AN: Thanks for waiting, here's the eleventh chapter! It's amazing that this story has over ten chapters now! As always, I want to take the time to thank everyone for reading- and also to leave a head's up that I've been feeling a bit under the weather lately. It might just be due to inconsistent weather patterns, but just on the off chance that I might actually be getting sick, updates might be a bit delayed by that.
Well then, please don't forget to leave a review on your way out! Until next time!
Twist of Fate
Chapter Eleven
Side Effect
"Are ya sure it was alright ta leave without talkin' to Kudo-kun, Kaname-kun?"
"Hm?" Glancing up from his cola, Kaname flashed her a quick grin. They had made it safely back to Osaka after the events of the previous night, with no further troubles. In the end, they hadn't been confronted by Shinichi further, and they had parted ways without much fanfare. "It'll be alright, Kazuha. If that guy's anythin' like I think he is, he'll be the one ta seek us out in the end. Besides, ya got that Neechan's phone number, didn't ya?"
"Ran-chan's?" Kazuha blinked, before nodding her head. "Yes, I did. But do ya really think that Kudo-kun's goin' ta come here?"
"I'm pretty sure he will." Kaname said, idly fiddling with his straw, a contemplative look on his face. "Ya saw the way he was lookin' at me an' Nanako towards the end of that case, right? He was definitely startin' to suspect somethin'. Well, granted, I'd really like ta know how he figured out that I might have anythin' ta do with those guys in the first place, but I'm pretty sure he's got his reasons."
There was a chance, however slim, that he had been doing his own investigations into that shady Organization, and in doing so, he might have uncovered something about the poison that had turned him into this state. It didn't quite explain everything, but it was the most probable reason.
"That's true." Kazuha said with a slight frown, tilting her head as she glanced across the table towards her shrunken childhood friend. It was a bit strange to go back to what had become their normal routine after that encounter with the one known as the high school detective of the east, but there was comfort in it as well. Routine meant safety- and in the back of her mind, Kazuha couldn't help but be a little bit worried about Shinichi's line of questioning. Heiji had seemed pretty certain that he wasn't involved with them- and she could only hope it was true. "Maybe he might even know somethin' about Nanako-chan's little sister."
"Yeah." Nodding his head, Kaname's eyes narrowed. "I'm honestly hopin' that's the case. Ya saw how she reacted ta seein' that corpse, right? I think she's more affected by all of this than she wants ta let on ta us. In spite of lookin' like that, she's still got a lot of adult's pride, I guess. Doesn't want ta rely on a pair of kids."
"I don't think you of all people have the right ta say somethin' like that." Kazuha observed, before letting out a slight sigh. "But yer probably right. She went straight home from school today without talkin' ta ya or any of the kids, right? That's not like her."
"Well, she might just be lookin' fer more information. Maybe readin' up on Kudo's cases or somethin'." Kaname observed, taking another sip of his cola. His father kept a pretty extensive archive back at their place, after all. "Well, I think he's a pretty decent guy myself, even I didn't really care fer the way he was pressin' ya."
"Ya didn't have ta kick him in the shins just because of that, ya know." Kazuha pointed out. Still, even now, she had to admit that it was a bit funny. "If ya want him ta believe that the two of ya are actually the same age, maybe ya shouldn't act like that around him."
"It couldn't be helped!" Kaname almost pouted, narrowing his eyes. "He was obviously makin' ya uncomfortable, Kazuha. What else was I supposed ta do when I look like this?"
Blinking a little, not quite expecting that response, Kazuha nevertheless smiled, reaching across the table to lightly ruffle his hair, her smile growing as he loudly protested the action, with a tone that sharply reminded her that he wasn't an actual kid, damnit. "Thank ya then." She told him, pulling her hand away, something of a pleased expression on her face. For all that they bickered, it was sometimes easy for her to forget just how much Heiji cared for her- even though she doubted it was quite in the same way that she cared for him.
"I hope that ya can find a way ta go back ta normal soon, Heiji." Kazuha told him, her voice quiet enough so that nobody else in the family restaurant could quite hear her. "Maybe Kudo-kun knows somethin'."
