Chapter 4
Sometimes Aoko wondered, whether the Kaito Kid fans recorded their cheering once and then just play it at any future heist to safe stamina and breath. This would at least explain why she always had such a strong sense of Deja Vue, whenever she entered the building, which Kid choose for his next location.
Squeezing herself through the cheering crowd, earning her a few annoyed grunts from the chanting bulk of humans, she slowly but steadily made her way to the door of the big skyscraper, which featured a big purple amethyst in a jewel's exhibition on the upper floors. After a lot of shoving and pushing, she finally reached the line of policeman, which payed careful attention to who could enter and who not, since this heist was only open for a small circle of people, who either had a hand in the exhibition or the planed capture of the elusive thief. Aoko obviously belonged to the later and that was only the case, because her father was the leading inspector or else, she would probably have to stay out and watch from the ground like most of Kid's dedicated fans. This had yet to happen, but the girl was not very keen on making this experience, especially since she would probably get lynched if the fans got wind of how much she despised their great idol.
"Idol of what exactly", Aoko asked herself not for the first time.
She had often pondered over why the people loved the burgling showman that much and, while she could find reason to enjoy his heist or support his fight against the evil snobs of society, she had yet to come up with something, which could be idolized about the stealing part of his shows. But pondering over this question has never brought her to an answer and so she pushed the thoughts away and recalled Conan's lessons on 'How to catch Kaitou Kid'.
During her whole elevator ride, a strange silence has followed her, undoubtably explainable by the complete absence of any people in the whole building, what seemed kind of strange, considering what would happen her in a little less than an hour.
"Are they completely concentrating their forces on the exhibition room?" Aoko mused, coming to the conclusion that this was the most probable answer and when the elevator finally opened with a ping, her guess was confirmed by the crowed floor. Once again, she had so push and squeeze herself through the crowd, till she finally arrived at the closed off area in which a glass case was standing and a few well-known faces argued over security measures.
"I'm telling you, Kid will come through the ventilation shaft! There is no other way for him to come, because the windows are made of bulletproof glass!", Kogouro Mouri, the famous sleeping detective, bellowed at Jirokichi Suzuki, obviously not agreeing with the others opinion.
But true to his hot temper, the Suzuki advisor shoot back, "The air vents are secured with welded screws and observed by motion detectors, there is no way he can enter there. So, he has to shatter the glass to get inside the building."
Aoko, who only quickly greeted her father, Ran and Conan, which all stood near the two arguing hot heads with a bit annoyed expressions, listened to the screaming contest for a couple of minutes, while taking in all the details of the security measures, which the two roared out for the whole world to hear "If Kid was already here, this would be like a free card to take the jewel", she mused.
It took her a second to really understand the terrible possibility, which her wild guess introduced. 'IF Kid was here' meant that nobody knew where he was and since Aoko just heard, that neither window nor air vents were easily accessible, the possibility of him slipping through an unguarded fire exit and then come strolling inside the exhibition room, hiding behind one of his near perfect disguises, seemed even more likely. She nearly whipped her head around to scan the room for suspicious persons, but remembered one of Conan's advises in time.
"As much as you look for Kid, Kid looks for you. If he gets the feeling that you suspect something, he will be extra careful. So, don't show any signs of what you are thinking or you might alarm him to something you haven't even thought off."
It took a lot of self-control for her, who never bother to conceal her emotions, to mask her intense concentration and look around the room with a neutral and slightly bored expression and at first she didn't spot anything noteworthy, but then her eyes landed on an old man.
He was clearly rich and wealthy, though his best days were over. Nonetheless his suit fitted him perfectly and was definitely not used all that often, so that it must have been made recently, but it still did not fit him completely, which indicated that it wasn't from one of the high end shops and the measurements hadn't been taken carefully enough. And now that she looked more closely, there were other irritating things about him, one of which was the tone of his skin, just where the throat came forth to the chin. The skin there was slightly darker and that was not just because of the lighting. Also, his cheeks seemed to be pale, even though he had obviously drunken more than a bit of alcoholic beverage, which was proven by the near empty glass in his hands. On top of that, all the people in the room along with the low running air ventilation, raised the air temperature by quite a bit and everybody around her had rosy cheeks along with occasional sweat drops on some faces. All but this old geezer, who laughed and joke as much as anybody else did.
