Case Closed Fan Fiction ❯ When Pandora's Box Is Opened ❯ Fear ( Chapter 38 )

Chapter Thirty-Eight

Fear

Shinichi was drifting in something akin to that pleasant state where you are still mostly asleep but just awake enough to know that you are still asleep, with the difference that what he was awake enough to know was that he was drugged, not asleep, and in a horribly dangerous situation.

It wasn't chloroform, since he hadn't really been asleep. Whatever it had been had smelled of herbs and made his brain feel like it was wrapped in cotton wool, requiring extraneous commands to function. He must have gotten to eat during that time, since he vaguely remembered being hungry but he was fairly certain that he wasn't now. She'd taken his gadgets at some point, too. Gadgets. Funny calling them that. Made him sound like James Bond, or more likely Inspector Gadget.

Part of him was awake enough now to be mentally smacking itself on the forehead at how much the drug had clearly degraded his brain, but he didn't feel like coming out of the stupor yet. Something bad would happen, or he'd remember something bad, and right now there was just that faint smell of herbs and comforting numbness. It had been like that for a while. Days, maybe? Must have been. Sunlight shone through the bag when it was day, and there'd been no sunlight more than once. Just stale air, and the clothes in the bag insulating him, keeping him warm and keeping him from moving, and darkness.

But if it had been days, Ran would be worried, wouldn't she? She had been before, a long time ago, when he'd left and hadn't come back when he said he would and hadn't called. He hadn't gone home this time, either, and he couldn't remember calling. He should, so she wouldn't worry, but he couldn't because Vermouth had taken all of his phones. Why had she done that? Oh, yes. Because she'd kidnapped him.

Shinichi was waking up faster, the effect of the drugs leaving him. Yes, she'd kidnapped him, using that weird mind-numbing drug to keep him under control. He only remembered snatches of the past few days, moments when the drug had been weakest. Mostly gas station bathrooms. He'd been hidden in the huge sports bag when she rode, which was almost all the time, but whenever she'd stopped for gas she'd gone into the station bathroom and let him out to eat and use the toilet and, generally, be re-drugged. He wondered what it was. He wondered where he was.

The bike was slowing, he could tell that now. It seemed to be night, because it was so dark, only occasional flashes of light that had to be streetlamps. There was a drawn-out growl from the engine as Vermouth pulled up somewhere and killed the engine. She got off the bike, he could tell from the movement of the back, still slung over her shoulder, and began walking the bike somewhere. The jolting motions suggested a forest path, or lack thereof.

Shinichi was now almost fully awake, and capable of considering his options. They were depressingly narrow and similar. For whatever reason, she still didn't seem to be planning to kill him, but she was still at least twice his weight (he was hitting a growth spurt, unfortunately not as much as he'd like, and she was that particular kind of depressingly skinny that only looks good on actresses) and far taller and stronger than him. She also had a gun, while he no longer had so much as his braces. He could remember that there were two drugs now, chloroform and the strange-smelling stuff for when she needed him capable of movement but not much else. There was no way he could fight her and, judging from the near-silence outside the bag, they were in an isolated and unknown area; nowhere to run to, and if there was he didn't know where. He probably couldn't outrun her anyway, and he really couldn't outrun the bike. He was in trouble.

Finally the movement stopped and the bag was set down very gently, not knocking him about. There was stillness for a while, just a gentle clinking of something metallic outside of the bag and the click of a lighter. After a while, he heard her coming back to the bag. He didn't move as she unzipped the bag. She smiled slightly when she was met with a cold glare rather than a drug-induced doze.

“I have to say, you're so much easier to work with when you're drugged, Cool Guy,” she said sweetly, “but not much fun.”

“What do you want with me?” he asked, not moving. “What the hell are you up to?”

“There'll be time for stories soon,” she said. “Now won't you get out of the bag? I'm not going to drug you this time because I know that you're a clever boy and must have realized that without your toys your hopes of fending off me and my gun have decreased from slim to none. So you're going to come and sit down with me, like a good boy, and not try to run because I am a very accurate shot and while I have no intent of killing you, I do not have any compunction about shooting your feet off. So?”

