A/N: Oh, I just loved writing this chapter! I simply couldn't let go of this. I'm not saying anything else right now. I don't want to spoil this chapter. Just read! And then read the notes in the end. You have to!

Chapter 31.

"EEH!? He might be an impostor!?" Ran exclaimed. "The Kaitou Kid who sent the notice letter this time!?"

"Yeah… Uncle Jirokichi said so!" Sonoko explained. "Didn't I send is to you? The image in that notice letter. Wasn't there something strange?"

"Y-Yes… Actually, I felt it was a little bit different from the usual illustration, but…"

"Not to mention that the letter was written vertically. Usually Kid has written his notices horizontally." Tsukiko added. "The choice of words was also weird and old-fashioned."

"Then… Why call us?" Kogoro asked in irritation.

"A girl's sixth sense!" Sonoko explained happily. "Somehow I feel that Kid-sama will come! Well, it seems like I'm not the only one who has that sort of feeling…" Behind them was inspector Nakamori giving instructions/pep talk to his subordinates.

"…The phrase 'The moon will be swallowed by the darkness' in the notice refers to the night of the new moon, which is tonight! Keep watch over the surroundings of the room with the vault closely!" The man boomed.

"Inspector Nakamori… Come on now…" Kogoro muttered. "But why the surroundings of the room? Shouldn't you be inside the room, keeping the surroundings of the vault under surveillance instead?" The detective thought aloud.

"It's pointless, detective Mouri…" Jirokichi had arrived. "In any case, come and have a look at my prized possession, the Iron Tanuki."

"Oh… So that is the impenetrable vault?" Kogoro admired. "Just by looking, you can tell that a tremendous amount of effort is needed to open it…"

"I bet that even one mistake will be deadly then…" Tsukiko remarked dryly, glancing around the room. No furniture at all.

"But installing the vault in the wall makes it look more like a vault room…" Ran pointed out.

"Yeah. The size of the vault is about four square meters short of six-tatami area. It's a room surrounded by a 50 cm think layer of metal!" Jirokichi explained seriously but proudly. "During the war when I was still a child, I once his here together with my parents during an air raid!"

"That means there are air holes in there…" Conan comfirmed.

"Ah, it's that small window over there… Look! Just below the door! A gap of about 3 cm."

"But when you came out, did someone open it for you from the outside?" Ran asked.

"It's very easy to open it from the inside. As for method to open it from outside, I am probably the last person left in this world who knows…"

"And the lack of furniture of this room?" Tsukiko asked, pointing the floor.

"Ah, yes." Jirokichi nodded. "Mouri-tantei is a smoker, right?"

"Yeah…" The sleeping detective nodded.

"May I borrow a cigarette?"

"Here, one cigarette…" Kogoro was about to give it but was stopped by the hand of Jirokichi's new bodyguard who inspected the cigarette before giving it to Jirokichi.

"Ah… He's the bodyguard I hired a few days ago! Even though he's rather reserved, he's very reliable!" The rich man told the detective.

"Oh, I see…"

"Well, pardon me…" The cigarette was flipped in the middle of the room. Some enormous noise began to echo around the room and giant thick and heavy metal nets slid to cover the walls, floor and ceiling.

"Whew… That's impressive." Tsukiko chuckled letting out a low whistle. She crouched next to Conan then, seeing the funny face the boy was making. "The rich and their toys and joys, right? Suzuki-san surely has money."

"Yeah… He definitely seems to like cages and such…" The mini-detective sweatdropped. "Just like by Kinza-crossing back then."

"True that, true that…" The girl grinned as she watched the servant Akitsu to go into the room to retrieve the cigarette. "Say, Suzuki-san…" The blonde stood up. "When the mechanism is off and something is put into the room… when the mechanism is on again, it won't detect the new object, right?"

"Yes, that's right." The old man nodded.

"Then what happens when the object is removed? The weight in the room changes after all…"

"The alarm will be set off. Any changes in the weight when this is on will set off this trap."

"Oh, that's clever!" The girl smiled.

"Thank you, I planned this all myself." Jirokichi closed the door of the room and the group prepared to leave to another part of the house.

"You're hindering our preparations…" Nakamori complained.

"Hmph! I already told you that it's useless. It's a fake! Detective Mouri and the rest should go home too. Nothing will happen tonight."

"Hmm… I wouldn't be so sure…" Tsukiko hummed but no one heard.

"Of course, the so-called natural enemy of his, this little brat here, should also head home…" Jirokichi continued.

