Waves crashed into the eroding cliffside, far down below where we stood. Despite being a tourist attraction, no one's allowed near this breathtaking view at the moment. Except us. Over my shoulder, screams and yelps of euphoria echoed in the wide space around from crowds at the barricades holding up their signs and hands. All for their beloved Kaito Kid.

Somehow, Sonoko dragged us into this Kaito Kid heist. She came to the agency on the behalf of her uncle Jirokichi to retrieve Conan, the Kid Killer. And Ran felt obliged to babysit him. (Which, recruiting a literal child is a reoccurring event, apparently.) Yet I'd never been. So here I am to see what it's all about.

The worst thing so far is the wind. It blew our hair every which way, constantly needing to be adjusted. The second is Father standing stoically in that raging crowd, gauging the level of threat from his vantage point. Mother and Father agreed that I could be here due to the police presence, despite it being such a broadcasted event. Although it vaguely felt like dangling meat in a trap.

The height of the cliff wasn't a bother to me so much as the thundering ocean clawing up at us. Roaring. Beckoning. Like it wished we were closer to be easily snatched in. The corners of my mouth dropped.

"Keiko," Ran grabbed the air towards me, wobbling in place with a tremble in her voice. "Get away from the edge, please."

Complying, yet chuckling, I said, "it's not like a cliff that held tourists for centuries is going to suddenly collapse under my weight."

Then, in his highest pitched voice, Conan rebutted "it would be an awful place to trip and fall, Keiko. Are you clumsy?"

I inhaled a lungful, and asked, "have you ever been in a fight, kid? Do you want to?"

"Well we know one thing for sure," Sonoko asserted, arms crossed, a blinding area light at her back. "There's no way Kid will be disguised as you, Keiko."

The red left cheeks of people around left by Nakamori's unrelenting pinch came to mind as she said that.

Holding my untouched cheek, I questioned, "why?"

She smirked. "If you suddenly grew a foot, everyone would notice."

I knelt down to Conan's height. Monotonously commenting, "there's no chance of Kid becoming a kid, huh."

Ran tilted her head. "There was that one time."

Sonoko nodded, "right, Genta."

"Those were specific circumstances," Conan blew them off.

"Anyway," Kogoro broke in, hunched over with his hands in his pockets. "Is this really what it's come to?"

The Twilight Topaz, a glimmering colorless stone, that Kaito Kid sought had been buried ten feet into the dirt. Nevermind the location Jirokichi wished to bury the treasure, no one could tell the man otherwise.

Jirokichi guffawed as he exited the tent they put up as their headquarters, "buried in the ground, with miniature high tech night vision cameras set at every corner of a twelve by twelve inch tempered glass box. I may not know how he plans to get in to steal it but I do know that when he does, we'll be ready."

About twenty men were on standby with shovels should the need arise. No heavy machinery was allowed due to the location. We weren't even allowed our phones until it ended.

"The edge of a cliff for winds to deter his hanglider, and buried in the ground near said edge makes anything quick and destructive a hazardous risk," Conan noted.

I crouched to Conan's ear. "Hey, Kid Killer. What's this Kaito stolen so far that these old men feel like all of this is necessary?"

Conan rolled his eyes. "Technically? Nothing."

"Huh?"

"He's a thief that never steals. He puts on this show to prove he can take jewels if he wants to."

"Hmmm. What an odd hobby."

Conan walked toward the jewels location. "I have a theory however."

"What's that?"

"Getting his hands on all these jewels, it's as though he's looking for a specific one."

"What specific one?"

He blinked. "I wonder…"

I planted my hands on my hips. "We should ask him."

Conan scoffed. "Maybe one day when he's in custody."

The lights cut off, leaving the area blanketed in darkness. Conan slipped his hand into mine saying something to the tune of, "be careful."

Due to the bright lights earlier, our eyes couldn't adjust to the natural moonlight easily.

"IMPOSSIBLE!" Jirokichi screeched, barreling out of the tent. He swooped his arm through the air at his men. "DIG, DIG NOW!"

