Author's note: Any yaoi suggested it purely coincidental and has nothing to do with the overall story and should not be interpreted in the wrong way.

Thanks everyone for reading and Happy Belated Birthday Mysteryfan17! (It seems we both have birthdays on the 17th, though mine is in February ^_^)

Please continue to read and review!

Chapter 21: Perilous Dangers

"Kuroba, who were you talking to?" Hakuba asked after I hung up.

"Why is that any of your business? I got the tickets didn't I?" I wasn't going to rat out Ruby to either detective. I grabbed the keys off the table where I had thrown them earlier. "Let's go, or we'll miss our flight."

"What if they get to Hattori before we can? I've been trying to reach him on his phone, but he won't answer." Kudo had figured it out on his own, just like I thought he would. Given time to think the facts over, the miniature detective could find the lost city of Atlantis if he wanted.

"Then Hattori-kun had better take care of himself until we reach him."

"They wouldn't be stupid enough to do anything on the plane. And they'd be fools to get him at his house since his father, the chief commissioner of the Osaka police department, may be home. Most likely, they'll try to get him after he gets off the plane, but before he gets home," Hakuba thought aloud.

"Yeah, I think we already figured that."

"Would you please tell me what happened when you guys were outside?" Kudo asked.

"On the plane. I need a few answers myself, so don't worry about it."

The airport wasn't far, and the car ride that should have taken twenty-five minutes only took a little more than ten. While Hakuba looked like a nervous wreck and avoided eye contact with us when I swiveled into a parking space, the small detective did not seem all that fazed. It made me wonder if tantei-kun had experience with my kind of driving.

"Lightweight," I muttered, with a mischievous grin, at Hakuba.

"Ah, Kuroba-kun," Kudo pulled on one of my sleeves to get my attention, "You should probably do something about yourself before we're in public."

"What's wrong?" I looked at my average looking clothes and felt my over gelled hair. Now that I had time to think about it, the hair was styled remarkably like Kudo's since Vermouth had changed it.

"Your eyes, idiot," Hakuba laughed. "You took one of the contacts out, remember? Mismatched eyes will definitely draw attention."

"Oops, you're right." I ducked back into the car to use the visor's mirror. Seeing the brown eye and blue eye reflection made me laugh. I wondered why I'd been getting a headache and why the right side of my world looked darker then the left.

Once the other contact was out, 'looking similar' no longer seemed to fit my appearance; I could have been Kudo's identical twin. "Ah, Conan-kun…" I mumbled and waved him back over to the car. Hakuba followed him, of course, so I watched my words. "Do you know Vermouth? You mentioned some names to us earlier, but didn't say anything about connections."

"Why?" he asked pensively. Anyone could see he was being touchy on the subject.

"Well…" since the car door was already opened, I picked him up. Forgoing the visor, I took the large fold up mirror out of my pocket and compared us in it. Except for the few scratches on my face, and Kudo's age problem, you couldn't tell us apart. "That's kind of scary, isn't it? I didn't even mean to do it this time. And since Vermouth was the one so adamant on changing my hair style to look like yours, I figure that you two know each other."

"When did you run into her?" Kudo's eyes widened, and I shoved us both out of the car. Explanations be damned, we were not missing the next flight.

I streaked my hair back with one of my hands, not feeling comfortable looking like Kudo when it didn't seem like such a good idea anymore. I took green contacts out of my pocket now, which were going to serve as a way for our escort to recognize me. Taking out the mirror again, I added a fake scar above my eye and a little tanned skin tone.

"You should really stop doing that in front of me, I'm starting to understand how your disguises work," Hakuba sighed. "And how do you not poke yourself in the eye while doing that?"

"I'm fast, and I know how to use what I have the right way. There's nothing special about it." I snapped the mirror shut, letting my anxiety get the better of me. We'd better make it before anything happened to Hattori.

