Mission Nine: Welcome Back

Conan actually considered having that door sealed permanently.

Not that he had any plan in mind, either on how to do it by himself, or on how to convince Loid about doing the job the same way he had done it with the toilet window. But neither possibility seemed likely to happen in the foreseeable future, which was unfortunate, because Conan believed he had spotted a safety hazard there.

First, it had been that shady woman who had tried to kidnap him ─ whose whereabouts were an unsettling mystery he had yet to solve. Second, Yor Forger, née Briar, whose innocence had yet to be proved to him ─ as well as her culpability, to be fair, but he wasn't letting her off the hook just yet; presumption of innocence could be damned right now, he just wanted to live long enough to see another day.

And then, there was this. Brilliant, round, big blue eyes. A sunny, adorable little grin. Conan recognized the signs of incoming danger ─ and definitely not because it resonated with him at all.

Yor was the first to snap out of it, and was smiling by the time Loid's brain was just starting to reboot. Facing Conan, she called, "A friend of yours is here, Conan-san!"

He knew. He had heard it already ─ everyone had heard it already. But he nodded stiffly either way, raising a hand just as awkward as the smile crawling on his face while he approached her.

"Hey, Ayumi-chan," was the best he could manage.

Momentarily, he wondered if that was the correct honorific to use for someone he had literally met once before today ─ someone who, incidentally, had come looking for him like they were good friends. But since Ayumi beamed at him with an energetic nod, he supposed it was alright.

The surprised reaction he had expected did, in fact, surface, though not from the girl herself. Loid rebooting process seemed to be nearly over, as he blinked rapidly at the unfamiliar child, and then back to Conan himself. His eyes opened, as if seeing him for the first time, causing the boy to tilt his head slightly.

"She…" Loid began, pausing as though he was trying to put his words together ─ which was creepy, coming from him. "She actually is…?"

Conan crossed his arms. "What's with that reaction?"

Loid didn't answer, but didn't cease with all the staring ─ intense to the point of making him want to hide behind the nearest couch and pretend he didn't exist. Conan resisted the urge, though he may have taken a hesitant step backward.

"I live one floor below here!" Ayumi cheerfully explained. "I came to say 'hi' a few weeks ago and we became great friends!" She glanced over at Conan, who simply stood there without offering a reaction of any kind. Ayumi hardly seemed to care, and turned back to Loid to finish off with an innocent little smile. "I guess you were out, Mister."

Which definitely hadn't happened. But since reality was that he had literally fallen on her balcony and made a fool of himself by pretending he was Bondman, Conan didn't dare to contradict her.

Anya kept on boring holes in the back of his head from afar.

Conan put on the most convincing portrayal of an apologetic smile. "Sorry, but I can't hang out today," he told her. "It's late."

"But that's the whole point!" Ayumi raised her fists a little over her chest, oddly determined. "I'm having a few friends over for a sleepover party. They are dying to meet you!"

To be fair, Conan felt like dying too.

So, in order to starve off a headache, he pinched the bridge of his nose. He might know little, close to nothing, about this girl named Ayumi, but there was something about her that spelled both trouble and an infinite source of migraines just for him ─ that desperately screamed back at him, pleading for no engagement at all.

Therefore, a sleepover was obviously out of the question.

Good thing I'm grounded. It was surreal that he could ever get to think like that, but all things considered, he should probably have learned by now. No matter how deplorable his situation may be, there would always be some room for improvement ─ or decline?

Like, take running into a crime syndicate member, for example. Normally, Shinichi couldn't have imagined anything worse than getting on their bad side and an attempted murder on him. But then, came the shrinking ─ surely, there couldn't be anything worse than that, right?

Wrong. There was still the part of getting adopted ─ by a spy on a mission of some kind he had nothing to do with. That not even taking into consideration his adoptive mother, who may or may not be a killer ─ clearly, things could, and had, gotten considerably worse.

But this wasn't it, not this time, for once. Because Loid had risen from his couch to narrow his eyes at the tiny, innocent figure at the doorway. Conan was certain of what he would say next, and for the first time he could remember, a sense of gratitude washed over him-

"I don't see why not."

Conan's mind skidded to a stop. What?

"What?"

He hadn't meant to echo his own thoughts, and neither did he intend to sound just as bright as the plot from that anime movie Anya had watched last night before dinner. But it happened anyway, and he sure hoped he was allowed some leverage for this one, because, seriously.

Loid turned a blind eye to the bewildered state his son had fallen into, and patted him on the head with a serene smile.

Ayumi couldn't get over her own excitement, only barely keeping herself from jumping on her spot.

She's the Yoshidas' only child, Loid knew ─ had known, long before she had introduced herself.

