Conan Fanfic: Memories
Apr. 27th, 2007 08:02 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dagronratThe following is my first ever fan fiction, originally posted in two portions on Patrick's Manga Scan Site for his Fan Fiction contest back in... 2003 was it?
This isn't the original version. The link on the site is dead and I can't find it on the wayback machine. It has been edited and rearranged since, and maybe even continued... It's still a WIP though, and hasn't been touched for a couple of years either.
Beware the newbie writer nish.
Conan Fanfic: Memories
Warning:This is a detective Conan fanfic, as is written, it is done by a fan and promises to be a bit more "disastrous" than the legal owners of the characters would have normally allowed(^^p). In other words, I claim these rights in no way whatsoever. Although I am not very confident in my writing ability, I wish those brave enough to risk the adventure, a pleasant read, since I am hoping to improve my skills through writing this fiction... Oh, and by the way, please excuse any spelling grammar or vocabulary mistakes ;p I also need to work on those...
Part one:"Heiji’s side..."
11th March 7:40 At the Detective Mouri’s agency.
Kogoro MOURI was sitting at his desk, as usual, watching the television. Ran and Conan had gone out for the day. He was wondering how he could profit from this situation... But as ideas each one madder than the next purchased each other in his mind, the most he did was decide to watch Yoko OKINO's last concert, which was being reaired. Once again, while starring at the young singer, he wondered... He wondered about the famous detective "sleeping Mouri". The case he had solved, with the suicide of Okino's former boy friend so long ago, had been the first of many cases he COULDN'T remember solving. At the beginning he hadn't given much thought to these memory lapses. After all, they were infact helping him lead a descent life. But then, his sleeping attacks had become so frequent, that even he began to wonder...
Why was it that he always suddenly understood everything in each case he solved? Why was it that each time his convictions until those precise moments had been so off track? And why was it that he couldn't ever recall his resolution acts? So many questions for so little answers... He didn't have a clue.
Sipping his beer he tried to saddle off his worries by listening to the songs on the tv. Soon the concert rediffusion was over. And other songs were aired. Slowly dozing off from the soothing sound and alcohol, he suddenly jerked up when he heard the song that then came on.
"That song..." he whispered to himself. It was a song that dated back twenty years. He remembered it well. It was the first song he had ever asked to dance with Eri on. How young he had been in those days. How beautiful Eri had been, and still was in fact. He smiled, remembering the times they had had together, and pulled a sad face remembering that those days were now long gone. What a fool he was to have let that woman go. It was true, he loved her. His daughter knew it very well. But out of shyness, or was it just stupid pride, he tried his best to hide his feelings in front of the queen of his heart. He wasn't sure of her feelings for him though... He wouldn't be surprised if she thought him a stupid old (-well not that old) man, too interested in girls to attend to the heart of his caring wife. He wasn't worth her interest. Yet... The only thing that annoyed him more about their separation than Ran trying to put them back together was the times when he missed her... When he missed her presence, her smart alec knack, her 'dreadful' cooking and the jokes they would make about it.
-Geez, alcohol does have a knack to make one moronic -_-
HATTORI Heiji and TOYAMA Kazuha were parked infront of the Mouri Detective Agency in Beika, debating what they were to do next...
"Hey! Come on Kazuha, don't you want to go and see Ran?"
"Heiji, it's 8AM ! Don't you think it's an unappropriate time to visit someone without warning?"
"It's Sunday, no school. I don't think they'll have planned anything important... Don't worry! I'm sure they won't mind!!!"
Hattori tugged at his childhood friend's arm and pulled her away from the rented motorbike. They had decided to visit their friends in Tokyo, not having seen them for a while. Not wanting Kudo to think he had wanted to talk to him about a case, he had decided not to call. Of course, Kazuha had thought until their arrival in the capital, that Heiji had done the necessary. That was until he mentioned expecting their surprised faces...
Toyama was now being dragged up the flight of stairs to the Mouri's apartment door, wanting to yell at her fool of a friend, but this one hushing her, walking backwards so she wouldn't escape his grip. He didn't see that there was already someone by the door behind him... He didn't expect this person to suddenly fall down the stairs beside them... Nor did he expect to hear angry shouts from above...
All that Kazuha saw of the stranger was a black cap and a long felt coat, blurred in the vision... She felt Heiji let go of her hand and rush up the stairs to the mad Kogoro who was still yelling at the visitor at the bottom of the stairs, who had recovered from a fall and decided to run for it.
Kazuha stopped staring down the stairs and returned to her friend's side.
"What happened?" she asked.
"Mouri-san says he was attacked." answered Heiji.
"Huh?!"
"I was busy (-we all know he was watching telly) in my office when the door bell rang. I went to answer it and that... that... That person came down on me with a knife! I managed to catch him and flung him down the stairs when you two arrived. The maniac!"
" 'Him' ? So it was a man. Do you know who it was?" asked Heiji in full detective mode.
"Haven't got the slightest clue. His face was hidden with sunglasses and a scarf. But it was definitively a man. Never mind that. What are you two doing here? Don't tell me you came all the way from Osaka to give us a surprise visit?"
"Precisely!^^" answered Heiji. Kazuha felt her cheeks redden with embarrasment. She decided to get on with this subject the quickest possible and be over with it.
"Where are Ran and the kid?"
"Ran is taking Conan and his friends to a show... Can't remember where... Well, you can't just stand there, come on in."
And Kogoro went ahead of them to tidy up his beer cans...
Mister Mouri was on the phone with Mister Shiratori. Apparently Megure was out on an investigation and couldn't investigate on Mouri's case. Infact, Mouri had thought of investigating on his own, without calling the police, but a stare from Heiji and Kazuha with a few sharp words had obliged him to do so.
"Thank you Mouri-san for calling. We'll try and contact Megure about this as soon as possible. Meanwhile we'll send you someone, just in case." Siratori seemed to be taking this very seriously, even though he doubted about the seriousness of this case in the back of his mind, who would attack a famous Detective openly at his home?
"Thanks." answered Kogoro, putting down the receiver.
"Right then, what's the plan?" asked Heiji, smiling at the moustachio'd man.
Kogoro shook his head. "I guess all we can do is wait for the police agent."
Heiji smiled, he had a much more interesting plan in mind.
"Kazuha?" His childhood friend nodded.
"I'll wait for the agent here, and answer the phone incase Ran calls."
"And you and I, Kogoro, are going to investigate!" added Hattori, grabbing Mouri's arm.
"What the?!"
"Don't forget your luckcharm Heiji!"
Heiji winked at Kazuha while leading Kogoro to the door.
--Time to investigate! --
Heiji and Kogoro had been asking round the street and in the Café underneath the agency if anyone had seen where the attacker had gone. Of course at 9 am on a Sunday morning, there were very few people about. They managed to get an indication from a middle-aged man who was doing his morning jog.
"A man with a black cap and a long coat? Hummm, let me see... I believe I saw him go into the café by the train station."
"In the café? Not in the train station itself?" asked Kogoro, surprised.
Heiji grinned when the man confirmed his story for Kogoro's ears. While they were running up to the station, Kogoro asked:
"How did you know he wasn't going to go straight for the train?"
"It's simple, a person with a thick coat, a black cap, scarf, sunglasses and gloves will certainly be noticed if he took the train, especially since we are in spring. And considering that he attacked such a well known detective as you at your agency, he could have been certain you’d follow his trail... And since he had no bag to put his coat and other things, he mustn't live far off, or he must have an accomplice in the café!"
"But what if he got changed in the Café and then took the train?"
"A person who comes in a café to change, especially when there isn't many people, is just as suspicious." And having said that, Heiji led Kogoro into the café opposite Beika station.
The "Beika café" was similar in appearance to the Poirot café below Mouri's agency, and once inside, they could see there was only six customers and the bar hostess.
"Hey?! Isn't that our sleeping Kogoro?" exclaimed the voice of a man in his late thirties. He was sitting to the right of our two detectives with another two men and a woman. Kogoro, startled, answered back: "Omura?! With Ayashiro and his wife... Hey, and there's Yamada! Long time no see. What are you all doing here?"
"We're having a cup of coffee, how about joining us?" replied Jun Omura. Omura, Ayashiro Yukio and his wife Noriko had all three been part of Kogoro's Judo club when they were in highschool, and the last time Kogoro had seen them all together had been in Tochigi, where a murder had taken place. (cf book 9)
While Mouri joined in to catch up with his old schoolmates, Hattori turned to face the bar hostess. After having acknowledged their arrival when they came in, she had sat back in her chair to read her book once she noticed they weren't intending to ask for a drink quite yet. Heiji had to address her three times before she realised he was talking to him. Obviously she was just filling in for the usual bartender just for the day.
"Excuse me, he said. Could you tell me if you had any other customers come in this morning?"
After hearing the young girl's explanation, Heiji thanked her and went back to Kogoro and his friends carrying a coffee and an Iced Tea.
--So, by what I've understood came in here this morning only the old lady by the window, and Kogoro's four friends. The bar hostess did notice a man heavily clad with a black cap coming in, but having been talking to Noriko Ayashiro, she's unable to tell me which of the three men at the table with Noriko was our suspect. It seems that when the other two men came in, she barely looked at them. No one leaved, or she would have heard the door bell. She's testified that the man in a thick coat did go to the toilet before sitting down with the other two.-- Heiji wondered why the culprit hadn't used a car to escape, when it would have been safer than coming to this café. How could the culprit believe Kogoro wouldn't find him here? With only three suspects, the case was as easy as if solved.
--This aggression is definitively weird...-- Heiji concluded.
Once he had reached the table, Kogoro quickly introduced the young kansai-jin to his old classmates, before continuing with what he was saying, in other words, talking about his aggression.
"What a sick joke..." commented Yamada Hajime.
"That's a terrible thing to happen, Kogoro." said Noriko Ayashiro, née Kimoto.
Her husband agreed. "I doubt the old lady over there would be able to help you, she's been engrossed in her newspaper ever since we arrived."
Omura Jun joined in "And I believe I came in after that Man did. I didn't see him inside though..."
Having passed Kogoro his cup of coffee, Hattori said:
"Have either of you three been to the toilet?" All three nodded saying that they had been there first thing when they came in.
Hattori cracked a smile, and added, blandly,
"Then the aggressor is undoubtedly one of you three."
Part two:"Conan’s side..."
14th February Around a year before Conan shrunk.
Shinichi stared at the card, slightly confused. Did it mean...? Or was he wrong...? Was this just someone else's lame idea of a joke...? No. He couldn't know. He couldn't know by just sitting there... But he didn't dare go and ask. What should he do? Fiddling with the envelope, he looked at it again and again, twisting it in all directions. His twinkling bue eyes clouded with uncertainty. The bell was about to announce the end of break. He turned his eyes toward the group of girls at the back of the classroom. Yes, Ran was glancing at him from time to time.
"What's this Kudo?! You wrote a valentine card?!"
Startled, Kudo Shinichi turned round to face his classmate.
"Huh?..."
"I wonder whose bag you'll hide it in!"he chuckled.
Shinichi stared vaguely at him, suddenly deep in thought... Slowly, a smile appeared on his face.--Yes!!! That's it! I know what I'm going to do.--
"KENAMI Tomoya! Go back to your seat at once, the lesson has started."
"Ah...(lllb) Oh, yes professor Torima!"
10th March Around midday.
And now, over a year later, Conan Edogawa was looking at that same card, full of the memories it gave him.
