Chapter 1- Graveyard visits

A young man walked through the desolate rows of family graves, head bent as if to shield himself from the autumn breeze. He registered the stone memorials with a slightly mournful look before he hastened to his destination, only taking a second to wrap his coat tighter around him. He finally stopped at one stone memorial, one that looked very much like the rest of the other memorials in the graveyard, albeit the name carved into the face of it: Kuroba Toichi.

"Oyaji…" Kaito murmured with a wistful tone, staring at the stone face with melancholy. He carefully placed a bouquet of gladiolas, chrysanthemums and pink carnations in the vase that were provided and lit a couple sticks of incense, inserting them into the container beside it.

"It's been a while, Oyaji." Kaito stated plainly, allowing his arms to drop to his side as he stared at his father's grave. "A lot has changed since last year, the last time I came to visit you." Despite it being years after his father had died, Kaito still found it hard to communicate his words like this. His words always lodged in his chest, leaving a heavy and bitter taste in his mouth. After all, it reminded Kaito of all the things that Kaito would never say to his father, or the words that his father would never get to say in return.

7 years earlier…

Kaito stared dejectedly out the window from the windowsill, the world seemingly leached of all colour, leaving only the monotonous tones and shades. It had been a year since his father had died, that terrible and memory scarring day. It had been a year in which he barely responded unless spoken to and he lacked the animated gusto that he once had when his father had been alive.

It was a cold October day, the wind picking up slightly. And it was also the day that Kaito hated most.

"Kaito… Are you ready?" His mother's voice called out from downstairs, breaking Kaito from his morbid reverie. He nodded curtly, even though he knew that his mother couldn't see him and grabbed his scarf from the chair, winding it around his throat.

"Hai…"He answered tonelessly back as he trudged down the steps. His mother gave him a smile before extending her hand out for Kaito to hold onto, which he did hesitantly.

"How has those magic tricks been coming along?" Chikage asked, a vain attempt to strike a conversation with her son. Kaito shrugged impassively in response. He didn't particularly want to tell her that he hadn't been doing magic recently. What was the point? He thought. There's no point if I can't share the dream with Oyaji. The rest of the journey was accompanied by an almost awkward silence until they reached their destination.

Kaito hated coming here, with their intimidating ashen pillars looming above him. The wind blew and Kaito shivered, not from the cold but the thought that the wind was almost like the dead's whispers. He couldn't bear to think that his dad was now not a part of this world. He wanted to forget everything: the pain of losing his father, the dreams he once had. Everything.

He remembered watching his father's show on television, the fascination as he pulled off stunts and tricks that befuddled even critics who were looking on, the elation as his father accomplished the near impossible and the pride that surged through him after every trick.

"That's my dad!" He had yelled, pointing at the screen as if there was someone next to him that needed to be persuaded.

But that delight soon burned up, like gasoline over dry wood. One trick backfired terribly, leading to an inferno which engulfed the stage.

"We're here, Kaito." His mother gently said, slowly unclasping her hand from his, startling him from the flashback of fire and screams. She lay a small polystyrene box before the gravestone and smiled nostalgically.

"I brought your favourite buns from that Chinese takeaway from around the corner. I don't know if you are being fed up there as well as you were here, so take it as a treat." She said, smiling at the name engraved. She suddenly scowled before she dug in her pockets. Her hand eventually emerged from her pocket with a white cotton handkerchief.

"Are you even taking care of yourself, Anata? Your gravestone is so dirty." She exclaimed, wiping at the gravestone and its surroundings. Kaito felt tears spring up from the back of his, but he refused to let them fall.

"I hope you're not flirting up there! You have to wait for me. I won't forgive you if you've run off with someone else." Chikage spouted suddenly, a small joking smile across her face. At this, Kaito curled his fingers into a small tight fist, which trembled with the effort and left his fingernails digging into the palm of his hand.

"How?..." he asked, his voice quavering slightly. "How can you act so carefree, as if Oyaji was still alive? Is it some joke to you? Or have you already completely forgotten about him? Do you even miss him at all?!" He demanded, looking up at his startled mother with defiant eyes, his voice cracking with grief. His mother's eyes softened and she kneeled down to his level. She took hold of her son's wrist and drew him to her chest, where for the first few seconds, he stood still and stiffened.

"I do miss him. Terribly so… And no, to answer your question. I haven't forgotten him. I've just accepted the fact and moved on. I still remember him, of course. But instead of the ripping sadness I experienced in the weeks after his death, I now remember him with a fond melancholy. It's still there but it has gotten better. That's the way he would have wanted us to remember him." She said softly, rubbing Kaito's back to soothe him. Yet Kaito still refused to let the tears fall.

"I want to forget the pain. I want to forget everything…" He mumbled, his vision blurring up with unshed tears. His mother shook her head and held his shoulders.

"No, Kaito. That won't do at all. There's a reason why we bear the burden and why we remember, even if it's horrible to experience. It's to preserve the lost in our minds. But if you forget, they will truly be forgotten and no-one will carry on the great stories about the people we love. So in some odd sense, you need the pain because with time, it becomes one of fondness and nostalgia." She replied, taking her child back into an embrace. With this, Kaito finally let out a strangled sob and buried his head into his mother's shoulder. At this age, he was aware that he was a bit too old to cry so openly, but he just didn't care.

