The Darkness Inside
Chapter 6 Disguises, disguises
"I can't believe that, Ran-chan. Those guys, that's unbelievable!" Aoko expressed sourly. She was currently on her phone, connected to Ran and watching from a distance how Hattori and Edogawa were following the girl.
"Hattori-kun said he had something to discuss with Conan-kun which was impossible to do so over the phone. That's why he's here. And Kazuha-chan never found out Hattori-kun left. I guess he left her behind so they could trail after me without anyone interrupting them. Or maybe they are trying to find out about us and Kazuha-chan may interfere again."
Aoko was following the group on the other side of the street. She was thankful that they were walking on a rather crowded street but that made things quite hard, as well. Ran had called her to announce that she probably wouldn't make it again because she found those two following her. They must be thinking they were discreet – well, they were not. Or maybe Ran was already so tuned to them that she simply knew when they were following her and when not. To be exact, she felt their eyes on her back all the time and wondered if they actually wanted her to know. Either way, at least she could shake them off and make sure they didn't follow her any further.
"You also need to check for bugs before we meet, Ran-chan. I know that Kaito tends to bug my father if he wants to find out about something. I'm honestly so surprised that Otou-san never noticed – with him being keibu and all."
Ran chuckled slightly. "Well, say no more. I even don't want to start about my father. Honestly."
Aoko grinned and ducked, when Hattori glanced her way. She was sure that he didn't notice her, she was too far away, mingling with the crowd, listening and talking over earphone. He didn't know her, there was no way he'd be able to single her out. But still, there was no need for him to notice her, after all. Or Conan for that matter. Conan was maybe even worse because he was living here while Hattori was only visiting for a short while – a day or two, hopefully not any more.
"Well, we could also use the time and start discussing things. Just keep walking. There'll come a crosswalk and we'll meet. You'll have to turn right."
"Alright. So, did you manage to find out about the IDs?"
"Well, not really. I'm still rather certain that it's ID numbers and that would even fit because we need a hit list – or rather, they do. And those would be the seven victims. I bet it's four guys and three women but it could be the other way around."
"Because of those three numbers which were the same in all the cases?"
"Un, exactly. There were just two variations, it would make sense. Also, it'd make a lot of sense to encode the gender into the ID number. Also, I think I found out how the last three numbers are put together. I think it's mostly the check digits – the same you have on credit cards. So, the last three would be that. The letters could be places. Maybe the places the people were born. T could stand for Tokyo and OS maybe Osaka. I could be wrong, though. It could simply be just letters. And the first six digits – I think those are just random numbers."
"Hm, you know, weirdly enough, when I saw that one ID which was slightly different than the rest, I couldn't help but think that DTSX stood for detectives. Stupid, isn't it?" Ran laughed.
Aoko froze and her mind started racing. That's it! "You're a genius, Ran-chan. I never looked into profession IDs. Since they are all the same, I think we have seven people from the same company. Now, we just have to find out what company they are from."
"But, there are a lot companies, Aoko-chan. And how are we going to get their IDs?"
"Ah, well, don't worry about that, Ran-chan. I have my ways."
"Oh no no no, you're not doing that, Aoko-chan. Don't leave me out! How will you get them?"
Aoko sighed but couldn't help but smile in sympathy. "Google, mostly. But if google cannot give me any reasonable results, I could break in somewhere. You know, it's to save people. I don't do it because I want to harm someone."
"Googling is fine but I don't like the rest, Aoko-chan. Breaking in is still a crime."
"Yes, but sometimes it's justified."
"You do know that if we ever got caught we might land in prison?"
"That's why we won't get caught. Easy as that."
"I don't like it, Aoko-chan. Not one itsy bitsy tiny bit. Got it? But before you do something stupid, you tell me and let me help you, got it?"
"Aye aye sir – I mean madam, sir!" Both started laughing and that was their cue for Ran to turn off her phone and cross the street.