--I didn't think she had kept it, this card that I had found in my bag on Valentines day...-- His little blue eyes happy yet sad. It had been a long time since he and Ran had been in the same classroom. The last time he had been Shinichi, they didn't even have lessons, since they were tidying up after the school's celebrations. Yet, even now Conan was puzzled... Ran had been going through the drawers, having decided to tidy them up a bit. Conan had been helping, and when Ran had asked him to go and put the bin bag in the bin container, he had willingly done so. When he came back though, Ran was looking at this card, a sweet small smile on her face, and tears in her eyes...
"Oh Conan", she had said. "I've finished with the drawers." And wiping the tears from her eyes she had added, "It's just about lunchtime, I guess you must be hungry, I'll go get you and Dad some lunch."
**(Kogoro is still sleeping after a drunk night ~:p )**
Conan was really pondering hard over Ran's tears...
--It can't be SUCH a nice memory as THAT!-- He thought with his cute half moon eyes. He put down the card, stood up, he had been sitting cross-legged, and went to the kitchen where Ran was waiting, yelling at her father to get up.
--It just can't be...--
11th March 1 AM In a pharmaceutical Lab.
"No!!! No, no, no! Arg!" Natsue YASAMOTO was devastated. "All that work for nothing! It's all gone..." The twenty-nine year old chemist stared blankly at the screen of her computer. "Even the copy is worthless!"She added, throwing the cd-rom carelessly onto the working surface. She sighed, disappointed.
--How could this happen... How could this have happened???... Oh well...--She sighed.
"I guess I'll just have to ask Nadeshiko for the copy I lent her..."
The door creaked slightly open. Someone had entered the room... Natsue turned round. "Oh? It's you."She obviously knew this person, and invited him in with a wave of her hand. "What is it now? You are in a state..."Forgetting her worries for a short moment, and without even a daunting thought of what was going to happen, she carelessly closed the door behind her visitor, forgetting momentarily about the computing hitch... She didn't even stop to wonder whether she was going to live the night or not...
11th March 5 AM, on the way to Tibuya.
Hiroshi AGASA was in a hurry. He was late, in a rush and his hair in need of a brush. Not that he was usually this badly organised...
"Really Professor, couldn't you have at least remembered???" Haibara's little voice sounded reproachful.
"Oh! Give me a break Ai... It's bad enough without your comments."The professor was obviously not very proud of this last minute bother.
"Where are we off to then?"She asked, not seeming all that interested..."Oh and look! The sun isn't even up yet." It was five O'clock in the morning and she was wishing that she was still in her bed, sleeping peacefully. Yawning she awaited her elder's answer. Both of them had been working late in the night, and neither of them had expected to get up so early.
--If it hadn't been for that phone call... --She thought.
"We are going to see my friend Yoshi, who now works in a newly rebuilt lab in Tibuya." answered the professor, still having some difficulty to drive and stop yawning at the same time.
"A newly rebuilt lab in Tibuya?!>>Ai looked at the professor, slightly astonished, her green emerald* eyes curiously wide awake now. Hiroshi's were watering from the efforts he made to keep them open, and his hands moving swiftly on the wheel. Now that he was on the road he seemed to have calmed down, he wasn't panicking about being late anymore, just trying his best to get there the quickest possible... Obviously, what he had said hadn't wrung the same bell as it had for the little red-head beside him.
"Professor..."She started softly. "Do you not remember?..."
(*I just happen to see Ai with green eyes, -_^ hope you don't mind. What colour are they anyway?)
11th March 2 AM A pharmaceutical Lab.
... The person stood in waiting, eavesdropping on the noises from in the office, merely a shadow in the dark. His breathing was slow, profound, chilly, as he listened.
--How much longer must I wait?...--
Finally the door opened. The stranger grinned, a glimpse of folly in his eyes. The long-haired lady stayed a moment at the door looking towards the corridor that led to the main entry. The white of her lab-coat reflecting the light from the room behind her... She moved, as if slightly discomforted. The eavesdropper must have been staring too hard at her, for, surprised, the woman swiftly turned round. She stared blankly at the blackness of the corridor.
"A false impression?"She wondered out loud, her voice slightly trembling.
--Good.-- She hadn't spotted him.
"I shouldn't spend my nights here, it ends up unnerving. Especially since only a few months ago this place was a fuming pile of ash for no logical reason at all. I wonder what happened to the people that worked here then..." Talking to herself as if to reassure her that the silence was not her nemesis, she returned into the lightened office. In a determined voice she added, "Now, let me try and find all that vanishing~ information _without_ asking Nadeshiko for her copy... It must be here somewhere!"
At this the person in hiding stared angrily in her direction. Stealthily he approached the door... grinding his teeth in annoyance...
--I'm not going to let you find anything!!!--
11th March 6:10 On the way to Tibuya.
"What?!" Agasa stared at Ai in disbelief... "Then do you think...?"
"That the organisation is still working there? No professor, they are not that foolish." The professor had totally forgotten that the lab Sherry had been working in had been destroyed and used to be in Tibuya*. When the shrunken form of that former organisation member had reminded him of this, he nearly stalled the car.
"They wouldn't take such a risk as rebuilding it. I believe they sold the land to another pharmaceutical company. It's not really that surprising..." Haibara seemed calm, she even smiled slightly.
--I don't even think they would keep an eye out for me there!--
Hiroshi had now parked the car, totally oblivious to the fact that his friend might be waiting for him.
"How come?"He asked, still having difficulty grasping the idea.
"Well, even without the underground work of the organisation, when I was there, they still made a lot of money in that lab. It is quite a good location profit-wise in the pharmaceutical industry to tell you the truth. Your friend's company must have sought out it's potential. By the way..."She added, her eyes suddenly half mooned. "Isn't he still waiting for your arrival?"
Agasa stared at the young girl, questioning this last phrase, his eyes turning into little dots when he realized the truth of it.
"Oh no! You're right! We are already twenty minutes late!!!" In a hurry he went to push on the accelerator, forgetting that they were already in Tibuya, and that the so-called lab was just round the corner.(-lllb)
--Twenty minutes late at ten past six AM ?!--thought Ai.--Who is this Yoshi to give such impossible meeting times?!!--
(*This part is totally fictional. Tibuya is a suburb I invented for the purposes of the fic (having never set fot in Tokyo). I have no idea where Aoyama places Sherry's old lab... Do you?!)
11th March 6:15 In Tibuya.
Yoshi HAYASAKI looked at his watch. He wondered where his friend had got to... Earlier, uncertain whether he had got his message about the change of time for their meeting, he had called his friend's house half an hour before the expected time to remind him about it. The fifty-one year old professor frowned, Agasa was twenty-five minutes late. --What is that old fool doing now?--
"Ah! Agasa! At last, you're here."He said, suddenly noticing him. He smiled broadly, forgetting instantaneously the long wait.
"Oh, sorry Hayasaki. I was only expecting to go and see you at nine am. Your employers must be rather annoying changing your work table around on such short notice..."Agasa was puffing heavily, having run since the parking lot on the other side of the block. Yoshi wasn't very impressed. Curious, he asked:
"By the way, you said you would be coming with a child you were entrusted, where is he? Or is it a she?"
Startled, the professor looked round him... There was only him and Yoshi in the twilight-lit street. Yoshi had asked to meet him at the coffee shop, from which the Lab was out of site, but merely a few steps away... The shops all closed, the few neons gloomy... He looked up and down the way he had come from. No, no little red-haired girl on the street. Agasa started to feel extremely worried.
"You are right... Where is she!?"
11th March 6:15 In Tibuya.
HAIBARA Ai was in front of the lab itself. She was curious to see how they had rebuilt it. An ironic smile had formed itself when she saw the front part of it. Exactly the same as before... --No--, she thought. --Only the colour and the panel on the front have changed.--
In the reddening light of dawn, she had mistaken the white paint for the dull cream she could recall from the days where she would go there regularly. She had guessed right. It was the old lab where she had made the Apotoxin that had been rebuilt. The panel to her left now read "Negishi pharmaceutical laboratory, opening hours: .../..." The times had been left blank, showing that the company was still installing itself. Debris was lingering on the foot path. Obviously the 'rebuilding' wasn't totally finished yet. The breeze started to blow slightly harder, agitating the papers amongst the mess left by the builders and the flames. Having turned her head in that direction, her green eyes were stopped on a certain piece of paper. A piece of yellowing writing paper darkened by faded blue ink and soot. Slowly Ai approached. She picked up the pieces of the half-burnt letter, so to see it better in the lamplight, her eyes wide, her hands uncertain. "Dear Shiho Miyano..." She couldn't believe her eyes.
4th April 22:15 over a year before Shinichi was shrunk.
Sherry sat back on her office chair. Her work had progressed, but it was far from being finished. She sighed, looking at the list of complicated figures that were on her screen. She was uncertain of what this was all going to mound up to. The organisation had always been quite moody in their demands, but, when she came to think about it, she was too. She was 'contempt' though, they had easily accepted her weird demand to move to Japan over a year ago. Being here was lots better than had she stayed in the United States, not that she didn't like the country itself, no, it was this man, this man she had left behind... And of course, there was something else... She smiled, deciding she was allowed a short break, and pulled out an envelope from the drawer while sipping her coffee. She unfolded the paper inside. The folds were deep, she had visibly read it many times before. The letter read as followed:
"Dear Shiho Miyano,
how are you? It has been a long time, has it not? Do you still remember me? The ten year old who came to your sixth anniversary? The sixteen year old teenager who spent Christmas with you and the others at the pension four years ago? Yes, I am your sister Akemi, and I remember you well. It has been a while since I've heard from you, although, I hear you've just started working! And here I am, still at university... I've joined to this letter a disk with photos from our last school trip. Do send them back to me though, my teacher, professor Hirota, might want his disc back...
The reason I am writing has a lot to do with your work though... I hear that you are a chemist, just like mother and father were, and are now working for the company they were working for before the died in an accident, seventeen years ago. I believe it's they who tutored you... But there is one thing I would like to ask you. Are you happy working there? I know a little about your employers. After all, even though they had no say to my own education, they have been watching me... It's a pity you are in America though. I would have so loved to come and talk with you... Oh well, do write to me soon, and if ever you come to Japan, you know where to contact me!
Your loving sister,
Akemi Miyano."
Shiho Miyano stopped reading, daydreaming. She smiled recalling the day she had received this letter.
She was working in a dark, mysterious criminal organisation, which was very strict around who was able to know of it's existence. It was specialised in more than one things: blackmail, fraud, theft, murder... Mostly murder, and anything else as long as it could bring in money... It's members were varied. Her parents had been amongst them, before they had died in an explosion, so she had been told. She in turn had become a member, having been brought up by the Organisation.
She had then gone into her office, expecting an important letter (The post was delivered at work). She found it, and alongside it she noticed this envelop, addressed to her real name, in Japanese writing, with a stamp from Japan...
It had been a very pleasant surprise; she had forgotten the meaning of the word "relative" until then, having always thought herself alone in a world totally apart from her sister's. Oh, she remembered that young, smiling girl. She was very fond of her in fact.
When she had finished reading the letter, the first time, she wondered how come her sister had not been brought up by the organisation like she had. She then did some research, and discovered that her parents had precised in their will that if something happened to them, Akemi, their first daughter, would be in charge of a friend of theirs, Shiho was born after the will had been written, and so legally she had fallen to the hands of the organisation, even though not in the eye of the court.
Of course, Akemi having learnt to speak by that time, the organisation couldn't go without watching her, in case her parents had mentioned something "important" and secretive in front of her, and she repeated it...
Sherry sighed. Having finished her coffee she resumed her work. They would soon be able to make the medicine in physical form, and experiment it's effects. But Sherry's mind was miles away from the Chemical Formulas on her screen, her emerald eyes twinkling happily for once... --This Saturday,--she thought. --This Saturday I shall be seeing my sister, Akemi Miyano.--
But she knew though that they would be watching her, and Akemi. Watching out for any sign of her betraying them, any sign of her willing to lead a normal life...
