Conan gave a quick but thorough look around the area to determine whether the owners of the car were nearby and, after confirming that they were, in fact, not around (nor any other suspicious looking person dressed in dramatic black clothing), he whipped out his phone and dialed up Agasa.

When Agasa picked up, before he even had a chance to say anything, Conan yelled, "Professor, can you come to the intersection on the 4th district and bring a wire hanger and pliers!" Because he was fairly certain that was all you needed to break into an old car like Gin's (although he may just need the hanger but it'd be better to bring the pliers just in case).

Haibara seemed to have broken out of her stupor, as she started saying, "H-hey! What are you..?"

But Conan ignored her and just brought the phone closer to his ear to hear Agasa's response.

"Sure..." He said over the phone. "But why?"

"I'll explain later!" He hastily shouted. "Just hurry!"

"O-okay!" Agasa said before quickly hanging up.

Conan stuffed his phone back in his pocket and walked over to the car. He stood on his tippy-toes, peeked over the edge of the car window, and looked at the opposite door, to see where the lock was in relation to the window. And he was now quite glad he asked for the pliers too, he would need them. (Which he knew because, even though he didn't know much about cars, he knew about breaking into cars, so.)

Conan lowered himself from the side of the car, quickly wiped away his fingerprints, and headed back onto the sidewalk.

Haibara walked over to him and shakily said, "Hey. How did you know that's Gin's?"

Oh, yeah, she wouldn't know. The only one who knew he knew what Gin's car was, was Agasa, so.

He looked over to her. "I saw it once, when he was investigating my house." He plainly answered, then went back to watching the road.

"Ah." She said and looked back down at the ground. After a few seconds her eyes widened in realization. "Oh, so that was you, that one time."

Ah, she must be talking about when Gin almost saw him as they were leaving Shinichi's house. She remembered that? Huh.

After that, their short conversation faded off. Conan popped a piece of gum in his mouth and began to nervously pace around the sidewalk in wait for Agasa.

A grueling five minutes later, he showed up. Conan rushed up to the yellow Beetle as it pulled off to the side.

He slammed open the door. "Did you bring it?" He asked.

"Ah, yeah." Agasa said as he reached behind him to the backseat and pulled out the two items. "What do you need them for?" He asked as he handed them over.

Conan didn't answer and just snatched them from Agasa's hands, then rushed back to the Porsche.

Agasa got out of his car and followed. "Hey!" He called after the boy.

With the pliers, Conan made a small bend at the end of the hanger and stuck it vertically through the gap between the window and the door.

"H-hey!" Agasa nervously yelled as he realized what the boy was doing.

Conan continued to fiddle the hanger around in the door until he found the lock. He pushed down on it with the end of the hanger until he heard a satisfying clunk. He smirked as he opened up the now unlocked door.

"W-wait..!" Haibara worriedly shouted as she walked over to him. "What are you going to do!?"

Conan grabbed the gum out of his mouth and a transceiver from his pocket. "I'm just putting a transceiver in the car." He squished it into the gum, smoothed out the teeth marks with his handkerchief and placed it on the side of the car seat.

"But, we don't know for sure if it's his car-" She suddenly stopped.

"What?" Conan asked as he started removing their fingerprints.

"A-across the street..." She said as she fearfully stared at something out through the opposite window.

Conan followed her gaze and internally swore at the sight of Gin and Vodka casually walking across the street despite the oncoming traffic.

Of all the times for them to show up!

Conan quickly finished erasing any signs of their presence (or at least he hoped), relocked the door, and then pushed Haibara out of the car and ran to hide behind it. Haibara immediately followed suit, and it seemed Agasa had gotten back into his car.

Out of pure curiosity, Conan peeked out from behind the Porsche. Gin and Vodka were a little over half way across at this point, and had caused many cars to angrily stop in the middle of the road. One of the drivers had opened their door to yell at the two, but one glare from Gin was all it took to silence the man. Conan would've been impressed if he weren't in a life or death situation at the moment.

