After locating Yusaku's car in the parking lot, Conan unceremoniously opened up the back door and plopped into the back seat.

He seemed to have interrupted some sort of conversation Yusaku and Yukiko were having. They immediately startled and turned around to see whoever just hopped into their car, then relaxed seeing that it was just Conan, and not some random person. Yukiko's face lit up while Yusaku just turned back to the front, looking as normal as ever.

"Shin-chan!" Yukiko excitedly yelled. "You're back! How'd it go?"

Conan ignored the incorrect name and instead curtly answered, "Horribly." While pointedly sending a glare to Yusaku, who either didn't seem to notice or care. "Ran broke down crying."

"Oh..." Yukiko quickly deflated.

"Well, only for a little." He added. "She cheered up after that."

"Ah, that's good." Yukiko said happily. "I hope you got her a nice dessert!"

Conan smiled evilly. "I sure did..." And speaking of, he reached into his pocket, pulling out the credit card and receipt, and handed them up to Yusaku. "Here."

Yusaku turned to grab it, adjusted his glasses and took a look at the receipt. His eyebrows slightly raised. "13,500 yen.." he stated, sounding mildly surprised, sending a glance to Conan, "for desserts." He finished. Conan cheerfully nodded. Yusaku squinted at the receipt, reading through it. "Including a filet mignon..." He added, looking back at Conan and lifting an eyebrow.

"What?" Conan casually said, still smiling. He wasn't particularly scared, probably because Yusaku didn't even sound mad, just a bit surprised, and Yukiko was there (and, well, Yusaku also deserved it). "I haven't had dinner yet and I was hungry." He explained, then, just for a bit of fun, decided to add, "Y'know, my mom always told me it's unhealthy to have dessert for dinner." She hadn't (but it's not like Yusaku could fact check that one, ha). "I'm a growing young boy; I need the protein."

Yukiko enthusiastically nodded. "He's right!"

Yusaku continued to give him that same, slightly confused look. "And you chose a filet mignon..?" He asked slowly.

"I haven't had one before!" Conan said, trying to sound as innocent as possible. He knew that childish act wouldn't really work on Yusaku, but it probably would with Yukiko and he also didn't care. "I wanted to try it!"

Yusaku sighed. "...I suppose so." Was all he said. He took out his wallet and placed the credit card inside, glancing at the receipt one last time. "I'm more intrigued by the seven desserts you ordered." He said as he folded the receipt and stuffed it in, alongside the card.

"Well," Conan began, "I had two" (of the most expensive dessert of course) " 'cause I was still hungry. And Ran-neechan had five!"

Yusaku made a small noise of acknowledgment, thankfully not seeming surprised (or mad).

"By the way," Yukiko asked, "where is she?"

"She left in a taxi a bit ago." He answered. "I told her Kogoro-ojisan was waiting here to drive me home so I could come back and give you back the credit card." He looked away from Yukiko and towards Yusaku. "I figured you'd want it back."

"Indeed I would..." Yusaku said cryptically, staring out the front window.

"So," Conan began, "we might wanna leave soon then. If Ran gets back before me and Kogoro is there it'll be suspicious."

"That's true." Yusaku commented.

Yukiko let out a menacing giggle. "Let's go then!" She turned the key, igniting the engine.

Conan noticed Yusaku immediately tense, at the same time he did. They both scrambled to fasten on their seatbelts before Yukiko hit the road. Conan clutched onto the door's side handle, Yusaku doing the same with the overhead handle up front, as Yukiko sped out of the parking garage.


Predictably, none of them had been doing too well after that.

The Kudos had left back for America soon after, having pretty much nothing they could do after Shinichi left. And, of course, Ran was incredibly sad.. which then spread to the rest of the Mouri family. Conan had tried his best to cheer Ran up in any little way possible, but none of it seemed to work too well. Sometimes she'd smile, but it was always bittersweet and gone moments later. A depressing atmosphere had fallen over the household, and it never seemed to dissipate.

The only good thing was the distinct lack of murders. A whole week had passed, even nearing the weekend, without any cases, giving them the much needed time to relax and settle back down. (He knew a week wasn't actually a lot of time normally, but for him it was.) But he was skeptical how long that would last.

And it seemed his fears had come true Friday after school. Ran opened the mailbox, grabbing whatever mail was inside, her face immediately scrunching up in confusion seeing a black letter sitting on top of the pile. "'For the eyes of detective Mouri Kogoro only.'" She read. "What's that mean..?"