O
The evening hasn't been going all that well for Conan so far. The mass of people annoyed him, blocking most of his view with their bodies, not to mention that the air down at his height wasn't particularly pleasant, thanks to the various sorts of body odours, along with the uncountable mass of different parfums. To top it all off, he had yet to find a clue on what Kid was planning, since neither the exhibition case, nor the police officer did reveal any unusual sights, when he had inspected them. He had been trying to spot any suspicious-looking persons, but thanks to the social stand of this gathering, nearly everybody had at least some sort of make up on, which made it impossible for him to find the thief thanks to his makeup.
Letting a sigh slip, he resigned himself to not being able to do much, till the thief would arrive, since Ran didn't let him wander off anymore and so he could not go and look for unscrewed air vents or misplaced object, which might give a clue on the thief's plan. But when he let his gaze wandered over the people around him once again, he caught sight of a concentrated looking Aoko, who seemed to stare at somebody. He quickly made his way over to her, torn between scolding her for losing her poker face again and asking her what was so damn interesting. He just hoped it wasn't some famous actor or anything alike.
But his hopes where not disappointed, when he halted right beside her and followed her gaze to spot an old, yet still immensely cheerful man. From the sight of it, he had the time of his life, chattering and joking with the people around him, which was an interesting sight, but not one that would require this stern frown, which Aoko wore at the time. He hesitated a bit, probably out of detective pride to ask for the solution rather than uncover it himself, before he tugged at her long dress, which did not expose much skin at all, to get her attention.
He was slightly startled, when she visibly jumped from this, since he did not quite understand her intense concentration on this plainly looking old men, so he put on the 'curious child' face and asked in a high voice, with a bit of a sing sang in it, "Aoko-neechan!? What are you looking at?"
The girl in question immediately squatted down, apparently completely obvious to what she was wearing and if the dress had been just a bit shorter, Conan would have had a hard time keeping a blush from getting on his face, "Oh, I was just wondering over the man with the heavy makeup.", she told him, before his thoughts could wander further.
Bewildered, Conan looked over to the cheerful group, to which he had followed Aoko's gaze and his confusion grew even more, when he was not able to spot anybody, not even a woman, with overly heavy makeup.
Confused he turned back to Aoko "Heavy makeup?"
"Yes"
Starting to doubt his or the girl's sanity, Conan focused the group again, yet with the same conclusion as before "There is nobody wearing heavy makeup."
"Of course there is.", the girls just answered, a little frown on her face.
"In that group over there?", Conan asked, pointing towards the group.
"Yes", Aoko confirmed a little confused "You do see him right?", and with that, she squatted down even further, apparently trying to see whether something was blocking the boys view.
"I'm afraid, I don't see who you mean", Conan told her, now questioning, if he had overestimated the girls abilities.
"Really?" Aoko breathed, confusion written all over her face, as if Conan was not seeing the elephant in the room, "But, that old man over there, don't you see him?"
Once again, Conan had to look at the old geezer, who for some reason started to annoy him, but he ignored it and asked his go-detective once again"The one who is chatting and joking?"
"Yes.", was Aoko's short, yet precise answer
"The one, who is holding a glass of sect?"Conan inquired, making absolutely sure not to look at the wrong person.
"I didn't know it was sect, but yes." Aoko confesses.
But instead lightening the mood, the young sleuth could only grow even more confused, "The one with the small white moustache and the bald patch?" he made sure once again.
And the confirmation came again from the Inspectors daughter, "Yes, that one!"
Conan stared intently, "Where the heck do you see any make up on him?"
At that comment, Aoko's face turned to a thoughtful frown and before Conan could ask her what was going on in her head, she had already snatched his glasses away and put them on herself.
"HEY!" Conan ejaculated, louder than he had intended, but thanks to the constant chatting, nobody paid it any attention, "Give those back!" He tried to grab the spectacles out of Aoko's grasp, but the girl had already stood up and was now squinted through the lenses at the elder.
