Chapter Summary:

Conan was sure that he had kept a low profile as a 'normal' Grade Schooler, so he didn't know how in the world he gained three little followers, who happened to be too excitable for their own good.

XXXXX

Thought / Dream / Memories

"Dialogue"

Letter

Emphasis

Different Language

The Detective Boys

Or The Three Little Ducklings

"What?!"

A surprised cry - or a squeak to be precise, but Conan would deny it for the rest of his life - came out of Conan's mouth as soon as Ran told him the news.

"I enrolled you to Teitan Elementary." Ran repeated calmly as she placed a plate each in front of Conan, Mouri Kogoro - Ran's Father, and herself on the Dining Table.

It was a few days after Conan officially became Naito Shin Nisei - although, only Conan, Ran, and Megure-keibu knew about it - and Conan had finally settled into his new home in Mouri Detective Agency. By getting settled, Conan meant that he had finally gotten used to his 6 years old body, and finally remembering that his current home is Mouri Detective Agency - instead of the Black Manor, officially known as the Kudou Manor.

It seemed that Ran purposefully waited until Conan got used to being 6 years old - and remembered his cover story completely - before letting him knew of her decision, hers and Kaito's actually.

"But why, Ran-neechan?" Conan pouted at her, "I'm home schooled, and already at Junior High level. I don't need to enroll into a Grade School".

"You're the one who don't want unnecessary attention, brat." Kogoro grumbled as he sipped on his coffee.

"Yes, I did say that." Conan said in confirmation, looking confused at them, "Being a genius kid is dangerous, evil people would kidnap me to use my intelligence for their own advantage, using my loved ones as hostages".

"That's why I enrolled you to an Elementary School." Ran told him gently, "You will still continue your Junior High School education by home schooling, but you will also attending class at Teitan Elementary School to keep up appearance that you're a normal kid".

"What about the homework?" Conan asked still with a pout on his face, "Does that means that I have twice as much?".

"No." Ran shook her head in answer, before giving him a reassuring smile, "Kaito-kun had talked with the Teachers at Teitan Elementary School. They agreed to keep quiet about your intelligence and to let you sleep in class, in case you're too tired from the work overload. Also, they won't giving you any homework, since they will be using the grades you got from your home schooling ones - with the excuse that you have finished them before arriving at school".

"That would make it clear to the other kids that I'm a genius, don't you think?" Conan reasoned with her.

"Well, it's either that or you got twice the amount of homework, one for Junior High School and one for Grade School." Ran replied with a shrug.

"It's alright, I can just finished the one for Grade School first, then to my Junior High School one." Conan told her as he sipped on his 'Hot Chocolate' - which was actually a Mocha, "Working on Grade School homework won't take too much time anyway".

Ran blinked, before nodding in acceptance. "Alright, you can inform your Homeroom Teacher later, and she will inform the rest of the Teachers." She said in agreement.

"Are you going to make me join any club too?" Conan asked dreadfully.

Ran chuckled and shook her head. "No, I'm not. Don't worry." She waved his worry away, "You will only join a club if you want to, I won't force you".

Conan sighed in relief then.

Once the talk was over, they finished they breakfast, and then Conan and Ran went to their own school.

XXXXX

Conan thought that with the arrangement like that, he wouldn't have anything to worry about his time in Grade School. Turned out, it wasn't the case at all. Well, the classes were a breeze, and the Teachers didn't bother to call him out if they caught him daydreaming - it was the other kids in his class that were the problem.

More than half of them used every opportunity available to crowd around him and asking questions, while the rest either chose to just stare at him curiously or ignoring him because they didn't like 'such-a-show-off-smart-kid' like him. They were quite easy to deal with, he just needed to answer the questions of the curious kids, or just ignore the staring kids and didn't bother with the one who ignored him.

What proved to be the problem were the select few kids who insisted that he spent time with them.

"Nee, nee, Conan-kun." A 7 years old girl with short dark brown hair and teal colored eyes began to say, having coming over to Conan's seat as soon as the bell for the end of the school rang.

"Hm?" Conan responded simply as he picked up his school bag.

