File Seventy-Four: What He Truly Wants to Hear
"I wonder what's taking her this much..." commented Vodka, as he glanced at his wristwatch. "Do you think that thief is giving her trouble or something?"
"That thief is nothing but an attention-hungry clown." Gin scoffed in return. "He's barely a threat for us." Then, a gelid smirk crossed his features. "Well, if it was that other meddlesome magician, it would be another different story."
"You mean the previous Kaito KID?" Vodka didn't get any reply, yet he continued, casually pulling his arm out of the window. "The magician Snake killed, I remember that one. That person gave him that codename after he killed him." It was followed by a scoff. "To think that useless-" His fingers touched something, causing the man to freeze and to look at it. "Eh? What's this?"
That caught Gin's attention right away. His gaze immediately fell on the small sticker that Vodka had just peeled off, and teared it away from his fingers instantly, gaining his partner's confused look. He ignored it, of course, in favor of studying it.
Gin's expression suddenly changed from cold indifference to murderous rage. "Someone bugged us."
His partner gasped. "But when?!"
The silver-haired man didn't grace him with an answer, just angrily crushed it under his hand. That teenager that had crossed the street right in front of his car came into his mind straight away, prompting his teeth to clench.
"The chimney!" His blood boiled when he remembered that mysterious man's voice when he had been about to kill Sherry at Haido City's Hotel's snowy rooftop. "Get into the chimney!"
"Aniki..." Vodka called out, unsure, when his partner suddenly started up the car. "Where are we going?"
"To hunt that little rat." His bloodthirsty grin actually scared Vodka. "For once and for all."
You're not escaping me again, Sherry.
Mouri Kogoro lifted one feather in front of his eyes, eyebrow raising as he inspected it a little. "It's cold," he observed, before turning around and realizing that, for some reason he wasn't capable of figuring out, it was white on one side, black on the other.
"I see," said Nezu from beside him, looking up to the ceiling. Kogoro did the same, blinking stupidly because he could not see it. "He painted one side of the crow feathers the same color as the ceiling and then used cold spray to stick them there."
He blinked again. "Oh." And then scoffed. "Of course I knew that."
The detective half-expected the brat from behind him to comment something under his breath, calling him off from bluffing with a bored look in his eyes. He waited for it… And waited some more.
Confused, he turned around, half-expecting to see him there, staring back at him and raising an eyebrow. Yet, he wasn't.
And he wasn't the only one to disappear out of the blue. From the window, a magician in black flew through the darkened sky, smiling mockingly at them while showing the Midnight Crow he had in his hand. A coin was left in its place at the crystal box.
Nezu's sneer also dissolved into nothing the moment he realized that the jewel he had kept in his pocket ─ he had traded the Midnight Crow with a fake one ─ was nothing but a dark stone.
But Kogoro paid no mind. He spun around to ask that high school detective if he knew where the child had run off. Strangely enough, Hakuba Saguru was also gone.
Hakuba?!
For a moment more than necessary, Shinichi just stared at the detective in the passenger seat, frozen with shock. How…? Slowly, he slid into the driver's seat, closing the door behind him.
Cold sweat dripped from his chin, but he disregarded it. Simply wiped it off in favor of moving closer to his classmate. Stun gun, he noted quickly, upon inspecting the bruise in the back of Hakuba's neck. The fact that she didn't kill him off means she doesn't intend to take his identity for long.
Not wasting another second, he brought out his phone, hastily taking a glove off and shoving it inside his pants' pocket. I need to call Kuroba. He fumbled with the device, struggling to dial a number with trembling fingers. And tell him to… Shinichi panted, suddenly out of breath. … to get… His sight blurred, rendering him unable to continue typing out the number. … to get Conan out of there…
His thumb hovered over the 'call' button, but next thing he knew the phone slid from his fingers, falling to the floor with a sickening sound. Shinichi didn't even have the time to wonder what was wrong with him before a grunt escaped from his lips.
Hand flying to his chest, Shinichi cursed loudly in his head. No, no, no… His free hand stretched towards the discarded phone. Not here… A jolt of pain made his teeth, and he did his best to endure it. He had to reach it. Not...
Fingers curled against his shirt, grasping it as a searing ache erupted from his heart.
Not.. Not now!
Nobody was around to hear Shinichi's excruciating scream.
Footsteps where all that was heard as the detective casually walked through the empty halls, focused frown on his face as he simply went forward. Completely unaware of the child of eight that pressed his back against the wall, carefully watching him from around a corner.
You must have figured it out, right? You wouldn't have left the show early otherwise...
It had been a clever trick, Conan had to admit, yet so extremely simple that the kid wondered why he hadn't thought of it before. All it took was an ice block, dyed with black ink and shaped as a diamond, and a coin planted inside. The heater would melt the black ice, and the coin would be left behind.
The surface where the Midnight Crow was resting was completely black, and so were Nezu Harry's gloves. Conan smirked to himself. So that nobody would see any ink stains.
Hakuba took a turn to the left, so the kid hurried to get out of the corner he was hiding at and silently ran to the next one. As expected from you, your disguise it's almost perfect, thought the child, as he approached the corner. But you overlooked something...
"Inspector," Hakuba said, looking into his pocket watch. "We're nearing midnight."
Anyone that knows Hakuba Saguru knows the guy notes the time to the second. He wouldn't say stuff like 'nearing' or 'a few minutes ago'... He would most likely...
