"Hey! Are you listening, Shin-chan!?" Yukiko yelled through the phone.
Conan sighed. "Yes, yes. I'm listening, mom."
Since Yusaku still hadn't gotten Shinichi's number, that meant Yukiko had to go to Conan instead of her actual son. Although, even if they did have Shinichi's number, Yukiko would still have to do this because she still thought Conan was Shinichi. Why Yusaku didn't tell her, he didn't know.
The only upside to her calls was that he was no longer afraid of her. After so long, he eventually got used to her antics (and had even gotten into the habit of calling her mom).
At least she wasn't given Conan's actual number and just called through Agasa's home phone. But her calls were still annoying.
Yusaku, please stop lying to your wife already.
"I can't believe him!" Yukiko continued to rant. "Yusaku came back in the middle of the day completely drunk with kiss marks on his shirt. I'm gonna go cheat on him too!"
Conan massaged the bridge of his nose to try and stave off an oncoming headache.
He heard the creak of the basement door opening and saw Haibara walking out with a steaming cup of coffee.
Conan saw his chance and said, "Ah, sorry I'm busy. Gotta go. Bye!"
"Hey! Shini-" He hung up the phone.
He slouched down on the couch and sighed. Haibara sat down on the opposite side with a steaming cup of coffee in her hand.
Conan had started to warm up a bit more to the girl after the past couple of weeks. He was less nervous around her (well, not that he was that nervous at first, but he definitely was a little) especially now that the looming threat of his secret being discovered was no longer there.
The phone started to ring again, but they both just ignored it until it went away. It stayed silent thereafter, so they both assumed she had realized her attempts to call were futile.
"Family troubles, huh?" Haibara said as she slipped on her coffee.
Apparently, Yukiko had been calling for ages, and Agasa and Haibara had finally gotten tired of the ringing and called him over.
"Yeah..." He replied. "She thinks dad's having an affair."
Haibara quirked an eyebrow. "Oh, but isn't that quite serious?"
"I'm sure it's just a misunderstanding." Yusaku just didn't seem like the type of guy to go out partying and hook up with some random girl.
"Ah..." She said. "So.. how's it going with that girl?"
"Oh, Ran?"
"Yeah, you've been gone for quite a while, haven't you."
"Oh." Conan recalled a phone call he had overheard from Ran. "She keeps on getting mad and asking when I'll be back."
"Ah... I've been wondering..." Haibara asked. "How have you been calling her? I thought you'd have two phones, your old Shinichi one and a new Conan one, but I've only ever seen you with one."
"Oh, yeah I don't." He said (considering Shinichi still probably had his phone). But, thankfully, Conan had already thought of an excuse for this. "I'm still using my old phone, I just modified it to look like Conan's phone. I change the case and wallpaper and contacts and stuff." Well, that wouldn't work if they had different phone models, but it's not like she knew what Shinichi's was either.
"Hey..!" Haibara said nervously. "That's dangerous! What if she realizes-"
"Oh, don't worry." Conan interrupted. "I changed the number and whenever I call her I put *67 in the beginning so it shows up as private."
"If you say so..."
Soon, their conversation faded off, and Conan eventually headed back to the detective agency.
He opened the door to furious yelling.
"It's none of your business!" Kogoro yelled into the phone. He paused a second before continuing. "Yeah, yeah! Thanks for worrying Miss Famous Lawyer!" He sarcastically said and then slammed the phone back into the receiver. He grumbled and sat back down in the office chair as he began lighting a cigarette.
Seemed everyone was having family troubles today.
He was glad he just had to deal with Yukiko; Eri was scary.
Conan plopped down on the couch and let out a huge yawn. Man, he was tired. His stomach growled. And hungry too.
He grabbed a book off the table, placed it over his face, and took a well needed nap.
Conan awoke to Ran, staring down at him.
He sat up and yawned. "Welcome back, Ran-neechan." He sleepily said.
He brought a hand up to push up his glasses and-
Where did they go?
