How Long Can You Hold Your Breath?
This is my second Detective Conan fanfic (well, technically first Magic Kaitou fanfic), but the first story I've done about Kaitou Kid. I've been wanting to write something concerning him for some time now. This was not the first idea I had, but I loved it so much and was strongly inspired, so I had to get it down before it slipped away from me. I was listening to "The Great Escape" by Moby, which is where the title of this fanfic came from. Enjoy!
"Kuso!" he hissed as the snow beneath him no longer became just snow, but ice beneath the thin, soft and slushy white blanket. The bottoms of his dress shoes met the ice with little resistance; it seemed as though there was no friction what-so-ever. He slipped and slid across the slippery surface in a desperate attempt to stay upright. The ice denied him most of his free will and dragged him across its surface, almost as though it enjoyed his ridiculous show. The gentlemanly, well-dressed young man resisted throwing his arms out and around wildly in sorry attempt to balance himself, but he wasn't sure how much longer he could refrain from doing so without falling. Snow continued to tumble down and pile up on his top hat and blend into his clothing. Some of it fell into his bangs and impaired his vision, which needless to say, was something he did not need at the moment.
The box held close to his chest grew to be more and more of a burden and slick to hold on to with his soaked, freezing, gloved hands. Awkwardly, while his legs threatened to split apart in opposite directions, Kid shifted the box from in front of him and to tucked under one arm. He grinned shakily a bit as he started to hold out one arm and almost had himself to a stop. About at the same time, one end of his limp cape worked its way beneath his left heel. His right foot skidded and as his left foot tried to compensate, it went out completely from under him . . .
Kid gritted his teeth and resisted crying out in pain as he crashed down onto the ice on his left shoulder blade. The box came down heavily on his upper ribcage and tumbled onto his chest. His eyes caught the diamond slipping out from under his jacket and it spiraling away. The clear stone skidded across the ice and tumbled on its etched sides, most certainly in better shape than the phantom thief after his fall. Kaitou Kid tried to reach out for it, but his fingers fell short a third of a meter. He gave up momentarily and looked up at the sky as he caught his breath. Snow fell down onto his face, but he hardly felt it against his icy, flushed skin. His breath puffed upward in visible clouds about the same time the ice groaned in protest beneath him. The thief's blue eyes widened as he heard a series of cracks and felt the surface beneath him shift. Thoughts raced through Kid's mind, debates of whether or not to try to scramble away before possibly becoming submersed in the frigid water.
The young man failed to make a decision in time; the ice broke beneath him and the water sucked him in. Kid felt his hat go flying from his head, but failed to see it fall onto its side and roll in a circle on the snowy ice. Freezing water rushed over his face and over the top his head, submersing him. Bubbles rose up around him and went around him and through is hair as they raced to get to the surface as broken pieces of ice floated about, clinking together and threatened to seal the hole back up. The shock of the cold water did not hit him as he had expected it would, not like when jumping into the swimming pool for the first time in the summer. Of course, such sensation required coming back up to the surface to air. Precious air slipped pasted his lips and through his nostrils in small bubbles and beads, and it seemed more so when he realized the weight on his chest. In grew heavier the further he sank. The box's unsealed lid allowed water to slip in and it quickly ran in along the sides, filling it and soaking its contents.
Looking up towards the iced-over surface with one naked eye, and the other through a glass monocle, Kaitou Kid gazed dazedly at the faint glow of the ice and the sharper light along the broken edges of the ice. His skin felt numb and his mind was heading in that direction. Why had he not started to swim to the top? The weight had been taken off his legs and despite the box on his chest, his body had some sense of weightlessness. His weary limbs did not have to work now, as he sank downward deeper yet. He would not be able to get both himself and the box back to the surface at this point. Pressure began to build in his ears and he felt them ache slightly.
The phantom thief momentarily grew attentive again as the light above the surface began to grow. His first thoughts went to dismissing it being the light, the light to lead him to the end. He had not been down below that long, at least, such an amount of time had not seemed to have passed, and yet it felt like an eternity. Dark brown bangs floated in a surreal manner above his eyes and the corner of his cape drifted into his vision. Light, no lights, caught his attention again with their growing intensity and movement. Instinctively his mind in its most primitive self-preservation thoughts bade him to go towards the surface for the air his lungs were beginning to cry out for, but the last bit of rationalism told him to hold back. The lights had to be flashlights, most likely the police, searching for him. Surely Nakamori would be hollering orders . . . And Hakuba would be calmly telling him he was wrong . . .