11th March 6:30 In Tibuya.
Less than a year after, Shiho had learned her sister's death in that same office, from the mouth of a mocking colleague. Her rage was muffled, but it had been there. The words her sister had last said to her echoed in her mind as she reread this letter she had thought lost for ever... She had left it in her desk when she had fled from the lab, amongst the others her sister had sent her. It was a wonder she could still remember it's contence. In fact, it was a wonder she had escaped at all. Saved by the medecine her sister had asked her to stop making, what irony...
"Do you understand?! How many people died because of the medecin you made?!"
"I know... To make... A poison... Was not my intention..."
These sentences came all of a sudden to her mind. These sentences she and Conan had exchanged when she had revealed her real identity to him. What had been her intention?! She now had a sad look on her face. A look half way between self-pity and mourning. It was then she noticed a reflected spark of light from the lamposts. It came from a slightly opened metal box, a bit further off in the debris. Inside she could see the name Miyano, in black letters, written on the red cover of a small diary. She went and picked it out of the heat-deformed metallic container, and just as she was about to open it to examine it, she heard the professor Agasa's voice. Automatically, she hid it in her pocket, so the professor and his friend could not see it.
"Ai!!! What took you to go off alone like that? You got me worried sick there." said the professor. His friend, the presumed Yoshi seemed to find this pretty amusing.
"I'm allright Professor, I just thought that since you were going to go to the lab anyways, I would wait for you here. Is this your friend 'Yoshi'?"
"So this is the child you are taking custody of, Agasa?"
Hiroshi nodded in both directions, before beginning the presentations.
"Yes, this is Hayasaki Yoshi, Haibara Ai"
"Nice to meet you little Ai" Hayasaki extended his hand towards her.
"Same here."She answered, her face emotionless. So this was the man who had pulled her out of bed at five in the morning.
"By the way Professor Agasa, what shall we do about the others, we might not be back before they come and fetch me for the show? I have brought my bag incase but..."
"Oh, don't worry, I 'll try and call Ran and tell her that you are already in Tibuya, the show organised by the Suzuki company is only up the street. They'll just come and fetch you here instead." Hiroshi reassured her. Yoshi took on a sorry look, and added:
"Oh, I'm ever so sorry, by my fault your friends might be embarrassed..." Ai didn't really bother about the show. she ignored Yoshi. She wasn't very fond of this man. But it was true that she didn't want to bother the others with worry.
"Never mind Yoshi, you said there was something you wanted to show me?" questionned the professor.
"Well, yes... It's more likely Yasumoto who will show it to you though. Thinking you’d be interested I asked her if I could bring you to show it to. That's also why I asked you to come at such an indecent hour. Our employers have been playing with our time schedules, as you guessed earlier, and this is most likely the only hour me and her can get together."
The three of them entered the building, Hayasaki having keyed in the correct pin code. The inside of the building was dark and quiet. Yoshi turned the lights on.
"I think she didn't come to the coffee shop because she forgot the time." He said to Hiroshi. It was now six thirty AM. Hayasaki, while Agasa had been looking for Ai, had also waited for Natsue at the meeting point, keeping an eye out for a little seven year old girl. When they had found Haibara, they had had enough waiting, and Yoshi had then decided to comfort his worried friend with a hot drink inside the lab.
"Lately Yasumoto has been spending her nights in the office, she might not be awake yet." He added. Together, the three of them moved ahead in the silent corridors.
"What a maze you have here!" said Agasa, awed at the number of turn-offs they had passed.
"You think this place is one too?" answered Hayasaki. "Sometimes I believe it was a stupid idea to rebuild this place on the same plans as before. It's as if the builders had wanted to make this place a hide-out!"
--You're not all that wrong there.-- Thought Ai. --But I can't say it's such a maze as that...-- They turned another few corners and arrived in a corridor with three closed doors.
Yoshi approached the first one on the left and knocked, before calling out:
"Yasumoto-san! Hayasaki here. Are you awake yet?"
No answer came. Yoshi tried the door handle. To his surprise it was locked.
"The door's locked... She must be really deeply asleep."
"Couldn't she be out?"
"No, Hiroshi, she never locks the door when she's out of her office. Even when she goes away... In case one of us needs some of the information she keeps in her desk."
Agasa frowned, looking at his friend. Hayasaki really seemed to be worried. He wondered what could have happened to the woman that was supposedly on the other side of the door. He then noticed Haibara was looking down another passage way.
"Perhaps it's that man over there who locked the door..." said the little girl. "Look, he's got a big bunch of keys."
"Oh that's Shuji Kandori. He's the cleaner and caretaker. He knows that Yasamoto doesn't like her door to be locked... But we can always ask him to open the door for us!
-Hey Kandori!!!"
"Yes Hayasaki?" The thirty-two year old caretaker approached the small group. He was wearing jeans and an old jumper, carrying a big bunch of keys and a bag from which one could see bottles of detergent and some rags.
"And who are these people?" He asked, noticing Ai and the professor.
Yoshi answered him, politely, before getting to the point.
"What? Natsue's door is locked and you think you don't manage to wake her up? Ok, I'll open the door for you."
Shuji then fiddled with his bunch of keys and inserted one into the door. Slowly, he turned the handle and opened the door onto a scene that made Yoshi yell. In front of them, heaped up on the desk, infront of a lit computer lay motionless a young woman, her flesh pale and eyes wide open.....
11th March 7:20 In Beika.
"Ouahhh!" Genta stifled a yawn, his eyes watering. "Why do we need to get up this early on a sunday?!" He asked reproachfully. Conan and Mitsuhiko stared at him. Ayumi said nothing, it was Ran that answered the insolent demand...
"Oh come on Genta! You know very well that if we need to get up this early it is because the show starts at nine am and the only bus that will take us to Tibuya where the show is leaves in ten minutes! You even said you wanted to go by bus, when we could have nicely accepted professor Agasa’s offer to drive us there a bit later..." Ran and the detective Boys were in the second district of Beika, walking towards the professor's house. Genta frowned, blushing from shame, when he got Ran's point. Ayumi stopped, and looked at her watch in the lampost's light...
"Seven... twenty past seven... Do you think Haibara's up yet?" She wondered out loud.
"Yeah, sure! She's not like lazy Genta here is she?^^" answered Mitsuhiko, a bit too enthousiastically. Genta grunted. He didn't really approve that silly comment. Just as he was going to give Mitsuhiko a piece of his mind, Ran stopped him: "Oh boys, this is not a time to squabble!"They were at Agasa's door.
Conan lifted his hand up to ring the door-bell... The other three children waiting behind him. Ran was staring vaguely at the house beside.
"DDDRRRRRRIIIIING! DDDRRRRRIIIIING!"
No answer...
After a few minutes Conan tried again.
"DDDRRRRRRIIIIING! DDDRRRRRIIIIING!"
"That's weird..." It was obvious that there was no one there.
"Seems like they're not here!" exclaimed Conan.
"Hey! But Ai knew we were going to see Yaiba's show today. She knew we were going to fetch her here this morning..." Ayumi was visibly preoccupied and annoyed by this.
"I wonder what could have happened to her and the professor..." Mitsuhiko asked, worried.
Genta looked at him in a funny way...
"What?!"
"You wouldn't happen to be extremely worried about her, would you?" suggested the bigger seven-year old.
"Hey! What are you saying?!" yelled back the reddened freckled face.
--Here it goes again!--Thought Conan casually.
Ran looked at them curiously... --Worried?...-- Pensive, she took out her portable phone, looked at it. --Yes...-- she thought --I am worried... Shinichi,... what are you doing now?...--
"Hey guys, perhaps she and the professor just went to the show before us and are waiting for us there!" interrupted Ayumi cheerfully, all worry gone from her sweet face.
"Well, in any case we had better go there now with Sonoko's tickets or we'll miss it all together! Right Ran?" said Conan. Ran didn't react for a moment, causing Conan to wonder, with his cute face staring at her, what she was thinking of.
"Uh? Oh, yeah, right!" She finally responded, smiling reassuringly, and mindlessly putting her phone back in her purse."And we could allways try and call the professor there."
"...Sonoko?" asked Genta. "Isn't that that annoying brown haired girl you are always with?"
"Does that mean she'll be there too?!" Mitsuhiko's face was anxious. Obviously the detective boys weren't all that fond of the Suzuki friend of Ran's. Ran pretended not to notice. She then grinned, cheeckily. "Don't bother yourselves about that guys! She can't come anyway. Makoto is coming back to Japon for a few days and she'll be waiting for him at the airport." Ran seemed extremely pleased about this.
"That's good!!!"Ayumi was happy. She found it sweet that Sonoko would be waiting for her boyfriend.
"Well then, let's go gang! Or we'll not be able to catch our bus!"
Ran and the detective boys started racing down the avenue, unaware of what show they were really going to see. Knowing nothing about the change of plan that would happen upon their arrival in Tibuya.
11th March 8:00 In Tibuya.
Ran and the detective boys climbed off the train in the station that served Shibuya. Ayumi and the boys were now wide awake. It was eight O'clock. The show only starting at nine, they decided to take their time and started walking down the streets, the children's backpacks happily jumping around.
"Yeah! Yaiba, here we come!!!" shouted together the three children... Conan pulled on a much less convincing face. Ran giggled at Ayumi, Genta and Mitsuhiko's enthousiasm. --Really-- thought Conan. --To have to go and watch a kiddies show. Geez, and Haibara who's not here either. This promises to be tedious.-- The streets were starting to be full of people already. Ran led the children towards the road were the show took place... Suddenly, Conan stopped... "Hey! What's that? Isn't that inspector Megure?"
Ran and the kids stopped to look at the police cars all gathered up nearby. Yes, that was Juzo Megure, and Sato-san with Takagi. They seemed busy talking with a young man with glasses in a smart suit, a young women that seemed to be very distressed and two older men, with one of them ressembling very much...
"Professor Agasa?!"
Hisoshi turned round, a surprised look on his face.
"Ran?! Conan, Ayumi, Genta? Mitsuhiko?!" His worried look vanished when he saw them... To be replaced with a look of sorrow
"I'm so sorry Ran! I was going to call you to tell you that Ai and I were already in Shibuya, but with this case, I totally forgot."
"Never mind professor, we were going to call you if we had had no news..."
"Ai's here?!" exclaimed Ayumi, happily.
"Yes, she's inside with mister Kandori, ask miss Tsukishiro to guide you, I do think she'll need a cup of something..." answered the Professor... His face dull once more.
The distressed young lady made an effort with her composure, and gave a weak smile to the detective boys. "Call me Nadeshiko. This way..."
"What happened Professor?" Conan asked with a determined look after the other kids had gone. Ran waited with the little Tantei for the elder's answer.
"Well, I came to see my friend Yoshi this morning, with Ai. We were supposed to meet his colleague miss Yasumoto... And when, well, we opened her office door..."
"She was dead!" Continued the other old man. Conan supposed this was Yoshi, having, when he was still Shinichi, seen his photo at his neighbor's house.
"And you are?" asked politely Ran.
"Yoshi HAYASAKI"
"Ran? Conan? You too you're here?" intervened a surprised Takagi.
"What happened inspector?!" demanded Conan, feeling that this conversion was going a bit off track.
Takagi hesitated, levelling up Conan and Ran... Before finally stating:
"Oh well... I guess the best would be for you to see for yourselves...
Agasa and Hayasaki-san? Would you please stay with inspector Megure? He still has some questions for you... Follow me you two."
