A/N: Part three of the Pandora Arc. Remember what I said about enigmas and bonds and such? Well keep that in mind…

Warnings: Diseases and falling

Acknowledgements: Cai-chan

Other (possibly irrelevant): I'm really glad I shortened up the chapters… less pressure on me and more chapters more often.. But I've been soooo busy over the weekends recently which is the main block of time that I use for writing my story (since I'm too busy during school days with homework and shiz) so this is coming a little later than I hoped but… it's here right? So don't kill me… please?

Today's quote is (again more of a brief conversation): "In what state is Oxygen found?" –Ms. Nyland

"All of them." –Azarath (aka me) -This is more of a 'You had to be there moment' but believe me… it was hilarious…

Double-M and KID vs. Conan: Diamond White

Beika, Japan

Teitan Elementary

September 20, 3:21 PM

When school was finally over and the five members of the Shonen Tantei exited their school, they were immediately met with the familiar faces of Ran and Kasuma, the latter covering her mouth and nose with a white surgical mask. Ayumi, always the curious one, ran up to the teenagers and asked, "Kasuma-oneesan, why are you wearing that mask?"

"I've got a cold," Kasuma stated bluntly, "And Ai-chan slipped it into my book bag." She looked at Haibara who was just now reaching the spot they were waiting at, "I realize you don't want to get sick, Ai-chan, but I'm not contagious. It's only the common cold."

"It still never hurts to be cautious," Haibara replied, staring at the ground.

"True but with a few of my parent's herbal remedies, I'll be fine in a couple days… or less," Kasuma shrugged. "They work wonders."

"Ne, ne, did you hear about the new heist location?" Genta announced, excited, "I saw it on the news today!"

"Oh yeah," Ran placed a finger against her chin, "I have no idea how or why they're trying to pull that off but I heard it's supposed to make it really hard for KID or Mage to steal it."

"Isn't it just KID this time? Mage didn't sign the last note," Conan pointed out.

"That's another curious factor. They just recently teamed up but suddenly KID's pulling a heist alone? It doesn't make sense." Kasuma murmured, "In any case, it'll be interesting to see what KID's gonna do to get the jewel off the top of Tokyo Tower. I really want to know what was running through Nakamori-keibu's mind when he came up with that."

"Yeah. Placing the jewel on top of the Special Observatory deck with police helicopters surrounding the spot. That'll be a little difficult since he won't be able to use his glider. It's a good thing the note got solved quickly; the police would have completely missed it," Ran remarked. "It's in two days isn't it?"

Kasuma nodded, "Yep two days… the 'second reversible double digit.' Really I'm not surprised it got solved that fast… there were tons of people working to solve it. I heard that the Shonen Tantei even solved part of it, ne?"

Genta, Ayumi, and Mitsuhiko beamed proudly. "Of course, Conan helped us a little but we had just gone over something similar to that in class," Mitsuhiko answered honestly, "The second reversible double digit is twenty-two."

"Right," Kasuma nodded, "And the first one is eleven, correct?" The three kids nodded rapidly. "The eleventh had already passed and since a month can never have thirty-three days, naturally that left twenty-two. The Latin number added in at the end tells us that they'll take their target at eleven 'o clock, or 'undecim.'"

"And the 'snowy stead will claim a checkmate' indicates the game Chess, otherwise the White Horse. And a large diamond with the same name is being displayed in a nearby museum, making that the heist target!" Conan finished eagerly.

"Well, we'll see you guys around," Kasuma said, waving a hand sloppily. "This is where we separate." Kasuma, with Haibara trailing behind her, turned a corner and they headed down the street towards Kasuma's house.

There was silence between the two of them up until Kasuma's house was approaching. The gate opened easily enough and the two entered the Western styled house. Inside, Haibara made to head up the stairs to her room but was stopped by Kasuma's voice addressing her, "Ai-chan, I want to help you."

Confused at the sudden statement, Haibara turned around and looked at the teen that had set her book bag down on a nearby table and was peering up at her, "What do you mean?"

"I want to help you, I really want to help," Kasuma said, hoping Haibara would get the hidden message she was purposely slipping in, "You as well as Conan-kun. Whatever I can do, whatever I can offer, I want to give it to you." Silently she added, 'I want you to realize that I'm an ally… not an enemy.'

"Help with what?" Haibara pressed, suppressing her sudden nervousness. What could she help them with?

