++Opening & A/N: v1.0++

v1.0: Completed


Disclaimer: I own ABSOLUTELY nothing. All materials belonged to their respective owners. Thanks to the author of The Org Secret: Section F (I think that's the title), for the term "Megane" aka "Four-Eyes".

This is where the story starts to cross. Enjoy!

At first I didn't plan this, but while I was taking a break with my writing, suddenly I stumbled upon a game. An old game which my brother played some time ago. Guess what is it? Final Fantasy Tactics Advance.


"I refer to myself as 'a creature with a 1,000 faces'. Here and now, that title suits me fine. With an addition of 'a 1,000 names'. An author knows me as 'Takato', a not-boy knows me as 'Tiatira'," it looked up and its human black eyes stared dryly at Boukun's. "However, you shall know me by..."

The mist blew away as of blown by wind.

The creature was an anthromorphic, feathered, Microraptor.

Her head had a tuft of a Bali Starling, with the beak replaced by a dinosaur's (i.e. Raptors') jaws. Her body was covered by white feather.

"Tiara, Daydreamer and Keeper of Nightmares," she said, smirking.


v1.0: completed, added log

Chapter 7: Perfect. Just...perfect


"Are you sure?"

"I AM sure."

"Is there no other way for him?"

"I'm afraid not. We can only hope it won't scar him for life," the doctor said.

"Kuso (= damn)! Once a danger had passed, another surfaced," the "great" detective, Mouri Kogorou said.

"What is it, dear?" Kisaki Eri said.

Kogorou looked startled by the appearance of his wife. Even thought they were no longer staying in the same house, they were still...let's say, not YET divorced. Ran was using all her might to keep them from divorcing and she was trying to get them together again, to no avail. Every time they looked like they were ready to be together again, there was ALWAYS something that ruined the mood. Never smooth, not even once. Smooth head = rocky tail, vice versa.

Guess Ran will have to wait for YEARS until both head and tail (beginning and ending) to be JUST smooth.

However, he regained his composure. With an uneasy look, he said, "The doctor said that the bra-kid had a diagonal scar between his eyes. From his right eyebrow down to below his left eye."

"..."

The doctor decided to carry on Kogorou's explanation.

"The scar looked old. We still don't know what caused the injury to return to its original state. It'll only damage his appearance." The doctor smiled. "Well, he won't be in any danger if he doesn't live by his appearance," he joked lightly.

Eri sighed in relief.

"Arigatou gozaimasu (= thank you), doctor," she said.

The doctor bowed slightly.

"Nah, it's just our work to save lives. If you need anything, just contact the nurses or other doctors," he said and after that he bowed (followed politely by Kogorou and Eri) and left.


Boukun stared blankly at the creature before her. Sure, her title could send a shiver down anyone's spine, but it was her SIZE that made her wanted to laugh out loud. If you know a Microraptor, a real one, you will see.

She was almost as tall as the bespectacled boy by her side. Emphasis on ALMOST. Just an inch shorter.

And she challenged a GIANT.

Boukun laughed out loud, so loud that the ground shook.

Who do you think you are? You're nothing but a pint-sized anthromorphic Microraptor.

Tiara blinked dryly.

Just when Boukun was about to say something else, digital 0s and 1s appeared out of the blue next to Tiara. Edogawa Conan was startled that he yelped. He looked like he didn't notice it, though.

Nani?! (= what?!)

Tiara glanced at it. "Unexpected," she muttered.

But when the digital numbers disappeared, all, all but Boukun, gaped at the sight before them.

There stood a boy with caramel-coloured, spiky hair. His eyes closed. His skin was rather tanned. He was a little bloody and looked like he tripped and fell on a cliff with jagged stones. His skin said that, his clothes said nothing about that.

He wore black hoodie, black baggy pants with a red pocket on each sides, black fingerless gloves, and black oversized shoes. His garments (plus his gloves and shoes) had many zippers and colourful ribbons. He wore a silver crown pendant around his neck.

