Mushi Mushi this is Kira-chan with another new story. Justin44 asked me to write this story (though he's handling basic plotting I'm pretty much just narrating and making it run more smoothly) and obviously I agreed to do it. It's a bit different from the stories that I usually write but there are some future plot developments with the potential to be very interesting, so there's definitely something for you to look forward to.

Figure I may as well say this now: Neither I nor Justin-kun own Dectective Conan/Case Closed and that is a fact that probably won't be changing in the future... but if it does I'll be sure to brag about it.

I hope you enjoy this chapter, whether you do or don't please review at the bottom anyway, it doesn't really take that much effort.

Chapter 1: Something lost and something gained

Looking at the young boy as he lay in the hospital bed I could hardly believe that it'd already been three days since I'd found him. He looked to be about five or six... maybe seven. He hadn't woken up since the day I'd found him but every time I looked at him I couldn't help but think of Shinichi since the boy's face looked so similar to his.

It was so strange, the day I found this boy was the same day that Shinichi had disappeared... at this point I was even entertaining the thought that maybe something strange had happened and this boy was Shinichi, but that was ridiculous. There was no way... right?

Still it's kind of suspicious that I wound up finding this boy when I went in the direction I'd last seen Shinichi go.

I'd been looking for Shinichi you see, I'd had a very bad feeling about just letting Shinichi run off that night at Tropical land so pretty soon after I decided to look for him... that's when I found this little boy laying in the grass. The clothes he was wearing were far to big for him... actually they looked almost the same as the clothes that Shinichi had been wearing that day, but I hadn't really paid any attention to that at the time because it was clear that he wasn't in very good shape.

I could feel him shaking as I carefully picked him up. He felt so hot that for a moment all the attention that I'd put towards worrying about Shinichi melted away and I could only focus on getting the boy to a hospital, or anywhere else where they would be able to take care of him.

Thankfully it wasn't too long before I managed find somewhere that I could call an ambulance, and it wasn't much longer before it had arrived.

"Are you this boy's sister?" The paramedic asked, as they situated him on the in-ambulance bed.

"No ma`am... I only found him," I shook my head, "but, could I please come along?"

It was a pretty silly request, I half expected the paramedic to tell me that I couldn't after all I didn't even know this boy, I had no connections to him at all and no real reason to want to ride to the hospital with him, but I just felt compelled to come along. However the paramedic just gave me an understanding smile and replied, "Of course you can young miss."

It was during that ride with him in the ambulance that I'd noticed just how much the boy looked like Shinichi, and just how strange his clothes were.

Somewhere in the back of my mind I knew that there was no way that it was a coincidence, that this boy might be Shinichi or at the very least had something to do with Shinichi's disappearance, but I didn't want to think about that. Instead I just held onto the no doubt mistaken impression that he was just an ordinary boy.

It's amazing just how quickly I've become attached to the boy without even knowing his name, or even having spoken to him. In these past three days I've visited him at the hospital whenever I could but he's remained unconscious the entire time.

No one knows who he is either. There are no records of anyone similar to him in the hospital database, there are no reports of anyone matching his description going missing recently, and even dad can't seem to find any traces of the boy. It's almost like he never even existed to begin with, like he just randomly fell out of the sky that day or something.

I couldn't help but think that he was going to be very lonely when he eventually woke up, that's why I tried to stay with him when I could. What would he think when he woke up in this unfamiliar place and didn't see anyone that he recognized? I was starting to think that maybe I should adopt him myself, just so he'd have somewhere to go once he'd gotten out of the hospital... though I doubt that dad would approve without much pushing.

I was snapped out of my thoughts when I heard some shifting in the hospital bed in front of me. For a second I couldn't believe my eyes, the boy was moving, he was awake!

"Hello," I said, smiling broadly in hopes that a smile was all it would take to keep him from being scared, "My name is Mouri Ran, what's your name little boy?"

He opened his mouth to answer but then closed it again and furrowed his brow, he looked confused and a little bit sad. I began to worry that maybe his mouth had dried out and he couldn't speak but then he opened his mouth again, "I... I don't know."

That caught me off guard. He didn't know who he was either? If that was true... amnesia maybe? I figured it be best to at least let the doctor know he'd woken up, maybe he'd be able to do something.

"I'll be right back," I said as I got up to leave.

"Wait," he said, stopping me in my tracks, "who are you... to me?"

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"Sorry...you introduced yourself... so I guess you don't know me..." He replied, "but... you just kind of look familiar so I thought... maybe I knew you."

It seemed like a pretty strange thing for a child to be saying but I thought nothing of it at the time. For some reason I smiled, "I'll go get the doctor now, I'll be back soon, how about we talk after the doctor makes sure you're okay?"

"Ok..." He stated, sounding a bit disappointed as I left the room.

