Case Closed Fan Fiction ❯ When Pandora's Box Is Opened ❯ Shock ( Chapter 39 )

Chapter Thirty-nine

Shock

Kaito leaned against the door of the cheap hotel room he'd rented in disguise, tearing off his wig and mask and running his fingers through his hair. He was feeling shaken. He'd thought only Kudo Shinichi and Edogawa Conan could read minds like that. Maybe it was a talent universal to detectives.

“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...”

Instead of being relieved that Conan's present situation wasn't his fault, however, Kaito's fears only increased. What the hell was this Shadow Syndicate, that even children were fighting for their lives against it? How the hell did Tantei-kun and Kudo get mixed up in this?

“Seems like everyone's mixed up in this shit...”

“Damn straight,” he thought. “But does that mean... when Kudo Yuusaku was wanting to talk to me about... the reason they kept quiet at the museum...”

He sat down heavily on the bed, rubbing his face in his hands. He should really get some proper sleep, he knew, but he was suddenly too wired. He had too much to think about.

“What do I do now?” he wondered. “Sleep, obviously. But then... I've lost her trail and I've no guarantee that she's in Osaka. Perhaps I should contact Kudo-san and find out what they know. And I need to keep an eye out for any signs of Tantei-kun, as well...”

He lay back on the bed, still wearing his oversized outfit, suddenly terribly weary again. The whole world had flipped upside down again, and he preferred it to only do that if he was the one on the other end of the spatula. Eight days ago, he was hanging out with Aoko and Hakuba and Akako, waiting for New Year. Things had changed more than he'd imagined since then. Now that he had a moment to rest, he missed Aoko terribly, and even Hakuba and Akako. He felt lonely, desolate in his self-enforced solitude. The others would be back to school now, in class with everyone, hanging out with each other, living normal lives (though Hakuba probably stretched that definition, and it certainly had nothing to do with Akako). He didn't want to get his friends involved, especially now that the Syndicate knew who he was, but...

“Ya seem ta like handlin' yerself on yer own, but if that ever changes... It's my best pal's fight, and I ain't gonna let `im die in it `cause `e was fightin' it alone, no matter how much `e wants me ta...”

“If you need help... don't be afraid to ask.”

“Would they feel the same as Hattori... if they knew the truth...?” he wondered, pulling out the photograph that Aoko had made her father take during the New Year's fireworks: The four of them on the balcony, fireworks exploding behind them. Hakuba was on the far left, hands in pockets, smiling a little awkwardly at the camera; Then Akako, also smiling, although looking slightly perturbed as Aoko had one arm around her shoulders; and second from the far right, Aoko, laughing at him as he made a rose pop out of his fist the moment before the picture was taken. Absent-mindedly, he traced the outline of Aoko's face with a fingertip, closing his eyes as her laughter echoed in his head.

“What I have to protect...” he thought. “What I have left when this is all over... could I really ask her to be a part of this for me? Could I really ask her to forsake her deepest beliefs and put her life in danger for me? Do I really have the right to ask her to make that choice? Do I have the right to ask that of any of them? Akako... hell knows what goes on in her head, but she's got nothing to do with this. And Hakuba... his Tou-san's the superintendant general of the Tokyo Met, and he's committed to justice... a little too committed. I know how he feels about Aoko. What reason would he have to help me? Besides, he's never dealt with anything like this before. I can't get them involved. I just can't...”

He sighed as he flopped backwards onto the cheap bed. He missed them, damned if he didn't, missed his mother, missed the relatively normal life of Kuroba Kaito; the life that he'd abandoned to find Tantei-kun and bring his father's murderers to justice, one that he'd voluntarily abandoned, yes, but that didn't mean that he didn't miss it. “Those bastards took my father's life, and they've taken mine, dammit... they've taken my life, and I want it back...”

He rolled over and, forced by exhaustion, drifted into an uneasy sleep.

