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Ugh...head...pounding...can't...see...straight...what did they...do to me?

Kaito was laying in what felt like a wonderfully soft, warm bed in the midst of a half-regaining of his consciousness, the meitantei just thankful to be alive at this point after what he unequivocally determined had been a very nasty near-death experience. Those men had had absolutely every intention of killing him back there and he knew it; so did the huge pit of fear now occupying his stomach when he thought back to the events. Stupid...so stupid...how could I have forgotten about the second guy? I let him get the drop on me...Pure carelessness...

His pounding headache and aching body wouldn't allow him to continue enjoy the feeling of the bed too much as he woke up a little more; he recalled the awful sensation that he'd been on fire before blacking out with a wince. After a few more moments, he idly realized that the bed he was laying in was most definitely not his own; no way his own bed was this soft or this blue, and the walls were a pale cerulean instead of the eggshell hue of his own room. The panic-laced adrenaline that quickly began coursing through his veins caused Kaito to try and sit upright in order to survey the room better only to discover that he couldn't because he ached too much still. What is this? It's like every single bone in my body is aching...from a hit to the head?

He took the room he was laying in in more detail, and he realized that for all its comforts, it seemed...soulless and temporary, transient, as if the illusion of warmth, ownership and life had been painted over the space like a well-executed trompe-l'œil. Maybe a guest bedroom? The fact that there were absolutely no knickknacks of any sort on the dresser and nightstand shelves as well as the fact that there were no decorations on the walls beyond the plain blue curtains in spite of the room possessing a full compliment of furniture seemed to bear this fact out, but Kaito wanted to investigate further before he came to any conclusions. Well, if my body will cooperate and let me poke around...Ugh...

Just then, he heard a muffled-sounding feminine voice accompanied by ever-louder footsteps on the other side of the door and Kaito quickly decided to feign unconsciousness until he could assess the situation better and decide on a plan of action. He hurriedly finished tucking himself into an approximation of his original position as the bedroom door opened.

"How is he, Ran? Any better?" called a youthful male voice from somewhere distant in the house that sounded remakably similar to Kaito's own - when Kaito wasn't imitating someone else's voice, that was. Hmm, what sounds like a first name and no honorative...the owner of that voice and the person who walked in here must be very close, Kaito figured before hearing soft footsteps approach the bed and feeling a gentle hand placed on his forehead.

"His fever's way down from when we first found him- he doesn't even feel hot anymore, which is good," came the pleasant, now clear young female voice from directly above his head. Reminds me a little of Aoko's voice, he realized as he tried to suppress a smile while willing himself to lay perfectly still. "If he wakes up soon he can eat with us, if he's feeling well enough to eat some solid food," the voice finished before the hand was removed and the footsteps carried towards the door. A few seconds later, the gentle snick of the door shutting indicated that the girl had left.

About ten minutes later, the most amazing food smells Kaito could ever remember partaking in smelling came drifting in under the doorway, causing his nose to twitch and his stomach to growl ravenously. Now for that I'll get up even through this pain, he thought happily as he slowly, painstakingly made his way out of the bed. He blinked twice after getting out of the bed, nearly falling in the process, and realizing that things were...tall.

Very, strangely tall, and large to boot.

Why was the middle of the bed dead square in his line of sight?

Kaito was still puzzling over this when he saw his clothes neatly folded up on the plush white chair that was in the room; he was only too happy to get dressed and he walked over to the oddly large chair as fast as his aching body could carry him, stripping off the robe he had been wrapped up in.

Until he realized that the clothes he was trying to change into were several sizes too large. And the robe he had been wearing was small. Like, child-size small.

OK, what in the world is going ON here?

Kaito knew at this point that there was something exeedingly odd going on and he decided that he needed to figure out why the world had suddenly grown larger around him before beginning to tackle any of the other issues, including where he was at and why he had been brought here. His only comfort as he thought about his current situation was that he wasn't dead, so whoever owned this house must have found him passed out and brought him to thier home- and they didn't want him dead. He also immediately found his cellphone laying out on one of the dressers once he had started looking for it, battery still intact and power still on, so they weren't trying to cut him off from contact with anyone- also a good sign, he figured.

