As the sound of Hakuba's footsteps faded out of hearing range, Kaito slowly slid down the wall until he was sitting on the floor and let out a choked laugh. He couldn't believe that had actually worked!
The detective showing up at his house to check on him – or rather, to try and catch him, the cynical part of his brain interjected– had not been in his expectations. It probably should have been, given what had gone down at that evening's heist, but his mind had been far too rattled by what had happened to even consider it.
He'd died. And then somehow he'd gotten back up.
Well, somehow probably wasn't the right way to phrase it. He knew exactly how it had happened. He reached into the pocket of his sweatpants, and pulled out the gemstone he'd stolen earlier that evening, before slowly turning it over in his fingers.
The Azure Moon had often been said to be one of the most beautiful sapphire's in the world, and it certainly had been a gorgeous gem when Kaito had first snatched it, but now it bore a large crack across its back. He would have liked to blame the damage on the bullet that had hit him, and if he ended up returning the sapphire he probably would, but he knew it had been nowhere near his chest when he had been shot. No, the damage came from the loss of the gem's true value.
With a quick flick of his fingers, the gem disappeared from sight, and Kaito scrubbed at his eyes with his now empty hands, wishing for everything that had happened to just be a bad dream. It certainly felt like one, as it stuck in his head, replaying over and over again.
The roof had been empty when he'd made it there; much to his disappointment his favorite critic hadn't shown up at the heist, and Hakuba wasn't quite as skilled at catching him off guard. He knew the London detective would catch up to him soon enough however, and so he took advantage of the temporary solitude to check his newly stolen gem, lifting the blue stone up towards the moonlight.
Such an action had become muscle memory over the course of many heists, with each gem he stole failing to reveal the secret he so desperately sought. This time however, things were different. At first he hadn't been sure it wasn't just a trick of the light, an illusion brought about by desire, but when closer inspection hadn't dispelled the sight of red, it was clear what he'd found.
A slight smile was the only bit of celebration he allowed himself for the time being, there was no telling whether or not organization members were lurking nearby, and a good magician never spoiled his tricks. Besides, Hakuba had arrived on the rooftop while he was examining the gem, and he didn't dare risk the detective getting caught in the crossfire.
"Ah Tantei-han! Running a little slow today, I see," He'd teased the detective, letting his cape flap in the wind as he twirled to face Hakuba, in order to hide him slipping the gem into his pocket. "I'm afraid I have no time to play with you anymore though, I'm a busy man after all."
He needed to get somewhere secure, to make sure that Pandora was safe while he put together the details for what would be Kaitou KID's final performance. It would be easier of course, to just destroy Pandora in secret; Kaitou KID would disappear afterwards, fading into legend like so many great thiefs before him, while Kaito went back to living a normal life.
But that wouldn't do.
For one, Kaito didn't think he could just go back to his old life; he was far too addicted to the adrenaline rush that came with thieving to just give it up. Besides, disappearing without a word wasn't something he could do to his loyal fans.
More importantly though, he needed the organization to know for sure that Pandora had been destroyed; not just for the sake of his own revenge, but so that they'd stop looking. He doesn't know how many other people besides his family had suffered because of their search, how many had died because they'd gotten in the way, but he knew it would continue as long as the organization still thought Pandora was out there.
There was no way they'd simply take his word for it though, for them to believe Pandora had really been destroyed, they'd have to see it happen. Which meant he'd have to draw them out, make sure they knew what he had was really Pandora, and destroy it before their eyes….no matter what cost he would have to pay for it.
A weight seemed to settle on his shoulders at the thought of it, and perhaps it was just a little too heavy for him to completely hide, because Hakuba was looking at him with something akin to concern. "KID, are you..."
Kaito knew what Hakuba was about to say, and there was already a flippant dismissal on the tip of his tongue, but he never got the chance to say it as a loud crack split the air. Something slammed into his chest, bringing with it a shooting pain, and sending him stumbling back several steps until he was teetering on the edge of the rooftop.
Instinctively, Kaito brought a hand up to his chest, before glancing down at the rapidly growing bloodstain that now decorated his shirt.
'I'm never going to get that all the way out.' Was his slightly hysterical thought, before the reality of the situation fully caught up with him. He'd been shot, and given he couldn't think of anyone else he'd recently ticked off enough to try and kill him, that meant the Organization had to be around. He'd known it was a possibility, a good portion of the reason he put on such elaborate performances to draw them out, but he'd let his excitement over finding Pandora lower his guard.
He should have been paying more attention to his surroundings, should have noticed they were there, should have done a lot of things.
Despite Kaito's best attempts at keeping pressure on the wound, he was still losing blood at an alarming rate, and he was beginning to feel the effects. It was getting hard to stay upright, his limbs felt like they had no strength in them, as if they were made of jelly instead of flesh and bone. From the other side of the roof he could see Hakuba staring at him in horror; he wanted to say something to reassure him, to add another lie to the already long list of ones he'd told the detective, but his body was no longer willing to cooperate with him.
As the door to the roof swung open, Kaito tipped backwards over the edge, hands grasping uselessly at the air as he fell. He'd never been afraid of falling before, had revealed in the thrill of racing towards the ground, only to catch himself at the last moment; now though, all he felt was fear.
