Chapter 1:
"KID! KID! KID!" , the crowd chanted, cheering for their famous thief in white, longingly waiting for him to make his appearance with the usual catch phrase.
Aoko only groaned and had to prevent herself from slamming her head in the next wall, instead choosing to punch the power button on the remote control to get rid of the obnoxious shouts.
"What do those people see in that show-off?" she had to ask herself, standing up from the couch to go to her room, not knowing what she would do there. But everything was better than to see how that thieving jester waltzed through all of her father's security measures as if they were mere child's play, only to emerge from the utter chaos he left behind with the usual jewel in his hand. Oh, how she hated it, hated to see him twist his mouth in that Cheshire grin, holding the gem up to let everybody see how his newest trophy glittered in the moonlight. By now she was sure that this robbing trickster did all this, only to demonstrate to the world how awesome he was.
"Stupid clown!", she groaned out in frustration, "Hopefully he falls on his face and breaks his spine, so he has to sit in a wheelchair for the rest of his life!" In her irritation, she slammed the door to her room open and flicking on the light, only briefly noticing the lonely darkness that would await her as usual. But the depressing atmosphere merely reminded her of the fact that Kaitou Kid stole her father and Kaito away, making him directly responsible for this miserable state her whole world seemed to be stuck in, fueling her rage even more.
With a sigh she tossed herself on her bed and started to lightly trash her pillow, not wanting to damage it, Kid's presence had already caused enough harm. But when she lay there, her rage gradually fading away, even faster than it used to, she became aware once again of the loneliness and boredom she faced again with every heist kid held. In times long passed, she would play with Kaito and her dad. She didn't really remember what they had done, but it frankly didn't matter if they played cards, watched TV are or supported Kaito with his tricks. Their families had always been close friends, but since the terrible loses they suffered, leaving Aoko with her father and Kaito completely alone at home, she felt like their broken households had merged together, trying to hide the scars of their past. Aoko loved those times, despite the stinging pain her mother's lose has caused, all the laughter and joy she shared with her childhood friend were enough to drive the pain away. Whenever one of them felt the hurt come back, the other would stay strong.
Whenever she fell down, Kaito would come to help her up.
At least that was how it was, but ever since the reappearance of Kaitou Kid they would gradually grow apart, everybody occupied with their own problems and plans. Her dad would have to work overtime in order to keep up with the thieving magician, Kaito was constantly busy with either attending the heists or running some errands for god knows who and Aoko herself is just left alone. She has tried to help either of them, taking part in capturing Kid, or try at least, or wanting to assist Kaito.
But both of them couldn't use her help.
For her father, her presence was only another random factor and it wasn't like she could capture kid by herself. Kaito, on the other hand, would vanish when it mattered, either be it at the heists or the errand he had to make, leaving her behind to wait for him.
"I would probably only screw over their plans, that's why it didn't work." Aoko muttered to herself, knowing fully well that both of them would immediately promise her this wasn't the case. But Aoko wasn't stupid or at least not that stupid. What had she even to offer? She was clumsy, easily got lost, had the stamina to chase after the thief but neither the speed nor the wits to catch up to him. Whatever she would do, she would only be a hindrance to them.
"Well, at least I'm not the only useless one.", she though bitterly, recalling the fact that nobody she knew got even close enough to kid to catch him.
How is it possible that he is always prepared for every trick her father and his task force came up with? Even the old Suzuki's money and influence where not enough to chain the thief, they merely served to further demonstrate his skills.
Her train of thoughts was rudely interrupted when her phone chimed up, letting her know that she got a knew mail. "Must be scam again.", Aoko groaned, picking her phone up to confirm her suspicion.
But when she noticed the title of the message her interest was immediately caught and she sat up on her bed, reading carefully through the answer she got on a fan forum. No, obviously it was no Kaitou Kid forum, quite the opposite in fact. "Hi Aokamori", the mail started, reminding her once again that she had to come up with better nicknames, "Sadly I don't exactly know why the Kid Killer hasn't shown up on most recent heist, but it's likely that he has simply other things to do. After all, he is still a grade schooler and I don't think any sane parent would like to see his child chase after a thief, as successful as he may be. Besides, maybe Kid managed to win him over. You know how charming he can be, so it wouldn't be unusual for a child to fall for his mask."
At this point Aoko turned off the screen with a huff. She wanted to know why the Kid-killer Conan Edogawa didn't come to the heists anymore, but as plausible as these theories were, she refused to believe that her idol would fall for the thief's cheap tricks. After all, he was the only one to ever stop the magician and even managed to corner the phantom once or twice.
"He should be the hero!", Aoko proclaimed to the emptiness of her room, "For a kid to succeed where even the police failed. He should get a job offered as junior inspector in the force and maybe then Kid would finally be caught."
