He panted, vanishing into the black limousine as quickly as possible. A hand was outstretched; he planted his Ruger firmly into it, covering himself in the large black coat on the back seat.
"You should probably reload this," said the driver. "One shot left."
To hear that familiar language pouring from somebody's lips was like being doused in a cleansing rain. He cocked his head up, rubbing it against the cushions. "I'm savin' it for the big game, mate," he replied. "Gots me-self a big mission coming up close to the end of the month. I'll be needin' that gun for then, and I ain't droppin' it until all the bullets are gone."
The driver laughed softly, although it came out as more of a cackle, quite fitting for this woman. The creature's ear twitched. There was something wrong about that laugh, definitely, but he couldn't quite place it. "When did you put in the last six bullets?"
"It's tough loadin' one o' these," he mused. "Each bullet's gotta go in individually into its own chamber. But the last time I did it… why, that was just before I came over here. 'Fore you guys 'picked me up'."
"You know those two," the driver replied. "They keep telling the boss they see things. One of these days they'll be… discharged." Pleasant phrase, that. Being discharged meant being murdered. Leave no traces: that was the game plan and it worked nearly every time. "And then we'll get to concentrate on our target in piece."
He looked up from underneath the coat. "Our target?" he asked.
"I'm in the same group as you, you know," replied the driver, adjusting the rear view mirror. He glanced at her. She was a pretty young blond human in her late twenties at the oldest, with nary a wrinkle in her pale skin and rather large almond eyes. She seemed more or less out of place in this city, judging from the difference in facial features. She may speak the local language, but he was surer than sugar that she was from out of the area.
Internally, he was swearing at himself, but he didn't bother listening. Once again it was that stupid voice trying to convince him he was getting in with the wrong people. Well, he knew that, idiot. He understood what everybody's conscience would tell them was good or bad, and these people didn't score very many points for decency. He knew what they did. Assassinations. Extortion. Illegal scientific research. They had a grip on the entire world, with allies in every government of every country on this pathetic planet he didn't know whether to call home or not. He knew exactly what was going on in this gang, and he wasn't going to bother to try interfering.
Except, of course, by completing the mission that had so far eluded his new master for over ten years now... He wondered how things could go on for so long without being completed. It was ridiculous, honestly. A farce if there ever was one. Why head an assassination party with a man who could barely hit a clay pigeon from fifty feet?
Out of the blue, he yelped – for some reason the back of his head was starting to throb. He immediately touched the area with his gloved hand and withdrew quickly.
"You okay?" she asked. She didn't care, actually.
"Uh, yeah," he lied, and took a look at his fingers. A small dot no bigger than a pinprick sat on his finger, and it certainly hadn't been there before.
So he was bleeding from the back of the head. Well, it was no serious matter. It had taken a while for that tiny speck to come off; it couldn't be that bad a wound. Still, it was worrying him; he certainly didn't recall where the injury had originally come from. He gingerly touched it again, wincing.
There was a quick rush of pain and he clutched his head. The car slowed as the driver looked back from the front seat. "Are you alright!?" she exclaimed.
"Keep yer eyes on the road, woman!" he snapped. "Ya wanna crash this hunk o' metal!?"
She turned back as fast as she could, and managed to swerve past a huge lorry travelling on the other side of the road. The other vehicle nearly flipped onto its side in its attempts to avoid them, but righted itself just a little further down the road.
He watched wide-eyed as it drifted out of sight in the direction of the library, and turned back in his seat. "Holy…" He blinked, shook his head and stared daggers at her through the mirror. "What in Aurora's name were ya thinkin' then!?"
"I was worried!" she argued back. "You suddenly grabbed your head and screeched!"
"That's 'cause I-" He stopped. "That's… never mind. Keep drivin', lady."
MKMKMKMKMK
The police were rather anxious about the whole matter. A man found dying in the library toilets by a grade school student was not the kind of event you wanted to talk about in front of anybody else, let alone experience, and yet Inspector Megure and Officer Shiratori Ninzaburou found themselves at the scene of the crime, questioning witnesses and examining the crime scene. What had happened didn't help things one bit. This twenty-one-year-old man had fatally injured by a strange unidentified animal and then left to die, as captured by surveillance cameras. The same creature had previously shot at a police officer in broad daylight, which had also been recorded. Both attacks had been random and unprovoked. If there had been a word to describe this phenomenon at all, it was 'inconceivable'.
What seemed even more impossible, however, was the fact that Edogawa Conan, one of the police's most trusted helpers (much to the embarrassment of half of the force) and the most composed person they knew, had apparently lost all resolve on sight of the body. A bullet through the neck wasn't pleasant to look at – and looking at the exit wound was even worse – especially when the victim was still breathing. The officers had been lucky to get there after he had died, and even then…
"We managed to identify the man; not that his name seems to be of any significance." Megure passed Ran a few tissues; she in turn gave them to the child on the floor who kept hyperventilating every now and then. A few people had managed to right him into a sitting position earlier, but it had made very little effect. "A review of the security tapes shows us the same thing that attacked Takagi before. I don't think this thing had a motive for doing this other than self-defence."
