Except in spoken dialogue, first names refer to the traveling Kaito and Saguru. Last names refer to the natives of the current reality.

Joker to King's Black Knight; Checkmate

If all time is eternally present
All time is unredeemable.
- Burnt Norton (I.4-5)

Four hours later, the theory of the heist's execution and various contingency plans had been hammered into completion. The main problem with Nightmare's choice of leverage was that any attempt to disprove Hakuba's shrunken status would require alerting the public, and consequently the Syndicate, that the detective was not as dead as he should be. Saguru had pointed out that so long as Hakuba stayed small until the Syndicate was gone, the knowledge would be useless, but Kaito and Kuroba both firmly maintained that it was a completely unacceptable option. Saguru showing up at the Kid heist was just asking to be shot, possibly by Kudou.

As the only alternative, Kaito had promised to find something among his cards that would neutralize the threat while Kuroba took care of the heist itself. With the final issue defined, if not resolved, Kuroba and Hakuba had moved into the Kid lair to bring the preparations into reality, while Kaito and Saguru had stayed in the den to consider the twin problems of Nightmare and Kudou's fates.

Kaito, still functioning after his adrenaline-fueled Shadowrip by virtue of pocky and hot chocolate, spread out his current arsenal of Duel Cards (Duel Deck, side deck, and Saguru's Duel Deck sans the ichthyic monsters) on the floor with Saguru's assistance, and stared at them.

Even if he managed a nap—Hah—without a focus he wouldn't be able to use the Shadows for anything but blunt force and travel. The only focuses he had were the fifty-odd slips of cardboard lying innocuously on the carpet. Ergo, there had to be something in this mess he could use or adapt to eliminate Nightmare's threat and recover Kudou from whatever living hell Vermouth had trapped him in.

Saguru sat beside him, occasionally picking up a card, reading the text, and then replacing it. He failed to make any suggestions, and Kaito couldn't blame him. Kaito's decks had been put together with the intention of taking on Heartless, not humans, and Saguru's deck had been built mainly to rag on Kaito's phobia.

After several minutes thought, Kaito picked up Change of Heart. Yugi had talked about multiple personalities and ghost possession, but it didn't have to be restricted to just that. Kudou wasn't himself; Kaito was removing whatever Vermouth had done to make him that way. Simple.

Even if I can't afford to pretend it'll be easy.

"This one is for Kudou-kun," he murmured. "Reversing what Vermouth's done to his mind. But I'll need to be close, and there's no way I can take care of Nightmare and Kudou both, and still transport us there and back. I'll be lucky to manage one Shadowrift, period."

"Then given our track record of things going according to plan, we should keep that as an emergency backup. Public transport should be sufficient to get us there, and I have the cash for a taxi if we need a more private and swift exit from the site of Nightmare and Kid's meeting."

"Mmm. Two brothers and a friend, and one's had too much to drink."

"Precisely."

Kaito sighed. "That just leaves what to do with Nightmare."

"We'll think of something."

"…I hope so." Kaito returned to staring blankly at the cards. He wasn't keeping track of time, but after a good long while of fruitless contemplation he was startled out of a catnap when Saguru flicked the side of his head with a finger.

"You're not doing yourself any favors pushing like this—it's only going to make you useless by tonight. Take the couch. I'll wake you in twenty minutes or if I see signs of a nightmare."

"I…"

"Twenty minutes," Saguru repeated, quietly unyielding. "I'll wake you up."

"…Fine." Kaito rolled his eyes. "Mother hen."

"Cluck cluck." Saguru deadpanned.

With a snort, Kaito relocated to the couch. "Wiseass."

"That's wisearse. Or in your case, wise-'alse'."

"Other way around, moron." Kaito chucked a throw pillow at Saguru's head and rolled over, closing his eyes. The blond was still snickering under his breath when he fell asleep.

Something poked him in the ribs. "Kuroba-kun, wake up."

"Mmph." Kaito pulled his face out of the couch corner and sat up, blinking. The powernap had left him feeling more alert than he'd been for days. "Hi."

"Good morning." Saguru held up a card between two fingers. "I had a thought while you were out."

Kaito tried to read the card title, but it was angled wrong. "I'm listening."

"Ignoring the game mechanics, I read solely the titles, and found this." Saguru handed over the card, which turned out to be Malice Dispersion. "You won't use Mind Crush, I know—with a name like that, it's asking to turn a person into a human vegetable. I'm trying to not think too hard about the ethics of this, either, but… if Nightmare could be changed to no longer think of thieves as tools to fund Kenta's surgery…"

"Discard all face-up continuous trap cards." Twist it enough to apply it to Connery's methods—he's trapped Kid and isn't hiding it—and let the Shadows take care of the details…

It was tempting. VERY tempting.

