'Night Dreams' is the name of this story.
"Vampyre" is the name of the Alternate Universe it belongs to.
More fics in the 'Vampyre Universe' to be posted soon, they've been finished for a while. ^^;;
Night Dreams Pt III (conclusion)
By Icka! M. Chif
After today the following expression will no longer strike you as being in the least bit amusing: "Friends help friends move. Real friends help friends move bodies."
-humorscope.com
..........//Ö\\.....................
"There's a bird outside the window." Aoko said, looking somewhat disturbed.
"Yeah." Ran smiled fondly, not looking. "There are a lot of birds around here."
"Holding a letter?" Aoko ventured, tilting her head to the side in bafflement.
"WHAT?!" Both Ran and Kazuha jumped out of their chairs to leap towards the window.
A raven looked at them, tilting its head. A folded piece of paper was in its beak. It blinked, then launched itself off the branch it was perched on and flew towards them. The girls backed up a step as it touched down on the window ledge long enough to drop the note, then took off into the night sky, making a loud cackling sound.
Ran looked at the piece of paper. "It's a note."
"Well, obviously." Kazuha growled. In her experience, large black ravens swooping down to drop off notes were not a good thing.
"What's it say?" Aoko asked, peeking over their shoulders.
Ran picked it up and gave it a glance over before responding. "Shin'ichi, Conan-kun, Hattori-kun and Kaito-kun have been captured." Ran read slowly, making sure that her eyes weren't deceiving her. "There's an address if we'd like to go rescue them."
"Ooo..." Kazuha scowled. "Boys. Always getting themselves in trouble."
"We'd better call the police." Aoko sighed.
Ran cleared her throat. "By ourselves, it says. Girls only."
"Girls only?" Kazuha echoed, crossing her arms. "It's most likely a trap."
"Well, what else can we do?" Ran demanded back.
Aoko paused a minute. "I think I may know someone who might like to come. May I borrow your phone?"
"Of course." Ran assured her. "It's in the hall."
"Thanks." Aoko paused to pick up the mop Kaito had given her, which she had left beside the chair, went into the hall and dialled a number.
"Hello, Akako-chan? Do you need some more bunnies?"
........//Ö\\................
"Ow." Conan rolled his head back as he woke up and made a hiss of pain. "Very ow."
"You okay?" Hattori's concerned voice asked from his right side.
"Define 'okay'." He grumbled, squinting his eyes in an effort to see. "Where are we?"
"Some sort of factory, it appears." Shin'ichi's voice commented from his left. "I was starting to get worried, you weren't waking up."
"I told you the gas probably hit his smaller form harder." Hattori commented.
"Yeah, then explain -them-." Shin'ichi retorted.
"Them?" Conan looked around, then realised that he was attached to a wall via straps around his wrists, ankles and torso. To his right was a sulking furry Hattori. On his right was his larger half. When he strained his neck to look past Shin'ichi, he could see a passed out Kaitou Kid, still wearing his top hat and monocle, and Hakuba both fastened to the wall as well. "How long have we been out of it?"
"I've been up for about 15 minutes, I think." Hattori supplied helpfully. "Kudo just woke up a few minutes ago, and now you. Don't know how long it's been other than that. Neither of us have been able to break the straps or wiggle free, but you're welcome to try."
Hattori's faster werewolf metabolism would cycle anything through his system faster, Conan noted as he methodically tested his bonds. But it didn't explain the half-vampire or the zombie continued sleep. "Maybe it was geared more for the un-dead than the living?" He supplied.
As if on cue, both Kid and Hakuba's eyes opened and they lifted up their heads.
"-Or not."
"Geh." The Kid groaned. "Feels like Nakamori-keibu and his men are playing 'Dogpile the Bandit' on my BRAIN..."
Hakuba muttered something un-printable in English before clearing his throat. "Where are we?" He asked.
"Factory." Hattori volunteered. "We're just hanging around."
"He's bad enough, thank you." Hakuba retorted. "We don't need jokes from the peanut gallery."
The werewolf made a face back. Humour was while the Kid glared at his rival. "Oh, bite me."
"Isn't that what started this whole mess?" Conan pointed out.
Any further retorts were stopped when a smooth voice replied from the shadows below them. "Very true."
Light-hearted jabs were gone in a flash, replaced by hard eyed game faces. A smirking figure dressed in black stepped out into the ring of light they were under. Conan and Shin'ichi stiffened in recognition. "Vermouth."
"Vermouth, huh?" Kid looked at the Vampire with obvious distain. "What is it with you guys and alcoholic drinks? Do you have to be very drunk to join or something?"
He obliviously ignored the irony of that statement.
The blonde Vampire smiled sweetly back at him. "Remind me to have your tongue cut out later."
"It wouldn't work." Conan shook his head. "He'd still probably find some way to annoy you."
The other detectives nodded in agreement.
"Fine." Vermouth pulled something off of a nearby crate and walked over to the Kid, taking care of the thief's smart mouth the old-fashioned way.
By putting a strip of duct tape across his mouth.
"Thanks." Hakuba looked vaguely relived at the magician-thief's silence. The blonde woman looked pretty pleased with herself as well as she rested her hands on her hips, smirking at the boys. "Now, if we could get down to business..."
......//Ö\\......................
Kazuha, Ran and Aoko met a long dark haired girl dressed in a very tight, very revealing, very form-fitting outfit about a block from the address they were instructed to meet.
"Akako-chan!" Aoko grinned, waving. "Glad you could make it."
"Nakamori." Akako nodded aloofly. She noted the mop the wild haired girl was carrying over one shoulder like a bokken at rest. "I see you're armed."
Aoko grinned. "Ran-chan, Kazuha-chan, this is Koizumi Akako. She likes bunnies."
"Pleased to meet you..." Kazuha and Ran pulled up short. "Bunnies?" They chorused in confusion.
"All sorts of small animals, really." Akako flipped some hair back over her shoulder, the snakes on her shoulder armour ducking to avoid being entangled. "Rabbits just usually happen to be convenient."
"I see...." Ran and Kazuha exchanged worried looks.
"It's better not to ask." Aoko supplied cheerfully. "Shall we go?"
"Certainly."
......................//Ö\\...
The Kid looked irritated enough to fry an egg on his head.
In fact, he started steaming.
Literally.
Fine white wisps of smoke rose from the Kid's cape and coat, slowly building up into a semi-transparent cloud.
"Oi! No smoking here!" Vermouth snapped, irritated at the continued interruption. "Stop that!"
"I didn't know he had a smoking jacket." Hattori quipped, flashing a toothy grin. The twins glared at him for the pun. He shrugged back. When things got serious, sometimes the best defense was humour.
Despite their captor's protests, the cloud only grew thicker, encompassing both the thief and the blond detective next to him.
Then as quickly as it appeared, it faded away.
To reveal a furious Hakuba bound and gagged with a stripe of duct tape where the Kid had a few minutes before. The Kid now hung in Hakuba's place.
"Well, that was a lame escape." Kudo commented.
The Kid glared. "Like you're doing any better. Oi, Techie boy! Your cuff links don't happen to turn into saw blades or something, do they?"
Conan sighed. If he had anything that would have worked, he would have done it before Vermouth showed up. "Told you he'd find another way to annoy you." He informed Vermouth.
"That's true." She nodded. "If we weren't so interested in acquiring his skills, it'd probably be a lot easier just dispose of him now. But then we'd miss all the fun."
"You call this fun?" Shin'ichi inquired.
"Depends on where you are." Vermouth smirked. She was having a marvellous time. It wasn't every day that she had such fine specimens of young men hanging around for decoration. All she needed was some extra large picture frames and she'd be set.
The boys sweatdropped.
...//Ö\\...............
"You sure this is the right place?" Aoko asked, looking around the darken room with a bit of trepidation.
The lights clicked on, momentarily blinding them. When they could see again, they looked around to see a large room filled with a bunch of scary looking pale-faced people wearing dark clothing standing around. Most of them appeared to be sporting fashionably bloody bite marks on their necks, wrists and other assorted places on their bodies.
There was a slight pause as groups stared at each other.
Then the said group of scary pale-faced people wearing dark clothing and bite marks screamed and ran towards the quartet of girls.
The girls did the logical thing when confronted by a large group of scary people coming towards them.
Screamed at the top of their lungs and charged right back towards them.
Okay, maybe it wasn't the sanest thing to do, but they, like their currently bound male counterparts, weren't exactly known for their common sense.
But they were less than pleased at their boyfriends/childhood friends/undefined/whatever being captured and burning off a little steam looked like a good idea.
Ran attacked the mass of people like a raging tiger, striking and kicking anyone who dared to get close enough, Kazuha following. The Osaka girl's style wasn't as fierce as her friends, but it was equally effective as she flowed through the crowd like water.
What Aoko lacked in style and grace, she more than made up for in sheer power and temper. Cursing a blue streak, she attacked anyone crazy enough to think that she was an easy target with a glare hard enough to crush metal, an alarming vocabulary of curse words and her chosen weapon, a mop.
Akako didn't bother breaking a sweat in her defense as she calmly walked through the room, sprinkling a fine sparkling pink powder as she went, happily humming a soft tune to herself and smiling beatifically. With the occasional pause for gleeful maniacal laughter, of course.
And everywhere she went, she left behind a trail of bunnies.
Gun bunnies, playing bunnies, honey bunnies, Easter bunnies, dust bunnies, chocolate bunnies, every sort of bunny imaginable.
The fight, if you could call it that, was over before the girl's opponents knew it even began.
In short, the guys may have been the brains of the operation, but the girls were most definitely the butt-kickers.
...........//Ö\\............................
