Wow, finally. I'm sorry this chapter was so long in coming. I've been really busy lately, and on top of that, this chapter never seemed to sound right. I think I've rewritten this chapter at least thirty times, and I'm still not happy with it. But this story has gone far too long without an update, so I decided the chapter needed to be posted, no matter how terrible it was. There isn't much that happens in this chapter either, which is really cruel, given the amount of time you have all waited. But the crazy stuff is right around the corner, and I need to lay the foundation for everything, so here we are. Anyhow, to those of you who are still around, you are amazing. You are the entire reason this story exists, and has finally updated. Without you, I would probably take like ten years for each chapter. Ah, but joking aside, the next update WILL be posted next Friday. Now that I've posted this ghastly chapter, the updates should be regular until we get to the end.

Kita glanced down at her phone. "Anyway, I'm sorry if it makes you feel uncomfortable, but I'm afraid I must ask you to protect my secret when he arrives."

Conan suddenly checked his phone. It seemed he had several new messages.

"Oh, actually," Ran responded quickly, "if your boyfriend is coming here, I think we had better leave. It sounds like he is pretty worried about you, and entertaining company would only distress him further."

"I don't think it would be a bother," Kita assured her.

Ran smiled. "Still, Conan-kun and I would feel bad, intruding on your privacy like that."

Kita forced a laugh. "Ah, th-thank you for the thought."

Ran bowed her head slightly. "Well then, we should be going. Right, Conan-kun?" She turned to Conan for confirmation.

"Nee, oneesan," Conan interrupted suddenly, his eyes fixed on Kita, "where did you get that wound?" He was pointing at the 't'-shaped mark on Kita's arm. When she had repositioned herself, her sleeve had been pushed upward. The skin of the mark itself was raised – scarred over – and outlined by slightly wrinkled skin.

"Ah, that's not a wound," Kita assured him. "It's um…" She paused, studying the mark. "Well, I've had it as long as I can remember..." She shook her head, covering her arm once more with her sleeve. "Ah, but it doesn't matter. It's not important."

"He~h," Conan mused aloud. After a moment of silence, he whirled around to face Ran. "Alright, Ran-neechan. We should probably go."

Ran nodded hesitantly, watching Kita.

"Are you alright?"

Conan and Ran barely had time to react to the voice before a figure pushed past them, seemingly unaware that they were even there, and rushed toward Kita.

Hashimoto took hold of Kita's hand. "Here, sit down on the bed," he instructed her, guiding her back to the hospital cot. "Are you okay? Tell me, what did the doctor say?"

Kita smiled uneasily. "D-don't worry, it's just as I said. It wasn't a relapse or anything. I just got a bit tired and forgot to eat – it was just me being irresponsible."

Hashimoto closed his eyes for a moment, sighing in relief. "And you're sure…" He met her eyes. "You're sure that nobody was trying to hurt you?"

Kita forced a laugh. "Nobody would want to hurt me," she assured him in a low voice. "I'm just a simple computer programmer, designing my company's latest video game." She turned to the floor nervously. "Please do not worry yourself over me."

Hashimoto watched her for a moment. He cast a sideways glance at Kita's work equipment. "Should you really be working, in a state like this?"

"I told you, I'm completely fine. Besides, I need to get this project done soon."

Hashimoto was silent for a moment, continuing to look at the work equipment. "Is this all for security?" he asked in disbelief.

"No no!" Kita replied quickly. "It's just, um, some complicated computer gadgetry. You know, we use all the… all the latest technology, and we've spared no expense for this latest project…"

"Alright," he replied with a nod, satisfied with the answer. "But all the same, you need to get some rest. People don't just collapse for no reason. People don't go to hospital for no reason. You're here to rest up and recover from whatever it is that happened, and that is precisely what you must do."

Kita nodded in understanding. "Alright, I'll try to take it easy…" She looked Hashimoto up and down, and then suddenly stifled a giggle. "But it looks like you could use some sleep a lot more than I."

Hashimoto raised an eyebrow. "How do you mean?"

"Well, you look absolutely exhausted, for starters," Kita explained. "You didn't sleep at all last night, did you?" Hashimoto was silent, and Kita took this as affirmation. "And aside from that," Kita continued, "you're so tired that you did not even see that I was entertaining guests." She gestured toward where Ran and Conan had been standing.

