Time swings by quickly, before one can notice one year has already passed.
After finishing his freshman year of college, Shinichi accepted the invitation to transfer to The Metropolitan Police Academy of Tokyo; Kaito Kuroba felt that the weight on his shoulders was lightened a bit as a result. He knew it from the start, that stubborn Detective-san would either open his own detective agency or go into the police force; anyway, Kudo just has to be on his opposite side, the only difference is that Kudo'll be the one commanding operations.
But that guy will probably stick with Division 1 of the Criminal Investigation Section which he is the most familiar with and unmask some murder cases, so he probably won't be responsible for criminal masterminds like Kaitou Kid.
College passes by much quicker than imagined, four years fly by in an instant never to return.
Originally with cases like Kudo, he should have to graduate a year later than Kuroba, but Superintendent General Hakuba values exception personnel and wanted Kudo to be of his use as soon as possible. Additionally, Kudo himself already accumulated quite some real deal experiences, so it was specially arranged that a year would be subtracted from his required years.
Kuroba could not have envisioned it, that ever since he started being frequently active in Tokyo there would be such a course of action by which Division 2 specially invites Kudo as the chief commander of operations.
All he does is just appear once in a while and steal a few gems; plus, when he discovers that a gem isn't the Pandora Gem, he does return it. What in the world has he done that could require a Division 1 personnel who specializes in violent crimes to get involved with arresting him?
Even so, Kudo continues to go after him for three years; within this time period, there's altogether ninety-eight arrest warrants for him and every time it ends upon failure.
And then Kudo never held an arrest warrant against Kaitou Kid again, because this phantom thief started frequently appearing in foreign countries. Even when he was in Japan he would rarely visit Tokyo, and the gems that he steals, he would not return; it was the same as nearly two decades ago.
After the sixth year of graduation, Kudo was already successful in both his work and marriage. Him now has already sat on the inspector's seat for two years; he has also been married to Ran for four years.
As for Kaito Kuroba, he stored his heart for mere play away and went into the jewelry appraisal business. After having entered the profession for three years, he earned some money and has now been married to Aoko for two years.
This night, Kaito got invited to a jewelry exhibition. The moment when he first entered, he could see gorgeous lights shining upon the dazzling diamond. That light sky blue and those excellent incision angles, what a perfection.
The light sudden darkens accompanied by silence when a few moments ago the place was filled by all sorts of human voices. Glass shatters and breaks the silence. When light brightens again, that blue diamond has already fallen into the air along with someone dressed in white. It seems as though he'll soon make contact with the ground, yet a sly smile appears on his face.
Smoke spreads in all directions while there's nowhere to find that person, as if he vanished in midair.
But none of this can fool Kaito Kuroba, because besides from Toichi Kuroba, he's more familiar with that white clothing than anyone else.
He quickly runs from the abandoned stairway to the top of the building when the security guards don't take notice of him. He lifts his head up as he's still panting; as he expected, that guy is currently using a silver-colored hand glider to roam the skies.
Yep, that's Kaitou Kid's clothing and hand glider which bear great resemblance, but that guy isn't him; nor would the guy be his father who's far away overseas.
At this point in time, some sounds start bothering his ears. He looks around and realizes that there's a few helicopters circling this area, which must have been commissioned by the Metropolitan Police Department for chasing after Kaitou Kid. Except the speed that they came at leads him wondering, were they prepared ahead of time? Seems as if they had been waiting for whenever Kaitou Kid shows up.
The volume of the helicopter sound becomes bigger, so Kuroba turns and sees that there's a helicopter gradually heading for the top of this building.
When it lands, Kuroba sees a familiar figure climb out from it; it's Shinichi Kudo, the current inspector of Subdivision 3 of Violent Crimes in Division 1 of the Criminal Investigation Section. With his hands in his pockets, he calmly approaches Kuroba with no haste.
"You're Kaito Kuroba from the University of Tokyo."
That certainty in his tone along with this leisurely attitude, somehow makes Kuroba feel a little anxious and panicked despite all that he has seen amongst the world.
"About where Kid went, can you provide any clues for me?"
"That way." Cold sweat gradually drips down from Kuroba's face. "He jumped down from the thirtieth floor where the exhibition was held, and he vanished when he was about to hit the floor. In reality, he fled in that direction by using his hand glider."
Without being dressed in white, Kuroba is different from the phantom thief that he used to be, he's just a normal civilian now.
"Thank you." Kudo who wears a smile and appears to be very friendly this second immediately puts on his serious inspector mask the next second. "All pilots be aware, Kid has fled in the southwest direction, we must catch him." Kudo and the pilot who sits next to him has already left the top of the building. "I repeat, we must capture Kaitou Kid."
This time, it's the ninety-ninth arrest warrant, but the criminal who they're going after is instead an imposter using Kaitou Kid's name.
Even so, that guy s ability level is enough to suggest some trouble on Kudo's hands.
Who in the world is he, and what does he want from impersonating Kid—
"Kid...you're not gonna escape this time. Kid!"
Kudo wakes up and sees that he's dressed in a hospital gown full of sweat. There's also a smell of disinfectants surrounding him, so he just realizes that he had a dream and that he's in the hospital now.
He has no idea how long he was unconscious for, all he knows is that the last thing he was doing before he lost his consciousness was tugging on Kid's cape.
He sees that the few cuts on his body have pretty much healed by now, except he still feels dizzy and his head is heavy.
Recalling the day Kid appeared, Shinichi Kudo can remember chasing closely after him. Both Division 1 and Division 2 followed orders and tried to help trap him, but then someway somehow Kid was able to rid himself of most of them. In the end, there was just this one small subgroup that Kudo led himself. When they got into a blind alley, Kid quickly threw out some smoke grenades and poker cards.
