Let us begin with the Under 5 sentence summery with 16-20

C16 –The chapter begins with two memories (A first meeting between the Miyano sisters and Champagne and burning building in French) further in the past. Around midnight, Haibara is awakened by Champagne who wishes to ask for her forgiveness and warn her about the B.O.'s involvement in the party. At 12:45, an eavesdropping Bourbon at the Kudou mansion is attacked by Champagne. At 2:30, unable to sleep, Conan thinks about the slowly gathering clues about Lupin. At 3:15, Lupin tells his group about both his upcoming 'confrontation' with Kaito and a new plan for the heist while 30 minutes later, a certain witch tries to fix a prophesy gone awry.

C17 – Kaito eagerly awaits for the 'confrontation' but is horrified to see Saguru Hakuba back from England. Hakuba relishes in the magician's shock and wonders about the party itself. Kaito's and Aoko's chase is interrupted by a mysterious substitute teacher, named Sasuke Ookami. Despite Hakuba's and Kaito's suspicions, Ookami shows himself to be something of a magician. This ends with Kaito pulling a prank on him which unfortunately backfires on the teen.

C18 – The class is stunned that Ookami-sensei return pranks Kaito. After the teen returns everything to almost normal, the teacher gives the students an English lesson, both at the expense of Hakuba. Akako secretly tells Ookami-sensei something that upsets him and Kaito tries to cheer him up with another prank. Everything ends when the teacher used Kaito's fear of fish against him and the teen must be taken to the nurse's office. Hakuba has an 'epiphany' about the pranking and the teacher's connection to Kaitou Kid.

C19 – An entire flashback chapter that begins in the further past with Champagne's last stand against the Black Organization. At 6:00, a few hours after C16, Ran regains her suspicions of Conan being Shin'ichi; 30 minutes later, the Mouris, Osakans and Conan attempt to solve the mystery of Okiya's death. Another further flashback has young Shiho being taken for gliding with Champagne. In the present, at 6:46 someone has a conversation with a hallucination in the mirror before starting his day. The chapter ends with a French narrative of a brother getting ready for a date, leaving his sister alone to be attacked by thugs.

C20 – Kaito wakes up in the nurse's office with Ookami-sensei waiting by his side. Before they can talk further, they are interrupted by first a suspicious Hakuba and then Aoko who invites the three to visit Beika to meet her father and Mouri Kogorou. The Ekoda group meet the Beika group and with the pleasantries out the way, visit a newly opened restaurant. Ookami-sensei ends up gaining the suspicions of Conan by reacting to two people and being strangely cryptic with the mini detective.

Chapter 21: The Playday IV – Dinner with Guests and Murder

The restaurant had multiple types of seats; the large group decided to sit in the curved cushion with a central table. Mouri and Ookami sat at the ends with Ran and Nakamouri next to them, respectively. After Ran was Conan, Heiji, Kazuha, Aoko, Kaito, and lastly Hakuba next to the KID Inspector. After a waiter took their orders, Aoko and Kaito, plus the Osakan duo devolved into mildly silent bickering.

(Like an old married couple, says the old adage. Of course they will deny it but that's another story.)

Hakuba ended up arguing with Nakamouri, simply over their highly derisive plans for the KID heist. Ran tried to reign in an overly flirtatious Mouri, ogling at every waitress walking past (Including the one that gave them their drinks). This ended up leaving two members of the group who didn't involve themselves in any conversations. Nor did they strike up a conversation with each other, lost in their own little worlds. Most of the perceptive people in the group who would have paid attention were too busy with their arguments to notice the duo's brooding. Others outside the group who could noticed would have wondered what did they had to brood about; their creasing brows made them look older than they appear to be. Those people would say that the two probably had nothing to brood about just by appearance's sake.

Said brooding party... a 'teacher' and a 'child'.

(But as another adage says, Appearances can be deceiving.)

The teacher (really a master thief in disguise) stared distantly at nothing in particular. He clutched his glass cup filled with alcohol and ice tightly in his hand. The playday that was concocted by Unruly-hair had been one of the most invigorating challenges he'd ever experienced. It was slightly ruined by what that red-head girl had to say (Kuroba-kun said she was a real witch; admittedly he had his fair share of the supernatural so the claim was believable) and the Blond's non-amusement and obstruction (he can see why the magician tampered with that kid's mail to make sure he won't come; unfortunate that it failed.) Said obstruction ruined any immediate chance for a chat between Unruly-hair and himself. One that will be rectified a little later on, if the teen was willing.

