File Ninety-Eight: A Member Named Singani
"After we destroy the Organization..." Conan's grin was almost blinding. "Let's try something like this again!"
And blinding it remained, even through the screen Shinichi was gazing at. That photograph he had sent him just a few days ago, the same one he had thought of deleting as a safe measure, was still there, as a reminder of those happy moments they had once shared.
It was crazy to think that, days ago, they were laughing carelessly, and now...
"Greetings."
Shinichi felt his entire body freeze, breath stopping suddenly at the unmistakable voice of his little brother. While it would have been only natural to hear it, considering it was his name, the one he had seen seconds ago on the display, there was something that made him frown. Perhaps it was the unusual wording he had used, or the slightly different inflexion of his tone. He didn't know precisely what it was.
"Who are you?" Shinichi asked, with a dangerous tone.
Conan's voice laughed. "I see you're as sharp as everyone said." He paused for a beat before continuing. "I have to say your brother doesn't fall so far behind. This voice-changer is such a convenient thing, but it took me quite a while to figure out how to make myself sound like him. Suppose it doesn't take him that long to use it, does it?"
The thought of this person having Conan's bowtie made him anxious. "Where is he?"
"Relax, he's just fine. And he will be, if I get what I want from you."
From the corner of his eye, he could see Kuroba bursting out of the classroom, rapidly looking around until he spotted him at the end of the corridor. "Let me talk to him." Shinichi tried to sound as imposing as humanly possible. "I'll do nothing until I can confirm he's okay."
"I'm afraid Conan-kun here is all tuckered out," Conan's voice said in a teasing tone. "It has been quite the tiring day, after all."
Shinichi's teeth gritted. "You bastard," he let out in a low, feral growl that startled the magician that was just about to reach him.
"I'll call later when he wakes up so that we can arrange everything." The detective felt his body trembling with restrained fury. "I just did it now so that you wouldn't do something stupid like calling the police."
"Stop joking around!" he yelled at the phone. "What do you want?!"
"I just want a job to get done."
Never had Shinichi felt such a powerful urge to hurt somebody as he did now.
"And from what I heard, a certain member named Singani would definitely get it done."
"Beika. Beika." Shinichi's head jerked up sharply at the voice on the intercom. "Please exit to your right."
Not wanting to miss his stop, the detective hurriedly put his phone back inside his pocket and raised from his seat, approaching the door.
It's so strange, he thought, adjusting his hood over his head while he walked across the platform, not quite running but not strolling either. I've long gotten so used to being Hirai Arthur that walking around Beika as myself feels almost unreal.
But he couldn't have it another way. It would be dangerous if that organization member that took Conan knew about his fake identity as well. Could it be that member Conan had been talking about earlier? he wondered as he walked, hands sliding inside his pockets, through Beika's busy streets. Irish, huh?
Somehow, he figured everything out. About the two of us.
Shinichi had absolutely no idea about his, or her, intentions were, but the sole fact that Ran and everyone around him were still fine spoke a lot. For motives he still didn't know, the Organization had yet to be informed about this.
Then, it will be alright. His eyes narrowed. As long as I can defeat him before he speaks a word about us… It will be fine.
He stopped when the words 'Mouri's Detective Agency' met his eyes, Conan... and took a moment to take a deep breath in, still gripping his phone inside his pocket. No matter what it takes, I promise...
Wasting not another second, he started his way up the stairs.
I promise I will save you.
Certainly, Conan had been too out of it to even notice somebody had picked him up and carried him away from school, but he guessed they had, presumably Kogoro. There, trapped in the thin line where dreams and reality merged, he felt himself being, with a surprising amount of care, settled back on a rather hard, but not quite uncomfortable either, surface. Which wasn't, beyond a doubt, his futon back at home. Or the floor, for that matter.
It was quite a curious thing, indeed… But Conan didn't have enough presence of mind to particularly care for such a trivial detail. Something warm, not unlike a jacket, was laid over his small body, and the child slowly started to drift back into the haze he had been occupying…
Si. La. Sol. La.
Until that melody brought him right back, "I'm sorry, I was busy," together with the female voice, which he had long learned to be wary of. "Why, with my own business, of course. I'm also a celebrity, besides working for you. You remember that, don't you?"
Mouri Kogoro was not, by any means, a woman.
A door closed ─ a car door. Mouri Kogoro did not own a car, and there was no way he had rented one either. "Tonight? Sounds fine to me." His senses gradually came back to him, all sense of drowsiness abandoning his mind, alarmed by the realization that had just struck him. "See you there."
Had he been thinking straight, however, he would probably have kept both eyes closed. Too bad he wasn't, and had cracked one open to see what in the world was going on.
Mouri Kogoro's gaze staring right at him was the last thing he would remember before his thoughts spiraled down into a dark void, dragged under by that sickly sweet stench he had grown far more familiar with than he really should.
"I'm sorry for this," the female voice barely filtered through the lake of black in he was sinking into. Immediately, without really trying to, his mind wondered why all of this was so familiar to him. Why it seemed like he had lived through this before.
"I'm really sorry, Conan-kun."
That was about right, Conan dimly realized. It was this woman, too, who had kidnapped him that time, so long, long ago. The one who had betrayed his trust, who had taken advantage of all that for her own personal agenda ─ or was it for somebody else? Conan didn't remember.
If that's true… If all that was true… Why?
Why did she sound so genuinely apologetic about everything?
Even at that time, he remembered, she had appeared, well, he wasn't sure if the word 'apologetic' quite fit, but she had been acting oddly, at the very least. Conan could clearly picture her in his mind right now ─ leaning against the opposite wall, looking anywhere but in his general direction with a dull, inexpressive look.
"Sensei..." Despite how terrified he was at that time, Conan had managed to get some words out of his mouth. "You're Sensei, aren't you?"
The blonde woman's eyes flickered in his direction but, other than that, barely moved a muscle. "How did you know?"
Little Conan hesitated, shifting nervously on his spot on the floor, opening his mouth, then closing it after giving it a little more thought. Sensei ─ or Vermouth, like the scary one-eyed guy had called her before ─ didn't press on the matter any further, shrugging it off and going back to contemplate that empty wall on her right. There was nothing else for her to distract herself with, after all.
There was absolutely nobody else but them two in that place, and several bags stacked on the back, filled with something potentially illegal, the small kid would assume. He had, after all, taken the time to survey every single thing around him, seeking to elaborate a plan to run away, but had been rendered unable to do anything but sit there and wait for his brother to come and save him.
Because there was no other possible outcome ─ his oniichan was going to find him, no questions asked.
… Only that he was taking longer than Conan would have expected. The scary one-eyed-guy had said he was busy, but had promised to come back for him in a few good hours. The thought of what would happen next made him shiver.
He bit his lip, suppressing back a sob, tugging against the rope that held his wrists together ─ it was beginning to hurt. But he had to endure it, and be a little braver ─ just a little longer.
A long, exhausted sigh made him look up, curious about what had made the woman suddenly cross the room and crouch down in front of him. "I'm taking those off," she said. "But if you try something, they are going to come back on, you understand?"
Conan nodded slowly, staring at her face with big, surprised eyes. "You asked before how I knew it was you," he said, forcing the woman to look back at him.
