~Hello everybody and welcome to chapter 4 of VMMM. Sorry for the delay. As I stated last chapter lifes been kind of busy so I have not really had much time to write. I am attempting to remedy this situation, but unfortunately I have also been dealing with some writers block in the mean time.

Anyway thanks to all my loyal readers who have followed/reviewed so far. As well as to all the ghosts/guests out there who have viewed this piece. I never expected it to reach 100 views let alone 500! Im really thankful for all you guys!

Special thanks once again to my good friend Gadzooksthedragon11 who has been a huge support with this piece. She has helped me numerous times with getting through some of the trickier scenes to write, and is helping unofficially beta this piece. Youre the best Zookie :D

Ah now on to some questions that were raised last chapter. I have put a new disclaimer up in Chapter 1 as to the "pairings" of VMMM. If there is any further confusion as regards to those feel free to pm me. I will restate this now though to be clear: This is a non exclusive pairing story. No one pair will take priority over another. I am open to any/all suggestions but know now that this is an "everyone" friendly story so romance will not be going beyond a few kisses/teasing words and gestures. I apologize for any confusion in that regard.

As to the question raised about where in canon this story takes place… well I kind of answered that a bit in chapter 3's disclaimer but this story takes place some time after the "Scarlet Return" Arc. I will be the first to admit however that I have not seen/read all of DC up to this point so if there are any inconsistencies I apologize. Its hard to remember everything in a 900+ chapter story, I am afraid I am only human.

Finally to answer that last bit there MysticCritic: Kaito was caught between a rock and a hard place. It should be explained a bit in this chapter, but he does feel remorse about using Ran's feelings for this "stranger" against her. He just felt he didn't have any other choice in the matter as telling her his real name would of risked him getting revealed to Conan back at the detective agency. He could of gone with an alias potentially but then he might of gotten in trouble for other reasons. (I mean he was running from them…pretty dang suspicious)

In retrospect he really should of gone with an alias…but hindsight is always 20/20. He was thinking on the fly and made a rather critical error. Youll see some of the aftereffects of his poor decision pretty soon I'd say ;)

Well with all that out of the way general disclaimer: I own none of these characters. All credit belongs to their original author Gosho Aoyama. Please support Detective Conan/Magic Kaito by whatever means you can!

Thanks and enjoy!~

~*You and You waltz*~

She must be imagining things. Ran could not believe that Shinichi was right here walking beside her.

Sonoko followed silently behind her friend and her would be date. She sighed lightly as she watched Ran lead Shinichi down the street. So, her friend would have a date to the dance after all. Well that was fine... that was what she wanted in the first place, right? In truth she was still holding out, hoping that perhaps her beloved Kid-Sama would show up. She had taken a hint from her uncle's book after all, and set up the perfect bait for KID to appear. Though her intentions were far different from her uncle's.

She sighed once more watching the two in front of her, nervously hold hands with one another as they strolled down the street together. She was surprised at how silent Shinichi was acting. Normally he would be rattling on about something or other, usually related to a case he had worked on. Something was off about him, or her name wasn't "deduction queen Sonoko Suzuki." She decided it was best to keep her eye on him, just in case.

Meanwhile Kaito felt Sonoko's suspicious gaze on his back as he was pulled along the street by Ran. He was pretty sure Ran had just chosen to ignore her own suspicions due to her drive to spend time with this "Shinichi". Inside he was feeling pretty conflicted.

He looked at Ran and all he could see was that sweet, ignorant smile on her lovely face. Once again, there was a certain bit of guilt in his heart, as well as anger at the boy who actually made her feel this way. Though, that brought a strange thought to his mind. "What would cause Shinichi to want to run away from you?" he wondered to himself.

For some reason his mind wandered to his own situation. Could it be he was trying to protect her? From what little he knew of the guy, it was more than likely he made a few enemies with his prideful intellect alone. A detective's occupation in some ways was even more dangerous than that of a Phantom thief's. At least with his "job" he remained partially anonymous.

For some reason a picture of a certain tiny tantei came to mind. The Bell Tree train incident still rang strongly in the back of his mind. Tantei-kun had a penchant for sticking his nose where it didn't belong. Perhaps this Shinichi guy was no different.

It was possible he had gotten involved with some shady individuals similar to the ones that were after Pandora. Sure it sounded crazy, but after all he had been through in the past year or so, did he really have room to talk? If that were the case, then he and Shinichi were probably even more similar than they first appeared. Heck he would actually like to meet this guy now. Perhaps they could help each other out in some way. He chuckled lightly at the thought. What a pair they would make.

