Before Aoko could move, a bullet grazed just barely passed her. Grasping her side in pain, she fell to her knees, closing her eyes shut. This was – bad. They couldn't see any more than her, in fact she was perfectly able to see but now that they knew her position, Aoko would never be able to hide somewhere before a bullet hit her after all. To incapacitate one shot was good and all but with the other deadly man as free as ever, her life would soon cease to exist.

"Aniki!" the one hissed in anger. The other just grunted and Aoko heard footsteps going away from her. Must be the slimmer guy going back to pick up his gun. Though, Aoko was sure she injured his hand too – his precision would be off at the very least – she hoped.

"Kill the dirty rat, Vodka."

His voice was ice cold, unmoving, no emotion at all hidden in his words. Those were the words of a clod blooded killer who never even later asked questions. If there were some, he'd be a contract killer, Aoko mused. That would sound just about right.

"Of course, aniki."

Brothers, huh – were kind of her last thoughts before Aoko realized that was it for her. Unless he ran out of bullets and she was lucky, this was it.

Somehow, she felt regret but barely any fear. She wondered why that was. Adrenaline may have immobilized her, but it didn't like that one day when Kid had saved her, when she had frozen, fear blocking her thoughts and body. This time it felt different – like she accepted her imminent death. Like there was no way and she was fine with it.

Her life didn't flash in front of her eyes, but she had to think about Kaito and his motives – why was he Kid. And her father, did he know about Kaito and Kid? And if he did, why did he never say something, why did he never do something? No, he didn't know about Kaito being Kid. She wondered if maybe Kaito could protect her father now that she would inevitably die. She hoped they could bond together and help each other. She wished for it. Maybe, if she were to become a guardian angel or even go to hell, she hoped she could still watch after them from the other side.

The first bullet missed her head just barely, but Aoko had heard it – she'd heard the trigger being pulled, the resounding explosion of the bullet being shot, numbing her ears and then the next was fired, just barely missing her again. He really must have trouble seeing her for a contract killer he was really bad at hitting her, wasn't he?

"Stop it!" And then mayhem started.

Looking up sharply, startled, fear spiking sky high once more in Aoko, she shot up, her ribs heavily protesting but what had to be done, had to be done.

She watched Ran kicking the burly guy, kicking the gun out of his hand and the advantage was on her side as she successfully kicked him a few feet away but he seemed to recover too fast. He was too fat, to strong for her to hit him properly in this dark and make enough harm to immobilize him.

"Gah!" She found the other girl on the floor, the tall guy standing above her, holding and pointing the gun at her head.

"Kazuha-chan!" Ran screamed and for a second Aoko wanted to slap the girl.

Don't fucking tell them our names, you idiot!

She didn't hesitate this time, she barely even felt her ribs – weird, right? Pulling up her bow, the shot never came easier before. In wonder she noticed that the guy truly held the gun in his left hand now, she must have hit him good. She missed the gun, but it was enough to make him stumble, have the shot go off far enough away from Kazuha's body – that was her name, right?

"Shit!" the tall guy let out, hurriedly pointing the gun in Aoko's direction but before the bullet hit her, she had the gun out of his left hand and pinned him to the wall. It was too easy, and she wondered where the catch was. Surely, her arrows wouldn't keep him there forever. He just needed to tear the jacket he was wearing, and he'd be free again. Just to make sure, she shot a few more arrows just so many she still had enough for the other guy. She couldn't run out before.

"Get up and run, you idiots!" Aoko yelled into the darkness, pointing her bow at the burly guy. He was just advancing at Ran and she was waiting for him, patiently and Aoko was sure she could take him on, she knew that, but they didn't have time for meaningless fights. Once those two found their guns again, it was game over. Aoko was running out of arrows and close-range combat was a disadvantage against guns, as much as she hated to admit it.

Aoko was no murderer and she hated hurting someone physically, so wounding the tall guy was more than enough she was willing to do, hurting the fat guy was not on her mind though. Pinning him to the wall like his brother was enough. And even though the energy was leaving her, making her breathless and the pain overcoming her, slowly but surely, Aoko seldom missed her goal. While she was no fighter and only her fights and runs with Kaito had built up her stamina like that, she was the best archer she knew – without wanting to boast about it. Surely, there were many more archer out there much better than she could ever be but right now her skill was enough. It was enough to save them and ensure their escape.

