Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

A teenager casually strolled down a road in Tokyo, dressed in a neat blue teitan high school uniform, his listless, deep blue eyes sliding shut as a quiet sigh escaped his handsome features.

"Shinichi!" a voice hollered to him as a tall, thin girl ran up to her childhood friend wearing a similar uniform to the boy known as Shinichi Kudou.

"Good morning Ran" Shinichi stated with a casual smirk at the girl known as Ran Mouri.

"Looking forward to tonight, Shinichi?" Ran asked with a light blush on her pretty face.

A bewildered look came across Shinichi's face, Ran sore this and instantly grew an angry tick on her forehead as she clenched her fists.

"You forgot, didn't you?" the karate champion seethed.

"Tonight…?" Shinichi whispered to himself in wonder, sweat-dropping at Ran's angry glare. "OH! TONIGHT! Tonight, of course I'm looking forward to tonight! Hahahaha…." The high schooler exclaimed dramatically.

Ran's glare increased at his dramatics as did her anger.

The karate champion took a steadying breath before hitting a nearby lamppost causing it to creak pitifully and bend over at a broken angle, people around the pair stared and fled, and Shinichi unconsciously took a protective stance on instinct.

Ran's sickly sweet smiles caused Shinichi to back away and any stragglers to flee in terror.

"You didn't forget our outing to tropical land to celebrate winning my karate championship, did you? "The girl ground out through clenched teeth.

"No, no, no, no of course not, I've been looking forward to it…hahahahaha…" Shinichi improvised under her ire.

"Baka" ran muttered as they entered teitan high, almost immediately running into sonoko Suzuki.

"Ran" sonoko exclaimed, latching onto her arm, "Shinichi" she muttered disapprovingly.

"Sonoko" Shinichi gave a small glare that was returned before sonoko turned to Ran with a mischievous look and a haughty smile.

"So…I heard from a little birdy that the married couple of teitan high are going on a date~" the gossiper sang as a light blush escaped from both Shinichi and Ran's faces.

"Baka" Ran and Shinichi exclaimed at the same time, causing them both to turn to each other and with red cheeks before looking away at the same time, much to sonoko's glee.(lol, Danny Phantom Reference, BTW, try imagining Sonoko as Tucker, I was laughing for ages on the mental picture alone!)

"It's not a d…d…date; it's a…outing…" Ran muttered embarrassed.

"Yeah, what she said" Shinichi said with a cold glare to the crowd that had gathered around them unnoticed.

"Heh~outing~heh" sonoko snickered.

"Sonoko" ran pleaded exhaustedly

"Fine, fine, let's get to class, Mrs Kudou" sonoko teased with a push.

"Sonoko!" Ran exclaimed in horror, blushing whilst Shinichi's just gave a tired sigh and headed off towards class.

"Bitch" he muttered under his breath.

Time skip #later that night# tropical land#

Shinichi was waiting in line to the mystery coaster with Ran at tropical land.

"Congrats again on winning the tournament Ran" Shinichi said with a genuine smile.

"No problem Shinichi, these wimps didn't stand a chance" ran boasted not looking forwood as she walked into the group in front of them causing a pile up.

"oh, I'm so sorry, are you okay?" ran exclaimed to the three as Shinichi helped them up.

"were fine miss, I'm Kishida, and these are Hitomi, Aiko and Reiko" the man of the group said as he gestured to the three women in the group whilst helping them up.

"I'm Mouri Ran and this is Shinichi Kudou" ran introduced with a small bow.

"Nice to meet you" Shinichi said also bowing and eyeing the strangers discreetly pausing on Hitomi and her necklace, understanding dawning on him as she sent an unconscious sad, longing look to Kishida and Aiko, who were linking each others hands.

"Think nothing of it, it's fortunate you bumped into us though" exclaimed Reiko.

"why?" questioned Ran.

