The Most Important Person in the World To You Is…?

Chapter 1

Pursuit

"What do you mean you're not coming back yet?" Ran yelled into her father's phone with Shinichi on the other side, plugging his ears. Ran breathed heavily into the receiver with rage. She could not believe he'd broken his promise...again. Shinichi said he was coming back soon, but the drug that Haibara made for him didn't work for the fifth time in a row. He is still a little kid from the drug he was forced to take six months ago.

"I'm sorry Ran...could you please stop yelling?" Shinichi asked while rubbing his ears from her screaming.

"No I cannot! Do you have any idea how much I've been suffering from you being gone? I might as well as go out and find a new best friend, because you obviously aren't interested in being my friend!" Ran said as she started crying.

"Don't even bother with that brat Ran. He's not good enough for you," Ran's father, Kogoro Mouri said as he smoked a cigarette and read a newspaper at his desk. Ran just looked at him with a you're-only-adding-to-my-depression face. She shook her head and went back to her conversation.

"I don't know what to do with you Shinichi! You've become so different! I don't even know you anymore!" Ran said before she slammed down the phone and stormed off to her room. She screamed so loud that Kogoro plugged his ears before she slammed her bedroom door, making the noise echo through the detective agency. Kogoro picked up the phone when it rang. It was Shinichi, making Kogoro's blood boil.

"Listen Kudo, if you think you can make my daughter cry and suffer all the time, you can think again!" Kogoro yelled. Shinichi sighed.

"Just let Ran know that I don't know how she feels, but I'm promising her that I will show myself to her soon. Please Oji-san? Please? She's my best friend..." Shinichi pleaded. Kogoro sighed.

"I'll let it slide this time, and tell her that, but next time, you won't be so lucky!" Kogoro said before he hung up. Next, he unplugged the phone.

Shinichi was standing right in front of the apartment at the pay phone, in his little boy body. More like Conan Edogawa. Conan hung up after he heard Kogoro upstairs yelling at himself. He walked out of the phone booth, and walked up the stairs to Kogoro's home. He opened the door saying "I'm home!", but nobody said anything, until Kogoro got up and asked Conan where he was.

"What took you do long you little brat? Don't you know its past six o'clock? We've been waiting for you to come back so that Ran can run to the store for some food, and I'm hungry!" Kogoro shouted in his face.

"You've been drinking again Oji-san...you smell like beer," he said in smart-ass tone. Kogoro took him from the back of his coat and threw him into his bedroom.

"Owww! That hurt!" Conan yelled back at him. Kogoro slammed the door after him, and locked it.

"You get one hour as time-out! You are too smart for your own good!" Kogoro yelled.

"Jeez...you old geezer..."

Hi...I'm Shinichi Kudo, for most of you may know, I'm a high school detective who has the mind of an adult. Six months ago, I was at the amusement park with my best friend Mouri Ran, and followed two suspicious looking men dressed in black. I was spying, and managed to get caught. They forced me to take a drug, and with that, I became a seven year old kid. When Ran found me and asked me what my name was, I knew I couldn't tell her about being Shinichi because my friend Professor Agasa told me not to tell anyone, so I ended up telling her that my name was Edogawa Conan. Now, I live with my best friend and her father Mouri Kogoro without them knowing I'm Shinichi. Kogoro is a private detective who used to work for the police, even though I'm the one who solves his cases secretly by using certain devices that Dr. Agasa makes for me.

My parents Yusaku and Yukiko Kudo, Dr. Agasa, Heiji Hattori, and Haibara Ai are the only people who know about me being Shinichi Kudo. Haibara is really named Shiho Miyano who used to work for the Black Organization with her sister Akemi Miyano. Akemi was killed by Gin and Vodka, the ones who poisoned me, and so Shiho went against the Black Organization, but got shrunk into a child just like me while trying to commit suicide. The drug is really supposed to kill you, but it just shrinks your body. Haibara and I both go to elementary school to cover up our true identities, and made friends along the way. Three kids in the first grade: Ayumi Yoshida, Genta Kojima, and Mitsuhiko Tsuburaya, and all five of us are members of the Detective Boys, even though I don't want to be...Haibara still researches the poison that she made in the organization so that she can cute my shrunken body, but no success after five tries. So, as you guessed, I am just a high school detective in disguise from the Black Organization that still doesn't know I'm a child. Although I'm little, I'll put those low-life criminals behind bars!

After Conan's hour of time-out was over, he walked into the living room when Kogoro unlocked the door. Conan looked around, and found Ran's bedroom door open. He walked over and searched around, but she wasn't there.

"Hey Oji-san? Where's Ran-neechan?" Conan asked Kogoro. Kogoro just peered up from his newspaper and went back to reading.

"Are you stupid? She went to get ingredients for our dinner. She asked if you wanted to come, but I said you were in punishment. So deal with it!" He yelled. Conan looked down at the floor. Seeing one of his mystery comics on the table, he walked over to the couch and read his book until Ran came back.

Ran was having a hard time thinking about what to have for a main dish: fried noodles, which her father wanted, or onigiri with different kinds of fish, which Conan said was good for your brain because fish had nutrients and rice was a supplement in Japan, which was always number one.

