For my convenience when Shinichi's body is small is will be referred to as Conan's body by basically everyone, even if everyone important at this point knows that Conan and Shinichi are the same person it's best to treat the situation as if they were different . Also, I don't have much of a plan for where this is going (though there is a bit of one) so I apologize if it continues to take a long periods of time for me to finish chapters. It should (and I would like to emphasize SHOULD) all make sense soonish... well relative to the plotline at least at the rate I've been going the expository chapters will probably come out months from now.

Suddenly I feel like things are about to get more serious in this story... in a way that I hope will be funny to most of you because this story is -after all- my odd attempt at humor. And sorry if everyone is getting too OOC (especially Hakuba in this chapter), I'm having to keep up with who calls whom what and which habits/skills/unexplainable-powers have been picked up by who... with eight peoples traits being passed around it's becomeing somewhat difficult.

In this chapter: Kazuha has a vauge premonition, Kaito discovers his worst nightmare, Ran has a fairly normal life all things considered, Hakuba tries to adjust to life as an adult female

Well here goes nothing, I hope you enjoy, please review it doesn't matter if it's short or long or if you like the story or not (though I can't imagine anyone getting this far without liking it).

KS=EC, MR, HS=MS, KK=NA, HH=TK

After Heiji and I had left the others at the professor's house I already had an unsettling feeling, I couldn't pin it but I just knew that something bad was going to happen. Somehow that feeling was reinforced as when I almost started to walk to my house instead of Heiji's -I caught myself of course but I still didn't like it that I was already getting off to a bad start in pretending to be him.

It was pretty late when I got "home" so I just fixed myself some instant ramen to eat then went to bed without bothering to change into pajamas. I was asleep in seconds.

I had a dream that night... if you can call it a dream. It didn't really seem like anything at first but I latter realized that it was much more important than I could have ever guessed.

It was dark, the kind of dark that makes you begin to wish that you were part cat because you know that a flashlight just wouldn't do you any good at all. I could see a small light in the distance I took a step towards it but I was quickly pulled further back into the darkness.

"You idiot! Are you trying to get yourself killed?!" I recognized the voice, it was Shinichi-kun or maybe Kaito-kun, sometimes it's hard to tell. His voice wasn't even loud enough to be considered a whisper but it still felt like he was yelling at me. I turned to get a look at him.

Shinichi-kun definitely, at least going by appearance who knows who it is on the inside. Maybe it wasn't him though, after all he's 'Conan' again now, so maybe it's someone else in disguise? Am I reading too much into this? Why the heck am I dreaming about Shinichi-kun anyway?

He gave a somewhat paranoid glance in both directions before whispering again, "Like I said before, I'll distract them. You just need to get away as quickly as possible, I think we both know that if they see you there's no way they'll let you get away... I'll at least have a chance."

"A slim one at best," I reply, my voice almost a sneer even in whisper. I didn't mean to say it, it just kinda came out on it's own. It's not my voice though, or Heiji's, but I knew the voice I just couldn't place it.

He seemed to laugh a bit at that, "A slim chance is better than none at all. Besides... I think that this was supposed to happen, Kazuha-san made me a charm the other day, at first I wasn't sure why but now I'm pretty sure she somehow knew this was going to happen."

He pulls a string out of his shirt and sure enough there's a charm on it. It's looks an awful lot like something I would make for Heiji, especially with the word 'anti-murder' written clearly on the front of it, I probably would have laughed if the situation didn't seem so serious.

Shinichi-kun looks over towards the light that I saw in the distance earlier, "He's getting closer, you'd better hurry, I'll do what I can..."

He pushes me a bit making me turn away from him and away from the light, I hear the faint tap of his footsteps and say, "You'd better not die, she isn't done waiting for you yet."

"I know," He says, pausing a moment before running off as I ran in the opposite direction.

At that I woke up.

The dream had felt so real that while I was dreaming it I almost couldn't tell it was a dream. What was that even about anyway? I felt like he was talking to me but at the same time it was like I was just watching from someone else's point of view... but whose? And more importantly, why?

I spent all day wondering if there was some kind of meaning behind all of this or if I should just not eat instant ramen before bed anymore, but I didn't tell anyone about that dream... I probably should have.

