A/N: To any other Americans here-hope you were able to vote, and that the outcome of the election is one we can all live with. Hope you enjoy the fic, too-there's going to be some glimpses at what's happening back in Japan starting in this chapter, so I hope you have fun!

Warnings at the end, per usual.

Chapter 25

The thing was that, in the most technical sense, 'cop instincts' were as much myth as fact. Cops had good instincts, sure, but they weren't special or magical the way a lot of guys Ginzou's age liked to think. Anyone who was in a dangerous profession long enough got them. Cops just got a little more freedom to act than, say, soldiers, and so they could actually rely on the instincts to govern their actions and hone them to a greater extent. But still, they weren't magic. Sometimes what you thought was a hunch was really just paranoia, or stomach acid. Funny feelings weren't science.

But this didn't feel like just any funny feeling.

Kaito was still recovering from that horrific near-miss of an accident. According to Aoko he just barely had the range of motion for his normal antics in class and they still looked painful. Which made the fact that Chikage said she'd given him permission to go visit a distant, ill relative outright bizarre. Really, the distant relatives should have been coming to him, about a month or so ago, when he was barely conscious enough to walk around. He was just a kid, for f***'s sake; couldn't Chikage at least have gone with him if the relative needed visiting that badly? It didn't fit with the weird protective thing she'd been doing lately.

Chikage had been worrying him in general, recently, ever since the late-night bar trip. She was quiet and thoughtful and intent in a way he was used to only seeing glimpses of, but now it was like she wasn't even trying to hide that aspect of herself. Which was creepy as heck. If Kuroba Chikage couldn't be relied on to be a puzzle-box in vaguely human form, what could he even trust anymore?

So, Chikage acting even weirder than normal, check. Kaito off alone on a trip he couldn't possibly be healthy enough for? Check. And then the weird rumors started going around the Tokyo MPD.

That strange little niggling in his gut suddenly getting way too strong to ignore? Also check.

Time to start investigating.

"Inspector Megure, what's this about Conan-kun going on a sudden trip?" He asked, walking into the man's office.

"If you're here for the betting pool, I don't know anything and you should talk to Officer Shiratori," Megure said tiredly.

"The h***-no, you know, I don't want to know," Ginzou said. "But he did leave, suddenly?"

Megure nodded. "His mother showed up out of nowhere on Monday, apparently. They're off to...Ran was a little unclear; so was Edogawa-san apparently."

"Monday," Ginzou repeated. That's when Kaito left.

"We think Hattori-kun's meeting up with them, somewhere," Megure said. "He left Osaka, and all anyone really knows is that he didn't tell anyone where he was going 'til he was halfway there. Kudou-kun might even be involved, this time."

"Your high school detective," Ginzou said. "What exactly...happened...with him?"

Megure raised an eyebrow. "You think I know?"

Ginzou blinked. "He's been out of school for months, I hear people saying it's a case...I thought…"

"People think all sorts of things," Megure said, mouth cutting a grim line across his face. "Here are the facts of it: Kudou-kun was missing for 48 hours before he got in contact with anyone. That was long enough for us to put out a missing persons report. Later, he called Ran-kun, and even later, he actually showed up to a crime scene, but when we tried to take the missing persons report out of the system, his parents asked us to leave it there."

Ginzou stared at him.

"Since then, he's been back," Megure said, but there was an edged drawl to the tone. "He's been wearing masks, and glasses, and speaking from loudspeaker systems so no one will see him. The first time he showed up after he disappeared, he was so sick we called a doctor to a crime scene. He solved the case, then vanished again before the doctor could get there. We assumed he was all right somewhere, but...Takagi got nervous and called a few morgues, and I didn't stop him." Megure tugged at the brim of his hat, scowling.

"S***," Ginzou breathed.

"Whatever's happened-or is happening-it's not good," Megure said. "The junior officers are cottoning on, too. I have a h*** of a time keeping a lid on it. It's probably the same for you."

Ginzou crossed his arms, a bit affronted. "Not quite," he half-growled. "Mine's gone, permanently, and he's not coming back unless we find him and drag him here."

"Mine wants to be here, but someone or something's stopping him, and no one will tell us enough to help." Megure held eye contact. "Most of what I know about the kid's wellbeing nowadays comes from Ran-kun and Edogawa-kun."

"The only thing I know about Saguru-kun is that-maybe-he's not in Paris," Ginzou huffed. "But that's from my neighbor getting drunk and babbling."

"How would your neighbor know?" Megure asked, apparently thrown.

