Case Closed Fan Fiction ❯ When Pandora's Box Is Opened ❯ Strike ( Chapter 46 )

Chapter Forty-Six

Strike

“So how did it go? I assume you managed successfully?”

“You betcher tight ass,” Heiji said, ignoring Hakuba's snort of annoyance at the insult on the fly. “We got all five. They ain't highly ranked, but it's enough ta cripple their movements here. Th' main worry's keeping `em under tight security so nobody silences `em. What about you?”

“The information you gave me was... useful. I've located quite a number. It's infuriating how many there are... and how high they go.”

“Tell me about it,” Heiji muttered. “Hey, what about outside the cops?”

“A couple of suspect businesses and individuals... I've cross-referenced the cases with Kid heists. A particularly odd one was the house where the Blue Birthday was found...”

“The whatsit?” Heiji asked, leaning back from his desk. Yesterday, he and Kazuha had returned to Tokyo, and early this morning the moles in the Osaka Police had been arrested. When Heiji's father had laid out all of the evidence that Heiji had found, one had cracked and brought the rest down like a line of dominoes. Unfortunately, they were unable to give any remotely useful information about their employer, although sheer terror had meant that it had taken several hours of interrogation to get what they had.

“Blue Birthday. A sapphire he stole... a little over a year ago. That was a strange heist... it's the first one where I've found any sniper activity against Kuroba Kaito. A tracker was put in the sapphire, and was traced to a traditional-style manor... but there was nobody there, not even Kid. After several hours of searching, they found an underground passage. It came out in an abandoned warehouse... whoever had used it was long gone. They assumed it was Kid that left via the passage, but he's not known for using such obvious methods of escape... not when he's off-camera, anyway. The house was apparently owned by someone who never lived there, he's just a property shark. Incidentally, he apparently owns several of the properties that until recently housed the various companies that you've been investigating...”

“Can't hide it forever,” Heiji said triumphantly. “So... how's the kiddo doin'? You seen `im?”

“Not really. I understand he's been home the past few days, spending time with his mother, Mori-san, Agasa-Hakase, familiar people, you know. I believe he'll return to school soon, however. No sign of his memory returning, however.”

“I see,” Heiji sighed. “Kudo... what's gonna happen to `im? How's `e gonna get `is memory back when everyone's givin' him the wrong info?” That was his biggest worry; there seemed to be no believable way to explain to Kudo who he was, but the result was that either his memory would never return, or when it did it would confuse and frighten him. It wouldn't take his detective's brain long to realize that many of his memories were impossible for any grade-school student to have... “We ain't got no leads here, unfortunately. No sign a' Kid or the kidnapper, or even where the kid was held...”

“Hmmm... of course, that makes it possible that both are still in Osaka, does it not?”

“An' if they are, we'll find `em soon enough,” Heiji growled. “She ain't gettin' away...”

“Well, good luck with that, then. You certainly need it...” Hakuba hung up before Heiji could retaliate. He just grunted at the silent mobile instead.

His talk with Jodie and Hakuba had been... illuminating. He'd given them the facts of his knowledge of the Organization, but he'd had to hold so much back and he worried that they could tell. What had surprised him more was how much both had figured out about Kid and the Organization. When you're watching the world, thinking and deducing, it can be easy to forget that you're not the only one doing it.

“Once Conan told us about that nurse, we knew that the boy was in danger from the Organization,” Jodie said. “A boy magician whose father had died about the same time the Kaitou Kid vanished, while the Organization was after the Kid... it's obvious when you think about it. He's just so good at keeping you from thinking about it.”

“Nurse?” Hakuba and Heiji asked in confusion, a rare moment of unity.

“This was kept on the quiet, but a nurse at the Haido Central was “found” collapsed in the Kuroba's room,” Jodie said quietly. “Which I'm sure has nothing to do with Cool Kid having been the one to find her. She had a needle full of Potassium Chloride with her.” Heiji swore. Potassium Chloride. Basically, an instant heart attack. It showed up easily in an autopsy, but only if you were looking for it... “We think she was intending to take out Kuroba Minami first.”

“A heart attack in a badly maimed, comatose patient wouldn't seem unusual,” Hakuba muttered. He looked deeply sick. “They'd probably never even look for Potassium Chloride traces...”

“Precisely,” Jodie replied. “So we had a look at their “accident” a few days before.”

