Keep on R&Ring! Man, my grammar was awful at times... :)

Hakuba Saguru was most decidedly bored out of his highly intelligent mind.

Why had his mother chosen, of all places, a lake cabin in the middle of nowhere in the remote English countryside for a week's sojourn? For most people, it would have been a highly relaxing, atmospheric respite from the world. The fresh, crisp air, the bucolic country scenery in the height of fall, the leaves on the trees showing off in flashy reds, browns and golds as the trees began their preparations for the upcoming winter...

For Saguru it was pure, utter, complete torture.

He swore sometimes that when he sat on the front porch in another doomed-to-fail attempt at absorption in yet another of the old, well-worn paperback Sherlock Holmes adventures he had memorized all the details of that he could almost feel his unused brain cells begin to slip away one by one, slowly but surely decomposing and evaporating through sheer neglect and non-use. And it was only the second day of the trip!

He was going to go out of his mind fairly soon if he didn't find something to stimulate 'the little grey cells,' as another one of his favorite fictional detectives would have put it. Preferably something crime-related, but at this point Saguru was willing to take a damn crossword puzzle or even some diabolical-difficulty Sudoku for that matter. Something, anything! Even the schoolwork he had brought with him so that he wouldn't fall behind had already been completely done, checked, and rechecked.

He had even begged his father repeatedly to ship out some cold cases for him to pore over when his mother had begun planning the trip to this far too quiet cabin the previous week, or to let him bring just one file with him, knowing that this mind-numbing monotony would be the end result. However his father had refused, insisting on Saguru taking a 'complete and total break' from investigative work while he and his mother were on the trip and also stating that that Saguru 'needed the break.' No I don't, he thought crossly as he shifted slightly in the plush chair on the covered front porch. After all, The Red-Headed League, brilliant as it was, could only keep him entertained for so long.

It was approximately thirty seconds later that Jabez Wilson's name suddenly turned into the kanji for a robbery.

Saguru blinked twice, then realized that the transformation from English name (he felt the Holmes series lost something in the translation to Japanese, and besides, he liked to keep his English well-polished) to Japanese kanji had taken place due to an afternoon edition of a daily Japanese newspaper being stuck directly in between himself and the adventure he had been attempting to lose himself him. He looked up to see who had done the placing and discovered that it was Shiori-san who had brought it to him. A newspaper! News from the outside! And containing front-page news of a robbery, no less. He wanted to jump up and hug her; instead he merely reacted with an inclination of his head followed by a polite "Thank you, Shiori-san. But where did you find a Japanese newspaper, of all things, in this neck of the woods?" He took it and lay Holmes down; he was sure the detective would have forgiven him had he actually existed.

"I went back into town and this front-page story caught my eye," she stated simply. "Watching you stew was driving me crazy, and I needed some food supplies," she finished dryly before entering the cabin to begin preparing their late dinner. Saguru eagerly dug into the paper, quickly taking in every detail-

Had he just read that right?

KAITOU KID-KILLER? VIDEOTAPE EVIDENCE SAYS YES, screamed the headline above a picture of a small jade Buddha statue that had apparently been the object of Kid's heist. Sauguru's eyes narrowed as he looked at the large picture of what they claimed Kid had stolen, killing one of the museum's guards with a single shot to the head in the process if the evidence collected so far was to be believed. Kid kill? That's a new one, he thought as he continued to take in the report of the event. This sounds totally unlike him, he concluded after finishing the summary. But there was something more than that that was tugging at his brain...

A jade Buddha statue...and a dead guard...

Why was this story setting off a distant bell in the back of his mind?

As he kept reading, the chime only became more insistent. He finally decided to take action and rose from the front porch seat, entered their cabin and instantly headed upstairs to the room he usually stayed in when they rented it. If the off-season housekeeper that tidied up when the lakefront cabins were shut down for the winter hadn't been too terribly thorough, his small stash of newspapers from last year when they rented the cabin would still be there, tucked in between the headboard of his bed and the wall. He smiled as he found that, indeed, the papers were still there, a mixture of English and Japanese newspapers he had secretly stuffed into his suitcase when packing for the previous year's excursion. (Saguru had had no such luck pulling a similar gambit off this year, as his mother had found his stash of papers tucked in between his carefully layered clothes in his suitcase. He suspected that his mother had known all along that he'd brought the papers last time but had decided to put a stop to it this round.)

