Ladies and gentlemen! I humbly welcome you to the next chapter of this story.

As for the contents, I do think it is high time to take a peek at what the records hold~

Phew! I was getting worried that I wouldn't make it ;) Unfortunately I will have some more of the busy time at work, so it might be changeling to always manage in time, but I sure intend to~

Aww… so many nice reviews :) Thank you for your support guys – it really helps me keep my spirits up :) And I must say I'm surprised how many followers this story has~ I'm so happy you guys like it so much~

TiLiYu - Well things like that happen sometimes ;) I simply knew what I wanted to achieve, but somehow couldn't get it right xD Oh, don't worry~ I am very motivated to write, but unfortunately have less time for it than I would wish to have, so I can't update as often as I would wish to ;)

PickleWitch – Thank you for your concern :) And I am very glad you liked the chapter so much~

Loner Kid – Oh~ A new reader~ How nice :D I hope you won't get discouraged and you'll manage to catch up with the story! :D

Cerlinfia – So I'm not keeping you waiting any longer~ Hope you'll like this one too :)

Boogum – Yeah… it's going to be hard to make him change his mind xD I must admit this one was rather easy – probably if I had more time I would have finished it a few days ago, but well… you know how it is ;)

Mists – Well the next step was rather easy~ Couldn't keep Conan from the records for too long, right? ;) And I guess the next step will be easy to foresee for you guys :D

So without further delay…

Please enjoy and review! :)


Chapter 21: Whimpers in a maze


In Hattori's humble opinion Hakuba had many flaws besides being a time-obsessed, rigid maniac. Another thing that he discovered lately was that he was also a morning person, fortunately though polite enough not to press his habits on others. Usually. This time Conan incautiously mentioned he wanted to get to reviewing the records as fast as he could. And Heiji nodded to that. He was cursing himself for that single gesture right now, drinking his coffee and wondering what was so bad in actually taking as much sleep as they needed. He understood his friend's impatience, but it wasn't like the discs couldn't wait another hour or so…

Next to him, Shinichi made an indistinct grumble. He was glad he got to get up so soon and was looking forward to watching the records, which hopefully would lead to finding some leads. But the truth was that the anticipation made it hard for him to sleep and now he wasn't sure if he wasn't sleepier than he was at night, when they managed to reach Hakuba's manor. He wanted to start watching immediately when they passed the threshold, but both teens forbade him and convinced that he would most likely oversee some clues in the state he was in. He took a sip of coffee and hummed, pleased, cheering for the little blessings. At the beginning of their relationship, Hakuba was very reluctant towards Kudo's addiction to this beverage, but was polite enough not to voice his concerns and soon became used to it.

Truth be told, Saguru haven't slept enough either, but he was used to getting up early, so despite that he woke by himself anyway. Fortunately, after chasing Kuroba for such a long time, he could deal with lack of sleep just fine, at least as long as it wasn't for too many successive days. He took a sip of his tea, idly wondering if it really was such a good idea to wake up the other two. They clearly weren't dealing well with the amount of sleep they had. But they did ask him to wake them up and didn't try to get back to bed after he did, so he wasn't going to argue with their decisions. No matter how appealing it seemed while watching their uncoordinated movements.


After finishing the breakfast, the two looked slightly more awake and all three went to Saguru's room to review the records. After they got there, they discussed whether it wouldn't be a good idea to have one of them watch over the mall, in case something more was to happen there, but eventually decided against it. There was no guarantee that it would bear any fruit and could possibly pull some attention onto them. Plus they wanted to get through the records as fast as possible and simply didn't have enough men-power to focus on too many goals. They had a total of 11 discs at the moment, so to speed things up they decided to divide them between themselves, hoping that the last CD would be delivered before they finished. Not sure when Gin entered the mall, or when he left they decided to first briefly check the contents of them to find the ones that gave a view of the four entrances, so next they could check in which hours he or they (since Conan was sure the pale haired murderer would be accompanied by Vodka) were present there. They wrote down which CD correlated to which area. Fortunately all four entrances were recorded on the discs they possessed, so it was still unknown which KID had - they could try and draw a rough sketch of the mall, but decided that it would be better to return there later and check it out. Meanwhile they decided to view the entrances' records for the time covering two and a half hour before the theft case and only half an hour after. Shinichi was fairly sure KID somehow knew when the Organization member left the area, so his departure should collide with theirs. Adding the time of the theft case, they had nearly four hours of record to watch through. They would extend the time only if they would miss Gin's arrival and departure.

