File Thirteen: The Blind Spot in the Darkness

"How did you know?"

Kudo Yusaku could only stare at his son in utter confusion.

He had been like that for a while, ever since he had showed up at the doorstep of his old house. Arms crossed over his chest and feet tapping against the floor, the boy had simply shot him a powerful glare, demanding answers for a question he had yet to ask.

"Know what, exactly?" the novelist asked back.

Conan rolled his eyes, exasperated. "Nobody carries a ten million yen check around," he said. His gaze settled back in his form, narrowing with suspicion. "You knew I was going to stay."

Yusaku didn't try to hide his smirk. "Indeed."

Neither did Yukiko try to hide her surprise. "You knew?!" Her head whipped towards his husband, in disbelief. "Yusaku!"

Unlike his wife, his son gave him a rather bland look, the suspicious gaze having long dulled after he got what he wanted.

"Here I went through all this trouble to make up my mind," he mumbled with a shake of his head. "And it turns out it was pointless because you knew everything beforehand."

"It wasn't pointless," said Yusaku, his smirk widening. "Had we told you everything, you wouldn't have gone through such a valuable process of decision-making and personal growth."

Conan's eyebrow twitched. "Don't pretend you're carrying out your parenting duties after kidnapping your own child."

Followed by a long, exhausted sigh, the kid hopped off his seat, skateboard tucked under his arm.

"Oh?" his mother said, surprised. "You're leaving already, Co-chan?"

"I gotta go," explained the child, nonchalantly making his way to the front door. "Occhan got invited to a party, and I was told to come along."

"A party?" repeated Yukiko, surprised.

"Yeah." Nodding, Conan put on his shoes once more. "Apparently, someone thought it would be a fun idea to put Occhan in a mystery game. He's, like, the character that gives the player hints and stuff…" The child paused mid-sentence, pondering over it for a little. Shouldn't it be a fantasy game instead?

Because, really, the thought of that old man actually helping solve a case and not writing it off as a suicide in the drop of a hat was inconceivable. If that happened in real life, Occhan would most likely become the main challenge the player has to overcome…

He was glad; he had to admit that there was no actual relation to real life. Just imagining himself replacing Kogoro, including all that attention and unwanted fame that success brought forward, made him shudder.

Shaking his head in a vain attempt to erase that picture from his mind, he ran back to the door.

Fame… Speaking of which…

But stopped right at the doorway.

"Just one more thing," he said, turning around to face both parents. "This has been bothering me for a while."

"What is it, Co-chan?"

"You said before that the reason you changed my last name to Edogawa is because you all are too famous," he said. "But isn't that weird?"

That definitely took his mother off guard. "Why are you asking?"

"Oniichan didn't get his last name changed."

"Fame was never a problem to Shinichi, as you might have noticed," his father replied calmly. "We know you never liked the spotlight, so we thought that a quieter, humbler background would suit you better."

Conan did not reply right away, just stood watching his father for a while, until eventually his eyes narrowed, ever so marginally. Why? With that in mind, he finally bid goodbye to his parents and promptly left. Why is everyone so secretive?

A straight answer wouldn't hurt once in a while, you know.

Like that, he skateboarded away. Not even once did his eyebrow stop twitching the entire way to the agency.

"Oh, how lucky! Look, Conan-kun, our number is exactly 100!" Ran had exclaimed, showing off their hotel key with a bright smile all over her face. "Something good is going to happen today!"

Conan seriously needed to know if he physically needed to go collect that 'good fortune' he had supposedly won out of pure coincidence. Or maybe it was Ran's fault, and she had gathered all of it for herself, because he was definitely not getting any of it.

That hurt, he mentally complained, head raising to the gigantic man, wearing black clothes, towering over him who, in turn, cast upon him a cold, dangerous look at the kid.

Which only intensified Conan's glare.

Watch where you're going, you gorilla.

But he wasn't stupid, and was actually a proud owner of a decently functioning survival instinct ─ he really did have one, despite what one might be led to believe ─ meaning that he had to keep every thought to himself. The big guy uttered no words, not even to apologize to the little child and young man he had just bumped into. Just grumbled and left.

"So rude," Conan thought out loud, then turned to the young man who accompanied him ─ Nakajima Hideaki, one of the three Mantendo game developers that had cut in before Ran and himself to get their exchange tokens for the cloakroom, just a couple hours earlier. "Does he work for the game company as well?"

"I don't know. I've never seen him before."

And Conan was sure he never wanted to see him again.

But, he should have known by now that if the Universe ever listened to his mental pleas, it would make the complete opposite happen. Therefore, it shouldn't have been all that surprising when he found that man again just as he walked out of the toilet.

He did stop, however, to glare at his form. Not that it mattered, of course, since the man did not even seem to notice. All he did was stand there, waiting at the reception desk for something.

Conan considered it was not worth his time, so he began to walk away.

"Customer number 98?"

