"I need to speak to Nakamori-keibu. It's urgent."

"Y-yes, of course. Right away. Nakamori-keibu?"

The phone was passed over to the greying officer, who swiped it out of the younger man's hand. Nakamori Ginzo was ticked. Actually, ticked wasn't exactly the word for it, but the word that I would prefer to use shouldn't be printed. He had sent his men all over the city, and yet the search had unearthed no useful information. They'd been checking newspapers since last night, but nothing so far had caught their eyes. They were out of leads - and by tomorrow night they'd also be out of time.

Which was exactly why Nakamori's eyes glistened like diamonds when it was Hakuba's voice that came from the receiver.

"Nakamori-san, Kaitou KID delivered me a message today."

"WHAT!?!?" the man yelled, the noise echoing so far that the inhabitants of the other world probably heard it. "How on earth did he do that!?"

"Indirectly. He sent it back on the handkerchief he stole from me a small while ago. It turned up in... a student's pocket." The teenager on the other end of the phone coughed loudly. "It had a simple code on it to clue us in further. I only needed a very short time to understand and so managed to decode it fully during break-time; third period is starting soon, which is why I've decided to ring now, just before class."

Nakamori grumbled words that were not meant to exist. "And? What did this message say?" he pressed.

"'Shizuka anomaly, danger'."

Nakamori paused. "I suppose we really do need that military commander in right now."

"Exactly. Whatever KID wants is related to the anomaly and he doesn't want us to follow. That tells us a lot of things. For example, the emeralds he's referring to may potentially exist on a plane inside the anomaly, which says to me that there's something the scientific community is hiding from us. And it's likely possible that that commander knows just what is... 'on the other side'. And that's not a phrase I like to use very often."

"Alright. We'll try to get hold of him. Would you be happy to come over to the police station again after school?" the inspector asked, turning slowly in his office chair. Some of the other Kaitou KID Task Force members watched him with slight amusement, wondering how long the calm before the storm would last.

"Sir, I'd be happy to go right now if it wasn't for the fact that I still have to watch over that ridiculous neighbour of yours, Kuroba-kun. Of course, I'm not in any way, shape or form obligated to do so, but his actions are troubling me at the moment. He does happen to be rather devoted to KID and, with the news of the new heist and all..."

Nakamori sighed. "How about, you bring Kaito-kun in with you? He's been consulted on KID's heists before. Maybe he could shed some light on what KID is up to...?"

"The only bringing-in I'll do for him is for questioning why," Hakuba mumbled. Then he corrected himself. "Oh, what I mean to say is... I think Kuroba-kun would be a better person to ask for on how KID is going to perpetrate the crime, but if what you're asking for is what his crime is going to be in the first place then I wouldn't bother ask him about that. Kuroba-kun doesn't deal in that kind of thing; he only dabbles in stage magic and I highly doubt he knows what's going on on the other side of that anomaly. Kuroba-kun would therefore not be of any use to you. The reason I mentioned him is because he might put himself into great physical trouble to come after KID. He might even attempt to copy his actions."

"I... suppose I know what you mean. I'll ask Aoko-chan to try and keep him under wraps. Though I doubt you'd have to watch him that close today. Tomorrow is when the heist happens. Tomorrow should be when the guard is raised."

"Understood... alright. I'm coming down. I'll call Baaya-san and we'll be there in a short while." Beep.

Nakamori set down the telephone and turned to his computer. A message had been delivered to his inbox, much to his surprise. He opened it and scanned its contents. After some moments, a grin crossed his face. Finally.

Commander Stonewall would enter the country by private plane in three hours.

MKMKMKMKMK

Meanwhile, let us catch up with our familiar friend Kaitou KID.

Third period was now well under way. The phantom thief was perched on the edge of his chair, scrawling on the corner of his workbook. Now, Kaito was an accomplished doodler. He had to be to make those heist notices; one could always recognise them from their signature logo at the bottom of a grinning man in a top hat, styled after the super-deformed drawings of the creator of Kamen Yaiba, that entertaining little ditty airing on television.

