Case Closed Fan Fiction ❯ Revelations ❯ Revelations 5 ( Chapter 5 )

[ P - Pre-Teen ]

Author's Notes: Well. This took me a long time. *sweatdrop* I apologize. Anyway, I hope no one kills me after this. *grins* Oh, and by the way, this chapter contains MAJOR SPOILERS for the fifth movie. I'm sorry really, but I just couldn't resist adding it in after watching it. *sweatdrop* Shinichi is SO KAKKOII in there!! XD

Anyway. On with the story. Please. More C&C please?? I'm begging you guys.....


Disclaimers: Standard disclaimers apply.

Revelations Chapter 5
by Valerie Chow

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Shinichi shot to his feet at his father's words. "You KNOW Akai Shuichi?" he asked incredulously.

Yusaku was mildly taken aback by his son's response. "Yes, why? We are not very good friends but we ARE friends, if you know what I mean." Yusaku smiled sheepishly. "He gives me very good tips on cases the FBI are solving."

Shinichi stared at his father, aghast. His FATHER was friends with the man he thought connected to the Black Organization? Who, from what his father said, just happens to be the FBI agent in charge of investigating the same said Organization? It was too pat, too much of a coincidence. He didn't, couldn't, believe it. Was this a trap? His eyes meet those of Haibara. They were enigmatic as usual, but he could see the same doubts he had in it.

Yusaku was still looking at his son in curiosity. His father, even with all his intelligence, never really knew what he had found out and suspected. It had never occurred to Shinichi that his parents, far away in America would be targeted and used against him. Or were they? And there was still that business of someone stealing the case files containing cases solved by Oji-san, or rather himself, then putting them back. If Akai Shuichi, who was his prime suspect for the theft, was really from the FBI, and know all about him, then he will have no reason to take those files. He would just have to request for them and he would have gotten it. Assuming of course again, that he WAS who he said he was. Which meant his position was even more precarious than it already was. Then there was also the man who was loitering around the agency. And Jodie Saintemillion. And James Black.

Shinichi rubbed his forehead. He seemed to be doing this a lot lately. This was getting confusing. His father was still looking at him curiously, and with a hint of unease. Good. He deserved it for putting him through all this. However, much as he would like to pay his father back for all the shocks he had sprung on him ever since he came back, things were too unsettled for him to spare the time. He grimaced.

"Otou-san. When did you know Akai-san?" Shinichi asked his father.

"Hmm. Around two to three months ago. Why?"

That would put it about a few weeks before the bus-hijack case when he had first seen him. It was probably not a coincidence. He never believed in them anyway. Just where does this put them now?

Ran was watching Shinichi steadily. "You're keeping something back." Shinichi flushed and didn't answer. Ran's eyes narrowed. "What. Are. You. Keeping. Back." She spaced each word out with great care and her hard eyes reminded him of the promise he made. Ran was getting more aggressive then he ever remembered her being. He turned and found five pairs of eyes regarding him steadily. Only Haibara's face was carefully neutral.

He gave up. There was really no way of keeping things back when they all ganged up on him like this. If it was only one or two of them, maybe, but SIX of them? Where was Hattori when you needed him? Oh yeah, out keeping Kazuha distracted.

So he told them. About everything, all that he suspected, and what he and Hattori discovered. There was a tense silence after he finished.

Ran was the first to break it. "Jodie-sensei? I...I just can't BELIEVE it!" She still couldn't. The nice, friendly English teacher who was always so nice to Sonoko and her, was a suspected member of the Black Organization?

"I won't discount your suspicions. But, Shinichi, I had Akai-san investigated thoroughly before deciding to take him into my confidence. You know I won't do things rashly. Why don't you meet him first and see what he has to say before deciding anything?" Yusaku asked, eyebrows frowned in concentration.

"No. If he WAS a member of the Organization, and his intended target was you, Kudo-san, they would have made sure all the loose ends were tied up. There would be no loopholes, no suspicious facts that would betray his identity. His background would not be exactly flawless, that in itself would be suspicious, but it would be good enough to convince you and your investigators that he was the genuine thing." Haibara, who had kept silent during the entire byplay between father and son until now, spoke up. "That is, if your investigators would not be also part of the scam."

