Chapter Seven

Conditions

The two weeks following the festival were fairly quiet, not counting Aoko's rather loud chasing of a certain fanclub president with her trusty mop, seeing as the girl had been selling photos taken of Kaito as he had been undressing after the ball. The magician in question didn't show up at school for three days out of sheer mortification, and due to his systematic hunting down and destruction of the aforementioned photos.

Shinichi and Conan had just about laughed themselves sick when Kaito told them about the incident, and even more so that they had confiscated the data card the pictures were printed from, and refused to relinquish them to the poor magician.

-xXx

Meeting with Shinichi's parents had been an interesting affair. Looking back on it, it had been amusing seeing their initial reactions, to seeing that their formally shrunken son was now back to normal, but the mini-version of the teen was now a completely individual child, their child.

"How on earth did this happen?" cried Yukiko, stunned as she examined Conan from head to foot. "This shouldn't be possible Shin-kun!"

Shinichi and Kaito chuckled from their position on the couch. "You remember what I said about us having real magic the last time you guys were here?" asked Shinichi. "Well, the definition of 'impossible' sort of gets rewritten when you involve Magicians and Druids."

Yusaku, rather the opposite of his spazzing wife at the moment, seemed quite intrigued. "I would like to know how you managed this feat boys, and why it was necessary."

Kaito whipped out his Incantus and opened it up to his notes on the subject. "Well, from what I (and five experts) have concluded, is that Shinichi's Druid status, combined with the effects of the poison, his resistance to death, and the astral and mental fission, it was only a matter of time before the 'Conan persona' developed into a fully functional and self sufficient mind." he recited. "With all the power going to the astral split and filling in the gaps of said split, it sped up the process and made it more feasible for this separation of soul fragments. With different souls driving the separate minds, there was a real danger of one of the minds crushing the other or both out of existence. We had to pull Conan out of Shinichi's head before they self destructed, putting together a soul-blank body was the easiest, but most time consuming, part of the process."

Yukiko blinked at the smiling boy in her arms. "Well, if you boys say so...but how are we going to explain this?"

Shinichi shrugged. "We've got a magician lawyer helping us pull together the paperwork and writing Conan into existence. Genetically he is my brother, from a natural splicing of your genes to make him look like a mini-me, so his backstory's gotta match up."

"And what is that story?"

"One, that he's your second son, born out of Japan and living for three years with some of our relatives in America when your adventures got a little too adventurous for a toddler to be dodging fans and editors. Two, coming back to Japan he was so nervous about it being known that he was a second genius son of the Kudou family he gave a false family name and was taken in by the Mouri's. Three, I personally had only seen my baby brother in person a handful of times, and when he arrived I was in hiding from the people that tried to kill me that night at Tropical Land."

"Sounds solid enough." said Yusaku, picking Conan up and hugging him. "I guess it's time we stopped running around the world and started being a family again."

Conan laughed happily and hugged his father back fiercely.

-xXx

Ran was understandably startled when Shinichi showed up again in broad daylight, Kaito and Conan's 'mother' in tow. However, startled turned to shock when 'Edogawa-san' stripped off her heavyset disguise to reveal the ever poised Kudou Yukiko.

"Yukiko-oba-san?" she squeaked.

"In the flesh!" Yukiko said cheerfully. "Sorry about all the disguises and whatnot, we've got a long story to tell you."

Ran glared at Shinichi. "Oh you'd better, or Shinichi is in for the beating of his life!"

Shinichi was not amused. "Ran, I've been shot, poisoned, beaten, cut up, and nearly drowned, I don't think you can make me suffer any further than that."

While Ran sat in stunned silence, Yukiko began the story. "Well Ran-chan, Conan-kun is my second son. We left him with relatives after he got hurt dodging a fan stampede when he was three, and my cousin kept him very well hidden when he figured out little Conan is just like his older brother, a perfect little genius."

Kaito smirked and flourished an official paper detailing standardized IQ test scores. Of all the papers they had, this was one of the genuine ones, as they really did have Conan tested.