He looked around for the missing glasses, but to no avail.
"Oh." Ran said. "Are you looking for these?" She brought out his glasses from behind her back.
"Ah, thanks." He grabbed them and placed them back on his head.
"Say..." Ran gave him a strange look. "You really wear your glasses all the time, don't you?"
"Well, yeah. I can't see without them." He stated what he thought was obvious.
"But I mean, you wear them even in the bath and when you sleep. Isn't that a bit much?"
That's true...
Thankfully, Conan didn't have to answer when they were interrupted by a knock on the door.
Their client had came because her husband, Tsukumo Motoyasu, had died and the police had ruled it as a suicide (which of course meant that it was a murder). She had thought that was odd because he just didn't seem suicidal. They were both magicians and lived with three others (who Conan guessed were going to be their suspects) who studied under Motoyasu.
However, throughout the conversation Ran had been giving him weird looks, especially after she had looked at that photobook. He didn't think he had done anything wrong. Well, maybe he was butting into the conversation a bit too much and was acting a bit too smart for the average seven-year old. But he had to move them towards the right direction somehow. And it couldn't be that weird that he knew all about the poison aconitine, what it did, exactly how much was lethal, and where it's typically found, right? Overly curious children tend to rapidly consume knowledge and know strange things, so it wasn't that unusual. Even weirder, when Kogoro had yelled at him for asking to go along, Ran had actually convinced him to let Conan go with.
For some reason, the whole situation felt kind of familiar.
Eventually, they had arrived at their client's mansion and had met the other magicians. They had each introduced themselves along with a magic trick, pretty much one after the other. One of them was that magician who pretended to be Kaitou KID back at the Black Star heist. His trick included pretending to destroy their one piece of evidence.
Honestly, Conan kind of thought magicians seemed like arrogant assholes. (Well, not KID of course. He was different.)
Their client's daughter happened to be one of his classmates and she had tried to get him to go shopping with her, but, again, Ran had intervened.
Soon, they had made their way down to the crime scene, the basement. Conan had been giving vague hints as usual, but Ran was intensely staring at him. She had even encouraged him to make deductions, which she rarely does. At this point, it was safe to assume something was up with her. What it was, he didn't know. He just hoped it would sort itself out eventually, considering it seemed to be about him.
But, they eventually found Motoyasu's dying message. The two cards glued together symbolized the redial button on the phone and he had left a string of numbers. They figured out it translated to D-C-Ma-Ko, meaning the culprit was Mako and that she'd kill again.
Eventually they found her. She had planned on killing their daughter, but thankfully she didn't. Apparently Motoyasu had murdered her brother or something but Conan didn't really care.
Mako was taken to the police and Conan, Ran, and Kogoro then started heading back to the detective agency to finally have their long awaited dinner.
Well, that's what Conan had thought before Ran said, "Oh, no! I forgot to buy the ingredients for tonight's dinner!"
"Ehhh!?" Conan and Kogoro both yelled.
"Ah, don't worry." Ran said. "I'll go get something from the convenience store with Conan-kun." Conan looked up at her suspiciously. "Why don't you go head home." She said to Kogoro.
"Don't take too long..." He grumbled as he walked away.
Ran and Conan headed off as well, but it didn't seem like they were going in the direction of the convenience store, it actually looked like they were going to Agasa's. Conan had kept on giving Ran glances throughout the walk, but she never acknowledged them.
As they had gotten close, Ran stopped in front of Shinichi's house.
"Um.. Ran-neechan?" Conan nervously asked. "This isn't the convenience store..."
"Yes, quite clearly it isn't." She sounded angry.
Conan now really started to worry. He didn't remember doing anything wrong or anything that would upset her.. so what was it!?
"I was just thinking.." Ran began. "-that you should go back to your home.. Shinichi."
Conan just stared up at her with wide eyes.
Ah, so that's what was bothering her, he realized.
Actually, this made sense. The weird looks and odd behavior, she had been like that the first time she thought he was Shinichi.
