I started on this story about a year and a half ago, and it just sat here piling dusts for months. I decided to just post the first chapter in a hope it'll force me to want to finish it. This story is for Addy, who picked out two prompts from a list I gave her. The first one was telepathic!Shinichi (which is written in 'Mind Spectre') this is the second one.

You don't need to know or have watched the movie 'TiMERS' to understand the premise of the story, but if you haven't, I recommend it. Its an interesting movie

This story is unbetaed, and I apologize for any writing mistake as I'm not a native English speaker.

Published: 05.06.2018

Wordcount: 8.3K

Summary: If a clock could count down to the moment you meet your soul mate, would you want to know? Kaito x Shinichi

Title: Zeroed out

Chapter 1

In the early twentieth century, there was a company who started supplying a way for individuals to discover when they would meet their destined partner in the form of a countdown. The procedure was relatively simple, the devise was surgically attached to the wrist of your not-dominant hand, the TiMER tells you the very moment when your soul mate enters your life, and the rest develops naturally in order to give people a head start, and one won't need to stress through life trying to find a partner.

Naturally, Kudou Shinichi was sceptic to the whole thing when Ran approached him with a blush adorning her cheek the day after he turned fifteen – being the minimal age of consent. However, no amount of doubt could make her reconsider getting one, and only if he would accompany her to the nearest TiMER operative centre. His feet had tripped nervously as he sat next to her a few weeks later, eyes wandering back and forward wondering how on earth he had been talked into this predicament.

Although, in the bottom of his heart he was desperately hoping Ran's timer would be blank – indicating that her soulmate had not gotten their TiMER – as it could signify that he and Ran was destined to be together. In the last few years his feelings for her had blossomed into love.

"Are you sure you don't want to have one?" Ran asked from where she was sitting on the bench waiting for someone to come assist them. Her brown hair reached to her shoulders and curled towards her cheek and a lock would brush over her chin every time she moved – he rather liked her with short hair, but she regretted cutting it and so was going to let it grow out again. There was a hint of nervousness from her, and every few moments she would lick her lips.

His eyes followed the motion for a silent moment, before letting his eyes dart downwards and he curled his fingers into the fabric of his jeans. "I don't see why I should abide to a scientific device to find the person I'm supposed to fall in love with. I mean, neither mine nor your parents had access nor need for this technology –"

Ran's eyes lowered, and a flush of sadness spread across her features, and his stomach clenched in guilt. His fingers prickled with the need to reach out to her and apologise. He knew how troubled her parents' relationship was – they clearly cared for each other deeply, but perhaps things would have been better if they knew for certain if they should be together or not? He knew Ran did not wish to fall into the same trap – unhappily in love without wanting to break away from the relationship.

Shinichi scratched his cheek instead and looked the other way. "Maybe some reassurance wouldn't be too bad, that way you don't spend the rest of your life either stressing trying to find your soulmate or discovering too late that they are arseholes."

The sentence was more than worth speaking when Ran's face lit up in hope, and she reached out to squeeze his hand in gratitude. His heart fluttered in his chest and he barely managed to suppress the flush creeping up from his neck. How much he wanted to be that one special person to Ran – to love and cherish her like she deserved. She was beautiful and kind and everything Shinichi wasn't. He knew this even at this tender age how magnificent and special the girl was.

He held her hand through the procedure – which was very simple and only produced the same amount of pain to attach the device as to pierce one's ears, or at least according to Ran. They waited in silence for the few minutes it took for the TiMER to start up and make its calculations, and Shinichi felt panic soaring through his veins. Ran kept clutching his hand desperately with a pained expression as she held her breath.

What would the devise reveal? Had he lost any chance to court Ran like he wanted too? Albeit wait until they were a little older first. His heart was palpitating in his chest and he swallowed in nervousness. His eyes flickered to the thin, oblong screen on Ran's wrist. It was barely five centimetres long and one centimetres wide. The little screen was completely dark, with only four evenly spread letters on it: D – H – M – S. Days, hours, minutes and seconds till the device ran out. The TiMER would run out at midnight with a soft melody, and within the next twenty-four hours you could meet your soulmate anywhere – the TiMER would play music again once you and your destined partner's eyes met.

It was a relatively simple – rather anticlimactic, love at first sight thing just without the actual jolt of romantic feelings, Shinichi thought cynically and a little bitterly at the stripe of technology on Ran's wrist.

Nothing happened for the next fifteen minutes, and by the time the employees entered again to check up on them – they were both a lump of nerves. Ran's TiMER stayed blank – indicating that her soulmate had not gotten one implanted as of yet. Shinichi was relieved – it proved he still had a chance to win Ran's heart.

He had sworn his childhood friend and crush looked relieved also, as she peered at him through her eyelashes. "Are you sure you don't want one either? What if –" she cut herself up quickly with a flush blossoming on her cheeks.

