Haha this is now KAITO'S SIDE OF THE STORY! :D BOTTOM FORM.

Anyway there is something i need to address about Kaito's IQ thing because many reviewers have asked. it is not that Kaito's is dumber is Shinichi. They are probably just as smart as each other (although I'll reckon Shinichi's just a tad better, but that's my personal take on it :D). The reason that Kaito doesnt do academically as well as Shinichi is because he doesn't really care about this studies. He can ace everything if he wanted but he doesn't so you can say he's playing the part of the fool. I am quite sure Kaito wouldn't have wanted more attention to himself than necessary because of his KID persona. So it is unlikely the Kaito will use his high intellect fully for studies. :D that's why Kaito don't get full marks nor take advance lessons as you'll find soon. xD

Well with that addressed. Here goes:

"Shinichi?" A tall girl with a rich chestnut brown hair peered into the dark corridor in the Kudo mansion. "Shinichi?" She called out again in a tentative tone. A flicker of fear crossed her eyes as she suddenly remembered how Shinichi would return only to disappear again. Shinichi had promised this time was for sure but… can his words be trusted anymore? "SHINICHI!" She called loudly now more in fear and dread.

"What is it?" The curt and bored tone that could only belong to Shinichi himself resounded back. Ran turned to look at the source of the voice and heaved a huge relief. There he was, leaning by the door frame, still wearing his pajamas and in his… bed hair? Ran had never remembered Shinichi's bed hair to be so… unruly like it was today. Shrugging off this unimportant detail, Ran walked over to the yawning and sleepy Shinichi and gave the wall he was leaning on a very very 'light' hit.

Kaito was shocked, completely losing his poker face for a while as Ran just created new cracks in the wall. He jerked away and made a very exaggerated face of shock (it was his real emotion though). "Mou Ran!" He said in the Kudo voice, mimicking his tone and voice to perfection. "what's up so early in the morning! Don't create anymore dents than necessary in the mansion. It is costly to repair them!" He said with a mocking tease.

"Ou? Expensive?" Ran retorted. "Well, who's the one who looked after your house when you were off sniffing on some case?" Ran said, taking a step closer and raising one eyebrow.

"Ok. Ok I get it. I get it." Kaito said backing away. Aoko had been bad but Ran? It was way worse. Not only was she stronger and faster than Aoko ever was, she was profession and TRAINED. Sure, Kaito had confidence that he could dodge her but in the persona as Kudo, he didn't think so. So for now, better to avoid.

"if you don't get dressed in 5 minutes, I'm gonna 'help' you get dressed." Ran said with a threatening tone. Eek. Kaito ran for his life as he slammed the door close behind him back into Kudo's bedroom. All of a sudden, Kaito appreciated very very much how his real life was and how much safer it was. Taking 2 seconds to change with a swish of his cloth, he was all dressed in Teitan Uniform ready for the day as Kudo Shinichi… NOT. As he glanced into the mirror to inspect himself, he became shockingly aware of the stunning difference: HIS HAIR! It was still puffy like a mesh of untamable nest.

Using the remaining time of 4 mins, Kaito struggled to pin down his hair, spamming all the gel that he could find in the room. The best gel managed to hold his hair down for the record time of 5 seconds. Giving up as Ran called again, he exited the room and headed to school with Ran, letting Ran do the leading since he hadn't got time to find out where on earth Teitan was.

"Seriously Shinichi! Your hair is a mess what happened?" Ran commented as the two of them walked towards Teitan.

"Erm? Electric shock?" Kaito said lightly, momentarily slipping his persona of Kudo. Ran gave him a queer stare. "Ah I mean I was helping out at Hakase's yesterday and well, you know." kaito let Ran fill in the rest of it herself. It seemed to have worked.

'Ohayo Kudo-senpai!" Two very cute girls walked past him and greeted. Kaito's eyes lit up, cute girls! If they were in his class in Ekoda high, he would soooo have flipped their skirts for the fun of it. It was a strange feeling to be greeting by cute girls. Kaito thought back to Ekoda high and how every girl who knew the name kaito Kuroba would have kept at a safe distance. Prudent. Kaito would have called it.

