/bows/ Sorry everyone, I've kinda been sitting on this chapter for several days now. I wish I could think of a good excuse, but all I have is the truth – I wanted to be as far along on the next chapter when I posted this one, as I was on this chapter when I posted the first one… /ducks out of the way of flying vegetables/ Luckily, I have made quite a bit of progress on chapter 3, and it will probably be along next week.
Once again, I don't own Detective Conan or Magic Kaito… and actually I don't really own the riddles that I'm using, either – they belong to my co-author, SailorRanger, and I couldn't thank him enough for his help in both writing those, and coming up with the list of treasures.
I'd also like to thank everyone that has reviewed so far. I don't think it will ever cease to amaze me how receptive the readers of the DC fanfics are.
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Chapter 2: Day Trip to the Museum
The next morning, Conan came into the kitchen with the sheet of paper in his hand. He set it down next to his plate, and started to eat the breakfast Ran had prepared for him. She came over to the table, sat down across from him, and started on her own meal.
"What's on that page," she asked while they ate. She already had a good idea what the answer would be, but she wanted the boy to tell it to her himself.
"Huh? Oh… this… I was just thinking about that message from Kid…" he replied. He looked down at his hastily scribbled notes.
She followed his eyes back down. "You must have done a lot of thinking…"
"Some… I've almost got it figured out, actually…"
"Really?"
He nodded. "There's a couple things I need to check out to be sure what they mean, but the thing that really got me was the last phrase." He lifted his head back up, looking at her with eyes that showed a level of conviction far too mature for a seven-year-old. "What do you think 'great world tour' means?"
She thought for a few seconds, to make sure she was really comfortable voicing her suspicions. "It might mean that we're in for a much busier summer than we planned…"
"That's what I was afraid of…" Conan mulled this over in his head while he finished his breakfast. When his dish was empty, he took it over to the sink and rinsed it off, and then walked over to the calendar.
"Conan-kun…?"
"I want to see what day the solstice is, so that I know how much time we have," he said without turning around.
"Oh."
Having gathered the information he seeked, Conan came back to the table. "Would you like to go to the museum with me today, Ran-neechan?"
"What for?"
He jotted down on the page what looked to her like a date. He looked back up at her with a childish smile that soon turned quite serious again. "The solstice is on the 20th this year, which means we still have some time to make a plan before the heist. If what you said is right, that this is the first in a series of heists Kid plans on conducting, then it's probably also the only one we're gonna really have enough time to plan for a counter-attack. By going there today, it gives us something interesting to do, but it will also give us a chance to get an advance look at the scene of the crime."
Ran was so used to the boy sounding over-intelligent for his age, that his slightly long-winded explanation didn't faze her. Instead, she nodded, and then gave a smile of her own. "A trip to the museum sounds like fun. I'll go get ready!"
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To onlookers, they seemed like a brother and sister out for an enriching day at the museum. The pair knew better, though. Yes, they came to the Baker Museum partially to just wander around and look at the art exhibits like everyone else, but they were also searching for something. Neither of them were quite sure what exactly they were looking for, except that it would be one of the weapons on display from one of the historical rebellions.
After a while, the girl turned to her small companion. "I imagine we haven't come across his quarry yet, or else you probably would have said something…"
"Yeah…" he replied, studying the map that showed which rooms had which exhibits in them. "We should be coming up to one of the rooms it might be in, though."
"Okay."
They walked around the corner and into the next room which was filled with suits of armor. They looked at each other and nodded. If there was any room in the museum where Kid would be able to cause a lot of confusion, this was it. They split up to look for the specific piece he said he would take. They carefully inspected the tags around the outside of the room before moving to the middle. Ran was able to move faster because of her height, so she made it towards the middle first. "Hey, Conan-kun! I think I found it!" She blushed when she remembered there were still other people in the room.
Conan joined her, and looked at the tag next to a particularly ornate suit of armor. "Takamori Saigo…" He read the rest of the short description before looking up at her. He followed her outstretched finger to a long sword hanging from the side of the suit. There were actually two swords – a long one and a shorter one, but he figured Kid would go for the longer one, because it looked like it was the more valuable of the two, although the difference was probably not that great. "That's definitely it," he finally commented.
