Chapter 9: Your Voice Sounds a Little Strange
"So—an incomplete poison caused an unbelievable reaction in your body, and that's what made you shrink."
Professor Agasa stroked his mustache, deep in thought.
"That's right!"
"Professor, you're a brilliant scientist—hurry up and make me an antidote so I can turn back to normal!"
Shinichi changed into the clothes he'd worn back in elementary school.
A small blue suit, with a red bow tie clipped at the collar.
"How would I? I don't even know what's in the poison—how could I make an antidote?"
"On top of that, I studied mechanical engineering—that's a whole world away from biochemistry and pharmaceuticals!"
Professor Agasa shook his head quickly.
Inventing all sorts of haphazard mechanical gadgets was one thing—researching poisons and antidotes was an entirely different matter.
Completely different fields, completely different worlds!
"Then what do we do?"
"Track down those men in black and take the antidote by force?"
"No, with a body like this…"
"And even if I did—would any normal person actually believe this?"
Shinichi furrowed his brow, his expression growing darker by the second.
Being forced to swallow a poison by mysterious men in black, then shrinking down to look like an elementary schooler?
Nobody would believe something like that!
It was too absurd.
"Hey, hey—aren't I a normal person?"
Professor Agasa shot back.
"Ha ha ha… Professor, you're a genius—of course you're not a normal person."
Shinichi laughed.
"Shinichi, what you need to think about is—what are you going to do tomorrow?"
"You're a child now. Where will you live? Who's going to look after you?"
Professor Agasa crouched down to get a closer look at him, studying his appearance as though he were examining some kind of animal specimen.
"Well, obviously it would be…"
Shinichi suddenly broke into a sly grin, picked up his phone, and dialed a number.
"Ran, it's me—Shinichi!"
"So the thing is, I have a relative's kid, and I was hoping you could…"
"Ran, what's going on? Your voice sounds a little strange?"
"What are you doing? Are you out running?"
Shinichi asked, puzzled.
Ran's voice on the other end sounded different from usual somehow—though he couldn't quite put his finger on how.
"You're the one who sounds strange!"
"Stop pretending to be a grown-up, kid!"
"Click!"
On the other end, Ran angrily hung up.
"What's wrong?"
Makoto asked.
Ran: "Nothing—just some kid messing around."
Makoto: "So then… shall we continue?"
"Mm!"
Ran's cheeks were bright red as she nodded.
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"I am Shinichi—I'm definitely not…"
"I… really am a little kid."
Back on his end, Shinichi stared at his own reflection in the mirror and let out a helpless sigh.
No wonder Ran didn't believe him.
Not only had his body shrunk—his voice now sounded like an elementary schooler too.
"Shinichi, it's a good thing Ran didn't believe you—otherwise you'd be putting her in danger!"
Professor Agasa said, his expression grave.
"Putting her in danger?"
Shinichi didn't follow.
"The more people who know about this, the greater the risk of exposure."
"Especially if the Organization finds out you're still alive—they'll come to finish the job."
"And when that happens, it won't just be you and me at risk—Ran could end up in their crosshairs too!"
Professor Agasa warned in a low, serious voice.
He was the older one here, after all—Shinichi had him beat when it came to deductive ability, but when it came to reading people and understanding the world, the professor had far more experience.
"Right!"
"That Organization is too dangerous—I can't drag Ran into this."
"I can't bear to see her cry!"
Shinichi nodded, his eyes full of feeling.
"Fine—you can stay here with me for now!"
"But you're paying your own way!"
"My last few inventions have all been flops—I can barely feed myself as it is."
Professor Agasa glanced at the heap of mechanical junk around him and sighed helplessly.
Just the other day, one of his inventions had blown a large hole in the wall—which still hadn't been patched.
"All right, all right!"
"Mom sends me money every month—don't worry about it!"
Shinichi sat down on the sofa—but no matter how he tried, his feet wouldn't reach the floor, so he gave up.
Suddenly—!
Professor Agasa produced a sheet of paper and wrote out several large characters—scritch, scritch, scritch.
"Dun dun dun! Dun!"
"Well? What do you think?"
He held it up proudly.
"Edogawa… Conan?"
"Huh? Whose name is that? It sounds so weird!"
Shinichi picked up a bottle of orange juice and was about to open it.
But on second thought, he put it back and swapped it for milk instead.
Maybe this would help him grow—and turn back into a high schooler sooner.
"Tsk, tsk, tsk… that's your name!"
Professor Agasa announced.
"Pfft!"
A mouthful of milk sprayed out.
"Cough, cough, cough… m-my name?"
"Professor, what are you doing?"
"I'm Shinichi—Kudo Shinichi, the great high school detective!"
"Edogawa what? Conan who? I'm not going by some weird name like that!"
Shinichi nearly choked, and quickly grabbed a tissue to wipe himself down.
"Thud!"
Professor Agasa set a mirror down in front of him.
"Shinichi, think carefully—are you still Kudo Shinichi right now?"
"Other than me, who would actually believe you're Kudo Shinichi?"
"And what if those men in black find out? Would they come after you again—maybe go after your parents, your friends, me included?"
"Whoosh!"
The moment he heard those words, the color drained from Shinichi's face.
"That makes sense!"
He gave a nod.
It was true—the identity of Kudo Shinichi was now far too dangerous to hold onto.
A person who was supposed to have been silenced—but hadn't died. The consequence of that would be…
Kill him again.
"So from now on, you'll be Edogawa Conan—a completely new identity, so you can investigate the men in black in secret."
"Oh, and—Edogawa comes from Edogawa Ranpo, and Conan comes from Conan Doyle."
"Pretty brilliant of me, don't you think? Ha ha ha ha…"
Professor Agasa laughed with self-satisfied glee.
"Conan? Edogawa Conan?"
Conan gazed at the moonlight outside the window, his expression complicated.
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Arthur Conan Doyle — British author (1859–1930) and creator of Sherlock Holmes, the fictional detective who appears throughout this story as Shinichi's idol and point of reference. The name "Conan" in Edogawa Conan is taken from his surname.
Edogawa Ranpo — Japanese mystery writer (1894–1965), widely regarded as the father of Japanese detective fiction. His pen name was itself derived from "Edgar Allan Poe." The surname "Edogawa" in Edogawa Conan is taken from his name.
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Agasa Hiroshi— Genius inventor. Kudo's family neighbor. Series: Detective Conan.
Edogawa Conan — Shinichi's alternate identity. Series: Detective Conan.
Higashino Makoto — Protagonist. Transmigrated.
Mouri Ran — Shinichi's childhood sweetheart. Series: Detective Conan.
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Translated by CheapBiscuit.
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