Shinichi's eyes darted downwards, his heart palpitating in his chest from both giddiness and hesitation. What if they were meant to be together – would it be so wrong to have that information verified now? Indecision churned in his mind, he did not have much belief in the TiMER system, but with Ran seated next to him, and their fingers still interlocked, his heart flickered with hope. Before he knew what was happening, he had already inclined his head in affirmation.

The pain from the implantation was slightly more than a painful pinch, and he had not been able to look Ran in the face as his eyes were glued to the small screen. He had to force himself to not trace the device with his fingertips, and his heart had beat in his throat in anticipation and dread. This would be the moment of truth – would he spend the rest of his life with Ran, or had they never been compatible in the first place and any romance between them that would have happened naturally (or so he hoped) in the future doomed to fail from the start?

In the end of the day, his TiMER too, remained blank. And Ran and Shinichi was forced to wander home, avoiding each other's gazes, wondering if resorting to a machine had been such a clever idea in the first place. Unbeknownst to each other, they had both hoped that the TiMER would prove that they should be together.

Shinichi could not help to curse his weak moment – if he had never said yes, there would still have been a chance to date Ran. The TiMER be damned, how could a machine accurately pinpoint who your soulmate was? It sounded like pseudoscience at best.

His timer started to tick nearly 7 months later – and had that not been a shocking surprise to him when Sonoko had vaguely waved her hands in his direction with a noncommittal noise. When Ran had first seen it, her eyes had flashed with sadness for a fraction of a second. Shinichi had never considered the repercussions of it – he had been entirely too disappointed with the knowledge that Ran took the information to heart, and almost overnight there had grown a wall between them. They were still best friends, however no longer a growing romantic affection.

His TiMER would run out in 515 days, on the first of April, one month before his eighteenth birthday, and he resigned to that fact for the next year. He slowly started to wonder what kind of person his soulmate would be – if they were anything like Ran. Would they be older than him? What were they interests, occupations, where did they live, what were they doing right at this moment? It was impossible to tell, and a terrifying idea.

Sometimes at night, his heart would flutter in anticipation as he trailed his fingertips around the small, plastic screen with anticipation bubbling in his throat as he watched the seconds tick with a curious expression.

He only had fifty-nine days left on his TiMER when it happened. When he left Ran behind in Tropical Land to chase after the men in black. It was an excruciating pain that started in his heart, and spread like wildfire through his veins. Even the nerves on his toes were burning from the lacing agony. With clenched teeth he had grabbed his wrist, his thumb pressing into the screen with a cry on his lips.

Shinichi would die here; he was certain of that. This would be the end – he would never meet his soulmate, would never have the pleasure of their company or exchange their names. And he had felt guilt ripple through him at the knowledge that he would never arrive to the destined rendezvous he had started to look forward to with curiosity the last few months. His wrist started to prickle, and his fingers started to slip from his wrist as they become coated in blood. His last thought before he blackened out was an echoing apology.

When he woke up anew, disoriented and in the body of a child, his wrist was still raw and bleeding as the TiMER had fallen off. A large crack was spread across the little screen, and he had barely had the time to pocket the device and slipped it into his pocket before the guards discovered him.

Kuroba Kaito only got a TiMER due to a dare. Someone had offendedly commented how Kaito, the Ekoda high school's residential trouble maker and magician, could not possibly have a soulmate. What kind of mental person could possibly survive being with him? So, in order to shut them all up, Kaito dragged Aoko to the closest TiMER office to do just that.

Nakamori Aoko was not thrilled at the prospect – she loathed the device more than anyone he knew. Her mother had procured one in order to justify her wanting to divorce her father. When the TiMER proved that her parents had not been soulmates – her mother's TiMER had started the countdown, her father had not. And so the couple had split, to Aoko's disbelief and disappointment.

Perhaps they were better off, but she firmly believed that you did not need any pseudoscientific device to tell you who you could and could not love. Kaito had ignored her protest, only grinned sheepishly and talking about how he would take her out to Tropical land with the 20.000 yen he would earn if the countdown started.

He had suppressed his nervousness, not taking the whole thing serious as he sat there charming the employees with magic tricks. When the TiMER suddenly started to peep as it started the countdown ten minutes later, he felt gleeful for proving everyone wrong – that there was a person out there that even he was destined to be with. It was not before later, that he realized his heart was fluttering in anticipation.

A little over five hundred days – that would be a few months before his nineteenth birthday. He could not wait to meet them, to sweep them off their feet and shower them with flowers. His excitement diminished the day he learned of his father's alter-ego, and as he spiralled into the underworld as Kaitou KID and antagonized dangerous assassins, he wondered if maybe the whole TiMER thing had been a mistake after all. Not that he did not wish to meet them, one day, but to do so while he was the international thief with a reward on his head? He was worried he would be dangerous to whomever was out there.

