Disclaimers: All the characters are belonged to Detective Conan by Aoyama Gosho.
Chapter Three. Destiny
"WAKE UP! How long do you want to sleep?" A boy roared.
"Let me sleep five more minutes, I will go to greet the King then." Conan muttered.
"What are you saying? Are you still dreaming? Wake up!" That boy said.
"Mitsuhiko! Good Morning." Conan said sleepily. "Why do you wake up so early?"
"Go to work, of course." Genta said. "Hurry up and get ready, we'll be late."
Ayumi, Genta and Mitsuhiko were already on their way, followed by three very sleepy kids, Heiji, Takagi and Conan.
"You haven't told me that I need to go to work early in the morning, Heiji." Conan said. "Where are we going? What kind of work can a bunch of kids do?"
"You'll find out soon." Heiji said, not very happy about going to work. "I can only tell you one word --- pigeon"
"Pigeon?"
They had come to a farmhouse. There were two young people outside the house waiting.
"Wow! More kids helping me." The young man said. "Hi! I'm Kaito. And this is Aoko. All the boys will come with me and Ayumi will go with Aoko. They need to go to the marketplace today. What is your name?"
"Conan. Are you two married already?"
"What? Of course not, she just comes here to help me. We're just friends. We are brought up together." Kaito said as he was blushing deeply. "Follow me."
They have come to a large house and there were hundreds of pigeons inside. "Heiji, Takagi and Conan will stay here to clean the place." Kaito said. "Genta and Mitsuhiko will come with me to prepare their food."
"What?" Heiji, Takagi and Conan all said together. But Kaito had left already with Genta and Mitsuhiko.
"Wow…." A pigeon had just barely missed Takagi's head with its waste. "We need to be careful." Takagi warned.
"It'll take us the whole day to clean this place." Conan complained. "As we are in this size."
"It's your fault. Kaito doesn't like anyone saying he and Aoko are a couple." Heiji said. "This is his revenge on you." Heiji's body was covered with lots of feather already.
"You didn't tell me in the first place." Conan said.
"You had said something similar to Kaito last time. Only you and I clean this place last time" Takagi said.
"I think he quite enjoys the idea of Aoko as his wife." Heiji tried to protest himself. "Let's start now."
"Why does he need so many pigeons?" Conan asked as he was trying to clear all feather around. It was quite difficult as they were flying everywhere.
"I don't know. He told us that he is a magician. Maybe he used them to do magic tricks." Takagi answered. He was looking up and down as he was sweeping the floor.
"I think he uses them as messenger, sending message everywhere, even spying around." Heiji said. "Ouch!" A pigeon had its beak on his hand as he was trying to take away its food tray.
'Pigeon, magic, Kaito.' Conan was absorbed into thoughts. "Kaito, Kaito, oh! He must be Kaito Kid, the famous thief in Mouri Kingdom." Conan exclaimed.
"We can do nothing even if you're right. We are just a kid, I wonder when I can change back to a grown-up again." Takagi said.
"We need to solve what is 'X' first." Conan said. "I swear I can change back to Prince Shinichi again. Don't give up!"
"Right! Takagi you shouldn't give up easily. You should think about Sato. She's waiting for you." Heiji said.
"Sa…Sato. Why do I need to think about her!" Takagi said.
"Who is Sato?" Conan asked.
"She is the bodyguard of Princess Ran. Takagi likes her very much but he hasn't told her yet. But I think everyone in the castle knew already."
"We're just friends, I don't think Sato likes me. Nothing like you and Kazuha, you two are so close." Takagi said bitterly.
"Who is Kazuha?" Conan asked.
"She's a close friend with the Princess. She's not related to me. We're just happened to be brought up together. It's so nice to be here without her shouting at my ears every day." Heiji said with his face turning behind them, trying not to let them noticed how red and hot his dark face was now.
"The same." Conan muttered.
"What?" Said Heiji.
"Your reaction toward talking about Kazuha is the same as Kaito about Aoko." Conan said with his half-mooned eyes staring at Heiji.
Kaito had already come back with Genta and Mitsuhiko; they had finished prepared the food. "What an interesting conversation you all have." Kaito said to Conan. "Let me think what 'X' is."
"You overheard our conversation, don't you?" Conan said.
"A little bit." Said Kaito, grinning at Conan. "The first time I saw you three, I already notice that you did not look like ordinary kid, you all try to act like a kid instead."
"A good observer." Conan said.
