The Vampire Detective

Chapter 7 – The Kid and the Cops

Disclaimer - I'm still looking for a job. If this wasn't fanfiction, maybe, just maybe, I'd have one.

Trust your friends, but deal the cards yourself - Kuroba Touichi

The next morning was – for lack of a better and more appropriate term – pandemonium. Complete and utter organized chaos.

A Kid heist note usually does that.

Nakamori Ginzo and the rest of his Kaitou Kid Task Force were working overtime, trying to crack the code that Kid had set them and even going as far as to check every detail of the note to make sure that it wasn't a forgery of any kind; the fact that it had been sent out when it had, with no large jewel displays coming up soon because of the most recent and extremely humiliating August heist. Headaches, shouts and cursing were all common, all three of the above coming at the same time from Nakamori-keibu's office.

Walking past, two teenagers could be seen bickering. One was shouting, with enough volume and rage to rival the inspector. The other was smirking and laughing in turn, right up until the point where he flipped her skirt. Then, the one she was shouting about wasn't in the paper, but right in front of her. A light in her eyes, she ran after the now grinning Kaito.

Others, however, didn't have the advantage of already knowing what was in the note and, more importantly, what the note meant.

One of whom happened to be high school detective Hakuba Saguru, interrupted from his breakfast by an early mail delivered straight to his letterbox.

It was the same white card that was used for Kid heist notices. It was the same handwriting. He couldn't presume to lie that the doodle had been forged; it was completely different.

Yet – he wasn't invited.

It was so unlike Kid. What was there to gain by disinviting people? Kid loved audiences, so asking someone not to come was defeating the object, the goal. What was the point?

My dear Tantei-san, read his note. There is to be a private performance. No cheating or helping out the competitors. I know you'll understand.

The doodle of Kid in the corner seemed a little more detailed than usual, with a bit more effort put into it. The effect, when he looked closer, was that Kid seemed to be winking at him. With an entirely too mischievous smirk for his liking. It was one that Saguru often saw on the face of his classmate, not that that helped matters at all, being that said classmate was the one he suspected of being Kid. It was a look that said I'm about to pull off my most amazing trick yet. Don't tell Aoko.

Hakuba Saguru sighed, pinching his nose.

I'm going to regret this. . .

On the other end of the spectrum, there were those who had received their note.

Said person was currently, unlike the others. . .

Still waking up.

Mmf.

Preternatural hearing that had more than once woken him up in the middle of the night was ringing his alarm bells. Again.

Gah. Shaddup. Lemme sleep.

Ever since waking up and having to concentrate to be able to go out in the sun, late nights had become a habit.

So, of course, had the corresponding morning problem.

Tap. Tap.

Buzzzzzzz!

Sighing, he flailed slightly, hitting his alarm clock lightly with an outstretched hand. The buzzing stopped, but the tapping continued. Groaning, Shinichi crawled out of bed, heading over to the source of the noise.

Ugh. Window.

Not being awake and aware enough to brave the sunlight yet, he stood to one side so that the potentially harmful rays would fall on bare floor and opened the window, letting in as he did so a white balloon with two propellers attached; one by the feet and one on top of an easily recognizable miniature hang glider, which soared on until it hit the wall, where it fell to the floor.

The note was attached to the underside of the light paper hang glider, and Shinichi groaned, having a foreboding feeling of something bad about to happen, but even that overridden by the strong desire to hit his head against a brick wall.

Rubies and garnets glisten free of their glass cage.

When the lady rests and her maids watch the world,

God's abandoned child will take that which cannot be stolen

P.S

Katie-chan says hello.

--

"Eeeh?! You mean you got a note from Kid that woke you up?"

"That's what I just said, isn't it?"

Shinichi and Ran were walking on the way to school, Shinichi irritably telling Ran all about the events of the morning.

Ran actually giggled.

"I bet Sonoko would just love to hear about this. She's always going on about how she wants to see the Kaitou Kid just one more time."

