The goddess of the moon shall deliver the tiara to me when her brother is halfway through his journey visiting his grandfather.

-Kaitou KID

Something was bothering Saguru. This really shouldn't phase Akako, but she couldn't help finding it annoying. She wasn't sure why exactly. Saguru wasn't bothering her. He wasn't bothering anyone in fact. He was mostly alternating between checking his pocket watch and sending messages on his phone. But seeing the barely there tightness around his eyes and mouth irked her.

Akako stood and crossed the room, taking the seat in front of Saguru. She turned so she was partially facing him and unfolded a newspaper she'd sent one of her admirers to retrieve for her. Kaitou KID's notice was the headline, of course. He and Conan were due for some bonding, unless there was something she was missing about that rivalry relationship. She wanted to keep an eye on it. "Saturday at noon, hm?" She mused, her eyes flicking past the riddle again.

"Technically it should be at 12:07:28.83 but I doubt he'll be that precise since I can't be in attendance." Akako blinked at the bitter note she could faintly detect in his voice. She chanced a glance at Saguru. He was scowling down at his phone. Akako frowned.

"Do you think that was planned?" She asked.

"I'm sure it was." He said darkly. Akako contained a sigh. Kuroba couldn't avoid shooting himself in the foot, could he? What did he think excluding Hakuba from a heist would do?

Kuroba came bouncing into the classroom, loud as ever, and made a beeline for the detective's desk. He paused when he realized who was sitting in front of the detective, his smile becoming brittle. He bounded over a bit too exuberantly. "Whatcha doing?" Kuroba perched on Saguru's desk. The question was just shy of hostile which meant it was directed at Akako.

"Just wondering what KID is thinking." Akako answered. Saguru poked Kuroba off his desk with a binder while he looked at his phone. She flicked the newspaper up. "His grasp of mythology is a little bit shaky don't you think, Saguru-kun?" Indignation flashed over Kuroba's face.

"True enough, it's Selene and Helios who ride the chariots of the moon and sun through the sky." A slight smile touched Saguru's mouth. "Not Diana and Apollo." Kuroba scowled and made Saguru's binder vanish.

"I hope that's retrievable, it had notes for our project." Saguru scowled back. Akako looked between the boys with narrowed eyes. Saguru was mad at KID. It was affecting his interactions with Kuroba, which would not aid in her plan at all. Their relationship had to be good enough that Kuroba wouldn't risk losing it when all was revealed to him. Could she fix this?

"And, of course, 'visiting his grandfather' means Saturn, which can only be Saturday." Akako raised her eyebrow. "Saturday afternoon seems like an odd time for our moonlight magician. Doesn't it, Saguru-kun?" Kuroba's face twitched.

"Not if he's trying to prevent someone from being there." Saguru scoffed. Kuroba's head whipped around and he gaped at the detective, whose eyes were back on the cellphone.

"You're mad?!" Kuroba's mouth snapped shut and he bit back any farther words.

Saguru looked up his jaw set. "No, I'm fine with information I shared with a friend being used to prevent me from doing my job." Dry sarcasm coated his words. Kuroba flinched.

"A-hem." Their teacher stared pointedly at them from the front of the room. The girl who usually sat where Akako was sitting was fidgeting awkwardly next to her. "If you three are finished." She kept her irritation from raising her voice. Akako's eyes flicked to Kuroba.

"Not leaving until I do?" She inquired. Kuroba scoffed, which she took as an affirmative. She rolled her eyes and returned to her seat.

Kuroba glared after her and went to his desk too.

Saguru had never had much reason to text during class. Apparently that had changed.

Edogawa: Thanks again for the photos. Ran said I couldn't go back to check out the scene since I ditched her and the old man a few too many times.

Saguru had sent Conan photos of the notice and the method of delivery. The pictures included the taunt string in addition to the plaster one, a thick layer of wax coating the hand that pulled the plaster arrow with a deep line gorged down its center, waxy residue in the middle of the bowstring, and the angle of the arrow. He hadn't included an explanation and Conan hadn't needed one. Like Saguru, he'd immediately realized that the string slowly cut through the wax until it released an arrow and that the real string and arrow had been positioned so that the plaster ones hid them. Angles were an important skill in magic.

The boy had also commented, somewhat sheepishly, that KID had probably set up the trick when he fell on the platform.

Edogawa: I can't sneak away just now. Have to play it safe to make sure I can go to the heist!

Hakuba:At least one of us should be there.

Edogawa:You really can't get out of it?

Hakuba: Have you been to Gunma?

Edogawa: …Yamamura-keibu?

Hakuba: I'm afraid so.

Edogawa: Forget I asked.

Saguru smirked and shook his head.

Hakuba: Be glad you don't have to deal with courts yet.

"BAKAITO!" Saguru started. He had been so involved in his conversation with Conan that he hadn't noticed the brewing brawl between Aoko and Kuroba, a near daily occurrence. Kuroba did a flip over Saguru's desk and ducked behind him.

"Hey! I was just saying that glasses would improve your sex appeal, Ahoko! Don't get mad at me because you can't see the board!" He called over his shoulder, blatantly using Saguru as a human shield. A mop jabbed past Saguru, an inch in front of his nose, he practically went cross-eyed looking at it. Kuroba ducked even closer to the detective.

"Aoko told you she was looking out the window, BaKaito!" She shrieked. Akako was laughing her signature cackle, oh ho ho ho, which never sounded quite sincere to Saguru.

"Oh, but if you're having trouble seeing the board, I'd be happy to trade places, Nakamori-san." She smirked back at them while the boys around the three seemed hardly able to contain themselves with nervous excitement at the possibility. "It seems to me that you have the best seat in the room." Her garnet eyes flicked between Kuroba and Saguru.

"NOPE!" Kuroba planted himself defiantly between Akako and his two friends. Staring down the other student intimidatingly… until the side of his head got nailed with the mop, throwing him off balance and causing him to fall sideways and take several desks with him. (More than should have been possible given his size and the angle at which he fell.)

"Gotcha!" Aoko cheered. She whipped around and beamed at Akako; her mop held high in triumph. "Thanks, Akako-chan!"

"Not a problem." Akako smirked at her.

"Hey! Stop conspiring together!" Kuroba shouted, leaping to his feet.

The entire class jumped when an airhorn went off and looked at the front of the room where their teacher was holding up the compact airhorn. She released the button.

"I quite agree." She said, a vein visibly pulsing in her forehead. "Stop conspiring and GET BACK TO YOUR SEATS!"

"Yes, ma'am!" Aoko and Kuroba scrambled back to their seats desperately. Saguru privately pitied their teacher. She was the only teacher in the school who had to go to such extremes to keep the class in line.

His phone buzzed.

Edogawa:By the way, the first part of this riddle… I think it's a hint to his trick.

Hakuba:So you noticed, too? Something to do with the statue, right?

When it was time for lunch Saguru's phone vanished from his hands. "Alright, it's one thing to ignore class for a phone but I won't let you ignore us!" Saguru glared at Kuroba so fiercely he jerked back. "What?!" Saguru huffed and turned away. "Wait, you aren't still mad about KID scheduling a heist when you are out of town? That's not my fault!" Saguru scoffed. He wasn't playing this game. "Come on! You let me hide behind you when Aoko was after me! I thought you were over it!" Saguru pulled out his lunch. "Hey! Talk to me!"

