Pandora Eternal
Kid slipped down the darkened street. Even the streetlights seemed dimmer at 4 am in the morning. He first heard and then saw the police cars with the Kaitou Kid Taskforce zip by the small street, unaware that their quarry was on it.
He moved quickly down the empty street, as he changed out of his Kid costume into the disguise of an insomniac out for a walk down to the dark circles under his eyes.
The nearly full moon cast its reflected light on the buildings to his right. There were a number of family run shops lining both sides of the street. He kept his eyes turned away from the windows that reflected the light but something out of one of the windows caught his eye.
He walked up to the window of second-hand shop. On display, there were kimonos (very cheap!) and jewelry. One of the pieces seemed different from the rest. It was glowing a faint red in the moonlight.
The glowing of the stone hid the stone's true color. Kid could tell that it was about the size of a robin's egg and was set in a silver necklace by judging the way the metal reflected the light.
Kid resisted the strong urge to take the necklace at that moment. What am I thinking? I have to follow proper Kaitou etiquette. And he vowed to take a look at the necklace once he had had a few hours of sleep. Hopefully not all in school, he thought ruefully.
He made as much haste as he dared on his way to get home, thoughts of the necklace in the second-hand shop glowing in his dreams.
After school, he begged off of shopping with Aoko saying that something had come up that he had to take care of that afternoon. Though, he hated having to let her shop along. It was very useful to observe actual women and girls for disguising but the image of the necklace would not leave his mind.
Kaito entered the shop under the disguise of a salaryman looking for a gift for his wife. On his way past the window, he discovered that the necklace was set with a robin's egg sized amethyst. It was not perfectly clear, but tinted a very pleasing lavender color by an evenly spread milkiness through the stone.
From the storeowner, he learned that the necklace had a history, a dubious history. The amethyst necklace had passed through many hands over the years but because of the history, the owner was finding it hard to sell. But isn't that the way it always is with these sorts of things?
Kaito gave him a rueful smile, "Why tell me about it then?"
The owner sighed, "My business ethic wouldn't allow me to sell it without telling people its history."
Kaito looked at it longingly, "Well, as pretty as it is, I'm afraid my wife would drill me on it and she wouldn't be happy with the story." He made a thoughtful expression, "I'll talk to some of my coworkers. They might not mind its history and it is a lovely piece."
He walked out of the building and the owner bowed and thanked him for visiting his shop.
Kaito strolled casually down the street, pausing now and again at different stores to maintain his cover. Underneath his cover, he was planning the heist of the amethyst necklace.
Six days later, Inspector Nakamori was surprised to find the object of the previous week's heist gift wrapped on his desk. In the card on the package, was a notice of another heist.
"What the hell?" he yelled. "That's the third heist notice from Kid this month! I thought there weren't anymore major jewels left in the city for him to steal." He yelled through his office door, "Copy this message and figure out what is the target! We don't know how much time we may have to solve the message."
The office scrambled immediately to execute the Inspector's orders. All the officers were weary from a near straight month of dealing with Kid heists; their wish for a break between heists an unfulfilled dream.
Kaito listened to the chaos of the office through his bugged dove which he had trained to stay near the Nakamori's office. Normally the chaos would make him laugh but today he was already in the state of mind for the heist.
I really doubt they'll figure out the message before tonight. But then again, I have never stolen anything the same day I've delivered a notice. I guess I will have to let them know that I already went through with it. He paused a moment to consider the problem. I'll let someone see me after I've got that necklace. Someone they can trust the word of.
He grinned at his idea. How convenient that there is a retirement party for an officer near the store tonight. Maybe I'll give him a sending off too.
The next morning, Kaito woke in a joyful mood. When Aoko met him at the school, she was surprised by the almost visible field around him.
"Wow, Kaito," she said as she watched him nearly bounce of the walls in his joy. "What has you in such a good mood?"
A moment later, he was kneeling on one knee and kissing her hand in a gentlemanly manner. "Why, my dear Aoko?" he said with a twinkle in his eye, "Must I need a reason to be in a good mood?"
Aoko was frozen for a moment but recovered and grabbed a broom which she swung at his head in a not very serious maneuver. "Why, you! You're impossible."
"Thank you," he said with a mischievous grin.
She shook her head at him and wondered how she put up with him day after day. The teacher walked into the class, noticed that Kaito was bouncier than usual, and simply asked him to save it for after school.
He gave her a cheeky grin but did as she asked. He even withheld from the usual pranks in favor of changing his hair different colors.
No matter how good his mood had been that day at school that day, that night he was frustrated beyond all belief. The source of his irritation glowed slightly at him in the Kid workshop.
He had tried a whole gamut of things to try to destroy the semi-precious gemstone. He tried breaking it with a hammer and drilling it apart with a diamond tipped drill (it broke the drill tip). In desperation, he dug out a book on rocks and minerals and looked up amethyst and discovered that quartz, which is a variety of, is soluble in hydrofluoric acid.
Kaito did not want to know why his father had such a corrosive acid in his supplies but was happy to have it. All the acid did was dissolve the stone until it reached the area that it was milky purple.
By the time he went to bed, he had on turned the finely cut amethyst into a pitted stone. But it still glowed red under the moonlight. In fact, it glowed even more strongly than before. Kaito left the stone in the small bottle of acid overnight to see if that helped.
The next morning showed the stone was still intact and no smaller than it had been before. He resigned himself to try to tackle the problem of the stone after school.
His classmates noticed the difference in his attitude and teacher but he hid most of his disappointment under a mask.
After dinner with his mom (fish, shudder) he sat at a desk in the Kid room, staring at the stone. He picked it up in gloved hands and played with it.
"Well, I've tried breaking it, drilling it, dissolving it in acid. Haven't tried cooking it yet. But I don't think I can find an oven that gets up to the temperatures of the mantle. Or at least, accessible ones." He sighed and rested his head on the table, considering his options.
The next few days were spent trying more unusual ways of destroying a stone that is said to create immortality but none worked. As he was beginning to despair, he saw a program on TV that gave him a new idea.
The next Sunday he got a temporary job at the construction of the Millennium Building. They were in need of extra hands to lay the foundation for the building that was being constructed to last a millennium.
Coincidence or not, Kaito was working in the central part of the building where the foundation was being laid. There, he unobtrusively dropped Pandora into the wet cement and worked it down until it was suspended in the middle of the cement.
He spent the next two weeks helping lay the foundation for the building, while earning some pocket money and making plans for a few more heists to try to draw out those who killed his father.
While the story of the search of Kaitou Kid for Pandora is done, the story of Pandora itself still has more to tell.
The Millennium Building which Kaito had place Pandora in the foundation of did live up to its name and more. Despite the efforts of people to try to tear it down over the successive centuries, the build never took anything more than superficial damage.
And over the millennia, engineers all over the planet and galaxy marveled at how the building still stood in near perfect shape, despite typhoons, earthquakes and tsunami.
Even billions of years later, the building and land it stood on still existed (as the land, surprisingly, had not subducted back into the earth). The dying throws of the sun, as it swelled into a red giant and engulfed the Earth did not destroy the building.
And who knows, maybe in billions and billions of years, some other intelligent species will happen upon the building and wonder how it came into being?
Originally written as a gift for someone, I've finally gotten around to posting it here. I'd be happy to hear what you think of it.
The science in it is real or theories. I had fun incorporating that into a fic.