The Kaito Went Down to Georgia

(He Was Looking for a Jewel to Steal)

Part 1

"Attention passengers, Flight no. 320 will be landing in Atlanta soon. The current time in Atlanta is 9:46 AM. Please return your trays to the upright position and put your bags underneath your chairs. All electronic devices should be turned off. Before exiting the plane, please remove your personal belongings from the seat pockets."

Now, y'all might be wondering, "Where is this and who is this guy?" I'll get to that soon enough. 'Cause before we get to Hazzard, there's a couple things to get out of the way.

Kaito Kuroba awoke to the sound of the pilot's voice coming through the loudspeakers. He had slept for almost the entire flight from Seattle. Why couldn't my target be located on the west coast of the U.S.? The flight from Tokyo to Seattle was long enough already. He thought back to all the research he'd done in preparation. This was the first time he had ever left Japan for a heist, but from the research he'd done, it was very possible that the watch of Stonewall Jackson could be exactly what he was looking for. It met all the criteria to be the Pandora: embedded inside of the watch's crystal face was a large diamond, and according to the ownership information he'd looked up, the watch was always kept locked inside a safe, where light couldn't touch it. According to Kaito's research, the watch was currently owned by the county commissioner of a place called Hazzard County. From what little he could find out, it seemed like a peaceful rural county with a tiny local police force. Kaito smirked. This is going to be insultingly easy.

After walking around the airport for an hour, Kaito had to wonder if he'd made a mistake in his research and if Hazzard County was even a place. None of the maps that Kaito found had Hazzard County on it, and when he'd asked the shuttle service if they had a shuttle there, the receptionist laughed and told him if she'd never heard of it.

"It's probably some tiny place out in the boondocks," the receptionist had told him.

He'd looked into renting a car, but he couldn't drive well nor did he have a license. Kaito had driven a few times in the past, but only if a disguise called for it. He didn't fancy the idea of driving all over Georgia looking for a town. Having a car would do him no good if he didn't know how to get to Hazzard.

Right now Kaito was in the main parking garage, trying to find a taxi. He doubted he had the funds for a taxi ride; the yen-to-dollars exchange rate had left him with much less money than he'd expected. Riding a taxi could get expensive if Hazzard County was far away, but it couldn't hurt to ask.

A gruff voice echoed across the concrete walls. "So these are the supplies we're supposed to take to Hazzard County?"

Kaito perked up on hearing this, and wove his wave through the labyrinth of cars. As he made his way towards the voice, he kept to the walls to make sure the speaker didn't see him eavesdropping. Not that it was really eavesdropping; everything echoed in this parking garage, so he could overhear the conversation even if he wasn't trying to. He stopped for a moment, hiding behind one of the pillars.

"Yeah, announce it to the whole airport, why don't you?" a second voice snapped. By now, Kaito was close enough that he could see the men speaking. They were parked in a corner of the garage, loading large boxes into the back of an 18-wheeler. "There, that's the last of 'em. Now let's scram before the staff comes over here."

Kaito watched from behind a nearby sedan as the truckers closed the back of the truck. The instant they disappeared inside the cab, he hurried to the back of the truck. Keeping out of the rearview mirror's sight, he lifted the metal bar holding the doors shut and pried the doors open. If these truckers were going to Hazzard, then he could catch a ride with them. Kaito nestled himself between two large boxes as the truck began to move. The boxes seemed to be secured, so getting crushed when the truck picked up speed wouldn't be an issue.

I'll have to find a way to get back to the airport, but I'll sort that out later. For now, the hardest part of this heist is behind me.

Author's Comments

Earlier I was thinking about how when Kaito Kid does one of his thefts, it's usually in a city. This got me thinking, "What would happen if one of his targets was in the middle of nowhere?" I thought more about where the story would be set, and began going about brainstorming a setting and characters. Shortly after, a better idea came to me. A place in the country where bizarre crimes are the order of the day: Hazzard County.

Hence how you get this really strange idea. I decided I wanted to write a few parts of this and see how it turned out. I have six other chapters written at the point of uploading this (8/31/14) but though they're written out, there are details in them that I haven't filled in. Either way, this was a fun (if bizarre) summer project, and I hope to upload the other chapters relatively soon.

The bold indicates the Balladeer's dialogue. I knew from the start that I wanted to have the Balladeer add in bits of narration in this fanfic. It's just not the same without his humorous, occasionally snarky commentary and exposition. This should only get funnier as Kaito arrives in Hazzard and the plot really picks up.

I've decided that language barriers shouldn't be an issue; either Kaito (and other characters who may appear later) speaks English fluently or this is some alternate timeline where Japan took over the U.S. during WWII and everyone speaks Japanese. Take your pick. Language barriers (almost) never came up in Detective Conan; periodically characters appear from all over the world and yet practically all of them speak perfect Japanese.