"What are you laughing about?" Ran broke him from his thoughts, tilting her head to the side.

Kaito paused briefly. He had forgotten for a moment where he was. "Oh nothing I was just thinking about this book I read recently," he chuckled again, a bit nervously this time.

Ran lowered her eyebrow at him, scowling a bit. "Oh, I didn't know Sherlock Holmes could be funny."

Kaito groaned internally at this. In truth he had read all the Sherlock Holmes books out of boredom once on Hakuba's recommendation. Never again. They were far less entertaining than his own personal favorite Lupin series. He stuck his lip out somewhat in a small pout. "I do read other things than Sherlock you know..." he wasn't sure if this was true or not of the detective, but he refused to believe that anyone would be that single minded. Heck, Hakuba had admitted he did read other stuff, he just really looked up to the fictional detective.

Ran smiled kindly at him, holding in her own laughter. She knew very well his love for the fictional detective knew no bounds. Though, she did admit she had seen him read several other series over the years including his close second favorite Detective Samonji. Still she couldn't resist the urge to tease him a bit. "That's true, though, it IS all you seem to talk about. Last time you called you spent an hour on the phone just ranting about him. Just like the time you took me on that date to Tropical Land."

Kaito's eyes widened involuntarily at this. Was she for real? Man this Shinichi guy was seriously something else. What kind of guy brings a girl to the happiest place in Japan only to talk about a fictional character the whole time? Even HE was not that crazy. Still, he would have to play along if he wanted to look legitimate. "Are you still on about that? I told you I was sorry..."

Ran shook her head "You never apologized for that, or for running away and disappearing at the end of the night! You have been running from me ever since." she glared lightly at him though in truth she had long since forgiven him for that. Still she loved to see him shrink under her gaze.

Once again Kaito felt his eyes widen, though he quickly recovered his composure. He held up his arms waving her off in a "cool guy" act. "Well, I'm sorry, okay? I told you I have a lot of cases and a really important one just happened to come up that night." In truth, he was just improvising at this point as well as mixing in a bit of his own personality. How many times had he made excuses to Aoko on heist nights, only for her to yell at him the next day? It was strange, the more he talked with Ran, the more this guy's situation felt similar to his own.

Ran harrumphed. "You really think you're something else, don't you, oh great Meitantei," she said sarcastically glaring deeply at him, all earlier teasing lost. "You and that ego of yours! Ugh, sometimes, I just can't stand it!" She kicked at a nearby post breaking it in half as nearby onlookers quickly rushed out of the way.

Kaito stared horrified at the nearby post, but his instincts kicked in once more as he began a new back and forth exchange with Ran. It was just as he had suspected, Ran clearly had strong feelings for this Shinichi guy. Why else would she try to goad him into an easy fight? Still, he was not about to back down either. Kaitou Kid never backs down from a challenge. Though, there was no way he was going to let this fight get too physical. He was still unsure of the detective's skills in that category.

Sonoko, who had been watching this scene play out, grinned once more. Though she still felt like Shinichi was acting weird, she couldn't help but laugh at the two's exchange. Seemed that everything was back to normal with them as she watched her two friends argue with one another over nothing in particular.

Kaito was unsure whether Ran had caught on to the tactic he was using to pry information from her about this "Shinichi" guy. He was honestly intrigued with him now. Seemed he and Ran had quite the history together. Thus, Kaito used simple guarded questions to garner what he could about the guy. If anything he could at least try and track him down. After all, it was just another fun quirk of the trade.

Speaking of which... despite the near hour that had passed since the start of this exchange, he had still managed to gather little to no information about his true target: "Cupid's Crown". The description that Keiko had given earlier had intrigued him. It sounded as it had potential to hold a large jewel within it. He had managed to prod a bit of information about the dance from Ran during their "argument", but had yet to find out about the crown itself.

He glanced at Sonoko, who seemed to be lost in her own little world at this point. The three of them had stopped at a little cafe at the edge of the southern shopping district called Café Soleil, to chat and have something to eat. Kaito had taken notice of how Sonoko kept pushing he and Ran together for some quality time. It was beginning to grain on him.

Perhaps if he could just get Sonoko alone for a bit, he could explain the current situation to her. After all she probably had the information he really needed, and he knew very well that she would never turn him in. He hated to almost use her like this, but from what little he had gathered, it seemed his hypothesis about her being the one to challenge him was correct after all. Therefore, there was no backing down now.

