Shinichi watched helplessly through blurry eyes as the men in black coats walked away, but he could do nothing to stop them. His body was too hot for the winter chill he felt around him, and yet it was bitterly cold for his extremities. His skin itched and his vision swam. He tried to clench an unresponsive fist, yell, do anything, but the blackness inevitably overcame him as he sank into unconsciousness.

He blinked, his eyes opening slowly, expecting blinding light or something similar since he should be in a hospital (if he was even still alive after he took that poison). Instead, however, he only saw darkness. Heavy darkness that physically weighed down on him. Shinichi feared, momentarily, that he had lost his sight. As such, he was very relieved when his awkward struggles and him slowly shifting around showed a small light. He threw himself ungracefully towards it, eager to escape the crushing darkness.

He landed on his chest, amidst a huge field of grass at least half a meter high. His arms refused to tuck in and push him up, weighed down with some unseen weight. His face, too, felt heavier than it should be, but his legs were thin and weak, he felt, and seemed more ready to snap than be used to walk with. He groaned, but perked up when he felt footfalls approaching.

They were heavy footfalls, that were callous and loud. He tried to grimace but his face was unresponsive. "There's a body here!"

Was that an officer, perhaps?

"Nah it's just clothes, bring them in for evidence or something." A beat passed, and then Shinichi abruptly found himself being scooped up off the ground.

"What do you think you're doing? I'm a sixteen year old!" He squawked in indignation, startling the officers. He was nearly dropped for his troubles.

"Just get the clothes and that animal to the station- I don't care."

A small moment of adjustment later he was being held securely, once more unable to see, but this time he had to deal with the constant up and down motion of walking. At least the guy was nicer than his superior, at least.

When he was finally placed down he got a good look at the giants surrounding him. They had to be at least 10 foot or so- and they kept treating him like an animal, to his irritation.

One of the ladies took that opportunity to coo in his face, to Shinichi's annoyance. He mimicked her coo with a flat expression-trying to show her how ridiculous she was being-, but Instead it only served to make her delighted. She turned to her colleagues, and said "Can I be the one to take it to the vet? It seems to like me!"

Shinichi blinked. The vet!? Hell no. This was taking the joke too far. Awkwardly, he hopped off the obscenely high desk, spreading his arms for balance when he crashed into something while mid air, which had a surprising effect of making him lean forward and almost faceplant to the ground.

He pulled himself up and awkwardly hopped away from the chasing giants. They gave up soon enough, so he was left to trudge, hopping through the cold and wet. The rain ran down his form in strange ways, and his arms wanted to be spread and be overbalancing, or tucked in and at a weird angle. He didn't dare to look at himself for fear of distorted limbs or worse. So he carried on, in the rain and darkness, aiming morosely for his house. He managed to struggle his way there, and finally collapsed in front of his own gate from a combination of exhaustion and the cold rain that pelted his form.

A.N

New year new story. Theotakufan1 was my beta for this chapter, found on the dcmk discord server I run especially for fanfiction. If you were expecting something special, I hope you aren't too disappointed.

Core signing out