"Strange, I see no correction at all.", she muttered, which made Conan sweat drop and double his effort to get her to give the glasses back.
"Aoko-neechan", he now pledged, but before he was forced to throw a tantrum, the (physically) older girl dropped down once again and put the glasses back on his nose.
"Here you go", she said and bopped his nose with a cheerful smile.
"But you should check your prescription. No wonder you didn't see the makeup, when your glasses don't change anything.", she muttered and Conan was quick to divert her attention, before she got the bright idea to tell Ran about it.
"Then tell me, how can you tell that he is wearing heavy makeup." Conan demanded, regretting it a little when he saw how Aoko grinned back and chimed, "But of course, Conan-sensei!"
And with that, she leaped into her explanation "If you look just below his jaw, you can see that the colour is too dark there to just stem from shadow, so they come from the pigments of the makeup. You see, makeup never dries 100%, so it will always rub off. So, if you speak or move your head, the skin will fold in those regions and the makeup will rub off and so the colour will gather where the skin folds the most."
Even though, Conan could not see the apparently, darker colour, the reasoning did sound plausible to him and so he paid close attention when Aoko continued.
"Also, if you look at his face directly, you will see that it is rather pale, but a man, who is so vigorously chatting and laughing, in a warm room and drinking alcohol, would inevitably stimulate his blood flow, thus flushing his face or at least his noses and cheeks a little. But since this is not the case, we are not seeing his real skin!", she ended, openly displaying her pride over having been able to explain something to her mentor. Conan was obviously pretty dumbfounded at that, since he had never expected the girl to give him such a detailed observation and deduction, but aside from some unlikely medical conditions, he could find no severe flaw in her argument.
o
Turning her head away from her little mentor, who looked like a deer in the head lights, Aoko shifted her attention back to the guest, who had caught her attention and she was not all that surprised when he even started to do something that looked a lot like dancing. But the very interesting wobbling and flailing of his limbs was interrupted when the crowed started to count down.
"Twenty. Nineteen. Eighteen. Seventeen.", they chanted, looking around in the room or staring at their watches.
"Sixteen. Fifteen. Fourteen. Thirteen.", they continued and Aoko realized that Kid's grand entrance is soon to come. She looked back for a moment at the purple amethyst, safely lying on his silk cushion under the dome of glass, before she looked back at her Kid suspect.
"Twelve. Eleven. Teen. Nine."
He seemed to look around in the room, hoping to spot the thief ahead of time like everybody else did. However, something in the way his scanned over the crowd made her suspicious and when his eyes landed on her, she felt like they blasted right through her bored and calm facade, which she managed to keep up till now and what surprised herself most of all.
"Eight. Seven."
His eyes, a cold blue like the shine of moonlight falling through a sapphire, wandered up to her face where they meet Aoko's eyes.
"Six. Five."
Slowly, very slowly, a grin started to spread on his face and Aoko could clearly see how the dried paint started to lightly crack on his cheeks.
"Four."
The grin had now widened so far, that small flocks of flesh coloured and dried paint fell from his face, not withstanding the stretching and folding of the skin underneath.
"Three."
He just looked at her, eyes gleaming with some mixture of curiosity and anticipation. It reminded Aoko heavily of Kaito, when she challenged him to a magic duel, back when they were still toddlers. Of course, he had always won and most of the time is was not even close, but despite that, they both enjoyed showing of their skills and what they've learned to their best friend.
"Two."
Those moments before every challenge, when their eyes would meet and when they would grin at each other, were the reason why she continued practicing magic, despite her mom's sudden death, which hit her far deeper than she ever thought she could feel. But when Kaito's father died too, she could not muster the strength to pick up the magic again. Every coin that she made vanish, was like losing her mother again and every card she made appear, brought back the image of a heart-broken, little Kaito.
"One."
But even though magic reminded her heavily off what she has lost and showed her what she still could lose, those small memories of joy and play still brought back the same grin from over 10 years ago and right now, she could feel herself directing it at Kid. A smirk full of confidence, agitation, challenge and anticipation.
