File One Hundred and Forty-Seven: An Unfair World to Live in
I swear to God, I'm going to murder him.
Admittedly, not the safest of thoughts to indulge in while in a place like this, but as real as it got. Maybe if questioned about it, Conan would confess to a clinical abuse of hyperbole from his part, and just like with that and a sheepish little grin, he knew he would get away with it ─ because, for as long as the itching of fingers that longed to rest on his own belt couldn't be proved, he was an innocent little detective.
Just wait until I get off here. When I do, I'll definitely-
He sneezed, and the echo afterward bounced on metallic walls with no sign of stopping in the foreseeable future. A whine slipped past his lips as he rubbed his nose with his sleeve and looked up to see that, great, he couldn't see a thing ─ again.
For the fifth time since he went on his endeavor, the detective paused and tried to flick the dust away from his lenses with a sleeve. I should definitely go home and take a bath.
Tonight's misadventure had been completely educational in its own sort of way. So far, young Kudo Conan had come across three distinct facts he had previously not been aware of; lessons probably help him live a prosperous life in the future ─ or at least, a slightly longer one than he was already counting on it to be.
One, if a black dove lands in your window with a suspicious letter, you don't read it. You burn it.
Two, don't give Detective Sato a reason to talk with you in private. Run if necessary, and don't look back.
From the corner of his eye, a small greyish-white blur passed by him and into the opening at his right. He tried not to think about it, and though shaken, kept on moving.
And three, air ducts aren't as sparkly clean as depicted in movies.
Yet, somehow, he had thought this was the best idea he could ever have. It'd sounded better in his head.
"Watch carefully, Tantei-kun," the bastard said, an insufferable smile hanging from his lips. "No strings attached. No shady helicopters, either."
Just him, and his stupid levitation trick Conan couldn't seem to wrap his head around. But he would ─ he definitely would ─ dissect it, piece by piece, and expose that quack magician as the loser he was.
Only that he wasn't making as much progress as he would've wanted to, staring at KID dressed in that strange pitch black disguise, with an expression he couldn't picture himself but got his rival snickering ─ he just wished that he could wipe that smug grin off with his face, preferably with a soccer ball. Or a dart.
His thoughts were getting a little repetitive.
"As much as I'd love to talk for a little longer," KID said, the tip of his feet not even grazing the ground. "I have to run." His grin grew bigger, spreading all over his face like wildfire. "Or should I say, fly?"
Fly…? What was this-?
Conan drew in a sharp breath. "KID-!"
But KID didn't heed to his obvious warning, or yielded at the palpable anger, or annoyance, from the younger boy. Instead, he jumped off ─ in a somersault he identified briefly before the blackness took over, the pitch black waver of a cape masking his moonlit figure. And just before he could give out his next breath, the window, that had been claimed to be stuck and unable to move an inch, was slammed closed.
All Conan saw was a blur of black, shooting upwards, before he ran straight after him.
Alas, the window wouldn't budge ─ it was as if it had been sealed through the use of an ancestral magic of some sort.
Except, Conan didn't believe in such things.
As his feet took him to the door, a growl pushed past his lips.
A low rumbling sound, similar to what echoed all over the air duct he now was crawling through ─ brought forward by the mere memory of himself pulling and pulling at the door with all the strength he could muster, but failing spectacularly in accomplishing that much. When looking at the keyhole ─ which had taken a lot more effort than he would be willing to admit, even when standing on his tiptoes atop Sato's borrowed chair ─ Conan had been tempted to scream.
Of course he had found the key had been placed on the keyhole, probably turned once so it didn't fall off, but it didn't open either ─ as if the thief had somehow predicted he would try to lock-pick his way out. The next best thing he could do was try the air vent he had casually spotted earlier ─ by nothing but pure dumb luck and absolutely not because he was seeking ways to escape Sato. Of course not.
Though the screws had come off easily, even with the lack of a proper screwdriver. The lock-picking pen had done the door surprisingly well, which, rather than being reassuring, it was a little infuriating. The thief must have used this thing before, or worse, wanted to help him out from the trap he put him in by himself, that cheeky bastard.
Oh, I'm so pushing him off the building the moment I catch up with him. His eyebrow was twitching, as violently as the tone of his own thoughts. And not even those fancy floating 'powers' of his are going to help him.
Powers, that might as well have actually been born out of magic, because that made just as much sense as any other theory roaming his privileged mind right now.
There was nothing holding him from above. It would be impossible from that angle, with him levitating exactly over the window frame. Any other kind of structure would require a specific angle for the illusion to work on me. But he had checked, there had been nothing there.
Then, what did he use?! Conan wanted to scream, really. Am I supposed to believe that a heavenly force seized him up so that he could…
He froze on his spot, his hand inches from brushing against the cold feel of metal. For less than a second, the boy stared at the narrow path ahead, his eyes widening without actually focusing.
Realization came with a gasp, and was followed by a hiss ─ clutching his head where he had bumped it, the boy groaned. To think it was that simple.
A force, huh? Need to check that out.
KID could wait, he decided. That was the best he could do after everything he had put him through, decided the boy, carefully threading backwards.
KID wondered if he should check on him.
