There they were, standing in the middle of a hallway in the deserted aquarium. It seemed that, although the aquarium was open late, nobody else seemed to want to visit the aquarium instead of watching Kid's - or the imposter's, but the didn't know that - magic show. Blue lights floated around the room, making them feel like they were underwater. On two sides of them, large panels of glass blocked them from a surge of water and electric eels. Kaito seemed to be reading an exhibit plaque with a bored, forced interest.
Aoko turnd her head up and noticed some more glass on the ceiling, with more little fishies swimming past in a line. "Oh, they're so cute!"
Kaito looked at them, too, before turning back to her and smiling and nodding in agreement.
They moved slowly into a larger room with a giant skylight that allowed the stars to peer down into the building. Looking up through it, Aoko noticed that she had a clear view of the top of the high-rise across the street. In the room itself, there were tanks scattered around - some were built into the walls, some were built into the floor, some were stand-alone, some were open-to-air. Aoko approached an open tank filled with stingrays, reading a sign that said, "PET ME!"
"Aren't stingrays dangerous, though?" Aoko asked, warily.
Kaito shook his head, looking at them closer. "Most aquariums remove their poisonous barbs before putting them out for exhibition. Now they are no more dangerous than a goldfish."
"How do you know so much about stingrays?"
"I read a lot," Kaito shrugged, then pointed. "Also, there's an information sign right next to where you're looking that explains it all."
Aoko followed where he pointed and found said sign exactly where he said it was. "Oh..."
They perused the aquarium for a few more minutes in comfortable silence. Aoko loved looking at all the species of fish and reading that such-and-such fish was used to make such-and-such sushi. Mostly, though, she enjoyed Kaito's companionship. She hadn't been around him for an extended period of time in a month. They had so much catching up to do. But where to start? She couldn't tell him anything about Kid - that was out of the question! Besides the obvious part about their meetings being incredibly illegal, and the fact that she had promised Chikage-san that she wouldn't breathe a word of the matter to Kaito, there was also the lingering feeling that she'd be hurting him by saying it. After all, he had asked her out, and she had been quite rude in her denial (although, she stands by that she thought he was joking at the time... and still the jury was out about that). But what could she share with him?
"Kaito," Aoko said to the boy next to her. "I missed you."
"Huh?" He seemed startled by her voice.
She sighed and looked away, feeling a little embarrassed by her confession. "This past month, we've just been fighting over some stupid thing. You're my best friend and it hurt not to be able to talk to you about anything."
Kaito seemed to tense up as she spoke, as if he was uncomfortable with this line of conversation. Instead, he pulled a classic Kaito move and opted for redirection. He pressed his face up to a glass tank on the wall and said. "Look how stupid the pufferfish look!"
Aoko crossed her arms, angry and hurt. She had just tried to open up to Kaito - to try to bridge the gap between them - and he just ignored her? She stared at him, with his eyes trained on the pufferfish in the tank, with those piercing, observant eyes wishing and hoping she would...
She would what? Drop the topic and look at the fish?
Look at the fish, she did. Something wasn't adding up.
Her eyes flicked between the fish and Kaito's intent stare. He seemed so fascinated by them, so incredibly -
Not scared of them.
Why had it taken her so long to put her finger on it? She looked at Kaito, looked at his demeanor. He was leaning into the tank, almost trying to get closer to the fish. Her Kaito - the REAL Kaito - wouldn't do that. He'd be too scared. He'd be looking for a way out of the aquarium. He wouldn't have even suggested going to the aquarium. Who was this Kaito, then?
She looked at him more closely. Could he be Kid? Surely Kid would have revealed himself to her once they were in private. She wouldn't put it past him to be pulling a prank on her, thinking this was funny, though, so she couldn't rule him completely out. Could he be the imposter? What would the imposter want to do with her? Did someone somehow realize that she had been spending time with Kid and decide to target her? She shivered. They didn't actually know what this heist was about.
But still, this fake Kaito didn't give off that vibe to her. She was sure she wasn't good at reading people, but she hoped she'd be able to pick out someone who had dangerous plans for her. This guy didn't strike her as such.
What did he strike her as, though? Well, reviewing her conversation with him since they met up at the heist - he seemed particularly prone to avoidance behaviors. He didn't want to get stuck in a heart to heart about something like her feelings. Something that he wouldn't know anything about. Although, that could just be how Kaito would respond, anyway. But maybe there was something she could do, related to that line of thinking...
"Kaito, I've been thinking about us," Aoko said timidly. She was nervous if her plan was going to work, and felt premature guilt for what it would entail.
"What about us?" (the fake?) Kaito asked, starting to sweat.
"You know," Aoko said, twirling her fingers together. It was a nervous tic she never could get rid of. "About where we're going in our relationship."
"Oh," Kaito said, eyes searching for a way out of the conversation. "Uh..."
Aoko closed her eyes. Kid, I'm sorry. This doesn't mean a thing. Aoko continued. "I love you."
Kaito looked helpless. Guess he didn't have any lines to use to steer the conversation elsewhere. "Um..."
"It's just that I feel that you've been distant from me all night and it kind of makes me want to break up, though," Aoko said. "And, besides, recently I started talking to this really great guy. I actually think you would like him if you met him."
