Disclaimer: I don't own DCMK

Sky Colored Eyes

7: A Helping Hand

Sparkle was a fairly new shop. Owned and operated by a couple with a deep passion for the art of jewelry making, all of their designs were unique, and in the short time they had been in business they had already gained a reputation for elegant, high-quality pieces. Their premises weren't large, but it had been furnished to be bright and comfortable.

A well-dressed, elderly lady made her way up to the polished, glass door followed closely by her equally white-haired husband. The bells over the door let out a soft tinkle as they entered. The street outside was always quiet at this time of day, highlighting the bells like soft shadows around a candle flame.

The man at the counter looked up and greeted the two with a warm smile. "Good evening!"

Every evening for the last several days, the same elderly couple had been visiting the shop at roughly the same time. They had first approached the shop in search of jewelers to help them redesign a few pieces of jewelry. The pieces in question held good stones but the couple wanted to have their settings reworked for a more personalized feel. The owners of the shop had accepted the job and now they met each day to look over and discuss the new designs.

As the couple took their seats, the man behind the counter moved to pull a sketchpad out from a cabinet in the corner.

"I made a few changes according to what we discussed yesterday," he said, opening the pad up to a detailed pencil diagram. "You can see the changes here and here. What I mainly did was…"

As he explained and the three settled into a comfortable discussion, the sky outside grew steadily darker. They were joined eventually by the jeweler's wife, and the conversation began to wander onto other topics. Soon tea was introduced and the night filled with quiet laughter. Over the course of their dealings, the four had become fast friends.

It was well after nightfall when the older couple glanced at the clock. Exclaiming over the time, they rose to leave.

That was when the front door crashed open and in poured four armed men with masks covering their faces.

"Hands in the air!" the one in the lead roared, discharging a shot that smashed through one of the shop's display cases. Shards of glass flew across the floor in a glittering spray. All four occupants of the shop froze. The robbers, however, were already in motion. Two had immediately moved to lower the blinds on the windows with the quick assuredness of those who knew exactly where everything was and how it worked.

"You three, against the wall, now! And you, I know you just acquired new stones. Get them and be quick about it. Take too long and I'll shoot your pretty wife."

The jeweler paled but his voice was level when he spoke. "No, that won't be necessary." Taking a deep breath to steady his own nerves, he ignored the men sweeping the contents of the display cases into small, nondescript bags that would be easy to stow away from prying eyes and moved to do as he'd been told.

The gang leader grinned to himself behind his mask. This had to be the easiest job yet. The man hadn't even tried to argue. It was nothing like that first job where they'd had to shoot a man to show the owner they meant business. In almost no time at all, they'd cleaned the place out.

Keeping his gun trained on the jeweler's wife, he gestured for his men to take the loot and go. Once they had gone, he shot the phone behind the counter then spun and leapt out the door—

To come face to face with a row of gun barrels all pointed straight at him.

"Drop your weapon!"

Surprised but undaunted, the man fell back through the door he'd been stepping out of and spun, gun rising. The officers outside wouldn't risk shooting into the store lest they hurt the owners or the old couple. That made four hostages he could use for leverage. That was the thing about police, he thought smugly. It was, after all, the purpose of having hostages. They hadn't needed the extra persuasion for the shopkeepers to hand over the goods, but that was just as well. Now he had four people he could use to show the police that he was serious.

Click. "Don't move."

He blinked. What the…

The old lady had a gun. She was aiming it at him with rock steady hands as she glared at him, her eyes hard and sharp. He had never seen eyes like that in an old woman's face before.

And it wasn't just her either!

The old man had a gun too.

Suddenly the prospects weren't looking so good anymore.

X

Kaito grinned as he waved farewell to Nakamori and Hakuba before stepping off the museum roof. The image of the two bound together with coils of red ribbon topped by a massive bow was one he wasn't going to be forgetting anytime soon. It would definitely be good for a laugh or three next time he was bored.