"You're not telling any of this to that girl," he said flatly.

"But why?"

Shinichi snorted; the girl might be Ran's best friend, but. . .

"If that gossip-goose knew about this, she'd tell everyone she knew. Worst case scenario is, that old man shows up."

Suzuki Jirochiki was a man whose sole ambition was to obtain as many headlines and awards as was humanly possible. Both of the times he had shown up at a heist or invited Kid to steal, he had made things easier rather than harder for the thief.

"Hey! That's rude!"

"It's true, isn't it?"

Ran coloured and for a moment he thought he was going to get a karate move aimed in his direction, but then she just kept on walking, if silently.

They had passed a few more streets before either spoke again.

". . . Ne. Shinichi."

"Hn?"

"It – it just – it bugs me."

"What does?"

"Why. . . why would Kid target you specifically?" Shinichi stiffened without realizing it, before hearing the rest of what she said. "I mean, he only sent out notices to you and the Task Force, right? It makes me wonder. Why he'd do that."

Shinichi sighed, but didn't say anything.

"Ne, Shinichi? What do you think?"

Not a word.

--

Classes passed slowly. Painfully slowly. Several times, Shinichi was told off for snapping. It didn't help matters that he was almost unable to sit or stand still for any more than a minute at most, or that his preoccupied state saw him with numerous rash-like blemishes on his skin from the times when he hadn't been able to concentrate on the class, the Kid note and what the Kid note meant without his concentration on what the sun would do to him if he didn't keep a mind's eye on it leaking away to the back of his mind. This in turn made him even more irritable, if that was in fact possible. By the end of the day even Ran had stopped trying to talk to him, though with a little more sympathy if not understanding than any of the others. Ran at least knew of his troubles with sunlight.

When classes finally finished and they were allowed to go home, he waved wordlessly to Ran and headed off in the direction of home, taking the short route.

The next hour and a half was spent in the study, the room's high ceiling allowing for small accidents in height now that he'd had enough practice that accidents in power were few and far between. The ball bounced, flew and rolled under his control as he thought.

Me. It's me Kid's after. I don't know why, and I don't even understand all of the note.

The note. If it hadn't been for the way it had been delivered, he would have been open to the idea of forgery; as it was, the idea was laughable at best. No-one but Kid did things like that. Even if the note was at the same time more vague and to the point than his usual warnings.

Pausing for a minute, he took the thing back out of his inner pocket where he'd kept it during the day.

Rubies and garnets – a sure hint towards the fact that Kid had to know. Rubies were an obvious and common reference to blood. Garnets being a more vague clue, hinting towards protection and justice.

Free of glass cages – some might see this as another way of Kid saying that he was going to steal, but combined with the rest of the note could only mean that he was simply confirming one thing and making sure Shinichi knew the obvious in one phrase. That he had known that Conan wasn't actually seven years old was a given; so now was the fact that he wasn't Conan any more.

The next line hadn't been too hard to understand either. The lady was another way of calling the moon, and in that context the 'maids' had to be the stars. Which meant the unlikely date of the new moon, a time when Kid had never under normal circumstances made an appearance. The thief wasn't called the Magician in the Moonlight for nothing, so this meant that there had to be some kind of ulterior motive for going against type.

Shinichi sighed and threw himself down into an armchair, letting the ball bounce away from him for the moment. The only thing I didn't get, he thought, frustrated, was the location. Kid's always put in some kind of clue. Which means it has to be in there somewhere – he's sent one to the Task Force as well, hasn't he?

And that was it. It had to be. Kid's note had been sent out early enough to the police that it had reached the morning papers, and given that both notes were the same – without the small discrepancy of a postscript on the official version – there were more than likely going to be more than just one translation. Especially since not everyone was privy to certain bits of information that would be needed if they wanted Shinichi's translation. Which meant –

Ugh.

