Kiss of Death
Chapter 7
"Darkest Shadow"
A/N: Happy Chinese New Year everyone! This chapter is kinda mild but it's important. There's a reason why the title is "darkest shadow". -Hints-
"Mitsuhiko! Describe the person who is following us!" Conan screamed into the Detective Badge.
"It was a man dressed in all black but he's gone, but I think we gotta get out of here!" Mitsuhiko answered nervously. Conan's heart was on his throat the moment Mitsuhiko mentioned about a man donned in all ebony.
Damn it! It could be them lurking about.
"Oi, Kudo!-"
"Hattori! I'll leave the case to you!" he called out to Heiji as he dashed out of the hotel, leaving Heiji dumbfounded.
He sped towards the rented vehicle and pulled the door open. Inside of it was an anxious freckled boy.
"Where did they go?"
"I...don't know..."
"Damn it!" Conan cursed, gripping his hair in frustration.
Every time they are around, they are always a second away from me catching them. And to think the FBI had already raided their hideout 5 years ago, only to know that a few big guns like Gin, Vermouth and the goddamn boss weren't even in the hideout to begin with!
"You know tantei-san, secrets are bound to be cracked open," a female voice piped up, making Conan jumped a little.
Here we go again.
"Haibara, it's not-"
"I know, I know," Ai cut him off, "you don't want to let me know because we simply don't trust each other."
Conan opened his mouth to speak, but Ai glided past him and strapped on her seatbelt. Conan, without retaliation, decided to call up Heiji instead.
"Hattori," he communicated through his phone, "there was someone following us, so I'd figure we should go home."
"Ku- I mean kid, it's not wise to go back with that car. I'd send it back to the rental place. Go and take the kids to the station via the hotel's underground park," Heiji answered.
"Will you be alright?" Conan asked.
"I'll be fine. I don't think they want me, but her. Even if they come after me, I'll find a way. I'll stick by with Cisson's case and update you," the Detective of the West reassured.
"Alright. See you soon."
Damn it, Hattori's right. They might place some tracker or they may be lurking about. Wait, I know.
Conan pressed a few buttons on his mobile phone.
"Jodie-sensei!" Conan greeted, through the device, "I need a disguise for me, Haibara and a friend. I'll explain later. Meet you in a basement carpark at the Beika Hotel."
"Alright."
"So? That's your biggest plan? Just dressing up and hoping they don't return," Ai questioned, voice soft as a cotton pillow, but the diction was of a different spectrum.
Conan clicked his tongue in irritation as he walked through the carpark.
"I suppose you'd come with a better plan?" Conan turned, retaliating this time.
"Why couldn't we hop onto Jodie's car again?" she fought back.
"They might have already known her, Haibara. And they'd likely notice that we're not returning to the car so they'd predict we'd asked to be picked up," Conan explained, still the exasperated tone lingering in his answer, "so by reverse psychology, they won't think we're taking public transport but that's the option we'll take."
"Well said, Edogawa-kun," Ai said sardonically and clapped, but he sensed that she hated to lose.
"Why? Can't trust me anymore?" Conan piped up once more.
Ai could only shrug in response, but followed him anyway. Mitsuhiko was close behind.
"Then," he walked nearer to her, his face heated up in anger and the questions broke like a dam, "have you forgotten what I said? What you said back in that goddamn hotel? Was it just another joke of yours?" This made Ai intimidated, but looked away nevertheless.
Geez, why is she so difficult. Now focus. Jodie's car is a red Mustang or so I've been informed. There!
Conan spotted her car quickly. Sure enough the American woman was seated at the front with a huge branded shades that covered her eyes.
"Jodie-sensei? Conan called you, out of all people?" Mitsuhiko gasped in surprise, pointing his index finger shakingly.
"No, it's not-"
Ai smirked while she watched Conan struggle with the situation.
"My, my, why are you surprised?" Jodie tilted her head to the right with her hands on her face, acting clueless, "this cool kid said he needed materials for a drama play and I happen to have some spare!" Jodie smiled at the end of her exaggerated reply, a little too over the top in Ai's perspective. Oh well, lying and pretending to be spontaneously innocent isn't foreign to a female agent.
"Ohh, okay..." Mitsuhiko stammered as he received the disguise that Jodie handed over.
"Oops, my, my, I forgot a parent-teacher meeting!" she exclaimed and gazed at her watch, "ta-ta kids!"
In a speed of light, Conan watched her sped off in her Mustang.
From the rearview mirror, Jodie gave a knowing smirk at Conan and he nodded in response. A secret gesticulation that was too minute for Mitsuhiko to notice, but not for Ai's eyes.
It's all up to you now, Jodie. It's up to you to make sure they aren't in this vicinity till I get Haibara out of this place.
"Hey, watch it!" Mitsuhiko yelped in annoyance. Conan turned to see the commotion and apparently a soccer ball seemed to have hit Mitsuhiko squarely on the face.
"Sorry, Mitsuhiko!" a foreign schoolboy appeared.
"Eh? Cedric?" Mitsuhiko piped up, his anger vividly fading, "what are you doing here?"
"I was just playing soccer and got carried away," Cedric replied.
"See? I told you that we should've played basketball in the rooftop court instead!" another boy appeared. With a hair in shade of dark brown, hazelnut eyes and tanned skin, the other boy's appearance was a different spectrum to Cedric's.
