CHAPTER 1

Haibara liked keeping to herself.

There were none too many people on the face of the Earth that she liked to communicate with, as almost all that they did were jabber endlessly about the newest string of gossip or the newest television show.

Which was partly why she spent so much time locked up by herself in her room, with all the lights switched off and the drapes shut tight. Darkness and silence were her two best friends, with sarcasm lagging behind. She was currently in the classroom, wearing clothes that were about six times smaller her usual size and studying books she never thought she'd have to see again.

She looked down on her desk tiredly. She didn't have this sort of headaches since she first started on APTX 5869, and was full of intelligence far above the brain level of anyone in the classroom.

Except one.

She looked sideways at Conan, who was pawing through his bag, biting his lip anxiously. She smiled softly. He was one of the very few survivors of the Black Organization's death list, and she respected him very well for that, despite that the only reason he was here was because of her interference.

He looked up, scratching his head.

He saw her looking at him.

He blushed and looked down once more, looking under his table. She raised her eyebrows. The only time that he was so uncool and hasty was when he had lost something dear to him.

" Lost something, Kudo?" she asked lazily.

He snapped to attention at the sound of his name and turned to face her.

" What?" he asked.

" Lost something, Kudo?" she repeated, without a trace of hesitation.

" Wha---oh. Yeah. Right. Can you help me find my two tickets to the Inter Cup? I queued up for the whole weekend for them, and they're missing!"

She smirked inwardly.

Oh course. Soccer. That was one of the few flaws of Kudo Shinichi, and that was his obsession for the sport. She didn't mind it much. Hell, she loved it. But he had once queued up for six whole days to get a ticket for the World Cup, and had to ask the Professor to bring his food to him at a campsite outside the ticket arena.

" No. I haven't."

Knowing perfectly that they were safely on the top of the computer where he had left it, she knew they were safe there. Conan had to move out of Ran's house just three days ago. She was far too suspicious of Conan for the past few weeks, and had overheard his conversation with the Professor. She had followed him secretly, and was shot dead by Gin.

But all thanks to her, the Black Organization was caught as she rang up the police, and for once the Organization was unprepared and were caught at last. There were still a number who roamed freely and escaped, and Haibara knew that it wouldn't take long for them to all break free and dominate again.

There was a huge funeral for her. She was a very popular girl, that was for sure. Filled with grief, Eri moved in back with Kogure and Sonoko moved to America. It was a pity though. Despite all the hatred for her, Haibara knew that she was a nice person. She remembered having to console Conan for a long time before he even smiled.

He had cried for days of her death and locked himself in his new room in the Professor's house from morning to night. But Haibara couldn't blame him. She remembered being like that when her sister died.

The famous Sleepy-head Kogure had lost its name. Although he had grown smarter over the years, he still lacked enough brains to compare with Shinichi and Heiji, and thus quit the detective business and joined the police force.

" Haibara!" the teacher yelled. " Pay attention."

Haibara sighed.

" Yes, Obita-sensei."

Pleased with her answer, the teacher smirked and returned to the lesson. Picking up the pencil tiredly, she rolled her eyes and copied down the sentence that was on the board.

' Jack can see the ball.' It read.

' Well, bully for Jack.' She thought depressingly, finishing the sentence rather slowly and put down the pencil. She had to fake her handwriting in this school, as it was rather unbelievable that a young child could have cursive writing, thus, she used her left hand to write most of the time.

Sometimes she wondered what were the use of teachers. She had thought one time that the occupation was to make the person feel smarter than how her or his IQW really was. Thus, they were separated into different catogaries. First of course, for the smartest people, there was University. Then there was obviously High School. Then Primary school, and finally---

" Haibara!! Why aren't you writing?"

Preschool.

She picked up her pencil once more.

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Conan sighed and walked alongside Haibara.

They had been small for a considerable amount of years now. 3 to be in fact, and he was always keen to ask her how was the research going. But she would always answer him with a sarcastic remark or one of those stone-cold glare that she loved to carry on so much that he gave up.

But lately he had been carrying mixed feeling for her. Ever since she had hugged him when he had another one of his nightmares in the middle of the night, he had blushed every time she looked at him. Was he carrying a crush for her? He shook himself mentally.

What was he thinking about?

He loved Ran.

Or did he?

He remembered confidently telling Haibara that he would take care of her and protect her. But did he have another meaning for that?

" Kudo," she said, and he was brought roughly back to Earth.

" Yeah?" he asked.

" I've been doing some thoughts about the drug," she said.

" APTX 4869?" he asked eagerly.

" No, I've just been smoking pot a lot in my room," she said sarcastically as they passed a brook.

" I was doing research one night," she went on, ignoring him rolling his eyes. " And I found out one missing ingredient in my test for APTX and that was bianca rock."

He raised his eyebrows.

" Bianca rock?" he asked. " I never heard that before."

" Of course you didn't," she said briskly. " It was found somewhere on the land of South Atlanta, and I was mighty surprised that I didn't think of that earlier. It would dissolve in the solution, and increase the number of protons found in the source. There's a lot more research into that and I don't want to go into it too deep, so I'll just make it short and sweet. I have the finishing formulae for APTX."

A smile brightened up on his face.

She chuckled.

" We're home." She called out.

" Welcome back!" the Professor said from the computer.

" So what do we do, you want to start straight away?" he asked excitedly.

" No." she said. " Take a shower, and then come to my room."

He blushed for no good reason at all.

" Y---Your room?"

She raised her eyebrows, clearly offended.