But the fact that he didn't want her to think he was Shinichi, had not changed. In fact, it had gotten stronger. Over his stay at the Mouri's, he had realized that if he were to tell her that he was Shinichi, he wouldn't live to see another day. He had seen the fist sized dents in the wall and heard the furious yelling late at night. He did not want to be on the receiving side of that.
"W-what are you talking about..?" He nervously said. "I'm not Shinichi."
"Don't try and deny it!" She yelled, making Conan slightly flinch. "Everything about you is identical to him! Your deductive abilities, your love for Sherlock and soccer, your horrible singing and lack of music knowledge! It's just way too much of a coincidence!"
Wow, she made a lot of sense actually. It would almost make more sense for him to be Shinichi, especially now that he knew it was possible to shrink. But Ran didn't know that, so he still had common sense on his side.
"But, Ran-neechan!" He yelled back. "Look at me." He gestured to himself. "I'm a kid. Unless there's been some major scientific discoveries I haven't heard about, then it's impossible for me to be Shinichi!"
Ran seemed to falter for a second. "W-well, I don't know! Maybe the Professor made some sort of drug but it didn't work right or something!"
Well, she would've been right about the drug part.
Conan sighed. "Besides, everything that you've mentioned is just coincidences, nothing close to concrete proof."
"You want proof huh..." She smiled scarily. "I'll give you proof!" She yelled as she reached down and ripped his glasses off his face, throwing them behind her.
Conan watched in panic as they clattered to the ground.
Those things took a while to repair you know! And the frames were probably real expensive. He really hoped they weren't broken.
"There you have it!" Ran yelled. "You look just like him! You can't deny it!"
Conan looked up at Ran and sighed again. "So what?" He asked. Ran looked surprised, having not expected that response."So what if I look like Shinichi! People look alike all the time! That's just another coincidence!"
Ran looked downward, beginning to see his point.
"Besides," He continued. "I'm not even good at soccer like Shinichi. If I was Shinichi would I be missing half of my kicks every time I play?"
Ran seemed to be believing him. That was good. He wanted to resolve this soon and finally get some dinner.
"Oh, is that Ran-chan?" A voice suddenly spoke from behind them.
Conan turned around and his eyes widened in fear as he stared at Kudo Yukiko.
She was probably the worst person to show up in this situation. He never necessarily remembered telling her that Ran didn't know he was Shinichi. Well, he never said that she did know, but, knowing Yukiko, she'd probably disregard that and just gush about the tiny Shinichi to Ran regardless.
Great. And right as he had managed to convince Ran otherwise.
"What are you doing by my house so late?" Yukiko asked.
"Shinichi's mom?" Ran asked. "When did you get back from America?"
Conan slowly started inching backwards behind Ran.
"Just now! The week's been pretty hectic." Yukiko looked down pretending to notice the boy. "Ah, that kid over there, is that..?"
Ran let out a scary laugh. "What excellent timing... Why don't we ask.." Ran suddenly picked up Conan and held him in front of her. "Your own mother!"
Yukiko leaned in to get a better look. Conan shrinked away in panic.
"Ah!" She said in realization.
Sweat started dripping down Conan's face. He really started to panic now.
"It's Conan-chan!"
Ran stared at her in surprise and Conan let out a breath he didn't know he was holding.
"It's been a while, hasn't it!" Yukiko said happily.
"W-wait..." Ran said. "You know him!?"
"Of course I do! He's my brother's grandfather's daughter's cousin's uncle's grandson!"
Ran set him down. "But wasn't he a relative of the Professor's?"
"Yeah! Me and the Professor are distant relatives." Yukiko bent down to Conan. "Fumiyo-san is your mom, right?"
"Yeah!" Conan readily agreed.
Ran gave them both an incredulous look. "...Are you two playing a prank on me?"
"Huh?" They both looked at her.
"Even if everything else is a coincidence, it just doesn't make sense that an elementary school student can make such deductions!" Ran yelled.
