Do you honestly think we own Detective Conan or Magic Kaito? I mean, seriously. This is FANfiction dot net.

Auld Lang Syne

"Harley! Yer up!" Kazuha squealed happily.

"Did ya get the licence number?" Harley muttered dazedly. "Wait… what happened?"

"Ryuu… attacked ya," Kazuha said tremulously. "We thought fer a bit… but yer gonna be okay, they think."

Harley winced as he shifted, his abdomen twinging. "So what happened ta…?"

"Seems Ryuu stopped right after that," Hakuba explained, walking in, "Conan was there instead…"

"The kid's in a really bad way, he totally blames himself," Kazuha said sadly.

"That's just stupid," Harley said, shocked. "I mean, it ain't like he controls Ryuu…"

"He'll have to work on just that, though," Sitl said, popping up out of nowhere as was his custom. Kazuha and Hakuba glared at him as Harley's heart monitor beeped frantically for a moment. "Sorry, sorry! But, well, it is his body. If anyone can control Ryuu… he'll have to, if he doesn't want to go to Hell… Wallowing in despair will only make Ryuu stronger, I'm afraid."

"Should I make him a charm?" Kazuha asked. "Would that help?"

"HELL NO," Hakuba and Harley said in unison, before glaring at each other.

"Now, if he could push Ryuu into despair…" Sitl said thoughtfully.

"Yeah, but what'd upset a shadowy dragon demon thing?" Harley asked succinctly.

"Your eloquence never fails to astound me," Hakuba said dryly.

"What about… that story ya were about ta tell?" Kazuha asked tentatively.

"The story about the girl that looks like Anita?" Rachel asked. "Harley, you're up!"

"Live an' kickin'," Harley said. "What story? Anita?"

"Sitl was about to tell us about a girl that looked like Anita a long time ago," Rachel explained. "But Ryuu stopped him. He seemed really angry…"

"Well, he ain't here now, is he?" Harley snorted.

"Yeah, but he's right," Sitl said, a little nervously. "It's not really my right to… I mean, really, it happened a long time ago and… It's kind of pitiful, really…"

"More pitiful than an innocent kid bein' pushed into depression an' then thrust inta the bowels of Hell?" Kazuha asked pointedly.

"We won't tell him that you told us," Rachel said soothingly.

"Yeah, but who else could have told you?" Sitl pointed out.

"We could just say we summoned another demon and it told us," Hakuba suggested. Everyone stared at him. "Don't ask. I just know someone I can ask for details. Really don't ask."

"Whatever," Harley said, glaring suspiciously at the blond detective. "So are ya gonna tell us the story or what?"

"Well…" Sitl said, glancing around. He disappeared in a little puff of fire, then reappeared a second later. "He's asleep… both of them are, I think. So I guess…" he glanced towards the door, which Rachel shut. "Just between us… I guess I can tell you the story."

Conan sighed in relief when Anita left. Ryuu's little huff was giving him a pounding headache. He closed his eyes, sinking back into the pillows. He was exhausted. He didn't really want to fall asleep or relax his control, in case Ryuu attacked someone else… but somehow, he felt that Ryuu didn't feel like fulfilling his "duties" tonight.

"Damn straight," Ryuu thought back to him, sounding like he was in a foul mood. Conan could feel himself drifting away…

A moment later, he was sitting in what seemed to be an old-fashioned English sitting room. Books with English titles filled the bookshelves around the walls. For some reason, there was only one slipper by the fireplace. A tall man in a black suit with slicked-back black hair was wandering around the room. He turned to look at Conan, and his face was pale, his eyes red like smouldering coals.

"Only your subconscious," he declared, "Would take the form of 221 Baker Street." He cocked his head to the side a little, as a fleeting image of Hakuba wearing his deerstalker cap and Inverness cape appeared in the mirror above the mantle. "All right. His probably does too. This is what sucks about being in your mind. That, and the stupid clothes." Conan looked down at himself and realized that he was wearing an outfit similar to that in the image of Hakuba. He also realized that he was full-size.

"But if I'm Holmes and he's Watson," he thought, "Does that mean I have the upper hand…?"

"For now, and only because I'm in a bad mood," Ryuu growled, and Conan remembered that, being inside his mind, Ryuu could read his thoughts. "I've had to wear that stupid outfit too. Damn it…" he was flickering through the books on the shelves. Titles notwithstanding, they all seemed to be photo albums, each page with a single moving picture- memories, page after page. Conan stood, relishing the higher perspective, and looked over Ryuu's shoulder- which was difficult, because the shinigami, even forced into human form, was very tall- at the pictures. Every one was of Anita, mostly pictures of her scaring the living crap out of him.

"She does that a lot," he said, indicating the terrifying hospital visit where Anita had brought a gun loaded with a flower bouquet. Ryuu glared at him, but Conan could see the images in his mind too, just as Ryuu could see the ones in his- and he saw Anita, in some kind of odd old tribal dress…

"You knew her a long time ago, didn't you?" Conan asked. Ryuu grimaced, and Conan lost the thread of his thoughts. Well, Ryuu was in his mind, not vice-versa… but nevertheless, it was his mind, and damned if he was going to let his unwanted lodger lie to him…

"Oh, thank you," Ryuu said sarcastically at the "unwanted lodger" commented. "I am possessing you, not renting a bijou flat in your prefrontal lobe…"

"Whatever," Conan said. "Are you going to tell me the story or not? I mean, frankly, if you're planning to toss me into Hell anyway, you've got nothing to lose by telling me the story… which I intend to hear sooner or later, no matter what. Does it have to do with why we have "the same enemy"?"

Ryuu flinched. "Damn, you are regaining control if you heard that…"

"I'm not letting you hurt any more of my friends," Conan said sternly, sitting back down and tenting his fingers under his chin. "So?"

"… fine," Ryuu sighed. "But give me a bit of control, if you want the story I need to show you… images will explain more than words." Conan nodded, relaxing a little mentally. In an instant, the sitting room had vanished, and Conan, to his discontent, was small again, and wearing his hospital pyjamas. Ryuu had resumed the form of the towering dragon, and Conan was suddenly sitting on his back, just in front of the wing joints. A minute later, they were soaring over an ancient landscape…

Conan gasped in shock at what lay beneath them.

Sorry it's so short!

Auld Lang Syne (yes, as in the song) means "A long time ago" or "Days Long Gone".

Pretztailfan95: Don't ask me about the Holmes/Watson Kudo/Hakuba thing. That was Chiyu-chan's idea, go bug her. I had to change the part about what happened because none of what Hakuba said really happened. :P I'm gonna write the next chapter, by the way.

Yes! I'm ALIVE!!! I'm just sobbing in a little corner because I made a new fic. My worst mistake was making it a crossover. First of all, HOW CAN ANYONE JUST FIND MY FIC WITHOUT ACTUALLY LOOKING FOR IT?! Seriously, people only go there when they want to find something. Second, WHY DID I MAKE IT WITH THE TOUHOU PROJECT?! How many DC fans actually know what the Touhou Project is, or vice-versa? Besides Baka-chan and some others, I dunno!

This is pathetic, plugging one of my own fics in a fic that isn't even that fic! Another failure for the record. *writes it down* Anyways, if you're interested, the title is "Encounter: The Judgement of Kudou Shinichi". YES, IT'S USING THE JAPANESE NAMES! :D It's in the crossovers, click on Touhou Project to find it. I've yet to get a review..if you review, you get a cookie. -shot- No seriously, I'd appreciate it. Reviews are like money; they make the world go round.