Secrets and lies: Chapter 3
Kaito recognised the girl with light reddish hair that he had seen before with Conan as she followed Conan into the room and sat down in a computer chair near him and glared at him with her arms crossed. He took in the details of her face and realised exactly how closely she resembled the photo they had seen of Sherry. She was a like a mini version of her and she was also wearing a lab coat. Maybe she was her daughter, Kaito theorised.
He was impressed to see that she was better than Hakuba in the glaring department. However he didn't know why she would be glaring at her next door neighbour.
Conan walked over and stood next to her. He looked a little protective on the outside, but inside he was a little disconcerted to see what should have been his own face looking at him.
"Congratulations Kid," he said. "You followed me without being noticed."
"What do you mean?" Kaito asked surprised, barely managing to keep his voice from squeaking in bewilderment. He fought hard to keep his poker face straight. Things weren't looking good for him at the moment. "I'm Shinichi Kudo; I live in the house next door."
Inside he was panicking; he had expected to be able to keep up the pretence for at least a little while. How had they known? Even the elderly man had seemed a little forced in his manner when he had let him in; his eyes had kept shifting from side to side in alarm. There was definitely something up with Shinichi Kudo's disappearance. It looked like he was dead after all; all of their reactions to him implicated that.
Conan rolled his eyes. "Yes, of course you are. If you were him you would be able to answer this question correctly. What is the name of the old man that let you in?" he questioned pointing across the room. The man in question was currently watching television with the volume down low.
Kaito twitched guiltily. He had no idea of the man's name; he hadn't gone to that extent in his research. Tantei-kun had got him there. Whatever then man's name was he must trust the little girl and Tantei-kun enough to interrogate someone that had entered his house under false pretences. Well they did look like child geniuses.
He held his hands up in surrender. It was useless to deny it. "All right. I'm Kid."
Conan smirked. "For your information the man's name is Professor Agasa. He calls himself a genius inventor. I'm not too sure whether that is correct."
"Oi. Where would you be without that stun gun wristwatch and the voice modulating bow tie? Sleeping Kogorou wouldn't exist," he retorted.
"Just joking Hakase," Conan replied hurriedly. "Now what should we do with you, Kid? I would be a hero if I turned you into the Police or I could let the girl next to me use you for scientific purposes. I believe she is fond of human dissections."
Kaito paled, destroying his poker face. Then the penny dropped. It wasn't Tantei-kun's style just to turn him into the Police as he could blackmail him and he couldn't exactly imagine him killing someone.
Conan burst out laughing. "Sorry I couldn't resist it. Your face was hilarious. Anyway, I take it you are here about Sherry?"
"Is she that evil eyed girl next to you?"
"In a way she is this evil eyed yawny girl," he paused. "Sorry Haibara, I'm going to have to tell him."
"Fine," she said waving her hand dismissively. "You will have to explain about yourself too. Since you've let so many other people in on the secret too, you might as well tell him."
"Stop reminding me," he turned back to Kaito. "There is a very rare side effect that happens as a result of APTX 4869. As far as we know, it had only happened twice and the Black Organisation is not aware of this. The poison can shrink a person into a childlike state. I would estimate it to be their seven year old self."
"So this is Sherry as her seven year old self."
"Exactly."
The mental fog cleared for Kaito and a lot of things fell into place that hadn't made sense about Conan Edogawa. It would explain why he never batted an eyelid when presented with a murder case and had outsmarted him a few times."If we apply that to your situation; you aren't really Conan Edogawa. At a guess I would say you are Shinichi Kudo the detective. It would explain how you knew it was me immediately."
Conan knew that it was pointless to deny it and he might as well be truthful. "Yes, I am Shinichi Kudo. I overheard an illegal transaction between a member of the Black Organisation and corrupt business man. The next thing I knew I had been caught by his partner, knocked over the head with a pipe and I was having a pill shoved down my throat. They left me thinking I was dead," he explained bitterly.
"Instead you had become a seven year old," Kaito said filling in the gap. "But I don't know how you can be so calm about it. I would be furious if I had to leave my old life behind. I wouldn't be able to see my friends anymore, my family or my girl friend."
Conan nodded in agreement. "It's hard. Luckily I'm leaving with Kogorou Mouri so whenever there is a case involving the Black Organisation I hear about it and can investigate."
"Your residency with Kogoro Mori wouldn't have anything to do with his daughter?" Kaito saw an opportunity for some ribbing to get Tantei-kun back for his earlier joke.
His face instantly coloured and a red blush heated up his cheeks like a heater. That morning he had accidentally seen Ran getting dressed when she had left her bedroom door open and he still couldn't forget it. "Of course not Kid. This is a serious matter. Do you have any more questions? Sensible ones."
"Why is Sherry here and not with the Black Organisation?" Kaito enquired. It was something that had been bothering him since he had learnt who she was. Also he had unconsciously adopted Conan's habit of calling Them the Black Organisation.
"I leave this one to you to explain, Haibara."
She made no reply and moved her chair to sit in front of Kaito. Fortunately for him she stopped glaring; it made him feel unwelcome and out of place like he wasn't smart or capable enough to handle the Black Organisation.
"Please listen carefully and don't interrupt; I am only going to say this once. My real name is Shiho Miyano and I am eighteen years old. When I created APTX 4869 I was only carrying on my deceased parent's research and it was never supposed to be a poison."
Kaito forgetting the rules that she had set interrupted her. "What was it intended to do? It can't have been anything pleasant."
She cut him off with a glare that could have cut through metal and he regretted opening his mouth immediately.