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“Is there news?” Ran asked anxiously as Kogoro hung up the phone. He scratched his head noncommittally.

“Sort of,” Kogoro said. “Apparently whoever's got him dumped a bunch of his things, his glasses and stuff, around about the north end of Osaka. Seems Kid found it all and left it with that dark-skinned tantei brat. They've still not found that brat or the kidnapper, though since Kid found an empty bottle of chloroform as well they think he's alive, and maybe still somewhere in the prefecture-”

“So we have to go there!” Ran demanded. “Call and get train tickets to Osaka...”

“Hold on!” her father said. “They don't know whether he's even in the prefecture anymore- this could be a bluff to distract the police from the kidnapper's trail. Besides, if they find anything while we're on the train to Osaka, how are they going to contact us?”

“So I'll go on my own and you wait here by the phone,” Ran said.

“What about school?” Kogoro demanded. The school year had resumed the previous day.

“Otou-san, I'm so worried I can't concentrate!” Ran said angrily. “My education will probably suffer less from a couple of days off that those days spent worrying myself to death! I have to go!”

“Where are you going?”

“Eri?!” Kogoro spluttered. “What are you doing here?”

“I wanted to find out if there was any news of Conan-kun,” Eri said pointedly. “Has something happened?”

“Kid contacted the Osaka police, he found a few of Conan-kun's things,” Ran said quickly. “I'm headed out there, at least to pick up his things. Otou-san's going to stay here in case something comes up elsewhere.”

“I'll come with you,” Eri offered. She flushed when they looked at her in surprise. “Well, I'm not working on a case at the moment, and I really don't spend enough time with you, you know, Ran. I think a little mother-daughter time would be nice, wouldn't you?”

Ran smiled gently, but it struck Eri that the smile was a little thin- a token smile forced up to indicate a small happiness that was drowned in a sea of worries and fears. “That'd be great! I'm going to pack an overnight bag!” She ran off, up the stairs to the apartment above the office. Eri glanced at Kogoro, who quickly looked away and shuffled some of the paperwork on his desk as if he hadn't just been watching her.

“What?” she said defensively.

“What what?” Kogoro shot back. “Did I say anything?”

“Oh, never mind,” Eri sighed, turning to go out the door and wait by the car for Ran.

“Hey, Eri,” Kogoro said. She turned back to look at him, pausing in surprise at the expression. “It's... I mean, I think it's a good thing that you're going with Ran. I think... she kind of misses you. She'd kind of lonely sometimes, I think...” He fiddled with the paperwork again as he trailed off.

“He never was good with words,” Eri remembered with a slightly sad smile. “It's so easy to misinterpret what he means...”

“Thank you,” she said tentatively.

“It's just...” he cleared his throat. “Even when you left, that tantei brat was always there for her... and when he left too, that kid Conan popped up a couple of days later, and he's been really supportive to her. I'm... not good at that, so I'm kinda glad, even if he is the most annoying brat since the Kudo kid...” He trailed off again, brows furrowing as he tried to compose his thoughts. “What I mean is, now he's vanished too, if he's hurt or isn't found soon or anything... I kinda think Ran needs some support around and, uh, you're always better at that than me... I mean...”

“Is he asking me to come back?” Eri thought in surprise, though really maybe it wasn't so surprising. After all, he'd asked once before, on their anniversary a couple of years ago... “That's right, he's not good with words,” she reminded herself. “So maybe it's hard for him to communicate... if he misses me too...”

“If Ran needs support,” she said quietly, flushing a little, “I'm... I'm sure I can come around more often. I really should spend more time with her, after all...”

“What's that?”

They both whipped around, red-faced, as Ran stepped back into the doorway of the office, now in her coat with a bag slung over her shoulder.

“I was just saying that if she wants to come coddle you, I can put up with it,” Kogoro grumbled, reverting to his normal gruff front.

“Only as long as I can endure you, I'm sure,” Eri said loftily, stalking out of the door. “Come on, I've got my car with me, we can drive...”

