Ba-Beep…

Ba-Beep…

Ba-Beep…

I groan, that beeping is way too loud when I'm trying to sleep… wait… My eyes blow wide open as memories hit me like a freight train, revealing a white ceiling. I would almost think I was in the hospital if I didn't see the office desk with my green jacket on it, next to half finished inventions.

I look around more, noting the hastily closed heavy curtains blocking the window and the old EKG monitor with the wires coming to my chest likely to the sticky pads that are used to monitor vitals. I also notice I'm on a western style bed and I'm still in my clothes from yesterday's visit to Tropical Land… well minus the jacket that's on the desk.

'Huh… 68 beats per minute that's abnormally low aren't teenagers supposed to have a bpm in the high 80s and low 90s when at rest?' I think as I read the information displayed on the EKG monitor. 'At least my heart is beating now, but what happened to me last night? Was it just a horrible fever dre-'

Thump

I find myself under the bed as I just fell through it, the loud screeching of the EKG monitor as apparently the pads that monitor vitals didn't come with me on the trip though the bed… clearly not a fever dream then… How the fuck am I supposed to get out from under the bed? This bed has one of those fancy lips and I can't exactly crawl out from under the bed because of it.

As I try to figure out how to get out of this mess I found myself in. I hear the loud footsteps and the door opens with nary a creek. From the angle I'm at I can only see the tail end of a lab coat and slippers, but given the context after yesterday this is likely Professor Agasa.

"Shinichi, what happened to you yesterday?" I hear Agasa say, "This is the third time you fell through the bed this morning… I hope you wake up soon."

"I'm awake this time professor… and honestly that is an excellent question. I have no idea either, I thought I was straight up dead given at the time I was glowing, flying, and had no heartbeat or needed to breathe… but that white flash that had me falling out the sky changed things." I call out to the professor from under the bed. "Also… can you help get me out of here? I'm kinda stuck."

"Oh Shinichi." the professor says fondly as he comes over to the bed and starts taking off the stuff on the bed. Pretty quickly, there was nothing but some wooden slats above me and I could stand up. Which I do because laying on the floor is not my idea of a good afternoon spent.

"Shinichi," The professor says with a hesitant smile, staring at my face for some reason, "I'm glad to see you awake. How about we go downstairs and eat lunch while you explain what happened yesterday. I'm really curious on what you mean when you say, 'you thought you were dead.'"

Groooowl

Heat rushes to my face as my stomach complains on the fact it hasn't been fed yet… Right, last thing I ate that wasn't literal poison was two lemon dango from one of the concession stands in Tropical Land sometime around four in the afternoon. So I definitely need some food.

We head downstairs pretty much without issue, though I did have another accident with intangibly which made me fall flat on my face as my foot had stopped being solid enough to hold up my weight right as I was taking a step. Agasa thankfully didn't laugh too much at my suffering. Honestly he looks a little more worried to me than anything else.

We reach the dining room quite fast after that. The first thing I notice is there is a tarp covering a hole in the wall. Agasa likely still hasn't completely fixed the hole he made in his outside wall yet from yesterday's invention failure. Second thing I notice is just like in the room I woke up in heavy curtains cover every window, likely to block the line of sight into the house. The third more important thing in my mind is the multiple takeout containers full of curry, and I can literally feel myself drooling at the sight of food.

I pull up a seat at the table and then grab a takeout container. Then I get to work eating the food. The curry was a bit cold but honestly I'm too hungry to care, and I only partly notice Agasa putting a steaming hot cup of black coffee by me. Mainly because it's my favorite thing to drink in the morning. 'This coffee pairs really well with the savory-sweet curry honestly,' I think as I take a big drink. The last drags of sleepiness falling off of me as the coffee hits my system… and something else in the background that I couldn't tell before…

'Eh, it's not that important right now.' I think as I grab a second serving of food. I'm still absolutely starving so that issue needs to be taken care of first before I do anything else.

I continue eating to the exclusion of everything else around me. With every bite of food I start to feel more normal. I absentmindedly notice someone coming into the house and feeling a bit weird about halfway through this serving but I ignore it in favor of continuing to eat the food.