The boy stopped in his tracks, frozen in place due to the realization that had suddenly struck him. There's no way KID doesn't know that. He shuddered, unwilling to move from his place. Then… Then...
"Oh?" The air froze in his lungs at the sound of that distinctive female voice. "I was about to call you, Gin."
Gin?!
Peeking around the corner, he confirmed what he had been fearing. 'Hakuba' was there, crossing his arms in front of his chest with a chill-inducing smirk, talking with a certain silver-haired man in black whose mere existence only gave Conan the worst nightmares of his life.
"Anyway," 'Hakuba' ─ or, rather, Vermouth ─ started. "All that detective is investigating is Jackal, the international jewel thief. For now, he has no idea about Snake."
Gin looked barely any affected by the conversation, his eyes scanning every single spot in that hallway. Instantly, Conan hid back against the wall, narrowly avoiding being seen.
So close… He knew that if he was caught by that man, he wouldn't live to see another day. Not even being an unsuspecting child would save him.
"So, why are you here?" asked Vermouth, still staring at him in the eye despite him not paying attention to her. "I thought we agreed that I'd go meet you, not the other way around."
"Sherry is here."
Even Vermouth had fallen silent by that. Conan had frozen in place, momentarily far too shocked to do anything else. "I'm personally going to eliminate her here."
Gin's gelid voice had brought the kid back from his daze. Frowning his hand went to his glasses, zooming out until he found it. Her badge is in Beika, he observed the blinking dot for a few moments. Sure, she could have left the city without it, but...
He couldn't find a single reason for her to do that.
"And after her… It's turn for that man that's aiding her to meet his inevitable demise."
A man… Wait, could he be?!
In that case, there was absolutely no way he could let Gin do as he pleased, he silently decided while letting his eyes roaming around. I need to think of something… Now. Then his gaze met with a set of stairs, going both up and down, right behind his spot, and out of Gin's view. A smirk crossed his face. That should do the trick.
Rising his bowtie to his mouth, the kid started to run towards it. He only had one chance.
"Oh?" Vermouth sounded almost amused. "Do you happen to know where he is?"
"At the parking lot, next to your car," he stated, strangely certain. "He was overhearing our conversation, and we said it was there. Sherry wouldn't dare to get close. Not when she could be spotted in plain sight..." His steps were nearing closer to the child's previous position. "But if it's a harmless heist-"
His sentence was cut short when he heard it.
A startled gasp, belonging to a young girl that Gin knew like the palm of his hand, brought his attention away from the disguised woman to the source the sound had come from. Hurried steps filling the silence prompted Gin's lips to curl into a rather sinister grin.
The stairs met his eyes upon turning around the corner. He stood in front of them, looking down for a moment, before sneering. "You can't run away forever," Gin declared, venomously and, instead of descending down the stairs, he went up. "Sherry."
Despite his unusual actions, Vermouth wasn't surprised. Sherry wouldn't just take the easy way out. She would most likely try Gin to think she's escaping and try to hide somewhere else in this building. The woman laughed softly to herself. But that wouldn't work with him.
Spotting something stuck against the riser of the bottom step caught her attention. She crouched down and saw it. Of course, you knew that. She didn't fight the smirk from showing on her face while she raised the small button-like speaker in front of her eyes.
Didn't you, Cool Kid?
Vermouth dropped it carelessly to the floor, only for it to get crushed beyond repair under her foot right afterwards.
By the time he made it out of the building, Conan was struggling to breath, leaning heavily against the wall after running downstairs at full speed. Did that really work? He couldn't really get his head around the fact that he, somehow, had just managed to trick Gin.
… For the time being.
Conan deemed it safe to assume that it wouldn't stay that way for long. So he wasted no time and turned his tracking glasses on, once more. So he is actually there. He scowled at the blinking dot at the parking lot. That idiot.
Then there was no time to waste, he decided while glancing around the already emptied streets of the city ─ the heist was more than over by this point. Despite expecting it already, he couldn't help the violent shivering his body gave the moment he set his eyes on the familiar black Porsche 356A. There was a man, dressed in all raven black clothes, smoking while he sat in the passenger seat.
Vodka.
Slowly and carefully, so not to be seen, he approached it. Once there, he pressed his back against the back of the black car and took a brief peek. Good. The man didn't seem to have noticed him yet.
Seriously. Conan took a deep breath, internally wondering if his sense of self-preservation was seriously damaged. Even considering everything he had done in his short life, what he was about to do was beyond crazy...
But it had to be done.
I can't believe I'm doing this…
With that, the lid of his wristwatch flipped open.
It was just a few minutes later that a furious Gin returned to the car along a secretly amused Vermouth. She didn't even need to ask what had happened when the silver-haired man suddenly stopped on his tracks, a dangerous glint taking over his gaze as he examined his surroundings.
Vodka was knocked out on the passenger seat.
She could imagine what had happened to him, quite accurately, but didn't let it show. "Oh, look at that." Instead, she promptly opened the driver's door. "It seems like she stole something."
It only took a look for the man to let out a cold, scary laugh. "She's trying to save his partner." The key he had left in the ignition might have been gone, but he had a spare one in his coat's pocket. You need to do better, Sherry. Something like that will barely delay me.
Vermouth wordlessly sat in the backseat, watching as Gin positioned himself behind the driving wheel and started the car. She couldn't help but wonder what that little detective could be planning.
