Ladies and gentlemen! After a long break, I humbly welcome you to the twenty-fourth chapter of this story!

Please enjoy and review!

Kaito yawned widely, before returning to staring at the few clouds, lazily flowing through the otherwise clear, Monday morning sky. Not that he had much else to do considering that he was currently standing horizontally on his school's wall. Given how little sleep he had last night, courtesy of a certain pint-sized detective and his accusations, he would prefer to be snoozing right now. However, after much consideration, he decided that it would not be very safe. And more importantly, he could miss his cue to enter the classroom. A smirk tugged on his lips when he heard the confused pause after the teacher read out his name from the attendance list.

With a quiet sigh, Kaito leaned a little backwards to be able to see the empty courtyard below. He had waited after the bell had rung so that no one would see him standing on the second story right above a window but now he was considering it a shame. Maybe he should do a variation of this again? He could probably figure out a type of trolley which he could attach to the top of the chain link fence to allow him to stroll over the whole side of the building.

While thinking about it, he shifted his weight on his left leg, allowing his right a little rest. All the walking he did yesterday, or because of the little, unexpected scuffle he had with the twerp, seemed to have resulted in him ripping out a stitch or two. It wasn't very serious, the opening in the hidden injury was very small and only oozing a little plasma. All he really had to do to deal with it was put on a dressing and maybe be a tiny bit more careful. He promptly decided to forgo Elliot-hakase's request to contact him in case the wound reopened. In the end he wasn't exactly bleeding, so it was probably fine to ignore.

His musings were interrupted by quiet tapping coming from the classroom that sounded very much like the teacher writing on the blackboard. He leaned further back in his harness, with his feet firmly planted on the wall to take a peek inside. With a wide grin on his lips, he quickly pulled himself back to horizontal position before anyone would notice his hair through the top of the window.

It was showtime~

There was no time to lose, so he pushed himself off the wall and swung towards a pillar going all the way down in between the windows. He stomped on the wall once he reached it, skipping, as he carefully released the rope behind his back and slid downwards until he was able to reach the windowsill. Hastily, he readjusted his rubber padded gloves, as a poor excuse of safety measures, before wrapping his lifeline tightly around his left wrist. That done, he unbuckled his harness, securing it to the rope, so that it wouldn't fall off once he let it go.

Now came the risky part.

He took a deep breath while firmly holding the rope with his left arm and grabbed the edge of the pillar with his right. He allowed his legs to skid down the wall, positioning himself vertically finally and carefully stepped onto the windowsill. It would have been safer if he could crouch on it but sadly, it was far too narrow, barely allowing him to stand on his toes. He repositioned his grip from the pillar to the window frame 1) with his right hand, allowing him to finally let go of the rope. Released from his weight the reel on top pulled the line along with the harness back up, hiding the whole setup under a prepared sheet at the top of the railing. He would be able to retrieve it later, without anyone knowing the equipment ever was there, but right now he was plastered over the window glass of his classroom. Holding on to the slick frame with his rubbery gloves and so very slowly making his way to the moving panel.

As evidenced by the murmur of students, his entry didn't go unnoticed but he wasn't bothered by it. It's not like his classmates haven't seen him do complex acrobatics before and it wasn't them who he wanted to fool anyway. He just grinned at them through the glass and continued his journey. Finally, he reached his destination and managed to slide the window open thanks to his glove. He carefully slipped into his seat, just in time for the teacher to get annoyed with the commotion in class and turn to them with a frown.

"Settle down now, what's with all the- Kuroba Kaito!" she nearly choked as her eyes went wide, staring at the previously missing student, sitting innocently in his seat.

Kaito grinned at her and shot up from his seat. "The answer is 24 times x. But Konno-sensei, you have forgotten to add the equal sign at the end~" he said with a cheeky grin and a completely calm expression that was just barely holding up instead of panting from the stunt he just finished.

"I-I haven't finished the equation yet," she mumbled in a stunned stupor.

He frowned at her and asked tilting his head. "Then why did you ask me to solve it?"

"I didn't! You weren't here!"

He looked around with a stunt expression. "What do you mean? I'm obviously here."

The teacher, red with anger all over her face, slammed her hand onto the attendance notebook on her desk. "You weren't here when I read out your name!"

He blinked owlishly at her. "You mean that you didn't mark my attendance? Why?"

"And you are still wearing gloves!" she exclaimed in distress waving an accusatory finger at his hands.

In the privacy of his mind, Kaito silently praised her for her perceptiveness. Nonetheless, it would do little to help her catch him off guard. With a sincere expression on his face, he touched his chest with one hand and bowed gallantly. "Ma'am, my deepest apologies for the unruliness of my uniform. Unfortunately I needed to apply skin care to my hands and thus need them covered for a certain period of time. I am sure that a beauty such as yourself fully understands such necessity."

The teacher blushed, flabbergasted but obviously flattered by the comment and scrambled for a reply. However, before she was able to utter a comprehensive word Kaito straightened from his bow and spoke again with a sweet smile on his lips.

