Waiting for the inspector, Kaito stood in an unoccupied room in the administration area of the hospital where Aoko and Kudo were transported to at the end of the incident. As for himself, he arrived there on his own after requesting a private audience with Nakamori.
As he had promised before, he was going to explain himself to Nakamori–about Kaitou Kid, Pandora, his father, and the hidden group that had been trying to expose alone. Everything.
The darkness inside the room provided a comforting and familiar cover to soothe his nerves. He stepped towards the curtained windows, and pulled them apart. The late night view outside, a calming scenery that he grew to love, also helped to ease his anxiously beating heart.
His thoughts gravitated towards Aoko despite his best effort to focus on the upcoming conversation. Because she was understandably exhausted, he didn't want to bother her until later. As for the detective, he received some bruises and a minor injury to the head. All in all, Kaito saw this as the best case scenario among the other outcomes he had envisioned.
The tapping sound of a knock from the door pulled him out his fleeting thoughts. It then opened slowly, letting in a straight band of warm orange light to slice through the gloom. Nakamori peeked his head in first with a cautious look around. With only a soft glow entering from the outside hallway, it left the street lights passing through the window brighter as they shone against Kaito's face.
"Kid?" Nakamori walked in hesitantly. "Uh, you said you wanted to speak here."
Waiting for the inspector to close the door, Kaito remained standing by the windows. Once the room became a closed-off space again, he turned to face Nakamori properly. A smile had found itself on his face in an effort to begin things pleasantly. "Thank you for coming here, Inspector."
Immediately, Nakamori was startled by the sound of his voice. "H-hey! This is some poor taste! Don't you go using Kai–"
Grateful that the inspector didn't reach towards the light switches as soon as he entered, Kaito felt a little more confident in doing what he was going to do next. Reaching his hand to the base of his neck, he delicately pinched the edges of his mask. Carefully, he peeled it off. He needed to preserve the disguise to travel around within other people's sights until he could find another one. The supplies he had gotten from Agasa's place were for emergency use, only having enough for one or two disguises, which he had used up already.
"-to-kun's…voice…" The inspector's words trailed off to an eventual choking silence as he stared dumbfounded at Kaito's face.
Maintaining the smile suddenly became more difficult without the disguise acting as a buffer between Kaitou Kid and himself in front of the inspector. "Nakamori-san, I need to tell you a story. Would you mind listening? I promise it won't take too long."
Try as she might, Aoko could not sleep for any longer.
Sleeping was all she did during her time as a captive. Even now when resting in a proper bed, she could only manage a shallow nap before being awakened by her own racing mind. After her wound was treated and she had some food, the doctor ordered her to rest until morning came when they would come back to check on her again. True, she felt tired but not physically.
Unable to bear the company of her own thoughts in silence again, Aoko called for a nurse to fetch her father or the man with the sandy hair that Kaito was dressed as. She needed to speak to someone, anyone, and either one of them would be really nice.
At least ten minutes had passed when the door to her room opened. Aoko sat up as quickly as she could and pulled aside the curtain divider, just in time to see her father walk in. Much to her surprise, Kaito followed in not far from behind.
"Kaito…" His name slipped out of her mouth upon seeing him even though he wore the face of another person.
Wait a minute.
"Wah!" It dawned on her not a moment later that her father was right there, and she had called Kid by his real name. "I-I mean, Kaitou Kid!"
Kaito snapped the door shut while the inspector blinked a few times before approaching her bedside. "Aoko, it-t's fine! I know. He…he told me. I know about him and Kid."
"He told you…?" Oh. Now she felt a bit silly freaking out over it. She glanced at Kaito, who seemed glad to see her but he kept his distance. "Um, Dad? I wanted to ask you something. Just one little thing. It's been bothering me for a while now."
Her hesitation with asking made him pause for a bit as he was scratching the back of his neck. "Yes, what is it? Is it about that again?"
