So… it's been a long time. As a peace offering, I offer plottish things. Outside of dialogue, natives are referred to by last names and our two favorite travelers are designated by their first names.

A Secret Makes…

What might have been and what has been
Point to one end, which is always present.
~Burnt Norton (I.9-10)

Walking through a Shadowrift, Kaito decided, was infinitely preferable to falling through one. Even if the other side wasn't home, precisely…

"Isn't this the Haido Mall, Kuroba-kun?"

"Yeah… Aoko must have gone shopping, I guess." Kaito led the way out of the alcove they'd appeared in, scanning for Aoko. Knowing his luck, she'd be out for a day with Mouri and Kudou, and he'd be finding out firsthand if Kudou actually had any inclination here to let their game be called on account of crows—

"Conan-niichan!"

"Conan-niichan!"

Kaito got no further than wondering what kids would be calling Kudou's shrunken form 'niichan' before two high-speed blurs slammed into his legs.

"Where's Ayumi-neechan?"

"Why's your hair like Touichi-kun's today?"

"Who's your friend?"

"He looks kinda like Saguru-jisan, but not old!"

Kaito found himself staring, heart in his throat, at what could have been himself and Kudou transplanted from a decade earlier beaming up at him, except that the boy without messy brown spikes didn't have Kudou's cowlick in the back.

:But that's impossible, to go so far upstream time without an anchor,: Méraud murmured, bewildered.

"I… I'm not…" Forget upstream, they said Conan. How could Kudou be un-shrunk and still Conan, to make me mistakable for him? I couldn't have messed up so bad to be accidentally ten years downstream…

"Touichi! Shinji-kun!" Aoko's familiar voice cut across the mall like a whip crack, and Kaito jerked his head up to find her as the two kids stiffened and darted away. His peripheral vision tracked them as they ran to the quartet of women on the other side of the corridor, but he had eyes only for the woman one of the pair skidded to a halt in front of. The very clearly twenty-something woman, whose eyes were sparking at him with the fire he loved too much to ever forget or mistake. Who had scooped up the boy that no-cowlick had called Touichi-kun, regardless of squawked protests of dignity, and cradled him protectively on one hip.

"Ao-Aoko?"

Oh Kami-sama, tell me my voice did not just crack.

"Only two people get to call me that. You're too young to be either of them," she snapped.

"A little young, yes, but as for the being…" Another woman stepped forward, and Kaito stomped on a twitch at the bizarre sight of Akako—even cut short, the auburn-violet hair couldn't belong to anyone else—carrying a black-haired toddler who smiled and waved at him with another "Conan-nii!". She crossed to their side of the mall, ignoring Aoko's half-hissed, half-questioning "Akako-chan⁈" and gave them both a kind smile.

"You're a long way from home, aren't you, little birds?"

Kaito gave her a mirthless smile. "You could say that. Are you guys having any problems with someone out of their right mind? It seems to be becoming a theme to find counterparts of ourselves totally screwed over."

Maybe because it resonates so much with us.

"Oh, Isis, no." Akako smirked, almost cheerfully. "We dealt with all the insanity of Pandora and the Syndicate when we were your age."

Kaito blinked against a growing headache. "Wait… If they're gone, what's all this about 'Conan'? He-ck," he quickly corrected, eyes darting to the little girl in Akako's arms, "what year is it? And where was Pandora? Was it at all related to out-of-their-mindness?"

Akako chuckled. "One question at a time, Kaito-kun, and not here. Though the date is May twenty-fifth, two thousand and twelve."

"Twenty-fi… Oh." Right. We lost a few days going from the Shadows to the swimming pool, judging by Kudou's mention of how long ago his birthday was. So this place is apparently running ten years fast in terms of personal timelines.

He seemed to be out of energy to be surprised anymore, because he processed the news with a sort of numb acceptance.

"Okay. Sure. If you can know what we are without being told, maybe you could help us get home, too. I'm… not doing to well on that front, and we can't figure out why." And I'm also slowly going crazy, but I never had a tight grip on sanity to begin with, so…

"Akako-chan, are you sure?" Kaito startled, not having noticed Aoko and the other two women—Mouri and Hattori's friend, Touyama, if he wasn't mistaken—approach with children in tow.

"Oh, yes. Don't worry, Aoko-chan. They're hardly normal, but I'd never expect Kaito-kun, at least, to be that. They're certainly not affiliated with Sharon."

"Sharon?" The question was automatic, until Kaito's brain caught up with his ears. "Vermouth?"