So as to avoid any complications for his mission in the long run, Loid had figured that a quick investigation on his neighbors was in order. Among them were the Yoshidas; a young sweet family that had moved into this complex about five years ago when their daughter was just one year old. Open-minded, generous and friendly ─ there was no soul in this world to have ever spoken ill about them, and they were held in high esteem by the neighbors. Putting it simply, they were the perfect family Twilight strived to become.

Conan was still staring at him as if he had grown a second head. He needed to do something about it.

"We can negotiate in the morning, when you're back." Loid said gently. It made Conan frown profusely, as if deeply concerned about his own, possibly mental, well-being. "For now, go have fun and make some more friends."

From what I've gathered, Ayumi Yoshida is a sweet little girl that makes friends easily, so it isn't surprising that she's befriended Conan. Conan befriending her in turn, or anyone at all, was fairly beyond my calculations, however.

Behind them, Anya blinked owlishly.

Between him and Anya, I assumed it was going to be harder to get him to socialize. But since he's already making friends on his own, I should probably encourage it.

Allowing them to hang out with kids of their age before Eden should be beneficial for my mission.

Anya's eyes opened slightly in realization. Quietly, she approached them, only to falter a few steps later; her eyes wide open, her every muscle paralyzed. If Loid noticed it, he thought nothing of it, instead offering her that warm smile of his.

"Take Anya along." Loid told his son. "That's everything I'll ask in return."

Even though Conan looked as if he genuinely wanted to cry, Ayumi brushed past without noticing him. She studied the pink-haired girl with curiosity, her head tilted slightly to one side.

"Anya?" Ayumi echoed.

Conan made an affirmative sound. "My sister," he said.

"Oh." She blinked once, and then her smile was back at full power. "Nice to meet you then, Anya-chan!"

Anya nodded, in a way that Conan privately described as 'robotic', and had Yor giggling under her breath. Gently, she placed a hand behind her head to coax her into joining the other children at the doorway. Albeit hesitantly, she did as indicated, and successfully stepped into the hallway, a bit too stiffly for Conan to believe it was natural.

Only after the door had closed with a wave from both faux parents, Conan would reflect on her behavior. It was undoubtedly strange, especially when it came from her ─ Anya, that bouncy, loud little thing who seemed to have so much energy stored in her that, at times, Conan wondered if she might secretly be the result of some mad experiment to solve the global energy crisis or something.

But he would admit to being a little glad that at least he wasn't the only one who felt like this was a terrible idea-

Nevermind, scratch that out, he thought with a sigh.

Because Anya, after an eternity of scrutinizing Ayumi's face, had inexplicably perked up. Her eyes had widened, twinkled, and the faintest of smiles was just beginning to grow in her face when she…

She… just took off running behind Ayumi. And Conan, with his useless hand extended to where the duo had gone to, was therefore forced to accept the unjust reality he was being subjected to. Suddenly, there was nobody left to share his pain with.

That, and that he should probably get going, too.

But okay, fine. It wasn't like it was going to kill him. Or at least he hoped it wouldn't, since he had neither the means nor the will to calculate his chances of survival.

Being not nearly as ecstatic as those two to walk a little faster, Conan was the last to reach the floor below. Lethargic feet took him to a certain door, one that he seized with a long, if plain, glance. According to his calculations ─ also known as 'experience', seeing that he had been on the balcony before ─ this one was what they had been heading to. The door leading to the Yoshidas' apartment ─ or to hell itself, depending on how one looked at it.

I'm probably overreacting, he told himself. It's just a sleepover with a bunch of six-year-olds.

It's late as it is, so they probably will chat and play for two hours, at most, before they go to bed.

And then, peace. It shouldn't be so bad. There was nothing to be worried about-

"What are you doing, Conan-kun?"

Oddly enough, Ayumi's sweet, puzzled voice sounded from afar. So, he checked and confirmed that, yes, the girl in question hadn't moved from the stairs and was blinking owlishly in his direction ─ just like he was, probably.

For the record, he could only see Anya's distinctive pink antenna peeking out from where he was, proving that she had already been heading down before stopping. Conan had the nagging feeling that he had missed something important.

He pointed at the door. "Isn't this your apartment?"

Ayumi blinked again. "It is."

And said nothing else, as if she was waiting for him to explain something to her. Now it wasn't just a feeling, but a fact of life ─ Conan had missed something important.

A 'something' that apparently included a set of stairs and getting to the ground floor, for no good reason he could think of.

But surely, there should be one, right? A plausible explanation could, perhaps, have to do with the rest of Ayumi's friends ─ after all, she would be a horrible guest if she didn't properly welcome them in and helped them get to her apartment-

He felt a tug on his shirt. Ayumi was holding a finger to her lips. Anya's head whipped back and forth with an oddly determined glint in her eyes, pressing her back to the wall.

Huh, strange, Conan thought. It was almost as if they were fixated on the reception desk, and oddly content with the thought that it was empty, and that there was no soul around to see them-

The tugging turned into pulling. He was sent stumbling forward.