Conan internally sighed. That absolutely reeked of a case, but he didn't really want to care, or deal with it. He was quite enjoying the slight reprieve from cases the universe was deciding to grace them with, and he wasn't exactly all too keen on breaking that. He didn't think any of the others wanted to either.

Ran shrugged and continued up the stairs, Conan following after. She opened the door and called out, "Hey dad, something came in for you!"

"Hmn?" Kogoro sat up and lowered his newspaper, a cigarette in his mouth. "What is it?"

"Some creepy letter." Ran said, walking over towards the desk and handing the letter out to him.

Kogoro grabbed it, and immediately lifted an eyebrow seeing the words on the front. "Weird..." He mumbled.

"I'm going upstairs." Conan tiredly said.

Honestly, he figured he could just let Kogoro deal with it. It did say 'for the eyes of detective Mouri Kogoro only'. Besides, if it gets solved a bit slower because of Kogoro's inept abilities, then so what? It's not like he cared.

He turned around and headed back out the door as Kogoro opened the letter, not acknowledging his statement. Conan left the door cracked and began walking upstairs, faintly hearing Kogoro read from inside, "'I want to invite you to my banquet, so as to praise your wisdom'" a pause, "from 'the Shadow Child abandoned by God'... The hell's that supposed to mean?"

Conan abruptly stopped.

The Shadow Child abandoned by God...

He mulled over that for a second, before he smiled and headed back inside.

He scampered up next to the desk and promptly asked, "Kaitou KID?"

Kogoro startled and whipped his head over to him. "Geez! Wear a bell or something." He paused for a second, giving him a contemplative look. "...I thought you were upstairs."

"I was."

"...Whatever." Kogoro leaned back and narrowed his eyes. "And the hell d'you mean 'Kaitou KID'? I didn't even say anything similar!"

"I-" Conan sighed. "Yes, but.. 'the Shadow Child abandoned by God'." He restated. "The shadow part becomes phantom, and the kanji used for the word child is specifically the one they use to mean a baby animal. And then the 'abandoned by God' part is referring to the Bible, and an animal that often shows up in it is a goat, and in English a baby goat is called a kid. It's Kid the Phantom Thief, see?"

Kogoro just looked at him for a second, then casually brushed him off, saying, "That's just a coincidence."

Conan had to resist sighing for a second time. "No, it's not. It's too specific. No one would call themselves something like 'the Shadow Child abandoned by God'" he punctuated it with finger quotes and an eye roll, "if it wasn't a KID reference."

"That's just what you wanna think."

Conan quietly growled and glared at the man. It's not like you could really get anything through his thick skull. Also didn't help that he wasn't too good at explaining that...

"Hmm..." Ran said as she picked up the letter. As she did, something fell out from the envelope and onto the desk.

Conan curiously snatched it and took a look. His eyes widened when he noticed that it was money. He began counting it, his eyes widening even further as he counted two million yen worth of money. Well, the sender, whether they were Kaitou KID or not, was certainly serious.

"Do you really think it's KID?" Ran asked, reading over the letter.

"I dunno, maybe." Conan replied with a shrug. "It's not his MO, but you never really know with that guy. But," he lifted up the money, "he'd definitely have the money for it."

The other two looked over at what he was holding up, and immediately gasped, noticing it was money and apparently quite a bit of it.

"H-how much is that?" Kogoro asked, staring at the cash with wide, greedy eyes.

"I counted two million yen."

Their eyes widened even further.

"T-two mil.." Kogoro said speechlessly. He grabbed it from Conan's hands and flipped through the bills himself. "H-holy shit..." He breathed out, realizing Conan was right.

Ran's gaze immediately sharpened as she glared at Kogoro. "Dad." She chastised, jerking her head at Conan.

Well, it didn't seem she was shocked enough not to scold Kogoro for swearing.

Kogoro slightly deflated under her gaze. "Tch." He glanced down at Conan. "It's not as if he doesn't already-" He quietly grumbled under his breath then stopped himself. Instead, he looked back up at Ran and asked, "When's it say it is?"

"Uh..." She trailed off, lifting up the letter and reading through it. "It's.." her eyes widened, "today!?" She yelled in surprise.

Kogoro grinned, looking hungrily down at the money in his hands, cheerfully yelling, "Well go get ready kids, we're leaving tonight!"


Conan couldn't tell if he was excited or not.

