The Floating Rose Chapter 2, a detective conan/case closed fanfic

Want to participate?

Then that's your chance:

The first chapter of this story has pictures on AO3...

Since I didn't have time to draw for the second chapter yet, i decided to try something...

Here's the idea:

Please tell me about your favorite moments of this story in a comment. I'm going to pick six of them and draw one page each.

Then i'll add the pictures to the story on AO3. I'll let you know when they are uploaded.

I'd be glad if as many of you as possible would participate, since it's more fun like this ;)

I'm looking forward to your requests!

Warning:

I've got a new friend while writing: "…" I don't know whether that's positive or not, since it kind of started to feel like getting out of control.

Also, I don't seem to know how to deal with upper vs. lower case writing after quotation marks… I kind of ignored any rules, because… lazy, so please ignore it?

Oh, and I got a writer's block kind of exactly where the suspense should be highest in a story… I doubt that's a good sign, so be kind to yourself and don't struggle through the whole thing if it gets boring ;)

However, if that's the case, please leave me a comment, so that I can do better next time!

(Of course, you can also tell me if you liked it XD)

What you should know before reading:

I forgot Hattori's dialect in the first part… I didn't correct it, as I thought it was better to let it as it is… However, Hattori somehow just remembered he had a dialect, so yeah, that's how he speaks now, especially when he's happy and joking around. If you don't like it, I could perhaps… hit him over the head with something? He might forget again…?

Also, the Conan-bowtie has gotten an upgrade: It's digital now!

And pandora is... no! No spoilers... you'll see...

Well then, enough babbled, let's dive in!

The Floating Rose

Part II

Shinichi was sitting on his mattress, wrapped in a warm blanket and holding a steaming cup of tea in his hands. His nose was itching like hell and he had to sniff too much for his liking. Only by a whisker he didn't let the cup fall, as he sneezed. Hesitantly he separated a rather cold hand from the cozy warmth of the cup to reach for his handkerchiefs… the package was empty.

Grumbling he got up and shuffled to the bathroom, to have a look at the drawer where he had stored what he believed to be a handkerchief provision for at least three years. There were only two packages left. He pocketed them and turned to go back to his snugly, warm blanket, as he perceived the apartment door bursting open from the corner of his eye.

Something white came stumbling in and nearly collapsed in Shinichi's arms, leaving a trail of red splotches on the floor. Shinichi could feel something warm dripping on his forearm. It was blood. Kaito's blood.

"Dammit! Kaito, what happened?" He shouted. (It sounded more like: Dabbidd! Gaiddo…)

"I forgot my bullet proof vest…" The magician wheezed with a strained smile. "… guess I'm really just a thief that never learns…" 1 He clenched his teeth and grimaced, inhaling sharply as he let himself sink down onto the kitchen floor.

"Baka…" Shinichi helped him get out of his blood-soaked costume, wondering how it had stayed this white until now.

"… I should have gone there with you!"

Kaito shook his head weakly. "When you're sick… you stay home!" He said in a low raspy voice, then he passed out.

"Oh my God, Kaito? Kaito?" Shinichi asked shocked and tapped his friend's cheek. As he realized Kaito was still breathing, he refocused on getting him out of the costume.

Finally, he revealed Kaito's bloody torso, more or less pleased to find the bullet wound in Kaito's left shoulder instead of who knows where. Luckily the bullet had gone through clean, without damaging anything essential. Relieved he went for the first aid kit. There was no need to jeopardize Kid's identity in some hospital. He could deal with this himself.

1 Kid the Phantom Thief, Episode 8: The Secret of the Red Tear

The next morning, Shinichi had totally forgotten his cold. He checked Kaito's bandages for the dozenth time, refilled the hot water bottle at his feet, then went back to his desk. He couldn't really focus on work however and went checking on Kaito again. He ended up sitting at Kaito's side, holding his hand, so that he could assure himself that it was still warm. For a while he watched the smooth movement his friend's chest, rising and falling with every breath.

Like this, he was finally able to refocus on work again, although he went at it a bit halfhearted. Since Kaito had gotten that death threat, his detective skills on the serial murder case had dropped dramatically. Nevertheless, he grabbed file after file from the stacks lying on the floor in front of him and read them through. He didn't know anymore how many times he'd already done this but somehow, he had a feeling that the missing something which would lead him to the solution would turn up eventually if he did it again.

The first file was about the murder of a well-known jeweler, Watanabe Eijiro. He was found in his workshop, heavily beaten up and stabbed with one of his own jewel setting tools. The whole place was littered with pages taken out of his business record case binders. The workshop looked as if it has been robbed but strangely neither jewels nor money were gone.

The second murder victim had purchased an opaque diamond from Watanabe before the latter was murdered. The room was in quite a disorder, maybe signs of a struggle but the diamond was still there. The man had been shot through a file he held in his hands… It was the diamond's purchase certificate. A number, "1412!", was written on the man's right house shoe with a black marker. Kaito, Shinichi thought and watched his friend sleep for a moment.

The third victim as well had bought a completely opaque gem but against all odds, the stone was never mentioned in Watanabe's business records. The gem was sold to the victim at an auction to a rather high price. At the crime scene the gem was found shattered to pieces next to the body. On one of the victim's shoes was again a number in black, this time "570P!". Shinichi remembered how Kaito had gone all white while looking at the files and then cut his finger…

"Ouch! What are you squeezing my hand for so hard?" Kaito mumbled as he woke up.

"Shit! Sorry!" Shinichi startled up. "I… just… your death threat… you should have been more careful… really, how could you…" He swallowed, "… how could you forget that vest?!"

"Well, it happened, you can't change it now, can you? No matter how hard you crush my hand…" Kaito wisecracked, visibly feeling better than last night but he was still weak.

"Let's see…" He said softly. "What are you looking at?" Kaito's face distorted into a grimace as he tried to sit up. Shinichi gently pushed him down again.

"You don't move, alright? It doesn't get better otherwise..." Then he lay down beside Kaito and held up the files, so that they could both read them.

Kaito snuggled closer to Shinichi and studied the next file, trying to forget the constant stinging pain in his left shoulder. It struck him, how he had only perceived the black "012" written on the victim's shoe and how he had totally ignored the rest of the file, last time he had seen it.

The victim was a gemologist and amateur archaeologist, apparently interested in all sorts of myths and tales. He had written a study about a gem called pandora…

Wait what?! A study… wait… A STUDY?!

Suddenly it dawned on Kaito, that he knew exactly who this victim was. Well, at least he had read his paper in an online journal. The guy was pretty deep in already, which was probably why he was killed. And really! When you find such things, you don't go publish them in the open internet under your real name! Kaito thought, wondering how dumb this person must have been. He quickly shoved the thought aside however, as he realized he was not much better himself, forgetting to put on that vest.

He tried to recall what the gemologist had written in his study instead. The paper was trying to unveil the truth behind the saying that: "Pandora will cry when held in the moonlight at the time of a comet and whoever drinks of the gem's tears will live forever…". Kaito remembered reading about how the previous owner of pandora had hidden it in another gem with the help of a skilled jeweler, as he learned the gem was wanted by a shady group of people. The outer gem is apparently so opaque, that pandora is only visible when held against a certain light source, not too weak but not too bright either. Like the moon on a cloudless night for example. Kaito recalled, that reading the study was what made him realize, he could leave out clear gemstones in his search.

He compared the date of his first opaque-only heist to the murder dates and realized that about three heists later, the murders began. They probably figured I've made progress. Kaito thought shuddering, then he continued reading the file. Apparently, the guy knew a lot more than Kaito even suspected. The police have found reports about the structure of the black organization, the properties of a drug they were planning to manufacture, even stating several agent's codenames, such as Snake /Jackal, Spider or Rose. Rose? Kaito was sure he had never heard of that name. But one thing was clear: The victim had known waaay too much for their liking!

Some days later, Shinichi's cold had passed and he was able to go to the police station again, feeling a bit bad for leaving Kaito at his apartment all alone. He and Hattori were discussing whether victim one, the jeweler, was killed or whether he committed suicide due to being tortured, given that there were only his own fingerprints on the jewel setting tool.

Suddenly Nakamori came in, waving wildly in the air a white card. His face was steaming red like every single time he received a heist notice. Confused Shinichi went over to him to see the note for himself. Nakamori saw his frown and asked whether he thought it wase a fake. Naturally Shinichi had considered the option but the truth was, he had seen the note before. He even installed the automatic cat feeder and the time switch on the ceiling above Nakamori's desk himself. Only, he had totally forgotten about it. Kuso! He cursed in his thoughts, I should have removed it!

"No…", he said to Nakamori, struggling to keep up a decent poker face, "… I think it's pretty genuine." He wasn't sure what to think of Nakamori's questioning glance but at least he hadn't asked any questions. Gosh, how he hated this kind of icing on cakes!

"Kaito!" Shinichi burst out as soon as he was home. "We totally forgot about that heist notice of yours!"

"Huh?" Was Kaito's blanket-muffled response.

"It fell down today…"

"Well, I guess we should cancel it then…"

"That's not what Kid does, is it?" Shinichi said, causing Kaito to stare at him in confusion.

"I put it there, it is my responsibility now."

"You… what?! No! You can't!" Kaito shouted, his eyes wide open. "They're after my head!" He tried to sit up with an effort.

"Oh, yes I can!" Shinichi objected with a smirk, pushing him back down again.

"After all I like adventures… and it's not like I've never done magic before. And most importantly, I won't have your reputation smudged because of some mollycoddled detective!"

"Ladies and gentlemen!" Shinichi shouted. "Let the show begin!"

He pressed the first button on his remote control to turn off the lights, then, after putting on his night vision goggles, he quickly replaced the gem in the vitrine with a small white toy top hat. He had picked the vitrine before, disguised as a police officer. It was actually trickier than he thought, since the tension wrenches he brought were all a bit too broad, leaving very little space for the picks to enter the keyway.

He put a smoke-bomb on the glass and hung a life size flash paper Kid dummy on the thread he'd attached to the ceiling earlier. Then he hurried away and pressed the remote control again, this time the first as well as the second button. The light went on. "Get him!" Nakamori shouted and the whole task force stormed towards the dummy, just as what appeared to be kid vanished in a burst of flames and smoke.

Shinichi was now standing behind the crowd, using the thick smoke as a cover. Quickly he removed the cape, pulled at the Velcro straps hidden at the shoulders of the Kid costume and flipped the top layer down, revealing a dark anthracite suit instead of the flashy white one. Then he tore open the Velcro on both sides of his pants and removed the thin white tissue from his legs and shoes. Running away from the turmoil before the smoke lifted, he flipped the hat (which was actually a bag) inside out and stowed the pants, the monocle and the cape away. Then he casually walked through that hallway with video surveillance he had changed clothes this elaborately for. On the other side he broke into a run again. Minutes later he burst out of the roof door, holding the gem into the moonlight.

He gasped. Through all the inclusions permeated a reddish shimmer. He gulped. It was weak but it was definitely there. He, Shinichi Kudo, detective, of all people had stolen pandora!

Kaito woke up with a start. Shinichi was not in the apartment. Shit… what time is it? He sat up despite the stinging pain in his shoulder and started Shinichi's laptop. Shitshitshit… Shinichi must have really gone through with it! I've already missed half of it! He thought, as he tuned into the news channel. The moderator was joking about a toy hat in the vitrine as the task force ran through in the background, leaving behind a trail of colorful confetti. The Idiot! Why did he go, even if I told him not to?

Suddenly a voice cut in, a voice Kaito knew all too well:

"When someone isn't where he's supposed to be, people just assume that he's disappeared." 2

He had definitely heard this phrase before! And it annoyed him to hear it again.

"Nakamori-keibu, have you looked on the roof?" The voice asked.

"Ha… Hakuba? … We just came from there… we've seen nobody at all!"

"Well, there's a second roof door which leads to the other side of the roof, have you noticed?"

Nakamori stared at the detective, unable to utter a word.

"While you were up there, Kid has left the roof…" Hakuba continued.

"Are you saying he escaped?"

"No…" The detective flashed a mysterious smile. "He is still there, you have but to look closely…"

That's when Kaito saw it. He clapped his hands to his mouth with horror. There was nothing he could do, as he watched Nakamori turn his head towards the crowd. He watched the inspector's eyes go open wide. Time seemed to hang suspended. And there he was, Shinichi, in perfect disguise, not recognizable… except for a corner of his anthracite coat. It was flipped up, flashing its bright white directly into the tv camera. This is it! Kaito thought and it seemed to him that the moment lasted forever.

Nakamori walked towards Shinichi and grabbed him by the sleeve.

"Kid!" He said, "You're under arrest!"

"I'm… not…" The other countered but Nakamori didn't let him finish the sentence.

"Then why are you wearing that mask?" He shouted as he tore the latex from the thief's face. Nakamori froze. The face underneath the mask was real. Here was no mistaking it. "K… Ku…" He stuttered. "You!? How…" He stared at the detective, looking like he wasn't sure whether he should cry or scream. Then he crouched down and rubbed his face with both hands desperately. "How…?" He mumbled. "All this time… I thought… I thought you were an honest man, that you were on my side of the law. But then, you could have been his assistant… maybe… but… But I never, NEVER would have guessed you would be HIM!" Nakamori wrenched the bag from Shinichi and emptied it on the floor between them. Pieces of the costume fell out, some props, the card gun, the monocle… Kaito was glad he didn't see the diamond among the items. The inspector picked up the monocle and studied it closely, with a livid expression on his face, then he burst out: "Take him away … get him OUT OF MY SIGHT … NOW!"

Two policemen stepped out of the crowd towards Shinichi, cuffed him and walked him off, the camera following him for a few meters before the moderator stepped into view again. Kaito didn't hear anything she said anymore. This is all my fault! Baka! Baka! Egoist! BAKA! I should have stopped him! He thought, as he snapped the laptop shut and let himself fall back onto Shinichi's mattress. Or at least I should have let him use the hang glider… He inhaled through his teeth as the pain from his shoulder shot into his back and down his arm to his fingertips. But I was scared, something might happen to him… and now… Eyes tightly closed he pressed the blanket to his face, inhaling what little he had left of his friend for the moment. Shinichi… He thought. I'm going to make it right… everything… I promise!

