Detective Conan Fanfiction

Kiss of Death

Chapter 13

"BOSS?"

A/N: Hello! TAKE NOTE- I CHANGED RAN'S HUSBAND'S NAME TO ARAIDE TOMOAKI! It is unclear whether Araide did like Ran (although he's like 7 years older than Ran, but I do think that the age gap wouldn't matter if Ran is already 25 and he's 32). It is hinted that he does had plans to date her in OVA9, although it's not canon. I sort of think he's a better fit than that OC.

Heiji watched anxiously as a tiny explosion occurred. To his horror, he watched Conan being hurled to the air as his skateboard malfunctioned.

Baka! So much for trying to be cool!

"Hakase, stop the car. I'm getting out to help Kudo. Call the police and drive away as fast as you could," Heiji instructed to Agasa, his tone being oddly stern. Agasa was in reluctance once more, but knew that they needed to rescue Conan. The professor did as he was told and Heiji got out of the car, carrying a handgun. Being the son of the Chief Police of the Osaka Metropolitan Department and full-time private detective, he had the permission to carry a gun, but was heeded to only use it at dire situations. The requirement to report every time he fires the gun was troublesome anyway.

I really didn't wanna use this. But I guess I have to. I hope I get there in time.

Agasa watched anxiously as the detective disappeared into the smoke from the mirrors in his car.

"You got some guts there, brat," Gin said spitefully as he kicked Conan in the stomach, chuckling darkly to himself at the lousy pun he made. Conan grunted while he rolled over and his spectacles skittered away from him. He was now lying on his back. He squinted his eyes, getting a much clearer view of Gin grinning threateningly at him. Being a sadistic criminal as he was, he had a dilemma between killing off the boy quickly with a shot in the head or kidnap him alive and torture him endlessly, to squeeze out information from him. The desire to hurt and mutilate was over-mastering.

"You won't... Get away with this..." Conan muttered weakly. He studied his surroundings, desperate to find a way out from Gin's grasp.

"Shut up. I'll kill you. But first there are questions I'd like you to answer," the syndicate member taunted, his gun still pointing at Conan.

Damn it! I can't get up. I gotta stall time and drag my conversation with him or it'll be the end for me. Meanwhile I have to find something to get away. Think, Shinichi, think!

"Who are you? How much do you know about me?" Gin interrogated.

Conan looked at him, smirking, "don't know."

Gin's face reddened in madness. He was losing his patience.

"Don't talk bullshit-!"

BANG!

Another sound of a gun fired, landing at Gin's gun, disarming him. He shot a glance at Conan, who had his back turned. Unknowingly, Conan was holding his bow-tie close to his lips.

"We've got you surrounded! Surrender now!" Conan said in a much deeper, masculine voice. He imitated other voices, creating the illusion that Gin was truly surrounded by many. Gin, afraid to get caught once more, hesitantly walked away.

"You're lucky, boy. You're an interesting character alright. We'll meet again soon and from then, I'll make sure to send you to the inferno," Gin muttered as his form was swallowed in the smoke.

Conan replied, "sooner than you think."

A few minutes later, Heiji appeared, coughing as the ashes reeked his nostrils. "Man, you got us all scared. Let me pick you up. We'll catch them sometime."

The bespectacled boy said nothing as his friend dragged him out of the scene.

No, Gin. You're the one that got lucky. I'll make sure you get caught. You'll pay for all the lives you've ruined, that includes Haibara for murdering her sister.

Heiji dialed up Agasa's number, saying, "Hakase, he got away. Can you please pick us up? Sorry for the trouble. I'd like to stop by at Ran's place to pick Kazuha up."

"No, don't mention it-"

"Why do we have to go there again?" Conan questioned sharply, much irritated that he has to visit Ran again. A part of him wanted to see her, a part of him don't.

"She still values you as a brother she never had. And that will not change," Heiji reassured, "ever."

"I totally understand you, Ran," Kazuha nodded and offered her handkerchief for Ran to wipe her tears, "but everything will be better, just believe in him."

"I'm so sick of waiting and waiting," the other woman replied sobbing, "but I'm still here and I know I won't give up anytime soon. I told him not to go and I understand that's his job but I'm worried sick."

