A/N: Part fourteen of the Pandora Arc!
Warnings: Time Zone jump and languages.
Acknowledgments: Cai-chan for BETA-ing, Jiwon-chan (that sounds weird) for fixing the Korean translations, and Mari-chan for once again fixing the French translation! Love ya!
Other (possibly irrelevant): ARG! Figuring out all these routes and times is getting waaay too confusing. And I know in Chapter 15 (18 by FanFiction's count), I said they'd be taking a plane from Sapporo to Seattle but according to Wikipedia, the Shin (New) Chitose Airport (the airport I chose) also serves the Sapporo Metropolitan area (even though they're still a decent ways away). Please just roll with it… :D

Today's quote is: "How did they get carts into the city?"—Unknown
"When they finally got the freaking raeda out of the fossa!"—Iocus
"Did you just say something about me?"—Rogo

Double-M and KID vs. Conan: Day Six

Chitose, Japan
Shin-Chitose Airport
November 22, 12:51 AM

Kasuma slouched back into the black chair several meters from the gate entrance, two duffle bags and two backpacks, one small and one large, at her feet. Her phone vibrated, notifying her of a new text message. "Who is it?" Hakuba asked as he handed her a large cup of hot chocolate.

Kasuma accepted the cup, setting it carefully between her knees as she replied, fingers dancing across the keypad, "Amunet. She and the others think they found one of the targets in the Seattle Art Museum. They're heading over to the museum to check it out."

"Hmm." Hakuba took a seat next to Kasuma, dragging the larger of the two backpacks over to him. "Anyway, you really should better organize your wallet." Hakuba handed Kasuma said wallet. "It took me a while until I found some yen in that thing. You do realize the bulk of your currency is in American dollars, don't you?"

Kasuma grabbed the brown wallet and slipped it into her blue duffle bag. "I know that. I meant to do that… since I really don't wanna have to borrow money from the others. Most of the yen I brought was used up during pit stops and such."

"Oi! You two!" Nakamori's voice cut in, the inspector standing next to the boarding lady. "They're boarding First Class now!"

Sighing, Kasuma stood, hot beverage in one hand, her blue bag in the other. Hakuba picked up his own backpack and slung it over one shoulder, Conan and Hattori running up to them to collect their own bags. "This heist is gonna be troublesome," Kasuma murmured.

"Yea'," Hattori nodded. "Especially b'cuz we won't kno' where da jewel is."

"But that only means it'll be even more troublesome for KID and Mage," Hakuba replied. "If we don't know where the jewel is, then KID and Mage won't be able trick it out of us."

"That is to say, we're even," Conan mumbled. "They can't get to the jewel and neither can we." They walked through a narrow, covered ramp to the plane's front entrance, locating their seats near the middle of the first class section. There were a few other passengers already seated, all of their features conveniently concealed by various objects such as newspapers or books or even hats. Sweeping his eyes around the cabin once, Conan took an aisle seat next to Kasuma, Hattori claiming the third seat in the row. Hakuba was hovering by the row in front of the three seated detectives, watching Nakamori as he walked up to the captain and flight attendants.

Kasuma slid her bag under the seat in front of her then stood and leaned over aforementioned seat. "Do you know what Nakamori-keibu's talking with them about? Obviously the heist, but I mean, do you have specifics?"

"I think he's requesting no one except airplane personnel enter the First Class," Hakuba answered, gazing at Kasuma. "And he'll probably go on to suggest that none of the First Class passengers leave this area."

"How 'r' we s'pposed ta protect da jewel if we don't kno' where it is?" Hattori mumbled from his seat, scanning the airplane cabin.

"We can't," Kasuma stated bluntly, turning to look at Hattori. "Simple as that. The owner probably doesn't trust us. Especially since KID and Mage can disguise as any one of us."

