A/N: A bit fillery... And I couldn't resist of making conversations between Kage, Tsukiko and RM. XD
BTW, go to read my oneshot Last Man Standing. Especially if you are Amuro-fans. ;)
Warnings for this chapter... Hmm... Chianti's language and yet another death by Sanjuu.
Chapter 48.
Mizune Sonya, 23, model
Ueno, Tokyo
Kage sent the message and flipped their phone shut. They leaned back on their desk chair and flipped the page of geography textbook. The three of them were alone. Kage, Tsukiko and Red Moon.
"How long do you think it'll take for Sanjuu to kill her?" Kage asked from the other two.
"I don't know and honestly I don't care." RM huffed, moving the hand of their shared body, slamming the book shut.
"I see you've adopted Kaitou Kid's pacifistic standing." Tsukiko mused and walked to lie down on her bed.
"I have not!"
"Oh yes, you have."
"No, I haven't!"
"Yes-…"
"Shut up you both! You are causing a headache to me." Tsukiko shouted, effectively shutting the other two up.
"You can't boss us…" RM pouted.
"Oh yes, I can. I'm the original after all."
"No, you aren't. Jade is the original." Kage argued.
"No. Jade and I are the same more or less. She changed when I was gone and you are just extensions of me."
"Whatever…"
"I'm off. Night, Tsuki. Night, no-gender."
"Hey!"
"Kids…" Tsukiko threw her arms behind her head and closed her eyes. "It'll take two days by the way."
"The Mouris and Conan are going to London?!" Tsukiko exclaimed to her phone.
"Ouch… And yes, they are. I heard from Suzuki who wanted someone to rant to…" Mai sighed from the other end of the line. "Are you jealous too?"
"Yes…" The blonde muttered. "I've always wanted to go to London…" Again…
"Well, save money and travel when you are older." She could practically hear the classpresident shrugging nonchalantly.
"Mou… Mai-san, you aren't helping at all this matter…"
"And you need to stop being childish. We still have our whole life ahead and honestly after listening to Suzuki for hours end, I rather not hear about this matter anymore."
"Why did you give her your number then?"
"I don't know… I had something to do with the connections of our parents I guess."
Meanwhile at the MomoBara Studios Mizune Sonya, a beautiful blonde half-Japanese woman was taking a break from a photo shooting. She walked to her dressing room and searched for her cell phone to check if she had any new messages. From her manager or from her Boss. New assignments always came the most inconvenient times…
The woman had a new message indeed but it wasn't from any number she recognized. In puzzlement, she twirled her hair on a topknot and opened the message then.
"Pray for your sins, Crow." Was written in it. And there was a media link too. Without thinking anything about it, Sonya opened it.
"Ring around roses…
Pockets full of poses…
Ashes, ashes…
We all fall down..."
The song played was creepy. Sonya shuddered as it began playing again. Her mother used to sing that to her when she was a little girl but even then she had thought the song scary.
The door of her dressing room closed quietly. The woman lifted her gaze from her phone to the large mirror in front of her. A man was standing right in front of the door, his hands casually inside the pockets of his jeans.
"You all shall fall down, Mizune Sonya. You and your fellow Crows." The man told her. She froze and in a second he was right behind her, caressing her cheek. "I don't understand what you even did for the organization… All the information you gather is easily accessed via simple hacking… All the people you meet, met other Organization members too… You just live with the money you get without doing anything useful. You just look pretty."
"W-Who are you? Did the Organization send you to get rid of me then?" Sonya whispered.
"No… I'm on my own. I'm Sanjuu and I work with Kage. We are hunting the Crows like you." Yamato repeated the words he had told Horake Yuuki a while ago. His gloved hand took a hold on the back of the woman's head while the other one lifted her chin up a bit. Their eyes met, a confused and scared hazel the determined but sincere emerald. "Goodnight."
With a swift motion and a resounding crack, the body of Mizune Sonya fell forward on the make-up table. Yamato let out sigh and called to the same number than last time.
"Got her."
"Good. Everything good?" Kage answered.
"I'm fine. I just hate killing pretty ladies…"
"Tough. I'll send you the next name in two weeks. To make sure that the cops won't catch any trail…"
"The cameras aren't working at the moment. I've got twenty minutes to get out."
"And by feet the way out takes… A what? Five minutes?"
"Three if I take the elevator."
"Do it then."
"Will do." Yamato hung up and sighed. Kage was much more demanding and colder than Tsukiko. He was kind of disappointed that he hadn't spoken with the real of her since the first call. Just with that… Shadow who had taken over these matter completely.
The man closed Sonya's eyes and made his way to the door. On the way he slid the security lock on its place, creating a locked room murder for the police to solve.