Falling felt like it took an eternity, and yet at the same time it was all too quickly that Kaito hit the ground, the impact accompanied by a sickening crunch. A wet cough escaped his lips, expelling blood as well as air from his damaged lungs, as he lay staring up at the sky.
It was strange how the weather could change so quickly, just minutes before the sky had been clear, but now clouds had moved to block out the night sky. It was a pity, the moon had been his constant companion over the course of his many heists, his partner in the search for Pandora; if he was going to die, he would have rather it been beneath her light.
Taking one last rattling breath, Kaito closed his eyes.
He hadn't been expecting to open them again.
Kaito let out a shuddering gasp as he forced himself out of the memory, remembering it had been too vivid, like he was back there bleeding out on the ground once again. He still wasn't entirely sure how he'd managed to make it back home, his body had just kind of moved on autopilot after waking up with his injuries gone and a cracked gemstone.
He hadn't really had time to process all of it yet, not beyond the initial stages of 'I died and came back to life, and it's Pandora's fault.' Part of that had been because he was purposefully avoiding doing so, but there had also been just too many other things that needed his attention first. Getting out his bloodstained clothes and cleaning himself up had been his first priority, and then Hakuba had shown up and he'd had to deal with him.
Honestly he was kind of concerned that the way he'd gone about that was going to come back to bite him later, the way he'd acted had been far different than his usual reactions to Hakuba's accusations, but he was tired and stressed and had just wanted Hakuba to get off his back. He didn't need the detective asking questions that there was no way he could answer, and the night's events had just cemented in his mind the danger the organization posed.
As entertaining as it could be to see Hakuba frustrated over not being able to prove Kaito was KID, it was dangerous for Kuroba Kaito to be suspected to be Kaitou Kid, especially when someone was as unsubtle with their accusations as Hakuba. All it would take was for the wrong person to overhear him, for them to decide that it could be true, and it could put everyone Kaito cared about in danger.
He needed to dispel Hakuba's suspicions, and if his methods for doing so caused problems somewhere down the line, well that was future Kaito's problem.
All that had been dealt with for now though, which meant there was nothing to stop him from finally focusing on what had happened.
Kaito had known from the moment he'd stepped on his chosen path, that death was a distinct possibility. He'd known from the moment he declared his intent to find and destroy Pandora, that death was likely a certainty. It was something he'd come to terms with and accepted, even if he didn't look forward to it.
He didn't know how to come to terms with living.
Placing a hand on his chest where he'd been shot, Kaito let out a harsh breath as he one again confirmed that there was nothing left of the wound. The skin underneath his hand was smooth and unbroken, there wasn't even so much as a scar there. It was like it had never even happened, and yet he thought he could still feel a shadow of the pain that had wracked his body, like it was rebelling against the unnaturalness of him being alive.
Burying his head in his arms, Kaito gave a choked sob. He didn't want this; what was the good of being immortal, of living forever? All that meant was that you'd outlive everyone you loved and be left alone. Between his father's death and his mother deciding she'd rather travel than be with her son, he'd already been left behind more times then he'd liked; what was he going to do when everyone he cared about continued on growing and changing, while he remained the same?
How long would he even be able to stay by their side before his unchanging nature became too suspicious and he had to disappear? In the end was he going to be doomed to end up all alone?
No, no, he wasn't going to think about that. He didn't even know for sure how this newly gained immortality worked, maybe it just kept him from being killed, maybe he'd still age and grow old. And if he didn't, well, he'd just add that to the list of things that were future Kaito's problems.
…He was pretty sure future Kaito hated him at this point.
With his mental breakdown narrowly avoided, at least for the time being, Kaito pushed himself to his feet and began making his way up the stairs and towards the roof. Although he might be doing his best to not think about the more traumatic elements of the night's events, that didn't mean he didn't still have planning to do, in order to account for the new changes.
He might as well not do it alone.
His doves let out a soft cooing sound as he approached, and despite the seriousness of the issues on his mind, he couldn't help but smile at the sight of them. His first dove had been a gift from his father, and his flock had only grown since then.
As he got closer, several of them abandoned their perch on the edge of the roof in favor of landing on his shoulders and head. Absently reaching out a hand to stroke one of them, Kaito stared up at the night sky that was finally starting to clear.
The most important thing he needed to figure out was just what he was going to do with Pandora; pulling the cracked gemstone out of his pocket, he held it up to the sky, noting with interest that there was no longer any sign of red within it. He wasn't sure if that meant Pandora's power could only be used once, or if it had simply transferred to him, but it was clear that the gemstone was now useless.
Kaitou KID had a reputation for returning the gemstones he stole, which meant that it would be noticed if he didn't this time, and not just by the police. Under different circumstances, that would have been fine, but now he couldn't dare let the organization figure out that he'd found Pandora.
Currently, their pursuit of him was more passive; as far as he knew they'd stuck to going after him at heists, letting him make the first move, rather than trying to seek out his civilian identity. If they thought Pandora was in his possession, then they would hunt him down without reservation, and there was no telling who'd get caught in the crossfire.