The logical and self preserving part of his brain forced him to duck back behind the car.

Soon, they both heard the sound of Gin and Vodka's footsteps as they approached the car.

"Hmm?" The distinctly sinister voice of Gin said. "The snow around the car is quite trampled..."

Conan tightly gripped his knees in fear.

He hadn't heard that voice in a long while (and wasn't exactly planning to either).

"Maybe some passerby came to take a look?" The deeper but less intimidating voice of Vodka said. "Your car is quite rare."

The only response they heard from Gin was a, "Hmpf." As he opened up the car door.

Despite his fear, Conan smirked behind him at the Porsche as it drove away.

He couldn't have asked for a better present, Gin.


After Gin and Vodka left, Conan had overheard a phone conversation through the transceiver. Apparently, an organization member named Pisco, was going to assassinate someone at a farewell party in the Haido City Hotel, and could use 'that drug' if needed (which he neglected to tell the others because he still didn't really want Haibara to get the drug's data and be able to make an antidote. If he happened upon a chance to easily get it then, yeah, he would, but for now...). Afterwards, Gin had unfortunately found the transceiver and promptly destroyed it, but that was what led them to Haido City Hotel.

Conan was planning on coming by himself because he was a cute unassuming kid, unlike Agasa, and Haibara could get recognized, but...

Conan sighed looking behind him at the girl who was clutching onto his arm. "You know, you didn't have to come."

"What?" Haibara said. "Don't you need me to recognize any members that show up."

"Fine." He halfheartedly agreed "Just be careful. They can probably predict that whoever planted the transceiver would come here and if they recognize you we're done for."

"It'll be fine. You erased the evidence right? Besides," She released her grip on the boy and started walking a bit ahead. "are you sure this is even the right place?"

"Yeah." Conan followed after her. "Gin said 'farewell party', so." He looked over at a sign that said there was a memorial party for some film director. He reached his hand up to the handle and opened up the door. "Anyways, let's go in."

Finding Pisco didn't seem like it'd be too easy. Since it was a mourning party, basically everyone was wearing black, so no luck there. At least finding the target should be easier. Gin said they'd be coming at 6 PM sharp, and that Pisco needs to kill them before they get arrested, so, if he just keeps an eye out for a guy who was surrounded by reporters, or something like that, at around 6, then he should be good.

Surprisingly, they blended in quite well for being two unattended kids who were wearing far too casual clothing (none of which were black either) for a mourning party.

The only person who questioned them was a waitress who was currently asking Haibara if she was lost. But.. for some reason, Haibara wasn't refuting her and was just nervously sputtering.

So, Conan walked over and cutely said, "Yeah! We're looking for our parents." He grabbed Haibara's hand and pulled her away. "Let's go, Hana-chan!" Saying, well, the first name that came to mind.

When they were out of earshot from the waitress, he whispered to her, "Hey, what's wrong? This isn't like you..."

Haibara continued to sullenly look at the ground. "I had a scary dream..." She finally said.

Conan looked at her surprised. "A dream?"

That was it? That was the reason she was acting like this? Yikes, must've been horrible if it got her this spooked.

"Yeah." She answered. "They found me out and cornered me in an alley. You were the first to be shot. And then everyone else.. one after the other... All because they happened to know me... Maybe it would've been better if I just let them kill me back then..." She trailed off.

Okay yeah, that was horrible.

Conan just awkwardly looked to the side. He, honestly, had no idea what to do. Never really did when people got all depressing like this.

Well then.. what would Shinichi do?

Hmm. Probably try to comfort her or something like that. But what could comfort her in this sort of situation? She was quite literally in the same room as a Black Organization member who could easily recognize her, with no disguise whatsoever-

Oh.

That could work.

Conan channeled his inner Kudo Shinichi, took off his glasses and placed them onto Haibara. "Did you know? If you wear those, no one'll figure out your identity."

Haibara looked a bit taken aback, before she looked more calm. "My, you think a single pair of glasses is enough to prevent me from being recognized?"