"Pray that he'll be back, pray," Heiji's wife added, biting her lip.

Ran can't take it anymore. The last time she argued badly with someone, Shinichi ended up dead.

Now it was her husband.

Just a few days before, Tomoaki and Ran argued about a certain theory he had. Of course, Ran disbelieved the matter and soon, the discussion was heated up. They didn't speak afterwards, till to the day that Tomoaki had to travel overseas to give a certain child a kidney organ transplant operation. Ran was slightly relieved as she saw this as an opportunity to have some space, but the news about an incoming tsunami around that area left her trembling in fear. She made countless calls for him, but he never picked up.

"Am I going to lose him? What am I going to do, Kazuha, what?" she blabbed fervently, as she kept on crying. Heiji appeared, having to have overheard their conversation unintentionally.

"Ran, I think you need to go outside and have some fresh air. You need to calm down," Heiji advised and Ran did as she was told.

Ran found the chilly air of the night mysteriously calming her nerves. She gazed up at the crescent moon, having no stars to look at. No, the stars were always there. The streetlights only outshone them. Tears continued to fall, but she was more sedated this time. Her knees were trembling uncontrollably, weakened by the excessive worry she was battling. Her mind was spinning with the pounding headache and constant thought of the worst case scenario.

From a distance, a certain boy was watching her. Conan flinched seeing her in such a state.

"Where are you? I've been waiting..." he heard her murmur, which left him baffled.

Masaka? Is she still waiting for Shinichi? Ran, I'm really sorry. But you have to move on.

"Aren't you going to console her? She seemsupset," Agasa turned to him concerned. Conan could only heave a sigh.

Well, I could calm her down as Conan, her "beloved adoptive brother".

He was about to open the car door when a taxi, with an odd speed, halted just in front of Ran's house.

Who's that? What are they doing here in this ungodly hour?

Ran backed away a few steps, squinting her vision to see who was the passenger opening the taxi's door. Her eyelids were puffy from all the sobbing for the past hour. Nevertheless, she grinned. This left Conan confused, until the identity of unknown passenger was revealed.

It was none other than Tomoaki, Ran's husband.

Seeing him, Ran lurched to his arms and she pulled him close. "You scared me to death, damn you!" she yelled at Satoshi's ear, but held him tighter.

"Sorry," Tomoaki muttered, "right after that operation, I volunteered to be an emergency medic to those that were the victims of the tsunami. That's why it took me a long time to arrive back home." He caressed her hair, using his thumb to wipe her tears.

"But still..." Ran's words stopped when he gave her a light kiss. He kissed her forehead, then hugged her tightly.

"I'll always come back. That's a promise. I will never abandon you," he said.

Silly me, I guess it wasn't Shinichi she was talking about.

Conan smiled bitterly, as he sank back to his seat. He had seen it all. It was enough evidence to prove that Ran and Tomoaki were indeed living happily together. He made use of the darkness to obscure him.

"Hakase, let's go. It's late at night and we still have school tomorrow," Conan spoke in a low voice.

Agasa hesitated, noticing that Conan used his glasses to deflect his eyes from being seen. "Shin-I mean Conan-kun, are you sure?" he asked, sincerity written all over his expression for the boy with spectacles.

"Faster, before she-"

Too late. Ran already noticed the familiar yellow car of Agasa's and walked over to greet them. Conan shifted, in hopes that the darkness could conceal him but it was futile. Ran smiled and greeted him, "Conan-kun! How nice of you to drop by with a friend. Eh? What's this?" Conan was confused at first, but she pointed to his wrist and arm, that was covered with a bloodied bandage.

"Eh? That's a lot of blood!"

"Oh this? I got it while playing some soccer!" Conan laughed nervously while scratching his head, which earned a sharp glance from Tyler because he was lying. Ran was none the wiser.

Agasa added on, "well I gave him first aid and he seemed to be okay."

Why are Conan and Hakase lying? There must be a reason why they don't want them to know about the incident just now. And they kept addressing Conan as "Kudo".

"No, no!" Ran exclaimed, holding Conan's injured wrist, "this won't do! Get inside, I'll get Tomoaki to give you a fresh bandage and have dinner with us! I cooked some extra curry rice."

