Back in the Kudo household, Agasa asked him, "So.. how did this happen?" Gesturing to Conan's smaller form.

"Uh..." Conan hadn't really taken the time to think of a full story yet, but he assumed he was allowed to be vague about it (he was supposed to have just gone through a traumatic experience anyway).

"Well-" He started but was suddenly interrupted when he tripped on his long pants legs, falling flat on his face. Hissing, he sat up, rubbing his head.

Saving him from having to come up with a story on the spot, Agasa said, "Let's get you changed."

"Yeah."

"Do you know where you keep your old clothes?"

"Uh..." Conan nearly panicked thinking his lie was about to be discovered again, but managed to collect himself, "I don't know. It has been a long time."

After a few seconds he guessed, "Uh.. maybe we could check the attic?"

"Ah... Good idea." Agasa said as he headed off. Conan gladly let him lead the way because he didn't actually know where the attic was.

When they got there, Agasa opened it up and went inside. After a while he came out carrying a crate. "I think I found some, Shinichi." He said, setting it down.

Conan walked over and started to dig through it. It was filled with a mish-mash of different types of clothing and seemed to just be used for storage. He found a worn out dress, presumably from Kudo's mother, and some various suit jackets and dress pants, from Kudo's father. But thankfully, after a bit more digging, he found some child sized clothes. He pulled out a pair of grey shorts, a white button up, a blue suit jacket, and a bright red bow tie. Conan really didn't want to wear this outfit. He usually wore just some jeans and a t-shirt. He'd never wear such a prim and proper outfit like that. And besides, who thought that those clothing items even went together in the first place. Well, he guessed Kudo Shinichi would. And he was pretending to be him.

But still, with some hope, he looked back up towards Agasa and asked, "Is there anything else?"

"Well.. that was the only clothing bin I could find. Maybe I could find more if I looked longer, but.. there's a lot of stuff. It'd take really long."

"Ah..." Conan said disappointedly, "Well I guess it'll do. I'll go get changed. Let's meet back in the library." (It was one of the only places he remembered how to get to in the house because it was so large and prominent.)

He picked up the clothes and walked towards where he remembered Kudo's room being. While getting dressed he tried out a few things. He tried wearing just the shorts and shirt, and wearing the full outfit minus the bow tie, but both just looked.. weird. It seemed the bow tie truly made the outfit. Unfortunately, Conan was going to have to wear this for the next however long.

He then headed to the library to meet up with Agasa. When he arrived, Agasa finally asked, "So.. can you tell me more about what happened?" Right, he still needed to come up with a story.

"Um..." he began, "Well, I saw this man dressed in all black. He looked.. suspicious, so I decided to follow him. He met up with this guy and it seemed they were doing an illegal deal. But I didn't notice the guy's partner sneaking up on me. He.. uh..." He couldn't say he hit him in the head; he didn't have the head wound to prove it. "He.. pushed me to the ground." Yeah, be vague. "And.. uh, they wanted to kill me so they forced this strange drug down my throat. I passed out and when I woke up I was.. like this." He said, gesturing to his body.

"That's rough. But those guys sound real dangerous. If they knew you were alive, they'd probably come and kill you!"

"Yeah..."

"You have to keep this a secret between us!", he said, grabbing his shoulders. "You can't tell anyone else. Not even Ran-kun!" Well there goes his plan of telling more people.

They were interrupted from their conversation when they heard someone shout from from within the house. "Shinichi! Are you home!?"

Someone was already looking for Kudo? It hasn't even been a day. Who could it possibly be?

"I-it's Ran-kun!", Agasa unknowingly answered. "Quick! Hide!" Conan frantically ran behind the nearest item, which happened to be a desk.

They heard Ran make her way to the library. "If you're back why didn't you answer my call? Oh- Akasa-hakase? Where's Shinichi?"

"Ah! W-well he's.. uh...!"

