Kioshi led the way for once, he smashed the front door open and jumped its stairs followed by Emiko who was a few meters behind. She nearly crashed on a wall 10 times in her escape as she had thrown her flashlight back at their pursuer's face hoping to increase the distance between them. Kioshi slowed down to let her join him.

"Emiko, the jump is higher from this side of the wall, I will give you a leg up." He sped up to get first on the wall and positioned himself. Following the boy's silent instructions Emiko didn't slow down, she kept the same speed, they exchanged a look full of faith and he helped her to make the jump. She took support on Kioshi who lifted her up, Emiko made it just about on top of the wall. The boy took a quick worried look behind himself to see the man running towards him.

"Grab my hand!"

Kioshi jumped as high as he could without any impulse run, Emiko grabbed his hand with both of hers and pulled him up using all her weight. The British girl succeeded at last but fell down causing Kioshi's fall. They fell together, Emiko fell on her back and Kioshi on Emiko. She closed her eyes in shock and didn't realize that a boy was lying on top of her. At first she held him against her in some sort of reflex, Kioshi also had his eyes closed as he shut them while he fell in anticipation of the pain. He froze there slowly realizing that the pain surprisingly never came. A mysterious kind of synchronisation made them their eyes at the exact same time.

Kioshi's eyes widened, his heart was racing, he was out of breath with the fear paralyzing him. "C- Can you stand up?" He asked as he kneeled in front of her.

"I think I'm fine..." Emiko faced some difficulties to get up but she still ignored Kioshi who offered his hand to help her. Breaking another awkward silence the teenage girl proposed to run since the man following them was unlikely going to stop for a wall, however Kioshi twisted his ankle. Thankfully enough they were already far on the way to both of their places.

The young man was in pain, he used the walls to take support with his arm until Emiko unexpectedly put herself in between the wall and him. He stood on one foot as he looked at her dumbstruck, she grabbed his wrist and wrapped his arm around her shoulders.

"I guess I'll walk you home" said Emiko in a half annoyed half embarrassed tone.

What a day it had been, Ai was exhausted more than she usually would be, she had her arms crossed over her chest, lying as if she was a stone statue when Conan entered the room. He walked slowly towards the nightshift, took off his glasses and placed it there.

"Are you sure that you're fine? You know I have my doubts." He said as he took off his shirt and sat on the edge of the bed. On her side of the bed Ai was stoic, thinking deeply she vaguely heard a sound.

"Huh?"

"I guess I've had my answer."

"Oh I'm fine, I mean I think I'm sick. I'll see the doctor tomorrow."

"Contagious?"

"I don't think so, it's been a week you would had already felt something."

After a sigh of relief, he lied in bed next to her, he crawled to get closer and caressed her face from behind. "I guess that I should turn the lights off." He sighed again as he did. The couple slept peacefully, however they didn't for a long time as the phone's ringtone broke the night silence.

"Wha-what is it? Kudo-san... A robber at your place?... WHAT? We're on our way, hold on! Conan get your..."

"What do you think I am doing?" Conan was already putting his clothes on, Ai watched him for a second. Just how fast is he? Before she knew it they were both running in the streets, Conan ran ahead of her and smashed the gate opened, Ai simply followed his lead. Their first reflex was to check up on his parents.

"Kâsan! Are you okay?" Yukiko could only nod to her son's question. "Where is dad?"

"He went after them." She pointed the wall's direction.

Conan ran following that direction and jumped over the wall as if it was nothing while Ai and Yukiko stood there. The woman had her hands on her non-official mother-in-law's shoulders, she used her hold to guide her back inside the mansion. The living room was surrounded by the darkness, leaving a cold atmosphere, Ai lit up as many lights as possible and tried her best to reassure Yukiko. To be fair Yukiko wasn't upset or scared at all, more than anything she was wide awake from the surprise, she didn't get to see the intruders at all, she had simply been woken up by huge din as the teenagers and Yusaku ran through the house. Both women prepared tea to help everyone to calm down, though Ai insisted that Conan's mother should better rest she didn't manage to keep sit still, they were just about done when the men returned. The novel writer sat on the couch as if his body became too heavy to carry, finally his wife and the couple could get explanations about the night's actions. According to Yusaku Kudo two robbers broke in the house and he just about caught them before they managed to steal anything or hurt anyone. Ai and Conan were both silent, deeply thinking about the mysterious intrusion, about the persons who could have done that and their motive. Ai started to to think about the fact that the house had looked totally abandoned for a long while which was a great opportunity for criminals, then it hit her, she told someone that the owners were out of the way.

"Yusaku you should call the police!" said Yukiko in her most determined tone.

"I don't really want to have them searching around here you know..."

"It's fine I'll catch them myself, it will be a piece of cake. I won't let anyone threaten my family!" Conan had his right hand clenched into a tight fist as he said so.

Ai grabbed his wrist in an attempt to calm him. "Hold on everyone, nothing has been stolen, no one has been hurt or threatened. You're over reacting, it might just be some teens testing their courage in a haunted house just like the detectives boys did before. It's a simple case, if you can still call it so, even Mouri-san could handle it." She turned to Conan, the woman looked at him as if she needed a favour. "Besides that you already have a job and you don't have time to play the detective."

