A/N: And now... let the fun begin! *cough* I mean... Time to go to school. Have fun Shugo...
The first file: New world, new life
Sub-file three: Teitan Elementary
It was the fifth of April. Shugo stood by the gate and fiddled with the straps of his new school bag. He was nervous. Not because of school since he was learning some new things this time(mainly kanji and Japanese history) but of fitting in. It was completely new kids, completely new environment and completely old era. Anything could happen…
"Hey, aren't you going in?" A voice from his left asked, making the boy jump. Shugo glanced at the girl speaking. She was dressed in a bright red t-shirt and a light blue capri-length jeans and had black hair that barely touched her shoulders. But what most drew Shugo's attention was the horn-like part of her hair perched atop of her head.
"I… kinda…" The boy stammered, trying to find a proper way to reply.
"Come, I'll introduce you to my friends." The girl was pulling the boy already towards a group of pupils who were gathered under a sign 1-A.
"Ah, wait!" But Shugo's protest went to deaf ears.
"Ran-chan! Over here!" A girl from the group, with a bow in her brown polka-cut hair, waved to the girl pulling Shugo.
"Sonoko-chan!" The said girl waved back. The duo stopped by the group which consisted of both girls and boys. Some of them had still their schoolbags on their back but some had put them on the ground. Excited chattering was filling the air.
"Eh, who is this?" The girl named Sonoko leaned forward to take a better look on Shugo.
"This is…" Ran began but realized then that she hadn't asked the boy his name. "Umm… What's your name?" She asked sheepishly.
Shugo allowed himself to smile and extended his hand to the girl. "Midorikawa Shugo. Nice to meetcha!"
"My name is Mouri Ran. Nice to meet you too, Shugo-kun." Ran took the hand and shook it. "This is my friend Suzuki Sonoko and over there…" The girl stood tiptoe and pointed over all the heads of other kids. "…Is Kudou Shinichi. He is also my friend."
"Say, are you new around here?" Sonoko butted in. "You seem like you don't know anyone here."
"Well, I… I moved here quite recently." Shugo grinned nervously.
"It's alright. I'm sure you aren't the only one who doesn't know any people beforehand." Ran smiled brightly. "And now you already know us!"
"True…" Maybe this wouldn't be so bad…
"I take my words back…" Shugo groaned underneath the kotatsu table. Why Yamato still had it, he didn't know. Nevertheless, it was comfortable. The apartment was still quite chilly though it was already April. But it made more reason to curl up underneath the kotatsu.
"Why don't we have these in Finland?" Shugo thought distractedly when Yamato arrived with their take-out Chinese dinner.
"What happened then?" The man asked amusedly as he placed the plates on the table and opened the boxes.
"Kudou was being a prat…" The boy muttered but yelped then: Yamato had kicked him. "What was that for?!"
"Don't hog all the space down there."
Cursing under his breath, the now black-haired boy sat up and turned to face the food on the table.
"What did the kid do then to annoy you that badly?" Yamato asked.
"… He was acting like he knew everything going on in the class and insulted Mouri-chan."
"Insulted?"
"Well, not really. But obviously whatever he said, upset her greatly." Shugo picked the chopsticks from the table and took his plate in front of him. "Itadakimasu!"
"Itadakimasu." Yamato said too and began eating. "Do you know what was it then?"
"I guess it has something to do with addressing each other…" The sweet and sour chicken tasted quite good. "Kudo wants that they call each other by last names because 'they aren't kids anymore'…"
"But they are kids!" Yamato almost choked on his food as he began laughing.
"Exactly." Shugo sighed. "And I'm going to tell him that the next time he does it."
"By the way… We are kind of acting like siblings." Yamato noted suddenly.
"Urusa~i…"
It was the break time after a math lesson. Shugo let out a relieved sigh. After writing over and over again the same number on the work sheet, his hand was kind of tired. He had completed his paper along with Kudou but about everyone else in the class were only halfway done. Kids were so easily distracted.
"Hey, do you have any idea what to play?" Ran asked Shugo as they made their way to their lockers to get their shoes.
"Hmm… Pole ja rofe?" The boy suggested.
"'Poree ya roufee'?" The girl tilted her head in confusion.
"Ah, sorry, I meant cops and robbers. You know… The 'cops' catching the others and leading to a 'jail' where those 'robbers' gotta stay until they are freed?" Shugo slipped his sneakers to his feet.