Aoko was wearing some rather baggy jeans, a dark hoodie and a baseball cap on her head with her hair inside of the cap so that no one would immediately associate her with being a girl. Taking the earphones out, she put her phone into her pocket. Last time her blond wig had stood out too much and she didn't know how to properly disguise, so this had to do for now. At least until she consulted with Chikage-san and had her teach her all about the art of disguising. They'd need it, Aoko was sure. And there was no way she could ask Kaito – partly because he'd ask why and she couldn't give him a reasonable answer and mostly because he wouldn't teach her either way. He'd say it's too much trouble, he might insult her with one of his guy comments and then he'd just leave her.
Chikage-san, though, she'd never reject such a request. She knew that the woman was rather smitten with her and she could never say no to her, not when it was a profession she was an expert in.
Watching, how Conan and Hattori followed after Ran, she realized they needed to hurry and learn how to disguise and they needed to do it well or they wouldn't get things done anymore. Of course, they couldn't keep following them 24/7 but then again, she wouldn't put it past those two guys, especially after what Ran told her about them.
Ran started walking a few steps ahead of her and Aoko fell in step next to her. They both entered the shop to their right which had eight floors (as planned) and they took the elevator to the highest. Of course, they only pushed the fourth button once they were inside and the elevator had already started moving. The boys would take the stairs and probably run high up. That would give the two friends the opportunity to slip through their hands.
Thankfully, there were no visual displays so that no one knew where the elevator was at.
Leaving the metal box, they quickly went for the other corner of the room and hid behind a manga bookshelf. They heard their footsteps, heard their cursing and how they ran for the higher floors. Things went just as planned and the two girls left for the stairs. Peeking around the corner, they couldn't see anyone and hurriedly made their way down.
Once they were back on the streets, they followed the street until the next crossroad and started walking in a cross path to shake them off, if they still managed to follow the girls.
Aoko grinned. "Isn't that fun, Ran-chan?"
Ran looked at her with the same stupid grin on her face. She'd not seen her that elated before. It made her even happier because after last time with Ran breaking down, she'd felt extremely guilty. She had wanted to call it all off but there was no way, not anymore. But now – seeing her shine like that, made the heavy feeling go away a little.
"It's exciting. I never knew running away from someone would be this much fun."
Suddenly, Aoko stiffened and quickly pushed Ran against the wall of the building. She got close to her so that it would look like she was about to kiss her, well a guy kissing a girl – which was probably worse than had they simply continued walking because showing any kind of affection in public was a definite no no and yet, it was the only thing Aoko could come up on the spot.
Her cheeks colored a slight rose hue and Ran blushed heavily, having both their bodies pressed rather rightly together. They felt their chests rise and fall, breathing heavily. Ran was watching her with wide, startled eyes but there was not one bit indisposition in her posture.
When a moment past, Aoko chanced a half glance behind her and found the danger continue walking.
Letting out a breath she didn't know she was holding, she let go of Ran, took her hand and hurriedly pulled her along.
"Wa-wait, Aoko-chan. What just happened?"
To be honest, Aoko didn't know. She couldn't even tell what Ran was referring to. The reason she pressed her to the wall? Or the warm feeling in her chest, making her heart race inside her chest when she started drowning in those blue blue eyes (not azure, not like Kaito's, they were darker, more like sapphire).
It was probably just the heat of the situation. It must be all the excitement. But if Ran was a guy Aoko was sure she'd fall in love with her immediately.
"There was Kaito. He would have recognized me. He always does, especially, since he's the master of disguise. We most likely wouldn't have been able to shake him off."
"Ah, alright."
Ran's hand felt warm in her hand. She had soft hands. Aoko had read books where soft hands were a trait for girls but she knew that Kaito had soft hands, too. He had quick fingers, magician's hands. She wondered why she was noticing all these things.
"Let's hope they won't be able to track us here. Is your phone turned off? I think we need to buy some cheap phones with a prepaid card so that we can actually get in touch without anyone being able to track us."
Ran looked at her like a deer caught in headlight and Aoko chuckled slightly. "I wonder when my mind got so criminal."
