Author's Note: Hi everyone! First chapter of the new year and I'm going to try to accomplish my highly-ambitious goal and complete this unasked-for, novel-length fanfic before the end of the year. Not sure how well I'll succeed at that goal, but that's what I'm shooting for!
Detectives' Nocturne
"Hey, Gin!"
The blonde perked up at the sound of his friend's voice as he finished locking up the black Honda Accord the MiB had given him when he'd been granted his codename two years ago. It was no Porsche 356A, but his salary was finally high enough that he'd be able to buy one soon, maybe even in time for his twenty-first birthday at the end of the summer.
"Akemi!" he exclaimed with a smile and started walking out of the company parking garage to greet her.
When she was within range, Akemi put on a short burst of speed and threw herself at him, her arms wrapping around him in a tight hug. Gin generally wasn't a huggy person, especially since his training warned that the restriction inhibited an agent's movements, allowed someone to be close enough to disarm you, or even gave them the chance to attack you before you could react and block, but he allowed it with her. There was just no saying 'no' to Akemi.
"It's been forever since I last saw you!" she said happily.
"Yesterday," Gin corrected. "But I don't usually see you here at this time of day anymore since you started university. Have you finally decided classes are too boring and are playing hooky now?" he asked with a teasing smile.
Akemi immediately released him and looked affronted at the very notion. "I would never do that!"
Gin clicked his tongue in disappointment. "Darn. And I thought you were finally starting to see reason."
Akemi mock-glared up at him which proved very ineffective since she was still smiling. "Rude jerk, but no, the last of the exams for the semester ended last week, so I'm on summer break until classes resume." The glare disappeared from her face and her blue eyes brightened. "I even got permission from Pisco and 'that person' to take a week-long vacation down to Kyoto and I was hoping that you'd join me since it's been so long since we've done anything together. You can even bring your new partner, Vodka, if you'd like; it'll be fun with more people and it would be a good way for you two to start bonding."
"Akemi, Vodka's been assigned to me as my secretary, not my friend," Gin reminded her.
"So you can't be friends with your subordinates?" Akemi retorted evenly.
"Well, no, but-"
"-Then bring him! He was only promoted to codenamed status, what, a month ago?" she said, looking to him for the answer.
"Two."
Akemi threw hear arms up into the air. "Two months ago, then, and he's a very shy, self-conscious guy while you're this tall, walking wall of intimidating badassery, and he's scared of you!"
This surprised him. "But I haven't done anything. Have you talked to him? Did he tell you that?"
Akemi's eyelids lowered and her eyebrows rose dramatically until she was giving him her best unimpressed stare. "Yes, I've talked to him, but no, he didn't tell me; I just know because I know you. You hate showing weakness, you have a face like a demon, and you dress like a mobster. Trust me, he's scared of you."
"Huh," he hummed thoughtfully.
That certainly put things into perspective. He knew that Vodka was uncomfortable around him, but he'd thought it was because he was still adjusting to his new responsibilities of being both a codenamed agent and a secretary. He didn't realize Vodka was genuinely afraid of him.
"Exactly!" Akemi said emphatically as if she'd heard his internal musings. "So you have to bring him along at least so that he no longer thinks you're going to swallow his soul if you so much as look at him with your evil green eyes."
"My evil green eyes?" he repeated with an amused chuckle.
"Well, in Japan, Kappa and other dangerous water-based spirits are said to have green eyes and folklore all over the world believes that people with green eyes have mystical abilities. We also know that aliens are real and possess all kinds of fantastic powers we consider magic, so why wouldn't you be able to steal his soul with your eyes?" she said, grinning smugly up at him.
"Fair point," he conceded as he finally resumed his walk towards the main building. "As wonderful as a week-long vacation sounds though, I'm afraid I can't come with you. I've got too much going on right now to indulge in such frivolities."
"Frivolities!" Akemi repeated, and this time, she sounded genuinely hurt, making him wince. "Since when is taking a break from work to spend time with a close friend considered frivolous?!"
"I'm sorry. I didn't mean it like that," he apologized.
"Then how did you mean it?" she demanded.
He didn't have an answer to that, so he switched tracks. "This just isn't a good time for me to take off work and I'm going to be late for a meeting with someone if I don't leave now, so I'm sorry, but I have to go. I promise we'll catch up later," he said as he tried to shake her off. Right as he turned to bolt though, she grabbed a hold of his right wrist with both hands and held him back. "Akemi, let go!" he hissed, looking anxiously at his watch on his left wrist. He was going to be late!
"Who are you going to see that's so important you're trying to run away from me?" Akemi asked in an unusually calm, cool voice that did not suit her cheerful personality.
"'That person'," he blurted out desperately as he tried to free his wrist from her grasp without actually hurting her, which was proving difficult because her fingers kept twisting around like eels.
"No, you're not. 'That person' is always amendable to adjusting meeting times to accommodate his agents, even if it means the meeting has to be rescheduled to a different day because the rest of it is booked solid," Akemi retorted evenly. "And he likes that you and I are friends, so he wouldn't deny you the vacation time, even if he has assigned you a lot of work."
"Miyano, this isn't the time!" he snarled angrily and finally just ripped his arm out of Akemi's hold. Her fingernails scratched his skin, but he didn't care and took off at a run towards the doors to Headquarters. If he ran all the way, then he might still-
"-You're going to Vermouth again, aren't you?!" Akemi shouted furiously, and that name from her mouth stopped him dead in his tracks. She gasped, "You are! And after everything I told you, you're still seeing her?!"
Gin turned and frowned at her. "Who I see and don't see is none of your business," he said coolly.
But Akemi would not be deterred. She matched his frown with one of hers and stomped forward right into his personal space. "It is when my best friend is making what I see as the most dangerous mistake of his life," she snapped. "Ever since you started sleeping with her, I hardly ever see you, and it's not just because I started attending classes at the university recently. Even when I've tried to make plans, you've always bailed on me because Vermouth 'needed you at the last minute'. For Heavens' sakes, Edward! Open your eyes and use that smart brain of yours! She doesn't love you, she's just manipulating you and co-opting your free time so that you're not alone with your thoughts long enough to realize what she's doing!"