"look at whose in front of us, then you'll know your answer Mouri chan" Aiko said in a hushed voice as Shinichi and ran both looked in front of them and saw the dark pair, pushing a preteen and his parent out of the line as they did and glaring at anyone who looked their way.

Ran shivered at their look whilst Shinichi went still, recognising the look they were giving as professionals and deciding to keep an eye on them as well as the desperate Hitomi.

Deciding to save a life tonight, Shinichi 'stumbled' forward as the line moved and bumped into Hitomi, sending them both to the floor.

The young man allowed his stare to turn cold as he looked at the desperate woman and the venom from his night job to fill his voice as he brushed past her ear.

"Nice Necklace" he whispered harshly as he 'fell'.

Shinichi got up slowly, still glaring at the frozen would be murderer on the ground, catching the interest of the blond-haired man in front of them.

"oh kami, I'm so sorry, were just bumping into each other today, huh?" Shinichi said lightly, chuckling a bit as he continued to coldly stare the woman down, his voice not matching his expression.

The assassin put on a smile, a carefree look passing through his eyes as he did and offered the still frozen woman a hand.

"h...how...?" Hitomi whispered hoarsely as she stared at the carefree face of her assailant.

Shinichi continued to offer a hand to her and bent down to grasp hers, whispering in her hearing range as he did so.

"leave it to the professionals" he smiled and pulled her up.

"Shinichi! stop being so clumsy, baka" ran shouted before tuning to Hitomi with a small polite bow, "I'm sorry for my friend Hitomi san"

"The brat probably just wanted to cop a feel" Kishida whispered to his girlfriend as she glared at him and smiled apologetically at the shocked looking assassin.

"Come on, the rides starting and were holding up the cue" Ran stated urgently as a beady eyed glares filled her back with a malicious aura.

The blond-haired man glanced at Shinichi with a knowing smirk and eyes cold in amusement.

"Come on aniki" the shorter of the pair urged respectively as the partners moved forwood allowing everyone to board the mystery coaster.

The ride was uneventful until they reached the peak of the rollercoaster, the two suspicious men glanced over at an abandoned ride in the corner of the park and Hitomi twiddled with he necklace nervously, stopping as she glanced at Shinichi's excited face and stopping with a tremor.

"aughhhhhhhhhh" screamed Ran, hugging Shinichi with a death grip as the attraction dipped the car along the rail, causing Shinichi to go red from both a lack of air and a furious blush creeping on his features.

once the ride was over without incident, Shinichi ran up to Hitomi, Kishida, Aiko and Reiko and patted Hitomi on the back, slipping an unnoticed piece of paper in her bag as he did so and giving her a beaming smile.

"you made the right choice, Hitomi san, try to avoid hell in the future, Kay?" he chirped enthusiastically, running off before anyone could comment, leaving a stunned group of friends behind.

"weird kid" Aiko mumbled as they walked away, Hitomi giving a shaky nod in agreement, looking ashen.

Shinichi ran back to Ran and got a hit in the arm for his trouble.

"Stop running off Shinichi, it'll get you into trouble someday" ran shouted, such a bad habit for a boy to leave a girl alone on their d...d...outing!"

"yeah...sorry ran, won't happen again" Shinichi exclaimed, oblivious to ran's stuttering and blushing as he spotted the short man in sunglasses and a black hat.

"right..."ran stated, getting herself under control again, "anyway...Shinichi, did you hear about that arsonist on the news last night...Shinichi? Shinichi!" ran shouted as Shinichi stopped and stared in a seemingly random direction.

"yeah ran, I gotta check on something, call you later, Kay?" Shinichi said distractedly as he sprinted off in the same random direction.

"Baka, you said you wouldn't run off! ran shouted after him, getting a bad feeling about it but ignoring it for heading home, still slightly angry at him but mostly worried.

"please don't leave me, shinichi baka" she whispered with a quick hurt, tearful glance at the direction before heading home to look after her most likely drunk father.

Shinichi ran after the short stocky man, following him silently as he approached the abandoned amusement in the back corner of the bustling amusement park.