2 Inspired by: Macic Kaito 1412, Episode 4: A Great Detective Steps Into the Light

The next day, Kaito braced himself and went to the bathroom to dress, do his hair and check out his poker face in front of the mirror. He couldn't hide the pain from the bullet wound completely, but he decided it was good enough. Luckily Shinichi's phone was lying on the desk, so Kaito unlocked it and called the police station.

"Good morning! …. No… no… Yes, I'm Shinichi… Yes, I've seen it… The idiot… No, that wasn't me…" Which wasn't a lie Kaito observed.

"No really! … Yes… just believe me!... NO! … No, I don't have an assistant… I'm not his assistant either, no… I was at home, with migraine… Migraine, yes…" Which wasn't exactly a lie either. Well, at least something hurt a lot if not the head...

"No, it's exactly as I told you… Yes, I'm better now… Why?... No… You know what? See you later…" He hung up. He was definitely awake now…

At the police station he ran into Hattori.

"Oh god Kudo!" The tan detective exclaimed. "'Tis real good ta see ya, after that start Kid gave me yesterday!"

"Yeah right…" If he only knew…

"Oh, forgot to tell ya, there's been a murder reported, we have a file nine now. A team has been investigating and will present their findings in about ten minutes. Ya should come to that meeting too, since you're on the serial case…

By the way, I heard ya'd gotten ya'self a pretty bad headache there?" He ruffled Kaito's hair, jokingly and patted him on the shoulder. "How's that noggin o' yours?"

Pain shot through Kaito's body as Hattori's hand came down on his shoulder again. He swallowed and tried to carry it off as if nothing was the matter.

Hattori must have sensed something wasn't as it should be however, for he shot him a questioning glance and slowed down his pace. Kaito didn't quite know how to react, so he said nothing. The detective's face became unreadable all of a sudden, his eyes lingering on Kaito's face little bit too long, sending shivers down Kaito's spine. Slowly, a more serious expression formed on the Hattori's face.

"You're not Kudo, are you?!"

By the time they entered the boardroom, the meeting had already begun. Upon seeing "Kudo", a murmur went through the crowd. Hattori sent them a black look.

"Well then, where were we?" The spokesman, someone from division one Kaito didn't know, silenced his listeners, then he went on with the report. Apparently, a woman had been shot in her apartment. Like most of the other crime scenes on this case, the room she was found in was quite ransacked but the woman's relatives couldn't discern anything that could be missing. The body was at least two days old. Once again, a murder between the heists… Kaito thought. Then he bent over to Hattori. "You have to tell me where he is. I can't have him locked up because of me. I should be in his place!" He whispered.

"He's in the police detention center." Hattori whispered back.

"You two…" The spokesman regained their attention. He was recounting the details of the crime scene and Kaito was pondering on how he could free Shinichi and step in his place instead, when everybody's phone started buzzing all of a sudden. Kaito fished Shinichi's out of his jeans pocket and checked the messages. It was an urgent message from the police detention center, saying that Kudo Shinichi, alias Kaitou Kid had escaped. It must have been shortly after his arrest, since the guard had found a dummy in his cell as he brought him breakfast this morning. Kaito's eyes went big. No, that couldn't be… Shinichi hadn't brought several dummies to the heist, or had he? Why would he do that? Besides Shinichi knew, he was innocent, he had no reason to run… and he'd have come home if he did… Kaito felt every muscle in his body tense. Something wasn't right, he was sure of it.

The people in the boardroom started murmuring again, eying him suspiciously from time to time. Kaito could hear snatches of what they said:

"Look at him… sitting there as if nothing happened…"

"Yeah, I've always thought he was an arrogant fellow…"

"Did he really run and come straight for work?"

"Who does he think he is?"

He felt like shriveling up and vanishing would be adequate.

Absently he listened as the spokesman gathered the attention of his audience again and continued his report, talking about a gun and blood that could potentially be of another person, since there had been a stain in the corridor outside of the apartment. They'd sent a probe to the lab as well as the gun itself for prints.

As the meeting was closed and the people started to leave, Hattori gently put his hand on Kaito's sound Shoulder, preventing him from hurrying out. "Bring him back, will ya?" He said with a bleak but gentle smile, just as if he could read Kaito's thoughts. "Good luck! … Kuroba."

The police detention center was a huge concrete building, looming dark against the sky in an unfriendly fashion. Kaito checked his disguise. In for a little social engineering? he asked himself. Then hurried over to the front door, where he had spotted a guard. "G'day!" He said, "I've come ta visit a workmate o' mine, but that dipshit happened ta run before I had a chance ta bawl 'im out. Anyhow, whaddaya say, since I'm here now, can I still go have a peek at his cell?"

The guard gave him a scrutinizing look. "Hattori-kun, is it?"

Kaito was quite proud of his accomplishment. "Eeh? How'd ya know? I'm not that famous, now am I?" The guard laughed. "Wheeeell, you don't meet so many people speaking Kansai around here…" He then motioned for Kaito to follow him. "He was your colleague? What a surprise! Well, I shouldn't go shouting that from rooftops as a prison guard but I'm actually quite a fan of his. How did you react when you found out?"

"Wasn't that thrilled actually… Kid's quite the pain in the ass. But I really liked working with 'im, so it's been kind of a shock." Now really, who refers to himself as a pain in the ass?! Kaito thought, suppressing a grin.

"Here we are." Said the guard, pointing towards an empty room with nothing but a toilet, a chair and a blanket in it. "I know, our cells here aren't the most comfortable but since it's only pretrial… You ask me, he would have deserved better…"

At first Kaito was quite enjoying the guard's liability to fangirl over Kid but after a while it got up his nose. He ignored the guard and walked around in the cell, looking for clues of what might have happened. Suddenly he saw a tiny slip of paper, lying on the floor, as if it had fallen out of somebody's pocket. He picked it up. It was a shred of a paper napkin or handkerchief, evident from the pattern of tiny dimples on the surface. Somebody had scratched in something with a fingernail. Kaito held it towards the light and flipped it in different directions, searching for better contrast. There it was: 1301412N4P.

1412, KID… KIDNAP… BO KIDNAP! Shit! Black organization?! Kaito panicked. Shinichi could be dead!

Pretending to be late for something Kaito looked at Shinichi's phone. "Thanks for takin' me here! Was natty meetin' ya. Gotta go…" He said to the guard, then he jogged off mumbling something about work and cases. His mind was racing in circles. Shinichi must have been kidnapped shortly after he arrived at the station… Since he had written the rather unobtrusive distress signal on a napkin, he must have already gotten his dinner. Perhaps the person who came to collect the empty dish was an undercover agent of the black organization. Shinichi must have somehow managed to scratch the numbers into the napkin and drop it without being noticed… That had to be it. It all made sense. But where was he now? Kaito had no means at all to contact him, nor had he any clues as to where they had taken him.

To make matters worse, he couldn't even inform the police, since they would definitely find out about Kid's real identity if he did.

Kaito burst out of the building, inhaling the fresh air, as if this could somehow help him get out of this sticky situation. High above his head a news ticker board informed the world of a chemist gone missing.

Shinichi was staring holes into the metal door blocking the way out from the cubbyhole he was held in. Well, at least he wished he could do exactly that… but sadly enough, the door had no holes yet.

Suddenly he heard footsteps approaching. Muffled voices permeated the walls of his lockup.

"We've got pandora, so what should we do with him?" Someone asked.

Shit, the diamond! Shinichi thought alarmed.

"Get rid of him…" Came the answer.

Shinichi stiffened as the footsteps came closer. He could hear the metallic click of a gun being loaded. The door opened.

Panicking Shinichi lunged forward hoping to be able to grab the gun and turn it on his opponent. The other was faster however and pushed him back, sending him flying backwards. Time seemed to slow down. As Shinichi hit the floor, he heard a faint clinking noise beside him. He looked down. Nothing was there… or… wait! Wasn't there something inside the rim of his suit? Quickly he located the hidden pocket and felt for the object. A lipstick? … and a playing card? Suddenly he had an idea. He would have to thank Kaito for making him read Arsène Lupin! 3 His opponent still had the gun pointed at him but apparently he was in two minds, since he hadn't pulled the trigger yet. Shinichi took the chance, opened the lipstick, stealthily took it out of his pocket and let it clatter against the floor. It made a rather metallic noise for a lipstick. "Your weapon won't go off like that." Shinichi glanced down at the lipstick hidden from his opponent's view by his hand and couldn't believe his luck. The container was a light golden tone and the tip a copperish red. That color combination was actually more than welcome.

"What 'd you say?"

"I said that your gun won't fire." Shinichi said with a nonchalant grin, continuing to play around with the lipstick.

"You see, as we bumped into each other I've removed the cartridges from your gun. I've got them right here." He flicked the lipstick into the air, to prevent the other from seeing it was not a cartridge at all. Then he put it back in his pocket, letting it clatter against the floor again.

"Well, what are you going to do now?" He said, diverting the man's attention away from his pocket, as he was scribbling something on the playing card with the lipstick.

The other grumbled something and put the gun away.

"You know…" Shinichi continued, "… I'd hate to let you go home to your family disappointed." The other's eyes widened. "Here's a little something…" Shinichi extended a hand towards him, the playing card palmed away underneath it. Then he flicked it into his fingers. It was the ace of spades. For Mitsuo Was written on the card in coppery red and then there was the well-known Kid doodle.

"For your son." Shinichi said flashing a grin.

"How…did you…"

"If I tell you, the magic will no longer be magic. It's for you to decide, how you want to remember it." He answered.

The man stared at him, eyes still wide and as Shinichi was surprised to see, a little bit dewy. Then the man bowed lightly and turned away slowly, having totally forgotten what he was originally sent to do. Below his black jacket, on the rim of his shirt, white on blue, written in scrawly letters, Shinichi could once again see the words he had spotted back when he had collided with the man: For Daddy, From Mitsuo.

3 Inspired by: The Confessions of Arsène Lupin, Chapter 5, The Red Silk Scarf

About a quarter of an hour later, the metal door was still standing ajar. Shinichi asked himself whether his visitor from earlier had forgotten to lock it on purpose. Since he had heard no footsteps for several minutes, he pushed it open and peered out. He seemed to be in some sort of basement, considering the amount of bare concrete and the lack of windows. He checked the walls and ceiling for cameras and the like. As he found nothing, he swiftly got out of the tiny room and closed the door behind him. Then he walked down the hallway, aimlessly, just to see whether he could somehow find a way out of the building.

Suddenly he heard something shatter on his left. Pressing his body flat against the wall, he inched closer to where it came from. There was a small side corridor leading to several doors, one of which stood wide open, light streaming out of the room behind it. Obviously, someone was in there, cleaning up a broken glass, shards clinking and scraping against the floor in process. As Shinichi reached the door, he carefully slid his head around the doorframe. A woman in a lab coat was crouching on the floor, wiping a broken test tube into a dustpan. As she stood up to dump it into a nearby waste bin, Shinichi discovered that she had an ankle shackle. It was attached to a long chain, so she could move around in the room. Nevertheless, she was a captive. A long table full of glassware and chemicals was standing against the wall on the left, on the right Shinichi could see several cupboards, plastered with hazard symbols and warning stickers. Somewhere a Bunsen burner was hissing away angrily.

"Hey… Hey you!" Shinichi whispered. The woman spun around startled, making a noise of surprise.

"Shhh!" Shinichi made softly, holding a finger to his lips.

The woman looked him over, suspiciously, a frown forming on her forehead.

"Who are you?" She whispered. "I've seen you before…"

"Kudo Shinichi desu…" He whispered back, "… this may sound a bit braggy but you've probably seen me on tv…"

"Oh, wow! You're that detective!" Her eyes went all shiny. "Oai dekite kouei desu! I'm a big fan!" Shinichi blushed and ducked his head in embarrassment.

Suddenly, the woman's face went somber. "Why are you here?"

Although Shinichi knew better than to confide in a complete stranger, he had a feeling he could trust her.

"Well…" He said, "… it's ironic. I don't know how much you know but the plan was to prevent the organization from getting a certain gem. Now I'm accused of stealing it and I also got kidnapped, so now I'm here."

The woman's eyes widened. "You… what?! That diamond, where is it now?"

Shit! Shinichi thought. She was right! The diamond had been in his pocket until he got kidnapped. The kidnappers had dazed him and must have frisked him before he came to. The only thing that was still in his jacket was that coppery live saver of a lipstick. "I don't know…they… they took it…" He said, suddenly a bit distressed.

The woman went awfully silent for a minute. She sat down and stared at her shoes blankly. Then, she began to talk as if Shinichi was no longer present. Her voice was suddenly low and raspy, contrasting her otherwise graceful appearance.

"They want me to make this drug…" She got up and walked across the room towards the wall of cupboards. With every step she took, the chain on her ankle made a scraping sound that made Shinichi's flesh crawl.

"…They use it to kill… but they want to use it to stay young…" She turned her head to look at Shinichi. "The diamond you brought, it contains tantalum 4 That's the rarest stable metal on earth and also the rarest primordial isotope in the universe." She reached into a cupboard and took out a small box. "The drug is lethal without the element, and the organization won't waste any money on artificial tantalum. So, the easiest way to get their hands on tantalum was the diamond. A friend of mine was able to change the drug's formula, so that tantalum won't be needed. I don't know what happened to her. She's probably dead... but somehow the former organization found out we had known each other. Apparently, this little piece of information was sold along with the formula to this organization here. They kidnapped me, hoping I would somehow be able to replicate what my friend had achieved. I wasn't… and I won't… ever… but I still got this…" She handed the box to Shinichi. "As I got here, I overheard what they were planning to do with the finished drug…" She closed her eyes and swallowed. "… and I've sworn to myself, that I would never ever support their schemes, not for all the money in the world. That's why I'm stalling for time, hoping they won't notice, that I'm not doing any research at all…" Shinichi decided it was probably best not to ask her about what exactly she had heard, so he absentmindedly opened the box she had just given him.

He immediately caught his breath, a shiver running down his spine.

