Chapter 1 Missing you...

Once upon a time, two innocent young boys lived in a peaceful environment that wasn't full of hatred, and their lives hadn't been torn apart by hatred, murder, and the criminal world. It was a time when the world had reached out to them with open arms and hugged them instead of pushing them away and leaving them to suffocate in a world so cold like it did many years later. They weren't full of misery then, were they? They had always had each other and would laugh and play together.

A long time ago, Kudou Shinichi and Kuroba Kaito were happy. A long time ago, they lived so close together that Shinichi only had to walk out his door and Kaito would be there and they would walk together to his house to stay and play with his father and his mother. Even if they wanted to, they could never return to those tranquil days.

The cruel hands of fate tore them apart and set them down different paths. But eventually, their paths will cross again, and when this happens, how will they react? Fate was a cruel monster, and she was not kind to those who crossed her, but she tended to give her favorites more curses than blessings.

Kudou Shinichi was one of her favorites, and she tended to give him more burdens than the average human could hope to withstand.

He was full of intelligence and determination and most of all, he had a pure heart. He was a brilliant young man who would be forced to overcome incredible odds by the time he grew up. He had no inkling of what awaited him, and maybe if he did, it wouldn't have changed anything, anyway. Fate was unable to be changed or reversed.

The moon shone brightly over the land of Ekota, casting its splendid light over the sleepy land and its inhabitants. Many of them were fast asleep, anticipating another day of work or school. Very few had serious burdens weighing them down; ones so intense that they would cause them to lose their way in life and fall by the wayside; or if they did, they didn't bother to voice it and kept on smiling to the very end.

One such person was asleep in his house, dreaming of many things that should not be haunting such a young man. Yet this boy was forced to mature faster than most his age, and as such, he understood more than the average person, but was forced to repress some of that understanding a lot, for fear of being called arrogant.

Any person who looked at this boy would probably wonder why someone so young would be covered with sweat. He was having a nightmare, which was a little unusual for this particular boy, since he usually didn't have nightmares. After all, he didn't see death all the time like a certain young man; however he did experience the terrible feeling of having to keep something he did every night secret from everyone else.

Seventeen-year old Kuroba Kaito tried to shake off the nightmares that would soon be racking his frame. However, it was no use, as these dreams were ones that he was unable to control-these weren't lucid dreams, after all. The nightmare began, whether or not he liked it. It started out ordinary enough for his tastes. But they all did.

He was walking down a street somewhere. It didn't feel like a dream; he was not young like in most of them. He was his ordinary teenage self. Suddenly, he felt someone tug on his sleeve. His eyes widened as he turned around to see Shinichi Kudo staring at him; only Shinichi was younger...he was the same age he had been when they had been split apart from each other.

He stared at him with accusing eyes.

"Shinichi, what are you doing here? I thought you would have grown up by now..." He trailed off.

"You're a liar."

"What do you mean?" Kaito asked, staring at him as though he were nuts.

"You're a liar. You failed to save your father," Shinichi continued on slowly.

"I did the best I could, Kudo!" He cried. "He was murdered, for god's sake! You honestly think I could have done something about that-"

"You could have done more than you did, Cousin. Because you did nothing, I had to get torn apart from you. Because of you, our friendship was torn apart." He glared at him, and suddenly a gunshot rang through the air. Kudou Shinichi fell to the ground. He stared at him with accusing eyes as he lay dying. "It's all your fault..."

Suddenly, everyone Kaito knew was surrounding him;Jiisan, Aoko, his mother, the rotting corpse of his father, his Aunt Yukiko and Uncle Yusaku all were around him, pointing accusing fingers at him. All chanted the same accursed words:

"It's your fault..."

"It's your fault..."

"It's your fault..." The phantoms taunted, all coming towards Kaito slowly, menacingly.

"No. You're wrong. It's not my fault. He was murdered. I didn't kill him!" Kaito protested.

"Yes, you did," His Aunt Yukiko replied sternly.

"I told you that you are a murderer, Kaito!" His childhood friend, Nakamori Aoko, taunted.

