Kenta hadn't anticipated orientation day to be as foreboding as it was starting to look. He'd been herded into a small group with four other students and two upperclassmen, one of whom was bouncing on the balls of his feet with excitement as they made their way across the room. They'd been seated at a circle of chairs with a small table in the middle, everything draped in the school colors.

"So I think the best way to start things would be with an ice breaker."

Kenta bit his lip and shifted in place, feeling disproportionately nervous and out of place. He glanced at the other students around him, two boys and a girl who seemed to know one another and a blond boy who looked just as nervous as he did.

"How about this?" The excited upperclassman flipped a hand and was suddenly holding a deck of cards, fanned out so the decorative backs were facing away from him. "I have a normal deck of cards. Each suit will represent a different question. Hearts for personal stories. Spades for life goals. Diamonds for favorite things. Clubs for a talent or skill. On your first turn, draw a card, introduce yourself and your major, and then tell us something about yourself based on the card you've drawn."

"I'll go first," the other upperclassman said, reaching over to draw a card. He placed it down in the middle of the table to reveal the three of spades. "My name is Kudou Shinichi. I am a criminal justice major. My dream is to be one of the world's greatest detectives."

Kenta perked up, eyes going wide and a smile starting to pull at his lips. He knew about Kudou Shinichi. He was in the papers pretty often and Kenta's father even said that he had the potential to be just as good as Kudou one day.

"Let's keep going to the right," the other upperclassman said, shuffling the cards between his hands with a showy flourish. He presented them to the boy sitting at Kudou's right.

The boy drew a nine of diamonds. "I'm Tsuburaya Mistuhiko. I am a computer science major. One of my most valuable possessions would be my laptop."

"Very good." Another showy shuffle and the cards were presented to the only girl in the group. Kenta had to admit that the cards tricks were pretty cool. "Pick a card, miss."

"I'm Yoshida Ayumi and I am a sociology major." She placed the jack of spades on the table. "My life goal is to become a police officer and help people."

"An admirable goal." The upperclassman shuffled again and spread the cards for the boy next to Kenta.

The boy drew the ten of hearts. "Uh. I'm Kojima Genta and I'm a criminal justice major. I guess, a personal story would be about how I met Mitsuhiko and Ayumi. We've been in the same school since elementary, and we started an investigations club. We actually met because we were all interested in going to the same house to see if it was really haunted. It wasn't but we had such a good time we started being friends."

"So you three already know each other?" Kudou asked, smiling just a little at the sudden bashful looks they sent him.

"Yeah, but we didn't know the others in the group. We didn't want to seem like we were excluding anyone," Ayumi said, leaning over the table to smile at Kenta and the other boy. His face felt hot but he smiled back and dropped his eyes to the newly shuffled cards that were being offered to him next.

He drew the king of clubs and stared at it in thought. "I'm Connery Kenta and I'm a criminal justice major. A skill that I can do would be... I can ride horses and perform trick shots on horseback."

"Really?" The upperclassman holding the cards whistled and seemed impressed. "I don't even think our great detective can do both."

"I've never tried riding horses," Kudou protested, but Kenta noticed he didn't dispute the trick shooting.

"That's really cool!" Kenta flinched a little as Genta turned to shake his shoulder, face split in a wide smile. "Where did you learn to ride horses?"

"My father's American, and he has family in America. I learned at his ranch." He blushed under the sudden interest, and turned to stare at the table.

"It's your turn to draw," the upperclassman said, offering the cards to the boy at Kenta's right.

"I'm Ingram Phillip, and I am a psychology major." He placed the ace of spades on the table. "My life goal is to become a person skilled and respected enough to succeed my mother as President of the International Federation for Human Rights."

"You're the son of Ingram Slezibeth, nicknamed the Queen of Mercy?" The upperclassman asked.

"That's mother. I want to do just as much good as she does," Phillip said, raising his chin proudly.

"I guess it's my turn then," The upperclassman placed the deck on the table and flipped over the top card. The king of clubs looked back. "My name is Kuroba Kaito and I am a double major, theater and psychology. One of my skills..." Kuroba slapped a hand over the deck of cards, smoke flared under his palm, and when he raised his hand, there was a dove in place of their cards. "I'm a magician."

A spattering of applause broke out from Ayumi and Genta, and Kenta clapped a few times as well, because that was really impressive.

"We have enough time to go another round before it's our turn to walk the grounds," Kuroba said, drawing the deck of cards out of thin air. The dove hopped up his arm to nuzzle into his throat, tugging strands of his hair every so often.

"We can go backwards this time. You start," Kudou said, offering a finger to the dove. It went to him with a soft coo and then took off and vanished out of sight.

"Alright," Kuroba said, rolling his eyes and drawing the two of spades from the top of the pile. "One of my life goals is to become a magician even more famous than my father."

