Ladies and gentlemen! I humbly welcome you to the fithteenth chapter of this story!
Please enjoy and review!


As he walked away, Kaito glanced back at Conan only to see him looking around frantically with an angry expression.

Sorry, Tantei-kun. I would love to continue our chat but I'm afraid that you would end up figuring out too much. Besides… I have a show to prepare! He thought to himself while holding back a smirk, as he turned away continuing to walk away from the Woods of Net, with a steady pace - befitting his current disguise. He really hoped that Conan would heed his warning but he doubted it.

With that, he pushed the detective out of his thoughts and moved his focus onto what he had to do going forwards. After all, he had a show to prepare!

As he walked through the thick crowd, minutely side-stepping playing children, he wondered about changing his disguise. He carefully scanned people around him and was pleased to see that nobody spared him more than a fleeting glance. Unfortunately there wasn't anywhere he could vanish, even for a moment without possibly raising suspicion, so he had to avoid the flurry of rapid change 1). Not that it was a problem, he thought to himself, allowing himself for a tiny smile and took a deep breath. He had to keep his habit of perfomanship in check, as he slowly started counting his steps. Each one of them led him to subtle change, shifting the disguise gradually, without sparing a single move.

One, two and three, he slowly started changing his stride from relying on his cane to evening his steps, as he raised his support and collapsed it, calmly hiding it in one of the many inner pockets of his jacket. Four and five, he straightened his back while pulling out of his pocket a few props. He covered his face with a face mask and under its cover pulled his lower lip over the fake mustache to soften the glue with his saliva. Six, seven and eight, he passed the Wind's Impression statue without paying it much attention, as he closed his eyes and pressed onto his eyelids fake eyelashes. That done, he pushed up his thinly framed glasses, allowing their blueish tint to make it seem like he was wearing full makeup. Before pulling his hands away, he rubbed his fingers over his forehead, smudging the fake wrinkles into a shadow under his hairline. Nine and ten, he spun his head, taking off his hat in a broad move avoiding to mess up the perfect bun of his strawberry blond wig, while pushing the dark strands of his natural hair at the back underneath it. At the same time he changed his stride again, gently swaying his hips, making sure to tap the short heels of his suit shoes on the pavement with each step.

He noticed a man looking at him. He held back a gimance but decided to continue. It wasn't ideal, but he could make it still work. Eleven, twelve, thirteen and fourteen, were steps he had to waste to reach a group of cheerfully chatting teenagers and walk past them to vanish from view of the curious man. Fifteen, sixteen, seventeen and eighteen, he took off his jacket, with a deliberate move revealing a loose, blue blouse. With the other hand, he smacked the hat over his hip, collapsing it and slipped it into another of the inner pockets, before he managed to hang the jacket over his shoulder.

Nineteen, twenty and twenty one, he lowered his hand with the jacket and dropped it on a bench as he passed it. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed Jii sitting on the bench and casually hiding the jacket in his satchel. Twenty two, twenty three, as he walked out of the group of teenagers he noticed out of the corner of his eye that the curious man was no longer looking at him. Pleased with that he grinned briefly under the cover of his mask, while raising his hand to grab onto a loose strand of blonde hair and curled them around his fingers, styling it to hang over his right eye, pushing his other hand into his pocket. Twenty four, twenty five, he grabbed his face mask up front pulling it off along with the mustache and pushed it into his other pocket. Twenty six and twenty seven, as a final touch, he pulled his hands out of his pockets, raising one of them to brush his lower lip and smear some pink lip glow over it. Twenty eight and twenty nine he smacked his lips together, spreading the glow on both his lips. This wouldn't make the makeup perfect but it's not like it even should be on an everyday woman at the end of a long day.

And thus quick change 2) was a success, he thought to himself with satisfaction while he continued walking, as yet another female patron flocking towards the Main Gallery.

As he came nearer his destination he noticed a long queue of people waiting to enter the building. Through the wide windows he saw that the interior was packed to the brim. He smirked with compassion imagining the disdain of poor officers stationed inside. In theory he could sneak inside and avoid the line but, again, with so many eyes around he would have to use some kind of distraction that could give a heads up to his adversaries and he didn't want that. Thankfully there wasn't any need for that, as he thought while walking over to a vending machine to get something to sip on while waiting. He arranged with Jii that they would start an hour after the man picked up his jacket, so there was still plenty of time left. Hence why, the great Kaitou KID was now obediently waiting in line, while craning his neck towards the nearby stands that were selling various merchandise with his image.

To further kill the time and blend in with the crowd, he started a light conversation with an elderly couple, who joined the queue after him. In the end singular individuals entering the Main Gallery were more suspicious than those who were part of a group. With that in mind he even offered the couple to tour the building with them and share curiosities about all of the exhibits.

"Oh, are you sure, Shiro-san 3)? We wouldn't want to bother you," the sweet elderly lady, who introduced herself as Kowano Hinata, said.

