Case Closed Fan Fiction ❯ When Pandora's Box Is Opened ❯ The Beginning Of The End ( Chapter 1 )

Chapter One

The Beginning Of The End

Two Months before Pandora

“Tears stood in her eyes/ Please don't cry/ Forever still for you, still for your love...”

“That's great, Ran!” Sonoko cheered as the song died away. “All right! My turn...”

“Conan-kun, don't you want to sing?” Ran asked, passing Sonoko the microphone. The boy shook his head.

“I'll pass,” he said, turning a page of the detective novel that he was reading. The other kids sniggered.

“It wouldn't be a good idea if Conan-kun sang, anyway,” Mitsuhiko commented with a giggle.

“Too-oone dee-eeaf,” Genta hooted, laughing. Conan glared at the pair of them for a moment before returning to his novel.

“It's not Conan-kun's fault that he's tone deaf!” Ayumi defended hotly, throwing her arms around the neck of the boy in question, who yelped and turned red. Mitsuhiko and Genta's smiles instantly vanished. “Anyway, Sonoko-neechan, you've been twice already. Can I have another go?”

“Sure,” Sonoko said, sitting down again. “Sing some Two mix! You've got such a cute voice, Ayumi-chan.”

“There needs to be two people for Two Mix,” Ayumi said, letting go of Conan. The second her back was turned, Mitsuhiko and Genta resumed picking on Conan. “I know! Ai-chan, will you sing with me?”

“Ah! That's right,” Ran said, smiling at the solemn girl. “You've not sung yet, have you? Do you want to?”

“I bet you have a beautiful voice, Haibara-san,” Mitsuhiko said, leaving Conan alone for a chance to score points. Haibara Ai just shrugged.

“I guess,” she said. Ayumi squealed with glee and grabbed the other girl's arm, pulling her up to the stage.

“That's great, Ai-chan!” she said happily. “Look, they have TRUTH!”

Ai smiled gently as Ayumi chattered about the songs. The sight was a rare one, but becoming a little less so. Genta and Mitsuhiko had resorted to stealing Conan's book, Genta dangling it over the shorter boy's head as Conan gave the pair of them Evil Eyes.

“Love dramas in third-graders... I don't know whether to find that cute or scary,” Sonoko giggled. Ran had to laugh.

“Doesn't it give you Déjà Vu, though?” she said, sighing nostalgically. “I mean, do you remember the first time we ever did Karaoke?”

“We were about their age, weren't we?” Sonoko said. “Seven or eight... Kudo-kun's parents brought us, didn't they?”

“Yes, and we got extra time free when Yukiko-obachan started singing, remember?” Ran said. “The joint owner had been a big fan of her, and he recognized her...”

“That was so funny!” Sonoko giggled. “Remember singing cartoon theme tunes as a duet?”

“I wonder if we were as cute as those two,” Ran said, indicating Ayumi and Ai, who were now singing a Two Mix song, Ayumi bouncing about, and Ai just standing there, singing in a pleasant and surprisingly melodic voice. Sonoko snorted.

“Cuter, I should say,” she said. “After all, I was there...” Ran started laughing again.

“Oh, but remember what happened when Shinichi started singing?” she said.

“How could you remind me?” Sonoko groaned. “I worked so hard to forget...”

“I wonder why he's so terrible,” Ran giggled. “I mean, Yukiko-obachan's singing was so beautiful...”

“Well, Kudo-kun's Otou-san didn't sing, did he?” Sonoko theorized. “Could have got it from him... or maybe he's just a talentless freak of nature when it comes to music.” For some reason, Conan glared at Sonoko for a second.

“...'Cause the answer is YOUR OWN SELF!” Ayumi and Ai finished in sync, as the last notes of the song played out. Mitsuhiko and Genta stopped bedevilling Conan, opting to cheer, blushing a little, for the girls.

“That was lovely!” Sonoko said. “You two are so cute as a duo!”

“Arigato,” Ai said quietly, sitting down again.

“You two have beautiful voices,” Mitsuhiko said. “Very harmonious.”

“Yeah, but we can be better!” Genta said, striding towards the mikes. “C'mon, Mitsuhiko- let's blow `em away with some Lex!”

“I'll be right back,” Ran said, standing up. “I'm just going to the restroom...”

“Good excuse,” Sonoko muttered as Genta started entering a song number. Ran saw Conan bang his book into his forehead as the first notes of “Bloody Venus” began playing. Ran smiled sadly as she left. She could understand Conan's aversion to the song. That case had been so sad...

“Shinichi solved that one,” she remembered as she entered a stall. “He hasn't been home in quite a while... I hope he's all right...”

As she locked her door, the stall next to her flushed. Under the gap, she saw a pair of feet in American basketball shoes- The label said “Converse”- walk over to the sinks. They were joined by a pair in black loafers.

