File Forty-One: The Mystery of the English Teacher

Shinichi was running.

"Oniichan," the voice on the other side of the phone was hushed for some reason.

The snow was soaking his clothes, dripping his hair wet even though he had a hoodie covering his head. His breathing was ragged, too.

"I'm in my room, I think they don't know I'm home..."

But he didn't care. He just focused on going as fast as his legs could take him.

"I left my shoes and wristwatch in the living room. I don't think I can make it without them seeing me..."

Finally reaching the stairs, the detective began to climb them up, two at a time.

"I don't know how long I have until they find me."

His hand rested against the door handle, straining his ears to try hear something. But it was far too quiet inside.

So gathering all his courage, he began to, ever so slowly, open the door.

"And I think they have Ran-neechan."

Only to find himself face to face with a stunned Ran.

The two of them stood right in front of each other, in silence, blinking confusedly at each other. It wasn't until a few long minutes that Ran gasped, seemingly shaking herself off her stupor.

"Shinichi?!" she breathed out, ushering him inside. "What are you doing here? You're all soaked wet!"

Shinchi just couldn't stop staring at her, bamboozled.

"Geez, you could have just knocked, you know," Ran continued, as he let himself be gently pushed further inside the room. "I heard some noises outside and I got worried. Of course it had to be you lingering around instead of-"

"Ran," finally snapping out of his confused haze, the high school turned around, gripping Ran's shoulders, tightly. "Ran, are you okay?"

"Uh, yeah?" she looked back at him, as if he had grown a second head or something.

It was at that moment that Shinichi finally realized what was going of.

Damn it, that brat... his eyebrow twitched, violently. He played me like a song.

With a tired huff, he turned around. "Where is Conan?" he asked, irritation sipping on his voice.

"Conan-kun is sleeping," she replied, confused. "It's late, after all."

"Like hell he is," he breathed out. "He tricked me, that little demon..."

Realization dawned on Ran at those words. "So, does that mean that the only reason you are here...?"

Suddenly forgetting about his negative thoughts about his little brother, Shinichi's head snapped towards his childhood friend's direction, and he frowned at the sight of her eyes, sad and resigned, that were just gazing at the ground, as if it had suddenly become the most interesting thing in the world.

"It's not like I didn't want to," her eyes flickered back to his face as he said that. "But you must understand, Ran, that... that this is dangerous. More dangerous that you can imagine."

"And I suppose this happened because you stuck your nose where it doesn't belong, right?" she said, with a very plain voice, causing Shinichi to jump a bit. "You reckless detective freak."

He tried to look offended by that, even if his soft smile betrayed him. Why is it always like this?

"Anyway, this reckless detective has to go now," he began to head to the door. "Tell Conan he is lucky that it's late and that it's a school night, but he isn't going to get off the hook that easily. I got serious heart palpitations, you know."

"Ah, wait!" Shinichi paused, watching as Ran suddenly seemed to run off to the coffee table and pick something up. She returned right away and offered it to him, her cheeks suddenly going red. "Here."

He blinked at the beautifully adorned box before hesitantly taking it between his hands. At the realization of what day it was now, his face adopted the same colour than Ran's.

Today is February 14th.

With a jerky nod, and an awkward 'thank you', Shinichi left the agency.

Ran's smile was still on place, even after he was gone.

Just like the little boy's, who had been peeping in from a partly closed door since the very beginning.

The last few weeks had been hectic for the young detective.

And it wasn't because the very high number of murders he would encounter on a daily basis ─ seriously, he had already gotten used to that, as sad as that sounded ─ but because a couple of cases that had caused his anxiety come to a peak.

The first one had been the kidnapping of a foreigner old man called James Black that, in itself, hadn't been that out of this world ─ considering all he had been through on his life, anyway. But there was also this man, that would be constantly look at them from his car as they chased the patrol car James had been in.

Even if, unlike the boy, she hadn't actually seen him, Haibara had told Conan she had a strong feeling of being watched. He wondered if it was that ability of hers to recognize members of the Black Organization only by the scent ─ as crazy as that sounded anyway.

The man with the black wool hat was definitely dangerous ─ Akai Shuichi, as he had heard when he was with the police after the bus incident.