But her bold idea started to crumble when she recalled the absence of the boy at the heists. He attended one every once in a while, always managing to figure out the thief's tricks, but for some reason he has stopped coming and Aoko, curious as she was, couldn't help but wonder why.
However, as curious as she may was, she still knew that it wasn't her business why the young sleuth had stopped fighting the ivory-colored trickster and after all, it wasn't exactly common for a child to fight crime and as good as he may be at doing so, she doubted that any competent guardian would simply let the boy wander of to play hero. He was still a child after all, a brilliant one, but a child nonetheless and she didn't want to be the person to drag a child back into battle only to execute her selfish revenge.
"No. If I want to bring Kid down, I'll have to do it myself.", she decided, not caring for the apparent impossibility of her task, "He is human after all and even the most perfect magician can screw up his tricks."
But despite this, Aoko has never seen the thief in a moment of weakness, not even surprise was something she had glimpsed once on his face. Everything was hidden behind layers and layers of costume and masks, showing only his success but not letting his failure radiate through. She knew that much about magician from Kaito. Whenever he would botch a trick, nobody would notice. Only after the performance, when they sat together on the stairs to the stage, he would confess his failure to her and she would always have to cheer him up.
Aoko smiled softly at those fond memories and sneaking a look through her window over at his dark bedroom, she only now became aware that all her thinking and ranting has taken up the rest of the evening. The clock on her bedside table showed 23:27, what made her rush to the bathroom to brush her teeth quickly in order to save as much of her precious time to sleep as possible.
She couldn't allow herself to doze off in class after all, because of her grades and because she didn't want Kaito to see her like that. God knows what he might do to tease her.
Stifling a yawn, Aoko walked towards the glass case, sheltering the "Flaming Emperor", the largest Ruby ever found. She had to swallow when she remembered the price of the stone, making her painfully aware of how rich some people where to actually even think of such a price. "You could feed the whole population of Tokyo for at least a day with this much money.", she realized, after estimating the rough costs for this silly project.
"So, with what strange idea did you come up this time?" a voice suddenly asked behind her and before Aoko even started to turn around, her brain had already recognized the faint hint of mockery it contained.
"Don't act like you can read my thoughts!", Aoko huffed back an answer, "What do you mean anyway?" The boy behind her only showed a brilliant grin, taking his time to answer, "What did you want to pay with the jewel Kid will steal this time?", the question finally came, along with that childish sparkling in Kaito's eyes. If Aoko had to choose what was the most magical thing about him, this little glint would definitely be her pick, always managing to make her blush a little, obviously not because she liked him or anything silly like that, it just reminded her of that wonderful friend she had. "I bet you wanted to buy more of those cute bear panties you're wearing right now, Aoko."
"Ok, screw everything about wonderful friend" Aoko decided in her head and proceeded to punch him in the guts, a action he swiftly dodged only to bop her on the head with a rolled newspaper he had with him for some reason.
"Oiii, come on Aoko, at least don't let my marvelous smile distract you when you try to hit me. It's no fun that way.", the magician pouted only making Aoko's blood boil even more, again drawing the genes of her father out.
"KAITO!", she roared and grabbed a mop, leaning against a pillar, probably left there by the cleaning personal when they had to leave earlier because of the upcoming heist. When Kaito took off, it didn't even take half a second for Aoko to storm after him, swinging her makeshift weapon like a mad berserk at the escaping magician.
"Please Aoko, don't be that upset about the bears, you know they suit you.", Kaito teased, knowing fully well how much this comment would tick Aoko off.
"KAIIITOOOOO!", was all that he got as an answer, which was exactly what he desired, not only fueling her rage but also sparking a beautiful flush on her cheeks. Only when Aoko nearly bludgeoned a member of the task force, they realized how inappropriate of a place the museum was for their usual chase and Aoko blamed it on Kaito's unnatural luck that nothing was broken during their performance.
"Wow, you really are absent minded today" Kaito observed after they had settled at a place in a corner to rest and not further disturb the preparations.
"Has something happened that I should know or are you starting to reconsider your choice of underwear?" Normally Aoko would have answered with either a flush on her cheeks or a mop to the face, but today she did neither of those and only looked concentrated at the wall. Assuming Aoko had found something Kaito followed her gaze, searching the lower part of the wall for anything eye-catching, not finding anything to his great displeasure. Only when Aoko started to speak, he realized that there was indeed nothing of interest and his friend had only starred holes into the air, coincidentally looking at that specific piece of wall. "I was wondering whether Kid liked to have a rival." Aoko questioned, immediately gaining all of Kaito's attention, "A rival?", he asked back.
"Yes, I mean normally you wouldn't like to take any risks when thieving, but since we talk about that infuriating show-off her, I think he is bored if neither Hakuba-kun nor Conan Edogawa are here." Aoko fancied, catching Kaito off guard, because he never believed she would be able to have even vaguely neutral thoughts for his thieving alter ego.
