A/N: So, this is an aftermath chapter. A bit this and that but we need a short break to breath freely, right? :)

BTW, I don't know whent he next chapter is coming. My work started today so I have now less time to write. I won't stop though, absolutely not. I just update slower because I have to deal writing the chapters on several days.

Chapter 30.

Tsukiko flipped a page of the newspaper she was reading. There was some talk about a rich woman who won in the lottery and was looking for her childhood friend and first crush.

"Hmm… Isn't Tantei-chan going to go and solve this one? And then will be the 'Let it be' -case…" She mused before folding the paper and placing it on the bedside table of her hospital bed. There was a bunch of Get Better -cards and flowers there. Jodie visited her every day and made sure the flower had always fresh water. The Shounen Tantei-dan had also visited with Agasa and brought her chocolate and cards they'd made themselves. Conan had visited both with Ran and Sonoko and also on his own. Subaru had stopped by every second day on times when he knew Jodie wouldn't be there. The man had asked her what exactly had happened and the girl had told him after trying to dodge the question her best.

"And after your dream, you decided to take a risk like that?" He had only said, disappointed. Tsukiko's mood had plummeted at that but then the man had ruffled her hair and told her not to keep secrets like that from him. "I do worry about you."

Jodie had believed the story about the unidentified third party when she heard the story from both Conan and Tsukiko. She stated the theory of it having been the Organization but none of them had known.

"Yeah… maybe…" The two had exchanged a glance.

The girl's thoughts drifted to the evening after Tanabata when Detective Satou had questioned her about the events.

"Why did you send that message to Yokomizo-keibu? Why not some other officer?" The woman had asked.

"He was the only Police whose number I had. And since he had recognized me I was certain he wasn't an impostor." Tsukiko had replied with a faint smile.

"Where did you get the information for the questions that revealed Superintendent Matsumoto to be fake? You weren't at his daughter's weddings, were you?"

"Edogawa-kun was there when Suzuki-senpai solved the case and he told me that the motive most likely wouldn't have been written up to the case report." The impostor exposed in the same method twice… First Jodie blew up Vermouth's disguise as Araide and then Yokomizo Irish's…

"What exactly happened at the viewing platform?"

Tsukiko had looked at her hands on her lap.

"I rather not talk about it… if you understand." She had answered quietly. Satou looked up at her. "Edogawa-kun and I confronted the real culprit and got a confession from him…" Tsukiko reached for her phone that was laid on the table and took the memory card with the deductions and confession out. Conan and she had decided to give that one to the police since there was no word about the Organization.

"We recorded it all." Since there was two of them taking the honor (and mentioning Heiji as a helper helped too) it wouldn't be as weird as in the original scenario. And if needed, they could also say that Conan just told what he had learnt from 'Shinichi-niichan'. The trick had worked before.

The memory card was dropped on Satou's palm. The woman smiled to the girl, thanked and left then. Tsukiko had looked out of the window then. She had been close to death on the previous night.

"I suppose that was a good enough wake-up call…"

"Say, Kudou… Why did you originally call me to the Metropolitan Police station back then?" Tsukiko asked, straightening her glasses. Conan had once again come to see her on his own.

"I wanted to see your behavior… I know something about you but not much. I guess I was a bit suspicious about you even though Subaru trusts you." The boy fidgeted.

"What made me so suspicious?" The girl frowned at the complete turnaround in his thoughts regarding her.

"How you just know things, like the Plan… And Zander, your English skills…"

"And now?"

"I know to trust you. There're still things I'm not certain about concerning you and I'm going to find out about them but I also know that you aren't a bad person or my enemy."

"That's good to know." Tsukiko chuckled. "But what exactly made you trust me so suddenly?"

"I know that Subaru wouldn't let you so close if you were a person to tell forward things. And if you had told the Organization about me or Haibara, we'd probably be already hunted down." The faux-child replied. "And when I saw your determination to catch those guys and fight them… You are definitely not part of them despite what Haibara says."

"She says that?" The girl looked up in shock. "Why?"

"She gets the feeling from both you and Subaru. We know why so about Subaru but-…"

"I have no idea why she'd get that feeling about me."

"She suspects you for being a spy despite what I say to her. But she is set like that also with Subaru." Conan shrugged.

