File Fifty-Nine: Haibara Ai's Doppelganger
Just a few days had passed ever since Conan, and his friends, had become third graders, yet it felt like barely anything had changed at all. His classmates were still loud, his classes still boring, and cleaning time was as tedious as he had always remembered.
So, like it was usual, the boy simply swept the floors, doing his best to block out Ayumi's voice as she scolded Genta for playing around instead of cleaning.
Why am I doing this, when the Organization is most likely out there, looking for Mizunashi Rena? sighing, he paused to look at the sky with a blank look. Well, I do have to admit it. After everything that happened... This feels almost peaceful.
Another look at his classmates, more particularly at Ayumi, who was still scolding Genta, even louder than before, and he found himself smiling.
I like peace. Peace is good. As long as this stays just like this...
"This is terrible! Terrible, terrible!"
... Maybe not this time.
Barely suppressing his urges to sigh again and continue with his work, Conan's eyes flickered over to Mitsuhiko, who had just bursted through the door, a panicked expression plastered on his face, before slipping on the wet floor and falling into his butt, knocking off a bucket filled with water all over the place in the process.
"So?" said the bespectacled boy, moving closer to the fallen one. Soon, all his classmates were crowding around him as well. "What's so 'terrible'? Besides making all this terrible mess that we all have to fix, of course..."
"It's a case!" he shouted, either ignoring or not noticing the latest comment. "A case!"
"A case?" Ayumi and Genta chorused.
"A fourth grade girl vanished into thin air!"
That, finally, gathered Conan's attention. The other two seemed interested at the instant as well, since their eyes opened widely.
"Actually, her older sister and my sister are classmates," the boy explained. "When I was younger, her sister would bring her along whenever she visited my house, so we're acquaintances. She called me up out of the blue last night and made me promise to walk home with her today, but..."
"... But she didn't come, right?" Conan completed for him.
Mitsuhiko nodded and the young detective's eyes narrowed just a tiny bit. Genta, on the other hand, deflated instantly, claiming that she might have caught a cold or something, to which Mitsuhiko argued that he had called her house, but no one had picked up.
"... Besides, she said she had a favor to ask... And that I should invite the rest of the gang to walk home with us."
"You mean the Detective Boys?"
"Yeah, she said she'd explain in detail on the way home. She seemed really worried about something."
Humming to himself, Conan cupped his chin with his fingers. "Could she have felt as if she was being followed or something?" he thought out loud, glancing briefly at Haibara, who avoided his gaze right away.
"Hey, what's her name?" but it was Ayumi who ended up asking the right questions. "What's she like?"
"She's in class 4-A, and her name is Amemiya Shoko-san," then, Mitsuhiko started to think. "She has brown hair, wavy, bob cut..." once again, Conan's eyes flickered towards the scientist. "Ah, yeah! She's kind of like Haibara-san!"
This time, Haibara did look away from the window she was cleaning, staring at him for a few moments until her eyes widened slightly. Mitsuhiko, seeing her reaction, blinked, but then realized that there was a shocked expression, mixed with concern, in Conan's face.
"... H-Hey," the reaction his two friends were having didn't sit well with Mitsuhiko. "... Does that mean?"
"Ah, no!" the change in Conan's demeanor was instant, suppressing his scary expression with a smile. "There's nothing to worry about."
Mitsuhiko tried to argue, but Kobayashi was at the door, checking on their job so he had to drop it right there. Reluctantly, Mitsuhiko let the topic go in favour of going to clean the mess he had done before, with the help of Genta.
"So?" at some point, Conan asked, while they were moving the desks. "What did the school say? Did they get in touch with her?"
"About that..."
"Who are you talking about?" Kobayashi, who had overheard them talking, was curious.
"Amemiya Shoko-san in class 4-A," replied the freckled boy right away.
"Ah, Amemiya Shoko-san? She was supposed to have the day off. She had to go to her grandfather's funeral in Kyushu," Conan listened to the teacher, as he moved another desk. "But yesterday she said 'I'm not going to skip school tomorrow,' so we were all a bit worried. She probably decided to go after all. Her teacher, Hirayama-sensei, thought the same thing."
"Hirayama-sensei?" blinked Ayumi, not recalling hearing that name before.
"He's a new teacher who started two days ago. The previous teacher got into a car accident so we needed a replacement-"
A loud sound all of sudden startled them, causing their heads to snap to the source, only to meet with Conan's unusual pale face, hands in the air yet holding nothing. There was a chair at his feet. "A-Ah, sorry," he jumped at the attention. "My hands slipped."
"Be a bit more careful, Conan-kun," scolded Kobayashi, without anger. "You will get hurt."
Laughing awkwardly, he bent down to collect the fallen chair so he could put it back into his place. What are the chances, really? he thought as he continued doing his work, doing his best to ignore the knowing look that Haibara was definitely giving him.
He remained completely silent, even as they gathered their things once their teacher told them she was going to lock the classroom. Putting on his cap, he trailed behind Mitsuhiko and the others as they approached class 4-A.
At this point, they didn't need to say anything
Could they have figured out what Haibara-san actually looks like? his mind wouldn't stop running, even as he asked, alongside his friends, the missing girl's classmates any kind of information. She's actually a year older, so technically she should be in fourth grade instead of third.
