A.N. Okay folks, I was able to get another chapter out! YAY for me! I'm leaving tomorrow for Basic so I'll try not to leave too bad of a cliffy (but knowing me, I will as I love 'em so much!)

Thank you Mat49324, TopazledHannah-kun, Elaienar, hittocerebattosai, animegirl37, Immortal-Sacrifice, Sakura no Umi, isadorathegreat, Fauxmon, DarkWolfYoukai860, starfruit-22, Jho, ShonaiulaRose, Marie Ravenclaw, blahrius and Kyuuki-sama. I LOVE YOU ALL! You make me happy! And also thank you to all the people who have favorited this story. I LOVE YOU GUYS TOO!f

Disclaimer: Kaito Kid managed to slip through the knots of the rope I tied around him and also stole all my left shoes out of spite. I wonder if I can trick Akoko into helping me out with this… nah, didn't think so.

Alcohol's Hunt

Chapter Five

It was a good dream. One of his better ones in fact, since he didn't have liquor in his system to give him any of those weird dreams. This one had even consisted of Yoko-chan! She was singing a song about the time when…

The phone rang, startling him out of his sleep. Glaring at the offending item, he considered not answering it. Unfortunately the person on the other line could be a paying client, and Kogoro still needed to work. Even without alcohol.

"Mouri Detective Agency, how can I help you?" he said in a gruff voice making the words sound more hostile than polite.

"May I speak to Edogawa-kun?" a girl's voice asked. There was only one friend of the brat's that could be so professional. Normally he would have yelled at the kid for calling before acquiescing to the request. But that little girl was one exception. He ignored her as often as he could given mainly to the fact that whenever he did do something to warrant her attention, her blatant stare gave him the creeps.

Leaving the phone without giving her an answer, the detective walked over to the couch where the little boy was sleeping with his finished homework stacked neatly in a pile next to him. Kogoro had to admit that the brat finished his homework unusually fast and he was forced to admit the kid was smarter than he wanted to let on.

Without abandon, he picked up Conan with one arm and enjoyed the squawk that came with someone being woken up in such a disconcerting manner. "Don't you have a cell phone?" The boy blinked owlishly at him as if trying to determine if Kogoro was speaking Japanese or not and did not answer.

Kogoro dragged Conan over to the phone and thrust it in his hands before setting himself back down at his desk, his every intention of going back to sleep.

"Moshi moshi?" He heard Conan say. His voice was crisp and clear as if he hadn't been asleep. Kogoro even turned to see that the blank look the boy had earlier was rapidly receding. "Oh sorry about that, the battery must have run out." Kogoro was about to close his eyes when another change in Conan's voice drew his attention.

"What?" Conan's voice was sharp and demanding. A tone he couldn't remember hearing from him before.

"What happened?" Kogoro heard the murmur of Haibara's voice on the other end speaking rapidly.

"Where's Agasa?" There was a slight pause as Conan listened to her answer. Great, the old man went missing while leaving a seven-year-old alone and now the little girl was panicking. She should probably be talking to an adult that would be able to calm her down instead of worrying another little kid.

Making his decision quick he snatched the phone out of Conan's hand, earning another squawk and instant whining, and pressed the receiver to his ear. He was about to say something consoling when the rapid murmur became clear through the earpiece.

"-searched everywhere, Kudo-kun. I told you, I don't know where he is!" But Kogoro didn't here the last sentence. He didn't notice that the girl on the other line had gone silent after realizing that Conan was no longer on the phone.

There were times when Kogoro had suspected the kid to be a genius. Every time he would suspect it, it would be shot down with Conan finally acting like the stupid little kid he was, still unable to tie his shoelaces (not that he could verify that). But the idea that Conan was anyone other than who he said he was, Kudo especially, was-

"Ridiculous," he finally spat into the receiver of the phone only to realize it was only the dial tone he heard on the other line. He then noticed that Conan's whining for the phone had ceased and he looked down only to see Conan was no longer in the room.

Intent on going with his original plan, Kogoro grabbed his jacket and walked out the front door headed in the direction of that crazy scientist's house.

He hoped the doctor was okay though. If not, well he'd think about that later.

They reminded him of Snake with their dark clothing and insistence that he was someone he was not. Not that he made an attempt to correct them. The obviously wanted Kudo alive or they would have killed Kaito on the spot when they saw him. The three of them arranged themselves in the car to where he would not be able to escape.

Kaito sighed, this would be one time he would consider it a huge disadvantage to look so much like the teenaged detective.

And these people gave him the creeps. It was the American woman who freaked him out the most though. At first she had given a look of disbelief when she saw him, quickly covered in favor of an expressionless face until he saw a brief look of recognition followed by a Mona Lisa smile that only grew as time went by.

The car ride was silent as the three people in black made the teenager more and more nervous. It wasn't long before they pulled up to what looked to Kaito to be a research lab and the blond man yanked Kaito out of the car and dragged him towards the building.

Damn smart people and their death grips! Kaito thought as he gave an experimental tug. Even a flash bomb wouldn't work.

No matter where he called or what number he used, Agasa would not pick up. None of the Detective Boys knew where he was either. He had to pull every trick in the book not to have them too worried but he knew their never-ending curiosity would have started one of their investigations and there was nothing he'd be able to do to stop them.

Once he arrived at Agasa's, he found Haibara in her lab imputing information onto her computer from the pages she must have gotten from Vermouth.

"What do you think Vermouth is up to?" he asked knowing that the scientist already knew he was there. Haibara ignored him and continued to type. Shinichi sighed and leaned against the doorway. "Why would she help us?" His voice came out sounding more desperate and childish than he'd intended.

"What the hell is all this?" a booming voice demanded. Shinichi and Haibara both jumped and quickly turned around to find that Mouri had followed him to the house. The man was looking around in awe and Shinichi noticed Haibara quickly hide her work under a computer puzzle game.

Mouri finished his inspection of the room and looked down to face the cool looks over both shrunken teenagers. He then focused his gaze on Haibara. "Where's the old man?"

Haibara glared at him sideways before replying, "Shopping."

Mouri glared down at her. "And he left you here alone?"

"I'm seven, I can handle being alone for a few hours."

"Not on my watch." With that, he surprised both of them by snatching them up and dragging them away. "You're staying with me until the good professor comes home."

Great, Shinichi thought, now he gets responsible.

A.N. (breaks into song) Cuz I'm leavin' on a jet plane, don't know when I'll be back again.

You know there's actually a pretty good AMV of Detective Conan to that song if anyone wants to check it out. Just go to youtube and look for Detective Conan Leaving on a Jet Plane. Oh, and for those of you who are running out of fanfiction to read, I found this good book that you may be interested in called Down the Rabbit Hole by Peter Abrahams. Any Detective Conan fan would like that book. It's not about Detective Conan, but it does have similarities.

I guess I'll see y'all on the other side!

Ja ne!

-Yinnie