Chapter 3: Day One

Hey guys! Updating another chapter, because I really want to start the action! I've decided to stick with calling him Conan instead of switching off the names between Conan and Jimmy/Shinichi. It's just easier that way. To my first review, thank you so much for the review and suggestion! The gears are still turning in my head for this story, and I'll definitely consider it. I haven't fully decided on what to do in the next chapter yet, to either have him stay in Marineford, or escape. Either way, he meets Ace. And sorry if Coby and Helemppo are a bit out of character, they don't appear much in the anime or manga, so I tried my best. Thanks a bunch and enjoy!

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

"Excuse me, Mr. Edogawa?" Conan woke with a start to a voice. Glancing at the entrance of the cell, he saw two fairly young looking soldiers. One had an x-shaped scar above his right eye, had pink hair, tall, thin, and seemed to be about seventeen. The other one was blond, thin tall, had an odd assortment of colors for a navy officer compared to his partner, and had a black sun glass band that hid his eyes, he looked meaner and older of the two. "It's 01600 hours; we've come to get you for breakfast. Conan sighed, and got up and went to the cell. The two men entered and cuffed him, and then lead him out into the normal hallway of the Naval base. "My name is Coby, and this is my friend, Helmeppo, he and I will be your guards during your stay here."

"Coby, don't be too friendly with the prisoner." Conan guessed right, the blond one was meaner. The blond man glared down at the young detective. "Here are the rules: you get uncuffed to eat, do research, bathe, and sleep. That's it. We're not your friends, or your baby sitters, you cross us, we punish you. Understand brat?"

Conan blinked, and then remembered what Sengoku said. No one knew who he was except for the people in that office, so these two probably thought he was some pirate prodigy or something. Conan made a mental note to ask what the cover up story about him was later. Nodding smartly, he replied. "Understood, sir."

"Good." Helmeppo grunted in approval. "Come. You're on a tight schedule, brat." Tugging at the chain, Conan followed behind the two marines. "Can't believe that Granny assigned us this. I mean, we're under Vice-Admiral Garp's command! We shouldn't have to do this shit!" Conan's ears perked at the mention of an old woman, it could be Tsuru.

"I know, but Vice-Admiral Tsuru specifically asked Vice-Admiral Garp for us, this is a real honor for us, yah know; to be trusted with something like this." Coby reasoned. Conan's suspicions were confirmed, Tsuru asked for guards she trusted not to hurt him, but the question was, how much did she tell them?

Helmeppo snorted and turned abruptly to Conan, making the young detective jump slightly. "What are you staring at boy?"

"N-Nothing!" Conan quickly replied. "It's just, you guys were talking about me, and I was wondering what the others were saying about me?" He smiled innocently.

"Why does that matter?" The strict guard raised a brow.

"I'm a kid. Aren't I allowed to be curious when someone talks about me? After all, you get curious when people talk about you, don't you?" Conan couldn't help but smirk a little. Helmeppo stopped short, causing Coby and Conan to stop as well.

He glared and raised his hand. "Why you…" He brought his hand down, but Coby stopped him at the last second.

"Helmeppo! Control yourself!" Coby glared shoving Helmeppo's arm back a little. "It's as Tsuru said; this boy was raised by terrorist pirates specifically plotting to destroy the Navy. It's not the boy's fault he has no manners, and that's why we have to help him. As his guards, it's our duty to start his recovery into normal life." Coby knelt down and gave a sad look to Conan, petting his head slightly. It annoyed the little boy, but the detective was more surprised by the pink-haired boy's kindness. "Don't worry. You're safe now, those pirates won't hurt you anymore." Coby smiled and stood back up. "Helmeppo's just an unfriendly person, it takes him awhile to warm up to people, so don't worry, he'll get used to you."

"Thanks…Mr. Coby." Conan nodded tamely.

"Good." Coby smiled and turned back around as did his partner. "Let's get to breakfast, you're probably hungry." Helmeppo grumbled something inaudible, and the three started walking again, introducing the life of the Navy to Conan Edogawa.