When I finish the second serving, I'm still hungry but it isn't as all encompassing as it was before. 'It's nice to just be the regular type of hungry' I think as I look up for the first time since I sat down at the table.

THUMP

That's the sound of me falling through my chair in surprise, as I had looked straight into Ran's face. From my spot on the floor I shyly ask. "Hi Ran… when did you get here? Sorry about yesterday…" I trail off at Ran's expression an odd mix of exasperated and adoring.

"Shinichi, It's fine. I definitely want an explanation for what I saw yesterday, but I'm just glad you're okay… sorta Agasa told me about your BPM readouts… are you sure you're fine?" Ran asks me.

"To be Honest? No. I'm not sure if I'm fine, but being honest with myself I'm very relieved to have a heartbeat… not sure how I do though. Kami, Nothing makes any sense anymore." I say while standing up to take a seat at the table again.

Ran gives me a worried look and says, "Shinichi? Why are you so relieved to have a heartbeat… and why are you swearing by the Kami. You're normally not very religious… What happened yesterday after we split up?"

I take one last serving of food and place it in front of me before I even think about replying, "I think both of you deserve to know what happened yesterday evening. Ran your other questions will be answered as I explain yesterday" I say and while taking a bite of food. I start explaining.

In between eating, I explain my following the men in black to an isolated part of the park and watching a blackmail deal go down between one of the two men much to Ran's shock, and Agasa's suspicious looks. I describe being an idiot and not noticing only one of the men in black was doing the deal until the other man sneaks up behind me and nails me with something. I don't remember what it was though.

I hesitantly explain what I remember from what the men in black said as they try to decide how to kill me, as the memory is a little fuzzy because of the hard knock on the head. At this Ran gasps and starts to silently cry. I stop eating completely and pull my legs to my chest not even daring to look at Ran or Agasa, as I describe the men deciding to poison me, and the horrible awful pain. It felt like I was Burning, Freezing, being Electrocuted, and Melting all at once and I couldn't even scream at the pain because it was all I could do just to breathe.

I have to stop my explanation right then and there because just remembering the events caused me to get a full on flashback to the feeling and how I was begging to live, to survive, to see Ran again. I start to cry sometime in the middle of the flashback, and I come back to the present with Ran giving me a hug… which being honest makes me feel a lot better about everything. I do end up pushing away the last few mouthfuls of food away though… remembering that made me lose all my remaining appetite.

I lean into Ran's hug as I monotonically describe my surprise at waking up again after I passed out from the pain. Being called a dead body by security guards. Opening my eyes to floating in the air… literally. My rising panic as I check and fail to find my own heartbeat. My panic being derailed by the guards running away yelling Ghost.

My voice reaches a fever pitch as I just kind of babble out, "And that was ridiculous because ghosts don't exist. Except they do exist because I was one, except then I wasn't and nothing makes sense anymore. I know it wasn't a fever dream either. Because I fell through my bed this morning, and nearly fell down the stairs because my foot stopped being solid at exactly the wrong time. My BPM is wrong. I'm Wrong. I just can't understand it."

I'm forced to stop talking because I start to hyperventilate, as my thoughts race and unanswered questions echo around in my head. But the one question that my brain keeps going back to is 'What am I, now?' I can't even start trying to answer that question let alone the myriad others that are bouncing around in my brain.

I don't know how long I was stuck in the mental loop, all I know is that when I came out of it. Ran had me embraced in a hug and was rubbing my back in soothing motions… Likely in an effort to calm me down. Agasa is also standing next to me patting my hair… I'm just really thankful that I'm loved.

Ran notices rather quickly that I'm back to being mostly mentally there. I'm not sure if I'm one hundred percent myself yet though. "You don't have to continue if you don't want to, Shinichi. I can tell this is hard for you." Ran reassures me, tightening the hug she's currently giving me at the same time.