I looked around the crowded airport, and found the aisle off to the side where crew members enter. The other two followed me without any questions, surprisingly. I then heard Kudo let out a small laugh.

"You're not going to try being a pilot again, are you?"

"Nope. It didn't work so well last time. Besides, I prefer my own wings."

"Someone let Kuroba-kun fly a plane?" I was a little hurt at seeing the surprise and fear cross the detective's face. Yet at the same time, I was amused by it.

"I wasn't that bad," I huffed. "If it weren't for me, no one would have walked away from it alive."

"Yeah, but you weren't the one landing the plane. I believe you chickened out at the last minute."

"Hey!" I spun around on him, indignation stopping me for the moment. "If I hadn't left then, do you honestly think I would have been able to land the plane in pitch black! I'm a magician, not a miracle worker!"

"I wouldn't say that." Now that I was facing him, I could see the mischief in Kudo's face that was hidden in his words. I turned back and kept going, getting a few looks from some of the staff members. "I've seen you perform some amazing feats. How you had the good fortune of running into that many cop cars supposedly chasing after you is one of them."

"That was luck," I sobered again, "Which was nothing on my part, besides my original actions that led up to it. Without planning, I can't take credit for something that wasn't in my control."

"Luck can be controlled to an extent. For example, most of your heists seem to go without a hitch because you plan much further ahead than most people, and you seem to have a lot of backup plans. However, luck does play a huge role when something unexpected gets in your way." I could hear him sigh, "How you always manage to come out on top is one of those little miracles I was talking about. I've never seen someone as lucky as you before."

"I'm not lucky, I..." My eyes widened and I wanted to take back my words. I wasn't going to give either of them further incentive to look into my life. "I'm just a bit more flexible than most," I grinned, trying to add some humor to my words so that Kudo wouldn't go looking any deeper. I was surprised that Hakuba was still silent.

We finally made it to the end of the long airport and out onto the docks where the planes were. Both detectives became a little more hesitant in following me, but both knew that they had no other alternative. I opened one of the doors to a large white building, where the supplies for the aircrafts were stored.

I smiled kindly to the man inside, who was somewhere in his late thirties and definitely had some foreign blood in him since his hair was naturally light brown and his skin was darker, along with his eyes. His light hair was cut close to his head so its color wasn't that obvious.

He handed me a small envelope with our tickets and walked out with us like we were old friends. Kudo and Hakuba fell in line behind us, and I could feel their unease for doing something that was quite illegal.

"It's better than being at the museum with me, isn't it?" I asked the detective lightly.

"No, it isn't. It was easier to spot dangers then." I saw him eye the man from over my shoulder. I rolled my eyes at the detective for being so suspicious and placed my hands in my pocket. I fiddled around with some things in there, just in case he was right.

However, I soon paused in my tinkering. When did I start letting paranoia run my life? I dropped the items and let my hands fall loosely at my side as we entered the terminal through a different entrance. We passed customs and the security check points. It would have been fun keeping all my toys from security, but I'd play with them some other day.

We stopped before the loading gates. According to my watch, the plane we were getting on was taking off in less than ten minutes. I slowed down to let the other two get ahead of me.

"Why aren't you getting on with us?" Hakuba asked me when I handed him his and Kudo's ticket.

"Just a second. I have to talk to my friend over here." I winked at him. "If you're afraid of going on the plane without someone older than you, I'd understand."

"Hmpt, it is to my great misfortune and displeasure to have been born just a few months after you. I don't think maturity comes to idiots though, so I believe I surpass you in wisdom."

"Whatever," I rolled my eyes at him and shooed him and Kudo off with my hand. "Go preach to someone who'll listen to you."

Hakuba was an independent person so he showed no concern for leaving. Kudo, on the other hand, watched me suspiciously until the once blond detective was almost inside the plane before running to catch up to him, shooting me a curious backwards glance.

"Now," I mumbled to the man under my breath, when the detectives were safely on the plane. I twirled around and got behind him in a second, twisting his wrist with one hand so that the object he was holding fell inconspicuously into my other hand. "Just what were you trying to pull?"