The man kept glancing around suspiciously as he went top his business, making the skilled assassin roll his eyes at the obvious behaviour.

The man hurried around a corner and squared up to a sweaty, porky man in a pink business suit(LOL), whose eyes were glancing around like a ping-pong match and was clutching a black briefcase like a lifeline.

"you got the money?" the man asked roughly.

"Y...yeah...um...you got the disks...uh...sir?" the nervous man stuttered, looking at anything other than his assailant.

The dark-haired man in the black fedora smirked in a degrading manner as he opened his own briefcase to reveal several unmarked DVD's.

"It's all here, gun-smuggler san" he smirked as his victim yelped in an unmanly way.

"not so loud, here's your m...money" the porky man stated. hastily opening is brief to show a large amount of money, handing it hastily to the black clad man in a trade-off before attempting to bolt surprisingly fast for someone of his stature.

Meanwhile, shinichi spied the transaction with boredom, wondering silently why he left ran for a simple extortion.

The young assassin turned to leave with a silent sigh when a cold pair of eyes approached him hastily, making him roll away on instinct, startling the bolting business man into a quick glance before continuing his departure, sweating profusely as he went.

"what...ANIKI" exclaimed the surprised portly man in black , cocking his gun as he spoke.

"we got ourselves a spy, vodka" the blond-haired 'aniki' spoke venomously, "you were followed."

"b...but aniki" vodka stuttered.

"punishment later, deal with the brat now" the blond murderer demanded, cocking his own gun in the process.

"excuse me" said a now standing Shinichi, glowering at the two men with cold, dead eye and a double pistols pointed at the men." do I get a say in this?"

The two men eyed the teenager with different reactions, the more stout man looking on with wide quivering eyes, whilst the taller of the two looked on with a hint of annoyance and some interest.

"you got some skills brat, but two against one isn't exactly in your favour" aniki' said with a sneer on his impassive face.

"y...yeah, we got you outnumbered brat" the stout man smirked in fake confidence.

the smirk fell when Shinichi lowered the gun he had aimed at vodka and shot him in the heart, making him drop dead on the spot, the noise nearly drowned out by the nearby amusement park, the young assassin then drew the gun to face gins passive, if not slightly tight face.

"You were saying?" Shinichi emotionlessly stated.

Just as 'aniki' was about to shoot his gun off at his partners murderer, a heavy thud was heard as a Caucasian blond woman with long blond hair, tied into a pony tail and cold, dancing blue eyes posed behind the fallen teen with a metal pipe in her slim fingers.

"vermouth"'aniki' ground out with clenched teeth.

"gin" vermouth smirked, "my, my, you boys made quite the mess, didn't you? I'm sure the BOSS wont be happy about this!"

The clearing was then filled with melodic laughter as vermouth laughed at vodka's still form.

"shut up, bitch!" gin barked out.

"such language" vermouth joked.

"let's just kill the brat and leave it to cleanup" gin growled, aiming his gun at the barely conscious teen with blood gushing steadily out of his head wound.

"don't!" vermouth began and explained," he's already probably attracted the police with his earlier shot."

Both looked towards the fallen body of vodka whilst speaking as blood pooled around his corpse.

"we have a new poison to test after all, why not him? wouldn't want to disappoint her now, would you?" she taunted.

"sherry" gin shark grinned

"sherry" vermouth agreed with a frown as gin moved to take the poison out of his pocket and approach the fallen teen.

gin looked into the cloudy, half mast eyes of the young assassin as blood slowly trickled out of his wound onto semi dried blood.

"This'll be painful brat," gin sneered,"you may have been able to stop one murder today, but you still fall at the hands of our wonderful organisation."

He dragged the teens hair roughly so his face was up, popped in a mysterious pill and poured water into the slightly parted lips forcing a reflexive gulp from the assassin and walked away, contacting cleanup as he went.

vermouth walked up the teenager and whispered into his ear as smoke started to pour out of him as his face became flushed and the head wound started bleeding fresh blood.