... So, with that striking resemblance and the same age, the idea of Amemiya-san being mistaken with the traitor Sherry is not completely implausible.
His eyes fell on Haibara, who was quietly talking with another group of girls before, wordlessly, he approached her.
Haibara blinked, confused, at the sight of the hat that he was handing her. Slowly, she raised her gaze to look at him, only to see him turning his head so he was looking through the window instead, his hand and hat still stretched to her.
With a smile, she took it. "Even a hat as ugly as this..." her smile turned into a smirk as soon as she put it on. "... can look nice if an incredibly cute girl wears it, don't you think?"
"Guess you're right," she was actually taken aback when he replied. "Too bad it's not your case."
Instead of feeling annoyed, it amused her instead. "Thank you for your concern, though," she passed by him. "I'm touched beyond words, Kudo-kun."
"Give it back."
Of course, she paid no mind to him and went to ask another group. Only then, did Conan look back at her, watching as she hid her hair inside the hat he had just lent her. Any other time, he would probably have felt more than a bit embarrassed.
Instead of that, a worried frown crossed his face.
Mouri Kogoro was more than a little frustrated at this point.
Murder cases, robberies, kidnappings... He was looking through all of them. Megure had let him ─ secretly, which was most likely highly illegal, but couldn't bring himself to care ─ take with him several cases files. Most of them were still unsolved, some of them were... doubtful, at best.
Such as the one he was currently reading. He remembered that woman, vividly, who was kindly smiling at him through that photo. Trying not to cringe at the resemblance of her lively blue eyes with his dear daughter, he put the photograph aside to take a better look at the file.
Hirota Masami, twenty-five, he read carefully. Suicide.
When Conan had found her, Masami was alive, even if death had been more than imminent. Yet, he had tried. He had tried with all his might to save her, and that had been evident just by seeing his bloody hands, or the dullness of his eyes.
It had been heart wrenching to see a child so distraught as Conan had been then.
So, he hadn't thought much about it when it had been ruled out as a suicide, considering her fingerprints were all over the weapon. But now, he could only wonder.
Would anyone really commit suicide by shooting themselves on the stomatch?
Still, there was no telling if ─ assuming there was a culprit of course ─ that criminal was actually related to whoever killed Hara.
With a sigh, he put the file away and went to look through the next one.
A knock on the door caused him to huff, annoyed. "Can't you read?!" he shouted, without even moving. "We're closed today!"
Despite it, the door opened anyway. "I apologize," a strawberry blonde teenager walked in, as if he owned the place ─ which only added to Kogoro's irritation. "But there is something I want to discuss with you, Detective Mouri Kogoro."
Kogoro blinked at him, confused. "And who are you supposed to be?"
"Ah, right. We haven't met each other, have we? Last time I saw you, it wasn't really you," a cocky smirk, Kogoro had seen in many, many arrogant teenagers ─ and children, sometimes ─ crossed his features. "My name is Hakuba Saguru, detective."
"Hakuba?!" Kogoro gasped. "As in Police Chief Hakuba?!"
He merely stared at Kogoro for a few moments, with a blank look. Well, quite the deja vu, he sighed. "Yes, that's my father."
"Then what are you doing here?" the older detective was mostly confused. "What's that you wanted to discuss?"
Without waiting for an invitation, Hakuba closed the door behind him and promptly sat down in the chair in front of Kogoro's desk, resting his elbows on it and clasping his hands together.
"You were there, weren't you?" then, a focused frown appeared on his face. "When one of the Nishitamashi Twin Towers was bombed."
Putting together all the information they got from her classmates, Amemiya Shoko was smart, studious, quiet and cool. Would only speak when necessary and was popular among the girls, but at odds with the boys.
"Just like Ai-chan!" Ayumi pointed out, cheerfully, on their way to her home.
"A-Ah, but Haibara-san is liked by the boys, too!" flustered, and red as a tomato, Mitsuhiko was quick to say to the scientist.
Yes, yes, yes... Conan's eyebrow twitched as he thought, sarcastically.
Haibara smiled at the freckled boy, however. "Thanks," she said, quietly.
"No, no," he then laughed, awkwardly.
"By the way, Haibara," Genta had confusion written all over his face. "Why are you wearing a hat? Isn't that Conan's?"
Conan honestly hoped that the violent flinch he gave wasn't so noticeable as he thought it was.
"I thought it'd be nice to look like this every once in a while," Haibara, on the other hand, seemed to be barely fazed, if anything.
"Yeah, you look very boyish!" Mitsuhiko was grinning.
"So cool!" Ayumi smiled as well.
"... But still, I'm asking why she's wearing Conan's hat..." Genta insisted.
"Is there any rule that says she can't wear Conan-kun's hat?"
Nice save, Ayumi-chan, he thought, even though he knew Ayumi was simply defending his friend, unaware of the implications of their actions.
Sighing a bit, the focused frown returned.
"If that girl is like Haibara-san," he reasoned, outloud. "I highly doubt she was tricked and kidnapped by some weirdo. Either she was involved in an accident, or..."
"The new teacher is one of them," Haibara whispered to him, probably so she wouldn't worry the others. "And mistook her for me when he kidnapped her," her eyes flickered his way. "That was what you were thinking about, wasn't it?
Conan's eyes went to the floor. "According to her friends, she had been behaving strangely."