"Well, they've been working for me, haven't they?" He dryly laughed. "I've been living with Ran for.. however long and she hasn't recognized me yet." (Well, she's gotten close, multiple times, but he figured this wasn't the best time to mention that.)

She cracked a smile. (Good!) "I suppose you're right. At least they'll work as a stress reliever." She said as she started walking off, while adjusting the position of the glasses on her head.

He smiled as he followed after her.

That's good. Now that Haibara's mood seems to be at least marginally better, he could focus on the more pressing issues. Like finding out who Pisco was, and how to prevent the assassination that was going to happen, and getting APTX 4869 so he can get his original body back-

Wait.

Conan shook his head.

No. That's not right.

Too much channeling.


Despite Conan and the police's best efforts (who he had prematurely called using a disguised voice), Pisco's target, who Conan easily figured out was the politician Nomiguchi Shigehiko, had been killed, in the middle of a slideshow presentation, crushed by a fallen chandelier.

As expected, Pisco left barely any evidence behind, the only being a purple handkerchief that had literally fallen atop Conan, and a piece of the chandelier chain which ended up in one of the guest's food (honestly a bit fucked up how said guest just casually went back to eating his meal right in front of the dead body that had just been killed, but that probably wasn't too important for the case, just weird).

Unfortunately, Conan had no idea how the murder was committed. How was he supposed to when he had only two measly pieces of evidence (one of which may not even be involved)? He would've agreed with one of the guests who was saying that it was just an accident, if he didn't know for sure this person was murdered.

Conan frustratedly looked over at the crime scene, contemplating for a moment, and then up at where the chandelier once hung from the ceiling.

It shouldn't be possible to instantaneously drop the chandelier on someone and in such dark lighting, but Pisco did. He obviously used some sort of trick, but what was it!?

Suddenly he felt a hand grasp onto his own and start to quickly drag him away. "H-hey..!" He said, startled, to the girl as he stumbled in an attempt to keep up. "Where're you going?"

"We're leaving." She curtly said, not even sparing a glance behind her at the boy, as she continued pulling him off elsewhere. "It's dangerous to stay here any longer. What do you plan to do if Inspector Megure spots us?" He knew she was talking more about Pisco, but decided not to say anything. "Besides, your only clue is that chain fragment you picked up. Not even you can possibly solve it with just that."

Well, she was completely right, and he agreed, but there was still the handkerchief, right?

"But that's not all." He said with only slightly fake confidence.

"Huh?" She finally stopped and looked behind at him.

Conan fished out the handkerchief from his pocket and held it up. "This handkerchief, it fell on me when the chandelier was dropped." He shifted it around so the words on the top left corner were visible. "Look at this." He pointed at the words with a free finger. "It says 'Film Director Sakamaki Memorial Party', so the owner was probably given this at the reception desk." He lowered the handkerchief.

Haibara sighed and crossed her arms looking fed-up. "And?"

"Look at everyone around us." He said, giving a quick gesture to the people in the room. "They all have handkerchiefs, but they're all different colors." Haibara looked around and her eyes slightly widened as she realized he was correct. "One of Director Sakamaki's most famous works is 'The Rainbow Handkerchief', so I'm guessing they gave each guest a random color." He placed the handkerchief back in his pocket. "In short, if we ask the reception desk, we should be able to get a list of the people who were given a purple handkerchief." He finished.

"Yes, but..." Haibara said, sounding conflicted. "We don't even know if it's related to the murder or not."

"Yeah, I can't say for sure what it was used for or if it even belongs to the culprit, but.. it's worth a shot, isn't it?" He said with a shrug.

"I guess..." Haibara just anxiously sighed and turned around to start heading back towards the exit.

As they made their way up to the door, Conan flipped the hood on his jacket over his head, wanting to try and hide his face a bit when they go and make their leave (especially now that he wasn't wearing his primary disguise, his glasses). Actually, now that he thought about it, Haibara should be the one with the jacket. A hood could probably do a better job hiding her face than a pair of glasses, but it was too late now, wasn't it.

Oh well.