Gin felt his hackles raise and his ire deepen at Akemi's accusation. "I know she doesn't love me, and I don't love her either. She's not manipulating me; I'm just choosing to spend my time with her. We're only using each other for sex, and love is not required for either of us to enjoy it."
Akemi's cheeks flushed red at his openness even as a harsh laugh escaped her. "Did Vermouth tell you that too?" she mocked.
He felt as if he'd been slapped.
A grim, but victorious smirk spread across her lips. "I don't agree with most of what that American woman says about making love and its role in relationships, but you're lying to yourself if you think you're not smitten with the woman and getting addicted to her."
"I'm not addicted-!" Gin began heatedly, but stopped midsentence when Akemi held up a single finger in front of his face.
"One week," she said firmly. "You come with me to Kyoto for one week and don't engage in any contact with Vermouth either by text, email, or phone call the entire time you're there. If at the end of that week, you still want to be involved with Vermouth, then I won't say another word against it and you can…" Her face turned an even darker red and she took a deep breath before saying shakily, "… fuck each other to your hearts' content."
"Akemi…!" Gin exclaimed, his jaw dropping at sweet, innocent Akemi's use of vulgar language. That more than anything else told him how serious she was about this and he closed his mouth with a slight frown. "And if I end up deciding I don't want to be in a relationship with Vermouth any longer? What do you get out of it?"
Akemi shook her head. "This isn't a bet, Gin. I'm not doing this because I want to win something from you. I'm doing this because I care about you and you just can't seem to see how… how toxic she is."
Gin stuck his hands into his coat pockets and looked at her, really looked at her for the first time in months. She was speaking to him in his language, the language of strength, conviction, and risk, and she was speaking from the heart. She was genuinely concerned for his well-being and that was the sole reason she was intervening. She didn't care that he was sleeping with someone, only that he might get hurt from it, and that was why he nodded in acquiescence.
"Okay, I'll come with you to Kyoto and won't communicate with Vermouth at all while I'm with you," he said, and it pleased him to see Akemi's determined stare crumble away into an expression of immense relief. "Since I was on my way to Vermouth's anyway, I can go and tell her right now that I will be unavailable for the next week."
At this, Akemi's blue eyes took on a steely look and she hooked her arm tightly around his. "I'll come with you and I'll tell her," she insisted stubbornly. "You're too wrapped around that woman's finger to stand firm and she'll either convince you not to come at all or wrangle some promise out of you that you'll at least call her once in the evenings every day."
"Akemi…" he groaned, but she refused to budge and started walking back into headquarters while pulling on his arm.
He stumbled forward until he'd caught up with her and then easily kept pace with her shorter stride. Gin felt she was being ridiculous because he wasn't being manipulated by Vermouth, but there was no point arguing with Akemi over it and hopefully having a direct confrontation with this woman she disliked so much would make her feel better.
"Where were you going to have your tryst this time?" Akemi asked shortly.
Something about hearing his best friend say such words in that tone made him feel unclean and his cheeks pinkened slightly. "Her office," he muttered under his breath.
He could feel the sharp look of disgust she gave him, but she started walking in that direction without voicing her thoughts aloud. When at last they were in front of Vermouth's office, her name written in both English and Japanese on the door's white plaque, Akemi knocked on the dark wood.
"Come in," a sultry female voice called from within and Gin felt a shiver crawl uncomfortably down his spine. It was subtle, but he could hear the undertone of her displeasure.
Akemi probably heard it too and completely ignored it as she burst through the office door with him in tow and Vermouth looked shocked for all of two seconds before her perfect mask slipped back on over her face.
"Akemi, this is an unexpected surprise. I was under the impression you detested my very existence and would never dare to set foot in my domain," she said archly.
Gin watched her turquoise blue eyes travel from Akemi's set expression to their linked arms, and their expression seemed to harden into ice.
"And I see you've brought Gin along with you. He and I actually have an appointment that was supposed to start ten minutes ago, but you already know that, don't you? Have you come to warn me away from your precious friend?" Vermouth asked, her voice positively dripping with unspoken accusations.
Akemi's frown deepened and she tightened her grip on his arm. "No, I have come to do nothing of the sort. He's almost twenty-one and who Gin sleeps with is his business. I only came along to tell you that Gin has to cancel his meeting with you for today and he'll be unavailable for the whole of next week because he'll be with me on vacation in Kyoto. Pisco and 'that person' are already aware of my plans and I'm sure that they'll both agree to let Gin take the time off since he's such a devoted employee. Is that going to be a problem?"
Vermouth's eyes remained unchanging as she stared down Akemi and the corner of her lips tweaked upward into the slightest of sinister smiles. "I can see you've already made your decision, and if Pisco and the Boss have already given their approval, then who am I to disagree with them?"
Akemi's frown turned into a grim smile. "Thank you very much for your cooperation," she said politely and dragged Gin by the arm again.
He tried to throw an apologetic grimace to Vermouth over his shoulder, but Akemi was moving too quickly for that and if he didn't keep his focus on his feet, he was going to end up tripping and then she'd literally be dragging him out.
"Aniki?"
Gin wearily raised his head up from his desk and blinked sleepily at Vodka. "Hm?"
"I finished all the paperwork I had to do for the next two weeks. You just have to sign everything in here," Vodka said as he held up a huge manila folder that made Gin cringe.
"Fine," Gin grumbled as he accepted the folder from his partner and started signing on every paper where he saw a blank line.
He had no idea what exactly he was signing off on which would have been dangerous and irresponsible of him if he did not have complete and total trust in Vodka. In the beginning of their partnership when they didn't know each other that well, he'd had to go through and make sure all of the paperwork was filled out correctly and that he wasn't signing something he shouldn't. They'd been working together for seven years now, and Vodka's excellent memory gave him an edge at remembering what all the different files and forms were for, as well as identifying which ones needed Gin's personal signature.
Their efficient teamwork meant the paperwork got dealt with very quickly, but Gin's hatred of being cooped up in the office more than he had to meant he only came in with Vodka to deal with the paperwork that needed his personal attention once every two weeks to a month. Since Vodka had to first sort through everything before Gin saw it, that usually equated to an hour- or two-hour-long power nap while he waited to write his hand off into oblivion.
