Chapter 5

Ran's POV

I stared out the window of my classroom, this morning our sensei had introduced our two new exchange students. They were currently the topic of everyone's conversation. Everyone that is, except me.

I had spent all night and all day today thinking about what Joe-san had said yesterday, about how Conan knew all those things. I had often noticed them before, those usually led to my crazy solutions that Conan was really Shinichi, only to be proven wrong every time. Maybe that's why I usually ignore his obvious intelligence, because it reminds me to much of Shinichi. And then the pain of missing him gets stronger. Now that I think about it that's really not fair for Conan. All these times he's had something important to say, and I've brushed him aside because I don't want to see Shinichi in him. And still there was this nagging in the back of my mind when ever I compared them saying, 'they are the same person, he's just hiding it from you.'

"Ran, Ran, Hello, Ran, Earth to Ran, This is mission control calling Ran Mouri do you copy."

"Eh," I looked up to see Joe-san waving his hand in front of my face. "Oh, sorry I was just thinking."

Class was over and I was walking home. I had been so wrapped up in my own thoughts that I hadn't noticed the Hardy's arrival

"Sorry to disturb you Ran," said Frank-san, "but we were hoping that you could tell us more, since we were interrupted yesterday we didn't have a chance to finish."

"That okay, I'll do whatever I can to help you find Shinichi." I said quickly burying my thoughts over Conan in the back of my mind.

"Why don't you start by telling us if he has ever said anything about where he's been?" Frank-san continued

"No, he never tells me about where he is, when I ask he always says that he's says he's just on a difficult case and can't come home till he's solved it."

"Hmm," Joe-san thought a moment. "Is it always that same case or a bunch of different ones?"

"I don't know, I've never really pressed for details, when I do he always dodges the question." I answered feeling useless.

It must have shown on my face because Frank-san quickly said "Well, how about you tell us about what Shinichi is like when you see him or talk to him. You know, does he seem scared, is he healthy, has he done anything he wouldn't ordinarily do.

I thought a moment trying to remember what had happened during the times he came back. "Well, when he shows up he doesn't seem any different. He acts like the same cocky detective that he's always been, however there has been something that has been bugging me. You see before this hole disappearing thing, one of his favorite perks about being a detective was the attention, unfortunately one of his worst qualities was his big ego. But now every time he shows up there is always a case that he helps the police solve, and he never takes the credit. He insists that the police leave out his involvement and that no one mention he was there."

The boys looked serious at this. "That most likely means that he's hiding from someone, so he tries to make sure they don't know that he was there." Joe mused, "Anything else that stood out to you."

I was shocked, Shinichi, hiding, from what, or who. "There is one other thing, I thought of it when you mentioned his health," I continued. "There have been four times that Shinichi has come back and I was sure it was him. And with all four times he always seemed kind of sick and right before he leaves he would always do something strange. His temperature would begin to rise, and he starts clutching at his chest like he's in pain."

Frank-san looked surprised, "that sounds as if he's having a heart-attack."

"Does he have a heart problem?" continued Joe

"No, he doesn't. What's more whenever we offer to take him to the doctor he refuses." Now I was really worried, what if Shinichi is really sick, but why wouldn't he tell me.

"Thanks for your help Ran, we'll look into it," Said Frank-san.

"You can count on us," reassured Joe-san

They them left, but I didn't really notice, I was once again deep in thought. Only this time my head was full of worries for a certain high school detective.

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Shinichi's POV

"THEY'RE DETECTIVES!!!"

"Shhhhhhhhh" came the simultaneous warning all around me.

The mystery behind the Hardy brothers had been bugging me all through school. Now I was sitting at a computer at a local library trying to look up some information on our mysterious 'clients'. What I found was surprising to say the least.

I stared at the computer screen and reread the English words. It was one of the many articles about the two American teenagers. This particular one was about how the two brothers had used deductive reasoning to save several people from a man who planned to blow up his own mall and murder all inside it just so he could get the insurance money (2).

I felt like banging my head against the wall as I remembered how I had been so careless yesterday. They were detectives, and could possibly be a threat to his secret. I then remembered what I had over heard at the agency, they had said something about a case. If they're detectives then it is most likely that Ran and Sonoko were the clients, not the other way around.

But why would Ran hire two foreigners to solve a case when her own father was a detective? There were two possible solutions to that. One, it was another of Sonoko's schemes to hook Ran up with another man. However that was unlikely because there was no way that Ran would go along with it. Or two, the case she hired them for was one she didn't want her father or me to know about. But what case would that be?

I continued to muse over this as I headed home when a thought struck me. The only case her father didn't approve of was the one about… Me. I had noticed Ran was pining my older self a lot more recently. Could she have sent them to find out what had happened to me? The more I thought about it the more it made sense.

"AARRRGGHH!!!" I couldn't help but shout in frustration. Two detectives looking for me, good detectives if those newspapers where correct. Hattori had been bad enough.

'wiiirrr, wiiirrr,' my cell phone began vibrating, speak of the devil.

"Yo, Kudo," said Hattori's voice through the phone. "I was wondering, Kazuha said something yesterday about how you wouldn't be able to hide from Ran anymore. Did something happen."

I sighed, "You don't know the half of it." I then explained about the two foreigners and how I' figured out that they were looking for me. "Your call about what Kazuha said pretty much just confirmed my suspicions," I concluded.

Hattori whistled "Sound like you're in a jam. Do you need me to mimic you again? I've still got that mask and voice changer with me."

I had to smile at the willingness of my friend. "No, Ran has probably told them about how you've tried that before, so trying again would only make you look suspicious."

"Well if there's anything I can do to help, wait I know. Why don't you ask that FBI friend of yours, maybe she can tell you more about them."

I contemplated that, "I guess I could try, Thanks Hattori."

"Watch your back Kudo," were his final words as I hung up. Quickly I punched in another number.

"Hi, Jodie-sensei, it's Conan. Listen I need to ask for a favor….

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Kaito's POV

I bit back a laugh as I watched the chibi-Holmes stare at the computer screen in horror. I was cleverly disguised as a college student studying for her exams. Though in reality I was seeking glances over Tantei-kun's shoulder every few minutes to see what he was so worked up about. Apparently there were some new detectives in town and they were on to him.

As I followed him at a distance as he left the library deep in thought. So deep in fact that I don't think he would notice me even if I stood in front of him in uniform and did a tap dance. As he talked on the phone with his friend from Osaka I toyed with the idea of impersonating him again. That is until I heard him tell his friend over the phone not to try that.

I stopped following him as he punched in another number on his phone, trying to figure out how to help him out of this mess. I don't know why I was even worried, except maybe the fact that since we both have secret identities I felt an obligation to help him keep it secret. No matter how much he feels the opposite.

Suddenly I thought of how I could distract these Hardy boys form Tantei-kun and have some fun as well. I then hurried home to plan my next heist and invite these new detectives to the party. Heck why don't I just invite every teenage detective in Japan. After all the more the merrier, this was going to be fun.

End Chapter 5

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A/N (1) what I meant by 4 time is including the time in the 7th movie and 3 time in the show and manga (if there are more times then that I'm sorry for not knowing them)

(2) Actually happened in the Hardy Boys graphic novel 'Malled'