Vermouth barely uttered a word, but did gaze at him for a moment more than strictly necessary before returning to her previous spot, leaving Conan alone to rub gently at the friction marks left on his wrists, grimacing all the while.
"You know, Dad is probably the greatest detective to have ever existed… But he isn't all that good when it comes to people," the boy continued regardless, not minding the woman who appeared to be pointedly ignoring him. "Whenever Oniichan or I are sick, or just did something we shouldn't have done, it's always Mom who deduces it first. She has never told Dad how she does that. Says it's funnier that way."
At the mention of that specific person, Vermouth turned to look at the child. "Mom let me in on that secret once, though. She said that you could tell a lot about somebody by just looking at their eyes." She seemed confused at first, upon seeing that the child was smiling faintly, gazing intently at his knees while he hugged them tightly against his chest. "No matter what you look like, Sensei is still Sensei."
Until he went back to stare back at her, with that bright, curious gaze of his, like he was trying to puzzle something together, and that her face was the last piece. Whatever he had been trying to deduce had seemed to finally dawn on him, making those eyes become even bigger a fraction of a second, leaving something akin to worry in its place.
"Are you okay, Sensei?"
It was then the first time Conan had seen the woman appearing so bewildered, completely unable to pronounce a word. Conan didn't let that bother him, though, just continued to study her.
He noticed her lips pressing against each other in a thin line, and her arms crossing on top of her chest, an action that he could attribute to a defensive one.
So, he proceeded.
"You look sad," the child stated with brazen honesty, not allowing his eyes to drift away from her form, not even for a single second. "Why are you doing this, even if it's clear that you don't want to?"
Conan wouldn't remember what her answer was ─ perhaps, that was just it. Perhaps, the woman hadn't given him an answer to his innocent question that would persist, even years later.
Only her troubled gaze would remain forever engraved in his mind.
And they were those eyes, too, that greeted him when he crawled back to reality again. It had been brief ─ just a flash until his sight blurred again and dizziness struck back, stealing a groan out of him, and forcing his eyes to shut close.
What's wrong with me? He wondered why he felt so lousy for a moment, until he tried to push himself up, just to realize that he couldn't. Now, that wasn't normal. What… He forced his still sluggish mind to piece together why his hands seemed to be tied, so tightly at that, behind his back. Just like his feet. What in the world...
Last thing he remembered actually was feeling rather unwell at school, but had no recollection of being kidnapped at any point. I think Ai-san took me to the nurse's office… then… It was kind of fuzzy, but he clearly remembered falling asleep at some point there… Oh, that's probably when.
"He's awake."
Prompted by the male, unknown voice, the boy cracked his eyes open once more. Cheek still resting against the cold, hard floor, he squinted for a little, until through his blurry vision something appeared. A face ─ a male one ─ he didn't seem to recognize at first snorted, staring at him long enough until the child slowly realized it was, indeed, not an unfamiliar one.
Black hair, black eyes, an overall unassuming appearance that he would otherwise ignore, but now made his hair stand to an end.
"You are..." the kid breathed out in shock. "Okino Yoko's… manager?"
Yamagishi Eiichi's face contorted in another smirk, looking quite amused by his reaction. He said nothing, merely watching as the child observed him some more, before a dark frown took place.
"What did you do with the real one?" he spat out, angered.
"He's fine. I wasn't planning on using this for long." He wouldn't let Conan see his actual face, he assumed. "I decided to use him with you, since I supposed you might have gotten used to him already."
"So it was you at Beika Preschool."
"Naturally."
Conan frowned, definitely not liking where that was going, eyes wandering back again at the woman leaning against the wall, watching him glower under her cold, undecipherable look. I had assumed it was her who Ai-san sensed back then… He watched her close her eyes, sighing softly, before calmly heading for the door.
"I'm going out for a smoke," she said when her partner questioned her. "Call me when you need help with your disguise."
And then she was gone, leaving Conan to stare back, wondering what could be going through her mind.
"When Okino Yoko asked him to accompany her there on his day off..." the man continued, gathering the child's attention again. "I accepted instead. Yamagishi Eiichi never suspected a thing ─ nobody did, in fact." He stood back up straighter, allowing Conan to see that he was much larger than it had first appeared. "Under the untrained eye, just a change of posture and some loose clothes would do the trick."
No wonder he hadn't noticed a thing. He had seen the manager, like, once through the last two years or so ─ there was no way he would remember his physical complexion to the littlest detail.
"You're Irish, aren't you?"
The man didn't reply verbally, but did smirk, allowing Conan to see that his suspicions weren't so far off. Not even bothering to press any further, the child watched him retreat to a small cupboard in the corner of the room.
It took a bit of work yet, eventually, the boy pulled himself into a sitting position. That allowed him to see that, on top of that piece of furniture, were his phone, bowtie, belt and watch. He grimaced, but wasn't surprised ─ of course they would take his gadgets away.
Wait a second. His eyes opened slightly. I still have my suspenders on me... Did they forget about it?
Perhaps they didn't know they were one of his gadgets, too. And he wouldn't blame them, really. Even Conan often forgot he had those on him… Most of the time, they are rather useless, are they?
He fought a dejected sigh. All hope he had suddenly had morphed into sheer disappointment. Conan failed to imagine, after all, how they would be useful in an eventual escape attempt.
Yet Conan wasn't the one to give up easily. Taking advantage of the fact that Irish wasn't looking at him, but rather his own phone, the child scanned every single corner of the room, hoping he would find something useful. Surely enough, there was.
A trail of wooden sticks and empty lunch boxes scattered across the floor guided him to the sight of a large man tied to a chair, visibly unconscious. Superintendent Matsumoto! He barely stopped himself from crying it out. Hey, hey… Conan could feel cold sweat collecting on his brow as the realization sank on him. Does that mean… that the officer Irish was disguised as is actually-?!
"Enough talking for now." His attention was brought back to Irish, watching him picking up a bowtie ─ his bowtie ─ from over his other gadgets and placing it close to his mouth. "I'll borrow this." The boy's eyes opened slightly in surprise when he heard his own voice. "I might be able to copy quite a few voices, but this makes the work much easier. Kids are remarkably hard to imitate."
All the response Conan was willing to offer him was a low grunt.
Conan's school bag was still on the floor.
Had Shinichi needed to deduce the reason, he would probably say that one of the little boy's friends had probably dropped it, shocked to hear that their friend had disappeared, and completely forgotten about it until someone noticed it and picked it back up.
Mainly Shinichi himself, who had only realized it was there after tripping on it as he was making his way inside. In fact, none of the other people in the same room said anything about it, or were particularly worried about him almost breaking his neck, or something. Ran had been closing the door and looking far too pale for her to pay attention to something like that. He couldn't blame her.
And Detective Mouri had barely raised his head, keeping his eyes stuck on his many, many papers covering his entire desk. Shinichi couldn't help himself ─ he stared, rather shocked to see him, rather than looking more than willing to yell at his mere presence, groaning while throwing a random piece of paper he seemingly didn't need so that he could read the rest.
"I thought the kids were here," commented Shinichi, after contemplating the older detective for a moment and taking a good look around to find that the three of them were alone.
"They just left for Professor Agasa's home." Ran's voice came out softer than usual. "They were… rather shocked."
