The Flip

Kaitou Kid scrambled up the rope, away from Nakamori and the rest of the task force, the Bultitudius necklace wrapped around his hand. It had been very nice of the Neapolitan Museum of Archaeology to have sent it with the assorted other Sardinian artifacts currently touring Japan. It saved him a trip to Europe. There were rumours of the gem being magical, so he felt like there were better than average odds it might just be Pandora.

Clambering onto the roof, he stared up at the sky impatiently. The moon was currently being blocked by a rather rude cloud, and he'd prefer to know if this was his prize or not before any rogue soccer balls flew at his head.

"Kid!" came a shout, though this time it wasn't the shrunken detective.

No, it was Mouri Ran, and she was barreling his way with nearly as much speed as one of Conan's soccer balls.

Kid yelped, barely dodging out of the way. She kept on him with a barrage of kicks and punches that saw him nearly lose his hat.

"There's no need to get so aggressive, young miss. I'm likely only borrowing the gem," he protested, managing to hop back to get a little breathing room.

"And what about all the damage you cause?" Ran countered, glaring at him.

"I do believe the task force tends to cause more destruction than I do. Have you shown them as much aggression?" Kid replied, hopping up onto a vent when Ran tried to take another swipe at him.

"They're just trying to stop you!" Ran shouted, kicking the vent this time.

She imparted enough force to bend the metal structure, nearly causing Kid to fall. As he wobbled, the Bultitidius diamond necklace fell from his hand. Ran dove, trying to save the ancient artifact, managing to catch it at the last second. Only to receive a shock from it a dozen times worse than any static shock she'd ever received in her life. Letting out a cry, she found herself dropping the necklace involuntarily.

She was then left even more confused when it fell up. Following it with her eyes, she caught the slightest glint of wire, no doubt trying to Kid's hand.

Before she could get back to her feet the necklace was back in Kid's grip and he was jumping towards the edge of the building. His paraglider opened a moment later as he took off into the night.

Kaito was exhausted as he made his way back home from school the next day. He'd drank rather more caffeine than any doctor would recommend to try to hide his state from Aoko, though she'd still seemed suspicious of him.

"Bakaito stayed up all night watching the Kid Heist coverage, didn't he?" she asked as they were nearly home.

"Maybe. Ahoko probably stayed up too, all to watch her dad fail to catch Kid for the 300th time, didn't she?" Kaito replied with a smirk.

Aoko blushed before sliding into a pout. "M-maybe. But it's because he's my dad. I'm not just some fan of a no good thief."

Kaito rolled his eyes dramatically before making sure Aoko was still there to see him casually check his mailbox.

"Huh? What's this?" he asked, pulling out the brown envelope he'd had Jii slide in while he was away.

"It says 'to my fan' on it?" Aoko replied, looking at the bulky envelope. "There's no postage stamp or anything."

Kaito ripped the envelope open, glancing inside. "I... is that the Bultitudius?"

"There's a note," Aoko added. "What does it say?"

"Let's see-yeeagh!" Kaito yelped, as he felt a jolt of pain through his arm when his bare fingered brushed against the gem.

He dropped the envelope, the note falling out, though the necklace stayed inside.

"Are you okay?"

"I... I think so?" Kaito replied, shaking his arm to lessen the pain a little. "I think it was just some serious static shock?"

Before Aoko could worry about him any more, he crouched down and picked up the note to read. "Dear Kuroba-kun, I've heard you like my work. I always considered your father competition for the title of 'world's greatest magician', so I am honoured to have your support. As thanks, I've decided to let you have the pleasure of returning the Bultitudius to your neighbour. It was not the gem I was looking for."

"Huh. I guess the task force do grumble about you cheering against them sometimes," Aoko said.

Kaito, meanwhile, did his best to give off a star struck look. "Kid noticed me! It's an honour! Though... why does he want me to give this gem to old miss Yamakawa? I guess she doesn't have the best pension, but I doubt she'd have the black market connections to sell a famous stolen necklace."

Aoko punched him in the arm. "Bakaito! He clearly meant my dad!"

"Oh!" Kaito replied, before letting a smirk spread across his face. "That makes more sense."

"Dweeb."

