You guys are probably gonna be annoyed at me….;; cuz this chapter…we looking back to the past so you'll have to keep wondering what happens next from the chapter before this;;;
I'm really sorry for the late update! I tried to do it on Sunday but as you can see, I failed… Anyway I hope you enjoy!
Marionette Act 7
It was that night when everything started to go wrong. Kaito remembered it so well….that night 20 years ago…
~20 years ago~
Kaitou Kid made an appearance for the first time in months. The media was of course curious of the reason for the thief's sudden disappearance and reappearance. The rumor about Kid started to spread rapidly and also became more absurd as the time passed. Not that Kaito minded. He rather liked the attentions that he was getting. In fact, he even considered disappearing again; however, he discarded that thought immediately as it came—he doesn't use the same trick more than once after all.
Anyhow, Kaito had been very busy during the long vacation from his nigh job. He was helping the detectives (Tantei-kun and Tantei-han) plan for the Black Organization's fall and put them into action. Not that the detectives knew that he was helping them out—or rather they weren't supposed to. But what can he say? They were the best high school detectives in Japan, maybe it is only to be expected. Well, he wasn't in cuffs or in jail yet even after the operation was over, so he guessed it was all right.
The planning took months to complete, recheck, think of every other possible scenario, and repeat. After all these long process of careful planning, it was finally put into operation last month. Many times, the organization managed to act in a way that the team of CIA, FBI, and few of the personally selected Japanese Police officers didn't expect, making the operation to drag on. He admits; it was quite a pain. However, just a couple of weeks ago, they finally penetrated the main headquarter of the organization that was located in the heart of Japan. Every single members of the Black Organization were arrested except for handful of the low rank members. While the arrests were going on, the detectives went and searched through headquarter of the organization, looking for something. And Kaito had a good guess of what the detectives were looking for. Although Tantei-kun was in his original ten-self during the whole operation, Kaito noticed the detective taking pills every now and then. It must have been a pill to help Tantei-kun to return to his real body, but the effects weren't permanent. The poor detective didn't show however, the thief could tell that he was getting more exhausted day by day. It felt as if the side-effects of the drug were going to kill Shinichi before the organization even gets to try. The thief knew very well of the reason why Shinichi made this dangerous choice of using the drug. He probably felt that he HAD to be there, like if he wasn't there it wouldn't end. Kaito knew that feeling very well; he felt the same about Pandora. So that reckless detective of his took an extreme risk to take the temporary antidote to participate because even if people in the operation knew Conan was Kudo Shinichi—which most do not—they wouldn't let him in the plan because of his small body of a child.
So what Tantei-kun and Tantei-han were looking for is evidence to help the organization to be locked up for eternity and information about the poison that turned Shinichi into Conan state. Kaito was here for information also. Of course he was looking for anything related to Pandora. He and the detectives got separated somehow along the way and Kaito happened to stumble into a room full of archives. This was it! Kaito went through the files in an incredible speed and found the file he was looking for. He scanned the information and smirked when he saw the picture of Snake inside it. As he thought, Snake was related to the Black Organization after all. It was like catching two rabbits in one try. Thanks to the fall of the organization, Snake would be arrested and he found more information about the gem he was looking for.
There was the sound of nearing footsteps. Kaito hid the file he had found tucked safely and called out to the detectives, "Kudo-kun, Hattori-kun, I found something here! It looks like a documentary library." The footsteps quickened.
"What—? " Shinichi and Heiji arrived where the thief was in no time. Shinichi noticed the thief and asked, "Jodie-sensei?" Well, Kaito was disguised as one of the agents in FBI at that time.
Kaito smirked behind the mask of "Jodie-sensei". That FBI agent is totally going to be mad for missing the operation. Well, she couldn't be on the operation anyway since she was already in the hospital before the plan started…something about dislocated disk? Well, he'll be sure to thank her.
"Kudo-kun, this is amazing! I'm sure many of these archives could be used against the organization. But it sure is strange… one would think such big, dangerous mafia like this would have left absolutely no trace of their works even inside their HQ. Shinichi took his time looking through the archives. Then he replied, "It's because…this is all related to experiments. They need to keep record of things just in case they need to use it as a reference."
"Experiment?" Kaito frowned. 'Then what was the information about the Pandora doing here? Could it be…that it was used in an experiment?'
"Ah, found it!" Heiji called out.
"Found what, Hattori-kun?" Kaito asked, trying to act oblivious.
"It's nothing, Jodie-sensei. It's just evidence for the organization's crime."
Heiji laughed nervously and replied, "Y-yeah. That's what it is."
