A/N: Mostly just recap on the weeks that passed, but it's the beginning of something important again~! 8DD Also, this story is officially drinking age, lol. XD That was all I could think while writing this, sadly enough. Either way, enjoy~! This was due yesterday – (Glares at Notes) – but I was distracted, and forgot. XDD

Disclaimer: I do not own Detective Conan or Magic Kaito in any way or form (or shape. XD). I do not own Ryukaze Erise, either. She is owned by Iriss-sama~!

Chapter Twenty One

Four weeks had passed breezily. Truthfully, it didn't even feel like four weeks. During these four weeks, I had met several other characters. The first one being Nakamori-keibu. When Kaito had said that we might eat with Aoko that Sunday, he really meant it. We had gone over and eaten, but she wasn't the only one there this time – Nakamori Ginzo was there, as well. He was intimidating; tall, gruff, and always smoking a cigarette. Of course, his intimidating-ness had lessened considerably when he had to put out his cigarette due to Aoko's shouting – "Dad! There's a kid here!". She obviously didn't know I was already a secondhand smoker, due to my father; my mom used to smoke, too, but had stopped when she became pregnant with my older sister.

Dinner had been interesting – again, Aoko's lively chatting (I'm pretty sure I knew all the names of Kaito's classmates by now, just from our few meetings) – and I found Nakamori-keibu fascinating; especially when he had gone into a full-blown (curse-free; who knew Aoko could glare so evilly?) rant about his long-time nemesis. Kaito had noticed my curiosity in that certain subject and had seemed slightly nervous, though I couldn't tell properly. Darn pokerface. Overall, Nakamori-keibu and I had gotten along pretty well; he almost reminded me of my dad, in a weird way. Though, he was much more focused and my dad was, in no means, a police officer – I'm sure those few times he ended up in jail, only for my mom to bail him out, were sign enough of that.

I had also met Agasa Hiroshi, the absentminded professor. My meeting with him had been pretty amusing, now that I look back on it. At first, it had been an awkward – both of us unsure of what to say, other than 'hello, nice to meet you' – but after he had started randomly talking about some of his inventions, it had gotten less awkward and me and him had gone into an intuitive talk about what would be better to use for what and into different ideas for new inventions. I had unintentionally mentioned a badge that could be like a walky-talky would be interesting and his eyes had lit at the idea; I guess that means I had just contributed to the Detective Boys badge, or at least planted the idea in his mind. My bad. Also, during our talk, Conan had narrowed his eyes at my obviously too-mature speak. No child should be so interested in science and the professor's, admittedly, weird experiments. So, our meeting had gone wonderfully – we became good friends, even shook hands in acknowledgement, when we finished our detailed chat.

The Detective Boys had just stared, dumbfounded, before they circled around me after the professor left to go get some drinks, blabbering about how smart and cool I was. No one had been able to see the edge of a smug smirk on my lips, except for Conan – that had made his suspicions heighten and I internally face palmed about it now, but at that time, it had only made me smugger.

After Agasa and I had met, the Detective Boys and I had ventured there occasionally after school – to play and other things; the casual things of the little group. I really felt like one of them now. It was almost uncanny how easily I slipped into the role of a curious, bright, child. So very, very easily. But, hey, I wasn't going to complain – it just made it ten times easier for me to fit in. Especially after I had made a Gomera reference, the kids were ecstatic to hear that I was also a fan of the movies. Even Conan had begun to be more welcoming, though I could tell that I wasn't fully off his 'suspicious' radar due to the occasional glance. But at least he had labeled me as harmless – that much was easy to tell, since we finally swapped numbers. I'm sure he wouldn't be pleased to see that I had put him under 'chibi detective', though.

And when he had called me to check if we did it properly, I was shocked to hear the 'amusing ringtone' – since it hadn't been on vibrate that one time – that Akako had mentioned before, and I had ended up bursting into laughter. It was an English song that I recognized from my own world. It seems there was a small glitch that let some songs through from my world – it also happened with the television sometimes; Sponge Bob Square Pants hadn't been a show here before, apparently, and it showed occasionally, much to the confusion of some people – and the song she had chosen was perfect. 'Calling all Detectives' by Marie Serneholt. The part she had chosen went "I got the proof, I follow leads; beyond the cover of your dirty deeds; no need for you to even testify, you do the crime, yeah, you got to do the time; case closed~" The last part had made me laugh even harder, considering the English name for the series I was currently living in.

