Memo: Thanks to the reviewers who let me know that Kaito's last name is 'Kuroba', not 'Kuroda', and sorry for the confusion. I know it was a short scene and easy to miss, but in chapter 1, Kaito requests Hakuba to let him go with a fake name since he did not want to go into a house full of detectives with a famous magician's last name.

Hope this tidbit didn't bother readers too much last chapter, and that this memo clears things up.

Ch. 3 Trapped within a wrinkle in time

Kaito blinked, before taking in a deep breath to smooth out his features. Don't panic. He thought to himself. Stay calm. Mustn't… forget… poker face. "Nothing." He lied, responding to little Shinichi's question.

"Don't lie to me." Shinichi replied, frowning. He found that the more he spoke with this teen the less he knew about him, and Shinichi was not in the mood for this right now. Besides, the guy had obviously been horrified about the ridiculous rumor surrounding the jewel that used to be here. "What's wrong with the jewel that cries and stops time? Don't tell me you believe in that cr-" Shinichi stopped himself. Did Conan curse? "Don't tell me you believe in that magic stuff."

"Of course not, Conan-kun." Kaito replied, shuddering. Right, he would go this route. "But think about it! Disappearing people and a magic jewel that cries and stops time? This place really sounds like bad news!" he exclaimed. "Believe in the stuff or not, you can't blame me for getting a little spooked."

Shinichi narrowed his eyes, and Kaito couldn't help but inwardly jolt as he saw the challenging grin grace the little detective's face. Unwittingly, it seemed Kaito had provoked the formerly uninterested great detective of the East into actually taking this mystery up as a challenge. "Well." Shinichi scoffed, crossing his arms defiantly. "Didn't I say we would figure this out? Once we know, there will be nothing to be afraid of."

Kaito gave the boy a silent look, before quipping out a timid response. "Fine." Yup. Battered or not, Conan or not, Kudo is tough as nails and insane. I guess that's why we get along in our own strange way. "Can I trust you on that?"

Shinichi laughed in response. "You can always trust the truth, Kaito-niichan. There is only one after all."

The two finally entered the dining room after their little truce, and sat themselves down at the table.

"About time you two brats showed up." Kogoro grumbled, looking over from his seat to the two familiar faces. "Dinner time started 10 minutes ago."

"Sorry old man, Kaito-niichan and I were talking about the house mystery!" Shinichi piped up, easily picking up the little kid act. He figured if Kogoro and the others treated him like a little kid, Conan probably acted like one too.

"Oh, and did you two get far?" Ikumi asked, smiling at the child and the teenager that had been roped into partnering up with him. "I hope us pros haven't been beaten yet."

"No." Shinichi replied, looking put out. Perhaps he could get the other adults to spill some hints for them. Although Shinichi planned to work with the mystery teen to figure out the mystery of the mansion, they didn't have enough information. Kaito obviously hadn't known about the missing persons part of the mystery, and had known even less than Shinichi about the alleged jewel that may or may not be in this house. Shinichi, until he got his Conan memories back, didn't know if he had looked anything up about this place before coming here. "But I am scared about the missing persons mystery. What if the big jewel here is eating up the people?"

Mogi laughed, as Kogoro sighed exasperatedly, and Hakuba gave Kaito an accusatory look.

"Don't look at me!" Kaito muttered, looking back at Hakuba, "I don't believe the jewel eats people, but I admit I am spooked by the missing persons thing like Conan-kun here." He sighed, "Unlike all of you brilliant detectives, us normal people and children know something called fear when faced with a weird mystery like this."

Hakuba scoffed at the ridiculous notion. These two were obviously fishing for information. Well, if that's how you're going to be then Kuroba-kun, welcome to the game. He smiled. Let's see how you fare against us detectives.

"Look, there is no such thing as real magic, and thus there is no monster jewel eating people up." Mogi said, glancing over at Conan. "If there is anything that looks like either, it's either a magician doing some hand tricks, or a real human being causing people to disappear." He paused dramatically. "I hate to say this kid, but the world already has monsters without supernatural jewels entering into the picture."