But stopped, stared up ahead in contemplation, before turning back to him.

Number 98? But Occhan got the 96 and Ran-neechan the 100. His forehead creased, watching as the smiling receptionist passed him a black suitcase. And if those three Mantendo employees cut in before us…

It was weird at best, especially considering the badge with the Mantendo Company logo stuck to the suitcase he had also seen on Nakajima's and the rest. This man hadn't been with the rest of the employees either, and he wasn't wearing the company tiepin the others were using.

Curiosity chased out all the desire he possessed to not cross that man's path again and prompted him to follow him with his eyes. From afar ─ because he had no wish of being seen before he could decide what in the world was wrong with this guy ─ Conan watched him approach a public phone.

He was dialing a number, but from his position, he doubted he would hear a thing, anyway. Is there a way-? There was a vending machine just behind him, so Conan could barely restrain the satisfied smile that appeared on his face. That could work.

Thus, he rushed there. To his further delight, the man did not even grace him with a single look, probably too focused on his own conversation to care about a random little boy buying some drinks ─ just as he had planned it.

So, now that I'm at it, thought Conan, eyes traveling all over the vending machine, humming a little to himself. What should I get?

He eyed the can of iced coffee for a moment. Ran-neechan isn't around, he thought, plucking out his change without looking away. It wouldn't hurt if, just this once, I-

"Hey, it's me, Tequila," the man behind him said. He hadn't noticed before, probably because it was the first time the boy had heard him talk, but there was a strong Kansai accent in his speech. "I've made the exchange. Don't worry, Vodka."

Conan turned his head so quickly that he might have barely avoided snapping his own neck.

Don't worry, who?!

"Tell Gin for me."

Only when a certain clattering sound reached his ears did Conan notice his change had slipped from his feeble grasp, coins scattering around all over the place, which he didn't instantly pick up. He had paled instead, beads of cold sweat rolling down his forehead at the notion that the man's eyes had fallen on him.

For a moment, Conan forgot how to breathe.

It didn't last long, however, and subsided when Tequila turned back around and focused on his phone again. "A kid dropped all his change," he simply said. But, even then, the child did not dare to move a single muscle ─ and conformed himself to just watch.

Eventually, Tequila put the phone down, picked his suitcase up and walked away, paying no mind to the little boy who, crouched over his change, kept his gaze solely on him.

Gin, Vodka. Those names that had just been uttered resounded in his mind and, inadvertently, brought back those memories from last April. The man with the sunglasses and the gun. The one with the long silver hair and the icy, murderous gaze.

That dangerous glint his brother's eyes had taken as they posed on the photograph he was being shown.

He's… one of them. Conan's hand curled around the coin he had just picked up. I ran into one of them…

Just like that time I met Gin and Vodka on that train.

That time, he had been forced to watch them leave and, with them, his only lead to his brother's whereabouts had vanished.

He frowned profusely.

Thus, having completely forgotten about the remaining coins he had dropped, the boy took off running. He tailed him through the halls until he disappeared inside the restroom, but did not follow him inside. Instead he waited, back against the wall, for him ─ or, alterably, Vodka or Gin ─ to walk back out, being fully aware of how dangerous it would be if he was to be discovered.

But nothing is happening, noticed the boy, peeking inside. He immediately pulled back, returning to his spot with a shake of his head. Idiot! If they see you, you're as good as dead.

Yet, there was barely anything he could do standing there. Maybe I should just take a look inside, he considered. I'm a child. Adults are usually careless about kids, so it could work.

At least, that way, he could place a transmitter and a microphone to assess the situation from a safer place. The sole of his shoe should work fine, he thought. I could just pretend I dropped something at his feet and-

He did not get to make a decision, though.

A deafening boom had his legs moving on their own, sending him tumbling backwards to give way to a curtain of smoke and debris that had him trembling, ever so slightly, eyes wide open as they took on the situation he had just been a witness of.

An explosion had taken place. In the same space he had nearly wandered into.

So close…

So close he had been, he was now the not-so-proud owner of a cut on his cheek ─ admittedly, he could've had it much worse.

"Ah, you're injured." Yet, such had been the shock, that he hadn't realized until Ran finally caught up with him, about half-an-hour later into the investigation, grumbling at him for going missing for so long. "What in the world happened?"

Though the sternness of her voice was still present, her motherly side had shone through. Keeping a firm grip on his shoulder, the girl crouched in front of him, her free hand digging for a napkin, or something of the sort, to wipe the blood away.

A soft clattering, however, had him glancing down at the number tokens she had accidentally dropped. He plucked them off the ground before she could even react and studied them closely.

"Those are the exchange tokens for the bags we checked in at the cloakroom, remember?" said Ran, at his obvious display of curiosity. "Number 100 is mine, and Dad's number is 96."

Tequila's number was 98. Or so had he heard from the lady at the desk. But those three who cut into the line between Occhan and Ran-neechan…

One of them has to be the person who swapped cases with him.