On one hand, the nice and peaceful afternoon he was planning on using to try and cheer up Ran again was effectively ruined, replaced by some sort of banquet he had to go to, which will probably end up becoming a case he'll have to solve. But, on the other, it said 'banquet' specifically so there should be some pretty good food, and Kaitou KID was potentially involved.

Well, potentially. The letter did say it was from KID but Conan was highly skeptical it actually was. This was just a complete 180 of what KID would normally do. The black letter, the weird name, the lack of his special insignia, the money. It was just so unlike him. (And he didn't hear anything from the dove Cheesecake, but it's not like KID had to tell him everything he was doing. KID had held a couple heists since the Memories Egg incident, and he didn't get a note for all of them from him so, yeah, that probably doesn't matter.) However, that didn't mean this couldn't be KID. Even though it was small, there was still a possibility. KID was known for being quite unpredictable, so he could just be mixing things up a little, just for fun.

Besides, even if it wasn't him, there was a high chance KID'll still be involved. He's always been known to show up when someone uses his name - something about maintaining his image or whatever. Conan wouldn't know how, but, if he were the type, he'd bet money that KID has already heard of this thing and was planning on coming some way or another. (Well, he had a hunch. Occasionally there would also be a camera, along with the cartridge, strapped to Cheesecake's leg. Conan never really acknowledged it - aside from waving at it a few times. He didn't know what it was for, but he didn't really mind. Anyways, Cheesecake didn't even show up that morning and KID would really have to rush to make it in time, but he wouldn't put it past him.) Honestly, Conan would be even more surprised if KID hadn't known.

Anyways, even if Conan was a bit annoyed, he was getting a free meal, along with the high possibility that Kaitou KID would be there, so he couldn't really bring himself to complain. If he had to be involved in a case, this seemed at least better than the usual.

Suddenly, he was harshly forced out of his thoughts when the car hit a large bump that would've flung him halfway across the car if not for the seatbelt keeping him relatively in place (relatively). Conan gripped the handle on the side of the door to steady himself as they hit even more bumps.

"I swear to God." He heard Kogoro swear from the front seat. "If that god-damned cashier was-"

"Dad." Ran interrupted, glaring at him again.

Kogoro didn't say anything to that and just continued his struggles to keep the car level and on the path (which was so run down and overgrown it probably wasn't even supposed to be a road). "If this ain't the right path, I'm gonna-" He grumbled, abruptly stopping himself after remembering there was a child on board.

A few miles back, they got a flat tire and had to stop off at a convenience store. Apparently, according to Kogoro, the cashier told him that this very road was a shortcut to the mansion they were supposed to go to, but Conan was pretty sure everyone was starting to doubt that.

Fortunately, after just a few minutes, they arrived back onto a normal and thankfully less bumpy road. They all sighed in relief.

Conn relaxed back into his seat and released his death grip on the door handle, looking out the window. In the distance, he saw a fancy looking gothic mansion on a cliff side up ahead. They were supposed to meet up at the so-called 'Sunset Mansion', so it was nice to know the cashier actually wasn't lying.

"Sheesh, that guy could've at least warned us." He heard Kogoro mumble.

"Well, at least it was actually a shortcut."

"Hm?" Kogoro glanced behind him at Conan.

"Look." He pointed out the windshield at the mansion. "That's it, isn't it?"

The two paused and looked towards where he was pointing.

Ran shuddered. "Creepy..." Her voice shook a little.

"Looks more like Dracula's Castle than the 'Sunset Mansion'." Kogoro dryly commented.

Ran's shoulders tensed up. "Dad..?" She asked worriedly. "Are we really going there?"

"'Course we are!" He replied. "The sender - whoever they are - gave us a full two million yen! No way I'm passing that up!"

Ran tilted her head. "But wasn't it Kaitou KID?"

"Eh?" Kogoro quietly said. Through the rearview mirror, Conan noticed he looked a bit surprised? ...For some reason? Weird... "Well," he continued, "it's not like we know for sure it's him."

"True." Ran replied non-committally. She looked back at the mansion, worry even clearer on her face. After a second, she decided to say, "You know dad, let's not go there. It'd be scary if it wasn't KID, or if Dracula actually showed up."

"Dracula's fictional, Ran-neechan."

Ran blushed. "I- I know that... But, still.. it's scary."

"Besides," Kogoro said, "Dracula's not even Japanese. It'd be more likely for some mountain witch to be there or something."