Embedded in anthracite EPE foam, neatly arranged in four rows were pills, three in each row. Half red, half white. In the last row, three pills were missing, having left behind an obround depression in the dark foam. Each capsule was labelled in an all too familiar way: APTX-4869. So that's the formula they bought...

Suddenly two agents stormed out of the door on the opposite side of the side corridor. Alarmed Shinichi clapped the box shut and threw it over to the chemist. Just in time. He thought, almost relieved. He briefly caught a whiff of air from the room the two men had come out, then he was seized harshly on the shoulders and dragged off, back to his cubbyhole. Underground carpark… He thought pleased. Good to know!

Back in the lab, the woman was about to hide the box in the cupboard again, when she noticed the tip of a note peeking out from under the lid. She opened the box. Your friend… she's alive. Was hurriedly scribbled on the slip of paper. She carefully folded it, a smile spreading on her face. Then she took a deep breath and held the note into the blaze of the Bunsen burner, watching as the flame turned yellow and the paper disappeared.

4 Manganotantalite is an extremely rare translucent type of diamond. It's intensely red and has good properties for cutting and polishing. Fits for pandora, right?

"Kudo-kun, have you seen the news?" Nakamori asked as he walked up to Shinichi's desk, holding his laptop in one hand, a cup of coffee in the other.

"No, why? What is it?" Kaito asked.

"They've still found no traces of Nakano Yui!"

Kaito didn't really know why, but somehow the inspector thought the missing chemist was linked to the serial murder case or Kid. He had been bothering him with those news for the last few days, hoping to arouse his interest in the matter.

"Well, that's not really news, is it?" Kaito joked, momentarily forgetting about his role as the detective. "Inspector… The chemist has been missing for four days now, and we still don't know anything but that she's missing in general… and still, you…" He cut off in mid-sentence as he noticed Nakamori's glance on his hands, where he had absently been spinning and juggling a ball pen. Shinichi did not do things like that. Slowly the Inspector looked up and studied Kaito's face. Then he reached out and diffidently ruffled his hair. The cowlick disappeared and the neatly done hairstyle gave way to an unruly mane of spiky strands. They looked at each other for a minute, neither of them wanted to talk first. At least Nakamori took the plunge. "Kaito-kun?" He asked faintly. What are you doing, disguising yourself as…"

"You already know the answer." Kaito cut him short.

"Then… he really is… Him?"

"No… Shinichi is a detective at heart."

Nakamori jumped at the use of Kudo's given name without any honorific. He scrutinized Kaito for a moment.

"Then… YOU are…?" A long silence ensued, as the inspector tried to stomach the information which his mind was obviously refusing to believe. With Nakamori gaping at him like that, Kaito felt rather naked. He did not know where he should look or what he should do with his hands, so he started fidgeting with the pen again.

"But the heist… that was him, wasn't it?" The inspector suddenly asked with a puzzled frown. The question was rather needless, since he had just found out that Kaito had been covering for Shinichi the last few days. Kaito nodded anyway, then he carefully lifted up his shirt, revealing the bandages stabilizing his shoulder on his torso.

"Been shot." He merely said.

It was the wrong thing to do.

Nakamori's face distorted into a livid grimace, he hauled off and fiercely slapped Kaito in the face, leaving behind a red mark. "BAKA!" He bawled. "What were you thinking? Was it your PRIDE, that made you send HIM instead of calling off? Was it, because leaving just ONE diamond be, would hurt your EGO? You needed to pull it off SO BAD, so you could BOAST about your CUSSED THEFT NUMBERS! So you could MAKE FUN OF ME! YOU… You filthy… you…" He fell silent as he saw Kaito sit in front of him, looking shaken and a bit lost, his left cheek still slightly red. "Kaito-kun… that's…" He pointed at the bandages.

"… you could have died…" Somehow, he suddenly felt bad for him.

"It was his idea." Kaito murmured timidly, looking at his hands laying in his lap. "He wanted this… he… I… I couldn't do anything… I was sleeping when he left. And then he…" Kaito swallowed.

"…he didn't run from custody. He was kidnapped." Nakamori's eyes widened. He drew in a breath to say something but Kaito was faster.

"I'm scared of what they might do to him… they could even kill him and… and…" Kaito swallowed again.

"… He did… all that, to prevent Kid's reputation from being tarnished… I didn't even deserve this… I told him not to go… he… he wouldn't listen…" Kaito burrowed his face in his hands in an attempt to hide the tears forming in his eyes. "Why would he even want to risk his neck for something like that?! What does he get out of it?"

Nakamori looked at him sympathetically, a tiny smile forming on his lips.

"He really loves you, doesn't he?"

"Huh?!"

"Hattori-kun is in on it?" Nakamori asked before he knocked on the detective's office door. (Hattori had temporarily received a private office, as he transferred over from Osaka for the serial murder case, since there had been no spare desks available.)

"Yes, he knows, he found out by hitting me on the shoulder." Kaito made an overstated demonstration of how that had played out, making the inspector chuckle.

Hattori opened. "Kuroba?" He asked, as he saw Shinichi's messy haired friend, then he became aware of Nakamori and immediately clapped both his hands over his mouth, mumbling some pretty bad words. It was so comical, Kaito and Nakamori couldn't help laughing. "Oy! Calm down… he just smoked me out." Kaito said, patting the detective on the shoulder. "Hattori exhaled in relief, then he too chuckled quietly.

"Uh… are you free this evening?" Kaito asked in a more severe tone. Hattori nodded slowly, a frown forming on his forehead. "There is something we think you should know… about Shinichi. He's… in danger…" Kaito said. Then he looked at Nakamori. "This might take a while. Could we perhaps go to your place? There's enough room and since Aoko moved in with Hakuba we'd be alone there." Nakamori nodded in agreement.

"Wait! You two know each other?!" Hattori asked suddenly, picking up his jacket. "Well…" Kaito began sheepishly, "… he's the father of my childhood friend. Before I moved into my apartment, I went to his place… a lot… like really… a lot. He's practically my father substitute…" He turned to Nakamori.

"Is that so?" The inspector said, grinning somewhat sourly at the thought of being a father substitute for the one and only pain-in-the-ass-Kaitou-Kid.

Hattori gaped at the two of them in disbelief. "Golly! Kuroba, ya've got some nerves!"

Shinichi woke up on the floor of his cell, his whole body hurting like hell. He blinked a few times making the blur in his eyes vanish. Studying the ceiling, he tried to remember what had happened. He didn't find anything special though. He rolled to the side to sit up and hit something moist, making a loud clattering noise. Suddenly he realized something: The food! It had to be the food, why else would he suddenly fall to the floor unconscious, without anyone touching him? But what was that for? Shouldn't he be dead? Why poison someone without killing him? And why hadn't they come to collect the plate? It made no sense.

He reached out to pick up the plate and froze in shock as he could not reach it. NO! Nonono! Not again! His hand, lost inside an overly large sleeve, started to tremble. It can't be! He thought in horror. It has to be a bad dream. He pinched himself in the arm… it hurt. He wasn't dreaming after all. "Kuso!" Swearing he got up, rolled up his sleeves and pants, tore his shirt into stripes and used them as a belt. Then, he ran to the door. Clearly, they had tried to kill him, so perhaps they hadn't locked the door after poisoning him? They had. And they could come back to remove his body any moment now.

Exasperated he looked around to find something that would allow him to escape before they found him. The knife! He thought. He picked it up, wiped the blade on the edge of the plate and pushed it between the door and its frame. Slowly he worked it down until it touched the latch, then he held it a bit slanted and continued to press down on it. Inch by inch, he pushed back the latch until it was completely out of the way.

The door opened. He put the knife in his jacket pocket and peeked out of the door. Nobody was there. Carpark…He thought and bolted out, in the direction of the lab with the captive chemist, where he had caught a whiff of exhaust fumes before he was brought back to his cell.

The woman was sitting at her desk, stirring a yellowish-brown liquid in a glass beaker, which she had placed above the hissing Bunsen burner with a tripod. Beneath the setup he noticed a small watch glass dish filled with a strikingly red powder which she slowly added to the liquid, spatula by spatula. She turned as he came in, confused to see a child walking towards her.

"Thank you!" He said, baffling her even more. "Thank you for saving my life."

"Huh?! What are you saying? I didn't…"

"That was you, wasn't it? You swapped out their pills with those from Haib… uh from that box…"

The woman gasped.

"Detective? … Oh my God! I didn't think the effect would be that… severe…" Shinichi, having put up with the fact that he had the body of a six-year-old again, only shrugged coolly. "Don't worry, it isn't the first time…"

The chemist's eyes widened. She was about to ask him about it but at hat precise moment, they could suddenly hear footsteps approaching. "Go!" She whispered instead.

Shinichi turned to go but hesitated. "What about you? … I could free you…"

"Go!" She begged him, her voice suddenly harsh and icy.

Shinichi yielded. "I didn't get your name…" He asked as he backed out of the lab.

She raised her eyebrows. "It's Yui, Nakano Yui. Now GO!"

"Thank you, Nakano-san!" Shinichi said with a slightly sad smile, then he turned and ran across the side corridor.

He wanted to open the door on the opposite side but it was locked. Quickly he produced the knife from his pocket and shimmed the door, like he had done it with the big iron door to his cubbyhole earlier. Hurriedly, he ripped it open, jumped in and barely managed to close it before the approaching person reached the corridor. It was pitch-dark on the other side of the door. Shinichi felt his way through the darkness, following a wall towards the pungent scent of exhaust and gasoline. Suddenly he bumped into something. Hesitantly, he let go of the wall and let his hands glide over it. To his delight it was a motorcycle. Happily, he felt for the key switch, then followed the connected wires until he felt a small plastic object. With the help of the knife he opened it up, then he cut a piece off one of the wires connecting the key switch to the plastic piece. It was rather tedious to do, since the knife didn't cut well at all and he couldn't see a thing. He then used the knife as a wire stripper, twisted the stripped ends and pushed them into the holes in the plastic piece, connecting the ignition circuit. The vehicle revved up, lights switching on, then went on puttering in a welcoming way. Shinichi secured the wire with a strip of his shirt. Then, he reached up to grip the handlebars, let the bike stand snap up and hopped on. As he drove off, the door behind him opened, light flooding the dim garage. He could hear angry shouts, probably from the owner of the bike. Somebody tried to shoot him but missed. Shinichi turned the corner, breathed a sigh of relief and left the building.

It took him a moment to recognize his whereabouts but once he realized where he was, he drove off towards his apartment. People were staring at him, amazed to see a six-year-old racing through the night-time streets on a motorcycle.

Before he arrived, he ditched the motorcycle in an dim alleyway behind a restaurant's dumpster and continued his way on foot once he was sure nobody followed him.

His heart jumped when he caught sight of the purple eyed lady and the warrior. Home! He thought. Finally. He ran through the empty store, up the stairs and to his dismay found the door locked. Shit! He thought. Kaito must have left and locked up the apartment… Off-handedly he drew the knife out of his pocket and broke into his own apartment.

There was a mess inside. His clothes were lying around, in the kitchen a half-eaten breakfast waited lonely for its owner and on the floor beside the bed was his laptop, a ton of tangled cables and Kaito's phone. Huh? What did he use my clothes for?! And where did he go? Shinichi raised himself on tiptoes, peering out of the window to the other side of the alley but there was no light in Kaito's apartment.

Not really expecting to gain much information he unlocked Kaito's phone. Promptly he found a photo of what could have easily been himself but it wasn't. It was Kaito… in HIS work clothes, hair neatly combed and flattened except for a cowlick sticking up on the back of his head. So that's what he did with my clothes! Shinichi realized. Then he most likely has my phone with him… He tried to call his own phone with Kaito's but when nobody picked up, he hurried to the bathroom wall cabinet, where he had hidden his Conan-clothes and gadgets. Quickly he changed into something more comfortable, relieved, that the tiny clothes still fit him. Then, he put on the glasses and switched them on. A tiny button on the right side allowed him to change the program. "Search my phone" was now written above the tiny radar screen in front of his left eye. Shinichi had never understood why professor Agasa had included this feature until now. A red dot appeared and the compass dial gave way to a roadmap.

Huh? He thought a bit puzzled as he saw the location of his phone. Isn't that Nakamori's place?

Well then… He decided. Off we go!

He grabbed his skateboard, bolted down the stairs, dashed through the store out into the alleyway and zoomed off.

Kaito was still busy telling Nakamori and Hattori the whole story, from how and why he became Kid over the death threat to Shinichi's Kidnapping when the shrunken detective trampled up the front steps and burst in. The boy gritted his teeth and hit the nearest wall with his fist. Like this, he paused for a moment, panting.

Confused, the three men turned towards him… and gasped. "Oh my God!" Kaito breathed faintly while Hattori didn't manage to utter anything at all.

"C…Conan-kun?! What are you doing here? How come you're not in America?!" Nakamori asked, having known the little detective from countless Kid heists. Ignoring the inspector and a dumbstruck Hattori, Shinichi shouted: "Kaito, we've got a problem… They've got pandora!"

Kaito stared at him, eyes wide in disbelief. "You… that was… you stole… oh my God!" He leaped to his feet, hurried over to the boy and wrapped his arms around him in a tight hug. "I was so scared! I thought you were dead!" He said under his breath.

Nakamori gawped at them open-mouthed as he grasped the truth behind the little detective. "K…Ku…Kudo?!"

Kaito let go of his friend, a bitter expression forming on his face. "They have what they wanted all this time… What do we do now?"

"H… how…" Hattori stammered finally able to talk again. "How did that happen? How come you're small again?!"

"You knew THAT too? Conan-kun, Kudo … same person…" Nakamori asked Hattori a bit exasperated. Nobody paid attention to him however, so he decided to feel sorry for himself.

"I thought that black organization of yours was down!" Hattori exclaimed aghast.

"It is." Shinichi reassured him. "Somebody else took over their plans. They have the formula and Haibara's notes. They can recreate the drug, now that they have the tantalite." He stopped when he noticed the three of them looked at him rather lost.

"Pandora…" He explained. "The gem is a manganotantalite. They need it to complete the drug."