Focused on their assignments, they were silently watching their records when Hakuba suddenly stopped his and spoke, with his eyebrow raised.

"Is that him?" He cleared his throat and turned to Shinichi, who was looking at his monitor. "I recall you said they are a secret Organization..." He pointed out, looking again at the man dressed in a long, black coat and hat on a sunny day.

Conan laughed dryly. "Well, I did say also that those two are characteristic. And yeah, that's him." He added more seriously, with eyes flicking in the crowd in search for Vodka. "I wonder where the other is..."

"Maybe he was busy with something else and didn't come this time?" Heiji suggested with a shrug.

"Or he came earlier..." Conan added with a grimace, unable to imagine Gin working as an errands boy.

"Well, considering we cannot be sure of it, it's best try to spot him later. Even if he came early, he had to leave. So I suggest to note this time... 2:47:07 PM as the start for other records for now." Saguru suggested already noting the time down "It could have been much like Hattori-kun said, or he could have been on a look-out outside the building, so it will be unlikely for us to notice him."

"True..." Reluctantly Conan agreed, promising himself to watch the full versions of all 12 records later anyway, to make sure they didn't miss anything.

Hattori grimaced, returning to his record. "I wonder why he came so early anyway. Nearly three and a half hours is a whole lot of time and the guy is pulling attention to himself, dressed like that and all..."

"We should consider that he could take off the coat at some point, so don't expect that looking for him." The boy warned him, already watching his video. "And he could have left and returned in the meantime."

"Yeah, yeah I know..." The Osakan mumbled.

The silence fell again on the room, only to be disturbed by Hattori's laugh over 1,5h later.

"Oi, I spotted KID~ He came in already dressed as you."

Both of the other detectives smirked at that. "Well, that was to be expected. Note the time anyway." Hakuba replied.

Heiji threw him an unimpressed glare as he did not need to be told. Conan just rolled his eyes, hoping they wouldn't start arguing again. He tried to focus on the thief's expression, but the quality wasn't good enough. If it wasn't for the characteristic hair style and clothes, he wouldn't be recognizable at all.

Later they noted Gin's departure 17 minutes before KID's. None of them noticed the Organization member exiting the mall in the meantime or another one entering it. Although they had one more entrance video to cover, so there still was a chance of finding something.


They were going through their second set of discs when Hakuba's phone buzzed, announcing an incoming call. Not to disturb his fellow detectives, he left the room to answer it. He returned a short while later with a thoughtful expression.

"It seems I have to go the station…" He explained.

"A case?" Kudo asked with slight interest, with eyes still focused on his monitor, hoping to watch as much as he could from this record before they would leave.

"You could call it that. KID sent another riddled notice."

"What?!" The shrunken detective paused what he was watching and turned to face the Brit, to make sure he wasn't joking (which was unlikely to begin with). "Bastard… must have done it to distract us from this…" He growled, grinding his teeth.

Hakuba raised an eyebrow and approached the closet to take out a jacket. "Well, it won't hinder us all that much. I don't think it would be advisable for you two to go with me, as officially neither of you is available. So you might as well stay here and continue. I'll come back as soon as I can and bring the missing disc with me."

Both Heiji and Conan looked at their fellow detective with surprise. "You're sure about that?" The boy asked, feeling grateful.

"Of course. I don't see any reason against it. I have nothing to hide here and I don't expect either of you to cause any trouble while I'm away. I think it is the best course of action." The Brit reasoned and looked at them with a worried frown. "Unless you won't feel comfortable with it? I am aware this is somewhat inhospitable for my part…"

Hattori laughed at that. "You're joking right?"

Shinichi threw a disapproving glare at him and turned to Hakuba with a relieved smile. "Not at all, it's very nice of you. Thanks."

Saguru nodded to that "Glad to hear it. Good luck then and take care." He said and turned to the door.

"See ya."