"Not helping, dad- watch out!" Ran suddenly screamed, pointing furiously out the windshield.

Kogoro slammed on the brakes, flinging everyone forward.

After gathering his bearings, Conan sat himself up and looked out front to see some creepy looking old woman, lit by the headlights, standing in the middle of the road.

"A-a mountain witch!" Kogoro yelled.

Conan rolled down his window (because I seemed neither of the other two were planning on doing anything), poked his head out and asked, "Oba-san, why are you standing in the middle of the road?"

"Ah, as you can see my cute little car's engine has failed." She gestured to the stranded car parked by the side of the road, where she should instead also be. "You're going to that mansion too, aren't you? Would you mind giving me a ride?" She asked Kogoro.

"Uh, s-sure. I don't mind." He replied.

Conan scooted over as the woman opened the door and got in.

From the front, Ran leaned over and whispered to Kogoro with a slight blush, "Hey, if we're really going there, could you hurry up. I kinda need to use the bathroom."

"Ah, excuse me miss." The woman spoke up from beside him. "This may not be my place, but the headmaster of my old elementary school often said never to pass up a chance or else it'll never come again." She smiled at her. "Why didn't you go back at the gasoline stand?"

Well, she was right about that not being her place. Conan never really liked people like that. It's not like you could control when you had to go to the bathroom. And the quote was just pretentious; she could've just asked the question. He wasn't quite liking this woman already.

"Eh?" Ran said surprised. "How'd you know we stopped by a gasoline stand?"

Oh... He probably should've noticed that instead...

"It's very simple, miss." She said, sounding innocent as ever. "Your ashtray is empty and a cigarette butt has fallen below it." She leaned over and pointed at it. "If it was full enough to spill over, then it was clearly used by a heavy smoker, yet it's empty. The only place you could've emptied it was at the gasoline stand a while back. A gentleman such as you who let a strange old woman in his car wouldn't throw them out the window." She explained with a sweet smile.

Conan narrowed his eyes.

Yeah, 'strange old woman' was right.

Kogoro looked behind him at her, shocked. "Wh-who are you!?"

"Senma Furuyo." She answered. "A detective, just like you, Sleeping Kogoro-san."

Honestly, Conan had never heard of her (although, that wasn't exactly saying much considering the only famous detectives he actually has heard of are the ones he's met, like Shinichi or Hattori or Yusaku). He should probably try to learn these things though, if he's trying to become a detective himself.

But apparently that didn't apply for the others.

"S-Senma Furuyo!?" Kogoro immediately recognized.

Ran gasped. "Aren't you that detective who solves cases sitting in an armchair by just simply hearing the details?"

(Conan internally thanked Ran for that exposition.)

"Indeed." Senma confirmed. "Also," she reached over to the front seat and grabbed the ashtray, "I'll be taking this for now."

"Hey!"

"I'd like to ask you not to smoke around me." She said. "I really hate cigarette smoke."

Conan silently scoffed.

Yeah, that's not happening.

Kogoro just grumbled in acceptance and continued driving.


The mansion was even more impressive up close. It was huge and intricate and looked like it came straight out of some cheesy vampire movie that Sonoko would watch.

Apparently, Ran wasn't scared of it much anymore, considering she was rushing up the stairs and towards the door, eager to get inside (although he figured those types of things didn't really matter when you had to go to the bathroom).

Conan trailed behind Kogoro under his umbrella as they, much more leisurely, headed up to the entrance.

They met yet another pretentious famous detective. His name was Mogi Harufumi and a friend of Senma's. He kept on acting as if his car was his girlfriend and being all defensive over it, like yelling when Kogoro touched it, which was really weird and off-putting. He kind of seemed like a bit of an asshole.

Honestly, Conan wasn't very excited to meet the rest of the detectives, especially if they were going to end up being as weird and pretentious as the other two. He was just ready for the banquet thing.

As they reached the large entrance door, Conan noticed a very faint, peculiar stain, that just so happened to look a lot like a bloodstain, splashed across the door.

Yay... A case. That'll be fun to deal with.

Kogoro opened the door, and they were immediately met with a loud shout.

"What do you mean the cook can't come!?" Some old man yelled at a poor and stressed looking maid. "I came here for the banquet, you know!"

Conan's hopes fell.

Well, unless Kaitou KID shows up, this night is ruined.

"I-I'm sorry sir." The maid stuttered out. "I bought the ingredients but..."

