…
…
February 16th, 1996
…
Shinichi woke up to the whiteness above him. He had to blink a couple of times to make his mind recall what had happened before he had passed out—on the floor, his memories supplied. His hand twitched, clawed into the bedsheet when he remembered the pain. He shot up and looked around—whiteness, a room, a hospital room. He searched for someone, however, no one was around. He saw pale sunshine seep inside from behind the closed curtains, an indication that whatever had messed with him had taken him out for an amount of time. He clutched on the textile around his chest in newfound remembrance of the torment that was somehow so, so familiar.
His mind snapped him out and made his feet search for the slippers. He was out of the bed, towards the door—he had done that, he remembered his last movements and to have collapsed. He could not describe the experience else than bad. He would not be surprised to learn that he had di—
"Shinichi?!"
He stumbled into someone in the doorframe.
His childhood friend looked at him, her brain tried to process the concept that he was up. Her lips pinched into the thin line and her vibrant irises flickered with unshed tears and—uh oh, there was that noise, that weepy noise. His observation was dead on as a moment later, she crashed into him within bouts of tears. He hacked at the force her arms clutched on him, her karate was obvious no matter what. He did not mind, he minded more that he was somehow at fault for her distressed mood. He realised that he had not met her since the two of them were admitted to this hospital, which meant his last interaction with her was—oh.
"You had a seizure and passed out! You laid on the floor when the nurses alerted the doctors, who wheeled you into the examination room to find out what happened to you because none of them understood. No one, not a doctor, a nurse or a staff member bothered to explain and acted like you were in critical condition, which was not true, but there were no news and—you scared me! You scared me so, so bad! You did so back there in the island too, when you chased down that man and we were stuck on that ship and he wanted to— he could have killed both of us. You dumbass were almost killed. You are not allowed to die on me, hear me—!"
He returned the embrace. He reminded her of that time at his house on purpose, that time when he told the truth to her and comforted her in a similar fashion. He was successful, because her ramble stopped. He should have her recall that moment rather than the fear.
He whispered in a low voice.
"I will never die."
He told the truth. He was aware that she would never remember his death. He could meet his end in a timeline, however, he would reverse time to void that. He could promise not to die when whether or not to allow a timeline to exist depended on his will, which was not what she meant, but was a reachable solution. He should tell her that part too, a voice whispered in his mind, he had told her so much and decided to let her see his cards this time around.
He looked at her. His ultimate secret—
"Promise that to me."
He looked aside.
…
"Ahem. Excuse me—"
Asou made his presence known for the two lovebirds.
He did not mean to disturb the heartfelt reunion, he was not blind to the bond between them and even rooted for them in secret, but there must have been a better location to live that out than the corridor of a hospital. His blatantness was a lot better than most other possible intermissions.
"Kudo-kun. I will inform the head doctor that you have woken up. You heard the short version, there is not much that could be said about what happened. I can attest that we did our best to find out, without success. You will be confined to the bed until this is filed somehow." He rounded up a notebook from his pocket for further information. "You are quite a popular person. You have been unconscious for ten hours and had two visitors in that timespan—"
He passed a cell phone to the detective, who snatched it.
"You can contact them that you are available."
"No complaint, but—"
"You can use cell phones here from now on. You were forbidden to do so because two patients were hooked on machines, but those were wheeled to the main section a couple of hours before. This place is otherwise separated from the main section where the sensitive equipment is, a phone call here would not cause interference. You should thank the police to have requested that at your placement so you could be contacted in relation to detective work sooner than released from care."
He swore to have seen a smirk on his face.
"Those considerate bastards."
…
…
An apartment amidst the millions bathed in the mix of the monotone darkness and the thin white that peered inside to spite the venetian blind on the window. A couple of minuscule motes danced in the air in those white lines that put the furniture inside the crammed apartment into better illumination. A slender feminine form walked out and about in front of that source of illumination, a flash of auburn visible in the moments her form crossed the path of the whiteness.
Her rank allowed her certain boons, and since the research did not require her personal presence at the current test process, her request to work from home was approved without a hitch. Her actual intention was to avoid her fellow researchers, who could spot certain inconsistencies.
And such inconsistencies would be apparent now that she was not the researcher who lived in the lab and threw around instructions on how to brew the perfect chemicals to end a life. Her old self loved the chemicals that followed the laws of nature without failure and were henceforth trustworthy. Her old self did not care about her work—she found a hint of entertainment in the trial and error but had no interest in the end result and its uses. Her old self did not care about all the death, pain, wasted potential her research caused, that was not her piece of cake over the squeaks of the lab rats as the apotoxin coursed in their bloodstreams. Her old self was a monster, but now—
Her true self was a mismatch in this world. Her nausea at the poisons that were brewed under her watch and her compulsion to pack up and run, run as fast as possible, away from the environment where people were more toxic than chemicals was unexplainable unless she felt off. Her instinctive fear of the monsters around her was unexplainable unless she was not one of them at heart. Her attempt to call for help was unexplainable unless she had an actual partner.
