A/N: I'm actually several hundred episodes behind in DC/MK, but when I sat down to write I couldn't get Kaito and Shinichi out of my head. I've picked up some details from other fanfics, but I may not have up to date info.

Disclaimer: I don't own DC/MK in case there was any question about that.

Chapter 1: Imposter

Kaito watched as the soccer ball flew towards the goal at an alarming speed. Outwardly, having been dragged to the game against his will, he pretended to be bored out of his mind while he juggled 6 brightly colored balls. Internally however, he cringed as he saw the goalie move to intercept the soccer ball. If Kaito was being honest – and he was hardly ever honest - he felt sorry for the other teen. It would be the fourth time in the last 30 minutes the goalie had had the air knocked out of him; in two cases, literally leaving him gasping for air. "Ooof." The ball hit the teen once again, sending him flying backwards across the threshold of the goal.

The score ticked up once more. 4-0

The girl on Teitan high school's boys' soccer team was really very good. And not just at soccer. Her Kudo Shinichi disguise was almost flawless too. As a master of disguise himself, Kaito was impressed. He had noticed almost immediately that something was off, but it had still taken him a while to identify exactly what was wrong with the recently returned 'Detective of the East'.

If Kudo wasn't a detective, Kaito probably would have lost interest before he noticed the gender inconsistency. However, Kudo was in fact a detective. And if the blonde idiot sitting two seats down from Kaito was to be believed, Kudo was probably the best detective in the country. Which might cause problems for the country's favorite phantom thief, aka Kaitou KID, aka Kuroba Kaito, aka him.

It was actually a bit of a relief that Kudo was an imposter. KID normally kept a few dozen steps ahead of his police task force and the blonde idiot, but he had one critic that was always only a step or two behind. Edogawa Conan - who was by some miracle of science, actually the shrunken form of the real Kudo Shinichi - was always hot on KID's trail. A full sized Kudo might be trouble. Really, the only things that had been keeping KID safe so far were his much longer legs and an unspoken agreement that seemed to exist between the two of them. As long as KID never crossed certain lines, Kudo would let him go about his (mostly) victimless crimes.

Thinking about Conan almost brought a smile to Kaito's lips. Almost. If he weren't in the midst of pretending to be upset he would have just broken out into a face splitting grin. But as it so happened, the blonde idiot was watching him. Hakuba had no proof, but he was 99.999% certain that Kaito was in fact KID. So needless to say, he was watching Kaito's every move.

As a sharper gaze focused on Kaito he nearly dropped one of the balls he was juggling. The girl he had been watching was looking directly at him with narrowed blue eyes. She didn't look particularly pleased with him and her eyes never softened as they held each other's gaze. Kaito idly wondered how she had enough time to stare at him during the middle of the game before he realized that every player on the field had taken a knee. Six adults were all clustered around the downed goalie trying to assess his condition. It seemed after the last shot, the goalie had decided it was in his best interest not to get back up. Kaito really couldn't fault him for that. Conan had nearly taken KID out with a soccer ball on more than one occasion.

He watched warily as the girl's eyes shifted slightly, coming to rest on Hakuba. The blonde detective nodded to his fake peer. They seemed to have a silent exchange as the girl raised an eyebrow with a slight incline of her head. Hakuba glanced at Kaito before he shrugged and shook his head. The girl seemed to decide that meant Kaito was harmless because she turned away from him after that, her sharp gaze sweeping across the rest of the spectators.

Truthfully, Shinichi wasn't sure he should accept Hakuba's judgment that the wild haired teen in the stands was harmless. Hakuba was a good detective, but after spending two years on the run from a black organization, Shinichi just didn't feel all that trusting. Especially since the wild haired teen had been watching him almost the entire game.

That in in of itself wasn't all that odd. Shinichi had been the center of attention for the last few weeks. It just wasn't all that common for people to reappear after dropping off the face of the earth for two years. He had counted 13 people who hadn't taken their eyes off of him since he took the field. Being stared at really wasn't odd at all. The odd thing was that the wild haired teen was pretending not to be watching him. It took a fair amount of skill to watch someone without looking like you are watching them. That was what set Shinichi on edge. It wasn't a skill that someone picked up without needing to use it.