Both of them silently agreed to stay in the room their host left them in, to not abuse his surprising hospitality. They focused again on their records. Hattori somewhat envied his friend who, by chance drew a CD showing the inner corridor which he could fast-view and get over it faster. He was stuck with an exceptionally busy area and could not do that. Due to the poor quality, it was hard to distinguish anything even in normal speed, and a few times he had to rewind it to double check, when he saw any person with long, light hair. When he was in half way, he paused and leaned back in his chair with a growl. His eyes hurt and he was desperate for a distraction. After a short moment, he turned back to his monitor and in another window searched the internet for the heist notice Hakuba mentioned. It wouldn't ease his eyes, but he figured it would be a nice change. Noticing his friend finished with his record, he read the riddle out loud.

"*The evening nightingale's song fills the night
For one last time, before it fades into mere memory.
The adventure twists when the magpie visits the show,
And with the heart, escapes from the falcons' reach.*"

Shinichi raised an eyebrow and turned his attention to his friend's monitor, pushing himself closer to read it himself once again. Silently, they both went through it a couple of times.

"Quite the flock he's got there. I guess that the magpie is him? Does suit his personality." Heiji chuckled.

"It does, doesn't it? He didn't use that reference that in the past, but I guess, by falcons he could mean the police. As they are birds of prey and the police chases criminals, so it could match…" Conan frowned, looking at the screen "But why mention them in the riddle anyway? It's obvious they will be there, since they always are, it's not anything significant that he escapes them…"

"Maybe it's a hint for the trick?" Hattori suggested "He usually does say in riddles the 'what', 'how' and 'when'. The target would be 'the heart', but if we take the third and last line as the trick then I don't see the when. Anything significant to 'nightingales'?" He asked, checking the internet for any information about those birds.

"They are migrating birds, but not in this season. Unless it is a notice for around August-September, when they fly away…" The boy pursed his lips "The only significant thing for nightingales is that they are known as exceptional singing birds…" He said slowly.

"And he does mention visiting a show… So what..? He'll hold a heist at somebody else's performance this time?"

Conan hummed, confirming, his eyes flicking on the site he was checking. "Yeah, that would seem so… Probably some kind of concert, soon…"

The Osakan also started searching "A concert with a jewel? Shouldn't be too many of those out there?"

The other detective snorted. "Considering that nearly everybody these days want to have KID as a guest of honor?" He asked dryly and Hattori merely chuckled at that.

It was true too. It appeared most of the singers performing in near future were holding onto some excessive jewelry. Heiji burst into laughter reading about one who decided to go out on stage in a dress fully encrusted with gems.

"Does she want KID to leave her naked on stage?"

Conan smirked. "Probably hopes to get abducted with the dress. Seriously… he's more of a celebrity now. Although after the fatal series his popularity fell somehow…" He added with his tone dropping the amused tones.

Hattori spared him a glance. "Don't worry, we nearly got him. And a few more of those gentle heists and the police will drop the idea of carrying sharp ammo with them."

The boy smiled at his friend and nodded to him, glad for his reassurance. They returned to the riddle, as none of the found concerts seemed to match it fully.

"Wait a minute... it says 'last time, before fades into mere memory'? That must mean that this will be the last time the singer performs, so he most probably means a goodbye concert. Does any of those we found cover an event like that?"

Heiji ran a glance through them and grimaced. "Yeah, one but it will be in two months. You think he announced that far?"

Conan sighed. "Well... can't really rule it out, but I doubt it. If it did, we would have to take into account nightingales' departure time as well. Maybe it's not a concert per se?"

"But still with music, eh?" Hattori finished his thought and they both wondered on it until the boy snapped his fingers.

"An opera!" He shouted with joy. "Or a theater play..." He mumbled his explanation while his fingers were tapping on the keyboard. "The riddle refers to KID showing during a show and an adventure, which could be pointing out a play with an actual plot. I think I heard about one that could match… Got it!" He cheered and turned his monitor to show the result to his friend.

Hattori hummed, reading the advertisement. "Tadari Chizo's grand finale in the play 'Winter Blossom', the one and only show this Friday, huh..? Seems they do have a jeweled necklace being in that play too, but it's called 'the Burning Flower' and it doesn't seem that the gem has a heart shape. Doesn't really fit the riddle..." He pointed out with a grimace.

