File Forty-Eight: What an Angel Left Behind
Dead.
He was dead.
Kudo Conan had died more than four years ago.
He had died more than four years ago.
Or, at least, that was that Inspector Megure had told him before leaving, still shaken by the revelation, swearing that he wouldn't speak a soul about what had happened. At least, until he got a word with Yusaku.
Because Edogawa Conan was supposed to be just the son of Yusaku's distant relative. A friend that had grown alongside him, enjoying the same mystery novels than him, until they completely lost contact through time. Without knowing it, both had children and named them Conan, after the author they had cherished so much throughout their childhood.
So when Edogawa Conan lost his parents in a car accident, and Kudo Yusaku lost his young son, the child had been taken into their family.
Except that couldn't be possible... It didn't make any sense. At all.
He was Edogawa Conan and Kudo Conan all the same.
"In our eyes, Yusaku-kun and Yukiko-san looked devastated when you, well... died," Megure had explained when Conan had voiced his thoughts, rather loudly so. "So when Kudo-kun told us that story when you moved in with him, nobody questioned it. It wouldn't be fair not to believe a family that had just lost a young child, cruel even."
Cruel, Conan let out a weak, fake laugh, staring down at the phone on his hands. Who is being cruel now?
There, sitting in the handrail of the second floor, feet hanging on the air, Conan's eyes wandered outside the window, where the night was quiet and the dull silver light of the moon chased the darkness away. He decided he hated this. All this.
To be kept in the dark. To feel like there was something big, that clearly involved him, but be rendered unable to get clear answers. To be forced to look for them on his own, in hopes to shed some light in all those mysteries that surrounded his own past.
With a defeated sigh, he put his phone back on his pocket.
He didn't think he would be able to bear with getting lied to again.
"PROFESSOR!"
The yell had broken through the silent night, and actually managed to scare Conan out of his mind. After recovering his balance and making sure he wouldn't slip and fall into the first floor, the bespectacled boy spun around, wondering what was going on.
When he saw the scene that was happening behind him, he was unable to suppress the laugh that bubbled up from inside him. Haibara, who had just been standing there, frozen in shock, in front of the professor where he was draped all over his computer, red liquid dripping and splattering in the floor, jumped and turned.
Her stunned expression did not vanish, even as she looked back at the boy that was still smiling, thoroughly amused.
"I'm surprised such a genius scientist of your caliber doesn't know the difference between blood and tomato juice," he teased before he turned around again, eyes fixed on the street outside Agasa's home. "Why he still drinks that even if he keeps falling asleep on his computer and spilling everywhere, is beyond me, however."
"Aside from that," the confusion that Haibara was feeling was definitely far too strong to feel annoyed at his previous comment. "Why are you-?"
The smile faltered. "I had an ominous premonition, so I decided to check on you," he stated. "I said I was coming over to nurse you," then, the boy shrugged. "Well, I guess I may have been thinking too much."
He glanced at her again, and with an unusual kindness, he told her:
"Don't worry. It's okay to get back to sleep."
What Conan did not see was the way her lips faintly curved upwards before she, wordlessly, went deep inside her blankets just like she had been a few moments ago. Even as she closed her eyes, she would still see the gentle glint of his eyes as he spoke to her.
And it followed her to her dreams.
Soon, everything was quiet again. Sighing a bit louder than necessary, Conan gave the girl one last look before stretching his arms, failing to bit back a yawn that escaped him. This will be a long night, he realized, trying to rub the sleepiness away from his eyes.
Ran-neechan isn't here... Might as well grab a cup of coffee.
"Sorry for the wait," a smiling Ran walked in, a tray on her hands as she walked closer to the bed. "It isn't as good as Tarugatei's, but... Eh? Is she asleep?"
Turning around to see, Conan wasn't surprised to see the back of Haibara's head, as she lied on her side, her back facing him and everyone else in that room. He didn't say anything about that, though, simply shook his head in silence and watched the older girl setting the tray in the table beside them.
"Well, I'll just leave it here," Ran said, her smile unwavering. "Remember to ask Ai-chan what she thinks of it after giving a try."
He gave her a nod and sat on the bed beside the scientist's, glaring at a spot in the back of her head while Ran left from the back door to go meet with Sonoko ─ she had been told that the front door had yet to be fixed.
