File Seventy: A Crucial Mistake
Kogoro was startled awake. In the darkness of the night, he struggled to see something, but everything was pitch black. Everything except a bright glow on his bedside table. The fact that it was his phone, and that it was still blaring loudly prompted him to finally wake up.
He barely glanced at the screen before rushing to disconnect the call. It's four in the morning, he realized upon looking at the numbers on his screen, and huffed irritably. And it's Inspector Megure.
Following this, he locked his phone and squinted to see in darkness, sitting quietly still on top of his bed. "Brat, are you awake?" he whispered towards his general direction, but the kid didn't even stir. "... Conan?"
Prompted by the lack of reply coming from the young boy, the man slowly stood up and, as silently as he could, approached Conan's futon. "So you're out cold, huh?" he sighed, almost relieved to see the young boy didn't react and carefully, so not to wake him up, he went around it and slipped away from the room.
It wasn't until the sound of the door closing shut that Conan opened one of his eyes, checking that his roommate had actually left the room before finally sitting up. What in the world was that? He thought, tiredly scrubbing at his eyes. Who would call Occhan at this hour?
But the real question was why Kogoro had acted like that ─ any other day, the man would have grumbled and turned the phone off before turning back around and continuing snoring. That made the little detective stand up and move closer to the door.
"What?" straining his ears, he could hear Kogoro's whispers coming from the living room. "You got him to talk?"
That weird sentence definitely woke Conan up. He focused on Kogoro's voice, trying to get something out of that conversation that could tell him what was going on, but to no avail. All he got was a few mumbled words he couldn't make out, and then a loud, exhausted sigh.
"Dad?" he heard Ran's bedroom door creaking open. "Who was that?"
Conan froze in place ─ in the night's stillness any kind of movement from his part would give his position away. So, he waited with a bated breath until Kogoro finally spoke, after what it had seemed like hours, even if in fact he had only paused for a mere second.
"Inspector Megure," as if resigned, Kogoro told his daughter. "We got someone that's connected with that guy from the plane the other day. Apparently they worked together."
"Did they say anything?"
"He was terrified to death, so the Inspector only got this," his voice grew deeper and serious. "Even though he's known as Jackal internationally, he has another name. Another name that only a select group of people call him by — Snake. "
The child would have gasped, if he hadn't covered his own mouth just in time.
"Well, it seems like the Inspector was right," Kogoro groaned. "With a name like that, there's no way he's related to that other case..."
"Name?"
"Vermouth, Gin, Singani... It doesn't fit with that theme."
Conan's eyes widened further, if possible. Ran's hum echoed through the air, and the kid dreaded to know what she might be thinking about.
"I remember Shinichi saying once... There's actually something called snake wine-"
"Eh? Really?!"
"Shh! Keep it down, Conan-kun's asleep."
Little did she know that the kid in question was far from asleep. He was standing there instead, ear pressed against the door, horrified beyond belief by the conversation he was listening to. His mind, which usually would be described as quick and brilliant, was clouded by a single thought:
Oh, no.
"Remember Ran, not a word to anyone about this. You could get yourself in danger."
"I know, Dad... And thank you, for telling me."
Upon hearing Kogoro's steps coming closer to his location, the young boy immediately bolted back to his futon and got under the covers, just in time for Kogoro to walk in.
He stood in the doorway for a long time before closing the door and walking to his bed. Before he did that, he paused by Conan's futon and crouched next to him ─ Conan did his best to keep his breathing even.
Kogoro seemed to study him for a moment, prompting the child to wonder if he had been caught pretending. "This would be much easier if you said something, you know," he heard him huffing, irritably.
Conan wisely didn't answer, just patiently waited for him to leave. His surprise was enormous, however, when he felt the blankets being tucked tightly and gently all around him, but successfully managed to get his reaction under control.
Then, a shuffling at his side told him that Kogoro had gone back to bed, and the snores that filled the room let him know it was safe to open his eyes again. They fixed on a random spot on the ceiling. And, passing a hand through his hair, he sighed tiredly.
... What am I supposed to do now?
"What?" Haibara blinked at the boy beside her. "You're asking me if I know someone with the codename 'Snake'?"
"That's exactly what I've just said."
"From snake wine?"
"Yeah, yeah."
Her eyebrow raised at that. "You're not just pronouncing wine names at random, hoping that you would hit the mark somehow, are you?"
"Of course not." Conan huffed, eyes settling back ahead, where their three friends were laughing amongst each other as they all walked. "I overheard a little something, so I thought..."
"Hey, you," her voice became stern, and her eyes narrowed. "You didn't do something dangerous again, did you?"
"No," he said in a whisper, eyebrows squinting together. "I didn't."
"Then… Who did?"
"... Occhan."
"Eh?"
"Occhan is investigating their member, the one that was in the plane. He's working on it with Inspector Megure, or so I heard." Conan didn't need to glance at the scientist to know the shock that was currently painting her face. "Ran-neechan is aware of it, too."
"Wait… You know what that means, right?" Haibara breathed out. "If word gets around that Detective Mouri is trying to investigate-"
"I know," he stressed out, hand going to his head, then continued in a lower tone. "I know all that."
Haibara gave the detective a long, unreadable look, before glancing back ahead. "Maybe we should phone Shinichi-san," she stated, gaining Conan's curious stare towards her. "And hope that he knows what to do. This…" Haibara frowned. "... is getting out of hand."
