Disclaimer: An "Airsoft" is a bbgun and they are legal in Japan (I claim no rights to the name or the weapon)

Chapter 19: Missteps towards Misfortune

Lady Luck must have been smiling down on me, despite the desperate situation, because Kudo's house was right below me. I was still going to be falling down thirty or so feet, and hitting his roof would surely kill me, but if I guided the rest of my descent right, I might just be able to survive this disaster relatively intact. The landing was still going to hurt, but at least I'll be alive.

I held onto the remains of my cape as the glider broke apart, attempting to aim myself just a few feet more to the side so that I'd be next to the building instead of on top of it. As I fell past the roof, I quickly took out a wire I used for transcending buildings and hooked it onto the roof's edge. The wire caught instantly and I kicked off against the roof to slow my descent to the ground. I tried to retract the wire, just enough to slow my fall to a more bearable, if not survivable, level. I hit the bushes first and felt the branches tear up my clothes and skin.

"Ouch," I mumbled to myself, before making sure I was still in one piece. "That was close. Wait, what the hell?"

I looked around and barely noticed the two people dashing between the yards. Both were wearing night vision goggles, blending in with the darkness in their black clothing. I could scantily make out blond hair sticking out between one of their caps. Both were also carrying what appeared to be sniper rifles. However, from what little I could tell of the two, neither looked like Snake's men.

Run was the only thing going through my head, and since my instincts rarely failed me, I listened. Neither person was very close to me so I felt it was safe enough to loop around before going into the professor's house.

I opened and quickly, but quietly, shut the door, hurting my fingers in the rushed process.

"What are you doing now?" Hakuba asked me from his seat on the couch, with Hattori and Kudo sitting near him.

I put a finger up to my lips and shushed them. I was breathing rather heavily, and I tried to slow it down, but my heart continued to race. There were people after me, well Kid at least, who hadn't been before. They also had a strong possibility of being the same people who were after the kids.

Why were they after me? I leaned against the door and thought about it. It was recent; they'd only come after me just now, which meant that they didn't know I was helping Hakuba before. Who had I met recently?

It wasn't Ran or her dad, and the only other person I had met was Kei's mother… Damn. I remembered the blond hair sticking out from one of the sniper's cap, the same bleached shade that the man with Kei's mother had.

"What's going on?" Kudo came up to me and asked, eyeing my new cuts.

"I had a little run in with your bushes," I laughed, "You really should trim them more often."

"Stop being an idiot. What happened?"

"I'm on the wanted list now too." I eyed Hakuba, "Seems they've found out I'm helping." He looked back questioningly, my quiet conversation going unheard by the other two.

"And why didn't you say anything? I wouldn't have let you out of this house if that was the case!" Kudo practically hissed.

"I didn't know. I just found out on the way back. Do you think I would have put Hisa-chan in that kind of danger?"

"Who's following you? Did they see where you went?"

"Of course they didn't. I'm not that stupid. I know what one of them looks like, but I'm not sure about the other one, and I don't know if there's more. All I could tell about the second one was that she was female."

Kudo pushed passed me and vanished out the door. I tried to grab him, but since I wasn't expecting him to go after the two, I wasn't prepared to stop him.

I quickly took off all the Kid stuff I was wearing and went over to Hattori, stealing his hat before grabbing his jacket off the rack and discarding my own, which was still covered in flour and slightly torn.

"Sorry, I'll bring them back." I vanished out the door again as Hakuba looked at me like I was crazy and Hattori watched me with unconstrained interest.

I searched around for Kudo, ducking into the shadows. Even if I didn't have the same clothing on, they could still shoot me for being a moving figure in the dark. I heard rustling as someone moved through one of the yards further down the street, too loud and obvious to be Kudo, which meant it was the other two.

Well, I would just have to follow them then; they would probably lead me to Kudo. Hopefully, I could find him before they did.

Sneaking around the two wasn't easy. Too much noise from me and the girl would turn around and look at where I had just been. A few close calls made me back up.

I couldn't pick out any details in the dark on either of them. The girl was smaller then I recalled and one of her eyes had some dark mark under it that could have been anything. The man I had already seen.