The man gave a short bark of laughter and tried to grab my shoulder with his free arm. People often made the mistake of misjudging my strength based on my size. I easily avoided his grasp and tightened my hold on his arm, making him let out a small cry of pain. I flipped the small taser around in my hands as if it weighed nothing.

"I don't recall anything like this being part of my deal with Neko-san."

"Who? Oh, you mean that woman. I've helped her in the past, but when I heard that someone, who a large group was ready to pay a lot of money for, was coming, I just couldn't pass it up."

"You don't know who I am, do you?" I asked in a steely tone with blatant disdain.

"Like I care who you are." The man tried to slip out of my hand and I allowed him to. Facing people from behind was only good when I wanted to surprise them, not when I wanted to intimidate them. When he turned around, I placed the taser almost slowly into the outer pocket of my jacket so that he would notice. I made sure the motion didn't look deliberate.

Just as I had predicted, the man came at me and tried to reach into my pocket for the weapon.

Only to have me vanish once he laid his hands on me.

"What the hell?"

"I'm not particularly fond of people like you," I took out the taser and ignited it, hearing the sparks flare as it was activated. The battery life wasn't long for this particular model, but I wanted to show him how serious I was.

He spun around to find me looking relaxed with all the predatory instincts of a leopard. I saw him throw me a blank look, confused at the fact that my age and my reactions didn't match up. A large grin unconsciously crossed my face, and I took something grainy out of a zip-lock bag. "You shouldn't have messed with someone like me."

I was at his side in an instant and waved the powder into his face before lounging good naturedly behind him once again. This time when he spun, his actions were slower and his eyes were duller.

"Make sure you explain to customs what it was you were doing with a taser in an airport," I said coarsely as he fell to his knees and landed on the floor completely unconscious.

I messed with a few more things in my pockets before ducking into one of the rooms where I knew there would be some guards.

"Excuse me?" I asked in a quiet, unassuming voice that wavered slightly. There were three in this room, and two looked up in interest when I spoke while the other continued to fill out paperwork of some kind. I let a few tears fall down my face. "I need h-help."

"What's wrong young lady?"

I'd grown used to being called such, with months of getting used to it, and the brush of make-up I put on made it easier to fit into the role. The black wig on my head was long and just uneven enough to throw off the fact that it was fake. The voice was easier than anything else, a little higher and a lot softer then Aoko's. My light colored shirt was collared, but hidden behind my jacket so I could pass as female.

"There's a man…" I winced back a little and covered a green eye with one of my hands. "He… he wouldn't let me on the plane." I showed them my ticket, made out to an Ayaka Takiomi. I'd purposely asked Ruby to use a girl's identity in case of emergencies such as this. "My friends already got on the plane, but before I could get on with them, he tried to stop me. I don't know what happened, but he pulled out something that sparked a lot. Then he just fell to the floor. I didn't want to leave him there, but I… I didn't know what else to do." I sobbed, laughing internally.

"There, there," one of the officers rubbed my back gently and I masked a sharp intake of breath as another sob. Hands off, I'm still hurt. "We'll have this whole mess sorted out in no time."

The other officer, and the one who'd been filling out the paperwork, made their way briskly out of the small room to see if I was telling the truth. They'd find the man and weapon quickly enough. Luckily, my sleeping powder would be harder to trace.

"I don't want to miss my flight. My friends are on it…. I… what should I do?"

"I'm sorry Miss, but you're going to have to stay here until we catch this man. If it's not too much trouble, we'd like a statement as well when you're feeling up to it."

"I understand," I hide my smile behind my hands as I wiped away the tears, sliding one foot closer to the door. "I'm sorry."

"There's nothing to be sorry about. We'll catch this guy, don't worry. You're completely safe." I lifted an eyebrow as I noticed how he had yet to remove his hand from my back.

