File Seventeen: The Bomber's Call

"... I seriously can't understand her anymore," Conan rolled his eyes, for the eleventh time, as he heard his brother complaining. "At first she seems to want me to go back home, but then she yells at me for anything I say!"

The boy wanted to laugh, and sigh at the same time. He sounds just like Mom, he noted, slightly amused at the fact that Shinichi had always complained about their mother calling him to whine about their father.

As amusing as it was, however, the child didn't really want to deal with it. Agasa seemed to recognize his irritation, sweatdropping with an awkward smile on his face.

"-and she got all mad when I told her I wouldn't be able to go watch an all-night movie marathon this Saturday," Shinichi complained, sighing loudly. It's me who wants to sigh! the child cried on his mind. "Why May 3rd though? Any other day would be just as fine."

Conan truly wished he could be surprised but, sadly, he couldn't. He just mildly shrugged, as he pulled the letters from the box Agasa had brought him and placed them on the top of the table.

"Maybe because May 4th is a special day? She probably wants to be with you when it hits midnight."

Shinichi gasped and for a moment Conan thought he had finally understood.

"May 4th is the day Holmes and Moriarty fell down the Reichenbach Falls!"

For the brightest teenage detective of the East, he is pretty stupid.

"Wait, that means... Did you get her into Sherlock Holmes, Conan?"

"You basically traumatized her into never touching a mystery book in her entire life," Conan stated, with a plain voice. "More than thirteen years of hearing somebody talk non-stop about him does that to people."

"Then, she..."

"No, she definitely did not mean that."

"So, what is it?" he sounded terribly frustrated.

"You are the famous detective, figure it out yourself."

"You're a detective, too!"

"Not famous."

"Yet."

"Seriously, if you are leaning into a second grader to solve your problems, there definitely is something wrong with you," there was no response beside a mumbled protest, so Conan took the cue to keep talking. "Look, I'm sorting your and Dad's fan mail, which should be your task. So, do your freaking job and figure it out yourself."

He had, after all, decided not to tell him about his birthday before Ran. She had been so happy last week, after she had decided to buy him a red polo shirt and planned to surprise him.

"Every year, Shinichi forgets his own birthday," she had explained at his father. "I'm only reminding him once a year. Otherwise, he's getting older for nothing."

The only thing he had his doubts about was that she was planning to take him to see The Legend of the Red Thread, which sounded an awfully lot like the romance soaps she enjoyed to watch. At first, he felt bad for his brother. But then he would remember the lies and his extremely long absence, and figured it served him right.

"... Aren't you a bit touchy today?"

"Probably. Nauseous, too," he groaned, as he opened another letter and cringed. "I swear, if I read another letter that goes like 'Shinichi-sama, please bear my children'... I think I will throw up."

"Did you... Did read my mail?"

"About a dozen of them are addressed to 'Kudo-sama'. If I don't read them, it will be impossible to send Dad's back to him," he replied, as if it was the most obvious fact in the entire world. "It's not like you are going to read them anytime soon, anyway."

"Hey..."

"In my defense, that's true, and... Eh?" the child's gaze fell on a particular letter. "Moriya Teiji? You have a letter from him."

"Eh? That Moriya Teiji?"

"Let me see," he broke the seal and opened it to read. "He invited you to a tea party at his house. On April 29th, at 3:30 PM. There's a map in here, I can send you a photo of it, if you want."

"Say, Conan, does it say that guests are welcomed?"

"Yeah."

"Then, go for me, could you?" Conan certainly didn't expect that. "You, Ran and her father can take my place. I'm caught in this big investigation, so I can't go."

The child's eyes narrowed at the word 'investigation'. You mean hiding.

"What big investigation is this, anyway?" he chirped, with an innocent touch on his voice. "You have been away for months, so I'm curious."

"N-No, it's not that big, actually," there was a forced laugh, letting Conan know that he had just pressured his brother into lying again. "It's just that I had multiple cases, coming one after another. I barely have any time to sleep!"

"Oh? Sounds like a dangerous place. Where are you?"

"Look, I have to go now. The police just arrived and I have to work to do. See you."

