Case Closed Fan Fiction ❯ When Pandora's Box Is Opened ❯ Rewind ( Chapter 42 )

Chapter Forty-two

Rewind

“Oi, I just got a call from Mori-kun!” Megure said happily, striding into the 1st division main office. “Conan-kun's been found!”

“What? Really?” Takagi said in surprise.

“That's wonderful!” Miwako said. “Is he all right? Where was he?”

“Hattori-kun found him in the road in Osaka,” Megure said. “No sign of the kidnapper, unfortunately, but he's uninjured.”

“Thank goodness Conan-kun's all right, at least,” Shiratori sighed. “Kobayashi-san's been very worried about him.”

“Kobayashi-san?” Miwako said in confusion.

“Oh, um...” Shiratori said, suddenly going violently red.

“She's the kids' elementary school teacher,” Chiba said, with an evil smirk at Shiratori, “and Shiratori's been seeing a lot of her lately.”

“Ah, so she's your girlfriend?” Takagi asked with a grin.

“Look, it's not...” Shiratori said, looking distinctly uncomfortable.

“...like that,” the guys, including Megure, finished in bored unison. “It never is,” Chiba continued.

“Anyway,” Miwako said, eager to change the subject for poor Shiratori's sake and inwardly feeling unaccountably relieved, “So hasn't Conan-kun been able to describe the kidnapper?”

“Well, there's a problem,” Megure said, looking suddenly crestfallen. “It seems he has very severe amnesia.”

“What?!” Miwako cried in distress. “Amnesia? How?”

“Mori-kun didn't get all of the details from Eri-kun,” Megure said, “but apparently the doctor said that there's no sign of head trauma or any other injury... they're bringing him back to Tokyo tomorrow to get him more fully checked out at the Beika General. But chances are... it's like when Ran-kun lost her memory.”

Miwako's hand unconsciously went to her shoulder, where there was still a faint scar from that case, as well as a couple of others. She saw Takagi, Shiratori and Chiba shudder unconsciously. She hadn't awoken until after Ran's memory had been restored, but she knew that seeing Miwako shot had been terribly traumatic for the girl, and combined with the fact that she blamed herself, Ran's memory had vanished entirely for a time. However...

“Ran-kun got her memory back at Tropical Land, didn't she?” Miwako said. “It just took a strong trigger. Maybe something like that will bring Conan-kun's memory back...”

“Yeah...” Takagi said thoughtfully, “It's just... I'm worried. Ran-kun's memory loss was because of a... really badly traumatic experience, right?”

“That's right,” Megure said. “She saw Sato-kun shot and blamed herself for it...”

“But Conan-kun walks up to the nastiest crime scenes without batting an eyelid,” Takagi pointed out.

“Like that firework case,” Miwako said with a shudder. “How does a kid do that?”

“That's what I mean,” Takagi said. “Something like that's often enough to traumatize a normal person. So... what kind of thing would be bad enough to so traumatize Conan-kun?”

The room fell silent at Takagi's words. Everyone in the division had come across the Shonen Tantei-Dan or Mori-san at some point, and Conan in particular left a vivid impression. Everyone was fond of him, but everyone was also more than a little freaked out by his tendency to run across murders wherever he went and, moreover, seem so unconcerned about it. The boy had a mind like a razor and a poker face like the Kaitou Kid. Miwako couldn't begin to imagine what could have happened to him to horrify him so, to damage him...

“Whatever it is, we'll find out when we catch the bastard that kidnapped him,” Megure growled, “and then that son of a bitch is going away for so long, the prison'll have to cryogenically freeze their body until we come up with some form of resurrection just so they can fill out another dozen life sentences.”

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Ai pressed her forehead into her arms, squeezing her eyes shut, burying the all-consuming fear that had overtaken her ever since Kudo Yuusaku had turned up with the news that Kudo had been kidnapped by her. Ai didn't know why Vermouth had let him live before, but Ai didn't see any reason why she should do it twice.

Unless she had something else in mind...

“... I have complete faith in you...”

“I wish I could live up to that faith, Kaa-san,” she thought sadly, shrugging her shoulders to press the earphones into her ears, addicted to the kind voice that she could only vaguely assign a face to. She had barely known her parents, to the extent that, as a true child, she hadn't been hugely bothered when they died. But as an adult, she'd so often wondered; who was she? What kind of people had her parents been? She knew their codenames, “Mad Scientist” and “Hell Angel”, but that told her nothing, really; only images that she prayed were false. She knew that her father had joined the Organization and the Project a while after graduating from college, and that her mother had joined upon their marriage, but she still didn't know why. Was her father uninterested in what the Organization would use his research for, so long as he got funding to continue? Or did he really believe in the ideals of the Organization?