Shinichi slowly got up, wincing as every bone in his little body cracked and rolling his neck irritably. Vermouth was crouching under the awning of a dilapidated old shrine, barely more than a roof over a small carving of some forgotten god or spirit. She was stirring some thick, brown liquid that was bubbling gently in a Trangia stove.

“What is that?” he couldn't help asking.

“Wonderful stuff,” she said, absentmindedly, not quite to him. “I'm surprised that nobody knows how to make it any more. So many desire its properties. And they resort to such terminal methods to replicate them.”

“Was that supposed to be an answer?” Shinichi said guardedly.

“Is a Kid notice meant to be a warning?” Vermouth glanced over at him. “Oh, do sit down,” she said, gesturing to a small rock on the opposite side of the Trangia from her. “I don't feel that I need to repeat my warnings about running away, so if you are to remain here against your will you may at least do it comfortably.”

Shinichi sat. There didn't seem much point in remaining standing, as the gun was still loosely clutched in her right hand while she stirred with her left. She let go of the spoon for a moment to drop some leaves of some herb or other into the mix, which slowly started to turn green.

“So what happens now?” Shinichi asked. “You said you don't intend to kill me, but you didn't kidnap me and drag me all the way out here for summer camp, did you?”

“I don't know about kidnap,” Vermouth said airily. “Call it an intervention. The forceful destruction of another's bad habits. Like compulsively poking their noses into something that is really over their little heads.”

“Trying to protect me from the Organization? How nice,” Shinichi said sarcastically.

“In a way,” She said with an odd smile. “What happens now, Cool Guy, is that I tell you a story. It will answer all of your questions and then some.”

“What's the catch?” Shinichi asked.

“Yes, there's always a price, isn't there?” Vermouth said. “But the price will be paid after, and if you can pay it then you deserve to tell the story- if you can.”

“Forget it,” Shinichi said. “I don't know what your game is, but-”

“You speak as if I'm giving you a choice,” Vermouth said amusedly, raising the gun to point it at his head. Shinichi stilled. “My game, Kudo Shinichi? Everyone plays games. Kuroba comes from a family of fine Poker players. You play Cluedo, all the facts already there just waiting to be unearthed. My game is chess, Cool Guy. The game is always changing, but with a little foresight you can control the change, control the players. If you can remember all the ways that the pieces can move, it's easy. And I know how people move very well. Like I know that you will stay here and listen, partly because you know that you have no other option and partly because you are a detective. Detective pieces have to know. And what you know, you can't unknow...” a slow smile curved her lips humourlessly. “...or can you?”

Shinichi sat stock still, mainly due to the gun still pointed at him but also, just a little, though he was loathe to admit it, because he genuinely wanted to know what the hell she was babbling about. He nodded tersely. Something in the mix glooped.

“Then it's time for a story.” Vermouth lowered the gun but did not let go of it, idly dropping a few more shredded plants and some odd powder into the mix. “This story starts ten thousand years ago, when the holy jewel Pandora fell to earth. It was found at the bottom of a crater in the middle of a forest. It was found by a girl... a young lady named Eta.”

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Heiji rubbed his forehead. Damn, but he hated paperwork. Unfortunately, it was the only way to investigate while retaining the ability to breathe. He opened another case file.

Pretty much all of the cases were “solved” or cold, but the solved cases seemed to end in posthumous confessions from suicidal suspects, or suspects that suddenly seemed to come into either a lot of money or sudden death upon release, or convicted suspects who pleaded “not guilty” until the end. Not all of the cases that his suspects had been involved in showed signs of being rigged, but nine out of ten cases that showed signs of being rigged involved at least one of his suspects. And in each case, among the beneficiaries or the acquitted...