"Saguru~kun! Nakamori~san! Would you like to eat lunch together?" Akako called in a saccharine sweet voice. Kuroba's eye twitched.

"Don't-!" Saguru began but was interrupted with a burst of smoke and a familiar sharp tug on his midsection.

"Seriously?!" Aoko snapped when the smoke cleared and all three found themselves on the roof again. "Aoko wanted to eat lunch with Akako-chan!" She stomped away and when she found the door to the roof locked she kicked it down. Saguru winced at the property damage. She spun, framed in the doorway. "You two! Stay here until you figure out whatever is wrong! You're taking Aoko out for pastries after school to prove it's alright!"

"Ah! I can't Aoko! Next week. Promise." Kuroba said quickly.

"Fine! Hakuba-kun can take Aoko and Akako-chan!" She shouted.

"It would be a pleasure." Saguru grinned. Pleased with both the invitation and the chance to irritate Kuroba. He might not understand or like Kuroba's pathological need to keep him away from Akako, but he knew it existed. "Give Akako-san my regrets about lunch." Aoko nodded at him sharply before turning on her heel and stomping away. Kuroba whirled on him.

"You can't be serious! And since when do you call her Akako? And since when does she get to call you Saguru?!" Saguru raised an eyebrow.

"I called her Akako-san without thinking about it and it would have been rude to correct her when she returned the favor." He said. "Besides, I like her." Kuroba looked ready to explode. Saguru opened his bento and started eating. A pillow appeared out of nowhere and Kuroba screamed into it. Saguru put a lot of effort into ignoring that.

"Okay." Kuroba pulled back and took a deep breath. "Putting that aside, for now," Saguru sighed. "The heist," Saguru stopped eating and glared down at his food. "I'd like to point out that you were going out of town before the challenge was even issued and even if I was KID, which I'm not, the weekend would have been the best time to hold a heist. Regardless of your schedule." Saguru's fist clenched his utensils. It was true. It still felt… pointed. He looked up and met Kuroba's eyes.

"And do you think that future heists will conflict with my plans in a similar fashion?" He asked coldly. Kuroba opened his mouth and then snapped it shut. Saguru shook his head in frustration. "Do yo- Does he really think that will stop me? I'm a detective."

"Why can't you be happy?!" Kuroba snapped angrily. Saguru's hackles rose. "Now you won't get messed up by KID and you won't blame me for it!" Kuroba threw the pillow away from him as hard as he could. "Do you like getting covered in glitter or tarred and feathered?! Is KID really worth ruining this?!"

Saguru bit back his immediate retort I don't know, is he? with all of its obvious implications and forced himself to look at Kuroba. He'd been letting his emotions through the mask he wore more and more often around Saguru. The frustration was obvious, the heartbreak less so, just barely visible around the edges of the mask. The detective stemmed his anger long enough to ask himself why Kuroba didn't want him at KID heists. And why now? They'd gotten closer over the past week. Their relationship was better, so why was he interfering now? The answer came to him quickly… 'Is KID really worth ruining this?!' Kuroba thought that Saguru attending KID's heists would cause their friendship to fail… and he didn't want it to.

This wasn't an insult to Saguru or intended as an abuse of their growing friendship. Kuroba, who he believed jumped off skyscrapers and dodged the occasional bullet, was scared, because he knew that Hakuba suspected (knew) his dual identity and that, perhaps for the first time, what he did as one had an effect on the other. What did Nakamori-keibu and Aoko's hatred of KID matter? Kuroba Kaito was practically family. Hakuba Saguru, on the other hand, his opinion of Kaitou KID had a direct correlation with his feelings towards Kuroba Kaito.

Idiot.

"It's not going to ruin anything." Kuroba scoffed. Saguru causally picked up the pillow that had landed somewhere behind him and lobbed it at the magician, hitting him squarely in the face. It fell to reveal a slightly stunned expression. "I can't promise that I won't be annoyed after heists, but…" Saguru smirked. "If you can tolerate me trying to arrest KID. I think can tolerate you in the event of my failure." A small, hopeful grin slowly bloomed on Kuroba's face along with a twinkle of mischief in his eyes.

"The event of your many, many failu-"

"Watch it." Saguru interrupted flatly.

"Okay." Kuroba grinned. Saguru sighed, resigned to dealing with the madman for a long time to come.

Kaito slipped a listening device on Hakuba, Aoko, and Akako, and insistently warned Aoko not to leave the detective alone with the witch. He hated leaving them alone together, but he had a heist to prepare for. Jii-chan was getting the mold and working out a solution that would break down plaster faster than sodium bicarbonate (that wasn't potassium cyanide because he was not letting cyanide anywhere near Tantei-kun). He needed to train. And it was tough training for him.

He stuck the listening device in his ear, took a position and kept perfectly still… Listening to his friends made it easier, though there was additional difficulty whenever he heard Akako speak since he had to suppress the urge to jerk or throw a smoke bomb.

This training sucked but a magician did whatever he had to for his art. And Kaito would not let his critic down!

On Wednesday class was relatively uneventful. Saguru and Kuroba had returned to normal. Normal for them that is. Akako resisted the urge to poke the beehive. As much fun as it was, this week was important for Kuroba's friendship with Conan. Like Saguru, the closer Kuroba got to Conan, the more desperate he would be to keep his friendship. He couldn't focus on the heist if he was worried about Akako and Saguru, so the witch reluctantly kept her distance that day. She let her admirers wait on her while Kaito led Aoko on a merry chase to the roof for lunch, dragging a reluctantly bemused Saguru along with them.

Akako walked home alone, enjoying the glances and double takes as she walked down the street.

"Excuse me," Akako turned and saw a shopkeeper with a glazed look on his face. "Phone call for you." Akako smiled and followed him inside the store she'd passed.

"Hello?" She said.

"Akako-neesan?" Conan asked uncertainly.

"Yes, is that you Conan-kun?" She adjusted the receiver.

"Yeah. Um, why is it that the number Ran-neechan has for you in her phone is for an ice cream parlor and your card says this number?"

"Is that so?" Akako laughed nervously. Oh ho ho ho! "I'm not sure how that happened." That's it. She was going to get a cell phone. She interacted with too many detectives to keep pulling this off. "Did you have a reason for calling?"

"Yeah, I could use your expertise. What's your mail address? I want to send you some pictures." Definitely getting a cell phone. Akako grimaced.

"I, uh, I don't have a mail address right now?" Akako was reddening in embarrassment.

"What?" Conan sounded incredulous.

"I, um… Where are you? I can come in person." Akako offered, desperate to change the subject.

"I'm in Haido." Conan said skeptically. "Are you-?"

"I can be there in twenty minutes." Broom travel was terribly convenient at moments like this. She pulled a pen from her bag and snagged a notepad by the phone. "What's the address?"

Twenty minutes later Akako was touching down on the roof of the fancy apartment building Conan had given her the address to. She tucked the broom in an unobtrusive corner and went downstairs. She found Conan waiting for her in the lobby, watching the doors.

