Hi! Long time no see! Here finally, as promised, and in honor of Kuroba Kaito's birthday, is the sequel to A Snowy Meeting! Just like that story it will be necessary (or at least highly recommended) that you watch the movies/episodes that the chapters are based around, otherwise not only will it likely not make sense but it will spoil the stories involved. You've been warned.

This story starts one month after the events of A Snowy Meeting (if you're curious about how I worked that out, see the bottom A/N, this one's long enough as is)

I know it's been a long time since A Snowy Meeting concluded, but I wanted to have a few chapters ready in advance before I started posting so I could at least start out on a fairly regular schedule. So for those who've been waiting, sorry it took so long but I hope the knowledge that you'll have a regular schedule for a while will make up for it.

Disclaimer (which shall hereby be applied to the entirely of this work): This is a fanfiction. I do now own Detective Conan or Magic Kaito– those rights belong to Gosho Aoyama.

For this story, the formatting will be:

"Dialogue" 'Thoughts' Texts "Dialogue overheard through a medium" (Such as Kaito's bugs)

Finally - we all know Kaitou Kid can disguise as anyone he wants, right? So I've decided to have some fun with that fact by having some of the disguises Kaito uses in my story actually be based off of someone seen on screen (even if that person is simply in the background crowd for a few seconds) whenever I can. The first "Where's Kid?" is in this chapter, so see if you can spot him - I'll reveal where he was in the next chapter, but if you want you can PM me your guesses. If you choose that route, my advice (and a hint) would be to give a description of what is being said at

Sorry for the long note! Happy reading! ^_~

Chapter 1 – Movie 16: The Eleventh Striker, Part 1

Kaito glanced in the mirror one last time to make sure everything was in order for his disguise. A few slight modifications had altered the shape of his face and a pair of contacts darkened his eyes to an inky brown. He wore a wig of a much lighter brown than his natural tint; it was parted in the middle ran nearly to his chin before curling up and out at the ends in a currently trending style. He had a faint yellow shirt with a tan jacket over a pair of dark blue jeans. As the final clinching touch, a photographer's grade camera hung around his neck.

An overall nondescript look with a clearly identifiable purpose for being there. Perfect.

Grinning, he made his way out onto the main field area of Beika Sports Land, where the 16th annual J-league soccer class was just getting underway. The Shounen-tantei-dan had managed to win the raffle allowing them to participate in the highly popular event, a fact that Kudo had mentioned offhand a few too many times for his blasé attitude to be completely genuine. It had reminded Kaito of the rumors he'd heard about Kudo Shinichi's soccer skills and had made him realize that he'd never actually seen the detective play the sport – at least outside of freakishly super powered, weaponized shots.

He'd considered asking Kudo if he could just tag along, but where would the fun of that be?

He smirked at the thought as he approached the edge of the field, stopping occasionally to take pictures of the kids and players. A glance around quickly located the Shounen-tantei-dan. It looked like they'd been paired with Hideo Akagi of the Tokyo Spirts. As Kaito silently walked past the group (surreptitiously attaching a listening bug to the back of the bench they were standing in front of) he was just in time to see the other four kids switch places with Conan on the sidelines. The detective had an odd little smirk as he walked onto the field and Kaito got the feeling he was in for a show.

He wasn't disappointed.

As soon as Hideo-san kicked the ball to him, Conan caught it with his chest, did several little kicks to get the ball into a position he liked then kicked it back, all without letting the it touch the ground. That was the first of what quickly became a sort of unannounced competition between the two, the dance of various kicks, knocks, and head bumps becoming increasingly more complicated before the eventual return.

Part of Kaito wanted to snicker and roll his eyes at obvious posturing, but the other part of him wanted to simply sit back and enjoy watching the detective having fun and very much looking his apparent age for once.

A crowd began to form in a large circle around the two and Kaito even noticed a few of the J-leaguers watching with interest. Finally, after what had to be near a full minute of air drippling – which included a fairly impressive-looking, but completely impractical, double around-the-leg maneuver – Conan kicked the ball back to Hideo-san who caught the ball on his chest before finally letting in it fall to the ground and stepping on it. With a sigh, the professional player held up his hands in defeat.