"Ah, I don't think he would answer," then he added, a tint of annoyance lacing his voice. "Said he would be busy for the next few days."
"Really? I just talked with him this morning."
His eyes grew wide at those words and fell in Haibara, who raised an eyebrow back at him, beginning to feel a little uncomfortable under his crazed look. His mouth opened to say something else.
"Hey," but then they heard someone calling from behind. "Conan-kun!"
Turning around, the two children were shocked to see a familiar, foreign woman, hurrying up to catch up with him. "Jodie-sensei," Conan called, genuinely surprised to see her. "What are you doing here?"
"Your school is nearby, right?" she smiled at him. "I figured you'd pass by here."
Conan momentarily wondered why she wanted to see him, watching her rummagging through her bag, looking for something. Meanwhile, Haibara had walked away and joined the rest of the group, who were shooting questioning glances his way.
"Here you go."
The little boy blinked several times at the bright red phone before his eyes rose to meet Jodie's smile, as she handed the device he had lent her recently. It took him a second for him to give out an awkward nod and hastily gathered it back.
"You're done with it already?" Conan questioned.
"Yeah," Jodie nodded.
For a second more than needed, Jodie stood still in place, just gazing at him — but not looking at him for real — with her smile untouched. The kid stared back, tilting his head slightly, not failing to realize that her smile seemed to be a little tighter than usual.
"Well," finally, she turned around. "Thanks a lot, Conan-kun."
"Ah, Jodie-sensei?"
She stopped in her tracks, curiously looking at the boy who stood there, brow furrowing. "Are you..." he shifted uncomfortably, suddenly apprehensive after gathering her attention ─ as if he didn't know exactly why he was asking it. "... Are you alright?"
That seemed to surprise her. "Huh?" her smile dimmed at that. "Why do you ask that?"
He seemed troubled. "No reason," was his final answer.
After giving him a last puzzled look, she gave her a reassuring smile ─ which did not convince Conan ─ before finally walking away for good. Even then, the child did not tear his gaze away from her form, just stared, cluelessly.
His eyes fell on the phone in his hands and frowned. Unable to figure out what to make out of that situation, he sighed and pulled the sim card he was keeping in his pocket. Maybe I'm just overthinking, he concluded, putting it back into place, and paused.
Maybe I'm just paranoid. His fingers tapped on the phone, quickly, as he made his way through the 'settings' menu. But...
Once he found what he had been looking for, the air in his lungs froze with a startled gasp. Alarmed, he checked it again to make sure he wasn't seeing things and realized, with a shudder, that he was right. Absolutely right.
... The serial number is different.
That was a fact — for some reason, Jodie had given him another phone, different from the original one. But his head was still spinning with questions, such as what had happened, why she had done that... Or why she hadn't told him about it.
"Conan-kun!"
"What are you doing?"
"We're going to be late!"
The voices of his friends calling for him, and the feeling of Ai's sharp gaze piercing through the back of his neck prompted him to force his breathing to go back to normal. Eyes closing, he dropped his head until the point that the light hitting on the lenses hid his face from everyone else, Conan took a moment to recover himself.
Then, he spun around and, slapping a grin on his face, he nodded at his friends and jogged towards them.
"Coming, coming," then, joking lightly, he joined the group. "As if you are this excited to get to school."
"Well, school isn't exciting," Ayumi conceded. "But for all we know, there could be an exciting case for us, Detective Boys."
"Ayumi-chan, we haven't had a proper case since December." And even then, it had been another lost cat. "Makes you wonder why we still keep that note on Genta's locker..."
"It can't be helped," Genta huffed, crossing his arms in front of his chest. "It's not like we get to hang out with the FBI, you know."
Conan inhaled sharply in anticipation.
"Then, what did you do?" Ayumi latched into his arm, a bright grin threatening to split her face in two. "Did you catch some criminal? Are you spying on someone?"
"... Well... I can't say anything, you know."
"We won't speak about it, I swear! Tell us, Conan-kun! Please?"
"Yeah," agreed Genta, with an annoyed tone that Conan didn't know if he could attribute it to the topic in hand or to how close his crush was to him. "It's not fair to keep all the fun stuff from us!"
"This isn't-"
"This isn't a game, Genta-kun!"
There was a collective halt in their steps. Blinking owlishly, Ayumi slowly let go of Conan as she joined the other two boys into staring at the other male who stood there without looking up, hands gripping his school bag, tightly. "Mitsuhiko?" tried Conan, hesitantly.
He didn't give out any reaction besides a slight frown. None of the other three children knew how they were supposed to proceed. Haibara, however, solely began to walk, passing by the group looking far from affected.
"We're going to be late for real," she stated, calmly. "We should get going."
With a dumbfounded nod, they made their way back to school. Mitsuhiko remained silent, slightly trailing behind. Conan, Ayumi and Genta exchanged worried glances, before the bespectacled one looked back ahead. And his eyes narrowed.
"Tsuburaya-kun has a good reason to be worried," Haibara told him once he had caught up with her. "The people you're messing with are dangerous. You can't let your guard down."
"Tell me something I don't know."
She shrugged at that and remained quiet the rest of the way. He did the same, only if he turned to give Mitsuhiko one last look over his shoulder.