"No, not what happened back there. Ha-Harukawa…she told me about Mom. About her death. Is it true that she wasn't killed by an accident?" Even thinking about it gave her a pulsing headache.
"Aoko…" Nakamori's eyes dropped, likely unprepared for her talking about the bitter event they shared in the past. He recollected himself soon, his eyes darkening as he remembered. "Yes, it's true. Forensics found an unprescribed drug in high concentration inside of her blood. But don't worry about it anymore, Aoko. We caught the culprit, and they got what they deserved."
"N-not just that! I mean, Harukawa said that she was the one who got close to Mom at the hospital and she pinned that crime on the other woman." Memories of the psychotic woman terrifying her with both her words and actions replayed themselves. Hatred for another human being–Aoko hated that sensation and hoped to never feel that again.
"Sh-she said what? I have to–" His hands squeezed so tightly that it looked as if his joints would pop out. His face reddened slightly, but he kept himself from screaming. "I…I didn't want you to ever know about this. It wasn't something you needed to grow up with."
"Okay..." He was right in that she could have lived somehow in ignorant bliss from the terrible things people had done to her family. However, she would have never known why he refused to speak of her mother after her passing. He was the only other person who still had precious memories of her mother, and over the quiet years Aoko had almost forgotten them all. Now that she was told of the reason, she sympathized with his choice to remain silent on the matter, but only a little. To be shielded from the truth stung her heart almost as badly as when she realized she could no longer recall the sound of her mother's voice.
"I had no idea that danger was already so close to where we grew up…" Kaito finally spoke up after listening to her and Nakamori, looking downcast at the white tiled floor.
"Kaito, I also have things to ask you about. Lots, in fact." With her father, she could practically talk to him everyday. But with Kaito, he was more difficult to pin down so now was the best time to get across her words to him. The growing distance lately worried her that he would one day slip away and never come back.
As if coming to terms with the developments after a solid moment of silence, her father jumped back onto his feet with a renewed fire behind his eyes. "I need to prepare an investigation on Harukawa and Nishitani as soon as possible." He turned to leave, his gaze lingered on Kaito while he did so. "Including who they work for. Call me through payphone if there is anything else you need, Aoko." After tugging his overcoat back on straight, the inspector marched out.
Now it was truly just her and Kaito, who had already taken off his disguise when the door swung shut again.
Kaito, the other person in her life who hid the truth from her.
Still standing a few paces away, he gazed elsewhere when he spoke. "Aoko, I–"
"Kaito." She cut him off, shaking her head. "Come over here." Her side may have hurt when she moved, but she endured it in order to make space for him to sit next to her on the bed.
Frozen on the spot for a few seconds, he looked unsure if he should be so close to her. But he gave in after she hardened her stare to convey that there will be no further discussions if he didn't sit down.
Aoko felt his weight shift the bed as Kaito slowly took a seat. Satisfied that they weren't speaking with the distance acting as a rift between each other, she nudged him lightly with an elbow. "So? What were you gonna say?"
"Actually, I think you should go first. It sounds like you went through a lot."
"Yeah, that's one way to put it." She tried to muster a laugh. From her position, she could only see the profile of his face which betrayed nothing. Just like the time when she had demanded answers from him, she noticed how perfectly composed he was. Too perfect, in fact. Back then, Aoko had chalked it up as him playing the role of Kaitou Kid right in front of her. Amidst the storm of emotions, she had felt insulted by how blatantly he was trying to twist his way out of explaining himself despite her putting so much trust in him in the past.
But now that they were alone, with her having knowledge of his alter ego, Kaito remained acting the same way. Perhaps, she had made the wrong conclusion. This must simply be how he reacted when confronted with something uncomfortable, of which Aoko rarely saw from him. He had gotten good enough to the point where it became hard to decipher, even to the people close to him.
