Chapter 1

The Phantom Messenger

Kaitou Kid landed on the roof of his house, and waited for a moment for his hang glider to fold itself up. He managed a small smile, breathing heavily. "Another successful heist…" He sighed, holding the recently stolen gem up to the moonlight. No Pandora here, yet another gem I'll have to return… he thought, letting his poker face drop. As the window swung open, he remembered that he had only managed to escape by heeding his father's advice from earlier in the evening.

"Kaito. Even though old friends and enemies may appear, and new challenges rise, you must never forget your poker face."

Kaito's voice had joined with his father's at this last part, as he knew it so well.

He then swung himself through the window and landed on the soft carpet of his bedroom. He padded across the floor and pushed the portrait of his father back, revealing the hidden room behind it. The dim lights in the room flickered on, and Kaito slowed to halt as he approached the record player. He noticed a picture slightly hidden behind it. He picked it up, and blew the coating of dust off of it. His eyes widened slightly as he saw what moment in time had been frozen in this frame. A small tear landed on the glass. Kaito sighed, and pulled himself together, leaving the picture back where he'd found it. He donned his normal clothes and stepped back out into his room, where a small breeze was blowing through the open window. The portrait swung around until the image of Kaito Kid was replaced with that of Kuroba Toichi. Kaito then walked over to the window, and pulled himself up to sit on the windowsill. He watched the leaves rustle outside. He glanced at Aoko's window, where she was surely fast asleep. Kaito closed his eyes and leaned against the window, listening to the neighbor's wind chime play its quiet melody. The next thing he knew, his eyelids fluttered shut and he fell into sleep.

Kaito was walking across a rooftop in a city. Exactly which city, he wasn't sure. It wasn't at all like Japan. It wasn't nearly as bright as Tokyo, and its buildings...were not touching the ground. It was well lit, but not in the way that he was used to. There were small, glowing orbs that each shone a different hue. Kaito had never imagined there could possibly be so many colors. Some looked the same, but when reached out to two of them that were both the same turquoise color, he noticed that they were slightly different. One of them had some purple coloring, and the other had some hints of red in it. He also noticed that they acted different, as if they were...alive. The blue-red one was bouncy, and seemed slightly michevious, although he wasn't sure how he knew. The other was calm, sincere, and almost...stuck up? No, that wasn't the word...arrogant. Kind of a know it all. It reminded him of a friend he once knew. Suddenly he looked down and realized that he didn't have legs. He was surprised, but not in the terrified sense. It felt...normal. Almost like he'd done this before. Strange. He shook his head, and looked up to see a small child in front of him. It flickered in and out, like it was about to disappear. It had large, pitch black eyes that seemed to bore into him. They had short hair that flowed around it, and he felt something inside him stir, something he'd only felt once before in his entire life. FEAR.

The being looked worried, and tried to reach out to him, speaking words that couldn't be heard. This place that had once been sparking with life (however strange it was) had been turned into a black and white wasteland. The subtle noises from the orbs suddenly diasappeared as a sort of black cloud filled the starry sky. The once colorful floating orbs had this sort of black shadow enveloping them, and once they were covered in it, they dropped to the ground and shattered into a million tiny black shards. This was horrifying enough as it was, but as soon as the first orb shattered, a piercing scream bled into his ears, transferring years worth of knowledge, heartbreak, and torture. As more orbs smashed, Kaito was overwhelmed with their memories and pain. It proved to much for the yound thief, and his knees buckled, his hands clawing at his head, trying in vain to free himself from the dead orbs crowding his mind. Kaito heard someone calling his name, over and over, echoing in his brain. He tried to scream, but no sound came out.

"Kaito!"

He couldn't think, he couldn't hear, he felt himself falling-

"Kaito!"

-into the endless abyss, their bodiless voices, following, the child was watching, morphing with the eyes of a soulless murderer-

"KAITO!"