Disclaimer: Be glad that I don't own Detective Conan or Magic Kaito. Be very, very glad.

I have nothing to say. Absolutely nothing.

Saguru speedily moved up the stairs to the roof, the weight in his pocket reminding him of his dangerous task. He couldn't believe he'd agreed to this plan. Nor could he believe that he'd just gotten away with the first part of it. The officer had been all too eager to let him look at the pearl, and Saguru was making notes in his head to jot down at a later date on what the officers surrounding him had done wrong. Really, perhaps they would have caught Kid already if he'd tried something like this earlier.

But that wasn't relevant at the moment. What was relevant was pretending to be Kid so that he could catch a sniper, a criminal much more dangerous than Kid. Saguru reached for the door handle to the roof, then stopped and took a deep breath. Kid. He must be Kid. What did Kid do? Kid always had that god awful smirk on his face, no matter how sure you were of victory. Saguru shifted his face into a couple different looks, then settled on one. That would have to do. He opened the door, unsure of what he would find.

Nothing. There wasn't a soul in sight. Saguru almost stopped, but remembered to think like Kid. Kid always stood on the edge of the roof. From the edge of the roof he could usually escape, and even if he couldn't it usually made Saguru think he could. Careful to keep the look in place, Saguru strode purposely to the edge of the roof. Not too close because he couldn't fly like some others, but close enough that he didn't look like he was scared of heights.

(Because really, Saguru was terrified. Even if a shot wasn't fatal, it would still probably be enough to push him off the edge, and that would be.)

But now what? Kid was waiting for a sniper to come kill slash talk to him, what would he do? Before enough time passed that the sniper would be suspicious, Saguru pulled Kid's way of speaking to the front of his mind and hoped that he didn't give himself away. "I know you're there."

He heard the footsteps come up behind him. "I didn't expect anything less."

Saguru turned around, keeping the smirk in place. The man behind him was grinning as well, though his was the cold smile of a killer who enjoyed his work. He was dressed all in black, and had a long, handlebar mustache the likes of which Saguru had never seen before outside of a western. He was carrying a small handgun with a silencer, and this was pointed directly at Saguru. "Of course you didn't," Saguru replied, waiting for the sniper to make the first move. Hopefully Edogawa would knock him out very, very soon.

"What are you doing here?" the sniper asked.

Saguru chuckled, hopefully not nervously. "You insult me. I sent the note, and here I am as promised."

The gun went off, the small phhht of the silencer and the burning on Saguru's cheek making it known. He stumbled slightly, glancing nervously at the edge, and raised his hand to feel a small trickle of blood. "You're not Kid," the sniper said, a statement, not a question.

Saguru kept the smirk in place. Never let them see you bleed, figuratively if not literally. Perhaps he could still convince him. Where was Edogawa anyway? "Now that's the best joke I've heard all day. Of course I'm Kid."

The sniper's smile grew wider. "Kid isn't supposed to steal the Crying Pearl for another ten or so minutes. And that's not a mask, otherwise there wouldn't be blood. So why, Detective, are you trying to convince me that you're Kid?"

Where the hell was Edogawa? This was his plan, why the hell wasn't he doing his part? In the corner of his eye he saw the door handle turn. Edogawa had said he'd wait on the roof. Then who...

Kaito Kid, in all his brilliantly white glory, strode from the opening. "Now this is interesting," he proclaimed. "Very interesting indeed."

The sniper kept his gun trained on Saguru, but his head turned to face Kid. "And here he is, the man of the hour. Would you believe that this detective was trying to convince me he was you? He insults the intelligence of us criminals."

"Don't you dare lump me in with the same lot as you," Kid snarled, voice of steel.

Saguru hoped that Edogawa, wherever the hell he was, could see his plan dying a horrible shooty death. The sniper's grin took up his whole face now. "You know Kaito, I was just going to interrogate you then kill you, but we both know how well that would have worked out. Guess what? Now I've got a hostage."

"It took you long enough. Makes me wonder how you got this far in the first place, Snake."

The sniper, Snake apparently, twitched at that. "I don't quite remember your policy. What is it again? Oh, I know. Nobody gets hurt. Now spill, or somebody will."

"You forgot to ask any questions."

"Okay then. Where is Pandora?"

Kid glared, and if looks could kill, Snake would drop dead in a second. "In a million pieces, her ashes scattered somewhere you'll never find them."

The gun fired again, and Saguru felt his other cheek burn. "Let's try this again, or I shoot lower. Where is Pandora?"

Kid remained silent, glaring. Saguru decided to try and buy some time. "If my life is on the line here, can I at least know why?"

Snake looked back at him. "Why? You want to know why? No you don't. Because then I'd have to kill you for knowing too much."

"You're going to kill both of us anyway," Saguru shot back, knowing it was true.

Kid picked up on it. "Yeah Snake. If we're both going to die anyway, why should either of us open our mouths?"

Snake opened his mouth to reply, but was cut off. "Snake! Drop the gun!"

Edogawa Conan had burst from the other side of the cube that was the way back into the building. A trickle of blood coming from his scalp and chafing at his wrists indicated where he'd been while his plan was getting shot to hell. "Drop the gun!" he repeated.

Snake outright laughed at that. "There are three of you, none of you are armed, and you want me to drop the gun? You really are naïve little boy."

Conan flipped up the targeting on his watch. "You're the naïve one. This watch has a stun gun set inside of it that'll knock you out in a second. Put the gun down."

The two of them stared at each other for what felt like minutes, Kid and Saguru watching them both to see who would act first. It was Snake.