"Besides," Ikumi added on, "the missing persons rumor started around 8 years ago, after a famous thief performed what was thought to be his last theft here and went missing without a trace. Well… until recently." She crossed her arms, looking contemplative. "I bet some criminals decided to use the rumor that this house made the thief disappear for stealing its treasure and kidnapped some people on the premises, trying to make the disappearances seem just as supernatural."

"Wait…" Kaito started, confused. "which thief is this?" Disappeared 8 years ago but active now? He thought, quirking his eyebrows. That profile matched that of Kaitou KID, but from what he knew, his father's last heist wasn't this mansion. Hakuba gave him a strange look for the genuine confusion, but he ignored it. The detective was probably trying to figure out if he was acting or not anyway.

"Kaitou KID of course. For being friends with this detective boy, you sure don't know anything." Kogoro scoffed, pointing his thumb at Hakuba. "Disappeared for 8 years? Active now? Famous thief? Who else?"

"His last heist wasn't here," Mogi replied, crossing his arms, but then glanced over at Ikumi. "Or at least, his last publicized one wasn't. You used to work for the police didn't you?" he then also looked over at Kogoro as well, "And you too. So I assume there was one last one done here that us civilians weren't privy to knowing."

"Yes." Ikumi replied, "As you suspect, the last publicized one wasn't here, but the last one known by the police was here. Although I was not in the force yet at the time of the heist, it was such a quiet end to such a big name that everyone was still talking about it when I joined a couple years after."

"I was in a different division at the time, but yea I also remember some colleagues of mine talking about it when I was in the force." Kogoro added on as well. "That stupid, flamboyant thief: last heist unpublicized in a wonky old mansion and then poof. Gone. Leaving no trace of having ever set foot in this mansion. And after that, no more heists."

Shinichi frowned. Drats. If only I had my Conan memories back, I would know more about this mysterious thief! He glanced over at Kaito, who had just been listening to the chatter silently after his question. And he just keeps proving to be more clueless than ever! Does he really know Conan's secret?

Kaito couldn't help but look over at Hakuba with the unspoken question. Is this true? As much as he hated to admit it, if anyone would have done their research, it would be him. "Did you know about this?"

"I did know, but I found that out by chance." Hakuba replied, expression neutral. If his classmate really was the current KID, it was curious to know that he was not aware of the former KID's last heist. This implied he was not directly handed over the legacy by the former one. "I mentioned to my father where I was going this weekend, and he told me about that rumor surrounding KID and this mansion." He paused, frowning. "Of course, I asked if there were any case files left about this, but he told me there was pretty much nothing in it." Hakuba sighed, "Apparently all of the people involved knew nothing, and even though there was one civilian witness the police thought might know something, apparently he died in an unrelated accident before the police could follow up with him on the case."

"Why didn't the police question him on the spot?" Shinichi asked, curiosity peaked about this mystery person.

"Well" Hakuba said, blinking as he looked at Conan strangely. "Coincidentally enough, apparently the man had gotten injured in the mansion and was a recovering amnesiac at the time the police had come in for questioning. So they decided to give him some time to recuperate before they went and followed up. This wasn't a high priority case after all, considering the police could find nothing that had happened in the mansion."

"Who was that person?" Kaito asked, trying to keep his voice steady and wracking his brain for some memory of his father before his death. It was such a long time ago.

"He wouldn't tell me." Hakuba replied, looking disappointed. "Although deceased, it is a civilian identity after all."

Mogi whistled as he leaned back. "Ah, and the mystery gets deeper." He grinned and winked at Conan. "Don't wet your bed, kiddo."

Shinichi grimaced, and then huffed as he supposed a kid his age would do, and hopped off the chair. "I won't!" he glared at Mogi, and then tugged at Kaito's shirt. "Let's go Kaito-niichan! Let's go look for clues!"