A police man was guarding the door. Haibara and Kandori were sitting on the convertible sofa in the room with the body... Kandori was trying hard not to look at it, he was very surprised by the intelligence and calmness of the young girl beside him though. She didn't seem very pleased by the fact they were in the same room as a dead corpse, but she was neither shocked nor overcurious. All she did she was ask a few questions and answer a few of his...
"So you say the last time you saw Natsue-san alive was eight O'clock last night?" she continued.
"Yeah... She seemed pretty tired, but said she still had some work to do, and would be too tired to go to her apartment. Poor soul, she lost her parent's and her only brother in an accident 6 months ago... Ever since she has been working overtime every other night. But she was a strong girl. We used to live in the same street when we were kids..." he answered.
"..."
"I still can't understand what has happened to her... It looks like a suicide and all but... I just can't figure it out! She seemed to have gotten over her family's death, and she was getting very good results when it came to checking the company's products."...
Kandori stopped talking, and for the first time since he had come into the room, he looked at his dead friend's body willingly. He sighed.
Haibara stood up and approached Natsue... Shuji Kandori stared at her, wondering what she was up to.
--The pathologist said the cause of death was apparently the ingestion of some toxic chemicals she could have easily found in the neighbouring lab... Theory confirmed by the presence of the container beside her...-- Ai frowned looking over the dead body's shoulder.
--That's strange...--
The body of Natsue YASUMOTO, when found, and still now, since no-one had moved it since it's discovery, was hunched up on the desk, eyes wide open, and mouth gaping, looking towards the note under her right hand, which still held a pen. On the note, a piece of paper torn from a notepad nearby, could be read in trembling handwriting:
"Do not be harsh on me. I have made my decision, I am willingly leaving this world, where there is nothing left for me. It's just too hard for me to go on..."
There was definitely something wrong. Just beside the note, Ai noticed a photo frame, where the victim could be seen playing tennis, hitting a ball with a racket she held in her left hand.
--Definitely strange!--
"Hey, Kandori-san! Are you sure this is Yasumoto's handwriting?"
"What do you mean?"
"Well, she's supposed to have written it with her right-hand.. But wasn't she left-handed?"
"Huh?"
"Also, isn't it weird that she's still holding the pen on top of the paper if it seems more logical that she wrote the note before she had poison?"
Shuji KANDORI looked at the young girl. Yes, she was right, he had understood what she had said meant...
THERE HAD BEEN A MURDER!
The criminal leaned back on the wall. Those police officers... He didn't like them, not a bit... But if he didn't want them to know what had happened, he had to hide that fact... All wasn't going as he had wished, he had neglected the fact that Yasumoto had been left-handed, he had also overdone his coverage.
--We're going to have to play it tight, my friend! -- he thought.
--But it is a good thing that I took this off her hand before leaving! This would have been a real give away! --
"Teeheehee..." Quickly, he muffled his laugh... It wasn't time for him to show a strange attitude, after all, there was death floating around, laughter would be deeply out of place. Smiling, he thought:
--And with a bit of luck, the fool who gave this to the young Natsue will give himself away as the prime suspect number one.--
The murderer's evil glare sparckled as he looked at the engagement ring he had taken out of his pocket. He was confident.
He was confident that his wrong would _never_ be rightened.
Ai continued searching around the office for something relevent. It was rare for her to wish to investigate a murder, but somehow, she couldn't but help feeling concerned, after all... This office had exactly the same situation as her's had had before the lab had been destroyed. she looked up at the computer screen. On it was displayed the formula of one of the Negishi products for migraines. Curiosity and nostalgie of the time where she would do it there everyday, she read down the formula from top to bottom...
"Huh?!"
"Haibara!!!"
Suddenly distracted by Ayumi's voice, Ai turned round to look, astonished, at the detective boys.
"What are you doing here?!" She asked, eyes staring full of surprise at the three kids.
"We were going to the Yaiba show when we noticed the professor in front of the building." Answered Mitsuhiko.
"Hey, what's that smell?" wondered Genta after having sniffed the air once or twice. He approached the desk where Haibara was, and noticed the body.
"Ah! But that's a dead person!!!" he yelled.
"Come on, didn't you guess that if Megure was here it was because of this?" answered Haibara with half moon eyes. "How did ou manage to find me? This place is a real maze ( --if you haven't been here often-- she added in thought)."
"Miss Nadeshiko brought us here." explained Ayumi.
"But she went off after she saw, humm, Mister Kandori, to go and see inspector Meguri. So this is Natsue Yasumoto?" went on Mitsuhiko.
All three kids seemed extremely pained for the dead person... Deep inside, Ai felt touched. These were such nice kids. She decided to do her best to cheer them up.
"Hey, come on. I've got some of the things you asked Agasa to fix for you in my bag in the next room!"
Conan and Ran were led by Takagi towards the office, the investigator explaining the facts to the teenager and young boy.
--Considering the disposition of these corridors, the murderer is certainly an insider...-- thought the shrinked form of Shinichi Kudo. --The poison used is pretty known, so even someone without much knowledge in chemical products could have used it, and the time of the murder seems to be around two a.m. by what Takagi said. The door is opened using a pincode... If the murderer had a friend in the lab who told him the code, or if they effectively worked in the lab which seems more plausible, they could have come in at any hour...--
Conan's sweet face was deep in thought.. Ran peered down at the little tantei. She grinned. The child was too preoccupied with this murder to notice his surroundings. By what mister Kandori and miss Tsukishiro said, it had effectively been a murder, and not suicide. She sighed. Strangely enough, she wondered at how busy her and her father's life had become since Edogawa's arrival. There had been a time when murder was a rarety she hoped never to meet. Her only recomfort when ever there was death in her proximity was the thought of Shinichi. The strong and unshakable friend, on who she could count on and who was a stronghold whenever mystery flew by... She still didn't know really why everytime she saw Conan in thought she remembered the high school detective, but it was just the case. At one time she had thought that Conan was Kudo. Reality had well contradicted her... But it didn't stop her from still thinking it deep down.
The two arrived at a turning point. Hesitating, Ran looked round. Takagi had left them with Shuji and Nadeshiko to see the inspecteur, telling them which turns to take.
"We're supposed to go right Conan, right?" she asked.
No answer came...
"Hey! Where has he gone?!" she turned round. That over curious kid had vanished once more, leaving her alone.
--Oh no!--
Suddenly, she spotted the detective boys...
Inspector Megure was in full investigation mode. Turn by turn he had questionned the deceased Yasumoto's best friend, Nadeshiko Tsukishiro, two of the people who had discovered the body, in this case professor Agasa and his old school mate Hayasaki, and was now interrogating the financial representative and patron of the lab (momentarily), Kazumi MOMUCHI, 22 year old, who claims, at the believed hour of death, to have been asleep in his apartment.
During that time Sato was making sure that all the usual procedures, fingerprints, surveillance cameras, double checking of the alibis and backgrounds, was being properly done, and Takagi had was questioning Shuji KANDORI, the caretaker, and the young Ai HAIBARA, who had discovered the body with the 2 professors, and given the evidence that, with Nadeshiko's claim that Natsue was excitedly expecting to celebrate a surprise birthday party for one of her other friends, corrobated the murder theory.
"Right then mister Momuchi, so you see no reason why, whatsoever, someone would attempt to miss Yasumoto's life?"
"No, no inspector, none. But I do say that there would be some people pretty unpleased with her..."
"Like?" asked Juzo.
"Well me of course, to begin with, I've been having difficulty imposing a work schedule to suit everybody, and Yasumoto's impossible hours weren't helping me a bit."
--Difficulty???-- thought Megure. --By what the others said, it's more than that!--
"But I dare say that's not a sufficient for such a crime, however disguised." continued Kazumi.
"Effectively... Any one else?"
"Well... I am not too certain, but I believe she has this male friend of hers who often comes to the lab... What's his name already?"
"Could it be this MIZUKI Takashi that Nadeshiko Tsukishiro mentioned earlier?"
"Yes that's him! I believe he had a crush on her, and could have been extremely disappointed by Natsue's apparent lack of feelings towards him..."
"Yet it seems the victim appreciated him enough to organise a surprise birthday celebration for him next week. How would you explain that?"
"I am only saying what I think, after all, I did not know the victim and her friends personally. Have you finished inspector?"
"Yes, that will do for the moment... But I still wish for you to stay in the lab's surroundings until the first investigations are over."
"Thank you. I do wish you will discover the culprit rapidly. This case is not going to help me with my work, and certainly not with this lab's already tarnished reputation..." Momuchi smiled at the inspector, before leaving the interrogation room to go and work in his office. If he was an actor, he was a very good one... So were all the other suspects.
" A tarnished reputation?" asked Juzo MEGURE to one of his men in the room with him.
" Lately many of the medicines produced by this company have been reviewed because of annoying and unnecessary second effects. I believe mister Momuchi believes the demonstration of the lab's errors is a nuisance for it's progression."
"And of course, it's on these same medecins that Yasumoto was discovered working on when found dead."
It was time for Megure and his investigators to get together and start the elimination process.
--Geez... This ain't going to be easy! --
Conan had understood how the crime had been perpetrated, but the problem was he couldn't tell who by...
All that had caught his eye was the oddity of an empty ring box in the bin beside the victim (who had now been transported to the morgue), and the abscence of it's contence.
He had now decided to go and interrogate the four main suspects:
"Hey! Hayasaki-san!"
"Humm? Yes? Er, your name's Conan right?"
"Could you tell me if Yasumoto-san had any fights lately with anyone?"
Yoshi looked at the little tantei.
"You want to investigate too huh? ^^" He patted his head. Conan really didn't appreciate that, but was happy to hear what followed.
"Well, everyone knows that the boss Momuchi and she couldn't stand each other! He kept telling her to stop her work on our earlier products and move on to something new, and she wouldn't hear of it. `Someone's been hiding something about those products` she would say, `and I'm determined to find out what!`"
"Hiding something?" Conan's face was perplexed. Deep inside, he noted that he had felt the tingle of a clue.
"Yeah... But she was very secretive about what it was about... She kept saying she needed to find the missing link, the missing molecule. But hey, she was a proper chemist, so we all thought she could figure it out by herself."
"To say that she didn't even feel she could explain it to me..."
Nadeshiko's pale lip was trembling. You could see she was still having difficulty getting over her friend's death.
"Now, now, Tsukishiro-san, the police are doing all they can to find the culprit."
"I know. I know." she sobbed. "I know."
Conan looked sadly up at the young woman. --We'll get him, don't worry. --
"HEY!!! Is it true???!!! I can't believe it! Nooo! Natsue can't be dead!?"
"MIZUKI?!" both Yoshi and Nadeshiko turned to face the new arrival.
Conan looked up at the young man.
He was a twenty-seven year old with short yet brilliant ebony hair, and almond-shaped eyes, now filled with tears and wrath. His frame seemed fragile, and his face was very expressive, with a tendancy for a downfallen look. The young Edogawa could see immediately that he was infact a very skilled vet.
"It's sadly the truth Takashi..." said the diminished Nadeshiko.
"I need to see the inspector, I was with her at 1 am and she seemed fine!"
Without waiting for any directions he ran off towards an officer and asked him to show him to Megure.
"...
Who's he?!" asked Conan.
"Mizuki Takashi, one of my and Natsue's best friends. it's his birthday next week and we had been preparing a surprise party to celebrate... But with this death..." Tsukishiro stopped, she couldn't go on... Yoshi put a supporting hand on her shoulder.
"Go and have a lay-down on the sofa in my office. We all need a rest."
--Wait... wait... Earlier when I was eavesdropping on the interrogations led by Megure... Yes! That person must have something to do with it. --
Conan looked up at Yoshi and Nadeshiko while they were leaving. Conan no longer had any doubts. All he needed now to find was proof, and he had his own idea of where he was going to find that.
