So, yeah, this is getting up a lot later than I thought it would, but here's the start of the second 'arc' or whatever you want to call it. I owe Meridiangrimm a HUGE thank you because she helped me figure out what to do with this story.

Now, I will say now that this will focus mainly on what happened to Shinichi in middle school as opposed to the whole 'ghost' thing. I'm still not sure if I will have the whole ghost thing in here or if I'll make another story or if I'll just forego actually writing them finding out. I'm not sure yet. I need to get through this story first.

Also, expect slow updates. I know what I want to do now, but the actual writing it is going very slowly. So I'm not sure when I'll get more chapters written and up.

There were times when Saguru wished he wasn't a detective, or at least not as curious. Sadly, it was part of his nature to ask questions and find the truth no matter what. He prided himself on his ability to piece together the truth even with limited amount of information available. The blond would admit that he did have a tendency to jump to conclusions and stick with them, but after a few hits to his pride thanks to a certain magician and a few nudges from a certain author, he'd been getting better at looking from things from all angles.

Therein lied his current problem. A blue eyed, sharp tongued teenager by the name of Kudo Shinichi. It didn't matter what angle he looked at his friend from, or how many slivers on information he managed to gleam from others about him. Shinichi didn't make sense. It was almost as though the more he learned, the less the younger teen made sense.

Saguru knew Shinichi believed he was cursed, but not why, or when it started, or even what the supposed curse was.

He knew Shinichi wore fake glasses even though he had decent eyesight, but still claimed to need them. He didn't know why, or how long he'd been wearing them, or what the fake glasses provided him that he apparently required. It was the same with the ear plugs he wore.

He knew the blue eyed teen disliked his skin being touched, but was more tolerant to it when there was a barrier of clothing between him and the other person. The blond had searched and even confronted his father, but the elder Hakuba had assured him that his friend hadn't been abused, physically or sexually, in the past that would warrant such a dislike of touch.

He knew there had been some event between elementary and junior high, and that it had been bad enough that Shinichi had attempted to kill himself at least twice – though from Ran's comment about how he'd been in and out of the hospital his entire freshman year of junior high had him thinking that the actual number was worryingly higher.

Yet no matter where he looked, there was no record of what had happened. No record of any incidents happening during that time period that involved the younger teen or his family. He had a feeling that was due to the combined influence of the teens' parents and the cooperation of the police department. And that brought up even more questions.

What had happened? Why was it being kept such a secret? Why were there no records? Who all knew about it? Did it involve a large organization? Was Shinichi's safety threatened if word got out about what happened? Were all the Kudo's at risk?

He also knew that the blue eyed teen believed in ghosts, yet had no idea where that belief came from or why he was so confident they were real. He'd originally thought it had to do with the incident that had happened, but if it had been connected to his belief that he was cursed, then he would have started believing a long time before the start of junior high. Which meant there had been some event early on in his life to make him believe.

Saguru knew that he should leave it alone, but it was frustrating to know so much and yet so little about someone. Shinichi was a mystery, and the blond couldn't help but want to find the truth. He'd finally relented and tried to dig up as much information possible on the Kudo family, but other than a multitude of information on his famous parents, he had only found one small article about Shinichi, and that had been more about the fact two such famous people had a child then the actual child.

He'd even used his father's login to search police records, and the only thing that turned up was the kidnapping case gone wrong that Ran had told them about. Apparently Shinichi had witnessed his bully being abducted and reported it to the police, but that was all. No other cases mentioned him. There wasn't even a record of his attempted arrest that the Kudo couple had recounted during their vacation in Okinawa.

Unfortunately, Saguru didn't have the skills necessary to access his younger friends' medical history. He was sure he'd be able to find something if he could get his hands on those documents, but knew that it would be next to impossible. And his father had made it clear he wouldn't tell his son anything.

It was frustrating. Heiji had already gone off about it to him and Kaito a few weeks ago after his own search turned up nothing. Their magician friend had shaken his head and told them to drop it, but they were detectives down to the core. When a mystery popped up, it was their job to solve it.

And Shinichi was definitely a mystery. If the blond were honest, he'd say the blue eyed teen was the biggest mystery he'd even attempted to solve. He and the Osakan had gotten to the point where they couldn't stop looking. They were too involved.

They had known Shinichi for a little under a year now, and were no closer to the truth now than they had been all those months ago.

Sighing, Saguru glanced over to his bookshelf, where all of Shinichi's books he'd written were neatly in a row at the top. The blond had read every single one, and had cried at the end of each. He knew Kaito and Heiji had as well, though the dark skinned teenager would never admit to having cried – it wasn't very believable lie when his eyes were still red.

When the latest book had come out, he'd questioned the younger teen on why he only wrote such tearjerkers.

Shinichi huddled down further into his coat, burying his lower face into the scarf wound around his neck. It was one of the colder winter days, and they were forecasting snow later in the evening. The blue eyed teen had gazed at the sky as he responded softly, "All of them are true, but not all of them are mine."

And that was all he'd say on the subject no matter how hard they had pressed. Saguru didn't know if that meant others were giving him the ideas, or they were based on actual people, or if something else was going on. Did that mean more than one of the books contained glimpses of the truth he was looking for?

The blond frowned and leaned back in his desk chair. He'd said they were all true. If that was so, where was he getting the stories from? He supposed it wouldn't be a far stretch if he'd gotten at least one of the stories from his time in the hospital – there were a number of patients who would happily talk your ear off if you let them, especially some of the elder ones.

Shifting his gaze back to the books, his eyes lingered on one of the earlier ones. It was the third book Shinichi had written, and different from all his other works. Every other book he'd written, while tearjerkers, had made you feel good at the end. That one though, had given Saguru chills while reading it and left him feeling cold. It wasn't horror, but was terrifying in its own right. He couldn't even begin to guess what had been going on in Shinichi's mind when he'd written it, but he was sure that it was related to the year he'd tried to kill himself.

That was probably the book the blue eyed teen had been talking about when he'd hinted that some of the books were his. It wasn't the first time he'd thought this, but even after he'd read it a second time, he still hadn't gotten any more clues. And no matter how many times he went through the other books, he couldn't find anything that could potentially be what he was looking for.

Every adult who knew refused to tell them, Ran didn't know, and they weren't about to ask Shinichi and dredge up memories from an event so traumatic he'd attempted suicide multiple times. Unfortunately, Saguru had hit a dead end. There was nothing. And since all the adults were so tight lipped, Shinichi was their only bet at finding out what had happened.

So now the blond had to ask himself – was knowing the truth worth putting his friend through the pain of reliving the event? Could he live with himself if his desire for solving the mystery that was Kudo Shinichi ripped apart the current happiness the blue eyed teen had slowly been gaining over the past few months?

Would he be able to take the chance of sending the younger teen into another spiral of depression just to learn what had happened?

Saguru swallowed and picked up his hesitated slightly before typing out, 'I need to ask you something.' Glancing once more at the line of books, he hit send.

So let me know what you thought!