"I'm sorry, but we'll have to confiscate this," Nakamori's voice rang out from the back of the cabin. The group of detectives looked behind themselves, spotting Nakamori extending a hand towards the music player in one of the passengers' laps. The passenger in question had pale skin and light brown hair. He was wearing loose fitting jeans and a green polo, white headphones in his ears. He tugged off the headphones.

"Eh? Why?"

Nakamori revealed his police badge, "There are criminals on board and in order to cut off any form of contact, we have to confiscate any electronic devices." Nakamori glanced at the sleeping figure next to the man. "Do you know if your neighbor has anything of the kind?"

"Who, Kendal?" The man looked at his companion. "She never carries anything electronic on her person. They should all be in her bag in the carry-on compartment," he answered, pointing above him to said compartment.

Raising an inquisitive eyebrow, Kasuma slipped past Hattori and walked towards the couple. "Uh… By chance, were you studying abroad in Japan?"

The man looked shocked at first, then shrugged and replied with, "Yeah. I'm majoring in Japanese and in order to better understand the language, I decided to take my school's program for studying in Japan for a term."

"What college do you attend?" Kasuma asked. "Maybe I've heard of it. I've been thinking of studying abroad myself."

"UCSB," the man answered after some time.

Nakamori coughed to grab the college student's attention, "Anyway. Can you please hand over any electronics of any kind? I assure you, you will receive them when we reach Seattle."

"Fine," the student replied. "Don't wanna be seen as suspicious." He dug through his bag and extracted a mini laptop and a cell phone, handing them to Nakamori along with the music player.

One hour had passed and the plane had long since taken off, electronic devices stored together in a locked cabinet near the cockpit. After the plane took to the air, Nakamori and the Task Force officers had left their seats in order to further interview the other five First Class passengers. The passengers, under the impression that they were being interviewed due to non-violent criminals being on board the plane, submitted to the questioning. "Here," Nakamori stated bluntly as he extended a single sheet of paper behind him where Conan, Kasuma, and Hattori were seated.

"What is this?" Kasuma asked, taking the paper.

"A profile of all the passengers in First Class based off our interviews," Nakamori explained, keeping his voice relatively low. "Names, careers, hometowns, et cetera." Hattori and Conan leaned in to read the information on the paper.

"Sam Anderson and Kendal Imamura," Conan read off quietly. "They both attend UCSB and are dating. Sam grew up in New York City and decided to major in Japanese. Kendal is an American-born Japanese who is majoring in biology. To help Sam learn the language and maneuver the country, she tagged along and continued her classes online while in Japan. They're on this flight in order to get back to California and have a connection they need to catch at the Sea-Tac Airport."

"Den we have Hashimoto Isao 'n' Hashimoto Minako, a married couple," Hattori read on. "Dey're visitin' relatives in America 'n' also have ta transfer planes. Isao-han works as an engineer and Minako-han is a veterinarian."

"Fujiwara Katashi is a soccer coach and decided to vacation outside the country. Outside of the soccer season, Fujiwara-san holds a job as a personal trainer at a local gym… I guess that explains the muscles," Kasuma looked up and to her left at a tan, muscular man in blue jeans and a black shirt, "Considering soccer players don't use much of their upper body. Let's see… Then there's Yunokawa Aika, a very successful CEO in Japan. Her reason for flying to Seattle is a business meeting she has to attend. With all that lavish attire she has on, she could be the jewel owner but…"

"Would someone trying to hide their jewel deck themselves in such expensive clothing?" Conan finished. "It could be a case of reverse psychology, but we can't be certain."

"'N' finally, we got Sugihara Kohaku, a business man," Hattori murmured. "Sugihara-han says he's visitin' his sick mother who was sent ta a hospital in America fer better treatm'nt, which explains why he's all nervous." Hattori looked to his right at said man sitting across the aisle from Conan.

"Now all that's left is to narrow down the suspects," Conan mumbled. "Two of these people are KID and Mage and one person is the jewel owner."

