Author's Ramble: I'm baaaaaaaack~ Shoutout to Neonkoi, and Jade Bernard who helped me out trying to figure out this fic and Mikageshi-neesan, my ever-loving and supportive big sister who though isn't particularly invested in this fandom, still reads my stories.
To Meitantei Conan and Magic Kaito fans out there who are also Yu Yu Hakusho fans as well, please proceed to The Kurama Whom Kurama Never Knew. It will be the best anime-related work of fiction you will ever read. I swear on all that is KaiShin. An awesome, exciting, no-holds-barred, plot of epicness with the best OC to ever grace the anime realm~
Summary: It would make sense if Kaito died due to an explosion (his magic), via murder (his pranking) or natural causes at a ripe old age in his sleep (his good cheer and energy). Not because of a heart attack after learning his girlfriend has been kidnapped.
Disclaimer: Shinichi, you will forever be out of my reach. But not out of Kaito's~
Teachers hate being interrupted.
They spend years going to school just to go to school, educating themselves in order to educate others, stay up late, wake up early, skip meals, foregone their family, lack time for their friends and generally strive hard to function as a normal human being despite the responsibilities, pressures and expectations thrust upon them just to be paid a little more than spit and a fingernail's chance of hanging on to their jobs.
All to pass on to their students, the prized chance of a better world, the metaphorical torch of the summation of the entirety of man's so-far accumulated knowledge, wisdom and hope, the tools to build that better tomorrow, in order to light the way towards a brighter future.
Teachers are awesome.
And when you do so much and get so little in return just because it's the right thing to do, the least everyone else can do is give you a bit of respect.
Kuroba Kaito didn't get the memo.
The messy-haired, indigo-eyed prankster stared idly at the clouds while Sakiyama Sakura, fifty-years old with thirty of those years spent as a professional molder of young minds, prattled on and on about the subtle effects of various factors on the Japanese economy.
Any other teacher would allow the daydreamer his fantasies, whatever they may be, so long as he stayed put and quiet, all would be fine. The boy most likely had the entire textbook memorized anyway.
But the quietude was coming more and more frequently as of late, the educators would discuss over cups of bad coffee and stale doughnuts, and they were no longer certain that was a good thing.
Class 4B had to agree. It was absolutely terrifying.
He'd come into class either just a little early or just in the nick of time, plop into his desk like he'd just ran an entire train loop and just sit there. To the observant eye, it would almost seem like he was catching his breath.
No skirts would be flipped or panty colors revealed throughout the period of his peculiar behavior though he would shower the class with flowers or make butterflies appear from thin air.
And for the rest of that day, he would sit in his chair like a good boy, open his textbook, write some notes, answer some questions from his slower classmates and help Nakamori-chan out with her Trigonometry problems.
Though his favorite past time recently was to watch the clouds.
And to anyone who didn't know him, he would appear like a normal, average teenage boy.
Though the peace was greatly appreciated, a well-behaved Kaito was enough of a cause to announce a state of calamity. An oncoming calamity.
"I wonder what is so very interesting out the window today, Kuroba-san." Sakiyama-sensei spoke in the middle of her talk on flooding the market.
Unlike her other fellow teachers, though, Sakiyama Sakura preferred her students, even genius prodigies with I.Q. levels yet to be charted, to pay attention to the lessons she worked hard and long to discuss.
Kaito turned from the window, calm and seemingly at peace. "Just watching time go by, Sakiyama-sensei."
He smiled a sweet, soft smile.
That was another thing that was unsettling about the jokester's current mood.
He had this dazed expression perpetually donned, as if he wasn't entirely with them mentally as he was physically.
The students saw this when Kaito created a cascade of chrysanthemums white as freshly fallen snow. As everyone stared at the off-season pseudo-snowflakes, the magician didn't notice as they watched him take one bloom and twirl it absentmindedly in his agile hand.
Or at times when he made butterflies come forth from nothing like God during the first days of the young Earth, they were just as mystified by their entertainer chuckling softly as a black monarch landed on his shoulder, blending into his uniform.