I shake my head in denial though replying, "I feel like I have to Ran, thankfully I'm past the hardest parts now… at least I think I am… Plus how can I call myself a detective if I run away from the truth? That and I honestly have no idea what happened to me now and once you know everything maybe you have a better idea? I don't know, honestly I think I'm grasping at straws but anything is better than the echo chamber that my head has become." I plause, "Maybe we can move to the couches though. That way we can both sit… I really like the hugs I've been getting." I end with a blush.

Moving to the living room wasn't difficult at all and the three of us settled down again quite fast, Ran and I sitting together on the loveset and Agasa in a chair across from the both of us. I end leaning my head on Ran's shoulder as I get ready to continue telling the story of what happened yesterday.

I recall the intense stream of crazy levels of denial that I used to justify not being a ghost… which honestly looking back is extremely embarrassing. Granted I seem to at least be some kind of ghost-adjacent being… Nope, not going down that mental rabbit hole just yet. Thankfully Ran is an angel and Agasa is kind so neither of them teased me about it when I told them about it.

Agasa did comment that the denial was likely caused by a wish to not be dead, and all available evidence that the time was pointing to that conclusion… which definitely seems to ring true to me. Still embarrassing though I'm supposed to be a Detective, and Detectives shouldn't hide from the truth no matter how distasteful it is.

I share the details of my appearance at the time as I noticed them back then, the clothes that look like they were put through a color inversion filter, and the denial that the criminals came back and changed my outfit. That specific denial had both Ran and Agasa fighting laughter… and I have to admit I laughed a bit myself at remembering that excuse, that excuse was honestly even worse than the straight up ignoring the fact I wasn't breathing, had no heartbeat, freaking floating, or was glowing brighter than a flashlight.

The white hair and the mental excuse of stress bleaching got me eye rolls from Agasa and a look of epiphany from Ran… she likely remembered my slightly panicked flight yesterday. Kami that excuse was stupid. Talking about the fearful walk home got me comforting squeezes from Ran. When I got to the lady, and the later looking at a closed store window to use as a mirror and freaking out at the glowing green eyes and then turning invisible. The race back home, falling through the door, breaking down crying with grief. This got me hugs from both Agasa and Ran.

I relate that I'm not sure how long I spent crying curled into a ball in the foyer of my house, but not needing to pause to take a breath when full on sobbing really disrupted the ways you normally keep track of how long such things take. It also makes it so you don't need to stop, because normally crying disrupts breathing patterns enough that your brain forces you to stop and calm down because oxygen is important. Then when I finally stopped my decision to just accept everything, because what else could I do? At the time I was convinced I was dead, and there was no changing that.

I talk about going to the downstairs bathroom to really look at myself. I even joke that my questions on where my body was were answered now. Which didn't help release the tension in the air like I was hoping for. Kami, why did I decide to explain everything? 'At least Ran and Agasa aren't looking at me with pity' I think as I awkwardly rub at my arm.

I steel myself for this next bit, refusing to look at Ran beside me, "After I look at myself for a bit trying to accept everything that has happened, I heard Ran calling out to me from the outside. I'm not going to lie about this and say I didn't panic a bit about it. Kami, I was so afraid back then. I wanted to tell you so bad, but Kami, the thought of you being afraid of me because I was a ghost…" I shake the thought away about still being afraid of that idea, "I just ended up following you while invisible instead. I don't even remember how I did it either…"

I pull up my legs onto the couch and hug them to my chest fighting another round of tears. 'Kami, I'm such a mess today.' I find myself thinking.

I get knocked over with a hug by Ran, her hands grabbing my hair pulling it a bit as she pulls me close as she lays on top of me on the couch, "I can never, will never be afraid of you Shinichi, for you most likely. Kami knows you've always been a bit too fearless, and going by what happened to you I have every right to be afraid of you getting yourself into a massive mess, but Human, Ghost or something else, it will never matter to me so long as you're still you." is mumbled into my ears, making the last bit of fear just fade away and for me to finally fully relax since I woke up.

Suddenly my foot goes numb and seems to fall into the couch… right almost forgot that this is a thing now. I lift my foot out of the couch and keep up in the air until the numb feeling goes away. I really just can't be bothered to care about my apparent super powers. Mainly because at this point I'm just emotionally numb after the previous emotional roller coaster ride I was on.