Flashlight circles hit the ground, and footsteps of the twenty men echoed to our ears.

"What happened?" Kogoro questioned.

"That scoundrel!" Jirokichi clenched his fist. "There's a tunnel leading into the hideaway!" He showed us a live feed from his phone of Kaito Kid's calling card dangling in place of the jewel. His signature grinning face and peace sign doodled on it.

When the shovels hit the dirt, the lights flicked on, blinded us once more. Squinting at our surroundings, we found everyone roughly in the same position they were in moments ago. Except Ran.

The crowd applauded, bringing our attention to a ledge sloping overhead of the entire setup. A ledge where Kaito Kid perched himself with the tempered glass box in hand.

"Ran?" Kogoro searched the area. Then turned on Kaito Kid. "You bastard, where's Ran!?"

He held it up to shimmer in the moonlight, ignoring Kogoro, "you made it all too easy for me, and for that, I thank you," Kaito Kid bowed, his cape billowing in the wind. How did his hat stay in place? I thought as my hair whipped over my eyes.

He set the glass box at his feet. "Now then," Kaito smirked, his cape snapping taut into a hang glider.

"He can't be serious," Kogoro jerked back. "These winds will pull him down."

"It's his motorized propeller," Conan pointed out. "He plans to use that to propel him through the winds to escape."

A box at his back could be seen when he jumped. He descended past the cliffside, in the direction of the ocean. There wasn't much to do from here that I could see, Jirokichi planned to dig him out, not net him down. Yet Conan peeked over the ledge and made a split second decision, dashing down the slopes along the cliff edge that led into the forests.

Without warning, a rippling crack erupted above the jarring noise of people cheering Kaito Kid on. Their jovial screams became that of terror, and everyone dispersed.

"Gun fire!" Kogoro warned, "everyone get down!"

"Kaito Kid!" Sonoko cried, pointing at him from her place on the ground.

His propeller had been destroyed. Leaving Kaito Kid at the mercy of the winds. He struggled with his hang glider as the wind current flung him around. His descent aimed precisely at the cliff wall below our footing. If he didn't get free soon, his hang glider would send him crashing, then straight down into the rocks at the bottom.

In an instant, he plummeted. Free of his hang glider, but still dangerously close. He would hit the rocks at the bottom at this rate. If only he were further out.

From my distance and his height above, there really was no doubt. The timing would work perfectly. I took a running start. Building up speed faster than any adrenaline rush in my life. At the cliff's edge, I leapt off. It felt as though an eternal second passed. Him falling, and I leaping off the edge, frozen in time.

Then his body collided with mine. Holding onto him for dear life, I prayed that the momentum pushed us out enough that the water we had a chance to survive in would meet us instead of a rocky end.

"Keiko!" Sonoko shrieked.

Meanwhile along the cliffs edge, unknown to me at the time, Conan froze in place watching the scene play out with increasing horror.

With everything his lungs could muster, he screamed, "KEIKO!"

There was a sort of…

Cold,

Dark,

Weightlessness, and…

"What the hell," grumbled a voice. "How are you going to do that, and not know how to swim?"

The moment my voice attempted to come to life, I choked. Curling onto my side, water poured from my coughs to the ground.

A hand patted my back. "Get it all out, I'd imagine it's a lot."

Afterwards, this companion who sat beside me, offered a hand up as he stood. Vaguely in the dim moonlight, his costume made it apparent who he was.

"Kaito Kid," I breathed, feeling unusually heavy. "I'm glad you're okay."

"Not a lot of people would do that," Kaito Kid lifted the hand he helped me up with and kissed it. "I owe you my life."

Unflinching, I snatched my hand away, and stretched to take into account any injuries. Feeling fine, there came the issue of our location. We were at the beginning of a forest. Waves crashed in the near distance, so we weren't far from shore. The ground was slightly damp. Dirt clung to our clothes and skin.

