Okay so I just wanted to get to this one so there would be a good enough hook before I made people wait a little. I have a few more chapters pre-written, but I wanna wait till I have a little more solid before I upload them. I was originally going to wait until the whole story was written then slowly let it out over the course of a few weeks but... I got impatient.
I hope you've been enjoying the story so far, and it'd make me really happy if you would review- You know what I have the power, I can hold the future of this story hostage, please review if you want to know what happens next.
Chapter 4: Sleep
I haven't learned much about Shinichi in the past month.
He seems to try to avoid me as much as he can unless someone else is going to be around.
Today too, he's still not home even when I get there late after having gone searching for a lost cat with the Shonen tantei. It's been like this a lot lately.
Every now and then I would catch him on the phone with someone. His tone would vary from time to time, so I don't think he was talking to the same person each time, but he never seemed particularly friendly with anyone he was talking to, his tone seemed to imply that whatever relationship he had with someone on the other end it was all business.
I can only hope he's out making progress in the fight against those guys who poisoned me. I'd like to help but any time I offer he just insists that the less I know the better it'll be. Besides, I wouldn't be able to do that much with my body like this anyway, all I really have right now is my brain- and if Shinichi really is me from the future then just my brain isn't going to be much help to him.
With a sigh I check the fridge. There's not much there.
Shinichi will usually make dinner in advance and put it in the fridge if he's going to be gone all night, since there's nothing there either he'll be back by seven or he'll call Ran over to 'babysit' me.
I don't really need a babysitter of course, but I guess if it makes Ran happy and lets her feel like she's helping out then I don't really mind so much. It's a bit embarrassing but at this point I'm not sure I have much dignity left, I suppose I'm thankful I didn't de-age enough to be needing diapers.
I guess for now I'll do my homework. The homework is, in a word, elementary. I make quick work of it.
Now what…?
I guess I can try checking out that Kamen Yaiba show that the kids keep going on about. I don't expect much from it, but if I manage to keep up with it that'll be good for my cover for however much longer I end up needing to keep this up.
So far no one is suspecting that I'm more than just a smart child, but if those men in black are truly part of some sprawling evil organization then it's best to be as careful as possible to not attract too much attention. There's no way anyone would believe I'm Shinichi Kudo when he's around, and if I'm not Kudo Shinichi then there's no reason for them to target me, but Shinichi really is laying low so it's probably best I don't go around being an obviously intelligent child that happens to look like a young Shinichi and happened to have appeared just after he was poisoned with a drug that might be intended to grant eternal youth.
Huh... at what point did I start genuinely calling him Shinichi?
At what point did I start treating it as though the outlandish story he'd told about being me from the future and fighting a shadowy organization was true? I guess I've accepted this more than I thought, I was so obstinate about it at first.
This show really isn't holding my attention at all, is it?, but I guess I can see why a kid would like it. I'll try saying something about the fight scenes to Genta and Mitsuhiko tomorrow.
I grab a book to occupy myself in the meantime.
Before long I hear the sound of the door opening.
"Shinichi?" I hear a voice call out from the entryway. Ran. It doesn't sound like Shinichi told her that he wouldn't be here, he probably hadn't asked her to come babysit either. She opened with his name so she must be here to talk to him, but she'll probably check on me for now.
"Shinichi-niichan isn't home yet," I call back to her. Checking the nearest clock, it's 6:40, if he didn't call her to babysit me he should be home soon.
As she turns the corner and sees me reading in the main room she sighs, "Again? How can he leave such a young child all alone…"
"He didn't ask you to come babysit?" I ask to be sure. Always good to double check.
"No… I… actually I haven't been able to get in touch with him all day."
Well, that's somewhat worrying. Has something happened to him? Or no… maybe it's not that odd, Ran doesn't have a cell phone so it's not like it would be that easy for her to get in contact with him while he's not going to school.
"You haven't?"
She nods, "I texted him this morning and after school…"
Oh, maybe she does have a cell phone. She always said it seemed like a waste to pay for a cell phone when she has a phone at home. I wonder what changed her mind.
"You have a cell phone Ran-neechan?"
"Hm? Yeah, Shinichi got it for me a few weeks ago so it'd be easier to get in touch…" She reaches into the pocket of her skirt and pulls out a simple flip phone, "It feels a bit weird having him pay for it, but he insisted... he wanted to be able to ask me to come watch you without having to leave messages with my dad."