Through those four weeks, three cases had passed, too. After the Snowy Mountains case, which happened that weekend during Saguru's party, there had been a week of no cases. I had been surprised; seems like Shinichi and his companions, at least, got some time to relax. But, then the TV station murder case had occurred the week after. I had watched the deductions on the TV, which Kaito found kind of strange – "Why are you watching that, Alice-chan?" – and I think I had unnerved him a bit with my response – "Because I want to be a detective when I grow up, Kaito-niichan!". Of course, that was complete bullshit, but hey. Anything that explains me watching it, right? Plus, being a detective was on my list of 'maybes'; who knows, maybe I'd be one and then my answer would have been true. Ha, that does seem to be happening a lot, after all.

Then, the Coffee Shop murder had occurred – I read that one on the newspaper, though. Kisaki Eri seems to have finally made her appearance, and that was exciting! Perhaps I would meet her eventually. Though, she would probably be one of those people to be careful around. Ran's mother was definitely a force of nature to tread lightly around. Which reminds me, I was probably going to meet the karate champion soon-ish, judging by my friendship with little Conan-kun and my joining of the Detective Boys. And I would, most likely, meet Mouri-tantei, too – which would make for an amusing encounter. He had always been one of my favorites, after all. He was amusing, funny, and when he put his mind to it, he could be a decent detective. He just needed the motivation, I guess.

The Water Goblin Legend – or whatever the case was called – murder had occurred, too. I had also spied it on the newspaper, after Kaito had finished his morning reading. Again, I'm sure it unnerved him how I went to the crime reports every single time to check if something important had passed. Oh well, there was only so much of myself I could hide from him; reading the crime news was, apparently, not one of them. Mentioning Kaito, he had also remodeled a guest bedroom a bit and then that room had become mine; he had said that it would be essential for me to have my own room, since I would be staying a while. The room was nice and the walls were a shade of sky blue that comforted me immensely – the white of Kaito's walls had been driving me insane. And the bonus, I got my own bed. No more futon for me~! Now I knew what Shinichi probably felt, since he was still – even in the future – sharing a room with Kogoro and was still sleeping on a futon. It's not the most comfortable thing in the world, lemme tell ya.

I had been pleasantly surprised – "Wow! Thank you~!" – when Kaito had told me that it was my room and I had given him a big, gracious hug, which he had returned happily.

Also, Ryukaze Erise had essentially become my best friend – well, Midori's, but she was still me. I hadn't seen her since that one day, but since we had exchanged numbers after our talk, we had been texting constantly. We learned a lot about each other from our texts and I figured out she was a person who I could instantly connect with. We both liked music – though, she had a lot more knowledge about music in this world – and she took Taekwondo; we debated about that a lot, comparing moves from her martial arts and my own, Shaolin Chuan Fa. She also did some kendo (sword fighting), which I found completely awesome, much to her amusement at my 'fangirling'. We also talked about various random things and she was enjoyable to talk to. We decided to meet up again sometime soon, to go to a coffee shop nearby and stuff. I had agreed whole-heartedly. After getting so close over texting, we now called each other our given names – Midori-chan, and Erise-chan. Truthfully, I never had a friend back home this close to me and it left me worried a bit.

I was getting attached to this world – and who could blame me, really? It had been 47 ½ days since I arrived here (yes, I was keeping count) – and to the people here. It made me concerned that when I arrived back home, or when I got the chance to finally go back home, I wouldn't take it; that instead I would stay and live here. Worrying. Very worrying.

My eyes slipped open with a twitch as my phone buzzed from the small bedside table and I sat up with a yawn to check it. A text from Erise. A smile adorned my lips as I flipped open my black phone and opened the message. 'Hey, Midori-chan, are you awake yet?'

I chuckled softly, beginning to slowly write back. 'I am now,' I teasingly wrote before continuing. 'Nah, I've been awake for a while, don't worry. Why'd ya ask?'