Kaito's weird mood made his fellow students worry.
And he had the same silly grin with their nettled Economics teacher.
Kaito covered up the dazed smile with one that appeared more self-effacing which might placate his teacher's irritation.
"Gomenasai, Sensei. I'll pay more attention. I'm sorry for interrupting your lecture." Kaito said scripted apology with the efficiency of a recorded tape and with the emotion of an emphatic youth fellowship leader, pulling out a white snowdrop flower from hammerspace, and presented it to the gray-haired professor.
She felt vindicated enough, accepting the flower and giving a slight nod and a wry smile that almost appeared grandmotherly. Kuroba-san always had a way with women.
Turning to the board, Sakiyama started-
"Flooding the market refers to-"
- only to be interrupted yet again by a shrill, piercing wail that sounded vaguely like a screaming Hakuba Saguru, howling in abject misery and pain.
Nakamori Aoko groaned. Why didn't Kaito put his phone on silent?
Sakiyama was more than a little displeased as she turned, Kaito already extricating his mobile phone from his uniform pocket, the chitchat of Class 4B mingling with the cry of anguish.
Good thing Hakuba-kun is in London for that case of his, Aoko thought, Though I have to admit, that prank of Kaito's was pretty funny. Who knew you could use a chopstick that way! But if I knew he recorded it, I might've done more than the mop...
But Kaito's punishment was to be delivered by a different means...
"Kuroba-san," Sakiyama began in an eerily calm voice that belied her true fury.
"I do hope you have a very good reason you have once again disrupted my class with your shenanigans."
Striding to the back of the room with a grace and elegance that can only be achieved through experience, the seasoned lecturer stood behind rows of students, motioning with one wispy, wrinkled wrist.
"You know what to do."
Kaito sighed, stood up and walked to the front of the class like a death march.
He placed the vibrating, screaming apparatus on the teacher's desk-
"Go on, you've already wasted enough of my time. Might as well make the most of it and let us know what is so important."
- and broke into the goofiest, silliest smile you'd ever see.
Usually, during the few and far times whenever Kaito was reprimanded and/or punished for whatever reason, he would at least try and look ashamed, abashed and guilty.
They all wondered who was calling to have warranted the expression on Kaito's face that was so sweet you could scoop it, put it in a sugar cone and serve it to children in a park during summer with sprinkles.
With more than a little intrigue, they watched as Kaito tapped the screen lightly with the tip of a calloused finger.
"Hey, Holmes. What's up?" Kaito greeted cheerily, cockily though anyone who would just look at his face could see he was positively euphoric.
"He's talking to Hakuba-kun?" Aoko softly inquired along with the rest of the buzzing class.
Sakiyama silenced them with a glare.
Silence responded from the other line.
Kaito drifted from his place in the clouds, brow furrowed and amethyst eyes scrunched, looking perplexed.
"Holmes?"
"What a cute nickname."
Purple pools widened and the class gasped. That was definitely not their resident Brit.
And by the looks of it, it wasn't who Kaito was expecting to be either.
"Though I prefer when you call her, Pyriel."
Kaito wasn't listening, blind to his classmates' confusion, deaf to their chatter save for the malicious mocking from his cell phone.
"Angel, huh? A divine being of justice sent to wreck judgment upon mortal souls."
His brain was still furiously, futilely trying to comprehend Shinichi and Snake together in the same sentence.
"Such a fitting title…"
"Look, Whoever-You-Are, I think you might have the wrong number-" Kaito reiterated with a breezy chuckle, swift hand gesturing carelessly in the air.
"Kuroba Kaito."
He stopped midsentence at the mention of his name.
"We know who you are, boy. The bastard magician's kid."
"Shinichi? Are you okay? Did they hurt you? Do you know where you are?" The frazzled prankster dropped his weak pretense, opting for a different response as he shot question after question, hoping to at least crack if not break the unnerving silence of the girl who owned the other phone.
"Shhhhhh… She's sleeping. Didn't even put up a fight." A harsh, hard sound that vaguely resembled a coyote's cough passed for a cruel cackle.
