A/N: Dearest and most loyal Readers, once more I must apologize for the delay of this installment. Truth is, this chapter gave me and my beta some considerable headache while we puzzled over it. Add to that the fact that my ever so trusty beta started school again, we were incredibly delayed... So sorry for that...

But now, finally we reach a culmination point of this story and I hope we have done justice to it^^ I apologize in advance for the ending of this chapter, but we saw absolutely no way to head around it... The chapter would have been too long in that case... So, we've decided to wait in uploading this chapter until we've made some headway in the next chappie (which is coming along nicely now) before putting it up to avoid you guys chewing your fingernails off in suspense... *gg*

Thanks again for the review-cybercookies we received, our little chibi looks way better now^^ I knew the cookies would do the trick *gg*

And as a little bonus, I'll add crimsonskyr's dA- account on here, as I have promised last time. I'll link you directly to the page with the amazing fanart she did... Still overwhelmed by that, by the way *gg*Link: crimsonskyr . deviantart art / Detective-Conan-Sandman-346782520 (without the spaces of course ^^)

All that is left to say here would be: Enjoy this chapter and I trust that you'll leave a review^^ Thanks for sticking with this, you guys are DA BOMB!

Warning: This chapter contains coarse language! It's also more than possible that the coarse language will get worse as we continue with this... Don't blame us, our detectives are on the verge of snapping completely... Especially a certain shrunken one... Blame him, not us, we're only the voices for their actions *lol*

Chapter 10

Tuesday 21st September 2011

Kudo Mansion

Evening

Conan hardly noticed how fast the time rushed past him, while he was thoroughly engaged upon his task. Writing down notes and deductions about the killer, he was so lost within his mind that he almost missed the buzzing of his cellphone, buried somewhere underneath the mountain of paperwork stacked on his desk. Well, it was stacked after all.

Blindly he reached for it, his eyes never leaving the page he currently read. He was too preoccupied to give the screen a glance. The shrunken sleuth simply flipped it open and absentmindedly answered it, without ever lifting his head out of the book he was currently reading. He had expected it to be Ran, as a hurried glance to the clock told him it was getting late. The sun would set in less than an hour and he was expected to be back before sundown. Instead of the female voice he was expecting to hear however, a decidedly amused Osakan drawl filled his ear and with it, his complete attention.

"Yer thinkin' about that case, aren't ya?"

"H-Hattori?! Why are you calling?!"

Surprised Conan looked at his phone, as if the device could actually tell him why his friend was calling. It always surprised Conan that Hattori always seemed to know what the faux child was doing. One would think that after such a long time of friendship, Conan would just come to expect it. But apparently the Osakan teen could still surprise the shrunken sleuth.

Then again, Hattori can be pretty hard to read on occasion...

"Aw, tha's cold, Kudo. Lemme guess... Ya were expectin' maybe... Neechan?" the tanned detective snickered audibly.

"T-That's because she usually calls around this time when I'm not home." Conan defended himself, deliberately ignoring how his cheeks grew warm. But his denial only caused the teen to laugh harder at the other end of the line. Thankfully the Osakan could not actually see him, or else he'd never hear the end of it. But he couldn't begrudge his friend the jibe.

Truth be told, he didn't mind the distraction.

While Conan usually hated it when someone interrupted him while he was thinking, in this case the distraction was a more than welcome one. He needed a mental break after spending almost the entire afternoon reading references after references about Serial Killers. If there was one thing the chibi-tantei knew with absolute clarity, it was that such would never become his preferred pastime. Reading through all that reminded him of the depravity that humans seemed to be capable of.

For the past few hours, Conan had delved deeply into the the minds of other Serial Killers in an attempt to understand their present killer. It was definitely not a task that reassured the mind, so much was for sure. After so many hours, the most he got out of it was a splitting headache and more questions he dared to list.

"Oy, are ya listenin'?!"

"Uh-huh..." was the only reply the teen got.

"Yer spacin' out again!" Hattori said, sounding vaguely annoyed.

Conan quickly pulled his straying thoughts back under control and pushed his notes a bit further away out of reach, only leaving his notebook in front of him.

Really, he should be used to it by now…

"Sorry Hattori. Its been a really long day." Conan paused for a moment before continuing, "I've been doing some research this afternoon; its kind of hard to shove that to the side, especially when you're being interrupted." He added that little bit purely out of spite, but the Osakan did not rise to the bait. Ignoring the jibe, the tanned teen merely carried on with the conversation.

