A/N: I've been on the roll. I got this chapter done so quickly. Oh, and a bit of advise here before this chapter starts. This fic won't have KaiAo as the end game pairing. I know that it's canon more or less but they are not official together even in manga/anime. As you can remember, I'm more or less gunning for KaiTsuki in Dream or Not which means it'll happen here too. So, yes, despite what happened in this chapter, Kaito and Aoko won't be romantically interested in each other. They jest, they argue and everyone thinks they'll be together. Shugo doesn't think in one direction or other. But in the end they won't be together.

And Shugo is a spoilsport and skeptic here.

The fourth file: Year of Magic
Sub-file three: Skiing trip again

A skiing trip again. While fun, could also be extremely tedious or downright boring. Or embarrassing for that matter. Shugo watched as Aoko went downhill without stopping and crashed to Kaito. Honestly, she was a beginner. Why was she here? Why not on lessons? At middle school there was structured lessons with hired teachers for those with less than perfect skill to survive on their own on the slalom slopes. Even if Kazuha had managed to get on advanced lessons without people noticing.

With a sigh, Shugo skied next to his friends. Yes, even Aoko had the label of a friend even if she really grated his nerves sometimes. Then again, so did Kaito.

"I miss Ran-chan and Shin-chan…" Shugo muttered as he watched the pair in front of him argue. Then aloud he began instructing Aoko how to get up. "Nakamori-chan, sit down."

"What?" The girl asked in bewilderment. She probably thought Shugo mocked her tries and thus told her to cease trying. Well, she wasn't exactly wrong but she wasn't right either.

"Sit down, put your legs to the side with your skis aligned and knees slightly bent." Shugo continued like he hadn't been interrupted in the first place. He waited until Aoko obeyed before continuing. "Now, use your staves to get up, first so you are sitting on your skis and then stand up."

"Oh!" It took a couple of tries but eventually the girl managed to get up. "I did it! Thank you, Shugo-kun!"

"You're welcome." Shugo nodded and with a short greeting to Kaito, he headed to the ski lifts. Or tried to, when their teacher and trip supervisor, Kanno Erika gathered them all to the ski center to listen to her announcement.

"All right everyone!" The woman began chipperly. Shugo groaned. He really didn't feel like participating to the… thing. "You have half a day left to ski. A fun event awaits you this evening!"

Fun… Shugo decided to glare the hideous giant pink angry teddy bear in the ski shop next to the teacher. The bear obviously agreed with him about the up-coming event.

"Fun event?"

"No one said anything about that!" Some boys protested.

"It's a masquerade ski tournament!" Erika announced. "You find a partner and ski together as a couple!"

"Kaito, you are with me!" Shugo told quietly the magician standing next to him. If anything, they'd at least have equal skiing level and would be able to agree with the costume even. Kaito glanced at him but nodded then. He seemed to have similar thoughts.

"Sensei, can't girls partner with girls?" Keiko asked then. Shugo grimaced.

"Momoi-san, you just had to ask that? We could've gotten away with this if you hadn't!" The hacker groaned, receiving an embarrassed smile from the girl.

"Forget it! When I say 'couple', I mean a boy and a girl!" Kanno rebuffed before sinking into her fantasies. "On the slope at twilight, making trails side by side… In your own little world

"Kanno-sensei, did you eat a mushroom you found on the slope?" One of the boys in their class muttered.

"Shhh. You can't interrupt at a time like this." A girl whispered back.

"That's right. Girls hold on to an innocent romantic streak, no matter how old they get." Another girl agreed.

"Cold snow all around you… But the light of love that flares up between the two of you melts it all away!" Kanno continued, gesturing widely. And a lot of people in the ski center were staring at her.

"I understand, but you can't be romantic without being delusional!" A yet another boy spoke up. Shugo was glad he wasn't the only one to see the insanity of the plan.

"W-Well, I admit she is going a little too far…" A new girl agreed reluctantly.

