Nevermore

By: Hikari-chan (Chitsuki)

Disclaimer: If you recognize it, it still belongs to Gosho Aoyama. Anything that is Edgar Allan Poe's work is referenced in the text and belongs, of course, to Mr. Poe (although I think it's public domain now). I make no profit from this.

Musings: Except for the Shounen Tanteidan, (almost) everyone else is referred to by their last names in the narrative. Because it's mostly Conan's POV and that's how he would think of most strangers/people.

-o-o-o-o-o-

Chapter 1

-o-o-o-o-o-

When he woke up, the house was silent, eerily so. Conan frowned and automatically reached for the glasses he didn't need...and almost fell off the bed when his hand missed the night table. He blinked and looked around. The night table wasn't where he remembered it. It was...on the other side of the bed. He pulled the covers back and got out of the bed. The floor was cold, which was odd. He remembered turning on his space heater before going to bed.

He looked around again and startled. He wasn't in the Kudo mansion. He was at Agasa's. This was the guest bedroom. The only thing was – he didn't remember sleeping over. And was it just him or did his perspective seem different? The dresser looked particularly high and the door seemed larger. He looked down; the floor seemed closer for some reason.

He paled at a sudden thought. Oh God.

He looked at himself. Sure enough, as he had suspected, he was in a child's body.

He was in a dream, no, nightmare. He had had this nightmare before, a vivid recall of the 48 hours leading up to the takedown of the Black Organization 8 years ago. The exception was, in his nightmare, the outcome was always a little different. It was always more eerie, with more blood, more bodies.

He swallowed the lump in his throat, and as though his dream body was on autopilot, he left the bedroom and headed to the kitchen for a glass of water, just like that night, just like every time he had this dream. The kitchen was dark, but the moonlight shining through the window glinted off the cool metal of the knives strewn around the kitchen floor. The heavy smell of blood filled Conan's nostrils and he could feel bile rising up in the back of his throat.

But he had to know. He had to know who they had killed this time. Fear gripped him. The knowledge that he wasn't able to save someone he cared about almost froze him to the spot. He had to know though; he had never not wanted to know. He could see the outline of the body. It was someone large, maybe elderly. The moonlight was just enough for him to make out gray hair and a pair of round glasses on the floor.

He felt a wave of devastation hit him like a physical force. It was...

-o-o-o-o-o-

"No!" Conan screamed, sitting up in his bed, his heart threatening to pound right out of his chest.

His bedroom was still dark, but the quiet hum of the space heater filled the silence. His whole body was slick with sweat though, the blankets suddenly too hot. His eyes darted around the room, recognizing all the familiar things – the night table was in the right place, his glasses were where he remembered leaving them before he went to bed, and that book of Edgar Allan Poe stories was sitting there with the mysterious card used as a bookmark, next to his clock that read 3:17AM.

There was no one dying, no one he failed to save. Everything was normal. Well, almost.

Hastily, he climbed out of bed and almost ran downstairs, putting on his shoes and grabbing his keys at the same time. Without even bothering to put on a jacket, he ran next door to Agasa's, letting himself in as quietly as possible. He climbed up the stairs and headed straight to Agasa's bedroom. The sound of the professor's snoring could be heard even through the door, but still, Conan slowly opened it and peeked inside.

Agasa-hakase was snoring away loudly, the steady rise and fall of his chest and belly reassuring Conan that he was alive. He breathed a sigh of relief.

"Conan-kun?"

The quiet female voiced startled him, and he turned around to find Ai standing there with a baseball bat in one hand, looking at him in puzzlement. She wore a robe over her pyjamas, and her hair was dishevelled.

"Ai," he whispered. "Sorry, I..."

"Had another nightmare," she finished for him.

He nodded. She reached around him to close the door to the professor's room and took his hand, leading him quietly to her own bedroom.

"You should change," she told him softly, putting away the baseball bat. "Your shirt's soaked in sweat. You're going to get sick."