"So… now what," Ran asked.
"I wonder if he told Nakamori-keibu…" Conan mused. He walked over to a nearby bench and clambered up onto it. Ran followed suit, except that she simply sat down next to him. He took out a pencil and started to draw on the map, trying to find different ways that Kid could get in and out of the building, let alone the room. He then remembered the other times he came into contact with the magician-thief, and his straight face turned into a scowl. 'I'm probably going about this all wrong,' he thought. 'This guy is a master of disguise. Even if I find all the possible escape routes, and ask the police to cover them, Kid will still be able to out-maneuver me. I need to get in touch with Nakamori-keibu, so that we don't make any stupid mistakes!'
Ran easily noticed the changes in Conan's mood. "Even if he hasn't, we probably still should… maybe especially if he hasn't… and Shinichi, too…"
Mentioning the name again broke Conan's concentration. "Huh," he asked.
His friend tried to stay patient with him. "Nakamori-keibu and Shinichi… I think we should make sure they know what's going on… Is everything alright?"
"Yeah… Let's get going, I don't think there's anything else we can accomplish by sitting here."
"Okay." She couldn't figure out which part exactly the 'yeah' was in response to, but for the time being it didn't matter. She could ask him again when they got home.
On the way home from the museum, Ran and Conan decided to pay a quick visit to the police station.
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Megure Juzo had no qualms showing his surprise at the kids' request. "Why do you need to get in touch with him? You know he's always busy trying to track down Kid."
"That's exactly why," Ran replied.
Conan took over the explanation. "We have some information that he may not have yet, and we want to give him a fighting chance at actually catching Kid this time."
The inspector found it hard to believe that Kid would contact them directly, seeing as how he had always gone through either Nakamori, the people he would be stealing from, or both. The pair sitting on the other side of his desk had proven themselves to be quite reliable, though, so he pulled out a piece of paper and a pen. "Don't come running back to me if he won't talk to you," he said as he flipped through his rolodex. "Also, don't do anything stupid."
Ran took the paper from him when he finished writing. She and Conan bowed when they left. "Thank you so much."
"You're welcome, and good luck."
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Mouri Kogoro lifted his head off his desk when he heard the door open, and then close again moments later. "Where have you two been all day?"
"At the museum…" Ran replied nonchalantly.
"You guys go there so often… maybe too often…"
Ran's patience with her father began to wane, but she wasn't ready yet to tell him the real reason for their trip. "I don't think there's such a thing as too often, and anyway, we had a very nice time. Boys like Conan-kun are hard to come by…" She motioned for the aforementioned young detective to follow her into the kitchen while she prepared their dinner.
Conan climbed up into one of the chairs at the kitchen table while Ran looked through the refrigerator. After a few moments, he decided to break the silence. "We're gonna have to tell him eventually…" he pointed out.
"We will; after we talk to Shinichi and Nakamori-keibu… How does beef stew sound?"
"Sounds great," the boy exclaimed, using a childish grin to welcome at least a little time that would hopefully prove to be less stressful.
Ran raised her eyebrows in surprise at his outburst, but the expression quickly softened into a smile of her own. "Good… You know, I was thinking… we should wait to talk to Nakamori-keibu until after talking to Shinichi."
"How do you know you'll hear from Shinichi-niichan first?"
"It's been a while since the last time he called…" She smirked. "I'm due for an update."
Conan pretended to study a spot on the table. 'She's right,' he thought. 'It has been a while since I called. I can wait until later, though… after ojisan passes out again.' He smiled at that last thought, amazed at how the man could go from drunk to sober so easily.
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End Chapter 2
A/N: Just a couple things this time: first, my use of the word "Baker" instead of "Beika" was completely intentional. Many places in the DC world are named after places in England, and I thought it would be more appropriate to use the true spelling, rather than going phonetically from English to Japanese and back again. Referencing the museum is probably the only instance where it would be an issue.
Second, Takamori Saigo was the real 'last samurai', so you can bet his suit of armor is incredibly valuable (just as a frame of reference, since everything Kid steals is valuable).
