Even Great Magicians Can Fall

The first thing I wanted to do when I woke up was vomit.

Closing my eyes I inhaled and exhaled trying to get my head to stop from spinning, pushing down the bile that was stuck in the back of my throat. Oh God, I felt sick. My head wouldn't stop throbbing and my eyes could only squint open because I was so sensitive to the light. Light in the room at the moment felt like the effect of someone flashing a freaking floodlight but times ten directly into my eyes for about an hour.

Swallowing the warm saliva in my mouth that only made me even more nauseated, I started to groan as I rolled over to shield myself from the brightness. Can someone seriously not turn off the lights? You don't do this to people who feel like their brains are swelling within their skull.

With effort I lifted my hand to my face to cover my eyes when I heard a sharp inhale beside me. Spreading my fingers open, I squinted through them to see Aoko leaning close towards me. She looked so tired, her hair was messier than usual, her eyes lacking sleep, and she had a cup of coffee sitting on a small table top beside her where she sat watching me. How long has she been here? And while we are on the subject of here, where exactly am I? And why the hell do I feel so God forsaken sick?

"Oh, baby…." Aoko hushed as I groaned again from the intensity of light in my face, her fingers tenderly running through my bangs that were matted to my forehead.

Baby?

Never has Aoko been so intimate with me, softly stroking the outlines of my face as I laid in silence pretending to not know what was going on around me. I couldn't help but to shiver from her touch, the way she was acting right now was so weird….but at the same time….nothing exactly I objected to.

"Don't worry sweetie, the nurse will be back in here soon to give you some more medicine for your head." Aoko cooed as I moved again forcing myself not to vomit on myself right then and there.

Aoko noticed my discomfort from the light as I tried pulling the white sheets over my head to hide myself further the pain from the light caused me and stood up to flick off the room switch. At the moment, and it felt fitting, I wanted to hiss and slowly evaporate away from the damn light now.

"Better?", Aoko asked through the darkness as she carefully found her way back to my side.

"Mm." was all I was able to muster out. Talking was going to take too much effort and I was afraid that if I tried all that would come out would be yesterday's meal.

I sighed through my nose feeling the pain in my head began to dull to a numbing kind of pain, not as bad as the constant pounding it was like when the lights were on. Never have I had pain like this before and I was too tired to try to think how I came to be like this.

"You poor child, you look so exhausted…" Aoko whispered as she pulled the covers down from my head and tucked them neatly under my chin and gently removed the hand that was glued to my eyes and took it in her…to what surprised me, much larger hand. Maybe it was the pain in my head and eyes that was throwing off my sight and my ability to see things in the correct proportion.

Making small circles with her thumb as she held my hand, Aoko spoke to herself as she thought I was drifting back to sleep "Who could do something like this to a child…beating you up senseless and leaving you in an alleyway?"

Okay. Now I'm awake and pretty sure my head isn't making up things or making me delusional. This is about the third time she has referred to me as a child today. I mean what the hell?! I am not a child, I am eighteen, older by Aoko by about a couple months! And beat up senseless? Wait…..

My stomach lurched again when I looked back to my hand being held in hers and my eyes snapped open. Oh God, it wasn't a dream…

Before I could even put the whole nightmare together in my head an overweight and overly energetic nurse walked in switching on the lights triggering my head to throb in pain in overtime. Not the light again! Curse you, damn woman!

"How's our little guy doing today?" the nurse asked buoyantly.

Well if you didn't turn on the damn light I would say it didn't feel like my brain was bleeding profusely

….and little guy?

Oh God……….

And on cue I turned over to the side of the bed where a small pink bin awaited me and I began to throw up.

Present Time: Back in an unknown lab

"So, you continuously threw up for about an hour?..." The girl, that now very annoying girl, looked at me quizzically.