"Who is Haibara?" Nakamori asked but he was ignored again, whereupon he only made a vaguely displeased face, having given up on receiving an answer.

"The drug… is it really…" Hattori began.

"Yes, it is Apoptoxin-4869." Shinichi cut him short. "And it's probably complete soon. They're holding a chemist captive. I saw her dilute some red powder. I think it was what's left of the diamond." Shinichi continued.

Kaito and Nakamori suddenly were all eyes.

"Say, that chemist, was it her?" Kaito asked, showing him a picture of the missing chemist who had been all over the news lately.

"Nakano-san!" Shinichi exclaimed in Conan's irritatingly high voice. "That's her!"

The next day at the police station proved to be an interesting one. First off, the whole station was thrilled about the little detective's reappearance, constantly talking about how cute he was and whatnot. Shinichi was already fed up with it as soon as he entered the building.

Shortly after ten o'clock a phone call came in from a civilian who reported a murder. Division one superintendent Matsumoto Kiyonaga had figured it could have something to do with the serial murder case, so he put together an investigation team consisting of inspector Megure, sergeant Takagi, Hattori and Kaito as Kudo. They immediately departed towards the location the civilian had directed them to, little Conan tagging along. As they arrived, Shinichi was surprised to see that the crime scene was in the same alleyway where he had dumped the motorcycle the previous night.

"Nee, Shinichi-niichan…" He said to Kaito who he had to admit played his role rather well. Kaito bent down to him. "What is it, Conaan-kuun?" He smirked broadly, raising an eyebrow. Shinichi jokingly kicked him in the shin. "Don't exploit me being a little Kid! I can kick harder with THESE shoes, you know!" Kaito looked at his friend's feet. Indeed, he was wearing his red and white pain-in-the-ass kicking shoes. "Okay, okay… what is it?" "This is where I dumped my getaway motorcycle yesterday. It's gone now. They must have been here… If nobody else has taken it, that is…" Kaito's eyes widened. "You don't have anything to do with this? Do you?" He asked concerned. "No, I guess not… only indirectly perhaps… because of the bike… I don't know."

The man who had reported the murder, he was the owner of the local restaurant, pointed towards the dumpsters with a horrified expression. He told them that he wanted to throw away the Kitchen waste from precooking the lunch menus, when he found a body in one of his dumpsters. Takagi donned a pair of gloves and opened the lid. "Ugh, gross!" He said as he saw the body lying in the food debris, which was emitting a rather unpleasant smell. Megure and Hattori walked up to the container and looked in as well. "He was shot…" Hattori stated. "No shit!" Takagi answered ironically and nudged him with the elbow.

"Oy! Ya see anything significant then?"

"Nah…" Takagi said in a rather casual way, giving a low chuckle.

"Man…" Hattori sighed, clapping the sergeant on the back. "'t's been a while, since we were on a team together…"

"Hey… You were the one always whining about how Osaka-sick you were…"

"I wasn't homesick!" Hattori defended himself. "Ya ever got school, ya'd know ya can't leave just like that!"

Takagi punched him in the shoulder playfully. "Eh! Cut it out, we've got a dead man here, we shouldn't joke around like that." He said grinning broadly.

Shinichi tugged on Kaito's sleeve. "Onii-chan?" He stretched both arms out, in attempt to be lifted up. "What the hell, Shinichi…" Kaito muttered under his breath. He lifted him up anyway and let him sit on his shoulders, so he could see inside the container.

"Can you go over there? I want to see what the victim was looking at as he died." Shinichi asked and Kaito did what told him to do.

"Huh? You think he was still alive when they put him in here?"

"He has leftovers on the right side of his shirt, but he is lying on his left. So he must have turned."

"I see…"

They both gasped as they caught sight of the opposite wall of the dumpster. There was something written in blood: "Pandora 4869". They looked at each other and Kaito nodded slightly.

"Ah-le-le?" Shinichi said. "Isn't there something written with blood?" The others hurried over to them.

"Ooh! Naruhodo!" Megure exclaimed. "Another one of those strange messages the serial killer leaves. Only strange, it's not on the shoe this time…" He paused to think.

"Say, Megure-keibu, why is there food on the man's right side although he is lying on his left?" Shinichi asked as childishly as he could. "And look the number 9 is not finished and it seems a bit smeared. The victim's right index finger is extended in a weird way and his hand is lying exactly underneath the smeared figure. Also, the extended finger is the only one that has blood on it…"

"The Kid is right." Hattori said. "The man must have written the message himself. He was probably too weak to open the lid or call for help, so he wrote a dying message with his own blood on the wall of the container." Takagi and Megure nodded in approval.

"Well then…" Megure asked. "Does anyone have a clue what it says?"

Kaito was about to say something when Shinichi harshly tugged on a strand of his hair.

"…No…not a hunch…" He said instead.

Back at the station they encountered Nakamori, who just came from lunch and was on his way back to his desk. Shinichi tugged him on the sleeve and guided him somewhere they couldn't be overheard. "A man has been killed and thrown into the very dumpster I hid my getaway motorcycle behind. He has written this on the wall before he died." He showed the inspector a polaroid photo of the message Hattori had taken earlier. Nakamori went all eyes.

"My guess is…" Shinichi continued, "… that they searched for the bike, somebody found it, met with its owner and they began talking about the diamond and the drug. That's when they noticed somebody was listening, so they killed him. This means, that we have a high chance of arresting them for committing murder in addition to kidnapping Nakano-san!"

In mid-afternoon someone from forensics called, having news concerning the ninth murder in the serial case. The victim was a woman in possession of yet another opaque diamond, the only problem: she was ex-military and had a gun. The weapon was found on the floor near her hand. It had been fired. In the corridor, near the door to her apartment, the investigation team had discovered a small blotch of blood, which could hardly have belonged to the victim since she was shot in the head and thus wouldn't have been able to move after being shot. The woman's bullet must have at least grazed her killer. The investigation team had swabbed a sample of the blood and sent it over to forensics, where it was analyzed. The results were striking. Both blood type and genetic fingerprint matched the one of a patient in a local hospital who, as it happens, was suffering from blood poisoning due to a deep "scratch" wound in his thigh.

Takagi and "Kudo" went there later this afternoon to pay him a visit and take him into investigative custody. Kaito immediately recognized him as Snake. He didn't say anything however, since he didn't want to blow his cover in front of Takagi. He was rather pleased as the sergeant told him to confiscate the criminal's phone and other belongings so that he could organize for the man to be transferred to the prison's hospital ward in the meantime. There, the criminal will be staying until he is fully recovered and ready for a normal cell.

Later that day, Kaito, Shinichi and Hattori examined the phone Kaito had confiscated from Snake. At first there was not much they found but after a while they stumbled upon two email addresses listed in the contacts under rather fishy names. One was "sub boss", the other "ano kata".

"Eh?!" Shinichi made in Conan's childish voice, immediately turning red as he noticed everybody in the room knew him as Shinichi. And as if his realization was not embarrassing enough, Kaito had the cheek to flash his most unnerving grin.

"The leader of the organization whose agents shrunk me for the first time was also referred to as ano kata!" Shinichi said, regaining his normal skin color.

"Well, since we have the address, why don't we contact whoever this is?" Kaito asked enthusiastically.

"No… wait…" Shinichi said and walked to the far end of the room, fishing his phone out of his pocket. "I've got to call somebody first."

"Haibara-san." Shinichi said in Conan's high voice. "I need your help."

Shinichi immediately held the phone far away from his ear. "Yes, I got shrunken again but I'm NOT going to have this discussion now…" He yelled. "There are other things that matter more right now!"

The girl on the other end of the phone seemed to have calmed down a little bit, since he now held the phone closer to his ear than before.

"Do you still have the scripts for this virus?" He asked in a voice which totally didn't fit to his small body. "You know, the one that enables you to locate a computer once you send it and the receiver opens the message?... Yes… we could use it now." He turned towards Hattori and Kaito rolling his eyes and wearing a rather dumb looking expression.

"… Yes… No, that's not an excuse… I know where she is… no… because I've met her… Yes, in person… no, there was no time to free her, she is still there… So, you studied chemistry together?... Yes, she told me, I figured it was you… the drug?... she saved my life with it… it was one of yours yes… same antidote…"

He hurriedly held the phone away from his ear again.

"I'm NOT asking for the antidote… Just do it for her, okay?"

He hung up and walked back to the others.

"She'll be coming over." He said, looking exhausted.

When Haibara finally arrived on Conan's spare skateboard which she had found at Professor Agasa's place, she found the three of them loafing on the couch in the lunchroom, little Shinichi snoring curled up in Kaito's lap.

"Oh!" She made affectionately, then she carried on waking the three in a whole other fashion.

"Oy! Lazy boys! No sleeping in the office! You too… KID?! … Get up already you sluggards, work's waiting!" Hattori and Kaito slowly opened their eyes, yawning. Shinichi however continued to snore as if nothing had happened. Haibara vigorously pounded on the couch with her fist.

"… nnnooo… not yet…" Shinichi mumbled, stretching his tiny arms and pausing as he hit Kaito's chin with his fist. Being a tiny bit awake now, he looked up.

"Ka…Kaaaitoooo?!" He shrieked, blushing in a dangerously dark shade of red. Hadn't he been sitting BESIDE Kaito? How was he in his lap now?

"What are you so upset about?" Kaito asked looking at him from above. He looks like that time he has woken me up as I stayed over for the first time. Shinichi thought, a smile forming on his lips.

"Just for the record, you crawled here in your sleep yourself!" Kaito said grinning and Shinichi only stared at him flabbergasted and flushed anew, making no move to leave Kaito's lap.

"Well then!" Kaito said, picking him up and putting him to the ground. "Let's get to work, shall we?" He blinked, stood up and turned around to hide his own slightly red cheeks.

"He's got it." Haibara said satisfied after having sent the message containing the tracking-virus to whoever "ano kata" was. It was disguised as an urgent request for a video conference, concerning Pandora and the escaped "Kaitou Kid". "Now, we wait." She added, spinning around in Hattori's office chair with a smirk.

She had Kaito disguise as Snake, handing him a black fedora, a fake moustache, a rather angular shaped basic rubber mask and a makeup kit.

"How did you know what he looks like?" Kaito asked amazed.

The girl only shrugged coolly. "Hacked the police server…" She said, as if it was totally legal and the most normal thing for a seemingly six-year-old to do. "The mantle is in the evidence box, I didn't bring one myself…" She added and turned to the little detective. "You'll speak for him with the voice changer. This," she said, handing him an USB drive and an adaptor for the bowtie, "is the equalizer data for his voice. I modeled it after CCTV audio from his arrival in prison."

Shinichi took it and tested it, jumping at the low raspy voice.

At this exact moment, somebody knocked on the door. "Hattori?" Takagi asked. "Do you have a minute?" He poked his head in and almost fainted, as he saw the man he had just arrested and seen half dead in a hospital bed standing safe and sound in Hattori's office.

"What… is this?!" He managed to say but he didn't get an answer.

Haibara spun around in the chair again, smirking triumphantly. "He took the bait! Ready?"

"Who… ?!" Takagi squeaked bewildered in a hoarse voice looking extremely lost. Hattori waved him in and motioned to close the door and sit down. Then he held a finger to his lips and looked at the sergeant sternly. Haibara linked them into the meeting and activated the camera. So, what did you want to discuss so urgently, Snake? The person referred to as ano kata wrote in the chat.

"Shit!" Haibara exclaimed. "He's not going to show himself, nor will we hear his voice, he's too careful!"

"Doesn't matter, activate the mic." Shinichi said and Haibara silently counted to three holding up her fingers.

"The Magician escaped." Shinichi began in Snake's harsh voice and poor Takagi who was sitting against the wall behind him nearly got a heart attack. Kaito's lip-sync was amazingly precise for having no idea what Shinichi was going to say.

I know. Came the answer.

"The man who should have shot him, what did you do?" (He had actually turned himself in and was in protective custody at the moment.)

Snake, what are you playing at? He escaped, we don't know where he is, you know that.

"What about pandora and the apoptoxin? How can Kid have survived?"

Who are you?

"Snake?"

No, you're not, there's someone trying to hack my camera. The meeting was ended suddenly.

"Shit!" Haibara said, "He noticed!" Kaito looked at her confused. "Did you…?"

"Yes, I did and I shouldn't have." She snapped. "But I've got his location. It's an office building near Yokohama-shi and it has CCTV." Immediately she set about hacking the system.

"Who… who are you?" asked Takagi suddenly, having regained his ability to speak. He pointed at Kaito who was still disguised as Snake.

"Better like that?" Kaito asked, pulling off the rubber mask and the hat. He got out of the mantle and threw it nonchalantly on the evidence box, pretty sure, that wasn't how one was supposed to deal with evidence. Takagi looked him over, realizing he wore the very same clothes Shinichi had worn the whole day.

"You must be kidding me…" The sergeant mumbled weakly. "Hattori, Conan-kun who are these two? Who is this girl and why has HE been posing as Kudo for who knows how long?! ... And what on earth are you doing?!"

Hattori looked at Shinichi and tapped him lightly on the shoulder. "I think you should explain… everything." He said, his voice dropping.

The little detective slowly turned to face the sergeant. He looked up. "Takagi-san…" He said in his childish voice but hiding behind his bowtie. "… there's something you should know… and I think it will explain a lot of things you were wondering about those years when I was with the detective boys. The truth is, I'm not Conan…" He switched on the bowtie to his own voice. "… I'm Kudo Shinichi."

Takagi's jaw dropped.

"And him…" Shinichi pointed at Kaito, "… I think you already know him."

Shinichi had to admit, he had taken quite the liking to baffle people. He never would have thought he could lose his inhibitions and actually enjoy being all dramatic and theatrical, until he had met Kaito, that is. He gave his friend a wink, which the latter immediately understood.

Kaito took a step back, picked up snake's mantle again and threw it over his shoulders. Then he but on the fedora and pulled it deep over his face. "Ladies and gentlemen… Takagi-keiji…" He said bowing low, stretching out the mantle with his left hand as if it were a cape. Then he looked up. Kid's monocle with its dangling lucky charm was clamped over his right eye.