From his vantage point near the back of the First Class Cabin, he was able to keep a close eye on the police officers, detectives, and other passengers on the plane. The perfect spot to search for his target. Sure, it would be harder considering the circumstances, but that's what makes it fun, ne? This perfect spot was skillfully picked out by his partner and he always wondered how much influence his partner really had. No wonder her job looked so… easy maybe? 'I wonder how many strings she pulled to get this seat.'

He took one short glance at his 'companion' in the neighboring seat. It only reminded him of how much fun it was to use dummies in this career. Granted, he usually blew them up but they were still useful. Their state at the end of the day, or night in most cases, didn't change that fact. He let out a large yawn, slapping a hand over his mouth to hide the action as much as possible. 'How does she get through these things? All this moving around is tiring… and she said she usually packs in more targets. We've got twelve this week so how many does she usually hit? I'm gonna need lots of shut eye after this. Good thing we've got the next heist after this planned. Arg,' he shook his head vigorously, 'I have to focus on this target. No getting sidetracked. She's pitchin' in on her end, now I have to do the same.' He scanned the passengers again, 'Okay, I can rule out the four Task Force members, including Nakamori-keibu, and the Tanteis are out as well, so all that's left are the two in the back, the lady up front, the body-builder who's not really a body-builder across from her, and the nervous business man across the aisle from Tantei-kun. I guess I should also be glad there aren't as many people in First Class… so much easier to work like this. I wonder if that was sheer luck.. not that I'm complaining. Hm, it's too bad Nakamori-keibu got rid of any electronic devices. So much for communicating with Mage.

'Alright, the couple across from me have two carry-ons, a purse and what looks like a laptop case… but why use the computer up here? Anyway, the lady in the front of the middle section seems to come from a rich family, if the expensive clothing and excessive jewelry say anything. The not body-builder in front of my row only brought a small piece of luggage up as a carry-on. It's possible to hide a gem in there but it would be hard to access both by the owner and thieves like us. And there doesn't seem to be any place on his person where he could successfully hid a large gem such as our current target. With the rich lady it's possible but she probably wouldn't want to display the target in such a spot where we could easily see and identify it. She'd assume we've done our homework and know what it looks like. It could be hidden in a pocket of that Coach bag or maybe in a pocket of the jacket she's wearing, preferably a sealed pocket… maybe a pocket on the inside or simply one with a zipper. That business man's briefcase could certainly be a good hiding place and it's easily accessible but then again, so are the purses the ladies have. That suit, of course, has a few pockets that could be used but someone could easily pickpocket any of them if given the chance. He probably wouldn't put many valuable items in those pockets.' KID rubbed his forehead, 'This is why I don't like detective work. If only I could listen in on one of those detectives… like Tantei-kun or Tantei-san... heck even Tantei-han or Tantei-chan would be helpful right about now. They're probably chattin' it up right now while I've got to figure this out practically solo. I want that listening device even more now.' A coin was pulled out of thin air and nimble hands twirled it around, across the palm, over the back of the hand, up into the air, et cetera. The shiny coin danced across the experienced hand while KID mulled over the current problem. 'The gem owner's in disguise… No one, not even Nakamori-keibu, knows who it is… Mage and I have got thirteen hours to find this gem before the plane lands and the owner escapes through the hustle and bustle of the Seattle airport. I wonder if I can get the disguised owner to somehow fess up... make them slip, catch a little slip of the tongue. Can I do that with minimal conversation? A detective would have better luck in getting them to talk and I'm not disguising as a detective. If I gently nudge any of the detectives, they'll catch on and have me in cuffs in a matter of seconds. Not the goal I'm looking for.' Another yawn broke through. 'Damn, and what's worse, I need some sleep! Not gonna be able to focus like this.'

"If you're tired, you should rest. Your 'friend' seems to like that idea." A head nodded to the 'sleeping' dummy.