"You might be an expert in many things, but you're terrible at feigning sleep," the boy stated, once they were alone with the professor. "And, you know? Being thankful isn't going to hurt, I promise."
"I didn't ask her to come."
"And Ran-neechan didn't ask to be treated this way," he shrugged. "I guess things just happen without us asking for them."
Haibara didn't answer, and didn't move either, causing Conan to sigh, more tired than ever before. He had tried, he had really tried to figure out what was going through her head, why she was that reluctant to be in vicinity to the high school girl, but he would always end up confusing himself even more.
Feelings were confusing, he supposed.
"Ran-neechan went through the trouble of coming here and making you that porridge," with a shrug, he stood up. "At the very least eat it before it gets cold."
He barely noticed her shifting, giving him another one of her looks, when his phone started ringing in his pocket. Not giving it any further thought, he glanced at the screen.
From her spot where she was sitting, Haibara paused on her movements to gather the steaming pot of porridge in order to give a confused stare towards the boy. She didn't understand it, the reason why his conflicted blue eyes stared at his brother's name in the screen, and why he, for a couple of long minutes, didn't make an attempt to pick it up.
Haibara, too, couldn't understand what was going through his mind.
Eventually he did pick up, with a frown and a plain voice.
"What do you want?"
It took a moment for Shinichi to reply.
"Hey, Co-"
"What do you want?"
"Hey, what's with you?" Conan didn't bat an eye at the annoyed tone of his brother's voice.
"You didn't answer my question."
A sigh on the other side, followed by a long period of silence, was more than enough for the young boy to know that Shinichi was probably growing exhausted, even if they hadn't yet said much. Even so, Conan couldn't really bring himself to care.
He was tired. Of all this.
"I want to know, Conan," he could have rolled his eyes at that, but he didn't. "You sounded a bit scared the other day, and I want to know if you're okay."
The scent of fresh coffee met his nostrils all of sudden, instantly gathering all attention from the uninterested, mostly irritated boy. "I'm fine," he said with a shrug, watching the professor fill a couple of cups with the hot beverage.
"What happened?" the teenager's voice was serious as he spoke.
"What makes you think that something happened?"
"It's unusual for you to be so distracted in a case, not to mention that you were in such a rush to solve it."
"I'm telling you, there is nothing to worry about," he assured him, as he walked towards the counter, picking one of the cups up. "Occhan had decided that the victim had killed himself and Inspector Megure was agreeing with him. If I didn't hurry up, the killer would have gotten away."
Agasa looked up at him. "Pass that one to Ai-kun, please," he whispered to the child.
With a nod, he obliged.
"Is that Professor Agasa?" came Shinichi's curious question.
"Yeah. I'm at his house."
"Ah, I see. You have been taking care of Ai-chan, haven't you? Heard she had a bit of a cold."
"You could say that."
"Did you manage to get her that egg porridge from...? What was the name again...? Ah, Tarugatei?"
Something of what he had just said caught him off guard and caused the child to stumble on his own feet. "Ouch!" the motion was so sudden that some of the hot liquid was spilled everywhere, including his own hand.
Before he knew what was happening, his hand had let go of the cup by reflex, causing it to drop into the ground and shatter beyond repair.
His eyes didn't leave the floor, or more precisely the tiny little pieces of broken clay that lied in front of him, scattered across the corner of that empty, silent room. Noticing something that shouldn't be there, the little child crouched in front of the mess he had just created.
There, in the middle of it all, was a tiny little piece of paper, folded neatly.
His fingers reached over to grab it.
"Conan!" Shinichi's voice dragged him back to reality.
Blinking a few times, Conan looked around to realize that he was crouched in front of the broken pieces of a ceramic cup, and definitely not clay. There was nothing there either, just a mess spilled coffee and the remains of a cup that had clearly outlived its use.
A hand was wrapped against his, so he looked up. "You'll get hurt if you pick them up like that," Agasa was there, giving him a concerned look as he pried his fingers away from the broken cup.
Even Haibara looked worried, if the way her eyes narrowed slightly was something to go by.
"Are you okay?" continued his brother. "I heard a loud noise and Professor Agasa has been calling your name for a while now."
"... Sorry," he finally managed, massaging his temples with a groan. "I kind of spaced out for a moment there."
Meanwhile, the professor and Haibara exchanged looks, before Agasa gently pulled the child back on his feet. "You should go get some rest, Conan," he instructed him, guiding him to the empty bed.