I soon returned with a doctor to check on the boy's condition. Before going back into the room I told the doctor that the boy hadn't been able to remember his own name yet had been able to talk somewhat normally. The doctor made a concerned expression, I guess he must have come to the same conclusion I had about the boy probably having amnesia.

Upon our entering the room the nameless boy turned to look at the doctor and I interestedly. After a quick introduction the doctor told the boy that he was going to ask the boy a few questions and that he should answer whatever he could, to which the boy nodded.

"What's your name?" The doctor asked, probably to confirm what I'd told him before.

The boy frowned a bit before shyly answering, "I don't know..."

"That's alright, I'm sure we'll find out who you are eventually," The doctor reassured him, "How about this, what does five plus ten equal?"

"Fifteen," The child replied as if completely on reflex.

"Good, then what's the capital of Japan?"

"Tokyo," he answered without even a moments hesitation.

The doctor continued to ask about random trivia witch increased in difficulty as he went on though only slightly for the next ten or so minutes, occasionally tossing out a question such as 'what's your favorite food?' or 'do you like the anime Kamen Yaiba?' but the boy was unable to answer such questions and always answered with 'I don't know' or 'I can't remember', unlike the trivia which he was always able to answer right away.

After all of this the doctor had to run various tests to check the boy's stamina, heart rate, x-rays, and other similar things. It would probably bore you if I told about all of that in great detail, so I'll skip ahead to the results.

"Aside from his amnesia this boy is in wonderful shape," The doctor reported, telling me because I'd come to be seen as the nameless boy's pseudo-guardian because I was the only person besides the hospital staff who seemed to show him any concern.

Apparently all physical signs that anything was wrong with the boy were gone, the fever he'd had on the night I'd brought him in had vanished, and despite having apparently hit his head on something very hard he didn't have a single bump or bruise. If not for his amnesia and the mystery that was his identity the hospital would have no reason to keep him.

"Is there any chance he might get his memory back?" I asked.

"There's no way of knowing, I'm afraid," The doctor replied, "He was hit on the head pretty hard, that much we know for sure, but we don't know if the blow was what had caused him to lose his memory. It's possible that he had some sort of traumatic experience that caused him to seal away his memory... if that's the case it's possible that he'll regain his memory. But we won't know for sure unless that happens."

"Oh I see," I replied not really sure what else to say. All was quite for a moment, and I realized that there was still something I needed to say, "So... what are you going to be doing about him, we don't know who he is or anything so it's not like his parents are going to be showing up anytime soon..."

"We'll probably leave him in the care of an orphanage, if his parents were looking for him your father probably would have heard something about it by now," The doctor answered, "If you'd like you and your father could probably adopt him, as it is you seem to be the closest thing he has to family right now."

Actually I had been thinking about adopting him, but like I said before I doubted that my dad would approve, not to mention we didn't really have enough money to be taking care of a little kid. Sure dad got cases every now and then but he almost always blew our money on horse races and alcohol, I wouldn't want to subject a child to that... but I don't want them to just send him off to an orphanage either.

Oh, what should I do? Shinichi would know, he would be able to tell me whether or not I'm actually prepared to take care of this kid... but Shinichi isn't here right now! I wouldn't want to rely on him anyway.

"I'd really like that."

Maybe I felt sad that the boy would end up in an orphanage or something if I didn't adopt him, maybe it's because I saw the boy as a mini-Shinichi, maybe I'd grown more attached to him than I'd thought. I'm not really sure what came over me, but I don't regret it. Not one bit.

"I'd thought you might," The doctor replied with a bit of a chuckle, "I'll have a nurse bring you the necessary papers, you'll just have to get your father to fill them out."

"Right, I'll do that," I nodded, "... can go ahead I take him home today?"

The doctor seemed to think about it for a while before answering, "Well... normally we wouldn't release a child into the custody of anyone but their guardian's but since you're planning to adopt him I guess we can make an exception just this once."

"Really? Thank you," I replied, bowing to show my gratefulness that the boy wouldn't have to spend another night at the hospital.

Naturally I returned home with the boy right away seeing no reason to delay any more than necessary... I was a bit nervous though, what would I do if Dad wouldn't let me adopt him? This was the deciding moment wasn't it?

I walked through the door holding the boy's hand, carrying the still unsigned adoption papers with my free hand, "I'm home, Dad."

"Oh welcome back," He replied, "What's for din..."

He trailed off as he noticed the young boy. Dad's expression became somewhat angry, enough that the boy tried to inch behind my leg a just a little. I could feel the boy shaking though I got the feeling he had hoped I wouldn't notice, he must've been nervous too, nervous and scared.

"What's that brat doing in my house?!"

I guess he definitely didn't want to keep the boy. Well that's too bad, I have no intention of giving up. I answered, "I'm adopting him."