He noticed me looking and said, "if you're wondering, we ended up at the bottom of that cliff after I swam us to shore. Meaning the trail back up is a good fifteen minutes."

It appeared as though he dragged me a ways away from the ocean, secluded slightly into the trees.

"Fifteen minutes and the rest of our lives," I chuckled. "Not the worst outcome."

"My," he smirked. "Such a positive outlook."

With a wave of my hand toward the trail, he bowed slightly and took the lead back without a word. If he planned to rob in the area, it makes sense that he scooped it out.

As we walked, the question had to be asked, "who wants you dead? The owner of the jewel didn't strike me as someone who was particularly worried about you not returning his precious gem."

Kaito Kid pressed a hand to his cheek, humming, "I'd imagine it's the crime boss from last week. I didn't think things would come to this."

"Crime boss?!"

He shook his head. "It's not a big deal... maybe."

"You're so strange." That phrasing reminded me of something Conan said earlier. "So then, why do you steal only to return the jewels in the first place?"

He eyed me over his shoulder.

"Is it a power play?" I raised a brow. "Does someone pay for you to put on a show?"

He faced forward. "I'm looking for someone. There's a jewel out there that will lead me to them."

It's as Conan said. Although the grave tone in his voice prevented me from questioning further.

"Yet," he continued, turning in place to grab my shoulders. "There's no jewel that shines as bright as you."

His glittering aura failed to reach me. I took a broad step back, and huffed through my nose, "please stop flirting with me."

Kid dropped an eyebrow with a tiny smirk. "Hmm... from experience I've discovered that the only one's immune to my charm already have a love in their life. So, who's the lucky person?" He moved closer, I moved back. "I could disguise myself as them."

A pressure of embarrassment pushed on my heart, causing me to blush, and breathlessly shout, "how would you even know what Shinichi looks like!"

"Shinichi?" He clapped in glee. "You're the one!? Oh this is going to be great!"

"Huh?" My mouth and shoulders dropped. What a strange reaction.

Kaito Kid began stripping. I slapped hands over my eyes, yelping, "what on earth are you doing?!"

"Relax, it's just the first layer," he said. Then to himself. "Now the hair. And." He took my hand again, bringing me to reopen my eyes, bare fingers grazed mine instead of cold gloves. "How's this?"

He brought my hand to his lips, another gentleman's kiss. This time my whole face caught aflame.

"Shinichi?!"

"If that's what you wish," he whispered into the kiss. No tie or hat, and a dark blue dress shirt in place of his signature attire. "At least this way, I won't have to worry about getting shot again. Maybe."

Although this time he had to drop my hand to end the kiss. I gravitated closer as it fell. "It's not… you're Kid still, right?"

"You've got it bad," he laughed.

Any form of Shinichi laughing at my expense still had a tendency to irk me.

I smacked his arm. "Knock it off."

Although, if it were actually him, I know he wouldn't be looking so smug considering how our previous conversations have gone recently.

"Keiko!" Conan came dashing down the path.

"Oh, hey!" I knelt down to his eye level. "Wow. You must've been running this whole—"

He threw his arms around my neck. Squeezing tight as he borrowed his face into my collarbone. "You're okay!" His voice quivered. "Thank goodness."

"Sorry," I quietly responded, rubbing his back. "Didn't mean to upset you."

Kaito kid softly chuckled to himself, "you both got it bad."

Conan came up in my arms as we faced Shinichi. Conan's finger shot out accusingly at him, mouth agape. "Kaito Kid!" He exclaimed.

"Shh!" With a hushed finger to my mouth, I told him, "it's Shinichi for now."

His lower lip jutted out. "But there's no way-"

"Someone's trying to kill Kaito Kid. Shinichi came because I called him earlier. Okay?"

"Okaaaay," he reluctantly agreed.

We resumed our walk, Conan holding my neck as he glared daggers into Shinichi's back.

"I've been wondering for a while now, Ka-Shinichi?" I began, adjusting Conan in my arms when he slumped.