"Dad is still hung over, so I'm holding onto them," Ran continued, glancing over to where her father was, slumped pathetically against the wall.

Conan sighed, knowing that this meant that, with Kogoro currently able to stand, let alone think, there was no famous detective to solve the case today. What do I do? he wondered, his eyes falling on that certain trio he had grown suspicious about.

The emblem on the suitcase had been bent away from the case, which implied the bomb had been placed inside. Someone had intended to kill the big guy today. Or did they? Conan blinked as a sudden realization struck.

He looked over to the line to the cloakroom. The three suspects were about to be called.

Before Ran could do anything to stop him, Conan took off running. He reached them just in time to see them, all at the same time, about to pick their things up.

"Customer 124," he heard the woman say. Nakajima immediately went to receive the suitcase offered to him, and Conan knew at that moment.

There. He had found the culprit. Now, the toughest part, he thought, tilting his head in confusion, for good measure. "Hey, mister?" He did his best to replicate a cheerful, but also annoyingly loud, child. "Did she just say your number was 124?"

"Uh, yeah."

There was a barely concealed flinch, but Conan let it pass. He blinked innocently instead, hands latching behind his back as he hummed.

"But isn't that, like, super weird?" he continued. "I could've sworn you had cut in before Ran-neechan, and after Kogoro-ojisan." The man before him grew a little pale, but he pretended not to notice, eyeing the tokens he was holding in his hand. "Between the 96 and 100 comes 97, 98 and 99, right?"

Megure's gaze had now fallen onto him, and as much as it was uncomfortable to have all the attention to himself, the boy did his best not to break character ─ he was almost done, he could do this. Or maybe that was just him trying to convince himself.

"You should be careful not to lose your real number!" His face twisted in a smirk, regardless. One that did not entirely match with his cute appearance, but succeeded in making Nakashima look genuinely sick. "Hey, maybe your suitcase was swapped with someone else's!"

"Ah, no…"

"You should totally check if you have the correct one!" He offered him a sweet smile this time, but it didn't seem that it was much better to Nakajima's eyes, either way. "You never know, right?"

"N-No, it's okay."

There was barely anything else for Conan to do afterwards. Noticing his obvious anxiety, Megure demanded to check his suitcase's contents, to which he vehemently refused. That had one of his two partners, Ueda, struggling to snatch the case from his grasp, urging him to do as he was told if he didn't want to wind up as a suspect.

In their struggle, it opened accidentally.

The third game developer, Takeshita, freaked out, screaming at the top of his lungs while he curled into himself, hands on his head to protect himself from a danger that was unknown to every single occupant of the room.

But as money dropped to the ground, and Nakajima threw himself over it, in a pathetic attempt to hide the obvious, the culprit realized how badly he had messed up. Moments later, he ended up confessing to his crime.

That did not mean, however, that Conan got the confession he truly had wanted to hear. There was so little he could do with what a level of persuasion a seven-year-old could manage, so obviously, he had not managed to pressure Nakajima enough to tell him about the men he had done the deal with.

Thus, as always, the two men in black disappeared without a trace. As if they had never been there to begin with.

So, yes, the frustration stuck with him for over an entire week after the case.

"Are you sure you're okay, Conan?"

In retrospect, that was probably the reason his brother's question rubbed him the wrong way. Partly, because that had to be the eleventh time he must have heard it from him that week ─ it stole a groan out of him, wondering if he would understand even if he told him the same answer he had uttered all those times he had been inquired about it.

"I'm fine," he stressed out, just in case. Annoyance had clearly sipped on his tone, but honestly, he did not care enough. "Should I just change languages? Maybe that's the reason it still is not getting through your skull."

He heard his brother's sigh from over the phone, to which he paid little attention, really. All he did was roll his eyes, shivering ever so slightly against the chilly February breeze that had reached him from the outside. It prompted him to climb the stairs leading to the agency all the faster.

"Last time you said that, I found you collapsed on the floor," Shinichi pointed out. "Ran told me you've been stuck in bed for three entire days, and you haven't called ever since."

The child pinched the bridge of his nose.

"Listen, my cold is completely gone by now." Conan tried to reason with him, even if he knew it was probably a lost cause. "Surely Ran-neechan must have told you that, at least."

There was an odd pause following his sentence, which caused the child to blink, then take his phone away from his ear to check that the call had not been accidentally cut short. It hadn't. Now, he was absolutely puzzled.

Slowly, he put it back to his ear.

"Say," began Shinichi, his voice strangely faint. "Don't you think something is up with Ran lately?"

"Eh? What do you mean?"

"Even when I call her she doesn't talk that much," he sort of heard his brother say, but frankly, it was mostly fading somewhere in the background. "She doesn't complain so much about my absence anymore…"

With that, he felt his interest in the conversation dimming almost instantly, so it wasn't hard for his attention to be snatched away by the door to the Detective Agency opening abruptly. Ran walked out and instantly spotted him there.