"Yeah," she nodded. "She would avoid her friends and walk home alone by herself when school ended. She wouldn't tell them why either."
"Maybe she sensed some sort of danger," he pointed out. "I mean, she tried to reach out for us, the Detective Boys... If she suspected her teacher wanted to abduct her, taking another route back home would explain everything. Maybe she felt that he was close to commiting the crime and wanted to talk with us, but..."
Haibara seemed to think about his theory for a moment, before opening her mouth. "I don't think that's the case," she then said to him. "If she felt she was being targeted, she would've surrounded herself with friends and family, and gone to Kyushu."
His gaze narrowed even more. "You're forgetting something."
"Eh?"
"Amamiya-san is like you, Haibara-san."
To that, Haibara couldn't find the words to properly answer, being more than aware that, given the case, she would have tried to stay away from everyone else.
"You're thinking too much about it," she settled with that, however. "This isn't like you. Any other day, it would be me the one bringing that kind of theory, wouldn't it?"
"It's hard not to think about that possibility."
The girl gave the boy a long look, before sighing tiredly.
"I'm not going to pretend I don't understand where all of this comes from, but..." she fixed her hat, giving him a brief smirk. "You can't expect time to repeat itself the same exact way."
Conan didn't look away from his feet, even when Mitsuhiko called them. Quietly, he followed the rest inside Amamiya's empty house, hoping they could find something, anything.
Anything that would help his mind to calm down, that was.
But far from reassuring himself, he found himself staring at the photograph over the counter. The resemblance that the girl had with the young scientist was striking.
"She does look like Ai-chan!" Ayumi pointed out, surprised.
Mitsuhiko, for some reason, brought his hand to his chin. "There's something else that's similar..." he said, more to himself than to anyone else. "Something about her that's similar to Haibara-san."
"Eh?" Conan blinked. "Are their voices similar at all?"
"Uh, no... Her voice isn't similar... She also doesn't speak with such biting words..."
Haibara glared. "I'm sorry to hear that."
The sound of the bell prompted everyone to spin around, facing the door just in time for someone to open it. Startled, the entire group stared at the bespectacled grown man standing right in front of them.
"Eh?" it seemed he was as surprised as they were. "W-Who are you guys?"
"Look who's talking, who are you?!" yelled Genta.
"I'm Amemiya Shoko-san's teacher at Teitan Elementary School, Hirayama Bungo."
Unconsciously, Conan's muscles tensed after hearing those words, taking a step back while his friends talked with him, unbothered by his presence at the slightless.
But he stopped in place upon noticing that Haibara was, as discreetly as possible, moving behind him so she would be mostly covered from his sight, pulling her cap lower to hide her face as properly as she could.
He bent down closer to him, and Conan had to suppress back a flinch.
Every single time that person smiled, kindly, down at the children, the boy couldn't help but see that other teacher smiling instead.
And it must have shown, because he felt Haibara's hand resting on his shoulder, even if she was still hiding behind him.
This is pathetic. It's Haibara-san the one who's supposed to be in danger, yet I...
"But anyway, who are you guys?" but then, he asked them. "Are you the neighbor's kids?"
Huh? Conan blinked, utterly confused.
"We're students at the school where you teach," so astonished, he didn't even react when Mitsuhiko gave him that information. "Teitan Elementary, from class 3-B."
"But why are you all there?"
"Amemiya Shoko-san from class 4-A," it was Conan who replied first, however. "We were worried and came to look for her."
He didn't miss the bewildered look Haibara sent his way.
"... I see. Maybe she went to Kyushu after all."
"Say, did Amemiya-san tell you she was going to be alone tonight?"
"Yeah, but she told me she'd be eating breakfast and dinner with her neighbor's house."
The next route of action was predictable after all. As soon as those words were pronounced, the teacher had to step aside in order to avoid being run over by a bunch of kids that suddenly rushed out the house.
As he passed by him, Conan didn't miss the way the teacher's eyes narrowed, studying every single one of the children.
"Say, Dad," Ran walked inside his office without even looking. "Have you seen Conan-kun...?"
But when she looked up, she was shocked to realize that her father wasn't alone, and there was someone else sitting across him instead. "Ah, Ran-san," the boy smiled, politely. "Long time not see."
"Hakuba-kun!" she blinked. "What are you doing here?"
"I'm in the middle of an investigation," he replied. "I heard you were at the Nishitamashi Twin Towers at the time of the attack," a smirk made an appearance, as if he was amused by the surprise the girl in front of him was showing. "It must have been though."
"Yeah," she still replied, warily. "But thankfully, we all got out okay," then turned to her father. "I see Conan-kun has yet to come back. Must be with his friends."
"Yeah," Kogoro grumbled. "He must have walked into a case again or something, that death magnet..."
"Dad!"
Hakuba seemed to peek up at that. "I had thought it was you who attracted death, Mouri-san," he commented, causing Kogoro to frown, slightly. "It has always been you the one who has been called a Shinigami all over the news..." none of them liked the way his smirk widened. "Besides that high school detective, Kudo Shinichi."
A short, yet pretty uncomfortable, period of silence followed that statement.
"We all are, in some sort of way," Ran was the one to break it, however, forcing an awkward smile to come out. "Anyway, Dad, I'm going out for a moment, okay? I'll be back soon."
"A-Ah, yeah," Mouri stuttered. "Be careful."