Gin wasn't that surprised he'd been dreaming about Akemi. He'd been having a lot of dreams featuring old memories of her since she'd passed away. The one he'd had the most frequently was centered around the moment he'd discovered the text on her phone that she'd sent to Akai asking him if he would be her real boyfriend after she left the Organization and to protect Shiho. That was the event that had led to his discovering his best friend had been killed and impersonated, and it had haunted his thoughts morning and night at every turn that he hadn't uncovered the deception sooner.
That particular memory of her confronting Vermouth though, that was a bit of an odd subject choice for him to recall, even knowing he had no control over what he dreamed about. After Akemi had dragged him out of Vermouth's office, he had gone down to Kyoto with her and Vodka for a week, just as he'd promised he would. He'd enjoyed himself immensely, the mountainous landscapes reminding him of his own childhood growing up in Togakushi in the Nagano prefecture and it was a big part of why he would decide to invite Sherry to Kyoto with him three years later. It turned out Akemi had been right about Vodka; inviting him along and letting him see that he was just as human as everyone else had done wonders in building their trust in each other.
She had also been right about Vermouth. Being away from her for a full week had given him time to think critically about their relationship, what he wanted, and what he was getting out of it, and he was chagrined to realize he was the one losing out. She gave amazing sex, but that wasn't all he wanted in a relationship, and he'd started foolishly believing there was more to what he had with Vermouth than what she was actually putting out. He had also seen he had not started believing that on his own, but that she had been manipulating him into thinking that way, stealing his time away from his friend and his sister, and doing everything in her power to keep his attention focused on her. The week he'd taken to clear his head had smashed that naïve fantasy to pieces and when he'd returned to Headquarters in Tokyo, he'd ended the relationship immediately, leaving her in no doubt as to where he stood with her. Vermouth had been furious with him, but he'd refused to budge and that had been the end of that.
He may have cut his sexual ties with her – which had been a very important and necessary act – but the relationship itself had not left him undamaged. He had grown used to having sex on a regular basis, but without a willing partner and only able to do so much on his own, he'd taken up smoking as a means of taking the edge off and it had worked pretty well, but then he'd just ended up addicted to the nicotine. The other thing that Vermouth had damaged was his expression of emotions. As Akemi had pointed out, he'd never liked showing weakness, but Vermouth had taken a sadistic pleasure in using his emotional reactions to things she said or did to either mock him or humiliate him to the point where he'd learned to force himself to not let any emotion except anger show because she could read even the slightest of reactions and then dig the knife in deeper.
He remembered several months ago that Sherry had described him as a formidable, stoic, walking ice sculpture when she had first met him, and she wasn't wrong; that had been Vermouth's handiwork. He'd only started recently healing from the damage she'd wrought, and he owed most of that to Sherry, herself. Gin owed both of the Miyano girls for the roles they'd played: Akemi for enabling him to free himself from Vermouth's influence and Shiho for helping him start to recover from it.
()()()()()
"What?! You're saying Conan was kidnapped by a murderer?!" Dr. Agasa suddenly exclaimed while on the phone with Ran.
Haibara gave a start of alarm. Conan was kidnapped?! How and why? She silently approached the Professor to try and listen in to the conversation.
It was faint, but she could just make out the tail end of what Ran was saying. "… to track Conan's Detective Badge with the tracking glasses!"
"Got it. I can track it with the spare glasses, but-"
"-Ah, sorry, I have another call coming in! It might be from Conan! If you find out where he is, give me a call!" Ran interrupted.
"Wait, Ran!" Dr. Agasa protested, but Ran had already hung up. "Did you hear any of that Ai?"
Haibara nodded. "I did. Kudo's been kidnapped and Ran wants us to find him with the tracking glasses, but how are we supposed to chase after him? Isn't your Beetle in for repairs right now?"
The Professor gave a start of remembrance. "Y-Yeah, that's true," he agreed. "In that case, our only chance is to get a taxi to go after him."
"Then would you like to go after him in my car?"
Haibara jumped at the sound of the familiar, soft-spoken voice and hid behind Dr. Agasa as she watched Subaru Okiya walk into the house carrying a pot of stew. "I apologize; I didn't mean to eavesdrop, but as I came over to share some of my cream stew with you, I heard you having a disturbing conversation at the door, so I came in. If we're going after Conan, we should hurry."
No! There was going to be no 'we' in this! She was adamant on that! "Then just lend us your car keys and the Professor and I can go after him," she demanded.
"I don't mind lending them to you, but my car has a few quirks, so I have to be the one driving it," Okiya said, and it frustrated Haibara that he could very well be telling the truth or he could be lying just so that he wouldn't be left behind.
"Then what if Subaru and I go?" Dr. Agasa suggested to her as an alternative, not understanding her fear of him, but respecting it all the same.
Even when she'd had the house's preventative security measures updated, she had not told him about Pandora, nor her fear of Okiya being her or one of her minions.
"Sure, that would work, that is, if the girl intends to stay here by herself and anxiously wait for a report of the boy's safety. If it'd be alright, I suggest that we all go together. But of course, I won't force you," Okiya said in that polite but intense way of his that made his words sound more like a threat than a suggestion.
Haibara trembled from fear and anger both. She was torn between two choices that she hated. Either get in a car with the driver being someone she didn't trust or stay at home alone where she would be most vulnerable. Neither option appealed to her, especially since the first time she'd been attacked by an alien in Japan had been while she was in a vehicle.
Ultimately, her concern for Conan's well-being won out over her own conflicting self-preservation instincts and she snapped, "Fine, I'll come along, just let me go get the tracking glasses."
"I appreciate your cooperation," Okiya called after her as she stalked down to the basement to retrieve the tracking glasses from the drawer in her desk.
After a few seconds of rummaging around for them, her hands brushed against the cool metal frames and she pulled the glasses out. She stuck them on her face and pressed the button on the right side. The glass for the right frame filled up with lines and circles, and on the periphery of the glasses, she could just make out the blinking red dot that signaled Conan's detective badge. He was still in range, but not for long. Haibara hurried up the stairs and burst into the room where Okiya and Dr. Agasa had been talking while they waited for her.
"Ai, what's wrong?" Dr. Agasa said, but she shook her head and looked directly at Okiya.
"Edogawa's almost out of range of the tracking glasses. If we don't leave now, we're going to lose him," she said.
