A Shrunken Life Ch.6 (I don't own Detective Conan)
A/N: I'm sooo sorry, I haven't updated in such a long time. I'm terrible sorry. The charger for my laptop got broken and we finally ordered a new and we just got a new one now. So I wasn't able to use my laptop at all and all my fanfictions are saved in here. And add it with a bit of laziness. But to make it all up, I wrote a long chapter, well I hope it's long, but its the longest chapter in this story so far. Please read and review and I hope y'all enjoy this chapter. And I'm going to try my hardest to get the next chapter up soon. So please enjoy.
Kamiko pressed her ear against the wooden door. She heard Conan's muffled voice through the door. She frowned, who is Conan talking to so secretly about and what about? It couldn't be Haibara or Hakase because Haibara is currently sitting in the living room and Hakase went out to get some items for his upcoming inventions. She could only guess that Conan is talking to someone on the phone. But who?
Kamiko listened more intently but she could hear broken words. "So…Willingly to…Come… Friday…Yeah…'kay…Thanks…Yeah…Love… Bye.'
She frowned then released her frown as soon as she heard footsteps coming through the door. Kamiko jumped back. Panic arisen in her in fear that Conan would caught her ears dropping. Kamiko quickly scrambled back to the living room and plopped down on the couch trying to act like she had been there the whole time.
Haibara sat on the chair sipping a cup of tea smirking at Kamiko. Kamiko quickly put a finger up to her lips silently begging Haibara not to tell Conan that she has been ears dropping on him this whole time.
Haibara shrugged calmly. Kamiko gave a short and quiet sigh at Haibara's "answer". She couldn't tell if that was a yes or a no and with Haibara, it's hard to tell.
Conan shortly entered the living room. He glanced at the two before shaking his head. Conan muttered something under his breath. Kamiko blinked at him wondering what he just said. Kamiko sank into the couch when she realized that Conan wasn't going to repeat what he just said.
"So tell me, why were you ears dropping on my conversation?" Conan asked her, his voice held no emotion.
"I wasn't ears dropping on ya' conversation." Kamiko defended, crossing her arms across her chest.
Conan raised an eyebrow at her. "Oh really? Do you actually expect me to believe that?"
As Conan sat in the couch across from Kamiko, she continued to defend herself. "Do ya' have any proof that I was ears dropping?"
"I could hear your soft breathing through the other side of the door and when I finished, I could hear you running away. Also, Haibara is a witness and you are a horrible actor, your guilty ridden face told me all." He finished.
Kamiko pouted and stuck her tongue out at Conan who just gave a small laugh. "So, who were talking ta' anyways?" She asked, after all, she was already caught.
"None of your business." Conan replied.
"C'mon, tell me please?"
"Nope."
"Why not?"
"It's personal."
"Is it?"
"Yes"
"Was it Ran-chan?" Kamiko taunted, holding a smug grin.
A faint blush had spread itself over Conan's cheeks. "No, it wasn't, it was someone else."
"Then who was it?"
"No one of importance. I have to get back to the agency now, so I'll see you two later." Conan stood up, nodding at Haibara and at Kamiko. He started to make his way to the front door.
But Kamiko wasn't going to let him go so easily. She jumped off the couch and quickly catches up to Conan before he got to the door. She tugged on his sleeve, prompting him to stop. Conan looked at her surprised. "What's wrong Kamiko-chan?"
"Let me go with ya' ta' the agency."
"To the agency? Why?"
Kamiko let out a smile." Because I want to see Ran-chan." As soon as she said those words, she saw Conan's facial expression. It seemed like it was telling her that he didn't want her to go. Before Conan could say anything back, Kamiko let out her question, "Why don't ya' want me ta' go?"
She heard a sigh come out of Conan's lips and him muttering, "Because you're not ready yet."
Kamiko tugged harder on Conan's sleeve. "What do ya' mean I'm not ready yet? I think I'm pretty capable of meeting Ran-chan."
"Are you sure? It's hard to pretend to act like you don't know someone when you really do?" Conan asked her.
Kamiko stopped, grasping the message he was giving her. She let go of Conan's sleeve and put her shoes on. She ignored Conan's protest as she stepped out of the house. That won't stop her from seeing her friend. She knew she wasn't the greatest actor in the world, but she knew she could at least keep her identity a secret.
Memories of the recent trip to the mall resurfaced in her mind, Kamiko shook her head to get those memories out her head. Well, at least she could try.
Kamiko stopped when she felt a hand on her shoulder. She looked over it to see Conan. "Hey, I'm sorry; I didn't mean to offend you. But Ran is still mad about you know…"
A smile placed itself over Kamiko's lips. "It's okay, but I'm still going. I promise I won't reveal my identity." She saw Conan roll his eyes with a small grin placed on his face.
The two resumed walking, in silence. The sun's light began to fade into the rising of the night sky. Cars passed by, people on the streets hurried on their way, most probably on their way to get home to make or have dinner. Clouds started to crowd the sky.