Ran shook her head and started smiling. "Ah well, it's not that it's criminal. It's just something I probably wouldn't have come up with."
"No, that's not it. Until a few months ago I probably wouldn't have thought about it, either but you know, having an internationally wanted criminal as your best friend just does that to you."
Ran sighed. "I guess I can call myself lucky that my best friend just got shrunk, huh?"
They both exchanged a look and started laughing until their bodies hurt. It wasn't even funny. It was rather sad, really, but maybe it was better to laugh it off than to cry sad tears about it.
When they tried to get themselves back under control and wiping away their tears, they took out their papers.
"Well then, back to business. Here, I printed out today's message. I think we finally got a location. If I'm not wrong it's coordinates."
"Yes, I even think I know what place it is. We had this game with Shinichi once and there were the very same numbers. It was coordinates for the Asakasa Palace."
Aoko took out the atlas she took from home and looked up the coordinates. But she couldn't find anything.
"There is a system behind it, Aoko-chan. 001 stands for north and 002 is east. The numbers are separated by the first one which is not in the second position. When you apply this system then it perfectly fits."
Aoko did what Ran told her and couldn't believe her eyes. The coordinates showed the exact position of the Asakasa Palace.
"Wow, that's incredible. It would have taken me forever to find out about this, Ran-chan."
Ran smiled happily and nodded. "I'm glad Shinichi taught me this. It was one of his stupid games we used to play. For once, the knowledge paid off."
"Alright. We have a list of targets and we have the place. There is only one last unknown factor left. Next time we should meet somewhere with computers and internet so we can look things up. We should google what people will arrive and what events will be taking place. Maybe once we know the event we'll find out what kind of people will attend and find out about the IDs that way."
Ran nodded. "Yes, that sounds logical. Have you thought what we're going to do, once we know who is targeted? Will we tell them? Or will we make them stay at home?"
Aoko sighed. "That's a good question. Wouldn't it be suspicious if those people suddenly declined the invitations or faked an illness or something like that?"
"Also, I don't want you to break into the Asakasa Palace, Aoko-chan. How will we even get the plans for that building?"
"I'm sure there will be something on the internet and if not then we just have to find out where it's archived."
"And then what – steal it?"
"No, of course, not! We'll just borrow it for a while until we can make a copy for ourselves and then we give it back. It's technically not stealing if you're giving it back."
"Are you sure your father is keibu? Because you sure don't act like the daughter of one. Or is this that influence of your friend? Just because he is criminal, doesn't mean it's alright for you, too, Aoko-chan."
"Hai, hai. It's just that we don't have a choice, Ran-chan. It's either this, doing things half illegally and be prepared or go in unprepared and possibly get everyone killed. Which is worse?"
"But breaking in? Come on, Aoko-chan, I disapprove of it."
Aoko sighed. "Well, how else are we supposed to get things done? Look, I'm fine doing things on my own, honestly. Maybe my world is a little darker than yours and maybe it's fine that way."
"No! I – even if I oppose this idea, I still cannot let you do this alone. I – will think of something. Just – don't do anything stupid! Please, Aoko-chan. There is this friend of mine who got shrunk – shrunk! I'm not going through that again!"
Aoko chuckled. "Hai, hai. Won't do anything stupid, promise, or at least I'll have you as backup, alright?"
Ran groaned and placed her head into her hands in exasperation.
"Anyway, we need to start planning. What do we need to do, Ran-chan? First of all, we need a safe communication platform. Some cheap throw away phones would be nice. We'll only keep our numbers and only contact each other through them. Do we tell our friends about each other? I mean someone might start asking questions who we are meeting and maybe we should keep the lies to a minimum."
"Yes, I hate lying. I already told Shinichi that we met at the station once and kind of hit it off from there on out. We should stick to that lie. I mean, it's only half a lie, really. I'm sure we met at the station some time we just didn't know each other back then. And we did hit it off, so it's not that much of a lie."
"Yes, that's good. We can tell them that we're doing homework together which is the truth, as well. We can do homework during every meeting and then it'll never be a lie, we'll just omit the whole truth."
