A/N: A filler-y chapter. A bit fron Tsukiko, then Mai and then Tsukiko again. Some questions are answered but some new surely are raised.

Chapter 43.

Tsukiko was sitting on the sofa of Jodie's apartment. The woman was standing in front of her. They both had their arms crossed on their chests and frowns on their faces. While Jodie looked straight at the girl, the blonde refused to look at the woman and was currently staring the coffee table between them.

"Tsukiko-chan… why you are so strongly against the idea of Shuu being alive?" Jodie began. Oh, a difficult question right in the start. Damn…

"I'm not against it. I simply see it impossible that he'd be walking around just like that and thus endangering Rena-san." Tsukiko stated calmly. "What I understood is that… You saw him during the robbery and concluded that he had amnesia. But don't you think that even then he'd stay more hidden, subconsciously protecting what he was ready to sacrifice his life for. And now you think he has his memory back… Wouldn't in that situation he has even more reason to hide? Especially when he left you the message that the department store was a dangerous place. Why would he walk into a trap he obviously foresaw?"

"But what if…"

"Use your own common sense, Jodie!" Tsukiko looked up, dropping the formalities. "It isn't like his behavior and you know it too. You just refuse to believe it! You refuse to accept that he isn't coming back!"

"But the message on the coaster was on his handwriting! And who else would it be then?" Jodie argued angrily.

"I know nothing about the message since I have never seen Akai-san's handwriting and not even this message you mentioned. About this… Ghost you're chasing after… I suspect it's one from the Organization trying to figure out if there was something fishy in Akai-san's death. Someone not believing that he's ready to sacrifice everything by walking into a carefully crafted trap." Trap not actually meant for him but for the suspicions towards Mizunashi.

"You saw him in the floor with the bomber, didn't you?" Jodie whispered accusingly.

"And what if I saw? Maybe I wanted to protect you. You ran straight into the ambush after that fake. Did you even consider that it would be all trap? Not for him but for you or any other FBI agent." Trap to reveal whether or not the FBI was in the plan faking Akai's death.

"Fine… Be that way then. I'm going to find him anyways and get the truth out of him. If it's Shuu, he shall tell me what exactly happened and if it's someone from the organization, I'll make him spit why he's been walking around disguised as Shuu!" Right, now the woman was enraged towards the man she'd seen. Great…

Tsukiko got on her feet slowly. "Good that this matter has been solved. I rather not discuss about this again… Since our opinions differ so much."

"Yes, I completely agree with that. But tell me, what makes you so strongly against even the possibility that Shuu is alive?" Jodie looked straight into the girl's eyes with a pensive look on her voice. "I remember that you got along with him even back at the hospital surprisingly well." The woman remembered when she had asked why the man had been defending the girl who at the time had been considered a possible threat to them.

"I'm merely using ice cold logic to this situation while you throw yourself into danger without looking around properly. If it appears that Akai-san is indeed alive, of course I'll be happy." Even if it means losing my brother. "He is a good ally after all." The girl shrugged and headed to her room, leaving Jodie watching her back.

"Tsukiko-chan… I told you once and now I'll tell you again… You don't need to act strong all the time, especially when you don't feel like it." The woman said quietly when the door had closed. "And to borrow your words on that day… 'You can't lock yourself up and stay silent all the time'. While you talk things aloud… none of them are personal. You are hiding behind that mask of yours and I'm afraid what will happen to you when it breaks."

Tsukiko leaned against the close door of her room and breathed heavily. Her head hung and her hair was covering her face effectively.

"I'm fine… I'm fine…" She muttered. "I'm just fine… Stay calm… Everything will be fine eventually. I'll be fine…"

But she wasn't sure. To be honest she was scared what would happen to her when the Scarlet Series would come up on the timeline. How would Jodie react to the fact that she'd known all the time where Akai was and that they'd been pretending to be siblings? Or how would she fit into that role again? Would Akai even continue as Okiya Subaru? What would she do?

"I'll just run then… Run away before I break down." She looked up at the ceiling before sliding down to sit on the floor.

Mai rummaged through her closet. It had to be there. Had to! Where was it? The coffee can she had kept as a memory and hid from her parents. They'd be scandalized if they knew their daughter was keeping an empty can of coffee as a memento from a bus jacking she'd been involved in.

After a few minutes the girl found the can. It was the same brand she always drank and in every way the can looked identical to the one Tsukiko had stopped from meeting up with the floor. It definitely brought memories to the brunette's mind.

It was the interrogation of the witnesses/hostages of the bus jacking. Mai was a bit nervous. The situation had been terrifying after all. The bus she'd been riding to Beika Museum had been suddenly taken over by two guys in ski garment and goggles. Even in the stressful situation it hadn't been hard for Mai to figure out that the two had an accomplice at the back of the buss and singling out the woman had been easy. The skis had struck her suspicious but she hadn't thought that much about them. Though they had given her a bad feeling anyways.