"Eh?!" Shinichi said. "Do you always have this in your pocket?"

"No, you just left everything lying around in the middle of the apartment, so I stumbled over it and… I just didn't have the energy to stow it away, so I put it in my pocket…" Takagi gaped, looking as if he had totally forgotten his jaw on the floor. Kudo Shinichi was literally a six-year-old or rather he had been a six-year-old for years and now he was bickering with the actual Kaitou Kid about where he had left the monocle lying on the apartment floor. It was too much at once.

Wait… Kudo has left the monocle? In THE apartment?! The whole world collapsed around the poor sergeant, leaving him speechless once again.

"Got it!" Haibara suddenly said in a bored tone which was totally unfitting for what she just said. The screen flickered and a window opened, showing nothing but a dark haze.

"Dammit! He has taped the surveillance camera in his office!" Haibara cursed but Shinichi stopped her.

"What about the recording history?" He said. The girl opened a second window. On the right every single hour of the last three weeks was listed, on the left they could watch the corresponding recording. They checked whether the camera was already taped in the morning. It was.

"What about three days ago?" Hattori asked. Tape again.

"Two weeks ago?" Tape.

"Wait!" Shinichi exclaimed suddenly, climbing on a chair to have a better look at the screen.

"There's a gap in that corner there! Something just moved there, can you go frame by frame?" They clicked themselves through.

"There… you see that?" Shinichi leaned closer to the display. "This pink… whatsit … Haibara, can you zoom in?" He almost touched the screen with his nose.

"Are these socks?" Kaito asked.

"It looks that way… and this black 'n white whatever-it-is here could be some sorta brand label…" Hattori commented. "Oh, and do you see this thing here? Isn't that one o' those plastic doohickeys used for attachin labels 'n such?"

"You're right, they must be new!" Kaito exclaimed rather excited.

Suddenly, Takagi appeared behind them, peering at the screen. "Miwako has those in blue." He observed. They all wheeled around in surprise.

"What did you say?" Kaito asked him wide-eyed.

"They're Tanaro socks. The brand logo is a tiny white umbrella on a black square they sew onto each sock. Miwako got a pair for her birthday from her mother."

"Do you know where she bought them?" Kaito said eagerly.

"No but I can ask her…" Takagi trailed off as he noticed the little detective hadn't said something in quite a while. The boy was sitting on the backrest of the chair he had climbed on earlier. He was rubbing the ridge of his nose, staring holes in the floor and frowning so hard a deep vertical furrow had formed between his eyebrows.

"Conan… uh… Kudo-kun," Takagi said tentatively. "…what is it?"

"The socks…" Shinichi answered, still absorbed in his thoughts. Could it be…?

"There was a moment… on the royal express…" 5 He looked up. "Kaito? Do you remember the hostess?" Takagi made a startled sound at Kid's real name and the lack of any honorific.

"Huh?" Kaito said. "What? No… why would I?"

"I saw her socks. First, they were white, then pink. The man you arrested today, Snake was it? He hired her. She's an assassin, or so it would seem. She forgot to change her socks as she disguised herself as the hostess. They were pink… the same pink… and there was that little white umbrella…" They all looked at him dumbfounded.

Suddenly he made a startled noise, his eyes went all big and he almost forgot to close his mouth. Hadn't Snake called her Rose? "Where is that phone?" He said and snatched it from the table without waiting for an answer as he found it. Moments later he was scrolling through the contacts: "Roseroseroseroserose… there! Rose! Found it!" He put the phone aside to fiddle with his bowtie. "Haibara, can you record?" Then he once again picked up the phone, put it on speaker and without further ado called the number listed under rose.

"Yes?" She picked up in a cold voice.

"Were you trying to spy on me?" Shinichi asked angrily in Snake's voice, making everyone in the room jump. "You aren't who you claim to be, Rose! … or should I say… ano kata?"

"Neither are you. Stop poking your nose in my business, impostor." With this she hung up.

Shinichi turned around wearing a mischievous smirk. "We've got her, she slipped up." He said and Haibara stopped the recording.

"Wait, why?" Takagi asked slightly confused.

"She couldn't have known I was an impostor, if she had not been in the meeting before." Shinichi explained. "Also, she totally ignored the fact, that I called her ano kata, since she assumed we already knew for sure and therefore thought she had nothing to lose. But she had and she lost." He added, then he went on retelling the whole story to Takagi, just as Kaito had done it with Nakamori the night before.

He was tired though, after the long day of work. Walking around on those all too short legs has taken a toll on him. In addition, they had all stayed up late talking with Hattori and Nakamori last night. So after a while of watching his fiend struggle not to nod off, Kaito decided to take over and tell the rest of the story.

He ended up rolling home on Conan's tiny skateboard, Shinichi fast asleep in his arms.

5 Case Closed, OVA 4: Conan, Kid and the Crystal Mother

There it was, the umbrella. White on a black square.

On each of the three stylized triangles representing the umbrella's stretch of fabric, a syllable was written: First Ta, then Na and finally Ro.

"What a luck Sato's mom knows this place!" Shinichi said to Kaito as he followed him into the store. It annoyed him, that he literally had to take about three times more steps than his friend, given his short legs. They looked around for a moment, locating the checkout. As they found it, they went on walking straight towards it.

"Ohayo gozaimasu!" Kaito greeted the cashier. "I'm sorry, this might sound a bit weird but we're here from the police and we need to know who has bought pink socks here recently." He casually flashed Shinichi's badge. "Could you be so kind and show us the register?"

The woman beamed. "Oh! Kudo Shinichi-sama?! What a pleasant surprise! Nice to meet you!" She exclaimed bowing slightly, her cheeks suddenly showing some color. Oh god, a fan… Shinichi thought disgusted. "Well, I'll be glad to show you…!" The cashier said, walking over to her computer. Her voice was a little bit too high to appear natural.

"Are there any regular buyers?" Shinichi asked and she stared at him startled. Yes, I can talk… He thought a bit irritated. The cashier was getting up his nose already, although he hadn't been in the store for a minute yet.

"Oh my god he is so cute!" The woman said excitedly. "Who is he?" She looked at Kaito with this all too sweet smile. Kaito smiled back.

"He wanted to come with me today, so I took him with me, his uncle is a detective… ggh!" Kaito said, trying to hide the pain in his right foot as Shinichi stepped on it hard. This idiot Kogoro is NOT my uncle and technically I took YOU with me… Shinichi thought angrily. Ever since he had heard that woman speak everything began to annoy him.

"Can you just…" He grumbled and waved towards her computer with a sloppy gesture. She eyed him with an unreadable expression but nevertheless did what he asked for.

"There haven't been many people who bought pink socks in the last few months…" she said, "… are you looking for a man or a woman?"

"Woman…" Kaito said with a smile.

"Oh… okay… That leaves two women who bought socks once and one who orders them regularly via mail delivery."

"Mail delivery? What's her name? Her address?" Shinichi asked impatiently. He wanted to go out of this store as fast as possible.

"I can email you the data if you want." The cashier said, looking at Kaito quizzically.

"That would be great thanks!" Kaito said, then he looked down at Shinichi.

"He's a bit demanding, isn't he? "The woman asked him with a bittersweet smile. "Do you need help babysitting? I've always been good with kids…" O God no! Shinichi scowled at her.

"No-thank-you-very-much-lady-we're-going-now-bye…" he gnarled, tugging at Kaito's sleeve and dragging him out of the store.

"Sorry… about… that…" Kaito said, slowly taking some steps backwards, a bit startled because of his friend's grumpy demeanor. "Oh, almost forgot… here's my email address." He lazily flicked a business card over to the cashier, so he wouldn't have to walk back to the counter. It landed in her penholder, face up.

The woman gaped at him, blushing bright pink. He HAD to look cool in front of her, didn't he… he just had to… he couldn't cut it out… Shinichi thought, jealously... No… no, not jealous, just… annoyed…?

"Thank you for your time… have a good day…" Kaito shouted over his shoulder as he staggered backwards following Shinichi.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" He asked once they were outside.

Nobody is flirting with Kaito, especially not while thinking he's me… Shinichi's brain declared.

"Woman's not my type… couldn't stand her." He said instead, waving his hand in a dismissive manner.

"Okay?... whatever…" Kaito mumbled. "…don't tell me then…"

Back at the station Kaito and Shinichi were contemplating the register excerpt the cashier had sent them, Shinichi sitting on Kaito's lap to see the screen better. He sniffed at Kaito's arm, hoping to remain unnoticed. Kaito smelled good… Stop! He was there to be able to see the screen better, wasn't he? Concentrate! He told himself and tried to focus on the computer.

One of the women who had bought pink socks was Sato's mom but the ones she had purchased were baby sized, another was some old lady in a wheelchair. That left only the third woman. And she, Shinichi thought, was kind of suspicious.

First off, she seemed to be obsessed about pink socks, as she bought a lot of these over the years.

Secondly, her name was Oki. Oki Hanako. Shinichi remembered having read the same name on the hostesses' name tag after approaching her to ask about her socks having changed from white to pink.

There was something more… well, it was probably Shinichi's overinterpretation of things… but Hanako, "flower petal", Rose… that was kind of fitting.

It had to be her, right? Or did he miss something important?

He had already seen how sloppy she was back then. So why was somebody like her leading this organization?

Shinichi hid his skateboard in a nearby bush. He wanted to look like any normal resident kid. He fished a piece of chalk out of his pants pocket, slightly annoyed that his trousers were now full of chalk dust, got on his knees and started drawing on the pavement.

I hope the address is legit! He thought, just as he heard somebody in heels walk past. Nope, socks are grey. He looked up. Definitely not her, he decided. Somewhere behind him the revolving door of one of the blocks started turning, making a whooshing sound. "Yes?... hi… No… no, they have him…" Someone said.

Shinichi froze. He remembered that voice. No doubts, it was her. That was fast! I was only here for like five minutes or so! He thought.

"… custody, yes…" Rose continued, as she came closer to where Shinichi was drawing a train on the floor. He soon guessed she was talking about Snake.

"… good riddance actually… I've been watching him… he screwed up…" You screwed up too lady! Shinichi thought.

"… yes, I was working for him, undercover…" So she really did that, huh.

"… oh, you didn't know? … Spider, how ignorant of you!" She snickered. Spider?! Now that was going to be interesting! Didn't Hakuba have some kind of feud with the crook?

"… the thing with Kid? … Yeah, that was one of his men, yes. He should have disposed of him before he escaped… turning soft yeah… anyway… so, you're aware of the situation, right?... His men are yours now… you know what this means… yeah… okay, bye… yes, me too, bye!" She stopped walking for a moment, as she put her phone back into the exterior pocket of her purse. Now or never! Shinichi thought and walked up to the woman.

"Ah-le-le onee-san…" He said childishly and lifted up her pants leg as if to get a better look at the socks. They were indeed pink. "… these are strange pink socks you've got here… wouldn't white be a bit less noticeable?" The woman gave a start and inhaled sharply, as she recognized him as the boy who had seen through her disguise on the royal express.

"Who are you?" She asked sternly.

"Edogawa Conan desu… my aunt lives here." He said with an innocent smile and pointed towards a random apartment block further down the road. She clearly didn't believe him, considering how she eyed him but yet, she gave him a set smile, turned and walked away.

As soon as she was out of sight, Shinichi switched on his glasses, fished out his phone from his pocket and sent a voice mail to Kaito. "Tracker's on, I stuck it to her pants leg… socks are… well… pink. She's heading towards Shinagawa district. Look at her purse. Meet me at that café Takagi-san suggested we should check out…"

Why did he recommend us that place anyway? He thought slightly confused, as he remembered the smirk the sergeant had worn when talking about the café.

Kaito checked the tracker app on his phone. Somewhere ahead of where he was currently standing, a red dot marked Rose's whereabouts. He began looking for pink socks. Suddenly they appeared on a nearby woman, flashing out from underneath a pair of dark trousers. Kaito adjusted his path on the sidewalk, so that she was walking directly towards him.

He pretended to be focused on a nearby store window, making no attempt to make way for her. Then, at the exact moment she passed him, he seemingly bumped into her and snatched her phone from her purse, concealing the move with his other arm.

"Oh my God, I'm so sorry!" He said over his shoulder, making sure however, she wasn't able to see his face.

As she didn't complain, he headed straight for the café where Shinichi was waiting.

"So, you say she was talking to Spider?" Kaito asked little Shinichi who was waiting for him with two steaming cups of coffee (How the hell does a six-year-old manage to buy coffee?!) and a heartwarming smile. The smile subsided at the assassin's name.

"Yes. She was. And she sounded rather… close to him… Have you managed to get it?"

"Yeah… here…" Kaito took the phone out of his jeans pocket and passed it to Shinichi who then followed Haibara's instruction on how to bypass a phone's passcode.

Originally the plan was just to steal her phone and search it for everything concerning the organization. (And yes, Shinichi was definitely aware, this was not how the police should operate… but this was Kaito's personal business and now his own too.)

Having witnessed Rose calling Spider made things a whole lot more interesting though. Shinichi immediately looked up the last number called with the phone, hoping it had been her who called Spider and not the other way round. The phone hung itself on something, a little circle appeared, turning and turning and turning…

Finally, it budged, opening a small window: Gunter von Goldberg 3 it said.

Kaito froze. Is that… Gunter von Goldberg ll? He thought poleaxed. THE Gunter von Goldberg ll?! HE is… Spider? Kaito almost couldn't believe what he just read. He was kind of a fan of the famous magician. Von Goldberg was the only magician alive whose tricks he had trouble figuring out. It was a challenge and a great source of inspiration for Kaito to watch his shows, which always contained things he'd never seen before. Kind of beautiful things too… So how could this person be Spider? One and the same assassin Spider who had shot him in the shoulder? "How is this even possible?"

"What?" Shinichi asked and Kaito realized he had thought that aloud.

"Gunter von Goldberg ll…" He said slowly, looking up from the phone. "… as in world renowned magician Gunter von Goldberg ll?!"

Shinichi looked at him surprised but oddly enough, he started to smirk all of a sudden. "Why don't we find out?"