At the moment, though, ignoring the series of bickering around the table, his attention turned to the table not too far from them. That table sat the blonde woman and the sharp dressed man.

He recognized them. Truthfully, he had expected the blonde to pull something like this; she always did. You could set your watch to it. But that was why he loved her; she always made things interesting with her interferences. He honestly just didn't know what to think about the man that she was most likely striking some sort of deal with for the diamonds.

For a second, the duo blurred and he had to pinch his nose again to refocus. Shit, this isn't good. This was the second time today. He didn't get much sleep last night; was too busy thinking.

Heh, how about that, Jigen and Goemon would blow a gasket when they hear that he was thinking a lot. Too much thinking, too little rest but still his same old chipper self.

Really?

He ignored that stray thought as he glanced once again at the duo. If Unruly-hair realized who that man was, well he probably would be pissed and try to act normal, wondering why the hell he was here. 'Sasuke' simply smiled. He read about this man through the files he 'borrowed' from a 'secure' site. That this man was part of a strange group after a gem that grants immortality; that this man was responsible for the death of one of his rivals and Kuroba-kun's father. This man named Snake.

This will end up making the heist more complicated...

With a silent sigh, the teacher turned his attention to a group of people further away from his group who was attended to by a rather very lovely waitress. He blinked at an exchange between two of them.

Well, that's troubling.

The boy, actually a teen trapped in said body, was staring dully at the table as if demanding answers from it. The tightly controlled panic, paranoia, and depression ran rampant in his head, glaring downward was the only thing he could do to not show his face to the others in the gathering.

What the hell is wrong with him this week? Ever since that Lupin heist note, his emotions and days have been off-kilter. First the heist notes, then that deductive battle, then those texts, then Okiya-san's death, then him learning about a renegade Organization operative after Haibara, and lastly that ominous warning from a stranger! It's one thing after another for the past few days and too much to think about! The heist was tomorrow and now he had to suspect that the Black Org. will be there. He gritted his teeth and tightly clenched his hands; he hadn't really gotten a good night's sleep.

Wait... calm down. Conan exhaled and peaked a glance at said stranger, one of their guests in this dinner. The English teacher was staring blankly at a table not far from them. It housed the blonde woman and the sharp dressed man he and Hattori saw at the entrance. The same ones that made the teacher act strangely afterward.

Who were they to him? More importantly, who was he?

His intuition states that he was more than a teacher. Conan's eyes thinned as the man slightly teetered, blinked rapidly and pinched his nose before staring at the couple again. Conan himself twitched and stared at the table again. The minor distraction worked until he took a glance at the second reason for his brooding.

One Kaito Kuroba.

It wasn't lost on him that the unruly-haired teen looked almost exactly like his teenage self; Ran's pained calling out brutally reminded him of that. I'm sorry, Ran. He clenched his fists again. It also wasn't lost on him that he felt that the teen was more than just a student and magician. Just like Ookami-sensei. But unfortunately, the mysteries of the duo took a back seat to the torrent of emotions in his head.

He... he hadn't told anyone about the text from 'C'. Wasn't sure what to do with it. Conan suspected that it may come from the operative that broke into Hakase's house to talk to Haibara. She didn't say how he knew that she and Sherry was one in the same nor what they talked about before being tranquilized. She simply said that he was an ally. He was sure he could trust her words, but trusting him...

Champagne.

This person may have killed Okiya-san because he was a B.O. member. He wasn't too sure they were one in the same. Conan still didn't know Lupin-san's connection to Haibara. He and Hattori never told her that he was looking for her. What is the truth behind this heist? Will Kaitou Kid himself be involved?

Too many unknowns...

The dull throbbing hovering in his head all day came back with a vengeance. His eyes fluttered closed as he pinched the bridge of his nose. He didn't see the separate silent stares of Ran and Ookami-sensei.

"Conan-kun?" called Ran.