"Oh, um, I didn't think to bring one."

She rolled her eyes. "You're really not very good at anything but solving mysteries and soccer, are you?" She left him standing in the middle of her room and his natural curiosity compelled him to look around. He hadn't been in here in years, and especially not since they started dating. He was still in the body of a fifteen-year-old boy, and had the situation been a little less depressing, being in his girlfriend's bedroom would probably lead to other stray thoughts.

Ai came back with an old gray t-shirt. "Here," she said, holding it out to him. "One of those pieces of clothing Hakase swears he'll someday fit back into."

Conan took it gratefully and pulled off his sweat-soaked one. "What are his chances?" he asked, more out of a need to say something than actually wanting to know. He changed into the dry shirt, noting it was still big on him. He looked up when he realized Ai hadn't responded.

"Ai?"

"Huh? Oh, um, minimal."

He frowned. "Is everything okay?"

She smiled at him then. "I should be asking you that. You don't usually get the nightmares until three or four days before the anniversary of the Organization's downfall. The nightmares are a couple of days early."

He sat down on her bed and ran a hand through his hair. "I think it's because I was reading Poe before I went to bed," he admitted.

"Ah. And did it help you with that note?" she inquired, understanding right away.

"Not at all. I'll probably just have nightmares for six days now instead of the usual three or four," he answered dryly.

She sighed and sat down next to him, threading her fingers with his. "What are you planning to say to Kojima-kun when you inadvertently wake him up in the middle of the night?"

Conan gave her a bit of a smirk. "I'm actually banking on the fact that Genta is a heavy sleeper," he replied cheekily. "A really heavy sleeper."

"That's why you asked him to room with you when we were told to pick roommates," she mused.

Conan nodded. "I would have picked you. Then I wouldn't have to explain anything, but I don't think Igarashi-sensei would have approved of that."

Ai smiled. "Not to mention your admirers would have been heartbroken."

"Doubt it," he murmured, leaning forward and kissing her softly. "Hey, I have a favour to ask."

She let him lean his forehead against hers and met his eyes, knowing he was still full of anxiety from the nightmare. "What?"

"Can I stay here tonight?" he whispered. "I just... I need to know you're alive. Nothing else, I promise."

Without a word, she stood up and pulled him up with her. Then she rearranged the covers and climbed back into the bed, tugging him in after her. She held him to her chest, letting him wrap his arms around her waist. She could hear his breathing slow as he drifted off with the steady beating of her heart sounding in his ear. In a lot of ways, it was unfair that his nightmares were even worse than hers. Hers had gotten better as time went by, but Conan's seem to persist. She stared at the ceiling, wishing there was something more she could do.

-o-o-o-o-o-

Otaru was a port city about an hour train ride from Chitose Airport in Sapporo. Although neither the train ride nor the flight from Tokyo was very long, Conan was still exhausted by the time their graduating class arrived in the lobby of the Yukihome Ski Resort just on the outskirts of Otaru. He had slept through the night after going to Agasa's the night before, but he had woken up only about fifteen minutes after Ai had gotten up at 6:00AM. He had found her downstairs, making breakfast. Although the strawberry blonde had dismissively told him that she always woke up early, he knew it was because she had barely slept after he had barged into the house in the middle of the night. He could tell by the way she kept yawning despite the two rather large cups of coffee she had consumed.

So he could hardly begrudge her after she fell asleep on him on the plane, and then on the train, despite the soccer team all smiling knowingly at him. He almost felt bad having to wake her up between transfers.

"Class 3-A, gather around this way please!" their homeroom teacher, Igarashi Ichiro-sensei, called out.

Conan followed his classmates to the left side of the large lobby.

"I'm going to be calling out you and your roommate's names," Igarashi-sensei explained. "You'll get your electronic room keys and a copy of our scheduled activities. You can settle in and look around the resort, or go out to the hills if you don't need lessons. Please meet in the first floor dining room by 6:00PM and the teachers will go over the assignments that need to be completed while you're here."