...

The day after the eight of us all met together was Monday, and as you might can guess that means that we all had to go to school (except for Hakuba because Shiho-san doesn't go to school).

For the most part the girls (excluding Shiho-san for some reason) seemed to be nervous that they'd do a terrible job of acting like us but we assured them that there was nothing they could do to make us seem any weirder in our classmates eyes than we already do (still if they acted too normal that could be a problem). On the other hand, Heiji and Shinichi both seemed a bit bothered by the fact that they were going to have to go to school wearing skirts, even if they were currently girls they seemed to think that doing that would be a serious blow to their masculine pride.

I -of course- didn't see it as any different than cross-dressing for a disguise. I mean, I've disguised myself as women plenty of times. I'll feel every bit as manly wearing a skirt as I would if I were wearing the most manly of all pants.

Aoko actually did a pretty good job of acting as me, aside from not pulling any pranks or flipping any skirts... though I guess I can understand how she might feel on the later of those two, especially because at the moment I'm the most likely target for skirt flipping. I probably deserve it but that doesn't mean that I won't start chasing her with a mop if she tries.

It was actually pretty calm until lunch when the worst possible thing imaginable happened. I'm talking the stuff of nightmares here, worse than anything you can possibly imagine under normal circumstances.

Shiho-san and Akako met.

Shiho-san had asked me if I would introduce her to my 'witch friend' at the beginning of the lunch period, and I couldn't find any legitimate reason to refuse the request. Leaving me with no choice.

"So you're the 'witch' I've been hearing about?" Shiho-san said with a glare that reminded me of when Hakuba had first begun to suspect me of being Kid. Her tone made it clear that she wanted to believe that magic was utter nonsense but was starting to think that it might as well be possible with everything that's been happening lately.

"That's right," Akako replied, casting a glare of her own as if to say that she didn't appreciate the tone that Shiho was speaking with, "And you're Hakuba-kun's girlfriend, the tsundere scientist, if I'm not mistaken?"

"The 'tsundere' part is a bit inaccurate," she replied without missing a beat.

Akako ignored the last bit and turned to me, "So did the two of you come to ask questions about what I told the 'boys' yesterday, or were you just looking to talk to me, Kuroba?"

"Actually it was Shiho-san that wanted to-" I started, but was soon interrupted by the person in question.

"I want you to teach me magic," Shiho-san said, her expression and tone both filled with the utmost seriousness. She continued, "Even if I wind up not being able to use it, I'd still like you to teach me about how it works. What goes into what kind of potion, the insubstantial energy that makes it possible to preform spells, anything that can be taught."

An image flashed in my mind of Shiho-san wearing a traditional witch costume, she waved a crooked staff ominously as she cackled, no doubt she was casting some sort of sinister spell. I found Shiho-san creepy enough already, the very idea of her trying to intermingle magic and science legitimately scared me. In attempt to banish the image of Shiho-san the evil witch from my mind I tried to imagine instead the younger version of her -Haibara-san- in the sort of magical girl costume that shows up in children's anime... 'Mahou Shoujo Ai-chan' or something like that, that actually made me feel a bit better about the idea.

...

No matter how hard I try I can't forget it. It wasn't even the same body I'm in now, yet I can still remember what I'd felt with all too vivid clarity. That pain... Shinichi's pain.

Was it always like that? Did it always hurt so much to change back into Conan? It must, otherwise Shiho-san wouldn't have realized what was happening so quickly... it's probably just as painful the other way around too.

How could I be so stupid? I knew that something was wrong with Shinichi each time I saw him after Conan first appeared, why didn't I realize how much pain he was in? Why didn't I do something to help him... I tried, but never hard enough to make any kind of difference, he always just pushed me away -trying to protect me even though he was in worse shape.

It almost hurts that I'm just finding this out now, after so long. He should have told me.

It's all I can think about in class all day, Sonoko seemed to think that I was just sad that Shinichi had disappeared again I told her that wasn't it but I doubt I was able to convince her of anything.

I guess I can be glad about one thing though, Shinichi and I switched back for some reason. Shinichi trying to act like me probably would have made Sonoko worry even more than me just acting a little strange... not that I think I would have done any better acting as Shinichi or Conan (whichever the case may have been), most people would see Shinichi/Conan's behavior patterns as strange anyway but it's still probably better for him to be himself if only because he hasn't in so long.