It felt like someone was stabbing his chest with an ice pick ─ that was Shinichi's first thought after opening his eyes. Damn it. Even sitting up was hard, the detective realized right away. How long was I out?
Not that he bothered to check. I need to get the hell out of here. His hand reached across Hakuba to open the door. I don't think I can carry him… But if at least I have the strength to drag him somewhere safer...
Anywhere would definitely be safer than Vermouth's car.
Come on. Shinichi groaned, one hand clutching his chest, the other stretching to the door's handle. Just a bit further…
He didn't even get to touch it before the door opened by itself, and he didn't have the time to be surprised either when something distinctively cold ─ metallic, even ─ pressed itself against his forehead.
"This is as far as you go." With some difficulty the detective raised his head to meet a certain horse-moustached man he had no desire to see around.
But didn't let it show. "When that woman called me here, I didn't know what to expect." Shinichi kept his expression stoic as he stared at the organization member sneering down at him. "But I didn't imagine I would find an insect crawling its way out of her car."
Shinichi's teeth gritted, racking his brains to work out a way out of that dire situation he had landed himself in. When the click of the gun resounded in his ears, however, he figured he was pretty much done for.
"You messed with the wrong people, kid."
The reaction he got from the teenager in front of him was far from anything that he would have imagined. Experience told Snake that, whenever someone was about to meet their end, horror would show in their face, at some degree. But this one was different ─ he was smiling, staring at him in the eyes with something that he could attribute with amusement.
"Oh?" It came out with a teasing tone. "Does that actually include you, Snake?"
"What?!"
"Everyone knows who you are. Started off as a low-ranked member in the Organization. Aggressive, not particularly clever and so terribly sloppy that even that person gave out the order to take you out of the way."
Shinichi didn't look bothered at all about the fact that the muzzle was pressed even harder against his skull, as if in an attempt to intimidate him ─ which failed terribly, given that Snake was shaking.
"Then, on that same night, you did it. Successfully sabotaged Kuroba Toichi's magic show, thus eliminating a potential threat for the Organization. No leads, no evidence. It was so magnificently done that not only were you forgiven, you even got your codename."
Snake was disconcerted, staring wide-eyed at that kid that knew this much about his person.
"The accident was so violent that not even a body was found ─ it took them years to finally declare him dead. I suppose that shouldn't be surprising, considering you're basically the definition of merciless brutality." Shinichi shrugged. "Then again, isn't that weird? When you encountered Kaito KID eight years later, your first belief was that he was Kuroba Toichi himself, unlike others of your Organization that merely thought him to be a fan taking up his mantle."
Despite being him the one holding the gun, Snake felt the blood draining from his face at the pair of eyes piercing right through him.
"Wouldn't the killer be the first to laugh at the mere thought of his victim being alive?"
"Who..." His drying mouth rendered Snake unable to let out a complete sentence right away. "... Who are you?"
The teenager's lips curved into an arrogant, overly confident smirk.
"Hirai Arthur, detective."
Even breathing sent jolts of pain through his entire body, yet Shinichi couldn't afford to indulge into the agony he felt. Just sat there, in the driver's seat, eyes not looking away from Snake. On the contrary, the man had stopped breathing altogether, hand trembling slightly as he held the gun against his head.
Snake was hesitating, the detective knew this was the perfect chance to try and get the gun away from his grasp… But this pain was holding him back. Of all days… It had to happen today.
He cursed loudly. His luck was definitely rotten.
As if to prove him right, Shinichi could hear a car coming closer.
This unique and erratic idling noise... Beads of perspiration rolled down his forehead, and this time he was certain it was not because of the torture he was going through. There's no doubt about it...
The car came to a stop right beside them, at their right.
Snake seemed to be far too focused on him to realize what was happening. "No..." His next words came out in a feeble whisper. "You are-"
Those were also his last.
There was a rather loud sound ─ but somewhat masked, Shinichi suspected a silencer had been used ─ followed by a thud, as the criminal fell limply backwards, right on top of the poor, unsuspecting car parked on the left of Vermouth's.
Just like a rag-doll, he slid across the car's door before dropping on the hard concrete with a revolting sound. Peering carefully, the detective saw a hole right in the middle of Snake's skull and grimaced, figuring he would be next if he didn't think of something quickly.
It proved to be difficult, almost impossible. Shinichi narrowly succeeded in biting back a cry of pain when it stuck, suddenly and violently.
"What are you doing, Vermouth?" Gin's unmistakable voice rang through his ears.
There were steps. It didn't take a detective to know that he had gotten out of his car and approached Vermouth's Tomaso de Pantera.
"Getting rid of him," replied the woman, nonchalantly. They were standing right next to the driver's door. They hadn't seen him, or Hakuba, yet ─ he figured it was thanks for the smoked windows. "That person said he's more trouble than he's worth. Besides, it would seem like he was going through my car." It was followed by a shrug. "Maybe he figured out he was going to die by the end of the day."
"Just like a dying snake trying to sink its teeth into its killer one last time." Gin sneered. "Pathetic."
One last time, he tried to reach for the phone he had dropped on the floor of the car, only for his chest to burn once more. He tried to keep it to himself from screaming, but a grunt still escaped from his tightly pressed lips.
"Gin?" Vermouth then asked, confused. "What's wrong?"
Shinichi swore he felt Gin's icy gaze narrowing at that, piercing right through the blackened glass. He remained still as a statue, hoping against hope that the man would just turn around and leave him alone.