"Who's your father?" Mistuhiko asked.

"He's known as the Infamous, the Immortal, the Impossible Kaitou Kid." Kuroba swept his hands back, a burst of confetti and rose petals descending from overhead. Kenta leaned back but couldn't avoid the downpour. "You might have heard of him."

"I watched one of his shows!" Kenta said before he could stifle himself. He brought a hand up to his mouth but Kuroba was already turning a beaming smile on him.

"He's very, very good. But I plan to be even better." Kuroba swept some of the confetti off the table, but there was easily an inch on every surface so it didn't help much. Kudou sighed and ran a hand through his hair, dislodging the confetti pieces that were stuck in it.

"Phillip, I think it's your turn," Kudou said.

"Right." Phillip took the top card and placed down the four of hearts. "A personal story... My mother inherited a topaz from her mother, and it's the largest one in Europe. They call it the Crystal Mother, because it was known to bring healthy children to expectant mothers as it was passed down from bride to bride. It was nearly stolen once, because it was famous and worth a lot of money. So I told mother that the best way we could use it and still help others would be to sell it and donate the proceeds to providing health care for ailing mothers and newborns. It was the first time mother used one of my ideas."

"That's very selfless. A lot of people wouldn't give up personal wealth for charity." Kudou smiled, and Kenta could hear how impressed and proud he was. How genuine Kudou was being.

"Kenta. Your turn." Kuroba tapped the table.

He drew the six of diamonds and placed it on the table. And he knew right away what he wanted to say. "My father worked for Interpol before he met my mother. He was assigned a case in Japan and she was one of the officers he worked with. They were chasing a criminal organizer called Nightmare. The criminal was after these opal earrings called the Dark Knight. My mother found out when they were going to steal them, and she chased them as they were leaving. Nightmare shot at her to scare her away, but she wouldn't give up. She kept chasing him until the other officers got there and arrested him. After it was over, my mother fainted and my father took her to the hospital. It turned out that Nightmare hadn't missed when he shot at her." Kenta stopped and swallowed, face burning under all the attention but he brought a hand up to his neck and fished the necklace out. "Right before she went out, my father gave her this locket. And without it, my mother would have been killed before I could have been born. She gave it to me so I could have that same protection my father's love gave her."

He cupped the locket in his palm, a silver heart just a little smaller than his fist. It wasn't meant to be work around the neck, but on a pocket chain, because it snapped open to display a clock on one side and an engraving on the other. But his mother only had a necklace chain and threaded it through so it rested over her heart. It saved her life when her bulletproof vest hadn't.

"Thank you for sharing that with us," Kuroba said, eyes and voice both soft and sincere enough that Kenta didn't feel any embarrassment.

"Your mother's really amazing," Ayumi said, reaching past Genta to touch Kenta's wrist. He nodded back to her, a smile pulling at his lips hard enough to hurt.

"Thanks," Kenta said back, tucking the locket back under his shirt.

"Aw man, how can I follow such a cool story," Genta moaned, reaching to take a card from Kuroba's deck. He placed the nine of spades down. "A life goal. This is really lame, but when I was little I wanted to take over my father's convenience store. My parents have lived here all their lives, and their parents and their grandparents, and we've always had the store. But after I met Mitsuhiko and Ayumi, I didn't want to anymore. I wanted to be a policeman or fireman. I wanted to be a hero and help people. I'm doing criminal justice because my parents said that my dreams were important. And if I wanted to work at the store, they'd let me do that, and told me I shouldn't do things just because they did. So, I guess my life goal is to make them proud, as a policeman or fire fighter or store owner."

"I think that followed just fine," Kuroba said.

"Your parents support you even if they wanted different things. You're already making them proud by working hard for it," Kudou said.

"My turn." Ayumi drew the eight of diamonds. "One of my precious things would be a gift from Assistant Inspector Sato. When I was in high school, she was one of the officers I shadowed during our career fair. She gave me her old officers uniform hat and told me I would be a great police officer."

"I know Sato. She's a very good officer. She's a great role model." Kudou nodded at Ayumi's bright grin, ignoring Kuroba's sudden exasperated sigh.

"So many goody-goodies. I can't believe my entire group are police kids."

"I'm not-"

"Phillip, your mother may be known as the Queen of Mercy, but she is not so merciful on the bad guys. A bunch of little angels."

"Choir," Mitsuhiko said, and everyone turned to look at him. "A group of angels. It's either a choir or host, depending on context."

Kuroba sighed again and waved the cards towards him, wincing as Kudou elbowed him. Kenta didn't get what the big deal was, but he felt more confident now that some common ground had been acknowledged between him and the rest of the first years. They were more alike than he'd thought.

"A talent or skill," Mitsuhiko said, tapping a finger to his chin. "I'm a computer science major, so it wouldn't be surprising to say that I have skills in that area. Instead, a skill people are surprised I have would be bouldering. It's a climbing skill without use of any aids, except shoes and chalk, but it's also not very high climbing, either. But it's lots of fun."