He froze when a slight breeze ruffled his hair. It was late and he'd closed his window hours ago, and locked it too. From the inside.

Someone had opened a window that had been locked from the inside in utter silence...

“They said ya were on `is tail,” he commented, swivelling around in his computer chair to face the Kaitou Kid, who was crouched on the end of Heiji's bed in full regalia. “Didn't expect ya ta turn up here, though.”

“You were... the nearest person who I knew was clean,” Kid said, “and who was likely to be concerned enough about the boy's safety to listen to me before producing handcuffs.”

“Talk an' if it's good, I might happen ta take long enough lookin' fer handcuffs fer ya ta slip outa the window again,” Heiji said. Kid bowed his head, digging in his suit. He pulled out a number of articles, one after another, and Heiji felt his breath catch with every one.

The voice-modulating bow tie. The super-elastic braces. The high-powered shoes. The football-producing belt. The tracking glasses. The tranquilizer watch. The Shonen Tantei-Dan badge. The earring mobile, smashed. Two normal mobiles, battered but apparently in one piece.

“Shit,” Heiji breathed. “Is he...”

“I think he's alive,” Kid said, pulling out a second pair of glasses. “Do return these to Agasa-Hakase for me, will you? I'm afraid she must have realized that a number of these objects unleash a tracking signal and decided to dispose of them. Or simply because most of them are just plain dangerous, particularly those shoes.” He shuddered, and Heiji recalled that Kid had had more than one encounter with a football kicked by Kudo. “The evidence is that he's alive, simply untraceable now. Oh, there was one more thing...” he tossed a small, empty bottle to Heiji. He sniffed it gingerly.

“Chloroform,” he said.

“A freshly-emptied bottle when I found it, although admittedly that was some hours ago,” Kid said.

“Then he is alive,” Heiji said. “Ya don't need this stuff fer a corpse.”

“Precisely,” Kid said. “I'm afraid I lost track of them some hours north but she seemed to be heading south. You may wish to inform the police and the FBI. I'd do it myself, of course, if we were not so... incompatible.”

“Got it,” Heiji said, staring at the glasses. Kid stepped off of the bed and over to the window in a fluid movement. “Hey...” Heiji said, causing the thief to pause. “I think ya oughta know... this ain't nuthin' ta do with you. Ku-Conan... that kid's been a thorn in their sides fer a while now, an' there ain't much he wants aside from them goin' down. Him or Kudo. We were pretty surprised that ya were involved with `em, really. Seems like everyone's mixed up in this shit. Just so ya know... Ya seem ta like handlin' yerself on yer own, but if that ever changes, all a' us rate catchin' these bastards over catchin' you. “Enemy a' my enemy is my friend,” if ya wanna put it that way.”

The Kid stood still and silent by the open window, his cape floating slightly in the chill breeze. The monocle and the shadows of the hat obscured his face, but Heiji wondered if he was showing any expression anyway. The Kid and Kudo were more alike than just the outward similarities. They both wore their masks and hid their feelings as naturally as breathing, hiding their true faces so well that you sometimes wondered if you really knew them at all. Though even Kudo would admit that he and Heiji had grown to be pretty close friends in the couple of years since that first case, sometimes Heiji felt that he barely knew anything about the kokosei-tantei turned shougakosei-tantei. Yeah, he knew about him, about the drug and his favourite sport and his love for Mori, all of that- but so often, Kudo's actions or reactions took him completely by surprise- when he said that allowing a suspect to commit suicide was tantamount to murder, his ability to see the truth that no-one else would consider because it was simply unthinkable, when he organised two FBI strikes, facing a serial killer and all-round sadistic bitch on his own in the process, how he weighed the law and justice against each other and always let the latter win, willing to prompt the murderer into an altered confession to protect the innocent or lay devastating psychological traps or break into a suspect's room to find the hard evidence necessary...

...relative justice. He'd knocked out cops when searching for Kid and stolen the evidence he needed. Kid had laid traps for those who murdered in his name and disguised himself as the police to lead them to the truth. Like the yin and yang of justice, and how easy it might be to switch the two of them...