"Then let's make haste," Okiya said.
He set the stew pot down on the counter and spun on his heel to stride back out the way he came. Dr. Agasa and Haibara followed after him, and they had just stepped through the front door when Dr. Agasa stopped and patted his pants pockets, his expression growing alarmed.
"Oh no, the house keys! I think I left them inside," he said and started to go back into the house to get them, but Haibara grabbed his arm.
"There's no time to lock up! Edogawa's in danger and we need to find him before the murderer decides he's more of a nuisance alive than dead!" she shouted frantically.
Akemi. Akemi. Akemi.
"But the house…" he said uncertainly.
"If somebody breaks in while we're gone, we'll deal with it afterward! Edogawa needs us now!" Haibara insisted and they joined Okiya already waiting for them in his red car.
She wasn't sure if he just liked the color red or if he was being ironic with his name.
"Get in, quickly," he said and both of them piled in, Haibara climbing into the back and Dr. Agasa taking the front passenger seat.
Haibara chanced a quick look at the glasses and the red dot was still visible. "He's somewhere southeast of our current position. If you can start heading that way, I can pull up the roadmaps on my phone and then give you more specific directions."
"Understood," Okiya said.
He pulled out onto the road and Haibara brought up the maps. It took her a moment to orient the tracking map on the glasses with the one on the phone, but she managed, and they had not lost Kudo's dot in the process.
"Head to Oishi Highway and go south," she told him. "That looks like it will give us the best speed and distance coverage in the correct direction."
"Oishi Highway it is, then," Okiya agreed and directed the car along the quickest route towards the highway from their current position.
Haibara checked back and forth from the glasses to the phone multiple times and though they steadily drew nearer, the murderer's movements were erratic. They weren't heading in one straight line like she would have expected of an amateur but was going all over the place like they were trying to lose a tail. That would have suggested a professional, but then that meant the chances of Conan's continued survival were very low and she didn't want to think about that. However, as random as the murderer's actions were, they didn't seem to be trying to leave the city. They even made a stop somewhere.
"Ah, they've started moving again. It appears they're now moving south on Oishi Highway, heading in the direction of Toriya Town," Haibara said.
"It doesn't seem like we'll be able to catch up with them any time soon, huh?" Okiya sighed.
"But where do you think the culprit is heading to? It seems like they're just aimlessly wandering around," Agasa pointed out.
"They might really be wandering around, unable to find the blood-stained spot they're seeking," Okiya said and Haibara stared hard at the back of his head.
He knew something, or at least had figured something out solely based on the pattern of the murderer's movements, and he was incredibly calm. Too calm for Akai if he was operating under the assumption that Conan's life was in jeopardy.
"You think Edogawa's alright then?" she asked him warily.
"I believe the murderer is currently too preoccupied with other matters to be paying much attention to Conan," Okiya said evasively.
It was a tentative 'yes' and that was good enough for Haibara at the moment. She continued to give Okiya directions and updates to the best of her ability, but then all of a sudden, the red dot started moving more purposefully, like it had a destination in mind, and she panicked. Had the murderer given up on their wandering and decided to do away with Conan after all?! She watched the red dot start to slow again, but this time, her heart was pounding rapidly in her chest and her breath was short.
'Please don't stop! Please don't stop!' she silently begged as every particle of her being focused on that red dot that belonged to Conan Edogawa.
When the red dot stopped, so did her heart, and everything went still.
'Kudo…!'
The red dot started moving again, but much more slowly and at a perfect perpendicular angle to the previous vector of movement he'd been traveling along.
"He's getting out of the car!" she exclaimed with relief. "He's still alive!"
Before this point, though she had hoped otherwise, she had not been sure that the murderer hadn't killed Conan while they were driving, but now they had proof that was not the case. Conan was still alive, and their efforts being made to rescue him were not in vain.
"Is he running away from the criminal's car?" Dr. Agasa asked worriedly.
Haibara only shook her head in frustration. "I can't tell that, only that he's on foot now, but- hold on…" she cut herself off and examined the red dot's movements closely.
Kudo had gotten out of the car on his own, but then the red dot had stopped instead of taking off in a straight line. It stayed still for a while and then started moving again, but still not like someone running away or being chased.
"I think… he's still alive… and the culprit stopped on their own… and for some reason, Edogawa's staying with them…" she said at last, wondering what in the world was going on and if Kudo had taken leave of his senses.
"He's still with them?!" Dr. Agasa repeated, just as bewildered.
"Interesting…" Okiya said softly. "You will keep up informed of any other unusual actions you observe?"
"Yes, I will," Haibara confirmed, but she wasn't paying any attention to Okiya anymore. Nothing was more important to her than what that red dot did, and she had to be reminded more than once to tell Okiya where to go.
Conan was meandering around on foot as much as the murderer's car had been earlier, and though the murderer had no tracking device on their person, Haibara was sure they were right next to Conan the whole time. The red dot was doing so much stopping and going that she couldn't even begin to figure out what Kudo was up to, so when the red dot suddenly started moving at an exponentially faster rate, Haibara perked up.
"He's moving fast again. I think they got back in the car. We're alright on our current route so far," she said.
"But why did they get out of the car at all?" Dr. Agasa asked, but not like he was expecting anyone to have an answer.
Notably, Okiya said nothing, but Haibara knew better than to think he didn't have a few ideas of his own about what this all meant.
Kudo's red dot did not continue traveling in the same trajectory from before they stopped, but started heading somewhere else with the same sense of directional intent. Once again, Conan's dot slowed and stopped, and he got out of the car, but did not make a break for it. Haibara had no idea what to make of either Kudo's or the murderer's strange behaviors, but this was starting to feel less like a rescue mission, and more like another wild good chase trying to catch up to Kudo while he was running off to go solve a case.
"They're on the move again, and judging by the speed, he's riding in a car again. This time they're heading in the direction of Haido City," Haibara said as she double-checked the map on her phone.
"But why did he get out of the car? Did the culprit take Conan out of the car and take him around somewhere?" Dr. Agasa wondered aloud again.
"No, perhaps the one doing the taking around is Conan," Okiya suggested.
