Communications

Changes

By socchan

Ran realized too late that it had been a mistake to let Shin'ichi go off on his own. He had gone nearly an hour ago, after solving one of the many murder mysteries that cropped up around him, to trail a pair of men dressed in black. Ran had remained behind to tie up loose ends with the police.

She had known at the time that it was a risky move, and damned if Shin'ichi hadn't known it as well, but they were starting to get desperate anyway. For all that they had worked on chasing the organization for the past eight years, they hadn't achieved much. Even the revival of the Kaitou Kid was only beginning to catch the attention of the crime syndicate.

Ten minutes ago, though, Ran's heart had begun to beat faster. With the knowledge that something was seriously wrong, she ran in the direction she had seen Shin'ichi go, fear making her feet go faster.

She arrived in the alley behind Tropic Land just in time to see the tail end of a black coat whip around a fence and out of sight. On the ground were two bodies—one of which was Shin'ichi.

Later she would be happy that she hadn't screamed and alerted the men who had done this to Shin'ichi, but at the time all she could think of was that her best friend for as long as she could remember—maybe someday something more—was lying on the ground, unmoving.

Somehow she made it to his side. Only when she found he was still breathing did she look over to the other man. From what she could see, there was almost certainly too much blood for him to still be alive, but it would be best if she checked. Ran was about to stand when Shin'ichi groaned beside her. Instantly her attention shifted back to him.

Ran watched in rapt horror as Shin'ichi cringed and broke out into a sweat. Unsure what to do, she rested one trembling hand on his shoulder and brushed his bangs away from his forehead with the other. Shin'ichi shivered beneath her touch.

After a matter of seconds, Shin'ichi began to convulse in pain, and bitter-smelling vapors began rising from his skin. Ran stayed next to him, partly afraid that he would die if she moved. Her eyes widened as his form began to shrink, and she swallowed, afraid to scream.

A few minutes later, it had ended. Shin'ichi lay beside her, the size of a child, swamped in his old clothes. Afraid to breathe, Ran felt his forehead, searching for a fever; she breathed a sigh of relief when she found none.

Weakly, Shin'ichi opened his eyes. "…ran…?"

Ran's vision blurred, and she blinked unexpected tears away. "Yes, Shin'ichi?"

He smiled weakly at her, and then reached up with a trembling hand to clutch at her shirt. "kuroba… take me to kuroba." Shin'ichi's hand dropped and he stilled.

Clutching Shin'ichi in her arms, Ran rose to her feet. She would make the organization pay for doing this to Shin'ichi, and she would take it in blood.

—Fin—

Thanks very much to Summercloud for the beta-read. Those of you looking for a good read are advised to stop by her ff-dot-net profile and check out Trust; it's very good, though a bit on the angsty side.

Comments and criticism welcome, though if you have a question, you're better off approaching me through my LiveJournal (anonymous comments are enabled).

Disclaimer: Detective Conan and Magic Kaito are by Aoyama Gosho; concepts and characters have been used without permission.