Disclaimer: N'est pas own Detective Conan, Magic Kaito, or Pandora. But I made a nifty Magic Kaito poster in Photoshop!
Not much to say. I came up with the ending and just had to scribble it down, so now I've got the beginning, the end, and not the middle. And part of the this chapter is entirely the fault of hattergems. Bwahahah!
A week passed. Conan settled into, if not a blossoming friendship, then at least a mutual agreement with the thief Kaito Kid. He spent most of his free time in the thief's lair, brainstorming and putting to the test various ways of destroying Pandora.
And Kaito had been quite right. His mother had continued to call him Kudo-kun. Later investigation had revealed a shelf dedicated to his father's books, every single one of them signed. And she was definitely intent upon fattening him up with some of the best chocolate chip cookies he had ever encountered.
Conan also kept his eye out for the villains Kid had said were stalking him. And now that he knew there probably were, he saw signs everywhere. He started to wonder if hanging out with Kuroba Kaito suddenly had painted an even bigger target on his back, but Kaito assured him that according to the villains Kuroba Kaito was a dead end.
Somehow, that didn't reassure him.
Unfortunately the week culminated in frustration as the damned stone was still unscratched. Third hardest natural gemstone Conan's ass. Conan and Kaito finally collapsed on the old, slightly smelly couch in the lair (Conan didn't bother to wonder how it had made it in there) after the latest failed attempt, involving concrete, a small crane, and dropping said concrete. "This is hopeless," he professed.
"Nothing's hopeless," Kaito protested. "We just haven't found the right hope yet."
"Kid, we've just tried setting it on top of a ton of concrete, and then dropping another ton of concrete on top of it. That didn't work, and frankly I'm out of ideas."
Kaito looked over at Conan. "Should you really be calling me 'kid'?"
"S'pose not."
Kaito sighed. "Maybe we're going about this the wrong way. So far we've mostly tried just crushing it with increasingly heavy objects."
"Maybe we should build a time machine, go back in time, and get a dinosaur to step on it," Conan suggested mostly sarcastically.
"No, no. Maybe we should try something that doesn't involve crushing."
"We did. That was playing with chemicals day. The highly potent acid didn't even work."
Kaito's mother poked her head in. "Are you boys doing all right?"
"Define 'all right'." Kaito shot back.
His mother made a face. "Oh well. Aoko's on the phone by the way. Should I tell her you're busy?"
Kaito shook his head, getting up. "Nah, I'll get it."
Kaito's mother made room for him to leave the lair, then looked at Conan. "Can I get you anything Kudo-kun?"
Conan also shook his head. "No thank you Kuroba-san."
Meanwhile, outside the lair, Kaito had made it to the phone. "What's up, Aoko?"
"Hi Kaito! Me and Hakuba-kun never made it to Tropical Land last week," At this, Kaito caught a muttered 'damn murders'. "I'm going to try again today and was wondering if you wanted to come this time."
Kaito weighed his options. On one hand, he still had to destroy Pandora. On the other hand, he still hadn't figured out how and was fresh out of ideas. "Will Hakuba be there?"
"I haven't called him yet. Should I?"
She was asking him? "Nah, he's probably busy with something," he quickly said. "Ah, can I call you back in two seconds?"
"Sure."
Kaito hung up the phone and poked his head back in the lair. "Kudo! Aoko called to invite me to Tropical Land. Do you think we're done for the day?"
Conan leaned back on the couch and looked at the ceiling. "I'd rather keep working, but that wouldn't be productive in the slightest. We seem to be a good stopping point, having stopped already. Up to you."
Kaito eyed the shrunken detective for a moment. Then he raced back out of the lair and grabbed the phone. It picked up almost immediately, and he started speaking almost as soon as it did. "You know that kid with me last week? Conan? I'll be bringing him with if you don't mind."
"Of course I wouldn't!"
Kaito raced back into the lair again. "Get your shoes on."
Conan leveled a bored look at Kaito. "Why? Are you kicking me out?"
Kaito shook his head, grinning like a madman. "No. We're going to Tropical Land. I already told Aoko you're coming, so you've got no choice in the matter. Get your shoes on."
Conan glared. "Hate you"
Kaito pretended to blow a kiss. "Love you too, tantei-kun."
In the end, it took probably five minutes for Kaito to find some money, find his coat, stuff the pockets with things Conan didn't want to think about lest his head explode (Wind-up toy soldiers? Really?), and get his own shoes on. Conan was tapping his feet waiting two minutes in.
