Chapter 2: Child’s Play
Capture the moment—carry the day—
Stay with the chase as long as you may;
Follow the Dreamer, the Fool and the Sage
Back to the days of the Innocent Age…..
(Dan Fogleberg, ‘The Innocent
Age’)
*One of the best things
about being occasionally chased across creation,* thought Hei-san
sleepily to himself, *is that you find
out all the good places to hide in.*
He stretched his lanky body full-length, soaking up the sun
like a lazy cat; the rays glittered down at him in late-afternoon brilliance, making
the clay tiles beneath him beautifully warm.
The heat soaked into his muscles and soothed the
bruises and abuse of the previous night’s escapades as the young man blink
sleepily, his eyes half-lidded.
*Take rooftops, for
instance; nobody ever thinks about rooftops much. Tile, gravel, tar-paper,
shingle, slab, metal (yaaawwwn)… so many different
kinds. And you have to learn what
to listen for when you run across ‘em, like those
tiny little squeaky creaking noises that come right before the damned things
collapse—you don’t get a lot of warnings.
And then there’s the pigeon poop to watch out for and the occasional
couple making out on balconies, hidden skylights, all those damned bits of pipe
sticking out and the lines of wash…
Rooftops are complicated. But spots like this, now—once you find a good one, they make
great places to just kick back and relax…..*
He yawned and stretched again, careful not to shift too much
sideways; six inches either way would put him rolling off the peak and down a
sharply-slanted decline to drop like a stone seven stories towards the concrete
below.
*….. so
long as you’re not afraid of heights, that is.*
Hands clasped beneath his head, Hei-san
lay relaxed and boneless; the aches and pains of his nocturnal occupation
slowly seeped away into the embracing heat and his eyes slid closed against the
light.
*Man… Good workout last
night, but I thought Nakatori-san was gonna blow a
gasket when I tapped him on the shoulder from behind. He really needs to lighten up or he’s
gonna have a heart attack before he catches me.
Not that he’s ever GOING to catch me, but it’s the principle of the
thing; I’d hate to see the guy really get hurt.
Aoko’d be all alone then.*
Another yawn…..
….. *zzzzzz*……………
....
*Mmph?*
A flutter of wings nearby jerked him back from the edges of
sleep as something with sharp, delicate claws landed lightly on his ankle; he
blinked drowsily at the dove perching just above his shoe. It cooed back, tilting its head to one side
inquisitively; was it just him, or did it look sort of reproachful?
*Yeah, yeah, I know….. can’t afford to fall asleep here, can I? Get your butt in gear, Thief Boy. You can goof off later—no jobs tonight, just
homework and a well-earned bed. Whoever
said that there’s no rest for the wicked was really, really out of line,
not to mention a bit harsh. We wicked types work as hard as anybody else, y’know…..*
A moment’s careful movements had him perched in the shadow
of a chimney-stack, his back against the warm bricks; the reasons for his visit
to this particular rooftop (well, aside from it being a nice place to nap) lay
glittering in his now plastic-gloved palm.
Hei-san sighed a little, spilling the
gemstones from one hand to the other in a glittering arc of sapphire and
emerald. *Stupid things… just a bunch of flashy rocks, pretty as they are. Worth a good chunk of yen,
too—and totally worthless to me.
The one I want is probably in
somebody’s vault somewhere or something like that; wonder if I’ll ever actually
find it?*
It wasn’t that he was planning to quit any time soon, hell
no—not unless he found what he was looking for.
It was just that it got a bit discouraging sometimes, that was all,
looking for the proverbial gemstoned needle in the stupendously
valuable haystack…..
Oh well; everybody needed a hobby, right?
Gently Hei-san slid the stones
into a prepared zip-lock baggie; they lay glinting incongruously bright within
the plastic, and he took a second to scrawl a certain characteristic
signature-caricature on the bag with a marker.
Whimsically doodling little ‘XXX’ kiss-marks all over the surface, he
added a solicitous comment that perhaps it would benefit Nakamura to begin
drinking decaf (*THAT ought to make his
blood pressure rise,* he thought with a smirk) and then clipped the baggie
to a strong, fine strand of nylon fishing twine.
Five minutes later he crouched on the peak’s very end,
smiling happily down at his handiwork; the bag hung several stories below from
a flagpole, softly tapping against an office-window he knew to be Nakamura’s. Coiling up the thin steel cable he had used
to loop the line over the pole, he stuffed it into his pocket and chuckled. *Wonder
how long it’ll take for the tapping to get on his nerves? Tsk, tsk, tsk—here you are worrying
about his health, and you deliberately give him something new to stress
over. Bad thief, no biscuit! But I think he’d be disappointed if I didn’t
find some way to jerk his chain…..*
*….. and
besides: it’s just like I was thinking a
few minutes ago, right? Everybody
needs a hobby.*
Hei-san chuckled and sat back on his
heels, hands in his pockets. Then,
moving with a precision and native grace that would have astonished any of his
schoolmates (who were far more familiar with seeing him jump around like a
cricket with its assets on fire, dodging Aoko’s
broom), he catfooted it lightly along the roof-edge
and began the careful trip back to a certain storage-room window three stories
down.