"He's gone."

"Don't you think I noticed?" The woman spat at the man. "But you can never be too sure. He could be watching us right now. We are after the Kid."

"I'm sorry, you're right." The man bowed slightly in the woman's direction. Obviously, she was the one in charge. "What if he slipped into one of the houses?"

"Then we're never going to find him," An evil smirk crossed her face, "unless we blow up the whole neighborhood."

"Chianti, I thought we were supposed to keep this quiet."

"We were, but who'd miss a few houses here and there?" She sighed and slung the rifle over her shoulder before taking out a walkie-talkie. "Hey Korn, we lost him. Anything on your end?"

"Nothing," came a dull voice back to her, tones hidden behind static.

"I shouldn't have missed, damn it." She put the transmitter back into her pocket. "How could I have missed when he was a big white flying target?"

A noise, too loud to be an animal, was made ahead of them. I winced when I heard it before making my way quickly around the perimeter.

"What is it?" I heard the man ask. I couldn't see what was going on while I went around, focusing more on remaining silent.

"It's a kid."

Damn, damn, damn it, I thought to myself. Was Kudo that stupid? In a few more moments I could enter at the right angle.

"What should we do with him?" I still hadn't heard Kudo's voice, which made me wonder if it was really him. Then I sighed and thought, what other little boy would be out at this time of night alone? None, except a stupid little tantei-kun.

I crouched down and swished some liquid around in my mouth before spitting it out. I reached into my pockets where I knew I'd put some contact lenses and blinked them into my eyes so that they were now a dull shade of brown. Parting my hair mostly to one side and layering in some gel unevenly, before putting Hattori's hat on sideways, I shoved my hands in my pockets and made my way over to them.

Kudo was in the man's hands and blinking his eyes several times, looking confused. He was feigning it of course. Kudo took on a whole different look when he was actually confused. It was easy for me to see the difference since I'd been around him long enough to know the real him. His glasses were gone, but it looked like he'd taken them off himself. His hair was also rather messed up. The technique wasn't half bad considering he didn't have any cosmetic product on hand, and he definitely looked different.

"Hey, ya found my brother," I drawled, keeping my steps uneven and touching my hair a lot. I made as much noise as I could on the way. "Mom woulda killed me if I lost him again."

The woman pointed her gun at me and I stepped around it with all the grace of an elephant. "Wow, cool." I bent over and touched the muzzle with my fingers. "Is this one of those things that shoots out those little balls? My cousin has one of those."

Chianti didn't seem to like me very much. She grabbed the side of my hair that stuck out from the hat and shoved me against the nearest building, where I let myself go limp to prevent injury.

"Hey man, I don't like my woman rough," I gave her a playboy smile and breathed subtly into her face, "but you're pretty enough if you want to come over. I'm sure we could find some common ground."

"I'm too old for you and so is that liquor you've been drinking. You're just a stupid kid, I'm sure no one would miss you." She started to raise her gun and the man interrupted her.

"Chianti, you heard what he said. Nothing unnecessary." He put Kudo down and smiled at him, going along with my lie that his gun was an Airsoft and telling Kudo not to be afraid.

"Like I care what the boss says…" Chianti grumbled, but nevertheless putting her gun down while letting go of my hair. It took me a second to realize how close she had been to killing me. "Count yourself lucky this time."

And I did, though I gave her a lopsided smile that said otherwise.

They argued a while before walking away, the woman shooting me a backwards glace with all the venom of a snake. Once they were safely out of sight and earshot, I let myself slide down the wall as Kudo came over to me.

"That was really stupid," we both told each other at the same time.

"What are you talking about? I had things under control," Kudo told me. "They weren't going to kill a little kid."

"I'm not too sure about that." I thought of the look in the woman's eyes. "She seemed like she wanted to kill us both."

"Nice clothes by the way, though I doubt Hattori would let you just borrow them all of a sudden."

"Let me, saw me, there's not much difference. I wasn't around long enough to hear his reply." I took the cap off and tried to fix my hair. I wiped some of the extra gel off in the grass.

"At least now we know for certain it's them," Commented Kudo as he waited for me to get back up.