Frowning a little, for a moment sensing that there seemed to be something more underlying Kazuha's words, Kaname blinked, peering up at her. Sometimes she got like this, he couldn't help but notice- a softer expression on her face than those she usually wore around him. It could almost be quite melancholy, in a way. He didn't quite understand it himself- frankly, he hadn't noticed it at all until he had started living with her.
"Well, I hope so too!" Kaname said finally, folding his arms in front of his chest. "At this rate, I'll be stuck movin' up ta second grade with the rest of those kids."
Speaking of those kids, he really hoped that Shinichi never learned that he had actual elementary school friends- he doubted that his rival would ever let him live it down. Provided he actually believed the truth, that was. He got the impression from before that he was starting to lean in that direction, but still, normally people wouldn't consider someone having shrunk to be a plausible option. Sometimes it still didn't feel real to him- there were still times when he would wake up in the morning, feeling as if everything that had happened in the past four months had only been a dream.
Then he'd take one look at himself, and realize that it hadn't been. He guessed the theory that the poison that had shrunken him down into this size in the first place would one day wear off on it's own was pretty much out. So much for that.
"Well, at the very least, I think the teachers are goin' ta let ya move up a grade in high school after all, even without ya bein' there." Kazuha noted. "Well, provided that this goes on until spring, that is. Yer lucky, really, Kaname-kun. Without yer mother pullin' some strings for ya, I don't know how things would have worked out with that. Yer grades weren't always the best, after all."
"I'm just bad at takin' tests, that's all!" Kaname insisted, puffing out his cheeks a little. Grumbling a little as Kazuha chuckled at his expression, he turned away from her. "Anyways, was Kudo-kun the only thing that ya wanted ta discuss with me? It's not like ya ta chase off the shrimps, after all."
"Do ya really have the right ta call anyone a shrimp?" Kazuha couldn't help but note, quirking a brow. "Well, that was a big part of it, but I wanted ta properly discuss with ya what we'd do if we really found Nanako-chan's sister. If she's really alive, she must have been hidin' somewhere all this time, right? There's no way those guys aren't chasin' after her, not given how important that Nanako-chan made her sound."
"That's true." Kaname noted with a slight frown. "The real question is where she would be hidin' if that were the case. If she's stayed hidden this long, there's a chance that she might have some kind of help, or..." Trailing off a little there, his brows furrowed a bit in thought. Come to think of it, if Shinichi had linked up with the person who had created that poison in the first place, then it might make a bit more sense for him to believe that Hattori Heiji's disappearance had anything to do with those men in black. If they kept a record of the people they poisoned, then...
Well, that would be an incredible coincidence, but what were the odds? Granted, if this Miyano Shiho had fled the Organization because of her sister, then there was a chance that she might have gone looking for help. Someone who had crossed paths with those guys twice, someone who was an independent agent like a high school detective... wouldn't that be the perfect fit?
After all, it was coincidence that had brought Nanako herself to this city. Maybe, just maybe...
Well, it was too early to say something like that. The last thing he wanted to do was falsely get Nanako's hopes up, only to watch them be crushed. She was definitely trying to conceal just how worried she was about her sister. Her brief slip up the previous night had made that much obvious to him. Hope was good, but in a situation like this, having that hope be crushed... nothing good would come of it.
But if Shinichi really was hiding Miyano Shiho, then it was possible that he might seek them out sooner than he originally thought. He was pretty certain that he'd secretly snapped a picture of him and Nanako yesterday, and even if she had been shrunken, he didn't doubt that her own sister would be able to recognize Nanako for who she actually was.
"Well, if someone really is helpin' her, then it might be fer the best fer her ta stay with them." Kaname noted. "Movin' her around carelessly might be too big of a risk. Well, it would be different if ya had someone who was good at disguisin' people or somethin' like that, though."
"It would sure be nice if we had someone like that ourselves." Kazuha said, leaning into her hand with a loud sigh, casting her eyes on her shrunken childhood friend. Really, it was a miracle that nobody but Otaki had drawn a connection between Tsukiyama Kaname and Hattori Heiji- and he'd only done it in the end because she'd slipped up and used the wrong name around him. Sure, she hadn't realized that the officer was there at the time, but... "Are ya sure ya don't wanna try wearin' glasses or somethin' Kaname-kun? Ya know, like Nanako-chan does. It's not too late, ya know."
