A/N: Hello, I'm back. Sort of. This chapter has been collecting dust for a while so I decided to finish it finally. Majority of it was already written but the part I'd had in my mind for a longest time(almost before I even started this fic officially) did want to come on paper in a way it made sense. So here is the newest chapter. I hope you enjoy it. And please do check out new(-ish) forum Leaping into a Dream which is for this fic and the main fic Dream or Not. And please do read the Mystery Train chapter from the main fic. After all it references to this chapter quite a lot.
The third file: Not quite an intermission
Subfile one: Back to Osaka
Shugo lounged at the balcony of the new apartment Yamato and he had bought in Osaka. The apartment was much bigger than the one they'd rented during their previous stay. This one was nice. Not luxurious but spacious. It had two bedrooms, a bathroom, a kitchen connected to living room like area, and a balcony. Currently fresh laundry was drying overhead Shugo in soft breeze. The noise of the traffic was a bit annoying and new after his stay in that village in Nagano but Shugo was getting used to it. He did live a year in Tokyo previously after all.
"Are you going to meet with Eisuke-kun today, too?" Yamato asked when coming to clear some glasses and plates from the small coffee table on the balcony. Shugo looked up at the man and shrugged then.
"I guess. He wanted to talk with me about something." It had truly been a coincidence how Shugo had managed to meet with the boy. He hadn't even actively been tracking him down. No, Shugo had been more concerned with Hidemi, thus recorded every TV-appearance she had as Mizunashi Rena. In his opinion the early years were important to record one way or other.
"Hmm, I wonder…" Yamato frowned briefly. "I got in contact with Hondou-san. He managed to pass some information to me about my brother's movements. He also informed me of Hidemi's successful infiltration. I guess you already knew about that one."
"Yeah. She will be important later on. But not without a tragedy." Shugo muttered, before regretfully getting up from his chair. Sun was shining on it quite nicely bit alas, he needed to get ready. "School is continues from summer break within a month. I guess I gotta catch up with Ei-chan before that." The young geek stretched his arms up towards the sky and cracked his neck but twisting his head to the side. "Ouch, that felt good…"
"You've been too much on your computer lately." The man admonished the boy. Shugo glanced at him before considering the situation. Yeah, at this time and age computers weren't quite that much in common use even with a screwy timeline. Heck, some people were still using pagers while some already had flip-phones. World worked in mysterious ways. And Yamato concern towards him was getting annoying. He had work to do after all. That, and Shugo tried his best to distract himself from things already passed.
"Whatever, I'm off now."
"So what it was?" The two boys were sitting in a park near Tsuutenkaku and eating ice cream.
"You've seen that news reader at Nichuri TV news, right?" Eisuke asked.
"Yeah, she kinda looks like…" Shugo knew where this conversation was going. But since he didn't know that much more of the young woman's current situation apart from her real employer, he could play along.
"Hidemi-neechan." The bespectacled boy stated.
"Exactly." The other nodded. "She could be a doppelganger though." Especially if a Westerner looked at Asians, they tended to mix together… Because the features weren't that familiar to them. It was the same vice versa. Everyone looked the same.
"…Maybe." Eisuke admitted reluctantly. "I could try and contact them though."
"Or… When I go to Tokyo again – probably in the next fall sometime. Yamato-nii will probably have some business to attend. – then I can go to the studio and ask to meet with her." Very unlikely to be successful but, hey, Shugo could always try.
"Fine then…" The other boy visibly deflated. Shugo looked at him before coming to a decision. He chucked the stick from his already eaten ice cream to the trash bin and spoke up.
"I want some Okonomiyaki. Is that old place still open?"
"Eh? We just ate these!"
"So? I'm still hungry and the okonomiyaki was good. I haven't eaten any of it for… almost five years. And maybe we can meet with Souhei-san too!"
"I think he is in Osaka now…" Eisuke frowned in thought. "Visiting at least. I heard he was a scale model store in Tokyo now!"
