Hakuba refused to talk, and Nakamori had thought it might be best if he just disregarded the information. What Hakuba knew might have been vital to understanding the why, but officially it didn't matter at all to the Task Force. However, that hadn't been the best choice to make, and he had fallen into a ridiculously-powerful silence as soon as the words left the Inspector's lips. Angrily, Hakuba had stormed out of the station and walked home, not responding to any phone calls he received. When he got home, the first order of business had been to check the film in person – and damn it, Megure was right about the rat – and then to quietly devour his dinner and desert before heading off to bed.

In the end, when Hakuba woke up the next day, he ended up receiving the message that he was not going to be joining them until the entire thing blew over. So the Task Force were left to prepare for that month's heist on there own, without the teenage detective's planning skills while the ainoko dropped into school, frightening many in the class with his attitude.

It was unnerving to watch, in Kaito's opinion. Hakuba was meant to snark. He wasn't snarking. He was just sitting there with that grim look on his face, answering any subject questions the teacher fed him in a quiet, robotic tone.

Finally, he took it upon himself to call the guy out. Without warning in the middle of History class he stood up, bowed, spoke as many apologies to the teacher in ten seconds as physically possible, grabbed Hakuba by the shoulders and steered him up out of the classroom, all while Aoko stared at his back.

"Hakuba-kun?" he asked. "Hakuba-kun? Are you okay? You seem a little pissed, if you mind the language."

"…" Hakuba leant against the edge of the roof, letting the breeze play around with his fringe. "I've been kicked out," he growled.

Kaito blinked. "Of what?"

"Kaitou KID's heist is in sixteen days," Hakuba replied, hand grasping about in his pocket for his watch. "Sixteen days, and no-one-cares-how-many-milliseconds. I'm withholding information from the police, so they've decided to discount it, as they already know around about where and when the heist is happening and they shouldn't need it."

"And?"

Hakuba glared at him suddenly, causing the black-haired boy to jump back a bit. "…The information I'm withholding… is the entire reason behind this heist and the heist last month, isn't it, KID?"

A small pause, and then Kaito burst out laughing. "Right, right, I forgot about that! You think I'm him, don't you?" he replied. "If it's so important, though, why can't you tell them? I didn't think you were the type to not tell the police what you know."

"Because, if I did that, I'd be breaking a thousand promises to Kaitou KID. Half of which I already have anyway." Hakuba sighed. "And telling the police everything isn't worth it at all if they misuse that information anyway. Not to mention… never mind."

The spiky-haired teenager frowned, walking over and standing next to him. "It's… high up here, huh?" he said, trying to think of a conversation and very easily losing it.

Hakuba scowled. Kaito had never seen him wear such an expression before in his life. "Like that matters," he said. "Tell me what you need to tell me now, Kuroba-kun."

"Well, for starters, if I was Kaitou KID – note the 'if'; I'm not admitting to it if our lives were in the balance – I'd be feeling stood-up by now, you know?" Kaito slipped his hands into his pockets. "Hakuba Saguru-kun is my tantei-san, correct? I think I'd be very upset if I don't see him at my next heist. And to me, it wouldn't matter what Nakamori-keibu told you – if you really wanted to chase me around, you'd be there for me anyway, right?" He grinned. For a second, an image of the Kaitou KID passed by Hakuba's vision, the monocle and hat covering the boy's face and his body enveloped in the white cape. As soon as it came, it went, and Hakuba was left feeling confused about it all. "Well?"

He frowned. "Well… y-yes, I suppose…"

"Good. Now give me a nice manly hug! Unless you don't like the subtext?"

"What are you… oh, dear- Oi, you git!" The blond struggled against the sudden embrace, his arms flopping about uselessly under the other's grip. After a few seconds of helplessness he decided he wasn't going to burn like a witch, relaxed and found himself in a bit of a quandary.

He was really ticked off. That was for definite. But he had no real idea why. Sure, the fact that the police had just 'laid him off', for lack of a better term, was harsh, but wasn't it easier to keep secrets when you didn't have somebody demanding you had over all your information? ...No, it wasn't that that was bugging him. Wasn't it because the police were just ignoring what he knew rather than trying to weasel it out of him?