“Which wasn't,” Hakuba said. “It looked like a street race, but street racers would never race in cars of the same color... besides, the cars never slowed or swerved, which they surely would have done the second they found themselves bearing down on somebody, if only for the sake of their race times. In other words... somebody attempted to finish the job. Is that why there's been FBI agents around the hospital?”

“You noticed them?” Jodie arched an eyebrow. “Kids in Japan... maybe Cool Kid isn't as unusual as I thought. Speaking of which...” she narrowed her eyes on Heiji. “I wonder... he seems to have shared a lot of information with you, Hattori-kun... particularly about Vermouth. Do you know how a mere child got involved with the Black Organization?”

“I overheard him talking to Kudo-sensei,” Hakuba said. “He said only that he saw something that he shouldn't... whatever it is that Kudo Shinichi had to go into hiding for.”

“Uh, yeah...” Heiji said with a gulp. Hakuba had no idea how close he really was... “We thought the Org didn't know that the kid was involved at all... looks like Vermouth spilt the beans. Fer some reason, seems she didn't back when `e stopped her killin' that Haibara kid...”

“I don't know about that,” Jodie said. “According to Kir, Vermouth appears to be running this independently of the Organization. None of the rest know anything about Edogawa Conan. Which begs the question- what is she up to? And what does it have to do with Edogawa Conan?” she and Hakuba both stared at Heiji.

“Oi, I swear I dunno,” Heiji said. “The kiddo's almost as bad as Kid as far as bein' a walkin' enigma goes- matter of fact, now we know who Kid is an' got a probable motive fer goin' after the Org...”

“All right, then I want a little more information on who this Organization is and who, in particular, “Vermouth” is,” Hakuba snapped. “Kid is my case, and.... he's a friend. I want this case solved before he gets himself killed.”

Heiji jerked out of his thought as his mobile rang. He picked it up cautiously- it said “unknown number.”

“Hattori,” he said as he brought the phone to his ear.

“There's one more.”

“What?” he said in confusion at the vaguely familiar voice.

“There is one more Raven in Osaka, nesting in the police.”

“What the- who is this?”

“Go to the Kitsune Shrine in the woods to the north.”

Then there was only silence as they hung up.

“What th-” Heiji wondered. Then the house phone rang. He distantly heard his father answering it. Then he heard some rather more distinctive loud swearing.

“What happened?” he yelled, running downstairs.

“They're all dead,” his father growled. “Some kind of poisonous gas in their cells, by the time the guards smelled anything it was too late- we missed one, dammit.”

“There's one more...”

“What the hell?” Heiji said. “Who was that?” Ignoring his father's questions, he tried to redial the number. All he got was a recorded message telling him that the number could not be reached. “Someone just called,” he said. “Can't place the voice. They said we missed one...”

“You don't know who?” Heizo said sharply.

“Dunno, but I bet I could recognize th' voice again if I...” he sighed as he remembered where those smooth tones were familiar from. “No I won't. It was Kid, dammit. He's still in Osaka...”

“Did he say who?” Heizo asked. “And could you reach the number?”

“Unreachable, prob'ly a phone booth or somethin',” Heiji sighed. “He said it's a cop, didn't say who. An' also... somethin' about a shrine in th' woods ta the north. A Kitsune shrine. What's that about?”

“Couldn't say. There's several small shrines in that forest...” Heizo glanced at the clock. “I'll investigate tomorrow. You,” he added, as Heiji opened his mouth, “are going to school tomorrow. No excuses, and don't you dare sneak out to investigate on your own. I really mean it this time. Whoever took that child did something to him, and if they're willing to damage a child like that then they're unlikely to pull any punches on you if you stick your nose in too far. You're suspicious as it is. I will take over this investigation before you bring yourself to any harm.”

“I ain't droppin' my case, Oyaji,” Heiji said sullenly.

“I didn't expect you to,” Heizo said. “I just... listen, whatever this case is, it's caused one boy your age to vanish and has taken a child's memory. I want you to be careful and work with me on this. All right? I don't want you to be next.”

Heiji thought of Kudo, the blank look in his eyes...

“... fine.”

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Ran glanced over at Conan as the boy yawned hugely. He was reading over some of his friend's notebooks, since he was going back to school tomorrow, but seemed bored. He was flicking through them rapidly, and his gaze kept straying to Mitsuhiko's scrapbook of articles about cases that the Shonen Tantei-Dan had solved.