"Do you remember what the man you met in the woods looked like?" there was also what Ran had said at that case in the villa, where Sonoko had invited her to make some Valentine chocolates. Someone had mentioned seeing a man with a black wool hat in walking in the middle of the snow storm. "He might be someone we know."

It had turned out to be just Makoto, but the feeling of dread that Conan had lingered after that.

Not to say that there was something about the incident of Haido City Hotel that had yet to leave his mind.

"Yo, kid."

And it didn't help that, as soon as he stepped inside the Professor's house, the first face the was the one and only Great Detective of the West, grinning at him from his spot on the couch, as if he owned the place.

The child just blinked at him, taking on the situation, before huffing. "What are you doing here, Hattori?" he asked, very annoyed.

"I called him," Agasa confessed, walking right beside the older detective, scratching the back of his head. "I have seen you have been so stressed out lately, and I thought Hattori-kun here could give you a hand."

"More than give me a hand, this guy is going to give me a headache."

"You ungrateful little brat," Hattori huffed, offended. "Have you forgotten I have wasted days and days of my life helping you out?"

Conan clapped his mouth shut, unable to argue against that.

Next time, I'm going to Ekoda myself. It's not like it's that far from here or anything...

He might find it difficult to explain to Ran and everyone else why he would want to go there, of all places, but he guessed that it was better than dealing with Hattori.

"So, what is it?" Hattori asked, standing up. "What is in your mind?" he then bent over close to him, sticking his finger on the little one's forehead. "This face says everything. You have got a lead, don't you?"

Agasa blinked, while the child growled softly. "If you don't take that finger off me, I'm going to bite you, I swear."

"Oh?" with a teasing grin, the detective stood back. "When did you turn into a rabid dog?"

The glare that was sent his way was enough for the Osakan to shut up. The child then sighed, tiredly, taking a moment to calm down before he decided to speak.

"Do you remember when I told you about that hotel incident?"

"Of course I do," Hattori replied. "You and that little scientist were dangerously close to one of their members, Pisco, right?"

"Yeah," he nodded. "I've been thinking about it for awhile. Why did Pisco have the party handkerchief that he didn't have before?"

"An accomplice," the teenager echoed his thoughts. "Someone who knew he was going to be one of those checked gave it to Pisco so he wouldn't be suspected."

"And it was most definitely her. The only one between the people that had the purple handkerchief that hasn't appeared in public since then," with a frown, Conan stated. "Chris Vineyard, the American movie star."

The other two in the room gasped, completely shocked.

"Chris?!" the old professor exclaimed. "The second generation actress?!"

"The woman with the big breasts?" Heiji asked, shocked.

Conan sent a look to the Osakan detective's way. What's with that reaction? he couldn't help but think before, with a shake of his head, pulling a note from his pocket and giving it to Agasa, with an internet address belonging to a fansite awaiting her return, asking him to get some information from it. Anything.

"Is it there a strange foreign woman around you?" Heiji asked.

"Well," Conan hesitated at first. "I suppose there is Jodie-sensei, Ran-neechan's new English teacher but..."

Soon, he realized he shouldn't really have said anything, because he found himself, half an hour later, following Hattori out of the elevator of Jodie's apartment. He could only sigh, tiredly, as they stood in front of her door, before reminding him for the eleventh time that they were only there to watch.

"So, what are we going to say to her?" then, Hattori asked the child.

"Eh?" Conan blinked.

"What? You don't know?"

"Of course not! You were the one you wanted to come here!"

"But you're the one that knows her! Come on, don't tell me you haven't thought of anything!"

"You didn't either!"

"Yeah, but you're the super intelligent little brat, aren't you?!"

"And aren't you supposed to be the Great Detective of the West, for that matter?!"

"That's true, but-"

For the twelfth time this hour, little Conan sighed again.

"You know what, just drop it," he turned around. "The only thing we will manage at this point is to get her suspicious."

"Idiot! After coming this far-!" for emphasis, the Osakan high school detective rested his palm against the wall.

Only to slap the buzzer. The two of them frozen at the sound, slowly directing their eyes to Hattori's hand, before they jumped, startled, when their heard Jodie's voice through the intercom.

