Chapter 17: Places To Go

Hey guys! I came out with next chapter, and I actually like how this one went. It's flexible and allows me many opportunities, but enough about me. Chopper does indeed, get introduced, but he's not the main focus of the chapter. As I was writing this, it occurred to me, Law's a doctor as well, and he'd have a reason to visit Torino kingdom! So in the next chapter, Conan meets Franky. The next chapter will also explain a lot of things, but I tend to forget to answer questions people may have while reading this. So if you're curious about something, or want something explained in the next chapter, go ahead and ask. Also, I've made a decision regarding the reunion of the Strawhat crew- they'll split up again and go do their own training at the end of the story, I don't intend for them to start traveling together again in this story. Thanks for the reviews, and enjoy!

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

It took Conan a minute to take in what just happened. One minute, he was floating alongside a skeleton in a dingy, suddenly got sucked into a whirlpool, and then went flying into the air with his undead companion carrying him. Now, here he was flying through the air on a giant bird's back, with a talking reindeer, who not only joined their small group, but seemed to know Brook as well. Snapping out of his gaze, the detective gave a hearty smile and shook the small hoof. "Great to meet you too, Chopper-san. Are you a friend of Brook-san's?"

At this, the little deer pouted and turned to the skeleton. "You didn't tell him about me?"

Putting his hands up in defense, Brook spoke. "Sorry, sorry, it never came up. Although we were talking about the crew as we were pulled into the whirlpool."

"Mmm…fine." Chopper put another pout but then turned happy again, jumping into Brook's arms. "I'm so happy to see at least one of us."

'One of us?' Thought Conan. "Are you also a part of the Strawhat crew?" The two pirates turned to their youngest companion, who was watching them in surprise.

Chopper jumped from Brook's arms and landed in front of him. "Ah! I'm the Strawhat crew's doctor! I'm responsible for the physical and mental well-being of everyone in the crew!"

"I see." Conan sweat-dropped from the enthusiasm.

"So how'd you and Brook meet?" Chopper asked eagerly.

"Er…" Conan was about to answer, but Brook beat him to it.

"We met on Kenzan island. " Brook replied. "He arrived with some mean-looking marines, and he helped free me from the natives who thought I was Satan."

"Wah! Really? That's so cool!" The little doctor exclaimed. "Thank you Edogawa-kun!" The hooves grabbed the little human hands. "But why'd you were you with the marines?"

"I was kidnapped by the marines, and Kenzan island just happened to be on the way to Marineford." Conan explained.

"Lucky huh?" Brook added.

"So lucky!" Chopper cheered. The little reindeer then said something in his native animal language to the bird. Turning back to the other two, he smiled. "We're going back to Torino Kingdom, it's island where I landed after that Kuma-bastard attacked us!"

Conan blinked and realized something. "Excuse me, Chopper-san. Why were you out here, anyways?"

"I was heading for an island back towards Water Seven to get some medical herbs, but then I saw you guys! So we're heading back to Torino so you guys can rest." Chopper explained.

"Sounds good." Conan smiled. He tuned out the conversation, when Brook and Chopper started talking about what happened to them after they were attacked by Kuma. Conan had no idea where Torino Kingdom was, but he had the feeling it wasn't going to be a useful location for him.

Several hours later

After a bumpy and air-sickening ride of feathers and blabbering, Conan practically kissed the ground when they landed. Luckily, his other two companions were too busy discussing something random then to notice his embarrassing display of weakness. As they rejoiced, Conan decided that it'd be best if he read up on some of his discoveries he made in Mariejois. "Excuse me, Chopper-san." The two pirates stopped their rejoicing and turned to him. "Where's the library, I'd like to look something up."

"Go to east part of the town, and you'll find it." Chopper told him. "I'm going to go show Brook around the island, come find us when you're done!"

"Will do!" Conan yelled back. As soon as he went on his own way, the detective found a local, and soon after found the library. To the detective's relief, it wasn't a colossal library, but it wasn't tiny either. Walking to the librarian, he asked in a polite voice. "Excuse me sir, do you have any books on robots?" He hated talking like this, but he could tell this fat moron would be suspicious otherwise.

"Oh! Haven't seen you here before. Are you a friend of Chopper-kun's?" The man asked.

"Yep! Chopper-kun picked me up while he was hunting plants." Conan smiled.

"Ah, he's a cute one all right." The big man chuckled. "The books are in the far right of the library, have fun…what's your name?"

Deciding that it'd be bad if he used a different name, and assuming this island was fairly isolated, he'd use his real alias. "Conan Edogawa."

"Nice to meet you Edogawa-kun, I'm Randy Buck the librarian." The man smiled.

"Good to meet you." Conan nodded and headed towards the books. "Ja ne."