"Oh, Conan-kun," she said with a smile. Conan literally heard his brother flinching at the sound of her voice. "I'm going out for a while."

The boy nodded at her. "See you tonight," he said.

She waved at him as she walked past. "Say 'hello' to Shinichi for me, okay?" she added, looking at him from over his shoulder. To Conan, it was impressive that she could do that while descending the stairs, two steps at a time, without breaking her neck or something.

But eventually shrugged it off. "You heard her," he said to the phone. His brother had not spoken a word since he heard Ran, so that was weird, he internally mused. "Hello."

The door was not entirely closed as Conan would've expected, and there was a head poking out. He stared for a while, not quite understanding why Kogoro's gaze was narrowed like that, in something akin to suspicion, while he watched his daughter go.

"Tonight?" Shinichi repeated, ignoring his previous comment altogether.

"Yeah, she has been doing that a lot." Deciding he wasn't interested in knowing the truth behind his actions, the boy promptly walked past the older man. "She has karate practice."

The older detective did not reply to that. That, and the low humming sound that crossed his ears, told the boy that he was deeply in thought about something. Did I say something wrong? he wondered, failing to remember such a thing. I mean, she spends most of her day there, but it doesn't seem like it's bothering her…

"In fact, Ran-neechan has been looking unusually happy lately…" he mused out loud. "Maybe she's doing well in her club?"

For some reason that escaped him completely, there was a sharp intake of air on the other side of his phone.

"C-Conan." If that hadn't been weird enough, the stuttering definitely fit the bill. "Do you think she…?"

Conan blinked cluelessly.

"Do you think Ran is seeing someone?"

His mouth hung open, and the subsequent shock shook his entire body.

It wasn't an everyday feat that Conan was forced inside Kogoro's rental car ─ in fact, he was usually the one forced out. Like, without Ran pressuring her father to take the kid along, Conan was certain the man would never take him along anywhere if he could help it.

He would have pointed it out the moment he settled into the backseat, but one look at Ran's worried glance had the words dying down in his throat. It intensified when he told them that, for a while now, he had been going to the hospital to get some tests done.

"The doctor told me on the phone…" Conan could see Kogoro's Adam's apple bobbing as he swallowed. "To bring my family members as well."

Okay, he really had not seen that coming.

But he figured the old man was just being a little overdramatic ─ the symptoms that had him going to a doctor in the first place were not that out of this world, or he would have probably noticed it.

He's a drunkard. If something is wrong with him, that's the most plausible cause of it.

A sigh escaped his lips, leaning back into his seat. Why am I here? Boredly, his eyes drifted somewhere outside the window and the cars that slowly moved along with theirs, stuck in a terrible traffic jam. The doctor said 'family', right?

He could've just dropped me off at school and taken Ran with him.

The boy could not understand it, but he didn't question it out loud, either.

On the bright side, he wouldn't have to go to school today, and could just spend the day away reading, quietly, in peace, thank goodness. He only needed to endure a little longer, stick around until the doctor told him the 'news', and he would be free to go.

Yet, he would soon start to doubt it would be that easy.

Doctor Araide Yoshiteru had this scary, severe expression when they entered. Patiently, he waited for the three to make themselves comfortable. Even once they sat down, he said nothing at all ─ just stared at them, scrutinizing all three with his eyes before they dropped to the files he held on hand.

"Mouri-san."

Despite his previous analysis on the situation back at the car, Conan felt his stomach turning in anticipation. Ran and Kogoro did not look any better than him, nodding curtly at him, faces palling and beads of perspiration rolling down their foreheads.

"Another half a year more..."

The horrified gasps coming from both father and daughter were registered in Conan's brain far earlier than those words did. By the time they finally sunk in, and his eyes widened in response, Kogoro had already pounced on the unsuspecting doctor.

"You! How can't you be so heartless?!" Conan realized he could see tears collecting on the rim of Kogoro's eyes. "All of a sudden you tell me I've got half a year left. You should think more about your patients and take your time in telling them! Isn't that what doctors do?!"

"For the next half a year, I wanted you to stop drinking." Confused blinking was all Kogoro got from the doctor. "That's what I had in mind."

Three equally clueless glances were drilled into his being. Kogoro was the first one to react, all but collapsing out of relief ─ which was immediately disintegrated by his daughter's pledge of not letting him see another glass of alcohol in another half a year, at least.

Conan uttered no word, merely stared intently at the doctor explaining the rest to Kogoro ─ most of which he completely missed. Eventually, his gaze shifted, sticking to the older detective whose life had apparently never been in danger.

Oh. He blinked back to reality, only then finishing processing everything that had just occurred. I totally knew it.

Just as he thought it would be a good idea to pay attention to what the doctor was saying, the door opened, and a woman ─ his wife, the boy assumed ─ called for him.