"How does she know anything?" Ginzou shrugged. "She's creepy and she asked her creepily long list of international friends to look for him, probably. But she's acting weirder than usual and now her son's gone on a trip at the same time as Edogawa and Hattori, and I don't like this."

"Her kid-wait, is this the Kurobas?" Megure asked. "Because if Edogawa, Hattori, and one of the missing person's closest acquaintances left at the same time, that's a whole different matter."

"What?" Ginzou asked. "Okay, I don't think you understand how badly those two got along…"

"I talked to the Superintendent-General; I have an idea," Megure said dryly. "But the only kids Hakuba-kun talked to, period, were your daughter and Kaito-kun. He was also one of the last people to see him before he left, even if he doesn't remember it."

"So, what, you think they abducted him to help them do an unauthorized investigation of Saguru's disappearance?" Ginzou asked.

"I think they might have talked him into it," Megure corrected. "You can get pretty far with most teeangers by appealing to their sense of adventure."

"You saw Kaito when he came in for the interview, he's still not fully recovered, there's no way f***ing adventure would get him to go travelling around like that-" he broke off, thinking about it. "But finding Saguru would. He's been worried as h*** since the kid disappeared."

"Like you said, they didn't get along," Megure said mildly.

"They didn't-don't," Ginzou said firmly. "But Kaito's altruistic streak tends to run a little too wide, if you know what I mean."

Megure raised an eyebrow.

"Kid almost fell out of a tree trying to get a baby bird back in a nest when he was 11," Ginzou said with a sigh. "He was high enough he would've broken something important, but, no, it was more important for the bird to go back with his parents. He insisted he would've landed right after I was done yelling at him."

Megure snorted. "Okay, so he's a bleeding heart."

Ginzou considered arguing for about a second. "Yeah, basically. Doesn't matter that he doesn't like Saguru, he still wouldn't want anything bad happening to him."

"You should probably warn his mother," Megure said. "I don't think Hattori-kun and Edogawa-kun have ever gone on vacation without finding a murder."

"Let's hope they manage it this time," Ginzou said. "You know about what happened to his dad, right? Even though that wasn't a murder, kid's got some issues about it."

"It would be odder if he didn't, honestly," Megure said. "But those two have the luck of a shinigami, so I wouldn't be optimistic."

"How likely are they to get him in trouble, though?" Ginzou asked.

"Not very," Megure said. "I've had them come back with all sorts of injuries but everyone else is usually uninjured. Traumatized, but uninjured."

"I can live with that," Ginzou decided. "I don't like it; Edogawa's what-eight?-but he's not the one I'm most concerned about right now."

Megure gave him a sympathetic look. "It's been a long time, for a missing persons case...but if they really are looking for Hakuba-kun, then there's no one with a better chance of finding him."

"You've got a lot of faith in a loose-cannon teenager and a grade schooler," Ginzou said quietly.

"Hattori-kun just makes a bad first impression," Megure said. "And Edogawa-kun seems to get him to focus on the right parts of the case. It's odd, but it works for them." He paused. "You'd trust Hakuba-kun with something like this, right?"

Something twisted in Ginzou's gut. "Guess I would."

"You should probably talk to the Superintendent-General," Megure said. "He should know, if someone's doing something to find his son. And I think he'll like it better coming from you."

Ginzou raised an eyebrow.

"Superintendent-General Hakuba doesn't play favorites, not really," Megure said. "But you're the one he let watch his kid for all that time. Think about it."

Walking out of Megure's office, Ginzou did. Or at least tried to. He missed back when investigating had actually cleared things up.

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Shinichi came back to consciousness cautiously. Because his head was throbbing, and it was hard to think, but there was one thing he was very, very sure of, and it was that he was coming back to consciousness, not waking up. Whatever had happened, to make him unaware, it hadn't been voluntary.

Things came back slowly. He remembered seeing the murderer from Cassidy's precinct's case, the one who had probably fought with Hakuba.

He'd run, and, they'd all given chase, and Shinichi had gotten separated from the others….oh.

He hadn't been sure how the man was keeping the pace he was. He had to be at least a little exhausted, after so long hiding from the police and probably Hakuba and possibly even Them-it wasn't like Them to leave a loose end, after all. But even so, Shinichi, even with the advantage of his full height, was starting to feel warm with exertion, his muscles aching faintly with every movement, and he still hadn't caught up.

By the time Kaito had directed him down that side street, his lungs had felt tight in his chest, and he'd absently registered it as odd. But he hadn't paused until the moment that his field of vision suddenly started pitching and tilting, as if the world was moving around him, though he knew it wasn't. Then, he realized the warmth wasn't exertion at all.

He'd registered the sound of his heart pounding, loud enough that he could hear it over the crowd around him, and he was almost ready for that first tearing stab of pain in his chest.