“We've got th' same goals,” Heiji said quietly. “You an' him ain't so different.”

“And yet, you have never mentioned why the Syndicate is your fight,” Kid mused softly.

“It's my best pal's fight,” Heiji said, “and I ain't gonna let `im die in it `cause `e was fightin' it alone, no matter how much `e wants me ta.”

“I'll bear that in mind,” Kid said, stepping up to the window ledge and promptly vanishing. Heiji got up after a moment and strode over to close the window and relock it. There was no sign of tampering on the glass. Maybe he'd picked the lock.

“Damn skilled thief,” he thought. “Gotta be glad that he an' Kudo are always balancin' each other out rather'n workin' together. Man, the cops are screwed with one Kid, I'd hate ta think of two...”

Another thought hit him, and he shivered. “Or worse... Kid's bad enough as a stric'ly non-violent thief- well, mostly a prankster more'n anythin' else, really. If `e wanted ta turn them talents ta anythin' more dangerous... Same ways with Kudo, I guess. Gotta be glad they both got a way deep ingrained sense a' justice, even if it ain't nuthin' ta do with th' law in Kid's case...”

He stood by the window, watching the items that Kid had left but not touching them. He doubted there'd be fingerprints, but just in case. Instead, he went to his desk and pulled a pair of gloves and a number of plastic evidence bags. Methodically, automatically, he started to bag and tag the boy's strange accessories, piling the bags on the end of his bed. Then he pulled out his phone, pausing as he decided who to call first. Kudo's oyaji could contact the FBI and get them out here, but the local police needed to activate as soon as possible.

“Heiji?”

He turned to see his mother standing in the doorway, looking a little confused. “Thought I heard voices up here,” she explained. Then she narrowed her eyes on the piles of plastic bags at the end of the bed. “What's all that?”

“Can ya do me a favour, Ofukuro?” Heiji said. “Tell Oyaji ta get the cops on red alert. Seems like the person who kidnapped Conan was last seen in this prefecture.”

“What? The kid's been seen?” Shizuka said in shock. “The kid's alive, then?”

“I think so,” Heiji said. “C'mon, I'll explain what happened in a minute. You an' Oyaji call the cops out, I'll let Ojisan know.”

Once again, however, as his mother rushed out of the room, it was not the Mori Detective Agency he dialled.

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Yuusaku sat quietly at his study desk, his laptop screen glowing in front of him. Unfortunately, worry over a missing nephew did not seem to keep the unsympathetic editors off of his back, and it was only made worse by the fact that it was his son who was missing and he couldn't tell anyone. Yukiko had been taking early nights since the kidnapping, though she didn't sleep well without a sleeping pill. Her constant low-level state of worry about Shinichi had been massively elevated, not entirely surprising though she tried to reassure herself that her old friend wouldn't kill her son. Yuusaku thought that she wouldn't kill him, not after what Toichi had heard... but he couldn't help being afraid. What the hell was she doing?

Strangely, the anxiety was causing inspiration for his current novel to flow thick and fast. He only had a couple of chapters left anyway. If he could just finish them, he could take any amount of leave before starting on another, and he could really do without his editors on his case.

He started typing, an old conversation replaying itself in his head.

“... overall, he rather sounds like... well, me.”

“He is, in a way. He's what I'm always thankful you're not...”

A contemplative silence, staring at the novel cover, laughing children in the distance. “Yes... I'm thankful too...”

This would be the twentieth novel featuring the Night Baron, so maybe, to mark such a special occasion, it was time for a little revelation- just a little one, in the last chapter of the novel. Ah, the joys of evil cliffhangers. It also meant that he could stop writing for however long was necessary, since the editors would be rabid for the next book. He could go on hiatus long enough to see the war through... the quiet war that had been waged in the shadows of society for decades, if not longer, a war that was threatening to claim his son.

