Chapter 2

Shinichi slowly pulled himself from the dark oblivion and became aware of a slight beeping sound accompanied by the scent of disinfectant. He knew he was in a hospital, he'd been there plenty of times before. He was so sleepy…he'd just go back…for…five more…

A sob jolted him out of his comfort. He knew that sound. He tuned in to hear Ran to his right, sobbing quietly and spastically. Using all of the willpower a groggy teenager's mind can muster when waking up, he opened his eyes to the harsh, blinding white light of the fluorescent bulbs.

He heard the sobbing stop and turn to a gasp of surprise. He barely focused on the blur-that-was-Ran before she started wailing and hugged him. He tensed at the somewhat sensitive burns on his body, but accepted the hug with grace.

"Shinichi!" He sobered up almost immediately.

"Shinichi! Shinichi! Shinichi!" She kept repeating his name like he'd go away if she stopped.

"Ran-neechan, what are you talking about? I'm…" He paused. His voice was different. He looked in a mirror near his bed. Then he rubbed his eyes to ensure he wasn't hallucinating.

Yep, he was back. Full Shinichi once again.

"So, I guess I'm kinda busted, huh?" he asked with his hand on his neck.

"Yeah, Conan." She said teasingly with a cracking voice. Tears still dotted the corners of her eyes.

His mind went into overdrive as he tried to process the "how" aspect of his detective skills. He came to one solution. The lab was Shiho's and he'd been drenched in that weird chemical from the explosion. The compound must've been related to APTX 4869. He could barely believe his luck.

Wait, what if it was temporary.

"Ran." He murmured; his voice still a bit raspy. "How long have I been out?"

"Five days."

He would've let out a whoop of joy if his throat wasn't on fire.

"Ran… water." He rasped.

He heard her scramble at his nightstand and was shortly after presented with a glass of the cool, refreshing liquid. He gratefully drank it in small sips to soothe his throat.

When he was done, he set it to the side and looked at Ran. She looked back and decided to ask.

"Shinichi, what on earth happened?"

"Well, you know that amusement park case?" She nodded. "I sorta stuck around a business deal. They were dealing guns in private. Well, I got careless and one of them snuck up behind me and knocked me over the head." She gasped, but he continued.

"While I was down, they force-fed me some prototype poison. It probably would've worked, too, if by sheer luck it didn't kill me. It just shrunk me down to a six-year-old. Sorry I never told you, but I couldn't afford you getting involved with these people. They were too dangerous, so I adopted the persona of Conan to keep tabs on them and find a way to get back to my normal body."

"How'd that happen?"

"You mean how'd I get back?" She nodded.

"My theory is that some of those chemicals in the lab did the trick. Once again, by sheer and absolute luck it worked and I'm back. The fact that I've been me for five days probably means it's permanent." He smiled reassuringly at her.

Ran held out her hand and grasped Shinichi's. If nothing else, then it was just to prove to herself that he was here. He wasn't going away and he was going to stay with her this time.

"Ran, what happened to the rest of the Organization members?" Shinichi asked, concerned.

"They caught the boss and all of the agents that didn't die in the fire. Anyone left isn't really a threat without the organization calling the shots."

He laid back, content with the answer. Finally, the black organization was gone. There was no more reason to worry. He was free and best of all, nothing more could ruin it for him. Wait… there had been others…

"Ran, what happened to the kids?"

"Shinichi..." He looked over to her.

"There's something else you should know…"


Four Days earlier…

Ayumi woke up slowly, letting her eyes adjust to the bright glare of the light above her. She was vaguely aware of a small IV in her arm and some pads on her chest. She guessed it was a heart monitor. Her mom loved those hospital dramas, so she knew the rhythmic beep of one anywhere.

She slowly got up, feeling aches and pains down her spine and joints along with the tender stinging of burns on her torso. She plucked off the heart pads, ignoring the consistent "beeeep" of the monitor not registering a heartbeat. She thought she noticed something was off…but couldn't quite place it…

She didn't take out the IV, it bothered her enough that it was in there, but she didn't want to risk yanking it out. She just took the wheeling IV stand with her. Either way, it served as some support to walk on.

