"Where did you go, anyway?" Ayumi perked up, recognizing the voice; at least she was following the right track. People were milling around and blocking the view, especially for a child her size, so it was hard to retrace her tracks with any accuracy. While there were some—very few—times when being short had been advantageous, many were the days she wished for more height. She didn't hear the answer Kaito's question had garnered, it was either spoken too softly and was covered up by the ambient background noise or it just didn't have the same carrying, noticeable quality that the teenager's had that let it pierce through other sounds.

Satisfied with her current placement—she could just barely see the colorful prize rack from the game now that she had an idea of where she was—Ayumi began to scan the ground. Every now and then she had to dodge a person(or persons) who missed the small girl and came far too close to stepping on her, but overall her search went uninterrupted, if mostly unsuccessful. She migrated closer to where she could hear the teenager's voice, using it as a reference point in her search. She knew she'd dropped it near the booth, she clearly remembered placing her hand in her pocket and feeling the cold metal when Mitsuhiko and Genta had been squabbling. Few minutes passed before something glinted in the sudden sunlight, a person's shadow moving and allowing the illumination to reflect against the metal. "Ah!" she nearly squealed in relief and delight, pouncing upon the small pin and picking it up off the ground, "There you are!"

The metal was quite cool in her hands, bringing a delighted smile to her face as she cradled it close. The badges had fallen into disuse since Conan always kept his flicked off, but the Shounen Tantei wouldn't get rid of them for the world. They were a symbol; a remembrance of a fun time that Ayumi was sure would come again before long.

"Hello…what are ya doin' back again, missy?"

Ayumi tilted her head up, smiling a little when she noticed Kaito leaning over her. He backed up when she acknowledged him, giving her enough room to straighten without any danger of head-to-head contact. Ayumi showed the pin to the teenager, holding it up to the light, "I dropped my badge! I had to come back and get it."

She puffed out her chest with pride as he examined the small motif on the transmitter, a silhouette of Sherlock Holmes leaning against a stylized English letter B. He hummed appreciatively, sinking down to a crouch to see it better, "Detectives eh? Have any cases?"

Ayumi thought over the question, not quite sure how to answer. The last case—the mystery of the missing shoe had long since been solved and put away, and the Shounen Tantei was currently between cases. Of course, they were still working on that old one…At length she shook her head, short black hair covering her face for a moment, "Not really. Our only active one is kinda old."

At the teen's questioning look she dug into her pockets, pulling out a crumpled piece of paper. She handed it to Kaito, her attempts at smoothing it out only proving counter-productive. With a small chuckle he took it, easily and deftly returned it to some semi-legible state. Upon noting the picture on the crumpled paper a strange, almost alarmed look managed to break through his easy smile. It threw Ayumi for a confused loop when he straightened up, and stared out over his shoulder at the people behind him, face thoughtful and drawn. The girl attempted to see what had caught his attention, but not even drawing herself up to her full height would make up for the extra two feet (at least) difference. Eventually she settled for just asking, curiosity nearly eating her alive—did he know Ran? It would make sense, Mouri and the police had hushed up her disappearance, something about "keeping up appearances", whatever that meant. Ayumi wondered sometimes at the mysterious ways of adults, the more people who knew about the act means more people to gather information from, right?

At her completely innocent question, the teenager seemed to remember her existence, looking a tad-bit lost for a moment before slipping seamlessly into the smile he'd been wearing before the appearance of the photograph. Ayumi would have questioned that he'd ever lost it, if not for the fact that she was certain about the expression shift. While the moments of difference had been minute, far less than a minute total, she'd seen and noticed it, and Conan said to always observe, and take every little thing into account. Really, it was quite tiring and annoying at times, but Conan said to…

"You've just given me a clue to my own mystery. Ayumi-chan." Kaito reached down to ruffle her hair a little, a thoughtful undertone beneath the ever-present cheer, one that Ayumi would have missed if she hadn't been working hard on noticing everything, "I promise I'll tell ya if I hear anything, okay?"

The girl shoved aside the nagging details, storing them away only to be buried within the semi-organized clutter that is a child's mind. She smiled brightly and bobbed her head in thanks, taking back the crumpled photo and replacing it in her pocket. Her badge did not go back into the depths, but instead was pinned proudly and visibly on the lapel on her shirt, "I need to go catch up with Mitsuhiko-kun and Genta-kun. Thank you!"

