File Sixty-One: The Young Representative from the East
"Did you watch that last episode?"
"It was incredible... I even had goosebumps, I swear."
"But that cliffhanger... Argh! I really know what happens next!"
"What do you think of it... Conan-kun?" the little girl trailed off. "Conan-kun, are you listening?"
Upon realizing someone was talking to him, Conan's head snapped instantly to the source of the sound of Ayumi calling his name, only to meet with her big, concerned eyes. "Ah, sorry," he said right away, with a smile that he hoped it was convincing enough. "I kind of spaced out for a moment."
Ayumi looked as if she was about to say something else, but Genta interrupted her.
"So, did you watch it?" he was exasperated, however, when confusion pinched his friend's face. "Kamen Yaiba's latest episode, of course!"
"I didn't have the time," Conan sounded almost apologizing. "I'm going to watch it tonight, so don't you dare to spoil it, alright?"
Grumbling something under his breath, Genta crossed his arms behind his head before he turned to talk with Mitsuhiko, and Ayumi joined the conversation not long thereafter.
"To think that a Holmes' fanboy is also a big fan of Kamen Yaiba," Haibara's voice resounded from his other side. "Arthur Conan Doyle must be rolling in his grave."
"Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, you mean."
Ai's eyebrow rose at that.
"Those guys basically forced me to," he shrugged. "Sure, it's not what I would call 'mind-challenging', but it's surprisingly entertaining," then a smirk crossed his features. "I can tell them we should get you introduced, if you want."
"They tried, trust me," she rolled her eyes. "It's not my style, however."
"Suit yourself."
They fell into a comfortable silence, only broken by their friends' cheerful chatter as they discussed something about Gomera's latest movie Conan did not pay attention to.
"I wish we could live like this, forever. To forget everything that had happened," suddenly, Haibara said, causing Conan to stare at her, confusion evident in his eyes. "If I suddenly lost my memory or something... I wouldn't remember my sister's death, or being forced to work for the Organization."
Her eyes travelled to the sky, hands latching behind her back, while Conan simply listened, quietly.
"If I could forget I once was Sherry... I would just become a regular elementary school student, Haibara Ai, I wonder how good it would be... To be with everyone," her distant blue eyes fixed on him. "And I could be with you forever, forever just like this..."
Conan's eyes went wide.
"Haibara-san..."
All of sudden, the girl started giggling. "You're so easy to tease, Kudo-kun," she stated. "I'm just joking."
"... No, you're not."
That caused the small scientist to blink, confused, her wide eyes fixed in Conan's radiant, reassuring smile, for some reason she couldn't hope to understand.
"But there's nothing to worry about, however," he reassured her. "Soon... Everything will be over soon. Then, you, me, everyone will... Will be free to live the way we want."
Shock was written all over her usually stoic face, while staring at the boy in front of her as if he was absolutely insane ─ which, admittedly, could actually be true ─ before her features softened.
Little by little, Conan could see a genuine smile drawing itself.
"I'll be looking forward to it, that future you dream of," her eyes, for the first time since he had met her, were bright, full of hope. "Ku-"
And it was gone. The light, the happiness in her gaze vanished the next second, and was replaced by a glassy, dull look as she stared ahead, unseeing.
Conan just stood there, in horror, watching as the girl suddenly dropped into the sidewalk, like a ragdoll. Blood was pouring from her temples, dripping into the floor and staining everything.
Haibara Ai was undoubtedly dead.
The boy could only stare, frozen in place.
"Kudo Conan-kun, right?"
That voice made his hair stand into an end but before he could even react to turn around, he heard a set of loud noises that prompted his blood to run cold.
Red, that was all he saw. Staining everything, surrounding his fallen friends that had suffered the same destiny the girl beside him had, but he couldn't do anything besides stand there, studying his friends' pale, ghostly faces and lifeless eyes.
For some reason he didn't even question, Heiji, Ran and Kogoro were also there, lying dead across the floor.
Then, a sudden feeling of anger jerked him out of his daze, enough for him to look up into the man's cold smirk.
