Disclaimer;;

Mine it is not :3

It's been awhile...

Not that long but still. XP

So I watched episodes 188-193 today of DC.

They were awesome, and I was really lonely because I wanted to talk about it...

But none of my friends know what DC IS let alone want to listen to me babble endlessly about it...

Which I did anyways because I was so excited. -.-u

Detective Thief- Thank you. You found it intense? Murder often is XP

ziraulo- Thank you very much! :3 I will continue. I have a lot planned for this particular fanfiction

Ashimattack- You didn't! Awright! -strikes pose- Now I feel smart :3 Thank you for thinking that murder was clever. -cackles gleefully- You think I'm talented? That's so nice! And as for mentioning you, that's not a problem. I like replying to reviews... Lawl, hurray for the pyro-maniacs! Fire's just so beautiful to look at X3


Chapter Four- A Day In The Life of a Shrunken Kid

I was surprised by how routine everything was after Shinichi figured out who the murderer was. The woman was arrested, and Mouri hustled us off into the car grumbling the entire way about how he wouldn't get his fee since the person who was supposed to pay him ended up getting killed. It was incredibly insensitive, but Shinichi and Ran accepted it as though it were completely normal.

Gross.

I myself was just getting over the fact that I had met yet another person who died. The second one, and she didn't seem like all that bad of a person either. I mean, sure she was going to help her husband kill herself but...wasn't it out of an act of love and kindness? I know that's very TWISTED love and kindness but...

By the time the taxi drove up home I was kind of freaking out. Shouldn't we be quiet, awkward, ANYTHING? Somebody just DIED for cripe's sake! Yet everybody was casually talking about what we were going to have for dinner. I wasn't thinking about food, in fact all I could think about at the moment was the way flesh smelled after it had been burned.

Not something that exactly spikes your appetite.

"Iggy-kun, aren't you hungry?" Ran asked. In reality I was practically starving to death. I should have been eating everything in front of me, including the table. I hadn't eaten at ALL since I'd been in Tokyo. Meaning that since before I was shrunk. Bird-kids happen to eat quite a bit but...

"Maybe Iggy-kun is upset by the murders..." Shinichi offered, his voice sounding all cute and sweet. It kind of made me want to throw something at him, which I would have done if I wasn't afraid I'd hit Ran on accident. "This would be his first ever murder case, he's not used to dead people."

Not my first. I thought, and shuddered at the memory of the girl who died in my arms. I shoved it aside though, and focused on how ravenous I felt. Which actually helped quite a lot. The more I thought about how I SHOULD have been hungry, the hungrier I felt. I finished my helping in record time, which for me is pretty fast. "I'm okay Ran-neechan! Can I have more please?"

She gave me seconds while chuckling in amusement. Still those chuckles soon became quiet as I asked for my third and fourth helping before the minute was up. To be honest with you I wasn't even close to full yet, so I held up my plate and hoped that the puppy dog eyes I was giving Ran were actually pointed at her face or something.

"When was the last time you ATE Iggy-kun? Didn't Agasa-san FEED you?" Ran asked incredulously as I devoured the food again. Nope, not full yet. Sixths please! I grinned widely as she put another helping on my plate but frowned when she said softly, "That's all there was Iggy-kun..."

"Awwww, I'm hardly full yet!" I complained, eating my final helping. At least I wasn't starving anymore though. I could feel their eyes on me so I laughed and rubbed the back of my head in embarassment, "I burn lotsa energy so I have to eat a lot of food!"

This cute little kid act...if any of the Flock every see's me doing this I'll never live it down. I thought, my eyebrow twitching slightly. I felt the extra sharp gaze of Shinichi on me. It's creepy how I knew that it was him staring at me, just from the feeling of that look. I didn't have to see it to know that he was pondering something deep about me.

"Who ARE you?" I heard him mutter under his breath.

"I bet you wouldn't guess Shi-...neeeh, Conan-niichan." I said, correcting myself quickly enough that Ran didn't seem to notice. I hated that I had to do that. Note to self, ask creepy shrunken detective about why we have to lie to the nice girl. I should like to know a good reason for putting her life at risk by living here without giving her any warning about it.


"Wake up Iggy-kun." I heard, and felt a gentle hand shaking my shoulder. As soon as dinner was over I crawled onto the couch while they all watched a movie or something. Not only was I really tired, but I couldn't really watch the movie myself. I listened to it for a little while, but eventually I was out.

