AN: Here's the first chapter. The prologue was just introduction. Next one will come with a little longer break.

DISCLAIMEAR: The only thing I own is Toyota Aygo, so nothing from Detective Conan/Magic Kaito world. All charecters written in here belongs to Gosho Aoyama-sensei. I loved/not loved the chapter with Kaito pretending to be Shinichi and Conan letting him. The chat between them how they look alike made my day. But somehow, in this part Kaitō Kid seemed a little unintelligent. No better than Soshi Okita and his idiotic conclusions during that kendo case. And he supposed to be smarter...

Oh well.

Enjoy.

Chapter 1

Pandora's Box

Kuroba Chikage stormed through her house like a small tornado.

Usually when she was visiting her own house, she turned it upside down, left few notes to her son, checked if he wasn't starving and before he even had time to get use to her presence, she was already off to the airport.

Sometimes she wondered if she was a bad mother.

On the other hand, not many teenagers had been trusted with houses and have parents that weren't controlling their every move. So at least Kaito should be grateful for giving him so much freedom.

That were her thoughts when she climbed up the attic in order to find her old hat. She had been wearing it during one of her dates with Tōichi many years ago, but the style became fashionable again. Besides, she held a certain sentimental feelings for that hat. She had already dug through her wardrobe and through some other places, including Kid's lair (she had a bad feeling that Kaito wouldn't be happy because of the small mess she might left there) but it was nowhere to be seen.

Most boxes on the cleaned part of attic were labelled. Besides she remembered how much time she had spent after Tōichi's accident, cleaning those things. It had been soothing her those days. Like she had believed that organising their old things would have let her to organise her life afresh.

Now thinking about it Chikage felt the naivety of this thinking. On the other hand it had been helping her then, in therapeutic sense it hadn't been that bad. Plus, a great deal part of the attic was now cleaned, organised and labelled. And as far as she remembered, she hadn't come across the hat back then. So if it was there it must be in the part that she hadn't even touched yet.

She looked around.

It seemed that Kaito also wasn't eager to keep this place clean. Even the part that she had kept tidy, already was covered in thick layer of dust. To read the labels on boxes, she needed to bring the wet cloth. If not the fact that she desperately wanted to find the hat, she might spend those few days of her stay at home helping with cleaning this place. All in all, Kaito had really many things to focus nowadays, she couldn't be angry at him for not cleaning the attic.

It was still good that he kept the house clean, although she suspected that it wasn't done without a special help from his childhood friend.

Quick roam through the organised part, just in case she remembered wrong, made her sure that the hat wasn't there. She threw a look at the more messy part of the attic.

There were boxes everywhere.

Some empty, some filled with everything. There really weren't many things she might not expect there. Many unidentified things were scattered around on their own, but Chikage ignored them. None of them was hat-shaped which meant she needed to check boxes.

The floor creaked under her feet and each of her breath was lifting too many specks of dust for her liking. Soon enough she needed to cover her mouth and nose so she wouldn't be sneezing for all of the time.

She really need to send Kaito to clean here in one day – this house was practically his. Couldn't he take care of his own property himself?

She sighed, making even more dust to rise, which in turn irritated her throat, causing a bad cough.

She had enough of this!

Angrily she started moving the boxes around as it would terminate the dusting. One particularly heavy was giving her too much resistance she wasn't able to pull it even for an inch. That irritated her even more.

"Just wait, you stubborn piece of cardboard." she groaned angrily, attacking the said box with double strength.

If Kaito was here to see her now, he would probably decide that his mom had officially gone mad.

Her face was all red from anger and effort, but the glints of stubbornness in her eyes and desperate want to show who would have an upper hand in this, made her look like a Goddess of Vengeance. To emphasize this effect the light that came from low windows illuminated her from very unflattering angle. Like a torch light highlighting the face from below. It looked creepy. Once white, now grey walls were only making the view even more unnatural. Giving the vibe of a pencil draft taken from the old book about evil gods. Not an easy sight for eyes.

Heck, at this point Kaito would probably back off, to not be his mom's next target.