"Can Ayumi call you Conan-kun?" The girl - Ayumi - asked with a big smile on her face, earning an easy nod from Conan, "Ayumi's name is Yoshida Ayumi. Conan-kun can call Ayumi, Ayumi".

"Sure, Ayumi." Conan agreed easily.

Ayumi's smile widened even more, if that was even possible. "These two are Ayumi's friend." She continued as she gestured to the two boys that were slightly behind her - one of them thin and tall, while the other was huge and fat. "This one is Tsuburaya Mitsuhiko-kun." She gestured to the thin and tall one.

"Hello." Mitsuhiko said with a smile, "Just call me Mitsuhiko is fine".

"And this one is Kojima Genta-kun." Ayumi continued while gesturing to the huge and fat one.

"Call me Genta." Genta said with a big grin on his face.

"Nice to meet you, Conan-kun/Conan." The three kids said in unison, smiling widely at him.

"Nice to meet you, Ayumi, Genta, Mitsuhiko." Conan replied with a smile on his own - more of a polite smile though, instead of a genuinely happy one like them.

"Conan-kun is new in Japan, right? Since Conan-kun grew up in America." Ayumi asked for confirmation, so Conan nodded in answer, "Would you like to go with us? We can show you around Beika if you want".

"Oh." Conan blinked his eyes in surprise, before smiling politely again, "Thank you for the offer, but you don't need to." He turned down their - mostly Ayumi's though - offer gently, "I have been in Beika for 5 days now, and I have been exploring Beika before enrolling to the school, so I don't really need the tour".

"Eeeh?" Ayumi responded with a pout, "That's too bad".

"Hey!" Genta glared at Conan, "How dare you refuse Ayumi's offer!".

"Now, now, Genta-kun." Mitsuhiko made a calm down gesture to Genta, "Don't be so harsh".

While Genta was having an argument with Mitsuhiko, Conan looked at Ayumi. "Sorry, I have to do my homework." He said with one hand raised in apologizing gesture, "See you tomorrow, Ayumi".

"Ah, see you…" Ayumi replied with a nod of her head and a small smile.

Conan didn't waste anymore time to get out of the class, and then out of the school, wanting to get away from the rather rude and demanding boy named Genta.

Well, it wasn't like Conan hated children, he was used to deal with them in fact. Being a Magician Detective like Naito Shin meant that he had often interact with children, either to ask what they saw or to cheer them up, so it wasn't that. He just didn't want to expose them to the harsh reality of this world, by involving them into the cases that kept following him around, because children like them deserved to be as oblivious and innocent until it was time for them to grow up as adult.

Unfortunately for him, Ayumi was a very persistent girl, while Genta and Mitsuhiko had a crush on Ayumi, so they would follow along with her every whim. Not to mention that all three of them were too curious for their own good.

For example, there was a client who seek help from Kogoro that night - since the Detective Agency was under Mouri Kogoro's name, and the client happened to be the rising Idol Okino Yoko. Unknown to Conan, Ayumi and the boys came to visit Conan's home right at that moment, having only found the place after searching around for awhile. Upon seeing the car that was parked in front of the Agency, they guessed that it was a client's car and decided to sneak in.

That night, Conan's curse took effect again. Yoko and her Manager originally came to ask Kogoro's help in finding out who was harassing Yoko by messing around in her room, so they brought Kogoro - along Ran and Conan - back to Yoko's room, only for them to find a dead body of a man with a stab wound at the back.

What was worse? The three kids followed them to Yoko's room. So, even though Conan refused to walk home with them to prevent them from being dragged into cases with him, it still happened in the end.

Now, looking at the three shocked and pale children - who was being fussed over by Ran at the moment, Conan could only let out a long sigh.

"What?" Kogoro asked with a glance at him.

"Nothing." Conan muttered, fixing up the position of his glasses - a fake, since he didn't need it, but necessary at the same time to make a difference between Conan's face and Shinichi's.

"Weird brat." Kogoro grumbled before walking away to talk to Megure-keibu, who had arrived not too long ago.

With a shake of his head, Conan decided to deal with the kids later and focus on the case at hand.

