Hi readers! I'm back! I revised chapter 1 and 2.
Thank you all for reviewing, favouriting, and following!
The last chapter was soooo short T^T I hope this chapter is not as short as the 2nd chapter. I can't know about this until I upload it :P
*I changed Akai-san's current physical age(whoa, this sounds professional) from 9 to 7.*
Crash!
Akai and Conan turned around to see Haibara, her whole body trembling, the broken remains of a cup rolling around her feet.
"Moroboshi… Dai?"
A heavy silence filled the room. Haibara stared at Dai. Why was he here? How did he know about this place? The questions pushed away the fact that Dai looked like a seven-year-old into a far corner of her mind. As the surprise began to ebb away, rage started to fill its place. If it weren't for him, her sister would be alive. He was the reason for her sister's grief and death. Haibara's shocked expression turned into a hateful glare. Akai opened his mouth to say something, then looked away. What could he say? That he was sorry? That everything was his fault? He knew that no words would be able to console her or make up for the death of her sister.
Haibara started to shake. "H...how did you...?" she stammered, her voice trembling. Then, in a much louder voice, she screamed
"Why are you here? Why did you come? Get away from here! Go away!"
Conan, startled by her reaction, put a hand on Haibara's shoulder to calm her down and started to say
"Haibara, let me explain. Akai-san is an FBI agent, and his real name is Akai Shuichi-"
But Haibara didn't listen any further. "So, my sister didn't even know your real name when she died?" She shook off Conan's hand. Tears started to form in her eyes.
"She loved you! She loved you enough to risk her life and die for you! Does that mean nothing to you?"
Haibara hurled a broken piece of her cup at Akai. He didn't try to dodge it. It narrowly missed him and shattered against the wall. Ignoring Conan's surprised cry of "Oi, Haibara!" she continued to scream "Of course it doesn't! Why would you care about her? She was nothing more than a tool for you!" She fell to her knees and sobbed, her once held-back grief now flowing freely. Akai didn't show it, but every word felt as if he was being stabbed by a throwing knife, hurled with venom. And he deserved it. He deserved everything she said to him, for hadn't he done the exact same thing she had accused him of? Using Akemi as a tool?
No. It wasn't even close. He had betrayed her trust, manipulated her love, then left her as if she was nothing. He had been unable to do anything, completely useless the day... the day she was killed. It was much worse than what Haibara had said to him. The knives were blunt compared to what he had done.
'I'm sorry, Shiho...'
Pushing down his own inner turmoil, Akai Shuichi silently left the Agasa residence.
.#.
*A few days after*
"Ohio, Conan-kun!" As always, the Detective Boys' cheerful voices greeted Conan. Conan responded with a wave. Ayumi was the first to reach him. "Conan-kun, where's Ai-chan?" she asked, noticing Haibara's absence. "She's sick. She won't be coming to school today." Conan replied, causing Genta and Mitsuhiko to look disappointed. Actually, the explanation was a lie: After a few days of rest, peace, and some explanations from Conan, Haibara had calmed down a little, but she and Akai were obviously avoiding each other.
"Did you hear? A new student is coming today!" Ayumi chirped happily. "Really? That's great! Is the new student a boy or a girl?" Mitsuhiko asked. Haibara's absence was already forgotten. The notion of a new student always excited the children for reasons unknown to Conan. Besides, he already knew who the new student was, though he was mildly surprised that he was in the same class. He tuned out the Detective Boys' chatter and walked into the classroom, his mind filled with, as usual, Sherlock Holmes and Cases. Oh, and a more recently added category, the Black Organization.
Akai walked into the classroom with the teacher, Kobayashi-sensei. The murmuring ended when he entered. He stood in front of the whole class and swept his gaze through the classroom in a calm and undisturbed way. During the process he caught Conan's eyes. A smirk of recognition was evident on the detective's face. Akai returned it with his own. "A new student will be joining us today." Kobayashi-sensei said. "Please introduce yourself, Akira-kun." She watched as 'Akira-kun' introduced himself. "Akira Kagayaku. Yoroshiku." Calm, and without a trace of anxiousness. She couldn't help being puzzled. Most children new to the school were very shy. Scared, even. Everything that Akira-kun was currently not. She pushed the thought away.