"Um…" I palmed my watch to check the time. It didn't feel odd to me to be traveling after midnight, but doing it as myself was a new experience. "I'm really sorry, but… with how long customs took…" I let a blush cross my face and turned away from the man. He wasn't old for an officer, still in his early twenties, and it was obvious to me that most of his attention wasn't solely on consoling me.

"What's the matter Miss?"

"I…" I let the blush spread, getting embarrassed at myself for the first time. "I have to go to the washroom."

"Oh, sure thing." He let his hand slid down my arm and into my hand. "Come with me."

I followed him to the washroom, which I knew was further away from the plane. If I was going to make it to Kudo and Hakuba before the aircraft took off, I'd have to be quick.

The officer led me to the washroom and I gave him a faint, flustered smile. "Thank you."

"No problem Miss. I'll be waiting for you when you're done." I closed the door and raised my eyebrows at the guy.

"Lay off the ladies, would you?" I whisper somewhat sarcastically to the closed door. I distinctly heard the sound of urination, but ignored it. Walking into one of the open toilet stalls, I quietly closed the stall door behind me before standing on the toilet to take a section of the ceiling out. I quietly pulled myself up into the opening. Once I was inside, I placed the tile back. The officers would miss me when I was gone, but they had their man and the taser on him so that should be enough reason to hold him for at least a little while and hopefully stop anyone from finding out where we went.

Pretense aside, I had to hurry if I was going to make the flight. I'd also have to be prepared for some unwelcome visitors for when we get off the plane, but that would be simple. Hopefully.

I made my quickly though the ceiling, being sure to spread my weight around and not to go too far out for fear it might collapse underneath me. I found the ventilation leading outside and slipped through it quickly.

I eyed the floor, which was a good ten feet below me, and took a hold of the edge of the building. Once I lowered my weight out of the ventilation opening, I let myself fall. The runway wasn't as soft as it could have been, and I flinched when I landed hard on my ankles before absorbing the rest of my weight onto my hands.

Luckily, I made it to the plane before the platform had been taken away, bowing apologetically to the men who were going to move it.

I didn't need to look at my ticket stub to know where I was going, since I'd memorized the information when I'd first taken it out of the envelope. Hakuba had taken the window seat and Kudo was next to him. Both their eyes were closed, though Kudo made it a point to open his every time he heard an unfamiliar noise. I sat down next to him, trying not garner too much attention.

"Kuroba-kun, what do you think you're doing?" Hakuba asked me, with Kudo mirroring the detective's skeptical look with raised eyebrows.

"What do you mean? I'm not doing anything wrong," I smirked, flashing them the name on my ticket. Both stiffened at the unfamiliarity of my voice, but neither said anything. I eyed Hakuba a little longer and grabbed his arm, pulling the front of him across Kudo. Either Kudo was use to such antics, living with the drunk Mouri Kogoro, or he managed to predict it, because all the little detective did was lean further back into his seat to allow more room for me to work on Hakuba.

"Hey, let me go!" The detective wrestled with me, but I was able to get the bottle out of my pocket and thoroughly put the sticky liquid into his hair, making it look disheveled but now in a solid tone of black rather than brown.

I took a cloth out and wiped the excess hair dye off his hair and off my hands.

"Just a second," I grabbed his shirt again before he could pull away and opened the eyeliner with my teeth, lightly brushing it across his skin as he instinctively closed his eyes. I reached into my pocket and got another pair of contacts, contacts which I would have to replenish soon if I kept using them at this pace.

"Hakuba, I'm going to put this in," I waved the contacts in front of him. "You can't move when I do."

"That's not necessary."

"Shut up," I unclipped my seatbelt and went over to him when he drew away the minute I couldn't hold him. Kudo just watched us in dry amusement as I placed my wrists across Hakuba's face as he tried to slip out from under me. However, before he could, I forced his eye open and he probably concluded then that moving while I did so was a bad idea because he suddenly stayed perfectly still. I heard him draw in a harsh breath and felt him twitch when I got the contacts in, partially in pain and partially because it was something new and he'd never had reason to wear them before.

