File Fifteen: Under The Moonlight

"You have to be kidding me," Heiji sighed, facepalming, hard, as they sat beside each other on the bus that was going to take them back home. "You are telling me you're actually Kudo's younger brother?"

"Yeah."

"... And that you are an actual seven year-old?"

"If you really are one of the best detectives in Japan, I honestly fear about the future of our country."

"Hey, you can't blame me! You're a weird one, kid," Conan thought he should feel very offended for that, but he really didn't care enough. "For all I know, that crazy professor Kudo has for a neighbor could have made him a drug to make him shrink... or something."

"A shrinking drug? Really?"

"Look, it sounded like a good theory at the time. Terribly insane, yeah, but a plausible one."

Conan laughed, hard, at the stupid conclusion the Osakan detective had gotten to, which only made him scowl at him and look back at the window.

"I'm a bit surprised, and very scared, about the fact you even know about Professor Agasa, yet you didn't know about me," Conan continued, after he had calmed down a bit. "Well, it shouldn't be that shocking. My parents really outdid themselves to hide my existence to the public. Even going as far as changing my family name."

"Why would they do that? That's a bit overboard, if you ask me."

"To let me live a normal life... That's what they said, at least."

"There's more to that, isn't there?"

Conan hesitated, fixing his conflicted blue eyes to his lap. He barely knew this guy and there was little he knew about him, besides that he was an idiot with an even bigger ego than his brother's.

Yet, Hattori Heiji was a detective, a good one, and seemed to be more than willing to search for Shinichi. There was much more than Conan, an elementary school student, could do.

"He doesn't know that I know about this, but Shinichi-niichan seems to have messed up with a dangerous organization."

"Organization?" Heiji went deadly serious at that. "What do you know about them?"

"Not much. Only that they wear black and they have alcohol-themed codenames," the child told him. "So far, I've encountered Gin, Vodka and Sherry. There was also Tequila, but he got caught at an explosion and-"

"Hold it there, kid!" the teen was shocked, holding both his shoulders. "You're telling me you actually-!"

"Only from afar. I didn't make direct contact with any of them."

Except, maybe, Sherry. He had actually came face to face with that enigmatic girl once, but he had yet to figure out why she had let him go just like that. And she must have kept it quiet every since, because he would be pretty dead by now if that wasn't the case.

Heiji gave him a long look before sighing, tiredly, and leaning back on his seat. Finding Kudo would be so much difficult than what he had previously believed, it seemed.

"If he is hiding from them, it makes sense that he would run away so suddenly at that time," Heiji thought out loud. "Even in the condition he was in."

"Condition?"

"Yeah, Kudo dropped to his knees at some point, clutching at his chest and breathing rapidly," Conan's eyes widened at that. "He looked like he was in some sort of pain."

Severe chest pains. Shortness of breath.

And then, when I saw him... he was deathly pale. Sweating profusely.

He was confused. There was no doubt that those symptoms looked too much like those of a heart disease, at least too much for his comfort. Yet, he couldn't remember Shinichi having heart problems before, more on the contrary.

The teenage detective had always been healthy, even more than Conan himself.

Then why...

"There is absolutely no possibility of a human surviving after taking that drug," Sherry's words rang on his mind, again and again, and he suddenly felt sick.

Oniichan... Seriously, what the hell did you get into?

The child was so deeply immersed inside his own thoughts that he didn't notice Hattori staring at him, eyes narrowed as he analyzed him.

"It looks like I lost from start to finish this time," Hattori asked, with a defeated smile, as he watched his fellow detective lean tiredly against the wall. "That was good of you, Kudo. Your deductions were superior to mine."

"Stupid," Kudo shook his head. "In detective work, there's no winning or losing... there's no being superior or inferior... That's because... there is always one and only truth."

Heiji's eyes widened in surprise, as he let those words sink in. At least, until Shinichi suddenly dropped into his knees, hand pressing against his chest, and his breathing becoming shallower.

"Hey, Kudo! Are you okay?" he asked him, even if he knew the Detective of the East was far from okay.

