Four points of the same star
DISCLAIMER: I do not own Detective Conan.
FOUR POINTS OF THE SAME STAR
Chapter One
Another normal morning
-:-
The ray of light hit his eyes again. He shut them close and then opened them.
"Are you ok, little boy?" the policeman asked with concern.
He looked at him.
'Little boy..?', he thought with mild annoyance, 'What the hell is he talking about? I'm in Junior High!' That man surely needed to get his eye-sight checked.
"How did you hurt your head?"
'Hurt?' He absently reached for the back of his head and winced. 'Oh, I got hit from behind by that guy in black..' He recalled the past event very clearly. As he lowered his arm, he noticed something.
His clothes...
"Eh?"
His sweatshirt.
"Huh?"
His trousers.
'What..?' he wondered in bewilderment, 'What the...?'
Why was he wearing clothes that were exactly like his but.. three times larger?
He was so engrossed in his thinking that he didn't realised that a policeman had approached and..
"You must have been scared but we're here now." He said, reaching down at him "So don't worry little guy!"
"What?"
With incredible ease, the police lifted him up!
'He's tossing me around..' he thought in shock. What kind of man was this one? What was he, a body builder disguised as a cop?
Another policeman drew out a walkie-talkie and started talking.
"Yeah, we're at site B, and we've found an inured boy." he reported, "We're taking him to the medical room." He paused and then turned to him. "Hmm.. I'd guess he's about five or seven.."
'What?'
"Grade school, I'd say." the man ended.
He looked at the policeman who was putting the device away in utter dismay.
'Who's in grade school?'
The next thing he knew was being taken to a medical room to be treated. A nurse cleaned the blood from his head and the doctor bandaged him.
-:-
"Didn't I tell you that already?"
He was tired of explaining. Why didn't they understand?
"I saw them!" he exclaimed, "There was a guy smuggling guns and another one blackmailing him! But then one of his friends found me.. and he whacked me on the back of my head.." He waved his hands in the spur of the moment.
"Ok, kid.." a policeman said, fighting hard not to laugh out. The smiling doctor and the nurse giggling behind a clip board were not helping however. "You've seen too many police dramas.."
"I'm not a kid!" he shouted in anger, "I'm a junior in High School!"
He didn't know what exactly was amusing in his sentence but the entire room roared in laughter. Crestfallen, disappointed and definitely annoyed, he sighed and stood alone in a corner of the room, watching the men whispering to each other.
Only then, he noticed another odd thing...
'Damn those guys are big..' he thought, 'How many meters tall are they?' He was fairly tall himself but these guys were on a league of their own..
He absently crossed his arm behind his head and grazed his wound.
"Ow.." he flinched. He turned around and saw a large mirror.
"Damn.." he muttered, touching his bandage, "That jerk hit me as hard as he could.."
The words died in his mouth.
"Wha...?" he exclaimed and slammed his hands against the mirror.
He finally saw himself..
"Conan-kun, wake up! You'll be late for school!"
Blue eyes opened with a start and the small boy sat up straight as the girl's voice reached him. His dark fringe was clung to his forehead due to the sweat. He reached for the glasses on the bedside table next to him and, automatically, put them on.
His mind wandered to his dream. Or better his daily nightmare..
Shinichi Kudo did not die that day but had shrunk into a child.
It was so absurd that if it hadn't happened to him, he probably wouldn't have believed it. A drug that could shrink a sixteen year old to a six year old!
But the worse yet had to come..
He had to drop his true identity and had became Conan Edogawa, seven year old grade school student, in order to be safe. He had to thank his faithful friend Hiroshi Agase for that. At the beginning, on the spur of the moment, his first thought had been to tell everyone the truth about his shrinking and find the men in black. Hakase had wisely dissuaded him.
But the problem was still there: he was still a child after.. how much? Nearly a year. One constant question kept running through his mind besides the one regarding the Men in Black's location.
How could have he been so... reckless? Stupid? Careless? Idiotic?
'One mistake and look how one's life can be ruined.' he thought bitterly.
But there was still hope. If the antidote was made, he could..