Of course, it didn't happen. Without replying to the woman, Gin began to slowly make his way around the car.
I can't move… He cursed in his mind, his breathing becoming heavier with both pain and anxiety. Damn it, I can't think of anything either. Squinting his eyes, he tried to see through his blurring sight. Damn… Damn it!
After everything… After getting this far...
Gin's steps echoed through the sound of blood rushing in his ears.
I didn't even get to talk to Ran… I need to tell her what was going on…
And also… I didn't get to tell her that I… That I...
A click that followed told him that the silver-haired man had taken his gun out of his coat ─ the high school detective was certain about what kind of sound he was going to hear next.
"But there is something I'm certain of..." Shinichi couldn't help but feel extremely guilty about saying all that, almost one year ago already. "It doesn't matter if it takes me months, or even years. I'm definitely coming back to you, Conan. Back home."
His eyes closed tightly, awaiting his inevitable demise.
"… You promise, right?"
Had he been able to, Shinichi would have let out a humorless, dry laugh from the depths of his throat.
Guess you were right, Conan. All I do is lie, lie, and lie again.
It looks like I won't be coming home after all… I'm really sorry for that.
Only a miracle can save me this time around.
There was a tug on his sleeve, and it seriously confused Shinichi. Gin would never do something such as that… With luck, he would sneer in his face before placing a bullet in between his eyes.
But it seemed urgent, so his eyelids flew open. Through the blurriness of his vision, he saw it. The miracle he needed to get out of this deadly situation.
Only that this miracle had taken the form of a small boy with oversized glasses.
Shinichi blinked owlishly.
A bloodthirsty smile took hold of Gin's features as he pointed at the passenger seat with his gun, but it faltered the moment he realized that there wasn't anybody there. Did he escape? he wondered, putting his gun back inside his coat.
"Aniki?" Holding his head, Vodka stumbled out of the car. "What's… What's going-?"
He leaned heavily against the nose of Vermouth's car, causing it, to his surprise, to move just a bit. Startled, he pulled away, confused about what he had just done.
"The handbrake lever is down," Gin observed, gaze narrowing.
Vermouth silently walked around the car, before kneeling down in front of one wheel. "I think I found the motive," she stated, casually. "And your car key, Gin."
Initially, the man didn't understand what she was talking about, until the moment he approached her and noticed that there was a bent key stuck in the tire. He sneered at the sight. "That fool." With that, Gin began to make his way back to his Porsche. "He thought he could escape if he didn't let you leave this parking lot, that dead snake."
"Where are you going?" asked Vodka, confused, as Gin passed by him.
"There's nothing else for us to do here." He didn't even look at his partner when he opened the door to his own car. "Vodka, take that body over here. We'll dispose of it somewhere." Then, glancing at the blood spots covering the floor, he added, "And clean that up."
The bigger man didn't seem to understand at first until his eyes met with the member sprawled across the floor. He couldn't help but sneer out of contempt, while he kneeled down to pick his body up.
All the while, Vermouth let a smirk appear on her face, taking a swift look at the chewing gum in her hand. You bent Gin's car key and placed it in front of one of my car's wheels, then stuck it with chewing gum against the floor so it would stay in place, with the sharp edge pointing upwards.
With a child's strength it was almost impossible to bend a key, but she supposed that this kid could have made it work somehow. Using his power-enhancing shoes, for example.
Then it would work like a tire spike… So that when the car was started, it would puncture the tire, rendering my car unable to move. She closed her eyes, chuckling to herself a bit, before secretly letting the gum slip from her fingers and fall into the ground.
I expected nothing less from you, Silver Bullet-kun.
"What are you going to do now, Vermouth?" asked Vodka, as he lifted Snake's body to his shoulders.
"I'm going with you two," she answered, shrugging, motioning to her punctured tire. "I will come back tomorrow and do something about this."
"Eh? You will just leave it here?"
"It's alright. There's nothing of use in it." She glanced back to her car, smirking as she focused on the dark space under it. At least, not anymore.
Just as quickly as they had arrived, they had left. The black Porsche drove away, its characteristic idle sound gradually fading until there was nothing but an ominous silence. And everything remained just like this, quietly still, for another few agonizing minutes.
That was until a small head popped up from under the car parked beside the Tomaso de Pantera. "It's alright." The child sighed heavily, crawling out of his hiding place. "It's okay to come out."
Not paying attention to the teenager doing the same thing, Conan approached Vermouth's car. Hirai watched the child pulling out the unconscious detective from under it, all but collapsing against the car he had gotten out of. Without fully noticing, he smiled, amused, when the kid did so without so much of a difficulty.
"... It was such a clever idea." Conan blinked when Hirai spoke up, in between elaborated panting. "To drop Hakuba on top of your skateboard so he could be dragged under the car easier."
Conan shrugged, letting himself plop on the floor right next to Hakuba. I'm never doing this again, he reaffirmed in his head. It was definitely not good for his health. We're lucky this parking lot doesn't have any cameras… If anyone of the Organization wanted to check them, we'd be done for.
"But how did you know I was here?"
The kid merely pointed at his glasses, which did little to explain it for the teenager in front of him. "You were acting weird back there. Far too oddly for an ordinary cold," he explained, nonchalantly. "So I placed my Detective Badge inside your jacket's pocket with one hand when I pretended I wanted to touch your face to check with the other."
The other boy's hand instantly went to his pocket, taking something out of there. Conan grinned, sheepishly, when he stared, wide-eyed, at the badge between his fingers.
