“What’s your deal? You’re acting like you’re the one I hit the ball with. Besides, aren’t you usually all over catching KID?”
“Catching Kid, yes. But I can at least claim to have never actually had to resort to attacking him with anything. I’ve only attempted to beat him at his own game, thinking far enough ahead to keep him from succeeding.”
“Yeah, I’ll just carry jars of gel around.” It was going to take more than one coat to keep that mess down, and he wasn’t sure it was worth the glued- together look.
Conan frowned.
“Wait, you actually keep those things in your house?”
Kaito might have childishly stuck out his tongue a bit at the other for the gel comment coupled with that face. Fitting, considering his size for the little time remaining, He was just saying how the hair could be fixed, didn’t mean it had to be done.
But he blinked a couple of times at the question, tilting his head slightly in thought.
“Well, I’m not sure how it is for him. I kinda do. They aren’t actually in the house itself, more an enclosure attached to it, but I do tend to leave a way for them to get in from time to time. They are trained, tantei-kun. They know where to stay, and when to come when I need them. You’ve had experience with one before, albeit while she was injured, you might have some idea of how they behave.”
“Mops, pretty girl, no dressing up…” Conan muttered to himself, fingers still working at his hair along the back of his head. Situating his bangs wasn’t nearly as hard as getting the back to stay flat and for his cowlick to remain in place.
Damn hair!
“So you’re telling me it’s not safe to leave the house? Great,” he scoffed and let his hands fall, “how can standing having your hair like this? It’s everywhere.”
“It’s not that bad… If you had gel, it’d be easy to style into place. Besides…” He grinned. “No one would even be able to tell when you have bedhead.”
He paused, feeling like he was forgetting something… Oh, right!
“If you’re staying at the house… mind the doves. I’m not entirely sure how my other self has them, with his situation, and it’s kinda different between everyone anyway, but if they’re there, you have to take care of them.“
“Don’t give me that look. If I had answers, I’d give them to you.”
Sigh. “…Well, I can at least give advice… Avoid the mops, don’t let the pretty girl with long dark hair and a ton of fanboys get you – you’ll know her when you see her -, and don’t dress as Kid unless you plan on being a walking target for everyone from police, to fans, to… not as big of fans. The one you got is also a fugitive you know, so keep that in mind. Also, that hair isn’t going to stay like that. Move around enough, and it’ll get messy again very quickly, especially the back part.”
Just now sure how involved he could be in all of this, to be honest. Interesting though it was.
He’s just going to put a hand on the little guy’s face, “Shh… No.”
“…I don’t think you get how confusing this would be… I interact with tantei-kun in my universe, and other mes in between universes. If one of my alternate selves swaps with tantei-kun, would that mean he wouldn’t have any of the interactions with me? Or is it treated like a web, tantei-kun can have somehow interactions and memories with multiple Kaitos and remember them, even if he’s been separated from the universe he was in with me? Most interactions between the same characters are separate, but if they’re swapped within their personal universe… You really don’t get how much of a headache I can cause going through all of this…”
“Lucky,” he grumbled and crossed his arms tightly over his chest, resisting the urge to pinch at his face again — revenge for all those times he thought it would be funny to disguise as him.
“I’m surprised you’re not using this to your advantage. I’m sure your female fans would be all over a smaller version,” because goodness knows the attention given to him by girls his age had doubled since being shrunk. Most of the time he didn’t mind it, especially when the pretty ones hugged onto him.
“That does sound like a plan~ Though, they wouldn’t really be thinking I’m myself… Wouldn’t entirely make a difference if they were really my fans or not, they’d just be giving a cute kid attention. Which is fine by me~”
Kaito moved his arms behind his head as he gave the detective a wide grin.
“Hmm… More than the fans, though… I wonder how people would act if I did show up to a heist like this. At the very least, even if I got caught, the police wouldn’t be able to completely arrest me, now would they? After all…” The grin fell into a cheerful smile, and a slight tilt of the head and more childish voice… oh so innocent, “I’m just a little ‘Kid’ right now~”
There was no getting through to this guy. He wanted to suggest that they agree to disagree, but he decided to drop the subject entirely. Instead, he reached forward and pinched at the kid’s face.
“So, how long are you stuck like this? I’m gonna guess that you don’t have the luck of being stuck like this forever.” It was an exaggeration, but it had felt like ages since he was actually Shinichi and not some temporary fix.
“Oi!”
Kaito pulled away from the pinch-y fingers, rubbing his cheek with a hand, frowning slightly. He gets enough pinched faces when he’s bigger, no need for them while he’s like this…
“I’m not really sure… Could be a few days, a week, a month… Hopefully not too long, I do have my job to perform, after all. But yeah, I don’t think it’s permanent.”
Sorry, tantei-kun. He’s not going to be joining the league of teenage chibis anytime soon, if he can help it.
“Idon’t talk about it casually,” it wasn’t his fault certain people were able to figure out a secret he was trying so hard to keep hidden. Besides, comparing ‘magic’ and science was impossible because ONE DIDN’T EXIST.
He didn’t care what the police saw — he needed to see this magic for himself before he would even begin to consider that it might be possible. And even then, he’d write it off as an elaborate trick.
“You’re not going to let this go, are you?”
“Well, if you had to tell me while I was bigger that people could shrink into kids, and that it’s happened to you, and I didn’t believe you whatsoever, but no real proof exists for you at the time to try and convince me, would you just let it go? Jeeze, you should feel lucky shrinking is the only really weird thing you’ve had to deal with… Just for a few words from my experiences: Robots, a pirate, a witch, and a certain chibified detective who kicks soccer balls from hell that shoot out sparks when he kicks them… “
Moonlight Archive 