Wait...What?!
It's been a week since Ayumi left for England and nothing has been the same. At school, the detective boys' plans for celebrating the last day together were thrown out the window so they just stayed at home not wanting to celebrate without Ayumi outside.
At the detective agency, cases came but they were easy so Kogoro solved them on his own. There was a Kid heist coming up but Conan didn't really feel like going since it was going to happen near Ayumi's neighborhood and he didn't want another reminder of her right now.
Ai stayed inside Hakase's house since she thought that she found something for the antidote, she didn't tell Conan about it yet though. Hakase was just trying to work on a new invention but he didn't see the point since Ayumi won't see it until later.
Ai used the sample of Conan's recent dna that she got secretly the last time she visited the agency and poured the liquefied antidote on it, to see if it'll react like usual. The sample was a piece of hair so she had to make sure to not spill the antidote anywhere else due to how small the sample is.
The hair twitched slightly but didn't change size even the cells inside it stayed small and Ai didn't like what that means. 'How am I going to tell him? He's looking forward to go back to his girlfriend…' She thought but she knew that if she didn't tell him now it'll be harder to tell him later.
She sighed before deciding 'I should tell both him and Hakase about this so I don't have to explain it twice. I'm gonna call him here.' while looking for her phone to make the call and after she found it she went outside the lab and dialed the number.
At the detective agency~
*Ring ring* went Conan's phone that was on the living room couch.
'Who could it be from this time?' the owner thought since he didn't like how this is similar to the day Ayumi told them the news, it was even a Saturday today!
He picked his phone up and looked at the caller id.
Haibara Ai.
'So it's from Haibara, guess I'm just being paranoid then.' He sighed in relief before he answered it.
"Moshi Moshi?" he started and Ai replied "Come to Hakase's house as soon as possible. I have something important to tell you." he didn't like how serious she sounded and said, "Ok, I'm coming." To which she replied "Good, matta ne." "Ja." He said back before she hung up.
'This is looking more and more like the day Ayumi-chan told us the news.' He thought the feeling he scratched off as paranoia coming back before he said "Ran-neechan, I'm going to Hakase's he said he made a new game for me."
"Ok Conan-kun, just tell me if you're coming back late ok?" answered Ran from the kitchen and he replied "Hai!" before he left once again with his skateboard.
When he got there he rang the bell and waited, this time the door was opened immediately by Ai who had a serious look on her face that made him feel more nervous before she said "Come in." which he complied.
After he took his shoes off at the entryway he followed Ai into the living to see Hakase sitting there with a worried look on his face which made it obvious he doesn't know what the news is either.
He gulped and sat down on the couch beside Hakase before Ai took the opposite seat and took a deep breath before she said "First, I would like you to know that I was in the lab working on something for the antidote since I found a new ingredient and I was hiding it from you since I know that you would try to rush me in my work."
He laughed nervously at the deadpan looks he was getting from both inventor and scientist that are obviously showing how annoying he is when he does that to either of them which got him to sweatdrop.
Conan then realized what that means "Does that mean the antidote is almost complete?" he sounded hopeful and excited which made her reply "Well yes, but-" he cut her off by exclaiming "Really?! That's awesome I'll be back in my body as soon as the organization is down!" he started rambling about all the things he would do with Ran once he's back.
Ai was calling him for a while now but he was too into his fantasy that he didn't hear her so she shouted "Kudo-kun the antidote won't work on you anymore!" that got him to shut up in horror and mumble "Wait… what?!"
Now that she got his attention back she repeated the news, not being one to sugar coat it "I said that the tests that I did on the sample I got from you with the new almost complete antidote proved that you became immune to it which means that it doesn't work on your body anymore."
She added "That's what happens when you insist on taking too much temporary antidotes " in a scolding tone. But he wasn't responding to her, he had a look of disbelief on his face but after a few seconds, he laughed and said "That's a nice joke, Haibara." hoping that it was a joke.
But she didn't laugh, didn't smirk, her lips weren't twitching instead she gave him a sad look. "Y-You're serious?" she nodded still not bothering to say anything since it wouldn't make him feel better.
"N-no…. There has to be a mistake or even something you missed, right?" he was pleading but she just shook her head and said "Do you think I wouldn't double-check it before telling you something like this?" he knew the answer was no but he didn't want to believe it.
'B-But that means that-' he can't be with her anymore, he can't be with his girlfriend and he knew that he couldn't just tell her his identity to keep her with him. It's still dangerous plus everyone would think she's a pedophile and he didn't want to dirty her image because of his selfishness.
'Why? Why is this happening now? First, Ayumi-chan leaves on a vacation for the whole summer and now… this.' at this point he could see why everyone thought he was cursed.
He wanted to scream, to yell, even blame the scientist in front of him for this but he couldn't. He knew she was forced to develop the drug and if it wasn't for her the drug would've killed him instead of shrunk him so she saved his life even if he ended up getting an unwanted one in the process.
That didn't change the fact that he needs to do something about his emotions before he explodes so he walked outside saying "I need some time alone. Thank you for telling me Haibara." he could tell that she was nervous about telling him but she didn't want to give him false hope and for that he was grateful.