"Let's go!" Kazuha said and ran over to Ran, pulling her out of the room, Aoko following closely behind them. She wondered since those killers knew their voice's now and even Kazuha's first name, how long they'd survive now. She knew what they looked like, Ran too and observing the third girl now, Aoko realized that Ran must have given her the glasses. So all of them at least knew how these people looked. But it wouldn't help them any when they were killed in their sleep.

Pursing her lips in disdain, Aoko frowned heavily. Things were getting out of hand here. Especially considering how these people easily could be the contract killers to kill her father. And even if it wasn't these people, there apparently were others to do the job, to simply kill people, take their life.

It was just before they left the building, breathless and shivering, that police sirens and light resonated through the darkness. She liked this sound much more than the choking silence, the pressuring uncertainty of survival.

The cars stopped with squealing tires in front of them out jumped a few officers. She knew some of them but mostly they seemed to know Ran and Kazuha. Who was that Kazuha girl anyway?

What followed was a tirade of questions, what were you doing, why were you here, do you know the dead guy, what did those people look like?

It was weird – none of them had agreed to lie to the police but somehow all of them silently agreed on not telling them anything about the guys in black. Those deadly killers who'd just kill anyone on sight – Aoko was sure they were like that. They didn't fear the police or else they wouldn't have been as trigger friendly as they were. Killing someone seemed to come naturally to them and that they survived was only luck. They just barely jumped off death's shovel.

It was later, when the barrage of questions had stopped, that Kazuha pulled Ran aside and Aoko followed, curious to what the girl was about to do. She didn't know her but she seemed like a feisty girl. A strong one with a strong will and body.

"What the hell was that, Ran-chan? Can ya finally tell me what is going on?" She then turned to Aoko and looked her straight in the eyes. Hard and cold, unforgiving. "What is going on? You're the reason, am I right? I never even knew Ran was acquaintance with Nakamori-keibu's daughter. How did ya two meet? What did ya get Ran into?"

They were out of earshot, thankfully, because if someone found out what they were talking about, they'd get in a lot of trouble. "And who were these guys, Ran-chan? Are ya associating yourself with such people? Killers? Just what is going on, Ran-chan?"

Kazuha was getting desperate with the silence around her, the ignorance the two others were bestowing upon her. Getting angry, Kazuha grabbed Ran's shoulders roughly and started shaking her. "We could very well have died out here. Tell me what the hell is going on, Ran-chan!"

Ran was being weird and when she kept her head downwards like that even Aoko realized that something was wrong with her. It wasn't just keeping Kazuha out of things, protecting her by not telling her anything. No, it was actually something else entirely and Aoko couldn't put a finger on it. Ran had been strangely out of it the second they saw the man getting killed, now that she thought about it. Was she that shaken? Aoko definitely understood how that would shake the core of you but it didn't seem like Ran at all.

"Ran-chan!"

When Ran wasn't responding, instead just turning around and fleeing the scene, Kazuha turned to Aoko. "Now ya tell me what is going on!"

But the girl seemed even more shaken than Ran because her attention span seemed to be at zero. One second she was looking fiercely at Aoko, the next she made her way after Ran but maybe the other girl needed some time alone. She'd check on her later, ask her what was wrong but right now maybe running away was the only thing for her.

"What are ya doing?!" Kazuha screeched. "Let me go. I need to go after Ran! What if those guys stick somewhere close by?!"

Aoko pursed her lips. True enough. When the heavily armed police had entered the building, they had found a lot of arrows but no criminals. There must have been another way out, after all and now they were gone, back in freedom, back to killing people again – knowing one name and three female voices. It could very well mean their doom. It most likely did. And Kazuha seemed to understand it just as much.

"You'd both just die. Anyway, I'm sure Ran needs to be alone for some time. You can go after her later."

Then Kazuha turned around sharply, freeing her from Aoko's grip and went up to her face. "Now, missy, then ya tell me what the hell is going on."

