Sorry it's been so long but honestly there's been a lot going on in my life this summer and now there's school... I won't bother trying to make excuses for myself, I just hope that you enjoy my writing enough to forgive me. Also sorry that of all things to be uploading after a long break it was this.

Suddenly this story has the makings for romantic drama, God Forbid I start leaning towards that sort of genre -well let me know what you think of the idea, it'll become more important if people seem to like it.

In this chapter: Heiji has a small crisis, Shiho makes a chart, Kazuha is stubborn, Shinichi discovers something he wishes he hadn't

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 that anyone would read so far in if they didn't at least find this entertaining). ^v^

MR=TK=HH=NA=HS=EC=HA=MR, KK

I found myself looking in a mirror, I was now Nakamori Aoko... crap.

Not to mention I didn't seem to be at her house, this was definitely a public restroom.

Crap. Crap. Crap. Where am I? Where does Aoko live again? I should probably go out and assess the situation before worrying too much, maybe Aoko has a public restroom style bathroom in her house and I'm just worrying over nothing. Hahaha... yeah right, like that would happen. Where the heck am I?

I make the wise decision to leave the bathroom before I wound up over thinking it and having a nervous breakdown. From what I could tell I was in the food court at a mall, but which mall was this? What on Earth was Kaito doing at a mall in his girlfriend's body?

"Aoko-chan, are you okay? You were in there an awfully long time," A girl with light-colored hair in pigtails says, I have no idea who she is expect that she's apparently Aoko's friend. Well, isn't this just perfect.

I think for a moment, unsure of what to say knowing that no matter what I did my accent would probably give me away, "Uh, sure I'm fine, was I really in dere dat long?"

"Hmmm you sound kind of weird, maybe you're getting sick?" The girl said, she put her hand to my head checking my temperature, "That's odd, you feel just fine..."

"Um, I jus' have a bit a' a headache," I replied, hoping that would sound normal enough for her to stop worrying about me.

The girl frowned, looking concerned. Had I said the wrong thing? Did Aoko never get sick? Was it so unusual for Aoko to admit to having even a little bit of a headache that it would cause this girl to only worry about me further?

"If you're sick we can go back to your house..."

I opened my mouth to protest but then the thought occurred to me that she'd just said that we would go back to 'my' house, and since I had no idea where it was it would probably be best to get this girl to help me get home, not to mention I probably wouldn't have to talk to her very much if she thought I was sick. It was a rather good plan if I do say so myself, "Er, yeah... that's pr'olly a pretty good idea."

...

I sat in school bored.

I already knew what they were trying to teach me. I'd already learned all of this, none of it was interesting or new, or even presented in a way that was interesting enough to make me look up from the notebook in which I had began to draw a chart of the current situation and what I believed the real problem was.

I had already formulated my theory in my head but having it on paper might make it easier for some of the others to process after all.

I started with writing the four boys names in a small circle and connecting them by the arrangements from the first body swap. Saguru to Hattori, Hattori to 'Conan', Shinichi to Kuroba, and Kuroba to Saguru. At first this would appear to be the most chaotic combination for a body swap cycle of the four of them to take but it wasn't. Actually it was based on what they had in common with each other.

Saguru is nearly as hotheaded and determined as Hattori (though neither of them would dare admit to this similarity), they share the same single-minded trait to pursue one's goal to the point of ignoring details that could be useful. Hattori knows of Shinichi's secret as well as the reasons behind it and is therefore able to understand what he's going through better than the others. Shinichi being like Kuroba in both appearance and voice was drawn to the thief even without knowing that they were similar beyond that in their struggles against their own respective organizations for the sake of justice. Kuroba knew Saguru best out of the four because he had gone to school with him and though he likely wouldn't admit it he had been slowly becoming friends with him, to the point that Saguru was willing to help the thief that he was trying so desperately to catch -though just a little.

Then Hattori and Kuroba swapped, landing Kuroba in Shinichi's body and Hattori in Saguru's. This wasn't because of a weakness of the bodies, but because of some sort of connection between the two of them that hadn't been noticed before... maybe a similarity that had arisen from an addition of traits they already had and ones that were added by the first swap.