She shuffled dizzily around her room, taking in what she saw. For some reason everything seemed distorted. She guessed it was from whatever medication she got. In those hospital dramas, there were always weird side-effects to the medications they gave.

She couldn't quite focus. She blearily wandered through hazy memories of what had happened…

Fire.

She immediately remembered following Conan through the entryway of the creepy building. She remembered that weird conversation with the girly-haired man. He kept calling Ai and Conan the wrong names, though. She remembered the blast, then the running. She vaguely remembered the car… then…nothing.

She put her palm to her head to stop the mild migrane, relieved at its relative coolness.

She shuffled out of her room to the empty hallway. She didn't see any nurses walking around or any surgeons rushing gurneys and shouting directions. So far, the hospital was much more disappointing than the medical dramas made them out to be.

In her mind-fog she made out a familiar voice. They were muffled and slightly distorted from the medication, but she recognized them anywhere.

She slowly padded her way to a doctor's office. It was nicely furnished and the doctor was talking to two people. She recognized one of them.

"…Mom?..."


Mrs. Yoshida sat anxiously in the waiting room at the hospital. This area was relatively quiet as it housed only a few guests at the time. One of which was her daughter.

She was silently blaming herself. She let that child have too much freedom. She was always getting into serious trouble with that Edogawa boy! Honestly, she'd almost died in an explosion and she just heard it from a doctor's phone call.

She and her husband came over as soon as they could. Probably breaking several traffic laws on the way, but anything was worth it to ensure their baby girl was alright.

She was broken out of her worried thoughts by the doctor walking into the office. He was a rather plain man; early-to-mid fifties with a serious face with dark eyes and peppered black hair. He had a small manila folder under his arm and approached the two.

"Well?!" exclaimed Mrs. Yoshida. She was slightly ashamed at her rudeness, but was desperate for any news on her daughter.

"Your daughter is alive. Don't worry." The doctor shifted awkwardly at the next bit. "We have confirmed she is your daughter through…dental records and a quick blood and DNA test."

Mr. Yoshida tensed while Mrs. Yoshida almost fainted. "What do you mean dental records?! How bad is it?!"

'Oh God' she thought. 'They couldn't identify her face! They had to resort to dental records! What happened to my baby!?'

The doctor caught on and quickly started frantically trying to calm them down. "Don't worry ma'am. She isn't burnt. Well, she has first degree and some minor second degree. We also had to treat her for minor carbon monoxide poisoning and minor smoke inhalation. She did suffer chemical burns though…"

Mrs. Yoshida quickly tensed as the image of her darling daughter's face melting off. Her vision started dimming. She quickly fanned herself and calmed down.

"Nothing we couldn't treat, ma'am. She is in perfect health. Though…" He paused, fidgeting nervously. Mr. Yoshida did not like that one bit. "…there was a bit of a problem."

Both parents leaned forward expectantly.

"You see, there's something you should know before you see her Mrs. Yoshida…" He paused, but before he could say anything, they turned towards a sound at his open door.

In the doorway was a young woman, probably around 16-years-old and wearing a hospital gown with an IV in her arm and its stand trailing behind. Her brown hair was shoulder length and slightly shaggy while her cloudy, blue eyes seemed to focus in on one person in the room.

"…Mom?..."

Mrs. Yoshida fainted.


AN: Oh Yeah, Flipping the plot on its head!

So many fanfics involve the teenagers getting the same deal as Shinichi; aging down. I thought "What if the opposite happened? What if someone around Conan aged up!" Of course, not wanting to resort to an obscene amount of OCs, I chose the three canon kids.

This section is somewhat short, but I still liked it a lot.

Just so everyone knows, some things came up and I won't be able to write as often, so updates will be a bit far between. I still hope everyone enjoys the story.

Until next time.

-Crow

P.S. Yes, I do prefer ShinRan, so that's what we will be sticking with.