"Not until you check out the plot of the play." Conan replied with a smirk. "The jewel is supposed to be carved from the feelings of the two main characters. It's their love, which is normally..."

"Symbolized by a heart." Heiji finished grinning at his friend. "That does sound right. How did you find it out so quickly? Can't see the plot written here anywhere..."

The boy chuckled. "Well, actually this particular opera caught my attention a few months ago. I was bored and I noticed they had their advertisement clearly made to get KID's attention, often referring to him in a mocking way and challenging him. People rarely go to the point of potentially irking him after the incident when a mall owner used his name to fake a heist, and KID actually knocked down a huge Christmas tree on the building in question. That's why those advertisements were somewhat surprising, but it gets better. It seems they started challenging him only after two months of normal advertisement and stopped a month later. It didn't lead me anywhere and I had a few hard cases, so eventually I forgot about it until now."

Hattori hummed and nodded his head, looking at the site with the opera again "And now it also seems that last week they changed the place they will be playing it at. Some unexpected problems, they say... You think it's Kuroba's doing?"

"Don't know... It would be strange for him to do it and as he was busy with the previous heist, I'd doubt it... But it is fishy, especially considering those advertisements earlier..." He hummed and his gaze absently moved to the clock in the corner of the monitor "Damn... we lost over one and a half hour for this..." He grimaced and threw an annoyed glare at his friend, while putting another disc in his computer he was supposed to check.

Hattori raised his hands in a surrendering gesture. "Hey, don't blame me. I didn't make you solve it with me." He turned to his monitor, grimacing at the video. "But I wonder… The thing around the opera, it sounds like a trap, don't you think?"

The boy sighed heavily. "It does, but I'm more than sure Kuroba-kun is aware of it as well. And despite that he decided to do the heist, so he has a plan."

"But didn't you say-"

Shinichi made a face and cut him off. "Hattori. We don't even know the situation around the heist. But I'm sure KID knows what he's doing. And we can deal with only one of these problems at a time. I decided to focus on this now." He tapped on the monitor. "Hopefully there will be enough time to figure out what is going on around the event later. But not now."

Heiji grimaced inwardly, seeing his friend on the verge of snapping, so he decided to change the topic slightly to loosen up the atmosphere "Right... think Hakuba solved the riddle already? We're still missing the trick part…"

Conan spared him a short glare, only briefly looking away from his screen. "You don't have to help me with this if you don't want to, you know."

"It's not that!" He claimed, annoyed with his friend assumptions. "I just thought that he probably won't be able to return until they get it right..."

The boy rolled his eyes. "Then give him a call already. You don't need my permission for it."

Heiji grimaced and got up, taking out his phone. He left the room to not annoy the shrunken detective more and dialed Saguru's number.

The Brit picked up fast and greeted him with a worried tone. "Hattori-kun? Has something happened?"

The Osakan chuckled. "Nah, all cool, don't fret. Just was wondering if you figured out the riddle yet?"

"... The police are searching for a matching musical as we speak. But I am sure you already found the right one?"

"You got that far, eh? It's not a musical, but an opera. 'Winter Blossom', this Friday, the target is a ruby, 'the Burning Flower'."

"You're positive about it?" Hakuba asked with doubt.

"Yeah. In the play, the jewel represents the love of main characters and this opera is a farewell to the main singer. Sounds like a match, eh?"

"Yes, it does. Thank you, do you maybe have an idea for the trick part? We only got that he is going to take part in the performance and alter it, with police assistance."

"Sorry, we haven't really focused on this, so I can't give you anything more on it." Heiji wasn't going to admit that they didn't even get that far.

"That's alright. I think it will be enough for me to excuse myself anyway. I should be back soon in th-"

"Hakuba?" Hattori cut in with serious voice before the Brit could disconnect and walked further away from the door. "You might notice there is something fishy about this. I might be wrong 'cause it's just a hunch but... don't point it out to the police just yet. I want to investigate it first."

Saguru went silent for a moment."Alright... care to elaborate?"

"When you get back. I should get back to the record. Kudo is kind of twitchy, so don't mention it with him around, ok? See ya."

"Bye."

Heiji pocketed his phone and returned to the room. He grimaced slightly, seeing his friend plastered to the monitor.