In a flash, the girl was gone and Mouri was left all alone with that detective. He did his best to ignore the suspicious look in his face as the teenager stared at the closed door where his daughter had been moments ago.
Amemiya Shoko hadn't been at her neighbor's house when they arrived.
Of course, Conan had thought. It wouldn't be that easy, would it?
They had managed to gather more information from that woman, however. Such as that Amemiya had apparently cried and begged her parents to be allowed to stay in Tokyo ─ which had shocked the group, unable to picture someone that was so similar to Haibara doing that sort of thing ─ or that she had been looking as if she hadn't been sleeping well.
Amemiya had gotten up early, however, and said that she would pass by a convenience store before school. That had caused Genta, Mitsuhiko and Ayumi to conclude that the girl had fought with her parents and ran off.
The teacher had arrived as soon as they had taken off to the convenience store. As they were leaving, the man had given them that look that caused Haibara to shiver.
The store clerk had actually seen Amemiya Shoko that morning, and he remembered that she had bought a fruit juice in a small plastic bottle, milk in a paper carton and an exacto knife, which pretty much debunked the others' theory about her running away.
When Conan asked about any other strange behaviors, the clerk had said that Amemiya had stayed in the kitchen goods aisle for a while. That was why, a few moments later, they were there, in the place she had stood in for a long time.
"So, is there anything you want?"
Haibara didn't need to open her mouth to tell the bespectacled boy beside her that she wasn't following.
"... Well, you are supposed to be like her, so I thought..."
"That's stupid and you know it, Kudo-kun."
"Yeah, I know. But I'm stuck here."
Just as she was about to answer, they both saw someone else going inside, and the clerk pointing at them. The teacher simply looked over the group of children, before nodding.
"I thought you had other theories in mind," she stated.
"And I thought you were completely convinced that was not it."
"I know that much, but," she turned around so the man couldn't see her face clearly. "He's suspicious. In front of us, he has a friendly face but as soon as our backs are turned, he's glaring at us."
"Ah, yeah."
"... Why are you so calm about it, all of sudden?"
"Because I'm certain Hirayama-sensei is not involved with them."
Deciding that finding Amemiya was more important than explaining what he had said, he simply walked away, his friends following suit, outside the store. Upon reaching the door, they all got surprised to see a familiar face, standing next to her patrol car.
"Yumi-san!"
Yumi was equally surprised to see them there, and asked what they were doing so far from home. They then explained the situation to her, and she hummed, in thought.
Apparently, there weren't any kinds of calls about suspicious people around, or even car accidents. There had been plenty of them for illegal parking, and that was why she was there. She had come to buy a facemask, since she needed them for all three places she was going to head to.
In the first one the odor was unbearable because of people throwing their trash and crows scattering them around, the second one was an unused garage where she wouldn't stop sneezing whenever she went there ─ dust was Yumi's best guess ─ and the third one was nearby his ex-boyfriend's house, so she didn't want him to recognize her.
If it was Haibara-san, where would she go? as the conversation went on and on about Yumi's ex, Conan couldn't help but wonder. It doesn't help that girl is as unpredictable as it gets...
Mitsuhiko said there was something else in common between them both... What could it be?
"Ah!" Mitsuhiko's loud yell brought him out his thought process. "How can you eat at a time like this?!"
"What's the problem?" indeed, there Genta was, munching on a cookie, while he held a juice bottle on his other hand. "I get hungry when I think too hard."
Don't think too hard, then, Conan sighed, watching as his friend began to chug into the juice.
"Oh, that's right!" the clerk came out of the store all of sudden. "That girl opened her juice outside the store right after she bought it and chugged it down all at once."
Conan's eyes widened, dramatically, at that.
And before they knew it, the kid was running to the closest trash bin, and rummaging through it. Everyone flinched when he knocked it down by accident, but he didn't stop, throwing over his shoulder several empty bottles.
Eventually, he stepped back, holding a cut bottle on his hands.
His friends didn't understand what was going on, and the store clerk seemed to be on the verge of an anxiety attack, but still watched as the boy stood in front of them, with a sheepish smile on his face. "Would you guys please clean this?" he said, not minding the way they whined, loudly, and turned to the clerk. "Can I have some hot water?"
The man blinked.
"Hey, Ra-"
"It's time you tell me the truth."
Shinichi stopped mid-sentence, blinking a bit at the seriousness of the voice on the other side of the phone. He had just called to check on her, because they hadn't talked much, lately, and he had barely managed to let out a word before that.
"... What has gotten into you now, Ran?" he managed to say, after a while.
"I'm tired, Shinichi," she stressed out, with a sigh. "All those secrets, all these lies and half-truths... Everyone is hiding stuff from me."
"Everyone?"
"You, Conan-kun... Even Ai-chan and the Professor, I'm sure!"
Silenced by shock, Shinichi only limited himself to listen to his childhood friend, who sounded definitely exasperated, if not stressed, by this situation. He listened to her as she took a deep breath in and out, trying to compose herself.
He decided he didn't like this. At all.
"I'm scared, Shinichi," and he didn't like that either. "Conan-kun... Conan-kun is hiding things from me. I notice he lies to me from time to time."
"Ah, he does that."
"Yeah, but he didn't use to before!" her voice raised a little bit. "That boy... He had always been so honest. Before, he would never say anything unless it was the truth, but now..."
