Chapter 13: Saving Secrets

Hey guys! It was a bit difficult writing the last part, but I managed. There's something I need to confess, I have no idea what century One Piece is supposedly set in, so I just guessed. So, apologies if I pissed anyone off with the date. There's a lot of action in this, so I hope you'll like it! Reviews please, and happy reading!

Disclaimer: I don't own One Piece or Case Closed

Ignoring the chaos around him, Jimmy Kudo, ran towards the octopus man and the mermaid, both looked like battered eggs. Banging on the glass of Keimi's, he managed to get a response out of her. She glanced up curiously, and blinked when she the man tapping her fish bowl. Crawling over to his side of the glass, she looked up at him, as if asking 'what?'

"My name's Jimmy Kudo, can you grow legs if you come out of water?" He asked. Keimi looked at him as if he was stupid, but managed to nod. "Would you be able to stand up and walk?" Shaking her head no, Jimmy cursed and looked around for anyone available to help. Noticing a woman and the little girl who talk to him earlier, he ushered them over. "Ma'am, could you help me with her, once I get her out?"

"Of course." The woman nodded. Smiling, Jimmy looked around for any kind of weapon that would break the glass. Noticing Disco had dropped his cane, Conan grabbed it and whacked the glass as hard has he could. Luckily, it wasn't expensive glass and it broke easily, allowing him to get in there and unlatch the lock around her neck. Managing to carry her out to the woman, he takes off his jacket and places it around Keimi so she'd be more comfortable. Turning his attention to Hachi, his eyes narrowed at the stomach wound, they'd need a doctor.

Turning to the people who weren't fighting, he yelled. "Is there a doctor here?"

An old man stepped forward. "I am, son." Grabbing his hand, Jimmy raced him to Hachi's tank. Looking at the wound, he sighed. "It won't be safe to open up his wound, I need fresh bandages and ointment." Jimmy cursed, looking around for anything that might be remotely useful; noticing there was still some water in the remains in Keimi's prison, as well as fake seaweed, Jimmy rushed over and grabbed them. Picking up the cane again, he cracked open Hachi's glass like an egg, and he stumbled out. Handing the water and seaweed with the doctor.

He ran towards Bonnie and her men and shouted. "I'm going to signal Whitebeard-san, detain all the nobles!"

"You got it!" She shouted back. Jimmy nodded and ran to the back of the tent and looked under the post Pappug's fishbowl had been placed on. That reminded him, where was Pappug? Deciding on looking for him later, Conan dug out the flares and the matches Bonnie had left him and ran outside. He was grateful for the pink-haired woman's contribution.

Flashback

As Conan told his plan to the others, Bonnie stopped him midway and actually said something helpful. "I have a devil-fruit, yah know."

"Really, what is it?" Conan blinked.

"The name ain't none of your business, but it essentially changes your age temporarily." She explained and looked away, slightly embarrassed. "It'd be bad if they recognized when you go to the stage and claim your prize, right? So, what better disguise than your age?"

Conan couldn't believe it and broke into a huge grin. "You're right! That'd be great!"

"You have about three hours in that form, so don't waste it. Also, my men and I swiped to flares from those bums. I'll hide them under that starfish's prison." She told him.

Conan nodded. "The highest bid a Tenrybito can place is 600 trillion beri, right?"

"Right. But don't make it so over the top where it'd be too good to be true, just touch the edge a little, yah know." Bonnie suggested.

Smirking the detective nodded. "I'll do that, then."

Flashback end

The supernova had been right, if he was recognized prematurely, then they probably would've killed the two merpeople on the spot. But now, he had the opportunity to save them. Jimmy wasted no time, in sending off the emergency flares.

At Rip-Off Bar

Shakky smoked a cigarette as Raleigh looked at the bright lights with amusement. "So it's begun, dear." Vista and Ace had long since gone back to the ship to report to their captain, and now the force of the King of the Seas would be upon them.