It took a lot strength to move the box only to discover another one behind.

Finally Chikage realised what she had been doing. She sat at the floor, since her legs were trembling from the physical exertion. Then she burst with laughter.

The dust was everywhere. On her dress, hair, face even on her lashes.

When the laugh ceased, Chikage started to brush off her dress, but instead of helping, it only stirred up the more dust, decorating her clothes with hand marks, but not making them even a bit cleaner.

She chuckled and gave up.

Curiously she crawled behind the problematic box to take a better look at the box behind. It was too small to contain her hat, but the sight stirred a certain string in her memory. She knew exactly when Tōichi had brought it home.

Flashback

It was already late, Tōichi should be back ages ago. She didn't worry though. He had told her that some things might hold him after the performance. Yet she hoped those things wouldn't hold him for too long.

She sighed and looked at her son.

He was still up, waiting for his father to come home, so he could show him the trick he had perfected for the whole day. Chikage let him stay longer, he had been pleading so much, and she simply was just a sucker for those blue eyes. This boy definitely inherited too much charm from her husband.

But it was really getting late, and she wished her husband was already back, so Kaito could go to sleep as well.

Four years old boy didn't seem even slightly tired. He was skilfully shuffling two decks of cards, even though it was too much for his tiny hands. But he was so stubborn, he didn't want to practice with his kid's cards, that were relatively smaller. His dad was using big cards so was he.

She smiled.

Flipping through the magazines, she decided to have a really long chat with her husband about prolonging his return when they both were waiting for him.

She yawned.

Suddenly Kaito's head shot up and his eyes sparkled with happy expectation.

She didn't know how he was doing it, but Tōichi was a master with closing the door so lightly that it balanced at the line of inaudibility, yet Kaito always knew.

"Tōichi?" she called, wondering if it wasn't a false alarm.

"Dad!" Kaito shouted, running towards the entrance hall. "Dad, I've learnt this trick you've showed me recently! Look!" he stopped at the door frame. Then he turned around, in few jumps he got back to the place he had been practising before and grabbed the cards. He spun around and in few moves, he was already out.

Chikage didn't feel obliged to follow him. For one, she'd been angry at her husband for being that late. Besides she had been watching the trick for almost half of the day, she really didn't need another show. Especially that every time their son showed his dad the perfected version of any trick, it always seemed like the moment just between the two of them. She felt like an intruder. They always were laughing for reasons she hardly ever understood due to her inexperience in performing magic, and they were talking so animatedly that she had hard time to follow.

Right now two laughs filled the house. They increased in intensity as both of them neared the living room. There was deep and calm laugh of Tōichi, filled with adult experience, and childish, energetic laugh of Kaito. The kind of laugh that indicated it would be really hard to put their son back to bed tonight.

But when they both entered the room, she noticed that something was wrong. Tōichi's poker face let him laugh with his son, let him ruffle his hair in father-son affectionate gesture, and help with positioning the cards in boy's palms to make the trick easier to perform – it helped Tōichi to give his son full attention without letting the child to notice unnaturalness of this behaviour. But Chikage had known her husband longer, and was more observant than four years old boy, even though his IQ exceeded the expected norm way too far.

"All right, Kaito-chan." she chirped, not wanting to scare her son. "We've got a deal. You showed your trick, now off to bed."

"Do I have to?" he whined. Clearly he wanted to stay longer. "What was in the box you've brought dad? Is it for magic tricks?"

Chikage's brows rose up in silent question. Tōichi kneeled on front of his son.

"It's something a friend of mine wanted me to keep for a while." he explained patiently. Between the two of them it was always like this. No matter how inappropriate or silly their son's question was, Tōichi always explained everything the boy wanted to know with such patience. "Kaito, if you got a deal, you know you must follow your part. If you promised something, you must do it, no matter how much you don't like it. A promise is a promise, it tells a lot about reliability. People wouldn't respect you if you keep breaking promises, no matter how small or how unwanted."

