Kuroba Kaito was almost at his wits' end.

He was thinking about how long he would have to wait until his face would disappear from the media. Apparently it was not going to be soon.

And Aoko. She must be worried sick about him, going off to start her own search like that. With food for him too. He wondered how she felt that her efforts had all been wasted, even though he was so close in proximity. Maybe Haibara was right. He should have gone to see her.

But what about all those police officers? Would he risk his safety to go see her? After all, Hakuba is not called a detective for nothing.

His mind was crammed full of thoughts about what he was to do during his stay at Kudo's house, packed till it was almost ready to explode.

The 'exploding' factor just then came in and threw himself onto his lap, squealing. Kaito's head burst like an overfilled water balloon, the views and feelings he had dug up were washed out of his mind, metaphorically pouring out from his ears.

The mischievous boy grinned up at him in delight.

"Did I startle you?"

"Did you startle me? Well, of course you did! I was just sitting here and minding my own business and all of a sudden you pounce onto me like some wild cat! Of course I'm startled! What's your problem?!" Kaito's voice had escalated to a high note, and he continued rattling off whatever point that popped into his head.

All Conan could do was to just sit there and blink. Once Kaito's mouth had stopped opening and closing, he pulled out the cotton buds he had stuffed inside his ears.

"What did you say? I didn't catch it."

Kaito fainted.

…

Hakuba Saguru picked up the black box-like object he had placed on his desk a few days ago. The red circle was still blinking onscreen. The background, though, showed a worm's eye view of a segment of pavement, the same picture as it had been showing just before the morning Serin had applied for a school transfer.

Strange thing was that neither he nor the rest of the class had seen her that morning.

He pressed a couple of buttons in a certain sequence, and a side window popped up. The neon green rings radiated from the centre dot, and a green line running laps around the 'track'. A conspicuous yellow dot flickered on and off near the top of the window.

Hakuba threw on his coat and dashed towards the dot.

A good half hour later, the yellow dot was very near his given position. He zoomed in on the screen, and pinpointed the video camera's exact location. He strolled casually over past the fountain, bent down and picked up the colorful earring. Then, he scanned his surroundings, and took note of where he was.

When he got home, he turned off the device, and slipped the minidisc out of the slit in the side. Loading it into his computer, he pressed the triangular button on the media player's interface.

The video picked up from where Kudo had walked off. The camera was still until his shadow had disappeared, then it turned, and went off in the other direction, towards a certain hostel. It went up the stairs, and into a dormitory room littered with clothes and papers and…the occasional packet with red liquid collecting at the sides.

The cameraman then proceeded towards the bathroom. Knowing what was next, Hakuba scrolled past the segment, and sighed in relief. Passing the day without a nosebleed at porn was good enough.

The cameraman had now slipped into a coat and was strolling towards…surprise, surprise. Kudo's house.

It stood there for a moment, and Hakuba saw a short shadowy figure lurking behind the tree in front. The cameraman hesitated before speaking in her clear-cut voice.

"Kudo?"

"Yes, Serin," came the reply. The voice was tinged with a hint of mechanical noise, but he attributed that to the audio recording static.

"What are you doing behind the tree?"

"Because I was waiting for you, obviously."

Hakuba desperately wished that he had not just stumbled across a lovey-dovey video packed with kissing and honey-filled words.

"Okay. So what do you want to talk to me for?"

"Regarding this afternoon, I'm sorry if I was too harsh on you."

"Oh."

The silent gap in the conversation was a little too long.

"Anything else?"

"No."

"Then it would be my turn, alright? Now, why don't you come out from your little hiding place and show yourself, little Edogawa Conan?"

"W-What are you talking about, Serin? I'm Kudo."

Now Hakuba was puzzled. Although he had heard Kudo's voice there, Serin had called him by the little kid's name. Maybe it had something to do with that awfully short shadow behind the tree…

There was a laugh. "Come now, child. Stop playing hide-and-seek now and come here to Serin-neechan." Serin strode over to the tree in a couple of steps. Hakuba could see that the figure was turning its head this way and that, clearly looking for an escape route.

"Okay then, you got me." Edogawa Conan stepped out from behind the tree. Her assumption was right!

"Shinichi-niichan told me to come instead since he couldn't make it, because he had to go off on another urgent case. He told me that you would look for him near here."

"Okay then. Man, I was so looking forward to meeting Kudo-kun here. Ah well."

And why?

"I wanted to give Kudo-kun a present."

"Eh?"

"I guess I'll go home now, seeing that he's not here." With that, she left.

But then, she stopped halfway, and started playing with a compass-embossed card. It spun around deftly in her hand, after she had given it a whispery command and it pointed backwards. Serin dashed back.

