She still hadn't figured it out. She wracked her brain, pulled up every memory her eight year old mind could call up, but could not place where she'd seen the mustached policeman before. He wasn't one of The Officers—note the capital letters, they were special!—and she could only, with dubious clarity, remember meeting him once. Ayumi let out a frustrated sigh in the back seat of her mother's car. She put her small fist against her forehead and shook it, as if the motion would stir up some sort of remembrance.

It didn't work, the only thing she could recall from that time were scattered images of makeup, pinching, and robes. That man hadn't left much of an impression on the easily distractible primary student, and she was paying for her childish attention problem with a growing headache. Her mother must have heard her quiet groan of frustration, as she glanced quickly over her shoulder before returning her attention to the road, "If you're not feeling well, I can take you home."

Ayumi shook her head, "I'm fine, Mom." She smiled broadly, reassuringly, knowing the older woman could see her through the mirror, "I just wish the cars would move…"

The girl leaned her head against the cool glass, pushing the frustrating thoughts out of her mind for the time being. Despite it being in the middle of the day, the small road was packed and the moving was slow, which did nothing to lighten her mood. She just wanted to get to school, to be with her friends, to laugh with them. But once she got there, there would be something missing.

Ayumi closed her eyes, focusing on the glass beneath her skin. It felt good in comparison to the rather warm air and helped soothe her headache, easing the frustration that had been building over the last few weeks. The thing at school, plus the thing with her self-imposed case, had added up to a fair amount of the negative emotion and it felt good to be rid of some of it.

One…

Two…

Three…

Five…

Five types of them.

"Five different types?" Ayumi mumbled aloud, before her eyes snapped open.

"Hey! You young ladies, isn't it a bit too early to learn about makeup?"

"Ah!" Her exclamation didn't reach her mother's ears, but the woman did see the sudden straightening of her daughter's small frame, "Ayumi…?"

"I'm fine!" She was almost giggling to herself, of course she was fine, she knew where she'd seen the guy.

"Kids should act like kids, right?"

It was a theatre! Ran-san's dad had taken the Detective Boys to a play. They had been in a dressing room…The images were coming clearer now, now that she had some idea of where to look. She remembered the time, it would be little effort to remember the name. The actors had been introduced and then…

"Nakamori-keibu!"

That was him! That was the mustached man she'd seen on the steps, the one giving the conference, the one answering the questions. There was something about him; something she knew would be the key to solving the puzzle.

Her brows furrowed, now what was it…?

The car jolted to a stop, scattering her thoughts to the four winds. Ayumi looked out the window, surprised to find that they were suddenly in front of her school. She'd been so absorbed into her thoughts that she hadn't noticed turning off the packed road and finishing the final leg of the trip to the institution. Her mother was getting out of the car now, but she leaned back in and smiled at the girl in the back seat, "Are you ready to see your friends?"

"Yeah!" All thoughts of the case were forgotten, pushed aside in favor of seeing her friends again. She'd talk the details over with them, and they'd be proud of her for finding all of the clues and putting them together. Her hand fell to her side and rested lightly against her pocket, feeling the odd lump inside.

The only thing that shadowed her mood was that she knew Conan would not be there to look on her with pride.

-

"EEEH? Stolen?"

The girl's distressed voice rose above the chatter of primary students, drawing at least a dozen curious young eyes in search of the cause of the distraction. In the back of the classroom, huddled around a desk, was the Shounen Tantei. One of the members, Ayumi, had been the source of the yell, and the attention garnered by her actions only succeeded in bringing a faint red blush to her cheeks and further the desire to melt into the floor and disappear. Genta and Mitsuhiko, the two boys of the group, quickly noticed the girl's growing distress. They moved with little hesitation to disperse the attention, whether through threats and intimidation—"Stop staring already!"—or through calm explanation—"She just misplaced it, it wasn't actually stolen."

Eventually the easily distracted children grew bored when no police came busting through the doors to catch the imaginary thief—while it wouldn't be as interesting, even a teacher showing up would have been fine—and turned back to their own friends and conversations, much to the relief of the objects of scrutiny. Ayumi let out a relieved sigh, sinking back in her chair like an empty bag of potatoes, "Is it really, Mitsuhiko?"

"Aa." The slightly nerdy looking boy nodded, returning his attention to the lump on the table, "I saw it on the news this morning before school."

In the center of the circle—well, more of a square—of kids sat the object that Ayumi had picked up earlier that morning. Finally uncovered and out from the darkened shadow of the building, she could see that it was indeed a jewel. It hadn't taken much to wipe away the dirt and bits of grass that were stuck to the glassy surface, revealing the dark, very dark, green coloration of the slightly oval shaped gem. At first she'd just believed that it was something from the gift shop inside the museum—one of her favored memories of the trip was of browsing through the replicas on sale in the souvenir store—but Mitsuhiko was unwavering in his proclamation that, sitting innocently on the desk in front of them, was the target of one of Japan's most annoying and slippery thieves to date.

