File Ninety-Five: Tanabata Kyo
He isn't replying anymore, observed Conan, holding his phone close to his face. Is he ignoring me on purpose?
At the thought, Conan's stare transformed into a powerful glare. "He's enjoying this, isn't he?"
"Enjoy what?"
Though if asked about it the boy would fervently deny it, truth to be told, Conan really did scream, startled by the female voice, as he twirled around to meet a pair of inexpressibly deep eyes staring right into his soul. "A-Ai-san." He coughed twice, prompting her to raise an eyebrow. "You're awake."
"Good thing you noticed that," she said, without blinking. "Where's Shinichi-san, anyway? I thought he was coming with us."
"Ah, yeah, he had to go get changed..." His gaze fell on his phone. "I wonder what's taking him so long."
"Ah, there he is!" he heard a voice suddenly say. "Holmes' Apprentice!"
They both immediately turned around to see a pair, a young woman and a boy, waking straight up to them. "Apollo, and Minerva-san too..." Conan breathed out in surprise, gathering the adults' attention as well.
"What a surprise!" commented Kogoro upon seeing them. "What are you doing here?"
"We came to see you off," answered the kid as they both came to a stop right in front of the group. "We heard from the hotel staff that you were leaving today, so we hurried here to meet you!"
"Hotel staff?" Conan was a little creeped out, if he was being honest.
"It's the hotel where the Great Mouri Kogoro from Japan, the one who supposedly saved Wimbledon, was staying," Minerva explained with a smile. "Everyone was gossiping about it."
"Ah, really...?"
"But is it okay?" Ran questioned. "You must be really busy today..."
"Yeah, I have a lot of things to do, but I played hooky and came here." Minerva's grin widened. "Because no matter what, I had to thank you for that mail message."
Conan had absolutely no idea of what that message could possibly be about, but what he did notice was Ran's face warming up slightly, "Those words really resonated in my heart..." and just as Minerva continued on, her cheeks became even redder. "... 'While it's true that in tennis love is zero, zero is also-'"
"AH! Please, don't say that here!" Ran didn't look any better than a tomato, observed Conan with a clueless blink. "Actually, those words… They are passed on from him."
Him? That had definitely made his curiosity grow.
"... 'Him'? Could that be the boyfriend who was causing you distress in front of the Holmes' statue?"
"Y-Yes, well-" She stopped suddenly and snapped her head to where the little bespectacled boy was, staring with those wide and curious eyes of his, and turned back to Minerva. "N-No! I mean, no. He's not my boyfriend!"
"I knew it!" Conan suddenly said, making Ran wince. "So it was him who you were talking about!"
"No-"
"Say, say, Minerva-san!" Not minding the teenage girl panicking, attempting to stop him, the little boy walked even closer to the tennis player. "What did he say after that?"
"Conan-kun," Ran hissed, but he promptly ignored it.
"Would you tell me?" He wasn't above pleading either ─ because he knew that neither Ran nor his brother would ever tell him about it. "Please~!"
Minerva gazed down at him for long enough for the boy to feel as if he was going to get his answer, but then her smile took an apologetic turn, "Sorry, but it seems I will have to keep it to myself," and those words reached his ears. "I owe that girl this much, at least."
Conan deflated with a huff and crossed his arms in front of his chest.
Unlike him, Ran looked definitely grateful by her silence. "So, Minerva-san..." she said, after taking a moment to let out the breath she didn't know she had been holding. "What I wanted to say is… If you tell those words to Ares-san as well..."
"About that, I've already sent him a message and got his reply." Minerva plucked out her phone and gazed down at his text lovingly. "He said, 'I've got training, so I can't meet you right now'..."
For some reason the little detective did not know about, Ran looked really disheartened to hear it. Ares? The boy pondered over it for a moment. Her coach?
"So he's training some other player?" Apollo was annoyed. "He did say he was going to be someone else's coach..."
"No, it's his own." They both stared at her in surprise. "It seems he's going to make a comeback as a tennis player."
And that had lifted their spirits somehow ─ Conan observed her smile at her phone for a little longer, then turned to see Ran and Apollo's relieved expressions, and blinked in confusion. "Say," he whispered, moving slightly closer to the little girl who stared at them, blankly as usual. "Is there some romantic subplot I've been overlooking or…?"
She shrugged in response. "Several, I'd say," she answered, glancing at the older girl from the corner of her eye.
Conan said nothing about it, merely observing Ran for a second, before his gaze fell on the scientist, who hadn't yet teared her eyes away from her. He doubted she had noticed it herself, but Ai was smiling, yet, there wasn't a sense of happiness on it.
Upon seeing it, Conan's mouth opened ─ then closed immediately thereafter.
"And that isn't all I came here for," Minerva said, taking Conan's attention away from the little girl and back to her. He was confused at first, but then she kneeled down in front of him, causing him to flinch in surprise ─ she giggled a little at that. "I wanted to express my thanks to this child, as well."
Conan didn't know how to react when she smiled, even brighter. "Thank you a lot, Holmes' Apprentice," she said. "For saving my mom."
"Yeah!" Apollo grinned as well. "Thanks a lot!"
"Eh… No..." He scratched the back of his neck, awkwardly, and cringed when he felt his cheeks warming ─ obviously. "I-It was nothing..."
A giggle coming from his side had him glaring at Ai, who wasn't even afraid to hide her amusement. "Holmes' Apprentice?" Apollo's voice stopped him from continuing any further, however. "Are you okay?"
"No, he's okay." Ran couldn't hold back a giggle. "Conan-kun is just a little bashful."
"Eh? Really?" Apollo gave him a curious look. "He didn't seem so shy when he screamed Minerva's name in the middle of Centre Court..."
"If I were to say..." Ai gave the boy in question a smug look. "I'd say he was dying inside all the while."
Conan averted her gaze. "Leave me alone."
Everyone, even Kogoro, laughed at that, leaving Conan to scowl and wish, with all his might, that the conversation topic would change, or that the ground would swallow him whole ─ whichever worked just as fine. But then the blonde boy walked even closer, with a genuine smile on his face.
"Anyway, if you ever return to London, give me a call!" he said, then shook his head. "Nevermind that, call me whenever you want!"
"Eh?" He blinked owlishly at him.
"You, too!" Not noticing Conan's confusion, Apollo turned to Ai. "I'd love to hear about you guys again after you return to Japan."
Unlike the boy before her, the girl simply smiled. "It was nice to meet you, Glass-kun."
He nodded eagerly and glanced at his sister, telling her without words that they should get going. Conan stared, cluelessly, as he smiled once more at them, and turned around to go home. Ran and the others waved goodbye at them one last time, prompting the siblings to do the same, and began to walk away.
Conan watched them getting further and further away, slowly disappearing amongst the flow of people. Suddenly, something seemed to click, causing his legs to move on his own and take a few steps ahead.