"No way." Kaname glowered over at her, his eyes sharply narrowing. "Never."
"I swear, yer so stubborn about the weirdest things."
It was absurd. It was definitely completely absurd. Things like that simply didn't happen- not in reality, at least.
And yet, it was the one theory that Shinichi kept finding himself coming back to, time and time again. There had been an inkling of it when he had left the amusement park last night, but he had shaken off such thoughts. No matter how much they looked like each other, the idea that a teenager could have somehow been turned into a child wasn't the sort of thing that happened in reality- it sounded more like the plot of a manga than anything.
Still, absurd thought it was, it certainly would explain some things- such as the way they had been able to solve that case just as easily as he had, even without making a move to contact the one known as the high school detective of the west even once. He was certain that if he watched them closely, he would catch at least one of them on the phone at least once, but none of them had even so much as made a move for their cellphones the entire time. While it was possible that they had, and he had simply missed it, he wasn't under the impression that they had contacted the missing Hattori Heiji even once during that case.
And yet they had solved it anyways. Reflecting back on it, although it was that Kazuha girl who spoke with the police the most, by and large, the one who seemed to be directing their investigation was none other than the young child that she had with her- that Tsukiyama Kaname boy, with his rather undeniable resemblance to the missing high school detective, and who at times, didn't quite act like the child that Shinichi had at first pegged him for.
He was still a brat though, Shinichi thought to himself, rubbing his shin where he had been kicked last night. It still smarted!
He thought that maybe he would get some answers out of Shiho after he had shown her that photograph he'd secretly taken of the two children, but she had been rather tight-lipped afterwards. She definitely knew something, that much he had confirmed from the brief look of relief that had crossed through her eyes, but whatever it was, she wasn't quite ready to tell him just yet.
As the one who made the poison in the first place, nobody else would know better if the absurd thing he was slowly starting to suspect was actually true. After all, what else would prompt such an expression of relief in her eyes, other than the knowledge that her sister was really alive? And it wasn't just Kaname who bore an uncanny resemblance to someone who should have been much older- that Hanasaki Nanako girl also rather closely resembled Miyano Akemi, particularly the disguise that she had worn when she had come to consult with him about her so-called runaway father.
And it was from there that the absurd theory had begun to develop. What if Tsukiyama Kaname and Hanasaki Nanako were actually Hattori Heiji and Miyano Akemi? That they didn't just simply look like them- but rather, they actually were them, shrunken down into children somehow. The poison that they had been given, Apotoxin, was designed to kill without leaving a single trace behind- but what if there was a chance that instead of doing that, it instead had reduced them to such states?
When he had shown the photograph to Shiho, there too, had been a look that seemed to be of confirmation in her eyes, as if long held theory, half based out of hope, and half based out of knowledge, had been proven to be true. He'd tried to ask her about it, of course, but she had been tightlipped about it all this while. There was definitely something on her mind, but it was, she wasn't saying just yet.
It was possible that she just wanted to confirm it herself. If such a thing really were possible- that Miyano Akemi had, in fact, shrunk, then it would be the granting of what was probably her dearest wish- that the poison that she had been forced to create hadn't actually killed her sister after all. Becoming a child was still a far better fate than actually dying.
Although it also brought up the fact that if such a thing were true, then the one that he had been treating like a child all this time was actually... Grimacing a little at the thought, Shinichi's brows furrowed, unable to fully wrap his head around the notion that Kaname might actually be the same age as him. Sure enough, there were times when he didn't quite act like a child- but there were plenty of other occasions in which he didn't seem any different from any of the other kids that he'd dealt with in the past. Either he was acting, or he just had something of a naturally childish personality- or perhaps it was some kind of side effect in and of itself of shrinking.
Or perhaps he'd simply been blinded by his own preconceived notions. He had assumed that he was nothing more than a bothersome brat, and thus, he'd only seen a bothersome brat. Rather than properly investigating the crime scene as he most likely had been, he'd only seen him as getting in the way and messing things up- even though when he actually reflected on it, nothing that Kaname had actually done over the course of the two cases he'd been involved with him in had actually messed anything up. But because he looked like a child, Shinichi had automatically jumped to that conclusion- no wonder he always seemed kind of cranky when he or an officer tried to drag him away. If he actually was the same as him, and a detective at that, it must have been infuriating for him to have a case right in front of him, and yet he kept finding everyone trying to drag him out of it.