“Have a safe trip,” Kogoro said, so quietly that Eri barely heard him. Still, she allowed a secretive little smile to surface while Ran was busy putting her bag in the boot.

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“Aoko-chan? Aoko-chan!”

Aoko blinked as Akako snapped her fingers in front of her eyes. Her long black nails made the sound unsettlingly loud, and Saguru swore he could see sparks coming off of the talons. “Akako-chan? Something wrong?”

“You've been dozing off,” Akako said huffily. “You were doing that in class, too. Lucky sensei never called on you.”

“Gomen,” Aoko sighed, swinging her bag a little as they paused to wait for the traffic lights to change. “I was just wondering about Kaito... I wonder if he's doing all right. I'm just glad he wasn't in house when it burned... I wonder if he knows about that. He hasn't called or anything since he left. I mean, they say no news is good news, but...”

“I'm sure he's fine,” Saguru lied reassuringly. Honestly, he had no idea what Kuroba was doing any more than Aoko did, but he knew that Kuroba could handle himself; disappearing into the shadows was what he did best, and frankly, the ones who should really be worried were probably whoever had kidnapped Edogawa Conan. Saguru didn't believe for a minute that Kuroba was a child kidnapper, but he wasn't sure what to think of the people that he was fighting- the people who'd been at the heists in both Osaka and Beika. If Conan had been caught in the crossfire, had gotten mixed up in the fight... “The baka's probably too wrapped up in his tricks and shows to think that you might be worrying.”

“That sounds like him,” Aoko laughed as they moved out into the street. “But he gets most absorbed when he's upset about something... I think it's called displacement or something. He just doesn't think about it...”

“And you think too much about it,” Akako said. “I'm sure Kuroba-kun will be fine. You know he wouldn't want you to be worrying.”

“Yeah...” Aoko said with a sudden, gentle smile. “He hates it when I worry. He's good at cheering people up...”

“Because he's insane,” Saguru muttered. Aloud, he said, “I'm sure he'll call or something soon. Don't worry.”

Still, Saguru couldn't help worrying himself as they split from Aoko and he walked along with a silent Akako to where they split up for their own houses. The FBI hadn't permitted him access to all of their information- “I'm getting really sick of that”- but they had informed him of what police officers they definitely didn't trust. There were quite a few in Tokyo and one or two in each of a few other prefectures. Saguru was planning to go through some of their files tonight; if he knew what signs to look for, it would be easier for him to identify other rats. The sheer audacity of these criminals infuriated him. They dared to not only masquerade as the law, but to try to control it?

He half-registered that Akako seemed annoyed as well, lost in her own thoughts. Suddenly, she burst out, “But what does it mean, curse you?!”

Saguru edged away slightly. He wasn't sure whether he believed in genuine magic or not, but the last time Akako had uttered the words “curse you”, Kuroba had inexplicably turned purple- not the kind of reddish-purple that Nakamori-keibu tended to turn at the bad end of a rant, but a vivid lilac that hadn't faded for hours, and his hair had taken days. Akako spotted him giving her a wider berth and gave him a sweet smile.

“Not you, Hakuba-kun,” she said. “No, I'm rather annoyed with Lucifer. Can he never simply speak straight Japanese?” Saguru was debating whether or not to ask when she continued, “I've been trying to dream up the missing child's location, you see. After all, it's been six days since he vanished, so the police don't seem to be able to find him. But when I try, I always get the same dream- or perhaps it's flashes of someone else's dream. The crystal cage. The falling sun. The consuming shadows. What does it mean? Is it a memory or a prophecy? And what does it have to do with that child?”

“I'm sure I can't say,” Saguru said with feeling. “Still, I know well how much trouble Kuroba gives the police, and he seems to like us. I'm sure whoever has Conan-kun is in for it when Kuroba catches them.”

“You have a lot of faith in him,” Akako said abruptly.

