Ch. 5 Memories

Shrugging off the weird occurrence, Conan decided to think on what had just happened later. Perhaps that monocle had been his imagination. He had gotten his memories jumbled up recently after all, and plus, he was hanging out with someone he was suspecting to be KID. Maybe that had been a memory of when he had picked up the monocle in the past, right after he had knocked it off the thief's face as he flew off after the Purple Nails heist. Memories were a powerful thing after all. He figured it was how the human brain recorded time in its own way. However, Conan also knew that memories could also be a little untrustworthy. That was why he preferred hard evidence and recordings.

What he needed to do was speak to Toki, the maid. She must have been behind the vase replacement. Now that he thought about it, if he had remembered right the vase yesterday had a ceramic lid, which was missing today. It was a relatively large vase, slightly taller than Conan's himself, and he had been trying to look inside it when it tipped over and hit him. He paused for a moment at that recollection of the incident. Would an impact like that be hard enough to make a child lose consciousness? And not to mention, cause amnesia? Conan decided to make that another clue to file away to think about later.

Although it bothered him that he hadn't heard of Toki until today, the timing of her appearing at the mansion right after the vase breaking was probably a coincidence. After all, the two teens with him in this foyer appeared after the vase breaking too, and they weren't showing any signs of being 'magical'. Conan frowned at that thought. Although speaking of which, Kaito is pretty shady, and Hakuba was the one that brought him here…

"Conan-kun, did you bring a soccer ball?" Jerked out of his musings, Conan snapped his head up to look up at Kaito, who was looking over at the other side at the room. Surprised at the comment, Conan followed the teen's line of vision and balked. He hadn't brought one, nor had he brought the soccer belt this trip; it had been malfunctioning so he had left it with Agasa.

"No." However, no matter how he looked at it, Conan could tell from this distance that it was that temporary soccer ball. It looked exactly the same, not to mention-

"What a terrible ball… it went flat already." Kaito commented, before sending a sidelong glance over at Conan. He looks confused. Kaito noted, looking at the little detectives face. So maybe it wasn't him that used it? Or did he by accident? He hadn't seen the boy wearing the dreaded soccer ball-producing belt, but it could've fit in the kid's pocket. If little 'Shinichi' doesn't know how to use it, does that mean that belt is a 'Conan' era gadget?

"What are you two going on about?" Hakuba interrupted both his classmate's and Conan's thoughts, as he folded his arms and looked quizzically over at where the two had been looking. "I don't see any soccer ball."

Kaito blinked at Hakuba in confusion, while Conan looked up at the teen in alarm. Then Conan ran over to where the flattened soccer ball… should have been. What was going on? That little moment with the strange charm, he could brush off, but this. It was a shared moment of seeing something that shouldn't have been there.

However, without having much time to dwell on it, Conan froze as he heard something that made his heart flutter with… regret. Spinning around, the boy ran past the other two surprised teens to head towards the melancholy sound of a piano. Conan absentmindedly noted that both Hakuba and Kaito were following him, but didn't pay it much mind. He had to get to the room with the piano. The melody was both familiar and horrifying. It reminded him of one of his early cases as Conan; the one case where he had let the murderer kill himse- "Argh!" Conan fell flat on his back as he ran into Kogoro, who had apparently been running towards the same door from the other side of the hallway.

"Brat!" Kogoro yelled, before he roughly pulled up Conan by the hand. "Should have known you would show up too!"

"Come on old man, I think it's this room the piano sound is coming from!" Conan yelled back, not having the patience to wait. The regret he was feeling from this piano music was overwhelming. And then, it stopped. The music stopped.

The two looked at each other in horror, before opening the door.

"What's going on here?" Ikumi frowned, looking over at the intruders that had burst into the room she was investigating. "Mouri-san? Conan-kun? And you boys too. What's going on?"

Kogoro and Conan looked at each other again, before looking into the room with Ikumi in it in confusion. There was a piano in the room. However, the cover was still over the keys, and the only person that was in the room was Ikumi with her luminol bottle in hand.

"Were you playing the piano?" Conan asked, dreading the answer. He could tell already that she hadn't been playing. Yet… he had heard it. And Kogoro had heard it too.

"No." Ikumi replied promptly, giving the boy a strange look. "If I were, you would have heard me."

"We did hear the piano." Kogoro shot back, crossing his arms defiantly and then stalking into the room to get a closer look at the instrument. "That's why we came over here."