KID craned his neck to glance at the figure who was staring at bathroom door which currently read 'Occupied,' "…Mage?" he ventured.

"Yup," Mage smiled, tearing her gaze from the door to look at KID briefly. "I'll be fine… Get some rest while you can. I can wake you up when I figure out who the owner is. Unless," she watched KID carefully, "You want me to do the honors."

KID shrugged, diverting his gaze and letting it fall on the back of the seat in front of him. "A few hours would be fine. Four to five maybe…" he smirked, "Less if you happen to find the owner that fast."

It was Mage's turn to shrug. Eyes now on the bathroom door again she replied, "Who knows? So… that okay with you? Five hours then I'll wake you up? Sooner if, and only if, I figure out the owner's identity. Deal?"

"Deal," The red bar on the door switched to green and Mage slipped quietly into the enclosure. KID reclined his chair and settled in for a short nap.

"Okay, so here's a picture of the jewel, Szalik," Kasuma said, showing Conan and Hattori a photo on her phone.

Szalik wasn't like the other jewels KID and Mage had targeted during this WLH. It wasn't even a single jewel. Szalik was a necklace adorning a slate blue Cat's Eye gemstone. Climbing up the silver chain on either side of the Cat's Eye were smaller Moissanite gems, a pale green sheen cast off all the jewels. "The combined weight of the necklace totals four hundred fifty-three grams or two thousand two hundred sixty-seven carats," Kasuma explained. "Not exactly an easy thing to conceal."

"'N' it's somew'ere on dis plane," Hattori muttered.

Kasuma sighed and closed her phone, supporting her head with her right arm. "Ne," she whispered, nudging Conan's arm with the eraser end of her pencil, which had been resting in her lap. "I've got a question… A very off-topic question."

"…What…?" Conan whispered back, quirking an eyebrow.

"If you got an antidote and returned to your body for good, what would you tell Ran-san first?"

Conan jerked back, shocked. A huge blush spread across his face. "W-why do you want to know?"

Kasuma shrugged, "Simply curious."

"Uh… well," Conan fumbled for words. "I-I guess I would tell her I'm sorry and I… love her." As he finished his sentence, Conan kept his face down, hiding his blush as best as he could.

"Ne, why 'r' ya whisperin'? Have ya figured somethin' out?" Hattori asked just then, leaning over in his seat.

"No, no! It's nothing!" Kasuma responded, waving her hands in front of her face with a smile.

"Any luck, Kasuma?" Hakuba's voice came from the row in front of them.

Kasuma stood and leaned over the seat in front of her, glancing to her right at Hakuba, "None at all. It's at the point where everyone starts to seem suspicious."

"Well then, we're in the same boat," Nakamori gritted out, a frown etched on his face. "Damn it! We can't do anything like this… and we can't just let KID and Mage take the jewel!"

"There's got to be a way to narrow down the list," Conan mumbled from behind Kasuma, hand around his chin, thinking.

"Kusou," Hattori cursed. "We ain't gettin' anywhere wit' dis!" Hattori rubbed his temples with the fingers of his right hand. About another two or so hours had passed and the detectives and officers were still nowhere near narrowing down the list of suspects.

"Shh," Kasuma hushed the dark-skinned teen, "Keep your voice down, Conan-kun's sleeping." Conan was curled up in his seat, one arm pressed against his chest, the other hanging limply off the seat. Hair mussed and glasses askew, the boy's steady breath hitched as he shivered from the cool air blowing through the vent in the plane's ceiling. "Poor guy… the heist wiped him out. Uh, excuse me," Kasuma caught the attention of one of the flight attendants. "Can I please have a blanket?"

The flight attendant nodded, giving a small smile, "Right away, Okyaku-san." The attendant left only to return a few minutes later. She handed Kasuma a folded dark green blanket then departed after bowing. Silently, Kasuma unfolded the blanket and carefully draped it over Conan's small frame, taking care not to wake the teenager-turned-child.

