Walking a Mile

Ran wasn't sure if she was impressed or unsettled on how efficient Kaito was about sneaking into his school. How someone even learned there was a loose section of fence behind a tree, she could not guess. (Unless he'd made it himself?) She did have to feel a bit flustered about how unfeminine he looked in her body, crawling through the gap, even if she had to admit there was no graceful way to get through.

They then slipped into the main building, taking a winding route through the school to apparently avoid the more attentive teachers.

"Here," Kaito whispered, thumbing to a classroom. "Akako's the one with the reddish black hair."

Ran, briefly, wondered what that could mean, until she saw the girl in question. That was some quite unique hair.

"Break should start in... 3... 2... 1."

The bell rang.

"Just get her to follow you out of the classroom. I'll handle the talking after that," Kaito said.

Ran nodded, heading into the classroom.

She made it all of three metres before she heard the teacher clearing her throat.

"And what do you call this, Kuroba-kun? You're over an hour late and not even in uniform," the woman asked, glaring up from her desk.

"Uh... s-sorry, sensei. I have a, um... a family emergency. I need to ask Akako-chan for a little help with something, though," Ran said, bowing deeply and hoping she didn't seem too panicked right now.

"Oh. I... okay," the teacher replied.

Ran was surprised to have that work quite so effectively, but was glad to be able to turn back towards the teenage witch she'd been sent to get. Akako was already on her feet, her school bag over one shoulder.

"Well, let's get going then," the girl said, gesturing towards the door.

Ran gave an awkward nod and let the dark haired girl lead the way.

"Is everything okay, Kaito?" another girl asked, her voice soft and gentle.

Ran turned, ready to offer vague assurances, when she was struck by how familiar the girl looked. Normally, Ran probably wouldn't have noticed, but having spent all morning looking at her own face from the outside, she couldn't shake the impression that this girl could pass for her sister.

"It... should be?" Ran offered.

"Let me know if I can help, okay?" the girl said.

"Of course," Ran replied, before turning to hurry after Akako.

Kaito was waiting impatiently in the hallway (hidden around the edge of the door), but stayed quiet until Ran had closed the door.

"So—"

"I didn't think you'd be dumb enough to actually touch the Bultitudius, Kaito," Akako said, looking straight at Ran's body.

"You—How could you tell it was me?" Kaito asked. "And... so it was the Bultitudius?"

"I could tell because magic. Obviously," Akako replied with a dismissive wave of her hand. "The specifics would go over your head, but... the idea of 'auras' isn't totally wrong. And it was clearly the result of the ancient gem known to cause body switching you were dealing with, yes."

"Fair, fair," Kaito muttered. "Let's talk about this somewhere a little more private, though... alright?"

"Sounds good to me," Akako replied. "I don't want too many classmates knowing about me and the longer we talk the more likely we are to be overheard."

Kaito led them through the school, down and outside. They finally came to a stop at an empty room in the club building. Kaito quickly checked that there was no one in either of the adjacent rooms before heading into the empty room. Akako seemed amused by his paranoia, while Ran found herself confused.

"So... how long will this last for?" Kaito asked at last.

"Until you both touch the Bultitudius again," Akako replied.

"It's that easy?" Ran asked.

"Essentially."

"That sounds too easy," Kaito said.

"Well, one of you has to touch it at night and the other during the day, as you did before, and within a 24 hour period. Then you have to sleep again, but... apart from that it's a very user friendly artifact. Once the police returned it to the museum I was planning to step in and take it off their hands. It's much too dangerous to leave in unaware hands," Akako explained.

"Why were you going to wait?" Ran asked.

"For Kaito's reputation, of course?" Akako replied, though Ran got the strange feeling she was hiding something. "He's supposed to return everything he steals. Something going missing like that would not reflect well on him."

"Oh. I guess that ma—you're Kid!?" Ran blurted, spinning towards Kaito as the implication hit her.

Kaito gave a shrug. "I suppose I couldn't have hid it forever, but I do wish I'd been the one to break the news."