“I have faith in him to make someone's life difficult, and if his target is the kidnapper, so much the better,” Saguru replied. “Sayonara, Koizumi-san.”

“Watch the shadows,” Akako said, by way of parting, as she passed through the gothic black gates that went to her house. Saguru continued on to his. He didn't used to walk- his house was ten minutes on from Akako's, fifteen from Kuroba's and a good twenty minute's walk from Aoko's, but since his return to Japan he'd taken to walking instead of being driven, as a sort of natural progression from always walking home, as he'd taken to as a chance to spend a little more time with Aoko and watch Kuroba.

“Watch? Makes me sound like a stalker...” he thought with a frown. “Like Koizumi-san.” Well, he did enjoy getting a few more minutes to talk with Aoko, but really, there was no benefit to his Kid hunt to be had by spending ten minutes avoiding magical pranks on a residential street in Haido...

But...

“Batman is just a cartoon character. He's not real...”

That night, Saguru had a lot to think about. His first confrontation with Kid. The first criminal that he hadn't yet caught. The more he faced Kid, the more he realized that catching Kid would be no simple logic puzzle like the many murderers he'd caught. He was dealing with a real person- a real person with something to hide.

“A high school student?! Are you kidding me?!” Nakamori roared. “I've been chasing him since I was 20! Forget this!” He stormed off.

“Bocchama, is this data really correct?” the scientist asked nervously.

“Of course,” Saguru said, watching Nakamori stomp away. “Get me access to a database of every high-school student in the country. I'll find a match if it takes all night...”

“It isn't impossible for the Kaitou Kid to be a high school student,” he thought as he scrolled through the database. “All it means is that the Kid that's active now isn't the same one which disappeared eight years ago... no mystery there.” He frowned. “Of course, that begs the question... who was the original Kid? What connection does he have to the current one? And why... did he disappear?”

And his search for data had given him one match: Kuroba Kaito, standing over his father's grave with pain in his eyes and a target on his back...

“Has it just become an excuse?” he wondered. “I know I haven't been working as hard as perhaps I could to catch the Kid... and even now, what I really want... is to protect him... to protect them... so that he...”

“Later, baka-tantei!” Kid laughed, flying away. Hakuba stormed away to the bathroom, out of sight of the cops, wondering how much scrubbing it would take to get the blue colouring out of his hair. But he also wanted out of sight because... the exhilaration of the chase, the absurdity of it...

Somehow, he too wanted to laugh...

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Extra chapter today because it's 4th of July and I have brownies and that makes me HYPAH-HAPPY! :D CHOCOLATE! Plus, I just got an automatic hand-fan, which is great because it's even gotten as high as 25 degrees Celsius (77 Fahrenheit) here and I'm BAKING! Yeah, I know somebody in the south of France or Nevada or something won't find that hot, but this is a heatwave for Scotland! *plugs batteries into fan and relishes in the coolness*

Eta's story is important, Mel72000, but not vital... yet...

You're right, HikariPachi! :O It must have thought your name was a link or something. What's the problem with links? Yeah, it is a scary thought, isn't it? Of course, Jodie's not the first one to have had it...

Oooh, you're Kinsey Adler, Kayla Edogawa! XD Vermouth had a pretty warped sense of reasoning about more or less everything... but it sort of makes sense, in a demented way, if you know her motives...well, there's Ran and Kogoro! And I dunno, I just can't stand the English voices, personally... ^_^; I actually really love Heiji's Japanese voice. And I'm a major fan of Kappei Yamaguchi (Kaito and Shinichi, also done other major voices in other anime like InuYasha, Ranma and, ummm, Chimchar ^_^;)

It's Y-u-u-s-a-k-u (though some spell it Yusaku), KageNoNeko, and he's got something up his sleeve...