XXXXX

"Mou…" Ran grumbled as she scowled at her Father, "Otou-san is a Detective, but why he keep accusing people without even doing some investigation first?" She complained as Kogoro accused the Manager again, after accusing Yoko's Rival in being an Idol.

"Just give it up." Conan - who heard her quiet complain as he was walking over to her - told her quietly as well, "Unless his loved ones is involved, then he won't take any case seriously".

"I know. It's still annoying though." Ran sighed softly before looking down at him, and then raising an eyebrow in silent question.

In answer, Conan handed his notebook to her.

Ran opened it until she found the page containing the current case, then took some time remembering all of the clues, so she wouldn't do the Deduction Show by always looking at the notebook. Once that was done, she marched over to where the Polices, Suspects, and her Father were standing by, and announced that she knew what had happened, followed by the Deduction Show.

XXXXX

If Conan thought that seeing a corpse and got involved in a case would traumatize the three kids enough to stay away from Conan, who admitted that he believed to be cursed, then he was sorely mistaken.

Instead of being traumatized, the Trio - as in Ayumi, Genta, and Mitsuhiko - found the case to be thrilling, and they enjoyed the feeling. So, they began to look for cases of their own. Starting from investigating a rumored haunted mansion, until forming a group called the Shounen Tantei Dan (Detective Boys) and told everyone in school that they accepted case from everyone, with Genta's shoe locker being used as the group mail box - in which the students who had a case or more for them can drop the requests there. To make matter worse, they - mainly Genta - forced Conan to join the club.

If that wasn't enough trouble for Conan, then when the Trio began following him around would take the cake.

How did it come to that?

Well… First, the Shounen Tantei Dan found a coded map of sort, one that they believed to lead to a treasure. Needless to say, they decided to look for the treasure, and Conan had no choice but to tag along - if only to keep them out of trouble.

"With that treasure, I'm going to eat every Eel in the world!" Genta proclaimed on the way to Tokyo Tower, the first place drawn on the coded map.

Won't the Eels go extinct then? Conan sweat dropped at that.

"Ayumi want to travel around the world!" Ayumi went next.

Well, at least it's plausible. Conan thought in amusement.

"If it's me … I'm going to buy a Space base from NASA and then go to the outer Space." Mitsuhiko told them while acting cool.

Oi, oi. Is that even possible? Conan wondered silently, looking at Mitsuhiko in bewilderment.

"How about you, Conan-kun?" Ayumi asked curiously.

"Me?" Conan blinked in surprise when he became the focus of the conversation, "Well, I think I'm going to buy some shares from the Funtom Co.*".

(*AN: Yes, it's Ciel Phantomhive's Funtom Corporation from Kuroshitsuji, which I don't own by the way. I have warned you in the beginning, that something from other Animes/Movies is going to be mentioned sometimes. The story is focusing on Conan and Cos' adventure though, following Naito Shin AU version of the DC Movies, so the characters from other Animes/Movies would only be mentioned or being used as part of the background story. If there's a story in which their Universes crossing each other - meaning that all the characters from both Universes played big roles in the story, then I will write it as a Crossover Story. So, no worries).

"Buying shares?" The Trio asked in confusion.

"It means you buy some portion of the company's ownership." Conan explained patiently, since they were kids and it was normal for them to not know, "By doing that, you can receive some profit, although it depends on how big your shares in the company is".

"Oooh…" They responded in unison again.

The adventure resumed after they arrived at the Tokyo Tower, in which the Trio caused some mayhem at a few clothing shops. Not only that, Conan also noticed that 3 suspicious looking men were following them.

After Conan found out that the word 'ORO' that was written on the map was an Italian word for Gold, they took a break by having dinner, before continuing again. Until Conan finally guessed correctly that the Crescent Moon drawing was a clue for Night, so they returned to the starting place - the Tokyo Tower - to start over. Then they followed the neon signs, with the last place being a building in which they could see a 'Shining Fish'.

They found the treasure, but it was then that the situation became dangerous. The treasure was actually stolen goods, and the 3 suspicious looking men that Conan noticed to be following them were the thieves - Italian thieves to be precise.