"ohayo." He replied back with a wide smile. The two girls giggled slightly and ran off. Kaito didn't realize that this reaction from the girls were strange until much later.

As the two approached the school, Kaito noticed the large mass of people who can only be reporters and people from the press given their large equipments and their immediate and unified dash towards him when they saw him. In a matter of seconds, they had him surrounded and lens trained on him.

'Ne. High school detective Kudo Shinichi! Give us some words about the latest case that you worked on with the police. The blackmailer to the head of finance of Toutu Financial! How did you deduce it?" The press fired questions at breakneck speed.

For kaito who loved attention, this was welcomed. BUT the questions they were asking he had NO IDEA what they were about? What case? What blackmailer? What and what? He was confused. His brains tried to think through the long conversation at night with Kudo who had explained some case which he said it was important for him to know but Kaito had listened with one ear in and one ear out. For once, the KAITO KID was tongue-tied in front of a camera.

"Ah." was the only thing he could say. His eyes flickered to Ran for help. Ran read the distress signal and forced her way through.

"People. We need to go to school soon. Regarding cases, I'm sure the police will explain everything clearly. So please excuse us." She said with a certain forcefully that demanded obedience. Then grabbing Kaito's hand, she pushed her way through the crowd, pulling Kaito along.

It was the first time that the KUDO SHINICHI had not taken the chance at media to brag about his case or his achievements. First time ever since Ran knew him to have been tongue-tied about his case. If it was the usual Shinichi, he was have began an animated discussion about the case, with body movements in a showman style. Going on and on until she had to step in and drag him out of it.

Today's Shinichi was definitely WEIRD. Maybe something had happened during the KID heist? She wondered but didn't ask. It had been so long since the last time she remembered being with Shinichi form more than 1 day and sometimes, it really pains her to think what might have happened during the months he had been away. Somehow, this time when he returned. Ran couldn't even be sure anymore if this Shinichi was the same Shinichi that she had waited so long for.

Distance makes the heart grow fonder… right?

As the two of them entered the classroom, groups of girls constantly hung around Kaito. It was totally different when he was in Ekoda High. He was sort of enjoying it. He knew that tantei-kun was strangely charismatic but not this much! To each and every group of fan girls, he gave his most gorgeous and friendly smile, giving them a slight wave of his hand.

Even in the classroom, Kaito was constantly surrounded. The crowd was eagerly eating up all the detective tales he was telling them, the one he knew from being involved in some ways or another and those which they had read on the newspaper or heard from kudo. Ran sat at her table, a row away from Shinichi's with a glum look.

"Ne Ran? What's up with the long face?" Sonoko walked to her and sat beside her, leaning on her table. 'Aren't you glad that your danna is back?" She teased.

"Ung…." Ran murmured softly.

Sonoko became concerned. "What's wrong Ran?"

"It's just… Shinichi's kind of weird… I mean…" Ran began but couldn't exactly put it into words well.

"Yeah. I noticed that too. He's… a lot more brighter today isn't he? Like happy or carefree kind of thing." Sonoko commented, looking at the cheery Kudo who was entertaining the girls.

"Is that jealousy bubbling up?" Sonoko returned to her light-hearted tease and nudged Ran.

"Mou. Sonoko!" Ran retorted, blushing again. Inwardly she wished it was just her and jealousy as Sonoko said and not because Shinichi really changed.

"Hai. HOMEROOM!." The homeroom teacher entered, banging the table loudly to get the attention of the class. The students quickly scrambled to their seats and waited for the roll call. Kaito took this time to register some of the faces of the classmates. He recognized Sonoko right away from newspapers and from her hanging around Kudo in some of his heists. Ran obviously. As the homeroom teacher roll called, his brain very swiftly registered all the faces to their names. It was a piece of cake.

During lunch break, Kaito was once again swamped by crowds of girls eager to her Kudo's tales. Although he enjoyed attention (very much) but it was getting kind of annoying to hear so many praising someone else in front of you. Well, they didn't know that of course. It was quite frustrating and sickening to hear people talk about how good Kudo is, Kudo that blah blah. It got to a point that Kaito wanted to get away from the girls and the crowd.

