Category: I am publishing this under "Detective Conan/Case Closed" and not under "Magic Kaito/ まじっく快斗" because I believe the two should be combined category-wise.
Characters: The only characters in this story not of my own design are the Kurobas (Toichi, Chikage, and Kaito).
Disclaimer: I do not own the Kurobas: Rights go to Aoyama-sama! I DID make the current cover art for this story.
Warnings: Rated M (or a strong T) for violence, mental illness of a child, pedophilia, mentions of rape, and child abuse. Does not contain descriptions of rape! (AKA: Kaito is not raped. I couldn't write that.)
A/N: This is not a story that is meant to be a real guess as to how Kaito developed Ichthyophobia. I have some good guesses for that, but this isn't one of them! This is a very-highly-unlikely possibility that wormed its way into my head, based rather heavily on my own fears as a caretaker. It was difficult to write this story. I cried a few times, so that happened... Anyway, on to the story!
Chapter 1: Boy-Scout
Kuroba Toichi may have masqueraded as an internationally wanted criminal on a monthly basis, and he may have also married a rather terrifying criminal as well... In fact, many of his friends had dealings outside of the law on a regular basis... But none of this meant that he was the type of man to sit back and watch others get hurt. He was a gentleman, and on more than one occasion both he and his wife had assisted in the arrest of other criminals. The particular, rather exclusive crime family he belonged to was a rather up-standing sort: They stole, borrowed, lied, caused more damage to private and public property alike then you could possibly even imagine... But they never really hurt anyone, nor did they aid in the harming of other people, and if ever they came across a situation where they could help prevent injuries, they would do so.
As such, while certainly nothing like a detective himself, one could say that the world-class magician sometimes had "cases" he worked. When he caught wind of a murderer on the loose nearby, or when he heard there might be some more dangerous monsters lurking about, he made it a habit to actively assist in their capture, especially when he figured that the criminals were not likely to be caught by the police alone.
He had his reasons for doing this. For starters, he cared when people got hurt. He was also territorial, and didn't appreciate other criminals working near his home. He was, despite what some people might have thought, a good man, regardless of his night-time activities.
But most of all, he wanted to create the safest world possible for his then four-year-old son Kaito to inherit. It was, after all, a father's duty, in part, to aid in the betterment of society. One of the many goals every good parent should aim for is to improve the world as a whole so that their children could live in a better world and lead better lives then they themselves had.
And so, Kuroba Toichi was on what some might call "a case." His wife called them "Boy-Scout Errands".
As was usual for whenever he decided to tackle a "Boy-Scout Errand," the task related closely to his own life and hobbies. In this case, he was sitting at a fellow magician's magic show, which doubled as a family friend's gathering for their youngest child's birthday party. His eyes scanned the room, lingering only for a moment on his son, who was currently playing tag with the other children his age, before continuing in their sweeping motion. At first the Kurobas were going to decline the invitation for this particular party, in part because Chikage was going to Italy for a friend's wedding, but then Toichi had realized that something strange and potentially bad might happen due to his most recent "case", and had decided to attend regardless.
And Kaito simply insisted on coming. Toichi was almost fond of how convincing his offspring could be at times, despite his youth.
Toichi glanced again at his laughing wild-haired son and smiled.