A/N: This is super short, but I think it's alright. Next chapter will be monster-sized (Well, as big as my monster-sized chapters can get). Promise! I had trouble writing this at first, but then I got in the zone. Lol. Enjoy? ^^Oh! Also, there's a little part in the manga/anime that the kids show up at the Mouri detective agency and then immediately head to the library, well, I'm gonna say that they picked him up for school that morning and then it cuts to the scene after school when they're walking to the library.

Disclaimer: I do not own Detective Conan or Magic Kaito in any way or form.

Chapter Fourteen

Three days had passed, filled with my persistent tries to get out of going to the library without right-out saying 'I don't want to go because there'll be a creepazoid there!', but they hadn't prevailed and it was already Thursday. Thursday, the day of the library murder case. Gosh, help me…

School had passed without a breeze, Conan returning to class and merely sparing me a half-hearted glance before he probably casually disregarded me as a normal transfer student. I would probably feel offended by his actions, had he not been wrong. I was most definitely not just another normal transfer. Was it bad that I was smug that Shinichi hadn't figured me out, even though it had only been a few short hours? I snickered to myself. Yup, probably, but I couldn't bring myself to really care. Not with the high of adrenaline I had when he first set his sharp eyes on me and seemed to look through me for a brief moment. Freakin' scary, man. Those blue, blue eyes could kill, if they wanted to.

As class ended and the Detective Boys headed out of the classroom without me, I quietly rejoiced. Maybe Ayumi had been so happy with Conan's return that she forgot about me! But, before I could become filled with elation, Ayumi came darting back in, sticking her head from the doorway. "Are you coming, Koizumi-chan?" Her smile was bright and happy. I almost groaned but mustered up a convincing small smile, hurrying to go to her side and follow her out of the school to where the others were.

We met Conan and the others outside the building, and I swallowed thickly as Shinichi's eyes hidden by the frames of Conan's glasses once again stared at me, though his interest was more than a passing glance this time. Shoot. Stay calm, stay calm, stay calm.

"Conan-kun, this is Koizumi Alice! She transferred here this Monday. She's from America!" I blinked at Ayumi in surprise, before offering the shrunken teen a shaky smile. He seemed to notice, eyes narrowing and a tiny frown tugging at the corners of his lips. Shit. "Ah, nice to meet you, Edogawa-kun." I fixed smoothly, smile becoming more firm and staring unwavering at him, though I was doing my best not to just turn tail and run back to Kaito's house, where it was comfortable and safe. Goodness, here I was, meeting the death magnet of this world. Hopefully, Lady Luck likes me enough to spare my life. Since I wasn't in the original storyline, I wasn't quite sure of my future.

Conan was quick to hide his subtle suspiciousness and gave me a smile. "Nice to meet you, too, Koizumi-chan." He replied in kind, using my last name since I used his. After the introductions, we all began heading to the library. There was a comfortable silence, before Ayumi spoke up.

"We were so worried! You were sick and missed three days of school!" She intoned, voice light. I had to hold back a snicker and a huge grin when I realized I recognized that line. It was like being psychic, or something. Knowing things that will be said before it even happens. Empowering, but strange. Very strange. Conan looked disinterested, hands shoved carelessly in his pockets, though he shot me a brief look when I let out a tiny noise of amusement.

"You're so lucky you got to miss school. I guess I'll try to catch a cold, too." Genta's voice rumbled, his hands behind his head and eyes closed in a casual pose. Mitsuhiko turned slightly to look at his bigger friend, a smile on his face as he teased, "Genta-kun, there's no way you can catch a cold." Genta opened his eyes, looking down at Mitsuhiko curiously. "Why not?"

"Like they said, 'stupid people can never catch–'" Mitsuhiko began, looking forward again with a big smile as Genta seemed to realize what he was saying, hand coming out and bumping the back of the freckled boys head. Genta glared but my attention was stolen as Ayumi spoke up once again.

