Disclaimer: I do not own Detective Conan or Magic Kaito.

Neko no Triad

Chapter Eight

Ran stood, sighing loudly and stretching. "Is everyone alright?"

Her question was answered with unanimous affirmations and nods, excepting Nakamori-keibu, who dashed out of the room while bellowing out curses and assertions that he would catch, quote 'that bastard KID'. Behind Ran, Russell facepalmed and groaned audibly. The teenager looked up from his hands when KID contacted him through the earpiece that he still had lodged in his ear, telling him that Hakuba would need some medical attention and preferably some help back into the airship. Hakuba? Shinichi quickly recovered and was about to quietly slip out of the room when a hand landed solidly on his shoulder. He made a small terrified noise and slowly turned his head around, apprehensive of whoever had felt the need to talk to him. However, instead of the angered face of whoever wanted to accuse him, there was a smirking but foreboding expression of one Sonoko Suzuki. She pulled him towards her, smiling deceitfully and whispering into his ear.

"You know, you kind of remind me of Ran's husband..."

Russell was about to mentally began to break down and enter full panic mode when the Suzuki heiress continued speaking. "But since he's apparently gone and died on Ran, I think that you'll make a good replacement for now." With that cryptic and threatening decision, she grabbed the terrified boy by the jacket and forcefully dragged him over to the clueless Ran.

"Ran!" Sonoko called out perkily. The addressed girl turned around. "Yes?" Sonoko pulled at the boy she was dragging, only for him to come with little resistance. "Huh?" She was met with an empty jacket, the teen having fled a few seconds ago. "Geh... that kid is just asking for a beating!" The Suzuki heiress gritted her teeth and clenched her fist. She blinked and looked at the confused Ran innocently. "What?"

"Gyah!" Shinichi dashed down the hallways to help Hakuba out – and hide from Sonoko. He was never going within ten feet of that lady if he could avoid it. When she was in one of her matchmaking moods, there was no stopping to whatever lengths she would go to in order to get the two unfortunate people together. And didn't exactly help that she was trying to get him together with Ran as a replacement for Shinichi – he was Shinichi darn it! Well... she didn't exactly know that, but still!

Shinichi was so preoccupied with his thoughts, he barely avoided colliding face first into the door to the roof. He screeched to a halt and yanked the door open. There, he spotted a wounded Hakuba attempting to limp his way to the door, but failing rather miserably. A few feet behind him, a swirly eyed Fujioka lay sprawled across the top of the airship, flying KIDs fluttering about his head. Figuratively, of course. One KID was more than enough. He heaved a tremulous sigh and went about the tedious task of tying the bad guy up and making sure he didn't wake up before the police got to him. Then, he approached Hakuba and tentatively offered a hand to help the British detective up. As expected, Hakuba accepted the help and shakily stood, wincing at the pain in his leg. With Shinichi supporting him, he limped to the door and down to the infirmary. Once there, Shinichi helped the other detective sit and rummaged through the cupboards to find the first aid kit. He carefully bandaged up the other teen's wounds and, serving as a human crutch, helped Hakuba back to the lounge to rest. After he assisted Hakuba in lowering himself on to one of the sofas, he quickly departed. No sense in staying longer; he might figure out who he really was!

A sudden bout of heart-wrenching pain immediately prompted Shinichi to sprint towards the restrooms as quickly as possible. If he transformed back to a cat in the middle of the floor, he was as good as dead!

Russell sighed. It had been nice being human and all, but it made it him twice as reluctant to have to return to becoming a cat. He almost wanted to continue taking the pills just so he wouldn't have to change forms ever again. But if he did, then those men in black would find out and endanger everyone. It almost wasn't fair... But it was his fault, anyway, for being so full of himself and so careless. Otherwise he wouldn't be in this situation in the first place. He sighed again and padded down the hallways. Really, he would have thought that antidote would have lasted longer. It lasted almost half a day the last time he had used it. Why did it wear out so quickly this time? The cat shook his head. No need to worry about that now. Right now, he had to worry about not being seen by Hakuba. If he saw that Russell was on the airship, then...

His musings were abruptly cut off by a fangirlish squeal. Russell slowly turned and looked upwards apprehensively, terrified. Don't tell me that – ! Any other thoughts after that were discarded in favor of escape plans and panicked opinions jumbling around in his head. This was not good! Sonoko Suzuki scooped up the panicking kitten and squished it to her bosom, squealing in her high pitched voice.

"Wah~! So cute!"

Russell wildly clawed at the air, attempting to escape, eyes wide in fear. Not again!

"Eh?" Ran stepped into the hall, curious of Sonoko's joyful cries.

"Ran! Look! Isn't it the cutest little thing you've ever seen?" The other girl stared at the kitten inquisitively, feeling somewhat sorry for it as she watched it try to escape her friend's grasp. After seeing the kitten send a familiar blue-eyed gaze on her, pleading for help, she caved.

"Ne, Sonoko, can I hold the kitten?" Sonoko turned to face her, smiling happily. "Sure, Ran!" She deposited the kitten in Ran's arms, patting it on the head. The kitten looked at her gratefully, its appearance somewhat frazzled from Sonoko's cuddling.

"Oy, what's with all the racket?" A familiar voice drifted from the lounge, sounding rather confused and a bit exasperated. Oh no... Hakuba! Russell scrambled from his comfortable (Although he would never admit it.) perch in Ran's arms and dashed to find a hiding place. Not good, not good! What next? CRASH. The panicked kitten collided solidly with the lounge sofa. Stumbling backwards, the kitten wavered back and forth before collapsing, swirly eyed. Ow... Why did he keep on running into things? Unless, the inanimate objects had a grudge against him and were forcing him to crash into into them purposely. That was probably it. The delusional kitten sluggishly looked up at the sound of worried voices. Ooh... flying Kaitou KIDs! And sofas, too!

