Mission Fifteen: A Huge Oversight

After years upon years of solving the most complex cases this country had seen, it had become common knowledge that Shinichi Kudo was a prodigy.

As expected of the proud possessor of one of the most brilliant minds mankind had ever known, his skill to corner dangerous criminals was nothing but breathtaking for anyone who had held a newspaper at least once. This uncanny ability to plan ahead, to the smallest and most mundane detail, ensured perfection ─ a one-hundred percent chance of capture, no matter how grim the panorama may be. If Shinichi Kudo was in the case, one could be certain that he'd find a way to turn the tables and attain victory in the name of justice.

Therefore, he was widely believed to be an extremely calculating individual. Someone who is accustomed to thinking twice or thrice before taking a single step, and who would, at all times, have a good idea of what the future held for him ─ thought to be the type of person who would go to bed every single night, basking in the satisfaction that every aspect of his life was going exactly as he had envisioned it.

More often than not, however, Shinichi did not have a single clue of what he was doing.

Anya stopped what she was doing to watch him punch the air, a half-lidded stare where a focused frown should be, and decided that, yes, this was one of those times.

Even an hour and a half after starting their 'training' session, he still did not know exactly what he was trying to accomplish. And while Anya was not certain about how long that was supposed to be ─ in fact, she only was aware of the passage of time thanks to her mother's inner musings ─ she could still be sure that him pausing to stare at his own fist was not him searching for anything but answers.

Not that Anya was sure what he could possibly find in a fist.

That thief, she could hear him grumble. Internally, like it had been since this morning. How did he get away?

Stepping back, the shrunken detective took a deep breath in and then out. Anya scrambled to get in position so that she could mirror his movements before her mama could wonder why she was spacing out like that ─ or worse, make her big brother ask what she was up to. No doubt, he would see right through her without even trying if she replied the wrong thing and Anya did not need that.

Oh, how I wish I could burn that stupid hat to a crisp. She tried not to wince too badly at his next punch ─ it did not escape her notice that it was twice as potent as his last one. But that's impossible, now that he gifted it to Anya.

If there was something in the broad range of little traits that shaped his personality that Anya could not have seen coming, it had to be the oddly repetitive thoughts that his brother would often wrap his mind around. He used to look just so cool solving cases through the TV, not to mention the super exciting way he defeated criminals with just the swing of a leg and any ball-shaped object he could get his sights on… That being said, Anya's powers were only so powerful, and the screen was a boundary they could not cross yet.

Right now, he was making a mental point not to peer into her room, ever again. Anya could hardly say it was the first time she'd heard about it.

It was a pain, convincing Loid-san that it was Ayumi-chan's, and that she gifted it to her out of the goodness of her heart. Not the best of his excuses by a long shot, he thought, but what was the other option? Confessing to what he had done last night?

We, he corrected himself, with a mental sigh. What we did last night.

Surely, the memory of a scolding Ayumi would not let him have it another way ─ boy, had she been mad. Mad, to the point that Conan had been almost one-hundred percent certain that she would go up to his apartment and ring on his doorbell first thing after getting home. Fortunately, none of that had happened, but he suspected it had less to do with the purity of her heart and more with the fact that he knew that Mrs. and Mr. Yoshida would not vibe well with their innocent little girl's most recent life choices.

"Sneaking out to meet Kaito KID on your own," Ayumi had said, her cheeks puffed out. "You can't do that! Not without telling us about it, Conan-kun!"

Yet Conan had failed to care. He had, though, stared at her dead in the eye until the massive weight of realization fell on his miniaturized shoulders.

"You guys…" Even now, his mouth went dry at the mere memory. "How did you…?"

"Anya saw you sneaking off from Ayumi's balcony," Genta had explained. "So we did the same."

"The same as in… the same same?"

"We snuck through the balcony, too," Mitsuhiko had clarified when Genta failed to. "If that's what you mean."

Anya remembered it vividly ─ both his blank stare aimed at her and the graphic imagery flashing before his eyes. About their nightly escapade, or more like every single possible outcome that, fortunately, she had just avoided by plain dumb luck ─ his words, not hers.

It was at the tenth scenario that Conan forced himself back to reality, smiling at the expression he mistakenly identified as concern. Anya knew a stiff smile when she saw one, however.

"Let's just… not tell Mom and Dad about this, okay, Anya?" He might have managed to hide the desperation from his outer voice, but there was no fooling his inner one. "And not to try that again for the next… thirty years at least."

But if he ever noticed the blood draining from her face as she managed a shaky nod, then it hadn't caused an impression strong enough to remark on it, mentally or otherwise.

"Oh, Conan-san. You're doing it wrong."

Yor's gentle voice was what pulled him out of his inner musings, if only to blink owlishly at her, his arm idle in the air. She bent lightly, closer to him, and with a surprising amount of care, lifted it just a little higher.

"Move your left foot a little further back… Lower your elbow just a bit… And straighten your back. There. Let's try again."

By the time she finally stepped back, Conan felt like he could not even breathe right without messing up his form. But decided to bite his cheek instead of whining at it, gathering all the strength he could manage in this small body of his to release it in a powerful punch.

Or rather, his best attempt at ─ it must have been a sad one if it had Yor frowning to herself like that. Nevertheless, he stared back at her expectantly, but instead of explicitly telling him her honest opinion, she crossed her arms over her chest and tilted her head slightly to the right.

She hummed low in her throat. Before long, the boy felt himself falter, unsure whether it was alright to let his arms drop at his side, or just twirl around and prematurely end… whatever this was supposed to be.