If he rose to the surface to meet them, he would most likely not be able to outrun them should he manage to climb out from the break in the ice. He would never make it past the ice, which was what got him into this predicament in the first place. They would past the lake, see the diamond, see his hat . . . And what then? Would they merely wait around the hole like ice fishers? Or would they stick around, waiting to see if he would come up or he would try to wait them out an drown? Kid continued to watch the lights as he continually sank, his arms wrapped around the box.
Inspector Nakamori looked about, flashlight in hand, for any sign of Kid. He still did not understand what had happened when Kaitou Kid's hang glider had collapsed and Kid had been last seen falling into the park's treetops, but foul play of some third party surely had occurred. It bewildered him when so many fans came to each every heist. He personally could not stand the phantom thief, but what sort of civilian was out to sabotage the caped menace?
As the inspector continued his musings, the young detective looked around with his own flashlight. Kid had most certainly come this way, but like the magician he was, he had suddenly vanished. More than likely, he was watching them at this very moment from somewhere very close by. Hakuba shined his light up into the tree branches and studied them for any unusual shadows or bending. Something momentarily caught his attention, but the squirrel then quickly ran into its nest. Once he saw several of the policeman had begun to follow his example, he allowed himself to study the more usual routes, such as the ground. The snow was coming down heavier now and it was drifting. Tracks they had been following were long gone and he could only make a faint outline of several places that lead him in what he believed to be the proper direction. Hakuba shined the light farther ahead of him. Something sparkled and caught his eye.
"Inspector Nakamori," he called with ease, but the same confident tone he always used. "I believe I've found the diamond Kaitou Kid took tonight." After a moment, he looked to see if the inspector had heard him. Nakamori was already looking back at him.
"Where?!" he demanded as he traipsed over. The inspector waved his flashlight in the direction Hakuba had his. His eyes widened when he saw the gemstone sticking up out of the snow. "What . . . The hell?! What's that doing here?!" Hakuba began walking toward the stone to retrieve it.
"Like all of Kid's stealings, it must have lost its appeal," he explained. "Though even for Kaitou Kid, I must agree it is an unusual, and abrupt return. I'd say --" The ground beneath him suddenly began slick and creaked with discomfort; he did not move forward any farther. Nakamori brought the light of his flashlight closer.
"The lake must start here, not that you could tell with all this drifting snow. But what does that mean?" he mumbled to himself. "Was he forced to drop it for now and so he left it in a place we may or may not be able to retrieve it?" Hakuba shook his head.
"No, he would never leave it in a place where he himself had a weakness. If you will recall, Kaitou Kid failed miserably upon ice." After a moment, he tested the ice again. It creaked and groaned, but did not crack. Something else had caught his eye, and from this position, he could not tell if it was the snow or something else that may have belonged to Kid. After another moment, Hakuba started to walk forward, but felt an arm block his way as it pressed against his chest. He looked up at the inspector beside him.
"I wouldn't do that," Nakamori warned. "We don't need to be fishing you out when we could be looking for Kid." Hakuba smirked.
"Because you can't find and caught him without me to aid you?" Nakamori scowled and turned away, storming off and yelling for the rest of the policemen to move on and keep looking. Hakuba watched him go, the smirk still playing on his face. Slowly he followed, keeping his flashlight in front of him. He glanced back to the diamond. They simply could not leave it unattended, now could they? The high school detective walked around along the edge of the ice, searching for a thicker place to walk upon.
The ice protested less around on the other side and Hakuba managed a slow pace over a snow drift that stretched out across the ice. Snow rose up to his knees and his pant legs grew wetter higher. A chill ran up his spine, but the suspense and thrill of the hunt kept him going without fatigue from the elements. Victory swelled up in him as he managed to scoop up the diamond in his hand. Biting down on the end of the flashlight, Hakuba held it between his teeth as he brushed off the diamond and turned it over in his hands. It reflected the unnatural light and showed him scrambled fragments of his gloves on the other side. Hakuba opened one of the front pockets of his coat and slid the diamond inside for safe keeping until he could return it to the proper authorities.
He had been about to follow after the police when he noticed the break in the ice that was nearly hidden by a shadow from the snow drift. Removing the flashlight from between his teeth, he walked a little closer and shone his light down into the water. Hakuba already knew that when he did so he would see a few inches in to the water and then the rest would merely be a black, murky abyss, but a part of him could not resist trying to see anyway. Some part of him half expected to see Kaitou Kid's face just inches beneath the surface, grinning up at him with that wide, idiotic grin before pulling some stunt to runaway to thieve another day. While this was not the result he got, something still nagged at him, the instinct that rarely failed him. Lingering for a moment, he knelt down with his flashlight and looked into the water.
