Kikonote: I won over the writer's block! Whoo!
I have way too much of this story written to stop updating it, so there's that.
Enjoy! Love reading comments!

There was something unnerving about seeing his own decidedly male face right in front of him, only with short shorts and breasts. From KID's expression, he seemed to feel the same way - which meant that he might not have been wearing a Shinichi disguise and perhaps did just look like that. Well that was a misunderstanding waiting to happen.

KID squealed and covered his chest. "Children are such monsters!" In a cloud of fairy dust, the girl clothes were gone and in their place, a nice familiar suit modeled after some news screencaps. Kaito always carried his Shinichi wig with him when he went near Beika, just in case he didn't have the time to do his hair.

Shinichi and Ai watched the change with disinterest, neither of them particularly surprised when the missing detective appeared. Shinichi wondered about the physics of hiding all of that in a tiny tank top, shorts, and a camera bag. Ai was displeased that Shinichi had dragged this idiot home with him, who might possibly endanger them by posing as a "dead" man.

Ai pointed at the thief, her irritated expression betraying a maturity beyond that of a nine year old's. "You, get out of that disguise. If you're as shameless as you make yourself out to be, you should know better." Shinichi had already admitted that the thief knew what was up after saying a few dozen suspicious things. Turning to her side where Shinichi stood, she dropped her hand. "Edogawa -kun," she said, an admonishing tone underlying her calm voice, "I am going back to the bookstore. We will be there around, I would say, forty minutes. Have these two sorted out by then." With nothing left to say, she turned her back and stalked off.

Kaito pouted like a child who'd had his toy taken away. "Fiiiine."

Shinichi frowned at the retreating figure. Why do I feel like she's blaming me? When Shinichi returned his attention to their strange visitor, a police officer (whom he suspected to be one of the KID team recruits; just a hunch) was examining the still-unconscious man.

KID started talking without being asked. "His name is Touru Akihiko. He's thirty-seven years old. Married. No children. He's a children's psychologist, of all things," KID explained with a wry grin. "He was trying to kidnap you for ransom."

It wasn't bad. No, KID could probably pass as him pretty easily. While Shinichi had already known he could, it was kind of... vexing. He didn't even own his own identity anymore. "How did you figure all that?"

Kaito flashed a sheepish grin. "I found these in his pockets." He held up his hands, one unfolding a wallet with all the pertinent information and the other a ransom note requesting 200,000 yen in return for the boy.

Ahaha... Meitantei KID isn't that impressive.

The two straightened up on the spot, their eyes wide as a rush of sirens drew near. Shinichi didn't even have time to question why KID was in Beika.

By the time the police approached, the phony officer was taking notes from a little boy who was trying very, very hard to act scared.

Kaito laughed inwardly, overflowing with sadistic joy at being able to manipulate Tantei-kun's acting skills.

Shinichi took every piece of bait KID laid out for him, because it was the only way to seem like a real child. As much as he hated KID at that moment, he was annoyed at the real source the most.

Ha-i-ba-ra!

When the culprit was in the car and the officers turned to ask the original officer more about it, the phony cop was gone and Shinichi was holding the report. He jumped at the realization that he was somehow holding it and about three feet from where he last remembered being. The officers tripped all over themselves to apologize to the scared little boy they'd just terrorized. Shinichi just frowned and hoped they were ready to wrap up the case.

"Departures are still delayed until further notice. Please be patient while we work to ensure quality service. We apologize for any inconvenience."

Kaito rolled his eyes while the crowd continued to complain around him. His fault for taking the train. He should have known the Osaka train scandals would spread to Tokyo somehow. Without the cover of night, however, his glider was more easily seen, and easily guessed to be him. Soon, it would be dark and it wouldn't even matter. If it got to that point, he would just sneak past security.

As well as being kept from leaving the area, they were also locked into the station. Because when some maniac makes threats, the best thing to do is obviously to potentially expose civilians to those threats.

He had a good forty minutes to kill until it was time to sneak out. His original idea was to plunk down on a bench and think about what he could have done differently that day - just small things to make everything more interesting - perhaps ideas for their next meeting. Kaito was easily distracted, though. Especially distracted by the plight of frightened young women and children.

T'was such a shame. He was just left with no choice. He had to make a spectacle.

Within the snap of his fingers, and the glitter bombs twenty feet in the air, he was wearing an oversized black top hat and waving a cane around. "No need to despair, folks! All we need to get the trains running is a little magic! Now, who would like to be my first assistant?"

Despite many in the crowd staring at him like he was an idiot, the teenager with the strange outburst began attracting quite an audience.

"Oh, lovely!" Kaito crooned, taking the hand of a fine young miss in an evening dress. "Now, pick a card; any card."