Even so, the teen managed to stand up, with some difficulty. "H-Hattori," he managed, between gasps. "Please tell Inspector Megure that I asked to keep my involvement with this in secret."

Heiji blinked. "Why?" he asked, confused.

Shinichi let out a chuckle, as he slowly began walking ─ stumbling ─ towards the door.

"Because it wouldn't be fair if I got the credit for it. I was only giving that deduction in someone else's place."

And, with that, the boy walked through the doorway and soon disappeared from Heiji's sight. For a moment Hattori thought about chasing him, but then decided against it. He needed to tell Megure to keep this quiet before it was too late.

At first, Hattori hadn't thought much about that. When he had came into his erroneous ─ and pretty stupid ─ conclusion from before, he had brushed it off as nonsense he had made up to throw him off.

But looking at the young boy, eyebrows ceased together in concentration and the fingers cradling his chin, he realized it. Was this kid the person Kudo had been talking about? Hattori then laughed, softly, turning his gaze to the window.

For a moment, he thought he should feel ashamed to be beaten by a feverish first grader in the art of deduction, but soon he shook it off.

In detective work there's no winning or losing, huh?

That kid is something else, though.

"Say," it wasn't until much later that Conan found his voice again. "Do you think he-? Whoa!"

He was startled when he felt himself picked up, so raised his head to see who was holding him. Ran leaned over and whispered in his ear.

"You should stay away from him, Conan-kun," the girl warned him. "Hattori-kun is a bit..."

"Hey, I can still hear you!" protested Heiji.

Ran said nothing, just held him closer to her chest before walking away. He was then set on her lap, beside her already snoring father, a few seats behind from where they had been.

He couldn't help but snicker, however, at the sight of Heiji turning around to look at the group and cringe, awkwardly, before sitting back, hidden by his own seat. Conan could tell he was embarrassed, it the blush on his cheeks was something to go by.

Spring vacation was far from over, yet it was raining quite heavily. Conan didn't mind, really, as it meant he could stay indoors reading for as long as he wanted too, in peace, without having his friends coming over to play soccer for the sixth time this week.

As much as he liked his friends, he enjoyed his time alone a lot.

The quietness of the night was suddenly broken with a loud noise of a door closing violently, downstairs. Startled, and a bit worried, he rushed to the office.

Honestly, Conan could've expected a lot of scenarios when he opened the door ─ a robbery, a murder, the organization ─ but a rather pissed off Ran wasn't among them.

"What?" Conan was shocked beyond words. "You saw Shinichi-niichan on Shibuya?!"

"Yeah, I did!" she shouted, angrily. "And he didn't say one word to me! Isn't that rude?!"

Conan blinked, puzzled. Incredibly rude, yes, but also so very unlikely to happen. It was hard to imagine his brother giving the cold shoulder to his childhood friend ─ and crush ─ just like that.

"He probably got tired of you," Kogoro said, as he drank from his beer can. "Just forget about that mystery freak."

To say that Conan felt irritated at such a tactless comment was an understanding.

"I guess so," Ran replied, a dejected expression on his face. "He was walking with another girl."

Conan looked at the girl with a sad expression, when it came to him.

Last Christmas' Eve, he had passed by someone who looked too much like Shinichi. He would've said he was his carbon copy, if it wasn't for his hair ─ curly and unbelievable messy, opposed to Shinichi's naturally straight, easy-to-tame hair.

His eyes then fell on the window, and focused on the water drops running down the glass. An umbrella... She couldn't have had a good look at him if he carried an umbrella.

"It was a different person!" Ran sent him a glare, and he pressed further. "No, I'm serious! I think I saw that person before!"

The girl blinked, confusedly at him. "You did?"

"Yeah! He looked exactly like Shinichi-niichan, but his hair was completely different. He was carrying a umbrella, wasn't he? That would explain why you couldn't tell them apart."

She stared at him, blankly, for a few seconds before her eyes narrowed in suspicion.

"You're making this up, aren't you?"

"Eh...? Not really."

