Disclaimer: I do not own Detective Conan/Case Closed.

A Phantom's Carnival

Venturing Out Part 3

"Cocoa-chan! Cocoa-chan, where are you?"

The call was followed by the sound of pattering footsteps.

Perched on the windowsill, Shinichi sighed. His tail swished restlessly through the air as he kept his gaze fixed on the sprawling city beyond the window. It was so close yet so far away.

It had been a week since he had been 'adopted', and he had yet to find a way to escape from his new owners. The family was nice enough, consisting of a little girl, Ayumi, and her parents. The child was, unlike many children who promised to care for pets, actually a responsible pet owner, but Shinichi had no intention of remaining as someone's household cat.

The problem was that the entire family was very good about keeping the doors and windows secured against feline escapes. Shinichi had thought at first that he could just wait until the family was out, turn human to open the door, and then leave, but no. There was almost always someone at home. And when he would have to be left alone, the family always made sure to find him a cat sitter or, horror of horrors, locked him in a kitty crate. There was no way he could shift back in there. Even still as a child, he wouldn't have fit.

And so here he was, wondering what he was going to do.

The reflection of a face appeared in the glass. Then Shinichi was being picked up—something he was getting disturbingly accustomed to enduring. "There you are. You really like looking outside, don't you?"

Giggling happily, she carried Shinichi out of her room and into the living room. "Come on. Dad and I got gifts for you!"

Gifts? If he could have, Shinichi might have begun to sweat. The last time she'd brought him a gift, it had been the collar and tag he was wearing now. It was pink. Not only that, but it had a little bow on it. He had tried everything in his power to remove the darned thing, but they kept putting it back until he gave up. Then there had been the lacy pink kitty bonnet. Fortunately, he'd only been forced to wear that so the girl could take pictures of him.

And so it was with great trepidation that he watched the pet store bags being unpacked.

Out came a fluffy mouse toy. Shinichi felt his tail twitch. He was dismayed to realize it was a twitch of anticipation. Then came one of those cat tails for waving under kitty noses, a scratching post, a pink kitty bed, and a pink baby stroller that puzzled Shinichi until he remembered that some people enjoyed pushing their pets around like the animals couldn't walk for themselves. Blue eyes widened in mortification, but, sadly, humans were not adept at reading cat expressions.

"Come on!" the girl enthused. "I'm going to introduce you to my friends today. We're meeting at the park."

And so it was that Shinichi soon found himself being pushed out of the apartment in a baby stroller.

Suddenly he was very glad that no one he knew lived around here.

-0-

A young man wearing a baseball hat and a sports jacket over a T-shirt sporting a Jolly Roger print on it sipped idly at his soda. He was lounging on a park bench with earphones on, the perfect picture of a teenager waiting for his friends for a Saturday afternoon out. His gaze drifted across the park to where a cluster of elementary school kids were crowded around a pet stroller.

Coos of "Hello Cocoa-chan~" and "He's so cute" could be heard all the way from across the field.

An amused smirk made its way onto the young man's face.

"Well Akako," he murmured under his breath. "Looks like you're right again. But it looks like we're going to need to arrange a few things first."

Over in the pet stroller, Shinichi shivered. His head jerked up, and he looked around. For a moment there, he could have sworn that he'd felt someone's gaze on him. It had been an intense gaze quite unlike that of the laughing children hovering over him. But the feeling was gone as soon as it came.

-0-

It had been two weeks, and Shinichi had found, to his chagrin, that he had begun answering to Cocoa-chan.

Lying beside the locked balcony doors with his head under the bottom edge of the curtains so that he could look outside at the night sky, he sighed. Was this his fate? To be a family pet?

No, there had to be a way out of here. Well, he supposed he could always attempt an escape next time they took him out. He could have done so already if he'd used his claws, but he didn't like the idea of hurting these people. They were just living decent, ordinary lives, and they were taking care of him. No, they didn't deserve to get scratched.

He would just have to stay vigilant and watch for an opening. They had to make a mistake sooner or later.

Lost deep in his thoughts, it was a moment before Shinichi realized that the balcony was no longer empty.

There was a dark shadow on the balcony.

Shinichi stood up, his fur bristling. For the past week, he had felt eyes on him on and off. It had been making him uneasy. And now here was this midnight visitor.

Was it a burglar? That was the most plausible explanation. The Yoshida family didn't strike him as the kind to make enemies, so this was unlikely to be some crazy killer here because of a grudge. Then again, maybe it was a crazy person. That was definitely a cape he was wearing.

The dark shadow reached out with a black gloved hand and opened the balcony door. The subsequent gust of cold, night air caused the curtains to billow inward.

Shinichi backed up a step, startled. How had the robber opened the door with such ease? He was sure it had been locked. But this intruder hadn't worked any tricks that Shinichi had seen to unlock the door.

Shinichi flattened his ears and hissed at the intruder. At his current size, he wouldn't be much of a threat to a full grown man, but he wasn't about to sit by and let someone rob the place.

The dark shadow chuckled. "Now, now, is that any way to greet your savior."

Shinichi drew back in surprise. He knew that voice. It was Kaito!

The shadow crouched, and now Shinichi could make out familiar indigo eyes beneath the intruder's hat brim. That and a familiar grin.

"Aww, look at that cute little bow. How adorable."

Annoyed, Shinichi growled, but the magician only laughed.

"What took you so long anyway?" Shinichi demanded even though he knew Kaito couldn't understand him in this form. Kaito seemed to get the gist of it though as he lowered a small carrier he had been holding. A pair of cat eyes peered out from inside. The detective and the new feline regarded each other in mixed confusion and curiosity.

"It took a while to find this little guy. Here, meet your replacement."

With that Kaito opened the carrier. Out walked a black kitten who, disregarding the more panther-esque details, was a spitting image of Shinichi.

"Now we just have to do this." Kaito slipped the pink collar off of Shinichi and placed it on the new kitten. "There. Now it's your turn." He turned the carrier's opening to Shinichi. "Come on, in you go."

Shinichi would have scowled if he could, but he supposed he had no choice. Reluctantly, he walked into the carrier.

"Good. Well, take care of yourself, Cocoa-chan," the magician said to the replacement cat. Then he stepped back out onto the balcony, shut the door, and hopped up onto the railing. Shinichi was rather confused until the cape Kaito was wearing suddenly snapped out to either side, turning into a glider.

"And off we go," Kaito announced before diving off the balcony.

-0-

"Uh, so…"

Kaito quirked an eyebrow, looking down at Shinichi. This was even easier to do than it usually was because Shinichi was still a young child.

The detective shifted uncomfortably under the magician's impassive stare. "Um, how long will I stay like this?"

"Until Shiho turns you back," the magician replied, tone just as neutral as his face. "Which will be in a week from now."

"Huh? But why in a week?"

"Because I say so. Consider it your punishment for ignoring all our warnings. You are very fortunate that nothing untoward came of your indiscretion." Now, finally, the magician's blank expression cracked as he smirked and patted Shinichi on the head. "Now be a good little boy and go see Aoko. She'll have some assignments for you."

Shinichi flushed, both annoyed at being treated like a child and embarrassed because he knew he'd been careless and nearly gotten these people in trouble. Yet, despite that, they had still come to help him. He really owed them a lot.

Well, he wouldn't act so stupidly again, he promised himself. He owed them that at least.

-End of Chapter-