"You make the Organization sound as if it was so powerful that it has its hands in everything." Kogoro tried to laugh it off. He looked around him. All were wearing thoughtful expressions. "They aren't, are they?" He whispered. Haibara just looked at him. Kogoro slumped into his chair. "Then how in the blazes are we going to pull down this Organization when we don't even know who to trust and which is so powerful?"

"I told you. I told you not to underestimate them, Kudo-kun. Going against them is impossible. They have not been around for nearly a century just to be pulled down by a few smart detectives that just happen to stumble across their path. There is a reason that they have managed to stay hidden until now, you know." Haibara continued on relentlessly.

"It's not the time to say 'I told you so, Haibara, " Shinichi retorted irritably. Things seemed to be getting rapidly out of hand. "Wait just a minute Haibara. Otou-san, what was the personal reason that Akai-san told you he had in this whole business?"

Yusaku shifted uncomfortably. "Its not really my place to say, Shinichi."

"Then why don't you let me enlighten them, Kudo-san?" A new voice asked.

Everyone turned. His entrance was dramatic enough that it could have put a carefully orchestrated one to shame. The man known to some present as Akai Shuichi stood at the doorway. His stance was such that wasn't deliberately flippant. It combined just the right amount of alert awareness that signified a predator and a confident air that was calculated to make people trust him. A stray stream of morning sunlight shone through the open door behind him, illuminating him as well as casting his face into the shadows. Shinichi wondered idly if the Black Organization had even the weather working for them. He still thought of him as part of the Organization, despite what his father said.

Akai Shuichi was, as usual, dressed in black with a woolen cap over his dark hair. His expression was one of sardonic amusement, but his eyes, as they surveyed the surrounding group was hard and assessing. They flickered over each and every one of them, missing nothing and giving away nothing. When they passed over the slight form of Haibara, there was a sudden flicker of something in his eyes, but it passed too quickly for Shinichi to catch it.

Yusaku and Yukiko nodded to him in greeting while Haibara shrunk slightly back against the sofa, gripping the seat of the sofa so tightly that her knuckles turned white. Shinichi glanced at her sharply before turning his eyes back to the man in the doorway. Akai Shuichi returned his glance evenly. Eri fought down a hysterical giggle that threatened to bubble up within her and thought, irrationally, that if this Akai Shuichi found it odd to be engaged in a staring contest with a seven year old that barely came up to his waist. Even if he WAS in truth seventeen.

Apparently not. Eri rolled her eyes.

Men!

The staring contest between the two of them continued until Ran bopped him on his head, breaking the eye contact. Rubbing his head, he turned up to glare at Ran. His neck was getting a bit tired with all this looking up at adults. He couldn't WAIT to get back to normal again.

"Mou! We don't have time for this!" Ran's eyes flashed and Shinichi subsided. She was right, much as he loathed to admit it. Ran turned to Akai Shuichi. "I know you, don't I? I've seen you once in New York, and then again, in the tea house where Saito-san was having her match-making session*!"

One elegant eyebrow quirked upwards and Ran blushed at her boldness. "I'm sorry, I really didn't mean anything," she stammered.

Akai Shuichi just looked at her for a moment before turning back to Yusaku. "Kudo-san, thank you for keeping my secrets for as long as you did. But I guess its time for me to explain before everything we have prepared backfires."

Shinichi was still watching Akai suspiciously and from the corner of his eye, he could see Haibara cower even more behind Professor Hagasa. She wasn't exactly shivering, but she could tell that she was badly frightened by Akai's appearance. Not as much as the few times they had came up against the Black Organisation, but enough to make him even more suspicious of the one known as Akai Shuichi. He would bear watching.

"The FBI have been investigating the so-called Black Organisation for as long as the past ten years as soon as we got wind of them. Numerous people has been put in charge of infiltrating it and have so far failed. This is a very dangerous and powerful Organisation that has a very clever and cunning mastermind behind it. And their claws extend to each and every corner of the society in every part of the world. To really pull them down is very hard without concert evidence and information. They are like a hydra. Cut off one head and two more appear to take its place. To really permanently destroy them, we need to get to the real brain behind the whole show, but this brain, or brains are very careful to keep themselves hidden. We don't even know how many of them are there, and I doubt many in the Organisation does either."