"Hey I'd love to, but isn't it your bedtime?" Kaito asked, looking down at the mini detective. He did want the detective's help in looking into this mystery, but it was nearing 10 in the evening and he still had to treat this kid like a child. Not to mention, it was very worrying that this mystery was looking more personal by the minute.

"It's good to be eager, but you need sleep to recuperate." Ikumi added on. "Don't forget, you have a head injury after all."

"You kids should all go to sleep." Kogoro muttered, eyeing the two teens plus Conan. "Damn kids never get enough sleep nowadays."

Kaito slid off his chair and stood up to leave the room. It was true that little Conan needed to rest, and although Kaito knew he could go around and do his own investigating, he knew the kid would sneak out of his bedroom and try to track him down if he tried to do so on his own.

Kaito could sneak around and try to do the investigating without being seen, but with all of these detectives milling around, the risk of getting caught being too good at sneaking around was not worth it. "I'm going to bed." He announced. "Good night, and see you all tomorrow morning."

This was still Friday evening anyway. They had 2 full days and most of the 3rd day to investigate. They had plenty of time.

Kaito then walked out of the room after calls of 'Good nights' were made to him, with Conan running after him. Conan however, paused in front of the door as if he thought of something before calling out to Kogoro. "I'm going to sleep in Kaito-niichan's room! We're going to be working together after all, so you can't listen to our secret plans!" Not waiting for a response, the little child closed the door and caught up to the exasperated looking teenager.

You're not in the clear yet, mister. Shinichi thought, as he followed his look-alike. Along with the mansion mystery, Shinichi couldn't help but be curious about this shady ally. Additionally, Shinichi knew that mornings were not good times to be trying to keep up a cover. If he woke up, saw Kogoro's familiar face, and said something not-Conan, it would be bad news.

Persistent little- Kaito thought before sighing in resignation. As long as Conan didn't regain his memory, Kaito should be safe for now. And even if he did, Kaito hadn't given the squirt enough proof to be certain that he knew about his identity. Ironically, perhaps it was best that they stuck together in that sense. The less Conan left his side, the less Kaito had to risk exposing his knowledge about the pipsqueak's secret to save him.

"Come on." Kaito said, gesturing tiredly at the little boy. "But we're not doing any planning. It's late, you're seven years old, you have a head injury, and you're going to sleep."

"I know." Shinichi replied without much fight. It was still Friday evening after all. He had plenty of time to figure things out.

000

Conan stirred as he felt his consciousness returning to him, and blearily opened his eyes before yawning quietly. Wow. He thought, blinking sleepily. That dream was weird as F***. Sitting up, he stretched sleepily before stepping out of his bed-

And promptly fell flat on his face.

Now fully awake Conan jumped up, flinching at the sharp pain coming from his head injury from yesterday. However, paying no heed to the discomfort, he whipped around and jumped back onto the bed he had just been sleeping on. Holy SHIT. That wasn't a dream?! In that case-

Conan gulped as he saw a mop of hair poking out of the covers from the farther end of the bed. Crawling over cautiously, he poked at the head, almost afraid to check who it was. However, getting no encouraging response, Conan reached over and pinched the other boy's cheek. He almost felt bad for being a jerk to someone he barely knew so early in the morning, but Conan had to check.

"Ow!" Kaito sputtered, rubbing his cheek where it had been pinched, and then sat up to look at the offender. "Ugh, Conan-kun. Good morning to you too. Geez, what's wrong with you?"

Conan blinked, speechless. You're kidding me. "I… I just wanted to check… you're really not Shinichi-niichan?" Is that seriously your real face?! Conan screamed inwardly. This was insane. Reality was insane.

"Not that again…" Kaito yawned. "No. I'm not Shinichi Kudo. This is my real face. Gosh darn, you need to relax."

Conan blinked, before replying weakly. "Sorry, it's just, still disoriented from yesterday."

