Brighter than Sunshine (4)


"Ok." Shinichi cleared his throat, his neck cracking similarly to a movement of a robot as he turned towards the door. "I might have said I have trust in Kid's skills, but that didn't include him ringing the doorbell."

"It could be Yoshida-san and the rest. It's Spring break after all." Haibara tossed the magazine onto the coffee table and gave a once over to Shinichi. "Still, you should consider hiding yourself. Those kids are nonetheless acquaintances to Ran-san and you can't control what they say sometimes."

The doorbell rang again.

"Right, I definitely should." He lifted himself off the couch and started pacing around the living room dumbly. "Uh, where should I go?"

"Should I have not said the girl at the detective agency's name?" Haibara gave a withering look. "Get a grip of yourself."

"Yes, yes." Shinichi ruffled his hair to an even terrible mess, hating to admit that the mention of Ran's name did make his brain a little faulty and out of control. After calming down, he quickened his steps up the flight of stairs, knowing fully well no matter who the guest or guests were, they wouldn't go up to the second floor without an extremely good reason, which he doubt anyone would have any.

Haibara shook her head and tiptoed to press the intercom on the wall. "Hello?" Her usual bored voice sounded.

"Hello Ai-chan. Ran here."

On the exact cue, Shinichi tripped at the near end of the stairs, his face almost falling flat if it wasn't his frantic hands that managed to grab hold of the banister to support his fall. Haibara pressed a palm over an eye before returning her attention to the intercom again. "Hold on. I'll open the gates." She said with deliberate slowness, hoping to buy some more time.

Professor Agasa skipped out of the kitchen, one hand holding onto a spoon while the other was gripping on the glass of apple smoothie he just finished making. "What is Ran-kun doing here?" His tone traced with slight panic, similarly to the way Shinichi was scrambling to his feet. "Could she have found out?" The professor added, his comment not exactly helping the situation.

Not good. Shinichi groaned in his head and continued his climb up the stairs. He entered his bedroom and closed the door till it only leave a small gap, allowing himself to hear the conversation from below.

Knowing that the coast is clear, Haibara pressed the button to unlock the gate. Ran responded with a thoughtful "Thank you," before the call ended. A few seconds later, a knock came from the door and Haibara opened it.

"Hello Ai-chan and Professor Agasa, sorry to intrude." Ran entered the house with a smile that could make even strangers comfortable with her presence.

Professor Agasa subtlety cleared his throat. "Good to see you Ran-kun."

Ran's eyes wander around for a brief moment, until they set upon the glass of apple smoothie in the professor's hand. "Going through a healthy diet?" She lightly joked.

"Yeah," he laughed stiffly and began gulping down the smoothie in one go. Ran watched in amazement and gave a few assuring nods, as if the professor had passed a test he didn't know he was taking.

It took Haibara quite a large amount of energy to stop herself from sighing. "What brings you here, Ran-san." She popped the question since the conversation was going nowhere.

"Oh yeah," Ran placed a bag she was carrying onto the coffee table. "I've made some Sakura Mochi to kick start the Spring break two days ago and I thought I could pass it to Conan-kun so he could distribute them to the other kids and professor. But now that he's on a vacation with his mother, I've brought them here myself."

"Thank-" Professor Agasa burped, a blush tinted his round cheeks as he waved the empty glass in the air, embarrassed. "Sorry about that. And thank you Ran-kun. The rest of the kids would surely appreciate it."

Ran laughed, the echo of her chuckles drifted to the room where Shinichi was as he dumbly stood by the door, his hand clutching onto the door handle till his knuckles turned white. How easy was it for him to simply step out of the room and show himself to Ran? How easy was it for him to imagine her happy tears streaming down her face as she welcomed him back? How easy was it for him to hear her heart break a million times again when he knew he had to leave afterwards because this, was not his goddamn body?

Shinichi exhaled a silent sigh.

Besides, Kid would definitely claw him to death if he did anything without prior discussion, especially with his body too.

"I'll be going now." Ran suddenly blurted and raised another bag in her hand sheepishly to further explain her departure. "I'm meeting Sonoko and Sera-chan later to pass them their portions too."

"Let me see you out," Professor Agasa proposed as he dumped the dirty glass and spoon into the sink and washed his hands. "That's the least I can do for the food you made for us."

She tried to oblige, but gave in at the end. "Thank you." Ran turned to Haibara before she went. "Have fun during your break too, Ai-chan."