--HIATUSED.
This isn't the original version. The link on the site is dead and I can't find it on the wayback machine. It has been edited and rearranged since, and maybe even continued... It's still a WIP though, and hasn't been touched for a couple of years either.
Beware the newbie writer nish.
Conan Fanfic: Memories
Warning:This is a detective Conan fanfic, as is written, it is done by a fan and promises to be a bit more "disastrous" than the legal owners of the characters would have normally allowed(^^p). In other words, I claim these rights in no way whatsoever. Although I am not very confident in my writing ability, I wish those brave enough to risk the adventure, a pleasant read, since I am hoping to improve my skills through writing this fiction... Oh, and by the way, please excuse any spelling grammar or vocabulary mistakes ;p I also need to work on those...
Part one:"Heiji’s side..."
11th March 7:40 At the Detective Mouri’s agency.
Kogoro MOURI was sitting at his desk, as usual, watching the television. Ran and Conan had gone out for the day. He was wondering how he could profit from this situation... But as ideas each one madder than the next purchased each other in his mind, the most he did was decide to watch Yoko OKINO's last concert, which was being reaired. Once again, while starring at the young singer, he wondered... He wondered about the famous detective "sleeping Mouri". The case he had solved, with the suicide of Okino's former boy friend so long ago, had been the first of many cases he COULDN'T remember solving. At the beginning he hadn't given much thought to these memory lapses. After all, they were infact helping him lead a descent life. But then, his sleeping attacks had become so frequent, that even he began to wonder...
Why was it that he always suddenly understood everything in each case he solved? Why was it that each time his convictions until those precise moments had been so off track? And why was it that he couldn't ever recall his resolution acts? So many questions for so little answers... He didn't have a clue.
Sipping his beer he tried to saddle off his worries by listening to the songs on the tv. Soon the concert rediffusion was over. And other songs were aired. Slowly dozing off from the soothing sound and alcohol, he suddenly jerked up when he heard the song that then came on.
"That song..." he whispered to himself. It was a song that dated back twenty years. He remembered it well. It was the first song he had ever asked to dance with Eri on. How young he had been in those days. How beautiful Eri had been, and still was in fact. He smiled, remembering the times they had had together, and pulled a sad face remembering that those days were now long gone. What a fool he was to have let that woman go. It was true, he loved her. His daughter knew it very well. But out of shyness, or was it just stupid pride, he tried his best to hide his feelings in front of the queen of his heart. He wasn't sure of her feelings for him though... He wouldn't be surprised if she thought him a stupid old (-well not that old) man, too interested in girls to attend to the heart of his caring wife. He wasn't worth her interest. Yet... The only thing that annoyed him more about their separation than Ran trying to put them back together was the times when he missed her... When he missed her presence, her smart alec knack, her 'dreadful' cooking and the jokes they would make about it.
-Geez, alcohol does have a knack to make one moronic -_-
HATTORI Heiji and TOYAMA Kazuha were parked infront of the Mouri Detective Agency in Beika, debating what they were to do next...
"Hey! Come on Kazuha, don't you want to go and see Ran?"
"Heiji, it's 8AM ! Don't you think it's an unappropriate time to visit someone without warning?"
"It's Sunday, no school. I don't think they'll have planned anything important... Don't worry! I'm sure they won't mind!!!"
Hattori tugged at his childhood friend's arm and pulled her away from the rented motorbike. They had decided to visit their friends in Tokyo, not having seen them for a while. Not wanting Kudo to think he had wanted to talk to him about a case, he had decided not to call. Of course, Kazuha had thought until their arrival in the capital, that Heiji had done the necessary. That was until he mentioned expecting their surprised faces...
Toyama was now being dragged up the flight of stairs to the Mouri's apartment door, wanting to yell at her fool of a friend, but this one hushing her, walking backwards so she wouldn't escape his grip. He didn't see that there was already someone by the door behind him... He didn't expect this person to suddenly fall down the stairs beside them... Nor did he expect to hear angry shouts from above...
All that Kazuha saw of the stranger was a black cap and a long felt coat, blurred in the vision... She felt Heiji let go of her hand and rush up the stairs to the mad Kogoro who was still yelling at the visitor at the bottom of the stairs, who had recovered from a fall and decided to run for it.
Kazuha stopped staring down the stairs and returned to her friend's side.
"What happened?" she asked.
"Mouri-san says he was attacked." answered Heiji.
"Huh?!"
"I was busy (-we all know he was watching telly) in my office when the door bell rang. I went to answer it and that... that... That person came down on me with a knife! I managed to catch him and flung him down the stairs when you two arrived. The maniac!"
" 'Him' ? So it was a man. Do you know who it was?" asked Heiji in full detective mode.
"Haven't got the slightest clue. His face was hidden with sunglasses and a scarf. But it was definitively a man. Never mind that. What are you two doing here? Don't tell me you came all the way from Osaka to give us a surprise visit?"
"Precisely!^^" answered Heiji. Kazuha felt her cheeks redden with embarrasment. She decided to get on with this subject the quickest possible and be over with it.
"Where are Ran and the kid?"
"Ran is taking Conan and his friends to a show... Can't remember where... Well, you can't just stand there, come on in."
And Kogoro went ahead of them to tidy up his beer cans...
Mister Mouri was on the phone with Mister Shiratori. Apparently Megure was out on an investigation and couldn't investigate on Mouri's case. Infact, Mouri had thought of investigating on his own, without calling the police, but a stare from Heiji and Kazuha with a few sharp words had obliged him to do so.
"Thank you Mouri-san for calling. We'll try and contact Megure about this as soon as possible. Meanwhile we'll send you someone, just in case." Siratori seemed to be taking this very seriously, even though he doubted about the seriousness of this case in the back of his mind, who would attack a famous Detective openly at his home?
"Thanks." answered Kogoro, putting down the receiver.
"Right then, what's the plan?" asked Heiji, smiling at the moustachio'd man.
Kogoro shook his head. "I guess all we can do is wait for the police agent."
Heiji smiled, he had a much more interesting plan in mind.
"Kazuha?" His childhood friend nodded.
"I'll wait for the agent here, and answer the phone incase Ran calls."
"And you and I, Kogoro, are going to investigate!" added Hattori, grabbing Mouri's arm.
"What the?!"
"Don't forget your luckcharm Heiji!"
Heiji winked at Kazuha while leading Kogoro to the door.
--Time to investigate! --
Heiji and Kogoro had been asking round the street and in the Café underneath the agency if anyone had seen where the attacker had gone. Of course at 9 am on a Sunday morning, there were very few people about. They managed to get an indication from a middle-aged man who was doing his morning jog.
"A man with a black cap and a long coat? Hummm, let me see... I believe I saw him go into the café by the train station."
"In the café? Not in the train station itself?" asked Kogoro, surprised.
Heiji grinned when the man confirmed his story for Kogoro's ears. While they were running up to the station, Kogoro asked:
"How did you know he wasn't going to go straight for the train?"
"It's simple, a person with a thick coat, a black cap, scarf, sunglasses and gloves will certainly be noticed if he took the train, especially since we are in spring. And considering that he attacked such a well known detective as you at your agency, he could have been certain you’d follow his trail... And since he had no bag to put his coat and other things, he mustn't live far off, or he must have an accomplice in the café!"
"But what if he got changed in the Café and then took the train?"
"A person who comes in a café to change, especially when there isn't many people, is just as suspicious." And having said that, Heiji led Kogoro into the café opposite Beika station.
The "Beika café" was similar in appearance to the Poirot café below Mouri's agency, and once inside, they could see there was only six customers and the bar hostess.
"Hey?! Isn't that our sleeping Kogoro?" exclaimed the voice of a man in his late thirties. He was sitting to the right of our two detectives with another two men and a woman. Kogoro, startled, answered back: "Omura?! With Ayashiro and his wife... Hey, and there's Yamada! Long time no see. What are you all doing here?"
"We're having a cup of coffee, how about joining us?" replied Jun Omura. Omura, Ayashiro Yukio and his wife Noriko had all three been part of Kogoro's Judo club when they were in highschool, and the last time Kogoro had seen them all together had been in Tochigi, where a murder had taken place. (cf book 9)
While Mouri joined in to catch up with his old schoolmates, Hattori turned to face the bar hostess. After having acknowledged their arrival when they came in, she had sat back in her chair to read her book once she noticed they weren't intending to ask for a drink quite yet. Heiji had to address her three times before she realised he was talking to him. Obviously she was just filling in for the usual bartender just for the day.
"Excuse me, he said. Could you tell me if you had any other customers come in this morning?"
After hearing the young girl's explanation, Heiji thanked her and went back to Kogoro and his friends carrying a coffee and an Iced Tea.
--So, by what I've understood came in here this morning only the old lady by the window, and Kogoro's four friends. The bar hostess did notice a man heavily clad with a black cap coming in, but having been talking to Noriko Ayashiro, she's unable to tell me which of the three men at the table with Noriko was our suspect. It seems that when the other two men came in, she barely looked at them. No one leaved, or she would have heard the door bell. She's testified that the man in a thick coat did go to the toilet before sitting down with the other two.-- Heiji wondered why the culprit hadn't used a car to escape, when it would have been safer than coming to this café. How could the culprit believe Kogoro wouldn't find him here? With only three suspects, the case was as easy as if solved.
--This aggression is definitively weird...-- Heiji concluded.
Once he had reached the table, Kogoro quickly introduced the young kansai-jin to his old classmates, before continuing with what he was saying, in other words, talking about his aggression.
"What a sick joke..." commented Yamada Hajime.
"That's a terrible thing to happen, Kogoro." said Noriko Ayashiro, née Kimoto.
Her husband agreed. "I doubt the old lady over there would be able to help you, she's been engrossed in her newspaper ever since we arrived."
Omura Jun joined in "And I believe I came in after that Man did. I didn't see him inside though..."
Having passed Kogoro his cup of coffee, Hattori said:
"Have either of you three been to the toilet?" All three nodded saying that they had been there first thing when they came in.
Hattori cracked a smile, and added, blandly,
"Then the aggressor is undoubtedly one of you three."
Part two:"Conan’s side..."
14th February Around a year before Conan shrunk.
Shinichi stared at the card, slightly confused. Did it mean...? Or was he wrong...? Was this just someone else's lame idea of a joke...? No. He couldn't know. He couldn't know by just sitting there... But he didn't dare go and ask. What should he do? Fiddling with the envelope, he looked at it again and again, twisting it in all directions. His twinkling bue eyes clouded with uncertainty. The bell was about to announce the end of break. He turned his eyes toward the group of girls at the back of the classroom. Yes, Ran was glancing at him from time to time.
"What's this Kudo?! You wrote a valentine card?!"
Startled, Kudo Shinichi turned round to face his classmate.
"Huh?..."
"I wonder whose bag you'll hide it in!"he chuckled.
Shinichi stared vaguely at him, suddenly deep in thought... Slowly, a smile appeared on his face.--Yes!!! That's it! I know what I'm going to do.--
"KENAMI Tomoya! Go back to your seat at once, the lesson has started."
"Ah...(lllb) Oh, yes professor Torima!"
10th March Around midday.
And now, over a year later, Conan Edogawa was looking at that same card, full of the memories it gave him.
--I didn't think she had kept it, this card that I had found in my bag on Valentines day...-- His little blue eyes happy yet sad. It had been a long time since he and Ran had been in the same classroom. The last time he had been Shinichi, they didn't even have lessons, since they were tidying up after the school's celebrations. Yet, even now Conan was puzzled... Ran had been going through the drawers, having decided to tidy them up a bit. Conan had been helping, and when Ran had asked him to go and put the bin bag in the bin container, he had willingly done so. When he came back though, Ran was looking at this card, a sweet small smile on her face, and tears in her eyes...