What had reassured her a little had been the familiar faces with her. Jodie-sensei and Araide-sensei. When the English teacher had caught the girl's gaze, she'd given the class president a reassuring smile. And when she'd put the safety on in the Tokarev the other culprit had had with him, Mai had found herself able to breath. At least one of them couldn't do anything too fast.

Two men had been called to the front of the bus when they went to the tunnel and told to put on the ski jacket and the goggles and then sit down on the floor. Araide-sensei had sat on the left side of the bus while the other man sat on the right side, next to the place where Mai sat.

And then Conan-kun had announced that the ski bags were full of bombs. The girl didn't have any time to think it when the bus driver already hit the brake and they swerved to a stop. Mai collapsed on the floor and hit her head. The next minutes were a blur to her. Conan-kun told Araide to restrain the accomplice's arms and then the said woman was shouting that the bombs were going off. The class president wasn't even sure how she got out of the bus, just vaguely that someone grabbed her arm, hauled her up and dragged her out. Or that's how her mind pieced it. And the bus had blown up.

"Mai-chan…" The girl looked up to see Takuya-nii's concerned eyes.

"Yes, Miyoshi-keiji?" She asked politely as he was in duty.

"Why don't you go to walk on the corridor a bit? You could even buy some coffee from the vending machine that's there." The young officer gave the girl a few coins.

"Okay…"

The trip on the corridor didn't last long but it helped Mai to clear her thoughts. She was able to realize that it was the other man next to Araide-sensei who'd helped her out. So she dug out more coins from her purse and bought another coffee.

On her way back to the room she happened to trip on her shoelaces that had gotten loose. While she managed to regain her balance and take a hold on the table in the hearing room, she dropped both of the coffee cans. Someone did catch then though.

It was the same man.

"You should be more careful. Otherwise you'll miss what's right in front of you." The man stated in a way that Mai took as a bit mocking but decided not to comment it. The man offered the two cans which he had caught with his right hand to Mai. "These are yours, right?"

"The other is for you." Mai took the one closer to her, the one with more prints but back then she didn't think of it. "As a thank you for helping me."

"It was nothing. Anyone else would've done the same." Standard reply accompanied by a shrug.

"Not necessarily. When people are in such a panic, they tend to think only of themselves." The girl countered and opened the coffee can she had. After taking one sip from it she opened her mouth again. "You haven't told me your name yet."

"Neither have you." He replied and opened the can he had.

"Miyoshi Mai." The brunette offered her hand for the man to shake. She also noted that while he still had the ski jacket the other busjacker had given to him, he had changed the hat to his own beanie.

"Akai Shuichi." The man took the hand and shook it shortly but firmly.

"Nice to meet you then."

"Likewise."

"And where was that birthday present from Takuya-nii…" Mai walked now to her desk and opened one of the drawers. She picked one square shaped flat box and placed on the desk. She put the can right next to it and sat down on her desk chair.

"Right, let's see if this works…" She opened the box and picked up a small brush with very thin and light hair in the end. Then she opened a smaller lid from other section of the box, revealing some fine, white dust. She dipped the brush on the dust and began carefully dust the can. Finger print after another were revealed to the girl. She smiled victoriously when she saw how clear they were and lined just perfectly to indicate the spots the fingers had been placed when the can was caught.

"All five of them. Perfect!" The brunette giggled a bit and but the brush away. She pushed her glasses up her nose and took a sticky clear and see-through film and pressed it evenly around the can, protecting the prints. "Now… A call to Keiji-san…" The class president flipped open her phone and chose number two from her speed dial.

"Hello…?" Takuya's sleepy voice answered.

"Hi, Takuya-nii! I got something for you…"

"And what could that be?"

"A set of fingerprints. I want you to compare those to the ones from the phone and the corpse from the black Chevrolet case. You remember the one I've been thinking lately?"

"Yes, I do remember that one… You realize that anything you discover can't be used as evidence really…" Mai could bet the young officer was scratching his head at the moment.

"I do… It's for my own investigation. I want to confirm something…" The girl replied vaguely, inspecting her nails at the same time. "If my hunch is right… Then I need a new direction to my investigation…"

"Right… I'll come to pick those prints when I can. Say… Did you use my gift to get them?"

"I did. Thank you for it. I'll put this little evidence to an evidence bag now to wait for you."

"Do that. Say… what's the name of the investigation this time?"

"Reichenbach Falls. Though I did think about something beginning with 'Scharlach' but I wasn't sure what could be the second part of it."

"That's still… surprisingly fitting. I'll see you again, Mai-chan."

"See you, Takuya-nii."

Tsukiko's phone rang. It took a while until she answered to it.

