About ten days later, Conan had recovered well (thankfully, he was almost worried there'd be some sort of complication) and the doctors had deemed him healthy enough to be released in just a few days. The only remnants of his gun wound was a scar and, what the doctors called, a post-surgery upper respiratory tract infection, or in other words (so that people other than just the doctors and Haibara could understand), a cold. Definitely preferable to having a gaping hole in his stomach, although still not great.

One of the doctors was currently telling that to Ran and Sonoko in the hospital's lobby, while Conan was playing some new video game the Detective Boys were so excited to show him. Struggling to, more specifically. He was only on level one and the character had already died three times, so, needless to say, they were getting pretty disappointed pretty fast.

Video games just weren't his thing, okay.

"You suck." Genta so obviously stated.

"Thanks, I couldn't tell." He grumbled back.

A couple deaths later, Sonoko came over and suddenly plucked the phone out of his hands and dropped it back into Genta's. "Alright! Playtime's over! It's late so you kids gotta go back home!"

The three all let out a collective whine, but Conan thought it was probably for the best in consideration of Genta's game. Good thing he had sufficient entertainment back in his hospital room (multiple of the Sherlock books and various other mystery books - because he was starting to reach the end of Shinichi's extensive Sherlock collection at this point - that he had stolen borrowed from Shinichi's library) so he would not need any video games to keep himself occupied.

Ran started pushing his wheelchair away, saying sorry to the kids. Conan waved goodbye and the Detective Boys did the same while heading back out the door. Well, except for Haibara who was casually walking next to him, because apparently she wasn't a part of the kids who needed to go home (which really she wasn't, but the others we're supposed to know that). It seemed Ran and Sonoko didn't mind.. or notice. Either of those.

"So, if he'll be discharged in a few days, it'll be in the middle of the school festival, just in time for our play." Sonoko said.

Conan remembered that. Ran had been practicing as the heroine. He also remembered Kogoro freaking out when he read the portion of the script where Ran would kiss some knight character (and she had been looking at Conan oddly then, presumably because she was also expecting a reaction out of him, considering she thought he was Shinichi at the time. Good thing that's all dealt with).

"Yeah." Ran leaned over to Conan. "You'll come right?"

"Yeah!" He brightly answered, ignoring the look Haibara was giving him.

Sonoko cleared her throat. "Anyways..." She cheekily grinned over at Ran. "So have you called 'him' yet?"

"Him..?" Ran asked.

Conan had a feeling he knew which guy she was talking about.

"Shinichi of course!"

Yep, he did.

Out of the corner of his eye he noticed Haibara sent him a glance. He didn't return it.

"If you tell him you'll share a passionate kiss with the knight he might come, you know!" Sonoko playfully elbowed her in the side.

Haibara was still staring at him. Really he didn't know what she was expecting him to do.

Instead of cheerfully responding, Ran just sighed and lowered her head dejectedly. "I doubt it..."

"Huh?" Sonoko said, confused.

"Because..." She said with quiet restrained anger. He could see her grip tighten on the wheelchair's handle. "I've texted and called him hundreds of times, but he just won't respond! He barely even said anything when Conan-kun got shot! I really hate him sometimes! That idiot Shinichi!" She furiously yelled.

Her outburst drew a few looks, including the shocked ones of Sonoko and Haibara.

Conan looked over and gave Haibara a smug look, because there's no way Ran would yell with such anger that she hates Shinichi in front of the guy she thought was Shinichi.

"Told you." He quietly said to her.

She looked at him with raised eyebrows. "I'm not sure how you did it, but I'm quite impressed." She whispered back.

"Thanks." He gave her another smug smile and turned back towards the front.

"Um.. a-anyways..." Sonoko stuttered. "I, uh.. heard you gave this kid a lot of your blood, Ran." She said, wanting to change the subject.

Which was quite possibly the worst subject she could've chosen to change to, at least for Conan. Miraculously, the topic hadn't come up yet, so this could get bad.

"Oh, uh actually..." Ran began to say. "I di-"

"Hey Sonoko-neechan!" Conan quickly interrupted. "What happened to your wrist?"