"So, they figured it would be a musical. Hakuba-kun promised to return soon now."

The boy growled with annoyance. "Hattori, stop… I want to focus on this if you please… KID's heist is less important at the moment…"

Heiji frowned, taken aback "What?"

Conan sighed, praying for patience. "Even if we didn't get to this heist, there will always be another and we can also nag Kuroba-kun without it, after we finish this. Heck, we might even need to, if we miss something essential from the videos. On the other hand, if we are late with this, we might not get another chance. So at the very least, stop interrupting me."

The Osakan raised his hands and spoke with a reassuring tone. "I get it Kudo, no need to get angry with me like that. It's just th-"

"Do you really get it?!" Conan snapped, turning to him with a hurt expression "You're not the one stuck in a child's body! This is a chance for me, Hattori, and I can't afford to lose it! So either stop fooling around and help me, or just get out of my sight!"

At first Heiji wanted to snap back at his friend, but seeing his expression made him stop and close his mouth. He sighed heavily and sat back at his place, turning on the record in silence. He spoke only after a few minutes.

"I do get it." He murmured, with eyes still focused on the monitor "I may not be able to fully imagine your situation, but I understand how hard it must be for you. I just want you to loosen up every now and then, or you might break."

"I know… But please... I can't afford that now. I'll rest later. There will be a lot of time without any leads to follow anyway…" The boy whispered back with a tired voice, adding after a few moments "Sorry…"

"No biggie." Heiji responded quietly with a small, warm smile.


A while later Hakuba returned. Intrigued by Hattori's words over the phone he looked into the opera more precisely and the sudden change of the location did catch his attention. He wanted to ask about it his fellow detectives, but he sensed the tense atmosphere as he entered the room, so he refrained himself from it. Especially after recalling Hattori's words about Kudo's nervousness. Despite his worry, he decided to comply with Heiji's request and speak with him later on. He cleared his throat, sitting himself before the free computer and turning it on.

"Found anything useful?"

Heiji sighed, taking the opportunity to stretch his back. "I did spot him a few times, from the looks of it, I'd say he was on a lookout… Not much to tell at this point, maybe later when we can trace his route."

"Nothing interesting in the corridor and haven't seen much of this one. You got the last disc?" Conan asked without turning from his monitor.

"Yes. I apologize for taking so long, unfortunately it was unavoidable. Thank you for your help with the location and target." Hakuba replied while searching for the moment in the record where he finished before his departure.

Hattori smirked. "Sure, anytime."


Unfortunately they didn't get to work for too long when Baaya came into the room and basically chased them out of the room, forcing them take a break for lunch. The smell of food, as they were walking down the stairs, reminded them that it has been over 8 hours since they last ate. Kudo didn't argue much, since he was grateful that he was able to work with the records here at all, but he would have preferred to eat while watching.

To not waste any time, when they sat at the table, Conan started drawing a rough layout plan of the mall on a piece of paper. When Baaya returned with Hakuba from the kitchen, she scolded the boy about taking work to the dining table. She warned them about a rule of not talking about any business during the meal in that household. When she left, Hattori quietly laughed about how strict she was, mockingly sympathizing with the Brit, who only smirked at that.

They were in a middle of a meal when they heard a bell at the door. Hakuba threw a puzzled look in that direction, but didn't get up and soon they heard Baaya answer it. They heard her talk for a while with somebody, before the door was closed again. Afterwards, she came to the dining room with a heap of papers and a cap in her hands. Conan's eyes widened as he recognized his friend's belonging and it seemed he wasn't the only one.

"Was it Kuroba?" Hakuba asked with a frown, it was obvious for the other two detectives that it wasn't the magician's habit to visit his absent classmate.

"Why yes, how did you know, Saguru-bocchama?" She asked with a perplexed expression.

Shinichi gasped, coming to a terrifying conclusion and dropping the cutlery. He dashed from the table, up the stairs and towards the room in which they recklessly left the valuable records unattended. All the CDs were there, but just the other day the kaitou skillfully prepared before their eyes fakes, so Kudo knew for certain that it didn't mean anything. Cursing under his breath, he checked the record he's been watching before the meal and it seemed it was the same. He took it out and placed another one in the computer. But how would he know, if it was from yesterday? KID could have snatched CDs recorded on some other day, so the switch wouldn't be obvious. Plus if he somehow figured which were the most valuable from the one they lacked, he could have taken only that. With his mind racing for a way to distinguish if he had the right video, he didn't notice the other detectives enter the room, until he heard Hattori's alarmed voice.