"Anything," Kasuma stated. She fell silent, waiting for a reply. When none came Kasuma sighed, "You don't trust me… neither does Conan-kun. But I trust you… both of you, which is why I'm going to tell you something I've never told anyone else before. My parents… before they died, were scientists…"

Haibara's head fell onto her arms, the degrading elementary math book strewn off to the side, forgotten. The shrunken scientist glared at her door as her thoughts ran amuck, 'She… trusted me with that information… info she's never told anyone else about… I was the first person to hear about this… she told me, a complete stranger, her most well hidden secrets. I mean… thanks to him I was forewarned but I never would have guessed otherwise… what she's had to deal with… She witnessed it… her parents' demise… That bitch struck again… without even flinching…! And she… but why? She was spared… She said she doesn't even know… then again, no one knows what goes on in that bitch's head.' Haibara took in a sharp breath.

'How was I supposed to respond to that? All of that? She trusts me but… can I trust her? She's an ally… I know that now but… I've lived my life in fear… never knowing who I could trust, who I should stay away from. I was always being watched, always under surveillance… well, so was she,' Haibara smirked to herself, 'We're more alike than I thought. My story… can I trust her with it? Hmph, what a stupid question, I know I can. But can I bring myself to tell her about it? She… she wants to help. In any way possible she said. I don't know if I'm up to that. The only people who really know of my situation are Kudo-kun and Hakase… and even they never got the full story. She's from the same background so it should be easier for me to confess to her. But it isn't. Why isn't it?

'Oneechan, she's so much like you. Is that why? Because I see you in her? Am I worried she would meet the same fate as you if I got too close? That somehow, by me trusting in her fully, I would only cause her demise? That sounds so stupid but…' Haibara looked up at the clock on her desk, 'He should be calling soon. As usual.'

Right on cue, Haibara's cell phone went off, the device moving slightly because of the vibrations emanating from the phone. Sighing, Haibara opened the cell phone, "What?"

"Oi, what's with the sudden hostility? I'm just wondering if you got anything new," Conan remarked.

'Really? It's like he's physic.' Haibara frowned, 'I really shouldn't tell him anything… she asked me not to,' Haibara recalled Kasuma's words after she had finished her story.

"If I asked you not to tell Conan-kun about this, would you listen to me?"

Haibara was quiet, not hearing the question at first, too shocked at the revelation to find her voice. When she did, she answered with, "That depends I suppose."

"Well, please don't tell Conan-kun… at least not yet. You understand as well as I do what would happen if my secret slipped, Sherry… iie, Miyano-chan."

'She just loves throwing surprises doesn't she?' Haibara thought sardonically, 'She didn't even explain to me how she knew of my codename… or my real name at that.'

"Haibara?" Conan inquired, "Did you get anything new?"

"…No, nothing new yet," Haibara answered, 'Sorry Kudo-kun… but I don't think she's ready to tell you. Though you might not have to wait long.'

Internet

Video Chat via Web Cam

September 20, 4:41 PM

"And even though I've already said this: You. Are. Not. Going. To. This. Heist. Got that?"

"Yeah, yeah, I know. Just don't get yourself in trouble out there." Mage shrugged, thumbing through a stack of papers. "Besides, I'm going to be busying myself in the Lair with future targets. I've already got several in mind."

KID nodded, "Good. It'll be good to get those targets narrowed down. And I'm sure you also have other stuff you have to catch up on, right?"

Mage sighed, glancing at KID through the camera, "Yeah, unfortunately. I'll have lots of work to finish up so I can turn it all in after I recover. It's a good thing my teachers are easy to get a hold of. And classmates have been giving me notes… haven't looked at them quite yet but… I've been focusing on other stuff."

KID raised an eyebrow, "Like what?"

"Jewels, jewels, herbal remedies, jewels, A Lion Among Men, jewels… I think you get the point."

"Yeah, you made that pretty clear," KID answered, letting out a small laugh.

"Good. I hoped I wasn't too cryptic," Mage drawled, pulling up a popular search engine and looking up one of jewels on the list. "Oh, the heist is set to be atop Tokyo Tower, how do you plan on pulling that off?"

"Well the first step would be to get up into the air. I was hoping you could use your connections again to get a helicopter up there as I'm sure the police will have it surrounded, making my glider useless. I'm surprised no one noticed the difference at the last heist… Well, it was noticed, just a little too late to do anything about it."