"Yeah, I caught that too. You don't sound too happy about it."

"I'm not. I can't fight them when there are people in the line of fire."

"I take it you mean people that aren't you and can't defend themselves against them. Yeah, I know. What are we going to do now?"

"We're going to go back to the professor's and get our heads chewed off by Hattori and Hakuba-kun for being stupid. Then we've got to think of some way to get everyone out of this whole mess."

"Ah, do we have to?" I whined, "I really don't want any more yelling."

"You know you either talk to me like you're older or you act like a kid, which is your real personality?"

"Both," my head itched from where the gel was drying against my scalp, "I've always been that way, even before Kid if that's what you're wondering."

"Yes, so Kid had no effect on that?"

"Besides me showing my tamer personality more often? Nope. It's probably because of…" I trailed off. I wasn't going to let Kudo start thinking about my dad too. With his deductive abilities, he would figure it out. "It doesn't matter."

I was slowly starting to relax, I hadn't realized how tense I'd become under the woman's grip, but my body recognized danger better than my brain. If that was any indication, then Chianti was a very dangerous person.

"Why were they looking for you here?" Kudo's face darkened. "There have been too many things happening in Beika for them to ignore. If they start going after Kogoro and Ran again…"

"Again? I don't remember this being a part of your explanation."

"They only targeted Kogoro because of me, and I didn't want to explain myself in front of Hakuba-kun. The only important thing is that they don't suspect him again," Kudo paused as he closed his eyes. Thinking aloud, he added, "They shouldn't. Kogoro never goes to your heists and when he does, he doesn't do anything important. Why would they be here?"

"I don't think they were here specifically." I cursed myself for not looking around the area earlier. I was so sure we hadn't been followed. "They may have seen me earlier. Gliders aren't the easiest way to get around for most people. So if they followed my path, it would have been easy to predict where I would be and not necessarily where I was going. If you see what I mean."

"So it might have been a coincidence."

"No, it was a coincidence."

Kudo met my stare but I knew I was right. "How can you be so sure?"

"Because I'm alive. Don't you think that it's strange for a professional sniper to miss?"

"She would have been aiming for your head, and since she missed, I take it she hit your glider." He eyed some of the scratches that were still on my face and laced over my legs. Luckily, Chianti hadn't noticed or thought I'd gotten them somewhere else. I had been pretending to be drunk after all. "So you were descending…"

"And she didn't know. In the end, I'm alive while she thinks she just missed me, knowing nothing about me actually intending to stay in the area," I smirked. "So we have nothing to worry about."

It was hard for Kudo to hide his relief. If I had been tense before, it had been nothing in comparison to how Kudo was feeling.

"So Chianti, Korn, and their partners won't be back." Kudo went back to thinking after that statement while I tapped the wall I was leaning against with my knuckles. Knock on wood and all, just to be safe.

"I thought we were going to go back to the professor's. I'm starting to get cold." I was cold only because I was still sitting on the frozen ground. I wrapped Hattori's jacket around me, which was surprisingly warmer then my own.

"Yeah, we should go back. If they see us still out here, I don't think they'll let us by with a warning again."

I got off the ground and dusted off my pants. "So are we telling them everything that happened, or can we edit out the part where we were discovered?"

"Kuroba-kun, this is dangerous and they've seen us both." He looked over my eyes and hair, "The resemblance is still close enough that they might notice either of us in the future. Though Chianti didn't seem to recognize me."

"You didn't get caught on purpose did you?"

"Idiot, I'm not suicidal. I was trying to get out of their way and…" Kudo hid a blush, "I may have tripped over something." he shook his head and went over to the bushes to grab his glasses. He must have left them there in a hurry to change his appearance.

I winked at him and Kudo sighed, "I didn't know what else to do, and don't say anything about me looking like a miniature you. I won't take it as a compliment."

"Hah, as if. I looked way cooler then you do at that age. At any age," I smirked, "I don't even see how people can confuse us."

"Our personalities would make that difficult. I don't act like a child every time something amuses me," he shot back with a grin.

"I do not!" I pouted juvenilely, walking back towards the house.