Conan felt relief cursing through his veins the moment he heard Mitsuhiko laughing loudly, alongside Ayumi and Genta, over something they found funny in a random manga they had picked up. He looks better. He smiled at the sight, remembering that he had been acting oddly since that awkward conversation in the morning. I guess there's nothing a quick trip to a library can't fix...
Now then... he looked around. Where is...?
He stopped and blinked when something touched his cheek and realized it was Ai's index finger. Silently, the girl turned his head until he was facing the other side. "They're on those shelves over there." She didn't need to ask to know what he was looking for. "You're looking for mysteries, right?"
"Ah!" he rushed to the section in question. "Thanks!"
Once heading for the right direction, his eyes scanned through the several books arranged in front of his eyes, until they fell into a certain one that made his mouth stretch into a bright grin. There it is! Shinmei Kaori's new mystery, 'Line-Up in the Dead of Night'. And there's only one left. He stretched his hand to grab it. Lucky!
But he found himself grasping the thin air. Confused about it, he looked up and realized that someone had taken it first. "Oh," Hondou Eisuke seemed to be as surprised to see him there as he was. "Conan-kun."
"Ah," before Conan could even answer, Ran from behind. "It's Conan-kun!"
"And the rest of the brats..." pointed out Sonoko, who was with her. "Hanging around the bookstore reading manga on the way back from school, huh?"
Ayumi, Genta and Mitsuhiko didn't take it so well ─ which was almost funny to Conan, because they were.
"We were here because Conan-kun wanted to buy something," Ayumi defended herself.
Admittedly that was true, he had insisted on passing by here on their way back from school, but that didn't mean they didn't come along so they could read some manga for free.
"Didn't you girls come here to read manga, too?" Genta sounded irritated.
"I hate to disappoint you," Sonoko sneered and flipped her hair away. "We came to buy a reference book to help us prepare for exams."
"You know you have to read it for it to work, right?" Conan raised an eyebrow. "Besides, what exam are you talking about? It's not even May yet."
"She must have gotten a terrible grade in a test," Ayumi whispered to Mitsuhiko. "So she panicked and rushed here to buy the book."
"She's trying to apply a thin veneer of respectability," concluded Mitsuhiko.
Sonoko flinched away, shocked that they had gotten it right.
"They sure know some difficult words," giggled Ran.
"I wonder who they got it from..."
Conan didn't even notice Sonoko staring at him, just blinked at Eisuke. "More importantly, Eisuke-niichan," he began. "You came back to school?"
The teen nodded awkwardly, then Ran pointed out that he had been sick and that was why he had missed so many days of school. As Sonoko joked about him being 'sick over love', and he, completely flustered, denied it loudly, Haibara moved closer.
"So this is the Hondou Eisuke I've heard so much about?" she whispered at Conan.
"Yeah," he nodded, eyes narrowing. "Since he found out about his sister, it looked like the FBI was going to hide him, but..."
"The fact that he's strolling around openly like this means he refused entry into the Witness Protection Program."
Not seeing the need of saying anything in return, the young boy studied Eisuke, watching as he flipped some pages of the book he had just grabbed. Then, closed it and gasped, upon noticing something on the back cover. "Now that I look more closely, this book is only the first volume!" he exclaimed, before sighing.
He then turned to look at him, causing Conan to jump slightly. He was surprised when he offered it to him. "I'll let you have this since both parts aren't together."
"Eh? But the second volume is scheduled to come out next month."
"I won't wait like that. It's because I hate being restricted by anything," he smiled. "Even by time."
Even if several minutes passed since the teen had said that, and that the child had hesitantly accepted the book, Conan stared. Silently, he stared at the boy, watching him joining Sonoko and Ran, who had successfully found the reference book they had been looking for.
His eyebrow rose.
... Okay, but it's just a book, you know that, right?
Not long after that, Ayumi, Genta and Mitsuhiko were waving at them as the group split on their way home. After bidding them goodbye, Conan looked back ahead, trailing slightly behind the group of high school students and walking beside Haibara, who frowned slightly once she was out of their friends' sight.
"Fifty meters behind us," she whispered to the boy. "In the shadows behind the vending machine in front of that convenience store... And he's been following us."
Taking a discreet glance towards that way, Conan frowned.
"Whoever that is, he's not an Organization member," Haibara pointed out. "They wouldn't be trailing us so conspicuously."
"In that case, he probably is..." he glanced at Eisuke, who chatted with the other two girls, unaware of the situation in hand. "... an FBI agent observing him."
"Or he could be a kidnapper waiting for the moment to corner us... and strike when we're unable to call for help."
"Hey, hey."'
"It's still a possibility."
"Yeah, but still," shrugging, he took his detective badge from his pocket. "It's not like we'll be unable to call for help, though," then, he put it back inside his shirt pocket. "They can call the police, at least."
She mildly shrugged at that, seeing the point in his words, before focusing on the conversation the teenagers were having. They were planning to celebrate Eisuke's recovery ─ which, in Conan's opinion, it was just an excuse to go out and have some fun.
"It's okay..." Eisuke tried to say. "We don't need to celebrate."
"What's that?!" Sonoko yelled at him. "You won't let me offer a cup of sake to you?!"
"You're minors," Conan stated blankly, causing the older girl to huff.
"I don't want to hear that from you, brat!"
"Still a minor."
