"Tails…" Sonic muttered.

"Hmm?"

The pair were rifling through the books in the entertainment suite upstairs. Kaito's father had amassed a lot of books over the years of his life, mostly about things related to his magic tricks. There were tomes on things from stage magic to street magic. You name it, he had it. Alongside these, however, were the subjects you'd not expect from the library of a stage magician but would expect from the library of a phantom thief. Things like books on the properties of different stones, ancient myths and legends, mechanics, geography, maps of various cities, guides on various great works of art… many things resided on those shelves.

"Have you asked Kaito what he's doing all of this for?" asked Sonic, pulling out some books on planes and handing them to Tails.

"He says that the specific reason he needs the Chaos Emerald is to serve as both a distraction and a cure for his friend," the fox replied, taking the books. "I didn't quite get it much…"

Sonic shrugged, and then opened up a book on Greek legend. "Come to think of it, he did ask me some odd things about the Chaos Emeralds last week. He kept pressing me about how they worked, but he seemed to want me to put more emphasis on how exactly using them could affect people that aren't in their normal physical state."

"You don't think his friend's been mangled or something, do you?" Tails mumbled, shuddering. "The Chaos Emeralds sometimes have random effects on normal people." He paused, running his finger down the spine of the book nervously. "What do you think happened to his friend?"

"His ears perked up when I mentioned about rapid cell duplication," Sonic said. "But if that's so… I don't have a clue what could've happened. Maybe he secretly wants to give all his enemies cancer or something?"

Tails frowned. "That's not good…" He opened the book and flicked to the back. "Hmm… I can't read anything in here."

"Neither can I," Sonic grinned. "Except for one thing at the front here."

"What's that?"

"The date of the print-run of this book is written in Arabic numerals. It's a first edition, two-thousand-and-one, and it's not in any terrible state. In fact I'd say this was a brand new book purchased at the most last year."

"…Oh, my…"

MKMKMKMKMK

"Knuckles! Knuckles!"

The song was yelling his name. This quite clearly was not part of the song, he noted, as this one was repeating for the second time and he had not heard any of the deep-voiced rock singers yelling his name the first time round while blabbering on in their strange human language.

The echidna pulled out an earphone just as Tails and Sonic ran (and, in the case of Sonic, ambled) into the room. "What is it, guys?" he growled. "I was trying to get some piece and quiet listening to this primitive listening device."

"That's the point I'm about to make," Tails retorted. "When we came through the anomaly it sent us back in time, Knuckles!"

"WHAT!?" The echidna shot up. "You mean…"

"The reason why Kaito needed my exposition when we first appeared and why he needs to keep us in the house is because the humans here on this planet don't know that the Mobian species exists yet," Sonic said. "If any one of us walks outside, we'll end up permanently changing the timeline!"

Knuckles glanced around the house. "Hmm." He got up, crossing his arms. "What if he escaped over to this side?"

Sonic and Tails looked at each other, biting their bottom lips. Knuckles, although short-tempered usually, always became his old stoic self whenever things went wrong. In this state he never tended to kid around. "You mean him?" Sonic said. "The guy Egg-for-brains got with his machine? Is that even possible?"

"Oh, it's possible." Knuckles gestured to the television.

"So that's what you've been doing all this time," Sonic purred slyly. "Watching an ancient television while everybody else has been doing stuff to help Kaito out in his mission. Real productive, wise guy."

"Shut up, Sonic. At least I'm not answering to a pathetic human child whose gig is stealing precious treasures from other people while performing his fancy little parlour tricks to make everybody look the other way." He shook his head. "Anyway, that thing happens to show human news programmes. Guess who got a mention on the news last week in the form of surveillance footage of a shooting and a bunch of eyewitness testimonies coupled with some badly-drawn sketches of the culprit: a giant purple rat with a revolver-type firearm. That sounds a lot like him to me."

"Knuckles, why didn't you tell us about this when it originally came up?" Sonic groaned.

The echidna bared his teeth. "Because I didn't want to disturb you and Fairy Fingers while you nearly blew our cover a few days back!"

Tails began pacing the room hurriedly, his twin tails in a knot. He twisted his fingers around themselves. "Oh, no, oh, no, oh, no… what's gonna happen to Mobius now that time's being changed?" he squeaked. "Our planet could be being actively searched for as we speak! And then, what'll happen to it? I've heard humans get more supportive of their own violent acts the further back you go along the timeline…"

"That's not true, Tails," Sonic retorted. "Humans aren't that bad! They aren't going to hurt us! Besides, they don't pick up that fast. I bet it's all going to be blamed on some kind of supernatural goings on."

MKMKMKMKMK

"I'm telling you, it's a demon!" Aoko yelled at the top of her voice, deafening half of the class.

