This chapter is mostly dialogue... Sorry! I ran out of descriptive stuff halfway! Lemme read the dictionary for a while...I'll get beck to writing descriptions soon!

The clock beeped.

One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine.

He rolled over in bed, and opened his bright, alert eyes.

The clock beeped again.

One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten.

He flipped his pillow over to the cool side, and then thumped his heavy head back down onto it. For some unknown reason, he had insomnia that night.

One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven.

The day had been eventful, with the anticlimax to the class gathering, for he had passed out after gazing at Akako. He knew she was the witch, and the other piece of 'evidence' was the little voice that had somehow planted itself into his head. When he woke up after the blackout, it had kept saying the same thing, its voice soft and fragile like the gentle wheeze of the wind. He fumbled around with his thoughts, trying to figure out what the second line of its little speech meant.

"Koizumi Akako is the witch, witch, witch."

The first line resonated in his head. Apparently the redhead he had seen earlier in the day was the same witch that had attacked him with Kid the other night. But what was she doing there? How had she known that he would be there? Was is just pure coincidence, or was it something else entirely?

Then, the voice came again. This time, it only mumbled the second line.

"At midnight the dove will fly, fly, fly."

He turned the thought over in his mind; turned himself over to face the clock's face. Its hands glowed neon green in the pitch black room, the second hand slowly ticking towards the vertical minute and hour hands.

One, two, three, four, five.

His eyes were peeled raw, he pasted them on the clock's second hand, waiting for the meaning to reveal itself.

Six, seven, eight, nine, ten.

Almost there, but still, nothing happened. He was begging for something to happen, but there did not seem to be anything, be it normal or paranormal, waiting to happen.

Eleven.

Anticipation built itself up in his veins, for now anything could happen. Time seemed to slow down, now, just when he wanted to know what would happen next. His fists griped at the blankets, and tension shot through his physical self, bracing it for the worst.

Twelve.

The was a bright flash of red light, so brilliant that he thought Ran would come running in to see what was the matter. It blinded even him, and he quickly sat up, trying to see what had happened. It lasted for quite a while, and then cooled off, the darkness swallowing up the room once more.

Conan blinked; there was nothing new or missing or changed in the room. Everything still stayed the same place as before. Only the window was slightly open, a little draft dancing together with the curtains.

The breeze swept over to him, and engaged him into her slow dance. It rubbed against him, the spots where she had touched felt cool. He was aware of it, too aware even, for the wind was unusually cold that night. His pyjamas felt too thin, letting her brush against his bare skin.

Wait a minute.

He looked down, and saw his answer. His clothes laid around him on the bed, leaving his bare skin exposed to the wind. They felt too small to wear, so he got up to look at himself in the mirror.

The person that was reflected back to his eyes was a tall naked young man, his being barely discernible from the shadows behind him; the only sign of his existence was the pair of midnight blue eyes staring back at him, gleaming with curiosity and apprehension, and the pair of magnificent snowy wings fluttering behind him.

Instinctively, he yanked open a storage of his spare clothes to get something to wear.

Twin was doing one of his favourite things: listening to the tunes of soundtracks he had ripped from CDs he picked up in the morning. He was not tech-savvy, so loading the tunes into an old-fashioned music player took him almost all evening. It was worth it, though, for the tunes he played were mostly eerie-sounding ones, adding to the already melancholy atmosphere that hung thickly in the air. People avoided the area, and that made him happy.

An almost silent whoosh of wings made him prick up his sensitive ears. He scurried back into his little cave, expecting someone to come along and find him or something, and pulled the player in with his tail, leaving the wireless speakers outside.

"Twin?" a relatively unfamiliar voice said. He shuddered, for no one was supposed to know he was here except the child who held the Destiny, yet there was someone here calling his name, let alone it being an adult. His claws unsheathed, his teeth bared, his heart thumping with adrenaline, he jumped out at the intruder, snarling madly.

The tall person held his hands up in fright, and the wind blew from behind him, his scent catching Twin full in the face. It was very familiar, not that of the graveyard cleaner or any of the funeral people, its aroma was something alive and well, not dead, and it was newly registered with him too. He twitched his nose in question; his hackles still rose, trying to think of the person.

The person this scent belonged to was Edogawa Conan, the child with the doll.

"Twin? It's me. I'm not carrying any weapons or anything, so you can keep those sharpies." Sure, his voice sounded deeper, as if he had shot through puberty recently, but more or less, he was still the same. "Conan-kun?" he asked tentatively, expecting the negative.

""Yeah....but I'm not really Conan now."

Twin kept away his weapons, sat down and began to brush his hair. "So...What happened to you?" he asked, his yellow eyes eyeing the latter with a questioning gaze.

"I...er...."

"Oh, I get it! This is your angel form, is it not?" Twin laughed, and then continued, "Well now, I didn't expect it to be someone so...pardon me for using the word...old. You look like you've just shot up a few years, Conan."

The silhouette peered down at him with eyes the shape of half moons. "Oh really. As a matter of fact, I did. Just now too."

