Hi, it's me again! I know what you're all thinking – "holy crap, it's been less than a year, and she's already making another update!" Well… I think I finally got through the slowest bit last time, and this chapter was much easier to write. Unfortunately, I haven't quite gotten to the next one yet, but I hope you'll all continue to stick with me. /smile

Chapter 9: History

A few days later, Conan was hanging out in the detective agency. He and Ran were sharing the newspaper, while Kogoro was watching one of Okino Yoko's tv programs and drinking a can of his favorite beer. The telephone on Kogoro's desk rang, breaking the peace. Ran waited for her father to pick up the receiver. When he didn't, she did, and put it to her ear.

"Hello, Mouri Detective Agency... oh, Kudo-san!"

At the mention of that particular family name, both men turned their attention to the half of the conversation that they could hear.

"What's he calling here for," Kogoro asked with a sneer. He couldn't believe that another man would have the gall to interrupt one of his favorite tv shows.

Ran ignored him, continuing with the phone. "The boy with the glasses... you mean Conan? Yes, he's right here." She took the receiver away from her ear and put a hand over the mouthpiece. "Conan-kun, I think he'd like to speak with you."

"Okay!" The boy jumped off the sofa and went over to take the phone from her. "Hello?"

Kudo Yusaku spoke to his son. "Hi, Shinichi. I know you're unable to speak freely to me right now, but I wanted to let you know about the information I found about the stone. There was more than I expected. After some digging, I was able to find files on a few of the searches that have been conducted in the last several generations. I scanned them into the computer and sent them to Agasa, so you'll be able to get them from him."

"Oh, good! I'm glad to hear that."

"Every single one of those searches ended with the hunter dying before he reached his goal. This worries me, Shinichi. Are you sure you can't tell me anything?"

"I'm sure. I'm not alone, so we'll be okay. Thank you very much!"

"They weren't alone either."

Conan wasn't sure how to take that at first, but he couldn't show his concern to the Mouris or else they might get suspicious. Instead, he thanked his father again, told him to say hello to his mother, and hung up the phone. He went over to the door and opened it. "See you later, Ran-neechan. I'm going over to Dr Agasa's house."

It had all happened so quickly that she couldn't think of anything to say besides "Don't stay out too late."

In the mean time, Kogoro had gone back to his own world once he found out that the phone call didn't involve him.

Conan rang the bell at Dr Agasa's. It was less than half a minute before the door opened to reveal Edward.

"Hey there, Conan. What brings you here?"

The detective wasn't expecting to see the alchemist at the door. "Just thought I'd come say hi. Is Ai or Dr Agasa around?"

"Yeah, they're in the lab. Come on in."

Conan followed Ed through the kitchen, towards the back of the house. The two scientists turned away from their computer monitors when they heard him come in.

"Hi, Doc. My dad said he sent you some stuff in an e-mail for me, and I was wondering if I could have a look at it."

"Dad," Ed asked. "I thought you said you were living with Ran and her father."

"Yeah, that's right. My parents moved overseas before I started high school. I still keep in touch with them periodically."

They all crowded around Dr Agasa's computer while he opened his e-mail inbox. At the top of the list were two messages from Kudo Yusaku, labeled as "Information about the Philosopher's Stone" parts 1 and 2. Conan sighed, wishing his dad had thought to use code words in the subject lines and file names, but it hadn't occurred to him that Ed would be there when he received them. Had he asked for the courtesy, he would've had to give his father more information about the increasingly odd situation.

Ed didn't know what to think. On the one hand, he was surprised and excited for the possibility that the stone already existed in this world. On the other hand, though, he was angry that Conan had gone ahead and done this. He was eager to change his body back to what would otherwise be considered normal and go home, but he was already getting worried about what the search would entail. "Knowing what you know, why are you so willing to bring this on yourself?"

Conan wasn't sure how to respond. He looked back and forth between the other three faces a few times. "It's partially because you're not," he admitted. "I'm tired of being in this body, and I'm tired of living in constant fear of my identity being discovered. A lead is a lead. I don't know if there's anything valuable there, but it's worth a look."

They copied the files onto a disc so that he could take them home and look at them on the file reader that Dr Agasa had disguised for him as a portable CD player.

