hinichi pressed the phone against his ear harder, waiting for the professor to pick up. It was five thirty in the morning, and while Shinichi knew there was a chance that Kaito was awake, he needed to take the risk before the teenager took him to the professor's house. As far as the professor knew, he didn't know a six-year-old named Edogawa Conan, and that was going to prove disastrous if not remedied.

The professor finally picked up, the termination of the ringing accompanied by a tired, "Hello?"

Shinichi nearly shouted into the phone. "Professor Agasa! It's me, Shinichi!"

"Huh...? Shinichi-kun, is it? It doesn't sound like you," came the sleep-ridden reply. "This is a joke, isn't it? I'm hanging up..."

"No! Stop! It's a long story - I've somehow reversed in age through being poisoned - but I need you to believe me! This is Kudou Shinichi, your neighbor! Kudou Yuusaku and Kudou Yukiko's son! I've known you all my life, and I know about the mole you've got on your -"

The professor's voice suddenly became crisp. "You know, do you? Shinichi-kun's been telling people, has he? I'm hanging up."

"You're Agasa Hiroshi, age 52! You invent gadgets that rarely ever work and last night you ate dinner at Columbo's!"

"What in the - How did you know that?!"

"You never get up earlier than seven on weekends, and today's Sunday. You most likely did not go to sleep last night, judging from how tired your voice sounds and that you answered the phone, which means that one of your experiments probably went wrong last night and forced you to pull an all-nighter in order to fix your house. Last night you were probably out, considering that if you had been home, an accident large enough to damage your house that badly probably would not have occurred. At your age, you most likely would not have gone out drinking or partying, and the only restaurants close enough to your house that you could hear explosions from are Poirot and Columbo. Given your affinity for Columbo's special meat sauce, you probably went there."

There was a pause. Then, "Shinichi-kun... is it really you?"

Smiling with relief, Shinichi answered, "Of course it's me! I'm coming to see you with a guy named Kaito later - the story I used is that I went to Tropical Land for Ayumi-chan's birthday, I followed some bad men out of the park, and got hit on the head for my troubles. Okay? Don't be surprised when we get there."

"Got it. See you then, Shinichi-kun," the professor agreed, and the line went dead.

Exhaling, Shinichi replaced the phone in its cradle. Now that that's settled down...

"Conan-kun?"

A jolt jumped through him, and Shinichi whirled, nearly tripping over his still-oversized pants. Kaito stood in the doorway of the kitchen, watching him with a calm indigo gaze. A very knowing, dangerous gaze. "What are you doing at such an early hour?"

Shinichi desperately wanted to stop time.

Yes, completely bullshit deduction. I never claimed to be a good mystery author, did I? ^_^;; Please disregard it and/or pretend it made sense.