"Hmm?" He hummed to acknowledge me.

"How'd you get the jewel in the first place?"

"A drill." Conan dryly butted in. "He'd been drilling the entire time, probably with the help of an accomplice. It wouldn't be hard to find technology that could pinpoint those cameras Jirokichi had surrounding the jewel, to get to the jewel in the first place. From there I'd imagine a pulley system easily snatched him back out. Something he'd need if he were digging in a potentially unstable ground anyway. Right, Shinichi?"

"Sounds like something you should confirm with Kaito Kid himself, but as a detective, I agreed with your deduction," Kaito Kid airily responded.

I could hear Conan gritting his teeth, and ruefully smiled. There really is some beef between these two.

Flashlights traveled down from a distance and relief felt real. Almost safe. Conan leapt to the ground and met Kaito's pace. They spoke with unkind smiles, and scornful eyes.

A clicking at our backs caught my attention. The familiar readying of a revolver.

"Kid!" I shouted.

Kaito Kid and Conan looked back at me.

I guess it is both of their nicknames, but, "gun!"

Kaito Kid dashed behind a tree while Conan and I rolled into the bushes. From our vantage point, Kaito snuck a peek at the area, gritting his teeth when a gunshot took a chunk out of the bark he hid behind. Guess anyone coming from the river banks with Kaito's build in this light, should be Kaito, so disguises meant nothing.

Footsteps came increasingly closer from both directions.

"If the search party gets any closer they'll be in danger," Conan forewarned.

"What can we do?" I asked. "In this light, we can't see anything."

Kaito searched his shirt and pant pockets while we eyed the direction of the gunshot. Meanwhile Conan held his wrist, eyes darting back and forth.

"I can't outrun a gun," I divulged, tying my hair up. "But I could draw the gunman away from everyone."

"Do you have a death wish?!" Conan snapped. "Yes, it was brave. You saved his life, but do you have any idea what it was like to lose you?!"

Sitting face to face with him, a similarity of tonnage, word choice, and near facial features struck me all at once. He... reminds me of….

"Can you think of the consequences for once in your life!?" His voice cracked at the end, a clear desperation like the turn of a storm brewed behind those pleading eyes.

It was as though I shook the foundation of a relationship built on far more than the few days we've shared thus far.

Who are you? Nearly passed my lips. Instead, some innate instinct had me reaching for his glasses.

Gunfire stole our attention. Conan yanked his bowtie out and said into it, "I know you can hear me."

Kaito Kid lifted his wrist, starting bewildered at a gray dot attached to his clothing.

Conan smirked. "I have an idea…"

Kaito Kid shuffled around in his shirt, pulling out his card gun. He swung his arm around the tree, aiming over his shoulder, he fired two cards. One hit the trees above to the right of the path, the other hit the left. Branches fell, bringing the shooter to side-step out of fright.

At that moment I had Conan's wrist watch, and illuminated the area with the watch lifted high above the bush. Blinded like we were during the heist, Conan used that opportunity to produce a soccer ball from his belt, and kicked it. It sped with a velocity unlike any kick I'd ever seen, knocking down the gunman in one clean strike to the head.

"That was amazing!" I gushed, then faster than he could process the words, I followed up with, "what's going on?" As I clicked the flashlight on and off. The lid suddenly flipped up and Conan leapt at me to shut it.

"Careful!"

"Careful?" We stood at full height. "Me? Careful? You, little sir, have an arsenal of what, what is this?" I reached for his belt.

"Keiko!" Sonoko breathlessly called, stopping to air out her shirt. "Oh, good, you're alive."

I rolled my eyes at her nonchalance. "I'm glad to see you too, Sono-"

The next second, she tackled me into an embrace. "Don't do that again! You idiot."

With a smile, more genuinely, I repeated, "I'm glad to see you too."

When the officers arrived, we explained what had happened. They cuffed the unconscious man, then team lifted him up the trail with one man under each of his arms.

