AN: Well, since my last multi-chapter fic update (Collapse) was pretty depressing, I decided to counter it by writing something light and cheerful and silly! And that ended up with this. After this I have to work on the next chapter of Black Echo though, so I really can't seem to escape depressing fic for very long, can I? Ahahaha~.

Anyways, here, have a silly oneshot!

A Deck of Cards

Characters: Conan, Ai, Detective Boys, Heiji

Summary: A simple child's game had no meaning- right?

"You sure suck at this game, Conan. You got them almost all wrong!"

"Shut up." Grumbling into his hand, Conan leaned his chin into it, shooting Genta something of a dirty look. "Besides, this game is silly. You know it doesn't really mean anything, right?"

"Oh? It sounds a bit to me like Edogawa-kun is upset that his carefully calculated plan to impress the three of you fell to pieces." There was a rather sly expression on Ai's face, one that she barely even attempted to hide, amusement dancing in her eyes. Just as he thought, it had been no accident when Ai had caused the cards to go flying everywhere while shuffling them, ruining his calculated plan to count the cards to really give the three actual children in the midst a shock.

"Too bad, Edogawa-kun. That's what you get for cheating." Ai told him, not even trying to mask her smile at this point. She had a feeling that something was up when Conan had elected to go last. Even if they were dealing with something he thought was absurd, like Zener cards, she knew him well enough to know when he was planning something. There was always an unmistakable gleam to his eyes whenever he was, one that she knew that she wasn't the only one who had picked up on it.

"You shouldn't cheat, Conan-kun." Mitsuhiko chided him lightly, wagging a finger at him, obviously imitating his mother's habit. "Otherwise the game has no meaning."

"You can't actually determine if someone has psychic abilities from these, you know." Conan remarked dryly, picking up a few of the cards, spreading them out in his hand. Eyes glancing over the various symbols on them, he rolled his eyes, setting them back down on the top of the deck. "Besides, there's no such thing as psychic powers anyways."

"There is!" Ayumi insisted, almost puffing out her cheeks. She had gotten the highest score, and she was rather proud of that. "There definitely is, Conan-kun! Just because it hasn't been proven yet doesn't mean that it's not possible!"

"It's not possible." Conan said frankly. Well, even if he said that, he had been planning on carefully counting the cards as they appeared, and were shuffled back into the deck- but Ai's actions had ruined that. Even if he wouldn't be able to get a perfect match, he'd be able to get pretty close- and he had sort of been wanting to see their reactions, before he revealed his trick to them.

"You're always like this, Conan." Narrowing his eyes at him, Genta picked up the deck of cards, giving them another shuffle. "I think you're just upset because you got the lowest score of us all. Even I did better than you!"

"Shut up. I am not." Grumbling to himself, Conan's brows knitting together, not willing to admit that he was more or less right- if not for the reasons that he thought he was. "Psychic phenomena has been something that people have researched for years, and each and every time, any so called psychics have always turned out to be frauds. That stuff's just not possible. Even these cards have been discredited before. They're nothing more than a simple child's game."

"Sometimes you're kind of no fun." Ayumi frowned. "But Ai-chan believes us, right? Right?"

"A-ah." Blinking slightly, having half not expected to be involved in this conversation, Ai found herself at a bit of a crossroads. In the end, she decided for a rather diplomatic answer, smiling at her friend. "Well, it's true that there have been a number of mysterious things that science hasn't been properly able to test yet. There's solid proof that such is entirely impossible, even if it hasn't been proven just yet."

"I can't believe you're taking their side, Haibara." Conan grumbled, shooting her a look. "Besides, you three weren't even playing the game right. You're supposed to show them to a person one by one until the deck is finished, you're not supposed to draw hands and make them guess what you picked. This isn't Old Maid."

"Ya sure know a lot about it fer someone who doesn't believe in that sort of thing."

"I happened to read about it one time-" Blinking a little, suddenly realizing that there was no way that voice could have come from any the Detective Boys- and especially not that accent, Conan jolted up, turning his head, coming face to face with none other than the brightly grinning Osakan that was his rival. "Hattori!? What are you even doing here!? And seriously, would it kill you to ring the doorbell once?!"

"I did." Heiji said, planting his hands on his hips, glancing back towards the door. "Several times even. Didn't ya hear it?"

"Ah, the doorbell's been broken for the past few days, actually." Ai said simply, briefly sparing him a glance. "It stopped producing sound. The Professor keeps saying that he's going to fix it, but he's never gotten around to it yet."

"Oh, is that so?" Heiji blinked, folding his arms in front of him. "Well, that would explain it. Anyways, since no one was comin' ta the door, an' since it was unlocked, I let myself in. Ya got a problem with that, Ku- no, Conan-kun?"