Hashimoto's eyes grew wide, and he glanced immediately to where Kita indicated. But no one was there. He began to scan wildly around, searching the remaining portions of the room for the aforementioned individuals. "Guests?" Wherever he looked, there was no one there. "Who?"

Kita scanned the room as well, realising that her guests had already left. "Just some friends," she answered. "Hmm… Maybe they felt awkward when you came in worrying about me, so they politely slipped out… Well, it was no one you knew anyway."

An uneasy silence settled between them as they left the hospital and began to walk back toward the Mouri Detective Agency. Although they were both considering the current state of things – or rather, Shinichi's current state – neither was entirely enthusiastic about introducing such a topic. Any sort of consideration beyond themselves was welcome. Murders, evil organisations, Kaitou Kid… Even something as trivial as the weather would be a more welcome subject of conversation. Just as long as they did not mention that…

Conan thought back to his, for lack of a better word, eventful, morning. After leaving Ran at that high school, he had returned to Professor Agasa's house. He had needed to speak with both the professor and Haibara...

"And?" Her eyebrows were raised, as they often were when she was sceptical. "You can't expect me to believe she was satisfied with that explanation."

"Well, I just told Kichida-san that I'm going to go see her, to make sure she is well," Conan confessed with a shrug. "And anyway, it's pretty normal to be worried for her, after what she went through last night."

"I'm not talking about her," Haibara Ai countered icily, piercing Conan with her steady gaze. "I'm talking about that girl with whom you live; the one who has been patiently awaiting your return for almost a year now, unaware that she actually spends every single day with you, and that nearly every aspect of her and her father's lives is the product of your lies and manipulation." Conan rolled his eyes at Haibara's usual overdramatized descriptions. The girl narrowed her eyes before continuing. "How did she not suspect your identity yesterday?"

Conan fiddled idly with the replacement glasses that Professor Agasa had recovered for him, turning his eyes to the floor. "You don't need to worry," he assured her in a low voice. "I took care of it." He paused, watching the floor.

"It's gotten to a point where Ran knows there is something amiss," he continued, "and there is absolutely no way to convince her otherwise. She has seen too much, and there are too many doubts in her mind. Tricking her into thinking everything is normal will simply not work anymore. I realised that yesterday, after that case at Tropical Land. Ran needed an explanation, so I gave her one."

"So, you told her the truth…" Haibara suggested discontentedly. Rather than being frustrated, she simply looked sad.

"Well, most of what I told her was true," Conan admitted, "but the way it's been presented will actually lead her to an entirely different conclusion."

Haibara frowned at those words. "What do you mean?"

"I… I've taken care of it. Ran's grown wise to the small-scale tricks, so I've simply employed a much more intricate misdirection."

She was silent for a moment, watching the young detective. Then a sly smile crossed her lips. "The organisation would have loved to hire someone like you – so adept at malevolent trickery. It's a shame you are not sympathetic to their cause."

"Well, in order to properly determine that, I would need to actually know their intentions," Conan retorted.

"You're right," Haibara admitted easily. "It's a shame you don't know them."

"And you do," Conan suggested. It was not a question.

"Naturally," Haibara agreed, slyly watching her companion for a reaction. After a moment though, she shook her head dismissively. "On another note, you wanted me to analyse some drug samples?"

Conan nodded, quickly abandoning their previous topic. He reached gingerly into his pocket and produced the bag of pills. Haibara took the bag and examined it carefully. "Okay, I'll look into this," she agreed. "I'm not going to affirm the nature of this drug until I've run thorough tests." She turned to Conan, her eyes narrowed. "I know what you are hoping this is. But if it was uncovered and given to you so easily, there is always the possibility that they intended for you to find it, in which case you will have walked right into their trap."

Conan rubbed the back of his head nervously. "Well, that is true…" He trailed off before donning a hopeful, child-like expression. "But if this is genuine, then we could-"

"Look, I know how much this means to you," Haibara interrupted him, "but even if it is that drug I developed, and I am able to create a proper antidote, don't think that you can just jump back into your life as Kudou Shinichi. The famous high school detective is supposed to be dead, and it is dead he must stay, if you wish to remain among the living."

Conan turned to the floor, letting the words sink in. He knew that was true, but at times it simply felt better to pretend that he still had a life to which he could return. That things could simply go back to the way they had been, in his last life… when he had been Kudou Shinichi. It was difficult to ignore, that who he had been before all this was a completely different person from who he was now. And it was nothing to do with appearance, or fake names.