Finally, a smile crawled up into her features.

"I know!" she said, holding a finger up. "Why don't we try something different?"

Conan tensed up involuntarily, deciding that maybe that was his cue to leave. But curiosity was a stubborn little thing, and had apparently convinced his feet to stay right there despite his better judgment.

What could it be? Conan did not know, but if it had Anya, an actual six-year-old that played with danger whenever Loid wasn't around to stop her, carefully stepping away from her mother's path then he supposed he should, too.

Yor took a deep breath, sliding into a pose that triggered so many memories from a similarly angel-faced sweetheart that stole a wince out of him ─ his body tensed almost immediately, instinctively preparing himself.

And then, he saw it ─ well, that was technically a lie, since his eyes never caught any movement at all. All he did was feel the shift in the air, a powerful current that hit him straight in the face and whipped his hair back.

By the time he had blinked his eyes open again, she was lowering her leg. That was how he knew it had been a kick. One hell of a kick.

I'm pretty sure you could take someone's head off with that.

So, he ought to consider himself lucky it was the sweet smiling woman in front of him and not, say, a murderer.

In the short time they'd been living together, the boy had come to the realization she was more like his childhood friend Ran than it had seemed at first. Just like her, for all her inhuman strength and superior combative abilities, Yor had a good heart. Even with that kind of power, she would never commit such a hideous sin, he knew that well.

Anya was staring at him again, and like always, he didn't know exactly why. But maybe it had to do with the fact that Yor was also looking at him, her smile untouched.

"See?" the woman said. "Give it a try, Conan-san!"

"Huh? Oh, yeah. Let me just…"

He had absolutely no clue what he was supposed to do, besides replicate what he'd not been able to see as she had intended to. Asking for another demonstration certainly wouldn't hurt, he suspected that Yor was patient enough not to mind if he did, but he had the nagging feeling that not a single thing would change afterwards.

Yor watched him expectantly, an encouraging smile posed on her lips. Conan forced his muscles to relax, searching for a position that his new, smaller body found comfortable enough. It couldn't be that hard, not could it? He knew the bare basics of what it was expected of him ─ he could do that much at least.

So he dragged his leg backwards before he, with a focused frown pinching his face, brought it back forward in a swift, but precise motion he'd perfected over the years.

Anya gasped in awe and clapped.

Surprised, Conan stood back and peered at his own feet, and felt his shoulders drop somewhat, sort of relieved that his body still remembered some of his old techniques, as basic as they may be. Though watered down by his weaker muscles and smaller limbs, it was kind of gratifying they were still there. If only to remind him who he used to be ─ who he was, his true self beneath this mask of childish innocence.

Similarly to her daughter, Yor clapped her palms together.

"That was pretty good, Conan-san!" she praised him, her eyes twinkling in a way that actually made the boy pause to stare at them. "You're a natural at this."

"Ah, well, I suppose it's from soccer. I used to play a lot when-" He caught himself just in time. "-when Mom was still around. She… taught me all of this?"

He definitely hadn't meant to voice it as a question, but fortunately, the woman seemed to take his statement at face value. She nodded, seemingly interested, and Conan couldn't be more glad about that.

"She must have been a wonderful teacher," Yor said. "But you must know, Conan-san. Kicking a ball and an attacker might be similar, but they're not essentially the same."

Conan's eyes grew slightly wider. "An attacker, huh," he murmured thoughtfully, a little too low to be properly perceived for anyone.

It wasn't like he could pretend he didn't know where all of this was coming from, and surely it was not exclusively their imminent first day at that rich kids' school Loid had been striving to get them at for as long as he'd known him. He had only learned it from the hushed voices coming from the kitchen that, though partly covered by the loud explosions from the anime show on the TV, told him that Yor's mother-and-daughter's trip hadn't gone as smoothly as he had hoped.

Yor had said that Anya had almost been kidnapped. Although it had been but a scare and Yor had not been too clear on how she had sorted the situation out ─ he could only imagine ─ it must've left a lasting impression on the woman. Hence, she must've realized the importance of teaching her daughter some self-defense techniques, though Anya seemed to be more focused on the possibility of future school bullies and whatnot.

It happened again. Conan would certainly not forget the crazed eyes of that man finding them in Loid's old room, Anya's little hands clenching at his shirt when her back touched the wall. How powerless he had been, how mundanely weak ─ had he had his old body, he'd probably have been able to do something rather than helplessly watch someone place a gun to a young child's head.

"But it's good that she did!" Yor exclaimed, bubbly as always. "We could use that as a starting ground, then improve from there."

"Improve?" Conan repeated, frowning. "Is there any room for improvement at all?"

Yor's smile froze on her face, confused beyond a doubt. The boy pretended not to notice, casting his gaze at his hands ─ so small they couldn't make a fist any bigger than a pebble.

"My limbs are way too short, scrawny and weak," he told her. "There's no way I could do any significant damage to an attacker, even if I punched or kicked them with all my strength."

"It's true that, in regards to muscle strength, you may be at a disadvantage," she conceded. So even she could not deny such an obvious truth, huh? "But there's more than that."

Conan's head jerked back up, surprise written all over his face.

"Technique and speed are important, too," she said. "If you train enough, you might leave a lasting impression on anyone who might want to harm you."

Just as he was beginning to process what she had said, Yor crouched in front of both of her pretend children. With her hands squeezing one shoulder each, she leveled them with a rather severe look that Conan barely recalled ever seeing in that usually affable face.

