Alternate Universe

Terrible Two Part 7

Brats pt. 2

Ran had never been so scared in her entire life. As she stumbled into the bedroom of Shinichi's little cousins and saw them both lying unconscious on the floor, she was certain her heart had stopped.

"Marti! Conan!" she shouted, flying to their side.

She noted in the corner of her mind that Heiji Hattori had also flown to their side, but she thought nothing of it, her thoughts focused only on the two small boys before her. However just as suddenly as they collapsed, their eyes blinked open.

Shinichi groaned, shaking his head ever so slightly to try and banish the fog that seemed to be clouding his brain. A deep hacking cough escaped his throat and he grimaced at the pain it caused.

"Conan-kun?" Ran whispered, her voice shaky with fear of what she had just witnessed.

He peered up at her, blinking the blurred edges away. "Ran?"

She let out a breath of relief.

Kaito was also sitting up, blinking. Hattori was by his side, gently and somewhat awkwardly, rubbing his back in an attempt to be soothing to the supposed child.

Though also a bit dazed, Kaito who was used to working with fumes that often left him disoriented, was the first to really come around.

"Ran-Onee-chan, I feel hot," he complained in a pathetic childish tone.

Ran frowned, immediately reaching out and touching his forehead as she placed a hand on her own. Her frown deepened.

"You're running a fever." She turned to Conan and checked him. "You both are."

"Why'd they scream?" asked Heiji Hattori, still a bit suspicious and confused.

"Sharp pain behind the eyes," Kaito whined before Shinichi could say anything, his eyes beginning to falsely tear up (though they were beginning to water from the very real fever). Ran felt her heart melt at the sight and even Hattori looked to soften as Marti began to sniff and reached out for the older girl.

"Ran-onee-chan, I don't feel good," he whimpered.

Conan, though he felt it was a bit degrading, began to the do the same. Ran circled her arms around both boys, holding them tight to her sides as she whispered sweet nothings to them.

Hattori frowned, suddenly doubting his earlier suspicions.

"Should I call da' ambulance?" he asked her.

"No, Ran-onee-chan," Marti cried, "I wanna stay with you."

"Don't like hospitals," Conan agreed, burying his head into her side, his face red. He felt really stupid and childish right now.

"No, just… help me get them into bed, please? I need to get their fevers down."

Hattori reluctantly lifted Marti into his arms as Ran lifted Conan. Neither boy was much bigger than the other and both sniffed and snorted and boo-hooed until both teens walked out of the room to fetch them various needed things.

Silence immediately dominated upon their departure.

"Well… that was, interesting." Conan stated, sighing.

Kaito snorted in clear amusement. "Worked though."

"Luckily," agreed Shinichi, "I doubt a hospital is a very good idea right now, what with our recent changes. We may be smaller, but we are still ourselves."

Kaito hummed. "Still, I was being honest. I don't feel very well, meitantei."

Shinichi couldn't argue. He didn't feel all that well either. Whatever this pain was, it had hit them both hard and fast. As instantly as it had come though, so it had gone.

"An effect of the poison?" Kaito wondered out loud, basically affirming Shinichi's own thoughts.

"I would guess as much," He agreed, "We need to speak to the professor. I told him about the poison and he was running samples on our bloodwork in order to ascertain anything that might have changed in our DNA due to the mutation. We can only hope he found something."

"Yeah… hey, what do you think of that Hattori?" Kaito asked, "He seems suspicious of us."

Kudo narrowed his eyes, nodding. "I concur. For now, we act as we look. We will deal with him should the occasion arise."

They both were silent as Ran and Hattori both returned, each carrying a tray with fever reducers, water bottles, pudding cups, a thermometer, and a wet washcloth for each of their heads.

Ran gently placed a blue one on Conan who blushed beneath the attention. Luckily she thought it merely a part of the fever. Hattori watched her and then turned to Kaito who raised an eyebrow at the teen. Heiji raised one back.

"Err… here." The teen stretched his hand out, the washcloth dripping on the bed covers.