Kaito, currently known as Shiro Kishi 4), chuckled shyly and shook his head. "On the contrary. I really have no one who I can share my passion for European art, so you'll be doing me a favor if you let me chatter about it a little~"

Kowano Yuma squeezed the hand of his wife as he chuckled along with the disguised magician. "In that case, we'll be happy to be of service to you miss~"

"Thank you~"

By the time they finally managed to enter the Main Gallery there was less than half an hour left. Despite that Kaito kept to his role of a librarian with an unhealthy dose of fascination for European art and started babbling with burning passion about each and every exhibit they were about to see. To mask him touching every door and some of the pedestals, he kept on excitedly waving his hands around as he described the more interesting details, or stories that were even remotely connected to the display.

Despite him acting, frankly speaking, obnoxiously it didn't seem to bother most of the guests and he even noticed a couple of people purposely following their little group and listening in with interest. Well, nobody ever said that Kuroba Kaito didn't know how to gain and keep attention on himself when he wanted it.

While making sure all of his preparations were in place and putting on the tour show, he kept a close eye on any suspicious individuals as well as the officers set out to catch him. The result made him pity Ginzo a little more. As he expected, all of his men, him included, were stationed inside. With one at the entrance and exit, who both were doing their best to blend in with the crowd but no hope of succeeding. After all, Kaito knew the faces of the core members of the Kaitou KID Task Force even better than those of his classmates. The rest were stationed inside the room where the display of the King's Sky was. The six of them were dressed in their uniforms. From what Kaito noticed, all of them seemed to be equipped with gas masks, sunglasses, as well as batons and handcuffs. As per usual, neither carried any firearms, which would put them at risk in case there was any confrontation. Meaning Kaito had to avoid it at all costs.

As for any potential bad guys, he did have a few suspects but it was nothing certain. None of them wore any trench coats or any visible guns. That meant he was going in blind but it's not like it would be the first time.

By the time they reached the exit there were only a few minutes left until Jii would start the distractions on the other side of the museum grounds. Faking exhaustion, Kaito sat down on a bench right outside of the building. The couple, chatting with excitement, sat beside them. He looked at them with a genuine smile. He really did grow to like them.

"Thank you, I had a great time. But you should leave now," he said with the feminine voice of Shiro Kishi.

The woman looked at him with a frown. "Leave? Shouldn't we rather wait around here together-?"

Her husband patted her knee and looked at her with amusement. "Come on dear, I'm sure our dear guide knows what she's saying." He turned to look at Kaito. "Thank you, that was really fun. I wish you the best of luck~" he added with a knowing smirk.

Kaito held back a laugh and instead showed his signature grin. It was true that he made it easy with his name choice. However, since neither of them called him out on it, or outed him to the police he had thought that they didn't notice. "I'm glad~ If you leave now, you should manage to reach the Footsteps. I believe it will give you the best view~" and not to mention should be the safest as it was far enough from both the Main Gallery where he was and the Symphonic Sculpture where Jii was going to set off the distraction.

Hinata's eyes turned round, as she apparently just realized just who they were talking to as her husband got up, still smiling in amusement. "Come on dear, we should hurry like our unexpected guide said."

"Um… yes, of course!" She got up hurriedly and took a few steps after her husband, before turning back around towards Kaito with a light bow. "Thank you and goodbye."

The disguised magician smiled at her happily and waved. "Bai~"

He didn't bother holding back an amused snort as he noticed the woman smacking her husband on the shoulder, as they walked away. He had to admit that the whole ordeal was more amusing than he had expected it to be.

As the couple slowly vanished from view, joining the ever-moving sea of people, Kaito turned his attention back to the Main Gallery building. He tilted the bottle he got from the vending machine before and downed the remains of his drink.

What was now left was to wait for the distraction, so he could start the main event of the evening. He could only hope that nothing unexpected would happen and that the night would end only with yet another successful theft to his name.


1) Rapid change - it's a technique actually used by magicians to change their disguises and is also the one very commonly used by Kaito in canon (although highly exaggerated ;) ). As described, it can be used either when completely out of sight, or to stun onlookers, as it's not very subtle.

2) Quick change - is also a real life technique of changing disguises that was and most likely still is allegedly used by undercover agents. There was never a reference of Kaito using this in canon but given his skillset I would be very surprised if he wasn't actually able to do it.

3) Shiro - as a surname it translates to 'castle', but can be written as 'white'

4) Kishi - as a female name, it's meaning is 'night'


Ah... That was an unplesantly long break between chapters and I would want to apologize for it. Sadly, my health issues and life in general has caught up with me, which made writing quite troublesome. Hopefully there won't be many such breaks in the future.

Anyway, I'll be taking my leave for now. If you liked the chapter or have anything to say about it please do consider leaving a comment - reading them makes my day, so I would greatly appreciate it! :D

Hope to see you next chapter *bows*