After around five minutes, it became obvious to the teacher that Conan was not going to awaken easily, and she fretted to herself before hurrying out of the room. While she was gone, three of his friends gathered around the boy, bickering amongst themselves as to what had happened to Conan. The fourth, meanwhile, sat next to him and was in no mood for talk. Ai stared at the unconscious boy next to her, gripping her pencil so tightly it would snap under the pressure.
Conan was supposed to be her test subject. Every prototype antidote to the APTX4869 that she created, she checked its effects on him before trying it herself. And he was the perfect test subject. He was willing to let her do anything to him if it meant freedom from his imprisonment in childhood. If you had a shrunken friend that was more than eager to try any way to go back to his normal size, then why not use him to test the antidote? But the problem of having a test subject was that that test subject needed to be in good condition for each test. If he wasn't, then results would be noted down inaccurately. This would lead to mistakes in making the next test, and soon the entire project would go down the drain.
Basically, Conan being incapacitated was not good.
However, Ai was a biochemist, and this intrigued her. Even with her extensive knowledge she didn't know of much that could render the boy unconscious. And when she didn't know anything...
She stepped out of the room and walked down the hallway to find Ms Kobayashi jumping about excitedly. "Kobayashi-sensei?" she said.
The teacher looked down at her. "Oh, Haibara-chan? What is it?" she asked.
"Agasa-hakase is home right now. He is available to pick Edogawa-kun up from school." The little girl crossed her arms behind her back. "Mouri-san is likely to have gone to the police station this morning, as it's possible they could have called him in on the latest Kaitou KID heist, and Mouri-chan is at school and cannot miss any part of her education. Calling Agasa-hakase would save you from troubling those two. Is that alright?"
Kobayashi stumbled. "Y-yes... alright, Haibara-chan. Could you give me Agasa-san's number? I always forget it..."
Ai glanced back at the classroom door. Kudou-kun, please wake up as soon as we get out of the building. I'm counting on you to do that, at least.
MKMKMKMKMK
Shin'ichi shivered. "Does it seem... cold to you, Conan-kun?" he asked, grasping his shoulders.
"No... Anyway, we've been asleep for a long time, nii-chan," Conan replied softly. "Any longer and we'll be sent to hospital. On the outside, it must look as if..."
"... as if we're dead," the taller one completed, "and, knowing Ayumi-chan, Mitsuhiko-kun and Genta-kun, we probably do look a lot like we are." He stood up, straightening his green neck-tie. "Alright, I'm going to try and wake us up. Go and study every science fact I know in the corner, Conan-kun. See if you can come up with anything."
Conan nodded. "Right, nii-chan." The boy stumbled over to the shelves across the room, while Shin'ichi put his hand on his head. He could do this...
"...Nii-chan?"
Shin'ichi looked down at the boy. "Yes?"
The boy took off his fake glasses, looking his older double straight in the eye. "How are we separate like this?" he asked. "I'm meant to be all an act. I never existed in the first place, I was just somebody you made up over the last year and a half... so how come I'm standing here, with nearly independent thoughts, while you're going to go off and pretend to be me?" He sat down on the floor, pulling a book off the shelf. "It doesn't make any sense to me."
Shin'ichi paused. "It doesn't make sense to me either, but I know this is what Haibara's going to figure out. At least, if this has happened to her and she's got Shiho-san nagging her in her mind, we'll know that this isn't a totally isolated incident. Relax, Conan-kun," he said, "it's going to make sense in the end."
"...I hope so," Conan mumbled, picking out a book and spreading it open on his crossed legs.
MKMKMKMKMK
It was break-time at Ekoda High School, and people were tensed up. And dying. The first few lessons had dragged on for what had seemed like hours. Normally, such a thing wouldn't have been; it was because Kuroba Kaito, the 'class clown' as it were, had not done anything odd yet. Hence how tensed up everybody was. Hakuba, however, was tense for another reason – the military commander did not respond to the e-mail they had sent off, and so KID's heist note still remained a mystery. Checks were being done on all emeralds in the area today; hopefully, they would be able to get something. But for the moment, Hakuba was left to watch as Kuroba started his little show, which happened to be at – exactly – three past eleven and nine-point-two-eight seconds, according to his golden pocket-watch.
