Act 3 Scene 5 キラ隠し [Kira-Kakushi] 'Kidnapped by Killers'

Conan watched Ran binding Bourbon. It had happened so fast, he hadn't realized that Bourbon had showed up until he was sprawling, dazed and crippled in the wreckage below. Ran was amazing.

A voice called his name from the hole in the wall. It was Azusa, come to rescue him. He crawled his way to the hole. He wasn't sure if he could stand. Between the many hours of frantic phonecalls, the explosion, and the cold night air, he was cold, aching, and weary. How Ran was able to move, he didn't know. He felt big, warm hands pick him up and wrap a blanket around him. He closed his eyes, glad to be warm and safe. Strong arms carried him through the building.

"I'm a doctor," he heard the warm body holding him say. The voice sounded familiar. This guy was too big to be Dr. Araide. Who was it?

They reached the street. A gun went off, and Conan opened his eyes and twisted, trying to see what was happening. He caught a glimpse of Ran breaking Gin's arm.

Gin? He's here? That would mean that Vodka would be nearby… He looked up at the one carrying him gently down the street. Vodka. He took a deep breath to scream for Ran, but one of the big hands covered his mouth, stifling his voice. There was the sound of a trunk being popped open, and the big man fishing through things for something. Conan thrashed, desperate to get away, but the blanket held his arms and legs in, preventing anything more than a frantic squirm. Vodka found what he was looking for. It was a syringe in the shape of an EpiPen, but when it pierced his skin, he felt himself dragged into dreamland.

Consciousness came back to him slowly, like on a wet weekend morning. He was comfortable and warm. He tried to rollover, but someone snatched his shoulders and stopped it. Then he recalled what had happened before he'd lost consciousness. His eyes popped open. This was a drab white room, with a small window with plain, grey curtains. He was wearing hospital clothes, and he was tucked into a regular hospital bed. His glasses and watch were nowhere to be seen. There was an IV in his arm, and a mask was giving him oxygen. A doctor was holding his shoulder.

"Are you alright little guy?" she had a warm, comforting voice.

He tried to speak, but coughed instead.

"You were asleep a long time. Do you remember what happened?"

She seemed to be following regular procedure. How'd he get into the hospital? Hadn't he been kidnapped by Vodka? He shook his head.

"You were pulled out of the rumble of the Mouri Detective Agency. It looks like you inhaled a lot of smoke, got a little too cold, and you got a little knocked around by the explosion. Do you remember that?"

He nodded. Waiting in the cold for hours with Ran, waiting for help to arrive, but the men in black came instead. "Ran!" he exclaimed, then shook with another series of coughs.

"Ran Mouri is still in surgery. It sounds like she tried really hard to protect you. You have a brave older sister."

She observed his face and quickly added, "But don't worry, I'm sure she'll be fine. We need to focus on you, and you getting better. Do you feel any pain anywhere?"

His head, he remembered it throbbing after the explosion. It still hurt now. He touched his head with his hands.

"Your head hurts? That makes sense, because it looks like your noggin got rang pretty hard during the explosion. Do you need any pain killers?"

He shook his head. It hurt, but it was manageable. He couldn't stand to have his wits dulled.

"No need to be brave young man. If it hurts, let me know." She handed him a wand with a big button that dangled from the headboard. "Press that button if you need anything, okay? I need to get back to work." She handed him a clicker for the TV, and scurried off.

How'd this happen? Why hadn't they killed him? Why drop him off at the hospital? He looked up at the window again. Something wasn't quite right about the way light came through. Slowly, he climbed down from the bed. He grabbed his IV-stand, and hobbled over to the window. There was a chair in front of it, so he climbed onto it, and opened the blinds. It was a beautiful scenic shot of a nameless metropolis. It'd been turned into a poster and pasted over a set of florescent lights. He froze, and listened.

The doctor was talking with someone outside. She was scolding them, something about "leg" and "don't … weight…" Normal, doctor stuff. It sounded like someone was caught trying to walk on an injured leg.

Then he heard the voice of the person she was talking to. It was deep, jagged, and worn from years of chain-smoking. Could it be...? He had to make sure. He hobbled over to the door, IV in tow, and opened it up.

The doctor spun around. Her patient was sitting on a chair beside her. He had a black fedora and long, oily grey hair that hung limply over his shoulders. He wasn't wearing his massive jacket, but that was definitely Gin. "You shouldn't be moving around young man!" she said cheerfully.