I stared at her with a half lidded expression as if she was an complete idiot. Why does me throwing up seem to be an important detail in this? This girl, wearing a pair of slim frameless glasses as she now sat behind her computer typing away only the details that mattered to her from me, made her all the more intimating. I mean, ever since I met this short girl who looked about eight or nine years old which I knew was just a disguise because I knew in reality she probably had no soul by how empty her eyes were when she looked at me. She was seemed like she use to be some evil conniving scientist who probably tortured subjects and I'll be damned if I turn into one them!

So, I have been hoping my charm would put me in her favor….but with someone like her, I have established it is simply impossible and she makes me way to damn scared.

"Well, I kind of assumed by the way those dudes took a cheap shot and knocked me clean unconscious…I was throwing up do to the concussion I received. Crazy idea I have right?" I sarcastically replied as I rolled my eyes of how lame I still thought it was me having to sit here having to re-tell her what happened in the beginning three months ago. This freaky girl probably got a kick out of my pain in throwing up for an hour.

I don't like her one bit I thought glaring as she silently leaned around her computer to look at me blankly obviously not amused by the cynicism.

" If you want me to take you seriously, I would advise you filtering your thoughts and be a little more respecting around those who are trying to help you Kuroba Kaito."

I especially didn't like how she said my entire name like that. I felt so belittled around such an authoritative figure like her and when she says my name in that monotonic voice it only scared me more. She sent cold chills down my body- and not those good ones either.

"I only ask this because usually with a concussion someone doesn't continually throw up for an hour. It looks like all your other vitals were okay and after your concussion you didn't have any abnormal mental states of matter, no seizures, you were able to wake shortly after a period of unconsciousness for about twenty four hours, and you had no signs of unequal pupils or weird dilations in your eyes. So the only thing I can relate your vomiting to is probably the APTX viral drug those 'men' who you say you ran into gave you."

I reeled back, " APTX viral what?"

"The drug that shrunk you…" the Haibara girl repeated slowly as if I was an idiot-which pissed me off further. "Those men you ran into are known as the Black Organization. They are the ones that are also most likely responsible for your father's death as well…."

Her saying that made me flinch. I didn't need her talking about my father, and right now I didn't want to think that my life was intended to be rid of by the same people that killed my dad-whoever they were.

"….in the past couple years they have created a new drug known as APTX that is used to kill cleanly and without a trace leading back to them. Unfortunately and without their knowing, there are side effects that still live today- me, you, and Kudou-kun. They used it intended to kill you and dumped your body in the alley for someone to find. What they didn't expect was you to shrink into a juvenile form."

"Yeah neither did I." I responded my eyebrows burrowing together as I looked at my small hand. "So, what does that have to do with me throwing up for an hour?"

Haibara shrugged" Good question. I guess there are different side effects from the drug for each of us. But what makes me wonder is that right after you were transformed you immediately became sick. How often do you feel sick?"

I pondered on this for a second, taking a full circle in my swivel chair. "Mm. It always feels like I have allergies and then there are some days where my body gets really hot and I start to vomit. Those are the bad days. But, it's nothing really I gave much consideration…thought it kind of related to my injuries."

I listened as Haibara fervently typed away my symptoms and then stopped to think as she closed her eyes to push up her glasses to rub the bridge of her nose.

"Seems to be your body is rejecting the drug. Or at least trying too. Odd…for Kudou-kun when his immune system is at its weakest point it is easier for him to take in prototypes of the antidote to transform….but in your case your immune system is weak from the drug."

I arched an eyebrow" Which means that I need to be completely healthy.."

"…For a prototype antidote to work for you. Yes." Haibara finished for me."It's odd… but it's something I can work on and something we can test out. No guarantees but at least we have a bit of a lead for you."

I took another spin in my swivel chair. At least now I have a lead, not a hundred percent accurate lead but it was something. For the past three months I have had nothing to go on to going back to normal while lying to Aoko, my mom, and all others who were important to me. Only few know my condition but at the moment the Kuroba Kaito was somewhere in America for extended vacation while performing magic tricks to cover for my situation. I grasped this small hope in desperation, I needed to get back to normal not only for myself but to finish everything that was started with this organization and my dad…but more importantly, for her.