"The thing I don't understand is why did they attack Hakuba in the first place." Kid commented towards the woman below. "He didn't even know about the organization until you killed him."
"You know, for someone you don't speak all that highly of, you sure do seem to be concerned about him." Hattori smirked.
"Oh, I'm not." Kid said breezily. "But he's been following me for so long now, I start to wonder about him when he's not there. Kind of like a little lost puppy that follows you everywhere."
Hakuba protested being called 'a little lost puppy'. At least he would have, if they duct tape hadn't been across his mouth. He settled for an 'As-soon-as-I-get-my-hands-on-you-I'm-going-to-wring-your-scrawny-little-neck' glare instead. The Kid merely grinned and winked back.
Vermouth snickered. "Actually, it's a very amusing little story, all things considered. My subordinates mistook him for someone else."
There was a fraction of a pause before both Shin'ichi and Conan started snickering.
"You..." Shin'ichi hooted "You thought-"
"-he was SHERRY?!"
The twins howled with laughter. Both Hattori and the Kid looked confused. "I don't get it."
The Vampire's lips twitched. "Sherry is female."
Hattori started snickering as the thief turned toward the blond detective, his eyes wide in a combination of amazement and humour. "They thought you were a GIRL?!" The Kid's bell like laughter ran out.
Hakuba sighed. It wasn't enough that they killed him and turned him to some sort of un-dead creature of the night, noooo. They had to gag him, tie him up and make fun of him too.
Right now in his opinion, life, and Vampires in general, sucked.
................//Ö\\.....
The girls burst into the room with an un-intentional dramatic entrance, the door making a loud bell like sound as it struck the wall with a great amount of force, the girls posing in the doorway, the room filled with sprawled unconcious bodies behind them backlighting them.
"Oi!" Kazuha shouted, striding as if she were in charge of the place, the other girls following. "We're here to rescue our friends!" Kazuha snapped, pointing a finger at Vermouth. "And you can't stop us!"
Ran firmly backed up that statement, with a glare that could have scourced steel. Akako seemed almost amused.
"Wait!" Aoko looked at the imprisoned boys in confusion. "That's not -my- Kaito!"
"Huh?" That effectively brought the dramatic build up to a halt.
"It's -A- Kaitou," Aoko explained "But it's not -MY- Kaito."
Hakuba and Akako sweatdropped. Sometimes the Inspector's daughter was just a bit too dense.
"Well, if you don't want him, then I'll take him." Akako cheerfully volunteered.
"I think you're pretty much screwed." Hattori casually informed the thief.
Kid sweatdropped. "Ye-ah."
"Oh, Kid-kun!" Ran waved "Nice to meet you again!"
The thief smiled and cheerfully waved back, at least as much as he was able to with his wrists pinned against the wall. "Like wise, Ran-san. I do apologise for knocking you out and taking your appearance back on the boat. And knocking you out at the Magic Lover Club meeting."
"-Don't forget masqurading as her father." Conan helpfully supplied.
"It's okay!" Ran chirped. "You were very nice about it. But please don't be too alarmed if I hit you later."
"Not a problem." The Kid agreed earnestly. "Please don't be offended if I dodge."
"Of course."
The Kid smiled and motioned to Shin'ichi. "Hey, Kudo! Your girlfriend is really nice. Why can't you be more like her?"
"She's not my... oh, never mind." Kudo sighed, wondering if it would be acceptable to hit his head against the wall. "What do you want with them anyway?" He demanded, turning an angry eye at Vermouth. "The girls have nothing to do with this!"
Vermouth smirked. "An eye for an eye, Cool Guy. But not to worry, -I- won't harm a hair on our Angel's head."
If anything, that put them even more on guard. Vermouth grinned and caught the Kid's eye.
The thief jerked as if he'd been shocked, his eyes fading from the red-violet they had slowly been changing into back to the glowing ruby red he had first met them with. With a quick twist of his wrists, he slipped from his bonds and landed on the floor in a cat-like crouch, then abruptly appeared to disappeared.
"However, being able to control anyone with my blood in them is a useful trick to have." The blonde woman smirked, flashing a bit of fang.
"You're the one who bit the Kid!" Kazuha exclaimed.
"Very good." Vermouth's grin turned amused. "Now the question is, will you find him before he gets to you?"
And the lights when out. The only thing illuminating the room was the half moon out side of the small windows on the tops of the walls.
That put the girls on edge. With the exception of Akako, who didn't seem to have any sort of sense of fear as she pulled out a broom, daintly sat down on it and floated up next to Hakuba's head. The remaining girls cast about for any signs of movement.
Hattori spotted him first. "Aoko! Look out!"
"Huh?" Aoko spun, the mop over one shoulder swinging around to slam into the side of the Kid's head. The Kid went flying, sailing out of her sight. "What?"
There were several sweatdrops, despite the serious nature of the atmosphere.
The fledgling Vampire was more that a little miffed about loosing his prey, and took it up with the source of his disappointment, jumping up to cling over Hattori, snarling in his face.
Hattori snarled back, his lips and nose loosing definition as they extended out into a short muzzle, his green eyes flickering a dangerous yellow. The Kid wasn't amused, biting down on Hattori's shoulder, causing the werewolf to scream in a mixture of outrage and pain.
"HEIJI!" Kazuha screamed, running towards her friend. Ran swung an arm out in attempt to stop her friend from getting hurt too.
"Get off of him!" Conan scolded. "Sit! Bad Vampire! Bad!"
The Kid's reaction was unexpected. His face curled up in disgust as he then turned around and spat the blood out, grimacing. Werewolf blood obviously didn't agree with his palette.
"Sorry to taste bad." Hattori growled, one leg breaking free of the cuff that held it down and he lashed out at the lithe thief. The Kid twisted to avoid the kick, and Hattori hit his pocket instead.
Playing cards flew out, floating to the ground like oversized confetti.
The Kid followed them down, grumbling to himself and picking up the fallen cards.
"Why's he playing fifty-two card pickup?" Shin'ichi asked, puzzled as Hattori began straining at his other bonds in attempt to break free.
"Vampires are very anal retentive." Kazuha helpfully explained.
Conan peered down at the mix of cards scattered on the ground. "Playing Cards, Duel Monsters, Pocket Monsters, Digital Monsters... Wow, he really does have a lot of different kinds of cards."
Kid said nothing, shuffling up some 'Vampire: The Masquerade' cards into his hands.
Hattori snarled triumphantly as he broke free, both the straps holding him to the wall as well as most of his clothes being torn to bits as a large wolf-dog-human hybrid hit the ground, snarling.
Both Shin'ichi and Conan swore. This was not good.
"Oh, I remember this..." Hakuba mused out loud, nodding. "Fuzzy = bad."
The Kid's head snapped up at the sound, baring his smaller fangs at the werewolf as he scooped up the last of the cards and vanished into the darkness again.
"Ran-chan! Aoko-chan!" Kazuha motioned for the girls to follow her as she ran to the wall the guys were hanging around at.
"What are you doing?!" Shin'ichi demanded.
"You guys are sitting ducks." The Osaka girl snapped back. "And at least this way, we have at least one direction they can't attack us from."
"Heiji-kun?" Aoko asked, her voice wavering a bit. She'd never seen him transform before, much less known about his curse.
Kazuha put a brief comforting hand on her arm. "It's okay. We'll explain later." If there was a later, she added silently. She wasn't quite sure if Hattori would attack them like this or not... he'd only transformed a couple of times, less severe than this. And he'd never been injured before.
In the mean time, Akako had pulled out a box of chocolate covered cherries and nibbled on them as she floated next to Hakuba's head.
"Want a bite?" She offered as she watched the drama below with a vaguely interested expression.
He shot her a glare. "I don't eat."
"Such a pity." She popped a cherry in her mouth.
"You're enjoying yourself way to much, you know that?" Hakuba deadpanned.
She shrugged. "They just asked if I wanted more bunnies. My work here is done."
He sighed and shook his head. "What is it with you and rabbits anyway?"
Akako grinned ferally. "I like bunnies." She ate another cherry. "-In soup."
Hakuba sweatdropped.
"Ran!" Conan called to the girl below him. He squirmed for a moment, then a silvery object fell from under his coat. Ran caught it.
"Conan-kun? What are you doing with a gun?!"
"It's the Kid's." Shin'ichi explained, his own weapon thankfully out of sight.
Ran looked at the gun helplessly. "What do you want me to do with it?"
Aoko sighed, rolling her eyes. "Give me that." The shorthaired girl grabbed the gun, trading her for the mop. She gave the gun a cursory inspection, then nodded. "Alright. Where are they?"
"I can't see them." Kazuha complained. All around them was darkness, no sign of the vampires or the werewolf. "Guys?"
"Nothing." Shin'ichi reported. Conan grit his teeth in frustration. If he could get to his glasses, he could use the night vision built in. And since no one other than his other self knew about them, he couldn't just pass them on for someone else to use.
"Ran?" Kazuha asked. "Picking up on anything strange?"
Ran closed her eyes, concentrating. She still wasn't completely sure how she was able to sometimes sense things that weren't there, but if it could help them out, she wasn't going to argue about it.
Silently, she pointed.
Aoko smoothly turned and fired several cards. The musical sound of the cards hitting metal rang out, then faded. Aoko snarled silently, straining her ears to hear.
The Kid came rushing out the darkness from the opposite direction, glided past Kazuha like she wasn't there and leaped for Aoko. Aoko spun, attempting to fire several shots off at the Kid.
The cards whipped around him, some slicing past his cape, others getting imbedded in his hat, pushing it of his head. Something in the background creaked and fell resulting a tremendous crash that shook the walls and caused everything to shake.