"I'm fine, really," he sighed. "I was just distracted."
"Conan," the voice on the phone was serious, and Conan didn't really want to deal with it. "How many hours of sleep did you get?"
"Around nine?"
"... Is that a question or an answer?"
"Try with something closer to zero," the scientist said from her spot, nonchalantly, causing Shinichi to gasp and Conan to groan.
For a fraction of a second, no word was spoken. Conan's lips remained shut, as he listened to his brother's silence. Then, a deep intake of air was heard...
The call was ended by the youngest before he could manage a word.
I should give him a call later, he decided, with a sigh, placing his phone on a table, next to Haibara's empty dishes. When he's a bit... calmer, I guess.
A giggle cut through the silence of the room and his eyebrow started twitching on its own, by reflex. "Isn't this amusing?" her teasing tone was there, as expected. "That you're so fearless when you chase after those men in black, yet you cower away at the thought of your brother being angry with you."
"I'm not afraid," he scoffed at her. "It's just that I'm not interested in sitting through an hour long scolding."
"I take it you're used to them, right?"
"Even so, Shinichi is right to be angry," said Agasa, and Conan decided that his current stern expression did not fit him. "You can't just stay up all night and wave it off as nothing. You're only a child!"
"Why is that you don't tell that to that child over there?" a glare was sent to Haibara's way, who remained unfazed throughout it all. "I'm pretty sure she's basically half owl, half human at this point."
Or half owl, half demon, I don't know.
Shaking his head, Agasa wisely chose not to answer, just pressed his hands against his shoulders, successfully getting him to sit on top of the bed. "Take a nap," the professor ordered. "I'll keep watch if it makes you feel more comfortable."
Leaving no room for complaining, Agasa left right away. Even after he was gone, Conan just sat there, staring at the place where the old man had just been standing at, before shrugging and, reluctantly, turning the sheets out.
"Sometimes I wonder why he isn't this strict with you."
"You can't order a lady around, Kudo-kun."
"You can't be a lady and a mad scientist at the same time-" he barely had the time to finish his sentence before he had to dodge the pillow thrown his way. "Yeah, that's totally lady-like."
"Ladies can be strong. Strong enough to successfully concuss annoying detectives while drinking some coffee, at least." she sipped on her mug, calmly. "Elegantly."
His mouth opened to shoot something back at her but a glare that clearly stated 'do you really want to say that?' made him realize that, no, he truly didn't.
So, with a long sigh, he leaned down on top of the mattress and closed his eyes.
There's a dangerous criminal syndicate out there, probably stalking us yet here I am. Taking a nap when there's still light outside.
Figuring that the boy was probably going to give up by now, the girl simply set the empty mug on the table and was about to do exactly the same thing. But her movements came into a halt when a voice resounded in her ears.
"Haibara-san," he said, almost in a whisper. Looking at him, she noticed his eyes were now open, yet staring at the ceiling above. Blankly, yet deep in thought. "Why... Why did my brother join the Black Organization?"
Her expression did not change as she studied him for a moment.
"It's a wonder why you haven't asked until now," the girl pointed out.
He did not comment on that, and she didn't really him need to. Experience from the other time when he had been so scared of knowing if Shinichi actually belonged to that organization told her that the reason was more or less the same as then. Even now, it looked like he didn't know if he wanted to be aware.
Especially when his troubled eyes didn't want to meet hers, just gazing at something far, far away.
"As much as I want to tell you, I know as much as you do about this," she finally replied. "Shinichi-san was very secretive when he was working for the organization," her gaze went hard and cold at those words, as if remembering some older and cruder times. "In a place like that, you can trust nobody."
"But you two did trust each other," it wasn't a question. "Or at least, he trusts you enough to give you his phone number."
Her eyes widened in surprise at that. "How did you know?"
"He didn't seem confused when I mentioned that Occhan was in the department store yesterday, which means he hadn't talked with Ran-neechan yet. But he knew we went to get some Tarugatei's egg porridge," Conan shrugged. "You probably talked with him while you were resting inside the car."
Haibara gave him a long look, before sighing. "He gave it to me last time we met," she explained, leaning down in bed and contemplating the ceiling just like the other child. "He told me to call him," she continued, in a much quieter tone. "To call him whenever I felt alone," then, a chuckle escaped her. "To think that he can still read me so well."