"Is that so?" Kaito hid a very Kid-like smirk and shrugged. "Well, we better get out of here. Who knows what the Black Organization planned for us just in case someone were to penetrate into their headquarter?" And as if on cue, there was a loud boom and the ground started to shake. "Damn," Kaito cursed under his breath, "I really shouldn't have said that!"
"Grab as many files as you can but dump it if its' being a hindrance to you! And let's get out of here!" Shinichi exclaimed.
"You are right!" Kaito exclaimed back, with a slight hint of sing-song voice. Then he grabbed the blue-eyed teen by the hand and ran out with Kansai detective following behind them wearing a frown mixed with confusion.
~.~.~.~
Kaito sighed at the memory. He still remembered the warmth of Shinichi's slender hand when he grabbed it as they escaped the crumbling building.
Now the members of the organization are safely locked up in prison. And Shinichi...the antidote didn't work. There was something vital missing in the antidote. Tantei-kun has been very depressed for a while so Kaito arranged this heist to cheer him up.
And there he was in the same room where the heist item is. Thankfully, tantei-kun looked like he is on full spirit. Then he turned to check out the prize he was going to claim tonight. He couldn't stop being amazed by how huge the gem actually was. Well that didn't matter to him. The gem was just a bonus.
He waited patiently, though itching to move already, and counted seconds till midnight. And it struck.
DING! DING! DING! DING! DING!
The sound was clear and gorgeous, echoing all throughout Tokyo.
DING! DING! DING! DING! DING! DING! …
Almost there…
DING!
The twelfth ring. It was show time.
"The heist has started!" Kaito exclaimed cheerfully as he made his entrance to the room containing his prize. And so it has started…
However at that time, he didn't notice that there was someone else who also attended the heist, through uninvited.
~.~.~.~
it was like an old routine—no, it was like a bad habit that he found himself on the roof of the heist building with his prize tucked securely inside his jacket pocket. And somehow along the way, he began to put aside checking for Pandora and instead, he kept looking around for the mini-detective.
And there he was, his grief expression and his pained frown gone for the moment, and only a challenging smirk was clear on his face. However, that smirk disappeared in a split second and the detective looked very alarmed. Kaito felt it too, not so long after. A presence; it was neither evil nor good. A breeze swept passed them and that's when Kaito heard, 'I'm sorry, Kuroba-kun.' The voice was feminine and very familiar, however he couldn't quite place who the voice belongs to.
"What the heck are you doing?" the Phantom Thief barely registered what his critic was shouting. The wind was starting to blow stronger, and it was almost impossible for him to open his eyes. Then he felt something pushing him down, dragging him into darkness. He strained himself to stay balanced and conscious and focused solemnly on Tantei-kun. That's when he realized, there was no wind. Well, he felt it and was still feeling the alright, however looking at the shrunken Shinichi, he saw that the raven hair of the detective is fixed, just swaying softly as if only a small breeze just went by. But then, what was this strong power that he was feeling?
Suddenly a strong force collided with his body. Its strength was more than enough to knock himself out of his body, literally.
He shook his head to clear his mind then stared. There was a second him! Then he thought for a moment and realized that it was his BODY. He was actually forced out of his body! Just what the heck is happening?
His body swayed and Tantei-kun looked at it worriedly, "Kid, are you okay?"
"No, get away from him—I mean me!" Kaito shouted. However, his words did not—could not—reach Tantei-kun's ears. He couldn't even see him and Kaito himself found himself unable to move. The body's eyes snapped open; the pupils have turned red instead of blue-purple ones that Kaito knew he had. It wasn't murderous or frightening however, it wasn't kind looking either. The red-eyed body took no notice of the detective who was looking utterly socked and slowly reached for the gem in the pocket and threw it in the air. As soon as the white moonlight hit the red gem, it exploded into bloody red light.
Kaito gasped, "Pandora…" The light was already threatening itself then however, it started to take form of a beautiful woman.
The form chuckled with an enchanting however, cold and empty voice, and said, "Sister, you are finally here. It sure took a long time to find me. I mean 100 million years!" The woman laughed, "But you still can't lock me in with your power!"
"There is a reason why it took me so long to find you—or should I say it took me so long to start to find you," Kaito's body spoke, but it wasn't his voice. It was mixed with someone else's. The boy held out his palm then flame erupted from it. Kaito only stared in fascination. The flame danced around within palm with the wind. Slowly it was taking a shape of a rectangle then the flame died out, leaving only a black metal card.
"Impressive," the woman said in an amusement. "But you know that's not enough."