The boys continued to randomly body swap for a while after that I hadn't bothered to keep up with who swapped with whom during that time but I can be fairly certain that it follows the same pattern. This was not because of the deterioration of their bodies and souls as we originally believed but because of the bonds between them and the bodies. The fact that each time they swapped they seemed to pick up one of the habits/traits belonging to the body the similarities would have gradually come to outweigh the differences meant that sooner or later the only difference between the four boys would have been their memories, and they'd have otherwise completely lost their sense of self.

And now that the boys each swapped with their own respective girlfriend and vice versa on the day after each respective couple had spent time together it was even more clear that it was the bonds between us at work in making these swaps happen. The more similar we are the more likely a swap is to happen and when a swap happens we pick up each other's traits making us more and more similar which will make the swaps happen...

...there was no way around it. It would keep happening till the eight of us completely lost our individuality, we needed to do something -anything- about it, but what was there that could be done?

...

"L-like dis?"

With a hearty smile I patted her on the back, "Dat's de ticket, yer really gettin' de hang a' dis now aren't ya?"

"I still don't see why you think it's so important I learn Osaka-ben, I mean it's not like we're never going to switch back," Ran complained.

"Hmm what was that, you don't sound like Kazuha?" I replied. Of course I had understood her but it was much more fun this way.

"Eh? Fine... I don't see why ya think dis is so important, It's not like I'm gonna have ta be you fur ever," She repeated sounding somewhat annoyed.

"Yeah but we don't know how long ya'll be me, fer all we know ya could wind up bein' me fer weeks. I don't want anyone thinkin' I'm actin' weird, an' de accent's one a' de things dat'd pro'lly give ya away," I explained.

"I guess... but still..." She gave a faint sigh, "What if I get stuck talkin' like dis like Hakuba did?"

"'E wasn't even tryin' ta speak in Osaka-ben at first, 'e just kinda would slip inta it from time ta time until it reached de point dat he was doin' it more often den not. But fer you since yer actually trying maybe ya won't get stuck," I replied, hoping it made as much sense out loud as it had in my mind.

She seemed to understand what I meant, "I hope so, I mean no offense but I'd rather not be speaking in Osaka-ben all the time. Is it okay if I just do it when there are other people around?"

"Sure."

...

It's strange what all this body swapping does to your point of view.

Just yesterday I was here, but I was sitting in the seat next to this one... and I was a boy yesterday too. But today, I'm sitting here, and today I'm a girl. Strange... isn't it?

Even if I'm Kudo Shinichi, even if I'm Edogawa Conan... right now I'm Haibara Ai. Right now I have no choice but to sit here quietly through class and wait for school to end, knowing that once it does the Shonen Tantei Dan will take me and Hakuba (who's currently in my body) to go play in the park or handle a case (probably just a missing cat).

What decisions did I make in my life that led me to this point... whatever it was I'm sorry. I don't want to be a girl, please change me back!

Yeah right like thinking that to myself would do anything...

Suddenly I felt a tap on my shoulder. It was Hakuba... or well 'Conan' for now. He'd written a note in English at the edge of his (actually my) notebook.

'You okay?'

'I'm fine' I quickly scribbled back in my (Haibara's) notebook.

'That's good, you looked kind of sick,' he wrote back.

I felt my brow furrow a bit, did I really look sick? 'Oh is that so?'

'I was afraid something had happened after the antidote had worn off.'

Ah, there's his true intentions, he's not worried about me, he's worried about his girlfriend's body. Typical.

'I'm sure you felt how bad it feels to change back, but it's completely fine afterwards.' I assured him.

'Are you sure you're okay? You looked a bit strange."

Did I? I couldn't help but wonder. Maybe he's worried about me after all... wait why do I even care whether he's worried about me or not?

And then it hit me.

My eye's widened with the realization.

'Something wrong?' He wrote quickly on the notebook, his expression becoming somewhat worried... and helping me confirm my suspicions when my heart started racing.

Haibara... she liked me? Or is it just because it's Hakuba?

MR=TK=HH=NA=HS=EC=HA=MR, KK