Silence ensued after that, causing the scientist to think that the detective had just fallen asleep. Smiling slightly to herself, she brought the blankets closer to her and was about to close her eyes.
"How was he like?"
Quite honestly, Haibara did not expect that kind of question. And it must have shown on her face, because he quickly elaborated.
"It's a bit silly, but I feel like I know nothing about my brother," his eyes were sincere as they looked into hers, for the first time in a long while. "I haven't spent enough time as we should have so, as embarrassing as it sounds, you probably know him better than me."
It took a whole minute for the girl to stop blinking at the boy, shocked beyond words about what he had just said, before she giggled. The pout did not take long to appear, even if it did take some time for Conan to realize it was there.
She still remembered the first time they had met.
Sherry was only six when that woman introduced the boy to him.
He was young, not as young as she was, of course, since the boy was probably nine to ten years older than she was, but... That was it. In her eyes, at least.
Apparently, he would be going to take care of her all afternoons from now on.
Apparently, she was supposed to call him Singani. Apparently, since he had been brought by that woman over there a year ago he had done nothing but excel in his work. Apparently, even that person was enchanted by such efficiency and perfection, and it had brought him where he was.
He was the youngest person, next to Sherry herself, to have earned a codename.
But, to Sherry, all that meant nothing.
Because all of them where the same to her.
"Nice to meet you," there was something different though. For a moment or so, she wondered what it was, not paying attention as the woman left without any further word. "I'm Shinichi."
It took her a long while, but she realized it. It was the smile, big and bright, unlike anything he had seen in that dark, depressing place.
Her blank stare didn't change, though, and just went back to her work without even gracing him with an answer.
"He's exactly the same as you know him, Kudo-kun. There aren't any mysteries there."
The boy did not reply, but kept staring at her until she looked away and fixed her gaze in a random spot in the ceiling once more. She didn't notice, however, the sweet, albeit small, smile drawing on her face.
"Did you know? You remind me of someone."
Sherry didn't get what he meant with that, so she turned around and away from her computer to give him one of her gelid gazes, that for some reason he seemed to hold with outstanding ease.
There was this sad smile that she had seen on him from time to time, but that she hadn't questioned, as he sat cross-legged in that stool he had taken, in the corner of the lab.
"He's around your age," he explained. "He's quiet around people he doesn't know and he comes out as rude most of the time. He's smart, too. Like, really smart. I would say he is a prodigy, just like you."
The inexpressive stare she gave him did not hinder him, just amused him a bit more.
"He's a bit of lacking in the social department, though," he continued, in a softer voice. "I heard he has been having some trouble making friends lately."
"Heard?"
His smile did not falter, even if the shine on his blue eyes dimmed a little bit. "I haven't seen him for a long time," he confessed. "I know he is okay, even if struggling with living in an entire different country. But sometimes I wonder... How is his life like now? Has he grown a lot? Just a little bit? Is he... happy?"
Sherry did not reply, looking away from him and back to her work. She didn't look up, even if she heard him standing up and moving closer.
"And I suppose it's the same thing with Akemi-san and you, isn't it?" she felt his hand landing on the top of her head, with such a gentleness that caused her to blink, for a moment.
She didn't really remember last time somebody had treated her like that... Except for...
Her sister's smile flashed in her mind.
"Sherry-chan, look at me," even if she knew she shouldn't, Sherry looked up at him and was surprised to see his warm, sincere eyes.
They did not belong to such a dark place like that one, and it made her wonder why he was doing in there.
"I promise I'll do every single thing in my power so you can see your sister again. If that is what you truly want."
"... Shiho," Shinichi didn't expect her to say. "Miyano Shiho."
The sounds of deep, calm breathing caused Haibara to give a curious glance to her side to see the chest of his current roommate rising and falling in a steady yet slow pace.
"I promise I will set you and Akemi-san free... One day, this organization will see its end and everything will go back the way it was supposed to be."
"... Will it be the same for you and your brother, Shinichi-san?"
His smile was radiant as ever when he answered.
"Without a doubt."
She couldn't help but to smile as she closed her eyes, falling asleep just like the boy that she was sharing the room with.
An entire week had passed rather quickly since then and, when Saturday struck, Agasa took Haibara to meet Professor Miyano Atsushi's childhood friend ─ apparently, Haibara's family name was Miyano, which wasn't that out of this world, but Conan, unlike Agasa, had absolutely no idea.