"Apollo!" Only when the blonde boy in question glanced at him from over his shoulder did Conan notice he had cried it out, "I won't forget this time!" but continued, regardless. "I won't forget to call you!"
Apollo didn't reply right away, just continued to stare at him so intensely that made Conan falter, worrying that he had overdone it a little. When the boy slowly turned around, the bespectacled cringed ─ he had definitely overdone it. By the time he had, like him, taken a few steps forwards, Conan was ready to back off and try to hide somewhere. Apollo brought his hands, cupping his mouth ─ the boy presumed it was to tell him off, or something.
"You better!" Hence, his surprise was enormous when those words reached his ears. "I'll be waiting for it, Conan!"
And then, he grinned ─ an action that Conan obviously replicated. Now relieved that his message had gotten across, the child watched Apollo returning to his sister, who was beaming at the scene at this point, and turned around to do the same.
"Woah, look at you," he heard a familiar voice say before he could even focus on whoever was in front of him. "Making friends all on your own." His surprise dimmed when he recognized the grin directed straight at him. "Way to go, Conan."
Even though he knew his intentions were far from teasing, it still irked him a little, so he raised his head to glare hatefully at his older brother, and his mouth opened to shoot something at him.
"Ah? Aren't you-?"
"Long time no see." Conan felt his blood freeze at the sound of that voice. "Detective Mouri."
The boy said nothing, just silently looked around his brother. Like he had feared, there was a blonde detective standing in front of the group, who couldn't stop blinking in confusion at him. "Oh!" Presumably feeling his intense gaze, the blonde's eyes fell straight into his form. "Conan-kun, hello there."
Conan wasn't ashamed to admit that he had moved at his friendly, yet disturbing smile ─ he might have hid away from sight using his brother's long legs. Not that the person had minded ─ instead, he smirked and turned back to speak with Ran, who wouldn't stop making questions.
Once he confirmed he was out of sight, Conan raised his head and gave his brother a look. "Hakuba?" he whispered. "Seriously?"
"That isn't the worst part." Shinichi sighed, making the boy's eyebrows arch in question. "He knows."
For a moment, the kid didn't understand what he meant, but then it dawned on him, eyes widening as he fully processed the information. Shocked, he peeked out and gave Hakuba a last glimpse before turning back to his brother.
"You're right ─ that's definitely worse."
"And I'm stuck with him all the way to Tokyo."
"... I'd wish you good luck but, evidently, it'd be in vain."
He really hung up on me, thought Kaito, giving his phone a last look, before setting it back on his desk. I wonder if I was too late.
Not that it would be his fault this time, he reflected while moving around his room, stretching his arms around ─ he had really been trying to warn the detective about Hakuba all day long, but for some reason or another, he hadn't been able to fulfill his mission. Mainly her, he thought, approaching the window and casting a look at the house right in front of his.
All lights were already off ─ not surprising, since it was rather late already ─ the magician observed as he rested his elbows on the windowsill, gazing down at the window from where the girl would yell at him every morning, telling him to wake up or that he wouldn't get to school on time.
What was up with her today, anyway? Even he could see she had been acting strange today, to say the least. She was part of the reason he hadn't gotten to call Kudo until this late ─ if not to say the entire reason. Kaito didn't know what had possessed her, if she had been too excited after the adventure she had been through, or that she wasn't ready to let her holidays go just like that, but as soon as they had stepped off the plane, she had invited Akako and him to Tropical Land.
Kaito had fully expected the witch to decline the invitation, yet, strangely, she had accepted to come along.
"Just for a little while," Aoko had said and, sure enough, they had been there for hours. In fact, it hadn't been until recently that he went back home, so late into the night, a school night at that, and had rushed to the phone. "Please, Kaito!"
At the moment, he had thought little about it, but now that he looked back he couldn't help wondering if there wasn't something weird after all ─ a weird glint in her eyes as she looked straight at his, as if she could see his very soul with them. Odd.
"Well, then..." he said to himself, stepping away from the window and turning back around. "Guess I should get some sleep."
Not that he thought he actually could ─ especially when he could see his smile in the room's corner, illuminated by the gentle glow of the moon. "Need to get a curtain or something," he grumbled, facing away from the framed picture covering KID's secret door and closing his eyes.
But to no avail ─ the smile still lingered there, behind his lids.
"Tonight, I've come to Touto Tower in Minato Ward. Here at Touto Tower, the Tanabata Fair is currently underway..."
Curious about it, Conan looked up to the woman on the TV. Tanabata? he thought in surprise, eyes lingering on the Touto Tower behind the reporter, standing big and beautiful as ever.
Right, Tanabata is coming up soon, he thought, leaning into his hand and continuing to watch. With everything that happened in London, I've almost forgotten…
Wonder if Ayumi-chan and the others would like to visit it… It doesn't look half bad.
"Conan-kun?" Ran called from the doorway, wiping her hands that had gone wet from washing the dishes. "Are you done with your bag?"
"Huh?" Conan blinked, then turned to his bag. "Ah, well..."
The girl said nothing, but giggled lightly, entertained by the sight of the boy struggling to put one of his books inside, forehead creased as he struggled to make up some space for it. "Conan-kun," he stopped short when he heard her say. "You don't need that."
"I do," he argued. "Try hanging up with Genta and the others for hours, and remain partially sane."
She watched him fight with his bag for a little longer until a fond sigh escaped her. "Let me help you." Kneeling beside him, she gently took his things from his hands. "Do you have everything you need?"
"Yeah."
Ran peeked inside his bag, then raised her eyebrow at him. "I think you forgot a flashlight."
"Ah, you're right!"
"Really." She shook her head with a small smile. "You remembered the mystery book, but not that."
Conan laughed awkwardly. "I'll just go get one," he said, rushing out before she could think of stopping him. "There's one at the office, right?"
"Yeah!" she shouted after him. "It should be at Dad's desk."
"Got it!"
Moments later, the boy found himself huffing in frustration, digging through the older detective's drawers, with little to no success. Really, it's a mess in here, he thought, grumbling as he took some random papers out to see if there was something underneath it ─ sure enough, there wasn't a flashlight, but a box of cigarettes. Now, how did that get there?
Maybe I should just depend on my wristwatch… Though the possibility of running out of battery was high enough to be uncomfortable. Or I could just ask Ai-san to bring another one-
His thoughts came to a halt when he heard a loud noise coming from outside. "Who's that?" he called out. "Ran-neechan?"
The fact that only quietness had answered his question made him pause, eyeing the door weirdly. Occhan is still out for mahjong, therefore it couldn't be him, he realized as he gingerly opened it, peeking out to see who was out there.
But it was so strange ─ he looked from side to side, yet he found nobody. Perhaps he had imagined it, he concluded, snorting to himself and turned around to continue his search for the missing flashlight...