"But, it's great you're back to normal!" She cheered happily. My mind immediately supplied me with a rough sketch of what Shinichi was thinking as he continued to look ahead with that deadpanned, disinterested face. I decided to pull his leg a bit, a smirk crawling on my lips as I said, "Yes, it's great that you're back to normal." He shot me a wide-eyed look for a second, but since I had turned my head to look off to the side, he brushed it off, asking his question.

"So, why do we all have to go to the library?" He finally turned to regard the kids behind him, though his tone said he was bored or brooding. Probably both. Ayumi was the first to answer him. "Because while you were sick, we had a book report due, and you're the only one who didn't turn it in." She explained to him before turning to Genta and Mitsuhiko and I. "So, we thought we'd all help you, right?" The boys and I smiled innocently, humming our affirmatives together, "Hm~!"

I caught sight of Conan turning his head a bit, still regarding us with his eyes as he thought to himself, 'That might be the case with Ayumi-chan, but I bet Genta and Mitsuhiko came just to be with her.' Don't know what he was thinking of me, but all I could think of was, 'you're right, Shinichi. Though, Genta and Mitsuhiko aren't the only ones with hidden agendas…,' He raised one brow, finally deviating his eyes to look upward, and I remembered the cute line he said in his head. Something about it not being too bad to spend time with them when he could, because he wouldn't be Edogawa Conan for too long. I had to smile at that thought. Oh, how wrong he was…

Ayumi grabbed Conan's hand – breaking my train of thought – and pulled him forward and began to run, the other two and me running along, too, all smiling as we made our way to the library where one creep was waiting for us.

ooOOoo

Beika library was a big building with several floors, painted a shade of off-white that made me scowl internally in distaste. But, once we got inside, I guess it was okay. It had the normal library atmosphere. Quiet, studying, and the smell of new and old books intoxicating. The elevator ride up to the floor we were currently on had me shuffling nervously, casting uncertain glances at the top of it. After travelling to the kid's corner, the three real kids had found a book that caught their attention. They went to a table and began to read it all together, laughing at parts and smiling. The cover had a weird frog on it, wearing worker gloves and a belt. I couldn't tell if it was wearing pants, though, I'm sure it was. I sighed lightly, going to sit at the same table, just on the other side, and put my cheek in my palm as I rested and stared at Conan with undisguised interest. I wondered absently if it was putting him on edge or not.

He was looking at the books in his hand with a completely unimpressed look, looking back and forth between the two, before putting them back onto the messy shelf. Was it bad of me to relish in his pain of having to do a 'kiddy book report'? Though, I couldn't see his problem with it, it would be easy and relatively fast. Then again, he always struck me as the type of person who really hated doing things that 'turned his brain to mush', or something. I dunno. At least, my report had been easy enough, based off of a child's version of Alice in Wonderland. Kaito had been bemused by the fact that I had been doing a report on a book with a girl named Alice who is thrown into a different, more chaotic, world. I thought it was quite fitting, really.

Just for his teasing, I marked him as the Cheshire Cat of this world, if I was Alice. His grin was surely enough for him to keep the title. Not to mention his somewhat similar personality.

My attention was brought back to Conan as he noticed something – the box of foreign books – in a cabinet type thing, coming up, sliding the door open a bit more, and grabbing one to look at it closer. He inspected them with a curious face that was more fit for a kid before he was snapped out of his searching by a hand grabbing one book from him. I tensed, eyes narrowing a bit, as I visibly bristled, the hair on my arms and the back of my neck standing on end as the unawares Conan turned to look up at the person who took it from him.

"Now, now. These books aren't for little children." The man scolded lightly, a gentle smile on his face, eyes closed calmly. My heart exploded into a flurry of beating and my teeth clashed together as I tried to not look at the man any differently than any other normal kid would. It was harder than it seemed, as my lips kept pulling into a defensive curl, teeth glinting behind my lips – and I would bite him if he even touched me; keeping my identity a secret be damned to hell – and my brows kept trying to furrow my eyes into a dark, mistrusting, glare.

"Oh, I'm sorry." Conan apologized, a childish tone entering his voice. I blinked as the faint sound of a patrol car rang before shutting off and I turned to look at the kids as they put the book back to where it belonged before going to the window to look out excitedly. Ayumi had to use a chair to see over the window and I thought it was cute. Ayumi turned to wave back at both me and Conan.

