Somewhere amongst the trees that sat in a quiet park, faint chirping of birds rang out. The sun had barely risen and the sky was still a shade of somber blue.

Sitting at a bench, Hakuba was enjoying the early spring air. In an hour and a half, he had to attend class, but for now he wanted to be alone and appreciate the peaceful quiet. He let out a yawn, releasing a fading white mist into the cold air. The streetlamp behind him still shone a dull yellow since it was still dark.

The underwhelming heist last night left him with a craving for solving mysteries. After a brief conversation with Kudo at the heist, Hakuba was left with a task. He thought it was an unusual request, but anything that another detective asked of him must be of importance. Plus it might relieve that itch the heist had left him with. Baaya called him a workaholic when she saw that he barely slept a wink. Arguably, the half-british detective felt he had a good reason to stay up.

It appeared simple.

"Hakuba-kun, could you sort these documents for me? I'll send you a link. My hands are full at the moment, so your help will speed things up for me." Kudo Shinichi had said to him.

Upon viewing the files that were sent to him, Hakuba frowned. Coming from the detective known for solving homicide cases, he was not expecting to see various scanned documents related to foreign transactions. Many of them were in their native languages. Once he had translated them with the help of online dictionaries and his own experience overseas, Hakuba proceeded to note down any patterns he could glean from them.

Most of the information in them were names, companies, product shipments, and their destinations. The teen detective felt his eyes glazing over from the tedium of sorting them into a spreadsheet. But his work ended up being rewarding. A sigh of satisfaction escaped him when he looked over the neatly arranged data. The rest of his night was spent on research and analysis.

After a small nap, Hakuba downed a strong cup of tea and headed out, hoping the cold morning air would slap him out of his sleepiness. Once he settled down on a park bench, he pulled out his phone and sent a message to Kudo along with the spreadsheet he had painstakingly created. With that done, he stashed his phone back into his jacket.

When Kudo responds, he would question him over it. His curiosity about how it was related to the Great Detective of the East's usual affairs was almost maddening. In the back of his mind, he wondered if it was somehow related to rumors of Kudo helping police round up criminal organizations.

On a more present note, something told him that if he kept sitting on the park bench he would have a hard time leaving and eventually fall asleep on the spot. With a grunt, Hakuba got up. There was still plenty of time for him to walk to Ekoda High, so he decided that a slow casual pace would be fitting for the journey.

Just when he took a step forward, something brushed by in front of him and left a slight breeze behind. From the corner of his vision he could spot only a blur. Hakuba looked to his left with widened eyes. A jogger, male according to the build and clothing, had just passed by and was shrinking away into the distance.

Had Hakuba walked another step forward, he would have collided with the runner. How could he not have heard that guy run up to him? After a slow sigh, he tiredly rubbed the bridge of his nose and shook his head in an attempt to shake off the fogginess. Perhaps the near sleepless night had made him unusually inattentive.

Much to his annoyance, Kaito was pulled out of his sleep by the sound of loud chirpings. Lifting his head, he realized that he left the windows open overnight. The wild haired youth looked around the room he had slept in. It took a moment for him to remember that it was the room reserved for him in the apartment under his mother's name. The uncharacteristically neat yet dusty layout gave off a strange sense of abandonment.

Kaito glanced at his phone with squinted eyes. It was five in the morning. He breathed out deeply and stretched, feeling much better after sleeping the aches away. Since he was awake, he might as well get up.

After lazily slapping the light switch on inside the bathroom, Kaito leaned forward over the sink. Tired blue eyes stared back at him in the rectangular mirror. He ran his hand through his hair, untangling any knots that would have formed during his sleep. There wasn't much he could do to tame it, unless he wanted to use the energy he couldn't spare at the moment.

The sleep deprived teen reached down towards a drawer. Tucked deep inside it behind some towels was a case of coloured contact lenses and several pairs of glasses.

In a few seconds, the teen walked out of the bathroom with dark brown eyes and glasses over his face, a simple disguise he had been using daily for nearly ten years.

Returning back to his room after drinking some instant coffee with a couple of spoons' worth of sugar, he dressed himself in an outfit more suited to the outdoors. The dark haired teen picked up the messenger bag where he had stashed away his Kaitou Kid outfit and gears alongside the gem. As he tugged his running shoes into place, something occurred to him. Jii hasn't contacted him at all since last night and wasn't responding to his messages or calls.

Kaito pushed his concern aside as he locked the door to the apartment and walked out. As a precaution, he pulled the hood of his track jacket over his head. Growing up, he was taught to always stay on the downlow whenever out and about.

The apartment, rented under his mother's pseudonym, was not too far away from the Blue Parrot. It was early in the morning, so the establishment should be closed and its owner was likely inside preparing for customers to arrive later. There was a quaint park lying in between the apartment and the bar, so the disguised youth opted to cut through it.

As a way to help wake himself up along with the caffeine running though his system, he started to run. It was not the breakneck speed he would commonly use during heists, but it was a faster jog than normal.

Running leisurely was a treat indeed. The cold air and the early day stillness created a nice break from the loud cheers and the yelling of the Inspector. Now for today, what is there to do? After checking up with Jii, there was research for the next heist location, reloading his card gun, restocking on a few sleeping gas bombs, doves to train and feed, some laundry to do, and maybe even some time to spare for games.

His thoughts were cut short when he saw a familiar figure show up on his running path. Instantly, he recognized the blond detective, who just stood up from sitting on a bench a few paces away. Pulling his hood further down over his head, Kaito sped up. There was to be no time spent on Hakuba Saguru outside of heists.