Aoko screamed, blindly scrambling to reach behind her and grab the mop back from Ran as the Kid reached for her. Ran handed it to her and she brought the mop up to block. When the new didn't work, it was time for the tried and true.
The Kid hit the mop chest first, a small black bag on a thin cut cord around his neck pressing against Aoko's bare hands. He screamed as he was suddenly repelled with great force, flying backwards back into the shadows.
Ran, Aoko, Shin'ichi and Conan stared. "What was THAT?!" Conan demanded.
Kazuha blushed faintly. "Well, um... Heiji asked me to make two omamori, one for the Kid and one for Aoko-chan. The Kid seemed kinda worried about hurting Aoko-chan, so I sort of added some small protection charms to her omamori to make sure he couldn't..."
"I'd say they worked..." Shin'ichi whistled.
The Kid suddenly re-appeared, running towards them at top speed. "AAHHHHHH!!" He screamed, jumping past them to flip up onto Akako's broom and perch like a gargoyle on the bristle part of the broom. Heiji the werewolf followed, barking and jumping up to snap at the thief's heels.
"Bad doggie! Go away, doggie! Ohhh, what did I ever do to you?" Kid comically bemoaned as Hattori managed to grab one of his loafers with his teeth and yank it off the thief's foot. Akako raised an eyebrow, floating the broom just a little bit higher so that her ankles didn't get nipped at too.
"I'd say he's back to normal." Hakuba smirked as Hattori shook the white shoe like a rag doll before proceeding to gnaw on it, glaring cheerfully at the Kid the whole time.
"That's my shoe, you mangy mutt!" Kid shook his fist at the werewolf, nearly falling off the broom as he did so.
"Heiji!" Kazuha whistled. "C'mere, Heiji!"
The werewolf turned and trotted over to Kazuha, proudly holding on to his 'prize' with a very self-satisfied expression. Kazuha knelt down and dug her fingers into his ruff, murmuring at him the entire time as he leaned against her, nearly knocking her over with his weight.
"Your boyfriend is a dog?" Aoko puzzled, idly aiming the gun in the Kid's direction.
"Not always."
Ran looked around. "Where is Vermouth?"
"Allow me to shed some light on that subject." Akako whispered some words into her cupped hands, then tossed a spark of light into the air. It grew until it was about the size of a soccer ball, illuminating the room as well as the previous fluorescent bulbs had.
Lying off to one side, they were able to see what had been the source of the crash while the Kid had attacked Aoko.
A giant anvil lay embedded in the ground, a pair of legs sticking out of it in much the same manner of the former Wicked Witch of the East from the Wizard of Oz.
"Ding dong, the witch is dead." Conan dryly quipped. Ran glared at him for the comment. Shin'ichi grinned.
"An ANVIL?!" Kazuha exclaimed.
"So it would appear." Hakuba helpfully agreed.
"Yes, but an -anvil-?!"
"Well..." The Kid glanced around. "This would be an anvil factory."
The detectives and the girls looked around, verifying this fact with their own eyes. "Oh. So it is."
"What is an anvil factory doing in Tokyo?" The completely confused Kazuha wanted to know.
"Does it matter?"
"Oh."
A soft chuckle from the shadows caused them to jump and go on guard again. "As entertaining as this all is..." A small shadow stepped forward, into the light, pale blond hair shining like a halo around her head.
"Haibara?!" The twins exclaimed, surprised. She shot them a small smirk.
"... You might want to consider leaving now." The blond scientist continued. "Your fight wasn't exactly quiet, and there are certain facts-" She gave a pointed look to the Kid still sitting on Akako's floating broom and Wolf-Hattori, who had the thief's shoe pinned between 2 paws so he could chew on it easier. "-that you might not want to explain to the police."
Kid nodded. "Yeah." He and cops didn't exactly get along.
Aoko smirked, pointedly pointing the card gun at the thief. "Speaking of leaving..."
"My cue to go!" The Kid said quickly. A quick flash of smoke appeared where he had been resting, and he was gone.
The Inspector's daughter fired in a futile attempt to hit the Kaitou, and a bouquet of red and white roses burst out of the gun. "Dammit!" She swore, letting loose with a stream of curse words that left Ran blushing and Wolf-Hattori grinning broadly.
"Where did you learn to handle a gun like that?" Shin'ichi asked, ignoring the curses. "Aren't you a bit underage?"
Conan smirked, not bothering to mention that both he and his older self were also both proficient with the weapon.
Aoko shrugged. "When Mom..." She trailed off and started again. "Dad figured that if he was going to be raising a small child by himself and with his hours, he figured that the best way for me to know that a gun is not a toy was for me to learn how to use one."
"You've been firing guns since you were a child?!" Ran stared at the wild haired girl in shock.
"Of course not." Aoko dismissed the comment. "First thing he taught me was how they worked, how to take them apart and put them together again. It's only been the past couple of years that I've developed the arm strength to shoot anything worthwhile."
The Kansai couple sweatdropped and laughed nervously as the Tokyo natives stared. Kaito's girl was a gun bunny.
Ai tilted her head to the side. "Shall we go?"
"Right." Shin'ichi offered his arm to Ran. "Shall we?"
She looped an arm through his. "Certainly." They strolled out the door, the Osaka pair and a still darkly muttering Aoko following. Hakuba and Akako brought up the rear.
Conan turned and looked at Ai, who was smiling innocently, her hands behind her back. "Bolt cutters?" He questioned.
She pulled the pair she'd been holding behind her back out into the light, a teasing smirk on her face. "Are you sure you want to know?"
He paused, then sighed, shaking his head. It really didn't matter after all. "I think we'd better catch up with the others."
"Good idea." She agreed, following the others out the door. He sighed again, sticking his hands in his pockets and following. He was -never- going to understand her...
The group collectively paused as they reached the door leading to where the girls had fought the ghouls. A figure in dark clothes leaned against the wall, looking at something in the room.
"Kaito?" Aoko blinked, then walked up to her friend, looking puzzled. "What are you doing here?"
"You know me." He shrugged gamely, his violet-red eyes shooting the detectives a guarded look. "Always following the Kid around."
"Like a lawyer after an ambulance." Hakuba agreed.
The Kid, dressed once more in his over-sized dark clothes and sunglasses, motioned farther into the room. "The Cat really likes bunnies." He commented off-handily.
"Cat?"
The thief pointed. More than half the bunnies that had filled the room when the girls had left it were gone. The rest were a trembling fuzzy mass backed up against one wall, the small form of the black winged kitten prowling in front of them.
"Kawaii!" Akako not quite squealed as she bounced. "Here, kitty!"
The cat looked at her, sized her up for a minute, and then padded over to the dark sorceress. Akako looked delighted and picked the furry creature up, scratching it behind the ears. The winged cat purred at the attention.
"I think he likes you." Kid smirked.
"Really?" Akako smiled, turning to the cat. "Want to come home with me?"
The cat burped, a small wisp of fire shooting from its mouth as it did so.
"It's a match made in heaven." Hakuba deadpanned, obviously meaning the other direction.
Shin'ichi coughed earning him an elbow in the gut from Ran. "We all here again?" He asked.
"Yup." Conan agreed, walking along side wolf-Hattori and Kazuha. His larger self smiled.
Ai reached up and poked Hakuba on the side.
"When we get back, I'm going to need to you to strip for me again." She informed him.
Hakuba sweatdropped as the guys hid snickers from the girls.
......//Ö\\...............
Looking almost mesmerised, the Kid padded softly up behind Aoko, his eyes intent on the back of her neck. His eyes held a hungry, glazed look.
Hattori noticed just as thief was in arms reach of the girl. "Kid!"
At the sound of his voice, Aoko turned, the mop that laid casually over one shoulder swinging around and forcibly whacking the Kid in the face and knocking him down. "Something wrong?"
The werewolf sighed, sweatdropping as the thief shook slowly sat up, holding his ringing head with one hand. His eyes had lost the glazed look in place of a pained 'what hit me?' expression instead.
"Never mind..."
....//Ö\\..................
Ai stepped out of her laboratory, looking solemn. Everyone lounged around the room in various degrees of relaxation and stress. The girls were there as well, some of the time taken up filling them in on the past night's events. "I've got some bad news, and some good news." She announced.
The group fell silent. Except for the Kid, who was in a much chipper mood now that he knew he wasn't going to turn into a bloodsucker. "Don't you mean some good news and some bad news?" He questioned.
She gave him a flat look. "It depends on your perspective."
"Oh."
The miniature scientist snorted, looking amused. "Fine. The -news-, as it were was, is that his-" A thumb was jerked in Kid's direction, they were pointedly not mentioning him by name. "-magic trick truly did backfire. Instead of merely severing the connection, and thus the spells between the detective and the castor, it re-assigned a different energy source to fuel the spells."
"Meaning?" Shin'ichi questioned.
"It is the his magical abilities that is currently keeping Hakuba-san 'alive'."
"So... he is like... Hakuba's 'Master' now?" Hattori mused out loud. He was still very furry and wolfish looking, but looking pretty pleased with himself as he perched on a stool, dressed in a pair of borrowed sweatpants.
"Master?" The Kid looked at the detective in disbelief. "Does this mean you have to do anything I tell you to now?"
Hakuba glowered. "Not a chance."
The Kid's disbelief quickly faded into look of pure devilment. "Really-?" With a snap of his wrists, a black and white maids outfit, complete with puffed sleeves and ruffled apron, appeared in his hands (Which was a shame, he'd been aiming for a French maid's outfit, but his magic was still a bit off). "I've got a few things that could use some cleaning, Saguru-chan..."