"Wait-"

Just like that, he hung up. Really, Conan just stared at his phone, frowning at the device in his hands as if it was the cause of all his problems. Even if I didn't already know what is going on, I would still find this behavior extremely suspicious.

For Kudo Yukiko's firstborn son, his acting skills are quite bad.

The party hadn't been so bad. While it had appeared to be a bit boring at first, at some point the day Moriya presented them with a very entertaining quiz, which Conan solved it effortlessly, before anyone else.

Everyone had praised him for his intelligence at such a young age so he had blushed a bit, unused to the attention. He had been able to hear Kogoro's groan of frustration, and that alone made his visit worth it.

As a reward, he had allowed to take a look to his special gallery, alongside Ran.

Throughout it all, there was something he was absolutely sure of. This guy had an uncanny obsession with symmetry.

"By the way, Ran-san, are you and Kudo-kun close?" Moriya asked her, curiously.

"Well, we're childhood friends and we attend the same high school..."

"Basically a married couple that doesn't realize they are together."

"Hey, Conan-kun, that's not it!"

Conan shrugged and directed his attention back to the gallery, barely paying attention as Ran told him all about his plan for Shinichi's birthday, and even commented that red was their lucky colour. And she still denies having feelings for him, he sighed, tiredly. I think I'm surrounded by clueless lovey-dovey creatures .

May 3rd arrived at the blink of an eye. Conan just stood there, close to the window, watching with a saddened expression as Ran left the house. Unlike him, she was smiling radiantly.

"Ran-neechan," Conan had stopped her at the door before she left. She had stared at him, cluelessly, as he handed her what it seemed to be a gift, neatly wrapped in silver paper. "Could you give this to Shinichi-niichan for me?"

"Sure, but are you sure you don't want to give it to him by yourself?" Ran had asked, when a smile appeared on her face. "I know. Why don't you come with us? I don't mind and I don't think Shinichi does either."

Conan had shook his head and told her to have fun, before returning to his room.

He was absolutely sure Shinichi wasn't going to make an appearance in such a crowded cinema in the middle of Beika, yet he didn't have the heart to tell her that.

Deep down, she might have already known.

It didn't make him feel any better at all.

"On the day before yesterday, a large quantity of explosives including Octogen was stolen from Toyo Chemical company's warehouse," the announcer on Agasa's TV informed, catching the young boy's eye. "The police have mobilized over a hundred officers to investigate, but so far there have been no leads."

It was followed by another report, this time about a fire at the Kurokawa State.

"That's the house where that murder case took place," Agasa noted. "There have been quite a few fires lately..."

He clearly remembered the murder case that had happened there a week ago. Kurokawa, who had been killed by the maid while she seeked revenge for his boyfriend, had left a message that read JUN on his computer, and it only took Conan to pretend to mess with the computer by pressing the bloody keys, including the English caps lock key ─ which he correctly guessed that had been hit by accident. The faces the people in the room made when they read Masami in the screen had been priceless.

The child didn't look away from the screen, even if the phone started to ring, letting the old professor pick it up instead. He did pay attention to him, however, at the sight of his uneasy expression.

"He's asking for Shinichi," covering up the speaker with one hand, he explained, and Conan just stared blankly, as if saying and what do I have to do with it? "He sounds strange. Like he's using a voice masking device."

Conan's eyes opened slightly wider at those words, understanding the meaning behind them. When someone tried to fake his voice to speak over the phone, it usually meant bad news.

Sorry about this, Oniichan.

He nodded and turned the dial on his bowtie.

"Is this Kudo Shinichi?" the man behind the phone asked.

"Yes," he replied using his brother's voice.

"You've seen the news, right? I'm the one who stole the explosives from Toyo Chemical," the child had been expecting a lot of things, but this was definitely not one of them. "I'd like to know your mobile phone number."

Against his wishes, the young boy gave him his own number. If worse came to worse, he didn't want to lose contact with this person, who definitely was some sort of terrorist. He was then told to go to the park, unless he wanted a group of children to die.