Rather, he actually felt a bit bad about it now, if this really was the case. That couldn't be easy to deal with. If he were in his shoes, then...
No, no. He was getting a little bit of ahead of himself here. As likely as the admittedly still absurd sounding theory was shaping up to be, it was a bit too early to rush to it being the truth. Evidence- evidence was important. Since Shiho wasn't telling him anything at the moment, then he would have to gather evidence himself- and that would most likely involve heading to Osaka first thing this coming Sunday, just as he had been planning before. It probably wouldn't be hard to find an address for Kazuha, and he got the feeling that it might be better to go looking there than to turn up at the Hattori residence without warning.
Someone that they didn't know turning up on their doorstep asking questions about their missing son probably wouldn't go over well. The last thing he wanted to risk was getting on Hattori Heizo's bad side.
"Hm?" With a slight frown, Shinichi paused at the gate to his home, quickly taking notice of the fact that it had been left unlocked. He was quite certain that he had locked it when he left this morning- had the Professor stopped by or something? He did have a spare key to the place, after all- maybe Shiho needed him for something.
They got along rather well, that pair, which always took him by surprise. Well, he always got the impression that the Professor had always wanted kids- maybe he had come to view her as something of a daughter figure.
At the very least, the front door was locked, Shinichi thought to himself, unlocking the door and stepping inside. It only took him one second to throw out his previous theory- as soon as his eyes fell on the coat rack, he knew at once just who was to blame for leaving the front gate unlocked.
Letting out a deep breath, Shinichi braced himself for the one who would undoubtedly emerge from elsewhere in the house on the count of three, two, one...
"Welcome home, Shin-chan~!"
Of course. There was no mistaking one of his mother's coats anywhere, he thought to himself, heaving a sigh as his mother raced up, all but scooping her son up in her arms, heedless of the fact that he was no longer a child. To her, he always was one. He doubted that would change even when he was well into his adult years.
"It's nice to see you too, mom. What are you even doing here, though?" Shinichi asked, carefully slipping out of her grasp, noticing with a slight flustered expression that Shiho was watching them from the living room, a slightly amused expression on her face. Of course she had to see that- it looked as if she had been having tea with his mother. He kind of got the feeling that they were perhaps waiting for him to come home. "I thought you were still in America with dad."
Somehow, he didn't like the idea of the two of them conspiring together- and there was an unmistakable conspiratorial glint in his mother's eyes. Whether or not this would bode well for him, only time would tell.
"I got a call from Shiho-chan, so I left him behind~!" Yukiko brightly reported, glancing over towards the younger girl, whose cheeks flushed the faintest shade of pink in response to the casual way the older woman addressed her. Sending an amused look of his own back in her direction, Shiho simply brushed it off, returning to her tea. "She said that she had something to discuss with me, so I raced right over on the first available flight!"
"Something to discuss?" Shinichi blinked, a slight frown crossing his features as he once more peeked back at her. If she were thinking about something, nothing was shown on her features. She was awfully good at masking her real feelings, probably an ability that she had gained while she was still a member of that Organization- a survival tactic, he had no doubt.
Deftly separating himself from his mother, who he caught pouting out of the corner of his eyes as he did so, Shinichi made his way over towards Shiho. "Does it have anything to do with the picture I showed you yesterday, Miyano?"
"You might say that." Shiho said simply, taking another long sip of her tea, before she carefully placed the cup down, the light clink of her teacup touching the saucer almost seeming to punctuate her words. "I've heard that your mother is very skilled in a certain area, so I wanted to discuss a certain matter with her."
"A certain area?" Shinichi asked, a slight frown crossing his features- before the answer slowly sunk into him, and he let out a slight groan, turning back towards his mother. "You can't possibly be talking about that?"
"That's my Shin-chan!" Yukiko said, clapping her hands in delight. "Smart as always! That's right, that's exactly why she called me over. I was just discussing the matter with Shiho-chan, in fact. I hear you're planning on going to Osaka this Sunday, right?"
He was starting to get the feeling that he knew where this discussion was headed. "That was the plan. I have some questions I need to ask that Toyama girl." Glancing down towards Shiho, Shinichi's eyes narrowed a little. "I'm guessing that I've got a few more questions I'm going to have to ask than originally planned, from the sound of things. You can't possibly be planning on coming with me, Miyano."
