Drawbacks of a mind that remembers

Not Family

"I should save your number, really."

"And I'm telling you that this number is disposable! How many times must I tell you that I've never called from my own cell? I remember all the numbers I've come across!" 

"Then give me your real number!"

"Hell no when I don't need you nosing into my business!"

"Will the two of you pipe down? And I can hear that detestable thief here, Dame-Tsuna!" Reborn finally cracked, shouting at his student and his conversational buddy. 

Tsuna winced at his tutor's volume and apologised. Kaito huffed, not apologetic at all. The sky guardian sensed the dislike and shook his head, a fond smile pulling the corner of his lips. 

"Same old, same old. You never liked the Arcobaleno, Altair."

"Never did, and never will. All of them are all so haughty, 'Oh! I'm the king of the world!' kind, and there's no Moon or Star arcobaleno out there for us to bond over. How lonely."

Suddenly, from Kaito's end, Tsuna heard a familiar boy's voice ring through with clarity. "I have absolutely no idea what you're saying to whoever that is you called. Please don't joke around and go straight to the point. Hello, whoever you are, Mister Kuroba here would like to talk about something my mouth spat out a few moments ago."

Even Reborn went silent. 

"Sorry, what?"

Kaito took over immediately, cutting the little boy(or adult) short. "Aku-incarnate here-ow!-told us where the rings are, but we have no contact in Nagano. Can you please help me dig up this person called 'Uehara Shingen'?"

Tsuna lifted an eyebrow. "Uehara Shingen? That's a unique name."

"If you noticed, his name is like yours–after a warlord. Do you think it's a hint? You know, Tokugawa Ieyasu and Takeda Shingen." Kaito wiggled his eyebrows, even though only Conan could see it. The boy rolled his eyes.

"No, it's a coincidence. Even my intuition says so," said instinct agreed. There was a pause on both ends.

"Intuition? Sawada-san is a woman? Woman's intuition?" Conan teased.

"You know what it is, Aku. Don't joke around," Tsuna whined, forgetting that Conan did not know much about the Vongola. The pause returned, and this time, Reborn snickered at them. Kaito glanced at Conan, waiting to see the bewildered expression on his face, but it was a look of contemplation. The boy's mouth then opened and closed, not sure whether to speak.

"Do you wanna say something, Co-chan?" Kaito asked with a disturbingly similar voice to the child's mother. The boy shivered but did not let it get to him. 

"I know someone whose family name is 'Uehara', and she works for the Nagano police. Maybe we can start with her? And if we're lucky, she might be the one we're looking for."

Kaito looked at his phone, as if looking at Tsuna instead and awaited for his sky's reply. 

Tsuna looked at Reborn, and the latter shrugged. "I'll look for the Uehara families, but for confidentiality, can you both come to Namimori so that I can share the details?"

Conan shook his head, remembering the letter their detective agency received earlier in the day. "I have to go to Nagano tomorrow with Kogoro-oji-san and Ran-nee-chan. We picked up a case few hours ago, and I'm not going to miss it because oji-san is a horrible detective."

"Nagano?" Kaito repeated. "What a coincidence. Would you be meeting that Uehara detective while you're there?"

"I hope not. Our client wants us to investigate some home affair. I doubt we would need to reach out to the police."

Kaito tapped his chin thoughtfully while Tsuna's intuition throbbed slightly. Conan perceived silence from Tsuna's end and asked aloud, "is your intuition telling you something, Sawada-san?"

The sky boss blinked. "...Just how perceptive are you, Conan-kun?"

"It's nothing. I just connected the dots from your earlier conversation and your current silence. If what was said about your sixth sense being extremely accurate, then perhaps your intuition has hinted something to you."

"An impressive deduction for a ten-year-old!" Kaito praised, and then whispered. "If only you're really ten..."

"I am ten." Conan hissed back. There was no way he was going to let slip about his condition, even if the person on the other end is his cousin. Sawada Tsunayoshi is in league with the Vongola (and is the heir), who is mafia, and may have connections to that organisation. This was not the time to take a risk. 

"Then perhaps I will meet Kuroba-san first, then the three of us will look for you in Nagano. How's that sound?" Tsuna suggested. Conan frowned at the idea.

"Why do you insist on following me? What is my relation to you?"

"Because we're family!" Tsuna blurted, though he made no attempt to take it back. He knows that Conan is his older cousin, Shinichi. Even if he had only known the adult-in-a-child's-body for a short while, he could not fathom the thought of leaving him to the hounds, even if he could survive well without him. He continued, "Conan-kun, I know who you are. Please, let us help you–!"

"You can't, Tsuna," Conan interrupted, dropping the kiddy facade. He took a deep breath and spoke to the other as the relative he knows. "You can't. This is my fight, not yours. This is what I started, and should be what I end. I already have help from everyone, but this isn't yours to join. I know who you lead, but let us draw the line. I will not put your entire family behind the bars, and you will not give us our enemy.  Are we clear?"

"But–"

"Tsuna, if what I've heard from Kaito is true, then I really should not join your family. Aku left the family to ruin. Altair wouldn't have died before Aku, and Aku might have saved the family from Ricardo's decline. Aku–I've failed to hold our family's values, and I failed as one of the family's guardians. I–"

"We don't mind!" Tsuna shouted, startling his home tutor at the same time. "Aku, we're family."

Conan paused as a dark thought floated into his mind. His voice lowered eerily, leaving both Kaito and Tsuna with goosebumps.

"If I've never considered all of you as family, what would you do?"

Tsuna could not answer the man. If Aku, or Conan, never considered them as family, should they continue to treat him as Family?

"The fact does not change-you are part of my family, whether by blood or without."

"..."

They could all tell by the boy's silence that the conversation was over. With no conclusion made, Kaito agreed to Tsuna's earlier suggestion for both of them and ended the call. He looked at the boy with an understanding expression, gently pressing his hand on Conan's shoulder. The shrunken detective looked up at the Amethyst eyes of the thief, then shifted his gaze to the floor.

"If you're really my younger brother then, I express my sincere apologies for whatever reason was in my head when I left you behind to the wolves." Kaito remained silent as Conan paused, contemplating before continuing. He turned around. "We really should just end things here, so we won't get hurt more."

Kaito watched silently as Conan made his way to the door. Only when his hand reached for the handle, Kaito blurted.

"Brother–"

Conan froze. The magician took a deep breath.

"We'll meet you at the Uehara's Mansion."

Conan cranked the handle and left the house.