At that point, luck decided to shine on Kaito once more as Ran's phone began to ring. "Huh? Who could that be?" Ran grabbed at her phone. "Oh, looks like it's Kazuha. Hold on guys I've got to go take this call. Don't go anywhere," Ran directed that last statement in Kaito's direction, but her smile indicated she trusted him, a fact that made Kaito's stomach churn with guilt.

Oblivious to 'Shinichi's' guilt Ran walked away, picking up her phone. "Moshi moshi! Kazuha it's been a while! I'm actually really glad you called I needed to talk to you about..." she grinned lightly into her phone.

Her grin soon soured as she listened to Kazuha's frantic voice. "It's terrible Ran...that stupid ahou what was he thinkin'!" She had a feeling she knew where this was going...

~*Symphony no 6 Pastorale 1*~

Meanwhile at a train station near the central part of Tokyo metropolitan district...

"Come on Kudo why don't ya pick up yer phone," Heiji grumbled a bit into his phone as he walked deeper into the outer shopping district.

He had decided to take a rather spontaneous trip to go see his best friend and rival. He had left shortly after lunch that day. Originally he had planned on surprising him and just showing up out of nowhere, but then he remembered that Kudo often went out on outings with his girl. Still, when he had tried earlier, it had gone straight to voicemail. Of course, that was to be expected as he couldn't exactly answer that phone on a regular basis. It was mostly just for "emergencies", as he put it.

Heiji grinned as he imagined his friend's annoyed face behind those goofy fake glasses of his. There were times he truly felt sorry for him, being stuck in the situation he was in. Still, he had to admit it there was a bit of humor in his situation. A teen detective, with an intellect higher than most adults, in a child's body. There had to be some irony there.

Finally there was an answer on the other end of the line. Heiji grinned as he heard his friends young voice answer him. "Oi Hattori what is it you want? You know better than to be calling me like this. Haven't you ever heard of a text message?" Heiji grinned once more, continuing to imagine little Conan's face on the other side of the line.

"Hello to ya too, Kudo. Where ya been the past few hours?" He ignored the grumbling he heard from the other end, leaning casually against a building while he continued to chat with his best friend.

"Seriously? Hattori I really don't have time for this right now. I'm out and about with Haibara at the moment and we were just about to..." there was some unidentified shuffling on the other end of the line. Seemed Kudo was out in the city as he had expected. Though, he was surprised he was with that little girl as opposed to Ran.

"That's the thanks I get fer travelin' all the way here? I'm wounded Kudo." Despite his words Heiji was grinning from ear to ear, especially because he was pretty sure he knew what his friend was going to say next.

As expected Kudo sighed in exasperation " You're here? In Tokyo? I seriously can't believe you Hattori. Look, where are you at? I'll meet you there." There was what sounded like an argument to that statement in the background though Heiji couldn't make out the words. Sounded like the little nee-chan was pretty peeved at him as well. Though, she always sounded like that, so it wasn't that surprising.

"Well considering I jus' got off the main Tokyo train line, where do ya THINK I am?" Heiji grinned. No way was he going to let the "Great Detective of the East" off that easily. In truth, he could just as easily grab a cab and meet Kudo back at the Professors back in Beika, but where would the fun in that be?

"Bakayaro...you can't be serious right now," Kudo grumbled on the other end of the line which only made Heiji all the more pleased with himself. Kudo sighed. "At the very least, could you give me a landmark to work off of?"He sounded tired.

Maybe it would be better to let him off a little easy this time… Nah. Kudo was always claiming Tokyo to be the better city than Osaka. If he loved it all that much, it wouldn't take him long to find him. He paused a minute trying to think of a way to describe the area without giving too much away. He heard a growl on the other end of the line "Hattori..."

Heiji laughed "No need ta bite my head off. So, across the street from where I'm standin' there's a big red bricked building. There's also plenty of tall skyscrapers around. That enough clues for ya?" Heiji grinned. Honestly the information he gave him was so generic it could mean just about anywhere. Still he knew his friend well enough that he wouldn't take long to put the pieces together.

Indeed mere moments later "...got it. So you're in Marunouchi near the Art museum. Geesh Hattori, why didn't you just say so? You're starting to act more like KID." There was a chuckle at the other end of the line emanating from the little nee-chan if he had to guess. Seemed she found the comparison humorous for some reason.

Heiji was not completely unaware of his little friend's "other rival." He actually snorted a bit himself at the comparison. In truth he had yet to meet the guy face to face, though he had certainly heard a lot about him from Kudo. It's funny, though, the way he talked about him was some odd place between admiration and hatred.

