Somehow I manage to type faster and better when my hands are frozen.

Leaning her tall, thin frame against the wall, she hummed along to the tune of a melody drifting around in the city air. The soft breeze swished her long silky curtain of hair around her, as her slender hand clutched on to her arm.

"Hey, Ran."

She turned, and saw her best friend waving to her from afar.

"Hi Sonoko! You're so late!"

She skipped over to Sonoko, who was giggling in delight. "All right, but now I'm here, so let's go shopping, alright? Hey, I know a great place to start! It's here…" Sonoko grabbed Ran's hand.

"Hey, Hey wait…Whoa!" Ran was pulled away by her feisty friend.

Sonoko sped past avenues, past the main shopping district, and past the bazaar in the main plaza. She went on for about a few seconds, then came to a stop at the entrance to a dark and foreboding alley.

"What's this? You don't usually come to these sort of places to shop, Sonoko." Ran felt a little queer, for she had expected Sonoko to drag her into some luxurious shopping mall to buy her stuff.

"But I found a great place here! It has super-low prices, and really great wares too!" Sonoko assured her, and pulled her in.

It was dark at first, and she couldn't see anything, so she could only rely on the hand that was pulling her on. Then, suddenly, the hand slipped quickly up to her neck, wound around it, and another hand, lunging at her from the darkness, smothered her face with some sort of foul smelling fabric. The pungent smell entered her lungs, slowly seeping into her bloodstream.

Her eyelids felt heavy, very heavy, and they slowly drooped, covered, shut.

"Akako?"

She wandered into the place where Akako promised that they would meet; she had said that she wanted to give her something. Something to find Kaito with? Maybe.

She wondered why her classmate even chose this place. It was surrounded by trees, and she could see no sign of the bustling city life she just passed a few moments ago from here. She felt a little anxious, as though she was not supposed to be here.

"Aoko! I'm here!"

That voice! She walked towards it, and found Akako crouching down, near a pond. The girl was poking playfully as a couple of lily pads, as though they were something nice to play with.

"Look, Aoko. These lily pads are frog seats. The frogs love to sit on them." akao prodded the plant once more.

"Okay. So what did you want to find me for, Akako? You said you had something to pass to me."

"Oh right. But unfortunately…" Akako looked down at her feet, like a guilty child, "I sort of dropped it into the pond. I was trying to search for it when you came," she reasoned.

Aoko bent down to the rippling, shiny surface of the water, and screened it for any sign of foreign items.

"I don't see any –!!!!" her comment was cut short by a rough hand that punched her head down under the water. She straggled for a few moments, silvery bubbles streaming out from her mouth. As she watched those precious breaths of air float away, she felt her mind turn to fog, and she blacked out.

"Sir, we brought those two girls, as you wanted."

The shadowy man turned around slowly, and proceeded to check on the hostages. One was sopping wet, a cluster of duckweed hanging down on her head.

"What happened to her?"

The agents that brought them quickly replied, "Vermouth lured her to a pond, sir."

"And she's dirty now. Go pick off those weeds, and tie them both up. I want them, as well as everything else, to be in perfect condition at ten in the night tomorrow. If they wake up, then give them some tranquillizer."

"Yes, sir."

The agents strode coolly out the door with the two girls hanging limply at their side.

Conan was extremely worried.

Not only that Ai was still looking for him to repay him for crashing her computer, but when he got home, he realized Ran was missing as well.

Now there was no one to cook dinner for him, and he was starving after all that running from the deranged scientist.

Kogoro was not home, at least, and he didn't have to put up with that drunken old man for that night.

Still…

He had called her phone number. No answer. He called Sonoko's phone number. She said she had no idea where Ran was. He had even gone on to call his elementary school friends, Heiji and Kazuha, Professor Agasa, and her mom Eri, even, but they all turned up with negative results. He sighed, and put the phone back onto the receiver.

It was getting really late. "It's so unlike Ran to stay out very late in the night, unless it was a party Sonoko told her about or something, but since she doesn't know a fig about it, I'd say… she's ran into trouble. But I don't have the tracking button, nor a badge on her, so I can't track her down," mused the child.

The clock struck eleven now, and she still was not home. He called Sonoko again, to make sure it was not a prank, but once again she said she had not seen her since school ended. He sighed, and picked up a packet of instant noodles to eat.

When he had finished, it was almost twelve. He quickly jumped into a suit of school uniform, the spare one he kept in his room just in case he happened to eat anything that would change him back into Shinichi, and sat on the sofa, trying with all his might to keep himself awake.