'Children all have different types of personalities. There's nothing wrong with not being shy at a new school.'
"Your seat is behind Conan-kun's."(A/N:Anyone who had sat there in the original series has just been eliminated by the author XD)
Before she could tell Conan-kun to raise his hand, Akira-kun was already halfway through the classroom. 'They must know each other,' she thought. Then, she remembered something: "Akira-kun, you have to take off your hat." Akira-kun paused and turned around, and they met eyes for the first time. As much as she liked children, she could not say that it was a good experience.
"I'd prefer not to, sensei."
The tone was polite enough, but the stare was… not normal. She didn't know if the unusual eye shape and color added to the feeling, but those eyes certainly did not belong to a child. She often thought that about Conan-kun, but this… this was different. She heard herself say "W-well, okay, then." Akira-kun continued his way to his seat, satisfied.
School was agonizing. Akai wondered how Conan had survived all this time. He looked up and saw the answer: he had not survived. Conan was currently sprawled on his desk, rolling his pencil again and again mindlessly. Akai sighed and turned his attention to the kanji paper he was supposed to practice on. Kobayashi was not in the classroom. However, he knew that she would be back soon, as no sane teacher left kids in a classroom alone for a long time. He half-finished his worksheet, not caring about the handwriting(most 1st graders wrote untidily anyway), and took out two thick books. One of them, a Sherlock Holmes novel(which happened to be Conan's favorite, The Sign of the Four, by chance), he handed to Conan, who received it gratefully and started to flip through the pages in pure delight. The other, The Night Baron, he kept for himself and started to read. After a few minutes, the sensei returned. Akai quickly shoved the book in the desk and returned to the kanji sheet as if he had been doing it all the time. It was a skill which had been very useful when he had inflitrated the Oraganization. Who knew that he would be using the same skill in an elementary school?
Finally the bell rang, signalling the end of school. Akai couldn't help feeling relieved as he packed his backpack. He hoped he wiould get used to it soon. Out of the corner of his eye he saw two boys and a girl walking out of the classroom, chatting excitedly. The Shounen Tantei-dan. He had heard about them from Conan last recess. His eyes flicked to the classroom windows, and through them he saw three figures bigger than the rest of the children walking toward the Shounen Tanteis.
'Third graders coming here? That's not a good sign...'
Then the incident happened. The third graders bumped into the Shouten Tanteis, and after a brief moment of startled silence, started yelling at them.
"Watch where you're going, bastards!" The leader, the biggest of the three, was also the loudest.
"We...we're sorry.." The boy who Conan had said was Mitsuhiko mumbled. The girl-Yoshida Ayumi?-was close to tears. The large kid, Genta, looked half scared and half indignant.
"'Sorry' doesn't do anything!" The leader shouted. He angrily raised his fist, but he didn't hit who he'd expected to hit.
"Conan-kun!" Ayumi cried out. Akai already knew what had happened. Conan had rushed over from the now-existing crowd and intercepted the punch, getting hit instead. He was curretly half sitting-half sprawled on the floor, a nasty bruise forming on his cheek where the fist had made contact. Akai could not help thinking that it was a rather stupid move: Conan's soccer skills were too dangerous to use indoors, and using the tranquilizer watch would make the teachers wonder why a 1st grader was carrying(not to mention effectively using) a weapon. In other words, unless he was a good hand-to-hand fighter, which he didn't seem to be, Conan had just introduced himself to the third grade bullies as an irritating yet perfect punching bag.
'Gotta do something before it becomes a reality.'
Thinking this, he emerged from the crowd, and said
"Picking on younger gradeschoolers. Do you really have nothing else to do?"
The leader, who had been raising his fist again, stopped to look at the imprudent kid who had interrupted him. Akai had continued on his way to where the Detective Boys were, so now he was practically face-to-face with the leader. Akai's current gaze was a lot more close to a stare than a glare, but he could see that the big guy was getting unnerved.
"You-" Saying that, the leader swung his fist, aimed directly at him.
The crowd had to gasp at what happened after: In less than a seond, Akai had blocked the fist, got a hold of it, and twisted the bully's arm. The bully yelped as he pressed. The other two 3rd graders didn't seem to know what to do. Akai looked straight at the bully's eyes. This time, it was more of a glare. The bully leader gulped.