"The antidote's wearing off," he'd managed, into the phone. "I'm going to get to someplace safe."

The d*** vertigo had just gotten worse as he spoke and boy was that a lot of pain, but, all he had to do was find an alley or an empty bathroom or something.

In the middle of broad daylight. In London.

He remembered cursing, and pushing past some people. Jamming the badge into a pocket-which one, he wasn't sure, but he definitely remembered cloth, and then two empty hands. Had anyone responded to what he'd said? He didn't remember. He'd muttered out "excuse me," a few times, unsure seconds later if he'd managed the right language or not. And then, he'd felt a wall under trembling, sweat-slick fingers, and after that...nothing.

Slowly, carefully, he opened his eyes.

Light. Ow. His head was throbbing, faintly. He shifted, muscles protesting faintly at the movement, and there was an even worse spike of pain at his hip, bad enough for nausea to tug at his stomach. He choked back a groan and shut his eyes.

"He's awake!" a loud voice said.

Head hurting-bright light-he half expected-he opened his eyes again, and there he was, child-sized and lost in the folds of his adult-sized shirt.

At least it seemed to be daytime, but now the similarities of the two situations had Gin's laughter echoing in his ears and the phantom aftertaste of gag reflex and pill coating lingering on his tongue. He shook his head, as if to clear it.

Ow.

Shaking his head was a bad idea.

"You okay, kid?" the same voice asked, in bass-toned English.

"I hurt, especially my head and hip," Shinichi said, and it sounded a little more pathetic than he'd tried for it to sound. Embarrassing.

"No wonder," the voice said. "You've got the start of a nice bruise on your head. Didn't know about your hip, though. Can you look up for me?"

He did, and was faced with a man with a bushy beard wearing what was obviously a London police uniform. His badge said FORRESTER.

"Pupils are the same size, that's good," the man said. "But you still look like you hit your head pretty hard. And we don't know exactly what happened to you."

Shinichi just blinked at him.

"We didn't find a med-alert bracelet," Forrester elaborated. "Do you have one?"

Shinichi shook his head, winced and stopped.

"Did you get heatstroke?" a woman with long, dark hair asked, leaning over Forrester's shoulder.

"No," Shinichi said. "Maybe? I don't know what happened."

He was so tired. And his hip really did hurt, his head felt like there was a woodpecker on it, and his throat felt like he'd gargled sand. What the heck had he done to himself?

"Why were you alone in London in the first place?" the woman asked. Her hair slid away from her badge, and Shinichi could make out the name CLARKE.

"Don't overwhelm him!" Forrester snapped.

"I'm not overwhelming him, I'm trying to reconstruct events!" Clarke replied snappishly.

"He's a foreign kid, hurt, in a strange police precinct, he's probably already overwhelmed and you're not helping," someone called from across the room.

"What's your name, kid?" Forrester asked.

"I'm Edogawa Conan," Conan said. And then remembered himself. "I mean, Conan Edogawa. Conan's my given name."

"Thank you, Conan," Forrester said. "My name is Officer Forrester, and this is Officer Clarke. Could we call someone for you?"

Shinichi blinked. Can they? Wait...no, Kaito has a phone, in case his Mom calls…shoot, which one is it? KID's, or his? I've seen both numbers, at least.

"My cousin has a phone, but I don't know if it's really his, or if he borrowed his mom's," Shinichi said. "I have both the numbers, though."

"Okay," Forrester said, patient. "You tell me the numbers, and I'll write them down, okay?"

"No, no, I need to call!" Shinichi protested. "If he's looking for me, and someone else calls, he's just gonna hang up!" I'm not giving police officers Kaitou KID's private line. That's...no. Not doing it.

"Okay," Forrester said. "But it's a long way to the phone, and you're very little and hurt."

Insult to injury, Shinichi thought, resigning himself to a long, tiring fight.

A/N: Warnings for some canon-typical awfulness, including references to actual canon awfulness, while Megure and Ginzou talk, and injury to a seeming child during Shinichi's section.

Because of the people narrating and the way chapters are broken up, I wasn't able to make this adequately clear in the text, but Shinichi is not seriously hurt. The police haven't quite figured out all of what's going on with him, partly because they just found Shinichi a little while ago and partly because these are not London's finest pediatric first aid providers. Shinichi himself isn't aware because he's not feeling well enough to do a good self-evaluation. It'll be clearer next chapter.

Finally, because I've had the odd reviewer correct me on "mistakes" before-Ginzou says Toichi wasn't murdered because, to Ginzou's knowledge, Toichi died in an accident.