While Agasa tried to hold back Ran, Conan noticed that one of the desk drawers was open, with a conveniently placed pair of glasses. They must've been Kudo's father's. Conan didn't particularly want to wear glasses, but he could use a disguise. However, when he tried them on, the prescription had been too strong causing him to become disoriented and hit his head, alerting Ran.

"Oh, is someone there?", Ran said heading towards the desk right as Conan finished popping out the lenses of the glasses.

"Aww, don't be shy. What's your name?", she said turning him around.

"Uh.. it's C-Conan." Ah, wait he probably shouldn't use his actual name. He frantically looked around, noticing two books that were perfectly arranged to say Edogawa Conan.

"My name's Edogawa Conan!" It should be fine if just the last name is fake.

"Conan? What a weird name."

"Well I was born in America so my parents wanted to give me an English name." (Well it was only half wrong. He was born in Japan and moved to America a couple years later. That was close enough.)

"Oh, you were born in America? Your Japanese is really good!"

"One of my parents is Japanese.", he answered.

"Ah."

"Oh! Ran-kun!" Agasa suddenly butted in, "Sorry about this, but do you think you could let him stay at your place for a little while?" Conan looked up, surprised by his suggestion.

"Well... I'd be fine with that. But, why?" Ran asked.

"Ah.. well, both of his parents are in the hospital because of an accident." Agasa lied. "Since I'm a distant relative, they asked me to look after him, but I don't think I'd have the time..."

"Oh, I might be able to. But I'd have to ask my father first."

Oh, right. Ran's father was a detective. This was starting to look really good for Conan. He was going to have a place to stay and it was at a detective agency. He might be able to find some information on those men in black, and, if not, he would get access to normal cases, which would still be pretty interesting to him and would give him something to do on boring days.

"Let's head back now, okay Conan?" She said, grabbing Conan's hand.

"O-okay..." They then walked out the door and started heading to the detective agency.

After a conversation that probably would've had the boy very embarrassed if he actually was Kudo, they arrived at the agency.

"This is where I live. I'll introduce you to my dad." She said heading up the stairs.

Conan looked up at her. He knew Agasa had just told him not to tell anyone but, but he thought Ran should know. If he were actually Kudo, it would be pretty cruel to trick her like that. And, it seemed she would be a very good ally, just in general or even against the men in black. From what little he saw online, she was very adept at karate and had won multiple championships. (He could also add more to the list of people he's convinced he's Kudo, gaining even more bragging rights.)

"Listen.. Ran," Conan began, stopping Ran in her tracks. "The truth is.. I am..."

But he was suddenly interrupted when a man came running and crash landed down the stairs.

"Finally, the first job in six months!" The man, who Conan recognized as Ran's father, Mouri Kogoro, shouted. "A rich man's daughter was kidnapped by a man in black!"

Conan stared at him surprised. There was a lead already?! This is starting to get interesting. Without thinking, Conan rushed into the taxi, with Ran quickly following him in.

When they arrived Conan found out it had nothing to do with the men who tried to murder Kudo. Needless to say, he was quite disappointed. Well, what did he expect. It'd be a miracle if he were able to find a lead so soon. And, while he hadn't known them for long, the men in black seemed too smart to leave behind that many clues. He thought, at least, the case seemed interesting, but that was until he had met the dog.. who was located right by the tree where the kidnapper had supposedly snuck in. And who was supposed to bark at any strangers. Seriously, how could you make such a huge oversight.

And even with that, it seemed the "great" detective still hadn't caught on. Conan had suspected that he wasn't going to be too great.. but, this surpassed his expectations. He didn't think he was this stupid. (Well, Conan was definitely exaggerating; it's not like anyone else had realized. Conan was just mad, tired too, after what happened today and wanted to take it out on someone.)

Conan wanted to just tell them outright, but he was supposed to be acting like a normal child. So he resorted to just some vague hinting.

"Wooow!" He said in an annoyingly high voice, "Isn't it crazy how the dog didn't bark at the kidnapper?" He asked, with maybe a bit too much anger and sarcasm laced in his voice. Kogoro gasped, finally realizing who the real kidnapper was and turned around to reveal the truth.

