Oh no, how many months had passed since I last updated?! I don't even remember! I'm soo sorry!
I' won't be posting special thanks and the dictionary anymore since it takes some time&space and I'd rather write more of the story.
So I'll just say: Thank you everbody! :D
Also thanks to Fruitcake for the long criticism. Some of them I'd completely missed, some I could reply to, and some I have thought about and built more on that part. All in all, it was very helpful. Thank you!
Oh, and if you haven't noticed, I use the term ax-eyes instead of half-moon eyes since it seemed more... fitting.
Disclamer: I don't own Detective Conan. Sheesh, I'm only on chapter four and I'm already getting tired of saying it. But alas, what must be done must be done. ...oh no I sound like Dumbledore now :p
"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.
.#.
The Arcade was fairly crowded. Akai and Conan had to work hard not to lose sight of the Detective Boys, who were barging through by using Genta's relatively huge body.
"I hate being short." Conan muttered as he nearly got squashed by some hyperactive high-schoolers.
"Figures." Akai grunted back.
Fortunately, their 'hardship' did not last long. Soon after a few more pushes and stumbles, they were able to make their way across to where the Detective Boys were already engrossed in a particular shooting game that Conan recognized. Akai must have realized Conan recognized the game, since he glanced at Conan questioningly.
"It's the one Jodie-san was playing when we met her in here. She used to come here when she was pretending to be a teacher. She broke the high record or something." He explained.
Akai looked a little bit more interested, though with his lack of expressions it was hard to tell. Conan heard the kids cry out in dismay, but soon drowned them out after he saw the 'Game Over' sign flashing on the screen.
"It's a shooting game. You use a fake gun to shoot the monsters on the screen..." Conan trailed off. Something in Akai's eyes had changed. Conan was sure he lost him after 'shooting' and 'gun'.
"Uhh... Akai-san?"
But the FBI agent was already walking towards the Detective Boys.
"Mind if I have a try?" he asked. Ayumi willingy handed over the fake gun, and he aimed at the screen, grinning broadly-quite unlike his usual self.
Conan gulped.
It is obvious what the outcome was: Jodie-sensei's record was broken with vigor. Conan had watched Akai as he 'killed' monster after monster, a dangerous glint in his eyes. GinGinGinGinGinGin was written all over his expression.
He gulped again.
.#.
When he was finished, the Detective Boys kindly 'guided' them to a racing game. Akai was going to decline until he saw the Chevrolet-C1500; the brand of his car which he had sacrificed for 'the plan'. It had been some time since he last rode one: Pretending to be a normal University student did have its minus points. Deciding that a ride wouldn't hurt, he walked up to the controls to assess them. They seemed to be accurate enough. Satisfied, he pulled himself up to sit on the seat. It was a bit big, but he was tall for his physical age and it was small enough for him to reach the pedals. He was about to start when he heard a male voice adress him.
"Hey kid, wanna race with me?" the voice said.
Akai turned his head to the direction of the voice. Sure enough, a young man about twenty years old was grinning down at him, already seated next to him.
"Sure," he replied curtly. He knew there was no use refusing these kind of people. The man would have probably asked him again and again or would have goaded him into accepting if he had said no. Sighing inwardly in slight annoyance at the overy energetic man, he chose the chevrolet and got himself ready.
"You sure you want to drive that?" asked the man -he had obviously forgotten to introduce himself and Akai hadn't bothered to ask- as he glanced at his screen. "Big cars aren't easy to handle."
'I miss my blown up car, got a problem?' he thought.
Outwards, he simply said, "It looks cool."
The man shrugged, probably thinking it was one of those crazy kids' thoughts not understandable by mature adults like him. Sighing inwardly again despite himself, Akai turned his attention back to the screen. The mundane car he had to use as Okiya Subaru had nearly driven him mad.
Meanwhile, Conan shifted nervously behind Akai. He knew the former FBI agent was releasing his pent-up energy with the things he were accustomed to, and watching someone like Akai-san shoot or drive after months of being cooped up inside a house, even if they were games, was a frightening sight to behold. His sharp eyes, years of experience in the Organization and the FBI, and the indifferent, almost cold character created an aura that was impossible to ignore. He had tried to withdraw the aura as much as possible to create the amiable, pleasant personality of Okiya Subaru, but currently he was unconsciously letting at least a part of it out of the mental cage it had to be confined to.
Conan couldn't help feeling sorry for Akai-san's challenger. If the game was quite similar to real-life driving, the man had no chance at all.
