A/N: And now it's Chiyuki's turn. I think after this chapter I'll start writing regular chapters for both this and Colibri. And actually concentrate on my school stuff before continuing. :]
21
Chiyuki tried her best to push Akemi's death behind her. She had barely known the woman after all. And she was mentally fifteen, at least. So why should… a death of a… fictional character… matter…
Tears bubbled in her eyes and fell down her cheeks. Chiyuki took several greedy gulps of air in order not to make any noise and alert Nabiki but…
"…" She was so sad. Akemi was her mother. It didn't matter that Nabiki had mostly raised her, Akemi had loved her anyways. "Mama…"
Her death hurt. There was no way over and around it. No way to deny it.
"Shh…" Nabiki appeared by her side. "Just let it out, Chi-chan… Let it all out…" The woman rubbed circles on her back.
"I… I want… mama…"
"I know… Trust me, I know… I want her too…"
22
Chiyuki escaped to make-believe worlds Ayano was excellent to craft. Some day they were part of Kamen Yaiba's allies, the next they had dragons, princesses and knights. Time after school was spent in parks or at Ayano's house. Toshiya and Kaito happily tagged along.
Chiyuki was busy and happy. She was learning little magic tricks and was in good terms with her friends.
Then Ayano told her father had gone on a long trip. Right before her birthday even. Chiyuki stopped eating her lunch and turned to look at her friend.
"Are you alright, Aya-chan?" She asked.
"Of course! It's just a silly trip. Okaa-san said that otou-san will come back soon." The other girl smiled. "Which reminds me, I've got these invitations for you guys!"
Ayano took bunch of invitation cards from her backpack and gave three of them to her friends.
"Thank you, Ayano-chan." Toshiya thanked.
"Thank you!" Kaito chimed in.
"Thank you, Aya-chan." Chiyuki smiled in strained manner but turned her attention to the other cards then. "That's a lot of invitations."
"Yeah. I'm inviting both our class and B-class. Do you wanna help me put these in their shoelockers?"
"Sure."
23
Day before Ayano's birthday, Chiyuki spied the other girl's mother entering the Mouri detective agency. She turned silently away and hurried home.
About an hour later, there was a call in the landline. Nabiki answered it.
"Chi-chan, it's Ayano-chan's mother asking if you want to go shopping with Ayano-chan and Miyoshi-san."
"Okay." Anything for her friend. Especially considering that she would be told of her father's death after her birthday.
24
Ayano picked an orange dress with white ruffles. And somehow managed to convince Chiyuki to picked herself a mint green dress with lilac accents.
"You look cute in that, Chi-chan!" Ayano gushed.
"You think so?"
"Yes. Right, Mako-neechan?"
"Indeed. You make a wonderful pair." The magician apprentice smiled to the two girls.
"But is it really okay for me getting a dress? It's Aya-chan birthday soon, not mine." Chiyuki frowned.
"It's fine. Your mother agreed when I asked." Mako showed her pager. "Shall we go pay for these and go to eat then?"
"Yes!" The girls smiled.
25
They ate at Donny's when Mako got a message from Ayano's mother, asking them to go back.
"No way!" Ayano protested.
"But it's getting late." Chiyuki pointed out. "If we stay up too long, we'll be all tired tomorrow."
"But Mako-neechan is taking us to a surprise place though?"
"We have to take Chiyuki-chan home first. Her mother asked that she'd come home before it's too late." Mako answered.
And so Chiyuki was dropped off at home. Mako and Ayano visited park that had fireworks on that night before returning the Tsukumo residence, the girl all tired.
26
Ayano's birthday party was great even though the birthday girl was upset Mako couldn't attend. Chiyuki tried her best to distract her friend with the help of Toshiya, Kaito and the two remaining disciples.
Almost everyone who got the invitation, were present. Except for Edogawa Conan who was spending time with a relative of his.
Weeks later Ayano took absent from school for her father's funerals.
27
Toshiya's brother went missing so he made a request for the Detective Boys to solve the case. On the same time than leaving the request, class 1-B got a new student, Haibara Ai.
Chiyuki bit her lip. She wanted to see Shiho again. But how? She was shrunk. And Chiyuki wasn't supposed to know about APTX.
When the day ended, Chiyuki, Ayano and Kaito went to collect their shoes together while Toshiya waited for the detectives in their classroom. They'd offered to stay with Toshiya but the boy had refused, saying he trusted the detectives.
Chiyuki had gotten her shoes on and was passing the shoe locker aisles when she abruptly stopped to watch the 1-B students. And one of them… had reddish brown hair…
"Chiyuki-chan? Are you alright?" Kaito asked. Chiyuki blinked rapidly and noticed tears falling from her eyes.
"I… Yes… Sorry…" She wiped tears away quickly and ran outside.
"Chi-chan, wait!" Ayano called after her before rounding the Detective Boys and the new transfer. "What did you do to Chi-chan?!"
