A/N: Contains spoilers for the Black Impact case (chapters 499-504/episode 425).
Chapter 2: Okino Yoko
"Yehehhehehehe!"
Mouri Kogoro chuckled to himself in glee as he walked along the pavement. He was physically incapable of keeping the wide grin he that he was currently wearing off his face. Not when Yoko-chan had offered him a spot on her usual slot at Morning Live 7! Just thinking about it made him laugh merrily, earning him quite a few quizzical stares from nearby bystanders.
"Otou-san…"
Bah, he couldn't care less about what others thought. So what if they laughed at an old man like him? They just wouldn't understand. They would never get how important it was that his beloved Yoko-chan had agreed to offer him another one-on-one cooking spot on her morning program.
"Otou-san…"
Now an opportunity like that was certainly worth giving up a Mahjong session with his buds. Surely Megure and the others would understand his plight!
"Otou-san!"
He jumped at the sudden shout that was right next to his ear. When he landed on his feet, he turned around only to see an irritated Ran.
Oh, right. Kogoro shook his head with a frustrated sigh. One of those 'nearby bystanders' happened to be his daughter.
"Ah come on now, Ran!" he quipped at his well-meaning daughter. "It's just a friendly visit to the TV studio for a guest appearance on a show with my beloved Yoko-chan!" His eyes lit up as he practically hopped along the sidewalk. "It's a beautiful day today, a beautiful, beautiful day~" he sang.
The blue-suited elementary school boy walking next to Ran laughed sarcastically when Kogoro broke into song, which prompted the man to hit him in the head. "What do you even know about Okino Yoko-chan, brat!" he shouted at Conan, "Don't look down at her! She's the shining star in a galaxy of imitation duds!"
Conan rubbed his head, before looking up at Kogoro still completely unconvinced. Despite his obvious skepticism, he chose to keep quiet as the trio walked into the TV studio building.
"That's it for Okino Yoko's four minute cooking program!" Yoko looked at the camera, extending a hand towards the seated detective. "And don't forget to wish a warm welcome to today's special guest, Detective Mouri Kogoro-san! See you all next week!"
"Cut!" The director gave a thumbs up to the duo seated by the table in front of the green screen. "Excellent work!" he praised.
"You did a great job, Mouri-san," Yoko commented. She looked like she was genuinely impressed with Kogoro's performance. Ran waved as well from the audience area of the studio set. "I concur, otou-san!" Only Conan was unamused. He simply yawned in response, not even giving the slightest attempt at trying to feign interest.
"Alas! Unlike my daughter, I must personally disagree with your statement, Yoko-san," Kogoro replied, his eyes shut tight in contemplation. Conan gave a small chuckle, imperceptibly shaking his head as he roughly made a guess as to what was about to happen.
"The noodles I made might be fantastic from your point of view, but in my opinion their taste cannot compare to your noodles, turned hot by your exquisite beauty. Yahahah!"
"Oh?" Yoko gave a soft chuckle as Ran and Conan both rolled their eyes, pretending not to know Kogoro.
"But we got lucky, Conan-kun," Ran smiled warmly, "that the recording for 'Morning Live 7' just happened to fall on the same day as the national holiday. Isn't it exciting that we got to watch it live from backstage!"
"Um, yeah!" Conan agreed.
Just then, Conan's stomach rumbled. "Oh yes, we haven't had our breakfast yet," Ran remarked while looking down at a rather embarrassed Conan.
"If you're OK with it, why don't we eat together at the TV station's restaurant?" Yoko asked, giving the trio a thumbs up.
"That's a great idea!" Kogoro barged in before either Conan or Ran could decline her offer, much to the irritation of one small boy.
"Thank you for your time!" Yoko reached into her back pocket and took out a pink cellphone. "If it's not too much trouble for you, there's a friend I would like you to meet. But I'll have to call her, so please go on ahead and wait for me," she explained, dialing a number into the keypad.
Kogoro held up a hand to signal Conan and Ran to wait for him. "Give me a moment, Ran." Still seated, he dialed a number into his own mobile phone.
