Chapter 8: A Moment to Pause

At long last I found a place to live next year, as well as the inspiration to write! I hate my boyfriend's mother sometimes, she drives me insane. Anyways, I had writer's block because I wasn't sure whereto go from the last chapter, and well, I came up with this filler chapter before another exciting battle occurs! I decided to put Coby back in because he just fits in well in the story, and Conan will meet Whitebeard as well as Luffy, I'm just not sure when or how. Thanks for being patient and enjoy!

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

San Faldo was an interesting place, Conan decided. Also known as "The Carnival City", it was a metropolitan design with a bunch of shopping areas that seemed to design itself for tourists. And in the center of it, it seemed to have a connecting river providing a sort of avenues for the town, similar to Venice. Currently, the young detective was standing outside a clothing store, waiting for Ace. After docking, Ace promptly knocked out Coby and went straight to clothes-shopping, eager to rid himself of the navy garb. Not that Conan blamed him, blue and white almost seemed redundant as a combination. Frowning, the boy thought of something: now that he had escaped, what was his next move? Tsuru had a point in that he couldn't back on his own, but he couldn't remain at Marineford either. As far as One Piece went, was he honestly interested enough to actually confirm his theory? He wasn't sure; if Ace was going to continue to travel with him like this, then it was out of the question. Raised as a traditional Shintoist, Conan knew that going to another man's home without permission was a grave insult. On the other hand, he couldn't help but be curious if the treasure was really all that great. Perhaps Roger announced One Piece, but it didn't actually exist? Conan had no clue, all he knew was that he had to get more dirt on the World Government, that way he could at least have enough leverage to blackmail them. And then there was the sea-stone molecules…what was he supposed to do? Allow a genocide or futilely stop it? That was another thing about Ace that would be beneficial…if he could talk to Whitebeard, he could warn everyone in the pirate-community. But getting Whitebeard involved was a huge gamble and Conan knew it. But it seemed that high-stakes were a requirement in this game, whether he liked it or not.

"Hey kid." Conan jumped slightly when he heard Ace. The boy turned to the pirate, to see him dressed back down into just shorts, his hat that Conan hadn't noticed before was properly on his head, and he looked a little better cleaned up. "Let's check into a motel, we need to treat our injuries properly."

"Ah." The younger agreed.

"You should get new clothes too, yah know…for disguise." Ace prompted Conan into the shop he was just in. The fake child grimaced, remembering being dragged into clothing stores with Rachel and forced to stay there for hours while she tried stuff on. But he was dying to get out of the Navy clothes himself, and he'd stand out less if he had a disguise. Sighing, he allowed himself to be pushed into the shop by Ace, and went to pick out some clothes.

5min Later

"They look good." Ace complimented.

"Yeah, if my name was Scampy." Conan glared at his reflection, slightly pissed. Ace hadn't given him any say in what he could wear, and threw clothes randomly at him. What Conan found that had fit him was a black T-shirt with white dots on the abdomen, baggy cargo-shorts, and a head scarf with skulls on it. He looked like a kid playing dress-up.

"Come on kid, it's what we can afford, and I hate shopping." Ace reasoned.

"Fine." Conan snorted and let Ace buy the clothes, getting out of the shop as fast as possible. Turning to his older companion, he spoke up. "What now?"

"Welp…I have to get back to Oyaji's ship, and stop the shit from hitting the fan…and you…" Ace thought a moment, he honestly wasn't sure what to do with the kid. "Are your parents alive?"

"No." Conan lied, and realized Ace didn't know the whole cover up story. "I was abducted by the Bare-Knuckle pirates at a young age, and was forced to be their code-breaker, they left me for dead when the Navy came after us. I was told that they are dead."

"Ah." Ace nodded, believing the story. That was good, at least the Navy gave Conan a story that checked out with people around him. "I guess you should come with me, then."

"Thanks." He smiled and then realized something. "Ace-san?"

"Hm?"

"I can appreciate the fact that you're older than me, but don't take advantage of my youth and skip out on our deal. You're supposed to take me to Whitebeard-san, remember?" Conan smiled.