Double meanings, and a night at the Kaitou Kid Task Force headquarters. Lovely.

Looking at the time and finding that barely even an hour had passed since school had released him, he savoured one last glance at the now immobile soccer ball and headed over to the phone. He had some calls to make if he was going to be included in the meeting.

--

The Task Force meeting had come up with some interesting and varied ideas. Discussion had gone on well into the night, and no few of the men had been debating the matter still right up until the time they had decided upon.

The place that they had converged not more than a day later on was little more than a three-storey gallery, with very little in the way of things that Kid would normally be accused of stealing. Most of what the place held was – in his opinion, at least – tacky jewellery and second rate paintings. There were, however, a couple of items that might hold dubious value to the thief, might fit the search pattern.

Task Force men were scattered throughout the building, a large group of whom were gathered in the two places where the supposed targets were held.

Shinichi was at neither.

Having judged that if he tried to capture the thief so close to the target that he would simply be gassed by a sleep bomb or something equally irritating before being given any chance at all of giving chase, he had decided on one of the central staircases. That way, it didn't matter which way the Kid came from, he wouldn't need too long to intercept.

Apparently, Nakamori had thought along similar lines, because a spattering of men in their riot gear were also with him, one even right beside him, who kept looking at his watch. Which wasn't, actually, suspicious behaviour. All of them were looking at their watches.

According to Nakamori, the way the inspector had seen the note had pointed directly at eleven thirty-five as the time Kid was supposed to make his appearance, or at least make himself noticed.

So far, it was eleven thirty-three, and nervous was just not the word for the atmosphere in that particular stairwell. Or, in fact, the entire gallery.

Eleven thirty-four and counting saw nothing out of the ordinary. A few of the men shifted, and one bent over to whisper something terse in another's ear that Shinichi ignored more than didn't hear.

Tic. Tic. Tic.

Eleven thirty-five and still nothing seemed to have happened. Comments started that perhaps Nakamori had gotten the wrong place from some directions, and from others they just went as still and quiet and stiff as was humanly possible.

That, however, was before the Task Force member beside him had leaned in close, smirked – and he could just feel that smirk – and then whispered in his ear.

"Why, good evening, Tantei-kun."

--

Precious seconds had been wasted between having the thief they were all supposed to be catching and keeping caught whisper a polite greeting in his ear and the time when he had been able to move from the shock and surprise. It had been no surprise that by the time he had started after the thief, said thief was already in his whites and headed away from the scene of the crime, laughing all the while with several – make that most – of the Task Force hot on his heels.

Shinichi had followed in the wake of impending chaos only after a not-to-be-disobeyed command to radio over what had happened to those in charge.

Impending chaos turned out to be a very good summation of what started to happen. So far, there had been no sleep bombs, a couple of flash bombs that had been dropped the few times that he had been out of range enough not to get blinded, several pon! noises as random things appeared and reappeared – a radio, someone's walkman, a set of juggling balls which fell one by one onto unsuspecting officers' heads and an umbrella which promptly got used to cause further confusion before snapping shut and disappearing the Kid himself for a startling moment, before a foreboding quiet overtook them again.

A headcount had come up with the inexorable fact that there were no fewer people now than before, but that hadn't reassured him very much. The Kid was, undoubtedly, still here, and it was likely that the one he was impersonating was, too. Or at the very least, nearby. Even magician thieves had limits to how far they could go and come back within that short an amount of time.

He growled in frustration as the others searched fruitlessly, one of their number looking for himself. It was useless. None of them would be able to figure out which one Kid was; at best they would get a fleeting instant of a trademark smirk before he blended back into the crowd of uniforms, just another face in the crowd, or a glimpse of his face before theirs became the one he was to use next to hide behind. They simply didn't have the skill, speed or power of instantaneous deduction that he did. And he couldn't clone himself, no matter how useful the talent might or might not have been if he did have the use of it.