"There's no such thing as monsters!" Kaito yelled back, deafening the rest of them. He sunk down in his seat, arms crossed and eyes closed. "It's probably just some guy in a suit or something."

"A guy in a suit couldn't pull that costume off in a million years, Kaito!" the girl argued. "If you didn't realise, that thing was reported to be half the size of a human being with a huge head and noodle arms. Besides, if that was a guy in a suit then what on Earth was he doing in a suit?"

Kaito opened one eye to look at her. It had been a while since he'd popped into school – in fact, it was the first time he'd been in since last heist. The administration had already been informed of his 'sickness' over the past several days; since Hakuba pulled out around the same time and they had no idea of the constant duel between pompous British git and mischievous phantom thief, they ruled it as just a cold bug going around. Luckily a few others had been absent around the same time, so there was no suspicion of anything even if they had managed to connect the dots yet. He was now eagerly (note: sarcasm) awaiting his teacher's appearance in the classroom and the obvious clumps of homework that would appear on his desk.

"If he was in a suit, it was to disguise his face, and maybe to also pin the blame on whoever uses that suit at Tropical Land," he replied swiftly. "Plus, while in the suit, even if the gun is found, there'll be no fingerprints on it."

Aoko put on a triumphant grin. "Oh? What about genetic evidence in the suit itself? Why didn't he think of that?" she retorted, causing several people in the classroom to start muttering to each other. Amongst them, Akako rolled her eyes, wondering how this conversation between the two verbal combatants began in the first place. All it had taken was a mention of the news and the strange animal that had attacked somebody in an open area.

"Well, if he ever read up on that case with the Gomera actor a few years ago, he'll know to burn the suit so that any genetic evidence goes up in flames," Kaito replied, nodding.

"Of course this conjecture is all well and good... if we assume that the attack was premeditated!" announced a proud Aoko.

The trickster smirked. "If the murder wasn't premeditated, then why would he have an illegal firearm ready on him and why didn't the video show whatever the policeman did to make him commit his unpremeditated crime?" He scratched the back of his head. "Not everybody can pull a mop from their-"

Said mop appeared from nowhere.

"..."

"There's also something you've neglected to tell any of us," said the girl, fingers tightening on her unusual weapon. "Why do you have an escape tunnel in your desk?"

"Escape tunnel? It's a stage aid. Why else do you think I'd have it?" he bluffed. Not really, actually – he kept that tunnel around because it meant he could perform conjuring tricks a little more easily. You couldn't hide anything in your sleeves these days. "Surely you realise I've been getting those newspapers from somewhere, right? Magic's all smoke and mirrors; you have to have some trap doors hanging around, no matter the stage."

"Stop messing around and tell me the truth, you idiot!"

Kaito stiffened slightly, glancing at her. Her feet were planted carefully on the ground, and he could tell she wasn't kidding from the way her voice was wavering slightly. Everybody else was waiting for the fur to start flying. Even the teacher, who had just entered the room, was giving him an apprehensive look. It was as if he'd just been unmasked as the KID.

Well, time to let the KID take over.

"Yes, that tunnel is there for me to make my hasty getaway," Kaito replied. "It comes out just outside of the east wall. But it's only a comfort thing, really."

Aoko lowered her weapon. "Why the heck would you need a tunnel as a comfort thing!?" she exclaimed.

Kaito looked rather pointedly at the mop. Aoko followed his eye-line to it... and then proceeded to give him a no-holds-barred beat-down.

MKMKMKMKMK

"We finally have something, keibu," one of the men announced after another twenty minutes. Searching the entire east border of a prefecture was not an easy task, but they'd finally been able to come up with something after such a while.

Nakamori looked at the screen. "Excellent. Now we just require a date."

"Knowing KID… that date would likely be…" Hakuba drifted into silence, bent over slightly with his eyes closed and the very corner of his mouth just vaguely turning upwards.

Nakamori turned around. "What is it, Hakuba-kun?" he asked, furrowing his brow. Dear Lord, he hoped that Hakuba wasn't hiding something else from him, especially anything of this particular magnitude. After all, Hakuba was a rather pricy catch; his tailor-made service came with expenses most other people of his age didn't bother offering for their work. Weren't consultant detectives like him there to help the police capture criminals rather than hinder them?

"I was just thinking. Kaitou KID enjoys making awkward references." Hakuba walked around them. "Rather than mention the moon this time, he refers to the return of the sun. The sun is often used as a representation of spring, and the return of spring is the spring equinox. It's on the twentieth, two days after the next full moon."

"So we just have to wait until then?"

"Exactly." Hakuba smirked. "KID never makes his puzzles too hard to solve."

"Well, I hope you're right about it," Nakamori replied. "All we have to do now is inform Edogawa Conan-kun about this so we can take him to the heist."