The young women was caught between trying to figure out the trick and just doing it. It had been such a long, stressful, and strange night, she just went along with it. She tentatively reached for the middle card and swiped it away as quickly as she could.

Kaito caught the card in his hat. "Now roll these dice. Right into the magic hat."

"Finally, a coin."

Kaito looked at the audience. "Heads or tails?"

The words were difficult to pick out, but he went with heads regardless. People liked it better, thought they were getting more out of it. "It looks like it's heads!" he cried, and flipped the hat up in the air. When the hat hit its peak height, playing cards poured down until a still image of a rabbit's head with oversized snake eyes and coins for its mouth sat against an invisible barrier.

For a moment, the station was silent. Those who hadn't originally joined the crowd had turned back to see what was going on. The skeptics were left wondering how this trick they had never before seen worked. The children's worries were distracted with that moment of awe that washes over them before they start cheering.

And then the cards fell, dropping into four even stacks on the ground. The dice landed in Kaito's hand while the coin landed in his assistant's. "Lovely working with you," he said, and bowed before the woman before stalking up to one of the girls in the audience. Smirking, Kaito knelt down next to a little girl whose mouth was wide open. "Of course, my real assistant is my adoring audience." He pushed a lock of hair behind her ear and when he took his hand away, he was holding a white rose.

The one and only child not under the magician's strong enchantment stood against a pole in the distance, watching the show from more of a side-glance than a full stare. He'd gotten himself into quite a silly situation. Reasoning that there was no way the elusive thief would use a simple train station, reasoning that even if he did he would be in such disguise that he could never be so easily recognized, Shinichi's feet had carried him along in a morbid curiosity he regretted because he was so wrong and that guy wasn't even trying to hide. And sure, he'd wanted to go see the new museum in that place three hours away he'd gotten a ticket to for a while, but there was obviously no coincidence, if that certain person happened to notice him. And just as he'd thought he should leave, the place had been shut down.

He'd already figured out all about the threatened plan, of course, and had already planted the seeds of information in the investigating officers' minds. It wouldn't be more than a few minutes before everything was sorted out - it was just a convoluted plan of a jilted ex-lover's revenge and nothing so widespread, after all. But that guy... Shinichi hadn't believed that Kaitou KID saved him from being kidnapped out of nowhere, was at least disguising as him if he didn't look like that, and was so carelessly trotting around a protector of the law. But there he was, carelessly trotting around numerous protectors of the law in garish flair. What an incredible and incredulous affair.

Dozens of heads looked up and around as feedback flooded through the speakers followed by the ever-calm announcer's voice. "Service will return in a few minutes. Service will return in a few minutes. Please prepare to board."

There was Kaito's cue. "Lovely meeting you all!" He took a deep bow once more. Delighted to see a few people - in particular adoring mothers who would spend enormous wads of cash to make their children happy - remaining, he pulled out a stack of business cards. "Kuroba Kaito, magician. I do birthdays, graduations, weddings, weekends, and I always have competitive rates." Competitive meant figuring out what the person would spend and then charging it, of course. He could do that when he'd already proven himself. He'd gotten lucky - the train station wouldn't charge him for or with anything when he'd innocently been trying to cheer people up.

After passing out eighteen cards, the satisfied magician strolled towards the boarding area. His eyes flicked back to a lone fan who seemed to be sneaking off.

Finally, Shinichi was done with this mystery. He wasn't going to stand for that taunting thief playing with his mind any longer. He was going to wash his hands of it. Shinichi was looking forward to a nice hot bath and a long night of sleep and forgetting. But it was never that easy. He stopped when a hand appeared in front of him, which happened to be connected to the magician from before. What was he... "What is it, onii-san?"

Kaito pointed downward. "Your shoe's untied."

Shinichi's eyes dropped to his shoe. So it was. Though whether it had been before... "Aha, thanks, nii-san." He warily bent down to tie his laces.

"Of course!" And the overly-friendly stranger knelt down next to him. "Did you like the show? You don't have to be timid, little boy." When Shinichi was finished tying his shoe, Kaito tucked the boy's hand in his own to give it a shake, and left a business card in it. "Kuroba Kaito, magician extraordinaire. What's your name, little boy?"

Shinichi was too shocked to hold onto the card. His resolve to act like a child was cracking, his disbelief spilling out of his mouth before he could hold it back. "Are you a completely idiot!?"

Kaito first seemed surprised at the outburst, but he ended up laughing instead. "Just advertising my services. Tell your mommy or daddy about me if you want a show, okay?"

The red faded off of Shinichi's face until he was left with mere annoyance. That stupid magician gave him a short wave and got up to leave. He wasn't getting away that easily - not after accosting him out of nowhere twice in one day.

Incoming: Kaito won't leave Shinichi alone... again.