"You've already heard of her, then."

"I can't seem to get away from her," Kaito growled. "Anywhere." Not my dreams, not reality—such as it is…

"But you said that the Syndicate is gone," Saguru finally spoke up. "She got away?"

He had a hand on Kaito's shoulder, faint but noticeable. It was almost as if he expected Kaito to try finding Sharon to take her out of the game before she could do something that justified Aoko's paranoia so long after the Syndicate bust.

… Admittedly, it was tempting.

"Unfortunately, yes," Akako replied. "Not even my skills can find her hiding place."

But it's possible to take them out. They did it. Hell, if Pandora is also dealt with then Kid is gone, and Aoko… Kaito gave Touichi another look and swallowed hard. It was another place, another time, but…

Maybe there could be a happy ending in the cards after all, if they get home.

Which was, of course, the tiny, inconsequential, Mount Fuji sized problem. Aoko was sighing. "Akako-chan, if they're not with Sharon, then what are they? More family we've never heard of is only slightly more believable than Kitsune doppelgangers."

"They're Kaito-kun and Saguru from a different reality, Aoko-chan." Akako frowned. "Even a different Pandora, somehow."

Kaito stopped short. "Wait, what? How can you tell?"

"It's obvious from your aura, Kaito-kun. But more on that later… we should go back to the house."

Mouri smiled, polite if still slightly wary. "At least all the boys are already over for poker."

It said a lot about Kaito's state of mind that even the prospect of poker entirely failed to cheer him up.

"But once we get there, what do we call them?" Touyama seemed to have similar reservations to Mouri, because she had her tag-along, a dark-skinned daughter a few years older than Akako's, also ensconced in her arms. "Having two Kaito-kuns and two Saguru-kuns is just asking for trouble."

And last names don't work the same when we're ten years younger than everyone.

"Well, for myself, I answer to Steven," Saguru volunteered.

Kaito shrugged. "I can respond to just about anything. Doito Katsuki, Seto Mizuki, Hey you…"

A moment too late, he recognized mischief as it superseded caution in Aoko's eyes. "How about Kai-kun?"

"Gah!" The only person to call him by his childhood nickname any more was his mother, and that was only when he'd done something to worry her. He crossed his arms and glared, albeit half-heartedly. "You're evil."

"I like Kai-niisan!" Akako's daughter cheered.

"And it appears you're doomed," Saguru snickered.

While the women seemed to still be getting used to the idea of their presence, Akako's seal of approval apparently removed all caution from the children's eyes. On the trip back to Kudou's house, the two boys plus Touyama's daughter, Hanako, cheerfully interrogated Kaito about what sports he played, what movies he liked, his opinion on certain video games, and whether or not he was a detective. (Both boys seemed disappointed when he said he was a magician.)

Akako's daughter, on the other hand, was still mildly breaking Kaito's brain. She crawled from her mother's lap into Saguru's in less time than it took for the bus to leave the stop, and began telling the bemused blond all about her day.

"Does she do that a lot?" Kaito asked Akako, who sat between them, when his interrogation squad hit a lull.

She smirked faintly, eyes curving in amusement. "Akiko-chan is very friendly with everyone, yes."

Kaito started to ask who her father was, but Hanako took advantage of a break in Akiko's monologue to ask Saguru, "Why d'you have gloves on, Steven-niisan? It's not cold."

"And why's there a chain on your sunglasses? Agasa-ojiichan has 'em on his regular glasses, but he's old." At Ran's disapproving eye, Shinji added in protest, "He is!"

Saguru chuckled. "My hands are very sensitive, Hanako-chan, and I get cold easily. As for the chain… it was a gift from a friend, so that I don't have to keeping buying a new pair so often."

The kids seemed to accept the half-truth, though Akako gave Saguru a thoughtful look. She didn't say anything, however, before the bus reached the stop for Kudou's house, and then Shinji and Touichi pulled Kaito along with practiced ease, one to an arm. Kaito didn't feel it worth protesting as they led him to the front entrance, using his height advantage to turn the gate-handle too high for them to reach.

The pair plus Hanako had begun discussing the merits of waiting for a key versus picking the lock when Mouri caught up with them, and with a stern look that needed no words, opened the door. "We're home!"

"Welcome home! We're in the study!"

Kaito froze in the genkan, air stolen from his lungs. Even knowing that the voice answering Mouri was Kudou, had to be Kudou, that timbre still belonged foremost to the ghost he'd never entirely put to rest.

Breathe.

