Title: Wolf-Boy

Author: Manetsu

Summary: Misc. AU: Conan disappeared, but returned a week later with an obviously fake excuse. But what the hell's UP with him now?! He's acting Weird...

Disclaimer: Detective Conan belongs to Gosho Aoyama.

Rating: PG, for General Content.

Notes: Didn't sleep at ALL last night, so is here typing up "Reactions: School" for your enjoyment. Have fun for me. Inspiration: Never Cry Wolf by Farley Mowat.

9.10.04


When the large, shiny, black car screeched to a halt outside the Teitan Elementary School, everyone turned to stare at it, especially a foreign-looking girl of about nine. Her eyes widened just so slightly when she saw the car, and she froze. Then, swiftly, silently, she darted through the crowd, in the direction of the car. The three children she had stood next to called her name, and rushed after her.

When the car's door opened and a small boy her age hopped out, she froze, and the children behind stumbled to halt to avoid knocking her. He looked... different. His bangs were streaked with black and bits of silver-white, and he wore a black dog collar around his neck in place of the usual bow tie; he had abandoned his formal-looking outfit in favor of some black jeans and a black tee with a white teardrop and paw-print on the front. But it was his eyes that scared her the most. Where they used to be just bright blue, there were now golden flecks and spots on them, and they were shining slightly.

She'd bet they glowed in the dark.

"E-edogawa-kun...?"

"Haibara-san!" he cried, jumping to her, and, grinning wildly, giving her a massive glomp-hug thing that almost made her lose her balance and fall over. He seemed VERY perky to be wearing all that black... Wait. Stop. Rewind. Long pause. Black...? Oh. CRAP.

"Get OFF her!" came a cry from behind them, and Conan peeked over her shoulder to look at Mitsuhiko being jealous. Very jealous. So very jealous, in fact, that for some reason that Ai could not yet discern, he gave a "WAI!!" and bounced over to Mitsuhiko-kun, Ayumi-kun, and Genta-kun and gave them all very large glomp-hugs, and began to chatter animatedly with Ayumi-kun. They began to walk away, and Conan called brightly over his shoulder, "Come on, Haibara-san!!"

She stared at him.

What the hell was going ON?!


Mitsuhiko was annoyed. Conan-kun was being VERY close with Ai-Chan. How DARE he?! Conan-kun knew she liked him! And Ai-Chan knew it too. Well, she would. He just had to tell Ai-Chan he loved her, then she'd admit to loving him too, and he'd grow up to be a famous doctor and he'd live in a big house and marry her, and then they'd be together forever and ever!! It was perfect!

But first he had to keep Conan-kun from liking her, and vice- er... vice... vice-versa! That was the phrase. Now they were in math, and Conan-kun was still acting weird. He looked really bored, and he had finished his multiplication tables in 22 seconds! Mitsuhiko had timed him. Now, Ai was starting to look mildly bored too (she had finished in 37 seconds, and had started reading an American magazine), and Conan-kun was resolutely raising his hand like he'd been doing for about three minutes now. Ayumi-chan was almost done and Genta-kun was halfway through with it.

"Oh, ah, yes Edogawa-kun?"

"Do you have any high school work, like advanced algebra or geometry, senpai? I'm bored."

The teacher Looked at him. Really. Mitsuhiko watched as Senpai's expression rapidly changed from boredom to shock to curiosity to amusement.

"I'll get some Edogawa-kun." So she had decided to go along with him. Conan-kun couldn't do high school work! Even Ai-Chan couldn't do high school work, and she was probably the smartest in the class.

"Could you bring answer sheets to? I want to check my work."

He started to look around at the students again, but something caught his eye. Ai-Chan was facing Conan-kun with a look of pure rage on her face, and she was hissing, "Are you crazy?!"

"What?" he whispered back to her. "I am. I feel like my brain's gonna fall to pieces here! I. Am. Bored. As. Hell."

Mitsuhiko gave a small gasp. Conan couldn't swear in front of Ai-Chan! It WASN'T allowed. Really.

"Hell's actually kind of light for this place, but we can discuss this later."

Mitsuhiko made a mental note to follow them home after he finished being traumatized. His A-Chan! Swearing! He would have to investigate this.

At this point Senpai re-entered the room, carrying a few sheets of paper. She set them on Conan-kun's desk and walked back to the front of the room, giggling slightly.

Ai-Chan sighed and tapped Conan-kun on the shoulder. He smirked at her, she scowled at him and he handed her a couple sheets, still smirking.