"You both heard what?" Conan and Kogoro looked over Kaito, who was looking at them with incredulity. "Piano music? And not to mention, from a different part of this mansion?" Kaito knew he had good hearing, so it was strange to know that two separate people from different parts of the large mansion had both heard music that Kaito hadn't heard at all.

"I didn't hear it either." Hakuba added on, before raising his eyebrows at Kaito. "However, if even you didn't hear it, this is quite curious indeed." Kaito frowned at this comment. Has Hakuba been gauging the level of my hearing abilities as well?

Conan froze at the comments. It was this again. A shared moment of… insanity? Was he finally going insane? No. Conan reprimanded himself as he willed himself to calm down. No. This is not shared insanity. It was a shared moment. Conan closed his eyes as he tried to think. He needed more clues. He couldn't shake the disturbing thought though, that whoever had done this had known that this particular shared moment with the piano music had also been a shared memory between him and Kogoro in the past.

Conan blinked as a thought struck him. "A shared memory." He muttered, before looking over at the piano in wonder. But… that's impossible. And for the first time since encountering these strange happenings in this mansion, Conan felt fear. The piano in front of him now looked dripping wet, yet… No one-

The little boy shook his head to clear it. Don't panic. Think! Going with the logic of shared memories, who shared this moment with you?

Unaware of the inner turmoil of the small detective in front of her, Ikumi sighed as she walked over to Conan. "Conan-kun, perhaps you heard the music from a different room." She looked over at Kogoro quizzically. "You heard it too, right? Are you sure it was from here?"

"Or maybe something strange is in the water back at the Mouri's place." A voice sounded from outside the room as Mogi walked down the hallway to join them. "Come on, I've found something interesting in the other room."

Mogi! Conan inwardly exclaimed as he heard the man come closer. Mogi and KID as Kogoro shared this moment with me! He glanced over at Kaito, who was giving Conan a strange look but nothing that revealed that he had noticed the wet piano. Conan didn't dwell on that much though; even if he were the real KID, the guy probably would not have given away much anyway. Conan needed Mogi to help him determine his hunch. "Mogi-san! Before that, look at this piano!"

"Huh? Why?" Mogi asked, ambling into the room looking confused, before he stopped in his tracks.

"Occhan and I really heard this piano!" Conan exclaimed, pointing towards the instrument. Come on, come on, SEE it!

Conan inwardly cheered as he saw Mogi give Ikumi an amused look, before walking over to the instrument. "I see you're at it again, Ikumi-san." He then, put out his hand towards her. "Mind if I borrow a black-light to see this piano?"

Ikumi quirked her eyes quizzically before she pulled out a light and handed it to Mogi. "Sure, but I hadn't checked the piano yet."

Conan watched the exchange with bated breath, his heart beating frantically. Impossibly, his theory was proving itself right so far.

Mogi quirked his eyebrows at that, before he shined the dripping wet instrument. "Then why's it wet?" He then frowned as he saw a message glowing as a result. "Hey it's the same message from the Karasuma case."

"What?"

Don't see it, don't see it. Conan thought to himself as he saw Ikumi peering over to look at the clearly still glowing message. He glanced over at Kaito, who was still watching the exchange with a blank expression. Conan then looked over at Kogoro and Hakuba, who looked extremely confused. Good.

"I don't see any message." Ikumi replied, frowning. "And don't make such a sick joke." She stuck her hand out to take the light back from Mogi. "The mystery on our hands is heavy as it is without your jesting."

Kaito looked down at Conan again after the strange exchange, to see the little detective staring intently at the two older detectives. Did you figure something out? Kaito had seen the message as well, but hadn't said anything. He was too distracted, mulling over what Tantei-kun had muttered earlier. "A shared memory"?

"Mogi-san." Conan said, jutting in before their conversation could go further, which would cause things to be muddled even more, "What was the interesting thing you found in a different room?" He looked over at the man. "Can you show us? I want to see!"

"Sure thing kiddo." Mogi said, handing back the light to Ikumi and shrugging off her disbelief. Her reaction was strange, but maybe it was to get back at him for the sick joke that he did pull back at the Karasuma case, when he had pretended to be poisoned. "Follow me."

000

Although Conan was starting to see the requirements for different people seeing the same… what… 'memories'? He still couldn't figure out how it was being carried out. It almost seemed magical, but... He stole a glance over at Kaito, and then jolted as he noticed the teen was looking at him very intensely. It was the searching sort of look Conan was used to giving others, but ironically, always hated when targeted at himself. "Is there something on my face, Kaito-niichan?"

