A/N: Maybe it's a good thing that I go through these old chapters and rewrite them. Usually when I reread this fic I start from around chapter 25 or so... Anyways, I'd forgotten how I'd skipped about the entirety of the case itself. And Tsukiko's reaction to Eisuke's attempt to confess is different now. Previously, she was egging in on in order to mess up with Conan but I changed it. She eggs him on still but with a different motive. And I added some more dialogue from the actual manga to get more substance.

Chapter 18.

Eisuke was finally back. Looking pale and shivering, just like Tsukiko had expected. Though the reason was a bit ridiculous. The blonde girl checked the time from her watch. It was about the time for the phone call from the reception. After all the time they booked the karaoke room for, was at its end. Not to mention that soon after that call a scream would be heard when the receptionist would find the killed stalker.

"Rrrriing!" The phone on the wall rang. Eisuke tried to take the receiver but in his haste messed around and Sonoko grabbed it, pushing the clumsy boy aside.

"Ah, yes? …Eh? Oh! Is it that late already?! …Ah, we'll leave." Sonoko hung up the call then.

"Conan-kun, don't forget anything, okay?" Ran told the boy who nodded.

"Time to go? Well, I have to say I had much fun with you all. Thank you for inviting me." Tsukiko smiled. They were picking up their things when they heard the scream. Conan dashed from the room. Tsukiko suppressed a sigh. It was going to be a long day. She should probably call Jodie and tell her it would take a while. But not until she officially knew what was going on.

The police arrived. Megure, Takagi and Chiba. With Conan's help they narrowed the amount of suspects to three – or four if Eisuke was included. Tsukiko followed the proceedings attentively but silently.

"And who are you?" Megure asked from Tsukiko then. That's right, he already knew the other four but she was a new addition and wearing the same uniform than the other teens.

"Me? I'm Okiya Tsukiko. Nice to meet you, keibu-san." The blonde replied, trying hard not to stutter. The question had been quite sudden.

"She attends the same school with us." Sonoko added.

The reason for Eisuke's nervousness was found. Apparently he saw the two people in room four making out and thought they were both men. In the other hand, so did Megure and Takagi.

"How rude!" The other person from room four yelled. "I'm a woman!"

"Ah… Really…" Takagi stammered.

"This is rude…" Megure sweatdropped.

"Well, she also does body building so people mistake her for a men sometimes…" The dark skinned man and the woman's boyfriend explained.

"Oh… So it was like that." Eisuke sighed.

"Do you have something against same-sex pairs?" Tsukiko asked the boy. Because Gosho's approach to the topic was… dubious at best.

"No… The sight just startled me and…" Eisuke shook his head.

"You imagination took care of the rest?" The girl grinned, making the boy flush.

"Tsukiko-san!"

"But thank goodness!" Ran spoke up then. "You were acting so strange. I was worried about you!"

"You…" Eisuke blinked.

"Really… I'm glad."

"Y-Yeah… Thank goodness." The boy blushed again.

The case moved slowly to its conclusion. Conan used Sonoko to tell his deduction. The murderer, Honma Kyuota, had been looking for justice and killed his son's kidnapper and murderer. He was arrested and thus the high schoolers and the kid with them got to go home.

"Ah, it's already late. I forgot to call in the end…" Tsukiko dialed Jodie's number. She hoped the woman would answer as she vaguely remembered that Conan had tried calling her but the agent hadn't answered.

"Where are you?! I have been worried!" The answer came immediately. Jodie probably had carried her cell with her all the night since coming home.

"I'm sorry. I was singing karaoke with my friends when someone got murdered there. And…"

"Was Cool Kid there?"

"Yes…"

"I see. Come home quickly and tell me everything. You must be hungry."

"Yes… I'm on my way already."

"Good. Don't take any detours."

"I won't. Bye!"

"Bye."

"Who was that?" Eisuke asked when the call ended.

"Just... Someone who takes care of me and worries a lot." Tsukiko smiled smiled.

"I see…"

"Ano… Do you guys run into murders or other crimes often then?" Tsukiko decided to ask. "It was sort of weird how the inspector seemed to know all of you…"

"Yes. This is unfortunately common occurrence." Ran sighed. "Man, it turned out to be the worst welcome back party…"

"Yeah." Sonoko nodded.

"But I was really impressed!" Eisuke spoke up. "By Sonoko-san's detective show! It was like seeing Nemuri no Kogoro!

"Yeah! It was an amazing deduction, enough to surpass Shinichi!" Ran joined in, completely forgotten about the murder itself.