And then there was the other issue –

"I think I made a mistake," his voice was barely above a whisper as he stared into the cup of coffee he was clutching between his palms. The grass was soft underneath his toes, and the sun hung low on the sky. Only a few marshmallow clouds drifted across.

"About what?" Aoko prompted when her friend did not say anything further. She lay on the grass, eyes wandering from the river to settle on the magician sitting next to her.

Kaito pursed his lips, not meeting her gaze. "With the TiMER. I'm not sure if it was such a good idea to get one so… flippantly."

She snorted. "I told you so, remember? The entire thing is idiotic. I knew you were a moron –"

He did not scowl as she spoke, and the lack of response made her sit up with a worry creasing between her brows. She put her hand on his knee and lowered her voice. "What provoked the sudden worry, Kaito? You only have seven months left, no?"

He gave a miniscule inclination of his head, and his eyes stayed glued on the cup. His fingers suddenly itched to trail his fingers against the thin device on his left wrist in a familiar gesture. "Yeah, but –"

Aoko pushed his shoulder gently but sternly. "Stop being a worry-hen. I'm sure she'll be great and love you – even if I don't support the means of getting to meet her."

Kaito's shoulders dropped, as concern started to churn in his stomach. "That's what I'm anxious about. I recently noticed I'm not –" he bit his lips and managed to keep down the distressed flush starting to creep up from his neck.

Aoko batted her eyes for a few seconds, and he could tell when understanding wavered through her. This time, it was her turn to avoid her eyes. "Oh – I see."

There was a throbbing silence between them for a long moment, before Aoko hesitantly breached the subject anew.

"So if –"

"I don't know," he mumbled softly, and then took another sip of the coffee. It had long since turned tepid, but he made no complaint.

"You never know," she bit her lip and peered at him through her eyelashes. "Your soulmate could be a boy."

He glanced at her with a disgruntled expression. "I highly doubt whatever program or calculation the TiMER works on, managed to figure out I was gay before I did. I could have sworn I was into girls when I answered the survey."

Aoko tapped her finger to her chin. "You never know," her voice was lit, in the way that suggested she was faking her cheerfulness in order to not depress him – and his heart fluttered in gratitude. He had once believed he had a crush on Aoko, but it had been nothing more than a passing fancy, even before he had installed the soulmate-seeking-countdown-device. "What if it was a girl? The brochure for TiMER's say Soulmate, doesn't necessarily need to be for a romantic partner? Maybe they would just be your best friend, a person that understand you more than anyone? Or something akin to that."

"I'd never switch you out as best friend, who else would I annoy so much?" Kaito replied flippantly, a warmth spreading across his chest in relief over her words. Perhaps she was right? Regardless of gender, or if they would actually fall in love. He was sure whoever possessed the TiMER connected to his, would be awesome.

"I pity them already," Aoko deadpanned, however she could not keep down the mock-displeased expression as they shared grinned a moment later.

Kaito did not let himself wallow in the uncertainty. He would meet him or her when he did, and he could not change that. He wondered what they were like. Were they anything like him? What was their interests? Would they loath him for being Kaitou KID or – god forbid – be a zealot of the elusive phantom thief?

Then, with only fifty-nine days left, the TiMER gave out a pitiful peep, before dimming and turned black. The numbers disappeared and was replaced with only emptiness where they had once been ticking down for what felt like eternity. With a frown, he had tapped the device a few times, waiting it to start back up.

He had not been alarmed, simply believed there was something wrong with the batteries – self-sufficient and charged by his body heat my arse – and went back to the TiMER Centre a few days later to ask for someone to fix the issue.

Kaito dutifully waited in queue, one hand clutching a cup of free water and he had sighed in boredom. His eyes wandered across the room, taking stock over the small-numbered inhabitants. A woman in her mid-thirties sat with a toddler in her lap, and a six year old girl sat next to her. She had dark hair, hazel eyes and tired creases around her eyes. Her shoulders were slightly hunched over and a large stain, most likely bile, on her old dress-shirt.

Something churned in the bottom of his stomach at the sight – this was a clear evidence of a woman who had taken terrible life decisions and partners on top of that. However, she clearly adored her children as indicated by the way she was constantly aware of every movement of both the toddler and the little girl. Kaito did not need to be a detective to deduce that she had come to TiMER for a last chance of true love – as conventional means had proven to be disastrous.

He almost stepped out of his spot in the queue to perform an unprompted magic show to lighten the mood, when it was finally his turn to approach the counter. The woman behind it had bleached blond hair, and wore a professional and tidy uniform as she gave him a friendly smile. There was a small plaque on her shirt reading: Imari Karen.