"Gin..." his lip quivered, before his fists clenched. "You'll pay for this, you hear me, Gin?!"
"Funny for you to say that," the man smirked. "But as much as I would have liked to end Sherry's pitiful life myself, I didn't do a single thing."
Confusion made his eyebrows frown, until he felt it. A strange coldness in his hands prompted him to look down.
At the sight of a gun his grip slacked and caused it to fall, letting him see red again. His hands were soaked with blood.
"C-Conan..."
There he was, standing in front of him with a pained expression on his face exactly where Gin had been before, holding a hand against his abdomen, which wouldn't stop bleeding, no matter how hard he pressed.
"O-Oniichan..." the child whispered, his voice shaking.
Shinichi took a step forward, and Conan's eyes widened, not failing to notice he had swayed in place just by doing that. Then he stepped up once more, but this time, he didn't manage to stay upright. He started to fall forward.
"ONIICHAN!"
"Conan-kun!"
A gasp escaped his lips before he could help it, and he felt his mind being suddenly jerked away from that terrible sight to a room that, fuzzy as his surroundings were at the moment, he slowly began to recognize it as the one he shared with Kogoro. The lights were on ─ why were they on?
"Is everything okay?"
His wild gaze fell on the source of the voice, and eventually focused on the older girl giving him a concerned look, her hands firmly placed over his shoulders, as if she had just tried to shake him awake.
With a shaky nod, the child slowly sat up. "I'm sorry," he managed a tired smile, as he vigorously rubbed his eyes. "It was just a nightmare."
"One hell of a nightmare," turning around, he noticed that Kogoro was sitting on top of his bed, a bored, and equally annoyed, expression plastered all over his face. "I couldn't sleep with you screaming like that."
Instead of saying something in return Conan shifted uncomfortably, eyes falling on the mattress and, therefore, missing the glare Ran sent to her father's direction before her gaze fell on the child, and they softened almost instantly.
"There's nothing to be embarrassed of. It's normal to have nightmares, Conan-kun," her hands went to his back, caressing it softly in an attempt to comfort him somehow. "Do you want to talk about it? They say they won't come true if you-"
"Don't remember it," his answer was immediate.
So immediate that the girl hesitated, wondering how she was supposed to proceed after that. It died down quickly, however, when she covered it up with a gentle smile, opening her mouth to say something else.
"Who is Jin?" her father beat her to it.
The effect was instant. Ran took notice of the way Conan suddenly went white as snow before he pulled out another of his innocent smiles as soon as he noticed the slip. "Ah, nobody in particular," he then let out a nervous chuckle. "I have probably been watching too much Kamen Yaiba. I dreamed about a villain called Jin chasing me around-"
"And Shinichi," Ran's eyes narrowed slightly.
"Y-Yeah."
There was something passing by her eyes, as if she didn't completely believe him, but let it slide. Kogoro had fallen silent, for some reason, and Conan dreaded to know what he was thinking about.
The detective was slow and lazy, but it didn't mean he was stupid. If, somehow, he ended up connecting the dots...
"Now, now, it's still late," Ran gently pushed him into his back. "You should go back to sleep, Conan-kun."
The child didn't fight her and laid down without so much of a complaint. It was a nightmare. Nothing like that has happened, he tried to reassure himself as he pulled the covers closer to him. His eyes caught something, and he found himself staring intently at his hand.
But that doesn't mean it isn't going to happen. If everyone keeps getting involved...
If I get more people involved...
A flash of vivid red caused him to cringe.
When another hand clasped around his, causing him to jump due to the surprise. Looking up, he found himself staring at Ran's gentle, yet worried, incredibly worried, eyes.
"You know, Conan-kun," she said, in a whisper, as she placed her hand, which was still grasping his, over his chest. "If you don't tell us what's going on, we won't be able to help you."
He knew that. That was why his lips were sealed shut right now.