"Darling, you have a phone call from Sugita-san." Her tone was bitter, stingy somehow. "She wants to stop by."

And her icy glare did not disappear, even after he disappeared into the hallway. She was mumbling something, grumbling, but Conan could only make the word 'lover' even if he strained his ears. It made sense now, he supposed ─ but it was not his problem.

Yet, it kind of started to be when Ran approached the wife and asked where the toilet was, then left. At first, he tried to ignore it ─ she was older than him by almost ten years, so it was a given that she could take care of herself just fine. But it's Ran-neechan. The thought would cross his mind, and the worry would gnaw at him, stronger than ever. The person with the worst navigating skills I've ever seen… And the house is not the smallest one ever…

Mentally groaning, he stood back up.

Slipping out of the room had been easy, especially with Kogoro too busy talking with the woman to notice him gone. He had heard where the toilet was, too, so he figured finding her wouldn't be so hard ─ the problem would be going back, thought Conan, so he supposed they were still safe.

But he didn't expect to find her this easily.

Neither did he imagine he would spot her just around the corner, crouching down to pick some… documents? That much was sure, since he could see them spread all over the floor. Instead of walking up to her, he stepped back, his head barely peeking out to watch her hands reach for one of them.

Their fingers brushed together ─ yes, 'their'. There was someone else, a young man kneeling down in front of her, seemingly copying her actions. Blue eyes blinked curiously, noting how the girl pulled away, a faint red blush dusting her cheeks, just before her gaze rose to meet his.

Exactly like the two main characters in that cheesy soap that Ran had forced him to watch last night at dinnertime. Behind his glasses, his gaze narrowed ─ they were smiling at each other, and talking. What are they saying? Conan could not hear. But he was determined to find out.

So, he took a step forward.

When something barreled on his side. Soon he felt the unmistakable dull pain on his behind, along with the deafening crash that met his ears up from close. Groaning, he put a hand to his head, only opening his eyes when he heard steps hurrying his way.

"Ah!" The culprit for his current predicament was a young woman ─ the housemaid, judging by the clothes she was wearing ─ currently on the floor, in a similar situation as his own. "I'm so sorry! Are you hurt, little boy?!"

Waving his hands in front of him did little to calm her down. The poor woman was panicking, as if debating to herself if to fuss over the boy she had run into, or worry about the flowers scattered over the broken ceramic pieces, which Conan guessed used to be a vase, and a large pool of water.

"Conan-kun!" Ran soon arrived, and took over that task, though. "Are you okay?!"

Slapping a grin over his face, Conan jumped back onto his feet.

"I'm perfectly fine, don't worry!" he said, arms stretching to his sides to confirm his claims. "See?"

Perfectly fine, except for the jolt of pain shooting from his leg that had him gritting his teeth to suppress a flinch. Forcing a smile on his face, and shifting until he was standing with his legs together, he managed to convince the girl somewhat.

Yet, the man with her was harder to fool, it would seem. In a matter of seconds, he had kneeled down in front of the child and gently lifted his leg, stealing a startled squeak out of him, barely keeping himself from stumbling backwards by holding onto a nearby wall.

Blood dripped a little from a cut etched on the side of his leg. Ran gasped at the sight.

"Why didn't you say anything?" she scolded him, mostly out of worry than anything else.

"Because it was just a scratch!" argued Conan. "It's not a big deal.."

"Honestly, you..."

All the while, the young man merely smiled, a bit amused at their interaction.

"You again!" A yell broke through, loud enough to steal a flinch out of Conan. "When will you be able to be the proper maid of this household?!"

From looks alone, it would seem the child hadn't been the only one. Eyes scrunched up, head turned slightly away, the housemaid had become the target from all this anger. Araide Yoshiteru, the doctor from before, was screaming at him from close.

"The one that asked to be the maid here was you, remember?!" he continued, on and on. "If you do it again, you're out of here!"

The maid did not respond, merely resisted it all, shaking almost imperceptibly. Such was the sight that prompted Conan to call out, "Excuse me…"

As everyone's attention, including the mean doctor's, shifted back to him, Conan felt himself wince, but did his best to ignore it. Clutching his hands behind his back in a hopefully timid posture, he continued, "It wasn't her fault, Sensei. I was running around and accidentally bumped into her." Then, with a bow, he added, "I'm so sorry!"

For a moment, it was too silent for him to figure out if it had gone well, or if he had unwittingly made things worse somehow. Yoshiteru's frown remained untouched, staring intently at the little boy before glancing over to her housemaid.

Eventually, he sighed. "You better clean up right away," was all he said, before disappearing from where he had come from.

"U-Understood!" she exclaimed, even after he was gone.

Just before leaving, the woman faced him, and he could see that her eyes had brightened a bit somehow. Quickly, she mouthed him a 'thank you', then shuffled away from sight, barely even leaving him the chance to muster a nod in response.

