[Act 10] - ||Getting changed||

-Ai-

They kept walking. Everywhere around Ai, pictures continued to pop up; shadows of memories. She remembered the night half a year ago and she hated it. Barely ever before she had seen so much blood and fear, but the most horrible thing she remembered was the place all this had happened. An elementary; a place for children where they could prepare for a life out in a cold world, but nevertheless it ever had been a place of safety; until this day.

And this place; their tour through the dark corridors of the hospital, started to brush all those hidden memories up. Ai peeked over her shoulder; she walked behind the Detective Boys, next to Conan and in front of Alice who got followed by Kato and his weapon.

'I won't allow you to accompany me' Alice had decided after Kato had pulled out his weapon but Ai's answer had just been a shrug 'I don't think anyone of us needs your permission to risk our own life' and after she had ignored Alice reproachful look they had started to walk down the corridor Kato had chosen. Ai hadn't wanted the kids to get dragged into this but even less she wanted to leave Alice alone with this guy; who could tell what he would do to her?

It was obvious to Ai that Kato was one of the people who had done researches on the cannibal-disease. After they had survived the night in the elementary Ai had read up on what happened to the researches of the disease after the organization had dropped them and she had found out a little team had started to collect all kinds of information about it; she hadn't found any names of this ominous team, but Kato must have been one of them. Seemingly he had recognized APTX4869 (though he didn't seem to know more about APTX than the fact that it was a drug) had caused the disease to change within Alice's body and now he made up a new antidote.

Ai lowered her head lost in thoughts. Was APTX4869 the reason why the remedy hadn't fully worked on Lilly… She hesitated with this thought; Ayumi's words kept echoing in her mind. 'I saw you. I saw how you were while you were… infected. But you are different now. I trust you, ok?' Ai simply had to agree on this. In the past week Alice had never, not even once, behaved like the cannibal she had met this night half a year ago… Also she just didn't want to believe all her fears had just been pretending. So was it more like a split personality? Something that took over control of her friend and afterwards she couldn't remember it anymore?

Ai sighed lowly; this didn't make sense either. The alter ego of people with split personalities usually 'wakes up' within a stressful situation their host has to bear, or when some sort of trigger gets pulled but wouldn't this mean this cannibal-personality had 'woken up' at latest when Kato attacked Lilly? But as far as Ai could tell it had not; Lilly hadn't been able to get rid of Kato what the cannibal-her surely would have been.

Annoyed Ai twisted her mouth like usual when she became stuck with her thoughts, also this horrible heat made everything in her mind run a lot slower than usual so she finally decided to drop this; maybe it was needless anyways, maybe this Kato (how less she liked him) had managed it to heal Lilly so she hadn't to understand it fully.

For a moment Ai wondered whether she could risk it to talk to Conan, who had grown oddly quiet, or if this would get Kato angry but she didn't even had the chance to try it; Kato suddenly made a gasping sound and Conan, the Detective Boys and Ai turned around to him and Alice.

Seemingly Alice had stopped walking and Kato had run into her now he looked at her with a mixture of confusion and approved suspect and raised his weapon. "What's it carnivore? Wanna give your friends the long awaited confession before you finally vanish?" Alice turned around to Kato and away from her friends and cause a wide and in Ai's eyes disgusting smirk on Kato's face "or wanna try an attack on me? Take one of them hostage? Please do so, I'd love to have a reason to shoot your…"

"I'm warm" Alice sober voice was everything that told Ai her friend had spoken; her whole body still stood there; motionlessly. Kato blinked; he hadn't expected this "u…uhm" he began and Alice continued "you see, it's summer and it's hot" finally she moved and Ai saw her pale hand slightly pulling up some of the curt of her white nightshirt. Just by now Ai recognized that the shirt was made out of thick white curt and compared to usual patient's shirts this one had long sleeves; it seemed to be too big for Alice anyways. "I need to get changed; my clothes should still be within the treating room."

Kato made this tsk-sound again and shook his head; the weapon slightly shook too. "I may don't get your cannibal-plan but I won't follow it. The treating rooms are on the 4th floor; we're on floor 2; forget it." Ai looked from the back of Alice head up to Kato and back to Alice again; what was going on here? She couldn't believe Alice would actually complain about her shirt in such a situation, but she also couldn't think of a possible 'cannibal-plan' how Kato called it. Ai looked over to Conan, who still hadn't talked much, but he seemed as confused as Ai, he looked skeptical at Alice and waited for this situation to go on.