"Ran-neechan, I'm really fine-"

Despite his refusals, Ran glared at him, causing him to agree instead. Conan gave a loud grumble, as Ran led him to Tomoaki's study room. Turning to him, she said, "wait here while I get some juice for Hakase and Tyler."

"Hai-"

As the usual detective he was, Conan studied the room. There was a mahogany study table, a shelf that covered one side of the walls and a night-lamp. He walked over to the bookshelf to inspect the books Tomoaki might be interested in. Expectedly, there was a row of medical books for his career and a bunch of children's books on the side. What he didn't expect was the collection of Arthur Doyle's Sherlock Holmes and Agatha Christie's books.

That's weird, Ran didn't mention that he was a fan of mystery.

He followed the array of mystery novels and saw another collection of books that are in genre of law and order. The room was oddly neat, too neat for Conan's liking. The only exception was the small mess on the edge of the table with a book spread open. Curiosity nagging at him, Conan looked over at the opened book.

Isn't Tomoaki specializing in surgery? These are papers of theories on DNA and genome. Telomerase functions? An enzyme that has something to do with telomere.

"Hey there, Conan-kun," a masculine yet gentle voice spoke. Conan shot his head up, meeting the eyes of a brown-haired Tomoaki. The occasions where the two converse with each other were indeed rare, given that Conan found himself uneasy in Satoshi's presence. Not that he'd dislike him for marrying Ran, but Conan can't help himself for feeling second best or unworthy because his childhood friend chose him, the fact that he understood Ran more than the great detective.

"Let me see the wound," Tomoaki stated calmly, holding out Conan's wrist. The shrunken detective still kept his vision locked on Satoshi, studying him as the doctor was eagerly distracted by the large wound on Conan. Despite the large white headphones that encircled around his neck and the hooded Nike jacket he wore, Tomoaki's hazelnut eyes were focused intensely on the wound in question.

His looks can be deceiving. Tomoaki may look like a timid man that gets easily pushed around, but the organization of the room, his collection of books prove otherwise and the doctorate degree certificate that hung on the wall proved otherwise. In short, though level-headed, he has sharp wits of a surgeon nonetheless.

"And we're done," Tomoaki said, having to did a bandage wrap around Conan's wrist, "now for the arm." He unfolded the boy's long sleeves of the jacket, unveiling a large wound that was covered in dried blood. Conan winced at the pain of the cool air exposed on his injury, getting distracted from his observational study.

"Man, this is quite bad," Tomoaki commented out loud, like a teen complaining about a breakdown on a television show, "let me get some antiseptic for that." He stood up, leaving the room. Conan did not waste this opportunity to inspect the room further. Beside the study table was a board filled with scribbled notes of medical appointments and analysis, that was attached securely by thumbtacks. Conan moved in closer, having to spot a piece of paper lying around. He picked up, but it was not a paper.

It was a picture of Shiho Miyano.

That's Haibara! Why is a photo of her in her adult form doing here?

Stunned, he flipped the board to the other side. It was covered with scribbles, newspapers pertaining relations to the Black Organizations and Kaitou Kid's heists, photos of Haibara Ai, Chris Vineyard, the FBI, Mouri Kogorou as well as photos of him as Kudo Shinichi, Conan Edogawa. They were all connected with strings that was encircled with thumbtacks. The strings all pointed to the top of the board which consists of a black paper, the word "BOSS?" written in white ink. Conan let out a small yelp, jumping backwards at the shocking discovery. He quickly flipped to the other side of the board and pocketed the photograph of Shiho.

What the hell is this? Why is there such a mindmap on Tomoaki's study room? Could it be...

"Conan-kun, what happened to you? Why are you on the floor?" Tomoaki appeared with a bottle of antiseptic in hand, smiling innocently at him.

Conan muttered, his tongue caught in a web of lies, "nothing..."

"You know Conan-kun..."

"What is it, Tomoaki-niichan?" he chirped, trying to sound as naive as he could.

"The wound on your arm is too brutal to be an injury from soccer, isn't it?"

A/N: Uh-oh! How the hell did Araide know? Find out!