Dejima Souhei told them, however, that last time he had seen him had been around thirty years ago when he had borrowed that house, which apparently belonged to Atsushi's parents. Haibara-san's grandparents, Conan's brain supplied, glancing at the girl by the corner of his eye.
Who didn't even notice she was being watched, curious eyes travelling around the place where her father had grown.
"Then, where did Professor Miyano stay after that?" questioned Conan.
"Well, he had found a sponsor to support a theory of his, and said he would be moving to a large research facility, but I don't know where it is."
The two children exchanged looks at that, but said nothing. Not that they needed words to know what was in each other's minds:
It must be them.
After that, contact with Miyano had been lost to the point that Dejima only got a postcard stating he had gotten married in that period of time.
"Oh, there was one time when that person came around when you weren't there," Zaitsu Ukihito, one of the workers there, stated. "He brought his beautiful foreign wife and his adorable four or five year-old daughter. It seemed he had something important to discuss with you and, in the end, stayed for an entire day before leaving. Didn't I tell you?"
"I never heard about this!"
"I think his wife's name was Elena, and their daughter was named Akemi-chan," Haibara's eyes shifted away from Zaitsu as he pondered. "Strange father and daughter, huh?"
"Yeah," Imai Tetsuo, another worker, agreed with a smile. "Especially when he couldn't do anything about his daughter's mischief. That child hid all of our work tools. She then watched us in glee as we panicked."
Haibara had an unreadable look on her eyes as she listened to their words, describing her beloved sister from when she was a child. Looking at her, Conan couldn't help but notice how different Akemi had been from his sister.
Then again, Akemi had had a much more normal, happier childhood. That made him wonder how Haibara could have been like if she hadn't been involved with Them.
"His wife stayed put and never said a word to us, which made me wonder if she even knew the language. I later overheard her speaking Japanese to her daughter. The father kept on looking outside the window," Imai commented, as he remembered more and more things. "Oh yeah, at that time there was a car stationed outside this house."
"Yeah, it was back with smoked windows, right?"
Surveillance, Conan didn't need the fact to be spelled for him.
"Speaking of Akemi-chan. She came over once as well," Zaitsu commented. Two little heads snapped towards his direction at the mention of that name. "It was the cute girl who borrowed our bathroom," he told his superior before heading to the restroom. "When she said 'It's been a while' to us, it came as quite a shock."
"Was she actually Miyano-kun's daughter?" Dejima blinked.
"Oh, didn't you know? Sorry!"
With that, the door closed behind the man, but none of the children was content with such a vague answer. "Did she really only come to use the bathroom?" so Conan asked.
"Y-Yeah," he nodded. "But she said something very strange... She said it was embarrassing to borrow the bathroom, and told me not to tell anyone."
Their reaction was instant. One moment Haibara and Conan were nodding at each other, and the other they were in front of the bathroom door, desperatelytrying to open it even if it was locked.
Before long, it opened and Zaitsu came out. "There you go," he moved aside for one the children to pass.
He didn't expect both children to walk inside, calmly as it was the most normal thing in the world. "... Both of you?" he managed, through the shock.
It was the boy who turned around. "Yeah," he said with a plain voice. "Problem?"
"N-No. Just making sure."
Not that he had much time to say anything else, because the child closed the door in his face, not letting him an opportunity to reply.
Conan paid no mind, just locked the door and, just like the scientist, started to search through the bathroom.
Their time was cut short, however, when Dejima started banging on the bathroom door, stating that he really needed to use the bathroom. They figured they would continue their search later.
Of course, somebody died that day. Victim had been Dejima Sohei, who had collapsed immediately after taking a bite of his hamburger, poisoned.
Haibara seriously believed it was done by the Organization. And it wasn't hard for Conan to see where that reasoning had come from. Her sister had, most likely, hidden something in the bathroom and they had been told that someone broke in soon after she had came there.
But Conan wasn't entirely convinced.
"Did anyone go to the bathroom before the president?" Inspector Megure questioned Imai.
"I did, before I went to buy lunch," explained Natsubori Isamu, yet another worker.
"I went after that, and then Zaitsu-kun went," Imai glanced at said coworker.
"Afterward, the president went to the bathroom..." Megure frowned.
"Ah, no. While I did go to the bathroom before the president, I wasn't the last one to go in before him," Zaitsu explained. "Between the president and I going..." he turned around. "Those kids went as well."