"Y-Yeah!" Conan grinned nervously.

"Guess we should head on home…" Kogoro shrugged.

"Eh- You're leaving already!?" Sonoko protested.

"Kid doesn't seem to be coming anyway…" Ran agreed with her father.

Thumps!

"Ouch…" Conan and the maid Seto Mizuki crashed together and ended rubbing their faces simultaneously.

"Ah, I'm sorry!" Seto apologized. "Are you alright?"

"Y-Yeah…" The boy nodded.

"I was looking for a dog." She explained. "I was looking left and right and didn't watch where I was going. That's why I bumped into you…"

"A dog?" Sonoko asked. "If you mean uncle's beloved dog Lupin, it was hospitalized due to bad health a few days ago. That's what I heard from uncle."

"Ehhh!?"

"You're a maid and you don't know about it?"

"Ah, yes… It's my first day you see…" The young maid admitted. "But it's such a pity… I heard that there was a cute dog here and I was looking forward to it… My pet dog died last month…"

"O-Oh I see…" Ran apologized in sympathy.

"But well, I raised that dog from the time it was young and it was already very old…" Seto smiled before leaving.

"…" Conan watched after her.

"Ya thinking what I'm thinking, Tantei-chan?" Tsukiko asked, putting her hand to the pockets of her knee-length dress. It was one of the few dresses Jodie had insisted to buy her.

"Depends what you're thinking." Conan replied, making sure that Ran, Sonoko nor Kogoro heard them. The blonde girl grinned.

"New body guard, new servant, new maid… It's as if Suzuki-san is inviting Kid in."

"Hey, old man! Disable the security devices now!" Inspector Nakamori shouted suddenly. "Something was dropped in the room!"

Conan and Tsukiko's group turned to listen.

"That card wasn't there before was it!?" Nakamori and Jirokichi were looking at the card in the middle of the room.

-As mentioned in the notice,
before the moon reappears from the darkness
I will some for the important treasure in the stomach of Tanuki.
Kaitou Kid (doodle)

"Kai-Kaitou Kid… This is the real one!" Was that joy in the Inspector's voice?

"But, how did he leave the card in this room…" Kogoro thought aloud. "Why didn't the weight sensor detect anything?"

"Hmh… Let's first find the cause…" Jirokichi stated.

Nakamori boomed instructions with more vigor than before and then argued with Jirokichi who kept insisting that it was an impostor and not to worry, the security system would catch the Kid anyways.

"Didn't I show you? The crime prevention device in the room that the safe is in! If he steps even a single foot into that room, he will activate the weight sensor on the floor and be covered by the iron fences in an instant, just like a rat in a sack!" The old man told the police.

"However, Kid already entered the room to deliver this notice letter!" The inspector argued back. "He has already prepared a plan to quickly get through that device."

"About that…" Conan began. "When Kaitou Kid delivered that notice letter we were nearby, right?"

"Eh?"

"Well, although there was nothing there when the room's door opened the first time, the next time, the notice letter appeared, right? During that time, weren't we always near the room?"

"And like I confirmed from Suzuki-san… The mechanism won't detect the weight difference between two times when it's on, but the change during one time. So if something is added when it's off, the device won't detect it when it's on." Tsukiko explained.

"That's right." Jirokichi nodded.

"In that case, did he put the letter there when it was off…" Kogoro thought.

"If uncle says so, the switch was off at that time, right?" Sonoko pondered.

"Oh, that reminds me, when he showed us how the weight sensor worked, he tossed a cigarette in…" Ran remembered. "After that he turned off the switch to retrieve the cigarette…"

There was a pause.

"AAH! That servant, he entered the room to find it!"

"That foolish guy is Kid! While pretending to pick up the cigarette, he artfully put the notice letter in there." Nakamori muttered.

"But I don't think that servant is the only one who could have put it there!" Conan pointed out.

"Not to mention I checked the room before the door closed…" Tsukiko mumbled.

"The bodyguard who is always by uncle Jirokichi's side also could have when uncle carelessly opened the door he could've put the letter in!" The boy continued.

"Except the servant – and the rest of us – would've spotted it since the notice was found in the middle of the room."

"The maid that's just been hired and first came here today could do it too, right? Because she was restlessly crouching to look for the dog…"

"But the maid wasn't near the door when the switch was off, right?" Kogoro pointed out.