"Where'd you get alcohol? I heard Chianti say she thought you were drunk."

"I stole it from Mouri-san," I palmed the almost full beer can in my hand, "I was going to make it so that when he opened the can, it would explode tea at him instead of beer but Hisa-chan guilt-tripped me out of it. I guess I forgot to put it back." I raised my eyebrows, "Do you want it?"

"Of course not," Kudo gave me an unpleasant look, "I don't condone drinking."

"This stuff tastes terrible anyway," I swished some saliva around in my mouth to try and get out the bad flavor. "I didn't even drink any of it and it still made me feel sick."

I eyed the can a little longer before taking a sip. I then had to stop and cough as it burned down my throat. "Nope, doesn't taste any better even when you do drink it. Yuck, why do people like this stuff?"

The can was low enough that Kudo was able to grab it out of my hand. "I don't know, but curiosity killed the cat and I don't want you trying anything, especially something that destroys brain cells." He poured the rest of the liquid out in the grass. "We need every brain cell as it is, and going against them drunk or hung over will get us killed."

"I wasn't going to drink the rest of it!"

"Sure you weren't."

"No, I really wasn't. That stuff tastes like a dog's butt," but he was right that I was curious. I wondered what being drunk felt like. I'd have to find out another day, and I wouldn't be drinking that cheap canned stuff that Kogoro had.

The minute we walked in the door Hattori snatched back his hat and picked up Kudo. The little detective couldn't do anything in the larger detective's grasp so he just passively let Hattori take him over to the couch. The teen shot me a hard look before I meekly followed him.

"Ok, what's gonnin' on and why did the two of ya shoot out of here like a bat outta hell?" He placed Kudo opposite him, and I was surprised when Hattori sat next to Hakuba. The half-Briton detective looked just as angry as the Osakan, but with more refinement, having months of dealing with me under his belt.

Kudo looked over at me, and I sighed before putting my hands up. "No comments until the end. It's hard to make myself look innocent when I'm being accused of things halfway through my story."

"Look innocent?" Hakuba asked darkly.

I rolled my eyes at him. "On the way back, I was spotted by the group in black that are after the children. Unfortunately, I showed myself by going right up to one of them when I had gone to get Kei-chan back from her mother. At the time, I didn't know he had anything to do with them. Luckily though, I was Kid at the time I showed up." I then explained in detail my trip out of their house and the exact description of the man.

"When I was coming back from Mouri-san's they saw me and took a shot. They missed, of course, but now Kid's one of their targets as well. They probably will, if not already, have pieced together the fact that I'm helping you." I tried my best not to make it sound as dire as it was. Chuckling, I added with a sheepish look on my face, "I didn't pull off the most graceful landing, but as you can see, I'm not that hurt."

"And the reason the two of you ran back outside? Especially, when it was obvious that they must have been close by, considering that the first thing you did when you entered the door was to shush us." Hakuba asked in a remarkably calm, but at the same time rather terrifying, tone of voice. It was clear he was working himself up to a quiet rage, which in its own way was scarier than an enraged Aoko with a mop.

"That was all him. I couldn't let Conan-kun leave alone." I quickly defended myself, pointing an accusing finger at Kudo.

I could see how infuriated Hattori was. He kept clenching and unclenching his hands, closing up his eyes tightly, and taping his foot loudly against the floor.

"And why did ya run out there Ku- ah." Hattori shut himself up before he could say anything more. "Fine, damn it. Conan-kun. Ya know how dangerous they are. Ya coulda told me when ya left." He looked up at me since I was the one of those people who 'should have told him'.

"Like I had time to explain everything. I wasn't even able to catch up with him until after."

"After what?" Hakuba practically growled out, his face growing darker.

"After they found him…" I trailed off, leaving Kudo to defend himself against the other two. I had been 'safe' after all. They hadn't found me, and it wasn't my fault that I had to show myself to them too.

"They let ya go that easy?" Hattori's expression had gone from mad to pure apathy. I was sure he was still angry, you could see it in his forced movements, but heavier things were weighing on his mind.

