Summary: Edogawa Conan and Kudo Shinichi had always been one and the same, a single entity with two different bodies. Then the antidote went wrong. Between a childhood friend who has no recollection of ever having left her and a pseudo-kid brother that can't help but get in trouble, Ran's not sure which is worse.
A/N: Before anybody asks about it, there are a lot of pairings (mainly canon ones). I'm hoping to include all of the characters in the story, including some that should appear again in the series (like Agasa's first love, for instance). The only deviant to canon involved in the story is Conan/Ai, which will (gasp) co-exist with ShinRan.
Disclaimer: As is formality, I do not own anything Detective Conan related except merchandise.
We all make mistakes sometimes. It's just that some of those mistakes have much greater consequences than others. Take the current situation, for example.
"Hey, glasses kid. What're you doing wearing my clothes?" Kudo Shinichi, Great Detective of the East extraordinaire, gestured at Edogawa Conan, shrunken Great Detective of the East extraordinaire. The latter only gave him a deadpan look.
'Because I'm you, idiot.' He chose not to say those words aloud to, well, himself. Supposing that this was really happening and Conan wasn't just having a really (really) bad nightmare, he guessed that maybe he wouldn't be talking to himself, per se.
"I wouldn't be worrying about that if I were you," he replied instead, absentmindedly wondering where the heck Haibara had gone to after administering the antidote. It wasn't like it was her fault (oh wait, maybe it was), but as the instigator of this predicament, she should have been obligated to stay there. How in the world had this even happened?
FLASHBACKTIMESKIP
"Kudo-kun, you'll be happy to know that after all that dawdling I've been doing, the antidote is finally finished."
Okay, so maybe she hadn't actually said it like that. It was close enough, he wagered.
"Unfortunately, there are some major side effects that come with testing it." The boy was already brimming with excitement at the prospect of a working, possibly permanent, antidote. So what if there were a few minor setbacks? If he could go back to being Kudo Shinichi, it would all be worth it. Unless he died, of course. Then there'd be no point anyway.
"What's the catch?"
"Death." Oh, ha ha. "However, as death is a necessary side effect to all of the antidotes, there is something else I must advise. This antidote is a double-edged sword. I've altered the formula in such a way that the Apotoxin shall be completely removed from your body upon ingestion. In other words…"
"I only have one shot at this," he finished, a serious look appearing on his face. The girl before him nodded grimly.
"Correct. After this antidote, all traces of the poison will be erased from your bloodstream and no antidotes following this one shall work. Based only on the experiments I've done with rats, I'm confident that this is the real thing. However, with the lack of any human test subjects aside from yourself, I do not know the exact dosage that will maximize the chances of success. Too little will doom all chances of you ever reverting back to Kudo Shinichi; too much will likely end up in death one way or another. It's your choice, Kudo-kun. You can choose to take this antidote and hope someone up there loves you, or you can wait until we obtain the drug's data from the Organization so that I can assure your recovery." A silence fell over the room as Conan contemplated on the possibilities.
The antidote had never been a one hundred percent kind of thing, much like the drug it was meant to counteract. If he took it now, there was a chance he may never return to his normal self. The young scientist stood patiently, watching the creasing of the detective's brow as he seemed to glare at the capsule on the table. She had been a bit skeptical about introducing him to what she believed may be the true antidote. It wasn't just the dangers of death as it usually was, nor was it the immunity he had slowly been building up from previous cures.
No, there was another side effect she had yet to mention to him, but it had only occurred one time in the hundreds of rats she performed the test on. The chances of him doing that instead were almost zero to none.
"…I'll take it." Ai looked up into Conan's adamant eyes, finding no hesitation within them. She wasn't surprised. She gave him a glass of water to take with the tablet (she'd told him to drink all of the water before the transformation began as it would help dilute the antidote and, in the event that it didn't work, prevent some of the poison from being destroyed) and sat on the couch opposite him, preparing to observe the effects of the new formula.
He gripped the cup of water to steel his resolve before downing the pill and tipping his head back to drain all of the water as well. As the glass clinked on the coffee table, he waited for the usual symptoms to occur within him, mentally preparing himself for the bone melting experience. For about ten seconds after completely swallowing the pill, nothing happened. He almost thought it hadn't worked at all. Then, in a flash, the pain shot through him faster than a bullet, ripping his insides apart. It wasn't the same feeling as other antidotes; usually his body would be heating up so much that steam would seem to rise from every orifice on his skin. This time, he felt like his body was trying to tear itself in two, as if two opposing forces were yanking on his limbs, making half of his body want to go one way and the other half the other way.