"Y-Yeah?" Sonoko sweat dropped a bit.

"C'mon, Suzuki-senpai. Don't tell us you don't remember a thing." Tsukiko joked.

"Well, o-of course I remember! What else would you expect from the Deduction Queen?" Sonoko rebuffed immediately, shrugging off the accusation.

"Nothing else." Tsukiko smiled and with a side-glance noticed the expression on Conan's face. He was suspecting something. Good…

Conan slowed down his pace a bit, his eye fixed on the back of one Okiya Tsukiko

"That girl… Does she know… who I am?" She frowned but shook his head. It was impossible. Not something to suspect since first meeting. But the way she'd treated him back at the hospital despite all the teasing… and just now she had known that Sonoko didn't remember anything she had 'deduced'.

"Or was her behavior due how FBI treated me? Anyways I have to keep an eye on her and find out how much she does know. Maybe this… insight is the reason why FBI is still suspicious about her."

"By Shinichi, do you mean high school detective Kudou Shinichi?" Eisuke asked, making Conan to tune back to the conversation.

"Yeah!" Sonoko grinned. "And also Ran's husband away from home!"

"So-Sonoko!" Ran protested, her face red.

"You're in a high school marriage?" Eisuke blushed too at the thought.

"Of course not! Not to a guy like him!" The karate champion denied.

"He's out of town because he got caught up in some case! It's a long distance marriage!" Sonoko waved off the protests.

"Wow…"

"I don't think that's quite correct." Tsukiko gave a lopsided smile to the two girls and Eisuke. "If they indeed were married, I'd heard of it already from Hanajima-san. Nothing gets past her normally."

"Oh yeah, there were some books I wanted to buy, so can go on ahead!" Conan spoke up then and took some running steps back towards the shopping district and the book store there.

"Eh… Right now?" Ran asked.

"It's alright! Tsukiko and I will go with him and walk him back to the Detective Agency then." Eisuke said and went after the boy. All formalities had dropped between him and the girl who jogged after the two boys.

"Matte! Don't decide things on your own, Eisuke." She shouted after them. "Bye then Mouri-senpai, Suzuki-senpai. See you tomorrow."

When the trio crossed the street and vanished from view, did the girls left behind speak up again.

"Those two go pretty well together. Right, Ran?" Sonoko giggled to Ran who sighed.

"Sonoko… Leave them be. They are just friends."

"Right now, yes. But who knows what will happen in future with them."

"So? What is it? Since you two came with me all this way…" Conan asked. "There's something you wanted to say, right?"

"Ask Eisuke." Tsukiko muttered, nodding her head to the boy's direction. "I'm just a tag along for obscure purposes."

"Yeah… I was thinking, and I've decided to go to America." Eisuke answered.

"Eh? So you decided to accept the witness protection program?" Conan asked.

"No, I had to turn that down. As I've said before, I hate to be tied down. And it seems the bad organization you told me about hasn't made me a target yet."

"Then why the United States?"

"I want to become a CIA agent, like my father and sister! After that I'll expose every bad person's deeds! And with my sister, I'll bring down that bad organiz-…" And Eisuke walked into lamppost.

"You'll have to do something about that clumsiness before even thinking about the CIA…" Conan deadpanned.

"Th-That's true…"

"Are you sure about the CIA? They sound pretty ruthless. Of course I only have the television interpretation but…" Tsukiko sighed and ran a hand through her hair. "They serve the interests of USA even if they work in international scale. Not to mention that it will take years until you can even consider applying. Can you really wait for that long?"

"Yes. I'm sure." Eisuke nodded resolutely. "And you'll keep me updated of things going at this side of ocean, right Tsukiko?"

"I will." The girl smiled.

"But then… If you're going to go, why did you come back to school?" Conan continued.

"Even though it was short, I wanted to see my friends before I go. And I wanted to confess my feelings to Ran-san."

"Huh?"

"I told you so…" Tsukiko mumbled like she had known it in advance.

"I had a crush on her since first sight! I've never met someone that pretty and nice…" Eisuke blushed. "But it sounds like she has some feelings for Shinichi-san… And I don't know how Shinichi-san thinks of her…"

"Eisuke." Tsukiko stopped, making the other two stop too and glance back at her. "What does it matter?"

"Eh? What do you mean?"

"I mean that…" Tsukiko ran a hand through her hair again and closed it into a fist while thinking the correct words. "What does it matter whether or not Mouri-senpai likes Kudou-san? The Heisei Holmes has disappeared anyways. They are not an official couple despite the gossip on the halls of Teitan and what Suzuki-senpai says…

"And I know what you are thinking! You are thinking of trying to find or contact Kudou-san and ask him if it's alright for you to tell Mouri-senpai about your feelings. Just so you don't step over bounds."

