Title: That Which Remains
Author: fluffypuppykins
Disclaimer: I don't own Detective Conan and the other anime.
Genre: Supernatural, Crossover, Angst
Pairing: eventual Kaito/Hakuba and some regular fannish other anime shounen ai pairings
Summary: Grabbing the Raven's Blood Ruby was a routine heist for the Kaitou Kid until Kaito delivered the heist note, then things got strange...

Prologue

"KAITOOOO, come back here!"

"What and get brained with that mop? No thanks..." Kaito said playfully as he launched himself from the ceiling to land a meter away from Aoko.

Aoko, however had practice with this kind of maneuver. She whipped up her mop, nearly tagging Kaito on his shoulder. Kaito recovered just in time to bounce away and the chase was on.

Chaos reigned as Kaito pulled one magic trick and another on their classmates as he ran from the infuriated girl. In other words, it was a normal day at Ekoda High, but Hakuba was concerned. The chase was not as fast as he was used to nor should Aoko had been able to get that close to Kuroba. But more seriously, there had not been a Kid heist in over four months. While the messy haired boy had never admitted to being the Kid, he was fairly certain of that fact.

Science never lies, and he fitted the profile to a "T" so what went wrong?

The last Kid heist was nothing unusual. The black-clad men which had taken to appearing in heists were blessedly absent and the Kid got away with margin to spare.

He got that amethyst quite easily...what I'd give to know how he had the whole Task Force groping the ladies, the department will be handling improper conduct complaints for months...and he managed the return with every bit of aplomb in Nakamori-keibu's underpants drawer... Could it be that he had achieved his objective?

That did not feel right either, and Hakuba if nothing trusted his gut feelings when it came to dealing with the elusive Kaitou Kid.

Could he be planning something big...bigger than any heist he's ever done so far? But that doesn't make sense either...

Deep in thought, he did not notice that the chase had just passed him. He ran a hand absently over his hear and and it felt oddly stiff and spiky. Hakuba may have prided himself on being a detective and having a mature composure but he was also a teenager. All his musings were forgotten in the light of this newest prank.

"Kurobaaaa!"

xxx

Kaito sighed as he settled down on his seat, he knew he was off his game, he had not had such close encounters with Aoko's mop since he was in grade school, but he could not help it. Hakuba was, no doubt, wondering what had gotten into him. And Akako...

"Something bothering you, Kuroba-kun?" Akako purred at his right.

Akako probably knows what it is...

The witch had a smug expression on her face.

"Not at all."

Akako just raised an eyebrow at him, perfectly content to look like a cat with a canary feather on her muzzle and a bowl of cream in front of her as she walked to her seat in the back.

Kaito kept his Poker Face on but sighed inwardly.

A good heist is what I need to clear the air...a normal heist, one that I have a chance in succeeding in not this current run-around that isn't getting me to my goal of finding the Pandora or getting Them...

Kaito had to admit that the owner of his current target, the Raven's Blood Ruby, had known what he was doing. For all Minamino Shuuichi was about the same age as Kaito, he had managed what the police had been unable to do. He had managed to keep his prized possession totally out of the Kaitou Kid's hands.

If I didn't know better I'd think he was a thief himself...but, nah, that's impossible... I would have heard of him long before if he was as good as that...It seems almost a game to him!

Good thieves have a way of knowing each other and Jii-san had kept his ear to the ground for Kaito. He would have been apprised if he had been going against another thief.

It doesn't look much of a ruby anyway...but it's the principle of the thing...

Kaito went over his latest heist plans in his mind.

Maybe ambushing him in the mall after an outing with his friends is unclassy as it comes but I'm running out of ideas and...

The sudden chill washed over Kaito making him feel as if he was back in the ocean like that one time on the Queen Elizabeth with the tantei-kun on his trail. This was one other odd thing that came with this particularly strange heist.

Masaka...not in school...I'm not going to look...I'm not going to look...I'm not going to look...I refuse to look...If I don't look...if I don't see it...it doesn't exist, right?

Kaito stared straight ahead only to have a blue "something" float across his field of vision. Hysterically, he noted that it was vaguely humanoid, had at least one extra appendage and the biggest floppy ears he had ever seen. His head moved involuntarily to follow it, groaning internally. Something itched at the back of his mind, telling him to confront whatever it was, not trusting the thing at his back but he knew better than to humor it.

No one else can see it, remember? They'll think you're nuts or something...

Then Akako blinked at it.

She can see it? There she goes again...

Akako scowled at it. It emitted a squeak and vanished.

"Ne, Koizumi-kun, is there something a matter?" Asked one of their other female classmates.

"Nothing, just remembered something I forgot to do." Akako's face smoothed back to her normal amiable mask as if nothing happened.

Koizumi-chan definitely knows what is happening to me...

Kaito shuddered, he knew that Akako practiced magic. Not the sleigh of hand he did but the one that involved cauldrons and wand waving. It was something he was fine with in abstract, as long as he did not have to deal with it himself.

My heist plans...think...heist plans...

The odds were if he played the game with Minamino-san to the end, all these delusions would disappear. He had begun seeing them shortly after he had sent that cursed heist notice. Surely, they will stop when he had played the game to the latter's satisfaction.

And those strange dreams...Everything will go back to normal when this heist ends...

That same niggling at his mind told him otherwise--that it was not like those illusions of spending a night in a fox spirit's dwelling and waking up the next day unchanged--but he could only hope.

xxx

Unnoticed, Hakuba noted the byplay wondering what it was all about.

-TBC-

Author's Notes:
Virtual Cookies for those who can guess what crossover this is.