Hi there! I've noticed that the last chapter was maybe slightly uneventful and maybe a little bit boring for some but that was because I was forcing myself to write even though I had writer's block. But I promise you that this one will be more exciting and (for lack of a better word) awesome because I have so many ideas one including Sonoko and another evolved around a murder! And since I haven't had a single death in this story it probably helped make it so boring. That's all I have to say for now but I will say more at the end if you want to read what I write afterwards.

DISCLAIMER: I own no character except the little kitten Miyuki. Gosho Aoyama owns all major characters and hallow777 owns the idea of a shrunken Ran living with Shinichi.

Chapter 11

Towards the end of February a lot of things began to happen, one of them being that Kaito came closer to finding the glowing red gem of Pandora! But with the help of the three high school detectives, of course. It was difficult but the five….or should it be said the four of them, since Ran had to focus more on the piles of homework both from elementary school and high school, were able to narrow down the search. Countless hours were spent looking for the priceless jewel and each of the four detectives (and thief) held bags under their eyes from their sleepless nights of computer scanning. Because of that, Ran actually had to force Shinichi to stay home from school one day to catch up on his sleep so he wouldn't be caught a third time falling asleep in class and to make sure he didn't move out of bed while she was at school herself Miyuki would paw at his face from her spot on his pillow.

Mean while, Haibara and 'Kaiyo' moved into their new homes. Kogoro and Eri were certainly surprised to see Akemi arrive on their door step along with Ran and Haibara to explain the whole situation about the two new comers' pasts with the Black Organization. The two adults didn't seem quite happy about it after everything was said….well Eri was a little bit accepting of the whole thing but Kogoro sure didn't like the idea of the elder sister of the creator of the exact poison that almost killed his daughter staying with them. But a sudden crack in the wall was able to help him see the good side of the conditions and he finally allowed the girl to stay. Ran and Akemi were excited but Haibara, like always, showed no emotion, not even when it came to her turn to move in to her new home. And she knew that convincing Agasa to let her move in wouldn't be that difficult. Haibara already knew what the answer would be and she felt weird for asking a second time but after it was done she already made herself at home.

And finally, on the last day of February, Sonoko, after repeatedly harassing poor Shinichi about Ran for weeks on end, had decided that after school she would secretly follow Shinichi home. She made sure that she was far enough to not be noticed but stayed close enough to keep an eye or her target. Surprisingly, she kept herself out of suspicion and was able to fool the Great Detective of the East. She crept quietly from behind a building as Shinichi turned a corner. Quickly she made her way around the same corner and found that she was in an unfamiliar place, Sonoko wondered where they were heading.

Where is he going? I've never been here before, were her thoughts when she became distracted from her suspect to look around the area. Once she caught focus what she was supposed to be doing, she realized that something was different. She glanced around then whispered. "Oh great I lost him! Where'd he run off to?"

Sonoko began searching everywhere; she looked up, down - left, right. After ten minutes she almost gave up but then suddenly she spotted him across the street. With a smile growing widely on her face, she quickly ran across the street only to be almost run over by a car when suddenly the light changed. When, what felt forever finally ended, the light turned again and the crosswalk changed to the color green Sonoko rushed to the other side and frantically made her way down the street turning yet another corner after many of them and randomly came across the neighborhood Shinichi lived in. When she found his house, she rang the doorbell at the gate thinking that Shinichi was already inside talking to little 'Hoshi-kun'. A minute after waiting the door opened.

Meanwhile just around the corner Shinichi was walking home feeling good knowing that he had successfully lost Sonoko on the way home by going in the completely opposite direction and going across the street right when the light changed. He glanced behind him to make sure that the teenage girl wasn't still following him, as he made the turn that lead to his house. Letting out a relieved sigh, he faced forward again now opening the front gate to his house.

I'm so tired, maybe I can rest before starting on homework, Shinichi thought yawning as he reached for the door knob, but before he could feel the cool touch of metal in his hand he began hearing the familiar muffled voices of two females (one his age and one younger) and became curious. He leaned in closer placing his ear on the wood of the front door and suddenly the words being said became clear.

"I just went to check on her and she was sleeping," came the young voice with a cheerful and happy tone.

"That's okay," the other, older, voice said sounding really close to the door. "I can wait till she wakes up."

"Uhh," said the younger voice a nervous tint laying behind it. "Maybe we should wait until Shinichi-niichan gets back."

With that, Shinichi took his cue to enter. Upon opening the door, and looking inside he feigned an expression of confusion as he saw Sonoko standing right in front of the step with 'Hoshi' standing a tiny bit away from the edge of it with Miyuki sitting next to her wearing her new collar that was the same shade of blue as her eyes with a little shining bell that was a darker shade of blue. On the inside Shinichi suppressed the urge to give an 'all knowing' smirk as he watched the look on the two girls' faces one of pure joy and relief and the other, curiosity and slight disappointment.