It was quiet ─ no screams or death threats thrown at him so far, nothing physical had been hurled out at him either. Strange, because quite a few minutes had already passed by, narrowing closer to a quarter of an hour already, yet nothing had changed so far. Tokyo was bumbling with life as usual, the shine of the stars scattered in the sky above a mere pattern of timid dots surrounding the majestic silver moon, his faithful companion.
They may not be exactly bright today, yet they seemed to be endless ─ as he lost count again, the thief allowed himself a chuckle, and closed his eyes.
Though his mind was wide awake, he dreamt of a star. Rolling across the firmament in a beautiful spectacle for his own eyes to appreciate, Pandora warm, gleaming in his hands. He wondered if the day would come soon, the day he finally stopped chasing after a legend and was free.
Free, even though his wings had never been tied up in the first place. Free to do what, exactly?
What was going to happen to him, to this?
KID opened his eyes, unable to answer the question his own mind had formulated. Mostly because of the metallic noise that had suddenly pulled him out of his thoughts.
Because of the spark of blue that met him when he glanced over his shoulder ─ fiery, despite being a little too late than he had expected. But he had made it, at least.
"About time," KID said, easily raising back to his feet. "I was dreading that you wouldn't come, Tantei-kun."
The little detective gave him an intense look, that perhaps failed to deliver thanks to the dirt that covered his clothes and stuck to his hair. Which gave KID quite the good idea where he had crawled up from ─ making it a struggle to keep his face straight and himself for getting a concussion because he had chosen to laugh at the angry little monster standing feet away from him.
Or perhaps it had been the tiny socked foot that stepped up in front of the other ─ just the left one because, apparently, Tantei-kun couldn't be typical in that regard either. No matter what kind of predicament had caused him to lose his left shoe, the boy wouldn't deny himself the opportunity to break his nose, thus he had kept the right shoe. Which, incidentally and unfortunately, just happened to be his good leg.
"Tried to kick the window," Conan said, out of the blue.
"It doesn't open that way," KID thought of clarifying. "It opens upward."
"Who said I was trying to open it?"
KID had ─ and he was willing to say it again, if it made the lie he fabricated for himself any more believable, and reality less likely to be a surge of frustration of that kind. Perhaps an unhealthy coping mechanism, sure, but KID liked his head where it was.
"I wasn't even able to touch it," the boy continued. "It kept getting in the way ─ this mysterious force you've been relying on for a while."
Conan had been holding something behind his back, and promptly threw it in the space between them both. And there it was, the missing shoe ─ and a long rubbery-like ribbon thing stuck on its sole. Not even the magician could pretend not to have seen it before ─ or pretend there wasn't a grin crawling onto his face right now.
"You know these shoes improve my kick strength?"
KID gasped dramatically, his hand pressed to his chest. Conan rolled his eyes, refusing to let him talk.
"They work with electrical and magnetic fields to do so," the detective said. "I wonder what would happen if they entered an already existing magnetic field apart from their own…" His lips curled into a smirk ─ leaving Kaito to wonder if it had been a conscious action at all. "Maybe the resulting magnetic field would generate a force. Something that would keep me, for example, from damaging police property."
In silence he remained, watching out for a reaction that didn't quite come; KID stood there, his figure framed by the silvery glow of a moon, dressed in black as the night itself.
The little detective's steps resounded in between them, his stance awkward for the lack of a shoe. It was the missing shoe that he walked up to pluck it up.
"When deactivated, my shoes do not generate any magnetic fields. But they are still made of plenty of ferromagnetic materials for its purpose." The strange rubbery ribbon swayed on the breeze, stuck to its sole like a stubborn chewing gum that nobody could get rid of. "Just like that window frame; it's made of metal."
After a whole second of him admiring the strange work of art in his hands, his fingers grazed the dial on the shoes. With the tiniest spark of electricity, the mysterious strip was free to dance through the wind currents and find KID's gloved hands.
For a moment, the magician merely fiddled with it between his fingers. It was not rubber like it appeared at first glance, of course not, yet it was smooth and strangely thick for its size.
The fact didn't mystify him in the slightest. It made him smile.
"Was it Professor Agasa?"
Conan's voice reached him, slightly strained as he maneuvered to put his shoe back. Perhaps it should have been in his best interest to stop him, but Kaito supposed that all of his life experiences and personal choices had long proved how much he enjoyed playing with fire by this point.
"A permanent magnet you can easily stick anywhere. It's pretty inconspicuous, too." He stood back up, tapping the tip of his shoe on the ground as he checked. "You were here earlier, weren't you? And placed two of them ─ one at the windowsill, another at the bottom rail. Both facing each other, so they would repel whenever they were dragged closer, giving off the impression that the window was stuck."
Conan lifted his head, just enough to peer down at him from under his glasses, and said, "I might not have been looking when you, under Detective Takagi's guise, walked up to the window and removed one magnet. You just left the one on the windowsill, where you planned to stand later."
His grin grew wider, much more smug than it had been before, it was possible. It was that one, KID recognized, that he had never believed he would come to miss so much.
"After that, you changed outfits, using that black suit that I think I told you didn't suit you at all." KID scoffed, and Conan's eyes opened in what the magician would have interpreted as surprise ─ if it hadn't been this one kid in particular, naturally. "Oh, forgive me. It does suit you, really!" He gave him a thumbs up. "Stupid disguise for stupid thief ─ ten out of ten."
