Just An Average First Grader
by NamaichiSanake

xxx

I leaned back on the seat of my car with a sigh. Slightly tilting my head to the side, I was glaring at my reflection on the window while drumming on the steering wheel with my fingers. I wordlessly noted the tired look of my features proving my lack of sleep recently. A small droplet of rain slid down on the window beneath the form of my face, its edges tainted in the colours of the night highway. Listening to the soft pattering on the roof and watching the windscreen wiper crossing my vision repeatedly, my nerves started to cool down as much as that was possible in my current situation. I finally took a deep breath and acknowledged that I was sitting in my car, behind the steering wheel and not in a patrol car with my hands cuffed. That realisation shattered the last remains of my beliefs about justice as a prosecutor. Just like my inner world was the paddle of rainwater gathering on the road, growing larger and larger in the rain until a sudden truck waded through it just to live with a metaphor.

When I chose being a prosecutor as my profession, I naively thought that I could have everything work out on the behalf of justice. I often imagined myself as someone who sheds light onto the darkest crimes and delivers justice for everyone. I had been always enthusiastic, not rarely spending days and nights with collecting evidence, information and doing all the paperwork. I was running sleepless not rarely for weeks, considering coffee my old and reliable friend—only after Tachibana-san, of course. My trustworthy secretary shared all of my beliefs and supported me throughout everything. She was a wonderful person who really understood why I hated the world.

Right, I hated the world.

I saw nothing but people betraying and using each other for their greedy aims that were usually as petty as getting a goddamn promotion or stealing a girlfriend. People killed each other because of those reasons. Each and every of my days at the court brought me closer and closer to the rottest side of human nature. I never called myself a saint, but what I had encountered in case files made even me lose faith in humanity. Even though my career as a prosecutor was skyrocketing, I felt that I was doing nothing but burning myself out there. My only salvation was the smiles of the poor victims who I managed to save from the madness of this world. I thought I could manage until that person arrived and jeopardised everything, ruining numberless lives for fame and money.

That poor excuse of a man had absolutely no speck of humanity within himself. Although I was nobody to speak so high and mighty considering how fast I managed to sink to his level. My mind was utterly empty at the question what to do now excluding my desire to ask Tachibana-san why she had covered for me without knowing a single thing, which was my very reason of getting myself stuck in the traffic jam on the highway leading towards the downtown.

"Ojisan, the lights just turned to green."

I nearly got a heart attack upon seeing a child popping his head up from god knows where and crawling unto the seat besides mine. I couldn't take a good look at him as I was forced to pay attention to the road, but as soon as I caught up with the rest of the traffic, I turned towards him. He was. . . that kid with Mouri Kogorou if I remembered correctly. I stared at him between surprise and puzzlement.

"What are you doing in my car, boya?" A wave of nervousness flooded my mind at his presence. How long had this kid been here?

He answered with an innocent smile. "I'm just curious how your office could look like. I bet you have many interesting case files there. . . Ne, what kind of cases have you dealt with so far, ojisan? Kogorou-no-ojisan told me that you were a famous prosecutor, so they must've been really important ones."

I sighed inwardly. There was no way I could discuss anything delicate with Tachibana-san if this kid was around, which meant that I had to take a detour first to drop him off at Mouri Detective Agency. I mused on the name of Mouri Kogorou—that man was the million-dollar question himself. I heard that he was a ridiculously famous private detective but never cared much about him until not long ago, when I handled one of his cases at the court. Since the case was. . . personal, I decided to do some research on the person who solved it out of mere curiosity. No matter how convinced everyone was about his skills being the real deal, I still had doubts. I simply couldn't picture someone solving cases while sleeping in my head. He didn't even fall asleep this time and I was still walking around as a free man. That person seemed nothing more but a conceited idiot by first glance, but that didn't explain either how he figured out those unbelievably complicated crimes other times.

"—san. Are you alright, ojisan? It's dangerous to daze off while driving."

I blinked at the warning. Something like that sounded strange from the mouth of such a young child. ". . . yes, I just wondered a bit. Sorry, but my office is off hands. It's getting late; probably my secretary had already locked the room."

Not to mention this kid. He was messing around the corpse as if such a gruesome sight was an everyday experience for him. Though considering the amount of cases the assumed sleeping detective had dealt with, that might was actually true—I shivered. I couldn't even begin to imagine what could be going on in that small head of his.

My curiosity got the better of me. "Are you interested in cases, boya?"

He nodded. "I always follow Kogorou-no-ojisan wherever he goes to work. Last month we travelled to Yokohama. There was a murder case there, I think the victim was. . . Itou Daichi-san. Kogorou-no-ojisan solved that case in blink of eye, it was amazing."

I tightened my grip on the steering wheel at the mention of that incident. The boy was talking about the only case of Mouri Kogorou that I had dealt with at the court, and the one where the victim was my own brother. My determination to have the culprit get his rightful punishment for what he had done to my relative was implicit. According to the police, the case was so complicated that the culprit would have been never caught if not for Mouri Kogorou—he actually fell asleep that time.