Slowly, Shinichi's gaze fell back on the bag at his feet. "No wonder," was all he muttered, crouching down again next to the object. I wonder how you would react, too. Gently, as if it would shatter into pieces if he so much as shook it too hard, he picked it up. If you saw this…
If you saw how worried everyone is about you…
His eyes lingered on it for a moment more than needed, possibly, and remained there, while he sat slowly on the couch in front of the coffee table, frowning as he contemplated what he was supposed to do next.
All the while, nobody said anything. Mouri continued to shuffle through his many papers, while Ran stood there, unsure at first about what to do, until something clicked and a determined frown took over her features.
"Ran?" Kogoro blinked confusingly at his daughter when she, out of the blue, grasped the papers he had discarded and began to read them. "What are you doing?"
She didn't answer, nor did he pressure her. Shinichi omitted any comment, not that he had any, just silently contemplated the both of them. Everyone is working hard, too. Just like her, the boy frowned, settling his gaze once more on the bag on his lap.
He took a deep breath, A case is a case, then finally opened it. And should be treated as such, he thought, digging inside it, quickly pulling out everything that was inside and placing it neatly on top of the table. Once he was done, he just sat back, scanning each and every one of those things carefully.
Of course, there wasn't anything particularly helpful ─ frankly, he didn't know what he had been expecting. His many books and notebooks were still inside, along with his detective badge that unfortunately was there, in front of his eyes to be glared at. Without his badge or glasses, there was no way he could be tracked. It would have been way too easy, he figured.
Unsure of what he was looking for, the teenager picked the small notebook with the Detective Boys' logo on it. There's no way he could have left a message. Despite what he thought, he browsed through the many pages that the boy had written over the past year or so. He couldn't have had the chance to.
From what he had managed to understand from a nearly hysterical Ran over the phone, Conan had felt rather ill during his morning classes so he had been sent to the nurse's office. His friends had persistently been at his side, keeping a careful eye on the boy as he rested until somebody picked him up. Ayumi had seen Kogoro taking him away, so she had left it to him…
Except that Kogoro had never left his office. It was probably Vermouth. He would bet on that. But for what reason?
She has been protecting him in her own way for so long, so why now? Unless...
Either way, they had clearly sneaked inside the school to steal Conan's fingerprints, so it wouldn't be surprising if they also somehow got to the school's database and changed Kogoro's number for a burner phone. But how did they know? He gripped the notebook tighter. How did they know Detective Mouri would have to pick him-?
He froze suddenly, eyes lingering on the notebook for a moment before they slid to the red shoes nearly placed in the corner of the room. … up.
Just as he was about to approach them, a loud buzzing made him, and by addition the other two, jump in surprise. When he saw who it was, he felt himself tensing up.
"It's Conan." Instantly, they both adopted the same posture as he had before them. "I'm putting it on speaker. Please, be quiet."
Shinichi didn't wait for a reply before he hit the green button. He said nothing, just stayed silent until somebody on the other side said anything.
Surely they did. "Oniichan?" The soft voice echoed through the entire room, making both Ran and Kogoro jerk at the sound of the little boy. "Are you there?"
But Shinichi remained impassive through it all. "I remember I said I wanted to talk with Conan," he said, slowly. "Put him on, now."
Conan's laugh sounded cold in his ears. "Impressive," he said. "But how will you know I won't fake it again?"
"That's for me to decide."
There was a moment of silence. "Alright," he said next, now sounding like an adult male ─ which still was not, he assumed, his authentic voice. "There. Say 'hi'."
Not a sound was heard from the other side ─ just plain silence. Shinichi frowned in confusion, holding his phone closer to his ear to deduce what could be going on there. He was about to ask about it, too, when he heard something else. Something that made him freeze and boil all the same.
This time it was Conan alright ─ he had just given a sharp cry of pain, sounding as if he had been hit. "Stubborn little brat," Irish said, but Shinichi could only focus on the small, almost imperceptible exhale of air. "Just because I won't kill you..." It was followed by a gasp, then a familiar click that made his eyes widen dramatically. "Doesn't mean I can't hurt you."
Conan breathed out ─ quivering as it was, it sounded as if it had been sliced in three distinct smaller breaths. "Stop!" Shinichi felt himself crying out, completely losing the icy demeanor he had fought so hard to maintain. "Conan doesn't have anything-"
He was cut short by the sound of another shaking breath rushing out of the boy's system, then the unmistakable sound of sniffing. Immediately afterwards, there was another exhale, as if the kid was trying to control himself, followed by another sniffle.
That usually serious, mature kid that seemed to fear nothing was sobbing ─ the thought shocked Kogoro to no end. "Understand now?" The kidnapper had the audacity to snort, and the man could easily imagine him pushing whatever weapon he was carrying closer to the boy's head. "Your oniichan is waiting."
Ran's eyes had filled with tears, hands falling to her mouth to avoid crying out to the boy, fearing that the kidnapper would do something if he knew they were there. Like her, the older detective remained quietly still on his desk, but the frown prominent on his face, and his hands gripping the desk, tightly enough for his knuckles to go white, made it obvious that he was making a massive effort to remain in place, too.
Again, Conan breathed out. Again, it came out so shakily that Shinichi could easily hear it as multiple smaller breaths ─ two this time. Shinichi's anger receded at a sudden realization, eyes opening wide as if something had just occurred to him.
"Oniichan..." he breathed out, and sniffed once. "Please..." Yet again, he exhaled. "Be careful!"
Shinichi paused, as if processing what he had just said, before he tapped his fingers against the phone. Tap, tap, tap. So softly that none of the people present in the room would have noticed, hadn't they been attentively looking at him. Tap, knock, tap.
Kogoro could swear he heard the little boy sigh in something akin to relief, but maybe it was only his imagination.
"It wasn't so hard, was it?" The kidnapper's voice rang through once more. "Will this work for you?"
The teenager closed his eyes, taking a deep breath, before continuing. "What do you want?" he asked, now back to his cold, composed self. "Is it about that memory card you're looking for?"
"I see you've done your homework," he replied. "Well, that's all there is to it. Find the memory card and I'll exchange it for this kid over here. Deal?"
"Deal."
"It's a mission, then. Just like the old times, isn't that exciting?" The man snorted at his own joke. Shinichi certainly didn't. "Contact me when you know where it is. I'll leave it to you, Singani."
"See you then, Irish."
There was a short, amused laugh on the other line before he finally hung up. None of the other two dared to say anything, merely watched as the detective quickly set his phone carelessly on the couch, immediately looking through Conan's pencil case.
They both exchanged looks, "Shinichi?" before Ran finally got the courage to ask.
She was startled when, out of the blue, the boy snorted, a pleased smirk crossing his features.
"That kid," he huffed, but didn't sound all that angry. "It looks like he doesn't, but he really did listen to me that one time… When I told him he should learn it."
Ran blinked a few times before she shook it off. "What are you talking about, Shinichi?!" she frantically moved her hands around. "We need to hurry and find him! Conan-kun was-"
"He wasn't crying ─ not for real, at least." Ran looked back at him in confusion as he finally fished out a pen from his brother's pencil case, smiling at it for a moment before his attention drifted back to the girl. "Out of the both of us, Conan is probably the one with the better acting skills." Their mother would be proud, most definitely. "What I don't agree with is making Irish hit him so that he could do his thing… That was reckless."