"Conan Edogawa?", was what he finally answered and despite the fact that Kid certainly would know the name of the small detective, he saw no reason why Kuroba Kaito should know.
"Oh, come on, you know the Kid Killer.", Aoko scolded, feeling mildly offended that her best friend, who was such a Kid-fan, didn't seem to know his biggest rival, depending on how you look at this, he was his smallest too.
"Ohhh, the bespectacled brat", Kaito faked a look of realization and despite the general respect he had for the shrunken teen, he played the "I-don't-like-him-because-he-wants-to-catch-Kid-sama" card a lot of his fans loved to use.
"Brat?! Why do you think he is a brat?" Aoko snarled at first, but suddenly her mind jumped to a rather rash conclusion, "DO YOU KNOW HIM?"
Kaito stumbled backwards so they wouldn't stand that close to one another, but found himself pressed against a pillar, an Aoko with beaming eyes advancing towards him and for some reason it ticked him off that she could look so brilliant because of somebody else than himself.
"Not really, but just look at how arrogant he smirks. That grin gives me the creeps." Kaito ejaculated, only noticing to late that he might have said to much.
"You stood close enough to see him SMIRK?!" Aoko immediately pressed, ready to wring every little information she could out off Kaito. Even though she has read a lot about her small hero and despite all the newspaper articles she stored in a folder, she never got the chance to see him in person. To think that Kaito, who apparently couldn't appreciate the little boy's presence one bit, had the luck to see him grinning, was an insult to Aoko's own luck.
"Where? When? How? ", all those questions bubbled out of her, pinning Kaito to the pillar and not letting him leave. "I don't know anymore!", he finally managed to interrupt Aoko's constant stream of words, "Why should I even bother remembering something like this?" When Aoko flinched away from him, he realized that his voice had a lot more edge to it than he intended, making it seem like he snapped at her. "I… just wanted…to… You know… I…", Aoko tried to answer but she was unable to voice her question, fearing it would upset him even more.
Kaito sighed, he had known Aoko long enough to know how important this was to her, but also knew how much she hated to hurt people she cared for.
"I don't remember exactly, but it was in the winter, near to Beika.", he spoke softly, trying to assure Aoko that he was not mad at her.
"Beika?", the answer of her was faint, barely hearable over the shouts coming from the task force.
"You know, the district in which he lives.", Kaito explained, nearly falling on his back, only saved by the pillar that still stood behind him, when Aoko head snapped forward, nearly knocking into his, "YOU KNOW WHERE HE LIVES?!"
Aoko couldn't believe it. The way Kaito has mentioned Conan's address, like it was the most obvious fact about him, made her seriously doubt her own competence as a dedicated fan and for the rest of the evening her mind was occupied. She failed to notice when Kaito vanished, didn't pay any attention when Kaito Kid let the ruby hover straight into his palm and even the famous grin he always flashed before he made his escape wasn't seen by her.
Aoko's nervously shifted from one foot to the other, gaze dancing between the stairs and the huge sign which read 'Detective Agency Mori'. For everybody around her she would seem like a total creep, walking up and down in front of the house for more than 15 minutes and if they knew she waited for a grade schooler who didn't even know her, that would have undoubtedly been the cause for a serious call to the police. Luckily nobody seemed to take further notice of her and even if they did look at her, they either didn't catch up on her odd behavior or brushed it off as something normal.
But because of Aoko's frantic overthinking, she failed to notice the pair of watchful sky-blue eyes that steadily observed her with the experience of countless previous hours of surveillance. They were shielded by a pair of over-sized glasses and belonged to a little boy who watched her, leaning on the window-sill with his right elbow and resting his head in his palm. He stood on a chair to gain the needed height and has stood like this, since he spotted the oddly familiar looking girl on the street, keeping her constantly in his line of sight and observing her movement with a neutral face.
O
"She is definitely thinking about entering the building, but from the way she checked the nameplate over and over, one can see her insecurity. It's likely that she did come her because somebody told her about this place, that's why she wants to make sure she hasn't gotten the wrong address, but while she is definitely nervous, it doesn't seem like she is particularly stressed. That means either her problem isn't that big off a deal, that would also explain why she hesitates so much, or she isn't here because she needs a detective, but wants to meet somebody else, judging from her age I would think she wants to see Ran." Conan deduced after studying the new visitor for a few minutes.
Jumping off the chair, he made his way over to the couch, where Ran was currently seated, watching the news. On the way, his mind started to theorize why the girl was here, "Judging from her slim and undeveloped posture, she is probably a year or two younger than Ran and judging from the fact that she apparently wasn't here before and Ran doesn't seem to expect anybody, it's safe to assume that she has some kind of business with one of them. But then again, the lack of tension and her rather slow way of moving suggest that she isn't in a rush, so the matter can't be that important. I would assume she's one of Ran's fans, who came her either to ask something off her, maybe private lessons in karate or a school subject, or she wants to show her admiration for Ran."