"That's the plan." Shiho said simply, closing her eyes. "It's not a decision that I came to lightly, but if what I suspect is actually true, I have to be there myself."
"Weren't you the one who always said it was dangerous for you to leave the house?" Shinichi pointed out. Well, her getting out for awhile would probably be a good thing- even if it was self-imposed, he always got the feeling that he was living with someone under house arrest. At times, it could be rather awkward. "What's so important about Osaka that you've changed your mind all of a sudden?"
Well, he had a feeling that he knew why, his absurd yet sensible theory once more springing to mind.
"I'm certain that you have an idea yourself, Kudo-kun, otherwise you never would have shown me that photograph to begin with." Shiho said simply, peeking one eye open. "It won't be Miyano Shiho accompanying you to Osaka anyways. I'm not so foolish that I'd leave here wearing my own face."
"And that's why you called my mom." Shinichi said, heaving a slight sigh, wondering where she had even heard of his mother's disguise skills from. Once again, he got the vague feeling that there was something that she wasn't telling him here- but even if he pressed, he doubted he'd get any answers from her. What a frustrating woman she could be sometimes. "Do you plan on leaving me in the dark, Miyano?"
"Well, I'd rather confirm it myself in person before I share my theory with you." Shiho observed. After a moment however, she seemed to relent, picking up her tea cup and taking another sip of tea. "Naturally when developing Apotoxin, we ran a number of trails on lab mice first. In most cases, the mice who were fed the poison died as one would expect. However, one of the trails provided quite a different and unexpected result. Instead of dying, something quite unusual happened to that particular test subject. Of course, I kept such a fact concealed from the Organization, but..."
"Oi, oi, you can't possibly mean..." Shinichi trailed off.
"Yes, that's right." Shiho said simply, setting down her teacup once more, locking eyes with him. "It shrank."
"Why the hell are the three of ya even here?" Folding his arms in front of his chest, Kaname cast what he hoped was his best glower at the trio of children that had assembled in front of Kazuha's- though he might as well call it his doorstep at this point, asking to see him. It was no use- it did nothing to offset their bright and cheerful expressions, not to be deterred by their friend's sometimes grumpy nature. This was something they had already long gotten used to, and had ceased to bother them at all. "It's Sunday, after all! Don't ya'll have somethin' better ta do?"
"What could be better than spending time with a friend?" Kenta asked, blinking slightly at the question. Kaname sure could be cranky sometimes! Maybe he just wasn't a morning person? "You don't have plans today anyways. You said that much yourself in class the other day!"
"Look here, just because I don't have any plans doesn't mean that I want-" Kaname spoke up, before heaving a long sigh, shoulders slumping as he cut himself off. There was no point in getting angry with children, after all. They didn't see him as anything different that one of them, in the end- and it was best that it stayed that way. Besides, there was no guarantee that Kudo would even show today anyways. Rubbing the back of his head, Kaname gave them a considering look. "Fine, fine. Where are ya plannin' on goin' anyways?"
"With Otaki-han no less." Kaname noted, turning his glower this time up towards the police officer, who merely gave him a smile in return for it, equally as unaffected by it as the children. Heaving another exasperated sigh, he wondered when it was that he had gotten so attached to the kids- did he have some kind of misplaced urge to have children of his own or something?
"Nanako-neechan seems kind of down lately, doesn't she?" Mikihiko spoke up, a frown clear on his face. She had always seemed that way, but lately, it seemed as if he had gotten a bit worse. Well, she had seen something scary when she had accompanied Kaname and Kazuha to the amusement park, so it wasn't all that surprising. Not everyone could manage to be so indifferent around corpses as Kaname could be. "So we thought that we'd all get together and bring her somewhere fun!"
"That's right!" Mayumi said, nodding her head. She wasn't letting him worm his way out of this one, not this time. Sometimes she got the feeling that Kaname thought he was too good to hang out with them, which ticked her off. No matter how smart he was, he was just a kid, the same as them. "The weather's gotten warm enough, so we thought we'd all go down to the river! There's a good spot that my father knows about, but he wasn't able ta make it today. So I got Otaki-han ta fill in instead."