"Guilty as charged," Kaito replied, before scooping up the envelope. "Well, let's go drop these off, shall we?"

Aoko let out a tired groan, but led the way. As they walked to the Nakamori home, she pulled out her phone to call her father. Kaito could only hear a little over half the conversation, but it went about the same as he'd expected: Ginzo telling them to stay put; yelling about how Kaito touched evidence barehanded; Aoko yelling back at him about how Kaito didn't know for sure if was evidence until they'd read the note; Aoko accepting her father's apology; and then her telling her father she loved him before hanging up.

He and Aoko raided the fridge for something quick and easy to make and ended up tossing together a little ochazuke. Kaito insisted on adding sugar and a sliced up apple to his, hoping to help him keep awake a little longer. Aoko, as always, said he was committing a crime against the culinary arts, and stuck to a hardboiled egg and some bonito flakes as her addition to the rice and warm tea. To help pass the time, they complained about their homework a little as they ate. Kaito was just about to offer to do the dishes (as payment for the food) when the front door burst open, Nakamori showing up with what had to be half the task force.

"Where's the Bultitudius?" Ginzo shouted as he charged into the living room.

The teens silently pointed over at the brown envelope resting on a side table. Ginzo charged over, opening the envelope just enough to confirm the diamond necklace was indeed present.

"I'd recommend against touching it," Kaito said. "It seems to build up static like you wouldn't believe."

"It's evidence. No one is going to touch it directly, don't worry... it's a good we have your fingerprints on record though. Might have gotten people excited when they found prints on the gem," Ginzo muttered as he passed the envelope off.

"I don't think I got my fingers on it? It was more the side of my hand?" Kaito replied, before scratching his chin. "I mean, maybe? But I tried not to?"

Ginzo gave a sharp nod. "Well, you won't be the only one who's prints are on there. That Mouri girl apparently held it for a moment. Not that it matters... Kid would never be sloppy enough to leave any easy evidence on it."

There was a bit more questioning at that point, Nakamori hoping against hope that one of them might have actually seen Kid drop off the envelope. Neither had, of course (because Jii had dropped it off as they left school).

After that, Kaito was allowed to head home. He managed to make it to his bed before he passed out, but only barely. And he definitely wasn't under the covers. Or in pjs. Going to bed this early, he might actually wake up at something Aoko would call a reasonable hour.

An annoying alarm woke Kaito from his peaceful sleeping. He rolled over to get out of bed, only to find himself rolling into a wall. Confused, he rolled the other way, opening his eyes enough to see the red numbers of an alarm clock in front of him. Confused, but caring only about the stopping the sound, he smacked the alarm clock, unsure where the snooze button was.

He both heard and felt cracking.

Confused, and woken up by that, he sat up and stared at the now quite crushed little plastic clock. He then stared at his hand, wondering when he'd gained super strength.

Was that nail polish on his fingers? He didn't remember applying any... that didn't really look like his hand, on second glance. The bone structure seemed more delicate than his (though he had quite androgynous hands), but, strangely, the undersides seemed more calloused.

What in the world was... his eyes glanced down to what he was wearing. Those were not his pyjamas. And, well, that chest was very definitely not his chest. He could do some very convincing padding for disguises, but nothing that stayed in place well while he was asleep.

Firmly spooked and confused, he scrambled to his feet, looking around this strange room. It was a girl's room, for sure. Probably a teenager. Maybe a young adult. And that meant—there was the mirror. He hurried over, wanting to know just what he looked like right now.

Mouri Ran stared back at him. He turned around a little, made faces, did a little dance. The Ran in the mirror copied his every move.

"Huh," he said, and Ran's voice came out.

This didn't make any sense. Maybe it was a dream? Some sort of very strange dream... Was Akako doing something to mess with him? Maybe he was trapped in a computer simulation of some sort?

He didn't even know where to start. He did suspect that the best way to upset whoever was behind it was to play it natural. Just act like Ran would. That would drive whoever was behind this crazy, right?

So, he just had to... cook some breakfast.