At Breakfast

If there was one thing Conan could count on here, it was good food. The breakfast they served him was incredible! Scrambled eggs, toast, and bacon; he was used to having a glass of milk and cereal on account of: he couldn't cook himself, Rachel was too busy to shop most of the time, and a starving stray dog wouldn't eat Mr. Moore's cooking. The detective knew he most likely was given special treatment because they wanted his brain in proper working order, so he had to be careful. He noticed the Coby and Helmeppo were eating with him too, but passed it off as the Navy reassuring him that they weren't going to poison his food until he was no longer useful to them.

"So." Conan turned to Helmeppo. "We heard that you were kidnapped from Fishman island because of your deduction skills, the pirates used you to find treasure and crap, right?"

"Helmeppo!" Coby kicked him under the table harshly. "Don'y be so rude! He's just a kid! Lighten up!" The pink-haired boy smiled politely. "I'm sorry about him, it's just…you came on rather short notice, and we heard a pretty gruesome story from Vice-Admiral Tsuru, so we've been curious to ask about your circumstances for awhile. Is that all right?"

"I guess…" The detective boy nodded. "What do you want to know?" This was his best chance at getting Tsuru's story about him, as well as determining Tsuru and these two to be allies or not.

"First of all…is it true, a pirate crew slaughtered your whole family to get you? It must've been awful." Coby frowned sadly.

"…Yeah…they did." Conan looked down to hide his face. His expression would give away too much, and he needed to act the part of a quivering child anyways. "I don't remember why, though."

"As I asked. It was because you could figure out codes and riddles that would normally be impossible, right? Vice-Admiral Tsuru said you were some history or deduction prodigy or something, The pirates kidnapped you, because the Mayor of your village sold you out or something like that." Helmeppo grunted suspiciously.

"Ah." The fake-child clenched his fists to act as if he was angry. "He hated my family due to their…unconventional ways of living." Conan didn't know what Tsuru said, so he had to be careful what he said here.

"We heard your family contradicted the islands predominant religious beliefs, and that Mayor was starting to ose face because of that. Your family was very brave." Coby smiled reassuringly.

"If he's so good, then why was he at the sight of the attack?" Helmeppo demanded. "It was where Fire-Fist Ace and that Blackbeard-bastard fought!"

'Blackbeard?' Conan blinked at the familiar pirate name, so the infamous pirate captain was in this world too. Then what time period was this compared to his world?

"Helmeppo, that's enough!" Coby sighed. "We'd like to know that, actually. Vice-Admiral Tsuru said that after the fight between Fire-Fist Ace and Blackbeard, you were found drifting along the island's edge on a large piece of drift wood. The pirate crew that kidnapped you, had been wiped out because of the immense collateral damage from the fight. The whole island was destroyed in that fight, everyone in the island's vicinity died, how did you survive?"

Conan was starting to get a little freaked from what he was hearing. An island got destroyed from collateral damage? Just what kind of universe is this? Quickly making up a story, he replied. "…After I lead them to the island, the captain beat me and then threw me off the ship. I remember grabbing onto a piece of drift wood, and I passed out soon after."

"Checks out with Vice-Admiral Tsuru's story." Helmeppo went back to eating. Conan sweat-dropped. That's why he had been grilled? To see if he was telling the truth? But that also made Conan think. If they were questioning their orders, despite how little they showed it, that meant they didn't fully trust the situation they were in either. Which meant, neither did their superior…Garp-san, they said, right?

"Thank you for sharing with us, Conan-kun." Coby gave an approving smile and went back to eating as well. Conan went back to eating too, seeing as how he only had ten minutes left.

Resaerch begins

Conan was amazed by how big the facility was, it had taken them at least twenty minutes to walk to the library of the giant Naval base, and even after they arrived there, Conan was half-surprise they didn't shove illegal immigration families in here. The library was at least four stories tall, and had entire rows or book and journal entries…for only one topic. Yes- this entire library was a dedicated research archive to One Piece. 'No wonder they're giving me so much time to do research, it's going to take me a few days just memorize what the different sections are.' Conan thought, as his handcuffs were taken off. "We'll be waiting by the entryway." Coby pointed towards the door they used to enter. "Let us know if you need something, the librarian will get you the research materials you need. Good luck!"