By the time he reached the couch, he had decided on the "Kohai admirer theory", so he saw no reason to not tell Ran and so he declared with his usual piping voice: "Ran-neechan. I think you have a visitor."
The girl who lazily watched the TV screen pressed the mute button on the remote and turned her head to look at the small boy. "A visitor? I didn't expect anybody. Are you sure they want to see me?", she asked him, a puzzled look in her eyes.
"She doesn't look like a client and I don't know her.", Conan shrugged, presenting his deduction in a childlike and believable manner.
"Are you sure about that? Maybe she is a fan of yours.", Ran asked, chuckling lightly over Conan's scowl.
"Why should I have any fans, Ran-neechan? I haven't done anything noteworthy.", he interjected and Ran only answered with a shrug before she stood up and walked down the stairs, Conan following shortly after her.
O
"Excuse me?", Aoko nearly jumped at the voice, immediately whirling around, only to find herself staring at a mirror image of herself, or so it seemed at first, but when the eyes of the image went wide, while hers already threatened to fall out of her head, she noted that it was indeed another person.
A few seconds of silent staring passed, before Aoko remembered her odd situation, "I wasn't stalking anybody, I was just waiting for somebody, but I wasn't quite sure when he would arrive, so I grew worried and started to look around for. . ."
At this point she had to interrupt to catch her breath and the other girl quickly took the chance, "Yes I thought you were waiting for my father because you have a case for him."
Aoko's eyes widened again and she squawked, "Case?! What case!? I haven't done anything."
Ran was now a little worried over how confused the girl actually was, so she tried to calm her down, "Yes, you haven't done anything, so no reason to blow a fuse. Do you want to come in and have a tea to relax?"
Aoko, utterly dumbfound at that point, didn't manage to answer properly so she only nodded her head and trudged after Ran up the stairs, still not noticing the small boy that now walked behind her, a hint of puzzlement on his face.
Taking a sip from the cup of tea, she got from Ran after the few minutes it took to be prepared, Aoko managed to calm her nerves and putting her cup down she wanted to explain herself.
"My father isn't here at the moment, but I would be more than happy to listen to your case.", Ran spoke at the moment as Aoko opened her mouth to say something, so she closed it again out of politeness to not disturb a person.
"Her father?" Aoko wondered before realization suddenly hit her, "Oh right, the sleeping Kogoro! So, she thinks I am a client!"
Cleaning her throat with a cough, Aoko finally started to clear this whole mess, "I'm not here because of your father, ehh… Mouri-san?" she asked hesitantly, ruining the somewhat serious atmosphere again.
"Ran is fine.", the other girl assured her, gesturing for her to continue her explanation and Aoko was about to do so when another voice suddenly pipped up, "You're here because off me, right?"
Turning her head, Aoko finally noticed the person she had waited for in the last quarter of an hour, sitting right beside her on the coach and smiling up at her in the most adorable manner. With her mind torn between how the legendary Kid Killer could look so cute and the fact that he had been here since the beginning, Aoko only googled at the small boy, her jaw hanging wide open.
O
"Do you know her, Conan-kun?", Ran asked, visibly confused by the current situation, undoubtedly because she remembered how Conan didn't seem to recognize their guest earlier.
"No, but if she isn't here for Ojisan and doesn't know your name, I am the only person that is left." The little sleuth proclaimed, flashing a grin filled with childish pride, but behind the mask called Conan, he still brooded over why this girl was here, "Either that or she is your long-lost twin sister.", he added, with an even wider grin on his face.
The effectiveness of the words was immediately proven when both girls snapped their eyes back at each other to observe their resemblance again.
"Do we really look that much alike?", Ran was the first to ask after she mulled over the matter for some seconds, a slight frown on her face, "Granted I can see some resemblance, but twin sisters?! I don't think so."
Aoko however needed a few seconds before her brain had processed the information, "What? Twins?! We? No way!" she finally blurted, a flush creeping up her cheeks, further supporting Ran's statement.
"But you really do look alike! I bet not even Sonoko could tell the difference." Conan whined, finding unexpected joy in teasing the two girls, even though he only had wanted to lighten the mood, recognizing that it would help the Ran-lookalike to relax.
O
Aoko looked at him with raised eyebrows, while Ran slowly shook her head, addressing the other girl once again, "I'm sorry, he can be quite daring sometimes.", bowing slightly to further demonstrate her apology.
"Ah no problem, children are like that, even though I didn't expect him to be like that" Aoko vigorously waved her hands around, feeling very uneasy with the whole situation, so she was glad when Ran's questioning glance finally gave her the opportunity to explain why she had come here.
"My name is Aoko Nakamori and I'm the daughter of Inspector Nakamori." Aoko introduced herself, promptly getting interrupted by Conan again: "Ah you mean the always cursing inspector that chases Kaitou Kid?"