"I heard that Gin was about to check in the place you were. So I knocked Vodka out and stole Gin's key, hoping that he would think that was the sole purpose of it, and keep him from checking."
"You did… what?!"
"Gin's car is a Porsche 356A. The trunk is in the front." Conan's smile dropped instantly, and a rather dull stare took its place. "I couldn't hide in there without Vodka noticing."
"YOU HID IN GIN'S TRUNK?!"
"... Yeah."
"You… You are insane." Conan felt a bit apprehensive at the crazed look he was receiving. "You… You can't just-!"
He didn't get to finish his sentence. When the teenager suddenly curled into himself, grunting as he held his chest, the child rose to his feet and rushed to his side. "Hey!" He cried, panic tainting his voice. "Hey, hold on!"
Conan frowned in concern, watching as the high schooler gritted his teeth, probably trying to hold a scream of agony from tearing apart from his throat. He was sweating profusely too, even soaking his small hands, that had found their way to Arthur's arm when he reached him.
Another pained groan made the kid sprung into action, anxiously checking Hirai's pockets for a certain something that he hoped he was carrying with him. He could have sighed in relief at the feeling of a familiar coldness in his fingers.
"Here."
The teen was beyond shocked to see a pill being handed to him, and Conan holding the vial with the prototype antidote with a serious, knowing look. To that, Shinichi could do nothing but to accept it, avoiding his gaze as he swallowed.
"Can you make it out of here?" Conan continued, the worry not leaving from his eyes yet. "I'll call the police and say I found Hakuba Saguru here. They will probably just think that Kaito KID was using him as a disguise."
Shinichi gave a weak nod, feeling his chest loosening up, the excruciating pain vanishing into nothing but a dull throb. He struggled to stand up, swaying a little as he did that ─ the child was instantly there to help him recover his balance as well as he could with his short stature.
The teenager took a shaky step forward before pausing. He turned to Conan, who gave him an innocent, clueless look.
"I will be at the park in front of his building," Arthur stated. "Will I meet you there, Conan-kun?"
It took a couple of seconds for Conan to process those words, but when they did, a small smile drew itself on his face.
"It will be there in a minute, Arthur-niichan."
Thinking about it logically, there was absolutely no reason for Conan to believe his words. The teen had, after all, proved himself unwilling to openly speak with him, and the child wouldn't really be surprised if he had just taken the opportunity and run off to another city while Conan was focused with the police.
But he still did. Conan chose to trust him to stay this time around.
And it seemed like he had made the right call. There, he saw him, sitting on a bench under the dim light of a streetlamp, not quite noticing him yet. The boy was contemplating something on his phone with a strange ─ melancholic, Conan would say ─ glint in his eyes.
Without uttering a word the child approached him, the sound of the wheels of his skateboard against the floor filling the silence and immediately waking Hirai out of his stupor. The teen said nothing either, just gazing back at the boy who stopped right in front of him, silently stepping out of his skateboard.
For the longest time, Edogawa Conan and Hirai Arthur merely stared at each other.
"So?" It was the younger boy, the first one to break the silence, hands sliding inside his pockets. "What did you want to talk to me about?"
"Ah, yeah. That." Arthur let out an awkward laugh at that. "I wanted to thank you. You saved my life there, you know."
Conan's expression barely changed at that, just looked down at the skateboard. "It's okay," he murmured softly, as he picked the gadget up. His eyes didn't raise to meet his, an action that Hirai only could attribute with disappointment. "Is that all?"
Arthur's hesitation made the child sigh tiredly before pulling something out of his pocket. Uttering nothing else, he handed him the vial he had taken previously.
For the longest time, the teenage detective just gazed at the little vial with the prototype antidote, doing his best to ignore the intense stare that was piercing through his head. He just waited for the question that was sure to come out any second now, yet Conan just stood there, unsettlingly quiet.
Arthur's hand gripped the vial tightly, a faint chuckle escaping from his lips. Conan did not move.
"I give up." Even after that, the child still didn't seem to react. "I give up, Conan. You win."
A childish ─ forced ─ grin covered Conan's entire face, Arthur knew this as a fact even if his eyes were closed now. "What are you talking about, Arthur-niichan?" The high-pitched voice rang through. "Were we competing or something?"
"You can drop the act already." Seriously, it was creeping him out. "And finally tell me what you want."
Arthur looked at the young boy, whose smile had been replaced by a vacant expression. Conan's head dropped slightly, causing the light to refract in his glasses, hiding his eyes from him.
"Can't you tell?"
The younger detective raised his head back again, a frown decorating his face and his blue orbs staring right through Arthur's soul. He wasn't speaking, and the teen was absolutely sure that his hands were curling into fists inside his pockets. Merely standing there, the kid looked as if he was waiting for something.
Arthur contemplated him for a few more moments, before his lips curved by their own accord. His hand reached forward and landed on top of Conan's head.
"Hey, Conan," his gentle voice resounded in Conan's ears. His eyes, full of affection, gazed down at him. "It's me."
Maybe he stared, eyes round and surprised, for a second longer to be considered a normal reaction, but then an adorable smile ─ bright, genuine ─ decorated his face. A smile that Kudo Shinichi, despite himself, couldn't help but mirror, watching as his little brother promptly sat beside him.
"Who would have said..." he said, gaze settling on the starry sky above them. "... that Great Detective of the East, Kudo Shinichi would share a roof with Kaito KID."