"I'm sure I could get another helicopter out there again," Mage said, "I just hope I don't get their owners in trouble for aiding and abetting a criminal… or two… They're good friends of friends and I wouldn't want to tarnish their good name."

"Yeah. But unless someone recognizes the copter and pinpoints it to its owner then they should be safe. But your contact is pretty private aren't they?"

"Yeah. And they don't try to draw much attention to them… only working in relatively closed-group situations but it never hurts to be cautious."

"You can say that again." KID agreed.

"I'm still curious as to how you're going to get up there." Mage remarked, bringing up the subject again.

Out of the corner of his eye, Mage could see KID shrug, "I'll figure out something. I could, depending on the officers' positions, hit them with a good dose of sleeping gas. Of course, I won't if they're not in the securest of places… wouldn't want anyone falling down the length of Tokyo Tower. That's a whopping three hundred thirty-two point five meters!"

Mage scoffed, "That would leave a scar… far worse than Cinderella's Castle would. Her castle is fifty-eight meters I believe, one hundred eighty-nine if we're talking feet."

KID also let out a scoff, "That's for sure. The jewel's supposed to be atop the Special Observatory… well it'll probably be a bit higher, above the digital broadcasting equipment… and I recall a multitude of steel beams above it. It would be hard to get people in a comfortable position anywhere up there. It might be safer for there to be no officers up there at all. Though that only makes it a tad easier for us but I'm not complaining."

Mage released a short laugh, "That'll be a spectacle to see. Unless the information has been leaked to the public, which it probably has, the people on the Observatory at that time will certainly be shocked."

"Yeah, especially when I burst in in a," KID made air quotes, "'flurry' looking for a way to escape."

Mage chuckled before sparing KID a short glance, "I could really help you out there, you know. Maybe divert some of their attention; maybe even draw some of them away from the tower itself. You could use all the help you could get."

KID huffed, "I told you. You are not going to this heist."

"Yeah, yeah," Mage waved off the comment, "I still think you're giving this too much thought. I'd be fine."

"And you're not putting enough thought into it. You could get caught. Your reaction time was slowed down, Tantei-kun almost got you last time." KID retorted.

"Regardless, I'd be fine." Mage reiterated, "Tantei-kun won't be catching me any time soon."

"'It never hurts to be cautious,'" KID replied, quoting Mage's previous statement. "You know there's some truth behind that."

Mage hummed, sorting the stack of papers on the desk of the 'Lair' and pulling out select sheets of paper. Meanwhile, KID had pulled down a cardboard box from one of the numerous shelves and extracted several small plastic bags, digging though the contents of each bag, "Ne, besides sleeping gas, what else could be used on the police officers? Opinions?"

Mage paused in his work and looked at KID, "…Stink bombs…?"

KID also paused, "Hmm… then I need some nasty smelling smoke. Got any ideas?" KID looked at his partner.

Mage shrugged, "I'm sure we can concoct something rancid. Shouldn't be too hard so long as we avoid the rotten egg smell. They might mistake it for natural gas."

"I just hope the smell doesn't linger. My favorite lookout spot is on Tokyo Tower and I don't want to be smelling our bomb while I'm staking out a heist location."

"That'd be a bummer. Though the smoke should clear fast enough... That tower is a good vantage point. You can see as far as Mount Fuji on good days," Mage agreed. "You're lookout spot… where exactly is it?"

"Ah, on top of the Main Observatory," KID answered.

"The Main Observatory stands at one hundred fifty meters… that's a little more comforting compared to the Special Observatory's at two hundred fifty meters. And it's still high enough that the helicopters shouldn't run into any difficulties. That would be a better spot to hold the heist. I hope Nakamori-keibu takes into account the danger it could inflict on his men and lowers the heist location. We may not want to get caught by the Task Force, but we certainly don't want them dead."

"Blood's never a good thing," KID nodded, intently reading the labels of a few nearby bottles. "If Nakamori doesn't change the location, we really should step in… express worries, maybe slip into a disguise? But I hope he realizes this on his own time, without our interference."

"Blood," Mage mumbled, "There's already too much spilled… we may have to step it up. Which is why I'm looking into starting up one of my famous Week Long Heists."

"'Week Long Heist?' Is it reallyone week?" KID inquired.

