Scene Three: Daughter of the Sky (Making a Legend Reality)
How many times do I have to say it? I mean, honestly, people...just because I'm a thief--a great thief that can stump just about any person I have come up against, even giving Japan's most famous detectives a run for their money each time I face them--does not mean that everything is automatically my fault. Yes, Kudo, this is a message to you when you read this. I hope you know I plan to smear your precious reputation with this story. I mean, just look at your behavior in the last Scene. XP
Sorry. Got a bit carried away. Heh.
Now, where was I...?
The feeling that came with the arrival of Kudo in the pool wasn't a painful one, really, even though I compared them to my smoke bombs going off--which is a pretty dangerous situation, I assure you. I suppose what I mean by that comparison is that it felt like something slammed into me with a strong force, as if something had exploded when Kudo broke the surface of the water. Then it was over, and I was left dazed and blurry-eyed.
I blinked in the water a few times before labeling the blurriness as the chlorine messing with my eyes. So I swam to the surface to get some air, not thinking much of it.
Breaking the surface, I inhaled a lungful of the sweet night air before frowning at my situation. I looked up at the pole I had jumped off of and saw that the people on top of the buildings were gone--meaning they were headed down to see if Kudo was all right. They probably didn't even think of me, knowing I could get out of the situation somehow.
I groaned in frustration. Kudo had to go and ruin my end performance like that. He was never one who liked people to steal the spotlight from him.
...some say the same about me for some reason...
Shaking my head at the situation, I turned around in the water, looking for any sign of Kudo. A little more toward the middle of the deep end of the pool, I saw something out of the corner of my eye and turned that way only to stare in horror and scramble out of the pool and put a plastic beach chair between me and the sight before me.
My body was laying face-up in the water!
I remember my thoughts going haywire at this. No, no, no. There was no way I messed this up! There was no way that I had accidentally killed myself in the jump, and the rest of it--Kudo jumping in after me and the slamming thing in the water--was made up in my dead mind's confusion! ACK! I WASN'T DEAD!
Apparently, I really wasn't dead. Not my body, at least. I could see that my eyes--the body's eyes were open, staring up at the sky with a pondering frown on my--its face. It looked calculating as if it was trying to come to an answer to a question that it had in its mind. A truly disturbing sight to behold as I was the one seeing my body do this rather than someone else seeing me doing that.
Confusion setting in for you guys? Don't worry, I'm just as lost...
I was so honestly confused, that I had forgotten all about the people that were probably racing down the buildings just to see if Kudo was all right. I was wondering if I myself was all right! There was no possible way for my body to still be in the pool when I was still out of the water. There was no way that my body's brow could furrow on its own as the frown grew heavier. There was just no way--
Then it all hit me.
...Kudo was going to kill me.
I panicked slightly at my revelation and looked at my hands--hands that I knew as well as I knew any trick I performed. Backwards and forwards.
These were definitely not mine.
...yeah. I knew I was a dead man then, but I thought I could keep my life if I treated this calmly and rationally.
"Oi, Kudo!" I called to him, not too loudly as the crowd was still gathered on the other side of the two buildings. I saw my body sit up and felt myself sicken at this sight. This was not good at all. "Stop lazing about and get to moving!"
My body--Kudo who was in my body saw me and immediately looked displeased. "Kid," he said lowly from his position in the water. "How many times have I told you not to impersonate me?"
I sweatdropped. Oh, great, I thought humorlessly. I had totally forgot about the other side of the problem. "You know," I said quickly, not sure how much time we had left, "if this was a better time, I would put this a little more gently, but I'm not really impersonating you, per se--"
I winced as I realized Kudo had already noticed his change of attire...and the unfamiliarity of the body...as well as realizing how a white suit wasn't the best color to be wearing in a pool. He ducked neck-deep into the water before shouting at me, "WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO!"
I blinked before shouting back, pointing and waving a finger at him. "It's not my fault that you jumped in after me and decided to test the Daughter of the Sky gem to see if the legend worked!"
Kudo somehow made my own visage look as if a car ran a tire over it and he couldn't believe that he was still alive. "What do you mean 'legend!'" he demanded angrily. "What did you do to me, Kuroba!"