Silver ─ he didn't even get to process what he had seen when a hand sealed his lips shut, preventing him from screaming out in utter horror.
"So we finally met..." His gaze was just as terrifying as he remembered it, and so cold that it made him feel as if he was freezing just by looking at it. "Edogawa Conan... No, Kudo Conan, isn't it?"
Hadn't his hand been still clamped against his face, he would probably have screamed right now.
"Hell of a surprise, eh, Aniki?" a man with sunglasses approached from the darkness. "That Singani had a little brother all along."
"I should have known that the high school detective's brother hadn't died in a car accident, as we were all led to believe, and that he was still alive..." Despite what he was seeing, the silver-haired man grinned in a way that sent shivers down his back. "Well, that's about to change."
Conan could only frown, uselessly struggling against the man's grip. Gin and Vodka. His hands flew to his face, attempting in vain to get free, only for Gin to raise him up in the air, so effortlessly at that. How… How did they find me?!
"Relax, I'm not going to kill you." Gin's sadistic grin widened. "Yet."
That definitely didn't calm his nerves ─ not that was Gin's intention in any way. "Conan-kun?" Ran's voice reached his ears, making his eyes bulge out, completely terrified. "Conan-kun, what's going on? I heard some loud noises down there."
As Gin stepped away, still holding onto Conan, allowing Vodka to move closer, the kid panicked and struggled, kicking the air uselessly, hoping that he could do something, anything, to warn her about the danger she was unknowingly walking straight into.
"Keep your eyes peeled," Gin whispered close to his ear. "Bear witness to the destiny of the people you've become involved with."
"Conan-kun! Everything alright?"
The all-too-familiar click of the gun made his blood freeze, "Conan-kun?" and the sight of Vodka raising his gun caused him to let out a muffled cry.
Ran's silhouette could be seen from the other side of the door, standing idly, undoubtedly worried about what had kept him quiet for so long. "I'm coming in," she announced.
"Don't worry, we're just making sure Sherry doesn't get too lonely up there." Conan's breath hitched at that. "After this girl, it will be that other traitor rat's turn." His eyes widened, powerless to do anything but watch as the doorknob slowly opened. "When he learns that his precious little brother is in our hands, he will definitely come to us."
No… His vision was gradually becoming clouded by the tears collecting in the rim of his eyes. Please, don't…
Stop it...
Gin's cold laughter at his side made him squeeze his eyes shut.
With a gentle squeak, the door began to open.
"RAN-!" Conan's eyes flew open. "... neechan..."
All of a sudden, it was all, just, gone. "Conan-kun." A hand on his shoulder made him cry out in fright, head snapping to the source instantly, only to meet with Ai's severe, yet also concerned, gaze ─ alive, his mind echoed. She said nothing, merely watched as that wild look slowly dimmed as he slowly took into his surroundings.
Right, I'm still in the plane... Conan took a deep breath in. What a nightmare.
Soon, the silence was filtered by what seemed to the rest of the passengers whispering amongst each other, about him ─ when he realized he was the topic of their conversation and fully comprehended what he had done, the little boy couldn't help but try to sink into his seat. Noticing this, the girl beside him promptly stood up on her seat, facing the back.
Conan had absolutely no idea what she did, but the plane went absolutely silent after that ─ frankly, he was scared to ask.
"Are you okay, Conan-kun?" He looked back ahead, just to see the girl whose name he had screamed a few seconds before. Slowly, he nodded, attempting to put a reassuring smile on his face. "Are you sure?"
"Yeah, I'm okay, Ran-neechan." And he was not lying.
Now that he could see her there, crouching down in front of him. Especially when she sighed, and leaned forward to embrace him tightly ─ an action that, undoubtedly, he replicated, burying his face in her chest and allowing her heartbeat to reassure him she hadn't been shot by Vodka. That she was okay ─ that everyone was okay.
Ran patiently waited for the little boy to release her, but his hold tightened, as if he was afraid that she would disappear if he loosened his grip, even a little. Poor thing. She smiled sympathetically, tenderly stroking his hair. I wonder what he was dreaming about.
Considering who this boy was, and everything he had gone through in his brief life, it wouldn't be like the ordinary nightmare children would suffer from. It left a foul taste in her mouth, just by imagining it ─ and filled her with rage, all the same.
"Ran."
Without releasing the boy just yet, the girl's head jerked up. She wasn't surprised by the teenage boy that looked down at them from over the seat, frowning in concern at the scene ─ she wondered for how long he had been doing that, actually. Smiling in return, she shook her head, wordlessly telling him he could sit back, that she had everything handled there.
So Shinichi merely stood there, watching as Ai suddenly hopped off her seat, offering it to Ran. The teenage girl smiled gratefully and gracefully accepted it. Adding nothing else, Ai promptly sat on the empty seat beside Kogoro, who eyed her for a second before he looked away, intimidated by her icy gaze.
Normally, her second choice would have been Professor Agasa, but it didn't look all that possible anymore. Without fully meaning to, his gaze wandered over the man in question, who seemed to be rather uncomfortable right now. Leave it to Hakuba. The old woman remained eyed by him silently, as if judging and definitely not bothering to hide it, until she seemed to lose interest and turned back to the window. To have a housekeeper just as disturbing as him.
For a moment, Shinichi felt a little bad for him, "So, now that's settled with..." until he realized his situation was undoubtedly worse. "Shall we continue with our little chat, Hirai-kun?" Shinichi glared from over his shoulder. "Oh, my apologies. It is actually Kudo-kun, correct?"
"You don't have to pretend you didn't know until recently," Shinichi said with a sigh, lowering back to his seat. "Not after you called my father to solve the case."
"Like I said, it was a coincidence," Hakuba said, smiling in a way that only convinced Shinichi of the complete opposite. "I'm quite known in London, so the Scotland Yard asked me to head there first thing in the morning to have a look at the many codes that children were receiving lately. I just did the sensible thing and called the right person for this. Is there something wrong with it?"
"Oh, I don't know." Shinichi huffed in indignation. "Maybe the fact that you pretended you had never heard about the case when I told you about it?"
"I merely wanted to see how you handled this. Yusaku Kudo-san was already working on it, so there was no harm, was it?" Though his fellow detective looked ready to chew him off for that, Hakuba couldn't really be bothered by it. "Once more, you proved what I already knew. You are Kudo Shinichi."
Shinichi felt out of words for a moment. "For how long have you known?"
"Well, I always believed there was something weird about your case, to begin with," he explained. "If there was something I knew about you, Kudo-kun, is that you are a showoff." Shinichi's glare intensified, yet it didn't have any effect. "You would always be willing to smile for the camera. That, and the fact that you would seem to stumble upon crime scenes on a daily basis, caused your name to appear in the news nearly every day…"
Hakuba frowned a little. "Until one day, it didn't. You had just vanished from Earth," he continued. "Not too long thereafter, Hirai Arthur transferred to our class. Even undercover, it would seem you couldn't stop running into dead bodies either." He smirked a little. "Every single one of those cases, even those where I wasn't present, would get solved in one day, or even less. Impressive, isn't it?"