"A year ago, I was put in charge of the operation to get into the Organisation itself after the previous group in charge was all systematically eliminated after they were found out by the Organisation. Even their families were not spared. The biggest stumbling block in the investigation was that we didn't know exactly who to trust. People right beside you whom you thought were your friends could easily turn out to be your enemies instead. That was why, when I began to choose men to help me in the investigation, I kept them separate and unknown to each other. And they were all people I could trust. Or so I thought." At this point in his story, Shinichi noticed that Akai Shuichi's face darkened slightly before it resumed its normal sardonic expression.

"But despite my best precautions, one by one, my subordinates failed and were...eliminated. Totally. And all the information they had risked their lives to get were lost. The Organisation is, if anything, through."

"Half a year ago, I sent in my best subordinate to infiltrate the Organisation. Against all expectations, he was successful. The first thing he found out was the drug APTX 4869 which they were still using. He gave me a list of the victims who had fallen prey to the drug. And there was something, something that strike me as off about the list. One victim, Kudo Shinichi, was listed as unknown instead of deceased. My subordinate told me this list was a few months old when I questioned him about it. He will try to get me the new list. A month later, he came to me again and said that there was something weird about the whole APTX business as the status of the name I was curious about was changed to deceased and not long after that, the inventor of the APTX 4869 had disappeared." Akai Shuichi's glance at Haibara while he said this was intense before his eyes swung back to face the others.

"I thought this was highly suspicious, so I tried to find out more about the person known as Kudo Shinichi, and to a lesser extend, the one known as Miyano Shiho. What I found out surprised me. Kudo Shinichi had a reputation as a high school detective in his country of Japan and disappeared mysteriously a few months back. Of Miyano Shiho, I could find nothing other than she had a sister who had died. So I approached the next best alternative, that of Kudo Shinichi's father, Kudo Yusaku."

"After gaining his trust, and not easily I can tell you, we settled down to plan. He told me about the APTX 4869 and the unforeseen side effects his son was subjected to and his hope of discovering a cure. I was intrigued by what a seventeen-year-old boy in a seven year old's body could do to get information about the Organisation. It seemed as if he managed to get more facts about them than we the FBI ever did even in ten years of work. I offered to help him discover a cure and introduced him to a scientist friend of mine that I was sure was trustworthy. Both of us continued our separate investigations with our own methods and met up a few times to compare notes. That was when our plans nearly fell apart."

Akai Shuichi clenched his fist slightly. "My subordinate was found out and killed. However, before he was eliminated, he had taken the precaution of sending what he had found immediately to me through the channels we had previously agreed on and I was able to savage what I could from his patchy information. I now have an incomplete list of some of the members of the Organisation and signs indicate that the Organization's headquarters had recently been moved to Japan. And so I came here to personally investigate the whole business."

"This subordinate of yours, he was a close friend of yours, wasn't he?" Ran asked softly. Akai didn't answer. And that in itself was answer enough. Yusaku was looking a bit confused but said nothing.

Shinichi looked at Akai steadily. An uneasy suspicion was forming in his mind. "Was your subordinate stationed in Japan before he was...eliminated?"

"What do you ask?" Akai Shuichi controlled his features admirably, but Shinichi could see that his jaw was clenched hard. There seemed to be something deeper in his story than just a simple colleague and friend being killed. Something he resolved to find out later. If it was any indication, it seemed as if his father knew about it and was surprised that Akai didn't mention it.

"I have my reasons." Shinichi tried to keep his expression neutral but inside, he was a confused bundle of nerves and anxiety. He really couldn't bring himself to believe the coincidences that were pilling up. It all seemed to add up nicely, but he had learned, the hard way that in real life, coincidences don't really happen. Not really.

"Yes."

"The name." Even Akai's hard closed look and Ran's tugging at his sleeve didn't stop his questioning. He HAD to know. Had to allay his doubts once and for all. "What was his name?"