"There," I held my hands up, forming a picture frame, admiring my work. He blinked and I saw one of his hands move to rub his eyes, but Kudo grabbed his wrist before he could.

"And now that we have the time, I think some explanations are in order, for everyone," I added as Kudo gave me a hard look. The plane was starting to take off and I distantly heard something said over the intercom as I went back to my seat. "Let's start at the beginning. Vermouth ran into us when we left because someone recognized Hattori when we met Kei-chan's mother. What was Vermouth after?" Even with a feminine voice, I could still make my tone harsh.

"A disc," Hakuba raised an eyebrow and a sarcastic smile crossed his face. "I thought that was obvious when she asked me for it."

I rolled my eyes at him. "Of course that part was obvious. The disc I took from you couldn't have been the one she was after though. I mean, there wasn't anything on there that you couldn't have found out by just going to the hospital."

"It wasn't," Hakuba leaned his head tiredly against the window and Kudo's fatigue was matched expect for the spark of interest in the younger boy's eyes.

"Hey, quick question for you," I leaned towards Kudo. "When's your birthday?"

"May, during Golden week, why?"

Ok, older boy's eyes. I chuckled at the information that he was older than both the detective and me. "Nothing." I poked Hakuba's arm to get him talking again. "So…"

"So the disc the woman was after is different. It contains all the chemicals, radiation, and treatments that they had the mothers undergo during their pregnancies, along with what was done after the children were born. I brought this matter upon myself."

"What do you mean?" Kudo asked him. I figured I'd let the smaller detective interrogate Hakuba now since he'd know which questions to ask better than I would.

"I happened to have gone with Hisa-chan on one of her treatment days and the disc was sitting there. I was bored so I let my curiosity get the better of me and placed it in the computer." Hakuba's eyes were dull but I could see the gleam of something unpleasant in them. "Needless to say, I couldn't ignore what I saw."

"So Vermouth, no, the organization, is after you because you have this disc. Did anything stick out to you much? And how did they know that you took it?"

"Some of the chemicals were illegal and I'm sure they knew I took it by the simple fact that I didn't try to hide. I made it quite obvious that I had the disc and would go to the police with it. However, I wasn't aware just who I was going up against at the time."

"Just because you're the son of a high police official does not mean you're untouchable. Your self-righteous attitude is going to get you killed one of these days. I'm sure your above average smugness won't help you either," I mumbled.

"Shut up Kuroba-kun, it's not like I'd expect you to understand. I don't want you critiquing my actions when yours are so much worse."

"I keep my mouth shut when I know I should."

"I'm sure Vermouth would agree with you," the detective retorted sarcastically.

Kudo held up his hands between us to stop our arguing and looked at Hakuba. "So they didn't stop you in the hospital, but it must have become obvious that they were after you and the children."

"Yes, they tried to kidnap them before killing them so there were warning signs then."

"And you? Not to be cruel, but if you made it that obvious to the organization, I don't see how your family wouldn't know that they were after you. Why didn't they hand you over to them?"

"It wasn't for the lack of effort on their part, I can assure you" His tone lowered several pitches when he said this, almost bitterly. "If it wasn't for my father, I doubt I'd be here to talk to you right now."

"Right-"

"So where is this disc then?" I cut in. I was interested to know how the detective thought I would have any idea where the item was, especially when I never knew it existed in the first place.

"I can't tell you," he rested his head gently against the window and leaned against the side of his seat. I saw a brief smile flicker across his face, "for your own safety it would be better if you didn't know."

"Don't feed me my own words Hakuba. I doubt I could get myself any further into danger.

"There's always more danger…" his eyes fluttered open, but it was clear that he'd been fighting back sleep for too long now. "I won't tell you."

"Kuroba-kun," Kudo turned to me, redirecting my attention to him. "What happened with Vermouth?"