"Nnn..." I said, sitting up and rubbing my eyes. I was still on the couch, but there was a blanket around me. I heard Ran chuckle and Shinichi muttered something under his breath about me being lazy. Jerk. "What time is it, Ran-neechan?"

"It's seven in the morning Iggy-kun. You'll have to borrow some of Conan-kun's clothing for school since Agasa-san didn't drop any off with you when he brought you here." Ran said, grabbing me by the hand and leading me into what must have been the bathroom. I was quickly handed a toothbrush and turned to the sink. Ran must have turned the faucet on because water was already running.

Me? I was struggling to keep up with this and still trying to process what it was that she said exactly. I felt my voice drop an octave, turning my head toward Shinichi's snickering as I said, "School?"

"Of course, Agasa-hagase already signed you up. You'll be going to the same school as Conan-kun, he even pulled a few strings so that you would be able to be in Conan-kun's grade if you can keep up on your studies Iggy-kun. I'll help you with your writing and such when you bring your school home." Ran sounded happy and excited.

Me? I tried school once. It tended to be boring. And...well when I get bored I want to do something to occupy my time. It's just that...some people don't find the things I do to occupy my time as amusing as I find them myself. I kind of don't like school, but that's mostly because the people who created me happened to be part of an organization CALLED the School.

So, not exactly pleasant memories associated with that particular word.


I found myself walking down a busy sidewalk, with Ran's hand in mine. I have to say that it wasn't as annoying as usual, since Ran happens to be Shinichi's object of affection. I was having quite a bit of fun with that fact, since he was seething with jealousy practically the entire way. Heheheh, take that you little jerk for not telling me I had to go to school.

"Conan-kun!" A young girl yelled, I blinked with surprise. I RECOGNIZED that voice. I heard three children approach us, and they seemed to hesitate at the last second, "Hey..."

"That's the guy who was under the slide the other day!" A rough sounding boy exclaimed. I flinched away as he knocked me on the head with a meaty fist, "You don't look as crazy as you did that day. Why are you walkin' around with Conan? Oi, oi, you're not going to be hanging out with us are you?"

"Don't be rude, Genta-kun." Another boy chastised, though he was burning with curiousity I could feel it. "I-"

"I'm Genta, that's Ayumi and this is Mitsuhiko!" The rough boy said, running the polite boy's voice over with his loud tone. Genta, as he called himself, seemed a bit on the moody side. He didn't trust me. Which was kind of funny since the kid had practically brained me by knocking on my head like it was a door or something.

"My name is Edogawa Iggy." I said, giving them all a brave grin. "I was lost and confused when I met you all the other day! Ne, Conan-niichan?"

"Y-yeah..." Shinichi said quickly, sounding uncomfortable. Oops, I'd forgotten that to Ran the first time I met "Conan" was back at the office. Too late now. "I didn't recognize you either Iggy-kun, you looked so strange."

"Edogawa..." Ayumi mused, "Conan-kun could this be someone who is of your family?"

"Yes, Iggy-kun is my little brother. My parents brought him into our family." Shinichi explained, ruffling my hair. I turned a scowl in his direction, and groped for Ran's hand again. I didn't have to see to know the look on his face was probably priceless. Score one for Iggy.

The elementary school was apparently in a different direction because we split up. I could feel the curiousity of the three children like electricity in the air. It was kind of amusing. After a moment Genta bravely said, "Hey, can you see?"

"No." I said flatly. I don't think Shinichi acts like a kid too much around them, so I'm not going to bother beating around the bush either. I turned my face in his direction, "I can't see Genta-kun. I'm blind."

"That's sad..." Ayumi whispered, and the little girl surprised the stuffing out of me by grabbing my hand. I normally would have said something scathing but...hey she was a little kid and it was pretty sweet of her to do that. Even tough guys like me have soft spots for things. Cute little girls are one of them.

"Weird..." Genta murmured to the boy Mitsuhiko. Very loudly, might I add. I turned my head in his direction and he made a squeaking noise. Then he said in a hushed voice, "He's looking at us!"

"Not looking at us..." Mitsuhiko corrected, "He's turning his head in our direction as if he knows where we are. Scary."

"I'm blind, not deaf." I said flatly, making them both squeak in embarassment. "Actually my hearing is more acute than most people. Since I can't see my other senses are sharper. It's my body's way of trying to compensate so that I can function well in the world." Also, I happen to be a mutant but I'm NOT going to try and explain THAT to little kids.