How could they do such a thing? How could Nakamori just give up like that? He knew – he knew that information had to be vital to understanding the whole matter, otherwise Hakuba wouldn't have kept it to himself. And yet he just gave up? It didn't seem right at all. Even his delivery had been off during the whole meeting. He didn't even go past raising his voice. The swearing had been absent, despite how angry he had obviously been; the worst he had muttered was some promise to kill him and shove him in a blender, but that was hardly as disgusting as his normal language. There was something really wrong with the world.

"Gotcha!" Kaito pulled back, and shrugged. "Hey, you know what?"

Hakuba looked at him, feet shifting. "What are you going to do to me, Kuroba-kun?" he asked, rolling his eyes.

The other boy looked genuinely hurt at the statement (of course, you could never tell with him; he was positively brilliant with this sort of thing, as he had proven on multiple occasions). "I'm not going to do anything to you," he said. "You are going to talk to me."

"...Excuse me?"

"Well, you think I'm KID, so in your logic, the information isn't going to be going anywhere, is it?" Kaito offered his hand. "It's just going to go back to KID again. And besides, I could help you out too. I'm a magician myself." And to prove it, he shook his hand, and then reached behind Hakuba's back. Already getting the trick, Hakuba grabbed said hand and pulled up the sleeve of Kaito's gakuran as far as it would allow, then up the sleeve of his shirt. Nothing.

Kaito snorted. "You think I'm going to do it that way?" he said, and pointed behind the other at the edge of the building. The ainoko furrowed his brow and turned around... to see a bunch of flowers. In the centre, wrapped up in paper, was-

"A slice of strawberry shortcake?" Kaito nodded. "You're insane."

"On the contrary, I'm probably the only sane man nowadays," and he plucked out the cake and handed it to Hakuba. "So how about it? We have weekends where we can talk. I'm not doing anything then, and since you just, err... lost your job and all, I think you'll have a lot more free time on your hands than before."

Hakuba frowned. "..." He sighed, and took a bite from the cake. "Alright... There isn't anything in this cake, is there?"

MKMKMKMKMK

For the next several days, Ran grew more and more worried for Conan. The reasons were obvious – after all, how many small children had monsters coming after them, especially ones with guns? The fact that Conan had seen the damaged first-hand was even worse. She couldn't begin to imagine the mental effects it was having on him. And yet, on the outside, the boy wasn't worried or anything, since he kept saying that the creature was after Kaitou KID, not him. She was trying to figure out just how he had come to that decision.

Conan had been going to school again, and there was actually a positive in there: he was starting to interact more confidently with the other children. She'd been surprised when she learned about the little 'welcome back' cards that some of the class (mostly the girls) had made him with Ms Kobayashi's help. Apparently, Conan had been very surprised too and almost unwilling to follow the teacher into the classroom due to the large amount of attention being showered on him; eventually, the Shounen Tantei, Ai excluded, had shoved him in and gotten him to talk to the others. When Conan had come home that first day, the first thing he had told her when she asked about school was, "It doesn't feel too bad anymore."

All of this would have felt like normal development if it wasn't for the fact that until recently, he had been a very well-adjusted child with plenty of friends in the class and teaching staff and had no reason to act like this anymore. In fact, as far as she was aware, everything had only become this way since after the Kaitou KID heist.

There it was again. Whenever she tried to think of anything else, it always came to her like that.

She'd held conversations with Ai again since the third, this time discussing the exact effect the anomaly must have had on him. Ai had been surprised at his recent behaviour, it seemed, and was more than willing to cooperate if it meant 'keeping a few secrets'. Ran had no idea what she had meant by that, but had agreed to those terms and the two had hacked away at a couple of ideas. By the end of it, Ran was convinced. The anomaly was changing people's actions because it was changing around their personalities.

Which led to several questions about the anomaly itself – what was it that it could do such a thing and yet be so far away from them? And, considering that creature had popped out of it...

...Just where did it lead to?

So the days went by, and Ran took to watching the streets. Despite the huge city she was living in, she could always recognise some faces. Suddenly, people that she'd seen driving were riding bikes to work and others were buying different newspapers for different reasons. At one point she swore she'd seen Sonoko walking into a post-office wearing something that didn't expose her stomach or legs to the usual degree all her other clothes did. At another point, that Sunday, she noticed what looked like Shin'ichi walking and talking with Hakuba - huh?

She snuck up behind them and began to follow.

