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Summary: In which everyone prepares for the heist.
The heist notices burns a hole through Aoko's pocket. Or rather, it scalds her skin, through the fabric of her clothes, leaving her with second degree burns.
She's not sure whether it's because she's just finished looking around the murder scene that's partially blaming Kaito – Kaito who she'd been with the moment the murder had even happened – or because she needs to figure out a way to give the heist notice away without giving away any clues to any of the detectives she's seen.
The burn, is guilt, as Aoko realises she's going to have to lie.
And the longer she leaves the heist notice in her pocket, waiting for the 'right' time to give it to the police, the hotter it burns. Beside her, Hattori doesn't seem to notice anything, closing his eyes as he tries to piece everything together.
She'd been nervous when he'd started taking pictures on his phone, but it had make her think. There is something to Hattori that she can't quite place, and she's suspicious, like she's been suspicious since he'd first shown up. Why is would he need pictures from obscure angles, when they don't show quite as much as the pictures forensics will print them later.
Aoko isn't sure.
"Hattori-kun," she mutters, grabbing his attention from the plug sockets he seems interested in. There's some blood by the switch – a dying message? Or just coincidence? - "What were you studying when Hakuba-kun rang?"
Hattori glances at her, tilts his head. "About th' murder?"
"No," Aoko shakes her head, "what were you studying when he asked for Kudo's files?"
For a moment, Hattori is quiet. He shrugs his shoulders and says, "radical equations, I think. Why?"
Aoko puts her hands in her pockets, feels the heist notice between her fingers. It's a little thicker than card, but smoother and she almost feels her pulse in her ears, knowing she has something the police force are bound to be searching for.
She brushes her finger across the notice again, before shaking her head, standing up.
"I was just wondering, is all." She stands up, pulls her hands from her pockets and turns away. "I was thinking that I shouldn't be here, I'm not the detective, I should be at home finishing my homework."
Hattori's tone sounds almost as guilty as Aoko feels. He says, "if ya go home now, you'll be turning yer back on 'em."
Aoko bites her lip, steels her voice and says, "I'm in this to catch them, Hattori-kun, not to prove their innocence."
She moves before he can grab hold of her wrist, moving towards the doorway. As she rushes down the stairs, under police tape and out into the streets of Shibuya, she heaves out a sigh.
Hattori Heiji, she thinks, is a terrible liar. He's convincing, yes, but without a fully formed cover story, he's practically an amateur. Kaito would be better – Kaito is better. KID weaves cover stories until he has a brand new personality, and maybe Aoko had been angry about it, but it had also been admirable.
Kaito would have remembered that he'd told someone he was solving a case when he'd answered the phone – he would not have been so easily fooled into changing the cover story.
At least Aoko can help. If she leaves now, she'll be able to get the heist notice to the station – for Kaito's sake – and it'll leave Hattori with a window of opportunity to take whatever his pictures are for, to… To Kudo-kun right?
That must be it. The reason Hattori had shown early this morning, helping the criminals break in, the reason he'd not known his own cover story.
Hattori Heiji is their accomplice.
Aoko glances back at police cars, lifts her fingers to her lips. They come away bloody, having punctured her teeth into the skin. If Hattori is the accomplice, then the murder – the idea that a third man grabbed the murder victim – falls flat. With all three of them in Tokyo, there had been no one to…
She bites her lip, makes her way towards the station.
For now, Aoko decides to believe in Kaito, in Kudo's innocence – she'll find a way to keep people from figuring Hattori out. And to keep them from looking too deeply into Hattori… she'll have to direct their attention.
Aoko needs to send in the heist notice.
And she needs to do it convincingly.
"We need to go to the museum," Ran pulls away from the window, eyes clouded with something – Saguru isn't certain whether it's determination, or reservation – before crossing her arms. "If we want to talk to KID and Shinichi, then our best shot is that heist. And we need to figure out KID's planned routes in and out."
Saguru agrees.
He doesn't know much about the museums in Ueno, but he does know the museum Kuroba has hinted at. Just as much as he knows the gemstone – Kuroba has started with the very heist location that had got him caught in the first time.
The Cullinan diamond. Kuroba had failed on his first attempt to receive the gem. One of the taskforce had torn the hang glider he'd used for some escapes, making it impossible for him to use his most efficient exits. With the handicap, Kuroba had been forced to the lower floors, where he'd attempted to climb from the first floor down to the road below.
Saguru isn't completely sure what had happened during those minutes. He'd been inspecting one of the vents, wondering whether KID had used it to get to the upper floors undetected, when all units had been notified of KID's capture.
We're unmasking him now, Nakamori had said, while Saguru had pushed through the crowd of police officers, towards the centre of the ring. And off with the disguise.
He'd discarded the top hat and the monocle until all that was left was Kuroba Kaito sat with his arms shackled, squirming in an attempt to get away before the task force checked to see if this was his true face. Saguru had stopped breathless, staring across the crowd at Aoko as she'd stared, wincing as he'd realised that soon she'd know the truth.
Now off with this mask, Nakamori had pulled at his cheeks, pulled until he was certain it was skin and not glue, until he was certain his mind had not been playing tricks on him. Kaito…?