Her phone was on the counter, waited for the call.
…
The evil-eyed yawny girl wants to talk.
…
Shinichi stared at the familiar sarcasm in utter disbelief.
His mind locked on that sentence, and tried to comprehend the fact that his scientist partner was here—the actual, real her that he knew. He knew that was impossible and absurd—absurd, as much as the existence of his time power was. He should have discarded the definition of impossible at this point.
Haibara. His mind was flooded with questions. He felt a relief comparable to none that she was his trusted partner in this timeline too, that he would have the chance to see an old acquaintance from his future in the way he remembered them, that he would not be alone anymore because no matter how much help he had received from those who cared about him, none of those would ever be able to understand the true concept of other timelines and death. He snapped himself out of the mental trap that assumed that the conditions of her time travel matched up to his. He would be surprised otherwise, but conclusion should never precede information.
He wanted to know. He wanted to know whether her death was required—
He was still haunted by the incident that had claimed her life, the incident that he had altered in a crude manner. He was positive that, despite the questionability of his intervention in that forsaken alternate timeline, it turned out better than it could have based on what he had known from his memories. Haibara from the actual future, however, could not care less about what he had done in a branched off version of the world the results of which neither of them would have the chance to experience—that fact remained the same, that in the actual future, she had died to convince his enemies of his demise that time for sure, to save him of all people.
He looked at the professor, who waited for a word to pass as an answer. He had received the text when he was out—wait, that could be connected to the sudden appearance of his friend. He made a mental note to clear that in the conversation between them that should happen soon.
"So, what is the deal with that text?"
He looked at the old man then, and wondered what he should do.
He could take the secretive route and dismiss it as a spam. He could pretend that one of his case acquaintances happened to choose their time to contact him for further assistance. He could introduce her careful not to slip a detail that would incriminate her. He could make a meticulous plan to drop hints in the process, and reveal the truth once he was sure that would be received with levelheadedness. He could follow his past methods and lose the trust of his companions.
"It came from a friend of mine, who is also a time-traveller."
…
"What the fuck." Kogoro said.
…
He paid no attention to the reactions and redialled the number of the sender. He assumed that to be her current home number, cleaned from trackers and taps. Her paranoia would never allow her to make a rookie mistake like what a missed tap was. He waited for the line to connect and at that, the room quieted down and moved closer to him. He raised his brows. He planned to tell them, there was no need to secure the source of information or whatever their reason was to invade his personal space.
He took the initiative as soon as the line connected.
"Haibara."
…
"Kudo-kun."
He focused to keep the phone in his hand. He knew that he would encounter her somewhen in this timeline too, however, his expectations never covered this option. He heard her sharp voice call him in the sharp manner she had used to call him, which made him feel like he talked with the dead.
"Line is secure. No issues, no people around. We can talk."
He recalled the time when he conversed in short sentences too. A minimalist speech, made to shorten the timespan when the communication could be eavesdropped, used whenever the connection was unsecured or there were unwanted ears around. He had to take what he wanted to tell, discard the unimportant details and proceed with the bare essence—for him, a detective who found pleasure in the twist of words and the dramatics of the deduction, that was an unpleasant necessity. He retained his natural mannerisms in the moment he did not have to condense his words to that drastic extent. He could estimate when she came from her speech pattern alone.
"Your deduction was spot on. I came from the future too." He informed her with casual ease. Her scientist mind could assess the situation in no time, and he assumed that she had stumbled upon his rather conspicuous ruse in her search for her acquaintances. "I need to know the circumstances that caused you to end up here. I have a handful of information based on personal experience with this madness, and now there is someone to proof check that information."
"I died—well, that sounds like the most plausible conclusion."
He took that revelation for normal, but—
Ran looked pale.
"I loaded you into that shipment box and then, fled. I ran towards the second intersection from there, but the lowers were inside and there was no solution, not even a bad one. I ran into them and was shot immediately, as expected—and ended up in the past, as that has become apparent."
"I see. I think our situation is not that different, then."
Haibara paused.
"It should be different. You could evade their capture and take them down."
He remained silent.
"You are one of the smartest people on the face of this earth—!"
"I died too, Haibara."
And that was the low-blow that he did not want to deliver, but had to. He had shot up from his bed, drenched in sweat and eyes widened, to that blame not once. A blame directed towards himself to have wasted the chance that she had died for. He had tried. He had tried his best. He had tried his best, but his plans had crashed and crumbled to pieces each time. He had continued to build plans from the sketch nevertheless, tested new approaches, new ideas to penetrate their impenetrable power, but those were sentenced to failure more and more as time went on. He did not like to break the truth to her, but the two of them needed to be on the same page.
Haibara tried to contain herself at the revelation.