"It had a gun. I highly doubt it was self-defence," said Ai, standing next to Conan. She was a cold child, as Division One had seen on many occasions. She seemed to be as smart as Conan, maybe even more so. "There's something more to it, which is certain if we can assume that the creature is sapient."
"How can we assume that?" Shiratori asked, watching as the officers finally picked up the body from its seated position.
"It obviously knew exactly how to handle a gun, for one thing," Ai replied. "And it had to have made the conscious decision to use it, otherwise those bullet holes would have been spread everywhere and it would have run a lot sooner than it did."
Shiratori's breath hitched in his throat. What on Earth…? He knew Conan was special, but there was something very suspicious about that… accurate observation. He would probably need to start watching these kids better at some point. "...Well, in any case... How's the boy holding up?" he said, gesturing to Conan. Right now he had his arms wrapped around his left leg, his forehead pressed against his knee. His eyes were dull, despite their wideness, and he hardly looked too healthy.
Ran knelt beside him. "Conan-kun, is there anything you'd like me to get for you?"
He jumped, not looking up, and nodded slowly. "My pencil-case," he said. "It should be in the bag..."
"Okay." Ran stood up and hurried off to the desk, before bringing back the item in question. She handed it to him slowly; he snatched it up and, drawing his other knee up to his chest, began clutching it very tightly.
"Well, I can't see much else that we can do about this incident," Megure announced. "You will need to write incident reports, but I don't think we'll be able to get to the bottom of this without the co-operation of the Ekoda police force."
At once, Conan's head shot up, although the case stayed secure in his hands. "Why the Ekoda police force?" he asked.
"It's not too difficult to make the connection," he said. "That thing's first appearance was the day after the last Kaitou KID heist in Suruga Bay. He travelled into the spacial anomaly; what happened to him afterwards hasn't been reported. The eyes of the country were on him and the Ekoda police force were there to stop him." He adjusted his hat. "But the information in the heist note that was released to the public shouldn't have been enough to know that it was the anomaly he was headed for. In fact, it didn't seem to relate much to the anomaly at all. There had to be some kind of information that the Kaitou KID Task Force have been keeping under wraps. It explains why that man from that global military force paid a visit to them."
Ran nodded. "I remember that being reported on the news," she replied, thinking back. "But they reported that he was coming to the country on official matters with the government. Did he really go to the Ekoda police?"
"We'll find that out now," Megure said. "The boys will finish up here, and then we'll meet up with Nakamori-keibu in Ekoda."
"Megure-keibu?" The voice took them all by surprise, and they looked down to see Conan standing up. He looked shaky; Ran immediately grasped his shoulder to steady him. "K-Kaitou KID must have exited the anomaly. The creature could be trying to find him. Go talk to Hakuba-nii-chan; he knows a lot about this."
The large man looked at Conan in mild surprise. "I'll keep the possibility in mind. Thanks for the tip." He walked off, stealing several glances over his shoulder at the little boy, who simply stared back with a blank expression.
Ai turned to face him. "And how would you know that?" she asked.
"These things only started happening after Kaitou KID entered the anomaly. As for how I know he's here…" Conan glanced up at Ran, and then back at Ai. "Can I tell her?" He seemed to be waiting for some snapping comment.
He didn't get it. "Go ahead."
"Haibara-chi-…" He cut himself off – was he about to add the '-chan' honorific to her name? "Are you sure?"
Ran knelt down again. "Conan-kun, Ai-chan told me that you've been acting very strangely lately, and that she suspects it to be the work of the spacial anomaly in Shizuoka," she said, hand clenching as a very visible shiver ran up Conan's spine and his eyes widened in shock and fear. "Besides, I already know that Kaitou KID returned. It's okay; Hakuba-kun told me about that. Remember?" She pulled him around to face her directly. "Now, Ai-chan and I have to know what's going on with you. It doesn't help either of us if you don't tell us, and both of us really want to help you. And I know how you often keep secrets from me, like where Shin'ichi is, or how you know everything that you do. For once, I would like to be kept in the loop, okay?
"So please… can you tell me everything?"
Conan dropped his gaze to her neck, silent. Then- "The day I ran away from school, I headed to Shin'ichi-nii-chan's house," he said. "I got a phone call from Agasa-hakase saying that there was somebody in his house and he wanted me to come over to help keep an eye on that person while he called the police. But when heading to the house I found the police, and I got worried for Agasa-hakase." Conan looked around, staring a bit wildly at the Shounen Tantei, who were currently resisting being carted off by their worried parents. "So I went inside his house, and the creature was in there. He shot at me. But Kaitou KID saved my life and made it run away."
Ran blinked, the weight of the words sinking in. "You mean… Conan-kun!"
"Huh?" He looked up again. His eyes were blank again, just as they had been earlier when they had been walking to the library.
"I don't think it's Kaitou KID that he's after!" she exclaimed. "I… I think it's you, Conan-kun."
And he stared at her.