'Not very subtle there, Kudo,' Kaito couldn't help but think to himself wryly. While he'd admit he was impressed, the kaitou-wired part of his brain couldn't help wondering if the shrunken teen wasn't drawing just a little too much attention to skills that weren't exactly common for his real age, much less his apparent one.

He approached one of the many water stations placed around the area as he watched one of the J-leaguers – someone from Big Osaka – run up to where Conan was being praised by his fellow 1st graders (well, sans Haibara who was just watching Kudo with an amused look on her face).

Kaito quickly downed the contents of the paper cup just as the man opened his mouth to speak.

"Kudo Shinichi."

Only years of poker face practice prevented Kaito from very conspicuously choking in shock, and even then it was still a very near thing. As it was, even he couldn't prevent his eyes from widening and snapping over to stare at the lightly bearded player whom Genta had called "Higo."

"Do you know him?"

Kaito's heart restarted with those words and the realization that Higo hadn't said the name as a direct address. As Kudo struggled to come up with a response, Ran-san cut in on the conversation.

"About Shinichi – Do you know about Shinichi?"

Higo stood up from where he'd crouched down to be at Conan's level, "Yeah…I watched a match of his and called out to him before."

That made Kaito raise an mental brow. He'd heard Kudo had been good but to be called out by a professional player? Suddenly he was a feeling a just a little better about those times he hadn't quite been able to dodge that hellish soccer ball of his.

"They looked so similar…his and this kid's kicking form."

'Gee, wonder why?' Kaito snickered. Though he did wonder how kicking a ball in a match could look anything like what he'd just been watching – maybe it was just something you had to be an actual player to understand?

With wide eyes and a nervous half-smile on his face, the shrunken detective lifted his right hand to hold it palm up beside his shoulder as if in a shrug while his left hand pointed up into the sky, "I-I think that's because Shinichi-niichan has been teaching me soccer!"

All of Kaito's amusement vanished; he wanted to groan aloud at the incredibly awkward stance, and the nervous laughter and arm-behind-the-head move that followed only made it worse. 'Come on tantei-kun! What was that pose even supposed to be?' The explanation had actually been pretty good; if he'd just smiled – maybe put a slightly boastful undertone to his voice…!

"I see. As I thought, he's teaching you," Hugo reached down and ruffled the Conan's hair. "Do your best in soccer!"

Kaito did a full-on mental pratfall. 'Seriously?' He stared after the man as he walked away. 'Not a word? Don't tell me that looked natural to you!' Then he remembered. 'Oh. Right. He's a kid. And kids are goofy and awkward by nature.'

He turned back to see Conan suffering under various degrees of envy from all his fellow Shounten-tantei-dan over the exchange (even Haibara participated, though her conveyance was a bit more sadistic).

For completely different reasons, Kaito could really empathize with them.

'Endou-san's free kick has so much bend to it!' Conan thought ecstatically as he reached his goal. He'd made his way over to one of the empty solo shooting areas in order to practice the free kick while it was still fresh in his mind. He quickly set up three balls in a line. In front of him was a gray target wall, with a dark black strip marking the dimensions of a regulation-sized soccer net.

"Start in front…like it's an in-front kick," he muttered aloud, squatting slightly to square his hips to the ground. He stared at the ball ahead of him, looking only at where he wanted his feet to connect on the surface of the ball. He'd worry about aiming later, once he got down the logistics of the shot.

"But instead of kicking, scoop it." He ran forward, swinging his leg in the familiar motion of an in-front kick but twisted his foot to the side so that rather than connecting with the top of his foot, it would connect with the side.

The ball shot sharply off to the left missing the goal completely and striking the wall right before the chain link fence separating it from the next shooting area.

Conan didn't move. Silently, he stared at the invisible trajectory line the ball had taken, tracing it back to where it had started, and then stared down at his foot where he could still feel the tingle of the impact, directly where the arch of his foot was. Finally, he closed his eyes and recalled the image of Endou right at the moment when his foot connected with the ball.

'Too far back,' Conan shook his head. Endou's shot hadn't been in the middle of his foot – it had been farther forward. Not on the toes but just behind.

"Again." He snapped his eyes open.

He stepped to the second ball, standing slightly to the left, his body angled to the right side of the net. He dashed forward.