The rash comment was immediately answered with a scold from Ran, telling the little boy not to be rude, but Aoko really wanted to finally tell her story, so she tried to smoothen things out: "Well he is right, my father should really watch his mouth more, especially when he is at a heist. In fact, I am here because of one, or rather the person who causes them: Kaitou Kid. You see, I really want to make him pay for everything he has done to my dad, that's why I am here."
The puzzled look in Conan's and Ran's eyes, was the only reaction Aoko got till Ran finally spoke up: "Well your goal is very understandable, but I don't quite see how we could help you.", her words discouraged Aoko even further, but she decided that it was too late to back down.
"Well, as you know Conan-kun is the famous Kid-Killer, so I wanted to ask for some advice from him, he has put up the best fight against Kid after all.", she then finally explained, determined to get at least some help from her idol.
"Beating Kid!?" Conan suddenly yelled and started to jump up and down on the coach, " I want to help you! Please let me help you? Please?" he started to pledge, knowing fully well how unworthy of the great Detective of the East this behaviour was, but since the incidence where the whole museum for the legendary sunflowers was blown up, Ran had prohibited him from attending any more heist and wasn't exactly pleased when Conan snuck out to go with Hakase. Maybe he shouldn't have explained Kid's trick to the TV crew that evening. But right now, all that mattered was to convince Ran of letting him go again, so he put on his best puppy face and stared up at his guardian, continuously pleading for her approval.
At first she only huffed in disagreement, turning her head away and crossing her arms in front of her chest: "No, Conan-kun, you know how dangerous it can be." she replied harshly, but Conan didn't stop his begging.
"But Ran-neechan, Kid has a no harm policy, besides something like this only happened once." he started to argue, however, Ran was not about to back down that easily.
"No, do I have to remind you that you nearly died?!" she asked with a stern face, but Conan stood up firmly against her arguments.
"More people die from car accidents than from terrorist attacks!", he tried to reason, only earning him a raised eyebrow from Ran.
They argued for several minutes, till Ran finally couldn't take it anymore, "FINE! Fine! We can go again, BUT if you do something dangerous again, I will ground you for every future heist, do you understand?"
But her last words didn't seem to reach the boy when he bounced at her, hugging her tightly, yelling thank you after thank you and Ran couldn't help but smile over the small bundle of energy. She knew perfectly well how much this meant to him and, truth be told, his most brilliant moments were in face of the biggest danger or Kaitou Kid and it that case she preferred the later. Still, she was worried over what might happen, so she vowed to protect her small brother with her life, if necessary.
During the whole argument Aoko was left to goggle at the two, feeling awfully out of place but strangely responsible for the whole situation at the same time.
Carrying a wide grin on his face, Conan had difficulties to calm down, when he finally got to see the target of Kid: a humongous emerald. Enclosed in gold, formed to resemble the head of a lion, his mouth caged the pricey jewel, trapping it behind four fangs carved from ivory, the mighty cat would stare with glowing red eyes, made of two rubies, at everyone who dared to look at its prey. Currently the brooch was placed on a dark green silk cushion behind a think case of armoured glass, further secured with an iron cage, which was sealed with two locks, one using a key currently in the possession of Inspector Nakamori, the other making use of newest technology, with eye and fingerprint scanner, only opening for the owner off the jewel.
Conan gave a soft whistle after he inspected the stand on which the whole contraption was seated from afar, because even though he was the Kid-Killer and currently a companion of Aoko Nakamori as well, the owner was too anxious to let anybody go near the cage, safe for himself and Inspector Nakamori, who he would always pinch and got pinched back before either of the two approached the jewel case. The whole room was filled with security cameras on top of that, while the task force patrolled the museum.
"This one won't be easy, even for Kid.", Conan conclude after eyeing the whole room, already falling out of his child mask and into his detective. Luckily, whenever he faced the thief, he wouldn't fool and so Aoko will likely not pay much mind to his behaviour and Ran seemed to have accepted his strange mood swings a long time ago.
"Where will he strike from?", Aoko suddenly asked him, squatting down a little to hear the voice of her new tutor more clearly, what made Ran do the same, both having an awful serious expression on their faces.
"I thought Ran didn't want me to come.", Conan thought, grinning inwardly over this small victory but quickly snapping his mind back to the task at hand, searching for holes in the defense system.
"It would be quite complicated for Kid to impersonate two people, even when he does have an assistant, so he will either steal the key from Inspector Nakamori or try to avoid breaking the locks. In case of the first possibility, we merely have to make sure no one comes to close to the jewel and that nobody steals the keys. However, if he intends to steal the jewel along with the glass case it would increase his options drastically, but he will need a lot of force to do that, so he will have to bring a tool of some sort which can rip the cage from the ground. It also would be possible to trick us into thinking the jewel has been stolen, so we open the cage and then he steals the gem, but in that case, we just have to be careful and not act rashly.", Conan finished his explanation.