And it was not only his sense of self that he had lost, or stood to lose with the complete loss of Kudou Shinichi. It was everything else from that life – from his life. His friends and relationships, his accomplishments, his aspirations… Everything he had ever done, everyone whom he had ever known, everything he had ever seen – it was no longer his. It never had been.

He would need to pretend it was never a part of his life, to forsake those very things that made him who he was. And also, he would lose who he had been with Ran… Well, given the events he had set into motion the previous day, this would be guaranteed regardless. It was better that way anyway.

After all, it was all selfishness. Every reason for hesitating was simply from his fear of losing anything. The reason he didn't want to let go, the reason he had introduced Ran to information that would only make her a target of the organisation… It hadn't been his love for Ran. If he loved her, then he would not have gone home with Ran, that night she had met Conan, nearly a year ago – the night Kudou Shinichi had died. If he loved her, then he would not have revealed his secret to her, or the secrets of the organisation. If he loved her, then their time together that day at Tropical Land would have been their last. And Kudou Shinichi would have remained dead, rather than revivifying every few months to simply break Ran's heart again and again…

He had realised that yesterday. And then Hiromi's straightforward trick had shown him something else – he could work his own straightforward trick, and it would solve everything. And then Ran had looked at him like that. Right after he had planned it. The guilt was overwhelming, that he was thinking such a thing when she was only concerned for him. His guilt may have caused him to reveal a bit more than planned… But this would still work. With Ran like that, everything was ready for the trick to begin.

So he had revealed himself, in that specific way. He pretended he was doing it for noble, romantic reasons, but beneath that, it was simply another gear in his plan. He needed to do that, to make things right, and to begin going about this case the proper way, in order to reach a solution.

Conan directed his gaze back toward Haibara, but the sudden movement made him feel lightheaded. Oi oi. He closed his eyes, pinching the bridge of his nose. Secrets and lies – that's how all of this had started, and that's how all of this would end. Well, he never intended to keep it a secret. In fact, he had told the very first person he had seen, after the incident, Professor Agasa. There was little reason in the young detective's mind to be so incredibly cautious at the time.

That was until the professor had convinced him otherwise. Hmm… Professor Agasa had had much less time to consider the situation, but he had immediately recognised the danger, and ensured that Shinichi hide himself. And Shinichi had not even said very much at that point. The old man had suddenly grabbed him, as he was casually explaining the incident, his eyes wide with some sort of emotion. Terror, dread, anger, disbelief…?

"You must never speak about this to anyone!" the professor had commanded of him.

Professor Agasa was sure an insightful one when he tried. Somehow he had recognised the danger from the organisation long before Shinichi. Did he even tell the professor that it was an organisation? Well, how would he know otherwise…

"I know that you have overinflated hopes of defeating them," Haibara continued, taking Conan's silence to be indicative of disagreement with her advice, "and of returning to your normal life…" She paused. "But you need to be prepared for the likely possibility that you will not succeed. If you valued your life, you would allow Kudou Shinichi to die, and you would simply resume your life as Edogawa Conan."

Conan's eyes remained shut. Ran would be solving that ghost girl case soon – she would not be happy when she learned what he had done. It was for the best. But… Well…

Agasa's house was very nice. He often felt more at home here than at his own residence directly adjacent. Maybe it was because the professor had always babysat him when he was young… Indeed, he spent most of his childhood either in Professor Agasa's home, or in the stories he read. He may have read the stories while physically situated in the library of his own home, but that didn't count.

Ah, reading. When he was reading, he was somewhere else. Not there. Somewhere warm, and colourful. He felt himself drifting through that world. Lazy waves of green, and rolling hills of golden sand. Open your eyes. He was dizzy. But he had to see this world. Open them. Good. Now if he could reach out, and grasp the stars, and feel the shimmering lights blowing across the Earth, buffeted by his soft breaths, resonating with each rise and fall of his own chest…

Oh, but the stars were fading. The entire world was dissolving, melting, forming into... And then it was Haibara. Haibara was there. Why was she here? Had they been talking about something? Conan blinked slowly, attempting to banish the mist that surrounded his vision. He watched Haibara. Why wasn't she saying anything? Wait, her mouth was moving. But there was no sound. Only that buzzing. That intense buzzing. What was she saying?

