Case Closed Fan Fiction ❯ The First Woman In The World ❯ 14 ( Chapter 14 )

Twentyyears ago

Eta quietly ran along the corridor of the Parisian restaurant and showhall. Her flight from America had been late. She'd spent most of the flight thinking about the little girl, who must have burned with her parents. Eta felt remorse for the child, but better for her to die with her parents than live alone, an orphan.

There was no escaping that her parents had had to die. Eta was too close now to be arrested. Besides, if people knew that immortality existed, the fools would want it- and Eta could not allow anyone else to undergo this curse.

She silently opened the door at the back of the room, catching sight of the magician onstage.

“And now, ladies and gentlemen, if I may, I would like to render you a little assistance...”

Eta slipped into one of the tables at the back.

“You're late,” Ushi muttered in Japanese.

“Gomenasai,” she whispered in reply. “The lines at the Louvre were long... there's a lot of new security after that mess last night.”

“Has anyone lost any small personal possession today?” the man on the stage called. His French was impeccable, if flatly accented. “A wallet, perhaps? Some makeup? A piece of jewellery?”

“Monsieur,” a lady sitting at one of the front tables called.

“Oui, mademoiselle?” the magician replied smoothly. The lady, on the bad side of middle-aged, giggled. “Have you lost something precious?”

“It was my necklace,” she said. “I was wearing it this morning, I am sure, but when we sat down it had gone! I am not sure when I lost it, but the waiters here cannot find it so I am sure it must have been earlier.”

“Well, mademoiselle,” he said, “if you could perhaps describe this beautiful necklace to me, perhaps I can summon it back to its proper place...”

“It has a fine gold chain,” the woman said, “and a small blue stone set into a gold backing. Monsieur, will you really summon it?”

“But of course!” he replied. “Now, visualize your necklace, if you will, mademoiselle... if you good ladies and gentlemen are willing to assist, if you, too, can visualize her necklace, and I will summon it to travel through time and space...”

Everyone watched the magician as he closed his eyes, holding out one hand and raising the other with his fingers pressed together. Every eye was glued to him. Perhaps only Ushi and Eta, well versed in such things, noticed a shift in the shadows offstage.

The magician snapped his fingers. The stage lights flicked, for less than a second, but when they returned the man had not moved, and his outstretched hand now held a fine golden chain, the blue stone on the end swaying slightly. Everyone gasped and cheered, the lady thanking him profusely as he refastened the necklace around her neck.

“Oh, very interesting,” Ushi said. “He's just an acting tutor, you said?”

“He was a member of a drama club at the local college,” Eta replied. “But he was just doing small shows for fun before. Paying tuition for a chemistry major, you know how much that costs... He graduated and scraped together enough money to try going professional only recently, but clearly it's working out for him. He's certainly rising fast.”

“Indeed,” Ushi replied. “Are you certain he was the one last night?”

“Oh, I'm quite certain,” she said as the man onstage bowed to the cheering crowd.

“Before I pull my final trick,” he said, “I should like to give kudos to the thief who broke into the Louvre last night. He certainly had style, and I'm sure he's the reason that you're all suddenly so interested in magic.” Everybody laughed, in some cases rather guiltily. “I do hope that he returns the painting soon, however. I was rather wanting to go see the exhibit, but there's really no point without the Mona Lisa herself, is there? Ladies and gentlemen, you've been wonderful- merci beaucoup! Bon nuit!” He clicked his fingers and the lights flashed out, blinding everyone momentarily. By the time the blotches had faded from everyone's eyes, the magician was gone. Eta pulled Ushi's hand and led him quietly out, along the backstage corridors.

“Toichi-sensei!” she called as they ran into the man of the evening trying to sneak out the back with his friend, an older man, a teacher in the science department at the college that Toichi had attended who had gladly dropped the books for a chance to travel with his star pupil. “I see you finally went professional! Congratulations! Oh, and Konosuke-sensei as well!” She motioned to Ushi, who slipped back into the shadows before either Toichi or Jii spotted him.

“Sharon-chan!” Toichi said cheerily, greeting her with a kiss on both cheeks, a continental habit that he had picked up quite happily. “Well, did you enjoy the show?”

“Oh, very much,” she said with a smile. “So much so that I don't really mind losing the bet...”

“Ah, I should not have made such an easy bet!” the young man said with a cheeky grin. “I would only feel bad now about taking your money.”

“A bet is a bet, and I promised to pay,” Eta said with a beautiful smile, opening her purse and counting out some rather large bills. “Besides, the cheque on my first contract just paid up. This is chump change to me now.”