Ran took the paper and gasped at the score. "Two hundred and one?"

"Shin's two-thirty." said Kaito smugly, pulling out two more pages. "Mine's two-twenty nine."

"Conan's only going to get smarter as he grows up." Shinichi said, swatting his cousin upside the head. "Stop flashing those scores around! It's embarrassing!"

"For you maybe! I can't wait to show these to Hakuba, he'll flip!"

"Stop it!"

"Boys, knock it off."

At Yukiko's command both teens shrank back, hearing the sternness under the cheerful layers.

"So you see Ran, when Conan arrived to find our house empty and his big brother gone, he panicked. A lot of different people wanted to take him because of his intelligence, so he gave you a false family name. Agasa-hakase covered for us since Shinichi disappeared."

Ran was shocked. "You mean...when Shinichi was almost killed?"

Kaito and Shinichi exchanged glances, and the detective rolled up his shirt to reveal the fading bullet scar on his stomach. They had prepared all of Shinichi's scars beforehand, and all of them were in stages of healing and some were almost gone.

"Remember what I said about being poisoned?" he asked. "Well, turns out that poison was a failed immortality experiment that was supposed to regress cells. Most people that get poisoned with the stuff die really, really painful deaths, but I wound up with a huge hit to my immune system instead."

"It's a rare secondary effect, Shin's lucky that he survived. Conan was so spooked that something happened to his brother he was scared to tell you, or anyone else, the truth."

Ran turned a glare to Kaito. "And just how did you find out Kaito-kun?"

The magician only smiled. "I'm nosy as hell." he said simply. "Ran across him on one of his cases tracking crime rings, and I've been part of his informant slash support chain ever since."

Shinichi elbowed his cousin playfully. "He can gather information like you wouldn't believe, all that magician's training works great when you're investigating organized crime."

"It's a gift." Kaito said smugly.

-xXx

After a very long discussion Conan went home with the Kudous, Ran was sorry to see the boy leave, but happy to know for certain the boy's identity and that he was with real family. Shinichi breathed a sigh of relief once they were out of earshot.

At the Kudou house Kaito expressed his concerns to Shinichi about revealing that the detective was still alive, the meitantei just smiled and said that he was ready for them.

Shinichi's statement was quite true. In his studies of the Druid arts, he had found out that the numerous dead souls that he had avenged had the power to ward the living. In their gratitude to the detective the dead protected the people Shinichi asked them to, to remarkable effect. Being able to see and connect with the dead was an incredible boost to his investigations, and soon he would be at the level of control needed to perform a seance, to summon particular souls that he had never met.

Animal and nature spirits also took to the new Druid, wind and bird spirits in particular. These ghostly sprites could go anywhere that wasn't airtight, mostly to warn Shinichi of danger or to collect information. It was these sprites that Shinichi now relied on to protect him while he was now out in the open.

Appeased, Kaito left Shinichi and Conan to their studies and went home, and the next week Conan went back to school under his real family name, confusing the hell out of the staff.

Conan still had the air of a child with an old soul even separated from Shinichi, was far more mature than his agemates, and had many of Shinichi's mannerisms, but after it was proven that the boy had a genuinely high IQ well past genius those details were easily accepted. Many administrators wanted him placed in advanced classes, but Shinichi and his parents rather violently refused, remembering how miserable Shinichi had been back when he'd been in those classes.

Life settled down after a while, Conan happily in school with his friends, Shinichi finally back in his own school with Ran as his official girlfriend, and their parents settling in at the Kudou house once more. Kaito dropped in almost daily, teaching the brothers all sorts of tricks while learning about detective work from them at the same time, magic studies notwithstanding.

In all, things were going good for Shinichi, but life does follow patterns.

-xXx

Friday was a dreary, disgustingly wet day, but Kaito was perky as could be. Tonight he had a gig at a big art exhibition party/kid game premiere. He was going as a Kid impersonator again, but hey, at least this time he was getting paid!