Kogoro said nothing, just watched as his daughter let out a sigh, giving up in having the child to say anything, and instead simply started to tenderly stroke the young boy's hair. He just watched Conan quietly falling asleep, as he reminisced the whimpers, the heart-wrenching screams as the kid tossed and turned, unable to get out of the nightmare that had a tight grasp on him.
Jin, and he couldn't forget that name, which Conan had uttered, with a sleepy broken voice that had made his heart clench.
He didn't know anything, but there was something he was certain of.
Whoever he was, this 'Jin' was not a mere character from a children's TV show.
The week that followed had been as tough as the rest. Eisuke had come by again, claiming that there was a case that he had found interesting and begged Kogoro to solve it. It ended up involving the child that had caused Kir's accident many days ago.
Eisuke ended up questioning him alone and got out of him that a woman in black had asked if he had told anyone about it, and when he asked why she had just said 'A secret makes a woman, woman'.
Conan was convinced, this was not a coincidence. Eisuke knew that Mizunashi Rena was not on vacation, and was desperately looking for her.
Yet, the fact that he wasn't the only one was far more disturbing.
So, Friday came around and he had really thought he would finally have a peaceful day, but of course, he had opened the door of the agency, like any other day after school, only to find out that Heiji and Kazuha had suddenly shown up on their doorstep a few hours ago.
One thing led to another, and he had somehow found himself solving, alongside the detective of the West, a case involving a disappearing corpse in a temple.
Not to say he had to deal with Heiji himself, who wouldn't stop giving him weird glances from time to time.
Conan ended up waking up after nine the next day, only to find Kogoro snoring at one side and an empty futon on the other. Well, he did say they were leaving early in the morning, the kid shrugged, as he stood up and slowly made his way into the toilet. Maybe this way I can have a bit of peace...
He climbed up the stool Ran had put for him ever since he had begun to live there. Perhaps I should have asked him to look into that, he pondered ─ he had done his research, after all, and had found a picture, taken at least ten years ago, that showed a girl in the background who looked exactly like Mizunashi Rena, where the Tsutenkaku Tower was could also be seen.
Mentally shaking his head, he grabbed his toothbrush and toothpaste tube. Hattori has nothing to do with this, he squished the tube only to realize that it was empty.
Just what I needed...
"Here. I'll loan you mine."
He was about to accept it, until his sleepy brain finally realized that there was a voice that was not supposed to be there. Wide eyes flickered towards it, only to realize that Hattori was standing next to him, brushing his teeth with a very bored expression on his face.
Conan almost fell off the stool due to the surprise. "You are still here," he breathed out.
"It sounds like you're disappointed," replied the older boy, with a raise of his eyebrow.
Blinking, the kid kept on staring at Heiji, completely ignoring his last statement. "You know it's past nine, right?"
"Yeah, I planned to leave early, but with that old man's snoring..."
Conan didn't need him to expand on that. He might have gotten used to it, but it had taken many, many months to be able to sleep through the man's loud snoring. So, he had actually been through what Heiji had suffered that single night.
"Then, why aren't you hurrying to exchange tickets?"
Heiji paused at that and turned to face the kid. "It's okay," he flashed him a grin, which caused Conan to feel that some more trouble was coming. "I'm not going home yet."
"... Eh?"
He did find out at breakfast, when Heiji told everyone that he was planning to go to a deserted island ─ frankly speaking, Conan wished he could be astonished at that crazy idea, yet he couldn't ─ and Kazuha told it was for a TV program, before her childhood friend could say something else.
"But is it okay to wait this late to go to the ship?" Ran questioned. "Doesn't it leave early?"
"No, even if we leave now, we'll be there in plenty of time."
Wasting a Saturday morning in some random TV program, thought Conan, absently, as he continued to eat, not looking too interested in the conversation. Well, if he's anything like my brother, of course he would love to show off... So I guess it would be worth for him.
What's so interesting about getting cameras filming your face and showing it to the rest of the world, anyway?
"If I had wanted to get up early, I could have gotten there before them and checked out the faces and characters of the other guys who were invited," a smirk crossed Hattori's features. "People like me. High school detectives."
