Snapshots

by katiesparks

It was strange how you could line up these snapshots in a way that almost resembled a story that, at the best of times, almost made sense, and at the worst, rarely did. In this world, the impossible is just an illusion. Warning: dark, character death

Snapshots

by

katiesparks

Started: 2/23/08

Finished: 6/24/08

---

"Ran-chan?" a scared voice said over the phone as twenty-nine year old Kudo Ran picked up the receiver.

"Aoko-chan?" she answered, concerned.

"Ran-chan, c-could you please drive me to the hospital?"

---

"Okay, Conan-kun, you and your sister just stay out here and wait for me to come back. Don't talk to anyone you don't know and if anyone bothers you, go tell the lady over at the nurses' station and whatever you do, don't go anywhere, got it?" Ran said to her children, who nodded, frightened.

Aiko leaned against her brother, who looped his arm around her shoulders in a protective manner. After all, he was a whole nine years old and she was only seven, so it was his job to protect her. What kind of niichan would he be if he couldn't even pretend to be brave?

"'Kaachan, what's going on? What's wrong with Aoko-baachan?" Aiko asked fearfully.

Ran hesitated. "You'll find out before this is all over, I'm sure, but for now, I can't tell you. I've got to go check on Aoko-chan, she's probably terrified."

"What about Kaito-jiichan? Why isn't he here? Is he coming soon?" Conan asked, speaking loudly in hopes it would mask the tremor in his voice.

"...I don't think so, Conan-kun. Be good, your Tousan should be here soon." Ran said before walking through the doors to the emergency room.

---

"You are very lucky, Kuroba-san." The doctor told her walking through the doors with a clipboard in his hand.

Aoko's head shot up from where she had been staring blankly at her sheets.

"We thought for sure that your baby was lost, but when we went looking we found that the baby was in perfect condition, we can't explain it. It's a miracle if there ever was one."

Aoko couldn't believe her ears; with the blow that she had taken to her stomach she had thought for sure that her baby was gone, that their baby was gone. And after they had waited so long, waited 10 years to even try, so their innocent child wouldn't get caught up in their past, it was all for nothing. All these years and right as they finally thought they were safe, they had struck.

"My baby's-" Aoko started, but was unable to finish.

"-completely okay." The doctor finished.

"Oh my gosh, I can't believe it! Thank goodness! That's great, isn't it, Aoko-chan?" Ran exclaimed.

Aoko laughed as she cried and Ran took it as a yes.

---

Aoko was having her baby and without Kaito there, Ran and Kazuha had volunteered to go in with her. They were sure their hands would be bruised for weeks to come, but they knew this pain well and were quite sure it was a worthy sacrifice.

Aoko let out one final scream before slumping back against her pillows as a baby's cry filled the air.

"It's a boy!" the doctor exclaimed and Ran and Kazuha cheered.

"Let me see my baby." Aoko command weakly and was in short order handed a tiny blue swathed blue that her friends cooed over excitedly.

"Hello, little one, welcome to the world. It's not such a bad place. I'm your 'Kaachan. Hello, Kiyoshi."

---

"Oh, he's so cute!" Hattori's eight year old daughter, Chidori, gushed and her younger brother, five year old Takuya, discreetly peered around her shoulder, trying hard not to look interested and falling miserably. Standing beside Takuya was his new friend, Manami, who'd he'd just met in kindergarten a couple of months ago.

Kazuha looked at the little girl with a smile. The child had short dark hair and dark skin just like her son. Her eyes were brown, the same shade as chocolate and wide with the desire to see the baby, though she hadn't approached yet, probably feeling out of place.

"Manami-chan, would you like to come and see the baby?" Kazuha asked and the young girl had nodded excitedly.

Kazuha led the girl over to the couch where Aoko was sitting, holding Kiyoshi, whose blue eyes were watching the world with interest. Manami's eyes widened when she saw how small the baby was and her fingers clenched and unclenched.

"C-could I-" the child started, but stopped looking away.

Aoko looked at her pityingly; she sure was a shy thing wasn't she? "Would you like to hold him, Manami-chan, was it?" Aoko asked.

"Yes, ma'am." The girl said.

"Sit down and then you can hold him." Kazuha commanded and the girl clamored up onto the couch.

"Now, when I give him to you have to be careful about his head, okay? Babies can't hold up their heads by themselves like we can, so we have to hold their heads up for them, like this." Aoko said, turning so Manami could see how she was holding him.

Manami nodded and Aoko passed her Kiyoshi and smiled at how attentive the girl was being, trying to hold him exactly how she had shown her. She hardly even noticed when Takuya climbed up next to her to peer at the babe, who was watching them just as closely.

"He sure is little, isn't he?" Takuya asked and Manami nodded.

"Yeah, really little."

No one noticed the tiny click of a camera shutter going off, except Shinichi, who merely cast a withering glance in Heiji's direction, who grinned as he brandished his camera.

---

"Kiyoshi-kun!" Conan said happily, scooping up his little 'cousin' as he toddled over.

"Co'an-nii!" the one year old cooed, hugging Conan with his short arms.

"Hey, scamp, what's up?" Conan said, securing the child on his hip as he kicked a soccer ball around. He had a big match tomorrow and he really should have been practicing but... This was more important anyway.

"Play?" Kiyoshi asked, looking at the ball and Conan laughed and let the boy down before gently kicking the ball his way. Kiyoshi screamed in excitement and flailed his arms as he kicked the ball back, nearly falling only to have Conan steady him at the last second.

Then Aiko had shown up and Kiyoshi had quickly lost interest in soccer in favor of running to hug his other cousin, who, in turn, scooped him up and twirled him around before tickling him mercilessly.

Conan had sighed and kicked his ball up into the air before starting to bounce it on his knee.

'Kaito-jiichan, please come back soon, or you're going to miss all of this...'

---

"Conan-niichan!" A now two year old Kiyoshi called and ran over.

"Hey, Yoshi-kun! What is it?" Conan answered, seeing the boy was practically bouncing in excitement.

"Look! Look-Watch what I can do!" Kiyoshi said and Conan knelt down to the boy's level as he pulled out what looked like a first grade reading book.

"The girl ran up fth-the hill," Kiyoshi said, a stubby finger trailing under the corresponding words on the page. "The boy went t-to the p-par-k"

"Wow, that's really great Yoshi-kun! I didn't start reading until I was nearly three!" Which, in retrospect, was a lot earlier than normal children started reading, but he'd never claimed to be normal, had he?

"Well, you probably didn't have as good of a teacher as me." Kiyoshi claimed and Conan pretended to look stumped as who he was referring to.

"Well then, who is this so called great teacher, I'd like to meet them."

"It's you! You and Aiko-neechan are the best teachers ever!" Kiyoshi exclaimed.

"Then, if I'm such a great teacher, let's try learning the next page. How about it?" Conan said, taking the book and turning the page.

"Yeah!"

"Okay, try this line. Sound out the word." Conan coaxed.

"Sh-sh-she is sh-short..."

---

"Conan-niichan?" Came a small voice and the teenager looked down to see Kiyoshi at his feet and smiled.

"Hey scamp!" he said energetically and scooped the three year older up.

"What's up?" he said after situating the younger boy against his hip. The position continued to look girly, but it was how you carried toddlers, there weren't many other comfortable ways, at least, not comfortable for the one being held. And that was the most important thing. Three things could be said about 12 year old Kudo Conan, he loved his sister, he loved (in a strictly platonic way, of course. What gave you the idea of anything more?) his best friend, Chidori, and he loved his cousin, Kiyoshi.

"I-...I think someone's keeping a secret from me." The child said after a moment and Conan privately thought lots of secrets were being kept from him, but none were really things he'd be aware of...

"Why would you think that, Yoshi-kun?" Conan asked inquisitively.

"Well...All of the other kids at preschool have dads..."

Conan froze.

Kiyoshi felt him tense up and looked at him suspiciously.

"Conan-niichan, where's my dad?"

"Kiyoshi-kun, listen to me very carefully, I know you're confused, but please don't ask about your dad again, especially in front of your mom. You'll make her cry. I'll tell you later, I promise, and I want you to know I hate keeping secrets from you, but please, don't ask again, don't make me lie to you." Conan pleaded.

Slowly, Kiyoshi nodded.

"Good boy. Let's go play some soccer, okay?"

Behind a pair of sharp blue eyes, Kiyoshi thought hard about what all of this meant.

And continued to wonder.

---

"Conan-niichan, do you want to play soccer?" Kiyoshi asked and Conan sighed discontentedly.

Ever since that conversation about his dad, Kiyoshi had decide that asking to play soccer was code for 'Are you going to tell me about my dad today?' And if Conan answered in anyway other than the affirmative then it would mean he would tell him.

...Conan was slowly coming to hate the word soccer.

"Yes, Yoshi-kun, I want to play soccer, but it's too late and we need to go to sleep." Conan answered wearily as he tucked Kiyoshi into the spare futon he'd brought into his room. The normally quiet toddler had begged to be allowed to spend the night with his cousin and his mother had finally caved under the reassurance that her son would not be involved in any of the murder cases that continually followed Shinichi.

"Oh." He said and his disappointment was clear in his voice.

Conan looked at the boy pityingly, knowing it must have been hard, to have so many questions and knowing the answers were right there but completely inaccessible.

With a defeated sigh Conan fixed the child with a stare. "I'll make you a deal, Yoshi-kun. If you promise me you won't tell anyone about this and you promise you won't ask me anymore questions for awhile because you're driving me crazy then,... I'll tell you about your dad. Do you promise?"

In excitement that was only muted by the seriousness he'd heard in Conan's voice, Kiyoshi nodded.

Conan sighed and ran his hand through his hair in a habitual gesture he'd picked up from his father.

"Okay, where to start...You dad's name was Kaito, he was a magician, the best magician I've ever seen. He was great; he could do anything at all, anything. One time, on my birthday when I was five years old, he pulled a live elephant from his hat. He looked a lot like my dad, that's why you and I look alike. But his shoulders were a little bit wider and his hair was always really messy, just like yours. And when you looked into his eyes, you could just tell, you know, that he was really magic. Like for real...And-er...Well what else do you want to know about him?" Conan asked, running out of things to say.

Kiyoshi thought hard about all the things he wanted to know, searching to find which one he wanted to know the most, the one he just had to know. "Why isn't he here? With me and 'Kaachan?"

Conan sighed again. "I can't tell you, Yoshi-kun. Even I don't know the whole story, only bits and pieces, just enough to where I understand. The older I get the more I find out but...He wanted to be here Kiyoshi, he really did. When he found out Aoko-baachan was pregnant, he was so excited. He loved you and your mom so much, even though you weren't born yet, even though he hadn't even met you, he loved you so much he would have done anything to protect you. He'd be here if he could, Yoshi-kun, I want you to remember that. If he could be here right now...he'd give anything to be right here, I promise you. In the end, he did what he had to do to keep you and Aoko-baachan safe, okay? He's not here because he loves you. Always remember that, okay? Promise me you'll always remember at least that much."

"...Okay Conan-niichan, I promise I'll remember. But...he was nice? And he loved me?" Kiyoshi asked, little hands fisting in his covers.

"Yes, he was very nice, very, very nice. And he loved you a lot. Tomorrow we'll go to the park with Aiko-chan and Chidori. If you're good, I'll even see if Chidori will teach you how to play baseball." Conan said, discreetly (not) changing the subject.

"Okay! Don't we need a bat?" Kiyoshi asked, brightening.

"I'll tell Chidori to bring her old one for you."

"Yay! Thank you, Conan-niichan. Oyasumi." Kiyoshi said, yawning as he snuggled in to his covers.

Conan climbed into his own futon and switched off the lamp.

"You're welcome, Kiyoshi-kun. Oyasumi."

---

"Everyone, I know we're in the middle of Yoshi-kun's birthday party, but since we're all together, I have something I need to tell everyone." Kazuha announced right before they started opening Kiyoshi's presents. The newly turned 4 year old looked up and saw Chidori and Takuya grinning madly. Takuya leaned over to Manami (who had tagged along again, it was common occurrence to have her around as well) and whispered something. Manami's face had lit up and her chocolate eyes had widened before she started grinning madly as well and turned to look at Kazuha intensely.

"I wanted to tell you all that..." Heiji came up to stand behind her and put his hands on her shoulders in a reassuring gesture. Kazuha craned her neck to look at him and, in response, he grinned madly, as his children were. (Meanwhile, Shinichi got a glimpse of Hattori and Takuya's identical grins and promptly blanched before turning and walking away, murmuring something about needing a beer.)

"That...I'm pregnant."

Everyone broke out into cheers except Kiyoshi, who wondered what was going on and, more importantly, why it had to happen at his birthday party. Everyone was running up to Kazuha and acting all excited, asking lots of questions he didn't really understand. (What was a 'due date' anyways?) But it was his party; everyone should be paying attention to him. With a wordless, nearly soundless cry, Kiyoshi ripped off his party hat and ran inside.