Aside from that, what was there that he could actually do to figure out who Kid was before he gave himself away? It wasn't as if he had X-ray vision to see through disguises or anything. His vision might be several times better than what it had been when he was human, but he wasn't Superman. He wasn't that powerful. He could only rely on preternatural senses and –

A hand brushed against his shoulder as its owner walked past with a look and a glance that Shinichi recognized. A look that wasn't really something that was thought of as one of Kid's expressions, but more importantly, shouldn't be seen on the Task Force rookie he'd seen it on.

He smirked.

I've got you now, Kaitou Kid.

--

That's it . . . just a little closer. . . nearly got me. . . there! The Kaitou Kid crowed to himself, displaying it to the world in the form of a great shower of confetti that rained over the men and detective as he discarded yet another face. Round goes to Tantei-kun!

The Kid had long since lost count of the number of costumes and faces he'd worn, not to mention lost track of the time since his little game had started. By now even Nakamori-keibu had joined in, screaming colourful curses at him all the while. A while ago, he'd let the inspector sleep while he took his own turn at it, trying to lead his men to catch himself. Unluckily, Tantei-kun had seen right through that little joke within seconds. Spoilsport.

Now, however, with half of the Task Force sleeping peacefully in the galleries and some starting to wake up, it was time to up his game and enter Stage Two of the Great Plan. A plan which Jii and his mother would probably call idiotic and suicidal, but if he was right – and he usually was when it came to suicidal plans – then this would be almost as important as the first time he'd ever put on the Kaitou's mantle.

Almost, anyway. Nothing could really match up to that, as thrilling and terrifying as it had been.

But still. It'd come pretty darn close.

So he continued his acrobatics, treating the laws of gravity with as much respect as the laws of possession as he vaulted the heads of officers and exhibits alike, all the while planning for the next moment and the moment after, keeping in mind what he would have to do if his plan actually worked.

The prospect was scary. And yet he looked forward to it. It was the whole reason why he had planned the entire heist, after all. It was his prize, the thing he couldn't steal, the thing he could only be given, the thing which by all rights he would never have been given even two weeks ago. Something he would never have even considered asking for, before the world had gone pair-shaped.

All the same, Kid's grin was fixed in place by Poker Face, and he didn't let it stray from that even when his face was masked completely by the smoke bomb he had just thrown down that was the key to the second part of the plan.

There were about twenty men on that part of the floor, a couple of levels down from the roof. Twenty-one if the person counting included the Kid.

As the smoke cleared, there were twenty-one men in sight on that floor, not including the Kid.

--

Shinichi had long since lost track of time and the number of disguises that he had ripped – albeit with words or attention rather than his own hands – away from Kid's face. Each one had become easier and easier, and at times he wasn't at all sure that he hadn't started to look at the thief before logic kicked in and told him that it was who he had thought it was. At times, it was downright freaky. A good detective was supposed to trust logic and his powers of deduction and at times his intuition. A good detective did not guess, and didn't, shouldn't rely on instinct.

Except –

As he listened to the nervous chatter of the men something caught his attention; a small thing, something that previously even he would not have picked up to be able to take notice of it. The delicate nuances of someone's speech. Something off. Little things now that he saw or heard them. But before, before he'd turned that way, it had simply been a feeling.

An instinct.

He'd been staring in that direction for a while now, and Kid – he was certain of it, now – had done nothing about it. Shinichi blinked and started to half-creep over to that side of the hall, attempting to blend in gracefully. As opposed to the beginning of the night, he was not entirely certain of his victory this time, making him a whole lot more cautious. He almost – almost – had him, before the infuriating Poker Face broke out once again, as Kid leapt out above the heads of the Task Force and himself, showering confetti onto all of them and changing into his trademark work suit at the same time.