"Welcome to TiMERS! What can I do for you? Today we have a special 2 for 1 price on implantations if you brought a possible soulmate candidate with you –"

"No, no," he interjected quickly, keeping a friendly tone, "I already have a TiMER. The battery seems to be faulty," he pulled back the sleeves of his jacket to show her his blank device. "It just made a pitiful beep the other day, so I just want it to get it fixed. I only have 55 days left –"

Imari's smile had fallen as he spoke, and he trailed off as something flashed in her eyes that made a breath hitch in his throat for no reason.

"Is something wrong?" he prompted when she did nothing but stare at him with large eyes. He glanced down at the TiMER on his wrist, and back to her with a curious expression. When she excused herself a moment later with a stuttering apology that she had to get her supervisor, he had a foreboding feeling gnawing in his chest.

"Well, that was certainly odd," responded someone behind him, and Kaito cast a look behind him at the origin of the voice. It was a woman in her mid-twenties, with gum-pink hair that barely reached her chin. A yellow star was drawn under her right eye, in a mimic of a beauty-mark. She wore a black top and a beige military jacket and a skirt that barely reached her knees.

Kaito tilted his head in curiosity. "You don't say. You here for your implantation?" His eyes lingered on her wrists, however he could not see anything peak up from the long-sleeves of her jacket.

She grinned. "No, just silently protesting against this whole organization."

He lifted an eyebrow. "Don't believe in the existence of soulmates?"

He got a shake of her head in response. "I do believe they exist. I'm simply against the whole capitalism of true love. It's wrong what they are doing you know: selling love for money. Earning millions from desperate people. Like the mother of the two in the corner –" she nodded towards the woman Kaito had observed earlier " – she has clearly given up trying to find a man on her own. Love should happen naturally, not because some algorithm said so."

She had a point¸ Kaito thought. It was a popular protest against the whole TiMER enterprise. Although, in the mother's case, he might admit that perhaps it was better if she found someone she could know for a certain would be good with her kids, rather than jumping from one abusing man to the other.

The pink-haired suddenly flushed, and her eyes lowered. "Not that they are all that bad," she mumbled a second later in apology, as she remembered listening to the conversation between Kaito and the saleswoman – she knew he already had a TiMER implanted.

"To be honest," Kaito hummed with a dry smile, to show he took no offense. "I only have one 'cause I was sixteen, and someone dared me to."

She batted her eyes for a moment, before pursing her lips. "That's another issue. They should raise the age of consent – give people a better idea of exactly what they are signing into with this whole operation. I swear, in just ten years, we will have lost our social understanding of romance. By settling to know when we will find our soulmate, one will no longer need to chase them, earn their affection – hell, we won't know how to behave in a relationship when there is no point in trying and failing and checking the waters. The TiMER industry is destroying love. It's worse than arranged marriages."

Kaito ended up to only nod in response to her tirade – long since used to hearing Aoko come with similar arguments. He never got the chance to vocal any reply, as someone finally approached him. It was a woman in her early-forties and wore a pair of silver spectacles. Her face looked bland, however there was a clear twitch of uncertainty and distress in the quirks of her lips. The name plaque read: Yashiro Naohiro.

"Excuse me sir, would you come with us for a moment?"

Kaito felt thoroughly unsettled at this point. He shifted his feet, glanced behind him at the bubble-gum haired woman, and then settled his gaze back towards Yashiro. "What's this all about? I want an explanation before I go anywhere with you," he said slightly unkindly, letting an edge of steel into his voice. He suddenly had a burst of adrenaline, followed by the urge to fight or flight – and unware of the reason behind why he was unsettled.

The employee did not look happy at his adamant refusal. She looked like she wanted to be here about the same as he did. She fumbled with her hands for a brief moment. "You might want to sit down –" she tried, but when Kaito looked unyieldingly, she sighed in defeat. Behind him, he could feel Bubble-gum (as he had dutifully named her in his head at this point) peek over his shoulder in curiosity.

"I just want to know if you can change the batteries or something on my TiMER, and then I'll be out of your hair."

Yashiro lowered her gaze. "It's not that simple," she whispered with a low voice, barely audible. "There is only one reason for an already activated TiMER to turn black." She peered at him with a hint of pity creeping in, which only increased as the seconds continued to tick by. "Your soulmate's device disconnected and went offline."

Kaito furrowed his eyebrows, not understanding what she meant. His heartbeat pulsated in his throat from the confusion bubbling in his chest. "I don't –" he started to voice his perplexity , but was cut off abruptly as Bubble-gum swore behind him and suddenly she retreated from his personal space.

Yashiro looked lost as she continued staring at him with unblinking eyes. The sympathy was no longer hidden, and he could clearly read her unease.

"What?" he growled into the oppressive atmosphere that had settled between them, feeling as though he was in the dark about something important concerning him.