The crowd amassed outside the museum broke out into uproarious cheers as he opened up his glider. He waved to them too and the cacophony grew to the point where he fancied he could feel the very air vibrate to it. Their enthusiasm would have been enough to satisfy even the most vain of performers, and yet Kaito couldn't suppress a certain amount of disappointment.

The show had been great and the heist a success, but it just felt like something was missing. It was all just so easy. There was no challenge in it anymore. Okay, so he was always challenging himself to come up with new and better magic tricks to wow his adoring audience, but it didn't feel the same. His fans, much as he appreciated them, were too easy to impress.

It was much more satisfying to pry that look of stunned amazement from people like Tantei-kun who didn't give them up so readily. The little detective had been a refreshing mixture of rival and spectator. Unlike people like Nakamori and Hakuba, who focused entirely upon finding the 'trick', Tantei-kun could also appreciate his work for the art that it was. Of course, he was also quick to point out any oversights on the magician's part, but his critical eye only served to inspire Kaito to reach for new heights.

When it came down to the bones of things, his fans came to cheer everything he did and the police and Hakuba came to scorn and attempt to tear apart everything he did. Only Tantei-kun had come without a predisposition to see the actual show and judge it by its own merit.

With Tantei-kun gone, things just weren't as fun. Of course, Tantei-kun hadn't attended all his heists, but before he'd disappeared there had always been an expectation of a 'next time'.

He wondered idly what kind of audience Shinichi would be.

Banking his glider, he turned his attention to the glitter of the streets below him. The city was most beautiful at night. Here, soaring high over the noise and the crowds, the city was like a sea of stars glittering in the darkness. Had his father enjoyed this feeling as much as he did? Kaito was sure that he had.

The thought brought a real smile to his face.

Out of the corner of his eye, he glimpsed the familiar sparkle of red and blue police lights. They didn't belong to his task force though. Curious, he circled around and landed silently on a neighboring building, careful to keep out of sight.

X

Shinichi watched as the police disarmed the robbers and set about cuffing them. His thoughts drifted back to the time they had spent laying down the parameters for this operation.

"All three of these stores are pretty small," Shinichi commented, frowning down at the papers laid out across the large conference table.

Satou-keiji nodded. "This particular gang seems to like the extremely high end stuff. No mass production pieces here. Naturally, that means they aren't generally swarming with customers. On the other hand, the customers they do have tend to be pretty prestigious."

"But then isn't it a little strange?"

The woman blinked. "What do you mean?"

"Considering the types of stores they target, it would be easy for them to choose a time to move in when there wouldn't be anyone but the owner around."

"Now that you mention it…" Takagi scratched at the back of his head. "That is kind of strange. I mean, I understand not waiting until after closing hours when everything will be locked away and the security systems all up and running, but I would have thought it would be a lot easier to deal with one person than three or four—especially if you have to go out of your way to wait for those extra people to be around."

"There's something else." Shinichi pointed to the report from the first robbery. "The person they shot here was the owner's son. According to this, the business was a family one. The son had been working there fulltime since graduating college." Then he pointed to the second report. "Here, the people present during the robbery included the owner's mother. She didn't work there, but the report says she's been at the shop a lot recently since her daughter didn't want her to be at home alone after her husband passed away. And this time the store that's being targeted is being run by a married couple. It can't be a coincidence. I believe they're using these people for leverage. The reason there's always at least two 'extra' people is so that they can shoot one to prove they're not bluffing and still have hostages."

Takagi's eyes grew wide with horror. "That…that's awful!"

Shinichi nodded, his own lips pressing into a thin line. To think that anyone could treat life so lightly… It was appalling to say the least.

The crux of the matter was that the robbers knew that their targeted jewelry stores only put certain pieces out on display. They often had unset stones or other raw materials locked away. But rather than having to waste time searching for these precious commodities themselves, they'd found a way to make the owners do it for them.

That said, Shinichi and the police had set out to create the most enticing scenario they could come up with. Controlling the number of people who came and went to the store without being too obvious about it had probably been the hardest part, but with the cooperation of the owners they had managed.

