Now onto the real part of the story… While the last chapter may seem to have been off-topic, it is a necessary introduction.

The names will be their Japanese ones, mainly because their names are really stupid (in my opinion) when converted into American names, and their voices are really annoying in the American-dubbed version as well. (Sorry to all the people who actually like that but I find the change really annoying.)

I will try and make sure the characters are not OOC. : )

Disclaimer: The Supreme Court didn't believe me...

This chapter is told from 3rd point of view.

The Faker

In Beika City, there are many strange characters. One of the strangest, however, is the 7-year-old boy called Conan Edogawa. At first glance, he is just a young elementary school student. Average grades, brown hair, blue eyes, and glasses. But if you were to hang out with him, you would notice that his speech, manner, and knowledge were of someone that is much older that him.

The truth is, Conan Edogawa is actually high-school student Shinichi Kudou. His parents are the famous Yusaku and Yukiko Kudou. Shinichi is known as 'the detective of the east' for his abilities to solve cases that even the police themselves could not solve. Unfortunately, due to the mysterious Black Organization, he was forced to take a mysterious drug, called Apotoxin 4869 (APTX4869), which de-aged him, making him, once again, a 7 year-old. To hide the fact he was alive, he donned glasses and became 'Conan Edogawa,' a first grader in Teitan Elementary School. He quickly became acquainted with Mitsuhiko, Genta, and Ayumi. Together, they formed the Detective Boys (AKA Shounen Tantei). They get the occasional case in which Conan does most of the work.

Shinichi (Conan) now lives with his childhood friend and crush, Ran Mouri, and her unsuccessful detective father, Kogoro Mouri. Conan uses a tranquilizer dart and a bow-shaped voice changer to solve cases Kogoro gets, causing him to be called 'the famous Sleeping Kogoro,' much to Conan's amusement.

But today, Conan was not amused. "Why, Ran-neechan?" He whined, staying true to his act.

"Because I can't just leave you here all alone! The babysitter is a close friend of one of my friends, Aoko Nakamori. Besides, Kaito Kuroba is a very talented magician so I am sure you wont get bored." She replied with a tone of finality.

That bastard… who needs a babysitter? Conan thought, while saying, "A magician! That's so cool! I can't wait!" He jumped up and down excitedly.

Ran smiled, and then, as if on que, the sounds of footsteps climbing up stairs, followed by a few knocks on the door were heard. Still smiling, Ran walked over to the door. When she opened it, Conan was surprised to see a teen that looked surprisingly alike to him. So close, that if he didn't notice the different hairstyle, he would have thought he was seeing himself.

The boy, who was obviously Kaito Kuroba, smiled. In his hand, a rose appeared. Much to Conan's annoyance, Ran blushed as he gave it to her. Smiling, Ran said, "I'm so sorry about the short notice Kuroba-kun! My father's out playing mahjong (sp?) and Sonoko invited me to a concert that I have been dying to go to. It will only be about 4 or 5 hours, and Conan's a real sweetheart."

Kaito looked in to see a rather pissed-off looking boy around 7 years old glaring at him, but he quickly made a confetti rain over him, misinterpreting his anger.

Conan, remembering his '7 year-old act,' quickly made a smile of wonderment light up his face. "That's so cool Kaito nii-san!" He exclaimed. "Where did that come from?"

Kaito smiled at the boy. "The air."

Conan then proceeded to jump in the air, trying to grab imaginary confetti. I think my okaa-san would be proud. Conan thought, inwardly grimacing at the childish behavior he was exhibiting.

"Well, I'm off!" Ran said, and ran out of the room, closing the door as she went.

Conan then let out a sigh of relief. He then held out his hand and stated, "I'm Conan Edogawa. Yoroshiku."

Bending down, Kaito shook Conan's hand and said, "Kaito Kuroba." He then turned around with a bored look, as Conan expected he would once Ran was gone. "Man," Kaito muttered after plopping down onto one of the sofas, "How can I entertain a kid for five hours?"

Walking up to him, Conan said under his breath, "You can pretend to be happy to be here."

Kaito looked over at the boy after hearing his comment, but was met with a smiling face. "Ne, Magician-san, can you teach me a magic trick?" Kaito laughed slightly when Conan said 'Magician-san,' and then turned to the boy.

"No, no, Conan-kun. A magician can never reveal his secrets. But he can entertain the crowd and let them puzzle over the secrets he shows." He said with a mock-serious expression.

With a slightly down face, Conan asked, "Are you sure?" His question was met with another face of mock-seriousness. Conan hung his head, thinking, I hate being treated like a child.

Kaito, slightly alarmed, said, "I can hold a mini magic show just for you!" But was quickly countered by, "Nah, lets go to the park and play soccer!"

Kaito sweat-dropped, thinking, This kid…

They reached Beika Park at around 11:30 A.M. Conan turned to Kaito with a beaming face, "Wanna watch me juggle a soccer ball?" (A/N: Or football, whatever you [the reader] call it in your country.) Kaito shrugged and sat on a nearby park bench.