She glanced around nervously, eyeing the other children scattered around the classroom. Had they seen? Did they know what It was? Was that why the teacher had stepped out? Was she going to bring the police back? Would they arrest her for having the—

"Aaah! I don't wanna go to jail!" A heavy, firm touch on her shoulder caused her tense frame to spasm and her arms to be thrown over her face in a defensive reaction, "Honestly officer, I didn't steal it!"

"Ayumi-chan…" She peeked over her arms to find Genta's concerned face, not the stern navy-clad police she'd been expecting. Her heart was pounding from her scare, and her uneasy laugh as she lowered her arms did nothing to reassure her friends, "Sorry Genta-kun, you scared me."

"You need to relax Ayumi." The only other girl in the group pushed away from the desk, the legs of her chair rubbing against the floor as it moved beneath her weight, "Just return it to the police and it'll be fine."

Ayumi looked up and met the brunette's stone grey eyes, as cool and calm as ever, and drew strength from her friend's unwavering personality. Of course it would be fine, if Haibara said it would be, it would be. Haibara Ai was the most intelligent of the group, even more so than Conan, and she would know what best to do in this situation. There were few times when Haibara had lost control enough to let them color her judgment, very few times. Ayumi was sure that if someone hung her over a pit of hungry pit of sharks the tea-haired girl would only comment curiously on how little they'd eaten to seem so hungry, rather than start panicking because she was about to be eaten. Ayumi was taking strength from this aspect of her friend, but no matter how much support she got from them she just…

"I can't…" The girl reached over the desk, folding the tissue over the jewel and picking it up. She let it lay in her palm, just feeling the weight in her hand and looking down on the covered shape. Covered like this, one could hardly tell it was a stone worth far more than most people would ever make in their lifetimes. Nor that it was probably the most recognizable jewel because of Kaitou Kid's theft. She shook her head, slipping it into the pocket of her jacket, "I can't take it to them."

Haibara just gave her a sidelong glance, one delicate eyebrow raising a minimal distance. She didn't comment on it, instead she rose from her seat, turning away and stretching her arms a little, "Then take it to Edogawa-kun." The comment was almost an after thought, as she tilted her head a little to keep the other girl in her sights, "He'll find something to do with it, I suppose."

Ayumi mulled over the suggestion as the Shounen-Tantei broke up and each returned to their seats as the bell rang, signaling the end of free period. She was forced to put it aside when Sensei returned, readying to begin the lesson, but she made a promise to think on it later.

-

Kaito was used to the unusual, but there were some things that just crossed the line of 'weird' to 'Weird'. 'weird' would be seeing Akako in an outfit that reminded him of some sort of Egyptian queen. 'Weird' would be seeing Akako in an outfit that reminded him of an Egyptian queen at school. Seriously, the last time she dressed like that she tried some weird sort of voodoo on him, so sue him for being just the slightest bit weirded out and wary.

He slowly, cautiously approached the table she'd set up in front of the school, threading his way through the crowd of spell-bound males that milled around it. Her hold over the male population was strong enough in normal clothes, but apparently the new ensemble reduced their resistance to almost nothing. It was sad really.

She looked up when he approached, her eyes zeroing in on his body without any signal or sound from him. A wispy touch brushed against his mind, much like the faint smell of an alluring perfurme, but he brushed it off with little trouble. Really, you'd think Akako would figure out that he was not interested and would quit trying to force him to join her harem.

"What are you doing?" His voice only showed mild curiosity, and none of the unease that was winding his nerves to the fraying point. He scanned the top of the cloth covered table, taking in the various objects lain out along it. A deck of cards, a crystal ball, and some other odd and slightly disturbing items—was that a shrunken head?

"Fortune telling." The self proclaimed witch shuffled the deck of cards smoothly, slender hands easily showing prior experience with the act. A meticulously shaped eyebrow quirked in amusement, "Is there a problem Kuroba-san?"

"No, just curious." He turned to leave, but was stopped by the long-haired girl's sudden question.

"Have you ever played detective, Thief-san?" The last word and honorific were spoken at a lower volume, but Kaito caught it easily.

"No." What did she mean by that? Anyway, he'd never played detective before. Played with detectives, yes, but never had he taken up the role himself. Well, that wasn't entirely true. He was trying to discover who exactly was behind the people who killed his father, but he wasn't going about it in an overly detective-like manner.

Akako gave him a mysterious smile, as if amused by some tidbit of information he was not privy to. She stopped shuffling the deck, pulling the top card off the top and handing it to him without looking, "I'd suggest you get used to it."

He turned the face down card over in his hands, staring at the Ace of Spades. What was that supposed to mean? When he asked her that she just laughed and waved her finger at him, "Ah ah, that is something for you to figure out."

He glanced down at the card again, before stuffing it in his pocket and diving back into the crowd again. He could see Aoko by the gate, she was waiting for him.

-

A/N: Wow, chapters are going pretty fast now. I wonder how long this will last…

Thanks again to Hittocere-Battosai for beta'ing and just overall prodding. Maybe that's why I'm getting so much done…

For those of you who want to know what's up with Conan, you'll just have to wait. It's a se-cret n.n

Hope you enjoyed it, and don't forget to drop a review(it might also be the reviews…so many for the few days it's been up)

Off to Luck or Fire, Dreams, and Twilight. Dunno which I'll work on next.