You and me, against the world [Kaishin/Shinkai] **eng version**

Kidnapping #1

"Now what am I supposed to do with this?!" I glanced questioningly at Kid.
"What do you mean with "Now what am I supposed to do with this". This thing is nothing more than a pistol, just with different capabilities." 

I took a closer look at this card pistol.
"You do know how to use one, don't you?" The disappointment from a moment ago gave way to amusement, which I only acknowledged with an annoyed look.
"No, actually, I'm always jumping blindly into murder cases without knowing how to handle a gun." There was no mistaking the sarcasm in my voice.

"Perfect conditions!" he said with a smirk coming from under his hat and monocle, clapping his hands once.

His mood however, changed abruptly.
"I'm counting on you Shinichi. You should be aware of that, right?" The thief did not often have such a serious look on his face. With this sentence, he wanted to state something in particular.

Both of us were more than aware of the risks our actions carried. No words were necessary for an answer. A nod was sufficient.

A light wind whistled across the roof, using our capes as a medium to make itself visible to us. Quickly, I held onto the white top-hat to keep it from beeing blown away.

"Ready?" Kid asked me. Despite his poker face, I could see a hint of excitement in his eyes.

Smirking, I closed mine, opened them in a jolt and was now, as was he, ready for anything to come.
"Ready!"

I aimed at the building next to us. First a card appeared and then a hook behind it. Determined, I wrapped my arms around his waist. He held on to me for dear life, startled, and in the next moment we had no ground under our feet. I had to hold on pretty damn tight to keep us from falling off.

Internally, I shook my head. What the hell have I managed to get myself into?

Back to the present

The sound of the school bell was like music to my ears. Finally, the never-ending lessons were over. The only thing I could do during classes, was get bored and make puppy eyes at the teachers.

Except for some teachers who were new, I already knew all of them. A repetition of my school days, in my opinion, ought to be unnecessary, since I had already learned what I was doing here ten years ago.

However, it is always entertaining to see the extent to which everyone had changed. Most of them had remained the same. Among others my music teacher, who in former times and also today could not stand me to the marrow. The feeling was still mutual.

Putting my hands in my pocket, I strolled towards the exit. A pleasant breeze, such as there was only in spring, blew gracefully over my hair, taking with it the smell of cherry blossoms and delicate lilacs. At last. My well-deserved weekend, I thought and had to start smiling.

It would be a quiet day. A trip with Ran? Yes. That sounds good. Maybe I'll ask her to go down town with me. As far as I know, girls like to go to cafes.
"Conan will you come along and play?"
And just like that, the 'quiet day' idea fell flat.

It was Ayumi's voice and the footsteps of the approaching detective boys which made me sigh.
"Sorry, I can't today," I lied. Of course, I had the entire day off.

"But Ran told me you're free today!" That was Genta, who threw in his two cents worth. Thank you oh so much, dear Ran. And all of that, just when I'm trying to spend some quality time with you.

"On top of that, you already promised us last week that we'd do something today, since you couldn't that day either." Mitsuhiko folded his arms together, waiting. He may be young, but his mind is not one to be joked with.

"All right, you persuaded me. I was just joking anyway," I said with my best kid grin, scratching the back of my head.

I could tell my acting skills were getting better every passing time. All three of them grinned broadly back at me, a sign that they believed me.

"I have to stop by the Mori Detective Agency to let Ran know. I'll meet you at the park. And don't forget, it's soccer day, got it?", I admonished them with a hint of sternness in my voice.

An eager nodding of their heads and an even broader grin on their part made me lose all hope, but I covered this with a strained laugh.

They were now even more reluctant to play soccer. Mentally, I could already see the baseball ball flying toward my face.

-

"Hello Conan." Ran was sitting on the sofa with her back turned toward me, reading. Her slightly down-tilted head gave her away. Or she was just on her cell phone, texting with someone. But with whom? Had she met a boy? 

"Hi Ran!" Before I could give free rein to my thoughts even one step further, I answered her with a little too much vigor and let the door fall into the lock behind me.
"Ran, I was wondering if I could meet up with my friends at the park today."

