A/N: Review, tell me what you think :D

Warnings:
Strange English, OOCness

Shinichi's age: 15
Uploaded: 2012-08-28
Revised: 2014-10-02
Chapter rating: K+
Words: 2,300


Chap. 8
The Friendly Magician, Spider

Shinichi felt nervousness constrict his stomach as time slowly passed; he'd never gotten himself a new buyer, since he'd always used the same, and he'd heard stories of how the other teenagers inside the juvenile detention centre had gotten caught because they got greedy, and Shinichi didn't want to fall into the same trap. He used night vision binoculars to observe the building he'd chosen for the first meeting with his 'employer'. Binoculars that he'd stolen from the military because they claimed to have an impenetrable security and he'd wanted to prove them wrong.

He had explored the city thoroughly for two weeks before he'd called the number, and then he'd been busy planning the military break in for two weeks before the planned meeting. He'd taken a lot of other things from the military, but no weapons even if he'd tried out two pistols and a rifle in the shooting range after he'd tied up all the guards. He'd left the targets, simply to let everyone know that he could hit whatever he shot at.

The night was dark, and the sky was sprinkled with stars while the crescent moon didn't provide much light and he was thereby invisible on the roof top, waiting for an unnamed stranger to show up. Shinichi had been on the structure all day and observed how two men had entered the building by midday, but not come out. The headlights of a car showed up from an alley and the vehicle stopped outside the door. A man stepped out from the car, and the two men from earlier exited the building. It became obvious that they were working for the man in a suit as they placed themselves beside the door as guards while the one he had to assume was his new employer walked inside. Shinichi stood up and stretched his slightly rigid muscles. He warmed up and checked his watch; it was still half an hour left until the meeting, but it was time to make his way into the building.

Shinichi ran across the rooftop and took a step on the railing of the fire escape before throwing himself over to an adjacent building two floors lower. He rolled as he struck the ground and then continued to run across the roof, watching the corner of the building with the meeting place slowly come into the right line, when it did, he ran to the edge of the roof before jumping down to a balcony and then leapt to the other building's balcony. He entered through the window and quickly surveyed the room before he did the same to the corridor. He was in a building that was supposed to have become a shopping mall with apartments on the higher floors, but for some reason the construction had stopped when only the frame of the building was done.

When he got down to the opened floors where escalators were supposed to carry people to the other levels he could see a man on the main floor, standing completely relaxed and played with a deck of cards in the weak lighting. He was of average height, and he moved with a smoothness that was rare, but he didn't seem to be muscular, and therefore not as dangerous, even though he could carry a weapon.

"Pick a card, any card," the man chuckled and spread the cards into a perfect feather, "it's the ace of spades. How strange! I only have ace of spades in this deck, but just a second ago it was a normal deck; it must be magic." Shinichi took up a modified pistol and fired it at a beam, seeing the steady line become secured around it. The magician twitched and turned on a flashlight while the thief swung out from the fourth floor and drifted downwards in a good speed.

"Ooh, that's an impressive entrance," his new employer chuckled when he touched the floor, "especially since my men have been here all day, making sure that you wouldn't set up a trap for me, and they informed me that you hadn't arrived yet." Shinichi didn't answer as he simply studied the slightly taller man in front of him, prepared to run any second. "Not much of a talker, huh?"

"Who are you?" Shinichi asked in the same dark and smooth speech that his father had used, and felt how his vocal cords almost wanted cut his voice in order to betray that he was nothing but a fifteen-year-old pubescent teenager.
"Direct, I like it, even though you're one of the creepiest things I've seen."

"Then you should see me when I sleep," Night Baron murmured and the magician laughed as he kept shuffling the cards.
"And he has humour!" the man with spiky auburn hair smirked and cleared this throat, signalling that it was time to get down to business, "I do like the fact that you broke into that military base just to prove that you can break in everywhere; you're just what I need. Most people I hire can break into smaller facilities and steal a diamond, however, they often gets caught and that's annoying so I never show them my face, but you, ooh, you are a different story. You see, I'm working for someone, who is working for someone, who is the boss, who wants a special diamond. That person wants large diamonds and doesn't care where they're from. No jewellery, no gold, no sculptures, no art, only diamonds, the larger the better. I'll pay you 80% of its value and we will skip these remote and lonely places. When we exchange payment for work we'll meet at a café or a restaurant, share a meal and I might give you suggestions on which diamond you could target. How about that?"

"So you work for someone like Moriarty? Seems interesting," Shinichi hummed and walked closer to the man, seeing a bit of uncertainty in his eyes, "but what I was most intrigued about was the fact that you were 'loyal' according to Wolf. I don't like acquiring new buyers so I tend to stay with the same I've always had, whether they pay me good or not."
"Ooh, I am loyal," the magician did a theatrical bow and flashed him a warm grin.
"How do I know that you won't target me or kill me?"
"You have nothing but the frail word of a promise, but I could say the same to you. How do I know that you won't take on the characteristic of the coldblooded murderer and add that to your resume, Night Baron?"

"Indeed, as you say… I could easily become a great assassin, but that world is too dark for my taste, while the life of a thief provides everything I could ever want. Parties by the rich, the challenge of breaking in, money, women, travel, servants," Shinichi chuckled behind the mask, lying about everything except the challenge and money, which gave him all the room service he could want. "Now tell me, who are you?"

"You can call me Spider. I'm a magician," Spider smirked hungrily, "and an assassin." At that moment Shinichi thought of running, but the assassin-part felt like a lie.
"How fun for you," he stated instead, seemingly unfazed by the magician's reveal, "how do I get in contact with you, Spider?" The man smiled and held up a cell phone, which came from seemingly nowhere.