"Kudo-kun, what happened? How, how could that happen?"
"We underestimated them. We assumed that despite their sometimes out of character behaviour, their main ambition was to mind their own business: expand their area of influence and rack up a fortune, but that was a mistake. UN—it was a catastrophe. You were there, which can be a hint about the outcome, but never saw the consequences. Haibara, it was a trap to take out everyone on the case in one swoop. Hundreds of people died, hundreds!" He hissed. "Karasuma did not stop there. His second-in-command used that incident to undermine the trust in the competence in the authorities and instil fear into the people. His coup was not even resisted."
"Time, time, tiiiiimmme!"
Kogoro had to take a seat.
"Explain this in a way that we can understand too! What is even UN?"
…
"Oh, and he would be?"
Haibara asked in an amused tone.
"I know that you know who he is from his voice alone." He rolled his eyes. "I missed to mention that we have a bunch of accomplices. I should introduce you to the team who know about the time travel: Mouri family and the professor. I have the police in my pocket too, however, the truth is hidden from them. I want to tell a handful of people when we meet them later on, or sooner, butterfly effect included: Akai-san, Rei-san, Hattori, Masumi. Mary—hm, that is to be decided."
"Reasonable choices. I think another introduction is due."
He turned the phone towards the others at the hint.
"Miyano Shiho, a friend of the detective there from the future and for all intents and purposes, a second time traveller. Haibara is a fake name from another time, but it would be favourable if you addressed me as such for a while. As for the UN—I will let him handle that explanation."
He took the word.
"UN, as you could suspect, is abbreviation. It stands for Underground Nagoya."
Kogoro folded his arms with a huff. "I kind of suspected that not for the United Nations."
"Mouri-san, let me ask a fast question. Where do you think this syndicate of immense resources and influence hides? How can they hide themselves so well that the law enforcement never noticed any of their activities until now? Where is their home base, so to say, that nobody found them for literal decades?" He waited a dramatic second before he answered his own question. "The answer is quite simple. That is because there is no such a facility on the face of earth."
He pointed at the floor.
Ran muttered the solution. "Under us—"
"Not even my future could prove who built those facilities down there, but whoever did, prepared themselves beyond our feeble comprehension. A system of reinforced tunnels and halls lay under the five most populous cities, under the subway tunnels and severs. My father theorised that these settlements were built somewhen around the second world war, capable to house the entire population of their respective cities on the surface in case of an extensive attack, but that is, as said before, one idea. It would make sense to distribute it to the state nevertheless, as it would be borderline impossible for an individual to pull off a construction of that scale."
He looked over the shocked faces, including the professor's.
"I do know one fact, and that is that there are liveable settlements under our feet. However, whatever their purpose was supposed to be, it had been lost to time. For some reason, these settlements were abandoned and laid undiscovered for decades, until the worst people happened to stumble over them. I have not mentioned, but obviously, these settlements can be accessed from the surface. All of them have a number of entrances, and said entrances were eventually found and used. These settlements became hideouts for the syndicate and many associated criminals, who established their activities where those were overseen. Black market, prison cells, researches, and the line could be continued. When the secret came out in the future, we named these settlements as the next: UT, UN, UH, UK, UO."
"Wait. Then that tunnel from yesterday was—"
He looked at the old man, his demand for elaboration apparent.
Kogoro stood the attention directed to him all of a sudden. "Kudo, a lot happened in the time you were unconscious that you need to know about. You have called the police about a woman called 'Hirota Masami'. However, your information was unclear as there were multiple people in the city with that name. I wanted to find out which one you meant so—I kind of redialled the number of the prophet from the police headquarters and surprised the professor here."
The professor was embarrassed. "I realised that it was him, so—"
"I have told you not to answer calls on that number."
"Ah, sorry."
Kogoro took the word back. "I learnt the real name of that person and her affiliation to the syndicate, and the fact that she and her accomplices planned to commit a bank robbery in two weeks. I planned to talk with her but due to unfortunate circumstances, I was locked up in the office—"
He sweat dropped. He did not question how that happened.
"Sato-san found me. However, that was the moment the alarms went off. I connected the dots and suspected that the predicted crime took place sooner than expected. There had been a precedent for inconsistencies before, like how what happened on that island was a result of butterfly effect. Sato-san teamed up with me and we rushed to the scene. Hirota Masami-san, no, Miyano Akemi-san was there as expected. I—I had a word with her, however, my efforts to convince her were fruitless. I think that she is a forced member of the syndicate—I mean, she is not like the people we encountered on that island. She mentioned another person—who—"
Kogoro took on an expression that mirrored shock.
"Miyano-san mentioned another woman, whose safety she held more important than her own. I deducted that one of her loved ones was held captive by the syndicate to make her comply and—Miyano, Miyano Shiho-san. Do you happen to be somehow related to her?"
"Yes. My sister serves them to protect me."