"Well then," Ran pipped in before they could continue. "Why don't we go check out the new cake store in front of the station?"
He denied that offer, because he didn't like sweets. When Sonoko offered to go to a hamburger shop whose spicy chicken was quite famous, according to Ran, he declined as well because of his dislike of spicy things. Sonoko had grown impatient, and Conan couldn't help but understand her feelings at this point.
"In this case, there's only one place left! A place where everyone can have an exciting party time!"
By that alone, Conan figured he wouldn't have 'an exciting party time'.
"Tears of yesterday, swaying summer breeze..." sipping an orange juice Ran had graciously bought him and listening to the two girls singing their hearts out, Conan realized he didn't like being right this time around. "Even if it's a short dream... Once you wake up, time passes on!"
Even Eisuke was having fun, shaking some maracas to the beat of the song.
"Remind me why I'm here again."
By the looks of it, he wasn't the only one having a hard time. He could only guess with her, however, as the little girl sitting beside her had the exact expressionless face she would always wear, as she sipped her own drink ─ also bought by Ran.
"I already told you, didn't I?" Conan sighed. "You're not leaving me alone with those two."
Those two being Sonoko and Eisuke, Haibara didn't really need him to explain it.
"Oh?" Her eyes went back to the magazine resting on her lap and flipped another page. "I'd have thought you would bond with Hondou-san after realizing you're actually two peas in a pod."
"... That my brother betrayed the Organization doesn't mean I'm like him," he puffed, somewhat annoyed at the implication.
"True, but I wouldn't say that's the only thing in common."
Conan blinked at that, before turning to look at the teen in question, just in time to witness the way he, somehow, hit himself with the maracas on the jaw. The little boy's expression dulled as he gave Haibara another look.
She smirked, without even looking up.
"Hey, my luck isn't that bad either..."
"Well, while you don't trip over stuff that often, you do trip over dead bodies daily."
It was then that Ran, with a friendly smile, turned to Eisuke and offered him the microphone in her hand. Flustered, he frantically shook his head, claiming that he was a terrible singer.
"I believe him," stated the girl, lowly enough for the other kid to hear. "Considering that a certain someone is also awful at it."
"... I'm not awful. Just... slightly off-tune most of the time," Conan crossed his arms in front of his chest. "I've improved a bit."
She raised an eyebrow. "You can't just lie to yourself, Conan-kun."
"I'm not."
"Wouldn't be so sure."
Haibara soon realized she shouldn't have said anything. Followed by her sentence, the boy had glowed at her and promptly stood up, earning quite a few hesitating looks from the teens, which only intensified at the sight of the boy snatching the microphone from Sonoko's hands.
Quietly, the girl covered her ears in advance.
"Kudo! You're back already-?"
"Idiot, don't be so loud! Do you really want Nakamori to hear?! She lives next door, in case you haven't noticed yet."
"Ah, sorry."
Despite the apology, the teen didn't seem very sorry to Shinichi — just left his shoes on the entryway before stepping inside. The detective shook his head, huffing irritably, and grabbed the newspaper that lied on the table he was sitting on.
"So, did you fix it?" asked the magician, plopping down onto the sofa and turning on the TV.
"Fix what?"
Kaito gave him a look. "You suddenly left for Beika after receiving a phone call. Took my bike and everything ─ which I haven't had the chance to use after it was repaired, mind you," he raised an eyebrow. "You're telling me that nothing happened, for real?"
Silence met his question, therefore proving him right. "Had to hide someone," he conceded with a sigh. "Faked their death. Successfully too, I'd say."
"Then why do you not seem pleased with it?" Shinichi did not answer, causing Kaito to gasp in shock. "You didn't have to hide your girlfriend, did you?!"
"For the eleventh time, no. I don't have a girlfriend... And no, I didn't have to fake Ran's death."
Actually, the detective shuddered at the thought — having to put Ran through such an ordeal was something he hoped he would never have to do. So, trying to get that idea out of his mind, he focused back on the newspaper and flipped the page over.
Only to close it again, violently, and sliding it to the furthest corner of that table.
"Hey, hey," Kaito blinked. "What has gotten into you?"
"An article about you. Again."
"Ah," the magician grinned, undoubtedly pleased. "That must be about tonight's heist."
"If you have a heist, why are you lazing around instead of preparing?"
"Relax, Meitantei. I still have plenty of time, besides..." his smile dropped with a sigh. "With Inspector Nakamori sick at home and Hakuba aboard, this will be so easy... And painfully boring."
Shinichi raised an eyebrow. "I would have never imagined you would actually miss Hakuba."
"Don't joke like that," Kaito scowled. "As much as it pains me to admit, with him around heists become slightly less boring..." he crossed his arms behind his head, staring up to the ceiling. Some memory must have crossed his mind, since he chuckled for no rhyme or reason. "... Well, if Tantei-kun was there, everything would be dramatically different."
The detective hummed, barely paying attention to that. "And why wouldn't that kid be there?" he asked, as he plucked out his phone and started to mess around with it.
"I told you already. Tantei-kun doesn't live in Ekoda," Kaito glared a bit. "Do you ever listen when I'm talking?"
"I do," Shinichi rolled his eyes. "Probably more than I should."
"... Where are you going then? Walk on, you're already on your way, aren't you?" by the end of the song, Ran and Sonoko's faces were falling already, and Haibara firmly believed her own ears were just a note away from bleeding. "Even if it's just a short dream... Once you wake up, time passes on~!"