I waited a bit for her message, getting up and stretching before hurrying to change into some fresh clothes for the day. I got her next message after I had finished changing and read it before an apologetic expression fell onto my face. 'I was thinking we could go to the coffee shop today. Are you busy?'

I actually was busy today; I was going to hang out with the Detective Boys and Agasa – they had planned it beforehand and I had been forced into their plans, much to my bemusement. I sighed in disappointment before answering, 'I am, I'm sorry. I won't be busy next week, though – would then be good?' I carefully left out any information of what I was doing; I couldn't exactly say I was hanging out with four elementary (though one was like me) school students and one old man. That would be awkward to explain.

I could practically sense her disappointment in her next message, 'Oh, I see. But, yeah, next weekend would be good!' Her words suddenly brightened. 'Can't wait to see you again next week and to eat those scones they have there, lol! XD' I chuckled before answering a short reply in agreement, flipping my phone shut and heading down stairs to start the day.

I saw Kaito at the dining table, reading the newspaper like every morning. I rolled my eyes slightly at the familiar sight before heading up to him with a grin. "Good morning, Kaito-niichan~!" His eyes darted down to me and he returned the grin, bidding his own good morning before going back to reading the newspaper. I raised a brow in question. Was the news really that interesting to him? Before I shrugged it off and grabbed a piece of toast to munch on as I, too, took a seat at the table. I slid my hand up and grabbed the book I was reading – A Study in Scarlet; Kaito had given me a wide-eyed look when I had bought the book and brought it back home along with the rest of the Sherlock books. There had been a special on them all, and I had bought them on that day out with Akako. I read a page or two before my phone went off, letting out the amusing song, once again.

My collar ID flashed. Agasa-hakase. We'd exchanged numbers, too, since we had gotten along so well. I answered with a cheerful, "Hakase! Nice to hear from you! Should I head over now?" Kaito glanced at me with a smile; he'd been happy to hear I was going out with friends today. Truthfully, I think he wanted to talk to Jii about something KID-related, but couldn't while I was home and couldn't leave me alone long enough for them to have a discussion somewhere else. Agasa's voice trailed through the phone, just as jovially as always.

"Ah, Alice-kun, yeah; Ayumi-kun and Mitsuhiko-kun are already here, and they thought I should call you, since your forgetful at times…," He trailed with an apologetic edge to his voice and I chuckled wryly. They already knew me so well. "Haha, well, that's true. Thanks for the call, Hakase – I'll be over soon~! What are we doing today, anyways?" I questioned curiously.

"We're going to my uncle's house, on a treasure hunt." He answered honestly, lowering his voice on the last part to keep the others from hearing; he trusted me with the information, but he wanted to surprise the kids, it seems. My interest peeked in excitement. "Really? Awesome! See you soon!" I waited for his answer before hanging up, finishing up my toast, and saying goodbye to Kaito before heading out of the house and beginning my journey to the professor's house.

A treasure hunt at his uncle's house, huh? …Why does this sound so familiar?

Review Replies:

To: Iriss-sama – (Laughs) I consider all my reviewers awesome, but your also awesome because you like my story enough to actually contribute your own OC. I was pleasantly surprised and seriously flattered. XD And yay~! I'm glad you liked the way they met – it's kind of cliché (bumped into each other, and stuff) but oh well. It's nice. (Shrugs) XD And yosh! I got it right. I was worried for a second, lol. And thank you~! (Stuffs luck into jar) ^^

To: Kudo Shinichi Tanteisan – Yay~! (Snatches a KID plushie and hugs it) XD Thank you~! (Grins as snowflakes fall and eats cyber cookie)

To: MagicMilkbone – Yup, twenty chapters~! 8DD Thank you. XD And as for what Alice truly is, I'm not sure when I'm going to reveal it. (I think I enjoy holding information too much, lol) But, you'll get told eventually~! ^^

-Wow, first chapter without a breaker – the 'ooOOoo' – but I think it turned out pretty nice. XDD

Edit: Not too much here. I think the chapter seems shorter because there's no 'ooOOoo's, though. Hm…