"Yep," was the terse answer, "I don't pull off many mainly because it's damn hard to bring in as many targets as I usually do during them but most of the people who have chased me know of them… as well as a good population of the world; the heist takes me everywhere. Course I don't expect anyone in Japan to know of them as I haven't been active around here until recently, but I hope to acquaint them soon." Mage resumed an earlier task of sifting through the good sized stack of papers, "A lot of the targets in this pile are all over the place. There are several in the Osaka-Kyoto area and a few in Kyushu. I also found several in the Sapporo region as well as, of course, many in Tokyo and surrounding areas. I just need to narrow it down."

"From what I can see, you've got quite a stack there."

"You got that right," Mage nodded, "I'll probably send a good amount over to you. Two heads are better than one, ne?"

Beika, Japan

Mouri Detective Agency

September 21, 7:37 AM

Haibara quirked an eyebrow as the teenager in front of her placed her ear against the door, listening for movement on the other side. The teen nodded to herself then pulled out a set of lock picks, selecting the specific tools she needed and working the lock to the agency's office. "You're making me feel like a criminal you know that?" Haibara deadpanned.

Shrugging, Kasuma paused for only a second, sending Haibara a quick glance before redirecting her focus to the door, "It's a useful skill to have."

"So is knocking," Haibara retorted. Another thought crossing her mind caused Haibara to approach a different topic, "How did you know?"

"Know what, Ai-chan?"

"You know what I'm talking about. What you said yesterday… how did you know?"

"Yesterday?" Kasuma paused again, briefly, before comprehension crossed her features, "Oh, e-mail."

'E-mail…? That still doesn't tell me anything,' Haibara frowned. "That's all you're going to say?"

"Yeah, that's how I know, e-mail. No need to really elaborate." A faint click heard, Kasuma returned her tools to their proper place in her hidden jacket pocket and quietly opened the door. Inside, Mouri was already at his desk, beer cans littering the flat surface. One book bag, Ran's, and one backpack, Conan's, sat readily by the door, patiently awaiting their respective owners to retrieve them. Kasuma set her own bag beside Ran's and walked out, closing the door quietly. "So it was Mouri-san I heard," the girl mumbled as she ascended the stairs in order to stand in front of the second floor entrance. Once again, Kasuma extracted her lock picks and set off to work at the door. More to herself than to anyone else, Kasuma murmured, "I wonder if I can get this one open again. It'd be the second time in a row."

Before she could finish her work, the door opened and Conan stood there, hand on the handle. He openly stared at the teen as she huffed and put away her tools, "You ruined all the fun, Conan-kun."

"Kasuma-neechan…? You were trying to pick the lock again." It wasn't a question but a statement.

"I guess you heard the rattling from the door," Kasuma sighed, "You ruined my chance to beat my record."

"Kasuma? You're here early," Ran said, shocked, as she exited her room, dressed and ready to go.

The early riser shrugged, "Didn't feel like sleeping in, shockingly. To wound up for some reason," Kasuma sent Haibara a knowing look, but turned her attention back to Ran before Conan could tell what the action was. "Mind if I go snooping around in your room for a bit? 'Kay thanks," Kasuma didn't wait for an answer and strode into Ran's room.

"Ch-chotto, Kasuma!" Ran maneuvered herself to her room, which was now closed with the door locked, "Oi! What are you doing in there?" Ran knocked, hoping for an answer but to no avail.

Haibara smirked and shook her head, "She's looking for the present."

"You mean the present that's supposed to be from me even though I have no idea what's in it?" Conan glanced worriedly at the closed door of his caretaker and childhood friend's room.

"Probably," Haibara shrugged, "Earlier today she was scouring the attic for tissue paper. And there's only a select amount you can use tissue paper for—"

Kasuma exited just then and closed the door quietly. Without a word, she descended the stairs to retrieve her bag from the agency floor, Ran following her the entire way, questioning her actions inside her room. Pointedly ignoring Ran's inquiries, Kasuma picked up Ran's school bag and held it out to her saying, "We're going to be late for school. We should be going." Kasuma also picked up Conan's backpack and passed it off to him as he and Haibara reached the agency's door. Haibara scoffed at the poorly disguised distraction attempt, emphasis on the word 'attempt,' as Ran was still ruthlessly questioning Kasuma about 'your highly suspicious actions inside my room that evoked such a loud noise from within.' Kasuma walked behind Ran slightly, a huge grin on her face that further prodded Ran's worry-induced questions. "You did something in there…" Ran was saying, "What was it?"