Unfortunately for both parties involved, it was Inspector Nakamori who opened the door when Kaito rang the bell. "Hello Inspector!" Kaito hailed joyfully.
Gruff Ginzo just eyed them. "Kaito-kun? I didn't know you knew Edogawa-kun."
"Oh, we ran into each other at a heist, you know how I love those things, and we started arguing…"
Kaito went on, and Conan had to wonder: was he thick? He seemed to know what he was doing though, as quickly into the monologue Inspector Nakamori turned his head around. "Aoko! Kaito-kun's here!"
"Coming!" There was a thumping sound as Nakamori Aoko barreled down the stairs. Once at the bottom she looked at Kaito and beamed widely. "Hi!" She started rummaging through a hall closet, finally emerging with some shoes. Ginzo left. Aoko slipped the shoes on and practically dragged Kaito out the door, Conan hurrying to follow.
"It's so great that you agreed to come! Whenever I'm alone with Hakuba-kun it seems like dead bodies start falling out of the sky!"
Conan had to admit: detectives did have that strange tendency.
Aoko turned her wide smile towards Conan. "Hi! We haven't properly met yet! I'm Nakamori Aoko. You're Edogawa Conan, aren't you? My dad thinks that one of these days, you're going to be the one to catch Kaito Kid." She winked. "When you do, kick him for me, okay?"
Conan almost told her that she could do it herself if she turned to the left. But that would just be cruel. "Nice to meet you, Aoko-neesan." He then sent a sarcastic glare secretly in Kaito's direction. Kaito had the good humor to look sheepish. Conan decided to run with it. "How about I tie him up and bring him to you so that you can unmask him and then beat him up?"
Aoko gave a thumbs-up. "Sounds like a plan!"
Kaito started wondering if this was really a good idea. Then he was distracted. "Aoko!" he whined. "I told you not to call him!"
Aoko waved it off. "You were bringing someone else, so I thought it would be fine. Besides, he'll be distracted by Akako-chan."
Conan followed their gaze. Walking down the sidewalk towards them was a blond whom he recognized as Hakuba Saguru, and a red-headed woman he didn't know. Hakuba looked like he couldn't decide whether to twitch uncontrollably at the girl's very presence, or start fawning awkwardly over her. Conan had to agree. She was… beautiful…
He shook his head to rid himself of the thought. Ran. He was in love with Ran. That was all.
"It's nice though…"
Aoko's words pulled Conan out of his musings. Kaito, who had previously been glaring at Hakuba, looked at her. "What?"
Aoko smiled innocently. "It's nice that you're the only guy in the school that's not in love with Akako-chan! That is, if it had to be anyone, I'd rather it be you."
Kaito's face remained impassive. But Conan knew Kaito Kid, and knew that that was only a front. Even when it looked like escape was impossible, Kid had still given him that manic grin, leading Conan to wonder what he had missed in his trap, even though in reality he hadn't missed anything.
Conan quickly wondered if anything could possibly be more romantically pathetic.
Aoko waved at the two of them. "Akako-chan! Hakuba-kun!"
Hakuba waved back, while Akako lifted her hand to her mouth to laugh daintily. Aoko started dragging Kaito in their direction, leaving Conan once again to try and keep up. "I'm so glad you two could come!"
"Always glad to be of service," Hakuba replied smoothly. He then bent over and looked at Conan accusingly. "You're watching Conan-kun again, Kuroba? You must be pretty chummy with Mouri-san."
"We met at a heist," Kaito insisted, keeping to the half lie he'd told Inspector Nakamori.
"Oh I have no doubt about that."
There were practically lightning bolts in the air. Aoko glared at the two of them. "Mou, Hakuba-kun, can't you leave that alone? Kaito's not Kid, okay?"
Akako laughed again. Hakuba shrugged. "As you wish."
Akako then looked at Conan, and smiled. He found he had a hard time keeping Ran's face in his mind. "Kaito-kun, since you seem to be in charge of him at the moment, why don't you introduce us?"
Kaito scratched the back of his neck. "Ah, right. Conan-kun, this is Koizumi Akako. Akako-chan, this is Edogawa Conan."
Akako knelt down and gently ruffled his hair. "Ah, Edogawa-kun. You must be the great nemesis. You have the aggressiveness of the devil."