A chuckle behind him had him spinning on his heels. "You're a bit of a liar, aren't you?" said the man, smiling amicably.

To which Conan could only stutter, incoherently. Paying no mind to any of that, the man settled his hand over the kid's shoulder, starting to steer him away.

"Come on, young man," he said. "We need to treat that cut."

"I don't need-" His words died down when he felt Ran glaring at him. "Yes, sir."

With a pleased smile, the girl followed suit.

It was uncanny how quickly Ran had given up on karate practice, accepting the doctor's offer to stay for dinner in a heartbeat. No hesitation, not even a moment of pondering, just a bright smile on her face and there he was, sitting in a spot on the table he didn't want to be at, listening to a conversation he wasn't interested in.

In front of him sat the mystery man from before. His name turned out to be Araide Tomoaki, head graduate from Touto University and Araide Yoshiteru's only son.

"Well then, how about taking my daughter as a wife?" Kogoro joked.

Ran's embarrassed arguing did not take long to come. At his stepmother's further teasing, Tomoaki tried to get her to drop it, appearing just as flustered as the aforementioned girl.

All the while, Conan remained quiet, fingers absently playing with bandages wrapped around his leg. Araide Tomoaki was a nice guy overall, there was no doubt about that. Good-hearted, intelligent, too ─ Conan figured he should have taken a liking to him from the very beginning. But there was something…

The way he talked with Ran, about how she seemed to lose herself staring at him, then blush and look away at the moment he noticed her not-too-discreet staring…

Conan squinted his eyes. Something didn't feel right.

Just in time, too, his phone began buzzing in his pocket. Taking advantage of the fact that nobody was actually looking at him, the boy plucked it out to realize he had a new message in his inbox, its sender being none other than his older brother.

"If you notice something else about Ran, please tell me."

His gaze dulled, contemplating it for another second before putting it back in place without even considering replying to it. No matter how much jealousy was clearly gnawing at him, it didn't give him the right to push his little brother to become an unwilling private detective to spy on his not-girlfriend.

I shouldn't get involved with it, thought Conan. Even if Ran-neechan dumps that idiot and starts dating this guy…

His mind refused to finish that sentence.

"But the host is pretty slow," said Kogoro, as he looked at his wristwatch. "His working hour should be over by now."

He wasn't wrong about that, thought Conan. Looking around, he could see that Yoshiteru had yet to arrive. Neither he could see his wife yet, considering she had gone out to call a friend a few minutes prior, it wasn't all that strange.

"Bath." His answer was granted by an old lady Conan had never seen before, glaring at everyone from the doorway. "That man likes to take a bath before supper. Having a bath before anyone else and don't have the water dirty."

"Grandmother, putting such harsh words again!"

Well, it was obvious that this old lady did not like anyone in her family ─ except for Tomoaki, her only blood relative, apparently. She didn't even stay for long, all she had done was to scowl at the wife, who had been hanging around the corridor, still talking with her friend on the phone. She didn't even bother waiting for dinner.

Embarrassed about his grandmother's rude behavior, Tomoaki sighed at her departure, turning back to his guests to apologize on her behalf.

When darkness struck. Confused, everyone started looking around, and it did not take them long to figure it was a blackout ─ exclusively for them, pointed out Conan, seeing from the window that the lights in the rest of the houses in the neighborhood were still on.

Hikaru, the clumsy housemaid that had barrelled onto him earlier, went to check out the breaker while the wife who still hadn't left the phone ─ Conan decided he didn't want to see what their phone bill must have looked like ─ waited outside the room. A couple of minutes later, slightly over than strictly necessary, the lights turned back on.

Both Kogoro and Conan stared into Ran's soul. Only after a few confused blinks later did she realize her father was right in front of him, an unfriendly glare on his face, and whose arm she was actually clinging to. Heat rose to her face as she jumped backwards, profusely apologizing to Tomoaki. He didn't take offense to any of it, and instead, just laughed amicably back at her.

Once the confusion faded enough to move, Conan grabbed his phone, and immediately typed:

"Ran-neechan was just squeezing someone else's arm.

He's a doctor. A rather kindhearted and a pretty nice guy overall, too.

I don't think you stand a chance, Oniichan."

Barely even a second after clicking the 'send' button, his reply popped up on his screen, but before he could even read it, a blood-curdling scream broke through, announcing the crime they were just about to witness.

Araide Yoshiteru's body had been found by his wife in the bath. Despite Tomoaki's efforts to resurrect him, his father passed away. By electrocution, apparently, after trying to shave his face while in the bathtub, for some reason.

For such a reason the police, plus Kogoro, eventually declared it as an accident ─ which, obviously, was not. Like, how could they not notice when the hints were right there? Now, he knew Kogoro was a lost cause already, but Megure and Takagi were both from the police, they had been trained for this.

Eyes narrowed on Takagi watched him stand in the bathtub, impersonating the victim shaving his face in front of the mirror.