"Conan-kun?" Conan whipped around, his eyes widening.

"How-?" He glanced back at the doors.

"I used another entrance." She smiled and tilted her head.

"I see." Conan looked at her curiously before he shook it off and gave her a big smile. "Thanks for coming."

"No problem." She followed him to an elevator. Conan pushed the button for the penthouse. "What happened?" Conan grimaced.

"A woman named Shiya Hana was poisoned." He said. "She called Kogoro-ojisan to ask about investigating her company and died right in front of us." Akako blinked at the boy. She should stop being surprised by his reaction to trauma. He wasn't sad or upset. He was angry and focused. "Right now they think it was an accident."

"An accident?" Akako frowned. Conan nodded. The elevator dinged pleasantly and opened on to a lavish entryway.

"As a team building exercise Shiya-san and her department heads go mushroom hunting every quarter." Conan explained. "And she hires a five-star chef to make a dish for each person with the mushrooms they personally collected that day."

"Ah, so they think she picked a poisonous mushroom and it was prepared for her dinner." Akako frowned in disapproval. How irresponsible, to go mushroom picking without knowing how to distinguish poisonous mushrooms from edible ones. Conan opened the door to a high-end kitchen, which smelled wonderful, at least Shiya-san's last meal had been a delicious, if lethal, one.

"C-Conan-kun!" The officer she recognized from the Mirror Lake murder protested. He was inspecting the various assortment of mushrooms, some chopped others whole, grouped carefully along the counter. "You can't just bring people in here!"

"This is Akako-neesan." Conan introduced her.

"Nice to meet you." She inclined her head to him.

"A-ah, you were at the murder with the hemlock, right?" He asked, peering at her.

"Akako-neesan is a plant expert." Conan explained as she stepped past him to examine the remaining mushrooms. It looked like there were six people who had participated in the mushroom hunt. She narrowed her eyes.

"Oh, some people are better at picking mushrooms than others." She observed.

"That's Hanzo-san's plate." Takagi told her, looking up from his conversation with Conan. "He said he doesn't like mushrooms so he picks as few as he can get away with." The chef had needed to use all of them, leaving nothing but traces on that cutting board.

Then she came to the victim's meal. "This one." She said, attracting Conan and Takagi's attention.

"Ah, that is the victim's meal." Takagi said in surprise. "How did you know?" Akako lifted a mushroom.

"Not all of the poison was used. This is a death cap." She said. "It's often mistaken for paddy straw."

"So it was an accident-"

"No." Akako cut Takagi off. "It was murder." She glanced between Conan and Takagi. "This kind of death cap is indigenous to Europe. It is spreading through North America. But she could not have picked it here in Japan." Akako lowered the mushroom. "Someone added it to her basket."

Conan dragged a stool over to the counter. He inspected the mushroom Akako had singled out. It was cool to the touch. He reached for a similar looking mushroom to compare them. He pulled back in surprise. It was room temperature.

Ah, now I see… Conan smiled coldly. I know who poisoned Shiya-san. The person with no obvious motive.

It was him.

"Takagi-keiji can you gather everyone in the dining room in five minutes?" He asked. Takagi looked down at him from where he was bagging the mushroom.

"You- you don't mean…"

"Yeah, Kogoro-ojisan has figured it out." Conan smirked.

"Right! I'll get right to it!" He hurried out of the room. Conan looked up at Akako. She was hiding a smile behind her hand.

"Akako-neesan, thank you so much. Could you stick around a little longer?"

"Of course." She tossed her hair dramatically over her shoulder and something about the way it fell down her back and framed her face made him blush.

I have Ran. He reminded himself. And I'm seven.

"Tell me, Conan-kun." Akako bent at the waist to smirk at him, her hair falling distractingly and engulfing him in a wave of unidentifiable flowers. "Is the Mouri Kogoro deduction show anything like the Hakase deduction show?"

"W- who can say?" Conan laughed nervously and took a step back, shaking off the strange attraction. Well, he was seventeen, in mind if not body. Sometimes he just felt very aware of girls his own age. Akako straightened. And Conan breathed a sigh of relief as the feeling passed altogether.

"Let me know when you're ready." She smiled, then popped a mushroom in her mouth. He gave her a look but trusted her to know what she was eating.

"Okay." He hurried out of the kitchen to lure Kogoro into the dining room. As he went he redialed a certain number. He had a theory that didn't make sense.

Akako followed Conan into a room where a sleeping man was posed at the head of the table. His elbows set on the tabletop, one hand covering a fist that hid his mouth. She raised an eyebrow but chose to say nothing. She stood a few chairs down from him, facing the other side of the room.

The suspects and officers filed in and Akako couldn't resist her small smirk as the men's eyes immediately went to her. She enjoyed the flushed faces and slight stumble when they noticed her. Outside of the officers there were three women and four men. She recognized the one dressed as a chef from one of Aoko's magazines. A celebrity chef, maybe?

"This is-!" One of the suspects gasped.

"Yes," An overweight man with a mustache nodded. "Sleeping Kogoro." Akako's eyebrows shot up as the definitely unconscious man cleared his throat.

"Shiya-san's death was no accident. It was murder." His jaw definitely wasn't moving, right? She squinted at him.

"Hey, we've been over this." A man objected. "She must have picked a poisonous mushroom by mista-"

"Impossible." Akako cut him off, her eyes closed against the idiocy. She opened them to glare at the taken aback man. "She could not have picked a death cap in this country by accident."

"As Akako-san said. The mushrooms that killed Shiya-san does not grow in Japan." Mouri confirmed. "It is found in Europe and America." That garnered varying levels of surprise from the group.

"No way." One of the women said softly, her hand over her mouth.

"Indeed. Someone brought them from abroad and added them to her mushrooms." Mouri explained.

Several suspects protested that just because they'd been overseas didn't mean it was them. Akako watched the detective. He had zero reaction. On an impulse she let her aura flare. Several people stuttered and every man in the room flushed, except for Mouri Kogoro.

Oh yeah. He was asleep. No doubt about it.

"R-regardless," The voice of Mouri Kogoro said shakily. Akako quickly diminished her appeal, grimacing as she did so. It was an uncomfortable feeling. She couldn't suppress her aura entirely or for very long but she had no desire to distract who she suspected was the true voice of Sleeping Kogoro. "There was one person who could not have missed the deadly mushrooms." The voice returned to its original steady certainty. "One person who could certainly tell fresh ingredients from frozen." Akako looked at the suspects. "Chef Okiya Makeda. It was you!" The chef froze in shock for an instant. Then he laughed.

"Don't be absurd. I have no motive."

"None the less, the evidence is there." Kogoro stated. "You are the only one who could have brought the mushrooms into the country from your tour in America without arousing suspicion. All you had to do was hide them with the rest of your ingredients. The last death cap is still cold, which means it must have been frozen when you prepared the meal. How could a world class chef like you miss that?" The chef glared at him with gritted teeth. "As for motive… well, the two of you aren't the first high profile couple to hide their relationship."

"Shut up!" The chef snapped.

"The lab will be able to tell us if the death cap had been frozen." The heavy-set inspector stepped forward with his handcuffs.