The high school detective didn't comment on that, remembering that Conan never lied to Ran. Or, at least, he didn't use to ─ he wondered when, exactly, that had changed.
"And I'm scared to think what makes him lie like that," Ran continued, eyes fixed on the sidewalk she was walking on. "I'm scared to think of what kind of trouble he has gotten into."
"What makes you think he got into any kind of trouble?"
Ran paused for a moment, giving the phone a puzzled look, even if the boy couldn't see her. "Are you joking?"
Shinichi didn't understand what he had said wrong.
"Do you seriously not remember about the Nishitamashi Twin Towers?"
"Yeah, but that was plain bad luck. You know that misfortune follows that kid wherever he goes."
Then, there was a sigh.
"Of course, he didn't tell you," Ran passed her hand through her face. "I should have imagined it."
"Tell me what?"
By the sound of the detective's voice, Ran could tell that he was feeling anxious, and most likely worried about what her words would be. Even so, she took her time to think over them, struggling to decide on how to tell him those news.
"When we were in the VIP elevator, on our way out," she soon realized, however, there was no way she could sugar-coat the facts. "A sniper tried to kill Conan."
Shinichi was pretty sure his heart stopped at that sentence.
Conan's friends honestly had no idea what the boy had in mind, but he kind of looked like he knew what he was doing so they simply followed him around.
For some reason or another, he had passed by a pharmacy right as Ayumi and Haibara got the warm water in Genta's empty plastic bottle, and Genta with Mitsuhiko cleaned up the mess he had caused. He had returned with powdered milk in a stick for babies, mixed it with the water, shook it and put it inside his jacket, against his chest.
"Alright, let's go," he had said then, succeeding in completely confusing the entire group.
But still went with him, after he had asked Yumi to take them to the unused garage where she would always sneeze uncontrollably.
So they did, and so she did ─ as soon as they entered the old garage, the poor traffic cop's nose started to itch, causing her to sneeze, repetitively.
And if her luck couldn't get any worse, after looking around for a while, Conan's eyes fell on a small space between some boxes, and promptly crawled inside. His friends followed.
Ayumi's scream followed after that, causing her to worry. So she tried to follow them, even if she was far too big to pass by such a narrow space.
Before long, she managed to squeeze through and, quite frankly, she had expected anything ─ from rats to Amemiya Shoko's decaying body... But certainly, she didn't expect that.
The children were gathering around a box and, inside of it, was a pair of small, and incredibly, cute kittens.
"I think these guys were the cause of your sneezing," Conan explained right away, with a smile. "You were probably allergic to cats, but didn't notice until now."
Yumi could only blink, before realizing that it actually made sense. Now that she thought about it, she hadn't been in contact with cats before, so there was no wonder she didn't know.
"I see!" Ayumi beamed, turning to see her female friend, who was petting one of the kittens. "That was the other thing Mitsuhiko-kun said Ai-chan and that girl have in common. They both love animals!"
"Ah, yes, yes!" Mitsuhiko exclaimed. "That's it!"
Haibara didn't even try to deny their claims, just smiled a bit more while stroking that little one's head, realizing that the only reason Amemiya wanted to walk with them was to ask them if they could find a home for these kittens.
The kitten closed its eyes, leaning its head against Haibara's hand, purring softly. She giggled a bit at that.
Wow, Conan couldn't help but blink, at the way her usually cold and hard eyes softened at the minine. Haibara-san does become a different person around them... I knew she loved animals but...
Come to think of it, has she ever had a pet? Wouldn't be surprised if not, considering...
"Ah," Mitsuhiko suddenly exclaimed, and Conan then realized his mind had wandered away, again. "Look, that milk dish!"
"Yeah, she made it by cutting off the bottom of the plastic bottle that she bought," explained Conan. "Paper plates and cups were sold out, so she had to improvise."
"If she was taking care of them, it makes sense that she couldn't sleep," continued Ayumi, with a saddened look. "She was probably too worried about them."
"Yeah, she was worried," continued Conan, reaching for the milk dish. "She had a reason to be."
With a smile still present on his face, the kid promptly spilled the milk into the ground, earning shocked gasps from his friends, who were instantly mad for acting like that.
"What are you doing?!"
"She went through a lot of trouble to get that milk!"
"Oh," Conan raised an eyebrow. "So you want them to starve?"
"... Eh?"
Letting out a chuckle, the boy pulled out the bottle with milk he had been carrying inside his jacket. "Herbivorous cows and omnivorous cats have different minerals in their mothers' milk. If you keep giving them cow milk, they will get sick and stop drinking altogether," he explained, pouring the milk on the plate. "But, if you dilute powdered milk for human babies twice and warm it to body temperature..."
As soon as he set the plate on the floor, the kittens moved closer, examined it for a few moments before beginning to drink. Everyone beamed at that.
"She only did this because there are not pet shops nearby to buy cat milk-"
"And?" Haibara interrupted him.
"Eh?"
"Where is that girl, Amemiya Shoko-san, where is she?"
"I... kind of hoped she was here?"
The scientist raised an eyebrow at him, which he waved off with an awkward smile, before another sound rang through his ears. It sounded like a meow.
So, instantly, he ran out of the hiding place, not bothering to wait for his friends, who went right after him, or Yumi, who remained stuck there for a while. Soon, he found the source.