Haibara dropped the piece of information that tied her to the mess about to unfold.
"Akemi hates the syndicate too, but is forced to commit crimes to make sure that no harm befalls me. I heard them order her to be their hand or their wrath would be directed at me. I know that is an excuse, because as much as our existence is undesirable within their ranks, my scientific expertise is a too precious resource to be wasted, but—she complies their orders rather than to tempt fate and risk me. I know that her arrest is inevitable and should be done, as no matter the motivation, she is a criminal, but please, once you do, protect her from the syndicate. I know that this favour will be too much to handle under the circumstances—"
"Haibara."
He interrupted her. He could not listen to her ask them to protect her sister. He blamed himself for that death in the previous timeline and he would not repeat his mistake. He was offended by the assumption that he would not do his best to avoid another death, to avoid that death.
"I have decided to protect her. I will protect her no matter what."
"Mi—uh, Haibara-san, make no worries! I would never let down a beautiful lady!"
Ran smacked her father on the head. "You are unbelievable."
He wondered whether this would be the best moment to break that woman in question had a boyfriend, who happened to be a world-class sniper and an exceptional detective to boot. He decided not to for a while. He would have to shock them with the truth about the person on the other end of the line too. He started to prepare an explanation about that one, because normal people would be suspicious if a codenamed member of the syndicate suddenly decided to switch sides.
However, he had to realise soon that her full introduction would be the least of his problems.
…
"I know. I know, but think about what you want to do, because—"
Haibara responded to his claim, and dropped the information:
"Rum has called an assembly for the upper sixteen."
…
…
A faint flicker illuminated the premise that the selected few of the worst had access to. A round table of lacquered ebony contrasted the walls of thick concrete, a brief attempt at an outside status quo that the person that occupied a seat somewhat found entertainment in. His silver hair rested on the black attire that melded his form into the dark ambiance behind him. He rested his chin on his interwoven fingers as he waited, with his partner in tow.
Gin hated assemblies.
Hated because there were so many boundaries. He never accepted tasks even remotely related to diplomacy and for a reason. His diplomacy ended in murder more often than not, and that apparently did not match the boss' definition. He despised assemblies because those demanded a skillset that he lacked. He could not stand those fools that always steered the conversation in the direction of their own purposes, like none of them knew that their measle words were inferior to the words of the boss. He would still have to listen to them and waste time until the truth of their position panned out for even the newest of their ranks.
He could already see a couple more crows flock around, old ones mostly.
Bordeaux was silent as ever, hands folded across his chest. His taste in clothes interested him, the way he combined the pristine menace of their western style with the remains of traditions. He was an old man and an old member. He had been around even before he had been awarded with a codename, and that was not the day before either. His subordinate was, at the lack of better words, creepy. Martini was an insane wild card and everyone knew that.
Calvados sat near the other side of the table. He arrived before his superior, as always.
Pisco looked nervous as he appraised the people in the room. He knew that he nicked the funds here and there for his own benefit and because of that, he could watch him drown in the fear of unknown, the fear of when he would be discovered, when he would be hunted down and pried apart until he pleaded for a quick bullet—the smallest, smallest sadistic smirk appeared on his lips. He would have to wait for that until someone competent showed up to claim his place.
A faint creak from the door told that another crow was ready to join.
"Gin."
Vermouth and Bourbon.
He hated them. He despised them.
Vermouth flipped her platinum blond locks as she elaborately took her place—that damn woman made sure to impress the masculine portion of the present with her choice of black full dress. An actress would always be an actress—sly and unreliable, intentions always hidden under the layers of lies. Bourbon supplemented the picture with his own appearance—dressed in a white linen shirt and a black vest like a butler. He was one, he radiated the same unreliable aura as his superior.
"Gin, Gin. I heard that you screwed up."
Brandish apparently decided that was the best moment to show up. He was mostly fine, his methods as a politician were different compared to his brute ways—he preferred poisons, he ordered a lot from the research department, but he was loyal to the word. Kir, his subordinate followed him closely.
"Brandish said it well." Chianti leaned to the doorframe cockily. "You are supposed to be the best of us, still you underperform our standards, not to mention the expectations. None of us would have ever entertained the idea that once, you would land your handiwork on the headlines of the newspapers. And the reason for that spectacular failure was that you did not clean up after yourself and—what, a couple of itsy-bitsy kids? I bet we would have done better."
Korn walked into the premise without a word as usually.
Chianti dismissed her superior and leaned closer to continue in a chill of a whisper. "Gin. This is bad news for you. You risked the secrecy. I have heard about another member who was executed because of the same mistake. You are a ranked and skilled member, but—"
"My fate is for the boss to decide. You hold no authority over me."
His response was simple as that.
"Correct answer."
The room stopped at the characteristic voice.