It was hard to let the frown remain etched on her brows. Haibara's face fell lax and simply nodded in response.

Professor Agasa opened the door and allowed Ran to walk out first. She gave a smile to represent the gratitude, but abruptly stopped on her tracks when she only took one step out of the house.

"Eh?" Ran gasped in surprise, her head popped back in. "There's a cat in your front yard."

Shinichi nearly flung open the bedroom door when the words reached him. Nearly. He ran a hand down his forehead and to his mouth, trying to repress a yell. Maybe a pillow would be a better option.

"Uh, what?" the Professor gave the similar awkward laugh he made a minute ago and opened the door even wider so he could see what Ran was talking about. Haibara hastily stepped next to the professor, to gain a better view outside too.

Kid, the bobtailed white cat, stood just a few steps away from the front door, his body completely still.

"Is it a stray?" Ran wondered out loud as she slowly walked towards Kid, hoping her movement wouldn't scare him away. But before she could reach to touch his head, Kid had scrambled away and out of the gates in a blink.

"Definitely a stray." The professor nodded his head repetitively, his moustache would probably fly off if he did any harder. "I've never seen that cat before. Never. Not even once, Ran-kun."

Ran's eyebrows slightly raised in curiosity, her eyes blinking at Professor's Agasa exaggerated explanation. But she didn't press further or speak up about her puzzlement and smiled instead. "I see. Anyway, I should go."

"I'll send you out instead." Haibara offered out of the blue. She turned her body so her back was facing Ran and gave the professor a hardened look that conveyed You're unnecessarily weirding things out. When he got the message, Haibara continued with an impassive tone that held no underlying emotions from her previous expression. "Professor, you should go and keep the Sakura Mochi before Kojima-kun arrives later."

"Ah, yes," Professor Agasa conceded bashfully, before quickly correcting himself with a happy look, as if he wasn't feeling like a failure for his almost-busted act. "I should."

Haibara ambled out of the house and following behind her was Ran, whose eyes consisted a hint of mild amusement. "Sometimes I wonder if Professor Agasa is taking care of you or the other way round." Ran casually pointed out.

There really wasn't an answer Haibara could think of to reply. She simply opened the gate, which Ran helped to push as well.

"Goodbye." Was all Haibara could say.

"Thank you, and goodbye too." Ran gave a final wave before strolling down the blocks of houses and towards the direction to wherever she wanted to go. Just in case, Haibara stood outside the whole time and watched, until the figure of Ran's back disappeared. Haibara sighed, not with relief but exhaustion. It had been barely a day and this already happened.

Haibara gave a half turn, her body momentarily faced the neighbouring house that belonged to the Kudo family. She stared at the glass window on the second floor, its curtains were half drawn open...

She shook her head, suppressing any unnecessary thoughts. Besides, the idiot detective and cat-thief both had an even bigger issue on hand now.

"Hey." Haibara called out after her conscious was snapped back to reality and she began to focus on where the hell Kid could hide or be. "You can come out now, wherever you are."

At that exact moment after the words left her mouth, she felt something ticklish against her leg and she looked down, to see Kid already by her side and looking at her. He averted his gaze to observed the streets where Ran went, his nose twitched unceremoniously.

'That ass didn't blow the cover, did he?' He uttered in a low growl.

"If you're wondering if Kudo-kun screwed up, then no, he didn't." Haibara answered to the purrs she didn't understand, but judging from the wide-eye look Kid was giving, it wasn't hard to guess.

The answer wasn't enough. Kaito wanted proof. Looking at how the Mouri girl walked out of the house in a good mood was one evidence, but he wanted to make sure she wasn't in a good mood because she just finished killing Kudo Shinichi, who wasn't exactly Kudo Shinichi at the same time since it would be Kaito's body that was mutilated. He turned and skipped his way into the house, while Haibara quietly and slowly trailed behind.

That was close. He instantly heard Shinichi's mental voice once the detective came into view. Kaito cast a look of disdain and entered the living room, his large pupils surveying Shinichi, who was standing by the couch and running a hand through his hair. Good. No injuries. No broken limbs. He's still alive.

'That was close indeed. I supposed she didn't see you since you're still in one piece. But why is she even here?' He grumbled. 'She almost gave me a bloody heart attack.'

"Yeah, I hid in the room." Shinichi muttered and glanced over at Professor Agasa, who was walking out from the kitchen. "Ran came to pass some Sakura Mochi she made."