Ran apparently notices the foot thing though, because she loosens the hug a bit to comment. "I'm surprised you're taking the uncontrolled power thing so well, I'm pretty sure you would have had a major freakout just a day ago, over you constantly doing things that are technically impossible or make no sense."

"Yes, well… I'm likely going to freak out later to be honest. Right now, I'm both extremely emotionally numb and still running on the high of having a heartbeat again… even if it's a little slower than it should be. About six hours… I think I wasn't really keeping track of the time last night, without one makes you very appreciative of having one, you know." I say as Ran gives me a tight squeeze.

I squeeze Ran back a little giddiness raising up beneath the numbness that is my emotions right now. Kami it's such a relief to know Ran accepts me, that she isn't afraid of me. I'm pretty damn sure if I wasn't so emotionally numb as I am, I would have a face breaking grin on my face. As it is, I can feel a tiny smile settle on my face as the two of us cuddle together on the couch.

A few minutes later, Agasa gives an awkward fake cough, loudly signaling to the both of us that maybe we should stop our cuddle session. Ran jumps off me and I jump a bit as well but I end up stuck in the air… um, How do I get down? I kind of fail my arms a bit trying to figure out how to move back down but all I end up doing is push myself away from the couch and into the middle of the room… you know this was much easier to control yesterday, but honestly I can't really bring myself to care. If a lack of control is the price I pay for a heartbeat I'll honestly take it. Kami nothing about this makes any sense though…

I hear a snort coming from the couch and manage to turn towards the sound (was I overthinking things before?) to see Ran had returned to a sitting position and was watching me struggle with my temporary lack of gravity. I sigh and bite the bullet, "Can you help, Please?" my face red with embarrassment. Kami, I hate having to ask for help but I really don't see any way of getting out of this mess on my own… at least not without further embarrassment… honestly both the situation right now and the bigger picture as I really think about it.

Instead of getting a verbal answer, both Agasa and Ran stand up to help me reorient myself in the air and then help me bring my feet back down onto the ground. It took a few tries for me to figure out how to stay there and not start floating back up again every time I take a step. Hmm this case of whatever this is must have been weightlessness and not actually flight… hmm I wonder… NO! I shake my head. I can try to figure out the mystery of my powers later and maybe how to get rid of them, granted my gut feeling is telling me there's no reversing whatever this is. I have to at least try though.

I return to the couch next to Ran trying to regain my previous train of thought. I struggle for quite a bit before Ran gives me a poke asking, "Shinichi? You're going to continue right?"

I feel heat rise to my cheeks as I'm forced to admit, "I… kind of… lost my place in the story. Don't worry I'll probably remember my place soon." I hurriedly say.

Ran rolls her eyes, "Shinichi, just ask next time. Honestly I'm surprised you haven't lost your place sooner. Given the two panic attacks slash mental breakdowns you had, Especially when you put the emotional vulnerability, and the weird power stuff you have going on right now on top of it all. I've lost count how many times you've gone invisible in this talk alone."

"I've gone invisible? I haven't even noticed." I say a bit panicked, who knows what else has escaped my senses today if I haven't picked up on all the weird crap happening with me today. What if something worse happens? What if I'm dangerous? I have no clue on how to even start working with this stuff-

I feel a sharp poke, breaking my train of thought, and looking around I see Ran was the one to do it once again. She is looking at me with an unamused expression on her face and opens her mouth, "Shinichi stop worrying so much. We'll figure it out okay?"

I shakingly smile at her, "Okay Ran, I'll try my best… So where was my place anyway?" I ask.

Ran gives a teasing grin and says, "You were talking about following me invisible on my walk home. You stalker"

"Ah, right." I awkwardly say, sharply reminded of my earlier emotional instability. "Well I spent the whole time following you trying to make myself do literally anything else. Watching you worry about me was just short of literal torture, you know. I wanted so badly to talk to you… to at least try to comfort you. My fear that you would be afraid of me held me back though." I end with a shutter.