"Didn't I tell you that being Kaitou Kid came with a bunch of consequences? You'd better be ready to go to jail now!" Akako Koizumi said suavely. She sounded the most normal in his dream, which was odd.

Behind him came Inspector Nakamori and his men. There were no friendly smiles on their faces, however; instead they wore no emotion at all. Inspector Nakamori gave him a cold stare.

"What the heck's wrong with you guys?" Kaito yelped.

"You betrayed me, Kaito. You don't deserve to live," He said. Suddenly, he fell, dead, and behind him appeared a man, dressed all in black. Kaito's eyes widened. That was Snake, wasn't it?

"We meet again, Kaitou Kid. I have come to deliver some news to you."

"What sort of news?" Kaito asked suspiciously.

"You have to die," Snake then put a pistol to Kaito's head and pulled the trigger.

"What?" He cried.

Kuroba Kaito shot up in his bed. His blue-violet eyes were wide in terror as he wiped his sweaty forehead with one hand. "Why on earth did I have that nightmare? I don't usually have that many nightmares. Could it be...because of my heist the other day? Well, Saguru was no more annoying than usual. I highly doubt that HE would cause me to have nightmares."

He thought over it for a moment. Why was Shinichi in his dream? He paused. Did he really want to open that sensitive wound up again? He hadn't heard anything from Shinichi for years. The last time was probably when he was around ten. Sure, he had gotten letters and telephone calls from him from time to time, but he hadn't gotten a call from him in what, five years? The last thing (until recently, that is) he had heard about the Kudo family was that Kudo Yukiko had moved overseas, and thus that ended any hopes of him ever getting to see his cousin again.

He figured that the boy had moved overseas with his parents. Until yesterday had changed everything he had previously thought he knew about that.

He was watching the news, and nothing exciting was on, so Kaito was just about to change the channel. However, when a news reporter came on, for some reason, his interest was piqued.

"Murder is a horrible crime that all of us hear about and deal with at some point in our lives. Usually, we hope it doesn't happen to people we know. Unfortunately, here is someone who is acquainted with death at every turn. However, he doesn't seem to mind it so much."

'An undertaker?'

Kaito chuckled inwardly at his little joke.

"Here is someone who is known as the Modern-Day Holmes! The great detective of the East will now speak-"

Suddenly, the camera went to focus on a group of people and a police inspector was among them. A woman stood in the front, tears running down her face. Another man stood, looking scared.

"How was he killed? Did you do it, Okage-san?" A police inspector asked, pointing at the said man, scaring him.

"No, it wasn't Okage-san. It was someone else, you see. Someone whose hatred and desire for vengeance has blinded them to the truth. This person's name was...Masaki Takenaka-san. You were the one who murdered your husband, Keiichi Takenaka-san, right?"

"Yes," The woman said haughtily, "Why is that important?"

The voice scoffed, as though her statement was ridiculous to hear. "Why is that important? You took a life, and because of that, your life will never be the same again. You murdered him, and now your hands are stained with blood that will never be washed away. Take her away, Megure-keibu," The male voice said, sounding weary but stern at the same time. As the police hauled away the woman, the reporter's eyes gleamed in excitement at someone over in the corner.

"That person who spoke just now sounded rather young," Kaito remarked to himself.

"The high school detective-"

"Wow, he is pretty young. Probably around my age, if that," Kaito said, again to himself, wondering who it was. Was it Saguru?

"The high school detective, Kudou Shinichi is here! Kudo-san, would you like to stop for an interview!?" The reporter said.

"WHAT?" Kaito exclaimed in utter shock. He watched as his cousin appeared on the screen. A tall young man with spiky brown hair that hung in his face stood in front of the reporters with boredom evident on his features. Brilliant, intelligent blue eyes that looked like they could see through everything the world had to offer appeared as their owner looked all around, and then he seemed to stare right through the screen at Kaito for a moment before his eyes looked elsewhere.

"Thank you, Kudo-kun. You are always helping us out!" A portly inspector cried, before shaking his cousin's hand fervently.