"Because walking into our epic showdown missing a shoe and covered by dust is clearly the better look, aren't I right?" KID had to physically fight to retain his poker face when the little boy's cheerful grin morphed into the darkest of glares in less than could knock him off with a wristwatch. "I'd admit your lovely physics lesson could tear apart my sealing window trick."
No use of playing it dumb, it was but a knowledge they both shared. The metallic frame of the window would be attracted by the magnet on the other end, so if someone closed it, it wouldn't open up again ─ the sweet, sweet magic of magnetism phenomenon.
"But aren't you missing something?"
The magician extended his arms on both sides, the magnetic strip slipping past his fingers to weave with the breeze, far into the horizon, to never be seen or heard about again. A grin so broad that could usually split his face in half was born, and his eyes sparkled ─ alive, in a sense he perhaps had forgotten it ever existed.
"How did I do it, Tantei-kun?" Then, louder, added, "How did I bend the laws of physics and levitate, in front of that oh-so-sharp, all-too-seeing gaze of yours?"
As if he had just stripped off his own glove and threw it on the vast space between both sides, Conan rose up to the challenge. He breathed out, the moon reflecting on his glasses and making his smile appear brighter, somehow.
"You thought I wouldn't notice?" Conan replied. "Even though you changed out of Detective Takagi's clothes, your shoes remained the same."
Even cornered, KID appeared pleased. Like he always did, that weird, adrenaline-junkie of a guy.
"They aren't normal shoes, or should I say, the soles are what's different." Conan's hands slipped inside his pockets, tension draining from his muscles ─ which didn't make sense, Conan would tell himself. He was in front of a thief, he couldn't lower his guard around him. But, still. "You stuck another magnet, placed perfectly so that, when you jumped onto the windowsill, they would repel and you would levitate ─ aided by a heavenly force named magnetic force."
"Oh?"
KID breathed in, then laughed out loud when the kid tensed suddenly ─ his hand flying to his wristwatch in what he would assume to be pure instinct. Because what was he going to do? Catch him? Seriously, Tantei-kun, after everything we went through?
"Afterwards, you made that cheap trick of falling backwards," Conan finished, his fingers still firmly pressed to the rim of his watch. "I saw your cape, briefly. That makes me think that you just threw it upwards to give off the impression that you flew away, but all you did was, once outside, crawl out of sight then walk back into the building, and head upwards pretending to be the normal person you can't hope to become. In a suitable disguise, of course ─ Detective Takagi, maybe?"
"Well, you read me like a book, Tantei-kun!"
Conan growled, and for a moment, Kaito really did believe he was going through with his silent threat.
"I figured out what you were after ─ and they weren't jewels, for a change," he said, frowning profusely ─ if a direct result of all that glaring or just born out of genuine confusion, Kaito couldn't exactly tell. "But you didn't get them. So much from rising from your grave, huh?"
But to his surprise, KID held up a finger, moving back and forth. "That's where you're wrong, my dear Tantei-kun."
Conan blinked, his grip slipping from his menace of a wristwatch. "Huh?"
"I'd love to chat longer." His gaze rose somewhere above the boy's head, a little farther than where he stood. "But we do have company, I'm afraid."
At first, the boy didn't really understand what he was talking about ─ at least, until he fully processed the message and spun around. But as the door creaked open, and the figure of a man stepped onto the roof alongside them, the young detective found himself unable to look away.
His mere presence demanded respect; that was the best Conan could do to describe the man who greeted his sight. Large and inherently intimidating ─ even the wind seemed to split to leave way as he walked forward, and Conan was not as different as he would have wanted to be. It took everything in his power not to flinch away as he approached ─ or as he caught a glimpse of an old scar in a face he was pretty sure he had never met before.
But there was something, something else that made Conan's breath latch in his throat. Something that made his mouth dry out before he could even say a word at all, as the man lowered his face to look down at him.
He only had one eye, the other buried beyond use under those old scars of his.
It was hard to chase that deranged, disproportionately broad smile from his memories ─ that purely white, lifeless eye fixated on him, that shook him to the core even to this day.
"Conan-kun?!"
Conan all but winced. After the man from before came Detective Sato, frozen in shock, mere steps from the door ─ for a grand total of two seconds before she shook herself up, and hurried her way towards him.
"How did you get here?" she questioned. He blinked. "The door was locked, so I thought…"
Conan wondered how he was supposed to answer.
"He escaped through the air ducts." It was the man who replied instead, leaving him a little too confused to even react properly to that. "And followed him all the way to the roof, cornering him as per his role demands."
Once more, his attention fell on him. Conan swore he would never get used to it ─ especially since he seemed especially prone to attract the most shady, terrifying-looking individuals the world had ever given birth to.
"Good job, KID Killer," he praised him ─ and made Conan shiver. "Or would it perhaps be the Corbeau Killer now?"
It took a moment more than necessary for the boy to understand what he was being told, even though it should have been obvious as it was. Especially with that grinning thief standing at the edge of the building with a grin so incredibly wide and obnoxious like usual, his cape fluttering as always, and those eyes that gleamed with mirth, that he had grown used to.
