(Entangled by the chaos from that day,

I've been chasing faint echoes,

Following sleepless night.)

The door opened quietly when Bāya slipped inside Aoko's hospital room. Her gaze sharp behind her oval shaped glasses, inspecting Aoko's expression when she announced that Kaito's home didn't contain anything incriminating.

"I told you so," Aoko said, hiding the duplicated key Bāya returned inside her pocket. "I've been entering and exiting his place for years, and I've never seen anything Kid related."

("Where else do you think his base of operation is?" Hakuba had asked her when Aoko informed him how unlikely it was for Kaito to keep his Kid-gadgets at home where Aoko would come in sporadically without appointment.)

"It was worth a try," Bāya said, sitting down and glancing at Aoko astutely. "We had some interesting findings thanks to you, after all."

"Oh, really?" Aoko rose both of her eyebrows, intrigued. "What were they?"

"Shouldn't you know?" Bāya slipped one of her hands in her bag. Aoko glanced at her gloved hand warily. Certain there shouldn't have been anything interesting at Kaito's home. She knew his home like the back of her hand. There wasn't a space or a corner, Aoko hadn't seen in the countless times they played hide and seek in their elementary years.

"I wouldn't have asked if I knew." Aoko received the item Bāya withdrew from her bag once the elder relented. But Bāya's sharp eyes still hovered over Aoko when she recognised the item as a twenty-year-old building permit. Aoko's gaze focused on the blueprint; a detailed sketch of the Kuroba residence stapled underneath the permit. Truthful to its depiction twenty years later were it not for a single mistake. "Kaito's home doesn't have a basement."

"You don't think it has a basement." Bāya corrected, adjusting her glasses. "To us, it's quite clear that it does."

"Are you sure this sketch wasn't scrapped?" Aoko flipped the page, searching for any indication it had been revoked and replaced with a version more suitable to her recollection. "I've never seen a basement in Kaito's home."

"Unobservable facts should not be negated from existence," Bāya chided, withdrawing the pages from Aoko's hands. "Unless you can disprove its existence, we shouldn't remove it from our possibilities."

"Does that mean you have seen the basement?" Aoko asked, straight to the point, resembling more an officer than a detective. Aoko cocked an eyebrow, waiting for undisputable proof.

"We haven't found the entryway yet." Bāya conceded, levelling Aoko a hard stare. "You are aware what this means, correct?"

Aoko had an inkling when she gazed at the papers Bāya held carefully in her hand. Still, she said, "I'm not."

"We'll need a warrant for a search and seizure."

"I don't see how I could help with that."

"Your statement should be enough."

"I don't see how."

"I thought you promised to cooperate with us?" Bāya knitted her eyebrows.

"No-one told me cooperating meant reporting my childhood friend without indisputable evidence."

Bāya waved the stapled pages in her hand. "Is this not indisputable evidence?"

"It doesn't align with my memories."

"Memories aren't truthful representation of facts."

"And neither is a twenty-year-old piece of paper that may or may not have been scrapped." Aoko replied. "Isn't there anything else you have?"

Bāya pinched the bridge of her nose, exhaling. "If I remember correctly, you said you've seen your friend disguised as Kid, haven't you?" she began, levelling Aoko an unwavering stare. "Then these memories of yours should prove indisputable enough for your liking."

"Not exactly. There might have been errors in my recollection," Aoko admitted, recalling her conversation with Keiko earlier. "After all, I've been told it had been Kid disguised as Kaito, and not vice versa."

"Being uncooperative will only make you more suspect," Bāya warned, concealing the papers inside her bag.

"I'm aware."

"I hope you won't regret this later."

"I won't." Aoko whispered when Bāya rose and shut the door behind her. It was innocent before proven guilty after all.

The law is in my favour.

(Even if my heart loses its place to belong–

I'll carry this burden in my small chest.)