"Yes." Came Conan's rather blunt reply, heaving a long sigh, before turning to look back at the other four. "Rather, since you're sitting facing the door, the four of you must have known he was sneaking up on me. Why didn't you say something?"

"Because it was amusing." Genta said frankly. "Oh, that's right, Osaka-niichan, since you're here, do you want to try this game too?" He asked, holding up the deck of cards.

"Oh, Zener cards, huh?" Heiji asked, tilting his head to the side, a wide grin crossing his face. "Sure. Kazuha actually used ta be interested in these around our first year of middle school. It's kind of nostalgic."

"Well, I suppose since Hattori-kun only just got here, there's no way for him to try and cheat, unlike a certain someone." Just in case he somehow missed that her barbed remark was directed towards him, Ai turned in Conan's direction, sending him a rather chilling smile.

"What, did this kid try somethin'? Ya can't do that, Conan-kun. Think about what kind of impression yer settin' fer yer little friends." Heiji told him, grinning from ear to ear, practically every word coming out of his mouth meant to tease. Taking the seat next to him, Heiji turned his attention back towards the Detective Boys. "Okay, I'm ready when the three of ya are!"

"Well, you'll probably do better than Conan-kun ended up doing anyways." Mitsuhiko observed, taking the deck of cards from Genta, and giving them one more good shuffle for good measure. "By the way, I was in third place after Ayumi-chan and Haibara-san."

"I was fourth!" Genta cheerfully reported.

"Oh, so this mean this kid ranked dead last, then?" Heiji asked, grinning down at him, reaching over a hand to rather aggressively rub his hair. "Yer slackin' there, Conan-kun! Are ya sure ya really have what it takes ta be my disciple?"

"Shut up, idiot." Conan grumbled, turning to face Mitsuhiko. "Get started on the test already, and get this guy out of my hair." Literally, he might add. What did Heiji think he was anyways, a dog?

"Then, I'm starting." Clearing his throat, Mitsuhiko reached for the desk, briefly recalling Conan's earlier words, and settled for drawing only one card, making sure that Heiji couldn't see anything but the back. "What card is this?"

"A star, right?" Heiji asked, tilting his head slightly, grin quickly resurfacing at Mitsuhiko's bewildered look, as he placed it face side up, drawing the next card. "An' that one's a cross. Or a plus sign, if ya'd rather." He told him, watching as he set it once again face side up, revealing the cross, placing it on top of the star. "That one's waves, isn't it?"

Twenty two more cards later, and there was a deep silence that filled the room. Reaching out across the table, Ai spread out the cards once more, still face up, mentally recalling the order in which they had been given earlier, and let out a low whistle. "Well, it appears that we have a new number one. Congratulations, Hattori-kun."

"That was amazing, Osaka-niichan!" Genta exclaimed. "You got them all right!"

"Even Ayumi only got half of them right!" Ayumi said, only slightly upset that her record had been shattered.

"Are you sure he didn't cheat, like Conan-kun was planning on doing?" Mitsuhiko couldn't help but ask, casting a skeptical glance towards him.

"Of course I didn't. I only just got here ya know." Heiji said lightly, waving a hand, rising to his feet. "Anyways, Ku- Conan-kun, we're supposed ta meet up with the girls in front of that cafe under the agency. Actually, we were supposed ta do it about twenty minutes ago, now that I'm thinkin' about it. They're probably startin' ta get mad."

"Well, mostly at you, though." Conan couldn't help but quip, getting to his feet. "Well then, I guess I've got to go, everyone. I'll see you tomorrow at school!"

"O-oh, right." Slowly blinking, Mitsuhiko nodded his head, carefully glancing back down at the cards, and then back up towards Heiji again. With the Osakan detective himself acting like it was no big deal, maybe it really wasn't, but...

If he hadn't cheated, exactly how had he got them all right?

"Seriously though, Hattori." Conan spoke up once they left the Professor's place, tucking his hands in his pockets, casting a skeptical look up towards him. "How the hell did you manage to get them all right?"

"Just lucky, I guess." Heiji told him, a quick grin surfacing on his face. "Well, I kept doin' the same thing back in middle school with Kazuha until she got sick of them. She would always get mad at me, an' accuse me of cheatin'."

"A-ah, I see." Conan said simply, letting out a slightly nervous laugh. As far as he knew, once the necessary corrections were put in place to make the test legitimate as an experiment, no high scoring results had ever been produced from the Zener cards- at least, none that had been recorded. Someone getting all twenty-five cards right was completely unheard of.

Oi, oi, it couldn't be...?

No, no. There was no way. There was no possible way, none at all- such things didn't exist, after all.

There was absolutely no way that Hattori Heiji was psychic.