"Compensate?" Genta said blankly. I snorted with amusement and let go of Ayumi's hand. I shoved my hands in my pockets, and attempted to walk forward. I say attempted because I ran into somebody that I had somehow failed to notice was standing nearby until I was sitting with my butt on the concrete.

"Ow..." I murmured, feeling my pride stung just a little. Normally I can function just fine in big crowds. What I can't see I can hear and...almost sense. I can smell too, which is surprisingly a good way of figuring out where I am and who is around me. "Who did I just run into?"

"Perhaps you should be paying more attention." Came the cold reply. I felt my guard rise instantly. Haibara, the scientist who created the drug that shrank us. I don't like scientists, and this one was just sinking lower and lower on my trust list. I knew she was holding her hand in front of me to help me up. "Do you like sitting on the ground...Younger Edogawa-kun?"

"Iggy." I snapped, shoving her hand away and scrambling to my feet. "No, I don't like sitting on the ground. At least I have an excuse for running into people, I can't see. What's yours Haibara-san?"

I'm not much for being nasty, but there was something about that girl that just ruffled my feathers. No pun intended. I found myself feeling incredibly pent up around her, as if I was ready to explode or something. Which bothered me greatly. Haibara did not reply to my scathing remark, but I did get the sense that she was amused by me. Which just made me even crankier.

"Iggy-kun do you not like Haibara-san?" Genta asked, sounding a little surprised. I guess I hadn't exactly made my hostility unknown. I turned a reassuring smile his direction.

"Nah, she just caught me off guard is all." I replied, knowing that if I said that I didn't like her I'd probably be shoved out of this little circle of friends as fast as possible. Not something I needed at the moment.


It. Was. The. Most. Boring. Thing. Ever. I thought NORMAL school was bad. Do YOU think normal school is bad? Well try taking a class that somebody who has only gone to school ONCE in their entire life can excell at. And by excell I mean, adding two-plus-two isn't something that's very hard.

The only thing someone like me would even find remotely interesting was what I hadn't learn, which was, of course, how to write in Kanji. Guess what? That wasn't very fun since that consisted of the teacher drawing the symbol on the board and then telling the class to copy it down. That teacher by the way, is an idiot because she still doesn't know I'm blind. Ayumi, who I got to sit by, cheated for me and helped me copy them down. Nice kid.

I lost interest in record time. I couldn't find anything fun to do because Gazzy wasn't around. All in all? It sucked. So I'll be a nice guy and spare all you lovely readers out there the nitty-gritty details of my day in second grade. Because in all honesty I think that my brain turned off and all that was left was a breathing doll of me.

"It's harder than it looks." Shinichi said once we'd split up from the kids. "Or seems that is. You can't be TOO bright or you risk the syndicate finding something suspicious about it. Basically we have to work to be normal. That is, children who aren't stupid but aren't extremely smart."

"You really think that the baddies are going to be interested in the scores of elementary school students?" I asked, feeling slightly amused. "So what? Are they randomly going to say; 'Hey bro, let's check out the scores at this random elementary school. Gee, that kid is smart. Isn't that strange? He must be somebody we shrunk when we tried to kill them. Better shoot em' up.' I know that it's smart to be on guard but I'm thinking THAT is probably overkill."

"They have people everywhere." Haibara said, yes unfortunately the shrunken woman happened to be with us. "You can never be too careful."

"Speaking of being 'too careful'." I said, putting quotes around the words with my fingers. I turned so that my face was towards Shinichi and slowly asked, "Why is it that we're keeping this from your friend again? Ran seems like the kind of person you could trust. Heck, I'd trust her faster than I would trust Haibara-san."

"Thank you." She said coolly. I only waved her off.

"So why exactly are we putting cute little kid act on her? I get the thing with Kogoro, the guy is an idiot and I doubt that he could keep his mouth shut. Not that he'd do anything on PURPOSE, I just think he's the kind of person that would slip up and give us away. Plus it would make the whole, Shinichi-shoots-him-with-a-tranquilizer-for-every-case thing kind of awkward..." I trailed off. I was only guessing that this was Shinichi's method he used for every case, and since he didn't deny it I'm thinking it was true. Still, poor Kogoro. The guy was kind of annoying but being used as a living puppet...blech.

"If I thought it would be better for Ran to know then I'd tell her in a heartbeat." Shinichi said, his tone was unusually dark and almost pained. Something told me that it wasn't him who decided it would be best not to say anything to Ran. It's hard to give people accusing looks when you're blind, but I must have pulled it off on Haibara.

