Author's Notes: Sorry this took forever. I had a horrible time trying to figure out how to work this, and I still think it's doing a lot of things wrong. I rewrote the last two pages like five times and I'm still not satisfied with how calm Shinichi looks (he's not, but he's in crisis mode and thus looks calmer than he is) or how to make their situation not...awkward. I think things through too much, and defeat most of my own writing, heh. I'm still concerned it's not logical enough.

But I was tired of sitting on this damn thing, so out it goes. The next chapter is going much more smoothly as we move more into things happening and not exposition. Also it will hopefully be longer.

As always, boys not mine and such.

Chapter Four
Broken Looking-Glass

A short while after the rather horrifying discovery found Shinichi and Kid in the Beika Library.

After Kid had brought him out of his horror, Shinichi had been stricken with an urge to know what was different, and to desperately search for any proof that this could still be an elaborate prank. Damn his detective curiosity, it got him into so much trouble, but he still had to know.

So, he'd turned for the train station, and Kid had fallen into step behind him with cat-quiet feet, not saying anything. Shinichi half-suspected that Kid was thankful that at least Shinichi seemed to have a goal in mind, though the thief was never without a plan. Whatever the reason, the thief was content to follow him in silence.

Then again, he'd probably never dealt with supposedly jumping dimensions or something before. Not that Shinichi had, but thankfully the whole Conan incident had given him just enough exposure to weird things that he was able to shove everything into the back of his head so he could just think about it later. Perhaps it was a defense mechanism. For now, he focused on finding out exactly what was different with this "world", and his mind jumped on the distraction eagerly.

There was a minor internal debate in the thankfully-unmoved train station – did their money even work in this dimension, should they use it even if it did? – but Shinichi decided that perhaps once was all right, as once they were in Beika they were in his territory...hopefully. His house probably didn't exist anymore, but he wasn't thinking about that.

Thankfully the library hadn't moved or changed much in the...transportation. Shinichi made a beeline for the computers, figuring them the safest and quickest way to learn about everything.

He'd fumbled a bit with the unfamiliar operating system at first, as it wasn't any he'd had seen before, and with Agasa as his next-door neighbor, that was saying a lot. It proved to be rather user-friendly, though, and Shinichi soon found himself clicking through web searches as Kid sat behind him, hands seemingly shuffling a card deck on autopilot.

A sort of morbid curiosity hit Shinichi, and he found himself typing in his own name and hitting the search button. It would make things more difficult if he ran into himself...as long as this really was a...dimension jump or something and not just a prank. Shinichi really, really hoped it was still a prank.

His brow furrowed as the results popped up. Nothing together. Instead, it brought up listings about his father's books, though most Shinichi had never heard of. Apparently "Shinichi" was a character that popped up often in his books. Had even his father's creative visions changed in this world? That was a cold thought. But it seemed that the internet had never heard of high school detective Kudou Shinichi, which was odd. Even one online newspaper that had his name would return as a hit, and as more relevant than his father's books. He paused, then searched his mother. Maybe he'd get some more information there.

That proved even more fruitless than his name. "Kudou" and "Yukiko" had absolutely no connection to each other at all, and that was really odd, as neither of his parents had ever made a secret of their marriage...

His hands froze over the keyboard. Unless...

Slowly he typed in Fujimine Yukiko and hit the search button. That returned tons of results, all raving about the actress, and even information about her newest movie, premiering next week. But his mother had retired from acting when he was born...

Shinichi sat there for a moment, trying to process that. Admittedly, he'd been prepared for himself to not exist, or even be a girl or something else twisted. But a reality where his parents had never married and, according to the internet, had probably never even met was far more disconcerting. Shinichi could deal with not existing in an abstract fashion, but the idea of his parents not being together was...foreign. Sure, his mom threw a temper tantrum every once in a while and threatened to leave his dad for more than a month, but Shinichi hadn't ever worried about that being real. She always went back, after all, and always seemed the happier for it, at least until Shinichi had to endure another ranting phone call about the newest stupid stunt his dad pulled. But his parents not being his parents was an idea that might as well have been on the moon for how foreign it seemed.

A creak brought him out of his thoughts, and he glanced over his shoulder. Kid was now leaning forward, arms propped on the back of Shinichi's chair as he read over Shinichi's shoulder. Shinichi had a moment's thought to knock the thief off for invading his private space like that, but he doubted it would do much good. The idiot probably didn't even realize it as rude, he was weird like that.

Shinichi blinked, and on a half-formed idea, he typed in the thief's name for a search. He felt more than heard Kid shifting again, attention obviously peaked. He wanted to know as much Shinichi, probably.

