File Ten: Little Bloody Hands
"... Then, Yoshida-san thought it was a good idea to hide inside the trunk of someone else's car. It speeded off before we could find her," Conan told his brother over the phone, while he absentmindedly went through the newspaper. "And told us over the detective badge that there was a head beside her."
"A head?!" Shinichi gasped, obviously too engrossed in the story. "What did you do?"
"Well, we couldn't really call the police when we really didn't know what was going on." The child shrugged. "So we followed the car."
"Ah, I see... You should really thank Professor Agasa for making that skateboard for you."
Instead of a response, all that met Shinichi's ears was plain silence. For what it felt like a minute, he said nothing, until his brother finally graced him with a proper response.
"We called a taxi." Conan was sure Shinichi was facepalming at that. "Say, Oniichan, have you been sleeping well?"
"Of course I did."
"Are you into drugs or something?"
"Wha-? No!"
"Are you sure about that?"
"Obviously not-! I mean, yes, I'm absolutely sure I'm not!" There was a loud groan following it. "Why am I even discussing these kinds of things with a seven year-old brat?"
The little boy pointedly ignored that. "Then, how in the world did you think it would be a good idea to ride with two other boys on a solar powered skateboard through traffic in the middle of Tokyo?" Even though he clearly couldn't be seen by him, Conan raised an eyebrow. "And what about daylight? What was there to say we would make it before night?"
"Okay, okay. I didn't think it through…"
"Some detective you are."
"Like you are the one to talk!" Shinichi sounded annoyed now. "From what I heard from Ran, I'd say you didn't realize the head was fake until much later-"
"Of course I didn't ─ I'm not a detective," Conan interrupted. "And, at the very least, I'm not a stupid, reckless idiot. For the record, by that I meant 'not you'."
A snort on the other side of the phone had the boy eyeing it questioningly. "Says the one who practically forced someone to confess a crime by drinking a poisoned tea, then refusing to eat the cake, which 'casually' happened to be the antidote." Conan could feel the annoyance lacing Shinichi's voice. "Ran swears you did it on purpose."
The boy remained completely silent at that.
"Is there anything you want to say about that?"
For another beat, the kid didn't look as he was going to answer. "Did she also tell you I ate your Valentine's chocolate?" he said instead. "It was delicious."
This time around, Conan heard the teen facepalming.
"Seriously, Conan. I can understand you have detective blood running through your veins, but just a tiny little bit of a sense of self-preservation wouldn't hurt."
Says the one who has gone into hiding for messing with the wrong people, thought the child, yet rather than voicing it, merely flipped another page of the newspaper that he had been reading. A certain headline caught his attention, causing him to hum, kind of interested. "A one billion yen robbery, huh?" he muttered, while his gaze skimmed through the page.
"… Are you even listening to me?"
"Sure."
Having heard it, the teenager finally sighed, suddenly feeling old and exhausted despite not even being twenty yet. "You… You better stay out of trouble, alright?"
With another sound of agreement, Conan hung up, not letting his eyes stray away from the article in the newspaper. When he heard footsteps approaching, however, the boy looked up just in time to see Agasa entering the room, then noticed he had a pair of glasses on his hand. They were identical to those he had on his head.
"Shinichi is definitely going to kill me," the old man sighed, handing the new gadget to the child. "He scolds his stubborn little brother for getting into trouble and here I am, giving a pair of tracking glasses to him…"
"Serves him right, for lying to me," Conan said nonchalantly, changing his glasses. Instantly, his vision blurred, causing him to blink a few times before turning to Agasa. "Hey, Professor, I can't see anything."
"Oh, sorry, I was trying them out just now," Agasa apologized. "Just turn the dial on the side until you can see."
Conan did as he was told, and soon the world came back into focus. "Neat," he said, an amazed smile crossing his face. "Say, say, Professor. How do I use this?"
Agasa proceeded to show the tracking feature he had put on the glasses, as well as the tiny little transmitter Conan could easily hide by sticking it on top of his blazer button. All the while, the professor had an incredibly hard time trying not to laugh, amused to no end at the grin that was plastered all over Conan's face.
It was one of those rare instances that the professor could see him acting like the young child he was. Even though it had been brief because the kid soon left for home, it truly warmed Professor Agasa's heart.
Until he remembered who this young little boy was, and how irremediably reckless he could be ─ exactly like his older brother, actually. It made him wonder if by giving him all those gadgets he was really helping him survive, or just making it all worse.