"That being said, you should only fight if it's extremely necessary." She glanced over at Anya, or rather, those wide eyes of hers that showed she was paying attention to each and every one of her words. "Anyone who lets their emotions control their fists does not know the meaning of true strength. If someone's just being a little mean at school, being able to laugh it off makes you the cooler, bigger girl."

Her eyes glimmered. "A big girl!"

"And if you can keep a smile on your face, fights will not happen."

Surely, nothing could go wrong with that, could it?

"And what if it's an adult that wants to harm you?" Conan questioned. "There's no way I could win."

"It's likely that you can't." Her answer had his head lowering just a little, unsure of why he was this disheartened at all if he had known it beforehand. But then she raised a finger, drawing his attention back just as she was beginning to lose it, and said, "But if you can startle them enough to run and seek help, then that's a win too."

He nodded slowly, his inquiries assuaged. That made sense ─ still not what he'd prefer, but he supposed it was a logical thing to do. In this savage game of life and death, his teenage ego had no voice in any of this. It should not, in any case.

Anya peered up at her mother. "So that Mama can beat them up?" Yor winced visibly, but hardly the one to give up, the little girl insisted, her eyes sparkling brighter than before. "She's gonna serve the bad guys the foulest meal!"

If anything, it made her blush and wave her hands nervously. "A-Anya-san," she stammered. "That's-!"

-pretty accurate, actually, Conan thought, watching without a word as she sort of panicked, trying to get her daughter to stop saying what she probably would describe as 'embarrassing things'. And while Conan genuinely wanted to say he didn't see anything wrong with a young girl expressing her admiration for others' terrific skills, he had been on the other side of the equation once and it had not been fun.

The words 'Justice Kick' had left her mouth once, and Shinichi had never been the same since.

Stupid name aside, Conan's eyes wandered downwards, and found those bright red shoes he had loved so much in his first childhood ─ turning it over, as though he could find something new if he searched hard enough. Wouldn't it be nice if…

"Yor-san," Loid called, all the way from the kitchen. "Dinner should be ready in about thirty minutes."

"Oh, okay!" She rose back to her feet and looked back at her children. "Let's continue tomorrow. Remember to take a shower before sitting down for dinner."

"You can go first, Anya," Conan told her.

He barely even got the time to see her nodding before she practically vanished from sight. Spinning around, he saw the tips of pink hair disappearing somewhere in the corridor, and despite himself, he found a chuckle bubbling past his defenses at this utterly mundane, familiar scene in front of him.

"In the meantime…" He went back to Yor, who blinked in surprise at being addressed so suddenly. "Can we train a little while longer, Yor-san?"

Startled as she was, the woman failed to string a single sentence together. His frown grew at the sight, and without meaning to, he had already taken a step closer to her.

He didn't realize that Loid had decided to grace them with his presence in the living room until his hand dropped on his head.

"Don't get ahead of yourself, Conan," he said, taking his hand away just at Conan's first grumbled warning ─ that didn't seem to affect the man much, in any other case. "I understand it's important to improve your self-defense skills, but there's a limit to that."

Limit, as if he hadn't got that much of it on his plate as it was. "But-" he tried to argue, but fell short when he failed to come up with anything.

"Loid-san is right. Rest is just as important as training your body," Yor told him. "It's better to go at your own pace."

He knew that well already ─ more than any of those two could ever begin to imagine.

More than once had Shinichi found himself hunched over himself, gasping for air and sweating up a storm. Frowning at the soccer ball that, idle in the middle of a deserted soccer field, seemed to tease him; what a terrible shot, it would say. It needed to improve ─ he needed to be better.

Mysteriously, that one girl would always know. She would let herself in long after soccer practice was over, a bottle of water in her hands and a scolding ready in her lips. This was not the way to go, she would tell him, and in the end, it would be all for naught. And even then, even if he had understood her every word, it had taken a lot to get that habit to break.

To this day, Shinichi still wondered what he had been trying to prove back then. And to whom.

As though she had the power to see what lay deep within his heart, Yor smiled warmly down at him. "If you do that, one day, you'll be strong enough to protect yourself and Anya-san without a problem," she said, breaking through the many distant memories suddenly pushing their way into his mind. "But until then, we'll be right next to you ─ Loid-san and I."

Conan glanced up at her, his voice leaving him in the most crucial moment of all.

"That's our job as adults," Loid said, smiling just like his fake wife beside him. "Until then, all you have to do is focus on school."

Just like that, they slid downwards to give him a pretty blank look he clearly did not understand. Ah, right. School, he thought, unamusedly. Is that everything this guy thinks about?

"Oh, and speaking of which, I've been wondering…" Loid began. "Have you given it any proper thought?"

Conan blinked, confused. "What do you mean?"

Such a brilliant answer stole a sigh out of the spy. Though, if he looked closely at his eyes, he would probably find the look of someone who had definitely seen this coming.

"I promised you a reward," Loid said, and held back another sigh at the realization that crossed his son's eyes. "Is there anything you want?"

It had to be the third time he had asked that question yet Conan still had no proper answer to it ─ besides the default one, of course, but he doubted Loid would be too satisfied after leaving him waiting for so long, only to ask for a book.

I completely forgot about it, Conan mused, racking his mind for anything that was just a little more elaborate, acceptable to the spy patiently waiting for him. It's all that stupid thief's fault for getting me all distracted.

