A/N: Argh, this week is turning out to be (unfortunately) super-busy for me... Plus I've got at least seven tests AND a concert crammed into two days next week... I'm really starting to think I won't be able to finish this story in time :(

Thanks loads to ascella star for the wonderful (sole) review! I'm glad you found it interesting enough to be worthy of your time, haha... I know, many amazing authors write well-crafted KaiShin, and I don't think I could live up to that high standard ^^ (This story's mostly supposed to be about the action anyways)

Short chapter today... Sorry about that :/ (Hopefully more coming soon!)

Chapter Two

"It really is bizarre," Heiji commented. "Usually there's no middle ground, but… ya really are pretty diff'rent, th' two of ya."

"Like they're breaking all the laws of Reflection," Sonoko agreed. "I bet they're even the same height!"

Shinichi stared, blank-faced. "There are… laws?"

"Not exactly laws per se, but there's sort of a set of rules about characteristics of Reflections," Aoko explained. "All other Reflection pairs seem to fit these guidelines pretty easily, but you two are something different."

Kaito remained silent. He thought their encounter had been just as strange as Shinichi had found it, but for totally different reasons. He himself had been skeptical about the validity of Reflections and the conditions that governed their relationship, but once he saw Shinichi's face he was convinced.

Yet... his friends were right; there were too many discrepancies between him and Shinichi to be written off as mere coincidence. Their common physical traits clearly showed that they were meant to be similar Reflections, but from what he'd seen so far, Shinichi's personality was nothing like his own. And, in all his time witnessing people truly realize the idea of Reflections, Kaito had never seen someone sense it so quickly. Typically it took weeks, months, even years to figure out— even longer if it was the opposite type, and almost always after comparing one's outward appearance and mannerisms to another's— but somehow Shinichi had felt it. Despite the ostensible confusion etched onto Shinichi's features, Kaito could tell that, somewhere deep in his subconscious, Shinichi already knew and accepted the rules of Reflections.

All this— from an apparent retrograde amnesiac who couldn't remember his own name, much less recognize his face in a mirror.

Brain still swirling with thoughts, Kaito watched absentmindedly as the others described what Reflections were and how they were supposed to be.

"Aoko-chan and I, for example," Ran elaborated, "are similar Reflections. We look alike, and—" they shared a secret glance, "— I'd say our temperaments are about the same."

"By 'temperaments' she means temper," Heiji muttered to Shinichi. "They're both terrifyin' when they're mad."

"On th' other hand," Kazuha continued in a louder voice, "Heiji an' Hakuba-kun are opposites. They look very different an' have contrasting dispositions." Saguru turned away from his Reflection, nose upturned slightly, while Heiji scowled, "Stuck-up moron."

"They also have a mutual dislike of each other," Kazuha added, eyebrows twitching.

"Not all opposite Reflections hate each other, though," Aoko chimed in. "In fact, Kazuha-chan's Reflection is—"

The door swung open, leaving Aoko's sentence unfinished and drawing everyone's attention to the petite young woman standing in the doorway. Light-haired and gracefully built, the girl made her way to Shinichi's bedside with a touch of haughtiness. She placed the tray of steaming soup she was carrying on the table. "Enjoy it while you can," she said airily, avoiding all eye contact with practiced indifference.

She was already back at the door when Kazuha stopped her, an unreadable expression on her face. "Ai-chan." *

Ai paused, a pale hand resting lightly on the doorknob. After a long moment, she stiffly added, "Don't burn your tongue; it would be a terrible way to thank me."

Puzzled, Shinichi made a vague noise of assent. Ai left, silence trailing in her wake.

Kazuha smiled to herself.

A/N: *Ai is physically Shiho in this fic so that she can match with the age group, but I made her shorter as a kind of tribute to her de-aged form. I'm still going to use her alias 'Haibara Ai' though, since I think that her personality as Shiho was probably quite different from that of the Ai we currently know and love, so it seems more fitting to call her by the corresponding name. Also, it's going to be a bit OOC for Ai, especially concerning her relationship to her Reflection, Kazuha, but I wanted to portray some of her cold nature from early-on in the series, along with the gradual warming of her character, and I feel like her special connection with Kazuha might be a nice way to do that. If that's not convincing enough for you... well, there's a reason it's AU. xD