"Oh Conan", she had said. "I've finished with the drawers." And wiping the tears from her eyes she had added, "It's just about lunchtime, I guess you must be hungry, I'll go get you and Dad some lunch."
**(Kogoro is still sleeping after a drunk night ~:p )**
Conan was really pondering hard over Ran's tears...
--It can't be SUCH a nice memory as THAT!-- He thought with his cute half moon eyes. He put down the card, stood up, he had been sitting cross-legged, and went to the kitchen where Ran was waiting, yelling at her father to get up.
--It just can't be...--
11th March 1 AM In a pharmaceutical Lab.
"No!!! No, no, no! Arg!" Natsue YASAMOTO was devastated. "All that work for nothing! It's all gone..." The twenty-nine year old chemist stared blankly at the screen of her computer. "Even the copy is worthless!"She added, throwing the cd-rom carelessly onto the working surface. She sighed, disappointed.
--How could this happen... How could this have happened???... Oh well...--She sighed.
"I guess I'll just have to ask Nadeshiko for the copy I lent her..."
The door creaked slightly open. Someone had entered the room... Natsue turned round. "Oh? It's you."She obviously knew this person, and invited him in with a wave of her hand. "What is it now? You are in a state..."Forgetting her worries for a short moment, and without even a daunting thought of what was going to happen, she carelessly closed the door behind her visitor, forgetting momentarily about the computing hitch... She didn't even stop to wonder whether she was going to live the night or not...
11th March 5 AM, on the way to Tibuya.
Hiroshi AGASA was in a hurry. He was late, in a rush and his hair in need of a brush. Not that he was usually this badly organised...
"Really Professor, couldn't you have at least remembered???" Haibara's little voice sounded reproachful.
"Oh! Give me a break Ai... It's bad enough without your comments."The professor was obviously not very proud of this last minute bother.
"Where are we off to then?"She asked, not seeming all that interested..."Oh and look! The sun isn't even up yet." It was five O'clock in the morning and she was wishing that she was still in her bed, sleeping peacefully. Yawning she awaited her elder's answer. Both of them had been working late in the night, and neither of them had expected to get up so early.
--If it hadn't been for that phone call... --She thought.
"We are going to see my friend Yoshi, who now works in a newly rebuilt lab in Tibuya." answered the professor, still having some difficulty to drive and stop yawning at the same time.
"A newly rebuilt lab in Tibuya?!>>Ai looked at the professor, slightly astonished, her green emerald* eyes curiously wide awake now. Hiroshi's were watering from the efforts he made to keep them open, and his hands moving swiftly on the wheel. Now that he was on the road he seemed to have calmed down, he wasn't panicking about being late anymore, just trying his best to get there the quickest possible... Obviously, what he had said hadn't wrung the same bell as it had for the little red-head beside him.
"Professor..."She started softly. "Do you not remember?..."
(*I just happen to see Ai with green eyes, -_^ hope you don't mind. What colour are they anyway?)
11th March 2 AM A pharmaceutical Lab.
... The person stood in waiting, eavesdropping on the noises from in the office, merely a shadow in the dark. His breathing was slow, profound, chilly, as he listened.
--How much longer must I wait?...--
Finally the door opened. The stranger grinned, a glimpse of folly in his eyes. The long-haired lady stayed a moment at the door looking towards the corridor that led to the main entry. The white of her lab-coat reflecting the light from the room behind her... She moved, as if slightly discomforted. The eavesdropper must have been staring too hard at her, for, surprised, the woman swiftly turned round. She stared blankly at the blackness of the corridor.
"A false impression?"She wondered out loud, her voice slightly trembling.
--Good.-- She hadn't spotted him.
"I shouldn't spend my nights here, it ends up unnerving. Especially since only a few months ago this place was a fuming pile of ash for no logical reason at all. I wonder what happened to the people that worked here then..." Talking to herself as if to reassure her that the silence was not her nemesis, she returned into the lightened office. In a determined voice she added, "Now, let me try and find all that vanishing~ information _without_ asking Nadeshiko for her copy... It must be here somewhere!"
At this the person in hiding stared angrily in her direction. Stealthily he approached the door... grinding his teeth in annoyance...
--I'm not going to let you find anything!!!--
11th March 6:10 On the way to Tibuya.
"What?!" Agasa stared at Ai in disbelief... "Then do you think...?"
"That the organisation is still working there? No professor, they are not that foolish." The professor had totally forgotten that the lab Sherry had been working in had been destroyed and used to be in Tibuya*. When the shrunken form of that former organisation member had reminded him of this, he nearly stalled the car.
"They wouldn't take such a risk as rebuilding it. I believe they sold the land to another pharmaceutical company. It's not really that surprising..." Haibara seemed calm, she even smiled slightly.
--I don't even think they would keep an eye out for me there!--
Hiroshi had now parked the car, totally oblivious to the fact that his friend might be waiting for him.
"How come?"He asked, still having difficulty grasping the idea.
"Well, even without the underground work of the organisation, when I was there, they still made a lot of money in that lab. It is quite a good location profit-wise in the pharmaceutical industry to tell you the truth. Your friend's company must have sought out it's potential. By the way..."She added, her eyes suddenly half mooned. "Isn't he still waiting for your arrival?"
Agasa stared at the young girl, questioning this last phrase, his eyes turning into little dots when he realized the truth of it.
"Oh no! You're right! We are already twenty minutes late!!!" In a hurry he went to push on the accelerator, forgetting that they were already in Tibuya, and that the so-called lab was just round the corner.(-lllb)
--Twenty minutes late at ten past six AM ?!--thought Ai.--Who is this Yoshi to give such impossible meeting times?!!--
(*This part is totally fictional. Tibuya is a suburb I invented for the purposes of the fic (having never set fot in Tokyo). I have no idea where Aoyama places Sherry's old lab... Do you?!)
11th March 6:15 In Tibuya.
Yoshi HAYASAKI looked at his watch. He wondered where his friend had got to... Earlier, uncertain whether he had got his message about the change of time for their meeting, he had called his friend's house half an hour before the expected time to remind him about it. The fifty-one year old professor frowned, Agasa was twenty-five minutes late. --What is that old fool doing now?--
"Ah! Agasa! At last, you're here."He said, suddenly noticing him. He smiled broadly, forgetting instantaneously the long wait.
"Oh, sorry Hayasaki. I was only expecting to go and see you at nine am. Your employers must be rather annoying changing your work table around on such short notice..."Agasa was puffing heavily, having run since the parking lot on the other side of the block. Yoshi wasn't very impressed. Curious, he asked:
"By the way, you said you would be coming with a child you were entrusted, where is he? Or is it a she?"
Startled, the professor looked round him... There was only him and Yoshi in the twilight-lit street. Yoshi had asked to meet him at the coffee shop, from which the Lab was out of site, but merely a few steps away... The shops all closed, the few neons gloomy... He looked up and down the way he had come from. No, no little red-haired girl on the street. Agasa started to feel extremely worried.
"You are right... Where is she!?"
11th March 6:15 In Tibuya.
HAIBARA Ai was in front of the lab itself. She was curious to see how they had rebuilt it. An ironic smile had formed itself when she saw the front part of it. Exactly the same as before... --No--, she thought. --Only the colour and the panel on the front have changed.--
In the reddening light of dawn, she had mistaken the white paint for the dull cream she could recall from the days where she would go there regularly. She had guessed right. It was the old lab where she had made the Apotoxin that had been rebuilt. The panel to her left now read "Negishi pharmaceutical laboratory, opening hours: .../..." The times had been left blank, showing that the company was still installing itself. Debris was lingering on the foot path. Obviously the 'rebuilding' wasn't totally finished yet. The breeze started to blow slightly harder, agitating the papers amongst the mess left by the builders and the flames. Having turned her head in that direction, her green eyes were stopped on a certain piece of paper. A piece of yellowing writing paper darkened by faded blue ink and soot. Slowly Ai approached. She picked up the pieces of the half-burnt letter, so to see it better in the lamplight, her eyes wide, her hands uncertain. "Dear Shiho Miyano..." She couldn't believe her eyes.
4th April 22:15 over a year before Shinichi was shrunk.
Sherry sat back on her office chair. Her work had progressed, but it was far from being finished. She sighed, looking at the list of complicated figures that were on her screen. She was uncertain of what this was all going to mound up to. The organisation had always been quite moody in their demands, but, when she came to think about it, she was too. She was 'contempt' though, they had easily accepted her weird demand to move to Japan over a year ago. Being here was lots better than had she stayed in the United States, not that she didn't like the country itself, no, it was this man, this man she had left behind... And of course, there was something else... She smiled, deciding she was allowed a short break, and pulled out an envelope from the drawer while sipping her coffee. She unfolded the paper inside. The folds were deep, she had visibly read it many times before. The letter read as followed:
"Dear Shiho Miyano,
how are you? It has been a long time, has it not? Do you still remember me? The ten year old who came to your sixth anniversary? The sixteen year old teenager who spent Christmas with you and the others at the pension four years ago? Yes, I am your sister Akemi, and I remember you well. It has been a while since I've heard from you, although, I hear you've just started working! And here I am, still at university... I've joined to this letter a disk with photos from our last school trip. Do send them back to me though, my teacher, professor Hirota, might want his disc back...
The reason I am writing has a lot to do with your work though... I hear that you are a chemist, just like mother and father were, and are now working for the company they were working for before the died in an accident, seventeen years ago. I believe it's they who tutored you... But there is one thing I would like to ask you. Are you happy working there? I know a little about your employers. After all, even though they had no say to my own education, they have been watching me... It's a pity you are in America though. I would have so loved to come and talk with you... Oh well, do write to me soon, and if ever you come to Japan, you know where to contact me!
Your loving sister,
Akemi Miyano."
Shiho Miyano stopped reading, daydreaming. She smiled recalling the day she had received this letter.
She was working in a dark, mysterious criminal organisation, which was very strict around who was able to know of it's existence. It was specialised in more than one things: blackmail, fraud, theft, murder... Mostly murder, and anything else as long as it could bring in money... It's members were varied. Her parents had been amongst them, before they had died in an explosion, so she had been told. She in turn had become a member, having been brought up by the Organisation.
She had then gone into her office, expecting an important letter (The post was delivered at work). She found it, and alongside it she noticed this envelop, addressed to her real name, in Japanese writing, with a stamp from Japan...
It had been a very pleasant surprise; she had forgotten the meaning of the word "relative" until then, having always thought herself alone in a world totally apart from her sister's. Oh, she remembered that young, smiling girl. She was very fond of her in fact.
When she had finished reading the letter, the first time, she wondered how come her sister had not been brought up by the organisation like she had. She then did some research, and discovered that her parents had precised in their will that if something happened to them, Akemi, their first daughter, would be in charge of a friend of theirs, Shiho was born after the will had been written, and so legally she had fallen to the hands of the organisation, even though not in the eye of the court.
Of course, Akemi having learnt to speak by that time, the organisation couldn't go without watching her, in case her parents had mentioned something "important" and secretive in front of her, and she repeated it...
Sherry sighed. Having finished her coffee she resumed her work. They would soon be able to make the medicine in physical form, and experiment it's effects. But Sherry's mind was miles away from the Chemical Formulas on her screen, her emerald eyes twinkling happily for once... --This Saturday,--she thought. --This Saturday I shall be seeing my sister, Akemi Miyano.--
But she knew though that they would be watching her, and Akemi. Watching out for any sign of her betraying them, any sign of her willing to lead a normal life...