I swear, next time I see him-

He froze in his spot, his jaw lost its strength. And suddenly Loid had seemed to lose his faith in Conan's mental stability.

It clicked shut, and his eyes rose to meet Loid's again.

"Actually," the boy said, slowly, as though he was coming to terms with his own decision. "There is something I'd be interested in."

The first time Twilight had asked, Conan had perhaps been a little too surprised. Wide eyed as it had been, his reaction had stirred up a storm of doubts in the spy's ever-restless mind; countless questions falling on him, as though a downpour, had left him drenched from head to toe, the chilling feel of uncertainty seeping the warmth out of him.

Granted, there was no denying that his days of being in the dark about the wonders of parenting were nowhere past him, but he had believed he had gotten marginally better. So what in the world could this be, was the mystery he could not seem to solve for the life of him.

In his frantic search for answers, the boy's bedroom had unexpectedly come to mind. Neat and organized, as per Yor's description, but ordinary ─ standard and oddly empty, just the way the kid himself had wanted. For Conan could be a mystery in most ways, but if there was something that he could say about him, was that he had a preference for practicability and the fine beauty of what was plain and simple. That was why he had not asked for more, or so was that Twilight had thought back then.

But then, a fleeting thought had crossed by so fast that he hadn't been properly delved into it, not unlike a radiant comet cutting through his mental structures. Showing him, ever so briefly, a bright pink room. A cluster of stuffed toys were all over his eye could see, and even that certain Spy Wars poster he remembered hanging onto the girl's wall was there, too.

And for some reason, he could not help but think of how broad Anya's grin had been back then, twirling and giggling as she waltzed around her new room ─ about how, in some way he could not entirely understand, it all felt utterly normal somehow. Mundane, perhaps on a level that her brother's room could never dream of being.

Twilight had not gotten a response that memorable, starry night, and in fact, he had believed he would never be given one. Perhaps that was the reason that, when he had decided to ask one last time and those blue eyes had widened again, the glint of an unidentified something lighting up his gaze for a change, Loid had instinctively agreed before learning what his request was.

And it wasn't until now that the weight of his mistakes sunk on his shoulders. As he stood there in Yokohama port, watching the vast mass of people willingly being herded inside the cruise like livestock, he tried to estimate how many limbs he would be allowed to keep after his next meeting with Handler. Unfortunately, he did not think he had enough as it was, so it was likely that she would take the head as well.

Conan's newfound fanaticism for the infamous phantom thief known as Kaito KID was something Twilight could not have seen coming. He suspected it was a case of peer influence, an assimilation of the interests of those kids he seemed to be hanging out with lately, instead of something born out of the depths of his heart.

It was a behavior commonly found in children, as they tried to explore their interests and shape their personality. Though this boy right here, the spy snuck a glance towards his adopted son, whose eyes would not stop darting from place to place, from person to person, as though they could catch someone breathing the wrong way if they were quick enough. He has developed quite the personality as it is.

Holding back a sigh, Loid followed his children as they went ahead, one twirling in that white, and certainly not free, party dress he had bought in a hurry, the other fixing his new bowtie one last time before getting in the line. It was quite the agglomeration of people there, but he had asked Anya several times, and she had insisted she'd be fine. The prospect of excitement and some fun was truly a force to reckon with, so the spy supposed he should be careful.

Being a professional in his job, he would have supposed that hiding a sigh would not be a problem at all ─ so how come it had been this hard?

As with any kid of Conan's age, he was sure this was but a phase that would stick for a few days, at most, before fading away in nothingness and leaving its place for the next childish obsession of the week to settle in comfortably.

But at that point in time, he would have already given Handler the bills for his expenses. Handler, who had not been at all pleased with him renting a castle and everything that came after, would hardly appreciate him buying four tickets for some high society part being held in none other but the Queen Selizabeth.

A party that, for the record, they hadn't been invited to. It was only because of KID's notice that they had allowed entry for the public ─ as long as they had the money for it, that was.

Well, I guess it wouldn't hurt to expose them to this kind of world, he thought, his determination growing with each step up the stairs. To have them learn, little by little, how the system works from the inside.

Ultimately, that would be beneficial for his mission, Twilight figured. That had been his sole intention from the very beginning.

As the pace of the line gradually slowed to a halt, Anya peered up at her papa, wondering if he had an actual reason to lie to himself every single day, or if he was just born like that. Actually, it was surprising that, in more than one way, moments like these reminded the little telepath of a certain someone she happened to know.

A certain someone whose head had snapped so suddenly that, had it not been for his silent inner voice, she would have been believed that he had spotted the magic man well before the show truly began. But then, it had turned back to her, his gaze blank as per usual, until gradually, it gained strength ─ the strength of an immense confusion not even he could not control.

"Little miss… Little miss!"

Anya turned at the call to find a young man, dressed in a well-tailored suit and an overall impeccable appearance, and blushed lightly at the realization he must have been addressing her from the very beginning. As though he had sensed her discomfort, though, the man smiled and bent over to get as close to her small form as possible. He then produced some tiny but beautiful box and presented it to her.

"Here, this is for you, miss." Anya just blinked in surprise, and the man nudged the gift closer, only chuckling when she made no effort to take it. "Hey, no need to be shy. Take it."

Just take the damn pearl, stupid kid.

His smile remained warm and friendly. Anya's staring intensified.

Rich people are something out of this world. I mean, who in their right mind gives this expensive pearl to a mere child?! That's just not fair!

Ever so slightly, the girl's eyes widened.