Kaitou Kid, at least, existed in this world too, if the many hits were anything to go off of. Shinichi clicked the first link – a comprehensive list of heists on a fan site, it seemed – and he felt his eyebrows raising. The list was...extensive. Far more heists were listed than Shinichi remembered being attributed to Kid, indeed, even more than his old heists and the ones from his revival combined.

A quick scroll through the list told why – this universe's Kid had never had that eight-year-long retirement. He'd been active from his appearance twenty years ago to his most recent heist of last month, and there weren't any intervals longer than three months. This Kid had been...busy, it seemed.

Shinichi almost missed the small intake of breath behind him, only hearing it since the thief seemed plastered to his shoulder as he read avidly. Apparently this meant something to Kid, although Shinichi could really only wildly speculate based on what he knew. If there wasn't any long disappearance, he could guess that all of these heists were by the same person, unlike his "world". So that meant that this Kid probably wasn't the one behind him, who reached out and tapped Shinichi's hand on the mouse rather impatiently when Shinichi didn't scroll down fast enough for the thief's liking. He obediently moved the page down a decent way as he thought.

So, if this was the same Kid, the original Kid, that meant that whatever happened to him hadn't happened here, if Shinichi had to guess. The Kid he knew, after all, was far too young. Kid was a master of disguise, true, but there were small things no one would be able to fake. He was almost never out of the country, which made no sense for a thief that formerly toured the world with some regularity unless one realized that he possibly didn't have the ability to travel so freely, which hinted he was someone famous, or underage, possibly both. He was far too nimble for his supposed age, as even the most well-trained athletes wouldn't move like they were twenty years younger when they were supposedly ten years older. After all, Kid was supposedly twenty years older now. Considering he'd been international since the beginning, that hinted at him being at least eighteen then, which made the most conservative estimate of his age at almost forty. If one factored in the experience and skills probably needed to begin life as a magician thief unless trained since birth, that probably added on quite a bit. And no matter how good Kid was good at changing his voice, there was no way to hide the youthful tone in his voice and his speech patterns when he slipped out of the formal speech. Not to mention that in all the visual media and speculation he could get on the first Kid, he estimated the current Kid at several inches shorter and about thirty pounds lighter than the older version. He'd gained some of that back during the two years they'd known each other, but there was still a discrepancy. The new Kid was just built differently than the first; he'd maybe get the height, but he was too thin and wiry, he'd never get the broadness the other had if Shinichi had any guess. All in all, everything Shinichi knew about observing people – and that was a lot, thank you very much, no detective would get far after all if they couldn't give an immediate and accurate age, height, and weight reading at first glance – screamed that the current Kid probably hadn't even been born when Kaitou Kid first appeared on the world stage.

Another tap on his hand brought him out of his musings, and Shinichi had to stop himself from making an irritated noise as he scrolled down. If Shinichi's speculations were correct – if – then the first Kid had been someone important to this one. After all, one just didn't put themselves on the most wanted list in at least twenty countries for any old stranger off the street. So Kid deserved his time to read, too. He could at least ask nicely, though.

Suddenly Kid shifted, bringing both arms around Shinichi to assume command of the keyboard and mouse – Shinichi couldn't help the startled squeak and tensing, that was too close damn it, did Kid have no idea of personal space! – and the thief went back to the search engine. He typed out something rapidly – "current famous magicians"...? – then paused, apparently realizing that yes, Shinichi was still watching, and was still a detective. His hand hovered over the enter key indecisively.

Well, Shinichi had been able to search, Kid should be able to, too. His detective instincts were yelling at him, but Shinichi didn't really want to break that weird trust Kid seemed to have in him. It just wouldn't be fair, after all, and hell, he didn't even exist in this world anymore, and Kid possibly didn't either. That would make a real show if he tried to turn him in here – "Yes, officer, I promise this man is Kid even if he doesn't exist in your records, and I promise I'm a trustworthy individual even though I don't exist, either" – and even if he did it when they got back – when not if – what sane officer would accept proof gotten in, apparently, another dimension? Shinichi might as well walk to the mental hospital himself, it would save the trouble of being dragged there by claiming such wild things.

So Shinichi let out an irritated breath and closed his eyes, turning his head slightly away so Kid got the message. Damn it, Kid had better remember this. Shinichi was not letting him get away from everything scotch free.

There was a moment longer of pause for the thief, before there was the slightest puff of air – deliberate, Kid was letting him know he understood the intentions – and Kid shifted minutely There was a strike of the enter key, and then a long silence.