But this time Kaito wasn't drawing a self-portrait of KID. No, this time Kaito was drawing out one of the strange creatures he had seen on the video. So this was what natives of the other world looked like? Very odd, physically. He doubted it was actually possible to have two independently-moving irises and pupils suspended on one eyeball, or to have an eyeball that took up most of the skull, or to have fleshy tumours grow out of the back of your head and still look healthy. And then the body... he didn't want to be started on that. Indeed, the creature's arms looked – and acted – like noodles with no visible elbow bend, and the hands were of incredible size in comparison. It reminded of him of Mickey Mouse, in a way, if Mickey Mouse could have eyes like Dennis the Menace. And the colour of its fur was a problem in itself. How on earth did one's natural melanin content turn your hair blue and peach?

And these things knew English. Now how was it even likely that non-human beings could develop a language entirely identical to English? Kaito couldn't even speak much of it himself. Yet the things spoke with perfect dictation. Perfect American dictation, to be honest, and that wasn't the nicest-sounding accent of English, but it was perfect none the less. If he bumped into one of these things and tried to make pleasant conversation, things wouldn't go too well...

Well, he'd stick out like a sore thumb anyway. His head was too small in comparison to theirs. He only had visible fur on his head (no need to go into that one) and his eyes were too small. He was unable to judge the height of the animals from the feed, but he reckoned they weren't too tall. Heh. He literally would 'stick out'.

However, there was a problem. Kaito, in his excitement at the heist, had completely failed to find a way to cover up his rooftop visit with Akako. After all, he couldn't just say to Aoko, 'Oh, well, I'm Kaitou KID, you know, and she knows too and so she's trying to warn me not to go to my heist tomorrow, only she wanted to do it in private'. It was the whole point of a secret identity to keep it a secret, so only a few people could identify him as the Kaitou KID. There was his own mother Fumiko, his old guardian Kônosuke Jii, young detective Hakuba Saguru and dark witch Koizumi Akako. Snake probably thought he knew as well, but he'd only identified Kaitou KID as the man who had died ten years ago and so must have amazingly come back from the dead in what could only be explained as a miracle. And as one could quite easily spot that, unless Aoko had something of extreme importance to tell him, she was not one of these people.

Kaito's own personal musings, therefore, about how exactly he would go about greeting any natives of where he was going, were interrupted by a ball of paper striking the side of his head. Once again, the brunette teacher sighed in exasperation, and continued to teach her other pupils while these ones sorted out their own personal problems.

Kaito, amused, picked up the crumpled sheet and spread it out on his dead. A big 'What on earth were you doing up there!?' greeted him.

Strange smile disappearing from his face, he scribbled a message back, this time without a code. After all, talking in riddles to your best friend who also happens to be daughter of the inspector who'd been out to catch KID for over twenty years by now was not the best of ideas.

Turning around to the desk right next to him, he raised an eyebrow. "We can't just talk about this thing like normal neighbours?" he asked, but was soon sorry he said anything. Aoko was fuming. And Kaito lived next door to her and her dad. And when you knew the parent's uncanny ability to make up new curses (some of them being very entertaining, not that Kaito would directly admit that) and that nobody else was in the house to calm him down beforehand, it was a safe bet that the child would also have adapted that charming feature of their personality.

Grinning like an idiot, he put up his hands in a defensive gesture, and then passed her the paper.

'Me and Koizumi-chan were just talking. People do that, normally.'

A loud humph signalled the response. At least she hadn't thrown it at him this time. 'People don't take their discussions onto the roof, normally.'

'Maybe it was a private conversation?'

Her reply was a lot shorter and carried a lot more weight to it. 'Kaito-kun...'

"Fine, fine..." He scribbled his next message a little slower this time. 'She invited me up there, we had a simple discussion, and I got her angry, which is why she left so tense.'