Easier thought than done, but Saguru seemed worried enough about him already; no need to add to it. He forced his feet to keep moving, staying ahead of the detective's gaze as Akako led the way to the study while the others, kids included, paused to set aside the shopping trip's spoils.

Kaito hung back at the doorway, which resulted in a perfect view as Akako swooped down on the player facing mostly away from the door, and pulled an all-too-familiar blond head into a French kiss.

I need brain bleach.

To a chorus of good-natured ribbing from the other three men, twenty-something Hakuba gave Akako a relaxed, content grin as she pulled back. It was possibly the most openly pleased expression Kaito had seen any version of Saguru, his own included.

"Not that I'm complaining, but what was that for?"

Akako smirked. "Oh, I just wanted to tease one of our visitors a little. He's an alternate version of you."

"Wha?" Hakuba stared at her for a moment, then whipped his head around to stare at them instead. Kaito snuck a glance over his shoulder at Saguru, who would have looked remarkably free from reaction except for the furious blush suffusing his entire face.

"Damn, that's weird." Eyes darting back to the source of the comment, it was a relief to find that Kudou's neatly combed hair and lack of a mustache differentiated him from Kaito's memories, and that his own unique spikes had failed to tame over the years.

Kaito waved a little. "Hi."

Kuroba mirrored the gesture with a wry smile. "Aren't you a little young to be a storm trooper?"

Kaito shrugged. "Alternate timelines. I only surf channels and do really minor time-skipping."

Akako smoothly stepped in, summarizing their earlier exchange—including the new nicknames, which earned Kaito a theatrical wince and rueful grin from Kuroba—and then added, "They don't have Pandora."

The sudden relief in the room was almost palpable. "Oh thank God," Saguru declared. "That was not a pleasant few months."

"Not most of it, at least," Kudou agreed. "Though I did get a little brother out of the deal."

"Hold it!" Kaito did not like any of the possible implications he was picking up. He pointed at Akako—it was impolite and maybe a little childish but he just didn't care. "What do you mean by 'have'?"

The dramatic tension of the moment was completely ruined by a young voice piping up from behind him, "Don't shout! An' don't point," an air of primness crept in. "It rude."

He looked down, hand falling to his side. The little girl not-quite-glaring up at him, arms akimbo, was the spitting image of Akiko except for the long brown hair in place of her sister's black bob. He looked back at Akako.

"…Two of them?"

"Twins run in the family," Hakuba answered, as the preschooler ducked into the room and climbed into his lap, a vantage from which she promptly stuck out the tip of her tongue at Kaito. "Though it skipped my generation."

"You're an only child, then?" Saguru asked, almost casually.

"All of my life. If you've kept Steven and have siblings, did mother stay in Japan for you?"

"Wait. Wait-wait-wait," Kaito demanded, not flailing his arms through some effort. "Family comparisons later. Pandora now."

The five adults exchanged glances.

"Shinichi-kun, do you want to field this one with Akako?" Hakuba asked. "I promised Ame she could help us make dinner when everyone returned…"

Kudou nodded, and waved them toward the empty chairs around the poker table as Hakuba carried Ame out of the room. "You'll want to sit down."

"That does not fill me with confidence, Kudou-san." Kaito gestured toward the doorway. "Especially not when that looked suspiciously like a tactical retreat."

Akako sat in Hakuba's vacated chair and crossed her legs, smirking. "You've obviously never tasted his cooking. However," she continued as Kaito glanced at Saguru and received an acknowledging shrug in return, "the time of Volley's passing was perhaps the most unpleasant for him of all of us."

"Why? How? And what does Pandora have to do with Conan still being around?"

"Ahh…" Akako's voice shifted into the half-song of an old-tale storyteller. "Long ago, before recorded history, there was a gem. It had no name – that came later – but it possessed that which was blessing and curse… undying agelessness. Wars were fought and blood spilled over it, until a circle of powerful magic users divided it into four parts and locked it away."

Knew that, kn—wait, that's new…

"The legend of the gem grew, and twisted, until it came to the attention of some unpleasant crows and a magician's dove. But they were all looking in the wrong place, for legends are prone to metaphor, and Japanese has no plurals. The gem did not hide in one larger crystal, but in four souls as pure as diamond, passed on to an appropriate new holder when the first died and drawn together until they resided in four souls in Tokyo, seventeen years before the comet's arrival."

Kaito didn't bother squelching an inarticulate exclamation of disgust. "What did it do?"