Luckily for him, Hakuba didn't look around and seemed unaware of his approach. If the detective could notice the sound of him running, what kind of terrible phantom thief would he be? A phantom should only be heard if it wants to be heard.

Suppressing a smirk, the thief easily navigated around the moving detective. Kid felt his heart thump in faint thrill at the thought of how close that half-british detective was to the thief he wanted to catch. Speaking of which, that thought reminded Kid that he should also add returning the Cobalt Shine on his to-do list that day. He'll just have to do a detour to a police station before going to the Blue Parrot.

Kudo Shinichi lifted his watch up to check the time. He should be at school and yet there he was, making his way towards the district of Ekoda.

Early in the morning, he received a text message from Hakuba, along with a compilation of names and numbers. Shinichi wanted to respond immediately, but he had overslept instead.

And so, he decided to skip school. The teenage detective knew he was pushing it, especially when he was still playing catch-up. On the upside, none of the courses were difficult so he just asked Ran to copy the notes for him today at the cost of buying her dinner for the rest of the week.

The sun was beginning to head downward. Shinichi guessed that Hakuba should be out of class by then. He hastily sent a message to the other detective, marking a meeting spot.

After the entire incident with the Black Organization, Shinichi became wary of discussing important matters over the phone. There could always be a chance of someone intercepting the call and listening in. His paranoia with bugs and tracking devices had saved him on several occasions.

Right on time, Hakuba met up with him near a bus stop around Ekoda High School. They started walking side by side with no direction in mind.

Shinichi began talking first. "I received the data you sent me. It seemed like you had something more to say about them."

The blond detective nodded. "That is correct. From what I gathered, the type of shipments recorded in those files are related to medical supplies. Nothing small either. Each transaction is for huge sums of money. From the various names of the people involved, there was something strange I noticed."

"Oh?"

Hakuba lifted his hand to his chin and continued. "I could be wrong, but there were an awful lot of them named Mark, Jane, and Peter, along with generic surnames like Smith or García. Of course, there were a few unique names mixed in amongst them but those are few in between."

Hearing that, Shinichi lifted an eyebrow. "They could be all related to a single individual or an organization…"

"You're right, but I have not been able to find who or what it could be. Frankly, it's driving me crazy."

Shinichi let out a laugh. "I get it. Don't worry. I'll tell you if I find out. It's the least I can do to repay you for helping me."

"Actually, Kudo-kun, there is something I would like to ask. Where did you get such information from?"

The dark haired detective paused for a few moments to find the right words. "Those documents were part of a set that was discovered inside one of the hard drives the police had confiscated from a large criminal organization. I've been helping them sort and analyze whatever they find." He sighed and shook his head dejectedly. "Even after spending nearly a month searching, we only got through a quarter of the first hard drive. We still have a storage room full of them to analyze."

Hakuba's eyes gained a glimmer to them, sensing the opportunity to dig further into an exciting rabbit hole. "Might I offer you my help?"

The other detective beamed. "I'll gladly accept it, considering that most of the stuff is encrypted or unlabeled. I'll be counting on you then."

Shinichi omitted the fact that the team working on the data analysis was small due to the secrecy around it, hence the slow progress. Hakuba seemed like a reliable person, so he had no issue including him as long as they kept the things they found outside of public records.

The detective duo reached the district's shopping center which was lined with small restaurants and boutiques. While they spoke, Shinichi had let Hakuba guide their seemingly directionless walk.

It was so nice to have a productive conversation with someone his own age without constantly having to watch his back for eavesdroppers, or at least someone other than Hattori and Haibara. After Shinichi got his body back to normal, the Detective of the West has been calling him almost on a weekly basis at random times of the day. While Shinichi appreciated the check-ins, he wished Hattori could get the idea of having a routine. Then again, the sporadic nature of the phone calls suited his friend's hotheadedness.

As for Haibara, Shinichi didn't interact with her on a daily basis anymore. After the fall of the Black Organization, she decided to remain as a child, citing that it was a precaution against stray members of the crime syndicate. But Shinichi had a feeling that she didn't want to return to her old life as Miyano Shiho. For now, she provided help with deciphering the numerous files recovered from the raiding of the Black Organization in her free time outside of school, with him acting as an inbetween.

Once they finished crossing an intersection, Hakuba spoke up, pulling Shinichi's attention back into reality. "By the way, Kudo-kun, I heard about how you've been gone for nearly an entire year working on a case. Care to tell me about it? It must have been something big, so I'm eager to hear about it." The curiosity in his eyes was intense.

Shinichi hesitated. Should he tell Hakuba about how he got shrunken by a drug? It's related to his current undertaking after all. Yet again, he didn't want to sound like a crazy loon to a new friend. "W-well, it's a long story." He laughed nervously. There was a strange sense of déjà vu. Something that happened with Ran a few weeks ago.

The interest in Hakuba's gaze persisted. "No need to concern yourself about time. I'm practically free until the next Kaitou Kid heist. Or the next murder case that catches my attention. Unless, you don't want to talk about it?"

"What? No, no. It's related to those documents I sent you. I think you should know how it links back to me. Just be warned that it might sound unbelievable."

"I see. In that case, we should talk in a more private setting. I could call my housekeeper to pick us up and-"

Hakuba and Shinichi's conversation halted abruptly as they rounded a corner block.

What caught their attention was the familiar flashing of red and blue lights ahead of them. After they glanced at each other with an understanding that it meant something was wrong, the two detectives broke into a sprint towards the small gathering of emergency vehicles.