His eyes snapped open. Right. Now was not the time to think about all this. He shoved these thoughts down again. He's donning this mask to protect them... to protect Ran. Even as she waits patiently for a friend that was always standing by her side, it must be done...

It must be done...

No matter how many times he said this... it was just a neat little bow of that 'present' given from his unconscious to his conscious. Exhale and...

Cue the 'little boy' mask. "Hai, Ran-neechan?"

Throughout his arguments with Nakamouri-keibu, Hakuba was always glancing at the teacher. The Britton needed to make sure that Kid wasn't doing anything funny. Yet the only thing the thief had been doing was looking around the restaurant, clasping his drink but not touching the liquid inside. Is he not much of a drinker?

He exhaled, sipping his tea; the keibu moved on to talk with Kuroba-kun and Nakamouri-chan. He still couldn't understand Kid's motive for his distracting presence in his class. Widely known to the task force was that the thief tended to keep tabs on his opponents. Was that why he was here? That even though Hakuba was late in being part due to tampering, he still came to Ekoda High just in case it failed?

"Oi, Hakuba?"

But a part of him still believed that Kuroba-kun was the white-clad nuisance. Meaning that Ookami-sensei... could be Kid's assistant? The previous Kid, Kuroba-kun's father? It makes sense.

"Earth ta Hakuba!"

Hm. Two theories about Kid depending if both the teacher and the magician are and are not Kaitou Kid. He would have to-

"OI! POMPOUS-SAN!"

Hakuba jerked violently, spilling some of his (thankfully lukewarm) tea on his gakuen jacket and hands. He looked up to see everyone looking at him and scowled at Kuroba-kun and Ookami-sensei's smirks. But he saved a deadly glare with said scowl to the dark-skinned fog horned brute (This was the most polite thing he could think of without devolving into curses. He was above that.)The urge to strangle and punch Hattori-kun (Not necessarily in that order) outweighed the feelings of doing the same to both Kuroba-kun and Ookami-sensei. What does that say about those two?

The detective snorted and smirked faintly. "I apologize for not hearing you the first time, Hattori-kun. Your usual loudness interrupted my thinking... something that is a rarity for you, I am sure." A sliver of satisfaction coursed through him as the Osakan's veins popped and he sharply rose. I suppose this is what Kuroba-kun feels like when he riles me up... Intriguing.

"WHAT?!"

"HEIJI! Sit down!"

With Ran distracted by the bickering of the detective brats, Kogorou returned to his beauty watch. He froze when he saw a female about to walk past him. He abruptly stood in front of her without looking at her face.

With a smooth smile and a gentile grab of her wrists he said, "My, you're quite lovely, I -" He had stuttered to a halt when he looked at the woman's face. Blonde, light blue eyes, wearing glasses, foreign... and familiar. He made a choked sound causing their group to turn in his direction. He heard Ran gasped and said "Jodie-sensei!"

… Isn't she that woman who taught Ran English at her school and was some sort of foreign government agent?

"Ran-chan! Hello! How are you doing? Mouri-san! It's nice to meet you! Hattori-kun! Cool Kid!" Ah, that wincing feeling of her putting Japanese inflections on the wrong place. No one noticed the slight widening of Ookami-sensei's eyes. She jovially looked at the rest with a gleeful smile.

"Mouri-san?" asked the inspector.

Kogorou coughed and gestured to her, "Jodie…um… Santa…uh…."

"Jodie Santamillion, English teacher at Ran-chan's school."

"Another teacher?" muttered Kuroba-kun.

The elder detective scowled and muttered, "Stupid complicated name," before pointing accordingly.

"Ginzo Nakamouri, Division 2 inspector, his daughter Aoko, her friends Kaito Kuroba and Saguru Hakuba, their teacher Sasuke Ookami. And Hattori-kun's friend, Kazuya Toyoma." They all gave polite nods.

The teacher smiled, clasping his hands. "Quite a large party! What's the occasion?"

Kogorou gestured to Nakamouri-keibu. "He's treating us."

"What are you doing here, Jodie-sensei?" asked Hattori-kun with a light frown.

Her smile flickered for a moment before answering, "Vacation!"

…Was it him, or did she gave a brief glance to Conan? … Nah!

"Then can I join?" The poor inspector choked before she added, "I'll pay for my own meal."