.
The game was quite similar to real-life driving.
After the race, Akai and Conan left the flabbergasted man to sit in the corner while the Detective Boys scurried around. Akai thought he had drawn enough attention for a day, and Conan was quick to agree. They left the building about an hour later and parted ways, the Detective Boys still flushed with excitement and Conan with an expression that he wanted nothing more than to flop onto a bed right now. Akai was also feeling rather tired: He was not used to the short energetic bursts of a child, and the three real kids dragging him around had certainly not helped matters.
"Conan-kun?"
Somebody called from the other side of the street, breaking him and Conan from their exhausted stupor. Two girls were heading their way. One of them had light brown, almost blond hair that nearly reached her shoulders. The other had long, dark brown hair and blue-violet eyes. She was waving at them, or rather, Conan.
"Ran-neechan!" Conan called back. He ran towards the two, the ex-FBI agent jogging behind him to keep up. How kids could run around all day when they covered such little distance with their shrot legs, Akai had no idea.
Cathcing up with the detective, Akai's eyes narrowed as he looked at the girl Conan had called 'Ran-neechan'. She was the Japanese girl he had met a year ago in America, trying to catch Vermouth, and met again sometime ago. He remembered how similar she had looked like Akemi; how Conan had stood in front of her with his arms spread protectively; how, in his mourning and negative state of mind, he had derisively considered the boy's action as a futile and pathetic attempt if he had really tried to attack before the thought led to his own promise and failure to protect Akemi.
He closed his eyes shut, trying to drive the image of her limp, bloodied body away...
"Hi, nice to meet you! I'm Ran, Ran Mouri."
His eyes flew open to find the girl right in front of him, her legs and back slightly bent to match his height.
"...Akira Kagayaku." he replied curtly. He knew he should have tried more to act out the part of a kid, but he was... not in the mood. He berated himself for letting things like that control him, but it was already done. Besides, he knew that faking personalities was a tricky thing, and that becoming completey serious in one moment and bouncing around like a hyperactive kid in the next will be even more suspicious. It would be easier just to let them think of him as a mature child.
Ran was now staring curiously at him.
"Have we met before?" she asked. From the two- three, if he counted this one- times they met* and from what Conan had told him, the girl did seem to have either a good memory or a sort of advanced sixth sense. Akai wasn't going to let that faze him, however.
"...no." he replied, gazing evenly at her. After a moment, though, he averted his eyes, noticing that the girl was becoming uneasy. Ran misunderstood.
"Ah, sorry if I made you uncomfortable!" she apologized.
"It's alright," he assured her, noting unconsciously it was the first thing he'd said today to her that was actually the truth. Quite ironic since it seemed to be the only thing she didn't believe.
Sonoko broke in, apparantly oblivious of the brief silence between the two.
"Heyheyhey, did you see the newspaper today? KID-sama is putting on another grand heist show!" She let out a fangirlish squeal. "The note was actually sent three days ago, but they've decided to show it to the public today." From the corner of his eye, Akai saw Conan perk up immediately. Now that he thought of it, he did see some articles about him being rivals with the thief...
But before he went to that topic, there was something more important he had meant to show him. Catching the detective's eyes, Akai motioned almost imperceptively to the Mouri Detective Agency with a slight jerk of his head and gave a 'look' at him. Conan got the message.
"We'll go first and find it!" he yelled and sprinted off, Akai once again jogging behind him.
"Hey! I got it right here in my phone..." Sonoko trailed off as she saw the two already disappearing up the stairs. Letting out a 'hmmph', she followed, Ran smiling fondly at the two 'excited cute children'.
The said 'excited cute children' barged through the door and skidded to a halt, their expressions the exact definition of the word 'unkidly', if such a word ever existed. Akai snatched up the newspaper from the floor where Mouri had obviously discarded it carelessly. Conan looked up from his seat on the sofa.
"We practically flew in here, it should have bought us enough time." he said.
Without answering, Akai flipped through the mess of papers that had been a newspaper before Mouri had touched it until he finally found what he had been looking for. He heard a sharp intake of breath beside him as a bold headline sprang up to their attention:
Criminals in Custody Found Dead Overnight
"Is it them?" Conan whispered. Akai nodded shortly and gestured for him to read further:
The Police report that the band of about 20 criminals arrested for illegal transaction and terrorism, scheduled for interrogation today had all been found to be dead. Further inspection revealed that the source of the deaths was a common type of poison.
