1A/N: I know that my previous chapters haven't been very good, sorry! It's much easier to read fanfics then write them, but I'm hoping that this chapter will be better.
Also, I realize that my last two links haven't shown up, so I'll post them again at the end of this chapter if I can remember.
Finally, I'm so sorry! I wanted to post this days ago but I couldn't since the user login was down. すみません!
000
Jodie was positively delighted to have her favorite little tantei join her class. It actually gave her the warm fuzzies inside just thinking about it.
To Jodie, her position as an English teacher was one of her greatest joys. Sure, the FBI was undoubtedly interesting, and of course her personal reasons (video games) behind it were as important as ever, but nothing warmed her heart more than watching students suffer with hard homework, and of course teasing them in English that they hadn't learned yet was up there too. She was rather like the new Aoyama-sensei in that regard.
The Monday morning of Conan's initiation into her class found Jodie happily skipping (and humming ) through the halls of Teitan High towards the classroom that Aoyama was just leaving.
Jodie smiled a large bright smile and almost sung as she said, "Lovely Morning isn't Aoyama-san?" and promptly entered the room.
"Everybody up!" she announced brightly to the class. The students hastily followed her orders to begin the opening greeting.
"Konnichiwa, minnasan o genki desu ka?" she asked. The students bowed and in perfect unison replied, "Hai, genki desu!"
"Wonderful! Please take your seats. Now on to business, Cool Kid, get your butt up here." She said in English.
Conan, who had been attempting to hide behind the student in the desk in front of him groaned and trotted to the front of the class shooting the overly happy teacher a warning glare.
"Don't be like that, I won't bite." She said then bent down and whispered so only he could hear. "You know I'm not going to expose you, so try to enjoy yourself a little."
"That's easy for you to say," Conan grumbled back also in a low voice, "You're the one who came to Japan for the soul purpose of shorter arcade game lines. Not everyone can be so easy going."
"Hey! You know that's not true!" Jodie pouted playfully. Conan rolled his eyes.
Jodie straightened and cast a glance at her confused students.
"Just going over the class rules for young Conan-kun here," she said as way of explanation patting his head fondly. Conan smiled cutely to complete the act.
"Now Conan-kun, I want you to know that If you have any trouble with any assignments you can always ask for help. There are plenty of nice Oneechan's and Oniichan's here who would be very happy to answer any questions you have."
"Okay!" he answered happily. 'She's embarrassing me on purpose...'
000
The period went fairly well actually. Conan's initial worries wore off as the lesson progressed. Conan knew that Jodie wouldn't go any farther than teasing him. She was trustworthy in her own special way, plus, over the last month or so he and Jodie had reached a sort of friendship like state. They helped each other out and for the moment shared the same goal of bringing down the black organization.
The issue with Ran was much more pressing at that time anyway...
"Ran-chan, Conan-kun is amazing isn't he? How did he come to live with you anyway?" Conan looked up from his lunch upon hearing his name.
"Indeed, the little guy is quite amazing." Ran agreed, was it just him, or did Conan see an evil twinkle in her eye?
"He loves detective novels and solving mysteries." Ran continued, "I seem to be just surrounded by detectives don't I? What a coincidence!"
Conan winced.
"In answer to your question, the way we met happens to be the strangest thing of all. It was actually on the same day that Shinichi disappeared."
The girl who Ran was talking to looked quite interested indeed.
"I actually found him in Shinichi's house of all places. To this day, I still find myself wondering why he was there." She smirked evilly in Conan's direction and he quickly reverted his attention back to his food, hoping she hadn't caught him listening in on the conversation. The girl to whom Ran was talking seemed not to notice this.
"You know, now that I think of it, Conan-kun does look an awful lot like Kudou-kun, how funny!"
"Doesn't he though? Sometimes when he's around it actually feels like Shinichi is right next to me."
Ran's smirk widened as she picked up the sounds of muffled choking from the small boy a little ways away.
000
As the week progressed, Conan found that it was becoming increasingly hard to dodge Ran's attempts to make him slip up.
How she had become so sure of his identity was completely beyond the teen-turned-child. Sure, There had been the recent situations, but was that really all it took to set the karate champion back on high alert?
As he sat in the Mouri detective agency pondering this, there came a knock at the door.
Conan grumbled and got up from his half laying position on the couch to answer the door, shooting it a small glare as if to blame it for interrupting his well deserved laziness.
He opened said door to find a young woman gripping a large handbag nervously. She jumped slightly upon seeing him.
"Hello…is this…could this possibly be the agency of Meitantei Mouri-san?"
'I wonder why she's so jumpy…' Conan switched to happy-little-kid-mode.
"Yep! Please come in!" He chirped pleasantly stepping aside to allow the woman entry. "Have a seat and I'll fetch Kogoro-ojisan for you."
Conan went off to the living level of the building where he found the 'great detective' digging through the fridge for any potentially tasty afternoon munchies.
"What do you want brat?" He asked.
"There's a client here to see you."
"Tell them I'm busy."
Conan sighed.
"Too bad, she's kinda cute."
That got Kogoro's attention.
"Why didn't you say so? I mustn't keep a pretty lady waiting" he announced and quickly left the room without even bothering to close the fridge
000
"My name is Tanaka Mei, and I came to ask you to look into the disappearance of my brother…" The woman, Mei, said hesitantly.