"So.." I pointed towards Haibara's computer. "This is the reason you ditched writing on the clip board and went to the computer. So it could be easier for you to do all your scientific mumbo jumbo?"

Haibara smirked as she pushed her glasses back onto her face and started typing again. "Sure. But it also helps me get through while you talk about meaningless things in your account until you say the small things that actually matter."

Wow. What a bitch. So basically I talk too much. I glared at Haibara as my mouth twitched as I had to force myself not to retaliate with something inappropriate.

"My bad…." I forced out as Haibara began to laugh.

Three Months Ago: Beika Hospital 10:08 pm a day later from the transformation

So at the moment what I knew was I was I was in the hospital with a severe concussion.

Shit.

And that I was definitely no longer eighteen years old but now I guess magically now eight years old.

Double shit.

After my body was done heaving basically every little particle that was in my stomach and even nothing at times, I was completely exhausted with still my head throbbing in sharp pain. This was absolutely one of the worst days of my life. While being sick Aoko could do nothing but watch in fear or constantly seek the nurses who calmed her down to no avail by saying it was a 'normal' process with a concussion, but Aoko didn't buy it. I hated seeing Aoko like this, she is one of those girls that takes peoples worries and pains and put it on herself as well. She was just way too damn caring.

At the moment I was propped up with pillows with an empty pink bin at my side just in case I felt the need to vomit again, but my body was spent dry. Aoko was by my side, my hand in both of hers as she tried to soothe me by gently rubbing it. In ways, it kind of did and it felt good and distracted me enough from the pain my body felt. Yet, right now as she did this she was fighting to stay awake, her head nodding back until she snapped awake and re focused her eyes on me waiting for me to sleep first.

Oh, Aoko….come on now.

Sighing, I squeezed her hand to snap her attention on me and wake her up.

"Hey, you know you don't have to wait for me to sleep first. You look worn out, I'll be fine if you sleep." I whispered, finally able to speak some but not much.

Aoko looked worried" But, what if you start get to sick again and you need a nurse…I really feel I should stay awake until you're ok enough to sleep."

I smiled as I, with great effort from the pain I was in, to lift her hand to my lips so I could kiss the back of her hand. Aoko's eye brows raised up in genuine surprise when I did this and I forced a smile. "Really, I feel fine. I would really like it if you at least slept some…"

And for the first time that night, I was able to see Aoko smile, something I loved to see. It was amazing how much she changed when she did that, how her face lit up and her cheeks roséd over. It was one of my favorite things about her- how transformational, magically, beautiful she can become by one simple gesture- I mean not that she wasn't already…but…ah you know what I mean.

"Fine. For you I will try to sleep." Aoko replied gently as she squeezed my hand. "You remind me so much of my friend Kaito-kun….but you're much sweeter."

And with that Aoko scooted her chair towards the bed closer to nestle her head into her arm as she held my hand. "Don't worry…" she whispered while she looked at me laying down. "I wont let go of your hand even while I sleep, just in case something happens."

I smiled sincerly, "Thank you."

I watched her blue eyes slowly close as she fell asleep, her breathing even and deep. That's my girl I thought as I watched her slip into being unconscious, so peacefully. Geez I wish I noticed these small things about her more often and it was amazing how much I took it for granted- how much I took her for granted.

I sighed leaning back into my pillow as I looked up at the ceiling in the dark. In all,I just didn't get how I got into a situation like this. How I let those guys knock me unconscious and do whatever they did to make me a stupid kid again. Obviously their intention was to kill me but it failed…but I was a kid. Did they slip me some weird posion or voodoo? Like I knew…funny, I was the magician and yet they were able to pull off a great trick on me I couldn't even figure out.

I guess even the greatest magicians can fall too……

To be continued…

Okay…so it took me three years to get back in the groove. But I serisouly blame it on school haha. Whatever, all that matters is I am back into my KID groove again-especially after watching the Kaito Kid anime which I thrououghly enjoyed! Well review and wait for another chapter soon. I got some ideas brewin :D---Dectivegirl2005