"They let me go," Kudo closed his eyes and shook his head, "after Kuroba-kun walked right up to them." I saw the grin he hid from the other two.

That was low. I wouldn't expect such underhanded tactics from a detective. I thought of a few choice words to say to him. He couldn't hear them, but it gave me something to do while the other two were glaring at me.

"Ok, why'd ya do that?"

"Because it would be weird if they just found some random kid at night. I had to make it look like he'd just run into them and wasn't really spying on them, even though we actually were."

"Ok Ku- ah." Hattori sighed again and tapped his fingers on his leg, looking at Hakuba for the first time. "Damn it. Do I hafta keep this up? It's hard enough understandin' everything without…"

"Hattori." That one word from Kudo shut the Osakan up on that subject, but unfortunately not on the rest.

"Conan-kun, I can understand his side," Hattori waved a hand at me, "but why'd ya run out there? What if… what if a bunch of stuff that coulda happened, happened?"

"It didn't, and I don't worry about 'what ifs'."

"Like hell you don't. Ya wouldn't mind me sayin' anything if ya didn't worry about it." Hattori got himself back in control and I could see him relax as he continued, "So who'd ya run into?"

"Chianti and the blond one that Kuroba-kun mentioned. I don't know who he is. Korn was mentioned to be in the area too, but I haven't run into them much before now so I don't know either's methods very well.

"So nothin' really bad happened to you and ya still got yer information. You really like to push the boundaries of 'luck' don't ya?"

"I'm a little confused about these two you mentioned. In the car you didn't say much about them. What do you know?" asked Hakuba, obviously trying to get all his facts together.

It felt strange to watch the half-Briton detective talking to Kudo on the same level, considering he didn't know the boy was the same age as him. Hakuba had a long streak of underestimating anyone who wasn't him. The only one I'd seen him show any authentic respect to was me and even then, he'd done so sparingly.

"I only know that both of them are marksmen. What little glimpses I've seen of them aren't enough to give you a description."

"The woman has short thin hair. Its dirty blond to a light brown, and she has a light scent of some foreign perfume that you can only smell up close. Unfortunately, I don't recognize the brand. She also has dull blue eyes and a small black webbing mark on the outer lining of her left eye as well as dark lipstick. I'd have to guess her age is somewhere between twenty-seven and thirty-five." I eyed Hakuba. "Is that good enough for you?"

"It was helpful. So, you were close enough to smell her?"

"She was the forward one," I smirked. "Though I did make a few passes."

"Kuroba-kun, I'm shocked you're not dead at this point."

"Aw, I hear I'm pretty good at charming the ladies." However, Chianti was different than the usual pretty lady. Although she looked young and weak, the woman had made my blood run cold when she grabbed my hair and stared at me with those icy blue eyes.

"The man is a little older, thirty-five to forty, with no obvious body aroma though I didn't get that close to him to really smell him," I smiled. "His hair was dyed bleach blond. With his reactions, I'd have to say he's an experienced sniper as well, though not nearly as bloodthirsty as his partner. He also has a thin scar across his forehead, and I'd guess a few years of military experience. I also think he's carrying around some old injuries that don't slow him down too badly, but are still obvious enough to someone who is observant enough to notice."

"What injuries?" Kudo asked me. He'd been the one hauled off the ground by the man.

"I'm not sure where they are. I can't strip the guy with my eyes you know," I said sarcastically, "When I was at Kei-chan's house, he didn't even attempt to go after me. Probably because he knew he wouldn't be able to catch me, and not because I was Kid but for some other reason. When they were out there just now, he didn't attempt to come up on me either, making me think he was being cautious about his chances of catching me if I got away from Chianti. I'd have to guess that it's one of his legs, or possibly his chest, that bothers him."

"I didn't notice anything." Kudo closed his eyes and was most likely playing back everything that had just happened in his mind. He blinked them open a few seconds later, "but maybe you're right. He did seem to move rather awkwardly. I thought it was because it was dark and he was in an unfamiliar area."

"It doesn't really matter. He's a sniper, so I'm sure that he doesn't need to rely on his footwork too much. But enough about those two, what we should really be talking about now is what we're going to do about them." Now that the adrenaline was wearing off I had to blink to keep myself awake. I leaned back on the couch in favor of listening since I could feel the effects of the fever still present.

