Case Closed Fan Fiction ❯ When Pandora's Box Is Opened ❯ Coming Together ( Chapter 50 )

Chapter Fifty

Coming Together

Kaito slipped out of the window soundlessly. He glanced back into the little apartment. Not so much as a grain of dust moved. The little rat bastard would never know that he had been there.

He made his way back to his motorbike, pulling his laptop out of one of the saddlebags and downloading the CD that he'd downloaded the rat's data onto. The man was on a night shift, so he wouldn't be back any time soon, which had given Kaito plenty of time to riffle through his files and folders and find what he was looking for.

There were notes on dozens of cases- almost all of which, he noted approvingly, Hattori Heiji had investigated. The guy was a good detective. Too bad that he'd missed this one. It might have saved five lives. Well, too late for regrets.

“This guy must have ranked above the others,” he noted. “Notes of their movements, contacts, cases... well, well... he even has contacts in the police forces of the surrounding prefectures. Spread out and catch these guys, and you've also got their subordinates and a few other equals... going down like dominoes. I doubt it'll get any high-rankers, but it'll break their power over the police, and, hell, that's good enough for now...”

Kaito rolled his neck, feeling it crick as he started entering the file path to email the information to the Osaka Police. It would take a while- this was his personal laptop, not his computer in the Kaito-cave with the custom firewalls that prevented even a Dalek from hacking in and tracing any emails he sent. If the Osaka Police traced the signal and found the laptop's serial number, they'd find that it had been ordered by Kuroba Kaito. The bomb that he'd left in the Kaito-cave seemed to have obliterated any trace of Kid in the house- he knew that the Syndicate would trash the place, so it hadn't been such a blow to the gut when Aoko had told him, but he did feel sorrowful for destroying the place. Especially that painting of his father. He'd loved that painting- often, he'd talked to it as if it were his father, something that he did less frequently as he grew older but hadn't really stopped doing. Still, house or no house, he wanted to go back to being Kuroba Kaito once this was all over, and he couldn't do that if the cops were waiting with the handcuffs the second he got back to Tokyo.

He watched a blue bar crawl from the left side of the screen to the right half-heartedly. Kaito knew how it felt. He was tired, exhausted, but he couldn't go back, not yet. The Osaka police were starting to get somewhere, and they wouldn't have done it without him. He should probably call Aoko later, though. She'd sounded so worried every time that he'd called so far, and... kind of lonely. He knew how that felt, too.

He missed her, dammit. He'd realized how he felt about Aoko some time ago, not long after becoming Kid, and had come to terms with that; come to terms with the fact that she was more than just a best friend to him, more important to him than anyone else in this world; come to terms with the fact that as long as Snake and his friends roamed free, he couldn't tell her the truth, that because of that he might never be with her. Still, it had surprised him just how strongly he missed her. He missed how she laughed whenever he pulled some stupid trick that was entertaining rather than annoying, missed the tiny giggles that she couldn't always hide when chasing him with a lethal mop, missed the days when they were little kids and they'd sleep over at each other's houses and he'd sit up at night, watching her sleep, wondering what was so entrancing about this bubbly little girl...

The message sent, and he snapped the laptop shut, stowing it away in his bag again. Well, once he got this done, he could go back home, tell the truth, and then... what happened next was up to her, really.

He flexed his wrist. The wound in his upper arm was just a scrape, nothing serious, and was healing just fine without causing him any trouble. His wrist fracture was healing well too, and he could move it fairly freely now, though he knew better than to try anything too taxing. Perhaps he should go back to Tokyo soon and try another heist to lure “Vermouth” out- or at least try and find some more information on her.

He sped off, figuring that he'd have another go through Hattori Heiji's notes while the guy was at school. He might have some useful info. He left not a trace of his entry into the flat.

He thought, he thought.

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Heiji heaved a heavy sigh as he dropped his book bag on the floor and collapsed into his computer chair. He already had a ton of homework and he knew that he'd pay for not doing it later, but for now he had too much on his mind to be bothered.

Hakuba had been networking away in Tokyo, apparently. He'd already enlisted Sato and Takagi, who were talking to Megure, and Nakamori was investigating too, all covered by Hakuba's father, who hadn't bought into the whole mess until Heiji's father had verified Hakuba's story. That bugged Heiji a little. Hakuba wasn't the kind of guy who'd make up a story like this. Did his old man not know his own son?

Kazuha had also called Ran once or twice, and it seemed that Kudo's memory still wasn't returning, although apparently he'd “reacted to a few things”. Heiji wondered what, and how he'd react when he realized that most of his memories couldn't possibly belong to a grade-schooler.