Kaito fought a smirk at the teen's obvious uncertainty when dealing with children. Still, he felt too bad to mess with him properly, so he just took the offered piece of heaven and gratefully placed it across his forehead.

"Now, let's check your temperature."

Ran placed the thermometer under Conan's tongue before turning to Marti and doing the same with the second one. As both boys waited patiently, Hattori glanced around the room, taking in the furniture and opposing tastes the boys seemed to have. He didn't know much about kids, but he did know something was up with these two and he would find out what. For now though, he assumed he would find out nothing so long as the two were ill. Why overstay his welcome?

"I'm going to head home. If you hear anything from Shinichi Kudo about coming back into town, please, let me know Mouri-kun."

Ran gave a hesitant nod as she watched the strange teen walk out and head downstairs to pack his things. The beeping of the thermometers distracted her thoughts on the questions plaguing her mind about Shinichi's own location at the present time.

"38.5" she read off, frowning deeply at the number. (101.3 Fahrenheit) "Sorry guys, guess you're staying in bed today."

She chewed her nails, looking extremely unsettled as she looked down the stairs.

"Ran-onee-chan?" Conan called, a bit worried by her expression.

"Ah, sorry," she smiled, "I was planning to go grocery shopping today, but with you guys ill…"

"We will be fine here, Onee-chan," Kaito assured.

"Yeah," Shinichi stepped in, "ma and pa have left us alone before. We even flew here alone."

Ran looked a bit troubled at that news, but sighed, conceding.

"Alright. I won't be gone long. You know my number if you need something right?" she asked them.

"Yes onee-chan," they both answered as one.

She grinned at that, but then nodded, her serious expression back again.

"Alright. Stay in bed. I promise, I won't be gone anytime at all."

As she hurried downstairs and out the door, trying to make certain her words were true, the two hurried out just as quickly. They made their way as quick as their small bodies could towards Agasa's where they began pounding on the door.

"I'm coming. I'm coming!" the doctor hollered as the door swung open revealing the tired looking scientific inventor. He stared at the two.

"Professor," Shinichi quickly greeted as he hurried past him, Kaito at his side before both turned to the man as he shut the door. "We need your assistance."

T_T

Agasa frowned, his hand rubbing his beard thoughtfully.

"Pain you say?"

"With fever, chills, and a hacking cough," Shinichi added.

Kaito spoke up. "Also add in tightness of the chest and weakness in the extremities."

Shinichi turned to his 'brother' in distress.

"Is that what you're feeling?" he asked, concerned.

Kaito who was uncharacteristically still, gave a small nod. "I have the fever and chills too, but not the cough like you seem to have."

"So you have different symptoms, yet some shared qualities more than likely due to the poison since you both reacted at the same exact time."

"Shinichi reacted first, but I was soon to follow," Kaito confirmed.

"What do you think professor?" Shinichi asked, worried. What if this happened in public? What if it happened in front of Ran with nowhere to hide?

"I have taken a look at your bloodwork. There does seem to be an elevated white blood count, not unlike what you see at a hospital when dealing with a disease or cancer of some sort, but it isn't deteriorating your cells, but rather… altering them."

"Altering them how?" Kaito questioned.

Shinichi however had a different question in mind. "Is it fatal? Will this process eventually kill us?"

Agasa sighed.

"Honestly boys, at the present time, your guess is as good as mine."

T_T

The boys stayed in bed the rest of the day reading books, eating soup Ran prepared for them, or playing card games. In any case, they both lacked their usual liveliness and it was catching. Ran herself seemed to be somewhat gloomy as she wandered the house, absently cleaning wherever she saw the need. Mouri also seemed strangely quieter, as though being loud would somehow break the spell that was over the house and in doing so, somehow ruin something that nobody could explain.

Either way, the Mouri detective agency was in need of some help. Luckily for them, Kaito Kuroba aka the Kaitou KID isn't known for staying down very long.

In an effort to save face, the teen in a child's body began playing pranks that no one could explain. Even Conan couldn't fully explain all the magicians' tricks, but as the unexplainable occurred, smiles erupted and laughter once again filled the house.