"The number you have dialed is not responding. Please leave a message after the beep."
"Damn! Megure isn't picking up," he commented, absentmindedly placing the phone back on the stageset dining table. "He must be on a case or something. How am I supposed to tell him that our Mahjong session would be delayed?" he moaned.
Ran's eyebrow twitched as her sensitive ears caught the mention of the word 'gambling'. She strode over to Kogoro with a furious face. Without warning, she grabbed him by the ear and literally dragged him away.
"Yowowowow! Have mercy, Ran!"
She glared at her father with a look that made him wince. "Not until you accompany us to lunch! Did you even listen to Conan-kun? The poor boy's being starved while you were droning on about your gambling session! Let's move! Now!" she demanded in a tone that meant that she was taking no objections.
"O-Okay," Kogoro admitted defeat, letting himself get hoisted away from the area.
Kogoro carefully gazed at the new person by the front of the table. "Hm… aren't you that newscaster on Sundays?" he finally asked.
"You're right." Yoko gestured to the woman, who had a rather unusual hairstyle. There were four distinct curly strands of hair hanging across the front of her head. "This is Mizunashi Rena-san, currently an announcer for 'Sunday Evening News'."
Rena nodded her head, bowing slightly. "It's nice to meet you."
"I'm the famous detective, Mouri Kogoro!"
"I'm his daughter, Ran," she smiled. "And this is Conan-kun."
"Hello!" Conan chirped.
"Nice to meet you as well, boy." Rena gave an uneasy smile, slightly uncomfortable from all of the sudden introductions. "Pssst!" she hissed to Yoko. "Is it really okay to bother Mouri-san with something as trivial as this?"
"Don't be shy, Rena-san!" Yoko reassured. "I'm sure he'll be a big help!"
"But…"
Kogoro had his eyebrows raised as he overheard Yoko and Rena's conversation. He couldn't keep his mouth shut any longer. "Is there a problem?"
"Actually, if you don't mind," Rena started, hesitating for just a moment before she carried on, "There's a case that I would like you to take, Mouri-san. It's a case of a doorbell prankster."
"A doorbell prank case?" Kogoro repeated with a frown, "And you want me to catch the culprit?" He slouched downwards, placing his elbows on the dining table and using said arm to support his head. Conan and Ran both simultaneously glared at his rude behavior. Kogoro's body language, no, his entire body frame was openly displaying his skepticism and boredom for all to see.
"Yes." Rena confirmed. "That's right. It's been regularly occurring over the past few weeks on every Saturday morning. Today, I was determined to catch the prankster, so I waited by the door. But when the doorbell chimed, no one was outside! Since then, I've gotten scared of even opening the door…"
"If it's okay with Mouri-san, why don't you help to investigate Rena-san's case?" Kogoro flinched backwards as Yoko directed the whole table's attention to him. "Y-Yeah…" he stuttered. Put directly on the spot, he had no choice but to accept the proposal.
"Oh, thank you!" Rena bowed again. "I really appreciate your help, Mouri-san."
"Well then, Rena-san," Yoko grinned, standing up from the dining table. "I suppose my job here is done. I better be off now. Good luck with the case!"
"Bye!" Ran waved at the departing Yoko as Conan gave a polite nod.
"No! Yoko-san, don't goooooo!" Kogoro whined.
"Time to go, otou-san." Ran's tone was blunt, one which didn't even bother to beat around the bush. "Let's help out Rena-san."
"Alright…" Kogoro lamented, getting on his two feet. "Eh? Hold it a moment…" He felt as though something was missing from his person. Looking down, it suddenly registered to him that a significant budge was conspicuously missing from his pocket. After patting it down, he realized with a panic that his phone was missing.
Kogoro slapped his forehead. It'd only just hit him that he'd left his phone behind at the studio filming room when Ran had dragged him off. "Argh! My phone's missing!" he yelled, making a run for it. "You all go first! I'll catch up to you later!"
"Wait a moment! Otou-san!"
He ignored his daughter, running up the stairs. He can't lose his phone now! Not when he had a horse-betting app on there that gave the daily results! What if he missed it and he just happened to have won?