"You've figured out most of it, right?" a quick nod from the smaller boy told me I'd been right. "Well, she ran into us, but I spotted her before she could do any real harm. I got the bullets out of her gun so we were safe, but I'm afraid she knows a good deal about me at this point."

"Why, what happened?"

"We got to talking for a while. I don't know if she'd recognize me or not in the future, but I'd have to guess she would. There wasn't much hiding my features in the first place," I smiled down at him. "So you wouldn't happen to know her personally would you?"

"Unfortunately," Kudo sighed. "What made you ask that?"

Questions, questions, questions. Detectives were such predictable creatures.

"She let us go because I looked like you. Interesting, isn't it?"

"I met her a few years ago," he abated. "We ran into each other while she was pretending to be a serial killer. She had committed a crime and was fleeing when she almost died. I saved her."

"That clears a few things up." I flipped around some of my smaller gadgets in my hand, simply out of boredom. I glanced at Kudo a few times as he closed his eyes as well.

I wasn't tired, since I'd slept most of the previous day. but it would be better if we were all on the same time schedule so I let mine close as well.

The plane ride wasn't that long and I wasn't able to fall asleep like the detectives did, so I let my mind go blank as I listened indistinguishably to the voices around me.

…

"Excuse me…" someone shook my shoulder until I blinked my eyes open. I hadn't been sleeping, but I'd been listening to the conversation between a little boy and his dad subconsciously so I hadn't heard the stewardess. "We're landing shortly."

"Thank you," I replied under my breath, keeping my tone and voice feminine. Kudo and Hakuba were both still sleeping, so I let them be while I stretched.

"I wouldn't move if I were you."

"Well, clearly you aren't me so I don't think I'll be listening to you anytime soon," I laughed. "If you were me, this world would be a dark and scary place." I waved my hands around in a flourish and I heard her echoing chuckles from behind me.

"How'd you know it was me?" I flipped around, crouching into the seat so I could watch her over the headrest.

Akako slid further up into her seat and put her face so close to mine that I almost fell backwards trying to avoid her.

"I'd know you anywhere Kuroba Kaito," She smirked. "It also helped that you don't bother to hide your spirit from me."

"I, what? Never mind." I glared at her. "What do you want?"

"Go back home with me." Her tone was dead serious and I'd only heard her use it a few times before. "I don't know what you've gotten yourself into, but whatever is in Osaka is going to stay there. Your future is getting cloudy Kuroba-kun and I can't protect you when it's like that. Only bad things can come of you getting off this plane."

"So now you're worried about me?" I teased before turning serious. "Sorry Akako-san, but I'm a big boy. I can take care of myself."

"As if you know what's good for you…and stop looking at me with that face," she huffed and I couldn't help but smirk. Akako shoved a hand in my face, effectively making me fall back into the seat that was in front of mine, which I then used as leverage to land seemingly back into a sitting position on my own seat.

"What'd you do that for?"

"If you're going to look like a girl, at least act like one." I could see her start to blush.

"Women…" I sighed and let her stand next to me, since I was the one near the aisle. "I'm going to Osaka whether you want me to or not."

"And if you die?"

"I've stared death in the face a few times now, and you didn't care to stop me then. I think you've been overestimating your abilities."

"Don't say that Kuroba-kun when you don't know what you're talking about. Lucifer told me about some crazy scheme you hatched up a few days ago and warned me specifically not to let you go to Osaka because something there will get you killed."

"Like I said, I can take care of myself."

"Why don't you ever listen to me?" The witch was getting fed up with me, but I was getting tired of this as well. I was grateful for all the problems in my life for once, since it meant I had the necessary ingredients to subtly shut her up.

"Akako-san," I held my breath as I got up and lifted her chin towards me, opening my fingers slowly. "I think-"

"Koizumi-san?"