"Conan-kun." Kaito started, still giving him the quizzical stare, "You don't believe in magic, do you?"

"Hey don't be trying to pollute that young mind with crazy stuff, Kuroda." Mogi butt in, stopping in front of a door. Only Kaito and Conan had accompanied him, since Ikumi had gone to a different part of the mansion to keep with her own investigation, as had Hakuba, and Kogoro had gone outside to smoke. Mogi then opened the door, revealing the room. "Strange, isn't it? This room."

Kaito stared, literally not making a sound as he stepped into the empty room. "It's completely empty." He stated. And dusty. He mentally added on, noting the dust particles illuminated by the sunlight shining through the windows lining the far side of the room. It was indeed strange. The rest of the mansion was fully furnished and well kept. Granted, this room could have just been neglected, due to it being an extra one that was unneeded, but considering the location of the room relative to the other furnished ones, this was weird.

"It's unnatural." Kaito whispered, mind going blank as he noticed something horrifying. The dust particles he had noted earlier were not moving. Instinctively, he whipped around to look down at Conan, only to find the boy's expression wide eyed and unseeing. Conan wasn't with them at the moment.

The moment Conan had stepped into the empty room he had been plunged into darkness. It smells like gunpowder and… blood? Despite the circumstances, Conan couldn't help but add on sarcastically. Smells like my life. However, for some odd reason, that sarcastic inner comment seemed to be the trigger for changing the spell that was upon him. Conan blinked, as he felt soft, cool, somethings brush across his face and arms. He looked down at his hands to catch what was raining down on him. Clovers. These meant nothing to him. Clovers? Why? His confused thoughts seemed to trigger another vision, as now the raining clovers turned into trump cards. "Argh!" Conan shouted, falling back in surprise at the sudden violent rain of cards. He covered his face. Trump cards? These meant something to him, but-

Conan blinked as his vision cleared and he was back in the empty room, looking up at both a concerned looking Kaito and Mogi. He was sitting down on the ground, but otherwise unscathed. No paper-cuts, no shamrocks on his sleeves, no gunpowder on his clothes, no physical evidence of what he had envisioned moments before.

"Tantei-kun" Kaito said, worriedly scurrying over to Conan, who had fallen over for some odd reason with a shout. The dust particles could wait. Literally. The teen then crouched down so he would be eye-level with the boy. The mini detective seemed to have come to, and was now blinking at him. "You're back."

"Huh?"

"You were somewhere else for a moment there, kiddo." Mogi provided, showing concern on his face as well. "Maybe you really should rest up a bit more."

"I…" Conan faltered, before he looked down at his hands as he felt something in them. He was getting sick of this. There were 5 trump cards in his hand. Maybe there'll be blood on them. Conan thought dryly. It would be a shared memory between all three of them from the Karasuma mansion again. (If Kaito was KID, that is.) However, he frowned as he looked at the cards more closely. These weren't the cards he was holding back then.

"Where did you get those cards?"

Conan blinked again as he locked eyes with Kaito, who was right in front of him. "Huh?" Conan then felt too… small. And Kaito looked too…old. Granted, Conan was smaller than his actual self, but it was an acute moment of disorientation. Almost as if he wasn't himself. He looked down at the cards again.

Kaito looked down at the cards as well, feeling a moment of nostalgia as he saw which ones the boy was holding. Ah, these look like the ones dad used that one time he taught me that trick… Kaito's train of thought came to a screeching halt at that thought, before he let out a sigh. No… unlike that soccer ball and the luminol message, this is not a moment of time I've shared with Tantei-kun.

"I don't know-"

"What cards?" Mogi asked, before he sighed and kneaded his forehead. "You know what, never mind. I think Mouri had the right idea. I need a smoke."

"Mogi-san wait-" Conan sputtered, before the man interrupted him.

"Toki-san is in the living room right now." Mogi smiled at the surprised look of the two boys. "You haven't met her yet, so I assumed you were dying to speak to her."

Conan nodded dumbly. He wasn't sure if he should be glad to be surrounded by detectives, since everything seemed to go by quicker, or scared because they didn't miss a single detail.

"Conan-kun, let's go." Kaito said, holding his hand out to help Conan up. Unsurprisingly, the cards that had been in the boy's hand had disappeared. It was terrifying how quickly one could get used to supernatural occurrences, such as randomly appearing and disappearing objects. "Let's get you out of this room. It's not good for you. It's dusty." And creepy. Both Conan and Kaito added on in their heads for their own respective reasons.