Soon, however, he was gaping in amazement at his skill. Right foot forward, left foot back, two headers, left foot forward twice, right foot forward. All in quick succession.

"Ne, Magician-san, do you want to try and beat me?" Conan turned to the teen, smiling.

"Is this a challenge?" Kaito asked, eyebrows raised.

"No, because you have no chance at winning." He stated smugly.

Kaito, who had just been getting up from his perch on the bench, crashed to the ground. "You brat…" He growled with a malicious gleam in his eye that only those who are close to him would recognize.

Laughing, Conan ran off, thinking, I sound and act so much like a kid that if I didn't know 'Conan' I would have fell for this. It is becoming easier to do this. Not really knowing how to react to this newfound knowledge, he ran on half proud (at his acting skills), and half depressed (at the fact it was easier to act like a little kid).

Kaito caught up to the kid sometime after that. (How fast can this kid run?) He then went ahead and bought the boy a princess tiara and stuck it firmly on his head, with a matching magic wand that he forced the boy to carry. Laughing at the sight, he took a picture with his cell phone of the comical but sullen 7 year old. Hand in hand (with no romantic feelings), Kaito led the boy to an arcade as a half-apology.

"You just want to go in there yourself, don't you." The boy stated.

"Yup!" Kaito replied, not trying to deny anything, just bringing the boy inside. Well, one couldn't really call it bringing. In fact, the action consisted of an excited Kaito dragging a boy with a flat-eyed face. (A/N: can't really describe what it looks like… hopefully, dear reader, you know what expression I am talking about due to the fact that Conan uses it quite often.) If any person witnessed the action, they could tell that the flat-eyed boy was thinking, What a little kid.

"Tadaima!" Ran called as she opened the door. She was somewhat surprised to find that nobody was there, but relaxed when she saw the note written by Kuroba that stated:

-Ran

I am with Conan at the arcade. Call when you get this message and we will head home. (Conan: He planned this all along!)

-Kaito Kuroba

Ran quickly picked up the phone and dialed Kaito's number. Kaito picked up on the third ring, and he agreed to get back quickly with Conan.

As Kaito and Conan walked home, (the tiara and wand had been discarded at the arcade,) Conan had to listen to the teen insult his videogame-playing skills. "How can someone run into the ghosts so quickly? (Pac-man) What kind of idiot drives a car into so many other cars that the game had to make the yellow police car drive the other racers around for their own protection? (Nascar) You do realize you have to hit the deer, not the trees, right? (Deer Hunting game)"

Conan glared at the teen. Well it's not my fault those stereotypical ghosts were so damn predictable. (I hate you Pinky!) Those other cars did not move out of the way fast enough. And that deer game was rigged, or I would have shot each and every deer between the eyes. Of course, none of these thoughts were voiced, and he had to walk in silence, except for one comment, "Your worse than my friends." To that, Kaito just laughed some more.

I suspect he will never be hired by anyone to babysit more than once.

But the turn of events that happened when they got back proved the little detective wrong.

They had been greeted warmly by Ran, and she paid Kaito 'For his troubles' despite his protests. When he was going to leave, Ran said, "Thank you so much for taking care of Conan!"

"No, don't worry, I enjoyed myself." He replied. "In fact, I wouldn't mind doing it again."

"How wonderful! What do you think, Conan-kun?" Ran asked, looking over.

But just as Conan was about to express absolute denial, Kaito said "Of course he does, right?" with a full smile. Conan looked up at him questionably, but receive no reply. He never would have guessed the ulterior motive that Kaito had. At that moment, he was thinking about how much sway Detective Mouri had over the police and how easily he could lay out his traps if he tagged along with Conan, who was most likely going to be with the Detective.

Conan just shrugged his shoulders and put his thoughts away in a lockbox in his head. "See you then Magican-san!" he said brightly.

Once Kaito was gone and Conan felt less suppressed, he turned to Ran asking, "What's for dinner?" He was completely unaware of the phantom thief that was laughing while walking to the train station. The thief was thinking how lucky he was to land a job like this. But, dear reader, it is, to this day, unknown whether or not that was true.

A/N: I left the names forward (first name, last name) for the heck of it. It sounds better for him to be called Edogawa Conan and Kaito to be Kuroba Kaito and Ran to be Mouri Ran (if you follow), but I felt that for the sake of people who are not used to that, I would just write it first, last.

-_-'

Thanks for reading… R&R a given and repetitive necessity… Feel free to tell me what I should do better. : )

For those who do not know, here is my rough translations from interpretation.

Tadaima-I'm back!

Nee-chan-a honorific for an older sister, or a somewhat respectful way of addressing a young woman of an older age (uhmmmmm I dunno… you get it though right?)

Nii-san-a honorific for an older brother, or a somewhat respectful way of addressing a young man of an older age (e-heh….)

-san~Respectful honorific of someone older than you, or someone with great or admired skills

Also, there is some manga-like actions… just a warning (ie sweat drop)