When he looked up at his two companions, he was greeted with two sets of blue eyes, the one pair more azure tainted than the other, who both starred down at him.
"Amazing", Aoko was the first of the two to speak up, completely taken aback by the little boy's words, and Conan became aware that he might has said a little too much. Granted, Aoko had always thought he was smart, but for him to have deduced that much in only a few minutes and from that distance, it was simply unbelievable.
O
Ran thought much the same, thinking once again that Conan really needed these sorts of things. Honestly, why was it that every male friend she had was draw to danger and death, was there some kind of curse of her or did the gods think it funny? She had no clue and frankly, she didn't think it would do her any good to know those things, so she shoved those thoughts aside, back to where all her stupid little theories and unanswered feelings slumbered, to concentrate once more on the heist. Looking at her watch, she quickly realized that Kid should arrive within the next minute and when she showed her watch to Conan, the Kid-Killer quickly ran off, making his way over to the police tape, which separate the chanting crowd from the jewel's case. Ran and Aoko followed him, pushing through the crowd, where Conan slipped through between their feet and when they finally reached the makeshift barrier, they had barely time to catch their breath till the clocked chimed and announced the thief's arrival.
O
"LADIES AND GENTLEMEN", the infamous voiced boomed and was answered with a flood of chants and screams from the crowed, forcing Conan to cover his ears to not go deaf. Then with a cloud of white smoke, the phantom thief appeared, standing in mid-air, looking down at the gathered people, a playfully smile on his face.
"For tonight's show, I have thought of a special trick to celebrate Inspector Nakamori's 41th defeat since my return. Do not be confused by me choosing such a peculiar number, but since he soon will carry more loses than years, it seemed like a memorable moment to me!", the thief announced, voice still booming through the hall, undoubtedly enhanced by hidden speakers, as Conan knew, but even that knowledge didn't do much to lessen the effect of his Grande Entrance. "KIIIDDD!" Nakamori's yell echoed through the room low and growling, but seeing the grown man jump up and down right under where Kid hovered, or rather hung from the ceiling by two nearly invisible wires, ruined the effect his intimidating voice had left completely.
"Well Inspector Nakamori!" Kid exclaimed, obviously faking the delightfully surprised tone of his voice, "What a joy to meet you in a place such as this. What brings you here tonight?" Looking down at the police inspector with his usual smirk, Nakamori's head started to turn from the usual crimson red to a purple as his anger grew even more than usual. But before he could bellow a return, Kid had already started to speak once again,
"But of course, how stupid of me, you must have come here to see my show! Indeed, what else could lure a man of delicate taste such as you out to this generic place, if not my own small performance. Oh, your presence is truly the most invaluable present you could have made me. I can't even imagine what exquisite venture you had fancied for tonight but postponed only to attend my little show."
With every word Kid spoke his gestures grew more effusively and Nakamori's head grew a shade darker as well. "If I just have to think of the delicate Ramen or even the heavenly meal of your angelic daughter you neglected for my sake. I can not else but see how good of a rival you truly are, my dear Inspector." Kid chimed, wiping away a non existing tear and with that Nakamori's fuss blew.
O
When his clenched teeth finally opened, to give way to a flood of curses, one more innovative than the other and only Ran's quick hands over Conan's ears sparred him from the questionable words. Now not even trying to hold himself back, Nakamori grabbed a ladder, which the cleaning personal usually used and climbed it up as fast as a squirrel, balancing on the highest step, waving his arms around in the air, to get a hold of the elusive thief's shoes. But despite the extra height the ladder provided, it was still not enough, and Conan feared Nakamori would soon pull out his gun, when the thief finally took the offense.
Taking advantage of the impractical position Nakamori was in, Kid suddenly dropped down, attaching something on Nakamori's collar in the process and before the inspector had time to process the situation, he was lifted into the air. With that, Nakamori and Kid had swapped location, leaving the police inspector hanging from the ceiling,unable to do anything, while Kid stood directly in front of his target.
"DON'T STAND AROUND LIKE STATUES, GET HIM!", Nakamori's scream bellowed through the room, reminding the task force of their job and they immediately charged at Kid, who only stood there, smirking at them. Only bare milliseconds before they collided with him, Kid jumped out of their way, so the crashed with full force into the jewel's case. The heavy shock broke the glass, however the iron bars didn't budge, still protecting the emerald from Kid's greedy grasp.
Seemingly out of desperation, Kid squeezed his hand through the bars, but instead of grabbing the stone, he brought his hand forcefully down on the podium, which to everybodies surprise broke into pieces, letting the jewel together with its silk cushion fall down into the black abyss. In that moment, Conan understood what the thief had planned for this heist and he rushed off, noticing how the thief did the same. Recalling the map of the building Conan had memorized, he quickly concluded that the phantom thief had made a hole into the ceiling of the large storage room, which used up the whole basement.
