Chapter 15: Tunnel Vision

Hey guys, next chapter is here. So, I've put a little more thought into the outline, and I haven't fully decided how I'm going to handle Luffy's meeting, other than that he'll be the last strawhat Conan meets. Next chapter coming up, he'll meet up with Brook, but I'm not entierly sure how it's going to go down yet. I also decided to add Smoker and Tashigi because they fit here, but I don't know if they'll be involved after this chapter and the next. Let me know what you guys think, and enjoy!

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

Robin looked extremely hesitant to answer, for she had good reason to be. The Second-division Commander of the Whitebeard pirates was staring at her as if she had just committed an unspeakable act of treason. Sighing, she started from the beginning, from when they arrived on Sabaody, to when they were attacked and separated by that damned Kuma. By the time she was finished, Ace looked absolutely livid.

"So…" He started. "One of those damned Shichibukai almost got my brother killed, and the another helped him sneak into Impel Down."

"Impel Down?" Robin asked confused.

"Boa Hancock snuck my brother into Impel Down to help bust me out, but by the time he got there, I was already gone. I've been corresponding with Jinbei for updates, another Shichibukai, as you know. I'll kill him the next time, I see him." Ace sighed. "My brother makes the weirdest friends."

"He wouldn't be Captain-san, otherwise." Robin smiled. "So, Captain-san's alive then?"

"Last I checked he's alive. I'm trying to determine a the best spot to catch him, you guys are welcome to come with us, if you want." Ace said. "That includes, the bi-colored revolutionist too."

"It's best if I meet up with Dragon, there's no reason for me to go with the Whitebeard crew." Inazuna replied. "But thank you for your offer."

Nodding, Ace turned back to Robin. "Any idea where the other members of your crew are?"

Frowning, Robin shook her head. "Not at all, I'm afraid. But I'm sure they're fine; our captain made us promise to live and fulfill our dreams together. None of us will break that vow, rest assured Ace-san."

Smiling, the taller male nodded. "Good to know."

"So about this boy you mentioned…" Inazuna spoke up. "Who is he, exactly?"

Smirking, the fire commander replied. "Conan Edogawa, the child detective who's working to crack the World Government."

With Conan

It was as the Admiral said, it was much less conspicuous for them to walk together to Kong's office. Various guards and marines passed them, saluted to the Admiral, and then passed on. Looking around himself, Conan realized that the portraits of the Tenryubito were starting to disappear, and were being replaced by stained glass pictures of strangely, various religious figures. The young detective briefly wondered what religion reigned dominant here. "Aokiji-san?"

"Hm?"

"Where's the office of the Gorosei?" They stopped abruptly.

"Why? You planning on going there?" Aokiji frowned.

"I may have been thrown into this, but I need to find a way to solve this…for everyone. Or do you never want to visit Olivia-san's grave?" Conan frowned. "I need to see the mystery of One Piece to the end, and that means covering every bit of material that's involved."

"…Very well." Aokiji sighed. "…Commander Kong likes to look back on the past battles against the pirates and revolutionaries, if you're searching for clues, check his trophy case."

"...Thanks." The young detective nodded, settling on the other option. After a few more steps, they arrived at a grand white door, with golden doorknobs, a sign that read Commander-in-Chief hung proudly on the door.

Pushing Conan behind his leg, Aokiji knocked on the door. "Commander?"

The respondent opened the door, and the detective's jaw dropped. This man was HUGE! Not as tall as Whitebeared, but sure as hell as muscular! The guy had a bunch of scars all over his face, a spiky mohawk, and a pointy beard. The taller man looked at the admiral. "Ah! Aokiji! What's wrong, m'boy?"

"Commander, I had some questions regarding the Edogawa case." Aokiji answered.

"Really? That's funny, because I was just going to Marineford to talk about that. Come, walk with me. Might as well go down together; no vessel is being spared in our search for that brat." Kong lead Aokiji passed his open door. "Ah. Better lock that." After securing his offce, he rejoined the younger man and lead him down the hall. "So anyways, as I was saying…"

With Ace

Robin, Ace, Inazuna, and Pappug (who had fainted some time ago), were navigating through the confusing palace. Despite Ace's good sense of navigation, he had no idea where he was going. He briefly wondered how Sabo found his way around the massive interior. "Didn't we pass that collesium ten minutes ago?" Ace pointed to the structure outside across the garden, at a window they passed.