"Conan." She skidded to a halt in front of the street Conan was on again.

"What is it?"

"Come here. I think I'll just give you Kudo-kun's present to pass to him."

The kid walked over, maybe a tad cautiously, a drop of sweat glinting off his forehead. Serin bowed down to him, and stroked him.

"Uh…Serin-neechan, what's going on?"

The earrings dangled beside Conan's head, capturing nothing except the scene behind them. Hakuba slapped his forehead in disappointment.

"Kudo-kun. You're a pretty good liar."

What happened next stunned him to the very core. Sure, it took a few hours when he looked at the clock, but it really felt like just a few minutes.

Serin's repeated attacks. Conan transforming into Kudo. Serin holding Ran hostage. Kudo splashing water on her violently for it. Serin lashing out at him again. Kudo making use of a nifty watch to knock his friend out to prevent eyewitnesses.

The earring dropped off when Serin was thrown to the ground by some unseen force, so the video camera was rendered useless, but the audio recording still could pick up voices, despite being soaked. He heard a conversation between Kudo and Serin, and a brief jab by Akako. Then, he saw Kudo taking to the skies once more, and video was over.

Hakuba clipped out the important parts of the video, and saved the clip to his hard disk.

He picked up his laptop, and headed for the police HQ.

…

Ran was sitting all alone in her room. Just a few nights before, Shinichi had flown in. Just like that time they were flying through the night skies while escaping from a burning building.

Was it really just fantasy? As in, Shinichi's ability to fly right into her dreams where she needed him a lot.

She just wished that he would come back, so she could prod him for answers to the riddle.

A faint sigh escaped her mouth, and her head slumped down onto the windowsill.

"Come back, Shinichi……"

There came a knock on her door, and she perked up, hoping it to be her childhood friend.

Conan stepped in cautiously, a look of intense worry and fright painted onto his face. Ran exhaled the breath she was holding, and flopped onto her bed.

"What do you want?"

"Ran-neechan….I…."

"What?" She sat up, a little amused as to the child's hesitation. Was it something embarrassing? Or was it something kept in the dark?

"………."

Ran reached over and placed the kid on her knee, maybe what his parents would do when he was feeling like this.

"Tell me," she said in what she hoped was a soothing voice.

"I……"

Silence for the next minute, but she didn't care.

A sharp ringing of the phone pierced through the emptiness. Ran slipped out from under Conan, and picked up the call.

"Hello, this is the Mouri Agency."

"Ran, is that you?"

"Hakuba?"

"Yeah. Say, could you come down to the police headquarters? It's urgent. Oh, and bring Conan along too. We need him for something."

A frown creased across her pretty forehead. "If it's regarding a case, why don't you get my dad instead? Conan-kun has to do his schoolwork, you know."

"No, bring that kid. Seriously. And yes, it's regarding a case. But you can bring your dad if you want to, seeing that he has a part to play in all this."

"Okay." She replaced the phone on the stand, and turned to Conan.

"Go put on your coat."

…

The virus streamed down the links in cyberspace, infiltrating the file that held a certain videodisc in it. It looked up at the media file, and decided to send a copy of it to its master's main computer.

The hacker picked up the file a few seconds later, and opened it.

A few seconds of skimming later, he posted it up on the internet.

...

Logon Time: 2018 hr

People in this room: Miku123, Sora-DV, Doodle, MaiMai, Heiji=)

Heiji=): Wass'up?

Miku123: Oh hey! Look what I've found on the internet!

Doodle: What's it about?

Miku123: You'll see. (^V^) You guys will totally dig this.

Sora-DV: Put it up, Miku-chan!

MaiMai: Yeah!

Miku123: Okay! Here's the link: ./nEkObaKa/video180=?

Sora-DV: Whoa.

MaiMai: You sure said it. Hey, is this animated? Or is it real?

Doodle: It's epically real!!! Because there's no way that any animator except those at Pixar could have done this!!!

Miku123: Plus, nEkObaKa only puts up real live vids!

Heiji=): I'm watching it….Oh god.

Miku123: What's wrong, Heiji?

Heiji=): Oh god. Oh god oh god oh GOD!!!!

Sora-DV: Hey, what's up with Heiji?

Doodle: Dunno. Maybe a freak attack?

MaiMai: Heiji, is something wrong?

Heiji=): I'VE GOT TO TELL HIM ABOUT THIS!!!

Logout Time: 2029 hr

Thank you for using

…

"Hey, Minoru, check this out."

"Whoa. Are you gonna put this up for tonight's news?"

"You bet!"