As he slid in through the window, his mind drifted back to
the consideration of hobbies, especially his
hobbies. He’d developed a new one a few
months back, and he’d be damned if he could figure out how he had managed to
get himself into such a fix. Since when,
wondered the teenager, had he become so brain-damaged
as to consider taking on a little girl as an apprentice?
He hadn’t planned
to do so…..
….. it had just sort of happened…..
She was pretty good for her age, though; in the three months
that they had been meeting at the park she had progressed from a shaky
two-stone juggle to four stones and three different patterns. And somehow the little conniver had gotten
him to start teaching her sleight-of-hand, too!
*Must be those big brown eyes, I
guess; I always was a sucker for cute kids.
Aoko was an awfully cute little girl despite
growing up into a mop-wielding maniac, and she manages to get me to do stuff
all the time.*
With a rueful grimace at his own gullibility, the young man
latched the door behind him, slipping smoothly through the hallways and
staircases to the fourth floor. He was
just barely in time to see the door click shut about twenty feet away as a
familiar figure entered, hefting her backpack behind her; Hei-san
smirked to himself, pleased at the perfect timing. *Bingo.*
A minute or two’s wait to add validity (“I was right behind
you, baka—didn’t you hear me yelling to hold the
elevator?”), and the persona of ‘Hei-san’ was left
behind as Kuroba Kaito
opened Chief Inspector Nakatori’s office door, an
inquisitive and slightly impatient look on his face. “Hey, Aoko-kun--? There
you are—Jeeze, can’t you wait up for a guy? I said I’d meet you down in the
lobby—“
(And from the corner of his eye he could see Aoko’s dad slowly turning his head to stare at the small
baggie that was steadily swinging in the light breeze to brush against his
window, the Kid-caricature plain to be seen..… tap… tap-tap… tap…)
As Aoko began to reply--fairly
calmly for her, discounting the fact that she was searching for something to
throw-- Kaito braced himself
for impact and wondered if Edogawa Conan ever had this sort of problem…..
* * * * * * * * * * * *
Edogawa Conan was going to be having his own brand of difficulties soon enough,
if he didn’t watch out. A certain
brown-eyed little girl (currently perched high in a rather large tree) would
see to that.
Two voices, barely audible, filtered up through the flutter
of leaves from below:
“Are you absolutely sure you want to do this? I mean, it’s not too late to change your
mind—“ The boy
sounded more than a little doubtful.
“No,” said the small girl firmly, scuffing at the grass with
the toe of one shoe. “I want to get it
over with. He’s your friend—mine too—and
there’s too many secrets around here anyway.”
A trace of humor crept into her voice as she cocked her head to one side;
“Besides, don’t you want to see his face when you tell him—?“
A reluctant snicker.
“I guess so…..” The boy she had
been addressing seemed to perk up a little, a small, slightly wicked smile
beginning to creep onto his face as he shoved his glasses back up his nose with
one finger. “Maybe this can be a sort of
payback for all those times he called me ‘Kudo’ in public.” They both laughed.
Ten feet or so above them the leaves rustled very, very
slightly. *I wish they’d get on with it; I’m getting BOOOORED* thought Ayumi, peering down at her quarries. She frowned to herself, puzzled; *’Kudo’?*
The girl sat comfortably in the angle of three
tree-branches, well hidden from sight; the crook of the limbs made a natural
cup that obscured viewing. She had
always been good at climbing, and this particular tree had been her favorite
ever since she had first clambered up the rough bark the previous summer; but
she had never stayed up in it for quite so long before, and never for such an odd purpose: to spy on her friends.
That thought made the child wince—it
sounded so much better to think of it as ‘detectiving’
or ‘being on a stakeout’ or something like that. But…..
Conan and Rin-kun were her *friends.* And yet there she was,
sitting in a tree and hiding as well as she could, trying to hear what they
were saying. Ayumi
felt her face redden at the very thought; if somebody had done this to her and she had found out, she was
pretty sure she would have cried.
*Maybe I had better get
down,* she thought
unhappily, shifting slightly. She was
well hidden, she knew that, but it would be so easy to knock a bit of bark down
on her friends below… and then it wouldn’t even be her fault if they looked up
and caught her.
But they’d be mad. Really
mad, maybe…..
…..even though she was doing this
because of Conan’s Ran-neechan.
Sort of.
*I wish she was here. I wish--* Ayumi bit her lip.