Kaito snorted, momentarily forgetting not to antagonize his father's murderer and girlfriend's kidnapper.
"Yeah, right. Sure. You go on and believe that. You cowards probably knocked her out with a blow behind the head." He snarled, eyes the color of the tips of a gas flame.
Then a smirk that conveyed pride. "I know my girl. She has a hell of a kick."
A pause too long for comfort.
"Did I mention she's drugged, too, Elpis?"
Kaito's left eye twitched at the pet name.
"Dizzy and disoriented enough to not be too much trouble. But aware enough not to take the fun out of her."
A rustle of fabric. A feminine groan.
"She's a fighter, ain't she, Kid? Fierce. Feisty. Exciting."
The quietest sound of skin caressing skin. Another swoosh of cloth.
Kaito remained silent as the class watched the spectacle with bated breath, understanding slowly descending upon them like a crow's shadow as the horrifying truth sunk in…
"Kuroba-san…" The unsettled teacher begun, unsure of how to go about the current situation but well enough aware of the quick, dark turn events have taken.
In her thirty years as an educator, never before had she witnessed a ransom call in the middle of her class.
And never would she have expected it courtesy of Kuroba Kaito.
"You shouldn't leave angels to the desecration of a demon." The voice breathed, hot and almost… needing.
Class 4B and Sakiyama watched Kaito fight down a shudder, strain to maintain his composure and strive to keep the shiver from his voice as he spoke.
"Don't you dare touch her, Snake." Kaito warned, a boiling, simmering anger just below the surface of his thin calm façade.
A sharp thwack. A whimper.
"Warnings, threats and punishments, Kid. That won't save her now."
"This is your fault, Kid. You dragged her back down into this cesspool right after she crawled her way out. She lived. She survived. And you pulled her back down to Hell with you."
"This…" Thrashing.
"… is the price that must be paid…"
The click of a loaded gun.
"... for your father's sins…"
The tear of fabric.
"… and for yours."
A whispered, "No."
"Stop."
For those few seconds, the world already seemed to slow down and completely halted at Kaito's word, like an angered god pausing Time Itself for the sake of his wrath.
"What do you want?" Kaito conceded, and for once, looking every one of the days of his past eighteen years along with the collective sum of the rest of days of the rest of his life a hundred times over.
"You know, Kid. Return what your father hid from us. What he stole."
The sound of something metallic hitting a concrete floor. The gun was tossed away.
"Meet me in the Ekoda Memorial Park in thirty minutes, Kid."
"All right. Just don't hurt her." Kaito almost pleaded, eyes darting left and right, fidgeting, twitching, anxious to do something, anything, searching, trying for some way out of this.
Nothing.
"But, refuse-"
A loud smack was heard. Lips on skin.
"Thirty minutes."
And the line went dead.
A loaded silence loomed over the class, heavy and filled with malignant promises.
Never before had they seen their resident laughter so drawn and tired.
Resigned.
Defeated.
Kaito lifted his glare from the hateful phone to level blue-violet eyes the color of a lightning-streaked sky with his Economics teacher's obsidian ones.
Then as fast as a lightning bolt, Kaito snatched his phone, sped to his desk to grab his school bag, and zoomed to the back door of the classroom, fully aware he was making- had made- a spectacle of himself, knowing his prized, preened Poker Face was utterly shattered along with his reputation and not giving a damn about it because fuck his girl, his precious, sweet, awesome, truth-seeking, justice-loving, snarky, sarcastic perfect angelic death-goddess-but-his-goddess of a girlfriend whom he loved and adored and wanted to be with the mortal equivalent of forever was counting on him, counting on him and he couldn't let her down and Oyaji, I'm so sorry but SHE NEEDS ME.
And he tried to quell how pathetic and small and useless he felt he was.
Because deep down in the darkest recesses of his mind, where Aoko's wrath and finny things were stored, also laid the truth Snake had spoken of yet he refused to concede to.
Because a Kuroba needed to be strong. To show no weakness. No fear. No surrender.
