Fanfic / Written in Blood

Written In Blood is a Case Closed For Want Of A Nail Fan Work AU by Dissenter

This Fan Fiction delves into What If? possiblity of the apotoxin not working cleanly. Shinichi has considerably more mass than Conan, and the author wondered what would happen if the process of getting rid of that mass was messy enough that Shinichi would be presumed dead.

Everyone from police officers to loved ones to the Black Organization deals with the consequences and fallout of a famous teenage detective "dying" and how they handle it. It also digs into how Conan is dealing with the situation now that there's no hope that he could go back to being Shinichi.

This fic deals with some heavy topics like depression, Body Horror, and Identity Breakdown so be warned.

You can find the story here

Written in Blood provides examples of:

• Adaptational Angst Upgrade: Guaranteed for everyone in this fanfic. It's impossible to avoid it on any end when your loved one or someone who you respected died horrifically with the killer still out there. Heck even people who didn't know Shinichi felt upset at a teenager dying in such a violent way and it's made even worse that he was a famous high school detective who's solved numerous murders before. Not to mention, poor, poor Conan who doesn't have it any easier as he has to come to terms with what happened to him while taking down the Black Organization without any Hope Spot of getting any antidote and reclaim his life as Shinichi.
• Alcoholic Parent: Kogoro, of course as if he wasn't already in Canon. In order to cope after hearing about Shinichi "death", he turned to his drinking habits again. He admits he wants to comfort Ran but isn't sure how when he can't even keep his own head on straight and that's makes everything worse in the long run. So instead the only thing he does is knock open a drink stronger then his regular beers in salute to honour the boy he’d never have admitted he respected.
• Anxiety Dreams: Kogoro starts to have a number of these after he hears about Shinichi's "death" and getting all the bloody, violent details from Megure. He often has nightmares depicting Ran getting killed with Shinichi's after realizing how easily he could have lost his daughter too.
• Body Horror: There is a lot of that especially in the first chapter when the police are identifying what remains of Shinichi. There's more in later chapters too that go into graphic gory details when other detectives look into Shinichi's "death".
• Cop Killer Manhunt: Played with. While Shinichi wasn't a cop per say, he was a detective and most of the cops there knew him and practically considered him their own. To put in simple terms, the entire police are on a warpath looking for whoever killed Shinichi and they are not playing around.
• Foil:
  • Hakuba to Heiji. Where Hakuba is lot more level-headed and cautious- Heiji is incredibly hotheaded and stubborn as they can get. Hakuba respected Kudo and while he's curious about who killed him, he decides it's better to let other people solve it with the detectives understandably wary of hiring teenagers and after seeing his own father scared for what might happen to him. Heiji, on the other hand, is absolutely bound and determined to find Kudo's murderer despite the cops trying to keep him out of it. He goes behind his father's back to work on the case against his fathers wishes.
  • Mr. Hakuba to Mr. Hattori. Mr. Hakuba believes in letting people make their own choices, as such he would have let his son in on the investigation if he asked though he would have afraid for his son. Contrastingly, Mr. Hattori is a strict parent who forbid Heiji from investigating Kudo's death and confined him to his house in fear for his safety.
• Gilded Cage: Downplayed and Justified in Heiji's example. His father forbid him from leaving the house for a time because he's terrified his son will be next due to both of them being highly respected teenage detectives. Heiji understands his parents worry and fear even if he hates being locked in like this. That's why he agrees play along temporarily and won't leave the house until the panic dies down.
• Heroic BSoD: Shinichi goes into shock after a really painful and bloody "death" dealt by the APTX-4869. He's practically cathodic by the time he reaches Agasa's and stays like that for days. Even after he manages to break out of it; it's clear that he's still depressed from never being able to go back to his old life as Shinichi and the only thing that appears to keep him going is his obsession with hunting down the Black Organization which could definitely still be considered self-destructive.
• Hide the Evidence: Yukiko's whole plan for revenge is to have Yuusaku locate their sons killer and then kill them herself. She knows her husband would help her hide the evidence if she asked. Word of God even agreed supporting this saying while Yuusaku wouldn't go out of his way to kill them, if his wife had, he wouldn't hesitate to support her, especially since the guy murdered his son. They're just that kind of couple.
• Identical Stranger: Between Kaito and Kudo of course. Kaito monologued to himself about the similarities between them and how unsettling it was to see his face attached to a murder victim; it was like the news was describing his own death and a week later it still gave him chills.
• In Spite of a Nail: Agasa was still the first to know and find out that Shinichi was de-aged into Conan. Though he certainly showed up looking a lot more bloodier then in Canon.
• It's Personal: Yeeeaaah, a boat load of characters has a grudge to settle after Shinichi "dies".
  • The entire police force for one are on a warpath to find Shinichi's "killer", not just because of the violent and gory death he's had but also because of how they knew him personally too.
    • Megure seems especially devoted to finding his killer because feels partially responsible for letting him die as he saw Shinichi only three hours before his untimely demise.
  • Yuusaku, being Shinichi's father, is absolutely determined to try and find Shinichi's "killer" along with Yukiko who has her own secret agenda. She plans to take revenge in her own way and kill the guy who took her son's life.