Conan was stunned by just how fast she pulled up the whole speech, he had no other choice but to agree. Thus Yusaku concluded that it was far time for all of them to get some sleep. On their way back home the couple was silent, both thinking, Ai quickly realized that there was a high chance that the girl she had seen was one of the intruders. Conan was only thinking about what his wife said, directly reproaching him to reconnect with his past detective life. Later on they lied in bed unable to sleep, not knowing that the other was thinking about the past.

"Are you sleeping Ai?" He whispered.

"No..." She sighed her answer.

"Ai, I'm sorry I didn't mean to start investigating, to become a detective again. It's all past, you don't have to worry about that."

"Alright but what if... What if the past comes back?" She turned in the bed mid-sentence to look in her husband's eyes. You have no idea.

"What do you mean?"

You don't understand.

"The black organisation has been taken down years ago, there's nothing to fear from the past."

Shinichi you don't understand. She looked away before confessing the true nature of her fear. "And what if Ran comes back?"

"Ran" the name felt like a slap on his face, before racing his heart nearly stopped, Conan was speechless.

"I don't..."

"Conan be honest with me please. Did Shinichi have sex with her?"

On his side of the bed Conan had no idea of how she got to that sort of question or neither of what to answer. It took him a gulp and a lot of courage to only say "once".

"What a nice use of my antidotes, really!" She took the sheets off her and got out of the bed slightly mumbling something. Damn it, I knew it! If he finds out, if he finds out then... "You still love her don't you?"

The accusation was so violent, too violent, though Conan felt like denying would only make it worse. His silence pissed her off, the woman ran out slamming the door behind her.

"Ai! Wait! Where are you going?"

"Leave me alone!" Judging by the sound of her voice she was already halfway the stairs.

Breaking in my supposed grandparents' house the day before meeting my mother's boyfriend surely wasn't a good idea. The teenage girl woke up at 5 am in order to prepare herself for the important meeting. First impressions do count, after all he probably did the same. It took her 2 hours in total to get her hair done, find an okay dress to wear and put on make-up. Girls life is surely complicated. Emiko had the good surprise to take the taxi since Kogoro was busy doing something else god knows where. In the end she made it just in time to the Tokyo Haneda airport. She had to face a well-known challenge finding a person she had never met before in a huge international airport, therefore she scanned the crowd for long minutes looking for an average height dark blond man. Thankfully he finally appeared, Charlie was wearing a white shirt with no tie and the first buttons were undone, he also had a pair of dark grey pants and what looked like an expensive sports watch. His American tourister was middle sized by the looks of things he was there for more or less than 5 days.

"Hey Emiko!" He hugged her as if they had known each other for years. "I am so glad I've found you I would have been lost without you. It's nice to meet you after such a long time."

"Yes it is." She said with an embarrassed smile..

"May we drop by my hotel and have a coffee before meeting your grandparents. I really have to change clothes and also I really need my caffeine."

"Sure!" I didn't even know that you were supposed to meet them.

They caught a taxi pretty easily and the British made extra effort to impress him by giving the destination to the driver in her best Japanese. They talked about classic stuff such as culture shock or integration, Emiko was somehow totally out of herself and could only give short answers such as "Yes I do" or "Fine". Charlie changed into some red polo and both of them went to Charlie's hotel's bar to let Charlie have his shot of caffeine.

Emiko finally started to relax, making longer sentences, wearing a more natural smile and asked him the question she had always wanted to ask. "How have you met my mother?"

"Oh... Well I met her at some gastronomy exhibition where I presented my new collection of chocolates. Your mother was also there presenting her latest dish, we tasted each other's creations and it was really good to say the least. At first your mother was only talking about cuisine, slowly we became more than gastronomy colleagues, I made my way to her heart." Charlie cleared his throat in order to distract her from the slight blush on his face.

How poetic is that? Still I have to admit he looks pretty good and he isn't hard to talk to. I guess mom doesn't look bad herself anyway.

Charlie insisted on meeting her grandparents during his first day in Japan since he wasn't sure of the amount of free time he would get there. As a result they jumped straight in another cab as soon as he gulped what was left of his cup. The girl did her best to show him around on the way to the Mouri agency. When they made it to the right place Emiko felt really nervous about this, unlike her Charlie seemed totally relaxed about meeting his girlfriend's parents without her in a foreign country. He is a bit unusual I guess. They climbed the stairs together but she asked to wait behind the door in order to let her tell them who he was and such. Nonetheless when she entered the apartment it was totally empty and she came to the conclusion that Eri and Kogoro might both be down at the agency.

"They are not here, I guess they are downstairs in Kogoro's study"

Again Charlie had to to wait for her behind the door, her grandparents were indeed at the agency but she didn't expect them to be working. Actually it seemed like Kogoro had a client, a couple who looked to be as old as them.

"I am with Charlie so if you..." She stopped when the man who was wearing glasses turned to look at her, Emiko instantly recognized the man who ran after her and Kioshi in the darkness. She felt like thunder just struck her, her first reflex was to run away hoping this short moment wasn't enough for him to recognize her. She ran passed Charlie who tried to run after her but it was too late she was gone.