Realizing that the doors would most likely be locked, Conan adjusted his route to enter through the same door Kid used and luckily the thief didn't choose to seal the door again, after he picked its lock. Charging at full speed ahead, Conan had to round a few corners, taking shortcut's over and under the piles of wooden boxes, storing other pieces of art, before he finally saw the thief. Slithering to a hold, he could just see the magician climbing a ladder, probably to retrieve the emerald from a safety net he placed in the shaft, which he dug to reach the bottom of the rostrum.
"Well, well, well. I must say you never fail to meet my expectations Tantei-kun" Kid declared, stopping his ascend and stepping back down on the floor.
"I must admit, that I'm a little disappointed to find all of the efforts put into this plan be a waste, but considering they were finally enough to drag you back to my heists, I would say it wasn't a complete failure." Apparently, Kid has missed his small rival just as much as Conan missed to chase after the thief's white cape, but how could he not like it. In its core, Kid's heists were like a crime scene where a very intriguing murder had happened, but with the added benefit of not encountering any sort of violence or death. Even the reckless attacks of the task force didn't cause any greater harm to anybody, aside from a few dents and bruises. In fact, Conan was really glad, to finally come back to a heist, once again feeling the thrill of chasing the master of tricks and magic. However, as much as he enjoyed the heists, this didn't mean he would hold back when it comes to catching the thief.
"It's good to hear that you missed me, Kid. Hopefully you won't regret it at the end of the day" Conan answered, a smile of thrill and anticipation on his face. "My, my, a child like you shouldn't make any threats, it seems I ought to have a word with your guardian." Kid only sighed as an answer, while grinning back at the small sleuth, not with his usual stage grin, but with the widest Cheshire smile Conan has ever seen.
"If you have a problem with my methods of raising children, I would appreciate it if you would tell me directly, instead of whispering behind my back.", a voice suddenly echoed through the vault, causing both males to look in the direction from which it both had to do a double take upon seeing the two nearly identical girls standing in front of them, both frowning at the thief, obvious anger written over their faces.
O
Even though they were mad at the thief for two completely different reasons and despite the fact that Kaitou Kid knew who both of them were, he felt like two Aoko's were glaring at him, a thought that scared him just a tiny little bit.
"Kaitou Kid", the girl which resembled Aoko more closely started, "This time you will lose. You cannot win against all three of us!", her voiced was tainted with anger, fueled by the countless defeats, 40 to be precise, which her father had suffered against the thief, bringing his position as inspector countless times in danger. As always, the guilt pierced Kaito's heart, but he could not allow himself to give in to the urge of explaining himself. He could not allow Aoko to know who he was or even why he did what he did. It would only put her in danger and the same was true for the other two people that were down here with him and even though he didn't really know neither Conan Edogawa nor Ran Mouri, solely the fact that they were ready to face a thief to protect something that didn't even belong to them made them worthy of protection.
Executing this whole thought process and finishing it with a renovation of his vow to not let anybody get hurt, took barely a few seconds, so it could be taken as a pause to create a dramatic effect in his speech, but if he remained silent for much longer it would start to get suspicious.
"It is really heart-warming to know how much the daughter of my lifelong rival hates my work. This gives me the hope to see a familiar face at my heist, even when Inspector Nakamori is no longer able to attend to his duties as a police official.", he purred out, using a honey-sweet voice. But despite his obvious provocation, Aoko remained remarkably calm. In fact, it seemed as if she didn't even hear what he had said, if not for the little twitch of her eye Kaito would have seriously considered that possibility, and continued to observe the room in which the four teens, one shrunken and one masked, stood. Kaito would have loved to further chat with his friendly pursuers, friendly in comparison to his other kind of pursuers, but hearing the footsteps of the task force coming down the stairs, he knew his time was over. Bowing nobly, he quickly dropped a smock bomb, clouding the room in a black mist to maximize its blinding effect. Then, as quickly as a squirrel high on coffee, he dashed up the ladder, snatched the emerald from the blanked he used to catch it in its fall and charged straight at the two girls and the child, who desperately tried to see anything in the darkness.
While they were still rendered blind, Kaito executed a marvelous flip over their heads, only slightly touching a few strains of Ran's hair, and thanks to the special googles he brought along, he could make out the exit instantly. Running as silent as possible, he doubted anybody could hear his steps over the noise the task force made, as they now charged down the stairs, which were covered in the black smoke too by now. It would seem like a bad situation for him, getting sandwiched between the police force and a karate practitioner however, he had an ace up his sleeves. Before he rounded the corner to the stairs, which were already attacked by the countless stomps of the police officer, he jumped as high as he could and squeezed himself in between two huge pipes, probably for water or gas transport.