Frankly, Shinichi wasn't surprised that the kid knew about Kuroba's secret identity. Not even a bit.
"And his assistant, on top of that."
"I'm not his assistant."
Conan's eyebrows raised far above his hairline. "You're not working as a flight attendant as a part-time job."
Shinichi chuckled. "I could."
"You are not."
"Alright, alright." His hands rose in defense. "You said before you wanted to talk, right?" He leaned back on the bench. "I won't run away."
Even though he definitely wished he could. But it's not healthy. For none of us.
"I want you to tell me everything. Without the lies this time around." Conan's smile had disappeared by now. "From the moment I was kidnapped."
The teenage detective's face became suddenly severe, lips pressing against each other as memories of that day where he almost lost him flashed behind his eyes. Probably he noticed, Shinichi guessed, since Conan's little hand found its way in his forearm, reminding him he was here. Alive and expecting a straightforward answer.
"What happened?"
So he sighed, heavily.
"Four years ago, I went to pick you up on my way back from school, like every other day… But you weren't there." Shinichi let out a humorless laugh before continuing. "That bastard of your teacher even looked confused when he saw me, claiming that Mom had already passed by and picked you up… And Mom… Mom was with Dad in Venice."
Conan didn't need Shinichi to explain exactly how terrifying that moment was, he could tell. The way his face grew pale at the mere thought, even when years had passed from that moment, was more than proof of that.
"I rushed inside to look for you without thinking." He had made quite the scene, actually. Running through the halls calling Conan's name on top of his lungs, desperately looking for something, anything, that would tell him where he had disappeared to. "Ran was scared too, but took it more calmly and called the police. She even got her father to help."
Even Ran-neechan and Occhan were there… Conan shifted, uncomfortably. He had no idea he had troubled so many people.
"I found a pamphlet on the floor in a room I bursted into. It looked as if it had been torn away from the billboard forcefully, so I got Inspector Megure to look into that room when they arrived, and they found your Tulip Badge under the cabinet. But there wasn't anything else. Nothing."
Shinichi leaned forward, resting his cheek against an open palm. "Dad was also trying to figure it out through the phone, but there was so much he could do in an entirely different country," he continued with his story. "That night, I was talking it out with him when I realized you were actually giving us your kidnapper's car."
Conan blinked, confused by his words for some reason. "Na 46-49," he pronounced, eyebrows creasing at the puzzlement his mind was going through. "That licence plate belonged to the Sakura Class' teacher… I was at Tulip."
"Miura-sensei reported that his car was stolen. We found the car because he had a tracking device in case of theft," Shinichi commented, confused at the shock painting the child's face. "I… thought you knew that."
"How was I supposed to?" His eyebrows were brought together, forcing himself to remember something, but of course his memories were all jumbled in a complete, nonsensical mess. "I was knocked out before he could take me to the car. I couldn't have known!"
His words silenced his brother, hand raising to his chin as he struggled to come to an explanation. The child contemplated him for a few moments, before his hand went to his pocket and pulled out that small notebook he always carried around.
Shinichi noticed him flipping some pages, then gazing at it. "What's that?"
It took a second more than usual for the kid to reply.
"When Ai-san was kidnapped, she left a code for her sister..." Conan explained, then continued in a lower volume. "The first part of it was telling her where she was hiding. I deduced it by myself… But I told my teacher that. You know how that ended."
His hands were clenching slightly against the notebook, but he didn't seem to notice it himself. Shinichi observed that action for a moment, "What about the second part?" but he pretended not to. The shake of Conan's head answered his question. "Let me see."
Miyano Shiho had been gifted with a genius' brain since birth, and it was clear by the complex code she had created in a hurry, at the sweet age of five. But the fact that Kudo Conan, aged four at the time, had deciphered part of it spoke of how clever he was, even then.
Conan had always been an unique individual. He couldn't help but smile in amusement.
"Where did you get the gun?"
"Huh?"
"You know, the gun," Conan raised an eyebrow at the clueless look he received. "I got nightmares after that stunt you pulled out. If there's something I remember about that case, it's certainly that."
"Ah, I stole it from Dad's desk."
The child gave him a blank stare. "Dad had a gun," he said, extremely unconvinced.
"Had a permit, too. He said it was for self-defense." Then he added, with a nervous laugh. "It was confiscated after what I did, though."
"No wonder," Conan rolled his eyes.
Though, he didn't even bother to ask how his father had managed to own a gun in Japan, of all places. He gave up wondering after a second, suspecting that the most likely explanation was 'Kudo Yusaku'. Period.
"Seriously, for all you scold me for being stubborn and insane, you aren't so different." Shinichi couldn't really argue, just watched the kid folding his arms behind his head. "I assume you got into the Organization after it."
The teen nodded, quietly.
"How did you find them?"
"They found me." Shinichi snorted. "Or should I say 'she'?"
"She?" His eyes widened, startled at the realization. "Hey, hey, with 'she' you mean-?!"
"Yeah." His lips curved into a smirk. "Vermouth. She was your teacher."
A hand went to his shoulder, clenching instinctively. "Was she...?"
"As it turns out, she had a partner who took her fake identity. He was the one who... you know, shot you." He was clearly uncomfortable while talking about it. "She killed him when he was in prison."
"Why would she do that?"