And her mother...

“...oh, and maybe you're old enough to hear this now. I'm...”

“Ai-kun! AI-KUN!”

“Hakase?” she called, stopping the tape, suddenly panicked. Had something happened? “What's wrong?”

“They found him!” Agasa cried happily, bursting breathlessly into the lab. “Yuusaku-kun told me that they got a call from Hattori-kun! They found him in Osaka! He's alive!”

“Kudo-kun's alive?!” Ai shrieked happily, pure relief destroying any self-restraint. “What happened? Did they catch her? Is he all right?”

“They didn't catch her,” Agasa sighed, suddenly troubled. “Hattori-kun found him wandering in the road. It... it seems he has amnesia.”

All of Ai's euphoria deflated at once. “What?”

“He didn't recognize Hattori-kun or Eri-kun or anyone,” Agasa said, looking crestfallen.

“Not even... Mori-chan?” Ai said tentatively.

“I understand not,” Agasa said with a sad shake of the head. “He didn't even recognize his own name... either of them, from what Hattori-kun told Yuusaku-kun. The doctor said that there's no sign of physical trauma...”

“So it must be psychological,” Ai said fearfully. “He's retained his sanity through being physically reduced by ten years, the ultimate identity crisis and being hunted by the most dangerous criminal organization ever conceived. Kami, what did she do to him?!”

“They're bringing him back tomorrow,” Agasa said into the extended silence. “Yuusaku-kun figures that they'll ask Dr Ariade to do further tests, since he needs to be exposed to as many familiar faces as possible...”

“Okay,” Ai said, rebuilding her stoic mask. “If it's a psychological rather than physical reason, then the right emotional trigger should do it... The main problem will be explaining to him that he's actually eighteen and was shrunk by a strange poison in a failed assassination attempt...”

“Yes, Yuusaku-kun was going to come discuss that when he gets back,” Agasa mused, wandering off. “Goodness, this is going to be hard when, psychologically, he's likely been regressed to a lost and frightened child...”

“Kudo-kun,” Ai thought, burying her head in her arms again once she heard the door close. “What did she do to you? What's happened to you? Everyone there except Hattori-kun knows him only as Edogawa Conan. That's who they'll tell him that he is. So how do you explain to someone who's already confused and frightened that they're actually someone else, and that that someone else is under a death sentence...?”

Almost automatically, she plugged her earphones back in and rewound the tape a touch, pressing “play” again.

“...to hear this now. I'm really, really sorry that I left you, Shiho. I had to try, though. When I married your father, I had no idea what he was involved in... how very evil the Organization really is. I didn't realize for years. I was happy, I had Atsushi and Akemi, we had our research and I'd never asked about what it would be used for so I told myself that I didn't know, not for certain, it was all for the good...

“And then you were born, and you grew up, and it very quickly became evident that you were brilliant, far more than Atsushi or I. That was when I found out that you didn't belong to me, not really. Nothing belonged to me, not you, not Akemi, not Atsushi, not even my own life. It all belonged to the Organization. They took you from me and sent you to schools for gifted children, and enrolled you in all of the holiday classes so that you never came home. I wanted to visit you, but I couldn't- I was invested in the research and could not leave without permission from the Organization, and they wouldn't give it to me- the research is too important. So I haven't seen you since you were four years old, and maybe you can never understand how much I miss you, but I do, so much.

“That's when I decided that I couldn't do this. I can't sell my life and hand over such powerful research to such an evil Organization. But I can't leave. That's being a traitor, and that means death, and not just for me. Atsushi told me about the Kurosawa, a family of elite assassins. Ten years before you were born, before Akemi was born, the couple were executed for betraying the Organization, and their daughter too, though I don't believe she was involved with it. Their son only survived because he was the one who turned them in. If I left and was caught, it wouldn't just be me who would pay the price- you, Akemi, and Atsushi would all die too.