"I'm merely delivering justice." Shinichi responded confidently before casting an interested stare in the reporter's direction, who looked absolutely thrilled at the fact that she was before a celebrity. "What do you want, Ms. Reporter?" He asked in annoyance.

"Well, Kudou-san, I was just wondering...how did you figure it all out? Why do you do this? I mean, what motivates you to be a detective?" The reporter asked.

"Well, a long time ago, something happened, and because of that something, I want to find the truth behind it. I want to stop all these people and make the world a better place." Shinichi said smoothly.

"Shinichi..." Kaito trailed off. He deeply missed his cousin, and seeing him now really brought home the knowledge of how much time had really passed. Shinichi and Kaito were less like cousins and more like brothers. They talked alike, thought alike, and knew each other's hopes and dreams so well that no one else mattered. "Shinichi..."

A smirk made its way on his face. "What would you think of me now?" His gaze turned to the mirror.

The door opened then to reveal Jiisan. "Isn't that Young master Shinichi?" He asked.

"It is," Kaito replied. What would you think of me now, Shinichi, if you could see the path I've gone down? Would you be proud of me, or would you be mad at me? Would you really hate me for following my heart as the phantom thief, Kaitou KID? Could you ever forgive me, or could you ever understand me?

"HACHOOOO!"

Shinichi Kudou sneezed and sat up in his bed. He brushed his messy brown hair out of his face and wiped his nose. "Aa, who the heck was thinking about me? Was it Ran? That's odd, for some reason, it felt like Kaito was thinking about me. Probably not. I miss him, though..." He trailed off.

He had heard of the phantom thief, Kaitou KID, before.

However, Shinichi was not interested in that sort of thing. He mostly helped Megure-keibu solve murder cases and save innocent people-or sometimes not-so-innocent people, Shinichi knew. Regardless, criminals were still as human as everyone else-he despised the thought of killing them. He vowed to never kill any human or living thing as long as he lived.

Yes, because of his viewpoint, Shinichi lived a tough life. Not many people understood him, and it was hard for him to get along with other people in life. Ran Mouri was one of his closest-and only friends, besides Kaito. However, he and Kaito understood each other far better than Ran ever would.

He had told her many times about his cousin, and she had listened to him. However, she had grown tired of hearing him babble on and on about him. That was because he was so fond of him that it really, truly hurt to have to move on without him by his side. Kaito... I miss you.

Shinichi...

Kaito, are you doing all right?

Shinichi, are you doing all right?

Would it even be possible...

that we could meet again?

At least his cousin was still here in Japan. Kaito was very relieved about that. That solved part of the mystery; though for what reason he had chosen to stay behind, Kaito had no idea.

Shinichi had decided to stay behind because he wanted to find his cousin. He also wanted to protect Ran and not leave her behind as well, but the main reason was because his cousin would be devastated if he moved away. His cousin was far away from him now, but that could change and Shinichi wanted to make sure he knew he was still here.

That was a fact that hurt him to the core. He'd never wanted to be parted from him. Kudou Shinichi wished only to be able to see his cousin Kaito again. It was one thing he desperately longed for; seeing Kaito, laughing over a joke about Sherlock Holmes, running away from Kaito after he would do some sort of magical prank on him, and taunting Kaito about fish...how he wished so much that they could be twin brothers. Then, they could be in a world of their own, without anybody else, without any adults interfering.

A/N:Sorry to interrupt, but when I wrote the first part of this chapter on paper, I wrote next to it: What's next, Bridge to Detective Conan-ithia? Thought I'd share that with you readers.

He'd gotten used to being in a world without Kaito. He'd sent letters to Kaito a few times and had called him. He had recently dialed Kaito's phone number a few months ago, and it hadn't worked. So his guess was that Kaito had given up hope on trying to find him. Well, Shinichi had also given up hope as well.

He didn't deserve to be with Kaito any longer. What the detective didn't know, however, was that Kaito had never stopped looking for him. He had just stopped trying. That in itself was even worse.

Shinichi was walking with Ran to school the next day and Ran happened to bring up Kaito's name in conversation.

Shinichi's face grew sad. "I don't know. Has Kaito moved on with his life? Has he forgotten about me?"