Tragedy's Silver Lining Ch. 1

Zinfandel used to have a different name, but that was before she had joined the Organization. So, that name meant nothing to her now. Her old name had been thrown away, forgotten, just like everything else from her past life. However, she was quite new to the Organization, having voluntarily become a member just a few months earlier at the ripe young age of sixteen. Her only contact so far had been Vermouth, but she had been readily informed that her sniping and evasion skills had extremely impressed the boss. Thus far, every murder she had committed in the Organization’s name was either unsolved or blamed on someone completely innocent. So, she was quite looking forward to the day that she would meet others and work her way up this particular social ladder. And she had a feeling that day was coming soon.

However, she was not hidden within the darkness by order of the Organization. No, she was there for entirely personal reasons. Exactly two days prior, Zinfandel had found the pictures on Vermouth’s dartboard. The one of the light brown-haired woman she had paid no heed because of the bright red X mark on it. However, the other two had worried her: a black-haired girl about her age named “Angel” and a bespectacled, primary school boy labeled as “Cool Guy”. She wasn’t sure how they were related to Vermouth, but they were definitely not part of the Organization, and bonds like that in their line of work always proved naught but dangerous. So, she had opted to just get rid of the problem herself. That way, even if the Organization managed to trace the deaths and relationships back to her director, Vermouth could easily claim to have order the hits.

After finding the pictures, Zinfandel had immediately set to work on finding their identities. With the sources at her disposal, the search to find out their names and address had been easy and took no longer than a few hours. Nor was it hard to find the Mouri girl’s friends and the existence of the giant birthday bash currently taking place.

Anyway, she wanted this to be inconspicuous as possible, and that meant hitting only her two targets. If no one else was murdered, it would be assumed by the police that the teenage girl and young boy had been the unfortunate victims of someone who had a grudge against Kogorou Mouri based on the evidence she had left around for them to find. Once the three children had gotten out of the bumper cars, Zinfandel was presented with the perfect chance. They were no longer moving along jerky paths at unpredictable speeds, and they were far enough away from anyone else that she had a clear shot. Her first target was the boy, because something she had seen in his eyes frightened her. Taking careful aim, she glared at him for a few seconds and fired.

Fortunately or unfortunately, those seconds had been the biggest mistake of her short-lived career. Because even though Ran still wasn’t sure that Conan and Shinichi weren’t the same person, she had developed a sixth sense about the shrunken detective not unlike the one every mother has about her children. She had felt the glare aimed at Conan and threw herself in the path of the bullet to protect him, just like she had done to protect Ai all those months before.

That was when time seemed to stand still. No one had heard the shot that was fired because of a silencer. Nevertheless, everyone heard the shrill scream that had been unleashed by Sonoko as she watched Ran fall to the ground, blood spurting from her forehead where the bullet had gone through. Then as the miniature detective automatically called the police, many large flash bombs exploded around Zinfandel. A multitude of people saw that and pointed toward the no longer dark rooftop shouting, “Over there! Over there!”

Letting out a long stream of colorful language at being discovered, Zinfandel started packing up her gun as quickly as she possibly could, knowing there wasn’t time to try and kill the little boy as well. Expert marksman she may be, but she was still a novice when it came to actual experience and hadn‘t taken extra precautions to not get caught, because her prior plans had always gone perfectly. So, she hadn’t thought to wear gloves, and she couldn’t let the police get the gun or the case that had her fingerprints on it. Tragically for her, by the time she had gotten everything packed away and reached the base of the building, it had been surrounded by policemen. And with so much damning evidence on her person, she was easily arrested, all the while wondering who had set off those flash bombs.

Later at about two in the morning, Conan Edogawa sat next to a sobbing Sonoko at the police station where they were waiting with dozens of other people to give a witness statement. He had experienced the extreme shock and horror of what had happened as he watched the girl he loved die an instant gory death. Now, he was waiting for the agonizing pain to overwhelm him and to start crying, much like the girl next to him was doing. However, he knew it would never come. His body and mind had skipped right through that phase and straight to becoming a empty shell.