“As I speak, you're seven. You must be eighteen now, right? And Akemi will be twenty-eight. Back then she was seventeen, and old enough to realize what I was thinking, what the Organization had done to us. She hated being separated from you. I don't think any girl has ever fussed over and generally adored her Imoto-chan more than Akemi did when you were born. She still does. She visited you every holiday, remember? She was too young to do any real work for the Organization- well, that's not true. She was doing light intelligence and criminal contact work at the time, I don't know what she does now. But it didn't take up her time and wasn't as important as the research, so she, at least, can visit you. I envy her.

“She agreed with me- we had to get out. We couldn't let you grow up with nothing but Organization labs ahead of you. So we've been planning and preparing. Akemi's been using the mobility that her contact work has given her to rent a flat under an alias, buy disguise equipment, forge passports and credentials. We're planning to run, all the way to Britain. Not England, but maybe somewhere in the north of Scotland or Ireland, somewhere small and unknown and secluded, somewhere where we can hide as long as we need. Akemi and I have made all sorts of plans. I haven't told Atsushi yet. I don't know if he'll agree. We're planning to take you with us, to raise you with peace and love and security. We're planning to, anyway. But if you're listening to this, then we failed. I'm making these as a failsafe. If all goes wrong, I made Akemi swear to look after you, to do nothing to put blame on herself, to play along as if she were trying to stop me. In fact, if things go wrong, I'm demanding that she turn me in. It saved the Kurosawa's son and it could save her. If things go wrong, there's no way that I'll survive, so I want to at least save Akemi, so that some day she can save you.

“If you can't remember, please know now, Shiho. I love you, and I know that there's a beautiful, kind world outside of the Organization labs, a world that I once lived in, a world that I wanted you to live in. I want you to remember that, while you'll see all kinds of evil in the Organization, not every human is like that. There are kind people, and just people, and good people, and while the Organization so often makes them suffer, someday there'll be someone who can make the Organization suffer- the fabled “Silver Bullet”. I want you to remember that the Organization's control is not how it has to be. I want you to remember that there's a better life out there somewhere for you, and a person who'll make that life complete. I wish I could have raised you into that life and told you all of this myself, but if you're hearing this then I guess that wasn't possible.

“But I love you, Shiho, and I want the best life for you. And now... you're old enough to make it happen for yourself, if only you choose to.”

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“Kudo-kun?” Nakamori Ginzo said in surprise as Yuusaku strode into the fire station. “What are you doing here?”

“I heard that they finished clearing out the rubble from the Kuroba's, so I was curious about what they found,” Yuusaku responded, “but more importantly, did you hear that Conan-kun's been found?”

“Really?” Nakamori gave a relieved sigh. “So they caught the kidnapper?”

“Unfortunately not,” Yuusaku sighed. “And worse... he has severe amnesia. He can't even identify himself in a mirror, never mind his kidnapper. But I understand it wasn't Kid, as he was the one who alerted the police that the kidnapper was in Osaka prefecture in the first place.”

“So it's connected to the guy who keeps attacking Kid...?” Ginzo asked, running his hand through his hair again (Yuusaku understood why it was such a mess, considering the man's constant state of at least moderate stress). “Have they found out the cause of the amnesia?”

“The doctor says that there's no head trauma, so it must be psychological,” Yuusaku said. “They're going to bring him back tomorrow and have a doctor that he's... was familiar with to do a more thorough examination. Are you going to want to talk to him?”

“If he's got amnesia, no point in interrogating the boy, is there?” Ginzo said gruffly, lighting his pipe and ignoring the unsubtle glares from the firemen. “I'd rather talk to Kid- or the Hattori boy.”

“I think the latter's already given his full statement to his father, so you can probably get it from him,” Yuusaku said. “And who can speak for the former?”

“Indeed,” Ginzo sighed. “Well, you wanted to look through the Kuroba's stuff, then? I don't suppose there's any harm in it- Minami-san won't be picking it up any time soon, and Kami knows where her idiot son is...”

The things were piled in a locker, with a man-sized portrait leaning next to it.

“Damn thing's fireproof,” Ginzo said quietly. “Haven't let them wipe all of the ash off of it yet, though. Said we'd probably need a professional to do it without damaging the painting.”

“I'd call that a wise decision,” Yuusaku replied, equally quietly. He opened the locker and flipped through the contents. Chunks of photo albums and thick books, generally the middle pages which had been most shielded from the violent flames. A few burnt or slightly melted ornaments. A pile of singed CDs, DVDs and cassettes that had been deemed salvageable.