" . . . I'll let you get away for today, but it's merely because I want to catch you myself." He stood up and turned away. Even if he was only talking at nothing, he would be the only one that knew it.
The light intensified and hovered over where he had crashed through the ice. Despite his condition, Kid could not help but slightly grin grimly as he wondered if it really was the light at the end of the tunnel. A few straggling air bubbles skimmed the inside of his cheeks and found freedom past his lips. Maybe he was going to drown here, whether it was the final light or a flashlight. Even so, as he continued to grin a grin no one could see, he prayed for the lack of fish that were the least of his worries at the moment. The lack of oxygen was beginning to effect his brain. He had heard drowning was a terrible way to go, but why did he feel so relaxed and calm? Perhaps most did not put freezing cold into the equation.
A shadowy image blocked some of the light momentarily, and Kid squinted his eyes to try and make out what, or who, it was. He watched the blurry image as it sat there several moments before moving away, and taking the light with it. Everything dimmed down immensely. So much that Kid could barely make out the surface. The moon had been covered by the snow-filled clouds tonight, and surely snow was falling over the ice, blocking out any other light. If the police were still there, then they had wised up, but a dilemma remained. And it came in the form of a weight on Kid's arms.
If he let go now, he could probably still swim up to the surface. But if he let go now . . . He did not want to let go. It would eventually rest down here, and part of him felt it was worth sinking down to the bottom for. This tainted elixir, this ruined answer key . . . How long could he hold his breath for this when he had already been doing so for so long, far longer than he had been underwater?
As if in defiance, Kaitou Kid wrapped his arms tighter around the box. He could not feel the edges of the box digging into his arms, but he could feel his lungs starting to burn. They cried for air and desired to expand further to
make more room for the oxygen. His vision blurred more so than before. He could no longer make out definite lines, only smudges of what he believed to be where he had fallen through. The pages were ruined, the documents were beyond recognition at this point. His answers were gone. He felt himself struggle with it as his body grew weaker and his vision grow hazier. His arms lost their grip and drifted away from the box. The lid did nothing after first, but then began to pull away from the box. As it did so, a part of him broke and all hope shattered . . . As long as the box had not been opened, as long as he did not look inside, he did not have to believe it.
For a long moment, he continued his slow descendent, just looking at the lid that had begun to float upward, but then several thin sheets began to follow the lid. Out of frustration, Kid shoved it away from him. Automatically the box began to tip and papers slipped out, each floating away in its own direction. Whoever had left him that note about the old organization documents would not be so generous a second time, there would be no backup files. He could make out the note floating away, flimsier than the rest of the pages escaping. Several sheets of printer paper slipped past him as they headed for the very bottom where they would biodegrade into nothing and take their transactions and records with them.
The weight off his chest had been relieved and it threw the thief into a temporary state of vertigo. His chest felt light and it almost seemed as though he would float upward, but his vision went haywire. Either way, he started to push himself upward, or what he believed to be upward. Kid's motion's were awkward and carried him only a little ways at a time. His vision swam and helped him less and less. As he came closer to the surface, the light grew a bit brighter, but he thought he could see a shape like he had earlier. For a moment he stopped swimming. Was someone waiting for him up above with a pair of handcuffs? Or if not the police, something that would bring him to a stop permanently. He treaded for a moment and his lungs screamed at him in agony; he could not remain down here, regardless of what waited for him above.
As he looked up again, Kid's eyes widened. Water pressed against them and blurred his vision, but after a moment, things grew sharper and clearer. The man looking down at him, his hand reaching into the water to pull him out . . . The face he stopped to look at every day while getting read for school, when he came home, before he left to go on a heist . . . Toichi smiled down at him and reached further, grabbing a hold of his successor's jacket and pulled him towards the surface. The young man felt his head bump slushy, half-frozen water and he reached out, trying to break through. His father yanked him through. Kaitou Kid's head broke the water and he gasped desperately for air. It encountered the water he swallowed and was soon coughing up. Kid grabbed for the edge of the ice and tried to pull himself further out of the water while coughing and gasping sporadically. He tried to keep himself quiet, in case anyone was nearby to hear and discover the phantom thief crawling out of the frozen over lake like a half-drowned rat.
The ice snapped and broke three times as he tried to get out. Each time he would slip back in and once his head went back underwater. He came up coughing and choking from water going down his throat and nose. Kid clawed at the ice with his gloved hands as he shivered violently. His numb fingers banged against the ice, but he hardly felt anything. What sensation did come from the action ran up his arm painfully. The cold swooped down on him and attacked mercilessly. Finally he managed to grab something sturdy enough to pull him up part of the way, only for it, which turned out to be his mostly snow-buried hat, to come loose and send him back into the frigid waters once more. Kid grabbed onto the ice's edge and quickly pulled himself out most of the way with a temporary burst of strength. Crawling away, he pulled his full body out away from the water and collapsed into the snow drift, shuddering.