"Shinichi, I'm not following."
Kogoro raised an eyebrow. "Why would he need to cry?"
"When you cry, your breath is not exactly regular, is it?" Ran nodded at that, still dumbfounded. "So, if you followed a certain pattern with your breathing..." His smirk came back. "... people around wouldn't notice, would they?"
"I guess they wouldn't, but..."
"Morse code."
"Morse code?"
Shinichi went back to the notebook on his lap and jotted something down on the corner of the page he had been checking. "Now, if you translate Conan's short inhales into dots and exhales into dashes..." Once finished, he straightened up, watching his work with a satisfied smile. "There you go."
Father and daughter leaned closer, trying to get a better look at the page Shinichi was showing them.
"─ • / ─ ─ ─ / ─ • ─ • / ─ ─ / ─ • ─"
But didn't understand. "So what?" Kogoro grumbled, irritatedly. "What does that say?"
"Let's see..." He brought back the notebook to take another look for himself. "The letters are 'N', 'O', 'C', 'M' and 'K'..."
"NOC?" Ran blinked in surprise. "Conan-kun mentioned that word last night..." She gasped lightly, when realization suddenly struck her. "He was talking about the spy in the conference?!"
Kogoro almost fell out of his chair. "What did you say?!"
Shinichi nodded at her. "And the other two letters, 'M' and 'K', might be the initials of the officer Irish is disguised as. And the only one I can think of is..." He frowned. "Matsumoto Kiyonaga."
"Superintendent Matsumoto?!" Kogoro cried out in shock. "Then, where is the real one?!"
"I don't know," Shinichi shook his head, eyes falling back on the notebook. "But considering Conan passed this message to us, I suppose it's safe to assume that they are both being held in the same place-"
He halted.
"What's wrong, Shinichi?"
But he didn't answer right away, just contemplated the words on the paper, just beside the lines and dots he had scribbled in a hurry.
"Tanabata… Kyoto," he read.
"Kyoto?" repeated Kogoro, confused. "I thought it was supposed to be just 'Kyo'."
"Yeah, but that's what he wrote here," he said, pointing at the words in question. "Did he figure it out?"
It made sense, realized the teenage detective as he gazed at his brother's notes for some more, but he could have been wrong, too. Either way, there was not a chance he could leave for Kyoto to investigate ─ he sighed audibly against his hand. But then froze completely.
There was still that guy… Maybe I can ask him to check for me, he thought, slowly closing the notebook, deciding that there would be nothing else in there to see. His eyes lingered on the cover for a second, taking a much needed moment to put his thoughts in order, before closing his eyes, taking a deep breath.
A loud sound made him gasp, however, startled, and looked up. No words came out of his open mouth, no matter how much he tried ─ all he could do was to stare, wide-eyed, at the older man in front of him, who had just slammed a large stack of papers on top of the coffee table.
"You can take all the photos you want, I don't care." He was already making his way to the couch, next to his restless daughter. "I've got to leave for the conference in a few minutes and I need those, so hurry up."
Ran tensed up at that, but otherwise said nothing, keeping herself busy with merely watching her childhood friend's reaction. He blinked owlishly for a beat, before the confusion seemed to pass, allowing him to spring into action, reading through the papers so quickly that, had Ran been told he had just surpassed light speed, she wouldn't be as surprised as normal people would. She had seen him doing this before ─ now, considering how little time, and how much at stake, he had, there was no doubt his odd habit would surface again.
It had barely taken him ten minutes. "Thank you a lot, Detective Mouri," he said, jumping back into his feet, after taking a photo of the documents that mattered to him the most ─ which were, frankly speaking, not more than two or three out of the whole stack. "Please be careful out there."
Kogoro snorted. "Who do you take me for?"
Instead of replying, the boy rolled his eyes and quickly approached the door. "Shinichi?" he stopped when Ran called, not quite understanding his actions. "Where are you going?"
"To the Professor's."
"Wait-"
Obviously, he didn't. The door closed shut before the girl could mumble any other word.
Tap, tap, tap. Tap, knock, tap.
OK.
Conan had to fight really hard not to let his relief show at the confirmation that, yes, his message had actually been received, but he might have sighed without realizing. Either way, he supposed no harm had been done, since, rather than doing anything about it, Irish merely removed the phone from where he had been pressing it against his face and retreated to the farthest corner of the room to continue talking with his brother.
It hadn't come for free, yet supposed that he had gotten off lightly since he had received a smack across the face with the gun instead of a hole in his shoulder for stubbornly keeping his lips pressed against each other, instead of speaking as he had been told. Granted, his cheek still hurt and there was probably a bruise already forming ─ and it had been beyond scary when Irish suddenly pointed his gun at his face, forcing to cooperate ─ but he had miraculously made it in one piece.
Grumbling to himself, the boy attempted to dry his eyes with his shoulders, but obviously didn't reach. It was followed by an annoyed huff, realizing that he couldn't wipe the remains of tears and was forced to just sit there, completely still, keeping an ear out for the conversation he could clearly hear, even from his position ─ not that Irish seemed worried about him overhearing it, anyway.
To be honest, Conan had expected him to summon Shinichi there with the promise of freeing him in exchange for his life, or something similar, but nothing like that ever arose. Instead, Irish had told him to find the memory card, and that would be exchanged for the little boy's life.
Rather than reassuring, it had made Conan frown deeply. As if making a deal with these people would be that easy, he reflected, shifting his attention away from the man and to his hands. Tentatively, he tugged against his binds. It's no use. There was no space to wriggle out.
Although he had quite a good idea what would happen next if his brother came back, memory card in hand, there was virtually nothing he could do about it. Even if he could get out of his bindings, what he could see through the partially broken window wasn't any more promising, either. From what he could deduce, he was currently in an old cabin in the middle of the forest and, if that wasn't discouraging enough, Vermouth's figure could be appreciated from his spot, pacing outside from time to time, making it impossible for him to make a run for it and hope for the best.
"There. All done," Irish suddenly said, carelessly throwing Conan's phone back with his other gadgets on the table. "It wasn't so hard, now was it?"
Conan glared hatefully at his captor, but all Irish did in return was snort, walking closer to him and staring down at him. "What's with that face?" he asked, not fazed in the slightest. "Now that he knows you're here, I'm sure he'll get the job done in no time."
"Yeah, so that you can call him here," he bit out, anger clearly audible in his tone. "To capture him."
Irish smirked in a way that told the boy he had hit the nail in the head. Conan grew more agitated because of it.
"You haven't told your organization yet, have you?" the child spat out. "What are you up to?"
He didn't reply right away, merely gazed back at the little boy, who seemed to be seething in fury, for a moment more than Conan would have deemed necessary, until he snorted, coming to sit right in front of him.
Irish never bothered to explain whatever joke had crossed his mind. "Boy, you seem to know a lot about us," he said instead. "Does the name 'Gin' ring a bell for you?"
Conan couldn't help but stiffen up at the mention of that one member. So Irish assumed he did.
"There was a time when he shot a fellow member of the Organization that made a mistake." Before his eyes, Conan noticed the man's face darkening at the memory. "He left his body to burn there at Haido City Hotel, where it eventually turned to ashes."