Storytime, Pretztailfan95! Would you like milk and cookies before beddy-bye time? XD NOOOOOO! Don't shoot Kid! *shoots Heiji in retaliation* wait... actually, considering the Heiji scene that I just finished writing... MUAHAHAHA! YOU WON'T EVEN FIND OUT FOR AGES! *evil* Sorry if I made the accent too strong. I don't think it's too strong now, I've been watching how I write it... okay, okay: Fireline, RUN FOR THE HILLS! Pretz is obsessed with epic responses and is COMING FOR YOU! And I think some people DO read other people's comments, so, um... NO SPOILERS PEOPLE! We're not talking about the very core plot of an awesome fic at all... *cough*readthefic*cough* Shadows In The Light on Pretztailfan95's profile, co-written by Pretz and me! This has been your shameless plug. And yeah, Gardevoir is pretty and all, but BLACK CHARIZARD OWNZ! Resistance is futile...

Don't worry about Pretz, Fireline. She simply has an inescapable fixation with epic responses. Leave behind cookies and Heiji chibis and you'll have plenty of time to escape XD And you're right- well a quick “good fic” is nice, there's no thought in it; a long, well-thought out response is always so much nicer to read. Even well-thought out criticisms are nice; it means people are actually thinking about things, and they're infinitely preferable to flames. XD I'm hoping to keep people guessing... now that I look at the overall plot idea, it is quite seriously weird in an actually-makes-sense-kinda way. So I think you'll be guessing until the end. Maybe. (Stop rambling and get writing then!) Yeah, I figured that, memories or no, he wasn't going to fall to simple brainwashing. I didn't like the thought of keeping him permanently chloroformed either, considering the long time period that he was going to be in captivity and the simple considerations of: I don't want to starve him to death and frankly that bag is going to be disgusting if he isn't let out to use the loo. ^_^; Given the weird repertoire of recopies that I'd already given Vermouth, the mind-numbing stuff didn't seem to be a problem to use. I'd already decided a while back that, though this fic is somewhat realistic (it's going to get weird as Vermouth's motives become clearer), Kaito is already not quite subject to the same laws of physics as the rest of us. ^_^; Besides, they're only little shoes! And yeah, Poker Face has only ever been seen to crack when he was majorly cornered- like at the Clock Tower heist, he gets this great expression of utter shock when Shinichi starts shooting the weights off- or when something like Snake first appearing and proclaiming himself to be Toichi's murderer happened, so I didn't figure that a conversation with Heiji about Conan would do much. He's only come across Heiji once, never if you don't count the third movie as canon, so he's unlikely to start pouring out his soul to him, especially in uniform. Heiji is pissed about the infiltrators, but he was referring to the kind of depth that both Kaito and Shinichi are into it, which goes way past a few moles. Don't worry, he called the Moris eventually- and Hakuba Saguru is ALWAYS cautious. Thus ends the epic response XD

I saw a preview page thing for chapter 700 on Pretz's DA page, FaithlessGirl, and unfortunately you're right- no sign of Kid! T_T however, there's a vague outline of the lower half of somebody's face. The face (it's only visible from south of the nose) kinda reminds me of Gin, but there's also a curled lock of hair that reminds me of Vermouth... who could it be? A new character? Anokata? Who?

Shinichi knows what he's doing, HaibaraDaiFan... sort of... but Vermouth's as bad as Kid for catching him out... Awww! Writer's block? Damn that thing. Put cookies on top of it and see if it lures some Muses back. Mine LOVE cookies. XD

Vermouth... not bad? That's a new one, FHP2208... but who knows? Desperate isn't a bad word for what would happen to the cops if Kid and Shinichi allied to wreak mayhem... “screwed” is also a good term... XD Dunno, I didn't see any bad English in that sentence, even the grammar was perfect ^_- Try not to have a heart attack, enough people die around Shinichi as it is! XD

I'm in your HEAD, Topaz-Tantei! XD Well, not to worry, the story will be told... eventually... (I'm terrible for stringing things out 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 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).