((WARNING. There are a lot of Scene Skips in this Chapter. Also, there are no specific example of specific years because ahahaha (sobs hysterically)))
Where had he come from, indeed. Sherlock and Conan had both exhausted all efforts to avoid the conclusion that had seemed the most obvious. Neither of them wanted to admit it because, as Sherlock had stated, it was all a bit too science-fiction. In the end they both had to accept the obvious answer and finally acknowledged the elephant-Conan and Hattori had somehow both come from an alternate universe. Last night Conan had been far more accepting of the idea because, despite the fact he'd gone over why it couldn't have been, deep down he still thought he was dreaming. He'd fallen asleep in Baker street shortly after they'd gotten back from a very late dinner and he woke up in that exact same place the next morning. Now, he fully had to admit he wasn't dreaming.
"So I suppose the question now is what I'm supposed to do with you." Sherlock avoided saying what they had both accepted-probably because as a detective he didn't want such a deduction coming out of his mouth. Shinichi didn't blame him and instead, focused on the new question. Sherlock was looking him over critically again and part of the smaller wanted to just ask if he could stay with him-he didn't take up much room these days and working with Sherlock Holmes would be a dream come true. He clicked his teeth together feeling the question burning at the tip of his tongue but refusing to let it out.
Inside, Sherlock Holmes was weighing the pros and cons of just keeping the child. Under normal circumstances, he'd never consider it but these circumstances were anything but normal. The child was a walking talking paradox-and not just because of the obvious but also because of his... 'condition' that he'd like to know more about. Conan had also proved that he was a somewhat capable detective and he seemed to genuinely enjoy his company-up until yesterday that was difficult to come by.
But a child. He almost made a face at the thought. Children were messy. They got into things. They were obligated by law to go to school, they had to be fed regularly, and an adult of some kind was always held responsible anytime something happened to one. It wasn't a life Sherlock Holmes saw himself living. It was a good thing Conan wasn't actually a child.
"I doubt if you'd be able to help me with the rent but I'm sure we can work something out." He finally voiced. The words didn't seem to be registering correctly in the boy's head and Sherlock waited for him to come back down to earth. Apparently, the offer had short circuited him.
"..You mean… you want me to stay?" The little voice sounded so hopeful and yet uncertain at the same time. It was annoying.
"I've already told Mrs. Hudson you'll be staying with me awhile, haven't I? Besides, the only other option is dumping you on child services and that could very well be denying myself the opportunity to solve this and it so far it's promised to be deliciously exciting." He could tell by the look on the smaller's face that he wasn't offended by this reasoning in the slightest. He probably agreed with it.
"However. First, I want a blood sample." Sherlock stated. He was pleased to see that the boy immediately started to roll up his sleeve. "Not now, later. I want a sample from you and Shinichi Kudou. I need to confirm this ridiculous deduction once and for all." He watched the puzzled expression on the boy's face as he worked through exactly what Sherlock had meant by that.
"You want to go to Japan." Conan stated. Sherlock quirked his lips upwards.
"Travel plans are already being made." He advised. "Mycroft and I are getting yours and Heiji's papers drawn up and passports legalised."
"With a fake name?" Conan raised an eyebrow. That certainly didn't sound very legal. Not that he was against it in the slightest.
"There's a bit of loophole where you're concerned-there are no documents of you and there's already a Kudou Shinichi. Children pop up all the time and my brother's position certainly helps." In other words Mycroft and Holmes were pulling some pretty serious strings.
"So you manipulated Hattori into seeing your brother for you?" Conan pieced together and took another sip of coffee.
"Precisely." Sherlock leaned back in his chair again. "Once you're both properly documented as British citizens then we'll be taking a trip to Japan. In the meantime we've a few other things to discuss, and I want you to reach out to your… other self. Say you're a fan or something and see if you can arrange a meeting." He waved Conan off.
Conan sat there a moment, trying to think how he could possibly go about introducing himself to himself. He could state he was a fan, it would probably work as it wasn't a secret that Shinichi enjoyed being admired. However, there was the small problem in that if the Sherlock Holmes series didn't exist then he never would have been inspired to become a detective-the thing he enjoyed being admired about the most. Without the inspiration of Sherlock Holmes to guide his way just how different would he be?
Five thousand nine hundred thirty-six miles away sixteen year old Kudou Shinichi sneezed. He wiped his nose and glared down at his half-finished homework. It wasn't so much that he didn't know how to do it as much as it was that he really, really didn't want to do something so tedious with his time. He could have been done an hour ago and lounging around in his big empty house but there was a specific reason he was staying this late at the library. Besides, he hated to admit it but it was preferable to home alone.