Shinichi himself had been ordered to stay back during the actual confrontation by Megure-keibu. Seeing as there were a lot of guns involved, the young detective hadn't protested. He had, however, insisted on being there to see the plan through. He wasn't the kind of person who enjoyed sitting back and making plans then sending other people out to meet the danger. It just wouldn't be right.

A sudden cry had Shinichi's head jerking around so fast that he made his own head spin. One of the robbers had just tripped the officer who'd been about to cuff him. With the speed of a striking snake, he snatched the officer's gun, squeezed off three wild shots that had everyone else in the vicinity ducking for cover, then ducked into the alley mouth behind him.

Shinichi set off after the man without a second thought.

The robber was a fast runner. Add to that the desperation of the fearful and Shinichi had to struggle just to keep the man in sight.

His legs, lungs, and throat were beginning to burn and he could hear his own heart beating in his ears. Haibara's ten-minute long lecture about not overdoing things flashed through his head. She'd called just before he'd left to meet the police—almost like she knew this would be coming. A sharp pain lanced through his chest and he stumbled, his breath catching in his throat. But he forced himself to take a deep breath and put on a bit more speed.

Suddenly it wasn't about catching an escaping killer. It wasn't even about justice or doing the right thing. In the blink of an eye it had become a struggle against himself—against the scars of the past and the marks his mistakes had left upon him in both body and spirit. The poison had taken his old life from him never to be repaired, but he refused to acknowledge that it might take away his purpose too. He wouldn't let it. This was his job, his duty, his calling—if he couldn't do it anymore than he would really have nothing left. Maybe it wasn't the most logical way to be thinking, but at that moment it felt as though, if he could just get past this moment, then everything would be okay.

A loud, metallic clang was all the warning Shinichi got before a trashcan was rolling towards him. He darted around it. He was just wondering where the thing's lid had gone when it came spinning out of the darkness at him like a heavy duty Frisbee. It caught him on the shoulder, flipped through the air, then smashed into the wall before clattering to the ground.

Shinichi bit his tongue to keep from crying out as pain blossomed in his shoulder. Just ahead of him, he could see that the robber had stopped running. The reason for this lay in the form of a brick wall. They had run into a dead end. It was the panic of having been trapped that had caused the man to push the trashcan at him. He must have been hoping to either trip Shinichi or knock him out with the lid in order to backtrack past him.

Failing that, however, the man had remembered that he still had the gun he'd taken from the police.

"Don't move!" he hollered, brandishing said weapon.

"Why are you doing this?" Shinichi demanded, glaring across the alley at the man.

The robber snarled. "What the hell do you mean? I'm getting out of here, that's what I'm doing. Now get out of my way or I'll shoot."

The detective stood his ground, his fingers inching discreetly towards the buttons on his tranquilizer watch. He needed to be closer. If he tried to dart the man from here he'd surely miss. "The police know what you look like now. There's no point in running," Shinichi said, proud that he managed to keep his voice level despite the growing pain in his chest. "Just turn yourself in."

"Shut up!" the man snarled. In his outrage, he accidentally fired off another shot, forcing Shinichi to jerk sideways. He could feel the bullet whiz past his ear before it buried itself in the wall. As he moved, his vision flashed and the pain in his chest flared, sending tendrils of magma shooting all the way to his fingertips. A spasm gripped the muscles in his legs and they folded under him.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the robber raising his gun again, and he found himself thinking in a rather detached fashion that Haibara was going to kill him. Although the way things were going she might not get the chance. And that really shouldn't be funny, should it?

X

From his lofty perch, Kaito had seen Shinichi chase after the bolting robber. He'd debated with himself for only a split second before activating his glider to follow. The police had gone after the pair as well, but at their pace and with their head start, the two had quickly left the officers behind in the maze of twisting alleys and dimly lit streets.

Kaito had the advantage of a bird's eye view. With it, he trailed the two through the city until they fetched up at a dead end. He landed on the edge of the roof overlooking the pair.

What was it about detectives that made them want to stop and talk to the criminals they found anyway? It had always struck Kaito as a bit counterproductive at best—downright dangerous at worst. It gave said criminals ample time to make their own plans for escape or attack. The habit made even less sense when the criminals in question had already taken lives. Yet all the detectives Kaito knew did it anyway. It was going to get them killed one day.

