Mikau: Hello and welcome! It's nice to meet you/good to see you again! Thank you so much for taking an interest in my work. I plan for this to be a short little three-shot. I hope you enjoy it!

Disclaimer: If I owned it, I would let Mouri solve a few more cases on his own. People are going to get suspicious if he only remembers a handful of the cases that he's solved. Plus, I feel sorry for the guy. Being knocked out so many times has got to be bad for his health.

…

Chapter One: The Disappearance

"Conan-kun!" Ran called. "Ayumi-chan is on the phone!"

"Coming!" The shrunken sleuth rushed into the office and stood on tiptoe to reach the phone on top of the desk. "Got it! Hi, Ayumi-chan. What's going on?"

"Conan-kun! It's just awful!" the elementary school girl wailed into the receiver.

"What happened?" The detective tensed, hoping that none of the Detective Boys had been kidnapped…again.

"I'm at Beika Central Park sitting on the bench underneath the clock by the fountain. Come as soon as you can, Conan-kun!" The line went dead.

"Oi, Ayumi! Ayumi!" Conan called out to her anyway. "Dammit," he cursed grabbing his gear and shouting a quick goodbye up the stairs at Ran.

Conan reached the park in ten minutes flat, but the only one sitting on the bench under the clock by the fountain was a high school student that looked remarkably similar to Kudo Shinichi.

The lookalike was leafing through a newspaper, not really reading it. He alternated between looking at his watch and glancing expectantly at his cell phone every thirty seconds or so. He'd sigh intermittently and switch from crossing his left leg over his right to his right over the left or vice versa.

Once, his phone beeped, signaling that he'd gotten a text, and the teen jumped, hurried to read the message, and then looked crestfallen and a little pissed once he had. Apparently it hadn't been from the person he was anxiously waiting for.

After about five minutes of this, the teen finally looked up and spotted Conan studying him. He smiled.

'Crap.' Conan bit his lip and tried to decide if he should run or not as the teen got up from the bench and started walking right at him.

"You're Edogawa Conan, aren't you?" the teen sighed in relief. "Kid-sama said you'd come. What did he tell you?"

Conan blinked. "What?"

"Kid-sama promised he could set up a meeting with you for me. I was gonna go talk to Sleeping Kogoro, but Kid-sama said that you'd be able to help me better. I don't know what the hell he's thinking, sending me to see a kid with a huge case like this, but I trust him, so will you help me or not, Tantei-kun?" The teen put his hands on his hips and frowned, looking for all the world like a giant child.

Conan blinked again. "Ah. So that call from Ayumi-chan was really from Kid, huh? And you would be…let me guess…his accomplice? No. More likely you yourself are Kid; I'd know that face anywhere. No wonder you're able to disguise as me with such ease," the detective scoffed.

"My name's Kuroba Kaito, and I'm Kid's biggest fan. He's disguised as me a couple times for various stuff, since I'm in close with the Kaitou Kid Taskforce. It's not surprising that you think I'm him, but I'm really not, and we're wasting time, Tantei-kun. The sooner we crack this case, the better," Kaito insisted.

Conan rolled his eyes. "'Kuroba Kaito'? Please. That's just a play on the words Clover and Kaitou. If you're going to come up with a phony name for yourself, at least be clever."

"What? Like you, Mister Edogawa Ranpo plus Sir Arthur Conan Doyle?" Kaito snorted. "I'm not Kid, that's my real name, and my best friend has been kidnapped, so can we take this a little more seriously, please?"

Conan stared at the teen for a second and then his brow furrowed and he pursed his lips. "Have you spoken with the police?"

Kaito nodded sadly. "They don't consider a person missing until they've been gone at least a day, so my one hour doesn't cut it. They can't help me until tomorrow, and by then the trail could go cold or evidence could be destroyed or it might even be too late. He told me once that in kidnapping cases, the first days are key. With every day—or even hour—that goes by, the likelihood of finding them alive…" Kaito's eyes screwed closed and he squeezed his fists tightly, wincing at the thought of his friend being killed.

"Don't worry. I'll help you, and I'm good at finding people. We'll get your friend back, but…if you don't mind me asking, how do you know they've been kidnapped, if they've only been missing for an hour?"

Kaito smiled fondly and rolled his eyes. "Because he's neurotic. We were supposed to meet here at 10:15, but he didn't show. I called and texted him and waited another fifteen minutes, but he didn't come. I tried to contact him again with no luck, so I tried the home number, but he wasn't there, and his nanny said he'd left at seven and she hadn't heard from him since. So I went to the café where he was supposed to be meeting an informant at nine and asked around. The staff said that he'd been there. He's fairly conspicuous, so it's easy to notice and remember him. The waitress said that he'd paid and left, but in the back hall where the restroom is, I found this." Kaito pulled out a golden pocket watch. "That's when I knew something was horribly wrong."

"Because you found a pocket watch?" Conan was beginning to doubt the legitimacy of this case.

"It's not just a pocket watch," Kaito snorted. "It's his grandfather's pocket watch. Just look at this thing. It's spotless and the damn thing only loses one one thousandth of a second every year. You see what good care he takes of the thing; it's precious to him, and he wouldn't just lose it. He'd be tearing up Tokyo trying to find it if it were simply lost. No. Either it was left behind because someone prevented him from retrieving it—kidnappers—or he left it behind so that we would know he'd been kidnapped and come and save him."

"Alright. Sounds like we've got a case," Conan sighed. He'd had nothing better to do today anyway. "Just who is this guy anyway?"

"You know him. OCD, total nerd, socially awkward, walks around in inverness and a deerstalker. His name's Hakuba Saguru."