This time, Kudou answered. "Passive neurochemistry effects, at first. Made us sharper, stronger, faster…" A wan smile. "As it approached, less empathy. Less restraint."

"What 'e means is," Hattori spoke up for the first time, "an idiot murderer tried to take Conan-kun hostage and I broke his arm in three places, and Shinichi-kun made a crazy child murderess snap completely."

"Not our finest hour," Kudou murmured. "And when it got close enough… You could say that the extras in our psyches started taking on lives of their own."

Absurdly, Saguru seemed to almost perk up at the idea. "Some sort of artificially induced Dissociative Identity Disorder?" His brow furrowed. "For Kuroba-kun that would make a certain amount of sense, and possibly even Kudou-san, but…"

Ha, ha, very funny, it is to laugh.

"It was subtler than that," Akako replied. "A simple tendency towards a personality split, until the gem shards activated—which was also when their eyes glowed, and Pandora nullified the apotoxin so that Shinichi-kun grew up between moonrise and moonset. As to the substance… as you say, Kaito-kun and Shinichi-kun's divisions are easily evident. Heiji-kun simply became… well, somewhat feral. He's always been himself and no one else."

"Damn straight," Heiji agreed with a smirk.

"Saguru… had a more difficult time. He has a tendency to repress, as I'm sure you're aware."

"In passing," Saguru answered dryly.

"Are you familiar with the works of Carl Jung?"

Saguru abruptly paled. "Oh, hell."

Kaito slanted a concerned glance Saguru's way, because the blond was pale enough to start with that making his skin tone any whiter took an impressively strong reaction. "Not closely… He was a European psychologist, right?"

"And philosopher, yes. One of his focuses was the concept of archetypes, figures found in the subconscious of all humans…" Akako pursed her lips. "One of those he talked about was the Shadow. While not evil necessarily, it is… everything you reject about yourself. Everything you choose not to be. And with the repression and the influence of Pandora… Saguru's Shadow came to life. As a thief."

Oh, hell.

"I… see," Saguru murmured thoughtfully.

"Rather less playful than Kid, and quite… manipulative in reaching his goals. But he wanted the same things we all wanted, in the end: Kid alive, and his hunters gone. Once we all realized what was going on—which took some time, luck and research, but we managed—with the help of a little magic, both sides came to an agreement and reintegrated."

"Why didn't that hold true for Kudou-san, then?" Kaito asked. "The nature of the shrinkage interfered?"

Kudou grinned. "Good to see you're still sharp even without a dormant shard. The drug was only being suppressed when Pandora was active, so when we tried to make the cure permanent…"

Akako finished, "He already considered Conan-kun a separate person, and all that shunted energy from the drug had to go somewhere… Thus, Conan-kun."

"So there's two of you now?" Kaito suppressed a shudder. Visiting was all well and good, but to have a permanent doppelganger stuck ten years younger forever…

"No… there's me, and there's Conan. He has no memory of the transformation, only twisted and warped memories from the year I was Conan. As far as he knows, the Edogawas relinquished parental rights when he was hospitalized by the accident that gave him amnesia, and my parents adopted him afterward."

"Logical, in a twisted sort of way," Saguru acknowledged thoughtfully.

"And luckily for him, the death-magnet status stayed with me. The Shounen Tantei stuck to lost cats and thefts until they were old enough to be the Gakuen Tantei and apprenticed at the Four Kings Agency under us."

Much as he appreciated the name, Kaito looked at Kuroba. "…You didn't become a professional magician?"

Kuroba grinned. "I keep my skills up to par, but after Kid it didn't seem like enough of an adrenaline rush. We made Four Kings Agency as an investigation and security firm, so now I get paid to break through security systems." The grin softened. "I decided I'd been dad's ghost long enough. I don't have to be on stage to enjoy it, or to pass it on—the tantei apprenticed for my skill set, too. Genta-kun's surprisingly fast with his hands."

"Oh. Um… does their number include Kenta-kun?"

The adults exchanged glances. "Connery's son?" Kuroba asked. "No, he had relatives in England who took him in. Why?"

"Huh. Maybe they hadn't been found yet or they just don't exist back home. When we left, Aoko was determined to foster Kenta-kun until any family could be contacted and adopt him if he didn't have anyone else."

Kuroba chuckled. "Good luck with that."

"Yeah, well, Hakuba-kun gave her Ran-san's phone number just before we left, so we'll find out what happened when we finally get back."

