Disclaimer: All characters from Meitantei/Detective Conan and Magic Kaito are the intellectual properties of sir Gosho Aoyama.

Author's Notes: This would be my first attempt at writing a work of fiction involving Detective Conan and Magic Kaito rolled into one.

As this narrative is set in an alternate universe setting, I will have to tell you that several things will be changed from canon: Pandora's immortality is explainable through science, Akako doesn't participate in the arcane and whatnot.

For me, in order for MK to mesh into the DC canon more closely, I had to strip off the fantasy elements from it and turn it into something fleshed out in facts and science.

** I have based the modular software described in this chapter from the infamous Flame virus which was used to sieve off confidential information from Middle Eastern countries.

** Knowing about telomeres and their role in aging was just something I've studied in 1st Year Biology in university.

With that aside, I hope you guys enjoy this chapter as much as I have enjoyed writing it. Your reviews would be highly appreciated guys.

PS: It would be also nice if you guys could try and attempt to solve Kaitou Kid's riddle and tell me what type of gems Pandora consists of, what date and what time the heist would occur.

Edited: 01 Sep 2014

Word Count: 3, 268

Of Mysteries and Thievery

Chapter 1

By birth, the Ox in the pasture and the Tsar of Liberation were destined to meet. The unripe fruit basks in the sun but the pit bleeds scarlet under the evening sky. When the Twins first come out to play, I will make my move. For when the hour strikes that the second precedes the first and the image in the looking glass flashes a nickel and a dime, I will come and lay claim on the forbidden fruit from within the citadel of tyrants.

-Kaitou Kid

Setting a pen aside as the finishing strokes of his alter ego's insignia were carefully laid down on paper, Kaito had to wonder if he'd gone too far with this latest riddle.

The heist notice in question was—for most parts—similar to the previous ones. It consisted of flowery prose vague and convoluted enough to be deemed nonsensical by those uninclined to do a bit of legwork themselves. Those who were drawn to such mysteries presented by his previous exploits—namely Nakamori-keibu and Hakuba—would attempt to solve it, get halfway through it then find themselves flummoxed and halted in their tracks.

Only one person would eventually stitch the strings of words together into a meaningful construct. However, going by the amount of information he'd just uncovered yesterday, he couldn't afford to explicitly reveal the identity of his target. Not to him. Certainly not to them.

Much as he would've loved to spar with a certain chibi-tantei, he wasn't just going to give the jewel's name away that easily and allow the other boy the satisfaction of thwarting this upcoming heist as he skilfully did so time and again in the past.

There were just too many things at stake if he encountered even a single hitch during this one. With them having attempted to assassinate him several times now, self-preservation was finally at the top of Kaito's priorities.

In a sense, he penned this particular manifesto with the intent of letting them know he held the royal flush this time around. He was going to crush the sole purpose of their organisation's existence without them being able to do anything in order to stop him.

Not this time.

Justice will be served and the world will be rid of such vile people willing to callously kill others for the sake of attaining life eternal.

Call his actions uncouth as much as you like, but the adolescent thief had his reasons. After pulling off one heist after another, Kaito had begun to concede of his helpless and reluctant disposition against the mantle forced upon his shoulders.

He saw himself powerless; alone in the fight against the organisation which took away his father's life.

None of his targets so far had been that accursed gem. What he'd been looking for was as elusive as ever. It remained out of his reach; taunting and jeering him for his efforts. And seemingly just to spite him further, it had kept him at bay from gaining back the normalcy he so much desired and longed for dearly.

He'd become a prisoner of his father's past; blindly following the footpath laid down before him due to the initial, alluring thrill it provided. But as time wore on, he unwillingly took on the form of a silent and forlorn outcast.

He'd had to keep up all his sorrows and frustrations all to himself. Afraid of hurting the ones he truly loved the most; he was unable to share his burden with anyone else in fear of getting caught. And much as he would've denied it, he was terrified of the prospect of losing her because of the sins he'd had to commit against the law.