There was a snort as she read his answer. Then another piece of paper struck her on the head. Aoko looked around; Kaito was sitting there with his jaw wide open. A few of the other students were also looking slightly gobsmacked, and the teacher blinked several times. Raising an eyebrow, she followed lead and looked back at the rest of the class. Sitting at his desk with a slightly guilty expression on his face was Hakuba. Out of shock she grabbed the paper, turned around and unfolded it.

'Please keep an eye on Kuroba-kun tomorrow while the KID heist is underway. He seems oddly excited about this one. If he tries to follow KID, he could land himself in trouble.'

Aoko stared at the piece of paper, before folding it up and placing it in her pocket.

There was a knock on the classroom door. Hakuba stood up, bowed to the teacher and excused himself, leaving the rest of the class in awe.

Kaito stuttered. "D-did he just...?" he managed to get out, before gulping loudly. "I didn't think he was physically capable of disturbing the class."

"I didn't think you were capable of going a morning without flipping my skirt."

"Oh, right. Forgot about that."

And a regular morning was resumed.

MKMKMKMKMK

It was a few hours later that a very imposing man found himself in the Ekoda police department's main station. He, an American, was an impressive height of six foot four with dark grey hair and the most unusual case of heterochromia, apparently a genetic trait of his family. In particular, this man's eyes were an ice blue and a warm hazel, almost red. Hakuba was used to odd eye colours, though, despite the obvious shock to the officers of a human being with the silver and gold eyes of a pricy bob-tail: he had popped down to Beika several times during his times in Tokyo (the area had the highest mortality rate in Japan, not to mention good sushi) and noticed the peculiar number of native Japanese with blue eyes there.

"Your name would be Stonewall-gunshou, correct?" Nakamori asked.

"That is correct," Stonewall replied in well-spoken Japanese. "I received your message and I am rather on edge about this whole affair."

"I understand that," Hakuba muttered. He disliked the sound of the interrogation room; there were no echoes. His voice simply uttered clear and clipped from his mouth with a cold sound. It made him feel artificial.

Stonewall shot him the most incredible look, one of mixed suspicion and appreciation. "May I inquire as to the identity of this young man?" he asked.

"This is Hakuba Saguru-kun," said Nakamori. "He is a high school detective. He works with us whenever he's staying in Japan. We've already checked, by the way, and this is not Kaitou KID in disguise." Hakuba rubbed his sore cheek.

"Why is he present on such confidential matters?" the foreigner asked.

"Because I've dedicated my current career to chasing Kaitou KID and putting him behind bars," Hakuba said. "I have to know exactly what he's getting into this time. The only clues he's left us are two coded letters: one is a heist note describing his next target – tomorrow night, at midnight - and the other is a warning from KID to me that I received at five past eleven and twenty seconds today, this very morning." He held up the handkerchief and his piece of paper bearing the solution. "He directly mentioned the Shizuoka anomaly and attached and your e-mail address to his heist. Your organisation is the one that sent in the probe that disappeared on Monday."

Stonewall clasped his hands together, resting his forehead on them before sighing and looking back up at them.

"I am afraid that the information is classified. I am sorry that I cannot help you any further. You already know too much for your civilian statuses." He stood up from his seat.

Nakamori grabbed his sleeve. "Now just a minute!" he shouted. "I've been chasing KID for twenty years now, and this is the first time he's ever done something like this! We don't even know what he's taking!"

Stonewall shook his head. "I am sorry, but I can't-"

"You can, Stonewall-gunshou," Hakuba said, stepping over to the two men. "Kaitou KID happened to hack his way into your files and whether you like it or not, that means a known criminal has classified information running around in his brain. Now, Kaitou KID may act like a gentleman, but he is still breaking the law and it is our duty to use all the information we can get to stop him! And that includes anything you are willing or unwilling to say. Do I make myself clear, gunshou?"