Trotting over to the books, Conan smirked. This was a library that didn't believe in censorship. Taking this as an advantage, he decided to look for anything on the Ancient Kingdom or the Gorosei. But what caught his eye was much different. What caught his eye was an archive collection of a biological-technology experiment, by a man named Dr. Vegapunk. Raising a brow, Conan flipped though some of it, but his eyes widened considerably when he turned to the tenth page. On the tenth page, there was a buff man with a purple Mohawk, and was dressed in a labcoat. The title of the article was "Pacifista successfully developed; Dr. VegaPunk has hopes for the future". Pacifista? What was that? Reading further into the article, he spotted a name he knew by heart now- Bartholomew Kuma. "Formerly known as Kuma, the tyrant, this formalized revolutionary was caught and renovated for modern society." He read out loud. "They actually converted a person into a robot, which means the Kuma-san the Strawhat crew fought…was nothing but a robot as well." Conan knew it was a safe bet that there were a hell of a lot of them too, considering the Navy's economic power. The detective also knew where his next destination was, Dr. VegaPunk's lab. If this man had the technology to build cyborgs, then this guy sure as hell had the know how to hook this Blackbeard-person up with the Black Organization. Looking for any indication of where his lab might be, it didn't take long. "Dr. VegaPunk's lab destroyed on Karakuri island." Well that answered his question, the only question now was how he was going to get there? Was it plausible to take Brook and Chopper with him, or would they figure things out too quickly?

"Hey, haven't seen you before." Whirling to the voice, Conan felt relief when he finally met someone who looked relatively normal. The man before him was in his late teens, had a gotique mustache, had a white sailor hat, thin and average height, tan, wore a yellow-leopard top, and carried his sword casually. Beside the teen was a polar bear in an orange jumpsuit.

"Er…yeah…I'm a friend of Chopper-kun's." Conan replied with a smiled.

The teen and bear looked at him suspiciously before shrugging and sighing. "I'm Trafalgar Law, Supernova and pirate captain of the Heart Pirates."

"I'm Bepo! I'm his first-mate! What your name?" The bear asked him.

"Conan Edogawa." The detective answered. "It's nice to meet you guys. You're one of the Supernova's right, Law-san?"

Raising a brow at the kid, he responded. "Yeah, how do you know that kid?"

"I read about the Supernovas in the newspaper." Conan answered, hoping this universe had a newspaper.

"Ah. I see. So what are you doing here? Shouldn't you be hanging out with Chopper-kun?" Law raised a brow at him.

"Er…one of Chopper-kun's crewmates escaped from the Navy and somehow escaped to this island. His name's Brook-san, and he's very nice and excellent musician. They looked so happy together, so I gave them time alone to get reacquainted with each other." The most logical lie had had spawned this whole trip.

"Really? That's a relief." The pirate sighed. "Everyone assumed they were dead after that damned Pacifista."

"What's a Pacifista?" Conan asked.

"A cyborg that the World Government converts from a human, real nasty stuff kid." Law looked at the articles in Conan's hands. "Why are you asking me when you're reading up on it?"

"I just happened to open the book when you approached me, it wasn't titled and I didn't know what was in it." Conan lied. He handed Law the book to confirm what he was saying. And to his relief, the pirate pointed out the title on the book binding and let it slide, assuming it was just a careless mistake a kid made. "Uh Law-san…why are you here?"

"I'm a medical pirate." Law responded, which deeply surprised the detective.

"You're a doctor?" It was a strange profession considering, his lifestyle.

"Eh. For someone who said they've done they're research, you don't know much." Law said pointedly. "My crew and I often come to this island to restock and get the latest notes from the doctors here, this island is known for its medical advancements. I met Chopper-kun here a week or two ago, and he told me what happened. I offered for him to join my crew, but he turned it down. It's a shame, in my crew, we're nothing but doctors, so the little guy would've been welcome."

"What about Bepo?" The polar bear exclaimed.

"Ah. You're right. Sorry Bepo, you're more useful to me than the idiots who call themselves doctors." Law smiled gently and the bear cheered in response.

'So the first-mate's the only person in his crew that isn't a doctor?' Conan thought. "Is Law-san going to stay long?"

"Nope. We got to ship out soon, it'll be awhile before we hit Karkuri." Law sighed and was about to leave-

"Karakuri?" Conan exclaimed, stopping Law and Bepo. "You're going to Karakuri?"

Considering his answer, Law decided to respond. "Yeah…we are. What's it to yah?"

"I…" Conan looked down, trying to think of something. "A friend of mine's there."

"A friend?" Law raised a brow. "Kid…if you're going to lie, at least come up with something better." The boy looked at the pirate with wide eyes, obviously surprised at being caught. "Look…I know you're not dangerous, I can tell you're not with the Navy and World Government, but I need to know the real reason why you want to visit Karakuri. You see, I lied too. I only said we were going there to confirm my suspicions about you. You want to go to Karakuri for something extremely important, but you can't tell anyone. Otherwise you would've told Whitebeard about this." Conan looked beyond shocked when Law mentioned Whitebeard. "Don't worry, Whitebeard and Jewelry just issued an announcement about you…if any of us or Whitebeard's allies is to find you, we're supposed to help you. We're allowed to interrogate you, but you'll most likely be lying."