"Do yu wan' some?" The professor muffled with his filled mouth before giving one large swallow of the food in order to speak less gibberish. "I can take it out from the fridge again."

"You ate one already, haven't you?" Shinichi sighed and pointed to his own mouth. "You have crumbs here. You should get rid of it before-"

Haibara entered and closed the door behind her. It could be a consolation, considering she didn't slam it shut.

"We should start the more important discussion!" The professor started to blabber before Haibara had a chance to say anything. He then bent down to give an over-friendly smile to Kaito. "And also, glad you've come back safe and sound, too."

Kaito might've felt touch if he hadn't already made the decision to not bear any attachment with anyone in this house. He gave a non-committed reply by flickering his ears, but it was enough for the professor's smile to grow a little more sincere than it should.

"Yea, now given that everyone involved is here," Shinichi slumped onto the couch and signalled Haibara to sit down as well. "It's time for you to talk about the research."

'What did she research about?' Kaito tilted his head curiously and trekked over to Shinichi's feet.

"Mystical Enchantment." Shinichi spoke aloud. "The jewel."

'What for?' Kaito turned to look at Haibara as she indifferently settled herself on the couch opposite them. The professor joined in too.

"Did he mention about the jewel?" She tried to decipher something, anything from Shinichi's same blank look. "You don't seem enlighten."

"I don't, because his stupid purrs was asking you What for."

Haibara turned to face Kaito, her eyebrows rose a notch. "You didn't know?" She said, with the same tone one might use when talking to a person who failed a test on how to breathe.

Kaito blinked. There were certain instances when he cared about the existence of the treasure more than the actual fact of knowing it couldn't be related to Pandora. But other than those important occasions, Jii was often the one who sieved out information about the jewels, such as their history or whatever qualities before deciding on whether it could fit Kaitou Kid's goal. He did remember Jii mentioned the jewel was dug up a few years ago somewhere in Africa, but really, being one of the hundreds Big Jewels that Kaito had stolen for so long, the backstories no longer fascinated or interest him. The only thing Kaito focused more was whether the jewel was Pandora or not.

And it wasn't, regretfully, as he'd confirmed that even before Kaitou Kid set his wings to fly towards the forest. But he did keep it with him, safe in his suit pocket so he could dispose the loot in a way that Inspector Nakamori would gain the credit. He supposed this was the least he could do to allow the Task Force members to stay in their job, despite their success rate of catching Kid was obviously zero.

"Let's spare them the misery and tell them, and me too, about the jewel you researched." Professor Agasa awkwardly whispered over to Haibara's ears.

"I guess you don't do background checks on the jewel, do you? At the rate you're stealing, you should be too busy for that. But well, it isn't anything fascinating either, actually. Just some trivia facts I found since the jewel sounded interesting." Haibara declared, just for the sake of saying it. She then cleared her throat. "More than ten thousand years ago, cats were one of the few animals the Egyptians worshipped, to the point tombs were built to pay respect for them."

The silence was heavy, pressuring, and almost loud enough till everyone could hear the blood gushing in their veins. Haibara hadn't finished what she had to say, but the direction to where she was heading with the conversation was pretty clear.

"Mystical Enchantment was one of the treasures buried in that tomb of sacred mummified cats until it was unearthed, passed around among a few collectors, landed itself in a hotel exhibition and now stolen by Kid." She crossed her arms, ending the most summarized research she had done.

"So are you saying..." Shinichi squeezed his eyes shut and hammered his fist into his thigh. "... that we crashed into each other and... the jewel possessed my body, turning me into a-"

"This, I don't know, Kudo-kun." Haibara interrupted without mercy. "It might be a coincidence that there's a cat involved in this situation, but it's still nonetheless a faint connection."

Professor Agasa wiped a sweat that had trickled down his tensed and wrinkled forehead. "This is magic and madness you're talking about, Ai-kun. It doesn't exist."

Kaito stiffened.

His reaction didn't miss Shinichi's eyes. He gave a sidelong glance at the cat by his feet, brows creased. "Kid. You're exceptionally quiet."

'The so-called nonexistent magic and madness might be around the corner, actually.' Kaito let out a low, whiny purr that probably ruined every manly vibes he had possessed since birth.

"What do you mean?" Shinichi leaned forward.

"Please translate?" Professor Agasa butted in with a raised arm, as if he was a student asking for permission to go to the bathroom.