Perhaps the sight had been so familiar that he had overlooked the most obvious differences. Such as that, instead of that pristine white, he was wearing all black.
Perhaps the change had not been as much of a whim as Conan had assumed. Perhaps it had been something more, something deeper ─ that the boy would probably never figure out by himself.
Because Kaito KID had died that night. And now, in his place, another phantom thief had risen from the grave he left behind. Kaito Corbeau. The black KID that had once challenged his white counterpart ─ Conan could not believe he had thought about it before.
The letter he had sent him the other night casually strolled in his thoughts, his signature vividly engraved in his mind; Kaito KID, complete with an interrogation mark at the end.
At that time, Conan had wondered what he had meant with it. But now, he believed he had quite a good idea.
"I suspected there was something off about Detective Takagi when he brushed past me earlier," the unfamiliar man continued, his only eye narrowing. "And when Detective Sato informed me he asked to leave work early today, I was certain."
Sato stepped away from Conan to approach the thief with a frown fixed on her face. "Where is Takagi-kun?" she demanded, firmly enough to make Conan flinch back in surprise. "You did something to him, didn't you?"
But KID barely even reacted. "I did nothing," he said. There was not even the subtlest hint of deceit, which probably meant he was being honest for a change. "He left on his own."
Sato appeared to be taken away. After gauging her reaction, the magician appeared to share the feeling.
"I was under the assumption that you were aware of it," he excused himself.
Was it an excuse or the actual truth, the child would never be able to tell ─ that was who the thief was, after all. Either case did not satisfy the female detective, a dangerous glint taking over her gaze as her hand moved to her belt, likely where she was wearing ─ and incidentally, her revolver.
Now, she wasn't going to shoot KID, or at least, Conan didn't think she would. But the split of a second where KID's poker face slipped for the boy to see the blood draining from his face was quite the sight ─ totally worth it.
"Kaito Corbeau," Sato said, her voice piercing through the night with dazing clarity. Enough to make Kaito's features harden again, his posture relaxed as opposed to it. "You're under arrest-"
She didn't get to the end of her sentence, the words stripped away from her when something zoomed past to her ear. Only barely, she was able to see the blur of an unknown projectile that KID narrowly dodged ─ all but brushing against his chin as he let himself fall backwards into the abyss, disappearing for a second too long to survive without breathing.
And then, he emerged ─ smaller thanks to the distance, black blending with the darkened skies of a starry night he gleefully soared through with his hang glider.
Sato was about to curse, to admit that she should have seen this coming. Except, that she remembered she had never met that phantom thief before ─ she had never met this Kaito Corbeau, even though she had heard quite a lot of him. She had to admit, the resemblance with that other magician she had in mind was striking.
A lot to be a coincidence, she guessed.
Holding back a sigh, she bowed slightly to the man behind him.
"I apologize, Superintendent," she said, her head hung low. "For letting him get away."
He gave her a long, scrutinizing look before answering, "Do not apologize. I'll inform Division Two to take over." She nodded, but other than that, the female detective uttered no further word. Instead, she watched as the man glanced around, as if looking for something.
"He seems to have escaped, too."
Sato blinked, confused at the unexpected comment until she, too, inspected her surroundings. Eventually she sighed, unable to decide whether to be surprised, terribly disappointed, or both, about the absence of a certain little detective she had hoped to get a few answers from.
She guessed she would have to eat all those cakes by herself. Maybe Yumi was still around and could lend her a hand… Or maybe she could call Takagi? She shook the idea off her mind as soon as it emerged, excusing herself out ─ hoping against hope that she could catch Conan at the entrance before he ran off.
Now that he was completely alone, the Superintendent leisurely made his way over to the edge of the building, and for a moment, he did nothing but gaze into the horizon ─ right where that phantom thief had disappeared to.
He thought of that face, hidden from his eye by the shadows of the night ─ of that grin he had barely caught a glimpse of before he had to dodge an attack. A soccer ball, if he hadn't seen things wrong, shot with such strength and precision that, had the perpetrator wanted to, could have severely injured the thief.
Edogawa Conan, was his name. The boy who's always with the Great Detective Mouri Kogoro.
Surely something to look into later, he decided.
To say that he wasn't a fan of cramped places was the understatement of the century.
Yet, as much as he would've loved to blame a certain someone else for his current predicament, the smallest part of him that had actually survived that tsunami named 'déjà vu' could recognize that he had brought this on himself. Without any help at all.
But it was easier to throw the responsibility for his own actions to someone else entirely. Easier than to admit that he had chosen the air ducts again if that meant out-running Detective Sato and her unofficial interrogation.
… Or that he may or may not have been instigated into it by a face he had not seen before, yet strangely enough, reminded him of simply too much.
Conan did not know who that guy was, but he was scary ─ well, maybe not scary but… intimidating, a little. More than a little, actually.
Just a little longer, and I'll be out, he told himself, trying not to think of how his shoulders were mere inches from the walls, or that what Ai had once called a murder-detecting antenna ─ also known as hair ─ was gently brushing against metal as he moved through.
It is okay. It was, really. As long as I can keep going forward, it will be okay.