At least this time he hadn't kept the face mask on. The time he had paraded as Nakamori, even the man's team had known who it was because of the orders he had issued. Not because they knew him that well, but because for the first time that night, the blowhard had actually been commanding them how Shinichi would have – if he had been in charge, that is. When the large number of men had tried to mob him, the Kaitou Kid had responded by taking of the disguise while keeping Nakamori's face. Several had simply stopped, nonplussed, when the Kid's smirk had appeared on the face of the inspector out to catch him, and unless Shinichi's ears had deceived him, more than one camera had clicked or flashed before the rubber mask too was thrown into the crowd.

Back in the present, Kid was performing aerial acrobatics with possibly ancient artefacts. Shinichi darted after him. At least that's not the direction of the stairwell, he thought. Though knowing that guy he could probably make anywhere into the direction of the stairwell.

Kid was now vaulting from two of the exhibits and flipping back into the crowd of officers, making Shinichi curse. In a crowded place like they were in, he wouldn't be able to use half his natural – or unnatural, if that was how you wanted to think about it – strength and speed. If he had, people would have been hurt, and there was no maybe about it. He would have bumped into someone at speed, and they would have been injured – or worse – and that would have been the end of it. So, of course, he had to move slower than he needed to get to where Kid would be next, making him too slow to get there in time. Too slow to stop the smoke bomb slip out of Kid's sleeve and into his hand and onto the floor and smash and fill the room with smoke.

The next few minutes as the dust and smoke cleared out of the air saw Shinichi coughing at both the dust and the overpowering scent of the pink smoke. As it started to clear, someone put their arm around his shoulders and asked him if he was all right. He nodded – he would be, as soon as he was de-smoked. He didn't know whether the person had been the Kid or not. To be truly honest at that point in time, he hadn't cared.

It took only a short while for him to be back at full working power again, and even less time after that to notice that his ability to pick the Kid out had increased in speed, ironically due to the smoke bomb that Kid himself had thrown down. Kid stank of the stuff worse than any of the others did, and this made him easier to pick out in a crowd, even when the crowd had others that had been exposed to the stuff. It was ridiculously easy when others came and the Kid attempted to blend in. With his preternatural sense of smell, Shinichi could tell who he was no matter how good the disguise, even though the similarities between what he was doing and a police sniffer dog didn't exactly do anything to help his pride much.

That said, they were getting closer and closer to the roof, Kid having made them all chase him through the upper levels, leaving the place chock-a-block with sleeping bodies at times.

That one.

There.

There.

Him.

That idiot there.

Got you. Got you. Oh, hell no.

That – that was the door to the roof. Where Kid could escape. Where he could use that darn hang glider of his. The building wasn't all that tall, but it was enough to get away without needing the stairs.

Without anyone else around, it was easy to put on the burst of speed and strength that he needed in order to get to and open the door wide enough before it shut to get through after Kid and out onto the roof in an attempt to stop him from flying away.

"Maa, maa, Tantei-kun. We truly have to stop meeting like this. People will talk."

Flap-flap, flap-flap.

Kid. . . wasn't going anywhere. He was just standing there, hands in pockets and facing away from him, looking up at the sky. Something seemed different about him, odd, off. That smoky smell still drifted off him, though, giving the scene a weird kind of dreamlike quality.

"Ne. Tantei-kun. How long has it been since you were involved in a case that didn't include death?"

. . . What?!

"And just what is that supposed to mean?"

A sigh that was almost blown away by the wind was followed by a fluid shrug, lifting and dropping the cape as he did so.

"A simple curiosity."

Shinichi snorted, edging closer as he did so.

"I think we both know that the Kaitou Kid never does anything without more than just simple curiosity."

At this, Kid tilted his head to one side thoughtfully, but not letting any of his face show.

"Then tell me. Why do you think I did all this?"

"Why don't you tell me for once?"

Shoulders shook and the white mantle fluttered. He distinctly heard a faint chuckle.

"Ah. . . but where would the fun in that be? We both have our places, you and I. A thief must steal. Detectives find out their truths. So – isn't it your job to figure out my reasons? It's not that hard." A pause. "Or even illegal."