The English Detective blanched and backed up a step. "You're kidding."
A wide grin across the Kid's face was his only answer.
Hakuba's nerve broke and he ran.
"Wait up, Saguru-chaaaaaan!" Kid merrily sang, chasing after Hakuba as he waved the dress around like a battle flag. "I'm sure this'll fit you perfectly!"
A laughing Kazuha and Ran kept Aoko from pulling out her mop and chasing after them while the detectives and the scientist watched the two run around the room with an air of detached amusement. "Bets?" Conan offered.
"Oh, I'm sure he'll tell Hakuba that's he joking." Hattori smirked. "After he's got the dress on him."
Shin'ichi sighed ruefully. "And me without my camera..."
Ai smirked. "I've getting this on tape."
.............//Ö\\...
The next morning, long after Hakuba had finally found the door out of the lab and had exited it, the laughing thief on his heels, the Kudo residence once again received a visitor.
This time however, the Kid knocked on the kitchen door, seeing as both twins and Hattori were currently devouring breakfast with the voracious appetites that all teenagers have. Shin'ichi opened the door to find the Kid, dressed in black once more, standing there awkwardly. "Hi."
"Hi." Shin'ichi deadpanned back.
"I figured I should drop by and say hello, save you the trouble of tracking me down and all."
"Good idea!" Hattori piped up, waving the remains of a very chewed on familiar white loafer. "I'm -keeping- this!" He grinned.
The thief shot Hattori a slightly sour look.
"Come on in." Shin'ichi waved the thief in, smoothly heading back to his own meal waiting for him at the table.
"Thanks." Kid stepped in, slipping his shoes off and shutting the door behind him. He took a seat on a stool next to one of the counters, out of reach from the table.
They sat around in apprehensive silence for several minutes, each waiting for the others to start talking.
"So, what's up?" Conan broke the silence with his high child's voice.
The Kid chuckled nervously, running a hand through his unruly hair. "Well, first off, thanks for letting me head home last night. You could have just shipped me of to the cops, so thanks."
Hattori waved it off. "Don't worry about it. How's Hakuba doing?"
"As well as can be expected." The Kid shrugged. "We made a deal. He doesn't mention what he thinks he knows about me and I don't use him as a life-sized marionette. And in the unlikely case that I flub up and he catches me legitimately, he has to come and visit me in jail occasionally so we can trade snarky barbs through the bars. Neither of us is exactly -happy- over the whole deal, but we'll live. Or not, in his case. You know. Whatever..." He trailed off uncertainly, his eyes darting around the kitchen like he was half expecting armed guards to suddenly come bursting in through the walls to grab him.
"It doesn't do you a fat lot of good if we track you down turn you in, huh?" Shin'ichi almost purred, an extra-ordinarily pleased grin on his intelligent face.
"Exactly."
Hattori broke the tense air by chuckling. Conan smirked as well, a shark-like grin that would have more fitting on Akako than on the not-boy. "Actually, we have a proposition for you, if you're willing."
An eyebrow rose. "Proposition?"
"It took a little convincing-" Conan shot a pointed look at his other self "But you ended up being a bigger help than any of us expected."
"So we're willing not to actively look for who you are behind that monocle in exchange for any useful information you pick up about the Black Organisation." Shin'ichi muttered, just a tad bit of bitterness in his tone. It rankled his sense of justice to not just turn in the thief, even if he could see the advantages.
"What they're trying to say is we're wondering if you wouldn't mind doing this again." Hattori piped up, swallowing a mouthful of eggs. "Not the get getting bit by vampires and chased by zombies part, but the you get the info we can't access, and we go kick some butt."
An eyebrow arched over the sunglasses as the Kid gave them a level look. "Let me get this straight." He said, his face and voice an unreadable blank. "In exchange for keeping your mouths shut about you -possibly- knowing who I am off hours, you want me to risk my life, my limbs, my reputation and any contacts I might have to play -stoolie- for you?"
Conan and Kudo shifted uncomfortably at the phrasing. Hattori just smirked.
Kid nodded solemnly and turned to leave.
Hattori spoke up. "We'll feed you chocolate."
The thief turned around and so fast it nearly gave the twins whiplash. "Okay!"
"Okay?!" Shin'ichi sputtered. "...Just like that? Okay?!"
The Kid beamed, his grin stretching from ear to ear. "Yup!"
Conan thought about it for a moment as his twin gaped like a stranded fish. "Well, everyone's got to have their standards, I suppose..."
The Kid laughed, a merry sound as opposed to his usual mocking laughter, as he bonelessly plopped back down on the stool. "Actually, sounds like a deal to me. Some information I pick up is completely worthless to me, but you'd probably find... interesting. But I do have to admit I'm surprised that you'd compromise your 'morals' enough to offer."
"We could just say that it's the lesser of two evils." Hattori smirked. "Like I said, bigger fish in the sea."
"And if we turn you in, it's going to upset Aoko-neechan." Conan piped up, looking once again like an innocent little kid. "And if Aoko-neechan gets upset, Ran-neechan's gonna get upset, then we're -all- in trouble."
Shin'ichi grumbled, his displeasure making it quite clear that the only reason why he was willing to go along with this was because of the threat of his significant other's reaction.
Kid paused, trying to follow that line of logic and failing. He finally shrugged, deciding it really didn't matter what the detectives logic was, just so long as he remained free and out of behind bars.
"You hungry?" Hattori offered. "We've got lots."
"Nah. Thanks but no thanks." The Kid motioned over his shoulder. "I've got to get home and let the doves know that they can stand down from red alert status."
Hattori paused, mulling that mental picture over. "Riiiight."
"Why don't we walk you out then?" Kudo rose from his chair. "The neighbours will think something strange is going on if they see people heading and out of the side doors all the time."
"And they don't already?" Kid quipped, leaning over to pick up his shoes anyway.
"Ha. Funny." Shin'ichi tilted his head, leading the way out. "This way."
The Kid shrugged and followed, Conan and Hattori's chairs scraping as they got out of their seats to escort the thief out as well.
"Nice place." The Kid commented, looking around, the hand not holding his shoes pointedly in his sweatshirt pocket. "Looks like some place out of a book."
"Dad's sense of drama." Conan quipped. "And I -am- going to tell him what you said. I want to see if falls down."
"Heh."
"What was that?" Shin'ichi asked, a bit of a suspicious air in his tone.
"I like his Night Baron series." Kid grinned, tossing Conan a wink. "Though granted, his storylines are getting a bit predictable."
Shin'ichi grinned, pausing at the front entryway. "I'll pass on that last part, if you don't mind."
"Hee." The Kid set his shoes down on the ground below the step to the door. "If you want."
Hattori gave the thief a fang-filled grin, giving him a mock salute. "See you later... Kaito."
Kid raised an eyebrow as he slipped his shoes on. "That's 'Mister Kid' to you, Wolfy." He informed him.
"Eh?" The detectives blinked.
"Don't you know?" He pulled on the heel of one shoe, settling it more firmly on his foot. "'Kid' is English. And in the English language, the family name is last." The thief flashed them a delighted grin.
"You're saying your name really is Kaitou Kid?" Conan echoed in disbelief.
"Well, let's put it this way." He tugged the other shoe. "What does Aoko call me?"
The Twins exchanged a look. "Kaito."
"What did Hakuba call me?"
"Kaito."
"And what am I?"
"Kaitou."
"And so the problem is what-?"
"..." The Twins and Hattori stared at him.
"Never mind..." Hattori got the feeling that this was one fight he wasn't going to win.
The Kid grinned, giving them a mock salute as he slipped out the door and stepped out the front porch to the Kudo residence with a pleased air. The three detectives watched through the open door as the thief stuck his hands in his pockets and headed down the walk, whistling a merry tune as he did so.
"Think we did the right thing?" Shin'ichi asked uncertainly, still not comfortable with making deals with known thieves.
Conan shrugged. "I think so."
"He's probably as un-comfortable about it as we are." Hattori noted. "After all, we're the ones that have him by the short hairs, metaphorically speaking."
"Yeah..." The smallest detective glanced up, and froze, wide eyed. "Or does he?!"
"Huh?"
Conan pointed towards the east where the glowing figure of the Kaitou Kid could be seen gliding his way towards downtown.
"What the-?!"
They tossed off their house scuffs and scrambled into their sneakers, running out to the lawn. The figure of dark clad Kid checking both ways before crossing the street, still whistling away could clearly be seen to their left. They turned and looked up to the right at the to verify that yes, the Kid was winging his way in the other direction.
They looked back and forth several times until both figures disappeared into the distance. "No way..."
Conan thought about it for a minute, then shrugged, dismissing it from his mind as un-important and headed towards the front gate with a large sigh.
"Since we're out here, might as well go get the mail..."
._.·¨¯¨·._.·¨¯¨·._.· Finis ._.·¨¯¨·._.·¨¯¨·._.·
Sept 02 - June 03 (awful long time for something that was supposed to be a one-shot for Halloween)
Not that anyone cares, but Conan is the doppelganger, the cure would only work on the original.
Voices decided that Shuichi is the master Vampire. Yes, it doesn't make sense, go figure.
'Golden Dusk' Mansion has been translated as 'Sunshine', 'Sunset' and 'Golden Dusk'. Take your pick. #^^#
Asked the Only_One_Truth ML when the scene to kill Vermouth was coming up how they'd like to see her bite the dust. We threw out the anvil idea in jest, but several people liked it so... *shrugs* Squishy.
... what other notes am I forgetting? @_o
***
The Kid glared. "Ah, bite me."
"She did." Hattori pointed it out. "That's what started this whole mess."