The sound of the referee blowing a whistle brought Shinichi's attention back to the soccer game. The goalie had been carried off the field by his coach and a new victim had taken his place. Shinichi felt a little bit bad about that. He really hadn't meant to hurt the goalie, but he still hadn't quite gotten a handle on his new body. Even if he was feeling at home in his new body – which he was decidedly not – the goalie might have suffered a similar fate. Shinichi was working out some 'issues' and kicking the soccer ball full force seemed to help for a few seconds at a time.

He had finally gotten an antidote to APTX 4869, aka that experimental poison that had taken 10 years off his age instead of killing him. Said antidote was supposed to return him to his correct age. And it had. Just like the poison itself, the antidote rewrote a portion of his body structure. It also suppressed his testosterone production.

According to Haibara, the creator of both the poison and the antidote, he was still technically him. His DNA was the same, but now he had… well… the wrong body. Not to say that waking up as a teenage girl was any worse than waking up in the body of a 7 year old. But there were certain facets of his new body that Shinichi wasn't quite comfortable with: his balance was wrong, he had to wear a disguise just to look like himself, and spending time around sweat drenched male soccer players was proving to him that pheromones were a dangerous thing. He would never let the coach talk him into 'helping out' the team ever again. Luckily it was only the one game.

At least now that Shinichi had locked eyes with the wild haired teen, the boy was openly watching him. It was far less distracting, but Shinichi still promised himself he would be finding out more about Hakuba's friends. Yes friends. If the brown haired girl sitting between Hakuba and the wild haired teen didn't look almost exactly like Ran, Shinichi might not have noticed the latter boy's attentions at all. It said something that only luck had alerted him to the potential threat.

Shinichi had actually met both of them before, though the boy's name eluded him. They had met at a Kaitou KID heist and he had seen them a few times after that. Of course at the time he was posing as pint sized detective Edogawa Conan, so Hakuba Saguru was the only one that Shinichi had ever met in his teenage form. Putting the thought aside, he focused back on the task at hand, winning the soccer game.

Kaito couldn't quite explain why, but it bothered him that an hour before his next heist, the fake 'Detective of the East' still hadn't made an appearance. Kaito had sat through the imposter's entire soccer game, but the fake couldn't be bothered to come to his heist. Of course, that might have just been Kaito deflecting blame.

His favorite little detective was also missing from the scene, Conan hadn't made an appearance for the last 3 months. It was getting to be a little unsettling… and boring. It just wasn't any fun running from people who had no chance of catching you. Not that Kaito wanted to get caught. He didn't. But he was so bored.

What the HELL?!

The sensation of being watched flooded over Kaito as he blended in with the members of his task force. It took a great deal of effort not to flinch and continue to act as if he didn't feel that sharp gaze threatening to rend him to pieces. Something about this gaze was different from anything else he had felt before. It wasn't hostile or appraising, so much as challenging and curious. It was almost like Conan's gaze, but somehow more intense, more demanding.

Kaito felt adrenaline surge through his body as he casually repositioned himself to look back at his observer. It didn't matter if she was in imposter or not. Kudo-chan was on to him, her startling blue eyes catching Kaito off guard.

Shinichi felt his pulse spike and his excitement grow as his eyes met KID's. Chasing KID had always been a thrill, but now that he was back in a teen sized body, he had been sure that he would be able to catch 'the magician under the moonlight'. As a matter of fact he had spent most of the last hour disabling traps that KID had placed. But the moment KID looked at him all of Shinichi's certainty evaporated. KID met his challenge head on with wide grin and a mischievous look in his eyes. Somehow Shinichi knew that KID had just decided to up his game.

A wink was the last thing Shinichi saw before the room was plunged into darkness. The damned thief had actually winked at him.

"Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, and of course my esteemed pursuers," illuminated only by moonlight KID paused to look around the room, "let's start the show." With that a single spot light fell on the thief as he balanced atop the display case for an emerald by the name of 'Summer's Envy'. "Tonight I will present you all with a sight that would make even this lovely emerald envious." He continued with a chuckle, waving a hand at the gem beneath his feet. A snap of his fingers filled the air with metallic butterflies as multicolored lights danced across their shimmering surfaces, filling the room with color. A wink of his eye and a tip of his hat preceded his customary smoke bomb.