Conan's eyes flickered towards him, blinking confusedly.
"Nichiuri TV has gathered like that from all over the country to see who's the best in Japan. They're advertising it as a Detective Koushien."
Ran and Kogoro gasped at that, completely taken aback, unlike the kid, who simply shrugged before returning to his breakfast. Well, that's something I would watch on TV, he decided. It would be a nice change of pace from all the romantic soaps Ran watched, or the cringe-inducing talk shows Kogoro enjoyed ─ mostly because Okino Yoko was there.
"That's why I told him not to go," Kazuha commented. "He'd be an idiot to go like that, just because he was invited."
"I think so too, but I have to go. It was in the invitation letter. I, Hattori Heiji, was invited as the representative from the West," Hattori argued. "Since the West is me, the East is obviously..."
Ran's eyes opened slightly.
"Hey, you don't think that detective boy..." Kogoro gasped.
"... might be coming?" with a smile directed to her friend, Kazuha completed.
Conan closed his eyes. "Not a chance," he said instantly, earning everyone's attention. "Shinichi-niichan is working on a case that's important enough to leave his town, friends and family for more than a year," his gaze fell on Hattori, and narrowed. "It's stupid to think he would show up for a TV show all of sudden."
"Family?" Kazuha blinked. "I thought he lived alone..."
Hattori almost choked on his food.
"Conan-kun is his distant relative," explained Ran right away. "He and Shinichi lived together for less than a year."
"Eh, really?" the girl then stared at the child, who looked back at her, unblinking. "Now that I look at him, Conan-kun looks a lot like Kudo-kun."
"Besides, Ran-neechan and Shinichi-niichan are married," Conan pointed out, with a plain tone. "So they're family, in that sense."
"Conan-kun, where did you get that idea from?!"
"Sonoko-neechan. Though it pains me to admit it, she makes a good point there."
They're something else, those two... Hattori couldn't help but stare at the red-faced Ran, and the still bored-looking Conan, amazed at how easily they had dissuaded Kazuha's question.
Before long, however, Heiji managed to recover. "Well, why don't we find that out?" he suggested. "They said there's lodging for any escorts," he then placed his hand on top of Conan's hair ─ who did not appreciate it. "It might turn out that the kid is wrong and that Kudo is actually there."
The kid opened his mouth to reply.
"Alright," but Ran beat him to it with a smile. "We're going."
Huh? that took Conan off guard, causing him to actually turn to blink at her. She was actually giggling at his bewilderment. She knows he isn't going to be there.
His confusion only grew stronger when she didn't seem to be discouraged when, later that day, the director told her they hadn't managed to contact Kudo Shinichi, so it was highly likely that he wasn't going to come.
As if she had expected it.
Then why did she want us to come along?
Apparently, escorts were going to stay on land in a hotel until they returned the next morning, which made Conan wonder what was the point in actually coming along instead of staying home.
"Hey," but then, Hattori crouched next to the kid, landing a hand on his head. "Would it be okay to take this kid with me?" the child's wide eyes flickered to him. "He's kind of like my assistant."
"Assistant...?" he muttered under his breath.
"If he stays in your room, that's fine," the director nodded with a smile.
Conan blinked a bit, having expected a negative response and frowned when the older boy ruffled his hair. "Hey, hey," he tried to argue. "I don't think it's-"
"Why not?" Ran smiled, brightly. "Don't you like this kind of stuff?"
Conan didn't know how to respond, far too shocked to say anything else. Ran seemed to be pleased with the thought of him actually coming with Heiji, which caused him to wonder if she had planned this all along.
So, with a weak nod, he simply followed the older detective to the boat.
"She's worried," whispered the Osakan to him, as they slowly made their way. "Probably thought you needed to liven up a little, so she played along so you could enjoy yourself," he flashed him a grin. "So light up a little bit, will you?"
"Her concern is unfounded," he shrugged. "If anything, sticking with you for a whole day will take years out of my lifespan-" before he could finish that sentence, his eyes caught on something in the back of that director. "Do you know that director guy from Nichiuri TV?"
