The Journal of Conan Edogawa

I, KaitoPhantom1412, own no rights whatsoever of Detective Conan!

Chapter 4: Maybe

"Hey Kudou!" Heiji Hattori called cheerfully from where he was waiting with Kazuha. Conan immediately ran over to Heiji with a panicked looked on his face.

"Kudou ain't here, Heiji!" Kazuha yelled at him. Heiji yelled back.

"I said 'kiddo', not Kudou! Ya must have heard wrong!" Heiji put his hand on Conan's head. "Ain't that right, Conan?" Conan nodded, smiling.

"No…he definitely said 'Kudou'…could Conan really be…but how is that even possible?" Ran thought. She saw Conan pull Heiji away for a moment. She decided that her past straightforward observation wasn't going to work this time. She needed evidence before she was going to accuse Conan of being Shinichi again. "But there's no way that Conan could be Shinichi! What if I'm reading too much into this?" She almost didn't hear what Kazuha was saying to her.

"Hey Ran? I was wonderin' if we could go shopping today? We could ditch the boys." She smiled. "I know that ya called Heiji here for Conan's sake. We should let 'em be." Ran nodded. She must have been reading too much into the situation. People don't just turn into kids! But Ran still felt like something big was bothering Conan. It was probably best to leave him and Heiji alone for a while.

Meanwhile

"Why are you always doing that, Hattori!? Do you want Ran to kill me or something!?" Heiji just laughed nervously.

"It's not my fault! It slipped out on accident!" Conan sighed. There was no point in arguing with the Osakan. Plus, even though Conan wouldn't admit it, Heiji's annoying habit of calling him by his real name made him feel like himself, even if it was just for a moment.

"Why are you here anyway? It's not a big case, is it?" Conan looked Heiji in the eye.

"Actually we're here 'cuz Ran called me." Conan couldn't hide his shock. "Yep! Apparently, ya have been pretty depressed and she wanted me to come down and talk to ya since ya look up to me." Heiji grinned smugly. He just couldn't resist the urge to rub it in the shrunken detective's face.

Conan looked at his western counterpart, annoyed. "Well I'm perfectly fine so your job is done. Have a nice trip back to Osaka."

"Hey! The least ya could do is take me somewhere to eat! Besides, we both know that that's a lie!"

"God, he's persistent!" Conan thought as he sighed loudly. "Fine. You want to know what's wrong!? I'm stuck as a stinking kid! It's a living nightmare!"

"K-Kudou…" Heiji blinked. He wasn't expecting the shrunken detective to break like that. He picked up the half-pint teen.

"H-Hattori!? What are you doing!?" Conan cried out.

"I came all the way to Tokyo so I'm gonna treat ya to some food! No buts!"

"Oi, oi! Shouldn't I be the one paying?" Conan thought. Still, he had to admit, the hot-headed Osakan knew exactly how to take his mind off of things. "Thanks Hattori."

Entry #4

I can't believe that I snapped at Hattori like that! I used to be so calm and collected all the time, no matter what the situation was! Guess that just shows how big I messed up. Hattori thinks that I should tell Ran the truth. I'm starting to think that maybe he might be right. I'm already putting her in danger just by staying near her.

Ran's been acting weird. She might be suspicious of me again. This might be the perfect chance to tell her who I really am. But what if she's not really suspicious? Is it really okay to tell her? Haibara would kill me if I told her, though. There's more than my life at stake here. I have to remember that. As much as I want to tell Ran the truth, wipe away her tears, comfort her…I can't. Not right now.

Maybe I'll tell her the truth someday. When this is all over and I'm back in my original body. Maybe then I'll tell her how sorry I am for doing this to her. For making her wait for me all this time. I don't know if she'll ever be able to forgive me. I'm sorry Ran. You're going to have to wait a little bit longer!

Thanks for reading! Please don't forget to review! It was kinda hard writing how Heiji and Kazuha would talk. Kansai-ben is hard (even in English!) I hope that I did alright! If you have any ideas at all, please let me know! Thanks again!