Rum walked inside in a casual manner and settled himself at his seat. He took in the intent aura that surrounded the second-in-command: an aura that covered the spectrum from the chill of calculation to the tint of madness. He respected the man as the spokesperson for the boss himself, and so did the others. Rum was, unlike them, the direct subordinate of the boss and the sole person to ever meet with the mastermind in the shadows. He held complete authority over the present.
"Gin."
He needed no more instructions.
He stood up and walked over to him. His fearsome fame paled in comparison to the presence of that monster—indeed, a monster that whipped out a pistol and pointed the barrel to his temple in a second. He did not flinch, he bored into the dark blue irises that shone with a seriousness, a lack of hesitation that made his heart pound in his chest in anticipation. He would be spared or killed—who knew, who cared. He revelled in the fact that someone could make him feel, even fear.
"Name the reason."
"Kudo Shinichi."
He suffocated in the silence.
"Elaborate."
"I have suspected since the busted deal that he was the prophet. I wanted to find out whether my suspicions were correct or not, and if they were, dispose of the kid. I analysed the appearances of the prophet and concluded that he could be baited with the threat or plan of murder. I did not, do not, know his method or source, however, to bust that deal that time he needed access to classified information. He needed a leak in our ranks."
He earned a couple of hardened stares.
"I proceeded with the mission nevertheless, mindful for the chance that the prophet will show up. I severed the communication lines so that the prophet could not contact the locals and he would need to appear in person to prevent the deaths. I prepared both to complete the mission and to capture that troublesome meddler when evidence about his identity turned up, torture him for information and kill him. I wanted to know who the leak was. However, he turned out to be a more formidable opponent than expected, which ended in the known results. I decided to favour success instead of stealth, as those filths would have revealed even more information in capture otherwise."
"Kudo Shinichi. You said you suspected him."
"His first encounter with us and the first appearance of the prophet lines up too perfectly. He is a renown and respected detective in the police force, which means the unconditional trust of the authorities. He was present each time the prophet was. He contradicted me once, when he revealed to have come to the island because of the unrelated issue enclosed in my report. However, his actions supported the suspicion all the time. He responded to the situation with levelheadedness and experience impossible for a teen to have. His plan foiled our assassination attempt. I had to start fire to evade capture myself. He marched on nevertheless, into the fire. He would not have hesitated to steal the one escape vehicle there. I cornered him on the ship. He did not fold under pressure, he did not break. I could not break him, so went for the kill instead."
His mouth moved on his own. He spilled information he had deemed too personal to include on the report, information that was more like his own opinion than actual information. He could not hold his mouth, the words flowed without his consent: the true power of the second-in-command affected him.
"He survived."
And that one sentence shattered his confidence.
"I killed him. That much is certain."
"He survived. Kudo is in medical care under police surveillance."
Rum leaned back on his seat, pistol still in place. "Let me summarize this. You decided to trick a mission to satisfy your persecution mania. Your suspicion, while makes valid points, is not a reason to expose the syndicate to public attention. You underestimated the opponent, went after your head, were forced to abandon our prime principle of stealth and even failed to dispose of the reason of your failure. You could have taken care of this mission without the unneeded meddle."
He had to admit: "Indeed."
"You have silenced those three to protect us, but exposed us to the same threat with your own actions." Rum slapped the recent newspaper on the table, a picture of the island in flames on the front. "You are more competent than this. You know that this is the result of your mess-up."
…
He awaited the consequences that would follow.
He awaited the sharp sound that would be the last he would hear.
…
He heard a faint click.
…
"You are more competent than this. And as we stand now, there is nobody worthy who could replace you." Rum moved the unloaded pistol from his head. "That is most important reason. However, Kudo Shinichi is an admittedly troublesome character too. He is too informed and experienced. Here are the orders: Kudo Shinichi needs to be removed. I would prefer him captured, so we can find out his secret and connections, however, elimination is allowed should the former be too risky."
Vermouth had an unreadable expression on her face.
"Let me handle him. I would love to taste the expertise that was too much for our ace."
"No. Your task will be to eliminate a team of lesser members who turned on us—those three robbed a bank, and then, one of them escaped with the loot. He needs to be made an example of the consequences of such blatant disobedience, and so does his accomplices who allowed him to do so. I hate the new members who think to have outsmarted us with these little stunts. They are so much trouble, but at least disposable. Their data is on the mission file."
He reached for a stack of papers dished out to the present.
"Miyano Akemi too."
He remarked in a short breath.
"No problem. Her little sister will not know about it. Her use is to make our biochemist follow our instructions. Her presence is a threat to us, her wretched parents can prove that. Her work is too hesitant, she is unsuited to work for us in the first place. I await the moment the research is completed, when we would be done with the remnants of those families and never think back on them." He started to notice that the speech went out of control. "I will rid the world from one of them now."