Because sport bags do not have enough space to crawl, was whispered in his mind even though he clearly did not need the reminder. The exit should be just around-
He stopped himself, his nose inches from the air vent he had fully expected to encounter. Sighing, and reminding himself that it was fine, he plucked out his pen from his pocket and easily undid the screws.
They came off with no further issue. A little too easily, yes, but he wasn't complaining about it.
Alas, the path was still blocked. But fine, he guessed ─ even though his hand was already patting the strangely cold, yet not quite metallic material. Even though he had no clue was this thing was, or what he was supposed to get out-
Suddenly, there was light. Conan found himself blinking owlishly, both at the sound of something being dragged away, and at the unamused face that greeted him right afterwards.
That of the nondescript man he had seen talking with the receptionist earlier that night. One with his eyebrows raised so high, in silent judgment, that it made it hard for Conan not to grin sheepishly.
"Oh, Oniichan."
Far from denying anything, Shinichi simply exhaled his soul away.
"Come on," he murmured. "Let's get you out of there."
For that, he was grateful for ─ with his shoulders literally bumping at the sides of the conduct, there was too little space to squeeze out of his predicament. But his brother did it easily enough, pulling from his arms until half of his body was out, then gently raising him from under his armpits to deposit him on the ground.
Which wasn't as low below as he had expected. What an odd spot to place an air vent, he thought. It couldn't be practical, not with the set of waiting seats that had been placed directly in front of it ─ that was what had been blocking his way out, he realized, observing the stray few that were slightly out of place, the ones his brother must have moved to free him from his self-imposed iron prison.
Conan wasn't the one not to regret his own decisions, but at least he could accept them ─ breathe out and swear he had learned his lesson this time, even though he obviously hadn't.
At least, he wasn't the only one regretting everything… Or that was what he'd thought. His brother hadn't quite the expression Conan expected him to have when he looked, and instead, had the most unreadable gaze posed on the vent Conan had emerged from.
He could almost see the gears turning in his mind, but since he couldn't see what his thought process looked like, Conan could do nothing but to stare ─ and frown profusely, both knowing and hating the fact that pierced through his own mind with dizzying clarity.
He's back at it again, that bad habit of his.
His fists clenched lightly inside his pocket, the little boy sighed, audibly tired. "I've got no time for this," he muttered.
Without bothering to check if his message had been received or not, Conan turned on his heels and went straight for the door. That seemed to break the teenager from whatever haze he'd been occupying, and prompted him to follow his little brother with nothing but a brief session of confused blinking.
"Are you in a hurry?" Shinichi inquired.
Conan settled with a scowl. "Nothing a nasty, treacherous rat would be interested in."
Unable to bother to even explain it, the little detective promptly stepped out of the building ─ embracing the darkness as if it was an old friend, a heaven from the hellish nightmare that awaited him if he stayed in there a little longer.
Better settle with the answer he gave him ─ because it was the best he could manage without making himself look like a fool that was afraid of the police. In his defense, though, the police member in question was Sato, who was plenty scary on her own ─ scarier than the entire first division altogether, probably.
There was also that one-eyed guy, but since he wasn't willing to think about him, Conan decided he could ignore that one problem for the time being. Until it was a bit too much to handle, naturally ─ then he might worry about it. Maybe.
Besides, it is true, he thought, scowling. He is a treacherous rat.
"That's what you're mad about?" Shinichi winced when Conan glared from the corner of his eye. "You make it sound like I had a choice."
"Even if you had one, it wouldn't change anything. You habitually make the worst choices."
Funny coming from him, of all people ─ Conan fully recognized his failures, yet it didn't equal admitting them out loud. There was a groan, an obvious display of Shinichi's disapproval, but it hardly fazed him at all. It had never had that such an effect on him, so he didn't see how it would be any different now.
That's who we are, the both of us. Our relationship, as brothers…
Yet, this time around, his mind had chosen silence again. A silence that had never been there before, but now seemed to accompany him wherever he went.
The words in that certain document, that percentage that lacked any coherency, blended with his thoughts ─ stubborn enough not to be pushed away so easily.
He tried, though. "Signing up for the accomplice role is the worst of the worst," Conan continued, hoping that it would keep all intrusive thoughts at bay. "And locking your innocent little brother up is somehow nastier than that."
"In my defense, I was going to let you out if you didn't figure a way out of there," Shinichi pointed out. "Using the key I borrowed from the receptionist guy."
"More like 'stolen from the poor, sleep-deprived receptionist guy'. Go on, it just keeps getting better and better."
Shinichi rolled his eyes, and didn't bother defending himself ─ because that guy had absolutely no defense, Conan would have added, but in a miraculous tinge of unfounded compassion, he remained quiet. In the distance, he was just starting to see the train station peeking from between the rest of the buildings of a city that shone so brightly that Conan could barely see the moon.
But even if he couldn't see it, it would always be there. That was what he had said once, that thief. Conan wondered how to feel about that.
"Didn't expect you to go for the air vent, though," Shinichi said because, apparently, they were still talking about that.
"Sure you didn't." Conan rolled his eyes. "That's totally the reason the screws were already loose when I got to them."
Shinichi's smile faded lightly, his eyes opening slightly. "They were?"
Such genuine confusion all but made Conan stop walking, but managed to keep his pace up. "Maybe it was KID?" he suggested.
