31_days | [September 3, 2008] [Detective Conan/Case Closed] Truths and Lies

Title: Truths and Lies

Day/Theme: Sept. 3; Prisoner’s dilemma. Series: Detective Conan/Case Closed

Series: Detective Conan/Case Closed

Character: Shinichi

Rating: PG

She seemed to find the perfect time to visit him when he was in the hospital, Shinichi had to notice. She always chose a time when everyone else seemed to be asleep, or gone, and whether or not she had a knack for it or if she purposefully sent them on fool’s errands so as to liaise with the shrunken detective, he’d never know…regardless, Shinichi found himself staring Haibara in the eye for the first time since they’d embarked on their little adventure.

Shinichi couldn’t help but look bluntly at his shoulder when he awoke and saw her. His pointed glance didn’t go unnoticed, nor did it seem to faze the miniature chemist…though nothing really fazed her, so…

“Worked out all the mobility?” she said conversationally, and Shinichi slowly wriggled the fingers of his left hand.

“It’s not a science,” he said flatly. “Insert thought, work muscle, move finger.”

“But it won’t trouble you? You know. In the future?”

“What does it matter? I’m more into soccer anyway, right? What’s the lost mobility of one arm?”

Haibara definitely couldn’t miss the icy register Shinichi’s voice had entered, but she still chose to remain quiet on the matter. “How’s Hattori?” she asked instead, as if reaching a decision to ignore Shinichi’s blunt rudeness.

“Fine.”

“I’d heard he inhaled some smoke?” Haibara trailed off purposely, as if to ask wordlessly if anything bad had come of it.

“He was arguing with Kazuha about something asinine; I’m sure his lungs are working fine.”

“That’s good.”

Shinichi sighed loudly, with an obvious frustration that seemed out-of-place on his seven-year-old face. “Haibara, what do you want?”

“You don’t seem happy to see me.”

“Now that you mention it, no, I’m not.”

“I suppose you think I owe you an explanation.”

Shinichi said nothing, just narrowed his eyes in her general direction.

Haibara sighed and took on a patient voice; like she was trying to explain something to the seven-year-old they both knew Shinichi wasn’t. “The conclusions your mind has formed are to be expected, but you don’t have all the pieces of your puzzle yet, meitanti.”

Shinichi blinked.

“From what you’ve gathered,” Haibara continued, still using that patient drone that she often used when she was talking to Heiji, “the downfall of the Syndicate wasn’t through our means alone; we had the help of a traitor on their side.”

Shinichi just nodded.

“You’ve probably even decided it was Vermouth.”

Shinichi nodded again, but he was surprised she knew his deductive method so well. She knew when he’d reach this conclusion almost before he’d reached it. She’d make a fair detective herself…

“And if I was guarding the only exit, then it means that I’d have had a chance to talk to her.”

“Exactly.”

“Well, I did.”

“I knew it!”

“And you think this is somehow attributed to me.” Haibara tossed a newspaper onto the foot of Shinichi’s bed. The headline proclaimed what Shinichi already knew: The criminal sometimes known as Vermouth was missing.

“You talked to her. You saw her. What did you say?” Shinichi said brusquely.

“That’s not the question you should be asking,” Haibara said in a gentle, but condescending tone. “Your judgment is biased and your opinion is formed from pure coincidences that only seem to be proof. I had thought you were better at discerning truth from fiction.”

“Well since you’re the detective now, what question should I be asking?” Shinichi retorted sarcastically.

“What circumstances surrounded her capture?”

“What?” Shinichi blinked. That was sort of unexpected…

“She was taken in with a large group of people, put in a multiman cell and then she miraculously went missing.”

Shinichi’s mind roved over this, and his expression turned thoughtful. “There were cameras monitoring the cell, and nothing was amiss until they wanted to call her for questioning.”

“Sounds familiar, don’t you think?”

“What’re you getting at?”

“I think she’s still there.”

“What?”

“I think she’s decided to buy herself some time by confusing everyone. It’s what she’s good at. She’s still there.”

“You think…you honestly think she disguised herself?” Shinichi asked incredulously, as the pieces fell into place. It was a method he’d seen before. By the Kaito Kid. The crowd was the perfect screen of confusion – the perfect magician’s distraction to draw their attention just where it was wanted… “You’re right,” he muttered softly, glancing up to see how Haibara reacted to his admission.

She looked bored. “I know.”

“What’s she buying time for?”

“Come on, Kudo, you can’t be so dense as to forget the prisoner’s dilemma.”

Shinichi nodded thoughtfully. “That would make the most sense,” he said, before looking up at the smirk on Haibara’s face now. “What’re you smirking about?”

“Apology accepted, meitantei,” she said at length, gathering up the newspaper and disappearing quietly behind the curtain, just as Ran poked her head in.

“Shinichi? I brought lunch,” Ran said breathlessly, holding up a grocery bag full of groceries and various snacks from the vending machines.

Shinichi just mused on when his deducing had become so…lax. He must’ve been losing his touch…

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

~Ayaia