He had questions, but chose to remain silent. He should not tempt fate with unneeded nosiness, but he did not understand what the second-in-command talked about. He did not question his decisions, it was not his position or task, but he was curious. He knew of the research, the biochemist herself on a personal level, the biochemist whose special position lent her a codename and a secure position in their ranks, but could not understand the hatred the boss and his direct subordinate had towards her family. He suspected some kind of foul play at work, a piece of hidden history he was not entrusted with over the occasional comments.
…
"Gin."
He looked up.
"You will have one chance to redeem yourself. You will kidnap Kudo."
…
"And remember, next time the pistol will be loaded."
…
…
Shinichi waited for the others, especially the old man, to take in the facts.
"So, this time traveller friend of yours is a researcher who works for the syndicate and created the poison that shrunk you in the previous timeline, but later betrayed the syndicate because her older sister was killed for no reason whatsoever and tried to kill herself with her own poison but shrunk instead too. You two joined forces to take down the syndicate and cooperated with a number of allies you have mentioned before. That happened about four months into the future, so now, she is still with the syndicate. You also want to save the older sister in question and extract her from the syndicate somehow so that she would not have to shrink herself."
"That sums it up pretty well."
"All while the syndicate probably plans to kidnap or kill you."
He folded his arms across his chest. "That is to be expected. I did interfere with their two consecutive plans. I came here to make this future better than the previous one, and that means that some risks are due. I refuse to abandon someone who can be saved. I have pulled off crazier manoeuvres in the future, so this would be, while not a piece of cake, but possible nonetheless. And with me on the case, we will succeed no matter what. I will make sure of that—"
"No."
The professor interrupted and shook him by the shoulders.
"I know what you mean, and you have to kick that idea out of your head."
"I know, we went over this once." He batted off the old hand. He understood the concern towards his mental state, but could not comprehend how the professor could not see the potential in his time powers. "I have a powerful tool to help our cause and still, you expect me not to use it. I will use that as a last resort to set our success into stone and no talk will convince me otherwise. I would rather have that than to hide under a rock until what, the syndicate would win this time too."
"You are unbelievable. This is literally about your life!"
…
Haibara broke the stunned silence: "I think an explanation is due."
He exhaled in defeat. He needed to tell that part.
"You have said it yourself. You time travelled after you died in the timeline you came from. Now, the deal is that it can happen more than once. I—well, the timeline you left behind went on for seven more years for me. I resisted until the last breath in a quite literal sense." He heard a faint hiss on the other end. "I died and out of a sudden, I found myself ten years into the past. I died four times since then. Haibara, each time we die—because indeed, there is a chance that your time travel operates the same way, we leap to a random point in time. I have no idea what influences the leaps, but it must be possible to control them somehow—"
"Kudo, slow down."
He stopped his rant at the sharp voice.
"Now, collect yourself and start from the beginning."
He inhaled and decided to do a reminder about the events that led to his hospitalisation.
"I happened, for most part. I started to make plans to take down the syndicate as soon as the situation sunk in. I knew well that information from the future would be an invaluable upper hand that not even their careful tactics could best. I started to send earfuls to people about random crimes that were about to happen to bait them—and oh, they would bite, they would not overlook such an obvious disturbance in the conditions of their well-laid plans."
"A bait is only useful with a plan to back it up."
"I want to end this quicker than what it took the last time around. I want to save as many people as possible. I betted that the shared information could prepare the police to deal with the syndicate when the push would come to shove and still keep the potential leaks in oblivion. I planned to establish our support system meanwhile to be sure, but—the bait worked too well. I ran into them at a supposedly unrelated case and it went downhill from there—it was not that bad, well, an island was reduced to ashes and their immediate aim was met in the assassination of three former associates but other than that, no innocent lives were lost in the altercation. Mine excluded."
He remembered to have boarded that ship without a peck of doubt—
"I took a bad turn and paid the price, or at least, that was supposed to happen."
"You survived, apparently. Not to mention you needed an alive body to return to this timeline."
Haibara explained in a professional tone.
"You are correct. I experienced time travel in the moments of clinical death before resuscitation, so this kind of counts as both death and survival. I know, that should be impossible, but there is no other phenomenon that could send me into my toddler-childhood. I was in preschool, in the body of my preschool version. I wanted to contact the professor, but—a member of the syndicate was there! I never even noticed! I lived my life for almost two decades without a clue about it!"
He freaked out at the concept now that he could think about it.
Haibara was not convinced.
"No matter how you look at this, this is unreasonable. You must have been mistaken."
He deflated from the panic.
"My instincts are usually correct but this time, my mind is tempted to side with you. I could have been too messed up to practise rationality after a literal time leap. I, unfortunately, moved onto the next too soon to look into anything. I dashed from the scene with my mother, who was also present. I—well, we ended up in an accident that we were not supposed to and died. Kind of lame way to check out, but there were no other options at hand."
Haibara hummed.
"Hold on a moment—I will fetch a pen and paper to take notes. I take you would rather not remember the details of your deaths more than necessary. I need you to recount them only this once, but do it as precisely as possible to understand how this phenomenon works."