It took all his beaten will power not to completely black out as he laid there, gasping for breath and gripping at the snow weakly. He coughed several more times and began to paw around in the snow. His vision was still blurry and he was completely disoriented with the snow on the ice. He patted at it, hoping his drenched glove would fall upon a hard diamond. After five minutes of this process, Kaitou Kid could only conclude the gem he had not had time to examine, had already been taken. Rasping a curse, the thief grabbed for his hat and looked around blearily. He wiped a hand over his face, causing snow to cling to his face along with the rest that fell from the sky down onto him.
"Dad . . . ?" he rasped, followed by coughing. "Dad . . ." Kid pushed himself up slightly, then rolled over onto his back. Cloud still hid the moon from him, but streetlights from afar caught his eye slightly. He breathed deeply, coughing sometimes between inhaling and exhaling. His head began to clear slowly, just enough for him to remind himself he had no desire to stay on the ice any longer. Slowly, painstakingly, he rolled back over to his stomach.
Kaitou Kid had to crawl to get off the ice; he did not have the strength for any more rigorous activity that would demand more out of him. He supposed at least then, he would be camouflaged for the one time in his thieving career when he actually wanted a feature like that out of his costume. Getting across the park proved to be a challenge. His body shuddered, but then began to lessen as he adapted to the new cold, much in the way when he had plunged beneath the ice and the cold felt encompassing and numbing. The phantom thief pushed himself forward, even as his mind fell back into the numbing process. Occasionally once he came across one of the larger drifts, he slumped against it, resting and wrapping up into his cape while in the shadows. He listened closely for any signs of people and the only answer he received was the distant sounds of lone cars. It was a block to the twenty-four hour laundry mat, which is where he had to go next. For the most part, he did not remember the trip there, except being cold as he stumbled along once he was finally able to drag himself to his feet.
Most shops windows blankly reflected the dark night while an occasional sign remained on. The laundry mat's neon sign flickered with several letters that had long shorted out. Inside was empty, as any public place was at this hour and half the lights remained on. He went in and immediately flipped the rest of the light switches down and sent the room into a dull darkness. Dragging himself near the back, Kid pulled open one of the large dryers and dragged out the duffle bag. His mind still felt numb as he changed into dry clothes, that were soon wet because he was, and threw Kid's clothing into the dryer. He fumbled for some change in a side pocket and leaned against the dryer once it began to run. He began to shiver as his body warmed back up slightly. His teeth chattered and he ran a hand through his hair, ice and half-melted snow felt out and melted on the floor soon after. He slumped back and looked up at the ceiling wearily until he finally heard the dryer's buzzer go off. Moving back and pulling out the clothes, he put them, his hat, and shoes into the bag and slung the strap over his shoulder. Kid stripped himself of his Kaitou title and merely left the laundry mat as Kaito, who was still shivering. His hair was plastered against his skull and he was sure it would freeze before he got home.
Finally reaching his house at the ungodly morning hours, Kaito slipped in the back door and pulled off his boots and hung up his coat before making a trip straight toward the shower. He turned the hot water on and stepped in before he even finished undressing. The pressured streams splashed down against his skin and began to run down his shivering body. At first he felt that same numb sensation as when he had fallen into the lake, but then it began to burn. The water seared his skin like fire and he tried to add some cold water to it, but it still burned. Nothing the faucet produced would be as cold as the lake. The water ran over his body, thawing him, but sending him into a world of agony all the while. His chest still ached from the lack of oxygen and instinctively he was still taking long breaths. He shuddered and rested his forehead against the tile in the shower. His teeth ground together and he resisted hitting the wall. If his mother were to wake, he did not have a story prepared to tell her.
Kaito waited out the burning sensation and slowly it began to fade. First his face adjusted and then his shoulders as the water ran over them. Mostly, his hands, feet, toes and fingers continued to feel highly sensitive. His thoughts slipped back to earlier, thinking of things he would need to fix, such as his hang glider, and then as his memories drifted closer to the present, the water running freely over his face sent him back under the ice and submersed him until papers were going across his eyes. They floated away and several floated past his face. Blurred ink was all he could remember.
The night, eight and a half years ago, is recorded and documented like all other organization activity. Below is the address and location of where to find said records. According to my recollection, descriptions of Pandora's Box lie with the disappearance of the world's greatest magician, Kuroba Toichi.