"Yeah, yeah…don't remind me." Ace groaned, hating to admit that he had been wrong about the kid. "That was pretty impressive though, you fooled the Navy completely, and you made the Fleet Admiral take back my execution."

"Do you think that'll be enough to stop Whitebeard-san and other pirates from going to war?" The detective sure hoped so.

"Probably. The crew probably thinks I'm at Impel Down." He sighed. "I guess that's where we should head next." Ace started walking, motioning Conan to follow.

"What's Impel Down?" Conan asked.

"It's a prison for the world's most heinous criminals." Ace answered simply. "I was there before being transferred to Marineford."

"What was it like?" Curious to know.

"The seven layers of hell kid, that's exactly what it is." Ace sighed and continued forward.

'Dante's inferno, huh?' Conan thought.

At a hotel

After finding a simple Inn on the island, Ace checked himself and the detective into a small room, which thankfully had two beds. They agreed to allow Ace to treat himself first due to the severity of his injuries. Conan felt the bandage on his neck, knowing that he needed a new one. He could probably get away without wearing one, but it'd be too awkward to have people stare at it, and he didn't want to remember the torture session anyways. Ace bought a First-Aid kit from the Inn gift shop, which thankfully ended up being free since the counter-girl liked Ace and thought she had a shot with him. Judging by the annoyance from the teen, Conan assumed that happened to him a lot.

"Kid!" Conan snapped his head up.

"Bathroom's all yours." Ace gestured to the small washroom behind himself. The detective nodded and wordlessly went in. After the pirate was sure his companion wasn't listening, he fished out a Den Den Mushi in the new bag he bought from the market; he swiped the snail off a marine when no one was looking. Setting the snail up, he began speaking. "Hello? Oyaji? Anyone there?"

"ACE!" Whitebeard's voice boomed through the Den Den Mushi.

"Ah. I'm here Oyaji, sorry about the confusion." Ace replied.

"Where are you? We've been going nuts looking for you!" Whitebeard yelled.

"I figured. Again…I'm sorry, and I'll explain in detail what happened at Marineford, but there's something you should know about the situation currently. One, I'm on Sal Faldo, so if we could meet up here or somewhere else that'd be great. The other thing: I'm not traveling alone…I'm not sure how to explain this, but a kid's with me." The pirate had to make something up about Conan, because there was no way the truth was seeing the light of day. If his crewmates found out a little kid saved him, they'd never let him live it down.

"Kid? Whose is he?" The old pirate was now confused. "What was he doing in prison at Marineford?"

"The boy's parents were killed. Apparently the scum group we know as the Bare-Knuckle crew, massacred his island and kidnapped him. Apparently the kid's a genius or something, because they were using him to break codes and solve riddles. The Navy made up some crap about conspiracy charges. He hasn't told me what the real reason for his imprisonment though." Ace frowned into the Den Den Mushi.

"Real reason?" Whitebeard repeated.

"Ah. It's obvious that the Navy was trying to use him for the same thing, he just doesn't want to say what it is. Whatever it was Oyaji, it must've been important. Also, I think the Navy's told this kid about certain pirate crews, he knew about us for example. Might be a good idea to bring him onto the ship for a while. What do you think?" Ace explained.

"Bring him along when you return. We'll be in Water Seven's docks within three days, meet us at the left seaport." The wise captain responded.

"Understood. And Oyaji…arigato…really." Ace looked to his feet, he avoided death and a war, he had to make things up to his father when he returned.

"No reason to blame yourself Ace, I shouldn't have let you go out to begin with." Whitebeard sighed. "Keep yourself and the kid safe, we'll see you soon. Keep out of sight with the Navy."

"Understood. I look forward to seeing everyone too. Ja ne!" Ace sighed and hung up the Den Den Mushi, that wasn't as bad as thought it was going to be. Snapping his head up, he noticed that Conan had come out of the bathroom.

"What's up?" He noticed the pirate looking at him.

"Nothing. We should order room service." Ace reasoned, he was getting hungry, and Conan most likely was too.