Conan felt bad for her, really. The guy yelling at her was being pretty rude, although he did understand the sentiment.

"Fine!" The man conceded, still sounding as angry as before. "Let me use the kitchen and I'll go make it myself!" He finished, then furiously stalked off to wherever the kitchen was.

"Isn't that the gourmet detective, Mr. Oogami?" Kogoro said, unknowingly answering some of Conan's questions.

(Seriously, who are all of these supposedly famous detectives that everyone except for Conan knew of.)

The guy seemed like a prick too but at least it seemed the banquet was still in play.

"Y-yes." The maid answered.

"So," Senma asked, "why'd you call us four detectives out here to the mountains?"

"Oh, um- actually, there's a total of six who were invited..."

"Six?" Mogi asked. "There's more?"

"Y-yes, there's a woman and a young man."

Ran gasped beside him. "A young man? C-could it be.. Shinichi?" She said, her voice laced with false hope.

Conan flashbacked to his last meeting with Shinichi, then silently scoffed to himself, shaking his head. Yeah, no way that's happening. "No, it must be Heiji-niichan!" He cheerfully said to Ran.

"Ah," the maid spoke up, "the master wanted to invite both of those two but neither of them could come."

"And?" Mogi said. "Where's this 'master' who invited all of us here?"

"A-actually, I don't know. I haven't met him either." She answered nervously. She then went into an explanation of how, during the interview, there was only a computer and a list of introductions on a desk. She hadn't met a single person face to face for the job, having been hired through the computer and only communicating with them through email.

"How interesting..." Senma said. "Things have finally gotten exciting."

"Oh?" Mogi drawled. "I've been excited ever since I saw those odd stains on the doors, y'know."

"Hmm?" Ran curiously leaned in, looking closely at the faded blood on the door. "He's right, there's something here. Wonder what it is."

Mogi casually let out a small laugh, smirking at her. "Heh, might wanna be careful, baby. That's blood you're looking at."

"Eh!?" Ran shouted, tensing up and immediately backing away from the door.

(Conan glared at him because honestly what was that guy's issue?)

Then, some woman with a spray bottle full of luminol (which he knew because she was spraying it on a bloodstained area and then covering it with her hand) wearing a freaking lab coat - who was apparently yet another famous detective, Souda Ikumi - came down the stairs, giving some weird over explained science-y description of the blood that essentially boiled down to, lots of people died there.

And then that was immediately overshadowed by a hawk landing on the railing next to her.

Apparently it was the final detective who brought the hawk (a hawk, seriously) considering he whistled and held his arm out as the hawk flew over and landed on it, then just casually walked down as if there wasn't a literal hawk sitting on his arm.

And hey, extra points for Conan, he finally recognized the guy this time. He was Hakuba Saguru, one of the main detectives who chased after KID (figures why he's here). He's come across his name a couple times during his research. They've mentioned that he's a high-schooler and quite dedicated to KID, having barely missed any heists, but apparently they forgot to mention that he owned a hawk and even brought it to important events.

(And not to mention the hawk was named Watson of all things. Conan liked Sherlock but not that much.)

(Honestly, Conan was starting to wonder if all detectives were this pretentious and if perhaps he's chosen the wrong career path. Bringing a spray bottle full of luminol was weird enough, but a hawk?)

After all the introductions, the maid ushered everyone into the living room to wait for the banquet. Everyone gathered into groups and started playing the various games left strewn about, like pool, chess, and poker.

The shift back to normalcy finally allowed Conan to remember a small detail that he'd forgotten about with the whole deal that was meeting the other detectives.

Kogoro hadn't touched a cigarette once, since stopping by the gasoline stand.

When Senma had told him not to smoke around her, Conan thought that rule would've immediately been broken as soon as they arrived at the mansion, but apparently not...

Well, realistically, it shouldn't be that weird. Kogoro was still around Senma, and no one else was smoking, so it'd make sense if he decided to be a bit better today and strengthen his willpower. But, at the same time, it was Kogoro he was talking about; the man was addicted.

He really shouldn't be thinking about it this much - it was easily explainable - but it was just nagging at him. Maybe because he didn't fully know why, that, even with the explanation, it still didn't make much sense.

Conan was brought out of his thoughts when Ran revealed that she won the game of poker, again.

Well, it's not like Kogoro acting differently was actually important to whatever this whole thing was for anyway (..for now).

Conan took that detail and shoved it into the back of his mind for the time being, placing his cards back into the deck.