Act 3 Scene 1 悪い知らせ [Warui Shirase] 'Bad News'

It'd been several weeks, with things running smoothly. Ran had dropped hints to Bourbon that she was worried about a friend of hers who was very sick. It wouldn't be hard for him to trace the breadcrumbs to 'dying Shinichi Kudou.' His mother was positioned in Osaka to pick up Areku, to get him into disguise and move him in with Heiji Hattori. With Areku's dark skin, he could easily pass as a cousin of some sort.

Heiji had been brought up to speed, and Ran kept in daily contact with Hakuba and Heiji who were helping the FBI analyze the documents Vermouth had given them. Heiji and Hakuba kept Conan and Ran in the loop on their progress.

Hakuba organized the agents into a couple categories: scientific research assets (willing, unwilling, or ignorant) and spies (muscle, reconnaissance, assassins, or managers). Not to be out-done, Heiji had discovered that they were organized into cells, and the reason that Conan randomly ran into Gin and Vodka was because they ran the largest cell of the organization in Tokyo. Heiji inferred that the boss of the organization was probably in Tokyo as well, even though the phone number was localized to Tottori. They'd been earning money by ripping off the different gangs, and keeping the gangs convinced that the culprits were rival gangs.

The money was getting shoveled into research for trans-humanist projects. Nano-machines, computer development, vaccines, cancer treatments, and life extension… When Conan read the list of studies the organization was supporting, he almost felt sorry that they'd lose their funding. The organization was large and very international, with the biggest cells in Tokyo, California, London, and the Italian government was on their pay-role.

Kaito's contribution, other than disguises, was a plan of action. They couldn't start picking people up right away. For this to work, they'd have to bring them in all at once, and it'd have to be the scientists, the non-espionage-savée people first. That way they could be taken down before they had figured out what was going on and could retaliate.

Ran was off training with Amuro again when Conan received a call from a number he didn't recognize. He let it ring a few times, before finally deciding to answer it.

"Hello, Edogawa speaking," he said hesitantly.

"Hello? It's Areku," said the hoarse, tired voice on the other end.

"Areku? Why are you calling? Did something happen?"

"Yeah. I'm at the hospital."

Conan's heart leaped into his chest. That was one of the worst places to be for someone like Areku. "What's going on?" he demanded.

A slow, shaky breath. "The clinic was robbed last night. Fumika and I surprised the robbers, and we got beaten up pretty bad. She hasn't woken up yet."

"Have the police caught them yet?" The question 'Are you okay?' felt stupid at this point.

"No… Apparently there's been a robbery crew targeting small island-town clinics for their medical equipment, and they flee by boat before anyone knows what went down. At least, that's what the police told me." Another slow, shaky breath. "There were some reporters poking around. I think one took a picture of me getting loaded onto the med-evac helicopter, so my cover may be blown. You said something about a disguise expert…?"

"Right." Conan rubbed his forehead. Hopefully the press would have the good taste to not post a picture of an 'underage' victim, and their worry would be for not. "I'll send my mom to you as soon as possible. With you in the hospital, it may be difficult though."

"Thanks. It's just a precaution, but I figured I should tell you."

"Good idea."

Areku listed off the address of the hospital and hung up.

This did not need to be happening now. Holding the address up, he called his mom. She agreed that to be on the safe side, she should pick him up.

Then out of curiosity, he checked the news websites for crime reports in the islands. At the top of the page was a big, flashy article, with a fancy headline (Island-Robbers' Spree Turns Violent) with a big photo of a bloody, terrified Areku being held down and strapped to a stretcher. The article even went into details to tell a dramatic story designed to grab the attention and heartstrings of the readers. It described the benevolent, Buddha-esque Dr. Nishiyama and the poor, tragic street urchin she'd taken in, who'd surprised the evil robbers in the middle of stripping the clinic of all of its valuable medical equipment and drugs. Conan began to wonder if his mother would make it in time.

"I'm coming in!" Ran said, stepping into the old building.

Amuro smiled broadly. "Punctual as always, Miss Ran." He pointed out a tall man, wearing a black fedora and an old fashioned black duster that just about reached the ground, making him covered from head to toe, except for the very long grey hair that hung down his back. "This is a friend of mine that works as a bodyguard. He's one of the best martial artists that I know of. I bragged about you to him, and he said he wanted to see your talent for himself."

