When Shinichi was given a burning poison and woke up as a cat buried around swaths of clothing, the description "surprised" did not even begin to cover anything he was feeling by any degree. Shock and disbelief swirled around, mixed with a sprig of panic. When his new tall, triangular ears swivelled around to hear police officers tromping about, he merely acted on instinct and was off like a shot.

Kudo ran in a daze, watching the too-big city slide by until he reached his elaborate gate. And then he paused, looking up-up-up at the fancy and way too high brass handle. Kudo would've facepalmed, had he had palms to do so with. Instead, he looked despairingly at two little white paws attached to sleek black legs attached to a black body with a white tummy and an awful, awful TAIL— and he was so SMALL—

Oh wait.

He was an idiot. A genius idiot who was now apparently drugged as all hell into thinking he was a cat. If he had to play along to get his mind to do the proper actions, then…

Kudo slipped through the gate bars to his house, presented with the next challenge. Thankfully, this took less time considering he could easily use a tree branch to poke the garage code in and duck under the gap as it ground open.

Shinichi decided that it was time to shut his brain off and sleep off this stupid trip given to him by whatever cocktail the robbers had mixed, figuring that the goal was to make him a less reliable witness considering the bizarre hallucination. Well, it certainly worked— if he was hallucinating he was a cat with complete realism, who was to say that his already-hazy memories of the criminals were right? Already this would've been called into question by the head trauma, but full on hallucinatory episodes caused this close to a crime rendered much of what he had to say moot, even to himself; how could he trust that analysis?

And with that, the cat conked out.

xXx

When Shinichi came to, it was to the loud yelling of one Mouri Ran.

The cry of "SHINICHI" was soon followed by loud stomping noises and a dramatic flinging open of his bedroom door to reveal a very angry looking Ran.

"Jeez Ran, calm down," Shinichi said. Or, tried to say. Instead it came out more as a disgruntled meowing sound, which made him freeze up.

Ran was going off on a tangent in the background of Shinichi's desperate attempts to analyze how the drug should've at least worn off some and yet. She was talking about how it was adorable how Shinichi saved stray animals and cared for them, and on and on about how he was secretly soft and all that junk. Normally Shinichi would deny these claims of softness, but he had a bit more on his mind, and no real way to deny it either way.

She startled him out of his mounting panic by scooping him up and scratching his back.

"What are you in for?" she wondered allowed, running her hands through a shocked Shinichi's silky fur. He was even more shocked when her hand continued down his lengthy and apparently fluffy tail.

"Oh, it must be this!" Ran chirped, placing a hand on his signature cowlick— Shinichi distantly wondered how he still had that as a cat— and ran her finger down a trace of dried blood from the head wound. "I don't suppose you know where he is, do you?" she continued rhetorically. "Guess it's my job to take care of you then!"

xXx

One shoddily placed bandage and a head scrub he was not going to think about later and Shinichi was on his way to acceptance.

Somehow, the poison had truly turned him into a cat. Great. Just great.

There was an explosion outside. Also great, another perfect addition to his perfect day. Shinichi hopped onto his balcony railing, peering over at the smoking rubble of his neighbour's house. The smell was poignant, far more than usual, and Kudo wheezed as his tiny cat throat tightened in response to it.

Well, if Agasa's didn't kill him with another of his "inventions" (Shinichi was more tempted to think of them as "bombs") it was possible he could be the man with a cure, or at least have some sort of connection, right?

With that somewhat reassuring thought in mind, Shinichi leapt off the balcony and clumsily ran out of his house, tripping on all four of his feet.

xXx

Right. The communication issue. That was something he had to worry about.

In his defense, Shinichi had a lot on his mind the last few minutes, having just processed and accepted being a cat.

His ear twitched at Agasa's labored breathing, the old man reeling from attempting to catch him as he darted right through the rubble and into his house. Thankfully, Shinichi's instincts seemed to have kicked in, turning his clumsy dodging into a nearly vertical sprint up a bookshelf. The tuxedo cat glanced down at the man, and then noted the difference in height between himself and the ground.

Communication first, he'd cross that bridge when he came to it. Or, maybe not cross. Maybe just jump off of it, considering he was a cat now— though… that was high. He'd figure it out.

Shinichi stared at his paw while Agasa panted at the base of the bookshelf, hand resting against it. The cat flexed his paw in and out before the claws finally popped out. Well, this was as good a spot as any to carve a message, especially since it was somewhere Agasa couldn't immediately grab him and toss him out.

"HEY!" Agasa barked, striking to attention at the sound of shredding wallpaper. "Cut that out! Stop!"

Kudo did not stop.

Agasa began to shake the bookshelf angrily, which only ruined Kudo's kanji and made the cat hiss in frustration.

Then the bookshelf fell.

Agasa performed a desperate dive and slide to side, and Kudo desperately dug his claws to the wall, making a terrible shredding sound as his fall was slowed. Well, he hadn't needed to throw himself off that bridge and pray to land, at least; it had collapsed for him.

Kudo glanced back at the toppled professor apologetically, then up at his message— thankfully only the last stroke of the final character was ruined, having been turned into a huge scrape that marred Agasa's wall and served to slow his decent. Shinichi half glanced at the old man while shaking bits wallpaper stuck between his claws out, wiggling each stubby toe.

Agasa's gaze flicked from the cat to the scratched message. "I AM SHINICHI."

He blinked once. Twice.

And then he just started laughing, and shot questions of how? and why?

Shinichi gave a pointed meow, demonstrating that he couldn't very well answer those questions, cutting the old man off. Agasa stared at him for a moment before scooping him up and blabbering some genetic theories that Shinichi didn't have the energy to pay attention to. Instead, he just focussed on denying his situation from the humiliating spot in the middle of the professor's arms.

Kudo just hoped this whole ordeal was a very bad dream— or at least temporary.