"Good luck, my little silver bullet kun" she stated before grabbing his arm and dragging him around a few corners with surprising strength, making sure to stay out of the way of the crowds.

"A secret makes a woman, woman" she whispered with a smirk, walking away from the scene before clean up or the police arrived with a red glint in her eye.

Shinichi groaned in his barely conscious state as the pain assaulted him and he unconsciously clutched the grass desperately in front of him as his survival instinct kicked in trying to survive as his heart started to beat out of rhythm.

The teenager blacked out with unseeing eyes, fresh blood pouring thickly from his head wound as the smoke increased and his bones creaked, his whole body going still in shock as he painfully shrunk as the poison does its grim work, burying him slowly in his green hoody and denim jeans till in the place of the sixteen year old was a six year old, his body wracked with chills and wound pouring more fresh blood down his pale face as his heartbeat steadied out.

In the background the mysterious clean-up could be heard moving Vodka's body and all the weapons from the area quickly as the police and ambulance sirens moved to the scene of the heavily wounded unconscious 'little boy'.

Chapter Text

Of Policemen, Doctors, and Gymnasts!

The sound of sirens filled the air as the red light flashed on and off down a dark alley behind tropical land, police patrolling the area for suspicious activity since a gunshot was heard previously nearby.

A trickle of blood peeked out from behind a dumpster and a small, pain filled groan was voiced, causing a passing patrol officer to pause and flash his light down the alley.

The passing police man paled as he saw the blood reflecting the light, and with gun drawn edged into the forebodingly dark alleyway.

"Hello, this is the police" he said in an authorative voice, "Is anyone there?"

Not hearing a peep, the copper rounded his flashlight around the corner of the dustbin and gasped at the sight before him.

A child of no older than six was laid on his side, copious amounts of blood escaping from a gash in his head sticking his hair down, his paling cheeks flush with fever as he visibly shivered and made small noises of pain in his unconscious state, wearing clothes fitting of a teenager more than a child.

With a quick cursory glance around for the perpetrator the officer put the child in the recovery position, being careful not to jostle his head any further and used his jacket to stem the blood flow from his head and took out his intercom.

"This is officer Akagi, I need an ambulance for the back alleyway of tropical land on *beep beep* street" Akagi reported, keeping an eye on the fallen child as he did, "Possible attempted homicide on a child aged between 5-7, possible head trauma, please hurry, he's losing blood on me."

"Kid, you with me?" officer Akagi questioned quietly whilst looking out for the ambulance.

A small groan was his answer as shockingly blue eyes edged open a crack.

"Hey there" akagi said with a relieved smile, "Stay awake for me okay? I know you're tired but you need to stay awake, concentrate on my voice"

"Who…you…Fe…sic…" was his mumbled response as the child's muddy head made him struggle to form words, his breath coming out in painful bursts as the drug finished its grim process.

"I'm Akagi; I'm a police officer okay? You'll be fine" the man comforted, "Can you tell me your name? Anything, just keep talking."

"Nam…S…Ku…" the fallen boy tried to answer when he went shock still, a tremor going through him and bile rising up in his throat. His muscles all constricted as the bile escaped his body all over the officer of the law, falling unconscious with a pained gasp as the ambulance bounded round the corner and the paramedics stepped out and ran to the boy at the officers calling.

Rain suddenly poured overhead, as if the gods themselves wished to set an ambiance for the grim mood.

/TIME SKIP/- the next day at the hospital.

A constant beeping was heard throughout the private hospital room, the sterile white walls with sporadic placing of childish decoration the only distinguishing feature of the establishment, a uniform bed sitting in the middle of the plain room housing the source of the beeping.

A certain small boy with a pristine white bandage wrapped around the top of his head slept in the room, IV drip attached to his small arm.

A haze came over the small boys head as feeling returned to him slowly.

'What…happened?' Shinichi, now shrunk, tried to recall.