"Oh, okay." She bowed politely. "Hello, I'm Ran Mouri. Pleased to meet you!"

The man took off his glove and stretched out his hand. "I'm John Mizuki." She hesitantly shook his hand. "Sorry, I work with a lot of foreigners, that's become a habit of mine."

He let his fingers linger a moment on her hands, gathering information about her from them. Her hands were rough, fingernails trimmed short, and her knuckles had been pounded until the bone fractured, then healed, then then fractured again. It was a slow, extremely painful process that thickened and warped the bone in one's hands, turning them into clubs. He made a note to never let her land a clean punch on anything that wasn't armored.

Ran noticed a bulge in his pocket. A gun. This was probably someone from the organization. Judging from his cold eyes and current company, he was a hitman. She made a note to tell Conan about him later.

Having looked each other over, they moved to the center of the room.

"Amuro tells me that you're well trained in karate, but you need to pick up other fighting styles, to become a more versatile bodyguard. He also tells me that you've had to pull your punches with the others you've sparred with. You don't need to do that with me." He beckoned.

She walked casually towards him, and like a snake, she struck for the stomach, the way that Amuro had taught her the first day of her new training. Her fist bounced off. Jumping back a few feet, she shook the pain out of her hand.

He laughed. "What you felt was body armor, designed to stop bullets. Your fists couldn't make a dent in it. So, how would you deal with an opponent like me?" He beckoned for her to attack again.

This time she ran directly for him, making it look like she was going to attack with her other fist, but switched to dropping to the ground at the last moment and balanced on the ball of one foot, kicked the backs of his knees, forcing him to fall forward. He rolled with the flow of her strike, and pulled his gun.

"You're dead." He stood up, dusted himself off, and said, "Try again."

After many similar attempts, they called it quits, and Ran left for home. Watching her receding back, Gin said, "You're right. With the correct pressures applied, she could make one hell of an assassin. The way you gushed about her over the phone, I thought you'd fallen in love." He laughed at his own joke. Bourbon scowled at him. "You said you had something else you needed to report. What is it?"

Bourbon nodded. "I've found a very dangerous leak. If we play our cards right, we can plug the leak and recruit Ran."

Gin showed his teeth, half amusement and half intimidation. "Go on."

"Her father's ward, Conan Edogawa. He's eight years old, has an IQ I'd be unable to calculate, and is being used by the FBI to gather information on us. Vermouth and I bugged the FBI agent Jodie Starling, and I heard them talk about his role in smoking out our agent in the hospital. He's also the one behind the 'Sleeping Detectives'. He knocks out people, then, using a voice changer hidden in his bow-tie, names the culprit and explains how he figured it out. He's too young to be an official FBI agent, but he's definitely one of their assets. He's also met Ambrosia."

Gin, who had been listening quietly up to that point, snapped his head up, narrowing his eyes. "What? How much does he know?"

"I'm not sure. He was with the Suzuki family on a vacation in the islands. According to Sonoko Suzuki's facebook account, Ambrosia helped Conan get to the doctor's office when he had a severe allergic reaction to a bee sting. I know that they've made contact, but other than that, I don't know anything."

Gin mumbled something about social networks making the business too easy.

Bourbon went on. "His name is an alias, and not a very well put together one at that. It doesn't have any paperwork or records to back it up, so it's not a professional cover. He likely made it himself. He's bilingual in Japanese and English – with an American accent – and he's got blue eyes and naturally brown hair, so he's likely the child of a Japanese-American couple. I don't know what happened to his real parents, and the Mouri's have no idea who he is. They treat him like a normal kid."

Chuckling, Gin said, "That makes sense. When the FBI nabbed Kir, we suspected that Detective Mouri had been the one to plant a bug on her. Just before we were going to snipe him that little kid kicked a soccer ball up from the street and broke the glass, making us delay our shot long enough for Akai to start shooting at us. And before that – someone set up a trap for Vodka to get his finger prints and put a tracker on him. One of the people seen entering the building right before was a little kid. Do you know how he's getting his intel?"

Bourbon sighed, shaking his head. "It looks more like chance encounters actually. He just recognizes us in those encounters and sets up traps. I think it may have something to do with someone you killed, right before Conan Edogawa surfaced. Shinichi Kudou."

Gin shrugged. "I don't recall the names or faces of those I've killed."