"Hello?" She stated dully: she didn't even bother checking the caller's ID.

"What sort of greeting is that, Jade?" The all too familiar female voice chuckled.

"It's my greeting. How did you get my number and why are you calling?" Tsukiko didn't care even if she sounded rude. At the moment she didn't feel like caring what anyone thought about her.

"Oh, someone is annoyed. Anyways, I got it from your phone while you were asleep from the effects of the sleeping pill." Vermouth replied. "And I called you to inform you that your little stunt has the Organization completely aware of the Shadow now. You might want to watch your back and keep a low profile."

"That think that Kage is a boy. Irish identified me as such back in Touto Tower and said that to Gin too when he told I was dead. Lied for some reason." The blonde girl shrugged and pressed her unoccupied ear against the door. There was some noises coming from the kitchen. Good, Jodie wasn't eavesdropping then.

"Yes, I'm aware of that. And you ought to know that they are also calling you Kage. I'm the only one using the original English name for you." Did the woman sound smug about that fact? How out of character…

"Whatever." Tsukiko got on her feet and went to her drawer. She opened the top one and took out the flat metal box she had had with her in the Tower with her. Nowadays she kept all her memory cards in it. "By the way… Don't call me Jade. It's… It's not me anymore. I've changed and so has she. We have literally grown apart." The girl muttered, remembering how Jade was already almost nineteen in her world while Tsukiko was stuck as a sixteen-year-old.

"But it is your name. Names are important and they never truly vanish. They tend to come and haunt you when you least expect it."

"Are you talking about your own experience?" The blonde slammed the drawer shut in irritation. "I bet you wouldn't like being called Sharon either anymore. You don't want any unpleasant memories brought up, right?" A small smirk graced the girl's features as she remembered how Vermouth would react in Mystery Train when Yukiko would bring up Itakura Suguru.

"My, my, Shadow. That's not how you treat your allies." The woman tsk'ed, seemingly unaffected by Tsukiko's words but the girl knew better.

"Well, you're not my ally, just an acquaintance. And I think I've already made it clear." And the girl hung up. She looked at the number in her phone records for a moment before saving it under the name 'Rotten Apple'. Tsukiko put her phone on the desk and slumped on her chair with a sigh. She picked up the box next to the device then and opened it. She had three memory cards there. One was the one with her conversation with Akai at the hospital right before Raiha Pass. The other one had her old messages, numbers, photos etc. from her old phones (the blue one that was previously a spare one was thrown away now. The green one was the spare now.). And the third… It was the one she had taken before Irish got his hands on it.

"Kage won't stay quiet, you know…" Tsukiko picked up the last one and lifted it on the level of her eyes. "Not when she has information just waiting to be used. Not when she has a true ally to help her. It's time for Kage to contact Sanjuu."

A/N: Oh, and who is Sanjuu you might ask. Well, wait for the next chapter. More explanations to come(i.e. it's filler-y too)!

Replies to reviews are next. Thank you for all of them. They made me really happy!

-Akai4Ever:
Yes, the chapter it the most recent one. Akaiii!
Well, this and that will happen. I already have some plans for what happens after the Scarlet Series and the interraction between these three even before that so... stay tuned.
Thank you. :)

-Dumti:
Yeah... I'm a bit scared too. And I wonder were the plans really made solely by Conan. Akai seems to praise him so but... Surely he also did some of the planning!

-GeekyGenius:
Yes, it's up...
Thank you and you're welcome. :)
Thank you very much. I try my hardest.

-chibianimefan26:
Master? Oh yeah that one! I remember it. Guess who? In which chapter/episode/case it is? I can't recall it right now...
Mai a great namer? Well, in this chapter you'll know the real name for her case now. She is sneaky because that's how she has managed to develop her own personality that contradicts her parents' wishes. Or something like that. Smartness is just in genes(maybe).
Bad thing? Maybe, maybe not. The organization is definitely more aware of 'him' now but they won't find 'him' since 'he' is actually 'she'. ;D
You shall know now.
Well... I dunno yet if bumping into Bourbon is good or bad. We'll see it later.
I'm probably Jade then(not may real name though).

-LynnZela:
Thank you. Yes, she is. When you have always been the older sibling it's nice to be the younger one for a change. I remember I sometimes wished for an older sibling.

-Yoru-KID's rival:
Yeah, I know. But thankfully it's a long way ahead right now.
She is paying attention her best but sometimes things happen outside her plans. It happens.
Well, we shall know her decision later.
I guess Mai would figure it out in a day or so if she were interested in that. She only takes cases that happen to pique her interest.
The case doesn't begin with scarlet but after reading your review I decided to add that mention to this chapter. :)
I can't wait for Sera either! Chapter 50! I timed her entrance to that one. Stay tuned.
Oh, I can't wait for reading it then. Good luck. ;)