Drawbacks of a mind that remembers

More truths

"How long have you been observing us?" Reborn interrogated. 

Kaito hummed thoughtfully. "I wasn't really observing you in the beginning. I was watching Conan, but then the two of you appeared, seeming to threaten his security. Then Giotto made his appearance, so I followed both of you instead."

Reborn frowned at his reply and muttered, "stalker."

"Hey! I'm protecting him!" Kaito took a deep breath, deciding to end the childish bicker before it even happened. "So, do you two know why Conan acted that way?"

Tsuna cradled his head on his hands, frowning as he tried to derive at an answer. He could almost guess the answer from all the investigation, but he knew he was afraid of the truth. Reborn simply sat in silence, stewing in the remnants of what anger he had. The male in front of him did do a number on him. 

His fedora is now covered in pink.

"No one can hear us here, so feel free to speak."

The brunet inhaled sharply.

"We investigated his background, both Edogawa Conan and Kudo Shinichi. We don't really know what happened but Kudo Shinichi is most likely Edogawa Conan–No, he is one and the same person." Tsuna looked up at Kuroba Kaito carefully. The young adult smiled, nodding his head in encouragement to continue.

Tsuna bit his lip and averted his eyes. "I did suspect that he was experimented on, but the answer didn't feel quite right either..." He looked at Kaito again and returned the question to him.

"Do you know why he acted like that?"

There was a pause, and then Kaito's casual smile turned sombre. Now Tsuna has another question: How long have you been following Kudo Shinichi, Kuroba Kaito-san?

"If you have an entire syndicate chasing after you, don't you think you'll react just about the same way? They have eyes everywhere, you know? In a sense, you're making him scared."

Tsuna gasped.

"He wasn't experimented on. He was targetted!" He exclaimed in realisation. Kaito could not resist applauding for the boy, even though it was a little bit on the mocking side.

"Correct! Ten points for the boss!" Confetti rained down on the brunet, and for a moment, Tsuna wondered how he managed to execute his trick. After a second of cheeriness, Kaito's grin fell, replaced by a seemingly unfitting straight face.

"Kudo Shinichi is a well-known detective of the current era, but he fell out of the radar because he was chasing an underground organisation. He fell out because of an organisation."

"So... he's in hiding? He shrunk himself to hide from the organisation?" Tsuna questioned. If he did, that was probably a bit too extreme, he thought. Reborn tipped his fedora down, already understanding what happened just by looking at Kaito's reactions.

"Yes, and no. He didn't shrink voluntarily. He was supposed to die that day." The boy clarified. "He was forced to consume a lethal drug, meant to kill anyone without any poison particles to be found in the blood. Fortunately or unfortunately, it was an experimental drug. There were unknown side-effects that saved him."

Even if Tsuna was slow when it came to learning, he quickly understood what the older boy implied. The brunet felt his blood run cold. He could have lost a cousin right then, and he would have never met him at all. Kaito chuckled despite the dark revelation and added.

"Edogawa Conan is physically fine. He has a lot of allies, so don't worry too much. I think there's someone in the organisation that is helping him as well. A charismatic fellow, ain't he?"