With a long, heavy sigh, the professor decided a cup of coffee was in order.
Conan certainly hadn't expected a client so soon, yet the sight that met him upon opening the door proved him otherwise. There, sitting in front of Kogoro and Ran, was a girl with glasses and a pair of braids that fell over her shoulders. She was clearly upset about something, gazing down at her lap while her hands clenched her skirt tightly enough for her knuckles to go white.
Her name was Hirota Masami and had hired Mouri Kogoro to find her father, Hirota Kenzou, who had gone missing.
The information they had about him had been scarce, at best. Besides his height, age, a photograph and the fact that he owned four cats named Kai, Tei, Gou and Ou, there wasn't anything they could work with. Predictably so, the next six days hadn't shed much light on his whereabouts, and all other attempts from Kogoro to gather any other data about him had been fruitless.
So, by the end of the week, Kogoro was growing pretty frustrated ─ it didn't take a genius to see that. The child could easily tell by the groan he let out upon hanging up with Masami, having no other choice but to tell her, for the third time today, that they had found nothing.
What a weird one, that Hirota Kenzou guy, thought Conan, pillowing his head with his arms while he leaned back on the couch in Kogoro's office. None of the people he used to work with knew where he was, nor that he had a daughter in the first place…
Doesn't look like he had many friends.
"Oh! The difference has gone from four lengths to five!" Conan's eyes flickered away from the detective and to the horse race on the TV. "It's all over!"
"I even checked all the pet shops, but there's no trace of him…" he heard Kogoro complaining to his daughter. "Damn, it has been a week!"
"… Goukaiteiou has won five consecutive G1 victories!" the voice on the TV continued.
"Gou, Kai, Tei, Ou…" muttered the boy. "Goukaiteiou."
Then he chuckled, as if he had just thought of a good joke. Yeah, right. He sighed, with a shake of his head, not noticing that the other two were eyeing him oddly because of his strange behavior. If all cases were easy like that, I'd become a brilliant detective myself.
Unlike Kogoro, who shrugged it off and went back to his business, Ran stared at him for a second longer, before her gaze went to the TV, then back to the boy. When realization hit her, her face brightened.
"That's it!" she exclaimed, startling the other two. "Conan-kun, you're a genius! Let's go, Dad!"
Despite the pair of blank stares she received, the girl's excitement never dimmed.
"Hirota-san must love horse racing!" she insisted to her father. "He named all his cats after a horse!
There were so many things that made little sense with that theory of hers that the child had no idea of where to begin. For starters, she genuinely believed that they could find a man who had been missing for so long in an ordinary racetrack, amongst the hundreds of people that assisted there daily…
And, well, she was right. They hadn't been five minutes in that place until she claimed to have found it and, sure enough, he was there, walking around the crowd as if nothing had happened. But they didn't approach him there, they just followed him home in silence.
Conan still couldn't get his head around how easy it had been.
Masami was there seconds after she had been called, gasping for air and sweating a storm, which Conan could attribute to her running the entire way to the agency. Must have been worried sick about him, thought the boy, watching the girl thanking the detective, repeatedly. Well, considering he has been missing for over a month, it's not surprising…
His thoughts trailed down into nothing when he realized something was amiss. Blinking owlishly at her, she approached Ran and poked her leg lightly to get her attention.
"Say," he said when she crouched down next to him, eyes still fixed on Masami. "Doesn't she seem a little different from before?"
"How so?"
"Her clothes are more grown up, and she's wearing makeup," he explained. "She looks almost like… a different person, doesn't she?"
He heard Ran humming, pondering over his words for a moment. "Maybe she dressed up because she's seeing her father today," she said, smiling a little, and stood back up.
While Ran seemed to let go of the fact right away, the little boy wasn't able to do so as easily. Hirota-san came in a hurry. That was for sure. Would she have the time for that?
Perhaps that was it… Perhaps she hadn't had the time.
Or, perhaps, Conan was just overreacting. Without concrete proof, there wasn't anything he could affirm.
As he pondered over it, his eyes fell on the clock on the wall. "Ah! I forgot!" he exclaimed, causing everyone to look at him, and suddenly took off running. "Kamen Yaiba is about to start-!"
He never finished his sentence because, next second, he was falling back on his rear after bumping into the poor suspecting girl, knocking her off her feet, on his way to the television. "Ah! Hirota-san!" Instantly, he rushed to her, a concerned look in his eyes. "I'm so sorry!"