"The coast is clear. Come on, you two!"

And thus, he was dragged away ─ running off like a group of underaged fugitives, through the front door of the apartment complex building.

"It's been a while since she went in, right, Mitsuhiko?"

Mitsuhiko checked his wristwatch and felt his forehead scrunch up at what he found. "It's been a little over fifteen minutes," he said. "I wonder what she's doing."

From the corner of his eye, he noticed his friend's head jerking up. His eyes were practically sparkling as he gasped. "Maybe her mom is preparing a feast for us?" he breathed out in amazement.

"If that was the case, she wouldn't have told us to wait here, Genta-kun."

Genta slumped, dejected after his dreams were so crushed so badly. Mitsuhiko knew he ought to feel bad for it, but even though he fought with the need for a semblance of remorse, he found himself too exhausted to care at the moment.

His gaze shifted back to the front, where Ayumi's apartment complex stood imposingly in front of them and decided that, maybe, telling them about his kidnapping attempt earlier today had been a mistake.

Being the empathetic sweetheart of a girl he had known her to be, Mitsuhiko would have thought she'd be a lot more understanding of his situation ─ but instead, she had decided to drag him to her house, for some reason he couldn't understand yet. Now, he had been aware that she, and Genta, had been up to something for quite a while ─ whispering amongst each other whenever they hung up to play, waving it off with a laugh whenever he asked about it. It had irked him a little at first, but as the weeks passed and his interest subsided, he had decided that it was fine ─ they could do whatever they pleased.

But to think that she would act now, of all times.

"Hey, guys! Sorry to keep you waiting!"

That was when Ayumi walked in, a bright smile growing on her face as she hopped off the last few steps and onto the ground. She stopped right in front of him, her hands tucked behind his back, and for a moment, Mitsuhiko wasn't sure if he was supposed to ask for an explanation, or say nothing at all.

Genta beat him to it. "What were you doing, Ayumi?"

"Collecting members!" she chirped.

There was a second there where both boys were left wondering what she meant with that, until they lifted their heads to find that, surprisingly, they weren't as alone as they had thought. A boy and a girl, probably as old as they were, or maybe a bit on the younger side if looks were to be judged, came to a stop right behind Ayumi.

The girl froze, immediately gathering the boy's attention. He blinked in surprise as her eyes grew extremely wide ─ an expression that Mitsuhiko was, in spite of himself, mirroring to the faintest detail. They both gasped in harmony, synchronized fingers raising to point at each other.

Everyone else turned at them, alarmed. Even the bespectacled boy who, with eyes slightly wider than before and a slight hint of surprise coloring his tone, asked her, "You know him, Anya?"

Mitsuhiko seemed shocked, while Anya stared back blankly. Conan tilted his head in askance.

"He's the bad magic man drawer," she told him.

Her words hung in the air, bringing silence to everything around them. Exchanging odd glances, Anya heard them wondering what she was talking about, but to her, that didn't matter. She met her older brother's gaze, his narrowed eyes and furrowed brow, and nodded ─ slowly, yet firmly, a look of understanding clear in her bright emerald eyes.

I don't get what she's saying.

She caught her jaw before it fell on the floor, but despite her best efforts, she wasn't able to hide it from her eyes as well as she'd have liked ─ but was somewhat successful, she supposed, since nobody pointed it out.

Conan crossed his arms, silent on the outside. But as always, inside his mind, it was a different story.

Bad magic man, though? Like an evil magician? And what does a drawer have to do with anything?

But wait, this is Anya ─ she was probably trying something else altogether. With 'drawer', as in a person who draws, and maybe 'bad' referring to the artist instead…

Honestly, Anya wasn't sure whether to be glad to be understood, or terribly disappointed by his deduction process.

Conan's eyes opened slightly in understanding. "Oh, you mean the kid who was almost kidnapped today?"

She nodded, and for a moment, Conan was confused at the lack of enthusiasm that had seemed to overflow her movements just seconds ago. Anya pretended not to notice, and fortunately, he said nothing about it.

What?! Anya all but jumped, startled. The freckled boy next to her was practically shaking in his spot, his eyes wide as plates as he ogled at Conan as though he was something else entirely ─ something out of this world, probably.

How did he draw that conclusion?! That sentence made no sense at all! Mitsuhiko mentally screamed, nearly hysterical. Is it some kind of elaborate code that only those two can understand?!

Anya blinked. She shifted her attention somewhere else, away.

That was incredible! Ayumi gushed, smiling from ear to ear as she admired Conan from afar ─ which was, actually, a few feet away. I didn't get a word that Anya-chan said, but Conan-kun understood her perfectly! Maybe, as siblings, they share some sort of mystical bond that allows them to communicate beyond human comprehension!

She turned to glance over at Anya, so she immediately turned her head away ─ which earned her an amused giggle, but luckily, no comment so far. In doing so, however, she found herself meeting eyes with the last boy of the group, known as Genta, as she had come to learn.