Alice finally sighed "well, I won't walked any further within this" she pointed at the shirt again "I'm a child so I think it's normal for me to bitch around if I don't get what I want" Ai saw Alice crossing her arms and anger entering Kato's face. As much as she tried she couldn't sort Alice's tone, the only thing she knew was that Alice was angering a man who didn't have a problem with hurting children and who had a weapon.

"Alice" suddenly Conan's voice appeared and in his voice Ai could hear how worried he was, but also something different. She looked at the small tantei and saw a slightly annoyed smile on his face; it was a hobby of Alice's to anger people who think they were stronger than her and Conan tried to tell her that this was the wrong place for her games; somehow this was their kind of humor and it made Ai want to clout both of them for not getting how dangerous this situation was.

To her surprise Alice turned around to her and smiled her usual friendly smile. "Don't worry, he won't shoot me if I won't attack him, otherwise it would be murder; even he gets this." Alice tilted her head around to Kato again, whose face was now red of anger and she continued "furthermore he needs me for his research, right?"

Ai didn't feel as sure as Alice seemingly did; actually she felt pretty worried since the weapon in Kato's hand was still pointed right on Alice's head. "Can't she get your clothes Conan?" Ayumi's thoughtful voice appeared behind Ai and made Conan's and Alice's face grow highly red. 'I'm really in an asylum' Ai decided 'and I'm the only sane person. A guy points a weapon at the head of my friend and she's joking about this with her boyfriend and now a little girls suggested them to changed their cloth; lunatics all around.'

"What?!" Conan and Alice gasped and Ayumi, who didn't seemed to get what was wrong with this idea explained, "when we visited you Alice, Conan had carried a bag of old cloth along, but when we entered the bus to drive home he didn't had it anymore; I think he forgot them within your room, it's on floor 2, isn't it?" Somehow Ai couldn't avoid believing Ayumi had thought about this for some days now, since she knew all this out of the sudden, but maybe didn't knew how to talk to Conan about this.

Conan nodded, still highly red but Alice wildly gestured with her hands "no, no I can't… I don't think I should wear…" she laughed embarrassed "I was just kidding, ok? I actually enjoy this night shirt very much" she threw a pretended smile around and pushed Ai and Conan to walk on.

"Fine!" Kato spit out this word and Ai saw Kato trying to regain some of his evil-happiness. He ran his hand over his face and Ai knew he would use Alice embarrassment to get revenge on her. "We'll get you those to get changed; I mean, I can't allow my precious cannibal to wear a stinky patients dress all night, so this clothes will do" and with these words he pushed Alice more or less to her old room; 2111.

Some minutes later their group stood in front of this room. Kato opened the door and pushed Alice inside, "you wait here" Kato said and stepped insecurely into the room. "You can't watch her changing her cloth!" once again Ayumi proved her skill to say exactly what everyone thought "she's right, are you pervert?" Genta agreed and Mitsuhiko added with a thoughtful voice "I think people who enjoy this are called pedo…"

"Ok ok!" Kato shouted and Ai clearly saw how he regretted it to have let them accompany Alice. "This was your plan, right?! You evil, dirty, little…" Kato growled while he kneeled down to Alice and suddenly Ai decided that this could be her chance to have a talk to Alice.

"I'll have an eye on her" she said and walked over to Kato and Alice, while everyone watched her surprised. "You…?" Kato wondered and Ai simply grabbed his weapon while she vanished within the room with Alice and replied "don't worry, if she tries to kill me I will simply shoot her head, it's not this complicated."

Before Kato could say something she pushed the door close and switched on the light; now she and Alice were alone.

-Alice-

Alice uncomfortably looked around within the room; she hadn't thought about how it would feel. Actually she had planned Kato to bring her up to get her own clothes and she had also planned him to let her get changed with either Ai or Ayumi, but she hadn't thought this would happen. Now she stood in a dirty room to put on Shinichi's old clothes with Ai watching her; a weapon to protect herself from Alice.

"I'm sorry" Alice looked up and saw Ai uncomfortably fiddles around on the weapon she blinked "huh?" A nervous laughter ran up her throat; she couldn't help it, but when she felt really tensed she sometimes simply laughed "about what?"

"I don't believe you" Ai said and looked up from the weapon; Alice blinked. "I mean, Ayumi obviously does; she thinks you're no cannibal and I feel sorry because we are friends… but I can't really believe you, even though I tried." Alice shook her head; she didn't mind though she felt it hurt her "I don't… I don't know what to believe too" she looked up and their eyes met. "I feel I am me, as usual, but everything tells me I am a cannibal… So let's just hope this antidote works."

Ai nodded and suddenly her normal sober, annoyed look returned and she asked "now you really need to tell me what your plan is. I mean, why did you want this desperately to get changed? You don't really want to escape, right?" Alice felt embarrassed and poked her fingertips against each other while she mumbled "I'm scared of this nightshirt."