I want one too, but my superior said that I could consider myself fired if even one goes missing…

But maybe if this brat doesn't want it-

In the blink of an eye, the girl had snatched the gift from his grasp, leaving an empty hand frozen in an awkward stillness, as if the treasure was still sitting on the palm of his hand, undisturbed. Eventually, though, his hand fell limply at his side, but his smile never once did abandon him. It faithfully remained by his side as he twirled around to leave, his mind screaming.

And thus, Anya just watched him wobble away until he disappeared from her sight. Only then did she feel safe enough to peer down at her new acquisition, her eyes glimmering as they took into every single detail they could see, and the secrets it bore inside they could not.

A pearl... Here, in Anya's hand, there is…

Suddenly, the tiny little box felt so incredibly heavy that she had to hold it between her two quivering hands. Right now, Anya… Her breath slipped away as realization crashed down on her.

Has Anya been chosen to hold on to this super important treasure to ensure it doesn't fall in the wrong hands-?!

"Here you go, little boy!"

That unfamiliar voice broke her out of her inner musings and led her to a woman who, dressed in the same exact clothes as the man from before, was smiling at someone in front of her. Following her gaze, Anya found her brother, or rather, the dull gleam of boredom that coated his eyes as he turned a box from side to side, as if to inspect it from every angle.

A box that, for the record, looked exactly like hers.

For some reason neither Conan nor Anya could figure out for themselves, something about his reaction made her giggle. "Now, listen," she told him, holding a finger up. "Remember, you're not supposed to open it before you're told, okay?"

Conan nodded in a way that the woman internally found extremely adorable. She may not have said a single word, and certainly Conan may not have his sister's powers, but he still had to physically restrain himself from cringing at the thoughts he could not read. He did not hold back in the privacy of his own mind, however ─ though 'privacy' was probably not the best word to use, whether the detective was aware of it or not.

"That's so considerate of them," Yor commented, smiling at her own box. A little further to the right, Anya spotted her father, and with him, the same object in his own hands. "Giving us all a lovely gift!"

Slowly, Anya peered down at hers, a blank look festering in her eyes as she came to realize that, after all, it actually weighed little to nothing.

"Yes, indeed," Loid agreed ─ outwardly, that was. But there could also be a bug in there, planted by the police to spy in our conversations. Kaito KID is widely known as a master of disguise, so I wouldn't be surprised if they resorted to such illicit means.

"I wonder what it is," Conan commented, grinning from ear to ear. Hopefully, it's not a bomb or something ─ set to explode all at once the moment everyone is told to open it. We don't know how many enemies this thief may have, or the organizer of this event for that matter, so literally anything could happen.

Anya blinked at nothing in particular, once and then twice. She turned to her box once more and eyed it warily.

"Is something wrong with that box, Anya?"

By some sort of miracle, the girl barely managed to not drop it as the wince overtook her completely ─ which was fortunate, really, in case it really contained a bomb or something just as lethal. She turned around slowly, and sure enough, there was her father's puzzled gaze. No doubt, he was waiting for an answer that seemed to self-delete from her mind the moment the intelligence agent raised his eyebrows.

She should better think of something quickly, the realization came with a bead of cold sweat rolling down her temple. A simple but plausible explanation was what she needed, a possessor of the power of ending this interrogation for good, well before it edged closer to those forbidden topics that she could not let him know about.

She could do this, Anya told herself. She had to do it.

"Um… Uh… Anya…"

Or she could just mumble something incoherent and hope for the best.

But now added to the spy's growing confusion, was not only was the lost look sent by her mother ─ no, that would've been almost tolerable ─ but the piercing feel of blue onto her, the eyes of the greatest ─ and only ─ detective she had ever known. What can Anya do? she wondered in a spur of panic. If he deduced something he shouldn't ─ if he saw Anya's-

All of a sudden, he had gone horribly pale ─ enough for Anya to worry, for a moment, about an inexplicable onset of a sickness she had never heard about but had seen in a movie once. His eyes had grown wide enough to pop out from his sockets, however, as though the ghosts Ayumi had been desperately chasing for the other day were now standing in front of him right now. Menacingly, threatening to squeeze the life out of him, and everyone he had ever loved.

But Anya was aware that could not be it ─ he had heard him musing in his own thoughts plenty of times to know that ghosts did not truly exist. That being said, she could not figure out for the life of her what could have shocked him, frightened even, to such degree-

It could've been those evil men that he keeps talking about in his thoughts. The bad guys with the cool codenames. Or that scary woman that tried to kidnap him the other time. There was no way she could know ─ there were just so many possibilities when it was his brother who she was talking about. Or maybe it could be…

Her thoughts skidded to a violent stop, and suddenly, her face had gained a similar pallor.

Did Niichan figure out Anya's secret?!

"Anya?" Loid questioned, but the girl did not bother answering ─ too busy settling her rapidly scrambling thoughts in order.

It… was likely, the girl realized. Not that she was sure how he could have pieced it out together, but she had seen enough detective movies to be certain that this was how it worked, how they worked. A look, piercing like none other, was usually more than enough to tear a secret to pieces, so, no doubt, he must have done that with hers.

No… Her brother's thoughts wafted to her brain in a breathless whisper. No freaking way. That…

She forced herself to take a deep breath, however ─ all she had to do was to keep her head cool, like Bondman had once told his rival when his lover had been captured by the baddest guy. To figure a way of this situation, she would have to-

I… must be seeing things, right? Right?!

Anya found herself blinking again. Seeing things?