The clock's hand ticked past twelve, and once again he revealed his true self. His wings had cramped themselves up behind his back, and he scolded himself for not remembering to slit a pair holes for them. He toddled off uncomfortably to his room, and changed into a shirt with slits at the back, then went back to his post on the couch.

Nothing much happened between twelve and one, except that a couple of mischievous birds that decided to honk loudly at the window for no apparent reason, causing him to jump. He got up and opened the glass panel, and waved his hand at them, shooing them away. They cocked their heads in interest at him, then squawked even louder.

"Oh for crying out loud, can't you things just go away?" he muttered angrily under his breath, as he picked up a newspaper to shoo them away with. Just then, he heard a scrabbling at the door, loud in the silence of the night.

He tentatively opened the door, and peeked outside.

"Co-Shinichi-kun!" came the cry, and a huge bundle of sky blue scales attacked his face, sending him collapsing onto the couch with all four limbs in the air. His wings quickly spread out to cushion his fall, but inadvertently bashed a can of beer that was left lying around, and the barely-fermented drink spilled out onto the floor with a loud clang and a splash.

He cringed, afraid that the noise might wake someone up, or at least attract a lot of attention, but it didn't. He thankfully picked up the can and cleaned the floor, then turned to the cheeky Miranda, who had taken sofa-jumping to be her new favorite sport.

"Hey, you mind if you don't play there? I know you could always fly if you fall, but I don't think Ran or Kogoro would be happy to see their couch with the stuffing pouring out."

"Fine, fine." Miranda clambered down from the sofa and hugged his leg, the highest part of him that she could reach without using her wings. "It's great to see you again, Shinichi-kun. May I call you that instead of Shinichi-oniisan?"

"Okay."

"Yay!" she squealed and squeezed his leg even tighter. He at once vowed to himself that he would never die of a stroke caused by Miranda hugging his head.

"Where's Twin? I don't see him anywhere. Is he here tonight as well?"

Twin's white fluffy head peeped in from the doorway. "I'm here all right, Kudo, but you didn't invite me in."

They both laughed, and Shinichi pulled Twin in by the wrist.

After a few cups of coffee (and hot chocolate for the minor), Twin asked Shinichi what he was doing up so late.

"Ran isn't back home yet, and if there was a sleepover she would have told me about it at first. I'm really worried if something bad happened to her," he answered, turning his gaze away and casting it longingly out the window.

"Why don't you go find her then?" asked Miranda naively.

Twin bopped her lightly on the head with a paw, and grinned toothily at her. "Kudo can't find her, silly. Not everyone has a built in GPS system in their minds, let alone a tracking device." Miranda stuck her tongue out at him.

Twin lapped at his coffee, then turned to Shinichi. "You should really get some sleep. Look at those eyebags! People would wonder about them the next morning."

"B-But…"

"It's okay, Shinichi-kun! We'll keep up the night watch for you, and let you know if Ran does come back," said Miranda, her fragile antennae twirling around.

"Alright then, I'll leave it up to you guys." Shinichi stifled a yawn, and lumbered groggily to his room.

"Wait."

He turned, and looked at Twin.

Twin put his mug back down on the table, and stood up.

"I think I should tell you what happened yesterday night before you go to bed."

"I don't know if you know her, but yesterday we found a vampire at your door when we went there last night. She had long platinum blond hair, and was dressed in a red cape."

"Serin," hissed Shinichi darkly. Then, his face brightened back up, as if Twin had not said anything. "I just need to be a little wary, that's all, nothing to be afraid of."

"You sure you are good with that? From what I have heard from Miranda, she might be back to take her revenge."

"It's okay," replied Shinichi, smiling at the imp, then going back to his room for some well-needed rest.

Hakuba put down the blueprints he had drawn up, and glanced around at his audience.

"So now we have the basis of the plan laid out, and I say we carry it out tomorrow night, when they least expect it, and when it is almost twelve, we can then strike."

The officers seated around the table applauded, but then one spoke up.

"Detective Hakuba, but what if the plan fails and they both escape? They're really clever as well, you know."

"Yes, I am very aware of that, and that is why I expect one hundred percent effort on this operation, understood?"

They all chorused in agreement. Hakuba rubbed his hands together in glee. With Inspector Nakamori on his side now, having believed that it was Kaito Kid who took her daughter, and that he would be most delighted to help out in any way he can, Hakuba knew he was placed at a great advantage against the two.

"Just you wait, Kudo and Kid. Just you wait."