'It's a secret that's not mine to say.'

Shinichi sighed inwardly, his head turned to the opposite couch. He was almost blinded by the intensity from the two pairs of eyes, one was filled with puzzlement while the other was filled with fuming desires and demand for answers.

"He said he don't know." Shinichi lied. "He's traumatized for being so useless and dumb right now."

Kaito flicked his ears aggressively. 'Screw you.'

Right at the very best moment, the doorbell decided to steal the show and rang loudly in the living room again, filling up the short one second of silence that was shifting from the decision between continue-the-conversation or drop-the-conversation.

The latter was chosen. "It must be the kids this time round." Being nearest to the intercom, the professor plodded towards the wall and pressed the button. The speaker came to life before he could even say a word.

"Professor! That's so unfair!" Genta voice was the first to shout.

"We saw Ran-onesan on our way here and she said Conan-kun went on a vacation!" Ayumi exclaimed next.

"We'll like to go somewhere cool too, professor!" Mitsuhiko concluded with a heartfelt plea.

If Olympics happened to hold a synchronise-shouting competition, the three might get a chance to win for Japan. Professor Agasa sighed and turned to the other three in the living room. "What's the verdict?"

Haibara cast a bored glance over to the other two. "What I've said had been said. It's up to your own choices now."

"We'll hide in the room temporarily first," Shinichi stood up and gestured Kaito up the second floor, though the latter knew what he had to do and was already on his way to the stairs. "But you should bring them out later on. We can't coop in the room all day either."

Once Shinichi closed the bedroom door, Professor Agasa sensed it was the cue to press the button to unlock the gates, and within a second, rapid knocks came from the door. The children immediately bustled in with lots of chatters and opinions on where to go, and all Professor Agasa could do was to give a small protest about having to burn a big hole in his pockets if any of their wild suggestions came true.

"But it's boring here." Genta claimed. "We wanna visit somewhere fun like Conan."

"How about going to this new cafe that Yoshida-san talked about last week?" Haibara prompted, with both arms crossed over her chest. "There's a stamp for every ice cream bought and you'll get a free topping after you collected five stamps. We'll have a head start on the number before Edogawa-kun."

"Yeah!" Ayumi agreed appeasingly. "I remember the menu says it has a special strawberry-chocolate flavour! I wanna try that!"

The two other boys didn't have the heart to disagree with the cute girl in their group. Besides, it was a treat that Genta couldn't resist too. "Alright, let's go! Let's win Conan in this!"

Up the stairs was Shinichi standing by the door and heaving a quiet sigh to himself when he heard the kids elatedly sending themselves one by one to the door. The last thing he could hear before the door closed was the loud cheers asking the poor professor to hurry up. And then there was silence.

"They're gone." Shinichi stated the obvious in relief.

Kaito would love to show his smirk if he could. 'I like how the kids jumped on the opportunity to betray you so quickly, making sure you'll be lacking behind them in that one stamp forever.' He stretched smugly on the desk before lying comfortably on his stomach, his front feet tugged in.

Shinichi rolled his eyes and trudged to the edge of the bed and gave a dramatize slump, the bed creaked loudly as if it was in pain. "They are children, what do you expect?"

'Oh, are you hurt?'

"Don't think you can distract me from the questions I have lined up for you."

'How would I dare?' Kaito gave a yawn that came from the bottom of his heart. He was legitimately tired, from the walks and jumps he'd done all morning.

"Good, then answer me seriously." Shinichi peered sideways at Kaito, setting both elbows on his thighs and brought his hands to his lips. "Who, in the contacts you know, can help with our situation?"

'I already said Kid has no ties.'

"I do mean it when I say I won't sniff out your identity with any cheap methods." Shinichi gave a flat, unimpressive look. "But you're slowly, surely, and forcibly making me do it."

Kaito stared back, his cat eyelids droopy and bored, equally unimpressed. He did have thoughts about contacting Akako if he could do it in the first place, since in all honesty, how else could that witch make him suffer more when this was now the hell of his life? Still, it was never wise to do so, and this should only be done as a last, last resort.

'Let me tell you first; that I'm not at the least threatened by you.' Kaito tucked out a paw from underneath his furry chest and rubbed the back of his slightly itchy ear. 'But yes, I do have one. And that one is the very last person I want to look for, to be very honest.'

"Explain."