It had been terrifying to find out that those children were none other than his three friends. Luckily, however, he managed to kick the damned thing far away from their position before it exploded.

An orange explosion. Plastic explosives, his mind quickly supplied.

His phone rang again and he picked up.

"What happened to Kudo?" the man spoke, before he could even speak. His hands froze around his bowtie. "I see, he figures sending me a kid like you is enough to deal with me, doesn't he?"

Conan frowned, and just listened at the criminal as his eyes darted across the place, restlessly. This guy was watching from somewhere else and he had absolutely no idea of where.

He told him there was another bomb set to explode in fifteen minutes so he decided to pull his innocent little kid act to get more information. He did get it was under a tree and that someone could walk away with it, but that was all.

The child jumped into his skateboard, ignoring his friends' shouts and left as quickly as he had arrived.

Roughly fifteen minutes later, he was riding a borrowed bike across the street, the bomb placed on his basket. Time was running out, after stopping momentarily at sixteen seconds, so he didn't have any other choice other than letting it explode in a less populated area.

After choosing the river, he rode straight to it. He jumped out just in time to see bright orange flames and the blast wave caused the child to get blown away.

He painfully hit his head against a tree and blacked out.

Conan realized he might have overdid it a little when he woke up in a hospital bed to the sight of Agasa and his friends' smile of relief. They had practically beamed the moment his eyes opened and began fussing over him.

"Conan!" unlike the others, Kogoro was definitely not happy. "What the hell is going on?!"

"I have a headache, that's what is going on," Conan replied, not fazed at all about his outburst. "Will probably turn into a migraine, if you keep screaming like an angry monkey that just got his bananas stolen."

"You brat-!"

"Now, now," Agasa had to physically restrain the man so he wouldn't go and hit the injured child, before telling Mitsuhiko to go look for a doctor. "Calm down."

"Child murder is a very serious crime," Conan teased him further. "Such an ugly stain on your record wouldn't do good to your detective career, right, Occhan?"

"Hey, Conan-kun," Ayumi whispered in her ear. "Maybe it would be best if you stopped provoking him..."

Conan shrugged at that, far too amused at the sight of a pissed off Kogoro being held by his arms by Agasa and childishly stuck his tongue at him because, hey, having the opportunity to mess with him without risking a cracked skull was rare.

Eventually he managed to, at least, calm down enough for the doctor to check the child over, and thanked the doctor when he had said he could be discharged the next day.

Not a second after the doctor left, Inspector Megure and Inspector Shiratori and bursted inside, and Conan was forced to tell them everything that happened ─ conveniently 'forgetting' to tell them he had actually pretended to be Shinichi.

"Why did you do such a dangerous thing?" Kogoro spoke up once he had finished his story, pressing his index finger against Conan's chest. "You could have died!"

"Ah? Worried-?"

"I am serious, Conan," the serious tone the man had truly made the kid shut his mouth up and stare at him. "Look, I don't care if your parents usually let you run wild, but you are currently living in my house. So, for now on, you are grounded."

Conan just blinked at him, in shock. He had never been actually been grounded before, so it was a brand new concept to him.

"Understood?" the man pressed when he didn't say a word.

"I understand," finally accepting the boundaries he was being given, the boy's gaze dropped to his sheets and nodded. "Sorry."

"But what is that stupid detective freak doing?" Kogoro wondered. "Why didn't the culprit contact him?"

"Shinichi-niichan had something else to do," Conan lied quickly, before Agasa could say anything. "So he asked me for help."

"What a guy!" the man growled, his fist clenched as if he was ready to hit Shinichi. "Next time I see him, I'll give it to him!"

Honestly, Conan didn't know if it was so mad because what had just happened or because Ran had invited him to the movies all night.

Agasa smiled awkwardly at Conan, and he did the same. Sorry about that, Oniichan, he apologized, again, inside his mind. Try not to show your face around for a while, okay?

Conan was most grateful when all the adults' attention drifted away from him and started to wonder why the bomber could have been interested in Shinichi in the first place. They came into the conclusion that it was was either to compete against him, or that they had a grudge against him.