“And here I was feeling so proud of my own new career,” Toichi said, shaking his head in mock sadness but still grinning like the fool that most people thought he was- until he'd taken all of their money within three hands of poker.

“Well, you'll have more soon, won't you?” Eta said. “That painting will surely fetch millions.”

“What?” Toichi said, looking suddenly shocked- and a genuinely shocked Kuroba Toichi was a rare thing indeed. “Oh, no, no, no. I can't possibly sell the painting! I only stole it to prove my admittedly alcohol-fuelled rant that the security at the Louvre was so bad that any mere charlatan could take what he wished. I'm sure I sounded like Ginzo-kun- my friend is with me in spirit. No, I must return the painting- I cannot possibly keep it. I would feel like a criminal!”

“And breaking into an art gallery and taking public property would make you...?” Eta said, inwardly suddenly very worried. Her little venture seemed set to backfire. “I had hoped... if I could keep him close to me... if it is him...”

“I dislike the phrase “breaking in”,” Toichi corrected her. “I broke nothing. You cannot blame me for the carelessness of the gendarme. And as I said, I do intend to return the painting, so I am merely a borrower, if you will- just putting on a show, no harm done. It was fun, but not something I could possibly intend to make money from. Kami, no- that is simply dishonest!”

“Dishonest like stealing a woman's necklace and then pretending to summon it back for her?” Eta said, quirking a delicate eyebrow.

“I returned it, did I not?” Toichi said, spreading his hands with a look of utter innocence. Then he narrowed his eyebrows. “No, I have no intention of becoming a criminal- and if I didn't know better, Sharon-chan, I'd say you were encouraging me to be one.”

“I think you have potential as one,” Eta said, “but I suppose an innate and unfortunate tendency to honesty cannot be cured. Forgive me for trespassing upon your time.” She turned and stalked away, inwardly fuming.

“Dammit! But he's so good! Someone like him could certainly acquire the Pandora... and if he were working for me, if I had it in my hands before Ushi...” Then she smiled. “Then again, it isn't necessary that I get the jewel, is it? Only that Ushi doesn't...”

“It's no good,” she said to Ushi, quietly but just loud enough that, if Toichi was still in earshot- and he had exceptionally sharp ears- he might just be able to hear her... “He won't steal the jewel for us. He has talent, but he'd never be loyal to criminals.”

“It seems your little venture has backfired,” Ushi said. “Now it will only be harder for those who are loyal to get into the Louvre.”

“On to Prague, then,” she said just before they walked out of even Toichi's long earshot.

The next day, the Mona Lisa inexplicably reappeared with a note of apology for “borrowing” it. And the day after that, Kuroba Toichi, a rising star of the magical stage, continued his tour of Europe with a trip to Prague. A consummate art lover, he visited many art galleries and museums, one of which also seemed to have a sudden increase in ostensibly perfectly normal tourists. One night, a flashy thief once again stole something, this time a statuette from the museum that had so taken so many people's interest. It was returned two days later, again with a note of apology, and security was so beefed up that the next night a man was caught cutting the glass in one of the ground-floor windows, though he escaped before he was arrested. But people were most taken with the flashy thief. Interpol decided to send out a unit to investigate this showy thief who had now hit two countries and escaped without a trace, among them a young but keen officer by the name of Nakamori Ginzo. Ginzo was the one who suggested entering him on the Interpol List, and so he was, at number 1412.

And Eta watched his career. Though they rarely met again, and always formally- as Sharon Vineyard and Kuroba Toichi, nothing more- she watched him. She watched as he and Yukiko found love, and got married, and had children, babies born within two months of each other.

Baby boys with deep blue eyes.

They only spoke once more, and then it was only Eta who said anything.

“I would beware, Toichi-sensei. You are against those who flew from Pandora's Box, whose only aim is to destroy the hope left behind...”

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She's fun if deeply angsty to write, TwilTye. So's Toichi *rare Toichi fangirl* ^_^ After all, considering how mild-mannered Kaito's mother is, he certainly didn't get his mischievous streak from her… ^_-

They both get a mention there, Mel72000 ^_-

MUAHAHAHAHA, Pretztailfan95. Muahahahaha. XD

I know what you mean, StargateNerd ^_-

Hajimemashite, Yin7! ^_- glad you like ^_^

I'm glad they seem like real people to you, FHP2208. I'm not writing right if they aren't. ^_^ This is the explanation of… how the Kaitou Kid was born! An epic moment indeed XD

That's how Eta, Yukiko and Toichi met, KageNoNeko… each affecting the other forevermore…

I adore Toichi, DiGi… which is why it made me cry to write him alive, knowing what must come… T_T

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).