Kaito stretched and then patted Conan on the shoulder. "Hey, don't worry about it kiddo. You've had it rough."

Before Conan could respond, Kaito turned away from him and stepped out of bed to shuffle around to get a change of clothes. Conan put his head in between his knees, closing his eyes and trying to think straight. What. The. Hell.

He didn't know what to do. When he woke up, Conan had thought he had dreamt going to a mansion with Kogoro to look at some weird case with disappearing people and a weird jewel, and then hit his head and forgot about being Conan, and then met a mysterious doppelganger who, knowing what knew now, would make a lot of sense if he was KID.

But here he was.

Not a dream.

Real doppelganger.

Real likely candidate for being the real KID.

My luck… is amazing. Conan thought sarcastically. Incredibly, he was at a loss of what to do.

Conan weighed out his options, not liking any of them but knowing he had to choose one of them now.

One, he could let this look-alike know that 'Conan' was back, and go back to being his usual self. However, the teen would have to turn dumb and hide all his cards from Conan, making it harder for both of them to solve this house mystery. Granted, Conan could just ditch the mystery, but that was uncharacteristic of him. Besides, he had promised yesterday that he would solve it. Judging from the reaction Kaito had to the jewel legend, and the strange confusion he had over the former KID's last heist supposedly having been here, Kaito wasn't going to drop this case either.

Two, Conan could keep the status quo and pretend he was still missing his memories of becoming little. This way, he could keep an excuse to stick to the teen, and they could work together to solve the mystery. If this guy was KID, it would be really easy to work with him, considering he knew Conan was Shinichi. Not to mention, Conan had already shown an understanding yesterday that 'Shinichi' had to be hidden, so it would be easy to stay behaved enough to not force Kaito to expose more of his knowledge that he shouldn't have if he wasn't KID.

Three, Conan could keep pretending he was still missing his memories of being little, and use the situation to his advantage to stick close to Kaito and obtain proof from him that the teen was KID.

No. Conan paused at the third option. That's utterly immoral. As infuriating and difficult KID could be, if Kaito were really KID, this would be an extremely nasty way to expose him. After all, the teenager had been risking himself since yesterday to keep Shinichi's identity safe as well as keep him sane. He could have just left Shinichi to wallow in his confusion and misery, while letting 'Conan's identity come into danger while keeping 'KID's completely safe.

Then… option two? That seemed like the best option for now. This was weird beyond belief. He had somehow landed himself in a situation where he would be attempting to trick the king of tricksters for the sake of solving a mystery. What is wrong with my life?

"Hey Conan-kun, are you going to go to sleep again?" Conan was snapped out of his musings as the voice of the object of his concern interrupted his line of thought. Kaito was looking at him with worry. "Does your head still hurt?"

"No I'm fine. Don't worry about me." Conan replied quickly, sitting up again, and then hopping out of the bed in hurry. Ugh, if only you weren't so nice, I would have such an easier time catching you.

He then looked over at the teen to ask a question to keep up his act, "Just to check, what day is it? I… just want to make sure it's the day I think it is."

"Sure." Kaito replied, looking at his watch. "It's Saturday, the 4th." He then reached over for his phone and turned it on to get the satellite retrieved time and date to make the detective feel better. "It also says that on-" he paused, frowning as he saw what was displayed on the screen. "Oh, maybe not. My phone must be malfunctioning. It's still yesterday."

"Ah, don't worry about it." Conan replied, looking at his own watch and confirming that it also said Saturday the 4th. Electrical devices break after all, and if two watches said Saturday, then it was 2 devices vs 1. However, just to make sure, Conan reached over for his own cell phone and frowned as he saw it was broken as well. Strange… and in the same way? "Oh… my phone also says Friday. Weird."