And if they figured out he'd used Pandora…
Kaito shuddered slightly at the thought of it, disturbing the bird sitting on his left shoulder, who made her displeasure known by lightly biting him on the ear. "Sorry, Snowy." He apologized, slipping Pandora back into his pocket.
He'd have to keep up the illusion that he hadn't found what he was looking for, which meant not only returning the gem, but continuing to perform heists. He was okay with the idea of doing more heists, but he couldn't help but grimace at the idea of returning the cracked gem; doing so was totally going to ruin his reputation, he'd never damaged the object he'd stolen before.
Maybe he could get away with giving back a fake, he was pretty sure he'd built up enough of a reputation with the police that they didn't bother to check the gems anymore. That didn't mean someone else wouldn't check though, even if years passed before that happened, he'd still be the number one suspect.
He'd just have to leave a note apologizing for the damage, maybe try to blame it on the bullet despite the gem having been nowhere near it.
The second matter of business he needed to figure out was what he should do about the Organization, up til that evening he'd been content to stick to drawing them out with heists, hoping that the police attending the heists would catch them. Truth be told though, it hadn't really been working out that well.
He knew the police weren't totally unaware of their presence at the heists, he'd heard Nakamori complain about them before over dinner, but there had been very few arrests made and he was under the impression that the police thought they were separate incidents. Kaito knew he probably should have been doing more to hunt them down, but his focus had been on finding Pandora and he already had enough things going on that he'd let himself believe that everything would work out as long as he found the gem.
He couldn't think like that anymore though. It was funny how painfully dying had a way of destroying your naivety.
Scrubbing a hand across his face, Kaito tiredly pulled out his phone and squinted at the time, letting out a groan as he realized it was already 4:04. He had to be up for school in less than three hours and he still hadn't gone to sleep.
Oh well, it was hardly his first late night, and if Aoko said anything about how tired he was, he could always blame a certain detective for waking him up.
"I'm about to be really busy, aren't I?" Kaito whispered to his doves, and Snowy let out a soft coo, as if to say 'Aren't you already?'
Kaito let out a laugh, though it was far from a happy one. "You're right, of course. Silly me." Now that he thought of it, he really was quite busy. Becoming a wanted criminal and trying to take down a criminal organization, took up a surprisingly large amount of time. "It's going to get worse though. I don't really know quite what I'm going to do yet, but I've got to do more than I have been."
Gathering information would be the best place to start, he supposed, it would be easier to know what to do if he knew exactly what he was dealing with. It was something he should have done sooner, information gathering was something he excelled at, even if it wasn't always intentionally; it was amazing the type of things you overheard while jumping across rooftops at night. And yet despite that, he hadn't done as much research as he should have against his own enemy.
How big was the organization? How big of a reach did they have? Were there any of their members in positions of power or within the police? Was obtaining Pandora their entire goal, or was it only part of it? Those were all questions he should have been trying to find the answers to sooner, though it was better late than never he supposed.
"I can get Gramps to help gather information and Mom might know something too. I guess I'll have to do the rest myself though." It wasn't often that Kaito found himself feeling jealous of Conon Edogawa, after all he could only imagine how miserable it would be to be a teenager stuck in the body of a child after all, but sometimes it was hard not to when he thought about how many people he had by his side.
The detective collected allies like pokemon, it seemed like everytime Kaito checked up on him he'd managed to bring someone else over to his side, people who would stand by him still even if his secret came out. Kaito didn't have many people like that himself, there was only Jii and his mother really; though he supposed he could possibly count Akako as well, she already knew his identity and could be surprisingly helpful when she wasn't trying to kill him.
Aoko though… She already hated Kaitou Kid, there was a chance that she'd hate him too if she found out. Her father would be obligated by his job to try and capture him, and at the very least would be angry with him. And Hakuba…well the two of them weren't really friends to begin with, and while Kaito thought he might have managed to shake the detective's belief that he was KID, his goal was still to catch him.
It felt unbearably lonely sometimes, but even if he had more people he could trust with the truth, he didn't want to drag anyone else into the mess. He might not have as much information on the Organization as he should, but it was clear from what had happened to both his father and him, that they had no issue killing those who got in their way.
The bloodstained costume currently shoved under his bed was a stark reminder of that, and while Kaito could deal with his own blood covering himself, he couldn't handle the idea of others' blood on his hands. It didn't matter if he wasn't the one who'd wielded the knife, if it had been splashed there through the actions of others, it would still be his fault.
"At least I have you guys." He told his doves, flopping onto the ground so that more of them could find a place to perch, and in only a matter of seconds his lap was filled with birds. He felt a little bad for having come up here, having them near helped keep him calm, but at this time of night they really should have been sleeping.
He really should have been sleeping too, he was pretty sure they had a test tomorrow and while he'd ace it regardless, it wouldn't be fun to do while sleep deprived. There was still so much he had to figure out though, he didn't know if he could take the time.
Glancing down at the pile of doves in his lap, several of whom had clearly decided he was their bed for the night, Kaito let out a soft sigh. Maybe it would be okay to close his eyes for just a little bit.