  • Heiji is also very invested in finding his killer because while he didn't know him personally, he feels that he'd do the same if it happened to him and as his rival it's the least he deserves.
• Jade-Colored Glasses: Kogoro admitted to himself about how he used to be naive in his younger days and believe he could make a difference in his line of work saving everyone. Later, he changed his attitude when he realized that he couldn't make a difference if he was too late to save people. That's why he burnt out of the police force so quickly. He realizes while everyone is trying to find Shinichi's killer, it won't change much in the long run. The killer will be caught but Shinichi will still be dead and Ran will still be grieving.
• Loophole Abuse: Normally if a cop is too close to a case they're forced to back off and hand it off to another officer for them to solve. But because Shinichi was a detective, most of the officers knew him and worked with him personally. The only ones who haven't would have been the rookies and they didn't have the stomach or experience to work on the case. That was the reason Megure along with other cops who knew him was allowed to investigate Shinichi's "murder".
• No Conservation of Mass: Averted with horrifying consequences. Instead of APTX 4869 causing Shinichi and Haibara to switch cleanly (if painfully) between adult and child forms, APTX 4869 causes Shinichi to lose more than half his mass and literally reform into a juvenile state. This means Shinichi wakes up in a puddle of his own blood and discarded excess bodily material. Shinichi directly mentions that given the difference in mass between Shinichi and "Conan," there is certainly more of Kudo Shinichi on the ground than there is surviving as Conan.
• No One Could Survive That!: Nobody entertains the belief that Kudo Shinichi is alive after seeing the mess created by APTX 4869. Justified, as the police find about 2/3rds of Kudo Shinichi's body mass in a puddle of blood, bone shards, and the partial remnants of organs. Under any reasonable known explanation, nobody could survive the disintegration of 2/3rds of their body, especially when bits and pieces of nearly every critical bodily organ and bone are found in the remains. The amount of blood loss alone is mentioned to normally be unsurvivable.
• Past Experience Nightmare: After all the nightmarish Body Horror Shinichi was forced to endure, it shouldn't come anyone's surprise that he was rewarded a bunch of nighmares for it.
• The Reveal: Ran jumped to the conclusion that Conan was actually Shinichi since she was distraught enough to grab on to any hint Shinichi was alive and Conan wasn't on any state of mind to lie or deny anything much less to her.
• Revenge: You could argue every member for the cast wants this for Shinichi's "death" but no one wants it in a more clear and cut fashion then Yukiko. As soon as Yuusaku finds him, she's going to flat-out kill him for taking her son's life. Then her husband will help her cover it up while the police will all turn a blind eye and... to be fair with how hard the cops are taking his "death"- she wouldn't be completely wrong about that...
  • Conan also gets a very strong desire for this after the Organization stole his life from him. The only thing that's driving him right now is cold stone rage in hunting down every member even if it kills him.
• Right for the Wrong Reasons: After going though all the autopsy reports, witness statements, and photographs of Shinichi's remains, Heiji deduced whatever they had used to kill him was experimental and therefore must have facilities to work on them and enough killers, scientists, and contacts to keep them secret. That's all correct but he was understandably wrong in how he got to that conclusion. That the killers took samples of what was left of Shinichi's remains because he noticed there wasn't any major organs like the brain, eyes, bone marrow, or pieces of every major organ anywhere to be seen, not realizing it wasn't there because Shinichi de-aged into Conan.
• Scapegoat: Gin tries to turn Shiho into one and pin the attention the media's been giving the mess of the high-profile murder of Shinichi on her because the drug APTX-4869 was supposed to be untraceable and instead it turned him into a bloody mess. It doesn't work though because Shiho did point out that it was a experimental drug and it was Gin's call to use it on him.
• Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: Sato and Takagi are secretly breaking orders straight from Megure himself about not letting Heiji in on the investigation on Shinichi's murder. Though they both have their reservations, they've decided that working with him was better then if he was left on his own and got killed looking from answers. They've had enough experience with Shinichi and aren't keen to repeat their mistakes.
• Secret Secret-Keeper: Just like in Canon Shiho knows exactly what the reaction to the APTX-4869 drug means but she's not planning to tell anyone, thankfully.
• Starting a New Life: Shinichi is forced to live a new one after getting de-aged into Conan. He knows if he ever revealed himself, the Black Organization would hear about it and kill him off all over again. Not to mention, that person would have to believe him first which would be difficult enough in the first place with how much remains were left of him.
• Taught by Experience: The only reason Sato and Takagi are helping out Heiji out on the case and giving him information is because they're both trying not to repeat their mistakes with Shinichi. They know Heiji isn't just drop the case like that as they recognized his tone of voice from Kudo a bunch of times too. They realize one teenager has already died trying to deal with this on their own and they don't want the same to happen to Heiji.
• Tracking Device: Knowing his daughter wouldn't have stood for being locked in a Gilded Cage Kogoro secretly planted a tracking device on Ran's phone. A way for him to cope after hearing about Shinichi's "death" and not have to worry about his daughters safety as much.
• You Remind Me of X: Word of God stated that a lot of people will be seeing ghosts when they look at Conan for rather obvious reasons. Ran in particular sees Shinichi in him since she grew up with him and that's how she figured out Conan was Shinichi.