...

That was normal, right?

Oh well, who cared? The disoriented feline drifted off on a short improptu trip to la-la land. Yay~!

Hakuba sighed and petted the unconscious kitten on the head. The feline purred quietly, rolling over and shifting slightly. What was Russell doing here? He could have sworn he had left the kitten at home with Watson. Despite the fact that Watson was a hawk and could have eaten a kitten if he had wanted to, he doubted something like that would ever happen. After all, Watson was properly trained and Russell wasn't really all that small. The kitten was actually surprisingly large for a typical cat his age. While most kittens were roughly larger than the size of an adult's palm, Russell almost qualified for a full grown cat. Russell's happy sigh startled the detective out of his thoughts. Hakuba stared, wide eyed, at the contentedly purring kitten in his lap. Cats could sigh? He never knew that... Then again, Russell never really fit the standard of normal and seemed to break the boundaries of typical expectations – defying even reality itself – much like Kaito Kuroba did on a daily basis. Not to mention that one time Russell turned in a human/cat hybrid. But that had been a dream or some sort of delusion, hadn't it? It simply wasn't logical. Then again, neither was Kuroba.

The kitten stirred, shifting and slowly waking up. Russell sleepily yawned and blearily looked up at a face. Brownish-blond hair framed an amused looking visage – Hakuba! GAH! The cat leaped into the air, his body moving before his mind caught up. Unfortunately, since Hakuba had been leaning over him, he had simply sprang and smashed himself against the British detective's face. Hakuba jerked back in shock, yelping in pain. On the floor, a dazed Russell lay in a heap, once again staring at swirly stars and flying Kaitou KIDs. (Minus the sofas.) The auburn haired detective clutched his nose and fixed a blatant stare at the kitten, completely unamused. Just what had possessed the cat to abruptly jump up like that?

Hakuba muttered under his breath, nursing his bruised nose. No use thinking about that now – he was going to hurt Kuroba when he got back; that blasted magician was supposed to watch the kitten and make sure that he wouldn't get into trouble. But he really shouldn't have expected anything; he already knew that Kuroba was the Kaitou KID! He didn't have any evidence yet, but the fact that Russell was here only backed up his theory that Kaito Kuroba was the KID. He would catch the infernal thief and prove it!

Russell shuddered. Hakuba had a really weird expression on his face right now – at least, it was weird for Hakuba. That kind of facial expression didn't suit him at all; it looked more in place on a crazed lunatic's face. But now that he thought about it, it wasn't completely strange to see on his face. After all, although Hakuba wasn't a crazed lunatic (He was about 93.6% sure that Hakuba wasn't a loon. The other 6.3%, he wasn't too sure about.), he definitely fit the category of a crazed Sherlock Holmes fan. So it all connected some way or the other in the end, right?

Well, maybe not. But it didn't really matter. He couldn't really call Hakuba loony when he was reckless enough to jump off of a building to catch Kaitou KID. And Akako was probably crazier than either of them would ever be. Or saner. It really depended on the point of view.

Suddenly, a random mental image of Akako with Hakuba's face chanting to Lucifer and sacrificing something popped into his head. Russell shrieked in horror and shook his head rapidly back and forth to clear the image from his mind, thoroughly disturbed. What the heck? He whimpered and put his paws over his eyes, hoping that the mental image would permanently disappear from his memories forever. That was just wrong! He sobbed mentally. I think I just fried what was left of my brain cells.

Hakuba paused in his ecstatic thoughts of capturing KID and putting the obnoxious thief behind bars to stare down at the pitifully whimpering kitten at his feet. He blinked a few times, bewildered, when the kitten began to rhythmically bang its head against the floor. What exactly had happened to make the typically reasonable feline downgrade to the point of feeling the need to bash its brains out? He sighed and rubbed his head wearily. Right. Kaito Kuroba. He had left the kitten with an unpredictable magician with a penchant for pranks. No wonder Russell ran off...

Wait a minute...

Kaito was definitely KID, despite the fact that he didn't have any evidence so Russell wouldn't have needed to be brought here so that meant that –

"GYAH...!" Hakuba abruptly shot out of his chair, tugging at his hair in frustration. As quickly as he had stood up, he dropped back into the chair hissing in pain. Right. Wounded ankle. Bad idea.

Now what was he thinking about again?

A/N

I know. Basically a filler chapter, really. Or maybe an end to the Detective Conan Movie 14: The Lost Ship in the Sky arc thingy. But I basically went through with this chapter to clarify some details about the story and answer a few questions from the reviews. Meh. You'll see what I have in store for Neko no Triad soon.

Yes, I realize that Shinichi's become rather OOC compared to canon. Or not. Conan's personality is pretty similar, albeit more serious at times. But then again, we have influences from Kaito Kuroba – who is Kaitou KID – and transformation to a different species. So I think I'm entitled to a little freedom in adjusting his personality a bit...

And yeah, this chapter is a bit short, I guess. I'm still working out the kinks in future chapters of this story. Not to mention that I've been dealing with idea overloads that really don't have any relevance to the story as of right now. -headdesks- I'll deal with it soon enough.

Also, thank you to those of you who reviewed, I will indeed take your ideas into consideration. So far, the ones I've received (including constructive criticism) have helped rather greatly in the continuation of this story. Thank you~! (I would name them, but I think that would take too long. And most people don't like staring at lists of names with responses to their reviews for half of the chapter.)

EDIT: Revised as of 7/13/11. Some parts of this was confusing and has now been fixed. Also... I really need a beta reader.