The foreigner stopped in his tracks, staring at the young ainoko, who suddenly backed away slightly, gasping. The commander seemed to consider his options, eyes shifting from the door of the now silent interrogation room to the chair he had just left behind. Some moments passed; finally, he took his seat again.

"Whatever we speak about must not leave this room," he said. "As I said before, the information is highly classified. There are no men beyond the one-way glass?"

"No," said Nakamori. "I sent them away before our meeting. This room is completely soundproof and there are no recordings."

"Good." Stonewall leaned forward, hands clasped. "The anomaly we are dealing with has been assessed as a special-temporal anomaly – in layman's terms, a rift. The probe we sent into this rift early Sunday night never came back. It instead landed within foreign waters."

Nakamori shook his head. "You mean to say that that anomaly is actually some kind of portal?"

Hakuba nodded in agreement. "It would certainly fit with the note, actually. I checked for islands around where the anomaly is supposedly situated in Suruga Bay, on the computers here when working off a hunch. None of them have names relating to angels, wings or religious characters in Christianity, Buddhism or Shinto. But if he were referring to an island through the anomaly..."

Stonewall nodded. "Our feed also recovered images of some rather... unusual locals."

Hakuba and Nakamori looked at each other. "Unusual?" they chorused; Nakamori took a swig of the coffee mug that had been sat in front of him since the meeting began. Obviously, without any effecting actions until now, it had already gotten cold. He hissed slightly.

A dimensional portal that lead to a foreign place... An island that didn't appear on any maps... And unusual locals? Hang on, it couldn't be-

"Aliens," Hakuba breathed. "You captured live footage of aliens!?"

"The creatures seen on the video are humanoid aliens," Stonewall replied. "We wouldn't mistake them for any animal that lives on our planet; they do share many features that Earth mammals do, but their physical structure, while similar to a humans, is clumsy and overbalanced. However, they still move around identically to a human being. They speak in English and Japanese, and appear to have a wealth of greatly advanced technology for all branches of modern life. However, they tend to display certain behaviours of the animals they resemble. One of them took part of the probe's casing, licked it, and then washed himself, for example."

"Are you serious?" Nakamori asked, eyes wide.

"Kaitou KID's intention is to steal a jewel on the other side of the anomaly – from a strange island on an alien planet that speaks English," Hakuba narrated. "By 'red man', he means that the alien he's going to steal from has red fur or skin. The jewels must have a long history and a reputation for magical abilities or effects. Possibly some kind of radiation."

"You have learned all you need to know. The rest of the information is classified," Stonewall said, standing once more. "You were lucky I told you as much as I did. Kaitou KID is on the Most Wanted lists of fourteen different countries, so the UN and the United States of America are sending us to help Japan capture him. But this is as far as you will go. No more information can be sent to your department." He stepped over to the door, and walked out of the room, the guards on either side of the door stumbling to a nervous salute as he disappeared from view.

Nakamori looked over at Hakuba, who nodded, and winked. "That may be, Commander," he said in English, glancing over at the door, "but be warned that I will find out the rest by my natural gifts of observation and inference."

MKMKMKMKMK

"I can't believe it," Nakamori said as he entered his house, rubbing his forehead.

Aoko looked up from her schoolbooks. "What is it, otou-san?" she asked, standing up. She grabbed his face. "You don't look well..."

Nakamori shook her hand off. "I just swallowed my coffee the wrong way. I-It's nothing."

The eighteen-year-old girl raised an eyebrow, but shook her head and walked off to the kitchen. Her father seated himself at the table in the dining room, crossing his arms and concentrating on what seemed to be an interesting spot on the table.

It had certainly been an incredible day for him, not to mention the rest of the last fortnight. The loss of radio signals just off the coast of the south-east of the country; the paparazzi storm after discovering the mess; Kaitou KID's pair of heist notes to the police and to Hakuba, Hakuba's note warning him of the dangers of what he was doing; having to contact a commander of a foreign military; and now discovering that the 'Shizuoka triangle', as it was so nicknamed, was actually the gateway to an alien planet with intelligent life-!