"Shinichi-niichan!" Ran shouted excitedly jumping off the step and jogging to Shinichi, with Miyuki following her, and giving him a hug and after she looked up at him and said. "Welcome home! Sonoko-neechan wants to see Ran-neechan but I told her that we should wait until you got home because Ran-neechan's asleep."

"Hi Hoshi-kun," Shinichi replied patting Ran on the head. "Thanks for checking on her for me," after hearing that Ran gave a childish smile and began to blush. Then he turned to Sonoko who seemed to not have moved. "If you want to wait until Ran wakes up i could get you something to drink."

"Thanks but no thanks," Sonoko said crossing her arms and turning the opposite way in a stuck up fashion. "I'll just watch over her untill she wakes up," she then started towards the stairs.

"Ah! I'll go instead!" piped up Ran running to the stairs. "I'll call you when she wakes up!" And with that she scooped the tiny kitten in her arms and ran up the stairs, the little bell jingling as she ran, leaving the two 'older' teens alone by the front door.

Shrugging his shoulders, Shinichi exchanged his shoes for house slippers and began walking towards the kitchen passing Sonoko purposely distracting her before she could follow the small 'child'. Sure enough Sonoko saw him and followed out of not wanting to be alone. After entering the kitchen Shinichi set his school bag on the table then headed for the fridge to grab a soda for himself and while also offering one to Sonoko as she stepped through the door way. When she took the offered drink he leaned against the counter, cracking open his soda can and gesturing toward a chair in a silent offering for the other indivisual to sit in which she hesitantly did before opening her own soda. Akward peace held the the room in a tight grip as both teens just stayed in their places sipping their drinks and thinking to themselves.

Shinichi was still annoyed with Sonoko about her pushing herself in to see Ran and making sure the teen detective wasn't holding her hostage, which he was being falsely acussed. Meanwhile, said girl was sitting across from the boy thinking up ways to force him to spill the beans. Again they stayed in silence lost in thought for awhile and Shinichi became curious about what the shrunken karate champion was doing upstairs. But when he heard small thumps coming from above him he looked at the ceiling in curiosity and a little surprise. A smirk played across his face as he deduced what was making the noise and let out a small chuckle while relaxing his neck muscles by looking straight ahead again. Sonoko noticed and gave him a confused stare mixed with an annoyed gaze.

"What are you laughing at?" She asked irritation dripping with very word she spoke before taking a sip of her drink.

"Nothing," Shinichi shrugged snapping back to reality. There was a pause where there was nothing but the two waiting for each other to say something, but when all turned silent...

"So..." Sonoko started, striving for control and forcing an illusion of her being the interrogator to be seen.

I was wondering when she was going to say something, Shinichi thought rolling his eyes.

"What -"

"AAAHHHH!"

"What was that!" Shinichi jumped, not completely recognizing the sound of the voice.

Thump!

Setting their drinks where they were, both Shinichi and Sonoko dashed out of the kitchen and ran to the sorce of the screams...which happened to be Ran's room. Shinichi ran as fast as he could, practically flying up the stairs with his girlfriend's best friend in pursuit. There's something about that scream that doesn't seem right, Shinichi played in his head worriedly. Then suddenly another scream full of pain rang out. Be okay Ran! Please be okay, he quickly became frantic. Please...Please be okay.

As they reached the last step the frenzied high school detective turned the corner and raced down the hallway at the speed of light and in no time at all Ran's door was in sight. skidding to a stop, forcing Sonoko run into him, he shoved the door!

"Ran!" The boy froze gaping at the scene in front of him.

"Ran! Was that you screaming? Are you okay?" Sonoko rushed to the side of the bed where a full grown Mouri Ran sat in her pajamas sweating a tiny bit and under the covers with what looked like sleep still lying in her eyes.

"Yeah I'm fine, I just had a nightmare and fell out of bed, that's all," answered Ran in a whisper before turning to the shocked teenager still standing in the doorway. "Shinichi, why are you still standing there? Come in already," she waved her hand for him to walk inside before letting out a cough or two.

Shinichi, who was still in shock from the sight before him, shook his head to force himself back into reality and pretended that nothing was out of the ordinary. "You looked like you saw a ghost!" Ran giggled.

"I'm just surprised that you're looking better that's all," the teenager alleged, a little red grazing his cheecks as he walked towards the bed with his hands in the pockets of his jeans.

After a looong two hours Sonoko noticed how late it was and slowly grabbed her school bag trying to delay her leaving. But when she had no other reason to stay Shinichi 'gentlemanly' escorted her out (which really meant he grabbed her arm and practically dragged her out the door). Closing the front door he sighed, relaxing at the thought that that annoying, gossipy, girl finally left. Soon after the peace had settled, the teen detective collected his thoughts and headed back to Ran's room to look for some answers to the questions that were formulating in his brain. The walk up the stairs seemed to take a lot longer than he remembered and when did it become so quiet all of a sudden? It must be because he was so anxious to be upstairs.