*I wish--*
*…….......*
It had all started the day before, when she and the others
had gone to Conan-kun’s to pick him and Rin up. It was Sunday afternoon, and they were all
heading for the library; there was a Book Fair being held and everyone had a
certain amount of pocket-money to spend.
Even Genta had put aside a small stash of yen
for manga, and Mitsuhiko
was so excited he could hardly string a full sentence together; he kept
bouncing as they walked.
Haibara-kun was with them too, an unusually animated
expression on her usually rather quiet face; if there was one thing the blonde girl
loved, it was books. Ayumi
had watched her pick them out at stores before, and it had baffled her badly;
what in the world was ‘physics’?? She
could hardly read the title… Haibara-kun
seemed to like books about it, though, and she was always looking at the
newspapers too, just like Conan. She
liked magazines as well, but they were all grown-up style magazines, not the
sort of stuff Ayumi wanted to look at. Booooooring…..
Conan-kun had run back to his room to dig out a backpack or
bag or something to carry things in; he always seemed to think of stuff like
that. But Ayumi
had remembered to bring along Pocky-sticks, so she was doing pretty good too! The small girl had plopped down on the couch,
waiting; the boys were both watching Rin-kun play a game on the computer
(exclamations of “No, go left, go LEFT!!”,
“Watch out for the frog, Rin— Noooo!!” and digitized
engine-sounds indicated some sort of car-race or something of the sort) and
Haibara-kun was flipping through one of the computer’s manuals. *Boooooring;* Ayumi had found
herself yawning.
A sound from the office-area had caught her attention; Conan
was… dialing the phone? She squirmed in
impatience—they needed to get *going*, and everybody was just goofing off—
His voice carried just enough for her to hear:
“Hattori?
It’s me… Yeah, I got your
email—good thing you sent me your cell number.
Listen, are you gonna be in town long?”
A pause while the unseen other end of the conversation answered;
puzzled, Ayumi craned her head around the corner as
she listened. Conan was sounding funny
again, more like a grownup than a
kid—
“Good—can you meet me this evening? Got something to tell you about, something
important….. It’s about Ran. She’s—well, something’s happened to her, sort of… no, no, she’s not-- Look, will you
settle down? No, I can’t tell you over the phone, I gotta go in a minute, the kids are
waiting for me.” The office chair
squeaked as a small body hopped up into it, settling against the cushions. “….. yeah….. right. Hey—you
remember that park we met at last month, the one with the square fountain? Yeah, the one at the corner of
Around the corner Ayumi sat up a
little straighter; this didn’t sound boring, it sounded *serious.* Was there something
wrong with Ran?? Her young face filled
with dismay; Mouri Ran was special;
she was an adult, but she paid attention to little kids. She listened to you when you wanted to talk,
and she was nice and just beautiful,
and besides: she was Conan-kun’s favorite person in
the entire world. Anybody could see
that.
Or at least she had been, until she went away.
The little girl’s face wrinkled in worry. Ran-kun was in trouble—he had said that
something had happened to her—and Conan
wasn’t going to TELL them about it? Why not?? She was *their* friend too!!
Usually he kept things from his friends because he was
afraid they’d get hurt—as if he was
bigger and stronger than they
were. He wasn’t even as tall as Ayumi; really, Conan-kun was sort of a shrimp, wasn’t
he? The little girl snorted to herself
indignantly, listening harder than ever.
She scowled to herself, one hand fingering her favorite juggling stones
in her pocket absent-mindedly.
“…No, don’t bring Kazuha-- I don’t know,
maybe she can go shopping or something?......... I don’t
know, she’s your girlfr—okay,
okay, don’t have a heart attack! Look,
I’ve got to go. Uh, what’s that? ….Ran--?”
Ayumi held her breath, listening; her
friend’s voice carried faintly but clearly, and there was a strange,
sad-but-happy sound to it. “No, she… no. And yes, sort of. She won’t be there, not exactly….. and at the same time, she will….. Hey, you’re
the Great Detective of the West, right?
Figure it out—“
A burst of static and a squeak of springs made Ayumi peer carefully around the corner; Conan-kun was leaning
back in the office chair and holding the receiver well away from his ear, half-wincing,
half-laughing. His glasses were off, laying loose on the desk in front of him; she wondered how
well he could see without them. As the
tirade on the other end ground down he brought the receiver back to a more
normal position, grinning.
“Finished? Good….. Hey—do you talk to your mom like that?….. Uh huh;
right. And don’t worry, you’ll understand
when you see us—yeah, ‘us’. I’ve got
somebody I want you to meet.” The boy’s
smile faltered a little as he laughed a little sadly, a little wryly; he slid
his glasses back into place with the air of someone putting on armor. “But… you might as well plan on never seeing
Ran again, though….. or at least probably not for a
very long time.”