"Brother?" Conan asked re-entering the room.
"Yes, his name is Tanaka Joutarou. He suddenly went missing on his way home from work. I was supposed to meet him for dinner to celebrate a recent scientific accomplishment of his. He's a medical doctor."
"Can you give me any more information? Like his age, what he looks like, or any other details from the night of his disappearance?"
Mei shifted uncomfortably
"He is 28, has rather short brown hair and blue eyes, and a pretty average build and height. I first thought that something might be wrong when he never showed up at the restaurant where we were to meet, but I wasn't positive he was missing until I found out that he hadn't shown up at his apartment for three days. I asked the apartment manager you see, and I also talked with some of his co-workers. They hadn't seen him since the original day when we were going to meet."
"How long ago was this?" Kogoro asked. "And have you considered the possibility that he might have taken some kind of vacation without telling anyone?"
"It was three weeks ago, and he always tells people when and where he is going whenever he leaves. Besides, he was supposed to meet me after all."
"Have you informed the police of his disappearance?" Conan interjected.
"Yes, they told me that they are still attempting to find him. I came here because of all of the good things that I have heard about this agency."
Kogoro fell into his trademarked idiot laugh and announced proudly, "Whatever you heard is right! I can solve any case, guaranteed!"
"Is there any reason for someone to want to kidnap your brother?" Conan asked, ignoring the still laughing Kogoro.
"Not that I can think of, unless it had something to do with his invention. He had just made a really important medical breakthrough in discovering a compound that, if treated under certain conditions, could possibly keep a person from aging as fast. That was the reason we were going to have a celebration. I remember him saying something about there possibly even being a way to reverse a person's aging process in a couple of years. Isn't that amazing?"
"Wow! Like a fountain of youth! I'll bet one could make millions- no billions with something like that!" Kogoro rubbed his hands together greedily. "How about we take a trip around the areas where Tanaka Joutarou-san could have been abducted?"
Conan's thoughts were running a mile a minute.
'An age altering compound, the abduction of a brilliant scientist, it has to be them! This is almost too perfect!' He thought eagerly. 'I need to inform Hiabara and Agasa-hakase immediately, but first, I'll need more information.'
Ran, who had been listening quietly all the while, spoke up.
"You should probably take care of that soon before any left over evidence is gone."
Conan agreed whole-heartedly with this suggestion. It was completely uncharacteristic for the organization to leave tracks, but even they must mess up sometimes right?
"Lead the way Miss," Kogoro instructed, pulling on a trench coat and heading out the door.
Conan made to follow them but was stopped by Ran.
"Where do you think you're going buddy?" She asked standing before him, fists firmly planted on her hips.
'Oh Kami! What timing!' He quickly tried to come up with some kind of excuse.
"Please let me go Ran-neechan! I wanna see Kogoro-ojisan solve a case!" Unfortunately, he wasn't very good at the art of excuses.
"You see him solving cases all the time, and this one is very important. Otousan needs his space to work," she stated sternly.
Ran watched carefully as Conan became desperate. She had a strange feeling that this case would answer all of her questions regarding the strange disappearance of her childhood friend and the appearance of this younger look-alike.
"I'm begging you Ran-neechan! Please please let me go!"
"Tell me why you want to go so badly?"
"I told you! It's because-"
"The real reason!" Conan felt like ripping his hair out. He was wasting precious time and this argument was getting him nowhere.
"Look Ran-neechan, you don't still believe that I'm Shinichi-niichan do you? That's impossible!" He attempted to dart around her but she was too quick. She grabbed his arm roughly then squatted down so she could look him straight in the eye. He tried to wriggle away, he needed to catch up to Kogoro, but Ran's karate induced strength kept him where he was.
"Tell me then Conan," She glared fiercely at him tightening her grip until it was actually starting to hurt.
"You run off solving cases, you're too smart for your age, you don't act like a little kid, and whenever I look into your eyes do you know what I see!" Her tone gradually rose until she was yelling.
"Please stop! Just let me go!"
"I see mystery! I see pain! I see wisdom, I see suffering!"
"Please!"
"Why Conan! What could somebody your age possibly have been through to make them look like that?"
"Ran-neechan!"
"Why do you refuse to tell me!"
"Ran-neechan!"
"Can't you trust me!"
"Ran!"
"Who are you?"
"I'm Conan! Edogawa Conan!" he yelped, "That's me now! I can't do anything unless you let me go!"
Ran's eyes widened and her jaw dropped slightly. She stared at him with a mixture of emotions then her expression went strangely blank, her death grip loosened.
Conan realized his slip too late.
000
Wheee! Yayness! I finally completed this chapter!
Anyway, here's the link. I have to separate the URL for it to appear.
http / manga . abildsoe . com/
You will find a manga called 'The Violinist Of Hameln' It's the funniest thing in the history of the world and beyond!
Thank you for all the wonderful reviews! huggles
I won't take as long with the next chapter! Promise!
Also, If you want to check it out, I have a myspace page. Feel free to comment! Actually I command that you comment!
http/ www . myspace . com / 18286480
I also have a live journal account where I might talk about the progress of this story. If you want to listen to the random thoughts of an insane person feel free to visit!
http/ akiri-chan . livejournal . com/
Like I said before, I might draw some pictures for this story. When I do I'll post a link!
じゃ ね！