He thought so too, huh? That only further validated her growing irritation. Kudo was still in danger with a murderer in his immediate proximity, she and Dr. Agasa were worried about him, Ran was worried about him, and he was off playing detective again! She could kill him right now! The red dot made one more stop and Haibara prayed they would remain still long enough for them to reach them because they were finally close enough that they could. Even just seeing the murderer's car would go a long way towards the effort to rescue Kudo.
"Not far now. At the next corner, turn right, and they'll be just ahead," Haibara said, her directions to Okiya coming more frequently now that they were on the narrow neighborhood streets.
"Understood," Okiya said.
"I'd better tell Ran," Dr. Agasa said and he started pulling out his phone to call her.
"It would be best if you didn't yet," Okiya warned. "We don't know what sort of situation Conan is in, and while I doubt it, we can't rule out the possibility that it's too early to celebrate."
"But that's…" Dr. Agasa protested weakly.
"Please hold off on contacting them until we understand the current situation," Okiya pressed urgently.
"Okay," the Professor conceded at last.
Okiya then looked back at her through the rear-view mirror and said, "Also, I'll say this now just to be sure, but even if we find him or else the car that he's in, we shouldn't act recklessly as we must not endanger his life."
"I know that already. I'm not a child," Haibara huffed irritably without thinking.
"Indeed…" Okiya murmured softly.
Haibara cursed herself for her tongue slip, but there was nothing she could do about it now and she refocused her vision on the tracking glasses. Kudo and the murderer seemed to have returned to the car but had not yet resumed driving. Haibara wasn't sure why, but she was not complaining. According to the glasses and the map, they were almost right on top of Kudo and he should be just ahead of them.
A sharp blast of noise suddenly rang out through the quiet neighborhood and made her jump in alarm. A gun?! It had come from the same direction as the blue car just ahead and it also matched with Kudo's position!
"Hey! T-That sounded like a gunshot just now!" Dr. Agasa exclaimed.
"It's that car!" Haibara shouted in alarm. "That car's the one Edogawa's in!"
"Then please inform Mr. Mouri of this," Okiya told the Professor as they watched the blue car move forward and he followed after it.
"Eh? Not the police?" Dr. Agasa asked.
"Mr. Mouri is the only one who can accurately explain the whole situation to the police," Okiya said. "If we tell him the car model, the color, and the plate number, then the police will be able to setup a checkpoint and stop the car."
"B-But what if the hostage is used as a shield to break through the checkpoint?"
"If that happens…" There was a short, fast, vicious pulse of pressure from Okiya that made Haibara suddenly gasp in fright. "… we stop them by force."
It disappeared as soon as it came, but Haibara's breathing was still fast. Logically, she knew that the pressure wasn't being directed at her… that Akai was feeling viciously protective of Conan and his hunting aggression was focused on the culprit… but it was hard to remember that when her instinctive response was to get away from the source of that feeling as fast as possible. She forced herself to calm down and breathe slowly. She was not Akai's target… She'd have felt it much sooner than now and it would have been for much longer if she was.
Dr. Agasa called Mr. Mouri and quickly informed him of the type of car Conan was being transported in when a familiar malevolence shot through her and Haibara stiffened. What…? This feeling! The blood lust of being hunted…! Something… Something was closing in! She was trapped in a car with that same pressure homing in on her location. The thirteen-year-old inside her didn't care that she was in a moving vehicle completely unarmed and even more defenseless now than she was five years ago, there was only one thought in her head: Run, trap. Run, trap. Run, trap!
"Don't make that kind of face."
Haibara startled anew, but not in fear and her head snapped forward. It couldn't be…! Okiya was masking his true voice, but somehow… for a moment in the depths of her terror… she had heard Akai speaking to her, his words matching those echoed by the Akai of her memories.
Memories of an Akai who had first started dating her sister to get close to her in order to secure a place for himself within the Organization…
Memories of an Akai who had seen her worried face as Akemi left to take on a mission that required she act as bait to lure out one of their targets, and reassured her that he would protect Akemi even at the cost of his life…
Memories of an Akai who had become someone she had started to see as an older brother-like figure…
"I won't let them get away," Okiya said, snapping her out of her reverie and just like before, the pressure was gone. "Professor, take the wheel."
"What?! Subaru, what are you doing?!" Dr. Agasa exclaimed as Okiya opened the car door and leaned out of it, and the Professor hastily grabbed the wheel to keep the car straight.
Haibara couldn't see what Okiya was doing, but she didn't miss the white Mazda RX-7 come up on the right side. Okiya pulled himself back in quickly and the car swerved a little as the wheel changed hands from Dr. Agasa back to him.
"Are you alright, Subaru?" Dr. Agasa asked.
"Yes, I'm fine. I got out of the way in time," Okiya said, sounding unusually thoughtful for their current situation.
Haibara looked straight ahead through the front window and gasped. "Look!" she yelled.
The white Mazda spun out ninety degrees and the culprit's blue car smashed headlong into the passenger side. The sound of screeching tires, shearing metal, and shattering glass caused a hair-splitting cacophony of noise that pierced straight through her eardrums. The two crashed vehicles came to an abrupt halt and the blue car's passenger door opened up. A woman stepped out holding Conan hostage with a gun to his head.
Okiya started to slow the car, but a motorcycle shot past them at full speed on the right side and made a flying leap on top of the blue compact car. A sharp hiss escaped Okiya as they watched the motorcyclist spin their bike on one wheel and strike the gun-wielding woman with the other wheel. The maneuver knocked the woman out cold and knocked both Conan and the gun out of her hands. Not two seconds later, the motorcyclist had tackled Conan in a hug, and Ran and Mr. Mouri were coming around to him from the far side of the Mazda. There was also a bleached-blond, tan-skinned man with them that she didn't recognize. Presumably, he was the owner of the white Mazda that had just been totaled.
"It seems he's safe now," Okiya said as he brought the car to a stop just past the scene of the accident.
Haibara did not get out of the car, but she turned off the tracker and removed the glasses as she watched both Ran and Mr. Mouri fuss worriedly over their small charge. Subaru was right… There was no need to worry, especially now. Kudo was safe and she had irrefutable proof that Subaru was Akai. Nobody apart from themselves knew he had ever said those words to her. He could not have said them if he was not the genuine article.