"I wonder…"
And then, he was at it again ─ a thoughtful frown and sealed lips that wouldn't utter a thing about whatever occurred in that great, yet stupid, mind of his. Then again, was he in the place to even demand anything from him? Him, who was still thinking of that stupid document whose authenticity he should probably confirm? Or the individual he had met on the roof of the Police Headquarters, whose face triggered nothing but a deep-rooted wish to vanish from sight?
Neither brother said anything, each immersed in a world of their own as they waited at the station to catch what Conan calculated to be the last train heading for Ekoda ─ standing close together, yet so far away, all at the same time.
Shinichi didn't snap out of it until much later, when another passenger accidentally bumped into him on his frenetic dash to the closing doors. He blinked lazily, watching the random stranger squeeze through people and hopped off the insanely packed train at the nick of time, and just as slowly, looked back ahead to stare back at his reflection on the window.
Haido Station, he recognized it. Not long since boarding the train, then. He pressed the bridge of his nose, sighing. Get a hold of yourself. It's pathetic.
"You're awake now?"
Shinichi jumped, and immediately located the pair of bored eyes, scanning his very soul from behind oversized glasses. Sensing his evident confusion, the boy shook his head and put his phone away to give him his full attention.
Conan raised an eyebrow, expecting him to speak first.
So he did. "What are you doing here?"
"I took the train with you," Conan pointed out, both his eyebrows raised now.
He wanted to ask when that happened, but even Shinichi had some self-awareness, so he decided against it. Nevertheless, there were things the older detective still wanted to ask ─ so many, in fact.
Conan must have caught on to that, because he explained, "I told Ran-neechan I was staying with the Professor tonight."
Okay, unless Professor Agasa had unexpectedly moved to Ekoda and had once again turned into his next-door neighbor, that didn't quite make sense at all.
Again, Conan knew that. "And the Professor is out to some conference. Ai came along."
He made it sound like it was the most normal thing to say ─ shrugging nonchalantly as he talked. Shinichi wasn't sure he had woken up from his stupor yet, or that he hadn't somehow gone delusional from too much thinking. But nothing was so simple with Conan.
"You do have a house," Shinichi pointed out. "A pretty big one."
"Where Dad and Mom are also staying."
"You don't mind having Subaru-san there, but your parents' presence does bother you?"
"Brilliant deduction, Mr. Holmes. Criminals all around the world are quacking in their boots because of you, as we speak."
"You do have a problem, you know that?"
"Just one? That's nice to hear, thanks."
Shinichi went back to staring, but Conan averted his gaze, focusing on a random stranger right beside his head. Seeing it was no use arguing any further, Shinichi deflated.
They were doing that, it seemed. Taking a train back home ─ just like those old times that seemed to be so far, far away.
That was, until the subtle buzz against his leg broke him from yet another stupor, enough at least to pluck out his phone and stare, in a confused haze he narrowly managed to conceal, at the message that had popped up in his inbox.
"I will send you my part of the deciphered message at the earliest convenience.
─ Koizumi Akako."
A part of him wanted to point out that she didn't need to sign with her name at the end of every text message, but he knew she was aware he already had her number registered ─ which probably meant she didn't really care at all. Witches are weird, he reminded himself, barely retraining a sigh within his system.
Sneaking a glance over the phone, he found Conan's gaze still lost somewhere in front of him, and certainly not on him any longer. Unable to tell how much time he had before the questions came, the teenage detective typed out an answer:
"Wasn't Hakuba on it?"
She didn't take long to reply.
"He's resting as we speak. He managed to make remarkable progress, but there still is quite a bit to make sense of. That is why I'm taking over for the time being.
It may be a laborious process, yet it is extremely simple. Everything I need to do is follow the path you detectives lit up for me."
This time, she hadn't signed off. Shinichi wondered what that meant ─ if that meant anything at all ─ but decided that would be a mystery never to be solved. For the most part, he could comprehend what motivated her to work so hard, to keep on doing whatever she could so that things made a little more sense.
Because, in some sort of way, Akako was connected to it ─ connected to this terrible case that had stolen so many lives, including their own. She was involved, so she deserved to have a role in the investigation, clearly.
His gaze drifted upwards, falling on that young face before he could stop himself ─ on his rigid features, on the stiffness of his shoulders, on the many conflicting emotions displayed in those seemingly dull, bored eyes of his. So unnatural on a boy so small, so young ─ yet conversely, so unbelievably common in that one child in particular.
Shinichi bit his lip. It isn't fair, he thought, before he could even stop himself.
It wasn't even the first time. That time, he had done the same thing ─ only that he hadn't kept them to himself. He had voiced them, or more like shouted them ─ regrettably enough ─ at the face of a teenager that portrayed such an uncanny resemblance to himself. It was like looking at a mirror ─ except, his reflection wasn't scowling, wasn't screaming. It just stared back, quiet yet not uncaring ─ a defiant, determined expression he had seen so many times in so many people.
Criminals and allies alike ─ it meant they weren't backing up so easily.
"It isn't fair," Kaito had rebuked. The reaffirmation of his own words contradicted what his face was telling him, so Shinichi had felt himself falter in his confusion. "It isn't fair to him. Being kept away from it."