“Heather!” The voice said. “Are you all right? You don't look happy...” Ran listened in confusion for a moment to the gibberish, and then realized that they were speaking English- probably foreigners. She tried to translate the sentence in her head, but the accent was a little strong.

“Yeah, I'm not,” the other woman's voice said, “And that's all your fault, isn't it?”

“Heather, I wasn't trying to hurt you-”

“No, you were so fired up with being righteous with your hippy buddies that you didn't think about the consequences. You never do, do you? Oh, but it's all right. Everybody loves you anyway.”

“Heather, I'm sorry. But I wasn't trying to-”

“But you did.”

“Look, I'm sorry, but you can't be pinning everything on me. I didn't cause all of your problems. You did, and you just need someone to blame because you won't accept responsibility, don't you?”

“Shut up!”

Ran gasped as a slap echoed out. The Converses staggered back. The loafers turned and strode out of the bathroom. The converses stayed where they were.

Ran slowly stood up and cautiously unlocked the stall door. She peered around it, but the girl in the Converses wasn't facing her.

She didn't look much more than twenty, dressed in blue jeans and a tie-dyed t-shirt in the colours of the sea. Her left hand was in her trouser pocket, her right one clutching her left cheek. Her long golden-brown hair had fallen forwards to cover her face, but she turned and swept it away as Ran left her stall.

“Um... daijoubu?” Ran asked. “Are you... fine?”

The woman looked at her in shock for a moment, and then gave her a gentle smile. “I'm fine,” she said. “Just having a few friendship problems. But it's fine.”

“Okay. I don't suppose it's my business,” Ran said, turning on a tap to wash her hands. The foreign woman, to her surprise, laughed.

“No, but what is a woman if not nosy, eh?” she said with a wink.

“Your Japanese is very good,” Ran said. “Do you live here?”

“Not really,” she said, “I'm on sort of an extended holiday with my friends. We thought we'd try some Karaoke. Not a good idea for me, I find.” She looked over Ran's uniform. “One of my friends spent a gap year here as an English teacher. She said it was really weird to be teaching in a high school the same year you graduated from one.” Ran laughed.

“Well, I hope you and your friends like Japan,” she said. “And I hope your friend forgives you for... whatever.”

The foreigner smiled sadly. “Me, too. Arigato.”

{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{ }{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{} {}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}

“Thank Kami that's over,” Shinichi thought with a frown as they gathered up their things to leave the Karaoke box. Normally, he was all right with Karaoke- despite the inevitable aspersions cast upon his musical talent- but Genta and Mitsuhiko had been downright unbearable today, as they always were when Ayumi was being overly clingy- something which, unless Shinichi was being overly paranoid, she always was around Ran. “You're getting as paranoid as Haibara,” he told himself sternly, tucking the Saimonji novel into his backpack. “If you were that obvious, they'd have found you by now...”

“That was fun,” Haibara commented in her usual emotionless tone. “You never sang at all.”

“Were you changing the topic there or not?” Shinichi asked suspiciously. She just shot him an evil grin and followed Ran and Sonoko out of the door.

As they entered the hall, the noise from the nest box- the biggest one reserved for large parties- became more pronounced. The group in there were loud enough to be heard from other boxes, even though they were soundproofed. It sounded like twenty of them were singing at once.

“...HEY-EY, I WANNA BE A ROCKSTAR!”

There was a burst of laughter and cheering. Sonoko snorted.

“Noisy bunch,” she said. “What was that they were singing, anyway? It didn't sound Japanese...”

“I think I heard that song in America, a few years ago,” Ran said. “What was it called...?”

The shouting suddenly increased in volume, and then the door burst open, accompanied by a scream of “Somebody stop her!”

Shinichi jumped backwards as someone barrelled out of the door, only to be instantly tackled by two flying figures. The people in the box started laughing.

“You can't escape, KJ!” one of them called. “Give up the mic!”

“Noooo! I want to sing!” one of the figures on the ground cried.

“Hey! You lot!” The manager bellowed. “You've paid for two more hours but if you disturb the other customers you're going out now!”

Two women rushed out of the room, one of them bowing and apologising to the manager while the other alternated between bowing and turning around to yell “KJ! Alex! Andrew! Get back in the box NOW!” The bower had long golden-brown hair and a lot of necklaces that jangled when she bowed, while the shouter had shorter dark-brown hair and a black umbrella which she was brandishing like a weapon.

“Is that English?” Sonoko asked, all of them having stopped to stare at the unfolding spectacle. “What's the accent?”

“Maybe it's European? I've only ever heard American before,” Ran theorized. The three on the floor were getting up, a man whose black hair was in an unfortunate bowl-cut brandishing the mic near the ceiling- not a far reach, considering how freakishly tall he was. The other man was equally tall, but his hair was much shorter and curly, making his bright blue eyes more prominent, currently filled with tears of laughter as the third figure- a large, solid girl with a supernova of frizzy brown hair- leapt for the out-of-reach microphone. The other two girls were returning and giggling as the manager returned to the front desk.

