(A/N): I'm still alive, haha.

Chapter 07: A Second Lease on Life

A light summer rain had been going on throughout the day and it seemed that it would last forever. The train station was crowded as per the normal time of day; the weekend was finally over and people were heading back home. The scene at the platform for the train heading to Tokyo, however, was more crowded than usual. At the entrance of the Shinkansen towards the center of the train, a bloodied man lay on the floor. A small pool of blood emanating from his stomach indicated the location of his wound: a stab to the back while people were getting off.

The Lead Inspector had shown up to the scene of the murder, his number two beside him. They had stopped at the front of where the crowd had gathered and saw a strange sight before his eyes; a boy and a girl looking over and inspecting the corpse in the middle of the crime scene. The person beside him began to shift away slightly, afraid of getting accidentally hit by the support on his left; if nothing else she didn't want to go deaf from the shouting that was sure to occur.

"Hey! I thought I told you to secure the area and not let anybody near the crime scene!" Yamato Kansuke was livid, to say the least…

The senior police officer stood at attention upon hearing his superior's voice. "Ah, yes! Nobody besides those two have been inside the crime scene. They were the first ones to discover the body and prevent the area from being destroyed. They even had people rounded up who exited through the same location as them." pointing to a long seat in the open area. Ayumi, Genta, and Mitsuhiko were tending to the children and gathering information from the possible suspects in the seated area. "We have two officers monitoring them to make sure they don't destroy the crime scene as well as some officers that are questioning the suspects right now."

Uehara Yui looked on impressively. "Oh? Not bad for some high-school kids."

Kansuke looked at her incredulously. "This is not the time to be congratulating them! This isn't some murder-mystery game where a wrong answer doesn't have any reversible consequences; this is the real thing!" He turned to the police officer. "Anyway, who is the kid?!"

"He said that he was a high school detective, sir." In a lower voice, he added, "Actually, I overheard the two talking… he sounded pretty confident and started laughing while telling the girl that because this is under Nagano jurisdiction that Inspector Yamato would get to greet an old friend of Kudou Shinichi's here."

Yui looked at Kansuke. "An old friend of Kudou Shinichi?"

Kansuke, on the other hand, didn't look convinced. "Kudou Shinichi? That phantom detective? What old buddy of his would I meet here?! It's not like that idiot of a detective Mouri is here… right… now…" his tone of voice slowly dropped and a smirk developed on his face. "Yui, let's go say hello."

A confused look washed over her face as the two passed the police officer and headed towards the boy, the girl, and the dead body. "Eh, Kan-chan? What are you smiling about?"

Once within' striking distance, Kansuke suddenly threw his good arm around the high school boy's shoulders and asked, "So what've we got here, shrimp?" The officers in the area were surprised to see the gruff Yamato Kansuke acting so friendly with anybody, especially a high-schooler.

Before the boy could even say hello, the girl responded, "The amount of blood-loss suggests that he was stabbed with a sharp object, where it was then moved around internally; most likely twisted after being impaled. There are marks around the wound that indicate the object might have been rotated clockwise after entering and before being pulled out."

The boy took over. "There's also some blood spots and smears on his upper back, suggesting that the suspect had placed their right hand to push him forward so that he could pull out the object used to stab him. The thing is… why keep the weapon on them? It may be likely that the suspect wanted to discard the weapon at a different location or, even possibly, because they couldn't afford to leave the weapon at the crime scene because it would make it too obvious. If that's the case…"

The girl questioned him. "You didn't already figure out what the weapon is, did you?"

"If my hunch is correct, they probably still have it on them and think that because the police have already searched through their belongings that it wouldn't be obvious. Since just about everybody has one on them, I'm sure that he's holding on to it very tightly."

Kansuke just laughed, tightening his grip on the boy. "Still as sharp as ever, I see. You even have a partner that can keep up with you." Even Yui was surprised by his behavior. 'Just who can get Kansuke to act this way?'

"Kan-chan, who is it?"

Both Kansuke and the boy turned around. "It's been a long time, Yui-san."

"Conan-kun?!" a surprised Yui now wrapped him in a hug. "You've definitely grown! I guess that I shouldn't have been surprised, but who's your partner?" she asked curiously while sending a wink in Haibara's direction.

A 16-year-old Conan looked at Haibara with a thoughtful look and said, "Well, if I'm Holmes… then she would have to be Watson, right?" before laughing. "I guess it helps that she was a scientist in her former life."

Haibara gave an unamused expression. "So I'm Watson now? Personally I always thought that Irene Adler fit my personality much more though."

A slight hue began showing on Conan's face, "Oi, you're supposed to be my partner, aren't you?" Turning to Kansuke, he asked, "So Inspector, did you come to arrest the person who murdered him or catch up on old times?"

