A/N: This is the next chapter for OLC. I'm looking forward to your responses and thoughts while I work on this story. BTW, I watched DC movie 4 yesterday, and I still have movies 14, 15, and 16 to watch and catch up to. As well as some of the later episodes. I still don't know too much about what's going on right now...who is Masumi Sera? And Tooro Amuro? Who the hell are they? Can anyone give me some answers in your reviews if you know? Also, who thinks that Subaru guy is really Akai? I do.

Chapter 6 Spinning gears of fate

It was odd that she would feel this tense. Everything was over, wasn't it? The terror caused by the Black Organization and their kind, the torment and anguish that she and Kudou-kun had endured was over now, wasn't it? She should just quit this constant worry that lay deep within her, as she had no need for it. After all, if Gin sought revenge against her for betraying the Organization, he would have acted by now.

However, Haibara Ai couldn't help but feel that there was one thing out of place. Kudou Shinichi's unusually outgoing nature lately had really puzzled her. Seeing as he had just returned to his real age, at first his excitement seemed understandable. Who wouldn't be happy after living a second childhood for two long years? But that wasn't the only reason, of course. Kudou Shinichi was a tough nut to crack, and what he showed on the outside was usually a lot different than how he really felt on the inside.

If he was unusually cheerful and happy, then that meant only one thing: that he had stumbled onto a murder case that really excited him, or else that he was being uncharacteristically foolish, an act that was quite unlike the paranoid, serious young man she'd gotten to know over the course of two years while they were trapped in the bodies of children. Or else, something even worse had happened: he had let his guard down. Even though Gin and Vermouth were in jail, that didn't mean that supporters of them didn't still exist, and some of them lurked in quite high and influential positions.

The Black Organization was not over just because Kudou had caught some of them. Their influence crept everywhere in the world like poison ivy seeps into a house, slowly entangling everything and everyone in it within its twisted grasp, and everyone who got caught up in their darkness was forever changed. The great detective himself was a great example, she thought. From what she had seen and heard from her sister, Kudou was a cheery and arrogant high school detective. However, when she had laid eyes on him, as she lay dying, he was a cursed boy, full of pain and despair.

And when Ai herself had laid eyes on him, he was a changed man. He was forever wary of those around him, paranoid of even the closest of his friends, and completely mature. He was afraid of anything and everything in the world. He feared if Ran found out his true identity that Gin would kill her, he feared never being able to return back to his body again, he feared getting his friends caught up in his darkness, but at the same time, he didn't feel fear about any of these things.

For, Kudou Shinichi was internally and eternally contradictory. He could be cheery and happy on the outside, and yet truly feel depressed and dreary on the inside. Haibara had made a mental note to act extra wary of him when he was like that. Like today. He had just been by here not too long ago, and he had gone into his house. She'd watched him with envy present in her turquoise eyes as he interacted with Ran and Kaito.

She and he both came from different worlds, and he knew that as much as she did. He had friends, a normal life (well, relatively normal), was good in school and soccer, was popular and had a good reputation. He was also quite innocent and naïve about the ways of the world. He was idealistic and dreamed of a world where no one died. For that goal, he fought bitterly to make that world a reality and had arrested killer after killer for committing (in his mind, at least) unforgivable crimes against humanity. He always, always, always told her that killing was a terrible thing to do, no matter what happened to that person.

She, however, came from an entirely different world. One where emotion and feelings didn't really matter that much, and only crime and killing were the two certainties that people of her kind were aware of. She had never had a warm childhood; the only one she had known was a terribly lonely and desperate one. Her parents were gone in a mysterious accident, she had had no friends save for her sister, her life had never been normal, she was average in school but proficient in science, and had been the outcast.

At school in America, she had never really been the popular girl. The children there knew the difference between her and them, and they let her know it, too. She remembered the looks that girls had cast her at lunch, the whispers and snickers behind her back. She was smart enough to know that they all resented her for being so smart and "arrogant" and coming from a rich family. They knew she was someone special, but nobody dared say anything to her face, because they knew she was someone special. Her caretakers had been resentful of taking care of a child that wasn't theirs, and they had ignored her and mistreated her.

At one time, Gin had been her partner, but then he had slowly turned against her, and now he saw her only as a dangerous, disgusting traitor that needed to be erased from the face of the earth. He had killed many of her closest friends and relatives and told her it was necessary. She had believed his lies many times, but the final straw had come when her sister had been killed at the hands of Gin. She had finally seen through his lies.

She never got to know the kind of peaceful life that Kudou Shinichi knew. His life was something she never got to know, it was more like a fleeting dream; a lost aspiration drifting around in her heart that was never realized. That was why she was not expecting both of them to come in through the door, with serious looks on their faces.

"Futago-sama, please wait in the other room. Agasa-hakase is quite busy at the moment." She replied icily, with her usual dish of sarcasm. She usually used this with these two, and they didn't really seem to mind. Well, Kudou didn't, anyway. He looked more confused, almost like he didn't understand why she was giving him a look like that. Well, if he didn't, then she was almost certain that maybe he had lost his mind. Didn't he know her better than that?

"What's going on, Haibara? Why are you being so cold to Kuroba?" His voice was curious, but there was an edge of ice to it. He was onto her, she knew. He was merely probing her, trying to figure out what was going on inside her head. Well, well, here comes the meitantei.

"Why did you bring someone like him here, then?" She asked, motioning to a certain magician, who stared at her curiously before bursting out into mock tears. She sighed. He was quite melodramatic, perhaps a little annoying, but she didn't let much get under her skin, so too bad for him.

"Why~ why do you hate me so much, Ojousan?" He whined, obviously she had touched a nerve. Quite an attention-getter, he was. She wondered whether Kudou was as unable to deal with the magician as she was. He was probably much better at tact than she was. Or maybe not, she thought, as he scolded the whining magician and promptly got a look of remorse.