For the longest time, he had to suppress the emotion of unbelief eating away at him. His father's death should've given enough gravity to fuel Kaito's cause. Nonetheless, uncovering the circumstances behind his father's murder ultimately led him to look for immortality in the form of some liquid which just so happened to be conveniently sealed away in a crystal doublet.

The notion in and of itself was ludicrous. It went against every logical and scientific knowledge the youth had accumulated throughout his young life. Goodness, even the art of magic had been founded on techniques involving sleight-of-hand, deception and utilising the mind's ways of tricking itself into seeing what it wanted to see!

However, two of his most recent findings proved to be most interesting to say the least. They had served as the missing pieces of the puzzle at hand; falling into place and providing the means for Kaito's resolve to crystallise out of a sea of doubt.

Yesterday, as he'd been sifting through countless pages of returned search results containing the terms immortality and crystal, Kaito had almost overlooked two incriminating documents lying around in cyberspace if he hadn't been alerted by the sophisticated algorithms enclosed in a software package Jii had managed to procure for him within this week.

As good as a hacker Kaito might've been, the teenager had to acknowledge his lack of expertise in coding a constantly adapting program that he'd needed; one which was suited to filter out inconsistencies and anomalies throughout the internet and mostly importantly the deep web without getting itself compromised during the process.

Even as a red flag was beginning to be raised in his mind, Kaito hadn't allowed himself to jump into any conclusions regarding the files and where they were being hosted. There were too many variables he still had to take into account before reaching a definitive answer.

Being of suspicious nature alone couldn't have cut it anymore given that around this day and age, it was not uncommon to find documents and websites hosted on servers protected by some form of security. With government agencies and the like, it even became a standard protocol for servers to be fortified enough to fend off potential malicious software acting as espionage tools by belligerent governments or terrorist groups.

That being said, he realised this specific server wasn't directly accessible through legal means. Nor was it government owned.

The IP address constantly changed at a highly erratic interval; initially leading him to believe that an advanced form of an IP scrambler was used to do the trick. If not for the fact that Kaito was using a customised search engine, the files' host would have remained untraceable.

Based on the analyses provided by the 'loaned' program at Kaito's disposal, however, this was—in actuality—the doings of a complicated network of proxies intricately branching out and looping in and amongst themselves; infinitely redirecting anyone who tried to gain unwanted access to the server it cocooned through direct means.

Adding to the increasing deck of evidence, there was neither a domain name nor a web address of any sorts attached to the server. It was connected to the web without truly getting entangled in the hustle of its activities. Duly noted, this was something that further caught his eye, much like the glimmer of a misplaced mirror refracting light in the middle of a novice magician's performance.

As Kaito had observed, scientific foundations, especially the ones involved in some form of biological based research would have had websites stating their nature and intentions. With petty egos to stroke and reputations at stake, most—if not, all—of these groups would've ensured their achievements and endeavours were ingrained into the minds of the wider community to garner their ardently desired accolades.

It had taken some time before it became wholly apparent to Kaito that, unlike these organisations, utter anonymity must've been a main concern to those who owned this server. Such was the motive and precise nature behind it that one possibility rang true for him above all else. Whatever information those two files contained about immortality were acquired through illicit means. And by illicit, the dark-haired youth had been inferring to serious breaches over ethical barriers.

Judging by the file size of the documents alone, it would've been safe to assume that a fair amount of data had been stored in each one. If this was the case, then a great deal of research would've been undertaken to gather such data. Funding was synonymous with research and meant that this group had to find a way of gaining it while remaining completely anonymous.

From the meagre clues Kaito had gathered, it couldn't have been them. The modes by which they work were—at best—rudimentary and out in the open.

Whether it was an individual or an organisation, there was no doubt that someone else was searching for a way to obtain immortality. A mark of subtlety and planning was written over everything related to this other entity.

Nevertheless, subtlety only went so far to hide one's tracks. To have been under the radar of the program employed by Japan's Public Security Intelligence Agency—the same one Kaito had been using—was a harrowing testament to their far-reaching influence.