"ZERO!"
The last number was his signal, the now reigning darkness was his curtain, this night was his stage and true to his nature, he followed its call.
"LADIES AND GENTLEMEN", his loud voice announced his presents and the darkness vanished with just a little tap on the same button, which had brought it over the building only a few seconds ago. He really loved black outs!
All eyes now shoot up and glued themselves on the whiteness of his tuxedo, cape and hat, taking in the glorious sight the magician always displayed, when he stood out against the dark of the night sky, illuminated by moon light. This was the right moment at the exact time and the precise location.
This was his showtime!
"KID!", Nakamori's loud bellow was the first sound the crowd made, followed by a mixture of 'Ohh's, cheerings and curses, all mixing together in Aoko's ears, as she looked at the magician. The old man was gone, but since Kid had appeared, nobody would notice anyway and only later the people would recognize who they've really talked to.
But whisking that though aside as quickly as it came, Aoko concentrated back on the scene around here, her eyes picking out strange things, like they often had done, but this time, she knew how they could be related to the heist.
"A thin, barely sparkling thread at the right side of Kid, possibly to drag something up or help bringing something down, most likely it will be Kid himself. He just put something back in his pocket, when he made his bow. Looked like a little remote. Must be connected to the black out.", her mind began to ratter down just the way Conan had taught her, and she was amazed over how easy it seemed to be.
But this train of thought suddenly ended, when Kid leaned over the edge, spreading his arms and then started to fall. His body accelerated as it rushed straight at the floor of the museum, but instead of a scream, he began to laugh and just before he hit the ground, he stopped. Aoko knew that this would happen. She has seen the thread has guessed its purpose, but she was still amazed over the thief's body control, since he made it seem as if he landed on invincible ground, masking the swaying of the thread with what appeared to be little dance steps, as if to show off that there really was something where he stood. The crowed just stared at him, all to stunned to either cheer or curse, at least till her dad caught himself.
"GET HIM", he roared, and the police officers sprang instantly at the thief, who was still hanging from his thread. But since this command was so simple, Aoko knew Kid must have expected it and thus was not surprised when his grin widened and smoke eloped him and the task force officers.
It took not long to clear up and Aoko had used that time to climb up a few steps of the stair, giving her a better view over the situation and a little head start, when she had to either move up or down. She knew she could not catch Kid by throwing herself at him along with the other police officers. Even though she constantly trained catching somebody by chasing Kaito, she doubted that she could corner the thief, not to mention the policemen, who would likely just get in her way. No, if she wanted to get a hold of the magician, she had to catch him off-guard and that was best done, by waiting for him to come to her. What did Conan teach her?
"The key to catching Kaitou Kid is not to follow him, but to wait for him. If you have to follow, he can lead you to wherever he wants, but if you wait for him, he has no control over where he faces you." With that conviction, she began to think of a plan, while she watched as the smoke revealed a pack of tightly tide-together task force members with a grinning Kid next to them.
O
Kaito did not know, what was wrong today. The location was great, the sky clear, the moon bright, the gem big, the guys in black nowhere to be found and, aside from Hakuba, all his critics were gathered and had already did a really good job in figuring out his disguise. But despite all of this, today's heist was dull.
He would need to give the police more time to plan, so they could come up with something new, instead of flinging themselves at him. But even if they prepared a cage, cast the gem in bullet prove glass or attached it to an elephant, the really spicing was still missing. Namely, that none of his critics were doing anything. Tantei-kun was just standing there, shaking his head and sighing, but Kid could not tell, if the Task force or his tricks were the reason for this.
It did not suit the little sleuth to just stand there, but at least he had not just vanished, like Aoko did. He had last seen her, when she smirked back at him and, in Pandora's god forsaken name, that had surprised him. He nearly missed his timing out of sheer anticipation, with what she had come up, to send him such a grin, but now that she vanished, he was kind of disappointed. Concluding that his mood and his tricks won't get any better, he prepared for his great act of disappearance, namely climbing up the invincible stairs to the roof and then plunging to his apparent death down into the crowd of his faithful fans.