"Because...you're annoying and useless." Haibara replied dryly. She wasn't expecting to hear laughter coming from Shinichi's mouth. He hadn't laughed for a while, and she liked hearing it, actually. Not that she would tell him that, of course. It would merely ruin his detective skills.

"I've been feeling a bit better, Haibara, but the case I'm in now...is, interesting, to say the least. I've met someone very interesting." He replied vaguely. There was a message in those words. He wanted her to stay and listen to him talk.

"I've got all the time in the world. What is it?" Haibara asked. She stood and stared at them both. Well, she strained to look at them both, since she had decided to stay in her child body and age with the Shonen Tantei. Kudou naturally protested this idea, but she had made her mind up and he had to go along with what she wanted. She had always been alone, so when would that ever change? It wasn't like there was anyone who felt like she did, alone, neglected, waiting for the world to end, right?

"Well...an interesting situation has arisen in the village we've been investigating. For starters, they don't recognize me. Also, there are no cell phones in this village, so something curious seems to be the answer. Have you ever heard of this village called Hinamizawa?" He questioned, suddenly turning serious. The look in his eyes definitely meant that he wanted answers.

"I have never heard of that place before." Haibara responded promptly, staring at him intently. Those blue eyes of hers seemed to never miss anything he said or did. That was typical of her, though. Shinichi merely frowned.

"I'm...a little intrigued, is all. This place we have been going to seems unique, somehow. Also, have you ever heard of the Black Organization possibly having links in other cities? I think that could be possible, but no one recognizes me so far. Isn't that unusual?"

Haibara stopped her train of thought then, and turned to face him. "Kudou-kun...are you saying that you wish for me to accompany you to this place? To a place that could possibly put us in danger?"

"Have you heard of anyone else other than us who de-aged?" He inquired.

"That would make a nice article in the paper." Kaito joked, who promptly received a smack to the face with a soccer ball. "Oww...was that really necessary?" He moaned.

"Yes, now shut up." Shinichi responded through gritted teeth. As usual, Haibara wasn't giving him straight answers. Not that that was out of character for her, though. She was used to puzzling everyone about her true nature and her true intentions. For some reason, that reminded him vaguely of the blue-haired girl he'd met earlier. What was her name again? Furude Rika?

"Kudou...if you want to, I will just do some research on Hinamizawa...however, I will NOT make a careless mistake and go to some distant town. That's for you to do, meitantei-san. After all...it's up to you to solve the mystery, isn't that right, Kudou?" Haibara remarked, and then turned away.

"Wait, Haibara!" Shinichi cried, coming closer to her for a second.

"...I have no interest in exposing myself to unknown dangers. Something tells me that this is a foolish mistake, Kudou-san...placing trust in people you don't even know...you ought to be more careful." She whispered softly.

He stared after her, his blue eyes wide in shock. He turned to stare at Kaito, who looked equally stunned at her cold dismissal of them both. "There must be something on her mind. Or else...perhaps we're all headed for a bad ending."

Kaito stared after Haibara's retreating figure and for once, a smile wasn't on his face. "I wonder what she meant by that...is she really that much like Koizumi?" He mused aloud.

"Who's Koizumi...?" Shinichi asked, at a loss for words.

"Just an annoying classmate of mine. That's all." He responded.

The moon shone down brightly on them both as they sat outside. Both girls were silent and said nothing. The one was preoccupied with the day's events on her mind, the other was unsure of what would happen within the next few days...or weeks, possibly.

"Hanyuu...what do you think fate has in store for us?" Rika inquired, before sipping a glass of wine from her cup and stopping to look up at the moon again. She was entranced by the moon's bright, eternally luminescent glow. It never seemed to change at all no matter what world they were in.

"Hau...I wish I knew."

"Aren't we up late, Rika-chama?" A familiar silky voice uttered. Both Rika and Hanyuu turned to see a blond-haired woman with droopy golden eyes gazing at them in morbid curiosity. Her pupils were slanted and there was a nasty look in her eyes.

"Takano..." Rika muttered, instantly tensing at the memory of her old nemesis who had torn her open time and time again. If only she remembered that memory before, then maybe this much time might not have been wasted to no avail. Then she could live a happy life with her friends.

Hanyuu resisted the urge to glare at her enemy. "Hello, Takano-san." She muttered, her eyes downcast/

"Who do we have here? You are quite unnatural with those horns of yours, you know. Almost like a demon..." She muttered, more to herself.

"Hauuu...that's not a nice thing to say." Hanyuu said, feeling tears well up in her eyes. She could not let her enemy see her down in the dumps like this.

"My, my, someone is touchy-"

"Nipah...please don't pick on my cousin, for she is very sensitive, that she is." Rika interjected.

Takano seemed to half-smile a little at that, but there was something...sinister to it. Rika frowned at that. She didn't like the look on her face.

"Rena wonders why you're out so late, that she does." A voice behind her said, and both of them turned around to see Rena standing there with her hatchet on full display behind her. The look in her eyes was blank and mysterious.

"Rena!" Rika exclaimed, then flinched upon looking at her friend. Rena seemed...a little out of it.

"Ara, ara, if it isn't Rena-chan!" Takano cried, looking even more like a wolf who had just found its prey.

"Why are you harassing my friends, Rena wonders?" Rena said, raising her nata slightly.

"I was only teasing with them. You simply don't trust your elders do you, Rena-chan?" Takano replied nervously. As she walked away, she called after them: "I won't forget our meeting here tonight. I do believe that this year's Watanagashi festival will be simply...wonderful. Especially with the curse and all..."

Hanyuu's face was stained with tears, Rika was more angry than anything else, and Rena seemed more or less emotionless. "That woman is annoying."