He had a wonderful time teasing Hakuba with his IQ test scores, taunting the Britt with the paper for two weeks until the blonde snapped and snagged it from him, and then laughing himself silly at his rival's reaction to the score. Soon it was all over the school that Kuroba Kaito rated as a genius, to just about everyone's shock.

Aoko hadn't been too surprised, given she'd grown up with the Magician and knowing his uncanny knack for just about anything that didn't involve ice skating. For a kid that could solve a Rubix cube in one fifteen minute sitting at four years old, high scores were hardly a shock.

That evening however, Kaito's day was about to turn sour.

Very, very sour.

-xXx

It was a miserable night weather-wise, but the party in the exhibition hall was going strong. A high end art exhibit was featuring famous works and jewels from across the world, and oddly enough Kid hadn't sent notice to steal any of it!

Well, one reason there was no heist tonight was because this was also a kid event, the premiere of several new video games and other interesting interactive technologies. Kid had a very strong point of not disturbing children's events, so much that the normal heist notice was more of a rain-check notice, detailing in plain words that the thief was not showing up that night.

The second reason, and quite possibly the biggest, was that Kaito was currently chasing his wayward cousin. The east detective had left for the party right before Mordio-sensei had shown up in Kaito's lair, where the magician was dressing up as 'Kid'. The doctor had found a severe problem with Shinichi's health from his last checkup the month before, and calculated that the toxin, now no longer able to revert him to child-size, would cause massive damage to his heart and nervous system if the levels rose any higher.

Kaito fought the urge to curse something, literally. Without the controlling medication, Shinichi could suffer a heart attack and a seizure at the same time!

He finished getting dressed in record time, and tucked the emergency medication kit into his pocket-space and took off, cheating most of the distance in a teleport and taking a taxi the rest of the way. Thankfully he had the foresight to leave the monocle and cape off for the trip, keeping the cape in his hat and monocle in his breast pocket, so he simply looked like a white-suited young gentleman on his way to a party.

The hotel was not quite convinced that he was on the guest list until he explained that he was the Kid impersonator hired for the show. When they finally gave him access to the top floor ballroom he began scanning the crowd for his cousin, but was dragged to the stage once he was spotted by the host.

"Ah, Ladies and Gentlemen, boys and girls, tonight we have a special treat!" the man announced cheerfully. "The Sawa group is happy to present, Kaitou Kid!"

Kaito was forced to grin and bear it as all attention focused on him, and using a puff of smoke for a dramatic entrance, he appeared on stage in full costume and began his show, scanning the audience whenever he had the chance.

The crowd of kids just loved the show, especially when he pulled several from the audience to participate in some of his tricks. He was roped into many impromptu photos with the kids, but to see such happy expressions on their bright faces was worth it.

Conan and his little friends were there too, and the mini detective nearly giggled himself silly when Kaito asked him to be the one to handcuff him for an escape trick. In a bare moment, after some impressive contortions and a bit of juggling, the handcuffs were suddenly found dangling from the chandelier some thirty feet up, and while everyone was staring at the cuffs, Kaito finally had a chance to ask Conan an question.

"Ne Conan, where's your brother?"

Conan looked up at his cousin, a strange look in his eye. "He's been following Sawa-san's assistant Takeda-san around, he said he sensed something suspicious."

Kaito swore under his breath. "Damn Druid instincts." he muttered. "So, does he think this Takeda-san is going die, or kill?"

The boy shrugged. "No idea, but he felt really...twitchy, when I met him."

"Twitchy-scared or twitchy-nervous?"

"If I knew, wouldn't I have said so already Kaito-nii-chan?"

The magician blinked, then chuckled darkly, ruffling Conan's hair. "Touche, you got me. Now, do you know where they are?"

Conan shrugged again. "Last I saw they were over that way." he said, pointing. "But that was an hour ago, why don't you ask Tou-san?"

"Good point." the teen said, then turned on his announcer voice. "Excuse me ladies and gentlemen, the magic show will now be taking a forty minute intermission, please keep off the stage at this time."