Rounding the corner, he saw the studio room in sight. He was just about to enter it when he heard Yoko's voice coming from the slightly ajar door.
"Gin."
"Gin?" Kogoro stopped in his tracks. "Isn't that the name of an alcohol?" he recalled. Something felt off about about Yoko-chan. She was speaking in a hushed, serious tone, very unlike her normal high-pitched voice she used on TV.
"Kir will be delayed," she continued, and it was then that Kogoro realized that she was speaking to someone on her phone. "I suspect that someone is watching her apartment, so I sent a detective to investigate. When she gives me the all-clear, proceed with the plan." He held his breath as she clucked her tongue with irritation. "This is a reminder that Domon-san's fate must not be derailed. If a man like him ends up in charge of Japan, it will be detrimental to the organization. Sure, there's always a chance that he might not get elected into power, but I don't like taking chances. Domon-san must not survive past Mizunashi Rena's interview."
There was a beep as Yoko hung up her call. Kogoro hid behind the corner when he saw her exit the studio room. The idol cautiously darted her eyes left and right before she walked out and strolled off in the opposite direction.
When she was finally gone, Kogoro entered the room. Walking across to the stage set, he found his phone face-down on the dining table. "Gah!" he shouted as he saw the display on the screen. "The line's still connected!"
The screen read:
Inspector Megure
Call in Progress — 00:30:16
He hurriedly ended the call, slipping the phone back into his pocket. "Pah! What a waste of money, all just to send an empty voicemail!" Thinking nothing of it, he rushed back out of the room to catch up with Ran and the others.
"This is my apartment." Rena fiddled with her keys as she unlocked the front door.
Kogoro observed the surroundings of the corridor. "The passageway around here is rather narrow," he noted. "There doesn't appear to be any place for someone to hide behind this door."
"Then why don't we press the doorbell and test that theory?" Conan piped up.
"Yeah! I was going to say that!" Kogoro hurriedly added. Conan beating him to the punch prompted him to give the guilty boy a disapproving look.
"Okay then." Rena went in and closed the front door. On cue, Kogoro pressed the chime right as the door slammed shut.
Ding-dong!
Kogoro was rewarded for his enthusiasm quite richly. "Hey, hey, hey!" he flailed about, landing on the floor as he found himself trapped between the door and parapet wall.
"Otou-san!" Ran cried out, running over to her squished father.
Rena apologetically placed her hand to her mouth. "I'm so sorry!" she apologized, pulling the door back to free Kogoro and give the panting man some breathing space.
"I'm fine!" Kogoro reassured, although he was clutching his nose in a manner that suggested quite the opposite.
"But that confirms it, then." Conan placed his hand to his chin. "Since this is a corner apartment, there's no way for anyone to hide behind the door once it swings open."
"Why don't we have a detailed talk inside?" Rena offered.
As the Mouri family took a seat by the sofa, the announcer began to give more details. "The bell ringer prank started about two months ago. There's been a consistent pattern to it, however." Rena placed a finger on her temple to recall. "Always at 6:30 on Saturday mornings."
"That's unusual." Kogoro sipped a cup of coffee. "Did anything happen two months ago?"
"Well—" she started, only to be cut off by a familiar chime.
Ding-dong!
"Eh?" she gasped. "The bell again? But it isn't even Saturday morning yet—" Before she could even finish her observation, both Conan and Kogoro scrambled to their feet and raced for the door.
"Got you now, you stupid prankster!" Kogoro yelled unceremoniously, giving Conan a triumphant grin as he beat him to the door. It wasn't that much of a surprise that he reached the door first, considering he could cover more distance in a single stride compared to Conan. Using the momentum from the sprint, he proceeded to slam open the front door. It swung outwards, pining the perpetrator to the parapet railing. "Hmph!" Kogoro grinned, reaching for the collar of the person squeezed between the parapet and the door. "It looks like we have our man!"
"Oi! Get this door off of me!" Kogoro stopped short when he realized that he recognized the voice of the person who rang the doorbell. Peering from the ajar door, Conan began to chortle.