With Jimmy

Sighing after the signals were fired, Jimmy decided to find Pappug, the little guy disappeared shortly after his talk with Jewelry Bonnie. After running a few steps, he suddenly found himself stopped. Horror struck him, for, it wasn't that he wanted his body to stop, it was that his body was forced into a stop. Finding himself, forcefully turned to a small alley between the empty cages, his eyes caught sight of one of the most frightening men he had ever seen. The man was extremely tall, dressed similarly to Disco, but instead of a trench coat, had a hideous fuzzy, pink jacket on, that honestly made him look like pink, fuzzy, echidna. And even then, the man's red sunglasses still radiated evil. Glancing down at his hands, to see if he had a gun, Jimmy's eyed widened when they saw a knocked out Pappug. Wincing when the man suddenly turned towards him, he saw that the man was walking similarly to a sumo wrestler, and found that he was as tall as the admirals when close up. "So, you're the famous other-worldly detective." The young detective felt his heart freeze over momentarily. Noticing the look, the blonde laughed. "Relax, kid. I won't say anything, to anyone, I just wanted to talk to you about something."

"What would that be exactly?" Jimmy asked stiffly.

"I understand you're in a bit of a jam with the Navy and such, great impersonation, by the way. Although, Sengoku kisses much more ass than that." He laughed. "Oh, my pardon, how rude of me; I haven't introduced myself. My name is Donquixote Donflamingo, one of the Shichibukai, pleased to meet yah, Jimmy Kudo. Or do you prefer your alias, Conan Edogawa?"

"What is one of the Shichibukai doing here? Did you want to buy someone?" Jimmy glared.

"Hah hah…I'm the actually the former owner of this establishment." He chuckled at the detective's reaction. "Before you ask, yes, the Navy knew all about this, and did nothing. But this place got so successful, that I gave it to Disco, it was too boring for me to keep. So I came here to see how he'd do on the grand reopening, and as I expected, it flopped."

"What do you want?" Jimmy demanded.

"Actually, I want to help you." The exuberant man replied. "I'm sure you're curious as to what I can help you with."

"Actually, I'm wondering how you'll double-cross me when you have no more use for me." The younger man replied.

"You're no fun, you can't play along at all, can you detective?" The pirate chuckled. "I honestly have no use for One Piece, nor do I want it to be found, then the fun would stop. I just thought I'd do you a favor that would be mutually beneficial to us."

Raising a brow, Jimmy decided to bite. "What's your idea?"

"I understand that you want to gain access to the Tenryubito's place, and I'll tell yah, it ain't easy. There's a bunch of ways to get in, but I could get in trouble with the big guy in charge, if I told you." Donflamingo said casually.

"Big guy in charge? Do you mean the Gorosei?" He hadn't read anything in the files about the Gorosei, so anything about them was new.

"I was referring to Commander-in-Chief Kong, but that also works. In case you're wondering, Tsuru told me what's going on. You could say that I'm a piece of hers in this little game. Which sucks for you, because I can disclose anything to her, but you can't to your own comrades? How rude. It amuses me, that you've even heard of the Gorosei. But you'll find out more about them in Mariejois, I'm here for the same reason you are." He jumped up on one of the cages, squeezing Pappug.

"Which is what?" Jimmy was hoping this guy didn't know.

"It'd be useful for me to have an edge over all the admirals, the only one I couldn't get was Aokiji, the guy's as clean as a whistle. Unless, there's something for you to believe otherwise." He smiled.

"And if I don't agree, you'll kill Pappug-san?" It didn't take a genius to figure that. "You overheard everything we planned back here, and you didn't stop us, why?"

"As I said…" He hopped down to the ground and tossed the starfish to the younger man. "I like things interesting. Now, where do you need to go?"

"To the Human Auction House sales records." Jimmy answered.

"And after?"

"Entrance into Mariejois." Jimmy couldn't back out now, too much was at stake.

Meanwhile

Just when Bonney thought the Navy scum were going to maroon them all in a cell again, a giant fire fist said otherwise. Turning to the source, Bonney felt relief rush over her when she saw three of Whitebeard's commanders rush in with their troops. She loved the way the nobles cowarded in fear.

"Oi, Jewlery-san!" Ace caught her attention. "Where's the kid?"

"I don't know, he disappeared after he got help for those fishmen over there." She pointed to Keimi and Hachi.

"So, you lost him then?" Ace frowned.