Conan saved the day by answering, telling her he was just passing by and wanted to visit.

They were told to wait a minute ─ which turned out to be much more than a minute. The door was then opened to reveal the woman in question, hair soaked wet and wearing nothing else but a bathrobe, claiming she had taken a shower.

"Oh!" she exclaimed, clearly referring to Heiji. "You must be Cool Kid's friend?"

"Y-Yes," the teen replied.

As the woman turned around to let them inside, Conan gave Hattori a pointed look, not failing to notice the way his cheeks were red. But he didn't say anything, at least until after they had asked to use their restroom, and entered together.

"What?" Heiji asked, feeling rather annoyed at the glances the little boy was sending his way.

"I'm so telling Kazuha-neechan about this."

The terrified expression on the detective's face after that moment was priceless. At the sight of it, the child had to clamp a hand to his mouth, doing his best to retrain his laugh and do what they were supposed to do. Come on, this is serious.

His laugh suddenly died down when he touched the hair dryer. It was still warm.

Hattori and Conan exchanged knowing looks, realizing the same thing. The teacher had finished showering before their arrival, but had most likely taken another one to gain some extra time.

For what, though?

There wasn't anything else they could find, so they left the restroom right away.

As the three were leaving the apartment, a long time later, Conan had to hold down his laugh for the second time. Jodie had told him she didn't know he had another foreigner friend, which had confused him at first.

"Your Japanese is so strange," she had said.

"Idiot!" was Heiji's loud reply. "Osaka-ben is perfect Japanese!"

"Osaka-ben? Is that a boxed lunch?"

The child couldn't hold it in any longer at that.

"It's a dialect, a dialect..." he turned to the youngest of the group. "And you! Stop laughing!"

He didn't, even after they had gone down the elevator, resulting in a grumpy Heiji muttering something about how his dialect was perfect Japanese the entire way down. Jodie was mostly confused about their reaction.

They hadn't even made it a few steps outside the elevator when a phone started to ring, loudly so. Both the Osakan and the American turned to the child, watching him pull out his phone, look at the screen, and groan for some reason.

"Sorry, I think I need to take this."

Heiji shrugged, and went to walk ahead with the teacher while the kid answered the call. Even if he was curious about the way he seemed to groan at the person on the other side, and mutter something under his breath, he didn't try to spy.

From the look on the child's eyes, he could tell it was Kudo. From the way he seemed to apologize ─ even if he didn't seem to regret his actions ─ he could tell Kudo was mad.

"Look, I already told you I'm sorry," Conan rolled his eyes. "I don't know what else you want me to say."

A long, exhausted sigh came from the other side of the phone.

"It's not about what I want you to say, it's about what I want you to understand," the high schooler stressed out. "You can't just keep playing cupid, Conan. This is not a game, you know. This is extremely dangerous."

The child quietened down at that, busy with his own thoughts, until he continued. "Then, what do you want me to do?" Conan questioned, a bit tickled off. "Am I supposed to watch Ran-neechan crying in silence with my arms crossed?"

Shinichi seemed to hesitate.

"No, of course not," he finally said. "But you can't just pull those kind of tricks."

Conan huffed. "Would you have come if I didn't do that?"

"That's no excuse, it wasn't funny. You genuinely scared me," his brother was definitely mad, the kid could tell. "Wouldn't you be terrified if you thought they had found the people important to you and were about to end their lives?"

The little boy's eyes opened slightly at that, before he focused his eyes at the ground, now understanding exactly how much this had affected him. He genuinely didn't think he would have thought about the men in black, and now he felt terribly stupid.

It should have been obvious.

To be fair, he hadn't really thought things through. He had only saw Ran crying quietly on her father's office and had acted by impulse.

"... I'm sorry," he replied, genuinely ashamed now. "I didn't..."

"It's okay, I guess. As long as you understand," the high school detective let out a long sigh. "Guess I can't really blame you, but..."

Shinichi had trailed off into silence, and none of them did anything to break it for a moment or so. It wasn't until Conan was close to the door of Jodie's building that he timidly spoke up.