"Really?!" While Shugo didn't remember all the details of every single side character that had appeared in a single case but the connection was there now. At the first time in Osaka he hadn't recognized Nishigun Shouhei actually as the person Conan and Agasa would go to visit to get a photo about Hondou Ethan. But now… Camera, okonomiyaki, scale models… Yup, useful person. Not to mention that Shugo loved scale models.
"Yeah. He founded it last year."
"Now I definitely want to meet him again."
"And previously you didn't?"
"Oh, shut up, Ei-chan."
"I called my father yesterday." Eisuke told when the two were at their favourite restaurant.
"Really?" Shugo looked up. This wouldn't be the tidbit, he was half-expecting it to be, right?
"Yeah. His boss has the weirdest e-mail address. It sounded like a song."
"A song?"
"Yeah… Like this? Tila-so-laa Ti-so-mi-so-ree?" Shugo sang. Eisuke gaped in surprise.
"That's exactly it!"
"Hee… Glad to be of service."
"Will you tell me what you've been working on during this past year?" Yamato asked that night.
"Will you finally stop trying to peek on my unfinished work then?" Shugo asked back. The man paused to consider before nodding.
"Sure."
"Alright…" The pre-teen sighed. "It's a computer virus and security system rolled in one. It basically erases everything it is set at and can function as a backup plan if one tries to hack your computer. One wrong move and your drives are empty and the hacker's computer is infected too. Of course it can act as a battering ram against other computer programs too… One gets directly into the source code and can alter it. I've designed it under my hacker handle Green-5, Midori-go. The all sorts of defense systems and government operators know that handle more or less by now since I've been doing some… investigative work in regards of getting more data. Considering how outdated this world still is compared to me, they obviously haven't managed to track me down."
"Does the virus have a name then?" Yamato smirked at the sound of pride in the boy's voice. It was quite amusing really. Shugo hummed in non-committal way before looking up at the mystery books there and grinning then. Because why not?
"Night Baron." The shrunken genius announced.
"Oh, this is just sick…" Shugo muttered as he watched the demo game of 'Great Plan for High School Girl Paradise', a dating sim for grown up men. "I could almost try to sue him for endorsing child pornography. Only almost though…"
"Eh? What's gotten your ire now?" Yamato asked from the kitchen where he was making some onigiris.
"Kaneshiro Genshirou's dating game. The main character is a… literature teacher assistant, a grown-up, who's gathering a harem of high school girls around him. It's made with overly sweet way with the girls practically throwing themselves at him and other male teachers featured in the game… Not to mention that this is an all girl's school with no female teachers. Even the school nurse is male." The boy spoke in disgust.
"Oh? Now that's… weird." The man finished lamely. "But I'm guessing there is something else to your reaction than just a crappy dating game?"
"Uh… The creator is a seventy-year-old old man?" The young geek blinked. "Whatever, I'm gonna set Baron on this one. Perfect test drive!" Cue manic (and fake) laughing. Yamato merely rolled his eyes.
"Glad you have fun…"
Three hours later
"So… What exactly did you do?" Yamato asked when Shugo finally got on his feet and stretched. It was a sign of a work finished and well done. At least on the boy's opinion.
"I edited the art of the school uniforms, edited the dialogue, changed the gender of a couple of teachers and changed the whole setting to the last year of high school instead of the first. And made two male teachers interested in each other and the girls gaining shipping points in regards of two of them." Shugo snickered. This was the most fun he'd had in ages.
The opportunity to visit Tokyo that Shugo mentioned to Eisuke came sooner than he'd anticipated. A week before school started actually. Shugo had spent majority of his time leading to that week with Eisuke. During the last meet-up the bespectacled boy had lamented the fact they'd be going to different schools and noticed that the sandy blond roots of Shugo's hair was showing. Damn, he had to use the black dye again. Every two weeks actually. And while Shugo had gotten to the routine of re-dying his roots, it was still annoying.
"We are going to Tokyo?" Shugo asked in surprise one night.
"Yeah, for a couple of days. I need to… Hondou-san asked me a favour." Ah, yes… Yamato and Ethan had indeed kept in contact somehow during these six(?) years.
