AN: Kazumi Sanada was not canonically a student of Toichi's, but for my purposes he was. *Michael Scott voice* So sue me. Actually don't. Anyway the DC wiki lists Kazumi's age at around 27, so he'd be about 19 while studying under Toichi, which isn't ridiculous. So let's pretend Toichi was his first teacher and then he got a new one after Toichi died. Sounds good.

Additionally, while doing research for this chapter I found out that Gosho Aoyama has basically confirmed that Toichi isn't dead? That's not really relevant to this story, I'm just a little shooketh is all.

A little bell chimed as Aoko walked through the door of the Blue Parrot. She looked around and noticed the place seemed deserted. She backed up a few steps to look for a sign that would tell her if the place were open or not. Eventually she found the Hours of Operations page, hidden on the wall behind some flyer:

MONDAY: CLOSED
TUESDAY: CLOSED
WEDNESDAY: 6PM - 2AM
THURSDAY: 6PM - 2AM
FRIDAY: 6PM - 2AM
SATURDAY: 6PM -2AM
SUNDAY: 6PM - 2AM
**HOURS SUBJECT TO CHANGE AT OWNER'S DISCRETION**

She could've slapped herself. She was early by at least - she checked her watch - nine hours! Of course they weren't open. Her eyes trailed back to the door. Strange... why would the door be unlocked if they were closed? Jii must be there then! She called out, "Jii-san, are you here?"

Muffled voices came from the back room. She couldn't make out the words, but if she strained she thought she heard a bit of panic in their tones. The door to the back room opened and shut quickly as Jii entered the main hall and greeted Aoko. "Ah! Aoko-san, what can I do for you today?"

"Who's back there?" Aoko looked over his shoulder, trying to see through the door.

"Nobody! Nobody at all," Jii smiled, obviously covering something up.

"But I heard you talking to someone -" Aoko tried.

"Oh, was I? I talk to myself a lot when I'm here alone. This place can be kind of creepy otherwise."

Aoko looked at him, wondering whether to protest against his obvious lies more or to get to the matter she came here for. She decided to just jump right in to the matter at hand - but carefully, of course. Wouldn't want to give too much away and scare him from revealing something she wanted to know. Jii was quite the Nervous Nelly. One wrong word and he'd probably clam up like... well, a clam. "Anyway, I was just wondering if you ever met any of Toichi-san's apprentices?"

A suspicious glint rose up in Jii's eyes. So that answered the question of if he knew anything. It was just a matter of getting him to spill it. Jii gave his answer slowly. "I did meet a few, but why do you ask?"

"I just was curious about..." Aoko thought quickly. What would she be curious about? What would bring her to Jii's pool hall in the middle of a Sunday? "I just was curious about if any of them are famous and local. I'm sure Kaito told you we're in the middle of a fight and I figured I'd try to be the bigger person, so I was thinking I could make it up to him and surprise him with tickets to see a magician who trained under his father."

Convincing? Hopefully. Any intention to follow through? Well, now that she said it...

Jii seemed to un-tense. "I see! Let me think back. There are some that I remember. Yukiko-san, Sharon-san, Sanada-san -"

"Sanada? Like Kazumi Sanada?" Aoko questioned. A magician that she'd actually heard of!

"Exactly," Jii nodded. "He was quite the brilliant student. Probably the closest to a star pupil that a teacher could ask for. Master Toichi would have been proud to see him performing now."

Jii certainly has a lot of praise for this guy! Aoko thought. And Chikage-san definitely thinks highly of Kid... maybe this guy is Kid?

There was only one way to see. But looking at Jii and how defensive he was initially, she doubted she would get any answers out of him.

"I'll definitely have to get tickets for one of his shows," Aoko said, and then questioned as innocently as she could, "Though, speaking of magic shows, how's this one coming along?"

"Pardon, Aoko-san?" Jii asked, blinking in confusion.

"Nevermind, Jii-san," she smiled. Then, checking her watch, she said, "Oh, I've got to get going now. Thank you again!"

Leaving the Blue Parrot, Aoko found herself in a mix of emotions. On the one hand, she hadn't exactly confirmed if Jii was actually working with Kid - even if she was close to one hundred percent sure that Kid was in the back room scheming with Jii at that very moment. And she hadn't confirmed Kid's true identity, either. But she had a name, and from the way Jii had spoken about that guy...

Pulling out her cellphone, she did a quick Google search for 'Kazumi Sanada.' Results quickly loaded. She gazed on the man's face, briefly wondering if this was truly the face of the man that was in her bedroom that morning. She tapped on one of the first results: Kazumi Sanada dressed in a Kaitou Kid costume. She laughed to herself. Could he be any more obvious? She tapped the picture and skimmed the article, which detailed his performance on a boat owned by the Suzuki foundation where a gem called the Black Star had been stolen by... Kaitou Kid.

Aoko put her phone away. This more than proved it. This cemented it.

AN: Aoko has literally zero evidence that Kazumi is Kid but (fun reminder) it's easy to believe in something if you want to convince yourself about something. She has a lot of blinders on, but the reason for that should be obvious... she knows, deep deep down, that there's only one obvious person for Kid to be at this point. And she'll do anything to convince herself otherwise.