Kansuke motioned towards the seats. "It seems I get to do both; why don't you show me your skills that made Mouri look so good?" and with a laugh, walked alongside Conan towards the seats.

While Kansuke was distracted, Haibara hands Yui a small gift-wrapped box. "A gift from him to the two of you. He says 'Congratulations to you both.', but knowing the Inspector's personality he wanted to give it to the person who would have more of a reaction to it."

Yui accepted the gift, a red tint on her cheeks. Quickly putting it in her jacket, she looked up and asked, "How does he even know? We haven't even told anybody in the department yet… I mean, we haven't even told anybody in the village."

Haibara looked at the boy, who was beginning to reveal the culprit, with a warming smile on her face. "It feels like he just seems to be able to read people's minds, doesn't it?" (1)

Uehara Yui looked out the window from her desk inside the Nagano Metropolitan HQ detective's room, wondering if the young Kanzo was doing well with the nanny. 'I shouldn't be worried, Kanzo acts almost exactly like his father after all.' Her desk was simply laid out, with only two personal things to identify it as hers: A photo from her wedding day and a small ceramic statue of Takeda Shingen's strategist, Yamamoto Kansuke. (2)

As the other detectives were congregating around Hitomi's desk ("What else is new?" Yui inwardly thought), a sudden opening of the door silenced all happenings in the room. "Uehara! Clear the afternoon schedule, we have an emergency meeting with that kid in conference room two!"

"Eh?! Kan-ch… erm, Superintendent, isn't that a bit sudden? The 2nd Division's meeting is there today and they've narrowed down the suspects for medical clinic fire. They want to run all the information through you and proce-"

Yamato Kansuke was busy rummaging through a compartment in his desk, pulling out papers and shoving them into a folder. "Don't worry about that, it's already been taken care of. I've issued a warrant for the suspect's arrest."

The others in the room were stunned. "Bu- but sir," Hitomi started, "if we issue a warrant without proof, then the media will be all over our mistake! Especially with the recent mishandling of the home robberies that are still ongoing…"

Kansuke casted a glance at Hitomi, "We don't have to worry about that anymore either; I sent Toushirou to go pick up the suspect for the home robberies case just now, too. The media won't have anything to report now that we've cleared everything up… Well, except for our quick turnaround time!"

The entire room was surprised that the Superintendent had all matters settled. Hitomi leaned back in her chair and cast a glance at Yui, "This must be why he's the Super."

Closing his drawer and picking up the folder, Kansuke looked at Hitomi. "I have to thank him for helping me get to this situation. It pains me to say that his deductions are always right, but sometimes his requests are as ridiculous as his deductions!" Looking back at Yui, "Bring the black box; I should be grateful that he only wants information this time, but he's getting some botamochi whether he likes it or not!" before turning around and walking back towards the hallway.

Yui could only sigh in defeat. "It's been awhile since I've seen the Superintendent so active like that." one of the detectives walked up to her desk, staring down the hallway and the distant figure of Kansuke walking towards the elevator. "Usually it only happens when Inspector Morofushi shows up, but isn't he in Osaka helping out some money laundering case there?"

The entire room had gone mostly silent. Grabbing a black decorative bento box from her drawer, she replied, "Yeah, Komei's still stuck there for a few more days. It's a shame that Conan-kun won't be able to see both of them this time; it's always quite a sight to see those three together."

"'Conan-kun'… are you talking about Edogawa Conan?" Hitomi asked. "The kid who's always helping the Tokyo Police Department all the time?"

Yui pulled out the black bento box from her desk. "Well, at least I know why Kan-chan was up this morning making botamochi." Turning to look at Hitomi, she continued. "Yup, the very same one. He's the one that helped Kan-Chan get the Superintendent position when it was open. You wouldn't have thought that only being 14 at the time that he would have some clout with the higher-ups, but Conan-kun is definitely something special."

...

...

"Explain to me again why I have to be here again?"

"You're more than welcome to teach them English instead, but I thought that rescuing you from the horror that would've been 'advanced English sentence structure'; even though they should've learned this back in the first year of school."

"I'm sure that Hakase is doing just fine diverting their attention with his latest invention; it's buying you time here and getting to snoop around, after all…"

Conan shot a mock-look of shock at Haibara. "I'm appalled that you think I would be here snooping! I was merely coming by to see how the cases I helped Superintendent Yamato-san with came along."

"You could've just called."

A door opens and two figures walked in, "… but instead you chose to come see me directly, which means you want something don't you kid?"

Conan could only grin. "What? It's hard to get good botamochi in Tokyo."