"You still accepted Ran-neechan's chocolate, didn't you?" at the affirmative hum, he continued. "Why didn't you, in return...?"

There was a brief pause, which told the child that his brother most likely hadn't expected that question.

"You said it before. It's because you and I are the same, Conan," he finally answered, only managing to confuse the youngest Kudo until he explained, his grief sipping on his voice. "I don't want her to cry anymore."

Now he understood what he meant with that, but he didn't say anything. Just listened, quietly.

"If I told her how I feel about her, she would just miss me even more. And I don't want her to suffer anymore... Even if that means I no longer have a place in her heart," there was a chuckle, yet Conan couldn't see the humor in his words. "Seems pretty immature of me, doesn't it?"

"... No, it is not," his tone was bleak. "It is not immature at all, Oniichan," Conan replied, honestly, as they stepped out the building. "It seems like I have been the immature one all along."

"Well, I suppose you can be forgiven for that because, you know, you're eight."

"And you are mentally three, give yourself a break as well."

"I don't know if I should thank you for your compassion or just end this call right now."

"It is a bit weird, though, that you are telling me all this after you took her to that restaurant a few months ago," Conan pointed out, watching but not paying attention to the woman, camera in hand, talking with Hattori and Jodie. "I genuinely thought you were going to confess... if not proposing to her."

"I was not going to propose to her," he could basically see him rolling his eyes at that. "But I was really going to tell her all about my feelings. Somebody talked some sense into me, though."

All his attention went to his phone at that. "Someone?"

"Yeah. I didn't listen to her at first, but realized she was right at the end."

"Was it Haibara-san?" Conan heard an affirmative sound, and paused for a moment more than strictly necessary. "... Say, were you and Haibara-san close before?"

"Yeah," there was some confusion on his voice, though. "Why are you asking me all these questions all of sudden?"

The young boy blinked.

... Why, indeed?

After hesitating for a moment or two, his mouth opened, to finally speak, when a phone fell into the ground from the sky, causing Heiji to move closer to pick it up, undoubtedly curious about it.

Before a body landed right next to him.

Conan paused, taking on the scene for a beat.

"... And I think this is the moment where I end this conversation."

"Huh?"

"A body just fell from the sky."

"Huh?!"

Click.

Turned out the victim, Takai, was Jodie's neighbor from the 21th floor, and the word 'murder' was soon added before the word 'victim' as soon as they saw that one of the curtains in his room was separated from the rail.

Because, of course, they had inspected the room before the police had even arrived. Inspector Megure wasn't pleased, but let it slide with a bit more than a huff of annoyment.

A photo that the victim's girlfriend had taken just before the crime had been committed showed Takai hanging from the curtain, proving that he hadn't killed himself.

At some point, Megure got fed up with the three of them hanging around, so he basically hushed them off the victim's apartment.

All they knew about the victim was that he had been drinking with some friends before Kawakami Noboru had taken him to his room. There was also that phone, which he had seemingly tried to put back inside his room until he fell.

There was also the fact that the room had been locked. Typical.

As Conan and Heiji were discussing the case, Jodie watching them with a suspicious look from behind, Hattori's phone had gone off. Picking it up, a loud voice that even Conan managed to hear from his spot had caused the detective from Osaka to pale considerably.

"We were supposed to meet at 8:00 PM!" she screamed, after Heiji strolled to the balcony to get more reception. "I have written it my memo."

"... Ah!" Heiji gasped. "I got it!"

"Huh?"

As he ended the call, looking around and focusing his gaze on the window where the victim had fallen to his death, Heiji's lips curved into a smirk.

The child walked closer. Judging by the knowing expression on his face, Hattori could tell he had understood the trick as well.

So they stood there, on the balcony, gazing upon the street.

"Say, Hattori," the child spoke up. "What are we going to do about that?"

"Ah, you mean the photo that teacher has just taken of us?" he asked, a serious look on his eyes, and Conan nodded. "Don't worry about anything. I have a plan."

"I'm not sure if I want to hear about it."

Conan's nerves had increased tenfold when Jodie asked for her favourite alcoholic drink and was brought a bottle of Sherry, of all things. Sherry.

This is stupid, he tried to shook it off. I can't just get nervous as soon as I heard the name of an ordinary alcoholic drink.