Needing to hold herself steady, her fingers clenched together on top of the blankets. "Those people that wanted Mom dead, did they…did they also do the same to your father? Th-that's what Harukawa told me."
His voice came out as a barely audible whisper. "She talked about him?"
"Yeah, she told me about your father being Kaitou Kid." Her gaze wandered down, seeing her hands which held and squeezed each other to help ease her worry about Kaito avoiding her questions again. "Is this why you steal? Because your father was a thief too?"
"I suppose that's part of my reason for it." He hadn't budged at all after he took his place by her side, seemingly unbothered by everything as usual. "But for the most part, I wanted to lure those people out while I made a big show of finding what they're looking for before they do."
"What do you mean? What are you and those other criminals searching for?" Aoko was certain that the woman hadn't told her anything along those lines, only that Kaito's father had done something to anger them.
"It's something dangerous–no, completely stupid actually." Chuckling, he shook his head as he scoffed at the very thing he was hoping to find. "All that matters is that they killed my father over it, and they will do the same to any other people who get in their way or know what it is."
"B-but that means putting yourself in the way of danger." Whoever those criminals were, they clearly had wormed their way into both her and Kaito's lives without them realizing it and put the safety of everyone they knew at risk.
"Of course I know that." For the first time, Kaito's voice began to waver. "Yet… I couldn't simply let it go and move on with my life, pretending that things were fine after I discovered the truth. I had to do something."
"I can understand that feeling. I don't think I can ever forgive them either." If he had told her about it before this entire mess, Aoko would probably have called him an idiot and advised him to report his father's murder to the police. Going off of what she had learned now, the perpetrators needed to be pursued using means beyond the normal.
But moreover… "Kaito, I just wished you and Dad didn't treat me like a baby. I can sort of see why you would want to keep your secret about Kid, but I'm still upset that you weren't more upfront about it last time." She wouldn't have spent days stewing in confusion and then nearly threading on unseen death traps because she was unaware of the dangers that came with knowing.
"I know, and I'm sorry." Pressing his lips together, he twisted around so that he was facing Aoko and staring her straight in the eyes. "Look, I wanted to tell you that I never enjoyed deceiving you about me being Kid. I-I couldn't bear the thought of putting you in danger by telling you. The chances were low, but it was never zero. Because you're…the person closest to me, the only one I think of as my true friend."
She answered with an affirmative nod of the head. "Well, I'm still your friend. A-and much more now, including the foreseeable future. You know what I mean." As soon as those words left her mouth, her heart fluttered a little.
A strange look of bewilderment from Kaito was what she was greeted with when she found the courage to look back at him once more. His mouth quivered as he hesitated on speaking, but he eventually picked up the words he had lost. A bit of pink found its way onto his face while he breathed out an airy laugh. "You're just gonna forgive me like that?"
"Don't get me wrong. I'm mad at you for making me feel like an ignorant dumbass all those times before. But after days spent thinking about it, I came to the conclusion that I still love you. And I also regret hitting you back then. Sorry." She puffed out her cheek to fight back the rising feeling of self-consciousness from being so blunt with her phrasing. The unforeseen reaction from Kaito created another thought. "Did you think that I was going to throw you aside after all these years of knowing you? Because I'm not. Or, at least I can't without feeling a lot of regret afterwards. You're also the closest person to me along with Dad and Keiko, all right?"
He stared blankly at her before swallowing. "I-I was…afraid. Scared that you would hate me if you discovered that I'm the very same person causing your father to be working overtime and making a fool out of the police. After I found out that you were kidnapped, I began thinking that you would never let go of the fact that my role as Kid caused you even more underserved trouble."
"I see…" It had been a long while since Aoko heard him being so honest. Although his worries were not unfounded, they failed to consider her own attachment to him which was equally strong. Him fearing her complete rejection upon uncovering his lies was an understandable yet pitiful thing to be worked up over.