……….. plan on never seeing Ran again………….
The words hit Ayumi like a blow;
she sat stock-still, shocked, her mouth hanging open.
“Why aren’t I freaking out?
Uhh-- never mind, I’ll explain when you get
here, okay? …..Tough. Jaa ne.” The receiver clattered as he hung up. “That
ought to teach him to call me ‘Kudo’ in public,” Conan said softly to nobody
in particular.
Silence, then the thud of two small feet hitting the carpet
and the creak of the office chair spinning.
When Conan came around the corner he found Genta and Mitsuhiko commiserating
with Rin regarding her terrible scoring rates in computer games; he looked
around, a frown on his face. “Where’s Ayumi-kun?”
Genta jerked his head towards the hallway,
eyes never leaving the screen as he reached for the mouse. “Uhhhh… bathroom?… she just went by. Rin-kun? Did you know
you can use the right-click to go faster?”
The brown-haired young girl studied the mouse for a moment;
one eyebrow crooked up as she shook her head.
“I’m really not that good with racing games… I like things like Street
Fighter or Twin Dragon Fists a lot more,” she confessed, handing it over and
sliding down from the seat; Genta eagerly hopped up
into her place, resetting the game as Conan chuckled.
He pushed his glasses back up his nose with one finger,
leaning back against the wall beside Rin; their shoulders brushed and she shot
him an amused glance as he cocked his head sideways to look at her. “Why are all the girls I know violent types?”
he asked the air aloud.
“Takes one to know one,” she retorted, dark eyes sparkling.
Mitsuhiko scowled at the two of them. “Haibara-kun’s
not violent—“ (seated next to the window, Ai closed
her book and shot Conan a slightly amused glance) “and Ayumi-kun
isn’t either—“ He paused, his thin face
considering; it fell a little as he continued doubtfully; “—except that she’s
been learning that karate stuff, and…..”
The freckled boy’s words trailed off as his eyes widened. Meeting Conan’s amused gaze, he nodded
dolefully; “Why *are* all the girls
we know so mean?”
The closing of a door made them all turn a little; Mitsuhiko shut up abruptly as Ayumi
wandered up to lean on the wall beside Rin, her small face a little
troubled. “What’s wrong, Ayumi-chan?” asked the other girl, noting her expression
and the slight pallor that accompanied it; “Are you feeling okay?” She reached up to lay a hand across her
friend’s forehead. “You don’t feel sick,
do you?”
The gradeschooler shook her head, leaning down to pick up
her backpack. “I’m okay. Are we going
yet?” Ayumi
marched past the other kids to pause at the door heading outside impatiently;
“Come ON! All the good stuff’ll be gone!”
She sounded almost normal, but as she turned to clatter down the stairs her
eyes would not meet Rin’s.
Or Conan’s.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
The bus-ride to the library sale had been too long for Ayumi; all the while the others had chattered and laughed
and counted their money, she had watched silently, thinking hard.
Thinking about Ran-kun….. and Rin-kun…..
….. and things that she had heard, and had seen over the
past few months; things her young mind had put aside, but now seized greedily
on, things she would really rather not remember:
(A screech of
brakes… and there was Sonoko-kun hanging half out of the taxi-window. “Raaaaan-chan! He took off!!! I watched him—he drove away in a hurry and he
looked absolutely WIRED—he acted like a maniac!! and I got a taxi as quick as I
could but I lost the jerk, and then I saw your mom’s car and—“ She halted, her mouth open; it took a moment
for the Suzuki Mental Playback to engage, but when it did her eyes widened and
she paled. “I—I mean RIN-kun, of
course… and that’s your obaa-san, not your mom….. h-heh; silly me! Guess it’s just habit, what with you looking
so much like Ran and all…..”)
That
had been strange, really strange. And
later, when they had found Conan at last—she had been puzzled all over again to
hear Mouri-tantei calling the little girl by his
daughter’s name (“Ran, get out of here! You’re
just going to trip over something and get hurt and Eri’ll
have my skin for it—“). Ayumi hadn’t paid
much attention at the time, but…..
Now, sitting on the bus, she
clasped her arms around her backpack and rested her chin on the top. Rin-kun was talking to Conan again—they were
sitting side by side, just like they always did. And Conan-kun looked… well, he looked happy. Ayumi tried to
puzzle it out; it wasn’t that he didn’t look happy other times, but somehow
there had always been something hiding behind his eyes most of the time, almost
like a headache—or maybe some other kind of pain. And now, ever since Rin-kun had come, it had
gone away.
Ever since
Rin-kun had come….. and Ran-kun had
disappeared. And in the back of her mind
(a mind still young enough to believe in magic and in things that seemed
like magic), the first real suspicions of what might have happened came
together—
……….. plan on never seeing Ran again………….