"Hey, this was his idea!" Bonney raised her hands in defense. "It was his crazy idea to use you guys to rescue everyone, not mine!"

His eyes widened, Ace quickly took off to backstage, now very worried for his speckled friend.

With Conan

The young detective was currently thinking about the possibility of becoming a scientist at the moment, because if he's stranded here forever, he'd have a prominent career to fall back on. The tree he was in was fascinating, it looked like a circus-tree stump on the outside, but it was a complex three-layered complex on the inside. Currently, he was on the lowest part of the tree, following a lunatic in giant pink boa. Pappug stayed faithfully on his shoulder, standing behind his head slightly. "Conan-kun…this is a bad idea." He whispered.

"It's what I have to go on, I'm afraid." Jimmy sighed. Pappug didn't know that his supposed alias was his real name, but he couldn't tell him or the others that. It felt good to use his real name again, even though he was technically lying about it. Stopping abruptly, the sea lord turned to younger male.

"Here we are." He gestured to a room, marked 'records' behind him. "Behind these doors, is a mountain of information on the products, buyers, and the dates of sales. It was in pristine condition when I was in charge; hopefully Disco kept it that way as well."

"May we go in, now?" The detective asked.

"Not so fast." The taller put a palm out. "I understand you don't want me to come inside do you?" Jimmy tensed at man's smile. "I don't mind, after all, it'd suck if you got stumped just because you were nervous. However, I do have a condition…tell me whose file, you're looking up."

"Admiral Aokiji's file." The detective answered evenly.

"He heh…sorry." Donflamingo laughed. "But these records only indicate who was sold here, there are no official records of the buyers."

"So, the buyers don't get convicted of human trafficking by omission." Jimmy clenched his fist. He couldn't believe he overlooked that.

"Yes indeed, the Navy may endorse this, but the younger, more naïve marines have no idea about this operation, and would make quite a few arrests otherwise." The flamboyant man laughed. "So, who's file? Or do you plan to force your way in with that tazer?" Jimmy instinctively readied his watch, but he doubted it would do much good. "Don't make this any harder on yourself, you and I want the same thing, dirt on the Navy and the World Government. All I want is a name. What's it gonna be?"

Looking down and sideways, Jimmy knew he didn't have a choice. It was obvious this man was going to kill him, if he didn't cooperate, and he didn't have long in his adult body. This was definitely going to bite him in the ass later, but he'd deal with it when the time came. "Nico Olivia. That's the file I'm looking for."

"Ha ha…thought so." Donflamingo stepped aside and pushed the door open for him. "The files are in alphabetical order by species and last name, and when you done, there's a door behind the last filing cabinet that leads to the Mariejois underground. The nobles and officials are too afraid to use the path cause of dirt, you'll be sneaking into their library using that path. Good luck." He laughed and walked passed the stunned detective.

"Why are you doing this?" Jimmy demanded.

"Simple…it's more interesting this way. And don't worry, I'll keep yours and the admirals secrets. Good luck!" He waved at him and walked away.

Jimmy would've demanded more, but he didn't have time. He rushed in and went to the section he was instructed to do. "Conan-kun! Why are you looking up this Nico Olivia's file?"

"It's complicated." Jimmy said and skimmed through her file. After reading it, he closed it and put it back. Looking around for the last file cabinet, he dashed across the dimly-lit room and felt around the structure for a switch. After a few seconds he found it, that was easy to find. As promised, the pathway appeared, and now the rest was up to him. "Pappug-san." He got the starfish's attention. "Get off my shoulder, and tell the others not to wait up for me."

"What? Conan-kun? You're going into Mariejois alone? Are you insane?" Cried the starfish. "Why would you do that? The others are waiting for you!" Suddenly, Pappug found himself being lifted up.

"I'm sorry." Jimmy said, and threw him off his shoulder across to the next filing cabinet. "Tell Whitebeard-san's crew members to take everyone to safety! Don't wait for me!" That was the last thing Jimmy said before he closed the gate, leaving the frantic starfish in the filing-room. Feeling around the door for the cable-switches, Conan set his wristwatch and melted them the best he could with his laser. Feeling satisfied, he took off in the straight path. If the file and his theory were right, he'd have his blackmail in Aokiji's safety deposit box.