"TiMERs are powered by body temperature," Bubble-gum started to mumble behind his shoulder, and he turned to glance at her. The colour in her face had drained, and her eyes looked a little glazed over as they were glued to a spot over his shoulder. "If, for whatever reason it goes offline, it would mean the source of fuel for the device is extinguished."

Coldness spread through Kaito's stomach at her words, and it only took him a few excruciating moments before understanding clicked in fully. Vertigo suddenly swam in his eyes, and he grasped the counter of the desk before his feet could buckle underneath his weight. "No," he barely managed to croak out as his throat constricted tightly. His mind churned in utter disbelief, going from 'this has to be a morbid and evil trick' to silently begging to wake up from this nightmare.

He increased his pressure on the flat, stone surface of the desk he was grasping, uncaring about the sting of pain traveling up his arm. "They could just – be hospitalized after an accident, surely?" he gritted through clenched teeth, eyes intense as he stared at Yashiro in front of him.

The older woman cringed from the gaze. Her hands fluttered with hesitation in a clear indication that she would have preferred to have skipped work this morning, rather than dealing with disastrous news. "It's possible, but highly unlikely," she finally managed to stutter out. "It's usually rectified immediately though, in order to not cause any unfortunate distress."'

Kaito slammed his fist into the desk this time, his hackles rising from being talked to as though he was a child. "I want to know who they are. I have to make sure they are alright," he hissed – the anger came easy and effectively masked the disbelief and grief that would come once the fury had subsided.

Yashiro blanched backwards, all colour in her face draining. "We – we can't. That's not – it's not –"

A hand landed on his shoulder, and he almost backhanded Bubble-gum from the tension in his body. "You can't. I'm sorry. The whole point of the TiMER is to know the timeline as to when you meet. You cannot go against destiny so to speak. You will meet when you meet, there is no way to change that."

Kaito was not remotely appeased by the soft spoken words, and his eyes narrowed. "But if he's –" his voice choked for a moment, not knowing why he had attached a male-pronoun, and his words trailed off after that – refusing to say dead.

"Can I at least have a name, so I can make sure they are alive?" he mumbled instead with a soft tone. The anger drained out, leaving only exhaustion that seeped into his bones.

Yashiro lowered her eyes again. "I'm sorry, but we can't," she responded with a placating tone of voice – he knew she was not lying from the apologetic and sympathetic voice. "We don't store that information. In our time and day, anyone can be bribed or our computers hacked. There is no way to find out. I'm sorry."

Kaito's stomach dropped in disbelief, and tears prickled in his eyes from the sudden powerless feeling that washed through him. He shook off Bubble-gum's hand on his shoulder, before turning on the heels of his feet to stroll out. It was simply unfair – surely destiny had not come off course? With a determined expression, he fished up his cell phone from his pocket. His soulmate was still out there, he was sure of it, and he would find them. Consequences be damned.

"I need your help," he groused into the mobile as the recipient answered.

"I have done as requested, however I would like to voice my concerns and doubts about this entire objective. You may not like what you discover." Hakuba Saguru said with a mild and sympathetic tone that annoyed Kaito greatly. They were seated opposite each other in a café, and a stack of documents lay underneath the detective's fingertips, where he had been thrumming his fingers against the paper every few seconds. It was the only indication of Hakuba's hesitation and worry.

"I don't care," the thief responded without a second pause. His eyes were narrowed and cold as he glared at the detective – hoping he had not shifted opinion about helping out. "I need to know. It's imperative to my peace of mind." He leaned forwards on his elbows, and he scrutinized Hakuba's carefully neutral expression. "Would you have looked the other way?"

The detective lowered his gaze after a moment, and the fingers on his right hand reached down to pluck at the sleeves of his jacket on his left wrist where his own TiMER was located. Kaito knew his was still blank.

"I understand your worry, Kuroba. This is not an easy situation," Hakuba spoke slowly, formulating the words with care. "But you must understand the near improbable chances of success in your request. Whether or not your soulmate is still alive and well –" He held up a hand to stop Kaito from frowning as he continued. "We have to consider either possibilities. Hundred and fifty thousand people die every day. Pulling every single name in the entire world – and we must consider the chances that your soulmate might not even be Japanese or in the country for that matter – is impossible. And if they are simple hurt and hospitalized? Again, cannot know if they are in the Kanto region – or Japan. Their body might not even be recoverable for weeks to come. We lack sufficient information to track them down."

Kaito dropped his eyes and sat back in his seat. A mixture of disappointment, anger and sadness churned in his chest. He had known from the start that it was a lost cause, however – "I just need to know, Hakuba," he mumbled underneath his breath with a defeated expression. "Someone out there is either hurt or – or dead." His hand went to cover the small, plastic device on his wrist and he only barely managed to suppress the tears threatening to start to prickle in his eyes. "What if I never get to utter a simple 'hello' to a person who I'm supposed to care about deeply? I have forty-nine days left – forty – bloody – nine days left to find them, and possibly save them from whatever predicament they got into. I refuse to think them dead, I won't give up hope."