He scooped Conan up and leapt off the stage. "There, I don't want anyone getting caught in that wiretrap tightrope rig I set up earlier."

"Ok, but you should get some food before you hunt Nii-chan down." the boy quipped, heading for the snack table once Kaito put him back on his feet.

Smiling in amusement the magician followed, meeting Ran, Sonoko, and Aoko by the punch bowl.

"Hey ladies! How are you fine flowers doing tonight? Enjoy the show?"

Aoko giggled. "Sure have, I didn't know you could bend like that." she said, turning a bit pink. "We were talking about how you should do that trick in a different costume, the suit gets in the way, doesn't it?"

Sonoko leered. "Oh we weren't even thinking that, you were saying just how sexy it would be if he did it shirtless with tights, or no tights." the heiress said teasingly, a mischievous and knowing smirk on her face.

Aoko tuned beet red, and Kaito flushed pink even through his poker face.

"S-sonoko-san! Ran! Make her stop!"

Ran couldn't respond, she was laughing too hard. Sonoko laughed and continued. "Don't try to deny it missy, we know you were fantasizing about your magician here." she said, prodding the poor girl. "You were talking about just how much you look forward to gym class because that means you get to see his cute butt with those tight gym shorts he wears."

The gossip queen added insult to injury and mortification by smacking Kaito's ass. "I can see why though, you've got a great catch!"

Conan giggled. "Sonoko-nee-san, you shouldn't have done that."

"What do you mean chibi?"

An explosion of smoke, and Sonoko's dress was replaced with a horridly poofy, acid green and mustard yellow monstrosity, her hair turned a day-glow orange pigtails, and her lipstick electric blue.

"That's why."

Sonoko shrieked and ran off to fix the fashion disaster, everyone in the vicinity howling with laughter. The only one not really amused was Aoko.

"Why did you do that? You know I hate it when you strip people like that."

Kaito rubbed his stinging backside, blushing from the rather unwanted invasion of his personal space. "She deserved it, and besides, all I did was put the stuff on top of what she was already wearing."

Aoko backed down, appeased. "If I catch you really vanishing a girl's clothes, you'll really be in for it."

"Yes ma'am." he said, saluting. "Now Ran, have you seen your boyfriend lately? I've been trying to find him all night."

Ran shrugged and went back to her plate. "I haven't see him for awhile, he must have gotten into a conversation with Hattori-kun or Hakuba-kun about detective things."

Kaito sighed, turning to leave, but was stopped by his girlfriend stuffing a creampuff in his mouth. "You just hold on a minute, you haven't eaten all night, I've been watching you. You're going to stay right here until you've had something to eat."

He laughed and swallowed the pastry. "I guess if my lady demands it." he said, surrendering. "Is there anything good?"

Twenty minutes and a helping of dinner later he was back to combing the ballroom for his cousin. After asking Yusaku, the invited police officers, Conan's ducklings, and several other people, he was forced to leave the and go searching other rooms.

He didn't expect to hear a scream of mortal terror coming from the ballroom, so he ran back at full tilt, only to discover that the executive assistant Takeda-san hanging from the rafting of the stage, blood spattering the wooden floor from the man's slit throat.

Stunned, his first reaction was to vanish, and so he did, up into the rafters above the stage to check if his rig had been tripped, it hadn't. Two men were approaching the body, Mouri-san and Inspector Megure if he remembered correctly, and gasped as the elder detective was about to cross the tripline.

"Stop! Don't go any closer!" he yelled.

Mouri froze. "Who's there?"

Kaito snagged a rope from the scaffold and slid halfway to floor-level. "It's me. Don't approach the body, I set up a wire rig here earlier, if you set it off wrong you could break your legs or worse."

"Kaito! What did you set up?" called Shinichi.

The magician stayed where he was, hanging from his rope one handed. "Tightrope rig." he said, pointing out a near invisible net of wire. "It's supposed to snap into full tension when it's triggered, tight enough to walk on and do stunts."