She had to know. Conan-kun wouldn’t
tell her, she was sure of that, and neither would Rin-kun, because—
--because—
Never mind. She was
just going to have to find out on her own.
Ayumi bit her lip, secretly fingering the cherished
radio-badge in her pocket; it looked like she was going to have to do this one by herself, because if she told
Mitsuhiko or Genta what she
was thinking, they’d blab it all over the place. Boys were like that.
She sighed; *Sometimes
it’s HARD being a detective.*
* * * * * * * * * * * *
“Yo,
Kudo---!!”
The voice yanked Ayumi’s wandering
attention back to the scene below with an abrupt jerk. A tall figure, rangy and long-limbed and
wearing a sports cap was striding towards the figures below; Heiji-san.
Ayumi shrank a little further down into her
protective cup of branches. She didn’t
know the teenager well; they had only met a few times, and she had always hung
back from him a bit. He was nice, she
knew that—but he was an *adult*, and so…..
(WHY was he always calling Conan-kun
‘Kudo’??? That was just silly; everyone
knew that Kudo was Ran-kun’s boyfriend, and he wasn’t
here right now… just like Ran wasn’t here either.)
She could see the top of the young man’s head; he always
wore that white hat, and the little girl wondered (quite seriously) if he slept
in it. Maybe he had a bald spot on top of his head
like Inspector Magure-san did? But Magure-san was
*old*, and Heiji-san wasn’t. Oh well, adults didn’t make much sense
anyway—
They were talking now; she shifted slightly, peeking between
the limbs with one eye. Rin-kun had
pulled back a little and was standing off to one side in the shadows of the
trees, looking more than a little shy; was Conan-kun going to introduce her to Heiji-san? They got
along awfully well, almost like the older boy was Conan’s big brother. But what did he have to do with Ran-kun??
Settling herself securely in the cup of branches, Ayumi listened guiltily…..
* * * * * * * * * * * *
Conan rolled his eyes in exasperation. “WHY do you keep calling me that in
public? C’mon, Hattori, repeat after
me: ‘Conan’…. Cooooo-Nan. Can you say ‘Conan’? Sure
you can…..”
Heiji growled at him. “You’ve been watching reruns of those American
kiddy shows, haven’t you?” The boy
merely peered up at him innocently through his bangs. Behind him a giggle sounded from beneath the
trees, and the
Conan met his frown with a scowl of his own. “Say my name first.”
“Cut the crap, Kudo—who’s the little girl?”
Nothing but scowling silence; the gradeschooler folded his
arms and glared stubbornly.
“Oh, for crying
out loud—“
Stonewall. The giggle
was now full-fledged laughter, soft and lilting. Conan’s lips twitched slightly as he fought
back a grin.
“Okay, OKAY!! C-Conan! There! Conan-kun!
Edogawa Conan, Child Genius! Are
you happy now?” Heiji waved his
hands in the air over his head. “I don’t
see why it matters so much—it’s not like it’s your *real* name, anyway—“ He snorted, but the
sound had as much reluctant laughter in it as indignation.
(Above them both, leaves rustled in agitation.)
The boy smirked up at him.
“Just had to hear you finally say
it, that’s all…..”
Now Heiji
rolled his eyes. “Was there actually a
purpose to this meeting, Kudo, or did you just call me up to get on my
nerves?” The Kansai native raised one
expressive eyebrow, motioning towards the still-chuckling little girl a half-dozen yards away or so with a thumb. “You said you had somebody to introduce me
to— her? Does she have something to do
with a case? and what’s all this about Ran-kun,
anyway? You sounded sort of weird on the
phone…..” He frowned, crossing his arms;
“Does this have anything to do with that drug dealer mess you told me about a
few months ago?” he demanded, a faint line of worry showing on his forehead.
Conan glanced involuntarily over his shoulder; there was a
certain air of wanting-to-bolt about him and he visibly braced himself as if to
deliver bad news. “Well… no, not exactly….. Not at all, really….. I mean, they both happened at about the same
time, but…..” The boy’s voice trailed
off; he scuffled his sneaker-toes in the grass
underfoot, looking down.
A slightly impatient throat-clearing noise came from behind him, and a quietly muttered “Shinichi…..” in a warning tone.
Heiji’s eyes widened. “She knows who you are??” he hissed,
eyebrows climbing towards his hatbrim. “Are you nuts??”
Conan snorted, crossing his arms in unconscious mimicry and
shooting an amused glance up at the tall youth.
“Like her saying that out loud in a quiet park is any worse than you
calling me Kudo in public
places? Anyway, yeah, she knows.” He laughed near-silently, lowering his voice. “She knows everything there is to know about
me, about the whole mess—from a pretty personal viewpoint, too…” He scratched at his head, half-turning to
look over his shoulder. “Rin--?”