The ball shot straight forward to strike the wall right in the middle of the net markings. There was no bend at all in the balls trajectory.

Conan growled slightly. The feel of the impact told him he'd hit the ball exactly where he'd wanted, right at the base of the toe where it connected to the foot proper. But he'd been too focused on the contact location and had ended up simply kicking the ball with the side of his foot.

"Scoop it…" Conan closed his eyes again. 'Think. A normal kick is a strike; it has a single moment of impact before the ball is shot out. Scooping is different; it's a motion. Wait! That's right!'

Conan suddenly recalled the sensation he'd had while watching the demonstration. He remembered feeling as though time had slowed down at the moment Endou's foot came in contact with the ball. At the time he'd just shrugged it off as the excitement getting to him, but now he realized that that wasn't it. 'His foot was in contact with the ball longer.' Just a few microseconds but Shinichi was so familiar with the timing of kicks that the difference was easily discernable. And according to the laws of physics, there was only one way that delay was possible.

'The ball wasn't completely stationary – it had to have traveled down his foot a little during the motion of the kick! That's the scoop!'

He snapped his eyes open and focused on the third ball; he was approaching it even before consciously deciding to move. One step. Two. He planted his left foot, his left arm shooting out to provide counterbalance. He swung his right leg out in front of him to the left while simultaneously twisting his foot to the right.

The ball connected with his shoe just outside the base of his large toe. He felt the ball roll back towards middle arch of his foot before the weight vanished, leaving his leg to finish the follow-through.

The ball sped off, right towards the dead center of the goal. But then, at the last second, it drifted to the left, hitting the wall about six inches to the left of where the initial trajectory would have placed it.

Conan stared at the wall, remeasuring the trajectory until he was absolutely certain.

He'd just bent his first free kick.

"Yes!" He jumped, pulling his fists close to his chest.

The sudden click of a camera shutter to his right startled him out of his celebration. Spinning towards the sound he saw an unfamiliar man in a tan jacket and a hairstyle reminiscent of Endou's, though this man's hair was a much lighter shade of brown.

"Impressive, boya!" The man grinned as he brought the camera down from his face.

'Another newspaper photographer?' Conan guessed looking at the expensive camera before scanning the rest of him. 'But he's not wearing a badge. So maybe a freelancer?' He decided to shrug it off; for all he knew the guy might just be an overly soccer-obsessed parent – he wouldn't be the first he'd seen that day. He focused on the man's words instead.

"Endou-san showed us how to do a free kick so I wanted to practice it right away!" He went on to describe the shot and what he'd learned. And if "Conan's" childish exuberance came just a little bit easier than usual, well…that wasn't anyone's business but his.

'Not like anyone's watching anyway.'

Conan had just gotten out of the bathroom after rinsing off the sweat from that morning's activities when he noticed the text alert on his phone was blinking. Walking over and grabbing the device off the coffee table, he saw it was from Kuroba.

When he opened the text screen, he was confronted with a very familiar image followed by a line of text: Have you been practicing? I've never seen you look so genuine. (^ _ ^)v

'Son of a…' he groaned, the pieces instantly falling into place. He'd wondered why the part-time thief had been so quiet the last couple days. He contemplated for several moments, wondering if he could just pretend he'd never seen it. Then he remembered exactly who was on the other end of the conversation.

You've got a real problem, you know that?

The response came back instantly.

Just one? Wow, I'm flattered. Pretty sure everyone else I know is at least on the second page.

Conan snorted as he slipped onto the sofa beside the coffee table, running the towel over his still slightly damp hair. He typed in a reply.

If you'd wanted to come, you could've just asked. You know Ran would've been fine with it.

In fact, she'd have been more than fine with it. After that first outing (and despite the drama that had occurred during it – though honestly, that was almost normal by this point), Ran had told Kuroba that she was fine with him taking Conan out whenever he wanted. In the month since then, the two had hung out a couple other times (usually just meeting and bantering over coffee – which Conan was only too thrilled to actually be able to drink for once, much to Kuroba's amusement), and Ran had been almost entirely responsible for those meetings. Conan had been a little confused over her enthusiasm until he'd overheard her talking to her dad.