Kuroba spread around thirty different flowers out on the desk, some of the other members of the class peeking over his shoulder with mild interest in today's first trick. He had brought the flowers in this morning and, if he wasn't giving them to the teacher, Aoko or Hakuba, then he was using them for magic. He drew from the inside of his sleeve a handkerchief, which was tied to another, which was tied to another, which was tied to another, which was tied to another...
At some point, they all had to stop counting. It was making them sleepy. Kuroba wagged his finger at the other students and finally finished the chain of handkerchiefs with a small flourish, and a bluebird that flew out of an open window.
Hakuba blinked. "That's my handkerchief, Kuroba-kun," he barked politely. Oddly enough, the same handkerchief that KID had thought it fun to pinch just last month. He hadn't seen it since. Strike one: possession of stolen belongings.
Kuroba examined the one on the end thoroughly. "So it is," he noted. "Yours'd be... um, this one?" He held up one link in the chain, a rather fancy red number with gold embroidery. "It looks like the kind of thing you'd carry around, Hakuba-kun."
The blond groaned. "Not that one, I believe that's Koizumi-chan's," he said. Strike two: avoiding the blame at all costs. "The twenty-first, or is it twenty-second(?), the something-around-twenty-first-twenty-second one – I can't even be bothered to count at the moment, good Lord..."
Kuroba scanned down the line for a second. "Oh, right." Pink, this time. Rose pink. "Never knew you were that kind of man."
"What kind of man?"
"Ah... the 'pink silk' kind of man. I always thought you were the 'dressy, natural cotton' kind of man."
"Well, I'm not a 'pink silk' kind of man," Hakuba replied. "That one belongs to Nakamori-chan."
The magician looked down at the pilfered handkerchief, spotting two very small kanji. "Oh, right." He tossed it over to Aoko, who caught it with a small blush that neither Kuroba nor Hakuba could miss. Strike three, insinuating that I wear pink silk underpants. Everybody knows your little knickers fetish, Kuroba-kun. "What colour's yours?"
"Mine would be white, thank you. With the knight in one corner," he said. "The 'dressy, natural cotton' one, I think you'll find."
"Oi, oi..." Kuroba unknotted said handkerchief. He looked down at paused. "Did you often write on your handkerchief in biro pen, Hakuba-kun?" he asked, turning around. Some of the students reached out to grab at the flowers, but he slapped their hands away.
Hakuba stood up and walked over. "Of course, not, Kuroba-kun. Why on earth would I?" he posed exasperatedly.
Kuroba passed him the cloth. Upon it were the words, in English:
My sincere apologies, tantei-san,
but I was mentioned and so I did require use of this.
Wash this before its next use;
you know what they say about sneezes.
Kaitou KID
"..." Hakuba sped back to his seat.
The letters scratched in thicker than the others spelled something out in English. Why was it all still in English? he wondered as he drafted them all onto plain paper.
M, L, G, N, I, A, O, D, U, A, H, R, N, Y, E, A, O, Z, K.
He could get 'magnolia' out of the letters, as well as 'year', 'dual', 'KID' and various other words besides. Considering Kuroba was doing a trick with flowers, 'magnolia' would make sense, but that wasn't his intention if one were to also apply 'KID'.
In front of him, Kuroba turned the flowers into the morning newspaper. Once again, the same story that had plagued the papers for at least ten days by now greeted the boy's eyes. He turned the page. "Interesting... a KID heist after all of that mess?" he said aloud. "It shoved him right off the front page..."
Hakuba glanced down at the paper, and rearranged the letters in his head, crossing them out as he went.
S, H, I, Z, U, O, K, A. Shizuoka... A, N, O, M, A, L, Y. Anomaly. Shizuoka anomaly. And now he was left with G, D, R, N, E, A...
Garden? Red nag? No, wait, that wasn't it... range... d- range...