"Don't waste our time, brat." Helmeppo snorted and followed Coby.

"Are you Edogawa-kun?" Conan jumped and turned to an attractive blonde woman in a blue tight-fitting uniform, and glasses. The boy nodded dumbly, blushing slightly. "My name is Trish Imora, right this way, please." She motioned towards the elevator, in which Conan followed. Going to the second floor, he followed her down the random aisles of books, until they reached a study-lounge area of the floor. There was a meeting table, and several chairs surrounding it. On the table, were rather tall stacks of books. Conan guessed, that was what he had to get started on. "Good luck on your research; by finding One Piece, you will be repenting for the sins you've been forced to commit. Relish the opportunity."

"Yes ma'm, thank you." Conan sat down. 'I wonder what she thinks I'm researching.' Conan knew that her eavesdropping was unlikely; places like this had harsh punishment for any form of insubordination. She most likely was just following her orders and nothing more, but it was also best to be careful as well. The boy sighed and picked up the first book, The Autobiography of Gol D. Roger. Frowning, Conan looked at the title of the second book: Chronicles of Gol. D. Roger. Deciding to see if his theory was right, he dug through the stack of books for any other titles that didn't have Gol. D. Roger. He sighed when he finally found a book that didn't have Roger's name, but this just made him frown more. The Grand Line: How it became the Pirate's grave yard, Conan raised a brow, from Tsuru's explanation, the Grand Line was just a natural geographic feature of this universe. Perhaps he put too much stock in the title.

Walking up to the librarian, he asked. "Do you have any books on the Grand Line, it's most popular routes, I mean?"

"I'm sorry, dear. But my orders were to make sure you used you study time to analyze those books on the table." Conan's eyes widened at what she said, and the woman's voice suddenly started to become poison. "If you don't finish by lunch, know that a course of discipline will be in place. Please follow the schedule of studies during your stay here. You are not permitted to research anything else or in any other order. Is that clear?"

"Crystal." Conan nodded, clenching his fists.

"Good." She ushered him back to his seat. "Please get started. The clock's ticking."

Lunch

Conan ate his sandwich silently while Coby and Helmeppo chatted. This was very disturbing, he knew that these people were desperate in going through all this trouble to kidnap him, but they were literally watching every move he made. They were even air-locking the research he could do, which made him extremely suspicious. They only allowed him to research Gol. D. Roger today, and they were only going to allow him to research the books given to him. This information was given to him on a schedule, and they most likely wanted him to make a chronological deduction about where One Piece was hidden and why. In other news, they already knew it wasn't on Raftel, they just had no idea where to look next. This wasn't just about finding a treasure, this was a race; someone was close to finding One Piece. From what he read, everything Tsuru had said about Roger was true. Being the first to Conquer the Grand Line, and consequently became the world's richest man through various treasure hunting excavations, he became King of the Pirates. He also had a lover named Portgas D. Rouge, who had died giving birth to their son, Portgas D. Ace; as he read in the archives he was given to read. He assumed that Roger's son was still alive, otherwise the report would've mentioned otherwise, but it didn't mention anything else about Roger's personal life. Which was strange, considering the amount of fame he had, perhaps pirates just liked their privacy.

"Hey Conan." The boy snapped his head, and realized he had finished eating and was staring at his plate. He turned to Coby, who looked a bit concerned. "You okay?"

"I'm fine. The research was just a bit overwhelming." The detective gave a reassugin smile. "Is lunch over already?" Noticing that the two marines were finished eating as well.

"Yeah." Helmeppo spoke up. "Take your pick: tour, exercise, nap."

After thinking about it, Conan picked. "Tour please."

"Fine. Let's go." Helmeppo and Coby stood up, and cuffed Conan. The detective concluded that if he was a trapped rat, he had to start learning the weak points of his cage.