"Just give me a call," he shrugged and threw the phone to Shinichi, who caught it with ease, "my number is already in there. When you call, say that you're 'Knight' and want to get an appointment. And since you always show yourself on tape and the papers likes to state what you stole for I'll go after that prize. How about it?"
"Sounds good," Shinichi murmured and grabbed into the gun hanging from the ceiling. He waited for a second, in case Spider wanted something more, and then activated the reverse on the line and disappeared into the darkness above.


Shinichi quickly found out that breaking into diamond exhibits were much harder than a simple jewellery store, but that only encouraged him further. It took him a month of planning before he struck the first diamond exhibit in a large museum in Italy, where he knew where the lasers, the pressure plats and the metal bars were. He drugged the guards' coffee just before the change of shifts and then watched how they drank it before they went to their posts. Two hours after that and there were no guards awake on the cameras or in the surveillance room, and the only thing that was seen was Night Baron, calmly walking through the building and deactivating the security with the help of security cards and alarm codes.

Shinichi opened the display cases and placed diamond after diamond in his pockets, ignoring the ones that were smaller than three centimetres. His watch beeped and he counted down from ten before the alarm started ringing and the iron bars fell from the ceiling. Shinichi took up a remote from his inner pocket and pressed the button, activating a program in the computer and caused the alarm to turn off while the bars rose up to the ceiling. He raised an eyebrow; he hadn't actually thought that it would work, but he had to try it out in order to be certain. He sent a glance over the display cases, making sure that he'd taken everything he wanted and then opened a window. He heard police sirens far away as he jumped out to the drainpipe and used it to climb to the roof, from where he easily got away by jumping to another building.


Spider had applauded him once they met at a rather large bar back in Germany, which Shinichi had snuck into through the fifth floor window. The teenager was wearing a disguise so that he looked like a young man, American, with blonde spiky hair and a small moustache.

"Do you have them with you?" the man asked lowly through the buzz of talking people as Shinichi discreetly looked around.
"Yes, how about you?"
"Well of course!" Spider grinned and ordered them both a drink, much to the thief's annoyance; his father had told him stories about people who'd died, been caught, or screwed over because they let their guard down and Shinichi couldn't afford to lose all that money, so he'd decided that he would never drink while at work, not that he liked alcohol at other times since he'd rather have a cup of tea. Spider, however, didn't seem to mind being the only one drinking as long as Shinichi had a drink in front of himself.

"Do you know where the cameras are in here?" Spider whispered in his ear and Shinichi nodded; he wasn't good because he never got caught in the act, he was good so that he never got caught, "good, then follow me."

Spider led them to a rounded couch with a table and seated himself in it, patting the couch beside him, and Shinichi wanted to scowl at him, but only sat down with a small smile.
"As you probably know; we're now hidden from the cameras," the man bent down and pulled forward a black backpack from the underneath the couch and placed it beside his feet, "where are they? Did you eat them?" Spider grinned amused at his own joke and the thief wondered how much the magician had been drinking before he showed up. Shinichi sent a quick glance around himself before he moved a hand underneath his shirt behind his back, opening the first lock by his waist and then the second by his scapulae, the one holding the straps over his shoulders. He pulled out a narrow bag that had been strapped to his torso, which contained every diamond he'd stolen. He handed it over underneath the table and Spider examined its contents with a grin.

"And now, my payment," he demanded and watched as Spider pushed the bag to him.
"It's large numbers," he stated and Shinichi opened it, experienced in counting them and checking for anything that didn't belong. He nodded and was about to get up and vanish into the crowd when Spider grabbed into his arm.
"Come on, have a drink with me!" he grinned and Shinichi narrowed his eyes in suspicion.
"I don't drink while working," the thief answered annoyed, but Spider ignored him as he called over a server to get a lot of alcohol to the table.

In the end, Shinichi just sat there without drinking and listened to the more and more intoxicated Spider, rambling about everything between heaven and earth. The magician explained magic tricks with mirrors and vanishing acts, which Shinichi found fascinating and filed away for later examination and testing, but according to the man he'd killed five people in total, but it sounded exaggerated, like when a hunter or a fisher brags about the size of the dear, moose, bear or fish, but before Spider passed out and was taken care of by his guards he said something interesting about a magician he'd supposedly killed and then impersonated. Apparently the man had been smiling at him until death, and before he bled out Spider asked; "How can you smile at a time like this?"
"I have a good poker face, that's all, and every great magician should have one," the man he killed had told him, according to Spider, and Shinichi thought about it. A good poker face; that was what he'd had when he got betrayed by the Trader, and convinced everyone that he was Marcel and not Night Baron. Poker face was a great thing to call it too, so even if all of his masks were torn off he could still pretend that he wore a fourth mask, a latex mask with his own face, and when the police came to question him he could have fixed an alibi.


A/N: If anyone has read 'Magic Kaito' they knows that Spider works for the same person as Snake, and that Snake never actually said that it was he specifically who had killed Toichi. Snake said; ''Eight years ago you came into our way, so we had to get rid of you. I never thought that you were still alive.''

I'm thinking that Shinichi's moustache looks like Toichi's, but blonde, because Toichi is awesome.


Answer to Guest review: guest0327
I mention from time to time how old he is. He was 14+ when he was locked up and then he stayed there for six months, so now he's 15. I decided that he would be 14 when he solved his first murder, since that was what he was in DC when he solved his first one.

Answer to Guest review; Guest
Yes, Shinichi will meet the other detectives and the BO, but on a bit different terms than what he met them on in DC.

Answer to Guest review; reader74
Thank you, I'm glad you like it! And I'll try to update, but I have to see how it is to study at college, since it's a completely new way of studying for me, so I don't know how much I'll be writing. What I fear is that it might begin to take months between updates, and that's not funny, so I'll hopefully be able to write.

Answer to Guest review; ayame67
I'm glad you like it! :D