Shinichi huffed, resting his cheek on his fist, gaze lingering on the darkened sky outside. "You haven't explained how you knew about Conan."
"Nishitamashi Twin Tower Buildings' disaster ─ it was obvious from your reaction that you were close to this boy. I had heard about the supposedly tragic death of the youngest son of the Kudo family, so I instantly thought of him."
"That doesn't prove anything."
"No… But I saw it with my own eyes." Shinichi blinked cluelessly at that. Hakuba only snorted at his expression. "He's your carbon copy, Kudo-kun. There was no doubt about it ─ he had to be your younger brother."
The fact that Hakuba had deduced it so easily on his own hadn't been as surprising as it was terrifying. He supposed he had been lucky, in a way, that he was the one to figure out. Hakuba Saguru could be many things, but he wasn't intrinsically evil ─ not entirely, at least. Conan's secret identity should be safe with him.
"Once my curiosity was satiated, I was going to let go ─ whatever trouble you had gotten into wasn't my business. But it changed after Midnight Crow's heist," Hakuba said, crossing his legs. "A heist that I heard you were strangely missing, even if Conan-kun attended."
"And what does it have to do with anything?"
"They found me in the parking lot after KID supposedly used me as a disguise. But as I was leaving, I noticed something." Hakuba's eyes narrowed. "There was a car with a key clearly stuck on its right front tire. It appeared as if it had been a deliberate action."
"It could have been a prank-"
"There was blood." Shinichi's mouth clicked shut at that. "Just a few droplets on the door, but I used luminol, just in case. I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw larger spots of blood all over the floor ─ someone had cleaned it up in a hurry. Nothing that you'd expect from a KID's heist, right?"
Shinichi didn't reply ─ of course there was blood, since that was when Snake had been shot by Vermouth. Why was Hakuba carrying luminol around, anyway? He decided not to ask it out loud. That would've probably been what disturbed him the most, if he hadn't realized that he was barely surprised about it.
"Evidently I returned to the scene to see who this car belonged to." His eyes narrowed at the memory. "I kept my distance, thinking that I could pretend to be waiting for someone else. What I didn't expect was to meet the world-famous actress, Chris Vineyard, approaching it."
Shinichi straightened up at that, frowning in concern. "Did she see you?"
Hakuba gave him a serious look. "She sneered when she saw me, Kudo-kun. Winked and blew me a kiss, too." The other detective passed a hand through his hair, sighing heavily, but Hakuba's expression barely shifted. "That woman knew I was onto her, but didn't mind."
A long silence ensued, allowing Shinichi to put his thoughts in order. "Who is she?" But obviously, the quietness wouldn't last long with Hakuba there, determined to get an answer for himself. "And what do you have to do with her?"
For what seemed like the eleventh time today, Shinichi sighed, turning to glance from over Hakuba at the professor sitting on the seat with Hakuba's housekeeper and smiled apologetically. Looks like we won't sit together this time around, he thought. I'll have to deal with this for a little longer.
Finally, he locked eyes with the detective, who simply stared back, determined as always. "Alright, Hakuba," said Shinichi with a nod. "I'm going to start from the beginning."
"Oh, found one!"
From his spot on top of the tree, Conan watched his friends cheer, excited at the prospect, and sighed a little, placing the newfound beetle inside the little box he was carrying. Really, he mentally huffed. I just got to Japan a few hours ago, and I'm already hanging out with them.
Agasa had informed about it when he had been told they were staying in London for another day, claiming that he had promised the children they would do something fun after school. Conan had complained a little at first, since being with them was the last thing he needed after such a tiring trip…
Despite that, despite all he had said before, the little boy found himself smiling at the sight of them jumping around excitedly, laughing to themselves in joy. It looked like, in the end, there was nowhere else he would rather be than right there with all of them.
"Bear witness to the destiny of the people you've become involved with."
Conan shook his head rapidly, willing Gin's icy gaze away from his mind. Get a hold of yourself, he scolded himself. It was just a bad dream.
"Alright!" Genta's loud shout woke him up from his stupor. "I'll climb up too!"
"I wouldn't try if I were you," replied Ai, directing a teasing smirk to Conan, for some reason the bespectacled boy didn't get. "The only ones who can climb that high would be either Conan-kun or monkeys."
No wonder he was looking at him like that, Conan realized with a glare. "Excuse me for being a monkey."
"Oh, I know," Agasa suddenly said. "You can use the suspenders."
Conan actually remembered those. The professor had upgraded them a few months prior, but hadn't found any better use. Agasa had said, now that he thought about it, something that they now could extend from about one-hundred meters now ─ why would he need it to be that long, anyway?
If I'm not mistaken… He carefully latched the suspenders on a branch and leaned forward. I just need to push this button and...
Click.
And now, Vodka was holding up a gun to Ran's head, waiting for her to open the door with a sadistic sneer on his face. Not good, not good. He fought to wipe away the picture that seemingly harmless sound had conjured in his mind. It was a dream. Just a dream…
Just a disturbingly plausible scenario my brain made up for the sake of messing with me… But just a dream, nonetheless-
"Ow!"
Blinking, Conan peered down and cringed, "My bad," he said, watching Genta massage his head while he glared at him. He had accidentally made him bump his head against the branch he had climbed up before, Conan realized.
"Geez, be more careful-! I found a beetle!"
Everyone shared a nervous laugh as they watched the boy gazing in amazement at the beetle passing right in front of his face, until Mitsuhiko suddenly exclaimed that he had found a rhinoceros beetle, prompting him and Ayumi to chase after it until it stopped to rest its wings in a tree. "There's two of them! A male and a female!" shouted Mitsuhiko, undoubtedly happy. "Huh? This female beetle..."
Tugged by curiosity, Conan zoomed in with his glasses to see for himself that the female's wings had been taped, forming what it seemed to be a 'V' shape. Both children loudly expressed their disgust at such a mean action, to which Conan couldn't help but agree.
"Huh? There are some words on it..."
"It says 'open'." the child in the tree stated right away, adjusting his glasses a little. "You know, like the tape found on bento boxes. Ask Professor Agasa ─ I'm sure he has seen plenty of them."
All gazes fell on the old professor, but he only reacted violently at the scientist's raised eyebrow, flinching then laughing nervously while he focused on peeling the tape off the beetle's wings. "But who would do something like this?" he wondered out loud, just as Conan began to slowly climb down the tree. "What an awful prank."
"But since there's a male and a female here..." Mitsuhiko said. "Could it be that they actually are lovers?"
Yeah, right, thought Conan sarcastically. And they are having an affair, too.
"Then, I'll name them! Let's see..." Ayumi pondered for a little. "The boy will be called Hikoboshi! And the girl Orihime-!"
