Shinichi awakened to the sound of Agasa and Ai making breakfast. He lay still for a while, enjoying the feel of being in his real body. After a little while he heard Kaito begin to wake up. Shinichi sat up and looked over at Kaito to see Kaito reach up to rub his eyes and stop and just stare at his hands. With a surprised cry of 'Eeep!' Kaito sat up and began examining his arms and feeling his face. Suddenly he yelled, "It worked!" and leaped to his feet and danced wildly around the room.

Ai and Agasa rushed into the room and stared at Kaito, after a few minutes Ai said; "I see he feels fine, after breakfast I'll want to check your vital signs as well as his." Then she went back in the kitchen to finish breakfast, and Agasa handed them the clothes they had borrowed from Shinichi's house the day before.

As Agasa set breakfast on the table the two boys wandered in, Kaito was commenting on Shinichi's taste in clothes.

"Come on!" He said. "You haven't been yourself in months and you're dressed like that?"

"What's wrong with how I dress?"

"Besides the fact that Hakuba may be the only person in Japan with worse fashion sense?"

"This is coming from someone who wears a white tuxedo, cape, and top hat to commit crimes?"

"It was my Dad's!"

"Ok, but what's your excuse for the pink smoke?"

"I got bored with grey."

"But why pink?"

"If I make it red it stains my suit, besides pink annoys Nakamori."

"Everything you do as Kid annoys Nakamori."

"Yep! Mmm, that smells great, I'm starving!" Kaito quickly sat at the table and started to reach for the plate but then he stopped and sat for a moment with an odd look on his face.

"Is something the matter?" asked Agasa.

"No, it's just nice to sit in a chair and have my feet on the ground again. It's weird but nice."

"You can say that again!" Said Shinichi as he snagged the plate Kaito had been reaching for.

After breakfast Ai examined them and gave them another lecture on being careful before they left Agasa's house, as Shinichi headed towards Ran's home Kaito caught a bus.

'Not long now.' He thought, 'I hope this works, if not Aoko will kill me.'

Aoko was not having a good morning. Her father had left early to organize the response to a possible Kid heist. He was convinced it was a copycat. This didn't mean he was any less determined to catch the thief; just that he didn't think it was the real Kid. And since he had left in a hurry he had also left a mess for Aoko to clean up.

And now, well, first there was the broken plate, and then she dropped the can of coffee while trying to put it away. When it hit the floor the lid popped off and there were coffee grounds everywhere. While she was cleaning that up, the vacuum began making a funny noise and quit working and then when she picked up the trash bag it split and spilled garbage all over the kitchen floor. She cleaned up the trash and got a new bag and decided to take the trash out before anything else happened.

She angrily yanked the door open and stopped in shock. There, standing with one hand lifted like he was about to knock, was Kaito! She dropped the trash bag and stepped backwards, "Kaito?" she whispered.

"Hi Aoko." He said cheerfully, "Is something wrong? You look like you've seen a ghost."

"I'm not sure I haven't." she said softly. Half of her wanted to grab him before he disappeared again and never let him go, the other half wanted to smack him with a mop for vanishing like that. She grabbed his arm and yanked him in the house, slamming the door shut behind him. She pushed him against the door, holding a fistful of his shirt as she yelled, "Where have you been?!"

"It's a long story Aoko."

"You better start explaining Kaito."

"Okay, but can we sit down first? As I said it's kind of a long story."

Once they were seated at the table he took a deep breath and said, "I'm not really sure where to begin. But, you remember when my dad died?"

"Yeah" Said Aoko, she was uneasy, she had never seen Kaito so serious before.

"Well, he was murdered."

"What!"

"I found a message from him, someone wanted him to help them steal something."

"Why? He was a magician, how could he help steal anything?"

"Not just a magician, he was an escape artist too, remember. He could pick locks, any locks. He wouldn't or couldn't go to the police but he refused to help them anyway and they killed him for it."

"We have to tell my dad right away! Do you have the message with you?"

"We can't tell your dad! I shouldn't even be telling you Aoko. First, the message was on a tape and it broke before I heard all of it. Second, these people are murderers. I wasn't careful enough and they found out I knew my dad's death wasn't an accident. Aoko, they tried to kill me too. If two detectives, who are investigating these murderers hadn't found me in time, I, I'd have died that night. I had to disappear, not just to protect myself but also to protect everyone I care about."

"What do you mean?"

"They think I'm dead. If they knew I survived…" He took a deep breath, "Aoko, they would hurt you, my mom, and your dad and anyone else connected to me to get to me. I can't risk that."

"But what are you going to do? You can't hide forever."

"I know, I'm working with those two detectives who helped me. We will uncover these murderers, when they can't hide anymore, then I won't have to." The last sentence was spoken with such a grim satisfaction that Aoko almost felt frightened. There was nothing of Kaito the class clown in that statement.

"Aoko, you can't tell anyone you saw me. If your father knew what happened he would want to investigate and I don't want him to be in danger too. I will go talk to my mom for a while and I have to leave again tonight but, would you like to go see a movie or something?"

"A movie?" She said, puzzled by the change in topic.

"Um, yeah. I missed you Aoko. I think I even missed your mop."

"You did?"

"Yeah! I think I'm getting out of shape without you chasing me around the classroom." He grinned at her, the same familiar Kaito-grin she had seen every day for years. She had missed that sight so much. Maybe he couldn't stay long. Maybe he would be gone tomorrow; hiding from a danger so great that it didn't seem quite real. But just for now everything was right with the world. And she would enjoy it while she could.