"K-Keibu-dono!" Kogoro yelped, raising his hands up in surrender as the person in question, Inspector Megure, forced away the door that was squashing him. "Um… oops?" he trailed off embarrassedly.
"Mouri-kun." Megure pushed himself off the floor, proceeding to give Kogoro a very deadpan stare. The inspector appeared to be very unamused when he realized that Kogoro had been the one responsible for his predicament.
Kogoro flashed a nervous grin. "Ah, if this is about the Mahjong session we planned together, I have an explanation—"
"Not now, Mouri-kun." Megure interrupted, waving Kogoro away. "That can wait. I'm here on important police business." He walked into the apartment and headed straight to Rena. "Mizunashi Rena-san," he acknowledged the announcer, before holding up his police badge, practically shoving it in her face. "You're under arrest for conspiring in an assassination plan to murder Domon Yasuteru."
"What!?" Everyone in the living room yelled in shock.
"Wait a moment!" Rena protested in shock, her hands in the air. "There must be some mistake! I know nothing about this—"
"There's no use trying to resist, Rena-san." Megure looked straight into her eyes. "We have hard evidence of your involvement. We've even managed to arrest your boss. Turn yourself in quietly."
Rena's eyes widened for a moment. Surprisingly, her shocked frown was soon replaced by a triumphant smirk. "I see," she said with a vicious grin on her face.
Megure took out a pair of silver handcuffs and cuffed her hands behind her back. "I don't see what's so funny, Rena-san." He glanced towards the apartment door, signalling Takagi to take her away.
"Hey!" Conan tugged on Megure's jacket as he was preparing to leave with Takagi and Rena. "Megure-keibu, what's this about an assassination plot?"
"Expressing excitement over something like this? I think you've corrupted the impressionable boy, Mouri-kun," Megure grunted at Kogoro. Forcing a smile, he looked down at Conan. "I'm sorry Conan-kun, but it's top secret. A kid like you cannot know about this." He lightened up slightly as Conan began to pout. "But uh, if you really want to know, by evening the police would release an official statement, okay?" he said, patting the boy on the head. In response, Conan gave a suspicious glance over to Rena, but eventually relented and looked away with a huff.
"Also… Mouri-kun." Megure stepped forward. "Do you mind coming with me back to HQ? It's regarding your voicemail message to me."
"Voicemail message?"
Megure raised an eyebrow at Kogoro's cluelessness. "Yes, that thirty minute voicemail message. You were the one who sent that, right?"
"Um, yes?"
"I thought that you sending such a long voicemail to a police inspector was suspicious, so I listened to it all the way through." He patted Kogoro on the back. "Great catch! I'll need you to clarify some things on the tape. Let's go."
"Otou-san!" Ran held a grouchy Conan by the hand. "If you need to go, I'll bring Conan-kun back first!"
"Y-Yeah!" Conan forced a smile, although he couldn't hide the fact that he was upset about being robbed out of a chance to solve a mystery.
And what was this about an attempted assassination anyway?
"Conan-kun." Ran had her hands by her hips. "It's rude to be on the phone during meal times."
"I-I'm sorry!" he flinched, regretting not turning his phone to silent. "I'll make it quick!" He quickly walked to a corner and answered the call. "Hello there! Who's this speaking?"
"Oi, Kudo!"
"Hattor-I mean, Heiji-niichan!" Conan yelped in shock, darting his eyes over to Ran. He heaved a sigh of relief, thanking his lucky stars that she didn't hear his outburst. "How many times have I told you not to call me that!" he hissed at the mouthpiece.
"Never mind 'bout that, Kudo!" Conan tsked as Heiji continued to use his real name over the speaker without giving a single regard to his complaint. "I think ya better turn on de news. It's really important, 'cos ya won't believe what's live right now!"
Conan had his eyebrows raised. From his tone, he could tell that Hattori was definitely up to something. "What's on TV right now?"
He could hear Heiji give a sneaky chuckle. "I won't spoil de surprise! Ya'll just have ta' find out for yourself!"