Now nature was calling- only natural, he supposed, after having been passed out for several hours judging by the time now displaying on his cell phone- so he decided to head out of the room to try and find the water closet. He reached up for the oddly high doorknob and slowly opened the door before stepping out into the hallway, hearing what sounded like two pairs of footsteps begin to head his way once he'd shut the door behind him.

"Aha, I thought I heard him up and about," said the feminine voice after two people had entered the hallway, that voice attatched to a girl that looked so much like Aoko that Kaito might have thought it was her except for the fact that this girl's hair was much neater and her voice was different...and she was much taller than Aoko was. But she and Aoko look roughly the same age, so why does it seem like she's nearly double my height if not more than that...?

"Good to see you're looking so much better- you looked like you were on the verge of death when we found you back at Tropical Land," commented the owner of the male voice that had been similar to his; the guy could have been Kaito's own twin except for the fact that his eyes were much bluer and his hair was also a little neater. He knelt down and placed a hand on Kaito's shoulder before adding "Don't worry, you can eat with us before we call your house- Ran is a great cook," he added while pointing his thumb at the girl behind him. Wait- He looks my age, why is he having to kneel down to touch my shoulder?

"Oh, c'mon, Shinichi, quit trying to sucker me into coming over more than once a week to cook already," the girl, apparently named Ran, replied with a blushing smile as she leaned over and socked the boy gently on the back of his shoulder. "You need to learn to cook for yourself, too, silly- your parents are always gone."

"Where's your water closet?" Kaito finally managed to get out, and the boy, apparently named Shinichi, pointed him to a door immediately to his right before lifting himself up and leaving with Ran to finish up dinner preparations. Kaito entered only to find that the current bizarre, inexplicable enlargement of the world was continuing- The mirror was up so high that he couldn't even see himself in it, and he found to his horror that he actually had to turn the small metal trash can upside down and climb on it to avail himself of the facilities (after emptying the can, of course.) As he washed his hands, the tantei reflected on the weirdness of the situation.

Why is everything so big all of a sudden? I can't see myself in the water closet mirror, my own clothes that i was wearing a few hours ago are now several sizes too large, I was wearing a kid-size robe when I woke up, I had to reach to my tiptoes to be able to turn a doorknob-

As Kaito turned off the water and went to dry his hands, he realized that he had been looking at the whole situation backwards.

With growing horror, it dawned on him that the most likely explanation for everything being so strangely out of proportion for him since his awakening was not that everything in the world was growing larger. Could it...could it possibly be that I've somehow-? Determined to get to the root of all this-but suspecting with growing dread and confusion that he now knew what that root was, however improbable it seemed on the surface- Kaito decided that he was going to take a look at himself in the mirror regardless of the effort he had to expend to get there. He grabbed the metal trash can and drug it to the sink, using it as a stepstool to get onto the countertop below the mirror before closing his eyes, taking a deep breath and daring to look at his reflection.

He nearly fell off the countertop from sheer shock as a six-year-old face greeted him.

He rubbed his eyes after he recovered, not wanting to believe what he was seeing, but he knew with a chill in his heart that he had somehow, impossibly, shrunk back into his six-year-old body. After he finished rubbing his eyes, he dared to look in the mirror again and was greeted with the same six-year-old reflection he'd seen previously- a reflection which mimiced his movements perfectly when he moved. Kaito was still staring in the mirror, somewhat awestruck and dumbfounded, when a knock came on the door.

"Did you fall in or something? You've been in there an awfully long time. Dinner's ready, if you want to eat. Chicken curry on rice, one of Ran's specialties," came Shinichi's voice from the other side of the door, snapping Kaito out of his reverie. He shook his head, then quickly got down from the countertop and replaced the trash can while still reeling from the shock of having his bizarre, ridiculous hypothesis somehow confirmed. But how did this happen? How COULD it happen?

It was then he remembered that they'd fed him some kind of pill with water, but what pill would cause a seventeen-year-old body to shrink back down to a six-year-old one? None that Kaito knew of, that was for certain. He opened the door and journeyed out the way he had seen the pair leave earlier, finding them both sitting and waiting for him at the table.

"There you are. Dig in, we can call your parents after we're done eating," stated Ran with a smile as Kaito took a seat. "You're so cute! You look so much like Shinichi when we were that age," she added before the three began to eat.

I AM your age, Kaito wanted to scream, but something in his gut told him to keep this information to himself for the time being.