Which he didn't avert, and instead stared back just as intensely.

Man, I hope there's eel and rice for dinner.

Anya's dull stare continued to drill through his skull even as he looked away. He didn't notice.

"So, uh…" Conan faltered, a tight smile growing on his face. "It's nice that you're alright. Be more careful next time, okay?"

Mitsuhiko blanched. Next… time?

Ayumi giggled under her hand again. What exactly had she found funny would probably be yet another mystery that Conan could never solve.

"Now that's settled with," Ayumi began. "Shall we go, guys?"

Well, finally, thought Conan. He had both dreaded and hoped for this moment to come; the moment where they stopped wandering like lost souls in an abandoned building, and settled into the comfort of a warm home. One that would, admittedly, be full of children ─ the second most likely creatures to shatter his sanity without even trying. Second, because there was no beating those one-brain-celled, sad excuses for criminals that he tended to cross paths with. Usually, those drove insane within seconds.

Two hours, he reminded himself. He could make it.

"Conan-kun, you're heading the other way."

He didn't even make it to the stairs. "Isn't your house that way?"

"Yeah. But the bus stop is just across the street."

A faint sense of dread settled in the pit of Conan's stomach. "Bus stop?"

"Yup! We're going ghost-hunting!"

He should totally have seen this coming ─ should have locked his front door, too.

By the corner of his eye, Conan thought he saw Mitsuhiko freezing solid, his eyelashes fluttering as though he had woken up from a long dream ─ or wanted to wake up from one, a nightmare in Conan's humble opinion.

Quite a reasonable reaction to have ─ if only he wasn't the only kid, besides Conan himself, of course. Because, for some reason he couldn't figure out for the life of him, his alleged sister was practically vibrating in her feet, her wide eyes so bright that could probably light up the night better than any lamppost could.

Genta was surprised, too, but to a much healthier degree. "We're doing it now?!" he shouted, although from the grin etched in his face, he didn't look like he wanted to object.

"I thought we talked about this," Mitsuhiko interjected. "There's no such a thing as ghosts!"

"Oh, yeah?" Genta raised an eyebrow at him. "Says who?"

"Science!"

Genta looked as though he wanted to reply, and in that very moment, Conan decided that, no, he wasn't dealing with this tonight ─ with none of this. He stepped up, brushing past Genta with his hands extended.

"Wait," he said, calm as per his role as the voice of reason demanded ─ or what he thought it demanded, because he actually had not a single clue. If he had, he would also probably be the proud possessor of a black belt in karate and about sixty extra centimeters on his height record. Out of which he had none, sadly.

"Wait," he repeated, firmer. "We can't do that."

Ayumi tilted her head to one side. "Why not?"

"Our parents. They will be worried."

More like moderately inconvenienced and remarkably irritated, but Conan figured that worked, too.

It didn't, though. She laughed ─ freaking laughed at his absolutely reasonable response.

"It's fine! They think you're in my house."

At this point, Conan wasn't above running back in and claiming he was almost kidnapped tonight. It would be hard to convince Loid that his captors were a bunch of six-year-olds that happened to include his little sister, though… Still tempting. Very tempting.

"Hey, I told mine the same!" Genta grinned, as if this was some sort of strange coincidence he should find funny at all. "How about you, Mitsuhiko?"

"Yeah…" Mitsuhiko sighed. "Same here."

"See?" Ayumi said. "No problem!"

No ─ yes. Yes problem. "Your parents!" Conan realized he had exclaimed it from the odd look Anya had given him, so he cleared his voice before trying again. "Think about your parents, Ayumi-chan. They will worry about you."

To his horror, she shook her head. "I told Mom I'm staying over at Mitsuhiko-kun's."

Conan wasn't surprised. Mitsuhiko was.

She beamed brightly, hands firmly tucked at each side of her waist. "It's settled, then!" she exclaimed, her fist high in the air. "Let's go, guys! To an exciting adventure!"

Anya threw both her arms over her head, a grin threatening to split her face in half. "Adventure!" she exclaimed before taking off running to the bus stop.

Or rather, the direction Ayumi had almost wandered to. Conan was almost one hundred percent sure she had no idea where the bus stop actually was.

Genta nodded vigorously, a determined frown growing on his face. Without being told, he took up on his self-assigned role ─ hooking an arm around Mitsuhiko and dragging him away against his will. For the second time in a single day.

Sounds tough, and like he might have encountered a worthy opponent for a competition neither of them probably wanted to be part of.

And so, he watched the trio walk away, including Anya, who, much to his chagrin, practically bounced on her stead ─ an obvious clue to how much of a waste of time it would be to talk her out of it. None of the other two were any better; Genta was a lot more determined to fight whatever ghost jumped in his way ─ wait until he learns that ghosts are supposed to be incorporeal ─ and Mitsuhiko, his only hope for an ally, had practically lost all hope in going against his friends' wishes.