"Yes! We were shown the crime prevention device at that door. But the room that has the safe…" Conan hurried past the corner, others following him. "Look, there's another door here! Assuming that the maid is Kid, while searching for the dog, she could pass the notice letter through the door's slot when the guards weren't paying attention, right?"

"But it's hard to toss the notice beneath the door hard enough to end in the middle of the room without it getting stopped by the door itself or by the speed running out. Or friction." Tsukiko thought aloud.

"And because uncle was yelling with a loud voice at that time…" Sonoko mused, continuing Conan's theory.

"Maybe the voice could be heard from here." Ran agreed.

"It's true… even over here, she could know when the switch was off…" Kogoro nodded slightly.

"Besides, these three people were just hired recently." The bespectacled kid stated while shooting an evil glare towards Tsukiko who had argued against his points.

"In other words, the possibility that Kid is here in a disguise is quite high…" The sleeping detective continued.

"And now you noticed it…" The blonde girl muttered. When Nakamori barked orders, Conan tugged Tsukiko into a crouch by her sleeve.

"Why do you work against me, Okiya?" The kid hissed, obviously annoyed. Tsukiko looked at him and grinned.

"Well, I just pointed out the possible flaws in your deductions."

"You've never before done it."

"I haven't? Well, maybe not as straight forward but I do have stated alternative opinions, right?"

"You argued against all the candidates of being Kid. How do you explain the note getting into the room then?"

"Well, Tantei-chan… Maybe he did it after all while being one of them… What was the word Nakamori-keibu used… Ah, 'artfully'! Or then… maybe it was simply magic." The girl grinned, getting up and humming happily when she joined Ran and Sonoko again.

"Something about uncle seems strange…" Sonoko muttered. "He would always say, 'Let me see that sneaky thief with my eyes!' in an excited way… But this time, he lets the impostor go without investigating any of the evidence… Maybe uncle is Kid-sama!"

"Come on…" Ran laughed.

"Scary…" Tsukiko sweatdropped and glanced at Conan then who was thinking hard all possibilities.

"Hey, have you found Kaitou Kid?" Seto had come to the corridor, pushing a dinner with a serving trolley.

"N-No… Not yet…" Conan replied.

"Ah, you'd better not go through this corridor…" Ran whispered to the young maid.

"Eh? Why?" Seto asked.

"Because you're being suspected of being Kaitou Kid…" Sonoko muttered.

"Eeh!?"

"It's all the fault of this brat who speaks too much."

"No worries, I'm certain that you're not Kid." Tsukiko reassured with a knowing smile on her face.

"Uh, thanks… But that's troublesome anyways… This food – master said I must send it into his room…" Seto sighed. "I'm new so I didn't know about this recently master always eats dinner alone in his room. The other maids area also worried… Also, when we clear up the dining ware afterwards – and I don't know why – there will be two plates missing every time…"

"Plates? Why?" Ran asked.

"Not sure…"

"The food and plates are not the only strange things." Akitsu joined into the conversation. "After dinner when master goes into the room to check on the vault I heard he would always take a cane with him…"

"Uncle using a cane?" Sonoko exclaimed.

"Oh… right…" Tsukiko pressed her hand into her chin for a moment before grinning. She looked up and exchanged a glance with Seto who nodded almost invisibly.

"…I'll have to trouble you, butler…" Kogoro dug out his coin wallet. "Help me buy some cigarettes…"

"Ah, yes.." Akitsu nodded and then leaned to whisper to Seto. "That… Just now master, called using the extension phone saying 'Isn't dinner ready yet?'"

"U-Understood! Right away!" The maid hurried forward with the trolley but bumped into Kogoro who dropped the wallet. The coins scattered on the floor. "Ah… Sorry…" When trying to come for help, the poor girl knocked over the water can, soaking both the coins and the detective who was about to start picking up them.

"Sorry!"

"It's fine…" Kogoro gritted through his teeth.

"Hey! What are you doing!?" Jirokichi had appeared on the corridor at the commotion. "Send the food to my room quickly!"

"Y-Yes sir! Right away!" Seto squeaked when picking the coins to her handkerchief and drying them. She gave them to Kogoro then. "I'm sorry I got you so wet…"

"It's okay, it's okay…" The man reassured her, probably feeling bad that she had gotten a scolding because a mere accident.

"Hmph… Whether it's the maid or the butler…" Jirokichi crouched to pick the last coin. "They're all useless!" He tossed the coin to Kogoro with his right hand. "Only this bodyguard can be considered capable!"

"That- Can I ask you what was the matter when you asked for me?" Seto asked nervously.