"Vampyre" is the name of the Alternate Universe it belongs to.
More fics in the 'Vampyre Universe' to be posted soon, they've been finished for a while. ^^;;
Night Dreams Pt III (conclusion)
By Icka! M. Chif
After today the following expression will no longer strike you as being in the least bit amusing: "Friends help friends move. Real friends help friends move bodies."
-humorscope.com
..........//Ö\\.....................
"There's a bird outside the window." Aoko said, looking somewhat disturbed.
"Yeah." Ran smiled fondly, not looking. "There are a lot of birds around here."
"Holding a letter?" Aoko ventured, tilting her head to the side in bafflement.
"WHAT?!" Both Ran and Kazuha jumped out of their chairs to leap towards the window.
A raven looked at them, tilting its head. A folded piece of paper was in its beak. It blinked, then launched itself off the branch it was perched on and flew towards them. The girls backed up a step as it touched down on the window ledge long enough to drop the note, then took off into the night sky, making a loud cackling sound.
Ran looked at the piece of paper. "It's a note."
"Well, obviously." Kazuha growled. In her experience, large black ravens swooping down to drop off notes were not a good thing.
"What's it say?" Aoko asked, peeking over their shoulders.
Ran picked it up and gave it a glance over before responding. "Shin'ichi, Conan-kun, Hattori-kun and Kaito-kun have been captured." Ran read slowly, making sure that her eyes weren't deceiving her. "There's an address if we'd like to go rescue them."
"Ooo..." Kazuha scowled. "Boys. Always getting themselves in trouble."
"We'd better call the police." Aoko sighed.
Ran cleared her throat. "By ourselves, it says. Girls only."
"Girls only?" Kazuha echoed, crossing her arms. "It's most likely a trap."
"Well, what else can we do?" Ran demanded back.
Aoko paused a minute. "I think I may know someone who might like to come. May I borrow your phone?"
"Of course." Ran assured her. "It's in the hall."
"Thanks." Aoko paused to pick up the mop Kaito had given her, which she had left beside the chair, went into the hall and dialled a number.
"Hello, Akako-chan? Do you need some more bunnies?"
........//Ö\\................
"Ow." Conan rolled his head back as he woke up and made a hiss of pain. "Very ow."
"You okay?" Hattori's concerned voice asked from his right side.
"Define 'okay'." He grumbled, squinting his eyes in an effort to see. "Where are we?"
"Some sort of factory, it appears." Shin'ichi's voice commented from his left. "I was starting to get worried, you weren't waking up."
"I told you the gas probably hit his smaller form harder." Hattori commented.
"Yeah, then explain -them-." Shin'ichi retorted.
"Them?" Conan looked around, then realised that he was attached to a wall via straps around his wrists, ankles and torso. To his right was a sulking furry Hattori. On his right was his larger half. When he strained his neck to look past Shin'ichi, he could see a passed out Kaitou Kid, still wearing his top hat and monocle, and Hakuba both fastened to the wall as well. "How long have we been out of it?"
"I've been up for about 15 minutes, I think." Hattori supplied helpfully. "Kudo just woke up a few minutes ago, and now you. Don't know how long it's been other than that. Neither of us have been able to break the straps or wiggle free, but you're welcome to try."
Hattori's faster werewolf metabolism would cycle anything through his system faster, Conan noted as he methodically tested his bonds. But it didn't explain the half-vampire or the zombie continued sleep. "Maybe it was geared more for the un-dead than the living?" He supplied.
As if on cue, both Kid and Hakuba's eyes opened and they lifted up their heads.
"-Or not."
"Geh." The Kid groaned. "Feels like Nakamori-keibu and his men are playing 'Dogpile the Bandit' on my BRAIN..."
Hakuba muttered something un-printable in English before clearing his throat. "Where are we?" He asked.
"Factory." Hattori volunteered. "We're just hanging around."
"He's bad enough, thank you." Hakuba retorted. "We don't need jokes from the peanut gallery."
The werewolf made a face back. Humour was while the Kid glared at his rival. "Oh, bite me."
"Isn't that what started this whole mess?" Conan pointed out.
Any further retorts were stopped when a smooth voice replied from the shadows below them. "Very true."
Light-hearted jabs were gone in a flash, replaced by hard eyed game faces. A smirking figure dressed in black stepped out into the ring of light they were under. Conan and Shin'ichi stiffened in recognition. "Vermouth."
"Vermouth, huh?" Kid looked at the Vampire with obvious distain. "What is it with you guys and alcoholic drinks? Do you have to be very drunk to join or something?"
He obliviously ignored the irony of that statement.
The blonde Vampire smiled sweetly back at him. "Remind me to have your tongue cut out later."
"It wouldn't work." Conan shook his head. "He'd still probably find some way to annoy you."
The other detectives nodded in agreement.
"Fine." Vermouth pulled something off of a nearby crate and walked over to the Kid, taking care of the thief's smart mouth the old-fashioned way.
By putting a strip of duct tape across his mouth.
"Thanks." Hakuba looked vaguely relived at the magician-thief's silence. The blonde woman looked pretty pleased with herself as well as she rested her hands on her hips, smirking at the boys. "Now, if we could get down to business..."
......//Ö\\......................
Kazuha, Ran and Aoko met a long dark haired girl dressed in a very tight, very revealing, very form-fitting outfit about a block from the address they were instructed to meet.
"Akako-chan!" Aoko grinned, waving. "Glad you could make it."
"Nakamori." Akako nodded aloofly. She noted the mop the wild haired girl was carrying over one shoulder like a bokken at rest. "I see you're armed."
Aoko grinned. "Ran-chan, Kazuha-chan, this is Koizumi Akako. She likes bunnies."
"Pleased to meet you..." Kazuha and Ran pulled up short. "Bunnies?" They chorused in confusion.
"All sorts of small animals, really." Akako flipped some hair back over her shoulder, the snakes on her shoulder armour ducking to avoid being entangled. "Rabbits just usually happen to be convenient."
"I see...." Ran and Kazuha exchanged worried looks.
"It's better not to ask." Aoko supplied cheerfully. "Shall we go?"
"Certainly."
......................//Ö\\...
The Kid looked irritated enough to fry an egg on his head.
In fact, he started steaming.
Literally.
Fine white wisps of smoke rose from the Kid's cape and coat, slowly building up into a semi-transparent cloud.
"Oi! No smoking here!" Vermouth snapped, irritated at the continued interruption. "Stop that!"
"I didn't know he had a smoking jacket." Hattori quipped, flashing a toothy grin. The twins glared at him for the pun. He shrugged back. When things got serious, sometimes the best defense was humour.
Despite their captor's protests, the cloud only grew thicker, encompassing both the thief and the blond detective next to him.
Then as quickly as it appeared, it faded away.
To reveal a furious Hakuba bound and gagged with a stripe of duct tape where the Kid had a few minutes before. The Kid now hung in Hakuba's place.
"Well, that was a lame escape." Kudo commented.
The Kid glared. "Like you're doing any better. Oi, Techie boy! Your cuff links don't happen to turn into saw blades or something, do they?"
Conan sighed. If he had anything that would have worked, he would have done it before Vermouth showed up. "Told you he'd find another way to annoy you." He informed Vermouth.
"That's true." She nodded. "If we weren't so interested in acquiring his skills, it'd probably be a lot easier just dispose of him now. But then we'd miss all the fun."
"You call this fun?" Shin'ichi inquired.
"Depends on where you are." Vermouth smirked. She was having a marvellous time. It wasn't every day that she had such fine specimens of young men hanging around for decoration. All she needed was some extra large picture frames and she'd be set.
The boys sweatdropped.
...//Ö\\...............
"You sure this is the right place?" Aoko asked, looking around the darken room with a bit of trepidation.
The lights clicked on, momentarily blinding them. When they could see again, they looked around to see a large room filled with a bunch of scary looking pale-faced people wearing dark clothing standing around. Most of them appeared to be sporting fashionably bloody bite marks on their necks, wrists and other assorted places on their bodies.
There was a slight pause as groups stared at each other.
Then the said group of scary pale-faced people wearing dark clothing and bite marks screamed and ran towards the quartet of girls.
The girls did the logical thing when confronted by a large group of scary people coming towards them.
Screamed at the top of their lungs and charged right back towards them.
Okay, maybe it wasn't the sanest thing to do, but they, like their currently bound male counterparts, weren't exactly known for their common sense.
But they were less than pleased at their boyfriends/childhood friends/undefined/whatever being captured and burning off a little steam looked like a good idea.
Ran attacked the mass of people like a raging tiger, striking and kicking anyone who dared to get close enough, Kazuha following. The Osaka girl's style wasn't as fierce as her friends, but it was equally effective as she flowed through the crowd like water.
What Aoko lacked in style and grace, she more than made up for in sheer power and temper. Cursing a blue streak, she attacked anyone crazy enough to think that she was an easy target with a glare hard enough to crush metal, an alarming vocabulary of curse words and her chosen weapon, a mop.
Akako didn't bother breaking a sweat in her defense as she calmly walked through the room, sprinkling a fine sparkling pink powder as she went, happily humming a soft tune to herself and smiling beatifically. With the occasional pause for gleeful maniacal laughter, of course.
And everywhere she went, she left behind a trail of bunnies.
Gun bunnies, playing bunnies, honey bunnies, Easter bunnies, dust bunnies, chocolate bunnies, every sort of bunny imaginable.
The fight, if you could call it that, was over before the girl's opponents knew it even began.
In short, the guys may have been the brains of the operation, but the girls were most definitely the butt-kickers.
...........//Ö\\............................