"At any rate," Inspector Megure spoke. "The police are now searching for the person fitting the description these children have given us."

The three children just smiled, big enough to threaten to split their faces in half, as their chests puffed out in pride. Still grinning, Genta pulled out a sheet of paper.

"Conan, this is the picture," he said, handing his friend the drawing. "It really looks like him!"

Conan was speechless, but for another reason altogether.

"It's drawn very well," Mitsuhiko nodded to himself.

"We all worked on it," Ayumi smiled wider, if possible.

"Say, guys..." Conan tried hard not to raise his eyebrow. "Did you... Did you draw this?"

"No," the girl replied, with big innocent eyes. "A kind police officer drew it while she asked us questions."

"She seemed to be pretty frustrated when she finished it, though," the kid with freckles pointed out.

"Maybe she's a perfectionist..." the bigger one suggested.

Conan could not help but sweatdrop as he looked at the picture. Now, he was nowhere close to an artist himself ─ his drawing skills were bad, at least ─ but that didn't mean he didn't know how a facial composite was supposed to look like.

Looks like somebody is going to get scolded today.

There was something he could tell, though. The culprit was so obviously disguised.

"Inspector," Agasa spoke. "Of all the cases that Shinichi-kun has solved, which one attracted the most attention?"

"Hmm..." Megure thought about it for a moment. "That would have to be the case involving Mayor Okamoto of Nishitama City."

The child actually remembered that one, since it hadn't been a year since it happened. He hadn't been there, but it was as if he had because Shinichi had taken his time to explain every single detail of the case he was so proud of.

And Conan hadn't let his brother know at the time, but it had secretly enjoyed hearing all off them.

"Because of this incident, the mayor was removed from the office. His plan to revitalize the City of Nishitama was put back on the drawing board."

Silently, Conan listened as the inspector asked his friends if they remembered something else and Ayumi said she recalled the man's smell. It was very sweet. The boy wondered what that meant.

Since he was feeling better, the three kids decided it would be best if they headed back home for the day, before it got late. Before he knew it, the girl's hands were on his and there was a very serious expression on her face.

"If there's a problem, I'll come back right away!"

Please, don't.

"Tch, must be nice," Genta scowled.

"We should try being put in the hospital too," Mitsuhiko said.

Don't try too hard.

"You've become very popular," Kogoro smirked, teasingly. "Quite the lady-killer."

If it's killing what we are talking about, I think I will be the one getting killed by the end of the day.

Finally his group of friends left, and Conan was left alone with the adults. Now that the room was much quieter, the child leaned back on his bed, sighing loudly.

When his phone rang, suddenly, and everyone froze in place at that. Conan stretched his hand to pick it up, when Kogoro stopped him.

"If it's the culprit, pass it to me."

Conan nodded and pressed the phone against his ear.

"Good job finding the bomb, I take my hat off to you," upon hearing the too familiar artificial voice, he handed it to the older detective. Mouri placed it on top of the mattress after putting it on speaker. "But the children's turn is over. Bring out Kudo!"

"That's right," Kogoro spoke. "Now it's grown-ups' turn."

"Who the hell are you?! Where's Kudo?!"

"Kudo is not here. I'm your opponent now, the Great Detective, Mouri Kogoro."

Now, now. 'Great Detective' is a bit of a stretch.

It shouldn't have come as a surprise that the criminal had placed five more bombs, this time along the Touto Circular Railway. He said that they would explode if the train's speed dropped below sixty kilometers per hour or if the night fell.

To say that Conan was distressed about the turn of events was an understanding. Not a minute after the criminal had hung up, he found himself grasping, tightly, his detective badge, ignoring the rest of the adults that just ran around, discussing what to do and giving instructions over the phone to others.

Please, guys...

"Conan-kun?" came Ayumi's concerned reply. "Is something wrong?"

"Yoshida-san, where are you now?"

"Eh? We just got in the train," Conan's blood ran cold at that. "What's going on? You're scaring me."

"Hey, the train is going faster and faster," he heard Genta pointing out.