Ran nodded in relief. "I can live with that."
"Good, so phones it is, no more lies than necessary. We'll have people know that we're meeting because we like spending time and doing homework together. This could work."
Ran smiled. "I'm starting to really like this whole thing. I had some issues with all the lies, I'm really bad at lying, honestly, but it's actually fun."
Aoko noticed how Ran deliberately left out the part about all the lives that were at stake – but it was the only way the pressure wasn't crushing their shoulders.
"So far so good. Let me take care of the communication thing, Aoko-chan. We can get new phones in addition but I think I have something even better in mind. I'll also look into what events will take place in the Asakasa Palace. You keep decoding the IDs, we'll need to know who we need to protect if we cannot warn them."
"Right. I'll get my hands on a plan of the building so we can get comfortable with it. Also, I'd advise to try and get invitations on some events taking place there, just to ease your conscience. If we have invitations, we can freely and legally roam the premises."
Ran flushed slightly. "Geez, making this just about me. You should be thankful instead that I'm keeping you out of prison. If you are risk I'm reason."
"How fitting but I think you're right. You are definitely more reasonable than I." Aoko laughed in amusement. "Though, I don't know what to think about it. Well, whatever. Your plan's sound. Once we are accustomed to our surroundings in the Palace we'll need to stake out our targets, get to know them, their behavior, the reason why they would get targeted. I think seven is a good number, a manageable one. Hopefully, we'll know soon how much time we have and can plan accordingly. If we have some months it'll be enough time to prepare for everything."
"Does your everything entail a plan to get rid of the bombs? I still don't know what to do about those. What are we going to do if there really will be bombs? I could knock out anyone we find suspicious and maybe lock them up but if those bombs are sharp, what are we going to do about them? I – " Ran shook her head, suddenly a pain in her eyes Aoko's never seen before. "I've disarmed a bomb before but I've had instructions and – "
Aoko was honestly surprised how much this girl had suffered in just 17 years.
"I've rather not go through that again. I had nightmares for months."
"I understand. I actually don't have a plan yet. Maybe it would be best to stop them from planting those bomb but I'm not sure if it's not too dangerous. Sure, you could fight them, I could knock them out somehow, maybe, but as long as we don't know how many there will be or how many backup plans they have I think it's rather stupid to ourselves to them. We are the targets' trump card. We cannot waste that."
Ran kept silent and Aoko sighed. "But we'll find a solution to this. I think we should not let it come to it. Simple as that, we won't have to disarm anything and no one will get hurt."
"Or we could simply evacuate the building, right? That way, even if the bombs exploded, only the building would get destroyed, which, honestly, would be bad enough but at least no one would get hurt, right?"
"Right. We'll just need to find a way to have the building evacuated. I'm sure there'll will be safety measures, there always are, but we need to make sure, everyone gets out on time. We – " Aoko swallowed. "I guess this is harder than anticipated, after all. We'll have to make sure everyone leaves. How are we going to guarantee that? We'd also have to have found the bombs and know the time, time will be of essence. We'll need to know in advance where they'll place the bombs so we can start planning timing."
Ran frowned. "I was wrong. I don't like this, after all."
Aoko huffed. "Well, one thing at a time. We will get to this later. First we really need to know how much time we have. This is of essence even now. Preparation is everything, Ran-chan. As for preparation, you need to be incredibly careful with those detectives around you. They are much too nosey for my taste but whatever. I'll have a disguising course arranged. We both need to know how to disguise properly."
Ran bit her lip. "I think I know someone who could help us with that, as well. But she's barely in Japan and might ask questions."
"Ah, don't worry about that. Chikage-san is perfect for the job. I'm sure she won't ask too many questions and anyway we should prepare some lies beforehand so we'll be in sync."
Ran sighed. Again with the lies but Aoko couldn't help it. As long as this whole thing stayed a secret between the two of them, lies were of crucial importance.