()()()()()
A purple motorcycle pulled up to the house at 22 Beika Block, 2nd street that served as the home residence of Dr. Hiroshi Agasa, a local inventor and neighbor to the Kudo house next door. The rider turned off the engine and removed their helmet. Long, wavy locks of light blond hair cascaded free and red-painted lips smirked up at the house the woman had stopped in front of.
"While the mice are away, the cat will come out to play," Vermouth said in English as she set down her helmet and strode up to the gate.
She tested the door and found it unlocked, causing her smirk to widen. She pushed through it without a care as if she belonged there, and she was similarly unchallenged at the front door.
Vermouth tutted softly in disapproval as she waltzed right in. "You should have made sure to lock up before you left, little Sherry. You never know what unwanted visitors may decide to come a knocking."
Nevermind that she knew in advance that the residents weren't home and wouldn't be home for some time yet. They would have to wait for the police to take the preliminary assessment of the situation and would want to reassure themselves of little Conan's well-being. Vermouth of course could not fault anyone for forsaking basic house safety precautions in favor of enacting a timely rescue of her precious Silver Bullet, but that didn't mean she wouldn't take advantage of the slipup. When Vermouth had tried killing Sherry several months ago, she had not been at all interested in the man whom she was living with. She was aware that he was an alien, and an Arquillian even, and that he had been a friend and neighbor of the Kudo family for Shinichi's whole life, and her interest in him had ended there. Her primary objective at the time had been to bring about Sherry's death and investigating him in-depth would not have assisted her in that endeavor.
She had put off thinking of Sherry for as long as she had at her Cool Guy's request, but it was only a matter of time before she would reconsider disposing of her again. That girl was the one person who could not continue to exist in this world. However, time and distance had given her plenty of opportunities to reflect and now Vermouth wondered if there was perhaps another reason Sherry was sent to live at this particular house that had nothing to do with neighborly proximity. That was what she was here to investigate.
Vermouth quickly took stock of the central living space. She had been here once before while posing as Dr. Araide and nothing had changed since her last visit. Unfortunately, she highly doubted that what she was looking for would be found in such an open space where Shinichi could easily stumble upon it. Vermouth saw several doorways she could take, so she chose the closest one without a door. It was the entrance to a stairwell leading down into the basement, so she descended to the lower level and found herself in some kind of makeshift office and temporary storage space. There was a desk with a computer sitting right across from a long couch and there were some boxes in the far right corner opposite a closet. If Vermouth had to guess, she would believe that Sherry probably used this room as a makeshift lab and frequented it regularly, but Vermouth also suspected that this was not all the room had to offer. MiB agents were notorious for hiding things in plain sight.
Without even a second's hesitation, she strode over to the closet and threw the doors open. Her turquoise blue eyes flicked about the enclosed space and then she dropped down to her knees, feeling along the back wall's baseboard. She slid her fingers from the left corner to the right one and felt a small, round, barely-noticeable protuberance like a button. Vermouth smirked and pressed it.
The sound of machinery came to life from behind the walls, and she watched unsurprised as the back wall slid aside to reveal a miniature MiB-furnished science lab. It was as she'd suspected. The basement room she'd entered was a front for Shinichi's benefit while the real lab work took place in this hidden room. It was a pity that she was only here for information gathering instead of sabotage. Imagining the havoc she could wreak on Sherry's work down here was a wonderful fantasy, and she might have been tempted were she not worried that anything she tampered with would find its way to Shinichi and cause him harm. She despised Sherry with all of her being, but not enough to risk his life over it.
Still, that didn't mean she couldn't look…
Vermouth entered the science lab and the first thing she did was approach the computer set into the wall to search for any secret files hidden on it. She was just going through the motions to make sure nothing was missed, but she would be genuinely shocked if Sherry's hard drive had copies of the good Professor's most top secret private records. Personal names were so sacred to the Arquillians as a species that it was considered the highest honor to know another individual's birth name, and the Men in Black upheld that sanctity to great effect. There was a document that existed hidden and heavily-encrypted behind massive firewalls within the network that listed the original birth names of every single Arquillian living on Earth along with what their respective Earth-given names, and there were only two people in the entire Organization that could access that file: the Boss and his second-in-command.
There was a specific Arquillian she was seeking, whose birth name she knew but not their Earthly identity, so that she could recruit them to assist in the completion of a project that had already been at least a quarter of a century in the making. As expected, Vermouth found nothing of interest on Sherry's computer, so she contented herself with being nosy and poking around the empty lab for a bit, dreaming of all the damage she could cause that stupid little girl. She even opened the small storage freezer and withdrew one of the vials out of curiosity, but her amusement died as soon as she saw the clear blue liquid in the tube. The date on the label was over a week after Ringore's arrest and it also read 'O. photocoleopterus N liver centrifuge 01'. Vermouth frowned. That was unhelpful since the only word she understood was 'liver', but she didn't need to know what the label said to recognize the contents of the vial, because she had administered this chemical, a mind control serum, many times to various members of the Organization.
Vermouth quickly threw the vial back into the freezer before it thawed in her hands and rushed back over to the computer mainframe to open up the MiB chemical database. She had no idea how Sherry had come to obtain a sample of the mind control serum, but she definitely would have tried to analyze it to ascertain its nature which meant there should be a record of it in the system. First, she searched for all chemical samples submitted on or around the date that had been written on the vial, and she found about twenty entries, but none of them were what she was looking for. She pursed her lips and then tried another tactic. She brought up the analysis file on the unidentified chemical found in Scotch's autopsy and conducted a database search using the key markers from the analysis to find reports of chemicals of at least 50% similarity. That search took much longer than the previous one, but it still turned up nothing. The record from Scotch was the only one present and Vermouth narrowed her eyes in suspicion.
Sherry had a labeled and stored sample of the mind control serum and the most recent record of it was still the one from two years ago. Any computer-based analysis of it would have created a new record and been imported into the chemical database. The only reason such a record wouldn't be present anymore was if it had been deleted at one of the MiB's central data storage centers and there was only one person Sherry would have told that had both the necessary rank and security clearance to be able to take such action.
Vermouth's hands clenched into fists as she glared at the screen and muttered darkly, "Gin."