"T-that must be because Shinichi taught him all sorts of things! He used to come over all the time." Yukiko said.
"Shinichi did..?" Ran asked. Yukiko and Conan both eagerly nodded their heads. "Then why have I never heard about this!? Shinichi would tell me about these things!" Ran yelled again. Conan hid behind Yukiko. "And there's still too many things that don't make sense!"
Yukiko placed her hands on Ran's shoulders. "Ran-chan.. just think about it. Would Shinichi ever do this?" She looked behind her at Conan.
Wait, do what?
Oh, it was probably the cowering behind Yukiko he was currently doing.
"Ran-neechan.. you're scaring me..." He added in for good measure.
Ran seemed to think about it for a moment. A troubled look passed on her face before she settled on an almost amused smile. She bent down to Conan and brought her hands together. "Sorry, Conan-kun! Looks like I misunderstood things again! Why don't I make some curry as an apology?"
"Yeah!" He cheerfully said and began walking over to her before Yukiko stopped him with a hand on his shoulder.
"Ah, sorry!" She said. "Could I borrow him for a couple of days? I've finally gotten a break and it's been so long since we've seen each other..!"
"Oh, I don't mind!" Ran said as she began heading home. "Bye, Conan-kun!" She waved to the boy.
"Bye, Ran-neechan!" He happily waved back.
As soon as Ran rounded the corner, Conan glared up at Yukiko and said, "So.. why are you here?"
"My, is that how you treat the woman who just saved your life?" She glared back.
"I was doing just fine by myself. I was literally about to convince her before you showed up." Conan walked over to where Ran threw his glasses. He inspected them for a moment to make sure they weren't broken or anything (thankfully they weren't) and started cleaning them with the edge of his shirt. "But you still haven't told me why you're here in the first place. I hope it isn't because of the fight you had this morning..."
"Oh don't worry about that! I'm sure Yusaku will explain to me in full..." She said with a scary look.
"Please don't drag me into your marital issues." Conan deadpanned as he put his glasses back on.
"But really, I just wanted to see my adorable little Shin-chan!" Yukiko crouched down and snuggled up to Conan.
Conan just groaned.
Yukiko picked him up and started heading inside. "Mommy's gonna make you a tasty dinner!" She said as the boy struggled within her grasp.
Turns out the dinner she was talking about was cup ramen because it was just about the only thing that wasn't expired in Shinichi's house. It was a far cry from Ran's home cooked curry he could've been having, but food was food and he was hungry.
Conan was just barely able to finish his ramen before he conked out for the night.
Conan awoke to the sound of the wind blowing around him and a loud motorcycle engine.
That was not normal.
Last he remembered he was in the Kudo household so why did it sound like he was outside, riding in a motorcycle?
Conan opened his eyes and, yup, it was exactly that.
Now that the last dregs of sleep have left his body and his mind was finally able to comprehend his situation, he naturally started to freak out.
He frantically looked around in a panicky state and managed to notice that he was zipped up in Yukiko's jacket. The fact that this was her doing actually made a lot of sense. And, it was also nice to know that he wasn't kidnapped by any malicious party, instead just Yukiko.
"Ah, I see you've woken up." He could hear her say over the wind.
"H-huh!? What!?" Was all he managed.
"I actually had something to do over here in Japan. I wanted to bring you along." She explained.
"Wait! What is it!?" He asked.
Yet she never answered and just continued to silently drive.
Conan sighed.
However he had to wonder why she didn't just put him in a backpack or something because this didn't seem the easiest or most comfortable way to transport him. (Out of his peripheral vision, he could see her boobs fluttering in the wind because his body was pushing them aside. He wouldn't exactly know, but that didn't seem too comfortable and, in fact, looked like it hurt.)
Wait.
How did he not wake up during all that? He wasn't exactly too light of a sleeper but he definitely wasn't a heavy sleeper either, so he had to have woken up, at least, as she was zipping him up, right?
Oh.
That woman, she drugged him!