The ceiling light fixture behind her head formed a soft halo… Her face was pale, and her eyes wide. Hold on, why was he looking at the ceiling? Based on the relative orientation of nearby objects… He was now lying down. When had that happened? He must have forgotten.

And… Ah, and now Professor Agasa was there as well. Then… The room began to move. Or was it he that was moving? Well, the latter was more logical, but you could not rule anything out until you had the… proper evidence... And although numb, he was vaguely aware of pressure under one arm, and under his legs. That indicated he was being carried… Right? Or… Well, given the areas to which the pressure was applied, it could also be someone was taking his pulse – the axillary and femoral pulse respectively…

"What did you do?"

Conan slowly regained consciousness, waking to see Haibara and Agasa standing over him.

"W-wha-?"

"Did you take anything?" Haibara demanded immediately. "Do anything different from normal?"

"Um, n-n-…" He shook his head. "No, I don't think so…"

"Were the effects of the antidote any different from normal?"

"Y-yeah," Conan agreed, fidgeting slightly. "I was going to ask you about it. With just the one antidote, I reverted back to Conan almost immediately, but then I became Shinichi a second time shortly after, and that lasted until I came here." He studied Haibara's expression nervously, searching for any sort of reassurance that this was the intended result.

But Haibara's eyes were wide. She looked mortified. What had happened?

"You had a simple partial seizure, but it quickly escalated to a complex one, during which time your heart rate and blood pressure increased dramatically, to the point that you may have suffered a heart attack, had we not interfered."

Conan opened his mouth as if to respond, but then closed it. Simple partial seizure, complex seizure, heart attack. There was no way of knowing the full effects of APTX-4869. Maybe his body had sustained significant damage from the poison. He had not even thought of it before, since he had woken up and felt completely normal, aside from being ten years younger…

"This…" Haibara was still breathing uneasily. Her eyes were wide, like she was in a daze. "There will be no more antidotes. No more experiments. This won't happen again." She was serious. She was done. No more.

She stood up and exited the room without another word. After a moment, Conan sat up and glanced around the room. This situation was certainly sobering… He leaned against the couch, contemplating the full extent of… whatever all of this was. Everything. It was several minutes before he was finally shaken from his thoughts.

"She says you are free to go," Professor Agasa informed him, having appeared in the doorway. He paused, seeming to decide whether or not to say more. "After bringing you back around, she says your vitals have stabilised to the extent that you will be fine now, provided you do not take any more antidote."

Conan nodded. He wasn't exactly dying to go through any of that a second time.

He had just exited Agasa's home. Conan turned around once again. He had the strangest sensation that he was being followed. But there was no one there. If someone had followed Kudou Shinichi there, only to see Edogawa Conan emerge, then the implications of his true identity were less than ideal. Especially since Kudou Shinichi would not emerge from that home ever again.

His eyes flicked over to his own home. Perhaps it was the alleged Okiya Subaru? No, he could see from here that the welcome mat was not in front of the door. Ran and Sonoko had intruded upon Subaru's privacy before, and then they had inadvertently done it a second time, when they had brought their new friend, Masumi Sera. Sera was the worst possible surprise visitor Subaru could have, since she was the one person most capable of discerning his true identity, given her relation to him. Conan and Subaru had developed a system to prevent further surprise visits, to keep Sera safe in her ignorance.

The welcome mat placed in front of the door was an indication to Conan that Subaru was inside. Furthermore, the function of the mat was to alert Subaru to visitors. It was an electronic mat that triggered a doorbell when it was stepped upon. One needed to step upon the mat in order to enter the home, so there would be no possibility of unannounced visitors. This was a standard practice, utilised by many of the other homes in that neighbourhood, so it was not a very questionable addition.

If not Subaru, then…

It would not be Sera. She may have suspected his identity, but she had proved that she was content in what she knew of him. After all, she was much more interested in Subaru, and Tooru Amuro.

And then it turned out to be Kaitou Kid. The big idiot even went so far as to chase him down, and then grab him by the ankle to announce his presence… But at the same time, this 'big idiot', Kuroba Kaito, had proceeded to provide him with a wealth of information. And Conan could not help but feel he had gained a valuable ally…

"Well, I guess there isn't much use pretending anymore," Conan sighed, having been prompted by Kaito about the police costume Shinichi had borrowed, "now that you've figured it out. I've been getting a bit reckless – this has been happening a lot recently…" He shrugged. "Well, not like I ever really pretended around you anyway. I couldn't very well be hampered by such a thing, if I ever hoped to be able to catch you."