Nobody was really surprised to see Conan and Haibara standing there, blankly looking back at them as if nothing was wrong, Agasa standing behind with an awkward smile.
The boy didn't even twitch, even when Megure's gaze fixed on him. All this time, it wasn't Mouri-kun, he realized, with a raised eyebrow. The real Shinigami must be Conan-kun instead.
Guess it runs down in the family...
"So," Takagi bent down a bit so he could talk with the children. "Which one of you went in first?"
"We went together," said Haibara, blunt, yet blatantly honest.
Takagi blinked. "... Both of you went in together?"
"A bathroom is still a room, so it shouldn't be that surprising," Conan shrugged.
"Yeah, but..."
"Is it a crime?"
"N-No."
"Then, why are you still questioning us? I'm pretty sure there is much more important stuff than to wonder whether we were together in an slightly enclosed space or not, Detective Takagi."
By the time the boy had finished his statement, Takagi's lip was twitching slightly. So with a nervous laugh, he straightened up and turned around to have a word with Megure.
The inspector and the child's gazes met for a slight moment, before Conan suggested that there could be traces of poison in this room, causing Megure to order Takagi to begin a body search and a throughout investigation of the room.
It wasn't until the inspector was alone that he felt something tugging from his shirt. Looking down, there was no other but Conan, a very serious expression pinching his face.
There was no need for words, since Megure knew what was all that about. So, he crouched down right next to him.
"I haven't been able to talk with Yusaku-kun. It seems as if his phone has been turned off."
Conan wasn't really surprised about that. Running away from reporters again, huh?
"But if Yusaku-kun decided it was best to have you being a completely different person, I think the best is to pretend that nothing has happened at all."
Sighing loudly, the child had no other choice but to agree.
"Inspector Megure," then, he spoke up, eyebrows bringing themselves together into a frown. "Please, can you tell me what happened with that case?"
The inspector was hesitant.
"Conan-kun, there are many things that probably are not worth knowing."
"But didn't my kidnapper die in prison?" he questioned further. "Why... Why are you making it sound as if it isn't over?"
Something passed by the inspector eyes, that made the child's skin to crawl. He watched, in silence, as the man in front of him gave him a long, intense look, before replying.
"When I found out about your real identity the other time, I took into my own hands to investigate what was going on," he explained, slowly. "But they were gone. All files related to your disappearance four years ago."
Conan felt his blood running cold.
Seeing that he had made his point across, the inspector gave Conan a last, long look, before standing up to continue doing his job. The child, on the other hand, stood there, frozen in place by his words just then.
"You're look pale," at that, the boy actually jumped and spun around, only to meet with the scientist's piercing blue gaze. "Well, it isn't like I can blame you. Since it clearly could have been them."
It took a moment more than needed for Conan to recover. "But wouldn't it be a bit late if that wasn't the case?" he pointed out. "It has been more than thirty years."
"The target was me. What if they killed my father's friend in order to put pressure on me?"
"A friend you didn't even know existed until a few weeks, Haibara-san," her eyes narrowed and focused on the floor, which prompted him to continue. "Besides, why would they know-?"
"I felt it," Conan's mouth shut at those words. "At that department store in Haido City, on that day, as I was losing consciousness... I could feel the cold gaze of contempt on me."
His eyes widened in horror. "What do you...?" he whispered, his face losing colour. Then he snapped out of it and continued, his tone stronger than before. "Why did you come here, then?! You knew it would be dangerous, then why?!"
"Because I want to know," her voice did not waver. "I want to know whether my parents were really like the Organization claimed. Especially after meeting your cheerful mother."
Haibara noticed that, at the mention of his mother, the boy seemed to frown a bit more, and silently wondered about the reason behind his actions. But didn't even try to comment on it, simply continued.
"But the rumors about my father, the mad scientist, seem to be true. And my mother seemed silent and gloomy. It's hard to figure exactly what she was thinking, isn't it?"
"It must run down in the family, huh?"
Her lips curved into a smirk. "Do you know what they called my mother in the Organization?" Haibara added. "Hell Angel."
Conan did not find the right words to answer.
"Well, since this isn't interesting any longer, that's one less burden," with a shrug, she began to walk away. "All right, we're done with my troubles. Don't interfere with the case anymore. How about we leave this place now?"
"Are you sure about that?"