“Conan-kun, it’s your turn now,” called the kind, patient, and unmistakable voice of Inspector Takagi. He was standing by the door of his office, waiting for the young boy to reply. That was when Conan realized it wasn’t the first time he’d been called. Nodding, the bespectacled boy got up and walked toward the office. His movements were so stiff that they seemed robot-like. A few minutes later, he was sitting a large, comfortable chair next to a table with a steaming mug of hot chocolate for him that he already knew he wouldn’t drink. In a tone as gentle and unintrusive as he could manage, Takagi said, “Conan-kun, can you tell me what happened tonight?”

“Ran-nee-chan and I went to Sonoko-nee-chan’s party,” Conan started hesitantly after a while in a monotone voice. His tone greatly disturbed the inspector, and Conan could feel it, but Takagi remained silent. “We were having fun in the bumper cars for a while when Sonoko-nee-chan decided she wanted some ice cream. So, we all got off and headed toward the dessert stand. We’d been walking for about a minute, and Ran-nee-chan threw herself in front of me quite abruptly. The next thing I saw was blood spurting from her forehead and her body falling to the ground. At the same time, Sonoko-nee-chan screamed. Automatically, I called the police on my cell phone; I already knew that it was too late, that she was dead. Then, a lot of people started shouting and pointing toward something, and I saw flash bombs going off on a roof about five hundred meters away. I also saw Kaitou Kid flying away on his hang glider after throwing the last flash bomb, but he didn’t have a heist tonight. So, I’m guessing he just happened to be in the right place at the right time, if you could call it that.”

Then, Conan looked up and what Takagi saw then was more disturbing than everything else about this whole case put together. Those normally deeply expressive bright blue eyes looked absolutely hollow, hopeless, and lifeless. No seven-year-old boy should have such eyes. Pushing that thought aside as much as he possibly could, he realized he had learned three new things from the boy’s statement. 1. Mouri Ran, Suzuki Sonoko, and Edogawa Conan had been riding the bumper cars. 2. Mouri Ran had been protecting the boy. 3. Kaitou Kid had set off the flash bombs. No one else had noticed Kaitou Kid or that Conan was being protected. He idly wondered if a Kaitou Kid testimony would hold up in court if the police ever did manage to get a hold of the phantom thief, but with so many other eye witnesses, it probably wouldn’t even be necessary.

Unsurprisingly, the suspect was not talking, and despite having her fingerprints, they had not found her in any of the criminal databases. They had however, found out who she was. Her name was Kaneko Hasho, a sixteen-year-old student at Toshika High School. Either way, it didn’t really matter who she was anymore, just what she had done. Sighing, Takagi tenderly told Conan he could go and went to call in the next witness.

Left to his own devices, the boy headed back to the Mouri Detective Agency. Thoughts and questions he’d never know the answers to swirled through his mind. Why her? Why now? Why not him instead? Was he next? What should he do now? Was there any point to anything anymore? These thoughts should have been accompanied by pain or fear or something, but nothing came. He was still just as hollow, as empty as he had been fifteen minutes afore. Guilt was eating him alive, because it was his fault she had died. Of course it was, why else would someone from the Black Organization be targeting them? There was also a very tiny amount of gratitude towards Kid hidden somewhere in there for helping the murderer be caught. But beyond that, he wasn’t feeling much of anything at all.

When he got back to the detective agency, Conan went straight to bed, but he did not go to sleep. Rather, he lie awake as those same thoughts tumbled around relentlessly in his head. When he got up about five hours later, there were dark, black shadows under his eyes, and his whole body screamed in exhaustion. However, he shuffled downstairs and was unsurprised to see a newspaper sitting on the table with the headline Murderer Commits Suicide on the front page. The article detailed both the murder and the suicide. In the five minutes the suspect had been left alone, she had slit her own throat with a small knife that had apparently been hidden in her hair. Conan knew the truth, that it was murder, but this case was over now. And he couldn’t find it in himself to care much about the death of the one who had murdered his love.

Anyway, he threw the newspaper back on the table and just stood around for a few minutes. He couldn’t manage to go to school, to the stares and the questions. He wasn’t hungry, and he wanted to be alone. So, he took the one option available to his muddled mind. Conan went back upstairs and back to bed. This time though, his body overpowered his mind, forcing him into a restless slumber.