Chapter 5: A Callback
Conan made his way back down to the first floor where Mouri Ran and her friend Suzuki Sonoko were talking to the police. To his surprise, Ran had tears in the corners of her eyes and Inspector Nakamori himself was there, not running off in search of KID like Conan would have expected. 'I guess it has been long enough that he'd figure KID already flew off and is gone, but what's wrong with Ran?' He raced forward and pulled lightly at his childhood friend's skirt hem to get her attention. "Ran-neesan, what is it, what happened?"
She looked down, startled, and relief flooded her features. "C-Conan-kun!" She bent down and engulfed him in a tight hug. "Where have you been?! I was so worried! Some people said they heard gunshots on the roof and the police found bullet holes up there, I thought you'd gotten yourself in trouble again!"
Conan gaped. "Ah, I'm sorry, it's okay, I was with KID-san!" He assured her. "Nothing bad could happen to me if I was with him right?"
Ran pulled back and looked at him, wiping the tears from her eyes. "I-I guess so, just don't scare me like that! Always running off, jeez."
"Once a brat always a brat," Sonoko commented from the side. "I told you not to worry about him though, since I saw him going with KID-sama earlier."
"If you chased that thief, did you see what happened on the roof?" Inspector Nakamori asked in a serious tone.
'What should I say?' Conan wondered. KID had just gotten done warning him not to expose himself, so he really shouldn't mention having seen the actual gunman, especially since it was too dark to see any details of the man's appearance anyway. If word got out that he'd witnessed something he could become a target and his information wouldn't be that useful anyway since the man was cast in shadows from where he was standing.
"I heard the gunshots too, but I didn't see anything. KID-san knew I was following him and came back down from the roof before I could make it up there. He grabbed me in the stairwell and told me to stay in an empty storage room for ten minutes before coming out, then he left through a window on the 5th floor." It was mostly true, and a few white lies to protect himself wouldn't hurt anyone. "Why, has this happened before? I thought there usually aren't guns at these heists," Conan asked in an extra childish voice, trying to take on an air of innocent curiosity.
Like other officers, Inspector Nakamori fell for it and began sharing information without really considering what he was doing. "Well, there have been times in the past that we found evidence of gunshots and people heard suspicious noises, it seems like someone might be trying to kill KID, but we haven't been able to get a description of who or figure out why a non-violent thief like KID would be a repeat target like this…." His voice trailed off, concern obviously painted all over his face.
'This guy can't hide his feelings at all,' Conan thought with some amusement. 'Aren't you supposed to be trying to catch KID? Well, like I'm one to talk anyway with how I've been acting tonight….'
The Inspector looked down at the boy and, seeing him, was pulled back out of his internal thoughts and seemed to remember who he was talking to. "Ah, but that doesn't matter to you, you should go home with your sister already! No one has gotten hurt yet and KID seems to be the only target of these shootings, but don't go chasing him on your own anymore alright?! And if you see anything suspicious next time let us know IMMEDIATELY, GOT IT?!"
Conan flinched back at his volume, the Inspector returning to his usual boisterous habits. "She's not my sister…." Conan grumbled to himself before, in a clearer voice, saying "okay, I won't do anything alone next time, thanks!" He grabbed Ran's hand and began to pull her away. "Let's go home!"
Ran nodded and Sonoko followed them, soon leading them out to the chauffeur she had prepared to take them home.
When they arrived back at the Mouri Detective Agency, Ran was upset to find her father passed out drunk in front of the little TV on his desk. "Agh, Otou-san, is this the important work you didn't want to miss out on that you skipped the heist for? We could of really used your help tonight!" She scolded, but Kogoro was out like a light, mumbling something about 'Yoko-chan' in his sleep.
'That guy wouldn't have been able to help us anyway,' Conan thought. 'Heh, it's better that he stayed here to watch that new Okino Yoko special, he would've just gotten in the way.'
Conan made a show of yawning and stretching. "I'm going to bed, goodnight Ran-neesan!" He called out to her. She paused in her cleaning up of beer cans long enough to wish him a good night before he headed up to the room he shared with Mouri Kogoro. He pulled out his futon, changed into his sleepwear, and promptly passed out, tired from that night's chase.
When it was well and late, after Ran had carried her father to bed and gone to sleep herself, Conan sat up in his bed. He quietly moved out of the room he shared with the Sleeping Sleuth and checked to ensure Ran was asleep. Confirming that she was, he then made his way to the small downstairs bathroom, the one usually used for clients and guests, and locked the door after entering. He pulled out his phone, specifically the one designated for Shinichi, not Conan, and dialed back the last number that had called.
It took a while, but eventually a groggy voice picked up. "Why are you calling me, I'm sleeping-" Yusaku complained.
"It's 11:00am over there, stop sleeping in so late then you old man," Conan snarked. [5]
"But I was up so late last night when I called you, and it's late where you are right now too. Forget it though, what is it? How did things go? I really wasn't expecting to hear back from you."
"I thought you might want to know, since you bothered staying up late to call me before. At that time, you said you thought your KID would ask for help when he really needed it, but he didn't." Conan smirked. "It seems I'm not the only one learning from the past. This new KID, my KID, he talks to me when he needs to. He's asked for help before, he may seem like he thinks he can do anything but he knows his limits. How could he not be careful with something like that after what happened to the last one?"