Are they all made like this? Clueless beyond a cause in every single case they tackle?

Conan decided he didn't want to know. In fact, he wanted to scream.

Actually, so he did. Loudly.

Then proceeded to watch with a bored look as Takagi stumbled backwards, inevitably falling on his rear. Ran practically materialized from nowhere, her arms circling around his waist while scolding the boy for misbehaving, until he pointed out the obvious.

Detective Takagi wasn't supposed to fall that way.

Inspector Megure paused, and seemed to consider it, "Hey, this might just be…"

Yes. Yes, it was.

"That's simple."

Of course, Kogoro was taking off his socks to step inside the bathtub, ready to recreate his version of the events ─ which was slightly interesting, to say the least. How much energy was he willing to waste brushing it off as an accident rather than actually trying to solve the crime?

Thus, he waited, until he was done with it. Then, tried, "But, Kogoro-ojisan…"

"What now?"

"You missed the part where Araide-sensei turns the switch of the shaver off." Kogoro looked back, cluelessly, then slowly turned to glance at the shaver he was holding. "I really wanted to know how it happened!"

Like that, they finally, finally understood what he had been trying to hint at all this time. Nobody could have turned the shaver off, especially not the victim since, well, he had been shocked to death.

"Then why is it turned off?" Takagi asked Kogoro. "When you found him, he wasn't moving already, right?"

Kogoro did not know what to say.

Conan smirked. "Isn't it because of the sound?" Yet, by the time the three adults turned to him, his expression had shifted, morphed into something far more childlike, innocent. "Maybe that person didn't want the sound to be heard?"

Kogoro raised his eyebrow. "Who to who?"

"How should I know?" He put on a sickly sweet smile that actually implied how much he knew instead. "I'm just a child."

And you're the detective here, stupid, was left unsaid. Yet, it was as if he had been heard, since it had earned him a scowl from Kogoro, regardless.

Now that they were done inspecting the body and the crime scene, it was time to confirm the alibis of everyone involved. Yoko, the wife, had been talking on the phone the entire time while Hikaru had left to fix the breaker. The old lady claimed she had been trying to get to her room, then returned to the kitchen along with everyone else, drawn by a certain presence she could feel ─ which later turned to be nothing but the heavy pouring outside.

Lastly, there was Tomoaki, who had been in the kitchen the whole time. Ran could vouch for it, since she had been clinging to him until the lights came back.

At some point, Tomoaki seemed to notice something about the way Hikaru held her arm, and stood up mid interrogation. Similarly to how he had acted around with Conan, the man promptly took Hikaru's arm and rolled up her shirt to reveal a nasty burn mark spreading all over her skin.

"Excuse me," he said to Megure. "I would like to give her some treatment, so you wouldn't mind if I take her to the check up room, right?"

Naturally, the inspector allowed him, under the condition that an officer accompanied him everywhere they went.

"Oh, and one more thing." Megure stopped him just before he could leave. "Today, from 5:00 to 7:00 PM, for some reason, only you had been away. Where were you at?"

"I'm a high school basketball team's replacement coach," Tomoaki explained. "When I was a student, I had to be a coach instead of someone who broke a bone, and he had asked me to coach the team until he could get out."

"A doctor being a basketball coach, huh?"

"If you want, ask Ran-san. The one that I'm talking about is the high school she goes to, Teitan High School." At that, the attention swiftly shifted over to the girl in question. "You know the coach of the basketball team is Tamochi-sensei, correct?"

Conan could only stare. Wide eyes first fixated on Tomoaki's serious gaze, then sliding towards Ran's nodding head, and there they stayed for the longest time.

Could it be… The reason Ran-neechan has been going to karate practice every day…

Eventually, he snapped out of it, even if it hadn't been entirely of his own accord. In fact, the reason stemmed from Tomoaki's all too sharp gaze picking on how his grandmother limped ever so slightly. After that, the old lady had no other choice but to confess that she had actually stepped on something strange while in the dark, thus hurting her foot.

Naturally, Tomoaki had left the room to treat his grandmother ─ he almost felt bad about the guy, having to treat so many people and trying to resurrect his father's dead body, all in the span of a single day. Conan hardly doubted that was what his everyday routine looked like.

Not that he could judge him for that.

"Excuse me…" began Ran. "If it's alright, then may I go and help with the treatment?"

Conan's head turned sharply towards her space, barely even able to catch a glimpse of her. Soon thereafter she had disappeared, her lips curved in a smile serving his most recent memory of her face. Somehow, she seemed happy, overjoyed at the prospect of spending some more time with the guy Conan now believed worthy of the label as 'Ran-neechan's crush'. Justifiably so.

Without really thinking about it, Conan picked up his phone once more. On his screen, the last text his brother had sent him was engraved, for him to read:

"What are you trying to say, Conan?"