"Takuya-kun, look." Manami said, tugging him away from the mini-celebration happening around his mother just in time for him to see Kiyoshi run into the house, the beginnings of tears already on his face.

Takuya looked at the abandoned pile of presents and then back to all of the adults, who'd forgotten why they were here in the first place. "Grown ups..." Takuya muttered under his breath in disgust.

Takuya grabbed Manami's hand and started walking towards the house. "We have to go get him, no one else will."

They entered the Kudo residence, for it was their backyard where the party was being held, and Takuya immediately went up the stairs, not even bothering to look around.

"Hey, shouldn't we check downstairs first?" Manami asked, jogging to keep up with Takuya's hurried pace as he tugged her along.

"No, I know where he went. Now be quiet or he'll hear us coming and lock the passage." Takuya commanded.

"Passage?" Manami asked in a whisper as they reached the top or the stairs.

"This house is pretty old, so it has secret rooms that Japanese people used to hide in during World War II." Takuya explained, lowering his voice even more as he eased open the door to Conan's room.

Slowly his made his way to the closet before pushing aside the clothes and pressing in a piece of the wall. A small hole opened up to reveal an equally small room, about a yard across in all directions. And huddled against the wall was Kiyoshi, crying his heart out.

Takuya made a sound in the back of his throat before crawling in and over to the smaller child. Manami hesitated before following suit.

Takuya put his arms around Kiyoshi and pulled him against his chest, hugging him tightly. "Its okay, Yoshi-kun. The grown ups just don't understand, do they? They try to act like they do, but they don't and we know it. But me and Manami-chan get it. They didn't mean to, Yoshi-kun, they really didn't. They just forgot what it feels like because they're so old." Takuya whispered to the boy and the child continued to cry.

This time Manami spoke up. "They just don't think before they do things, do they? She could have picked a better time, at least. Anytime would've been better but they just don't...Don't be upset, Kiyoshi-kun. Please stop crying."

Kiyoshi murmured something unintelligible against Takuya's shirt. "What was that?"

"First my 'Tousan didn't come to my party again and now it's not even my party anymore, now its Kazuha-baachan's party, and it's not fair." Kiyoshi said and Takuya resisted freezing up at the mention of his Tousan.

Even Takuya, young as he'd been, had found out a lot during those first few months after Kaito-jiichan's disappearance. Most of it he'd found out from Chidori after the fact, but he still knew that Kiyoshi wasn't supposed to know he even had a dad, much less know to be disappointed that he didn't show up.

Manami looked inquisitive at Takuya's obvious shock but she shook it off in favor of turning her attention to the still crying child. Finally she sighed and turned to Takuya. "Don't laugh at me." She said, taking Kiyoshi from him and settling the boy against her chest.

"From the day that I was born, till I walked right in that door, who of you can truly say that you've known me all along? From the moment I first cried, to the day that I will die, who of you can truly say that you'll have known me? From the moment I was conceived, till the last breath I will breathe, who of you can truly say you'll always know me, you'll always've known me? Who of you can truly say you've always known me? None of you can truly say you've always known me..." she sang in English and rocked him gently. Kiyoshi stopped crying as she sung, reducing his sobs to sniffles.

"Wha-" Takuya started.

"Kiyoshi! Kiyoshi, please, come out! I'm sorry, baby; we didn't mean to forget you. Please come back! Kiyoshi!" a voice sounded from not too far away.

"Come on, scamp. Your mom's looking for you; I'll bet she's worried sick." Takuya said, fixing Manami with a look that said he want to ask her a question. In response, she blushed and started to move towards the door with Kiyoshi still in her arms.

"Come on, let's go."

---

Kiyoshi waited impatiently in the waiting room of the birthing section of the hospital. With him was Shinichi and all of his 'cousins', though Chidori had thrown a fit about not being allowed into the delivery room.

"Jiichan?" Kiyoshi said, looking at Shinichi. Without a real father figure around and due to Shinichi natural sympathy for everyone under the four foot mark, (I wonder why that is? It couldn't have anything at all to do with being shrunk down to the size of a seven year old, no, not at all.) Shinichi had quickly taken the role of father figure for Kiyoshi and it was obvious in the way they interacted with each other.

Shinichi grinned and scooped the boy up, plopping him in his lap. "Hey, Yoshi-kun. What is it?"

"What's going on? I'm confused and I don't get any of this!" Kiyoshi said and Shinichi mulled over ways to tell a four year old how pregnancy and giving birth worked.

"Well, you see, there's a baby inside Kazuha-chan and the baby's been growing inside of her for a long time, right?" Shinichi said and Kiyoshi nodded. "Well the baby's grown so big that it has to come out now. So the doctors are going to help her get the baby out and then Chidori and Takuya are going to have a baby brother or sister. Understand?"

Kiyoshi seemed to think about something for a moment before he opened his mouth. "How does the baby get out? Do they cut her open or something?"

Shinichi continued to wish he hadn't gotten onto this topic. "Well, sometimes they cut her open and then, other times; it comes out a...different way."

"Like how?"

Shinichi resisted the erg to facepalm. "Oh look, there's Aiko! Aiko, sweetie, help..."

---

Everyone cooed over the new baby and Kiyoshi sat off to the side, looking at the group with distaste. What was so special about her anyways? Nothing, she was just a stupid baby and all she had to do was yawn and everyone thought it was the cutest thing they'd ever seen! She was just so stupid and no one would let him through so he could get to hold her! It just wasn't fair, she was such a stupid baby and all he wanted to do was hold her, but no one was paying attention to him and he couldn't even ask!

Aiko heard a small sound and turned her attention from the baby to glance behind her. There she saw Kiyoshi, pouting in a corner and looking very put out. With a mental sigh, she removed herself from the mob surrounding Kazuha's bedside and walked over to the sulking child.

"Yoshi-kun, what's wrong?" Aiko asked kneeling down to his level.

"She's such a stupid baby and all of you are in my way and I can't see." Kiyoshi said, not looking at Aiko. "All I want to do is see her, she's so stupid and you're all too tall and big and no one is even paying attention to me, so I can't ask to hold the baby. I want to hold her, it's not fair."

Aiko smiled indulgently, he obviously wanted to hold the newborn very badly but had been ignored and had given up in favor of sulking and calling the infant names. "Psst! Chidori-neechan!" Aiko hissed and Chidori looked over. Aiko jerked her head in the still sulking Kiyoshi's direction and then in the direction of Kazuha's bed and Chidori's eyes widened as she got the message.

Chidori walked over and, without preamble, scooped Kiyoshi up and moved towards crowd. "Watch out! Coming through! Out of the way! Buddy Packing! Children on board! Move or lose it!" Chidori proclaimed loudly as she moved through the crowd in a way that proved her to be her father's daughter.

"Here you go!" she proclaimed, plopping Kiyoshi on her mother's bed and he looked wide eyed at the baby in Kazuha's arms.

Kazuha smiled before scooting over. "Come over here, Yoshi-kun, there's someone you should meet."

Kiyoshi obediently crawled up next to her and peered at the infant.

"Wow, she's so tiny." Kiyoshi breathed and in the back of the room, Takuya and Manami giggled at the fact they had said the same of him when he was born.

"Would you like to hold her?" Kazuha asked and he'd looked at her incredulously. "Can I?"

Kazuha chuckled. "You have to hold her exactly the right way or you'll hurt her, so do it just like I am, and make sure to hold her head, okay?" Kazuha said and he nodded vigorously.

Then, the mother of three passed her newest child into hands much smaller than hers, but no less careful as he struggled to hold the baby and do it right.

"What's her name?" Kiyoshi asked in a whisper.

"Midori."

(At this point, Aoko had demanded the use of Heiji's camera and was secretly taking pictures of her son and the baby.)

Kiyoshi looked at the babe in his arms with a kind of restrained excitement that no one in the room could see, but all of them could feel. "Hello, Midori-chan. Welcome to the world. I'm gonna be your niichan, you can count on me for anything."

---

"Eieeeee!" a now one year old Midori squealed as she ran over to hug Kiyoshi, who barely caught the child and fought hard to remain upright.

Behind Midori, Heiji leaned over to his wife. "She sounds just like you!" He said and she, with a smile, she elbowed him hard in the gut.

"Yoshi-nii!" she squealed hugging him tightly.

"Hiya, girly! Are you happy to see me?" he questioned and she squealed again in the affirmative.

"Play!" she demanded, pulling out a foam ball and brandishing it with conviction.

"Okay, watch out!" he said, gently lobbing the ball her way and she squealed, waving her arms in an attempt to hit the ball back, not realizing she was supposed to catch it.

"Okay, now throw it at me!" he said after she had retrieved the ball.

But before she could Takuya and Manami had run by, laughing, as Conan and Chidori chased after them laughing equally as hard.

"We want to play, too!" Kiyoshi had said and Chidori didn't even stop running, grabbing up her sister like an American football player. The young girl had screamed, not knowing what was going on and loving every minute of it. Conan stopped long enough for Kiyoshi to climb out his back, before taking off again. "Charge!"

---

"Today we made cards for Parents' Day." Kiyoshi said as he walked in the door after getting home from school.

He handed Aoko a crudely drawn card on pink construction paper. "Here, this one's yours."

As she gushed over how much loved her card and admired it, it was quite lovely for it to have been drawn by a six year old; Kiyoshi busied himself with something on the fridge.

"I'm gonna go swing now, okay?" he said, heading to their backyard.

As he left, Aoko turned to look at what he'd hung on the fridge and gasped. Hanging there was a blue card with the image of someone resembling a cross between Shinichi and Kiyoshi on the front, his shoulders made purposely wide and his hair a messy scribble of brown.

Aoko barely had time to stop crying before Kiyoshi came back in.

---

Aoko could hear something that she was sure didn't belong. Was it that rustling noise? No, that was the curtains being blown by the air conditioner. That humming sound? No, that was the fridge down the hall. That tapping noise? No, that was just-Wait, nothing in her house went 'tap', at least, not in the middle of the night.

Aoko opened her eyes and focused on where the sound was coming from, the window. Feeling afraid, she grabbed a nearby vase before moving to the window and throwing the curtains back, ready to scream, if necessary. Instead she found a dove sitting on her window sill, leaning forward to tap on the glass every couple of seconds. And attached to its leg...Aoko only ever knew one person who delivered messages by dove...

Hands shaking, she opened the window and gently took the dove into her hands. It cooed softly, but allowed itself to be handled as she detached the paper from its leg. After she freed the paper, she released her hold on the bird and it fluttered a bit before setting back on the sill with a distinct air of 'I'm not leaving until you read the note.' around it.

With shaking fingers, she unrolled the sheet of paper and stared at the words.

Aoko,

Send Kudo to the attached address, he'll find the BO's base there. I'm coming home. I'm so sorry.

Love, Kaito

---

"Kaachan?" a hesitant voice asked from the hall and Aoko hurriedly wiped her eyes and hoped her son hadn't seen her tears.

"Ohayo, Yoshi-kun. I didn't know you were up yet, do you want some breakfast?" she asked and cursed her voice for being unsteady.

"You're crying." He said plainly.

"No, I've- I've just got something in my eye..."

"Liar! You're lying! You always just keep lying to me! You and everyone else!" Kiyoshi yelled, suddenly enraged.

Aoko recoiled slightly as her six year old son went into his first full blown temper tantrum since he was three.

"Shinichi-jiichan and Heiji-jiichan and Kazuha-baachan and even Ran-baachan! You all just keep lying to me! You're all LIARS!" he screamed, angry tears streaming down his face.

Aoko crossed the room in a matter of moments, taking her son into her arms in a tight hug that he fought against, kicking out with his bony legs, with all their sharp angles and pounding his tiny fists against her shoulder.

She ignored his struggles and held him close. "It's going to be alright, Yoshi-chan." She whispered.

"You're a liar!" he accused again.

"Yes, we lied, you're right. We're awful, horrible liars who weren't very fair, not at all." She said as his struggles lessened.

"Liars." He said, his fists giving her shoulder one more half-hearted pump as he began to crying in earnest, going limp in her arms.

"Why did you lie to me? Was I bad? Did I do something wrong? I never told anyone, I kept it a secret, just like I was supposed to." He said through his tears.

Aoko felt him shake and she felt her own tears returning. "My gosh, what have I done to my baby?" she asked herself.

"I kept is a secret for a long, long time and I didn't tell anyone." He said, continuing to sob.

"I'm sorry, baby, I'm so sorry."

"He's never coming back, is he?" Kiyoshi asked, despondently.

Aoko remember the message she'd received just mere hours ago. "I don't know, Yoshi-chan."

It was best not to get his hopes up just yet.

---

"Hey, Yoshi-kun, come here for a sec?" Conan said to Kiyoshi.