"Are you catching a cold?" The sixteen year old girl sitting diagonally across from him asked. He shook his head and continued to glare at the unfinished homework. The girl returned to her own work and her friend sitting at the desk next to her prodded her with a pencil.
"It's better to leave him alone Ran, you know Kudou-kun doesn't like talking to anyone." She stated. Ran looked worryingly at the boy across from her and he turned to face them, clearly annoyed by their chatter.
"He's also not deaf, contrary to popular belief." He stated haughtily, watching both girls. Ran flushed pink and her friend was unabashed. "And no, I'm not catching a cold." He turned back to his work and the other girl huffed, saying something about a jerk.
"S-Sonoko!" Ran whispered in alarm. "Don't offend him. He didn't do anything wrong."
"Hmph. He needs to learn he can't just ignore people." Sonoko huffed again. Shinichi rolled his eyes and started filling in the answers on his sheet again. It was depressingly easy which killed any and all desire to finish it but he had to press on.
Once finished he set the pencil down and stretched his arms upwards before laying his head down on his desk. Sonoko was wrong, as he found she usually was, he could just ignore people and if he didn't say so himself he thought he was doing a fine job of it.
"Mou." Sonoko groaned at the boy before turning back to her best friend. "Ne Ran, did you hear about the new theme park that's opening this week? We should go check it out."
"Sorry Sonoko, but I don't think I'll have the money for something like an amusement park-Dad spent too much playing pachinko." She let out a wistful sigh.. "It looks like Mom's gonna have to spot us again. Eventually she's going to stop loaning him money."
"If you want to go so bad, why not just ask Suzuki-san to pay for it?" Shinichi asked bluntly, sitting up again.
"Because Sonoko and I are going to be friends forever!" She snapped angrily, managing to shock the hell out of Shinichi.
"It's just a question." He responded, trying to pass off his confusion and alarm with a shrug. Ran continued to glare at him and Sonoko watched them both. Shinichi stared at her for a moment longer, like he wanted to tell her something else but ultimately turned around again and lay his head back down. He had no interest in amusement parks.
"Well Ran, you know I really wouldn't mind." Sonoko was saying. Ran shook her head.
"No way. I don't want you to resent me if I can never pay you back." She puffed her cheeks out and Sonoko laughed good naturedly.
"I still couldn't ask-" Ran started.
"Aagh! So Annoying." Shinichi sat back up. "If you'll both stop talking about it-I'll take you." He grouched at both of them. The identical look of shock on their faces pleased him a little. "You wouldn't mind resenting me, would you?"
Sonoko's gaze flattened on him and she was suddenly very unamused. "And what makes you think she even wants to go with you?"
"It's okay Sonoko. I wouldn't mind going with Shinichi-kun. But, I don't want to just take your money." Ran turned to Shinichi, cheeks a bit red. He took a breath and closed his eyes in attempt to find a solution.
"You have your regional karate tournament coming up, right?" He scratched his cheek thoughtfully-ignoring Sonoko when she reacted to the fact he kept up with that sort of thing. "How about this-If you win, it'll be my present to you." Sonoko looked to Ran and both exchanged glances. Why did girls have to consult each other for every little decision? It was a simple question.
"What do you mean I have to go to school?" Conan glared up at at his western counterpart who didn't seem remotely apologetic. Actually, he seemed amused.
"It ain't just you, Kudou. I gotta go too." Hattori attempted to pacify the detective. It didn't seem to work at all as Conan's glare narrowed even further. Heiji appeared to be fighting back a grin.
"Yeah. High School." Conan pointed out.
"Don't be so bitter-" The Osakan started. "I mean we know that Japan's classes are f-far more advanced than the UK right?" He was finding it more and more difficult to keep from laughing as Conan's glare grew darker and darker. " So I'm pretty much in the same boat."
"Kobayashi's class was up to long division and multiplication!" Conan did his best to ignore the barely contained chortles coming from his best friend. "Do you know what they teach in second grade here? Addition and subtraction." At that, Hattori lost it, laughing shamelessly at the smaller's expense. Conan continued to glare.
"At least it'll be easy?" He offered between laughs. It didn't help.
"I don't want easy. I want challenging. Can't I just be home schooled? They have that here right?" He turned to Sherlock who started to answer but was interrupted by his brother. Much to Sherlock's displeasure, he cast his brother a glare of his own and Mycroft ignored it.