"He was the first person killed with APTX 4869, and he was one of the smarter 'highschool detectives'. Apparently, Conan looks up to Shinichi and tries to emulate him in many ways. In fact, I'm not sure Shinichi has been dead for the past two years."

Gin raised his eyebrows. "Really? How come?"

"I've been looking into all of Detective Mouri's recent cases. It's not in the reports, but when I interviewed witnesses, several said that Conan had been on the phone with Kudou, relaying information about the case to him, to get help solving a case. He was even described at several crime scenes, with one commonality. He always looked extremely ill. A few times it was mentioned that he passed out or had difficulty standing upright. He seemed to be suffering from a fever and some sort of chest pain too. He hasn't been seen or spoken of since Sherry passed away. Ran mentioned in passing to me that a friend of hers is dying, and though she didn't tell me who, it fits with what I've been able to find about Shinichi Kudou." He lowered his gaze, frowning. "I think he survived the initial poisoning, possibly by coughing it up when you were forced to flee the scene. Some of it must have gotten into his system though. Sherry may have been supplying him with an antidote, and when she died, he ran out of antidote and is on his deathbed. That's my deduction, anyways. I haven't been able to smoke him out yet. He's been very careful to not leave any evidence with the Mouris about where he's been hiding, and Conan appears to be his only connection to the world."

"So, the little genius kid found Shinichi Kudou and decided to help him. That's a fascinating story. I suppose you have a plan?"

Bourbon opened up a briefcase he'd stashed in the corner and handed him a gigantic envelope, stuffed to the brim. "This is my full report on Conan Edogawa, and what my suggested plan of action is. Will you get it to That Person? I think I know a way to solve this in a way that secures our legacy and ends in the smallest number of casualties."

"Your distaste for bloodshed is notable, as usual." Gin checked the inside of the folder, flipping through the contents briefly.

Bourbon shrugged, stepping out the door. "It's not my distaste for bloodshed – it the distaste for loss of life. I'm one of those who's chosen to rebel against death."

Author's Note

That Person. Anokata. あの方。

Believe it or not, that's a pronoun in Japanese. It's a polite way to refer to someone whose name you don't know. Pronouns in Japanese are actually quite fascinating. They are very, very much unlike Indo-European pronouns. For one, using a pronoun to refer to someone is rude, especially to their face. Using people's names is preferred. Or, if you want to avoid saying the name over and over, you just leave out the name and replace it with nothing. For another, there are dozens of them. Let's look at various words for "I/me/my/mine" for example.

Watashi/Watakushi – The genderless, polite version.

Atashi/Atakushi – Polite, feminine.

Boku – Casual, masculine (usually). Young girls sometimes use this pronoun too.

Ore – Very casual/Rude, and masculine. Very common amongst little boys, and Shinichi, as Conan, uses it often. Little boy's speech in Japanese is very rough and rude. One thing that surprised me when I was doing a matching exercise (who's doing the talking?) for quotes from various family members, was how informal little boys are to their parents. In the culture I was raised, little kids speak much more formally and politely to their parents, especially to their mothers. There's an unspoken rule that mothers are supposed to teach the kids about manners and etiquette in my culture, and speaking informally is something you learn from your peers when you get old enough. Seeing this difference was a bit of culture shock for me.

And there are dozens more obscure ones like: Uchi – A very polite "I." It's also a term for one's home. Otaku is also a term for a one's house, and it's a polite "you." (The derogatory term for nerds is related, since they stay home, and "otaku" is a polite way to refer to someone else's home.)

While first person pronouns often mark one's gender, third person pronouns usually don't carry that information. The few that do, like "kanojo" and "kare", double as words for "girlfriend" and "boyfriend" respectively. Others, like "aitsu" (he or she, genderless animate third person singular) are derogatory and extremely rude. I often see it translated into English as "that bastard/bitch."

Speaking of being rude, using a second person pronoun in place of someone's name (you/your/yours) to someone's face is extremely informal or very rude. Even using the go-to polite "you" (anata) after you know someone's name can be like slap in the face – something one picks up quickly when trying to make Japanese friends. Fun fact, instead of something like "dear" or "honey," lovers refer to each other with "anata." We do something similar in English, in phrases like, "Oh you, you rascal you." In the previous chapter, when Sonoko calls Ran "Honey," she's actually saying "Anata."

また来週！ (See you next week!)

dreamingfifi