Kaito nodded with a smile. "Yes, yes, no need to pret-" He trailed off, frowning. "Wait wait wait." He fixed the young boy with a confused expression. "What? You, I mean… Really?"

Wait, did Kaito not even suspect…? Conan smacked himself mentally. He was jumping to conclusions again. "Um… I don't understand," he attempted uneasily. "What are you talking about?"

Kaito's face remained blank for a moment. "Okay, so I implied you were Kudou Shinichi, and then you responded like…" Suddenly, he stopped, his eyes widening. The shock remained on his face, but it was quickly joined by amusement. "No. No way!" Kaito seemed about to burst into laughter at any minute. "You're serious? Oh my gosh, no way!"

Conan shifted uncomfortably. "Why would you imply that I was Kudou Shinichi if you didn't actually think-" He was cut off by Kaito's laughter.

"Well, the idea occurred to me," Kaito admitted, attempting to silence his laughter, "and when you want information from someone who won't give it to you, sometimes the best thing to do is to pretend you already know…" His seriousness faded completely, overtaken by his previous amusement. "You?" Another chuckle. "You are the famous high school detective Kudou Shinichi?"

Conan shot the young man a humourless, annoyed expression. "Are you done?" he asked dryly.

Kaito mockingly wiped a tear from his eye. "Oh man, it makes so much sense. You're always so eager to shoot people with your little watch. And the first time I met Kudou Shinichi, you were hanging out of a helicopter shooting at me."

"I wasn't shooting at you," Conan corrected him, rolling his eyes. "I was shooting that canvas away so the police would realise the stupid trick you were employing."

"Yeah, yeah," Kaito said dismissively. Suddenly, his expression grew serious. He grasped Conan's shoulders supportively, knelt down, and leaned in close, to the point that his face was only centimetres from Conan's. "Akako did this, didn't she?"

Conan looked taken aback. Whatever he had expected Kaito to say, it certainly wasn't that. "A-Akako…?"

"You, know…" Kaito returned to his feet, holding his right arm forward. "About this tall, reddish hair, way too full of herself? Crazy satanic witch?"

Conan shook his head slowly. "No, I don't think I know such a person..." Although much of that could be used to describe Haibara... He chuckled inwardly at the thought.

Kaito was silent a moment. "Oh. Alright then. So then… this has something to do with Pandora, doesn't it?"

Again, Conan was taken aback at the assumption. "Sorry, I'm not entirely sure I understand what you are saying…"

"Oh, if you don't know about that…" Kaito trailed off. "Well, okay, I should explain from the beginning," he decided. "Okay. As you have guessed, the main reason I am here is about yesterday's series of events. When we first ran into one another yesterday, we both seemed to think that there was something bigger than a simple jewel heist occurring that night."

Conan nodded, relieved that the conversation was turning toward more relevant topics. "There had been a message goading an associate of mine on the broadcast that Suzuki-san sent out," he informed Kaito. "Although I did not fully understand the message until more recently, the content of the message was such that it could only be from one specific group, whose intentions are not entirely noble. From my interactions with said group, it has been made clear that their objectives are more destructive than jewel theft. It was for that reason that I elected to overlook your business there in favour of the safety of others."

"It was a similar reason on my end," Kaito admitted, "for not wanting to allow you to be involved in the first place. Although the event was not directly threatened by the organisation with which I am familiar, I had discovered that the jewel being presented was such a one that was their main objective to acquire."

The young detective frowned. "So both of these organisations, although completely separate entities, both had dealings in the events at the building last night..."

"Ah, as for that," Kaito continued, "I think I have a fairly accurate understanding of last night's objectives, given what occurred atop the roof. It seems that, for lack of a better name, Kudou-kun's organisation was the one pulling the strings last night. Apparently my organisation obtained sensitive information regarding the gem Pandora from the other, and from this they made it their top priority to locate such a gem.

"Anyway, last night seems to have been your organisation's way of dealing with this breach of information. They tempted my organisation as well as myself with subtle confirmations that this was the gem they sought, and their plan was to trap and kill each and every member, maybe to contain or prevent the spread of the sensitive information. And had you not been there, they probably would have succeeded."

"This gem," Conan thought aloud, "This is the gem for which you have been searching, yes? And that is what your objective had been, to acquire it before your organisation, so that you could keep it out of their hands?"