“He's a bright boy, he'll catch up in no time...” she thought. She blinked. For a moment, the bored boy leaning over his homework was...

“See, Baro? It's not that hard!”

“I got it! Thanks, Shinichi. I'll finish it on my own.”

She blinked again, and it was Conan, not Shinichi, flicking through maths questions.

“Shinichi used to get so bored by homework, too,” she thought with a little smile, “So bored that he didn't even do it half the time... His face was just like Conan's...” she felt a tight knot form in her stomach at the thought of Shinichi. Her worry about Conan had consumed her every thought for over a week, but when they'd waved off Conan's mother that morning- she'd had to go back to America for a time to apply for more leave, or else she'd be fired, and though she'd tearfully insisted that she'd be back as soon as possible, Conan hadn't seemed too upset about her leaving, perhaps simply because he knew she'd be back soon- she'd heard a call coming in to the office, and somehow she'd thought it would be Shinichi. It had been a telemarketer, as it happened, but when she'd hung up the phone she'd realized that Shinichi hadn't called since before Conan had been abducted. He'd gone longer without calling her before, yeah, but since the date he'd at least texted every couple of days. The sudden, prolonged silence... it worried her. And the timing...

She shook herself mentally. “There you go again,” she thought. “Conan doesn't need to be burdened with your weird suspicions just now. Besides, one way or another...” she looked sadly at the little boy who had finally given in and was avidly reading an article about some Italian burglars. “How would he know?”

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Conan was soon absorbed in the cases, wondering if any would trigger any memory. He'd given up on the notes. He knew it all already- and more. He'd been mentally solving the problems that Ayumi had written into her jotter, when he'd paused at the end of one and realized that it was a high-school level sampler problem that she hadn't answered. And he had. Correctly. At that point, he'd tossed the notebook aside and started reading cases.

“Okay, everyone says I'm bright, but I'm sure I shouldn't be able to do those questions...” he thought, shaken. “But that was easy. What's going on? No-one mentioned that I was any kind of super-genius or anything...” It was weird, like the thing with his glasses. He'd continued to wear them out of habit, but he had perfect vision without them. They didn't have proper lenses in them, just a sort of fake glass. It weirded him out, and he hadn't been able to bring himself to ask anyone about it.

Or his mother. He still couldn't remember her at all; when she'd left this morning, he hadn't felt upset, worried, nothing. Perhaps it was because he'd been living with the Mori family for two years, but he should feel something for his own mother, shouldn't he? But she felt no different to him than Ran's mother did- who still hadn't left; Kogoro, in what struck Conan as an odd but sweet fit of gentlemanliness, was bunking on the couch while she slept in the same room as Conan. Her defence was that Conan and Ran needed extra support that she didn't trust Kogoro to give.

That Ran needed support upset Conan. He hated the thought that she would be worried about him, hated the thought that she might be upset because of him; he wanted her to smile. That thought worried him too. She was his adoptive neechan, right? So why did he feel so... why did he want so badly to protect her? It permeated his every thought, even dominating his thoughts of restoring his memory; he needed to do it so that Ran wouldn't be sad. It confused him.

“It's getting late, Conan-kun,” Ran said brightly, acting cheerful though Conan could tell, somehow, that she was still worried. “You need to be well-rested for school tomorrow, right?”

“Haaai,” he drawled, getting up and closing the notebook. He saw her glance nervously at the phone again. “She keeps doing that,” he thought. “Why? Is she waiting for someone to call?” Somehow, it made him feel guilty

He propped up his stool by the sink, feeling unaccountably irritated about having to do so. He met his own gaze in the mirror critically. Somehow, it still didn't seem quite right. Again, he got the feeling that there was something odd about his own face, something... wrong...

The thought reminded him of Haibara Ai. The blonde girl gave him the same feeling. She was different from the other kids- she was quieter, and always seemed to hang back, and he got the feeling that she was watching him. Often, out of the corner of his eye, he'd see her staring at him with a calculating look, as if she was searching for something. She was just... odd. Everything was.