And the muddled, muddy, messy hodge-podge of doubts and fears and reassurances and hopes raced and rumbled through his mind as he spoke with as much eloquence and charm as he had ever worked up with any teacher he had needed to in his entire life.
"I apologize for the inconvenience, Sakiyama-sensei. But I must take my leave now as you may have heard, an urgent crisis has emerged. Demark me, reprimand me, send me to detention, expel me if you have to,"
Kaito opened the sliding door.
"… but please do so when I get back."
The poignant moment was interrupted by another round of Hakuba's terrorized screams.
Kaito stared at the series of numbers on his touchscreen as though the numerals written were "666".
He tapped at it once again, bracing for that hateful, awful voice he loathed enough to actually consider crossing the moral horizon for.
"Hey Houdini."
Yet the voice that responded belonged to the person who was the reason he dare not cross that line ever, lest he forever fall from the state of her good graces.
The class gaped as their beloved prankster, just a moment ago so unprecedentedly serious...
... stoic...
... dangerous...
... slumped against the sliding door he had just shoved open, released a breathless laugh that sounded too much like a sob and grinned another goofy, dopey smile that barely kept him from passing out from relief.
"H-Hey..." Kaito stuttered through the smile, shaking his head. He could keep the waver from his voice when talking with a psychopath, but could never repress it when it came to her.
"You're okay...?" The boy said, not sure himself if it was a statement born of relief or a question formed by hope.
"Mhmmm." The girl mumbled in approval.
"Snake? Did they... Did he-"
"As if. As you said, I have a hell of a kick. And Agasa-hakase's soccer ball belt."
"That you do, Pyriel."
"Shut it, Elpis."
The class released the collective breath they were holding, happy that whoever Kaito's girl was was all right and safe.
That is until a loud crash was heard on the other line, followed by a yelp of pain.
"So-Sorry." The girl's voice, initially cool and calm now distinctively shaky, called out hurriedly.
"Still a little out of it. The drugs."
Kaito, who was just about to fly out the hallway window, stopped. "Just stay where you are. I'm coming to get you. Do you know where you are? Can you tell me?"
A pause. "I think I can find my way back. Don't worry."
A scoff. "Pyriel, you're hyped on antidepressants. Plus Snake-"
"He's tied to a post, the rest are out cold and I have the gun."
"Yeah, and not enough clarity to use it." Kaito declared in a tone that meant I love you and I usually give in to you but this time what I say goes.
A crack was heard, coupled by a dozen heavy objects falling from a height.
"Okay."
Another pause, longer than the first.
Then, "It's dark here, full of crates and boxes. Dusty, so it might not have been used or entered much, or at least not recently."
"A warehouse."
Another momentary silence.
"I can't hear any vehicles or voices, but I did hear a train go by. And... pounding?"
"I smell coal and gasoline."
"The ground is vibrating."
"A warehouse near a train track and an industrial constuction site."
"Where in Beika is that?" Kaito asked, mental images of the Beika district playing in his mind's eye, grateful for his eidetic memory, momentarily forgetting where he was.
"I'm in Ekoda."
It was Kaito's turn to go quiet.
"Case. I was going to visit after." She responded to his questioning silence.
"Surprise." She laughed.
It was a beautiful sound. He couldn't imagine never hearing it again.
"Okay. That's good."
"I'm sorry."
"Don't be."
"I still am."
"Don't be"
"Stupid."
"Don't be like that."
"Idiotic."
"Don't say that."
"Moron."
"You aren't."
"I should've seen them."
"No one could have."
"I should've known."
"How could anyone?"
"I should've fought back."
Silence.
"I should never have gotten involve with you."
Brown bangs hid indigo eyes, turbulent like a stormy sea at midnight.
"I saw them. I knew. I should've held back."
A crooked smile like a stitched wound.
"But I didn't."
A bitter breath that was a mock laugh.
"I couldn't."
A sigh, soft and forlorn.
"But I should've."
"If it meant you never had to come face-to-face with them... again."