"I have a feeling Kanno-sensei was really lonely in high school."

"She must still be single." Shugo stated. And not very quietly either. "That's why she is projecting her desires on us. To live her youth again through us."

And the teacher was obviously half-deaf as she didn't hear the students in front of her muttering skeptically.

"I bet this will be the first page in the springtime of your life! How romantic! I can't believe I came up with this brilliant idea!"

"What's with the masquerade bit?" Came the question, snapping the teacher out of her day dreams.

"Just skiing is no fun, right? Of course I've prepared a delightful present for the best couple." The promise of a prize was enough to get the students interested. How predictable. "You might want to spend some time working on your costume, and that's all I have to say!"

"Sensei!" Shugo raised his hand in the air as he was in the middle of the group. "May I abstain? There are more boys than girls on our class and frankly I have no interest in this competition nor on whatever prize you are promising us."

"Oh, Midorikawa-kun, surely there is someone you'd like to ski with?" Kanno asked like she couldn't comprehend his decision and disinterest.

"There is a couple maybe but they are not here. All the girls on this class are horribly immature. And so a boys for that matter." Shugo stated nonchalantly like he hadn't just insulted the entire class. "I hold no romantic interest in anyone here."

Except maybe Kaito in a bi-curious kind of way, but even about that Shugo wasn't sure.

Well, Shugo got the permission to abstain. He was the only one. Everyone else was either too distracted (by the idea of co-ed hot springs) or then excited about the price.

Shugo had had an idea to do on this skiing trip but by the time he managed to wrangle the permission from the teacher, Aoko had already disappeared when Akako dragged her off.

"Damn, I'd been hoping to save her feelings from being crushed…" The boy muttered and headed towards the slopes once again. But he had faith in Aoko's optimistic nature. She could pull through almost anything with cheer.

Time flew while skiing on the slopes and stopping by a cafeteria for some hot cocoa. With amusement Shugo watched his classmates scramble to get pairs and work with the outfits. Meanwhile he'd just chill.

"Saa… It's been a long day, hasn't it?" Shugo mused when he and Kaito headed for the hot spring. It was currently empty and the water in it was so nicely relaxing. Sky was still blue and the crisp winter air felt prickly on their flushed cheeks. Snow was upon the rocks and trees.

"Yes… And you've let your hair grow again." Kaito countered, relaxing next to Shugo with a towel on his head. The younger hacker ran a hand through his hair. It was true. Strange how no one had pointed it out to him earlier since it was almost to his shoulders… It reminded Shugo of his plans to grow it out so he could pull it on a short ponytail. Currently it didn't have the needed length.

But school uniform regulations…

"Did you have fun today?" He asked instead. Kaito sighed.

"Kinda but now… Boring… Just sitting around…" He sunk into the water and made bubbles, causing Shugo laugh at his childish behavior. And right then…

"Nobody else is here!" A girl's voice was heard from the dressing rooms.

"That's great! Like it's reserved for us."

Kaito perked up. Shugo sighed in defeat. Why did he end up in situations like this? Oh, yeah… Anime rules.

"But this is a mixed hot spring, right?"

"It's alright! When I checked before, it was empty." Aoko joined the conversation, making Kaito balk as she pulled aside the screen door. She, Keiko and… Kyoko(?) stepped outside.

"Whoa! It's so big!" Kyoko ooh'ed at the 'pool'.

"Aoko, I see you're still flat as two pancakes up top." Keiko told her friend.

"Oh, leave me alone!"

"Don't worry about it! A lot of guys actually have a flat chest fetish."

Next to Shugo, Kaito was panicking. Shugo in the other hand.

"Yo!" He lifted his hand up in greeting at the three towel clad girls. The pervy boy had already slipped aside to make a disguise.

"M-Midorikawa-kun!" Kyoko gasped.

"Aoko, you said this was empty!" Keiko accused.

"It sure was!" Aoko rebuked.

