Chapter Text
Something was wrong. Kogoro just knew it, despite not having any basis for such claim. Sure, dinner time was approaching, and his kids were not home yet, but that was to be expected.
After Ran had won the karate championship, Shinichi promised to take her to this new Amusement Park, Tropical Land, if Kogoro remembered correctly. Both of them had been quite looking forward to this outing, so it wouldn’t have been weird if they simply lost track of time. If there was some kind of trouble, either of them would have called Kogoro by now.
Well, at least Ran would. Shinichi might just go and try to solve the problem by himself, reckless as that boy usually is with his own well-being. Then again, Ran was with him, so even if he tried something like this, Ran would have smacked the idea right out of his head.
Or, at least he hoped, she would. Both of his kids are equally stubborn, so sometimes there’s no way to predict just who will win their current match of wills.
But then again, Shinichi might have given in, weak in a wake of Ran’s pleas and puppy dog eyes.
(But what if he was the one to ask, and Ran would have been the one to give in, just as weak for the boy’s puppy dog eyes in return.)
No, no. He was getting ahead of himself. Between the two of them, his daughter is the one with more common sense and reason, so Kogoro was sure there was no reason to worry.
Unless lives were in danger, then both of his kids would just rash straight into the danger, any sense or reason thrown out of the metaphorical window.
No, no, no. Kogoro was probably overthinking it again.
(But what if he wasn’t? After all, his instinct was telling him that something was wrong and while it might not help him during his work, his parental nose hasn’t once being wrong.)
He tried to watch the horse race currently airing on TV, but he couldn’t manage to focus on in, in the slightest. Finally, having had enough of the uncertainty, he reached for his phone to make a call, but before he could grab it, Ran’s “I’m home” came from the other side of the door.
Not a single drop of relief ran through his body, though, not after he heard his daughter subdued and panting voice. An ominous feeling of dread and foreboding appeared in his guts.
His daughter came in and he immediately scanned her entire being. Her face was as white as a paper sheet and her hair was disheveled. She must have been crying because her eyes were red and puffy. He couldn’t see any injures, though, so that was a relief.
It was short-lived, however, when he noticed a bundle of oversized, familiar clothes in her arms.
Dread settled in, and his entire body froze, as a baby face he hasn’t seen in ten years turned from the safety of Ran’s shoulder to look at him.
Pale as a ghost, with a trail of dried blood on his face and wide blue eyes, Kogoro once again stared at Shinichi’s impossibly young face.
"Dad-" Ran started, then took a deep breath, and with a wavering voice, she continued. “T-This is… This is Shinichi…” Her voice cracked, and she trailed off, eyes watering again. The boy tore his weary gaze away from him to look at Kogoro’s daughter in worry.
“Ran…” He started with concern obvious in his hoarse, high-pitched, childish voice. Ran only shook her head, trying to get her emotions under control.
Meanwhile, Kogoro could only stare numbly at the scene in front of him. His daughter was crying a second time this evening and his son, in everything but blood, was a toddler again. And the only thought in Kogoro’s head was a haunting, unanswered how.