"Oi, Hatto—geh!" Conan glowered at the phone as Heiji hung up on him, leaving him on the dial tone. "What's that guy planning?" he muttered, eyes narrowing in suspicion as he walked back to the dining table. While reaching for his soup with his right hand, he picked up the remote control with his left and switched on the TV. He began to drink the bowl of miso soup just as the television powered up.
"…and it appears that a police raid has managed to arrest more members of this secret criminal organization!" The reporter appeared to be in a frenzy, her voice shrill and excited. "We'll be cutting straight to the scene!"
Conan ungraciously spat out soup that he had been slurping as the news cut to a furious Gin being led to a police car, handcuffs slapped over his wrists. He choked and coughed repeatedly, not sure if it was a bigger shock to see the media crew and reporters somehow still alive, or the fact that the bastard was actually somehow in police custody.
"Conan-kun!" Ran admonished, reaching for a napkin to wipe the bits and pieces of food strewn about. "Pay attention to your dinner! You've gone and made a mess!" she gently reprimanded the hacking boy.
He ignored her, jumping off his chair by the dinner table and running over to the television. His eyes were as wide as saucers as the news report continued.
"The raid was a success! Although there were many casualties, most of them appeared to be part of the criminal group and not from the police. Many of the top brass however, were successfully arrested alive, including the leader, pop idol Okino Yoko-san!"
Pop idol Okino Yoko-san, Conan jolted. No, it can't be…
"Eh? What's otou-san doing there?" Conan glanced back from Ran's voice, before looking back at the TV. Sure enough, Mouri Kogoro was there.
"A secret criminal organization has been brought down by your own hand, Mouri Kogoro-san," the reporter smiled. "How do you feel?"
"It's nothing, really!" Kogoro tried to deflect the praise in a rather weak fashion. It was bluntly obvious from his cocky face that the aging detective was being far from humble about this.
"I disagree, Mouri-san!" The reporter had a wide grin on her face. "You had the foresight to record a call proving that pop idol Okino Yoko and her group was planning to murder the politician, Domon Yasuteru. Now that certainly takes skill and guts!"
Kogoro ran his hand over his head, giving a laugh. "To be honest, it was just a gut instinct, really…"
Conan inched closer to the screen, his face clammy. He lightly slapped himself, unsure if this was a dream or not. A myriad of thoughts flashed through his mind at the rate and speed of a rushing river.
O-Occhan managed to bring down the Organization just like that? How? When? Why? Just… HOW! How did that work!?
"Yahahahahahaeheh!" Kogoro's trademark goofy cackle jolted Conan out of his stupor, bringing the boy back to reality. "It is truly a shame that my lovely Yoko-chan turned out to be involved in this. But do know that all the evidence compiled against her and her group is all thanks to me, Meitantei Mouri Kogoro! Ahahahahaha!"
Shaking his head in pure disbelief, Conan walked over to a nearby wall and began to lightly bash his head into it rhythmically. "This cannot be happening," he muttered, eyes deadpan as he continued to see a laughing Kogoro bragging about his victory on live television. "Yes, that's right. This is all just a bad dream… a nightmare," he tried to reassure himself with a shaky voice. "If I pinch myself right this moment, I'll find myself lying in my bed."
There was no way, right? That the men in black that he'd worked so hard to even lay a scratch on had all been taken down thanks to freaking Mouri Kogoro and his womanizing tendencies of all things.
Oh, screw this.
"I'm full, Ran-neechan! I can't eat another bite!" he announced. Before Ran could utter an objection, he raced up the stairs to his own room. Conan had enough of seeing Kogoro on TV. The sooner he got out of sight of the breaking news program, the better it would be for him.
After locking the door, Conan took off his slippers and jumped onto the bed. Following that, he grabbed his pillow and proceeded to childishly whine and pout.
This wasn't fair. It just wasn't fair, not in the slightest.
He wasn't sure how long he lay there on the bed like that. He didn't even care about his usual pride. It just felt so good to release all of that built up tension!
