File Twenty-One: A Matter of Trust

"Where are you, young man?!" Ran's angry voice boomed through the phone, prompting the child to wince as his ear started to hurt. "I've been calling you all day and I didn't even get sign of you!"

"I'm sorry," Conan apologized, refusing to tell her that he had actually been ignoring her calls. At the time, he had believed he had an important case in his hands, much more important than listening through Ran's scolding. Now, he thought he probably should have picked it up.

"And you are supposed to be grounded!"

"Yes, I'm truly sorry."

"Now, you better get home on this instant or else-"

"I'm staying over at the Professor's house," the child spoke, quickly, before she could continue. "He made a fun game and wants me to play with it..."

He trailed off, closing his eyes waiting for the inevitable sound of Ran scolding him. Sure enough, the girl seemed to huff, and then take a deep breath.

"Kudo Conan, you better-!"

Click.

Quickly turning his phone off, the boy let out a big sigh and massaged his forehead. I think I should prepare for Ran-neechan to extend my grounding for a year, at least, he lamented on his head. And to confiscate all my books for another decade.

Well it was not like he could help it. Any other day he would have happily returned home early to read a book, then have a delicious dinner and go to bed, like any other good kid would. But there was so much in stake, and his brother's life was one of them.

So, for him, he would endure a five-year grounding if necessary.

After giving another contemplating look towards his phone, he leaned back on the car seat. Currently they were headed towards Professor Hirota Masami's house to retrieve a floppy that seemed to store the Apotoxin-4869's information inside. It turned out Haibara had sent it back to her sister by accident, and now it was on the hands of her university teacher.

Though, his name...

Hirota Masami.

"I'll leave the rest to you... little detective..."

He stared at his palms again and blinked repeatedly. Just now, his hands had been soaked in blood, Hirota-san's blood. Shaking his head and tucking his hands on his pocket, he decided look through the window, focusing on the empty, darkened street.

It had to be a coincidence. It had to.

Now he had to focus on his brother. The teenager had been poisoned, and he didn't know how much he had left to live. Every single time he thought about it, his heart would clench on his chest. He truly didn't want to lose him.

But... Conan's eyes widened slightly behind his glasses. Why did they want to kill him so badly?

He hadn't given it much thought, especially after being told about the drug and possible risks after consumption, but now he couldn't really stop thinking about it.

Craning his neck to the side, he watched the mysterious girl with a thoughtful look, and opened his mouth to speak, to ask her what was in his mind. She was glancing through the window, yet her eyes seemed to be staring at something far, far away. There something sad about her posture.

She had lost her older sister recently, she had said, and Conan would have been lying if he said he couldn't understand, at least a little bit, what she was going through. It only had been a few days since he had almost lost his brother, and those seconds when he had thought Shinichi was gone were probably the worst ones in his entire, short life.

But understanding certainly didn't mean forgiving. Conan still couldn't feel at ease around her, the creator of that murderous drug. Even if it did end up saving the high school detective by chance.

"What?" he jumped when he heard her voice. She wasn't even looking at him. "You have staring at me for a while."

The boy hesitated.

"... How much does my brother have?" he settled that question. "You said the rats that survived died after two weeks... But that doesn't make any sense, considering he probably took that drug months ago."

She smirked. "For a detective, you're kind of slow. Understandable, considering you were in shock after all that happened, and all the information you received all of sudden," Haibara merely glanced at him for a couple of seconds, before staring out the window again. "Rats and humans have different organisms. For instance, their lifespan as it is around a mere couple of years. So your brother could certainly live for a little longer."

"How much, then?"

"Two years, give or take."

That didn't make him feel much better, if he was honest. And it seemed it was also the case with Agasa, if the way his grip on the wheel tightened was something to go by.

"That means you have that much, doesn't it?" Conan asked her.

"Of course," she simply replied. "Then, is there something else you want to ask?"

Conan opened his mouth once more, yet paused at the last moment.

Before it clamped shut and his eyes went back to the road.

He still couldn't bring himself trust her.

Haibara watched the detective boy sitting in front of the old phone, hand on his chin as he struggled to figure out how Hirota's locked-room murder ─ as his luck would have it, of course the university teacher had died ─ happened in the first place.

There were several messages left in the phone, including one from someone they recognized as Vodka, even when his voice had been modified with a machine. However, the two children came into the conclusion that Hirota hadn't been killed by the Organization ─ they wouldn't have left the evidence behind if they had.

Conan was deadly serious, and for a moment Haibara thought that he would manage to solve this mystery.

But then, she would remember.

"Oneechan, don't go."

Miyano Akemi looked back at her little sister, a curious look on her features. For some reason, the usually serious little girl seemed to be extremely distressed.