They were over at the Kudo residence after his mother had told him she needed to talk with Shinichi-jiichan and the adults had already gone into the study, which they had found to be sound-proof years ago (and also apparently tap-proof as well, Conan had once put a bug in the room when he went through his gadget stage and had discovered that all you could hear, no matter how many times he changed bugs or moved the position of said bug, was static.)

"What is it?" Kiyoshi asked, casting a longing glance at the door. He was sure they were talking about something important in there...

"Listen, Kiyoshi, they're keeping this a secret from you but I think you need to know. But don't tell anyone and make sure to act surprised if they tell you, okay?" Conan said seriously and Kiyoshi nodded firmly.

"Your dad is coming home soon; your mom got a note last night telling her so. She probably didn't tell you about it because she didn't want to get your hopes up. This happened once before but a couple of days later, he sent back a letter with the word "Breach" on it, which meant he got caught. The reason I'm telling you all this is that when your dad comes back, you two are going to have to work a lot of things out. Do you understand what I'm trying to say?" Conan asked.

"I don't get what you mean by "work things out"." Kiyoshi responded and Conan shook his head.

"Your dad has never met you, Yoshi-kun. It's going to be like meeting a complete stranger and calling him 'Touchan. And not just that, you'll be worried about what he thinks of you and he'll probably be worried about what you think of him, too. It's going to be hard, Yoshi-kun. But I thought you should have some warning. Adults...they just don't think about how this kind of stuff affects the kids do they? They say they're trying to do the best thing for everyone, but while it might be good for the kids, it's always best for them." Conan said, looking remorsefully at the study door at then at the young child. "Do you understand?"

Kiyoshi thought about Conan's words, rolling them around in his mind for a moment before nodding decisively. "Yeah, I think I do."

---

In the back of his mind, Kiyoshi knew he was dreaming, but really, he couldn't make him himself care.

He was in a church of some sort, Kiyoshi decided as he stared at the hundreds of people filling the pews of the church. All of them stood stock still, none making a sound or movement. Some of them he recognized, like his grandpa and his policemen friends, who looked happy somehow as they stared towards the front of the church like everyone else. There were strangers, too, people he didn't recognize at all, though they looked just as happy as those he did. And then there were the dead people.

They all stood in the back of the church, an invisible barrier separating them from the living with an unseen, barely felt force. Some had there heads bashed in, others were burnt badly, a few even so badly burnt that their skin had turned black and crunchy, like a piece of toast left in the toaster too long. And about a fourth of them had stab wounds, ranging from just one to numerous ones that covered there bodies in long dried blood. Another large portion looked normal except for the unhealthy purple sheen that identified their cause of death to be poison. But the majority of their deaths seemed to be caused by gunshot wounds.

It was two of those gun victims that approached him, the only ones out of hundreds moving, as far as he could tell. As they approached, Kiyoshi noticed Shinichi behind him and it was he who addressed the walking dead.

"Akemi, Shiho." He said nodding to each without bothering with honorifics. "So glad you could make it."

"It was no problem." The one he'd addressed as Akemi said, her smile bright.

Shinichi eyed their gunshot wounds, looking at Shiho's a little longer. "I'm sorry."

"No need to be." Shiho answered. "After all, in the end, this was our escape."

Akemi moved then, kneeling down to straighten the tie around Kiyoshi's neck (he noted briefly that he and Shinichi seemed to be wearing tuxedos, his black and Shinichi's blue), giving him an up close view of her injury. He shivered slightly at the sight and Akemi backed up, looking at him fondly.

"Remember, smile!" she told him, putting her index fingers at the corners of her mouth and moving them upwards in a classic 'smile' gesture.

Then the two left, rejoining the group and freezing, smiles on there faces (though Shiho's smile was only half there and if he had the chance, he would have liked to ask her why she didn't smile bigger) as they turned to look at the front.

Then Shinichi had grabbed his hand and began pulling him towards the front of the Church and through the legs of those standing in the pews, Kiyoshi could see something white moving on the other side at the same pace as him and it made him excited for some unexplainable reason. Finally, they reached the altar, though no priest was present. In the front pews were his cousins and there respective mothers and fathers, minus Shinichi, who was obviously standing with him. (His 'Kaachan wasn't there either and it bothered him, in the very back of his mind.) And then, standing on the other side of the altar, was a man.

He was dressed in a white tuxedo with a cape attached to the back and a blue dress shirt and red tie underneath. On his head was a white top hat and over his right eye was what Kiyoshi thought must be a monocle.

Shinichi and the man shook hands. "Welcome back, Kuroba."

"Good to be back, Kudo" the man, Kuroba, answered with a gleam in his eyes.

Shinichi hesitated a moment before stepping back, using a hand on Kiyoshi's back to push him in front of him. "He's all yours now. Take good care of him." Then Shinichi had left, joining his wife in the front pew.

Kaito looked at the boy for a moment before for dropping to his haunches and sticking out a hand to the boy, as if extending a peace offering. "Hi, I'm Kuroba Kaito. I know you don't know me and I really don't know you. But I'd like to."

Kiyoshi looked at him a moment. "You're my dad?" he asked, though it was really more of a statement than a question.

"Yup."

Kiyoshi took the proffered hand, shaking it slowly. "I'm Kuroba Kiyoshi and I'm six years old. Nice to meet you. Are you staying?"

Kaito grinned. "Definitely."

Kiyoshi nodded his head. "Good."

Kaito removed his hat, contemplating it before extending to the child. "Do you want this?"

Kiyoshi looked at the hat thoughtfully. Then he looked at the room and though they were all still, (except for the front pew, which seemed to be the only animated part of the building, other than himself and his father.) they all seemed to be sending positive messages. (The exception, of course being Shinichi and Heiji who made definite "NO!" symbols with their hands until their respective wives elbowed them hard in their stomachs.)

Kiyoshi reached for the hat. "Yeah, I think I do." Then he placed it on his head and though it was many sizes too large, it fit perfectly.

"What about that?" asked Kiyoshi, pointing to Kaito's monocle. The older man laughed.

"I don't think you want this just yet." He told the child, who nodded.

Then Kiyoshi left the altar walking to the back of the church where the dead, who far outweighed the living, stood, risen from their graves to walk the earth again one more time, just for him. He found it strange he wasn't afraid of them, just sad for them. A small ghost girl approached him, the back of her head smashed in by a blunt object, pieces of blue ceramic stuck in the wound .

"Hush, by the light of the moon. Let us never forget those who have walked before us. Let us weight down their shoes to the footsteps in the grass and mud of the skies." She sang and, though it was in English, he understood every word, despite the fact he didn't know the language at all.

"That's a good idea." He told her, nodding.

Then he went outside and laid in the grass as the clear, cloudless sky rained down cerulean tears, just for him.

---

Kiyoshi sat by the small ornamental pond in the park, skipping stones across the surface. It was an overcast day, threatening rain and Kiyoshi didn't feel much like playing today.

Someone sat down beside him and threw a stone across the surface, getting theirs all the way across to the other side. Kiyoshi glanced over before turning back to the pond and picking up another stone. This was one stranger he wasn't afraid of.

"What happened to your hat? And that eye-thing, it's called a monocle, right?" Kiyoshi asked, not looking over.

"I wondered if I was the only one who had that dream. I try not to wear those much anymore; they've caused me nothing but trouble." Kaito said, laughing without mirth, a completely empty sound.

"I thought we should meet, before everything goes down. Most adults don't understand because they're parents and they have to protect their kids. But I never got my chance to be a parent, so I tend to think a little bit clearer about these types of things. They'll try to keep the dangerous things from you, make sure you don't know about the graphic parts of what's happened. But there's no reason to do that, you need to know, so you can understand how serious this all is. A lot of people have died throughout this whole mess, between me, Kudo, and Hattori, the body count is in the 700 hundreds. If you had the same dream as me, then you know what I'm talking about."

Kiyoshi shook his head. "You're wrong. You've always been my parent, even if you weren't there."

Kaito didn't speak for a long moment and the only sound was the noise their stones made as they sailed on the surface of the pond. "You really mean that, don't you?"

"Yeah, I do. And those dead people... how did Akemi-san and Shiho-san die? I thought only bad or old people died." Kiyoshi asked.

"They died because their parents sold themselves and eventually their daughters over to an organization that was in no way in their best interest. Their children had to pay for their parents' mistakes, and, in the end, the price was ultimately their lives."

"Oh. That doesn't seem very fair. Akemi-san, she was really nice. I wish I could have met her while she was alive, she was a nice neechan." Kiyoshi said remorsefully.

"Life's hardly ever fair is it? We just have to work at making it a better place, a little at a time, ne?" Kaito said, his head turned to the sky.

"Yeah...I've got a question."

Kaito cracked an eye open. "Well?"

"Why did you leave?"

Kaito sighed. "Aoko was probably about three months pregnant at the time, she wasn't really showing, at most, she just looked like she had gained a few extra pounds, though no one dared say it to her face. They came around midnight, silent as cats; we didn't even know what hit us. One guy grabbed Aoko and two of them grabbed me. And then the guy who had Aoko pressed a gun to her head and said to me "Come quietly, or else..."" Kaito shook his head then, as if to ward off the demons plaguing his thoughts. "There was never any choice for me. I went without a word and prayed they didn't hurt Aoko. But as they were dragging me away, the man punched her, right in the stomach and I heard her scream..." The young man turned and looked at the child who almost didn't seem real, like he might vanish in the blink of an eye, a phantom that might just be haunting him. And behind Kaito's ever so thin Poker Face, Kiyoshi recognized the pain hidden in his eyes.

"What's wrong?" Kiyoshi questioned, his curious mind wondering about that look.

Kaito turned away, unable to look at the living ghost, unsure if he would disappear if he told of his pain. "Three years. For three long, painful years, I thought you were dead. And I knew it was my fault."

Kaito looked back at the child and was surprised to see he was still there, seemingly shocked at the idea anyone could have thought he was dead.

"Why would you think that?" Kiyoshi asked and Kaito wondered how he'd gotten wrangled into the infamous "Wonders of Pregnancy" speech.

"When a person is pregnant, the baby lives inside their stomach for a little while and if they get hit in the stomach then the baby gets hit too, and everyone knows that you're not supposed to hit babies, right?"

"Oh, that makes sense. So how did you find out I wasn't dead?" Kiyoshi pressed and Kaito quietly 'thanked' all the stupid detectives who'd been raising his child.

"I had a tiny little tape recorder that I could strap to one of my dove's legs and I sent it to go find Aoko, because I wanted to know if she was okay. But I was really surprised when I heard you voice over my speakers calling Aoko 'Kaachan. At first, I thought that she had remarried, it would've served me right if she did, you know, but you sounded too old for her to have had you after I got kidnapped, so I figured out you were alive, somehow. I don't know how, though, it seems pretty impossible. But you're a Kuroba, with us, impossible is just an illusion, ne Kiyoshi-kun?" Kaito said, in a distant voice.

"Yoshi." Kiyoshi said suddenly and Kaito glanced at him, confused.

"Huh?"

"You can call me Yoshi. Only strangers call me Kiyoshi. Or the grown ups, when they're being serious, but that doesn't happen a lot." The child told him seriously, trust in those blue eyes.

Kaito smile wide now. "Well then, Yoshi-kun, if you want, you can call me Tousan."

Kiyoshi rolled it around in his head for a moment before shaking his head.

"Touchan sounds better." He stated and Kaito hid the disbelief on his face by looking at the growing clouds.

"You'll need to head home soon, it looks like it might start raining, and you don't want to catch a cold, do you? But before you go, how about a magic trick?"

Kiyoshi looked on in wide eyed excitement. "Yeah!"

"Okay, see this deck of cards? It's just a normal deck, right?" Kaito asked, handing the deck over to the boy to confirm it.

"Except for the weird marks on the backs of the cards, yeah." Kiyoshi said, handing the deck back as Kaito blanched.

"Good thing I'm not using those for this trick, now watch carefully." Kaito said rubbing the deck between his hands before releasing them into the air where they changed into doves with a small puff of smoke.

"Wow!" Kiyoshi exclaimed before several doves fluttered down to nest in his hair as he giggled. But he suddenly recalled something Kaito had said and looked at the older man with a critical eye. "You said I needed to go home soon but what about you? Aren't you coming back with me?"

Kaito sighed remorsefully. "Not today. I've still got a few more loose ends to tie up and if I were to show up at your house, there's no telling how long it'd be until Aoko let me out of her sight again. Speaking of which, can you not tell her you saw me? I want to surprise her later on."

Kiyoshi nodded. "But you'll come back soon, right? Sometime soon?" he asked as father and son stood up.

"Yeah, soon. Definitely soon." Kaito promised.

Kiyoshi smiled at him and nodded and Kaito did the same, noticing that the child's smile was a mirror reflection of his own, before they both turned to walk away, as the first drops of rain began to fall down.

---

"Happy Birthday!" the adults cheered as Chidori and Aiko blew out the candles on their cake.