There wasn't much to it yet, in a way, to Conan, there was. Because it allowed him to see. The smile that didn't quite reach his eyes, the strange glimmer of his eyes that hid how much in pain he was. Conan's lips pressed together, forming a thin line.

His text was left on read.

It was so obvious that the wife was the culprit that it physically hurt.

Yet, for some reason he still failed to get a grasp on, the police were convinced it was Hikaru instead. Well, it wasn't like he couldn't see why they thought it, as her alibi had been suspicious at best, with her taking far too long to raise the breaker for no good reason. Except, maybe, the broken vase hidden inside her cupboard, perhaps?

At first, he had thought they only needed a little push in the right direction. Now he was convinced they needed to be barreled over at full force instead. Not that he knew how to manage any of those options.

An idea soon popped into his mind after spotting Kogoro and Megure standing in the yard, holding an umbrella to protect themselves from the never-ending rain. He would get in trouble for this, that was about right, but he had been growing both impatient and desperate for a while and now he had reached his tipping point.

So, he drew in a deep breath, and took off running.

About what he had said about barrelling into him? Conan meant that literally.

Hissing softly because of the pain his fall had caused, the little boy quickly went back to his own feet. He smiled sheepishly at Kogoro's deep hatred glare, opening his mouth to apologize.

"Hey!" Kogoro had beaten him to it. As planned, he was currently sitting on a large puddle, soaked to the bone, while the inspector watched, his mouth wide open in shock, unable to vocalize. "What's the idea?!"

Conan offered a shrug. "I wasn't looking where I was going."

"You little brat-"

"Now, now. He said it was an accident, right?" Megure let out an awkward laugh, all while restraining Kogoro so he wouldn't land a hit on the kid ─ who simply stared back, absolutely unfazed. "Be more careful next time, okay, Conan-kun?"

A bright smile etched on his face, Conan nodded, "Okay~!" which, actually, did nothing but irritate the great detective even further.

Finally breaking free of Megure's grasp, Kogoro scoffed at the grinning child, and stomped inside the house. In turn, Megure stayed back, letting out the air he didn't know he was holding, and put on a smile. "Alright, Conan-kun, why don't we-?"

But he was met with an empty space on the ground. Conan was skipping ahead, following the angry detective as hurriedly as he could with such tiny legs ─ blissfully unaware of the trouble he had caused, the inspector would bet on that.

Kids, he thought, and went back to contemplate the rain in silence.

All the while, Conan continued to follow, trotting right behind the detective. "Maybe you should take a bath or something..." he offered.

Mouri felt his veins pulsating on his forehead as irritation was pumped through his entire body. The high pitched innocent voice, him trailing behind like a lost puppy ─ who still made sure to avoid stepping on the water Kogoro was leaving in his stead ─ it was driving him mad.

"Tell me something I don't know, squirt," grumbled the man, not even gracing him with a single glance. "Make yourself useful and tell Yoko-san I'm going to borrow her bath."

"Understood!" he chirped, purposely cute and annoying.

He disappeared around the corner right afterwards, leaving the older, soaked and cold man to sigh ─ peaceful, at least. It didn't last long, though, as a little head popped up into his sight not even two seconds in.

"Now what?" Kogoro snapped.

"I think Hikaru-san is the culprit," Conan stated, completely out of the blue.

The detective raised his eyebrows.

"I found something in Hikaru-san's cupboard," the child said, then, anticipating Kogoro asking what had been doing there to begin with, he quickly added, "A broken vase. That's a pretty suspicious thing to keep, right?"

"Idiot. She probably just broke it by accident and hid it so they wouldn't find out."

He even had the nerve to press a finger to his cheek, pretending to ponder over it. "Oh!" he exclaimed, his eyes wide. "That sounds like it!"

"Of course it does."

"Right! Because the deceased Araide-sensei threatened to kick her out if she messed up again earlier!"

Just as he was about to continue on his way, Kogoro his steps halted. For a heartbeat, he stared up ahead, contemplating something on his mind until, slowly, his gaze flickered over to the young boy.

A pool of water was forming beneath his feet, yet nobody paid any mind to it. All the detective could focus on was at the lone phone sitting on a desk right at the end of the hall.

And suddenly, it clicked.

"I completely forgot about it! But it makes sense. Of course she wanted to hide it-"

"Conan."

Conan tilted his head, taking on his unusually serious expression.

"Tell everyone I'm making my deduction as soon as I'm done with my bath. And tell Detective Takagi and Inspector Megure to meet me here in five minutes."

A nod later, the boy had disappeared again. The broad smirk that had crawled up on his face went unseen by the great detective, however.

A/N:

Gamelover41592: Actually, Conan learned Vodka and Gin's codenames at the train in chapter 8 of this fic. I had to go with the manga version for this part because the anime messed up and completely changed it. But, yeah, those men were actually them.

Published: 04-09-2020

Last edited: 03-05-2023

Based on The Blind Spot in the Darkness.