"Hara Yoshiaki."

It was true. His suspicions were true. The programmer** who died by Gin's hand in the twin towers murders; the one the Black Organisation had spent so much effort in eliminating any information he had gathered to the extend of bombing the towers with hundreds if not thousands of people inside. He was from the FBI. Shinichi didn't know what to think. The threads were all weaving into place. Neatly. But he didn't know if he could really believe it. If it was all true, it would mean that they would at last, really have a chance to bring down the Organisation. But if is was a trap to lure them out, they will all be dead.

Kogoro interrupted. "Isn't he the programmer that was killed by Kisaragi Hosui*** in the twin towers case? Why do you say he was killed by the Organisation? Are you saying that Kisaragi-san was part of the Organisation?" He was looking confused and Shinichi didn't blame him. After all, he didn't share his conclusions about the murder with anyone else but Haibara.

"He wasn't killed by Kisaragi-san. By the time Kisaragi-san arrived, Hara-san was already killed, so he just placed the saucer and smashed it to make it seemed as if he was killed by him. The lack of bloodstains on the broken pieces showed that the saucer was smashed after the blood dried." Shinichi turned to Akai. "The silver knife. It was a message for you, wasn't it?" It was not a question. Akai nodded. "I wondered about that. Why would he try leave that message? The police would understand nothing about it and it couldn't have been for me. He didn't know me." Shinichi's eyes narrowed. "Did he?"

"No. Yoshiaki didn't know about you. Not about Edogawa Conan. He only knew that Kudo Shinichi was someone to be wary of because I expressed an interest in him."

"What you just said could be true. But it could equally but something you made up to lure us into a trap. What makes you think we can trust you just on that alone?" Shinichi demanded.

"Nothing. I can offer nothing to back up my words. No evidence, no facts nor witnesses to prove that what I had just said is true. On the other hand, if I was really from the Black Organisation, all of you would have been dead by now. You of all people should know very well how they work. Dead people tell no tales." Akai Shuichi said evenly.

"You're talking about blind trust."

"Yes."

Shinichi looked around at the others. All were waiting for him to make the decision. They would follow his lead in this, he knew, because he was the one more intimately concerned with the entire case. He was the one to have the most to lose if everything came into the open. If he made the wrong decision now, it could cause everyone here their lives, to say the least. Why couldn't this be a straightforward case he could just solve and be rid of it? Not for the hundredth time, he cursed the day he decided to follow Gin at Tropical Land.

Everything has a price.

"Alright, suppose we trust you on this, what would you suggest we do?" Shinichi said finally. Haibara made a wordless sound of protest, only to be cut off by Shinichi's raised hand.

"Then we will have to pool our information together. No holds barred. We find out exactly where we stand with regard to the Organisation. And if need be, we bring in the local police. I still have another undercover informant in the Organisation. He will keep be abreast of things."

"And then?"

"And then," Akai Shuichi paused and regarded Shinichi seriously. "We bring them down. Permanently."

Shinichi nodded thoughtfully. "It seems that I have no other choice. Since you already know about me, about us, even if I don't trust you, and you ARE, in fact from the Organisation, we'll be dead anyway. If you are, however, who you say you are, we might still stand a chance. So," he stuck his hand out towards Akai Shuichi.

"We co-operate." Akai Shuichi smiled slightly, and griped Shinichi's hand tightly. There was a slight rustled and Shinichi turned to see Haibara walk out of the room. By the stiffness of her shoulders, he could tell that she was not entirely happy with the present state of affairs. But he had no choice, couldn't she see that?

"Let her cool down alone for a while, Shinichi-kun," the Professor advised. "She'll come around."

Shinichi sighed. There was no help for it. He hadn't the time to pacify one paranoid ex-Organisation scientist. It was time to plan.

The rest of the group soon got down to some serious plotting, so Ran was the only one to really notice that there was something weird with the seat where Haibara had sat on. Upon closer inspection, she realized that Haibara's nails had penetrated the cloth of the coverings when she gripped the seat cushion tightly during the talk.

Pierced it so hard that some of the stuffing came out.