"There's nothing we can do," stated Kudo bitterly, his eyes dark and bleak.

"So we're just supposed to sit here and hope they get tired of going after the children?" Hakuba spoke up angrily against Kudo.

"I'm not saying we should do nothing, but we have no leads right now. We don't know where they're staying, why they want the kids, and there is no way of tracking them down."

"Then we should use bait. It's always worked for me," I shrugged before immediately regretting my comment. I hadn't meant to say that aloud. Hakuba eyed me suspiciously at my statement, not completely understanding what I meant behind the words but obviously knowing it was not good. I let my head fall back so I wouldn't have to face him.

"It's not safe. Using you or Hakuba-kun as bait will get one of you killed. These people aren't the type you can taunt and expect to get away from."

"You've done it before," Hattori cut in, "I admit that one of 'em playin' bait ain't the best idea, but I'm not comfortable sittin' still either."

"I can try and get a hold of Jodie-sensei, but I don't know how much she will be able to tell me considering I'm just a civilian kid."

"Who?" Hakuba and I asked simultaneously.

"The FBI hasn't been on top of 'em recently though, have they?" Hattori folded his arms, thinking, "They're not gonna have much."

"FBI?" Hakuba let out a breath, "These people are that bad?"

"Haven't ya been listenin'? Yes, they're that bad." Hattori narrowed his eyes. "Ya see why I was so mad 'bout them just leavin' like that?"

"I'm beginning to get the picture." Again, something dark that didn't correspond to the situation crossed the detective's features. I was sure I saw it this time, even if he looked completely normal the next second. I was through relaxing.

"Hakuba-kun, what are you hiding?" I asked him directly. I had to admit he was a rather good actor since he managed to look honestly confused when he met my glance.

"What are you talking about?"

"You're hiding something. What is it? I wasn't sure before, but I am now. You can't hide things from me," I grinned, "it's just not possible."

"I'm truly not hiding anything from you. I have no idea what you're talking about."

It was gone now, whatever it was that I had seen. The detective had either locked the thoughts away in some far corner of his mind, or he wasn't even aware of it. I tried to make sense of what it was that was affecting him like that.

"Fine, I'll let it go for now," I sighed, "Seeing as we can't do anything about them at the moment, what are we suppose to do now?"

"Go home," Hattori picked up his phone. "Ku-ah, Conan-kun and I can make some calls an' you can go check on yer friend." He eyed me. "You must have been wantin' to."

"Yeah, going to see him and mom sounds good…" I groaned, "But I won't be able to fly there anymore."

"Old fashion transportation on the ground has yet to hinder anyone before, perhaps you should try that," Hakuba intoned with amusement. Then looking rather apologetic, at least for Hakuba anyway, he added, "Sorry Kuroba-kun, but I won't go with you. I'll stay here with them."

"So yer gonna let Kuroba-kun go out there alone when they already saw him with you an' feel ok about it? I'll go with ya then." Hattori faced me.

"I'm not going to play that game with you," Hakuba said dryly.

"What game?" The Osakan asked innocently. "I'm not playin' any game with you. I'm just sayin' that the guy goes outta his way to help ya an' ya can't even go with him to visit his mom an' friend in the hospital. Just seems kinda selfish to me."

"I'm not listening."

"Come on Kuroba-kun, let's go." Hattori went to grab his coat from me. I shrugged it off, forgetting that I still had it on.

"Nice jacket."

"Thanks, my mom got it fer me," a scowl crossed his face, "And geez. Why do ya smell like beer?"

"I had some earlier."

"Ya had beer?"

"I took it away from him," Kudo interrupted. "Hattori, are you sure you want to go?" I could have sworn some silent argument was going on between the two of them.

"If Hakuba-kun won't…"

The British detective had his arms crossed and remained sitting, though he fidgeted. Indecision crossed his face a few times before he sighed and got up to walk towards the door. Apparently he, and not Hattori, was going to accompany me to the hospital after all.