"Anya, I'm talking to you!" Loid popped right into her field of vision, so suddenly that it had her jumping backwards, his face contorted in a stern frown that did not bode well with Anya. "You're not thinking of opening it, aren't you?"

Whatever her original response had been, it died a fraction of a second before meeting the world. She stared back at him for almost an entire second, before her eyes widened and glimmered as though she could finally see the light after being in the dark for so long.

"But Anya wants to see it!" If she was lucky, nobody would take notice of the hopeful note in her whining. "It's Anya's now, so Anya-"

"You can't," Loid tried to reason. Which was good enough for her, to be fair. "Don't cause trouble for the organizers."

"But-"

"If you can't behave, I'll hold on to it for you."

This time, she didn't have to pretend to whine. Holding the tiny box closer to her chest and away from his hovering, awkward hands, the girl frowned profusely ─ and then pretended to be oblivious to how puzzling those actions were for the spy in front of him.

Yor giggled lightly behind her hand, then turned her head slightly to the right. Just before she could say something, she froze solid and stared at the empty spot right next to her.

"C-Conan-san?! Where did he go?!"

Even if she wasn't a telepath, Anya was pretty sure she'd been able to hear her papa's thoughts anyway, just by standing this close to him.

There were times like these when Shinichi wondered if Ran was more of a detective than she gave herself credit for.

Having grown up together, the high school detective could confidently say that the number of people that really knew Ran Mouri was extremely and surprisingly low. Most would know her as the sweet girl with a heart of gold that would stand in the way of a moving vehicle if it meant saving a stranger's life, while some would find out about the strength of her punches and that fear was much more effective as a reformative measure than prison would ever hope to be.

But Shinichi knew those were mere accessories where her true nature resided, even if she did not seem to be aware of it. In reality, Ran was quite the intuitive young woman, observant to a fault, perhaps in a way that Shinichi himself could never hope to be. Reading people, reading him, was as easy as skimming through a book for her, and that was what her real strength was.

"Excuse me!" he was yelling, his voice much younger than she'd probably remember, maneuvering through this stupid forest of legs to see that for himself. "Please, let me through! My parents are right up ahead, please!"

It wasn't until the recent developments in his life that Shinichi had finally been faced with the all-too-common reality that Ran had been right about him. At times like this, he'd ponder about this flaw of character she'd pointed more than once ─ his tendency to blatantly ignore what his mind determined irrelevant if there was something exciting to stimulate his brain within his reach. For all his intellect and enhanced reasoning ability, she had warned him more than once, if there was something sufficiently challenging in sight, he'd run straight to it without stopping for a moment to think it through.

Somewhere in the background, he thought he heard Yor's voice calling out for him, unwittingly urging him to hurry. He was so close ─ the ballroom was just in sight, peeking timidly from behind an old woman's insanely expensive Fusae handbag. He bit his lip, pushing himself through ─ the memory of that blur of violet he had caught from the corner of his eye, that brilliant smile of hers, that-

It can't… The one I saw, it can't be…

Ran's observation had been contained within the context of crime solving, however, and it started and ended at the well-based concern about him falling in a criminal's trap that could take his life. Surely, not even someone like her would have predicted such a huge oversight on his part.

Never could she have imagined he would be here, small and alone in a room full of people waltzing around the place to converse and laugh all the same. She could have never imagined him peering up at the gigantic sign that stood there as if to taunt him, looking more like a lost child than he had ever been.

"Suzuki Corporation's Sixty Year Anniversary On-Board Party."

I'm so utterly and irrevocably stupid.

He couldn't believe it ─ of all people, of all ridiculously rich families living in this flawed country, it had to be Sonoko freaking Suzuki's behind all of this. And of all the pricey sparkly stones they could have gotten their hands into, it had to be the one and only Black Star that KID happened to be after and he, Shinichi, was incidentally trying to protect.

Why didn't I check? he thought, belittling himself from allowing this to happen. If only he had made a quick background check on KID's objective before asking Loid to take him-

"So that's where you were."

Oh, speaking of the devil, Loid was there ─ or so he thought. For the man in front of him was nothing like what he last remembered him to be, and was more of a disheveled mess of heavy breathing and crazed eyes that Twilight certainly wouldn't allow himself to be. But it was the frown, the icy glare that convinced the boy that, indeed, it was him.

"Oh," he mumbled, peering up at him innocently before grinning widely. "Dad! I was looking everywhere for you!"

He could hear Yor's voice from close by, and by the flash of pink that greeted his eyes, he assumed they had caught up with them. And he was right, as they both manifested at the man a split of a second afterward, a relieved smile for the woman and a blank stare from the young girl.

Loid's eyebrow, however, twitched. "By running into a crowd while I'm still there?"

"That's a funny story, actually-"

By the puzzled glance the spy sent him, Conan could tell that his sudden interruption did not go unnoticed, yet he decided that doing something about it was not as high on the list of priorities. What did top that list was safety, so he scurried away and brazenly latched himself onto the hem of his jacket. Promptly ignoring, that was, the startled squeak that escaped his meat shield, instead jotting it down in his mind to ponder about later.

Her gentle laughter dissolved amidst the background noise, leaving nothing but the tips of her long, dark hair as a testament of her presence. Eventually, even that melted away with the crowd, and so Conan deemed it safe to breathe again.

Leading him to his next priority in the list ─ Loid's perplexed and absolutely lost stare. Conan stepped away, stared back at him for a second, before uttering in the most plain tone a child could manage,

"Too many people in one place is scary."