Raising her arms, Aoko allowed them to guide themselves behind Kaito's back to pull him close until her chin rested on his shoulder. At first, his body went rigid under her touch. But after a moment of her holding him, he relaxed and let himself sit inside the clasp of her arms.
Feeling his heart hammering against her own chest, she sighed as a smile crept up. "Sometimes I forget that you're also the most half-baked person I know, Bakaito." A childish nickname, but a most fitting one.
"Gee, thanks." He laughed softly, leaning closer in.
Sitting with only his company, Aoko enjoyed one of the rare times between each other without any heated debate or mind-bending magic tricks. Despite savoring the moment, she began to think that it was turning rather awkward the longer they stayed silent like that. It was nothing like their normal interactions so she tried to pull away, but she found that Kaito refused to budge. "Am I stuck like this until you want to leave?"
"S-sorry… I can't move much. Too tired." He mumbled back, his voice close to her ear.
"Kaito?" This time around, her hands went to his shoulders to gently push him away.
He winced and sucked in a breath. "Ow, ow… Please don't touch it there, Ahoko."
Seeing him pull one side away, she immediately let go all the while making sure he could sit upright on his own. "W-what's wrong?" On the surface, nothing seemed out of the ordinary with him.
"Got hurt. But I'm not in any mortal danger, so don't worry about it." He grimaced as his upper body wavered.
Now that he was facing her properly and up close, she could see a hint of something behind his hair. Carefully not to touch it directly, she brushed his bangs aside. As she suspected, she found signs that he had received a head wound. Although it looked like it had been treated properly, Aoko still gasped. "When did all of this happen? Was it from when you were helping the police?" The heat radiating from his forehead also told her that he had a slight fever.
"No, it's from yesterday or the day before that. One of those bastards caught up to me while I was trying to reach Beika. He almost shot me square in the chest with a crossbow, but he only got me near the collarbone so I lived. It hurts like hell though." He laughed, albeit in a strained manner.
Even though she understood that he was trying to make light of what happened to him, the familiar feeling of anger began resurfacing inside Aoko–anger at those criminals for hurting him, and anger at him for hiding his less than ideal condition.
She threw aside the covers that she had over her lap, and then got out of the bed. A sting caused by her sudden movement reminded her that she was also wounded, but her own injury was nothing compared to his. Pointing at the now vacant spot, Aoko nearly growled at him. "Kaito, lie down. Now."
He didn't have the energy to fight back, nor did he seem to be against the idea. Once he did as she said however, he lifted his head. "Where are you going?"
After seeing to it that he listened to her, Aoko walked around the bed to reach the side of the room where the door was located. "Moron, I'm fetching you a doctor to get your wounds checked."
"Wait! Ouch." He nearly shot upright from trying to stop her. "I mean, you can do that but later. I'll feel a lot better after I get some rest, I promise."
One of her hands was already hooked inside the door handle when Aoko heard him. He returned a pleading smile when she turned back around, and she was a sucker for that expression of his. Although, that same face he was pulling often preceded him running off somewhere and ditching her behind.
For this particular case, she opted to personally keep an eye on him. "Fine. But as soon as I see you show any signs that you're getting worse, I'm running out of this room." Well, as fast as she could go because of the gash on her side.
"Thanks." Letting out a sigh, Kaito sank back down after kicking off his shoes to the side.
As for her, she dragged one of the chairs set out for visitors to put it closer to the bed where Kaito rested. By the time she got herself seated, Aoko caught the gentle sound of his breathing deepening and evening out.
Curious to know if he was truly asleep, she inched forward and waited. When Kaito didn't react nor take notice of her observing him from a close distance, Aoko concluded that he was indeed dead to the world around him. And while he was within her reach, she undid the top button around his collar to ensure he rested comfortably.
With that done, all she could do now was watch over him as he slept. Looking at the steady rise and fall of his chest brought her a sense of ease that she had long craved after their dispute at the previous heist. There he was, safe and sound, not as the phantom thief or the strange mix she felt before.