Sometimes she wondered how weird it was for her son to understand even those difficult words Tōichi was using. Normal children not only had problems with understanding big words but also with pronunciation. Kaito had this phase already behind him. When he was two. Right now he was only nodding while trying to keep himself serious to show his parents how reliable he could be. Glints of mischief in his eyes were spoiling this picture only for a bit.

Kaito sighed, clearly was upset that he have to go to bed while his dad was still up.

"But it was very good job with the trick." Tōichi added, patting boy's head. "I'm amazed that you've perfected it in such short amount of time."

There still was a bit sadness in Kaito's eyes, but Chikage almost burst with laughter seeing how confident his walk now became. The pride he felt after the complement he had just ben given was so clear she couldn't help and smiled. He was so easy to read, unlike his father.

She faced her husband when the door in Kaito's room was tight shut.

"What happened?" she asked.

"Shh..." Tōichi put a finger to his lips and pointed upstairs. He knew their son really too much. "So, love. Let's cuddle on the sofa." he added louder.

"Yuck." They heard childish snort from upstairs.

Then there was a quiet noise of footsteps. Finally the sound of bed springs.

"Give me few minutes, I need to take a shower. Kaito should fall asleep in that time, so we can talk safely."

She only nodded.

Certainly there were many topics that four years old kid shouldn't hear about. Yet that hardly ever prevented Tōichi for giving their son a full lecture about them. Did four years old boy really needed to know all names of the constellations that were visible on the night sky with the whole mythological background? Or the details of the petroleum origin? Or the Archimedes' principle including the experiments how to weight a three years old boy with only a bath tube and a measure? She had been so angry at them that day for flooding the bathroom that the said boy with his father had to clean the mess all by themselves.

But Kaito was observing the world. He was asking questions. Tōichi was explaining him everything with such a patience and detail that she sometimes wondered if he wanted his son to become a magician, like him, or a scientist.

In some way she felt relieved that Tōichi would take on him to tell the child the facts of life, on other hand she was afraid Tōichi would be too detailed. She hoped that Kaito wouldn't be asking about it too soon, she really felt it wouldn't be healthy to show a kid the adult magazines. And knowing Tōichi, he probably already made a collection of those to give to their son.

She shook her head.

Worry must already take over her, if she focused on such silly topics. Kaito said something about box, since Tōichi hadn't bring any it probably was still in the entrance hall. She peered through the door frame.

It was there.

Laying on the chest of drawers, beyond Kaito's reach, she noted. It was relatively small. Perfectly cubical. And if she was right, it was made of wood.

She came closer and touch it.

It was wood, although the texture was smooth. Quite nice in touch, she had to admit. She wondered what was inside.

'Something that friend of his wanted him to keep.' She thought, recalling his words. She wondered what could it be...

"We're going to have new neighbours." she heard her husband's voice so sudden that it almost made her to jump. She felt like a kid caught on stealing sweets.

She turned around to face the man she had married. He was just after the shower, his hair wet and he wasn't wearing anything besides the towel around his waist. She could see the scars he had got when he was practising especially dangerous tricks. No old bullet wounds. It was a relief, but sometimes she wondered for how long they both would be lucky like that. Last year it could be him who had been hit, not his partner...

Like knowing what she was thinking, Tōichi neared his wife and in a moment she found herself in a tight hug. She couldn't even complain for him and his risky night job, she had known all the time what she was getting herself into.

Tōichi was Kaitō 1412, or as they call him now Kaitō Kid and that job was bringing much more than just police task force hot on his heels.

"What neighbours?" she managed to ask after a long break.

"The house in our neighbourhood was on sale, remember?"

She nodded.

"Inspector Nakamori is going to move there soon. With his daughter."

Chikage blinked.

It was obvious that it had to do something with some strange case he had been working on for past few months. But he must have gone nuts to practically invite inspector Nakamori to their neighbourhood.

"Wait? Wasn't he transferred to Phantom Thief task force?" she asked with wide eyes.

Tōichi chuckled. "Your information is outdated. You might not believe it, but today inspector Nakamori is one of the leading officer in Phantom Thief's task force. He got promotion."