The question didn't fully come out of nowhere. Sonoko did clearly have a bandage on her wrist so he was vaguely curious as to why.

"Oh, this?" Sonoko said, looking down at the bandaged appendage, thankfully dropping the previous topic without any issue. "It got sprained during practice, so I won't be able to play the knight anymore..." She sighed dramatically.

"But someone volunteered for the role so it should be fine."

Conan looked up at Ran curiously. "Who?" He asked.

"Araide-sensei!" She answered. "We met him before, remember?"

"Yeah." He nodded.

He did, in fact, remember. He taught at Ran's school and they met him on a case (surprise, surprise).

The two girls had started talking more about the play, but Conan stopped listening, because the aforementioned case was really weird (and also partly because the topic was getting boring). They had to falsify the evidence and official police report to protect the maid who had switched on the breaker, which had, in turn, killed the victim. Which is something that should've been completely against police procedure, and, he was fairly certain, was also against the law. Really, he had no idea how they got away with that.

Suddenly, he felt the wheelchair stop, breaking him out of his reminiscing.

He soon realized the reason when he heard loud yelling coming from inside his room.

"What were ya thinkin' buying lilies!?"

"Oh, shut up! Anything should do! It's just flowers!"

The first voice took Conan a second, but the second voice, he immediately recognized.

So it seemed Hattori had arrived.

"Idiot! Lilies have a strong scent and can be repulsive!" They heard Kazuha yell, as they headed up to the room's entrance. "You don't buy those for someone who's sick!"

"Well you should've said that before, idiot!" Hattori shouted as they walked through the door.

"Ah, Hattori and Kazuha..." Ran said.

"Oh, hi!" Hattori with a sudden change in tone. "We heard the kid got injured so we flew here as soon as we could!"

"So, how is he?" Kazuha asked.

"He's recovering well and will be released in a few days!" Ran said cheerfully.

"Oh, that's good!" Hattori said, then turned to Kazuha. "Well, ya better go get some new flowers then."

"Me? Why don't you?" She asked.

Which was a valid point.. that Hattori had then completely ignored. He pushed her towards the girls and back out the door. "Please show Kazuha around so she won't get lost!" He cheerfully said.

The last thing they heard was a muffled, "Geez..." Before Hattori promptly shut the door, leaving Conan and himself alone (because apparently he also managed to push Haibara out as well, or maybe she just hadn't entered in the first place... Eh, doesn't matter).

Conan sighed and turned towards Hattori. "So, what're you here for?" He dryly asked, because, really, it was pretty obvious he wanted to drive the others out with his earlier actions.

"Man, how rude!" He said playfully, slinging the bouquet of flowers over his shoulders like a kendo staff. "I came all the way over here to see ya and this is how you treat me? Aren't we both buddies who got shot?"

"Ah, that's true." Conan remembered.

Honestly, he completely forgot that Hattori had also gotten shot, in relatively the same area too. He wondered if Hattori's wound had hurt as much as his did. He hoped it didn't. (Well, actually, it probably didn't, considering he got elbowed on his fresh bullet wound and had managed not to pass out - which Conan definitely would've in that situation - and had even seemed pretty fine after. The fact that Hattori was not seven years old and had more blood to go around was also probably a contributing factor.)

"But I heard ya got shot camping!? How do ya even do that?" Hattori asked incredulously. "At least I was defending myself from a criminal."

"Actually, you weren't." Conan pointed out.

Because technically, the criminal was trying to shoot himself and not Hattori.

"Well, don't sweat the details." Hattori brushed off, waving a hand. "But camping? Seriously? I would understand gettin' stabbed but people don't tend to bring guns on camping trips."

Conan let out an exhausted sigh. "Apparently criminals trying to bury a body do."

Hattori paused to just stare at the boy for a second. "Yikes. Y'know, you got the worst luck, Kudo."

Conan let out a very sad and pathetic laugh, that bordered on becoming depressingly hysterical.