"Please don't," the child continued. "I have... I have a really bad feeling about this mission."

There was a pause, then the older girl seemed to smile, sweetily, down at the kid.

"Don't worry, Shiho," she assured her, letting her hand rest on top of her head. "I'll be perfectly okay."

The newspaper's photograph danced through her mind, teasing her ─ torturing her ─ repeating the same words over and over again.

"I'll be perfectly okay."

There was a boy with glasses, clearly distressed, standing beside a woman's body while staring at his hands. They were covered in blood. Her blood.

"I'll be perfectly okay."

She frowned, and opened her mouth to speak.

"It's impossible."

Conan looked up at the girl, a bit puzzled at the anger concealed on her eyes, and said nothing as she walked closer, fingers intertwined behind her back. Then leaned over and picked a chess piece up from the ground.

"Besides, it's dangerous to stay here any longer, there's no point," she kneeled down in front of him. "Give it up, Kudo-kun. This case is already..." the chess piece was placed on top of the phone he had been staring at. "... checkmate."

The girl stepped up and was about to leave, when she saw Conan's eyes widen slightly, and taking the piece between his fingers. "Checkmate..." he whispered, deep in thought, then gasped. "Checkmate?!"

Haibara gave him a blank look, wondering if the boy was deaf or only painfully slow, and was about to repeat for him what she had just said ─ and that he had to accept defeat for once ─ when he suddenly jumped on his feet. She could only watch, speechless, as he started to childishly tug on the officer's pants.

She blinked. Had she heard wrong or he had just asked for a tape, telling him that Inspector Yokomizo had asked for it?

The naive officer complied and returned with it right away. Yokomizo stared at the tape on his hands, confusedly, when Conan jumped and stole it from his hands.

"Hey, kid!" Yokomizo scolded him when he had started to pull the tape off, strolling closer to the phone. "What do you think you're doing?!"

"I know a magic trick, Inspector-san!" he beamed at him. "Do you want to see it?"

Before the poor inspector could stop the child, he had already began his demonstration. Fast forward a few minutes, the entire room was stunned at the sight of the book falling on top of the key, perfectly.

If she was being honest, Haibara was shocked as well when she saw that the trick had worked, even if she had been skeptical at first.

"I see..." Yokomizo mumbled, after the initial shock had died down. "Then, if the killer..."

"Ah, but I don't think that's how the killer did it," Conan said to the inspector. "It would be stupid to leave the tape here, with the culprit's fingerprints all over it as evidence, right?"

Yokomizo's eyes opened, widely. Shirakura Akira's did, too.

So, the killer was caught.

Only when the culprit was being taken away did Haibara completely understand it.

Kudo Conan was a genius, a child with an impressive intelligence and power of observation, whose deductive skills could easily surpass an adult five times his age. Even older.

A true prodigy in his area. With an older, loving sibling. So similar to her.

Yet, so different.

Her lip quivered.

"Why...?" it came out as a whisper, which Conan barely heard. "Why didn't you... Why didn't you help my sister?"

Blue orbs opened, widely, behind thick glasses. "Y-Your... sister?" he managed.

"You still don't know?!" tears began to roll down her pale face, her watery eyes, which had used to be so lacking of any emotion before, glaring furiously at the boy. "Hirota Masami was... Oneechan's fake name she got from Hirota-san!"

Haibara saw him taking a sharp breath and gazing at the palms of his hands for some reason. "... Masami-san was your sister..." his eyes had darkened and hadn't strayed away from the place they were.

But her anger did not subside.

"That's right!" at her outburst, his eyes finally met hers. "With your... with all your deducting skills, you should have been able to see right through my sister's case! But... Why...? Why?!"

Conan was startled when a pair of hands latched into his shirt. Haibara had collapsed into her knees, letting the tears she had fought for many months to come out, along with a heart wrenching cry that ripped away from her throat.

For a moment, the little boy was reminded of himself, nearly half a year ago, when he had broken down in front of his friends. When he had been confused, lost, shaken. When he didn't know what had happened to his brother, or if he had been alive either.

But it was definitely different for this girl. She had just lost her sister. The same sister he had watched die. The same sister he hadn't been able to save.

For that reason, he did not say anything. He just stood there, quiet and silent, holding her shoulders as she sobbed and howled against his chest, not caring in the sightless if her tears were straining his shirt.

As it had been expected, Ran was furious when he came back home the other day, giving him the longest and sternest lecture he had ever heard in his life, which he just accepted, with his head low, hoping not to anger her anymore.

Conan ended up grounded for a month and a half, but it wouldn't have bothered him much if she hadn't confiscated all of his books as well. Of course, being grounded implied him coming straight home from school, therefore putting most of the Detective Boys' activities on hold.