She didn't notice him sticking a transmitter on her wrist-watch. Instead, she laughed a little at the seemingly embarrassed little boy that continued to apologize, and assured him everything was just fine. Kogoro, on the other hand, scolded him for not being careful.
Not that he listened to any of it. Just laughed awkwardly and hurried to the couch. It would be weird if he didn't actually watch the series, so he turned on the TV, even if he had to pass on accompanying Masami to see her father.
Might as well watch it, he thought, making himself comfortable on the couch. Soon, the sound of the front door closing reached his ears, along with the catchy song of Kamen Yaiba's first opening. Unlike how it would have been a few months prior, after his friends had basically forced the show on him, he didn't particularly mind watching it ─ a little break from mysteries wasn't all so bad from time to time.
I don't think Hirota-san is actually a bad person. Thus, he supposed there was no harm in leaving them both alone with her for a while. Though he had planted a transmitter on her, just in case. Better safe than sorry.
Not even ten minutes after they had left, there was a knock on the door. He decided to ignore it, at first, but whoever was this person wouldn't just give up and allow himself to enjoy himself in peace. They kept knocking, and knocking, until the boy's patience ran thin. Huffing audibly, teared his eyes away from the screen and glared at the door, before hoping off to stomp all the way there.
They knocked again. Irritated, Conan bursted the door open. "Kogoro-ojisan is not here," he informed, keeping his tone as plain as possible. "He'll be back in-"
All words got stuck in his throat when a strange coldness pressed against his forehead, causing his entire body to freeze where he stood. Slowly, his eyes rose to this person's face, and paled at the sight of a woman dressed all in black.
"You'll be fine if you do exactly what I tell you to," she said, giving him a very sinister smile, motioning to the gun he was holding to his head. "Kudo Conan-kun."
Understandably, his eyes went wide at the mention of his birth name, which only a few knew about. Those being his closest friends, Professor Agasa and the Mouri family. There's also Sonoko-neechan, he realized as an afterthought ─ being his brother's friend since childhood, just like Ran, he supposed it would be weird if she didn't. The two girls had basically seen Conan as a newborn.
Okay, that's actually a whole lot of people. The child grimaced. Even so, he wouldn't imagine any of them, not even Sonoko, saying anything to anyone. So… Who did it?
Having made her point across, the woman stepped back, still pointing her gun at him. "Outside," was all she said in a loud, commanding tone. Reluctantly, the child obeyed and, slowly, made his way downstairs, feeling the gun muzzle pressed against the back of his head all the while.
As they walked, his mind ran for a way out that it didn't find, much to his dismay. It only got worse upon the realization, once he got to the street, that there was virtually nobody outside.
Only when the woman roughly pushed him ahead did he realize there was a black car parked in front of the agency. "Get in," she instructed.
That was the moment that Conan really panicked. If I get into that car, who knows what will happen to me? He gritted his teeth. I need to do something quick!
Forcing a yelp out of his throat, the child plummeted down to the ground, pretending he had tripped on his feet. His knees throbbed painfully at the contact, but endured it in favor of turning the dial on his shoes, whining all the while to appear more convincing.
"Hey, boy!" The woman used her free hand to drag him up.
But was forced to release him when a sharp pain crawled up her leg from her chin. "You little…" she hissed, glaring at the boy who had just kicked her and stole the weapon from her grasp.
"Don't move." Both hands clutched the gun tightly, pointing at her. "Don't move, or I'll shoot!"
But, his finger wouldn't respond ─ just stayed there, lingering in front of the trigger, unwilling to move. At the mere thought of shooting, the gun had suddenly felt remarkably heavy, and slightly cold against his trembling hands. Worst of all was that her expression hadn't changed a bit.
She knew he wouldn't fire ─ that thought alone was as irritating as it was terrifying.
Frowning, he tightened the grip against the weapon, prompting the woman to laugh, and slid a hand inside her pocket. Then she saw the tip of something shiny and very sharp, making him grow as pale as the snow that fell on top of him. He obviously knew what it was, even before she fully pulled it out. A knife.
"Maybe I should take care of this…" Her face contorted into an eerie smile. "… the old way."
She took a step forward, but he didn't move. Shoulder… Or should I go for her leg? The woman took another, grinning in delight when the boy instructively backed off a little. Ah, it doesn't matter! Anywhere is fine!
