A light gasp escapes Kudou Shinichi's lips, he knew what was coming, had seen the metal pipe in the silver haired man's raised hands; the force of the painful blow causes him to stumble forward, he tries to stay on his feet but it was no good, he fell front down on the cold grass.
He was dimly aware of the grass against his cheek, barely noticing the hush talking aloud him.
A high pitch hum and rang through his throbbing skull; he felt warm blood slowly soaking his hair, that soon overflow down to his ear, neck and jaw. Dazed he could not even cry out when a large hand grips a fist lot of his black hair, pushing his head to lift slightly.
It forces its way into his mouth, he felt it resting upon his tongue. Next something went against his lips, wet and cold object which was tipped to allow water in; it was natural to shallow.
Shinichi's head was dropped, he listens dully to the parting words to the man dressed in black. Then hears the sound of feet running around from him.
He lay there, trying to remain his senses. How much time passes he had not way of telling, but after a while he found it hard to breathe as a sudden pain slammed against his heart, which was followed by a pulse of agony that made the world spun and rock.
Then came the intents heat, causing sweat to form across his body. A wave of white hot pain and the pulse fused together, making it worse than before. Small gasps and sharp intakes of breathe reached his ears, it took him a while to realize it was himself.
His vision blurs, the pain increased with the feeling of being boiled alive; steam hisses from the pours of his skin, that had a hint of pinkish tint to it. Bones cracks and pops, his internal organs felt bruised.
Blackness.
Nothingness.
Kudou Shinichi blinks, brilliant deep blue eyes darken as they narrow. He was staring down at his clothes; light blue jeans, yellow jumper with green jacket and his blue and white running shoes. They were laid out of the grass, front down as he fell; glancing down at himself he notices he is naked, but nothing of himself in seen.
Movement catches his eye, making him stare at the pile of clothing. It stops.
Suddenly voices was heard, turning he sees a group of policemen with torches. They focused their lights of the pile, coming nearer.
'Why can't I hear them...?' Shinichi thinks, they were clearly talking he could see their mouths moving, but the sound was muffled, as if something was in front of it; it was here that he relieved that he could not see their faces, and it was not because of the night's darkness. Light from the touches went over them now and again, but their faces were blurred.
"Boy!" A voice came clear, causing Shinichi to startle. Glancing to the nearest one to him, he blinks, but it had seemed closer than that, "Little boy, are you okay? Can you hear me?"
Shinichi turns to the speaker, the one kneed in front on the pile and furthest away from him. As the man moves slightly, his eyes widen when he sees a child about six years of age blinking up at the man. The policeman reaches out and easily picks the 'child' off the icy ground.
"Yes we found a child," One man spoke, both Shinichi and the child gazes over to the one talking, "Looks hurt, we're taking him to the First Aid Centre, see if any parents have reporting a child missing."
"We going to get you cleaned up," The one holding him says gently while smiles kindly.
"O... okay." The child answers with a small unsure nod, then hisses and lifts a overgrown sleeve to his head; the child looks at his hand that was lost in the long jacket, completely confused.
Shinichi watches numbly as they take the child away, no one bothered checking on him. He was standing there the whole time, naked. Yet no one paid any attention.
Suddenly the world around him was growing smaller, blackness following behind the child. Shinichi turns his head around in shock, not knowing what was happening. A loud rush of noise was screaming from the pure black.
Shinichi turns to the only source of light; the child and his surrounding. Quickly moving towards that light, he falls to his knees. Gasping out for breathe like he was underwater.
The world around him flickered to white, then back to black, then white, black. Red, white, black.
Then Shinichi was laying in a semi-dark room. Sitting up he looks all around, it looked like a doctor's treatment's room; patting himself down he blinks as he sees he was now wearing a black dress.
'No, not a dress.' Shinichi thinks, he pulls his knees to him then placing one hand on a knee, he pushes himself up to stand, 'A cloak?'
It was a long black cloak, his bare feet, hands was showing. Reaching up he touches bare collar bone, his neck and head was also visible. The cloak itself seemed to be alive, moving away from his body like a odd mix of fire and water, then disappearing into nothing, yet it did not lose any of it's volume.
Gazing over to the four beds in the room, he sees a pile of familiar looking clothes. His clothes.
Walking to that bed, he studies the sleeper. It was the child from before; reaching up he halts. As he had pushed his arm away from his side, a sleeve around his arm formed, it was still attached to the main body with string, rope or even glue looking black.
Shinichi's highly intelligent mind could not give him any idea what this substance was made from; it was still moving, still wrapped, still blacker than black.
Shaking his head, Shinichi turns to focus on something he did have control of, seeing if the wounded child was okay. The child had his back to him, white bandages could be seen under the dim lighting, the rich black hair made the bandages appear whiter.
Sitting down on the edge of the bed, Shinichi began thinking over everything that had happened.