"Don't tell me, Conan-kun," there was a bit of panic on Mitsuhiko's voice. "Has someone planted something beginning with a 'B' on this train?"

There was a pause.

"Calm down. If you panic you'll only make it worse," he would have lied, but he was certain they would've seen through it right away. "But yes, the bomber put bombs on the Circular Railway."

He heard the three kids gasping at the revelation but said nothing about that. Conan just stayed there, clutching the badge even tighter, as his mind ran.

What was he going to do now?

"How much time do we have until it explodes?"

He blinked twice at the device in his fingers, surprised by the unusually serious approach. They really were taking this better than he had expected.

"Until nightfall," he replied after a pause.

After all, instructions to keep the speed above sixty kilometers per hour had already been given, so exploding because of that was out of the picture.

"Conan-kun..." he could hear Ayumi's voice crack, as if she was about to cry. "Does that mean we're all going to die?"

"Don't you dare to think about it, not even for a second," he said instantly, a frown carved into his face. "I will get you out of here. I promise."

"There you go again," to his surprise, Genta huffed.

"Eh?"

"You always do the same thing, Conan-kun," Mitsuhiko was frowning on the other side. "Trying to solve every single problem by yourself."

"We are part of the Detective Boys as well!" Ayumi protested. "Don't underestimate us!"

Conan was stunned at that, and was about to yell them to drop it. To just keep quiet until the police knew where the bomb was and they were out of any possible danger.

Then he realized it. If he was on their place, would Conan just stand aside and do nothing?

"I understand," he said finally, sighing loudly. "Try to look for something suspicious, that could possibly fit a bomb. And when you do, do not shake it. It might be sensitive to movement."

"Alright," Mitsuhiko replied, with a serious tone on his voice.

"And please... Please, don't do anything stupid."

Genta scoffed. "We're not stupid."

"There's a big difference between acting stupid and being stupid," he retorted, tonelessly. "In Kojima's case, however, I have my doubts."

Genta complained, as loudly as Mitsuhiko's laughter. There was a muffled thud and Conan cringed, knowing that it meant the freckled boy getting hit, as usual. Ayumi was admonishing the bigger boy for being violent. They hung up not long after that.

Conan smiled sadly, a bit stunned at their ability to put a good face even in the worst of situations. Maybe it was naivety, maybe it was their naturally positivity. He didn't quite know.

Please, don't die. You must definitely not die, guys!

Another ringing sound pushed the boy out of his thoughts and every single soul stared at Kogoro, who still held Conan's phone.

Before the child could do anything about it, Kogoro picked up, with a deadly serious expression on his face.

"Conan?! Where are you?!" the familiar voice on the other side did not comfort Kogoro in the sightless. Rather, it caused him to burn with fury. "What did you think you were doing?!"

"Like you are the one to speak," Kogoro replied, furious. The other person certainly didn't expect the grown up voice to reply, if the sharp intake of air he heard was something to go by. "How much of a bastard can you be to let a child manage a bomb threat?"

"I did... what exactly?"

Kogoro noticed the way Conan flinched and the genuine confusion in Shinichi's voice. "Conan..." he breathed out, dangerously.

Conan just gulped silently, before jumping on the bed to snatch his phone and hurry outside the room, forcing himself to ignore Kogoro yelling his name, angrily, as he left.

I should prepare myself for a month-long grounding...

"What do you want?" he spatted, once he stepped into the lobby.

"For starters, you to tell me what's going on," it seemed like Conan wasn't the only one annoyed at this situation. "You're at the hospital, aren't you?"

Conan hesitated a bit, glancing at the phone with a weird look. "How did you know?" he asked, gazing around the room for any suspicious characters ─ or even hidden cameras, at this point he couldn't be sure.

"I saw it on TV," the teen replied. "They didn't say your name, but you are the only highly hypocritical grade schooler I know that would ride a stolen bike through the traffic while carrying a bomb, yet would constantly bug his brother about the dangers of holding in a sneeze."

The boy paused, as if thinking it over.

"I'm pretty sure they didn't say all that on TV."

"I'm still waiting for an answer."

"I usurped your identity in order to talk to a criminal."