As Kazuha and Ran moved in to cut said cakes, Kiyoshi quietly slipped away from Conan, who was busy entertaining his best friend and sister as they dug into slices of cake. He made his towards the back part of the Hattori family's yard where Takuya was busy trying to teach Manami a proper kendo stance so that she would be able to spar with him, though he had promised himself and his dad that he would go easy on her.

Takuya glanced over at the approaching child and lowered down his shinai, motioning for Manami to do the same. "What's up, Yoshi-kun?" Takuya asked conversationally.

Kiyoshi stared at Takuya for a moment, judging if he would be as good of a source of information as Conan-niichan, who had been refusing to tell him much on the subject of his father. "Something's being kept from me."

Takuya visibly wavered as he took in the image of his younger cousin standing up for himself in such a way. Finally, he sighed in defeat. The child deserved to know. "Yes."

Kiyoshi's gaze hardened. "You know more than me."

Takuya nodded.

Kiyoshi looked at him with a hard glint in his eye before crumbling. "Why won't anyone tell me anything? It's not fair, he's my Touchan and no one's talking to me! It's not fair, I hate my life, I hate it!"

Takuya looked at the child in surprise for a moment before moving in to comfort him. With a quick glance over his shoulder, he sent Manami the message that he needed for her to leave. For a moment, she considered arguing, Kiyoshi was just as much her cousin as he was Takuya's, but, instead, she nodded, telling him with her eyes that she expected answers later on. As his friend returned to the party, Takuya pulled away from the child to look at him sternly.

"Stop that right now Kiyoshi." He ordered and the six year old ceased his sobbing as he looked up at his cousin, who suddenly seemed much older.

"Don't you ever say you hate your life, ever. I mean it. Life isn't fair and it never will be so suck it up. Your dad's okay, isn't he? You know that much, and that should be enough for you, got it?" Takuya scolded and Kiyoshi shook his head fiercely.

"Shut up! You don't know anything! Your dad's always been here, he never leaves you! You don't know anything; you don't know anything at all!"

"Listen to me; it's you that doesn't know anything! You think this is bad? You think that your life is so horrible that it gives you the right to hate it? It's not even close. I'm going to tell you a story, Kiyoshi; you'd best listen to it so that maybe you can understand what you have isn't so bad at all."

-Nearly 7 Years Ago-

"Takuya-kun? Can I ask you a question?" a four-going-on-five year old Manami said, coming up to Takuya during recess.

Takuya shook his head, clearing his thoughts, which circled around Kaito-jiichan's sudden disappearance and Aoko-baachan's enlarging belly, and turned to face his new-found best friend. "Sure Manami-chan, what's up?"

The young girl fidgeted, pulling at her dark hair in what appeared to be a nervous habit. "Does your dad ever hit you, Takuya-kun?"

That question caused Takuya's eyebrow to leap up a bit before he turned to look at his friend fully, questions in his eyes. "Hit me? Sometimes he'll give me a whipping, but only if I'm really bad."

Her brown eyes turned to him pleadingly. "But does he ever hit when you're not bad, just for no reason at all?"

Takuya looked shocked. "For no reason at all? Why would he do that?"

Manami sat down on the grass, wrapping her arms tightly around her knees as she shook slightly. "I don't know, Takuya-kun." She whispered, her dark skin looking slightly pale. "I just don't know."

"Hit you for no reason? Why would I do that?" Heiji asked as his youngest child stood in front of him, desperate for answers.

"I don't know, but my friend asked me if you ever hit me for no reason. She was really upset about it." Takuya confided in his father as Heiji narrowed his eyes, a horrid idea slowly evolving in his mind.

"Takuya, what's your friend's name?" Heiji asked in a grim sounding voice, though he tried to sound nonchalant, for the sake of his child.

"Ma-...I-I'm not so sure she would want me to tell you her name, she's really shy. Why do you what to know?" Takuya questioned, ever curious.

Heiji cursed the fact that is detective-ness had been passed down to his son. "Ah, no reason. But can you ask your friend at school tomorrow if it's okay for you to tell me her name? If she agrees, call me right away, okay?"

Still suspicious, Takuya nodded, making sure he remembered, because his dad never asked him to do things without a reason. And he somehow knew that this was a very good reason indeed.

"Ne, Manami-chan?" Takuya whispered during story time the next day.

The dark skinned girl looked up, cocking her head to the side in a silent "What?"

"I told my dad about the stuff you asked me yesterday and he wants to know if I can tell you his name. It's okay, right? He's a detective, so he won't tell anyone else if you don't want them to know." Takuya assured.

Manami mulled over the idea in her head for a moment before nodding the affirmative. As soon as he got the okay, his hand flew into the air, catching Teacher's attention immediately.

"Yes, Takuya-kun?" Teacher said, surprised that her best student was interrupting class in such a way.

"Manami and I need to go to the office right away!" Takuya said politely and Teacher smiled indulgently at how well mannered the boy was.

"Of course, Takuya-kun. Get your passes and hurry back, or you'll miss the end of the story."

"Thank you, Teacher." Takuya said, bowing slightly before grabbing Manami's hand a pulling her out of the classroom, snagging their passes on the way out the door.

"Why do we need to go to the office, Takuya-kun?" Manami said and Takuya turned to face her.

"My dad said to call him right away if you said okay."

Manami let herself be led into the office, where Takuya called out greetings to the office ladies, diligently remembering all of their names and asking how they were doing before politely requesting the use of the phone, which he was quickly granted.

"Moshi moshi, Hattori here."

"Touchan!" Takuya said as his dad answered the phone.

"Takuya-kun! Well?"

"Her name is Surabaya Manami." Takuya supplied immediately.

"Manami, what a pretty name. Can you ask her if she would mind answering a few of my questions?" Heiji asked, turning into a parking lot to stop at so he could concentrate on his conversation.

"Sure. Hey, Manami-chan, is it okay if my dad talks to you for a second? Please?" Takuya asked, turning to his shy friend.

"I-I guess so..." she said, hesitantly taking the phone.

"Manami-chan? Is it okay if I call you that?" Heiji's voice said through the speaker.

"That's okay, Hattori-san." She said.

"Okay, Manami-chan, I'm going to ask you a few questions and I want you to tell me truth, okay? You don't have to answer any of them, but I'd like it if you could, okay?"

"Okay." She answered.

"How old are you?"

"I'm almost five."

"Do you live with your mom and dad?"

"No, 'Kaachan left us a pretty long time ago. It's just me, Hana, and Touchan now." Manami answered, pulling at her air again.

"Did she move away?" Heiji inquired, hoping it was the case.

Manami shook her head, though he couldn't see it. "She left to go be with the angels after Hana was born. I miss her a lot."

"I'm sorry. You said something about 'Hana', who's she?" Heiji inquired.

"She's my little sister, she's two years old."

"Listen Manami-chan, the next question I'm going to ask is going to be really hard, but I need you to tell me the truth. You don't have to answer if you don't want to, but it would be a lot better if you did, okay?"

Manami nodded her head. "Okay."

"Does your dad ever hit you Manami-chan? For no reason?" Heiji asked, trying to be gentle.

The girl on the other end of the phone hesitated, but finally, she made up her mind. She was tried of keeping such a big secret, and it would feel so good to tell a grown up, even if she would get in trouble later on. "Yes."

Heiji sighed on the other end of the phone, glad that he got her to admit it, for he couldn't do anything if she didn't tell.. "Thank you for telling me that, Manami-chan, that took a lot of courage. I've just got a couple more questions for you, alright?"

"'Kay."

"When does your dad normally hit you?"

"After he drinks. He used to drink right after 'Kaachan left, but then he wouldn't hit me, he'd just go to sleep and I'd take care of Hana-chan, just like the neighbor taught me to." Manami said, twirling her hair around her finger as she glanced at Takuya who had sat down in one of the office chairs as he listened to her side of the conversation. He grinned at her encouragingly and she smiled shyly back.

"When was the last time he was drunk?"

"This morning."

A feeling of dread entered Heiji's stomach and he suddenly was very, very worried. "Manami-chan, where's your sister, Hana-chan, was it?"

"Well, I know Touchan was drunk this morning 'cause he smelled all gross, but he was acting normal, so I didn't call our neighbor to take care of her. She's with him right now. Why, what's wrong, Hattori-san? Hattori-san?"

Heiji pulled sharply out of the parking lot, racing quickly onto the route that would take him to his son's school. "Manami-chan, let me talk to Takuya."

His son's voice came over the phone, sounding worried. "What's wrong, Touchan?"

"Takuya, go get your and Manami's things ready to leave right now. Tell the office ladies that I'm taking you and Manami out of school today for important police business and if they need anything else for them to call me on my cell. I'll be there in seven minutes, tops. Be out on the curve and ready to go by then. Manami-chan gets up front so she can give me directions. Understand?" Heiji said and Takuya nodded sharply, though his father couldn't see it.

"Got it." he said.

"Good, I'm hanging up."

True to is word, a little over five minutes later, Heiji pulled up in front of the school. Takuya hurried to climb in the backseat, talking to his friend the whole time as she fidgeted nervously. Should she really be getting into a car with a stranger, even if they were Takuya's dad?

"Okay, Manami-chan, I need you to show me where your house is, okay? Can you do that for me?" Heiji asked as he pulled out of the school's parking lot.

"Okay." She answered quietly and at the next street they came to, she lifted her hand and silently pointed.

That was how they continued for several minutes, Manami sitting silently in her seat, giving her directions as Heiji ground his teeth, hoping he wasn't too late.

Finally, they pulled onto a quiet suburban street lined with identical houses on both sides. "There, that's my house." Manami said, pointing to a small, beige colored house. The grass was high and the flowers were dead, but other than that, it seemed relatively normal.

"Good." Heiji said, pulling into the driveway. "Manami-chan, you stay here, okay? Takuya-kun, come with me."

Takuya unbuckled his seatbelt and climbed out of the car, sending his friend an encouraging grin as he did. They walked up the sidewalk together before Heiji reached over and put a hand on his son's shoulder. Heiji kneeled down to the boy's level and produced a small pistol from his pocket. "Do you remember how to use this, 'Kuya-kun?" he asked, using the affectionate nickname in an effort to reassure his young son. He had taught both of his children how to use a gun so that they would what not to do with the guns that were kept in his house.

Takuya gasped as his father produced the weapon, but nodded grimly as he took the gun and checked the safety on it. "Listen to me carefully, Takuya. Do not, I repeat, do not fire that unless some is coming after you. Understand? I can take care of myself, that gun is to protect you and you alone, got it?"

Takuya nodded sharply and Heiji clapped him on the shoulder once before standing up and pulling out his own gun, which was considerably bigger. "Good. Take the safety off and be careful. Let's go."

Heiji walked up the front steps and rapped on the door, only to find that it was unlatched as it swung open. Heiji and his son exchanged a look before proceeding inside, Heiji's gun raised and ready to fire while Takuya kept his lowered as thumbed the safety back and forth. Lethal, harmless, dangerous, safe. They entered the kitchen only to find a sight that would haunt Takuya's nightmares for years to come. Blood pooled in the floor and splattered on the walls, pieces of what had once been a beautiful ceramic vase littering the bloodied tile. And lying there in the middle of it was a small child, her face pale and her brown hair matted with blood from the wound on the back of her head, shards of blue ceramic stuck in a large indention in her head.

"Shit!" Heiji cursed, running over to the child before lifting her up gently and pressing his fingers to her neck to feel for a pulse. Finding one, though it was faint, he sighed in relief as her breaths came out fast and shallow onto his cheek. From another room, a low groan was heard and Heiji's head jerked at the sound. "Takuya, go get some ice and a towel, hurry."

Takuya scurried to obey, putting together the makeshift icepack in record time. "Good, now hold onto her and put that on her head. Takuya, stop being stupid and get over here, I'll get you a change of clothes later, so ignore the fucking blood!" Heiji yelled as his son hesitated at the edge of the bloody pool surrounding him and the child.

Heiji moved near silently into the other room, gun drawn, only to find a passed out drunk holding the neck of a broken blue ceramic vase in is hand, blood splattered on his dirty white shirt. Looking at the man in disgust, Heiji pulled out his set of handcuffs and attached the man to a nearby desk. Next, Heiji took out his cell phone and called for an ambulance. "...It's right off Nokosendo Avenue, first street on the right; you'll see my car in the driveway. There's a kid in my car, too. The victim's sister, make sure she doesn't see...That's fine. Hurry up; the kid's pulse is already weak. Hattori out."

In the kitchen, Takuya struggled to hold the tiny child up, feeling her blood soaking into his clothes. Suddenly, he felt a slight movement from his arms and looked down to find dark, chocolate colored eyes looked at him at half-mast. "Nami-nee...love...you." she said, seeing his dark skin and mistaking him for someone much dearer to her heart.

"Touchan!" Takuya cried out after he saw she was awake.

