That same morning, as Ran considered her dream and the Detective Boys considered catching the Kaitou Kid, another girl sat at a window and considered the past few months as she stared at her friends house. Aoko had been unusually quiet since Kaito disappeared. She knew her father and her friends were worried about her but it just didn't seem worth the effort to act normal. Yesterday had been the last day of school and it had been an ordinary day, no explosions, unexpected fire drills, or random livestock involved. After school had been ordinary too, except for Keiko and Akako teaming up to drag Hakuba to the mall.

There were no flowers out of thin air, no card tricks, no reason for her to chase someone with a mop, no magic. She hated it! She wanted Kaito back, She wanted to see him trade insults with Hakuba and pull pranks (though she still wondered how he had managed to dye Hakuba's hair lime green and pale lavender in an argyle print!) She even missed his teasing her until she went after him with a mop. Without Kaito around, every day was ordinary.

She got up and began to pick up the room, her father had left in a hurry that morning and the newspaper was still scattered around, as she picked up one section that had slid under the table one article caught her attention.

'That's it!' she thought as she hurriedly grabbed her keys and shoes and ran out the door, taking a page of the paper with her.

Ran took Conan, Arthur and Ai to lunch at a fast food place, and then they stopped for ice cream. Arthur had a huge grin on his face as he walked down the street eating his chocolate ice cream. Ran chuckled and shook her head.

"What?" He asked.

"You never do anything halfway do you Arthur?"

"Huh?"

Conan wordlessly handed him a napkin and Ai pointed to his reflection in a store window.

'How'd I do that?' he thought as he wiped off the ice cream on his nose and cheeks.

"You look like you dove in face first!" Snickered Conan.

"I do not!"

Conan picked on Arthur while they walked to Dr. Agasa's house to drop off Ai then they continued home. When they got there they saw a girl about Ran's age standing on the steps pounding on the door.

"Um excuse me but do you need some help?" asked Ran

"Not unless you know where to find Mouri Kogoro," She said as she waved part of a newspaper in her hand.

"What? He's not here?" Ran found her keys and opened the door. After inviting the girl in she looked for her father and returned to the living room holding a piece of paper. "It looks like he's on a stakeout tonight, My name's Ran, Kogoro is my father, Is there anything I can do for you?"

The girl seemed a little unsure as she explained, "I'm Nakamori Aoko and I'm here because my friend disappeared last fall and no one has found any trace of him, I think he went to watch the Kaitou Kid's heist and never came home. Here's some pictures of him."

When Ran looked at the pictures she froze then picked up a picture of Shinichi that had been taken a few weeks before he disappeared. She looked back and forth at the pictures comparing them then she asked the other girl, "Who did you say this is?"

"Kuroba Kaito, my missing friend. What are you doing?"

"Look at this picture."

"Huh? Wait, what are you doing with a picture of Kaito?"

"It's not, it's Shinichi."

"What?"

"Look closely," Said Ran as she laid the pictures out on the table. "They could be twins but if you look at their jaw line and nose they're a little different."

"Wow, Who is this?"

"Kudo Shinichi."

"The Kudo Shinichi? The detective of the east?! The one that disappeared? I heard he died!"

"Yes, that Kudo Shinichi. He's not dead, the mystery loving idiot has been off on some big case for over a year."

"You know Kudo Shinichi?"

"I've known him since we were little kids."

Aoko smiled, "Like me and Kaito, he's been my closest friend forever even though he drives me nuts sometimes."

"Tell me about it, sometimes Shinichi would go on and on about mysteries and Sherlock Holmes until I wanted to pound him. Then there were the times he'd run off to investigate a mystery and vanish for hours, and now he's been on this case forever and when he does call I feel like he's hiding something." She stopped and looked a little sheepish as she apologized to her audience. "Sorry, I know you didn't come here to listen to my problems."

"Actually I have the same problems with Kaito. He thinks he's a magician and will talk for hours about a new trick and he's always playing tricks and pulling pranks and he never knows when to stop. Also he's obsessed with the Kaitou Kid and always has to run off and watch the heists and well, things are so ordinary with him gone I can't stand it!"

Ran seemed somewhat puzzled at that comment but said, "I understand. Don't worry, once my dad is on the case he'll find your friend quickly."

"But are you sure he'll take the case?"

"He will unless he wants to eat his own cooking for the next week."

This surprised a giggle out of Aoko who looked down to see Conan trying to get a look at the pictures.

"Conan! What are you doing?"

"I just wanted to see the pictures Ran-neechan. I wanted to see if he really did look like Shinichi."

"Who's this?"

"This is Conan, He and his brother have been living here while their parents are out of the country."

Aoko smiled at the little boy with the over-sized glasses and handed him the pictures. "Here you are, so you know Kudo too?"

"Um, I've seen him a few times. Like when he wanted to leave a message for Ran-neechan because he couldn't stay."

While the girls continued discussing their missing friends and how much they had in common, Conan looked at the pictures and almost dropped them in surprise.

'He looks just like me, the real me! Well except for his hair, he has the same style as Arthur. Oh how could I be so stupid? He looks like me, is the right age, plays pranks and magic tricks and that hair can't be a coincidence.' Conan put the pictures on the table and went to look for Arthur. He found him sitting by the window in their room.

"So you've figured it out."

"Yes, you're Kuroba."

"I should have known Aoko would come looking for me."

"Does she know you're the Kaitou Kid?"

Arthur chuckled, "Let's see, she waves signs saying 'Kid go home!' her father is the head of the task force after me and she admires you because you came the closest to catching me."

"So your answer is 'no'. Wait her father is Inspector Nakamori?"

"Yep."

"I was right, you never do anything halfway."

Sorry this took so long but real life intruded (with a two by four to the head) I will try to get a chapter out every week but sometimes it may be closer to two weeks. This story has taken on a life of it's own and is going to be about three times a long as I planned. The good news is I now have a co-writer! She doesn't have an account here because she doesn't have internet access but the pen-name name she wants to use is Tigger. With her help the chapters will be a little longer and updates will be a little quicker. She has helped me with the story before, although she didn't always know about it (the argument in ch 4 is based on arguments we've had) but now it's official. I will also start editing older chapters and fixing typos.

P.S. Thank you, thank you, everybody who reviewed! I love reading reviews.