The students chorused their agreements and Igarashi-sensei started calling out names.

"Conan, you want to explore after we put our stuff down?" Genta asked him, excitement clear on his face.

What Conan wanted to do was take a nap, but seeing the hopeful faces of Genta, Ayumi, and Mitsuhiko waiting expectantly for his answer, he found he couldn't refuse.

"Sure," he agreed, giving them a weak smile.

"Edogawa Conan-kun and Kojima Genta-kun!" Igarashi-sensei called.

"Here!" Genta yelled back with enthusiasm.

He jogged up to the teacher and got their keys, followed by a slower Conan. Genta gave Conan his electronic key and the schedule, which Conan opened and skimmed. It looked like the five different classes would be on rotation, alternating between history lessons about Otaru and skiing or snowboarding.

Conan looked up when he heard Ai and Ayumi's names called, followed by Mitsuhiko and his friend Fujisaki Akira from the computer club. Genta quickly shared their room number. They were on the third floor, in the left wing, with Mitsuhiko just three doors down from them. The girls were in the same wing on the fourth floor.

Making their way up the elevator, Conan noted absentmindedly that the resort had a rather European style. With six floors, the resort spread out into a left and right wing on each floor, which curved around to form a U-shaped complex. The central area of each floor contained the resort's indoor amenities while the wings likely housed over 500 rooms in total.

They agreed to meet the girls half an hour later in the main lobby, then he followed Genta down the hall to their room. It took Genta a couple of tries to make the electronic key unlock the door, but Conan merely waited patiently.

"Wow!" Genta exclaimed as he pulled his suitcase in.

The room was fairly large, by Japanese standards, with two twin beds and a spacious corner in which a comfortable-looking armchair and a desk resided. A flatscreen television was mounted on the wall between the two large windows facing the beds. Conan peeked into the bathroom, noting it was pretty standard, with its usual amenities and a full-length mirror.

"Conan, come check out the view!"

He joined Genta at the window and smiled when he looked outside. They were on the side of the resort facing the mountains. He could see the impressive slopes and the various skiers and snowboarders. Suddenly, he didn't feel so tired anymore.

"This is so cool!" Genta continued. He hurried back to his suitcase and tossed it onto the bed closer to the door.

Conan smiled at Genta's enthusiasm. Guess the other bed was his.

"And I'm warm even without a space heater!" Genta exclaimed.

"Oh, that's probably the central heating," Conan replied, walking over to bring his own suitcase to his bed.

"Uh, what?"

"Central heating," Conan repeated. "It's a system used to provide warmth to the whole building from one point, usually a furnace room, to multiple points in the complex."

"So they don't use space heaters?" Genta inquired.

"Space heaters are more of a central and southern Japan thing," Conan explained. "We get warmer weather, so most of the time, it's not necessary to heat up the whole building. Hokkaido tends to get consistently cold weather, so places like ski resorts, especially new ones, will use a central heating system to keep their guests warm."

"Huh," Genta replied, scratching his head. "You always know these weird things... I hope there's a trivia quiz with unagi-don as the prize! We would definitely win!"

Conan stared at Genta for a good five seconds before deciding to ignore the comment and turning to unpack. Who in the world would give out unagi-don as a prize?

-o-o-o-o-o-

Genta and Conan met up with Mitsuhiko, Ayumi, and Ai shortly after 3:00PM to explore the complex. As Conan had suspected, the wings were solely dedicated to rooms and suites, so walking up and down the hallways were uneventful. The central area though, was pretty interesting.

The top floor had a café that led onto an outdoor terrace. The terrace faced the inside of the U-shaped complex. Below them, the garden area had a fountain, which wasn't running since it was the middle of winter, and a small pond which had been turned into an outdoor skating area. There was also, in full resort style, a chapel at the end of the garden. The café was connected to the Sun Room, a beautiful, ornate room which was completely decorated in Victorian style. There was a large fireplace and various armchairs, but the most impressive part of the room was the glass ceiling that allowed large amounts of sunlight through.