Yusaku hummed. "I suppose that's true. Those two really look and seem alike, but they are different people after all aren't they?"
Shinichi nodded. "Yeah. I don't really know what yours was like, but even if you warn me not to, I still trust this one. How can I not after everything that's happened? At the end of the day, history doesn't always repeat itself. I don't know how things will end yet, but if I don't treat him like a capable person who can help me then I know it won't go well."
"Alright, alright, I get it. This old man will stop meddling in your young-people affairs right?" Yusaku laughed.
Shinichi shook his head. "Well…. Thanks for calling anyway. I did learn a few things because of that conversation we had, even if you gave such lousy advice in the end."
"Youth are always so ungrateful to their wise elders these days," Yusaku complained. "Back in my day we-"
"KUDO YUSAKU IS THAT OUR SON ON THE PHONE?!" The furious voice of Kudo Yukiko burst through the conversation, making Conan quickly separate the phone from his ear to avoid bursting an ear drum.
"Oh, honey, ah, I was just-"
"Hand me the phone, I want to talk to him! Why didn't you tell me he was on the phone?!" She snatched the device from her husband's hand. When she spoke again the venomous fury in her voice had been replaced by a sweet and gentle smile. "Shin-chan, my little man! How are you? Isn't it late, what are you doing up at this time? Growing boys need their proper rest you know!"
"Ah, mom, I was just going back to bed right now so I'll talk to you later ok? Bye…." He hastily tried to end their conversation but the previous fury in his mother's voice leaked back in as she quickly spoke up.
"Shinichi if you don't start calling me more often I'll go back there myself and drag you home with me you hear?" Her voice was soft but deadly.
"Ah, yeah, yeah, I'll call I'll call," Shinichi quickly assured.
"Promise?" Yukiko pleaded.
Conan sighed. "Yeah, okay, I promise."
Yukiko clapped a hand to one of her cheeks cheerfully. "Great, I'll send you our new phone number in a few days so make sure you call me again! Goodnight Shin-chan, pleasant dreams~!"
Conan quickly hung up the phone and sighed heavily, putting the phone away and yawning widely. He still needed a lot more sleep if he wanted to recover from all the emotional trauma of the last day, not to mention all the running around he'd done. He snuck back up to his bed and promptly fell asleep again.
Yusaku sent his wife a questioning look as she hung up the phone, but didn't hand it back to him immediately. He almost didn't want to ask, but he had to know…. "Why do you have to send him a new number later? What's wrong with this one?"
Yukiko smiled and held up the phone, revealing that she'd just sent a text to a long list of contacts. Yusaku paled, recognizing the list as being the numbers of all his publishers. "Next time you talk to our son, make sure you tell me so I can speak with him too yeah? Don't keep our precious time with him all to yourself!" Within moments the phone began to buzz continuously with dozens of calls and texts.
Yusaku grabbed the phone back and mumbled. "Darn, there goes another one then." He strolled into their large Western-style kitchen, dropped the phone into the high-grade garbage disposal in their sink, and turned it on. There was a horrible crushing and churning sound as the phone was ground up. Next he opened a wide flat drawer there in the kitchen and picked out a new phone from a line of ten others, all brand new and unused.
"Don't forget to text Shinichi the new number, I'm going out to lunch with Chikage, bye~" Yukiko waved cheerfully as she grabbed her purse and exited the house, leaving her husband to fend for himself and find his own meal.
Yusaku sighed. "Damn, I must have really taken a wrong turn at some point." How did his life end up this way?
Still, in retrospect, he didn't have many regrets. In fact, for the first time since that incident eight years ago, maybe he felt he didn't regret trusting that magician back then either. Like his sone had been saying, what had his options been really? To not trust his own friend in spite of everything they'd been through together?
Even if it had ended badly, he did the right thing back then. To believe in someone even if life goes wrong is hard, but it has to be done. He still didn't think he could have picked a better person to trust than that kind-hearted young father he used to know.
~*~ 終わり | The End ~*~
[5] For the time zones I use Japan Standard Time for Conan and Pacific Daylight Time for the Kudos in America (I theorize they're on West coast USA somewhere: It's said in canon that Chikage is at least sometimes in Las Vegas and I've heard others say the Kudos might be in Los Angeles, but either way those two cities share the same time zone so I never decided exactly where they are haha). I kept this consistent for the story, beginning to end. In the beginning, Yukiko mentions Yusaku being up late because it's around 3am in America when he calls Shinichi. This means it's 7pm in Japan at that time, which is an hour before the heist is set to start (8pm). At the end of the story I do the opposite: Conan makes the call at 3am Japanese time, which equates to 11am for Yusaku. (I don't mention things like days of the week because it doesn't matter and it's slightly confusing lol.) Whoever said "don't sweat the small stuff," to you, I say thee nay! I will sweat all the small things! Unless I don't, in which case I won't! x'D
That's it for this sudden little story! (At least as far as I know for now, haha.) I hope you enjoyed it, thanks for reading! If you have a moment, reviews are much appreciated so please consider leaving me one, and thanks to everyone who has reviewed, I adore reading them!
See you in our next adventure~! :D