“They just threw away pretty much all of the furniture,” Ginzo said. “We were lucky to get this much, really. What wasn't burned was crushed when the house collapsed. It was a really violent fire. And, well... it seems it was only made worse when something exploded. They found a sake bottle which they think was made into a Molotov Cocktail and thrown through the window- well, a few of them. They think the explosion originated in the kitchen, like maybe the gas had been left on and ignited when the fire spread, but due to the house collapsing they can't tell for certain.”

Yuusaku said nothing as he continued to sift through the remnants of the Kuroba's lives, noting out of the corner of his eye that one side of the painting was considerably more singed than the other.

“That room,” he remembered, “Was right above the kitchen...”

“So the Molotov means that it was deliberate,” he said carefully. “Do you have a motive?”

“Officially, we're chalking it down to random arson,” Ginzo replied just as carefully.

“And personally?” Yuusaku pressed. “You're a brilliant officer, Nakamori Ginzo. I don't believe for a moment that you don't have your own strong suspicions.”

“I do,” Ginzo hedged, “but... I want to believe that they're wrong.”

“Because it means that you were lied to?” Yuusaku said, “Or because it means that you couldn't save the original Kid... and are scared that you can't save this one?” Ginzo, distracted and uncomfortable, didn't notice Yuusaku slipping something into his sleeve from the pile.

“... I'm moving the painting out tomorrow, for cleaning,” Ginzo said, avoiding answering the question. “... Although what I'll really bring myself to do with it, who knows?”

“If you want to talk about what to do about it,” Yuusaku said, closing the locker door, “I'm sure you know where to find me. Until then... to blatantly plagiarize my son, Shinjitsu Wa Itsumo Hitotsu, Ginzo-kun. You'll have to face it sooner or later, so it's best to do it sooner... before you're too late.”

He walked out of the fire station again, face unreadable, a Poker Face worthy of Kuroba Toichi's. No-one noticed the singed and tangled and cassette tape that he took away with him.

“Sometimes, Toichi-kun,” he thought, with a short, sharp smile, “It feels like you're still haunting the Organization through Kaito-kun... and me.”

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I just finished the Case Closed Wii game (it's kinda short) and I have to say: not bad. The character models were N64-standard and the camera angles were horrendous, but the storyline was well done and the clue chain bit was clever too. As for the murderer... NOOOO! NOT THAT PERSON! I LIKED that person. When I'd realized, I just kept thinking, “no, not that person...” but it WAS! T_T it makes me sad. But it was an all right game. If they fixed the horrible graphical issues and got some remotely decent minigames and extras (all they were was stills generally taken from starting sequences), it would be brilliant- though I do think it's better than that travesty of an InuYasha game. *shudders*

On the Torchwood front, all I can say is: AWWWWW! Jack! *wants to hug him* not only is it a bloody government conspiracy, they got JACK wrapped up in it! Which means that both to atone for his own sins and to save the children (bagsy being in the 90%) he's just going to have to go into Thames House and kick some slimy bug-ugly alien butt, isn't he? ;)

Having a high fever in the middle of summer is no fun -_- on the other hand, I've gotten a TON of writing done...

How long it takes Shinichi to return, FaithlessGirl, all depends on just what happened to make him lose his memory...

I'm in Scotland actually, but yeah, we only have 29 volumes published. What the hell, Mel72000?! You have 59 already! LUCKY! As for your theories... just wait and see! ^_- Yeah, I can't wait for chapter 700 either! Plot! Finally, back to the PLOT... I mean, did you see chapter 699? SHUU ALERT! Ahhh, but it had to happen, though... finally, the point where the manga starts to diverge from my fic... ah well XD

There's a reason Kaito and Shinichi are so alike, Silver Shadowbreeze ^_- The amnesia... wait and see. It's very important.

The people who Kaito needs to trust him already trust him, thankfully, Kayla Edogawa, not that he knows it... What DID she do? BROWNIES! Lucky, you have brownies... but then, the reason that I don't have any is that I ate them all already, so I shouldn't complain XD

Don't worry, Lifawn, Conan's mind is as sharp as ever, it's just that his memories are gone... which means that he'll probably start noticing that something's not right soon enough...