Twin stared up at him with renewed attention. "What? You mean, you transformed earlier?" He sat up, attention level reaching its peak.

"S-Sort of. It kind of got glowy, and then I realised I was sitting on my bed without clothes."

The Halfling hooted with laughter once more, earning another glare from his annoyed friend.

"Okay, okay," he said when he finally calmed down, "So...What happened today? Why are you like this?"

And so, Shinichi sat down on a flat rock and told his supernatural friend about the day's happenings, to which the latter scratched his chin thoughtfully.

"You know, you shouldn't use your powers that much. Each time you do, regardless of what it is for, will result in a small portion of your soul being transferred to the doll. Think of it as a little fee that the Destiny charges for its services. You can't get it back, unless you manage to get it out of your body, only then will your soul pieces return to you. If you use your powers too much, your soul will be trapped in the doll, and the doll's own soul will take over your physical body." Twin finished his long speech, and sat down and scratched his ears, waiting for the other's response.

"Then...what about this...angel form, then? If I use my powers while I'm in angel form, will my soul be sapped while I'm in this state and when I'm using my powers then?"

"No, because in this state, the doll is in a 'sleep' mode, and won't take anything when you play around with its powers. But beware, child, for this angel form is only available in the night, like you have just seen, and for a limited period of time only. Once the time runs out, you'll be automatically transformed back into your child self again." He paused, to catch his breath, and then went on, "So...wait. Where are your glasses?"

The boy pulled them out from his pocket, and mumbled, "I don't really need them."

Twin stare up at the boy with a strange, faraway look in his gold eyes, then whispered in a low voice, so that only the person standing in front of him could hear his words.

"Who the hell are you?"

He nodded curtly, and began to tell his – no, Conan's story right from the start. Twin listened in eager interest, and then laid back his ears.

"Kudo Shinichi, eh? Explains why you would act so mature." He smiled to himself.

"So...What about you? What's your story?" It was Shinichi's turn to do the asking.

"Well. It's only fair that I give you my story too, having seen you give me yours. I'll start, then."

"As you know, my name's Twin, and I'm a Halfling. The other half of me is that of a snow wolf, hence my fur colour, ears and most of my senses. I've been around here for about 17 leap decades already...I don't remember. Ah well, let's just say for very, very long. I've been the guardian of the Angel of Destiny since the last person that acquired it threw it away after ejecting it out. I help him to do it personally, and, trust me on this; it was horribly gruesome and bloody. The darn thing just didn't want to come out! After the op, I took care of the doll, until someone who called herself Seiki Takashi came along, and took it from my cave. It's a wonder that she didn't make a wish with it, or I would have bigger problems." He chuckled at the word 'bigger', much to Shinichi's irritation.

"Okay then, Twin, I just want to ask you if...you er...can...er..." he stammered, unsure of whether to ask.

"...Teach you tricks? That's new. It's not usual the human asks a dog to teach him stuff. Oh, and it's pretty obvious what you want to ask me," He noted at Shinichi's bewildered face, and laughed once more.

"...You're starting to get on my nerves."

"Okay, Okay!"

After a while, he finally decided to get serious. "Okay...So you want me to teach you about your powers. Well, there's water and blood manipulation, you know that. And then there's flying, it seems you have already done that yourself too. And..er....There's a special attack which you can use too."

"What is it?"

"You mostly make strings of blood hang out from your fingers like ropes, then swish them around like a whip." He padded over to his student and adjusted his fingers. "You can experiment with them to test how they would work. There's a lot of combos, I can't teach you all of them in one night."

"How's a week of lessons sound, then?"

Twin thought for a while, then nodded.

Shinichi cracked the bloodlines that hung limply from his fingertips, nicking his friend lightly on the nose. "Oops!"

Twin brushed them off, and then commented, "You're doing well."

Shinichi smiled proudly.

Suddenly, a bright flash of light radiated from his body, and he froze in shock. Twin shielded his eyes from the piercing light, and only put his hands down when it had dimmed again. Shinichi had turned back into his child self, dressed in oversized clothes that were flopping all over the ground.

Twin stifled another laugh, then chuckled, "We'd better get you home, kid. Your guardian's not gonna be happy if you get your clothes all dirty!"

Conan huffed. Too many people treated him like a little kid. Twin picked him up by the collar, and taking care not to drop the child, bounded to the Mouri Agency. His leaps were long and high, almost as if he was flying, but with momentary stops in between. The cool night air beat against both their faces, sending Conan's hair into a mess.

Soon, they reached the office. Twin leaped into the window and set the child down on his bed. Conan scurried to the cupboard again, changed into his little nightclothes and bade his supernatural friend a goodnight, as he scampered towards his own home.

One.

Oh dear. "It's one in the morning already? That means I can only stay as Shinichi for one hour, before turning back into Conan." He remarked, before curling up back into his bed, waiting for the next day.

I hate cliffhangers....yet almost all my chapters end with a cliffhanger. It's just too easy to stop there... Then again...

Warning: Next chapter is full of epic fails!