Before he blacked out, he saw the rather astonished look on Ai's face, as well as the overwhelming disbelief.
ENDFLASHBACKTIMESKIP
Oh yeah, that's how. After he'd woken up, he realized that Haibara was nowhere to be seen and that he was still Edogawa Conan. Anger and disappointment had welled up in him so fast that he felt he was going to vomit. Unfortunately, after seeing himself—the real him—on the couch beside him, his frustration had quickly become shock. There, in all his covered-by-a-blanket-because-he-was-naked glory, was Kudo Shinichi, in the flesh. As in, Kudo Shinichi, the real thing, sitting next to Edogawa Conan, also Kudo Shinichi. He'd been thrown for a loop at the impossibility of something like this happening. There had only been one thing that'd crossed his mind at that moment.
Haibara has A LOT of explaining to do.
Speaking of which, ever since he'd awoken, she'd been missing. It was plausible that she'd been the one to throw the blanket over his—well, his clone's—naked form (he shifted uncomfortably at the thought of the scientist seeing things she shouldn't have), and was off to find some clothing. In the meantime, he had to figure out the existence of this strange clone. As such, he was now sitting here, attempting to stave off the curious looks Clone Shinichi was giving him.
"What're you talking about? Why am I in the Professor's house? And…naked?" At the last bit, his face had taken on a rosy hue, his hands tugging insecurely at the meager blankets he was forced to use to cover his decency. Conan vaguely wondered about how much this Shinichi really knew. His memories had to stop somewhere, but "where" was the question.
"I'll explain all of that later. Right now, what's the last thing you remember?" He figured that'd be a good place to start. Clone Shinichi looked like he was trying hard to remember, but a roadblock seemed to have set up home in his mind.
"Well, I remember being at Tropical Land with Ran…then there was some case. I solved it, of course," Clone Shinichi grinned cockily over at Conan, who looked less than amused. Had he really been that arrogant? No matter, it wasn't like his older self was going to be getting anything out of him. Conan couldn't be impressed by things that he had done. "Then there were these two guys in black. They were really suspicious, so I followed them. If I recall, there was some kind of transaction. After that…everything gets kind of fuzzy. I feel like I know it, but it's right there, at the tip of my tongue."
Ah, so essentially, it was everything from before he had become Conan. That made some sense, he supposed. But why?
"Anyways, who was that little girl earlier? The Professor definitely doesn't have a daughter, or any grandchildren, and he lives by himself. And on the subject, who are you, exactly?" Little girl? Oh, he must've been talking about Haibara.
"I regained consciousness before you did, how'd you know a little girl was here?" Conan asked his clone, if only for the effect (and to deflect the question about himself). He probably knew the deduction already, but it was a good way to know whether or not this clone had retained some of his deductive reasoning.
"I heard a female voice as I was regaining consciousness and didn't recognize it. Although it sounded mature, too mature to be someone young, I heard her footsteps as she walked over and found her voice to be much closer to me than I expected. There were no extraneous rustling sounds of clothing, so she couldn't have been an older person bending down. Therefore, I deduced that it was a younger girl."
"Looks like I haven't changed too much," Conan muttered to himself, though Clone Shinichi had heard and was effectively confused. The bespectacled boy turned back to his counterpart, ready to explain the situation, but was interrupted just as he opened his mouth.
"Kudo-kun and…Kudo-kun." Both boys turned their heads towards the new voice, one accompanied by a bemused look. There was a bundle of clothes in her arms and a number of other equipment, as well as a completely baffled professor.
"Shinichi and…Shinichi?! What's going on?!" Ai had taken the liberty of seating herself directly across from the two detectives, tossing the bundle over to the exposed teenager. The teen simply looked back at her, as if beseeching her to do something. She simply smirked, sending a nervous chill up Clone Shinichi's spine at how much older than her age she looked.
"Don't be so abashed, Kudo-kun. It's nothing I haven't seen before." The teen in question just gaped at how she addressed him and the audacity of her statement.
