-FIRSTS-

Disclaimer: The works of Detective Conan and Magic Kaito belongs to Gosho Aoyama-sensei.

Warning: KaiShin relationship.

A/N: Just warning, the next installment will be at least after Christmas. Though if I do have time, I might have a couple of x'mas specials or one shots that can tide you over.


First Clue

"This is absurd! No, wait. This is stupidity!" Kaito yelled as they walked towards the destroyed building after the meeting with the two sets of agents. Shinichi had stated, quite clearly, that he wanted to have another look at the place but Kaito cannot help but notice this will put his detective in harm's way.

"You're willingly walking back to the scene where they tried to bury you, along with the evidences of their wrongdoing. I would have thought you have more brains than that."

"Kaito, you're overreacting." Shinichi calmly stated as he ducked below the police tape. He nodded to the police officer to the side, recognizing him instantly though not really remembering his name.

"They know it was you who infiltrated the building. I have legitimate reason to worry and react." Kaito picked his way among the rubble. The remaining columns and concrete slabs groaned and creaked as wind blew across the site. It was quite a sight, even if it were a tad bit morbid.

The Organisation managed to bring the whole building down with their fire. Both the detective and the magician-thief knew this was not a normal fire. Even they have to be somewhat impressed with the amount of genius put forth towards something like this. It was clear The Organisation was definitely not lacking in skills or finance, though they might be lacking in the subtlety department (or the brains department seeing as Shinichi was able to pick their office building from the whole downtown Tokyo, filled with numerous others just like this one. Or perhaps they just had really bad luck? Kaito wasn't sure).

"It's fine, they're not stupid to remain here after the police have checked the place out. They would already know what sorts of evidence the police have their hands on already. It would be useless to stop me from knowing if that was their intention." Shinichi led them to the group of officers crouching down to examine the ground. Division One had been called to the scene, taking shifts to sort through the mound of evidence. This afternoon, it was the head of the department himself taking up the position.

"Kudo-kun, what a surprise!" Megure stood abruptly and brushed off the concrete dust. He instructed several others, most of whom Shinichi recognised but never had the chance to work with yet, probably because of jurisdiction. "Why are you here?"

"I was in the area." It wasn't exactly a lie but it still made Shinichi uncomfortable to say partial truths. He was more inclined to omit information rather than lying. "What happened?"

"Major fire brought down the building. The fireman don't have a clue on how it started. Yuminaga from arson dropped by to take a look and ensured that he'll inform me if he found something. Though, what we're more worried about is the numerous bodies we found." Megure brought them closer to the burnt area. It seems the original of the fire started here. "Though we say bodies, it is more of a skeleton."

Shinichi paused and tensed, having recognised the location to be exactly below where he had been hanging in the garbage chute. He gulped nervously, now knowing how close he was to being burned to death. Even Kaito, who stood by his side, noticed the tension and quickly wrapped an arm around his shoulder. Peering down towards the lump of dust, soot and miscellany material, Kaito could just pick out spots of grey-white amongst the rubble. He had no wish to look any further and decided to give the inspector and his detective some space as he did a visual survey of the area.

"They were all burned to death...?" Shinichi pretended not to know anything about the situation even though he already read the report from the PSB. He knew for certain the people at this location were dumped rather than killed here, though he could not say for those that were found outside of the immediate area. Just off to the side, he could see Sato and Takagi shifting through soot and telling several forensics to start tagging the area.

"Forensics identified them to have died before the fire." Megure looked relieved. Though anyone would after seeing an actual pile of bones rather than the single skeleton. "Males and females of varying ages. We're not sure about the cause of deaths. Though it's clear that they're not normal. The current speculation was poisoning, strangulation or stabbing. Though we can't confirm anything yet."

Shinichi crouched down, picking through the debris and brushed away the soot to reveal more whiteness of the bones. The scene was not really telling him anything. He suspects it highly likely to be strangulation as stabbing would always leave some sort of mark and he was sure The Organisation would not risk people finding out about their poisons. The last poison, said to be undetectable (according to Haibara) was the APTX, and that does not leave a body for people to examine. These people, by the looks of it, seems quite normal. Though, with the extent of damage done, both from the supposed fall down the garbage chute and the fire, it would be near impossible to tell whether it truly was strangulation.

Standing close to Shinichi, and keeping a careful eye on his detective's back, Kaito kept an lookout on their surroundings, noting any strange movements, signs of danger, and overly curious gazes. He thought he felt something for a split second but it quickly disappeared before he could pinpoint the feeling. Slightly unnerved, he shifted closer towards his detective and silently gestured for him to hurry up.

"I don't think we'll be able to find anything about the identities of these people from the usual databases." Shinichi brushed out his pants as he stood, turning to address the elder inspector.