"But wouldn't that be just right?" Eisuke asked.

"No! Because they are your goddamn feelings. You decide yourself who knows and doesn't know about them. You did all the effort to come back to Teitan just to see everyone when you could've gone and left without a word. You don't need a permission from some jumped-up detective who hasn't even been there for her during the past six months!"

"…Yeah. It does sound like that." Eisuke admitted. Conan was quietly staring at both of them. "Unlike Shinichi, I wouldn't leave Ran-san alone. I wish to bring her to America one day and live happily with her."

"No, forget her." Conan said quietly.

"I'm not asking your opinion… If anything Shinichi's…" Eisuke laughed while Tsukiko walked past them. She couldn't stand it. Conan – Shinichi – asserting himself as a wall between Ran and the rest of the world. Ran could take care of herself and make her own mind. She wasn't a damsel in distress despite how much she cried after Shinichi in worry.

"And I already told you. Forget Ran." This time Conan had more power in his voice. Eisuke looked at him with confusion. Tsukiko didn't show any emotion, just stopped like the other two.

Then Eisuke burst out laughing.

"Hahaha! So the mystery is solved at last! Now I can go to America with a clear mind!" He laughed.

"So that's why went to such convoluted way…" Tsukiko chuckled a bit. "I still stand by what I said, Kudou-san." She shot a glare at Conan.

"What you knew too?" Eisuke asked her.

"Well, kind of… I know everything."

"You…" Conan was speechless. "How long time…?"

"The reason I went to Mouri-tantei's office was because I heard he was the last person to meet Rena before she disappeared. I didn't know at the time that she was my sister and a CIA agent. I thought for sure that Mouri-tantei had joined up with some bad guys and hid her away someplace… So I did some research about Mouri-tantei on my own before I met him! I wanted to know what the person called 'Nemuri no Kogoro' was like! As I did I began to understand something. There was a big difference in his detective skills before and after he became 'Nemuri no Kogoro'. And the fact that next to him, there was always you!" Eisuke crouched a bit at Conan. "Just like with Sonoko-san today!"

"And it wasn't very hard to figure it out after finding out that Kudou Shinichi disappeared a bit before Nemuri no Kogoro appeared." Tsukiko added with a shrug.

"Yeah. When I tried to figure out how of why you became small, my head started to spin. So I decided not to think about it. But you really were that Kudou Shinichi." Eisuke nodded.

"I really was? You make it sound like you knew from the start." Conan was worried. If it was that easy for those two to figure it out, what about the organization then?

"Yeah… It was just a guess though! Once Mouri-tantei began making waves in public, you stopped coming to school. And there was one time I fell on purpose, not by accident." Eisuke explained. "Remember what I said when I first met you? 'Nice to meet you Mouri-tantei.' Like that!"

"But his feelings towards Ran are true." Tsukiko poked the older boy to his side. "And I still encourage him to tell her about them."

"Ouch, how do you know about it?" Eisuke muttered, rubbing his side.

"As I already said, I know everything." The girl smiled. "I got to go now. Jodie-san said not to be late. See you again someday!"

Tsukiko disappeared to the crowd ahead of them.

"I didn't tell her anything then. She must have figured it out on her own after she got released form the hospital. That's when I last saw her before this day." Eisuke stated, watching after the girl.

"Yeah, I know." Conan watched to the same direction even though the girl wasn't visible anymore.

"Oh, right! Have you heard?" The older boy (if only physically) whispered. "Something seems to have happened in the FBI."

"Something?"

"Well… Judging from the mood, someone seems to have died. But if you haven't heard about it then it must be fine."

"Yeah, it's fine." Conan thought.

"Well, I'll leave Ran-san to your care. And keep an eye on Tsukiko too. I have a feeling that she will get caught in problems sooner or later."

"Sure. Don't worry." Conan waved to the boy who vanished into the crowd too. "Maybe Sonoko was right. Those two could really fit together…" It took a while until he realized what he had thought. He shook his head harshly.

"No, I'm not like her. I'm not pairing up anyone. Besides I have something much more important to think about… But still… they have something in common. Unbound curiosity that will lead them in forward… And into danger too…"

A/N: I got sort of inspiration for Tsukiko's new stance from EiRan fic Tied-down. It can be found easily if you pick Eisuke as the character in the search. Honestly, Shinichi has no business in stopping others from confessing Ran. She should be making her own decisions.