"The thing I don't understand is why did they attack Hakuba in the first place." Kid commented towards the woman below. "He didn't even know about the organization until you killed him."
"You know, for someone you don't speak all that highly of, you sure do seem to be concerned about him." Hattori smirked.
"Oh, I'm not." Kid said breezily. "But he's been following me for so long now, I start to wonder about him when he's not there. Kind of like a little lost puppy that follows you everywhere."
Hakuba protested being called 'a little lost puppy'. At least he would have, if they duct tape hadn't been across his mouth. He settled for an 'As-soon-as-I-get-my-hands-on-you-I'm-going-to-wring-your-scrawny-little-neck' glare instead. The Kid merely grinned and winked back.
Vermouth snickered. "Actually, it's a very amusing little story, all things considered. My subordinates mistook him for someone else."
There was a fraction of a pause before both Shin'ichi and Conan started snickering.
"You..." Shin'ichi hooted "You thought-"
"-he was SHERRY?!"
The twins howled with laughter. Both Hattori and the Kid looked confused. "I don't get it."
The Vampire's lips twitched. "Sherry is female."
Hattori started snickering as the thief turned toward the blond detective, his eyes wide in a combination of amazement and humour. "They thought you were a GIRL?!" The Kid's bell like laughter ran out.
Hakuba sighed. It wasn't enough that they killed him and turned him to some sort of un-dead creature of the night, noooo. They had to gag him, tie him up and make fun of him too.
Right now in his opinion, life, and Vampires in general, sucked.
................//Ö\\.....
The girls burst into the room with an un-intentional dramatic entrance, the door making a loud bell like sound as it struck the wall with a great amount of force, the girls posing in the doorway, the room filled with sprawled unconcious bodies behind them backlighting them.
"Oi!" Kazuha shouted, striding as if she were in charge of the place, the other girls following. "We're here to rescue our friends!" Kazuha snapped, pointing a finger at Vermouth. "And you can't stop us!"
Ran firmly backed up that statement, with a glare that could have scourced steel. Akako seemed almost amused.
"Wait!" Aoko looked at the imprisoned boys in confusion. "That's not -my- Kaito!"
"Huh?" That effectively brought the dramatic build up to a halt.
"It's -A- Kaitou," Aoko explained "But it's not -MY- Kaito."
Hakuba and Akako sweatdropped. Sometimes the Inspector's daughter was just a bit too dense.
"Well, if you don't want him, then I'll take him." Akako cheerfully volunteered.
"I think you're pretty much screwed." Hattori casually informed the thief.
Kid sweatdropped. "Ye-ah."
"Oh, Kid-kun!" Ran waved "Nice to meet you again!"
The thief smiled and cheerfully waved back, at least as much as he was able to with his wrists pinned against the wall. "Like wise, Ran-san. I do apologise for knocking you out and taking your appearance back on the boat. And knocking you out at the Magic Lover Club meeting."
"-Don't forget masqurading as her father." Conan helpfully supplied.
"It's okay!" Ran chirped. "You were very nice about it. But please don't be too alarmed if I hit you later."
"Not a problem." The Kid agreed earnestly. "Please don't be offended if I dodge."
"Of course."
The Kid smiled and motioned to Shin'ichi. "Hey, Kudo! Your girlfriend is really nice. Why can't you be more like her?"
"She's not my... oh, never mind." Kudo sighed, wondering if it would be acceptable to hit his head against the wall. "What do you want with them anyway?" He demanded, turning an angry eye at Vermouth. "The girls have nothing to do with this!"
Vermouth smirked. "An eye for an eye, Cool Guy. But not to worry, -I- won't harm a hair on our Angel's head."
If anything, that put them even more on guard. Vermouth grinned and caught the Kid's eye.
The thief jerked as if he'd been shocked, his eyes fading from the red-violet they had slowly been changing into back to the glowing ruby red he had first met them with. With a quick twist of his wrists, he slipped from his bonds and landed on the floor in a cat-like crouch, then abruptly appeared to disappeared.
"However, being able to control anyone with my blood in them is a useful trick to have." The blonde woman smirked, flashing a bit of fang.
"You're the one who bit the Kid!" Kazuha exclaimed.
"Very good." Vermouth's grin turned amused. "Now the question is, will you find him before he gets to you?"
And the lights when out. The only thing illuminating the room was the half moon out side of the small windows on the tops of the walls.
That put the girls on edge. With the exception of Akako, who didn't seem to have any sort of sense of fear as she pulled out a broom, daintly sat down on it and floated up next to Hakuba's head. The remaining girls cast about for any signs of movement.
Hattori spotted him first. "Aoko! Look out!"
"Huh?" Aoko spun, the mop over one shoulder swinging around to slam into the side of the Kid's head. The Kid went flying, sailing out of her sight. "What?"
There were several sweatdrops, despite the serious nature of the atmosphere.
The fledgling Vampire was more that a little miffed about loosing his prey, and took it up with the source of his disappointment, jumping up to cling over Hattori, snarling in his face.
Hattori snarled back, his lips and nose loosing definition as they extended out into a short muzzle, his green eyes flickering a dangerous yellow. The Kid wasn't amused, biting down on Hattori's shoulder, causing the werewolf to scream in a mixture of outrage and pain.
"HEIJI!" Kazuha screamed, running towards her friend. Ran swung an arm out in attempt to stop her friend from getting hurt too.
"Get off of him!" Conan scolded. "Sit! Bad Vampire! Bad!"
The Kid's reaction was unexpected. His face curled up in disgust as he then turned around and spat the blood out, grimacing. Werewolf blood obviously didn't agree with his palette.
"Sorry to taste bad." Hattori growled, one leg breaking free of the cuff that held it down and he lashed out at the lithe thief. The Kid twisted to avoid the kick, and Hattori hit his pocket instead.
Playing cards flew out, floating to the ground like oversized confetti.
The Kid followed them down, grumbling to himself and picking up the fallen cards.
"Why's he playing fifty-two card pickup?" Shin'ichi asked, puzzled as Hattori began straining at his other bonds in attempt to break free.
"Vampires are very anal retentive." Kazuha helpfully explained.
Conan peered down at the mix of cards scattered on the ground. "Playing Cards, Duel Monsters, Pocket Monsters, Digital Monsters... Wow, he really does have a lot of different kinds of cards."
Kid said nothing, shuffling up some 'Vampire: The Masquerade' cards into his hands.
Hattori snarled triumphantly as he broke free, both the straps holding him to the wall as well as most of his clothes being torn to bits as a large wolf-dog-human hybrid hit the ground, snarling.
Both Shin'ichi and Conan swore. This was not good.
"Oh, I remember this..." Hakuba mused out loud, nodding. "Fuzzy = bad."
The Kid's head snapped up at the sound, baring his smaller fangs at the werewolf as he scooped up the last of the cards and vanished into the darkness again.
"Ran-chan! Aoko-chan!" Kazuha motioned for the girls to follow her as she ran to the wall the guys were hanging around at.
"What are you doing?!" Shin'ichi demanded.
"You guys are sitting ducks." The Osaka girl snapped back. "And at least this way, we have at least one direction they can't attack us from."
"Heiji-kun?" Aoko asked, her voice wavering a bit. She'd never seen him transform before, much less known about his curse.
Kazuha put a brief comforting hand on her arm. "It's okay. We'll explain later." If there was a later, she added silently. She wasn't quite sure if Hattori would attack them like this or not... he'd only transformed a couple of times, less severe than this. And he'd never been injured before.
In the mean time, Akako had pulled out a box of chocolate covered cherries and nibbled on them as she floated next to Hakuba's head.
"Want a bite?" She offered as she watched the drama below with a vaguely interested expression.
He shot her a glare. "I don't eat."
"Such a pity." She popped a cherry in her mouth.
"You're enjoying yourself way to much, you know that?" Hakuba deadpanned.
She shrugged. "They just asked if I wanted more bunnies. My work here is done."
He sighed and shook his head. "What is it with you and rabbits anyway?"
Akako grinned ferally. "I like bunnies." She ate another cherry. "-In soup."
Hakuba sweatdropped.
"Ran!" Conan called to the girl below him. He squirmed for a moment, then a silvery object fell from under his coat. Ran caught it.
"Conan-kun? What are you doing with a gun?!"
"It's the Kid's." Shin'ichi explained, his own weapon thankfully out of sight.
Ran looked at the gun helplessly. "What do you want me to do with it?"
Aoko sighed, rolling her eyes. "Give me that." The shorthaired girl grabbed the gun, trading her for the mop. She gave the gun a cursory inspection, then nodded. "Alright. Where are they?"
"I can't see them." Kazuha complained. All around them was darkness, no sign of the vampires or the werewolf. "Guys?"
"Nothing." Shin'ichi reported. Conan grit his teeth in frustration. If he could get to his glasses, he could use the night vision built in. And since no one other than his other self knew about them, he couldn't just pass them on for someone else to use.
"Ran?" Kazuha asked. "Picking up on anything strange?"
Ran closed her eyes, concentrating. She still wasn't completely sure how she was able to sometimes sense things that weren't there, but if it could help them out, she wasn't going to argue about it.
Silently, she pointed.
Aoko smoothly turned and fired several cards. The musical sound of the cards hitting metal rang out, then faded. Aoko snarled silently, straining her ears to hear.
The Kid came rushing out the darkness from the opposite direction, glided past Kazuha like she wasn't there and leaped for Aoko. Aoko spun, attempting to fire several shots off at the Kid.
The cards whipped around him, some slicing past his cape, others getting imbedded in his hat, pushing it of his head. Something in the background creaked and fell resulting a tremendous crash that shook the walls and caused everything to shake.