"Heh, so yer doin' this fer Nanako's sake?" Kaname asked, blinking a little- before he cracked a smile. That was a good thing, then- maybe it was just seeing a corpse that had done the trick, but ever since they had gotten back from the amusement park, he could tell that Nanako's worries had only seemed to be getting worse. It would be good for her to take her nose out of his father's archives for a little while, which she had been spending all of her free time doing. "Well, if that's the case, say somethin' like that earlier! Just let me get some stuff together, an' I'll be right there, okay?"
At the chorus of agreement, Kaname's grin grew slightly, before he shook his head, darting back inside. Catching Kazuha in the kitchen, still cleaning up after breakfast, he poked his head in. "Oi, Kazuha. The shrimps are plannin' on takin' Nanako out ta the river, an it seems like I'm bein' dragged along with 'em."
"That's not the face of someone bein' dragged somewhere, Heiji~." Kazuha noted, glancing over at him, unable to help but keep a hint of amusement out of her voice. Well, although she still worried about what kind of influence he was on those kids, it was pretty obvious to her that he had grown somewhat fond of them in his own right- as surly as he could still be around them from time to time. The kids too, had come to view him as their close friend- sometimes she worried what would happen to them when the day came that Tsukiyama Kaname could finally disappear. "Well, have fun though. Ya don't need Kazuha-neechan ta come along with ya?"
"Ya know, one of these days, I'm goin' back ta normal." Kaname noted, shooting her a dirty look. Getting cocky just because she had gained several inches- okay, feet- on him, honestly! "An' when that happens, just ya wait, Kazuha! I'll pay ya back in full fer everythin'!"
"Is that really the sort of thing that someone freeloadin' in my house should be sayin'?" Kazuha noted, her grin growing as Kaname flinched at her words, realizing that she had a point.
"Shut up, idiot." Kaname muttered, folding his arms in front of his chest. "Anyways, Otaki-han will be with us, it looks like, so there's no need fer ya ta come too, Kazuha. Honestly, that guy's got way too much free time!" Even as he huffed, a hint of a grin slowly made it's way back to his face. It had been awhile since he had gone to the river, now that he thought about it. It had kind of lost it's luster once he had grown to what should have been his current height. "Well, those shrimps will probably be tired out around the late afternoon, so I'll probably be home around then."
"I got it. I'll tell mom you'll be out today." Kazuha said, nodding her head. "Go an' have some fun, Kaname-kun~."
"You're enjoyin' this way too much." Kaname noted, before flashing her a quick grin anyways. "Then, I'll be leavin', Kazuha. I'll give ya a call if anythin' comes up!" He told her, waving a hand, before he ducked into the room that he had come to call his own in these past few months, quickly packing a bag to bring with him. The amount of things that 'Kaname' owned was had doubled since he had first come here- between his own mother and Kazuha's mother, he was sort of being spoiled rotten. Pulling on his shoes before heading outside to meet the rest of the kids, Kaname paused only for a moment, double checking that he had his cellphone.
Well, between Kazuha and her mother, someone should be here all day, in the event that someone did come looking for him. Apparently Kazuha had been exchanging frequent mails with Ran since that day at the amusement park a week ago, but there hadn't been any mention just yet of Shinichi having plans to come down to Osaka.
Well, if he didn't come to him, Kaname would just go to Shinichi. The more he thought about it, the better it would be for the two of them to join forces and share what information they had.
Both for Nanako's sake and his own, if not for entirely different reasons, he could only hope that Shinichi's information included knowledge of Miyano Shiho's whereabouts. He wanted to see the two sisters reunited, of course- but he also wanted to return to his original body already. If the creator of the poison were able to help them, he was certain that they would be able to return to their proper ages in no time.
At least, he hoped.
"Eh? He's out?"
"Yes. He left with his friends from his class early this morning." The woman who answered the door told him, a soft smile on her face. "According to my daughter, they were headed to the river with a subordinate of my husband's, and should be back sometime late this afternoon. I don't think Kaname-kun was expecting any visitors today though, especially not from high school students. He's a bit forgetful sometimes, that child, but I think he would have remembered something like that."