"Is that your...?" she stopped, not even wanting to think about this possibility. She had never noticed that her husband has suicidal tendencies.

"No, the promotion was fairly beyond my reach."

"What about the house? It would be too much coincidence to have Nakamoris almost next door by mere chance."

Tōichi only smiled, that was enough for the answer.

"How did you even manage it?" she asked angrily.

"Ma chère, magicians never reveal their secrets." he answered with mysterious smile.

It only made her anger to rise.

"Tōichi, this is not ridiculous, it's completely and absolutely irresponsible! Nakamori next door is a disaster!"

"It's few houses away. Besides I just thought that a growing girl would really need a maternal care." he answered simply. "You always wanted to have a daughter."

"It's dangerous, Tōichi. D-A-N-G-E-R-O-U-S! She's our Kaito's age, don't you think that they become friends?! Living so close, going to the same kindergarten, then school?! Can you prevent them not to?!"

"Why would I?" he shrugged, it was certain that the thought of their Kaito being friends with Nakamori's girl appealed him greatly. For a flash of the moment she was even thinking if he wasn't going to play a matchmaker for their son…

'Of course.' Chikage thought bitterly. Why not? He was childhood friend with the girl's mother. Why could he see how wrong was it to make those two friends? Did he really fail to notice the small difference? No one in Midoriko's family had been a police officer who had tried to catch Phantom Thieves. Maybe it was only a small difference, but rather significant!

"She can see the room." she reasoned. "She tells her father and do you know how will it end? You in handcuffs."

He chuckled. "You know more than I do, how fast I can get rid of any handcuffs."

"That's not the reason to laugh!"

"Now, love. Come to the living room. I don't want to reason with you in the hall." he said mischievously. "We may wake up Kaito."

She tried to protest, more for the self sake of protesting and not agreeing with him, but she was cut off when he captured her lips with his.

Small yelp escaped her throat when he grabbed her bridal style, to take her to the living room.

After another long while, when her anger completely vanished, she found herself able to formulate coherent thought. "I was serious Tōichi. What if this girl finds your secret room?"

Judging by Tōichi's expression he also needed this long break. She wondered how come she was able to see how frustrated he had been only when he already calmed.

"It won't open." he assured her. "It can be opened only by your, mine and Kaito's fingerprints."

So this time when Kaito had been playing with this black powder... It was for his fingerprints...?

Chikage smiled softly remembering Kaito's curious gaze when Tōichi had taken his fingerprints. How old was he back then, one and half? Maybe two, but not older. He was always such a curious child.

She chuckled remembering her son's phase of million questions and this particular situation.

Kaito had had the black dactyloscopic powder everywhere, not only on his fingers. Dark streaks on his face had only underlined the innocent blueness of her son's eyes. And he had been asking with the speed of machine gun, shooting one question after another.

Wha- is t-is?

Why my ha-ns are black?

Is -is smelling funny, why?

Wha-cha doing daddy?

Can I have t-is pict-r in my room?

Why it tas-e bitt-r?

Mommy, look I can dra- wit- it!

I can make my han- prin-s on walls!

Can I have ott-r colours?

If I add wat-r do it make paint?

Can we not wash it?

Look I make trac-s on the cape! I'll be like a cat!

Chikage shook her head; warm smile crept on her lips.

Kaito had been still lisping in that time, but he had already experimented with the powder, putting his hand prints on every available space to finally start playing the cat, meowing and crawling on all fours. She had wanted to kill her husband for letting their son to play with black powder, but now she understood.

"You could told me it was for the entrance!" she smacked Tōichi's shoulder.

"I know you're worried." he stated, holding his wife's head closer to his chest. "But I promised Midoriko to take care of her daughter. I cannot loose my reliability, right? And I really don't know better mother than you. Come on, do you honestly believe that Nakamori Ginzō could be a role model for his daughter? Especially in typically feminine matters. Just look at her, isn't she adorable?"

He reached for his wallet to pull out the picture of their new neighbours.

Chikage took a good look, and what she saw didn't make her happy. Tōichi looked at his wife's pouting face with blank expression until the understanding hit him like only falling brick could. "I meant that she looks so defenceless."