Conan walked up to the police officers guarding the doors and asked if they could leave to go to the bathroom, amping up the cuteness a bit. Thankfully, they easily complied, but, as soon as the door was opened, they were met with a barrage of bright camera flashes and loud voices as the reporters all clambered to ask questions. Conan and Haibara both startled and brought an arm to cover their eyes at the sudden light.

After realizing that they were in front of tons of cameras which were probably either filming or taking photos and that the light from the flashes illuminated and brought attention to them in a very inopportune way, Conan grabbed Haibara's hand and rushed her out of the room and into the throng of reporters. He kept his grip firm as they struggled to maneuver their way through the crowd. The two let out a breath as they soon came to a clearing.

After quickly locating the reception desk, Conan rushed over to it, hopped up onto the ledge of the counter and hung on it as he asked the receptionist to show him the list of people who were given a purple handkerchief, under the guise of wanting to return it to its owner.

Surprisingly, she actually did give him the list, so Conan quickly looked it over, commiting the names to memory. He vaguely remembered seeing each of them in the party, but only vaguely considering there were a lot of people and he didn't exactly want to try and remember the names of each and every one of them. The only one he was really sure on was that Chris Vineyard woman because, well, her name was the only one written in English and a blond foreign woman that was also an actress wasn't exactly forgettable. But the others, he'd have to dig deep within his mind for.

The loud sound of a door being slammed open brought Conan out of his thoughts. He looked over just in time to see all the guests angrily forcing their way out of the assembly hall. The crowd quickly made its way to the reception desk, taking Conan and Haibara with it.

Shit. This.. wasn't good. They needed to get back to Agasa's car, fast.

"Hey, Haibara." He said to the girl next to him.. she wasn't there. "H-Haibara!?" He called out anxiously as he frantically looked around, but there seemed to be no trace that she was even here. "Haibara!"

Gone.

She was gone.

Shit!

This was bad. Really, really bad.

Now was possibly the worst time for him to lose her, when they were engulfed in a crowd of angry people and when a Black Organization member was on the loose.

"Haibara!" He tried one last time, but it was no use.

Someone bumped into the back of Conan, nearly causing him to fall over, but he managed to catch himself in time. The crowd started to jostle him around, forcing him to go with, or else he'd get pretty much trampled.

Conan really didn't want to just leave Haibara like this, but he kind of had to. It'd be a better and smarter idea to head back to Agasa and just go from there.

So, Conan forced his way through the sea of legs and eventually escaped to an exit. He let himself breath as he looked behind him at the large mass of people.

Yeah, there is no way he is finding Haibara in that. If only she brought her phone with or at least some form of communication, but she didn't.

Conan sighed irritably and brought a hand to the bridge of his nose, unconsciously avoiding his glasses.

Wait.

The glasses that he was not wearing because he gave them to Haibara! The glasses that had a special audio receiving function!

Of course!

He had to resist facepalming because how did he forget about that!

Conan excitedly fished a transceiver out of his pocket, but then belatedly realized that it was only a one-way street and only Haibara would be able to hear him.. so he wouldn't be able to figure out her location.

He actually did facepalm this time.

Great, back to square one.

Or, wait, actually, he realized, maybe square two or three. Agasa could probably figure something out.

Conan rushed across the street to Agasa's car and hopped in.

"Eh? Shinichi?" He looked around confused, noticing the distinct lack of the girl. "Where's Haibara?" He asked nervously.

"I don't know. I lost her." He bluntly said as he sullenly stared at the dashboard.

"Eh!?" He shouted in surprise. "D-do you think she..." He trailed off.

"I don't know. I'm hoping she just got lost in the crowd, but..." Conan left the sentence unfinished. "Anyways, I left my glasses with her, so I'm hoping you could maybe do something so that we can talk to her through them." He said as he fished the transceiver back out and held it out.

"Hmm.. maybe." Agasa said, grabbing the transceiver from his hand.

Conan watched nervously as Agasa brought out what looked like an earpiece and a small microphone, and started to do weird.. techy stuff, like removing and attaching wires and the like.