A Kuroba Kaito they never thought they would see or even imagined existed, so caught up to even try and keep up his perpetual pretense with the world.
"Kai..."
"Shinichi...?"
"... Do you know... Exactly why I call you Elpis?"
"Other than Pandora?" Kaito retorted, bemused at the sudden change of topic.
"Yes, you moronic magician." The girl snarked exasperatedly.
"It's because you're my hope."
Said moronic magician smiled tentatively.
And the girl said no more. The silence said it all.
"So, Kai, could you get me a coffee when you get here?"
"Sure thing. First I have to know where I have to go."
"There are a few construction sites around school." A small female voice piped up.
Kaito turned to see Momoi Keiko tap her chin thoughtfully.
And reality began to set in again.
"Was that... a voice?"
"Kaito... What time is it?"
Kaito looked absently at his phone. "10:46."
A sharp exhale of breath. "I'm on speaker, am I?"
"Yup."
"And you're in Sakiyama-sensei's class, huh?"
"Right."
"And you're entire class just heard all that junk about Snake and Pandora and everything?"
"Pretty much, yeah."
"Crap."
The class' collective sweatdropping at the conversation could've drowned a substantial community of kittens.
"Well, since it's pretty much late morning, the sun is still creeping up through here on my left, which means the door of the warehouse is facing south."
" A warehouse which is hardly used near and industrial construction site and a rail road track on the East portion of town." Kaito added the information.
"The Midori Train Lines go through two construction sites."
"But that's on the west side of town."
"How about the Ebi Lines?"
"Oh, yeah! It goes through the construction of that new waterpark!"
"And there's that big ol' house..."
"The Sakakibara house. The rich, old couple who left for Australia a few months ago to live with their kids."
Kaito couldn't repress a smile. No matter what, it was good to have people you can count on in a pinch.
"I got it, Shin-chan. I'm on my way."
"Sure thing, I'll call Jodie-sensei to pick up Snake and his cronies."
"Oh, and Sakiyama-sensei?"
The teacher who had been caught up as well in the entire mess, blinked owlishly. "Yes, Shinichi-san?"
"I apologize for the ruckus we have caused to your class. I assure you it won't happen again. I understand how difficult it is to run a classroom, especially with Kaito around."
"Hey!" Kaito blurted indignantly.
"Y-Yes, well, considering the circumstances, it's quite all right." Sakiyama smiled uncertainly.
"See ya."
"You, too."
And the line cut off.
Kaito smiled a grateful smile at his classmates that said everything that needed to be said and turned for the door.
"Kuroba-san?"
He stopped and blinked confused at the stoic Economics instructor.
"You, however, young man aren't excused."
Kaito resembled a beaten puppy denied release.
Sakiyama Sakura smiled. "Next meeting, I want to meet this girl. Now, hurry along. She needs you."
The soft ring sounded like mourning bells.
Unkempt, chestnut locks fell over white skin, covering lake-blue eyes.
Nakamori Aoko released a sigh like a breeze through a deserted forest, long abandoned by the creatures that gave it vivacity.
A laugh utterly distinguished from the monotonous ring called her attention.
She stood from her seat at the study desk strewn with papers, open books and dried out highlighters, moving towards the sliding door that lead to the small balcony.
The sight of the dark room directly across her own stopped her as surely as a blow to the spine would have paralyzed her.
She redirected her gaze from the cold, empty room to the night sky.
It was clear, the moon full and the stars glittering, like a large diamond necklace upon a sheet of velvet.
Another laugh, as clear and bright as any moon, yanked her eyes from the sky to the ground.
Just as her own dreams were knocked back down to reality.
Highlighted by moonlight, were quills of dark brown and a cascade of raven feathers.
As good as Kaito was in his illusions and tricks, even he could not actually be in two places as once.
Even he couldn't be in his room, at his own mini-balcony, to wish her good night if he was out in his front lawn dragging Kudou Shinichi off the porch.
