It felt like it had been over 20 years since Edogawa Conan had dropped onto the detective scene when in reality it had only been like… 8 months. Still that's a lot of time to spend at a quarter of your height and with all the authority and reputability of a goldfish. Still, of all the times he had pulled the, "Edogawa Conan, Detective.", line very few people had undergone the dramatic change in attitude he witnessed on this little 8 year olds face. Infact Conan could swear he could hear the twinkling in this kid's eyes as he picked his jaw off the sticky bus floor and exclaimed, "Edogawa Conan?! As in the Kid Killer?"

"Ah.. That's right" Conan sunk, A Kid fanatic after all. Here he thought he had hit the buddy system jackpot only to find himself saddled with one of that idiots adoring fans, all he could hope for now was that the brat didn't turn out to be a Sonoko jr.

"...ask you," Kenta said quietly.

"What did you say?"

Conan flinched when the boy suddenly fired around and grabbed his hands, looked him dead in the eye and all but yelled,

"I have a favour to ask you!" Kenta let go of Conan's hands and grabbed his bag, from which he pulled out a worn out leather wallet.

"This is my treasure, I'll give it to you. In exchange I want you to help me capture the Kaitou Kid."

"Well… that was certainly a surprise," Conan thought, Taking hold of the wallet. "Why would you want to capture Kid-"

Conan froze when he opened the wallet. From the corner of his eye he watched as Kenta's face fell into a resolute frown which almost mirrored the picture of the officer in the bloodstained wallet:

"Because the Kaitou Kid killed my father."

To most, Kenta's father was a busy man. He worked hard and never had time to see his son, who he had left in an institution after his wife passed. To most, Jack Connery was an unfortunately absentee father but to Kenta, To Kenta Jack Connery was a hero. Kenta knew early on however, that to every hero there is a villain and Jack Connery's villain was Nightmare.

Nightmare was the villain. Nightmare was the one who made Papa go away. Nightmare was the one who made Kenta's head hurt. Nightmare was the reason Papa missed Kenta's birthday. Nightmare was the reason Papa couldn't come back. Kenta hated Nightmare. Kenta lived on the promise that once Nightmare was gone, everything would be better, His father would take him home and they would live together. Kenta believed that. Kenta believed that until the day he found his father dead on the floor of an abandoned factory, a white glove in one hand and the priceless gems in the other.

Nightmare was gone. Kenta couldn't accept it, No. Kenta wouldn't accept it. His father had never been hurt chasing Nightmare before, his father was indestructible - he was a hero- Nightmare was a bad guy and that meant Papa couldn't lose to him! Unless… unless Nightmare cheated. Unless someone else killed Papa for him, the only other person there was!

Kenta grabbed the newspaper from the hospital bedside table. On the front page, In all his glory with the shit eating grin plastered on his face, Kenta's villain. Kaitou Kid.

Conan knew Kid. Not personally, He didn't know the guy's name, age, hobbies -other than grand larceny- But Conan knew Kid, enough that he was one of few people Shinichi would trust with Ran, and Conan knew that Kid didn't have a murderous bone in his body. Sure he had a hell of a lot of trespassing bones, and the occasional 'flirt with people i really shouldn't be flirting with' bone but murder? That wasn't the Kids style. So Conan knew Kenta was mistaken, He knew but… something in the boys eyes. His determination, It reminded Shinichi of his own drive to find the truth in everything, and If this boy was convinced the Kid killed his dad then it was up to Conan to prove him wrong.

A flash of a grin appeared on his face, a sure sign the game was afoot.

"This school has got one hell of a buddy system."