Ran felt a wave of panic wash over her. Kaitou Kid was in her body? The notorious criminal? What was he... okay, so he did have a reputation for being respectful of women, so there were probably worse people to have in her body. And he'd been behaving himself. But... he was still a thief!

"If you tell Nakamori-san I will have to do some unpleasant things, Kaito," Akako was saying as Ran slowly stopped panicking. "Magic has to be kept a secret. Either I enforce that or someone worse than me does."

"The diamond is in the MPD's evidence vault! I'd find that hard to break into normally. Trying to do it with Mouri's hands..." Kaito protested.

"What's wrong with my hands!?" Ran blurted.

"No muscle memory for magic and lockpicking," Kaito replied. "That's what I was testing on the way over with that deck of cards."

"Oh... well, obviously! I'm not a thief! I don't... I can't believe I'm just sitting here talking to Kaitou Kid. I should be dragging you down to Division 2 right now!" Ran blurted, not knowing how to process all of this.

"You'd be dragging yourself to prison," Kaito replied flatly.

He was too calm right now. It was unnerving.

"I—that... argh!" she groaned, burying her face in her hands. "I can't believe this is happening."

"Am I still needed?" Akako asked, as Ran quietly fumed.

"No, no. I think that's everything," Kaito said.

"Wait," Ran said, before Akako could leave, "are we not allowed to tell anyone?"

"Why? Who knows?" Akako asked.

"I... well, I didn't know what was going on, so I sort of revealed that I was, well, me, to my dad and Conan," Ran admitted.

"Do they know how?" Akako asked.

Ran shook her head. "We didn't know how, so we couldn't tell them."

Akako smiled. "Blame it on hypnosis or a mad scientist or... something, then. Keep the number of people who know to a minimum, but tell no one the how. Immediate family... and maybe a friend. I can probably allow you both that. Absolutely no police, though."

"Thank you," Ran replied.

"I can tell you're a good person. You deserve the help," Akako said, before turning to Kaito. "I will ask a favour from you when this is all done, though."

"And I'll give you a favour that seems fair," Kaito replied.

With that, Akako nodded and headed off. It was only after she left that something struck Ran.

"Wait, if she's stealing the gem once the police hand it back, what does it matter that my hands are no good for lockpicking? Can't we just wait for her to take it?" Ran asked.

"The Barcinni family have thrown up legal claims on the necklace, saying it was unlawfully seized from them after World War 2. They're using my successful theft to further their claim that the Neapolitan Museum is improperly protecting it," Kaito replied. "It could take months to get resolved, and I would rather get things sorted before that."

"Oh..." Ran muttered.

She was quiet after that, as Kaito fussed with a deck of cards for a minute or two. He dropped the cards a couple of times. A flash of frustration crossed his face, though he swallowed it fast enough she almost thought she'd imagined it.

"So... what are we going to do?" she asked, as Kaito finished picking up all the cards.

"I should think that would be obvious? We're going to break into the Sakurada Gate. I can't do it alone with these hands, and we can't get Inspector Nakamori to get it for us, so... we'll have to do it together," Kaito replied.

"You... you want me to break into the MPD headquarters? I... I'm not a criminal!" Ran protested, once again.

She couldn't believe the situation she'd found herself in.

"I know. That's why we have to work together. I'll still be the brains, but you need to do the fiddly bits," Kaito explained. "We'll have to case out the building... I know the place, but I don't know the place. Blueprints will probably be outdated. It's a good thing we both have trusted faces..."

"No. No. I'm not... I'm not breaking into anything with you," Ran said, shaking her head vigorously. "I'm not going to become a criminal."

"If you don't help it will either take a lot longer or I'll be a lot more likely to get caught. If I get caught everyone will think you're a criminal," Kaito countered.

"I... I can wait a little longer, if need be, but I refuse to get involved," Ran said, stomping her foot down.

He'd just asked to go home so he could get his phone and call his mother. Then he's said he needed to pick up a few things for training her hands. Then he'd put the practice lock and pick on the table beside her while hunting for other supplies.