"Wha-? Nothing!" Kojima Genta protested. What else was being said, Chiyuki didn't hear when the doors closed behind her. Kaito had run after her.
"Chiyuki-chan?" The boy asked. "Are you sure you are alright? We can postpone game night, if you want to."
"So Toshi-kun can play with us?" Chiyuki rubbed her eyes.
"Yes. And… Is there something you need?"
"Not really."
"Okay."
Ayano appeared next to them.
"Okay. They were apparently innocent." The magician's daughter grumbled. "And I remembered okaa-san asked me to come straight home today."
"So the game night is postponed?" Kaito confirmed.
"Well, you two can still play, if you want to… But the sleepover game night gotta be rescheduled."
"Okay. Let's have it when we all can attend." Kaito smiled. "Do you still wanna come over Chiyuki-chan?"
"Yeah… If you don't mind…" Chiyuki sniffed and blew her nose to a handkerchief.
"It's okay. We can play other games or maybe with my cars or something."
28
Next day they heard from Toshiya that his brother had been threatened into helping a group of money counterfeiters.
That weekend they had a sleepover at Kaito's house, Mokubasou. They played games til late at night when they one by one fell asleep on one puppy pile.
At school, Chiyuki couldn't go around without almost bursting in tears whenever she saw Shiho. Every time, she was reminded of Akemi and her emotions just overflowed.
So it was just easiest to avoid her. And since the 'transfer student Haibara Ai' didn't seem to be interested in the students of class 1-A…
They really were to peas in a pod.
29
Until enough was enough. Chiyuki couldn't stay away anymore. She one evening walked up to Professor Agasa Hiroshi's house and rung the doorbell. The professor opened the door.
"Oh, hello. Who might you be?"
"…" Chiyuki bit her lip. "Please excuse me!"
And she darted past the professor, to the living area. She didn't pay any heed to Conan standing there and promptly glomped Shiho to the ground. She was crying again.
"Chi-…Chi-chan?" The voice was right and it was wrong at the same time.
"Sh-Shiho-nee…" Chiyuki blubbered. "Shiho-neesan!"
"It's okay… It's okay, Chi-chan…" Tiny arms wrapped around Chiyuki's shoulders as she cried against the shrunken scientist's front. "I'm here now."
30
The completely embarrassing scene later, the two girls were seated on a sofa, mugs of tea on the coffee table in front of them (brewed by Agasa) and Conan staring them down, hands on his hips.
"Care to explain, Haibara?" The boy demanded.
"She is my niece." The auburn haired girl replied while making sure Chiyuki didn't burn her mouth with the hot tea.
"How did she find you?"
"I made sure to enroll to the same school than where Chiyuki-chan was. That she happened to attend the same school than you and that I ended up on the same class with you, that's a coincidence."
"But how did she know you were…" The boy bit his tongue as to not blurt out the word shrunk in the case Chiyuki didn't know things after all. That he'd not noticed the robber's daughter attending the same school than himself… that was embarrassing enough.
"What do you mean? Big or small, Shiho-neesan is Shiho-neesan." Chiyuki blinked. "Of course, I'd recognize her."
"There you go." Haibara agreed, not concerned at all that actual children's logic didn't make a lick of sense here.
"Auchi! Hot!" Chiyuki grimaced, splashing tea on her shirt. Haibara just smiled fondly and started cleaning her niece. She could see Chiyuki's behavior what it was though. Avoidance and distraction.
"Was that all, Edogawa-kun?" She asked.
"Just… make sure she won't spill information to anyone." The boy grumbled and stalked off.
"I already spilled my tea so no worries." Chiyuki chirped after him.
"…You do understand that you can't call me Shiho-neesan on public though." Haibara spoke gently to the girl.
"Hai… Because the bad people that mama hid me from might to try after you."
"Exactly. So call me Ai."
"Ai-neesan?"
"…If you want to."
"I'm glad I found you Ai-neesan."
A/N: I hope Ai's personality change wasn't too abrupt. She took a while to warm up to DB after all... But I try to rationalize it with Chiyuki being her niece and only connection to Akemi... Or something.
Well, I hope you liked this chapter anyways. :)
Replies to reviews:
-Niina Lexy:
Ch.1: I'm glad you like this premise. When I got this idea, I thought maybe it would be too cringeworthy but then again, there aren't that many SI fics in DC fandom and those all concentrate on Conan. (at least this isn't nth Naruto's twin fic ;))
Ch.2: The class 1-A students are cute and unfortunately so underused. The shrinking fics have the chars always on Conan's class... *sigh* Anyways, in the previous chapter Chiyuki is still in a bit of a shock and Akemi is originally a fictional character to her, she tries to push it all aside. As you can see from this chapter, it doesn't work for long. Especially after Ai makes her entrance, though her precence calms Chiyuki down as well.
-Eterna the water phoenix:
I'm glad you like! Thank you very much!
-Tsuki: (guest)
I'll try my best. Thank you for reviewing!
-Ezra Scarlet Belserion:
Updated! I hope you liked this chapter as well.