He walked around until he reached an empty park and decided to stop there. There was a ball on the ground so he ran up and kicked it at the nearby wall to let out his anger. His anger at himself for leaving Ran at tropical land that day, his anger at the organization for existing in the first place, and his anger at whatever power above that gave him this fate.
He kicked and kicked even when sweat went down his face not stopping until he wasted the last of his energy. When he finally got tired he fell back onto the grass underneath him panting heavily.
Now that his mind was a lot clearer and he could think straight, he knew what he had to do. He got his phone out of his pocket and called a certain FBI agent so he could ask him to fake his death while explaining why. Akai gave him his condolences but he didn't need it so after they were done discussing everything they hung up and he put his phone back in his pocket.
He put his hand in his other pocket and slowly pulled out his Shinichi phone gulping nervously, not wanting to do what he's about to do but knowing that he has no choice.
He took out his bow tie, opened his phone and dialed the number, dreading what's about to happen when it gets answered.
After a few rings the phone got picked up "Moshi Moshi?" was what the sweet voice on the other said and it made him feel worse but just like Ai he didn't want to give her false hope so he has to tell her now or it'll be harder to tell her later.
He held the bowtie in front of his mouth and gulped one last time before he said in Shinichi's voice "R-Ran, it's me." he heard her giggle happily before she replied "I know silly, your number is saved on my phone and why aren't you calling me babe like usual?" they were dating for 3 months now so they got used to calling each other babe.
The fact that she sounded so happy made him choke on his words for a second but he forced himself to talk since he won't have the guts to say it when he sees her again in the agency later so it's better to do it now.
"Th-that's because…*deep breath* I'm sorry Ran but we're done." he finally said it and she was silent for a second probably processing what he said. He heard a sound of a plate breaking and then she shouted "EH?!" he was extremely grateful that Kogoro was out with Nakamori-keibu for the heist since it will be harder if he's there.
He repeated himself reminding himself that he might have to move out after this "I said that we're over." "B-but why? Did I do something wrong?" she replied and he immediately said "No it's not your fault, Ran." He heard her sigh in relief before she asked "Then why? What's going on?" he paused thinking carefully about how to answer.
"Remember that big case I'm solving?" was what he decided to start with and she said "Un. What about it?" he started explaining "Well we finally found a clue of where the criminals are but there's a chance it could be a trap since it appeared out of nowhere and you out of all people should know how hard it took for me to find anything."
At the other end, Ran nodded since she did know. It was the reason he wasn't staying with them after all and it does sound suspicious for a clue to appear out of nowhere when Shinichi himself couldn't find anything for so long while investigating.
Taking her silence as an agreement, he continued "And we can't risk a normal citizen or one of our agents for this so… I volunteered to go." She reacted as expected "Eh?! But you can't! Why would you even volunteer?!"
He replied calmly "Like I said we can't risk anyone else and since there's a really big chance I'm not coming back. I don't want to keep you waiting for me anymore so that's why we have to break up."
She immediately started reassuring mostly herself "But it's you we're talking about so you might come back. You always do…" he shook his head and said "I'm not a superhuman Ran. I'm not immortal either, I can and will die someday. I just have a feeling it's gonna be then. And I don't you to wait anymore when it could be useless this time. Please don't make this harder than it is."
He heard her mouth clench shut at what he said in the last part before she sighed and said "I know… I just didn't want to think you would go so soon. But this is for the best right? For both of us. It's hard to keep a distant relationship going." He sighed and nodded.
"Yeah there's also that, it's obvious that we're both trying but I wouldn't be surprised if we don't recognize each other's faces the time I'm actually done with this." He heard her laugh sadly before saying "Me neither… But… does that mean I can try going with someone else if I.." she hesitated to say it but he knew what it is.
He smiled sadly and said "Yes, Ran. If you end up falling for someone else you can go with them." She replied "You really did change. You'd normally get all protective at the idea of me going with some other man."
He laughed a little "Well I know that you wouldn't like anyone bad with your tastes even if you changed it after this plus I know you can take care of yourself, miss karate champion." she giggled a little at the compliment.
"So… are you ok with this? Us being over? I don't want you crying about it to Sonoko otherwise she'd be annoying me with all the calls she'd give me." He sounded annoyed at the end which made her laugh feeling better than either of them expected about this.
"Yeah… I think I am. I'm just happy you decided to tell me instead of leading me on with false hope. That must've taken a lot of guts to do." His reply to that "Oh you have no idea. Especially with how happy you were when you answered the phone, I was on the verge of hanging up and texting you that I missed you or something like that!"
She laughed nervously before saying "Gomen, but the fact that you kept going instead of doing that, it's really impressive." He grinned and said, "Yeah well, I am an impressive detective."
He could practically hear her rolling her eyes before saying "Oh please, this and that are 2 different things, Baka." He just laughed and after a few seconds she joined in and they were like that for a while.
When they calmed down he said "Well, I have to go now. Sayonara Ran." She replied, "Sayonara, please don't involve other people's lives in this." He replied "Don't worry I will make sure we won't." before they hung up.
He stared at the Shinichi phone for a few seconds before he pocketed it and walked back in the direction of Shinichi's house (Since it obviously won't be his house anymore.) to give it to Akai so the death of Kudo Shinichi would be more believable.
AN: That's all for this chapter. I hope you like it!