"What sort of favour?" Shugo asked with narrowed eyes. Yamato merely blinked back. Right, something to do with the organization. Naturally. Why even ask… Next question then. "Am I going to spend my time alone while you are doing whatever?"
"Sure. Kill time whichever way you want to." The man had smiled.
And that led to Shugo's current placement at Nichuri TV studio at Shiotome. He had promised Eisuke after all.
"Could I please meet with Mizunashi Rena-san?" The boy asked the receptionist there. The woman eyed him suspiciously.
"Do you have an appointment? Mizunashi-san is filming currently and not even family members are allowed to disturb filming, boya."
"Oh, the irony." Shugo thought sardonically while continuing to smile and not showing his irritation at the way he was addressed with.
"No, bachan, I don't. I'm sort of a fan of hers. I just wanted to tell her something but maybe you can pass the message along?"
"…Fine." The woman's voice was downright frosty now. "What's the message?"
Shugo snatched a fountain pen and a piece of paper from the desk and quickly wrote down his message.
"You are still the prettiest oneesan that I know, Hime-neechan!"
"Here, please make sure Mizunashi-san gets it." Shugo didn't sign the message, Hidemi would know it was from him.
Shugo had been wandering around and heading towards a park relatively close to one of Yamato's hidey-holes. It was a one-room rented apartment. About as small as the first place in Osaka. Quite stuffed in the other words. But currently it didn't have any furniture, only a pair of futon. Shugo didn't have any intention of staying there for the day. It was such a miserable place. And any favour Ethan had asked Yamato of, it had kept the blonde away for the night too.
Anyways, Shugo had no particular plans for the day. He had no intention to go and meet his friends from first grade(they'd probably forgotten him anyways) or Kaito either… They'd just pester him about his whereabouts and life and… The boy sighed in a long-suffering way. They'd just be so troublesome. Maybe in a couple of years when he'd be in high school, he could meet with them again. And hopefully things wouldn't be too awkward…
"Shugo-kun!" A blur latched onto the boy's arm fast. Shugo blinked at the human shaped blur.
"Ma-…sumi-chan?" The boy looked down at the grinning girl. Down because she was clinging onto his arm like a limpet. Height-wise they were about the same, Masumi having already hit her growth spurt and Shugo being naturally tall(that's what European genes did for you).
"It really is you! And you remember me!" Masumi's snag tooth was glinting in the bright sunlight.
"Yeah… I'm surprised you recognized me though."
"Of course I remember my book-friend!"
Ookay. This wasn't part of the plan. Of any plan really. And Shugo had no idea how it had happened. He tried thinking different courses of action he could've taken but came up with blank. Well, it had been nice. Spending time with Masumi and going with her to watch Gomera VS. MechaGomera that is. The movie had been hilariously 90's with its special effects and everything, but if nothing else, it had been nostalgic. Back in his own world Shugo had liked to watch Beverly Hills Cop 1-3 and Police Academy movies. And Jade/Tsukiko had thrown some nostalgia anime to his direction too at one point. During the weird phase when she completely ignored Detective Conan.
"And then Gomera got help from Emera to defeat MechaGomera and it was so cool! The hyper beam from his mouth swallowed up everything and-…" The way Masumi's chattering came to an abrupt stop drew Shugo's attention from his musings and to the direction the girl was staring at. To the other the train platform and… oh… Oh!
"What is it, Sumi-chan?" Shugo asked because he had to ask. And yeah, he'd given the girl a nickname.
"That's Shuu-nii!" Masumi pointed. "I thought he'd be in America!"
"Oh?" The boy mused. "What about Shuukichi-san then?"
"Kichi-nii is studying currently, he is younger than Shuu-nii."
Studying… and most likely dating one Miyamoto Yumi unless he had begun collecting the 'Seven' already. Sigh, why did the Akai siblings have to be so secretive?
"Souka…" But Shugo had no other time to muse things when Masumi was sprinting towards stairs leading to underpass running beneath the rails separating the two platforms. "O-Oi, chotto matte!"