If they did not have some of their own people stationed within the agency, there was no way they could have kept their server under wraps for such a length of time. With realisation dawning on him, Kaito had to grudgingly wonder, just how deeply entrenched were these people inside the Japanese government.

With his attention thoroughly piqued, the boy began looking for a way to retrieve those documents. Never missing a beat, his mind had shifted its focus on the task at hand and set to work. Indigo depths stared at the screen intently; the teenager's focus constantly shifting from the main program window to the analytical tests running along to its side. His eyebrows were furrowed; his body stock still in concentration.

Though seemingly impregnable, a network of proxies with such a high complexity meant that there was a far higher probability Kaito would encounter a flaw he was able to exploit to weasel his way through. The question was: how could he have approached it without running into the risk of being detected?

Surely, there must be a way, the boy had asked, letting out a sigh audibly marred by slight frustration.

Deep in thought, his eyes flickered ever so slightly as he searched through the recesses of his mind in an attempt to find an answer; even something remotely connected would have served as a starting point.

Security, he had thought aloud with a sharp gasp.

One word was all it had taken for Kaito's mind to trace a path along its own neural circuitry; connecting seemingly unrelated mental cues into a surprisingly coherent solution.

A faint smile of satisfaction had crossed the adolescent's lip; his eyes bearing discernible glints of mischief and determination in them. Of course! If he'd managed to routinely make his way past Inspector Nakamori and his police squad by donning guises, there was enough of a reason to believe something similar could be achieved within cyberspace.

Now that he had a set goal in mind, it had become easier to envisage the steps he had to undertake to achieve his goal.

His fingers began to quickly tap away at the keys of his keyboard with precision and purpose. Quite a few more keystrokes later and he had completely transformed his good, not-so-old, computer into a proxy server that was—according to his 'borrowed' program—in accordance and identical to the ones in the server's main line of defence.

Keeping in mind that he had to infiltrate the server and extricate himself out of it as quickly as possible; Kaito had forced himself to ignore his misgivings and proceeded to integrate his computer into the network with much urgency. After a few punctuated mouse clicks within the 'leased' government security program, he had managed to inactivate one of the proxies with relative ease.

It then came as such a panic for the dark-haired youth when it had taken far longer for his computer to connect to the network under the assumed identity of the temporarily incapacitated proxy.

Kaito's breath had painfully hitched below his throat; a sense of trepidation having tainted his consciousness. Several scenarios began to toy with his already declining composure; each one of them a morbid consequence of being found out by this other syndicate. Fear of the unknown, as it was, had a far greater toll on the teenager's psyche than any fixed terror—namely fish—could have ever presented.

Only when the words 'Connection Successful' had appeared in bold typography as a notification on the computer screen was the boy able to regain his breath back and gather enough of his wits to resume what he had already started.

Navigating through the maze of proxies to reach the actual server would've aroused suspicion and costed him precious time; something which he had very little to start off with. Instead, Kaito had opted to deploy the government-coded modular reconnaissance software in his possession. It had several components which enabled it to bypass any security software and allow unrestricted access to the compromised system for anyone in control of it.

As a consequence, Kaito had managed to trace the location of the host server without the need to venture out and successfully retrieved a copy of both files while remaining completely hidden. Having accomplished what he had set out to do, the adolescent sent a short string of command lines to the software.

Moments later, the program had self-destruct; leaving no trace of recoverable information that may have been used for forensic testing.

Having disengaged entirely from the server and its primary system of defence, the boy had immediately begun to check the files for any countermeasures the owners had set in place to keep the files from being read. Running it through the 'loaned' program, Kaito had found it quite a pleasant surprise to see how the files were neither booby-trapped nor encrypted.

Perhaps, it was to be expected. The chances of any civilian having a copy of the program used by the country's national agency were truly minute. The probability that that someone was the using the said program to specifically search for anomalous websites related to immortality or a crystal doublet defying scientific and medical limitations was far slimmer.