"I regret that our joyful gathering must end so soon, but unfortunately I have an important appointment and must leave now.",Kid explained, covering the act of attaching the still hanging threat back to his body, he then initiated the wind up and began to step up on thin air, earning himself a deafening applause. But just when he was half way up the roof, something unexpected happened, namely that he suddenly stopped. Unwilling to reveal the technical difficulties, Kid started to spin together some nonsense about being torn between staying, thanks to his fans earnest cheering, or leaving, because little children all around the world would be exposed to Nakamori's questionable vocabulary the longer he stayed. But under his mask of showmanship, he wanted to curse.
He had inspected the winch just before his heist, has oiled and recharged it, made sure that the threat could not get stuck at anything up there, but despite all of this, the machine did betray him. Tempted to throw it out on the street, once he got back, he suddenly became aware of a soft beeping. It was unmistakably a warning signal and it only took him a moment longer to know exactly what it was: it was the winch signalling that something was blocking it. Casting a quick look down, he assured himself that nobody had attached anything else to the threat, which only left the possibility that the machine itself has been tampered with. So, now that his get-away-plan A failed, he had to resort to plan B.
"In honour of your unwavering support, I have decided to show you one last trick for today!" he announced playfully, detaching himself from the hooks and falling back toward the ground, but this time, he didn't stop mid-air.
This time he crashed down on the ground and dispersed in a flurry of white sparks, leaving nothing behind, but his hat, who know rested on the exhibition case. All eyes stared at it and Nakamori, as he slowly lifted it up, revealing a card placed underneath.
O
"I have taken the Earl's Pride", Nakamori read out aloud, crushing the piece of paper in his hands once he saw the little signature and that the jewel was indeed gone.
"When? When did he take it?" Nakamori roared, only to hear a child's voice speak up.
"He took it straight at the beginning. Just after he tied up your men." Conan spoke, his voice sounding reproachful as he approached the inspector.
"Then where is he now?", Nakamori demanded, still screaming, but Conan seemed unimpressed even though some drops of saliva landed on his glasses. Taking them off and cleaning them with a handkerchief, he offered "He disguised and ran up the stairs, while everybody was staring at his dispersing cape."
"WHAT?!" Nakamori roared again, following up with a quick order, to immediately go to the roof. But as soon as the first of the task force tried to rush up the stairs, he immediately slipped and fell back down.
"What are you guys doing?" Nakamori scolded them, now rushing up the stairs himself, but slipping as well and crashing back down to the floor.
"It seems Kid has covered the steps with oil, sir." One of the officers reported and judging from his face, he knew exactly what that meant for them.
"OK, all of you, go up the stairs carefully! And even if it takes years, don't let Kid get away." The inspectors loud voice commanded once again, and Conan could not help but face palm, thinking "Why do you even try to go up? Only to see him fly away again?"
O
Hearing the curses, sounds of people slipping and screams when they landed on the floor would normally have prompted Kaito to one of his obnoxious smiles along with a snarky comment, however, thanks to the unexplainable malfunction of his winch, he was too irritated to care for that right now. He had not seen anybody going to the roof and that meant, that only somebody from outside of the room could be the culprit and that pointed to a bunch of black clothes guys, who he was absolutely not looking forward to meet.
Bracing himself for their, as he told himself, ugly sight, he swung open the door, already glaring at whatever his eyes would see. But to his surprise, no portly man with his moustache formed to look like a horse has just kicked him in the face and his ridiculous black trench coat, who made him look more like a creep than a gangster, stood on the roof, awaiting him with this cocky grin. Instead, he spotted what appeared to be a moon goddess. Illuminated by the white light of the silver eye in the sky, surrounded by the twinkles of a thousand of stars, her hair, shimmering like threats of pure silver in the moonlight, was swaying softly in the wind and seemed to dance to her humming.