Loid's confusion was visible, but Conan had better things to do than to try to fix that ─ namely survival, so he supposed the man could deal with his own problems by himself.

"Can I have your attention for a moment?"

It resounded all over the place, drawing the entire ship's attention together and to the stage they had mounted, as though they were one. Instantly, Shinichi recognized the smiling man with the microphone as Sonoko's loving, but ridiculously wealthy, parent.

"I welcome you all to Suzuki Industries' 60th Anniversary!"

Yeah, no need to rub it in my face, Conan thought with a groan that seemed to attract Anya's attention. I know already.

Eventually, the kid seemed to answer every answer she might have by herself, or know better than to ask ─ in any case, good girl. Her gaze fell back on the stage, perhaps a bit too suddenly to be normal behavior, but with Anya, he could not really know for sure. Maybe if he did not look at her, his mind might have a chance for a well-needed respite from all those existential questions he normally opted to ignore.

Again, children were not his forte at all.

All the while, Anya watched him for a little longer, before her attention shifted back to her parents, who predictably, were attentively listening to what these important people had to say.

She focused back on the stage, but instead of the elegant woman that walked in and started talking, she watched the older man. Laughing under his breath, he slowly made his way down and walked away before anyone could notice him missing.

Anyone, except for those sharp cautious eyes of hers, would never miss a detail so important like that one ─ she could be cool like her brother, couldn't she? Smirking to herself in a way he had seen him more than once, he followed the suspect's lead.

"Please put them on your chests," the woman was saying, her voice fading as she left the room. "And tell KID, 'Go ahead and take it, if you dare'!'"

She could not lose him under any circumstances, so she needed to hurry before she could lose sight of him ─ or rather, before he decided to go anywhere else besides where he had planned to be, if his thoughts had not changed from one moment to the other.

Fortunately, it did not take Anya long to find the men's bathroom, but it did take her a while to do something about it ─ something, besides just staring at the closed door and willing for anything to happen without her input.

Seconds soon turned into minutes ─ probably ─ and when no ghost thief decided to materialize in front of her out of his free will, she decided that it was time for her to take matters into her own hands. A determined gaze graced Anya's features as she reached forward to the knob, standing on the tip of her feet to-

That was when the door swung open by itself, and she staggered a little forward with the lack of proper support. Anya recovered easily enough, blinking up her big emerald eyes at the figure that stood in front of her; a female, tall enough to need stretching her neck to look at her purplish blue, surprised eyes. Long hair, slightly wavy bangs that somehow resembled a… horn? Is this lady a unicorn?

And also, why couldn't she get over the feeling that she had seen her somewhere bef-

Anya felt herself flinch as realization struck suddenly. She… She breathed out, to the girl's utter puzzlement. She's the girl Oniichan was running away from!

"Don't tell anyone, okay?" she said, embarrassed. "That I accidentally entered the men's bathroom."

Her voice was a flawless replica, a carbon copy that Anya's ears could not believe was possible. That being said, there was a smoother, deeper and distinctively male voice resounding somewhere in the background, for her to gasp at and narrow her eyes suspiciously.

The girl blinked confusingly as Anya jumped back, clutching the box with the pearl closer to her chest and away.

"G-Go take," she croaked. A shake of head later, she tried again, "Go ahead and take it, if you dare!"

Eventually, whatever warmth he had seemed to replicate evaporated, leaving a rather blank one behind. Anya did not move one inch, instead working on her glare as she waited, in silence, for him to give up at her astounding and absolutely intimidating display of bravery-

He burst out laughing. Anya watched him, cluelessly, as he brushed right past her and into the hallway. Gently, he pressed a hand between her shoulder blades, and before she could tell what was going on, he had nudged her inside and closed the door right behind her back.

Gasping, Anya opened it right away and peered outside, only to find that there was nobody out there. Yet, far from discouraged, it moved her forward ─ guided by the voices that only she could hear, she started to run.

Tomoko Suzuki was, beyond a shadow of doubt, Sonoko's mother. Which was not exactly a novel piece of information he should register in his brain for future use, for it was a fact he learned in his first childhood, but rather a confirmation of sorts. That eccentric behavior, impulsive to the point of challenging KID so openly like that ─ there was denying they were related.

To think she'd go far enough to create replicas of the Black Star, he thought. How many attendees were there, to begin with? One-hundred? Five-hundred? She called it the symbol of their family, too.

It made him wonder how he had missed it, but actually, he wasn't all that surprised. Even if Sonoko had told him about it at some point, it was highly likely that he hadn't listened. Sonoko was a bit of a chatterbox, after all ─ a chatterbox whose speciality was getting on his nerves, but a chatterbox, nevertheless. Had he made an effort to retain every little thing she might have said in all those years they had known each other, there wouldn't be much space left in his brain to store any new, relevant information.

Well, the joke was on him now. That was exactly what 'relevant information' sounded like to him.

"You know I can put that by myself, right?" Conan said, watching through half-lidded eyes at the spy crouched in front of him.

Loid paused enough to give one expressionless look, then went back to what he was doing without as much blinking.

"I'm aware," he replied, carefully adjusting the pearl so that it was in perfect position. A perfectionist, I see. "But it's best if I do this instead."

With a click, it was all done. Conan eyed his retreating hands, he's wearing gloves. "Are you worried about getting fingerprints on it?"

"You watch too many detective shows," Loid said.