Kogoro glowered at Shinichi, "What's he doing here?"

"For your information," I poked his nose, forcibly shoving him away from Kaito Kid. "I called him."

Nakamori and Jirokichi had arrived at that point.

"I knew Shinichi's brilliant mind could capture Kid. And he almost did." Nodding into my own story, I fabricated on, "He predicted Kaito Kid's escape route, and was at the bottom waiting. Unfortunately, due to the circumstances, he had to save me, and forgo Kid to do so."

"It's as she says." Shinichi proclaimed, "luckily I was there to pull her out, and administer the kiss of life in the nick of time."

The tips of my ears smoked, "the kiss of what?"

"You-!" Conan growled, foot perched back, like he was ready to leap at Kaito's throat any moment.

"I see," Nakamori calmly agreed. Or so I thought. He darted at Kid, yanking down his cheek to no avail. It surprised me to learn his natural face must be that similar to Shinichi's. Not that he had time to create a mask, but still. Then, like nothing happened, Nakamori patted Kaito's upper arms, using a somber tone, "we appreciate your efforts."

"Keiko," Kaito Kid called as he trotted off backward from the crowd, "I'll be off, as I'm no longer needed."

"Ah," something about seeing him go tugged gingerly at my heartstrings. He's not him, but…

"Missing me already," he teased with a chuckle and a hand over his mouth to hide his mischievous smile. He cleared his throat before my expression could sour. "Can you come here for a second?"

"As if I could miss you," I huffed out anyway.

Conan followed.

Kaito tutted, wagging a finger at him. "Not you."

Conan didn't like that. At all. Like a tiny ball of fury, his eyes sent death threats from about three trees down. If you squinted, he was the black spot emanating loathing at Kogoro's feet.

"You sure you don't want to stay?" My eyes traveled meaningfully to the cops, and the detained suspect.

"I'm a criminal, too, you know?" He smirked.

"They don't know that." We paused a tad longer than comfortable. "You didn't actually… while I was unconscious…?"

He curled his index finger under my chin, pressing his thumb right below my lips, and tilted my head up. "If I had permission, I would in a heartbeat, but alas, I did not."

What a relief. Recovered, I took his hand, holding it close, I stepped even closer. Quirking up an eyebrow, I spoke in soft, controlled tones, "if those lips can do what your voice can promise, I'll have to steal one from you myself, thief."

His arms flew in the air. "Okay! You learn way too fast!"

"Who said I learned from you?"

He shook his head. "Okay, okay."

"Ah-ha," he watched my fingers snap with a flinch. "Eat your words. You're in love yourself."

He rubbed his neck, highly unamused. "I wouldn't call it love. She's a pain in the neck."

"Denial."

"Denial!? If you met her, you wouldn't be saying that!"

"Then!" I poked his chest. "If it's not love, why did you mention her at all when I said the word?" His silence spoke volumes. "You should consider her with your current ordeal. If she loves you like you love her, she'd want you safe."

"I get it," he turned me around, a soft smile on his lips. "I'll be extra cautious till this blows over. However," he leaned in close to whisper, "maybe you should consider how Shinichi would feel before diving headfirst off a cliff yourself?"

I sighed, scratching my forehead. "So… we're both hypocrites then?"

A push at my back sent me stumbling forward, but when I turned, an empty space greeted me.

Turns out…

He slipped the gem into my pocket. Ensuing new pryings at my face until everyone was satisfied.

That and two small yellow and gray dots, which Conan took with stress building in his brows.

Authors Note:

Did anyone know they dubbed the movies 19-23 and the remake of the first episode in english on YouTube? It's not bad. I'm not a fan of Nakamori, Kogoro, and Agasa's voices. They don't stand out at all, but I love Ran(she's also the voice actor for Marinette from Miraculous Ladybug), and Conan's is alright. I only watched a couple and the first episode remake so far, as you have to rent each for 3.99, but I thoroughly enjoyed it, and recommend supporting the English release. :)