The fourth floor had a spa, a pool, and a gym, as well as some children's facilities, like a daycare for parents vacationing at the resort, a craft centre, and a game centre. The third floor was a complete business centre, with a fully equipped computer lab, a reading room, and conference rooms.

"This is really impressive," Mitsuhiko couldn't help commenting as he checked out the computer equipment.

"It's great, isn't it?" came a female voice from two computers down.

The group looked up to see a lady, maybe in her mid-thirties, smiling at them. She had long hair pulled into a braid and was wearing ski gear, her goggles still on her head.

"I'm Uchida Kyoko," she introduced herself.

"We're from the Teitan Junior High school group," Ayumi was, as always, the first to warm up to the stranger. "We're on our graduation trip."

"Ah. Then what are you doing in a computer lab?" Uchida asked. "You guys should be out having fun."

"We're just checking out the facilities," Conan supplied politely. "And you, Uchida-san?"

"My mother and I are taking our annual mother-daughter vacation," Uchida answered with a smile. "I'm just emailing my dad to let him know we're doing well. It's so convenient not to have to bring your own computer."

Just then, an older woman walked in with two travel mugs. "Oh, hello there," she greeted the group.

"Hi, Mother," the younger Uchida smiled, taking one of the mugs. "These are kids from that Junior High group we saw coming in earlier. This is my mother, Ayako."

The group of five exchanged formalities with the older woman, then the younger Uchida stood up. "We should go," she said. "We want to get some skiing in before the sun sets."

"It was nice meeting you!" Ayumi waved at them as the two ladies left. "They seemed like nice people," she commented after the glass doors shut.

"You think everyone's a nice person," Ai pointed out, but there was a smile on her face.

The group continued their trek to the second floor, which was filled with various restaurants. The highlight of the second floor was a small lounge called the Moon Room. Unlike its counterpart on the sixth floor, the Moon Room was decorated with modern pub furniture, although it also housed a fireplace. A massive projector television was set up on one wall.

"That is a really big TV," Genta commented, staring the wall.

"It's for sporting events."

Looking to their left, they saw a man sitting at one of tables. He looked about forty, was wearing a light sports jacket, and had an open laptop and a flat beer in front of him.

"Like if they host sporting competitions?" Mitsuhiko asked.

"Yea, or if people just want to gather to watch a television broadcast of national sports," the man answered. "You guys here for a sports competition?"

Genta and Mitsuhiko shook their heads and introduced themselves to the stranger, who grinned and told them his name was Enomoto Haruki.

"I'm an aspiring reporter," he added. "I haven't made it that big, but I'm still looking for opportunities."

"You're doing a travel article for this resort, right?" Conan asked.

"Yea," Enomoto replied. "Good guess, kid."

"It's not a guess," Conan said, stuffing his hands into his pockets. "You're not wearing ski gear even though it's the middle of the afternoon and the weather's perfect for being on the slopes. So clearly, you're not here for that. You said you're an aspiring reporter, you're here with your own laptop, and the foam is gone from your beer. Obviously, you're working on an article. You asked if we were part of a sporting competition, but if your article was about sports, you would have known the answer. Plus, this resort is new. The only logical conclusion is that the article is a travel article about the resort."

Enomoto looked surprised. "That's pretty sharp, kid," he complimented.

Conan grinned. Of course he was.

Catching sight of the clock on the wall, he turned to his friends. "We only have about half an hour left. Do you guys want to quickly check out the first floor?"

They wished the reporter good luck on his article and hurried down the grand central staircase to the first floor. The lobby was as they remembered it, but there were additional common areas on both sides. On the left, they knew, were the first floor dining room and some kind of dance disco for adults, so they headed right first. The heavy oak doors led them into a huge library with rows and rows of bookshelves that spanned from the floor to the ceiling, the continuous shelves only broken by a cozy fireplace in the middle. There were various armchairs and small tables by the windows for reading, which some guests were taking advantage of.