"Hymph." she only growled. "She's a splitting image of Midoriko-san."

"Aww..." he chuckled. "Don't tell me you were jealous of her."

"Don't make me laugh. Me, jealous?" she squealed, face red, ready to fight her teeth and nails if he wanted to tease her about it.

But then the last year's events stormed her memory and she scowled. "I'm so sorry Tōichi."

It only resulted with another hug.

"What's in the box?" she asked, trying to change the subject.

"Well... I don't know if I can tell you. It's for Aoko. When she will be old enough to understand."

Aoko...Hymph, what a name! she thought. She already disliked the girl, the thought that her Kaito might be friend with her was even more displeased. She had a bad feeling that it would be a lot of work to do to keep the safe distance between those two kids, just for safety reasons, not because she felt jealous over Midoriko. Not at all!

End of flashback

Now the mysterious wooden box was just in her reach.

So it was for Aoko.

She remembered Tōichi taking this box to the room behind the painting, but he must have brought it to the attic at some point.

Well, she decided to open it. It was no point giving it to Aoko before checking what was inside. It might be Midoriko's old wedding dress, so it would be still some time before Aoko would need it.

She smirked.

Maybe not that long, if Kaito finally got the nerve to ask the girl out.

She remembered her dislike to the girl before she had even met her. How silly her reasons seemed to be to her now. She had wanted to limit the amount of time those two had been spending together, which in the beginning had resulted in Kaito sneaking out of his room through the window just to visit his little neighbour.

At first Chikage had great help to keep them separated in Nakamori Ginzō. After the first time Aoko had come back home with her knees badly scratched and blood coming from her nose, Ginzō hadn't been happy. He had tried to limit the bad influence the neighbour's kid had got on his daughter.

It just hadn't worked this way, Chikage smiled. Those two had liked each other from the beginning. And both, she and Ginzō must have been blind to not notice the good effects these two kids had on each other. Aoko had been more responsible, she had prevented Kaito from doing really stupid things, she had been bandaging his wounds, helping him to wash his clothes so his mom hadn't be mad at him. Also Ginzō must have admitted that with Kaito around, Aoko had become more open child, she hadn't been crawling into the armchair with her mom's picture to spend there the whole day there any more. Also she had learnt a lot interesting facts from Kaito.

Well...

They were awfully close these days. It seemed strange, because Chikage expected that Kaito would rather distanced himself from her after picking up Tōichi's night job, yet it seemed that he had been seeking her company even more.

Was it for thr balance?

Anyway... It was up to Kaito, she wasn't going to have her hand in it. Well maybe just one little push or two, when necessary. Or if he would want to do something stupid. But nothing more.

She pulled the lid open.

And stared.

This wasn't Midoriko's wedding dress.

She gulped.

This certainly wasn't Midoriko's wedding dress.

Almost an hour later, gaining the knowledge she was not necessary ready to gain, she made the decision. "It will be better if I fly today."

Aoko blinked in surprise.

It was already very late.

Sunset coloured the wall of her house to orange. It reflected from one of the windows making it look like the light in the room was already on. Like someone was inside, waiting for her to come home. The soft puffs of wind moved the tops of the trees at the front yard. It would be such a peaceful view.

It would be. If not a small package that was laying on the threshold.

Aoko blinked once again, but the package didn't disappear.

It was wrapped in white paper with four leaf clovers imprinted on it and tied up with ocean blue bow.

The whole design just screamed Kid.

Nothing Kid related could make Aoko trusting. She neared the package and leaned over, trying to listen if there weren't any ticking sounds coming from inside.

She had to admit, that it wasn't fair to suspect Kid for trying to put the bomb in inspector Nakamori's house. She might nor like the thief, or to be more precise, she might hate his guts, and nothing would make her more happy than to see Kid's head served to her father on silver plate (actually, the head alone would freak her out, but handcuffed Kid would do the job perfectly), but even she had to admit that Kid had a style. And blowing up anyone's house wasn't a part of it.