He called Haibara and asked her if she could model Rose's voice from the recording she had made the other day. Minutes later she sent him the equalizer data and he loaded the file onto his bowtie.

"Ready?" He asked Kaito. The latter nodded a bit stunned. "Well then..." Shinichi put the phone on speaker, redialed the last number and called.

"Oh!" Kaito said and began recording the whole thing. Perhaps that could be useful later, who knows…

"Hey there love, what's on?"

Kaito gaped.

Shinichi gaped.

They were THIS close?!

"Well…" Shinichi said through the voice changer, "I just wondered… when do you think, apoptoxin will be finished? Because she began working on it a while ago and I haven't heard of any remarkable progress…"

"Yeah, right, we haven't talked about that earlier, have we…" von Goldberg said and Shinichi silently exhaled in relief.

"Apparently it's difficult as hell to get the formula right. She's been struggling for days now. She's making some progress but not much really." She's good! Shinichi thought. Hiding this well that she's stalling instead of working and for such a long time! Impressive!

"Tell your men to spur her on then! And if necessary have them research what she doesn't understand, since she doesn't seem as good a chemist as we thought."

"Well, she's the best we found. And she knew that other chemist… what was her name again? Miyano … ?"

"Yes Miyano Shiho." Shinichi said, knowing full well he could score with that and strengthen the man's trust in him. He was definitely not willing to give away he wasn't Rose.

"That's it, yeah! Okay then, I'll send somebody to make sure she makes some progress, hear from you later?"

"Sure… Oh, there's something else I wondered… Your next show, where is it and when? I would love to come and watch!"

"I was planning to go to England after the tour in France… It's probably a bit far… you'll have to wait until I return to Japan…"

"Too bad… yeah, I guess I'll have to wait then… it's probably better anyway if somebody is on-site to watch over the agents, instead of doing all via video calls and chat…"

"Guess you're right… well, gotta go…"

"Alright, bye then, miss you!" Shinichi said and blew him a kiss. Kaito smirked at him in a way that had to make his cheek muscles ache for sure and rolled his eyes.

"Bye!" The man on the other end of the line said, blew back a kiss and hung up.

"Oh… if he only knew!" Kaito said with mock pity, having almost come to terms with the fact that his favorite magician (beside his father, naturally) was one of his worst enemies.

"Well then… he definitely IS that asshole and we have proof!" He exclaimed triumphantly. "Let's give Hakuba a present." Shinichi said.

"That idiot? You want to give that idiot a present?" Kaito laughed as he said that. "No, really…" He reassured his friend, "…he totally deserves arresting his personal adversary, even if he's an idiot… Shinichi, do you happen to know why he has this grudge against the magician? Did he suspect anything concerning the organization? What happened?"

"No idea… he has a case going against Spider in England, I think… but I don't know what exactly it's about. I'm just glad, that the man will finally be behind bars… well I hope so, at least!"

"Let's send Hakuba the recordings then!"

They sent the files to the blond detective, along with some photos of the phone displaying the last contact and the phone's owner, hopeful this was proof enough to arrest the magician.

They would probably send him the phone later or turn it in to a lost and found... they hadn't decided yet.

Kaito gave a start when the everlasting non-progress in the search of Nakano Yui was shown on television. Shit! He thought. Hadn't Shinichi kind of encouraged Spider to ensure that the chemist was making progress? As he realized how dangerous this could be for her, Kaito sprang to his feet, and hurried out of the room, leaving behind a baffled Nakamori. He took the next train, and hurried home, without saying goodbye to the inspector.

(Well, actually he meant Shinichi's apartment by home…) So, anyway Shinichi was standing on a chair and… cooking dinner?

He couldn't help himself: "Tantei-kun, you're so cute!"

Shinichi scowled at him but nevertheless handed him a bowl of something steaming and smelling delicious.

"Is that curry rice?" He asked, gaping at Shinichi in disbelief. He always thought the detective's interest in cooking was about as big as his current body size…

"For you!" Shinichi said smiling. He was still holding the bowl towards Kaito, who needed some time to unfreeze before he accepted it.

"Wow! Thanks… I guess!" He said, then in a severe tone: "… but we need to let it go cold, I fear…"

Shinichi looked at him in confusion.

"Nakano-san… I have a feeling she's in danger." Kaito explained hurriedly, reached out to turn off the stove, put his bowl on the table and lifted a protesting Shinichi off his chair.

"You told Spider to ensure she makes progress, you have to deal with the consequences!" He told Shinichi, whom he had thrown over his shoulders as if he was merely a scarf. Shinichi gave up on trying to squirm free and Kaito continued: "She won't be able to stall much longer under these circumstances! They might even find out she's doing nothing on purpose… who knows what they'll do to her… I don't want to know, really! And we're getting her out of there! … Sorry about dinner, I didn't know…"

Shinichi yielded. "It's okay, Kaito… it's only food, after all… we can heat it up again…"

The two of them went to Hattori's temporary apartment and asked for his motorcycle, which he gladly gave them, despite the fact that it might come back perforated with bullet holes.

"If it helps, I'm happy…" The detective had pointed out with a smirk. "If something is going to look like a kitchen sieve after that rescue mission, it'd better be my bike that a human. Wish ya luck!"

They gave him their thanks and zoomed off, Shinichi's tiny arms wrapped around Kaito's waist as well as possible. Well maybe he even squeezed a little more than necessary? He wasn't so sure himself actually… he was just glad that nobody saw his flushed cheeks as he buried his face into Kaito's jacket. Hattori waved after them, now and then gesturing on his other hand to red-flag that he had his fingers crossed for them.

"Shinichi?" Kaito asked after a while. "Where do I go now?"

"Mmh?... Oh…" Shinichi made as he reluctantly separated his face from Kaito's too-good-smelling jacket. Then he began guiding the way from what he remembered of his escape.

"Here you turn to the left and then continue straight ahead… after the block with the blueish glass façade you go left again…" Several minutes later, he suddenly pointed towards an abandoned warehouse. "We're here." He said.

They had the bad idea to drive all the way around the building, looking for possible escape routes, when Kaito spotted a dark figure on a rooftop.

"I think we've been seen!" He said and stepped on the gas, just as a gun was fired at them. It missed. "Damn snipers!" Kaito growled bitterly, grinding his teeth. "We can't go in like this! He'll shoot again."

They hid the motorcycle in a junky no-mans-land-corner of the area and peered out from behind a pile of trash bags. They seemed to have lost the sniper… well, only if he wasn't hiding somewhere, that is. They decided he wasn't and inched closer towards the warehouse.

There was a backdoor, which was probably locked, but it seemed reachable without being exposed too much to the sniper's view. Also, they didn't spot any security cameras.

"Ready?" Kaito asked close behind Shinichi, producing a pick set from who knows where and wiggling it in front of Shinichi's nose. Yeah, I already know you're a criminal… Shinichi's brain told him, quite in contradiction to what his heart had to say about Kaito.

"Ready!" He answered, noticing that he was probably blushing. To make matters better, no! worse, Kaito lifted him up to give him a piggyback ride as he casually walked to the door in attempt to not attract any attention.

"Lower your head!" Kaito said. "The sniper has seen you on that bike before, so he's looking for a man with a kid. Therefore, you're my backpack now." He explained and Shinichi grunted in mock affront.

The door was obviously locked but it didn't take Kaito long to pick the lock. Once inside, he put Shinichi back to the floor and pulled on a latex mask. It wasn't the face of anybody in particular but it looked rather awe inspiring. Shinichi had no idea where he had that hidden, so he was even more astonished, as Kaito suddenly had a dark grey fedora in his hand. It wasn't the one they had found among Snake's belongings.

"I didn't know you had that…" Shinichi said, watching how Kaito put the hat on, along with a rather mysterious smile.

"You do now…" Kaito said winking.

"You should wear that with your normal face, it might suit you…" Shinichi told him in a voice so low it was barely audible. Kaito smirked. He did something with his jacket next, which made the top layer slide down somehow and change the whole thing into a long anthracite mantle.

"Eeh?! That's a quick-change costume too?" Shinichi stared as Kaito's smirk widened and one of his eyebrows rose slightly. Next thing he knew, Kaito was stalking away in a presumptuous manner. He looked rather intimidating.

"I'm the diversion, do your best!" Kaito looked back and let himself brake character for a second, to wink and gift Shinichi with a smile.

"Kaaitoo!" Shinichi protested. "You can't just…" But the idiot thief, whom he called his friend, was long gone. Okay… I guess he's right… Shinichi thought. I'm small, so if I pay attention, they might not notice me sneaking around. He hurried after Kaito through a door into some sort of narrow hallway, at the far end of which he could make out the weak shine of a lamp. As Kaito reached the end of the hallway, he pressed himself against the wall and peered around the corner. Shinichi wedged through the gap between his friend's legs and the wall and did the same. He could hear voices somewhere. Leaning a bit further around the corner, he suddenly recognized where he was. The corridor they were in lead directly to the middle aisle of the warehouse. On the opposite side, Shinichi could see the heavy metal door he had been kept behind after the heist. In this case, he thought, the chemist must be one or two side corridors to the left of where we are now. There was a problem however: It wasn't possible to go over there, without walking straight out into the middle aisle and risk getting spotted. To make matters worse, three men were standing a bit further to their right, talking about something. They would definitively see them from where they stood.

Kaito looked at them, then back at Shinichi, with a questioning expression. As Shinichi nodded, he stepped out of the hallway as if he had just passed through it in a brisk walk and approached them.

"Oy! What do you think you're doing, dawdling about like that?!" Kaito's voice was loud and stern. They all gave a start and looked up. Before any of them could say something Kaito continued by grabbing two of them by the shoulder and placing them so that they faced him directly. He never wavered. Not in the slightest. His body language exuded power and superiority.

Shinichi seized the chance and snuck out of his hiding place, walked through the middle aisle and disappeared into the other side corridor, the one with the chemist. As nothing happened, he released his breath. Behind him he heard Kaito's voice. "I'm answering directly to ano kata, I was sent here to ensure progress with the drug. Can any of you tell me how that went so far? Because ano kata isn't happy. There is no progress, is there?"

Neither of the three men gave him an answer, so he went on. "Well, that's going to change NOW! I give you a week, maximum… understood?" Shinichi entered the chemist's lab. The woman only stared at him, speechless but did nothing else, so he walked straight up to her and began to work on her Shackle.

It had an electrical alarm system built in, so he had to carefully attach a bridge of wire before clipping the original one, so he wouldn't activate the alarm.

It didn't go off.

Shinichi secretly thanked the magnetic stirrer for sacrificing its power cord. He shimmed the shackle open, ushered the chemist out of the room, through the door opposite the corridor and into the garage, where he had escaped last time. Behind him, he could still hear Kaito angrily interrogating the three men. Somehow, he felt a bit bad for them. But only a little bit.

Kaito was the only one who hadn't turned his back towards the side corridor leading to the lab. While lecturing the men, he could see Shinichi and the chemist leave the room and disappear behind another door. He bought them some more time, then before he started raising suspicions, he started walking towards the lab to "check on the chemist".

He yelled, hoping to be able to convince the men that he was surprised as he saw the empty ankle shackle. They probably didn't pay too much attention to him anyway, since they were pretty shocked themselves. Kaito gave them hell, yelling about bad shackles and next time lock the door or have a guard posted and whatsoever.

In the meantime, Shinichi and the chemist had managed to exit the building and hide in the cluttered corner where Hattori's bike was hidden. Preemptively, Shinichi gave her Kaito's bullet proof vest, since the latter really didn't learn anything from his mistakes and had forgotten to put it on again. As Shinichi had seen it hanging on the bike's handlebars, he had asked himself whether Kaito was doing that deliberately. What was he trying to prove? Was he trying to look cool? Deep down however, Shinichi knew, his friend was just a forgetful idiot.

Kaito was making plans how to escape without looking suspicious. To get some distance between himself and the three men, he sent them out on foot to search for the chemist. He told them that she must have escaped only moments ago and didn't have a getaway vehicle, so she couldn't have gone far. Naturally, he sent them to the wrong direction and went for the junk-crammed corner. Hidden in the shadow of the building, he changed back to his normal clothes and pulled off his mask. Not bad! He thought. Not one unplanned incident!

He crowed too soon however, having completely forgotten about the sniper on the roof.

Suddenly, in the blink of an eye, Shinichi came running out of his hideout, and pushed him down. A shot fell, missing them by a whisker.

It all went too fast for Kaito's brain. One moment, he felt Shinichi pulling something out of his breast pocket, the next, he was staggering after him through a thick cloud of smoke, the sniper cursing loudly overhead and shooting randomly into the fume. He didn't know how they made it to the motorcycle but they did, hopped on and drove off before the smoke cleared.

Kaito was steering, the chemist was sitting behind him, wearing Kaito's bulletproof vest and squeezed between them was Shinichi, the only thing of him visible from the outside were his legs. He didn't mind though, because he could bury his face in Kaito's jacket and savor its smell.

Since the motor was anything but stealthy, the sniper soon found out where they were and began to shoot. So did one of the three men Kaito had distracted before. They had heard the shot and came to see what happened. Kaito drove in zig-zags, as fast as he could to dodge the bullets. The bike was hit once but luckily that didn't damage anything essential.

Suddenly, the chemist gasped. Shinichi could feel her lean forward and fight for air, jamming him in a quite uncomfortable way.

"Nakano-san! Are you okay?" Kaito asked her in alarm.

"I didn't know this hurts so much despite the vest!" She murmured and Shinichi relaxed. Two more bullets buried themselves in the bike, then they were out of reach, finally. The night air grew silent without the gunshots, leaving only the friendly putter of Hattori's motorcycle for them to hear.

"Thank you!" Nakano murmured and took a deep breath. Then she looked up into the clear starry sky imagining the vastness of the earth it encompassed, telling herself that she could go anywhere she wanted, now that the shackle was gone.

"Thank you…"

Takagi was late. Really late. Miwako was definitely going to drag him over the coals for staying so long.

Bad tempered he went down the stairs and was pushing open the front door of the police station when a motorcycle came rushing towards him, tires squealing as it slid to a stop.

Takagi prepared himself to give the driver a speech about traffic laws and save driving with a girlfriend when Conan - no - Shinichi poked his head out between the driver and the woman behind him.