"No, this is my first time meeting him. You've noticed his Nichiuri TV staff jumper, huh?"
"Evidently."
Without saying much else, they got in the boat. As they did that, Kazuha promised that she would never forgive him if he, the Kansai representative, were to lose. To which he flipped his hat around. "I won't be left behind. Hattori Heiji is here."
Oh, clever, thought Conan with a smirk.
"Why?" Heiji's gaze flickered from the other two detectives in the room, who sat in silence ─ one was playing some video games, the other was listening to music through her headphones ─ to the young sleuth sitting beside him. "Why did you bring me along? I hope you know I have no intention of actually becoming your assistant."
Even the word left a bad taste in his mouth.
"No, no," he leaned closer, so he could whisper to him. "Since Kudo can't come, I'd win too easily. So I thought I'd give you a chance instead," a bright grin made its appearance in his face. "I hoped you could offer me half a decent competition."
"... What do you mean with 'half'?" he growled under his breath, before he sighed, loudly. "Though it's true that if my brother was around this would've become a decent program. With you and these two, it would be absolutely boring."
If this is a real TV program, anyway.
The other two soon proved to be decent, however, when they used the terms 'go over the top' and 'laugh for me', which the director didn't seem to understand, then laughed around pretending that nothing had happened.
Silence settled once more, and didn't vanish until they reached their destination. Upon standing on the island, an old man presented himself as Kouya Renzo, and informed them that he was tasked with looking after them all.
"Say, Director-san," Heiji turned to the person in question. "It looks like the high school detective of the East hasn't come, huh? What shall we do about that?"
"H-Hey!" Conan tried to stop him from doing what he thought he would do.
"As for the boy representing the East," Kouya spoke. "He was here early this morning and is already at the lodge."
Conan's mouth hung open at that, eyes big and wide as he stared at the informant, shock written all over his face.
Heiji seemed as if he wanted to question what the man had said. "Who is it?!" but the kid was quicker.
Everyone turned to look at the quiet child that suddenly was demanding an answer. "Who is the East representative?" he took a step forward, completely ignoring the fact that there were more people there.
He couldn't have come, could he? He wouldn't have taken so much of a risk for a mere competition... Right?!
"W-Well," Kouya stuttered a bit, before he began to think. "I think his name was..."
"Yeah?!"
"H-Hakuba Saguru."
Conan almost wished he had said his brother's name instead.
"Hey," and it must have shown on his face, because instantly after the man had turned around, Heiji had kneeled right next to him. "Who is that?"
"A high school detective, obviously," he replied, rolling his eyes though he was mentally preparing himself for what it was about to come. "He seems to be obsessed with capturing Kaito KID. We met in a case a long time ago."
Humming softly, the Osakan detective stood up so he could follow the rest to the lodge they were going to stay at. "Is that thief the only thing he's interested in?" he then asked, borely looking up ahead, causing Conan to jump slightly. "Unless you're KID in disguise, it would make no sense whatsoever for you to be that tense. But you're too short for him to pretend to be you, so..."
The kid's eyebrow twitched at that last comment, but did not say anything. "Remember that incident at the Nishitamashi Twin Towers I told you about?"
"Yeah, when Gin tried to bomb that building with all of you inside, right?"
"He's looking into it," Heiji's gaze immediately darted to the child at those words. "I don't know why that caught his attention, but he has been questioning Occhan and me."
There was no need for further explanation, so they fell quiet as they continued their way, each of them far too focused in their own thoughts to pay attention to anything else.
Eventually they reached their destination and, as it had been expected, as soon as Conan's gaze met with Hakuba's, the older detective's lips curved into a smirk, causing the kid to take a step back, instinctively.
The strawberry blonde would probably have said something, if a loud yelp of surprise hadn't gathered his attention. "Ah!" Conan had absolutely no clue whatsoever as to why Hattori looked so stunned. "It's you!"
... Eh?
"Long time not see," Hakuba replied upon noticing his presence. "I hope you're not harassing people for information this time around."