Kasuma placed a single finger against her lips, still turned upwards in a manic grin rivaling the famous 'Kaito grin' as Aoko had dubbed it one time during a shopping trip Ran, Kasuma, and Aoko had embarked on. "Himitsu," Kasuma answered, dropping her hand to have it instead grab hold of the book bag that was hiding behind the teen.

For a while, as they neared one of the two meeting points, it was quiet. Until, "…Something's burning," Haibara said quietly, praying the comment would go unheard by one of the two teenagers.

"Onii-chan!" a female voice yelled.

Four heads turned instinctively towards the voice, one immediately regretting the action. Across the street a two-story house was engulfed in orange, flames licking at wood. The speaker, a small girl with black pigtails was being restrained by an older woman with the same shade of black hair, the woman visibly suppressing tears.

To the eyes of the recent transfer student, the surroundings morphed, the view blurred due to tears that were trying to escape. One minute she was in Japan, the next she found herself in Oregon, surrounded on all four sides by lush evergreen trees. The two story house in Japan became a three story house in central Oregon, the nearest shop being several miles away. A pre-teen hid behind a tall Douglas fir tree, cell phone clenched tightly in her hand, body pressed against the rough bark as bright red fire trucks finally arrived, far too late to do anything except put out the fire to spare the surrounding trees. Tears streamed continuously down her face, fear shown in her blue orbs instead of hatred… which was what she should have been feeling. Instead, the girl was petrified as she slid down the length of the tree and buried her face between her knees, silent sobs raking her form. Before sleep overtook her, the girl felt a pair of strong arms wrap around her as the figure, a man, knelt beside her, comforting her as she leaned into his embrace…

A small hand gripping her wrist broke Kasuma from her inner turmoil. Taken aback by the fire trucks that had appeared while she zoned out, Kasuma ripped her eyes away from the dreaded force of nature to instead settle on Haibara's hand. "I knew I shouldn't have mentioned it," Haibara whispered, wary of her word choice, "Should have expected a similar reaction." Raising her voice slightly, Haibara added, "Let's go. We'll be late… and Edogawa-kun and Mouri-chan are gaining ground on us."

Kasuma shook her head, removing any unwanted memories from the front of her mind and speeded past the dimming fire to meet up with Ran and Conan, Haibara following promptly behind her.

Tokyo, Japan

Tokyo Tower

September 22, 10:42 PM

Tokyo Tower sat surrounded by police helicopters, the copters slowly circling the tower. Thankfully, Nakamori had surveyed the tower and, by his own intellect, lowered the heist location to the Main Observatory where the ground was steadier and "easier for my men to move around when KID drops in."

The Observatory itself was closed due to the heist that night and the only people inside it were a few officers, previously checked for any fake skin, watching out for any sign of the thief. Of course, as per usual, the officers atop the observatory had been checked as well, tell-tale red pinch marks being sported on each of their cheeks. Speaking of the officers, they were currently finishing up with gathering their current findings: very small, well-hidden, gas or smoke—no one wanted to test out any of them—bombs. After contacting Nakamori about the devices, the Inspector had sent up an officer and a bag to collect all the bombs, the last found device being placed inside the bag for the lucky officer who had to trek down the Tower again by way of stairs (as Nakamori didn't want the elevators to be running during the heist).

Meanwhile, settled on the roof of a nearby building, a form engulfed in shadow perched themself on the edge nearest the tower, black binoculars poised on the Main Observatory, counting the number of bodies on the roof of the viewing deck.

Elsewhere, within the confines of an airborne aircraft, another form hidden underneath a black cloak snuck a glance outside the window, quickly scanning the steel roof below. A grin appeared and the figure ducked under the window to avoid the eyes of any officer that happened to glance in the direction of the copter. After all, there was only supposed to be one person in this certain helicopter. The cloaked figure snickered, "Sometimes it's so easy to fool the authorities. They haven't even noticed the fake text on the side of the chopper."

"Yes, well my forgeries are excellent and hard to discern without close analysis, Bocchama. However, I'm still surprised at the number of contacts Mage-san has at his disposal."