He heard shuffle in the back—this situation, it reminded him of the antidote tests. He shuddered at the remembrance of the sheer pain those experimental substances exposed him to when even the temporarily functional antidote made him pass out from it. He had to push his borders and stay conscious so that he could list the exact symptoms the chemicals in his bloodstreams caused and potentially spare himself another session. He could have chickened out and chose to continue his life as a child, however, he had people who waited for him. He persisted for their sake and took comfort in the pieces of decency the scientist could offer in the situation.
And even here, he was exposed to her decent cruelty.
"I'm here, you can continue."
"I came around in my shrunken form masked as you. Halloween party incident. I literally had zero time to catch my breath and cook up a plan, which led me down the known route in the incident. I wanted to outperform my old self nevertheless, which meant not to be knocked out and kidnapped. I tried to pull some cards to handle the situation, but that led nowhere and then—Ran came. I had no idea that she was there, so that came as a shock."
Ran pointed at herself. "Eh, me—?"
Haibara confirmed. "Ran saved me in the first run."
"And no one considered that important to mention to me—" He hissed in a low voice. "Nevertheless, that means that she went to protect you that time. Vermouth probably ordered a ceasefire at that and spared her life. However, in this timeline, her intention was to protect me. Vermouth fell to the element of surprise and she could knock her out with relative ease—or it was her identity, maybe equal parts. Calvados sniped both of us in response. I think so. I—she went down first, and—"
He felt terror creep around his soul at the mere remembrance. He could feel the clammy blood on his hands and the scent of iron in the air—he was there mentally, with her broken body in his hands that was not compatible the concept of death, the concept of pain or unhappiness. He felt his insides catch fire and scream in a violent instinct that needed to be satisfied. He had said that he could not understand the reasons culprits presented, but this—this proved how conceited was of him to think that he was immune to the same wrath. His control over his actions was better than what most had, but the point of snap was there.
"—do. Kudo."
"Haibara."
"You had a flashback."
His lips parted at the accusation. He never had flashbacks. "I—nevermind. My death saved a lot of people in the third alternate timeline that my conscious was thrown into. I landed in an even worse place after the sniper shootout, which you are probably too familiar with."
"Humour me."
He did not want to tell her. He was told that she had arrived here after split moment of her death in the exact place he was about to describe, and he would rather not force her to relive the same torment she forced him to relive. He had been sick to the stomach there and he had had years to somewhat settle the score with that incident. His empathetic skills were not that developed to understand what she would feel when he would describe the disaster fresh on her mind.
"You asked for this—it was that. UN. I prevented your death—I think. I knew what would happen and prevented the catastrophe that we remember. I was at the control room when the rocket hit, which blasted me out of the timeline faster than the old man can open a can of beer." He heard her sharp inhale. "I died, that should be obvious based on the pattern here. You know what the situation was that time. You know that it would have been cruel of me to preach hope. I had to die—and leave."
His explanation was met with thick silence.
He wished to see her face in that moment. He needed to read her to understand her silence. He wished to have his smartphone and video call her. He talked with his partner about technicalities. He was supposed to stick to the task at hand, however, this kind of conversation could not be handled without an ounce of care towards the other. It was his turn to show decency for the decency she showed, but he did not know what exactly counted as decency in that situation.
"I had one last dead-end before my return to this timeline. I landed even further into the future we know, to the moment when the syndicate captured me after seven years on the run. I woke up beaten and bound in the Porsche." He let loose a sigh. "I can cut this short—the situation was not that different from the timeline before that. If that was hopeless, then this was beyond hopeless. I knew what would await me at their headquarters, and decided not to suffer for the next months when the alternative solution was a lot less painful and more remunerative than that. I said to cut it short, huh. I pushed myself out of the car."
He heard the sounds of pen on paper stop on the other end of the line.
He heard an uncomfortable silence set in the room.
…
He looked up to gauge the reactions for the first time.
He met the kind of disturbed shock he expected from of two elders, and turned to her—Ran. Ran stared at him, eyes wide with disbelief that did not want to accept his confession, but at the same time, knew that he would not lie about that. Her hands covered her mouth in horror, as she stared at him with so much persistence that she did not even notice a pair teardrops cascade down her cheeks. He met the stare, a stare that waited for him to tell that this was a bad dream.
He could not offer her comfort this time.
…
"I wouldn't call this a suicide."
Haibara broke the silence.
"He did end his own life, that is undeniable. However, he did that with the intention to perform a time leap and not to die. He did not want to die. I hate to side with this claim, but in his situation, that was more like a tactical move than a decision made in the heat of the moment."
The professor snapped out of his silence at that.
"But it could have failed! He couldn't have known that it would work!"