The gun never fired. Deciding that it was nowhere safe, and that he lacked the courage to shoot, Conan bolted. Just ran, as fast as he could, not even daring to look back at that dangerous person who was, most likely, still chasing him.
At some point, he lost her. Only when he made sure of that did he stop, all but collapsing against a wall, drawing a sharp breath in, then another. Need to go, he thought, forcing himself back to his feet. She can catch up with me any moment now…
Inching along the wall, the child started to move, then paused to peek over the corner. He brightened at the sight of Agasa's home a few blocks ahead, and instantly figured out what the wisest next choice was. Just then, he spotted the professor walking down the street, hands full of bags that told him he was only returning from the grocery store.
Without waiting for him to get home, the boy rushed forward.
"Professor Aga-!"
The boy never got to end his sentence. A hand had suddenly come from behind, clamping his mouth shut, bringing him closer to a foreign, unwelcome chest and away from plain sight.
A sickly sweet smell that he knew so well made his heart skip a beat, setting all alarms in his mind off. From the corner of his eye, he could see the evil grin of the same woman in black that had been chasing him all along, and promptly shuddered.
As the drug overpowered him, he could not help the strong impression of déjà vu that washed over him. His hand, that had shot forward in a silent plea for help, was suddenly much, much smaller. The woman's face morphed and changed until she wasn't the same person anymore.
For the slightest moment, Conan could swear he could see a young man instead, gazing down at him with a rather bitter expression.
He didn't ponder over it, just kept fighting for his so desired freedom with all his might, even if his vision had long blurred, and his senses were beginning to swim. Eventually, though, his struggling drew weaker as the feeling of drowsiness got more prominent. When Conan realized how terrifying it was to even think of what was going to happen to him next, he let out a loud, yet muffled cry out of desperation.
But soon, he was too tired to even feel fear. Dimly, he noticed the gun slipped from his fingers and dropped to the ground.
His eyes fluttered close. His extended hand fell limply at his side.
And a lone tear rolled down his cheek before he could help it.
"I'm really sorry, Conan-kun." That voice filled in his ears, but he could not tell if he had actually heard them, or if he had merely imagined them.
The coldness of the snow was the last thing his mind registered before everything went pitch black.
His head pounded ─ that was the first thing he realized upon coming back to the waking world. Opening his eyes allowed him to realize something else. An alarming, frightening 'something' ─ he didn't recognize that place. By looks alone, he would say it was an abandoned kitchen that hadn't been used for a few years, at best.
This can't be happening. A chill creeped up his neck from where he laid, motionlessly, staring up the ceiling, unwilling to move just yet. The horrifying realization of what had just happened, or rather, that would happen next to him, left him out of air, letting the panic take hold of everything. Get a grip on yourself! He chastised himself, closing his eyes and forcing himself to regulate his breathing. If you panic now, your chances of escape will drop considerably.
So, he took a moment to collect himself and when he was, more-or-less, ready, he stood up. Wobbling a little because of the dizziness that ensued, stumbling towards the window to take a look. Great, he thought sarcastically. I'm on the second floor.
This would make everything dramatically more difficult.
"Still no word from the detective brat?"
The male, gruff voice caused Conan's eyes to tear away from the window and to the door behind him, from where the sound had come from.
"No, not yet." It sounded like the woman from the other time. "He's not answering his phone."
Making as little sound as humanly possible, the child creeped closer, peeking out from a hole in the door. The woman was there, phone pressed against her ear, while she spoke with a cloaked figure, whose face Conan couldn't see, since his back was facing his way.
"And then?" She appeared agitated, Conan noted. "What are we going to do after he picks up?"
"We will do as the higher-ups ordered us to," the cloaked figure answered. "First, we will make the child speak to him. Once the detective realizes we have his precious little brother, he will surely come to us."
Conan gulped, feeling as his throat had gone dry all of a sudden. I'm a bait.
"The Organization said that, above all else, we are to bring the detective alive." A bead of cold sweat made its way down Conan's temple. "So that he can be punished, then killed once and for all. The boy must be eliminated ─ he knows too much for his own good."
The kid tensed up. Torture and execution.
"What about that little kid?"
"We will shoot him in the head, right in front of Kudo Shinichi's eyes." The nonchalant way he had spoken those words made the boy shiver. "That will teach him not to stick his nose on other people's business."
If he wasn't sure before, Conan could now say with utmost certainty that he had to escape, now.