Ran squeezes my arm as I take a deep breath making me feel better, "Then we get to the area outside of your house to see Mouri-san yelling about getting a case… I… um," The heat on my face is quickly rising as I remember what I did next. "I may have forgotten everything at that point, when I heard that, to jump into the passenger side of the taxi… To um, to follow him onto the case." I just know, Ran is going to tease me for that.

My prediction turns out to be only sort of correct. As after I said the word 'case' Ran puts her face in her hands and starts laughing. "Shinichi, *giggle* you're such a mystery geek, why did I expect anything else from you." Ran tells me after she settles her laughing fit while poking my chest. "At least that explains the blast of cold that I followed into the taxi. I expect in your haste to reach the Taxi you walked through me. You better not do that again mister, that was freezing." Poking me again this time even harder… It actually kind of hurts.

I put my hands up in surrender. "I get it Ran, no walking through you, but I wasn't exactly aware of what I was doing at the time."

"Good." Ran simply states as she lays her head against my arm.

I smile at Ran and lay my head on hers, relaxing a bit. I'm about to close my eyes at the comforting feeling when Professor Agasa who has been mostly quiet up to this point comments, "Shinichi about how much is left to tell?"

"Um, not much left really. I solved the case and whispered in Mouri-san's ears the answers and rescued the kidnapped girl, with the help of the dog. Then I freaked out when Ran saw me and flew home in a slight panic… sorry about that Ran."

"It's fine Shinichi. I'm just glad you're okay." Ran says

"Right, okay Ran, and then I was hovering over your yard professor, and there was a flash of white light and I dropped out of the sky struggling to breathe. That was not fun by the way, nor was the landing in the mud to be honest." I say remembering the last bits before I passed out yesterday. "And then I passed out not long after that. I think… I remember the Professor picking me up but everything from me falling out of the sky onwards is really foggy so I'm not sure if that is exactly how it happened."

A heavy silence falls in the room as my explanation ends, and Ran and Agasa digest everything that I have said. Ran starts squeezing the life out of my arm, worry filling her gaze, and Agasa is not much better in the worry department, his eyes almost looking shadowed with it.

The silence is broken when Professor Agasa turns to me and says, "Shinichi you can't tell anyone else, or the people who poisoned you will come back and finish the job. Honestly if Ran-kun hadn't join us for the story I would have said to lie to her-"

"WHAT!" Ran and I yell out, me in surprise, Ran with anger.

"You better have a damn good explanation on why you just told Shinichi that you would have had him lie to me, if I wasn't here already." Ran says while making a threatening gesture with her hands in such a way to reference the fact that she is a black belt in karate, and given I've seen her crush stone with a single punch. All I can feel is pity for Agasa for getting on her bad side.

Agasa throws up his hands in surrender, "It's just safer for Shinichi-kun to reveal his state to the least number of people, a secret like this can easily get everyone here killed if we aren't careful. That's not even getting into the powers Shinichi-kun seems to have gained from the attempt to permanently silence him. Who knows what kind of horrible experiments they would do to him if they captured him in an attempt to recreate it for their own forces."

'… Well isn't that a pleasant thought. Note the sarcasm,' I find myself thinking as visions of myself strapped to a table and being cut into with surgical knives dance across my thoughts. I find myself shuttering at the implications, and I notice Ran seemingly deflating as her anger suddenly leaves her.

"I… I… get it, but that doesn't mean I have to like it." Ran says leaning back on the couch with her arms crossed.

"Well it's just hypotheticals right now isn't it? You're here and heard everything. Now you have to work with us to hide Shinichi from the world." Agasa says

"Oi! I haven't agreed to anything yet!" I pipe up annoyed

Ran and Agasa both turn to look at me, and at the same time say, "Shush, only adults who weren't poisoned after being idiots can talk right now."

Why do I get the feeling Ran is never going to let that go? I sigh and ask, "So what's the plan, and I want it on record that any plan that relies on my non-existent disguise skills is going to fail."

Agasa taps his face in thought and after a few minutes of deep thought asks, "Shinichi can you return to the form you woke in after the poisoning? From your story you seemed to have had a little more control of your powers like that."