"So," Hattori began when Kasuma finished, voice low, "How do we go 'bout dis?"

"Beats me," Kasuma murmured. "The interviews hardly tell us anything useful and it'd be rude to simply walk up to one of them and scrutinize them. Honestly, it might be easier to let it go and see what happens, but that means leaving it in the hands of the thieves and that's not what we want."

"Well, maybe we c'n t'ink o' possible hidin' locations 'n' go from there?" Hattori suggested.

"Hmm… Well, if I were the owner and I was trying to protect something like that from world-famous thieves, I'd want the target close to me but not in such a location that would reveal the target."

"Like a pock't… or a bag…" Hattori listed.

"Sometimes, if I'm wearing boots, I slip items in there," Kasuma said, shrugging. "But with a jewel like Szalik, it'd be impossible to do that… not to mention horribly uncomfortable."

"'N' it's not like we coulda searched all da carry-on bags," Hattori mumbled, running an agitated hand through his hair.

"And from what we could see when the passengers collected their electronics, there were no such Szalik-like items… unless they've hidden it that well." Kasuma leaned forward, resting her head against the back of the seat in front of her. "Kusou," she muttered softly, "We don't have enough clues to discern Szalik's location. If only we had those!"

The sound of one of the bathroom doors sliding open jolted KID from his slumber. Rubbing his eyes, careful not to mess up his mask, KID groggily read the time on his watch. 'What? I've only been asleep for two and a half hours? Geez… Well at least I'm a little more awake.' KID noticed—a little too slowly for his liking—that there was some sort of weight on him. Looking down, KID saw the rectangular box that was sitting oh so innocently on his lap, covered in an innocent-looking blue fabric. On top of the box was a note written in French. "Il s'agit d'un faux. Utilisez-le pour mettre au clair le propriétaire," KID read quietly, so as not to alert anyone near him. KID grinned. 'Is this your plan, Mage?' Looking around to make sure no one was watching, KID slowly notched the lid of the box open slightly, peering inside. Just as he thought, a well-made replica of the target Szalik was sitting quietly inside. Taking a handkerchief and covering the fake then picking it up, KID dropped it carefully on the ground. Standing up, stretching and yawing, KID made for the restroom slowly, subtly kicking the jewel along with him. With his back facing the rest of the cabin, KID let a grin slip out and with more force, kicked the fake jewel behind him, still making his way to the restroom. As he scanned the doors in front of him, out of the corner of his eye he could see Hattori bending over his seat and picking up the fake jewel.

"'Ey… isn't dis…?"

"Szalik?" Kasuma finished. KID quickly hid a smirk, sliding the bathroom door open and walking inside, leaving it open a sliver so he could peek through and watch the action. The reaction of one particular passenger caught KID's attention.

"Kyaaa! Thieves! They stole Szalik!"

The lavishly dressed woman leapt out of her seat, frantically searching her person. The other passengers looked on, confused, murmuring comments of 'What the hell is going on here?' or 'Thieves? Aboard this plane?'

KID shut the door completely, smirking. 'You got it already, didn't you Mage? Now we just have to avoid getting caught for the rest of the flight.'

Seattle, Washington
Sea-Tac International Airport
November 21, 9:30 PM

The people bustling about the airport made it seem like there were far more people than there really were as the Task Force officers and detectives stepped off the plane. Nakamori and the three other officers dropped their stuff next to a couple of black chairs before walking over to Yunokawa Aika, KID and Mage's 'victim,' so to speak. Meanwhile, "He still not awake?" Hattori asked as he looked behind him.

Kasuma shook her head, duffle bag slung across her back. In her arms, she was carrying a still sleeping Conan, his small backpack draped over her arm. "He slept through the entire heist and the 'thief searching' after that. He must be really tired if we haven't been able to wake him up."