Danger. 'Shizuoka anomaly, danger'. There was something wrong with the anomaly? Well, of course there was something wrong with it, it was an anomaly. It was a whole big bundle of wrong in the big ball of timey-wimey stuff that was space and time. But why would Kaitou KID mention it in the first place? He only ever mentioned stuff to do with the-
Oh, God. He wasn't.
Kuroba grinned. "Ah, if he makes it spectacular enough, I guess he might be able to jump back into the top spot, right?"
He was...
MKMKMKMKMK
The small boy on the sofa stirred. "Where am I?" he slurred, feeling around himself for anything. A vision of a blonde woman dialling 'Nanatsu no Ko' into a mobile phone passed before his eyes. Where was the wire? He had to...
He didn't feel anything.
Disoriented, he opened his eyes more fully. Ai's dark storm-blue eyes stared back at him. "Hello, Sleeping Beauty. How are you?"
He frowned. "I'm okay," he replied, looking around. "Did you call Agasa-hakase?"
"Indeed she did!" cried a voice from the direction of the basement stairs. Agasa Hiroshi was a neighbour and old friend of Kudou Shin'ichi. He had a PhD in Mechanics and was more of an inventor than a mechanic. The professor drove a saffron-yellow Volkswagen Beetle imported from Europe. It was something he'd manage to get himself after selling an invention of his (a voice-changer fountain pen) to the Bandai toy and games company and spending the resulting profits. Conan had often made sly remarks about the fact that it had been one of the few successful things Agasa had ever created to sell to the general public.
"Good, good," Conan nodded, and was about to speak again when he suddenly broke into a massive yawn. He attempted to blink the sleep-dust out of his eye, but gave up and huddled into the corner of the sofa again. It seemed to be a new habit of his; that irked him.
Ai crossed her arms. "Be grateful, Kudou-kun," she muttered. "You're out of school, away from the children, and with people who know your identity and are not going to kill you over it."
"Right, thanks," he mumbled. "God-damnit, I only just woke up too..."
His eyelids drooped; fortunately, Ai pinched his nose to wake him up. "Kudou-kun, stay awake. I don't know what's wrong with you yet and I don't to lose you."
"I could just be tired," he offered weakly.
Her iron constitution, though, was not quite going to let him go yet. "You've not had a case for a week. The organisation has made no moves recently. Vermouth isn't antagonising us. Ran hasn't been doing anything recently either. There is no way that you're just tired."
"I have an idea," Agasa exclaimed, walking up the stairs. "How about we give him a little quiz?" Whenever the Shounen Tantei, a group of children Conan and Ai belonged to, went on an excursion of some kind, a riddle tended to get them thinking seriously. Not to mention that Conan, both as a young detective and as his father's son, drank up mysteries like a thirsty man in the desert did a glass of cold water.
However, the response was not as expected. "No thanks," Conan said, "I'm not Mitsuhiko-kun." And he continued to try and wrap himself up in the corner.
Ai placed her hand on his forehead, resulting in a slight blush. "You're not overheating. That rules out a cold. Your heart rate is normal. Are you feeling nauseous? Are there any stabbing pains?"
He hesitated. Then-
"Nothing's wrong," he said. "I'm just sleepy."
MKMKMKMKMK
Akako brushed her long hair out of her face. "I specifically told you, Kaito-kun, not to go to the anomaly."
Kaito rubbed the back of his neck bashfully. "What are you talking about, Koizumi-chan?" he answered. "I'm not going to the anomaly. Kaitou KID is."
"Exactly my point, KID-san," Akako spat back. "Now please explain why on earth you want to head towards your untimely death."
The secret thief sighed, leaning back on the edge of the barrier stopping him from toppling from the roof of the school. Akako liked to call him up here for more private conversations, so that Hakuba and Aoko couldn't provide a distraction. And unlike either of those two, he was unable to make the conversations 'fun'. Oh, well, it would be honesty this time around. Or as much of it as he could give, in any case. "Well, if I were KID, I would likely be heading for the anomaly because I found something on the other side that intrigued me deeply. And if I were KID, there'd be only three things that interest me."