If I don't get out of here soon, not only I will be done for, he thought, not taking his eyes off the pair dressed in black. Oniichan, just…
Just what did you do to make these people so angry?!
Suddenly, as if he had sensed something, the cloaked man spun around and faced his way, causing Conan's blood to drain from his face. Just as he was about to step away and feign unconsciousness, he paused, taking another second to properly look at the person.
His fear faded into utter annoyance.
When his kidnapper looked through the hole, he paused, clearly not expecting to see the pair of piercing blue eyes glaring back at him. "Oh." He didn't let that bother him, just opened the door. "It would seem like our little guest has finally woken up."
The cloaked man pointed his gun at the unmoving child and sneered behind his mask.
"So lame." Conan sighed instead, rolling his eyes. "Drop the gun, will you? It's so painfully obvious that it's fake that almost makes me laugh…" Then, his gaze narrowed dangerously. "Except that this isn't funny. At all."
He didn't even bat an eye, not even when the gun was pressed against his forehead.
"Does this look like a replica to you?"
"It is well made," Conan conceded. "But not even you would point a real gun at your own son."
A long silence proceeded while the two stared at each other, until the woman cracked first, laughing loudly, unable to help herself, while she tore the mask off her face. The man gave her a look before he snorted and did the same.
Kudo Yusaku and Yukiko stood in front of him. Conan wasn't, by any means, amused.
After laughing for a little longer, his mother grinned. "How did you realize it?"
"Dad is literally cosplaying as Night Baron and you thought I wouldn't notice?"
By the smug ─ and remarkably annoying ─ smirk his father sent his way, Conan figured that had been his intention all along. He averted his gaze with a huff.
"So you didn't recognize me?" Conan walked right past her, promptly ignoring the way she puffed her chest up with pride. "If my own son couldn't tell it was me, I must still have it as an actress-"
"Yeah, yeah, of course. Where's my phone?" the boy interrupted, searching around for his things. "I don't have time for this."
"Is it a case?" Conan nodded absently. "Then, why don't you let Yu-chan take care of it?"
Again, he ignored her, too focused on his task to pay attention to her. He did react, however, when his father stood in front of him, smiling while he held his phone for him. Not bothering to thank him, he whisked it from his hands.
He paled instantly at the few missed calls from Ran, and immediately called back, fearing what could be waiting for him if he didn't do so.
"Ah, don't worry about it." Her carefree tone threw him off a little. "I only wanted to tell you to be careful on your way back from Professor Agasa's house."
… Huh?
His question was quickly answered when he glanced at his grinning mother, who waved his bowtie at him playfully. "Is something wrong?" holding back a sigh, the child asked.
"Well, nothing actually..."
That had confused the little boy, up until the moment she explained there had been a man lurking around the agency a while ago, but turned out to be harmless. "He's a detective, too," she commented casually. "He's been hired to locate Hirota Kenzou, too."
"A-Ah, yeah?"
He didn't let her know that fact actually bothered him ─ everything was so strange. Just continued listening as she let him know what had happened recently until he finally ended the call. Even seconds after that, he remained in place, hand stroking his chin, but unable to figure anything out of that.
"So?" When the boy turned around, he wasn't surprised to see Yusaku smirking, seated on a chair with his legs closed as he waited patiently.
Conan gave him a dull stare in return. "What?"
"The case." The father smiled wider, and the son scowled deeper. "Would you mind sharing it with me?"
Instinctively, his mouth opened to say the word 'no', loud and clear so that he would understand once and for all, when he paused. His father was, even if he wouldn't claim that title, a brilliant detective, thus someone that could easily shed some light on this mystery. Thing was, he really, really didn't want to.
Though, there could be people in danger…
Sighing, he gave up and told him everything, from Masami's arrival a few days ago up to the moment he was kidnapped, including all that Ran had just told him. After he was finally finished, he looked straight at his father, who had gone pensive for a little, until he smirked again.
"Then?" the child snapped, already annoyed even if the novelist had yet to say anything.
"You said that Hirota Masami-san appeared to be a different person last time you saw her, right?" Conan nodded. "And you think she was disguising herself."
"I thought she could have been lying. That she needed to find him for another reason altogether..." The boy's face scrunched up, looking troubled at the problem at hand. "And there's that man, too, looking for the same person, claiming to be family too… Could he be the one telling the truth?"
"What if they were both lying?"