"What? What is it, Takuya!" Heiji yelled, darting back into the kitchen as the sound of sirens approached.

Takuya looked down to find the toddler unconscious again. "She...she was awake..."

'Knock knock'

Manami looked up, startled, to find a grinning policewoman motioning for her to roll down her window.

Deciding that it would be okay because she was wearing a uniform, Manami rolled her window about an inch to hear what the woman wanted to say.

"Are you Manami-chan?" the woman asked and the child nodded.

"I'm Yumi-keiji, and I just have a few questions to ask you. If you answer them all for me, I'll buy you something eat, anything you want. Deal?"

Slowly, Manami nodded, unlocking the door and stepping out to take Yumi's hand as behind her, a stretcher was wheel into a waiting ambulance.

"...Hana died on the way to the hospital. There was nothing they could do to save her. Manami-chan lived with us for awhile until they found someone in the area to adopt her. She still stays at our house a lot, the guest room is basically hers... So do you understand now, Yoshi-kun? At least your dad loved you, at least your mom is still around, at least you have all of these people around you who care and want to help you. At least...at least no one you loved died." Takuya finished off softly, looking away from his cousin and towards his best friend, who was eating cake as she talked to Midori, who was pouting at not being allowed to play with her food.

"I didn't know, Takuya-niichan. I'm sorry. Your right, Touchan said he was coming back and he will, I know it." Kiyoshi said resolutely.

"That's the spirit! Now, come on, Yoshi-kun, let's go get some cake!"

---

"I think he knows. I really do, the way he acts around me makes me think someone's told him something." Aoko confined to the rest of her friends inside the Kudos' study.

"But who would even know enough to tell him? I haven't told my kids anything." Heiji commented back, glancing at his wife to make sure she hadn't let anything slip. Kazuha merely shook her head, she hadn't said anything.

"Conan knows something, but it's impossible to tell how much he knows. And I told him to keep quiet about this, he swore, and he doesn't break promises often." Shinichi said, reaching for his glass of juice, only to change his mind and let his hand fall back to his lap.

"Well then, how could Yoshi-kun know anything, it's obvious he knows something about Kaito, almost like he knows something we don't, which is close to impossible." Aoko said, her infamous temper starting to simmer.

"Now, now, Aoko-chan, no reason to get upset. Maybe he's hoping that by acting like he knows something, we'll talk more freely and give something away. The boy is smart, just like the rest of our kids, and he has been living around detectives for his entire life. It's probably an act." Ran said, hoping to calm the other woman down.

"They sure are a smart bunch, aren't they? We haven't told Takuya much of anything, but he seems to have such a grasp on the whole situation. And Conan-kun seems to know a lot about all of this too and I know you only told him Need-to-Know information. Just how much have figured out on their own?" Kazuha asked, sipping tea out of a porcelain cup.

"Who knows? They're just as slippery as we were, eh, Kudo?" Heiji said.

"Even worse, Hattori!" Shinichi laughed.

"I say we have a toast! To sneaky kids and the parents who raise them!" Aoko said, lifting her glass, which was full of juice.

"I'll toast to that!" Shinichi said, raising is glass as the rest followed.

---

"Come on, Manami-chan. Touchan says we have to be back by sunset. Do you have your backpack?" Takuya asked as the walked out of the Hattori household.

Manami nodded, shouldering a purple backpack as Takuya shrugged on his yellow one. They walked in silence for about a mile before Takuya struck up a conversation. "Yoshi-kun wanted to come with us this time but his mom wouldn't let him. It's just as well though; he doesn't need to be here. I don't really need to be here either, but I'd feel bad if you came on your own. And it's not safe for a girl like you to be out by yourself. I don't have to come if you don't want me to, though."

Manami shook her head. "No, I want you here. After all, you were the last one to talk to her."

"Her words were for you, she wouldn't has said anything if she could've seen well." Takuya argued.

"I'm not going to argue with you Takuya-kun." Manami said to him plaintively.

Takuya sighed in defeat. "Yeah, I know. Speaking of arguing, how's Baaba-chan and Rumiko-neechan doing?"

"They're fine. Rumiko-neechan came to visit today; she was going to come with me until she heard that you were coming. Baaba tried to tell her but she never listens to anyone."

Takuya snorted. "Well, that's Rumiko-neechan for you, right?"

"Yeah." Manami answered as they got onto the bus heading away from the city.

They took their seats before continuing their discussion about Manami's foster home. "Did Baaba get a new boyfriend yet?"

Manami grimaced. "Yeah, and he's a really perv, too. I told Baaba that if he started sleeping over, I'd be sleeping at your house."

"You're always welcome, the guest room is practically yours anyways. And this is exactly the reason old people shouldn't date, it's just weird." Takuya commented.

"You shouldn't call Baaba old, it's disrespectful." Manami chided.

"Feh, disrespectful, since when I have I cared about that?" Takuya retorted.

"We're here." Manami said, not answering him as she stood up to get off. Behind her, Takuya scrambled to get his stuff together and hurried down the aisle after her. As they got off the bus pulled away, leaving them staring at the large grassy hill in front of them. With a sigh, Takuya walked forward and off the sideway before turning and offering his hand to his best friend.

"Come on, we don't have time to waste standing here." As he said that, Manami took his hand and they started up the hill, hands clasped in a loose grip. Tall grass swayed in the light breeze along with flowers that were slowly beginning to die as fall took hold.

As they reached the top, Takuya released his hold on her hand as the looked at the small cemetery that rested on the hill. Manami stepped forward towards a small grave, set off by itself.

"Hello, Hana-chan."

Manami knelt down at the grave and Takuya waited behind her for a moment before speaking. "I'll start setting up the blanket and stuff, take your time."

True to his word, Takuya set down his backpack and pulled out a thin blanket, which he laid on the grassy knoll. Next, he pulled out several containers of food and two tall bottles of soda along with a small plastic cup. Manami suddenly stood up, seeming finished with what she had done, what she had to do every year on this day, rain or shine. They would come up her and eat a small picnic and talk to her sister, who she still missed very much. No one else had ever come with them, at least not to the grave. When they were younger, an adult would come with them, most of the time it was Heiji, but they would always wait at the bottom of the hill. Takuya had always come with her, though, and for that she was grateful, because no one likes to cry alone.

Sighing faintly, Manami took off her own backpack and added a couple small containers of food to the ones already assembled before pulling out a plate of food wrapped in plastic. She tore off the covering and set it down before taking the plastic cup Takuya had brought into her hands. Then they both poured some of the soda into the cup until it was about halfway full before setting the cup and the plate in front of the grave so that Hana could join their picnic.

They chatted aimlessly for a couple of minutes, eating food and laughing as if they were at a park instead of a graveyard.

"Ne, Manami-chan, pass me one of those onigiri." Takuya said, extending a hand to her.

She picked it up and handed to him. "Tell me if it tastes good, I made that myself. Baaba and Rumiko-neechan tried to help me but I wouldn't let them."

Takuya scrutinized the rice ball for a moment before taking a large bite. "Wow, this is really good, Manami-chan! You made this by yourself?"

Manami blushed. "Yeah...Ne, Takuya-kun, you don't have to call me Manami-chan. You could just call me Manami, if you wanted."

Takuya eyed her for a moment, taking another bite out of the onigiri. "Okay, but if I do, you have to call me Takuya, 'kay?"

Manami smile widely. "Okay! But Takuya, you don't need to talk with your mouth full, it's gross!"

Takuya grinned. "Oh, is it?" He took a large bite before continuing to speak. "I don't think it's gross at all!"

"Ew, you can see it all chewed up..."

Takuya stuck out his tongue, the chewed food still on it. "You want to see it, here, look real close."

"Gross!" She said, scurrying back a bit as he laughed. "You better stop doing such gross things on Hana's grave, she'll haunt you!"

Takuya swallowed his bite, looking at her intensely before turning away and taking another bite. "If she really is your sister, I doubt it."

---

"Okay, Shin-chan, this one's from Shinichi-jiichan and Ran-baachan...Wow, what a pretty outfit! Thank you, Ran-chan!"

"What, don't I get a thank you?"

"No, because I know for a fact that you didn't have any part in getting it, other than giving her your credit card."

"So? That's got to count for something!"

"Fine, thank you Shinichi-kun."

Heiji sat in his darkened living room, eyes glued to the TV set, which was playing a movie he had seen far too many times.

"The next one is from Kaito-jii and Aoko-baachan. Heiji, aim the camera over here. No, over here, ahou!"

"It is aimed over there, ahou!"

"No! Stop'it!"

"Look what you did now, Heiji, you made Shin-chan cry!"

"It wasn't my fault!"

"Uh, guys? Child, presents, camera, any of this ring a bell?"

"Sorry, Kaito-kun. Okay, where were we? Oh, right, this one's from Kaito-jii and Aoko-baachan..."

Kazuha walked into the dark room silently, seeing her husband watching that video again. Slowly, she moved across the floor towards him, before taking a seat on the couch, her eyes drawn unwillingly toward that screen.

"Has it really been that long?" she asked, not looking away from the TV for even an instant.

"She'd have been sixteen years old today." He answered, not moving other than the beating of his heart and the rise and fall of his chest.

"If we keep doing this the kids are going to find out." Kazuha warned as the dark skinned baby on screen blew out the single candle on her cake to the sound of applause. The little girl grinned as she stuck her fingers into the green and white icing that had moments before read "Happy Birthday Shinako!"

"It'd probably be better if they did. We should tell them, assuming they haven't figured it out on their own." Heiji said.

"I know we should, but...I'm not sure if I'm ready. Not yet." She said softly, leaning against him.

"I know. Maybe, when Midori's a little bit older...Even after fifteen years, it still hurts." Heiji said solemnly as an infant Conan clapped his hands in front of the camera.

"I imagine it'll always hurt." She said in return. "Are we going to visit her today? We didn't during O-bon because we had so many others to visit. I feel really bad about that, O-bon is a time for family."

"Those people were our family, in a way. We wouldn't be here today without all of them. Especially Kudo. He's even worse than me. And we'll visit her today, after we drop the kids off."

"Did the FBI get that package we sent? I heard back from Eisuke-kun about the one we sent him, but Jodie-san never responded."

"Let's talk about this later, it's almost over." Heiji said, gesturing towards the television.

"Shinako-chan, say goodbye to the camera!"

"Bye bye!"

The screen froze on the image of the child, her short dark hair pulled back in pigtails, green eyes shining. Her arm was extended into the air, waving goodbye to the camera happily as she grinned her toothless smile. Fifteen years ago that smile had been cute, but now it was merely haunting.

"Who's that?" came a voice from behind them and Heiji and Kazuha whirled around to find their two eldest children, still dressed in their pajamas, looking at the screen in curiosity.

"Chidori, Takuya! What are you doing up so early?" Kazuha exclaimed.

"You woke us up; now stop trying to change the subject. Who's that and what did you not want to tell us about her?" Chidori demanded as Takuya nodded, grateful his sister was doing the talking.

Kazuha started to speak again, no doubt about to spin some story to fool her kids or at least get them off subject, but Heiji suddenly cut her off. "Sit down, you two, it's a long story. That's your big sister, Hattori Shinako..."

-About Fifteen Years Ago-

A twenty-one year old Hattori Heiji drove well above the speed limit as he raced through downtown Osaka. He was late to pick up his only child, Shinako, from preschool and if Kazuha found out, he was as good as dead. It wasn't his fault a corpse fell off the roof of the police department right as he was leaving! He would have just let the police handle it if it wasn't for his father who had boldly challenged him right in front of everyone, claiming he wouldn't be able to solve the case due to his lack of experience. He couldn't possibly refuse such a challenge from his father of all people! But, no, Kazuha wouldn't see it that way; she would see it as him slacking off as a father, abandoning his family for his beloved murder cases. And that woman was scary when she was pregnant. Actually, she was just scary all the time...and violent...

Finally, he screeched to a halt in front of a short little building with a colorful sign out front reading "Building Blocks" on the front lawn. And there, behind the building, sitting, happily in a sandbox, was Shinako.

Looking around and seeing no homicidal pregnant women about to attack him, Heiji started up the front walk, planning to bribe the teachers into not telling Kazuha about this. But Heiji hadn't made it three steps before he noticed something very troublesome.

A man in a long dark trench coat was approaching his child. And in his hand was sharp kitchen knife, glittering dangerously in the late afternoon sun.

"Shit!" Heiji cursed, sprinting towards the gate as the man grabbed the baby up by her arm.

"Stay right where you are, Hattori-san!" the man barked and Heiji forced himself to come to a stop, grinding his teeth as he did so. In the man's grasp, Shinako wailed.

"Do you know who I am, Hattori-san? I'll give you a hint, you convicted my wife a about a year and a half ago. You took away the last thing I had left!" the man screamed, jerking Shinako around as she screamed.