He knew it was weird how quickly he fell asleep after eating that ramen. Christ, she's insane.
But, fortunately for Conan, they soon arrived at the destination. One of Yukiko's friends had asked her to investigate their uncle because she suspected him to be a fake, which also explained why she brought him along. She thought that perhaps he was an imposter trying to gain the inheritance from their recently deceased father-in-law, but it was soon confirmed that he was the real deal. There were quite a few others who lived in the house, and apparently they were all also fighting over the inheritance.
So, since Conan had just met a group of people and they all seemed to have potential motives, that obviously meant someone had to go and get murdered. But, he had to admit that tying the body to the bucket of a well was a pretty creative place to put a body; he had never seen it before. It made for quite the dramatic scene.
However, the inspector that had arrived, Yamamura, was exceptionally stupid. He was making all sorts of rookie mistakes and he was even scared of the corpse. He was even worse than Kogoro, which he didn't think was possible. Conan had to wonder how he became an inspector in the first place.
After a bit of investigation and preventing a second murder via crossbow hidden in a cabinet, Conan had pretty much solved the case. There were still a few things he didn't know, like the motive and who the hell that creepy man with the mask and sunglasses who was lurking around the house was. But, he had the culprit and the evidence and that was all that really mattered. The culprit would probably reveal the motive themselves and that guy didn't seem to be involved, at least, with the murder so he could just deal with that later.
Conan had wanted to use Yukiko for his deduction like how he did with Agasa, but for some reason she was acting all petty and had refused to do so. So, he had to knock out Yamamura and use him instead.
His deduction was going great; he had explained the trick, revealed the culprit, and showed the evidence and the culprit was just about to confess. But, that was until that creepy man had suddenly come in and started saying that he was wrong.
Conan was more irritated with the man, until he revealed himself to be Yusaku, so now he was, quite frankly, terrified. He was usually only a bit scared of him, but he was petrified now, considering he was quite literally hiding things about the organization from him. He had neglected to tell Yusaku about Haibara because he wanted to wait until she was more comfortable and when he knew she would be okay with him telling her secret. But who knows if Yusaku will accept that excuse.
Anyway, apparently the thing he got wrong was that the old man was actually a fake, but that was all so he was only a little wrong. He still got the right culprit and evidence, which he was satisfied with because it was quite a puzzling case.
But, the culprit was arrested and things had settled down.
As Yukiko was getting ready to leave, Yusaku had dragged him to a separate room saying he wanted to talk with him alone. This had put Conan's nerves on edge, but he hoped he hid his nervousness well enough.
"I have to say.." Yusaku broke the silence. "I'm quite proud of you. Despite what you had gotten incorrect, I'm surprised you managed to get that far."
Conan didn't know if he was genuinely proud of him or just surprised that a child had deduced that much, so he just said, "Thanks..."
"But I actually wanted to ask you.." Yusaku said. "-what are you hiding from me?"
Fuck.
"W-what..?" He nervously said.
"You've been far too nervous around me, so I came to the conclusion that there's something you're not telling me." Conan just nervously stared at him with wide eyes. "Need I remind you of our agreement?"
"F-fine.." Conan caved in. Sorry Haibara. "So there's this girl that transferred to my class..."
"And how is that relevant?"
"I'm getting to that. So, turned out she was a member of the organization..."
Yusaku quirked an eyebrow. "You said she transferred to your class?"
"Yes." Conan curtly said. "Now I know you're not gonna believe me on this but, uh.. you know that drug Shinichi was forced to take?" Yusaku nodded his head in acknowledgement. "So.. turned out it had a rare side effect that actually shrunk people to the size of a child." Conan ended with a nervous laugh.
Yusaku just sent him a disbelieving look.
"I know it sounds crazy but it's true!" Conan assured. "She was actually the creator of the drug and she betrayed the organization. She took the drug and it shrunk her and now she's in my class..." Yusaku still wasn't buying it. "She told me herself! She used all sorts of weird science-y words that no seven-year old would know."