Well, he couldn't make anything fancy, but he could whip up a tamagodon. That was just scrambling some eggs, tossing in a little onion and sauces, and cooking some rice. Finding all the ingredients as well as the utensils and cookware took a bit of effort, but he felt well rested and ready to attack the problem. After a little debate, he decided to chop up a tomato to add in, and was thrilled to find some instant miso packets. He just had to follow the instructions on those.

Sure, it was three different things cooking, but the rice cooker handled itself, so it was really two, and... he supposed he was getting in character enough to make it all feel more natural.

"That smells good, Ran-neechan," Conan's creepy little voice called out, nearly making him jump out of his skin.

"Ah, you're too quiet, Conan-kun," Kaito said with a forced smile. "Breakfast should be ready soon."

"Is everything okay?" Conan asked, apparently seeing through Kaito's attempt to play it natural.

"Ah, I just didn't sleep great. You know how it is, sometimes. Waking up on the wrong side of the bed," Kaito replied.

Conan gave a tentative nod, but headed off to the bathroom. Kaito let out a sigh once he was out of earshot, still finding Kudo's whole 'innocent child' schtick off putting.

Sleeping Kogoro joined the world of the waking a few minutes later, plopping himself down at the kitchen table. Kaito had to swallow his desire to make any sarcastic jabs about the man's laziness towards the domestic sphere, knowing that Conan would likely notice. Luckily the final touches on mixing the tamagodon together kept him busy. Pouring out the miso soup and serving that for everyone bought him a little more time, but then... he really hoped no one was feeling too chatty at the breakfast table.

"So, Ran-neechan, I forgot to ask yesterday, did the soccer club win their game?" Conan asked, leaving Kaito wincing internally.

"Oh, um..." Kaito began, desperately praying to Lady Luck for some kind of help.

His prayers were answered by the door to the apartment bursting open, a very familiar face appearing. Kaito's body glared at him, looking slightly manic with the accompanied panting.

"You! Stay away from my family!" his voice shouted.

It had been dark when Ran had woken up. That wasn't unusual at this time of year, but she did usually sleep until her alarm went off. After a few minutes passed with no sounds from it, she turned to see what time it was. Only to find herself staring at a wall. Confused, she reached out, touching the wall and confirming it was solid. She turned a little, to sit up, only to catch the rest of the room as her eyes focused.

This was not her bedroom.

Stumbling to her feet to look around, she didn't recognise the room at all. Had she been kidnapped? That didn't make sense. The room looked lived in. There was clutter on several tables. There was some dirty laundry in a basket in the corner.

She wasn't sure what she could gather from the room, though. Most of the dirty clothes looked to be guy's clothing, yet there was a mirror with makeup beside it on the desk. The closet answered all of nothing, male and female clothes both present.

"Maybe it's like a hotel or... my voice!" she gasped, tapping her throat as if that somehow confirmed it was indeed her voice.

It sounded... deep? Deeper than her own, at least.

"Why does my voice sound so... weird?" she muttered, wandering around the room, trying her best not to hyperventilate.

It didn't make any sense. A weird kidnapping was one thing, but her voice... was the room filled with that hexa-whatever thing that did the reverse of helium? That didn't seem plausibe. Why would anyone do that?

Then she realised there was a mirror on the inside of the closet door. It was dark, but there was no denying that the figure in that mirror was a boy. Ran turned to the door, deciding she could risk flipping on the lightswitch. She'd been trying to be subtle, to not let any kidnappers notice she was awake, but... this wasn't a kidnapping anymore.

The light on, she could see the reflection properly.

"Shi... Shinichi?" she muttered, looking at the boy in the reflection.

The reflection did look a lot like Shinichi, but... no. That little scar on the right eyebrow. The more delicate nose. He was shorter too... No, she couldn't say that. He looked like he was her height because she was currently his height. But there were enough differences that she felt safe in thinking it wasn't Shinichi. He was also wearing clothes that looked like a school uniform. Who slept in their uniform?

She decided to ignore the strangeness in the mirror and go out to explore the house.

It proved empty, but for her. So that firmly ruled out kidnapping, if the change of face hadn't confirmed it. The house was also... bizarre. The bedrooms were on the first floor, while the kitchen and living room and so on were on the second. It was strange enough that she almost forgot she was in the wrong body.

