundry room, Ayumi noticed that there was too much laundry if he had done it when he had gotten back and too little if he had not done the laundry yet.

This time, he said, managing to look embarrassed, "Uh…well…you see…I kind of ran out of…underwear only a couple of days before I was going to come back so I did a lot of laundry then."

Accepting these answers, the children moved on to other rooms and the upstairs. After about another hour they said they had to go home.

"Thank you for showing us around, Shinichi-niisan," Ayumi said happily.

"You're pretty cool," added Genta.

Mitsuhiko, with an armful of books, said, "Thank you for letting me borrow these science books."

"No problem," Shinichi said as he walked them to the door. He watched Mitsuhiko closely to make sure he could actually carry the books he was borrowing. Satisfied he could manage he asked the question that had been bugging him since the Detective Boys showed off their observational skills.

"How'd you figure all that stuff, like the garbage and laundry?"

"Well…," Ayumi paused to think, "I just thought to myself 'what would Conan-kun notice?' and I watch my mom do laundry a lot."

Genta said, "My mom's always complaining about how the trash always fills up like magic in only a couple of days and your trashcan is really full." Genta muttered to himself, but his muttering is much like normal speech so everyone heard, "And I was thinking the same thing as Ayumi about Conan-kun."

Grinning to himself, Shinichi told them they could come by again sometime and they were welcome to share their observations with him.

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Shinichi and Ran walked to Shinichi's house after school the next day. They were both blushing slightly. Ran was blushing because Shinichi was holding her hand, in public. Shinichi was blushing because Ran was letting him hold her hand.

Quietly, so no one had the chance to overhear, Ran said, "I'm glad nobody knows you proposed to me, otherwise I'd never hear the end of it."

"Heh," Shinichi laughed nervously.

As the pair walked along the sidewalk, they heard a car slow down and almost stop right next to them, looking over at the car, they saw the grinning face of Inspector Megure through the now open window. "Good afternoon, Kudo-kun, Ran-kun!" Megure said.

"Good afternoon, Inspector," said Shinichi. Ran bobbed her head in a greeting.

Shinichi and Ran shifted nervously because Megure was smiling at them oddly. "What's up?" Shinichi asked, hoping to find out.

Megure nodded his head at their hands. They quickly let go when they realized they were still holding hands. Megure's grin dropped from his face as he remembered why he wanted to talk to Shinichi.

"Ah, Kudo-kun?" he said, "Could you come down to the station in the next couple of days? I have some questions I'd like to clear up about a couple of the cases you've helped on."

Shinichi, glad that Megure was no longer paying attention to the growing relationship between himself and Ran, readily agreed to come in the next afternoon.

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The following day, Shinichi carried through with his word, arriving at the police station after school. Walking through the doors, he was greeted by nearly every officer in the room. Internally he was shifting uncomfortably. He was not used to the attention being showered on him.

Thinking to himself, sure is a change from the attention I receive when I was Conan. That attention was for a bright boy, not a respected young man.

Intending to go to Megure's office, he began the tortuous process of wading through the officers exuberant greetings. Finally breaking away as he made it to the hall, he was sidetracked by a sad looking Takagi and a concerned Sato.

Getting their attention, he asked, "What's wrong?"

"It's the case involving Conan-kun and Mouri-san," Takagi said dejectedly. "It's so frustrating. We can't seem to go anywhere with the investigation. It's at a dead end."

Sato looked at Shinichi, remembering his relationship to both parties and his deductive skills, decided to tell him some detail though doing so was not quite by the book. "It's not that we don't have clues. It's more like…who ever is responsible is so elusive. We have almost no information on those responsible."

Takagi spoke next, "This case, in some ways, would be better handled by the Federal (1) investigators but…I don't think they know much, either. The people, we do know it probably is more than one individual, operate completely differently than any Japanese criminal or organization that we've hunted for. Another organization, like the FBI could handle this case better."

Shinichi felt very awkward. Should I tell them what I know? I don't know how much it would help them. I guess I could tell them it's the same group that drove me into hiding for the past year or so. "Ah…well…I know a bit about the group you are talking about," Shinichi said quietly.