"Alright. Then that's how we'll proceed. I just hope things will turn out fine, Aoko-chan. We don't have anything besides a bunch of numbers. In worst case we're actually wrong and those numbers aren't coordinates but something else entirely and I don't know what to do then. Don't you think, this is somehow way too easy? Would they really communicate like this? Don't you think this is too suspicious?"
Aoko tilted her head. "Yeah. It sounds more like a thought up case. Maybe it is. Unless we find out what the numbers really mean, we won't know for sure. But you know, ID numbers are never public and that means that if those are correct, someone went to great lengths to get their hands on it. It seems to like too much trouble for a joke, for some game. Well, and if it is, it's even better for us since we'll be prepared and nothing will happen."
"But what if we fail? What it something goes wrong? What if we got the location wrong and somewhere else will be bombed?"
Aoko shook her head. "We cannot think like that, we absolutely mustn't. Besides, I promise to check and double check everything. Maybe we can think of a way to have that detective of yours verify our results without him getting suspicious. If he concludes the same things we'll have to be correct, right?"
"I – ", Ran stopped and looked down at her hands. "I don't know if I want Shinichi to know anything about it. But – how can I be so selfish? You are right. It would be the best course of action, the wisest decision to have him look over our results and verify them. It's just – I –", Ran kept looking down in shame, her hands shaking slightly. "Asking him is like giving, like admitting failure, admitting that he was right after all and we cannot do anything without him. Even if it is just verifying. I don't think I could take it if we were wrong and he'd tell us so much."
Aoko grabbed Ran's hands and squeezed slightly. She didn't just see the conflict inside of Ran, she felt it. "We won't fail. We won't be wrong. And we'll most certainly not have someone tell us better. We'll be just fine."
"How can you be so sure, Aoko-chan. How – I mean it's people on line, right? How can you sleep at night, Aoko-chan? Because I can't. Shinichi's words keep haunting me like bugs haunt the light and it's driving me crazy and if this keeps up I won't be able to continue this one more second."
Pressing her lips in a thin line, Aoko watched with a growing ache in her chest.
"I'm tired and I'm scared. I have so many doubts and even if Shinichi never doubted me aloud, I cannot help but wonder why he wouldn't tell me the truth about this case of his. What made him choose lying to me instead of telling me? I can't help but think that I'm not good enough for this. If we fail we'll prove everyone right and even if we don't – how can we do this out of pride? It's stupid, it's dangerous, it's putting people on the line. This is serious, Aoko-chan, this is real, it's not a game, there is not a reset button. We cannot just go back in time and things will be fine. Nothing will be fine. I – "
Aoko watched Ran's desperate blue eyes focus and unfocus in painful memories and disgust.
"And yet I can't stop. Even just the thought of stopping, of proving Shinichi right and telling him all about this case, makes everything bristle inside of me. I don't want that and – this is not me – it's –"
"Is it really a pride thing? Would Kudo-kun contact the police?"
"Well, no, he'd solve it on his own, most likely and include the police once everyone was safe?"
"And why can we not do the same thing?"
"Because Shinichi is smart and he'd be able to solve this in no time, but we – "
"Well, I think I'm not stupid and I think you're not, either."
"Well, even if you're right. Have you ever solved a case before? A murder? A mystery? It's just that Shinichi has practice with these things. That's why I'm confident he wouldn't do any mistakes, but we don't have his experience and knowledge and that's – "
"Well, true, but I think we are smart enough to learn all we need to know and be prepared for all eventualities. We can still include the police if things get over our heads. We always had and will have that backup plan. This will not stand and fall with us, Ran-chan. If this becomes too dangerous and unsolvable for us, we'll tell everyone. Even if it'll hurt. But before we can make sure to solve it on our own and not include anyone."
Ran looked still doubtful but didn't say anything after that.
"We'll be fine", Aoko reassured her. "We'll make sure of that."
It was three days later that the girls met again. Aoko had been able to reach Chikage and since the woman was so elated to hear from Aoko and even more so about Aoko's request that she decied to spontaneously visit her. They wouldn't let Chikage-san in on the secrets. They decided to tell her half the truth, though. The guys were getting a pain in the ass and they needed to be able to shake them off anytime needed. Chikage was even more elated to hear this since it was so much fun playing such games.