The little girl walked up, her tennishoed
feet making very little noise on the soft grass; she stopped a few feet behind
Conan, hanging back a little uncertainly as she smiled up at the Kansai
detective. He stared down, a faint look
of puzzlement creasing his tanned features; “Um, hi?”
The boy he insisted on calling ‘Kudo’ stepped back slightly,
turning his head to smile a little at the child beside him as Heiji’s expression grew even more perplexed. “Hattori Heiji,
meet Himitsu Rin.”
“Uhhhhh…” The young man hesitated, kneeling on the
grass to shake the offered hand. “Hajimemashite, Rin….”
He blinked, taking in the brown hair, the dark eyes, the
expression of shy amusement. “Do I—know you from somewhere, ojochan?”
“Yuroshiku, Heiji-kun…..
you *could*
say that, yes.” Laughter twinkled in her gaze; she reached up
to tug gently at the omamori hanging around his
neck. “I know what’s in this, for one thing— Do you still have that note that Kazuha-kun pinned on the back?“
He sat back on his heels, totally baffled. “Now, how the—I mean, how do you know about that?”
A slight blush stained his dark cheeks.
“Kudo!
You been telling stupid tales about me?
I’ll drop-kick you into the nearest pond if you have, I swear—“
Another tug on the cord around his neck interrupted
him. “You’d better not….. I’m *still* pretty good at karate, no matter
what I look like now…..” She tilted her
head a little to one side, regarding his startled face teasingly. “I ought to be mad at you, you know,
keeping the truth about Conan from me all this time—maybe I should tell Kazuha
on you…..”
A wordless splutter from the boy beside her indicated that
this was a bad idea and she shrugged her small shoulders, completely at ease
now that the two males had been so totally discomfited. “Well?”
She stepped back, holding her arms out to either side
and turning in place as if displaying a new set of clothes. “What do you think?” She beamed up at the young man, who suddenly
swayed in place as if someone had struck him; he slowly rose to his feet, eyes
bugging out in utter shock. “How do I
look?”
Heiji opened his mouth; a faint croaking
noise issued, but nothing intelligible came out.
“Apparently the penny just dropped,” remarked Conan
dryly. He reached up to tug on his
fellow detective’s shirt-tail. “C’mon, Osakajin—let’s go sit over by the fountain; you look like
you’re going to fall over, and if you do we’re just going to have to leave you. You’re too big for us to carry.”
Mutely the young man allowed himself to be towed along out
of the clearing towards the fountain several hundred feet away; his eyes never
moved from Rin’s face, and if anything they got wider
as she smiled serenely up at him. “Don’t
take it so hard, Heiji-kun—it’s okay, really it is.”
Heiji swallowed hard, still trying to
speak; “Urk?”
Surveying the shocked face above his, Conan allowed a smile
of pure contentment to slowly spread across his own features; he suddenly
seemed much more cheerful as he pulled the much taller figure along docilely
behind him. “You know, Rin? This was
a good idea, after all…..”
“Urk?
Aaack??”
“C’mon, genius—“
* * * * * * * * * * * *
Well, THAT hadn’t
made any sense at all.
Ayumi frowned severely to herself, craning
her head around a branch as the trio walked off into the distance. She hadn’t been able to make out everything
they had said—distance and the rustle of leaves had blocked the softer speech—and
now she couldn’t hear them anymore. But she had head enough to make her
worry. And wonder…..
*Don’t be silly* she scolded herself, hanging
half-out of the cup of branches; her legs were cramped from sitting still for
so long in one position. *People don’t—don’t REALLY do stuff like you
were thinking….. That only happens in
fairy tales and on TV. People don’t…
change… like that. Not really. You’re not a baby anymore, you know that sort
of stuff isn’t real…..*
*But--*
*Conan always says
‘There’s only one truth.’ He says to
look at the evidence, see what’s really there, not what people want you
to see. He says that most of the things
people miss are because they don’t bother to look…..*
( “Raaaaan-chan!” shouted
Sonoko-kun in her memory---)
(“Ran, get out of here!” snapped Mouri-tantei---)
(--“I’m *still* pretty
good at karate, no matter what I look like now….. Well?
What do you think? How do I look?........ Don’t take
it so hard, Heiji-kun—it’s okay, really it is--”)
It was a long time before the gradeschooler even thought of
climbing down; not until the shadows from the trees had filled the clearing,
not until the sun had nearly set and her friends had long since left
together. Not until the secrets that had
suddenly become so important to her had snarled and tangled themselves into
such a knot that only talking to someone who Ayumi
knew would really listen would help.
*I—want to tell ‘Kaasan, but if I do she’ll tell Mouri-tantei
and HE’ll laugh at me, I know he will. Or she’ll tell Eri-san and I don’t know her
very well yet, though she’s awfully nice.
