This idea came for AkemiXChan since I have run out.

HAVE FUN!
This is my first time writing anything long (not a one shot) for Aoko's perspective
(though not first person) so please tell me what you think!

Disclaimer: I do not own the Magic Kaito or Detective Conan characters. Too bad.

Chapter 1: A Ghost from the Past

Aoko was walking back home from the grocery store. Her dad was going to be home tonight and he'd missed dinner the night before because he was chasing that stupid thief again. It made her dad happy though and he always had lot of energy to spare afterwards. She'd made him do the dishes when he'd gotten back so that she could finish her homework.

Aoko fumbled around with some of the grocery bags in her hand. She'd bought more then she thought she was going to, otherwise she would have forced Kaito to come along.

"Careful there!" A woman off to her side reached out a hand before the bag resting on the outskirts of her grip managed to topple over.

"Thank you," Aoko inclined here head to the woman. She was beautiful, maybe in her late thirties but she still held the air of childhood around her. Black flowing hair ran down her back and she smiled at the teen.

"You're very welcome." The woman was about to walk away but something made her stop and, since Aoko was walking in the same direction, she had to stop as well or risk bumping into her when she couldn't see in front of her.

"What's your name little girl?"

Little? Aoko thought indignantly. Her anger was squashed down by sudden uneasiness as she debated whether or not to answer.

"You're Koyuki's daughter aren't you?" the woman asked with a growing smile at Aoko's speechless response.

"Yeah, that was my mom's name," she said numbly. She hadn't known much about her mother. Her mom had died only two years after she was born and there wasn't much a two year old could remember.

"I knew it! You look just like her!" The woman took some of the bags so they could have a conversation face to face.

"Did the police ever find out who killed her?"

Aoko almost dropped everything.

Killed her? Her dad told her that her mom died in a car accident.

"I'm sorry," the woman frowned. "I didn't realize that – I'm sorry, I won't say anything more."

"What made you think my mom was killed? She died in an accident."

The woman shook her head. "I guess it's okay if I told you now. Your mother isn't around to stop me." The woman clenched her hands together with and evil smile on her face. "And I owe that woman a lot. If it weren't for her I would have got my hands on the Kid instead before he fell into that other woman's gasp."

Aoko frowned and backed away. This woman was crazy.

"I'm sorry," she apologized again when she noticed the distance that the girl had put between them. "Let me start at the beginning. My name is Takamia Rei. What's yours?"

"Aoko," she told her quietly. Even if this woman claimed to know her mother she wasn't about to give out her last name to her when she'd already started acting weird.

"Ok Aoko-chan." Rei grinned at her. "I met your mother years ago. We went to school together. I have to say, you look like her clone. Whoever your father is didn't give you any of his genes. Anyway, like I said, we grew up together. She was always the one better at sports, better on tests and better at just about everything. It gets me mad just remembering it." The woman clutched her fist in her hand.

"That was then. Kaitou Kid came on the news when we were in our last year of school and your mother had this insatiable urge to go and see him. She finally got me to agree with her and we snuck out one night together."

Aoko watched as the woman's eyes glassed over and she developed a faraway look of longing. "We met the Kid, believe it or not. He came right down to us." The look faded. "And he started talking to your mother like I wasn't even there! It was like they already knew each other. To make everything worse Ginzo and Toichi would tease me every day about falling in love with the thief. I couldn't help it!"

"Um, what's this have to do with my mother?" Aoko spoke up.

"I'm getting there, I'm getting there," she waved her off. "I noticed that Koyuki wasn't around when the Kid had his heists anymore and I started getting suspicious. Then, a few months later, there's word of this "Phantom Lady" who's been going around stealing from large company owners who were embezzling and the like. What the thief did with the money no one knows. She wouldn't take much but it was still stealing and she made a big show of it, as if she was rivaling the Kid, and that got me mad. When I spoke to Koyuki about the thief's actions and her own absence, your mother finally spilled the beans and told me it was her."

"My mother was a thief?"

"Yeah," Rei sighed. "And I can't say she was that bad at it either. She and the Kid both made news for years afterwards and I stopped keeping tabs on her. I heard she was killed off by someone who didn't want her associating with Kaitou Kid. There'd been a rumor going around that she was giving the money to him."

Aoko tried to get a lock on the information but it fell apart like wet tissue paper. There was no way her mother could have been a thief. No way that she would do something bad enough that someone killed her. No way she could have been helping the Kid when her father had been tracking him down since he started the force after graduating.

"Unbelievable, isn't it?" Rei noticed the girl's expression. "I can't say I blame you for not trusting me. Ask your dad, I'm sure that whoever she married would have noticed that she didn't die in a simple accident."

Aoko hurried home quickly. She needed to at least know if her mother's accident wasn't something more then what she was told. Her father would be there and he couldn't escape her.

The teenage girl placed the bags down as gently as she could with the fear and apprehension running through her.

The woman was lying, she told herself over and over again. And yet Rei had been able to pick her out of a crowd. She knew her mother's name. Why?

Her father was sitting on the couch, smoking a cigarette and watching the TV report on the heist last night. Kid had gotten away – again – with a large, multifaceted sapphire that had been on display for less than a week when it caught the thief's eye. It had yet to be returned but her father didn't look worried.

"Dad" she started, harsh tone already in play since she didn't want to be drowned out by the reporter. Her father knew right away that she was either going to start an argument or try to talk him into something.

