Sorry I didn't post this chapter sooner! It's kind of short, but I guess you should expect all the chapters to be this long :/
Haibara POV
I almost walked right into Conan as I left the room. He was probably pressed up against it, eavesdropping. What had he heard us say? Would he have understood any of it? Kudo-kun was smart, even at the age of seven... But could Conan piece what he heard together?
"You shouldn't call Shinichi-niichan 'Kudo-kun'. It's disrespectful."* I would have laughed if the situation wasn't so serious. Instead, I just sighed with relief. He didn't understand a thing we said.
"Please go back to the living room. I have to talk to Professor Agasa for a few more minutes." I said, as the professor walked out of my room.
"Okay." Conan walked away. I could tell he was confused. It was probably obvious that we had a secret we couldn't tell him. But why would an eight year old girl and a fifty year old man share a secret?
"Ai-chan... " The professor began, "Isn't there anything we can do?" He was sounding desperate now.
"I could try to make an antidote for it..." I said grudgingly, "But it will take a long time, and I can't promise anything." The professor's face filled with hope. I regretted saying it instantly. It made me feel so small, like Kudo-kun's life depended on just me. And it did, in a way. "But for now, we should take him to places he went to often when he was still Shinichi. Maybe he'll remember something." It was highly unlikely, but it was worth a shot.
"Conan-kun, do you want to come with us to clean up Shinichi-niichan's house?" I smiled my biggest smile, hoping Conan wouldn't refuse.
"Okay." He said, not really caring.
"Great! I'm so excited! I've never been inside of Shinichi-niichan's house before!" I said as we walked out the door. I had actually been inside his house twice, when searching for him with the organization, but Conan didn't know that. Not anymore, at least.
Conan POV
We walked slowly to the house next door. Haibara chattered animatedly about how excited she was to go into the famous detective's house. She didn't normally talk so much. Why was she acting so strange?
"Conan," Haibara said, suddenly serious.
"Huh?" I answered her.
"What do you remember about your life before living with Ran?... Neechan." She added quickly. Why did she keep forgetting to say that? She was only eight, she should have been calling people "Niichan" for her whole life... I thought about her question for a minute.
"I... don't remember anything." I said quietly, looking at my feet and kicking a rock. "I guess I have a bad memory or something." I said brightly, looking up again. But now that she mentioned it, I couldn't remember a single thing about my life before living with Ran-neechan... I couldn't even remember some of the things that happened after. Like, why couldn't I remember ever seeing Sleeping Kogoro, even though I always went on cases with him?
The professor held the door open for us as we entered Shinichi-niichan's home. It looked familiar, but I had never been inside of his house before. And yet, I felt as if I knew it as well as Ran-neechan's home. But... Why?
*I am assuming that it's disrespectful, as Japanese is very similar to Chinese, and in Chinese, it's disrespectful.
Also, I'm not really sure if Conan has actually been inside of his old house before, with the Detective Boys or something… Because I know he did when his mom was there, but he was very… Shinichi-ish. So… I'm just going to pretend he never went inside before :/