"May I return to my seat? I would hate to take more of your precious time and disturb the class any longer~"

That had earned him a few amused snorts from his classmates but he kept his eyes promptly fixed on the teacher who could only stare at him with her mouth agape before reaching to rub her eyelids under her glasses. She gave a resigned sigh and waved him off.

"Yes, of course, just don't…" she didn't finish and just muttered something under her breath that Kaito read roughly as her 'being too tired for this'. Or something close to this.

Kaito smirked with amusement when she turned her head. That was enjoyable as usual~ He knew that he was lucky the first lesson of the day was with her, since she was so easy and fun to manipulate. Then again, he should probably consider bringing her a small gift lest he could risk her ceasing to like him anymore.

With how agitated the class was he knew that soon enough the school would soon be buzzing about his stunt and obnoxious flirting, ensuring that nobody would really care anymore much about his, Aoko's and Saguru's absence last Friday. It was the reason why he did put up his performance in the first place afterall. Up until he came to school he hadn't really thought that it might have been an issue. He was certain that either of the two would have formally excused their absence to the teachers, so it should have been fine. What he hadn't anticipated was the school rumors.

"Oh look, it's Kuroba-kun. We should go and ask him," Kaito overheard some girl from class 3-A not quietly enough speak to another girl next to her.

"Better don't. He might prank you to oblivion, you know!" the other warned her friend, making Kaito barely hold back a snort.

Maybe he should do some cutesy trick when passing them~? While it was helpful at times, he didn't really want people to be scared of speaking with him.

"But I want to know why he along with Hakuba-kun and Aoko-chan were absent on Friday!" For a brief moment Kaito all but froze hearing her say it. "I've heard that the police asked Hakuba-kun to help out after the latest KID heist! Apparently Aoko-chan dragged Kuroba-kun to help out as well despite his protests~" she added with a giggle.

"Isn't that a little far-fetched? From what I've heard they have just gotten sick-"

Kaito didn't hang around to listen to them argue. He was already hatching a plan, so as soon as he stuffed his outer shoes in his locker he made his way towards the gym's warehouse to borrow a few things.

The rumor might have missed the mark completely but he knew that it wasn't good. The last thing he wanted was for anyone, professional or not, to start investigating what really happened on Friday. And if the rumor went viral enough, there even was a possibility for it to spread outside. He had to do something to extinguish that kind of curiosity and had the perfect plan for how to do exactly that.

He could of course simply explain the situation, spread another rumor, one that would be harmless. But he wouldn't. For one, it simply wasn't his style and could make people even more suspicious. And two, well… it would be boring. And he didn't do boring. He was the Kuroba Kaito, magician extraordinaire! If people wanted to have something to talk about, he was sure to give them a topic. A few even~ After all - distractions was what he was best at. So, to make sure that nobody would be interested in his Friday absence he decided to make a performance each and every day for the rest of the week.

Simple, yet beautiful. And also extremely fun~

Kaito held back a giggle and sat back at his desk, turning to Aoko with a proud grin. They came to school separately since she didn't come to wake him up this time, for which he was actually grateful. It gave him the opportunity to ride his motorcycle to school and spare his leg the lengthy walk.

He expected Aoko to pout at him with a disapproving expression yet sparkling eyes, like usual but instead she quickly turned her eyes away, shifting in her seat uncomfortably. Away from him. Stunned, Kaito opened his mouth to quietly ask her what it was all about when it hit him.

Last time they saw each other, he nearly killed her.

And for a moment, he almost forgot about it. No, he allowed it to slip his mind. Like it didn't matter, or never happened.

Clenching his fists under the desk Kaito swallowed thickly and turned away from her as well. He should apologize to her as soon as possible. But what would he say? It's not like he could promise her that it would never happen again. He apparently had managed to fix her up somehow but she had every right to be scared of him. His very presence was in fact potentially endangering everyone around him.

Maybe he should reconsider going to school until he gets himself under control?

He took a deep breath forcing himself to calm down and pulled his gloves off, stuffing them under his desk, as he continued mulling over his situation and barely paying attention to the lesson.

There was probably only one person who could help him figure it out. No matter how appalling the idea was, after school he would have to finally confront his mother about the scaly issue.

1) Did your author spend far too much time researching how Kaito could realistically enter the classroom and was then required to provide photographic evidence of how windows in Japanese schools look like? Yes, yes I did xD I regret nothing~

So yeah, after such a long wait I believe that some apology is in order... I am really sorry for going quiet for such a long time. The truth is that a lot of things have been happening in my life and when you couple that with nearly constant heat-strokes (I'm really bad with hot temperatures) I was left with no time and energy to write. I did attempt this chapter a couple of times, but it just didn't feel right. Frankly speaking - I'm quite happy with how the chapter turned out in the end, so I hope that you will forgive me :)

With all that said, I'll be going to write the next chapter (and hopefully will be able to post it soon!)

In the meantime... Hope to see you next chapter *bows*