So much for a distraction from the killer..

"So? Did ya find somethin' tha' would help us find tha' bastard?" the teen asked. Conan could practically envision him leaning forward in interest.

"There's not much to report Hattori." Conan admitted, "I've been trying to understand this whole Serial Killer thing in general. Not sure if this will really give us a clue, but since I think the police are doing something similar, I figured it couldn't hurt too much."

The shrunken tantei absently shuffled the papers and notes together, intending to call it a day. He had learned enough for one afternoon and it didn't seem the profile would yield much more for the time being. Not until he got new information anyhow.

"How 'bout tha' sand thing? Anythin' new?"

Hearing his friends question, Conan could not keep the sigh contained. He wished he had something to tell his friend, but there was just nothing.

"No. Unfortunately there's still nothing, at least not yet. There aren't that many shops selling black sand and the police apparently got samples from every store, in hopes they can narrow it down to one shop, but I haven't got much hope in that direction. Of course, its also entirely plausible that the killer had it custom made somewhere or simply wore a disguise when he bought it, which would be bad news for us. On the bright side however, I haven't heard any reports of a kid going missing, so that makes it the good news of the day I guess." Conan answered, hearing a relieved sigh through the phone. He could sympathize with that relief.

But Conan was far from naivé. He knew that even though no kid had gone missing, it didn't mean they were in the clear. It was highly probable that the killer already was in preparation for his next kidnapping. If Conan's theory was correct and this resembled an addiction to the killer, then the more time passed between killings, the more the craving would worsen. Which ultimately would cause the monster to emerge from its lair again. The killers seemingly insatiable hunger would see to that. In the end, it was only a matter of time when the next kid would turn up missing.

Damn, if there would only be some sort of lead…

Thinking about everything, Conan once more lost himself within his own thoughts again. He almost forgot that he was currently on the phone and technically in the middle of a conversation. That fact made it through his swirling thoughts just in time to catch Hattori's next question.

Someone is inquisitive today...

"So, tha's ten victims so far, right? There really was nothin' these kids had in common? Feels like there's somethin' we aint seein' here..." Hattori asked, his voice growing ever more quiet. Obviously the last bit was just a spoken thought. Nevertheless, Conan had to agree. It did feel like there was something they were missing. For the moment however, he just concentrated on answering his friend as best he could.

"Megure-keibu had their background checked. They went to different schools, lived in different neighbourhoods, they didn't even know each other."

"Common interests, then? Maybe they were into th' same kind o' stuff…" his tanned friend supplied, his tone indicating that he'd fallen into that contemplative mood both detectives so often found themselves in when they started reasoning with each other.

"Already checked." Conan replied without missing a beat, "Their interests varied greatly, and they all vanished under different circumstances. Some were even with their parents when they vanished, like Higuya Hanako. Enode Katsuro was on his way home from school; last confirmed location was the school gates. Takayama Yumi was last seen in the shopping district. All of the kids were doing completely different things prior to their disappearance," Conan concluded after counting off.

The line went silent for a few moments, while both detectives puzzled over the same riddle: why the hell did he pick these kids in particular?!

"Remind me again, who were all these kids, and what were they doin' before vanishin'? Perhaps there really is somethin' we've o'erlooked." Hattori requested, causing Conan to force down a tired sigh.

He'd been going through this stuff all day. Would chewing down the data really do that much good at this point? Conan sighed tiredly; he couldn't blame his friend for being thorough. The shrunken teen would have done the same thing in his position, but it didn't change the fact that he'd ran through the data so often that he could probably recite it from memory with his eyes closed. He had also told Hattori the details before, but as the tanned detective wasn't in the habit of taking notes, he sometimes needed to listen to everything again. And he was right; perhaps there WAS something they missed. As the old cliché stated: Two heads are better than one.

"Fine, excluding the ones I just mentioned, we also have Tozawa Minoru. He was last seen in a book store close to Beika Station. Tomoi Haruki was last seen in a candy shop in Ikebukuro. Tanaki Honami's last location was at home; she vanished on her way to a friend's house. Okuda Hitomi was last seen entering the park…"

"Oktuda Harumi… the park ya—" Hattori mumbled, obviously thinking to himself. This jolted the smaller detective out of his recital, causing him to interrupt the teen.