T_T

It was right after this, that Mouri got his first real case.

Shinichi couldn't have been more thrilled about it, while Kaito honestly wasn't sure how he felt. I mean sure, he was bored out of his mind lately after being laid up, but with all the unknowns and threats still possibly waiting in the shadows, he couldn't bring himself to feel cheerful about the prospect of going out in the public eye again. Of course, it didn't help he was now in the body of a five year old and it certainly didn't help that they were going to investigate a murder scene. Which meant, dead body. Which meant probably blood. Probably a killer. Probably premeditated, in most cases.

"You look worried," Kudo's young voice stated, breaking into his thoughts.

Kaito turned to his 'brother' and peered at him a moment before sighing.

"I don't really like murder scenes. It…" he hesitated, "they tend to bring back bad memories."

Kudo chose not to question him, knowing it might be something the thief didn't wish to discuss. Kaito was grateful for the silence as he climbed into the backseat of the inspector's car.

"Alright boys, when we get to where we are going, I want you both to stay out of the way. This case is very important and the last thing I need is two kids getting in the way."

With that said, Mouri started up the car and headed for their location.

Upon driving up to the given address, there were many things they were expecting to see. A dead body, a group of police, possible mourners, but what they hadn't expected to see was what they found. No body, no police, and an empty lot.

"Dad, are you sure this is the right place?" Ran asked, confused.

Mouri frowned and looked back down at the map. "It clearly takes us here, but I don't see anything."

"Look over there," Kaito pointed out his side window, "What's that?"

All four looked closer and noticed movement a little ways down the hill. Climbing out of the car, the four made their way down the hill and sure enough, near the water's edge was the true scene of the crime.

T_T

Shinichi was nearly giddy with excitement as he peeked under and around various uniforms as he tried to get closer to the body, but a sudden hand on his shoulder pulled him back and he was jerked from his thirst for mystery by Kogoro Mouri who looked anything but happy.

"Children don't need to see that, so stay back brat."

Walking past the boy and closer to the scene where he met with the investigator in charge, Shinichi frowned and attempted once again to move closer, but Ran suddenly was there and before he knew what was happening, he had been swept into her arms.

"Come on Conan-kun, I think Marti-kun could use a good distraction."

Conan paused at that comment and turned to find the thief sitting distantly up the hill overlooking the scene, his chin resting on his knees as he stared, almost in a daze, down at the spectacle below. Curious and a bit concerned, Shinichi pulled out of her arms and walked with her hand in hand up to where the thief sat in silence.

"Marti-kun, you okay?" Ran asked.

The smaller boy sighed and nodded. "Yeah Ran, just tired I guess."

Ran accepted this easily enough, nodding as she turned to watch her dad work, but Shinichi was not so easily convinced.

"It's not the pain is it?" he whispered.

The thief shook his head. He wasn't about to explain his biggest fears to the shrunken detective. He may trust him to a point, but not with that particular piece of information.

Deciding not to dig where he wasn't wanted, Shinichi sighed and sat down beside the thief, also watching the scene with a halfhearted gaze. He really wish he could be down there with them.

"You know, I could distract them," the thief suddenly whispered in his ear.

Shinichi turned, startled and a bit confused. "Why would you?"

"I don't know, call it a hunch, but I think you wish you were investigating this case."

The older boy snorted. "Like they would let a 'brat' into their crime scene."

"No, but then who said they had to let you in?"

The two shared a look and when the thief grinned, Shinichi realized he may not want to know what the other had planned.

"Well?" Kaito asked with a smirk.

Kudo grinned. "Get me down there."

T_T

The sound of an explosion had everyone freezing and then suddenly, all feet were running up the side of the hill, past the two little boys. Ran vanished in the crowd with her father and Shinichi took that exact moment to make his way down below. With the police presently distracted, he took in the body laid out so perfectly on the rocks by the water. Not a single drop of blood was in sight and yet the man was very obviously dead. His skin was white and his lips blue which suggested suffocation. Peeling the eyelids back, Kudo noted they weren't dilated, which meant no head trauma, but they were enlarged, again pointing at possible suffocation as the cause of death, but there were no marks on the victims neck and no obvious signs around their mouth aside from the coloring.