Then he opened his deep blue sea eyes.

He looked around. And then he opened his mouth.

.

..

...

And closed it again.

Tiara walked until she was before him, and she looked up. She smiled softly.

The boy smiled back. More like grinning, actually.

"Do you think WE can drive?"

The boy posed and began his thinking in his not-so-bright mind. He nodded after a second passed.

He grinned and put his hands behind his head.

"Yeah, I think so. By the way, I didn't know your name."

Tiara giggled. "Oh. How rude of me. Name's Tiara."

"I'm Sora," he said.

Tiara pointed to a still-shocked-not-yet-recovered Conan, and said, "That's Edogawa Conan-kun. Mouthful, because you're used to first name basis."

Sora, the boy, would have grinned harder if it was possible.

How dare you!

Boukun's roar, however, brought all of them back from their formalities.

Sora then looked like he was squirming, and then stretched his hands out to his sides as he was slightly afloat, encased in a dome of force field.

"Give me strength!" he yelled, as Tiara slowly faded, and the dome shattered.

Conan covered his eyes, but he could hear Boukun roared in pain.

'Must be him,' he thought.

When he finally opened his eyes, he was gaping at the sight before him.

Sora stood on all fours. Aesthetically, Sora's skin and hair became ink black, his eyes glowed yellow, and his clothes became black with blue and gray accents. Furthermore, he constantly emitting Darkness from his arms and back in the form of misty black and violet wisps. He was twitching occasionally. Stomping (was it?), glancing sideways in a feral manner.

Boukun also gaped at the sight, but she quickly recovered.

Roaring, she swung her tail at his direction, intending to tail-smashing him.

"Watch out!" shouted Conan.

3... The tail was midway. Sora still didn't move an inch, aside from his twitching.

2... The tail was set ablaze by Boukun's black flames.

1... Only an inch...

BOOM!

Boukun roared with victory.

Ha!

Suddenly, she noticed a black blur behind her. Her red eyes widened.

What?!

And it was the last thought she had before Sora, Anti-Sora, attacked her face with his claws wildly. She roared in agony, but Anti-Sora kept on attacking with a speed that was faster than the eye could see. All Conan could see was black blurs everywhere and his wisps.

'Almost animally. He attacked mercilessly. Is it possible that he lost control and only partially conscious, or even not at all? I think so.' Suddenly he knew something. 'Oh! A manifestation of his Darkness. His dark side. Something telling me he ever turned into one of those manifestations of Darkness, AKA darkness made real. Heartless, is it? He even left a Nobody, the empty shell when the heart left the body. But he was reunited with his Nobody self. I think it's pretty draining to use Drives such as that one.' He squinted his eyes in suspicion. 'Now, wait a sec, where did I know those kind of stuff when I shouldn't?'

Another low hiss snapped him from his thought.

Anti-Sora and Boukun were catching their breaths.

Boukun looked like she was scratched (physically and magically) everywhere, literally. Every inch of her body always had an injury. But she was rather lucky: the injuries weren't so bad. But to made up the little strength used for each of them, their numbers were pretty hard to count.

Anti-Sora only had several injuries, but all of them looked massive. More than they were supposed to be.

'Sou ka (= I see),' Conan thought, in his usual "I see" manner. 'His Darkness made him very agile, with the cost of his attack and resistance or defence. He dealt 1/2 damage, while he took 1.5x damage!'

Boukun roared and they clashed together, yet again.

After they clashed for another ten minutes, which felt like forever, they drew back.

You're strong, Boukun panted.

Anti-Sora said nothing.

Why not join forces? Boukun persuaded. She took a step forward, staggering towards the Anti-Sora. We'll be unstoppable! she declared. Anti-Sora merely took a stance to attack. He said nothing. Nothing at all. The next action he took taken Boukun by surprise.

He leapt. Leapt and brutally attacked her until she fell.