He was the very last person she wanted to have sticking his nose into her business. If he was involved and had indeed been responsible for the deletion of the record from the chemical database, then it meant he was now aware that there were spies in the Organization and he was playing his cards very close to the vest. He may even be conducting his own secret investigation of the Men in Black. She remembered thinking it odd that Gin had ordered Bourbon, one of her subordinates of the Intelligence Division and a man he couldn't personally stand, to be stationed in Beika City and had offered no word of explanation to her or anyone else for his actions. Even the Boss and Rum had been perplexed. She knew; she'd plied her favor with the Boss to see if he could tell her anything about it and he'd had nothing.
That had been around the time Sherry had apparently obtained her sample of the mind control serum, and a worrying thought came to her then. Pandora… Did Gin know about her? Was that the reason he had sent Bourbon of all people to Beika City? It was bad enough that he now suspected the Organization was internally compromised, but if he was aware of Pandora's existence as well, this would only further complicate matters. She would have to be even more careful in how she dealt with him from this point onward.
Vermouth made sure to reset everything back on the computer to the way it was before departing from the lab and pushing the button to slide the secret door shut. She'd gathered some unexpectedly valuable information from snooping about Sherry's lab, but none of what she was trespassing into the house to acquire. She took the stairs back up to the main circular living space and tried one of the closed doors. One of them opened into a broom cupboard and another led into the toilet. The third door she tried looked even more promising than Sherry's lab in the basement.
It was a wide room with a long, flat table piled high with half-completed projects and inventions, scattered tools all over the place, and an entire billboard decorated with drawings and diagrams. It looked like a workshop and it was definitely the Arquillian's private space. If his private records were going to be anywhere in the house, it would probably be in this room. The trouble would be finding it amongst the mess without disturbing it and alerting either the inventor or the shrunken scientist that someone had been inside. Vermouth tread carefully into the workshop and turned on the overhead light by pulling on the long cord hanging from the ceiling. Now see where she was putting her feet at least. Her eyes slowly scanned every square inch of the room, searching for anything out of the ordinary that could indicate a secret compartment was present.
Nothing obvious jumped out at her, so the first thing she did was check the desktop computer just as she had done with Sherry's. That searched turned up even more fruitless; it wasn't even connected to the MiB network. Well, she hadn't really expected it to be there anyway. Computers could be hacked. No, Vermouth had a feeling that the Professor would have kept his personal records as paper copies probably in some old-fashioned, behind-the-portrait-style wall safe. He seemed like that kind of cliché-loving fellow. The only problem was there were no portraits of any kind in the workshop. The closest thing there was to one was the cork billboard covered in diagrams.
Vermouth's eyes narrowed and she hummed thoughtfully. Maybe…? She picked her way through the clutter to the back of the room and examined the billboard closely. The thumbtacks were probably normal because it would be immediately apparent if somebody tried to move one and found it wouldn't budge. Her best bet would be to search along the frame, and the trick mechanism would probably be even more subtle than the closet baseboard switch. Vermouth gently eased her fingers along the bottom part of the frame with her thumb on the outermost edge and the rest on the wide front-facing part, feeling for any particular notches or nicks that might be too even or symmetrical to be accidental. She repeated the action on the two side borders. She was about to do the same to the top border and had just placed her fingers in position at the top left corner of the frame when she felt a small lever like a metal splinter set into the wood between where the left side and top border pieces met.
She flicked the lever downward.
There was a metallic click and the entire board swung outward away from the wall on a hinge on the right side. Vermouth caught the board before it hit her in the face and peered around at the wall behind it, smirking to herself when she saw the steel blue safe hidden there.
"Did I call it, or what?" Vermouth said to herself as she approached the safe and placed her ear against the cool metal.
She started slowly turning the combination lock and listened within the device for the faint click that would signal she'd reached the correct number and needed to turn it in the opposite direction. The mind control serum might be being developed for use against Men in Black agents, but her own tests of the prototypes on non-MiB agents had proven quite useful. Toichi Kuroba had been an excellent teacher to her and Yukiko regarding the art of disguise, but she knew he never would have taught her his more… criminally-inclined talents without a little persuasion. It truly was a pity his life had ended so abruptly. She'd liked him and he could have been useful in other ways. The lock reached the second number and she made a note of it before turning it back the other way. She didn't have to go very far before she heard a third tink followed by a loud thunk as the safe unlocked. Vermouth pulled the safe door open and her eyes widened hungrily at the sight of a thick binder stuffed with old, slightly-yellowed papers in protective plastic sheets. She snatched it out of the safe and opened the binder to the very first page. It was a copy of the Professor's application for immigration to Earth… the full copy that only the Boss and Rum had access to, and it had… everything! Even his true name!
"Lilinoonilil…!" she breathed and slowly, a sinister, predatory air crept into her expression in the narrowing of her eyes and the curl of her lips. "I've finally found you."
Significant progress had been made to improve the strength of the mind control serum from the original raw material, but its development had recently reached an impasse where the victim either was completely overpowered and became like a mindless zombie unable to take action of their own accord, or it wasn't strong enough and the victim acted out unexpectedly or fought against the effects. The drug needed to be right in that sweet middle-ground of the two effects before further progress could be made on Pandora's plans.
Scientists on Arquillia were as common as sports athletes in the United States and just as heavily-sponsored. An Arquillian working on the serum could easily break through the lack of progress, but not all scientists were on the same level and this was a complex formula. Not just anyone would do. However, just shy of a year ago now, one of Pandora's numerous connections caught a whisper of a rumor that the former Head Scientist for the Arquillian royal family had retired and immigrated to Earth to live out the rest of his golden years, and his name was said to be Lilinoonilil.
That discovery had been simultaneously heartening and frustrating. The mind control serum would be perfected in no time if the royal family's former Head Scientist was put to work on it, but the information was all but useless if Vermouth couldn't find him. The only surefire way she could discover his Earthly identity was to use the mind control serum on either the Boss or Rum to convince them to allow her access, but she couldn't use the serum because it wasn't ready, which was why she needed Lilinoonilil's Earthly identity. It was a Catch 22 she had been unable to get around, so Vermouth had first used the resources she did have to narrow down how many Arquillians had immigrated to Earth and how many of them worked in a science-based profession. She could not imagine an individual who'd spent his whole career as a high-ranking scientist would be able to give up the field completely. Someone must have noticed part of her search trail and alerted the Boss, even if they didn't know she was the culprit, because free access to information on the resident Arquillian Earth population had been on lockdown to members below a certain rank ever since. Fortunately, she exceeded the rank requirement, but it had still severely limited her options for investigation.