MKMKMKMKMK
Kaito changed the channel, tense as anything. The Mobians had seated themselves already and were all looking around with expressions of insecurity. The last few minutes had been bereft of any speaking between them and, for once, he was glad of that. It was just as well that his mother was out shopping… then again, seeing how the woman had acted recently, it could be just as well that she had predicted this would happen and had left so he would feel more secure. He wondered briefly if there were any hidden cameras in the house, before jossing the theory and reminding himself that his mother didn't need to do any of that to be practically omniscient. She'd raised him alone from the day the police had come to report his father's death. She'd done the job of two parents.
And life had done the rest.
"-not been caught but it has been suspected to be the same creature that was observed-"
He snapped to attention, fumbling with the volume controls. "Guys, guys!" he announced.
"Huh?" Sonic's ear perked up, and he began kicking his legs around nervously. "What is it?" he asked. "You've found something on the television?"
"Yeah." Kaito gestured to the screen excitedly. It was the twenty-four-hour news channel, with plenty of headlines scrolling up the side of the screen and the three-dimensional render of the channel logo rotating in the corner. A picture behind the pretty reporter (really nothing more than a figurehead for the company, having next to nothing going for her other than her looks and her ability to memorise a script) showed a large building with police cars surrounding it and a small gang of people trying to get their faces on camera.
"-of the building right now is Megure Juuzo-keibu of the Beika police department-"
"Crap… I know that guy…" Kaito shuffled uneasily in his seat. "And that's tantei-kun's area."
The Mobians all stared at the television intently, until Tails turned around. "Kaito, we can't understand your native language," he said. "What's he saying?"
Kaito blinked, and listened carefully to the television. "There was a shooting at the Beika Library. A guy was killed. They're just releasing the name and age of the victim," he added, as a piece of text appeared on the already-overloaded screen. "From all the evidence, it's… that rat you guys know, that I saw."
Knuckles strongly resisted punching the floor. "Great," he groaned through bared teeth. "Why the heck's he going around shooting you stupid creatures? Who put him up to this?"
The boy stopped. "…What?"
"He doesn't do this because he just wants to," Sonic replied. "He's a bounty hunter. He does it to get paid. Did this guy happen to be a crook by any chance?"
Kaito glanced at the name again. "I doubt it, then again I don't really know. What do you mean, he does it to get paid?"
"Hunts people down, of course," Knuckles said. "Items too, like that Chaos Emerald you're keeping right now, but usually living things. He's a freelance bounty hunter who also assassinates if you pay him enough.
Sonic's ears fell back as his brow furrowed. "There is a reason that the people back home on our planet… called him 'the Sniper'."
MKMKMKMKMK
About an hour later, Hakuba Saguru and the Kaitou KID Task Force collectively swallowed their pride as Inspector Megure passed through their doors, followed by a few subordinates. All of them realised just what a problem it was to have the homicide department of Beika Division walking in on them, especially at such a time. It was well-known that Beika was the area with the highest body count in all of Japan – indeed, it pushed up the national crime average considerably – but it was very rarely that any of the deaths were ever linked outside. Anything spreading bigger than Beika would be attributed to some kind of conspiracy. And it just so happened that this current conspiracy led into their office.
Hakuba had turned on the television earlier and spotted the news just before it switched over. A sudden chill had run down his spine as he heard it, and he'd called everybody over while changing to the twenty-four-hour version. They'd watched the lengthy report with wide eyes. Hakuba still hadn't told them what the purple thing actually was, not to mention Nakamori had left some time ago. They were all just shocked by the fact that it was an alien who had managed to slip into a library completely undetected by any humans and shoot somebody in the throat.
Which suddenly made the visit even more poignant.
"We would like to speak to Nakamori-keibu," Megure said, arms crossed and back straight. "It's to do with a few incidents we've had involving our officers and a strange creature. We believe that creature to be from the anomaly, and so we came to you for some answers."
"That's a stretch, nothing more," Hakuba suddenly said, causing everybody to look at him. "For all we know, it's a man in a suit."
Shiratori stepped forward. Hakuba knew very little about him. The most he knew was that the man's knowledge was vast, but he rarely had a chance to display his intelligence due to the relatively mundane murders they normally faced. Anything too bad was dealt with by Mouri Kogorou (more accurately, Kudou Shin'ichi as Edogawa Conan, taking on the man's voice using his bowtie voice modulation device). "The forensics team would like to differ. The fur found on the scene was real, but couldn't be matched to any known species of animal."
"You seemed rather defensive then," said a female officer with short hair. "What's your name?"
"Hakuba Saguru. I'm a detective and Kaitou KID specialist." He narrowed his eyes. "And I don't see what that has to do with this."
Megure coughed. "It has plenty to do with this, I'm afraid." He adjusted his footing. "Your name in particular was dropped by the person to discover the body of the man found dead in the library. He told us to ask you about this specifically. Not to mention how Stonewall-gunshou passed through here."
"And who 'dropped' my name?"
"Edogawa Conan-kun."
Hakuba's heart dropped from his throat to deep within his stomach. Things had just gotten bad.
A/N: You know who he is now...