And KID – Kuroba Kaito – had simply smiled. Not angrily, or sadly – Saguru can only recall the smile being amused. His eyes had been alight, wild in a way Saguru had never even seen as he'd laughed, 'you all made it so easy.'
Back then, Saguru hadn't know why he'd done it. Why he'd aggravated the Nakamori's, when all he'd gotten out of it was tightened handcuffs that had dug into his wrists. It had taken a while to realise the smile had been Kuroba's version of control, his words designed to keep the Nakamori's angry rather than sad.
"I've got the plans to the museum from the last heist," Saguru says after a moment, biting the inside of his cheek. He'd kept them, although frankly, Saguru isn't sure why he hadn't thrown them away after the capture, maybe he'd felt bad that he hadn't actually been the one to apply the handcuffs… maybe he just wanted to remember, "I'll ask Baaya to bring them."
Ran nods, rubs at her ear as she tries to think. Then, her eyes widen, confusion swimming through periwinkle irises. She says, "KID never steals from the same place twice."
"You're right," Saguru nods, plucks his phone from his pocket. "He's picking up where he left off."
The arrival of a fourth person to the safe house seems to leave Kuroba reeling.
Heiji watches as the other boy frowns, practically glaring at the toolbox he's brought with him, unscrewing some sort of capsule.
It's difficult to see what it is, but Heiji supposes it's going to be filled with some sort of gas. Sleeping gas is the most obvious choice, based on previous heists, when he'd taken to sneaking behind police officers, forcing them into unconsciousness before stealing their identities.
"Yer still gonna do a heist despite th' murder," Heiji tries not to let the disapproval sink into his voice, but it does, festering with the sickness that keeps settling in his throat every time he thinks about the murder scene. "Even though someone died."
Kuroba shrugs, glances away from the gas capsules. His expression morphs from annoyed to blank as he says, "people die every day. Should I stop my heists for them too?"
"Yer a murder suspect!" Heiji digs fingernails into his palms, closes the door behind him.
"Yes, and the heist is the explanation for why we set foot inside the station. To avoid catching the attention of the people who've made Shinichi and I into suspects." Kuroba turns back to his tools, placing the capsules down. He picks up his monocle – something Heiji remembers being rumoured to offer night vision to the thief.
"It's dangerous…" Kudo mutters, and Heiji nods his approval. "…But… It's not like we can stop you."
Well, Heiji thinks, they could. Just not in a way that would leave them all outside of a prison cell. Instead he watches Kuroba's expression flicker. One second, there is amusement sparking in his eyes, the next, Heiji can only read seriousness.
"Don't worry," Kuroba says, and Kazuha looks up now, lips pressed together. She'd been texting on her phone, but now she places it down, offering them all a stern expression – Heiji's pretty sure she's thinking the same as him – a heist is too much of a risk.
Not that Kuroba would listen to either of them, he's only known Kazuha a day, and Heiji for three. He sighs.
"I'm not going to get caught," Kuroba promises. "And you guys are going to stay back here, so it's not like you're at risk, you know?"
"They've got just as much time t' prepare as you," Kazuha says. She lifts the papers she's been looking at up into a pile, straightening them out. Since Heiji has stepped inside the room, she hasn't so much as sent a look his way. "and they're gonna treat ya as a murderer, meaning you'll be at a big risk."
Heiji's been thinking about it too – how the danger doesn't only mean recapture, but that there's also a risk of being shot. Before, KID wasn't seen as a high risk, but working together with a so-called serial killer only makes him a huge risk to civilians.
And Heiji knows what the police are willing to do to keep the general public safe.
"They've got a day to prepare." Kuroba says after a while, crosses his arms. "I've had months."
"What do you mean you're closing the heist to the public?"
Ran is trying to be calm, she really is, but the moment the announcement pops up on her phone – KID heist announced for tomorrow, police blocking roads around – she feels vision glowing red, voice boarding from annoyed to outright outraged.
"It's too dangerous," Inspector Nakamori says, rubbing the back of his neck. He looks slightly sick at the thought of a KID heist being dangerous, at the idea of the boy he'd practically helped to raise being dangerous. "No civilians, and that involves you kids."
"Inspector," Saguru says from beside her, "with all due respect, that's insane. KID's a thief, but the only person he poses a risk to during this heist, is himself."
Nakamori grabs a mint from his desk, fiddles with the edges of the wrapper. He doesn't look at them when he speaks – maybe the thought of KID being dangerous, hurts to imagine as much as imagining Shinichi to be a murderer does. "You went to the crime scene."
Ran's voice dies in her throat. They have theories about that, but nothing concrete, and she doesn't want to offer any answers before she knows for certain that they're true. That's why they need to go to the heist.
"We did." Saguru answers for the both of them. He rests a hand on Ran's elbow, offers some stability as she the taste of blood catches in her throat.
She doesn't fall.
"I don't want to believe that Kai- that KID did that," Nakamori says, "but until we get evidence against it, we've got to proceed along the lines that KID is dangerous. And with the added risk that Kudo might show as well-"
"You don't want to risk any hostages." Saguru mutters.