"I think I'll go with Conan's choice! After all, he's smart with brain foods, just like- just like...Shinichi..." she whispered to herself. Ran stared at the floor with tears welling up in her eyes. Before she knew it, she had tears falling from the tip of her nose to the floor. She stared up at someone in the same aisle as her. It was a plump lady in her forties staring back at Ran.

"Hey girl, are you alright? Are you crying?" she asked quietly. Ran shook her head.

"I'm alright. Thanks for asking," Ran smiled at her to hide her sadness. The lady just walked away with a straight face, showing Ran she didn't believe her. She sighed and carried on with her shopping. Walking to the cash register, Ran felt something very strange. Almost like, someone watching her, but she looked around, and didn't see anyone. She checked out the windows and different aisles, but nobody was there except the lone employee working the cash register, the woman in her forties who saw Ran cry, an old man with a cane walking very slowly, and herself. Everybody was shopping or reading magazines. She shrugged off her fears, and walked up to the cash register. She handed all her ingredients to the girl, but the staring feeling was still bothering her.

"That will be two thousand one hundred and forty yen, please," the girl said. Ran fished two one-thousand yen bills out of her wallet with a bunch of change. Suddenly, Ran spilled her change everywhere when she felt a sharp stare in her back. She desperately looked everywhere, but saw no one. She was getting very annoyed. The girl helped Ran pick up her change, counted out what the cash register needed, and then headed out with her groceries. Ran walked down the street feeling anxious to look around, but she didn't have time. Conan and her father would both be hungry.

Ran looked at her watch. It was getting dark earlier as winter approached, reading seven thirty-six. Ran tried to hurry down the street as dark clouds were forming over the starry night sky. Five minutes later, it was pouring with rain and Ran was drenched to the bone. She ran over to a closed flower shop cover, and waited for a few minutes. When the rain got lighter, she started walking again. It was very dark, and all she could see were rotting tree leaves lying on the ground. The dark branches of nearby bushes swayed in the wind, and her skin shivered as the wind passed by like frozen knifes digging through her flesh. Ran was only wearing her school uniform. It was getting colder by the minute and she didn't have much time before she froze. She started running, but then for some reason, she heard footsteps other than her own. Ran stopped, it stopped, she ran, they ran, she walked, and they walked. Ran started to get scared, and ran as fast as she could without dropping her bags, all the way home, still hearing the other footsteps.

When Ran reached her apartment, she could see the lights upstairs in the agency were off already. She looked at her watch and it was shortly after eight.

What's happening? It's so weird today...I'm paying for groceries at seven o'clock, and then it's suddenly almost eight. I wonder if someone was following me…

Ran headed upstairs, and unlocked her apartment door, finding her father in bed, and Conan reading on the couch. Conan didn't notice her come in and was still reading his comic from earlier. Conan finished his comic, closed it, and found Ran standing at the door entrance staring at the floor. Conan hoped off the couch and slowly approached her.

"Are you okay, Ran-neechan? You don't look so well," Conan asked curiously.

"I...I don't really know...all I remember is walking to the store, getting groceries, walking home, and ending up here. It started raining really heavily halfway though..." Ran said slowly, with a slightly stiff smile. Conan looked at her strangely, as if she was crazy, but he just walked up to her as she bent down to the floor breathing heavily. He rubbed her back gently with a frown on his face.

"What happened to you? Are you sick?" Conan asked again. Ran looked up at him with a straight expression. She got up slowly with Conan holding her bags for her, and they set them on the counter in the kitchen. Ran walked over to the couch where Conan sat before, and plunged into the sofa cushions as if she just got back from a thirty mile jog. Ran opened her eyes weakly, and smiled at Conan with tears in her eyes. Conan walked to her side.

"What's wrong? Were you crying earlier?" he asked her.

"Yes...in the store. It's alright, though. I'm fine, but…while I ran home, I know this may sound crazy, but I felt like someone was following me...watching my every move...in the store, I felt pain in my back like a piercing glare was following me. Then I ran home," Ran said.

"You think you were being followed? Did you catch a glimpse of this person at all?" Conan asked faster than she could follow. Ran just smiled and touched the side of his face with her hand.

"No...I didn't see...but...this probably isn't the sort of thing I should be telling you...you're just a child after all..." Ran said. Conan just stared at her and lightly rubbed Ran's hand before she dropped it from his face. He looked down at the floor, but then he perked up.

"By the way Ran! Did Oji-san tell you about Shinichi calling you back earlier?" Conan asked curiously.

"No, he didn't...but...to tell you the truth, Conan-kun...I don't want to know what he said...I'm extremely angry at that guy right now..." Ran said with her eyes closed about to fall asleep. Conan just sighed.

"Ran-neechan...he cares about you a lot...I've heard him talk about you all the time...he's always thinking about you, and always cares about what you're doing and what you're thinking...you're very special to Shinichi-niichan..." Conan stated as if Shinichi were saying it, but it was too late. Ran had fallen asleep right when she closed her eyes. Conan smiled.

"Sweet dreams...Ran...and stay home tomorrow, would ya?" he whispered into her ear while putting a blanket on her. Without thinking much about it, he kissed Ran's cheek lightly. Conan smiled at her sleeping face one last time, turned off the reading lamp, and headed to bed. Once he closed his bedroom door, Kogoro peered around the corner of his bedroom.

Conan, don't tell me...you're...Shinichi...no...He couldn't be...could he?

To Be Continued...