He flipped on the room's light as it had begun to get well past dusk by this point and carefully began with the English-language papers, fairly certain that whatever it was that was causing his internal reaction had been in one of these very papers. Four of them were spread out in front of him, two American and two British dailies. He began with the British papers, carefully trawling through every one of the sections but particularly focusing on the obituaries and crime reports. Something...something has to be here...but why am I so sure of that...? he wondered as he refolded the first daily up and opened the second.

Paydirt.

Saguru allowed himself the briefest, subtle smile of self-congratulations as he had found what he knew was the very article that had fired up his internal alarm. A crime story dated almost exactly one year ago...

"Dinner," announced Shiori in her usual no-nonsense tone, increasing her volume so it carried up the stairs. "Come down before it gets cold."

He very reluctantly placed the paper down on his bed, being careful to leave it open to the article. Saguru then slowly headed downstairs to eat, giving a low whistle to summon Watson to his shoulder and letting the hawk settle before he increased his speed and stride. He would have to review the old story after the meal; one of the only things that truly angered Shiori-san was dillydallying with arrival at the table once the meal had been announced.

"So you're worried because you haven't been able to contact your friend at all today?" Kogoro let out a depressed sigh. This girl had sounded so worried and desperate over the phone that he hadn't had the heart to turn her down. But to find that the kid had only been missing for a day-OK, not even a day-and that he was a teenage boy to boot...There were a million possibilities besides her childhood friend having been kidnapped. He tried, again, to explain it to her.

"Look...I can understand your concern, but this is a perfectly healthy teenaged boy. Just because you haven't seen him or been able to contact his cellphone doesn't mean anything. He could just be out today and not realize that his phone is dead." Kogoro gave a shrug that was supposed to have settled the matter, but this girl was having none of it. Once again, she shook her head stubbornly, arms crossed and eyes firm with resolve.

"We were going to go to Tropical Land today. He wouldn't just ditch me like that without a word and not pick up his phone when I called." Her tone seemed to indicate that she was tired of saying the phrase. Well I'm tired of hearing it, thought Kogoro darkly. Ever think that that attitude of yours is why he's apparently ditched you?

"When was the last time you talked to him? And the last time you saw him?" piped in a small voice.

Kogoro felt his mood go from annoyed to severely angry in a single moment. The damn brat again! "Stay out of this!" he bellowed, and that would have been followed by a disciplinary knock to Conan's head had Heiji not intervened and caught Kogoro's fist.

"Hey now, he asked the lady a question," Heiji began with a grin. "Let her answer."

"Thank you! SOMEONE is finally listening to me!" the girl snapped, directing a piecing glower at Kogoro. She turned to Shinichi and Heiji with a worried look. "I last heard from him yesterday after we got out of school. He said he had plans that night but that we were still going to Tropical Land today. We were supposed to meet up in front of his house at ten." Unspilled tears began to dance on the edges of her eyes as she finished. "But he never came out. I asked his mom if she knew where he was, but all she knew was that he was out somewhere overnight and that he was going to call her at two."

"Well, why don't you wait till two and ask him what happened?" suggested Shinichi. "Maybe when he calls his mom will let you chew him out for forgetting your date!"

The girl flushed quite possibly the deepest shade of crimson either boy had ever seen before responding "It-it-it's NOT a date!" then hiding her face and laughing nervously. "We just go every year. He's a childhood friend of mine."

Ran...

Shinichi blinked, then realized he suddenly couldn't get the image of Ran saying the exact same things out of his head. Suddenly the girl became Ran as she explained that her childhood friend, Kuroba Kaito, had done some stupid things before, but never actually worried her like this. Shinichi rubbed his eyes again and the illusion vanished, but it left him with the feeling in his gut that something definitely was going on with her friend that was out of the norm.

"Well, let's go look for him then." Heiji followed this with a simple nod. "This kid and I will help you since Mouri-ojisan over there is too busy to help."

"Good riddance," was the response from Kogoro as the girl walked out the front door, Heiji and Shinichi lagging behind so they could talk.

"You get this girl's name?" whispered Heiji.

"No, idiot, I was back in the room with you." Shinichi blinked again, unable to get the strange occurrence in the office out of his mind. "But I do think she's really worried about her friend."

"Yeah, me too." Heiji paused for a moment. "The weird thing was, when she was talking, for some reason, I kept seeing Kazuha in my head...Weird huh?"

The pair jogged to catch up with the girl, who was 'walking' at a speed that put Ran's shopping pace to absolute shame.

"Hey, we didn't catch your name, nee-san," called Conan as he had to nearly run to keep pace with the older two.

"Thank you both again for taking me seriously." She stopped just long enough to turn around and smile. "My name is Aoko. Nakamori Aoko," she finished before taking off at that amazing speed again.