The doors to the main workshop hall opened and who was to come in but Kogoro.

"I flew in by reindeer. Did I miss anything?"

"Yes," said Shinichi. "A lot."

"At least he didn't show up when there were two of us," said Ran. "That would have been hard to explain."

"Two of you?" said Kogoro."Don't tell me there's a cloning machine here or anything. I wouldn't want five to seven brats running around."

"No, it was just really awkward time travel," said Shinichi. "And I am not Conan, at least not any more, unless there's an emergency."

"If you show up on my doorstep six years old and in need of a hiding place again I will not take you in."

"Thanks, thanks a lot. There shouldn't be any need for me to do something like that, though, what with the Christmas magic and all."

"But if it ever runs out or something drastic happens to Santa again, you could wind up reverting back to a child at any time," said Ai. "You wouldn't want that to happen at school, would you? Or on a date?"

"The date thing already happened once," said Shinichi. "Thanks for bringing that up."

"Oh, that's right," said Ran. "That sucked. You sucked for going to solve that murder instead of telling me whatever you were going to say, which was probably that you were Conan the entire time."

"She has a point," said Santa.

"Okay, we need to go see the Cold Miser, and then head back," said Shinichi, who was trying to avoid the topic of how much of a horrible person he was.

"I'll tell him the details," said Santa. "I think you mortals have had enough rambunctious Christmas fun for one day."

Having realized that his entire life was a lie, Gin set out on his most important mission to humanity. He flew over Tokyo, dumping the magic sparkle dust out over the city's skyscrapers. The sparkly stuff fell like snow and people looked up at it and smiled.

All across the city, people's greatest (good) wishes and hopes came true. Several people were making out, such as Takagi Wataru and Sato Miwako. Shiratori Ninzaburo won the lottery and rented a yacht. Megure dropped the pizza slice he was about to eat and found it miraculously unharmed. Jodie and Dr. Araide found true love in each other.

Vermouth's motorcycle got fixed. Vodka got new prescription lenses and could finally take off his sunglasses. And, last but not least, Akai Shuuichi knew that somewhere out there, a teenage boy with a passion for anime cared more strongly about his life than any other person in the universe. Things were looking up.

Ai and the Detective Boys minus Conan (who was now honorary member Shinichi) walked to school accompanied by their favorite adult, Gin. He was wearing a Christmas sweater with a military rifle pattern on it.

As they reached the school, Gin stopped suddenly. Everyone looked up at him.

"I have something to talk about with Ai-kun," said Gin. "You kids go on." They did as he said, not without some curiosity.

"What could possibly be on your mind, ignoring the tumultuous adventure we just had?" said Ai.

"I'm going to live a nomadic life in the Siberian mountains," said Gin. "I have a couple things to think through."

"Like what?"

"Who I'm going to be now that I'm purely good. What I believe about the afterlife, that kind of stuff, you dig?"

"I dig very much. Good luck, Gin."

At these words, Gin turned and walked into the sunset (it was obviously sunset the entire time), disappearing in a flurry of orange-tinted snow. Ai shed a tear of happiness.

A snowman laid in a snow bed in a snow hospital, hooked up to carefully constructed ice heart monitors. No mortal man could possibly live standing there, surrounded by temperatures near absolute zero, which is slightly higher than normal room temperature for snowmen. A bandage was around his waist from the knife wound he received seven chapters back, completely visible under the ice blanket.

"So that's the story," said Sam. "That's how it all happened. I wish I had been there to see it, but I was busy visiting relatives in Alaska. What a state that is." He coughed to clear his throat.

A snow-nurse came in. He checked the icy LCD screens for the heart monitor. "Pulse is normal, very good, Sam."

"Thanks, Dr. Yuki," said Sam. He turned back towards the imaginary audience. "I sure gave folks a scare when some naughty penguin gave me a good ice pick in the back. Good thing Conan was around to solve who exactly tried to 'melt' me, so to speak. Well, he's not exactly Conan any more, but you get what I mean. You barely missed him, he just teleported away. Like the fella was never here. Magic sure is a miracle for society's purpose."

Sam crossed his arms in quiet contemplation and the camera gently panned to his window, then outside. Snowflakes once again caressed the light blue screen, carefully rotated and resized so no two seemed alike, 'seemed' being the key word here. A reprise of Christmassy music began to enter a crescendo. Eventually the screen gave way to white and then faded to black. A shaky cel caption faded in saying 'THIS HAS BEEN A CBS TELEVISION NETWORK PRESENTATION. COPYRIGHT MCMXCIV', then faded away again as if it had nothing more to say.

The VHS tape stopped, the TV screen choking itself with static, then finally cutting to the blue video screen like a life thread being cut by a deranged eyeless mythical lady as the tape ran out. Shinichi pressed Eject, and after some very loud mechanical noises, the tape slid out of its compartment.

It was a simple VHS six-hour tape labeled in big black marker letters on the top and sides: 'MOURI CHRISTMAS '94'. Shinichi played with the clicky little tape holding latch in the back.

"That was the best movie I ever watched," said Ran.

"That's because it actually happened," said Shinichi. "I'm glad the owner of the great camera in the sky was nice enough to lend us a copy, though. This is way better to remember with studio quality editing."

"Put that tape back in, I want to watch the part where you feel all guilty again."

"Oh, come on." Shinichi walked up to the couch and handed her the tape. "You do it, I'm done watching this." He stomped out of the room.

Ran put the tape back in and rewound it to when everyone was berating Conan for his horrible actions.

Shinichi stood in the hallway suddenly, realizing something as he heard the echo of his own voice complaining.

"Who even was that snowman guy?"

He shrugged and walked away.

'TOON' IN NEXT TIME FOR THE IIIRD INSTALLMENT: "CONANSMAS"