The Story of The Magician and The Detective
Prompt :
"Out of your debt? Consider yourself in my debt now, detective."
It was a few weeks since Conan's last encounter with Kid at the Ryoma exhibition.
Now, his next heist is deducted by Inspector Nakamori to be 12 hours away.
"Wait, Nakamori-keibu! It's only 8 o'clock! Why are we already here?!" The very loud voice of Detective Kogorou Mouri boomed through the main hall of Suzuki Museum of Modern Arts.
Conan and Ran cringed and proceeded to calm him down. Settling for an annoyed glare, Detective Mouri redirected his anger towards the very rich man who was responsible for the mess they were in.
"Ah, I though Conan-kun would like a look around. He is Kid's natural enemy after all." Senior Advisor Suzuki Jurokichi replied with a nonchalant smile, which re-ignites Detective Mouri's wrath.
"Humph. Brat, if you don't prevent Kid theft this time, I'll give you a big bump on your head. This just made me miss Yoko-chan's newest episode. Thank goodness I recorded it."
Conan smiled exasperatedly. The target of Kid's heist this time is the Amber Star, a large, star-shaped amber piece, highly ornated with high-quality diamonds, rubies and sapphires from all around the world.
But that was not the star's highlight. In the middle was the ever-famous jewel, Golden Key, a yellow diamond in the shape of a keyhole. It was unique, and had been sold to Advisor Suzuki for the price of ¥50,000,00.
It was showcased in a small velvet box in the middle of the lobby, with an astounding amount of soldiers and officers from the Kid Taskforce stationed around it.
People from surrounding areas crowded around the Museum, desperately trying to catch a glance of the famed jewel.
As usual, Kid's notice was short.
"I will come to take the Jewel of the Key, during the time where a branch runs parallel to the one below it. If not, I'll take something else precious, though not famed. Yours truly, Kaitou Kid." Sonoko looked at Ran excitedly, as she ended her recitation of Kid's note with a flourish of her hand.
"So, what do you think, Ran? Will Kid-sama appear tonight? Kyaaaaa, Kid-sama! Though I wonder what the other thing is."
Ran chuckled lightly and answered. "Of course he will, but just to be thwarted by our Conan-kun! Do your very best, Conan-kun!"
"Eh!? You should say that to Nakamori-keibu! He worked so hard!" Conan exclaimed, with a meaningful look to Ran. Ran backtracked and faced Inspector Nakamori with a guiltily embarassed look.
"Sorry, keibu! Do your best, Nakamori-keibu! Kid'll be caught in no time!"
Those words seemed to raise the inspector's spirit, so Conan guessed it'll be alright.
Now, all that's left is to decipher the note.
The time is written as 'when a branch runs parallel to the one below it'. Highly unlikely to be a tree. Trees cannot move their branches.
"Is it something else? Hmm..." Conan mulled the thought over, when he caught sight of the time on his wristwatch. It was 8:15.
"Wait. Can it be? 'When a branch'. If I were to take it to be the hour hand of a clock, and put it exactly parallel to the minute hand, it'll point towards... 12 o'clock!"
Conan ran as fast as he could towards the Inspector, and told him the details. With a ear-deafening "WHAT!?", the Inspector snapped into action, calling out 5 more helicopters and distributed the soldiers' workspots.
Conan watched in boredom, as the routine had been repeated plenty of times, to know that it'll fail. They'd be ultimately shocked if it actually worked.
The few remaining hours was spent with Detective Mouri, Ran, Sonoko and the Senior Advisor at the lounge.
The Detective and the Advisor had the time of their lives of drinking, while Sonoko teased Ran about her 'husband', Shinichi Kudo.
Come 11:30, all of them piled out, to witness Kid's magnificent heist.
Conan had everything figured out by then, except for the part of something else precious. Despite that, he just itched to wipe the damned smirk off the thief's face.
The clock struck twelve. The cliché routine of sudden appearance, gas, gone with a poof and angry yells from the Inspector didn't faze Conan a bit, as he chased the thief up a flight of stairs.
Upon arriving at the rooftop, Conan panted and bent over his knees as he looked around, searching for the tell-tale swishy white cape.
"Stop trying to seduce me, Tantei-kun. You should know that's dangerous."
Shocked, Conan turned, and saw Kid by the door, closing it, locking it, while holding a finger to his mouth.
"Kid. Give me the Star. And what do you mean, seduce?" Conan demanded with a cool voice. The Phantom Thief grinned slyly, as he held the Amber Star up to the moonlight.
"Ah, this is not it either. Oh well, I did say, I'll take the next most precious thing. Even it was right, I'll take both." Kid talked with a cool voice, betraying no hints of the excitement in him.
"Again, what do you mean? Another jewel of Suzuki's?" The question was answered with a mocking shake of the thief's head. "Then?"
Kid grinned again, and put the Amber Star carefully in front of the door. "Tantei-kun, remember the debt I used to own you on the train incident?"
Conan nodded suspiciously. "What about it? I said it was paid."
"Well, that's precisely it. The favour you asked me to do, was way too dangerous for a boring ol' debt like that. So I decided, you own me some too."
Conan coughed lightly, and wondered where this was going. "So, what do you wnt from me? I don't have a lot of money either."
Kid's grin got impossibly sly, way too sly for Conan's liking. "As for that, I've figured it out. Why not..."
Kid came closer, and bent down to whisper lightly in Conan's right ear. "...your first kiss?"
Shocked, Conan stood rooted to the spot, as his limbs failed to obey his orders. Kid smirked widely, a sign of victory.
With the utmost grace everyone would expect from him, Kid moved his lips from Conan's ear, and placed it lightly on top of Conan's smaller ones.
Conan's ultimate detective brain went blank, and refused to come up with ideas.
The only thing clear that moment was "What the hell? Why? Kid?"
Kid straightened up, and chuckled at Conan's flushed yet blank face. "You should see yourself now, Tantei-kun. This is fun."
Kid kissed Conan again, but with more force. With that, Conan temporarily became the most illiterate detective to have lived.
Due to the sound of the soldiers' climbing up the stairs, Kid released his grip on Conan, and winked mischievously.
"I'll see you again, Tantei-kun. Oh, and the debt's still far from completed!"
With that, Kid spread his hang-glider, and flew off into the darkness of the night.
Just as he was flying away, Inspector Nakamori burst in through the door. He caught sight of the escaped thief and cursed. Conan, still blank, pointed at the Star by the door.
With a jump, the Inspector retrieved it. "Oi boy. Why did you let Kid go?"
Conan replied with a blank stare, and walked past him, despite the Inspector's indignant demands.
Walking down the stairs, the shrunken boy's mind still refused to work, and he walked mechanically towards Ran and Detective Mouri.
The Detective and Ran's questions were replied with very blank stares. At last, they deemed the boy too tired to talk, and went back home.
Conan fell into his futon, and slept restlessly, dreaming about sly phantom thieves all night. Waking up in the morning, he was oddly quiet.
The Shounen Tantei-dan pestered him all day. Finally, he gave in, and confessed Kid's unreasonable deed. They were shocked, to say the least.
But it was a chance, and it was a chance not wasted. The group teased Conan all week long, making Conan feel like an idiot for letting the thief take advantage of him. Oh well.
Unknown to anyone...
That night, Kuroba Kaito slept happily, after finally realising his dreams of making the ever-cool Tantei-kun flustered. To see the bespectacled boy red and confused...
He decided that it was nice, and he'll definitely do it again.