The detective was silent for a long while after Kaito's tirade. He took a sip of his tea, but his eyes never left the magician's face with a scrutinizing and intense expression as he mulled over his options – and Kaito left him to it. Instead his eyes were glued to the dark TiMER on his wrist, still mentally seeing the numbers ticking down slowly. However, now they felt rather like a ticking bomb when they in the past had promised bliss.

"Very well," Hakuba finally spoke. "I'll do what I can."

Relief blossomed in Kaito's chest, however it felt more like empty hope as the detective finally pushed the stack of documents of the information he had accumulated the last few days since the magician approached him for help.

Unsurprisingly, their search proved unsuccessful, but Kaito refused to give up hope. They had checked all the locale hospitals, morgues, and scanned over all the newspapers they could get their hands on. He sat up day and night in futile search for any clues as to what happened to his soulmate – and every day he woke up with disappointment churning in his chest as he stared at the blank TiMER. Part of him was hoping that it would come back online as the device on his destined partner was fixed.

No stones were left unturned, and today Kaito headed to the streets with a news article in his pocket. Hakuba had a point when he said there was a possibility his soulmate was not even in Japan, but that did not mean they should not pursue cases in Tokyo. Today's mission was to look into the disappearance of Kudou Shinichi, who had possibly vanished around the same time as Kaito's TiMER had gone offline. Although, his only source came from a webpage honouring the prodigious detective written by stalking fangirls.

The last public sighting of Kudou had happened that evening, and with no other current leads it could not do any harm to look into.

Kaito took the train to Beika at seven in the morning, unable to sleep as ants prickled underneath his skin, making him restless. Kudou Shinichi's home was not available for search through the internet – with due cause, as both his parents were famous. Good thing he had a detective on his side who could look up such information legally – Hakuba had been adamant that their search did not break any laws.

Not like Kaito would tell him if he did.

Kudou's closest friend was a classmate with the name Mouri Ran, and so, at a little over eight in the morning, he stood staring up at the apartment she shared with her father. It also served as a Detective Agency, as indicated by the large letters reading on the building.

The name Mouri Kogorou chimed familiar in his head, however he could not put his finger on where he had seen the name. There did not seem to be any lights from within either the agency or the apartment above, and Kaito sighed with frustration. He should have known being early might cause him to having to wait before he could make contact.

Looking around, he noticed a café down the road. The small plaque above the door read 'Poirot café'. With another glance towards the Mouri residence, he turned on his heels and entered the café. The smell of brewing coffee and waffles washed over him immediately. It was a cosy joint, with comfortable-looking chairs and sofa. On the plaque above the counter read the internet password.

The waitress smiled at him as he approached the desk. She had a kind and warm smile, and a petite face framed by light brown hair. She wore a soft, pink sweater underneath a traditional apron. A small a name-sign on her uniform read: Enomoto Azusa.

"Good morning, you are up early. What can I get you?"

Kaito smiled back, his shoulders slightly relaxing at the openness of her friendliness. His eyes scanned the menu for a brief moment. "I couldn't sleep. I'll just have a mocha, thanks." He paid for his drink and found a table by the window. The brown sofa, although not the prettiest furniture, was very comfortable, and he sighed into the seat.

Azusa came with his order a few minutes later, and he curled his hands around the warm and steaming cup. He doubted his search today would come up with any useful information. For every day that passed, it became a less and less a chance he would find them. Being a detective was definitely harder than he had imagined – every time a lead turned wrong, he felt his heart ache with disappointment. He just wanted one clue, was that really too much to ask for?

The café door opened with the melodic chiming of a bell, and Kaito's eyes flashed towards the door immediately. The woman who entered looked to be around seventeen, with lavender eyes and dark brown hair. There was a flush on her cheek from walking through the cold morning. She waved to Azusa behind the counter with a friendly 'good morning!'

Kaito was baffled for a moment at the similarity between the newcomer and his childhood friend, Nakamori Aoko. Except Aoko's hair was messy, and her clothing a mismatch of colours. It only took him a moment longer to recognize her as Mouri Ran. He bounced from his seat and approached her with swiftness.

"Excuse me, Mouri Ran-san?"

Ran turned to glance at him with a curious expression, and for a moment her mouth popped open in surprise. Something flickered across her face, before she flushed darkly. The magician was puzzled by the reaction – before realizing that, due to an odd resemblance between him and Kudou Shinichi, she might have mistaken him for her childhood friend for a fraction of a second.

"What can I do for you?" she asked with a friendly smile, her eyes flickering across his features as she took stock of him.

"Kuroba Kaito," he supplied at her inquisitive look. "Can I buy you a drink? I'd like to ask you a few questions if that's alright."