Even without the continuous beeping and vibrations in her ear, she still wouldn't have been able to hear what Kaito had said to his captive to make her scowl or what she replied that prompted him to stop pulling her just to wrap his arms around her waist and lift her off the ground, twirling their joint bodies around and around the grassy moonlit yard.
The incident in Sakiyama-sensei's class made news that week.
The sudden memory distracted her enough not to notice that the line had gone dead.
Kaito's secrets... The mystery... The danger...
Would she have been able to carry the burden?
Had Kudou been able to share the weight with him?
The answer was obvious when you turned on the television and read the newspapers to find out how the two teenagers were vital in putting an end to the shady Black Organization once and for all after capturing the few final members out for blood and vengeance.
Redialing the number, she watched the two teenagers out after dark.
Kaito had clapped his hands and with a poof of silver glitter, a white chrysanthemum was in his hand.
He motioned to pin the white bloom behind her ear, appearing to brush something out of her face- probably strands of her midnight black hair.
The hand lingered for a moment longer than normal, Aoko should know, he had performed this trick on her countless of times before.
The quick hand slowly caressed the raven-haired girl's pink-porcelain cheek...
... practiced fingers languidly sprinted over her neck...
... and pulled a telescope behind the black curtain of her long hair.
Aoko strained to focus on the ringing, the safe, predictable ringing.
In another poof of gold glitter, the telescope was out of the magician's hands and onto the ground, set up and turned upwards to the sky.
Kudou sat down on what should've been damp grass, and picked up a pencil and a few sheets of plain white paper Aoko didn't even noticed the two fledgling stargazers had with them and what appeared to be graphing paper, green marking it along with definitive black scribbles.
Kudou adjusted the telescope her lips moved as she stared at the moon; probably something that would've completely flown over her head if she was able to hear.
Kaito seemed just as unaware of the girl's mumblings, obviously engrossed on a sight other than the heavenly bodies.
Even from afar, anyone could see the dreamy quality those indigo eyes had taken, the relaxed droop of shoulders and body, the wistful smile adorning peaceful features.
What a smile.
Anyone could see.
And even she could no longer deny it.
Aoko had known, deep down, somewhere inside of her, a part of her knew.
What caused the near-tardiness.
What had prompted the good behavior and peaceful school days.
What had stopped the perverted antics.
What brought upon flowers and butterflies.
What was the meaning behind the soft eyes and even softer smiles.
But... maybe... she was wrong. She wanted to be. She so wanted to be.
Then that day in Sakiyama-sensei's class.
They saw his fear.
His terror.
His anguish.
His pain.
And for once in the very long time she had known him, he dared not, could not, had not put a happy sticker on it and called it a day.
For once he didn't hide.
He didn't cover up.
He didn't put on his mask and wore his costume and played the part.
Kudou brought upon the very humanity he sought so hard to conceal.
The humanity that was his perceived weakness.
And the relief when she was okay...
It was incomparable.
Joy.
Fear.
Hope.
Regret.
Loss.
Relief.
She was the reason for it all.
For Kuroba Kaito to unveil the complexity and confusion and confounded charm of human emotion and experience which he strive day-by-freaking-day to keep under wraps.
A feat even Nakamori Aoko, best-friend-since-six and predicted-fiance-to-be never achieved.
The girl made him weak. She made him strong.
She made him laugh and wail.
She made him sigh in both despair and euphoria.
She was his Elpis and Achilles' Heel.
His mortal Pyriel.
Kudou turned with a small, satisfied smile towards Kaito, lips parted in attempt of another comment.
She tilted her head to one side, an eyebrow raised.
Kaito grinned cheekily, cockily, but the heartbreakingly tender expression still held its power as he took a seat beside her, looking through the telescope at something Kudou had found so interesting.
The ringing stopped.
He finally picked up.
"Hello? Hakuba Saguru, speaking." The British detective spoke in perfect accented English.
"Hello? Hakuba-kun?"
Something fell and broke with a piercing crackle.
"Na-Naka-Nakamori-san?!"
"Hai."
"Wha- How- Why-"
"I could call at another time if now is inconvenient for you?" Aoko offered, sensing the Englishman's discomfort.