"We are gonna follow them and see where nii-san is going to!" Masumi resolutely decided when the pair was hiding behind a pillar. Shugo in the other hand wasn't too sure whether or not this was a good idea. Following Masumi and her lead in this case. On one hand he'd meet Tsukiko's future 'brother'(who at least used to be her favourite character) and the undercover agent Scotch. On the other hand Bourbon would appear eventually and possibly point out his connection with Yamato to the other two and that move could potentially cost Shugo his friendship with Masumi. Or then he was reading too much into the situation. Yeah, that probably was it. Better to just go with the flow for now.
"Sumi-chan, I told you to wait." Shugo hissed to the girl who shushed him and peered around the pillar. The two men on the platform were just talking. About something that Shugo couldn't quite discern. Too much of a distance.
"I'm going to get closer…" The girl next to him muttered when the two men were moving along the stretch of stone and concrete. What they were waiting, the next train wouldn't come for thirteen minutes at least.
"If you go now, they'll definitely spot you!" Hey, they were undercover agents in a criminal organization, of course they'd have a sixth sense for people lurking about and stalking them. For people doing exactly what Shugo and Masumi were.
"Nah, I'm good. He's never before spotted me either."
"Previously you were, what? Eight years old?"
"Something like that yeah." Masumi mused unconcernedly. Shugo felt like face palming. Where this girl got her confidence from, he didn't know… And in the middle of all that introspection/argument/ego-stroking/angst-fest/whatever else, Scotch had pointed the pair to Akai.
"Masumi?!" The FBI agent was suddenly right in front of the two pre-teens. He was angry though it didn't downright show on his face. "What are you doing here?"
"I followed you, Shuu-nii!" Masumi chirped promptly, completely ignoring the man's ire. Or then simply being oblivious to it. "You caught me!"
"I told you he would…" Shugo muttered.
"How would you know?" The girl turned to look at him now. Shugo shot an incredulous stare at her, and gave her the reason that would most likely make sense in pre-teen mind and would fit the situation.
"I've never managed to sneak up on Yamato-nii."
"Yeah, 'cause you suck."
"Oi!"
"Masumi, why did you… and your friend follow us?" Akai asked with patience that was wearing thin. Huh, tough mission then?
"I wanted to hear you play guitar! I didn't know you played guitar. Or that you even were back in Japan." Masumi explained.
"Oh all the excuses, Sumi-chan…" Shugo groaned in the background and shot an exasperated look at Scotch, while the two siblings were 'arguing'. The man just smiled indulgently, humoring him.
"This is your friend then?" And holy…-! Now that he was directly being addressed, Shugo had hard time believing that Tsukiko hadn't had a fangirling moment when hearing the voice of Ikeda Shuichi from the FBI agent's mouth. Though considering her situation back then(and in the future) she was more like freaking out.
"Yeah! This is Shugo-kun! We like the same books and met years ago on a train station too!" Masumi beamed up at her brother. She received slightly unimpressed stare before the assessing gaze was directed at Shugo. The boy waved half-heartedly and introduced himself his usual way.
"Midorikawa Shugo, nice to meetcha." He said, with complete deadpan this time instead of enthusiasm.
Scotch chuckled at the background. "What a spirited little sister and her friend you have."
Shugo noted that Akai hadn't been addressed by name even once during this conversation. It… probably was for the best. In any case the man sighed then and asked Masumi did she know how to get home.
"I… no. I don't have money with me." Masumi muttered, eyes on the ground. "And I got lost."
"Very probable since we got onto the train from around where I was staying at." Shugo mused before remembering that Masumi was actually lying in this case. A lie that apparently fell through.
"Wait here, I'll buy you a ticket." Akai told his sister and left the group in search for the ticket counter. Shugo stared incredulously at the FBI agent's back and thus failed at first to notice Masumi's eye tearing up. Scotch did though.
"Hey, do you like music?" The man asked whilst pulling a bass out of the soft instrument case he had with him.
"Un, sure!" Masumi nodded, wiping her tears away.
"Do you also want to learn, Shugo-kun?"
"Ah, I already know the basics. I prefer the piano though…" Shugo grinned. Yamato and he had finally bought an electric piano to their apartment in Osaka. With headphones naturally so they wouldn't disturb the neighbors.