Heiji thought for a moment, trying hard to remember the man, he had so many cases, but finally, a name surfaced to match with the face. "Hitoma Kentaru. Your wife accidentally killed your three kids and you two tried to cover it up. You got convicted as well, didn't you, Hitoma-san? How did you get of so quickly?"

"I got out on parole. You locked my wife up, first I lost my kids and then you took her away, too! It was an accident!" he yelled, shaking Shinako again, who screamed as her arm popped out of socket.

"If you two hadn't tried to cover it up and she had just pleaded guilty, she would've got off with just some community service! You both brought this upon yourselves!" Heiji screamed.

"Liar!" the man screamed. "And now it's your turn, Hattori-san. I'm going to show you what it's like to lose someone. First, I'm going to finish off this brat here and your wife will be next. Imagine my surprise when I heard that you not only had a kid, but even had another on the way? All the better for my revenge! You're going to lose them all, Hattori-san, just wait and see!" the man said, saying Heiji's name mockingly as he laughed the laugh of the deranged.

"Leave them out of this! It's me you want, so kill me instead! Shinako and Kazuha haven't done anything to you!" Heiji screamed, desperate to get his child back.

"My wife didn't do anything to you!"

"I was doing my job!" Heiji yelled, and the man laughed again.

"And I'm doing mine!" Hitoma took his knife and dug it into the soft flesh of Shinako's side and she screamed louder as tears rolled down her face. Heiji felt his heart shatter at the sound. He howled in anguish, the sound of a broken man as he vaulted over the fence and bolted for the man. By now, the security guards had come around after receiving frightened calls from the teachers who worked inside and were running toward the man.

He dropped Shinako and started to run only to be caught by a particularly muscular guard and handcuffed to a nearby jungle gym, his knife far out of reach.

Heiji picked up his child as the babe, barely a year old, continued to wail, not understanding why it hurt so much, and why here beloved father hadn't saved her, why he wasn't taking her pain away.

Hitoma Kentaru looked at them before laughing coldly. "You know she won't make it, don't you, Hattori-san?" he said, mockingly. "So much blood for such a little thing, it's a wonder she has any left."

An ambulance worker came up to Heiji, taking Shinako from him without a sound as she had, mercifully, passed out. He feared she would never wake up.

The man laughed again as Heiji stood, covered in his own child's blood and sand. "It'll never wash off! Her blood will always be on your hands, Hattori Heiji!" he laughed manically and Heiji finally snapped.

"Shut the hell up!" he roared, punching Hitoma in the face repeatedly as the deranged man continued to laugh.

It took no less than five police officers to restrained Heiji and all of them secretly wished they could let him go.

A month later Hattori Heiji and Hattori Kazuha left Osaka and moved to Beika, where they eventually gave birth to a beautiful baby girl named Chidori...

"...She died shortly after we reached the hospital, from blood loss. Today would've been her sixteenth birthday." Heiji finished, looking away from his children, who were crying.

Takuya got his voice back first. "Why didn't you tell us?"

Kazuha sighed, deciding to answer because Heiji had already told the hard part. "We planned to tell you couple of years ago when her birthday rolled around, but then I got pregnant again and we decided to let Midori-chan grow up a little and tell you all at the same time."

"That's no excuse! She was our sister and we never even knew she existed! Did Conan-kun know about this?" Chidori demanded, wondering if her best friend had kept such a secret from her.

"No, Conan-kun doesn't know. He and Shinako played together but he was still a tiny baby when it happened and we still lived in Osaka then, so they didn't see much of each other." Heiji answered.

Meanwhile, the activity in the living room had woken up the Hattori household's smallest occupant. Climbing out of bed, Midori headed out into the hallway and wondered idly why she couldn't smell breakfast. Were they having cereal? She hoped not, cereal was gross.

But instead of finding breakfast, she found the living room still dark and her family sitting across from each other, tear-streaks on their faces, as if they had been crying. So she did what any logical two year old would do.

She sat down in the middle of the floor and began to wail.

Kazuha was the first to move, jumping up to grab her youngest child from her current spot on the ground. "Midori-chan!"

"No!" Midori cried, covering her ears with tiny hands.

"Midori-chan, what's wrong? Are you okay?" Kazuha asked as the rest of the family looked on, pulled from the past as the present demanded their attention.

"You's all cryin'. And grown ups not s'pose to cry." The toddler sobbed and Kazuha hushed her.

"Shh, Midori-chan. Grown ups are so weird that we cry when were happy. We were just happy to see you, right Takuya-kun?"

"U-uh, yeah! Grown ups are just weird like that." Takuya said, stuttering. Why did she have to ask him?

Thankfully, Midori bought the "Grown ups are weird" excuse and was now busy asking for breakfast, momentary upset forgotten.

Heiji looked at his other two children, fidgeting slightly under their gazes as Kazuha carried the now hyperactive Midori into the kitchen. "In a little while, we're going to drop Midori off to play with Kiyoshi-kun and Conan-kun. If you want to stay there you can. But, if you don't, then...Then you can come with me and your mother to give Shinako her birthday present."

Chidori looked slightly wary at the idea, but nodded fiercely. Takuya, encouraged by his sister's approval, nodded as well.

"Be ready to go in an hour."

Heiji glanced behind him as the Kuroba abode faded in his rearview mirror. They had just dropped Midori off to play with Kiyoshi and were now on their way to Osaka, though this would be the first time they'd ever brought company...

Heiji peered into the backseat and saw his kids spread out on their individual rows, humming and drumming their finger to a beat he could hear faintly, even from the front seat. (Shonen Knife, if he was correct, they had recently discovered Kazuha's stash and fallen in love, burning years' worth of CDs onto their computers in one night.) Suddenly, Heiji's eyes widened and he turned towards the road, refusing to look away as he mumbled unintelligibly under his breath.

Kazuha looked at him sympathetically. He always took it harder than she did. She could understand that, too. Of course, she had been devastated as well, but she hadn't been there, with her baby's blood seeping through her fingers, unable to save her and blaming herself. That was his memory, not hers. "Heiji?"

"She's in the back." He said, not looking away from the road. "Sitting next to Takuya."

Kazuha nodded. She didn't think he was crazy; he'd always been a little bit psychic, in his own way. She couldn't tell you if was he saw was a ghost, taunting them for their failure as parents or merely a glimpse at what could've been, but she truly believed it was there.

"How old is she this time?" Kazuha questioned idly.

Heiji glanced at his wife quickly, so he wouldn't see the phantom child in the backseat. "About ten. Hair's in a ponytail. Yellow jersey, number nine, black shorts, black soccer cleats."

Kazuha nodded. "This was the first time you saw Shinako all day? It's her birthday, normally, you'd've seen her at least once by now."

Heiji shook his head. "I saw her twice, early this morning. She woke me up, about five years old, blue pajamas, and asked to sleep with us. I let her. She was as cold as ice. When I woke up, she was gone. The bed was still too cold. And later, she asked me for breakfast so I gave her some cereal. I turned around to put the box up and when I looked back, she was gone. Some of the cereal was missing from the bowl."

Kazuha nodded. "It's okay, just keep driving, it'll all work out."

About two hours later, they finally reached the small cemetery in Osaka where their first born lay. The ghost got out with them, but ran off to play with some unseen friend, running around tombstones, laughing. Heiji's eyes followed her until he felt someone squeeze his hand. He looked up to find Kazuha looking straight ahead with a hard look in her eyes.

"Don't look, Heiji. Don't. It's okay, we're okay." She told him, tightening her grip. He nodded in return before turning to his living children, who stood behind their parents, looking uncomfortable.

"Come on." He said and started walking forward. Behind him, Chidori and Takuya exchanged glances before following him silently.

"Takuya, I know you know this, but Chidori, be careful not to step on any graves, it's disrespectful." Heiji said and Takuya grimaced as he remembered why he knew. But he really didn't mind going with Manami to visit her sister's grave, it just hurt to think about someone dying so young. But now that he thought about it, his own sister had died even younger. Finally, Heiji and Kazuha stopped at a tiny onyx headstone engrave with the name 'Hattori Shinako'.

Kazuha leaned down to place a bouquet of white flowers on the grave and Heiji lit some incense, laying it on the ground in front of the base.

They spoke a few soft words to the grave-marker bearing their eldest daughter's name. Finally, they stepped aside, revealing Chidori and Takuya, who had been standing behind them. "These two are Chidori and Takuya, your little brother and sister. We told you we'd bring them by eventually. Midori couldn't come, but one day, we'll bring her, we promise." Heiji said and let his eyes wander, seeking out the childlike-phantom. He spotted her nearby and she took the recognition as her cue to come over. She wrapped her arms around the tombstone and rested her chin on top, looking at the two living children intensely. Finally, she grinned and nodded once at Heiji before disappearing in the blink of an eye.

Heiji's eyes softened as he looked at where she had stood. After a moment, he shook his head and blinked to get rid of the wetness at the corners of his eyes.

"Come on, its time to go home."

---

From the moment Kiyoshi woke up that morning, he knew something big was going to happen today. So when he walked in the door after getting dropped off by Conan to find his dad standing in the foyer, his mother standing in front of him, just staring in shock, he really couldn't say he was that surprised.

"Tadaima!" he said, kicking off his shoes and placing his bag by the door. He walked over to Kaito and cocked his head curiously. "Are you staying this time?"

Kaito grinned and ruffled the child's hair with a calloused hand. "Yup, still waiting on her to figure it out. The second it sinks in, she'll probably end up tackling me. I can already tell, I'm going to end on my back and she's going to be on top of me, just wait and see."

His words seemed to shake her out of her trance and, as predicted, she lunged at him, tackling him to the ground, noticing how he twisted slightly so that he took the brunt of the fall. Kaito smiled and turned to Kiyoshi, who had crotched down next to them on the floor, and whispered. "Told you so."

"Kaito, Kaito." Aoko sobbed into his shirt, holding on and refusing to let go for fear he would disappear again, a phantom dream that wasn't quite real. "You're back, you're really back. Don't leave me again, please stay." She felts his arms coming around her, fingers in her hair and a hand at the small of her back.

"I'm not leaving again, I promise. I'm so sorry, Aoko, so sorry." He whispered back desperately.

Kiyoshi eyed them as they embraced, having forgotten he was in the room. He didn't mind though, even though she was crying, he'd never seen his mother look this happy, it made something deep down in his stomach ach a little, knowing that he'd never been able to make her as happy as his father was making her just by being there. He felt as though he should let her have just this moment without interruption, that somehow, she deserved it.

Quietly, he walked away, his parents still too caught up in each other to notice his absence. He tiptoed upstairs and called a number he had long since memorized. Luckily, Conan answered the phone.

"Moshi moshi, Kudo residence, Conan speaking."

"Conan-niichan?"

"Yoshi-kun, what's up?" Conan asked, surprised to hear the child's voice on the phone.

"My Touchan is in my living room and Kaachan's sitting on him, crying. Can I spend the night at your house?" Kiyoshi said plainly, as if such a thing was an everyday occurrence.

"W-what?" Conan sputtered.

"I want to give them sometime alone because I already got to see Touchan at the park and Kaachan hasn't seen him in a long time. I bet she missed him a lot. So I want to give them just tonight without me so they can do, I don't know, grown up stuff, I guess." Kiyoshi explained, knowing Conan wasn't really asking him to repeat himself, he'd obviously heard him or he wouldn't have reacted like he did.

"Um, er, I'll go ask Okaasan if you can stay. But if I do, you'll owe me a favor." Conan said.

"Okay, what is it?" Kiyoshi inquired, curious.

"Well..."

A couple of minutes later, Kiyoshi walked back downstairs to find Kaito offering a hand to Aoko and pulling her up off the ground. Hung over Kiyoshi's shoulder was a small, blue duffel bag. He walked over to stand in front of them, his piercing blue eyes flicker back and forth between their faces before finally stopping on Aoko.

"I'm going to spend the night at Conan-niichan's house." He proclaimed in a voice that sound more like a weary parent's than a child's and she looked at her son, shocked.

"Yoshi-chan-" she started only to be cut of by the boy, who smiled at her as he spoke.

"Its okay, Kaachan. I already got to see him at the park. You haven't gotten to see him yet, so tonight you can have him all to yourself and after that we'll all do things together, right?"

Aoko swallowed the lump in her throat. "That's right, Yoshi-chan. Thank you."

"You're welcome." Now the child turned to Kaito, and Kaito had the strangest feeling that his and Kiyoshi's rolls had been reversed. How could someone who didn't even come up to his hip be so intimidating? "And tomorrow, you're going to come and pick me up, because Conan-niichan wants to see you. Okay?" Kaito nodded and Kiyoshi nodded in return, satisfied.

A horned beeped and a look outside proved it to be Conan on his electric scooter, a small helmet in his lap awaiting his small passenger.

"That's Conan-niichan. I got to go now. I'll see you tomorrow!" He ran to hug his mother's legs before darting over to do the same to his dad. "Love you. See you tomorrow. Love you, bye bye!" He said in quick succession as he hugged them before running out the door.