For a moment, none of the girls said anything, just staring blankly at the young boy in front of him. Then Ran seemed to snap out of it. "Conan-kun, that was great," she clapped, her smile looking extremely strained and forced.
Genetics are a scary thing, grimaced Sonoko.
"Don't lie," stated Haibara, with a plain voice. "It shows."
Conan looked as if he was about to retort something back, when he noticed something. "Where'd Eisuke-niichan go?"
Just as Ran was telling him that the boy had gone to the bathroom, the door opened. Instead of Eisuke, however, was a man who had gotten there by mistake. On his way out, he bumped into another man and left.
Nothing happened for a long time, until Eisuke returned, a horrified expression plastered all over his face. By that time, their time was up and they had to leave.
Of course, as Conan's luck would have it, he wouldn't be able to leave without a murder taking place. As soon as they got a foot out of the room, a scream filled the air, causing the young boy to run towards the sound. There, a worker was staring inside a room, terrified.
A man lied on the floor, all over a pool of his own blood. "What are you waiting for?" snapped the kid at the shocked worker. "Call an ambulance and the police. Hurry!"
While the employee scrambled to get to the phone, Conan got a closer look to the body. A blunt object on the head, he observed, hand reaching to touch it.
"Dead," spoke a female voice at his side, having already done that. "For around thirty minutes."
Nodding at his friend, the boy stood up and strolled out the room. From the register, the murder place was a blind spot, he observed. And beyond the turn, there was the men's restroom and a cigarette vending machine.
Wait a second... Restroom?
His eyes fell on Eisuke, widening upon connecting with him. He took a step back, in direction of the body to check his suspicions. "The victim..." Haibara stated, joining him. "... is the man who was following us."
Conan frowned at that, crossing his arms, deep in thought. "Could it be...?" he muttered, unable to believe it. "He did say he hated being restricted by anything..."
"That guy?" Haibara glanced at the teen in question and raised an eyebrow. "He doesn't look like the kind that would do something like that."
"Believe or not, he tried to stab Mizunashi Rena with a pair of scissors when he thought she was in a coma."
"You know that is a completely different situation, right?"
Conan gave Eisuke a thoughtful look, immediately recalling the horrified expression a few moments ago, and frowned. "Right," he conceded, though not entirely convinced.
"Are you stupid or something?" That was Conan's reaction when Eisuke confessed what had shaken him so badly.
Eisuke flinched at the accusation, blinking a bit at the child that was looking at him with a pain expression on his face.
"You did all this drama..." his eyebrow rose. "... just because you saw two men kissing?"
"W-Well-!"
"That's rude!" before Eisuke could even say anything in his defense, the person in question walked up to the doorway and, angrily, exclaimed. "I'm a woman!"
While every adult in sight winced and apologized profusely, Conan merely blinked at the woman, not looking affected in the slightless. Oh. His eyebrow rose, as he glanced at Eisuke sideways. Still an idiot.
Eisuke, in turn, sighed, feeling exhausted suddenly.
"But thank goodness," said Ran to him, a kind smile on her face. "You were looking so strange. You had me worried," at the sight of her watering eyes, Eisuke could only stutter. "It's really good."
It didn't take long for his face to warm up, and for Sonoko to smirk, pleased at the scene in sight. Don't act like you're cleared of suspicion, thought Conan, scowled at him, annoyed at the scene developing in front of his eyes.
"Oh? What's this?" it didn't help that the young girl was already commenting on it. "Your ship is sinking, by the looks of it."
"What in the world are you talking about?" he grumbled, turning to look at him.
And paused, blinking in confusion. Noticing this, the scientist gave him a questioning look, to which he didn't instantly react. "Do I have something on my face?" feeling impatient, she shot at him.
"You were smiling," he stated, partly puzzled and partly confused. "Why?"
"Am I not allowed?" she crossed her arms. "It's nice to see a nice romance developing in front of one's eyes once in a while."
"You looked a bit too happy..."
"Don't you have anything else to investigate such us, I don't know, the murder that just happened an hour ago?"
Rolling his eyes, Conan but ultimately complied. "Let me know if you see something, Ai-" he paused, giving her a long, indecipherable look, which she mirrored. "... Haibara."
He didn't get to see her reaction to that, just moved closer to Sonoko and gathered her attention. Upon seeing him there, the girl crouched next to him. "So?" she whispered at the young boy. "Did you find something, brat?"
"I was going to ask you that," Conan frowned, not even fazed at the way she referred to him any longer. "Ï thought you were the detective."
She seemed to be slightly irritated at her attitude, but didn't comment on it. "You're my assistant, remember?" with a frown, she poked his chest, a bit too roughly. "Don't you dare to leave me on my own, okay?"
He opened his mouth to say something, but stopped before he could say anything. That was because she wasn't looking at him any longer, but to Eisuke, with a slightly worried glint in her eyes. He's her friend, he realized with a frown. That's why.
"He's innocent," the certainty in his youthful voice surprised her. "And we are going to prove it," he gave her a small, but reassuring smile. "Don't ever doubt it, Sonoko-neechan."
After a moment of appreciation, Sonoko nodded and, for the first time, offered the child a genuine, malice-lacking smile.