And hope like hell our welcome home won't involve tranquilizer—

:Kaito-kun, if I tell you that we have some answers, do you have time to talk right now?:

"Ngh!" Kaito was definitely too stressed, because the unexpected voice of Méraud was enough to prompt a full-body twitch out of his nerves.

"Kuroba-kun?" Saguru sounded concerned.

"That was…" Akako had straightened in her chair, giving him a piercing look. "Kai-kun, just how strong is your affinity for the Shadows? That felt like a Presence."

"Um…" Kaito rubbed the back of his neck. "I don't know what you'd call a presence, but I've been sort of adopted by a Shadow Dragon and Shadow Magician."

If those are even the right terms for them, because Duel Monsters won't mean anything here.

:They'll do,: came Lupin's amused purr. :Akako is one of your friends? She is a fun one to play with.:

…I don't want to know.

:She occasionally tries to summon a power of chaos… I answer her questions under the moniker 'Lucifer' before her inquiries take her beyond the Shadow Realm to the real thing, who is far less benign…:

Kaito tried to not think too hard about that, beyond the fact that he had been right about Akako's affinity for Egypt and conversation partners.

But you just talk to me. In my head. No summon necessary.

:You promise to be more interesting than anyone I've met in years.:

Someone, Kaito realized belatedly, was also talking outside his head.

"…zones out sometimes, yes, it's a side effect of when they talk to him…"

"Isis and Hathor," Akako breathed. "Does he have any idea what honor it is to be on voluntary speaking terms with a Presence? To be under their protection?"

Kaito grumbled, "A, I'm sure you can tell me, B, I have to summon them to get them into our side of reality—"

:There are exceptions to every rule, young one.:

"—Méraud can't sustain herself here without a summon, and C, sometimes they talk during really inconvenient times."

:Is this one?:

No, not re— Kaito stopped, gauging his energy levels. "Can I summon Méraud? I think she and Koizumi-san should talk, at least, and I prefer talking aloud than in my head."

Saguru raised an eyebrow. "Will you pass out again if you do? You made a rift not two hours ago."

"I woke up not three hours ago. I think I can manage to keep it at 'needing breakfast'. Or at this point, dinner like Hakuba-san said."

"Will Méraud-san fit in the room?" Akako inquired, eyes gleaming faintly.

"I think so, if she's medium-size. Here…" He grabbed his side deck from his belt, answering Akako's curious look with, "The cards are focuses. It's easier to make the Shadows do what I want with them."

Luster Dragon was the sixth card down, beneath the hand he'd used last night. A twist of will, -reaching- for the Shadows—dammit, why couldn't their corner of reality be more Shadow-dense?—and a whole lot concentration later, Méraud sat on her haunches in the middle of the floor, somewhere between a large dog and a small horse. It would save a bit of energy to make her smaller, but if he did that he suspected Akako would mutter things about proper respect at him later.

Kaito wasn't positive, but he thought he might have heard Kuroba murmur under his breath, "She's shiny…"

Méraud smiled pleasantly at the group, if a dragon's bared teeth could look pleasant. ":Hello, Akako-kun. Kaito-kun hopes your knowledge of magic and our knowledge of the Shadows will be enough to get him home.:"

"Welcome and well met, Méraud-san," Akako replied formally. "Do you concur?"

":We can but hope. As to the substance… There is a Shadow-thread connected to Kaito. Can you see it?":

Akako nodded. "I thought it part of what allows them travel. Is it not?"

":It came later, but the two are… related." Méraud's head swung back to meet Kaito's eyes. ":As you prepare and open a Shadowrift, it pulses. And I wanted to be certain before mentioning it, but Lupin-san agrees… it behaves the same during your dreams."

…They're real.

He's real.

Oh, Kami-sama, they're real…

The words pounded a deafening litany through Kaito's head as he stared at Méraud, too frozen to manage any reply. People spoke, but he couldn't hear them properly, couldn't hear anything but the sound of his lungs desperately reaching for air because a vise held his chest and his heart and his stomach in unforgiving ice and he couldn't think, couldn't move, couldn't breathe…

A glove clamped onto the back of his neck and shook him where he sat. "Kuroba-kun! Look at me."

The other glove turned his head for him, until Saguru's face came into view. He was glaring. Or at least had his eyes narrowed, it was kinda hard to tell the two apart. And the edges of the room were starting to grey but he still couldn't get enough air so why—

"Breathe. Slowly. On my count. In, two, three, and hold…" the blond kept counting, and Kaito latched onto the new focus with the desperation of a… very desperate thing. Person. Self.