"Oi, oi, Jii-chan," KID drawled, "Mage has told you to drop the honorific… numerous times now." The young thief peeked out the window again, "Maa, guess you've developed a habit by now but Mage still isn't gonna like it."

"I still don't understand why you've forbidden Mage-san from attending the heist," Konosuke Jii mused, looking behind him quickly to peer at KID.

"Mage needs to lie back for a while. That idiot doesn't know when to quit," KID sighed.

'Well neither do you, Bocchama,' Jii thought.

"Mage also wanted to look into starting some heist Mage is famous for and now would be the opportune time to begin planning for that."

The shadowed body lowered the binoculars to glance at their watch, checking the time. 'The arrival time is approaching… What will you do, KID?' Binoculars were raised again, 'There are seven helicopters surrounding the tower, all of them hovering far too close for you to get in by hang glider. The ten guards around the jewel have already found all of your bombs and in addition, they're too spread apart to use any of your projectiles without someone being able to avoid it. You're in a bind aren't you?'

Pushing through the crowd while simultaneously cursing his current height, Conan tried to move to a more barren area in the crowd, not like that was likely. Making his way towards the tower itself and conveniently towards the front of the crowd, Conan found Ran and Sonoko standing next to the yellow tape surrounding the tower. "Ran-neechan!"

Ran turned towards the boy, relief evident in her eyes as Conan approached her, "Conan-kun. Where were you?"

Conan laughed weakly, "Eh, I got separated… the crowd's huge tonight!"

Ran nodded in agreement, "The news spread pretty fast, it was only a matter of time." Ran straightened and looked at Sonoko who seemed to be lost in thought, "Sonoko, you're acting strange. I thought you'd be extremely excited for this heist."

Sonoko didn't answer immediately which led to Ran waving a hand in front of her face. Sonoko shook her head, "Gomen, Ran. I just can't shake the feeling I've seen that helicopter somewhere else before."

"What?" Ran looked up at the circling helicopters, "What do you mean, those are police copters."

"Well, all but one," Sonoko pointed out the copter in question, "It belongs to the same group or company or whatever as the one at the last heist… the one one of the thieves was in. That must be how KID is going to get the jewel."

Conan zoomed in on the helicopter and confirmed that yes indeed, it was the same type of copter as the one that appeared at the last heist. 'But I only see one person in the chopper; it doesn't look like KID's in there. So maybe that's KID's escape route… unless KID really is in there and is only hiding himself until the designated time arrives…' Conan read the time on his watch, 'Which is very soon.'

"Where's Nakamori-keibu?" Ran said just then, "He should be warned of that helicopter."

"I don't know, I haven't seen him yet," Sonoko answered, "But he shouldn't be far from the tower."

"I'll go find him," Conan announced happily. The teen turned boy made to move but the countdown from the crowd stopped him.

"Ten." The soon to be audience looked up eagerly at the tower.

"Nine." The police officers were shuffling swiftly to their positions.

"Eight." The seven police copters, fake one included, hovered closer to the red structure.

"Seven." Nakamori's bellowing voice could be heard throughout the crowd, orders to 'stay alert' ringing through the radios.

"Six." The crowd inched forward, awaiting the appearance the thief would soon initiate.

"Five." The figure on a nearby roof, still shrouded in darkness, smirked.

"Four." KID, from within the fake police copter, scanned the surroundings one last time.

"Three." Conan tried to squeeze his way to the front of the large group.

"Two." The shrouded figure and KID himself shifted in anticipation and Hakuba, from another part of the crowd, looked at his pocket watch.

"One." The Task Force braced themselves for the thief's arrival.

"Zero." Nothing happened. No plume of smoke, no white glider, no shouts of excitement from the crowd, no highly un-amusing trick or prank, nothing. Murmurs broke out through the crowd, inquiries on where KID was and why he hadn't shown himself yet spreading rapidly.

"Great turnout tonight," a voice rang out. Everyone looked around for the voice that must have come from KID but didn't quite sound like him. Laughter filled the air and a large cloud of smoke engulfed the observatory rooftop. When the smoke cleared seconds later, the audience expected to find KID atop the tower only to be disappointed when nothing had changed.

Somewhere in the crowd, Hakuba looked at his watch and frowned, "You're exactly fifty-one seconds late, KID."

"What's going on up there?" Nakamori was saying through his radio.

