A/N Ha! And you thought there was going to be a long wait again! I appreciate the reviews enormously! I apologize for the long wait between chapter one and chapter two!

Last chapter

Conan looked at the familiar faces of his old classmates. "Um...Hi. My name is Conan and I'm seven years old. I'm uh pleased to meet you?" the last part came out sounding like a question.

The class just stared quietly at him. Conan gulped.

'Oh jeez...'

Chapter three

And then there was madness.

"What! A little kid!"

"He's soooooooooo cute!"

"Ran! You're looking especially hot today!" (Ran glared shot that person a glare)

"Is this for real?"

"Conan-chan! Do you want to be my friend!"

"No way he's mine! I saw him first!"

"Kawaii!"

"Little kid thinks he can steel our girls!"

"How embarrassing."

"Come sit next to me Conan-chan!"

"Hey Ran! Why didn't you tell me the kid was going to be in our class!"

The last remark was made by Suzuki Sonoko.

"Doesn't he look like someone?" said someone else.

"Class!" shouted Ms. Mikawa. "That's enough, please calm down."

"Looks like your popular already Conan-kun!" Ran bent down and nudged him with her elbow." Meanwhile Conan just stood there with his eyes bugging out of his head.

He regained his composure admired the familiar ness of the room. Out of habit he walked up to his old desk and plopped down into the chair while setting his bag on the smooth surface.

The teacher stared at him. "How did you know that was going to be your seat? She asked.

Conan looked up at her strangely then realization dawned on him and he immediately made an effort to cover his tracks.

"Uhh...lucky guess?"

"Wow Conan When did you become psychic?" Ran joked settling herself down in her seat next to his.

A wistful smile played across Ran's face for a second and Conan noticed it.

'Now more than ever, sitting in that seat...He just reminds me so much of--"

"Shinichi!"

Ran and Conan both looked up, suddenly alert, and stared over at the person who spoke. Said person was looking straight at him.

"You look exactly like Shinichi!"

There was a murmur of agreement from the rest of the class and Conan began to sweat slightly. He knew they would notice! Soon everyone would hear about it thanks to the exceptional intelligence system of the school. (I.e.: High school Gossip)

Before Ms. Mikawa could do anything the class had erupted into conversation again.

"Shinichi has been missing for a long time hasn't he?" One girl asked.

"Too bad," stated another girl, "He was really cute and way smart,"

"Yeah, the perfect guy," yet another sighed. Conan felt his face heat up.

"Too bad he was always hanging around you Ran. Everyone knows he liked you best." She nudged Ran playfully.

"Conan's eyes widened considerably at that comment and his face became even redder. But it was nothing compared to Ran. Her face was the same shade as her shirt, which was a very dark red that day, and she was stuttering incoherently. If Conan wasn't so busy being embarrassed he might have noticed how much Ran looked like himself after one of his mothers teasing comments about his and Ran's relationship.

Meanwhile at the head of the classroom Ms. Mikawa was at a loss for what to do. The class was being unusually impossible that day. She had been yelling over the excited shouts for about ten minutes and as far as she could tell, nobody had heard her. Giving up, she sighed and walked over to her desk. It was against regulations but she decided to give the class a free period. After all, sharing class with a second grader would take some getting used to, so they could use this time to get to know him.

"So Ran, are you gonna tell me why Chibi-kun is here?" asked Sonoko, successfully changing the subject. As Ran explained the situation to her friend, Conan watched his classmates continue to ponder over the whereabouts of his older self.

"I heard that Kudou fell in love with a girl at a different school and ran off with her." One guy stated. Conan stared at him.

"But I heard that he was caught up on a difficult case for the police or something." said a girl.

"No way! I bet he's off in America with his parents lying on a beach and laughing at us because we're stuck in school." said another boy.

'Where are people getting information like that' Conan thought almost falling backwards in his chair from the sheer idiocy around him.

"Hey Ran, weren't you with him when he disappeared?" asked Sonoko. All eyes turned Ran.

"Well sort of," said Ran. "We were gonna walk home from tropical land when he just ran off and said he'd meat up with me later."

"Ooooohhhh, Ran and Shinichi were on a ddddaaaaaaaaattttttteeee!"

"Well he came back for the school play," continued Sonoko. "That was so funny! He totally believed me when I told him what to do for his part!

"I remember that! He got it all wrong!" Somebody else said.

There were laughs as everyone recalled the school play that had run amuck.

Conan sweat dropped. 'Thanks a bunch Sonoko, how was I supposed to know what to do?'

"So has anyone seen him since then?" someone asked.

There was silence for a minute as everyone waited for an answer. Then a quiet boy named Taichi that Shinichi remembered being on the soccer team in junior high spoke up.

"I haven't seen him exactly..." he started. Everyone waited for him to continue. Ran was listening carefully. Any news she could get on Shinichi would be quite welcome.

"I don't know if it was Shinichi Kudou or a different detective, and I don't know if they were telling the truth...they were kind of creepy so I left soon after I heard..."

"What happened? Did you hear something about him?" asked ran expectantly.

"Well," Taichi went on. Ran vaguely noticed that suddenly Conan seemed really serious. "There were these two guys sitting outside a restaurant speaking in hushed voices. When I got closer I noticed that they were talking about a detective. They said something like,

'It's a good thing we took care of that detective brat while we could. He might have posed a threat to our next mission. Evidently the pill worked well since it has been this long and nobody has come after us. That little traitor Sherry really is a genius. People would pay a lot of money for an untraceable poison these days.'

That's what I heard anyway." he looked troubled. "I think...I think they killed someone...I think they killed Shinichi Kudou! Who else would be called a Detective Brat?" Everyone looked at the kid in shocked silence. All traces of humor were gone from the surrounding faces.

Conan's eyes widened and he felt his throat go dry. He turned to look at Ran. She was shaking slightly and her face had gone deathly pale.

'It can't be true! It can't...Shinichi...They must have been talking about some other high school detective. But...the only other person like that is Heiji, but I just talked to him four days ago. If it was him he would have to have been poisoned in the last couple days.' Ran thought.

"Taichi," she asked shakily, "When did you hear this?"

Taichi thought for a moment then said, "About a week and a half ago I think.

'Oh no...Shinichi...Shinichi...' Ran thought as the classroom spun faintly before her eyes and then everything went black.

000

The next chapter will be here soon. I promise there won't be any more long waits. I will finish this story! Please review!