Eventually his breathing evened out enough for Saguru's satisfaction, and the blond sat back slightly with a sigh, dropping the hand on Kaito's face. "All right?"

He nodded, feeling the glove still on his neck shift with the motion. He wasn't, not by a long shot, but he wasn't going to break down any further with an audience. "Thanks. …Sorry."

And Méraud was gone. He must have dropped the summon accidentally while he was busy hyperventilating.

"You're entitled. I've only seen him from the outside, and that's bad enough."

Akako had her head cocked thoughtfully, watching them. "Dreams?"

When Kaito glanced back at him, then away, Saguru's hand tightened briefly and he answered her. "For the past several weeks, Kuroba-kun has had connected nightmares of a place where he was witness to Touichi-san's death, and Vermouth took him to be hers."

The ensuing spate of foul language was quiet, out of deference to children elsewhere in the house, but no less vehement for it. Kaito took advantage of the pause to re-summon Méraud. Concentrating on keeping her present was more pleasant than processing the new information.

Méraud, for her part, looked apologetic when she reappeared. ":I am sorry, Kaito-kun. From the way it vanishes into the Shadows, we believe it is connected to someone or something in that place, like a tether of some sort, or a fishing line.:"

…Reel the catch in. Ugh, fish, no sympathizing with cold slimy scales and dead eyes.

"…Wait." A niggling discrepancy offered itself to attempt to prove Méraud wrong. "My first nightmare was before I even met you, before any of this…" he waved a hand vaguely, "Shadow-travel."

":But not before your first travels through the Dark,:" Méraud reminded quietly. ":Some Shadow-adepts can reach through the Darkness, as well. Theoretically, a minor connection could have been possible, and then firmly rooted when you entered the wild Shadows themselves."

Kaito's mental response was unprintable.

"I would say your conjecture of someone is likely more accurate than something," Akako offered. "That sort of active pulse indicates a mind and purpose behind the observed phenomena, not simple chance."

The convulsive laugh that bubbled up from Kaito must not have sounded good, because it garnered several concerned looks from adults and dragon, and more pressure on the back of his neck. Pressure was good. It reminded his hindbrain that his Saguru wasn't dead, even if he remembered pulling the trigg—No, bad thoughts. Bad thoughts to be locked up in tiny mental boxes and thrown away with their mental keys, except that didn't work so well when someone else had a skeleton key to cancel his Kami-given gifts of repression and denial and crap, he was laughing again.

He clamped down on it, teeth snapping shut into a pathetic poker face of a smile. But if he didn't smile, he was going to either laugh or scream himself hoarse. "At least someone being out to get me isn't new. And this isn't just some bad cosmic joke on me."

Méraud's tail flicked around her haunches in apparent agitation. ":No. But while we can say that the thread appears to be pulling your aim off course, towards that place… we can't be certain how to break that connection.:"

"If I may…" Akako interjected. "Magic of this caliber would be essentially impossible to break on this end. The power would need to be dispelled at the source."

Kaito gave her a blank look. "…You want me to go there."

She nodded, grimly sympathetic but implacable. "I've been studying the thread since Méraud-san brought it up, and it is beyond my not inconsiderable abilities to break. Whoever did this… they're very skilled."

"And you want me to go to them and say, 'Hi, you've been making my dreams a living hell for the past month now, could you please stop that or at least tell me what you want so I can go home?'"

"Roughly put, but… something needs to change for you, Kai-kun, and soon. And strong though your unknown antagonist might be, you have two powerful Presences on your side."

":Well, I don't know about powerful,:" Méraud demurred.

:She's far too modest,: Lupin chuckled. :I maintain no such illusions.:

That was… mildly comforting, actually.

"Okay, so I track them down and threaten to sic a rampaging dragon on them if they don't stop with the sanity-eating."

Saguru smiled. "That sounds satisfying."

"If it works."

":We'll make certain of it,:" Méraud replied. ":It's high time for you to return home.:"

"Though not quite yet," Akako added, smirk reappearing. "Steven-kun and I need to talk, first."

Saguru tensed slightly, hand dropping from Kaito's neck to interlace fingers with the other one. "On what subject, Koizumi-san?"

She gestured at said hands. "You have multiple signs of an untrained psychic ability, Steven-kun. If you don't trust yourself enough to leave your hands bare, I can't in good conscience let you both run off to confront your mystery villain."

"…Oh. Bugger."

"How come it's so new?" Hattori asked, curious. "Is late-manifesting magic common where you're from?"