"Oy, listen properly! It's OKUDA HITOMI! O-KU-DA HI…" Conan suddenly fell silent from his juvenile explanation.

"How the hell did I miss that?!" he exclaimed heatedly. Conan was stunned. The trick was so simple, yet he had missed it. For the moment, the little detective forgot all about the fact that he was on the phone, as he rapidly listed all the names in the closest notebook he could find. Then, he proceeded to sound them out.

It was so simple that it was downright ridiculous. Absurdly simple, Holmes would have called it. The solution had been right in front of him the entire time, and he had missed it. He should have been able to spot that from the very beginning.

"Hattori, hang on for a moment, okay?" Conan rushed out, not even waiting for an answer from his tanned friend. He was already reaching out for the research papers and marked books, rapidly rifling through them until he had found what he was looking for. A small, but triumphant smile spread across the child-like face, as he suddenly realized the connection between the children. He knew how the killer chose his victims.

"You've got to be kidding me..." Conan breathed as he stared at the terse paragraph, his brain shifting gears once more to incorporate what he had just understood into his theories.

"What?! Kudo, what the fuck is going on?!" Hattori barked angrily, obviously getting a little impatient with his friend's lack of sharing. He was evidently not pleased at being left out of Conan's thoughts. Taking a deep breath, the shrunken sleuth prepared himself to elaborate.

"Hattori, this is going to sound weird, but just listen okay? I think I just figured out how this guy finds his victims." Conan deliberately spoke slowly.

"'Kay, I'm all ears here, Kudo." came the answer, calmer now. Hattori knew when he should pipe down and listen. He recognized that specific tone of voice. Conan had figured something major out.

"Right, it's obvious that the kids have nothing clear in common, which is why this has somehow escaped me for so long. It's so juvenile, but as soon as the names were said out loud, I realized the connection instantly: all of these kids names, first to last, have exactly six syllables when you sound it out. Not all of them have six Kanji, but when you speak the names and count the syllables, you always arrive at six," Conan all but rushed out, his voice a mixture of excitement and dread, "Damn it, I knew something was bugging me, but I had no idea it was something like THAT."

Conan grew quiet for a moment, allowing his friend time to process that theory, as he listened to Hattori quietly sound out the kids names.

"O-ku-da Hi-to-mi… Ta-na-ki Ho-na-mi… Ta-ka-ya-ma Yu-mi…" he said quietly to himself, before the Osakan exploded, "You're right! Kuso, that prick! I hate this bastard even more now. He's choosin' 'em because o' their names! This has gotta be some power play for 'im."

"My thoughts exactly. Not only does he toy with everyone on this case, but he also makes it harder on himself by creating such a constricting condition. What are the chances that you can even find this many children with 6 syllable names?"

"I guess dat answers th' question why 'e chose Tokyo; it's da most heavily populated. There's a greater chance o' 'im finding 'is victims there than anywhere else in Japan." Hattori added.

"It's like he makes it hard on purpose; he likes the challenge. Choosing and stalking the prey must all be a part of this sick bastard's game." Conan was grinding his teeth by the end of the sentence. What kind of twisted person could consider human lives, children's lives, as mere numbers on a scale? It made Conan sick to just think about it. The complete and utter disregard of life that this killer showed disgusted him. For the shrunken sleuth, who viewed life as the most precious thing in the entirety of the universe, there could be nothing more disgraceful than taking it away. Especially while using such a way to pick the victims.

"I …" Conan suddenly went quiet as his free hand began working something out in his notepad.

"Kudo, wha' is it?!"

"Though this might just be a coincidence—" Conan was hesitant to voice his opinion at first, but knew he was on the right track.

"As if we still believe in coincidences…" Hattori interrupted him quietly, but fell silent as to let the mini-tantei continue.

"… but the amount of time the killer keeps the kids before killing them is related to the number six. 72 is a multiple of 6: 6 time 12 to be exact. Then I remembered something I read in one of the reference books I have here. It says that some Serial Killers can develop an obsession with a specific number that correlates to something directly linked to them or their past. Like the year of birth or death of a loved one or something like that. So now we have three numbers: 72, 12, and 6. 72 is the number of hours he keeps the kids. 6 is the number of syllables in the names, but I have no idea how the 12 fits into all this…" Conan finished, absently rubbing his chin.