He turned on his PC, checking his email for a minute. EQfanz posted a new blog on Bebo, daily baseball results, a couple of pieces of spam offering various enhancements- delete- and...

How the hell did he get the little caricature to appear under the “sender” bar?!

If Hakuba thought that Heiji acted fast at the mansion, he should've seen how he zeroed in on that email. It took a moment to load because, as it transpired, it had about two dozen attachments. He set them to opening while he read the message.

The following are some of the contents of the computer of one Saku Manabu. You may wish to investigate him more fully.

Kaitou Kid

PS please do not try to trace or reply to this email, as my inbox will activate a virus that will wipe your email account, including this message, and I'd rather that you didn't as it takes such a long time to send.

“No kiddin',” Heiji thought as he watched the loading bar make a dispirited attempt to move slowly enough to go backwards. He was just getting up to try and locate his father when he noticed that there was a final part to the message.

PPS I think I shall return to Tokyo soon. She is no longer in Osaka, and perhaps I ought to call on Kudo-sensei. In the meantime, perhaps you should meditate on the meaning of “VETA”- the only message that I believe Tantei-kun was able to leave.

“VETA? What th' hell?” Heiji wondered, staring at the screen. “A message... from Kudo? A code, probably. What the hell does VETA mean? Is it an acronym? I oughta Google it.” That could wait, however. The files started opening, one after another. Heiji's eyes widened as his jaw hit the floor. “Holy...”

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Eri slipped into a toilet stall, locking it behind her. A few minutes later, as she'd predicted, her quarry entered the bathroom, striding over to one of the mirrors over a countertop and opening her bag to retrieve her oversized makeup pouch. Eri watched her carefully through the slight gap between the door and the plastic cubicle wall.

Eri probably shouldn't be stalking Edogawa Fumiyo, she knew. But there was something innately odd about the woman. For one thing, she had consistently refused to sleep over at the agency again, insisting that she'd stay with Agasa-Hakase while she was in Japan so that Conan could return to a normal routine. Which was a reasonable enough statement, but it also meant that interaction between mother and son was very limited, possibly because their few interactions were very strange. Conan still didn't seem to recognize her too well and seemed guarded and edgy around the woman, while she also seemed to be constantly on edge around him, saying little about his past until pressed. She was very reticent, and always seemed to be watching both Conan and Ran nervously. On top of that, Eri had the nagging feeling that she'd seen the woman somewhere before, but couldn't figure out where.

She also seemed... well, rather scared a lot of the time. Eri felt that whatever it was that scared her was buried in Conan's memories... and whatever it was, it had scared him too.

“Oh, Conan-kun?” Ran said. “Can you run and get the little shopping bag in my book bag? It's got the sugar in it, I picked some up on my way home and forgot to put it away...”

“Sure!” Conan said, running through to Ran's room happily enough, but Eri caught a little tension in him as he moved further away from Ran. He really had been almost magnetically glued to her ever since he returned- he seemed scared to be alone. He dug through the bag, Eri watching him idly over the top of her book and through Ran's open bedroom door. He located the bag, grabbed it up, heading for the door, and glanced up at Ran's desk...

He slowed to a halt as a curiously blank expression fell across his face. He stared distantly at something on Ran's desk, freezing entirely. He didn't even blink. Eri watched him, forgetting her book completely.

He stood like that for several minutes, not blinking, barely even breathing, with only that blank and distant expression. Was he remembering something?

“Can you find it, Conan-kun?”

He jerked out of his trance at Ran's voice. For a moment, his expression changed to one of... fear? Deep terror suffused his face for a moment, before being replaced by a more defined version of his now usual low-level expression of confusion. As he vanished into the kitchenette, Eri slipped into Ran's room, just for a moment. What had prompted such terror? What had perhaps prompted a memory that terrified him so?

From where he'd been standing and his height, there was only one object on Ran's desk that was particularly visible. It was a photograph, a couple of years old, with Ran smiling at the camera and making a peace sign, along with...

Shinichi. Kudo Shinichi was also in the photo, and in the background was the castle at Tropical Land. In other words, the photo that had so terrified Conan was one that had almost certainly been taken the day that Kudo Shinichi had vanished.

Eri slipped out of the room again before anyone saw her and wondered what she was doing, but she wondered.

That night, she'd heard him whimpering in his sleep. He often did, as if his memories were only accessible in his sleep, and scared him. The only time that he was silent, he wasn't sleeping, but wide awake, staring at the ceiling with wide, distant eyes as he tried to piece together the fragments of his mind...

Something that Edogawa Fumiyo seemed worried about.