When he finally made it to the last step he began hearing muffled voices and he started hurrying to the room out of curiosity. But by the time he approached the door the voices stopped. When he opened the door, there was no one but Ran lying in her bed. She was smiling a little too happily, almost to the point where it could be mistaken for a certain thief's smirk and the young detective was still confused with the whole situation. He walked into the room planning on asking a few questions but that was before he noticed something was missing.

"Hey!" Shinichi exclaimed moving to stand in between the door and the bed. "I have to ask, how were you able to change back?"

"Haibara made a temporary antidote and she gave it to me so if I needed to, I could go back to my older self for times like this," the girl replied her smile not fading in the least. "It was a good idea huh?"

"Yeah...Wait a minute," looking around as if he were searching for an object that randomly disappeared the young man suddenly exclaimed. "Where's Miyuki? I thought she was with you?"

"Oh, she must've left to go eat or to get a drink," Ran answered, her smile flicking from confident to nervous and back in an instant.

"But I didn't see her when I went down stairs earlier," Shinichi said 'curiously' an eyebrown rising into his hairline.

"R-really?" sweat then started to appear on Ran's forehead. "Then I wonder where she went?" she quickly recovered putting a finger to her chin and looked up at the ceiling in hopes to make it a curious expression.

Shinichi was just about to say something back when he heard a tiny meow coming from under the bed. Immediately Ran's almost carefree appearance changed to one of nervousness then defeat at the sound and both her and Shinichi glanced down and saw tiny Miyuki crawling out from under the bed.

"Miyuki! Come back!" yelled a small voice and two tiny arms popped out from where the kitten had come from. Before the small hands could grab the little animal two larger ones took hold of the wrists and Shinichi could feel them tense under his touch.

"Got chya!" he smirked and he dragged the arms out from their hiding spot. His smirk vanished as his jaw slackened and his eyes widened just a bit at what he saw in his hands.

'Seven - year - old' Ran, dangling by her wrists, was staring straight at Shinichi a blush blooming across her cheeks.

"H-hi Shinichi," she laughed nervously as the person holding her stared at her and then at the 'Ran' that was still sitting in the bed, then back again.

The Detective of the East had realization dawn upon him and his face became shocked before it turned to one of anger when he finally knew who was now sitting on the bed looking down at him with nervous eyes.

"Kuroba!" the high school detective yelled after setting the real Ran on her feet and he stood up in a stance to attack the poor magican/thief who had now jumped out of the bed and was already on the other side of the room by the window within seconds.

"H-hold on Kudo!" 'Ran' stuttered with a deeper voice as 'she' backed up against the cool glass. "I can explain!" 'she' then put 'her' hands up in surrender, sweating just a bit.

"You better!" Shinichi raised a fist in anger as he approached the Ran imposter and the real one jumped on the detective's back trying to keep him from hurting the other while yelling at him. Yelling and screaming broke out until...

"Hold it Kudo," said a voice from the opposite side of the fight making Shinichi turn back to see who was in the door way. "Save the punches fer the BO. We still need the idiot unharmed."

"That was mean Hattori-kun!" exclaimed the thief as a puff of pink smoke went off covering him from head to toe. Shinichi twisted back just as the smoke evaporated leaving one Kuroba Kaito standing in the place where the older version of Ran used to be standing. He was no longer wearing a pair of womens pajamas but instead a regular T-shirt, with a skull and cross bones printing on it, a pair of jeans and a childish pouted. "You can't insult someone with a word that you don't know the meaning to Tantei-han," he then said in a KID like air holding up a KID like smirk which only made the Osakan teen mad.

"ARE YA CALLIN' ME STUPID?" Heiji yelled face turning a deep shade of red and he raised his fist.

"Maybe," was the response making Heiji addvance on the thief. But before he could do anything Shinichi had bonked him on the head to grab his attention and in doing so he distracted the Osakan from his goal.

"What was that for?" Heiji then turned to Shinichi with his face all red with anger.

"It was to get your attention," Shinichi replied starting to walk away but he stopped when he realized something. "How long were you guys here?" he asked one eyebrow raised.

"We came before Mouri-san's friend," Kaito answered walking towards the two detectives grinning madly. "Isn't that right, Tantei-han?"

"Yeah. I was waitin' in the library thinkin' ya would be there and this guy," the kansai detective then jabbed his thumb at the magician. "went up stairs to 'explore and-" suddenly his eyes grew big and he began looking around as if he randomly lost an object that he was incharge of. "Hey! Where's the Brit?"