There was a loud sound behind them, prompting them to stop and twirl around to see that the boy had somehow lost his footing and fallen on his rear. "Oh, my." Instead of worrying, Ai snorted. "It would seem that it's true that even monkeys fall from trees."
"So funny," replied Conan, offering her a sour look as he stood up.
She didn't mind. The other two gave him another worried glance, before returning to their business ─ something that Conan was absolutely grateful about.
That was stupid. Grumbling to himself, the boy went back to his feet. Just because Tanabata is coming doesn't mean…
Yeah, even if it is exactly like that dream-
"Conan-kun?" Ayumi started in confusion. Just now, the little boy had passed his hand through his hair, sighing irritably. "Are you okay?"
"Y-Yeah, just… uh… Couldn't you have chosen… other names?"
Mitsuhiko and Ayumi blinked in confusion. "Is something wrong with them?" said Ai, crossing her arms in front of her chest.
"Well, not exactly… But-"
"Oh, it would seem you have a better name."
Conan hoped his flinch hadn't been as evident as he thought it had. "How about… Umm..." Suddenly, his eyes went wide, and a grin took over his face. "Oh, 'Orange' sounds nice, doesn't it?"
The three children stared cluelessly at him, then to the female beetle ─ that was definitely not orange. Conan seemed to grow exasperated at their reaction.
"You know, the tape in the female wings looked like the number 'five' in Roman numbers," he explained. "Five! Like The Five Orange Pips by Arthur Conan Doyle!"
Ai stared impassively for a couple of seconds longer, before her gaze dulled completely.
"Now then, for the male… Ah, it definitely has to be-!"
"Hikoboshi," she interrupted him in a very plain tone. "And the female is Orihime. Period."
"But-"
"Don't make me repeat myself."
"It doesn't… fit."
"Why? It makes perfect sense to me," Ai explained to the frowning boy. "Apart from the number 'five', the tape on the female beetle forms the letter 'V', which is the initial of Vega, the English word for Orihime. Now, isn't it suitable?"
"Yeah, it is... But Orange-"
"Knock it off. Nobody likes that name."
Conan looked as if he wanted to add something, but then his mouth clicked shut. Ai, and the other two children, barely refrained themselves from laughing when he looked away with a huff, crossing his arms in front of his chest.
Meanwhile, Genta watched them laugh. Wondering all the while how he was supposed to get down from there.
Conan had thought that after four entire days in the country he had always dreamed of visiting and an entire afternoon playing around with his friends, he would have a nice, restful sleep that night. Obviously, if he had it that easy, he wouldn't be, well, himself.
The nightmare came as vicious as the other time, with the only difference that he didn't scream out in horror, waking and worrying everyone nearby. This time around, he had only gasped, eyes snapping open only to stare at the ceiling, so intense and frightened, until he finally realized that it had been just another nightmare.
Kogoro's loud snores that, any other night, would have him groaning and covering his ears with a pillow, made him sigh in relief, letting his eyes flicker towards him and linger there long enough to reassure himself that nothing had changed.
So, he turned over and closed his eyes, willing himself to get some sleep.
He guessed he had dozed off at some point of the night because, next thing he knew, Ran's gentle voice was calling for him, shaking him lightly until he cracked one eye open and looked up at her. "Conan-kun." She smiled. "You're going to be late for school."
Conan stared at her sleepily until he finally understood and shot up from bed. I overslept! he cried in his mind, attempting to get up, only for his feet to tangle in his blankets, prompting him to stumble forward and just barely avoid landing on his face. He got up right away and made a run to the bathroom so that he could get changed.
Ran watched him go for a moment, before giggling in amusement.
Fortunately, the rest of his school day went by peacefully, which Conan found a little strange considering, well, everything but enjoyable nonetheless. He just smiled to himself, walking up to the agency, expecting to see Kogoro sitting on the couch, grinning at the TV. But paused right at the door.
Usually, Okino Yoko's singing would be heard even from downstairs. This time around, everything was silent. He decided he didn't like that.
So he opened the door to find Kogoro's office completely deserted. Odd, he thought, giving the room one last scan before stepping away. Where could he have gone?
"Bear witness-"
"Ah, brat. You're home already?"
He hoped the jump hadn't been as violent as he thought he was, but considering the odd look Kogoro gave him, he supposed it had. "O-Occhan," Conan mumbled, still shaken. "What are you doing there?"
Kogoro raised his eyebrow. "It's my house. What did you expect?"
"... I don't know."
The older detective watched him, confused by his weird reaction, before shrugging it off. "Anyway, I have to go," he said, fixing his necktie as he passed by him. "Ran should be home any second now, so don't cause any trouble in the meantime."
Conan blinked. "You got a case?"
"The police asked me to come." That was new, the child noticed as his own eyebrows rose. "I'm not sure about the details, but it seems to be a serial killing."
The boy thought over his words, watching as the man stepped into the street for a second, "Serial killing?" and questioned, rushing down the stairs to join him. "Here in Tokyo?"
Kogoro sighed, a little irritated by the questioning. "Not only there," he replied, though, raising his hand to call for a taxi. "Kanagawa, Shizuoka, Nagano ─ it's all over the place."
Conan hummed in thought, watching as the car came to a stop right in front of them. "Say, how do they know it's the same killer?" he continued to ask, shuffling inside the taxi right after the man. "They could've been unrelated."
He almost could not wait for the Kogoro to finish telling the taxi driver the directions before continuing to speak. "It appears the murderer left something behind in each scene."
"Really? What is it?"
"I don't know," Kogoro huffed, turning to scowl at the little child. "I will when I get there, okay-?" He stopped suddenly, prompting Conan's head to tilt and stare in utter confusion. "You! What are you doing here?! Get out of the car!"
"It's too late now," he said, motioning to the window with his head, showing him that they were already at the highway, and grinned mischievously. "Guess I'll just have to tag along!"
His smile didn't waver under Kogoro's gaze. It intensified. "Whatever," he heard Kogoro sigh as he leaned into the seat to glare at the window instead. "Just tell Ran to meet us there after school."
"Yes~! Thank you, Ojisan!"
"Annoying little rascal..."
"I'm making an exception by bringing you here, you hear me?" Kogoro said sternly, and walked close to a seat, the little child trailing down behind. "Ran said she's going to get here in five minutes, so you will sit here quietly and wait for her."
Conan promptly sat where he had been told. "Got it," he said, but it seemed like that unnatural obedience made the great detective hesitate.
"You'll wait right here."
"Yeah."
"Causing no trouble."
"Alright."
"And you will listen to Ran when she arrives. No trouble for her either-"
"You're entering a loop, Ojisan," Conan stated, cutting him short before he could continue. "I'm not going anywhere, I promise."