"I… don't know… I haven't really tried." I say as Ran grabs my arm again with a bit of a squeeze. I'm a bit confused on what my weird powers have anything to do with hiding from the men in black.

"Why don't you try Shinichi? Oh wait, I want to get a notebook first." Agasa stands up and leaves the room. I hear Agasa messing around with stuff in the other parts of his house, and a few minutes later Agasa comes back in with a notebook and a pen in his hands. Agasa sits back down in his chair and opens the book, likely to the first clean page, and says, "Okay, now you can try Shinichi. I'm ready to record the attempt."

… Okay that's a bit strange even for the Professor, but since I'm here I might as well try. I have no idea how to even begin though. I find myself closing my eyes as I try to visualize what I saw in the mirror yesterday. White hair, green eyes, full body glow, oddly colored clothes, the visual is there but I find myself internally flinching away everytime it nears completion. Forcing me to start over… it's frustrating.

I was okay with it just yesterday. Not happy with it granted, but okay with it. Visualizing it shouldn't be this hard, and I find myself growing more and more frustrated the more times I fail and have to start over. I feel the frustration build and build until I feel like I'm going to burst.

In a fit of frustration I drop the visual and just focus on what it felt like. The odd stillness, the cold edge, the electric feeling through my body and Something. Just. Clicked. and like a burst dam a wave of almost electric energy starting from my chest area and radiates out like a tsunami.

I don't even need to open my eyes to know I'm back to the more ghostly form of yesterday. I can just feel it. I open my eyes anyway to confirm it though.

The first thing I see is the clothes, and weirdly enough even though I wasn't wearing the jacket right then I have it on me now in all its weird purpleness, and a single shift of my head is enough to confirm that my hair is back to the white color of yesterday. I don't like it, I don't like how still I am or how cold, and I really don't like this almost electric feeling… This is real isn't, this really happened to me. I just-

"Shinichi? Are you okay?" Ran asks and when I turn to her, I can see that she's rubbing at her eyes and her eyes are unfocused like she was was the victim of a flash bomb.

"Well I'm back to the form I was in yesterday, and everything just hit that this is real. That yesterday really did happen. I think despite all the proof before now, a part of me was still hoping it was just an awful dream." I say as I nervously grab at my arms, my nails digging into the jacket. Absentmindedly noticing the fact my voice echos weirdly like this.

Ran and Agasa both had recovered from whatever bright flash temporarily blinded them as I was talking to them. Ran seems to be drinking in my new appearance, and Agasa seems to be writing something in his notebook. Ran then smiles at me and says, "Even like this you still can't get rid of that stupid cowlick."

"Excuse me?" I say a bit offended, "I happen to like my stupid cowlick, thank you."

Ran just grins at me as she returns to leaning against me. "You didn't always, remember? You hated it when we were younger because no matter what you did you couldn't get your hair to lie flat. Then I told you it made you unique and I kind of like it, and then all of a sudden you liked it. It was so cute."

… I just barely remember that, I think I was eight at the time? Almost ten years ago at least. At least Ran doesn't seem to care about the whole ghost-like look I have right now. But before I can say or do anything else Agasa finishes with whatever he was writing. Then turns to me and says, "Good to see that my hypothesis is correct. I've theorized during your retailing of yesterday's events that you have two forms you can switch between. Glad to see it proven correct."

"I still don't know what this has anything to do with hiding me." I say. Honestly very confused on what Agasa is trying to accomplish with this.

"It's mostly because this" He says while gesturing towards me, "is a perfect built in disguise."

"No." I say crossing my arms. "I refuse, I look both way too close to my normal self and not close enough. Going out like this where people can see me is a fast track to getting declared legally dead. I may have zero clue what I am now, but I no longer think dead is one of them, and I would like to go back to my life eventually in that case."

Agasa turns thoughtful, "You have a small point but I wasn't going to say, stay like this all the time, anyway. For one thing, who knows what it will do to your health. This is completely unprecedented and I'm largely guessing here, but since you have more control like this going by your story of yesterday, where you stayed invisible for literal hours. We can use this so you can move around silently and unnoticed… You have an attic right, Shinichi?"