Alice saw her friend blink in confusion "you… are… what?" Alice felt her face glowing red and some louder she replied "I'm scared, ok?! Kato said this once has been an asylum, who knows what kind of people wore those shirts then! I mean, I couldn't stop thinking about it! I needed to get rid of it" she hugged herself and slightly shivered in fear and Ai sighed "no matter what kind of asylum this was, you still must be the craziest person who ever wore this."

The two girls laughed what got interrupted by a heavy knocking on the door "hurry up!" Kato's voice shouted and both rolled their eyes. "Ok, get changed so we can finally leave" Ai said and again Alice blushed "u…uhm, I can't" she mumbled and Ai raised an eyebrow. Alice reached for the bag of Conan's old clothes and pulled out a copy of his blue suit, trousers, white shirt, shoes and bow-tie. "What's wrong with them?" Ai asked and walked over to Alice to have a look on the cloth. "Sure, he wore them while he was younger but I'm sure they should fit you anyways; you're pretty small."

Alice shook her head "it's not that… I don't wear trousers."

"What?" Ai asked and tilted her head "I wear skirts! Dresses and skirts, but no trousers." Alice explained. This just was a matter of fact. She was taught that boys wear trousers and girls wear skirts, everything else was weird. "Ok, now listen to me" Ai begun with a voice of an annoyed teacher who tried to teach a really dumb kid "we are in an evacuated hospital with a lunatic old doctor and his weapon. I know it's not your strength to understand when a situation is dangerous, but THIS IS so just put them on."

"But…" Alice tried.

"PUT-THEM-ON."

"Ai-neechan… you're creepy with this weapon."

"I'll count to three."

"I'm no child, I don't fall for this."

"One."

"This is silly."

"Two."

"I mean, what should happen when you reach three?"

"Thr…"

"Ok, ok!"

Alice quickly got out of the scary night shirt and under the satisfied look of Ai she started to put the cloth on. "My, Edogawa-kun is really lucky, you're just 7 and already you have got some nice amenities" she sat plainly and Alice covered her chest with her hand "geez, I never knew you can be this pervert" she replied jokey and turned her back at Ai "it's not like he'd think this way about me" and though they were joking she felt true frustration while talking. "Huh?" Ai wondered and Alice growled "I mean, I know he can be cold… but this." She turned around to Ai and to her surprise the girl had already walked very close to her, with a pretending wise she said "what happened?"

Alice shook her head "nah, it's nothing. I can't talk to you about it; I wouldn't want Conan to talk about it either."

"About you fooling around?" Ai asked sober and highly red Alice widened her eyes "w…what?!"

"He told me back then in my laboratory, though he used the word 'coming close'" Alice twitched her moth in anger "so… he told you?" she mumbled acid and while she put on his white shirt she started "fine, if he can talk about it, I can too."

And while dressing up she explained Ai shortly what happened in the treating room. Ai nodded thoughtfully "so the blackout interrupted you, before it grew serious? But this is interesting. I never was sure if APTX4869 affects the hormone, would you mind repeating your little doctor games and let me take some blood of you afterwards?"

"Well I would mind you taking our blood" she said and poked out her tongue and the two girls laughed. "My what a pity, looks like I can't stop you from wasting yourself on such a cold-hearted tantei" Ai said after they had calmed down a little and though Alice knew it was a joke it brought up doubts in her again… doubts she actually wanted to discuss with Conan, but how could she while she was still suspected to be a cannibal?

"Is something wrong?" Ai asked, she must have recognized her change of mood but Alice just shook her head while she adjusted the bow-tie "uhuh, it's nothing… I mean I knew I'd be nervous when we do such stuff, but…"

"But…?" Ai dug deeper and Alice chewed her lower lip while thinking how to explain it "I actually felt pretty scared… I know Shinichi since forever, but this situation was foreign… he looked at me in a way I've never seen him look before and I'm not sure if I liked it; it simply felt like I'd lose my best friend and swap him with some stranger… and I don't trust strangers this easy" she said thoughtfully and finished the outfit with putting on the suit jacket.

Alice felt Ai glancing at her with a worried look and so she raised her head and smiled "no need to worry. You are right, this situation is dangerous; other stuff can wait 'till we can leave this horrible hospital." And with these words she took Ai's hand and both left the room.

xD what a weird chapter this was! But I needed it and actually I wanted to include another passage that actually supports the plot a little more, but the this chapter would have turned out to be much too long ;P so gomen, this time you have to trust me that this was important and be satisfied with this weirdo-chapter :*

Please leave a review to help me improve :}