The peaceful silence broke as Kamiko spoke, "Hey, Conan-kun. I've been wondering for a while now. What about ya' parents?" She looked at Conan who had his hands behind his head. He glanced at her.
"What about my parents?"
"Do ya' parents know about ya', ya' know…?"
Conan put his hands into his pockets. A pregnant pause passed by. "Unfortunately, they do."
Kamiko felt stunned, the she felt her anger rise within her. So why did Conan tell her that she couldn't tell her parents no matter what even though his parents knew about his condition? Kamiko was about to voice her thoughts but Conan put out a hand, stopping her from doing so.
"I said unfortunately. I never intended on telling them nor did I ever. Hakase was the one who told them without my consent. And my parents, being who they are and wanting to make sure if what Hakase said is true, they kidnapped me. A cruel joke, so once I figured out that they were my actual parents, I was not happy. But I guessed they understood that they couldn't tell anyone about my condition and that this was my mess to clean up. And besides I don't live with my parents and they live America, but your parents who you lived with about your entire life and a dad who is in the police would take a different route rather than what my parents did." Conan explained.
Kamiko took all the information in, understanding the reason why Conan would tell her not to tell her parents. She didn't know Conan's parents but she did know hers and she recognized that yes, her parents would've done something completely different than what Conan's parents did. "Oh," Was the only thing that came out of her mouth.
They soon reached the detective agency, it was dark out. The two went upstairs to the actual agency and entered. They found Kogoro sprawled on the couch with a beer in his hands. Ran was scolding him and picking up trash.
"Taidama." Conan yelled out in his kiddy voice.
"Oh welcome home, Conan-kun." Ran spun around to face Conan smiling sweetly then her gaze dropped onto Kamiko, her smile still there. "Who's your friend Conan-kun?"
Conan glanced at her. "This is my new classmate, Nakomoto Kamiko and a recent addition to the detective boys."
Kamiko bowed slightly, giving a small hello. "There's no need to be shy, I'm Mouri Ran and this man on the couch is Mouri Kogoro." Ran growled at the end of her sentence. "Well, Kamiko-chan, would you like to stay for dinner?"
"Sure, thank you Ran-oneesan." Kamiko answered, feeling weird that she just called Ran-chan sister, and that she'd going to have to continue to call her that. She felt bad for Conan for a different reason. The three went upstairs where Ran went into the kitchen to get dinner made.
"So, Kamiko-chan, where are you living now?"Ran asked.
"Oh, I'm living with Haibara-chan and Hakase."
"With Hakase and Ai-chan?"
"Yeah, it's a long story." Kamiko replied and Ran seemed to get it, not asking any more questions.
Kamiko looked down; she couldn't but help but feel blue about her whole situation. This is not what she wanted at all.
Friday
Kamiko got dressed into jeans, a light-blue T and she brushed her hair. Since she turned chibi, she wasn't allowed to put her up in a ponytail like she usually did and was forced to keep it down, only rarely was she allowed to put it in a bun. She sighed about her hair then left and went into the living room to grab her school bag. Only to find her bag not there and Haibara, wearing her lab coat, sitting on the couch drinking on what Kamiko assumed was tea. "Hey, Haibara, where's my bag and why are you in your lab coat?"
"Well, I'm wearing my lab coat because I'm going to continue to do my research today and your bag, well, it's not here at the moment because you're not going to school today." Haibara answered as is it were the most obvious thing in the world.
Kamiko blinked. They weren't going to school today? "Why aren't we going ta' school today?"
Haibara held three fingers up, her mouth mouthing the numbers from three to one. A door opened then closed again. Then, "Mom! Put me down now!" Kamiko heard Conan shout.
A woman with long blonde hair, a bit of it curled, wearing a red V-neck shirt with dark blue skinny jeans, came in holding a struggling Conan. The woman pouted. "C'mon, don't be like that Shin-chan. Let mommy hold you for a bit. I never get to see you Shin-chan."
"No. Put me down and stop calling me Shin-chan." Conan demanded.
Kamiko watched the mother and her son bicker with each other. Kamiko just stood there surprised. Is that Conan's, no, Shinichi's mother? But they don't resemble each other, other than having the same blue eyes. And she looked so young too.
Feeling three sets of eyes on her, Kamiko realized that she must have been voicing her thoughts. Because, the woman had put down Conan and put her hands over her cheeks in a shock matter and began to gush. "Did you hear that Shin-chan? She says I look young, and she's so right, I am very young. And of course, Shinichi inherited his beautiful blue eyes from mine of course…" The woman continued on.
Conan came to her and apologized. "Sorry for that. Mom can be full of herself sometimes. But yeah that is, unfortunately, is my mother."
"'Unfortunately'? You should be glad I'm your mother and that you're even in this world. And 'full of herself'? I'm not full of myself." Conan's mother ranted, grabbing her son and gave him a noggie.