"I know you're hiding something, ojisan." His childish tone switched into a lot darker one so suddenly that it gave me scare. "Megure-keibu made a background investigation on all the suspects. According to that, you took up the name Aizawa two years ago, just when you got your first job in Tokyo. Before you started working as a prosecutor, you lived in the countryside with your relatives. You also graduated from Toutou University five years ago. Now, I only had to make some phone calls and put everything together. Aizawa Akira-san, your real name is Itou Akira and you're the brother of Itou Daichi, the victim of the Yokohama case."

I had to restrain myself from having my mouth hanging agape. Everything was correct—he got everything right. This kid saw instantly through the cover I had been building for years. My family didn't have the best of reputations and I thought that would hinder my work as a prosecutor so I decided to conceal my roots. Of course, that didn't mean that I hated my family—when Daichi was killed I was beyond furious. I just. . . was rather not being correlated to them on daily basis.

There was just no freaking way. The child sitting beside me was a first grader. He wasn't even supposed to be able to tie his own shoes yet—there had to be something else behind his mature behaviour. My first guess was that he had been acting on instructions from. . . from who? The police? They would never use a child like this. I had no idea what was going on and that fact creeped me out. I realised that even my hands had gotten sweaty from anxiety.

I decided to put the kid through a test. ". . . I admit that my original name is Itou Akira. Does it matter anyways?"

"You don't even know how much." He chuckled as he fetched his phone from his pocket. Wait a second, are kids of his age supposed to have their own phones? "I looked into what happened in the aftermath of the Yokohama case. The incident was admitted to the court here in Tokyo. The prosecutor was you, Itou-san. And the lawyer on the defensive side was Hiramoto Shinji-san, the victim of the current case. Despite the solid evidences against the culprit, the judge loosened the punishment due to unknown reasons. There were suspicions that the lawyer had bribed the judge, but nobody could gather evidence to prove that. Considering that the deceased victim of the Yokohama case was your brother, the incident more than likely gave you a personal interest."

The realisation hit me hard—this wasn't an act. The child was browsing on his phone with a deadly cold expression while reading out the information like his homework at school. The lights of the small screen were reflecting on his too large glasses, hiding away his eyes. That was no normal child. The way he was slowly but surely leading me towards a dead end and cornering me with confident steps was enough to give me goose bumps. I felt that my secrets were nothing but an opened book for him to read.

"You didn't really want to see my office, right, boya?" I asked with repressed nervousness. It was clear that he suspected me for murdering Hiramoto Shinji.

He suddenly paused and looked me straight in the eye. That confident gaze beneath those spectacles told me everything instantly. That child-like existence sitting beside me wasn't suspecting me. He knew perfectly that I was the culprit.

He simply ignored my filler question as he proceeded to reveal my crime. "You were positive about his guilt but could do nothing to stop Hiramoto-san. If you let everything continue this way, the culprit who killed your brother would've gotten away with some insignificant punishment. Therefore, you decided to turn to methods that are more drastic. You visited Hiramoto-san on his house secretly and murdered him. Since the heat was off in the block of flats due to some failures, it was cold enough for everyone to wear coat and gloves inside; therefore, the forensics couldn't find any fingerprints at all. Your alibi was also just a trick. Your secretary, Tachibana Reiko-san was your accomplice who covered for you—"

"—Tachibana-san has nothing to do with this!" I was gripping the steering wheel so hard that my knuckles turned white.

His smooth voice was so convincing that for some seconds even I believed his words. I've only encountered this kind of talk in the court. I glanced towards him again—that kid had apparently no idea about his true abilities. Although he was just a human child. . . probably. No matter how impressively he unfolded the case, even he couldn't see the whole truth. I was simply collecting evidence. I never went to the apartment of Hiramoto Shinji with the will to kill him, neither asked Tachibana-san to be my accomplice. I would never plan to take a life, especially not with using others meanwhile. But it was already too late. My sudden outburst needed explanation and I might as well as confess at this point. That kid already knew enough to alert the police. Any more resistance would be used against me in the court—that was goddamn ironic.

"This wasn't the first time Hiramoto Shinji had bribed the judge. As a prosecutor, I soon became aware of his doing but could never get enough evidence on him to prove his guilt. I could do nothing but watching while he was winning case after case illegally and earning incredulous amounts of money from the culprits who he had defended. I was utterly helpless in the situation and it was slowly driving me mad—" My expression darkened.

He looked ready to snap. "And you killed him because of that?!"

"I never intended to kill him!" I negotiated. That was where he was wrong. "I went to his apartment to gather evidence against him but when I arrived he was already drunk. We started talking and I was carefully leading the conversation on my accords. When we got to the case of my brother, he recklessly admitted that he was playing dirty. However, that talk soon turned out more than I had ever bargained for. He said that he was purposefully defending people who he knew were guilty, because they payed numerous times more money than regular clients. His business was even making profit despite the fact that he sent the bribes from that money too."