Damn it!

Even on his last heist Kid had got hurt because he tried to cushion her fall.

Then she noticed.

The package was addressed to "Nakamori Aoko." she read aloud, surprised.

Would she dare to even touch it?

Was it even from Kid?

Or someone just liked Kid so they chose the Kid's themed wrapping, there were plenty of those things in stores for Kid's fans to buy.

She wasn't sure if she dare to take it home, but on the other hand, she was afraid to open it on her front yard. She picked up the card with her name attached to the ribbon. She turned it around.

"Please open it when you're alone." she read.

Her eyes widened.

If not the fact that she suspected Kid be her fathers age, she would think something indecent was inside. But that would be really creepy.

She sighed.

Nakamori Aoko wasn't particularly brave girl. She had quite vivid imagination that sometimes made her expecting worse than situation was calling for. Like with this ghost story... Yet, it actually never made her to stop halfway.

If situation was bad, she could always rely on her anger.

Having the decision made, Aoko opened the house door and, after a little while of hesitation, she took the package inside.

The condition to open the package while being alone wasn't very hard to accomplish. Her dad was working 'till late and he often forgot to come home straight from work, hanging around with some fellow officers. Kaito was also nowhere in sight, which meant he didn't plan to visit her today.

Besides, windows in his house were dark as well. So his mom was out or away already. And he must be hanging out with Jii, probably practising some new trick. Jii was best assistant, he had known Kaito's dad and had been very helpful, always coming with usable advices. Aoko knew that Kaito respected him a lot.

Deciding to warm the diner later, Aoko took the pack to her room.

Unwrapping the paper she strangely felt that she shouldn't open it.

Her heart was beating madly in her chest.

Kaito had once told something about opening Pandora's box... She had a feeling that when she open this box here, nothing would be the same. Ever.

She shivered, shoving off her fears.

Swiftly she moved the lid.

And blinked.

There was a VCR tape, few pieces of paper and something else wrapped in white paper with a note "Open it last." attached to it. She also caught a glimpse of something copper, but her attention turned to two scraps of paper that seemed to be cut from newspaper.

"SPECTACULAR BURGLARY AT OSAKAN NATIONAL MUSEUM!

"On Saturday night the duo of phantom thieves managed to steal the very rare gem from the new collection exhibited in National Museum in Osaka.

The show began with the blackout, followed by the spotlight focused on the most precious gem casket. It contained the Heart of Sunrise – a rare amber with enclosed butterfly wings' pollen. It decorated the ancient dagger, exhibited in the weaponry section.

White Phantom Thief appeared in these spotlights only to cover the casket with his cape to reveal with another movement that Golden Dagger's place was empty and the dagger was already in his gloved hands.

Police task force run onto him, but he threw the dagger up only to be caught by Phantom Lady who swiftly and oh so gracefully swayed over by the line just in the appropriate moment to catch it and disappear on the second floor.

The police chase didn't bring any effects.

Neither Phantom Lady nor the White Phantom Thief were found anywhere.

Some spectators witnessed Thief's white hang-glider flying towards the river.

There were also people who stated they heard shots. By far police couldn't confirm it, but the investigation already started.

'It is important to find out if there was any of those thieves shooting, or maybe someone else tried to stop the chase.' Informed young policeman from the task force, Nakamori Ginzō (age 27).

Police also take into consideration that the shots were aimed into the burglars. As far no gun was found...

(For more information about the heist, read page 3.)"

Aoko looked around, but there were no page 3 to read more about it.

She let her brain to process the information she had just got.

Her dad was twenty seven years old then. So it must be about fourteen years ago. The heist was in Osaka, if she wanted she could find appropriate newspaper in the library.

If it was necessary...

She didn't feel an urge to read about Kid's heists. Why would she?

She could show it to Kaito, though. He was such a fan, it might interest him.

Aoko shrugged and reached for another newspaper note.

"SHOTS IN THE ALLEY

In the Phantom Thieves heist night a woman was found with the bullet wound.