Kogoro still was unconvinced, and the smile he gave him only made his suspicions raise, "Ah, Mouri-san!" but the voice made him tear his attention away from the boy and to Takagi and Sato approaching them.
"Thanks for coming in on such short notice," said Sato, before her eyes fell on the little child sitting there. "Oh, hello there, Conan-kun."
"Good afternoon, Detective Sato, Detective Takagi!"
Conan's polite and equally happy response was a whole new level of disturbing, Kogoro decided. So, he gave him a last warning glance before following the two around the corner. The kid remained there, smiling innocently, until they disappeared from sight.
A focused frown replaced the smile as he jumped back into his feet and, as stealthy as he could, peeked around the corner, letting his gaze fall on the three adults approaching the door. Once they disappeared behind it, the kid made a run for it.
I'm not going anywhere… outside of this building.
The conference room was crowded with people, realized Conan as he peeked inside, making him wonder why there were so many members of the police called for a measly murder. This is probably bigger than it originally looked like, he concluded, slowly tiptoeing inside. Fortunately, everyone was so focused on their own business to notice the little kid rushing to hide behind a nearby desk at the front.
"Oh, isn't that Mouri-san?" From his spot, he could clearly hear Yokomizo Sango say. "Long time no see!"
"Your voice is as loud as ever, Yokomizo..."
"I'm Sango. And this is my brother Juugo."
"I know that," Kogoro replied, a little exasperated. "And who's this lady with you?"
"Eh? Oh, excuse me. This is Inspector Ogino with the Saitama police."
Curious about it, too ─ but, obviously, for reasons different from the detective out there ─ the boy's head peeked out a little to look at the unfamiliar face talking with Kogoro. "I'm Ogino Ayami." Inspector Ogino was a serious woman, by what Conan could see from his spot. Calm, collected, but a tad too serious compared to the idiots surrounding her ─ not that it was precisely bad, nor that much of an accomplishment, thought the child. "I've heard much about you."
But it didn't explain why she was there if she belonged to the Saitama police. The question came through immediately, though, and the child got his answer. The victim killed in Tokyo had been from Tokorozawa, thus she had been called to the conference.
"And you, Mouri-san! Why are you here?"
Conan actually wondered the same thing. Occhan is not part of the police any longer.
"He was invited to serve as a special advisor, as per Superintendent Matsumoto's request," Sato explained right away.
Ah, Superintendent Matsumoto. Conan hadn't had as much contact with almost every other inspector chatting there, but he remembered he had met him once. After he had moved there, but before his brother's disappearance at Tropical Land, he had tagged along for his daughter's wedding, since she was Shinichi's middle-school music teacher…
Come to think of it, now I understand why Oniichan panicked so badly when she said I looked like him… To this date, he still remembered Shinichi's pale face when she had pointed it out, with an innocent smile on her face. She looked so happy that her old students had come too.
Too bad she hadn't known that inviting Kudo Shinichi to her wedding worked just as fine as inviting Death itself. She had almost become a victim of poisoning that day, saved by Shinichi's quick judgment and first-aid knowledge.
What Conan would never understand was that she still wished to marry the guy that had attempted to kill her when he got out of jail. Love is weird, definitely.
"To think we have to call upon a private detective for aid…" Juugo sighed. "Such a shame."
"Agreed."
While everyone turned to the person who had just spoken, Conan felt himself holding back a gasp. Yamamura was there but, while any other day he would probably be groaning over having to deal with such an useless detective, this time around he paid no mind to him. Instead, he focused on the man next to him.
"That quack detective with the Gunma police is here, huh?" Kogoro sighed, not minding that he was standing right in front of him. "And you are…?"
"Ah, that's Inspector Yamato Kansuke from Nagano police!" Sango explained quickly.
"From Nagano, huh?"
Ah, that's the Inspector Yamato that Hattori told me about. The boy had never met him before, but had heard a lot from the western detective. Apparently, Hattori had once been hired to investigate a murder in Nagano and had met this guy.
"At first glance, he seems like a serious and collected guy, but don't let that fool you!" Hattori had said then. "He is quite hot-tempered!"
"... Have you ever seen a mirror?" the boy had replied.
His hands tightened against the desk he was hiding behind, focusing on the cross-shaped scar on his left side. By looks alone, it seemed like he had lost his eye.
"He injured an eye in some kind of accident." Ai's voice echoed in his mind.
At the memory, he frowned. Besides being one-eyed, Inspector Yamato was definitely a big guy, and his hair was long enough that he had to tie it back. Maybe due to an accident of some sort, he was walking around with a cane. Come to think of it, from a distance, he could look old...
"A large brawny man. An effeminate man. An old man. Nobody ever agrees on what he looked like."
Conan shook his head. What am I thinking about? he thought, though his eyes had yet to leave the inspector's form. Rum is already dead.
Even so, he had to admit he had met Rum before, but even he hadn't been able to meet all three descriptions so well.
He's so scary, too… Suddenly, Yamato's eyes flickered away from Kogoro and right in his direction, causing him to scramble backwards to remain hidden. And sharp, too.
"But, didn't the incident happen in Nagano?" Pressing his back against the wooden desk, the child heard Kogoro speak. "Why bring someone in from Gunma?"
There was a pause ─ Conan was not willing to check what it was about. "Because the crime scene lies on the border of Nagano and Gunma." The child could have sighed in relief when he heard Inspector Yamato speaking. "Seeing as how-"
"The victim's body from the knees down was in Gunma Prefecture!" Yamamura cut him off. "See? Right here, in my badge, it says-!"
"I already know your name… Huh?! Inspector?!" Conan could barely refrain himself from crying out in shock like the great detective before him. "You were promoted to inspector?!"
As the detective from Gunma ─ the boy stubbornly refused to call him 'Inspector' ─ confirmed the claim, Conan couldn't help but blink, completely astounded by the revelation. Soon, however, the shock receded and a strong sense of pity and worry enveloped him whole.
Is Gunma really going to make it?
"Say," Sango said suddenly. "Did the boy with glasses not come?"
Conan perked up at that.
"Ah, you mean Conan?" Kogoro sounded annoyed. Conan cringed a little ─ maybe he had pushed so many buttons today. "Yeah, the brat is waiting outside."
"Why don't you let him inside?" The great detective made a confused sound. "When he's around, cases always get solved somehow!"
Even if he wasn't seen, the boy still tried to hide further behind the desk, crawling under it and hoping that they would just stop talking about him, "Come to think of it..." but seeing that Juugo decided to speak, it seemed they would not stop. "That's happened to me as well."
"It's happened to me also!" Yamamura beamed.
"You guys too?" Takagi joined.
"Actually, it's also happened to us," and Sato explained.
Yeah, yeah, we got the point already, thought Conan. Could you just drop it?
"Conan?" he heard Yamato ask. "Who's that?"
"Ah, Edogawa Conan-kun," Sato explained to him. "He's a little boy who lives with Mouri-san. Sometimes he notices things we adults overlook that end up being useful to solve a case."