They rushed through the problems as if they were racing. A few times they asked Senpai for some blank paper, and a couple more times Ai-Chan tapped on Conan-kun's shoulder,

and he gave her more work. When they were done, Ai-Chan whirled on Conan-kun and whispered, "Forty-eight out of fifty! Beat that!"

He waved his papers at her and said, "Forty-nine out of fifty. I just got 42 wrong."

"I got that one right, but I got 28 and 46 wrong."

"You probably multiplied n by x instead of 5s."

"5s is x. And you divided y by z instead of x in 42. It was 86!"

"No, it wasn't! I checked it! And x squared was z."

Mitsuhiko stared.

What was going ON today?!


Ayumi couldn't find anything to do. She had finished her lunch, but Genta-kun was still stuffing himself. Conan-kun had gone off to play without eating, and Ai-chan had followed him with her lunch, and then Mitsuhiko-kun had followed them to spy. Ayumi had asked him if he ever spied on her. He had said no and run off.

After thinking such trivial thoughts as these for a little while, Ayumi decided to go spy on Conan-kun and Ai-chan with Mitsuhiko-kun.

She crept from the cafeteria to the playground, and around some supply sheds until she came upon Mitsuhiko-kun peeking around a corner, where she could hear raised voices. She joined Mitsuhiko-kun in his mission.

"-kill you if you're not careful around them! You know what they did to me! Do you want to be -"

"So you'd rather die than put me in danger?"

Ai stopped moving suddenly. She turned away from Conan-kun and started shaking, like she was crying.

"Huh. So you like me, eh?"

In a flurry of movement, Ai whirled around, and a moment later, her fist was where Conan-kun's face had been just seconds before. He was a few feet away from there, watching her with cool eyes. Ayumi gasped softly.

"YOU'RE SUCH AN ASS, KUDO! I HATE YOU!!"

Ayumi could now see that Ai-chan was shaking with rage, not crying, though her eyes were slightly moist.

"You're just like you were before. What the hell happened to you? What did they do to you, Shinichi-kun?"

Why was Ai-chan calling Conan-kun by Shinichi-onii-san's name? What was going on? This was beginning to scare her.

Ai-chan suddenly stormed out of the space between the two sheds, not noticing Ayumi and Mitsuhiko-kun is her emotional turmoil. Silence for a few seconds; then...

"Was it something I said?"

"Of course it was. Idiot, you're so clueless."

A girl about Shinchi-onii-san and Ran-nee-chan's age was sitting on the fence between the sheds. She had shoulder-length, wild brown hair, and bright blue eyes, like Conan-kun and Shinichi-onii-san's had been. Her face held an amused expression, and she was dressed in all black.

"Brandy."

"Cool Guy."

They glared defiantly at each other for a few moments before the girl looked helplessly up at the sky. Brandy. Odd name for a teenage girl.

"I hate this. I hate being one of their goddamn science projects!"

Conan-kun chuckled dryly.

"It's actually kind of fun. Wolves take emotions to the extreme, you know."

"Just as cats stay calm all the time. By the way..."

Brandy turned to look down at Conan-kun. Ayumi looked confusedly from one to the other. Cats? Wolves? Science experiments? What was happening? What had gone on during the last week?

"Sherry doesn't know what emotion is. She's spent seventeen years with a perfect poker face on, and I don't think she intends to change."

"How would you know?" Conan-kun spat at her.

"I grew up with 'Haibara Ai.' I know her better than anyone in the world, Cool Guy. Oh, and the organization gave you a present. You'll find it when you get out of school."

Shaking and breathing heavily, Ayumi turned away from the scene. Eyes wide, Mitsuhiko-kun faced her. Stumbling to their feet, they ran back to the cafeteria.

When he came back in, Conan-kun looked very, very angry.

She could only stare at him.

What had happened to him?


Genta was CONFUSED. Really, really confused, like when he did math. Only it was people who were the problems. Ayumi-Chan and Mitsuhiko-kun had run back into the cafeteria, looking really, really scared, and Conan-kun came in late, looking twice as angry as they had looked scared.

That didn't make sense.

Whatever.

"What?!"

"Huh?"

Genta blinked. He'd been staring dazedly at Conan-kun, who had finally noticed and snapped at him. "Uh, sorry Conan-kun."

Conan-kun glared at him for a little bit longer, then returned to his Kanji.

Genta stared at him.

What was going on today???