"Alright then... Wait, what?!"

Conan sighed, heavily. "Look, it's not that important right now," he ignored his brother's yell of 'damn right it is' and continued. "There's... There's much more on stake right now."

Shinichi quietened down. "What happened?"

"Yoshida-san and the others..." while he tried to keep his voice even, his brother noticed the way it quivered, slightly. "They are in danger."

The way even Conan was panicking a little bit told Shinichi there were in big trouble.

"Conan, tell me everything that happened. From the beginning."

"Hey, what the hell are you doing, brat?!"

Mitsuhiko winced the moment the loud voice broke through the commotion ─ people had been complaining about the train passing by their stop before that yell ─ and slowly turned around to see a man standing right behind him. There was a scary look on his eyes and Mitsuhiko could only stare back at him, frozen.

His hands were still on the suitcase he had tried to check while its owner had been busy arguing with the personal of the train. The boy had guessed it could fit a bomb and therefore worth checking.

The man was angry, painfully pulling him up by the hood of his shirt.

His deduction proved to be incorrect given the fact that they were still alive, even if the suitcase had slipped from his hands and fell into the floor with an audible thud.

It didn't bring him any comfort though, since the man seemed to be more than ready to hit him.

"Let him go!" Genta protested, willing to beat the man twice his size up. "He didn't do anything wrong!"

"This brat wanted to steal from me!"

"He didn't!" suddenly, all gazes where on Ayumi, the little girl who had just screamed. "We were checking for bombs!"

For a moment nobody said anything, until laughed erupted in the entire train. The girl deflated, a bright red blush blossoming on her cheeks and the boy next to her seemed to get even angrier.

Mitsuhiko, however, was sweating heavily, hoping against hope that he wouldn't get into any further trouble.

"Let that child go," the bathroom's door slid open and a teen walked out. A baseball hat shadowed his face and covered his hair, making it impossible to determine his identity. "Those kids are right."

The three children looked at him, stunned, while the other passengers started to look at each other, nervously.

"Don't worry, everything will be alright if we cooperate and stay calm," he reassured them, then stepped closer to the man. His hand wrapped around the wrist that was holding Mitsuhiko. "But if you do anything to this boy, I'll personally make sure you're sent to jail for this public display of violence to a minor," his grip tightened, causing the man to bit back a cry of pain. "Do you understand?"

Mitsuhiko was unceremoniously dropped into the ground and his two friends instantly rushed over to him, to make sure he was okay.

Everyone else was quiet, silenced by shock.

"Now that's settled down, we should check everyone's belongings," he turned to the three children who just stared back at him, dumbfounded, barely noticing that his voice was suddenly friendlier. "Will you help me, kids?"

"No."

The teen paused, clearly stunned. Okay. He certainly didn't expect such an answer from this seemingly sweet, young girl.

"But Ayumi-chan," Mitsuhiko tried to reason. "This person just helped us out"

"Conan-kun told us to be careful," more like not doing anything stupid, but close enough. "Isn't trusting in complete strangers dangerous?"

The teenager looked at her for a moment, then laughed a bit. Ayumi's mouth formed a childish pout, not quite understanding what could be so funny in such a dire situation.

He kneeled down right in front of her, angling his face so she could see the face behind the shadows. A finger was on his lips, pleading her to keep quiet.

When she saw his face, Ayumi had to rub her eyes and look again.

Shinichi-oniisan?!

A/N:

Lieutenant Myst: Don't worry, summer will be here before you know it... Or maybe I'm just trying to convince myself lol.

Dy: I didn't really think it could be interpreted that way lol! But sadly, no, Conan wasn't shrunk and is an actual child. And about your question, I can't really tell you anything else without spoiling. But yeah, they will definitely meet.

SapphireRuby24: I haven't really thought about how Shinichi and Heiji meet, but they definitely are going to somewhere in the future ─ not a distant future, I hope. And about your other question, I don't know if having another character mistaking him for Shinichi will be pushing it a bit, but it might happen. I haven't decided yet lol.

Akuma-Heika: You know, I can't really answers these questions lol! Sorry.