"Matter?"

"Eh? Didn't you say this, when sending dinner over: 'come give a hand' or something…"

"A-aah… That's what I said, that's what I said! Anyway let's go to my room first!"

"Yes, sir!" And the duo left.

"Hmm… I'll go to find a bathroom… See ya soon." Tsukiko went to another direction.

"Do you find it for sure?" Sonoko called after her. "You haven't been here before."

"Yeah, no worries. We went past it, right?"

"Yes."

Akitsu was coming back from buying cigarettes for Kogoro when something suddenly pricked him beside the neck. The poor man slumped on the arms of a grinning girl.

"Got ya!"

"How long did you wait for him?"

"Not long. The tobacco store is right behind the corner after all."

A chuckle. "You surely take a look on your surroundings."

"So do you."

"True that, true that…"

"Alright… Let's get him to Jirokichi's room like planned."

"Guh, for a skinny guy he surely weights a lot…"

"Yeah… You doing well this far?"

"Oh please. This is easy. You?"

"Just fine."

"We gotta hurry. People might start wondering soon where we are…"

When Tsukiko arrived back, Sonoko joked that she had got lost since it took such a long time.

"Ahahahaa… Yeah, the way back was a bit trickier." The blonde laughed. She spared a glance at Conan who was deep in thoughts, trying to figure out what was it all about. Just when the realization flashed on the boy's face, Ran came to tell the boy that the dinner was ready. Near them Jirokichi had ended inspecting the vault and Nakamori checked his bag just in case before the man would leave to have a dinner with his old friend. Jirokichi took his car keys from his jacket pocket and tossed them to the bodyguard. With his left hand.

"At any rate it doesn't matter if I'm here or not." The advisor of Suzuki corporation explained. "That guy's so-called natural enemy… this little guy, is here to guard it. The rest is up to you, little guy!" The man patted Conan's head and the boy smirked.

"Yeah!"

"But who did he disguise as this time? That Kid…" Ran pondered when the five of them were eating dinner. The food was truly delicious.

"A moment ago, didn't that guy who acts like he knows everything say 'the security system was on in the bank room, so the only people that could've possibly left the note'… other that us and the police were the dark-skinned bodyguard, the useless servant and the muddled maid." Kogoro listed out.

"Okay… That's a bit rude…" Tsukiko muttered, taking a next bite.

"Well, the bodyguard should be cleared of suspicion. He just left with uncle Jirokichi." Sonoko laughed.

"Then is must be either the servant or the maid…" Ran stated.

"It must be the servant. I asked him to buy some cigarettes for me and I haven't seen him since." Kogoro told them.

"But the maid can also pretend to be lost." Ran pointed out.

"Well, couldn't there be someone else too then? Someone we haven't even suspected before…" Tsukiko enquired. "Like…"

"Uncle Jirokichi!" Conan announced. "If it were him, he could easily place the notice while the system is turned off, right?"

"True, and he knows exactly when the system is on or off." The blonde girl continued.

"You brat, you should've mentioned this earlier!" Kogoro barked in irritation.

"I just thought of it…" Conan smiled sheepishly. "Besides, it was uncle Jirokichi who picked up uncle's coin when it fell out, right?"

"Ah, yeah…"

"At that time, which hand did he use?"

"I think it was his right hand…"

"Then, when uncle Jirokichi threw the car key to the bodyguard, which hand did he use?"

"Umm, I think it was his…"

"It was the left hand." Tsukiko looked up from her plate, blinking once. "I'm certain of that."

"Yes, it was the left hand. I remember it too because he used his right hand to take out the key but used his left one to throw it. I thought it was strange." Ran confirmed.

"He's really Kid!" Kogoro exclaimed.

"Then it'd be best to tell inspector Nakamori, right?" Conan asked. "If we chase after them now, we might still be able to catch them!"

Nakamori was told and Superintendent Chiaki, who was the friend Jirokichi supposedly was about to have a dinner, arrived.

"Th-That is!" The maid Seto came running. "I went into the master's room, to clean up the mess. I opened the closet door a little and I found… Master tied up inside, sleeping!"

"Then, that guy who just left is…" Nakamori began nervously.

"I went into the room to double check; there are a lot of wires in the closet. A tag is stuck on it saying 'Don't touch, dangerous', it doesn't look like it'll be easy to get him out." A task force member with the young maid confirmed.

"How is this possible? That guy entering the safe… It was only 2-3 minutes…" Nakamori opened the door to the vault room and indeed there was a note stuck on the door of the Iron Tanuki.