"What is it?" He hit mute but didn't turn off the screen.

"How did mom die?"

Ginzo frowned and turned to his daughter, not expecting this conversation again. "She was in a car accident. The person driving the other vehicle didn't see her pull out in front of him and he wrecked both cars. Your mom was in the hospital for four days before she gave up." He closed his eyes. "Strong woman. The medics were surprised that she'd even made it to the hospital, let alone survived for so long."

"Did the other driver hit her on purpose?"

This time Ginzo's frown disappeared into a neutral glare, leaving him staring at the television screen without seeing it. "I thought he did. I had all the men I could get looking into it but we never found the man. After hitting your mom and totaling both cars he took off. We tried to trace the car but it was impossible."

"Does that normally happen? Wouldn't he have to have left some trail behind… unless he was planning on hitting mom?"

Ginzo remained silent while he thought of what to tell her. Aoko was old enough now that keeping things from her would only hurt her more when she had time to look into them on her own.

"I think that it was done purposely," he growled. "There weren't any witnesses and no trail, so I can't get the bastard. I'm sorry I didn't tell you before but you were young. I didn't know what was right. It was just like with -" Her father cut himself off. He was not going to get into his suspicions on Toichi's death as well. "Well, I'm sorry I didn't tell you before."

"I understand" she said quietly. It could be true. What that woman said now had lit a spark under her. If she was telling the truth, everything that Aoko – everything that her father thought about her mother – it was all a lie.

Aoko was morbidly depressed for the next few days, unable to come to grasps with the reality that rose up around her. It was so wrong that she found herself crying alone at night, wondering what could have made her mother go so far for a criminal. Far enough to become one herself, her inner voice would tell her hatefully. That was far, especially when she put her father into the equation.

Kaito noticed that she'd been down lately but he didn't say anything until they received a test they'd taken at the beginning of the week and Aoko was left in the sixtieth percentage of the class. He waited until after class to say anything.

"Hey Aoko, what's been eating at you lately?" Kaito asked her with what should have been worry but was masked to resemble boredom.

Aoko couldn't answer him. Her mother was someone her father had spoken so fondly about. To have someone you looked up to so much… someone you loved… Aoko was terrible at analogies but she couldn't hold in her frustration any longer.

"Kaito," she knew there were tears in her eyes but she pushed them back with her anger. "How would you feel if one day I told you your father was Kaitou Kid?"

Aoko winced. Couldn't she have been more vague? She'd used the other thief's name because it was the only other well known criminal who'd gotten away as often as her mother had and, hearing his name recently, made it so that it was the only thing that popped into her head. On top of that, like Aoko lost her mother Kaito had lost his father – A loved one who was gone and couldn't give her answers. She covered her head with her hands, feeling like she's given away her mother's secret to her best friend.

The magician was torn between gaping and her and bursting out laughing. Aoko had hit so close to the bone and she didn't even know it. Unbidden memories of the night he found out about his father came to him but he washed them away. Having to have some output for his emotions he settled on a few nervous chuckles.

"Aoko, what brought this up?"

"Oh no!" Aoko let some of the tears out now when she realized what she'd done. "I didn't mean to say that your father would ever do something like that! I can't believe I even implied it." She looked at her friend for any hurt feelings she might have caused him but she also knew she wouldn't find any even if she had hurt him. Kaito was good at making sure she couldn't see that type of reaction and it only made her cry more, wishing that her friend didn't need to do that.

"That's alright!" He tried to comfort her to stop her tears. Everyone had left the room and they were alone. "If my dad was the Kid, I'd have to ask him why he hasn't been home in ten years." The magician gave her a lopsided grin, hoping his efforts were doing something for her. "Then I'd probably yell at him for not telling me. I'm such a big fan of the Kid after all."

"But what if you weren't" she sobbed, trying to get an answer without hurting him. Aoko needed some type of support, something – "What if your father was someone that you couldn't like? What if he was a bad guy?"

In desperation as to what it was she wanted from him, the magician answered her – truly thinking on her question. He hated murderers the most and what would he do if his father was a murderer?

"I'd be mad" Kaito answered frankly. "If my dad did something that I couldn't stand, I would be very mad. I'd want to know why. Once I found out, then – depending on the answer I got I can't say what I'd do." Kaito was tempted to cheer her up with one of his pranks but he could tell this wasn't the time. He'd always been tactful, something that came from his father. The magician laid a reassuring hand on her back as Aoko cried over her desk with her face hidden in her hands. "What's wrong?"

"It's nothing." Aoko wiped the tears away. Kaito was right for once, she needed answers. She had to know why. When Rei spoke to her the other day, the woman seemed just as clueless on her motives as the daughter was.

She thought for a second on who she could ask and only one name came to mind. Her father didn't know and, if he was out of the loop then so were all of her mother's acquaintances. That only left one person that she'd been associated with before her death. One person that it seemed she had died helping.

Aoko's heart started to speed up. She didn't know if she would have the reserve she needed to speak to Kaitou Kid without getting upset. The man had all but stuck his nose into her life and refused to leave, which was bad enough, but if he was also the reason that her family was broken, it would hurt too much to stay quiet.

Kaito was brushed off as Aoko got her schoolbag off the floor and walked away without another word to him. She had nothing to say and she didn't want to lie to him. They'd been friends for too long for her to do that.

With new resolve she clenched her fist and prepared herself for the next heist that Kid would pull off.

She would be there and, like it or not, he was going to give her the answers she needed.