"Next time you do anything like this again, I'll do more than twist one arm."
The leader nodded frantically. Akai let go of the arm, and the three 3rd graders were gone in a second. The crowd stood still, unsure of what to do, until he looked around and said "Well...?"
The crowd scattered almost as quickly as the third graders, probably because of the scary green-eyed kid who had just sent a large bully flying with a single move.
"Arigatou, Aka-Akira san," Conan breathed out. The other three were looking at Akai with some kind of awe.
"That was soooooo cool!" Ayumi said. Mitsuhiko agreed by nodding enthusiasticly.
'I did that quite often with bigger people, like that Kalvados person who looked like a gun dealer.*' Akai thought, but of course he didn't say that out loud.
"Join the Detective Boys, Akira-san!" Mitsuhiko said.
"Yeah! We can solve cases and catch culprits!" Ayumi said. Conan nodded.
"Well, all right then. I guess it'll be fun..." Compared to being in the same space with Akemi's sister... Akai thought, but again he didn't say that out loud.
"The Detective Boys has a new member! Hurray!" The kids cheered and marched off gleefully. Akai gave Conan a look that said 'Ohhh-kay...' Conan shrugged. 'Just get used to it.' They followed the Shounen Dantei-dan out of the building to wherever they were headed.
. # .
"So, Akai-san," Conan said quietly. "How was your first day of elementary school?" They were a few paces behind the Shounen Dantei-dan.
"I spent most of the time mentally debating with myself how I'd managed to do it the first time." Akai replied.
Conan grinned. "I spent my first day introducing my head to the desk." Turning serious, he whispered, "About that fight... Don't you think it's kind of strange that they sent more than 20 people for one job? Usually they just send 2~3 people at a time."
"They were not experienced and probably new to the organization, since their way of handling the situation wasn't exactly outstanding."
"And they didn't recognize you."
"No."
"Then... The organization sent them to get rid of them?"
"It's possible. If that's true, then those people certainly know nearly nothing about the organization."
"Right. If they knew anything important, they would have been killed right away."
"Those pills they were told to trade probably weren't important as well. Just plain drugs. Nothing special."
Conan had to look at Akai with ax-eyes(half moon eyes) at this.
'Plain drugs. Nothing special. Right.'
Akai didn't seemed to have noticed. Or maybe he was just ignoring it.
"If they succeded, the organization will get the money. If they fail, they are gotten rid of." A slight smirk traced his lips. "A good plan."
"Oi oi, is it really the time to be praising them?"
"I guess not..."
Their conversation was broken off by Ayumi's delighted cry.
"We're here!"
'? !'
Akai and Conan jerked back into the present. They were standing in front of a building that said 'Game on Game'.**
"Here where?"
"The Arcade, of course!" Mitsuhiko said. "Didn't you hear our conversation?"
"Errr... No." They said at once together. They hadn't been paying attention to where they were going.
"We're celebrating because the Detective Boys has a new member now!" Ayumi said.
"Let's go!" The Shounen Tantei-dan happily raced into the Arcade, leaving Akai and Conan open-mouthed outside the building.
"I thought the adults were the ones who kidnapped the kids?" Akai said.
"I must be an idiot." Conan mumbled, facepalming.
The two followed the Detective Boys into the building.
.
.
.
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*: episode 345- Shuichi comments that he thought Kalvados was a gun dealer because he had so many kinds of guns.
**: this is the arcade where Jodie used to go when she was working as an English teacher. File 270
I'm horrible at angst T^T
Whew! Ended it! I'll try to update soon!
I switch POVs a lot. The way each person is called is a bit different in each POV,(a cyber cookie to anybody who noticed :D) so have fun finding out the differences! Also, it'll help you know who's POV it is. It was inferred in the recent files that Haibara doesn't know that Akai is the reason her sister died, but hey, this is my fic, right? ;)
-Akira means bright/light. It's commonly used in names.- Kagayaku is a name slightly changed from the word kagayaki, which means shine.
ScarletShad0w, I hope that the conversation answered your opinion that the BO wouldn't send as much as 20 people. I thought about that too, but my brain couldn't think of any other options :P. Plus, I just had to give him a fighting scene. XD
Reviews are appreciated ;)
6.17.17 A/N edits. May come back and touch up the chapter itself in the future.