"I just came here. If you are uncomfortable with it, I can leave. Or alternatively stay at the other end of this spring." Shugo pointed the direction Kaito hadn't gone. "Nevertheless, I have a sister, anything you have underneath those towels is nothing I haven't already seen." The boy stated, not caring about the blushes the trio was sporting now.

"Ah, okay… Just don't watch when we go in and we are fine!" Keiko said.

"And don't tell anyone what happened." Aoko added while Kyoko went to test the water temperature.

"Hey, somebody is over there!"

"I think you mean me!" Came the hoarse 'girl' voice from where Kaito was. He'd morphed his head towel into two bows and gotten some hair extensions from somewhere. And of course submerged up to his armpits. Well, Shugo could work with this.

"How cute! A husky voice!" Kyoko smiled.

"Kana-chan, what are you doing here?" The boy scowled.

"The spring is free for all!" 'Kana' pouted. "Not my fault you already were here."

"Midorikawa-kun, look away now!" Keiko commanded.

"Hai, hai…" Shugo slapped his palms over his eyes and turned away slightly. "Just tell me when you're in water."

A moment passed. 'Kana' got an eyeful. Then Aoko let Shugo know that it was safe. And the expected conversation began.

"Come to think of it, why didn't you and Kaito pair up?" Keiko asked Aoko.

"Well, after all Aoko is terrible at skiing." Aoko smiled sadly.

"Hee? That's your reason?" Kyoko asked.

"Kaito hates being around incompetent people. If we skied together, Aoko would only embarrass him." The inspectors daughter explained. "Kaito is always clowning around, right? So as his childhood friend, I want to make him look cool once in a while. So this way is fine."

"No, it isn't!" Keiko and Kyoko protested.

"It isn't!" Kaito yelled too but quickly switched back to his 'Kana' voice. "No, it isn't. Hehehe!"

"Trust me, Nakamori-chan, Kaito would've loved to go with you. At least it'd keep Koizumi-san away." Shugo spoke up then.

"What's wrong with Akako-chan? She is nice and cute." Aoko asked.

"She hates me. And has some sort of obsession of Kaito."

"Nee, Midorikawa-kun, why didn't you want to participate to the masquerade?" Kyoko asked then the 'only' boy in the spring. Shugo blinked slowly.

"I'm simply not interested." The boy shrugged. "I might've considered it if Haruoka-senpai or Kazuha-chan were here but… They are in Osaka. And our teacher is crazy."

"Is this part of the cold-heart syndrome you have going on?" Kyoko asked slyly.

"The what?" Shugo and Aoko (and Kana) asked.

"With his looks and personality, Midorikawa-kun is quite popular among our year mates. Of course he is the cold and distant Ice Prince who balances Kuroba-kun's extrovert and class clown tendensies. Opposites bringing out each other and all that."

"So I'm a heartbreaker because I'm not interested in dating?" Now that he thought about it, there was this one girl, Mamiko, who sat at the same table in the library whenever Shugo was spending time there. And Yasuko had asked if Shugo needed tutoring in classic literature even if he had showed no signs of needing help.

"True, at Valentine's Day I heard many of the girls thinking of confessing Midorikawa-kun." Keiko nodded along.

"…Did some of them have card made of orange paper? Because one ended up in my locker but it looked like a leaflet so I threw it away." The boy asked with narrowed eyes. Kyoko gasped.

"That must have been Aina-chan!"

"Oh great… Just what I didn't want." Shugo groused. "You guys wouldn't be interested in helping me out of this situation? I really don't fancy dating someone…"

The girls looked at each other and nodded then.

"Sure!"

The evening fell and it was time for the skiing competition. Shugo was there to watch his classmates to make fools of themselves. And of course to cheer on Kaito and Aoko. There was a lot of different outfits. Some cool, some horrible, some plain silly. But the question still was where had the students gotten them… Anime magic.