Meaning that all was left was the mastermind, currently standing in front of him with that sweet little smile couldn't fool him.

I'm the adult here, or at least the closest thing available at the moment. He crossed his arms over his chest, stubbornly rooted in his spot. I refuse to be bossed around by a bunch of little kids.

Ayumi tipped her head skyward, a tiny finger pointing at something. Conan's facade crumbled at the confusion, blinking twice before, finally, following her gaze.

It took him a full second to identify what she was referring to, and about half a minute to process the implications of what he was seeing. Then, he spent the remaining half of that minute trying to convince himself that, no, he must be misinterpreting things.

Surely, this innocent child wasn't purposely pointing at the sealed window in his apartment, was she?

"They found out, didn't they?" Ayumi asked in that innocent, angelic voice of hers. "That you tried to sneak out the other night."

"Uh, well…" Conan babbled. "I… No."

Ah, yes. Perfect. A fitting response for a renowned high school detective of his caliber, to a six-year-old that probably hadn't started elementary school yet.

The silence stretched for a few seconds longer, in which Shinichi wished, more than ever before, that he could just dig up a hole and die. But then the girl's smile dropped, her eyebrows scrunching up for some reason Conan couldn't exactly deduce.

"If you come with us, I'll help you out!" she suddenly exclaimed, taking a step forward ─ Conan took another backwards, startled. "Next time, you could tell your parents that you went over to play at my place!"

Conan was left speechless, his mind reeling by the momentum; wondering if he had heard things right, or if it had wandered somewhere in the realms of delirium. Is… Is this girl…

Is this little girl trying to bribe me?!

"I won't say a thing, even if you don't show up!" Her eyes were bright, glimmering with sheer will and determination. "I promise, so please, Conan-kun! It will be fun!"

Sighing, Conan pinched the bridge of his nose. He couldn't believe he was actually considering it.

There was a time in his life where Shinichi thought of himself old enough to make his own decisions. Being already sixteen and independent enough to be allowed to live alone at fourteen, he had believed himself pretty capable of building his way to adulthood as a great, and hopefully healthy, young detective in the making.

As a logical person, Shinichi had thought himself capable of making excellent decisions that always included putting criminals behind bars as an obvious consequence. So what if he had to chase a criminal up to a darkened ally to assure their arrest? It was fine; they ended up being caught. All thanks to his own quick, logical decisions.

Ran had never approved of that, and it wasn't until one ─ or two ─ of those criminals finally caught up to him that he finally could see why. He came to understand that his life was paved by a series of decisions, ranging from pretty bad to terrible, occasionally veering towards 'suicidal' levels of stupidity.

And while it was somewhere in the middle of this range, he couldn't say this had been a good one at all. It was a decision that had stripped from what little spare change he had left in his pockets, because his and Anya's fare wouldn't pay themselves on their own, and left him riding a bus in the middle of the night with a bunch of rowdy children. Heading to God-knows-where, since he had forgotten to ask.

So there he was, standing in the corridor, holding himself as well as he could from Anya's and Ayumi's shared seat while the remaining two sat in the one directly in behind of theirs ─ like he was some sort of chaperone in some kids' school field class, because apparently those were the last seats available, as per his luck would allow.

Note to self: do not negotiate with a child ever again. He wasn't bribed ─ they just negotiated. Conan wasn't sure which option was worse.

"So!" Ayumi grinned. "You already know me, Ayumi Yoshida!"

Regrettably, yeah.

"Those are my friends, Genta Kojima and Mitsuhiko Tsuburaya." They lifted their heads slightly when mentioned. Unsure of what else to do, Conan awkwardly nodded back. "We have known each other all the way since kindergarten!"

Which equals two years at most.

Anya stared deep into his soul for some reason. Quite honestly, the detective could not explain the reason behind that silence he believed so incompatible with her ─ just when he thought he was just beginning to get the grasp of her unique personality, it turned out she was, what, shy around strangers?

He couldn't get rid of the impression that wasn't it, but since he couldn't come up with anything better, he settled on that. It still didn't change the fact that she wasn't going to respond on her own, so he took in his own hands to make the introduction for the both of them.

"I'm Conan Forger." He kept it simple. "And this is my twin sister, Anya."

Ayumi blinked in confusion. "Twins?"

Conan was opening his mouth to reply, "That's a lie!" when Genta interrupted him. Straightening in his seat, and likely a moment away from rising to his feet, the boy sent Anya, and then Conan, a very incriminating look. "You two look nothing alike!"

Of course, such a loud outburst drew the attention from the passengers nearby, and with it came the annoyed glaring. Conan sighed into his hand, exhaustion seeping in his bones as though he was suddenly twenty years older than he was supposed to be ─ oh, if only…

Had he been looking, he would probably have seen Anya twitching, her blood draining from her face ─ holding tightly in the seat she shared with Ayumi with as much strength his little hands could manage, in a fruitless attempt to stop the world from spinning on its axis.