"I've done some of that," Kuroba said, shuffling the cards into an elaborate bridge over his head that fell neatly into his extended hand. "It's good practice for free solo climbing. Really builds your skills."

"I want to move up into more skilled rope climbing." Mitsuhiko sat up straighter, nearly fidgeting in his seat. "It's not as important a skill, but I really enjoy doing it."

"You never know when the skills you have may need to be utilized." Kudou reached over to Kuroba's offered hand and turned over the queen of hearts. He stared at it, looked up at Kuroba's face, and then sat back in his chair with a sigh. "Hearts for personal stories, right?"

"Bingo!" Kuroba said, clapping his hands together and turning the cards into little confetti. The table was still so thick with it, a little more didn't make much of a difference. "Share a really, really good one!"

"A really good one?" Kudou repeated, eyes slanting to the rest of the group. He smiled. "How would you like to hear how I met Kaito?"

"Yes!" Ayumi said immediately.

"No!" Kuroba protested at the same time.

"Yes," Kudou agreed. "I'm a second year student, but this is my first year at this university. Originally, I was going to Toudai. I transferred over to this university two months into term because someone was going to my classes and impersonating me to my professors. Not just saying they were me. They were meeting with my friends, turning in my assignments, participating in my study groups, and wearing my face on all the security cameras."

"What?" Genta asked.

Kenta found himself leaning forward, absorbed with the story, when he accidentally bumped elbows with Phillip. They glanced at each other, but Kenta looked away as Kuroba's loud groan surprised him. Kuroba dropped his face in his hands, obscuring his face.

"And really the only ones who believed me were my friends. And we decided to lay a trap for our imposter." Kudou stopped and clapped Kuroba's shoulder, shaking him lightly. Kuroba squirmed under the touch but didn't pull his face out of his hands. "It turned out my impostor was really, stupidly convinced that imitation was the highest form of flattery and set the entire thing up to get my attention."

"You don't bait a trap for a detective and leave out the mystery," Kuroba said, voice muffled by his hands. "I was being smart."

"You were being a pest. We were actually on the same tour of Toudai when we first met. I didn't remember, but Kaito did. And it was a grave insult to choose Toudai over here, apparently. Toudai couldn't do anything, exactly, but I realized I had more fun working against Kaito than I did going to Toudai's program. And the program is really good here, I'm closer to my friends, and I have this brat to keep life from getting boring."

"I'm not a brat," Kuroba protested, face a little red from pressing his hands to his cheeks, and he sounded annoyed.

"You are the biggest brat I've ever met," Kudou argued, but it was with a smile.

"So you stayed for your friend?" Ayumi asked.

"I've found that one of the best things here is that I get to make those bonds with others. If Kaito hadn't pestered me, I never would have known so many of the people I know now. People important to me. I wouldn't be as close to achieving my dream as I am right now," Kudou said, smile turning smaller and more contemplative.

Kuroba reached between them and rested a hand on Kudou's shoulder.

"We might be smaller than Toudai, but that doesn't mean we're lesser. You picked this university for your own reasons, but even just in this circle, you can see the bonds between all of us." Kudou brought his hand up and covered Kuroba's, their fingers tightening together.

"We all want to make the world better. We all want to help people." Kenta squared his shoulders as everyone's attention turned on him. He looked slowly around, meeting eyes and seeing his own nervousness, excitement, and courage. Kudou and Kuroba nodded back to him, their hands dropping to the table but their fingers still linked together. "I think this will be a good place for us."

"I think so, too," Kuroba agreed. He stood, pulling Kudou up with him and gestured at the group. "It's our turn to walk the ground and show you the best places to hang out on campus."

"There are five dormitories on campus, two of which are for first year students. The other three are for upper year students who live on campus instead of renting around the area," Kudou said as Kenta and the others got to their feet and hovered behind Kudou and Kuroba. Kenta saw them squeeze their hands before separating.

"The rest of the buildings are the library, the cafeteria, the book store, the student health center, the fitness center, the pool, and the administration building. That's not including the classrooms and major-specific buildings. There are several other campus services that are either a short walk or bus ride away. Does everyone have their students badges?" Kuroba asked, stopping in front of the doors.

Kenta nodded along with everyone else, grabbing the badge he'd received in the mail with his acceptance letter and orientation date.

"Great! Let's get this tour started!" Kuroba pushed open the doors, and Kenta could finally get his first good look at the grounds. It didn't feel like hallowed ground anymore. This was his place, too.

There were other students getting the tour, a few groups waving to Kuroba as he skipped towards the top of the stairs leading down to the quad. Kudou took his place at Kuroba's side, waving a hand at the towering buildings and lush green grass.

"Welcome to Meidai."