"How could—"
"We'll clear everything up soon, but you may want to be clothed first," Conan advised his clone, stopping him from completing the obvious question. Her statement, however, had indeed unnerved him as well. It was so strange, looking at himself sitting next to him. Talking to himself.
Once the clone was properly clothed and decent, Ai began to use some of the equipment she'd brought with her.
"I want to run some tests on both of you to make sure there aren't any irregularities. There's no telling what other effects may have occurred." As she began by taking Clone Shinichi's temperature, Conan decided it was a good time to ask the thing he'd been wondering since waking up.
"Oi, Haibara. You didn't say anything about getting cloned." Temperature seemed normal enough, she supposed. He certainly wasn't sick or anything.
"The chance of replication occurring was slim to nothing. On the test rats, it only happened one time out of over a hundred trials. With rats being much smaller, I had never expected humans to be able to do the same." There were no irregularities in anything physical that she could determine. "I have a theory about him," and at this, she gestured over to the bewildered detective, "but in order to confirm it, I need to do a fingerprint analysis."
"You don't think he could be…" She looked up from her tests to meet his eyes. It was only a split second, but a similar thought crossed their minds. Her nod only affirmed his suspicions.
"A legitimate Kudo Shinichi? Yes. In fact, if my hypothesis is correct, the poison will have vanished from your body and you will no longer be able to transform back. The fingerprint test will be able to determine if you and he are still the same person. My guess is not likely. Rather similar to clones, it's impossible for him to share your fingerprint. The question is whether or not the biggest alteration, besides age, occurred mentally rather than physically."
"He says he only remembers up until the point when Gin knocked me out. Everything afterwards is blank in his mind." At this, Ai took on a contemplative look. Her chin cupped between her thumb and index finger, she concentrated on figuring out what was happening.
"It's possible that, during the cloning process, this Kudo Shinichi's brain cells only gathered enough information from your own to match his age. The Apotoxin caused a de-aging process, but thoughts and memories from before you shrank were retained. He may have obtained those memories from you when he was separating from your body. There is also a possibility that not only memories, but thoughts and feelings as well have been affected."
"I suppose that's true."
"Um, could someone tell me what's going on? Apotoxin? Shrank? Clone?" The two not-children glanced over at the completely lost adolescent before sharing a look. "Why does she keep calling that little kid 'Kudo-kun'? I don't have a little brother or any other relatives that are his age." At this point, pulling out of his stupor, the professor pulled the two shrinkees aside. Clone Shinichi looked just as confused as ever.
"Are you really going to tell him?" The professor looked questioningly at the two, both of whom had unreadable expressions on their faces. It was Ai who spoke first.
"We may not have a choice. He may not remember anything after blacking out, but the Organization certainly does. If Kudo-kun's clone goes out in public and makes himself noticeable, it won't be long before they'll be after him. Then it's only a matter of time before they attack all of his loved ones."
"It's highly probable that he won't believe us, too. Nobody would believe in a drug that causes the victim to de-age. If I know myself, he'll find the idea ridiculous."
"Then what can we do?" Conan thought about the professor's question for a moment before the usual lightbulb illuminated in his mind. Both Professor Agasa and Ai recognized that face instantly and leaned in closer.
"All we need to do is keep him out of the spotlight. We don't need to mention the drug or the fact that I'm actually him. We just need to tell him about the Organization's existence and why he needs to keep a low profile. Nothing about who we are. I'll tell him that I'm a distant cousin of his, convince him to go with that story. Haibara's the Professor's friend's daughter that's currently staying in Japan because her parents are away. He'll be a lot harder to fool since he'll get suspicious of us the minute we say something no normal seven-year old would say, but since the prospect of teenagers shrinking into grade schoolers is pretty fantastical, I think we're in the clear."
"Oh, good idea, Shinichi!" The professor whispered over, being careful not to draw attention from the other Shinichi. Ai just smirked slightly.
"It's 'Conan' now, Hakase. If all assumptions are correct, they're technically no longer the same person. Slipping up in front of Kudo-kun could lead to disaster on our part, isn't that right, Edogawa-kun?"
"She's right. To be safe, my name is officially Edogawa Conan now. I can still go with having the same birthday as the occurrence isn't impossible. The problem is—"
As if destined to interrupt Conan's sentence at the most crucial moment, the door to the professor's home opened, revealing the childhood friend that they'd had no time to prepare for.
"Conan-kun?"