I never thought... I would be defeated by someone like you... she said to Anti-Sora, only to see him twitching. Boukun turned her head slightly to Conan, having realised the boy's presence. Conan tensed, causing Boukun to chuckle but winced in all the pain of her battles. Mei...tantei...san... When you...get the chance,...revert him back. But be careful...I sense...that he's not totally...in control.

"You mean, something like being partially conscious?" asked Conan.

Boukun grunted.

Yes, she replied. I'm not sure why...but...I... Aargh!

That was the last thing Conan will ever heard from Boukun, for Anti-Sora had struck his killing blow.

However, before she faded in specks of golden light, she smiled softly. And mouthed, "Arigatou, Chiisana Tantei-san (= Thank you, Little Detective)."

Those last words struck him like lightning.

Then he remembered who had said something like that to him before. The culprit of the "Moonlight Sonata" case (see: DETECTIVE CONAN VOL 7). Well, he didn't really "said" those words, only cryptically telling him via piano notes that were the last he ever played.

Anti-Sora let out a lion-like roar of victory. He stood on his legs, stretching his hands (or claws) sideways, his chest puffed. He didn't notice Conan who was now right behind him.

'He still doesn't know where I am. I wish there's a hiding spot. A perfect hiding spot where I can see him, but he can't see me,' Conan thought.

PFFFT!

Conan nearly bolted in surprise. Just when he had just wished for a nice hiding spot, right on his right (no pun intended), a ladder made of energy which made it partially translucent, appeared.

'How convenient,' he thought as he hurriedly climbed the ladder. Just in time, too: when his legs were already lifted from the ground, and the ladder behind him disappeared, Anti-Sora turned around. He walked on all three to the exact same spot where the ladder was. He glanced sideways.

Nothing.

Slowly, but surely, he left to roam around.

Conan breathed an inaudible sigh of relief when he saw Anti-Sora was unable to found him, and then he continued climbing. He gaped at the sight above him: something like a watch tower.

'Whoa... This will prove useful to battle him,' he thought. He increased his climbing speed.

After he arrived on top of the tower-like thing, all the ladder disappeared, making it a floating platform. He peered down. It was a long way. Not only if you were stuck in a seven-year-old body, even an adult, will say it was a long way down. Anti-Sora was directly below, sleeping because by boredom.

'It's logically impossible for me to be able to defeat him. Not only because his agility and strength. Our distance is also an obstacle should we battle.' Conan sighed gloomily. 'Man, I really starting to wish there's a gun or something.'

THUD!

Conan jumped in surprise. He quickly glanced down, and smacked his forehead: Anti-Sora has awakened. And he didn't look very happy. True, he didn't know where the origin of the sound was, but it was at least loud enough to woke him up. He furiously ran and attacked everything he met.

'Wonderful,' Conan thought sarcastically. 'It's just... Wonderful. It's all whatever-it-is' fault'

He angrily turned around. But to his surprise, he saw a sniper he had never seen before in his life.

'Well, what do you know?' He approached the sharpshooting tool and examined it. 'Very lightweight,' he peered through the peephole or whatever-it-was. 'Looks like it's accurate, too.' He checked its ammunition. 'Darts... I hope I can do something with this...accurately.'

Conan took aim. And...

PSST!

Anti-Sora turned to look at Conan.

'Kuso! (it's a curse... They said that it meant 'sh*t')

He hissed at the miniscule detective.

'I'm so screwed,' Conan thought gloomily while observing the cautious Anti-Sora's movement.

THUD!

Conan flinched at the noise but he turned to his right anyway. Nothing. At least nothing, at his line of sight. He looked down.

Sat on the floor of the floating platform was a unique looking box (or was it, book?). At the centre of its cover, sat a crystal blue orb. How it sat there, Conan could never imagine. Around the small blue orb, there were at least three squares with different angles and sizes with circles of different sizes. On the four corners of the book's cover were glyph-like writings in red with golden outline. The papers were yellow from aging. It looked like a book of fantasy to him, though he never knew how true his thought was. (see: Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, WARNING: This could contain spoilers. You have been warned).