"Well, it's obviously not because of those two pieces of jewellery you have somewhere on your person." He shook his head. "Too gaudy, too small. . . not what you were after."

"So what was I after?"

The question, though expected, still managed somehow to stop him in his tracks. What was the Kid really after? To tell the truth, he didn't actually know. Something to do with him, but any further than that and he was at a dead blank. What would the Kaitou Kid want with him anyway, other than to get away as fast as possible? There was, of course, the academic point that the thief hadn't been running away from him all the time he had been here.

Kid had been taunting him. Teasing him. Leading him on the whole time.

"You. . ." He spoke slowly, choosing his words carefully. "You lead me here. There's still some time before that sleeping gas of yours wears off. So my guess is that you wanted to talk."

"Interesting deduction, Tantei-kun. So. If you're right, then what are you going to do about it?"

Shinichi sighed, stopped trying to creep up on him – for the moment.

"Do? Nothing yet, I think. Though I'd say it would have to be something important to have the Kaitou Kid want to stoop to consorting with a detective."

That earned him a chuckle.

"Yeah. . . you could say that." Some of the tension seemed to ease slowly out of the thief, who gave into a sigh and turned around to seat himself lightly on the edge of the wall. "Close enough," he said after a while of silence. "But you still haven't answered my question."

So it really wasn't a simple curiosity, after all. He had doubted as much.

"What has that got to do with you?"

Kid sighed, sounding tired. World weary, more like it.

"Murder isn't a nice thing, Tantei-kun. There is . . . a reason why the most important rule of my heists is that no-one gets hurt."

"Things like that happen all the time, Kid. I deal with them."

Kid shook his head, making the monocle's charm chime.

"No, they don't. Or at least they shouldn't. No-one should have to deal with them." There was a pause of a few breaths. "Just because you can deal with what happens afterwards doesn't mean that what happened to that person isn't any less important. Or wrong."

"Why shouldn't I be able to deal, Kid? Who are you to tell me that? I dealt with my own."

Kid flinched.

"Yeah. I know you know about me. You all but shouted it out in that damn heist note. As if you couldn't have contacted me any other way to tell me things I don't need to hear!"

The thief stood back up, righteous anger speaking in the tension and rigidity of his stance.

"And how would I have done that, Tantei-kun? Would you have listened to a thief? Would you have even considered hearing one out? Forgive me for thinking that it would not have been a good idea to come to you in your own home, or reveal myself in the street, or place a telephone call for Tantei-kun!"

Shinichi stared. The Kid's face was still shadowed, mostly invisible even to his eyesight, making what he was saying, or rather how he was saying it, all the more menacing.

Yet he wasn't afraid. The fact that the Kaitou had just surprised him in such a way simply made them equals – of a sort, in his mind and eye.

Kid – and only Kid so far – had stood up to him instead of trying to commiserate with him. Had gone to him and figured out all of Shinichi's secrets before going to Shinichi, but hadn't kept the fact that he knew them a secret from him.

Shinichi had been angry, but the Kid was still there. He could have run away, escaped, and it would have looked perfectly natural. A thief running from the detective who had cornered him. Nothing more natural. Yet he hadn't. He was standing there, looking angry and calm as ever. He was like a river or something like that, which looked calm on the surface yet was raging away on the inside. Poker Face only covered the face; Shinichi was by now able to read with growing ease the signs of emotions conveyed by breath and pulse and other such small yet vital signs.

The Kaitou Kid wasn't going anywhere until they had finished their talk. If the Task Force somehow managed to break the door down before they were finished, the result would probably be wide scale, highly chaotic, and most certainly embarrassing to both sides. Would most definitely have Nakamori-keibu in fits and swearing for the next month.

Shinichi deflated.

"Why was it so important that you talk to me, anyhow?"

