Chapter 48

"Hold on, Onii-chan!" The little girl Hiroyuki knew as Ayumi suddenly shouted at him.

"We are not just a child!" The second one who he knew as Genta chimed in.

"Yeah! We are the Detective Boys!" The third one, Mitsuhiko, finished their antics with that declaration. However, Hiroyuki just raised his eyebrows slightly, unimpressed with their antics.

"Is this not your first time hanging around a murdered corpse?" He decided to ask. Ayumi answered his question with a proud nod.

"Yes! Conan-kun! Ai-chan! Say something too to Onii-chan here!" The two who were called by Ayumi just send him an awkward smile. Hiroyuki decided to turn his attention back to the police once again.

"Did their parents at least know that they have been exposed to more than one murdered corpse?" This resulted in the children laughing sheepishly and several polices tried to stay away from his gaze with embarrassed faces.

"See? That is why I dare to say that you are incompetent! You didn't even inform their parents! Can you imagine how would their parents feel if they know that their children saw a lot of murdered corpses and they are not there to console their children?"

*Cough*

The sudden cough from Inspector Megure managed to gain the attention of all of the people inside the room.

"Thank you for what you said, young man. I kinda forget how often they stumbled across cases that they are indeed just civilians. From now on, we will conduct a more professional investigation and will try to be more tactful."

"Inspector Megure!" The policewoman Hiroyuki known as Officer Miwako Sato wanted to protest, but Inspector Megure just raised his right hand to shut her up.

"He is right, Sato. We are too comfortable with the children to let them hang around the crime scene that we forgot they are indeed just children. I know for a fact that I would go crazy if my children stumbled across murder cases even if it is just half as often as them."

This left Officer Sato in silence as she imagined if she would become a mother, would she be comfortable letting her children hang around crime scenes?

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Five minutes later, after getting checked one more time by the police officers, Hiroyuki found himself waiting outside the crime scene with Megumi, the Detective Boys, and their teacher, Kobayasi-sensei. He ignored the stink gaze Conan sends and decided to approach Megumi.

"Are you alright?" He asked softly. Megumi gives him a small smile and nodded weakly.

"I… I think I will have a hard time sleeping later. It will haunt me in my worst nightmare." Now, not only Hiroyuki, even the Detective Boys looked at her worriedly.

"Do you want to have me and Kiyoko around you for the next week?" Megumi didn't even look at his face, but she still nodded at his question. Hiroyuki smiles at the nod and hugged her immediately.

"Don't worry. You will always have me to rely on. Family always sticks together, right?" Even if he couldn't look at her face, he knows that Megumi smiles at what he said.

"Don't worry, Onee-chan!" Mitsuhiko suddenly shouted. "We will help the police solve this case quickly!" He got two nods from his friends as the answer. Megumi just smiles at them as a 'thank you' gesture.

Meanwhile, as Hiroyuki released his hug, he frowned as he didn't find Conan at all. When he looked inside the room where the crime happened, he sighed as he saw the glasses boy sneaking around the corpse once again.

'Honestly, why didn't the police just close the crime scene so that nobody can enter it? Do they make a habit to let everyone mess around the crime scene?' He muttered inwardly.

"Don't worry." Suddenly, the girl who haven't spoken anything since the beginning, Ai Haibara, said to him. "He knows what he is doing." Hiroyuki stares at her for a while before he realized that she also stares at Conan.

"I don't think so, girl." He mumbled lowly. "If he tried to hide, why is it that he forced himself to solve this case without any backup?" This left Haibara completely frozen in her place.

"What do you mean hiding?" She tried to stay calm, but Hiroyuki knows she is nervous with a hint of fright in her voice.

"You know what I mean girl." He snorted. "And by the look of your reaction, I can tell that you are on the same boat as Conan Edogawa." He paused for a moment before sending the girl a wide grin and added, "Or should I say, Shinichi Kudo?"

The widened eyes and paled face from her were enough for everyone to confirm what he said. Not that he needs it as he knows a lot about Detective Conan. Fortunately for Haibara, it is just her and Hiroyuki who heard what they talked about. He kneels down so that he can talk to the girl without everyone eavesdropping them.