Really, he wondered if it was even possible for his luck to get any worse (well, it very easily could - he would be dead in that case). He asked for one, just one, break and then got shot. And now there's irrefutable evidence that he is not Shinichi, that he'll have to make sure doesn't get out. (And that's not to mention all the stuff that happened before he got shot.)

Conan tiredly looked back up at Hattori. "But really, why are you here?"

"Hey!" He yelled with fake offense. "C'mon man, I just wanted to see ya!"

"Mm-hmm." He dryly said. "And that's why you bought the wrong flowers on purpose and drove everyone away, huh?"

Hattori sheepishly laughed. "So ya figured that out."

"You weren't exactly being subtle."

"Ah well, actually..." His voice suddenly dropped to a more serious tone. "I got a call from that old guy, Agasa, last night. He asked me to help ya out."

"Huh?" Conan said nervously.

Oh, no. Just what did the Professor do?

"I'm not sure what it's about, Kudo, but..." Hattori paused dramatically. Conan nearly missed the upwards twitch of his lips, before Hattori leaned down into his face and said teasingly, "It seems ya got found out by that nee-chan!"

Conan just blinked up at him for a moment. "Oh, that." He said relieved, because he was a bit worried there for a second. "Don't worry, it's all handled."

"Eh?" Hattori said with a confused and surprised look on his face. "It is!?"

"Yeah." He nodded. "So, really, you don't have to worry about it."

"Already? That was fast. How'd ya manage to do that?"

"Oh, I-" Conan started to say, but suddenly stopped because he realized he couldn't tell him how. The only reason Ran thought he wasn't Shinichi anymore was because of the blood types, and clearly he could not tell Hattori that! (He probably should've come up with a sufficient cover story during the ten days he stayed in the hospital with nothing to do but to read Sherlock, but oh well.) "U-uh..." He trailed off anxiously as his panicked brain tried, and failed, to come up with a believable cover story.

(He was suddenly very glad Haibara was no longer in the room.)

"Oh, I get it." Hattori grinned down at him.

"Huh?" Conan stared up at him with wide, fearful eyes, because what did he get!?

Hattori gave him a cheeky grin before saying, "She still thinks you're Kudo and ya can't find a way to convince her, right!"

Oh.

Conan sighed. It wasn't the best excuse, but it'll work and he was too tired to try and come up with something else. "Yeah, with the whole blood type thing, I'm not sure if it's even possible to convince her, unless I make a copy of myself or something." Ok too much Shinichi, tone it down a bit. "But don't worry!" He added on hastily. "I'll come up with something. Besides, she hasn't confronted me about it yet, so..."

"She hasn't?" He asked. Conan shook his head. Hattori looked down, contemplative. "Y'know, if she's noticed, the only reason she doesn't tell ya is 'cause she's waiting to hear it all from ya... I think you should just tell her."

Yeah, no.

If anyone's telling Ran about the Black Organization it's not going to be him. That's a decision he's leaving up to the real Shinichi to make. Not even Conan is willing to meddle that much into their business.

Anyway, it's not like Ran would even believe him, so.

"Of course not!" He quickly said. "That's way too dangerous. It could get her killed." Well, not necessarily, because Hattori knew about the organization and he was clearly still alive, but he needed a plausible excuse (hopefully Hattori wouldn't think too hard about it). "Besides, Haibara would kill me if I did that." Which was actually true.

Hattori looked at him, conflicted. "I mean, I get what you're saying, but.. ya said so yourself. There's nothing ya can really do to convince her."

Conan understood his worry, but it was really unneeded.

He looked up and gave him a reassuring smile. "Don't worry about it. I'll handle it." Hattori still looked unconvinced. Not good. "It's not like shrinking should even be possible in the first place." He added.

Hattori looked at him skeptically. "Well..." He turned his gaze towards the window and just stared out of it pensively. "If you say so..." He had this.. glint in his eyes. A serious and determined glint.

It was dangerous, Conan decided. He did not have a good feeling about it.

Well, whatever it was, he couldn't just say 'whatever you're thinking, don't do it', so all he could do was wish that Hattori wasn't going to do anything stupid at some point in the future.