It did nothing to calm her down, though. This was unnatural, and she needed to get home. To make sure Conan and her dad were alright. To find out what had happened to her body... oh kami! Was there a guy in her body?

Running down to the bedroom, she dug through the clothes, finding a shirt, a hoodie, some jeans, socks, and a bra. She was glad that this guy had passed in proper clothes so she didn't have to confront changing underwear just yet. Stripping apart for the boxers, though, she was surprised at just how muscular he seemed. Shinichi was in good shape, but this guy... if it wasn't the body she was in right now she might have enjoyed the view.

As it was, though, it was simply unsettling. So she shook her head and got dressed. Then she hurried down to the genkan, hunting around for a wallet and keys. She locked the door behind her, since that seemed polite, and then realised she had no idea where the house was located relative to... well, anything else.

She was still in Japan, but past that she had limited information. She wandered around residential streets for a bit, until she hit something wider than the usually mixed use alleyways of residential Tokyo. Following that, she found an intersection with another busier street. Looking around, she saw larger buildings in one direction. She chose that way.

It seemed the right answer, as she found herself reaching a more commercial district. She also had a hint of where she was, the same name showing up again and again. It seemed to be Ekoda, which she vaguely recognised the name of. There was a subway station out that way, so she should try to... or she could all but stumble across railroad tracks. A surface train worked just as well as the subway for getting her back to Beika. It wasn't hard to follow the tracks to a station a couple blocks away.

The PASMO card she'd grabbed was thankfully loaded, so she hopped on a train up a stop to Nerima station, then transferred to the subway line. The Oedo line ran right down to Beika. Thankfully it was barely 5:30am, so the trains were still relatively empty. That left her space to pace about, trying to burn off the worry eating away at her gut.

What might this strange guy be doing with her body? Had he done this on purpose? Could you do this on purpose?

She'd worked herself up into a panic by the time she reached Beika station, and rushed up the stairs from the metro two at a time. She knew the way home from here. She found herself travelling faster than usual, this guy's body being faster at running than her own.

She was at the door up to her family apartment only a few minutes later, digging through the bushes to pull out the spare keys that she knew her father kept hidden for nights he'd gotten drunk and left his own keys behind. She was shaking with adrenaline as she tried to unlock the door, missing the keyhole once or twice.

Then the door was open and she raced up the stairs. She burst into the apartment a moment later, struggling for breath due to how fast she'd scrambled up. Her eyes alighted on her own body. The boy in it was sitting at the table with mock innocence, and she felt her eye twitch as she regained her breath.

"You! Stay away from my family!" she shouted in that wrong voice she was left with.

Her own face stared for a moment longer, before purple eyes lit up with an idea. "Oh! That's what happened!"

"What do you mean 'that's what happened'?" She shouted, marching over to glare at the guy using her body.

"We switched bodies!" the boy replied.

"OBVIOUSLY!" Ran shouted.

"Wait... what?" her father asked.

"I thought I was having a weirdly realistic dream or... something," the boy replied, looking deep in thought. "I probably should have thought of body switching."

"Wait, you're Ran?" Conan asked, pointing at Ran.

She nodded.

"Then who are you?" Conan added, pointing at Ran's body.

"Kuroba Kaito," the boy answered. "High schooler and magician in training."

"Magician... Kuro... wait, that was a picture of Kuroba Touichi in your room. I remember now. He's one of Sonoko's favourite magicians," Ran said.

"Mhm, my dad," Kaito replied.

Ran nodded, if he was a magician, then maybe that somehow explained this? He'd played with real magic?

"I think I'm going to need proof," Conan said. "Extraordinary claims need extraordinary evidence. And you were acting like Ran until this second person burst in."

"You were?" Ran asked, not sure what to make of that, but feeling... uncomfortable.

"Well, one of the ideas that struck me was that someone was messing with my mind with hypnosis or something. I couldn't guess why, but playing along seemed like something they wouldn't expect, and might cause them to reveal what was happening," Kaito explained. "And, if it was real, I knew that there was a young child in the house who I didn't want to panic."

"Ah," Ran replied. That, on some level, made sense (even if she got the weird feeling there was more to it than he was saying). "How did you know I lived with a young child?"