The boy perked up, surprised to hear that place again. Seemingly not noticing it, Irish's head dropped slightly, even if the smirk had yet to disappear completely. "That member was someone I respected like a father."
Realization hit him like a brick on the head. "Pisco?!" he cried out impulsively, then realized he shouldn't have the moment the name had left his lips when the man's bewildered gaze fell back on him.
The surprise left soon enough. "You've investigated us thoroughly, haven't you?" he simply said, standing up once more. Conan did not feel inclined to answer, just attempting to shrink back on the wall he was leaning against, yet never letting his gaze tear away from the man.
"He was tasked with Singani's elimination," Irish continued calmly, as if speaking of something that had little transcendence. "Having failed to confirm he was dead is such a huge oversight." Conan's teeth gritted, already being able to see where this was going. "I'll be taking Kudo Shinichi to meet that person, to have him act as a witness in order to overthrow that conceited and cold-blooded bastard."
"And for that..." the boy muttered. "You have no qualms in allowing him to get killed. So that Gin can, too, be wiped out of the map forever."
At the sight of Irish's smirk, Conan let out a growl, attempting to stand up, but failing miserably, leaving him to merely glare menacingly at him from his spot on the floor. "Why?" he hissed. "Why are you telling me all this?"
"Didn't you ask?"
"You answered."
"Who knows," he said, shrugging. "Perhaps I thought that, if there was somebody that would understand, it would be you."
Conan stared in confusion as the man walked closer, crouching down right in front of him, completely unaffected by the powerful glare, so fierce that, had looks been able to commit murder, would have sent him straight to hell right away. "The look you have there," he stated, almost marvelled by the sight in front of him. "It reminds me of the first time I saw Gin after learning what had happened to Pisco."
The child's glare intensified, if possible. "I'm not like you."
"Oh, you think so?"
"I can't deny I understand how you felt when you learned about his death at Gin's hand," he whispered. "But you're willing to let another person die just because of your selfish desires… Scratch that, you're willing to murder..." His tone rose exponentially. "Why would you end another life, no matter who it belongs to, is something I can't ever understand..." Leaning forward, he brazenly looked into his eyes and exclaimed, "So don't say I'm like you! Ever again!"
But instead of being intimidated, Irish cracked and promptly laughed right at his face.
"What's so funny?" Conan's eyes narrowed dangerously.
"You're hilarious, boy," he replied. "Saying all that, while looking more than ready to stab me right on the spot." At the boy's intensifying glower, Irish chuckled a bit more, standing up once again. "I wonder what you would do… if I killed your precious brother in front of your eyes."
"I'd bring you to justice so that you can rot in jail for the rest of your pathetic existence!"
"Hm, you're a stubborn little one, aren't you?"
In response, the boy scoffed, turning his face to the window and away from his general direction. Seeing that their talk was over for now, Irish merely turned around and opened the door to call Vermouth in.
He had work to do, after all.
"Oh, Kudo! It's been a while!" The Osakan accented voice rang through not even seconds after he had dialed his number. "What's up? It's so weird for you to call."
Of course he would find it odd, reasoned Shinichi. In fact, that was probably the first time he had actually called him ─ scratch that, this was probably the first time they had even talked over the phone. To be honest, Shinichi had never particularly cared about such a thing, as he believed he would never need to call his fellow western detective.
Hadn't it been for Conan, he would have never been able to do it just now. "You need friends," his brother had written briefly and to the point, shortly after the Red Siamese Cats' terrorist attack, attaching Hattori's contact information. Obviously, Shinichi had called right after seeing it, to demand an explanation, but the boy hadn't answered. To this day, Shinichi firmly believed the boy had been ignoring him on purpose.
Hattori must have either received his own number like that, or had asked for it at some point. The fact that he already knew it was him was proof enough of it.
"Kudo? Are you there?"
"Ah, yeah." Shinichi figured he had spaced out for a moment there. "Sorry, I was a little distracted."
The detective paused for a second, but immediately shrugged it off. "So, what is it you wanna ask me about?"
"Well, there's a case… I was hoping you would help me with it."
"A case?" Hattori repeated, partly curious about it.
"A serial murder case," Shinichi said seriously, allowing a frown to settle on his features. "Do the words 'Tanabata Kyoto' sound familiar somehow-?"
"Who are you talking to?"
The sudden female voice on the other side of the phone was followed by the unmistakable sound of Hattori screaming, clearly startled at it, and then the girl's ─ Kazuha, he assumed ─ panicked gasp. Shinichi blinked, puzzled, listening as Kazuka apologized for some reason. "Don't scare me like that, moron!" Hattori was shouting, too. "I thought I was gonna die there..."
Wait. Isn't he at school? He was pretty sure he was still there, judging by the soft chattering he could hear in the background. If he had almost died in such a place, after Kazuha's loud call, there was only one possibility for Shinichi. He almost fell out the window. A dry laugh escaped him. That's impressive, in a way...
"So, you're talking to someone who would make you jump like that!"
"Moron. It's just Kudo. Kudo. He asked whether 'Tanabata Kyoto' rings a bell or not." Shinichi barely suppressed a flinch ─ he was too loud! "Sorry about that, Kudo. That stupid Kazuha butted in again."
"It's alright, but please-"
"About 'Tanabata Kyoto'-"
"Keep your voice down, you idiot!"
Hattori apologized quietly. "Ah! Doesn't he mean the Mitarashi Festival? The one held in Kitano Tenman Temple." But it was Kazuha who spoke first. "Also, the Tanabata Festival in Jishu Shrine is famous too!" He heard Hattori sigh. "I know! Why don't we go there tonight?"
"If you wanna go, do it alone." He shrugged her off. "You hear that, Kudo?" Kudo made no response. "Kudo?"
Rather than answering, Shinichi closed his eyes, leaning against the wall. This isn't good. He might have groaned out of frustration, he wasn't sure. I can't see a connection. And it didn't seem like Hattori had any idea either. Damn it, he allowed himself to curse in the privacy of his own mind, hand pressing against his forehead. There has to be something...
Little did he know that Hattori had fallen quiet as well, shooting a suspicious glance at the phone pressed against his ear.
"Hey, let's go!" Oblivious to the current situation, Kazuha insisted further. "There's no need to stay in a hotel since it's just Kyoto, and we can be back on the same day!"
"Moron! I wouldn't stay in a hotel even if you said so." He scowled. "There was a fire two years ago, did you-?"
Shinichi's head shot up sharply. "Fire?"
"Huh?"
"The fire you were talking about!" Shinichi pressed, not minding if his tone had raised a little more than usual. "Tell me more!"
Hattori was hesitant at first, but replied either way, "Well, there was a huge fire in Kyoto the year before last…" until his voice trailed down into nothing, pondering about something else for a beat before sharing. "Come to think of it, it was on the night of Tanabata." The eastern teenager couldn't help the shocked gasp that escaped him. "I remember the hotel's name was Vega. Two guests died as a result."
The detective's gaze lowered to the ground, thinking about it for another second. Do the red marks and letters on the tiles represent fire?
That was it ─ that had to be it. "Hattori." Shinichi's grip on the phone tightened. "Do a thorough investigation of that fire for me!" When the other detective didn't react, he pressed further. "Immediately!"
It seemed the incentive was enough for Hattori to snap out of it. "G-Got it!"