Ran smiled and nodded. Kogorou exhaled slightly. You can always rely on Ran to be the most polite person in the room. No one else disagreed with her. But Ookami-sensei… he seemed strangely subdued when he looked at her. Standing slightly next to him, cocking his head to the side, he brightened and quickly lifted his right hand, flicking it. It produced a red rose out of nowhere. Jodie-sensei blinked and faintly flushed, taking the rose.

"Ahhhh!"

The elder detective and everyone else turned their head to behind Jodie-sensei to see a waitress trip and start to fall, her tray of drinks almost beginning to fly in the air. (Wait… wasn't she the one who gave them their drinks earlier? That's not the time for that! She's going to hurt-)

By the time he finished his thought, Nakamouri-keibu was rising out of the round table, the kids were scrambling to exit the same table, Jodie-sensei's eyes widened and Ookami-sensei… was gone.

The bi-speckled teacher had already caught the woman, arm around her waist with her tray balanced on his fingers; not one single drop spilt.

How the hell did he do that?

The man grinned, straightened her up and gave her back her tray, not before snatching one of those drinks and nodding. The woman tried to ask for it back but he waved her away, walking back to them. She hesitated before abruptly grabbing his arm, spilling said glass to the ground. She tried to apologize to him but he apologized back before picking up the glass. Ookami-sensei flicked a towel to life and mopped up the spill with his foot. The waitress abruptly picked it up, holding a dry corner. She frowned, again apologized profusely yet returned to the kitchen. She never took back the glass the teacher held.

Returning to the group, the teacher seemed more subdued then before. But it quickly vanished being replaced by a grin. The kids clapped with varying speeds.

"That was fast, Ookami-sensei!" said Kuroba-kun.

"Cool!" chirped Conan. "How did you go that fast?" With a smirk, the teacher rubbed the brat's head and exclaimed. "Lots of training! Someday when you grow up, you'll be just like me!"

The brat angrily grunted, swatting the hand away and tried to fix his hair with Hattori-kun giggling, Hakuba-kun trying (and failing) to keep a straight face, and Kuroba-kun smirking. The teacher pouted… and attacked the kid's hair again. "Mouri-cha~n, this kid is far too serious for his own good! Don't let him grow up to be like Hakuba-kun and Hattori-kun! A stick in the mud with anger issues! A travesty!" His eyes then brightened significantly, as said two sputtered, and proclaimed (Surprisingly softly despite the gesturing) "He should be like Kuroba-kun! A perfect blend of fun-loving and smarts! Then you two can later become me: devilish, handsome, smart and funny! What's wrong?"

Kogorou tried; he really tried but everything the teacher said combined with his arm waving and expressions caused him to nearly choke on his drink with laughter (Quiet laughter of course; can't disturb the other patrons). The Nakamouris joined in, followed by Ran and Toyoma-chan. Jodie-sensei joined, too. Conan stared neutrally at Ookami-sensei, Kuroba-kun chuckled and the other two scowled slightly. The teacher grinned at his accomplishment and said, "I think it's time to order something to eat, don't you agree?" The chuckles ceased as everyone nodded.

That is until…

"Kosuke-kun? Kosuke-kun! What's wrong?!" The group along with every patron in the restaurant turned to see a woman trying desperately to help a man who appeared to be choking. He gave a violent croak before collapsing on the ground. Kogorou and Nakamouri-keibu was by the man's side in nearly an instant. Hattori-kun, Hakuba-kun and Conan were right behind them. The girls stayed behind with the teachers and Kuroba-kun. Kogorou immediately asked the woman to step aside while the two men checked him. He distantly noticed that the Osakan was already on the phone calling the police. But it wasn't important. He carefully checked the man's pulse.

He gritted his teeth and turned to the others, shaking his head. He leaned his head forward. Kogorou's eyes widened when a whiff of that familiar almond scent hit his nose. The detective quickly pulled back, muttering "Cyanide."

"Poisoned…" muttered Nakamouri-keibu. "Damn it!" With everyone gasping, crying and staring in shock at the body, he looked around the place. His eyes thinned.

How dare they commit a murder in front of me! They are not getting away with this or my name isn't Kogorou Mouri!

And so ends another chapter with another murder...

See you next time!

And Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and a Happy New Year.