Kaito nodded. "Of course, that objective doesn't mean very much now. The organisation targeting me seemed to think Pandora was a gem, so that was what I was searching for as well. It was supposedly a gem that would bestow immortality. But then I discovered last night that Pandora being called a gem was based on a Dutch poem, in which the gem was a metaphor for a woman. And that woman was there. Or at least, this foreign woman who was there called herself Pandora. And then she took off, lifted away by a helicopter, before the building closed. She was condemning everyone in the building to death, and she hadn't even batted an eyelash."

At the mention of the foreign woman, Conan had grown pensive. Vermouth. His thoughts returned to the door code from the previous night. "I think…" He frowned, slightly confused at the thought. "I think she counted on us escaping…"

"What?"

"Do you remember the codes I had deduced, to open the doors?"

Kaito thought for a moment, and then nodded. "If I remember correctly, it came out to be Angel and Cool Guy, right?"

Conan nodded. "Those codes were designed in such a way that Ran and I could deduce them easily. The two words hold a… special significance to our interactions with this 'Pandora'. She knew for sure that I would be there, and she knew for sure that I could solve this." He shook his head. "So no matter how you look at it, it seems like she counted on everyone escaping…"

"So then why start the fire in the first place?" Kaito wondered aloud.

"It had to have been toward a different end," Conan decided uncertainly.

Kaito frowned. "Well, all of the members of the other organisation are now in custody. Perhaps that was their intention?"

"Maybe…" Conan's eyes let on that he knew more than he was saying, but he quickly dismissed the topic. "Anyway, what exactly is this poem referring to a Pandora?"

"Ah, yes," Kaito agreed, pulling out a pair of gloves. "Here, put these on," he instructed him, thrusting the gloves into the child's open hands.

"What exactly are these for?" Conan eyed the gloves warily, but nevertheless pulled them over his hands.

Kaito produced a stack of incredibly aged documents from seemingly nowhere, a sheepish grin spreading across his face. "Alright, before she took off" – Kaito paused to sort through the pages – "Pandora mentioned that the poem mentioning her was in a report from Dejima sent to the Roujuu, so…"

Conan narrowed his eyes. "So you stole secret government documents from two hundred years ago?"

"Exactly, two hundred years ago!" Kaito protested. "It's not like anyone is going to miss these. So as long as we handle them with care, and then return them to their dusty old case in the back of a dusty old building, everything will be fine. No harm done!"

Conan sighed. "Well, I suppose the only reason for the sensitivity of the documents was the Sakoku policy, by which our nation is no longer restricted. Most of the 'sensitive' information in the Roujuu reports can probably be found on the internet anyway…"

"That's the spirit," Kaito assured him with a wink. He selected a page from the pile and pulled it from the stack. "Anyway, this is the part I first heard, second-hand, from the organisation targeting me:

As the volley comet passes over the Earth, my gem sheds tears under the shadow of the moon. Endless, immortal tears; never dying, not ever. Flowing from the red-glinted source, those flecks of light, shining from deep within its centre of being. My tragic, beautiful gem. Pandora."

Conan looked to the ground in contemplation, nodding as Kaito finished. "And this foreign woman, you say she called herself Pandora?"

"Yeah," Kaito agreed. "She said she was Pandora, the gem of humanity, or something like that."

"Hmm…" Another pause. "The reports sent to the Roujuu were supposed to be those containing information vital to Japan – scientific theory, modern medicine and practices, schematics… Why would this poem be sent?"

"Ah, well actually," Kaito admitted, "this poem was not a part of the actual reports on Pandora. It was among the head translators notes…"

"There were published reports on Pandora?"

"Yeah," Kaito agreed. "They actually had a file on her. It seems she was there to provide help with medical instruction." He paused. "She didn't arrive at Dejima until 1850, so when the port closed, it seems she moved to the mainland with one of the employees. They don't seem to have had any dealings with her after that, but they had her address, her first one after leaving anyway, in case they had need to contact her again…"

Kaito shook his head. "You know, I wouldn't believe it if I didn't see it with my two eyes, but…" He pulled a photograph from the file he was examining. "There's no mistaking it," he said with conviction, holding the photograph so that Conan could see it. Black and white, a man and a woman standing outside of an old-fashioned home. "That's her, isn't it?"

It was. In the picture dated 1855, the woman standing before the house was none other than the self-professed Pandora. Vermouth. Sharon. Chris. Whatever her name was…