Kaito shook his hand in an enthusiastic wave, turning once the girl vanished into the crowd and looking for the rest of his group. He easily spotted the duo, they had migrated from when he had left them, but didn't go very far. Conan had apparently dragged Aoko out of plain sight and pestered her to play a game that was conveniently hidden from someone of Ayumi's height. The concealed position aside, normally the action wouldn't be near as suspicious, but the boy wasn't even paying attention to the game, his eyes had kept shifting back to where Ayumi had once stood.

He had no doubts about it now. The first time could have been coincidence, but Kaito subscribed to the theory that once was coincidence, but anything more was deliberate. Conan was avoiding his own friends, friends that Kaito knew used to be attached to his hip (cute kids, even if they prevented Conan from going all out) and that sent off warning bells. It all was starting to piece together, and Ayumi's appearance and subsequence revelation had given him the clue he needed to come up with a course of action. He wouldn't dare to presume to draw a conclusion on so little evidence—leaping without at least some sort of planning was a no-no in the Kaitou handbook; it could land a perfectly innocent thief behind bars, or in some cases, six feet under—but it did give him a direction to turn his inquiries.

If anything would shake up Tantei-kun so badly, it would be something happening to one of his precious people. The kids were fine, he'd just seen them (excluding the scary blonde one, but he had a feeling she could take care of herself) and the Mouri girl…

Despite the rather absorbed and critical nature of his thoughts, he was not just standing around staring at nothing. During the time he had snuck up on Aoko, burst into laughter when he startled her with a word, and dodged an angry fist to his head. His ability to multi-task was near legendary at school, and obvious to those who ever ran up against a certain white-clad thief; it was child's play to categorize the facts he had been given, make tentative connections with recent and not so recent developments, and decide on further means of investigation. All while he was avoiding the chase that was inevitable whenever he surprised the fierce Aoko, no matter when or where Kaito set it off. Oh sure she would blush from embarrassment the moment she realized that people were stopping and staring, but for the moment she'd probably even forgotten about the boy she should be watching. Of course that would be much more disastrous if Conan was the typical boy, one who would wander off and get into trouble at a moment's inattention. But as it was, Conan was not (thankfully, Kaito knew Aoko would enact some pretty nasty revenge if he had caused her to lose her charge) and while the wandering off and getting in trouble part was true in its own right, he generally did it with a reason better than to terrorize his current watcher.

The chase didn't last long—while Aoko was blind to the world right now, Kaito was well aware that they could get kicked out should they cause too much trouble, and sharing this knowledge led Aoko to—reluctantly, he might add—to let him off this time with just a whack on the head and a promise for retribution come Monday.

Conan had turned away during the scene, face impassive and slightly bored with the display. However, Kaito was well versed in reading the many volumes of Chibi-Holmes and could easily tell that the boy was in deep thought. He didn't get much farther down that trail of thinking when Aoko grabbed both his and Conan's hands (granted it was more like she took Conan's and forcibly snatched Kaito's)

"Come on! I'm tired of just standing around here!"

No matter the age or the circumstances, there is always a sense of comraderie between two boys who are under the complete control of the same girl. Identical, almost automatic looks of exasperation and resignation passed between both miniature detective and moonlight thief as they dutifully allowed themselves to be dragged out of the game area and towards where the larger rides towered over the shops, trees, and light posts.

-

"Takagi-kun," The inspector's rumbling voice snapped the officer out of the daze he was in, tearing his eyes away from the results of the private inquiries he had submitted. Megure was standing at the door to his office, a sheaf of paper in his gloved hands. Takagi quickly set down the note-pad he'd been writing in, swiveling around in his desk chair to meet his superior, "Inspector?"

While he did his best to put on his calmest expression (and threw in some polite curiosity in there as well) inside his thoughts were racing. Why was the Inspector here? He hadn't gotten a memo for a new case and he was pretty sure he'd gotten everything done he needed to do. He clearly remembered submitting the report from the last case—wait…WAS that the last case? The date in his mind was fuzzy, probably a result of the tizzy he was slowly working himself into. He began to panic, it was the only reason Megure would be here, he HAD to have forgotten the report, and there could be no other reasonable explanation for the inspector's appearance.

