I would like to apologize for the wait. This file has been sitting on my computer for at least a week now, and I haven't really had the time to add the author's notes until today. Also, the text editor was giving me some grief, which added an extra couple days until I regained enough patience to try again...
Anyway, submitted for your approval is the final chapter of House of Horrors.
After all this, how could you possibly think I own Detective Conan, huh?
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Chapter 6: Appeasement
Something was pulling Ran to the second floor of the house. She placed her foot on the bottom stair, but almost stopped when she realized she had never ventured from the ground floor before. Resolving that there was a first time for everything, though, she continued her ascent.
At the top of the stairs, she tried again. "Hello, is anybody here?" She noticed light spilling onto the floor part way down the hall and started to move toward it, not really sure what to expect.
Shinichi was so engrossed in deciding what to take with him, that he didn't hear her approach.
"Conan, what are you doing up here?" She smiled when he jumped at the sound of her voice.
He turned around towards her with a big childish grin plastered across his face. "Shinichi told me I could borrow some of his stuff. Don't worry, I'll bring it back!"
She was hesitant to let the boy take her friend's things, but it must have been alright if he had permission. "How did you know this was his room, anyway?"
"I don't know... I got separated from the others at one point, and this room was the only one that made sense." Just like all the other times, he got that tortured feeling of having to lie to her. It never ceased to amaze him when she believed the lines. "Professor Agasa is downstairs, at the kitchen table."
Ran looked around the room. There was no doubt in her mind it was Shinichi's. It was pretty sparsely decorated, except for the pictures of a few soccer players, and of course Inspector Clouseau and Sherlock Holmes. The bed sat unmade under the window, showing clearly how much of a hurry he was in the day he disappeared. On the desk, she saw a dusty magnifying glass, and there was a Holmes-style hat hanging on the wall above it. She smiled because she knew the two items never actually got any use, they were just for fun. The last thing her eyes landed on was the bookshelf. She was about to go look at some of the titles, when Conan brought her back to reality. She turned to him and smiled.
The young detective stood, holding a plastic grocery bag with a few things in it. "I'm ready to go back downstairs now. I want to get a couple books out of the library, and then we should go home." He feigned a yawn for added effect.
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Ran folded her arms to stay warm on the walk back to the apartment. "So Conan, what books did you take?"
He opened the bag to make sure he had the right ones. "I grabbed a Sherlock Holmes story, and also the most recent book written by Shinichi's dad." He was surprised when she didn't react.
"Brushing up," she asked.
He put a hand to the back of his head and smiled. "Not really... just some casual reading."
Ran made it seem like she believed him. There were things she couldn't begin to fathom going on inside the boy's head, and he had made that obvious on several occasions. She couldn't ignore her suspicions, but something told her that bringing them out into the open again wasn't a really good idea either.
A few minutes later, the pair arrived at their destination.
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Around midnight, Conan snuck out of his room and went down to the nearby payphone. He fed it a couple coins and dialed an all-too familiar number.
A second later, Ran heard the phone ring. She picked up the cordless receiver from the side table, and went to sit on the window sill. She knew who it probably was, but still said hello as if it were a question.
"Hey Ran, how's it going," the voice asked cheerfully.
"Shinichi! You know, it's a good thing you called. Conan..."
He wouldn't let her finish. "...and his friends visited my house today. Don't worry, it's okay."
'How many times today have I been told not to worry?' It took Ran a moment to find her voice again. "How... did you know about that?"
"Conan happened to be at Professor Agasa's house when I called yesterday."
"Where on earth would they have gotten the idea that you were eaten by a monster?"
"I don't know, I bet there are a lot of silly stories floating around. I am Shinichi Kudo, after all..."
He could hear the slight irritation in her voice. "Yeah, well, they came running out of the house saying the so-called 'monster' was attacking Conan."
"They have no idea the kinds of monsters I'm really dealing with."
"Huh?"
"Oh, nothing! I just meant about the case I'm working on – the perps are real monsters."
"Oh... How soon are you coming home?"
Shinichi had been expecting this question, but it didn't mean he had come up with a good answer to it. "I... still don't know yet."
"Oh..." Ran replied dejectedly. She looked at the clock. "Hey, Shinichi, it's getting late, Come back soon, okay?"
"I'll try as hard as I can. Go get some rest."
"Okay. Goodnight Shinichi."
"Goodnight Ran."
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The next day, Conan found a surprise waiting for him at school. The other Detective Boys were hoping he'd be okay, but they weren't expecting him to have made it through completely unscathed. They rushed over to him as he walked through the classroom door.
"Conan, you're here!"
He looked around uneasily at their other classmates who had noticed the sudden outburst. "Yeah, why wouldn't I be?"
"We sure did underestimate Professor Agasa..." Mitsuhiko commented. The other two nodded in agreement.
Genta pulled two small pieces of glass out of his pocket. "Hey Conan, look what we found."
The smooth, clear objects seemed strangely familiar to the pint-sized detective. "Where did you get these?"
"We found them on the floor next to the big desk in the library in Shinichi's house," Ayumi explained with a smile.
Shinichi mentally slapped his forehead. 'Now I remember! These are the lenses I popped out of dad's glasses when I needed to fool Ran right after I was poisoned! Come on, think of an excuse to get them back!'
Mitsuhiko noticed something. "Hey, they look about the right size for your glasses, Conan..."
Conan acted like he didn't already know what they were. "Really?" He held one up and looked through it. 'Wow, that's strong... yup, these are definitely dad's.' It took him a few more seconds to think of what to say. "Um... I had just arrived in Tokyo when Shinichi disappeared – I was supposed to stay with him. I must have dropped them on my way out to go to Ran's apartment."
The conversation would have continued, except that the teacher came in and quieted everyone down so that class could start.
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After school, it resumed. "You were supposed to stay with Shinichi," Mitsuhiko asked. "That's so cool."
"Yeah," Conan replied. "I brought the extra pair of lenses in case these ones in my glasses broke. I should probably take them back to Professor Agasa so he can keep them in a safe place..."
Genta handed them over. "Yeah, that's probably a good idea."
There was only one more thing for Conan to do after he stowed the lenses in his backpack. "So, what should we do this afternoon," he asked.
"I wish we could keep investigating Shinichi's house," Mitsuhiko mused.
Conan tensed until he heard Ayumi's reaction to the suggestion. "As great as that would be, I don't think there's any time I was more scared than last night. We could have gotten seriously hurt, and I don't want there to be any chance of it happening again. Let's go play in the park for a while instead!"
Genta and Mitsuhiko seemed disappointed, but they weren't about to go over to the house alone. Conan relaxed as he followed his friends down the street. Another crisis had somehow been averted by the meitantei.
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End Chapter 6
End House of Horrors
A/N: So, that's it. I'm proud of myself for finishing, and I hope you are too. I'd like to take this opportunity to recognize all my reviewers:
YumeTakato, Night-Owl123, mysteriousangelgirl, neko, kristanite, Silver Sky Magician, fanfic lover, PRIVATE, Sailor Ranger, Keruha Digifox, caseclosed lover, mirXsan4eva, Paul Sheldon, you know who chan, Chou ni Natte, SimmyC, Mariko
Just as an aside, this wasn't meant to be a reveal/change-back type fic. It was just something a little twisted I came up with, and was basically supposed to fit in right after episode 20, meaning that at the end, no progress has really been made in the case Shinichi is really trying to solve...
I'm not sure if I should plug my next story now, because I don't know how long it'll take to get started, but I guess I can at least say I have something in the works that I'm co-writing (I couldn't do it without you!). So stay tuned!