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The rest of the people where still discussing the various plans they were going to implement as soon as they had the chance when Shinichi looked up and saw the Professor beckon him over to a corner of the living room.

"What's the matter, Professor?" Shinichi asked half-annoyed. Things were just progressing along nicely, why did he have to interrupt him now?

"Ai-kun wanted me to pass you this. She said that she had tested it to the best of her ability and that she thought it should be safe. As far as this sort of thing could be called safe." It was the capsule that was the antidote to APTX-4869.

Shinichi took it almost reverently. In that small pill laid all his hopes and dreams as well as his salvation. No matter what happened, he would stand by his decision to take it.

"And here, is the thing you asked me to make for you. Hattori took his this morning before he went out with Kazuha-chan. I assume that this is for Ran-chan?" There was an amused twinkle in the Professor's eyes but his face was straight as he passed over the small black box to Shinichi.

"Thanks, Professor," Shinichi took the box and pocketed it, all along aware that his face was flushed red with embarrassment. Why did everyone viewed his relationship with Ran as some kind of entertainment and seemed to be poking fun of them at his expense?

"Do you wish to try it now?" The Professor asked. There was no question which object he meant.

"Yes."

Softer, more gentle this time. "Would you like some help?"

A glance at the mass of black heads poring over various notes and documents at the middle of the living room.

"Yes."

A pause.

"Thank you."

A smile and a pat on the back, then they were gone. Only Yukiko saw them leave. And she just smiled and turned her attention back to the intense discussion the others were having.

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Twilight. A time for retrospection, or so they say. Personally, Ran never thought of twilight as a time to ponder over what she had done right or wrong for the day. For her, it was more of a time to indulge in daydreams, or simply to just let her thoughts wander as they will. Although, more often than not for the past few months, she would spend this time thinking about him. Even now, when she knew where he was, she still found her thoughts wandering back to him. Strange.

Resting her elbows on the window still of the library where she had first seen the young boy she had known as Edogawa Conan, she permitted herself a small smile as she thought of how Sonoko would say about this if she knew. Or even Kazuha-chan. She could almost imagine their reaction. Sonoko would swoon dramatically and proclaim that she had IT bad. It's SOOOOO ROMANTIC! Kazuha-chan would wink at her and laugh, but in her eyes, she would see understanding and a sense of kinship, of shared feelings for a certain pair of high school detectives.

She tensed, then relaxed as she felt the person approached her from behind. It was a sense of recognition, a feeling that she had honed to perfection without her own knowledge over the years. No matter how he had changed, she could always FEEL him approaching her. Even if he was still in his small form. Which was what had ticked her off about him in the first time. Nobody else FELT like him. It drove her nuts when he was still in his other form and she didn't know anything. Why had Conan-kun felt like Shinichi? But now, she knew.

A pair of hands hugged her from behind suddenly. She gasped. Not in surprise because of the sudden movement, but because of the height from which the hands had hugged her.

She half-turned, only to be stopped by the sound of his well-known voice. A voice she had only heard over the phone for a long long time.

"Don't. Just let me stay like this. For a while." Shinichi, the real Shinichi, HER Shinichi spoke, his voice muffled by her hair, and emotions she couldn't identify.

So they stayed like this. Ran didn't mind. It gave her an opportunity to enjoy having her Shinichi back again. And also to enjoy the change in the status of their relationship.

Then something poked her ribs. She shifted, and the spell was broken. Turning around, she saw, REALLY saw Shinichi again. Not the Conan-Shinichi, but Shinichi as his REAL self. Her vision turned blurry and she hadn't realized she was crying until Shinichi reached out and wiped away her tears.

"Why the tears?" He asked gently.

Ran gave a half laugh, and ran her fingers over features as familiar to herself as her own. "Nothing, just very very glad indeed that you are back. Truly back." Shinichi's hands caught hers before she could proceed further. "You're crying yourself."

"Am I? Must be the wind," he grinned a bit awkwardly. She smiled back. Still the same old Shinichi who would never let her see his tears, even the handful of times he had shed them when they were young. Then, she noticed the black box in his right hand, the thing that had poked her earlier. "What's this?" She asked curiously.