Towards the end of the sentence, I sat next to her and realized with suppressed relief that it was merely a fashion magazine that she was putting her full concentration into.

"Mhm..." she gave absent-mindedly. What was so exciting about this magazine? Hadn't she already read through this one yesterday?

My gaze wandered from the content, which was inconsequential to me, to her eyes. They were focused and strained. As if she was having trouble understanding what she was reading.
Whenever I looked into her face, especially into her eyes, I had to think about us. What would become of us one day? Would something happen between us? Even I didn't know the answer to that. In fact, I noticed from day to day how my hope was steadily decreasing.

Maybe I should finally get over her? At this thought I squinted my eyes and quickly shook my head. What was I thinking about! But a tiny voice at the back of my head gave full support to that idea.

"Do I have something on my face?" Slightly, I flinched. Caught off guard, my eyes widened and a tinge of red colored my cheeks.

"N-no! Your face always looks good!" Realizing what I had said, I only grew redder and tried to talk my way out of the situation with scraps of words that were incomprehensible even to me.

"Conan how can you be so cuddly sometimes," she laughed softly and held her hand in front of her mouth.
"I-I'm not cuddly!" I said a little too loudly and ran for the door without further ado.
"I'll go!"
"Wait!" I stopped, confused. What did she want now? I turned my head towards the sofa. Before she continued speaking, however, she looked to the side, somewhat embarrassed, and from the looks of it, she had found something rather exciting. She wasn't looking at me anymore.

"Um... what exactly did you want to do again?"

-

Moving at a brisk pace, I headed towards the park, but slowed down after only a few yards of walking and lapsed into a leisurely amble, once again tucking my hands into my pockets.

As so often, I sank into my seemingly endless thoughts, which were mostly composed of new cases, which included the Phantom Thief and Ran. There was always one sentence coming up in my mind when thinking about her.

We were so close and yet so far. This sentence makes me feel sick to the pit of my stomach. However, it could not be described better.

I thought of such things when I found myself in such moments as just now. How much I would like to let her in on everything and tell her the truth. If I would do that, however, she would be in great danger. I will not allow such a development to happen.

On the other hand, I knew how much it hurt her. That's when my lies were becoming repugnant to me. I found myself in a situation filled with discord and intrigue that I couldn't get out of easily and probably won't in the near future. Unless, of course, a new path opened up before me.

"If you eliminate all logical solutions to a problem, the illogical one, though impossible, is inevitably correct," I muttered, thinking of Arthur Conan Doyle.

That's exactly it. There is a way, it's just so far away from me that I couldn't even dream of it being the way out of this hellish situation.
Focusing again on getting to the park, I decided to take a shortcut. We had originally planned to meet half an hour ago. However, since I had to explain everything to Ran again and she wouldn't let me leave the house until I had at least eaten something, I had no choice but to be late.

Instead of continuing to stroll straight ahead, I took a sharp right and found myself in my all-too-familiar little back alley.

Dark, dirty, musty. Just the way I didn't know it any different.

A noise made me startle. My head turned around jerkily. As if stung by an adder, I looked in all possible directions. With relief I found out that it was only an overturned can.

I continued to pace. Unconsciously, I became quieter and more careful.

Out of nowhere, a strong arm closed around me, which put escape out of the question. Startled, I gasped for air, inhaling the chloroform present on the handkerchief with which the person was blocking my airway.

No matter how hard I tried to fight back, a strong will to fight didn't help much with this puny body.

Dizziness seized me and I realized that I was about to pass out. Before that happened, I did the last possible thing.

My eyes wandered to his jacket sleeve. It was black.They know. Was my last thought before everything around me darkened.

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Hey guys! So originally I wrote this fanfic in german but I wanted to, already for a long time, translate it in the language of the english people. Originally I even wanted it to be written in english since the very beginning but I simply was way to bad and there was no deepl 30 day test month I could exploit. 
I hope that that way, I can reach more readers that enjoy Kaishin / Shinkai just as much as I do :D

How did you like the first chapter?

Your _Tachi_banana_ <3