"Eh?"
"Have you heard about it?" Yusaku explained. "The one-billion yen robbery just a few weeks ago?"
Of course he did, he was about to say. It had been everywhere on the news ─ no wonder it had, since it had been so impressive that it had left the best of the investigators scratching their heads, wondering what in the world had just happened. But what in the world that has to do… with anything… AH!
"Co-chan?" Yukiko blinked when her child, out of the blue, raised a hand to his glasses and pressed a button, frowning at whatever he had just seen. "Is there something-? Hey, come back here!"
Her scolding fell on deaf ears, only focused on reaching that place as soon as possible. "Wait." He stopped, however, when he heard his father's voice, and turned around, curious about what was what he wanted.
To his surprise, the man was holding a skateboard he had left with Agasa a few days prior. "Ah, is he finally done with it?" he asked, instantly rushing to pick up his gadget.
"He told me to give it back to you when I saw you," he explained. "Said you don't have to worry about sunlight anymore."
Grinning at the prospect, Conan secured it under his arm, barely waving at them before leaving as quickly as possible, leaving his father to smile to himself, watching him go.
It wasn't until he was in the taxi, heading for Haido Hotel, that his words really dawned on him.
Professor Agasa knew about them, too?!
If Oniichan ever hears about this, he's never going to let me live down, is he?
That, considering he actually lived through this ─ with a startled yelp, he quickly turned, just barely avoiding a car heading his way. So close… He sighed, looking briefly at the vehicle that continued its way, not without shouting at him from over his window.
I'm never doing this again. Ever.
But for now, he would endure it. Frowning in determination, he settled his eyes again on the taxi a good distance away from his position.
His taxi had barely stopped before he had rushed out, sprinting inside the hotel without worrying about the angry driver that screamed at him because he hadn't been paid yet. There were things more important than that, Conan had reaffirmed in his mind, quickening his pace and activating his glasses once more ─ the blinking, unmoving dot in the middle of his sight indicated that Masami was still there. She hadn't moved for a while, Conan had noticed with a grimace.
But before he could even ask the receptionist about her, the elevator's door had opened, and a woman stepped out, carrying a couple of big suitcases, which she gave to the receptionist, and turned about to leave.
For a brief moment, the two had met eyes. She had flinched, too, Conan had observed, but had been unable to understand the reason why. It hadn't been until several seconds later that he had realized how alike this woman was to Hirota Masami, but then, she had already been jumping inside a taxi. Of course, he had sprinted outside, only to find that he had been too late, and that the car was leaving, becoming smaller and smaller in the distance.
At first, he had considered jumping in a taxi as well. "Hey, you brat!" but the angry shout from the driver from before had made him consider other ─ insane, potentially deadly ─ options.
So, he had glanced at the skateboard tucked under his arm, and decided that was what he was going to do.
Chasing a car through Tokyo's busy traffic was probably the craziest thing he had done in his life and, certainly, he had no wish of repeating it. He held back a wince when another car passed right next to him, honking loudly, and forced himself to continue focus in his sole mission ─ hadn't it been for the adrenaline pumping through his entire, little body, Conan was sure he would have been twice as scared as now, which, admittedly, was a lot.
The car he had been trailing all this time, however, unexpectedly turned, disappearing from sight. Frowning, he took a deep breath and followed it. Taking such an abrupt turn, of course, meant passing right in front of a moving vehicle that honked loudly in an attempt to warn him of the danger he was in.
Conan quickly avoided an accident, even if he had to jump out of his skateboard. As he rolled on the sidewalk, he could hear someone shouting at him, telling him to be careful.
But he couldn't be bothered about it. Rising back to his feet, the boy looked around, horrified to see that Masami's car was nowhere to be seen. The boy didn't even bother to pick his skateboard from the floor before bolting away, following the signal of the transmitter he had put on her.
She has to be here! Desperately, his eyes scanned the entire place, taking into every single corner of the pier, but failing miserably. She's got to be in this area!
Suddenly, his feet started moving, body instinctively jumping at the unmistakable sound of a gunshot. Fearing the worst, his head spun to the source and saw her. Standing right around the corner, facing somebody else. She's okay! he thought in relief, jogging ahead to meet her.
It all went away when Masami curled around her stomach and promptly collapsed.
Conan's heart skipped a beat, and his little legs forced themselves to run faster. It didn't matter how quickly he got there, her attacker was already gone by the time he reached her.