Haibara stood up and bowed. "Oh, she's here? If I knew that I would've told Yui to bring the pup, too."

"Eh heh heh… She was a last minute addition. Holmes could never really walk around without Watson, after all."

Haibara sat back down and yawned. "Irene Adler would've never had this issue."

Yui closed the door behind them and sat down. "So what did you two have to talk about that couldn't be done in our house?"

"It's about the Chris Vineyard detail that Morofushi-san is on right now."

Yui looked surprised. "What? He's helping the Osaka Police Department with money laun-"

Kansuke cut her off. "Looks like trying to deflect is useless." Turning to Conan, "Yeah, the money laundering case was finished off a week ago. Taka's there as Nagano's representative; a show of support and unity among the departments. I guess that I shouldn't be surprised that you know about this?"

Conan took a piece of paper out of his pocket and handed it to Kansuke. "Compliments of the Osaka Police Department; coincidentally a thank you for helping them with a money laundering case. By the way, Morofushi-san says hello; he can't wait to eat your botamochi when he gets back." Kansuke could only grin. "Honestly, I just want to talk to her to find out why she's back in the country. If it's to lure people out then we could be in a little bit of danger."

His grin disappeared and his eyes narrowed. "Danger?"

"Chris Vineyard was a high ranking member of the Black Organization that was taken down seven years ago. It's the same group that forced the creation of the aliases of Edogawa Conan and Haibara Ai."

A raised eyebrow was the only reaction from Yamato Kansuke, but was much more reserved than the multitude of facial expressions running through Yui's face. Silence filled the room for a minute before Kansuke finally spoke, "I always wondered how you manipulated that knucklehead Mouri… So you really are Kudou Shinichi, aren't you?"

Snapping out of her surprise, Yui looked at Kansuke. "Kan-chan, you can't seriously be asking that question… Conan-kun may be smart, but he can't be another person entirely."

Conan raised his hand before scratching the back of his head sheepishly. "Ehh… well he's not wrong. There's a long story involved in this one, Yui-san, but aroun-

Kansuke pushed the folder on the table towards Conan. "Meh, you were Edogawa Conan to me before; so you still are Edogawa Conan to me. My guess is that you're slightly pressed for time, so we'll have the conversation regarding how you became who you are now for another time. All the information regarding the Chris Vineyard visitation details are in there. You have Taka's number, so contact him if you need help with anything while you're in Osaka; not that you haven't already contacted him. We may pay a visit ourselves, too."

Grabbing the folder, Conan and Haibara stood up and bowed. "Thanks Superintendent." While rounding the table, Conan hands the folder to Haibara and picks up the black bento box. "For the botamochi, too."

Kansuke and Yui got up and the followed the two high-schoolers out in to the hallway. Silence dominated the hallway for the short walk back to the detective's offices. Upon reaching the doorway, Haibara stopped and turned around. "You're rather calm about finding out the truth, Superintendent Yamato. It took us some convincing before even Inspector Megure started to believe us."

Kansuke just looked at them both. "Meh, your eyes give it away. They're the gateway to see into someone's inner soul; and you two have an aura as if you feel that you don't belong in the current environment you're supposed to be in."

Yui looked around to see the other detectives in the office listening in on their conversation; most likely in admiration of seeing somebody talk to the Superintendent with such candor they could only dream about. Conan broke the silence in the air. "Well, being forced in to a new environment isn't necessarily a bad thing sometimes." And looked at Haibara with a smirk. "It's like being somebody completely different."

A soft smile appeared on Haibara's face as she faced the two Nagano detectives. "Yeah, I guess you could say that it's a second lease on life."

(1) I'm slightly dating myself here, but if I remember correctly I was watching "The Sum of All Fears" while I was typing this specific part of the chapter, and it's a slight parody of the last scene (if anybody remembers / knows what I'm talking about anyway).

(2) Episode 516 - It's first mentioned in this episode (manga chapter 613 for the bookies) that Yamato Kansuke is a reference for the Samurai Strategist in the Sengoku Period, Yamamoto Kansuke. In keeping with that tradition, his son (albeit he was adopted) follows the same naming scheme (for reference, the adopted son's name was Yamamoto Kanzo Nobutomo).

- Hitomi is either a Dead or Alive reference or another anime reference; I can't for the life of me remember why I specifically chose that name.

- The botamochi reference is from 'The Red Wall' case (I'm honestly too lazy to remember which Episode / Chapter it specifically covered, but it was actually the prequel to 'The Red Wall' case where Yui and Kansuke were on their way to Detective Mouri's office.

(A/N): Interestingly enough, I typed this out years ago and never posted it. I should get back in to writing; it is rather enjoyable. Sorry to keep stringing you all along. .