It was only soft, barely louder than the raging wind on the rooftop and yet, Kaito could hear every note clearly. The melody was sad, but hopeful at the same time and above all else, it reminded Kaito of long-lost dreams, wished to be true once again. He was tempted to close his eyes and just listen to the sweet humming, but he knew this was a luxury he could not afford. So, he started to approach her. Silently, like a true thief, he approached her and stopped only a few feet away from her, deliberately stepping down hard on the ground, so she would notice his presence. Ready to follow one of the countless plans, he has constructed in this short of a time, he waited, looking at her slender frame twirling in what must be surprise. But once she has turned completely his surprise did match hers and they both just stared at each other for a moment.
Blue eyes reflecting in blue eyes and just like that, Kaito was caught in the endless blue once again.
O
"KIIIID" Aoko yelp as she had found the thief standing behind her, staring at her face with an expression of sheer disbelief.
What are you doing here?!", she shrieked while she jumped away from him, which finally broke his inmoving face, turning it in a hurt but mocking scowl. The expression was so unsuitable for his gentlemen-thief persona that Aoko doubted for a quick second that she was looking at the real Kaitou Kid and not some imposter.
"Ao. . . Nakamori-san, I should be the one directing this question at you! I hoped to find a calm and beautiful night up here, but I only discover that one Nakamori clinging to my tail is apparently not enough.", he huffed in response, his face now morphing into an offended expression, but for some odd reason it still didn't look like Kid.
"Clinging to your tail?! I was clearly here before you!", Aoko exclaimed, her temper now flaring up and causing her blood to boil.
"Oh, were you really?", Kid asked, clearly mocking her "If that were the case, who do you suppose prepared the winch, which you mutilated so shamelessly?"
The whining tone of his voice made it sound as though he was talking about a puppy, making Aoko forget everything about the valid point of his argument "Mutilated?! I merely jammed a pipe in the winch drum."
But the thief did continue to press his point "If I were to viciously jam a crude pipe between a poor, small doggy's legs, wouldn't that cause it to fall and injure itself gravely? What makes you think, the same couldn't happen to my poor, old winch?", he asked her, his face a mask of pity and sympathy.
"How is your winch supposed to fall down, when it doesn't even stand, let alone walks? Besides, isn't it cruel to use it at all? I mean, it's at least 50 years old, judging from the looks." Aoko debated, eyeing the strangely curved spokes and all the dents and scratches. Only the wire, which Kid used, didn't look like it was out of some 1910 silent film.
"Excuse me, but I didn't know we were supposed to grant winches a rent!", he answered her, his arms crossed and a scowling expression on his face. Nearly Aoko would have called him 'Bakaito', since this argument reminded her a lot of their usual squabbles, but before the words slipped out of her mouth, she caught herself and could only stare at the magician.
Now that she had stopped concentrating on the argument, she realized how close the thief was to her. Thanks to the shadow of his hat's rim, she could still not make out his face, but his build and posture did not correspond at all with that of a man in his 30s. At least, that would have been Kid's estimated age, but the man or rather boy before her, held himself with the energy of youth, his body not fully developed yet, but still enough muscles for the breath-taking acrobatics he did.
Aoko noticed all of this, thanks to the observation training she did with Conan, where they would just sit in a coffee shop and he would ask her questions about the people passing by. 'How old is she?' or 'What is he doing?' were questions he only asked her right at the beginning, but from there they quickly went to deducing the employment or recent events which caused some sort of change in the people's behaviour.
Aoko was exceptionally surprised, when Conan could identify a retired US army soldier and where he last served, only by observing the way he moved and spotting his walking cane along with the difference in skin colour from his hands to his lower arms.
"The fact, that he is a foreigner is clearly show by how he looks. His way of walking is strict and drilled, so he served in some sort of army unite. However, his walking cane shows that he is no longer on duty, but you can still see the army haircut, so he has only come back recently. If we now take his tanned hands into consideration, we know he was somewhere with a lot of sun. Along with the English tour book he is holding, which he bought with US dollars according to the price tag, this means that he has served for the US army. And currently, the only place where you can get shot and are in the sun is the Sudan." he had explained.
Of course Aoko was not able to replicate such an accurate deduction, but she still learned the differences between how woman and men or old and young move. And what she had learned, told her clearly that Kaitou Kid was around 21 at most. She was just about to continue pondering when something was tossed over at her and she could barely catch the big purple jewel. Irritated, she raised her gaze, only to see the thief stand at the edge of the building and the winch gone to god-knows-where.