Conan had been hoping that his cold would be gone by the time Ran's school play came around, but apparently he was hoping for too much. Kogoro had tried to convince him to stay home but he already told Ran he'd come and she seemed sad enough that Shinichi wouldn't be able to go, so he didn't want to do that to her. But it seemed Kogoro didn't understand, considering he kept on giving him concerned looks and asking whether he really was okay every time he showed even the slightest sign of sickness.

He let a couple of harsh coughs out through his mask and could practically feel Kogoro's worried gaze from a couple seats over. Even Kazuha, who was sitting next to him, sent him a glance. (And, speaking of, it was a bit worrying that she was here alone. It meant that Hattori was left to his own devices, and potentially up to no good, but, on the other hand, it meant that Hattori wasn't here, so at least the problems he may cause wouldn't affect Conan (unless Hattori was here for some reason...).)

But, Conan was fine, really. He's had far worse. A cold was nothing (especially considering the reason he had the cold in the first place).

At least it seemed the play was going to start soon, so their attention would be drawn elsewhere, away from him. As if on cue, the lights dimmed and the curtain opened.

The play went fairly well (aside from a few outbursts from Kogoro and Kazuha). The acting was relatively good (for a school play) especially Ran's. It was nice to see her practice pay off, and she seemed to be having fun. And the plot was, well.. he's sure it wasn't bad, per say, but it just wasn't for him. He wasn't really much a fan of romance, so it wasn't that interesting to him. And there was also the fact that he pretty much knew exactly what was going to happen because of Ran's practicing. So, before half way through he was already bored and he's had to hide quite a few yawns at this point. In all honesty, Kogoro and Kazuha's reactions were more entertaining.

Although, Conan figured he should probably pay at least a bit more attention to the climax of the play that was coming up soon, where Ran was about to discover the identity of the 'Dark Knight' character and share a passionate kiss (according to Sonoko) with him.

Conan looked up to the stage to see the 'Dark Knight' guy embracing Ran in a tender hug.. which Conan did not remember seeing in the script. So, that meant Araide was going off script..? That's so unlike him.

Weird...

Conan saw someone sit down next to him in the spare seat beside him, in his peripheral vision. He gave a quick glance to the person, but instead, he nearly gasped in shock, because the person sitting next to him was Kudo Shinichi.

Or, wait.. who seemed to be Kudo Shinichi, he realized.

On second glance, it was pretty clear that man was not Shinichi. Firstly, despite the ball cap he was wearing, Conan could see the gel taming his hair down into Shinichi's specific style, and his eyebrows were far thicker and bushier than Shinichi's were. Secondly, there was white powder applied all over his skin in the areas that were visible, but it was clearly shoddily applied if you look at it for more than a couple seconds. It was patchy in some areas and he could even see where it ended and showed his true skin tone around the edges of his face, wrists and ankles.

Conan just sighed and silently shook his head.

He knew Hattori was going to do something stupid.

He would guess he was trying to show Ran that Conan wasn't Shinichi by dressing up as Shinichi, which makes sense considering the contents of their last conversation.

But, really, he shouldn't have.

(At least it shouldn't have any dire consequences.. to Conan at least.)

Conan just turned back towards the play and watched as Ran and the 'Dark Knight' readied up to kiss, while Kogoro was apparently so mad he had to be restrained by Kazuha next to him. The two on stage continued to inch closer and closer, but right as their lips were about to touch, was when a loud scream rang from the crowd.

Conan wasn't even surprised at this point.

He just wished they could've waited until after the play, or at least a few minutes later, to be murdered. Ran was really excited for this and now it's ruined!

As usual, Conan, and also Hattori, rushed over to the source of the scream and saw, you guessed it, a dead guy laying on the ground. The man's hands were clutching at his throat but there were no strangulation marks, so probably poison. He soon realized what type of poison when he caught an almond scent coming from the man's mouth, potassium cyanide. The victim's drink (or what was left of it - it was really just ice) was spilt next to him, so that was probably what was poisoned, but he'd have to wait for the police to arrive.

Conan didn't get much more time to think about it when Kogoro ushered him and consequently Hattori out of the crime scene. And it stayed like that until Megure and his entourage arrived.