'I was at the park…with Ran…and then Hitomi…and those men…I'm not dead…Where's Ran?'

A finger twitched as the shrunken boy thought of this.

'Ran'

His eyes scrunched up in an effort to gain control of his body.

'Ran'

"RAN!" he shouted, flinging upwards, alerting others of his awareness and jostling his head wound in the process.

The childish face winced as his head exploded in an array of colours in his head and he laid back down with a pained sigh, the shrill constant beeping not helping in the slightest.

Whilst his eyes were scrunched shut to block out the light contributing to the concussion caused migraine, a doctor with nondescript black hair and soft brown eyes covered by a pair of thick glasses appeared and gave him a cursory glance, before silencing the heart monitor and eliciting a sigh of relief from the seemingly small boy.

"Nice to meet you young man, I'm Doctor Tofu" Doctor Tofu introduced with a small bow to the startled youngster.

"Nice to meet you, sensei" Shinichi said seriously, looking around at his surroundings.

'I'm in a room with childish drawings on the wall…how old do they think I am, anyway?' he deadpanned.

'Wait, my voice sounded weird…maybe that drug did something to me after all.' Came the panicked thoughts from the shrunken teenager.

His breathing spread up as he looked down to his arm and saw it short and chubby, before moving onto the rest of what was visible to him, holding up his small hands face shakily as his eyes filled with horror induced panic, Shinichi desperately tried to get up to look at his reflection in the window but the doctor held him down whilst calling a nurse to bring some sleeping agents.

The young boys' cold eyes caught his reflection on the doctors glasses as he frantically struggled against the doctors hold and he fell flat on his back in shock, allowing the frantic nurse to inject him into a drugged sleep.

'I'm a child…' was Shinichi's last conscious thought before the drug took hold, a dreamless sleep ahead of him.

/LINE BREAK/

Hitomi looked at the card in her hand apprehensively, considering the deed.

Kishida and Aiko had announced they were getting married, breaking her heart into millions of unfixable pieces and her desire for revenge from her thief of a friend grew, brewing her petty jealousy into hatred and poisoning her heart.

'Why should she commit suicide for them?' her thoughts whispered as they turned dark. 'They betrayed her! They should suffer!'

'But you still love Kishida' the untainted part of her mind reminded the desperate woman gently, 'you could never hurt him'

Tears fell from the gymnasts eyes as her thoughts battled for supremacy, her internal conflict interrupted as her mobile phone rang, the caller ID identifying the caller as Aiko.

With shaky fingers she answered the phone, "…Hello"

"Hitomi" a relieved voice sounded from the communication device, "Thank god I got in touch with you, is anything wrong?"

"No…nothing's wrong…why do you ask?" Hitomi answered weakly.

"If you're sure…"a pause, "well I've got some news that should cheer you up! I want you to be a bridesmaid, isn't that great?" she continued in an excited tone, "I heard that the best man is single~"

"Yeah…that's great, I'm looking forwood to it…I've got to go, bye Aiko."Hitomi answered, full on shaking by this point in the conversation, the darkness' in her heart growing with each passing second.

"Bye Hitomi, we should do lunch soon, you haven't been the same since we left tropical land, everyone's worried about you, you know." Aiko said, suddenly subdued, "Get in touch soon, okay?"

A beep filled the air as a worried Aiko hung up, the only sound aside from Hitomi's harried breathing, soft sobs joining the solemn chorus as the woman sank to the floor, tears spilling over her solemn eyes.

"A bridesmaid..?" Hitomi hiccupped pitifully.

'A bridesmaid? She's mocking you!' the darkness in her head piped up.

'Get rid of her, and YOU can be the one to marry Kishida'

The gymnast shoulders shook as she stared at the innocent looking piece of paper in her hands.

"I'll do it…"she whispered, pocketing the card to sludge about her day. "Aiko will die…Kishida shall be free…"

'I'll be free…'

End of Chapter Two