He groaned.

"I heard that," Aoko said, walking back into the room with a tray holding two steaming cups. She placed one in front of the man. "It's green tea," she explained. "It should help."

Nakamori eyed it wearily. Then he picked it up and took a single sip. Aoko watched him with bated breath.

He put down the cup and, to her great relief, he smiled. "Thank you very much, Aoko-kun," he said. "You don't know how much I needed that."

Aoko nodded. "It's KID's heist tomorrow night, isn't it?" she said. "Hakuba was called out of class this morning – or, more accurately, he walked out on his own accord. If you've got a headache on the same day, then I doubt it could be anything other than that."

Nakamori stifled a mad chuckle. "Oh, it's a bit bigger than KID this time... the idiot's walking straight into it, as well."

"Otou-san!" Aoko exclaimed. "I may not like KID very much, but I do that he knows what he's doing!"

"That's the horrifying part this time," Nakamori replied. "KID knows more about what he's doing and where he's going than the police do at the moment. We had to call in the foreign military today to find out exactly what he was doing. It turns out he hacked into their computers to get information for his heist and came out of it with a ton of confidential information under his belt. They only offered the basic information we needed before walking out." He took another drink from his cup. "It was probably for the best; what he told us was enough to get our heads spinning, me and Hakuba."

"What was it, a global political conspiracy or something?" the girl joking, putting her own cup to her lips. "Kaitou KID's going to steal a foreign document that proves that the royalty of some European country is actually made up of tiny nano-bots. Or maybe he's going to fly off into a magic portal and steal from some aliens!" She smirked, tipping the cup back, but stopped when she spotted the now paralysed Nakamori Ginzo across from her. "...Otou-san? Are you okay?"

He regained consciousness and quickly took another a drink. "Yes, yes..."

Aoko raised an eyebrow, but continued to drink.

A few minutes of silence passed in which Nakamori had time to consider things. Aoko was right – KID often knew exactly what he was doing, even when all his plans went to pot. It was one of the things that were so strange about the man. But still... he was really running into a mess this time. Hopefully, if this heist screwed up, KID would have a back-up plan to help him escape. He had certainly done so when the snipers first appeared at his heists. Nakamori remembered them. Black-clothed, silent men who took shots at the thief, shots that were expertly dodged from what seemed to be a lifetime of experience, and then fled as fast as lightning, before the police could even find them. Their faces were never caught on any security cameras. If Nakamori didn't know any better, he'd say they were the fastest things alive.

The odd thing about Nakamori's opinion was that he didn't know any better, and yet he still realised that they weren't the fastest creatures in the universe. They were only men, after all, and one day the Task Force would be able to apprehend these people as well as Kaitou KID, and see just how far this vendetta reached. After all, there had to be plenty of people who would want KID dead, even despite the fact that he never harmed anybody, and always returned what he took. Kaitou KID was like Marmite. Some people just didn't want it around.

MKMKMKMKMK

Ai walked downstairs, flicking on the light. Conan still lay upon the sofa, fast asleep. One of the books from the Kudou house next door lay upon his lap.

Sighing, she held her dressing gown closer to herself as she walked over to him, feeling his forehead once more. He wasn't flushed, although...

He stirred under her touch. "Nii-chan..."

She flinched.

"...find anything... you do better?" The boy snuggled into the cushions, completely unaware how he muttered in his sleep. Ai probably would have left him alone, however, if not for the fact that straight after asking a question to whatever fictional older brother lay in his imagination, he answered it himself.

"No... nothing..."

The girl paused, and then walked back upstairs.

A/N: This chapter's actually a page and a half longer than intended. Enjoy it while it lasts, peeps; the next chapter will likely be the normal length. XD

Hmmm? He's not what you think... And it looks like the shark-tank arrived, as well as the ramp. Let's make the jump willingly... (Those sound like lyrics. It would be a good song.)