Chapter 2: A Situation Arises

Kuroba Kaito grinned, balancing not one, but two metal spoons on his index finger, one stacked on top of the other. Nakamori Aoko looked less than amused, but secretly she was enjoying it.

"You're such a show-off," she complained, which only resulted in a wider grin. He always knew that when she complained it meant that his little tricks were pleasing her. Her favorite trick would always remain the way he could make a fresh rose appear out of seemingly nowhere. It was the trick he'd used when they'd first met, and despite having seen him do it dozens of times now, she could never figure out how he did it, likely because he always caught her off-guard. Once she had demanded that he do the trick with a short-sleeved shirt on. She'd been disappointed and yet overly pleased when he'd grinned and proceeded to perform his little magic trick, completely ruining her idea that he must hide it in his sleeve somehow.

"Come on," he had said, "if I kept it in my sleeve it would ruin the rose, wouldn't it? A great magician like myself can come up with something better than that!" Aoko smiled fondly at the memory.

"What, are you giving up on pretending that you're unhappy?" Kaito asked, startling her and making her refocus on the spiky-haired boy sitting in the booth across from her. They were currently sitting in one of their favorite hang-outs, ordering lunch. Kaito kept glancing up at the TV screen that hung in the corner of the brightly lit mall restaurant.

Aoko glanced back, noting that the news had been running the same story for forty minutes now. "What's it about?" She asked, not actually having been paying attention to the newscaster.

"Kaitou Kid," Kaito replied. "They say he's going to appear today on top of the Beika Hotel." Aoko frowned a little.

"That's funny, dad hasn't said anything about it..."

Kaito nodded. "That's because no one is actually sure if he's going to be there. Supposedly someone other than Kid left a note at the news station this morning, saying that they had a gift for Kaitou Kid that they'd reveal at one o'clock on the roof of the hotel. It said something like 'hope to see you there, Kid!' Or something like that. The note specifically asked that a news crew be set up on a neighboring rooftop to record the occurrence."

"One o'clock? That's only a few minutes away... Who left the note?" Aoko asked.

"They haven't said. Likely they don't know. It probably doesn't matter anyway; I doubt that Kaitou Kid is going to show up."

"Why not?" Aoko looked confused.

Kaito laughed. "W-well, uh, if Kid didn't say he'd show up then why should he? It's not like there are any jewels at the hotel, right? No challenge was issued either. On top of that, it's probably just a trap, or a fan who wants to meet him. Why would the Phantom Thief Kid show up just because someone asked him for a meeting? Someone he doesn't even know?"

"What if he does know who the note is from? We can't be sure." Kaito laughed nervously and rubbed the back of his neck.

"Uh, y-yeah, I guess you're right about that. But, well, besides just that, the news casters aren't taking it completely seriously either, otherwise there'd be a lot more coverage, and there'd be a helicopter in the sky." He pointed at the live footage of the rooftop and Aoko noticed that, just as Kaito had said, there was no helicopter in the sky.

"There are also no police helicopters, so the police probably don't think he'll show up either. Your father will probably still be there though, just in case. He's obsessed with catching Kid, after all. I don't think he'll be seeing Kid today: Kaitou Kid probably has better things to do than answering some person's request, right?"

'For example,' Kaito thought to himself, 'there's hanging out with you.'

Aoko shrugged. "Yeah, I guess you're right. Plus it could still be a trap, though probably not a trap set by the police; daddy would have told me if it was. He'd have been bragging about it all morning! If I were Kid I'd wait to see what happens at one, too." Kaito nodded.

"You mean you'd wait until right now?" He asked with a smirk. Sure enough, the clock struck one and someone in the restaurant turned up the TV a little. The live coverage showed the rooftop of the hotel. At first it appeared that nothing was happening, it was just an empty rooftop. Then the door to the roof began to swing open.

"Well that can't be Kid," Aoko commented. "He'd fly there."

Kaito nodded. "It's probably the person who asked for the meeting." He continued to play with the spoons, bending them and snapping them back into shape illusively, pretending not to be too interested in what was going on. He watched as pink smoke poured out from the open door.

'Covering their entrance,' Kaito thought. Figures moved beneath the cover of the smoke, barely distinguishable behind the shroud of the pink clouds. Within a minute the smoke began to clear, and as the situation on the rooftop became clear, Kaito's eyes widened.

Aoko gasped and slapped a hand over her mouth, startled.

"I-I have to go!" Kaito suddenly said, standing from his booth and running out the door. Aoko glanced at him.

Aoko watched as he quickly exited the restaurant, not even bothering to come up with some excuse for his sudden departure. 'I already know he's not Kaitou Kid,' she thought to herself, shaking her head and gluing her eyes back on the TV screen. 'Wherever Kaitou Kid is, I hope he's watching this. I hope he does something to stop it! He wouldn't just let it happen, would he...?'