He decided to use this rare moment of spare time wisely, bringing out his phone and bowtie, and calling up Megure. He set the bowtie to Shinichi's voice, and, when the Inspector picked up, asked him to detain any guests who had a purple handkerchief, just in case.

After a few minutes, Agasa shouted, "Done!" He handed the contraption over to Conan. The microphone and earpiece were both connected to the transceiver by a couple of open wires. "It's not the most.. efficient, but it should work. You can hear her here." He pointed at the earpiece. "And you can talk to her here." He pointed at the microphone. "It should already be connected, so give it a try."

Conan plugged it into his ear and brought the microphone to his mouth. "Haibara..?" He hesitantly asked. There was no answer. "Haibara?" He asked again, but to no avail. He groaned, frustrated. "It's not working!" He irritably yelled at the man.

"That's weird..." Agasa said worriedly, with a hand to his chin. "Try a bit more... She might not have heard." He suggested.

"Okay..." Conan sighed as Agasa bent over and started inspecting the transceiver. Conan brought the microphone back up to his mouth, making sure to avoid Agasa. "Hey. Haibara? Are you there?" He paused. Still no answer. "Haibaraaaaa..." He drawled. This time he actually heard some slight shuffling and a groan from the other side. "Haibara! Is that you?" He shouted. Agasa looked at him curiously, pausing his transceiver inspection.

"K-Kudo-kun..?" He heard her ask lethargically. "Wh-where are..?"

She sounded tired. That probably wasn't good.

He didn't know whether she was asking 'Where are you?' or 'Where am I?', but it sounded more like the former. "I'm in the Professor's car. I'm talking to you through the glasses." He said.

She made a small noise of acknowledgement and let out another groan, before saying, "What happened..?"

"That's what I want to know!" He shouted, sounding far more angry than he intended. He took a deep breath to calm down a bit. "What happened back there, when all the people came out?" He asked.

"Ah..." She breathed. "I got dragged away by that crowd." She started to sound less like she just woke up from a bad night of sleep, and more like she woke up from a good night of sleep, which was only marginally better, but still better. "...Then someone came up from behind and-" She suddenly stopped and let out a loud gasp.

"H-hey! What's wrong?" He shouted with worry.

"It seems someone knocked me out with chloroform and locked me in a room."

Ah, no wonder she sounded so tired.

After actually processing what she just said, Conan tightly gripped the microphone as fear started to course through his veins. "By 'someone' do you mean..?" He hoped what he was thinking was wrong.

He heard some faint footsteps, presumably from Haibara exploring where she was being kept captive. "Yeah, it was probably Pisco." She said, sounding far too calm for the situation.

"Shit!" He cursed. "Are they there!?"

"No, they're not here right now." Conan let out a sigh of relief. "But the door's firmly locked."

"Ah..." That wasn't good, per say, but he might be able to figure something out and it's far better than the worst case scenario. "Anyways," he continued, "do you recognize where you are?"

"Hmm..." She paused for a second. "No I don't think so.. but it looks like a wine cellar."

"A wine cellar?" He repeated. Was there a wine cellar in The Haido City Hotel? He'd have to check. "Uh, anyways, we need to find you a way out of there, as soon as possible, so."

He was about to ask if there was anything she could use to escape, before she suddenly said, "Kudo-kun, pay close attention." Conan looked curiously at the earpiece. "The 'Apo' in Apotoxin stands for apoptosis, the programmed death of cells..."

She then went into this whole science-y explanation that a seven year old would have no chance of understanding (not even a weird seven year old like Conan), hell even a high schooler probably wouldn't understand this (well, maybe a slightly smarter high schooler who had a bit more knowledge on, at least, forensic chemistry, aka Kudo Shinichi, would, which is probably what Haibara was going for).

But, Conan didn't really get what she was talking about, at all (there were at least three words that he, honestly, has never heard in his life), but he could guess it was about the drug, because he heard her say 'Apotoxin' in there. But still, he didn't know why she was talking about the drug in the first place.