"Another one? Another one of our NOCs were killed?" Kir asked in great confusion. She was seated on a sofa of the lounge in one of Organizations bases.
"Yeah… I heard about it recently too." Bourbon shrugged and took a sip from his coffee. "The MO was different but the message Mizune Sonya received was the same than the one Horake Yuuki got. and since Police didn't tell the media about the message, it's safe to assume this wasn't a copycat."
"The public will panic." The woman thought aloud. The years of experience as a news reporter had taught her a lot of useful things that she hadn't been taught back in States when training to be a CIA agent.
"Definitely." Vermouth stepped into the room while ripping a latex mask away from her face. "I just came back from the MPD headquarters. They have absolutely no leads. Only an e-mail address they can't trace."
"Really? Did you get it?" Bourbon cocked his head on the side.
"Yes, I did. The address belonged to-…"
"Is everybody here?" Yet another voice joined in. It was Gin and Vodka who had arrived this time.
"Oh, even you are here." Bourbon stated.
"Boss's orders." Vodka replied. "He wants everyone here."
"Yes, and I don't understand why!" The last two needed people came through another door. Chianti was glaring about every single person in the room, except Korn.
"Where's Rum? Wouldn't they be here too, since everyone else are here too?" Kir asked carefully.
"Like they'd appear." Chianti scoffed.
"Rum is with Anokata." Gin fixed a stare on the occupants of the room. "Anokata will contact us soon about these recent attacks so you all better shut up and listen carefully. Especially considering how many of our agents has died during the last months."
"Yeah…" Kir thought. "The death toll has increased indeed…" Miyano Akemi was executed. Tequila died in an explosion. Sherry ran away. Gin killed Pisco. Hara Yoshiaki was also executed. Calvados killed himself. Kusuda Rikumichi was missing, most likely dead. One of their NOC died along with six other people during the Tanabata Serial killing case. Irish was killed after he was done investigating the case and retrieving the NOC list. And now Horake Yuuki and Mizune Sonya were gone. Wait a minute…
"Say, Gin…" The ex-news anchor began. "The NOC list Irish was supposed to retrieve… How can we know that the memory card Chianti shot was the real one?"
Everyone stared at her. No one had even considered the thought.
"What are you saying Kir?" The silver haired man glared at her coldly. Kir had to suppress a flinch.
"I mean…"
"That someone switched the memory card before Irish got his hands on it." Vermouth stated. "Like I was about to say before your arrival interrupted me oh, so rudely… The e-mail address that the police can't trace… It's the one Irish used to have."
"But who could have gotten their hands on those?" Vodka asked dumbly.
"That bastard of course!" Chianti spat. "That bastard who we thought was dead but ended up shooting at us. Kage! He who appeared at Teito Department store when he-…" she pointed at Bourbon. "…-was walking around disguised as Akai."
"Are you sure?" Vermouth smirked.
"Of course I am, you bitch!"
"Kage…" Gin muttered. "He might not work alone then…"
Right then the TV screen by the side wall flickered on. A view of a dimly lit room appeared with only a dark silhouette sitting in a large desk chair and another one standing on the side.
"Evening my dear agents. My Crows, my comrades." The figure on the chair spoke. "As you probably have heard, two of our members undercover have been targeted. While it is unfortunate, do not do anything yet. We can't be too sure if this all has been one big coincidence. There has been only two deaths after all."
"But Boss…" Gin began.
"Do you question my judgement, Gin?"
"No… I'm sorry, Boss."
"May I ask why you are forbidding us from taking an action?" Bourbon leaned forward in his seat.
"I'd like to hear that too… After all, the message sent to the 'victims' clearly indicated a connection to us." Vermouth added.
"My decision is final. Have a good day." And blackness took over the screen.
"Well, thanks for nothing. I'm out of here." Chianti huffed and practically stormed out of the room, Korn – who had remained silent throughout the whole gathering – trailing behind her. Gin and Vodka left soon too, but not before Gin casted a warning glare on the remaining three in the room.
"I wonder why Boss doesn't want us to investigate this…" Bourbon mused.
"Maybe he thinks we'll be targets too then…" Kir shrugged. "Although if this Kage is behind these assassinations and has the list, I don't know why he worries so much. Kage must know already about us."
"Unless they aim for the lowest rank first." Vermouth pointed out.
"True…" the only male in the room nodded. "You know… if we had Hibiki on our side, we'd have a chance to track this shadow down."
"Hibiki?" Kir frowned.
"Yeah, that one hacker who uses our codes and a codename similar to ours even though they've never stepped on our side." Bourbon replied.
"He steals information from our database and causes financial problems to some of our cover companies." Vermouth continued.