Aoko screamed, blindly scrambling to reach behind her and grab the mop back from Ran as the Kid reached for her. Ran handed it to her and she brought the mop up to block. When the new didn't work, it was time for the tried and true.
The Kid hit the mop chest first, a small black bag on a thin cut cord around his neck pressing against Aoko's bare hands. He screamed as he was suddenly repelled with great force, flying backwards back into the shadows.
Ran, Aoko, Shin'ichi and Conan stared. "What was THAT?!" Conan demanded.
Kazuha blushed faintly. "Well, um... Heiji asked me to make two omamori, one for the Kid and one for Aoko-chan. The Kid seemed kinda worried about hurting Aoko-chan, so I sort of added some small protection charms to her omamori to make sure he couldn't..."
"I'd say they worked..." Shin'ichi whistled.
The Kid suddenly re-appeared, running towards them at top speed. "AAHHHHHH!!" He screamed, jumping past them to flip up onto Akako's broom and perch like a gargoyle on the bristle part of the broom. Heiji the werewolf followed, barking and jumping up to snap at the thief's heels.
"Bad doggie! Go away, doggie! Ohhh, what did I ever do to you?" Kid comically bemoaned as Hattori managed to grab one of his loafers with his teeth and yank it off the thief's foot. Akako raised an eyebrow, floating the broom just a little bit higher so that her ankles didn't get nipped at too.
"I'd say he's back to normal." Hakuba smirked as Hattori shook the white shoe like a rag doll before proceeding to gnaw on it, glaring cheerfully at the Kid the whole time.
"That's my shoe, you mangy mutt!" Kid shook his fist at the werewolf, nearly falling off the broom as he did so.
"Heiji!" Kazuha whistled. "C'mere, Heiji!"
The werewolf turned and trotted over to Kazuha, proudly holding on to his 'prize' with a very self-satisfied expression. Kazuha knelt down and dug her fingers into his ruff, murmuring at him the entire time as he leaned against her, nearly knocking her over with his weight.
"Your boyfriend is a dog?" Aoko puzzled, idly aiming the gun in the Kid's direction.
"Not always."
Ran looked around. "Where is Vermouth?"
"Allow me to shed some light on that subject." Akako whispered some words into her cupped hands, then tossed a spark of light into the air. It grew until it was about the size of a soccer ball, illuminating the room as well as the previous fluorescent bulbs had.
Lying off to one side, they were able to see what had been the source of the crash while the Kid had attacked Aoko.
A giant anvil lay embedded in the ground, a pair of legs sticking out of it in much the same manner of the former Wicked Witch of the East from the Wizard of Oz.
"Ding dong, the witch is dead." Conan dryly quipped. Ran glared at him for the comment. Shin'ichi grinned.
"An ANVIL?!" Kazuha exclaimed.
"So it would appear." Hakuba helpfully agreed.
"Yes, but an -anvil-?!"
"Well..." The Kid glanced around. "This would be an anvil factory."
The detectives and the girls looked around, verifying this fact with their own eyes. "Oh. So it is."
"What is an anvil factory doing in Tokyo?" The completely confused Kazuha wanted to know.
"Does it matter?"
"Oh."
A soft chuckle from the shadows caused them to jump and go on guard again. "As entertaining as this all is..." A small shadow stepped forward, into the light, pale blond hair shining like a halo around her head.
"Haibara?!" The twins exclaimed, surprised. She shot them a small smirk.
"... You might want to consider leaving now." The blond scientist continued. "Your fight wasn't exactly quiet, and there are certain facts-" She gave a pointed look to the Kid still sitting on Akako's floating broom and Wolf-Hattori, who had the thief's shoe pinned between 2 paws so he could chew on it easier. "-that you might not want to explain to the police."
Kid nodded. "Yeah." He and cops didn't exactly get along.
Aoko smirked, pointedly pointing the card gun at the thief. "Speaking of leaving..."
"My cue to go!" The Kid said quickly. A quick flash of smoke appeared where he had been resting, and he was gone.
The Inspector's daughter fired in a futile attempt to hit the Kaitou, and a bouquet of red and white roses burst out of the gun. "Dammit!" She swore, letting loose with a stream of curse words that left Ran blushing and Wolf-Hattori grinning broadly.
"Where did you learn to handle a gun like that?" Shin'ichi asked, ignoring the curses. "Aren't you a bit underage?"
Conan smirked, not bothering to mention that both he and his older self were also both proficient with the weapon.
Aoko shrugged. "When Mom..." She trailed off and started again. "Dad figured that if he was going to be raising a small child by himself and with his hours, he figured that the best way for me to know that a gun is not a toy was for me to learn how to use one."
"You've been firing guns since you were a child?!" Ran stared at the wild haired girl in shock.
"Of course not." Aoko dismissed the comment. "First thing he taught me was how they worked, how to take them apart and put them together again. It's only been the past couple of years that I've developed the arm strength to shoot anything worthwhile."
The Kansai couple sweatdropped and laughed nervously as the Tokyo natives stared. Kaito's girl was a gun bunny.
Ai tilted her head to the side. "Shall we go?"
"Right." Shin'ichi offered his arm to Ran. "Shall we?"
She looped an arm through his. "Certainly." They strolled out the door, the Osaka pair and a still darkly muttering Aoko following. Hakuba and Akako brought up the rear.
Conan turned and looked at Ai, who was smiling innocently, her hands behind her back. "Bolt cutters?" He questioned.
She pulled the pair she'd been holding behind her back out into the light, a teasing smirk on her face. "Are you sure you want to know?"
He paused, then sighed, shaking his head. It really didn't matter after all. "I think we'd better catch up with the others."
"Good idea." She agreed, following the others out the door. He sighed again, sticking his hands in his pockets and following. He was -never- going to understand her...
The group collectively paused as they reached the door leading to where the girls had fought the ghouls. A figure in dark clothes leaned against the wall, looking at something in the room.
"Kaito?" Aoko blinked, then walked up to her friend, looking puzzled. "What are you doing here?"
"You know me." He shrugged gamely, his violet-red eyes shooting the detectives a guarded look. "Always following the Kid around."
"Like a lawyer after an ambulance." Hakuba agreed.
The Kid, dressed once more in his over-sized dark clothes and sunglasses, motioned farther into the room. "The Cat really likes bunnies." He commented off-handily.
"Cat?"
The thief pointed. More than half the bunnies that had filled the room when the girls had left it were gone. The rest were a trembling fuzzy mass backed up against one wall, the small form of the black winged kitten prowling in front of them.
"Kawaii!" Akako not quite squealed as she bounced. "Here, kitty!"
The cat looked at her, sized her up for a minute, and then padded over to the dark sorceress. Akako looked delighted and picked the furry creature up, scratching it behind the ears. The winged cat purred at the attention.
"I think he likes you." Kid smirked.
"Really?" Akako smiled, turning to the cat. "Want to come home with me?"
The cat burped, a small wisp of fire shooting from its mouth as it did so.
"It's a match made in heaven." Hakuba deadpanned, obviously meaning the other direction.
Shin'ichi coughed earning him an elbow in the gut from Ran. "We all here again?" He asked.
"Yup." Conan agreed, walking along side wolf-Hattori and Kazuha. His larger self smiled.
Ai reached up and poked Hakuba on the side.
"When we get back, I'm going to need to you to strip for me again." She informed him.
Hakuba sweatdropped as the guys hid snickers from the girls.
......//Ö\\...............
Looking almost mesmerised, the Kid padded softly up behind Aoko, his eyes intent on the back of her neck. His eyes held a hungry, glazed look.
Hattori noticed just as thief was in arms reach of the girl. "Kid!"
At the sound of his voice, Aoko turned, the mop that laid casually over one shoulder swinging around and forcibly whacking the Kid in the face and knocking him down. "Something wrong?"
The werewolf sighed, sweatdropping as the thief shook slowly sat up, holding his ringing head with one hand. His eyes had lost the glazed look in place of a pained 'what hit me?' expression instead.
"Never mind..."
....//Ö\\..................
Ai stepped out of her laboratory, looking solemn. Everyone lounged around the room in various degrees of relaxation and stress. The girls were there as well, some of the time taken up filling them in on the past night's events. "I've got some bad news, and some good news." She announced.
The group fell silent. Except for the Kid, who was in a much chipper mood now that he knew he wasn't going to turn into a bloodsucker. "Don't you mean some good news and some bad news?" He questioned.
She gave him a flat look. "It depends on your perspective."
"Oh."
The miniature scientist snorted, looking amused. "Fine. The -news-, as it were was, is that his-" A thumb was jerked in Kid's direction, they were pointedly not mentioning him by name. "-magic trick truly did backfire. Instead of merely severing the connection, and thus the spells between the detective and the castor, it re-assigned a different energy source to fuel the spells."
"Meaning?" Shin'ichi questioned.
"It is the his magical abilities that is currently keeping Hakuba-san 'alive'."
"So... he is like... Hakuba's 'Master' now?" Hattori mused out loud. He was still very furry and wolfish looking, but looking pretty pleased with himself as he perched on a stool, dressed in a pair of borrowed sweatpants.
"Master?" The Kid looked at the detective in disbelief. "Does this mean you have to do anything I tell you to now?"
Hakuba glowered. "Not a chance."
The Kid's disbelief quickly faded into look of pure devilment. "Really-?" With a snap of his wrists, a black and white maids outfit, complete with puffed sleeves and ruffled apron, appeared in his hands (Which was a shame, he'd been aiming for a French maid's outfit, but his magic was still a bit off). "I've got a few things that could use some cleaning, Saguru-chan..."