"...this is all about, anyway?" the lookalike said. He wasn't exactly like Shin'ichi, now that she was a little closer. His hair was all messy and his face, when she got to take a look at it, was more pointed-looking. He wasn't dressed like Shin'ichi, either. She was surprised that she'd even noticed him, when he was wearing basically very similar clothes to everybody else in the crowd. Nothing too dark, nothing too bright, just something very plain and not eye-catching, like he wanted to hide himself away or something along those lines. Of course, that kind of ploy had already failed when he decided to walk with a blond-haired teenager at least six feet tall.

"I have no clue," Hakuba admitted. His hands were in the bag balanced on his hip. He was wearing more casual clothes, a white shirt, jacket and brown trousers. He looked rather relaxed, which just seemed unusual for a man she had never seen out of a suit the few times she had met him. "As long as the police had me out of the force temporarily, there's practically no legal method for me to get any information on this thing."

Legal... information? And Hakuba had been kicked off the force... Hakuba had never been on the force. He must have been talking about assisting the police in catching Kaitou KID. Ran could only surmise that they were discussing the heist. But why would he be talking about it to this Shin'ichi doppelganger? Why here?

"Right. There is that." The 'clone' twiddled his fingers noticeably. Well, it had to be for a girl about ten feet behind them to notice it. "Of course, there is also the fact that somebody I might know might be able to hack the computers?"

Hakuba sighed. "I had guessed as much."

The lookalike chuckled. It suddenly became ever so clear to Ran that this was not Shin'ichi – he laughed boisterously, as if trying to kick people when they were down; this person sounded less exuberant and more... devious. "Oh, your suspicions kicking in again?" he mumbled. "Remember, we do not talk of this kind of thing in public..."

"We do not basically confirm this kind of thing in public either," Hakuba replied, grabbing his wrist tightly and holding it for a few seconds while his eyes darted around. She flinched, looking away and walking a bit forward, but stayed out in the open. Unbeknownst to her, a quick blush fluttered over Ran's face as she watched him lean over the other's ear. "Listen..." He whispered something, and suddenly the twin whipped around and noticed the teenage girl with the grocery bags staring right at him rather than at the obvious-looking Brit. A girl who looked very familiar.

He scratched the back of his head. "Uh... hey, Aoko," he said, laughing as he did so. "You didn't see or hear anything did you?"

Ran stared for a second. Then she stuttered out an answer. "My name's not Aoko," she said, concentrating on his face and assuring herself that this was not Shin'ichi mistaking her for another girl who he seemed to be cheating on with a boy, as it did seem to look from a teenager's warped mind. "Hakuba-kun... is this boy a friend of yours?"

Hakuba glanced over at said boy and shrugged. "I suppose he does count as one..." He pulled him forward slightly. "Kuroba-kun, this is Mouri Ran-chan, daughter of the famous detective Mouri Kogorou-san," he said. "Mouri-chan, this is Kuroba Kaito-kun. He is a classmate of mine."

"Pleasure to meet you," the newly-identified Kaito greeted her, bending over and producing a large bouquet from nowhere in particular. "I have to say, you're certainly a very pretty girl. Really, quite stunning, quite stunning..."

"...Oh." She bowed, not wanting to seem impolite. "But... do your classmates often admit to... hacking?" she asked, frowning at the black-haired boy who immediately blinked several times at her.

"He is currently my confidante," Hakuba said. "I do not believe it was your business to be listening in the first place... How is Conan-kun, anyway?"

Ran shook her head. "Conan-kun is improving. You two wouldn't happen to have been talking about the Kaitou KID heist, would you?"

"We would indeed."

"Would it be wrong for me to intrude?" she asked. "I would like to discuss a few things with you, if your 'confidante' is trustworthy enough..."

"I am sure he wouldn't mind," Hakuba answered. "Let's get somewhere to sit down and talk.

MKMKMKMKMK

They found a tiny but crowded café and ordered a few drinks from a small-looking waitress. She was kinda cute, and hurried off after taking everything down. Once they were all sitting around the clean little table and could be sure of no disturbances or anybody overhearing them, Hakuba immediately fired off.

"What is it you needed to ask, Mouri-chan?" he said, clasping his fingers together and resting his chin on them. Kaito sent a few weird glances his way, but other than that he didn't seem too alarmed.