Judging from the discarded box with the criminals' fingerprints, it can be assumed that the criminals committed suicide, though how the poison passed the examination the police confirmed they had executed...
"They used a detectable poison on purpose." Conan said. It was more of a statement. Akai nodded again in agreement.
"Using the Apotoxin would have been too risky and they wanted the police to think that they had committed suicide."
"Yes, the police missing a small box in a search would be far less suspicious than 20 people mysteriously dying at once with no reason. Some criminals do have the 'skill' to do such things, after all."
"But still, they used to be more cautious than this before. What if they've started to use more drastic measures to achieve their goal, whatever it is?"
Akai's reply(or the beginning of a reply) was cut off by the two girls who had finally caught up with them.
"Found it yet?" Sonoko's voice rang up downstairs.
The two jerked up their heads at the voice. Making a squeak that sounded like a small 'yeep', Conan hurriedly flipped to the right page.
"Yeah! We have it right here!" he called back just as the two girls emerged. He quickly skimmed through the article, taking in only what he thought was important, until he reached KID's heist note.
Three days for you to prepare, since I'm generous. Ha!
A quarter of the moon and sun
After the red-crowned first cries,
When the dog has had its turn
And the mice is soon to squeak.
The riddle's fairly simple, and you know where and when.
The important thing is:
?
"Weird, isn't it?" Sonoko asked, stooping over to peer at the note. "Especially the question mark at the bottom. What's that all about?"
But a large grin was spreading across the detective's face.
"I know exactly what it's about," he said.
"And I already have the answer ready for him."
After whizzing through homework, sleeping like a corpse on the sofa, brooding about the Organization's next moves, and babbling to Akai-san about KID's past heists - if Akai-san had been any other person he would have begun to doze halfway through or yelled at him to stop - they were finally there. Conan couldn't help feeling his mood lift despite their looming shadow.
Akai stood next to him, not entirely looking sure why he ended up bothering to come. Conan didn't know how he knew, considering the fact that Akai's expression was actually 'looking' blank. Mentally stopping the train of useless thoughts, he decided to talk with Akai instead.
"Isn't this great, Akai-san? We can finally have a break from dead bodies and them for a little while!"
"It would seem so..." was his reply. He was somehow looking around sharply, taking in every detail, yet bored and somewhat unfocused at the same time. Undeterred by Akai's lack of enthusiasm, Conan grinned and yet again launched into his theory about today's heist. It was nice to have somebody who listened to him and actually understood what he was saying. Hattori visited often, but not often enough.
Meanwhile, Kuroba Kaito watched Edogawa Conan, disguised as a policeman. He'd sneaked in right after Nakamori-keibu finished pulling their faces. Really, the man's plan was so full of holes that it would have actually been boring if not for tantei-kun.
Speaking of which... his attention went back to Conan. He immediately noticed a face he hadn't seen before. The new-face was currently listening to dantei-kun, his sharp green eyes betraying no kind of emotion.
Oooh, he exclaimed to himself(it was a bit girlish, he admitted, but it wasn't like anybody was listening anyway). His favorite detective had gotten a new buddy, and from the way he acted around the black-clothed kid he trusted him to a great degree. It interested himself to a great degree.
As always, his curiosity took over. Maybe he could tweak his plans for a bit longer chat with the detective...
***IMPORTANT AN***
to those who care about pairings! The main and unchanging pairing is Akai/Akemi(and no, she's not coming back from the dead so it's Akai remembering her for the most part), but any other pairings I've no idea. I respect canon and I don't do romance much so I guess it'll mostly be just a little bit of each pairing which could be interpreted as many ways(friendship, actual romance, family-like), but I'd like to know what you readers want. Oh, and I never write slash, so sorry Shinkai and Heiko shippers :(
What do you think the riddle means? It's related to time, and if you're from America, Europe or Austrailia it will be harder. There! That's the hint! It's actually quite easy if you start looking since I'm not as smart as Kaito-kun D:
Bonus points if you know what the '?' means! Hint: 1. Their fathers' way of communication. 2. Young Shinichi and Ran's appearance in the related episode.
Reviews are quite welcome! :D
They give me happiness and peck at me to make me write faster. ;)
* Actually, it's four times including the one when he was coming out of the bathroom, looking for someone, and Ran nearly ran into him. However, Akai took no notice of her at the time so I excluded it. Don't ask what episode it was, I don't rememer :P It was before Ran remembered she had met him a year ago, though.
+)Thank you for pointing out the mistake, Akai Fan!