Not quite expecting the boy to say that, the scientist turned around to meet with Conan's ever arrogant, knowing smirk. "Aren't you interested in the thing that your sister hid in that bathroom?"
Her eyes went wide. "Did you find it?"
"No, but I know where it is," he stated, before grinning at the old professor. "I'll go pick it up while the Professor here gives out his brilliant deduction."
Agasa merely blinked at that.
"If there's poison on this, it should also be..." Megure pondered, after having found the poisoned toilet paper roll. "... On the bag with the empty toilet roll... And maybe the bottle used to house the poison."
"In the triangular corner of the sink drain," Haibara's eyes met with the culprit's. "If it were me, after planting the poison in the bathroom, I would hide it there while making the coffee in the kitchen. It's dirty and has an unpleasant smell. No one would dare touch it."
His eyes widened, and all of sudden it wasn't the strawberry blonde girl who was in front of him, but rather a brunette with wide, innocent eyes.
"Even if I couldn't get rid of it without drawing attention, someone would definitely do it for me on accident."
"Could you be hiding something? Don't hide it in the triangular corner. Somebody might throw it away."
Takagi then returned, a suspicious-looking bag on his hand. He claimed to have found it in the triangular corner of the sink drain.
Imai was forced to confess. Angered by something that had happened twenty years ago between him and the victim, he had decided to murder his boss. It had been little Akemi, with her adorable bright smile, that had stopped him from doing that terrible deed.
Then, she had come back, just as he was thinking of commiting murder again.
"I'll come again next week," her smile had been as bright as he remembered it. "I'll bring my little sister, too."
"But she never came."
Conan's head lowered and kept quiet, simply listening as Imai commented how badly he had looked forward seeing Akemi again. "I'll leave the rest to you, little detective," her last words were still clear and fresh in his mind, even if a long time had passed since then.
He didn't dare to look at his hands, since he knew he would still be able to see her blood in them.
He didn't dare to look at Haibara either, since he knew what kind of expression he would see on her face.
He simply clutched the package he had found in the bathroom, safely tucked away in his pocket.
It wasn't until when they were on their way home that he decided to take them out.
Inside the little plastic bag, there were cassette tapes, numbered one through twenty. Haibara had been speechless when he told her he had found them.
And she had been so terrified when he suggested that they could be leads to those men in black they knew perfectly well, yet not that much all the same.
"W-Wait!" she yelled, desperate, at the sight of him putting on some headphones to listen. "Don't! This isn't something you need to know!"
His finger hit play.
"For the six year-old..." he was confused when he heard the sweet, female voice resounding on his ears.
"If you probe any deeper, you will... Really-!"
She froze, then blinked, when he immediately pushed the 'stop' button. Light was refracting on his thick glasses, making it impossible to realize what he was thinking about.
"Forgive me, Haibara-san," Haibara was genuinely confused at the sincerity of his words. "This tape is something I shouldn't have heard," he took out his headphones, not even looking at her. "It's yours... It's a voice for you."
... A voice for me?
"Listen."
Without saying anything else, she hesitantly accepted the headphones and put it on place, watching in confusion as Conan pressed a button. Her eyes opened dramatically when a voice of a woman started speaking, pouring love in each and single word she said.
"For the six year-old Shiho... Happy Birthday."
Mom...
Conan didn't say anything, watching as the shock in Haibara's face gradually faded and a serene, tender smile came into light as her eyes closed, clearly enjoying the sound of her mother's soft, sweet voice.
Most likely, she felt that her own death was imminent, and asked Haibara-san's sister to pass along a message to her daughter... Via these cassette tapes.
He exchanged a smile with the professor, before the old man's eyes returned to the road. The boy, on the other hand, glanced at the happy girl one last time.
I'm happy for you, Haibara-san. Your mother was a real angel.
Then, his eyes closed. A long sigh escaped from his lips while his hand slid inside his pocket.
She might be far from an angel, but maybe...
The cool feeling of his phone on his fingers caused the boy to open his eyes and to gaze at the beautiful orange sky.
Maybe I should give mine a chance as well.
A/N:
Asahina Chihaya: No, I don't think I will. Even if I liked the movies, I feel like I don't have the necessary amount of knowledge about Lupin to write about him.
ajjr12: Sorry, must have accidentally skipped it. I hadn't thought about it, but I will think of it. Sounds cool ;)