I lean against Ran who has been really quiet while Agasa and I talk and say, "I do but what does that have to do with anything?"

"Because you're going to be living in it." Agasa states, "We don't have time or any ideas on how to set up a safe house, plus as you pointed out earlier you have no skills in the art of disguise in which to hide yourself with…"

I snort at that and say, "No kidding, my extent of disguise knowledge is a baseball cap to hide my signature hairstyle and maybe changing my clothes to T-shirt and jeans if I can force myself to do it."

"You could have learned more, Shinichi. If you bothered to pay attention to your mother's disguise lessons… well, before she gave up on giving them to you, anyway." Ran points out

"Well at the time, I didn't think I would ever need those kind of skills myself and disguises always felt extremely dishonest to me, anyway." I say with a 'what can you do' shrug of my shoulders.

"Yes well… While that works for the short term, it breaks down in the long term, after all." Agasa points out

"Exactly why I say no disguises. I have no idea how to make one, let alone make one last long term while wearing one." I say, and I turn to Agasa to ask, "So what were you saying about my attic? I have to point out that the attic is hard to reach."

"For normal people maybe, but not for people who can walk through walls, disappear, and fly." Agasa states, "Your attic is a perfect hiding place because you can reach it without ever going though the house itself, and it lacks any windows meaning you can safely be yourself once inside it. No one will think to look there so long as there is no sign of your presence in the main part of the house… I don't think anyone will know how to reach the attic anyway because of the seamless entryway making it hard to find in the first place."

"How am I supposed to sleep up there? Getting a futon up there is not going to be easy, and what about food? If I'm not supposed to go into the main part of the house, how am I supposed to eat?" I ask while visualizing becoming human again just to prove I can, which works. I quickly become human looking again in a flash of white light… which does explain why Ran and Agasa look like they were flashbombed earlier, opps?

Thankfully only Agasa was looking at me when I turned back, mainly because Ran had her eyes closed while leaning against me at the time granted. "Shinichi! Please warn people next time!" Agasa almost begs as he rubs at his eyes.

"Opps. Sorry Professor Agasa, but in my defense I didn't know about the flash being a consistent thing." I awkwardly say.

"Oh, you turned back? Glad I had my eyes closed." Ran says, "Agasa please make a note that Shinichi, when he has white hair, has cool skin. I get the feeling it's going to be very useful during the summer months. And when he has brown hair, he gives off warmth like any normal person."

"Good observations Ran-kun! I'll make a note later, but to answer your questions, Shinichi. For the sleeping thing I remember vividly your parents storing their old camping gear up there. And for eating? Well for now it will be best if you use your powers to visit me for meals. I'm sure we can figure out a more permanent solution eventually, though." Agasa states, his sight finally back to normal.

I grimace, the last time the Kudo family went camping was nearly five years ago when I was twelve. Who knows what condition everything is in. "Are you sure? The stuff is nearly five years old now there might be mold growing on it." I ask.

"Shinichi, you know your mother is extremely good at long term storage. There's definitely no mold growing on her old camping futon and the old tent it went in is likely to be in amazing condition still. Just grab a pillow and blanket from the house and bring it up through the walls." Agasa says but what…

"Through the walls?" I question

"Shinichi I don't know how you didn't notice but your clothes aren't automatically included with your powers, and the fact you can bring them along in the first place means it's highly likely that you can bring other things with you using your powers." well Agasa has a point, but there's one small problem.

"Agasa I barely have any clue what I'm doing with my new… abilities, let alone know how to apply them to other objects." I point out.

"Well you have a point, but I trust that you can figure it out soon. It's basically just a puzzle and you've always been quite good with those." Agasa points out

He's right though my new abilities are just a puzzle to be figured out, and while I'm at it I can try to figure out the mystery of what I am. A part of me eases at the comparison, and another part comes to attention eager to pick the new mystery apart. It's a familiar feeling in all honesty, given that I love mysteries and have done so for most of my life, ever since I was a small child even.