The detective from Osaka flinched at that.
"You did what?!" hissed the kid, low enough for the others not to hear.
"I... I'll explain later, okay?"
Though not entirely convinced, Conan let go.
"Well now," the director stepped up, interrupting them both. "High school detectives from the East, West, South and North, please introduce yourselves."
Even if the crew and hosting talent weren't scheduled to arrive until the next day, which meant no cameras around, they complied. The girl with the earphones and the boyish clothes was first and introduced herself as Koshimizu Natsuki, born in Fukuoka and representative from the South. She had handled less than one hundred cases, so she considered herself a novice.
Next came Tokitsu Junya who grew in Hokkaido and was the North's representative ─ Conan noted he referred to himself as 'shousei', which was weird but not exactly a crime, so he let this slide. He had handled approximately three-hundred cases, where more than two-hundred and fifty had arrested and prosecuted, yet the rest they got away or commited suicide.
Conan didn't like the fact that he had barely shrugged when talking about the people that had killed themselves because of his deductions, but did his best to simply close his eyes and not to comment on it.
"I'm Hattori Heiji, a pretty well-known detective from the Kansai region," all those bad feelings disappeared with a sigh, upon taking sight of Heiji's cocky, overconfident smirk. "As for how many cases I've solved..." he pretended to count. "One, two, three... It's more than one thousand, so it's hard to count them individually."
The other two were obviously surprised, yet the kid couldn't, actually.
"It's true," he might have noticed the raised eyebrow he was giving him, because the teen whispered to the child. "Even if I may have included searching for cats as a kid."
"That should be considered cheating..."
Hakuba let out a snicker, erasing Heiji's grin almost instantly and adopting a look of annoyance, all over his face.
"My father speaks well of you, Hattori Heiji-kun," he commented. "He said you're a very perceptive detective."
"How does your dad know about me?"
"Because he's just like you," Conan smiled, innocently, before turning back to Hakuba. "Isn't that so, Hakuba-niichan?"
"Yeah, my father is a police commissioner," he explained. "Strangely, since your father is the director general of the Osaka prefectural police, our circumstances are very similar."
Hattori didn't seem so amused about that.
"By the way," the detective of the North questioned. "How many cases have you solved?"
"Ah, I see. I would say around five hundred."
"That's only half as many as me," Heiji grinned.
I don't think he's counting searching for cats, tough, Conan left his thoughts for himself.
"Yeah," Hakuba didn't seem to be bothered. "But then again, I'm only talking about the cases that occurred in Japan. I've been studying abroad in England for a while, I don't come back to Japan often. My old housekeeper has been accepting cases for me."
The detectives from the North and South looked at each other. "That's quite unexpected," commented the boy. "That someone who's famous overseas like Hakuba would be the representative from the East..."
"Yeah," she agreed. "I was sure it'd be Kudo Shinichi-kun."
"Exactly!" Hattori also agreed, loudly so. "The high school detective from the East is Kudo. You shouldn't be there!"
Conan didn't even say anything, limiting himself to just observe from his spot, in silence. It was easy to notice that Hattori was pretty irritated, not only with Hakuba, whom he strongly disliked for no particular reason, but because he was taking Kudo Shinichi place.
Not that it was surprising, considering that the only reason Conan had met Hattori was because he had wanted to challenge Kudo. Looks like he still wishes to compete against him.
"It was my housekeeper, you see, who received the call from the director here. He asked that I participate as the representative from the East to replace Kudo-kun, who could not be contacted."
Frankly speaking, however, Conan also felt that Hakuba didn't fit the role. Oniichan is the Great Detective of the East, his lips pressed together. The one and only.
"It seems the term 'replacement' hurt my dear housekeeper's feelings. 'The world should know that Hakuba is the representative from the East,' she told me in tears. So what could I do?"
He should have been the representative of the East. Not this guy.
Had things been different... Had I not...
He mentally shook his head. He was not going there again ─ the way his mind worked nowadays was getting annoying and incredibly frustrating.