They took him away. The group left somberly. And the instant they were gone Akako lifted the tablecloth and peered under it.

Conan froze in wide-eyed panic. A red gadget with a microphone looking thing in his hand.

"Got you~!" Akako said in a sotto voice, a pleased smile spreading across her face.

"No! See, I was just hiding because- uh, I didn't want the officers to send me home! Yeah! That's it!"

"Uh-huh." Akako didn't drop her smile. Conan crawled out from under the table, studiously avoiding her smug eyes.

They didn't talk about it after that. Akako introduced herself to Mouri when he woke from his stupor and endured his reaction to her. Conan curtailing his more obnoxious compliments.

They rode down to the lobby, Akako radiating smugness. She wondered if Kuroba or Saguru knew the secret of Sleeping Kogoro or if it was just her. The idea that she knew something about Conan that they did not gave her a warm feeling she couldn't remember having experienced before. Mouri went ahead to talk to the inspector.

"Akako-neesan," Conan said innocently, putting Akako instantly on guard. "When I call the number I used for you earlier," The boy put his phone on speaker.

"Hanada Groceries." A man answered. "Hello? Hello?"

"I get a grocery store." Conan hung up and his innocent smile turned challenging. "Why is that?"

Akako froze. Bad. This was very bad. This was why she needed a cell phone. How was she supposed to explain this to Conan without telling him about her magic? Not that he'd believe her anyway… Hm, well that was a thought. A smirk tugged at her mouth as she looked down at Conan.

"Magic," She winked at him. "Of course." Conan's face fell into a flat unimpressed expression.

"Magic." He repeated dryly.

"That's right." Akako started for the door.

"I will figure it out you know." Conan followed her.

"I hope so." Akako would enjoy talking about her gifts, but for now… Conan's stomach growled. "You didn't get a chance to eat?"

Conan flushed. "Ye-yeah. We were supposed to eat here but…" He shrugged hopelessly as they walked out the door.

"How about you treat me to dinner for my consulting fee?" Akako suggested.

"Sounds good." Conan agreed, pocketing his phone and silently agreeing to table this particular mystery for another time. Akako flicked her wrist so her broom with follow them along the roofs. Discreetly.

"I want something with truffles." She declared.

"I don't know if I should complain about the cost or your desire to eat things used to kill people." Conan sighed. Akako laughed and they went in search of a good place to eat dinner. Mouri trailing irately after them when he realized he was being left behind.

A MEAL TO DIE FOR…

A fragrant risotto. The taste of a celebrity chef's finest creation. That was the last thing Shiya Hana, president of Mado International, experienced when she was murdered yesterday at [read more]

Comments

DetectiveFan: Wow! To think that Mouri-sama worked it out with just the temperature!

kidzrule: Yeah! CONAN is really something!

DetectiveFan: Are you kidding? Did we read the same article?!

kidzrule: Yep! And Conan has a history with mushroom picking [link]. Remember? With the bear hunters and the Detective Boys?

HeinseiTeen4869: I think the identification of the poisonous mushroom was the key to the case.

DetectiveFan: Exactly! And Mouri-sama brought in an expert he knew, NOT CONAN, to figure it out.

kidzrule: The expert isn't identified! Sounds like Conan to me!

HeinseiTeen4869: Guys…

"Botchama, could you help me with this?" Jii called, with just a hint of panic in his voice suggesting he might drop the large item.

"Ah! Wait! Don't! Put it down if it's too heavy!" Kaito dropped his phone and rushed to assist the old man teetering with the huge, newly made prop for Saturday's heist.

Akako waited until Kuroba vanished after school on Thursday to approach Saguru and Aoko. "Are you alright, Nakamori-san?" She asked. The chipper girl had been draggy and bad tempered all day. Kuroba had been too preoccupied to notice how withdrawn and snappy she'd been.

Aoko shoved her chair a bit too violently with her foot. "It's nothing really. The chef of Aoko's favorite cooking show murdered someone and got arrested." She sighed gustily and slumped, dropping her anger. Ah, so Akako had recognized the man from yesterday. Aoko was a fan. "Now Aoko has to learn new recipes."

"Why?" Saguru echoed Akako's bewilderment.

"Because Aoko will think about murder whenever she cooks it now." Aoko explained, picking up her bag. "And about poisoning friends. Aoko can't use recipes from a man who poisoned someone!"

"But you aren't poisoning anyone." Akako pointed out, still mystified. Saguru's expression cleared though.

"I see, it's simply the association with the murder." He said. "You associate the recipes with a murderer so you don't want to use them anymore."

"Yeah." Aoko sighed. She kicked the ground despondently. "It was some of Aoko's favorites too…" Akako stared at Aoko. This could be an opportunity.

"Well then," She tossed her hair. "Why don't you teach Saguru-kun and I how to make them?"

"Eh?" Aoko and Saguru blinked at her. This was an opportunity. She couldn't cook and she didn't want to be stuck without food if she was asked to babysit Conan again. Plus, it would be amusing if she fed him a recipe from a man he'd brought to justice. That it would cheer the other girl up was just a pleasant side effect.

"If the problem is that you associate it with a murderer, teach us how to cook it, and then you will associate it with us instead." Akako lifted a hand and one of her admirers immediately slipped her bag over one shoulder. "That would be acceptable, would it not?" Aoko gaped at her.

"I wouldn't not be averse to a cooking lesson." Saguru offered.

"Eh?" Aoko looked between them in surprise.

"Well, Nakamori-san?" Akako prodded. She hesitated, then offered her hand. "Shall we?"

"Y-yeah!" Aoko beamed. She grabbed on to the witch's entire arm, practically hanging off her and throwing her slightly off balance. "Thank you, Akako-chan! Hakuba-kun!"

"Uh, no problem." Akako smiled uncertainly, a little bit unsure what she had gotten herself into… or if she was going to get her arm back on the walk to Aoko's house.

Saguru thought he knew how to cook. Not well, but enough that he could make a basic stir-fry or eggs when their housekeeper was unavailable. When Aoko showed him and Akako the recipes she was going to teach them, Saguru realized he was wrong. He couldn't cook. Because he didn't understand half the instructions on the page. Beside him Akako stared at the words with the same expression he sometimes caught her giving Kuroba; as if it were beyond her comprehension and was a personal affront to her sensibilities.

In the chaos that followed, they learned a few key lessons. Always put the top on the blender. Flour will get everywhere, no matter how hard you try to stay clean. Saguru was very bad at mixing ingredients but great at measuring them and an expert at telling when things had cooked long enough. Akako was truly impressive with a knife but too eager to add spices that didn't belong. Most importantly, they learned that Aoko could rescue almost every dish, no matter what they did to it.

When the food was almost ready, Aoko sent her two bedraggled classmates to shower (Saguru to her dad's bathroom and Akako to hers) while she laid out clean clothes from the vast assortment that Kaito left at her house after performances and monitored the meal.

"Never again." Akako declared as she and Saguru parted. Her hair was nearly grey from flour and there was egg on her face. "I have people who can cook for me. And if I don't, I'll get people who can cook for me." Saguru chuckled silently as he made his way to the bathroom where Aoko had put the clean clothes she was loaning hi- he paused as he looked down at the shirt and pants. Then he sighed and rolled his eyes. Those were his shirt and pants. It seemed Kuroba stole more than just his inverse and Holmes outfit.