Conan's mouth dropped open. "Kid is best friends with Hakuba Saguru, the Commissioner's son?"

"I'm not Kid, remember?" Kaito smirked. "Now help me find Hakuba."

"It sounds like you've done some preliminary investigation yourself, but let's go back to the scene of the crime and see if we can pick up some more clues. Lead the way?"

"Sure!" Kaito scooped Conan up, slung him onto his back and started running.

"What the hell are you doing?!" Conan screeched, wrapping his arms around Kaito's neck and holding on for dear life.

"Time is of the essence, Tantei-kun, so just bear with me." Kaito shrugged, vaulting over a park bench and a shrub. "The café's just across the street once you exit the park."

"You're just as crazy in real life," Conan gasped.

"I'm crazier," Kaito chuckled, exiting the park and dashing across the street just as the light turned red. "Now arriving at Nancy's Café," Kaito announced as he came to a stop. "He takes me here all the time. They have the best milk shakes!"

"Are you two dating or something?" Conan mumbled under his breath as he tried to smooth down his hair. The wind had messed it up entirely, making it stick out at odd angles…odder angles, anyway.

Kaito, however, looked just charming with windblown hair. Shinichi was secretly jealous. They looked practically the same; why did Kuroba have better luck with his hair than Shinichi? He decided to blame it on the apotoxin. Shinichi had always looked sexy; it was Conan that was the problem.

"Show me where you found the pocket watch. We'll start there," Conan said, taking charge of the case.

"Just this way." Kaito led him to the back of the café and stopped in front of the restrooms. "Here." Kaito pointed to a little decorative table up against the back wall that was full of strange whatnots and antiques. "It was right here with the tea things. In the teacup, actually. Now that I think of it, it actually looks pretty natural there with the other antiques. I only noticed it because I know that watch."

Conan frowned as he paced the hallway, getting down on his hands and knees to investigate.

Kaito stood back and let the detective do his thing.

"No signs of a struggle. It's most likely they had a gun, forcing him to come along quietly." Next Conan turned to the bathroom and gave it the same intense scrutiny. He paused and studied the window. "They took him out this way. This window has been opened recently, but before that it usually remained closed. You can tell it had settled in place and had to be forced open."

Kaito wondered how one went about telling that from just looking at a window. Detectives really blew his mind. They just looked at stuff and could tell you what you had for breakfast a week ago.

"There's blonde hair on the floor," Conan noted, taking photos before bagging the evidence. "He probably left it behind on purpose."

"When you're done in here, I think we should take a look at the booth where Hakuba met with his informant. There might be a clue or something left there if Hakuba noticed something strange before he was ambushed and carried off."

"You know what booth he was in? What, did you ask the waitress or something?" Conan looked up in curiosity at the magician.

Kaito shrugged. "Hakuba's a creature of habit. The third booth to the left by the window when you walk in is our booth. The third one to the right is the one he uses when he meets clients and informants. It's right by the kitchen, so it's super noisy. No one likes sitting there, so it's private and safe to talk…if you don't mind the noise."

"You have your own booth?" Conan rolled his eyes.

"I told you that Hakuba's neurotic." Kaito shrugged.

"Lead the way," Conan sighed.

Kaito took him to the booth in the back corner and pointed to the seat facing the door. "That's his seat. He likes to be able to see the rest of the restaurant, just in case."

They began to search the booth, but nothing exceptional turned up until Conan got down on his hands and knees and looked under the table.

"There's a note stuck to the underside!" Conan remarked.

Kaito nodded in understanding as he retrieved the note. "So that even if they cleaned the table, the clue would still be there because no one cleans the underside of the table. Clever."

"What's the note say?" Conan prodded, standing up on the seat part of the booth and leaning over the table to try to get a peek.

"'Kai, two men in black trench-coats have been tailing me. Not sure if they're some of yours or have something to do with one of my cases. Working three cold cases now. Feel free to check my desk (because I know you'll let yourself in anyway). SH'"

Kaito gulped.

Conan's whole body was shaking. "Did he say men in black?"

"Trench-coats, dammit," Kaito hissed.

"What did he mean 'if they're some of yours'?" Conan pried.

Kaito closed his eyes and clenched his fists. "He always teases me because he thinks I'm Kid. The trench-coats show up at Kid heists sometimes and use Kid-sama for target practice…. You have something against guys who wear black? Your face looks a little pale. And are you trembling in fear or excitement?"

"A little of both, actually. If it's really them, I finally have another lead." Conan smirked.

"And Hakuba's dead. Secret Evil Organizations don't leave the people they kidnap alive long…. These aren't the people that did…that to you, are they, Tantei-kun?"

"Yeah…. The men in black. So you've got yourself an Evil Organization too, Kid?" Conan inquired.

"Kaito," the thief corrected. "You know, they're probably one and the same—different factions or something—'cause I doubt there's enough room in Tokyo for two Secret Evil Organizations."

"You're probably right. Let's speculate later and get back to finding Hakuba."

"Right," Kaito sighed, praying that it was just some petty criminal trying to shut Hakuba up over a cold case. "Where to next, Meitantei?"

"Let's check outside the window first to see if we can find some footprints or anything else Hakuba might have left behind for us."

"Un," Kaito nodded, following close behind the super sleuth.

…

:)i(:

Mikau: (It's a butterfly.) What do you think? (Not about the butterfly.) This is my first time writing a story about investigating a case, so I'm really wondering how it was. If you have a minute, I'd appreciate it if you left some feedback. For instance, what you liked, what you didn't, what was funny, what fell flat, etc. Thanks in advance! Hope to see you again soon!