" I mean---," he stuttered. " Your room's kind of dusty---I mean, small---I mean---,"

" Okay," she said, rolling her eyes. " I'll come over to your room instead, if my room's not good enough. Take a shower within ten minutes."

" B—But---," he stuttered on, and scratched his head as she slammed the door behind her.

" Smooth." The Professor muttered out.

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Conan had taken a rush as he took a shower. He was excited to get back to his normal size so much that he almost dropped the shower tap on his head. He was just drying up when he heard a knock on the door.

" Haibara?" he asked.

" No." she said dryly. " It's Santa. Open up."

He muttered to himself as he opened the door. She was wearing a dark blue nightgown, her old clothes in one hand. His face reddened slightly.

" What?" she asked.

" Y---You look nice today." He said.

She raised her eyebrows.

" I---I didn't men you don't usually look nice," he went on hastily. " It's just that for today y---,"

" Whatever," she said, rolling her eyes for the umpteenth time. " Here." She said. " Take this. It's the tablet. Go into your toilet to drink it, and I'll stay out here. The reason we need to be as close to each other is so that if anything happens to you, I can help you at it."

" Thanks." He said, taking the pill.

Strange. Something so small could mean so much.

" See you," she said with a smirk.

He smiled at her, and went into the toilet. Without a seconds of haste, he dropped the pill into his mouth and swallowed. It seemed to churn within him for a moment before he felt a blasting pain in his stomach.

" Ahrrg!" he whimpered, and his eyes widened as he heard Haibara screaming in the other room. He hit his head against the wall as another pain burst through his lungs, bursting into his ribcage. His breath was coming out in pants as he fell headfirst on the floor. He had felt this before. But it hurt much more. Much much more. Did Haibara have an error in her calculations?

He gasped as it felt like he had a million growing pains all at one second. Something was flowing through him. It was liquid.

" AHRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!!!" he yelled once more before passing out.

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Haibara opened her eyes.

The room was tilted sideways, and she felt herself sprawled on the floor. She rubbed her head painfully and got up. Something strange had happened. Her hand had enlargened. She smiled and got to her feet. She ran over to the mirror. So it was true. She was back again.

The toilet door started to open and her eyes widened.

" Kudo! You open that door and I'm killing you dead!" she yelled in a voice lower than before.

" Why?" he asked.

" I---I'm not wearing anything---," she answered back, her cheeks reddening slightly, picking up her clothes. He grinned from behind the door. " I can't believe it!" he called out to her. " We're back! We're back!!!"

" Indeed." She said darkly, pulling on her skirt.

" Why?" he asked through the door. " Aren't you happy?"

" I'm alright," she said, pulling the halter top over her head. " But I just don't have any school to go to."

" You could come to mine," he said brightly. " It's really good. All the girls are really nice."

" I guess," she said reluctantly. " Okay. You can open the door now."

He opened the door with baited breath.

He almost dropped the small clothes in his hand.

" H---Haibara---," he whispered.

She had beauty that could rival Ran's, he thought. Her slender figure would definitely stand out in school.

" It's Shiho now," she said, smirking.

" You look beautiful," he whispered, letting it slip through his mouth, watching Shiho's mouth open in surprise. Then she smiled.

" Thanks," she said.

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They moved out of preschool the very next day. They didn't know how Mitsuhiko, Genta and Ayumi would feel, but they wrote individual messages to each of them that said they were sorry and that they would miss them.

" I bet Ayumi's keeping your letter under her pillow every night," Shiho said, smirking at him as they walked up to the High School of Shinichi. She had enrolled just two days ago, and she passed the entrance test with flying colours and got into the same class as Shinichi.

He blushed and looked away. He had wanted to compliment how tremendously beautiful she looked in the school uniform, but he thought better of it. He was already thanking Heavens she accepted the compliment he gave her yesterday, and did not address it back with a sarcastic comment.

They entered and all eyes were on them.

" Isn't that---Kudo Shinichi?"

" Isn't he dead?"

" Who's the babe?"

" Damn they fine!!!"

Words passed along all the way to the classroom as they entered the classroom.

" SHINICHI!!!" three boys yelled, charging for him. Shiho sweat dropped as they all yanked at his cheeks, yelling different things at him. " You leave for three years and you never give a call to us, and now you show up all cool and smug for the last year with---hey, who's this?"

They let go of Shinichi, who fell to the ground.

" Hey, who are you?" they asked.

" Shiho." She said plainly. " Shiho Miyano."

They grinned.

" My name is Yoro," one of them said.

" Mizakan." Another said.

" Mine is---,"

" Dumbass," Shinichi interrupted. " Don't hit on this one. She's off limits."

They raised their eyebrows at him.

Shiho, for one of the first times in her life, felt a small fade of blush on her cheeks.

" Damn it, Kudo!" one of them said. " First Ran the ultra hot babe, and now the pistol? Come on, Kudo, give us some sugar."

" Take salt instead." Shinichi said coolly.

" She's going to get hit on one way or another," Yoro said, grinning. " You see, another detective arrived just a few months before you. Not as smart as you, but some ways much cooler."

Shinichi raised his eyebrows.

" Who?"

" That guy with the blonde hair." They said, pointing to the young man at his desk. He saw them, and walked over.

" Whoops," Mizakan said. " Here he comes."

" Shiho---," Shinichi muttered.

But Shiho kept her cool. He was good-looking, that was for sure.

" Kudo Shinichi!" he said. " I've been wanting to meet you since forever."

" And you are?" Shinichi asked coolly.

" Hakuba." He said, grinning. "Saguru Hakuba."

END OF CHAPETR 1