Tour

After working with idiot police officers over the years in his detective work, Conan learned how to smile and nod to people when needed. He occasionally gave a fake-interested response when Coby or Helmeppo turned to him to make sure he was paying attention. But all the detective could see was a giant fortress with a bunch of little cracks. After being shown the docks, Conan had estimated how long it would take him to run from his cell down to the dock to snake onto a boat; approximately 20-30min if he didn't get caught. There had to be another way out, but it'd be suicide to go out into those waters without a hint of navigation on his side, so hitching a ride was his only option of escape. But even if he did escape, then what? How was he to get home? What would happen to Rachel and the others? He was certain these Navy-bastards were good to their threats.

"COBY! HELMEPPO!" Conan stopped short when the two marines halted, stood straight, and saluted.

"GOOD AFTERNOON GARP-TAICHO!" They said at the same time.

"At ease men, I'm out for a stroll myself." He grinned but frowned when he noticed the boy in chains. "Eh? Who are you?"

"Sir! That Conan Edogawa! Quarantined prisoner who is recovering from post traumatic stress disorder!" Coby answered quickly.

"PTSD victim? Why's he in chains?" Garp raised a brow.

"We were given orders to have this inmate under lock unless if he is to eat, research, exercise, sleep, and bathe. Due to his mental instability it is suspected that he might know of a terror plot setup by the now-dead Bare-Knuckle Pirates!" Helmeppo answered.

"Really?" Garp didn't buy it at all, Conan could tell. Garp walked past his two marines and knelt down to Conan's level, who was still put off by his massive height. In his world, pro-wrestler's weren't that big. "My name's Monkey D. Garp, kid. Vice-Admiral of Navy; I'll beat some sense into Sengoku for imprisoning a kid. Honestly, he takes rules way too seriously." Garp stood up and waved cheerfully to his men. "Well…I'm off. There's paper work to do, and I've got to hide." The three younger males sweat-dropped, not expecting anything else.

"Let's go. We don't have much time left." Conan nodded and followed Helmeppo and Coby. Hat was interesting, a Vice-Admiral knew nothing about this, yet he was the Fleet Admiral's friend? Very interesting indeed…

Afternoon Research

Conan glared at the materials in front of him. As he thought, there were no longer books on Gol. D. Roger available for him to research, now it was all about the Grand Line. Conan sighed; this was no way to solve a case. Shoving a bunch of facts in front of him, doesn't tell him anything except that you're disorganized. Not only were they pushing him to solve the case, they wanted to see how good his memory was too. They were keeping him on a straight and narrow line with no room to research anything else, Conan assumed there was a lot of dirt under the rug, it was all about finding it, though. He smirked, he had an idea.

Dinner

Even though he was pissed, Conan could get used to this luxury way of living. Lobster with clam chowder and asparagus for dinner! In his world, this would cost a fortune, if this was there way of bribery, then bring on the bacon!

Bath time

He was relieved he had privacy here.

After Bath

Being provided with pajamas by the Navy, Conan was almost done with his first day. "What would you like to do, Conan? Star-gaze or research?" Coby asked.

"Star gaze." Conan replied dryly. He read 16 books in the course of 8-9 hours, he needed a break.

"Come on then." Helmeppo grumpily lead them up to the observatory. From the stairway, Conan observed the actual size of Marineford, as well as its layout. He inwardly smirked, plans already forming in his mind of escape, he'd start tonight.

"They're beautiful, huh?" The detective looked to Coby who smiled happily at the stars. "That's one of the best things about the Navy, we keep things peaceful so everyone can look at the stars."

"You think so, huh?" Conan managed not to snort.

"I know so!" He smiled in affirmation, clenching a fist for emphasis.

"That's what the Nav'y about." Conan turned to Helemppo. "Maintaining order and 'Absolute Justice'.

'Absolute Justice?' Conan pondered, but then remembered something. When he first came here, there was a sign in the Fleet Admiral's office that said Absolute Justice! It's not just a phrase, that's their motto. The young detective narrowed his eyes, he just found a spec of Navy's dirt!