I would have yelled at him for thinking about just himself at a time like this when I realized that we were wasting time. "Look," I said earnestly, "I'll explain everything once we get out of here. But we need to leave now!"
Kudo glared at me. "Were you planning to go about running around in see-through pants?" he asked, glowering darkly.
"No," I said with a bit of sarcasm. "I was planning to go butt-naked--of course I wasn't, Kudo! I was going to change into clothes I've got hidden away here. But that idea's out of the question, seeing as Nakamori-keibu and company are headed our way to see if Japan's brightest young detective survived his fall. So get over it. You're wearing blue and pink-striped boxers anyway. Suck it up."
"Blue and pink-striped?" he asked incredulously.
I felt my cheeks heat up. "They were a gift, okay!" I cried in defense, knowing he wouldn't buy the idea that I had bought them myself.
Even that's going a bit too far with outrageous ideas...
My embarrassment seemed to be the thing that got Kudo's brain into gear because he suddenly seemed to really understand the situation we were in and climbed out of the pool. I went over and helped him out as I knew the cape was most-likely weighing him down. Then we made our soggy escape. Just in time, too, because I heard the 1412 Taskforce stampede into the area just as Nakamori-keibu shouted that he would catch Kaitou Kid one of these days. You know, the traditional end-of-heist shouting he always does.
Kudo and I managed to get to a nearby bar where I told Kudo he could change his clothes. To make it less conspicuous who I--that is, who Kudo was, I took his hat, monocle, and cape from him, leaving him with a simple white suit whose pants were showing off his unique blue and pink undergarments. Before he could get too upset with the situation, I handed him over some clothes that I had stashed away near the pool area and shoved him into the bar. "Hurry up so we can get home and tell the others," I told him cheerfully, trying my hardest not to beat my head into the wall.
Why did the one time I didn't read too much on the heist's mythical background, it chose to pull a legendary swap on me? It seemed so unfair that I went through all that trouble of stealing it only to have it punish me for not looking into its info as much as I had past heists.
When Kudo next came out, I felt the pit of my stomach fall and felt as if my skin was crawling. I could only assume Kudo felt the same way about seeing me in his body.
He didn't say anything about it but grimly handed over Kaitou Kid's suit. "I don't get why you wear white at all," he stated calmly as if swapping bodies was a totally normal thing for him. Then again, it probably was, seeing how he had lived a second childhood for two years. "It's see-through when wet, it sticks out, it attracts stains--"
"And it's the opposite of black," I finished soberly, stuffing the clothes into a plastic bag I had gotten from my suit's pocket. I gave him a withering look before cocking an eyebrow. "Interesting how the good colors are most easily messed up, right?"
He didn't comment and appeared more uncomfortable now than he did before. So I decided to lighten the atmosphere by digging through the bag. "Now I know that stupid gem's in here somewhere," I muttered to myself, digging through my many pockets. "That thing is just liking its job of tormenting me tonight--"
I stopped muttering when I saw Kudo hold up something. He quickly cupped it in his hand and, glancing about to make sure no one was near, put it in his pocket. "I thought it would be better if I should hold onto it for now," he explained calmly, giving me that typical detective expression that just looked plain weird on my face.
I shrugged, flinging the bag of clothes up onto my shoulder. "Fine with me," I said agreeably. "I can't stand that thing, really. It's been a nuisance. I won't miss it when I deliver it back, that's for sure."
"Before that," Kudo said with a frown, "you're going to tell me about what's happened and why the hell you're in my body."
"Because you're in mine?" I suggested playfully.
...I must be making Koizumi proud with all these random innuendos that I don't notice until after writing them.
...I'm officially afraid for my sanity.
Continuing...
Kudo didn't buy that for a second, and I said, "Okay, okay. But when we get home. I want to explain things to Hakuba and Hattori, too. Maybe they could figure something out sooner?"
"Sooner? What do you mean sooner?"
I sweatdropped. Not good thing. Very bad thing. Thing that will get me killed by Kudo.