His brother had even laughed at him when he found out he was grounded. "Just be glad she didn't decide to use just to use her karate on you instead," the high school detective had said.

"Oh, yeah? I'm sure you know a lot about getting karate chopped by Ran-neechan."

On top of that, the floppy they had been looking for arrived one week after Hirota's murder. It turned out there was a computer virus called Night Baron ─ now the kid was sure he would never find the strength to finish his father's book after that ─ inside the floppy and had erased every single piece of data.

Including all programs on Professor Agasa's computer. The old man had cried for days.

Because of all that, by the end of his sentence, Conan had been frustrated and terribly bored.

So, when he was finally allowed out, to see a soccer match with his friends, the child had been thrilled. When Hide from the Spirits scored a goal, he jumped up and down from excitement.

Then he heard a chuckle from behind. His good mood died down instantly when he noticed Haibara, sitting behind them with glasses and a magazine on her hands.

"What's so funny?" he asked, a tingle of annoyment coating his voice.

"Even a great detective becomes a normal child when faced with his love of soccer."

"I'm not a great detective," he raised an eyebrow.

"Yet," she flipped a page, but did not look up. "In a few years, you will most likely became just like your mystery-obsessed, murder-magnet brother."

"And what do you mean with 'normal child', anyway? You're a child too."

She giggled at that.

"Yoshida-san told me all about it," she looked up from her magazine to look at him, a smug smile on her lips. "It took them a long time to get you into Kamen Yaiba and everything children our age like. Talk about forgetting you're a child."

Conan rolled his eyes. "Whatever," he decided to let the topic go. "Why are you here, anyway? You're not even watching the match."

"I just came to hang out with you, guys. Though I have changed my appearance a bit, my face is still the same," his annoyed expression turned serious when she had suddenly changed into that subject and went back to her magazine. "If by chance any of the TV cameras broadcast my face on-screen, they'd discover me right away. And if that happened, your brother would be at risk, too."

Haibara looked up, confused, when she felt her sunglasses leaving her face and something was placed on top of her head. Instantly, her hands went to the blue hat she had been forced to wear, completely speechless.

"You're standing out a lot more with these," he said, referring to the sunglasses he put back on his pocket. "It will be harder to see your face like this, so you should be safe even if they get a shot of you."

To say that Conan was amused to see the ever-sarcastic scientist unable to say anything in reply would be more than an understatement. With a gentle smile on his lips, he took her hand and dragged her with the rest of the group.

"Believe me," he then told her, with a reassuring tone. "Everything will be better if you just allow yourself to enjoy life."

Haibara's expression did not change, yet it seemed like it had worked somehow, because she decided to stay there, watching the match.

And for a moment, none say anything, eyes focused on the soccer ball. It wasn't until a bit later that Haibara caught him glancing at her, thoughtfully.

"What?" she almost hissed, not even looking back at him. Conan was startled at being caught, then composed himself.

"Ah, it just that..." he hesitated for a moment. "When I gave you my hat I couldn't help but notice... Is that your natural hair?"

She smirked. "What do you think?"

"But that other time it was black..."

"That was a wig," she replied, then turned back to the match, thoughtful. "Ever since I can remember, Oneechan told me to use it. 'You never know when you need to hide, so it's better to hide one's real appearance', she would always say."

"That's tough," he said, and she shrugged.

"What can I say? I'm used to it."

Even if the conversation had died there, Conan's mind did not stop running. In reality, that wasn't what he had wanted to ask.

Why was Oniichan drugged with the Apotoxin-4869?

What was he doing at that time with Vodka and Gin, a year ago?

How exactly is he involved with the Black Organization?

But he lacked courage.

Even if he wouldn't admit it, even if he convinced himself that it was that he still couldn't completely trust Haibara, even if he was supposed to be a young detective, Conan was deeply afraid of hearing the truth.

And that was a fact.

Even if he wasn't, he still wouldn't be able to ask. His blue hat was flown off Haibara's head by a strong breeze, just in time to see the ball, standing still in front of them, jumping suddenly.

Like so, the Detective Boys were dragged into another case.

At some point of the investigation, Conan lost sight of his friends. When he asked Haibara, she told him they had happily gone back inside once she told them they could do that if they showed their tickets.

To her surprise, he didn't panic. He just sighed, tiredly, and dug his badge from his pocket. Calmly, he told them to not do anything risky and call him back once they got a clue.

"You seem to trust them a lot," Haibara commented once he was finished.

"Of course I do," he replied to her, an annoyed expression already on his features. "They are my friends."

"Oh?" she chuckled. "Then I bet you can tell them everything."