Once he thought he'd gotten most of the ingredients out of his hair and got dressed he went down to see if there was anything else he could do to help out Aoko (hopefully not).

"Wow, your hair is a lot darker when it's wet." Aoko said when he walked into the dining room.

"Ah, yes." He eyed the almost comically full dining room table. "That is quite a feast you've prepared."

"We prepared." Aoko corrected with a wide smile.

"That's kind of you to say, Aoko-san, but I think it's pretty clear that Akako and I were more hinderance than help." Saguru replied.

"You're still better than Kaito!" Aoko rolled her eyes. "At least nothing blew up!" Saguru raised an eyebrow and chose not to bring up Akako's encounter with the food processor, which was still smoldering in the bin outside.

"Why does it smell so much better now than it did while we were cooking?" Akako complained walking into the room in one of Aoko's dresses. It wasn't her usual style, more childish and innocent, but she wore it well and the new look made Saguru flush for a moment before he was able to push the superficial impression to the back of his mind.

"It does smell excellent, well done." Saguru complimented her.

"The smell is meaningless. It's the taste that matters!" Aoko chided him, handing each of them a plate. "Dig in!"

The three 'chefs' served themselves and ended up eating in the living room, there was simply no space at the dining room table. As expected from the smell, the food was amazing. Saguru could see why Aoko would have hated to turn her back on the recipes forever. Aoko ate with gusto and Akako with a ladylike refinement.

"Thank you so much, Akako-chan!" Aoko threw her arms around Akako as she finished her first plate, nearly unseating the other girl. "This was such a good idea."

"Ah, well, if you would like to repay me in a share of the leftovers I wouldn't say no." Akako suggested, shrugging the affectionate classmate off.

"Of course! You and Hakuba-kun can take as much as you like! I'll give whatever is left to Dad and Kaito." She grinned mischievously. "As well as the dishes." Saguru winced as he recalled the disaster that waited for them in the kitchen. "After all, I always cook and so they should clean."

"Quite right, Nakamori-san." Akako nodded in satisfied agreement. It seemed that Saguru was alone in his sympathy for the other two males. So he kept quiet. Lest he be volunteered to clean by himself.

Saguru was uncomfortably full by the time Aoko started boxing the food for him and Akako. Every time he tried to stop eating Aoko put more food on his plate. Akako had accepted Aoko's offer of desert and was enjoying a three scoop Sunday while Saguru had begged off with just a small scoop of ice cream. Aoko put on a TV show that Saguru recognized as an adaptation of Detective Samonji. He raised his eyebrow at the three assistants, who seemed awfully similar to Conan and the Mouri family. Could the author have had contact with them?

Saguru sighed as he checked his pocket watch, 10:23:35.42, later than he'd intended. "Aoko-san, it's quite late I'm going to call for a car. Akako-san, may I offer you a ride home?"

"AH! When did it get this dark?" Aoko fretted looking out the window. "Aoko completely lost track of the time!" She turned on Akako. "You have to go with Hakuba-kun. You're much too pretty to walk home at night." She said fiercely.

"S-sure." Akako agreed, looking somewhat taken aback. Saguru smiled slightly and called Baaya.

When the housekeeper arrived twenty-seven minutes (eighteen seconds, six milliseconds) later she was somewhat taken aback by the large bags of leftovers her two charges had. She gave Akako a polite nod, fussed over Saguru, and thanked Aoko for making sure he got something to eat. Baaya reacted with more astonishment than Saguru thought was necessary when told Saguru helped prepare the meal. Saguru bade Aoko a good night and opened the door for Akako. She got in with all of the grace and dignity of a proper lady. Saguru went to the other side and took his seat.

Akako gave an address that had Saguru raise his eyebrows in surprise. He hadn't realized that Akako resided in such a wealthy area, though perhaps he should not be surprised. As the car pulled away from the curb, Saguru's phone rang. He looked at the caller ID and frowned.

"Hakuba," He answered the phone.

"Ah, Hakuba-kun." Officer Sakamoto said nervously. "Um, so there's been a murder and Fukuda-keibu isn't here. I know it's a school night, but if you're available…" Saguru internally sighed. Fukuda's daughter was seriously ill and he'd been missing shifts to look after her. However, missing a murder was only really acceptable if there was someone else on hand who could handle it. Saguru was a well-known enough detective with a connected enough name to excuse Fukuda from the scene. This time. He really needed to have a discussion with Fukuda, it was becoming a troubling pattern.

"Very well, send me the address and I'll text you an ETA." He agreed. Akako was looking at him curiously. Sakamoto thanked him profusely and Saguru disconnected the call.

"Did I hear something about a murder?" Akako asked.

"Hm? Yes. I'll be going to the crime scene once I drop you off." He answered. His phone pinged a notification and he opened the text. Akako leaned into him to read it too.

"That's on the way to my house." She said. "It would be silly to pass it and then go back." She sat up straight again. "We should stop on the way." Saguru stared at her.

"Akako-san, this isn't something that is terribly pleasant to see." He said slowly.

"I know. But I'm not going to see the body." She smirked at him. "I'm going to see you solve a case." Saguru blinked.

"You have a lot of confidence in me." He said, uncertain how to respond.

"You've never given me reason to doubt you." Akako laughed. "Besides, if you don't, I'll just be wondering what happened all night. It will completely ruin my beauty sleep." Akako gave him a look. "Do you want to be responsible for ruining my beauty sleep?" A sudden chill shot up Saguru's spine. He abruptly felt as if he were in danger.

"…Baaya, we're making another stop, we might be a while." He called.

"Yes, Botchama. I heard." She said, resigned to her charge overworking himself yet again. "And the address?" He gave it to her.

Akako smiled in satisfaction.

Saguru kept a careful eye on Akako as they mounted the stairs to the second-floor walkup. He had no desire to subject her to this kind of violence. Still, he did not really have the right to deny her. How many officers had objected to his presence at such crime scenes? He'd ignored them and handled himself well. He knew Akako well enough by this point to recognize she had at least as much mental fortitude as he did.

When they arrived on the second floor Saguru could hear muffled sobbing through the apartment walls. He spotted Officer Sakamoto waiting for him outside the door. Stain on collar: still separated from wife. Wearing wedding ring: hoping for reconciliation. He looked up and offered him a tired smile. "Ah, Hakuba-kun," Akako slackened her pace and let Saguru take the lead. Sakamoto glanced at Akako questioningly.

"Sakamoto-keiji," He nodded in greeting. "This is my classmate, Koizumi-san. She asked to accompany me."

"Nice to meet you." Sakamoto offered a slight bow. She smiled enigmatically in return.

"What is the situation?" Saguru inquired.

"Ah, the victim is Miyoshi Riko-san, 29 years old." Sakamoto said. "Killed by blunt force trauma about two hours ago. Murder weapon was a bat that they kept by the front door in case of intruders." He flipped open his police notebook. "She lives here with her best friends, Hikaru Isao and Nishi Megumi. They've known each other since high school and moved in together after university. Hikaru-san found the body when he and Nishi-san got back from karaoke." Saguru noticed Sakamoto's eyes drifting to Akako, and he cleared his throat pointedly. The man started and had the grace to look sheepish under Saguru's disapproving gaze. Akako laughed softly under her breath and Saguru suppressed a heavy sigh.