"Ara..." I stated smartly. "It's just that the legend behind the Daughter of the Sky gem is...well...it has this time limit thing to the whole switching thing...and--" I noticed how Kudo was giving me a darker and darker glare and decided that we should start moving. I led the way to Kudo's house, while continuing as if I didn't hesitate at all, "--the thing is...until that time limit's up...we're kind of...stuck how we are."
Oh...he did not like that one bit.
His eye twitched...it was a bit scary to see him get that upset, but everyone tells us that we bring out different personalities from each other. Kudo just happens to like to get angry at me a lot because he's scared he'll actually have fun if he doesn't. That's my theory, anyway...
"There's a timed limit?" he asked, looking ready to either tear his--my hair out or strangle me--his body to death. Neither was looking good on my part.
I laughed nervously, trying to calm his nerves by showing that I was unnerved by all of this, too. Maybe I wasn't doing so good on relaying that. Sometimes Poker Face gets in the way with situations like this. "Well, yeah," I answered, sounding a little too cheerful to my own ears. "But it's still only a temporary--"
"I blame you," he stated bluntly, giving me a cold look.
I blinked in surprised before stopping sharply and giving him an incredulous look. "Me?" I asked in disbelief. "How can you blame me?"
"Kuroba?" he asked in a calm manner.
"Yeah?" I asked, feeling more than a little indignant that he was treating me this way.
"YOU'RE THE ONE THAT STOLE THE JEWEL!"
I sweatdropped again. Well, that was a very good reason I could be blamed. I didn't bother with pointing out he could have just not followed me up on that pole. He would have tried to wriggle out of that accusation. So, instead, I said, "...oh, yeah..." in a rather clueless manner.
Kudo started to mutter to himself about how this was unfair as he had just gotten out of a similar situation not more than a few weeks ago. He continued walking to his house while I watched him for a minute. I could just see that he was more dejected than what he showed to me. That was always a problem with him. He never liked to show anyone he was in a sad or melancholy disposition. That's another reason for the anger towards me and the situation.
And with what I knew about the legend, he had plenty of reasons to be upset and depressed.
I hurried to catch up with him, to reassure him. "It's not that bad," I said in a hopeful manner. "We'll just have to work this way until we're normal again."
"And how long will that take?" he asked bitterly, seeming to get into his head that this was a repeat of his shrunken days.
I hesitated. I knew I said that I wouldn't tell him anymore about the legend of the gem, but he had asked and maybe it would help to put him in a better mood. "...twenty-eight days?" I said in a timid manner, not entirely sure how Kudo would take to the news.
He was quiet for a moment. Then he said, "Kuroba?"
"Yeah?" I responded, looking to him, not knowing what to expect. He was more unpredictable than ever right then.
"If the situation was different and you weren't in my body, I would kill you."
The statement was made so calmly that I couldn't help but to crack a smile and chuckle.
I could never stay serious for long. If I did, I think I would end up breaking to pieces. It's the only way I know how to get passed the hard things. Keep on smiling and you won't have to hurt so much. Because when you smile, people around you smile. That's how I managed to survive as I have.
So, with a mocking frown, I told him teasingly, "Gee, think you could frown any heavier?" I then stretched my arms a bit, feeling a bit stiff in the joints. "You're going to give me wrinkles if you keep that up. Besides, like I said: it's not that bad--"
Kudo stopped walking and stopped me with a serious expression. "You forgot one thing."
"What?" I asked cluelessly, honestly not knowing what on earth I could have forgotten.
"YOU HAVE A HEIST IN LESS THAN TWO WEEKS!"
I froze. Oh. Right. How could I forget about that little detail?
Apparently a whole lot easier than I thought. Ah, the dilemma. It makes the story a whole lot more interesting, though, doesn't it? Not only is there a wedding in less than twenty-eight days away, there was Kaitou Kid's next heist only two weeks away. Nakamori-keibu would be even more alert if Kid failed to show up at a heist that he gave warning to two weeks in advance.
Makes you wonder who will play those roles, doesn't it?
Author's notes: -sweatdrops- Okay, my Kaito persona felt like changing up how the story will go, so the actual explanation of the Daughter of the Sky gem won't be until next time. Sorry, sorry. He's being stubborn. Wanted to get out the reactions of the body switched first. Don't ask me, he's in control. -.-' I've lost control of this story at the Introduction...