"I'm in here," came an annoyed, muffled voice from somewhere in the room.

Kaito strolled over to a closed door next to Heiji and began speaking to it as if it were an actual person. "Hakuba-kun! Why don't you come out of there?"

"I refuse to come out knowing the consequences of that action!" came the british-accented reply from behind the door.

"Aww, come on!" Kaito whined childishly with a pout hanging on his lips. "We can't start without you unless you come out!"

"No," was the short response.

"Just do it!" and suddenly a tanned hand reached over and grabbed the door knob of the closed door, yanking it hard opening it. There stood the British detective wearing a white botton down short sleeved shirt and nice kaki pants. Heiji roughly grabbed the Brit's arm and dragged him out of the closet.

"So you finally came out, did you?" the messy haired magician mocked with a prankster grin gracing his features.

"Shut up," Hakuba muttered a small blush lightly painted across his cheecks making the theif snicker mischievously. The blond at that time turned to the eastern detective and said. "There seems to be someone hanging off your shoulder," and with that he headed past the group and towards the door.

"Eh?" Shinichi stared for a second before glancing behind him only to meet the two big, sparkling blue eyes of Ran who, incidentally, was still clinging to his right shoulder. "How long have you been there?"

"I jumped off the bed to keep you from hurting Kuroba-kun for helping us," Ran answered as Shinichi reached around to pull her off his shoulder.

"What?" the Detective of the East exclaimed one eyebrow rising into his hairline just a bit as he stared at the diminutive high schooler in his arms.

"Yeah! I was trying to help by letting Suzuki-chan see Mouri-ch - uh, I mean Mouri-kun," Kaito stuttered at the scowl Shinichi shot him as the Holmes freak pulled the not - real - child closer to himself in a protective gesture to keep his precious Ran away from the gem stealing - skirt flipping magician/thief. "Anyways," Kaito shook his head and continued. "I knew that if Suzuki-chan saw Mouri-kun in bed sick that she would quite accusing you of holding your girlfriend against her will."

Shinichi didn't really know what to say, he began feeling guilty for what he did so he muttered a sorry for his actions and just settled with giving a thank you to the magician for helping them. After the whole charade was done and over with he gently set the tiny karate champion back on the floor. Kaito hurried them out the door with Miyuki happily sitting comfortably on his shoulder.

Ending up in one of the Kudo mansion libraries 'coincidentally' the one with no windows and soundproof walls (courtesy of one Kuroba Kaito), the three detectives stood in a loose circle trying to figure out what the said thief was planning as they watched him walk slowly around the room staring up and down the walls as if in search of spy wear or any object in that catagory. Ran was there too but she wasn't paying much attention since she was too busy scratching behind the tiny kitten's ear and the kitten (purring in pure pleasure) she tilted her head to the side leaning into the 'little girl's' hand to the point where she almost fell to the floor. When Kaito was satisfied with not finding whatever he was looking for he closed his eyes in what appeared to be relief, head slanted downwards, and joined the curious group.

"Sorry," he apologized before he stopped infront of the others. "I don't want to be overheard," he then explained eyes still closed, when unexpectedly, a smirk set firmly on his lips, he moved his head upward to face his audience and his eyes slid open showing an all knowing expression, as if he had valuable information. "If you know what I mean."

All three detectives gasped in unison and their eyes widened.

"Y - you don't mean -" Shinichi asked shock written across his face and going into a daze.

"Are ya serious!" Heiji exclaimed taking a step forward.

Shinichi, who was still in bewilderment, was brought back to reality by a small tug on his pant leg. Glancing down, he saw Ran staring up at him curiously with Miyuki rubbing up against her legs, wanting more attention.

"Hey, Shinichi, what is he talking about?" was her question.

"It's about the Pandora," Kaito said before Shinichi could answer.

"Did you find it?" Hakuba asked in a calm, collected voice.

The only response Kaito gave was wide thoothy smile giving a non-worded reply.

Yes.

Finally! I'm done. Sorry for the extremely long wait, I've been put under a lot of stress lately with my parents getting a divorce, having to move because of it and SCHOOL to top it all off! Anyway thanks to everyone who reviewed, favorited, or alerted me or this story, sorry I haven't said anything before, I've been very busy and forgetfull hehe. *smiles sheepishly* But thanks again! :)

Please review this chapter, tell me if there's anything I should fix or add when I go over and fix it up when it's done, I really look forward to reading them! Well, I don't think I have much else to say except sorry to Mysteryfan17 for not putting up that idea you gave me that I said I would put in this chapter, there might have been too much. But I'll definitely have it in the next chapter whenever I can get to it. :)

So with that said and done I better head off to start ch. 6 of Side Effects. Untill next time! :)

P.S. I fixed all the mistakes so it might be better to read it now haha. :) My bad. And please review! See ya!