"Could we go in?" He asked.

"Of course." Sakamoto very pointedly avoided looking at Akako. "The body is in her bedroom." Saguru glanced back at Akako.

"Are you sure you want to see this?" He asked. Akako scoffed, on the verge of saying something before she bit her tongue and nodded.

There was a woman sobbing into a man's shoulder. And he curled around her hiding his face. Nishi and Hikaru, the best friends. Hikaru's hands held Nishi above the small of her waist, her arms clutched at him without any attempt to wipe her face: platonic relationship. Hikaru was crying, trying to hide it from the rest of the room but not from Nishi: not worried about being perceived as weak by her, very close platonic relationship.

The living room was an open floor plan. A kitchen separated the rest of the room with just a counter. On the coffee table was a handful of scattered polaroid photos from one of the newer cameras. Saguru nodded at some familiar faces, making his way through the room. Akako stuck close to him as a few heads turned to follow her. Saguru stifled a spark of annoyance at the lack of professionalism. Saguru opened the door, was immediately assailed by the scent of drying blood, and stepped inside, shutting it behind Akako.

The victim's black hair was matted by clotted blood, hiding the worst of the damaged. She was face down with her back to the door. When Saguru glanced behind him, he ascertained that she'd been struck three times based on the bloody cast off.

Saguru pulled on a pair of gloves. Akako nudged him in a silent request. He raised an eyebrow at her, surprised by how unaffected she was. She'd been more ruffled by Aoko's overt displays of affection than the dead body lying in the middle of the room. "I won't touch anything." She protested, misunderstanding his expression. "I just want to make sure I don't leave fingerprints by mistake." Saguru hid his smile as he handed her a spare pair, returning his attention to the crime scene.

She was dressed in a loose shirt and shorts clearly something she just wore around the apartment. There was fresh clothing on the bed. So she'd been planning to go out. Miyoshi's position suggested that she's been walking away from her murderer, not running, her socks were pulled up to her calves and were loose enough that they'd be bunched up around her ankles if she were running. She knew her killer.

"What do we have on the fiancé?" Saguru asked, his eyes barely pausing on the engagement ring.

"Ishihara Hitoshi," Sakamoto answered. "He works as a legal aid."

"Expensive ring." Akako commented. Saguru gave it a second look.

"But old fashioned, an heirloom I expect. Ishihara-san must come from old money." Saguru added.

"We're still looking for him." Sakamoto said.

There were three polaroid photographs in frames on the nightstand. Two showed Hikaru and a black haired woman he assumed was Miyoshi in the background and a much closer Nishi in the foreground, trying to get them all in frame. The last photo was Miyoshi kissing a man, probably her fiancé. Nishi was clearly the photographer of the group.

Saguru leaned over the large plastic evidence bag that contained the murder weapon. Aluminum bat. Potential for fingerprint and DNA evidence.

"Will you cc me on your results?" He asked the forensics officer, Mizuno Ayame, he'd once done an unofficial internship with her.

"Obviously, Saguru-kun." She grinned at him. There wasn't much else for the crime scene to tell him without those results. Saguru turned and left the room, Akako right behind him.

Saguru pulled off his gloves and heard Akako do the same. Nishi and Hikaru had calmed somewhat and were sitting on the coach. Hikaru was rubbing his eyes, subtly wiping tears. Nishi's breaths were interrupted by residual catching gasps typical of someone who had been sobbing. Akako fell back as Saguru approached them.

"I'm sorry for your loss." Saguru said. The roommates looked up at him. Nishi's red eyed gaze drifted from him to Akako where it settled until Saguru spoke again. "I know tonight has been trying, but would you mind answering some questions?"

"We've already told the police what happened." Hikaru said, exhaustion and pain coloring his scratchy voice.

Nishi leaned into him in a show of support. "I'll answer." She told Saguru. "If that's okay. We've been together since four thirty, so our story won't be different until we got home and-" Her voice caught and her face twisted, but she managed to pull herself together as Hikaru squeezed her shoulder. "Yeah, so go ahead."

"I'd like to start by getting a sense of Miyoshi-san. What was your relationship with her?" He asked. "Had either of you dated her in the past?" Nishi blinked then smiled weakly.

"Oh, you picked up on that?" Hikaru shifted protectively towards Nishi with a suspicious look at Saguru. "No, I never dated her. She's not my type." Her eyes drifted between Akako and, strangely, Hakuba's hair. "Isao and Riko dated on and off in high school and university, but they haven't been interested in each other in, gosh, five years I think." She rubbed her eyes. Hikaru buried his face in his hands. Saguru tried not to twitch when he noticed his wristwatch was at least three and a half minutes slow. "Isao and I never dated either." She added. Her eyes went to Hakuba's hair again. "Honestly, not sure how they dated, it would be like dating a sibling."

"I see." Saguru nodded. "And can you tell me your impressions of her fiancé, Ishihara-san?"

Hikaru scoffed, finally answering a question. "Nice guy, but not right for her."

"Hush you!" Nishi scolded him, giving Saguru a glimpse of their relationship when they weren't in distress. "He never approves of my partners either." She rolled her eyes.

"I just don't want you getting hurt." Hikaru huffed, crossing his arms and looking away. Nishi shook her head and returned to the question.

"I like Hitoshi-kun. He grounds- grounded Riko and Riko got him to take risks." Her voice tightened as she spoke and she blinked rapidly to ward off the tears. "It sounds a little cliché, but it worked for them. Great couple." Hikaru scoffed again. Nishi pinched him. "Riko's dad wasn't around when she was a kid. She asked this jerk to walk her down the aisle and me to be her maid of honor." She swallowed.

"It's okay. Take your time." Saguru assured her. Nishi nodded and took a few moments to collect herself.

"Did you want to hear what we did tonight?" She asked when she had pulled herself together. Her voice was still tight but he wouldn't comment on it. "They wanted to know that." She gestured vaguely at the officers conversing with each other.

"If you're ready." Saguru resisted the urge to check his pocket watch and orient himself to the timeline (and determine exactly how off Hikaru's watch was). Checking his watch now would be off putting and Nishi was being remarkably cooperative given the circumstances.

"Okay," Nishi took a deep breath and straightened. "Isao works at Idol Star Karaoke. It's closed on Thursdays but the owners let him use it as long as he locks up, so we go every Thursday night."

"Just the two of you?" Saguru asked.

"It's usually all three of us and whoever we decide to bring along that week." Nishi answered. "A few friends have a standing invitation but in general it's just us and whoever we drag along that day."

"But Miyoshi-san didn't come this week?" Saguru said.

"She's missed a few weeks because of wedding planning or dates with Hitoshi-kun." Nishi explained. "She said she might come by afterwards." She glanced back at Miyoshi's door with a wince. "Anyway, Isao and I met up at around four thirty."

"It was five, Megumi." Hikaru sighed.

"Eh? It was? But you said I was on time!" Nishi protested. Hikaru gave her a glance that was equal parts long suffering and fond.