"Takagi-keiji, are you the last to go home?" He asked. Takagi needed a while to realize what had just happened. He studied the three more closely, recognizing that the woman on the backseat was somehow familiar. Wait… Is that…?! His thoughts were interrupted by Shinichi who decided to continue by himself since he didn't get an answer.

"We've got Nakano-san, can you call in the team that was on her case?" Takagi kept gaping but nevertheless did as he asked.

"It's official police business now!" Kaito said grinning, as he took off his helmet. "We can nab them for kidnapping!"

"You don't nab people if you are police, Kaito, you build a lawsuit and you apprehend them." Shinichi said wryly and ruffled his overenthusiastic friend's helmet hair.

About half an hour later, the police department building was swarmed with officers again, organizing a place for the chemist to stay for the next few weeks among other things. She was going to be in protective custody, just in case the organization was searching for her.

Kaito and Shinichi had left her with Takagi and the others and driven away towards Hattori's place to return the Motorcycle. As they arrived Shinichi lightly pulled on Kaito's sleeve.

"What do we do about the holes?"

"He said it was okay, didn't he?"

"Yea… well… but…it isn't nice…"

"Oh! I know… right…" Kaito began rummaging in his pockets and eventually pulled out a sharpie.

"What are you going to do with this?! Don't tell me you can make holes vanish with a pen…"

"You know I'm not a magician…"

"Says Kid…"

Kaito opened the pen and began to draw something on the bike.

"What do you think?" He asked as he moved aside so Shinichi could see what he had done.

The bullet holes were now surrounded by flower petals and Shinichi secretly had to admit it looked kind of cute.

"Idiot!" He said laughing.

"Oy Kudo! What are you doing?" Hattori said, leaning out of his window above them. "Why are there flowers on my bike? Kurobaaa!"

"All the same, he did find it funny…" Kaito said later as they were reheating the dinner Shinichi had prepared.

"Only after sending a picture of it to Kazuha…"

"Oh come on Shinichi… everybody likes flowers…" He reached behind Shinichi's back and produced a paper napkin rose, seemingly out of thin air.

"Can you please not burn my food?" Shinichi said, trying not to sound impressed. Kaito put the rose in an empty glass on the little kitchen table.

"Okay, okay…" He turned back to stirring the curry. "Say, Shinichi, why did you cook dinner in the first place? That doesn't seem like you."

"Well… you know, in the sock shop… I was kind of rude to everyone… and I stepped on your foot. I wanted to apologize, so… yeah…"

"Oh? That's cute, but that can't be the only reason, right?" Shinichi blushed. She flirted with you, damn thief… and I couldn't just stand there and let that happen, could I? Not after you stole my heart! ... good grief am I hopeless...

"It's just… I mean… you know… I… uh… forget it…" ... I'm such an idiot...

Kaito grinned as he filled two bowls with rice and Shinichi's steaming hot curry. "Tell me another time then. Here, let's eat your dinner, shall we?"

Shinichi took the bowl between his hands, appreciating the warmth it radiated. He sat down and observed as Kaito ran a hand through his helmet hair. Seeing his face without the fringes made him think of that morning Kaito has woken him up, the morning he had realized his heart had been stolen.

It had been the first time he had seen that face without anything obscuring it. No bangs, no hat, no monocle… just Kaito. His heart skipped a beat when Kaito smiled at him, having noticed he was being stared at. Shinichi blushed.

"Itadakimasu" Kaito said and took a bite, then he froze.

"WHOA! IT'S GOOOD!"

Shinichi exhaled in relief and began eating, with a smile on his lips.

A warm feeling began spreading inside of him, making him feel whole somehow.

For the first time since Kaito had been injured, he was happy.

Shinichi's phone buzzed. It was a message from Haibara:

Pink-socks found out about Nakano-san's escape! Also, have you stolen her phone? (ARE YOU INSANE?) There's going to be a meeting in two days at six o'clock pm in this building here. There was a google maps screenshot with a building circled in red. Everybody will be there!

Shinichi frowned. Where the hell did you get that from? He wrote back.

Hattori peered over Shinichi's shoulder to read the message. Not long afterwards Haibara already sent an answer:

I hacked her computer.

As if that was the most trivial thing to do.

"Wait she managed to do that? Why didn't she do it sooner?!" Shinichi exclaimed.

"I thought she tried…" Hattori said, leaning back in his office chair. "Maybe she tried it again and succeeded…"

"She only tried to hack the computer's camera last time… and don't act so official in that chair, you know you can't keep it!"

"I'm just savoring it as long as it lasts…"

"Self-indulgent…" Shinichi grumbled and went out of the office, hiding his smirk.

"Come on! ...We have to tell Takagi about that meeting!"

The evening air was warm and salty at the harbor.

Kaito was lurking behind a shipping container and observed the dockyard hall, where the meeting should take place.

Now and again, someone came, looked around to check that nobody was following and entered the building. The place seemed deserted, except for those who entered the hall but Kaito knew otherwise.

He could surmise the muzzle of an enemy's sniper rifle protruding over the roof's edge and somewhere inside the hall, he knew, Shinichi was observing the goings-on. Behind and even inside the containers, a large number of officers were stationed, encircling the place. They were all waiting for Shinichi to give them the signal to engage and storm the dockyard.

Kaito took the detective badge Shinichi had given him earlier out of his pants pockets and studied it. He traced the aluminum border of the green Sherlock with his thumb while waiting. People entered the dockyard less frequently now.

Around half past six the badge beeped three times. Kaito switched on his earpiece and microphone.

"Are you ready?" He asked the officers.

"Yes." They replied in unison.

The badge beeped again, but only twice this time.

"Okay, take care of the sniper!"

"Roger."

A squad of officers emerged from their hideouts on the roof and held the sniper at gunpoint. They were able to arrest him without anybody getting hurt.

"Secure." The leader of the squad on the roof said and Kaito gave the signal to close in on the building.

He watched in amazement as the containers opened and the harbor was suddenly swarmed by police in the blink of an eye.

Aoko turned on the tv to watch the news, hoping she would see something about whatever Hakuba had gone investigating in England. He had told her that if he solved it, it would probably be broadcasted in japan too, since it was something about an international criminal he had been chasing for who knows how long.

Despite her hopes however, almost every news channel broadcasted the same thing: The police arresting a whole gang of criminals for conspiracy to kidnapping as well as first degree murder… well mass murder actually.

Aoko shuddered.

Also, the crimes included drug trafficking, illegal manufacture and use of poison, several banking scandals and money laundering.

The camera turned to where her father was talking with a tan young man who seemed to be in his mid-twenties. Wait… her father?

Whoa! She thought. She had no idea he was involved in such a huge case! But really why would he? He was in charge of the Kid taskforce, so why was he even there?

She had no time to ponder the question however, since she was too impressed by the large number of officers who were standing guard or putting people in shackles. Aoko didn't really know which part of the screen she should look at. There was too much going on.

Just then, she thought to see something move in the shadow of a door somewhere in the background. She stared at the door. Was there one of the bad guys sneaking out?

She picked up her phone from beneath the tv-remote and was about to call her dad, when something came flying over the heads of the police officers at a dangerous speed, knocking down whoever was trying to escape through the door. Confused she watched as the soccer ball rolled towards the camera and a six-year-old came running along with… Kaito?! What on earth was Kaito doing there?! Not to mention with a first grader knocking out criminals with a soccer ball… and wasn't that the boy known as the Kid killer?! What the hell was going on?!

The camera turned again, following the boy and Kaito who removed an earpiece and a microphone from his head and went to talk to Aoko's father. The latter took the microphone and said something into it, apparently confusing the officers, since they shot him questioning glances. All Aoko had heard was "Don't arrest…" and "… no matter what…". She watched as her dad patted Kaito on the back and nodded at him in an unsettling solemn way, sending him off towards the knocked-out criminal lying in the darkness behind that door in the back.

Kaito jogged over and proceeded by picking the person up and carrying … her? It was a woman?!... towards a well-lit place in the middle of the police officers, who were forming a circle around him. Effortlessly he held her up above his head and turned towards the camera. "Ladies and gentlemen…" He said, "I'm here to clear my name."

What the hell?! Was all Aoko could think before the woman Kaito was holding came to and started feeling for support with her hands. And that was when he let her fall.

The woman as well as probably all of the onlookers, including Aoko, shrieked in horror. But then, at the height of his knees she suddenly stopped falling and seemed to hover in midair, accompanied by numerous ooh's and aah's from the officers. Time seemed to slow down.

Aoko first noticed something was off with Kaito as she saw his jeans had been substituted by a pair of flashing white trousers. Since her brain didn't really manage to do something with this information she let her eyes wander up his legs to his upper body, which was clad in an equally blinding white suit jacket and then to his face…

"Kaito?!" She shrieked.

That monocle… that damn arrogant looking monocle and the top hat…

Aoko gritted her teeth, anger rising in her to an unmeasurable level.

Hakuba had warned her… but something in her didn't want to believe what he had said. And yet here she was, longing desperately to punch Kaito's face, hard. She let out her rage at a wall instead, leaving behind a red smear of blood from her knuckles. She didn't care though.

Scowling she watched as Kaito made gesture with his arms and the levitated woman rose up until she was level with his shoulders. For a fleeting moment his expression changed to something slightly sad as he looked directly into the camera and murmured something, that could have been "sorry Aoko…".

Well, she would have to forgive him some day, wouldn't she? Aoko relaxed slightly, her anger gradually subsiding, despite her brain telling her to remain angry for the near future as well as for eternity.

Clutching her bleeding knuckles she confided her whole weight to the couch again and went on watching the broadcast wearing a blank expression.

"This is my last show as Kid or the gentleman thief, as you all called me so lovingly over the past years." Kaito announced. "I sincerely apologize for not sending a heist notice, since that wasn't really possible, given that I was undercover and knee-deep involved in the investigation and all…"

The woman who seemingly hovered in front of Kaito squirmed and tried to reach for a revolver hidden in an ankle holster.

"No, you don't!" Someone said in a boyish voice and a tiny hand snatched away the gun before she had a chance to grab it. "Besides, what could you have done onee-san? The police are watching, so it would only have prolonged your time in prison…"

The boy casually checked whether the weapon was in its safe state and tucked it away in the back of his pants.

"By the way, Kaito…" He said, "… don't overdo it with floating roses!"

Kid laughed, looking at him… fondly. Wait, fondly?! Aoko stumbled over her own thoughts. Kaito, what the hell!?

The boy winked at Kid, flashing a mischievous grin. No six-year-old should behave like this, Aoko's brain protested. Something was really off with that boy.

"Who… are you?" The floating woman asked in a rather raspy voice, whereupon the boy offered her a cryptic smirk.

"Edogawa Conan, didn't I tell you that before onee-san? Apart from that, we wouldn't want to interrupt Kid's last show any longer, would we, Rose?"

Aoko could tell how much he disliked the woman from the way he spat her name.

"Now then…" Kaito announced pushing his monocle tighter against the ridge of his nose.

"As he said..." He gestured towards the boy, "... I'll gladly continue my show now."

"Since this is my last performance as Kid, I'm going to tell you a story, starting with this lady here, and her crime syndicate." He made another gesture with his arms and the woman was suddenly hanging head down in front of him, her eyes at the same height as his.

"They have been involved in countless shady businesses over the years, killing away the people who got in their way." He produced four playing cards, the jacks to be precise, apparently from thin air and flicked at them, one after another. As he did so, they blazed up and vanished, leaving nothing but an ashy stain on his white gloves.

"Unfortunately, my father was one of those people. And he was a nasty one, stealing back the diamonds they had stolen and replacing the fakes with the originals to restore them to their rightful owners." There was again a burst of flames and like a phoenix out of the ashes the jack of diamonds reappeared in Kid's hand, along with every other diamond card from the deck.

"Disguised as Kid, he fought the organization for years, until they figured out who he was. He was killed during one of his own magic shows… the police considered it an accident." He gulped, visibly straining to keep up his poker face.

"I believed it, until I found out he had been Kid. And since Kid's true motives were not exactly well known to the public, - he was considered an international criminal after all, despite never having actually stolen a diamond - I set about finding the truth behind my father's… other identity. That's how I found out what really happened. I began disguising as Kid, stealing diamonds…" He pulled card after card out of his hand and threw them high into the air, letting them tumble to the floor around him. "… and with every diamond I stole, I came a little bit closer to the truth." As he threw the last card away, it was the ace of diamonds, a single red rose appeared in his hand, where the card used to be.

"And today I was finally able to reveal that truth. Rose…" He addressed the woman floating in front of him, "… Oki Hanako, ano kata, you are the one who ordered the death of my father." He made a gesture as if throwing the rose at her and seconds later she lay on the floor in handcuffs, scowling at him. "I do not, nor will I ever forgive you for what you have done!" He yanked her up to her feet and pushed her harshly towards one of the police officers who were not occupied by holding onto a criminal yet.

"Here, take her away… present… make sure not to take off the ribbon!" He gestured at the handcuffs.

"Well anyway, you might have noticed, I didn't tell you who the actual murderer of my father is… I can't hang a lantern on that yet. You'll see why later this evening on the news…" He briefly looked at the boy who was still standing beside him.

"Now, it is to say that I haven't found out the truth on my own, so I won't take the credits for myself. First of all, I want to sincerely thank the police, especially inspector Nakamori, detective Takagi, Hattori Heiji and Hakuba Saguru whom you'll meet later this evening." Aoko froze.

"He is actually a former school colleague of mine, and although we somehow don't seem to get along… Hakuba, if you're watching, I consider you as really good friend and I ow you a lot… thank you, really!" Oh my God, Kaito… do I even know you? Aoko thought after witnessing this totally foreign side of her childhood friend. She quickly forgot the thought however, as Kaito kind of switched back to his normal self, turned away from the camera and went on dragging Nakamori, Takagi and Hattori into view, giving each of them a white rose.

"Since this is my last show, I think it's only appropriate to give my thanks to them as one does after a show of this importance…" He winked into the camera as the three of them looked at him confused, fiddling with their roses, quite uncertain of what to do next. After all, it was mighty weird to see Kid handing roses to the police like to some directors and costume designers after a theater.