"Conan-kun, Koizumi-chan! Look! Look! Patrol cars!" She called enthusiastically, practically beaming. Conan turned to look at Ayumi, but not before I caught him looking at the head of the library as the man shuffled the books in the box he had taken from the place Conan had found them. He made an interested sound as he went to the window and I came closer, as well, at a slower pace, not really interested at looking at a police car now. Not with that man behind me, out of my line of sight…

"I wonder if something happened…," Mitsuhiko trailed a bit, and I watched as Conan got onto the chair with Ayumi to see. Haha, he really was short. "Maybe some crimes been committed!" Ayumi guessed, and she sounded way too happy and excited for that sentence. I bit back a chuckle. These kids were something else. I heard the box being picked up from the table behind me and looked to see that head of the library holding the box from before. Before he could move, though, a woman in a red-ish suit came up to him.

"Kancho, there are police officers downstairs!" The woman told him, looking somewhat hesitant and unsure of what to do. The man merely looked at her in surprise as he replied, "I see. I'll be right down." And then he walked off, leaving the woman to follow him or go somewhere else. My eyes followed him for a moment before they snapped back to Conan, startled by his sudden outburst. Okay, obviously crime scenes make me more paranoid and nervous than I already am. Great…

"I'm gonna go check it out!" He declared, pushing back from the window – the others looked at him in surprise – and hopping off the chair and heading towards the elevator. "H-hey! Wait, Conan!" Genta called as the kids rushed to follow him and, I, not wanting to be alone in the library followed quickly, too. We reached the elevator just as the head of the library walked into it, looking normal as can be. I held back a small whine. How could he be so calm when he knew there was someone's body right above him?! Then again, he is the one who killed the poor dude… So I guess it made more sense than I thought.

"Hold that elevator for a moment!" Conan shouted, still running up to it with the rest of us. We all rushed in and stopped to catch our breath for a moment before a low ding noise rang out. Conan looked up before gaining an annoyed look. "We're over the maximum occupancy." He mumbled, irritated, and I let my eyes travel to the ceiling once more in discomfort before looking back down and smirking. Genta and Mitsuhiko looked to the sign on the wall.

"The maximum is seven people." Mitsuhiko stated, voice a bit breathless from the short run to the elevator. Genta suddenly pointed at the woman holding the door open, startling her a bit as he began to count everyone. "One, two, three, four, five, six, seven." He said, not counting me because I had already discreetly exited the elevator, watching in bemusement as Genta held p his hand, pointing at it with the other. "There are exactly seven people!" He gruffed and Conan was quick to burst his bubble.

"You didn't count yourself!" He accused, pointing at Genta. Genta made a sound, eyes widening as Mitsuhiko turned to Ayumi. "Like I said, Genta-kun will never catch a cold!" He informed Ayumi in a cheerful voice, Ayumi smiling happily back. Once again, Genta bopped Mitsuhiko on the head and Conan rushed out of the elevator box, all of us beginning to follow him swiftly to the stairs and starting to go down, "We have no choice. Let's take the stairs!"

Rushing to the stairs, I glanced back to see the head of the library peeking out of the elevator and looking at us curiously before he went back in and the doors closed. My eyes narrowed before I returned to the task at hand. After all, it was best to watch my movements, because, in this world, with my luck, my death would possibly end up something ridiculous like tripping down the stairs. Yeah. No, thank you.

Review Replies:

To: Raifuujin – lol, yup. XD Mysterious transfer students always need to end up there. (Nods) XD And I agree. I dunno why they cut that tiny part out, it would have added a lot to her character and give some foreshadowing. Haha, yeah, I couldn't resist. XDDD The power of the creepazoid episode. (Laughs) Thanks for your review! ^^

-Cut this into two chapters because putting it all together would have made it monster-sized, but the next chapter will conclude the whole case, so it will probably be really long. XDD

-Edit: There were quite a few mistakes in here, but I fixed them. Hopefully, I got them all. XD