Shugo followed as Scotch taught Masumi the scales with the bass. It was vaguely familiar to him but he hadn't tried bass since… since junior high in his previous life.
"Scotch…" A new but recognizable voice spoke from behind the man. Shugo didn't look up at first. Instead he listened how the voice had changed during the last years. It was deeper, naturally, and had this strange…it was calm but agitated at the same time. It was hard to describe really.
But the person speaking was the same. Shugo gave a good scrutiny to Furuya Rei. Taller, broader, stronger, smarter… The boy didn't call him though. With any name. He didn't know which he should use. Shugo didn't know if calling him at all was safe. So he kept silent and occasionally corrected Masumi while Scotch and Bourbon talked about something.
The wait went on until Akai returned with the ticket for Masumi. And by then Shugo had an uncomfortable feeling that someone was watching them.
"Shugo-kun, are you alright?" Masumi asked when Scotch was packing his bass back to the case.
"Hai… I just have this disconcerting feeling." Shugo frowned while eyeing the platform around them and also the one at the opposite side of the rain tracks. It was like someone was watching him. Or them.
"Huh? What feeling?"
"It's probably nothing… Why don't we go to get some ice cream?" The feeling is gone now but he couldn't be too careful. Akai seemed to be ready to protest but then…
"KYAAAAAAA!"
The scream echoed in the station. A woman's voice, completely generic. A panic spread throughout the people waiting for trains. Security tried to keep order. They prevented anyone leaving. With a hush the situation travelled to their ears. Murder. A corpse of a man found at the opposite platform. The one where the ominous staring feeling had emanated from.
"Shugo, we need to go." And suddenly Yamato was with them, carrying a camera which he tossed to Bourbon. With his other hand he pocketed a memory card. Shugo noted he was wearing gloves.
"Yamato-san, long time no see!" Masumi promptly chirped up, ignorant of the tension that sprung forth when the blonde man made his presence know.
"Ah… Masumi-chan, was it? You've grown since the last time. Did you get lost again?"
"Yup! But this time I found nii-san by myself."
"That's the reason she got lost in the first place." Shugo deadpanned and nodded towards Bourbon and the camera in his hands. "What's with the camera?"
"Aah… I simply liberated it from some creep that was aiming it at you and Masumi-chan." Yamato's smile was glacial and he was pointedly ignoring the other people of their group.
"Liberated?" Shugo narrowed his eyes, before glancing to the direction of the hubbub around the supposedly dead body. And he wasn't alone with such thoughts though none of the men around voiced them either.
"Yes. But enough of that. I concluded my business here and it's time for us to go. Before my brother manages to track me down. That's a meeting I'd rather avoid."
"Sometimes I try to avoid my brother too…" Akai muttered and received a kick in the shin from Masumi before the girl's attention was on Shugo again.
"You really need to leave again, Shugo-kun?"
"Yeah… But maybe we'll meet again someday." Shugo glanced at Yamato who was heading towards the exit from the platforms so he'd avoid the police also.
"We better!" Masumi cried when the boy began taking first steps after the platinum blonde man.
"Shugo-kun, come already. Leave the squirt and the Whiskey Trio alone." Yamato called over his shoulder.
"Hai, hai!" And Shugo jogged after the man.
Whiskey Trio… If nothing else revealed that Yamato and probably Shugo too knew of the Organization and that the three men belonged to it, this certainly did. Once Masumi was safely on a train home, Akai turned to his fellow agents(and moles).
"Who were they?" The long-haired man asked frowning. He didn't like the idea of Organization people being close to Masumi. Those two were bad enough to know about her but at least Akai knew them. The other two in the other hand… they were unknown variables.
"Kurosawa Yamato… and Midorikawa Shugo." Bourbon spoke. "They… are outsiders, more or less."
"But they knew…" Scotch frowned. Whiskey Trio. Scotch, Bourbon, Rye.
Bourbon shook his head. "Kurosawa got out years ago. You never met him but he was one of the best. Most likely he goes by other name by now…"
"And the kid?"