She heard a strangled noise come from Kaito's throat. Perhaps he realized he was losing control of the situation. After all, she was setting him up to do something Kaito would never do. She almost continued on, in her emotional lie-ridden lambasting.
She didn't get to continue, though, because she suddenly found her lips connecting with his. It was a short, simple kiss - but a kiss nonetheless. And when she yanked her head back, it was Kaito's eyes that she found.
"I can't bear to lose you, Aoko," he said.
She stared back at him. She felt helpless. After so many years of fostering a crush on Kaito - after sidestepping it so that she could go out with the bad boy Kid - after getting angry so many times just in this past day - after lying directly to Kaito's face just now -
"Bingo," she said. "Wrong move."
Kaito's eyes widened. "What - Aoko -"
"I'm not stupid, you know," Aoko said. "I know you're not Kaito."
He raised his hands defensively. "Aoko, stop playing around. What makes you think that? What proof do you have?"
"That kiss," Aoko said. "Kaito could never."
"But we're dating -"
"Wrong," Aoko chimed.
Kaito fell silent.
Aoko explained. "Kaito and I are just friends. Furthermore, we've barely spoken in the past month, and he's a complete asshole. Why would Kaito kiss me after we've been fighting this whole time?"
"I'm secretly in love with you?" Kaito tried.
"Nope," Aoko felt herself burn up. She actually wasn't sure about that, but she was so confident in this not being Kaito that she didn't really have to get bogged down in the intricacies of her relationship with him. "Even if that was true, there's the glaring mistake that you made that reveals you as definitely not being Kaito."
"And what was that?"
Aoko smiled. "Kaito's scared of fish."
She watched the boy's eyes trail all around the room with resignation. There was no explaining this one away.
"You caught me," Fake Kaito said. "You're a smart girl, Nakamori-san."
"So who are you actually?"
He smiled deviously, before announcing... "Kaitou Kid!"
Aoko laughed out loud at that one. She laughed so hard that she bent over and put her hands on her knees, gasping for air.
Fake Kaito blinked. "What's so funny about me being Kaitou Kid?"
"So, what? You're the imposter?" Aoko said, regaining her composure and wiping her tears from her eyes. She was still feeling quite giggly, though.
"No, I told you," he said stubbornly. "I am the Kaitou Kid!"
Aoko waved her hand dismissively. "I don't even want to explain to you how I know that one's false. Basically - this entire conversation could have never happened. And Kaitou Kid wouldn't have kissed me as Kaito."
"Well," Fake Kaito said, crossing his arms across his chest. "I'm certainly not the imposter."
Aoko stared at him, confused. "Wait, if you're not Kaito or Kid, and you're not the imposter - who are you?"
He flashed a wide smile, and proudly pronounced, "Kudo Shinichi!"
This just made Aoko more confused. What was the famous high school detective Kudo Shinichi doing here, pretending to be her best friend? And doing a bad job at it, for that matter? "I thought you were up at the heist - my father pointed you out across the room. I saw you there!"
"That was a trick," Kudo said. "Kid was disguised as me."
"But why are you disguised as Kaito? And why wouldn't you try to stop him if you knew that he was disguised as you?"
Kudo rolled his eyes. "The idiot came to my house and asked me to do a favor for him."
"And you agreed?"
"I didn't have much of a choice," he said. "He stole my medication that I'm supposed to take tomorrow morning and told me that he'd only give it back if I helped him out with something. And he specifically needed me."
"Wait," Aoko said. "Medication? He took your medication?"
"It's a long story, so we won't get into that," Kudo said. "But he said he wanted me to disguise as some guy named Kuroba Kaito and look after you during the heist."
"Why would he want that?"
"I'm not really sure. He mentioned something about disguising as Kuroba Kaito and promising Inspector Nakamori something along those lines."
"Oh," Aoko said, finally connecting the dots. "So when he realized that Kaito was being a Bakaito and wasn't going to come with me, he decided to use a substitute Kaito to fool my dad. But that doesn't really explain why he picked you to be the substitute. Why couldn't he use his assistant?"
Kudo pulled on his cheeks. "Because I don't have to wear a mask, I guess. This Kuroba Kaito guy and I apparently look very similar. I was nervous that you would figure it out right away, but you didn't. I guess that's why -"
He fell into deep thought, before reemerging from his brief trance. "So that's how it is."
"That's how what is?"
"Nothing," Kudo smiled secretly. "I just know why he wanted me to disguise as this person so bad. And I know what Kid's true identity is, as well!"
"What?" Aoko said, shocked. "How? Who? Huh?"
The entire room suddenly lit up with an intense orange color, followed by a tremendous rolling, thunderous sound. Kudo and Aoko looked up through the aquarium's skylight just in time to see a large, golden inferno explode on the top level of the high rise next door.
AN: Writing from Aoko's viewpoint is hard, especially when she's coming into contact with all these people disguised as other people. Anyway, Shinichi obviously just connected the dots that Kaito is Kid. I thought it was funny - he was just like "Kid was being weird and asked me to disguise as this fool Kuroba and he picked me because I don't have to wear a mask" but then there's the unsaid, "Oh shit that's why he always disguises as me - because he doesn't have to wear a mask either!" Aoko isn't allowed to follow that train of thought, since she's not allowed to know Kid's true identity because of her own stupid denial.