"That turned into a lousy celebration for your return, didn't it?" Ran sighed, on their way back home after a tiring case.
"Still, I was impressed," Eisuke smiled at Sonoko. "By Sonoko-san's deduction show."
"Ah, well..."
Conan averted her gaze and continued in walking, pretending not to be paying attention at the conversation behind him, hands slipping inside his pockets as they continued talking.
"Who would've thought," Haibara commented at some point. "That it was actually a kidnapper."
"Yeah," he nodded quietly, still a bit disturbed. "We're lucky that Sonoko-neechan went to that karaoke. Had we ended up separating ways and had she been left on her own..."
"There's no telling what could have happened. You don't have to keep pondering about that."
Conan said nothing, just glanced over his shoulder, realizing that Eisuke was intently staring at him. He looked away as soon as he noticed he had been caught, though.
"Your great deductions put even Shinichi to shame," continued Ran, to which Sonoko could only laugh, nervously.
"Shinichi?" Eisuke questioned. "You mean that high school detective, Kudo Shinichi?"
"Yeah!" Sonoko giggled. "He's Ran's long distance husband!"
"Sonoko!"
"You got married as high school students?!"
"Of course I haven't! Not with a guy like him!"
Rolling his eyes, Conan sighed, finally tearing his gaze away from him and settling into the little girl who stood there, silently listening to the whole fuss happening with the older students. Unlike the other time, Conan noted that her lips weren't twitching upwards, amused at the scene, just… stared.
Are all girls this weird? He gave her an odd look. Or is it only this one?
He sighed. There was no way he would figure it out.
"I guess I should get going," stated Conan, causing Haibara to blink, confusedly. "I want to have a word with that guy over there, alone, so..."
"I see," she said, shrugging, internally wondering how he was going to get Ran off his back. "See you later, I guess."
"See you tomorrow... Uh... Haibara."
At that hesitant sentence, and the troubled, nervous look the boy was giving her, the girl could do nothing but to stare. Conan flinched right away, feeling her gaze piercing right through him, before she closed her eyes with a sigh.
"Dork."
Honestly, he felt quite irritated at that. "Eh?" and perplexed.
"It's just a name, Conan-kun. You don't have to make a big deal about it."
"Huh?"
"I'm giving you permission, if that's what you want."
Right now, Conan believed he might be looking pretty stupid as he stared at her, wide eyes fixed on her and mouth slightly open in shock, unable to actually produce a sound. It didn't help that Haibara, upon seeing his reaction, immediately looked away ─ if he didn't know any better, he would have said that she appeared to be embarrassed.
"What's this?" Instantly after hearing Sonoko's voice, Conan felt his own face growing warmer. "Aren't you two a bit too young?"
He spun around and was not happy upon the realization that the three were looking at him with different expressions painting their faces. Sonoko's eyebrow had risen, a mischievous smile crossing her face, Ran was grinning brightly, and so widely that Conan thought her face would split in half. And Eisuke looked absolutely confused, staring at the two kids and wondering if he had missed something.
"Isn't it okay?" Ran answered her friend with a giggle. "They are adorable."
"Well, I guess it's okay," conceded Sonoko. "It's just that it reminds me of another, certain pair that looked like that when they were at this brat's age... It ended in marriage."
"I'm not married, Sonoko!"
"Oh? Who said I was talking about you?"
Genuinely relieved that the attention was off him again, Conan sighed and, hesitantly, turned to Haibara, who was looking everywhere but his general direction. "Well, uh..." he whispered at her, before he smiled, softly. "See you tomorrow, Ai-san."
Her lips tugged upwards. "See you tomorrow, Conan-kun."
With that, he focused back on Ran, who was still arguing with Sonoko, flustered. "Ah, Ran-neechan," he gathered her attention. "There's a book I want to buy, so you head home before me."
He began to jog before she could say something. "It's fine," Eisuke said. "I'll go with him and make sure he gets back to the detective agency."
Ran nodded dumbly, watching him hurrying to catch up with Conan. Before long, she sighed and shook it off. "Well then," she gave the little girl a kind smile. "Should we go, Ai-chan?"
The silent little girl nodded and compiled.
"So I take it you rejected it." Upon seeing that the light had turned green, Conan stepped into the crosswalk. "The Witness Protection Program."
"No, I turned that down," answered Eisuke, truthfully. "Just like I said before, I hate being restricted by anything."
The child gave him a long look, humming as he did so. "It's cool." He crossed his arms behind his head. "As long as you don't use your freedom to run after your sister… Or try to murder someone with a pair of scissors." When Conan's blank gaze fell on him, the teen flinched. "I didn't take you as the kind of person who would do that."
"I'm not!"
"Sure. Just make sure you don't get yourself a criminal record in a few years."
"I won't," a gleeful grin took over his face, momentarily forgetting all about what they had been talking about earlier. "Because, just like my father and sister, I want to join the CIA!"
Conan blinked, not quite having expected that kind of outcome. "The CIA?"
Enthusiastically, the teen nodded. "I'll dig up and expose bad people and their evil deeds out of every nook and cranny," his eyes were almost sparking as he said those words. "And someday, my sister and I will bring down that evil Organization!"
Just as he said that, the older boy suddenly tripped on the sidewalk, inadvertently bumping into the young child that had been walking right in front of him, ignoring the dangers that simple action could have.