After an indeterminate amount of time had passed after he let his emotions run wild, Conan felt his mind was no longer clouded. Finally looking past the fact that Kogoro had somehow beaten him to it, he looked on the bright side — at least They were all in custody.
But with the return of common sense, a new scary thought hit Conan like a freight train. He couldn't help but let that single worry permeate his mind.
Dammit! Now how on earth am I going to turn back?
He'd always envisioned that he'd be the one to bring down the organization in a blaze of glory. That all those bastards in black would be arrested, he'd manage to acquire the APTX-4869 drug research files, Haibara would perfect the antidote, he'd transform back, return to Ran, and they'd all live happily ever after.
But since Kogoro had been the one to destroy them, the organization members were all in police custody without his assistance. This meant that unless he was able to prove that he had some relation to the BO case, Megure and the police won't let him into the investigation.
He gritted his teeth, taking off his black-framed glasses and setting them down beside him. The only way to possibly get access to the case and the much-needed research files for the apotoxin drug… was for him to submit himself as a material witness to the police. In other words, he would have to admit to being poisoned by the organization and being a shrunken Kudo Shinichi.
Oh, how the tables had turned. He had desperately wanted the Conan incident to be a secret to everyone except for Ran after it was all over. It was already bad enough with Agasa, his parents, and Heiji in on it.
But now, basically everyone would know the truth.
He'd been around the Tokyo Metropolitan Police long enough to know the proper procedure when it came to recording testimony. To prove his involvement, he would have to give testimony via police interrogation. The moment he admitted knowledge to it, he'd be allowed into the investigation, but unfortunately the police will have leverage on him — his confession of being Conan.
With that confession in hand, every last police officer from Takagi to Shiratori would know his big secret. Heck, probably the FBI as well. And if the evidence went to court, which it most likely will, all of Japan would know. To make matters worse, Kogoro would also be informed of this little tidbit too, given that the detective was now the point-of-contact for the case since he had "uncovered" the organization. That occhan finding out that the child he'd been babysitting was really a shrunken Kudo all along? Yeah, that would certainly end well. If 'well' meant that he would wind up being tied onto the nearest firework rocket by a very furious detective.
"If occhan doesn't kill me for Sleeping Kogoro, then Ran will finish the job for sure…" Conan laughed bitterly. Kogoro would surely tell Ran about Conan being Shinichi if he was forced to admit it to the police. He wouldn't even have the chance to explain the full situation to her before she pulled her karate onto him and he ended up lying in a hospital bed with a cast for a week.
How ironic it was that the person he looked down upon and darted to sleep for months ended up being the most important figure to gaining his identity back.
Well, Conan came to the conclusion that fate wasn't a friendly mistress. It probably hated him, as a matter of fact.
He gave a bitter chuckle, wringing his wrists nervously. No point putting it off now. He might as well get it over with. Haibara would certainly be pissed if she knew what he was about to do.
Putting the Voice-Changer Bowtie to his lip, he took out his Shinichi phone and called Megure's phone number. After five rings, the call connected. "K-Kudo-kun!" Megure greeted. He was obviously startled by the familiar Caller ID. "What a surprise!"
"It's been a while, Megure-keibu," Conan greeted using Shinichi's voice. "Hey, is Mouri-tantei with you?" he asked, fighting down the butterflies in his stomach. "I-I've got some information that I need to talk to him about." He bit his tongue, before finally deciding to open the Pandora's Box. "It's regarding the Organization case," he said slowly.
There was no going back now.
"T-The Black Org Case!?" Megure yelped. He had yelled so loudly that his voice from the speaker ended up reverberating around the walls in Conan's room. Conan, however, chose to remain silent. A confirmation wasn't necessary in this case. Sure enough, after a few seconds, Megure managed to calm down. Heaving a deep sigh, he continued speaking in a serious tone, "Well, I guess now that I think about it, it isn't really all that surprising that you're somehow involved in this, right?"
"Correct." You have no idea, Megure-keibu, he added in his mind.
"Hold it a moment, Kudo-kun." There was shuffling on the other end, scurried shouts and muffled voices as Conan was put on hold. After many excruciating seconds, he finally heard a familiar voice put the receiver to his ear on the other end.