"Why are you glaring at me?" Haibara said coldly, "Imagine if the syndicate discovered where Kudou-kun was? Where I was even? They would kill any person that knew the truth about Edogawa Conan. They wouldn't care if that person was young or old. They wouldn't show mercy. Those that know about the syndicate who aren't within their folds must be irradicated. They will be destroyed."

"You are really creepy." I said, though I don't think it really bothered her that I said that. "That's a really stupid reason by the way. I was thinking you'd come up with something that would at least make sense, not something that I could have come up with on the top of my head."

"What do you mean?" Shinichi said, sounding incredibly interested. Haibara said nothing, but she had stopped walking. Shinichi followed her lead and I took a few more steps before stopping and turning around to face them. Shinichi repeated himself, "What do you mean?"

"I'm surprised you haven't thought of it." I said, which was completely true. I wasn't just surprised, I was shocked. I guess that even though they were dealing with a very BAD group of baddies they still didn't have what I had. Experience. Sure, Haibara used to be part of the baddies but she wasn't used to HIDING from them. Me? I'm practically a pro.

"Just explain your theory." Haibara said, her voice as flat as ever. Yet I heard a spark of veiled interest in her tone. I considered not saying anything, but Shinichi would want to know. Besides, I didn't like lying to Ran. I liked her, trusted her even. Trust, as I've said before, just isn't something I give away very easily.

"Do you really think that they're the kind of people that would take the time to distinguish who did or didn't know about them?" I said flatly, "Do you really think that they would put forth that much effort just to make sure some innocent people who didn't really know anything wouldn't be killed? I don't. They slaughtered a woman I was holding in my arms. You said it yourself, they have no mercy. I'm not saying that they CAN'T find out who you have or haven't told, I'm just saying that they wouldn't care. Anybody close to you would be on the hit list. Anybody who has had more than one long encounter with Edogawa Conan would be killed. It doesn't matter if you tell Ran or not because she's already screwed if they find out who you are. You live with her. They'd kill her for sure."

They seemed genuinely surprised, even Haibara was for a heartbeat before she covered it up with her glacial attitude. I had the strangest feeling when she did that, like I wanted to figure out who she was beneath all that ice. It bothered me, shook me even. Why did I care how that girl felt? She was annoying, and probably untrustworthy.

"This is a side of things I hadn't considered." She murmured, "I knew it, I think, but for some reason I never adressed this side of thinking."

The hope that spiked from Shinichi didn't just catch me offguard, but him as well. I don't think he realized how much he really wanted to tell that girl the truth. I felt Haibara tense up at that hope. She was leery of this decision, and to be honest with you I suddenly understood why. She still didn't know if this would be a benefit or not.

"Do not assume that you can go and tell her now Kudou-kun, or at all for that matter." Haibara said, her tone very clipped and efficient. Yet...I could detect just the barest hint of sympathy in her tone. I found myself wondering again if she was really such a bad person. If underneath that cold and critical exterior there was actually a personality...I shook my head to clear it. "I will discuss the matter with Agasa and we will bring it up once more later. We must make sure that this decision is the right decision to make."

"Scientists..." I muttered under my breath.

"This is where I see you off." Haibara said. Then she surprised me by saying in a genuinely warm tone of voice, "Thank you for your insight Iggy-kun. Sometimes it is hard to see the other sides of things, and you have brought up a matter that has troubled Kudou-kun for sometime."

With that she was gone, leaving both me and Shinichi standing there in surprise. Not sure about him, but my mouth was hanging open wide enough for a jet plane to land on. I hadn't known Haibara for very long, but I already knew from the encounters I had with her that she was not somebody who showed emotion. Especially not...kind emotion.

Weird.


What's this?

Haibara's letting down her walls, even just a teeny bit!

YAY!

XP I really love her character...

On the outside she's so cold and efficient...

But she's so deep and complex. It goes so far beyond that. Her misery for her sister, the love she feels for the Detective boys, Agasa and yes, even Shinichi. (Though I'm thinking it's more of a comraderie kinda thing, though I'm not denying that she might have a bit of a crush on our hero...)

So I'm going to enjoy making her fall for Iggy...

and he's already falling for her, he just doesn't know it yet. -cackles-

I love relationships that start out with; "I hate that person..." and eventually turns into, "Holy crap I'm in love with them!" 0.o

Reviews are nice. :3