Those poker cards made quite a number of wounds to their bodies, but they were not hesitant to take the pain and charge. However during the process of chasing him, one by one they started to fall down; in fact, the quicker one ran, the faster one fell. It was then did Kudo realize, those darts made to look like poker cards were also coated with something like anaesthetics.
His string of thoughts suddenly get interrupted by the sounds of footsteps at a quick pace, and when Kudo hears it, he couldn't care less if the doctor wanted him to rest or not. He directly runs out while still in his hospital gown and gets on a car.
"Inspector Kudo?!"
"It's Kid isn't it? Now don't waste time."
"...Got it!"
At this point, there's already a few police officers hidden at the dock awaiting for Kid. For some reason, may it be due to the lack of rest or not, they feel sleepier and sleepier during the wait.
"Hmph..." A creepy smile appears on the face of a man who had been spying on them from nearby. He reaches and pulls out a handgun which he carefully wipes. Then, his finger uncontrollably touches the trigger, and he slowly points the gun towards people lying on the ground.
Then he hears a voice behind him say: "Put your hands up!"
The man dressed in all white from head to toe turns around without hurry and then points his gun at Kudo.
He did not receive any command saying that he could kill, but that animal instinct in him urges for him to commit murder. Maybe he got too excited and caught up in the thought of painting his white clothes red with splotches of blood to the point that his keenness diminished. He didn't even realize ahead of time that there's still an abundance of people.
"Think before you act!" says Kudo. Except from the fact that this man decides to pull a policeman aside and point the gun towards his head, it's clear that this man won't listen to anything.
He lets out a cold "heh" and backs into a dead angle of their perspective along with the hostage. Only when a significant distance has come between him and them does he warn people who try to move by saying: "Do not follow."
Every step that this thief dressed in white clothing takes serves to hide him deeper in the dark, along with that hostage who wears a sakura-shaped badge.
"Before stealing the gem, you did not sent out a warning letter in advance," says Kaito Kuroba when he suddenly appears from behind the man dressed in white. "You used real weapons to hurt others," says Kuroba as he takes a few steps forward. "Your magic tricks are performed basically by just smoke grenades, and you're even wearing the monocle before the wrong eye. He walks to about five meters away from the man and stops to tell him "should be this side" as he points to his right eye.
This is when the man dressed in white realizes that this face, the way he speaks, to be exact this annoying feeling, it's somewhat familiar.
Then, smoke fills up the place.
"Damn it," thinks the man to himself. "Where did that damn guy go?"
"Hey, Mr. Imposter." After the smoke dissipates, the man dressed in white sees Kuroba standing at the same exact location he was at while playfully spinning a handgun in his hand. "If you're gonna use someone else's name, you might as well perform to at least this level."
Only now does the man realize that the gun that he held has disappeared. Damn it, he honestly had no idea when it got stolen by the guy. So he quickly reaches for the spare gun hidden in the inner pocket of his shirt.
"The guns are of fine quality." The man dressed in white sees that the damn guy happens to be spinning a gun with his other hand as well. "Unfortunately." He blows on the surface of one of the guns. "The person who uses them has insufficient skills." He takes out a piece of cloth and wipes it.
Without any weapons left to fight with, the only choice the man has left is to use the last smoke grenade that he has on him, then he leaves the hostage by the side and escapes. After running for a little bit, the man turns at a corner and hears someone coming for him by running on top of the shipping containers. That person jumps down and lands right in front of him, blocking his way.
"You're not escaping." It's still that damn guy from before, and the thing is that the guy dares to actually pat his shoulder after talking.
The man dressed in white heard what was said and decides to not take the advice by running in another direction. Surprisingly, the guy doesn't come chase after him, but instead stays at the same location. He wasn't expecting it, but they had escape-proof nets waiting for him.
"Mission accomplished, all members come and report to section A." says Inspector Kudo who's still wearing a hospital gown and slippers while drenched in sweat.
When just about everyone has reported, Kudo turns around and walks towards Mr. Thief. Then Kudo gets down to help him take off the net on his head since his arms aren't free, also his hat and monocle. "Well, Kaitou-san isn't so invincible after all."
This night has tired Kudo out, and so he returns back into his hospital bed. Except, the tiredness of the body doesn't stop the brain to continue to function adequately.
He knew it from very beginning when he put forward the ninety-ninth arrest warrant that the targeted thief wasn't the real Kid, so even when the mission was a success he still wonders when he can put the actual Kaitou-san behind bars.
As he thinks of this, he quickly enters dreamland—
Ever since the fake Kid was arrested, a week has already passed and he has been out of the hospital for five days, yet Kudo still feels extremely exhausted.
Maybe work is part of the reason, and maybe age as well, but according to checkup results before he left the hospital he should have fully recovered by now.
Even if the intensity of the workload has caused his body to feel at unease, it shouldn't be to the point of falling asleep many times when he had no means of doing so. It most definitely shouldn't be to the degree of suddenly going unconscious during the course of walking when only one week has passed. Not to mention, every time his blood pressure is measured when he's unconscious it always ends up being with the normal range, so it shouldn't be anything like hypotension.
After knowing of Shinichi having these abnormal body conditions, Ran would prepare all three meals in bento boxes for him and bring them to him, so it wouldn't be any problems caused by unusual diet patterns.
Ever since the night that the fake Kid stole the blue diamond, his health somehow degraded to this degree, but it shouldn't be the residual effects of the anaesthetic.
So then, what is the cause?