"I see… I need to look into that then."

"… Be careful. After all I need you to be alive to figure you out." The boy flashed a grin to the girl who started laughing.

"I can't wait for that, Tantei-chan."

Miyoshi was sitting on a chair near Tsukiko's bed and telling the latest news from school.

"…And people are still naturally freaking out about what happened to Touto Tower." The brunette said.

"Oh, what happened then? It wasn't on the paper." Tsukiko tilted her head. Miyoshi, the Shounen Tantei-dan and a few others hadn't been informed how the blonde had gotten injured or where. They only knew it was some sort of an accident.

"They won't say really. I only know that some massive damage happened to the Tower. The repairs will start as soon as possible. Anyways, some people are talking about a terrorist attack."

"Really?"

"Yeah, and it doesn't help at all that Toudou, Hanajima and Maki are spreading rumors around."

"I see… Shouldn't you tell the teachers then? I mean, if they are causing panic…"

"I might do just that… They need to be put on place."

"Report on them tomorrow before the school starts so they can't prepare their defense then." The blonde girl grinned.

"Good idea." The class president glanced at her watch. "I got to go. Get better soon, Tsukiko-chan. I can't stand long them alone."

"But you do have Maki Namida-chan to talk with, right?"

"No, she hasn't been at school for a week now."

"Right… She was absent when I came back from my two days break."

"Yes. See you then."

"See you!" Tsukiko waved to the other girl when she left the hospital room. With the same opening of the door two other people slipped in.

"Yo, Tsuki-chan!" The messy-haired boy greeted her cheerfully.

"Hi, Tsukiko-chan!" The girl with him smiled brightly.

"Hello, Kuroba-kun, Aoko-chan." Tsukiko greeted them back. "Great to see you."

"We were so worried when we heard that you had gotten into a hospital so we came to see you right after school." Aoko explained as she sat on the door side of Tsukiko's bed. Kaito walked to sit on the other side.

"Where did you hear that then?" Tsukiko asked.

"I dunno. Kaito heard it somewhere. I decided a long time ago not to ask where he gets all that information he does." Aoko shrugged. "But tell us now what happened."

"Well… I was in an accident. I'm not exactly sure what happened. Anyways I still need to be here for a few days but I'll be released soon enough." The blonde girl smiled. "So no worries."

"But Tsuki-chan… How bad it is? You've been here almost a week now." Kaito asked while leaning his elbow against his knee and his chin against his hand.

"Hmm… I'd describe it as… Ace of Spades." The messy-haired teen blinked immediately. After all he used that card as his trademark as Kid when driving a point across. And he usually needed to make his point across when facing Snake or other dangerous criminals. His eye darkened soon after making that connection.

"That bad then?"

"Yep."

"Hey, Tsukiko-chan, do you want something to drink? There's a vending machine on the corridor." Aoko asked then, sensing that the two probably wanted to talk alone. They seemed to have some secret business going on but nothing worth of prying at the moment.

"An orange juice please." Tsukiko smiled and the Ran-lookalike nodded.

"Tsuki-chan, who were they? Don't tell me you were-…" Kaito began as soon as Aoko was out of the door.

"I was at Touto Tower if that's what you're asking. And they were the Organization bugging me. Heh, their helicopter had a bloody machinegun."

"Tsuki-chan, you should stop this. It's not too late for you to turn around and ignore them." The young magician leaned closer to her, pressing his hand against the mattress.

"No, it is too late. They might not know my name or face and are even thinking me as a boy now, but I won't turn a blind eye on what they're doing. They affect my family and friends anyways. And I'm the Shadow; I tail the Organization and predict their moves." The girl ended her short speech with a confident smile. Kaito straightened up and walked to the window, sticking his hands to his pockets.

"If you say so… Tsuki-chan."

"And by friends I also mean you. You need more allies than just Kounosuke-san."

"Yeah, true that…" The boy ran a hand through his messy hair and turned to face the blonde then. "I just can't bear the idea of you getting hurt because I let you get involved with my messes."

"That's just a sign of you being a good friend." Tsukiko smiled.

"I guess so…" Kaito smiled back. And just then Aoko arrived.

"Tsukiko-chan, I brought your juice!"