Ran let go after a while, evidently not believing a single word the child had said. It was a bit frustrating, but he dropped the topic as soon as Kogoro started talking about that jewel thief Sonoko wanted him to catch.

"It's Kaito 1412," Ran explained, a bit exasperated about the fact that the detective couldn't even remember the name. "I have a copy of the strange note from him that was delivered to Sonoko's place."

Ran took a piece of paper from her pocket and showed it to Kogoro. Letting curiosity take the best of him, Conan walked to the desk and peered from behind the detective to take a look.

"April's fool.

When the moon divides two people under the name of Black Star pushed by the waves I will arrive.

─ Kaitou..."

The name was torn off because Sonoko's father had ripped it away, furiously, so Sonoko and Ran had to piece it back together. Conan gave it a long, analytical look before snapping a photo at the note with his phone, without anyone noticing, and excused himself to bed.

Once there, he sat on his futon, phone in hand, opening the navigator instantly. It was time for a little research.

Unsurprisingly, little was known about the elusive thief. Only that he had first appeared eighteen years ago in Paris, and mysteriously disappeared ten years later. For some reason, he had came back not that long ago, and was constantly terrorizing Japan.

Well, not terrorizing, exactly. More like stealing expensive jewels only to return them not long thereafter. Conan failed to understand why he would do such a thing. He isn't replacing them for fake ones either, he noted. Jewels were usually checked after every single one of the thief's heists, and they were as real as they can be.

The media just thought that he just liked to play around, but Conan was highly unconvinced. Nobody would go this far just to make a good joke. There was some hidden motive behind his actions, and the child was determined to find out.

Even so, it was because of this attitude that a writer had nicknamed him KID. And that was it. The thief called himself Kaito KID just because it sounded cool.

And there he was now, standing elegantly under the moonlight, white cape fluttering through the wind while he smirked down at him, as if he had foreseen everything that was about to come. Conan was could only stare for a moment, before he smiled like a cute little child.

He was all alone with the thief. All because Kogoro had came into the wrong conclusion a few days ago and now he was with the police, waiting at the wrong place.

"Ah, it's KID-san!" the child smiled, adorably.

As the thief walked closer to him, a grin on his face, Conan noted he couldn't be older than his brother. Which was strange, considering he was supposed to be have disappeared eighteen years ago, as a grown man.

"Yo, kid," Conan was startled for a moment. "What are you doing at a place like this?"

The moonlight shone on his face and, for a moment, he saw a familiar face. Not only that, his voice and physique was almost the same.

Could he...?

He shook that thought instantly.

"I wanted to see you," he turned around and kneeled down in front of what he had prepared. "Let's celebrate, KID-san."

The fireworks lighted up the sky, and KID didn't seem to react to it. Soon there was an helicopter surrounding the building they were in. Conan feigned surprise and worry as he looked back at him.

"Oh, sorry, I messed up!" he clapped his hands together as he apologized. "The police seems to have seen us."

Kaito KID just chuckled, amused for some reason.

"You're not an ordinary brat, little boy. What's your name?"

Conan smirked back, letting his act drop. "Edogawa Conan," he replied, easily. "A detective."

"Oh~?"

"Don't you have something to be more worried about, now? Like, the police that is coming for you."

KID brought his hand to his chin, as if he was thinking. Conan's eyes narrowed, slightly, as he checked him over with his gaze.

His actions and mannerisms are completely different, but... his hands were behind his back, readying his wrist watch. His intelligence, voice and overall appearance seems to match.

He was going to do it, the moment he turned around to flee. There's only one way to know, he only had only one chance. I will unmask you and find the truth, Kaito KID!

Conan was brought out his thoughts when the thief in white pulled out a radio from nowhere.

"This is Chaki," his voice had changed, dramatically. "I have sighted Kaito KID on the rooftop of the Haido City Hotel."

What the...?

The elementary school student didn't know if what was more surprising. For one, the thief was easily changing his voice without the need for a special device. For other, he was luring them to the place where he was.

Could he be just playing with them?