With Pappug

The starfish was sobbing over the loss of his friend, until someone else lifted him up. "Gah! Put me down! Put me down!"

"Chill, starfish, I won't hurt yah." Pappug stopped struggling and looked into the eyes of a worried Ace.

"Are you with Whitebeard's crew?" He asked.

"Yeah, I'm Ace, the second-division commander." He replied. "Where's the kid?"

"He took a secret passage to Mariejois! He told me to tell you and the other Whitebeard pirates to take everyone to safety! He said not to wait up…Ace-kun…he's going to die." Pappug sobbed.

Narrowing his eyes, the fire pirate sharply responded. "No, he won't." The starfish looked up. "We're going into Mariejois after him."

With Jimmy

After fifteen minutes of running, Jimmy finally reached the end of the corridor, and as also promised, there was a door at the end of it. Carefully opening it, the detective found himself in the biggest and most grand library he had ever seen. It was bigger than the front entrance of Buckingham palace. Ignoring how grand it looked, he looked around for any signs of safety-deposit boxes. Seeing none, he decided not to waste this other opportunity in front of him. If there was another thing he noticed in this world, everything about history was censored, which meant a lot of big secrets to hold over superiors. Scouring the bookshelves for anything possibly relevant, something caught his eye. Picking out an old book, he dusted off the cover, and felt a little disappointed. Employment records; boring, a tad irrelevant, why would the Tenryubito care about employment records? Flipping it open, his eyes caught a glimpse of labels, tables, names and dates. It was then, Jimmy had no idea what year it was in this universe, and so he had no way of knowing how far back these dates were. Quickly scanning for a calendar, September 12, 1492. Talk about blast to the past! Scanning back to the dates, he quickly realized these were actually quite recent, now recognizing the names, a little. These were Navy employment records.

Flipping to the back of the book, Jimmy stopped when he noticed a tear in the corner of the back cover. Quickly uncovering it, he found an extremely old portrait, about the size of a normal photograph. It was a group shot, of twenty men in medieval garb, all had the same sophisticated pose that you'd find in a gallery. Turning it around, there was a date, roughly 800 years ago, and there was a message as well- 'Long live the twenty kingdoms'. Narrowing his eyes, Jimmy turned to the bookshelf, his eyes immediately latched to an old book, 'Our lost kings and queens'. Narrowing his eyes, Jimmy grabbed it and was confused. They were just encyclopedia entries of former rulers, but for what kingdom? This world was in the World Government's stranglehold. That was when another inconsistently made itself realized in his head, if there was such a stranglehold, why were the Tenryubito so powerful? Deciding to keep the picture with him, he put the book away, and stormed off.

Managing to navigate his way through the huge mansion, Jimmy found himself in the main entrance hall, and wasn't sure to faint or scream. This was getting him nowhere! Sighing in frustration, he suddenly heard the front door jiggle; hiding behind a coliseum, he waited for the person to come inside. It was some business official, who was bald, and smoking a cigarette. "Time to get myself a treat, from the old box." Jimmy's eyes widened, he knew where the deposit boxes were.

After following him through the halls, and down one flight of stairs, they finally ended up in a corridor of metal shelves, with locks. And unlike his world, these boxes had names instead of numbers. After watching the man unlock someone's box, he wordlessly skulked up behind him, and zapped him. Catching the keys as the man fell to the ground, Jimmy quickly went to Aokiji/Kuzan's box, and opened it. Taking out the discovery, he sighed sadly, he really didn't want to do this. Looking at the box beside him, it read Commander Kong. Raising a brow, he opened the box, and his eyes practically popped out of his head. Snatching the paper, he shut the box and quickly got out of the room.

"I'm telling you, it was horrible!" Dashing behind a pillar, Jimmy looked for the source of the voice. "This Jimmy Kudo, not only outbid me, but got my outfit dirty! It was horrible Admiral, I demand you do something about this at once!"

"Yeah, yeah…I'll handle it…but I'll need back up. I can't take Whitebeard alone." Jimmy's eyes widened, it was Admiral Aokiji.