"Outside teams report." Inspector Nakamori demanded as he moved towards the exit assuming KID had already fled.

No one answered, which was of course the plan. KID's little butterfly friends were actually exceptionally good at disrupting radio communications. They looked harmless, but any military commander would tell you that radio and radar alike would be useless until the butterfly shaped chaff finished fluttering to the ground.

The heavy silence from the radio was all that was needed to hasten the inspector's exit. Losing contact with your ground troops could be very dangerous after all.

Kaito watched out of the corner of his eye as Kudo-chan approached the display case to find two of the task force members lying unconscious. A third man was there too, trying to wake the others. Or at least that is how it would have looked to anyone else. "KID." The imposter said with a smirk tugging at the corners of her mouth. Kaito just looked up at her in confusion as he propped one of the unconscious men up against the display case.

The fake was dangerously good, Kaito decided as he pretended to measure the downed task force member's pulse. As the seconds ticked by Kudo-chan shifted her weight to rest on one hip. It was the first openly feminine thing Kaito had seen her do. "Even I can pick a lock faster than that." She informed him.

"It's much harder with only one hand." Kaito replied as he moved his second hand to join the first. The lock clicked open a few seconds later.

"You should have just used two hands to begin with." The imposter commented as Kaito flipped open the display case and gingerly plucked the emerald from its cushion.

"Wouldn't it look odd to use two hands to check someone's pulse, Imposter-chan?"

A mixture of surprise and… was that anger…? Flashed through Kudo-chan's eyes before she answered. "Wouldn't it look odd to check anyone's pulse at a KID heist? After all, no one ever gets hurt at one of your heists do they?"

KID's grin grew wider before it faltered for a split second and the thief launched himself at Shinichi. Not a half a second later Shinichi saw the muzzle flash out of the corner of his eye. The bullet embedded itself in the display case where KID had just been standing.

The phantom thief's momentum carried them both out of harm's way and down to floor. "Well that's new." He muttered under his breath as he pinned Shinichi to the ground. They were relatively safe behind another display pedestal, but if there was more than one shooter they might be in someone else's crosshairs.

"Looks like they gave up on the sniper approach." Shinichi replied as he pushed KID off him. "Not that it was a very effective approach… Still this is awfully brazen isn't it?" The thief's expression was unreadable, whatever was going on in his head hidden behind his legendary grin. "KID?" Shinichi questioned as he shifted around the thief to watch their backs. He wasn't really sure which of the two the gunman was actually aiming at - he had plenty of his own enemies -, but for the time being he was willing to believe it was the thief based solely on the first bullet's trajectory.

As if echoing Shinichi's thoughts KID spoke in a low whisper. "We should split up. I can draw them up the stairs, but I need you get everyone else out of the building. Hostages aren't an option, Imposter-chan."

"I disabled most of the traps in the stairwell." Shinichi relayed, earning himself a momentary glance from the thief. "There's hardly anything left that will slow them down."

"I wasn't expecting that from you Imposter-chan." KID answered thoughtfully, the expression on his face barely changing, the picture of unwavering confidence. "What did you leave?"

"Smoke bombs, some of the smaller dye traps, and there were two trip wires that I didn't have the time to investigate."

"Not very sporting of you fiddle with a magician's setup before his show." KID answered as he shifted his weight onto the balls of his feet and prepared for a flashy dash to the door.

"Wait." The feel of Kudo-chan's fingers on Kaito's neck was startling. But that was quickly eclipsed by the realization that the fake detective had just adhered a small tracking device under the collar of his shirt. "In case you need help." She told him before a firm push sent him into the gunman's line of sight.

"Tsk. Tsk. Guns aren't allowed at my shows." Kaito announced with a bravado that he shouldn't have been able to muster while staring down the barrel of a gun. That was probably just proof that he had been spending too much time as KID. Or maybe he had been trained to flee from soccer balls more readily than guns. Yep. That had to be it. Stupid Tantei-kun.