Yamato hummed. "Edogawa Conan, huh?"
That same Edogawa Conan flinched, swearing that he could feel an intense gaze piercing through the wooden desk and to the back of his head. Seriously, this is too uncomfortable now!
Whatever he wanted to say next was interrupted by the sound of clapping, "I'd like to commence the conference now," and Megure's voice, causing the group to separate and head straight to their seats.
Conan thought he should go search for a better place to hide, but was rendered unable the moment he saw legs heading straight to the desk he was under, forcing him to scramble to a corner. Two people sat, causing him to try and press himself further away, just barely avoiding touching the feet that were closest to him.
Guess this will be my place today, he thought. He would have sighed too, but that would have made too much noise, and he definitely didn't want that. Thus, he grabbed his small notebook from his pocket and began to diligently take notes of what everything Shiratori was saying.
There had been six murders so far, from which five victims had been stabbed to death with a large knife before being attacked with a stun gun, kidnapped, then killed at the primary crime scenes. By the way the wound had been afflicted, it could be deduced the killer was right-handed but, beyond that, any other data about him was too vague.
Understandably so, the police were confused by the murderer's actions, and couldn't explain why they would go through all the trouble to move them before ending their lives.
"Next, on the bodies in all six cases, we found mahjong tiles with red circles on the front and alphabet letters with black vertical lines through them on the back." Conan hurried to draw it as best as he could. "These appear to be messages left by our killer."
No wonder, thought the boy, giving his drawing a frustrated look ─ without getting a clear view of them, he doubted he could figure out exactly what it meant. Nevertheless, he continued to draw them to the best of his abilities ─ which, admittedly, wasn't much. From what he had heard, the letters looked like two A's, E, H, Z along with an upside-down L. This… doesn't make any sense.
"Also, among the accessories often carried by the six victims, one of each item was missing," Shiratori continued. "A pendant, a small pouch, a keepsake, a motorcycle key holder, a make-up kit and then a doll."
So, I guess it's safe to assume that the culprit took them, he pondered over it. There doesn't seem to be a relation between those objects… Maybe they took them as a memento of the crime?
Conan made a face. Why would anyone want to remember stabbing someone else to death, anyway?
"The sixth victim, Ryuuzaki-san, left the words 'Tanabata… Kyo' as a dying message."
Conan immediately wrote them down. Ryuuzaki Tsutomu's death had been widely different for some reason, too ─ his brakes had been tampered with, causing him to crash into a toll station and pass away, just moments before muttering those words.
"Everyone. Aren't you thinking a little too hard about this?" he heard Kogoro speaking out. "The mahjong tiles represent the game of mahjong itself. The motive is simple ─ a dispute gone bad over mahjong!"
Ah, there it is ─ the moment where I stop paying attention.
Unbothered by the not-so-great detective's voice booming across the room, trying to convince everyone whatever stupid conclusion he had jumped into, he focused his entire attention on the mahjong tiles he had drawn. From what he had gathered, the murderer had left the 1-Pin in the first scene, then 7-Pin tiles on the rest. If he wanted to let the police know there would be eight victims, he would have used an 8-Pin one instead...
Then, there's the backside… The line and the letters...
'A', 'A', 'E', 'H', 'Z'. He wrote them down. Not good, I can't spell anything with them. Not to say that there's also the upside-down 'L'...
Groaning lightly, he flipped the pages of his notebook ─ not caring if he dampened his fingers like Ai and Ran told him not to ─ and went back to where he had written the basic information of the victims. Of course, the letters don't match their names… In fact, there was nothing that matched with anything in that confusing case. For starters, there didn't seem to be a connection between all the victims, and by all that planning, Conan seriously doubted it was just a case of random killing.
Tanabata Kyo, huh?
Not that he understood what it meant, but there was something incredibly worrying about it all ─ Tanabata was coming up in around two days. If the last victim was trying to warn them that something was going to happen in Tanabata, then-
"There's a kid down here."
"What-? C-Conan-kun?! What are you doing here?!"
Naturally, the child jumped in surprise, "Ow!" so violently that, having forgotten he was in a tightly enclosed space, he ended up bumping his head. He grimaced in pain, holding his sore head, then looked up to see that both Inspector Megure and Superintendent Matsumoto were staring at him, confused by his presence.
Conan smiled sheepishly in return ─ of all places he could have hidden, he had to choose their desk.
Before he could think of saying anything, Megure's face was briskly pushed away from sight, leaving its place for Kogoro's remarkably angry frown to appear. "YOU!" he screamed so loudly that Conan had instinctively tried to scramble away from him and escape, only for his attempts to be thwarted when Kogoro grabbed into the hood of his shirt and dragged him out.
Kogoro lifted the kid to eye-level and frowned. "Hi?" Conan tried out with an innocent smile.
Obviously, it didn't quite work on him.
"So there you are, Conan-kun! Where were you?!"
Seeing the high schooler approaching him at full speed, Conan braced himself for the severe scolding he was going to go through, unable to do anything else thanks to Kogoro, who still carried him by the hood of his shirt. "This brat sneaked into the conference," explained the older detective, granting the little child with a glare.
Which he couldn't care less about at the moment. Ran was right in front of him, eyebrows furrowed together and hands on her hips ─ he knew oh-so-well what was coming for him next.
"Geez, I looked everywhere for you!" Conan flinched away ─ as much as he could anyway, considering the position he was currently in. "Do you have any idea of how worried I was?!"
"Sorry..." he muttered.
"You do that all the time! The moment we take our eyes out of you..."
"Sorry."
"Really, Conan-kun, could you just stop doing that?"
"I'm… I'm really sorry. I won't do it again."
"You better."
In response, the child obediently lowered his gaze to the ground, prompting Ran to decide that it would suffice for now. Sighing tiredly, she turned around, allowing Kogoro to let the kid back on his feet, not without giving him a last, stern gaze.
Conan didn't feel like going anywhere now, just stood beside them, quietly, watching as the rest of the people in the conference room walked out. Soon, Matsumoto came into view. "Superintendent Matsumoto!" Ran recognized him right away. "Long time no see. Is Sayuri-sensei doing well?"
Matsumoto needed a fraction of a second longer to deem it necessary ─ Conan could swear on it. "Ah, you're Mouri's daughter," he said with a smile. "My daughter's doing just fine." After that, he faced Kogoro, who blinked owlishly when his attention was directed to him. "Well, Mouri. I'm counting on you."
Kogoro reacted fastly enough, bowing slightly. "Your humble Mouri Kogoro now vows to meet your expectations by doing his best!" Conan rolled his eyes. "Thank you for your hard work!" The boy was startled, however, when a hand fell on his head, causing him to bend over against his own will. "And, once more, forgive this rude little kid for everything!"