Not even a second later, the call had ended, leaving Shinichi to gaze down at his phone, all alone, in silence. I leave it to you, Hattori, he thought, with a frown decorating his face. As things are right now… He placed it back inside his pocket and began to make his way back upstairs. Everything depends on you.
Quietly, he opened the door. "You're done?" questioned the girl before he could even step into the living room. "You didn't touch anything in there, did you?"
"Wouldn't dream of it," replied the detective, closing the door to the basement behind his back, pointedly ignoring the dangerous glance the little scientist was shooting his way. "Believe it or not, I have survival instincts."
Had he even touched any of her precious chemicals, she would know. Shinichi wasn't risking it.
"Do you?" Shinichi turned around to look at the couch the Detective Boys had been occupying ever since he had come there earlier. Genta crossed his arms behind his head and continued. "Conan says you don't."
"Ah." The detective's eyebrow twitched. "So does he?"
"And I agree," added Ai, eyes still fixed on the computer screen in front of her. "I have long concluded it is a family thing."
Her words were long heard before he could understand them. It was a long process, but when he finally realized what she was talking about, he opened his mouth, but no word came out. Probably because there was nothing he could possibly say in his defense, he settled with a groan and plopped down in the seat right in front of the children.
Family thing, indeed. Ai smirked, then turned around to fetch something else. "By the way, you were right, Shinichi-san."
Shinichi looked up curiously to see the girl approaching them and setting something on top of the coffee ─ Conan's notebook and shoes, realized instantly.
"There were traces of a substance I have never seen before," explained the girl, watching as Shinichi's expression gradually became severe. "But it seems to be some kind of sedative, probably created by the Organization after I left ─ a powerful one, it appears. I found it everywhere Conan-kun had touched."
"I see…" Shinichi closed his eyes, deep in thought. "When they sneaked inside our school to retrieve Conan's fingerprints, they must have also put this sedative somewhere he would touch."
Mitsuhiko frowned. "Like where?"
"Like the handle of his locker, and the collar of his uwabaki." At the confused blinking he received, Shinichi inched closer to the table. "See, what would you do after first arriving in the morning?"
"I would change shoes."
"Right. Most likely, you'd open your locker like this…" He pretended to open, with his right hand, an imaginary locker in the air. "... and then what?"
"Grab my uwabaki," said Genta, not quite understanding where he was going with that.
"And how would you do that?" At the confused stares he received, Shinichi moved his left hand, while the other remained in the air, and grasped Conan's red shoes. "You'd most likely…" He held them up, showing that he was only using his index and middle finger, one on each, from the collar. "Do it like this, right?"
"Ah! That's right!"
"He would have that drug on both hands, and he wouldn't even know," concluded Ai, with a nod. "So all that would be left was for it to enter his system." Her nose scrunched up. "And it wouldn't be so hard, considering his nasty habit..."
The three confused glances she received spoke a lot of how little they knew about that. "When he flips a page over, Conan usually moistens the tip of his fingers," explained Shinichi instead. "He got it from Dad when he was young, and it has been hard to make him stop..."
"He surely will now-" began Genta, but was interrupted when Mitsuhiko's elbow painfully hit his arm. "What was that for, Mitsuhiko?!"
As the scientist and the detective talked amongst each other, unaware of what was currently going on with their side, the freckled boy motioned to the other girl in the group sitting beside Genta, who instantly turned around. Gaze fixed on the floor, she just sat there in silence, hands gripping Agasa's couch tightly.
"A-Ah." Genta finally realized his mistake. "Sorry..."
Ayumi didn't answer.
At the end, it turned out the dying message their witness had heard had been actually 'Tanabata Kyoto'.
When Kogoro had heard that all victims had been there, in Kyoto, on July 7th, he had tried to appear as much surprised as the rest, but it had been remarkably hard ─ really, how could he? Especially when he already knew the true message, thanks to a certain, nosy little detective that had figured it out much earlier than any of them.
The same little detective whose whereabouts were currently unknown to everyone, except for a few exceptions.
"As for that day, I have people looking into exactly what happened in Kyoto then." Namely, that bastard using Superintendent Matsumoto's face. "The question is, what do these messages the culprit has left us on the mahjong tiles actually mean?"
Admittedly, Kogoro was no saint. He was impulsive and easy to get riled up at barely anything, proved by how much the teenage detective brat could ruin his mood by the mere sight of him. But not even he triggered a feeling so strong and overwhelming that made it difficult to think of anything else…
He wanted to punch him in the face oh-so-badly ─ that bastard he was currently sharing a room with. The same one who had harmed an innocent little kid and sneered about it. That one that had made Ran, his precious daughter, worried to the point of crying over her little-brother-like figure.
But he couldn't do that. Not knowing that another one of them was still out there, free to do whatever she wanted to Conan. Mentally groaning at the prospect, Kogoro slid his hands inside his pockets, hoping he could hide his tightly pressed fists that way.
His skin made contact with something else. Momentarily, all those violent thoughts stopped to wonder what it was. Until he remembered it.
"What?" Kogoro craned his head to look over his shoulder, wondering if he hadn't been hearing things just now. "What did you say?"
Behind him, his daughter remained firmly in place, her determined gaze settled on his form. "I'll go with you," she declared, with a curt nod. "Even if I can't get inside the conference, I want to be close. Just in case."
"But if you come along, this 'Irish' guy is going to find it weird, isn't he?" Ran opened her mouth to add something, but he beat her to it. "Don't fret! All we're going to do is sit across from each other and talk about the serial killings. And even if he tries to do something..." He let out a boisterous laugh, patting his biceps lightly. "There's nothing a judo throw coming from the Great Mouri Kogoro can't solve!"
"And what if he has a weapon?"
He… hadn't thought that far ahead. "I'll get a weapon, too." Her eyebrow rose. "I, uh… Wait a second."
She watched him patiently, as his gaze flickered around the room, looking for something to make his point across. "Dad?" she asked, after a slight moment of hesitation, when he began to look through Conan's pencil case, of all places. "What are you-?"
"Here!" She blinked when he turned around with something in his hand. "I can just use this!"
Once she realized what he was talking about, her gaze dulled.
"It's quite sharp… and easy to hide, too." He smirked to himself. "See, Ran, there's nothing to worry about-"
"That's Conan-kun's school compass."
"And?"
"Dad, those people have guns."
"Oh."
"And you know that."
He hesitated, but then waved his hand at her. "It's okay. I just have to be quicker-"
"You can't possibly dodge a bullet!"
"I'll be fine. Just stay here and-"
"I can't let you go alone, Dad!" she argued. "Not knowing that Superintendent Matsumoto is..."
She never finished that sentence, just allowed her voice to drop until there was nothing left, eyes falling to the floor. "He already took Conan-kun away," she continued, in a feeble whisper. "The same thing is going to happen to Shinichi, and I can't stop him. I know I can't." Her hands curled into fists. "That's why… I don't want..."
"You don't want to lose me too." Her head raised sharply, and her eyes widened at the smile plastered all over her father's face. "But, Ran, you haven't lost anyone yet, have you?"
"No… No, I haven't."
Ran fell quiet once more, feeling as if all words had suddenly left her. "Ran," her father began, softly smiling at her while his hands came to rest on her shoulders. "I want you to stay here. Keep watch of the agency for me."