"Exactly."
Ran feels herself still – Shinichi, at the heist? He'd be smart enough not to attend. He's not like KID, he won't be able to get in and out as easily. And maybe KID is used to immediate captures, is used to reacting immediately with smart plans, but in Ran's experience, Shinichi needs time to plan everything over.
She don't want him to attend. But… But it does give her an idea.
"Make an exception." She says. Nakamori frowns, but she pushes onwards anyway, "make an exception for Aoko-chan and I."
The frown doesn't cease – if anything, it deepens. Nakamori says, "absolutely not."
Saguru, however, seems to catch on to her meanings. He nods, "it's not a bad idea. The only visitor Kudo-kun sent for, was Ran-san. And Kuroba has always had a soft spot for Aoko-san."
Nakamori pops the mint into his mouth, glances up at them both. He says, "If we can get the two of them to stand down, it'd be easier. You'd have to wear the same protective wear as the task force…"
Ran holds her breath as she realises that he means wearing a bullet proof vest – because if things go badly, KID and Shinichi will have targets on their backs. But ultimately, she understands.
She nods, "Okay."
"They've closed the surrounding area down, how are we even going to get in?"
"Listen, if we can stay out of their grasp this long, we can avoid the police as well."
"It's too big a risk."
"It's a chance to live a normal life again. Just me and you."
"…"
"I'm certain KID will know how to reach Kudo Shinichi," a sound causes the two figures to turn, eyes wide as they ensure it's nothing dangerous. "And when we find Kudo Shinichi, he can help."
"He won't trust us."
"Leave the worrying to me, alright Shiho? I'm the big sister, after all."
Daytime blends away into evening with orange and pinks as the sun sets.
After hours of trying to settle himself long enough to fall asleep, Kaito goes out onto the roof instead. He sits, looking out at the city. Every so often he think he catches sight of stars shooting across the sky, but they disappear from his vision before he can appreciate them for what they are.
The moon, waning, offers a faint light – but Kaito doesn't need it, not really. Despite it being evening, Shinjuku is restless, awake and busy. People bustle between theatres, bars and every other establishment designed to dig into the pockets of workers after a long day in the office.
Kaito glances at the roads below. The masses crossing roads, finding their way down the subway to the metro lines. What do they think of KID's return? People had loved him once, but then he'd been locked away – will they still applaud him even now that they know who he is?
"I was wondering where y0u were."
Kaito doesn't turn. Instead, he steps to the side, offers Shinichi some room to lean at the wall and breathe in the evening air. The other boy had been asleep when he'd come to the roof, exhaustion having dragged him into unconsciousness. Not that Kaito can blame him – Shinichi's sleep pattern in prison had always been inconsistent, and even after the break out, he'd not slept as long as he could have.
"I should have written a note."
"You left the door open slightly so you could get back in," Shinichi says, "so in a way you did."
Kaito hesitates, decides not to answer. Instead, he watches cars as they move through the streets, tries not to let the police lights burn against his vision. He fails anyway, reds and blues searing his retinas until he has to squeeze his eyes shut and remind himself that he will not be caught.
"I-" Shinichi trails off, "will you be okay tomorrow? With the heist?"
Kaito glances at him, offers a grin. "Quit worrying. We've got this far, so quit thinking everything's going to go wrong."
Shinichi breaks eye contact. His skin pales and suddenly, Kaito doesn't know how to describe him. He doesn't look like the self-assured detective he'd been before his imprisonment. He wears his expressions differently to the prisoner he'd been, back when he'd willingly fought to keep himself safe from other prisoners.
He doesn't look like the person Kaito's grown to know. Now, instead of looking confident in himself, or even certain they'll succeed, he looks almost… scared.
"I should be happy, right?" Shinichi says, and if his voice cracks, neither of them point attention to it. "That things are working out for us. We're free, we retrieved my case files…"
Kaito glances at him from the side of his eye. His fingers are white from where he's holding them so tightly.
"I should feel something other than dread." Shinichi continues, "but I can't. There's someone dead, and it's because we left. Kaito… I don't know if I can solve this."
Shinichi shudders. He heaves in a sigh, a deep breath, and suddenly Kaito can see him as he is. Not as a brave detective or a cunning prisoner, but rather as a shattered reflection of Kaito himself, a piece of someone lost to time.
The realisation is jarring. It is an ache, a feeling that spreads through his body like an ache, as he realises the depth of just how… hopeless the situation is. But still…
"You will." Kaito says, voice quiet, yet steeled. Shinichi sends him a doubtful look, so Kaito repeats it. "You will. We'll find a common link and we'll track down that stupid organisation. We'll find the organisation and we'll tear it down – even if everyone think we're the bad guys while we're doing it. That's what detective's do, isn't it? They solve things. You are a detective, right?"
Shinichi lets out a shallow breath, a shaky, almost choked sound. He wipes at his face with his sleeve, before turning, making his way towards the exit, back down to the safe house. He stops by the exit, turns back to face Kaito. Then; a nod, the smallest dip of his chin as he mutters, "yeah."
He leaves Kaito to the city.
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