Shinichi resisted the urge to open his eyes to check on the thief. He had felt Kid tense – hard not to, if there hadn't been a chair in the way Kid would be practically wrapped around him – and he could only assume that Kid had run into something shocking. But he'd promised himself, so he limited himself to only jostling the thief a bit with his shoulder. Right to search or no, he really didn't need this position. He wasn't used to having people so close.

There was a sharp breath, like Kid started breathing again, before there was a few clicking sounds and then as abruptly as he had leaned forward, he suddenly sat back. The almost-chill of the departure had Shinichi open his eyes automatically. Thankfully Kid had apparently exited out of his search, as all that met Shinichi's eyes was the blank page of the search engine's main site.

Slightly concerned for the thief, Shinichi turned in his seat to look at him, frowning slightly. Kid didn't acknowledge him for a moment, face an impassive mask behind his sunglasses, before he seemed to shake himself a little and grinned disarmingly at Shinichi.

"So, Tantei-kun, have we found what we're looking for?"

"I could ask you the same question." Shinichi replied blandly, before sighing, running a hand through his hair as he thought. "...I...this can't be a prank, can it? Hundreds of webpages of information don't change overnight."

"No they don't." The thief murmured in agreement, and Shinichi looked at him sharply. What had he seen that seemed to shock him so much...? Kid shook his head a bit. "...Which means, we might need to plan to be here more than a day, don't you think? From what I read about you, you might get weird looks introducing yourself, especially if you tried to go home."

Shinichi had been trying not to think about that. It felt wrong to think about his parents not being together. It was strange, such a simple little decision and Shinichi wouldn't have existed...right, not thinking about it. But Kid was right. If this really was...real...they had no choice. They had to find that jewel and find their way home, and unless it was sitting on the library steps with a bright neon sign, that would probably take a while.

Shinichi frowned and crossed his arms. "Where, though? We, or at least I, don't exist here, and since we have no ID here..."

"Well, I could probably get a bit of money by street-preforming, but it wouldn't be much unless I went all out, and that would probably draw too much attention." Kid drawled as he leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms behind his head. "Which leaves us with three options, really...steal money and use it, live like hobos, or get fake identification to land something more permanent. None of which are very appealing, but honestly, we seem to have no other options."

Shinichi rather felt like he'd just swallowed a lemon, but he sighed and nodded anyways. He'd realized the same things. It burned to know that just to get home, he'd probably be doing some highly illegal things. He really shouldn't have gone to that stupid heist. "Fake identification it is. I'm not stealing anything directly, and I am not sleeping on some porch. Won't be too different from what I had to do as Conan." He sighed again, running a hand through his hair. "It figures, one hour with you and already I'm committing crimes. This whole situation is your fault."

"I'll have you know I'm a very upstanding citizen." Kid put a hand on his chest in mock affront. "I would never consider such things either unless it was a pressing situation such as now."

Shinichi snorted. "Says the person with over a hundred counts of trespassing, breaking and entering, and grand larceny to his name. Not to mention all the other infractions you've racked up. I'm pretty sure Inspector Nakamori has a write-up of every indignity he's suffered at your hands ready to be charged against you for obstructing the justice, too."

"You have too little faith in me, Tantei-kun." Was Kid pouting? No, there was the grin. "And I'll remind you that it's technically only theft when the intent is to deprive the owner of the object permanently. I merely borrow for a little while."

"I would love to meet the god of a lawyer who could actually pull that definition off in court." Shinichi stated dryly, before sighing again and giving the computer a contemplative look. It was no Windows, but a few hours with it should give him plenty of time to crack how it worked. He silently thanked next-door eccentric neighbors who insisted on teaching young boys how to do basic hacking. "Well, let's add forgery to your charges. But we probably shouldn't be doing this stuff here. Where should we go until then?"

There was a brief pause, and Shinichi looked at Kid in curiosity. The thief was staring at the computer, face neutrally blank again. What had upset him this time? "...Kid?"

Kid paused, and then grinned disarmingly at Shinichi, who returned it with his best "I'm not buying it" look, honed with long practice from his parents. The thief kept grinning, undisturbed. Shinichi suddenly had a horrible feeling he knew exactly where. "No way."

"No one would suspect us for it, as you technically don't exist."

"It probably doesn't exist, either!"

"You can't say that. It didn't depend on you existing, did it?"

"Well no, but still...what if he's home!"

"Didn't you read, Tantei-kun? He's in a book signing in Australia."

Shinichi groaned as the thief kept grinning at him and thumped his head against the back of the chair. He couldn't believe they were doing this.

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