"It was charming chatting with you Nakamori-san." Kid thanked her, his voice, face and posture now completely fallen back to the professional gentleman-thief mask, he usually wore, "I applaud your abilities to block my way of escape and corner me, but I would advise you to not just space out, when you are in company of a true gentleman. This is a rare honor after all!" And with that, he let himself fall gracefully, disappearing over the edge of the building just when inspector Nakamori set his foot on the roof.
What the heck was wrong with him, was the only question Kaito was capable of asking himself. Not only did he risk getting caught at what might looked like flirting with inspector Nakamori's daughter, no, he practically unmasked himself in front of Aoko!
"If I were to viciously jam a crude pipe between a poor, small doggy's legs . . .", what the bloody hell did he think when he uttered this nonsense?! Not only, did it absolutely not fit the charming and always cool Kid persona, especially considering all the scowls and frowns he projected on his face, but it was also that kind of rubbish, which Kaito Kuroba would sputter, when he teases Aoko!
Throwing his cape and hat on the floor, he stormed out of the hidden room and he marched straight to the bathroom, splashing his face with ice-cold water. Not once, not twice, but more than he cared to count, so it was not that surprising when his blue suit got wet as well from all the splashing. Now, that he had calmed down a bit, all rage and fury has left him, only leaving behind bitter frustration and self-reproaches. His muscle slumped and he lazily leaned on the edge of the sink, his stretched arms carrying the full weight of his slouched upper body, head hanging down with droplets of water slowly wandering down his wet strains of hair.
"What have I've been thinking?", he could only wonder once again, not finding a answer that even remotely explained today's slip up.
No, screw that.
It was no mere slip up, it was a full blown malperformance, a catastrophe!
He could actually consider himself lucky, if Aoko didn't start to suspect him as well. At least, Hakuba has gone back to Britain for some reason Kaito didn't care to remember, so Aoko had no person, in which she could confide her suspicions, but he still considered not showing up tomorrow or even for the rest of the week, so Aoko would not be reminded of his existence. With a sudden jerk, he straightened himself, only to slump again in the next moment, running a hand through his wet hair.
"No, it will be even more suspicious, if I don't show up. I just have to pretend, that I know of nothing to dispel her suspicions.", but as soon as he has voiced that plan, he already knew of the immense risk it brought with it. If he acted like his usual self, he would remind Aoko of Kid, which could bring her to connecting Kid with Kaito. On the other hand, if he did not behave like usual and Aoko already had her doubts about him, then he would only further strengthen the points against him, effectively digging his own grave.
Trudging, he made his way back to his room, where he shortly bothered to change out of clothes and into his pyjama, before he fell sloppy down on his bed. His brain was tired, his eyes hurt and his whole body seemed like it was suddenly made out of stone, heavy and unmoving.
"What have I done to offend my dear Goddess of Fortune that much?", he weakly asked in the dark room, not expecting an answer and not receiving one. A good and long night's sleep was what he needed now, not only for his body, but also for his mind to process today's shock and frustration.
But before he let himself succumb to the sweet promises of dreamland, he forced himself to rethink today's event. He once again saw Aoko, looking at him with a thoughtful expression, most likely trying to think of why Kid reminded her so heavily of somebody. He remembered her figure, illuminated by moonlight and the soft humming of her voice in the dark night. Then, there was her stare, which she shot him when he was about to descended from the roof to make his Grand Entrance. And finally, there was her smirk.
This widely stretched grin, brimming with anticipation and challenge. The way her eyes seemed to spark, as she practically dared him to go up against her tonight. He didn't know what it was, that gave her back this much determination and motivation to catch him, but in this moment, he was unable to further dwell on the problem, since his eyes have shut and he has drifted off to sleep, still seeing her challenging smile directed at him.
All rights of Detective Conan go to Gosho Aoyama. Nothing of what you just read is or should be taken as canon and simply serves as a form of entertainment.
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Hope you liked the chapter and till next time.
Farewell