"Yes, I know it! I'm sure that others want to play it too!" The duo ran to the rest of their classmates. "Guys! Shugo-kun wants to play Cops and robbers! Are you in?" Ran called.
"Sure!"
"Sounds great!"
"I want in too!" The kids agreed.
"I don't want to…" Someone protested.
"No one is forcing you." Sonoko huffed. "I'm in, if Ran-chan is."
"What is that game?" Someone asked from the back to the group.
"Shugo-kun can explain." Ran smiled and pushed the boy forward as he had a habit of stepping behind others and not to take the spot light.
"Uh… I…" Shugo stammered as he was suddenly on the focus of the children. "Damn, they are just kids. You can do this, Shugo."
"Well?" Sonoko tapped her feet impatiently.
"Well, basically it's like Catch, only with teams. One team is the Police and the other one is the Robbers. The Police will give ten seconds for the Robbers to flee and then run after them to catch them. The jail is that tree." Shugo pointed the large tree near the edge of the school yard. "Once a police catches a robber, they'll escort them to the tree where to robber will stay. The robber can't resist the arrest once caught and another robber can't interrupt the escorting. Once at the jail, the robber can be freed by another robber by touching their hand. But the robbers at the jail can't form a chain to reach further and the police can't guard the jail. Everyone must stay on the move. The game ends when all the robbers are in the jail or when we get tired with our roles."
"Sounds great!" The kids who hadn't before heard of the game, cheered.
"Hey, I can get Shinichi to play too." Ran suggested suddenly.
"…I'll come with you. The rest of you can decide how to pick up the roles." Shugo nodded to the kids. "Sonoko-chan, I'll leave you in response of organizing this."
"Me?" The polka-haired girl pointed at herself in confusion when the duo ran back inside.
"Shinichi! Hey, Shinichi!" Ran called the boy with messy bangs and funny 'antenna' on the back of his head.
"Geez, I told you!" The said boy huffed. "At school don't call me by the first name! It's embarrassing…"
"But Shinichi is Shinichi, right?" Ran replied cheerily.
"Call me Kudou-kun! And I'll call you Mouri-san… Besides, we're not gonna stay kids forever! So I'm counting on you Mouri-san, ok?" The mystery otaku was about to turn around when Shugo began laughing loudly.
"Kami… I can't believe this…"
"What is it, Midorikawa-kun?" Shinichi frowned.
"'Kids'? You seriously think that we aren't kids anymore?" Shugo grinned in great amusement. "Wait until you are in your teens. Maybe then you can change the way of addressing your best friend but at the moment you are just making a fool of yourself."
"A fool?"
"Yes, a fool. A great fool! You are just a kid, Kudou. A proper brat a top of that judging by your behavior. Honestly, you act all-knowing and all-annoying, embarrassing only yourself!" The two boys were facing each other, their noses only inches apart.
The silence thickened. The staring match between Shinichi and Shugo was taking everyone's attention. Even some of the kids that had been gathered outside, were there. Suddenly Shugo smirked.
"Shortie." He flicked Shinichi's forehead and straightened up, reminding the other boy that he was taller than him.
"Hey!" Shinichi protested, rubbing his forehead.
"We had planned to invite you to play with us Cops and robbers but since you turned out to be a complete jerk, I think we'll pass. Come, Ran-chan." Shugo lead the upset girl outside. "Don't pay attention on what he says."
"Ooh, Midorikawa-kun has a girlfriend!" Some boys yelled after them in glee. Ran blushed, Shinichi glared at Shugo and the boy himself… Well, he glanced at them and smirked.
"No, I'm just being a gentleman towards a lady. That requires much more guts than subtle bullying." The latter jab was directed towards Shinichi who should've realized by it that his words had hurt Ran. But he didn't. He only saw another boy leading away 'his girl'. (Though he barely even realized thinking Ran as such.)
After school Shinichi cornered Shugo in the back of the schoolyard.
"Stay away from Ran." The detective boy ordered.
"Why should I? She's my first friend here." Shugo stuffed his hands lazily into his jeans' pockets.
"She is my friend and you are not allowed to take her to yourself." The kid was so angry that he barely could keep it to himself.
"Allowed? To myself? That's absurd. I'm not taking her anywhere and most importantly I'm not trying to own her. She has her own free will, you know, and she can decide herself with whom she wants to be."
"Something is wrong with you, Midorikawa-kun. And if that is going to endanger Ran, I'll make you pay."