"Yeah, I'll have someone bring me back home as soon as possible once they let me go, Ran. See you later."
The morning after spending his night at the hospital, Shinichi breathed out once he ended the call. Unlike him and Kid, Ran stayed in relative safety inside Agasa's house along with Hattori. Fortunately, nothing happened on her end which was welcome news. She had chided him after he reported the gist of his condition, that being bruised up. But it was nothing he couldn't shrug off with some downtime.
After the call, Shinichi expected to receive another one soon. According to what Hattori reported over on his side, the FBI and the police were cooperating in keeping watch of certain parts in Beika and Ekoda. Due to initial basic reports, the entire incident was somehow attributed to the Black Organization. It will likely be changed afterwards when police are informed that there was another similar group.
With his legs dangling over the bedside, Shinichi shook off the remaining grogginess that clung to him. Quiet as his room was, the mild throbbing in his head had pulled him out of his sleep every now and then. He was going to need to remind Ran not to hug him too tightly, and for Kogoro not to waggle him around once he would be back.
Slipping out of the recovery room, he made sure he walked with confidence so that none of the adults around would stop him from appearing lost. He hadn't gotten any permission to move around yet, but he could walk without any major pain so he gave himself a pass.
He cranked up his cutesy act to convince one of the workers at the cafeteria to give him some much needed coffee, claiming that he was bringing it for his tired parents. The self-serve countertop was simply too tall for him. With the hard-earned paper cup drink in hand, he made a quick retreat to the seating areas.
Shinichi barely had the time to settle down before his phone beeped from an incoming call. Without hesitation, he picked up. "Good morning, Jodie-sensei."
"Good morning, Cool Kid. I wasn't sure if you were awake or not at this hour."
"I couldn't sleep well, plus I had things to do." Notably, letting Ran know where he was. "Is Akai-san all right by the way?"
The FBI agent on the other side laughed. "Don't worry, he's fine and on watch duty currently. He knew that the person behind those drones would send multiple to his location if he kept taking them down one by one."
Shinichi had confidence in Akai's skills, but it was good to hear confirmation of the man's safety nonetheless. "I have to thank the FBI again. The fact that you guys were still in Japan and were willing to lend your help again feels like a true stroke of good luck."
"No need for such formalities, Cool Kid. Especially because this is indirectly related to our mission at hand."
He paused from taking a sip of his coffee. "What do you mean?"
"Us lingering in Tokyo is no coincidence." A sigh was heard from the other end, in preparation for some unpleasant news by the tone of it. "The Public Security Bureau and us are having some issues with what remains of the organization."
"That's the first I heard of that." As for what sort of trouble they were running into, Shinichi didn't think it could be court hearings and questionings. Those were the problems Haibara, and he had to deal with as key witnesses, and he believed that they had long finished with those. So what was left behind by the syndicate must either be the resources or the people. "Did something happen?"
"You could say that, but it's nothing of immediate urgency. It's simply concerning, to a high degree might I add."
What Jodie said didn't reassure him though. "Am I allowed to know?"
"At first, James and I weren't planning on contacting you about this development because you had no direct involvement with the capturings the police have made. Long story short, the numbers of arrests don't match with the list of names provided by intel. Most of the missing ones are low-ranking, along with a few of the higher level agents. Many of the charges won't stick or will be lessened for the grunts we caught, but we still wish to keep track of their activities in case they intend to cause trouble in the future."
"Hold on, you mean to say that a lot of them escaped?" Most of Shinichi's disbelief and shock came from the fact that he did his best to gather the combined knowledge from Amuro, Vermouth, Haibara, Akai, and Kaitou Kid to create an estimated number count of how large the Black Organization could be.
"Yes. I'd say a good one thirds."
He bit his lower lip. "That's…not good." An understatement, if Shinichi was honest.