Shrieking because of the surprise, Conan felt gravity doing his job. Eisuke was quick and grabbed onto his shoulders, stabilizing him and saving him from a painful fate against the floor. As a result of all that, however, a clattering sound could be heard, causing both boys to look up to see that Conan's detective badge had fallen off his pocket and onto the hard pavement.
"... I seriously hope that taking them down doesn't take that long." The child gave him a very accusing glance.
Eisuke laughed, ashamed, as he watched the kid bending down to pick his badge up. "Honestly," he sighed, a tad annoyed, while placing the gadget back into its place. Shaking his head, he stood back up. "You're deliberately coming with me and you looked as if you wanted to discuss something rather urgently, too."
"I've decided to go to America," he answered. "This might be the last time we saw each other, so I wanted to talk to you one last time."
"With me?"
"Yeah, I wanted to thank you." Eisuke turned to look up to the sky. "If I didn't get the chance to talk with you at that moment, I don't really know what I would have done. I would probably have gone crazy." He glanced back at the surprised kid, smiling brightly. "You gave me the hope I needed to keep going forward, Conan-kun."
Conan looked like he didn't know how to reply properly to that, prompting Eisuke to chuckle, amused when the kid averted his gaze, quite embarrassed at the compliment.
"But if you're leaving," he changed the subject. "Why would you come back to school?"
"Even if it was just for a short time, I wanted to see my close friends before I went, and..."
"And?"
Eisuke smiled again, blushing slightly.
"... And confess my love to Ran-san."
Conan stared in return.
"I fell in love with her from the first time I met her..." he continued, grinning so widely that the kid thought his face would split in half. "I'd never met someone as pretty and kind as her..." Suddenly, though, the teen paused, placing his finger under his chin and looking troubled about something. "But it seems that she's in love with Shinichi-san… I don't know what Shinichi-san thinks about her..."
As his eyebrow rose far above his hairline, the young boy opened his mouth to plainly tell him he shouldn't even bother trying, and that this 'Shinichi' guy had practically fallen head over hills for her, even if he would never admit it.
But he stopped himself before he could say a word. The guy seemed to be genuinely in love with Ran, and he could see that he meant well. Besides, he looked back at the ground with a sigh. This is something I can keep getting involved in.
Last time he had directly interfered in their love life, he had acted upon a childish impulse and basically tricked Shinichi into coming so he could get some Valentine's chocolate. And now he could see how dangerous that had been, and how badly it could have ended.
… That without considering he had almost given his brother another heart attack.
"Oh, right," Eisuke leaned closer to him. "Do you know how to contact Shinichi-san?"
Conan shifted, uncomfortably, at that. "What for?"
"I want you to ask him for me… If it would be alright to confess my love for Ran-san."
Conan went strangely quiet at that, fingers grasping the phone he had inside his pocket without really thinking about it, and tightening his grip around it, barely listening as Eisuke rambled about his plans to take Ran to America with him, so as to not keep her waiting.
"Go back to sleep, Conan," he still remembered those kind words, that he used to believe they belonged to a dream. Yet, it hadn't been a dream. He had been there and lied about it.
He had wanted to listen to him, to give him the opportunity to explain himself — even though he knew, deep down, that he would just fabricate another excuse ─ yet Shinichi had backed off, saying he was busy. He isn't. Conan fingers curled, tightly, around the device. He talked with Ai-san this morning.
… That coward...
He wasn't so certain he wanted to listen any longer.
"I won't do it." Finally the boy conceded him an answer, determined not to phone him. "Why are you asking him, anyway? You should ask Ran-neechan's opinion instead."
Eisuke stared at the kid, so intensely that caused him to take a step back, silently wondering if he had said something he shouldn't. "This is weird..." the teen muttered. "You're not taking it as I thought you would..."
Conan blinked in return, causing the teen to laugh.
"You're an excellent actor," he then continued. "I should've expected it from Fujimine Yukiko's son."
At the mention of his mother's name, Conan felt all blood draining from his face, leaving a white, terrified facade in place, which he tried to maintain with a weak smile. "What…?" he tried, even if he was panicking from the inside. "What are you talking about?"
Eisuke smiled, standing back up. "You know, the reason I visited Detective Mouri was because I heard he'd met with Mizunashi Rena just before he disappeared. I thought for sure he was shielding her," he confessed. "And as I was looking into him, I figured something out. Whenever there was a case, you would be at his side. And then, it would be solved."
Conan genuinely didn't understand how he got into the conclusion, so he just waited, with a bated breath, for him to reveal it.
Then, Eisuke crouched down in front of him and said:
"Though I couldn't think how you could have gotten smaller… As I thought, you really are Kudo Shinichi, aren't you?"
Taken aback, the kid stared blankly. For an entire minute, he didn't react at all, and Eisuke genuinely thought he had hit the nail in the head.
But Conan continued staring.
Until he deflated with something that was between a sigh and a groan. Eisuke blinked as the boy passed a hand through his face, as if suddenly exhausted.
And stared again, like he could not believe what he was seeing.
"This isn't funny anymore..."
"Eh?"
"Eisuke-niichan, have you heard yourself?" he breathed out. "High schoolers shrinking into grade students… How? A shrinking drug? A curse? Alice in Wonderland's freaking shrinking potion?!"