She didn't answer him, but sadly, the father had no time to wait for one. "I have to go now," he said, reluctantly separating from her to approach the door. "We'll be back for dinner."
The girl didn't miss the 'we' in his words. Surprised, she looked up, but his back was facing her. "Can we have some curry tonight?" he asked, not waiting for an answer, before closing the door behind him. "For us three… No, for us four."
He must have put the compass inside his pocket without thinking. Conan might be a little annoyed when he found out he had been going through his things, or might not care at all. Kogoro didn't know, but supposed he would find out tonight.
Because he was making damn sure that the kid spent the night at his home.
So, biting his tongue, the detective forced himself to keep silent. If anyone noticed his gaze darkening upon falling on that fake superintendent on the other side of the room, nobody pointed it out.
Yet, it wasn't as if that unusual quietness would go unnoticed by those sharp eyes scanning everything and everyone in that small conference room.
Sato's eyes narrowed. There was no denying that Mouri Kogoro was acting oddly.
"Sato-san, you're thinking too much."
Though, it could also be what Takagi had told her before when she told him earlier that day ─ maybe she was overthinking things a little.
Shindou Sumire, the last victim so far, had called shortly after their operation at Beika Mall, saying she had a clue that might lead to the culprit's capture, so naturally she had been sent there alongside Takagi. On their way there, two tires ─ two, at the same time ─ had bursted out of the blue. Because of it, somebody had gotten to her first. She had disappeared, and the next day, she had been found dead.
"Call it a wild hunch, but..." she had said to him. "Even outside of our culprit, there may be people lurking around we aren't aware of."
At Shindou's studio, Sato had seen that her paint tube had been stepped on twice. Clearly, after the culprit had abducted her, another person had come inside. There was also, of course, that hostage at the mall who had disappeared the second they had gotten their eyes out of her. Could she have been a partner of those people… who purposely got taken hostage?
So, maybe Takagi was right and there was nothing to worry about… But what if it wasn't?
Within our police force must be one of their spies. The possibility didn't allow her to put her mind at rest. And the spy would be among the conference attendees.
That being said, it did not escape her that Mouri hadn't been acting like himself all day long. The way he walked, the way he surveyed everyone in the room when he first came in. So focused, so professional and so unlike him. All that had set all alarms off inside her head.
And even now, he was quiet. In fact, he hadn't said a word ever since the conference had started when, usually, he would be quick to stand up, claiming to have solved the case, then proceeding to give out a deduction that would have everyone ─ sans Yamamura and Sango, for obvious reasons ─ wondering how come he was supposed to be a great detective.
She had yet to tear her eyes away from him. For some reason, he had been glaring at Superintendent Matsumoto for a while, she had noted. There was something akin to hatred in his gaze that made her wonder if there was something going on behind the scenes. She would have to watch the superintendent in case anything happened to him, she supposed.
He has to be the spy. Sato watched Mouri jump suddenly, then turn over to check his phone, which had started buzzing suddenly ─ perhaps one of his partners had contacted him?
Mouri read whatever he had been sent for a second or so, before his entire expression morphed into something akin to annoyance and anger all the same.
But if that's true… Then, the detective closed his eyes, as if attempting to control himself. That means that the real Mouri-san is in danger.
Her eyes narrowed when he saw him placing a top on the table. Her hand instinctively went to her gun when he suddenly stood up.
"I've got it!" Mouri yelled suddenly. "It's Assie! Assie from Lake Ashino!"
She blinked.
Eh?
"Shinichi-san?" Shinichi looked up to see a pair of equally curious eyes peering up at him. "Who are you texting with?"
He blinked, surprised by the question, before he chuckled, too amused by their harmless curiosity to be annoyed at them for sticking their noses where they didn't belong. "Detective Mouri," he replied. Genta and Mitsuhiko stared some more, confused by the answer. "I needed to tell him something, and with everything that has been happening, I had completely forgotten about it."
"Are you done with it?" The three turned to Ai, whose eyes were stuck on the computer. "Because I found what you asked me to look for."
"Eh?" Shinichi immediately joined her. "That was fast."
"It wasn't so difficult. The incident was everywhere when it happened."
She proceeded to move slightly to her side, allowing the teenager to take a look himself at the blog entry she had found, dated two years ago, and concerning the fire that had taken the lives of two people the day of Tanabata.
The cause had been a lit cigarette belonging to a guest on the fifth floor that had rendered the emergency staircase unusable. On the sixth floor, another woman had died from smoke inhalation.
"Honjou Nanako," he muttered while he focused on the picture of the young woman innocently smiling at the camera. "From Mitaka City, Jindai Ward, huh?"
"So?" inquired Ai. "Does that help?"
"I don't know yet," he said, turning around to leave. "But there's something I'm sure of."
Sighing, the girl raised an eyebrow and replied in an even tone. "What is it, pray tell, that something you're so sure of?"
The boy turned around, smirking so confidently that actually threw her aback a little. "That it is in Tokyo," he replied easily. "Which means I can actually go and investigate." Once she finally processed what he had said, she rolled her eyes, mentally berating herself for not seeing a response like that coming.
What happened next, however, was something that she would have never predicted, not even in a hundred years, "Thanks a lot, Ai-chan," which was stupid because he was the kind of guy that would do that. "I mean it."
So, she merely stood there, even long after his hand had been removed from where it had been resting on top of her hair. Hadn't he spun around to hurry to the door, he would have noticed her hand raising on its own accord, fingers brushing against the spot he had just touched.
As he walked away, Ai couldn't help but stare while his back became smaller and smaller, or the overwhelming feeling that she had to stop him right now.
She took a step forward.
"Thank you… Ai..."
And froze right afterwards, hand hanging in the air while watching him put back on his shoes for a moment, until she allowed it to drop. Her eyes slid closed, and her head dipped forward with a long sigh.
But Shinichi didn't leave, at least right away. "Wait!" A female voice, unlike the little scientist's, had him spinning around to see what was wrong. "Shinichi-oniisan."
To his surprise, and everyone else's too, his gaze met with the little girl's, who stood quietly in front of him, frowning so intensely that had him worrying that she would go kick him or something ─ Ran had said she had kicked her father once, and that it had hurt quite a lot.
Yet, she didn't. That strength vanished the next second and her eyes flickered somewhere else but in his general direction. "Ayumi-chan?" he spoke out, hesitantly. "Wha-?"
"I'm so sorry!"
"Huh?" Shinichi must have looked rather stupid, he was sure, blinking at the girl that nodded, lip quivering like she was making an impressive effort not to break down right then and there. "What are you sorry about, Ayumi-chan?"
She grew incredibly agitated at his seemingly harmless question. "I was there!" she shouted. Shinichi took a step back in surprise. "I was supposed to keep Conan-kun safe! But..." Her voice trailed down suddenly. "I… I-!"
Once more, her gaze dropped to the floor. "I let them take Conan-kun away."
Again, the same scene replayed in her mind, like it had happened, over and over again, ever since she had realized that her friend wasn't home. Conan's cheek rested comfortably against that person's shoulder, completely unaware of whose those arms, that were holding him, belonged to, or the strange glint that took over those eyes, that now she knew didn't belong to Kogoro, while they gazed down at him.