Like a pyramid, the amount of basic networks and resources needed to maintain the Black Organization's activities needed to be wide. Going off of what Jodie reported to him, the number of people unaccounted for could go into the hundreds.
But to have that many of them go off of radar so suddenly, it was like they had a failsafe plan created ahead of time. Yet Shinichi highly doubted that such a coordinated move was made without some sort of help from an outside source, likely a plant amongst authorities or another organization who was just as resourceful.
Shinichi was willing to bet on it being a spy. "Jodie-sensei, I believe that someone had to be giving away information from within the police."
"We're exploring that avenue too. A detective friend of yours, Hakuba-kun if I remember correctly, is helping with our efforts to seek out who they could be."
In order to pull off the timing of their escape, whoever was behind the plan had to know of the exact progress of police efforts in taking down the group or else they would have risked hiding away when it became too late. The only ones that knew of their ambush plan were himself, Hattori, Hakuba, Kaitou Kid, the FBI, Division One and Two, and the PSB.
Despite all those police departments involved, they were only alerted during the last minute of their plan thanks to Amuro. Therefore the pool of suspects was much smaller than it initially seemed. Whoever leaked information out had to be someone who was present with the takedown operation from start to finish, and had a means to contact an outside party during it.
It was well past late noon when one of the doctors deemed Shinichi fit enough to be discharged from the hospital, not after prescribing him a lot of bedrest and avoidance of intense physical activities. Even without a doctor telling him that, Shinichi had a feeling that Ran was going to order the same exact thing anyways.
Kneeling to adjust his shoes, Shinichi thought about who to call to pick him up. Usually, Kogoro or Ran would suffice but their current situation prevented either of them from travelling. Agasa and Hattori were out of the question too. None of the hospital staff would let him walk out of the building unless he had an adult accompanying him, and he dreaded having to spend another night there. Sneaking out of the place looked to be the only option.
His phone buzzed from an incoming call, much to his confusion. After speaking to Jodie, he was not expecting another call. A single glance at the number shown later, and he was left even more surprised.
"Hakuba-kun? What do you need?"
Uncharacteristically, the other detective began with a tired exhale. "Apologies for the late call but I have some bad news, Kudo-kun."
After being told about the situation with the Black Organization, Shinichi almost groaned from being informed that there were more negative turn of events. Bracing himself, he flatly replied. "Go on."
"Kid told me last night that one of them had escaped, a man called Uromastyx." Hakuba paused to take in another breath. "Earlier this morning, there was a report from the headquarters that a man fitting Uromastyx's description had snuck in with a stolen security clearance badge. He made an attempt on Termite's life with a concealed handgun, but the injuries were not fatal."
Come to think of it, Shinichi did see Uromastyx make a run after shoving the disguised Kid to the ground but he hadn't heard if the police had caught the man or not. "Did they catch him too? It's rather bold of him to silence one of his subordinates right inside the building."
"Unfortunately, he managed to escape via an emergency exit after shutting off the security camera feed. As you can imagine, a manhunt was declared promptly but the police have been unable to find him so far."
The news was not as egregious as he had anticipated, but it certainly wasn't good either. The condition of the agent who had been left behind will certainly delay interrogation procedures. "Did Kid tell you anything else?"
"Hm, he did tell me about what Uromastyx had said to him. Both of us have agreed that the man could have been following a set orders given to him by another party during that time period."
Shinichi was suddenly remembering his own theory about a spy being present inside the police, but that was related to the Black Organization. At one point during his train of thoughts, he had also considered the hypothesis that there was an outside entity providing help for the organization's lower standing members.
What Hakuba was speaking about had nothing related to the Black Organization. Or at least that had been Shinichi's assumption so far. The simplest explanation would be that the orders Uromastyx had acted on came from the same group but from a higher level in the chain of command. Still, his instinct as a detective screamed at him that he should investigate if those separate incidents had any connections at all. He had the pieces presented in front of him but no real way to link them together.