Especially when the cards meant he would be calling on the tamer Shadows, not the wild Shadows. The Shadows were pitiless, but they weren't inherently cruel. And Kaito would be channeling how he wanted Connery still alive, and capable of taking care of Kenta if not arrested…

He felt Kid's not-entirely-pleasant smirk spreading across his face. "I think I can live with this."

"Well. Good." Saguru looked slightly uncomfortable, but resigned. "If that's taken care of, we ought to get out of the house before too much longer. Kuroba-san's mother gets home from work soon, and I don't care to spend the next eight hours inside Kid's lair."

"You'll need a disguise."

"Given the company I'm in, that seems to be the least of my concerns."

"Point. Let me get you a hat and glasses." Kaito ducked into the Kid lair for a moment and swiped a baseball cap. The glasses he supplied from his own bag, and he adjusted his appearance to a more generically Asian face as Saguru gave the cap a look of cultured disdain.

"A Hanshin Tigers cap."

"Exactly. No one in their right mind would believe you'd wear it."

"Not in my right mind," Saguru grumbled, but without much ire.

"Your point?"

Saguru sighed. "At least I can take comfort in knowing that no one will believe the photographs are truly of me."

"You think I'd take photographs?" Kaito's innocent look had charmed furious kendo mistresses before. Saguru, sadly, appeared immune.

"I know you'll take photographs. The only question is how many, knowing that you'll profit nothing from them."

"No comment." Kaito swept up the Duel Cards and returned Saguru's Deck. "Come on, I smell food. We can tell Kuroba the relatively good news and that we'll see him at or after the heist."

They found Kuroba and Hakuba in the kitchen, and confirmed the plan for Kaito and Saguru to kill time leading up to the heist in the city on their own and then return when the heist was over to compare notes on the final outcome.

"Which—knock on wood —" Hakuba added, "will have a positive conclusion all around."

Kaito nodded. "Break a leg, Kid-kun."

"You, too."

Kaito and Saguru left, and not a moment too soon. At the first street intersection they reached, Kaito looked back over his shoulder to see Mizuki disembarking from a bus stop down the block. He casually strolled around the corner, Saguru trailing without comment.

"Park?" Kaito suggested. "If we're going to kill time, I'd rather be in the sun."

"Good enough, at least until we're hungry."

Kaito led the way to the small park on the edge of the river running behind Kaito and Aoko's neighborhood. Grass surrounded a set of playground equipment, then gave way to street and houses on three sides and steeply sloped to meet the raised walk-path beside the water on the fourth. They settled on the grassy incline, Kaito sitting upright while Saguru stretched out with his pack as a pillow.

In deference to the spring warmth, the blond wore his short-sleeve polo without gloves, but kept the sunglasses. Which meant there was one thing missing…

"Hey, Hakuba-kun… did I leave your staff behind at the agency?"

To Kaito's relief, Saguru smiled. "No, they made it more easily portable while you were out."

"Okay, this I have to see."

Saguru obligingly retrieved the implement from the coat in his bag, and demonstrated the changes, at which Kaito was suitably impressed.

"It's rather a relief," Saguru admitted as he tucked it back away. "I mean, it's already presumable that I'm insane for being in your company voluntarily, but I hardly need to add to the image."

Kaito grinned. "Join the Dark Side, we have chocolate."

"…It's rather harder to appreciate the joke when we've seen real Darksiders."

"Point." Kaito shuddered.

"Mmm."

When Saguru seemed disinclined to say anything else, Kaito let the topic die. He pulled out a deck of cards to shuffle and practice with, letting the concentration necessary to do a trick correctly crowd out any other thoughts. Saguru alternately read a book he'd pulled out of his bag and let it drop against his chest while he soaked up the sun not unlike a large cat.

Kaito had finished running through all of his card tricks and moved onto conjuring roses when his stomach lodged a protest in the form of a dull roar. Saguru lowered his book to give him a look of amusement, before an answering growl on his part turned the expression into one of mild chagrin.

"Lunch?"

"Lunch."

Mutual agreement took them to the mall, where food was a balance between affordable and edible. After eating, they were on their way toward an exit when Saguru paused outside of a game store, eyes drawn to one of the chessboards in the window display.

"You gonna go in?" Kaito asked after a moment.