"I believe we did, Ace-san." Sighed Robin.

"This is getting us nowhere." Complained Pappug.

"Any better suggestions?" Ace growled at the starfish on his shoulder. The little starfish shuddered a no.

"How about this?" Inazuna spoke up. "Let's think about why he chose to come to Mariejois in the first place. He's trying to escape and disarm the World Government, but he snuck into their stronghold. What possible motive could he have had to come here. Pappug-san?" He turned to the starfish. "You were with him last…what was he doing?"

"As you know…it was Ace-kun and his crewmates who saved us, but it was Conan-kun who masterminded it. Miss Robin…I don't know how to say this, but the Shichibukai, Donflamingo lead us to records room of the auction house, and Conan-kun looked up your mother's file." Robin kept a neutral expression, and nodded for Pappug to continue. "He wouldn't tell me what he was looking for, but after he read over Miss Olivia's file, he put it back, and used the secret passage behind a cabinet to get here."

"What did Donflamingo-san ask in return for Edogawa-kun's entrance?" Robin was a very well-together woman, but anyone could feel the anger radiating off her.

"…The name of the file, Conan-kun was looking up…he knows Conan-kun was investigating your mother." The starfish answered nervously.

"Did he mention why?" Robin quietly demanded.

"No, he wouldn't tell me." Pappug answered sadly.

"But it's safe to say, Donflamingo knows." Snorted Inazuna. "It seems as though, our young detective has quite a bit of explaining to do. But juding by what Pappug-san said, he most likely is here to research something. Perhaps a disocervy of Olivia-san's."

"It's a discovery to me, that my poor mother was a slave at one point." Hissed Robin.

"Let's start in the library of this place." Ace spoke up. "There are Den Den Mushi there, and it's a good place to start. I mean, where else would the kid go to research something in this place?"

With Conan

'Good thing I'm so small, otherwise I wouldn't have been able to hide behind Aokiji-san's leg.' After walking behind Aokiji's leg, he jumped into Kong's office as he and his younger subordinate walked off. After making sure, they were gone, Conan looked around the room for cameras, but surprisingly, found none. Shrugging it off, the young detective took out the piece of paper he stole from Kong's deposit box. It may have seemed insignificant, but to Conan it said a lot. The item he pulled out of Kong's box was an old golden pirate medallion which had Palestinian-style tower on one side, that said 'Valde quietus locus', or the 'Great resting place' in Latin. On the other side was a collage-based picture of a pirate skull, a key, and a lock strung together on a chain. There was also a sign on the back of it that said, 'three tempus', or 'three steps'. He had no idea what it meant, but Conan's gut told him to pluck it. Moving on, he rummaged through Kong's desk, trying desperately to find another piece of evidence. And just as Aokiji promised, Conan found answers.

It wasn't much to go on, but Conan looked over the documents carefully; they were receipts of business transactions between the Navy and the 'Black Party', which Conan figured from the symbol was the Black Organization. He trailed back the oldest transaction, to his surprise, six months ago; and the first exchange was made by man named Jack Raider, even sporting a picture. Raising a brow, the detective couldn't help but feel as though he looked familiar. His eyes snapped and he yanked out the group picture he took from Kong's deposit box. Just as he thought, the man on the financial record was an older version of the man in the picture. But how was that possible? Was it a descendent or something else? Looking further down on the chart of exchange, he noted there were four other elderly men in the timeline presented. All were exact older replicas of some of the men in the portrait. What the hell was going on? Deciding to ignore this for now, Conan looked back at telecommunications documents; to determine if it was the Black Organization that made the first move, or the Navy.

To his surprise, it was the Navy that first established communication, and form what he could tell on the transcript, the Navy didn't actively seek them out, but they were definitely looking for those kind of people. Thinking back to what Tsuru said, even though he bluffed his accusation at her for making first contact, she didn't actually confirm it, nor did Aokiji. So by doing that, she protected her asset and superior as well as leading him onto her game. Cursing his stupidity, Conan decided to see who actually made contact with them first.