"Alright everyone! Are you ready?" And there the devil was, Kanno Erika herself. Shugo inched away from her and her… costume, and rather watched Kaito interact with Fujie. Poor boy had a crush of worst sort on the witch while Kaito… Well, it was quite obviously that Kaito was immune to her red magic that affected emotions. Now that black magic causing pain in the other hand…

"All right, let's get started! Everyone line up!"

"Kanno-san is into it more than anyone even though she doesn't ski herself…" Kyoko stated, dressed as… well, Shugo was reminded of a common girl from Sengoku era.

"And who are those people?" Keiko asked then, looking to the side at the judges. She in the other hand… well, Alice in Wonderland? Shugo snorted at the signs telling what places each judge was representing. A barbershop, a women's club, a liquor store and an orthopedic clinic. How an earth had Kanno managed to get them to judge this ridiculous event?

"The judges of this masquerade ski tournament are local merchants I found walking around town!" The teacher chirped.

"Ah, kidnapped then." Shugo nodded to himself. That made sense.

"I'm impressed she snagged them." Keiko laughed nervously.

"Me too, Momoi-san, me too." Shugo walked up to her and Kyoko. "How are you two?"

"Just fine, thank you for asking." Kyoko smiled.

"Same." Keiko nodded.

"Oi, Keiko!" One of the boys in class and apparently Keiko's skiing partner came up. In an identical costume to hers. "What kind of costume is this?!"

"Your ribbon is crooked!" Was all the bespectacled girl had to say to him.

"You know… I know that twin-look is about to be the rage soon but… I thought it was meant to be matching costumes in this race, not identical…" Shugo joked at the boy's misfortune with Kyoko laughing next to him.

"She's pretty impressive, too." Kyoko mused.

"Are they dating?"

"I don't know. Maybe. They seem plenty comfortable with each other though."

"In the other hand I doubt it. Takeshi-kun just expressed being afraid of being thought gay… Meaning that he is still chasing after girls."

"That's true."

"And now, let's begin the masquerade ski tournament!" Kanno announced through the speaker system on top of the hill. "Entry number one! Mr. and Mrs. Polarbear!"

They went the hill by being all fours on their skis. And received low nine points.

"Next up, entry number two! The One-inch boy!" Kyoko was in that one. Apparently part of some folktale then. She and… Hanko-kun went down in a giant tea cup that ended up capsizing. They got five points.

And they continued. Astronauts, town musicians of Bremen, Titanic, Ikkyuu-san, Kamen Yaiba, Alice…

"Oh, Takeshi-kun got a wig too!" Shugo noticed.

"Keiko seems to be enjoying herself." Kyoko smiled, completely recovered from the last slide on her stomach. "This was fun!"

"It looks fun indeed. But I'm glad I'm not up there embarrassing myself." Shugo smiled.

"Who do you think are next?"

"…Koizumi-san. And if I interpreted correctly Kaito's plans he is swapping with Fujie-kun."

"Oh, is that so? Sounds interesting."

"Entry number 83! The Snow Queen and the Abominable Snowman!"

"We have that many students here? I thought it was just our class…"

"There are other classes of our year too…"

"How did we not notice that there are over hundred students from our school here?"

"This is a big place?" Kyoko guessed and Shugo sighed. Anime magic.

"O ho ho ho ho!"

"I can hear Koizumi-san's high pitched laugh all the way down here…" Shugo deadpanned.

"It is quite nerve wracking indeed." Kyoko sweat dropped as the pair began their descend.

"That dress is indecent for a school function. Though in the other hand Kanno-sensei isn't exactly giving the best example either."

"Hai…"

They came to the goal and received 39 points. Naturally the highest this far.

"Entry number 84! Kaitou Kid and Princess Nakamori!"

And the skied. Well, Kaito skied with Aoko on his arms. He went edge to edge of the slope neatly, did a flip in the air and even had the spot lights pointed upwards for it. Next there was some fireworks in the snow.