Practically glued to the ceiling, he could only be seen if somebody looked up while rushing around the corner, an action so unlikely that it would require more misfortune on his side, than all the luck he had till now. Just as he had planed, the police force charged down the hall, all the while looking for suspicious strings and buttons on the ground, indicating the thief's famous traps. After the last of them charged past him, Kaito softly jumped to the ground, careful not to make any noises, and then strolled up the stairs in full confidence that nobody would be left in the ground area of the building and that the task force would effectively block the little sleuth and his two female assistants off. Grinning to himself, obviously pleased with how his plan had worked out, he proceeded to go up the stairs to the roof at a faster pace, knowing that it wouldn't take too long for the detective to figure out his trick and intentions.
O
While Ran was confused and Aoko was fuming, Conan couldn't help but give the thief a little credit for the trick. It wasn't only perfectly executed, but the planning that must have went into the trick was astounding, because he didn't only predict the police's movements but that of Conan too. However, despite the respect he felt for the thief's abilities, he was still a detective, a damn good one at that, and he didn't exactly like to lose, so, after his brain provided the most likely escape path of the magician, he stormed straight to the stairs, trying to take three steps at a time but his body limited him to two. Usually Ran wouldn't have noticed the quick departure of her little brother, but after Kid's trick, she was a lot more alarmed than usual and so she was quick to follow him, Aoko hot on her heels too. The two girls managed to catch up with Conan on the 5th of 9 floors and noticing the heavy panting from Conan, Ran quickly scooped him up without interrupting her mad dash up the stairs, earning her a small yelp followed by a little bit of wiggling from Conan's part.
But he quickly recognized how much more efficient that method was and so he swallowed his pride and remained silent and calm for the rest of the stairs. When they finally reached the top floor, the door was not closed and so they rushed straight onto an empty platform, which was the ceiling of the large building. Quickly scanning their surroundings, their eyes focused on the greenish glint of the emerald, which Kid was once again holding to the sky, letting the moonlight shine through the unique jewel. The emerald seemed like he was glowing turquoise under the rays from the celestial body, but in spite of the astounding sight, Kid slumped shoulders indicate a disappointment to them, something neither of the three could make sense off. But before they could potentially ask or pry, Kid swirled around, making the gem vanish in the process, and faced them again. With the moon in his back however, his features were clad in darkness, rendering every attempt to see his face useless and so they couldn't even see the brilliant smile he only produced for his most dedicated critics.
"Isn't it a lovely night today?" the snobbish and chortling voice of the figure in white asked, "One could easily lose himself in the beauty of such a sight, were it not for the basic human trait of ignorance to everything that isn't to our immediate desire." Irritated by the philosophical statement, Ran, Aoko and Conan found no words for a few seconds, till Conan, who was the most accustomed to Kid's mood swings, spoke up.
"The sight would be even more pleasant, if I were the one holding the gem.", he stated, holding his hand out in a demanding gesture.
O
Kaito couldn't help but smirk at the answer he received. Granted, it was not what he expected, but maybe the little detective didn't want to show his full colors in front of the two girls. He was just about to toss the jewel over to the kid, when he spotted a faint glimmer on a building opposite of him, which caused his hand to freeze mid-air.
"SHIT!", Kaito thought, "they are here." Suddenly he realized that he dropped his poker face and stared with horror clearly drawn on his face over at the slightly taller building, an action that clearly showed he noticed the sniper. In an instant his instincts kicked in and he rushed forward, letting the bullet only hit his fluttering cape.
He dashed straight at the three teens, who were equally shocked and confused by the sudden action, in front of him, and despite their attempts to prevent it, he somehow managed to grab all three of them and shoved them back inside the building.
"Listen you three,", he started, his mind completely clear and focused, "I appreciate your attention but now it's getting dangerous. Put aside all your plans for revenge and GET OUT OFF HERE!"He screamed the last part, earning him only wide-eyed stares, but at least the small detective understood, because he nodded back at the thief, determination in his eyes.
O
Conan had known that Kid had some unwanted guests following his tail, but he didn't think they would be bold and/or stupid enough to go and shoot at him during a heist. But the bullet that flew over their head was sound proof for their presence and so they were in danger too.
"I have to bring the girls back to the police. Kid should know how to escape those guys and they should chase after him, but we still have to hurry.", his mind concluded, running on usual overdrive whenever the situation required.
"Ran-neechan, Aoko-neechan follow me!", he commanded the two older-looking girls, while his brain had already found the fastest and safest way down to the ground. He grabbed the two slightly hesitant girls' hands and dragged them to the stairs, looking back one last time, only seeing the swaying door. No kid in sight, so he must had already started his diversion. Ushering the girls down the stairs, he looked back one last time and wished the gentlemen thief good luck, before he followed them downwards.
All rights of Detective Conan go to Gosho Aoyama. Nothing of what you just read is or should be taken as canon and simply serves as a form of entertainment.
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Farewell