He knows, was her single thought, piercing through the haze in her mind with dazing clarity. World peace… Is world peace in danger?!

Desperate, her gaze flickered away from the suspicious boy ─ and soon-to-be enemy to defeat, probably ─ and searched for her brother's. When she did, she found that… he actually didn't look too panicked ─ he wasn't panicked in the slightest, his mind quiet as opposed to the chaos of merged thoughts she had expected it to be.

"They don't have to be identical to be twins, Genta-kun," Mitsuhiko explained, the epitome of calmness and patience ─ both wonderful virtues that Conan sadly didn't have. "That's what they call fraternal twins."

At first, it was silent ─ the words sinking slowly despite their massive weight. Eventually they hit rock bottom, and Genta couldn't stop himself from gasping.

Anya gasped, too.

And Conan stared at her in disbelief. It didn't occur to you until now?!

She pretended not to have heard a thing ─ rather skilfully, she would add.

"Okay!" Ayumi clapped her hands to get everyone's attention. "Now that we all have properly introduced ourselves… Let's talk about our business here!"

Business ─ that reminded him, he wanted none of it. But since that was way out of the question, he supposed he could at least listen, if only to be aware of what he was up against. As per experience had taught him, ignorance was one of the most likely causes of death ─ second to misfortune… and his own decisions, possibly.

So, he waited. The others remained just as silent, attentive gazes stuck in the girl who continued to smile, not moving a single inch ─ for an entire second, then for another one.

She stood up suddenly, and would probably have rammed into Conan if he hadn't jumped backwards just in time. They followed, right in tow, and even though he wished he could crawl under a seat and hope they didn't notice him missing until after stepping down the bus, he did the same ─ they did have a deal, after all.

They stepped out, naively immersing themselves in a certain pitch black darkness that pointed out to the late hour they were navigating at. Actually, Conan was kind of tempted to point out how obviously dangerous it was for a group of children to be wandering about in such conditions, but had to refrain himself. Mostly because Ayumi was part of the group, and she was a witness to that stunt he had once pulled out ─ that certain one that included running off at the dead of night and completely on his own.

He didn't want to come off as a hypocrite right off the bat, for credibility issues. Also, Anya was there ─ God save him from Loid and his own sanity if she wound up following his example. Which probably was what she was doing right now, but he was counting on this being an exception and not a first time.

"We're nearing our destination. Prepare yourselves, guys."

Ayumi was walking in front, a frown crossing her features ─ or at least he thought it was a frown. He looked around and grimaced, realizing that he couldn't see a thing.

What, here too? he thought. Beika was the same, he reckoned ─ and then the authorities wondered why there were so many crimes happening at night. Maybe they should invest in proper illumination for their streets before tackling any other issue.

"Our objective for the night is a creepy mansion," she continued, her voice trembling almost imperceptibly. Conan thought it proper not to point it out. "According to the rumors, it's supposed to be filled with strange books."

Strange books? Well, that wasn't exactly what he would call 'terrifying', but he kind of had the impression that it would be quite the scary sight to witness for, at least, half of the population in this group. Surely, that's nothing in comparison to the library in my house.

Just imagine they have Sherlock Holmes, though, he thought. Maybe that would be his only shot at making it somewhat bearable for him ─ pretending to be spirited away or whatever, and just hide somewhere to read and recover some well-needed peace of mind. It could work.

He chuckled at the thought. Genta shot him an unfriendly glare. He didn't apologize.

Instead, he raised his gaze. In the distance, barely peeking from behind a cluster of trees, the aforementioned mansion gradually emerged into view. A pang of nostalgia tugged at the corners of his lips, his heart recognizing it as familiar before his mind could even process it. Perhaps he had finally lost it; perhaps it was that homesickness he had thought long buried surfacing back to get revenge. But, somehow, he was reminded of his own house. His one and only home.

That feeling, whatever it was, only grew stronger as the distance lessened. He just couldn't get rid of the impression that… it looked somewhat similar to his house. Okay, maybe it was a little more than that… More like a carbon copy, actually; a perfect replica.

Wait… Wait.

Ayumi's feet stopped moving. Conan's heart skipped a beat.

"The boy who lived there all by himself was eaten up by a demon." Ayumi had probably turned around to face them ─ probably, because he couldn't get his eyes to tear away from the building. Not even for a single second. "So nobody is supposed to live there anymore."

And as Ayumi pumped her fist in the air, Conan quite literally felt his soul slipping away from his body.

"Tonight's objective: the Kuoo's mansion! Let's go, exploration team!"