"You're kidding." Conan dropped to his knees.

"Whitebeard's on your side kid, so are we." Law gestured to himself and Bepo. "But because we're on your side, we need to know the truth. Why do you want to go to Karakuri island?"

Knowing that lying would be useless at this point, Conan stood back up. "I'm looking for Dr. Vegapunk's lab; I know I'll find some of the answers I'm looking for in there. I need to know where he got the idea to create the Pacifista, and I also need to see what other technology he'd developed in the past two years."

"Anything in particular?" The pirate captain seemed satisfied with the honesty.

"Yeah, actually." The detective smirked. "Vortexes and teleportation.

With Brook and Chopper

As the two pirates walked along the shoreline, they began to notice their speckled companion hadn't reappeared yet.

Stopping, Chopper pulled on Brook's coattails. "Brook-san, should we go get Conan-kun?"

"Yohoho! That'd be a great idea!" The skeleton cheered.

"Let's go!" Chopper pulled his hand and ran forward.

"Chopper-kun!" They both abruptly stopped when one of the villagers ran up to them. "I just wanted to let you know that Law-san arrived here and left the notes he left for you."

"Ah! Arigato!" Chopper took the papers in excitement. "Is Conan-kun okay? He's been gone an awfully long time."

"Oh, Edogawa-kun left with Law-san." The islander said cheerfully.

"WHAT?" Chopper and Brook exclaimed.

"He left? Why didn't you stop him?" Chopper exclaimed. "Did he say where he was going?"

"N-No…Law said it was in everyone's best interest if Edogawa-kun went with him, so they left." The man explained nervously.

"You're quite a bonehead aren't you, Mr. Islander?" Brook asked, too annoyed to bring up the pun. "When did they leave exactly?"

"They just left the dock! Law-san's submarine is already under the water by now!" He exclaimed nervously.

Chopper gritted his teeth and dashed forward, Brook followed. "We need to find a bird! They'll be able to see deep enough into the water to follow them!"

"Sounds good!" Brook laughed and picked the reindeer up, placing him on his shoulder. Brook was much faster than Chopper, after all.

"Hold it." An abrupt voice stopped them in their tracks. Turning to the new voice, they stared. It was a tall man in a cloak, a scattered tattooed pattern along one side of his face, and had very long dark hair. "What good will it do either of you to follow him now? It's a submarine Law own's, not a ship. With your devil fruit powers, you absolutely can't follow."

Narrowing his eyes, and hiding Chopper behind his afro, Brook spoke. "And who might you be?"

"His name is Monkey D. Dragon. Leader of the Revolutionary army, and our captain's father." Now a familiar, feminine voice spoke. Brook and Chopper nearly fainted by the person they saw. The person who came out from behind Dragon was their beautiful, black-haired crewmate, Nico Robin.

"ROBIN!" Chopper and Brook tackled her to the ground, glomping and hugging her. She used her hands to hug them back, they were so beyond relieved to see each other, it wasn't even funny.

"It's great to see you too." Robin smiled.

"Are you okay? Have you seen the others? What happened to you? Why are you with this guy?" Chopper asked in tears.

"She can explain all that to you later, we have bigger problems afoot." Dragon snapped them out of it.

Brook, still suspicious of the man, responded. "And what might those be?"

"We have confirmed intelligence that confirms that Edogawa-boy's true situation, and we must do everything in our power to insure, he sees his ambitions through." Dragon said. He gestured them to follow. "Come. A couple of crew members representing Whitebeard, Trafalgar Law, and Jewelry Bonnie are all aboard the ship, everything will be explained to the two of you there."

"How'd you find us?" Brook asked. "It can't be a coincidence that Conan-kun left so abruptly."

"Edogawa-kun actually didn't see us, nor is he aware of our presence on the island currently. We actually started pursuing you, when one of Dragon-san's men spotted you and Edogawa-kun on the dingy, Brook-san. It was a miracle that Chopper-kun was able to save you in time." Robin explained. "Law-san's timing, however, is not coincidence. He has been ordered to take Conan-kun to the next location."

"Do we know where that is?" The musician asked.

Robin shook her head. "At this time, no. Law-san does not want the boy to panic, so he cannot update us until Edogawa-kun is a safe distance away."

"Yohoho! Talk about conspiracy!" Brook laughed. "Let's go then. I looked forward to hearing the rest, Dragon-san."

"And I look forward to telling you it." The man glared back at him.

"This is going to be a long ship-ride." Chopper complained.

"Don't worry, we won't be leaving until we know Edogawa-kun's next location." Robin smiled.

"Cool! That means I can still play with Brook, right?" Chopper brightened up.

"Of course." Robin smiled as the reindeer dragged the skeleton to Dragon's boat. But then frowned as she looked out into the ocean.

"Don't worry, I'm sure the boy doesn't mean any harm." She turned to Inazuna.

"Whether or not he does, it appears he needs to be reminded of investigation etiquette. My mother is certainly none of his business, and he owes me an explanation." Robin pursed her lips. "I don't intend to let that slide.