"I said listen carefully. I haven't even told Kudo-kun the true purpose of the drug so I'm highly unlikely to tell you. I've told him almost all of my secrets; so let me keep at least one."
Conan shrugged his shoulders at Kaito to show that he had also tried to get her to tell him, but had failed. Kaito nodded slightly at him to show that he understood. It looked like they did have something in common besides appearance.
She coughed noticing and carried on, "I was never happy working for them and one day the breaking point came. They killed the only family that I had left; they killed my sister. I didn't want to be used by them anymore after that. I tried to use the APTX 4869 to kill myself. Instead my body shrank and I managed to escape."
She stared out of the window sadly and a tear slowly ran down her cheek leaving a trail behind. It didn't fit in with her cold demeanour so he knew it must be a poker face to hide her grief. Kaito gazed awkwardly at his feet trying to think of something to say but came up with nothing. He pulled out a pink handkerchief with a flowery border from nowhere and threw it to Conan who passed it to her so she could dry her face. She seemed surprised by his action and looked up at him.
"I'm sorry about your sister," he said, knowing that it wouldn't do anything to console her; it hadn't helped him when his father had died. It was an empty, commonly used phrase used by people who didn't know how it felt. "If it's any consolation to you my father was killed by Them too."
"It's all right," she replied calmly, gradually becoming her normal self again.
Conan had found out from experience that when she got this the last thing she need was company or someone saying that they were sorry so he normally left her alone. The only time he interfered was when it looked like she was going to kill or harm herself and that had hadn't happened in a while. So he was quite surprised that Kid had managed to deal with it, but then again he always seemed to have a way with women.
Haibara took a deep breath and continued again. "After I had escaped I ran here as i developed a hypothesis that Shinichi Kudo had shrunk to a child as his childhood clothes had gone missing the second time his house was searched. It was a hypothesis that turned out to be correct."
Conan took up the explanation. "I hated her at first, but when she offered to create an antidote I like her better," he winked and Haibara glared at him. He hastily changed the subject. "Besides she's a great help when it comes to solving cases and she makes awesome sarcastic comments."
She made a face in reply remembering some of the things he had made her do to help solve some cases like the time she had to pretend that she had appendicitis. "Well I have to keep you alive and happy otherwise I wouldn't have a test subject to test the antidotes on."
"You don't have to keep reminding me. It spoils occasions when I notice you staring at me like l am pig you fatten up for the slaughter."
Kaito say back in his seat, content to let them argue whilst he mulled what he had just been told over. A drug that could shrink a person existed? If someone had told him that a year ago before he had found out about Kaito Kid he would have laughed in their face. The past year had taught him a lot and stretched his boundaries. He had been shot at, been a victim of a love spell, robbed museums and cross dressed as his childhood friend twice. He couldn't wait for things to go back to normal. Kaito sighed.
He then became aware that Conan and Haibara were exchanging significant looks and their eyes kept darting to him. Kaito twitched nervously; this couldn't be a good thing. They could be planning to feed him the poison so the evil eyed girl could have another test subject or they could be planning to attack him in order to find out his real identity. His mind was going into overdrive. He decided it would be better for his sanity if he just enquired politely. After all they could just be innocently glancing at him and it could just be his paranoia.
"Is there anything wrong?"
"Well, we've told you our true identities and the nature of APTX 4869 as well as some sensitive information about ourselves. We feel that it would only be fair if..."
Conan finished off her sentence."...You do the same in return as you have a hold over us at the moment and that isn't the best thing for any of us."
Kaito stiffened. It as only natural that they would ask him to disclose his real identity after they had done so first. He had been surprised that Tantei-kun hadn't tried to work out who he was before, but maybe that showed that he valued him as a rival and didn't want to uncover him outside of a heist. He was slightly unwilling to confess he wasn't sure that the house he was in was secure and Tantei-kun could be recording the conversation as well for future evidence. He looked at his watch and noted that it had got pretty late and Aoko and Hakuba were probably very tired and the trains would stop running in about an hour and if he stayed to tell them they would be there for a few more hours and miss the train. Also he knew that Tantei-kun wasn't telling the whole truth about the Black Organisation and wouldn't unless he was coerced.
Kaito knew that he had now outstayed his welcome. He adjusted his collar whilst keeping his eyes fixed on Conan and tapped the bug a few times hoping that Aoko and Hakuba would understand and be ready once he got outside so they could run away quicker. He also dropped a smoke bomb from his sleeve into his hand in preparation for his abrupt departure. Now it was time to leave.
He stood up, brushed down his suit and bowed. "Who I am will have to come later. I don't quite trust you yet; you're keeping information back so I won't tell you until you tell me and besides it's quite a sensitive subject for me. When you feel like telling me more please contact Hakuba, he's in the phonebook. Good night."
He dropped the smoke bomb that he had prepared and secreted in his fist only to feel a sharp pin prick in his neck. His vision began to blur and swim around his eyes. He knew he must have been shot with some kind of tranquilliser dart and he tried to sharpen his vision with no avail. Then his legs went dead and he dropped to the floor.
When the smoke dispersed it was revealed that Kaito was lying on the floor with his legs out straight touching Haibara's chair. Conan was standing over him with the lid of his stun gun wristwatch open. In the confusion of the smoke he had aimed randomly at what he had estimated would be Kid's neck if he was still standing there and had fired. To actually hit him had been a stroke of luck. Now Kid was at their disposal.
"He couldn't really expect to leave without telling us anything in return," Conan commented, congratulating himself on his good aiming. "What do you think we should do with him Haibara?"