"Whoa, Kuroba-kun has gone all out for this!" Kyoko gaped.

"That he is…" Shugo breathed. It was amazing and… what was that? A connection between the two teens? A spiritual link that he could see. What was the label used in some fanfiction? "They are soulmates."

"Soulmates?"

"They complete each other perfectly. But only time will tell whether their link is platonic or romantic."

Kaito did yet another flip and fairy lights were lit in the spruce around them and the small bell tower by the judges' table. And they landed perfectly once again. The card gun was used to make the bell toll, like for weddings. Over all it was a good show. Over the top but just enough for this event.

"A perfect 40 points!" Kanno announced. Shugo watched his friends. They were so happy. Perfect for each other. But like he told Kyoko, it wasn't certain yet if they were meant to be just friends or something more.

"The winners, from class 2-B, Kuroba Kaito and Nakamori Aoko!" The winning pair climbed on the pedestal placed at the bottom of the slope. Aoko tripped but Kaito was there to help her back on her feet.

"You really are clumsy!"

"Well, excuse me!"

"You'll never be able to catch me like that…" Kaito rummaged his pocket for the fake moustache that Aoko had used when dressing up as her father. He place it on her face. "…keibu!"

"Out of all the prices Kanno-sensei could've gotten for the winners, she chose those ugly bears?" Shugo eyed the price in Kaito's hands in bemusement when they were in a coach on their way home.

"It's the mascot of the ski lodge. And sort of cute." Kaito rebuked.

"Well, if it were smiling then it'd probably actually do its job and lure customers to the place." The hacker grumbled. He failed to notice the smirk on the magician's face.

And so, a week later Shugo received a bear mascot almost identical to the ski lodge's. It just was icy blue, had stoic face instead of the grimace and a band that read 'Ice Prince' going across its body. Oh and it had a tiny crown too made out of tin foil.

Yamato laughed himself silly when seeing the birthday present.

"Please tell me you didn't get me something this ridiculous." Shugo begged.

"Not at all, just some new music for you." The platinum blonde man smiled.

"Thank you." The boy sighed. But well, it was his seventeenth birthday. He'd finally caught up with the age he was when leaving home.

A/N: After the previous chapter people were asking from the Kagemiya's. In the case you have forgotten, they are from Shugo's maternal grandfather's family. They were introduced more or less in chapter 15 when Yamato went to meet with Tsubasa and Tsukasa, Shugo's mother and uncle. And Kagemiya family are the ones responsible of Shugo's ability to see auras and spiritual stuff, and Tsukiko's split personality. But what I hinted with Akako is that someone of the Kagemiya line might've tangled with a Koizumi and they've ended up as enemies.

Replies to Reviews:

-Mystery0028:
I've explained as much as possible above.

-gotenxbulla:
This time I was faster than I thought. :)

-Zeladious:
They are best friends. In a way Shugo is closer to Kaito than he ever was with Shinichi or Heiji. But for some reason I'm getting shipping wibes between the two. Hence the bi-curious side-mark in this chapter.
Yeah, in general Shugo is pretty much in the dark about his new family. Even though he has lived in DC world for years, he still thinks himself as the person who came through the dimensional portal. He probably should get more dreams so he would accept the merging and would start asking questions... I mean, Yamato knows more than Shugo does at this point.

-Tsuki:
Akako wants all the males in the world to be her slaves. Kaito is unattainable for a reason or other. So she tries to force him under her spell. Or kill him. She'll grow out of that phase thought.
I recommend reading Magic Kaito manga and then watching Magic Kaito 1412 anime. Manga because it has the original order of things and cases that weren't included to anime. Anime because it's some much smoother and better than manga.
You are welcome. :)

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On a sidenote... I wonder why no one seems to be curious about Kagemiya Tsukasa. I mean... He is sort of important for Shugo and Tsukiko/Hoshi both even if neither of them really knows him... The hints are there though. In this fic and Dream or Not. Try to piece them together!