The tension on his body lingered, however, even after Jodie got herself drunk and went to sleep. Right after that, Hattori put on practice his plan.

The English teacher woke up a few minutes later with the sound of her phone. It looked like she had received a text.

Her eyes narrowed, slightly, when she read it.

"Who are you?"

"Hey, sensei!" she heard Heiji call from the other side. "Did you get that email?"

"Oh, yes! It's a lovely mail!"

Conan blinked, confusedly. "Hey, what kind of mail-?"

"Ah, nothing for you to worry about," then, Conan groaned, loudly so, when the hand fell on top of his hair, patting him. What am I, a dog?

As a result, the child was forced to watch the older detective calling the teacher, talking with her for a while ─ Heiji said something along the lines of 'how about the text I sent you?' which caused Conan to be even more curious about what he had sent her ─ before he started claiming that he couldn't hear her well.

Not long after that, Jodie desperate screams of 'help!' filled the room.

The case had been solved right after that. All along, the culprit had been Kawakami Noboru, who had moved the victim's bed then called him, only to keep repeating that he couldn't hear him well. Takai had tried to go to the balcony to get more reception, only to fall to his death because he had mistaken it with the window.

"Goodbye, Takai," Noboru had gone white at the sound of his own voice, and turned around to see the child holding the victim's phone. "You can apologize to Hiraya-kun from here."

As it turned out, Takai had managed to hit the record button, leaving behind the proof they needed to take him away, to pay the price of the crime he had committed to avenge the death of his friend, Hiraya Sumiyo, a subordinate employee Takai had abused and drove to suicide.

"Here you are," Hattori handed Jodie her camera. "Your camera from earlier."

A light smirk crossed Conan's features, as he watched the detective of the West taking to the English teacher, who remained completely unaware of the truth behind Hattori's actions. She might have been acting when she walked to the window, the child thought. But she didn't fake being drunk.

And because of that, the two detectives had taken the chance to take the camera and erase the photograph she had taken of them.

But why had she done such a thing? Conan didn't know if he wanted to know or not.

He just hoped, with all his might, that Hattori hadn't gotten himself dragged into this mess.

"Conan-kun," the child's attention was brought away from the pair talking towards Takagi, who had kneeled down right next to him. "Do you have a moment?"

The young boy blinked, owlishly, unable to guess what this man could possibly want from him, who seemed to hesitate for some reason.

"Have you seen somebody suspicious near Mouri-san?"

Okay, so he didn't really expect that.

"... Not exactly," he replied, unsure. "Why? Is something wrong?"

Takagi glanced to Inspector Megure, who was just talking with some other officers, before turning around and bending closer to the child.

"Right now, the Inspector and I haven't decided if we should tell him or not," he whispered at him. "But it seems someone is checking up on Mouri-san."

"Eh?" his eyes widened at the information.

"It all disappeared from police headquarters," Takagi explained, a serious glint crossing his eyes. "The case reports that Mouri-san had been in charge of until now have been stolen."

Conan didn't like the feeling of dread that was coursing through his veins, or the chill that ran through his back, causing his hair to stand to an end.

"Superintendent Matsumoto had kept copies so it didn't cause any problems in court but, surprisingly, the stolen reports were sent back to the headquarters last night in an envelope with no address or name."

"Do you know when they went missing?" he asked, as composed as humanly possible.

"Let me see..." Takagi began to think. "I think it was... Ah! On the day you guys were involved in that bus jacking incident."

For a moment or so, Conan couldn't remember how to breathe properly, air stuck on his lungs, frozen as the implications of the officer's words dawned on the young boy.

His terror must have showed on his face, because Takagi's serious face changed into a softer one, a forced laugh coming out his throat. "It could also be someone's prank," he tried to reassure the kid. "Anyway, if you see anyone suspicious around Mouri-san call the police right away."

He managed to slip back on his sweet childish facade. "Okay," he nodded, with a smile. "I understand."

Takagi returned the smile, as he stood up to leave. Not even a second after the older man's gaze had broken off him, the child let his mask drop and a frown carve deeply on his face.

By the time Heiji finished talking with Jodie, Conan was gone.