So, he confusedly and slightly warily asked, "Hey Haibara, why're you..?"

"Shut up and listen!" She suddenly shouted. Conan promptly did so, shocked at the sudden outburst. "Since.. I won't be able to talk to you ever again..." She said gloomily.

"What..?" Was all the boy could say.

"Do you not get it?" She snapped back with renewed anger. "They locked me in here even though I'm a child right now. Even if I manage to escape, they'll find me in less than two days, and then obviously they'll kill anyone who's involved with me. You, the Professor..." She trailed off. "Yes.. either way, I'll never be able to see you guys again..." She finished despondently.

Conan didn't respond.

The sad thing was that she was right. He couldn't really find anything wrong with her reasoning. Maybe they could hide her somewhere after she escapes.. or, wait no. They'd still figure out Agasa took care of Sherry's shrunken form and go and kill him, and there's no way the Detective Boys wouldn't kick up a fuss about Haibara suddenly disappearing and then the police would get involved and things would not end well. And that's assuming that she can even escape right now! There still may be something she could use to escape, but with the door being locked and Haibara being child-sized and probably tied up-

Wait.. was she?

"So," Haibara continued again, "I'll give you the info on the drug I remember while I still can-"

"Hey, Haibara?" He suddenly interrupted. "Are you tied up?"

"Eh, no I'm not." She said, slightly confused. "But, that's why I'm in a hurry!" She continued anyway. "They won't leave me alone like this for a long time, so listen to what I have to say before they come back-!"

"Actually," He cut her off again. "No, they won't." Haibara let out a confused and irritated groan. Conan continued to explain anyway, "I called Megure after you went missing and told him not to let any of the people with purple handkerchiefs out of the Haido City Hotel. As Kudo Shinichi, of course." He added. "You've been gone for about 30 minutes now. Yet Pisco nor their accomplices are there, meaning, Pisco's among those seven, just like I thought." He finished.

"Does that mean I'm still inside the Haido City Hotel?" She asked.

"Yeah, probably." He curtly answered. "So, for now I'll go ask one of the hotel employees if there's an unused wine cellar and come get you."

He heard Haibara's loud, exasperated sigh through the earpiece. "Idiot! I already told you, they'll get rid of anyone who was involved with me, no matter if I escape or not. Besides, you'd just be sentencing that employee to death if you do that."

Conan groaned in frustration. "Well, is there any way you can escape on your own, then!?"

Haibara sighed. "Kudo-kun, the only two openings in this room are the door and an old chimney. There's not even a single air vent."

"A chimney!?" He said with hope. "Can you climb up it?"

He heard a grunt and some shuffling as she presumably climbed her way in. "I can't." Her voice echoed. "It's too wide... If I weren't small I could probably manage, but..." The 'there's no way that could happen' was left unsaid.

Conan sighed, the few tendrils of hope he previously had now lost. "I don't know... Can you lock-pick or something?" He tried as a last ditch attempt.

"I'm a chemist, not a criminal like you, Kudo-kun."

He wasn't even going to try to deny that.

"Yeah..." Conan trailed off, just staring at the car dashboard.

"Hey, Shinichi." Agasa suddenly said, startling the boy. Conan jumped and looked over at the man, having completely forgotten about his presence. (How did he manage to do that?) "That chimney, is it too big for her to climb?" He asked.

"Uh, yeah..?" Conan said, confused.

"Do you think she could climb it if she was big?"

"Yeah..." He lifted an eyebrow. "She said so herself."

"She's in a wine cellar, right?"

Conan sighed. "Yes?" He asked irritably.

Just what is he getting at?

"Then, what about that?" Agasa said as if it was obvious what he was talking about. Conan just frustratedly glared up at him because he's going to need to be a lot more specific because he doesn't know what on Earth 'that' was. "You know, Paikaru." He finally elaborated.

Oh, that.

Oh.. that.

Conan's eyes widened and his jaw dropped in fear, as he wordlessly gaped at the man.

"Ah..."