I needed to calm down for the next part. It would do nothing good if I lost my mind just like back then. I apparently could take a life out of rage, thus I didn't want to imagine what could I do with this child if I snapped. Hiramoto was more than enough; I didn't want to hurt him too. I exhaled deeply while feeling the stern gaze of the kid on me urging to continue. We had already reached the downtown meanwhile and were driving around in the night streets between the skyscrapers.

"That person purposefully intended to let the murderer from Yokohama get the lightest possible punishment. His reason was his hatred towards me. He was annoyed by my conceited attitude in the court—that I thought that law was always fair and acted on that belief. He was trying to shatter me by letting a murderer get away. I. . . don't really know what happened afterwards. I sanity slipped and when I came to it, Hiramoto was dead on the floor. I was panicking. I took some of his clothes and changed into them before running away. I was about to turn myself in the next day, but then the police came to my house with the news that I don't have to worry because my secretary confirmed my alibi. I had no idea why Tachibana-san covered for me but I knew that if I was caught, she would be treated as an accomplice. I didn't want to drag her into this—"

His features stirred. ". . . then why?" I heard the soft murmuring.

"I don't know either. I came to the downtown in the first place to ask her." I admitted.

His sharp gaze wandered off to the door on his side. More precisely to the small accumulative under the handle where I usually stuff the waste into that I produce in the car. I could still recognise the paper of that chocolate Tachibana-san had bought me yesterday. He slowly reached for it and unfolded crumpled paper. I blinked curiously—what did a thrown away chocolate paper have to do with my case? I didn't remember the small note with some strange script on it he discovered amongst the red wrappings. His lips curved into a sad smile as he showed the paper to me.

Je t'aime

I was utterly and completely defeated by those two words. Suddenly, everything made much more sense yet screamed a painful truth underneath it all. How couldn't I realised her feelings sooner? I inwardly cursed my stupidity and ignorance towards the emotions of the person I supposed to stand the closest. I wished with my all being that the past two days would just disappear as if they never existed. I wished I could answer her feelings, as I would really like. A single teardrop flew down on my cheek but I covered my face instantly to hide my weakness. And that kid was still staring at me as if he could understand my turmoil.

"You can reciprocate her feelings once you return." He said with darkened eyes.

We were just two corners from my office. I originally planned to take a detour to Mouri Detective Agency but this child had averted my attention so much that I automatically drove to my place. Not like that really mattered at this point. He knew both about Tachibana-san and me even more than we did about ourselves. Girdled by the darkness of the night and covered by his unnatural behaviour, it was so easy to forget that he was just a child, or at least his body certainly was. If I really wanted, I could just toss him out of the car and continue my life now together with Tachibana-san without any further ado.

"Answer me this last question, boya." I asked in a calm manner as formed a gun from my fingers and pointed at his head. I didn't actually know what I was playing at with this stunt. A part of me probably wanted to scare the boy just to make sure that he was actually human, while another was curious about his reaction. I could also find something in myself that wanted to warn him that many other culprits wouldn't have any problems with actually silencing him in a situation like this. "Now what would you do?"

He reached for his watch and popped up the glass in the top. I could recognise a dart pattern on it as I was put in the target point. I had absolutely no idea what that gadget was, but apparently he considered it equal to a gun. "Besides, I don't really suggest you doing something like that now." He gestured forward.

My chin dropped at the sight. The road in front of my office was completely blocked off by patrol cars, preventing any escape attempts from my side. I could even recognise the plump inspector of the first division standing on the front with an obviously concerned gaze in his eyes. My mind quickly put it together whom the worry was for. I snapped my head to the side to see that person grinning widely as if he had just gotten a good mark in school.

"When did you—?" I muttered those words before I could've realised it.

He sheepishly took out another phone from his clothes and showed me who was on the line. My eyes widened in realisation. "Actually, Kogorou-no-ojisan figured out everything already but didn't have any evidence against you. Therefore, he sent me here to have you confess. He probably thought that you would lower your guard in front of the kid. I called Megure-keibu when I sneaked into your car and the police had been listening to every word here since then."

That was when I gave up everything. I was defeated in every possible way tonight and accepting my fate was a lot easier and remunerative than hopelessly fighting further. I pulled up my car besides the inspector and lowered the window. I registered the child silently slipping out through the door opened to a gap.

"Aizawa Akira-san, you're under arrest for murder. Now, come to the station without resistance." The inspector told.

A couple of second later, I was being escorted to one of the patrol cars by two other officers. However, something still didn't make sense in my mind. The inspector was clearly worried about that child and Mouri Kogorou was nowhere to be seen in the first place. If that detective really solved the case beforehand, why didn't he just fall asleep as any other time? It was just a crime made out of sheer rage and I didn't really bother to clean up behind myself. I bet a genius like him could've found evidence if he really wanted. Why did he send a child into the line of fire, then? How could the police agree with this?

I could still see him standing next to the inspector, leaning to the patrol car with his hands in his pockets just as if he had all the rights to be there. I cleared my throat to ask one more question from him, the one that had been bugging me since the moment he appeared in my car.

"Just who are you, boya?"

He answered with a mysterious smirk I thought I would never forget. "Edogawa Conan. . . just an average first grader."