Speaking of detectives, something had been nagging at him since he'd stopped to check out the commotion. Back there… For a moment, when the detective's face had been lit with determination and blue eyes sharpened in concentration, he had had a moment of déjà vu. He had seen that look before. But where?

Kaito tensed abruptly, indigo eyes narrowing. Things weren't looking so good down there for the young detective. Shinichi's face had lost all its color and his breathing had grown uneven. It reminded the thief of that time behind the school when he'd seen the boy collapse.

The thief glanced back up the alley but there was still no sign of the police. That just figured.

A shot rang out. Shinichi sidestepped it, but whatever ailment he was suffering from took the opportunity to sink its teeth in.

Cursing under his breath, Kaito drew his card gun and fired. The thin sliver of metal knocked the gun from the robber's unsuspecting grasp and sent it spinning into a corner of the alley.

As the man stood staring at his empty hand in dumbfounded confusion, Kaito dropped down behind him, hooked a foot around his ankle, and pulled the man's leg out from under him. The guy fell with a cry and got a lungful of sleeping gas in the process.

Kaito nudged the man's side with his foot. When there was no response, he produced a roll of duct tape and made quick work of securing the man's wrists and ankles. And, just for fun, he painted a smiley face on the back of the man's head. That done, he looked around for Shinichi, surprised that the detective hadn't commented yet on his arrival.

He found Shinichi sitting with his back against the opposite wall of the alley. He had his eyes closed and was breathing in short gasps. His face was still worryingly pale as well.

Concerned, Kaito crouched down beside him. Reaching out, he placed a gloved hand lightly on the detective's shoulder, but he pulled away quickly when Shinichi flinched. Blue eyes opened to stare blearily into his face. They blinked as the detective's brows furrowed.

"Kaitou…KID?" The name emerged laden with uncertainty as though their speaker couldn't decide if he was hallucinating.

"The one and only," the thief replied with his usual cheer, though his eyes were serious as he examined the boy from head to toe. Shinichi didn't appear to be injured. "I was passing by. Are you all right?"

The detective pulled himself together with a visible effort. "I'm fine," he muttered. He shifted away from the wall, placing one hand on the ground to help himself up. Kaito offered him a hand, but the detective waved him away. "I'm okay."

He didn't look okay to Kaito, but he supposed there was no point in making a big deal out of it. Detectives really were stubborn creatures.

"That man—"

"Over there. I gave him a pretty concentrated dose of gas, so he won't be up for a while."

"Oh." Shinichi stared at the robber all trussed up in duct tape then glanced up at the thief. He shifted his weight to his other foot and looked down again.

Kaito watched him for a moment, slightly puzzled by his behavior. The boy almost appeared to be nervous. Was he upset at having been seen in this less than commendable state? Not that Kaito could blame him.

Well, it was time for him to take his leave anyway. He could hear the police catching up—finally. What had they been thinking anyway? Letting Shinichi run off alone like that. They really needed to work on those reaction times.

"I shall see you around then, Meitantei-kun." He swept the detective a mocking bow. "You were lucky I passed by when I did though. Do try to be more careful in the future."

That said, he turned to leave. His grappling hook should be able to get him airborne again.

"Wait!"

The thief paused, glancing back with a raised eyebrow. "Yes?"

"Thank you."

Kaito blinked. He had just been thanked by a detective. Part of him was tempted to crack a joke, but something about Shinichi's demeanor stopped him. Maybe it was the heartfelt sincerity he could hear in those quiet words. Or maybe it was just because proper gentlemen didn't laugh at people who were trying to express their gratitude. Whatever the reason, he found himself smiling instead—a real smile, though he doubted anyone (except his mother) could tell the difference. "You're welcome."

Kudo Shinichi really was a strange detective. Strange, but interesting.

TBC

A.N: I feel like an idiot right now because I spilled coffee all over my computer -_- Fortunately, nothing appears to be damaged. I'll just have to keep my fingers crossed.