After separating with Mogi, the two headed over to the living room. Kaito took this chance to repeat the question he had to Conan earlier, "You don't believe in magic, do you?"

"No." Conan responded without hesitation. "But something strange is happening here, and I can't explain it." He then looked over at the other teen. "Don't tell me you believe in it? The real stuff, I mean."

Kaito took a moment to think of an answer. He didn't believe in it. He knew it was real; unfortunately from not so peaceful first hand experience. Kaito didn't really like the idea of his little detective buddy getting knowledge of it being real though, lest he found it another fun dangerous topic to stick his nose into. However, this mansion case… was it inevitable? "Yes." He decided to say after some hesitation. Tantei-kun didn't have to trust his answer after all. "The real stuff."

Before Conan could answer, the two had approached the living room. There, opening the window to air out the room stood an old woman facing away from them.

"Toki-san?" Conan called out, trying out the name. Hopefully, she would provide more clues to this strange mansion case. Additionally, she may be able to shed light on the time related craziness that seemed to be happening to him since this morning.

The old lady turned around to face them, and for a moment, she seemed to freeze as she looked over both Kaito and Conan.

"Who are you?" Genuine confusion ghosted over the woman's face as she addressed… which one was she addressing? Deciding he didn't care, Conan ran over to introduce himself.

"I'm Conan Edogawa." Conan piped up, "Nice to meet you!"

"Oh, you're the Conan-kun that got hurt." Toki replied, cracking a hesitant smile and looking over at the boy. "Are you okay now?"

"Yes." Conan responded. Good, she's not denying the vase breaking. "But wow, Toki-san, did you fix the vase? It was already back where it was yesterday when Kaito-niichan and I went to look at it today."

"I did not fix the vase." Toki replied, leaning back from Conan. The little detective noted her strange fear in interest. "Why did you go back to look at it?"

Conan laughed his fake childish laugh. "I didn't go back to look for the vase! I thought it would be broken after all. I wanted to see if I had dropped something!"

"Did you find anything?"

"Nope." Conan replied, speaking quickly enough to make sure Kaito wouldn't butt in with any unneeded information. "It seemed all I dropped yesterday were my memories!"

For some odd reason, his joke about the amnesia made Toki freeze. "Who's memories?" she finally said softly, frowning.

Frowning at the odd question, Conan replied the only way he could think. "Mine."

"Who are you?"

This was getting nowhere. Was this lady going senile? Before Conan could respond again, Kaito finally joined the conversation. "He's Conan-kun. Who else?"

Toki seemed to come to as she heard Kaito join the conversation, before she turned her confused look at the teen as well. Was he imagining it? She looked… sad. "And who are you?"

Kaito paused at the strange expression, before introducing himself as well. He had seen her yesterday, but come to think of it he never did tell her his name. "I'm Kaito Kuroda. Nice to meet you."

For some odd reason, after hearing the name she backed away. "How many lives do you have?" she said cryptically, seemingly addressing both of the boys, before she hurriedly left the room.

"What… was that?" Conan said, before he looked over at Kaito, who was also giving him a similar look of confusion and alarm.

"Maybe she's a witch."

Conan snorted. "A confused and scared witch." He added on. "Maybe she messed up some spell and that's why everything's all weird."

"Tantei-kun." Kaito said, looking down at Conan with a rare look of sincere worry. "Don't be so quick to dismiss…magic. The real stuff."

"Huh?"

"By the way." Kaito went on, not addressing his equally cryptic statement. "Maybe we should ask her about that pearl that was in your hoodie?"

"Oh, this?" Conan asked, pulling out the baggie with the pearl out of his pocket. The last time he had touched it, he had gotten a powerful flashback. The intensity of them made the 'shared moments' phenomenon seem milder in comparison. Although ironically, the flashbacks were probably a more realistic thing than those randomly appearing moments. "Yea I guess so."

He stared at the dilapidated pearl. 'How many lives do you have?'

For some odd reason, the confused lady's frighteningly astute question seared through his mind as he looked at the figurative tear. That's a good question. Conan thought to himself. The pearl looked like two beads that had failed to become two. Or couldn't figure out if it was two or the same?

He hated to think this was magic, but maybe… just maybe this so called 'magic' could give him clues on how to nullify this spell that had been cast on all of them in the mansion.

Conan silently tipped the baggie over to let the pearl fall on his hand again.

'Tears that stop time'? What is time to magic anyway?