"…No. I had successfully insulated myself until I met Kuroba-kun and… a lot of things happened." A shrug. "I've had some basic training, but little mental reserves at the time we left to deal with another problem and there's simply been no time to do more than a few exercises here and there… and I've been loath to test my limits without someone nearby who knows what they're doing."

There were nods of understanding from around the table.

"Take it from me," Kudou offered, "Akako-kun counts. You two can work on that after dinner."

"Ah… thank you," Saguru answered when Akako nodded. "And for your hospitality, as well."

"You both look like hell," came Kudou's blunt assessment. "Shadow friends or no, you need to take a day to recover before you go anywhere. How long has it been since you took a breather from dealing with problems and trying to get home?"

"Um…" Kaito glanced at Saguru. Saguru raised his eyebrows.

"You are not allowed to count anything that occurred after the ruby heist as downtime."

Crap.

"Ha~kuba-kun," Kaito protested. "What about the Motou's?"

"One morning and two night's sleep out of three days of whirlwind does not count. And previous to that was, by your own admission, one and a half weeks on a sum total of fifty-two hours of sleep."

"There were more important things!"

"And I thought I was bad," Kuroba commented.

"You are," Kudou snarked back. "So how long ago was that heist?"

Kaito massaged his forehead. "We've been trying to get home for four or five days, I think? If you go by times slept. So… two, two and a half weeks? With three weeks of crazy before that, and a few days in between."

"…You had twodays before the ruby heist, going from the timing of your note. I'm certain you spent most of it preparing. That puts you at six weeks without a rest worth speaking of, Kuroba-kun."

"Oh." It felt both shorter and longer. Apparently he'd been so busy living it that he'd sort of forgotten to pace himself.

"Right, then," Kudou declared. "You two are staying put for at least the next 48 hours."

"What? But…" Kaito bristled at the order, but Saguru shook his head.

"He's right. We've had so many distractions that I didn't calculate it out before, or I would have said something sooner. Regardless of how bloody hyperkinetic you are, you need to rest."

"I…"

Méraud leaned over to nudge his head with her rough, emerald-scaled nose. ":Stubbornness does not substitute for sense, young one. It does no good to be flexible and iron-willed if both are pushed past the breaking point.:" Silently, she added, :Solomon-kun's tea will let you sleep. Use the haven you've been offered and regain your equilibrium.:

Kaito looked between Méraud, Saguru, and Kudou. They'd really only been gone from home just over a week… and automatic rebellion against authority aside, procrastinating the inevitable sounded very, very good right now.

"If you're sure you don't mind the intrusion… Okay."

Kuroba grinned. "If you want to repay us, take the kids out to the park tomorrow and ride herd with the Gakuen Tantei. We're celebrating Touichi and Shinji-kun's birthdays, and need them out of the house to set it up."

"Birthdays?"

Kuroba nodded. "Touichi turned six on Monday and Shinji-kun's birthday is the day after tomorrow. We always split the difference with the weekend between."

No wonder the boys look like tantei-kun at the Black Pearl heist.

More important than that, though… "What will you tell the teenagers about us?"

"The truth," Kudou answered. "The boys already heard it and aren't about to forget."

"Besides," Heiji added, "if we don't, they're just gonna figure it out anyway before the weekend is over."

Kudou snorted. "True. We taught them too well."

The sound of small feet running on wood precluded any response. Shinji and Touichi burst into the room, announcing that dinner was ready, then skidded to a halt at the sight of Méraud.

"You have a dragon?" Shinji breathed, awed.

"That's even cooler than Akako-obasan's snakes!" Touichi agreed, wide-eyed.

"Where did he come from?"

"Can we pet him?"

"Can we play with him?"

"Boys!" Kudou's stern admonition cut through the tag-teamed barrage of questions, and they fell silent, though more expectant than repentant.

Kaito had to smile at them. "Her name's Méraud, and I'll ask her after dinner if you ask politely."

They grinned, and chorused, "Pleeeease!"

Méraud ducked her head to their eye-level, showing off her profile as she eyed them first from one side and then the other. ":We'll see how Kai-kun feels later, because it takes his energy to keep me here.:"

Akako, Kaito noted with faint amusement, looked what might pass for her as scandalized at the informality. And possible future indignity for Méraud.

:She's accustomed to our kind having much more pride, deserved or not,: Lupin chuckled.

Just as well Méraud's informal. Dignity doesn't tend to last long around me.

:I heard that, Kaito-kun,: Méraud replied. :And everyone is getting up to leave, by the way.:

Ack!