"Do you want me to tell you how could I know?" Haibara nodded at his whisper. Honestly, Hiroyuki feels bad for her. She had to be a child once again to run away, but still being haunted by the organization where she was from and getting dragged by Conan, the murderer magnet, everywhere she goes.

"Conan Edogawa.." He muttered lowly, low enough that only Haibara could hear what he said. "He appeared a few months ago in the abduction case of Akiko Tani, the owner of one of the biggest technology companies in Japan right now. He played a major role to solve the case with a lot of his childish thought, or that is what everyone thought about. Surprisingly, his appearance happened right a day after Shinichi Kudo, a high school detective, vanished after the Tropical Land case."

Haibara stiffened at hearing Shinichi Kudo's name.

"At first, I didn't have any thought about it. But right after the idol case that involved Yoko Okino, he started the legend of the Sleeping Kogoro. He would come to the crime scene, accuse everyone to be the murderer, and suddenly, boom! He fell asleep in the middle of the investigation while giving the best analysis that everyone could think about.

Not only him, it also happened with Sonoko Suzuki, the best friend of Kogoro Mouri's daughter who solved several cases with a similar style, always starting with sleep. And then, we have your little group and a professor from Tohoku University, Hiroshi Agasa, who did the same. And there is one similar thing to connect the dots between Kogoro Mouri, Sonoko Suzuki, and your little detective group. Conan Edogawa was always at the crime scenes, saying a lot of nonsense things that somehow helped the police solve the case.

Suspicious, isn't it?"

When Haibara thinks about what Hiroyuki said, she couldn't help but admit that it was really suspicious, not to mention a bit ridiculous.

"And what convinced me that Conan Edogawa is Shinichi Kudo is, when the boy didn't wear his glasses, he is the same replica as the high school detective. So, based on what I said before, even you could draw the same conclusion, right?" Haibara nodded without looking at his face.

"I guess Shinichi Kudo was somehow involved with something dangerous in Tropical Land that forced him to be a kid again. He tried to raise Kogoro Mouri's reputation with the hope that someday, someone would come up with a case related to the one responsible for his condition.

As for you, seeing that you are close to each other, it is a fair assumption that both of you know about each other's real identity. Seeing that even the police his girlfriend, Ran Mouri, didn't know about his true identity, that means Kudo-kun wanted to protect everyone around him. It would be impossible for him to tell any strangers about his real identity.

That means, it was you who was the first to reveal your identity. So, you had known his identity from before. That means either you were suspicious about him just like me, or you were involved with the one who was responsible for his condition. But seeing as you are in the same boat, I bet it is the second one."

He paused for a while to think about what happened in the Detective Conan series. Honestly, he didn't know how is it that Conan and Haibara could hide their own identity for that long without anyone but several people knowing about it.

"How…" Haibara's whispered voice snapped his thought.

"Sorry, can you repeat that?"

"How did you know about all of that?" She whispered once again, but this time with a hint of desperation. Fortunately for Hiroyuki, he knew what to answer without mentioning his first life.

"You can blame Conan Edogawa for that. Honestly, for someone as smart as him, I don't know how did he forget about the news on the internet. Every case he solved either by the sleeping Kogoro, your detective group, or Sonoko Suzuki, always appeared in the news. With just a little investigation, everyone who was curious enough about Kogoro Mouri could draw the same conclusion as me ."

He looked amused at Haibara who suddenly gets very creative with words to curse Conan Edogawa. He turned around just to see Conan and the other children creating a drama to help the police solve the case.

"Look at him." He pointed his finger at Conan. "For the one who wanted to hide his identity, he did a very poor job, didn't he?" Haibara scowled as she completely agrees with what Hiroyuki said. "It is fortunate for you that the police here are incompetent to connect the dots. But he walked in the thin ice here. You better prepared to get dragged to the mess he created."

He left Haibara to her thought and went to accompany Megumi who sit alone outside of the apartment.

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Author note:

You can also read:

- Transmigrated Into Anime World as Kiyoko Shimizu's Older Brother up to chapter 57

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