"And Kazuha-san? Did she go with him?" Shinichi asked. In reality, he should have been expecting this turn of events, showing up completely unannounced as he was. Briefly sparing a glance towards the person next to him, he quickly averted his gaze again, looking back at the woman who was unmistakably Kazuha's mother.
But still- going out with friends from his class? There was no way that she meant high school students- she couldn't possibly mean that Kaname- or rather, if Shiho's theory was right- Heiji- had friends of elementary school age? That he was attending an actual elementary school? He kind of got the feeling that this woman had no idea that the freeloader that she had taken in was anything more than the child that he claimed to be. He was pretty certain that Kazuha knew the truth about the two not-children, but as for her mother? It didn't appear that they were on the same page.
"No." Kazuha's mother said, shaking her head. "She went out with some friends a little bit ago. There's only a month to go before finals, so they were going to review some things in the library, if I recall correctly. Are you friends of Kazuha and Kaname-kun, um..."
"Ah, I'm Kudo Shinichi." Shinichi quickly supplied. "And this is my classmate, Haibara Ai." He said quickly, recalling the alias that they had picked out for her. His mother had done pretty well, all things told. Picking out a wig that had been made using real human hair, rather than fibers, really helped give the illusion that it was the real thing, and the fact that she'd taken the care to braid the long, brown wig as well also helped. Color contacts had been put in place to change her eye color, and just enough makeup had been applied to somewhat change the shape of her face- at first glance, nobody would suspect that the person next to him was Miyano Shiho.
"I don't know about friends per say, but I've met Kazuha-san and Kaname-kun before, quite recently at that." Shinichi told her. Well, he was a strange high school student she had never seen before coming to call on what she thought was a first grade student- if she was suspicious of him, he couldn't blame her. Best to ease over her worries. "We spent last Sunday together at the amusement park, actually."
"Ah!" A look of understanding crossed the face of Kazuha's mother- she'd obviously been told about him to some degree, then. "Then, in that case, would you like to wait here for them to come back? Well, it might take quite awhile, though..."
"Um." Shiho finally spoke up, managing to keep the slight frown off of her face that accompanied hearing a voice that she wasn't used to coming out of her throat. Who would have thought that the professor living next door to Shinichi could have invented such a useful item as a choker voice changer? Shinichi really ought to give him more credit than he did. "Did Hanasaki Nanako also go with them?"
"Yes, she went with Kaname-kun and his friends." Kazuha's mother told her, a soft smile crossing her features. "She's been a bit down lately, so it seems that they brought her out to play at the river to try and cheer her up. That girl's been through some difficult times, I can tell that much."
Exchanging a look with each other, the pair silently communicated what it was that they wanted to do. Frankly, Shiho wanted to track down the one going by the name of Hanasaki Nanako as soon as possible, so that she could confirm that the girl really was her older sister. Even though she had been thoroughly disguised, and she had confidence in Yukiko's skills, she couldn't help but grow more and more nervous the longer she spent out in the open like this.
"Is there a chance that you know where it is that Kaname-kun went?" Shinichi asked. "I actually want to return to something that he dropped the other day. I haven't been able to get into contact with them about it at all. We're running on something of a limited schedule, so..."
"Really, is that so?" The woman asked, frowning a moment, considering his words. "Then, give me just a second. I actually know the officer who took them to the river today quite well, so let me just touch base with him and see where exactly they are. Hopefully it's not too far away..."
"Ah, thank you." Shinichi said, bowing his head. Best to play the humble visitor, if it got what he wanted faster. Still, going to play at the river with elementary students? This Kaname kid was actually a high school student, wasn't he? The same age as himself? Why was he allowing himself to be dragged around by a bunch of actual children if that really were the case? Casting a quick glance over towards Shiho, the disguised girl simply gave him a shrug of her shoulders.
Well, granted, even after Shiho had detailed her theory to him- that the poison they had been given hadn't killed either her sister nor the high school detective of the west, but rather, that it had shrunken them, returning their bodies to a childlike state- it still sounded absurd to him. Nanako, sure, he could picture Nanako actually being an adult woman shrunken down into child form, but he was still having trouble wrapping his head around the concept that Kaname might be exactly the same as him. Not just a high school student, but also a high school detective- one sharp enough that the newspapers had been deeming him as the rival to Tokyo's Heisei Holmes- none other than himself, of course.