Shinichi turned to give Conan a long look, contemplating him for a few more seconds, before shaking his head. "I don't have a clue." The reply sounded incredibly honest, even in the child's ears. "I've long given up trying to understand what her motivation is..." His eyes slid closed. "When we were at the hospital, she showed herself. And then..."
"Your parents did a truly good job." Shinichi's eyes did not tear away from the nurse as she simply sat on his empty bed. "It would have fooled me… If I didn't know about this case, of course."
"What are you implying?" the detective hissed, unwilling to move away from his spot in front of his sleeping brother.
"Nothing really, I was just wondering." She crossed her legs, a vicious smirk widening as she continued. "If it turned out I am not the only one to realize this… What would you do?"
Conan was practically gaping at this point.
"I joined the Organization around a week after you moved to America." Shinichi was frowning, ever so slightly, as he reminisced. "For the first months, I was constantly monitored by her. She was to make sure that I said nothing about them. I eventually was given my first mission… To eliminate an unlucky young medical graduate by the named Asou Seiji." Conan's eyes widened in recognition. "He was-"
"-looking into his father's murder," the kid completed immediately. "Suspected the Black Organization had something to do with it. Didn't end well." Then he gave his brother a smirk when he noticed the dumbfounded stare he was giving him. "I did my research."
Shinichi stared at him for another couple of seconds before shaking his head. Of course that brat had researched him ─ researched Hirai Arthur, actually.
"Well, that's about it. I was bugged for the entire mission, so I relied on sending him hand-written notes about what he was supposed to do." Shinichi shrugged. "I faked his death and so many others after that. Saving others' lives meant having more contacts, more people indebted to me. It made the work easier, and I became better and better at it. Eventually, the Organization began to trust me enough not to control me all the time. Roughly a year after that, I became Singani."
It was followed by a humorless laugh, confusing his younger brother for a second before he continued.
"Now that I was ranked enough, I was allowed access to confidential information, such as a list of witnesses of all cases related to the Organization… But 'Kudo Conan' was not there. From what I gathered, your involvement had been kept a secret. Nobody but Vermouth knew about it."
A secret? Conan's eyebrows were brought together in thought. That's weird… Why would Vermouth keep quiet about me?
… Come to think of it, why would she do all that? Like placing Oniichan inside the Organization and everything…
The young boy felt like his brain would explode with so many questions, but one look at his brother and he knew that he wasn't any better ─ he had absolutely no idea of what her intentions were. All he could conclude was that the woman had her own agenda, making her completely unpredictable ─ and, at the same time, incredibly dangerous.
"From that time on, I tried to gather enough intel to take them down. And it went well for around two years… Until that day."
"Sorry, Ran, can you go home without me?"
It wasn't until he made sure he was out of Ran's vision that Shinichi's pace slowed down, his grin vanishing into thin air, eyebrows furrowing into a focused frown as he focused on the phone in his hand.
A bald man, around his late thirties, was on screen. There wasn't much information about him, which wasn't unusual really, but the fact that it stated that he was to eliminate him immediately was a little off. "What did this guy do?" he wondered out loud, scrolling through the rest of the text, realizing that he was to meet with him as soon as possible, at the outskirts of Tropical Land.
Maybe that was why they had called him to the job, Shinichi realized, since he was nearby. Though Gin and Vodka were also there… Were they busy with another business?
"Well, there's no helping it." Shinichi shrugged, placing his phone back inside his pocket. "Need to get this over with and get home. If I don't show up for dinner, Conan is going to be mad at me."
He didn't need him getting even more annoyed at him ─ they had argued earlier today because he had commented that the homicide case at the roller coaster hadn't been 'challenging enough'. As he walked, the high school detective wondered if he could make it out for him, somehow. Maybe he could buy some cheesecake on his way home, he hummed, slowly making his way to the dark alley. He didn't really think the child's mood would improve, even with the sweet treat, but…
Even if Shinichi was not a fan of sweets, he was really looking forward to it.
Before that, there was something he needed to finish. The victim was there alright, looking around nervously while hugging a suitcase against his body.
"Excuse me, sir," the teenager called, prompting the man to jump, completely startled. "Can I talk with you for a moment?"
"Ah, sorry, but I think you should leave, kid," the man replied right away, nervously looking around.
"Are you waiting for someone?"
"T-That's…"
"You're going to make a deal with someone." Shinichi's eyes narrowed. "But what if I told you you're going to make a deal… with Death itself?"
Those words made the man jump, eyes fixing on him and widening violently, seemingly beginning to understand the meaning of his words. "W-Wha-?" Shinichi's gaze took a scary glint suddenly, making the victim take a step forward in fright.
But then a smirk took hold of his features. "Don't worry, I won't kill you." The man's shoulders dropped slightly. "If you do as I tell you, I can assure that you will live to see another day."
"Are… Are you serious?"
"I'd never joke about that." Shinichi offered him his hand. "So, will you make a deal with me instead?"
Shinichi would have expected any kind of reaction from the man's part, but certainly the way his hopeful, yet equally scared, look morphed into something sinister wasn't something he had in mind.
Soon, the man's lips curved into a bone-chilling smirk and a giggle ─ distinctively feminine ─ made his heart stop.
Before he could think about a way out of there, something hit him from behind.
"This is as far as it goes..." He recognized Gin's voice, even when everything faded around him. "... Singani."
Conan stayed silent for a bit, struggling to find the right words to say. "Did..." But managed to get out. "Did he… poison you there?"