"Let's hope it won't turn up in the media. Not sure what we can tell them without resorting to panic." He motioned for the nearby forensics to start taking samples. "It's going to be a long case. I'll send for DNA testing but without anything to compare, we may never know the identities of these people. Are you going to stick around for the case Kudo-kun?" He sounded hopeful, possibly because he too have little clue as to how to proceed with an investigation with so little in terms of usable information.

"I'll help however I can. I don't think I can just let this go." Shinichi admitted easily.

"Good. We can use all the help we can. I'll leave a copy of the reports with Takagi for when you stop by headquarters."

Sensing the conversation was coming to an end, and still unable to shake off the sense of unease, Kaito pulled Shinichi away from the crime scene forcefully. It earned him an amused look from the inspector but annoyance from his detective.

"Kaito." Shinich warned, putting up some resistance as they ducked back out underneath the yellow tape.

"Not safe. We're leaving." Kaito allowed his nervousness to seep through his mask, alerting Shinichi to the possible dangers of the area. Silently, Shinichi let himself be pulled along, if only to ease the tension from his magician-thief.

Kaito brought them to the shopping district, settling inside a crowed cafe. As a form of apology, Kaito ordered coffee and cakes before Shinichi even opened his mouth.

"There was on need to pull me away like that." Shinichi took a sip of the hot liquid. Kaito took this as apology accepted. "The police were there. They won't try anything."

"I'm not risking it." Kaito drained half his own mug in a single gulp. "You've said before, we could never know who is the person they say they were, not with those from The Organisation."

"Wait... What did you say?" Shinichi snapped his head quickly in Kaito's direction, tearing his gaze away from the outside pedestrian view.

The intensity from the sapphire eyes had Kaito do a double take. "Isn't that what you mean when you told me they're good at infiltration? That they could easily blend into their surroundings much like KID could?"

Shinichi mulled over the statement. He was sure agents from The Organisation have taken up influential positions everywhere and that was what he meant when he told Kaito. But his magician had brought up another point that he had not been aware of.

"I mean how else could they blend in if they weren't taking the position of existing people." Kaito questioned, eyebrows raised as though the statement was the most logical in the world.

"They disguised themselves." Shinichi spoke softly at the realization. It was a blind spot for him, but it wouldn't be the first time The Organisation tried to sneak their own agents into somewhere sensitive. This line of thought never occurred to Shinichi as he thought they won't try to use the same tactics. "Which means they won't show up at the missing person's database, nor in the criminal database, anywhere."

"I thought you knew that already." Kaito was taken by surprise. He genuinely thought Shinichi had already knew the reason and merely went to the scene to confirm his speculations.

"Oh Kaito, we might make a detective out of you yet." In a fit of happiness, Shinichi reached over and pulled Kaito by the collars, jerking his magician's face close to his own and pushed their lips forcefully together. The kiss was brief but it still left Kaito stunned.

"Wha?" Kaito fell back into his seat with little strength, as though the kiss has sapped every bit of power from him.

"I just realized the blind spot!" Shinichi sounded somewhat extremely happy and Kaito had a split second of thought that someone might have drugged the coffee. Kaito carefully extracted the cup from his detective's hands and brought it close to his nose for a sniff. It still smelled the same. Bringing the rim of the cup to his mouth, he took a small sip of the bitter liquid but still finding nothing abnormal.

"Kaito?" Shinichi looked confused.

"Did you come into contact with something without my knowing?" Kaito made a quick survey of the café once more, not noticing anything out of place.

"What do you mean?" Shinichi motioned for his cup, which Kaito reluctantly handed over.

"Mood swings." Kaito's intense gaze had Shinichi burst into a bubble of laughter.

"No you silly." Shinichi continued to be overly happy, something that unsettled and spooked Kaito. His detective shouldn't be this giddy. "I'm actually quite relieved and ecstatic now that I've found the reason for those skeletons."

Still, it did nothing to placate Kaito's weariness.

"I thought The Organisation would plant their agents into various places by actually establishing their cover, legally. I haven't thought they would integrate the agents by using existing identities. They have done it before but I always assumed it to be a short term cover." The smile never left Shinichi's face as he continued to babble. "They must have had surgeries to make themselves a permanent identity, which means we're looking for individuals that are single, without families, and hold relatively high positions in society. Otherwise, it you be a waste of effort. But then we'd still have a large pool of people to search, I still have to narrow down the list of requirements..."

"Shinichi," Kaito decided to snap his detective from his monologue, "you're rambling."

Shinichi scratched his cheeks in embarrassment, turning away to hide the small blush. It had been quite some time since he found excitement in solving cases. He was slightly ashamed of this though.

Shaking his head, Kaito called the waitress over for the bill. It would be bad for anyone else to hear whatever thoughts that managed to escape his detective's lips. Better off taking his detective good and let him mull over the case in safety.

-TBC-