"N-nice to meet you, Koizumi-neesan," Conan stuttered.
"Hey, Akako-chan, don't scare him," Kaito protested.
Aoko put her hands on her hips. "Okay, we're all acquainted now! Let's go!"
And that was how Conan found himself going to Tropical Land with the oddest mish-mash of characters he'd ever encountered. And he'd encountered quite a few odd people in his life.
By the time they'd gotten to Tropical Land, Conan had had ample time to observe the four teenagers and how they acted around each other. Hakuba, as he'd already figured out, knew that Kaito was Kid. Aoko conversely was convinced he wasn't, though there was the tiniest hint of denial in her eyes. Conan would know, as he'd seen that same look on Ran's face a small handful of times.
At any rate, the two boys wouldn't stop arguing, and Aoko always got mad when the topic strayed to Kid (which it did often). Conan tried to stay out of it, but Hakuba was equally convinced that he should be included, which led to Conan wondering how long it would take before Hakuba figured out that Conan knew as well. Fortunately, Koizumi seemed to be on Conan's side, constantly asking Hakuba what Conan would know about Kid. At which point, strangely enough, Hakuba would almost shut down, and the arguing would cease for at least a minute or two.
Then again, whenever Koizumi spoke to Conan he felt like shutting down. It was only Ran's face implanted firmly in his mind that kept him coherent. There was this alien urge to see to her every desire, an urge that was only curtailed by thinking of Ran.
Basically, Koizumi terrified him for no reason. And the fact that he shouldn't be terrified of her at all terrified him even more.
Honestly, Conan didn't know how he made it to Tropical Land in one piece.
Once they got to Tropical Land, things cooled down a bit. Aoko was the driving force of the group, running around and deciding what to do next. She occasionally asked Conan what he wanted to do, but he always told her to pick, adding that whatever she chose was really fun. He was definitely in her good graces almost right away. As opposed to Kaito and Hakuba, who seemed to be fighting over her, each trying to interfere with the other's conversation.
Next time Conan and Kaito were alone, he was going to tease him mercilessly over that. The thief and the detective, fighting over the inspector's daughter.
Koizumi didn't say much. Instead, her eyes seemed to be busy boring into the back of Conan's head. He almost sighed in relief whenever she excused herself to go do something else.
It wasn't until the ferris wheel that something out of the ordinary happened. And by out of the ordinary, the narrator means potentially lethal.
They were just passing the top when it happened. Kaito had been looking out the window, watching the people below. He suddenly leapt for Aoko looking out the window on the other side, shouting, "Get down!"
No sooner had Conan hit the ground than the window Kaito had been leaning against shattered, and something hit the ceiling. The occupants of the car started exclaiming things all at once.
"What the hell was that?"
"What's going on?"
"Kaito-kun, I warned you!"
This last one came from Akako, who had quickly stood up after it was over. "I warned you!" she repeated.
"Akako-chan, what are you doing?" Kaito demanded.
Conan and Hakuba's eyes had met, and together they looked to the ceiling. Lodged neatly there was a bullet. Conan started to stand up, about to scan the crowd and look for a sniper. A hand grabbed his jacket and yanked him back down.
"Don't you dare," Kaito said, deadly serious.
"Kuroba, could it-"
"Don't waste your breath Hakuba, I'm not going to answer."
"Not such a dead end," Akako said mysteriously. "Yet."
Kaito's earlier words came back to Conan. "…Kuroba Kaito is a dead end." It occurred to him in a second what Koizumi was talking about, though the identical choice of words bothered him. His eyes met with Kaito's, and what he saw in them he didn't like.
Aoko grabbed Kaito's hand. "Kaito, what's going on?"
"I have to go," was all he said.
The ferris wheel operator was just as surprised as everyone else when he saw the mess. Kaito picked Conan up and swung him on to his back. "I'm going home now."
"Kaito, wait-"
Kaito looked at Hakuba as he started to back away. "Make sure she gets home safely Hakuba."
Hakuba nodded. "Will do."
"Kaito!"
Kaito was already running, Conan attached firmly to his back. And hoping beyond hope that the sniper was gone.
Fans of Magic Kaito may remember that Akako has this spell-thing going where all the men in the world are her slaves (except Kaito, but that's a different story entirely). This rarely shows up in fanfiction. This is my slight attempt to rectify that.
AANNDD this is the part where things start to go to pot. Reviews please!