"Really? I thought he was just a legend. A rumor." Kir mused.
"No. He is real alright." Vermouth shook her head, her platinum blonde curls waving gently. "And he really likes pissing off some people."
"Two players making their moves against the Organization… The FBI should be informed about them…"
Jodie's cellphone rang. When the woman answered, Tsukiko peeked into the living room from the keyhole of her door. She had a weird feeling about that call.
"Who wants to bet it's Kir?"Kage snorted.
"Not me. You are going to win it anyways." Red Moon glared. Tsukiko couldn't help by sigh.
"Would you please not do that again?"
"No."
"Don't copy me!"
"You are the one copying me!"
"Shut up!"
"…Who wants to bet we are in trouble?"
"You mean Tsukiko will be in trouble."
"Yes."
"Great… Now you are ganging up on me…" The girl facepalmed before going to find her phone. She probably should call Conan… Especially now when she heard the agent mentioning the words Tanabata and Touto Tower.
"Uh oh…" Tsukiko muttered. She was in trouble. And the kid wasn't answering. "Dammit, Tantei-chan… Answer now…"
The phone just beeped until it was suddenly taken away from the girl. Tsukiko spun around. Jodie was standing there, looking absolutely livid.
"You knew very well that it was the Organization behind the attack on Touto Tower, right?" The agent glared. Tsukiko felt like shrinking. She wanted to hide somewhere far, far away where she wouldn't be found.
"Let me handle this." Kage practically pushed Tsukiko aside. Red Moon shrugged on the background when exchanging a look with the girl.
"Just let them. They've been bored for days end."
"As if I don't know about it…"
"Yes, I did know. So did Edogawa-kun if that's what you are asking next." Kage replied calmly, straightening their back and staring back into Jodie's eyes levelly.
"How long time did you know?"
"…Ever since Tantei-chan and I cornered Vermouth in the parking area of one department store. She gave us useful information and later we confronted Irish who was disguised as Matsumoto-keishi." Kage lied. No need to tell that they'd decided to keep the investigation to themselves since the beginning after hearing about the Nanatsu No Ko back in the Police Station.
"Why didn't you tell us then?"
"You'd have just attracted attention." Kage shrugged. "Besides in the end it was for nothing. Irish died and the memory card we tried to get our hands on was destroyed."
"That's not what I heard. According to Mizunashi Rena, there has been to killings of their NOCs. While their boss is forbidding them from investigating, they all are suspecting a person called Kage behind these attacks."
"Kage?" The teen tilted their head. "It seems there's a new player on the board then."
"Yes. And if you know anything about this, you better tell me right now. No hiding."
"I was at the Tower, yes, but I saw no one else there except Conan, Irish, Mizutani-san and Honjou. Plus that machinegun equipped helicopter."
"… I'll let you go this time. But next time something like this happens, you are to tell me right away, is that clear?" Jodie was still glaring at them. Kage nodded reluctantly.
"I will."
"But Tsukiko won't."
"Yep, I have no intention of telling her about the Mystery Train ahead of time…" Tsukiko agreed silently.
"She'll get more pissed then."
"Let her."
"Meanie."
"Weren't you supposed to be the grown up one of us?"
"She spends too much time with Kaitou Kid."
"And you don't?"
"I spend time with Kuroba Kaito."
"Shut up you both."
"I just don't understand why you go deliberately in danger." Jodie was looking sad now. No doubt thinking about Akai. "I care about you Tsukiko and I worry about you. Why do you…"
"Because that's my duty as a detective." The blonde girl smiled after making Kage step aside. "To get involved in cases and solve them. It's mere coincidences when the Organization happens to be involved."
"I see. Just be careful. I don't think I could handle it if something were to happen to you too."
"You are not the only one. Nii-san is also always worried about me." Tsukiko grinned sheepishily.
"Well, with your reputation and hospital visits I'm not surprised."
"Hey!"
A/N: This chapter is done! I bet you are going to ask about Hibiki but I'm not sure if I'm going to introduce him properly at all. He might remain as a background character that we'll never meet or then I can write about him too. As another fic.
But next I'm going to write another one-shot about Takuya and Rei and Date. In that one I'll also answer to the review I got to Last Man Standing. So go and r&r it!
Review Replies(To this fic):
-chibianimefan26:
Yes, I did. It's quite good too.
Separate being FTW! \o/
Ah... Somehow I knew it. Kaitou Moon?
Catch up. You gotta. The newest files are awesome!
-Zeladious:
It was about the time don't you think? I knew too, thanks to Chekov McGuffin from DCTP.
An error...Well, that's minor if you compare it to the beginning of this fic. Speaking of which, I've rewritten the first three chapters... Hmm...
-E-man-dy-S:
Thank you