Happy Lurker Day!

Thus you get updates ^_^

Thank you all for your great reviews. I'll try to keep updates pretty consistent (Me? Consistent updates?) At least until I get to a point where the outline isn't laid out and partially written up (There is a ways to go before we have that however.)

Again with a shortish chapter. They'll be increasing exponentially at some point, but since we have a few people to cover and I didn't want to break the flow of things snippets for now.

Means your updates are more frequent though.

Disclaimer: I toy with them, I don't own them. I wouldn't be a starving artist and getting two hours of sleep a night if I did that's for sure.

"WHY! I don't understand WHY he had to return after nine years!!" A newspaper flew across the room hitting the far wall with a 'smack'. "I thought he was dead! Dad SWORE he saw the body plummet into the ocean! I mean its not like I wanted KID to die necessarily, but at least he was gone! So why does he have to return now!! Gah…"

Nakamori Aoko sunk into her chair and buried her head into her hands. She could've been shaking with either anger, tears or maybe both. Murder was written on her face regardless…

The other student's in the class had backed away feeling the storm cloud that was gathering over the girl's head. They knew the Nakamori temper far too well to dare approach her. Keiko frowned from her safe haven a few desks over, "Aoko?" She piped up warily.

"Dammit!! And on this day too-" she said. There was a sniff this time and she fought back what was definitely tears this time. She was obviously attempting to hide it from the class as she looked at her hands pointedly. She had told herself she was fine that morning. Aoko had woken up and swore she'd be alright… Even at the shrine when she'd stopped to say her prayers she'd managed to pull through, but after seeing this?

Well at least that explained why her father had already left for work by the time she woke up.

Why did the stupid KID have to choose this date to come back?

"Aoko are you sure you'll alright? Maybe we should go down to the nurse…" Keiko ventured a little closer worry overcoming her fear. Aoko was known for her ability to pull through anything. This was the girl who could stand beside a murder and not so much as give it a second look. She would face ghosts or criminals with that same hard look her father was known for and seeing the girl break down like that in class. Well that was new.

"I'll be fine Keiko-" she with a shake of her head. Rubbing her eyes one more time, she pulled out her notebook and tried to look productive.

Aoko didn't understand why it still bothered her so much. It'd been six years now, and they'd always argued and teased each other anyway. For all she knew maybe they wouldn't even be friends anymore. Maybe he would've been a jerk. Maybe he'd be off with some other girl who was prettier and friendlier and less… well violent for one.

Maybe he would just ignoring her completely, and she'd hate him with the same loathing she usually reserved for people like KID.

He might've even moved anyway and never talked to her again…

Or- whispered her treacherous mind- Or maybe they would have been best friends. Maybe they would have grown up together and been all but inseparable. Maybe they would have been planning where they would go to college together, getting a flat together… Maybe they would have been dating. Friendships like that rarely lasted forever, but in this case? Would he still have been the teasing idiot he was when he was five and pulling flowers out of thin air?

She really might as well be in love with a ghost.

No Kuroba Kaito was gone, and had been gone for years, too many years, and Aoko was the last person who really even cared, but then after so much time it was silly to dwell and she thought she'd gotten over it.

She was strong after all, she was Inspector Nakamori's daughter and had always pulled through no matter what the situation. She'd all but raised herself and him, and she'd done it alone-- it wasn't something most people could claim.

Except bloody Kaitou KID had decided to pick today to come back and steal her father again just when she thought she might finally have him back for good. Just as life was starting to look up for the first time in years. Bloody KID flying in with his heists on top of everything else going on in her life…

It just wasn't fair.

Just wasn't…

Of all days to start his heists again, he just had to choose the anniversary of her best friends death.

Six years to the day that Kuroba Kaito's house had burned down… with both he and his mother inside.

A bloody heist and now she wouldn't even have her father when she got home.

An empty house, and no one left at all.

No… it wasn't fair.

But then… hadn't life already proven that to her?

Author's Note: And so we meet Aoko. We'll meet her again, no worries and get far more insight into what she's done/changed because of the lack o' Kaito. And no… no peoples this is not a ghost story… not that any of you thought that but I thought I'd straighten that out incase you started getting the wrong impression XP