"Oi Kudo, what happened?"

"It's not like KID to do unnecessary stuff and he doesn't visit Hakuba after he's been absent from school." Without sparing a glance at his fellow detectives to confirm his assumption, he explained hastily, forgetting about the honorific. "This means he had another reason to show up now. And yesterday he said that he wasn't happy with us working on this case. That's why I doubt it's a coincidence he came while we were downstairs."

The Brit frowned. "But if you assume that he made a switch, why would he let us know he was here then? That doesn-"

"Because he mocks people!" Shinichi cut in angrily. "He enjoys showing you that he won the strife."

Heiji grimaced and tried to reason with him. "But Kudo, you said it yourself that he wouldn't steal it from us, so why-"

"He didn't confirm it. He also could have changed his mind, hell if I know! Heck, he didn't even directly say that he wouldn't hinder our investigation… Shit… How do I determine if it's the original..?" He muttered to himself.

"Young man!" The old woman, who only managed to hear the last sentence, gasped, hearing it. "What foul language, you should know better…"

"Baaya…" Hakuba gently interrupted her and smiled warmly. "Could you bring us desserts here?"

"But Bocchama…" She wanted to argue, but noticed his resolute eyes, so only sighed. "As you wish…"

"Thank you."

"Huh… So you actually can order her and not the other way around?" Hattori noticed quietly, smirking as he saw the housekeeper going away.

"Yes, but I prefer not to. She is more like family to me."

Heiji nodded, understanding the difficulties of the situation and turning his attention back to Conan, speaking with soothing voice. "Kudo… calm down, he had no reason to first help us and now steal those records. If he wanted us to follow a wrong lead, he wouldn't let us know he was here. You said it yourself that he helped you numerous times now. You know that he may be mischievous, but he's not a bad guy."

"Yeah? That's great. So maybe you can find a better reason to why he came by?" The boy retorted, with eyes still glued to the monitor to notice something that would help him determine what day it was.

The Osakan grimaced, but before he could respond, Saguru raised a hand and stopped him. "I think we should draw a sketch of the building. You said you noticed the guy walking around on the video? If we know the layout of the cameras, we should be able to foresee where he could have gone next and the time he got there. This way we should be able to determine most of the records."

They agreed on doing it that way. They managed to make a rough plan of the mall and after nearly two hours using this method, they were able to determine this way 9 out of 12 records. Two of the latter were from the corridors closed for the customers and one from before the toilets, which was most likely overlapped with the record KID had. Fortunately the last one was confirmed to be the original, by finding Conan's and the Detective Boys presence there on it, when he went inside to talk with the thief through the phone. Shinichi sighed in relief, hoping that the unwatched corridor record wasn't essential for the case. In the meantime, Hattori checked his cap and Hakuba the notes he received from Kuroba (which were makeshift homework) and neither of them found anything suspicious.


It was already past 10 PM when Hakuba finally finished his second record (which was the front entrance) and he was feeling rather tired. He noticed Kudo was nearing the end and Hattori in half of their third CD's. Due to Kuroba's interference, they were going slower than expected, but they should be able to easily finish it by the next day. He sighed and decided there wasn't much point in starting a new video. During their checkup, Baaya reminded him about a white-board his father had, so they brought it to Saguru's room to write down all the notes in one place. He now wrote down all his sightings of the man in the record he just finished and pondered over them all.

Gin did leave the building once for a short while, but besides that, it really did look like for now that he was just strolling for the whole time around the mall. Hakuba cursed once again the poor quality of the records that prevented them from noticing any details like his facial expression, so they couldn't tell if the man spotted anything he was looking for. The Brit wondered if any of the other four records held anything more useful. They would probably download all of the fragments with the man, hoping to notice anything significant, but it was bound to be hard as they had no idea what they were looking for. This was surely to going to be one of those long and frustrating cases. Worse was that they most probably had an unknown time limit.