For such a cautious entity, it seemed that they had either allowed themselves to slip into a false sense of security or had not foreseen such an improbable scenario occurring. Whichever oversight it might have been, copies of the documents were now in the hands of someone else.

With nervous anticipation, Kaito had opened one of the files and began to read it. Poring over the contents, the teenager had soon stumbled upon the discovery that this other organisation was looking for Pandora as well. Unlike him, however, these people had more than just an inkling of what they were looking for. The document contained extensive notes expounding the possible identity of the gem that indirectly took away his father from him.

As it turned out, most of the things he knew about it—which had been already quite meagre—had turned out to be wrong. The teenage magician was truly startled at how much subterfuge and wilfully wrong hearsays this organisation had been spreading in order to mislead them and anyone else who had been trying to find the doublet.

The mechanism for it to be recognised was different from what he had been told or what he had been expecting all this time.

Holding the doublet up to the full moon and watching the central jewel magically glow scarlet wouldn't have constituted anything to aid in its discovery; nothing would have happened. Such a test had been merely one of this other syndicate's many ruses in its far reaching web of lies.

This didn't necessarily mean that the night wasn't involved in any form however. Rather, it did play a significant role.

Only in the darkness of the evening did anyone truly have a proper reason to use candles as a form of light source. As it was, the incandescence it produced held the key in identifying the gem Kaito was after.

Nonetheless, the common candle's wick and flickering flame had been long exchanged for the luxury offered by electrically sustained fluorescent lamps. Such was the lighting used in modern museums that no one would have detected the colour changing crystal safely encased within another. Using society's open-armed embrace of progress only served to demonstrate the cunning behind this other group and how dangerous of a foe the youth could be potentially facing.

Having Pandora restricted down to three possible candidates was all well and good. It would have meant that his unwanted and unwelcome life of crime would soon come to an end. Respite and the desperately awaited egress to freedom were now knocking at his doorsteps; offering such a beguiling life of peace and relative quiet. There was no need for him to have meddled further with the scientific research included in the document he had been viewing for quite some time. All he had to do was single out Pandora, destroy it and draw the curtains of phantom thief's era to a close.

But being the overly inquisitive person that he was, Kaito couldn't have satiated his mental appetite by just knowing which precious stone he had set out to crush. His intuition was telling him that this other organisation must have a deeper agenda than they did. Why go through all the trouble of trying to identify the biochemistry involved in achieving immortality when a person only has to take it once to overcome the inevitable death brought about by senescence?

Having this thought in mind, he'd pressed on reading. Pages upon pages of scientific knowledge detailed what a telomere was and its connection to reaching biological immortality. He'd learnt that telomeres were repetitive nucleotide sequences at the end of chromosomes that acted as buffers and prevented genetic information from being lost in the replication process. As time progressed, however, these protective features end up getting fully consumed and ultimately halt cell division in its tracks.

Although this may have been the case for most cells in the body, certain types of cells were able to continue to divide due to the activation of an enzyme complex collectively referred to as telomerase. The enzyme enabled chromosomes' telomeres to be lengthened—effectively barring the effects of aging indefinitely. Going by the information he had read up to this point, this other organisation believed that the 'elixir' Pandora contained had the properties of circumventing this biological obstacle of telomerase activation being narrowed down to select types of cells.

By the time he had finished reading the first file and looked at his digital clock, the teenager had seen that it was well into the early hours of the morning. As much as he would've wanted to mull over the possible answers to his earlier self-raised question, he still had to study later that day—as it was technically tomorrow already at this point in time.

With the sudden feeling of fatigue washing over him, he'd resigned to turn off his computer and resume what he'd begun after attending school.

Making his way out of the secret room his father had concealed behind a rotating trapdoor disguised as a harmless portrait, Kaito had unceremoniously plopped himself onto the bed without bothering to jump into his usual nightwear of blue and white striped pyjamas. Lying on his stomach, the mechanics of telomere elongation and Pandora were the last things his mind had tried to hold onto before oblivion took over.