... and though he looked upon flesh and blood now, in some way, it still felt as if he were gazing upon the grinning mask...

The phone rang. He quickly picked it up, as Yukiko had managed to fall into a relatively peaceful sleep and he didn't intend to wake her from that. “Moshi moshi?” he said quietly.

“It's Heiji. I got good news which is still kinda bad, and bad news that's all bad.”

“Do your worst.”

“The good part is, Kudo's alive. The bad news is, Kid ain't able ta track `im anymore. Seems Vermouth dumped all a' Kudo's stuff off'f a cliff. Glasses, badge, phones, the whole bit. So Kid's lost track a' her, but `e found a freshly-emptied bottle a' chloroform as well, so we think he's probably still alive, or was as of the stuff bein' dumped. Ya don't need chloroform ta control a corpse. Oyaji's puttin' every cop in the prefecture on red alert, since she was last seen `ere. Thought I oughta let ya know.”

“Glad you did,” Yuusaku said. “I'll call James. By the way... did Kid mention anything else...?”

“No, but I let `im know that Kudo's already been fightin' the Org fer a while. “Conan” too. `E looked kinda guilty, like `e thought Kudo'd been kidnapped `cause of `is association with `im or somethin'. He vanished pretty quick anyway. I gotta go, Oyaji an' Ofukuro wanna know what the hell's goin' on...”

Yuusaku gently set the phone down when Heiji hung up, staring unseeingly at the screen.

“What if she thinks...” he said quietly to himself, then shook his head. No time for that now. The FBI must be alerted. He picked up the phone again and dialled.

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Starting this chapter, I'm going to very sporadically update a companion fic called “The First Woman In The World”, telling something of the story of Eta and the Pandora. It isn't really necessary to read it yet, but there comes a point later in the story where Eta's story is going to be told, at which point it will be necessary to read it. But there shouldn't be any major spoilers if you start reading it now. (Note: If you're reading this after the fic has been completed, it might be best to wait until the prompt comes up to read it because there are MAJOR spoilers in the final chapters. Just a heads-up.)

I've also started writing a joint fic with Pretztailfan95 called “Shadows In The Light”, available on Pretz's profile. It's a lot more supernatural than this fic is (... so far...) but it oughta be good! Please go read it! Read it! READ IT!!!!!!

Don't worry about it, Mel72000, it was a blanket rant not really directed at you. ^_^ I haven't read any JoIsBishMyoga, though I think I should since I've heard that they're really good... not enough hours in the day!

You're a night owl like me, Topaz-tantei? ^_- I write best late at night, which is why it sucks that my parents tend to try to kick me off of my computer about ten... it's the summer holidays and it's my computer in my room! What's the problem?

It's just Kir's theory, Pretztailfan95... whatever the hell Vermouth's REALLY up to, who can fathom? Aside from me XD But really, how scary an image is that? EVIL SHINICHI! Hmm, maybe I should write about that some day... how screwed would the world be if someone with a mind like Kaito or Shinichi's went evil? IT'S SO SHORT BECAUSE YOUR REVIEW IS SHORT! I don't even have a normal Umbreon, come to that, never mind a shiny one T_T I like Espeon better, but Umbreon is still cool... well, Flareon's my favourite, for obvious reasons, but I like `em all. Well, the first five, anyway. I lost track of how many Pokémon there were after Celebi. There's too many now, dammit, and so many are just so unnecessary! I'm such an old-timer. -_-

It wasn't just chloroform she was using, AngelRoy, though of course that wasn't the only bottle of chloroform either... just the only one that Kaito found. Vermouth is going to prove to have a very weird recipe book. And yeah, Kogoro's not an idiot, just lazy. There's a reason he was such a good police detective, after all. He just doesn't like to put the work in. But when he does, he's really very smart- and when it's really important to him, like when Eri lost her ring, it doesn't seem to take him any effort at all. If he got used to putting the work in, I think he'd do fine without Shinichi... who really does need to come up with some better excuses than “It was on TV” or, when Kogoro's not around, “Occhan told me!” XD He's just lucky that people seem happy to take these excuses for granted so far...