I'm about to ask about anything else Agasa noticed about me, when my stomach complains about needing to be filled once more… huh I might need to eat even more now, given my normally weird sense of hunger, and it would make sense. Because the abilities should take some kind of energy from my body, and how else should I replace it but with food?

"Hey Ran, Agasa, What time is it? I'm getting a little hungry and could go for lunch." I ask. Ran literally exaggeratedly gasps and stands up to check my forehead for some reason, and Agasa looks at me weirdly. Seriously, I'm not that bad off at taking care of myself. "Really guys I'm not that bad at taking care of myself… really."

"Shinichi, you once not ate anything but coffee for two days in a row because of a case and off a case you're not much better either. How many times did I have to show up at your house to make sure you've eaten something more than coffee all day?" Ran states hands on her hips.

"And I told before I just don't feel hungry that often, so I forget to eat if I'm busy with something. But I feel hungry now. So I want to eat before I forget again… If I forget." I say.

"Well I might as well make us all some lunch. The both of you really need to eat more healthy anyway, eating mostly takeout is bad for you." Ran states to both Agasa and I, as she leaves the room to go cook in Agasa's kitchen.

As I hear Ran messing around with pots and pans, Agasa turns to me and says, "Shinichi, why don't you fly over to your house and start setting things up for yourself. You should come back in about thirty minutes. Ran should be finished cooking by then."

I shrug my shoulders as an answer, and I wait until Agasa leaves the room as well to switch my form. Mainly so I don't end up flashing him with the bright light of the swap again. It took me a few minutes to figure out how to do things on purpose. Well except for flying that seems to come naturally to me like this. It's almost harder to keep my feet on the ground like this, granted not by much.

What I figured out is that my powers are controlled by my will and sorta by my emotions. I have to want to be invisible to turn invisible, I have to want to go through an object to go through it. That kind of thing, it's not hard to do once you figure out the trick to it… granted it seems my abilities are much easier to use like this then in my human-like form. So it's still a work in progress to completely control.

I even tested Agasa's theory that I can share my powers with other objects with one of the many knick knacks in the room. Which was proven correct, and a good thing too. That's going to make things so much easier for me in the long run.

Using everything I learned in my testing I was able to fly over to my house and slip inside the attic space, turning back to my brown haired self once inside. Man is it dusty up here granted no one has been up here in nearly three years at this point so it is to be a bit expected. I definitely need to clean this space up if I'm going to live here long term aren't I?

Walking around reading the labels on the plastic tubs is not hard. Mom did a real good job organizing everything so there's a lot of empty space in between the aisles. Honestly, There's a lot of empty space up here in general. We never really bought a lot of extra stuff, so most of the stuff up here is extra clothes from when Mom and Dad moved to America.

'Oh! Here is the old camping gear,' I think as I look at the large plastic tub labeled 'Kudo family nature getaway supplies for sleeping.'

Pulling it out I see my old sleeping bag first thing, it's way too small for me now but I can Probably unzip it completely and use it as a futon sheet. Next thing I find, is both sets of tents: my Individual one and my parent's tent. Last thing in this box is mom and dad's old futon because mom never could sleep with just a sleeping bag on the ground. Said it ruined her beauty sleep.

Agasa, it turns out, was right. The futon is in amazing condition and doesn't even have a weird smell to it. I drag the whole box to the large empty space in the back. I think Mom was filling up the attic space front to back, which is why there is a huge bit of empty space on the opposite end of the attic from the entrance.

I had to get… creative in setting up the tent because I sure as heck wasn't going to put the bare futon on this dirty floor. Hopefully once it comes time to put up the tent again the stakes I put in the floor with intangibly don't leave holes behind, but other than that not much else happened as I was setting everything up, and when I was done with everything I had a nice cozy place to sleep and read. I brought up three of my Sherlock Holmes books when I went down into the house to grab the blanket and pillow, after all.

It is a little surprising though on how much easier it's getting to switch between the two states I have, and as I head back to the lab I find myself thinking, that maybe this whole thing isn't going to be too bad in the long run.