It's thanks to being myself rather than Shinichi that I was able to maintain the illusion in my own mind that everything was completely fine. I was me, I was at school but Shinichi wasn't there, when I got home I would start preparing dinner and Conan would come home, he would do his homework, and everything would be normal... only one problem with that. I knew the truth.

I might be me now but for all I know that could change at any moment, while I'm here Shinichi is in Primary school being eight years old, when I get home -if I haven't wound up body swapping before I do- I'll fix dinner then Shinichi will come home and we'll pretend that nothing has changed. We'll have to make sure that Dad doesn't figure out that Conan is Shinichi but other than that Shinichi and I will act as if we don't both know that all of this is completely weird and that it's not awkward that he's suddenly ten years younger than me.

As weird as it seems to be saying this after that last paragraph, I was beginning to reach the point where all these unusual things are starting to become the norm for me just like it is for the guys. I guess that's a sign of how truly screwed up my life has become.

Finally school ended and after assuring Sonoko one last time that I really was completely fine I headed home to prepare for dinner. It took me a moment to remember that I needed to make three servings since it had been a while since 'Conan' had left us, I found myself thinking that it was a good thing I'd bought extra ingredients around the time that Shinichi -er Conan came home.

"How was school today Conan?" I ask. Calling him Conan mostly out of habit but partly because I know he would want me to. He's always so paranoid about these sorts of things even though he and the other boys have already taken care of the Organization, I don't think he'll ever stop being wary of anyone wearing the color black...

He gave a weary smile, "About how you'd expect, everyone's excited that I'm back, but... well you know how primary school is."

"Yeah, I'm surprised they didn't throw a party for you," I laughed.

"The Shonen Tantei Dan are planing one, I think."

We both laughed at that, though it was a bit strained.

...

What am I supposed to do now?

I never realized that school occupied such a large portion of my life until now, now that I'm not making the regular commute to whatever school I need to I find that my life seems so empty without it. What on Earth does Shiho do, sitting around in the house all day?

I know she doesn't go out, not alone, she's always been paranoid that someone from the organization will recognize her even though Kudo, Kuroba, Hattori, and I have taken care of it... mostly. I guess she must mess around in the downstairs lab, I can't do that though, I wouldn't want to accidentally mess up any experiments that she's set up, I suppose I could try working on perfecting the antidote to Apotoxin but without Shiho here I'm not sure where to start.

I guess I'll just play on the computer a bit.

(approximately twenty minutes 37 seconds - regretfully I don't have my pocket watch so I can't be sure of milliseconds- of playing Solitaire later)

Ugh, what am I doing? This is getting me no where!

Why am I just sitting here? Why is there nothing to do? Is it always like this?

For some reason it was around that point in time that I remembered that I had never taken a shower yesterday, heck I was even wearing the same clothes I'd woken up in. I lift my arm up to my nose and give it a little sniff... ugh, does she ever wash this outfit, I need to change. No, what I really need is a shower...

Right, that's a bad idea. For so many reasons.

Akako-san did say that we'd probably be stable for at least the next few days, so I guess I'm going to have to take a shower eventually but it feels like that would be a violation of privacy if I don't at least ask for Shiho's permission before I take a shower in her body. It was completely fine when we were all guys but now that gender has become a variable...

Wait.

Everyone else had to go to school, so they would have taken showers... right? Surely they wouldn't have gone to school a total mess, so they must have. Am I the only one bothered by this?

I guess Kuroba probably knows the ups and downs of Aoko-kun's body already, but I imagine it'd still be awkward for him. Of course it should be awkward for her as well. As for the others Hattori and Kazuha-kun must have it pretty rough and I guess it must be Ran-kun's luck that she and Kudo switched back because it's certainly not his.

I wonder how it was for Shiho...

I'm probably just over thinking all of this, still, I think I'll wait for Shiho to get here (she'll probably come after school) before I take a shower so I can get her permission. It's not like I'm going anywhere anyway.

KS=EC, MR, HS=MS, KK=NA, HH=TK