"The victim is Kamata Kouhei, 27 years old." Megure said (which Conan had already knew, somewhat, because he constantly pestered the people who knew the victim, or who he deemed the suspects, about the guy). "A medic working at the Beika general hospital."

Which Conan did not know, although it didn't seem like it'd be too important. Well, at least now he knew where the culprit got the cyanide though (that hospital really needs to get better security).

"He collapsed during the play, right?" The Inspector turned to one of the suspects and asked. "Do you know when?"

"Uh..." She nervously brought her wrist up to look at her watch. "The play began at 2, so..."

"I think it was around 2:40." Ran came up and said. "During the climax of the play, right Sensei?" She looked behind her at Araide.. who didn't respond and just stood there...

Okay, that was pretty odd.

Granted, he didn't know Araide too well and had only met him once but, this guy wasn't acting very much like Araide. And, on second look, the few strands of hair he could see that were poking out from beneath the helmet were very dark brown, a lot darker than he remembered Araide's hair being. He was shorter and his jawline looked less defined too. And, if he considered the script change from earlier...

Either Araide recently dyed his hair and underwent some major cosmetic surgery (not likely), or.. that was not Araide (more likely).

Then, that begs the question, just who was this guy?

"It's potassium cyanide." Hattori's voice brought Conan back to the issue at hand.

That's right, the murder. He should probably be focusing on that. Whoever that guy was wasn't exactly relevant at the moment (for now).

"Hey!" Megure yelled at Kogoro. "Didn't you say no one touched the body?"

"Idiot! Ya can tell that much without touchin' it!" Hattori said in his completely natural voice, Osakan accent and all, not even doing a single thing to make himself sound more like Shinichi (honestly, why did he think this was going to work). "This guy's mouth reeks of almonds, it's clearly cyanide!"

And Shinichi didn't even speak like that, not even Conan did (which is probably who Hattori was mostly basing his Shinichi impression on). Shinichi would sound a lot more pompous and would've definitely referred to the dead guy by his actual name or at least call him 'the victim'. Was Hattori even trying?

"You know, you seem to know a lot about this case..." Kogoro leaned in and narrowed his eyes at Hattori. "You wouldn't happen to be sitting next to the victim when he died, would you?"

"Nah, my seat was eight rows ahead of this one."

"Can anyone prove that?" Megure asked.

"Hmm, let's see..." He pretended to look around; Conan already knew who he was going to point out. Hattori lifted his finger and pointed it straight at him. "That kid! I was sitting next to that kid with the glasses."

"Is that true, Conan-kun?" Ran asked.

"Yep, he was." He dryly confirmed.

"Besides," Kogoro said. "I feel like I know you from somewhere."

"Yeah, who are you?" Megure agreed.

"What, have ya forgotten me already?"

Oh no. Was Hattori seriously doing this?

Hattori gripped the brim of his hat. "It's me!" He dramatically lifted it off, subsequently making it even more obvious he wasn't Shinichi, thanks to his face now being visible. "Kudo Shinichi!"

Conan facepalmed.

Everyone else just stared at him with wide, disbelieving eyes.

Hattori walked up to Ran and clapped her on the shoulders. "Long time no see, Ran!"

(Well, at least he was calling her 'Ran' and not 'nee-chan' like he usually does.)

Ran looked at him with both confusion and concern. "Aren't you..?"

"Heiji?" Kazuha suddenly said from behind them, unknowingly finishing Ran's sentence. "What're ya doing?" She asked incredulously.

Hattori flinched away. "Eh, Kazuha!?" He let out a quiet 'eep' and slapped a hand over his mouth, realizing his mistake, before quickly shaking his head and steeling himself again. "Wh-what are ya talking about? I'm not Heiji. I'm Kudo, Kudo." He pointed a finger at his face, as emphasis

Kogoro walked up behind Hattori with both fists clenched. He looked pissed. "What kind of stupid joke is this!" He yelled right into Hattori's face.