Shinichi sighed heavily. "Fine timing to set something like this up, the victim just died hanging from those same rafters." he snapped irritably, but not directly at his cousin. "Pull that rig into tension so we can approach safely then get your ass down here!"

Kaito only nodded and climbed back up the rope, concerned at the sweat he could see on his cousin's face, but said nothing. Seconds later the net of wires was pulled into full tension just like he said, and he reappeared to the side, ducking strands set at various heights.

"Sorry about the mess." he said blandly, taking off his hat and scratching his head. "I wasn't expecting a murder to happen on stage."

A young officer accompanying the inspector gasped. "It's him! He has to be the murderer!" he yelled and lunged forward. "You're under arrest!"

Kaito justifiably panicked and jumped straight up into the wires, leaving the officer to run into the chest-level wire that was directly behind him, knocking the wind out of himself. To the rest of the onlookers, it appeared that he vanished, but Shinichi knew better. "Baka, get down from there."

Kaito crouched in a perch on a wire twelve feet off the ground. "No way, not until you're sure people aren't going to tackle me!"

"Is that all you're worried about?" a rather peeved Hakuba asked. "Shouldn't you be more concerned that you could be arrested?"

"Oi! I know my own rigs, that guy hanging there isn't my doing!" Kaito said irritably. "From what I saw up there he's hanging directly from the middle of the light boom, my net only goes up all the way at the corners of the stage! The way I see it, I'm more worried about being falsely arrested!"

"Leave him alone Hakuba." drawled an annoyed Hattori. "It's not like we could catch him if he really doesn't want to be caught, you see how fast that guy can move."

"Quite, but that doesn't mean I believe in his innocence."

Shinichi scoffed. "If he was guilty he'd be long gone and we'd never find him again. The fact that he's staying in relatively close quarters means he's willing to cooperate." he said, nodding to Megure. "Inspector, this is the same rigging expert I recommended for that grapple-hook case."

"Oh! I remember, the young magician!"

Kaito waved from his perch. "Nice to see you again Megure-keibu. If you don't mind, I'll be staying right were I am until you can promise me I'm not going to be manhandled." he said in a chipper voice, but his cheer sounded rather forced. "Please make up you mind soon though, I don't like the idea of standing this close to our hangedman here..."

Megure nodded. "You have my word, no one will touch you, please come down."

Kaito obliged, and instead of simply jumping he took the time to swing down with his hands first, and then dropped to ground level so as not to startle anyone.

He was questioned, just like everyone else, as to where he was at the time of the victim's death, given that Takeda-san died from a broken neck first, then bleeding out from the throat because the thin wire used to hang him ripped open the jugular. He answered truthfully that he had been in the halls when he heard the scream, looking for Shinichi.

At first several cops thought this made it all the more suspicious that he was the killer, having no alibi, but quick check with the security center proved that he had been in the same hall as he said at the time of death, having been caught on camera walking at a normal pace, before freezing and turning back to the ballroom.

Alibi cleared, they then moved onto method, when they had a bit of a hiccup. No one was able to actually get up to the point in the rafters where the victim was hung from, nor could they find an anchor point. Normally light booms were raised and lowered for maintenance and adjustments by pulley systems, but this particular one was jammed in place for some unknown reason.

After much discussion, they finally agreed to allow Kaito up into the scaffold to find the other end of the noose. To avoid ticking anyone off Kaito restrained himself from simply flying up to his destination and instead took the time to climb up in a more visible manner. Leaving his hat and cape with Aoko below he clambered up smoothly, somehow avoiding getting any form of dirt, dust, or grease on his pristine white suit.

In minutes he found what he was looking for and came back down.

"What is it?" asked Megure.

"Can I borrow a camera, a pair of latex gloves, a screwdriver, and a wrench?" he asked. "I found the rig, someone hijacked the boom winch, the cable to lower the light track is what's holding the guy up. I thought you'd like me to photograph the evidence before I might have to mangle the winch to get it to release."