The following week went quietly for Tsukiko in the hospital. People still stopped by and cases happened outside the hospital. The blonde read about them from the newspaper Jodie brought her every morning.

"So the serial killer is caught then? That means the EWSN case is closed and right after that is…" A grin spread on the girl's face on the day she'd be released from the hospital. "The Iron Tanuki."

She flipped through the paper. "No article about Takagi yet… Probably tomorrow then. I wonder what Kuroba will think about the heist note…"

One the next day the girl found herself sitting in Café Poirot with Ran, Conan, Kogoro and Takagi.

"Anything interesting in the news, Ran-senpai?" Tsukiko asked. The karate champion had insisted the blonde to call her by her first name. After all, the younger girl had protected the other.

"Hmm… Here is an article about Takagi-keiji. Listen: 'Risking life for a capture performance! The following day, it was found out that one police officer was shot by the criminal, whom he managed to subsequently arrest!'." The long-haired girl read aloud from the paper.

"Yeah, well… It only happened because my gun was taken from me at the beginning." The detective rubbed his head embarrassedly.

"You should be thankful! Because of my deduction it was discovered that the serial murderer's wound was on his back." Kogoro said, doing his best to appear cool.

"However it was great! Since it was solved!" Conan smiled.

"Ah… It was great. Everything was great." Takagi agreed though his thoughts went obviously elsewhere judging by his blush. When Ran pointed it out and the detective blushed even more furiously, Tsukiko couldn't help but snicker.

"Did something good happen?" The blonde asked smugly.

"Ah, no, n-not really…"

"I know what happened! I saw it!" Conan promptly announced.

"What? What? What'd you see?" Ran questioned immediately.

"In the hospital, with Satou-keiji…"

"Waaaa, wait…" Takagi tried to stop the boy, failing miserably.

"Seems optimistic…" A voice next to them stated sourly. They all turned to look at the table next to theirs. "That undefeated guy…"

"Nakamori-keibu!?"

"All my attempts to catch that arrogant thief failed…" The inspector of Kid taskforce continued. "He keeps defeating me… HOT!" He burnt his tongue.

"Ah, excuse me!" The waitress Enomoto Azusa apologized. "Is it too hot?"

"No, it's fine! Just fine for someone that has a cold heart like me!"

"A cold heart…" Takagi repeated in confusion.

"Because there's no news about Kid, I have no chance to compete…"

"Didn't you see it?" Kogoro asked then. "The newspaper…"

"Newspaper?" Nakamori frowned.

"Look!" Ran lifted up the paper she had been reading. "It's on the front page! This time is a challenge letter from Kaitou Kid to old enemy Suzuki Jirokichi."

When Nakamori shouted in shock, Azusa turned to address Tsukiko. "This came here ten minutes ago. I was asked to give it to a blonde girl sitting near a bespectacled kid. I guess it means you." The waitress gave a simple white envelope to the girl who took it.

"Thank you…" Tsukiko turned it to see a possible address there but found none. Instead there was a series of five numbers: 75014.

"Oh… I think I know whom it's from…" The blonde opened the envelope and found a short letter there.

Tsukiko read the note quickly and smirking folded it to put it back to the envelope, and then slipped the envelope to her bag. She straightened her glasses before standing up.

"Excuse me… I need to go."

"Tsukiko-neechan, where are you going?" Conan called after her. Naturally he was worried after the events two weeks back. The girl looked over her shoulder and grinned.

"I've got a date."

A/N: Okay, I started writing the Iron Tanuki case today but now I'm going to sleep. 75014 means 'TSUKI', just so you know.

Review-replies:

-Akai4Ever:
I'm definitely going to do movie 18! It's appears to be awesome! It'll just take some time since it'll be on my timeline after the Cherry Blossom Viewing Trap.(who makes these episode names?) So a long way to go... And thanks :)

-Pure-chan:
Really? That's nice to hear. I've also read TRC and liked it a lot.
Lost Ship in the Sky is coming but will take a bit time but not too much. It'll be after the Red Wall but before the Monstershack of whatever it is in English. Yeah, like stated above, movie 18 will take a bit time but I'm definitely going to write it.
Oh, you are? I think I'll read ti then. And also check out your TCR fic. :)
Thank you very much for your review.

Okay, I'm off to sleep. Please review, they're nice to read before going to work. Ciao!