"I won't let this go Hattori-kun." He frowned at the dark-skinned youth who continued to grin.

"You never let anythin' go do ya? Yer still mad I beat ya last time aren't ya?"

"You didn't beat me. It stopped being a contest the minute someone died."

"But I still beat ya." Hattori snickered.

I had no idea what they were talking about.

Hakuba forced a smile, "Maybe I was just looking at things in the wrong perspective. However, I do owe you for proving me wrong. Though when I say owe, I don't mean it in the good way."

Hattori winked at me, but I was missing whatever point he was making.

"Whatever, let's just go." I threw the car keys onto the table.

"We're not taking the car?" Hakuba asked as he followed me.

"No, the hospital's close. Also, the professor's car is running low on gas and I don't have the money to pay for it. Walking sounds better than being in a stuffy car anyway."

"Fine." Hakuba wrapped his jacket tighter and got out a pair of grey gloves that matched his coat's design perfectly, down to the crisscrossing pattern.

"I'll be back soon and you can call whoever you have to," I nodded to Kudo. I was sure he wanted me to leave so I wouldn't overhear his conversation with the FBI agent. They probably had a similar reason for wanting Hakuba out of the way, which was why Hattori had been needling him to go with me to the hospital.

The detective shivered when we got out in the cold air. The sun had set hours ago now and if I had to guess, it was probably around eleven o'clock at night. Hakuba could have given me a more accurate time, but I didn't want to ask him.

The hospital wasn't that far, about a thirty minute walk. And while that didn't bother me, what did bother me was that after about five minutes of us walking, I felt eyes on me.

I didn't say anything to the detective about it, not wanting to let the stalker know I was onto him, or her.

"Aoko's going to be so mad when I get home," I grumbled, trying to look around without making it obvious.

"True, but I don't think you'll make it to school tomorrow either. Maybe you should just go back."

"Not without you. I can't let you face this alone, and Hattori-kun seems to have no problem skipping school as well. I think Aoko's more forgiving that Kazuha-san."

"I'd bet on it." The detective shivered again, this time it wasn't related to the cold weather. I wondered what the girl had said to him before I got there.

I started to slow down as some instinct warned me of danger. At first, Hakuba looked back at me in confusion. However, after carefully observing me for a few seconds, he quickly realized that we were being watched too. He then tried to look discreetly around as well.

An older man and a young woman were the only other people around. The man was frail looking and had thin, grey hair as well as a small bald spot on top of his head. The woman was jogging with dark rimmed glasses, and a jacket that was a little too thin for the weather.

I kept looking, but I didn't spot anyone else. The elderly man was the only one coming in our direction since the woman was across the street and already passing by us. I took in his appearance and initially found nothing suspicious.

I changed my mind when he was just a few feet in front of us.

The darkness hid the makeup lines and the rim where the wig met the skin. I caught glimpses of techniques that I would use myself as Kaito Kid when changing my appearance. The similarities startled me for a moment. That moment almost cost me. By the time I reacted, I was almost too late.

I immediately pushed Hakuba behind me, and whatever move the 'old man' was going to make on the detective was put on hold. Hakuba looked from me to the man, cautiously eyeing him now that I had made such a defensive move. Unfortunately for the detective, he wouldn't be able see what I had noticed inconsistencies about the 'old man' that I could.

"Who are you?" I asked darkly.

"I'm trying to get by," The old man muttered, his voice perfect.

I didn't give him any ground.

"Who are you really? You think I can't see through that? Don't make me laugh."

"I have no idea what you're talking about. Get out of my way." He moved the cane he was holding slightly towards my direction.

"You didn't line the wig well. I can see bits of lighter colored hair near your ear. You also didn't do a good enough job of getting rid of that perfume you had on. There's still a faint scent of it on you. You're bending back, but your knees aren't, which is strange for an elderly person," I smirked, before narrowing my eyes at him, "Who are you?"

"You're a smart boy. A bit too smart for your own good I'm afraid."

The 'old man' tore off the disguise and I was met with long blond hair that was now freed from its prison. When she stretched, she drew a gun and pointed it as us with a smile.

"Too bad, you were kind of cute too."