"I've been discussing with a... friend," she began, very careful to emit the fact that said friend was actually in Conan's class and of Conan's size, "about some things to do with the anomaly." She fiddled with the edge of the grocery bag that she had planted on the edge of the table. The bouquet from before was sticking out of it: a beautiful collection of lilies, white roses and chrysanthemums. "I think I need to know a little more about the anomaly, and also what happened when the police went to the Kaitou KID Task Force."

Hakuba blinked. "The Task Force?" he said, the corner of his eye twitching. "Why them?"

"I was present at the Beika library during the shooting," she admitted. "The homicide detective there, Megure-keibu – he told us that he was going to visit them after the investigation there wrapped up."

"Oh, he certainly did," said Hakuba, "and I had a hard time convincing his friends that the creature from the anomaly is not a man in a suit and is actually from another world on the other side of it."

Ran stared for a second. The rest of the cafe continued talking as normal, not paying any attention to them at all. "Um... pardon?"

Kaito made a strange face and sat up from his position of leaning over the table. It was pretty obvious that he did not want to be part of the conversation at all and didn't think he could trust her at all, but if Hakuba said so, he must have guessed it was alright after all. "The thing that shot that police officer and that guy in the library?" he replied. "Really short, large head, spindly arms and produces real, albeit purple, fur – that's not a human you've got, that's a full-blown alien monster. And a smart one at that, if it can fire like that."

Now that she thought of it, Ai had said it was sapient.

"Conan-kun told me... oh, thank-you," the waitress had just come back with a tray, on top of which were a cup of Earl Grey, a tall glass of juice and another filled with coke, the latter two with straws, "he told me that the monster was going after Kaitou KID."

Kaito seemed to pale, although his face didn't change. But Ran had always been good at noticing the little changes in a person's body language. She supposed it was just due to being her father's daughter. His hand was twitching slightly.

"After... Kaitou KID?" he repeated. "Does he have any evidence?"

"No," Ran replied, "which is odd, because Conan-kun never says anything unless he has a particularly strong hunch, or enough evidence to back him up. Just like somebody I used to know..." The last part was muttered, but she was sure Hakuba had caught it, because he shifted slightly. "But a lot of people I know have been acting a little odd lately anyway. And I've noticed... it all began after Kaitou KID's last heist. That's when everything just seemed to become crazy."

Hakuba smirked. "I'll admit, 'crazy' is how I'd refer to it," he said. "You say everybody's been acting strangely?"

She nodded. "Yes. Otou-san has been cleaning up the house for his clients; my friend Sonoko-chan has been dressing more formally and spending more time on her schoolwork; Shin'ichi... stopped calling; oh, and okaa-san, recently, started sending letters to otou-san. She never does anything like that." She took a sip of her juice. "I've been thinking – me, and the friend I mentioned earlier – that it's the fault of the anomaly. People have been changing."

"People are like chemicals," Hakuba said. "They react to the passage of time and the world around them. Sometimes it doesn't look like they're the same person they used to be."

"You're thinking of catalysts, huh?" Kaito jabbed. "Catalysts speed up reactions. Maybe the anomaly is the catalyst that's causing all this awkwardness?"

"Nakamori-keibu hasn't been swearing lately," Hakuba noted, turning to him. "Nakamori-chan hasn't been chasing you around with her mop."

"You were cursing your arse off at the beginning of the week because you were thrown off the case," Kaito continued. "Is this really all the effect of the anomaly (?), because I don't understand half of these changes at all."

They looked at each other uneasily, and all went for their drinks. Within seconds all three had been downed, and there were empty cups on the tray.

"Did you say Conan-kun thought the creature was going after Kaitou KID?" Hakuba finally spat out. Ran nodded. "What did you say to him?"

"I told him that... it couldn't have been going after anything but him," she said slowly, stirring air with her straw. "The only connection between the two shootings is him."

Now Kaito very visibly paled. Both of the others caught it in the corner of their eye, and looked to see him wearing a completely serious look. It didn't suit him, Ran thought; that was Shin'ichi's face when he found himself offering condolences, and it didn't match Kaito's apparent nature at all. "The only connection...?"

"The only person involved in both incidents..." Hakuba explained.

Kaito looked down at the table. "Oh..." From what Ran could tell, he really wanted to be out of there.

A/N: Things have been stranger lately... The anomaly seems to be affecting people in the strangest of ways.