"Have fun, Yoshi-chan! Love you, bye!" Aoko waved.

Kiyoshi climbed onto the back of the scooter, clipping his bag to the rack and fastening his helmet before wrapping his arms around the teenager's waist. As they drove off, Kaito and Aoko turned to look at each other, unsure of where they stood with their miniature chaperone there.

But when Kaito finally reached for her, Aoko didn't resist.

---

Kaito shuffled nervously behind his Poker Face as he walked down the sidewalk to the Kudo household, Aoko clinging to his arm tight enough to cut off circulation, not that he minded. Aoko slowed her step as they drew closer and Kaito mimicked her pace, slowing slightly to fall in place beside her.

Suddenly, Aoko broke the slightly awkward silence. "You do realize it's not just Conan-kun who wants to see you, right?"

Kaito grinned, a shadow of his old grin slipping though. "Of course. Actually, I'll be surprised if the entire Hattori clan isn't in there waiting to attack me when I walk in. Not to mention Ai-chan..."

Aoko turned to face him before looking away. "Speaking of them, you haven't met Midori-chan or Manami-chan yet, have you?"

Kaito boggled at her choice of words, misunderstanding. "Hattori had twins?"

Aoko laughed, a sound that filled his heart. "No, Manami-chan is Takuya-kun's best friend. She's always with him wherever he goes. She's a shy little thing though; don't be surprised if she doesn't look you in the eye. Or look at you, period."

"Oh, so 'Kuya-kun got himself a girl friend while I was away, did he?"

"Don't even think about saying that to them, poor Manami-chan will be red for weeks. But between you and me, Kazuha-chan has had their wedding planed since they were eight."

"You said something about a Midori-chan?" Kaito inquired, the Kudo mansion coming closer by the second.

"That's Heiji-kun's youngest, she's two years old now. Don't freak out when you see her, she looks exactly like Shinako."

Kaito winced. "Ouch, that had to hurt."

Aoko nodded. "It's gotten better since we don't know what Shinako would've looked like at her age."

They were in front of the gate now and Aoko pushed it open, finding it unlocked. "Well, here we go."

"Yep, let's go face our doom." Kaito murmured.

"What do you mean by 'our doom'? You're the one who's in trouble." Aoko said as the climbed the steps.

"And don't I know it?"

Aoko turned the knob and opened the door, letting herself and Kaito in. They walked into the living, finding, as predicted, the entire Kudo and Hattori clans running around. At their entrance, everyone looked up and, as one, all the kids minus Kiyoshi, Manami, and Midori, cried out. "Kaito-jii!"

The children bolted over, tackling Kaito to the ground, asking questions at light-speed as they continued to sit on top of him.

"Ack, crushing lungs, can't...breathe..." Kaito wheezed out and the kids backtracked enough to where he could stand up. "Hey guys, nice to see you too. You've all got so much bigger since last time I was here, especially you, little man. Guess I'll need to find a new nickname for you." Kaito said, addressing Conan, who grinned at his 'uncle'.

Kaito turned to Chidori. "Agréable pour vous voir encore, mon cher." (It is nice to see you again, my dear.)

Chidori grinned back at him. "Je pourrais dire le même à vous." (I could say the same for you.)

Kaito frowned slightly. "votre accent a besoin du travail." (Your accent needs work.)

Chidori shrugged. "Sommes pas comme perfectionne comme vous." (Not all of us are as perfect as you.)

Kaito sighed. "Tel est ma malédiction." (Such is my curse.)

Aiko stepped up next and Kaito smiled softly. "Hello, Princess. I've got a lot of money here for a lot of missed birthday parties. Sorry I couldn't be there."

"You don't have to." Aiko responded, refusing to take the envelope.

Kaito pressed the envelope into her hands. "Don't say that, of course I do. Nothing less for my precious godchild, after all, ne, Ai-chan?"

Aiko blushed, but accepted the envelope this time and Kaito grinned, winking as he turned to Takuya. "Hey 'Kuya-kun, what's up?" Kaito asked before leaning down to whisper in the boy's ear. "I heard that girl over there is your girlfriend."

Takuya blushed and jumped away. "She is not! But I'll introduce you. Oi, Manami, come here for a second!"

Manami hesitated for a moment before coming over to stand slightly behind Takuya. "H-hajimemashite." She said from behind him.

Kaito smiled and knelt down, a rose appearing in his hand. "Here, a beautiful flower for a beautiful young lady."

Manami blushed and took the rose as Kaito stood back up, walking over to his friends, Aoko trailing beside him.

Kaito grinned as he met them. "Well, it seems I'm not the only one who aged."

His comment was met with indignant squawks as what would've been an extremely awkward silence was broken.

"Surely you weren't talking about us, were you, Kaito-kun?" Ran said as she and Kazuha stepped forward, cracking their knuckles.

Kaito's Poker Face didn't waver in the slightest when faced with impending doom. "Of course not, I was merely talking about your husbands; all that detectiving will really take a toll on you."

"Well, if we didn't have anyone to chase, we would need to." Shinichi combated.

"As if, you two gave up on catching me years ago!" Kaito proclaimed boldly.

"Ah, but now we know your weakness!" Heiji proclaimed.

Kazuha and Ran caught on to what was happening and started towards Aoko. "Hurry Aoko-chan, step away from the dark side!" Laughing, Aoko did as she was bid, stepping across to the other side of the invisible line.

"How come I have to be the dark side? I wear all white for goodness 'sake!"

Suddenly, there was a slight tugging at Aoko's pants and she glanced down to find Kiyoshi looking up at her sleepily. "Yes, Yoshi-chan?"

"I'm sleepy, 'Kaachan." Kiyoshi said, yawning.

Aoko clicked her tongue as she picked him up. "You and Conan-kun stayed up late again, didn't you?"

"Maybe."

Aoko looked over to where Kaito was still arguing about his new position as "King of the Dark Side". "Kaito?"

He looked up immediately. "Yes?"

"We need to head home because someone who will be labeled as," she turned and pointed to Conan. ", you, let Yoshi-chan stay up too late and now he's about to fall over." Conan rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly as his cousins glared at him, mad because their Kaito-jii had to leave so quickly.

"I can sympathize with that." Hattori said, glancing at his youngest, who was beginning to look tired herself as she fumbled with the blocks that she and Kiyoshi had been playing with. They had built a tall, if unstable, castle and Midori was straining to put a block on the very top of it. Suddenly, she lost her balance and fell against the tower and she and it fell to the ground. She immediately began screaming and Heiji hurried over, calling goodbye behind him as he tended to the upset toddler.

"See you later, Kuroba." Shinichi said, clapping his double on the shoulder.

Ran ran forward and hugged the man, smiling. "And don't be a stranger, come over sometime, we'll have a cookout! I had a new recipe I wanted to try, my mother gave it to me..." She trailed off as no less that five terrified gazes were directed at her. "It's not one of hers; she found it on the internet, for goodness 'sake!" The terrified looks faded into relief.

"Bye kids, I'll come around again later, okay?" Kaito said as he walked out the door, his wife at his side with Kiyoshi in her arms.

As they started down the walkway, the adults struck up a conversation, the topic being the man that had just left and over in their own corner, the kids held a conversation of their own, though there's was significantly different from the adults.

"Say, Aiko-chan, how much money is in there?"

"...Wow, the only time I ever saw that much money was in Touchan's safe..."

---

Falling asleep with Kaito beside her was a slightly foreign feeling, Aoko had noticed as she had lain down for the night. Kaito had noticed instantly, offering to go sleep in the guest room if she was uncomfortable. She had declined, saying that it was like when they were newlyweds, strange, but not unwelcome. But, with that obstacle overcome, it seemed like there would be no more difficultly with sleeping arrangements. Sadly, they failed to account that fat that Kiyoshi was used to one side of his mother's bed always being open to him when nightmares tried to intrude on his innocent slumber.

The door creaked as it was opened and Kaito awoke in an instant, fearing another late night attack. But it was merely Kiyoshi, who looked wide eyed at Kaito as he entered the room holding a stuffed bunny that Aoko informed him was named Tsuki.

Aoko woke, feeling the mattress move as Kaito sat up. Kiyoshi remained at the door, looking as if he were about to cry. "I-I'll just go back to my room." He stammered as tears sparkled at the corners of his eyes.

Aoko jumped out of bed. "Yoshi-chan, wait!"

The boy looked up as his mother approached him, picking him up. "Oh baby, you can still sleep with me if you want to. Don't cry, baby. Did you have a bad dream?"

She felt him nod against her shoulder. "It's okay."

Kaito stood up, yawning and stretching like a cat as he watched them. 'I should be the one over there, holding him. But...No, it's too soon. Damn it, I've missed so much, he's never going to love me like he loves her, he's never even going to love me as much as he loves Kudo and Hattori. They're more his father than I am.'

"Here, Yoshi-kun, you can have my spot and I'll go sleep somewhere else." Kaito said, standing up and moving to walk past them.

But before he could leave, a hand grabbed onto his shirt and Kaito turned to find wide, blue eyes looking at him fearfully. "Please, don't go. We can all fit. Please, stay." Aoko said softly.

Kaito looked at her for a moment before dropping his gaze. "Okay."

They walked back over to the bed and crawled under the covers, Kiyoshi maneuvering his way into the middle before turning and snuggling up to his mother, the well worn Tsuki trapped between them. The child's breath evened out after a moment as he succumbed to sleep, his nightmare brushed away by the caress of forgiving fingers. Aoko followed him after a couple more minutes, curling around her son as though he were a treasured teddy bear instead of a living child. Kaito watched over them both, content to stay awake and look at them without fear of being caught. He may have missed a good portion of his son's life, but he was going to make up for it. He swore then and there to be always be there for the child whose head was currently being smashed in between Aoko's breasts. Even if Kiyoshi never treated him as a father, he would be more than content to just be his friend. It was the least he could do.

And with that in mind, Kaito close his eyes and drifted off.

---

"Say, Yoshi-chan, you said you had a bad dream last night?" Aoko asked as she scurried around making breakfast, adding enough for the newest member in their house. As she hopped around the kitchen, she noted she would have to go grocery shopping soon, she and Kiyoshi would've been able to survive off what they had for about another week, but feeding three people is much different than feeding two, especially when the third person had an appetite like Kaito did. As she looked around for the eggs, she also found the fish they had been planning on eating that weekend and she reminded herself she would probably need to get rid of that.

Kiyoshi, who had been chatting happily with Kaito about the story Aiko had told him, (The Little Mermaid, to be precise, and not the Disney one. Apparently, Aiko had derailed his questions about sex and such with a patented "ask your mom", but the boy had decided that his father would probably be a better source of information and Kaito was looking for escape routes.) looked up at his mother's question, suddenly upset. "Yes."

"Can you tell me what it was about? You looked really upset last night, sweetie."

Kiyoshi fidgeted but nodded. "There were these people, I couldn't see them very well because it was dark, but they were real scary, they had guns and they were shooting everyone and there was so much blood...And then one of the people that had got shot, he came over to me and was begging for me to save him and then, I wasn't me anymore. I was you, and you were dressed in that hat and the monocle thing and everyone was trying to get me and there was so much blood and I couldn't save anyone and they were all calling for me and I couldn't help them." Kiyoshi sobbed, shaking slightly and Aoko rushed over, picking him up and balancing him on her hip.

"I'm so sorry, baby, don't cry. It wasn't real, don't be upset, Yoshi-chan. Do you want to help me cook breakfast? I need some help because there are more of us now." Aoko said, looking for a distraction, and he nodded.

Then she continued her movement around the kitchen, same as she had before, though now she only had one hand to do her work with, though it didn't seem to slow her down at all as she cracked an egg over a sizzling pan on the stove. Kiyoshi didn't do much to help, instead he remained mostly quiet as he balanced against his mother's hip, asking the occasional question and holding or moving things as instructed. Kaito observed them quietly, thinking how the child was so much different from how he had been when he was that age. Kaito would've never been content to sit so quietly, he would've asked many more questions and demanded to wield the spatula himself, despite his small size. But something that matched up with how he himself had been was Kiyoshi's eyes, deep, brimming with a knowledge and comprehension of the world that other children his age lacked.

Suddenly, a thought occurred to Kaito and he peered closely at his wife before speaking up. "Say, Aoko? I've noticed, you carry him around a lot, don't you? Isn't he heavy?"

Aoko looked over at him quickly, as if she hadn't expected him to speak, or maybe, she had merely forgotten he was there. "Actually, he's quite light for his age. The doctor seemed worried, but he looked up your records and found that you were about the same weight as Yoshi-can when you were his age and he decided it was nothing to worry about. You'd like Suikotsu-sensei, he's a very kind man, though his secretary is a bit...strange."

Kaito raised an eyebrow at that. "His secretary? What's wrong with her?"