And now she was sitting there with an opened lock. Why had the temptation to give it a shot been so irresistible? Was it testosterone's fault? Boys were more impulsive, right? But she'd given in, and she'd gone with the flow, and she'd unlocked it without even trying.

"Huzzah! I knew you'd try it," Kaito said, popping out from behind the door frame, a stopwatch in his hand. "Running on pure instinct you took three times longer than I would have, but that's still better than any beginner would do."

Ran felt herself blush. "I'm not going to use it for anything criminal!"

"Possession of a lockpick when you're not a locksmith is illegal in this country. You're breaking the law right now, just by holding it," Kaito replied with a smirk that felt so wrong to see on her face.

Ran scrambled to toss the offending pick and lock on the table. "W-well, I'm not holding it now."

Kaito shot her puppy eyes at that. "Come on, it's easier and quicker and safer for both of us."

"I don't know why you do it, but I have zero interest in helping you any more than I have to," Ran countered. "You know... I suppose you not being able to do any heists while we're like this is a silver lining about this whole mess. The longer it takes the more rest the brave task force officers can get from your criminal nonsense."

"Oh for crying—give the little 'brave police officers' schtick a rest. The MPD is riddled with moles and corruption all the way to the top. They turn a blind eye to anyone who knows the right palms to grease all the time," Kaito groaned. "I personally know who several moles are because I've leaned on them to get information for my heists, but there's a heck of a lot more than them out there. And they work with people a heck of a lot worse than me. Now, maybe there's a few decent officers here and there, but the system as a whole is a corrupt mess full of Liberal Democrat cronies. They exist to preserve the current order, not to serve any grand ideals of justice."

"That's not—"

"Listen. I wish I could trust them. I wouldn't mind staying home and in bed more nights and living a normal life. I wish I didn't have to go out there all the time to get shot at when I let my guard down. But the people I'm trying to stop own enough of the police that law enforcement won't ever touch them. The evidence that my father was murdered should have been an open and shut case. Instead it was just shut for good. So I have to try to find the gem they're hunting before they do from outside the law thanks to their lack of morality and honour," Kait said, flopping onto the couch nearby. "So, please, don't talk about the MPD like they're a 'noble collection of heroes' around me? And especially not when you have my mouth."

Ran was left speechless at that sudden display of passion out of Kaito Kid of all people. She didn't think he had a serious bone in his body, from all their past encounters. And yet he had tears running down his face right now.

Kaito gave a sniff, turning to grab a box of tissues. "You cry too easily, you know that, Mouri? This is annoying."

"I... I don't cry too easily," Ran said, wanting to defend something after being shot down so harshly by Kaito.

"Then how do you explain all these tears, hm?" Kaito asked, pointing to his face before blowing his nose.

"Maybe you just don't cry enough. That... that sounds like something worth crying over," she said, feeling herself softening.

Maybe it was because he had her face right now, but she couldn't help feeling bad for him as the tears kept running. She vaguely remembered Shinichi saying something about that with the guy who had tried to steal his face.

She was certain that there were more good people than bad ones in the MPD... or, at least, in Division 1. She supposed she hadn't interacted too much with other sections. And maybe hunting murderers wasn't really the most appealing line of work for corrupt police officers. So... so maybe she could admit that she and Kaito had seen very different faces of the Police.

She still hoped she could show him there were officers worth trusting, but she had to earn his trust for herself first.

"What's the gem they're chasing?" Ran asked as she sat back down in the chair she'd been using (she'd not even noticed when she'd stood up). "The one you're looking for?"

"It's called Pandora. It's supposed to grant immortality," Kaito replied, leaning back in the couch, his eyes still red. "I don't totally know if it's real, but... after this mishap I'm pretty firmly willing to believe."

Ran nodded. It sounded crazy, but so did a gem that caused someone to switch bodies. Or finding out witches were real.

"We need a cover for what happened to us, don't we?" she said, after another pause. "I don't think the hypnosis cover is very good, and the mad scientist one is just wacky. What kind of scientist would just grab a couple random teens to run a mind-swapping technology on?"