No, there must be another reason.

He found would find out soon enough, he realized. Soon, the dark night sky was illuminated by the helicopters surrounding the thief, who in turn just gave the young boy a smug smile.

"Are you satisfied now, tantei-kun?"

The child in question was too shocked to reply, even more so when Inspector Nakamori and more police officers bursted in, pointing guns at an unfaced, and very amused, KID.

"Tonight is just a practice drill. I have no intention of stealing it."

"The note," Conan's eyes opened in realization as he mumbled. "April's fool."

"Oh, that's not bad at all!" the child had to suppress the urge to raise his eyebrow when the thief clapped with a grin. Then, his cape turned into a hang glider.

A flash bomb was dropped and Conan had to shield his eyes.

"Hey, kid, did you know?" he could heard him say. "A thief is a creative artist who takes his prey in style, but a detective is nothing more than a critic who follows our footsteps."

And just like that, the thief vanished into the still night, leaving a note behind as the only proof he had been there:

"On April 19, aboard the Queens Elizabeth, which embarks from Yokohama Harbor,

I will arrive to steal the real Black Star.

─ Kaito KID."

He also left behind a very confused and equally annoyed seven year-old detective.

Exactly nineteen days later, Conan was boarding the cruise with an analytical look behind his thick glasses. His eyes narrowed and darted across the room, cursing under his breath that right now everyone looked suspicious.

With that vocal range and a good disguise, sneaking in shouldn't be a problem for him.

And soon he was proved right, when they realized that Sonoko's father was still on his home, instead of the party, even if he had just been seen giving a speech. Conan found his clothes in the bathroom not long thereafter.

"Ran sure is taking a long time," Kogoro frowned. The girl had just went to search for Conan, who in turn had been running around looking for clues, and had yet to return.

"She probably got lost somewhere," Sonoko offered. "Ran's direction-impaired, after all."

Conan sighed, tiredly. Might as well go search for her. If everything his brother had told him about Ran is that her sense of direction is so bad that she would stay lost for days until someone could find her.

Mostly Shinichi would be the first to spot her, and the child had been told that fact hadn't changed ever since childhood. Conan had teased him about that fact, and he had just claimed it was part of his work as a detective, blushing furiously as he said that.

"... I'm direction-impaired, am I?"

The small boy was shocked to see the girl standing behind Sonoko, with a slightly annoyed expression on her face. When did she...?

He was brought out of his thoughts when Superintendent Chaki started to speak. He claimed that KID was a master of disguise and that he might be among them. The man asked everyone to pair up with someone and decide on a password.

This is utterly useless, Conan rolled his eyes. If KID is among us already, it will be for nothing.

"Hey," the kid looked at Ran when she spoke. "What should ours be?"

For a moment Conan was about to tell her to drop it, when something occurred to him. He just smiled, cutely, and whispered in her ear.

"Okay, so when I say 'Holmes'..."

"I'll say 'Lupin'," she nodded.

Lupin? his eyes did not leave her, even as she turned around to see the lights flickering out. Knowing Ran-neechan, she would've picked something like Watson, or even Irene. Definitely not a thief.

He ignored the fake KID appearing and Sonoko's mother shooting him for a show. Conan already knew who the thief was, anyway.

Like so, the child kept silent as he observed Ran, who just fell into her knees to help the magician pick up the cards he had dropped.

"Hey, Conan-kun," Ran called, looking around, when they stopped walking.

KID had successfully managed to steal the Black Star chaos had broken in the Queens Elizabeth, the police desperate to find the thief a few moments ago. Right after Sonoko's mother screamed, claiming to have lost the pearl, Conan had simply started walking, claiming to have finally found out who KID was.

"What?" the boy asked, not even giving her a glance. His eyes, instead, focused on a soccer ball that just lied there, abandoned, and began play with it, kicking it around.

She just blinked at him.

"This is the engine room," she pointed out with a weirded smile on her face.

"Yeah, I noticed," he replied, voice flat and bored. "I wonder what gave it away."