Where did he go? the detective wondered, blinking at the empty space the child had been in not long ago.

Conan was running.

His breathing was ragged, as he forced his feet to move as fast as his little legs could take him, phone pressing against his ear. He cursed, loudly and in a way no eight year-old should, unable to get anyone to answer.

"Ran-neechan!" he threw the door of the agency open, having arrived there in record time. "Occhan!"

Heart pounding heavily against his chest, the little boy stood in the middle deserted room. Occhan wasn't drinking, as he would always do, watching Okino Yoko's TV show. Ran wasn't complaining to his lazy father, welcoming the child home, or even scolding for getting home this late.

The sound of a forgotten television was the only thing breaking the otherwise ominous silence. They left it on, he observed, before rushing upstairs. That's right, it's dinnertime! They must be...

They weren't.

Without the TV back on Kogoro's office, the quietness he would otherwise appreciate a lot was sickening. He rushed to the kitchen, and he froze.

The abandoned ingredients and cooking tools sat, very still, over the counter.

And the boy's very wide eyes just stared at them, cold sweat tracking down his forehead, mind instantly thinking of the worse case scenario.

Akai Shuichi's face appeared on his mind.

All of sudden, his sight went black and he jumped, scared out of his mind when a pair of hands pressed themselves against his eyes, behind his glasses.

"Guess who?"

It took a moment more than necessary for Conan's soul to come back to his body. "R-Ran-neechan," he breathed out, still shaken.

"Exactly right!" she grinned, before chuckling a bit. "Sorry, I scared you, didn't I?"

"Where have you been?" the boy asked, completely disregarding the question from before.

As it turned out, Ran had gone at the supermarket because Kogoro had hit the jackpot in a horse race ─ in fact, the man was probably bragging with the neighbors right now. The great detective had been so overjoyed he had told Ran to go get beef and sake.

Only minutes after she had explained everything, Conan remembered how to breathe again.

I guess I kind of deserved it, he couldn't help but chuckle to himself. Didn't I, Oniichan?

"Just you wait, Conan-kun. I'll make a steak that's as delicious as a five-star restaurant's!"

There was something that had yet to leave his mind, though.

"Say, Ran-neechan..."

"What is it?"

The child hesitated at fist, causing Ran to blink at him. She watched him focus his eyes to the ground, nervous for some reason, causing her to smile at him, kindly.

So, with a sigh, the kid decided to speak his mind. "At that time we were in that house in the mountains, you know, where you made Shinichi-niichan's Valentine's chocolate," he began. "You said something about knowing a man with a black wool hat..."

"Ah, yeah," she nodded, turning back to continue cooking. "You know him as well, Conan-kun. You were there."

"Eh?"

"Don't you remember? The other time, when I went with Shinichi to visit you and your parents," she explained. "The man that asked us if we had seen a Japanese man with long hair."

His eyes opened, finally remembering what she was talking about. He didn't know how he had forgotten about it, the man with the wool hat and the long hair ─ it was shorter now, though.

Wait a second... Wasn't he part of the FBI?!

Nonsense, what would a FBI agent be doing in Japan, of all places?

... Why?

"Speaking of Valentine's..." Conan's eyes raised to meet Ran's stern ones. "There is something we still haven't discussed yet, Conan-kun."

His lip twitched upwards. "What is it, Ran-neechan?"

He definitely didn't like the severe, hour-long lecture he had to put with after that.

A/N:

ajjr12: I don't know. I mean, it could happen, but not even I know if it will XD

Dy: Yeah, I don't blame you for forgetting all those details. It has been a long while since I published them that even I have to read again some older chapters so I don't forget anything, lol! And about what you said about Ai, I have actually been considering giving her at least one gadget for self defense since, considering Agasa initially gave Conan some of them to protect himself, it wouldn't make sense for Ai not to have anything, even if she is in a much more dangerous position than him. Your ideas sound really cool, though! I will make sure to take them into consideration if I ever try to pull something like that ;)

Yuni: Hopefully it will happen soon, but I can't make any promises since most of the time things don't happen the way I plan them to XD And thank you for your interesting suggestion! I will definitely think about it:)