The way the child's voice exponentially grew louder made Eisuke desire he could shrink back instead ─ though he secretly wondered why this kid was getting this mad.
"So you're not?"
"What do you think?"
"... Sorry."
Conan looked as if he wanted to argue, but settled with an annoyed grumble while crossing his arms in front of his chest. Seriously, he huffed, giving him another look. What's wrong with these people?
"Then, who are you?" Eisuke studied him from a moment.
"Edogawa Conan," he replied almost immediately.
His eyes narrowed behind his round glasses. "Ah!" he exclaimed, completely shocked. "You are... "
"Conan."
"Yeah, Kudo Conan, aren't you?" Frankly speaking, Conan didn't know if he was supposed to be disturbed that he knew, or disturbed that he didn't get it right at the first try. "The kid that died in that freaky accident..."
The fact that Eisuke had figured it out didn't bother him at this point.
Sighing, Conan pinched the bridge of his nose. "How come you didn't think of that before that shrinking nonsense?"
"Well, you're different from other children." Conan did take an offense on that. "Besides, your death was pretty realistic. It didn't cross my mind that it could've been faked."
"Ah," he rolled his eyes. "Is that so?"
"I thought it could've been staged by someone, though," Eisuke shrugged with a nervous smile. "That after shrinking, Shinichi-san had decided to take his deceased brother's name and take revenge… Or something."
The kid tried his best not to cringe at that highly disturbing scenario of his own death. Noticing that, Eisuke laughed a bit, nervousness long gone, and gave him a genuine smile as he reminisced.
"But now it makes sense..." Conan gave him an inquisitive look. "The reason you looked as if you understood what we, my sister and I, were going through wasn't because you weren't in Neesan's place… But mine."
Finally getting what the older boy meant, the curiosity dimmed and a thoughtful glint took over his gaze, before the dim street lights reflecting on his glasses obscured it. Quietly, he began to walk once more.
"You love your brother very much, don't you?"
Conan did not answer, just passed by him without uttering a single word. Despite this, Eisuke didn't feel bothered at all. That was because he saw it ─ the child's soft, yet sincere smile drawing on his face.
Yeah, a lot.
"Thank you for walking me home, Ran."
Haibara said nothing, while Sonoko profusely thanked her friend for being so nice to actually walk home with her, and Ran nervously shook her head, her tight smile in place as she tried to deal with her.
The Suzuki heiress was being a bit too grateful for Haibara. Granted, she might have been spooked after realizing that she could have gotten kidnapped today, so Haibara couldn't really blame her for that, but still…
A beeping sound made its way through her ears, prompting her to look away from the girls to her bag. The Detective Badge, she realized with a frown, hurrying to pull the gadget out. He couldn't have gotten himself in trouble, could he?
"... I seriously hope that taking them down doesn't take that long."
Before she could even get a word out, the sound of Conan's voice caused the little scientist to jump, surprised.
"Hones-"
She immediately turned it off. That idiot, she mentally sighed. Must have turned it on by accident.
After a brief pause, she brought her phone from her pocket. I probably need to warn him, she realized, as she scrolled through her contacts. Those nosy ones are probably listening, too.
"Ai-chan?" by the time Ran had turned back around, Haibara had already hidden the badge. "This is weird… I could've sworn I heard Conan-kun's voice."
"You just did," unblinking, the scientist put her phone back. "It was from our chat group. Conan-kun said something embarrassing once, and Tsuburaya-kun happened to be recording it. Kojima-kun keeps sending it back to us every chance he gets to annoy him."
"Ah, is that so?"
"Yes."
With that, silence took over as they began walking once more ─ without Sonoko there, the quietness was more deafening and clear. But Haibara paid no mind, just calmly continued her way, ignoring the feeling of Ran's sharp gaze on her.
"Say, Ai-chan."
"What is it?"
"Well," she said with a hesitant smile, as if she had no idea of what she was doing. "If there's something bothering you, you can always talk to me, you know?"
"I'm aware. Thank you."
"Then, is there…?"
"Nothing I can think of, but I appreciate the concern."
"... Oh. It's okay then."
They didn't exchange another word throughout their trip to Professor Agasa's house.
"Oh, that's right," Eisuke said, at some point on their walk. "Did you hear? Something seems to have happened with the FBI."
Conan's eyes flickered to his direction. "Something happened?" he blinked, curiously wondering what it could be about.
"Yeah… Based on their mood, it seems like someone might have died..."
It only took one look towards Conan's direction for his words to trail down into silence. The boy had stopped, frozen in his spot, and had not moved even if Eisuke had turned around and, hesitantly, inched closer, infinitely concerned and confused all the same.
Because the little detective was beyond pale – his skin had gained a ghostly white color. His breathing seemed to have stopped, and he just stared back at him, horrified.
"Ah!" so, Eisuke hurried to say something. "If they haven't told you about it, I'm sure it's alright!"
Conan didn't seem to be paying attention to him.
Little did he imagine he wasn't the only one shocked beyond words. Several miles away from his location, three children had gasped upon hearing that sentence, each clutching the little badge as they sat in the darkness of their rooms.
And one of them frowned, unable to keep his gaze away from the device resting against trembling hands.
A/N:
CherryGirl 21-6: Yeah, that's basically it. The new phone he got later on was the smartphone he now uses in the anime. I was going to specify it in that chapter, but I guess I forgot XD