Damn. I closed my fingers quickly as Akako tore away from me to gape at Hakuba. It seemed her supernatural senses didn't extend to the detective since she hadn't appeared to realize he was with me. Said detective now being black haired and brown eyed, instead of the strong British features he used to hold, would have scared her if she hadn't recognized his accent in just that one word.

"Hakuba-kun?" Her eyes darted between the two of us and wandered over to Kudo, who was rubbing his eyes in an attempt to wake himself up. I smiled and tapped her shoulder when her clueless expression didn't dissipate.

"I can take care of myself. Go home."

"But…" Her eyes narrowed at Kudo as if she were seeing something we weren't. The experiences with Kei and Hisa left me with some lingering sense that she was seeing something I couldn't.

"Koizumi-san, what are you doing here?" Hakuba questioned her.

"She's not doing anything here because she's not staying here." I stressed to the sorceress. "I'll be back in a few hours when the next plane leaves, so just go home. While I appreciate your concern, I have enough to deal with here without your interference."

"I'm not leaving Kuroba-kun." She eyed the detectives with disdain. "Just what exactly is it that you've been doing?"

The plane had landed while we were having our conversation and people were starting to gather their belongings. I tapped my fingers restlessly against my side while I debated what to do with her. Akako could be hazardous to have around, with everything that was happening, and one stray thought of betrayal from her could get us all killed.

"I said I'm not leaving." The witch said with determination. "If you're going back, then surely you don't mind if I tag along."

"Fine!" I snapped at her. "Just don't do anything and stay out of the way."

Kudo looked at us both questionably, since we knew who Akako was and he didn't. Hakuba had a fair level of confusion about him as well, though he seemed to take it that I knew why Akako was here better than he did.

We got off the plane in silence, and she stayed behind me while we walked though the airport. She wasn't a particularly bad person or anything, but I could never feel completely comfortable in her company after all the things she'd pulled on me in the past.

"Kaito-niisan," Kudo pulled on my pants and it took me a while to answer him since I wasn't used to being called that. "Who is she?"

"Just another classmate of ours," I muttered lazily. "She's a witch."

"A witch?" He asked me with raised eyebrows. "So she's got a bubbling cauldron and everything?"

"Probably," I turned to her. "Do you have a cauldron?"

"Of course I do!" Akako answered like it was some kind of insult if she didn't.

"Well, there you go."

Kudo avoided getting too close to her after that, and I couldn't blame him. Curiosity aside, Kudo was a smart person with strong instincts, who obviously knew, on some level, that it would be a bad idea to get the witch angry at him.

It seemed the small detective had only been to the Osakan's house on one occasion, but his mind was sharp enough that he was able to direct our taxi driver there perfectly, even taking a few shortcuts along the way.

Kudo was the one who took out a card to pay the driver in the end. Hakuba gave him of a sheepish look, embarrassed that the child had to pay for our fare instead of him. I had no money on me, so I didn't really care.

We stepped out, and Akako got out of the front seat to watch us calmly as I waved goodbye to the driver and thanked him. A small motion caught my eye, but I kept smiling.

"Don't make any sudden movements, ok?" I told them in a tone that didn't match my expression. I put my hands in my pockets and made my way down the street, away from the house. The others followed me without hesitation.

Kudo was at my side after a few minutes, also sensing something wrong.

"How many?"

"There are three, no…" I looked off at the other buildings, but couldn't quite make out a form, "maybe four people with guns aimed at that house. I don't think we would have made it passed the first few steps."

"Hattori?" He asked, his voice low and scarier then I'd ever heard it.

"I don't know where he is, but if they got him I don't think they would have stuck around."

Kudo nodded, letting himself fall towards the back of the group.

I was looking for signs as I went, since it would be stupid if we did nothing but retreat. Hattori couldn't have seen the snipers. He was good, but I knew I had him hands down when it came to things like this. If the Osakan boy wasn't home, even though he had a good four hours on us, there wasn't anywhere else he could be, unless…

"Hakuba, what time is it?" I asked nonchalantly. I heard the detective flipped open his watch, while I turned to looked at him hold it under the light from a nearby streetlamp.

