Kaito arrived at around eight o'clock at night to pick her up for the heist, which seemed early to her considering that Kaitou Kid's heist was only supposed to start around eleven. She opened the front to let him in, saying, "Bakaito, I'm not ready yet!"

"Well hurry up, Ahoko!" Kaito seemed to be bristled by something. "Going to this thing was your idea, anyway."

Aoko felt steam come from her ears. She forgot how angry she had been at him for the past few weeks, even if she had forgiven him for whatever prank it was that got her mad at him in the first place. "If you don't want to come, then you should just go home! I'll go by myself!"

"Fine!" Kaito retorted. "Bye, then."

He left as quickly as he arrived. Aoko felt a pit in her stomach open up. That really didn't go well - what was up with Kaito? He was really acting like a damn asshole, she decided.

And then she remembered the conversation in her room from earlier that morning. Kaito was supposed to bring her to the heist and stay by her side because Kid had told her father that Kaito would be there. Kaito had to be there! Although, she supposed she could always tell her dad the truth - that Kaito and her had had a fight, and he bailed at the last second. But that wouldn't look good for Kaito at all, especially when Kid had promised her father to protect her. How could she make Kaito break a promise he didn't even know he made?

"Whatever," Aoko settled upon. Her father would be too busy to notice. She would go alone to the heist and just stay out of the way.

Arriving at the high-rise that the heist was to be held at around an hour later, Aoko was surprised to find the police already on high alert and in position. In the middle of the commotion, she could see her father barking out orders to his subordinates. She frowned as she looked around - something was putting her on high alert as well. It was probably the fact that this was an imposter's heist, not Kid's. She had no way of knowing how this night was going to turn out.

"Aoko?" A hesitant voice from behind her questioned, somewhat unsure.

She turned to face the person who spoke. "Bakaito? What are you doing here? I thought you weren't coming?"

"I changed my mind," Kaito said.

"So you aren't mad?"

"Mad?" He asked.

"About our fight earlier?"

He blinked, seemingly confused, before laughing. "Oh, that? That was a fight?"

Aoko laughed as well. So she had just been being silly! Kaito and her fought all the time - of course that little argument wasn't going to blossom into a full-blown fight. She blamed it on the recent month-long falling out that they had had. She was scared of losing him again.

"Well, the fake - I mean, Kid's only supposed to show up in like two hours, so we've got some time to kill before then," Aoko said. "Did you want to take a look at the gem that he's supposed to be taking?"

"Sure," Kaito said enthusiastically. He always seemed to like looking at those jewels whenever he came with her to these heists.

So they migrated their way through the crowd of policemen until they reached the pedestal that held the jewel necklace, La Peregrina. Kaito seemed to look at it very closely, and he looked around the pedestal as well. "It doesn't look like Kid swapped it out yet - it looks like the real deal. Although, I'm not a gem expert."

"Obviously not," Aoko chuckled.

"Oi, oi, what's that supposed to mean?" Kaito asked, unamused.

Just then Inspector Nakamori approached the pair. "Good to see you two, Aoko and Kaito-kun."

"How's the situation looking, Inspector?" Kaito asked. In a lower voice, he asked, "Do we know anything about the imposter's motives?"

How did Kaito know about the imposter? Aoko didn't remember telling him anything about that. She chalked it up to bad memory.

"We don't have much to go off of," the Inspector said, shaking his head. "As much as I hate to say it, it's a waiting game now."

Kaito looked around the room with a piercing, observant gaze. "Do you think that they have any connection to the real Kaitou Kid?"

"I think that'd be a good question for him to answer for us," a snarky, British voice said from behind them. Aoko turned to see Hakuba approaching, clad in his tweed suit as usually. He added, "Don't you agree, Kuroba-kun?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about!" Kaito rebutted, a little more defensively than usual.

"Oh, Hakuba-kun, you're here as well," the Inspector said.

"As well?" Aoko asked.

The Inspector pointed across the room to a teenager in a blue high school uniform suit. "We're swamped with high school detectives, it seems. That Kudo Shinichi boy from Tokyo decided to make an appearance, as if he has nothing better to do."

Kaito laughed and elbowed the Inspector. "You're just jealous because he has a better track record at catching criminals than you do!"

"Damn hell he doesn't when it comes to Kid," the Inspector growled. "As far as I care, he hasn't caught the bastard yet, either."

"He usually only deals with murder cases, though," Hakuba stated suspiciously. "Odd of him to show up for a Kid heist."

"Is it, though?" Kaito asked.

Hakuba's eyes shifted to him. "Yes, it is. Quite odd."

"Anyway," the Inspector interrupted. "Kaito-kun, Aoko, I hate to ask this of you but would you mind keeping some distance between yourselves and this place? Considering the high possibility that we're dealing with an imposter, we can't be sure that the situation might not escalate higher than normal Kid heists."

"Sure thing," Kaito nodded, looking a little dejected for basically being kicked out of the heist.

The pair left the high-rise and found themselves on the sidewalk in front of it. Aoko stared up at it, a little worried about Kid. She wouldn't be there to keep an eye on him and keep him safe.

Beside her, Kaito was looking around the street with that same piercing gaze as before. Noticing his serious expression, she laughed. "Kaito, what are you looking at?"

"Oh - uh, nothing," he said. Then he pointed across the street. "Hey, let's go to the aquarium."

The aquarium? "Um, are you sure?"

"Yeah, it'll be fun," he said, already crossing the road. "And it's open late!"

Aoko followed after him quickly, not wanting to be stuck on the other side of the road from him. The aquarium it was, she supposed. And at least she'd be close by to the heist, so that if something went wrong - if somehow, something happened to Kid - she'd be able to be there.

At the aquarium.