Conan kneaded his head, trying to avoid the tender spot from the injury, while trying to wile away the impending headache. "Let's go to the living room and watch the news." He said. "I remember it being connected yesterday, so this house must have cable. Even if satellite signals may be messed up coming here, cable should be okay." Usually Conan would dismiss this, but he was getting kind of paranoid about time confusion now. Besides, he was getting a terrible feeling about this.

"Right" Kaito nodded, "Get dressed, and let's go."

As the two hurried over to the living room, they heard the sound of the television before they even entered. It seemed someone else was up already, and watching the news.

"Good morning boys." Ikumi looked up from her spot on the couch as she saw Kaito and Conan walk in, looking concerned. She frowned at the look, and then at the television. "Here to catch the news?"

"Yes, as a matter of fact." Kaito responded, feeling nervous for some odd reason as his eyes darted over to the television screen. Ugh, I don't need to know about that coverage! They already said that yesterday! What is the date?

"It's encouraging to know that young men such as you two are making the effort to keep up with current events, however" she looked apologetically at them, "it seems the cable network is having issues. They are replaying yesterday's news."

'…Friday the 3rd. Since it is right on the verge of a three day weekend, I am sure there are many excited families-'

Both Conan and Kaito looked at each other worriedly as they heard what Ikumi said along with the conversation the tv anchors were having. Although the strip at the top of the screen read 'LIVE', the anchors clearly believed they were still in yesterday.

"Ah, it seems so many things are malfunctioning today." All three of them looked towards the door as they heard Hakuba's exasperated voice from the doorway. "My phone is also showing the date to be yesterday."

"Oh!" Ikumi responded, quirking her eyebrows in surprise. "Mine too."

"Hey what a party we have here." Mogi also joined the room, looking none too pleased. "And what the hell? The tv is showing yesterday's news, and all three of our cell phones are showing the wrong date?"

"Someone is messing with us." Hakuba said, narrowing his eyes, his accusatory glance shooting over at his classmate. "Messing with our satellite and our cable reception."

Kaito met his classmate's glare with a defensive look. Not me! He tried to relay his innocence wordlessly. Hakuba frowned, and although he dismissed him for now, it was clear he did so without believing him.

"I've looked at the cable line already." Ikumi responded, "It's connected, and hasn't been tampered with from this room."

"The jewel that stops time." Conan suddenly muttered cryptically in a low voice.

All heads turned to look at the little boy as he continued muttering with a worried look on his face. "A jewel that cries and stops time. That's what I heard was the sort of jewel that used to be here. Maybe-OUCH!" Conan looked up, eyes brimming with tears at the sore spot on his head. At least Kogoro had the decency to avoid his injury, but it still hurt nonetheless.

"I wake up, come to the living room to watch the news, see you all here gathered without me, and the first thing I hear is this nonsense mumbo jumbo about a magical jewel!" Kogoro grumbled, glaring at Conan. "Take your bratty nonsense elsewhere!"

"But old man, since I heard the scary monster jewel here also cries and stops time, I was scared we are trapped in Friday!" Conan whined, sounding the child he looked. "Everyone's phones say yesterday's date, and" he pointed towards the television playing yesterday's news. "even though the news says 'LIVE', they say it's Friday!"

"Hmph, if there is such a rumor, then there is no doubt there is someone out there playing with us to make us think we are trapped in the same day." Hakuba scoffed, again looking at Kaito, who again looked away in defiance. "There is no such thing as magic, after all."

Kaito put his face in his hands, suddenly feeling a spout of dizziness. No such thing as magic. He ignored Akako's existence nagging at his head for a moment there. She didn't count right now. No such thing. He wanted to believe this, wanted to trust these detectives and their cynicism. Usually, he would, but this situation was beyond scary to him. The obvious cover up by his own father and Shinichi's father, the obvious reference to Pandora, this mansion being the real last heist scene of the former KID, the disappearing persons, the dead amnesiac witness, and now this.

"No such thing as magic." Kaito muttered, looking up and meeting Hakuba's surprised face. "Can I trust you on that?"

TBC