Heiji wondered briefly what it would be like if KID came to Osaka. Not that he cared much about petty thieves anyway… Still, he felt he owed the guy something for the amount of joy he seemed to bring to Kudo's spirit when he wasn't around. Even if he did feel like beating him up for a certain taser incident he had heard about. How was he like this guy again? "I'm gonna ignore that last remark. Look, when do ya think yer gonna get here? It's gettin' late an' I'm starvin'."

There was shuffling on the other end of the line as if an unspoken conversation was going on. Finally Kudo answered. "I'm about a half hour away from where you are right now. If you hang tight, I should be there soon enough. There should be several ramen shops nearby if you're really hungry."

Heiji grumbled a bit at this. Tokyo food just could not compare with Osaka's rich foods. Though he supposed he had little room to complain here. Sure, it was no takoyaki but ramen was at least filling. Now, he would just need to find the shops. Seems like Kudo was throwing his game back in his face. Ah well, if that's the way he wanted to play... "Alright, let's make a bet then. If ya can find me in the next hour, I'll buy ya dinner. If not ya owe me for whatever I get." He grinned as he heard a groan from the other end.

"Fine, I accept your challenge. I'll see you in less than an hour." With that, there was a discernable click on the other end as the call disconnected. Heiji grinned to himself, satisfied. Looked like he had made the right decision to come here after all. Though, he suspected Kazuha was probably pretty upset with him right now. Eh, she would get over it. He spotted a sign for "Tokyo Ramen Street" and began heading in that direction. Time to order some high priced noodles.

~*Pastorale 2*~

Conan hung up the phone with a huff. "Why do I even bother with him?"

Ai just stood there silently. She crossed her arms, an unamused look plastered on her otherwise expressionless features. "You could of refused him you know." Her tone was even, but she was clearly hiding something in her words.

Conan shook his head. "I know, but then he never would've let me live it down. Trust me, Haibara, there's no reasoning with this guy." Conan frowned. "Listen, I'm sorry I have to leave so suddenly like this Haibara. I'll make it up to you later okay?" His eyes were apologetic and pleading.

Ai shook her head. "I never asked to spend time with you today. As I recall, you were the one to initiate this meeting. Though, if you insist..." Ai held out her hand in a mock hand-out gesture. "I'll accept your credit card as payment." She smirked, an evil look crossing her face. True she was not really mad that he was abandoning her, but that didn't mean she couldn't hold it over his head a little.

Conan lowered his eyebrows, before reaching into to grab his parent's card, though Ai quickly stopped him. "I was joking. Besides, if I hang around with you too long, somebody is bound to turn up somewhere. At least your Osaka friend can deal with that sort of stuff." she pushed him away. "Go on. I've got to finish up this errand anyway."

Conan nodded lightly ignoring the remark about the dead body. Despite he and Hattori's earlier conversation he was actually rather excited to see his Osakan friend. Especially if it meant one-upping him as usual in a battle of wits. With one last nod to Haibara, he grabbed at his skateboard and took off.

Haibara watched him go sighing to herself. That boy was impossible. She turned and continued to head off in the direction of the pharmacy alone. At least there would be no further surprises today...

~And cut. That was chapter 4 everyone. I considered going on for a bit to introduce another character but I think I will save that for the next chapter… lets just say Ai's about to run into another high school detective who just so happens to be hanging around the area.

Ah let me just state this now I am horrible with geography. I struggled writing the short conversation you see here between Conan/Heiji because I am an ignorant American who has never stepped foot in Japan in my life. Therefore please excuse any errors I may of made I was going entirely off of internet resources.

Heijis dialect is one of the trickiest things for me to write. I hope I did a good enough job imitating the Kansei-ben dialect. I apologize to all Heiji fans. If you have any tips please pm me or leave a constructive review and I will try my best to do better in the future.

Also internet sweets to anyone who catches the little reference to one of my favorite video games in here. Its so subtle you have to be looking for it, but much the same as Heiji I'm not going to just give it to you. Though Ill give you a hint: It has more to do with France rather than Japan. Ill probably reveal it in the next chapter ;)

Well hope you all enjoyed this chapter. Ill be working hard on the next as soon as this is published. Just unfortunately don't expect it right away. Im still kind of swamped here so I don't think Ill be posting more than a chapter a week :'( So sorry all! Ill try and get it done as soon as possible! Until then: Thanks again for reading! Ill see you next chapter!~