11th March 6:30 In Tibuya.
Less than a year after, Shiho had learned her sister's death in that same office, from the mouth of a mocking colleague. Her rage was muffled, but it had been there. The words her sister had last said to her echoed in her mind as she reread this letter she had thought lost for ever... She had left it in her desk when she had fled from the lab, amongst the others her sister had sent her. It was a wonder she could still remember it's contence. In fact, it was a wonder she had escaped at all. Saved by the medecine her sister had asked her to stop making, what irony...
"Do you understand?! How many people died because of the medecin you made?!"
"I know... To make... A poison... Was not my intention..."
These sentences came all of a sudden to her mind. These sentences she and Conan had exchanged when she had revealed her real identity to him. What had been her intention?! She now had a sad look on her face. A look half way between self-pity and mourning. It was then she noticed a reflected spark of light from the lamposts. It came from a slightly opened metal box, a bit further off in the debris. Inside she could see the name Miyano, in black letters, written on the red cover of a small diary. She went and picked it out of the heat-deformed metallic container, and just as she was about to open it to examine it, she heard the professor Agasa's voice. Automatically, she hid it in her pocket, so the professor and his friend could not see it.
"Ai!!! What took you to go off alone like that? You got me worried sick there." said the professor. His friend, the presumed Yoshi seemed to find this pretty amusing.
"I'm allright Professor, I just thought that since you were going to go to the lab anyways, I would wait for you here. Is this your friend 'Yoshi'?"
"So this is the child you are taking custody of, Agasa?"
Hiroshi nodded in both directions, before beginning the presentations.
"Yes, this is Hayasaki Yoshi, Haibara Ai"
"Nice to meet you little Ai" Hayasaki extended his hand towards her.
"Same here."She answered, her face emotionless. So this was the man who had pulled her out of bed at five in the morning.
"By the way Professor Agasa, what shall we do about the others, we might not be back before they come and fetch me for the show? I have brought my bag incase but..."
"Oh, don't worry, I 'll try and call Ran and tell her that you are already in Tibuya, the show organised by the Suzuki company is only up the street. They'll just come and fetch you here instead." Hiroshi reassured her. Yoshi took on a sorry look, and added:
"Oh, I'm ever so sorry, by my fault your friends might be embarrassed..." Ai didn't really bother about the show. she ignored Yoshi. She wasn't very fond of this man. But it was true that she didn't want to bother the others with worry.
"Never mind Yoshi, you said there was something you wanted to show me?" questionned the professor.
"Well, yes... It's more likely Yasumoto who will show it to you though. Thinking you’d be interested I asked her if I could bring you to show it to. That's also why I asked you to come at such an indecent hour. Our employers have been playing with our time schedules, as you guessed earlier, and this is most likely the only hour me and her can get together."
The three of them entered the building, Hayasaki having keyed in the correct pin code. The inside of the building was dark and quiet. Yoshi turned the lights on.
"I think she didn't come to the coffee shop because she forgot the time." He said to Hiroshi. It was now six thirty AM. Hayasaki, while Agasa had been looking for Ai, had also waited for Natsue at the meeting point, keeping an eye out for a little seven year old girl. When they had found Haibara, they had had enough waiting, and Yoshi had then decided to comfort his worried friend with a hot drink inside the lab.
"Lately Yasumoto has been spending her nights in the office, she might not be awake yet." He added. Together, the three of them moved ahead in the silent corridors.
"What a maze you have here!" said Agasa, awed at the number of turn-offs they had passed.
"You think this place is one too?" answered Hayasaki. "Sometimes I believe it was a stupid idea to rebuild this place on the same plans as before. It's as if the builders had wanted to make this place a hide-out!"
--You're not all that wrong there.-- Thought Ai. --But I can't say it's such a maze as that...-- They turned another few corners and arrived in a corridor with three closed doors.
Yoshi approached the first one on the left and knocked, before calling out:
"Yasumoto-san! Hayasaki here. Are you awake yet?"
No answer came. Yoshi tried the door handle. To his surprise it was locked.
"The door's locked... She must be really deeply asleep."
"Couldn't she be out?"
"No, Hiroshi, she never locks the door when she's out of her office. Even when she goes away... In case one of us needs some of the information she keeps in her desk."
Agasa frowned, looking at his friend. Hayasaki really seemed to be worried. He wondered what could have happened to the woman that was supposedly on the other side of the door. He then noticed Haibara was looking down another passage way.
"Perhaps it's that man over there who locked the door..." said the little girl. "Look, he's got a big bunch of keys."
"Oh that's Shuji Kandori. He's the cleaner and caretaker. He knows that Yasamoto doesn't like her door to be locked... But we can always ask him to open the door for us!
-Hey Kandori!!!"
"Yes Hayasaki?" The thirty-two year old caretaker approached the small group. He was wearing jeans and an old jumper, carrying a big bunch of keys and a bag from which one could see bottles of detergent and some rags.
"And who are these people?" He asked, noticing Ai and the professor.
Yoshi answered him, politely, before getting to the point.
"What? Natsue's door is locked and you think you don't manage to wake her up? Ok, I'll open the door for you."
Shuji then fiddled with his bunch of keys and inserted one into the door. Slowly, he turned the handle and opened the door onto a scene that made Yoshi yell. In front of them, heaped up on the desk, infront of a lit computer lay motionless a young woman, her flesh pale and eyes wide open.....
11th March 7:20 In Beika.
"Ouahhh!" Genta stifled a yawn, his eyes watering. "Why do we need to get up this early on a sunday?!" He asked reproachfully. Conan and Mitsuhiko stared at him. Ayumi said nothing, it was Ran that answered the insolent demand...
"Oh come on Genta! You know very well that if we need to get up this early it is because the show starts at nine am and the only bus that will take us to Tibuya where the show is leaves in ten minutes! You even said you wanted to go by bus, when we could have nicely accepted professor Agasa’s offer to drive us there a bit later..." Ran and the detective Boys were in the second district of Beika, walking towards the professor's house. Genta frowned, blushing from shame, when he got Ran's point. Ayumi stopped, and looked at her watch in the lampost's light...
"Seven... twenty past seven... Do you think Haibara's up yet?" She wondered out loud.
"Yeah, sure! She's not like lazy Genta here is she?^^" answered Mitsuhiko, a bit too enthousiastically. Genta grunted. He didn't really approve that silly comment. Just as he was going to give Mitsuhiko a piece of his mind, Ran stopped him: "Oh boys, this is not a time to squabble!"They were at Agasa's door.
Conan lifted his hand up to ring the door-bell... The other three children waiting behind him. Ran was staring vaguely at the house beside.
"DDDRRRRRRIIIIING! DDDRRRRRIIIIING!"
No answer...
After a few minutes Conan tried again.
"DDDRRRRRRIIIIING! DDDRRRRRIIIIING!"
"That's weird..." It was obvious that there was no one there.
"Seems like they're not here!" exclaimed Conan.
"Hey! But Ai knew we were going to see Yaiba's show today. She knew we were going to fetch her here this morning..." Ayumi was visibly preoccupied and annoyed by this.
"I wonder what could have happened to her and the professor..." Mitsuhiko asked, worried.
Genta looked at him in a funny way...
"What?!"
"You wouldn't happen to be extremely worried about her, would you?" suggested the bigger seven-year old.
"Hey! What are you saying?!" yelled back the reddened freckled face.
--Here it goes again!--Thought Conan casually.
Ran looked at them curiously... --Worried?...-- Pensive, she took out her portable phone, looked at it. --Yes...-- she thought --I am worried... Shinichi,... what are you doing now?...--
"Hey guys, perhaps she and the professor just went to the show before us and are waiting for us there!" interrupted Ayumi cheerfully, all worry gone from her sweet face.
"Well, in any case we had better go there now with Sonoko's tickets or we'll miss it all together! Right Ran?" said Conan. Ran didn't react for a moment, causing Conan to wonder, with his cute face staring at her, what she was thinking of.
"Uh? Oh, yeah, right!" She finally responded, smiling reassuringly, and mindlessly putting her phone back in her purse."And we could allways try and call the professor there."
"...Sonoko?" asked Genta. "Isn't that that annoying brown haired girl you are always with?"
"Does that mean she'll be there too?!" Mitsuhiko's face was anxious. Obviously the detective boys weren't all that fond of the Suzuki friend of Ran's. Ran pretended not to notice. She then grinned, cheeckily. "Don't bother yourselves about that guys! She can't come anyway. Makoto is coming back to Japon for a few days and she'll be waiting for him at the airport." Ran seemed extremely pleased about this.
"That's good!!!"Ayumi was happy. She found it sweet that Sonoko would be waiting for her boyfriend.
"Well then, let's go gang! Or we'll not be able to catch our bus!"
Ran and the detective boys started racing down the avenue, unaware of what show they were really going to see. Knowing nothing about the change of plan that would happen upon their arrival in Tibuya.
11th March 8:00 In Tibuya.
Ran and the detective boys climbed off the train in the station that served Shibuya. Ayumi and the boys were now wide awake. It was eight O'clock. The show only starting at nine, they decided to take their time and started walking down the streets, the children's backpacks happily jumping around.
"Yeah! Yaiba, here we come!!!" shouted together the three children... Conan pulled on a much less convincing face. Ran giggled at Ayumi, Genta and Mitsuhiko's enthousiasm. --Really-- thought Conan. --To have to go and watch a kiddies show. Geez, and Haibara who's not here either. This promises to be tedious.-- The streets were starting to be full of people already. Ran led the children towards the road were the show took place... Suddenly, Conan stopped... "Hey! What's that? Isn't that inspector Megure?"
Ran and the kids stopped to look at the police cars all gathered up nearby. Yes, that was Juzo Megure, and Sato-san with Takagi. They seemed busy talking with a young man with glasses in a smart suit, a young women that seemed to be very distressed and two older men, with one of them ressembling very much...
"Professor Agasa?!"
Hisoshi turned round, a surprised look on his face.
"Ran?! Conan, Ayumi, Genta? Mitsuhiko?!" His worried look vanished when he saw them... To be replaced with a look of sorrow
"I'm so sorry Ran! I was going to call you to tell you that Ai and I were already in Shibuya, but with this case, I totally forgot."
"Never mind professor, we were going to call you if we had had no news..."
"Ai's here?!" exclaimed Ayumi, happily.
"Yes, she's inside with mister Kandori, ask miss Tsukishiro to guide you, I do think she'll need a cup of something..." answered the Professor... His face dull once more.
The distressed young lady made an effort with her composure, and gave a weak smile to the detective boys. "Call me Nadeshiko. This way..."
"What happened Professor?" Conan asked with a determined look after the other kids had gone. Ran waited with the little Tantei for the elder's answer.
"Well, I came to see my friend Yoshi this morning, with Ai. We were supposed to meet his colleague miss Yasumoto... And when, well, we opened her office door..."
"She was dead!" Continued the other old man. Conan supposed this was Yoshi, having, when he was still Shinichi, seen his photo at his neighbor's house.
"And you are?" asked politely Ran.
"Yoshi HAYASAKI"
"Ran? Conan? You too you're here?" intervened a surprised Takagi.
"What happened inspector?!" demanded Conan, feeling that this conversion was going a bit off track.
Takagi hesitated, levelling up Conan and Ran... Before finally stating:
"Oh well... I guess the best would be for you to see for yourselves...
Agasa and Hayasaki-san? Would you please stay with inspector Megure? He still has some questions for you... Follow me you two."
A police man was guarding the door. Haibara and Kandori were sitting on the convertible sofa in the room with the body... Kandori was trying hard not to look at it, he was very surprised by the intelligence and calmness of the young girl beside him though. She didn't seem very pleased by the fact they were in the same room as a dead corpse, but she was neither shocked nor overcurious. All she did she was ask a few questions and answer a few of his...
