Disclaimer:

This fanfic is based on Gosho Aoyama's "Meitantei Konan" and "Magic Kaito" and Naoko Takeuchi's "Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon". (But don't expect to read a magical-girl-story.)

The crime in this story is inspired by the novel by Donna Leon (Death at La Fenice). However, this is not a parody, and you won't find any spoilers for the novel in this fic (or vice versa).

The lyrics of "Charade" belong to Johnny Mercer.

The script of "Charade" belongs to Stanley Donen.

The lyrics of Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical The Phantom of the Opera belong to Charles Hart and Richard Stilgoe.

This fanfic and some of the minor characters (Luigi Gentile, Nadia Gorowitz, Mirelle Black etc.) belong to me.

Thanks a lot to Astarael00, the fastest beta-reader on Earth. :)

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FS (First Silvera)

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x. ENCOUNTER in VENICE x.

(new version)

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When we played our charade

We were like children posing

Playing at games

Acting out names

Guessing the parts we played

("Charade", lyrics by Johnny Mercer)

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1. Prologue

Everything must have happened before, he thinks, for everything seems curiously familiar to him. The cloudless sky, the red van which overtakes him, the children playing on the streets, the scent of Ran's perfume on the scarf around his neck, detective Takagi who is waving at him... Everything seems vaguely familiar, even his amazement about the small figure standing in front of the gate, waiting for him.

"It must be really urgent," he says, jumping from his skateboard. "I can't remember that you've ever been waiting for me in front of the door."

"I see you're in a splendid mood," she remarks, smiling. But he can see in her eyes that something is not right.

"But you aren't," he says, automatically scanning her up and down to search for clues. "So what happened?"

Obviously, she has not slept well, for she looks tired and overwrought and her eyes are surrounded by dark rings. The fresh scent about her tells him that she has just had a shower. She is wearing the midnight-blue pullover which he believes to be her favourite, the new pair of blue jeans Ayumi-chan's mother gave her on her tenth birthday, and the new red coat which she bought last year because her favourite red-riding-hood coat had become too small for her.

It cannot be a coincidence that she has taken a shower at such a time, has put on her favourite clothes and even polished her shoes, he thinks. Why has she been particularly fastidious in the choice of clothes tonight? If he did not know her better, he would say she was going on a date. However, there is no reason why she would call him and tell him to come to her "immediately" if she really intended to go on a date with somebody, not to mention the fact that he could not think of anybody who Haibara Ai would go out with, anyway. She was, at least physically, only ten-years old. And, as she was mentally twenty, he could not imagine that she would go out with any of the ten-year-old kids who were in love with her.

The Professor – they have grown accustomed to referring to good old Agasa as "the Professor" – has gone to a scientific meeting and will not come back before tomorrow night, she informs him. That means that they will have enough time to make some preparations for their scheme... She has also called Hattori, who is already on the way to Tokyo.

"Mr. Black has called you," he says, stating the obvious. Entering the house, he wonders why everything seems wrong to him; for example, the couch in the corner of the room is supposed to be beige, not blue.

She has just shut the door behind him and is coming towards him. And, with an impersonal sense of foreboding – impersonal in the sense that it seems to belong to another person and not to him – he realizes that he knows exactly what she is going to say.

"Kudo," she begins. "What are you going to do after taking the cure?"

It is only a dream, Shinichi realizes. He is dreaming about something that happened in the past. But he cannot remember what happened, and why there is a lump in his throat which prevents him from speaking. He is suddenly aware of the cold air which is coming through the window and the drizzle of the rain outside the hotel while other past – or future – happenings (considering that the setting of his dream is Beika, three years ago) are flitting past him. There are the moist streets of Paris where they met Jean, the French agent of the FBI; the brilliant sky in Osaka where they made the final preparations for their scheme and, at last, the small isle where they found the headquarters of the Black Organization...

"I promise I'll come back in time," he hears himself saying. And while the sun goes down, while the scenery around them keeps changing and becomes a blur as he slowly regains consciousness, she is still standing there in front of him, fixing him with her inquiring eyes, until he finally opens his eyes and her image, too, disappears with Hattori Heiji's into the impenetrable darkness of the night...

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