"It's exactly three minutes before two in the morning."

I didn't really care about the time, but the detective's motion did what it was supposed to do.

"Thanks." I looked carefully as I crossed the street before leading the others across. There was no one out that late anyway, so it wasn't a big deal. Once across, I backtracked the way we came and Kudo was at my side once again, though he didn't ask me any questions this time.

"Almost didn't see ya," A voice said, startling everyone but me as we made it to a small alleyway in-between two houses.

"I didn't see you at all, nice hiding spot," I smiled. I lost my humor quickly when I noticed the dark skinned boy was breathing faster than he should have been, and that there was a good deal of blood flowing down the side of his neck.

"Wait, how'd you know he was here?" Hakuba asked me, oblivious to the fact that Hattori was hurt.

"Your watch…" I twiddled with my fingers as I moved in on the other detective, "If he was nearby, I knew he'd see it, what with it being so dark and all, gold shines brightly…"

Kudo was on my heels as I moved Hattori's jacket collar away from the wound.

"Its nothin', just a scratch."

The cut really wasn't that bad. The wound was clearly made from a bullet, but it hadn't done more than rip some of his skin off between his neck and shoulder.

"You should still wrap it up."

I noticed him shaking for a minute as I went to get some things out of the inner pockets of my coat. I soon realized that the shaking was the result of him trying to holding something in, and not from pain or cold, when the Osaka detective burst into laughter. "What's so funny?"

"You are…" when he spoke a few laughs came out louder than they should have, so he tried to quiet himself down. "Ya keep talkin' to me wearin' that an' how do ya think I'm gonna react?"

I felt a little indignant as I realized I was still wearing the wig and makeup, though I'd defaulted to using my normal voice when I'd seen him. I took the wig off in a fluid motion and told him to shut up.

"Aw come on, it was funny…"

I let my smile come back. If Hattori was ok enough to laugh at something so stupid, then I knew he'd be fine. I carefully grabbed his coat away from him and saw him wince.

"Take your shirt off," I ordered him. Akako politely turned away and the Osakan looked at her with embarrassment before following my command. I had the gauze and bandages wrapped around him in no time and handed him one of my shirts, just a plain black t-shirt that would hide the blood if it got through. "Only keep your jacket on when you need to, since blood shows up well on green."

"I know," he zipped his jacket back up. "Thanks."

"Sure… what happened anyways?"

"Well there musta been some guys out there when I came back 'cause they took a few shots at me the minute I got off the bus. There's some bullet holes in my door-"

"I know. That's why I thought you might have run off."

"Yeah well, they missed me. I think it's more 'cause I was yellin' at Kazuha on the phone and they couldn't get me sittin' still. I ran off after that an' figured my dad or someone would notice. I'm surprised that you guys came lookin' fer me instead."

"We had a small run in of our own, so we figured you were in trouble too."

"So I'm going back ta Tokyo with you guys?"

"Oh no… what are we supposed to do now?" I asked Kudo and put a hand on my forehead. "I forgot to get him a ticket back with us."

"What?"

"I wasn't thinking at the time," I defended myself against the looks from the other two detectives.

"How'd you expect to bring him back with us?"

"I don't know! Ah forget it! I'm sorry about this Hattori-kun." I took out the slip of paper and handed it to him. "Just don't talk and you should be fine."

"What do ya mean?" I could already tell that he didn't like the sound of that.

"I can get myself on the plane easily enough, but that means you'll have to use you my return ticket."

"So what's wrong with that?"

Hakuba let out a quiet laugh when he realized what I meant, and Kudo let himself smile in amusement as well.

"I really don't like where this is goin'…" Hattori kept looking at me. "What wrong with yer ticket?"

"Well…" I let a wide smile cross my face as well. "I wasn't exactly traveling as a boy."

"Ya've gotta be kiddin' me."