"I never said that there were no risks, but truth to be told, death could have been the better option compared to their capture. He saved his mind from a lot of traumas." He scoffed. He would have preferred that part to remain undiscovered. "However, multiple conclusions can be drawn from his experiences. First of all, time travel can be performed an unknown number of times and is tied to the death of the individual who has the required—well, potential. Then, there is the fact that the leaper can access both the past and the future, or at least the future the leaper remembers, which leads me to believe that memories are an important part of this power."
He could see it work that way.
"…—that kind if makes sense. I mean, time travel in the common concept would mean that there are two versions of me around at the same time, one from this time and one from the future. However, that is obviously not the case. I think it is more like the future me has possessed the body of past me. What time travelled is not me, well, not the entire me, but my mind and memories. I think that this has to be more of a mental power, hence the importance of memories."
The professor tapped his chin. "Hm, that would mean it is possible to leap into a moment which the leaper remembers well and in which has an alive body to inhabit. That means we discovered a limitation, that one can access events within their lifespan."
"However, there is more to that." He drew the attention of the scientist half of the present. "I can leap not only to the past and the future of the previous timeline—or should it be world at this point—, but into this timeline too. I returned somehow, remember."
Haibara contemplated an idea, then decided to share the results. "I think we should introduce a system to keep track of in which version of the world we are in. Let the timeline in which the syndicate won be world zero, and this timeline world one. In that concept, world zero can be considered a closed world, as its resolution, the direction it headed towards is known to us, whereas world one is ours to form. Each time we reset to a random point in time, we create a new timeline that stems from either world zero or world one. I think we should label these timelines with numbers too, with a mark for the world it derived off of. It would be a help later."
"So, that means now we are in timeline 1.02."
Haibara sounded proud. "I knew you would understand."
…
Kogoro moaned in the back. "I knew I would not understand."
He turned towards them, especially the professor. "Let me explain. The timeline I came from is world zero itself, which has one version as there were no time powers at play then. That is timeline 0.00. I then time travelled to the past and thus, created world one, or timeline 1.00. Until up to that point, world zero and one share the same history. It was that incident that split them apart. In timeline 1.00, I died at the island. I should have died, and was able to return because of this time power, which created timeline 1.01. And at last, Haibara arrived from world zero too, which marks the current timeline 1.02. Talk about which—"
Haibara took up the open end. "Is there something wrong?"
"You arrived around eleven o'clock at night, right?"
"Indeed. I never mentioned that, how come you know?"
"I had an unexplainable seizure around that point of time, which felt too much like the apotoxin transformation." He admitted at last how the pain had felt familiar. "I think we can dismiss the chance that someone slipped me the poison, as neither the effect nor the side-effect appeared. However, that makes me wonder what in the world that was. I think that because it lines up well, that it could have been a, like, indication that another time traveller appeared."
"That is worth a moment of consideration." Haibara chewed on the additional mystery. "And while it would be cliché to say that all time travellers are interconnected, it is possible that we can sense the small shifts in the time that normal people are unable to."
…
Kogoro decided that he would never comprehend the concept. "…w—well, not that has to do much with us mortal humans. At least you two, three, know what you talk about. That said, we should move on and discuss what to do now. There is an influential crime syndicate out for us, remember."
Haibara excused herself. "I have to pretend to continue the research to avoid suspicion. I want to help, this is about my sister after all, but the most that can be done from here is not to draw attention. I have to entrust you with the situation. I will leave them once my sister is out. Her extraction should be easier than mine, the disappearance of a low-ranked member is not that suspicious as of a codenamed one, like me. Their attention is on the havoc you wrecked on that island, which works for us."
"I approve." He was quick to respond. "However, I have a request in return."
"And what would that be?"
He took in a deep breath. "You have to steal the research data."
"…—fine. I have no idea what so you need that for."
"You lost them in the previou—I mean, world zero to a computer virus. Because of that small mistake, it took literal years to create the antidote to the apotoxin in a process of trial and error hard to replicate. There is no personal reason to create the permanent antidote for now, but there will be people poisoned this time too. Mary was the only person besides us to survive the initial dose out of the eleven people on the victim list, but there can be new additions to that list now that this world resembles little the one we are familiar with, and whether those people would survive the first dose or not. I want to have the cure at hand in case someone on our side is shrunk."
"Got it. I will take care of it."
…
His lips curved into a smile for the first time.
"Then we will meet soon, partner."
…
Published: 07/07/2023
Daaamn, it had been almost six months since the last update. On the positive side, we have a second time traveller, a showcase of the members of the syndicate and an explanation on the weird numbers that have been around in certain scenes. All in all, this is quite the important chapter and it took me a while to write in a satisfactory quality. About the whole underground cities lore mentioned in this chapter, that is one and the first of the three non-canon lore's planned to be included in this story. Well, not like it contradicts canon, but is entirely the result of my own imagination. (Be assured, the other two will be even more insane.)
(PS: I reached 100k words, yay.)