There was another one. An adorable black and white kitten with green eyes right across the road, who instantly nuzzled against Haibara's stretched hand. Conan looked at it for a moment, wondering why one of them was outside, when it suddenly hit him.
He took off running, frantically looking around for that one thing.
Until he found it. Broken shards from a car's headlight, scattered around the floor, next to a pole. Looking closely, he could see some marks on it.
"A car crash," was all he said, causing everyone to gasp.
"But I don't think there have been any calls about an accident in this area," Yumi pointed out.
"Hey, look," said Haibara, from her spot in the middle of the road. "Isn't this human blood?"
Indeed, there was a trail of blood, causing everyone to guess that Amemiya had tried to chase after the kitten that had escaped, only to get hit by an upcoming car. But Conan noticed, upon following the trail went in both directions.
It must be the driver's blood... Then, maybe...
They looked for her in every single hospital, but no avail. This doesn't make any sense, it was as if the girl had vanished from Earth all of sudden. But I'm sure, Conan began to think, hard, in the backseat he shared with the rest of his friends of that mini patrol car. That driver has most likely taken her to a hospital of some sorts, but...
"Oh yeah," at some point, Genta commented. "Wasn't Araide's place around here?"
True to his words, next to him, stood Araide's house and Conan noted, absently, that there was a white van he didn't know parked outside. Maybe it belongs to one of his patients, he concluded, when they passed by it.
But then, he realized something. There was a huge bump in front.
"Yumi-san, stop the car now!"
Araide got quite the surprise upon seeing a cop and a teacher entering his small clinic, but sort of got over it when a group of children that he knew pretty well did the same, and let out a kind smile.
Conan then asked about the damaged car parked in front of his place, and he couldn't help but blink at how random that question was, before explaining that the driver was resting in bed because of a concussion, after getting some stitches.
"Did he mention anything about a girl?"
"Well, he came in carrying her saying 'I accidentally crashed into her, please help me'," explained the doctor. "While covered in blood."
"C-Covered in blood?!" Mitsuhiko worried.
"Ah, no, no. It was the man who was covered in blood."
Taking into their confusion, the doctor simply opened the door behind him, and stepped aside to let them see. In front of their eyes was none other but Amemiya Shoko, sleeping in a bed with Hikaru watching over her.
They simply stared at her, stunned, as Araide explained that she wasn't injured, but exhausted due to her lack of sleep. She had been slumbering so peacefully that the young doctor didn't have the heart to wake up to even ask her name, let alone call her school or her parents.
"... I'm so glad," behind them, the teacher started to tear up. "That Amemiya-san is alright... T-Truly..."
Blank stares fell on the grown man as he dropped into his knees, sobbing under his arm, blabbering something about being worried sick about his student. Genta, Mitsuhiko and Ayumi, upon realizing what was going on, tried to get him to stop crying. Conan merely rolled his eyes while Haibara, completely shocked about his actions, simply let her eyes widen.
"See?" the young detective whispered to the scientist, as they watched him clumsily looking for his phone so he could call the school. "He wasn't one of them."
Her eyebrow rose. "You were certain it was him."
"I wasn't certain, just considered him highly suspicious."
"... But what was that? He was glaring at us before."
"Not glaring, simply squinting," with a faint smirk, the boy slid his hands inside his pockets. "He probably had a bad eyesight and was trying to see better. Those glasses were probably made from an old prescription."
She looked surprised for a moment, but then shrugged, and her expression became plain and bored again. "Of course you would know."
"Excuse me for that."
Huffing irritably, he turned to the girl and promptly snatched his cap from Haibara's head, allowing her strawberry blonde hair to be free to be appreciated.
"Well, I knew he wasn't one of them the moment he asked if we were the neighbor's kids, even when we had our backpacks with us," smirk back on place, he put on his hat. "Even if he was pretending to be a teacher, it would be too foolish. That was when I concluded he couldn't see clearly."
The scientist looked as if she wanted to add something, but she didn't get to.
"Thank you for letting me borrow the toilet, Araide-sensei," instead, she watched as Conan's eyes widened at the sound of that familiar voice. "This is a bit embarrassing, but... Huh? Conan-kun, what are you doing here?"
Slowly, the child turned around and blinked, confusedly at the girl who simply stood in behind of them, mirroring his expression.
"Ran-oneesan! What are you doing here?" it was Ayumi, however, the first one to react. "Are you sick?"
"Ah, no, I'm okay. I just wanted to talk with Araide-sensei about something."
Talk? About what?
"Eh?!" Genta was scandalized for some reason. "But I thought you were with Shinichi-oniichan!"
"That's not it," Ran tried to laugh it off, even if her cheeks were warming up.
"... So you are not cheating on him?"
"Genta-kun," despite her smile, Ran's eyebrow was twitching. "Shinichi and I are not together-"
"Officially," interrupted Conan, with a plain voice.
"Conan-kun, you know that's not it!"
Yeah, but I also know you two are the only ones that don't know you're a couple.
"But I'm so glad," commented Ayumi as the group of young detectives, plus Ran, walked back home after a long, long day. "That girl was okay."
"Yeah!" nodded Mitsuhiko, smiling widely as well. "And the kittens were taken care of after all."
"Only one of them, actually. The one that soft-hearted teacher took home," Conan's arms crossed behind his head. "Araide-sensei still needs to find someone to take in the other two."