A wince successfully dragged his soul back where it came from, eyes instinctively darting to the nameplate at the entrance. Whatever ounce of hope that this was just a massive misunderstanding on his part melted at the word that, even partially covered by shadows, was pretty much visible ─ and sadly, confirmed it was the right one. He felt like crying, and possibly yelling, too. Tearing his hair from his scalp didn't sound like a terrible idea, either.

With everyone's attention on the gates that led to his private property, Conan was free to stand there, and glare at the plate as though it was the reason for all the evil in this world.

Ayumi had misread it; the letter 'd' faded away with the years and his parents' unwillingness to get it changed ─ and the fact that they barely even were there, to begin with ─ all had contributed to Ayumi's clerical error.

It's 'Kudo', he thought. My house.

Anya flinched, her grip on the bars slacking.

Niichan's house?! she cried internally. She pressed her forehead against the cold rusty metal, fighting valiantly against the urge to spin around and gape ─ and risk his older brother to wonder, and possibly discover, the reason as why her face was contorting so unnaturally, overflowed by so many emotions her little body wasn't able to contain properly.

Groaning, Genta tried to pull it open ─ with all his might. It didn't budge.

"It's of no use," he breathed out, shaking his head. "It doesn't open."

"Maybe it's locked?" Mitsuhiko suggested.

Conan snorted, but since nobody else reacted to it, Anya assumed it had been contained within his mind realm. It's not locked, he thought. It just opens the other way.

Anya raised her head, staring up ahead in contemplation.

Then gave the gates a gentle push. They swung open right away, revealing the imposing mansion that lay behind ─ just like a pair of inviting arms that welcomed them into an exciting adventure like none other.

"Yay~! It opened!" Ayumi cheered, jumping in her spot.

"So it opens the other way," observed Mitsuhiko, watching the gate up from close.

"Oh! Nice going, Anya!" Genta exclaimed, a wide grin etched on his face.

Meanwhile, Conan remained quiet. Anya couldn't seem to understand why his head was drowning in thoughts about how much he wanted to headbutt the wall and not wake up in a week at the latest. Knowing better than to ask for answers, the girl was forced to shrug it off and follow the other kids inside.

For Conan, it took another moment. Well, it could be worse, he supposed, finally taking a step forward. They still need a key to get in.

A key that he currently did not have on him, making it fortunately inaccessible at the moment. To be fair, he didn't exactly remember where he had left it ─ maybe dropped somewhere in his house when he was last there, before running away and forgetting about it altogether. It was likely that it was still there, unless the Professor had found it and took it with him, which would be a fairly more reassuring thought.

Professor Agasa…

He wasn't entirely aware that he had halted in his step. The light coming from a certain room in his neighbor's house stole a smile out of him ─ same old Professor, he thought fondly, wondering what he could be doing, up and about when literally everyone else on the block was sleeping, like any sane person would ─ not including Shinichi himself, but that was a given.

Had he repaired the wall he blew up the week before his disappearance? He had told him twice that morning, and had reminded him one last time just before leaving for Tropical Land that night. He sure hoped he hadn't blown up another one.

I wonder what he's building right now. Maybe he had found a way to make the jetpack work as intended, as opposed to the murder weapon he had unwittingly created. Or maybe he had moved to other projects, too ambitious for his mind to picture ─ born out of an equally ambitious mind that would never stop dreaming about the impossible.

Or maybe he finally gave up. He wanted to laugh, because he knew that was a foolish thought. The day he stopped doing what he was passionate about would probably be the day Shinichi stopped being a detective.

"Conan!" Genta suddenly called, snapping him out of it. "We're gonna leave you behind!"

He repressed a sigh ─ couldn't these brats allow him one second to mope around to his heart's content? Sure, his front yard was more on the large side, but it wasn't enough to lose sight of them if they strayed a bit too far. With his front door firmly locked, there wasn't anywhere else to go.

But of course, when he turned around to see what the fuss was about, he found all of them crowding at the entrance of his house. Peeking inside from a door that, as his luck would dictate, was fully open.

Conan took his time to stare, breathe in, then out.

You had one job.

Seriously, there was just this one thing he had trusted him to do in his absence, but no. Of course, he didn't. Granted, he hadn't specifically told the Professor to grab his key and lock his door, but he had thought it was common sense ─ or was it, actually? Loid, for all his intellect and skill as a spy, had neglected locking their door when Anya and he were alone a few times before learning his lesson.

Maybe Agasa was the same, but he sure hoped that the old professor didn't learn his lesson at the expense of his house. Certainly, he wasn't interested in getting back home for the first time in what felt like years and having the experience ruined by tripping on the cold rotten body of a random drug dealer with a strangled brother he bullied in his youth ─ or similar. I mean, with my luck, that could happen.

As he approached the entrance and peered inside, he ascertained there were no corpses in plain sight, which was a relief. However, he did spot something strange in the door itself, more particularly around the keyhole. His memory could be failing him, but he was almost completely sure that those scratches hadn't been there the last time he had been there.