In the dark alley of Osaka, an anonymous caller informed medical care emergency centre about a body of the woman found in the alley. He said that she was shot and bleeding, probably already unconscious. After asking the directions, there was an ambulance sent to the place.

Further investigation revealed that the woman lived in Tokyo and was visiting Osaka to meet with her old friend from high school. She never get to the meeting.

There were no witnesses of this event.

Police asks anyone who could come with information about the case or the person who anonymously called the ambulance to visit the station for a testimony.

The random shooter still can be roaming around Osakan streets. Any information about this person may help with apprehension the offender."

This note seemed random.

Kid's heist article was not something she would die to read, but it at least could make some Kid's psycho fan happy. Article about some random shooter was... well simply not.

She wondered.

It apparently had been done the same day this Osakan heist. Was it possible that the same person whose shots had been heard when thieves had escaped might be those same that had killed this woman?

Perhaps.

But it also had been probable (and most likely) that first shots had nothing to do with the other. By if that was the case, why those both notes were send to her?

Why to her?

Why both?

Aoko stood up. She needed to bring herself something to drink. Like cold water.

In no time she reached the kitchen. She sighed. The feeling of cold tiles under her bare feet cooled her down a little bit. But when she was pulling the glass out of the cabinet, she noticed that her hand was trembling.

It was ridiculous.

There was no reason for her to be nervous. She just read two newspaper's notes. It wasn't something she could be very nervous about. Involuntary she glanced towards the direction of Kaito's house. It was still dark.

She pulled her cell phone and hesitated.

Should she?

It was stupid to call now. What would she tell? She had a stupid premonition and wanted to make sure everything was all right? She'd be laughed off.

Aoko dialled the number.

She could be laughed off, but at least she would be calmer.

"Aoko!" she heard her dad's voice. "I'm still at work. Sorry... I really be late. Don't wait for me with the dinner." and with that her father hung out.

He didn't even give her a chance to ask a question or say anything.

Oh but well, she at least knew he was all right.

There was no need to wait for her dad with the dinner, she might as well eat it already, she decided, opening the fridge. She doubted Kaito would be home soon enough to come to dinner as well.

Aoko sighed.

She didn't care much enough to even heat the dish properly. Instead she just put the bowl of Yaki Soba into the microwave oven. Why even bother?

Nakamori Aoko wasn't especially angsty and emo girl. She just hated to be alone.

Funny because she was rather introvert.

Too many people around were always quite hard to handle and she needed some time just for her to recharge her batteries. It didn't mean she didn't like the company. Just friends she knew and liked, this way it was quite okay. With new people she needed some time to adjust, but in short period, she could manage. Now, she didn't have to drain her energy levels to be able to act out instead of crawling in the corner and make herself invisible.

But she hated to be alone.

Alone meant no one close to her around.

Alone meant cold, empty house, practically lifeless.

Alone meant sleepless nights filled with waiting.

The microwave chimed. She shook her head trying to get all those negative thoughts out of her head.

The dish was barely warm, but she really didn't care. She felt already hungry, this filled her stomach, the job was done.

She must admit she took her time with eating. Inside she was conflicted. On one side, she wanted to have it done quickly to see what else was in the box, to understand why it was send to her. Who could send it to her. The other side was a growing fear. It might be irrational. No signs by far were giving her even a slightest idea that something might be wrong. But Aoko just felt it and sometimes she really should trust her guts.

Unfortunately for her, the bowl wasn't bottomless. She finished her meal and washed the dishes.

Reluctantly, after cleaning the floor (she spilled some water on it), washing the microwave oven ('Jeez, it wasn't washed for ages!') and setting the laundry on ('What? Last laundry was made yesterday! There was still some to do!') she decided there wasn't anything more to distract her. She would clean windows but it was already too dark for this.

The next thing she pulled out from the box was a plain note written in notepad. It was filled with handwriting that she couldn't recognise but found oddly familiar.

"My Aoko,

I am dying.

Tō-chan says I'm not, but I feel it.

Read carefully.

Everything is in grandpa's house.

I can't tell where the house is, you probably know it now.

If not, you'll figure it out, you're already so smart!