"Don't worry about it." He turned to the child. "Just make sure to listen to your elders next time, Edogawa Conan-kun."
That had the kid staring oddly at the older man who, in return, merely smiled at him and turned around. He did not know why, but that had been… disturbing, so to say. Perhaps he was just overthinking things a little.
Not that he had the time to ponder over it any longer.
"Mother crow~" His blood froze in his veins purely by instinct. "Why do you squawk so~?"
Once he had calmed down enough to properly react, the kid spun around to see Yamamura drying his hands with a small towel while he made his way back to the group.
"Detective Yamamura!" Conan did not as much as offer him a warm welcome, though. "That song-"
Yamamura twitched. "See you haven't taken notice yet, but I'm actually-"
"Don't care." The boy replied, with a plain tone. "Like I said, why were you just singing that song, Detective Yamamura?"
"And like I said, I'm-"
Conan glared darkly. "Why, Detective Yamamura?"
"... J-Just heard it outside the bathroom." Yamamura replied, backing away like a frightened child. "It sounded like push-button dial tones. When I left the bathroom, I saw an officer with glasses-"
"Wait, Conan-kun!" There was a tired sigh. "Oh, not again..."
With Ran's shocked shout, the inspector had raised his head, but was too late. The boy had already bolted out, racing to the window and promptly climbing on it to see outside. There! Upon seeing a man with glasses exiting the building, the child stormed off, not minding the odd looks that both Megure and Matsumoto gave him as he brushed past them.
By the time the kid had rushed down the stairs, the man had already disappeared from view, just letting him see a rather familiar Porsche 356A speed right past him, only to vanish from his sight as if it had never existed.
Leaving him with hundreds of questions that he had to solve as soon as humanly possible.
"What did you say?!" It looked as if Kogoro's eyes would bulge out of his head. "That organization the detective kid told us about… infiltrated the police conference?!"
Conan confirmed with a nod, leaving father and daughter to exchange worried glances before the kid could continue. "Most likely, the disguised officer would've been Vermouth," he said, frowning a little as he thought about that cryptic woman. "While waiting for the elevator to arrive, she must have mailed her boss about the meeting."
Ran went serious about it. "You said before you could recognize the boss' address by sound," she commented.
"Yeah. The push-button tones sound like Nanatsu no Ko." The girl nodded in response, if not a little stiffly. Now she could understand why the boy had, out of the blue, started to dislike the song so much ─ to the point of even going pale just by hearing it.
"But, even so..." Kogoro said. "How did you know it was that one? It could've been-"
"Gin's Porsche was there, too." Conan interrupted, eyes lowering to the ground as he frowned. "When it comes to disguises, Vermouth does it best..."
His voice trailed down, becoming lower and lower until nothing else escaped his tightly pressed lips and the boy just sat there, fists gripping his shorts and gaze still on that same random spot on the floor. And for more than a minute, the other two did the same ─ they fell into a thoughtful silence as they thought about what to do next.
After that, Conan's eyebrows furrowed. He opened his mouth to speak.
But Ran beat him to that, standing up all of a sudden. "I'll call Shinichi," she said to her father.
"What?" Kogoro gave her an odd look. "The detective kid?"
She nodded in conviction. "He'll know what to do," she said, reaching for her phone. "Out of all of us, he's the one that knows about the Organization best, right?"
"But even so-"
"You can't do it!" Conan hopped off his seat. "You definitely can't!"
The two confused glances he received at his sudden reaction made him hesitate. "And why is that?" asked Kogoro.
"Well..." He averted their gaze. "That's because..."
He struggled to get Gin's murderous grin out of his head.
"Because… Because I want to investigate these cases instead!"
Ran almost dropped her phone. "What?!"
"These cases somehow concern the Black Organization," he said, still not letting his eyes meet theirs. "That's why… I want to help." Conan took a deep breath, then turned to face them. "I want to help! So that they can get captured as soon as possible!"
The girl looked as if she wanted to say something, but her father shook her head at them. "Go call him, Ran," he told her severely. "But make sure he does nothing rash ─ at a time like this, we all have to act as normally as possible."
After giving her father, then the child, a long look, she nodded and immediately headed out, probably to discuss this with the teenage detective in the privacy of the living room upstairs. Kogoro watched her go for another couple of seconds, before sighing heavily.
His eyes shifted to the young boy on the other side of the coffee table at his office. He had seated again, but his arms were crossed in front of his chest and his gaze stubbornly fixed somewhere else ─ the kid definitely could sense what kind of response was coming, and was already annoyed at it even before he had heard it with his own ears.
"Look-"
"I know. I shouldn't get involved in this."
The detective was silenced by the words the boy had pronounced without even changing his overall posture just a little. It stole a groan out of him and made him massage the bridge of his nose ─ Kogoro had absolutely no idea of how he was going to deal with it.
"I'm just a little kid, after all." The boy huffed. "All I'm supposed to do is sit around and wait for adults to solve this problem on their own, right?" His eyes narrowed. "Just… to watch everything happen without moving a finger."
Kogoro's head jerked up at that, then his gaze softened a little, noticing that, despite trying to look tough, Conan's hands were clenching slightly against his own arms. His lips were pressing against each other too, as if doing their best not to let another word out of them.
So, he sighed again, "I know," and said, causing the child to finally look at him, if only to blink confusingly. "I know why you want to do this ─ those crows took a lot from you, so you don't want them to take even more. And because of it, you didn't want Ran to call your brother. Because you're scared about what could happen if he got involved in this case."
Conan stared incredulously at him until he composed himself again and went back to avoid his gaze.
"I also know that restricting your movement will just push you into stubbornly rushing to trouble."
The kid perked up at that, looking hopeful. "Then..."
"But you know I can't let you run free to break havoc as well." Conan's shoulders dropped. "So, why don't we strike a deal?"
"Deal?"
"I'll let you know the details of the conference." At first Conan thought he was joking but, surprisingly enough, the older man appeared to be quite serious. "In exchange, you'll try to figure out what 'Tanabata Kyo' means ─ as long as you stay put and don't give me another headache."
Instead of the satisfied smirk that the great detective fully expected, all he received was a wide-eyed look, staring at him like he would burst out laughing sometime soon. As he realized that no, this was not a joke, he breathed out.
The excited, lively glint in his eyes came back at full force, Kogoro observed.
"Remember, brat," the man said, standing up and approaching his desk, deciding that this conversation was over for now. "The second I hear about sneaking somewhere you shouldn't, the deal is off."
"Of course!" A smile crossed the boy's face. "Thank you a lot, Occhan!"
A/N:
CherryGirl 21-6: I was actually finishing writing that part when I got this, so thanks a lot for it ;)
F.C. Meyer: I had a little trouble figuring what Mouri should be called, but you're right. Thanks for pointing it out! And about Shinichi, he does have the same ability. I think he has sensed them a couple of times before, so yeah.