Aoko decided, that she would definitely have to lecture her dad as well as Kaito for not telling her about Kid! But that could wait… Somehow, she wasn't angry anymore, just a little sad, maybe? … She didn't know for sure how or what she felt.

"I guess, you have been wondering…" Kid continued and Aoko still couldn't persuade her brain to see Kaito in the white clad phantom thief. "… why I have been holding this particular rose the entire time." He waved the red flower in the air.

"It's because there is one more person involved... much more involved as anyone else actually, in my opinion… and they mean… a lot to me." He flushed slightly and tried to hide it by pulling the brim of his hat into his face. "Edogawa Conan-kun, can you come here for a moment?" He asked and handed the boy something in a small box which the latter accepted with an incredulous expression mixed with joy and… something else… spreading all over his face.

"Really?" The boy asked and Kid answered with a smile.

"Haibara allowed me to do this for saving Nakano-san." He said in a low voice that was probably not intended for the onlookers to hear. He slid a weird circle of black cloth over to the boy.

"Are you in?" The boy gaped looking slightly annoyed all of a sudden.

"No way… for real?"

"Come on, do it for me…? Haibara is ok with it, I swear… it was her idea after all…"

"What?! Are you kidding me?"

"I kind of found out she has a thing for magic and I guess this is her way of showing us gratitude…"

That exact moment, the boy's phone buzzed and he took the call. "Haibara!" He exclaimed, while Kid made apologetic gestures towards the camera. The littke detedtive was silent for a moment, listening to the person on the other end of the line, then: "Are you watching this?! No way… I really didn't believe him… are you sure this is a good idea? … okay then…"

He hung up, gave the phone to Kid and stepped on the circle of cloth glancing questioningly at Kid while tugging on his sleeve. Kid nodded and pointed at the black cloth beneath the boy's feet.

"Ready?"

"Mhm…"

"Sorry for the wait." Kid addressed the camera and smiled. It was a very not-Kid smile and Aoko was finally able to see her childhood friend in him. He lifted up the rim of the black cloth circle, enclosing the boy in a giant hose of black fabric. "This might take a while, so I beg you not to lose patience."

Suddenly, a terrible wail came out of the hose, making Kid wince.

"You ok in there?" He asked concerned but relaxed and cracked a smile when he got a strange chocking "Yeah, more than ok…" as an answer.

"Let's see… where was I? Ah yes, I wanted to introduce you to somebody… somebody important to me, somebody, who showed me, that no matter how weak you are or how low you have fallen, there's always enough strength within to rise ag…" He stopped abruptly, as a hand laid itself over his, where he was holding the hose. He looked up, a strange expression taking over his features.

"Cut it out, will you? Because I'd be delighted to come out of this hole sometime soon!" A male voice said from behind the wall of black fabric. Kid turned towards the camera again, having totally forgotten his poker face.

"Well then…" He dropped the curtain.

"… this is Kudo Shinichi… and… he is my… he means the world to me."

The camera made a weird movement as almost every police officer at the scene and apparently also the tv team jumped in surprise.

Kudo Shinichi, Tokyo's youngest and most famous officially employed detective threw himself at Kid and squished him in a heartfelt hug.

"Welcome back Shinichi!" Kaito said, barely audible in the broadcast. Aoko melted inside, watching the two of them slightly swaying to and fro in their hug then breaking apart again, cheeks flushed and beaming at each other. Her dad, detective Takagi and the tan young detective grinned like Cheshire cats as Kaito handed the red rose to Shinichi, totally oblivious that he looked a mess with his hat nearly falling off, his hair even more tousled than usual, his monocle threatening to slip from its correct position, and his collar flipped up on one side. He turned to face them. "What?!"

The three of them burst out laughing.

"Kuroba, you're a mess!" The tan detective said and walked up to him to fix him up and pat Shinichi on the shoulder.

Bakaito… Aoko thought smiling. That bastard of a childhood friend had managed to make her forgive him even before she had a chance to lecture him.

She left the tv on when she went to the kitchen to fish some leftovers out of her fridge and throw them into the microwave. She didn't bother cooking, since she would probably miss the broadcast of her fiancé's case, namely the second part of what she had just watched if she did.

So leftovers it was.

Half an hour later Shinichi and Kaito arrived at Shinichi's place, threw themselves on the mattress and turned on the Laptop to watch the news.

"We should get a tv…" Shinichi said, annoyed at how unpractical it was to watch tv on a laptop.

"No, we shouldn't, this way, we have to be much closer together to be able to see the screen!" Retorted Kaito, drawing him into a hug. "Just like this..."

Shinichi playfully smacked him on the back of his head with the white Kid-gloves. "Shut up, you sap!"

"It's not broadcasted yet, should I cook?" Kaito said suddenly sounding ridiculously worried.

"Don't say that like: I'm not leaving the laptop until the broadcast starts."

They ended up ordering pizza and lying around on the floor bantering and laughing about unnecessary things while waiting.

"Miyano-san?"

"It's Haibara now…"

"You are not going to take the antidote?"

"I have friends, so, no."

"Okay, then Haibara it is… I've got something to show you."

Nakano Yui pulled a box out of her backpack and handed it to the ginger haired girl. "These are technically yours, so I wanted to give them back and let you decide what to do with them."

Haibara carefully opened the box and looked at the pills. Suddenly she felt as if a wave of gloomy sadness washed all the color of the world away, as it flooded her feelings. Four rows of three pills on grey EPE foam… The past came crashing into the mental fortress she had built to keep it out. She bit back her tears as countless memories of her sister resurfaced, which she didn't even know she had. Four of the pills were missing: Kudo's, her own, Mari Sera's and again, Kudo's. She closed her eyes and Nakano protectively wrapped an arm around her shoulders.

In her memories, she was sitting in a smoke-filled bus, eyes closed, waiting for it to explode, to finally be over, when Kudo rushed in and saved her, seconds before the bomb blew up.

"Don't…" He said. "Don't run from the past! Deal with it!"

She opened her eyes.

Right, deal with it.

She stood up to get a lighter, then motioned for Nakano to follow her outside. She put the box open on the floor, broke the lighter, poured the lighter fluid onto the box and set it on fire.

Both she and Nakano sat there for a long time, watching as the plastic melted, boiled and finally burned to ashes.

As the grey dust scattered and disappeared with a gust of wind, Haibara suddenly felt like the first time one's nose isn't stuffed anymore after a nasty cold. She took a deep breath, despite the horrible stench of burned plastic and over the ruins of her mental fortress, the sun was finally able to rise in a rare cloudless sky.

Haibara leaned her head against Nakano's shoulder... and laughed.

"Mmmmm hm m hmmm hm!"

Kaito said, his mouth stuffed with pizza.

"Hakuba's broadcast, Shinichi, hurry!"

Hakuba had finally acquired an arrest warrant for Spider after several legal issues due to the investigation's main lead being based on the stolen phone Kaito and Shinichi had sent him. And right now, he was crashing the man's internationally renowned magic show in front of the whole audience, which Kaito somehow thought, was awesome… kind of.

Shinichi came running out of the toilet, tying the ribbon of his sweatpants and cannonballed onto the mattress as he joined Kaito behind the laptop.

There he was, Hakuba in England, at Gunter von Goldberg's magic show, storming the stage with a squad of police officers.

"You're under arrest..." Hakuba stated as he approached the magician, "... among other things, for murdering fellow magician Toichi Kuroba on orders from your current girlfriend Oki Hanako."

The man made a weird gesture with his hands, snapped his fingers and said "Sleep!" in attempt to hypnotize them. Hakuba however had anticipated this and shouted "Bite your arm!" to his men. It was a weird sight to watch the officers bite themselves, in attempt not to fall victim to the hypnosis. Some of them were too late and collapsed but there were still enough officers to encircle the magician.

"If you try anything funny again, we'll shoot." Hakuba said, pointing his gun at the magician as he closed in on him with his officers, blood trickling down his left arm, where he had bitten himself.

The man had the gall to laugh, an unfriendly gleeful chuckle.

"Pathetic." He said.

Kaito shuddered.

That chuckle was the sound he had heard just before he was shot.

Shinichi noticed Kaito's reaction and wrapped an arm around his shoulders to comfort him.

Hakuba on the other hand didn't even flinch at Spider's arrogance and carried on reciting the man's crimes:

"Other charges against you are currently being investigated but we've just got a confirmation, that the man running for Japan's minister of finance under the name of Fujiwara Goichi is actually you. Since we investigated the matter further, it is also confirmed, that you pulled the strings for several major international banking scandals and we assume that you were planning something again, since you tried to run for minister of finance."

Hakuba approached the man, tackled him and locked his wrists in shackles behind his back. The other didn't put up any resistance. It's not as if he had a choice in the matter.

"We found evidence for illegal use of drugs and hypnosis on numerous innocent people occupying banking and government related positions. Drug trafficking and use as well as manufacture of poison is currently investigated. Those have been confirmed to be true however for several people involved in the crime syndicate which you are part of. Judging by this, we expect to find some pretty interesting things there as well."

They dragged him off the stage, informing him of his right to get an attorney and whatever rights there were, while the few officers seeping on the floor began to wake up.

"You know…" Kaito said, turning the laptop's volume down, "…It feels good… finally being rid of those guys."

He leaned against Shinichi's side, letting himself slip down, so that he landed on his back in Shinichi's lap. Yawning he studied the detective's face from below, his jawline, his eyes… Once again, he realized, how drop-dead gorgeous Shinichi's face was, after he had gotten his body back. He reached behind him to sling his arms around the small of Shinichi's back, as the latter slowly bent down, wearing an expression as if he just totally spaced out. Kaito watched in a mixture of confusion and amazement as Shinichi's face inched closer. He began studying his lips. They were thin but in an attractive way, a bit asymmetrical, slightly parted… beautiful…

Kaito wondered, if he could maybe…

No, this wasn't a good idea.

Shinichi chose this exact moment to dive in and give Kaito a hasty peck on his lips, only to draw back with mind-boggling speed and blush dangerously.

"S… sorry... I just… I didn't mean to…" He stuttered.

Kaito looked at him with big eyes.

"Don't be… I was… kind of thinking... the same... thing…?"

There was a long silence, as Shinichi seemingly stared holes into Kaito, before he leaned down again, gathered Kaito into his arms and let himself fall sideways onto the mattress, pulling Kaito up, so that their heads were at the same height. When Kaito turned around to face him, their brows touched and his nose brushed lightly against Shinichi's.

A smile flashed over his face as he huddled closer to Shinichi, just before he fell asleep.

To him, the sun never set this night.

Epilog:

Shinichi didn't go back to living in the Kudo mansion after the case was wrapped up. He stayed instead, even though he had to take the subway to get to Headquarters instead of his usual ten-minute walk.

He had to admit, he liked the tiny apartment. It was way snugger than the vast rooms of his family mansion and it had somehow started to feel more like home than the place he grew up in. The supportive pokiness of the place was a welcome change to the unfounded feeling of being adrift he had whenever he was at the family mansion.

Also, there was Kaito… and he would hate to leave Kaito.

Not when he still hadn't said the three words aloud he longed so much to tell him.

He just hadn't dared yet but he had long set his mind, that someday…

... someday he will tell him.

So he stayed, still learning to appreciate the things in life he connected with Kaito, like getting up early, cooking or doing magic.

Over the time, as their relationship built and strengthened, they both kind of moved in at each other's places. They relocated Shinichi's mattress over to Kaito's apartment and got themselves a bigger bookshelf than the one Kaito had currently hanging on his wall. They installed a workshop in Shinichi's apartment, where Kaito could build his designs for stage magic illusions.

Hell had broken loose, the first time Kaito had performed at the magic club again after revealing his identity on tv that night. The club had been overcrowded ever since.

Kaito had begun to perform as Kid, not shying away from bigger stage illusions rather than the close-up biased shows he had done before. He did not neglect close-up magic however, as they were his favorite part of doing magic.

The club's trademark was the vast variety of illusions which had never been seen before, as they were invented and built from scratch by Kaito and his assistant Jii, Shinichi and sometimes even professor Agasa or Haibara.

Once or twice every month Shinichi made an appearance in the show, since he really took a pleasure in performing himself. "A detective's dream", as they called the series of shows starring Shinichi, was a huge success.

The magic club had thrived like a flower and become kind of a new place: Well-known and popular on one hand, yet informal and friendly on the other.

But not only the club had been remodeled. There had been changes at headquarters too, especially around Shinichi.

In Takagi's opinion, the young detective was like another person, walking in every morning with a smile on his face, forgetting to drink his usual daily dose of coffee, joking around, pulling pranks and performing magic tricks during coffee breaks. Quite often, Kaito was hanging around the station in his free time, enjoying the company of the officers he had made friends with since he impersonated Shinichi during the serial murder case. It sure lightened up the mood and brought life to the station.

One day, as they were having lunch, Kaito and Shinichi were explaining a balance trick including a saltshaker, toothpicks and forks when inspector Momose from theft department came in to ask Kaito of all people a favor. They were all a bit confused at first, since Kaito was after all only the nonofficial boyfriend of a detective, with his only connection to the police besides Shinichi being that he was at the station a lot and of course his former career as a phantom thief. So why would Momose want to ask him a favor?

As it turned out, the idea was pretty interesting:

At the time when Kaito revealed himself on tv, Momose was putting together a red team to help improve security of banks and other places one would rather not have people snooping around. When he heard of Kaito constantly being around the station he decided to ask him to join the team.

Kaito didn't even reflect a minute before he took the offer with sparkling eyes.

"Can I… join too?" Shinichi asked suddenly and everyone jumped in surprise.

"It isn't a fulltime job, so…"

Momose thought about it for a while, then he slapped him on the shoulder with a smile.

"Settled!" He said.

And that was the beginning of another story.

AN: Well then, that's it for now. I don't know yet whether I'll write a third part to this but I like to leave things open… (guess you noticed that already)

Please tell me if this was acceptable despite my writer's block...

And don't forget to let me know which scenes you'd like me to draw ;)

So long,

Rainyfox