"Of course, I'm a magician." Kaito said to Conan. "Genta, Mitsuhiko and Ayumi can help you, they're good helpers, but don't tell Aoko. She might be in danger if she knows your true identity."
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"We're back." Said Aoko and Ayumi. They had finished shopping at the marketplace already. There was a little girl helping them to carry all the stuff that they had just bought. "This is Ai, she get lost in the forest, so we take her with us. Ai, you can stay with Ayumi and the others." Aoko told the others.
"Hello, I'm Ai." The red-hair girl said.
"Hi! I'm Mitsuhiko, and they are Genta, Heiji, Takagi and Conan."
"She looks familiar." Conan said to Heiji. "Do you think so?"
"No." Heiji answered. "I never saw her before."
Genta and Mitsuhiko had already taken Ayumi aside, and telling her how Kaito found out that Conan and the others were not kids. They were whispering about what 'X' probably was.
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"I'm sure that 'X' must be Unagi rice. Once you have eaten rice you'll grow. So it must be Unagi rice." Genta told the others on the way home.
"Hey! Genta could you please stop thinking about food for a while?" Ayumi said.
"I think that 'X' may not probably an object, I think it might be some kind of action." Mitsuhiko said thoughtfully.
"Do you think they can help?" Heiji asked Conan.
"An action, Mitsuhiko may be right." Conan said.
"Finally our great detective cannot solve something." Ai said.
"Who are you?" Conan asked.
"APTX4869." Ai said. "Don't you remember who give you the drug?"
"Shiho!" Conan has already become alarmed. "What are you doing here? You come and find us?"
"Sherry. I was working with Gin and Vodka."
"Was? You're not with them now?" Takagi asked.
"They'd killed my only sister. I'd asked them so many times why they'd to kill her, they just told me that she was in no use to them anymore. I don't want to help them, so they imprisoned me. I just manage to escape after taking APTX4869." Ai told them, with tears in her eyes. "Why don't you try to save my sister, Prince Shinichi? You're a detective, you must know what Gin and Vodka are up to."
"Sorry about your sister. But I really don't know what they're going to do." Conan apologised. "So you must know what 'X' is."
"Do you know what is the most useful antidote to any kind poison or curse in fairy tale?" Ai told them.
"What?" Conan, Heiji and Takagi said together. "We only like to read detective story, no interest in any kind of fairy tale."
"Do you know what is Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs? Sleeping Beauty? The Frog Prince?" Ai kept on asking, but they keep on shaking their head. "A group of Detective Fool!"
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In the Forbidden Forest
"Hey! Ran, do you think we've been here a while ago? I think we're going in circles, are you sure this is the right path?" Kazuha said to Ran.
"Um…I think this must be the right path to Mouri Kingdom, I remembered that I need go across the forest before I come to Mouri Kingdom." Ran said.
"But it was almost five years ago. We really should not flee from the Castle." Sato said. "And you're not good at direction."
"You see, there is some smoke over there. May be we can ask the people there." Ran said.
"But Ran, why do you want to come here to find Prince Shinichi? You don't need to come all the way here to ask him why he didn't reply your letter." Sato said.
"Are you planning to elope with Shinichi?" Kazuha asked.
"'Course not. I'm just worried about him. He'd not replied my letter for more than a month. You both come with me because you're worried about Heiji. And Sato worried about Takagi, right?" Ran said.
"I just come to see when Takagi wanted to come back. If he still didn't come back, I think the Queen will fired him." Sato said. But her face can't manage to stop showing signs of worry.
"I'll not worry about Heiji also. I just come here as your company and help his parents to ask him when will he be home. His mother is really worried about him." Kazuha said. "Oh! This is really a cottage, Ran. Look!"
"Is there anyone here?" Sato asked, looking inside. "It seems no one here now, may be we can wait inside."
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"We're home!" Genta, Mitsuhiko, and Ayumi said together. They noticed that there were three people there. They're cooking.
"Wow! It smells delicious." Genta said. "I'm very hungry already."
"Who are you? Why are you here in our cottage?" Mitsuhiko asked.
"We get lost in the forest, so we come here to ask for direction to Mouri Kingdom." The girl with ponytail said. "I'm Kazuha, and this is Ran and Sato."
"Ka…Kazuha!" Heiji tried to swallow his words so that Kazuha would not here her. He immediately grabbed Takagi and Conan outside so that no one could see them.
"What are you doing?" Conan asked.
"It's Kazuha and she come here with Sato and the Princess." Heiji said. "We can't let them see us in this size. What should we do?"
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Chapter 3 is up! Please R & R. Ran and Shinichi finally met.