"I'm a magician in training. I obviously follow the news about Kaitou Kid, so I knew about Edogawa Conan. Sleeping Kogoro is pretty famous too. So, I knew whose face this was, even if I didn't know everything about you," Kaito replied, pointing to his face. Her face?

The face that was hers normally, but was currently his.

"I'm still waiting on proof," Conan said.

"Uh, yeah. Me too," her father added.

"Dad, we both know you're too hungover to process any properly convincing truth this early," Ran sighed.

"I... maybe. But, as your father, I feel I need to get involved... or your father. I'm still not sure who's who," Kogoro replied, glancing back and forth between Ran and the boy in her body.

"She's Ran," Kaito said. "Oh, I know! Can you tell Conan who won the soccer club's most recent game?"

"We did. 4 to 3," Ran replied, a bit confused.

"You could have looked that up," Conan protested.

Kogoro pointed at Conan and nodded in support.

"Well... ask me something only I would know," Ran said, quietly wishing Conan was a little bit less analytical.

Conan grew deep in thought. She swore he looked like he had a few different ideas, but dismissed each of them, and she was left wondering just what those ideas were.

"Where did you hide uncle Kogoro's good cigarettes?' Conan asked, defying any deep questions Ran had expected.

"I'm not saying, while dad is here, but I'll go get them," Ran said, turning and heading off to her bedroom.

She heard the pitter patter of Conan's little feet as he ran after her, no doubt not trusting the possible boy entering his de facto big sister's room. She ignored him, walking over to her dresser and crouching down. It was a narrow fit for her usually, and Kaito's hands were a little bigger than hers (though not by much), but she was able to feel around and find the pack of cigarettes, velcroed to the bottom of the dresser. She gave a yoink and then pulled them out, presenting them to Conan.

"Are you convinced it's me, Conan-kun?"

He gave a slow nod. "But... how?"

"I don't know," she replied, fully honest.

Kaito popped his head then (well, her head in, but... she was going to get a headache if she kept thinking about it like that, so, his head). "You believe us then, kid?"

"Yes. At least mostly," Conan muttered.

"Cool, then... um... Mouri-kun... very awkward question, but, uh... I know things are more complicated for girls and so I was kind of hoping I would wake up or something before it became an issue, but, um... I need to use the little magician's room, and I don't know what that might entail."

Ran felt herself pale. "Oh. Yeah... I'll... I'll give you the rundown."

Kaito and Ran sat quietly at the table. Conan, despite a great deal of protest, had been sent off to school. There was nothing he could do to fix the problem and Ran had insisted he needed to keep up his education. That had left Kaito to deal with Kogoro for a while, slowly convincing the man he was not, in fact, actually Kudo Shinichi. It was a bit annoying to have to explain that as Kudo Shinichi had been doing up his shoes not four metres away, but that was life. Eventually Kogoro was convinced.

Kogoro still hadn't liked him for the accidental proximity he'd gotten Ran's body, but Kaito had been happy to lie and claim that he was gay to calm the man down.(He was technically somewhere under a broader 'gay' umbrella, so it wasn't totally a lie anyhow.)

Then Ran had shooed her father downstairs to work through some paperwork the agency had a backlog of. Thus leaving just Kaito and Ran alone in the kitchen.

Though Kaito suspected it was bugged. That seemed like just the thing Conan would do.

"How could this have happened?" Ran muttered, staring at Kaito.

"I'm not su—wait. You touched the Bultitudius," he said, sitting up.

"The Bulti... the diamond Kid stole? Yes? I... how did you know, and how does that matter?" Ran asked.

He knew because he'd been there when she'd touched it, relying on a cheap yoyo trick to get her to stop trying to break his bones, but he couldn't say that. So... "Ginzo told me. And it matters because I touched it too."

"Gi—oh! Inspector Nakamori? I... wait, did it shock you too, then?" she asked.

Kaito nodded.

"Huh... do you think it's temporary?" Ran asked.

"Honestly, I had no idea. I did a bit of research about it, since Kid was stealing it, but I didn't find anything specific. I think I might know someone who could help, though. I'm not sure how much we can trust her, but... we don't really have any other options," Kaito explained.

"W-who?"

"A witch," Kaito replied.