No matter. That was all in the past because she knew the truth now. Lilinoonilil's Earth name was Dr. Hiroshi Agasa, and she found it was not the victory she'd hoped it would be once her excitement at the discovery had faded, and a grim frown stole over her face. Why did it have to be him? Lilinoonilil could have been literally anyone else and she wouldn't have cared, but he was a dear friend of her Silver Bullet's and she couldn't do anything to the alien scientist without either alerting Sherry that something was amiss or hurting Shinichi. Sherry, she could deal with, but Shinichi… she couldn't go there, not with him.
"I'm trying to help you achieve your goal, Cool Guy, but you're not making this easy on my end," Vermouth sighed in resignation as she carefully placed the binder back in the safe, closed the door, and moved the bulletin board back into place. She made sure everything else in the room was as she left it before exiting.
She'd found Lilinoonilil but was no closer to fixing the drug. She would just have to find someone else who specialized in alien biochemistry. Unbidden, the young brunette scientist that was the pride and joy of the Research Division and the apple of Gin's eye came to mind, and Vermouth scowled darkly as she departed the house and made her way to the motorcycle she'd left parked on the street. Much as it galled her to admit it, the chit probably could finish developing the drug to its final stage, but even if Sherry would have been willing to work on the serum, it would be a 0 Kelvin day in Hell before Vermouth asked her for help.
When the popular and well-known high school detective Shinichi Kudo had suddenly vanished, and agents started looking into it, the official story put out from up top was that Shinichi had unwittingly stumbled upon MiB agents in action, and in attempting to erase his memory of the event in question, Gin had used an experimental memory-erasing drug and accidentally killed him. Vermouth had been in the States when she heard the news and had been beyond devastated. It couldn't be! Her Cool Guy dead?! And not even for chasing down a suspect or protecting his Angel, but for something as… stupid and inane as being in the wrong place at the wrong time and being the victim of a mere whim! Her grief had turned to cold fury and despite being on the other side of the world, she'd tracked down what drug had killed him and who had created it, then was irresponsible enough to let something that fatal be approved for field testing. She'd gotten her answer. The drug was APTX-4869 and its creator was other than Sherry. She had immediately made plans while she was in the States for what she would do to that arrogant woman once she returned to Japan, but before she could enact them, Sherry had gone.
It was so sudden and unexpected, not even her labmates knew what had happened to her and unlike with Shinichi Kudo, there was no official story to explain her absence. In the wake of lacking information from an authoritative source, the rumor mill about Headquarters had run rampant. The most popular theory regarding her seeming disappearance into thin air overnight was that Sherry had betrayed the MiB by leaking Organization secrets to outside sources and then gone into hiding to escape criminal prosecution.
Vermouth had not believed the rumor for an instant, and not just because Gin wasn't hunting her down with a vengeance. When she had personally asked the Boss for answers and he refused to discuss the nature of Sherry's fate even with her, Vermouth figured then that Sherry had been sent into hiding as a result of Akemi's murder and she was being kept in the dark because she was considered a threat to the scientist prodigy. She had all but given up on finding Sherry to pay her back for her heartless cruelty when she saw her Cool Guy at the Haido City Hotel deaged into a child and alive. Vermouth had wondered if perhaps the same had happened to Sherry and if she would find her near the only other shrunken teenager in existence.
She had always hated Sherry, ever since she sunk her claws into Gin and permanently seduced him away with her youth and innocence, but Gin supposedly killing Shinichi with that woman's untested drug was the last straw. Gin had killed her favorite, so she would kill his, and she would complete her revenge on the entire Miyano family while she was at it. Vermouth smirked to herself in fond reminiscence as the motorcycle's engine roared in her ear and the wind whipped through her hair. It was Pandora's connections that had ultimately been responsible for eliminating Akemi, but she had manipulated the twit to be in a position to be killed, so she took credit for that kill, and then Sherry should have met her end months ago by her hand at the shipping yard.
It didn't even matter to Vermouth that she'd discovered Shinichi wasn't dead; Sherry had to go. Nothing less than her corpse would bring her satisfaction and atone for the insult she'd been dealt by not being told the truth regarding Shinichi's and Sherry's fates, despite her high rank and unique position as the Boss's favorite. Then there was the score she still owed Gin for the humiliation he'd caused by him deciding to break it off with her all those years ago.
Vermouth owed both of the Miyano girls for the roles they'd played: Akemi for cutting Gin free from her influence and Sherry for stealing him away and undoing all the work she'd put into him, as well as hurting her Cool Guy. Well, Pandora had seen to it that Akemi had paid for her interference. Sherry was still owed for hers.
All aboard! Next chapter is the Raven Mystery Train! I have so much work to do on that one, I'll be lucky if I get it finished in February.
Do you know, I believe this is the first time I've actually written (and posted) Gin and Akemi interacting with each other in this story. I actually have a step-aunt who, during her college years, was in a relationship with some guy that basically wanted her to be a housewife and stay-at-home mom if they got married, so my step-grandparents, who knew their daughter better than that, had her go on a week-long vacation somewhere with no contact of any kind with him (and this was back during the age of snail mail and expensive long-distance calls, so it was easier to disconnect from technology). That was exactly what she needed to set her head on straight and she broke up with the loser after she got back.
Also, as a fun little aside, this was definitely a conversation that Gin and Vodka had on the first day they were in Kyoto with Akemi:
Gin (randomly, out of the blue): I don't eat souls.
Vodka: Huh?
Gin: I'm not going to eat your soul if I look at you.
Vodka: ... Good...?
Gin: Akemi said you were scared of me because I have green eyes and there's a lot of folklore that says green-eyed people can do magical things like that.
Vodka: Okay...
Gin: I just wanted to let you know that I can't steal souls. Or eat them. So you don't need to be scared of me.
Vodka: ... You're not good at talking about yourself, are you?
Gin: Is it that obvious?
Vodka: Painfully.
Gin: I'll work on it.
Vodka: Thanks... Aniki…