Case Closed Fan Fiction ❯ The First Woman In The World ❯ 11 ( Chapter 11 )

Forty Years Ago

“Hurry, Eta,” Ushi hissed.

“Calm down, Ushi,” Eta replied softly, hoisting a suit of armour and ignoring the screams. “None of them will notice us. There aren't a lot left to notice, anyway…” she stepped over a twitching, giggling figure on the floor. “Is the truck out front?”

“Waiting for the goods,” Ushi said, dragging a couple of vases towards the door. “Fool. Look at the crow emblems everywhere. He was showing off, using our power and influence to acquire these treasures… then stealing more than he was due…”

Eta said nothing, simply carrying treasures out of the door towards the truck. She did not approve of Karasuma Renya stealing from the Organization, but she could not help but find the method of recovering their property distasteful. Still, Ushi was right- a fortune in jewels, art and artefacts vanishing would be very thoroughly investigated… unless the circumstances of its disappearance was so strange and creepy that people could not help but fear that it had been ghosts or demons that had taken it.

Ah, the joys of marijuana. Eta's very own special brand, too.

She could hear screaming and fighting behind her as she and Ushi drove away, the treasures retrieved safely. The marijuana smoke was already dispelling- it hadn't affected Eta and Ushi a bit, which was why they had come themselves rather than sending any of their underlings- their Ravens.

The name had come into use among them a while ago, though nobody could quite trace the source, apparently due to the semi-uniform of black and the Syndicate's general reputation of death and destruction. It was useful for coded discussions, but the problem was that it had become an emblem… as Karasuma Renya had shown. The raven emblem had become a symbol of someone with dangerous power and influence behind them.

Which meant that everyone who had turned up to bid for the items left by Karasuma must have had some inkling of what the symbol meant.

“They'll all kill each other,” Eta reassured Ushi. “The drug, sooner or later, drives them to believe that they are surrounded by demons… those who know about us will be wiped out.”

“I'm not so sure,” Ushi growled. “Did you see how many people were there? Karasuma was incautious. He was spreading our influence around… surely there were many more who had some inkling of what backed him, and simply could not make it…”

“We'll go through his business acquaintances later, we have all of his books, after all,” Eta said.

“Hopefully they'll tell us what he did with the gold…” Ushi grumbled.

That was disconcerting, Eta had to admit. Karasuma Renya- Whiskey- had vanished five years ago with substantial amounts of gold and artefacts, after a long and lucrative career as a trusted “accountant” for the Syndicate. The complex system of bookkeeping he had created for the Syndicate had made them invisible, but unfortunately this meant that he knew the Syndicate so well that when he had decided to disappear, he had done so. Completely. They hadn't found him until the news of the auction had slipped through the business world's shadows- he had spread his “crow association” influence so far and wide that soon he hadn't been able to hide it from them.

He had died at an immense age- by normal people's standards, anyway- thus escaping their grip, but at least they had most of their treasures back. All that was left was the issue of the gold. Karasuma had stolen enough gold to make Fort Knox look like a piggybank. But there was no sign of the vast fortune that he would have attained from selling it in his finances, as Pisco had insisted- and he was well enough acquainted with his mentor's bookkeeping methods to find the money wherever he had hidden it. So how could one hide so much gold?

Mulling these problems over in silence, and with a long drive ahead of them, Eta fell asleep.

She smiled when she felt grass under her feet rather than falling into the black. She would see her children now, she was sure.

It was the first time that she had noticed the tree. It had always been there, she was sure; she and her children had often sat on its roots as they talked and played together. They were sitting there now, staring up at the branches. Now that Eta properly looked at it, she could see that it had grown, had always been growing, and it was in an odd conical shape; huge and leafy at the top, but with the branches growing fewer and fewer as they descended down the trunk. The lowest branches were now just beginning to grow at Eta's head-height; just above her children's reach.

“Pretty, isn't it, momma?” her little girl said.

“It'll reach us soon, too,” her little boy said. “It's nearly there.”

“It's an odd sort of tree,” Eta mused, staring up at it. “I wonder what kind it is…?”

“It's a family tree,” the girl giggled.

“Ours,” the boy added. “When our branches grow… we'll get to see you for real, momma.”

“We'll have to get rid of that nasty jewel, though,” the girl said, screwing her face up. “I don't like it.”

“It's bad,” the little boy declared. “We'll get rid of it, and the rest of the bad stuff.”

“Ushi won't want to let you,” Eta said, kneeling down to take her children in her arms. Soon, they would be…

“But you won't let him hurt us, will you, momma?” the boy asked. “You'll look after us.”

“And we'll look after ourselves and each other,” the girl promised.

“That's good,” Eta murmured, tears pooling in her eyes. “I wish I could hold you forever… but when that jewel is gone, I suppose I shall have to leave you.”

“Then we'll keep looking after each other,” the boy said, putting his arm around the girl's shoulders.

“We'll always look after each other,” the girl agreed. “Forever and ever.”

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No, the Angel is not Eta, Pretztailfan95. It is her dream-daughter. *shoots* XD

Indeed it did, Pu7o ^_-

There's the confirmation, StargateNerd; I can't help it, I'm a movie geek XD

The timespans are getting closer together, KageNoNeko, so there'll be a bit more time to dive into the workings of Eta's mind…

That's just what he believes, TwilTye, not what the Organization believes. It boils down to a hatred of warfare, and since the Organization having ultimate control would prevent war, he's willing to go to any lengths to see the Organization reign supreme. But that's only until something better comes along…

We all hate school, Kayla Edogawa. -_- It cuts into fanfic time. XD I'm a history geek, I adore weaving it all together…

Gotta love good movies, DiGi XD Who knows where Ushi is now… Not quite, but very, very close. Yes, that would have been Amnesial. Akako mentioned that it came from Native American tribes.

That will be very soon, Mel72000…

Did you actually have to type it out, A Midsummer Night's Dream? XD

I do not claim to own any of the characters in Meitantei Conan. They are the intellectual property of Aoyama Gosho. All characters, couples and locations, if Canon, will be faithful to the manga, so if you're into fics with weird pairings like Shinichi and Heiji, the back button is at the top there. The fic may not make sense if you have not read up to chapter 698, which you can do at a site called (read between the lines) O/n/e/ma/n/g/a, but I advise you to buy the official Tankoban novels (up to volume 30 are out in English at the time of writing) so that Aoyama-sensei can afford to continue gracing us with his imagination. Now, I hope you enjoy the fic! (If you don't, please see my previous comments re the back button).