Through the static of the radio, an officer announced that nothing had happened or changed as of yet. Just as the inspector ordered the officers to hold their positions, the shadowed figure stepped onto the edge of the roof, the light of the moon revealing white pants and shoes. Smirking, the figure encased in white leaped off the roof, cape snapping out to form a wing-shaped glider. The sudden action brought the crowd's attention to the figure first diving down the length of the building then pulling up abruptly and making its way to Tokyo Tower.

As KID stared at the blob of white, he found himself frowning and thinking, 'Oi kimi, you were supposed to rest tonight!'

After a moment of confusion had passed, the crowd erupted in cheers, rooting for the thief who had made an unexpected visit. 'I-It's Mage!' Conan stared in disbelief, 'He wasn't supposed to come! He didn't sign the note… what's going on?'

The thief forbidden from coming smirked as he caught sight of Hakuba sifting through his pockets. 'Perfect,' the thief thought before banking around the tower as well as the helicopters in order to give the detective a clear shot without any obstacles. 'The river's approximately one thousand meters from Tokyo Tower. If he gives me enough time to get substantial distance away from the tower then this should all go according to plan.'

"What's going on?" Sonoko asked Ran over the roar of the crowd.

"I have no idea. Mage wasn't supposed to come tonight," was Ran's answer.

There was a loud bang and Conan whipped his head up and around to search for the sound, 'Don't tell me it's another sniper attack!' The thief in the sky seemed to wobble slightly as what must have been a bullet hit the white speck. Conan zoomed in on the thief using his glasses, searching for anything stained red. Instead of locating a stain, Conan caught sight of a small hole in the fabric of Mage's glider. Conan sighed, 'It was Hakuba, not a sniper.'

Whether it was from the bullet hole or Mage's own steering, the glider dove rapidly at a slight angle, Conan following the movement closely with the use of his glasses. As the thief approached Tokyo Bay, the glider suddenly snapped shut and, eyes wide, Conan watched as Mage dived into the blue waters of the bay. With the thief's dive being so far away and so close to the ground, neither the crowd nor the many members of the Task Force or Nakamori-keibu saw the action. Therefore, when the inspector saw the thief falling rapidly, he immediately sent some of the circling helicopters after the thief in order to search for Mage. 'And then there were four,' Conan thought sardonically, 'Of course, not counting the fake police helicopter.'

The once worried crowd—worried because of the 'crash' everyone saw—was now cheering as a familiar pink smoke covered the roof of the Main Observatory. Before the smoke cleared, a voice projecting itself throughout the crowd announced, "Ladies and Gentlemen!" the smoke cleared, revealing the one and only Kaitou KID. "I thank you very much for taking time out of your busy schedules to come join me in liberating this beautiful lady, White Horse, from her lonely stable. As you can see, my partner decided to show up after all and I must see to it that my dear Aibou makes it out of that frigid water." KID faked a shiver, then, waving happily to the Task Force atop the tower as well as the Inspector down below, ran towards the edge of the roof before anyone could stop him and dove off, releasing his hang glider seconds later while simultaneously avoiding the copters hovering about.

A small, white slip of paper flapped restlessly in the wind near the spot KID had launched himself from. When an officer noticed it and handed it to Nakamori when the heist was over, Nakamori read this: The Blue Pearl will roll to us when the seven meets the eight. –KID and Mage

Final Notes: A good portion of this chapter's beginning was focused on our dear scientist friend, Haibara, and her conflicting thoughts.

And yes, it's true: Kasuma has pyrophobia (or arsonphobia). Won't say why though I'm sure some of you can infer why she's in such a state…

Don't you feel sorry for that poor officer who had to run down the stairs of Tokyo Tower?

Oh, a note: A Lion Among Men is a book by Gregory Maguire. He also wrote Wicked (yes.. like the musical Wicked) and Son of a Witch (not to be mistaken for Son of a B****) as well as many other books that I haven't gotten around to reading yet. I am absolutely in love with the Wicked Years series and when I found this book over the summer, I flipped out :D

And no, I was not thinking of Taylor Swift when I named the jewel, just so that's clear.

Sadly (or maybe not), I don't have a preview of next chapter to show you all but… maybe it's a good thing… But even though there's no preview, maybe a small hint of sorts would entice your curiosity? I think you'll get a kick out'a the next chapter's title. Next chapter, someone leaves and never comes back. Innocents are blamed and detectives are stumped by one miniscule detail… Stay tuned!