Realization had come rushing back in, setting the fire within ablaze once more. "Because it's better to just dump everything on him," he said in a scowl, raising his hands. "Sure. Let's just keep bringing up this clearly traumatizing event and see if he can get five hours of sleep by the end of the week. Sounds great."
There had been a sigh, "I understand, Meitantei. But he's involved as it is-"
"So what?"
Kaito had actually fallen silent ─ from shock or compassion, Shinichi hadn't been able to tell. He had been too busy to notice, or even care about, anything but his own hands; he pressed them to his face, trying to keep himself from losing control. That was the most efficient way to lose an argument, and that wasn't something he wanted to risk, especially not now.
"Why does nobody understand?" He hadn't immediately realized he was talking; his lips had been moving on their own, whispers barely even reaching his own ears ─ even less recognizing them as their own. "Conan is eight ─ eight, for goodness' sake! He shouldn't… He… "
He remembered deflating with a sigh under Kaito's strangely soft gaze.
"What an unfair world to live in."
"You know I can read, right?" Conan suddenly said, all but prompting him to jump off his skin. "Your screen, I mean ─ reflected on the glasses of the guy standing behind you."
Immediately, Shinichi turned around, and halted when puzzlement struck once more. While it was true that the train was extremely packed with people of all kinds and styles, nobody matched the description provided by his little brother.
In his distracted state, he didn't notice he had left his phone unattended. His wrist was tugged at, and the boy's eyes scanned through the text that, even upside down, he was quite capable of devouring in a second.
But even afterwards, after releasing him and leaning back in his seat, the boy did not look shocked, or even displayed the faintest hint of surprise after what he had read.
He stared back ahead, blankly, deadly quiet. If Shinichi were to guess, he looked disappointed.
"It's embarrassing," he muttered, hands tightly tucked inside his pockets. "That I had to find out from a thief instead of my own brother."
"Find out what?" Shinichi asked, purely out of instinct.
Because he already knew what he was talking about, even if he'd like to pretend he didn't. Likely sensing that, Conan rolled his eyes.
"You made a breakthrough," he said. "In that case."
Sometimes, Shinichi absolutely despised being right. Other times, he hated being so useless to figure out what was the right thing to say.
"How many times do I have to say it?" Conan continued. His fists were shaking, even if Shinichi couldn't really see them. "No more lies. We went through this a lot, yet you never learn."
"I didn't lie," Shinichi replied, frowning at the little boy. "I was going to tell you once I got a more solid clue to follow."
"Isn't this solid enough? Come on."
Regardless of what his opinion on the matter was, it would still pale in comparison to the solid, thick silence that had settled in.
Murmurs of other passengers filled the air, the doors sliding open, an unfamiliar man in the intercom ─ they had only been a few minutes in there, but as it was, it felt as though they had traveled all the way to Osaka and went back home. But they had only gotten as far as to Haido, which was less than a quarter of the trip to Ekoda.
The doors slid closed again, and with about half of the train population gone, it was a just little easier to breathe ─ though it didn't really look like it.
Still, Shinichi didn't sit even though there was plenty of free space next to his little brother. Just remained there, standing directly in front of him, awaiting. Conan had pressed his lips together, his gaze falling onto his lap; subtle as they may have been, those were the only signs that he was about to speak.
"At four years old, I'd decided I'd be a great detective."
Shinichi eyed him, clearly not understanding where he was trying to get to. His blatant confusion only served to make him smile faintly, though.
"It was me who caught the scent of a case and went after it. It was I who tried to solve it on my own and screwed up."
Shinichi felt his mouth go dry. "Conan…"
"I'm deeply involved in this, ever since my mistake four years ago. Just like you, I'm on this."
Younger and older brother gazed deeply into each other's eyes, as though they could dig out every little secret if they tried. Conan wished he didn't need to try too hard ─ and, secretly, Shinichi wished the same.
"I don't care," Shinichi stated, firm with conviction. It actually made Conan blink. "I don't care if you're involved. If I can make it so you aren't involved any further, I will."
It was hard for Conan to speak afterwards, yet he managed ─ choked out a laugh to go with it and everything.
"Too bad," he said, cushioning his head with his arms. "I do have my own reason not to give this up."
"Which would that be?"
"You. It's always been you." This time, it was time for Shinichi to falter and stare back, his eyebrows raised as he waited. "I promised myself that I would bring you back home."
And there he was, the greatest teenage detective that the world had ever seen, at a loss of what to say, at a loss of what to think ─ gazing down at him with eyes that nobody but Conan would probably be able to read. The boy wasn't the one to back down, even less lose the few chances destiny offered him; he straightened up, lightly pushing himself from his seat and told him,
"It's my case too, Oniichan. Our case."
And there that was ─ the truth Shinichi had fought to deny, staring right at his face; a reminder of how helpless he was to do anything to prevent the inevitable. To prevent him, his beloved, innocent little brother, from probing any further than he would be comfortable with.
Because it didn't matter how young, how cruel or wrong reality turned out to be; Conan was a detective, probably the most brilliant he had been blessed to meet ─ even if the boy in question was not aware of it.
Shinichi knew better than anyone ─ the stubborn, unwavering spirit of the likes of him. A will of steel that would never back off until he solved the case he had set his sight on, until he accomplished all those goals that he was aiming for.