"They already know about the Black Organization and my brother's case, if that's what you mean," he replied. "I didn't tell them about you, though. That's not my call."

"You're unexpectedly nice, Kudo-kun," Haibara teased, which was answered with an irritated scoff.

Then her eyes adopted a slightly sadder, darker glint as they looked away. Conan, observant as the child was, noticed it right away.

"They wouldn't hate you, even if they knew," the girl looked back at the boy, clearly surprised. "You're not a part of them anymore. Besides, Ayumi-chan already thinks Sherry isn't a bad person because, at that time, she let me go without telling anyone."

Ai seemed to compose herself right away, but her fist had yet to stop clenching. "Do you, though?" then, with a smirk, she asked him. "I noticed you still don't trust me, even if we have known each other for over a month now."

The girl saw his emotions flashing behind his eyes in a swift moment. Fear, doubt, sadness and compassion, all conflicting with each other and refraining the young boy to speak.

Finally, he closed his eyes, and she couldn't tell any longer.

"I do," unexpectedly, he replied with an outstanding certainty. "I do trust you, Haibara-san."

After a scary, close encounter with a loaded gun and a missed shot of his tranquilizer dart, the criminal was found and taken away, with a soccer ball print on his right cheek as a departing gift from the child.

Everything ended alright, yet the three children were still upset. They all sighed, in unison, as they stared at the soccer field, completely empty.

Conan and Haibara, on the other hand, were pretty much relieved it was all over, not giving the fact they had completely missed the match another thought.

"Figuring out the culprit's motivation with so few clues," the girl smiled beside the boy. "Well done, Kudo-kun. I starting to find you a rather fascinating subject for study, even more than your brother."

The girl didn't miss the way his eyebrows furrowed together, mouth open to say something but closing soundlessly. After a pause, the boy sighed, and looked away.

"I pass, thank you," he replied, tonelessly. "I'd rather not become a lab rat and get poisoned by an unknown drug created by a seven year-old."

"That was rude and terribly hypocritical. We're the same age, if you failed to notice," she seemed to be more amused than offended, though. "Well, it's not like I intended to make a poison."

Conan blinked. "You didn't?"

"I didn't," she confirmed, a more serious expression adorning her delicate features. "All I told you about the Apotoxin-4869 were the side effects. Its true purpose is..."

Haibara paused, dramatically so, prompting Conan's eyebrow twitch. Yet, he refused to tell her to hurry up, because experience told him it would just make it worse.

"Eternal life."

For a moment, none said anything. The child was about to tell her to knock it off, when he noticed a smirk on her face. "Wait..." his eyes widened. "You're serious."

"Of course I am," she pretended to scoff, when in reality she thought his reaction did not let her down. "When the individual reaches twenty years of age their aging process will drastically slow down. It's a experimental one, so it doesn't stop it. But it's still quite a magic drug, isn't it?"

"Stupid, magic doesn't exist," Conan sighed, then focused his eyes back to the empty soccer field. "Even so, to think that something like that is actually a thing..."

"Now that's out the way, will you finally ask me?" that, the boy truly didn't expect. "You've been wanting to ask me something for a while now and I know for sure it's not about the Apotoxin-4869."

He suddenly quiet, deadly silent as he seemed to think over her words. His mouth opened and closed, as if a fish out of water, while he struggled to put his thoughts into words. Finally, he let out a long sigh, pausing for a moment.

Fists clenching, he gave her a very serious and determined look, before taking a deep breath.

"Why... Why was my brother targeted by the Organization?" finally, the little detective asked. "What exactly did he do?"

For a few seconds, which felt like hours to him, Haibara did not reply. While she didn't say anything, he felt his heart pound harshly against his chest, and his shoulders trembling slightly without fully meaning to.

"That's... something hard to explain, actually," she finally said. "I believe it will be best if you figure this out for yourself, Kudo-kun."

"What...?" the lack of an answer certainly didn't make him feel any better.

"Don't worry, though, I'll give you a hint for you to start on."

She began to walk away, yet the boy did not move. Passing by him, she whispered something on his ear.

Then, the girl told the rest of their friends that it was time to go, yet Conan still was frozen in place, mind somewhere else, lost among his own thoughts. He barely felt Ayumi taking his hand and leading him away the stadium, and he didn't realize they were walking until they all stood in front of the building that read 'Mouri's Detective Agency.'

Conan didn't even wave back when they all said goodbye and headed back home. He didn't even note Mitsuhiko, Genta and Ayumi giving him a worried glance from over their shoulders as they went around the corner.

All he could pay attention to were the words, that the small scientist had uttered, ringing on his head, over and over:

"Singani."

A/N:

Akuma-Heika: Sorry, I can't answer that question! It will probably be answered in a later chapter.