The Osakan girl was very fierce, very protective. "First, stick to the lies. I got the feeling it's better not to involve anyone else. I don't think they'd mind silencing anyone, much less police."

Kazuha didn't lose her angry look and crossed her arms as if things were taking way too long and she should hurry the damn up and finally tell her what was going on.

Aoko sighed. "No, Ran is not acquainted with these guys in any way possible." Her ribs were badly aching and Aoko wanted nothing more than go home, take some pain killers, a lot of pain killers, go to bed and all forget about this night. This was the worst start into a New Year she'd ever had. Nearly dying probably always topped all the other experiences so far.

"Then why was she here?"

Aoko wondered how much she could tell this girl. No way could she tell her about the messages, the threat looming above so many heads. She may have been the daughter of a police inspector, much like herself but she sometimes wished she could make Ran forget too and go through it all by herself. She could bear the pain, the pressure, the everything. She didn't want to drag anyone else down this dark path but there was no going back, no making Ran lose her memories – and besides, if she were truly honest, she wasn't as pure as she wanted to be. She didn't want to do this all by herself. She was glad Ran was there with her, thinking and fighting side by side.

Aoko couldn't very well tell Kazuha about the suspicious looking guys who they thought could be the killers they were looking for, and now Aoko hoped that they weren't. She simply stuck to the version she also had told the police.

"I saw some suspicious people, being an inspector's daughter and all, I am trained to the weird things. It's not hard for me to see something unusual in a crowd, so I followed the murdered guy and saw him die and you know the rest."

Kazuha scowled heavily at the obvious lie. Aoko also hated lying but there was no way she could tell Kazuha that she had wanted to meet Ran here, thinking they'd be alone and be able to talk in secrecy. What about, Kazuha would ask and therein lay the problem.

"Yeah right. I've been too long, too many times around murderers and murder scenes. I know when people lie and you obviously don't even know how to lie well. You were also talking through some hightech mechanism and then these glasses."

She took out the glasses that were supposed to be Ran's and put them on. "Night vision, thermographic picture. How did you get this? You also posses one yourself, am I right? You wouldn't have been able to shoot so precisely in the dark without some help seeing."

She was sharp, very sharp, Aoko had to give her that. Getting out of this was getting harder every minute. But there simply was no way she was dragging another person into this deadly mess. Not if she could prevent it.

"Kazuha!"

Another masculine voice she didn't know but Kazuha sighed and frowned and turned around to the guy running frantically towards the both of them, a small child hastily following after him. Well. If it wasn't Conan-kun and probably Kazuha's Osaka friend, huh? Things were truly getting more complicated by the minute and Aoko wanted nothing else than go to bed and sleep. Damn. She knew another barrage of questions would follow and she was not up to it.

"What the hell are ya doin' here, aho?!"

"Ne, Aoko-neechan, where is Ran-neechan?"

Swatting down to his level, Aoko internally cringed. There was no way she could get past this sharp mind and tell him some lie. "I don't know." She truthfully answered and pointed in the direction Ran left. "She left that way."

She didn't want him to bother Ran but maybe it was better if he left to find her, if she wasn't alone after all. And maybe, all she needed, were strong arms and a strong chest she could lean at. Of course, there was no boyfriend close by but maybe this small boy could help out too.

"There was a murder," Kazuha quickly intervened and Aoko wondered why she'd do so. The police were taking care of it, no need to push these detectives there too.

Conan seemed deep in thought, his head turned towards the crime scene but he seemed distant, as if his mind wasn't really processing the details about some murder. He turned around and hastily left in Ran's direction. "I'm going to look for Ran-neechn. Leaving this to you, Heiji-niichan."

The Osakan boy seemed deeply in thought and even Kazuha didn't look very happy with this revelation.

Looking up, Hattori looked Kazuha in the eyes, then he looked her up and down, probably looking for wounds, any hints she might have gotten hurt, then he scowled. "And why the hell have ya been here, aho? Ya still haven't answered me."

"I followed Ran-chan here. Then we were witnesses of the murder."