A frown started to form between her eyebrows, and she glanced from him towards the door. Despite the hesitation, she still had an affable smile on her lips. "If this is about a case, I'm not sure how much help I would be. You might want to talk to my dad instead. He's a detective –"

Kaito shook his head in reply. "No, that's alright. I wanted to talk to you specifically. I'm looking for someone."

Something must have read in his features, because a hint of sympathy crept into her face. She immediately stepped forward to place a hand on his elbow with a soft shimmering in her eyes. His heart fluttered in his chest unexpectant in surprise. His first assessment of the woman had not been mistaken – she really was a kind and friendly person.

"Of course, whatever I can do to assist you."

Kaito relaxed and payed for her drink. A few minutes later they sat down at the booth, and his fingers curled around the now half-full and tepid cup of mocha.

"When was the last time you saw Kudou Shinichi?" he jumped directly to his questions, deciding not to skirt around the issue.

Ran frowned, her eyebrows knitting together as her eyes darted to the surface of the table in thought. "The second of February," she responded after a moment, and the magician batted his eyes for a moment at the accuracy of her reply. Most would have answered with a vague three and a half week. It was clear evident she was used to having to answer with precision after both living with a detective as a father and her best friend being a sleuth also.

Then his heart sped up at the realization it was the same day his TiMER had gone offline. He curled his fingers around the cup in an almost painful grip. "Did – does Kudou have a TiMER?" he blurted out unintelligently, the prickling hope and urge to know getting the better of him.

Ran leaned backwards with a displeased expression and her eyes glazed over with coldness. "You are not one of those detectives who try to track down client's soulmate for money are you? Because that's just despicable –"

"No, no," he interjected quickly, his hear still hammering in his chest. "Of course not. That's not why –" he trailed off, unsure what he should tell her. He agreed full-heartedly with her distaste of those detective agencies who did that.

She relaxed when he denied the accusations, however there were still an attentiveness and protectiveness of her shoulders that told him she was still on the defensive over her friend. He needed to thread careful if he wanted any more answers from her.

"What is this all about, Kuroba-san?"

Kaito hesitated. He did not want to divulge the whole truth – he had no desire for sympathy from a stranger. However, he felt he needed to convey something to keep her from getting up and leave. He decided on a half-truth. "A friend of mine's TiMER's went offline on the second of February," – her eyes widened as she recognized what that meant – "I just want to help them figure out what happened."

Ran's eyes shimmered with tears as a sympathetic expression took over from the previous, hidden suspicion. "That's terrible. I wish I could be more of help, but I know for a fact Shinichi is still alive and well. He just had to travel away for an investigation, we keep in touched by phone."

The magician deflated immediately, as though someone had let out all the air in a balloon. His shoulders hunched over in clear disappointment. For a second there, he had believed he had finally gotten on the right path. The rest of their conversation blurred over in his mind, and he quickly excused himself a few minutes later.

Ran's hopeful; "Good luck on your search!" followed him out the door. He went home that evening with disappointment as the day had proven to be unproductive, and with a day less till the countdown ran out.

Time was running out, and he had only fourteen days left when Aoko approached him with worry. Kaito had black circles around in his eyes and clearly lost several pounds the last few weeks. His hands shook slightly from jumpiness and exhaustion – he had skipped as many classes he could afford in his desperate search. His entire Kaitou KID persona had been put on the shelf for now.

"Kaito," she mumbled with worry, trying to coach him out of his chair with firm hands. "You need to get some rest."

He shook his head adamantly, not letting his gaze of the ipad-screen on his lap. "I can't. Not until I –"

Aoko frowned and her lips thinned in displeasure. "You are ruining your health over this, you know. It's not good for you, you should just –"

"Let it go?" this time he did turn to search her face with a dull expression. "How can I just let it go? Somewhere out there –"

"You don't know that," Aoko grimaced. "It's been weeks. He or she is most likely already dead. You should put it behind you."

Kaito felt a sting of anger curl in his chest at her words, and he pulled his lips backwards in a sneer, however she interrupted him before he could voice his fury.

"You never even met them, Kaito," she spoke through clenched teeth. "If it wasn't because of that, that device, you wouldn't even know about their existence." She kneeled down on the floor and grabbed his hands. Her voice was softer this time. "Please. You can't let some pseudoscience control your life like this. Hell, I thought you didn't really care about it all before this."

The anger subsided, and he dropped his gaze as he let the exhaustion wash through him. She had a point, he had been rather lax about it all. Never really thought love at first glance existed. He had always just been curious who this person was, wanted to meet them – getting to know them. "You are right, Aoko," he mumbled. "I just – I just wanted to say hello."

She squished his hand with a soft expression. "I know, Kaito. Someone died, it's sad – terrible even. But you cannot let this tragedy consume your life. I'm sure, whoever it was, wouldn't want you to suffer because of them."