She also seemed to need the bathroom about every hour. Once again, as Eri had suspected, she was touching up her makeup rather than using the toilet. Why did she need to do that so often? She adjusted her hair, too, and once again it was an odd motion; her hair moved unnaturally. But Eri could see the roots disappearing into her scalp, so it wasn't a wig, but there was definitely something strange. Was it just hair gel to keep her curls in?

The trill of a mobile cut through the otherwise silent bathroom. Fumiyo dug into her purse and pulled out a phone, answering it. Through the crack, Eri narrowed her eyes.

“Oh, it's you!” she said. Her voice sounded odd... different. And once again, somewhat familiar, but Eri just couldn't place it. “No, no change... Well... he seems rather frightened sometimes. I'm not surprised, he seems to be getting only occasionally flash images and he must have realized that they're... well, wrong... No, I wonder if I shouldn't just tell him the truth myself, but... I know. How do you explain something like this? Anyway, I haven't managed to be alone with him. His little friends are always around... they're sweet children, but... well, by the time they've left, it's very late and I can't really go anywhere with him... He seems to prefer to be in a close orbit to Ran-chan all the time, anyway.” Eri's breath caught in surprise. Fumiyo had consistently addressed Ran with “Ran-san”, so why the sudden switch to the familiar address? And that phone...

Fumiyo giggled a little, a very familiar sound. Why couldn't she place it? “I know, I know... it was ever thus. But... well, I've also wondered about telling her. She's got a right to know, after all, sooner or later... I know what you mean. She might be able to help him... if anyone can, after all...” she rubbed her temples, then stared at herself in the mirror and rubbed them again. “Really? Well, we can hope... as long as you know what you're doing. Of course. Be careful... I love you. Sayonara.” She hung up the phone with a weary sigh, tucking it and the oversized makeup kit into her bag, and left the bathroom without a backwards glance. Two calculated minutes later, Eri stepped out of her stall, at almost precisely the same moment as a blonde woman stepped out of the stall next to hers. Two pairs of glasses flashed as the women froze, staring at each other.

There was a long silence as they sized each other up and searched memory lane. It was the other woman who spoke first. “Mori-san's mother, right? Mori Eri-san?”

“Kisaki Eri,” Eri corrected her. “But otherwise correct. Aren't you Jodie Saintemillion-sensei? Ran's English teacher?”

“Well, yes,” Jodie said. They stared at each other for another long moment, before Eri sighed.

“Okay, neither of us flushed, so can I safely assume that both of us were here for the same reason?” she said.

“Stalking, you mean?” Jodie said, quirking a smile. “All right, yes. You noticed something odd about Edogawa Fumiyo and her son as well?”

“Many odd things,” Eri said. “But why are you watching the household? I know you're friends with Ran, but is that still not more than slightly stalkerish for an English teacher?”

“For an English teacher, yes,” Jodie said, smiling slightly. “How would you feel about lunch and gossip?”

“I think I could use some caffeine, it always helps my memory,” Eri agreed.

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“So it will really be returning soon?” Yuusaku asked.

“Oh, yes,” the curator replied. “They've confirmed that it's not the old crown jewels, it's too large, so the diamond will be returning here shortly... within the week, I believe. I have a meeting now, so if you'll excuse me...”

Yuusaku watched the curator go, looking down at the black sapphire that had been returned the night of the heist. No go, but the “diamond” was a different matter. Kaito was sure to come for it. In that case, Yuusaku might just get a chance to talk to him. At least one of them deserved to know the whole truth.

His thoughts were mainly preoccupied, however, with his phone call to Yukiko earlier. Some of Shinichi's memories were coming back, and what was coming was scaring and confusing him. She couldn't find a chance to explain the truth to him... her idea did make sense. Ran had always been at least a little suspicious of “Conan”. If she believed the story, she might be able to protect Shinichi now that he was at his most vulnerable, to explain the things that were confusing and frightening him...

Of course, the last thing that Shinichi wanted was for Ran to know of or get involved in the whole mess. But he was in no state to complain, and frankly, Yuusaku would rather that she knew. If the way that he still remained almost magnetically by her side despite the amnesia was any indication, he still needed her. She protected and supported him, not physically- though Yuusaku had to admit, her karate skills would certainly be useful if Gin came after him again- but protected his mind as well. Yuusaku had been surprised by how calmly Shinichi seemed to have taken his situation in stride, but in the end, perhaps that was simply because he had Ran to come back to. He had something to fight for.

Just like Kaito did. Just like Toichi had. Just like he did.

The reason that he'd called Yukiko was that he was making a detour before going home; specifically, to the Hakuba family mansion in Haido-chome.

