Thanks so much for the reviews! I'll try to update 'Memories' soon, but I have more ideas for this and I'd better type it down before I forget.

Chapter 2

I stared at Ai, who stood with her arms crossed, waiting for me to come out of shock. "That's the antidote?"

She nodded.

Two thoughts appeared in my head at the same time. One, 'Oh my god I can't believe it's really finished! No more learning the alphabet and staring at the god-damned times table!'; and the other, 'She went back for the antidote when a bomb is about to explode? So I stood there, torn between shouting out in joy, hugging everyone within sight, and yelling my head off at her.

The sirens of the police cars coming into the driveway made me turn, once again acknowledging the completely destroyed house.

"Haibara, wow, I can't believe... I mean thanks, though going back for it was totally..."

"Stupid? Reckless?" She suggested tonelessly, putting the antidote away in a small black case and tucking it into her pocket.

"Yeah." I agreed. "But never mind that, the house..."

"...At least we're both still alive." Hakase said, but he glanced at the charred remains of the house, and I know what he was thinking. All their possessions, his inventions, the lab, and most important of all, all the memories they had there.

"I guess I should thank the fact that Vermouth hates me so much she can't kill me without letting me know that she's the one who did it." Ai said, as an ambulance drove up and two EMTs got off to tend their injuries.

"You can stay at my place, there's plenty of empty rooms." I offered, while mentally promising myself to track Vermouth down no matter what. "I'll be moving there too, if we're turning back."

"But Shinichi, are you sure it's safe to turn back now?" Hakase asked, "Wouldn't they try again now that they'd failed to kill us?"

"It wouldn't make a difference whether we turn back or not," Ai interrupted. "Even though she knows about our identities, she won't tell Gin because she'll want to kill me herself."

And since Ai is the most paranoid out of all of us when it comes to the black syndicate, if she says it's so, then it probably is.

So it's settled. We told the three kids that we're moving, and gave them out email addresses so they could still contact Conan ans Ai. Even though I hate being a kid, I would really miss them, and I could tell that Ai does as well. And I couldn't help pointing out to her that Mitsuhiko seemed especially degected.

Then I went back to the detective agency with Hakase, explaining that we will be moving away to America. I was so happy to be turning back that I didn't even protest as Ran insisted to take me out to dinner one last time and ordered the kids' meal for me. That's the last kids' meal I'm ever going to see, I thought happily.


After Hakase had settled down in his room, I showed Ai her room. "Here, you can stay here." I said, opening the door of one of the guest bedrooms.

"Thanks." she said, looking around.With it's walls painted a soft lavender (Mom insisted when we first moved in), and the simple furnishings, the room looked very similar to the one she had in Agasa Hakase's place, which is why I had chosen it, thinking she'd feel more at home. Our eyes met, and Ai acknowledged this with a small smile.

I had no idea when I first started calling her Ai in my head, only that it's been awhile, even though a stubborn part of me refused to call her by her first name to her face until she did so first.

I watched her sit down at the edge of the bed with a sigh, and reached into her pocket for the few precious items she was able to salvage. She stared at the picture of her sister for a long time, a finger lightly tracing the crack at a corner of the frame before she gently stood the frame up on the bedside table. She took out the detective badge, and the key chain that Ayumi had given her, smiled reminiscently, then opened the drawer and placed them inside.

And finally, she came to the antidote. She ran a hand on the smooth surface of the case, and stopped at the catch, her hand hovering in the air before it.

I waited with baited breath. She sighed and opened the case, revealing the two pills that lay side by side. Closing her fist around one of them, she turned towards me, holding the case with her other hand, motioning for me to take the remaining pill.

"Shall we?" She said with a small smile.

I grinned.

I went back to my room, and looked into the mirror. "Goodbye, Conan!" I said, setting down my glasses. I changed into my old clothes, and swallowed the pill.

White-hot pain spread almost immediately from the center of my heart, only to intensify and make my vision go hazy. And then everything went black.


A/N:I have a huge exam in May, one that decides which high school I will go to, so starting from September I am banning myself from the computer in order to study. But after that I'm definitely coming back, and I won't be giving up on anything, so even though updates will be VERY slow, the stories WILL get finished, if anyone wants to read the end.