Shinichi had to prod several people to get them to get Kaito the requested items, but once they did the magician was able to quickly reverse the winch without damaging it, photographing every step he took for evidence as he had to partially dismantle it. Once he had the body lowered he came back down and gave the camera and tools back.

While the detectives analyzed the photos and a mangled piece from the winch casing Kaito brought down the magician was forced to stand aside.

"I have it!" cried Shinichi, Hakuba, and Hattori all at once.

Kaito smiled and allowed his eyes to close as the detectives began their deduction show. Turns out the assistant had been having an affair with the female president of a rival company, and the woman had taken advantage of Kaito's presence, and his reputation for rigs, to silence the man and her backdoor dealings.

That taken care of Kaito was cleared of suspicion and released, just in time to catch sight of Shinichi absentmindedly downing a cocktail as it was offered to him, and Hakuba scolding him for making that mistake twice...

"Shit! Shinichi!"

The paranoid rookie that had tried to jump Kaito before tackled the teen when he lunged for his cousin. "You stay down! I'm not letting you attack a detective!"

Kaito growled, struggling. "Get off me you idiot!"

"Kudou!"

Hattori's shout brought everyone's attention to the teen detectives, and the fact that Shinichi had doubled over, clutching his chest.

"Shinichi!" Ran cried, rushing to her boyfriend and feeling his sweaty forehead for fever. "What's wrong? Are you alright?"

Ran and the other detectives continued questioning Shinichi, but he couldn't respond, gasping for breath as the tremors began and he gave a strangled cry of pain.

Kaito panicked, and with one powerful twist he threw the cop off him bodily, only to be slammed into again by three larger officers. Frustrated, he leapt over their heads and to Shinichi's side, shoving Hakuba away. "Move it and back up! He's having a seizure!" he shouted and pointed to Yusaku and a tall officer as his cousin's convulsions worsened. "You two, Ran and Hattori hold him down! I can't dose him if he's thrashing!"

Stunned, everyone moved to obey his barked orders. Hattori and Yusaku restrained Shinichi's powerful legs while the officer pinned down his arms. Ran took a pair of handkerchiefs and twisted them together, creating a gag to keep the teen from biting his tongue, and braced his head with a solid grip.

"What's happening?" she asked, panicked. "Why is he having a seizure?"

"He's got a toxin disorder after all those infections and poisons." Kaito explained, almost fumbling with the emergency injection kit. "He can't have alcohol or it'll raise the toxin levels and cause a surge! He was supposed to get his medication hours ago!"

Hakuba snagged the case of the kit and helped Kaito assemble the injection gun. "How much dosage?" he asked.

"Twenty Ccs."

"Done."

"Good." Kaito said, snagging the capsule and loading the gun. "Ran, hold his head to the side, I have to get this in his neck."

She did so, against Shinichi's struggles, allowing Kaito to rip open his collar and discharge the injection into his artery.

As the medication took effect the convulsions slowed and eventually settled, the teen breathing heavily through the gag.

Kaito just about collapsed in relief. "Thank god...I was scared that wasn't going to work." he said, carefully putting the injector back in the case. "Don't move him just yet, wait till his pulse slows down, doctor's orders."

Aoko stepped forward and wrapped her arms around him. "Is this why you were looking for him earlier?" she asked quietly.

"Yeah, our doctor caught me before I left the house, told me about the alcohol problem. Alcohol's a poison, any more in his system and it could cause a surge just like this, and surges can lead to heart failure via seizure." he said, leaning into his girlfriend's embrace. "His control medication is still in the works, but Mordio-sensei had the emergency meds rushed just in case, good thing he did."

Everyone around them gave a low gasp and looked back at the now unconscious teen, now aware that he could have died in this episode. Kaito fell back in exhaustion, falling into a fitful doze as the paramedics whisked Shinichi away to the hospital, where he would spend the next few days under observation.

Afterwards Ran made it her mission to keep an eye on Shinichi, making certain that he didn't accidentally poison himself again, and Kaito left her to it, one less thing for him to worry about.