It was so incredibly subtle that Conan almost missed it, yet he caught the way his gaze dropped to the ground and something ─ which the kid wasn't able to define exactly ─ flashed in front of his eyes. His lips pressed against each other, and his hand instinctively reached for his own forearm, gripping tightly.
"Yeah." He nodded jerkily. "He forced me to swallow that drug in that amusement park."
"You're lying."
Shinichi's head snapped towards his younger brother, surprised by the focused frown carved into his features, yet saying nothing as he simply gazed at him, eyes squinting as if trying to deduce what he was hiding. Or why.
Then, suddenly, those narrowed eyes snapped wide open while contemplating him. Immediately after, the boy was sickly pale, mouth opening and closing soundlessly, until he completely froze in place.
"You..." It began as a feeble whisper. "You were..." Conan paused, closing his eyes for a moment and taking a deep breath. "You were tortured."
Shinichi's expression barely changed, which led Conan to believe that he sort of expected this was coming. "The witness list was wiped out completely, apparently." A rueful smile caressed his older brother's lips. "Gin suspected I had done it, and that I had a copy with me."
Therefore Gin had intended to make him spill the beans into where he had been keeping it ─ Conan shivered. "Did you?"
Shinichi shook his head. "I didn't touch a single file."
The kid nodded slowly, and looked back ahead, letting the fact from before sink into his mind. There was little he knew about Gin, yet if there was something he was sure that the man was ruthless. He didn't want to imagine what he had gone through before he could be given that poisonous drug.
"At the end, they realized I had nothing to do with that and Gin gave me the drug," the teen continued nonchalantly, as if it was not a big deal. "Next thing I knew I was inside a nearby dumpster… I don't really know how I got there, since my body was supposed to be dumped to the sea, but..."
His words trailed down in silence the moment he realized that Conan wasn't just staring at his lap, blankly and so immersed in his own mind that he didn't even notice him going silent. Little hands clenching tightly and eyes sliding close, as if in pain, was all it took for Shinichi to frown.
"No," was all he said. It was enough to make Conan snap out of it and give Shinichi a confused look. "No, no, no. I'm not allowing it, Conan."
"... Allow what?"
Although the kid was staring at him like he had grown a second head, Shinichi let out a long, heavy sigh, standing up before crouching right in front of the bewildered young boy. Conan frowned with confusion, silently watching his older brother gently unclenching his hands. "You have been doing that lately." Shinichi started, obviously unwilling to explain himself. "I can tell."
The child didn't get it, honestly, until the moment his brother looked up at him, undoubtedly worried for some reason. "But please, please Conan." His grip on his hands tightened. "Please, just stop."
Any other time, the clueless expression plastered all over the child's face would have amused him. He would have laughed, too, teasing him until he would scowl at him, looking away red-faced.
But as things were now, Shinchi only offered his little brother a kind, if pained, smile.
"There is something you need to understand, Conan. Burn it into your mind, and remember it forever." The high school took a deep breath. "Nothing, not even a single thing that has happened to you, me or anyone around you is your fault. Never was. Never will."
Realization gradually filled Conan over ─ to the teen observing him was clear by the way he stiffened. Before long, the kid snorted, looking away as if to avoid that knowing stare piercing right through his heart. "Well, based on facts alone, I was the one who started it all."
"If you want to go by facts alone, the one who started it all was whoever founded that Organization… Unless you founded it." Conan did not react at the joke, causing Shinichi to frown further. "Conan, you were just a curious child that trusted an adult, like you were supposed to. You can't just-"
"I know!" Initially startled by the loud outburst, the teenager merely stared at the kid, whose hands had teared away from his grasp and were now pressed against his ears. "I… know all that," he continued in a soft whisper. "I'm tired of listening to that over and over…" Hattori, Ai… Even Occhan and Ran with their silent knowing looks had kept on telling him that. "I understand them. Every single word… But..."
… He still can't believe them. To Shinichi it was clear, even when it had been left unsaid. Rather than commenting on it, however, he silently watched his brother curling into himself, hands pressing against his ears even harder, eyes sealed shut and unwilling to even glance at him.
Secretly, Shinichi was glad that Conan wasn't watching. Because he wouldn't have been able to hide how much the sight in front of him pained him. It broke his heart to see a little child ─ his beloved younger brother ─ suffering like that.
Nothing he could say at the moment would suffice, the older Kudo knew that. Realizing that, he leaned forward.
The moment he felt something wrapping around his form, the young boy instinctively jumped, startled, struggling to wriggle free, and away from the comforting warm he did not need right now.
"Hey, it's okay." But Shinichi's hold did not loosen, just tightened even further. "It's okay to cry, Conan."
The older Kudo remained like that, holding the child even after his struggles eventually ceased. Gradually, the child gave in into his embrace, resting his forehead against his shoulder, all the while keeping his eyes clenched shut in a last, desperate attempt to keep his newfound tears at a bay.
"Shh..." shushed Shinichi, rubbing his hand against Conan's back. "It's fine," he continued whispering, even as he heard his brother unable to hold back a sniffle. "Oniichan is right here, isn't he?"
This stole a watery laugh from the child.
"Stupid," he whispered with no actual anger, prompting Shinichi to sigh, relieved beyond a doubt. "Stupid Oniichan."
A/N:
Gamelover41592: Yeah, I caught up with the manga recently. It won't change anything for this, actually. This will deviate from canon eventually, so a lot of stuff is going to be different from it, though.