He could not meet her eyes, only gave a short inclination of his head. She was right – of course she was. Kaito had a tendency to obsess over things, but he had only wanted to know the mystery person's name. He felt as though he had lost something important – and perhaps it had been better if he had never gotten the damn TiMER in the first place. Then he wouldn't have known someone had died – people died all the time after all. Going through life knowing that your soulmate was already dead, instead of spending it trying to search for them?

It was unfair.

He would have rather lived not knowing.

"I hate this," he mumbled into the air, and he clenched his fist.

Aoko stood and tugged on his arm till he stood. "I know, Kaito. I know. Let's get you to bed."

He flashed her a tired smile and was gently herded towards his bedroom. His spine ached from bending over the kitchen table for god knows how many hours. He would have to figure out a way to live with this knowledge, somehow.

Time continued to pass, and in order to keep himself busy the last few days, he threw himself into planning a new heist. If he could not meet his soulmate – he was going to mark the day. The pearl The Black Star was the perfect target – and Aoko was even the one who forced him out to the museum to keep him from sulking.

He noticed immediately that it was a fake, however he had no intention of changing the date. He might not be able to steal it that night, but that was alright.

Kaito's heart hammered as he waited, looking down at the Haido hotel rooftop from the building ajar. The cold breeze caught his mantle and it fluttered around him. The charm on his monocle brushed against his chin almost softly. It tickled slightly, but he ignored it. His eyes were strained on the little device on his wrist – if he wanted to, he could pay to get it surgically removed. He had decided not to, rather kept it as a reminder that everyone had someone who loved them – and as such he would be sure no one he cared about would die on his watch again.

It was the 31st of March – at least for the next three and a half minutes. If the TiMER had still been active, it would run out at midnight. His heart quivered painfully in his chest at the reminder. He wondered slightly if anyone had been able to deduce his heist note – although, from the amount of crows in the sky, he doubted it as they were concentrated in the wrong part of town.

Jii-chan stood silently in the shadows – knowing that now was not the time for a conversation with his young charge.

Kaito continued staring at the blackened out screen as the phantom numbers ticked down to zero. For a fraction of a second, he almost heard the sound of a melody playing – however it was nothing but imagination created from wistful thinking. Today – the first of April – would have been the day he was to meet the person he had been waiting for the last year and a half.

For a moment, he wondered resentfully if the whole soulmate thing had been a giant April fools just for him. 'Here is the one person that will love and understand you above all. And woops, you can't have him after all. Jokes on you for getting your hopes up!'

He shook his head sharply to escape the bitterness. He extended his glider and flew off the roof without a second thought. The wind flew around him in almost like a caress. As he approached the Haido rooftop, he retracted the wings and landed softly on the ground. He was slightly surprised to see he was not alone.

There was a small child standing opposite of him on the rooftop. The breeze made the fringes of his hair and his clothes dance, and lights from the city underneath them reflected in the glasses. He looked to be no older than seven, and was small even for that age.

As Kaito approached with curiosity – wondering if the boy belonged to a guest and had simply gotten lost in the labyrinth of the building. His heart fluttered of his own accord in worry – this was not a place for a kid.

"Yo, bouya. What are you doing in a place like this?"

The boy suddenly turned around, and before Kaito could react, he had ignited what looked like a rocket in a tin can. Even before he had made the connection, the rocket flew and exploded into multiple coloured lights.

"Fireworks!" the child exclaimed with glee, however, instead of watching the show, his eyes darted back to watch the approaching figure. The light-show reflected in the glasses, and Kaito suddenly got the curious feeling –

"Look. There's a helicopter! It looks like they've seen us," the chirp fell from the tongue with a swiftness, and there was a certain edge to his face, a twitching of his lips, that sent a shudder down the magician's spine.

"Kid. You are not an ordinary brat," he mumbled almost breathlessly in surprise. Only his many years working on perfecting his poker-face kept him from showing his bafflement. He reigned himself in quickly – now was not the time nor place to contemplate this curious meeting.

"I'm Edogawa Conan, a detective," he said, no longer trying to hide the smirk. He spoke the words with such pride and diligence that told the thief that the child meant every word.

"Oh?" Kaito responded, a grin etching itself into his face. He had not expected a new adversary for the evening, but now that he had been able to observe the situation, he felt a shiver of thrill down his spine. Something told him that Edogawa Conan was a unique individual – the boy had figured out his heist note all on his own. That had been entirely unexpected.

And when he had effortlessly seen through Kaito's disguise a few days later anew on-board the cruise ship, the thief felt nothing but the thrill of the chase. The kid was dangerous, vicious, smart, possibly psychotic, but it would be an interesting game.

Somewhere between this new development and dodging footballs, Kaito had forgotten all about the TiMER and the lost soulmate.