A single black eyebrow raised, and an amused chuckle preceded the inspector's words, "Calm down Takagi-kun, you look like you are about to hyperventilate. I just want to talk."

"But…sir…the report?"

Megure tilted his head, using one hand to extract a leaf of paper from the small pile in his hands, "I already have it, Takagi-kun."

The befuddled officer sank back into his chair; his expression of disbelief caused another laugh from the inspector. At last Megure decided he'd stalled enough and moved inside the office, returning the report to the pile of papers in his hands, "In anycase, there is something I need to talk to you about. It involves your investigation into Mouri-kun's daughter."

Takagi blinked, sending a worried glance to the computer screen that currently displayed his recent results into that very investigation. It still displayed innocently exactly what it had a few minutes ago, a key bit of information that could point the investigation closer to an end, "I promise sir, my performance will not be affected by this."

"That's not what I'm worried about, Takagi." the Inspector sighed, his mustache quivering with every breath of air he took in and exhaled. "I need you to stop the investigation."

"What?" the officer could only mutter in disbelief, his jaw dropping open slightly, "Is there an official investigation no one is telling me about?"

Megure shook his head, "No. But there are reasons there never WAS an investigation."

The usually genial inspector's face hardened minutely, the graveness of his expression trying to impress upon the other man the importance of the matter, "I expect you'll cease the investigation immediately, and delete all files pertaining to it by the time you leave tonight."

Without another word of explanation the Inspector stepped out of the office, leaving a torn Takagi alone. On one hand, it went against his very nature to disobey a direct order. On the other, he couldn't just drop the matter in good conscience. He glanced at the merrily shining computer screen, upon which the fruits of his inquiries rested. He made up his mind after a couple moments of silent battle, reaching into his desk to withdraw a blank disk. He'd stay quiet about the results, but only until he found out why Megure ordered him to stop the investigation. After that…he'd decide based on his findings.

The officer sighed as he saved the information onto the disk, sliding it into the deep pockets of his jacket once completed. He was starting yet another investigation…maybe Mouri-san had the right idea in opening up a Detective Agency. At least then he wouldn't have to worry about suddenly being kicked off the case because a superior said so. Takagi glanced at the clock, noting the blinking 5:02 with some amount of drained interest, Edogawa should be home by now… He reached to pick up the phone, dialing the number quickly and waiting for the ringing to stop.

--

"I apologize for the inconvenience, Conan-kun, but I'm afraid I've found no leads in your search. Due to circumstances I'll have to stop the investigation for the present."

A dead end. Again.

Conan bit back the disappointment/anger/fear that welled up at the message he found on the answering machine as soon as he returned home. His glasses were flung away from him, clattering against the wall and falling to the floor, thrown with enough force to crack the glass. He curled up into a ball in the armchair, knowing that Aoko would be concerned once she came out of the room she'd been inhabiting during her stay, but not quite caring.

Ran…

--

"Check and mate, Cool Guy."

Vermouth smiled contentedly at the screen, mentally praising herself for her cleverness in not stopping the child's investigation the moment she'd learned of it. After all, taking away hope was had far more of an effect when the subject allowed it to blossom in the first place.

--

"Ran's missing, eh?"

Kaito leaned back against the chair backing, looking up at the ceiling of his father's secret room, the Kid's lair. Half dissembled gadgets littered the desk, along with papers, journals, and other miscellaneous paraphernalia, "It makes sense."

He let out a frustrated breath of air before straightening up, placing a hand on his temple and using the other to flip through the notes in one of his books, he needed to clear his head. Maybe it was time he planned another heist.

A/N: 2.6k…not bad considering how hard this was to end … Takagi and Megure wouldn't cooperate with me T-T Oh well, I got the plot point I needed, so all is well. Kid heist should be coming up (YAY!) I need to have at least one in here…the first chappie doesn't count --;

Hope ya'll enjoyed it! Leave meh a review please? Hmm…a question worked last time…so…I'll ask one this time. Anyone have any guesses as to why Megure's stopping the investigation? Yes Vermouth is involved, but no it's not blackmail. Guess away! (Please? I wanna know what y'all come up with)

I'll see a few of you next week with either Luck or FDT (Dunno if Cloudy will cooperate yet…)