Chapter 2

"I'm not dead!" He hollered standing up. He tried to get someone's anyone's attention but got nothing more than a shudder or a scared look in his direction, but never directly at him. After what seemed like an eternity he gave up. Is this what death is? Seeing everyone he knows without ever being able to talk, or even touch them again? He immediately thought of Aoko and his heart dropped to the floor. I'm really dead?

The ambulance drove off without lights or a siren and soon people started leaving. Kaito was deflated sitting on the grass where he thought he tripped. He reached for his neck, but to his slight relief there was no hole. The area, which was tapped off, was now empty besides him. He stared at the grass in front of him and picked at it. His mind suddenly cleared of his emotional trauma. He shouldn't be able to pick at the grass if he was dead. He jumped up and removed himself from his death scene. Luckily he hadn't disturbed the area too much, but there was evidence of someone sitting there right next to the large dried pool of blood. That shouldn't happen. That really shouldn't happen if he was truly dead. He knew he wasn't dead; he couldn't be if he had the jewel with him, he felt sore, his stomach was churning, he could feel his heartbeat, he could feel the chilled air around him and he was aware of his labored breathing. This was all evidence of life. He turned to see the branch that broke when he fell from the tree.

"Okay, whatever that body was, it wasn't me." He thought out loud "But, that doesn't explain why no one can see me…" He heard footsteps and instinctively hid himself. "Why am I hiding?" He asked himself, but stayed rigid when he saw the owner of the footsteps. It was Conan hands shoved in his pockets. He didn't have the usual look on his face when searching for clues; he was just staring at his surroundings almost absent mindedly, which was unusual. Kaito's eye widened when he saw Conan take off his glasses and rub his eyes in a frustrated manner. He glared at the ground after putting his useless specks back on his face and cleared his throat.

"This shouldn't be possible." He stated blandly as he stared at the blood stain in the grass.

"No kidding." Kaito breathed. Conan turned around and started walking away but stopped and spun around staring at the spot where Kaito was sitting.

"Neither should this." He whispered interested and confused at the same time. He shook his head and looked at his watch, obviously torn between investigating and getting back to the Mouri's place before they noticed his absence. He decided for the Mouri's and glared at the indent in the grass. Kaito figured he had all the pieces, now he just had to fit them together, and being at the scene was just a bonus that he couldn't afford at the moment. Kaito silently hopped from his spot in the tree and landed, gracefully this time, on the grass and started tailing Conan.

It was quite a ways to the Mouri's but Kaito knew Conan walked further than this before. He tailed Conan casually and stayed a good distance from him in hopes he was too focused on his puzzle to notice the slight shiver Kaito figured he was giving him. Conan must have felt adventurous since he took an unusual route to the private detective agency. He perked up only once when Kaito got a little close and turned around, but Kaito instinctively concealed himself, so Conan didn't see anything; like he was even going to in the first place. Kaito rolled his eyes at himself and continued to follow the boy. Conan turned down an alley way and Kaito soon did the same only to dodge a soccer ball inches from his nose. Hands in his pockets and bent slightly backwards Kaito looked at Conan with slight shock. He was in an upward position hands on his belt and shoe sparking in a blue-ish glow with a glare across his face. The glare immediately faded and the color from his face drained as he saw who he just kicked at. Both stared for God knows how long before Conan set his foot down and stumbled into a wall for support. Kaito stared back in shock. The twerp can see him?

Conan stumbled back and gripped the closest wall for support fighting the sudden urge to faint. He just kicked at a ghost! His brain was overloading; this shouldn't be happening, his eyes were playing tricks on him, there was absolutely no way Kaito Kid was standing in front of him. No way Kaito Kid was there giving him a shocked look that probably matched his own. His vision was threatening to fail on him. He blinked a few times to stop his mind from blacking out, but that didn't stop his legs from losing their feeling and giving out from underneath him. He landed on his rump hard against the pavement, but didn't even flinch; he was too busy trying to process what he was seeing to feel pain. The figment made a move as soon as Conan hit the floor.

"Don't. Move. A. Muscle." Conan choked out. The ghost, or whatever it was, put his hands up and backed up to where he was before. Conan took this moment to see every little detail on the apparition in front of him. No blood, no hole in the neck and no trauma to be seen from this distance. He saw the teen's chest rise and lower in a normal breathing pattern for someone that's been walking around a lot, and noticed he was favoring his left leg over his right. Whoever they were, they were human and alive from what he could tell from this distance.

"You… You okay?" Was that the only thing the guy could say?

"Hah!" Conan laughed "That's all you can say? Why are you following me?" He didn't feel like getting up until he had an appropriate answer. He didn't even care if the guy said he was nuts and say he was some guy walking home from work that just happened to take the same route every evening. Conan just took the right turns.

"You can see me." It was more of a statement than a question, much to Conan's dismay. "You can truly actually see me? You saw that indent in the grass from where I was sitting right?" Conan came to the conclusion that he had finally completely lost his mind.

"You are not Kaito Kid." He said getting up and brushing off his shorts.

"Uhh, actually-" The guy was about to say something but Conan cut him off

"Don't. EVEN. Go there." Conan growled. He's lost it. No denying it. The guy shrugged hopelessly and took out something from his jacket. Conan stiffened and readied his stun gun. The teen opened his hand and showed Conan a valuable looking gem. He stared at it confused, it looked almost exactly like the gem Kaito Kid stole before he was killed, but it was blood red.

"Look familiar?" Conan blinked and shook his head

"B-but I saw that, no the Amaranth Stone in Inspector Nakemouri's hands along with Kaito's body." He shuddered, but then glared at the teen in front of him skeptically. The teen sighed and crouched down to Conan's eye level. When did he get that close? Conan inched back ever so slightly.

"What color was it?" The teen asked suddenly catching Conan a little off guard with the random question, or maybe not so random. He thought and noticed the gem was an off white color almost purple.

"Amaranth… it's not supposed to be…" Conan speculated out loud

"The Amaranth is a supposed flower right? Some poetic nonsense and the color…?"

"A deep red or purple; from the Greek term amarantos meaning… unfading." Conan's eyes light up suddenly remembering a gem that's supposed to bring immortality. "That couldn't be the…" The teen nodded

"Pandora." Conan shook his head

"Not possible, I mean sure the gem might exist, but two of them? No way." The teen played with the gem by tossing it up and down a little and making it spin with his fingers.

"That's funny coming from a guy who was attacked by a time machine and changed into an elementary school kid." The teen raised his eyebrow playfully. Conan was at a loss for words "Eh, Kudo? I certainly think it is." Conan stepped back again.

"You really are Kaito Kid." Conan breathed, hardly believing what he just said. Kaito smirked in his usual manner.

"Good job Detective boy." He clapped over-enthusiastically, "Now I'm sure you can figure out why I was tailing you and why I'm still going to." Conan rubbed the bridge of his nose, still not understanding what the heck was going on. He sighed in defeat and decided to accept the insanity he just ran into. "I need your help." Kaito stated quietly.