"You do?" he heard a voice say with surprise and urgency behind him. Turning, he saw Inspector Megure.

"Yeah…but I don't know if the information will help you at all." The four of them moved into Megure's office. "I am fairly certain the people responsible are part of an international crime syndicate. I saw a couple of there…operatives making a transaction last year. They saw me and I've spent the last year hiding and finding out more about them. Actually, they tried to kill me but didn't quite succeed. I didn't want my involvement in the cases over the past year to be known because I didn't want them to know I was okay."

"Oh my god…" Takagi said breathlessly.

"Why didn't you say anything," Megure almost whispered still in shock from the information he had learned.

"Pride. I wanted to take care of things myself. Only it's too big for any small group."

Sato looked thoughtful, "International…we could put inquiries into Interpol and maybe the FBI."

Megure shook Shinichi's hand enthusiastically. "Thank you so much, Kudo-kun. What you just told us is a tremendous help." He then looked more serious, "If you ever need help, come to us. You've helped us many times."

"Thanks, Inspector." Shinichi added, "Could you keep my name or involvement out of things? I'm still trying to keep a low profile."

"No problem, Kudo-kun."

Shinichi left the station after looking over some of the information. He looked back at the station and shook his head.

Guess that wasn't the smartest thing I could've done. Cops gossips as much as high school girls.

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The next day, Shinichi accompanied Ran into the hospital. His analytical mind was working out each problem afflicting the patients in the waiting room. He absentmindedly signed in on the visitor list, unconsciously acknowledging the recognition of his name from the nurse that was on duty and then wincing from it when he remembered he was trying to keep a low profile. He followed a silent Ran down the hall after disembarking from the elevator on the twenty-first floor.

Ran knocked on a door and said, "Hey, dad, it's me and Shinichi."

Shinichi and Ran could hear muffled mumbling and a women's voice shushing the muttering. Entering the room, Ran and Shinichi found Eri sitting with her husband.

She stood and turned to Kogoro and said, "Remember what I told you." Then she gave Ran a hug and greeted Shinichi as she left. Probably has a trial to attend, Shinichi thought.

"Hi dad," Ran said going up to her father and carefully hugging him.

He grumbled, "I'm not going to fall apart if you hug me a little harder."

"Dad…it's hard to give you a proper hug with that back brace on."

"Oh…heh heh," Kogoro laughed feeling abashed. He turned and glared at Shinichi. Ran admonished him, "Daaaaaaaad…don't glare at Shinichi. He only got back a couple of days ago. Besides, we aren't staying long. I just wanted to see how you were."

"Fine," he grunted.

"Well, your feeling well enough to be a pain, so I can leave," Ran said, turning and walking towards the door.

Shinichi turned to follow Ran when he heard Kogoro say, "Kudo, I need to tell you something."

Shinichi motioned for Ran to go on ahead to the elevator, "Yeah?"

Looking as if what he was about to say was extremely painful, Kogoro said, "I want you to look out for yourself, boy."

Shinichi gaped at Kogoro almost not believing what he was hearing.

"If something happened to you Ran would be very hurt. Even worse than when the bra…Conan-kun died."

Feeling a new kind of respect for Kogoro, Shinichi replied, "I intend to. And I'll look out for Ran, too."

"Good," was Kogoro's grim answer as Shinichi turned and left the room.


(1) I have no idea if there is a Japanese FBI. But I'm fairly certain they have something like it.

This was longer than I intended it to be. Oh well, that's the way things are sometimes. Always remember that I am looking for constructive criticism. I want to become a better writer and I can only do that if people tell me what I'm doing right or wrong and what I could do better.

I hate to admit that I'm losing my enthusiasm for this story but I am going to finish it on time. There are 3 chapters left. One is complete, waiting to be revised. Another is mostly done and the last chapter has hardly been worked on. Because I'll be moving back to school during that week the that the last chapter is supposed to go up, it may be up to a two week break between 14 and 15.

Posted: 8-4-04