He held up his hand, three fingers in the air. "One, a gathering of police and detectives. Two, a challenge from somebody who thinks they can get past me. And three, big shiny gemstones."
Akako grabbed his gakuran's collar madly. "Those gemstones are going to get you killed, Kaito-kun, and if you end up lucky enough not to die out there, I will personally finish you myself. Then all the men in the world really will be mine."
She stormed off towards the fire escape door and disappeared behind it. Kaito groaned. "Wonder what her problem is..." After all, it wasn't as if he were purposely going to his death. Kaito was an intelligent boy, of the kind that could answer higher mathematics questions on the run from a flying mop and a very angry Aoko. He also happened to be the magician in the moonlight, the thief famous for thinking on his feet, if one excused the purely accidental moment of alliteration there. He was smart enough to know when something was dangerous. A physical glitch in the workings of the known universe fit into that category rather neatly. That was why he'd told Hakuba not to dare coming after him.
But just because something was dangerous, it didn't mean one had to be a coward and run away. He'd already informed a long-time acquaintance about what he was going to. He wouldn't have told him anything if he didn't already have this entire affair under control. He was going to retrieve those emeralds and get them away from those who would seek to use them for evil. He was not going to be sticking around waiting for somebody to take a shot at him. And he had a very good feeling about this excursion anyway. As if things would go even better than he or anyone expected.
Still, Akako would know what she was talking about. Remember, this was 'evil scary witch woman' who had accurately identified him as Kaitou KID despite few previous meetings with him in school and absolute zero with the KID. She had to have some way of seeing into the other world somehow...
He laughed bitterly. He hated Akako's 'magic' – while it did indeed give a show, it didn't make people happy and it had originally been a way to hurt somebody, a role that Miss Koizumi was intent to keep in its possession. He had to despise it as somebody whose tricks only existed to delight and entertain.
If magic didn't put a smile on somebody's face, then what was it good for, really?
And yet, he found himself looking out across the buildings of his hometown. The people after him, the 'black coats' being the nickname he and his favourite rival had dubbed them with, would be interested in whatever he was going after, especially after he delivered such an unspecific message to the police. It was good that the note hadn't even been released to the public yet, but there could still be snitches within the force, and if they managed to gain access to the note and its add-on, then they'd eventually find the video that he'd discovered, and then everything would basically go to pot if they managed to get through the tear as well.
He shrugged. This was why he was doing this, right? Snake, the sniper who'd misidentified him as his father Kuroba Toichi, would do anything for Pandora, the legendary gem that cried tears of immortality when held under the light of a full moon. The emeralds had been indirectly described by the creatures on the video as items of limitless power. Limitless power probably also included immortality. Kaito was willing to bet his monocle that Snake would turn his attentions to them, and if the rest of his group, big or little, didn't notice this sudden change of interest then they would have to be total idiots.
And if the stones ever found themselves in those greasy mitts, what would they do with them? He had a vague idea. That much power was sure to corrupt even the best of the people. They'd try to make the immortality elixir. They'd fail in the process (if they didn't know how to handle these other-worldly powers, then that much was for sure). And then they'd use them for other purposes. These gems were full of energy. Anything was possible once they learned how to harness it, and people like them would use it destructively. They'd probably end up with a world domination attempt or something equally 'Saturday morning'. Maybe a bomb spree around Tokyo, at the very least?
Nope, that sounded a bit familiar... he needed to check up on that one.
Kaito wasn't going to let that happen - no way, José. He'd definitely get to those emeralds first and stop them. People like that didn't deserve power, only ruin. He wouldn't let them lay their hands on them... wow, somebody needed to lay off the manga. He was going to lose himself in this. Maybe this was what Akako had been talking about?
"Ah, forget it," he said to himself. "I'm going, I'm checking these emeralds out and if they look valuable enough, then away they'll fly with me into the stars. That's the end of it." And with that, he began to walk back downstairs.
A/N: Kaito and Shin'ichi both have simple-to-follow philosophies. Is that why they're so good at what they do?