"Conan-kun!" Ran's voice echoed throughout the house. "Get up and get ready! Your friends will be here to pick you up soon and you aren't even dressed!"
"Yes, Ran-neechan." he called out and snapped out of his thoughts and walked to the bathroom. As he walked down the corridor, he caught a glimpse of his childhood friend, rummaging in the kitchen. His eyes lingered on her face for a few seconds. She looked so calm and cheerful but he knew that she hid her inner feelings under that tender smile of hers.
'Because of my recklessness, you are suffering too..' he thought sadly as his eyes followed her movements. She opened a cupboard, drew out a bowl, added a pinch of salt to the porridge and mixed it with a wooden spoon.
All so normal but yet, he could see the subtle differences. Her paler complexion, the light puffiness of her eyes..
And it was all his fault.
'Ran..'
-:-
"Here, eat Conan-kun."
Ran placed a bowl of porridge in front of him and smiled broadly as she sat down in the chair next to the boy. She watched him take the spoon and start to eat. Only then, she took a spoon herself and started to have breakfast too.
For a couple of minutes, the only sound in the kitchen was their spoons hitting the bowls softly.
"Do you want more, Conan-kun?" she asked in a motherly- fashion.
The boy looked at her and smiled slightly, nodding. Ran got up and filled the bowl again.
She treated the little boy as a younger brother and was very fond of him: he had become part of her family. Conan seemed to be very fond of her too. He always came with her when she went out, watching over her in case she needed help.
He reminded her of Shinichi at times. Well, many times to be truthful...
'Shinichi..' she thought. He had disappeared after their "date" at the park and had showed up just once from that time. He phoned every now and then, telling her of his life abroad and asking how she was doing.
But whenever she asked when he would be back, his words were always the same.
"I'm working on a case, Ran. Sorry, but I don't know how much it will take. I'm very busy but don't worry! Understood?"
She looked at the small boy that was eating next to her and smiled. Conan was always there for her.
"Ran, where's my breakfast?"
A waft of cigarette smoke mixed with beer and maybe some other alcoholic filled the kitchen as the "Great Sleeping Detective" entered the room.
"The famous detective Kogoroh Mouri is surely more important than that brat!" her father said pointing to Conan who bit back a witty reply and went on eating.
Ran frowned.
"I thought you'd never wake up this early since you came back at... what time was it?" she asked, "Two in the morning?Or was it even later?"
Kogoroh sweat dropped. Ran went on, her eyes narrowing dangerously.
"How did the party with your friends go last night?" she asked nonchalantly. Both Conan and Kogoroh noticed that the spoon that she was holding in her right hand was slowly bending as though it was made of rubber and not iron.
Conan smirked as Kogoroh shot a guilty look to his daughter.
"Well, I... uhm ..." he stammered.
Ran grinned, getting up to prepare her dad's breakfast while the man
'The most ridiculous thing is that after I shrank, I didn't only have to come and live with Ran..' Conan thought, taking a sip of tea, 'But thanks to my skills, this second-class detective is famous all around Japan!'
A few minutes later, the doorbell rang loudly. Ran went to answer.
"Your friends have come, Conan-kun." Ran called.
Conan got up, picked up his school bag and headed to the door.
"Bye. " he said to Kogoroh who was munching his breakfast and didn't bother to reply. "See you later, Ran-neechan!"
"Bye and have a good day at school, Conan-kun". the girl replied with a smile.
'Have a good day at school?' Conan thought, as he went down the stairs. 'It will be a bore as usual!'
"Good morning, Conan-kun!"
He was greeted cheerfully by three well known, smiling seven-year old kids, two boys and a girl.
"Hi, guys." he said with a slight smile.
"Come on, let's go. We still have to pick up Haibara-san." Mitsuhiko said, hoping that nobody would notice that he was quite keen to see the girl.
"Yeah, we have to be quick or we'll be late to school." said Ayumi.
"Who cares?" said Genta.
The three started to walk on the sidewalk, chattering between themselves, while Conan trailed behind silently,randomly answering their questions with monosyllabic answers such as yes, no, maybe, yeah and sure.
'It's just another normal morning for Conan Edogawa.' he thought, ' Just another 'normal' morning for Shinichi Kudo.'