"Maybe we can convince Dad to let us take in one," Ran giggled softly.
"I highly doubt it, considering he barely stands me staying at his home," Conan snickered. "Besides, Eri-obasan has a blue russian. He would rather die than to have something in common with her."
"... Guess you're right," Ran sighed.
The other children laughed a bit at that, but then Ayumi suddenly paused, eyes wide for a second, as something struck her. Everyone looked at her, confused about her weird behavior, until the girl broke into a bright grin.
"Why don't you adopt one, Ai-chan?" at the suggestion, Haibara blinked owlishly. "You love animals, right?"
Mitsuhiko soon mirrored her expression. "That's a wonderful idea!" he beamed. "There's no one better than Haibara-san for this."
Haibara's puzzled face dropped into an emotionless one, Conan couldn't help but notice.
"I'm sure the Professor wouldn't mind," Ran smiled down at the little girl. "Do you want me to ask him?"
"No need," her smile sort of dropped at the cold reply, but Ai paid no mind, just closed her eyes as her hands grasped her bag's straps ─ a bit too tightly, Conan noted. "With all the Professor's inventions lying around, we can't have a cat in there."
The three children visibly deflated at her words, being more than aware that there was no way they would convince their friend otherwise when she had made her mind. Ran, too, felt a bit upset but didn't want to pressure her, so she quickly tried to steer the conversation somewhere else.
Conan simply stared, silently, as he walked beside her.
His phone suddenly started vibrating in his pocket and let out a tired sigh when, expectedly, his brother's name showed on the screen. I will have to call him back later, he thought, finger hovering over the red button.
"Answer that," Conan blinked, confused, when Ran's stern voice said from behind ─ her smile was long gone by this point and replaced by a severe expression. "You need to answer that call, Conan-kun."
Unsure of what to say, or what to think, Conan slowly pressed the green button instead. "... Yes?" he pressed the phone against his ear, eyes not drifting away from Ran's still stern face.
"Why didn't you say anything?"
This time, he did look away from her, eyes shifting to the side as he focused on his brother's voice. "Eh?"
"That you were almost shot. In the head," Conan's bafflement dimmed when he heard those words. "By a sniper."
"... Oh."
"Oh?!"
Slowing down his pace so he could trail behind the group, and sighing in relief because his friends were enthusiastically talking with Ran, so there was no chance of her overhearing his conversation ─ even though he was certain she was the reason he knew about it, anyway.
"But why would they do that?" his brother was rambling at this point. "Did you bring attention to yourself lately? Something that could have given your identity away-?"
"Ah, no. I was not the target. They mistook me with someone else."
That succeeded in making the high schooler's rambling come into a halt. "What?"
"Sherry was the target, they most likely didn't get a good look at me," definitely, he added in his mind, considering he was mistaken with a girl ─ he honestly hoped he didn't look like one, that much. "Haibara-san had been leaving voice messages on her sister's old phone, and mentioned she was going to be there."
"... So you weren't discovered."
"That's pretty much it."
He heard his brother letting a long, heavy sigh. "I swear, if you keep doing this, my heart isn't going to handle it."
"I wanted to save you the trouble," Conan shrugged.
As he talked, he noticed Haibara bidding them goodbye, since her house was the other way. He nodded at her when they exchanged looks, before she turned to leave.
"Doesn't seem like you did a good job there."
"Say," Conan then spoke up. "Is the reason you don't want them to figure out my identity that I'm your younger brother, or that I was deeply involved with Hirota Hana's kidnapping case?"
"... You remember that."
He sounded displeased about that, Conan realized right away.
"Most of it," he confessed, fixing his gaze into the floor. "Admittedly, there are a few things that simply do not match, however."
"Huh?"
"Haibara-san's sister was living under the alias of 'Hirota Masami' at the time of her death," his finger went to his chin, stroking it lightly. "I'm surprised nobody linked her with the other time she had used that name, as Hirota Hana's sister."
"Well, you can't exactly link someone just by their last name, when there's virtually nothing else to relate them both."
Conan blinked. "I kind of supposed she was still using 'Masami' as her first name..."
"Ah, no. According to her fake identity, Akemi was born abroad, even if her parents were Japanese," Shinichi commented, as a passing thought. "So she chose something a bit different-"
"What did she choose?!" the older boy was a little confused at his younger brother's reaction. "What name did Akemi-san go by?"
"... B-Beryl," Shinichi stuttered, with some sort of uncertainty. "The name she used is Hirota Beryl."
There was silence, and that caused the high school detective to worry.
"Conan?" he wondered if he said something wrong. "Conan, is something-?"
Click.
Unaware of what was happening behind them, the group came into a pause. The girl stood in front of them, giving the children a gentle smile. "Well, our house is that way," she informed.
Dragging his feet a bit, Conan slowly came closer, until he just stood there. The light of the last rays of sun were reflecting on his glasses, making it impossible for anyone to see his eyes.
"Head straight home, alright?" the girl smiled at the children.
"Yeah!"
"Well then, Conan-kun. Let's-"
She didn't get to finish that sentence because, all of sudden, without meeting anyone's gaze, the boy simply bolted. Without giving an explanation, without uttering a word.
Just like that.
"Conan-kun!" of course, his friends were worried. "Where are you going?"