I'm using movie canon except for where it contradicts manga canon, Kolidescope. There was an interview a while back where Aoyama-sensei said that in the manga, Kaito had no idea that Conan was Shinichi, or even much of an inkling of who Shinichi actually IS, so I went with that. And yes, I CAN do what I like! *eats all the cookies* XD I guess it's more Sueric's example, she was the first fanfic author I ever read and all of her fics tend to run upwards of 40 chapters at LEAST- sixty or seventy is more common, and two have topped 100. Meitantei Kaito! XD man, would that be awesome... “And THIS is the damning evidence!” “Great job, Kaito-tantei! But how did you get that evidence?” “Officer, if we're going to work together, you have no never, EVER ask me how I get stuff” XD

Throat lozenge, HaibaraDaiFan? XD Here's the awesomeness you ordered! I haven't actually written anything in Latin (I know very little beyond “Morituri Nolomus Mori”, which means “we who are about to die don't want to” XD), it's just that our alphabet- yanno, ABCDEFG etc- is often known as the Latin alphabet since that's its origin. Are you getting to go to Anime Expo 2009? LUCKY! I SO wanted to go, but y'know, living on the wrong continent... I WANNA SEE THE ANIME! Well, I hope you have fun.^_- In fact, I demand that you have EXTRA fun for me! XD

I'd say the answer to the last one is HELLZ NO, AngelRoy XD Did it? *shrugs* they're all somewhere between 4 and 5 full pages on MS Word, sometimes a little more... maybe this was just one of the ones that went for a little less ^_^;

Pretz vanishes, and a new epic reviewer arises to fill the void... Kairi922! Oh, his mind's still a meitantei's, he just can't remember that he's a Meitantei... I do actually take that as a major compliment. :D I was actually terrified when I started posting this... I was scared that nobody would like it ^_^; Actually, since I posted it on MMorg alone for about fifteen chapters, I thought nobody did like it because nobody on there ever reviewed... then I tried posting it on FFnet, and I was amazed at the strength of the positive response that I got for it! :D It felt like the first thing I'd done right in a very long time. Mom keeps going “It's only fanfiction. Now, if you were writing some REAL fiction, some original stuff...” DO NOT TRIVIALIZE MY SELF-ESTEEM THERAPY, WOMAN! And don't trivialise fanfiction! It's a genre in its own right with some amazing authors in it. And someday, I DO intend to write “real” fiction. You could call this practice and confidence-boosting. But if I love to write it and people love to read it, what's wrong with that? (wow, you set me off there... ^_^;) Don't give up! If you love to write, then sooner or later you'll find your story, and there's bound to be people who want to read it- after all, the best fiction comes from people who enjoy writing it. ^_- We can't have fireworks on 4th of July because people will go “you're four months early”... but the year before last, on 4th of July, we hung out at a friend's in California for cookies, cake, red wine and illegal fireworks XD It was awesome. Glad you had fun too! ^_- Torchwood is the sexied-up adult spinoff of Doctor Who... which series did you watch? Have you seen the episodes with David Tennant? Too bad they wouldn't let him have his Scottish accent- they let Christopher Eccleston keep his! (“You're an alien? Why do you sound like you're from the north?” “Lots of planets have a north!” XD) He's an amazing Doctor and I'll miss him when he retires at the end of the year T_T I liked Tom Baker out of the old Doctors, though. Him and his jelly babies... XD And some questions... cannot yet be answered. *insert evil author laugh here*

Pretz is away at camp, she won't get you or Kairi922 yet, Fireline! You have until she gets back to live XD Nope, it's really Shinichi... not that he knows it. But the memories will be Shinichi's, won't they? What will he make of that? One has to wonder just who that was Kaito was chasing, too...

I figured there were longer stories in other categories, Sharishima, I just checked if this was the longest one in the Conan section, which it is! ^_- I know what you mean about Heiji. Don't want him to sound like some kinda country bumpkin... I just always mentally listen to how my aunt would say his lines, since her accent's pretty much like the English approximation of Heiji's accent ;P

Of course I'm continuing, JapaneseAnimeFreak16! XD Yanno, I checked my inbox this morning and it had a dozen reviews from people who hadn't reviewed before... either someone plugged me or it took Vermouth being an utter bitch to make y'all break your silence XD

Poor baby could be right, Marie Ravenclaw... given the ages of the Banterful M8s (those mad Scots who periodically cameo, remember? XD) this is actually happening three or four years in the future... overall, I think it makes Shinichi about... fifteen right now. Ah! He's not going to shrink until next year! I gotta get plane tickets to Japan! XD

Don't explode, Alice Starr! Wow, now the fic's even capable of sustaining life... XD

What timing, Midsummer Night's Dream... I got that review just as I was loading up FFnet to upload this chapter XD *uses that smiley far too much*

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 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).