Conan ripped the IV out and slipped through the door. He sprinted down the hall, being chased by the curses of the doctor and Gin. A door, somewhere there had to be a door to the outside. Alarms echoed, and the doctor's angry voice gave his description with strict instructions to detain him without killing him. He sprinted around a corner and ran right into a pair of adult legs. Dazed and struggling to catch his breath, he was snatched up and carried back to his cell. This time they strapped him down and left a guard.

This made more sense. They kidnapped him and were keeping him alive. They'd hoped to fool him into thinking he was at the hospital, to keep him from being troublesome. Why though? He'd been certain that they'd just want to kill him and get him out of their hair, with all of the trouble he'd caused them. Unless… Ran was their target. Kir had told them that killing them was only Plan B. He must be their hostage. Then taking out her parents and her home was a way to isolate her, and keeping him was a way to make her dependent on them for his care and safety. He felt nauseous. No way was he going to let himself be used this way.

He glared at his guard. He was a young man, roughly mid-twenties. He was wearing camo pants and a black t-shirt. His arms had an impressive array of scars and tattoos. "You're…" he is statement dissolved into a fit of coughing. The exertion hadn't helped any. "…not…" he said slowly, trying not to trigger another fit. "…doctors…"

"Right." His guard smiled. "Would you like to watch TV? Sitting around staring at each other gets awful dull."

Conan shook his head. He wanted to squeeze this guy for information. "Ran?" he asked.

"Your big sister is fine, from what I hear. She impressed That Person by killing Bourbon and beating up Gin so bad. If all goes well, you'll see her again soon."

His eyes went wide. Bourbon was dead? This was all his fault; if he never had told her, she wouldn't have reacted to him so violently; she wouldn't be a killer now. If she killed someone, then she'd definitely be isolated now, and easier pickings for them.

"I hear she's already received her codename. You'll be calling her Rum from now on."

He started to scream "Liar!" but his throat couldn't take it. He fell into a fit of coughing so long that his guard strapped the oxygen mask back onto his face, and turned on the TV. There was a Doraemon marathon on. He cursed his tiny fate.

Author's Note

As promised – The Vanishing Vowels

If you've heard Japanese being spoken and were comparing to a transcription, you'll notice that two vowels do a disappearing act. Or rather, they seem to. To discover what's going on, first you need to know about two linguistic concepts: Assimilation and Voicing.

Put your hand on your throat and make a ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ sound.
Then, with your hand still in place, make an SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS sound.

These two sounds are made in almost identical ways. Your tongue and jaw should be in the same position when making them, and you could with a little practice go back and forth between them without moving anything in your mouth. The only difference between these two sounds is the vibrating you felt in your neck as you made the Z sound. The process that produces that vibration is called "voicing."

Sounds that don't use voicing are called "voiceless" or "unvoiced." Sounds that do use voicing are called "voiced." By the way, when you whisper, that's speaking without any voicing. Because so many sounds occur in voiced/unvoiced pairs, whispering is much more difficult to understand, because many words that could be distinguished from eachother with voicing, suddenly can't be.

Assimilation is what happens when sounds that are near eachother become more like eachother. For example, the shortened version of the word "and" in English, which you may recall being written like this: 'n'. The N will assimilate where in the mouth it is articulated from the consonant directly following it. If the consonant directly following it is made with the lips, like a P, B, F, M, or W, (not necessarily spelled like that, but pronounced like that) the N will become an M, which is also made by the lips. It also changes to match K and G, becoming an NG sound.

Assimilation isn't restricted to place of articulation, however. Linguists have identified any and all features of sounds being copied, swapped, or deleted to make sounds more like their neighbors. In Japanese, short I's and U's can lose their voicing if they are surrounded by voiceless consonants, or a voiceless consonant and the tail end of a word. There are a few examples: (the voiceless vowels have little O's put over their tops.)

imasů - exist (for animate creatures only)
Arekkůsů - Alex
Ki̊saki̊ - Eri Kisaki's family name
Mushi̊shi̊ - Title of an amazing anime that you must watch
roků - 6

By the way, have you heard of the English word "skosh"? It's a borrowed word from Japanese, brought home by WW2 veterans who were stationed in Japan. It comes from the Japanese word "sůkoshi̊ " which is an adverb that means "a little" or "a small amount" or "a short distance." Not knowing how the word would be spelled, the soldiers picked up the word by ear – not hearing the voiceless U and I, and Englishized it into one syllable.

また来週！ (See you next week!)
dreamingfifi