He opened the book and a frown was adorning his face on the next second.

'What kind of book is this? These are Latin characters, true. But their words aren't something I've ever seen before,' Conan thought. Then his eyes landed on a single sentence. He read it aloud, so oblivious to the consequences he was about to bring to his world.

"'Alta oron. Sondus Kameela,'" he said. (see: Final Fantasy Tactics Advance)

First, his eyes landed on a picture depicting a human. The human wore fingerless gloves, a belt on his waist, a bandana (was it?), a cloth around his neck. In short, he looked like a fantasy-based soldier. Next, a creature that looked like an anthromorphic lizard. It wore a pair of brass claws and some unique clothes, too. Next, he saw a wise-looking dog-like creature. It wielded a staff. It also had giant earlobes. Next, a creature which looked like a human girl, but with a pair of rabbit ears instead of human ears. The last picture he saw was a creature which looked like a stuffed animal with rabbit ears, a pompom, and a pair of bat-like wings. Then, he heard someone or something breathed (or spoke) right on his ears from his back.

"The first is a human or hume (as they call us). Then, a bangaa, a nu mou, a viera, and a moogle," someone (with a hint of feminine voice) said.

Conan jumped in surprise and quickly looked behind him.

There stood Sora, not Anti-Sora. Apparently he had returned to normal without Conan noticing. Around his neck with a position that could make others mistook her as a scarf was Tiara.

"They looked like some certain pictures I know," Tiara continued.

Conan sweat dropped. 'So it was her,' he thought. Then his mind registered Sora's presence. His eyes widened in shock and he quickly sweated like no tomorrow.

Tiara left her spot around Sora's neck and took the book from Conan's grasp. Conan's shocked expression didn't go unnoticed by her.

"What? Surprised? Scared?" she asked as she flipped through the pages of the old book. "For your information, he reverted quite some time ago. His Drive gauge had ran out. And from your expression, I can tell which Drive form he used." She glared at Sora. "When was the last time you used Final-Form?"

Sora gulped and answered, "I think right before me and Riku battled Xemnas."

Tiara's jaws twitched. "No wonder, really."

Sora laughed nervously. But he was saved from explaining the whole thing to her, because her eyes landed on a certain sentence.

"'Alta oron'?" she said. Then she out her claw on her chin. "When did I hear this thing?"

Conan looked at her curiously. "What's about it?" he asked.

"I remembered Oniisan played a game that has that sentence once. I did, too. But it was quite long ago."

Sora cleared his throat.

Tiara glanced at him. "Fine, but you do the explaining."

Sora slumped. "Hey!"

Conan tugged at Sora's baggy pants and asked, "Ne, ne, oniisan," he said in his high pitch speech.

Sora smirked. "I already know, Kudou Shinichi," at this Conan gasped, but ignored, "Tiara told me when I was in my Anti-Form. I know what she knows. Or at least, she knew." A pause. "And please call me by 'Sora' only. No suffix, no matter where you are and with who you are. And before you ask," he added, raising his palm to quiet Conan. "It's kind of a part of my culture. I don't remember calling Riku with honorific, though he was a year older than me. And, I know I mustn't mentioned that name."

Conan nodded. "Okay," he replied with his normal tone, not his high pitched one.

"AH!"

Both Sora and Conan jumped in surprise and they glared at Tiara, who ignored them.

"I remember now! I first read that sentence from a game known as 'Final Fantasy Tactics Advance'. I remembered it was my favourite game once."

"Really?" asked Sora.

Tiara nodded.

Conan put his hand on his chin. "But, if that were so, then will it be possible that the materials from the said game to suddenly appear here?"

Tiara shrugged. "It's a game from where I came from. But it could another reality like Sora here."

Conan's ears perked at that. "What do you mean, 'like Sora here'?"

"Sora, and you, Conan-kun, are games in the eyes of people from my home world," Tiara explained. "And this book," she said, raising the book in front of her chest, "is known as 'The Gran Grimoire.'"