"Masami-san!" He didn't waste a second pondering over it, just slid on his knees, turning the woman over to check on her wounds. "Masa-!"
There was blood everywhere, he noticed with a grimace. He didn't know how long he actually stared at it, until he finally shook it off, removing his blazer.
"Please, hang on, Masami-san!" he shouted, pressing it against the wound. The pain that surely must have stricken her made the woman groan and crack one eye open. "Sorry." He smiled kindly. "This will hurt quite a bit."
Followed by that, he fished his phone out of his pocket ─ she needed an ambulance right away. A hand wrapping around his wrist had his eyes flickering to her weak smile. "You don't have to be strong for me, little boy," she said, so softly that, hadn't it been this quiet, Conan would have most certainly missed it. "I know I'm dying."
"Please, don't say that." His smile was faltering. "You will-"
The lethargic shake of her head made him halt suddenly. "You're the little boy from the agency," she said, despite her wounds. "How did you…?"
Conan wanted to tell her to stop talking so badly, to convince her ─ and himself ─ that everything would be just fine. But even he knew it was a lost cause.
His phone dropped carelessly to the floor. "I put a transmitter on your watch." Despite everything, the boy continued to apply pressure on the gunshot. "I followed you to the hotel and then saw you with those suitcases."
"Who...?" A stunned expression painted her deathly pale face. "Just... Who are you?"
The little boy took a deep breath. "Edogawa… No," and raised his gaze so that he could look right into hers. "Kudo Conan. A detective."
Those words had rolled down his tongue before he could stop them, and only realized they had been pronounced when her eyes opened just a sliver wider.
A small voice in his head berated him for it completely ─ no, he wasn't a detective just yet. He was still too young, too naïve, to fit in the shoes of a detective like Sherlock Holmes was… No, like his father and brother were.
Yet, when he had said it, it had felt so natural that even he had been surprised by it. It had felt right, somehow.
Before long, her shock drained, allowing for the faint smile to return. "I see..." she said in a feeble whisper. "You are that boy..."
Conan had no idea of what she meant with it, but before he could even ask, she continued. "The plan was perfect, but everyone died… Hirota-san, whom I hired for his driving skills… and the man who I let into our party because… because of his strength." Her face scrunched up in agony. "And then I… at the hands of the Organization..."
The boy perked up at that. "Organization?"
"It's a large organization, wrapped in secrecy," she explained. "I'm at the very tip of the organization, so all I know is that its color is black."
"Black?!"
"Yes… They like to wear black." Conan's face lost color immediately. "Black clothes that make them look like crows..."
At that moment, the little boy wasn't able to do anything but to gape in shock. Those people his brother had messed with ─ Gin, Vodka, the mysterious girl Sherry ─ instantly crossed his mind. If that was true, if all that was true, he feared to know how many of those dangerous people were out there.
"Will you listen… to my final words?" The hand that still lingered on top of his wrist clenched tightly. "Tell the police where the suitcases are… before they find them… Please..."
When her grip slacked, the boy rushed to hold it with both hands, managing a nod. Seeing that, she breathed out in relief.
"I'll leave the rest to you… little detective."
Conan watched in silence as her life finally faded from her eyes, and her hand went limp. He didn't move, merely stayed there, her last words repeating themselves in his mind, over and over again.
He didn't know how long it was until he stepped away from her body and plucked his phone from the ground. "Hello," he said quietly, voice devoid of any emotion. "Criminal Investigations, Inspector Megure, please."
Whatever Megure had said after the boy explained everything was lost to him, but it was something between the lines of 'we'll be there soon' and 'we'll call Ran-kun to pick you up'. What he had been sure of, however, was that the inspector sounded genuinely worried, and had done absolutely everything in his power to comfort the little child ─ not that he managed much.
Conan did notice, though, the deep scarlet coating his phone. With an empty stare, he gazed down at his red fingers while he waited for the police to arrive.
Even after they arrived. Even after Ran's arms enveloped him, hugging him tightly against her chest, Conan did not react.
He just stared, deadly silent, at his little bloody hands.
A/N:
Lieutenant Myst: Honestly, I don't really know myself, lol. As it is now, I'm planning to cover until around chapter 1005 then diverge from canon there, but I might change my mind before I reach that part.
Published: 03-28-2020
Last edited: 08-13-2021
Based on Edogawa Conan Kidnapping Case and the One Billion Yen Robbery Case.