Yusaku, again, sent him a disbelieving look. "And you believed her?"
"Well, not at first! Remember when I saw Gin and Vodka coming out of Shinichi's house? She was there! Like her grown up form. They looked the exact same! The same hair and clothes and everything! I had no other choice but to believe her."
Yusaku looked like he was actually believing him. "Hmm... I guess that makes sense, especially considering she knew about the organization."
"Oh!" Conan suddenly said. "Also, she thinks I'm Shinichi, so..."
"Well, I suppose she would."
"I just, uh.. didn't want to tell you 'cause it's not exactly my secret to tell, so..." He trailed off. "I didn't want to betray her trust right off the bat."
"Alright.. I'll let you off the hook for now." Yusaku thankfully forgave. "However, next time this will not slide, okay?"
"Y-yes."
There was a moment of silence before Yusaku (much to the dismay of Conan) continued again. "Isn't there more you're not telling me?"
There was!?
"N-no?" Conan answered honestly although it didn't really sound so.
Yusaku gave him a look.
Okay, well there was the whole Hattori situation, but technically it wasn't according to their agreement so technically he didn't have to tell Yusaku.
"Conan-kun..." Yusaku scarily said.
"Really! I'm not lying!" Conan tried to argue, but, it seemed, to no avail.
A pause. "Takayama Conan-kun..."
Oh God.
Conan felt a shiver travel up his spine.
He never should've told Yusaku his real name.
"Okay, okay!" Conan finally said. "There is but it's really nothing much." Yusaku stayed silent as if prompting him to continue. "So.. I had to tell someone I was Shinichi."
Yusaku sighed. "I thought I told you not to tell anyone else you were Shinichi."
"You didn't actually."
"Well, I thought you were smart enough to realize that doing so was extremely dangerous." He scolded.
"It's not like I wanted to tell him! He figured out that I was doing the whole Sleeping Kogoro thing and he was about to tell Ran and she's already been thinking I'm Shinichi so she would probably be able to connect the dots if she heard that. So I thought it would be better to only have one person think I'm Shinichi." Conan finished.
Yusaku sighed again. "Okay, fine. This person, are they at least trustworthy?"
"Of course!" Conan immediately said. He didn't actually have that much trust in Hattori but, why not lie; Hattori did have quite the reputation. "He's a high school detective, like Shinichi. Well, not as popular, but still quite good. He's the son of the chief of police in Osaka, Hattori Heizo."
"Oh, Heizo's son." Yusaku recognized. (Of course he knew the chief of police in Osaka, Conan briefly thought.) "That should be fine then. He may actually be quite a useful ally."
Conan sighed in relief. "So, uh.. is that all?" He wanted to ask why Yusaku hasn't told Yukiko he wasn't Shinichi yet, but Yusaku was a scary man.
"Oh, yes." Yusaku said, unknowingly liberating Conan from his torture. "We should get going; Yukiko's probably angry by now."
Right on cue, Yukiko walked in and asked, "Are you guys ready yet? We need to leave soon."
"Yeah." Conan answered and followed Yukiko out, eager to no longer be alone with that man.
Yusaku soon followed suit.
"So did you two have fun?" She asked specifically Conan then gave Yusaku a scary glare.
If you count being blackmailed by one of the greatest detectives in Japan (or probably the world) as fun, then yeah.
"I was just giving him some tips." Yusaku answered for him.
"I wasn't asking you." She glared, again.
Clearly she was still mad at Yusaku, so Conan slinked away to let them sort their stuff out.
After Conan had gathered what little he had, he headed outside to see Yukiko getting the bike ready and Yusaku standing close by with some luggage. Fortunately, they seemed to have made up, well at least a little.
They soon left, and thankfully they headed straight home without any detours (or maybe not too thankfully considering Conan was squished onto the end of the bike, forcing him to hang on for dear life for most of the ride) and soon Conan was set free from from the ever dreaded Kudo family and was finally able to have some peace at the detective agency.