"I hate knit-picking records, it takes forever." He grumbled. Looking down at the names, Conan frowned at what he found. "First communication was established by newly-instated Shichibukai member, Blackbeard, enlisted by the World Government. Information is to be completely disclosured and passed to Vice-Admiral Tsuru." He read. Who was Blackbeard in this world? A great pirate like the one his universe depicted, or something else? He supposed it didn't matter, he needed to wrap this up. He about had the information he came for, there was just one issue in his mind, what did they use to establish communication? Turning to a book case in the room, something caught his eye, 'Cipher Pole'. Deciding that it couldn't hurt, he rolled over to shelf and pulled the records. As soon as he opened it, he snatched a page with a giant superweapon-blueprint, along with history accounts behind it, and two other mass weapons and accounts. The reason why swiped it instead of reading it?

"Hey you!" Conan flinched and turned to a female voice, finding himself quite surprised. In front of him was a blue-shorthaired woman with glasses, a long katana, and a fitted Navy outfit. She didn't look like she was about to kill him, but…she didn't look happy. Huffing, she marched over and picked Conan up by the scruff, and put the unknowingly incomplete file back on the shelf. "Okay kid! Who do you belong to, and how in the world did you sneak into Mariejois?"

"Tashigi!" The woman turned to a tall, muscular man with a cigar hanging out of his mouth. He looked to be her superior.

She saluted at once. "I apologize Commodore Smoker, but I found this child reading files in Commander Kong's office."

Somewhere in the hallway

Ace cursed, as he blasted through various marines along with his partners. Really, the lower marines weren't difficult to defeat, they were just a pain the ass. After the wave finally stopped, everyone took a breather.

"He's not here anymore." Everyone snapped their heads in the direction. Robin glared fiercely, and prepared for a bloody onslaught of hands. The others prepared as well, Ace smirked knowing he had an advantage. In front of them was an annoyed Admiral, who looked like he had been through whiplash. He raised a hand to stop them. "I managed to avoid my superior; none of you are a match against Kong, and none of you can do anything for the boy from where you are."

"So where'd you bastards take him? Marineford?" Ace growled.

"He escaped through another tunnel to my knowledge, otherwise, I have no idea where he might be." Aokiji answered.

"Did you talk to him?" Robin hissed. Daring to glance at the woman, Aokiji nodded. "Why was he looking up my mother?"

"He was asking me about the Ohara incident and why it occurred, nothing more." The admiral lied for the sake of simplicity, nothing more.

"Do you have any idea where the boy is heading now?" Inazuna spoke up. "Correct me if I'm wrong, but you're helping him, aren't you?"

"…The World Government got mixed up in really nasty people." Aokiji sighed and turned to walk away from them. "Get back to Whitebeard's ship and regroup; or do you want to be burdens the boy has to rescue?"

Robin and Ace were about to charge, but Inazuna stopped them. "We will cooperate under the condition that we are given disclosure. It is obvious that you don't like what the World Government is doing at the moment, so why not call a temporary truce and gain the benefits?"

"…Contact me by Den Den Mushi when you lot are on Whitebeard's ship, I'll explain then. Now go; you're only jeopardizing him if you stay here." Aokiji left. And with extreme reluctance (Ace had to be dragged away), they left.

Back with Conan

Smoker looked at the kid with intense curiosity. "What's your name, boy?"

"….Er…" Conan hesitated, not sure what to say. They obviously didn't recognize him now, but they would when his name was stated. "Jimmy Kudo."

"Kudo…?" Smoker repeated. Conan gulped, fearing the worst. "I don't recognize the last name, who are your parents?"

"I-It's my mother's last name!" Conan quickly replied. "I-I'm not allowed to repeat my dad's name to strangers. Religious rules!"

"Hmph! Can't even follow a simple order because of these damned policies." The smoky man snorted. He turned to the girl. "Tashigi!"

"Sir!" She saluted.

"We don't have time for a confession from him, we'll have to take him with us." Smoker told her. "He's an unknown personal in Mariejois, we can't leave him here, and we can always bring him back if his father's stationed here. Let's go."

"Yes sir!" Tashigi followed her superior out, with Conan in one arm.

"Uh…where are we going?" An odd turn of events, but it would work as an escape.

Smoker glared ahead. "To Kenzan island."