"Your father had the amazing ability to make people smile. And because of that, everyone around him always smiled and laughed and he ended up being just as happy as those that he made smile. It became part of his code of how to be happy. He would hate seeing you like this. So cheer up. Make some people smile and when they do, think of your father. For as long as someone smiles due to your actions, he will always be there." She murmured softly, her son's sobs coming to a halt and his eyes widened as he took in the words.

"As long as someone smiles, he will always be there…" he echoed back and it finally hit him. He would try to make people laugh and smile for the rest of his life in order to achieve that small connection with his father. He stayed there, his head propped on his mother's shoulders and smiled slightly, sniffling as one might do when one's finished crying.

"Thank you, Kaa-san. I'll remember that…" He mumbled softly and his mother smiled in relief.

"Not at all. I'm glad that it's helped you…We have to get going, Kaito. It's already three in the afternoon." His mother exclaimed, looking at her watch with surprise. She held out her hand for Kaito to take, and he did so, not before wiping his nose with his sleeve.

"I really wish you didn't do that. Do you want to be wearing the same piece of clothing which you just wiped your snot on?" She asked, with a slight tone of distaste and exasperation. Kaito shrugged in response and looked up at his mother with an apprehensive smile, his face still streaked with tears. They left the graveyard hand in hand, laughing and discussing what to have for dinner, all of the previous anguish faded, like morning fog against the blaring Sun.

Back to present day…

Kaito opened his eyes from that memory, taking a deep inhale to calm himself down. He had kept to that promise to himself since that day. It was the reason he pranked so much and joked on everyone. There was no point dwelling on the past and being upset about it. He let out a heavy sigh before continuing with what he was saying.

"Do you remember, two years back, when I confessed about knowing you were the original Kaito Kid? And that I had found the men who killed you?" He asked, his fingers curling into a tight ashen fist at the memory of Snake and his colleagues. "Well….It's over. I can officially say that it is over. Pandora… has been found." Kaito confessed, smiling tiredly as he raked his hand through his already unruly hair.

"It turned out to be in the world's largest ruby, which meant that its red glow when held up to the moonlight wasn't as strong. I only found it when I was scouting the heist stop with Aoko, when I noticed something dark inside the gem. I found that moonlight was best but candlelight would also work. It was a good thing that the display had real candles around the ruby. I mean Oyaji, you should have seen it! It was so ostentatious and showy! As if it wanted to be stolen." He laughed, remembering the flashy display of the ruby.

"So later that night, I sent out a note informing the owner of what was inside, with a riddle, mind you. That piqued their interest and it also meant I had one less thing on my ever growing criminal list. The owner agreed to open up the ruby to see what was inside, although with a huge sum of money in return. And also, I sent a notice to the Tokyo Metropolitan about The Syndicate. As it turns out, Tantei kun, also had a similar problem. Do you remember me telling you about him? An interesting case, that kid." He said, thinking back to his miniature rival who was the one of the only people who was on par with him in intellect.

He remembered how his glasses would reflect the light in such a way that it shrouded his eyes, or the smirk he wore when he solved one of his notes or the method behind his tricks. It was as much fun for Kaito as it was for the chibi detective.

"Around the same time that I sent out the note, Tantei kun was dealing with those insane people that tried to blow me up. I helped him take That Organisation down, and since the two organisations were interlinked, he was effectively doing me a huge favour by destroying Them, so I didn't ask for anything else."

"So with the Organisation down and Pandora's secret still unknown, as well as no casualties, I say this was a success. Just yesterday, I performed my last ever heist. Tantei kun figured out my identity during this time. Turns out he's not actually a seven year old. He's seventeen but stuck in that body due to an untested drug by That Organisation. I told him my reason for stealing and though he was shocked, he let it slide. So the suit has been taken down and stored away. My days as a thief are over… Actually, I'm still keeping the suit. I think I look dashing in it." He stated, a cheeky smirk gracing his lips.

"That and I'm very tempted to don up the suit again when I feel bored. Poor Nakamori keibu is going to have no fun at all while I'm gone and I'll go mad out of my mind if there's no excitement. The excitement you get at a heist really is addicting…" he shrugged, thinking of the exhilaration of the chase, the adrenaline through his veins as he flew off into the night sky and the glee he felt after outwitting the entire third division. He glanced at his watch and took a double take.

"Shoot! I was so supposed to meet up with Aoko after this! Where has all the time gone, Oyaji? One minute I have a half an hour to be with you and the next it's gone! Anyway, I have some business to attend to…" he hastily said, quickly laying down the polystyrene box filled with buns from the same Chinese takeaway. He quickly gave a deep nod of his head before he left, almost bouncing in step. The trees swayed and in the distance, one could hear a wind-chime tingle from a nearby tree, no doubt put on by a small child. But as Kaito walked off, it was almost like the wind was whispering wishes of good luck for the soon to be childhood couple.

End

That was a lot harder than I thought it was going to be… Oh well, it's done. I've always been curious as to what Kaito felt during those times as a child. Just in case you didn't know, the flowers that Kaito brings all translate to a different thing in the language of flowers. Pink carnations stands for remembrance, gladiolas for sincerity and chrysanthemums for loss or grieving. Weird how I have the ending planned out but not the actual middle of it… Requests are welcome. Though they have to show the ups and downs of life, not just the good parts. I already have some ideas but having other people's input would be great.