"Yeah. I'm starved."

After room service arrived

Conan had his complaints about the universe he was in, but the food was definitely not one of them. He and Ace ordered an octopus platter and a couple of sandwiches. Although, Ace gobbled almost everything down before Conan had a chance to reach for anything. Luckily, the pirate took pity on the boy and gave him the remaining portion of the food. It wasn't much but it would do.

"Hey kid, I need to tell yah something." Ace got his attention.

"Oyaji's agreed to meet with you, but only if you pull your weight around the ship. We've decided we're going to take you to a safe haven of ours; Oars and his men will help you." Ace told him.

"Where is his island exactly? How far from here?" Conan asked.

"It's about three days journey." Ace replied. "That okay with you?"

"Yes. Perfectly." Conan was relieved that he'd soon have an opening.

"Good. Oyaji will be here in a few days, don't go embarrassing me." Ace warned the younger boy.

"No worries." Conan figured Ace didn't want his crew to know about him busting the older boy out. Which was fine, just annoying.

The next day

"So, we have a few days to relax, what do you want to do?" Ace asked, walking down the boulevard with Conan.

"…Actually, could you drop me off at the library?" Ace really didn't strike Conan as the book type.

"You're a kid." Ace frowned. "Shouldn't you want to ride rides, or play games?"

"I find those games mindlessly simple, and the rides are often not worth the wait." Conan didn't even bother hiding that he didn't like carnivals.

"Yeesh…you're pleasant aren't you?" The pirate replied. "Well whatever, I'll drop you off at the library and find a pub. If I'm lucky there'll be someone with an actual spirit."

"Ha ha." Conan replied sardonically.

"I'm serious kid, lighten up." Ace said.

"I'll do that." Conan's eye twitched. "May we go, now?"

"Sure." Once again they started walking.

15min Later

Conan sighed and went through the books on the shelves pertaining to the Grand Line, other than advanced geographical maps, it wasn't very helpful. Another thing was, that the public information was completely different from the papers he read in the Navy HQ. For example, the books about Roger made him out to be a monster, while the Navy made him to be an extremely devious thief. Deciding to take another approach, he decided to look up that prison Ace mentioned, Impel Down. What better place to hide secrets where it's guarded by the most heinous criminals? Not to mention, he was fairly curious of what other dirt he could dig up about the World Government. "Edogawa-kun!" The boy jumped slightly and turned to the source of the voice, and to his surprise, it was Coby. "There you are! I've been looking all over for you!"

"Coby-san! What a surprise!" Conan exclaimed.

"What happened? Why are you dressed that way?" Coby frowned.

"I wanted fresh clothes, the marine clothes were starting to stink." He complained.

"Oh, I see." Nodding at the answer, he nudged Conan out of the shop. "Let's get to the marine base, they wanted to make sure you were okay. I was worried about you because your attendant never showed up, and you had disappeared. Why'd you wander off, Edogawa-kun?"

"I wanted to ride rides." He replied lamely.

"Well ask someone to go with you next time, I understand that it's exciting, but control yourself a little." Coby scolded. "Honestly, that was something Luffy would do!"

"Luffy?" That was a strange name.

"Monkey D. Luffy, captain of the Straw hat pirates, and a personal friend of mine." The marine smiled.

"A pirate is friends with a marine?" Conan asked confused.

"I know. It sounds a little strange." Coby chuckled. "But Monkey D. Luffy isn't your normal pirate, he's a kind, warm, and fun-loving. "

"Isn't he also the most infamous Supernova?" Conan pointed out.

"Ah. You've researched them, Edogawa-kun?" He asked surprised.

"Just a little, my research mentioned all the probable candidates for finding One Piece, and that included the Supernovas." He explained. "So where is the marine base, Coby-san?"

"On the beach actually, it's in a great location." He smiled. "Why?"

"Just curious. So there are books there?" Conan asked.

"Yep. From history to geography, don't worry, you won't get bored." Coby replied.

Conan smiled, he was stealing another Navy vessel. "Hey Coby-san, I was wondering…you any good at navigating?"