And if this gets in wrong hands...

Better safe than sorry.

Watch the tape.

Go to grandpa's house.

I attach the key.

I love you my sweet, little daughter!

How I wish to see you grow up.

Midoriko."

Aoko was looking at the note with disbelief.

Was it her mom's?

But... How?

She needed to make sure.

Quickly Aoko was up. With the note in her hand she rushed to her father's study. She stopped half in the way. If she needed to watch the tape, there was only one place she could do it. Dad's study. Old VCR had already been thrown out, when dad had decided to buy DVD, so she and Kaito could have been watching movies when they had felt like it. He just hadn't brought himself to throw away this one from the study. She had been sneering all day, but now she felt grateful for his stubbornness.

But first she needed to find the old yearbook from her mom's school. This was the only thing available for her to compare the handwriting and signature. Dad might still keep some old letters they had written, but Aoko didn't want to search through his things. It just wouldn't be right.

Not to mention that it would be embarrassing if those had been love letters.

No, the year book would be enough.

She lightened the ceiling light, although usually when she was here, she preferred to curl on the armchair with a book in her hand and turn only the floor lamp on. Its light was warmer and she felt more homely that way.

There weren't that many bookcases to check. Starting from the door, Aoko traced the books' spines with her finger. Her lips moved, while she silently read the titles.

One by one.

From the top, to the bottom.

No results.

Next bookcase.

One by one.

Top to bottom.

No results.

Third one.

…

There were some old photo albums on the bottom and the year books as well. She found her mom's and opened it.

Flipping through the pages Aoko felt feverish.

She wanted to see her mom's picture and her signature. But she wished the handwriting was different.

She didn't want any complications.

She didn't remember her mom almost at all. She actually was just a picture. Aoko was three when she died.

Dad vaguely had told her that she had been shot by some random psychopath.

She had been just passing by.

He had been at work, and couldn't protect her.

But if those hints Aoko had just got were true, this job probably meant Kid's heist. And her mom must be shot that day.

She found the page.

She hadn't been looking at it for a long time.

Very long time.

When she had been still a little girl, she had used to come to this place, pull out this album and stare at her mom until the image of her face had been burnt into her memory. She had felt so guilty for forgetting how her face looked like.

And now, when she stared at the teenage girl signed as Hibiki Midoriko, she felt surprised.

The sapphire blue eyes were staring back at her.

Messy hair held the same colour of milk chocolate like hers.

Even the shape of her lips was the same.

Never before Aoko had realised how much she resembled her own mother.

And the signature was simply the same.

As if she wasn't sure, there was a long, almost diary-like, note at the beginning of the book. In there it was written who had this book belonged to, and had a short, but still long enough, commentary section describing the class she had been attending. Few times a name Ikenami Shizuka appeared there, giving Aoko a suspicion that she had been her mom's close friend.

Slowly she closed the book. She didn't feel like putting it back. Not yet.

There was still a tape to watch.

Feeling that her heart was beating madly, she pushed the tape into VCR and pressed play.

For next few hours she was rewatching all over the short film recorded there.

When it finished, she rewound it and played again.

And again.

Never in her life Aoko had felt her mom's picture so sharp in her memories.

Never in her life Aoko had felt so frightened.

Clutching tightly the remote control Aoko was wondering where were tears when she needed them so badly.

And then she noticed.

A dim light in Kaito's room.

Without thinking twice, Aoko pressed stop. She took the tape out, grabbed the year book and the note. With a moment of hesitation, she came back for the whole box. She put all there, and holding it tightly to her, like it was the most precious possession, Aoko run to the hall.

She didn't care about the shoes, or jacket.

The rest of common sense made her to look for keys. She also turned back from the yard and wrote a note.

"I'm with Kaito.

I stay for the night.

Love you dad."

She put it in the place it was easy to spot, not even thinking if the words she used were appropriate and how much troubles they could cause her friend in the future.

Without any more delays, Aoko almost flew at Kaito's door, she pressed the doorbell like her life depended on it.

And then it was moment when tears finally found their way.