"He's been away from home for so long with hardly any contact with his family at all," she'd said. "No matter how distant, at least it's a connection!"

Hearing her worry over his welfare like that had made him feel extremely guity. It was almost enough for him to call his mother and arrange for "Mrs. Edogawa" to come for a visit.

Almost.

Kuroba's reply thankfully arrived and saved him from his imaginings. It was more fun this way. Plus, if I'd done it that way, I doubt I'd have gotten such an amazing souvenir shot. You should use it as study material.

Whatever, Conan rolled his eyes.

I'm actually half-serious. When that one guy (Higo?) came over and talked to you, your response was almost painful to watch!

Conan pressed his lips together as he read the other's message, his hands letting the towel fall back down to hang around his neck. He could remember that moment clearly, and even he had to admit he'd panicked a little. But still.

Come on. If you were in disguise and some guy you'd only spoken to briefly once in the past came up and asked "Do you know Kuroba Kaito? The way you shuffle cards is so similar!" Even you'd freak out a little. Just as Kuroba hadn't mentioned the name "Shinichi" Conan was careful to avoid using "Kid" during their chats. It wasn't something they'd ever openly discussed, but it was a routine both had naturally fallen into. It was just safer that way.

Nope. I've made sure that we have very different shuffling patterns.

'Of course he did,' Conan face-palmed. Don't be obtuse. You know what I mean.

I do. But the point remains.

It did, but Conan wasn't about to try to change his kicking form. I've got more important things to focus on. Plus he was proud of his form – he'd spent years honing and fine-tuning it.

Then don't freak out whenever something comes up.

That's easier said than done for most people. Still, he took the words as the advice they'd been meant as and changed the subject. Was that the only reason you contacted me?

There was a slight pause, likely as Kuroba debated whether to let the subject drop so easily. Apparently he felt he'd said enough as well, since his next message made no further mention of the issue.

No actually. I wanted to let you know that I'll be coming to the game tomorrow as well. A classmate's father works at a sponsoring company and got us tickets and team shirts to wear. A whole bunch of us are going. That's the one you're going to right?

Conan blinked. Yeah. The game between Tokyo Spirits and Gamba Osaka.

Thought so. I guess I'll see you there then! Bye!

'He'll see me?' Conan stared at his phone, waiting for another message to come in, possibly with a place to meet or something. 'That stadium holds 80,000 people! How does he think…' Then, again, he remembered who he'd been texting with.

Chapter End

And that's chapter 1! Please let me know what you think! I'll see you in chapter 2!

Now, for those curious about how I timed the events (though I'm not sure if anyone actually does, lol) :

As I'm sure you're all aware, Detective Conan's timeline is very screwy. If you weren't aware here's the proof: only a month (between Feb. 14 and March 14) passes between chapters 268 and 608 (episodes 334 and 725). This being the case, I thought some of you might be curious about the logic I used to place the movies, so I've written it out. The Eleventh striker was easy, since they actually include the dates, but even if they hadn't, my research showed that the J. Leagues season schedule almost always starts on the first Saturday of March and ends on the first Saturday of December (though sometimes one or the other might be the second Saturday).

The events of the previous movie, Quarter of Silence, were a little harder to place but by using the clues provided in the two locations, I'm pretty confident in my choice. There were two locations in the movie, Tokyo in the beginning, and Kitanosawa for the majority; there was an interval of a week between the train crash and Conan's group arriving in Kitanosawa. Now, Kitanosawa was covered in snow but in Tokyo the leaves on the trees were still green, although the fact that characters were all wearing jackets meant the weather was getting chilly. The snowy season in Hokkaido can go anywhere from November to May, with mountainous areas (like Kitanosawa) sometimes getting snow as early as October (and flashbacks from when the village was first built showed that the town isn't so up as to always be covered in snow). In Tokyo, the leaves usually begin to start changing color around mid-November. With these facts, I decided that the events of Quarter of Silence must have taken place around the beginning of November. Therefore, a month has passed since the events of Quarter of Silence (and therefore since the conclusion of Snowy Meeting) and the start of this story.

Of course, DC timeline being what it is, any logic is pretty pointless (which is why I'll be trying NOT to date anything more in the story) but still. It's the sort of thing I'd be curious about (but then, I'm a geek about things like that :P)