If I tell Mitsuhiko-kun or Genta-kun
they’ll tell Conan; boys can’t keep secrets at all. Sonoko-kun
says they can’t keep their traps buttoned.
And Agasa-san is nice, but….. And
Ai-kun might be okay to tell, but sometimes she’s really hard to talk to. So…..*
*Hei-san… I need to talk to Hei-san.*
She began to clamber down from her perch. As her feet automatically found footholds
that most children her age would have missed, another question began to circle
like a shark through her mind, fin showing ominously:
*….. why
did they say all that stuff about Conan’s name not really being his? THAT doesn’t make sense either…..*
* * * * * * * * * * * *
Hattori Heiji *STARED* at the
small girl seated so comfortably on the fountain’s rim, toes dangling in the
water. “You… did… WHAT?!?”
She winced. “Don’t
yell, Heiji-kun!
My ears may be smaller, but I can hear just fine, I promise you. And you
heard me right, or you wouldn’t be reacting like this. I took one of the same pills that made
Shinichi into Conan.” Rin glanced up, a
strangely gentle smile on her heart-shaped face; the object of her
contemplation had walked away for a few moments, giving her a little space to
tell her story in. “How else could I
keep them both?” she pointed out, leaning over to trail one finger across the
water’s moving surface.
Spray glistened on her companion’s dark skin, beaded on his
black hair where it stuck out from under the cap. “Ran… Rin….. “ He still seemed nearly incapable of
speech as he plunked down on the concrete beside her. “But--- but why??”
He seemed honestly bewildered and more than a little distressed.
She sighed, leaning back and pulling up her legs to rest
bare feet on the fountain’s rim; clasping her knees, Rin met his eyes with her
own candid gaze. “Heiji-kun…..
if you knew, *really* knew that Kazuha
was in trouble, and the only way you could help her was to do something like
this—would you do it?”
He was silent for a long moment; she could see the wonder
and shock still churning in his eyes, knocking down his defenses and making him
consider things the Osakajin would normally have
brushed aside. “If… it was the only
way….. um.
Yeah. I guess I would.” Heiji immediately
flushed at his own words, looking up and beginning to open his mouth again.
With a giggle she beat him to it; “Don’t worry, I won’t tell
on you—but do you see?” Looking away,
she continued in a much softer tone. “Conan…
Shinichi told me everything, and when
the chance came I had to take it….. I
couldn’t afford to wait. I told him
later that it was like a subway train: the chance arrived, it was there for
just a moment, and then it was gone. If
I didn’t hop on board then, we’d never manage to stay together.”
Her own cheeks burned a little as she watched the boy on the
other side of the fountain through the veil of falling water; his dark blue
gaze flashed across at her for a second, then was gone as he turned away. Even from where she sat she could tell he was
feeling guilty again, and she sighed; that was something they still had to work
on now and then. *But that’s okay; someday he’ll figure out that this is really what I
wanted, and that it wasn’t such a sacrifice after all. When you want something
enough, it’s worth more than what you pay for it… and that’s what people call a
bargain, isn’t it?*
“Was it…worth it,
Ran? Uhhhh,
Rin?” asked the young man beside her quietly, his words echoing her
thoughts. “I mean, you were nearly
eighteen—you had your whole life in front of you-- Hell, you’d be graduating high school
in a month!”
“I know.”
He groaned, his face darkening as he turned sharply to glare
at the boy on the other side of the water; Conan was perched on the rim as well,
legs swinging as he stared off across the park.
His face was in profile, looking absurdly young….. but
there was nothing young about his expression in that moment; Heiji had never seen such a strange combination of profound
guilt, relief and resignation. The
teenager’s own anger faded a little at the sight, shading more into dismay and
a strange sort of awe as he twisted back around to stare back at the child
beside him, nearly falling into the fountain as he waved his arms in the air.
“Don’t you at least *regret
it*?? I mean— God,
Ran—you’re a little girl! It’s one thing to have it happen to you like HE did, but to do it deliberately—“ Words failed him again; the Osaka detective
simply sat and goggled at her, eyes large with a kind of aghast wonder. “This is….. it’s…
just…..” He swallowed hard.
Ran looked away again, down at the water; a young green
maple leaf floated there like a tiny boat, its surface misted and
glittering. With one chilly toe she
reached out and nudged it, sending it drifting over to bump into another. The two small leaves clung together, companions
in misfortune; Ran smiled at the possibly-too-obvious analogy and pulled her
foot back up.
“Of course I
regret it. I miss being big—I miss all
sorts of things. I miss my school, my
friends—basic stuff like being able to reach a counter without climbing on
something, or getting to wear my old clothes or sleep in a bed that’s not so
big I practically get lost in it…..” She
took a deep breath. “I miss hearing my
old voice when I talk, being able to look adults right in the face, being—being
the age where people look at you and see a *person*,
not just a kid…..”