Hattori just watched her, listening intently to the few words she was speaking. "Have you seen the murderers?"

Kazuha shook her head determinedly. "It was too dark. But I guess I'd be able to identify him by his voice."

Hattori frowned and after a while nodded in contemplation. "But ya'r ok, right?"

Kazuha nodded and when he turned his head in her direction, frowning as if suddenly remembering that she was there, too, his facial expression darkened in suppressed anger.

"And ya. What have ya been doin' here, eh?"

Aoko felt threatened, caged in like the prey she was in his eyes. She opened her mouth to respond but in the end, there was no need to. A dark, tall shadow engulfed her and before she knew it, a man was standing protectively in front of her. Not that she needed any kind of help but if this was sparing her the stupid questions, who was she to complain.

"And who are you?"

Wow – Kaito? While she knew that Kaito would always protect her, she never knew he was so protective of her. It was just Hattori Heiji, a detective and he was even their age. It wasn't like he'd try to hurt her though maybe questioning her like that, looking at her like that might have given off a different impression.

"Hattori Heiji, detective of the west and ya are?"

"Kuroba Kaito, Aoko's boyfriend so you better back off."

Wow, ok – boyfriend? Aoko didn't know when they should have become official, she didn't even remember what would have triggered that status. For her, they were still just friends, not that she was unhappy with calling him her boyfriend but then again – right now, she really had no time for things like that. Furthermore, they had way too many secrets, the both of them for what would be considered healthy in a committed relationship.

But then again, Aoko was too tired to fight his words and so she let him. He was doing it for her right now anyway, even if maybe he had selfish reasons in his mind but right here, right now he was helping her.

"And I was asking what she was doin' here. Not too hard a question, is it, Kuroba? This is a murder scene."

"And I am sure the police already took care of all the questioning." With that Kaito turned around, took her hand and dragged her off the scene.

She needed to know. She needed to know right now. Those guys, those two killers, they were the same from one year ago – in fact, one year ago, the last time she'd seen Shinichi as she knew him. It was the day in the amusement park, the roller coaster case which they weren't responsible for but they could very well have been. They could have been and maybe they were responsible for Shinichi's disappearance even though she'd seen him a few times after that, but never long enough to truly make sure it was really him. What if it wasn't? What if all those times it was just some double ganger? His mother maybe, she was too good at it – Kuroba-kun's mother had shown her that.

Fact was – there were people good enough to fool her, to make her believe Shinichi was still alive when he, in reality, wasn't. Why a mourning mother would do such a thing was beyond Ran but she couldn't preempt it, either. She simply couldn't. If she truly was wrong and Conan was not Shinichi which made so much sense, then Shinichi was dead and she simply couldn't accept that. Because how the hell was it possible for someone to shrink, to lose ten years of one's life and look like that? It was simply impossible. There was no way.

She needed to know. She simply needed to know.

Ran felt despair in her heart, a darkness surrounding, a hopelessness she'd never felt before.

Could she really have lost Shinichi, after all? That day, that day in the park, she still remembered it so vividly. The case had been heartbreaking and Shinichi had solved it as easily as always. But she couldn't grasp, not then not now, why people could simply kill each other. It had hurt her. But then Shinichi had run off, with a confident smile on his lips and she had known she'd never see him again. She had known that.

Right now, it shook her to the core. She'd known all along he was dead and yet – was it because of this revelation that she'd projected him in Conan? Because Conan looked like him, acted like him, protected her like Shinichi had done. And yet – how was it possible for someone turn back into a child without turning back time itself?

No. It was impossible. Conan-kun was a simple child and Shinichi dead.

She felt like choking on air. She knew her lungs were still working, she was still breathing in and out, the was air all around her but she didn't feel like it was entering her lungs at all. Still, there was still hope. There was. If his clothes were in his room, if there was any indication in his room, anything at all that showed her he was still alive –

Ran didn't care when Subaru-san opened the front door when she was just pushing in the key, she didn't ask him anything, didn't answer his did something happen. She took off her shoes hurriedly, something banal as that brained in her brain that she did it without thinking and then all but ran up the stair, into Shinichi's room, clinging to the last hope she still held close to her heart.