That makes sense I guess. Is he using his own money for that or mine? I guess it doesn't matter, it's nice that she has a cell phone, she can be warned if anything dangerous happens. That was probably Shinichi's main motivation for it too, after all I can take care of myself even if it is a bit of a hassle to do anything in my current body.
The conversation more or less stopped there and Ran went to the kitchen to go prepare dinner.
Her using the kitchen with us alone in the house like this makes it almost feel like we're a married couple… but I know I'm the only one thinking that. To Ran I'm barely more than a stranger right now, Shinichi is the one she cares about. I see a faint blush on her face, is she thinking to herself about how she looks like a young housewife in Shinichi's home right now? I really wish I could have seen how clear her feelings were when I was in a position to respond to them.
How much longer will I have to stay like this?
It's just until I catch a cold, then I can go back to being Shinichi. My life can return to normal and Shinichi will… what will happen to Shinichi? There can't just be two Kudo Shinichi's around, I wonder what he's planning to do. Find a disguise? Take turns? ... Will he return to the future?
"Conan-kun, dinner's ready!" Ran calls out from the kitchen, interrupting my train of thought.
"Coming!"
I put down my book and head to the table, where I sit down and have a nice chat with Ran as we eat. We didn't talk about anything really important.
She asked about how things were going with the Shounen tantei, what kind of cases we were getting, and what we were doing. I answered honestly but… I get the feeling she was asking because her dad's detective business isn't doing very well.
It was like Shinichi had predicted, her dad's business saw a bit of a boost with Kudo Shinichi laying low, but the fact that he really wasn't suited to this line of work wasn't doing him any favours. I had gone along for a few cases on days that Ran was watching me, and I tried my best to subtly help out but… his style of detective work is just too aggressive. He'll immediately start pointing fingers at whoever looks most suspicious, and cling to that- making up possible motives and not actually looking for evidence to substantiate any of his claims. If given hints and pointed at evidence he can reach a proper conclusion, but a detective shouldn't need that much hand holding to solve a case.
There are limits to what I can do to help while pretending to be a normal kid.
I hate to say it but Shinichi's right. It's probably only a matter of time until his detective business goes under and he has to find another job, it'd be good if he could go back to the police but that's one of those careers that's hard to go back to after you've left.
She doesn't talk about it with me, she probably wouldn't even tell Shinichi, but I'm sure it must be hard on Ran since she's the one that handles the household financing. I want to help but there's no way I can offer like this, and even if I wasn't a child right now there's no way she'd accept it, she's always been too prideful for that.
After dinner she insisted on tucking me into bed, and reluctantly I let her when she stood her ground after I complained that it wasn't that late and I wasn't even tired. I suppose this might be a normal time for a kid of my age to be in bed but I'm normally up a good bit later than this.
She sat down on the edge of the bed and began to hum a lullaby for me. It was just a simple melody, the kind that might play in the background of a show or movie... something she'd probably heard somewhere and it just latched into her mind.
The gentle sound of her voice held my attention… She'll be a really great mother one day.
Next thing I knew I found myself fighting sleep, and my eyelids growing heavier by the second until at last I fell into the depths of slumber.
Slowly my eyes open again.
The room is pitch black and without a clock in view I can't tell if it's been minutes or hours since I fell asleep. In the darkness I shift to try to check the time on my phone so I can know whether or not I should try to go back to sleep, but… I can't move.
There's something heavy on either side of me just above the blanket, like someone straddling me to pin me down on the bed.
Surprise turns to panic.
Is this one of the members of that organization here to finish me off? Maybe they already got Shinichi, that would explain why he hasn't been around all day today…
The panicked thoughts race through my mind.
Is there anything I can do?
I'm in no position to fight back, I'm completely pinned under the blanket by the difference in weight. In fact, if the person above me weren't distributing their weight to either side of me as they were then they likely would have already broken a few ribs on my childish body.
Despite knowing how useless it would be to struggle, I squirm fruitlessly anyway, barely able to move myself at all.
I let out a scream. Maybe Shinichi is fine, maybe he's downstairs, maybe he'll hear and come help me, maybe-
I know that the odds are slim.
Panic turns to fear.
There was a somewhat annoyed grunt in the darkness, a vague sound that at least told me that my attacker was male if nothing else.
Then- pain.
I'm hit with a burning sense of pain as consciousness slips away from me once again.
End of part 1.