Later that night, after Conan had returned to the detective agency and everyone had gone to sleep, he turned on the file reader and loaded the disc into the slot. He spent several hours staring at the glowing screen trying to glean as much useful information as he could from what his father had sent him. There were photos of the people who had attempted the search, as well as illustrations of what they thought the Philosopher's Stone might look like. Included in each file was a short obituary describing the unusual death of each team member. He only read a few of these, determined not to let the gory details intimidate him.

Many of the files listed at least one participant as having disappeared completely, without any trace of their last whereabouts or ever having existed at all aside from within the memories of their families.

He went through the files chronologically, starting with the earliest ones. They pretty much all said the same thing – the stone was a blood-red color and made of some unknown material that supposedly granted the wish of the person that held it. He stared at the small screen incredulously. A few months ago, he would have taken that last little bit of information as a complete load of crap. Now, though, he wasn't quite sure what to think. He found a good stopping point, turned off the machine, and went to sleep.

The next few days were busy, between school, running around with the Detective Boys, and a new case Kogoro had been hired on. Conan was expected to be in attendance at all those places, and so he fell asleep as soon as he went to bed each night.

It wasn't until the following Monday that he had enough time to himself to continue reading the files from where he left off. He was surprised as he went along, to notice how many different names the piece of rock had. Sometimes it was obvious that they used a code word to avoid arousing suspicion. Other times, though, it wasn't so clear, and he was amazed that they had been able to connect it to the string of searches. One such code name caught his attention.

'Pandora…' he thought, 'like "Pandora's Box"? No… there's another reason that particular name sounds so familiar.' Rather than wracking his brain to think of the answer, he kept reading.

As he got to the more recent files, the name "Pandora" was mentioned with increasing frequency. The date stamp on the very last file said "1965 to present". He found it hard to believe that someone had managed to keep going for forty years… and somehow they were still at it. He nearly dropped the reader when he opened the file. There on the screen was the picture and (very) short description of an individual with whom he was all too familiar.

"Kaitou KID," he muttered.

Somewhere across town a wild-haired high school student sneezed in his sleep.

The following morning, Conan was still mulling over what he'd learned. It consumed him so much that he went from class to class without engaging in what was going on around him.

In English class, Ai slid her notebook into his line of vision. 'You're not usually this spaced-out. What's going on?'

He did similarly. 'I finished reading those files.'

'And?'

'Guess who the current hunter for the Philosopher's Stone is.' He waited two seconds while she thought. Before she could begin a reply, he started writing again. 'Kaitou KID'

The sharp intake of breath caught the teacher's attention. "Do you have something to share, Haibara-san?" Her meek reply in the negative garnered giggles from the other children. "Good. Can you please translate the line I wrote on the board?"

The scientist stood from her seat. "The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog."

"Very good. Why is this sentence special?"

"It uses every letter in the Roman alphabet at least once."

"T-that's right…"

Ai returned to her seat amidst more giggles from her classmates.

"Oi, Haibara," Conan muttered.

She shrugged. "It's okay to show off a little every once in a while."

'What do you plan to do about it,' she wrote after the teacher had regained control of the class.

'I haven't decided yet.'

They both stole a quick glance across the aisle at Edward, turning back before he noticed.

'I can't just not share the information with him.'

That evening, Conan, Ed, and Ai gathered on the sofas in the detective agency. Ran had gone out with Sonoko after dinner, and Kogoro was already passed out in front of the television.

Ed was holding the file viewer. He scanned through the information from the e-mails Conan had received. The detective and the scientist had their attentions focused on the newspaper when they heard him gasp.

"Hoenheim."

"What?"

The alchemist let out a sarcastic chuckle. "I shouldn't be so surprised that he's included in this file. I'm just glad I'm not in any of the pictures. I never want to be associated with that bastard again." He turned the machine around so that the small screen was facing them. "See this woman? He was helping her open a portal to cross over into the other world. You can't do that from this side without the Stone, or at least a reasonable approximation of it." He turned the screen back to himself, to see what had been written about the man.

After a few seconds of confused silence, Conan asked the question he wasn't prepared to hear the answer to: "Who is he?"

"He's my father."

End Chapter 9

A/N: Alright, I suppose I told a little white lie about not including details from the FMA movie… but it's only a little thing, and it doesn't have any real effect on the continuity, so I think it's okay. When I said it, I wasn't expecting things to go like this.

Anyway, this is now officially my longest story!

Catch you guys next time! /smile