Granted, Kaname must have his own circumstances that Shinichi couldn't fully understand, but still...
Did he really actually attend elementary school? Somehow he couldn't shake the feeling that he'd blend right in there.
That was a bit mean, though, he supposed. Being turned into a child sounded like a horrible fate, even if was one better than outright death. If it were him, he wouldn't be able to stand it, much less if he were forced to attend elementary school like a normal child on top of everything else.
"Ah, here you go." Kazuha's mother emerged from the house after a moment, a scrap of paper with directions written on it in her hands. "You can get there by bus, apparently. I told Otaki-han to tell Kaname-kun and Nanako-chan that the two of you are coming, and he told me he'd let them know. I wrote down all the directions you'll need if you're really planning on going to meet them there."
"Thank you." Shinichi said, carefully taking it from her, giving it a cursory glance, quickly memorizing the contents. It didn't seem that difficult to get out there- she had even included directions to where it was that they were right now. He wasn't certain if this Otaki-han that she had mentioned had any idea of the true nature of two of the children that he was looking after, but one way or another, he was certain he'd find out soon. "I'm sorry to bother you, Toyama-san."
"Ah no, it's no trouble at all." The woman told him, shaking her head. "Then, I won't hold you up any longer here. It's was nice to meet you, Kudo-san, Haibara-san. I hope you can meet up with them with no problems."
"Yes. I hope so as well." Shinichi told her. He had any number of questions for Tsukiyama Kaname- or rather, Hattori Heiji- after all.
"Wait a second, Otaki-han, can ya repeat what ya just said fer a second there? I don't think I heard ya quite right."
He had kind of gotten a weird feeling when Otaki had suddenly gotten a phone call, but when the scarred officer had pulled him aside and told him that Kudo Shinichi, of all people, was going to be on his way here, he had momentarily frozen. Casting a glance over towards the trio of actual children who were happily splashing away in the river, before slowly turning back towards Otaki, Kaname suddenly felt his cheeks turning a dark shade of red.
He had to be coming here now? When he was with them? Of all the luck, really.
Rather, who the hell was this Haibara Ai person? That was what had him really worried, this unknown factor on top of everything. He'd almost considered asking Nanako- but she had just finally started to relax again, having fun in spite of everything, that he didn't want to disturb her if it turned out to be nothing.
"Like I said, Hei-chan," Otaki whispered, keeping his voice low so that nobody else could hear him. "That Kudo Shinichi boy is heading this way. He's the one you've been trying to talk to all this time, isn't he?"
"Yeah, he is." Kaname said, nodding his head, folding his arms in front of his chest. "This is bad.. the timing's not good. Otaki-han, do ya think ya could keep tab on the kids when he gets here? Bein' in this form can be embarrassin' as it is, if he's really come out all this way because he's managed ta figure me out, then..." He trailed off a little, scratching his cheek. "I am actually supposed ta be a high school student, after all."
"I understand, Hei-chan." Otaki promised him, glancing over towards the children, who were now starting to notice that Kaname had wandered away again, and were calling him over. "I'll try to do something about it so you can speak to him in private. From Toyama-san's place, it should take them about an hour to get here by bus, so for now, why don't you try and enjoy yourself some more? If you go to the main store up by the mouth of the river around the time they should get here, you should be able to head them off."
"That's a good idea!" Kaname said, a grin breaking out over his features. The last thing he wanted was for his rival to see him with this group- he didn't think he could live down the embarrassment. It was embarrassing enough that Otaki, the officer who knew him the best on the force, had somehow become their official chaperone whenever Kazuha wasn't around, but he didn't want to let Kudo of all people see him like this.
Actually, scratch that- the most embarrassing one had turned out to be his father. Once he understood that his old man wasn't actually disappointed in him, suddenly dealing with him in this form had become far less stressful, and a lot more embarrassing. The first time that he had unexpectedly run into him with that trio in tow, acting like they were his best friends in the world... he was certain that for just a second, that old man had smiled.
At this rate, nobody was going to let him live any of this down, even if he ever managed to go back to normal.
"Then, I'm countin' on ya, Otaki-han!" With a slight wave of his hand, he turned his attention back towards the kids, shooting them a look. "I heard ya the first time! I'm comin', I'm comin'!"