Little did she know that would be the last time she would… She mentally shook her head. She couldn't bear that thought. But what if…?
"No, Ayumi-chan." Ayumi looked up, blinking her tears away to see Shinichi's gentle smile from close. "It's all on me. I am sorry."
Shinichi paused, glancing over at the others, who stood there, just as puzzled as she was about his words. "You all did an incredible job. Every one of you," he added with a nervous chuckle. "I told you to wait for Ran or Kogoro-san to pick him up, and you did exactly that."
Yeah, that's really all there's to it. The tips of his lips dropped a little, but otherwise, his expression remained perfectly in place. These children did their absolute best to protect him.
Meanwhile, I… He turned back to the little girl, who stared back at him with wide eyes, not minding the last stray tears that still rolled down her face. I was too confident. I thought I knew them like the back of my hand.
You can't predict the Organization's movements ─ I should have already known. His hand reached for a handkerchief in his pocket. I made a terrible mistake. Tenderly, he used it to wipe the young girl's tears away. And Conan had to suffer because of it.
"Please, don't cry," he gently whispered to her. "Or Conan will murder me when he finds out."
When. Because there was no other outcome in his mind. I will make it right.
I will bring you back home, Conan.
Ayumi blinked some more, eyes widening as if she could see something so surprising and incredible, but that he, sadly, could not see. "You're so nice, Shinichi-niisan."
"Oh?" He raised an eyebrow, but his smile remained. "Is that surprising?"
"Ah, no, no!" Flustered at the realization of how that might have sounded like, she vigorously shook her head. "It's just..."
"Yeah?"
"You're just like Conan-kun!" she finally said, beaming. "You both are really nice, even if it doesn't look like it!"
His eyebrow twitched.
There was a giggle at her side, causing both of them to turn to the little scientist that had approached them recently. "Isn't it the other way around?" she commented. "Since Shinichi-san is the older one..." then added with a teasing smirk. "Even if it doesn't look like it."
"Hey, hey..." He shot a rather dark look towards her. "What is that supposed to mean?"
"Just like Conan-kun..." Mitsuhiko mumbled before she could even say anything, frowning to himself as he did so. "You're… not planning on doing something reckless, are you?"
Shinichi looked as if he wanted to inquire any further, "Yeah!" but Genta beat him to it. "You're going to go save him, aren't you?"
"Well, yeah..."
"If you're anything like Conan, I bet you're going to do something really stupid!" He crossed his arms in front of his chest while Ayumi and Mitsuhiko nodded at either side. "He'd hate it if you do!"
I suppose he would be rather mad if I did, he reasoned. But if there's no other way-
"If there's no other way, you better find it." He wasn't ashamed to admit that he jumped when Ai spoke up. "What kind of detective would you be if you can't prepare a clever plan to bring your brother back from the Organization's claws?"
She was right, he privately reflected while he rose back into his feet ─ if he couldn't think of something, there was no way he would call himself a detective ever again. Even so, he didn't know how much time he had until the police caught the criminal before he did, and he still had little to nothing about their identity.
Once they did, there was no telling what would happen to Conan. He needed to hurry.
How in the world was he going to come up with a plan in the meantime?
"Shinichi!" Agasa called, entering the room suddenly, arms full of things. "Good thing you haven't left yet!"
"I was about to…" He blinked, eyeing curiously the things he was carrying ─ was he seeing things, or was that the same monstrosity of a skateboard Conan would use from time to time?
Noticing his curious gaze, the professor smiled. "Conan breaks a lot of these, so I keep a spare of each of his gadgets here," he said, passing them to the astonished teenager. "Since you're going to face that member, I thought I'd lend them to you."
That was pretty neat, mused Shinichi, observing the skateboard for several seconds, before focusing his attention on the other things he had on his hand. "Do you need help with them?" asked the professor, watching the teenager hold the watch close to his eyes, admiring every detail of it.
He put the watch on. "No, I'm good." Contented of how it looked on him, he went to the last gadget he had on him. "I've seen him use these several times now." Fastening the belt around his waist, the teenager smirked. "May end up not returning them to you, though."
Agasa opened his mouth to speak, but never got to do so. He was silenced upon the realization that the smile was completely gone now, replaced by a tight frown. Shinichi's eyes narrowed, gazing down at the glasses that rested on top of his palm.
Saying no word at all, the detective closed his hand around it, gently, and carefully placed it in his pocket. With that, he plastered a grin back on his face, turning to Agasa, probably to assure him that everything was just fine.
"It's okay," but Ai spoke instead. "But you'll have to pay up rent."
"Hey, give me a break..."
"I get it, Mouri-san! The next crime scene will be at Assie's nose!"
Sato's head dropped with a long, heavy sigh. Hand coming to massage her temples, she fought really hard not to leave the conference right away ─ what had she been expecting, really? Mouri Kogoro could be a brilliant detective, but his cleverness would never, ever show until the end. Until every piece of the puzzle was put in place and he would give them his magnificent deduction show, that was it.
They would be forced to hear through a completely ridiculous deduction until then.
She watched Mouri turn to Yokomizo, looking as if he was about to agree, before shaking his head, as if something had just occurred to him.
"Amateur, Inspector Yokomizo." He snorted. "They wanted to think that, but in fact..." Mouri pointed at something on the weird drawing he had done on the map. "It's really here!"
"I see! It's the eye!" Yokomizo Sango almost fell off his chair. "It's in Gunma prefecture's Annaka City!"
Immediately, Yamamura rose from his seat. "I know Annaka City well!"
"Alright!" Kogoro nodded, with a tight frown on his features. "We're counting on you, Inspector Yamamura!"
"Leave it to me!"
"I'll go too-!" Sango was stopped by a hand in his shirt, pulling him back down. Surprised, he turned to his brother. "What're you-?"
"Stop it."
Sato noticed Juugo was raising an eyebrow at him, but Mouri easily ignored it, collapsing back into his chair, smirking to himself after what she guessed he would consider a superb job. She barely held back a dry laugh, turning her attention to the rest of the group.
I'm back to zero, she thought with a dejected sigh. What was I thinking, really?
On the other side of the room, Mouri Kogoro held back a sigh of his own, feeling as if the eyes that had settled into him finally disappeared. At least I got that good-for-nothing out of the investigation. Really, having him around would only make things even worse. Something that, considering what was at stake, was something he did not need.
Besides, he was really annoying, and Kogoro, frankly speaking, didn't think he could tolerate him today.
Playing dumb really did work, huh? Though he would not admit it out loud. Ever. That detective kid had to phrase it like that...
His eyebrow twitched. Next time I see him, I swear- And his grip around his phone tightened at the mere thought of what their brief chat through text had looked like.
"Remember, you're supposed to be acting like nothing happened at all. Or it will be suspicious," he had written, minutes ago. "Stay in character and do what you always do."
Obviously, he didn't understand what he meant right away, "You aren't making any sense, brat," so he had typed a quick response, still keeping an ear out for the conference ─ he couldn't get distracted by such a trivial thing right now...
Not that he had to wait long for an answer. This time, Mouri had to fight with his own urge to throw the phone out of the window in a bout of sudden anger.
"Just give them a ridiculous deduction. That should do the trick."
A/N
F. C. Meyer: Why do I keep making the same mistake? xD Thank you anyway for letting me know.