The English Detective blanched and backed up a step. "You're kidding."
A wide grin across the Kid's face was his only answer.
Hakuba's nerve broke and he ran.
"Wait up, Saguru-chaaaaaan!" Kid merrily sang, chasing after Hakuba as he waved the dress around like a battle flag. "I'm sure this'll fit you perfectly!"
A laughing Kazuha and Ran kept Aoko from pulling out her mop and chasing after them while the detectives and the scientist watched the two run around the room with an air of detached amusement. "Bets?" Conan offered.
"Oh, I'm sure he'll tell Hakuba that's he joking." Hattori smirked. "After he's got the dress on him."
Shin'ichi sighed ruefully. "And me without my camera..."
Ai smirked. "I've getting this on tape."
.............//Ö\\...
The next morning, long after Hakuba had finally found the door out of the lab and had exited it, the laughing thief on his heels, the Kudo residence once again received a visitor.
This time however, the Kid knocked on the kitchen door, seeing as both twins and Hattori were currently devouring breakfast with the voracious appetites that all teenagers have. Shin'ichi opened the door to find the Kid, dressed in black once more, standing there awkwardly. "Hi."
"Hi." Shin'ichi deadpanned back.
"I figured I should drop by and say hello, save you the trouble of tracking me down and all."
"Good idea!" Hattori piped up, waving the remains of a very chewed on familiar white loafer. "I'm -keeping- this!" He grinned.
The thief shot Hattori a slightly sour look.
"Come on in." Shin'ichi waved the thief in, smoothly heading back to his own meal waiting for him at the table.
"Thanks." Kid stepped in, slipping his shoes off and shutting the door behind him. He took a seat on a stool next to one of the counters, out of reach from the table.
They sat around in apprehensive silence for several minutes, each waiting for the others to start talking.
"So, what's up?" Conan broke the silence with his high child's voice.
The Kid chuckled nervously, running a hand through his unruly hair. "Well, first off, thanks for letting me head home last night. You could have just shipped me of to the cops, so thanks."
Hattori waved it off. "Don't worry about it. How's Hakuba doing?"
"As well as can be expected." The Kid shrugged. "We made a deal. He doesn't mention what he thinks he knows about me and I don't use him as a life-sized marionette. And in the unlikely case that I flub up and he catches me legitimately, he has to come and visit me in jail occasionally so we can trade snarky barbs through the bars. Neither of us is exactly -happy- over the whole deal, but we'll live. Or not, in his case. You know. Whatever..." He trailed off uncertainly, his eyes darting around the kitchen like he was half expecting armed guards to suddenly come bursting in through the walls to grab him.
"It doesn't do you a fat lot of good if we track you down turn you in, huh?" Shin'ichi almost purred, an extra-ordinarily pleased grin on his intelligent face.
"Exactly."
Hattori broke the tense air by chuckling. Conan smirked as well, a shark-like grin that would have more fitting on Akako than on the not-boy. "Actually, we have a proposition for you, if you're willing."
An eyebrow rose. "Proposition?"
"It took a little convincing-" Conan shot a pointed look at his other self "But you ended up being a bigger help than any of us expected."
"So we're willing not to actively look for who you are behind that monocle in exchange for any useful information you pick up about the Black Organisation." Shin'ichi muttered, just a tad bit of bitterness in his tone. It rankled his sense of justice to not just turn in the thief, even if he could see the advantages.
"What they're trying to say is we're wondering if you wouldn't mind doing this again." Hattori piped up, swallowing a mouthful of eggs. "Not the get getting bit by vampires and chased by zombies part, but the you get the info we can't access, and we go kick some butt."
An eyebrow arched over the sunglasses as the Kid gave them a level look. "Let me get this straight." He said, his face and voice an unreadable blank. "In exchange for keeping your mouths shut about you -possibly- knowing who I am off hours, you want me to risk my life, my limbs, my reputation and any contacts I might have to play -stoolie- for you?"
Conan and Kudo shifted uncomfortably at the phrasing. Hattori just smirked.
Kid nodded solemnly and turned to leave.
Hattori spoke up. "We'll feed you chocolate."
The thief turned around and so fast it nearly gave the twins whiplash. "Okay!"
"Okay?!" Shin'ichi sputtered. "...Just like that? Okay?!"
The Kid beamed, his grin stretching from ear to ear. "Yup!"
Conan thought about it for a moment as his twin gaped like a stranded fish. "Well, everyone's got to have their standards, I suppose..."
The Kid laughed, a merry sound as opposed to his usual mocking laughter, as he bonelessly plopped back down on the stool. "Actually, sounds like a deal to me. Some information I pick up is completely worthless to me, but you'd probably find... interesting. But I do have to admit I'm surprised that you'd compromise your 'morals' enough to offer."
"We could just say that it's the lesser of two evils." Hattori smirked. "Like I said, bigger fish in the sea."
"And if we turn you in, it's going to upset Aoko-neechan." Conan piped up, looking once again like an innocent little kid. "And if Aoko-neechan gets upset, Ran-neechan's gonna get upset, then we're -all- in trouble."
Shin'ichi grumbled, his displeasure making it quite clear that the only reason why he was willing to go along with this was because of the threat of his significant other's reaction.
Kid paused, trying to follow that line of logic and failing. He finally shrugged, deciding it really didn't matter what the detectives logic was, just so long as he remained free and out of behind bars.
"You hungry?" Hattori offered. "We've got lots."
"Nah. Thanks but no thanks." The Kid motioned over his shoulder. "I've got to get home and let the doves know that they can stand down from red alert status."
Hattori paused, mulling that mental picture over. "Riiiight."
"Why don't we walk you out then?" Kudo rose from his chair. "The neighbours will think something strange is going on if they see people heading and out of the side doors all the time."
"And they don't already?" Kid quipped, leaning over to pick up his shoes anyway.
"Ha. Funny." Shin'ichi tilted his head, leading the way out. "This way."
The Kid shrugged and followed, Conan and Hattori's chairs scraping as they got out of their seats to escort the thief out as well.
"Nice place." The Kid commented, looking around, the hand not holding his shoes pointedly in his sweatshirt pocket. "Looks like some place out of a book."
"Dad's sense of drama." Conan quipped. "And I -am- going to tell him what you said. I want to see if falls down."
"Heh."
"What was that?" Shin'ichi asked, a bit of a suspicious air in his tone.
"I like his Night Baron series." Kid grinned, tossing Conan a wink. "Though granted, his storylines are getting a bit predictable."
Shin'ichi grinned, pausing at the front entryway. "I'll pass on that last part, if you don't mind."
"Hee." The Kid set his shoes down on the ground below the step to the door. "If you want."
Hattori gave the thief a fang-filled grin, giving him a mock salute. "See you later... Kaito."
Kid raised an eyebrow as he slipped his shoes on. "That's 'Mister Kid' to you, Wolfy." He informed him.
"Eh?" The detectives blinked.
"Don't you know?" He pulled on the heel of one shoe, settling it more firmly on his foot. "'Kid' is English. And in the English language, the family name is last." The thief flashed them a delighted grin.
"You're saying your name really is Kaitou Kid?" Conan echoed in disbelief.
"Well, let's put it this way." He tugged the other shoe. "What does Aoko call me?"
The Twins exchanged a look. "Kaito."
"What did Hakuba call me?"
"Kaito."
"And what am I?"
"Kaitou."
"And so the problem is what-?"
"..." The Twins and Hattori stared at him.
"Never mind..." Hattori got the feeling that this was one fight he wasn't going to win.
The Kid grinned, giving them a mock salute as he slipped out the door and stepped out the front porch to the Kudo residence with a pleased air. The three detectives watched through the open door as the thief stuck his hands in his pockets and headed down the walk, whistling a merry tune as he did so.
"Think we did the right thing?" Shin'ichi asked uncertainly, still not comfortable with making deals with known thieves.
Conan shrugged. "I think so."
"He's probably as un-comfortable about it as we are." Hattori noted. "After all, we're the ones that have him by the short hairs, metaphorically speaking."
"Yeah..." The smallest detective glanced up, and froze, wide eyed. "Or does he?!"
"Huh?"
Conan pointed towards the east where the glowing figure of the Kaitou Kid could be seen gliding his way towards downtown.
"What the-?!"
They tossed off their house scuffs and scrambled into their sneakers, running out to the lawn. The figure of dark clad Kid checking both ways before crossing the street, still whistling away could clearly be seen to their left. They turned and looked up to the right at the to verify that yes, the Kid was winging his way in the other direction.
They looked back and forth several times until both figures disappeared into the distance. "No way..."
Conan thought about it for a minute, then shrugged, dismissing it from his mind as un-important and headed towards the front gate with a large sigh.
"Since we're out here, might as well go get the mail..."
._.·¨¯¨·._.·¨¯¨·._.· Finis ._.·¨¯¨·._.·¨¯¨·._.·
Sept 02 - June 03 (awful long time for something that was supposed to be a one-shot for Halloween)
Not that anyone cares, but Conan is the doppelganger, the cure would only work on the original.
Voices decided that Shuichi is the master Vampire. Yes, it doesn't make sense, go figure.
'Golden Dusk' Mansion has been translated as 'Sunshine', 'Sunset' and 'Golden Dusk'. Take your pick. #^^#
Asked the Only_One_Truth ML when the scene to kill Vermouth was coming up how they'd like to see her bite the dust. We threw out the anvil idea in jest, but several people liked it so... *shrugs* Squishy.
... what other notes am I forgetting? @_o
***
The Kid glared. "Ah, bite me."
"She did." Hattori pointed it out. "That's what started this whole mess."