Kaito refocused on his surroundings to see that she was right, and also that she wasn't in the study any longer.

Wait. You can dismiss yourself? he asked, splitting concentration enough to follow the others out of the study without running into walls.

:Any Monster worth our salt can break a summoning. How else would we keep ourselves from being misused like mere tools?:

…Point.

Méraud seemed content to leave the conversation there, and Kaito re-emerged into the world outside of his head in time to be his usual charming self to the rest of the house's inhabitants. Aoko and the others seemed to come around fairly quickly amidst the good food and better company, though occasionally he caught Aoko giving him an unreadable look. Which was weird, because he was used to being the inscrutable one between the two of them.

He caught bits of Saguru's conversation with Hakuba, but mostly was too busy inhaling the meal like a kitsune with fried tofu and trying to get into Aoko's head to pay much attention to the family comparisons. As the dishes were cleared, all five kids approached Kaito's seat, with various expressions of winningly adorable.

"Méraud promised after dinner we could play with her, Kai-niisan," Touichi prompted.

Funny, that's not what I heard.

:He has your talent for interpretation. I… would not mind if you felt it would not be too difficult…:

"Please!" the kids added in unison.

Before Kaito could reply one way or the other, Aoko stepped in. "Not right now, all of you. I need to talk to Kai-kun first."

With a promise of seeing Méraud later, if they were still awake, the disappointed gang moved on to try snagging Saguru. Kaito expected a similar rebuff from Akako, but instead she smiled.

"Go get your favorite toys and meet us in the den to play." As the miniature mob cheered and ran off, she answered Saguru's predictably raised eyebrow with, "Children are wonderfully simple when it comes to emotion. Unrefined, uncomplicated, and unrestrained—sorting through subtlety comes after you can withstand strength."

"Oh dear. Still, nothing ventured, nothing gained…" Saguru followed Akako out of the room without protest, leaving Kaito alone with Aoko.

"Is something wrong, Aoko…san?"

Her lips quirked upward in a half-kind, half-rueful smile. "First, I wanted to apologize for snapping at you before. I'm always a little on edge this time of year, and it's worse this time with Touichi being the same age Conan-kun was before…"

Kaito smiled back, a bit mechanically. "Forgiven. I understand why you would be worried." She has the patience of a dragon, a flair for the dramatic, and a vindictive streak. And I wish I didn't know that.

"Thank you. As for the other…" She shook her head, smile turning wry. "You still haven't told her, have you."

Kaito eyed her dubiously. "…No."

"Did you leave her watching 'Captain E.T.' alone? She saw Akako-chan give you that alibi to use with Saguru-kun?"

"…Yes…"

She chuckled. Chuckled. "Then unless we're very different, she already knows, Kai-kun."

Several levels of mental processes previously occupied with figuring out Aoko's purpose for the discussion ground to a screeching halt. "…What?"

"The theater was dark, but an inflatable dummy only works when it can't be touched, baka."

"Oh." At least she seemed to be smiling in fond exasperation, not angry. But that amusement park visit had been months ago…

"When I realized you'd gone off anyway… it hurt. But I also know you wouldn't have become Kid unless it was important. And I was right."

He had a million questions, but the most pressing one came out on its own. "If you—if she knows, why hasn't she said anything?"

"If she did, would you have believed her?"

"…Maybe."

"Which is your way of saying that you would have wanted to, but couldn't risk it being a trick to catch you again."

"…It's disturbing when you do that."

"I have years of practice reading you. And it did still hurt, Kai-kun. You were shutting me out the way you did… everyone else but me, until then. Even when I tried to be patient, Kid was stealing you and my father away from me, one day at a time. I hated Kid for making dad look incompetent until I realized that you did that to everyone who chased you, no matter what."

Aoko shook her head. "I'm sorry, I'm rambling. I suppose what I wanted you to understand is… You don't have to stand alone. There are people willing to stand with you, if only you'll let them." She gave him another smile, soft and bittersweet. "I loved Toichi-ojisan too."

After a long moment, Kaito forced a nod, not trusting himself to speak.

"You don't have to make any decisions until after you get home, of course… I just hope you'll think about it." She reached out and lightly touched his arm, then stood and withdrew.

Kaito sat in the empty dining room after she was gone, listening to the muffled voices of adults in the kitchen and children in the den, and pondered the idea that not telling Aoko could, conceivably, hurt her worse than hearing the truth.

AN: Why yes, Kaito has watched Loony Tunes. And read Schlock Mercenary. They're good English practice.

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Ocianne

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