"Megumi, you're never on time. I just didn't want you to feel bad." He leaned over and picked up a photo. "You took this as soon as we got there, remember?" He showed her the photo and she let her face fall into her hands with a groan. Saguru held out his hand in a silent request and Hikaru handed him the photo. Haruki had tripped on something and that was the focus, but it also showed a room with a large screen and a digital clock in the background clearly displaying the time as 5:03 pm.

"I have a really bad sense of time." Nishi explained. "And my phone accidently went through the wash yesterday, so it's even worse because I don't have any of my reminders." Saguru glanced at the other photos on the table. They must have been taken that day because Nishi and Hikaru were wearing the same clothing they were now. A few of them displayed the time clearly enough to read. Including a few for the approximate time of the murder.

"And what time did you leave?" Saguru directed the question to Hikaru, not expecting an accurate answer from Nishi.

"I started locking up at ten, so around ten fifteen." He answered. "And it's a ten minute walk back here." Saguru made a mental note to get the call logs to see when they called the police and make sure the time lined up with a ten twenty-five arrival time. "And before you ask. We were both there the whole time, except for bathroom breaks. We bring bentos for dinner."

"And snacks." Nishi added. "Lots of snacks." She sighed. "I always pass out as soon as we get home from karaoke. I can't have been asleep that long, because next thing I know Isao is yelling and he's on the phone with the cops."

"I went to see if Riko was home." He said, misery tightening his throat. "Her light was on but she wasn't answering and-" He choked up and clenched his fists, bowing his head to hide his face behind them. Nishi put her hand on his shoulder.

"I see…" Saguru watched him for a moment, then he stood. "Do you mind if I look around the rest of the apartment a bit more?"

"Not at all." Nishi said. She pulled Hikaru into a hug as he shook his head.

"Thank you." Saguru withdrew from the conversation, leaving them to their grief.

He walked over to the other bedrooms and looked inside. Hikaru's didn't reveal anything meaningful, but Nishi's bed was slept in. She really had gone to sleep after karaoke. She had no less than five corkboards lining the room, all of them absolutely covered with polaroid photos. He abruptly understood what she meant by type. One board showed mainly selfies of her on dates, men and women, all with blond hair. It was a testament either to her grief or his age that she hadn't flirted with him. Her interest in Akako was out of place, but perhaps Akako transcended types.

Saguru opened the bathroom. He went to the shower and touched the wall. Dry. He turned to one of the towels hanging up and touched it. Slightly damp. Someone had taken a shower. Long enough ago that the shower was completely dry but short enough that the towel was still wet. Most likely it was the victim. Judging by what he'd seen in her room she'd returned to the apartment, showered and was in the middle of getting ready to meet the other two for karaoke when she'd been killed.

Saguru turned to Akako. "I'm going to walk to the karaoke place, would you like to come or would you prefer staying here?"

"I'll come along." She said easily. Saguru nodded.

"Come on." They left. Saguru paused long enough to get the key for the building and tell Sakamoto where they were going. He looked up directions to Idol Star Karaoke on his phone and they started walking. Akako shivered and Saguru noticed that she was still in Aoko's light dress.

"Here." He draped his jacket over her shoulders.

"Thank you." She smiled. "So have you gleaned anything? It's the fiancé, isn't it?"

"I'm not sure yet." He said. "I haven't picked up much useful." Akako hummed. "You handled yourself well."

"I've seen worse in a child's scrapbook." She said. Saguru blinked, missing the joke. By the time they arrived at the karaoke place, Saguru was certain that, even with Nishi's bad sense of time, she'd have noticed if Hikaru had gone to the apartment and back.

They let themselves in and flipped on the lights. "Nishi said they were in Room 3 when I got the keys." Saguru said. He and Akako walked down the hall, which had that same eerie quietness that normally crowded spaces have after hours. Saguru opened the door. His eyes went to the clock. He froze as Akako flipped on the light.

Of course. He flipped open his pocket watch to confirm. That's how it was done.

Akako stared at him and smirked. He had it.

Akako had no idea what Saguru saw, but the instant they entered Room 3 he'd solved the case. She could see it on his face. His expression really was the same as Conan's. Nothing in the room stood out to her, but then. She wasn't a detective. Though this probably meant that the fiancé didn't do it. She really thought it was going to be him.

Saguru marched into the apartment. Sakamoto took one look at him and, clearly recognizing the same expression she did, hurried to one side. "You know, who did it, Hakuba-kun?"

"I do."

"Eh?" Nishi looked up teary eyed along side Hikaru. Saguru was commanding the attention of everyone in the room. Even the officers who were still collecting evidence from the body next door peered out.

"You really do know your friends well, don't you. Hikaru-san." The man looked stricken.

"Hey, what is that supposed to mean?!" He snapped at the detective.

"It means, that your plan would have never worked if you didn't know Nishi-san and Miyoshi-san so well." He said evenly, glaring at the man.

"What are you talking about? What does this have to do with Riko's murder?" Nishi demanded, wiping her eyes. She kept her hand on Hikaru's shoulder.

"Tell me, Nishi-san. When Miyoshi-san was running late for karaoke because of a date or wedding planning did she come straight to karaoke?" He asked. He clearly knew the answer. Akako smirked fondly. He really was a showman in his own right.

"No. She liked to change beforehand. Sometimes she showered too." Nishi said, unsure how this was related. Hikaru glared at him.

"None of this matters." He snarled.

"Of course it does." Saguru stalked towards him. "It's how you killed her." Nishi gasped. But instead of drawing away she leaned closer.

"Don't be stupid!" She shouted at him. "We were at karaoke when she-" She choked. "When it happened!" Saguru turned to her, sympathy passing over his face.

"I'm so sorry." He said in a low voice. Then he turned back to Hikaru. "Nishi-san has no sense of time. She couldn't tell the difference between three hours and five hours. And that's how you created your alibi." Saguru picked up a photo that clearly displayed a time of 8:36 pm. "You changed the clock while she was in the bathroom. I doubt it was set when she arrived since she might have noticed and been worried she was really late."

"This is ridiculous!" Nishi protested. "It doesn't make any sense. Why would he do that? Heck, even if he did, what would it accomplish?"

"You thought you left at ten fifteen." Saguru explained patiently. "But you didn't." He put down the photo. "You left at eight fifteen." Nishi blinked at him.

"What?"

"Tell me, Hikaru-san, did you put Nishi-san's phone in the laundry so she couldn't check the time? Or was that a lucky accident?" Saguru raised an eyebrow.

"Don't be ridiculous." Hikaru growled. "We left at ten fifteen. I didn't change the clock."

"You did. And when you got here, Miyoshi-san was in her room getting ready to go to karaoke." Saguru said.

"No…" Nishi-san whispered. "No. She was already dead. I would have heard something. He… Hikaru came and got me right away!"

"He woke you up calling the police." Saguru said.

"Yes. It couldn't have been him. We'd just gotten home." Nishi insisted, her voice cracking.

"Unless you were asleep for two hours, instead of a few minutes." He said gently. Nishi's shoulders started shaking.

"Megumi, I didn't do anything. He can't prove anything because I didn't do anything." Hikaru said urgently as her hand slipped from his shoulder.