"Sorry Tyler," Cedric placed his hand at the back of his head, muttering apologetically.
Smugly, Tyler pulled up his hood and tucked his hands at the pockets of his jet-black Varsity jacket and scoffed, "who are these Asians anyway?"
"That's Mitsuhiko," Cedric replied, pointing to the freckled boy. Mitsuhiko cracked a timid smile at the Lebanese-looking boy but he was greeted with another scoff.
"Oh! I forgot Cedric," Mitsuhiko intervened, "this is Conan and Haibara."
"Edogawa Conan!" Cedric smiled, stretching his hand out for a handshake, "I'm not sure if you've known it yet, but you're supposed to be like Tyler's foreign exchange buddy and you'll have to tour him. Mine's Kojima Genta. I heard you're friends with him."
"Nice to meet you too, Cedric," Conan replied, taking his handshake firmly.
He turned to Tyler, reaching a hand out to him for another handshake, "And to you too, Tyler," only to be returned with a glare. Tyler's eyes scanned Conan's appearance from head to toe like a barcode and raised an eyebrow. At this, Conan's forced smile faded.
Geez, what's up with this stuck-up teen?
Tyler ignored him, walking over to Ai.
"Hey there, you're not full Japanese, if I'm not wrong?" he said as smoothly as he could and took her hand, kissing it softly. Ai immediately flinched at the sudden unfamiliar touch.
What's up with this guy? Being too forward with Haibara. That's just disgusting.
Conan's senses blared at the sight. His instincts were nagging at him to physically injure Tyler.
"Obviously, my mom was British. And you do know you'll have to try harder than that!" she retorted contemptuously, which made Conan smirk in triumph.
Yea, get lost kid. She's not into arrogant bastards like you.
"Oh reall-"
"Tyler lay off, you're dating someone already," Cedric pulled him away by the shoulders with great strength.
Damn, this guy may be small built but he surely could handle his muscular friend.
"Oh shut u-"
"What are you two doing here?" a familiar female voice screamed across the carpark. It was Amora. Conan was surprised that they knew each other.
Amora walked steadily towards the group of teens, her heels clicking on the ground and resonating across the carpark walls. "You two should be in your rooms!" she reprimanded the two foreign boys.
"Sorry ma'am," Cedric bowed his head apologetically and nudged his friend, who was looking away with a frown.
"Yeah yeah," Tyler muttered, rolling his eyes.
His nonchalant, impolite reply seemed to ignite her anger even further. She was about to open her mouth to scream, but Tyler was saved by the ringing of her phone.
"Boys, I expect you to be in your designated rooms all washed up and ready for bed in 30 minutes!" she huffed in frustration, then walking away to pick up the call.
"Hello? Oh yes, I'm holding the auction later..."
"Tyler, that was the goddamn principal," Cedric uttered, furious. His aura suddenly changed into a darker tone.
Amora's the principal of that school? No wonder she's here. Now wonder they're here! Ouch-!
Conan bit back a cry, pain registering on his brain. He looked back, seeing Ai's fingertips burying dangerously deep on his shoulder. She was cowering in fear again, like before.
Why is Ai being like this? Could Amora be one of the ones from the Black Organization?
"Whatever, she can't kick me out because my grandpa's the founder of the school," he said in cold pragmatism and staggered off, swaying his hands side by side with his head held high.
Turning to the 3 other teens, Cedric lowered his head and said, "Sorry, my friend Tyler's quite a rouge. But he is a nice guy if you get to know him."
"Anyway, we gotta go. We're in a rush. We have a curfew to follow," Conan said, jolting up when he had realised he has a plan to follow.
"Alright, see you all real soon!" the golden boy waved, running off in a distance. Mitsuhiko watched him in envy. A nice, good-looking boy. Definitely popular with the ladies.
"You know, nothing will happen if you just stare. She already talked to him," Ai commented, which made Mitsuhiko stunned. Only Conan was none the wiser.
"All's fair in love and war. You don't fight, you'll never get what you want," Ai continued, walking off the distance.
"You know let's just put these costumes on and go home," Mitsuhiko opened the bag Jodie gave, trying to change the subject.
"We got no time to lose," Conan added, and the 3 teens hurried to the washroom to change.
Little did they know, a silhouette of a person in a scarlet Porsche is watching them.
A/N: For the benefit of not showing spoilers to people who haven't read the Bourbon arc, I will NOT place Akai Scuichi, Sera, Bourbon, Okiya in my fanfiction. There are still many mysteries Gosho has yet to unveil, like the identity of Rum and the mystery behind Sera. So as of now, I will not introduce them because it may mess up with the canon plot and the fanficiton won't make sense. That's why I'm using Heiji and Jodie as Conan's "Watson". The biggest mystery Gosho has yet to answer that I really want to find out is the odd relation between Gin and Sherry. Why is Gin so obsessed with Sherry and why is Ai so afraid of him? I'm not sure what to think of anything else when Gin was extremely jealous when he knew of a guy helping out Sherry (definitely hinting to Conan helping out Ai, like duhhh... who else?). But if there was a romantic past in it, it would've been cool if Conan/Ai was the main pair instead of Ran/Shinichi because it is much more relevant to the Black Organization plot.