"So that's what it's called."

Tiara nodded. "By the way, Conan-kun, did you read the full sentence aloud while wishing for something?"

Conan nodded. "Yeah, why?"

Tiara groaned. Then Sora and Conan had to pluck their ears when she yelled a colourful string of words. Before she finally asked, "What did you wish for, exactly?"

Conan thought for second before he answered, "I'm not sure."

Tiara slapped her forehead and banged her head to the platform's floor, letting go the Gran Grimoire.

"Hey, hey," Sora said, stopping her from her banging before she damaged her brain inside her little skull. Her literally little skull.

She glared at Conan, completely ignoring Sora. Conan was expecting her to suddenly explode at him, but instead she merely glared. Tiara might not notice it, but the uneasiness in the air started to get unbearable, especially for someone like Sora. He cleared his throat. Conan and Tiara looked at him.

"This won't get us anywhere," he said. "We need to get out of here."

"For once, Sora, I agree with your simple brain."

Conan nodded in agreement with her, though he didn't get the "your simple brain" comment.

Tiara took the Gran Grimoire from the platform's floor. And she froze. And to Conan, it didn't go unnoticed.

Conan asked, "Do you have any ideas?"

Tiara looked at him directly in the eyes. Conan saw a twinkle of hope in them. She nodded.

"I have an idea." She pointed at the Gran Grimoire. "This."

Sora naively asked, "What's so special about that book?" He was about to continue, when Tiara raised her winged, clawed, thin hand to silence him. Then he got the point: Conan didn't actually know about other worlds. So telling him would likely be meddling. 'But, wait, I remembered her telling Conan about my world and his.'

As if she read his mind, she said, "No time to lose. Conan here was supposed to be dead."

Conan then realised something, too. "But, wait, if I'm supposed to be dead, then why am I still alive?"

Tiara shrugged. "Now, that, even I don't know. But I do know that Sora will need all the help he could get in order to...let's just say, doing his duty. It's not as simple as it originally was now, though." Sora groaned loudly. "Now…" She opened the book. "'Alta oron. Sondus kameela,'" she chanted the words written inside the book that was said (in her world, anyway) to be able to fulfill the speaker's wish.

The last thing all three of them saw was a flash of black and a dark laugher.


Sora opened his eyes. And he was surprised when he noticed something.

'Hospital? Well, not like the ones in Destiny Islands, but still...'

Then he noticed the occupant of the bed right next to him.

It was the detective boy, Edogawa Conan.

Sora couldn't believe his eyes. The sharp minded boy was the very same boy with the one sleeping on the white hospital bed. He really didn't even know what made him think the boy on the bed was Conan. Maybe it was his heart.

Sora glanced around, looking for Tiara. But he was greeted by the silence in the hospital room.

'Where is she? I thought she would be here.'

Suddenly Sora felt a rather strong tugging at his heart. He placed his hand over his heart.

'What's wrong with me?' he thought. 'I feel like I will regret this if I don't do something quick.' Then he had an idea. A really suicidal idea. He smiled sadlt when he thought it would be unlikely his friends will find any trace of him. 'I'm sorry. Kairi. Riku. Donal. Goofy. Everyone.' He sighed and prepared himself.

He put his left hand over his heart while his other hand hovered about the other boy's heart. He sighed as he closed his eyes.

His hands glowed as he felt himself getting weaker. But he kept going. His nature refused to stop. His heart had wanted to save the other boy. No matter the cost.

He was about to faint when he felt another presence forcing their energy into him. Like whoever it was was replinishing his own energy.

Then he heard a very wise voice from behind him. It said,

"I'll help you, boy. You don't have to do this alone."

And Sora found the voice was somehow extremely comforting.


To be continued...


A/N: Phew... I never thought I'll be able to finish after, what, more than two months. I'm really sorry for the long wait. And for everything. High school is absolutely busy; I had to write my story IN THE MIDDLE OF NEARLY EVERY LESSONS.

Hope you enjoy it.

R&R please.