There was a short silence as both detectives tried to find a solution as to why there was a 12 there. Of course, 12 was the double of 6, mathematically speaking, but there had to be something else. It couldn't just be there for its mathematical purpose, there had to be something deeper to the 12.

"Wha' 'bout th' kids?" Hattori asked suddenly, causing Conan to frown confused. The sentence had come so abruptly, that he couldn't follow his counterpart's thoughts.

"What about them? They don't have anything to do with 12."

"No. I mean, wha' if he intends to take 12 kids? I know tha' sounds weird, but think 'bout it. From what I got, this guy is systematical. Even though we don't know why, he's obsessed wit' numbers, so wha' if everythin' he does is ruled by 'em?" Hattori elaborated, his own brain obviously having switched gears as well.

"I see. So the cops have found ten bodies as of now. So, if your reasoning is correct, he's going to kill 2 more kids. Kuso!" Conan cursed under his breath.

"At least, now, we can stop him," Hattori added.

"I know, but if we realized this sooner, I—we could have saved those kids." Conan scolded himself harshly. He knew logically, that he couldn't change events anyway, but emotionally, he still felt responsible for it.

Hattori sighed before speaking, "There ain't anything ya can do about tha' past. All we can do now, is use wha' we know ta stop this bastard!"

"You're right," Conan said with a small smirk. His friend was always there when he needed it. "I can tell myself anything I want. It's not going to change anything. We'll just head him off this time."

"That's the spirit!" his Osakan counterpart agreed.

A lot more was accomplished today than Conan would have thought. Everything made more sense now; every number related to something. The weird MO, the time frame between kidnapping and killing, the kids themselves: everything started to click into place.

"Okay, we know 6 is related to the names, that's his MO for finding the kids," Conan continued, eager to get out of his own little pity-party.

"Right; an' 12 could be how many kids he ultimately wants ta take… It's a stretch, I know, but there are jus' so many coincidences tha' I doubt they're really jus' tha'."

"I see what you're getting at. I just hope you're wrong, because that means we have two more possible victims on our hands, because it doesn't look that this guy will stop until he reaches his quota. Right now, we have 10. I'd hate to think what would happen after he reaches 12. I highly doubt a deranged maniac like that would just stop cold turkey and become a model citizen. Especially not since I think he's a narcissist. He NEEDS the attention the public is giving him at the moment; there's no way in all hell that he'll stop after he reaches 12. We need to find him before it gets that far."

Conan fell silent, already thinking about a way to provide the old man (and through him the police) with this new piece of information without risking a noogie. Just the thought of it made his head hurt.

Hell, by this point, the shrunken teen would have cheerfully accepted a skull fracture, if it only gained them the upper hand. With an MO like that, they could single out the kids that were potential targets. And if they kept an eye on them, they would sooner or later find someone lurking nearby. Perhaps not the most graceful way to trap someone, but it was still effective.

There was however one thing that made it through the haze of Conan's thoughts. Namely something his Osakan counterpart said, "Ya don't know anyone who fits tha' description, do ya?"

The shrunken tantei froze.

Quickly, Conan mentally listed all the kids he knew or had met and checked their name's syllables. And just like that, his blood turned to ice in his veins as he paled.

No! That's not possible… It can't be!

He did know one specific kid that both fit the preferred age as well as having that characteristic about the name. Only one kid of all the kids he knew had six syllables in their name.

"Oh, fuck! Hattori, I gotta go!" he shouted.

"Wai—" Hattori was cut off as Conan shut his phone and was halfway out of the house, no longer caring about the mess he left behind.

In a flash of flurried movement, spurred by a dread he seldom experienced, he grabbed his skateboard and was out the door in less than ten seconds. Panic gripped him, as he shot through the streets, activating his glasses to help find his friend. Conan completely ignored the rules of traffic, but at that moment, he couldn't bother with something like that. His only imperative was to find the next potential victim, the one person among his friends that fell into the killer's MO.

Yoshida Ayumi.

Wow, looks like someone has a really long day... Again I say, sorry for the cliffhanger, but I could not avoid it... Normally I try to head around cliffhangers, but in this case, it was just not possible... Still hope you guys like it *gg* And sorry that this chapter is somewhat short, the next one will be considerably (translate: ridiculously) longer than this one to make up for it. We're in the process of piecing it together right now and since Springbreak is around the corner, we expect the next chapter to be uploaded faster than this one. So stay tuned, the action is coming...

Sincerely, Callie