Conan sighed in relief, glad that the ordeal was over, just wanting to get some sleep. However, the universe seemed to hate him today, as a phone call came in from another kidnapper asking for a ransom. The girl had yelled out that she was in a school storage room and could see a chimney outside. Conan wished people would stop kidnapping in the middle of the night; it was really inconvenient. Like, people were trying to sleep.

Tiredly, Conan brought out his phone and looked at a map and took note of the schools he should check. He then looked at the dog. He considered the idea and.. well, it wouldn't be the craziest idea he's had, considering what he had just done earlier. So, he hopped on to the dog and rode off, much to the surprise of everyone else, leaving them to try and keep up with him.

After some trial and error, and realizing the girl had mistaked a skyscraper for the chimney, Conan had arrived at the place she was being kept. He quietly peeked in and saw the kidnapper brandishing his knife. He planned on waiting until Ran, someone who could actually defend herself, had gotten there (he had at least some sense of self preservation). But his plans were ruined when the kidnapper had raised the knife up, declaring he'd kill the girl. Conan didn't necessarily want to watch a child get murdered right in front of his eyes, despite his questionable morals, when he was perfectly capable of doing something about it. So he rushed in and sent the dog after the kidnapper. He then went and began untying the girl.

"Who are you?" She asked.

"I'm Conan. Ah- Edogawa Conan." He corrected.

However, he wasn't able to finish untying her, when the kidnapper chased the dog away, picked up Conan and threw him against the wall. With the air knocked out of him, he slumped down against the wall. He meagerly picked himself up and tried to get away, but the kidnapper swung the bat into his stomach. He hit the wall with a thud.

The kidnapper then raised the bat above his head and shouted, "I'll kill you!"

Conan thought he was going to die, regretting his past decision of trying to help the girl. But the kidnapper was stopped mid swing by Ran. She then punched him repeatedly in the stomach and kicked him straight in the face, knocking him out. Conan looked up at her surprised. She had definitely lived up to his expectations.

After making sure everyone was okay, they headed back to the client's house and the case was resolved.

The girl had looked back and said, "Thank you, detective-san!" Staring straight at Conan.

Conan looked back, quite confused. He didn't think he had seemed much like a detective. Well, he figured it wasn't a bad thing because it added more validity to his story. And, after some consideration, adding the title to his introduction would be a good idea. It seemed like something a shrunken detective would do.

On the ride back home, Ran had convinced her father to let Conan stay at their house. They had debated sending Conan to the hospital. But he convinced them that he was fine, he only had a few scratches, and definitely didn't need to go to a hospital. He was actually in quite a lot of pain and should probably get checked, but he couldn't risk it. They'd ask him all sorts of questions he couldn't answer, having just created a new identity. He could manage.

When they had got home, Conan hopped out of the taxi and started walking towards the stairs with a slight limp.

Ran looked at him. "Are you sure you're okay, Conan?" She asked.

"I'm fine!" He said, squashing down his pain to try and walk normally.

"I'll help." She grabbed his hand and led him up the stairs. Conan complied, too tired to try and squirm away.

When they had gotten inside, Ran gave him a quick tour of the Mouri residence.

After they finished, ending in Ran's room, she said, "You can sleep in my room; I'll go get a futon."

Conan was about to let her go, but he suddenly remembered that he was supposed to be the shrunken form of Kudo Shinichi. He probably wouldn't want to sleep in the same room as his childhood best friend.

"Ah- wait!" He yelled out. "I can sleep in Kogoro's room."

"You sure?"

"Yeah."

"Alright then." She said and started to bring the futon to her dad's room, Conan following behind. It seemed Kogoro had already fallen asleep, if his loud and incessant snoring was anything to go by. Ran quickly and silently prepared the futon.

"Goodnight, Conan-kun." She whispered as she closed the door.

After the long and eventful day, Conan promptly passed out on the futon, not even bothering to change his clothes. And, not even his pain or Kogoro's snoring was going to stop him.