"Speak for yourself." Shugo regarded the other boy coldly. "You are the trouble magnet here, not me."
That was an insult. The last thing to make Shinichi snap. The kid charged at Shugo but the other boy stepped aside easily, sticking his foot out and making Shinichi trip. The detective kid fell face first on the ground, scraping his knees and elbows in process.
"You should watch out. One day when you are heading head first to solve a mystery or whatever you are interested in… You might endanger not only yourself but also the people you care about." Shugo stated lazily and crouched next to Shinichi. "Don't misunderstand me. I'm not your enemy and I don't want to be one. I'm not even your rival. I just care too much about the people I consider as my friends. Ran-chan is one of those. And you upset her greatly today."
"…" Shinichi pushed himself off the ground and glared at Shugo who… was nowhere seen. Instead there was a packet of band-aids placed in front of him and a sticky note on the front.
"Patch yourself up, shortie.
You can't let Ran-chan see you like this,
right?"
Grumbling, the mystery otaku sat up and began to wipe the blood off his knees.
"What happened?!" Was the first thing Kudou Yukiko asked her son when he came home. Late and with bandaged up knees and elbows.
"I… fell." Shinichi mumbled.
"And you expect me to believe that? How did you fall? In the stairs? To you own feet?" Yukiko leaned closer to inspect the boy's scrapes that hadn't been covered by the Totoro band-aids. "And where did you get those, Shin-chan?"
"…Midorikawa-kun gave them to me."
"And why would he do that?"
"I don't know! I don't like him." The boy glared up at his mother who glared back with a smirk on her face.
"Midorikawa-kun, right?" Yukiko crossed her arms.
A nod.
"I heard about him from Eri. Ran-chan is very taken by him, isn't that right?" The woman stated knowingly. Reluctantly, the boy nodded. "Shin-chan is jealous~!"
"I'm not!"
"Yes, you are~. Invite him over someday. I'd like to meet him too."
"Definitely not!" Shinichi protested.
"You will." Came the stern order and all he could do, was to sigh in defeat. But that didn't stop him glaring daggers to the general direction of the brunette woman.
"Your mother wants to meet me?" Shugo blinked when Shinichi told him about the predicament on the next day.
"Yeah… No idea why though…" The detective kid grumbled, stubbornly looking away from the other boy.
"Well, I can come. I'm sure Yamato-niisan is fine with it too." Shugo shrugged. At that Shinichi's head perked up. Usually when children talked about getting a permission to do something, they mentioned their parents or grandparents.
"Niisan?"
"Yeah. Ishikawa Yamato-niisan. I live with him."
"Why don't you live with your parents?"
"They are busy so my sister and I live with family friends." Shugo got his books out of his schoolbag and sat down.
"You have a sister?"
"Yeah, a big sister. Her name is Hoshi. She doesn't live with us though…" The boy trailed off like he didn't really want to talk about it.
That made Shinichi shut up. He hadn't thought before that Shugo might have his own problems too. The young detective had only focused on the outer appearance and cover, not what was behind and underneath everything.
"I need to become a better detective…" The boy thought. "Well, I'm waiting for you at the gate then. Don't be late Midorikawa-kun."
"…I won't." Shugo smiled.
A/N: And here it is. I keep surprising you guys over and over again, do I not? :) About Shugo and Shinichi's height difference... it's about the same than between Conan and Mitsuhiko in the manga right now. Not like it was in the beginning when the kids' heights were all over the place.
And now is mentioned 'Hoshi'. That's what Shugo will use when talking about his sister. After all Tsukiko will appear in ten years of their time and will be one year younger than he at the time. Oh and one more thing! If you remember chapter 44 from Dream or Not, Tsukiko told Yamato to call her Kagemiya Hoshi. Do you remember what Yamato commented to it? "Somehow I'm not surprised." This is what he referred to. He and Shugo had been referring to he as Hoshi for a long time before Tsukiko even arrived to DC World. But she couldn't have known about it since she left to DC world before him. Don't you just love paradoxes? ;D
Review Replies:
-Yoru-KID's rival:
Nice to see you here too. I'm glad you like this one too.
Ah, I really don't know if Conan will remember anything about Shugo when they were kids. The chibi tantei has such a poor memory when it comes to personal matters...
Tsukiko's glasses? I think... I dunno. I need to think about this one...
Ah, yes. I read the fic and it's brilliant! I can't wait to read the next chapter too. :)