By some natural instinct, Kaito stopped and licked his paw. Once feeling it was moist enough, he went back to rub the itchy part of his ear. Ah, much better-

"What the heck are you doing?" Shinichi flung up from his seat, finger pointing accusingly at Kaito.

Kaito looked at him like he needed medical attention, for both his reddened face and mental attributes. 'What?'

"Did you just lick your paw? Which is also technically my hand?" Shinichi made an odd, gurgling noise like he was trying to suffocate himself but failed. "That's disgusting."

'And what can you do about it?' Kaito snuffed, totally smug.

"I'm going to disinfect my hand after I return back to my body." He deadpanned. "Or maybe I should just chop it off."

'If you're asking for an opinion, I'll vote for the second one.'

Shinichi scowled, his lips turning into a downcast crescent. "If your ears is itchy, I can scratch them for you." He afforded, his tone suddenly kind and soft, too suspicious to be true

'Don't even think of touching me.' Kaito hissed.

He sighed and raised an arm in surrender. "Ok. Whatever. I'm tired of this conversation." He sat back onto the bed and gestured a hand over to Kaito, prodding him to continue. "You have yet to explain what you meant by the very last person you want to look for, even when he or she could help out our bloody situation."

'For you and my sake, it's better to not make deals with her.'

Her? A woman? Shinichi's eyes widened by a fraction, his composure slightly shaken at the new revelation. Obviously hearing his thoughts, Kaito gritted his teeth inwardly, cursing himself for the slip. Oh well, there's like billions of women in the world anyway. No harm divulging that part.

Feigning like he totally didn't notice his own mistake, he added. 'We can go look for her only when we are doomed. She's the same as doom anyway, so maybe the impact of seeing her then wouldn't be so drastic as now. By impact, I meant negative impact.'

Shinichi frowned, his face looking a little at lost yet at the same time trying very hard to catch up. "Why do you make it sound like we're going to see the devil or something?"

Kaito's tail uncontrollably moved from one side to another. This detective can be so annoying with his questions. Annoyingly accurate too. 'So, as I've said, we should only look for her if we are really at our ends.' Kaito insisted again.

"Are you lying to me just so you can be all secretive about your identity, again?" Shinichi raised his head, like a thought had suddenly struck his mind. "Is she also the one you delivered the note to? About the Cherry-"

'No.' Kaito hissed through his sentence, cutting it silent.

"Okay, and sorry." Shinichi nervously tugged onto the hem of his shirt. "I did promise I won't mention about the notes again, so I apologize."

The claws that Kaito extended had retracted back to his paws. 'What I've said wasn't mostly to cover my identity. It was the truth.'

"Then what can we do now, huh? Sit here and talk about how dinosaurs went extinct?" Shinichi stood up and paced around the room in circles. He just needed a tail and he would look perfectly like a dog.

'I don't know. I thought you're the smarter one here, detective.'

"Your sarcasm is not helping." Shinichi glowered. All of the sudden, he stopped in his tracks and snapped a finger. "Wait. The jewel, right?"

'Yes?'

"Where's the jewel?" He stomped to the desk, body hovering over Kaito.

Feeling slightly intimidated, Kaito stood up and jumped off the table to keep the constant five arms distance away from Shinichi. 'It was in the suit. Since Inspector Nakamori took it, it should be with him.'

"We need to confirm this." Shinichi spun around and headed out of the room after flinging the door wide open. Kaito sighed and took his time to catch up to wherever Shinichi had gone. By the time Kaito reached the bottom floor, Shinichi was holding onto a tablet, his finger scrolling through whatever he was reading.

Curious, Kaito hastily jumped to his side and scratched his pants for attention. 'What are you looking at?'

"The news." He bluntly said, as if it totally answered everything Kaito had ever asked.

Kaito didn't bother to question the second time. He angled his butt to the ground, shaking it left and right before making a pounce, clawing his way up Shinichi's shoulder as the latter gave a loud yelp.

"That's hurts!" Shinichi argued, his breath spatting onto the side of Kaito's body. Kaito would have retaliated in disgust of Shinichi's breath touching his skin with a claw over his face, but he was too busy being engrossed with the screen to mind about him. His pupils dilated at the headlines.

Kaitou Kid had successfully stolen Mystical Enchantment! was titled in bold.

"You said you'd returned the jewel, but there's nothing about it being written here." Shinichi commented, his finger flicked through the screen to move the page down.