"Ah, you shouldn't go in." Conan interjected when the Inspector was about to go into the room and check if Kid had really been there. "Since it was Kid, the security system must still be on…"

Tsukiko followed everything happen in front of her and exchanged a glance with Kid.

"Artfully you say… I think it's just pure magic. And it's perfect." She said.

The police were off, leaving the manor about completely deserted.

"Until now, there were a lot of security guards…" Ran stated.

"Everyone left…" Kogoro chorused.

"Well, at least the staff are in his room trying to get him out." Sonoko pointed out. "But if uncle really was Kid… They're really all gathered together…"

"That's true, but isn't that odd?"

"What so?" Tsukiko tilted her head. And Ran explained the complexity of the situation.

"Hey, Conan-kun has disappeared again!" The girl noticed suddenly.

"Well, the opponent is the Magician under the Moonlight: Kaitou Kid." Kogoro muttered. "He's probably off doing something again."

"I was thinking more along the lines that anything can be expected from them." Tsukiko mused with a smirk, staying standing on her place when the rest went to other direction, probably looking for Conan. None of those three noticed someone opening the door of the safe room, grinning and closing it then.

The mystery person pressed the door shut and slipped the gloves on as they approached the Iron Tanuki, the challenge to all thieves in existence.

"You must really like it…" A voice said behind them. "Disguising as a girl." Conan shut the door behind himself.

"Ah, don't you think it's much cuter like this?" The faux-maid grinned, taping a piece of paper on the door.

"That time, when uncle Jirokichi told you to 'bring over the food quickly', you quickly pretended to be the muddled maid and hurried over to uncle Jirokichi." The boy explained with a bored tone. "But, you didn't expect you'd cause uncle Kogorou to drop his wallet, causein the coins to drop all over the floor. If you went over to pick them up you'd leave fingerprints on them… If you suddenly wore gloves you'd cause suspicion so you deliberately pushed the water over, right? This way the coins will be wet, and you'll have a reason to wipe them with your handkerchief."

"Ah, is that when you realized that I was Kid?" The disguised trickster asked, turning one dial carefully. Very carefully. You couldn't be too careful with the contradictions of Samizu Kichiemon.

"No, it was what you said at that moment. That's when I realized. Together with the previous outdated notice letter. If you read the words on the bottom of each column form left to right, it becomes the sentence 'come give a hand'! That is, that letter was actually a letter asking for left from Kaitou Kid, written by advisor Suzuki himself!

"Saying the advisor is trapped in the closet, that's actually to divert the action force away from this this room, right?" The chibi detective continued while the other person with him in the room continued working. Suddenly there was a stop though and a new marking appeared on the paper.

The maid smirked and took a step away from the vault. "Maybe so…" She pulled her gloves off. "But you're wrong in one thing."

"And what's that?" Conan chuckled. "Are you giving up?"

"No, I am not the person to open this one. That is job of a professional." Seto's hand touched something hidden by the collar of the maid uniform and her voice changed.

"Right, Tantei-chan?" The maid grinned just when yet another person stepped into the room.

A/N: Dun dun dunn! Okay, now, read this chapter again. You have to do it! Turn the gears in your head into a new position and read this with new eyes and tell me what do you think and when did you notice the trick during the first reading. :D

Review replies:

-kittyfinatic515:
Thank you very much! Here is the new one.

-zXFallenAngelsXz:
Thank you. I thought really long time what should be the nick-name/codename she'd get because it needed a secretive meaning and at the same time sound cool.
Yes, she got hurt again. I like injuring her apparently.
I think it was about the time when Conan starts trusting Tsukiko a bit more. And going through a situation like that... It's a miracxle if it doesn' happen. And yeah, it was really open end back in the movie of what the public knows and is told about what happened. Thank you. :D
Great to hear you like their connection. BTW is there even a proper term for bromance between a male and female...
Iron Tanuki is here! With a twist as you can see. ;)
75014 means TSUKI in the same way than 1412 means KID. I use it at deviantArt too. I'm Tsukiko75014 there. ;D

-chibianimefan26:
It's alright, now you are here. :)
Okay, ship it if you like. Eisuke is across the sea anyways... But it doesn't mean that Tsukiko would end up with Kaito! EiTsuki all the way!
Heist is here! I hope you like it. :D

The next chapter will come on Sunday so as many people can read this chapter in peace and review. I want your thoughts before the next chapter comes. :)