The blond shrugged. An unusual thing to do for him, but everybody was acting a bit odd anyway, so no big deal. "We'd have to go through Mouri-chan first. She's been very… protective of him as of late." He was going to say something else, but figured that he probably wouldn't get away with it.

Although, it was going to be a long while before they would have to ask to bring him to the heist. Ran most likely wouldn't have heard the comment at all, unless some stupid officer in the back decided to blurt it aloud. And then only he would be beaten up. And then again the guy might mention that Hakuba said it. He was no idiot; he knew Mouri Ran was a regional karate champion and he did not ever want to be on the other side of those kicks and punches.

"I'm going to call somebody, if that's alright," he said, bowing, and attempted to exit the room. Unfortunately for him, however, the inspector planted a hand on his shoulder. With a slight shiver he came to a halt.

"There is still something you've not told us." Nakamori moved his hand to the teenager's arm. "The location of the miniature camera you gave to KID on the heist." Hakuba sighed. "You said it would help us track him, but the camera only records onto a small drive which can then be taken out and plugged into a computer. Where is the drive?"

"The contents of that drive… are only to be seen by me and Conan-kun," Hakuba answered. "Those were KID's terms. I could let you see it – no, listen to it, as the visuals are knocked out after a while - but you have to understand that it's meant to be private information between the three of us. In fact, I'll get it now for you. I was going to be asking for it to be delivered here anyway, as well as contact the associated party. I believe you know who."

Nakamori glared for a few seconds. "You realise that you're pushing your luck as far as it can go. Any more cover-ups like this and we'll be looking for a fitting punishment."

Hakuba glanced down at the floor. "I'm well aware of that. Just trying to keep promises… even if they are with thieves."

Nakamori let him go, and he walked down the corridor for a little while, hands in pockets, before whipping out his mobile phone from his pocket. Letting one more sigh pass through his lips he opened it up and dialled Baaya's number.

"Hello?"

"Bocchama? What is it?"

" Yes, hello, Baaya-san. There should be a memory card in my laptop at the moment. Go upstairs, collect it from my bedroom and bring it down to the police station."

"I will do so."

There was a brief pause on the other end, and he listened to the lady's shuffling as she hurried up the stairs. He stood there, tapping his foot, as he waited.

But when Baaya came back onto the phone, he didn't get the response he wanted.

"There isn't a card in the laptop, bocchama. Maybe it's elsewhere?"

"…What?" Hakuba stared blankly at the wall for a few moments, then shook himself out of it and returned to the conversation, his fingers wrapping tighter around the telephone. "I assure you, Baaya-san, I did not take it out of the laptop. It was in there this morning when I left. I checked thoroughly."

"Well, it's not here. You're entirely sure that you didn't take it out with you?"

"Of course I didn't. There's no reason that I would." He paused, breathed – in, out; in, out; one, two; one, two – and said less agitatedly, "Are you absolutely sure… that it's not in my room?"

"Positive."

Hakuba hung up, and looked up at the sky, groaning. "This is just going further and further to pot, isn't it?" he grumbled in English. He closed his eyes and leaned against the wall, rubbing his forehead lightly. "Oh…"

MKMKMKMKMK

"I done what yuh've asked and gotten ya the freakin' tape," he said. "Is this all ya need?"

"No, it's not. We still have more for you to do."

It had been this way for the last several days. The group here were nice in their own little way; they offered shelter and food for him in exchange for certain… services, should he say? (Not to mention that they actually spoke the same language as he did, which always garnered a plus even in the more dire situations.) Said services always took advantage of his special abilities. Never mind that he had to work so constantly for them at every opportunity, as he was hardly exhausted, although a little miffed that he didn't get any other rewards for his job other than more jobs. He was enjoying it.

He was talking, of course, about his marksman skills and decent speed. Not whatever just appeared in peoples' heads. He knew there were strange people around – heck, he was currently in with the strangest bunch he'd ever seen – but he hoped to high hell that nobody was that bad.

And on the subject of bad people, that voice in his head had been disturbing him a lot recently. Telling him things. Telling him that this was not a good place at all to be; that the people here would do little for him and for the world; that he should get out of there as soon as possible. He liked to shove that voice into the back of his head and ignore it. It only kept getting louder each time it argued, but it was starting to run out of points to make.

"What else have I gotta do?" he said, nearly enthusiastically – only nearly.

"We're moving you to a special unit with another branch of ours. I think you'll recognise the leader as soon as you see him."

"Wouldn't 'appen to be that white-haired bloke, would 'e?" He yawned. "Unless it's somebody I met for a brief second durin' trainin'?"

"Oh, trust me. This will be a big surprise."

He wheeled around to walk out of the door. "Well, good. Don't wanna be bored."

A/N: Everybody's been keeping secrets from each other. Those secrets... one day they're all going to come out, and who knows if they'll be forgiven.

Surprisingly I finished this chapter early, but didn't start on the next chapter until late last night.