The red-eyed Kaito sneered, "You are right…however, with this body…" The red-eyed loaded the black metal into the card gun and aimed at the woman…then fired.
"Humph, foolish," she said. The bloody red light erupted even brighter and the air seemed to get heavier, making it harder to breathe. The red shielded around the woman however the metal card slashed the red light away and pierced the woman. "What! Impossible!" The woman screeched. The she froze and stared straight at Kaito as if she was very shocked to see him. "You!" It seemed that the creepy woman could see him. "If it wasn't for you…your blood…!" Then the wound on the woman from the card opened up with a bright white light and the form started to slowly disintegrate. "I…will reward you for destroying me when nobody could for many years… I'll reward you…with a curse!"
The red-eyed body stiffened and shouted, "NO!"
Even the form was starting to fade; her gaze on Kaito was strong as ever. Red-eyed Kaito seemed panicked but too exhausted to move. Then Kaito read its lips: run. Kaito just didn't understand. Just what was going on? As soon as the body mouthed, its red color in its eyes disappeared and the body slumped to the floor. There was a strong gush of wind again and when Kaito opened his eyes, he was back in his own body again.
Tantei-kun just stared in shock. "What…just happened?" he asked.
With his poker face broken, Kaito admitted truthfully, "I don't know…" Then just above them, the red light brightened from the jewel, blinding the two. Then suddenly the dark, frightening aura vanished, and the gem shattered and was sprinkled on top of the roof. Shinichi and Kaito gasped in surprise and amusement and watched the beautiful sight of slowly descending pieces of gem.
Then Shinichi froze…he sensed something however he couldn't fully tell what it was. Though he was sure it wasn't something pleasant. Kaito stiffened too but then that was when…
"AHHHH!" A scream and a gunshot were heard.
He heard the detective letting out a pain-filled scream and that made his stomach turn then it started to ache terribly as if it was burning. Kaito panicked, knowing fully well that Shinichi normally doesn't show his pain. He swiftly turned, thinking of the worst possible scenario and saw the not-child with blood gushing out of his shoulder. His stomach churned and he slowly limped to the boy to examine him closely. Thankfully the not-child was only unconscious and still living and breathing. And the blood…he had no idea where it came from. There weren't any external wounds or whatsoever on the not-child's body. Where is this blood from? If the bullet didn't hit Tantei-kun, who did it hit? Did it miss? Who fired the shot?
As if to answer his question, an eccentric laughter was heard; and it belonged to a person Kid knew all too well. Then the person appeared in front of him. Snake.
The clothes that the criminal was wearing were all tattered and torn, dirtied by dust. His black hair was messy, sticking out in all different directions, his proud mustache has been long since groomed, and his cold dark eyes were out of focus.
Kaito stood up to confront the crazed man however cringed back an inch in pain as soon as he did. His eyes grew wide for a fraction when he realized that he was the one who has been shot. It was no wonder that his stomach kept hurting. Kaito kept his poker face in place and pressed his hand on his wound to stop the bleeding.
"Hello, Kid!" Kaito flinched inwardly at the voice. "Kid, I'll end this once and for all, for good!" Snake threw the wasted gun on the side. "I'm taking you down, WITH ME."
Kaito chuckled humorlessly, "Aren't you getting too old for this game, Snake? Really, I—"
"SHUT UP!" in a blink of an eye, the criminal was right in front of him.
Kaito froze when he realized what the man was planning. "Are you INSA—"
He was unable to finish his sentence as at that moment, Snake grabbed the thief and threw himself over the roof with Kaito trapped between his grasp. Kaito's breath hitched as they fell…. He usually loved the feeling when jumping into the sky's embrace however; today he found it for the first time that it was very frightening.
There was no one to stop them, no one to watch them descending to their doom. The clear night sky was the only witness…
~.~.~.~.~
Kaito woke up, his body all throbbing in pain. His vision was blurry however it soon adjusted. Then he yelped. His snow white suit was covered in red…blood. Next to him was Snake, his body broken and blood splattered all over the face. It was disgusting. He held his breath and closed his eyes shut and tried to convince himself that this isn't happening. Of course, it was no use. Kaito shivered but then snapped out of his trance. How was he alive?
