Kaito sat on a rooftop, watching the sun set with a gleam in his eyes. Soon, in less than an hour in fact, he would be stealing yet another Pandora candidate from its holders to inspect and return. All in all, a fairly pointless endeavour. And yet… He smiled to himself, the thrill of the heist always drew him back even if the leads to his father's murder culprits never lead to anything substantial.

He looked at his watch, and grinned. Half an hour till show time. With no fanfare, he moved towards the stairway and left the rooftop to move to his heist.

Hakuba watched the gem carefully from across the room. Kid, or as he knew him to be Kaito Kuroba, would be arriving soon. And he knew exactly what he was going to do. A quick dose of magic, a chase, a fake disguise, and then a rooftop ritual. It was the same formula every time, but that didn't make a difference to how easy he was to catch. He was like a puzzle, a Rubik's cube that had far more squares than could be considered reasonable for anyone to solve.

Of course, he smirked to himself, that was part of the trouble with him. Like a Rubik's cube, an unsolvable mystery would always tempt him closer. He pulled out his pocket watch. 10 minutes to go. He started patrolling the edges of the room, scanning for Kaito's form. He could be anything but shorter than himself, so he knew he could eliminate all shorter than 5 foot 8. Gender was irrelevant, and so was weight and other factors normally used.

He shook his head clear, and strode over to the case inspecting it. No good. As he had assessed previously, this wouldn't hold him back for even a moment. Fancy lock? Sure. Just not gonna hold that thief back for very long, and that reinforced plexiglass could do nothing against the over glorified cat burglar's schemes.

He looked over to Nakamori, who gave him an annoyed, but reluctant nod. This plan was as out there as any of them they had tried, and had the same miniscule chance of success. He drew his greatcoat closer to him, and hopped up onto the container. 30 seconds to go.

Hakuba swept his gaze across the crowd, his pocket watch ticking steadily, rhythmically in his hand. It informed him of his steady resolve, and as it clicked closer to point zero he felt his heartbeat increase. His eyes locked with two steady blue ones shaded underneath a baseball cap.

Three seconds to go, and the eyes flashed lightly with an inner fire as a smirk found its way onto both of their faces. They had found each other. And now, the chase would begin, there was no turning back.

For a moment, the lights flashed out and then there was too much- far too much light. Hakuba pulled his arm up to cover his eyes. He looked down, and the gem seemed to be gone. He looked up, and was met with his classmate's face. Obscured by the shading and aftereffects of the mild flash bomb and that ridiculous gravity defying monocle, but definitely Kuroba's. A grin formed, and then it and the face it hung on was gone. Hakuba's eyes took a moment to adjust, realising the thief had flipped in some unknown direction and was probably finishing his plan to steal the gem as he spoke.

Hakuba jumped off the plexiglass cube, to check the gem and determine what to do next. Kid apparently had the same idea judging by the white gloved hand slipping easily through the glass as though it were water. Hakuba eyed it, and assessed his options quickly. He could leave the thief now and head to the roof to wait for him trusting the police and the thief to be predictable as usual. Or, he could wait for the thief to decide first and follow his every move. Give him half a second ahead and that would be enough time for the thief to get a 'safe' distance away.

Yes... The third option sounded like a good one- it would enable more chance of holding a conversation with him before he soared away on those white wings of his. The thief pulled his hand away, the gem and its lovely blue metal cradle taken through a barely noticeable hole and flap in the plexiglass. Likely premade. Hakuba schooled his features into a mask of confidence, took a breath, and then he was off.

The thief's coattails and cloak flapped around stairwell edges and fueled him onwards, forcing his legs to move faster and he was nearly upon him. Hakuba stopped himself- knowing that the Kuroba would be the sort to turn mad and jump off a cliff rather than be cornered on one. It wasn't a good idea to get too physically close to him- he would run if he smelt a threat in the air and had no reason to stay. The only way to corner him was with bait, and since Hakuba didn't have any today…

Well, he'd just have to hope for good luck for a chance to question his classmate, wouldn't he? He slinked forward slowly, intending to watch him from the shadows for a moment and interrupt him after he was done with his odd little routine. Of course, it seemed the universe had other plans.

The door slammed open, and Hakuba found himself being pushed aside by a flabby hand. "KID!" Hakuba almost turned an exasperated look to the man who so rudely shoved him out of the way, but made certain to restrain his expression to a presentable surprised look. That was quickly frozen in place when he saw the gun waving wildly in the collector's hand.

Overweight, a face resembling an overcooked potato rolled in dirt, and thoroughly pissed off, he was certainly a sight to see. Topped with the gun, it made for an almost comical image. Kid, strangely, didn't seem too worried by the sight of him. Prepared, he thought idly, described Kuroba's attitude better, if such a look could be described.

"Ah, I haven't seen many guns lately! Are you with Snake-san?"

The collector almost seemed thrown off, but didn't let that stop him. "Who the hell is this 'Snake-san' you damned thief? Give me back Tierschatz- or I'll blow your brains out!"

Kid tutted, "Well if you don't know Snake-san, then I'm afraid my time is far too precious to waste with you. Now, if you'd be so kind as to allow me to leave-"

"Of course I won't! What do you think this is- the queen's palace? I ain't gonna be so stupid as other collectors and allow you to return a fake!"

Eyes narrowing slightly, Kid breathed a deep breath of air in, and let it out with a relaxed, only slightly strained version of his normal grin fixed shakily in place. "Why, I'm insulted. I am as honest a thief as you'll find. Now if you'll excuse me I really ought to be going- places to be, people to see, you know how demanding schedules can be."

The collector growled, "It's nearly midnight you fool. The only ones up are us." With that said, he cocked his gun and aimed. Kid promptly flipped himself backwards off the roof edge and Hakuba had to forcefully hold back the yell that wanted to erupt from his lips.

Bang.

There was a blinding flash of light that didn't affect him and for a minute he wondered why, and then the collector was holding his eyes with one hand and waving the gun madly in the air and swearing to himself all the while. Hakuba strode over to him quickly, put some gloves on, and plucking the gun from his hand before promptly slapping handcuffs on to him.

"You're under arrest for attempted murder and illegal firearms, or you will be when I get you to the police."

"That thief had it coming to him!" the collector bit out sharply.

Hakuba shook his head and sighed, dragging the man by the handcuffs into the building and into Nakamori's waiting arms. He almost pitied the ear lashing the man would get for his stupidity.

Almost. At the moment, he was too preoccupied with thoughts of Kid's welfare, and whether or not the bullet had hit him. If it had… he wasn't sure what he would do.

A.N

So. Here it is! This rewrite and plot extension is gonna be done in its entirety by November 30th, but weekly updates every Tuesday to reduce risk of burn out.

Thanks so much for keeping with me.

See you next Illusion, (but I'll PM you if you review with progress updates each day)

Core.