He stood back up to, he presumed, repeat the process with Anya, leaving their brief conversation topic behind and forgotten. But Shinichi would not be a detective if he could not see deeper than most people would, for those were the mere basics of the observation process.

I can understand why he's being so cautious, or paranoid even, he thought, watching as a platinum blonde waiter approached Yor to offer a drink that she hastily rejected ─ good call. In her chest, the Black Star sparkled beautifully, and it made him wonder if Loid hadn't gotten the chance to do it by himself, like he had done with him.

With a profile like Kaito KID's, it's evident that the police would be everywhere. And I don't mean only the ordinary Second Division that keeps on running around.

I mean in the background ─ hidden, secretly watching for any sign of danger for the country. His eyes narrowed as the waiter smiled politely and turned, about to leave. Women, men, children ─ they can be anyone, they can be anywhere.

Guilty or innocent, it doesn't matter. Once the Secret Police get their sights on you, it's over.

"Hm? Anya?"

Conan blinked back to reality. "What's with her?"

"She's gone."

"Gone?" the boy repeated, turning his head from side to side as he searched. "What do you mean, gone?"

"T-That can't be!" Yor gasped, her brow scrunching out in concern. "I could swear she was here one minute ago…"

Loid pressed the heel of his hand to his forehead, and Conan barely resisted against his urge to tell him that the night had only just started. Not because of a newfound sentiment of empathy for this poor exhausted man, not exactly, but because there were other matters he would rather save his attention for.

Namely, finding that pink-headed menace of a kid as soon as possible ─ before KID did, if that was possible. If what I heard about him is true, he shouldn't be too much of a threat to her.

And the other night just backed up his theory ─ he had been extremely gentle with the little girl, even going as far as to tell her to cover her eyes before throwing that stupid flash grenade. Of course, that damn thief did not recognize him worthy of that privilege, but granted, he supposed that would defeat the purpose of escaping. He had introduced himself as a detective, after all.

If anything, it's more likely that she just ran off somewhere to look for him. He wanted to sigh, but probably not as heavily as he had just caught Loid doing, just before setting off for his third lap around the ballroom. But I think it's best if we don't let that happen.

He didn't know why, but just thinking about him made him feel a bit queasy.

"Anya-san!" Yor was calling at the top of her lungs. "Anya-san, where are you?!"

Yor, as one would expect, was also looking for her just as thoroughly, but maybe at a more sedate pace. Splitting up did not sound like that much of a bad idea to Conan, and he would be more than content if they would let him collaborate with the cause. The iron grip she was keeping on his wrist seemed to think differently, however.

Conan grumbled to himself, subjected to his fate of being dragged around by his pretend mother like a freaking toddler.

"Anya-san! Please answer!"

"Is there any way I could help you, miss?"

Certainly not for the first time today, Conan felt himself twitching, the voice familiar somehow. He looked up, almost hesitantly, and to his utter horror he found that, indeed, he could recognize the face as well ─ a mustache that quirked into a far-too-wide grin, a faint blush on his cheeks caused by either the glass in his hand or the beautiful woman in front of him.

By the time he was clearing his voice and a smug smile replaced the awestruck expression from before, the kid had already backed up a little ─ just enough to keep himself out of his direct line of view and hold Yor's hand, at the same time.

"I'm looking for my daughter," Yor said, unaware of the storm that, little by little, began to pick up within her pretend son's mind. "She just ran off somewhere and I can't find her."

He could only hope that this interaction would not last for long. The realization that the woman had, in fact, a child ─ and likely a spouse, Conan had known him for long enough to predict the general direction of his thoughts ─ the man's perfect smile crumbled.

"D-Daughter?" Yeah, that was him alright. "You mean that you-?"

Before he could finish his sentence, however, a slender hand pushed him out of the way. Conan could have sworn his heart had skipped a beat when he saw that certain purplish blue gaze he could recognize practically anywhere as she stared, wide eyed, at Yor.

"Eh? Your daughter is missing?"

Conan slid a little further to the back. His hand pressed to his chest, pounding against his diminutive ribcage so heavily that, for a moment, the boy worried it would give his precarious hiding spot away ─ if it was going to give arrhythmia, it should just stop altogether and let him be done with all of it. Silently.

"What did she look like?" That was Sonoko's voice. "Is there any way we can identify her?"

"Well, she is about this high. She has pink hair and-"

"Huh?" And that was her, again. "Who's that little guy with you?"

Conan pressed his face against Yor's leg and felt her flinch. Her shock didn't last long, before he felt her hand landing on the top of his head in what he assumed to be a comforting gesture.

"Maybe he's shy," Sonoko suggested.

The giggle that escaped his friend may have served as another incentive not to let his face be seen ─ lest he wanted Sonoko to tease him forever about blushing so fiercely once he was back home and was forced to reunite with her.

"We could help you search, if you wanted."

Yor let out a relieved smile ─ a feeling that, incidentally, Conan could not relate to. "If it's not much trouble…"

"Not at all! Come, Dad, help me."

"What? Why me-"

" Come."

"Y-Yes, ma'am."

The sounds of footsteps and fading voices encouraged him to finally look up, and in doing so he saw her, in a beautiful red dress that must have been more Sonoko's doing than her own. He bit his lip, afraid of voicing those words he could not say any longer ─ afraid of calling her name, Ran's name, in a childish plea for her not to walk away on him, in the same way he had done that last night they had shared. That last night Shinichi had been himself.

Through Conan's wide innocent eyes, Shinichi watched her go ─ wondering if he would ever see it again, that sweet smile of hers.