Kamiko couldn't help but laugh at the sight. "This is the reason why you're skipping school today. Kudo-chan's going to give you acting lessons." Haibara told her.
"She is?" Kamiko remembered that Kudo Shinichi's mother is the retired actress Kudo Yukiko. "Yeah. She was the one who I was talking to on Tuesday, the conversation you were ears dropping on. I called her to give you acting lessons since you need them. Mom, this is Toyama Kazuha or her alias Nakomoto Kamiko. Toyama-chan, this is my mother, Kudo Yukiko."
"It's nice ta' meet ya' Kudo-chan." Kamiko said, using the same honorific Haibara used when she talked about the woman.
"It's nice to meet you too Kamiko-chan. But please, call me Yukiko-oneechan." Yukiko cheerfully said.
Kamiko blinked. "Okay, Yu-Yukiko-oneechan."
"Before we actually begin the acting lessons, we first need to get rid of your accent. We don't people to know you're from Osaka and make the connection. Have you talked to anyone that you knew from beforehand?"
"Yeah, I talked to Ran-chan on Tuesday as Kamiko." Kamiko answered.
Yukiko frowned then smiled. "Well, we could convince her that you never spoke Kansai-ben. Okay, now if I could only get my son to speak it perfectly."
"Hey, I could speak in Kansai-ben just fine." Conan exclaimed as he and Haibara went down in the basement.
Yukiko giggled and straightened herself. A dreaded feeling overcame Kamiko, this was going to be a long day.
Kamiko jumped up and down, a huge excited smile was plastered on her face, and her fists were bunched up. "Yay! We're going to get ice cream." She stopped jumping and began placed her hands on her chest, above her heart, and began to sway, all dramatic and she started to sing, well, more like chant, "I love ice cream! Ice cream is the most wonderful thing in the whole world. I just love ice cream. We all love ice cream. It's better than cheesecake but cheesecake is still awesome."
In a quick second, from Kaimko's happy smile, she pouted, fake tears streamed down her face. "But, but, you promised you'll get me ice cream. You promised! So why, why can't you get me it? It's so unfair." The tears stopped but her eyes were still watery and Kamiko stared at the floor dejectedly.
"And stop." Yukiko's voice rolled out and Kamiko wiped her eyes with her hands. "That was wonderful. I think I just adopted my own protégée." Yukiko squealed in absolute delight.
Kamiko nodded at the retired actress. "Thank you." She felt exhausted. They took four hours to get her stop speaking in Kansai-ben. The hardest four hours of her life and those four hours lingered on like it was a decade. Then after those dreadful four hours, they actually started the acting lessons. Yukiko started teaching about voice and volume, then body movement, then improvising and more. The two had started at seven; thirty in the morning and now it was almost five. They only took one break and that was for lunch. All of them, Kamiko, Yukiko, Haibara, Conan, and Hakase(who had been down in the basement with Conan and Haibara the whole time) but after that, they went straight back to the acting lessons.
"Yukiko-oneechan, can we take a break now?" Kamiko looked up at Yukiko with pleading eyes.
Yukiko looked down at Kamiko with soft eyes and walked over to the nearest couch and sat down. Kamiko followed her and sat beside her. "You know, you'll never be able to stop acting." Yukiko softly said.
"Huh? What do you mean?"
Yukiko's gaze seemed to be distant. "Meaning, that since you stepped down on this fate, you'll always have to act and you can never stop, no matter how tiring it is. This is how my son's living and he's always hiding his true emotions behind a mask. A mask that if taken off, he would break, but sometimes I wish he'll show me, the feelings he's hiding, so I can help him. I want to help him so badly but he won't allow me, that is why, whenever he…"
Yukiko got up all suddenly, a bright smile on her face. "You know a break from all this acting lessons sounds good. How about I call the others and go to a restaurant for dinner? After all you deserve it." Yukiko cheerfully suggested and left to the basement.
Kamiko was left on the couch by herself surprised on how quickly Yukiko could change her emotions. Kamiko smiled. Yukiko really did care about her son and wanted to help him. To Kamiko, it seemed like Yukiko would do anything if it meant that it would help her son. She wondered if her parents would act like Yukiko in this situation or would they act like what they all assumed to be the way her parents would act like.
Kamiko noticed the others making their way up into the living room lead by Yukiko. None of them heard the front door open and closed.
Kamiko went towards them. "I hope you guys made any process."
Conan stretched. "I hope so, I'm gonna be pissed if I made my body sore for nothing."
"Well, next time, it going to be her turn." Haibara said coldly.
Kamiko grimaced. She was still not looking forward to being tested on. The idea of it made her feel sick.
Yukiko clasped her hands. "Well, I and Kazuha-chan here made lots of process." She exclaimed excitedly.
"Kazuha?!" A shout echoed throughout the whole house. Everyone froze at the voice. They all knew who owned the voice that had Kansai-ben in it. They all turned to see Hattori standing there.