Kaito gave a shrug. "It wouldn't be the first time something like that happened to me."

Ran sat up straight at that. "What!?"

"I don't want to talk about it, but... let's just say this isn't the first time I've seen my face from the outside. You're a lot less creepy than it was, though," Kaito muttered.

"Uh, I... that... what?"

"I said I didn't want to talk about it. You've gotten more out of me than I've ever told anyone, but I don't plan to share more," Kaito said, a deep fear and pain in his eyes.

Well, her eyes.

There she was, straying back into headache territory.

"So, are we using that cover, then?" Ran asked.

"I think it's best if we keep saying we don't know. It's such a bizarre thing, no explanation we give will seem enough," Kaito replied. "Sometimes ignorance is the best lie."

Ran nodded. She let out a sigh, trying to calm down again after all that. Then she looked down to find her hands fiddling with a combination lock that had been sitting on the table as well. She paid a bit more attention this time, not sure what she was waiting for until there was a strange slight click. It was probably barely noticeable, but the hands she currently had magnified the sensation to the point she could scarcely miss it.

As the lock popped open, something struck her.

"Where's my phone? I need to phone Conan," she said, hopping to her feet.

"In the genkan. On the table," Kaito replied, slumped back in the couch again for a moment. "Wait, why?"

"I need to tell him not to tell Shinichi about this. I... even if we weren't supposed to keep it a secret, I wouldn't want Shinichi to know about this. It's too embarrassing," she explained.

Kaito opened his mouth to say something, before closing it. It was clear there was a lot on his mind, though he bit his lip after a few seconds. "Alright. Yeah. Ok. That makes sense."

"What were you going to say?" she asked.

"What—I... just not to tell him who I am. But, I figured you'd have enough common sense not to need to be told," Kaito replied.

She felt like he was lying about something, but didn't know where to start. Instead, she just nodded.

"It's probably better to keep the people in on that secret to a minimum," she said with a nod.

Conan was smart, but he was just a kid. He might let the truth slip at some point. And her father... he was even more likely to have loose lips. Especially when he got drunk. And she didn't want to think what Kid might do if he found out she'd been responsible for that. Especially if it got out before she was herself again.

While Ran was off phoning Conan, Kaito grabbed his phone and dialed his mother's number.

"Hello Kaito, what can I do for you?" his mother's voice asked.

"This is going to sound insane, but... I... I Freaky-Friday'ed with Mouri Ran of all people. Don't ask me how, but... the shrunken detective is going to be on my case hard," he said. "Can you run a Kid heist or two in the next couple weeks while I try to figure out a solution? Pretty please?"

He said the last part with the largest smile and sweetest done he could manage, even if she couldn't see his face. It helped with voice acting to do the faces.

"You... Freaky-Friday'ed? What does tha—you switched bodies?" his mother asked.

"Yeah, pretty much," he replied.

"Has she learned who you are?" Chikage asked, her voice panicked.

"It was kind of hard to avoid that, yes. She's being reasonable, though. Possession of her body adds a pretty good bit of collateral to keep her in line, too. Even if I couldn't ever actually do anything with that," Kaito explained. "She won't let it slip. I... her dumb tear ducts open too easily, so I turned into a sobbing mess in front of her. I think she's ready to give me the benefit of the doubt."

"Alright. I can probably hit a soft target or two to give you an alibi, but... how did this even happen?" Chikage replied.

"As soon as I figure it out I'll fix it. Anyhow, thanks a million."

It had been decided they'd stay at the Mouri home. Ran didn't trust leaving her father and Conan alone together (or, even, just leaving her father alone for more than a day or two). As much as he'd behaved himself, she didn't trust Kaito alone with her body either. So, Kaito had agreed if Ran would phone Aoko (pretending to be him) and ask her and her father to keep an eye on the Kuroba home. It made practicing for the heist a bit trickier, but Kaito did have a safe house not too far away in Shibaura. They dropped off some extra equipment there, so that they would have a place to practice in privacy, before heading back to the Mouri apartment with a duffel bag of Kaito's clothing for Ran to wear.