"However, it would seem I'm not an appropriate representative from the East."
"You got that right," Heiji huffed.
"Then, how about this?" he started to walk towards the child, who simply stared back at him with a wide, innocent gaze, not completely understanding his actions. "I'll take the role of 'guest from abroad'..."
Hakuba then crouched down next to him and placed a hand on his shoulder.
"... And let Edogawa Conan-kun here be the East's representative."
Conan blinked, slowly. Then blinked again, letting his words sink on his head.
"This boy is surprisingly good at deduction," his eyes opened a bit more when realization stuck. "I think he's even better than Kudo Whoever-kun."
Instantly, he turned to the detective beside him. "A-Ah, no," he stuttered. "I don't think-"
"I hate to say this, but I completely agree with you," his annoyed scowl turned into a broad grin when his eyes fell on the child. "Don't think we're going easy on you, kid."
The kid didn't return the smile, just stared at him, bewildered. And he's actually okay with that?!
"But he's just a kid..." the director scratched the back of his head.
"It's fine!" the detective from the South agreed, with a smile. "It works for me."
"But wait..." the child tried to argue. It doesn't work for me!
"More importantly," his complaints fell in deaf ears, though. "Where are our rooms? I'm kind of tired."
Sighing to himself, Conan had no other choice but to succumb to being the East's representative and to follow the director, who was going to guide them to their rooms.
On top of that, he gave the detective from Osaka, who was smiling to himself, a glare. I have to share a room with this guy.
"Hey, what's with that look?" his glare only grew stronger when Hattori realized it and confronted him about it. "Light up a bit, it will be fun."
"What's so fun about this?" he sighed loudly, already imagining the cameras, the attention, his classmates ─ and teacher ─ going wild about it, bombarding with a lot of questions upon reaching the door of his classroom next Monday morning. "It will be a pain, what comes after this... Besides..."
Hattori's smile dropped a bit. "Besides?"
He observed that the kid's gaze had fallen on his feet, and by the frown and the hands he hid inside his pockets ─ most likely, because they were clenching and unclenching, unconsciously ─ Heiji knew it was more than just an aversion to attention.
So, with a sigh, he slowed down his pace, and the child did the same, until they were at the back of the group. Then, Hattori gave Conan a serious look, which he did not return.
"You're not a replacement," the teen assured the boy, even if he did not seem to react. "You're not replacing your brother."
"I know that," he huffed, closing his eyes, frown deepening. "You can't replace people just like that."
"Then what is it?"
For a beat, he didn't seem to react and Hattori really thought his words had fallen into deaf ears, again. But soon he was proven wrong when the child stopped walking all of sudden, his eyes fixed on a random spot ahead, but not really looking. If anything, Hattori could infer he was staring at something else, that he could not see.
"... I'm not the Great Detective of the East, Hattori."
"Yet."
This time, the kid did react. His head turned to the older detective, confusion pinching his face as he just stared back at him, as if wondering what he was even talking about.
"You can't expect everything to stay the same forever," he said to him, the carefree smile from before completely gone and replaced with a serious expression. "Eventually, you'll grow up and suprass Kudo. Some brat will come and surpass me... And then, someone will end up surpassing you. That's how the world works."
Amused by the surprise evident in the usually serious little boy, Heiji couldn't help but chuckle a little, ruffing his hair in a playful manner, despite the small one's displeasure.
"You're you, kid," Heiji then, hand idle in Conan's hair as he kneeled down next to him, so he could look at him at eye level. "This is your spot, yours and only yours, alright? You earned it yourself."
"..."
"Alright?"
"... Alright."
The grin didn't take long to reappear, as he stood up and looked around. "Now that's settled with, we should get going," he let out a nervous laugh. "And try to find everyone else."
Conan sighed, loudly, only then realizing that they had lost track of the group when talking amongst each other. This would be a pain.
"Once we do, I need to get a word with you."
"Eh? What about?"
The annoyed glance Hattori shot his way only confused him further, if possible.
"How come that guy gets to be called 'niichan' and I don't?"
"... What?"