"No way. This is a detective agency not a day care center," Dad replied with the utmost tone of fatherly disapproval. But I didn't care, actually he just made me more determined.

Who was it that spent all our money drinking and gambling? Who was it that that spent hours watching some random idol on tv everyday? Who was a useless good-for-nothing detective that acted haughty but didn't seem to have the deduction skills to back it up? My dad, that's who. Now then, who is it that goes out shopping every day and spends countless hours cooking and cleaning while he sits around on his lazy bum? That's right me, I practically run this household so I think I have every right to adopt a little kid if I feel like it!

"Now listen here!" I shouted. I guess... I kinda snapped, "I am sick and tired of putting up with all your crap! I'm leaving!"

"What?" That surprised him, "No, you can't go... who will cook dinner?"

"Goodbye!" I turned and left, slamming the door behind me. I'd have to come get my stuff later, there was no way I was staying there any longer than I had to when it seemed like he was almost trying to make me angrier.

For a moment -only a moment- I was tempted to go to Shinichi's house. If only so I could take care of it until Shinichi comes back (because he's definitely coming back, he's probably just off on a case or something). It's not like there was anything keeping me from staying there, I knew where the extra key was and everything... it's just it would feel kind of empty to be there without Shinichi.

Instead, I went to the nearby phone booth and called my mother.

"Hello, who is this?"

"Hey Mom, it's me, Ran. I was wondering..." I said, she could probably tell that something had happened from my tone, "Could I move in with you?"

"Why, of course you can," She replied calmly, "Might I ask what's brought this on all of a sudden?"

"Dad and I... we had an argument. There's this little boy I want to adopt, the kid has no where else to go but Dad just won't-"

"A little boy?" She interrupted.

I'd forgotten that I hadn't told her about him yet, so I explained the situation to her as quickly as I could.

"Oh my! That's terrible! Of course the two of you can come and live with me!" Was her immediate response.

"Thanks, you have no idea how much this means to me," I replied, and it was true, I was so glad that she'd agreed to let me move in with her and adopt the little boy that I was literally jumping up and down.

"Don't mention it," She stated plainly, before asking, "So where are the two of you now? I'll come pick you up."

"We're at the phone booth that's just a short walk from Dad's place... it's a bit cold out though, why don't you meet us at the bookstore not too far from here?" It wouldn't be too much of a walk for us and I'd be able to get the boy something he could own besides the clothes on his back.

"That's fine with me, I'll see you in just a moment, deary," She said as she hung up.

Needless to say the boy and I walked to the bookstore and for a moment we just sat around. I pointed him towards the children's section so he could grab a book or manga or something but when I looked away for just a second I found that he'd wandered off. I must've turned the childrens area upside down before I spotted his cowlick poking out from behind a shelf in the adult mystery aisle, reading Sherlock Holmes of all things.

"You understand that book?" I asked.

The boy looked up for a moment then nodded and returned his attention to the pages, "Uh huh."

Oh great, I already have Shinichi who won't stop talking about Arthur Conan Doyle and Sherlock Holmes, now this kid's going to become a mystery otaku too. It's almost like this little boy is trying to replace Shinichi...

"Do you like it?" What a silly question. Of course he liked it, we hadn't been here very long but he was already halfway through the book.

"Yeah, it's really good. I think I may have read it before though..." He trailed off uncertainly and continued reading. He hadn't even looked up from the book that time.

No matter how I thought about it it seemed strange for a boy of his age to have read something like Sherlock Holmes before, but I guess he probably picked it up because it looked familiar... still I don't think it's normal for a primary schooler to be reading stuff like this. That boy must be pretty mature for his age...

"Come to think of it, you need a name," I said, it probably seemed a bit sudden to him, he almost dropped his book. I continued, "I mean it'd be kind of rude of me to just call you 'little boy' all the time."

He blinked, "Uh... sure, that seems like a good idea... did you have something in mind?"

Funny, I think that's the longest thing I've heard him say so far... he doesn't really talk like you'd expect a child to though.

"Yeah... I was thinking... what about 'Conan'?"

"After Sir Arthur Conan Doyle?" He asked.

"Yeah," I replied, "Plus you kind of remind me of him..."

To that he raised an eyebrow, "I remind you of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle?"

"No I meant Shin- Oh Mom's here now! Let's go!"

I could see mom getting out of her car -presumably to say hello- as the boy and I went to the counter to purchase the book that he'd been reading. Naturally we then left the store and went to the car.

"Mom this is the boy I was talking about" I said, gesturing to him even though there was no one else around, then I gestured back to her, " And this is my mother."

My smiled at the young boy, no doubt realizing just how much he resembled Shinichi and assuming that was why I felt almost obligated to adopt him, "It's nice to meet you, my name is Kisaki Eri."