Hakuba noticed Conan getting up from his computer to type down his sightings. The boy stepped back once he finished, to take a better look at the board.

"Noticed anything?" Shinichi asked with a tired voice.

"Nothing significant, I'm afraid. He did leave for a moment and came back after five minutes. Not sure what to make of it. And you?"

"Even less… He had a hamburger around 3 PM and that's it, besides strolling… The cameras are always too far from him to make out anything more." He sighed heavily and turned back to the computer "Right, so on to the last one…"

"Kudo-kun, why not call it a day? It is already late and you do look tired-"

"Hakuba-kun, please… not you too…" Conan cut in with a whine. "I need to get it done as soon as I can-"

"What you need is to rest every now and then." Heiji cut in with an annoyed tone, pausing his record and turning to the other two. "If it wasn't for the old lady, you wouldn't even eat anything. Plus the thing with KID got you agitated and now you're barely holding on." He pointed out with a grimace.

"Hattori, I already explained it to you that I don-"

"Oh yeah? And how much have you slept last night? If you don't sleep, you won't be able to figure it out anyway and all will be to waste."

Shinichi flinched with annoyance, but before he could snap back, Saguru placed a hand on his small shoulder. "He has a point. It is doubtful any of the other discs have something more significant than what we already saw, so we have to be able to figure out what we don't see. It is clear that in the state we are in, neither of us is currently able to do it. You are welcome to stay for as long as you need and I can promise you to wake you up in the morning again, so you can start early, with a fresh mind."

The boy didn't want to agree with them, but it was true he was weary and his eyes hurt from carefully watching the poor quality videos for most of the day. He rubbed his temples and sighed, admitting defeat. He was grateful that Heiji offered he would go to bed himself only after he finished with his third CD. Later Conan barely recalled walking to the guest room and getting on the bed, as he has fallen asleep nearly immediately.


After escorting their shrunken friend to the other room, Hakuba returned to Hattori and quietly closed the door behind himself. He sat beside the Osakan, who still had his eyes focused on the monitor.

"So what did you find out about the heist?" He asked quietly.

"Not much besides a few odd details. Couldn't really check anything out, but it does sound fishy…" He told the Brit about what Conan found out and about the last-moment change of the place of the play. He sighed as he finished. "The problem is Kudo doesn't even want to think about investigating it, before we finish this."

Hakuba hummed, propping up his chin. "You're right, it does sound suspicious… But I can hardly blame Kudo-kun for his decision." He added, grimacing.

"It's not like I am, but it won't do us any good if we can't figure this case out and Kuroba-kun falls into a trap. I was wondering if it was even him who sent the notice in the first place." Heiji added, shooting a questioning glance at the Brit.

"Well, after what you told me, I would probably too, but the riddle did suit his style. Overall the whole notice seemed genuine. We can't of course rule out the possibility, but it seems unlikely." He explained, while turning on the internet and starting to look for the previous advertisements of the opera.

"That's one good news. Any idea why he came by today? Didn't seem like he left any surprises…"

"No idea honestly… I would like to think that he did it out of worry, just to check up on me. But I doubt it. Maybe Aoko-kun made him go and he took the cap just to be done with it also?"

"Yeah, but in that case wouldn't she come with him?"

"Most probably yes, although she could have been simply busy with something…"

They chatted like that for a bit longer, until Heiji finished his record. In the meantime, Hakuba managed to find the previous advertisements and the news report about moving the opera to a different building. At first glance, the cases seemed unrelated and the only thing that linked them was KID. Without finding any answers to any of the cases, they both went to sleep, hoping that the next day and a good night sleep would bring some revelations.


As usual, I must apologize for the easiness of the riddle xD Unfortunately all I am capable of is to make it sound nice – and I like it so much, that I don't want to write 'there was a riddle and the solution is …', hope you liked it anyway ;)

And yes! We will have another heist, probably not the next chapter, because we still have to finish with the records ;) Honestly I thought I would manage to cover it in this chapter, but Kai-chan decided to show up and… you saw how it went ;)

Also I wanted to thank my precious beta-reader~ She is not only correcting the current chapters, but also decided to help me with my previous ones. She is rather busy atm, so it will take a while, but probably soon I will start updating the correct versions of the starting chapters :)

See you next chapter *grins*