"So you say the last time you saw Natsue-san alive was eight O'clock last night?" she continued.
"Yeah... She seemed pretty tired, but said she still had some work to do, and would be too tired to go to her apartment. Poor soul, she lost her parent's and her only brother in an accident 6 months ago... Ever since she has been working overtime every other night. But she was a strong girl. We used to live in the same street when we were kids..." he answered.
"..."
"I still can't understand what has happened to her... It looks like a suicide and all but... I just can't figure it out! She seemed to have gotten over her family's death, and she was getting very good results when it came to checking the company's products."...
Kandori stopped talking, and for the first time since he had come into the room, he looked at his dead friend's body willingly. He sighed.
Haibara stood up and approached Natsue... Shuji Kandori stared at her, wondering what she was up to.
--The pathologist said the cause of death was apparently the ingestion of some toxic chemicals she could have easily found in the neighbouring lab... Theory confirmed by the presence of the container beside her...-- Ai frowned looking over the dead body's shoulder.
--That's strange...--
The body of Natsue YASUMOTO, when found, and still now, since no-one had moved it since it's discovery, was hunched up on the desk, eyes wide open, and mouth gaping, looking towards the note under her right hand, which still held a pen. On the note, a piece of paper torn from a notepad nearby, could be read in trembling handwriting:
"Do not be harsh on me. I have made my decision, I am willingly leaving this world, where there is nothing left for me. It's just too hard for me to go on..."
There was definitely something wrong. Just beside the note, Ai noticed a photo frame, where the victim could be seen playing tennis, hitting a ball with a racket she held in her left hand.
--Definitely strange!--
"Hey, Kandori-san! Are you sure this is Yasumoto's handwriting?"
"What do you mean?"
"Well, she's supposed to have written it with her right-hand.. But wasn't she left-handed?"
"Huh?"
"Also, isn't it weird that she's still holding the pen on top of the paper if it seems more logical that she wrote the note before she had poison?"
Shuji KANDORI looked at the young girl. Yes, she was right, he had understood what she had said meant...
THERE HAD BEEN A MURDER!
The criminal leaned back on the wall. Those police officers... He didn't like them, not a bit... But if he didn't want them to know what had happened, he had to hide that fact... All wasn't going as he had wished, he had neglected the fact that Yasumoto had been left-handed, he had also overdone his coverage.
--We're going to have to play it tight, my friend! -- he thought.
--But it is a good thing that I took this off her hand before leaving! This would have been a real give away! --
"Teeheehee..." Quickly, he muffled his laugh... It wasn't time for him to show a strange attitude, after all, there was death floating around, laughter would be deeply out of place. Smiling, he thought:
--And with a bit of luck, the fool who gave this to the young Natsue will give himself away as the prime suspect number one.--
The murderer's evil glare sparckled as he looked at the engagement ring he had taken out of his pocket. He was confident.
He was confident that his wrong would _never_ be rightened.
Ai continued searching around the office for something relevent. It was rare for her to wish to investigate a murder, but somehow, she couldn't but help feeling concerned, after all... This office had exactly the same situation as her's had had before the lab had been destroyed. she looked up at the computer screen. On it was displayed the formula of one of the Negishi products for migraines. Curiosity and nostalgie of the time where she would do it there everyday, she read down the formula from top to bottom...
"Huh?!"
"Haibara!!!"
Suddenly distracted by Ayumi's voice, Ai turned round to look, astonished, at the detective boys.
"What are you doing here?!" She asked, eyes staring full of surprise at the three kids.
"We were going to the Yaiba show when we noticed the professor in front of the building." Answered Mitsuhiko.
"Hey, what's that smell?" wondered Genta after having sniffed the air once or twice. He approached the desk where Haibara was, and noticed the body.
"Ah! But that's a dead person!!!" he yelled.
"Come on, didn't you guess that if Megure was here it was because of this?" answered Haibara with half moon eyes. "How did ou manage to find me? This place is a real maze ( --if you haven't been here often-- she added in thought)."
"Miss Nadeshiko brought us here." explained Ayumi.
"But she went off after she saw, humm, Mister Kandori, to go and see inspector Meguri. So this is Natsue Yasumoto?" went on Mitsuhiko.
All three kids seemed extremely pained for the dead person... Deep inside, Ai felt touched. These were such nice kids. She decided to do her best to cheer them up.
"Hey, come on. I've got some of the things you asked Agasa to fix for you in my bag in the next room!"
Conan and Ran were led by Takagi towards the office, the investigator explaining the facts to the teenager and young boy.
--Considering the disposition of these corridors, the murderer is certainly an insider...-- thought the shrinked form of Shinichi Kudo. --The poison used is pretty known, so even someone without much knowledge in chemical products could have used it, and the time of the murder seems to be around two a.m. by what Takagi said. The door is opened using a pincode... If the murderer had a friend in the lab who told him the code, or if they effectively worked in the lab which seems more plausible, they could have come in at any hour...--
Conan's sweet face was deep in thought.. Ran peered down at the little tantei. She grinned. The child was too preoccupied with this murder to notice his surroundings. By what mister Kandori and miss Tsukishiro said, it had effectively been a murder, and not suicide. She sighed. Strangely enough, she wondered at how busy her and her father's life had become since Edogawa's arrival. There had been a time when murder was a rarety she hoped never to meet. Her only recomfort when ever there was death in her proximity was the thought of Shinichi. The strong and unshakable friend, on who she could count on and who was a stronghold whenever mystery flew by... She still didn't know really why everytime she saw Conan in thought she remembered the high school detective, but it was just the case. At one time she had thought that Conan was Kudo. Reality had well contradicted her... But it didn't stop her from still thinking it deep down.
The two arrived at a turning point. Hesitating, Ran looked round. Takagi had left them with Shuji and Nadeshiko to see the inspecteur, telling them which turns to take.
"We're supposed to go right Conan, right?" she asked.
No answer came...
"Hey! Where has he gone?!" she turned round. That over curious kid had vanished once more, leaving her alone.
--Oh no!--
Suddenly, she spotted the detective boys...
Inspector Megure was in full investigation mode. Turn by turn he had questionned the deceased Yasumoto's best friend, Nadeshiko Tsukishiro, two of the people who had discovered the body, in this case professor Agasa and his old school mate Hayasaki, and was now interrogating the financial representative and patron of the lab (momentarily), Kazumi MOMUCHI, 22 year old, who claims, at the believed hour of death, to have been asleep in his apartment.
During that time Sato was making sure that all the usual procedures, fingerprints, surveillance cameras, double checking of the alibis and backgrounds, was being properly done, and Takagi had was questioning Shuji KANDORI, the caretaker, and the young Ai HAIBARA, who had discovered the body with the 2 professors, and given the evidence that, with Nadeshiko's claim that Natsue was excitedly expecting to celebrate a surprise birthday party for one of her other friends, corrobated the murder theory.
"Right then mister Momuchi, so you see no reason why, whatsoever, someone would attempt to miss Yasumoto's life?"
"No, no inspector, none. But I do say that there would be some people pretty unpleased with her..."
"Like?" asked Juzo.
"Well me of course, to begin with, I've been having difficulty imposing a work schedule to suit everybody, and Yasumoto's impossible hours weren't helping me a bit."
--Difficulty???-- thought Megure. --By what the others said, it's more than that!--
"But I dare say that's not a sufficient for such a crime, however disguised." continued Kazumi.
"Effectively... Any one else?"
"Well... I am not too certain, but I believe she has this male friend of hers who often comes to the lab... What's his name already?"
"Could it be this MIZUKI Takashi that Nadeshiko Tsukishiro mentioned earlier?"
"Yes that's him! I believe he had a crush on her, and could have been extremely disappointed by Natsue's apparent lack of feelings towards him..."
"Yet it seems the victim appreciated him enough to organise a surprise birthday celebration for him next week. How would you explain that?"
"I am only saying what I think, after all, I did not know the victim and her friends personally. Have you finished inspector?"
"Yes, that will do for the moment... But I still wish for you to stay in the lab's surroundings until the first investigations are over."
"Thank you. I do wish you will discover the culprit rapidly. This case is not going to help me with my work, and certainly not with this lab's already tarnished reputation..." Momuchi smiled at the inspector, before leaving the interrogation room to go and work in his office. If he was an actor, he was a very good one... So were all the other suspects.
" A tarnished reputation?" asked Juzo MEGURE to one of his men in the room with him.
" Lately many of the medicines produced by this company have been reviewed because of annoying and unnecessary second effects. I believe mister Momuchi believes the demonstration of the lab's errors is a nuisance for it's progression."
"And of course, it's on these same medecins that Yasumoto was discovered working on when found dead."
It was time for Megure and his investigators to get together and start the elimination process.
--Geez... This ain't going to be easy! --
Conan had understood how the crime had been perpetrated, but the problem was he couldn't tell who by...
All that had caught his eye was the oddity of an empty ring box in the bin beside the victim (who had now been transported to the morgue), and the abscence of it's contence.
He had now decided to go and interrogate the four main suspects:
"Hey! Hayasaki-san!"
"Humm? Yes? Er, your name's Conan right?"
"Could you tell me if Yasumoto-san had any fights lately with anyone?"
Yoshi looked at the little tantei.
"You want to investigate too huh? ^^" He patted his head. Conan really didn't appreciate that, but was happy to hear what followed.
"Well, everyone knows that the boss Momuchi and she couldn't stand each other! He kept telling her to stop her work on our earlier products and move on to something new, and she wouldn't hear of it. `Someone's been hiding something about those products` she would say, `and I'm determined to find out what!`"
"Hiding something?" Conan's face was perplexed. Deep inside, he noted that he had felt the tingle of a clue.
"Yeah... But she was very secretive about what it was about... She kept saying she needed to find the missing link, the missing molecule. But hey, she was a proper chemist, so we all thought she could figure it out by herself."
"To say that she didn't even feel she could explain it to me..."
Nadeshiko's pale lip was trembling. You could see she was still having difficulty getting over her friend's death.
"Now, now, Tsukishiro-san, the police are doing all they can to find the culprit."
"I know. I know." she sobbed. "I know."
Conan looked sadly up at the young woman. --We'll get him, don't worry. --
"HEY!!! Is it true???!!! I can't believe it! Nooo! Natsue can't be dead!?"
"MIZUKI?!" both Yoshi and Nadeshiko turned to face the new arrival.
Conan looked up at the young man.
He was a twenty-seven year old with short yet brilliant ebony hair, and almond-shaped eyes, now filled with tears and wrath. His frame seemed fragile, and his face was very expressive, with a tendancy for a downfallen look. The young Edogawa could see immediately that he was infact a very skilled vet.
"It's sadly the truth Takashi..." said the diminished Nadeshiko.
"I need to see the inspector, I was with her at 1 am and she seemed fine!"
Without waiting for any directions he ran off towards an officer and asked him to show him to Megure.
"...
Who's he?!" asked Conan.
"Mizuki Takashi, one of my and Natsue's best friends. it's his birthday next week and we had been preparing a surprise party to celebrate... But with this death..." Tsukishiro stopped, she couldn't go on... Yoshi put a supporting hand on her shoulder.
"Go and have a lay-down on the sofa in my office. We all need a rest."
--Wait... wait... Earlier when I was eavesdropping on the interrogations led by Megure... Yes! That person must have something to do with it. --
Conan looked up at Yoshi and Nadeshiko while they were leaving. Conan no longer had any doubts. All he needed now to find was proof, and he had his own idea of where he was going to find that.
--HIATUSED.