“I… miss Mouri Ran. I’ll never be her again, because I had to sort
of leave her behind—even when Shinichi and I grow up again, I’ll be Rin, not Ran. Ran can’t really exist anymore, except in my
memories… and when I dream.” Now she
blushed a little for some reason, still looking away. “I have to learn how to be somebody else, and
sometimes I’m not ready for that—sometimes it *hurts*, and sometimes I wonder
what in the world I was thinking…..”
“….. but never for very long.”
She paused, staring at the water with a curious little smile
on her face; Heiji swallowed hard. *The
eyes are the same… the eyes, and that smile of hers; that’s how she always
looked when she talked about Kudo.*
“I do regret having to do what I did; I’m no saint,
you know—ask Shinichi some time. I’m not
a martyr either; I realize that what I did was really impulsive, and I’m not
the only person who’s having the pay the consequences of what I chose….. but…..”
The pause stretched out for a long moment. “But?” he prompted, half afraid of what he
would hear.
“You see,” she said softly, “there’s a big difference
between regretting *having to do* something and actually regretting that you
*did* it. I’ve figured that out. I regret that I had to do what I did—but I
don’t regret having done it.” She turned
her head, steadily looking past the flow of water at the boy beyond; as if he
had heard her, Conan glanced up, and the guilty look slid away as he smiled.
“It’s not so bad a bargain.
Besides,” she added whimsically, grinning up at Heiji
with a charming little-girl grin as she slid down from the fountain’s rim,
“this way I get ten extra years before I *really*
have to grow up, right?”
Heiji shook his head. “Somebody call Peter
Pan,” he muttered…..
Rin gave him a Look.
He grinned at last, pushing his hat back from his forehead;
he supposed he felt a little better about the whole situation now—it was hard
to stay upset in the face of Rin’s I-can-handle-it
attitude. “You know,” he remarked, “I
guess it’s hitting me this way because, well, because I knew you before you changed.
I never knew Kudo—didn’t even meet him ‘til after he’d become a
runt. Hell, I’ve only seen him adult-sized a couple of times! But you, though….. I remember how you *were.*” The Osakajin shook his head.
The girl ducked her head, smiling just a little sadly. “Think of it as just… being in storage for a
while, sort of,” she suggested; the Western Detective just shook his head in
bafflement.
“So… what if this Ai person figures out a cure?” Heiji just had to
ask; I-can-handle-it attitude or not, she had
to hope for a cure--- Kudo damn sure wanted one—
Rin tilted her head a little to one side, considering. “If she does, we’ll pick up where we left
off, of course….. though, you know? I think I’d miss this just a little.”
Now he gave her a
Look. *Ran— Rin— you’re weird.*
Movement made him glance behind the girl; Conan walked up to
stand behind her—and for a second Heiji had a
strange, almost dizzying image flash through his mind: Kudo
Shinichi, not Conan, looming protectively over the small figure of the
girl-child with Mouri Ran’s eyes-- He blinked and wondered if maybe his hat was on
too tight today..…
…..and the image faded (it had been especially disconcerting
considering that Conan was actually slightly *shorter* than Rin). “Well,” the teenager said, not quite looking
the boy in the face, “I guess it’d be kind of stupid of me to yell at anybody
about this—except maybe that Haibara idiot, and it sounds like she’s sort of
paying her dues already.”
He didn’t miss the sigh of relief that the boy gave, or the
lessening of tension in the narrow, tight shoulders. Some of the pain in the dark blue eyes (not
all, but some of it, at least) seemed to lessen, and he offered a faint
half-smile to the other detective. “Yeah.”
Contemplating the two small figures before him, an unholy
light began to gleam in Heiji’s eyes; he grinned at
last and started to chuckle wickedly.
Conan frowned, glaring up at his friend.
“What’s so funny?”
“Heh heh….. all those protests about how you two felt
about each other, all those red, red faces…..”
The two glanced at each other, faces identically red all
over again… but if anything, they moved a little closer; Rin raised her chin
rather belligerently, eyes snapping.
“So…?”
Totally unrepentant, he snickered down at them both. “You make a really cute couple. When’s
the wedding?”
She blinked; “Ask us again in ten years.” Then Rin looked at Conan; Conan looked back at
Rin. “Would you like to kick him in the
ankle or shall I?” she inquired politely.
The boy smiled into her eyes. “Be my guest…..”
***thud!!***
“EEEYIPE!!”
*****************************************************************************************
To be continued……
(really quickly, too; I
have the next chapter mostly written, so don’t kill me, okay? My humongous thanks to Becky Tailweaver, Hauntress, Magik, Tina, Loquacious and the others for helping me with
this one and all the rest! Banzai!!!)