Case File: Pandora & The Universe

Tropical Island

′Poor human.′

A soft voice. Conan whimpered.

′Hush child, rest. I shall grant you another life much better than this.′

He could feel the wind breezed around him and ruffled his hair, as if it was his mother gently brushing her fingers through his hair.

′You deserve so much better.′

He woke up dazed, and feeling his body sore. He wasn't sure where he was, but he knew that it was sometime around the afternoon based on how the sun was quite literally beaming down on him making his headache known.

He groaned and turned to his right, momentarily wondering why he was lying down on a grass as he rubbed his sleep away with his left hand. His right clenched something small and hard. He stiffened, stopping any further movement aside from taking his left hand from his eyes to get a better look on what was in his right hand.

A stone?

Not quite, his mind registered as he blinked, the sapphire gem in between his clenched fingers shined under the sunlight. Then all of a sudden his eyes widen at the sight of the gem and all the memories from the day before came crashing down on him like tidal waves, making his headache worse than it was before.

The heist, the roar of the crowd.

The thrill, the gem,the red dot, the white cape, the monocle, fear, the blood, the fire, black coats, smoke, guns, bloodbloodbl--

A sob escaped him, and he hastily tried to muffle it as he took a moment to breathe. 'Okay', he told himself as he sorts past his memories to form logical thoughts, 'where am I?'
He looked around to see a bunch of trees and put on a guess that he must be in a park somewhere but it wasn't enough to tell him exactly where he was.

Forcing himself to stand up, he scouted the area to hopefully find an opening leading to wherever he currently was while at the same time looking for his skateboard in hopes of using it to go home... wherever that was, his mind supplied, now that he was officially on the run from those men in black.

'Those who were after KID, were they after the gem?' he asked himself as he continued to walk aimlessly, 'what was the real purpose of the public heists? Surely if he was to search for a gem that the Organization was interested in then the thief would have done it in secret.' His eyes scanned the area, though nothing from his sight were really registering in his mind as his thoughts were rapidly firing from one question to another.

'A public heist... a public stunt... a show?' he absentmindedly noted that he could see some fairy lights from where he was, and that there were some weird background noises that were somewhat familiar.

'Ah! maybe it's to lure--'His train of thought was cut off abruptly when he stepped out into the wide open space, revealing a sight he wished he didn't see again.

Tropical Island.

He knew the place like the back of his hand. The only place he was aware that he became obsessed on knowing for any other chance to know about the Black Org, yet avoid like a plague. Not that he was very successful.

He wasn't sure how he got here considering the fact that he only used a skateboard to get to the island but he didn't think it was worth to think too deeply about it. Anything considered normal to the majority of the populace were clearly thrown out the window after he was shrunk.

It really wasn't weird to be here, he thought, but the fact that blood sprayed on his face didn't make the situation any normal. The following scream was enough to let him know he definitely recognized that scream what with his obsession on that fateful day.

He didn't even realize where his feet was taking him until he arrived at the spot where he knew the coaster would stop. What he saw was what he expected to see when he arrived at the crime scene. Though it did not include the teenagers up front. He didn't want to believe it, yet...

He saw himself.

To be precise, Kudo Shinichi in all his detective glory.

Was he dead? is this a dream? nightmare? All Conan can do was stare as his older-self (Past? did he really just traveled through time?) deduced the crime and pointed out who the real culprit was.

When the reporters came and Kudo Shinichi looked like he welcomed the attention, Conan decided that yes, he had somehow been brought in the past. Somehow... or maybe it was a really bad dream.

It didn't stop him from tailing his old self and Ran-neechan (gosh, after four years of being a kid he couldn't identify her anymore than a big sister) wherever they go. He was only partially doing so because he was weirdly distracted by little things whenever he tried to follow them.

Like that one time when the count down for the fountain ended and the fountain came to life, Conan watched in fascination, momentarily forgetting what he was originally doing until the couple he was originally tailing was nowhere near his sight.

After that, he couldn't really remember where they went, so he strolled around the area. It wasn't until the sun was down that he spotted them from a distance, with his past self running towards... him? Conan's eyes scanned the area.

'No... the dark alley on the right.' Conan's eyes widen as he realized what was happening and panicked. All his life, his only regret was tailing after the men in black through their blackmailing. The only thing in his life that he wish he could change.

Like right now.

Conan, in his fit of panic, dashed towards the young adult in an attempt to intercept him from proceeding to tail the men in black. in his mad dash though, he tripped on his own feet and fell, somewhat rolling as his dash had too much force that his momentum made him smack painfully to the ground.

He was startled. Then tears started prickling his eyes. His confusion and stress building up inside him at the thought of not catching up to his older self as well as the pain he felt as his skin kissed the ground was enough to make him start bawling pathetically.

His bawls only got louder as he realized he failed the one thing he wanted to stop the most. He barely felt himself being lifted off the ground and into someone's arms as his mind flashes back to all the failures he's done his whole entire life.

"H..." Conan's mind barely registered the voice, "...hey..." one word was enough to make Conan somewhat aware of his surrounding, which lessened his wails to sobs.

"...kid...hey." He could barely make up what the voice was saying, his ears felt like they were stuffed with cotton. His sobs turned to sniffles by the time he managed to find where the voice belonged to, which ended with Conan looking at his older self's face up close.

Kudo Shinichi smiled at him, "There you are."

Conan's lower lip involuntarily trembled and his older self was left scrambling to wipe out his snotty face. They were silent for a while, Conan's mind somewhat blank after his outburst and Shinichi busying himself with wiping Conan's face that he must've asked, "Where are your parents?" distractedly.

"Gone." was Conan's immediate response. Which was the truth, wasn't it? If this was really the past then the Kudos wouldn't really be his family anymore... the mere thought of being so utterly and officially alone in the predicament he was in was enough to elicit another involuntary sob.

His older self must've realized how stupid his question was because he apologized. Conan knows what's going through the teen's mind right now, because he... was also Kudo Shinichi.

'Gone. abandoned him. No where near the kid. Dead.′

Conan was tired. He didn't want to think. He's so sick of thinking. He didn't ask for any of this, he didn't want any of the things he just saw. He just wanted to rest.

So he did.