"Hikaru-san, were you aware that your watch is three minutes, twenty-six seconds, and twelve milliseconds slow?" Saguru asked coldly. Hikaru's right hand covered his watch.

"What about it?" He snarled.

"Nothing… except that the clock in Room 3 is three minutes, twenty-eight seconds, and four milliseconds slow." Saguru stared at him. "It's a close enough margin that we can definitively state that you set the clock to your watch when you reset it."

"No…" Nishi whimpered, soft and broken.

"You brought Nishi-san home at eight twenty-five, perhaps eight thirty. Miyoshi-san was in her bedroom so Nishi-san didn't see her. She went right to bed as is her habit. When you were sure she was asleep you went to see Miyoshi-san. I don't know what you talked about, but when she turned away, you hit her, repeatedly." He shook his head. "Once she was dead, you walked back to the karaoke place to reset the clock, to the wrong time as it turns out. Then you waited two hours and woke Nishi-san up as if you had just gotten home. Creating the perfect alibi."

"A wrong clock isn't enough to convict me." Hikaru argued.

"Maybe not, but you didn't shower or change." He picked up a photo and showed the same outfit he was wearing now. "And now that we know, we can take your clothing and watch for evidence."

"If there's blood on anything I'm wearing it's because I went to check on Riko before I called the police!" He snapped.

"The blood would have been clotted by the time you claim to have arrived." Saguru said. "If any of it landed on you as a liquid, we'll be able to tell by how it soaked into the fabric."

"You can't just-"

"Give it to them." Hikaru stopped talking at Nishi's soft demand. He looked over at her in surprise. "Give it to them. You have nothing to worry about, right?" She looked back at him desperately. "You didn't do anything. You didn't hurt Riko. Right?" Nishi was positively pleading with him. Saguru looked away but Akako watched with interest.

Hikaru's hand clenched. "Megumi…"

"Please." She begged.

"I…" He looked away. Akako could see he knew what the evidence would show. All it took was one drop of blood.

"Why did you do it?" Saguru asked, softly. Hikaru glared up at him. "Why would you kill one of your best friends?"

"She should have loved me." He growled. Akako nodded slowly. She could understand that feeling. She'd nearly killed Kaitou KID that one- Her thoughts were interrupted by Nishi shoving Hikaru away and stumbling to her feet.

"Megumi!" Hikaru rose.

"NO!" She screamed at him, tears streaming down her face. "You killed her?! You killed Riko while I was asleep next door?!"

"Megumi, please!" Nishi turned and bolted out the door, past the stunned police officers and into the night. "Megumi!" Hikaru tried to go after her but was waylaid by several officers as Sakamoto began to recite his rights, cuffs in hand. "Wait! Megumi!" He shouted.

Akako stared after the woman in shock. She barely noticed as Saguru hung up the phone (when had he even made a call?) and lead her out of the apartment and down to the street. Away from Hikaru's increasingly desperate pleas for his friend. "One of the officers is going to give us a ride to your house." Saguru said softly. "Baaya is following Nishi-san and I've asked her to give her a ride wherever she wants to go once she slows down."

"You had time to call before she ran?" Akako asked numbly. Saguru chuckled.

"No, but Baaya is a very competent woman. When she saw someone running from the crime scene she took the initiative to follow her." He opened the door to a nondescript car for her and greeted the officer. Akako was too stunned to catch the name.

Twenty-five minutes, and several concerned glances from Saguru, later, they pulled up in front of her house. Saguru escorted her up her long, long driveway which was overgrown by the brush from the gardens (more a small forest if she was honest). "Are you alright?" He asked. "You seemed, well, very blasé earlier, but if it's all just hitting you now…"

"It's not the murder." Akako said, some of her earlier shock beginning to thaw.

"Are you sure? It's a bit traumatic to be confronted with a body."

"It's not the murder." Akako insisted. "It's… it was Megumi. Nishi-san." Saguru put a comforting hand on her shoulder.

"If you're worried about her, I told you Baaya will make sure she gets some place safe." She shook her head.

"It's not that… It's…" She swallowed hard. She understood Hikaru's motive all too well. Had even tried to act on it herself… was acting on it currently. Kuroba should love her. But it was Nishi's response that had shaken her to the core. "It's just… He lost them both." She could feel herself trembling under Saguru's hand but she couldn't stop. "He only killed Miyoshi-san, but he lost them both." Saguru stopped. Akako looked back at him.

"He hurt her too, Akako-san." He said. "Murder never hurts just one person."

"But- he is her best friend!" Akako protested.

"And that just made his betrayal worse." Saguru told her. "Not only did he kill her other best friend, he also used her to commit his crime. She loved them both, Akako-san."

"But Hikaru is the only one left!" Akako's voice was raising in frustration. "Isn't that more important than being angry about what he did?!"

"Akako-san, I don't know what Nishi-san is going to do." He said. "She's in a lot of pain right now. Maybe she'll forgive him, if his victim were anyone else I dare say it would be a possibility, but maybe she'll never speak to him again." Akako's breath caught. "He killed her best friend." He said.

…and Akako had nearly killed Kuroba. If she ever chose to, would Saguru forgive her? Would ridding herself of Kuroba be worth losing Saguru?

Saguru began walking again, he urged her forward with a gentle hand on her shoulder. She leaned against him as they walked. If ridding herself of Kuroba cost her this, it was too high a price.

She would not make the same mistake that Hikaru Isao made.

"And time! Well done, botchama!" Kaito executed a series of flips the second Jii called time, he had to be sure he could move quickly after so long. Wouldn't do to seize up on the heist! No way would Tantei-kun see this coming!

Kaito and Hakuba have had their first fight and they are still friends! ^_^

About Akako discovering Conan and the Sleeping Kogoro thing... I don't know guys. It just happened. And I couldn't rewrite it any other way. It kind of makes sense since so much of her focus is on Conan and because she has that little bonus skill of affecting males around her so she could test her theory. (If you recall, early on a few people were like "Is this guy just asleep?" so she was like that but she could test it and had suspicions about Conan anyway.)
Please note! I don't actually know if there are not death caps in Japan! I did some research and I couldn't FIND anything about death caps in Japan. Please forgive me if this is wrong. DON'T EAT RANDOM MUSHROOMS UNLESS YOU HAVE AN AKAKO OR OTHER MUSHROOM EXPERT (WHO DOESN'T WANT TO KILL YOU) AROUND!

Also... I don't think that Akako felt bad about trying to kill Kaito. I think she was slightly frustrated with herself, and though she does not want to kill him now I don't think she had any real guilt about the attempt. So getting hit with the potential consequences of such an action... that would mess her up.

One thing I didn't notice I had done until after I wrote the chapter was the Conan theorized about motive even if he might be wrong and Hakuba straight up asks (which was kind of his thing when he was first introduced but it never came up again after that chapter, probably because we don't see him on a lot of cases other than KID's in the manga).

I had fully intended on having the heist this chapter. But Hakuba and Akako went and hijacked the second half with their friendship. -_-' Never fear! Next chapter WILL be the heist! Which means plenty of Conan & KID bonding! And you'll finally find out what Kaito was training for!