"Wow…." Mitsuhiko whispered, heading closer to one of the shelves.

"It's almost as impressive as the Kudo library," Ai added softly beside Conan, who nodded.

"It's smaller, but yea," he agreed, "it's still pretty impressive."

Mitsuhiko was trying to see what the taller shelves contained when a woman in her mid-thirties came up to him with a stepstool. "Here," she whispered. "I'm done with this. Do you want it?"

"Oh, um, thanks….uh…."

The woman smiled. "I'm Shima Chiaki," she said.

Mitsuhiko smiled back. "Thanks, Shima-san."

"You guys with the school group?" she asked.

"Yea," Mitsuhiko nodded, then half turned around to gesture to his friends, who were examining something on a lower shelf across the middle aisle. "My friends and I are on our graduation trip."

"That sounds fun," Shima replied. "Well, have a good trip."

And with a wave, the woman hurried back to the stack of books she had left on the floor.

Mitsuhiko used the stepstool to look at some of the books on a higher shelf. There were non-fiction books on the shelf about the area and he even noticed some computer related reference books. He was debating borrowing a couple when he heard Ayumi and Ai calling him.

"We're going to be late," Ai pointed out.

He checked his watch to realize it was close to six o'clock. Stepping off the stool, he hurried after his friends to the dining room.

-o-o-o-o-o-

The evening meal consisted of sukiyaki and rice, which was perfect for the cold weather. Genta, as usual, ate more than his share, but among the warm laughter of friends and classmates, no one seemed to mind. Nearing the end of the meal, all five of the teachers stood up and clapped to gain the students' attention.

Their science teacher, Sugimoto Riku-sensei, was the first to speak. "Everyone, I hope you've enjoyed your afternoon and have gotten a chance to take a look at our planned itinerary for the next few days. We'll be on rotation starting tomorrow morning. Igarashi-sensei's Class 3-A and Chino-sensei's Class 3-B will be on the slopes getting lessons first. Choshi-sensei's Class 3-C will be doing a tour of Otaru and getting a history lesson of the city. My class and Saiki-sensei's Class 3-E will have free time to either complete their assignment or hit the slopes, and we will rotate every day."

The English teacher, Chino Rena, and the Japanese teacher, Choshi Ryuu, both added then that they were available for help if the students needed anything for their assignment, and gave them some rules to follow while they were on their free time.

Igarashi-sensei then brought in three additional people. "Everyone, these will be your instructors during your sports lessons," he stated.

A short woman in her mid-twenties waved at them. Her hair was pulled into a messy bun, but her eyes were sharp. "I'm Li Xiao Xue," she introduced herself. "I'll be your skating instructor for the week."

"I'm Chiba Ren," a man in his late-thirties was next. "I'm the ski instructor."

"And I'm the snowboarding instructor, Yamaguchi Atsushi," the last man, who was in his early-thirties, finished. "We really hope everyone will have a lot of fun."

"And lastly, this is the resort manager, Ryusaki Cato-bucho," Igurashi-sensei added, gesturing to a man in his late-fifties who had entered the room.

"Welcome to the Yukihome Ski Resort," Cato smiled at them. "I hope your stay will be enjoyable."

All the students clapped in thanks as the resort staff waved at them and left. Then, their music teacher, Saiki Himeno-sensei, finished up the speeches by announcing a quick social activity for the evening – a friendly competition among the classes.

"You're going to get a list of trivia questions," Saiki-sensei told them. "You can split it up into small groups or do it altogether as a class, but the class with the highest score will get a prize."

Their class representative, Kato Natsumi, was the one who got up to get their copy of the trivia. She was a pretty girl in the chess club, with long dark hair and a cute smile. Conan, Ai, and their friends got up and gathered around with the rest of their classmates.

"When was snowboarding first included in the Olympic games?" Kato read out loud.