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Ai twisted the microscope lens, almost growling in frustration. Dammit, she had been onto something, she knew it! But she had hit a dead end again. The data from the Christmas test wasn't enough. She was missing something- something vital.

She fiddled with Kudo's various blood samples, yawning. She put another pot of coffee on. She had theorized that perhaps returning to his old body, at least temporarily, might be a strong enough shock to bring Kudo's memories back; but what if it didn't work? Why would he take the pill without knowing what it was? What if, after his bones had melted and reformed into larger shapes, after his skin had bubbled and stretched, after his very cells had split apart and had new ones forced between them... what if even then, he didn't remember, and was now not only scared and lonely but confused, frightened, in pain and in an unfamiliar body? She had no idea what a fright like that would do to a person. Shrinking had been frightening enough for him, and he was in an overconfident adult's frame of mind at the time. Now, he was a frightened child, and was still very much in a child's frame of mind because he thought he was a child.

She turned a sample cure over in her fingers. She figured that his resistance might make it another single-day deal, possibly down to half a day. She tried to calculate the potential benefits over the risks, but in the end, the choice wasn't really hers. It was his- or hers.

“What do I do?” she wondered. “Should I just try to explain things to him... or her...?” she closed her eyes, burying her head in her arms, remembering a trembling voice.

“Just hold on a bit longer! It'll be okay....”

“I could feel her shaking,” Ai thought. “She was so scared. But she still protected me... who she barely even knows... from a woman that she just thought was a random murderer. How much would she do for the man she loves, up against the most evil criminal organization ever created? She was terrified... how much can she take? Because... she'll take more than she can handle, for others... just like you, onee-chan...” she felt tears well up at the thought of her sister. It had been two years, but Kami, it still hurt so much...

“Losing onee-chan hurts this much... if I... if I lose either of them, too... I...”

Her hand touched the little box under the desk, containing only a bottle and a couple of letters- her final resort to protect them. Once again, she thanked heaven that Agasa-Hakase never, ever went through her stuff.

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Red, Silver Shadowbreeze? Nobody ever speaks of seeing Red fight, which could mean either that he doesn't or- as Gin testified- those who do generally end up the type of people who tell tales afterwards...

Yeah, I've been going through them again myself, A Midsummer Night's Dream. Especially the arc where Shuu “dies” at the end. I knew a death at “Reiha Falls” (read: Reichenbach Falls) couldn't be for real... Aoyama-sensei just can't resist the references XD (I mean, Shinichi lives at 2-21 Beika- 221 Baker- for pity's sake...)

See my comments about Red to Silver Shadowbreeze, Yuki Taiki. XD I think Red has an advantage that Akai doesn't...

I freaked when that guy first appeared, Marie Ravenclaw. I thought he was some really mental suicide bomber XD “Next time on When Pandora's Box Is Opened... Surprise Visits!”

Now you know, KageNoNeko... cool, isn't it? SHUU! :D

It's all a massive game of join-the-dots, FaithlessGirl, and everyone's going to have to put their own dots together to get the full picture... except only Shinichi knows the most important link...

It'll take an insanely long blow of Writer's Block to set me back, Topaz-Tantei!^_- Yay! Plot is happening! They generally come out weekly, since Meitantei Conan is a weekly serial in Shonen Sunday in Japan, though they made us wait two weeks for chapter 700, the evil.... *trails off mumbling incoherently* you're welcome!

Chapter 700 was awesome, wasn't it, Mel72000? Shuu! Okiya! Plot! Yay! :D

The one truth shall prevail eventually, JapaneseAnimeFreak16! ^_- Plot's moving both here and in the manga... exciting times to be a DC fan! :D

Delirious, remember, Pretztailfan95? I just genuinely could think of no way to string that chapter out more... it just had to end at that moment. Twins? People used to think me and my cousin were like that, but we've kinda drifted apart.... fine by me, although you could have Heiji and I'll just have both of them XD No, I didn't write him in because other folk have stuffs to do... hey, he's not in this one either... MUAHAHAHAHA! XD Yes, shoop da woop defeats all EXCEPT...THE POWERS OF PC GONE MAAAAAD! Seriously, you can't say “Shoop da woop” on British TV because apparently it's racist. Or gollywog. Or sing “Baa Baa Black sheep”. It has to be a rainbow sheep now. I'm not actually making this up. Aaaaand... neither of your demands have happened XD sorry :P

Gotta love Akako, Kairi922. Why doesn't she appear? T_T I love that whole mime sequence, especially the expressions on everyone's face as they watch... XD I never got into Stargate... Doctor Who and Star Wars have always been my sole sci-fi fixes. I'm very deeply addicted to both. XD *geek*

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).