This is so embarrassing… it took so long for me to come up with the second chapter… Anyway, I'm done with my finals and work on this actually done many weeks ago. I've managed to add a few ideas, scraping away some ideas, making it a bit different from what I had in mind in my notes (which I had trouble finding).

Again, I do not own Detective Conan/Case Closed, or the characters. This is just a fanfic from a fan, never wanting to make any money out of it. But other things that haven't been copyrighted here, well, I wrote them… /

By the way, any thoughts, feedback, flaming, or sweets welcomed.

Chapter 2: Carry on with the Obvious...

"What is immobile must suffer violence," – Edward Lasker.

"Haibara?"

She heard her name being called. She was in no hurry to answer -- it's not like she could, though, as every attempt to utter a word left her breathless. But her familiarity with the voice instantly made her know that she was somewhere safe.

She'd be on her bed; and just like in every (typical) episode, he would be by her side whenever 'Tragedy-Prone' Ai needed unsolicited, but silently appreciated, company. He needn't say any words of encouragement. She knew what he'd say anyway; both able to pass their thoughts in silence.

For Ai, however, while being able to receive most of his, some of hers felt like they traveled along a one way stream, always ending up somewhere else… and always lost. Like a paper ship you just wish would reach somewhere... full of hopes, all the while aware of the inevitable end.

Now, all she had to do was open her eyes and--hang on...what's this?

A male dove, his name was Vladimir, was flying in circles around his mate, Marsha, in the bright blue sky (don't ask me why they were dating up there or why they had such names), chirping flawless notes which, unmistakably, were love songs, probably taken right out of a Kenny G album. Marsha was about to do her part of the duet when—

"YEEEEAAYAAYYAYAARRHHHHHHH!"

Vladimir's birdie eyes stared wide open at Marsha.

"No, it was not me, Vladdykins," said Marsha, in her urban Russian accent, when she noticed his confusion.

"Then who--,"

Whack!

"Vladdykins!"

Now, let's turn our attention away from those love birds and focus on Ai. It's easy to figure it out but I will have to stick to formalities -- she was freefalling down the sky, screaming words which, no doubt, had traces of 'Parental Advisory'.

"Thanks a lot, Kudo!" she screamed. "Instead of being granted instant death, replaying it on God's widescreen while eating fried angel wings on a sofa, you wake me up (not that he really did) and let me add some more verbs to it!"

Those were the last words heard from Ai that day. I know they were not quite good last words you would expect from her but she hasn't met her creator yet because, well, read on…

Blank.

"How convenient," she said to herself, referring to the five letters that described what she saw. She wasn't even sure if her eyes were really closed. Her mind started to race (crawled, rather…) backwards, reconstructing the turn of events that began to project clearly in her mind.

"Are you okay?"

Ai felt someone shaking her shoulders. Ai felt the movement welcomed by her body as if they had transformed into kinetic energy. Slowly and slowly, her eyes opened to a blurry face. Up side down, it seemed, so she tried getting up to meet the stranger. After much effort, she managed to bring her body up; straws of hay which had stuck on her clothes fell off her as she did.

"Are you okay?" the stranger repeated.

"My body hurts all over—"

Ai froze. Right in front of her stood Ayumi -- with a mouse-like nose and whiskers.

"What happened to you?" Ai shot out.

"I don't think she's okay, Ms Areyoume," said another whom Ai made out as Mitsuhiko, or at least someone who looks like him—with a long beak and brightly colored wings!

"Well, can you please help me get this poor creature in, Michi?" asked Ms Areyoume, obviously ignoring Ai's question.

"Sure, Ms Areyoume."

Ai only watched as he put her left arm around his shoulder while Ms. Areyoume took care of the other, walking her slowly towards a small wooden house. She managed to look back at the stack of hay she landed on. It was a pretty big pile, considerably larger than that of a truck but she knew that there was no way she could've survived such a fall. But on her right was a girl with a mousy nose and whiskers and on her other side there was a colorful 'Big Bird'. Anything would have made sense to her then.

Soon, their walk in the woods brought them to a small, wooden house. It was a small one storey house with not much furniture. Brown and buff colored was the theme of the interior and wooden furniture complemented them, giving a hint that the place had a touch from someone neat and simple.

"Where do I start?" Ai thought.

What happened to the professor, why she was falling from the sky, how she survived, where she was, and who these people were -- they all need answers. And she had none. Except for the last one, she might have come up with something reasonable.

For the time being she may as well resort to assumptions and fill the gaps with anything she could think of. That's how most humans operate when they go about their line of thinking (I did my research). Anything cloudy remains cloudy. And what remains cloudy somehow eventually ends up being the truth. Even when a crack of light gets through, they're so used with the 'truth' they don't feel like giving it up.

She wasn't losing objectivity but she guessed that anybody would do the same.

"Where am I…" she asked out loud, not really in a questioning tone, but it fell under the question bracket anyway as it started with 'where'.

"Why, this is Greywood," said Ms Areyoume in reply as she helped Ai onto a bed. Note that it was not a question even though it started with 'why'. I hate English...

"Now, don't talk too much, we must do something about those bruises of yours."

Michi came into the room with a wooden box, a medicine box as it turned out, and Ms Areyoume took some things out before dabbing some sort of bluish ointment onto some parts of her legs, just after cleaning them with a wet towel. Ai only watched as Ms Areyoume tended the little wounds. Sometimes she'd look at Ms Areyoume but the 'person' in front of her would only smile at her…

"There you go," Ms Areyoumi said while adding some finishing touches to the bandage on Ai's leg.

Ai couldn't help but notice that the mouse-like Ayumi in front of her had the same mother-like qualities like the Ayumi she knew. Looking at Ms Areyoume's face, which was similar to Ayumi's adorable face you just wish belongs to your little sister, Ai said nothing more.

Ai was not slow to realize what was going on. In fact, any reader would, no doubt, be able to guess anything I might write right till the very end…

"I tailed the 'White Rabbit', 'fell' into this world and encountered a mouse and a bird just like in the story," she started to reason. "This must be Wonderland! I think I've skipped the part where I'm supposed to find the drink that would--"

She was just about to finish by remarking about the potion's properties when she saw Ms Areyoume holding onto her mousy nose and whiskers...and, to Ai's surprise, stripped them right off!