His gaze narrowed, taking into the sight before he dragged it away.

For the first time in a long while, Conan stepped into his home. And even though he had believed he would be back to his old body, he allowed himself a soft little smile; content to be there, finally back home.

Only silence welcomed him in his grand return. But for Shinichi, that was what normalcy looked like ─ what happiness looked like to him.

"Wow, it's so big!" Ayumi exclaimed, twirling around. "I feel like a princess in a castle!"

Anya nodded, her eyes bright in the darkness ─ darting from place to place as if to take in every corner of the living room.

"This isn't… what I expected a haunted mansion to look like," Mitsuhiko pointed out.

"Maybe it hasn't been abandoned for long," Conan tried. It was worth a shot. "The owner could just be on vacation and could be returning any minute now. Which brings me to my point that maybe we shouldn't… Where are you going, Genta?"

Genta peered around the corner. That would be the kitchen ─ his kitchen ─ and he even had the nerve to look so innocently confused. "I'm hungry," he said, as if it explained everything. "If this house has been abandoned, nobody will mind if I-"

"Sure, if you're after a severe case of food poisoning." Conan crossed his arms over his chest, shaking his head like a disappointed parent. "If nobody has been living here for so long, both water and electricity supply should have been shut up. Without proper refrigeration, the food in there must have spoiled already."

A faint sense of accomplishment warmed his chest at Genta's dejected sigh.

The same couldn't be said about Mitsuhiko's perplexed blinking. "Conan-kun, didn't you just say-?"

"Niichan!" Anya came running in, towards him ─ which made him wonder when she had left, in the first place. "Anya found a creepy staircase!"

Creepy? Conan wasn't sure what his opinion on the matter was, so he decided to skip it altogether. "Where's Ayumi-chan?" he asked, finding her missing.

"In the creepy staircase," Anya replied matter-of-factly.

Of course ─ why had he ever expected something else from her?

"Eh?! No fair!" He barely even registered that Genta was talking before he brushed past him and broke into a run. "Having fun all by yourself!"

"Wait, Genta-kun, don't run!" Mitsuhiko chased after him. "It's dark ─ you could get hurt!"

Conan considered telling him that he too could injure himself, but again, refrained from it ─ they wouldn't listen, so why bother? Better to save his energy for the rest of the night, because he seriously needed all he could get from it.

More to the reason, he leisurely made his way to them, allowing his gaze to wander just as lazily.

Everything was exactly the way he remembered it ─ that ugly navy blue atrocity of a couch his mother had bought on a whim when he was ten, the old TV his father had once brought home because he thought it fit nicely with the ambience.

I used to hate it, Conan thought, sort of amused. It was about that period of his life that his mother had sole-handedly decided that Fridays were movie nights ─ movies that, of course, always happened to have her name listed as a part of the cast. As a direct result of it, he was thus sentenced to a nightly two-hour sitting between his parents and a specialized kind of torture named romance dramas.

Never once had he managed to experience it as it should, always nodding off somewhere in the first twenty minutes and waking up at the ending credits. None of his parents ever seemed to mind, and in fact, he always found them smiling at each other when he opened them, for whatever reason he wasn't interested in finding out about.

At first, his mother had declared this event as a must, not to be skipped under any circumstances despite what Shinichi might have to say about it. But soon came the exceptions ─ his father having an unexpected late meet up with his editors, his mother running into a friend in the convenience store that ended up with dinner to catch up, their parents' anniversary and plans for a romantic dinner out somewhere…

Shinichi wondered when the exceptions became more of a permanent thing.

Now, there wasn't even anybody to welcome him back, even after being away for so long.

"Niichan."

Conan looked up, snapping out of his thoughts. Anya was staring with those eyes ─ those that puzzled them like no other, the only ones he somehow couldn't read. She nodded over to the stairs before turning around to join the others upstairs.

He found himself staring at her retreating figure, and eventually, his jaw unclenched. A huff left his system, but a small smile didn't take long to creep up his lips; what a traitor it was, this child-like face of his.

Out of habit more than anything else, he stuck his hands inside his pockets, but instead of catching up like intended, he found himself faltering. Turning slightly away so as not to be spotted, he pulled out whatever strange object he had felt in his pockets, and opened his eyes wide in realization.

He had forgotten he was still carrying the cassette tape he had borrowed ─ borrowed for investigation, not quite stolen ─ from Yor's belongings. One that he hadn't gotten the chance to listen to for the lack of better equipment.

"Niichan!"

"Yeah, yeah. Coming."

Silently, he put it back where he had taken it from and lifted his head.

Looking at the enormous staircase leading to the upper floor, and Anya's puffed-out cheeks, born of what he would assume to be exasperation, he smiled to himself.

Well. Welcome back, I guess.

A/N

BakerBen101: Eventually, maybe ;)