"I met him once before. Apparently Kurosawa is looking after him. At least was six years ago."
"Say…" Akai began slowly. "Who is this brother he mentioned?"
"You want to stay away from him and even less mention Kurosawa to him. Gin will kill anyone who brings up the connection. It's bad enough already that he is called the Living Legend by now." The way Bourbon's eyes widened just a fraction, told the other two just who they were dealing with. And what most likely had happened to the last person that mentioned Kurosawa Yamato to one of the highest ranking members of the organization. Akai glanced at the direction to which the pair had vanished to some good half an hour ago. He desperately wished he'd never need to meet them again. And that they'd also stay away from Masumi.
"So… How did the business go? Not that well?" Shugo asked once they were in a bullet train to Osaka. Much quicker than car, naturally. Yamato himself had rented a car under one of his numerous aliases for the few days they were present in Tokyo.
The blonde man sighed.
"I did my part."
"You know very well that answer does not satisfy me. C'mon, humor me. No one is listening either." The boy gestured the few passengers with them in the carriage. There was a two old men with hearing aids playing chess, a gaggle of teenagers with headphones on their ears, a salary man taking a nap with ear plugs on. And the rest of the seat were vacant for a reason or other. Yamato sighed again.
"Ethan asked me to act as a driver for Hidemi. I picked her from the tv station on late last night. She told me she got your message by the way."
Shugo nodded but didn't otherwise interrupt. Merely waited for the man to continue.
"Once at the meeting place I went to keep watch. Ethan explicitly told me not to interfere in anyway and keep me hidden. I guess it was as much for Hidemi and Eisuke's as well as yours protection." Yamato ran a hand through his hair whilst gathering his thoughts. "I couldn't even warn them early enough that my brother had arrived to the area. Apparently Hidemi had a tracker on her. Thankfully not a bug but still…"
"They track their rookies with them. Dissolve in 24 hours if I remember correctly." Shugo mused. Yamato shot a look on the boy.
"You knew?"
"I didn't know the date but yes, I knew Hondou Ethan would die sometime around this year."
It seemed like Yamato was about the say something unsavory about keeping secrets and withholding information but slumped back in his seat instead.
"Well, you know the outline of the meeting. I watched the CIA contact shoot himself not soon after Gin and Vodka had arrived. I hid myself in the rafters and also spotted one homeless man witnessing the scene. I got him and myself out just a bit before it all burned to the ground. I even abandoned my rental car. It can't be tracked to me anyways and I'll discard that particular alias from further use."
Shugo took a moment to observe the signs of exhaustion on Yamato's face while considering what to say to the man.
"Your jacket does smell like smoke."
Some weeks later a latter came. It was from Masumi. She and her mother were moving to America. In the letter the girl explained that she'd gotten the address for Yamato's letter box in the nearby post office from her 'stronger brother'. Shugo had pondered what to think about the situation and whether or not should he answer to it… In the end the boy had set aside the letter and concentrating on editing 'Takenaka Saya's' records. It would be better if she was a cousin instead of a big sister after all. Besides, it wasn't like the letter had a return address in it.
A/N: I hope everything made sense in this chapter. As you can see, Shugo has his fingers in many pies at this point. And fundamentally and morally more lax than Tsukiko. He revels in his knowledge and is willing to meddle, unlike her.
Replies to reviews:
-zoela:
Ah, yes... The pairing has sort of been decided by now. The pairing will be really slow-building tho and properly begin only when Sera comes back from America(or where-ever hell she actually went to). But it'll also be quite straight forward. No dancing around like with canon pairings.
-Intimidating Cupcake:
Ah, a new reader. Or at least reviewer. Hello! I try to keep writing and updating. But... life. Hibiki didn't get into the organization. That name is for his hacker handle... which he doesn't use quite yet. Right now he is Midori-go that he'll use until two year before canon. Hibiki appears about the same time Akai gets out of the organization. The name is chosen to annoy the organization and send a message too: 'I know how you operate and you can't catch me'.
Please review. It always makes my day. :)