She knew if she wouldn't find anything here, if there was no trace of Shinichi, he was dead and it would kill her, too.

Kaito had brought Aoko home and she was glad he did. They had taken the public transport, happy that he was so thoughtful of her wounds, of her pain – though he shouldn't have known. His father hadn't told him, she knew that because she had asked her father not to. He knew because he was Kid and Kid had been there when she'd gotten hurt.

But right now Aoko didn't feel like mulling it over too much. She just wanted to go home and sleep.

Kaito had given her some pain killers, in true magician fashion he took the pills and the bottle of water out of thin air. She was happy the pain receded some and didn't question anything else.

How Kaito had known where she was, was also beyond her and Aoko made a mental note to check this later. It was no good if Kaito knew all the time where she was. She couldn't have that and there was no way he could have just guessed her whereabouts. Of course, he could have been escaping the police as Kid and then saw all the police cars, sirens going to the warehouses and followed them. But then again, just like Aoko wasn't interested in magic the way he was, he simply wasn't interested in crime scenes the way she might have decided to.

Kaito hadn't asked questions but she was sure he must have had some. Still, she thanked him when he brought her to her door and turned back around to leave for his own home.

"You're an idiot, you know that? Hurt as you are walking around. You must have a death wish or something."

She did but she didn't at the same time. It was complicated and surely nothing she wanted to talk over with Kaito right now.

She opened the door, went inside and closed it behind her again.

Kazuha had hoped Heiji would leave the detective work to the police, just once in his life. But he didn't. He had at the crime scene for some hours, hours in which Kazuha had gone back to the festival, picked Sonoko who had been nagging her ever since for running away like this and leaving her all alone for all eternity. She was exaggerating but Kazuha understood the other girl. She understood what it felt like being left behind and it wasn't a nice feeling.

She got nothing out of Ran even though that had been her number one priority. Instead, she might have gotten into something deadly. She witnessed someone getting brutally murdered and the murderers were happily walking around, killing more people on their way. They also knew her name and voice and if that wasn't fatal for her, she didn't know what was.

She hoped Heiji would ask her again if she was fine, she wished he'd see how angry and shaken she was. Or maybe the shock was just in her bones but not showing on the outside. Maybe she was angrier than she was shaken.

She hated it.

Ran had run off to god knows where and while Kazuha was worried about her friend, very deeply worried, she wanted nothing else than go back home, go to bed and never wake up anymore.

What if those people started looking for her now? She was a crucial witness to something that might mean their end – and consequently hers too, because they'd have to silence her in order to save themselves.

Kazuha hated all of this. In order to find out what was wrong with Ran, she had gotten herself into something deadly, something she was most likely not going to get out of anymore.

Should she tell Heiji? And if she did, what would he do? That aho would probably just run off to find those people to bring them behind bars before they could hurt her – getting killed and making things only worse.

And then Kazuha wondered if they'd gotten into that kind of trouble if she hadn't run after Ran. She had been the one needing help, she had been the one being found out – those other two been hiding and obviously those killers had been oblivious until she had let them know.

If she were to die it was basically her own damn fault anyway. She just hated that she dragged Ran and that Aoko girl into it too. Maybe that was the only thing she was truly angry about.

She spent the whole night in Ran's bed, worrying, thinking, mulling things over and over again until the sun came out again and when Ran still hadn't returned, still hadn't told her what was wrong, Kazuha had been in so much pent up anxiety that Kazuha couldn't help but take her bag and leave.

Kazuha never got if Heiji had come back at some point, or Conan-kun for that matter but she didn't care. She'd take the first train home now and if he texted or called her, she'd let him know where she was. But she was no longer ready to waste her time here.

Yey, done! Thank you so much for your lovely reviews. They motivated me and so I was able to write another chapter.

From the next chapters onwards we will finally get on with the case again :D Stay tuned for those!

I might rewrite the last and this chapter, though. I'm not too happy with how it turned out but we'll see. Right now I just want to get on with the story. Somehow, I have the feeling that it's not progessing at all haha that's also why I skipped the part when Aoko woke up in the shed to one week later