"You haven't given my daughter her body back yet?" he asked, eyes narrowing.

"We don't even know how I have it in the first place. Do you really think we'd learn how to undo it before Conan got back from school?" Kaito countered.

"I... well, I hoped you would," Kogoro muttered. "Where's he even going to sleep?"

"In my room?" Ran replied.

"What!? No way! Even if he's gay, he's a boy! I can't have you share a room with a boy!" Kogoro protested, hopping to his feet.

"Daddy... I physically can't not share a room with a boy right now," Ran replied. "I want to keep an eye on him while he's in my body, so we're sharing a room."

"And I'd like to keep an eye on her while she has mine," Kaito added, crossing his arms indignantly. "I know for a fact that I'm hot. I see no reason to blindly trust a girl not to do anything just because of gender stereotypes."

Both Mouris turned amusingly red at that.

"I, well... it's not because she's a girl. It's because she's Ran. She's..." Kogoro muttered. "Erm, anyhow... what are you two going to do for school tomorrow?"

Ran and Kaito both blinked.

"School?" Ran asked.

"Well, I can handle you two missing a day. Maybe two, if you knew you could fix things tomorrow, but... well, you don't even know what caused this, let alone how to fix it. I'm not about to let Ran miss a week or more of school," Kogoro replied.

"I can't go to school like this!" Ran protested, waving a hand at the currently male body she inhabited. "Even ignoring I'm in the wrong body, we'd have to fill out transfer papers for Kurboa and there'd be processing fees and everything else to go to Teitan. His school is halfway across Tokyo. I'm not going all that way every day."

"Well, there is a solution," Kaito offered, pulling out a comb.

"No... that wouldn't even work. There's differences between your face and his," Ran said, taking a step back away from Kaito.

"You know Kudo's face, but I'll bet I'm close enough that no one else would notice. Especially if I say you're Kudo while looking like this," Kaito said, continuing to point the comb her way.

"What if the brat shows up while this is going on?" Kogoro asked, seeming to still be trying to work out the variables.

"He wouldn't come back without telling Ran-kun beforehand," Kaito replied.

Kogoro looked convinced. Ran, meanwhile, found herself having backed into a wall. Kaito needed only a few seconds with the comb to get the unruly mop that was his hair to look more like Kudo Shinichi's.

"See, she looks just like him, no?" Kaito offered to Kogoro.

"Disturbingly so," the detective muttered.

It was then that Conan walked in, calling out an 'I'm home' as he stepped in. Though he only got as far as 'I'm ho-' before seeing Ran's current hairstyle and freezing in confusion.

"See, even the mini-detective is convinced," Kaito said with a grin. "No transfer papers needed."

"Transfer papers?" Conan asked, confusion filling his face.

"Daddy says I have to go to school while we figure out how to fix this, and Kuroba's school is pretty far away. I don't think I like the idea of identity theft, though," Ran said, turning back to Kaito.

"Kudo would forgive you, wouldn't he? The gossip online seems to say you two are basically married," Kaito replied.

"The gossip... Sonoko... I'm sure it's her fault. But... yeah, he'd probably forgive me. I'd like to ask first, though," Ran said.

"You can't, though," Kaito said, turning to Conan. "She explained how she can't to you, right?"

"Oh. Uh... yes," Conan said with a nod, while his confusion slowly morphed into a blush. "I... I think Shinichi-niichan would be okay with it, though."

Kaito smiled. He wanted to dig into the shrunken detective more, but that would risk his identity. Kuroba Kaito had no reason to know Conan was Shinichi, so he couldn't let Conan know he knew. But he would still try to find ways to poke at the mini-detective. A girl so in love with him who'd support him and understand and he kept her in the dark like this... Kaito wished he could tell Aoko, without the knowledge she'd hate him and drag him off to prison. Shinichi didn't know what a chance he was throwing away.