'The media sometimes doesn't. Or sometimes the police didn't divulge the information either.' After finishing reading the not-so-helpful news, Kaito jumped off Shinichi's shoulder and walked stealthily away. 'Anyway, it's hard to confirm through the news. Only the Task Force would have reports on that.'

"Now we have something to do." Shinichi shut the tablet off and placed it back beside the large TV mindlessly. "We shall go to the headquarter where the Kaitou Kid's Task Force is and check it out. Magic or madness or whatever it is, the jewel is the key."

'How are we going to get in there and take the jewel?' Kaito whirled around and stared blankly at Shinichi. 'I don't have the hands to disguise you properly. And you don't have the skills to do it; Both the make-up and the stealing.'

"I'll go in as simply Kudo Shinichi."

Kaito's mouth creaked open, too dumbfounded to speak for a second. 'And I thought you wanted to pretend dead? And that you wanted to hide? And that you didn't want your girlfriend to find out that you're like this?' This detective just couldn't make up his goddamn mind, could he?

"Okay, since Haibara and the professor isn't around, I'll dare to suggest this now." Shinichi took in a deep breath and clapped his hands together solemnly, like he's going to propose an important decision on behalf of a business company when he's technically only speaking to a cat. "I've never got people coming up to me because they mistook me for someone else. And by someone else, I meant you."

'Did something just fly past me?' Kaito raised his head into the air. 'Oh. I think it's the point of your statement.'

Shinichi rolled his eyes, ignoring Kaito's wry remark. "You've never been mistaken as Kudo Shinichi, have you?"

'You can't be so sure about that.' Kaito snuffed, his head lowered back to stare at Shinichi with a cautious look. 'Someone might have seen me and thought I was you, but never stopped to call me. Likewise, it could be same situation as yours about me.'

That statement seemed to ring a familiar bell in his head. Shinichi flicked his gaze to the corner of his eyes, trying to recollect the faint and distant memory, but it was too old to be remembered. He shook his head, dispelling whatever thought that failed to appear in his mind. It couldn't be important then. "Old habits die hard, huh?" Shinichi sneered down at Kaito. "Always going through such thorough planning."

'I'm touched you think so highly of me.'

Ignoring Kaito's snarky replies was starting to become a habit. "I'll be discreet." Shinichi said, stroking his chin. Only one second passed when he moved his suddenly enlightened gaze towards Kaito. "Oh, or are you actually worried someone you know will recognize you?"

Kaito circled in his position to find a comforting spot before sitting down, deciding this conversation was taking longer than necessary. And well, shit it did. Surprisingly stupid to admit, this was a problem Kaito didn't consider and think about at all. If someone were to call out his name... his identity would be busted. But what were the chances, really? His few good male classmates were avid online gamers, and Spring breaks entitled them to stay at home all day. The rest, or probably most of the girl classmates often avoided him like a plague due to his pervert reputation in school. The worrisome ones were those he was closer to. Like-

'No. We can't go to the headquarters today.' Kaito's ears flickered, suddenly alarmed. Damn, he'd almost forgotten how Aoko did mention earlier she wanted to make bento lunch for her dad today! He couldn't go there when she would be around that vicinity.

"Care to explain?" Shinichi narrowed his eyes. "Did what I say hit the nail on the head?"

'I was thinking that we should go to the hotel instead. It's a better option.' Kaito forced himself to not twitch his nose or ears, the body languages that betrayed his emotions, similar in a way like he had broken his poker face.

Shinichi considered for the moment. "I guess it's logical. We should visit the crime scene first."

'Exactly. It seems your great and electrifying detective skills must have rubbed off on me too.'

"Spare me those empty compliments." Shinichi muttered and headed up the stairs again. "I have a bag in my wardrobe somewhere. You can hide inside so we can take the transport much easier."

'Bless me with one that isn't infected with dust and fleas. Thanks.' Kaito fully and thoroughly meant it.

Shinichi turned to look past the living room and where Kaito was. "I'm not a fairy godmother. I don't grant wishes." He didn't sound as apologetic as he should be.

Kaito hissed as Shinichi disappeared behind the door.

On a positive note, they were now planning and doing something beneficial to their problems instead of brooding in the house. And on another good note, this current plan held a lesser chance for Kuroba Kaito to run into anyone he knew, busting his name and identity at once. Or maybe, it could be Kudo Shinichi's suffering that plight instead, for running into people that he shouldn't.

Neither, please.

Well, let there really be some fairy godmother in one part of the universe to grandly bless them on that.