The ceiling suddenly became intensely interesting as Shinichi hummed and hawed and dithered around the subject until Ran could take it no longer and opened the box herself.

"Oh!" Ran's eyes were wide when she saw the thin silver necklace inside the box. And the silver heart.

"Do you like it?" Shinichi asked nervously. He really had no clue as to what girls really liked. Even Ran, whom he had grown up with, puzzled him with her choices in jewelry though he could never fault her fashion sense. But he had tried, and the Professor had tried. They ended up with this small silver locket that he hoped Ran would like. And which the Professor finally managed to squeeze all his requirements in.

"Its, its....perfect," Ran raised cornflower blue eyes to him and he let out a breath he hadn't realized he was holding. Gods, she was beautiful. He didn't want to know what he would have to do if Ran didn't like it. Because besides being a very special gift from him, it also held secrets that might help both of them in the days to come. Secrets Ran mustn't know yet.

Taking the locket from her, Shinichi deftly touched the small screw at the side. With a soft click, the locket flipped open into half, revealing the picture he had placed of both of them inside. A small picture that they had taken at one of the school fairs a few years back.

"So that even when I'm not by your side, you will know that my thoughts are with you," Shinichi was now blushed bright red from head to toe. It seemed to be a habit with him recently. Especially around her. "A pledge that I would never ever leave you alone again."

Ran's eyes filled with tears again. She was more touched by this gesture than anything else he had ever done for her.

"Oh Shinichi! Thank you!" As Ran hugged him tightly, Shinichi wished with all his heart that they would not have any cause to use the other implementations he had asked the Professor to add to that small locket. Ever.

Please God, just let her be safe.

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After leaving Ran, Shinichi walked towards one of the larger guestrooms where he knew the one he sought would be in. Entering the dimly lit room, he paused as he waited for his eyes to adjust to the darkness.

"I've been expecting you," the voice came out among shadows where he could vaguely see the outlines of a body on an old armchair.

He sighed. "Are we going continue playing these games of half truths and intimation? Because they are not going to work you know. Not on me. And time is running out as you very well know."

"Maybe you are right. I apologize. I have been playing these 'games', as you call them, for as long as I remember. So much so that I sometimes forgot that there are times where honesty and trust are needed more. But then, in my profession, both the above-mentioned qualities are very much lacking. Trust no one is the first rule they teach you at the academy you know. Even your superior may very well betray you if their morals are not high enough, as they rarely are."

"And yours are?"

"Point taken." A rueful smile. "I concede the battle to you. What do you want to know?"

Shinichi said nothing as he just continued to look at the corner where the man known as Akai Shuichi sat. A sigh was heard from that direction. "Stubborn, just like your father. A quality that might benefit you greatly in future, but might just as well cause your downfall." The shadow got up and walked into the light. "Satisfied?"

"Well, well, well. Your father showed me a photo of you before, but I must say, the picture certainly didn't do you enough justice." Akai Shuichi circled Shinichi in a way that made him wary.

"Very pleased to meet you at last, Kudo Shinichi."

"Cut the crap and tell me the truth."

"Truth? What is truth? There is only one truth, as you always say. But who can say what is true and what is not? If you believe in something strongly enough, it may just be the truth. After all, there are so many unsolved mysteries out in the world."

Shinichi scowled.

"You really want the truth? Well then, the truth is. Shinichi, I am your father." Akai Shuichi said solemnly.

Shinichi face-faulted.

tbc.

Well. That was fun. ^_^ *dunks flying tomatoes and all*
Hey! It wasn't MY fault. At least, not entirely. I showed it to Ain and Hibbah.
Ain thought why shouldn't I end it here. And I thought, why not? And Hibbah thought, why not?
And so.....
Comments and Criticisms please?? I'm desperate. I need to know what I am doing right or wrong...*pleas*

*This takes place in Volume 32-33. XD A very nice chapter. Highly recommended.
**He was one of the murderee in the movie. But he was killed by Gin instead of the real murderer
***This is the murderer in the movie. Because of artistic reasons, he killed. Anyone notice that most of the movie murderers kill for artistic reasons? *wonders*

C&C please!!!