For once, Kaito, the class clown was GLAD that lessons started. He made a mental note to as quickly as possible scoot out of the classroom once class ended which is still a long time away. Kudo's class is the elite class which means they have EXTRA LESSONS. The thought of it was killing Kaito.

Kaito said at Kudo's desk, eyes focused on the board, pen moving and presenting a thinking and concentrating expression although inside he was just waiting, waiting and waiting for class to end and bored to the depths of hell. His fingers itched to do a magic trick, to do a coin toss, a deck of cards. ANYTHING!

"Kudo-kun, would you do this question?" the math teacher suddenly called, snapping Kaito out of his thoughts. CRAP! Was the first word that came to Kaito's mind. He hadn't been paying attention at all. His eyes registered the question on the board, it was a complex calculus question. Oh just great. He thought to himself sourly. His favorite topic in match C-A-L-C-U-L-U-S!

Outwardly, he smartly stood up and walked over to the board. His brain made no heads or tails of the question which gave him a trouble, because KUDO SHINICHI the smarty-pants would have KNOWN the answer and if he suddenly became DUMB all of a sudden, that would ring alarm bells. As he walked the short distance to the board, his mind was whirling at full speed, not on attempting to solve the question but on HOW TO GET A PEEK AT THE ANSWER BOOK THAT THE TEACHER WAS HOLDING!

The answer came to him in an instant. Kaito, unobtrusively, fished out a snake toy from who knows where and then gave a very compelling exclamation of shock. "SNAKE!"

That did the trick, for the instant the class was in chaos. The toy snake which Kaito bought from was VERY REALISTIC. The math teacher who was a young female gave a shrilling scream and raising the answer book that she was holding to smack the snake. In that instance, Kaito had a CLEAR view of the workings and answers. His keen eyes took a second to register all of it and commit it to memory.

"Takashi-sensei, it's a toy." He reverted to his cool Kudo voice and picked up the snack gently. "I don't know who's trick is it, but Takashi-sensei please calm down." Kaito used the soothing Kudo voice that he had heard him use to calm Ran. It did the trick and the class became orderly again. But what was done was done, Kaito had seen the answer and he remembered it PERFECTLY.

Picking at the chalk with grace and ease, he copied out exactly what he saw from his memory, not missing a single step and not missing a single number. Then he turned to smile at the class and Takashi-sensei. 'I'm done." he declared.

Takashi-sensei gave him a very surprised look. Kaito was somewhat surprised. Had he done it wrong? No way, he was absolutely certain he did it correctly, exactly as the answer book as shown.

"Err. Kudo-kun, I just wrote the question for 11 part a on the board and asked you to do it? How did you manage to do 11 part b too? I haven't even asked that question yet." Takashi-sensei asked, confused.

OPPS! Kaito racked his brains for an excuse. He had seen the correct answer but Takashi-sensei had only asked the first part and stupidly he had wrote out of the answer for the ENTIRE question.

"Er…" Kaito glanced worriedly at the 21 pairs of eyes looking at him with obvious wonder.

"I… deduced it." He said the first time that came to his mind. "Yeah. I deduced it." he repeated, trying to convince himself. "The flow of this question asking us to find this solution usually means that we are supposed to take this solution in part a to solve the equation and therefore I thought I could just… er… finish it up." Kaito said, giving the class a what he hoped to be a convincing grin.

'WOAH!" came the unified sound of awe and surprise. "Sugoi!"

'I'll be more careful next time." Kaito said mostly to himself but Takashi-sensei gave him a approving nod at that comment. Slightly embarrassed at making such an elementary mistake, 'Kudo' returned to his seat.

As he collapsed relieved back into Kudo's seat, he made a point to himself to attempt to listen to class more often. He couldn't possibly to using the snake trick every single time for every single question!

:D Yep. there's more EXCITEMENT TO COME. when Shinichi and Kaito confront each other in their Midnight talks. Let's see what they have to say about each other! XD

Shiroi Mi.