The boy didn't even pause to answer, just turned around the corner and disappeared from their sight. Ayumi and Mitsuhiko blinked, completely confused, but Genta frowned, deeply.
"That guy is going off on his own again!" he huffed, obviously annoyed, then stepped ahead, ready to give him the chase.
"Wait."
Of course, none of them expected Ran, of all people, to stop them from coming along so they just stared, shocked beyond words, as the high school student kneeled down in front of them, so she could look at them at eye level.
Her face was serious, but there was something else that they couldn't exactly decipher passing by her eyes. Pleading was their best guess, but they knew that it was something stronger, deeper.
"I want to have a word with you, if you don't mind."
Regardless, Conan kept on running. Running and running, without stopping, without taking a moment to rest until he reached that place. Until he could confirm that his deductions were going in the right direction.
Or, alternatively, that they were wrong.
At that time, at the front of that note... 'Oneechan' was written in green. Hana's sister was called Beryl.
Therefore, green beryl... An emerald.
He was already gasping for air, little legs demanding for him to stop, to have a break. But Conan didn't seem to mind.
It also said that the food 'does not taste good.' Since dahlias, or the letter 'D', stand for 'good taste', if you take that letter out instead...
... Then, adding 'E', 'P' and 'H'... Then...
His feet came into a stop, and the child momentarily stumbled forward. Not minding about the air coming in and out quickly, or the way his legs wanted to give out because of the exertion they were victim of, Conan stared. Simply stared.
... Then...
Something fell on his cheek.
"Conan-kun," Ran giggled, amused. "You have something on your cheek."
Little Conan's bright, innocent eyes finally shifted to the older girl's direction, as she gently plucked something out of his face and, with a bright smile plastered all over her face, offered it to him.
Blinking he accepted it, and curiously studied the petal on his hand.
"It's just a cherry blossom petal, Conan," snickered his brother from under him, as he carried him back home. "You have seen them before, why are you that surprised?"
"I was wondering," he replied, mesmerized for some reason with it. "Why do these keep falling?"
"Because cherry blossoms don't last that long," explained Ran, patiently. "They are beautiful, but only stay that way for a few weeks."
"And why do people love these so much, if these flowers falter so quickly?"
"Not only are they pretty, but these trees are pretty symbolic," Shinichi commented, with a broad smile, as he continued to walk. "That's why people in Japan are in love with them."
"Symbolic? Say, say, what do they mean?"
His brother's grin widened, if possible.
"Actually, they are a metaphor for..."
"... the ephemeral nature of life."
Closing his hand around the pink petal that rested on top of his palm, Conan finally looked up. His gaze fell on the several trees that stood on both sides of the road he stood in, dimly remembering that they had been there many months before, when Ayumi had chasen after a kitten back in February.
But now it was April, so it was naturally different. Instead of the dull, almost dead, scenery from before, a colourful sight, full of life, met his eyes.
Before he knew it, his feet were moving again.
"I think I know where she is, Sensei!"
There it was, right in front of his eyes. Some bushes were covering it from plain sight, but it was there. A hole was hidden between the foliage, small enough for a child to fit in, that actually gave access to the abandoned house he stood in front of.
He had seen it before. Haibara had found it before.
No wonder she did.
"Close to the cherry blossom trees?" Conan's teacher blinked at him, confused. "Is that where Hana-chan is?"
"Shh!" the child held a finger to his lips, because of the man's loud voice. "You can't tell anyone, alright?"
"Why is that?"
Realization dawned on him like a bucket of cold water, actually causing the young child to shiver. Hugging himself, he leaned his head against a nearby tree, eyes wide with shock.
"Hana-chan is definitely hiding! She must have suspected that someone wanted to do something bad to her," his eyes fell on his notes, which were nothing but a bunch of scribbles on his notebook. "I haven't figured the second part of this code, the part written in black, but I believe that here must be the culprit's name!"
The eyes of that teacher narrowed, for some reason.
"I... I believe the culprit is among us," he then confessed, with a frown. "Until then... Until I figure out who is behind all this... I..."
"Got it," the little child's head snapped back up to see his teacher's grin. "I won't say a thing, I promise."
Conan's face-splitting smile didn't take long to appear.
"Just continue doing what you're doing, okay? I need to call a friend about a little something."
His grasp on his arms only tightened, eyes unable to look anywhere else but the cherry blossom petals dancing all around him. As things were now, he couldn't really appreciate this beauty that would be stunning otherwise.
Because, just then, he realized it.
The one who revealed Haibara Ai's hiding spot to the people that were looking for her, unknowingly sentencing her to such a horrible way of life.
The one who frustrated Miyano Akemi's efforts to have a normal life alongside her younger sister, unknowingly leading her to her own death years later.
... The one who caused Kudo Shinichi to get involved with the dreadful Black Organization, unknowingly destroying his life as an ordinary high school student.
That one person... was him.
So, for the longest time, Kudo Conan didn't move. Just stood there, on that spot, letting his arms fall limply at his sides, and his head to drop, letting the light hit his focals again, hiding from plain view how he was truly feeling inside.
Little did he know that a young girl stood there as well, watching with an unreadable look as the boy slided down until he was sitting right beside that cherry blossom tree, hiding his face against his knees.
The girl just took on his form, and solemnly lowered her head, before turning around.
Nothing she could say right now would be of any help at the moment.