The examined himself; his body felt a little shift however nothing was broken, the blood drenched his skin but there was no wound. Even the bullet wound on his stomach before disappeared. Kaito gasped, "D-don't tell me that I'm…immortal?" Yes, that all made sense. The wound on his stomach was definitely fatal however he moved, and he's still alive after that long fall from the building. That damn Pandora did something to him before it got destroyed! AH, and Tantei-kun? Kaito looked at the watch on his wrist and realized that 30 minutes have passed since then. He glanced at the corpse and cringed. "Although he was my enemy…did Snake really deserve this horrible death?" He was unsure. He sighed and pulled out some spare clothes and a cell phone. He went inside the building through the back door and discreetly headed to the restroom. Kaito discarded his Kid outfit and changed into casual clothes and a baseball cap. When he existed, he saw that the police men were still lingering around the heist building. Then he sighed; it was no use whether the police were here or not, they still couldn't stop a person from dying. Then he snapped out of his thought and headed to the roof. It was still cold out there and he was still worried. He ran up the stairs, knowing that the police would be still guarding the elevator. Then finally he was in front of the door to the roof when he heard a voice.
"Keibu-san! There is a boy on a roof! He's seems unconscious!" An officer reported.
"Ha? That looks like the kid from Mouri's. I'll call them and the ambulance!" Kaito sighed in relief when he heard Nakamouri-keibu's voice. Tantei-kun was in safe hands now.
He walked aimlessly to his house his hands tucked into his pocket to hide the trembling. It was quite a shock for him to see a dead person so close….and it was a person he knew, too. When he looked up, his house was in view. It was a late night so his mother should be asleep. He headed straight to the bathroom and hand-washed the suit. He frowned, at the smell, at the sight, at the feel of the blood that is was and Snake's. After the wash, he hung the wet clothes and washed his hands thoroughly. He smiled a bitter smile before heading upstairs to the master's bedroom. He cracked opened the door and smiled painfully at his mother's peaceful sleeping face. He bent down to kiss her cheeks. He closed his eyes in determination. He would leave…it would hurt them surely, but he would have to leave them sooner or later at this rate. It would be harder for him to disappear on them if he were to stay anymore.
"Bye, Kaa-san. I love you." Kaito whispered in her ear. He closed the door and went to his room to pack. There wasn't much, Kaito realized in surprise. He pretty much could survive in any kinds of situation after all. With a bag hung over his shoulder he went out of his house…
Chikage stirred from her sleep and cracked her eyes open. "Mmm? Kaito?" Her heart ached for some reason and had a bad feeling so she went to her son's room to check him. The room was empty. There was only a small note written on a ripped notebook paper saying "I'm sorry, Kaa-san. I can't come back anymore. Please forgive me. I love you. Kaito." Her eyes grew wide and she slumped on the floor. "K-KAITO!" However, Kaito couldn't hear his mother's heartbroken cry…
~.~.~.~.~
Couple of days after the heist, Kaito went to visit Tantei-kun who is in the hospital. With hat pulled low over his face, he entered the room where Shinichi was held. "Tantei-kun?" Kaito called out to him. "How are you feeling?"
"Kid? What are you doing here?" Shinichi asked.
"I was…worried…" Kaito muttered however without hesitation.
Shinichi blushed, "Ah, thanks. I don't remember anything from the heist after meeting you on the roof. What happened?"
Kaito frowned, "Eh? You don't—?" Then he shook his head and smiled. "Nothing happened really. You just fainted out of the blue. Do you even know how worried and surprised I was?" Kaito said it in a joking tone.
Shinichi chuckled, "I surprised YOU? Wow, so where's my prize?"
"Ha-ha, very funny," Kaito said as he narrowed his eyes. Then he noticed a pill in the not-child's hand. It somehow looked familiar… "Hey, is that what I think it is?"
Shinichi looked down at his hand and nodded. "Yeah, it's the antidote to help get my body back. It failed once and this is my last chance. Haibara said I've become so immune to the drug that she gave her that if this didn't work I would have to stay as Conan forever. But I still want to take my chance."
Kaito's heart cringed. He felt jealous that Shinichi would do anything to get back to his body and to…Ran. He hid his bitterness and smiled. "Just don't force yourself, okay?"
"Yeah," Shinichi said with a smile.
~Present~
Kaito had to laugh at how he felt jealous of Ran. Shinichi told him after going out that he have always liked him…He blushed, but it weren't for long. Shinichi was no longer with him anymore…
He turned on the TV from his apartment and watched the news. Then the familiar house came into the view…
"The famous detective Kudo Shinichi has passed three days ago and just today in the early morning around 12 A.M, the detective's house was set on fire—"
"WHAT! But Shinichi's body is still there! And I was there around that time!" Kaito shouted in shock. He changed his pjs to his casual clothes and went out of his apartment, the door slamming shout behind him.
So that's it! Shinichi's house was set on fire! Wah, what happened to Shinichi? Find out, next chapter! PLEZ R&R!