Still not much more news, FaithlessGirl :P Ooo, we're nearly at chapter 700 for the manga, too! I bet it was the office girl who first turned up... I'll bet Sonoko was saying that paired outfits were in fashion, after all. That's why she had to ask for the time- she didn't have her glasses on so she couldn't see the clock. I wonder what Aoyama-sensei will do for the special chapter 700? *cough*Kaitou Kid*cough*

I might make another, longer trailer soon, HaibaraDaiFan. Now, usual drill... breathe... in... out... in... out... calm... Vermouth knows who Conan really is and knows how strong his mind is... It's Kir's theory, since she doesn't quite know who Conan is, but Vermouth might have other plans... AND PLEASE UPDATE SOON! Come on, people. Little Secrets is a cool fic, so if you haven't read it yet, please do, and show HaibaraDaiFan a little love!

Hajimemashite, Kayla Edogawa! Thanks for the great review ^_- Heiji had better be careful, because he's getting himself in deep... Vermouth took his stuff while he was a bit out of it... You shall never find me! My ninja Kaitou skillz allow me to hide in my little hollow of writing forever XD Or possibly I've run off with my trained attack pals XD Poor Ran... She's gotta be so lonely. (So send him back to her! All in good time...)

It's all right, FHP2208, your English is really good, far better than my French ^_^; (I know how to ask where the train station is and that's about it... no, wait, I also know “tu as pain au chocolat?” XD) Vermouth keeps her secrets close to her... after all, a secret makes a woman a woman, no? But what will become of Conan...

XD so true, Hikari.Pachirisu! Shinichi's mind is only any good when it's fully booted, though... but surely he'll find some way to get a message through...

Can I recommend a good dentist, Eyeinthesky? ^_- Glad to know I'm getting an emotional connection with the characters strong enough to make people worry about them ^_^

And thank heaven for that, TwilTye! I like long stories too, which is probably why this one developed so substantially. I haven't read any stories this long in the DC fandom, come to that. Becky Tailweaver probably would have gotten there if she hadn't gone on hiatus. ^_^; This is probably going to end up as long as a Sueric story. She was the first good fanfic author I read and it made a great impression on me, both in the complex and comprehensive storytelling and the fics which have twice topped 100 chapters XD I don't want the series over either, but I want to know how it ends... bittersweet, isn't it? Mostly, though, given how long it takes VIZ to publish the Tankoban in English, I'd quite like to complete my collection sometime before 2020... XD

Your essay/comments rival Pretztailfan95, Fireline! XD not that I mind. I'm glad that people get so passionate about my writing. It just makes me happy to know that I do it well. ^_^ That you even get frightened, or angry... fics or novels that get me emotionally involved are my favourites, so I'm really happy that I can create something like that :D Lots of people have theories on what Vermouth's thinking, and so far nobody's gotten it, although you're surprisingly close... Well, I guess Kaito figured that Yuusaku wouldn't report the stolen glasses, while someone else would report a stolen bike. For once, he doesn't want the police involved- not until he's ready for them, anyway. He did rent it in disguise (there was mention of disguises in the last chapter, only in passing), because I'm not certain of details but since the Syndicate know his name and face he'll probably want to give them as little possibility of tracking him as he can. The magicians alibi holds up for the people who need to believe it, which basically boils down to Aoko ^_^; As for the doves? Um... I guess some things will just be an eternal mystery. ^_^; Jodie has strong suspicions that Kid and the Syndicate are enemies, and she's possibly not all that surprised since the Syndicate do tend to get everywhere. But you're right- I don't think that anyone in their right mind could suspect Kid and the Syndicate of being buddies. Don't worry, like I said- I don't mind the essays! ^_-

And from the essay of Fireline, we come to the succinct Momo Moore! ^_- Arigato!

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 697, 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 29 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).