The sniper spun around, bringing the gun with him. He managed to fire off four shots before the stun dart hit him. Four pools of red grew on Kid's jacket, and the thief fell, almost in slow motion.

"Handcuffs!" Conan shouted, sprinting for Snake. Saguru fished his handcuffs out of his pocket and threw them to Conan as he rushed towards Kid. The hat had fallen off in the fall, and the monocle was starting to slip. Kuroba Kaito's face, looking younger than he had ever seen it, lay there.

Saguru pulled his head onto his lap and the monocle fell off also, the muscles having relaxed too much to hold it. "No no no!" he shouted. "We were supposed to save you!" Clumsily, he slipped his fingers against Kaito's pulse. It beat once... then twice... then no matter how long Saguru waited, it didn't beat again.

Conan ran over after he had handcuffed Snake and checked him for more guns. The look on Saguru's face told him more than he had ever wanted to know. He pulled his glasses from his face and held them almost tightly enough to break them. "To a good person," he said. Saguru nodded, all that he could do.

Conan kneeled and reached into Kaito's jacket, trying to avoid the blood but getting a little bit on himself anyway. He pulled out a radio, one that he guessed would be able to reach Inspector Nakamori's. He flipped it on. "Inspector Nakamori?" he asked, voice shaking somewhat.

"Conan-kun, how did you get a radio?" the Inspector demanded, oblivious.

Saguru reached over and took the radio from him. "Inspector, we need... you should..."

"Hakuba-kun? Spit it out already."

Saguru paused, taking a deep breath. "You need to come to the roof. Kaito Kid is dead, and we have a sniper who goes by the name of Snake awaiting arrest."

There was silence on the other end of the line. Conan took the radio back. "Inspector?"

"I... you're sure? Of course you're sure... I'll be up there soon with a few boys. Wait there." The radio went dead.

Conan and Saguru didn't have it in them to move. So when Inspector Nakamori, followed by a few policemen, opened the door to see the scene, they were exactly where they had been when they had radioed him. Nakamori took a few steps forward, stopped, and took a few more. "Oh my god," he breathed out as he caught sight of Kid's face. The police behind him all took off their hats in respect, most of them recognizing Kaito.

Conan, before any of them could notice the inconsistency, slipped his glasses back on. He pointed at where Snake's prone form lay. "That man is to be arrested for the murders of Kaito Kid both junior and senior, as well as many other people."

The Inspector knelt before Kaito, nodding. Most of the officers he'd brought with him approached Snake and hauled him up to take him away. After a few moments, one of the men left tapped the Inspector on the shoulder. "Sir? We need to take the body away."

Inspector Nakamori glanced up and saw that two officers had brought up a stretcher and body bag. "Oh... yes, I... yes. You do that." He stood up and moved out of the way, Saguru and Conan following suit, so that the officers could put Kaito in the bag.

The zipper was about to cover Kaito's face when Conan said quietly, "Wait." He knelt and picked up the monocle. He placed it inside the bag, the four-leaf clover charm jangling slightly. No one said anything, and the zipper was pulled up the rest of the way.

The small group made their way down the stairs, as if a funeral march. First the two officers with the stretcher, then Inspector Nakamori, still looking shell-shocked. Saguru followed, clutching that ridiculous hat like it was about to fly away, and Conan after him, looking solemn.

When they exited the stairway into the display room, all of the officers took off their hats and looked at the ground. Conan glanced out on of the large windows and saw that a crowd of those awaiting Kid's appearance had gathered. He swallowed roughly.

The elevator ride, like the rest of the short but unbearably long trip, was completely silent. It was when the doors dinged open on the ground floor that noise finally registered. The hotel workers and a few travelers who could stand the distraction of the horde outside dropped what they were doing, like dominoes, as they caught sight of the small parade. There were whispered murmurs like, "Oh my god," and, "Did Kid kill someone?" If Conan could tell who had said that, he would have been throttling him in an instant.

It was the doors to the hotel that did them in. They were glass, see-through. A fan close to them caught sight of the movement, and pointed them out to her friend. Soon the crowd was pushing forward, and they almost couldn't get the door open because of the bodies. Once they were outside the crowd was pushing in on all sides, wanting to get a look. Finally a young woman ran right in front of Inspector Nakamori. "Kid-sama didn't kill them!" she pleaded, not knowing who was dead. "Kid-sama would never kill anyone! You can't pin this on Kid-sama!"

Nakamori stopped in his tracks, not saying anything. The crowd around them started shouting assent with the woman. Still, Nakamori didn't say anything. He just stood there.

"Kid doesn't kill!" Saguru snarled, waving the hat. "He would never harm a fly and we know it! Back off!"

The crowd went still, less from the words and more from what he was holding. That Hakuba Saguru was holding Kid's tophat rippled through the crowd. The woman who had shouted at Inspector Nakamori slowly backed away. The change was nearly instant. Finally, someone said something. "Kid-sama!" came out as a wail. Conan, in a moment of panic, wondered if the small convoy was about to get attacked on the miscontruance that the police had killed Kaito Kid.

But his fears were put to rest as the crowd parted, making clear the way to the waiting ambulance. They continued, and the stretcher was loaded into the ambulance, and it drove off, on its way to the morgue.

There was a police cruiser waiting. The driver got out. "Sir, shall I take you to Headquarters now?"

Inspector Nakamori gulped. He nodded, gesturing for Conan and Saguru to get in the back. They did so, and they sped off towards Headquarters to continue what had already been a very long night.

Don't go! It's not over yet!

I suppose it would be inviting cyber-pain to say anything about reviews, huh?