"Poison," he whispered.

"How do you figure?" A voice asked.

Shinichi glanced up and noted Kaito standing beside him, eyeing the body like one might eye a shark. It was obvious he felt uncomfortable and yet, here he was.

"If there is truly no obvious weapon, poison is the next best guess," he explained. "It could be a number of things that could cause this, any randomized order of chemicals that might erase all other signs of suffocation besides the obvious lack of oxygen in the body."

"Could be," KID nodded in agreement, but he didn't seem convinced.

"Well what do you think?" Shinichi huffed.

"Meitantei, I work with chemicals and while you're right, there could be any number of specific mixtures that might cause this, think more simply. We are surrounded by water. What if he just drowned?"

Kudo blinked but looked back at the body, taking in his business suit and black shoes.

"So he went swimming while dressed for work?"

Kaito rolled his eyes. "I'm saying, this…" he hesitated and took a deep breath, "it may not be murder."

Shinichi stilled and looked back down at the body and then out to sea. "You think he might have been…"

"It's possible," Kaito shrugged, "you're the detective."

Kudo sighed and stood up. It all made sense when you looked at it like that. Suicide. So often he dealt with the dead, usually planned, some in the heat of anger, and others accidental, but suicide… he hated the very idea. Had he truly been wanting this to be murder so badly, that he ignored the very possibility of a suicide?

At the sound of feet, the two boys hurried away from the scene and watched from afar and sure enough, the same verdict was reached. Tomo Karato, age 31, had committed suicide and been washed up onto the rocky beach.

\According to investigators that passed on the information to Mouri who ranted about his "case" that wasn't a case the entire time they drove home, the guy had lost his job and his house all in the same week. His wife was sick and in the hospital and with the rising bills that continued to come despite his current predicament, he saw no way out aside from taking his own life in the hope his death insurance money might help his family. It was a sad story and one that made the entire drive back to Beika, that much more silent, because no one felt like talking in the wake of such a tragic end.

Back at the house as the boys bunked down for the night, Shinichi called out to the thief.

"Hey Kaito?"

"Hmm?" came the sleepy reply.

"That case… I just…" he stopped, unsure of how to explain himself, "With what we are going through, I can't even imagine such a thing. To take my own life because I thought it was too much to handle with having lost my identity, my reputation, my pride… I don't understand even with that, how he could have come to such a drastic decision. I mean its one thing to murder another human being in a fit of rage or insanity, but to take your own life out of fear … I just don't get it."

The thief was silent for a moment before a soft sigh came from his bed.

"Fear may not have been his reasoning."

Kudo blinked. "What do you mean?"

"Think about it, oh great detective, the true depths of the human heart. You say he took his life out of fear, his fear of the future, his fear of failure, but… perhaps he did it out of love, out of desperation, out of… devotion."

Kudo frowned. "Devotion? He took his own life when he had a wife who needed him. That isn't devotion, that's selfishness KID."

Kaito was silent, his own thoughts and emotions jumbled.

"Is it selfishness, to want the pain to end? Is it selfishness, to want to help your family the only way you know how? Perhaps it is and perhaps he was too hasty in his decision to take his own life, but… can we call it selfishness, when in the end, his life is over and his wife's can continue, free of debt?"

"But it was her husband," Shinichi stressed, "come on Kid, you can't be telling me you would want your loved one to die for you? What if it was your spouse, your siblings, or your parent? What if someone close to you died for your sake? Wouldn't that be a selfish decision? Would it be right?"

Kaito closed his eyes, flashes of fire and screams of fear and panic rushing through his head as he let out a shaky breath.

"That's the question isn't it?" he whispered into the dark, "what is wrong and right, when your last action might mean your own death, but the life of a loved one. What are morals, in such a plight?"

Though the question was asked, neither had an answer they felt acceptable and so both went to sleep, fighting to keep their own personal demons at bay.