"Nice to meet you too, I'm..." He trailed away for a moment, unsure what to say. Then he gave a confident smile, "I'm Conan."

"Well you're a cute one aren't you?" Mom said, "Come on, get in the car. We can talk more at your new home."

The boy -No Conan nodded, and he and I both got into the car. We didn't talk very much on the way, the atmosphere in the car was somewhat tense. However all that tension seemed to vanish when we finally arrived at our destination.

"This is where we'll be living from now on," I told Conan as Mom opened the door.

"Wow it's a lot cleaner than that other house was..." Conan remarked. Which annoyed me a little bit since I was usually the one who cleaned up the detective agency, but dad always messed it all up again.

"Thank you," Mom replied, probably glad to hear that her house was apparently cleaner than Dad's.

For a moment none of us said anything... there didn't really seem to be anything to say, until Mom spoke up and broke the silence.

"What's that book you've got there?" She asked.

" 'A study in Scarlet' by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle," Conan replied with a broad smile.

"Oh a Sherlock Holmes book?" She raised an eyebrow, "Aren't you a bit too young to be reading things like that?"

"I'd thought so too," I chimed in.

"Normally it should be difficult for a child his age -well at least the age he seems to be to understand a mystery novel... much less one written in the eighteen hundreds," Mom remarked.

"Shinichi did..." I muttered.

"Yes but Shinichi-kun hardly counted as an ordinary boy."

"Ne... Who's 'Shinichi'?" Conan asked, looking at me with a gaze of curiosity.

"A friend of mine," I answered, "He's a detective. He's been busy with a case for a few days now."

"A detective? I'd like to meet him... I think..." Conan said. I got the feeling it probably be interesting if the two of them ever did meet, what with Conan practically being a mini-Shinichi.

"I'm sure you'll meet him at some point."

At this point I must've looked a bit sad or something because Mom changed the subject, "Anyway, we'll have to register Conan-kun for school, he appears to be about six wouldn't you agree Ran?"

"Yeah... that seems about right," I replied, after all I couldn't argue that he seemed to be about that age even though he seemed much smarter than what I would have expected from a six year old... it was more like he should be older, like he was my age. But that would be impossible, there was no way someone my age would be so small.

"Well I'll go ahead and fill out the adoption papers," Mom said stopping me in my train of thought, "Ran, Why don't you take Conan-kun to the park?"

"Sounds like a good idea, maybe he'll make some friends," I replied, I couldn't help but smile at the idea of the little boy surrounded by friends.

Conan liked the idea too. Though when we got to the park he seemed content to just sit on the park bench and watch other kids playing. I was beginning to worry about him a bit when suddenly one of the children that was playing came up to him, it was a little girl.

"Hi, my name is Ayumi, over there are my friends Genta and Mitsuhiko!" She introduced excitedly, "We need another person to play soccer in teams, will you play with us?"

They had been playing for long enough without him that I knew that the girl had probably just noticed him sitting there alone and decided to invite him to play. The two boys she'd been playing with looked a bit jealous that she'd gone out of her way to talk to Conan.

I stole a quick glance at Conan's face, he looked a bit conflicted. Maybe he was trying to figure out whether or not he knew how to play soccer... but after just a bit I could see a faint smile, "Sure, I'd love to play."

"Great! You can be on my team!" The girl -Ayumi- stated energetically, as she grabbed Conan's arm, "What's your name?"

"It's C-Conan," He answered shyly, letting her drag him over to where she'd been playing with her other friends.

I watched them play for a while, I couldn't really hear what they were saying but they looked like they were having a lot of fun -I almost wished I could join in, but that wouldn't really be fair.

Well at least those other boys weren't picking on him, I'd half expected it the way they'd been looking at him when Ayumi was talking to him. I guess I was worried for nothing.

Everything seemed fine so I figured it'd be okay to leave them for long enough to go to the park restroom.

The door was ajar, it was kind of ominous even though that was actually pretty normal for a public restroom. I didn't see anything strange at first but after I'd taken a few steps in...

I screamed.

There laying in front of me on the slightly moist floor was a woman... or more likely her corpse.

Somewhere in the back of my mind I knew that I should call the police or do something useful but I couldn't help but stand there like a deer in the headlights, staring at her.

In that moment I wished that Shinichi hadn't gone missing at Tropical land. I wished that he was there with me to tell me that it was alright, to calm me down. He should have been there for me.

Like a flash Conan ran in. He knelt down next to the body, checking for a pulse, checking for rigor mortis.

"She's gone..." He said with a look of utmost serious, "She's been dead for at least thirty minutes..."

It occurs to me now that someone his age shouldn't have known that, but at the time I just saw Shinichi in his place as he turned to me.

"Ran, call the police! This is a murder!"