There was a low murmur as some of them started to discuss the question. Ai, however, looked at Conan expectantly.

"It's the Nagano Games in 1998," he answered automatically. "The IOC voted to include it in December of 1995, so the first Olympics with snowboarding was 1998."

The murmur became silence around their group. Kato stared at him.

"Uh...that's probably right," Mitsuhiko supplied. Although their classmates knew Conan was smart, they hadn't been exposed to his penchant for reciting random facts at the drop of a hat.

"Okay…." Kato said slowly and wrote the answer down. "The next one is: what was Julius Caesar's famous quote?"

Conan frowned. "There are a few," he pointed out. "If I had to guess, it's probably 'veni, vidi, vici'."

"I came, I saw, I conquered," Ai translated. "Good guess."

"Is that English?" Kato asked, not sure how to write it.

"No, it's Latin," Conan corrected. He spelt it for her, then added, "The Roman Empire spoke Latin and Greek."

"Um...out of curiosity," Mitsuhiko interrupted suddenly. "How many languages do you speak, Conan-kun?"

"I only speak Japanese and English fluently. I know some phrases in Spanish, Latin, and Chinese, but not enough to carry on a conversation. Oh, and I have a deaf uncle, so I know Japanese sign language and American sign language." Conan stopped when he saw his classmates staring at him in silence. Then he grinned and added, "You should ask Ai what languages she knows."

The whole class turned expectantly to the strawberry blonde.

"Japanese, English, Spanish, Italian, French, German, and I read Latin."

One of the boys on the soccer team interrupted the silence with a loud snort. "You two are a regular United Nations."

"So Edogawa is a genius with a sassy, multilingual girlfriend," another boy added, sounding completely amused. "Do you have superpowers too?"

-o-o-o-o-o-

The social ended with Class 3-A winning the trivia game, for which the award was a shortened assignment during the trip. As their class dispersed for the night, all the boys took turns slapping Conan on the back for a job well done, until Conan was sure he was sporting one giant bruise in the shape of a handprint on his back.

"At least the prize wasn't unagi-don," he muttered, massaging his shoulder.

He walked slowly with Ai behind Genta, Ayumi, and Mitsuhiko, feeling no hurry to go back to his room. The three of them managed to catch an elevator with some of their classmates, and Conan waved at them to go ahead.

"Hey," Ai started once the elevator door had closed behind their friends, "are you going to be okay for tonight?"

He looked at her and grimaced. "I really hope Genta is a heavy sleeper."

She turned towards him and reached out to hold his hand. "If you need me, call," she said softly. "I'll keep my phone turned on."

Conan noticed that she looked tired, like she still hadn't recovered from the interrupted sleep the night before. He also knew she would soon be dealing with her own nightmares; hers plague her around the same time as his, but they tend to last for fewer days.

"I want you to sleep while you can," he protested.

"I'm not negotiating with you," she told him. "Call me if it ends up like last night."

"Okay," he lied, knowing already that he wasn't going to interrupt her sleep. He cupped her face and kissed her. She tasted like strawberry and wine – sweet, heady, intoxicating.

The elevator came and they stepped into it to go to their separate rooms. By the time he had said good night to Ai and made it to his room, Genta was already getting ready for bed. Conan felt a sense of dread at the thought of going to sleep and facing the fictional, but all too realistic, death of another person he knew. Swallowing, he spotted the book he had set out on the night table. Considering Poe's work, it was probably a bad idea, but it would shorten his slumbering hours and give him something to do.

He turned the bedside light on low for Genta's benefit and opened the book, settling in for a long night.

-o-o-o-o-o-

End Chapter 1.

Word Count: 4,583
Cumulative Word Count: 6,196

Chitsu's Curiosity Corner: Did anyone notice from the Prologue that Conan and Genta were rooming and wonder about it? :) Just curious. And yes, I did just (in the same fashion as a DC movie) dump a load of suspects, err, I mean random characters on you. :)