Kid seemed almost startled, surprised that he even had to ask. "Why, I've always enjoyed keeping tabs on my . . . opponents," the thief said lightly, relaxing again and beginning to lean back against the wall once more. So is that all? Just because I'm an opponent? "Not to mention any kind of dangers they get themselves involved in. Or if they might –" here was a hesitation. Kid hardly ever hesitated. "– become a risk themselves. You could say that I like to keep my cards where I can see them."

"So what am I?" Shinichi asked, dark humour lacing his voice. "Opponent, risk or card?"

Kid stared at him for a moment, window lights glinting off of his monocle.

"You know what? I wouldn't mind knowing that myself. You definitely are quite some opponent-" Shinichi snorted "-and everyone is a card. Whether or not you're a risk. . ." he sighed and shrugged white satin. "Well. I suppose that we had better make sure you don't become one, ne?"

By the end of the sentence there was an audible grin on the kaitou's face.

"What do you mean, 'we'?"

"Just like I said. I like to keep an eye on those who could become risks. Due to recent. . . developments. . . I thought that it would be wise to use two in your case. Since I had a feeling that you would rather not- " the thief cut himself off, swallowed hard. Shinichi blinked. This wasn't normal behaviour for the Kid, yet all of his instincts – including his newer ones – told him that it was the kaitou. He could guess, however, what the other had been about to say. I would rather not become what I usually chase, either. Kid cleared his throat and continued as if there had been no pause. "So I gave you a gift – of sorts."

Shinichi scowled. "I don't take things from thieves."

The Kaitou Kid chuckled as if he was the only one in on the joke. "Oh, you'll take this, believe me. Besides, it's hardly illegal. It is mine to give you, after all."

The scowl darkened when the Kid laughed again, levered himself up and started to walk towards him. One of the pieces that he had stolen, a small ruby and red glass statuette, was being tossed and caught in one hand. Underneath the wide brim of the white top hat, Kid smirked.

"Although I would love to talk some more, there sadly is a schedule. I simply must go. Such a shame." He then glanced at the item he was holding, as if it was the first time he had seen it. The smirk widened to a grin as Shinichi started to hear the truth of his words – the police were on their way up the stairs, feet thundering. Having seen something in Shinichi's reactions, Kid tossed the statuette into the air for the detective. "Here, Tantei-kun!"

Shinichi cursed the time it wasted, even though there would have been a lot more curses if he hadn't caught the thing. The door was now open, Task Force police officers swarming the roof as Kid headed to the edge, hang glider snapping into place and an arm snapping out behind him with what looked like an ordinary flash or smoke bomb to even Shinichi's enhanced sight yet had a highly more spectacular and devastating effect that had the Kaitou Kid laughing all the way home, the Task Force covering their faces (with some reaching for the odd gas mask which had been out of reach when it had previously been needed) and one Kudo Shinichi mortified with shame and embarrassment at being doubled over, coughing and hacking at the awful stench of essence of sweaty socks.

--

AN: And another one bites the dust. First things first, an overdue thank-you to everyone who has reviewed so far. I really appreciate it. On to other things, and there's the fact that this chapter was at both times irritating and fun to write. At times it felt like it wasn't even going to reach the 2/3000 word mark, but in the end it got to nearly 6000. Neat, that.

The quote up the top was taken from Windfall, by Ysabet. I don't know who said it first, but when I think about it, it reminds me of Kuroba Touichi. The fact that Hakuba isnt' invited isn't because he's BO (god forbid) but that he likes going to Kid heists to try and catch his rival, and in doing so would have thrown a spanner in the works. In saying, please excuse my poor excuse of a note. I don't know enough japanese to do a fancy one, and even this took ages to make it work. Still, it's inspired by the one in Ellen Brand's Nerves of Steel, so go read that, do.

The first line that Kid says to Shinichi on the roof is dedicated to Nataeiy1. You know what I mean.

I have started the Hattori Heiji omake. It may appear before the next chapter.