He splashed a little water on his face to wash it, then rubbed the towel over his eyes to dry himself. As he pulled the towel away from his eyes, he looked up into the mirror-

He froze, but the image vanished as soon as he blinked. Then he shook himself, redonning his glasses and looking back into the mirror, into the eyes of a child- not, as he'd thought for a moment, an adult.

Still, the image from that split second remained in his brain as he got into the bed; the adult who looked so much like him- the adult's face that looked so much more familiar than the child's.

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By the way, has everybody seen the new anime-only arc (episode 540)? All I can say is: AWWWW! KOGOROOOOO! T_T *wants to hug him* aww, man, it's so sad... though if it turns out that crazy old jogger lady did them in, I'm going to freak out, but actually I find the ex-cop more suspicious... whatever. POOR KOGORO! T_T

Maybe Ran's not that ignorant, HikariPachi... ^_-

I like Ai, KageNoNeko, and I think it's sweet of her that while she knows that Shinichi is important to her, she's still accepted that he'll never love anybody but Ran. She's a much better person that she gives herself credit for. ^_^

Takagi's actually pretty sharp, FHP2208, or so I've always felt, so I'm sure he'd realize the significance of that sooner or later. Everyone's on the road to coming together at the centre of the web... and your English is great, don't worry about it! ^_-

I'm glad you like that scene, Silver Shadowbreeze! :D Like someone mentioned before, he's certainly the fiercely loyal type, which means he's ready to get stuck in for his friends, even if he thinks he's doing it alone...

The Banterful M8s will always be back, AngelRoy! XD Can't keep us down! ^_-

Yeah, I had that conversation a while back, YoshimiKurosaki, when I first brought up the phrase “kokosei-tantei”. I know the “u” issue is a little difficult to work with, and for the most part I've picked up the habit of leaving the silent “u” out, except for purposes of differentiation (such as “Kaitou Kid” and “Kuroba Kaito”). I know it's not always the correct Romanization, I just picked it up as an incredibly stubborn habit from the Romanizations VIZ tend to use.

Most of them are used to Shinichi being gone, FaithlessGirl, but Ran's got her suspicions...

Awww, Mel72000! :D I do love giving characters depth. I'm a psychologist at heart. ^_^ Thank you so much for your kind compliments! :D

Suspense, TwilTye! SUSPEEENSE! XD Conan is certainly a bizarre kid if you step back and forget how many of the oddities people are used to... but who'da thunk the truth, eh? XD TO THE WRITING!

Indeed you do, Pretztailfan95! XD I dunno if Conan would want to broadcast his odd thoughts to the police, but he ought to share with somebody, eh? I know, it's just kind of hard to write dialogue for Genta, I guess, since he's not much of a talker, in serious conversations anyway. ^_^; Mitsuhiko's so susceptible to the cute girls XD I think his crush on Ai might be more real than his crush on Ayumi, though... I do totally agree, actually. She has nothing to go back to as Miyano Shiho. This second chance might actually be just what she needs... Good grief, I think I've been shot more than Captain Jack now... XD so have you, for that matter. INVINCIBILITY! XD Fireline's hiding from you XD yeah, Heiji was in the third movie- the heist at the start's in Osaka, after all! Then the baka crashes his motorbike and ends up in hospital for the rest of the movie. He seems to land himself in hospital a lot... just look at the seventh movie...

You can just hear all the cogs whirring, can't ya, JapaneseAnimeFreak16? XD update time!

Always nice to meet a fellow angst addict, Kairi922! ^_- Russel T Davies is the scarily brilliant writer of every new Doctor Who series (the ninth and tenth Doctors) and of Torchwood, and writes the most evil cliffies ever devised. EVIL!

Glad you're back, A Midsummer Night's Dream! :D So slowly... one truth will prevail!

Nuh... no.... the link won't work on EITHER, HaibaraDaiFan! DX I keep getting a “this page cannot be found”! DX I WANNA SEE THE CONAN PIC! T_T And I liked the chapter! Yeah, it was a little hard to follow in places, but once you got a handle on it... I just wanna hug poor Kazuki! And lamp Okiya with a hockey stick! *growls*

I'm amazed you managed to get through this behemoth in one go, Senna-robins! XD more chapters ahoy!

Everyone's got a piece of the puzzle, Marie Ravenclaw, some more than most... Poor Yukiko. She's losing her son, bit by excruciating bit... and Akako is just brilliant XD Put her in the manga, Aoyama-sensei!

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).