"Alright, girls, we'll start easy. You'll have to disguise as each other. Your faces are very similar, the make-up won't be a lot of trouble and you should be able to wear the same clothes. Let's try with making you both look the same. Then we can switch things up a bit and make you look like the other one. Once you have the basics down, you can apply them on anything and anyone."
Ran and Aoko were sitting next to each other in Aoko's kitchen with Chikage opposite of them. Since today was a heist day her father wouldn't come home (most likely) and they had enough time without anyone knowing what they were doing and asking stupid questions.
"Just image how that would confuse the guys, when suddenly there are two of you. Or the one is running away from them somewhere and suddenly you pop up somewhere else entirely. It's like magic, don't you think?"
Ran laughed. "I think that's something Kaitou Kid would pull of, wouldn't he?"
Chikage grinned mysteriously and nodded. "Of course, Kid-kun is a magician, after all."
Aoko just raised an eyebrow but didn't comment since it was an innocent sentence but could Chikage maybe know?
"Well, what are you waiting for? The basics for disguising is make-up and preparation. You need to know everything about the person you're disguising as. Disguising isn't just looking like someone else but also impersonating them perfectly. In your case right now it's rather simple. You too know each other, right? It shouldn't be too hard to impersonate each other for you." Chikage explained while the two started applying make-up to make them look exactly the same.
Chikage gave them tips on tones and how to apply it correctly.
"For disguising you need to learn the art of observation. Once you know how to observe you'll know how to access information and then your disguise will be perfect."
Chikage was very profound with her teachings and so it took them the whole evening until Ran had to go home to learn how to make them look exactly the same. The result was very satisfying but the way getting there had been a stony one.
When Chikage had driven Ran home, she'd texted her.
To: Aoko, 2016.12.08, 22:45:21: What did you tell her exactly? And this is incredible. We looked really alike. There was not even one difference (beside our hair length)
To: Ran, 2016.12.08, 22:46:56: I told her that I want to learn some magic and disguising so I can surprise Kaito. She was hooked once I told her because she likes pranking Kaito as much as I do. And I told her that there are some nosey detectives we need get away from and she's totally on our side
To: Aoko, 2016.12.08, 22:49:19: I see. Will you learn some magic, too?
To: Ran, 2016.12.08, 22:50:13: Yes, I intend to. I think it'll help us in the long run but really I needed her to teach us about disguising so we can meet without any more trouble
To: Aoko, 2016.12.08, 23:53:45: Btw, since I wasn't able to talk to you in private before, I wasn't able to find out anything about upcoming events and the guest list is not public. We'll need to find out through some other way, though, I'd prefer not breaking in
To: Ran, 2016.12.08, 22:55:21: haha, well we could sneak in and you could distract the secretary while I browse her computer for the information. That isn't too illegal and we wouldn't break in anywhere
To: Aoko, 2016.12.08, 22:58:01: Actually, I don't know if I like that any more than breaking in but yeah …
To: Ran, 2016.12.08, 22:59:21: Well, I'm sure we'll think of something. I haven't actually figured anything out, either. I am pretty sure, though, that our location is correct.
To: Aoko, 2016.12.08, 22:59:29: Conan-kun is watching, I need to get him to sleep. Talk to you tomorrow. Sleep well
To: Ran, 2016.12.08, 22:59:59: Goodnight!
I felt like writing, so here is a new chapter! Thank you for all your awesome reviews so far :D They are great motivation.
I just want to make a few things clear. This is fiction so things from the real world don't always apply and the girls will try to do things on their own even if it's hard and this is about them, not Shinichi and not Kaito. Those two, if they knew, would brush the girls aside and do their thing so neither Ran nor Aoko will tell them unless aboslutely neccessary. Also, this will not be Aoko/Ran even if it might look like it, I just like teasing them :D
Anyway, I hope you'll like it.