"This is Meitantei-no-Mouri Kogoro on the line!" Kogoro introduced himself in a somewhat polite fashion. Even Conan was momentarily shocked until Kogoro let the façade drop. "Finally come to admit that I'm the greater detective, Kudo Shinichi?" he raised his voice, letting a stern tone creep in. "You've got some nerve to be calling me now after all the times you let Ran down, you detective brat!"
Conan clucked his tongue. He should have expected a scolding, to be fair. He inhaled a deep breath, trying to maintain his composure. "I want to give information regarding the case."
"Oh?" He could hear Kogoro's disbelief in that single word. "And what can you possibly know about it?"
"You may have arrested them, but you don't have any proof of their misdeeds. I, on the other hand, have the information that the prosecutors care about."
"What!? Do you think I'm beneath you!?" Kogoro yelled. Conan mentally slapped himself. It was evident that mentioning prosecutors must have touched a nerve, considering his relation to Eri.
"No!" Conan hastily denied before Kogoro lost his patience. The last thing he needed was for him to end the call. "It's not that! It's just that you need decisive evidence before you can convict them. And—" he swallowed down a gulp, "—I have that evidence. It all lies in one person, one key witness to the case…"
He grimaced, helplessly closing his eyes before finishing, "…E-Edogawa Conan."
Kogoro's reaction was roughly as what Conan had expected from dropping his own name. "What!? That bratty freeloader! What on earth are you talking about?"
"It'll all be clear very soon. I'll pop by around police headquarters with Ran later. From there, you'll know everything, and have the proof needed to put the organization away for good."
"What! You… with Ran?" Kogoro spluttered. "Oi! Don't you dare make a move on my daughter! When on earth did you get back? Why are you with her? How do you even know about the Yoko-chan organization case when we just got wind of it a few hours ago? You better explain yourself, you punk! I swear, I'm going to—"
Beep!
He let out a deep sigh, removing his finger off the end call button. Pocketing the mobile phone with a sigh, he pulled out an identical looking one from his other pocket.
His Conan phone.
Grabbing it by the soccer ball keychain, he swung the red cellphone around like a pendulum on a ball-and-chain before flinging it against the far end of the bed. The voice changing bowtie followed suit, landing close to his glasses.
Glasses that no longer served their purpose.
Swinging open the door, he called out to Ran. "R-Ran-neechan? T-There's something I'd like to talk to you about…" Forcing aside his fear, he gazed upwards at the approaching Ran. Seeing her made him strengthen his resolve. If his disguise was going to be blown apart, he was at least going to admit the truth to Ran before anyone else… especially that occhan.
"Conan-kun? What's the matter?" She appeared shocked to see her little charge without his glasses and with such a serious expression.
"You were right all along, Ran."
She opened her mouth, most likely to make a comment about the missing '-neechan' honorific, but then thought better of it and kept silent.
Seeing her puzzled expression, Conan prompted her further. "You should know what I'm talking about. I'm so sorry for deceiving you." He looked up, locking his azure blue eyes with hers. "Don't you remember what you've always accused me of?" he prodded, heart clenching, "What you've suspected from the start…"
Ran tensed up from his words. Her eyes widened as recognition and realization slowly crept in.
"S-Shinichi!?"
He supposed it was only fitting. As a detective who always strived to let the truth be discovered, it was only natural for his own mistruths to be revealed. After all, there was only one truth, and it would always find a way to be made known.
The time for regrets and brooding was over. It was finally time for all the lies to be unraveled.
Author's Note:
Here's a celebratory chapter release just in time for the recent glorious news about the manga. :D
Yoko being the boss has been theorized for so unbelievably long that I can't really comment on it. Since I can't do this theory justice, I made this chapter kind of comedic on Kogoro's end… even though the chances of something like this actually happening in canon is almost completely nil. It'll never happen… at least, I hope not.
I'll be going straight to the classic jossed BO boss theories now. Next up will probably be either Agasa or one of the Detective Boys, depending on my mood. :P