Especially when it concerned the things that mattered to him the most. Especially when it concerned his family ─ it concerned him.
"You two are extremely alike," he had once been told, by the person he used to trust the most ─ the person who taught him to trust nobody at all. He hadn't been able to piece together the meaning behind those words, but now, he realized he couldn't pretend he didn't any longer.
"We're in this together. Don't you ever forget it again."
Shinichi did not respond, but didn't argue further either. Just lifted his head, watching but not really seeing the buildings passing by in a blur as the train sped up and away from the station.
Every corner of his soul was in terrible pain, yet he valiantly endured it.
Well, that just now may as well be an exaggeration to anyone else, but for Takagi, it sounded terribly accurate. Confined to a seat at the waiting lobby at the airport, hard and unforgiving for his back, and looking to about another hour of delay for his flight, he found himself wishing he could up and leave for home, to get the rest he desperately needed.
Alas, he couldn't do it. Not for as long as that small, black notebook rested on his lap, not for as long as that ring remained there, glimmering in the fluorescent lights from between his fingers. There were still things he absolutely had to do ─ for the sake of a dear friend he would do absolutely everything for without questioning a thing.
It was the least he could do for him. At least this much, he…
When his eyes started stinging, he didn't bother checking if tears had begun to slip again. He rubbed at his face, the fabric of his sleeve rough against his skin.
"Are you okay, Mister?" a sweet little voice said suddenly, forcing him to blink his tears away.
Once then, it wasn't hard to recognize the individual that had come out of their way to check on him. An elementary school student was standing in front of him, his figure too small compared to the bag perched on his back, his eyes round and innocent, even though Takagi had the feeling that they saw more than what he was letting on; a sight that practically gave him flashbacks ─ the oversized glasses were all that was missing, instead replaced by a mop of raven-black hair that barely let him see his face.
Takagi smiled at him, reassuringly. The boy frowned, however, showing his disbelief.
Eventually, even that seemed to fade away ─ he perked up, eyes suddenly wide with some sort of strange recognition.
"Have we met before?" the child asked him.
That got Takagi to really look at him, rummaging through his memories for a face like that. Eventually it clicked, and with a snap of his fingers, the detective's face lit right up.
"You're that child from that orphanage!" Takagi said, surprised by his own realization. "It was Tottori, right?"
The child seemed strangely bewildered, though. Maybe he didn't expect to be remembered? Their interaction had been too short to be relevant, and he wasn't even sure if that counted as an 'interaction', after all. But, while it was short of extraordinary, Takagi could say he was pretty proud of his memory and the wonders it made for the sake of crime investigations ─ now that he recalled where he had seen that face, he wouldn't forget again, he was sure.
"You're visiting your friends again?" The child nodded, sort of timidly. "I see. That's quite the trip to make all on your own."
"It's okay, really," the boy said, his gaze drifting to the tip of his feet. "I promised I'd do it."
Takagi smiled warmly. "That's rather honorable from you."
This time, the detective thought he spotted an embarrassed reddish dust spread through his pale face, but did not point it out. Instead, he leaned over the seat at his right and heaved his duffle bag from it, letting it fall heavily at his feet. While confused, the child eventually understood the message, and muttering a quick 'thank you', settled into the now empty chair.
"Let's see… Tottori…" Takagi's gaze wandered over the display hanging on the wall until he finally spotted it. "Oh, there it is. You won't wait for much longer."
The boy said little at all, instead sinking further into his seat ─ an admirable feat, considering everything, Takagi would say. But he knew better than to force him to talk further, instead turning his attention to the people coming and leaving the area, a soft smile drawn to his features.
There was his gaze on him, that never really left ─ full of that harmless curiosity children were known to possess. Though he could swear there was something sharper, piercing enough to drill a hole through his skull if he tried to.
"Honda Isamu," his voice came out in a whisper. "I… thought I needed to introduce myself."
It took a moment for Takagi to react, his smile widening ever so imperceptibly.
"I'm Takagi Wataru," he told him. "Nice to meet you, Isamu-kun."
And then, together, the duo waited for their flight to arrive ─ wrapped in a silence that wasn't nearly as uncomfortable as Takagi had expected it to be.
A/N
BT:
Dropping in a bit late like usual xD Hope you had a lovely start of the year!
CherryGirl 21-6:
Maybe a little too late to say this, but I hope you enjoyed your holidays!
About Christmas, you're right. There was one right at the beginning, and then there should be another one a little later than that (which should have taken place between the thing with Pisco and the Old Blue Castle case, I think), but I didn't write about it. I missed a chance there, but oh well.
That's an interesting scenario you're describing, and sounds like a lot of fun! However, I don't know if I'm going to write about Christmas. If everything goes according to how I'm planning it, the final chapters of this fic are going to take place in the first days of November, or mid-November at the latest.
adeniaarifah:
That plot point you're suggesting seems pretty interesting, but I don't think I will write, sorry. I fear that there's a lot to cover already story-wise, and I wouldn't want to ruin it by not giving it the time it deserves.
About movie 26, I'm still playing with some ideas regarding Naomi. I'll obviously have to change a few things, but that's what fanfiction is for, I think xD