“Sorry... I mean, Gomen. We in you way?” Bowl-cut asked in very fractured Japanese.

“It's all right,” Ran said, as the three of them made way for the kids to pass. Ran and the girl with the necklaces bowed to each other as they passed.

“Ran-neechan, do you know her?” Ayumi asked in surprise. Ran shook her head.

“I just ran into her in the bathroom, that's all.”

“Definitely European, then,” Sonoko said. “Only in Europe will people strike up a friendship with complete strangers in the bathroom. I mean, I was in France once, and...”

Shinichi almost automatically tuned her out, unable to help listening in to the snippets of the Europeans' conversation as the door to the box closed.

“So, who's up next? Bob Dole?” A man's voice, not one of the ones from the hallway.

“It's illegal for me to sing in thirty states and forty countries. I'm not making it forty-one.” Necklace girl.

“Huh? Bob Dole? Adam, why'd you call her that?” Another unknown man.

“Why'd she respond? That should be the question,” the first man again, presumably “Adam”. The door slammed shut, and Shinichi couldn't hear any more. He reluctantly turned his attention back to Sonoko.

“... weird, isn't it? But in some countries there, it's not just in the bathroom- on a train, on a bus, in an elevator...”

“If they're speaking English, are they from Englishia?” Genta asked. Mitsuhiko sighed.

“England, Genta. It's not the only country where they speak English, though. There's America, Canada, and of course the rest of the United Kingdom, like Ireland and Wales and...”

“They're from Scotland,” Shinichi said as they left the Karaoke bar. Everyone looked at him in surprise.

“How did you know that?” Sonoko asked in surprise. Shinichi pointed at the four minivans parked in the car park next to the bar.

“Look,” he said, “It's definitely their cars because that box was really full, so sharing several large cars wouldn't be strange. Also, they have right-sided steering wheels. Americans or Canadians would get a rental car with a left-sided steering wheel, since you get both here, but since those are right-sided they're probably from Europe.”

“So how do you know they're from Scotland?” Ayumi asked. Ai pointed at the windows of the minivans.

“The blue background with a white cross,” she said. “It's known as Saint Andrew's cross, and it's officially the Scottish flag. It's not surprising that they've strung it up all over their cars- the Scottish are very proud of their national identity, probably some psychological spillover from the union of the Crowns in 1707. That would also explain their strange accents. Scotch-English is sometimes said to be an entirely different language- some TV programs made in Scotland need subtitles in England and America.”

There was some silence after these two highly intellectual pronouncements. Shinichi gulped as he realized that Ran was staring at them. “Damn... did it again...”

“Conan-kun and Haibara-san know everything,” Mitsuhiko said in some awe. Haibara shrugged.

“No, I just read the fact sheets we get given in Geography,” she said, staring pointedly at Genta. Everyone laughed, the odd tension instantly dispelling. Shinichi sighed in relief.

As they passed the minivans, Ayumi suddenly screamed. Mitsuhiko and Genta instantly put themselves between her and the minivan.

“What?” Ran said, turning. “What's wrong?”

“T-th-there's a youkai!” Ayumi screamed, pointing a trembling finger at the minivan. Shinichi glanced up at the car and beheld the terrible red figure peering through one of the windows.

“It's the Lion Rampant,” he said. “The unofficial Scottish flag. It's more popular among nationalists and football fans, but it's not the official Scottish flag due to the “death to England” implications that it carries.”

“Although those are precisely why it's so popular,” Haibara commented. Ayumi peered out at the red-and-yellow flag.

“A lion?” she said. “It's scary-looking.”

“It's a war flag,” Ran said, “So I guess it's supposed to look scary.”

“You know, I heard something funny about Sengoku battles between Scotland and England,” Sonoko giggled. “You know how Scottish people wore those skirts- kilts? Well, before the battles, warriors would...” She leaned over to Ran's ear to whisper the story with a giggle. Ran gasped, blushing, and slapped Sonoko on the shoulder.

“You're awful!” she said, stalking away, Sonoko giggling madly as she followed. Genta, Ayumi and Mitsuhiko exchanged confused glances. Shinichi and Haibara exchanged longsuffering ones.

{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{ }{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{} {}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}

{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{ }{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{} {}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}

This chapter has introduced a very special set of fic-long cameos. We won't have a part in the central storyline, but rest assured, the Banterful M8s will crop up frequently. No, I'm not telling you which one is me.

I'm going to be using Japanese words a phrases fairly often, so if you don't know what a word means- or, conversely, if you're much better at Japanese than me and I'm using it incorrectly- please comment and let me know.

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 Ran and Heiji, the back button is at the top there. The fic may not make sense if you have not read up to chapter 679, which you can do at Onemanga.com, but I advise you to buy the official Tankoban novels (up to volume 27 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).