Ran's smile dropped and frowned at him. "That was unusually rude coming from you, Conan-kun."

"Speaking of unusual behavior, I thought you were a nice girl who highly valued justice."

The room was quiet and the ball stopped moving, pressed against the floor with Conan's foot. He turned around, his eyes hidden by the light refracting on his glasses.

"I didn't expect you to resort to thievery, Ran-neechan... Or should I say Kaito KID-san?"

For a second, the imposter was shocked. Then, 'Ran' seemed to calm down and started to giggle.

"Don't joke like that, Conan-kun-"

"I never joke when it concerns crime. If you were Ran-neechan, you would know that already."

"Fine," the thief went to the phone. "If you doubt me so much, let's call the police and-"

Kaito KID had the shock of his life when a soccer ball was shot at his face, with such a strength that made him wonder what did little kids have for breakfast nowadays. Luckily he moved around just in time and missed his face just by an inch, shattering the phone behind him.

"I might be a child, but I wasn't born yesterday. Did you really think I was going to let you pull the same stupid stunt twice in a row?"

Then, something on his eyes shone that made KID's hair stand on point. There was fire, anger between those young eyes.

"Now, unless you want this in your face, you'll tell me," he spoke, dangerously, motioning at the ball on his feet. "Where is Ran-neechan?"

"Calm down, calm down, tantei-kun," the thief said quickly, hoping to appease the very angry little child. "She's fine. Just sleeping in a lifeboat."

It didn't make him feel better, but at least he calmed down a bit after being assured that his sister figure was safe ─ at least, calmed down enough not to break his nose or something.

Yet, the way the thief's voice had changed to his original one, the one that resembled too much his brother's for his liking, was weird.

Not to say that it was rather creepy to see Ran using Shinichi's voice.

Despite himself, he shivered a bit.

"Maybe you should hurry up. I borrowed these clothes from that girl, and she might catch a cold," he pulled a pink bra from his chest. "I'm a perfectionist when it comes to disguises."

"Not that much, apparently, considering Ran-neechan usually wears sports bra."

Kaito KID was scandalized. "How did you-?!"

"I don't, really. Just wanted a reaction," he smirked. "Thanks to you, now I know you truly didn't steal her clothes."

The thief stared at the kid, with an amused expression, and pulled sunglasses out of nowhere. The light blinded the child for a moment and, with a puff of smoke, the criminal disappeared, the door left open on his escape.

He didn't waste any time and took off running after him. It was fruitless, because he soon lost track of him. It was like he had vanished into thin air.

As if he had never been there.

The child sighed, tiredly, leaning into the rails of the ship, eyes fixed on the black waves gently rocking the surface he stood in.

There was something on his pocket, covered in a cloth, he realized. His eyebrow started to twitch when he looked at the black pearl resting on the palm of his hand.

Damn it, that cheap, old fashioned Tuxedo Mask wanna-be.

"A thief is a creative artist who takes his prey in style, but a detective is nothing more than a critic who follows our footsteps."

He closed his hand tightly against the jewel.

Creative artist, yeah right.

Conan let out a long sigh, putting the pearl back on his pocket, resting his face against the rails.

At least there was something he was completely sure of. The Shinichi he knew would never speak ill about the work of a detective. He would never put Ran to sleep and use her as a disguise.

He smiled, brightly. Yes, because he knew his brother.

Then it came back to him. Gin, Vodka. Their cold eyes. Shinichi nodding at them while looking at the photo of someone else's face.

The gun. The muzzle on Conan's face. Shinichi's icy blue eyes staring at him.

His smile faltered.

A/N:

Yose Hyuann: Most likely Conan won't be called 'Kudo' by Heiji because I think it sounds a bit weird to call a child like that. About the movie, most likely yes, in a couple of chapters. I hope all your other questions could get answered in this chapter!

Lieutenant Myst: That's so cool! I've wanted to read And Then There Were None for a long time now, mostly because I have heard nothing but good things about that book, but I haven't have the time yet. Maybe I'll start reading it when I finish Holmes, which I have recently started on.