~CHAPTER START~

"You recognized me exactly 8.036 seconds after seeing me, without me saying a word. AND you're not the least disturbed by the fact that I now appear to be a decade younger than I should?" After checking his watch, Hakuba was more than surprised, perhaps even a little disturbed, at the other child's excessively calm expression as they walked down the street.

*about a minute earlier*

"Hakuba Saguru-san?!"

Just then, Ran's voice came from her own room. "Conan-kun, are your friends here? Why don't you invite them in?"

Conan was quick to shout his reply. "Ran-neechan, we're actually going down to the park! I'll be back later!" He immediately started pushing the shrunken detective back down the stairs.

"Just make sure you're back before dinner!" came Ran's reply from wherever.

"Hai!!"

***

And with that, Hakuba found himself being rushed back onto the sidewalk.

"We'll have to hurry. If the Shonen Tantei-dan ever see you here." Conan visibly shuddered.

"And…may I ask where in the world we're going?"

"Someplace you can explain how the hell you got mixed up in all of this."

Conan hardly knocked as he entered Agasa's home. He really would have preferred to use his own house, but that really wasn't an option when the lock for the gate was a full foot higher than his current reach.

"AGASA-HAKASE!!" Conan shouted. "Hakase, it's me, Conan!" he continued to call around the house.

There was an explosion somewhere around the corner. Hakuba could practically see Conan sweat-dropping as if he were in some sort of kid's anime.

Said Agasa-hakase eventually poked his soot-covered head out. "Ah, Shi—Conan-kun!" He'd quickly changed what he was going to say when he saw Hakuba behind Conan. "What a surprise! I'll assume you're here for a reason, eh?"

"Hai, Hakase. Can you open Shinichi-niichan's house for us? I wanna give—eh—my guest a tour!" Conan put on a sunny smile any almost-normal kid would.

"Of course, Conan-kun. I'll go get the spare key." He left and came back, dangling the key. "Well, come on, you two."

Agasa opened the gate for them, Conan thanked him politely, then the professor left. Conan led Hakuba into the Kudo Mansion, clearly knowing the place almost like his own home. Kudo Shinichi—a famous highschool detective that had never left a case unsolved—what was Conan-kun's relationship with the meitantei?

Conan sighed. Regretfully? Mournfully? Or maybe he was just tired. "Well, Hakuba-san, you might as well sit down and start talking." The child had looked back up and was staring at him with those determined, frightfully focused young eyes.

Hakuba obliged. The kid obviously knew something about that organization that appeared to be behind it all. "Well, not much to say, really. I don't have any recollection of doing anything. I came home from school today and these guys knocked me out in my own house then gave me the poison." He shrugged submissively. "And when I woke up, KID appe—"

"KID?" Conan eyed him in surprise. "Kaitou KID?"

The second detective wasn't quite sure, but he'd subconsciously assumed that Edogawa had been informed. Apparently not.

"Kaitou KID told me that we were 'against the same organization.'" Briefly reviewing the encounter, he turned back to the youngest tantei he'd ever met. "Do you have an idea of what he means by that?" Conan's face darkened immediately upon hearing this. Behind his glasses, Hakuba could see the great mind working through countless questions. "Well, before he left me nearby Mouri-san's, the last thing he said was something about not having a nickname for me anymore." This statement brought a smirk onto Conan's face.

"Of course. If I'm Tantei-kun to KID-san, then you'd be Tantei-san. But it'd be strange to be calling a grade-schooler by –san, wouldn't it?" Conan chuckled. "Well, I can probably help you some. But you'll have to come up with a persona—and that starts with finding you a name."

Conan promptly hopped off his spot on the sofa, running along the bookshelves, as if scouring for information. He walked around almost as though he owned the place—once more raising the question of who or what Conan was.

"Hm…anything to do with Sherlock or Holmes is far too obvious…" He turned back to Hakuba. "You gonna help me find you a decent pseudonym?" he asked expectantly before returning to the numerous mystery books on the shelves. "Besides, I'll assume you'd rather not end up with something way out of the blue."

Blinking, and trying not to think about possible names he could end up with, Hakuba promptly joined the child who appeared to be only slightly younger than him. It should have been much more than slightly.

After looking around for inspiration, he finally thought of something. "Akechi…Hirai Akechi. ((1)) " He breathed. And I'm going to have to live with this name…

"It works," came his companion's indifferent reply. "Now for some sort of disguise…"

"Wait, Conan-kun," Hakuba, quite impolitely interrupted, "what exactly is this all about? My 'conversation' with KID didn't exactly give me much information."

He couldn't see the child's eyes. "Let's just say it's big. Big enough that if anybody, anybody, knew this secret, even the police, then it wouldn't take long before the enemy found out and that would be the end of us."

"And your part?"

"…You could say I'm a victim of sorts." What he meant by that, Hakuba—no, Akechi, he reminded himself—had no clue.

~CHAPTER END~

AN://

No, Hakuba does not find out about Conan being Kudo. I know that most people make it seem somewhat easy to connect the dots ((I mean, just look at Hattori!)), but Heiji ((and am I going by first name or last?!)) only figured it out because he'd been looking for Kudo, and even saw him once. Hakuba, on the other hand, has never had anything to do with Shinichi, perhaps only having seen him in the paper and heard him being mentioned. He has, though, seen Conan twice (if I'm not mistaken) and probably sees a (overly) brilliant little kid.

Kogoro Akechi is the main detective of Edogawa Rampo's mysteries. (thank Wikipedia) Edogawa Rampo's real name is Hirai Taro. Thus, Hirai Akechi. I'm lazy, I only used one mystery writer. So sue me.

Disclaimer://

No, of course I don't own Detective Conan, but I DO own Magic Kaito, which would explain why I have a very blurry idea of Hakuba's character and am completely and utterly clueless when it comes to his eye color.

Well, despite what I've said, these things are actually getting shorter…

Please inform me of how the pace is, whether the writing's good…anything…mostly the pace.

I'm bad at cliffhangers.