It seemed Hattori finally got the memo, as he quickly ruffled his hair back into its original style and wiped off the makeup with a handkerchief. "Yep, ya got me!" He laughed, playing it off. "I was thinking of dressing up as Kudo and surprising ya as a joke..!" He finally admitted, letting out one more nervous laugh.

Kogoro sighed. "What is with you?"

Megure angrily cleared his throat. "Anyways, why don't we get back to the investigation at hand?"

And so they did.

Conan was only halfway paying attention (well, still enough to get all the necessary information because he was a detective and this was a murder - he was kind of required to pay some attention) but most of his focus was drawn to the mystery man. Even if he wasn't necessarily relevant, it was still worrying. The fact that Ran almost kissed some unknown man that apparently she didn't even know wasn't Araide was just a bit concerning. (Well, if Sonoko and the rest of the students allowed it then it was probably okay, so not too worrying.)

But, more importantly, the murder. The three main suspects were all also employees at the Beika hospital (and even if that meant it would've been easier to get the cyanide, that hospital still needed better security). Although, there was still the student who was working at the drink stand and had given Kamata and his group their drinks, but he had already crossed her off the suspect list. It was later revealed that she intentionally gave the victim the wrong drink so that he'd come switch it out and ask about why she cut off the engagement (which was really weird - planning to get married to a high school girl, even if it was after she graduated - but not important). So, clearly, she wouldn't have poisoned a drink she was planning on having returned, but apparently the police didn't notice that yet. Whatever...

However, he still had no idea what the culprit's trick was, especially considering forensics didn't find any poison in the victim's drink, or anyone's for that matter (not even in the cream and sugar that came with the coffees - which were unused because the coffees were switched to cola).

But.. this whole situation was reminding him of this children's mystery book he read when he was younger. In one chapter the culprit had poisoned the ice instead of the drink, but he quickly brushed that thought off because that was way too obvious for a real murderer to do.

Or, well... He didn't truly consider that trick until he saw one of the suspects, specifically the girl named Kougami Mai, running out in the rain without putting her perfectly usable jacket hood up (which was suspiciously wet before she even went outside). And she was also the person who said she saw the victim looking through the car's dashboard, which was clearly hinting at suicide. As he expected, the officers came back saying they found a vial of cyanide in the car's dashboard.

Wow, Conan never thought he'd see the day where a real murderer actually used the poisoned ice trick. And hiding the ice in her own drink in her hood, how bold.

Conan noticed Hattori walking over to him with the trademark detective smirk that apparently every detective seemed to have when they figured out the trick. He crouched down and whispered, "Hey, Kudo. You've noticed it too, haven't ya? The culprit's gotta be that one girl." He said confidently. "The victim's drink lid being off, the switched coffee and cola, and that weird thing she did. It all makes sense!" Conan nodded in agreement. But, Hattori then irritably sighed. "But I don't have evidence though..."

He didn't have the evidence..?

Conan lifted an eyebrow and looked at Hattori confusedly. "Wouldn't it be in her hood?"

Hattori's eyes widened slightly as he looked over at Kougami contemplatively. "Ah!" He exclaimed. "I see, I see." He placed a hand on the boy's head and slightly ruffled his hair. "Thanks Kudo!"

Conan disgruntledly smoothed his hair back down as Hattori stood up and started heading over to Megure - who was saying that police were going to conclude this case a suicide - presumably to begin his deduction.

However, before Hattori had a chance to even say anything, a voice spoke up from within the crowd, interrupting Megure. "No, this is no suicide..." Everyone's attention was drawn to the man as the crowd parted, revealing him to be the 'Dark Knight' guy (who unsurprisingly sounded nothing like Araide). "It's an extremely simple and rudimentary murder."

Well, whoever this guy was, Conan thought he was way too dramatic. Although his voice was kind of familiar...

"Yes, Kamata was poisoned.. in front of the darkness of the stage..." The man continued. As he spoke, Conan started to fill with dread as he realized he sounded scarily familiar, way too familiar than he would like. "If my deduction is correct, the culprit put their life on the line by committing this bold crime..."

Conan gasped, his eyes widening in fear, as the man placed his hands on the helmet and slowly lifted it off his head, revealing the face of Kudo Shinichi.