"Ai-chan." Doc Agasa knocked lightly on the doorframe and held up a cup of hot chocolate. "I made some hot chocolate and was wondering if you wanted some."

"Oh, thank you." Ai nodded as she shoved some papers together and gestured towards an empty spot on the desk. "Could you just set it there, Professor?"

Agasa offered her a look of concern, but nodded and set down the cup. He turned to leave, but paused at the doorframe. "Ai-kun… are you alright?" He asked. "You seem tired. Maybe you should rest."

"I'm fine." Ai replied wearily as she rubbed her eyes. "Thank you for the concern, though. I just need to narrow the places down so that Kudo-kun can find those missing children, and once I've got them narrowed down some more I'll let Subaru-san help me out."

"Subaru-kun can help you now." Agasa pressed. "Why don't you get his help now?"

Ai shook her head. "He's busy with other parts of this case, like why they would do this. He wants to find some possible motives, so I can't show him until tomorrow."

"Then just rest for today." Agasa suggested. "Let me help you finish the work."

Ai offered the doctor a tight smile, and shook her head. "Thank you for the offer, but it's alright. I would hate to trouble you."

"Nonsense." Agasa laughed as he sat down. "How do we get started?"

Ai sighed in defeat, but the small smile that broke through gave her away. "Well, I have five main areas that I think are most likely…"

0o0o0o0o0o0

Conan didn't waste time on being shocked before he crouched down and slowly slid the card box out of the cover and tossed a small cell phone at Kaito. "Call the contact named 'Jody' and tell her we have a mini bomb, most likely contains mercury, estimated to have a 50 meter explosion radius but possibly more."

Kaito saluted teasingly. "Aye aye, captain." He replied cheerfully as he hit speed dial and put the phone on speaker.

For a moment there was the sound of crackling before a quiet voice demanded, "Cool Kid, what's up? I'm kind of on a mission right now. Is it urgent?"

Conan remained silent, so Kaito jumped in. "Conan-chan is a bit tied up right now." He explained cheerfully. "He's trying to disable a bomb, most likely contains mercury, and is estimated to have a minimum of a 50 meter explosion radius."

"It's also waterproof." Conan added. "I just wanted to know where I could get some bomb diffusing items, and whether or not the mercury poison would be spread if we dumped the bomb in a river."

"My old apartment has some items." Jody replied. "I keep a hairpin in the mailbox, so you can let yourself in."

"A hairpin instead of a key!" Kaito brightened. "I think I like this girl!"

"Yes, that's cute." Jody replied sharply, still whispering. "Cool Kid, do you mind if I hang up now? I told them that you were my fiancé, and they're starting to get suspicious."

"Fiancé?" Kaito choked. "Why would you need to lie to whoever you're with?"

"Bye, Jody-sensei." Conan sighed as he closed the call.

"Why did she tell whoever she's with that you're her fiancé?" Kaito paused. "You're not her fiancé, right? Because I know that you've very mature for you're age and all, but you know, she's and older woman and…"

"Kaito, please shut up." Conan groaned.

Kaito stuck out his tongue and hummed as loudly as he could, before wondering, "How many secrets do you have, Co-chan?" His dark eyes met with Conan's and he pressed, "I know you have at least one of your own. Now I know you also have Jody-chan's. How many more secrets do you have?"

Conan stood up. "We should head to Jody-sensei's home." He mumbled. "There's an extremely fragile wire here… one wrong step and the whole thing goes up."

Kaito stared at him for a long time, before asking, "When did you start living with Ran?"

Conan frowned. "What makes you think I'm not her younger brother?"

Kaito snorted. "Oh, please. I've seen girls with younger brothers—Ran tries to act like an older sister, but she's not. It's obvious that you haven't lived with each other for very long."

"Why do you need to know?"

"Why do you need to hide it?"

Conan gave Kaito the date.

"Thanks, Co-chan." The magician had a strange glint in his eyes as he stood up and grinned widely. "By the way, are you done diffusing the bomb yet?"

0o0o0o0

Kaito's heart hammered violently as he tried to grin harmlessly at his attacker. "Aw, you know, it's not all that polite to point a gun at someone." He noted teasingly. "Don't you know that it's not good material for a first date? First you got to take me out to dinner, that kind of stuff. You can't just kill me right away!"

"You know too much." The pale haired man replied. "Brandy, what's your call?"

The woman who had been watching over the kids looked over and smiled sweetly. "Kill him, Bourbon." She decided. "But make sure he screams."

Conan, hurry up and get that backup you were talking about! Kaito swallowed. How had he gotten himself into this situation again…?

A few hours ago….

"It's the abandoned warehouse!" Ai downed the last of her hot chocolate as she laughed. "We've finally found it!"

Agasa burst into laughter. "We have found it!" He agreed happily. "Now all we have to do is call the police, and…"

"No." Conan's voice cut in like a knife as he shrugged on his jacket, eyes dark. "We can't go to the police, not when the Black Org is involved—it's too risky."

Kaito eyed Conan warily. "Then what do you suggest?" He asked.

"I'll call some friends." Conan replied. "You just stay put, and—"

"Stay put?" Kaito echoed disbelievingly. "No way! I'm the great Kaito Kid! I don't 'stay put'—I tell others to stay put! I go where the action is! I can help you out!"

Conan and Ai exchanged impatient glances, but Conan nodded. "Alright." He agreed. "I'll be a decoy while you get my contacts—"

"That will take too long." Kaito interrupted. "I'll be the decoy while you contact them and swoop in to save the day, 'kay, Conan-chan?"

"No, that's too dangerous…"

"Let me help." Kaito cut in. "You contact them. I'll be at the warehouse."

Conan opened his mouth to protest, but shut it when he realized that Kaito was already halfway around the room. "At least take your cell phone." He sighed. "In case you get caught."

Kaito merely grinned, and skipped out to the warehouse.

Real time…

Kaito closed his eyes. Trust in Conan, trust in Conan…

Then the sound of a bullet being shot reached his ears and it was all he could do to hold back the scream of shock that threatened to burst out of his lips. He opened his eyes and gaped when he saw Brandy lying motionless on the floor.

"Wha—?"

Bourbon tucked his gun away. "Well, that went much more smoothly than expected." He mused. "Vermouth said that this would be easy, but I didn't expect it to be this easy…"

"You—what—?"

Bourbon grinned. "The kid called in a favor, and it seemed fun. So I agreed!"

"That was fast." Kaito mused. "Waaay too fast…"

Bourban shrugged. "That's just how life works." He replied. "Now help me free the children."

0o0o0o0

Kaito found out Conan's true identity, and then he and Aoko left shortly after.

The kids returned home, and they stayed their proper ages. None of them seemed to remember much of what happened.

Conan, to his frustration, remained his age.

Life continued.

A/N: Well, that was short. And bad. And I'm probably going to get all of you flaming me… but this is over! Fini! Done! HAHAHAHAHAHA—cough cough—sorry…