"I was hit on the head from behind. I was poisoned." Shinichi relates, one hand came up and he held his chin, "I suffered whatever the effects of the poison was. Am I still suffering?"
Shinichi gazes around, the world was a blur but he could make out things, stand he starts walking away from the bed and child.
"After the child left my sight," Shinichi thinks aloud, "Everything went crazy, I blacked out. But awoke close to the child."
The world flicker as he drew close to the only door of the room, there he turns and looks back. The world was like a colourful dome, it had gone more misty and darker now that he moved to the door.
"Awoke... however," Shinichi hums as he slowly makes his way back to the bed, "the child's head has been seen to, clothes removed, the feeling of freshness around me, like I have had a bath... time has passed since I lose conscienceless..."
Shinichi studies the room, this time from the centre of the 'dome': the child.
"The nearer I am to the child," Shinichi says as he turns to look down on the sleeper, "The more clear my vision becomes..."
Kudou Shinichi settles down on the edge of the bed, feeling exhausted. Closing his eyes he fell into darkness. Nothing but darkness.
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"Abandoned?" The young woman says with a shocked voice, causing both Shinichi and the child to glance her way; she looked at him quickly and then turned her back to him with a forced smile, cupping the phone she continues speaking.
"Abandoned..." Shinichi repeats aloud, he glances back at the child who had done back to playing with the cars that was in the First Aid Centre. It was early morning and no one had come forward to pick up a lose child, nor had there been any reporting of one been taken to the police.
Shinichi sets himself down beside the child, who was now wearing a baggy dark blue jumper with a 'v' zip at the front of the collar, the sleeves had been folded twice, it was for a ten year old more than a six so it fell down to his knees; under he had light brown trousers, which was a perfect if with black and neo green shoes.
Socks were a shocking pink, but these could not be seen, nor the red vest under the jumper. These items came from the lost and found box, ones that had been there for more than a year, the only thing that was not given to him was the underwear which came in form of swimming trunks sold at the water theme in the park.
Shinichi himself remained in that black cloak, which seemed more eerily under the light of day.
He did feel a little stronger, so he tested his area again. He could walk around the edges without everything flickering as before but as soon as he went out of his circle, the darkness overshadowed him.
"Boy," The kind young woman says as she kneed down low, not noticing that she sat right into Shinichi's patch. Blinking he frowns, his shoulder was half through her body, "It seems that no one is coming for you today, some people are coming for you. They will take you for tests at a hospital before sending a couple of days at a children's home."
Shinichi glares darkly at the woman, going to a children's home was the last time he wanted for himself.
"Okay..." The nameless child says nodding slightly, however his eyes appear to glance at Shinichi for a moment, the teen detective however never saw this, too busy sending the woman the same deadly glare.
"Do you.." The woman says as she brings her arms up, crossing them over her chest as rubs her bare arms and shilvers, "Do you still not remember anything? Not even your name?"
"No." The child answers dully, he stares at the woman for a moment, "Are you okay? You look cold..."
"The temperature just dropped." She says with a kind smile, "I better put a sweater on or something."
Standing the woman turns and moves away, then stops looking around as the air warmth. Shinichi huffed and looks back at his younger counterpart, who appears to be staring right at him; blinking at this he opens his mouth to speak but the child looks around and began playing with the toy cars once more.
Sighing loudly Shinichi reaches a hand out for a car, it went right through.
"What should I do?" The child suddenly says in a low voice, still playing.
"Get out of here for one thing..." Shinichi answers as he reaches for the toy car again, "Going into a children's home in a no go. I will never find those who did this to me!"
"Okay." The child says with a firm nod, causing Shinichi to blink and stare at the child. It was then it become clear, the child could see him and hear him.
"Make sure to get the wallet from the pocket of the clothes you came in with." Shinichi said as he stands, he glances over to the clothes in question, they was placed in a box and would be bought to the lost and found.
Standing the child glances over at the woman, then quickly looks around at the rest of the room. It was too early for others to be there, the park had over been open for ten minutes. The child went over, surprising light on his feet and standing on his tip toes he began hunting through the box.
"Jean pocket, right back." Shinichi says as he kept an eye on the woman, she was on the phone again, "Another than the wallet, take the small notebook from the pocket in the jacket too."
The child did as he was told, shoving the items under his jumper and tucking into the rim of the trousers. Lowering himself, he turns on his heels and went back over to the space he sat before and flops down. Just in time because at that moment, the woman chose to turn and look at him.
"Boy, I have to pop out for a second." The woman calls over, "Will you be okay here by yourself."
"Yes!" Shinichi's younger self declares, smiling at her cutely.
"Nice." Shinichi comments with a grin, he wandered forward and stood by the door, he watches her go through the double doors. Both waited in silence for a moment, with breathes held. Shinichi moves first glancing in every direction before nodding for him to follow.