Aoko shook her head. "Not 'her', him. Jakotsu-san is, well...Let's put it this way, I walked in on him making out with another man one time. It was very unsettling, but he's harmless."

Kaito's eyes bugged out and he started sputtering, causing Aoko to giggle slightly.

"Don't laugh, Kaachan, it was gross. Jakotsu-san is nice, but I think he was supposed to be a girl. He dresses like a girl." Kiyoshi said seriously, causing Kaito to continue sputtering and his mother to start laughing outright.

Kiyoshi looked away, thinking it wasn't that funny, only to see something orange flicker in the corner of his eye. He turned back to his mother and tapped on her head to get her attention. "Kaachan, the eggs are on fire."

---

"Okay everyone, listen up, I have an important announcement!" Ran said as everyone ate their food on the picnic tables set up in her backyard. Always true to her word, Ran had organized a "Welcome Back" party to celebrate her friend's long awaited return. And, coincidentally, to celebrate something else as well, though no one knew about that just yet. Unfortunately, she knew her husband had already guessed what she was about to say, though it was her own fault for putting off this party for so long, clubs had just started at her kids' school and she had been too busy adjusting to the new schedule to host such a big event. Now, a month after Kaito returned, she was finally done, and she found that it was going surprisingly well. The food was good, the kids seemed content, no corpses had fallen from the sky, an ideal scenario if she ever saw one.

"I have an announcement to make. I'm pregnant." Ran said and all was silent for a moment as her guests soaked up the meaning of her words.

In the middle of the silence, Aoko looked over at Ran in slight surprise. "Really? Me too."

All heads turned to look at her before Midori looked up curiously from her plate. "Why's yous all so quiets?"

That was all it took to wake the party goers from their shocked state. "What?"

Ran and Aoko had run over to each other and were rapidly discussing things that left any men near enough to hear ears' turn red before they ran away, stammering. "How far along are you?" Ran asked after the initial "oh my gosh, were both pregnant at the same time" freak out session.

"About a month, I just found out this morning. You?"

"About three, I don't really look that much bigger yet, do I?" Ran asked, hands feeling along her sides.

"Not at all, if you hadn't told, I never would've guessed! Oh, this is so exciting, our babies are going to be born at nearly the same time, I can't wait!" Aoko gushed, bouncing up and down.

"Me neither! So what are you hoping for, boy or girl?"

Aoko thought for a moment. "Actually, I would like to have a girl. I already have enough boys."

Ran nodded. "True, true."

"So what about you, Ran-chan? Boy or girl?"

"I don't care as long as it's healthy." She said stubbornly, jutting out her chin.

"Okay, I've got to go talk to Kaito now, this is the first he's heard about it, so he's probably freaking out. I remember last time? I didn't know you could blow up an entire sofa with five firecrackers and a Popsicle stick. I just hope he doesn't blow anything up this time."

'BOOM'

Aoko sighed. "Too late."

---

"So, here we are again, ne, Shinichi-jiichan?" Kiyoshi said as they sat in the hospital waiting room, waiting for Kiyoshi's mother to give birth. Two months earlier, Ran had given birth to a beautiful baby boy named Yuuji. She, as well as Conan, were at home, thought Aiko was at the hospital, citing loyalty to her godfather as her reason for coming. Shinichi knew she just liked to see the newborns right after they were born so they would remember her face and love her like all the other children born after her did.

"Yup, though this time it's you wanting to get into the delivery room, ne?" Shinichi said with a smile, remembering how Chidori had wailed to be let in.

Kiyoshi made a face. "I don't want to go in there; Kaachan said there would be blood. I hate blood. Say, Shinichi-jii? You never did tell me the other way the baby comes out, did you?"

'Damn this kid's memory...' Shinichi thought to himself, wondering how he could save himself from this conversation.

"Eh..." Shinichi started, as a nurse walked into the waiting room.

"Is there a Kuroba Kiyoshi out here?" she called, and said little boy looked up at the kindly faced blonde nurse.

"That's me."

"You're a big brother now, Kiyoshi-kun. Your mother just gave birth to baby girl. She's asking for you to come and visit her." The nurse said, holding out her hand for Kiyoshi to take.

He hesitated slightly before taking the proffered hand and allowing the nurse to lead him away, down a series of hallways that he memorized, so that on the off chance that this was some sort of kidnapping/murder plot, he would know the way out. That was the first thing Shinichi-jii and Heiji-jii had taught him, Always Have an Escape Route.

The nurse finally stopped at a door and knocked softly before easing the door open. "Kuroba-san, you have a little visitor here to see you." The woman said cheerily, gently pushing Kiyoshi inside with one hand.

"Yoshi-chan, come here." Aoko said as the nurse closed the door and Kiyoshi obeyed, coming over and crawling up onto the bed to sit next to his mother.

"What did you and Shinichi-jiichan do while you were waiting? I bet it must've been awfully boring, waiting out there for so long. Is Aiko-chan still out there too?" Aoko asked softly, running her fingers through her son's silky locks.

"Yeah, Aiko-neechan is still out there, but she's asleep. We had lots of fun while we were waiting, Shinichi-jii found this American game called 'Clue' and me and Aiko and some other kids out there played it for a long time."

Suddenly, the door opened and Kaito bounced in, carrying a pink bundle in his arms. Gently, he handed the sleeping babe over to Aoko. "I believe this is yours."

Aoko glared. "Ours, baka, ours." She said stubbornly and he laughed sheepishly.

"Right, I keep forgetting."

"Well, we'll just have to keep reminding you, ne, Yoshi-chan?" Aoko asked, but her son didn't hear her, he was much too caught up staring at the babe who was his new little sister. The baby twitched slightly, as if she could feel the scrutiny of her brother's gaze. Then, her lips parted as she yawned soundlessly, before opening her eyes to reveal twin blue orbs, shining brightly with the prospect of life.

The wide eyed child of seven turned to look at his parents. "What's her name?" he whispered softly.

Kaito and Aoko shared a brief glance as Kaito moved to stand beside his son. "Well, actually, Yoshi-kun, we thought we'd let you name her."

Kiyoshi looked at them in shock. "M-me?" At their nods, his features sharpened and he turned to look at his newborn sister, thinking seriously. He stayed that way for several minutes and the couple wondered if the job had been too much for him.

"Hidemi."

The adults looked up at the sudden noise and found Kiyoshi looking at them, the baby, in turn, watching him as if he were the most interesting thing in the world.

"What was that, sweetie?"

"Hidemi. Her name is Hidemi." Kiyoshi stated.

"Hidemi." Aoko said, rolling the name around in her head before smiling. "That's a perfect name."

"Hidemi-chan. Demi-chan, my Demi-chan. I'm your niichan and I'm going to take good care of you, just wait and see."

---

"Have fun at school, Demi-chan, Yuu-chan!" Kiyoshi said, calling out to the children as they entered the school building for the first time.

"Bye Yoshi-nii!" they chorused together as the made their way towards the building, hands holding onto each other tightly.

"I'll be here to pick you up after school ends, so wait here for me, okay?"

"Don't worry, Yoshi-niichan! I'll make sure were both here at the end of school, okay?" Yuuji said, flashing Kiyoshi a familiar smile.

"Okay. Watch out for bullies and stay together! Have fun! Bye!" Kiyoshi called and the two children waved one finale time before turning and entering the building. Kiyoshi sighed, heaving his backpack a little higher and continuing the walk towards his own school, less than a block away. At the age of eleven, he was already in middle school, having skipped a grade under the recommendation of his teachers. He was just too smart for the rest of his classmates, they had said. He never had made any friends, mostly because he got too exasperated when they couldn't follow what he was saying. But he didn't need friends. He had his cousins. They were more than enough.

Sometimes, when he was alone, he wondered why he and his cousins were so smart compared to normal people. He never could find a good reason for it. More often than not, his thoughts ended drifting to the subject of his father. What would he be like if his father hadn't been kidnapped? If he had never escaped? If Kiyoshi had never found out that little bit of truth from Conan so long ago? So many possibilities, some happy, others not. But you could wonder 'What If...' forever and it wouldn't change anything. You have to play with the cards life gives you, wondering about things that just weren't so was a waste of time. All he knew was the here and now, and now was the place he most wanted to be. He had his older cousins, he had his aunts and uncles, he had both his parents, and he had three young children who looked up to him as if he were someone to admire, as if he was somebody to be admired, just as he had admired Conan. His life was as close to perfect as it could get. And even though those hardships that he had faced, the feelings of hurt and betrayal, of loneliness and confusion that no child should have to feel, those feelings would that would always be with him, even through all that, he knew in his heart of hearts that it was that that had made him strong. So he would keep those feelings close to his heart, to remind himself that to achieve happiness you must first know sadness.

And, in the end, everything had worked out, hadn't it?

---

-15 Years Later-

"And now I'd like to present the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature to Kiyoshi Kuroba for his Feature Film, Star Dust!" the man on stage said in his cheesy announcer voice and a twenty-six year old Kiyoshi stood up in the crowd as a spotlight swiveled over to him. He grinned and made his way down the aisle to accept the award from the slick-haired man on stage.

Taking the mike from him, Kiyoshi grinned out at the audience. "I'd been told that I might be forced to give a speech tonight, so I've been practicing my English all week, how do I sound?"

Cheers erupted from the audience in reassurance that he sounded fine and he grinned wider before continuing to speak. "I thought for a long time about what I'd like to say on the off chance that I ended up on this stage tonight and I had a lot of ideas too. I sat at home pondering whether I should talk about the making of the movie, or how excited I was to hear it had gotten top box office ratings in Japan and America. But finally, I decide to talk about what inspired me to make this movie.

"My childhood was not a particularly happy one. Before I was born, my father was kidnapped and I didn't meet him until I was six years old. I know now that he was trying to get back the whole time, but back then I didn't. I was just a kid, wondering why I had been left and wondering why there seemed to be so many secrets in my family, secrets that I was the only one who didn't know. My family itself is kind of strange. My uncle aren't any sort of blood relation to me, neither are my aunts or cousins, but I grew up being told that this was Uncle Shinichi and that was Uncle Heiji , better know here as Shinichi Kudo and Heiji Hattori, the detectives that busted the Black Organization. I grew up surrounded by murder and mystery, as did my cousins. The first one to even tell me I had a dad was the oldest of my cousins and my own personal idol, Conan Kudo.

"My own background was the base of the story in Star Dust. Instead of being kidnapped, Toshiro's father was lost in space. And in place of all my cousins, there is Hanako, who I tried to put all the best qualities of my cousins into. Hanako's name actually has a meaning behind it. It is a tribute to two young girls that died. My cousin Takuya Hattori's wife, Manami, had a little sister who died at the age of two, her name was Hana. And Heiji-jiichan- I mean, Uncle Heiji's daughter, Shinako, who died shortly after her first birthday. I combined their names together so that they will always live on, immortalized in my movie.

"All those years I was so upset at my father for not being there, so engrossed in my side of the story that I didn't ever consider his. So I decided to devote equal amounts of screen time to both Toshiro and to his father so that the viewers can decide, was Toshiro right to be angry? Was he being spoiled or was he reacting naturally to a situation that he couldn't control? And, in the end, after everything had worked out, can we truly say that all of those hardships were worth it? Toshiro's father got his family back, but now he is earth-bound, unable to leave again to float among the stars that he loved so much. Toshiro's mother got her husband back, but he is more distant now, a far cry for the lively man he was in her memories and she wonders if she would've been happier if she had moved on. Toshiro's got the father he always wished for, but he's unsure whether this father lives up to the phantom father that had comforted him in his dreams.

"The best part of this story, in my opinion, is that everyone is going to think something different about it. Everyone is going to have an opinion of their own, so instead of one simple story I have created a different story for everyone who sees it. This was my goal. Did I achieve it, America?" Kiyoshi asked and the audience once again erupted into cheers.

Kiyoshi smiled before bowing slightly. "Then my work here is done."

And with that final sentence, Kiyoshi walked off stage.

---

This story was originally started in the middle of my research paper when I was the most stressed out. It was intended to be something short that I could post quickly and be done with it. Actually, the original plan was to have one Snapshot for each year up until Kaito got back and then skip around to Hidemi's birth and then to her first day of school. That was actually where it was going to end, but at the last second the ending that is right above this came to mind and I couldn't help putting it in. Kiyoshi's speech is almost like an author's note in it's own way, if you look.

This story grew a lot during the four months it took me to finish it. It would've taken much longer if I hadn't been able to use the Snapshot's format. Over fifty percent of the Snapshots were actually written in the middle of class before being handed off to a friend of mine who is currently taking on the persona of Kirby. Please give her a big round of applause, she was a wonderful beta and was great for bouncing ideas off of as this story grew to monstrous proportions! Thanks a million, Kirby!

Thank you to everyone who read this all the way through, it was a wild ride, but, as Kiyoshi said, everything worked out in the end!

Please, leave a review and tell me what you think. (And, please, pardon my French.)