"Understandably," Hakuba murmured. "Children need more sleep but Conan-kun insisted on staying awake in order to help us. I believe the only real sleep he received was back in Tokyo."

"Well, let's head to the gate," Kasuma said, placing a hand gently on the back of Conan's head. Nakamori and the other Task Force officers were already heading towards the gate, thanks to Aika who had pointed them in the right direction. Hakuba ran forward in order to further assist the Inspector maneuver the foreign airport.

"W'at do we kno' 'bout da Seattle targets?" Hattori asked.

"Only that there's a possible target at the Seattle Art Museum," Kasuma responded. "Amunet, Crystal, and Rianna didn't tell me anything other than that. Don't worry," Kasuma added after a while. "They'll inform us when we meet up."

"Kasuma neun jangnan kku leo gi ya!" an unfamiliar voice yelled above the noise of the airport.

Kasuma's head jerked to the speaker, Hattori staring with a flabbergasted look on his face. "Dag chyeo, aldasipi sasil-i aniya!" Kasuma yelled back.

A teenager with black hair and auburn highlights waved before running up and giving Kasuma a side-hug, avoiding Conan who had just started rousing. "You know I'm kidding, Kasuma~!"

Another teenager, tanner than the first, excitedly bounded over, speaking in a very rapid foreign tongue. Kasuma set Conan on his own two feet and straightened. "I only caught half of that, can you say that again?"

"Hi! It's been so much more boring without you; you need to tell us everything that happened after you left; and I'm gonna kill you for calling me that late! I was just about to go to sleep!" The teenager, who was wearing a purple shirt, black cargo pants, and had fiery red hair, translated.

"Kasuma, hi!" a third teenager exclaimed, bringing Kasuma into a hug. "Hi Saguru! Figured you'd be here."

"In fact, we all figured you'd be here," the teen with red hair grinned.

"Hello Julia, Crystal, Rianna," Hakuba replied. "It's been a while."

"It sure has," the brown haired teen with red streaks in her hair replied.

"Hattori-kun, Conan-kun," Kasuma began. "These are my American friends. Julia, or Amunet, Taylor," she gestured towards the teen with red hair, "Crystal Storm," she pointed at the black-haired girl, "and Rianna White," she moved her hand towards the girl with brown hair. "And guys, these two are Hattori Heiji and Edogawa Conan."

"Uh, shouldn't you switch the order around?" Conan asked.

"It's okay," Kasuma reassured. "They know what I mean since they've all gotten used to Japanese because of me… In fact, they know exactly what we're saying, ne?" Kasuma tilted her head towards the three teenagers.

"With Kasuma around, you pick up Japanese really easily," Amunet said, shrugging. "We all understand it but aren't the best speakers of it."

"Anyway… Let's get down to business," Kasuma said, switching topics.

"To defeat the Huns?" Rianna asked with a huge grin.

Kasuma cast her a deadpan look, "You know that's not what I meant."

"I would ask 'do we have to' but I know how you'll respond so… here," Amunet extracted a small piece of paper and handed it to Kasuma. "The jewels we think those two are after."

Kasuma grabbed the paper and read the contents, writing down a translation as she went. "Nakamori-keibu!" Kasuma exclaimed, calling the inspector over. "Take a look at this."

Final Notes: Wow… twenty chapters… this is by far the longest story I've written without me giving up halfway through its production. I'm very happy about that.
When I imagine Conan curled up in his seat, sound asleep, I can't help but squeal at the cuteness of it. Don't you agree? :D

Translation
French
Il s'agit d'un faux. Utilisez-le pour mettre au clair le propriétaire. (This is a fake. Use it to smoke out the owner.)

Korean
Kasuma neun jangnan kku leo gi ya! (Kasuma has been naughty!)
Dag chyeo, aldasipi sasil-i aniya! (Shut up, you know that's not true!)

Coming up next in Double-M and KID vs. Conan: "Call 911 and send an ambulance to Four Seasons Hotel by the SAM."