So, they got caught, and being held at gunpoint, Conan was forced to reveal the location of the treasure. Of course, Conan didn't outright tell them, and told them that the treasure was located in a place where they could see a Shining Fish - to buy some time. And the kids being kids, they began to cry because they knew that they were going to be killed once the thieves found the treasure.

"Don't cry." Conan told them quietly, "Just close your eyes, and by the time I tell you that you can open them, we will be safe".

"What?" Genta asked in confusion.

"How, Conan-kun?" Ayumi added to the questions.

"With Magic, of course." Conan smirked at them, and his smirk widened at their surprised faces. "I'm maybe known as a Detective Apprentice, but I'm actually a Magician too." He winked at them, "Now, close your eyes".

After Conan saw that they had closed their eyes, Conan quickly untied himself using his Secret Knife - the one that he own since he was a kid the first time, then silently stepped away from the kids to drop a smoke bomb and speed changed into Naito Shin Nisei.

Once he was in uniform, Conan pulled out his old Card Gun - the one for a kid, not for a teenager - and ran over to the thieves. As he ran, he shot their guns away, gaining their attention. Conan didn't give them time to recover before he jumped, so that he was eye level with them. Without a pause, he shot one of them with a tranquilizer needle from his watch, quickly followed by stabbing a KO (Knock Out) Dart at another, then ended it by stunning the last thief using his Cane/Stun Gun.

What Conan didn't know was … Although they closed their eyes at first, the Trio had opened their eyes when they heard the smoke bomb exploded - so they saw Conan became Naito Shin Nisei, and saw his every action. Moreover, they were smart enough to immediately close their eyes again when Conan-as-Naito-Shin-Nisei knocked the last thief out, since they figured that Conan would tell them to open their eyes soon.

Naito Shin Nisei - or just Shin Nisei as many police officers had been calling him - changed back into Conan, and told the kids that they could open their eyes, believing that his Shin Nisei identity was still safe from them … Too bad that they had found out already.

The Polices - led by Megure-keibu - arrived soon, having been called over by Shin Nisei earlier, telling the Inspector that he had had the wanted Italian thieves. The Polices immediately arrested the thieves, and the Shounen Tantei Dan earned a praise from Megure-keibu for a job well done, but he also told them to be more careful in the future.

XXXXX

"That's not right." Ayumi cut in after Genta said that he was the one who defeated the thieves, and Mitsuhiko said that he was the one who solved the coded map. She pushed them back so that she was the one being in front of Ran. "The codes were solved, and the thieves were captured…" She then gestured to Conan - who was standing nearby and was merely watching them with a sweat drop - with a big smile on her face, "It's all thanks to Conan-kun!" She announced, surprising him, before looking back to Ran, "He was so cool!".

"Hee…" Ran responded with an amused smile to Conan, "I thought you said that you want to avoid attention, Conan-kun." She teased with a chuckle.

"It's not like I have a choice." Conan looked away with a blush on his face, "Besides, the credit goes to the Shounen Tantei Dan".

Ran just continued to chuckle in amusement.

"Conan-kun." Ayumi called for his attention, before kissing his cheek, "Thank you!".

That earned him a glare from both Mitsuhiko and Genta, but Conan ignored them in favor of gently pushing Ayumi away. "I'm sorry, Ayumi-chan, but please don't do that anymore." He told her gently, "I have a Fiance back home".

"Eeeh?!" The Trio cried out in surprise, before Ayumi sighed in disappointment, while Genta and Mitsuhiko sighed in relief - since that would meant that Ayumi's crush on Conan wouldn't last long.

Ever since that day though, the Trio began idolizing Naito Shin Nisei, and began following Conan around like three little Ducklings.

Fin

Line~Line~Line

Well, this is the Sequel to Naito Shin, and Prequel to Shadow Hunters. I had planned to just write about the Marriage before moving on, but I couldn't help myself with the other 3 chapters.

I want to thank everyone who Favorite and Follow, as well as Review this story. You guys makes me really happy.

Now, I'm looking forward for your review ^ ^

Fragments of Imagination