"NO! No. No- Not at all... You... just caught me by surprise. You know, I could call you, instead. I have international coverage."
Aoko took a moment to smile, small yet genuinely, at the thought. Such a gentleman, you are.
"Iie. I won't take long. I just had to tell you something."
"Okay, then. Tell me then. It must be of great importance, seeing as how you couldn't wait until I return. What is it?" Hakuba replied politely, sweetly, regaining his composure.
"Un. Well... Do you remember... What you said to me... Before you left...?"
An awkward pause.
"Yes. Y-Yes, I do."
"Well, I have given it some thought..."
Kudou had retaken her spot at the telescope, large limpid lapuz lazuli eyes trained upon the crystalline sky.
"... and I have to say..."
Kaito cupped the observing girl's heart-tip chin with one rough hand, gently facing her to him.
He placed black strands of night behind her ears...
... pressed his forehead against hers, brown locks tangling with black...
... and gently nuzzled his nose against the girl's.
"... that I accept."
"Wha-What?"
"I said I accept. I'll go out with you."
"Really? Are you sure?"
Kudou placed one hand on the ground to steady herself as Kaito leaned in towards her.
"Positive."
Aoko moved to clutch her hand to her left chest, where her heart felt heavy and bruised, but instead she pulled the curtain to shut out the night and all its beautiful disappointments.
Author's Ramble: Okay, that got dark. But I got that out of my system. I apologize to those who may have been… triggered by any of this. I never intended it to get so… real. This was supposed to be just a fun little oneshot of Kaito freaking out and Shinichi coming out of it scot-free.
I would apologize for the out-of-character-ness as well but come on, the situation kind of called for it, I think? Please, forgive me?
I just wanted to explore the possibility of Kaito loving someone so much he would forget... just for a moment... he's prized poker face... and feel... human. Normal. Loved without repercussions or consequences.
Something that he hasn't done even for Aoko.
And about ending with Aoko... Well, at least we have closure on her part of the story.
I mean Kaito is in a situation he could've prevented if he had kept the girl he loved at arm's length just like everyone else... Only he didn't. He loved her too much to care. And now he was to pay the price for his "selfishness".
And Shinichi... Investigative prodigy who faced murderers, kidnappers and psychopaths everyday with the occasional bomb-disarment as a hobby. Who is now drugged and unconscious in the hands of a group of low-key syndicate members just because she didn't foresee it. That's tough on a girl. We hate being seen as "weak". Everyone hates that.
Be comforted by the ending, I hope.
Now for a few clarifications:
(1) I don't think teachers are pathetic or weak or completely without social lives. I just meant that the teachers work hard and aren't very well compensated or appreciated for all their sacrifices.
(2) The part about Kaito going to school just in the nick of time. He's been walking Shinichi to Teitan High before rushing off to Egota High. That's why he's so tired when he gets to school. The reason he's never late is because Kaito has Lady Luck on his side but she can't reweave the fabric of time. Kaito is just that good that's why he's never late. Only almost late.
(3) The white chrysanthemums bit. White chrysanthemums mean truth. The flowers remind him of Shinichi.
(4) Black butterflies mean death which reminds him of his corpse-magnet of a girlfriend.
(5) Pyriel is the high angel of judgment from Heaven. The name means "fire of God".
(6) Elpis is the personification of Hope that came out of Pandora's box along with all the sicknesses, plagues, troubles and tribulations mankind faces today. Shinichi likes to call Kaito that.
(7) Snake referring to Kaito as "Kid" is him calling Kaito as Kaitou Kid. But it wouldn't be obvious to his classmates or teacher since they might just interpret it as the kidnapper calling Kaito a kid.
(8) In case this isn't obvious, Snake kidnapped Shinichi to get Kaito to give them Pandora and threatened to rape and kill Shinichi if he doesn't.
Then, Shinichi woops Snake's ass.
(9) I know Kaito's organization is separate from the Black Organization but for the sake of the story let's say they're the same only from different factions.
(10) I just noticed Akako isn't in this. ^^;;;