The child ran through the corridor, following the shadowy form of the teen. He began to mimic the older, frowning deeply and carefully looking around.
As they came to the doors the child pushes, yet they did not move.
"She has locked it!?" The child cries out lightly, then turns to the older.
"Rather than her locking it," Shinichi observes with a thoughtful expression, "I think the doors at too heavy for you to push, they moved enough to see they had not locked."
"Can you open them?" The child asks hopeful, with bright eyed innocence. Shinichi's inner Yukiko peaked up and he forced himself not to bend down and hug the cute creature.
'Genetics are scary...' Shinichi thinks as he gives the child a sad smile, "Sorry, but I can not touch everything..."
"Really... then how are you holding that?" Shinichi's child form asks pointing to his older self's hand.
Shinichi slowly rose his hand up, eyes widening as he stares at the toy car he had started to try and pick up before he noticed the child could see him. He had picked up and had been holding the thing that whole time and never saw.
"Okay... but it must involve focus or something." Shinichi said more to himself than his younger, "Let's try this..." With the same hand that held the small red toy car, he places he knuckles against the door, at first it went through until the door and car hit, causing it to fall. "Again shall we." Shinichi places both palms against the doors, then waits for a moment, at last he pushes.
The doors open an inch, feeling confident now he pulls more power behind it. When there was enough room the child slips through, Shinichi allow the doors to close as he slightly went pass the doors without trouble.
"Now where to, Nii-san?" The child asks blinking at the teen. Shinichi open the doors to his mind's eye, a map of the park appears, "I see it!"
Shinichi blinks at this, but says nothing. Soon the child was rushing towards the exit of the park, side by side with the shadowy form of Shinichi. The First Aid Centre was close to the main entrance, but it was still a long track for a little person, because when he reached there he was out of breathe.
"There are coaches that let guests to the train station," Shinichi explains as he knees down, "First you have to go through this crowd... like you be able to manage that?"
His smaller self answers with a grin, he takes a deep breathe and looks at the sea of legs coming into the park and the mad chatter filled the air. "Yeah!"
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Shinichi fell against his favouite seat, sighing heavily; it was good to be home. They was currently in the Kudou Manor's Library, a large rounded room with was three floors high, it's walls embedded with shelves which held mountains of books. There was no ceiling, instead was a glass roof.
Peeking through half closed eyes, he notices his smaller self curling up next to him, head on his chest and plastering himself along side him. Which he did not mind, Shinichi was great with children and while he never said this out loud, wanted to be a father some day.
He had gently spoken to the younger, prising him for a job well done on getting them there. Shinichi had opened the locked metal gate and then the front door, the key it kept in his wallet. After that they rip through Shinichi's old boxes, his mother kept all his clothes from childhood; he was now wearing black jogging bottoms with a red strips running down the outer length, along with a black shirt with a twin striped red on the collar and sleeves. Red socks could be seen sticking out form the bottoms, a matching black with red strip jersey rested on the end of the seat, and a pair of red and white running shoes was on top.
'I know I have a black pair somewhere...' Shinichi thinks as he glances at the small shoes, he knew he should not be thinking of that at the moment, but fussing over the child it was keeping him from going mad.
Suddenly the phone rang, causing his heart to freeze. Its ringing echoes throughout the large room, he did not bother trying to get it, knowing that even if he managed to pick it up, there was no way of knowing if the other could hear.
The child stirs slightly it was then he sees that he was sound asleep; Shinichi's cloak moves on it's own, covering his ears. This made Shinichi's eyebrows raise, the settled appeared not to hear and slept on.
The answering machine clicks on, his own voice relays the message. The final beep.
"Shinichi!" Came Ran's voice making him frown, she sounded very very upset.,"I've been calling for hours! Where are you?! Please get back to me as soon as you can! It's horrible! Dad was doing this kidnapping case last night and the child was murdered! Inspector Megure is mad with Dad! I want to talk to you! Please ring me!"
The phone clicked.
Shinichi moans, not believing what he was hearing. He known for a while that Mouri Kogoro was not the best detective in the world, but still how did he let a child die.
Shinichi's cloak wraps tightly around the child, completely covering him in a protective manner. He glances down, the thing seemed to move with his thoughts.
"Thoughts?" Shinichi mumbles aloud, the sound of his own voice was hollow to his ears. Looking down he imagines the cloak moving, it did just that. Shaking his head he stops thinking about the cloak and let his mind wander over what Ran had said, not sure how to help.
"I need to work out what to do first..." Shinichi says letting his head stop to the beck of the chair, he stares up and sees blue skies through the glass, some clouds floating slowly pass. Turning his head slightly he glances towards the shelves that had Holmes on the row, bold 'Conan Doyle. A' was seen, right next to 'Edogawa Rampo'
"Edogawa Conan." Shinichi says at last, "That is your name, Conan..."