"Absolutely not Mr. Edogawa, as much as I'm sure my brother would love to teach you, we need to call as little attention to your predicament as possible. Home schooling might... raise a few unwanted questions." Mycroft explained.
"Probably not as many as my allowing a child to live with me will." Sherlock cut in. Conan nodded in agreement in the hopes it might win him the chance to just get his education from Sherlock Holmes. Mycroft looked them both over critically, seeing right through both of them. It'd be a grave mistake to leave them both alone with a chemistry set.
"We've already worked out the cover story to explain what would possess you, little brother to adopt a child." He stated with ease having predicted the reaction it would garner.
"Adopt!?" Both Sherlock and Conan said together in alarm, ignoring Hattori's renewed laughter.
"You never said anything about adoption, Mycroft." The elder Holmes merely checked his pocket watch, ignoring his younger brother's protests.
"In case it's escaped your notice, Little Brother, Mr Edogawa does appear to be a mere seven years old. If you allow him to stay with you it would, for all intents and purposes seem as though you are his legal guardian." He explained. It was all information that Sherlock had earlier considered. he just didn't like the sound of it and Mycroft had to go and dig the knife in deeper. "Speaking of which, I do have the papers to make it official. Mummy will be so pleased."
Sherlock made a face and looked down at his small pretend charge. At least he was decently intelligent and he could trust him to take care of himself. "Fine. Hand me the papers, let's get this over with."
Conan didn't have a response for what had just happened. He was still trying to work through it but from what he'd gathered, Sherlock was signing papers that appointed him legal guardian to Edogawa Conan. As legal as the situation could be, anyway.
Weird.
"Now, the last thing we'll need to discuss are your travel plans." Mycroft stated as he handed off the papers Sherlock had just signed to his assistant. "Your plane leaves from Heathrow at eight o'clock this evening sharp-putting you and Sherlock at Narita airport at four thirty-two in the afternoon."
"Hang on, ya mean jus' those two are goin'?" Hattori turned to Mycroft who merely shrugged.
"Precisely, Sherlock and I have agreed that you should stay here and help John Watson to move in. There's already a Heiji Hattori in this world. It'd be best not to confuse anyone. Which of course means you'll be starting your classes Monday."
Conan shot Hattori a smug look at that news and Hattori glared right back at him. That was what he got for laughing at him for having to be enrolled in second grade. At least he could put it off for a few weeks.
Without warning Hattori swooped down and grabbed Conan by the middle before carting him off to another room. The Holmes brothers exchanged glances but went back to discussing 'terms.'
"Put me down." Conan hissed, attempting to kick the osakan in the side. His feet met the ground again and he glared up at the offender.
"Sorry Kudou. There was just somethin' I gotta tell ya before ya run off t' Tokyo." Heiji said apologetically. Conan only glared but he took it as an invitation to continue. "You haven't had a chance t' see the date, have ya?"
"No. I've been a little busy adjusting to the fact we seem to have fallen out of our own universe." Conan said irritatedly. Hattori ignored it.
"I was waitin' until we got t' Japan to tell ya but since I'm not goin' I'll go ahead and let ya know so it ain't too shockin'."
"And?" Conan prompted, willing him to give up on the dramatic effect and get on with it.
"Truth is we're about a year behind-meanin' that Kudou Shinichi in this universe is still only sixteen and I don't think he's had the ahoutoxin yet." The smaller rolled his eyes.
"Apotox-" Conan stopped mid-syllable and stared up at the other trying to determine if he was kidding or not. "Seriously? A year?" So not only were they no longer in the correct universe but apparently in the wrong time. And they were sure this wasn't a weird coma dream?
He froze, realization dawning on him.
If Kudou Shinichi never became a detective in this universe would he still have gone to Tropical Land with Ran on that day? His first words to Ran were also his first deduction which he'd been inspired by Sherlock Holmes to make. It's what sparked everything between them. She'd improved his life in so many ways that he couldn't begin to imagine his life without her influence and frankly he didn't want to.
But he couldn't help but wonder if he never read the Sherlock Holmes series, never became a detective, never made friends with Ran and never went to Tropical Land on that night would he be in danger from the organization? Did the organization even exist here? From his earlier conversation with Sherlock he just didn't know.
"Ya okay Kudou?" Hattori asked, watching the pensive look on his friend's face.
"Hattori…" Conan started. "What's the date exactly?"
"It's the fourth of January," Hattori responded casually. "Why?"
Conan's eyes darted back and forth as he thought it over. The Kudou Shinichi of this universe hadn't been force-fed the poison that would ruin his life. It hadn't happened yet.
"I-I can stop it."