"Would you mind? I had a thought…"

"Not like we have anything better to do. I'll be over that way." Kaito waved at the electronics store two places down, since he'd already been debating whether or not to make an excuse to stop inside. Saguru raised an eyebrow, but then simply shrugged.

"I'll meet you there."

They split up and Kaito entered the store, heading past cell phones, computers, and other gadgets to the back corner where speaker systems shared floor space with the electric keyboards. Finding one with a full set of keys, he turned the volume on low and began to play.

Music had never been an obsession, like magic and acrobatics, but Kaito had enjoyed the lessons as a kid. In the aftermath of Touichi's death, when gymnastics coaching had been necessarily dropped as unaffordable, his piano teacher's offer of pro bono lessons for six months until Mizuki could find her feet had left the woman with an extremely enthusiastic student. Until he'd figured out how to keep up gymnastics on his own, music had been one of the only ways where he could, even temporarily, just forget and be.

Discovering that classical music played at speed was an excellent way to keep fingers coordinated for legerdemain had been a bonus. Right now, however, he valued Fantasie Impromptu for being so intricate and rapidly paced that even after a few minutes warm-up it still took all his concentration to play it.

As the piece sped to a close, Kaito noticed that he'd gained a small audience despite the low volume: a store hand, a few shoppers, and Saguru hanging back behind the others. Finishing with a flourish, he grinned and took an elaborate bow to the polite round of applause. As the shoppers dispersed, the store hand, Touda, smiled at Kaito.

"Did your keyboard break again, that you come back to entertain us?"

Kaito's grin widened at the confirmation of his other self's similar hobby. "Nah, I was passing by and thought I'd stop in. Instruments get lonely if no one plays them, you know."

"So they do. You're still welcome to come back any time; live music is so rarely played well." The young man winked. "As for next time, let more people hear, ne? Maybe they'll buy if they realize how excellent our product sounds."

"I'll keep that in mind," Kaito laughed. Back home, when he'd been fifteen and shopping around for a new keyboard because his old one had died, somebody had. "I can't stay this time, Touda-san, but it's good to see you. I'll come back before too long."

"Come on a Wednesday. Machi-kun misses when you would come more often."

"I'll try. I'm a lot busier than I used to be."

"Ah, high school. I remember those days."

Kaito smirked. "You have no idea."

A customer caught Touda's attention before he could reply and he reluctantly excused himself, leaving Kaito with Saguru.

Who's watching me like I'm a dove that suddenly started singing show tunes.

…Not a bad idea…

"You know," Saguru said softly, hands in his pockets, "every time I think I know you, you conjure something new out of thin air and I'm left wondering how you manage it all."

"I'm a man of mystery." The lines around Saguru's eyes tightened, and Kaito sobered. Baiting the detective with a flippant answer hadn't been his intention when he'd sought out the keyboard, but old habits died hard. "In all seriousness? Barring Aoko, I didn't have friends, Hakuba-kun. I'm the nail that sticks up and absolutely refuses to be hammered down, and it didn't make me popular outside of everyone and their girlfriend wanting me in their clubs so that they could use me to win."

"I… see."

"So yeah, people know me, but not outside school. Everything you see me do is because I had lot of time to practice on my own, from elementary school on up." Kaito shrugged. "I figured… this sort of makes us even for the violin performance."

A pause. "You had no obligation…"

"I know," Kaito replied simply.

"…Oh."

Kaito waited a moment, then asked, "What did you buy?"

"Hmm? Oh, yes…" Saguru reached into his bag and retrieved a small traveler's chess set—not expensive by any means, but good enough to play with. "It came to my attention at the Motou's that we both play, but have yet to match our skills over the board."

"You want to lose that badly?" Kaito smirked.

Saguru smirked back. "I'll gladly see if your chess skills exceed your dueling ones."

"That's it—you're going down."

The chess set kept them entertained for the rest of the day. After claiming one victory apiece, they grabbed an early dinner to take along to the warehouse Nightmare had set as the meeting spot. They kept playing after the relocation and had made fair progress on a game favoring Saguru again when Kaito's watch beeped with the heist time.

"And the show begins," Saguru murmured.

"Mmm." Slipping into Kid's focus automatically, Kaito stopped bouncing a knee as he contemplated the chessboard. He glanced down from their catwalk stakeout perch towards the warehouse entrance. Heists tended to be short if you didn't count that wait beforehand. If his own heist was anything to go by, Nightmare—Connery—would arrive in less than half an hour.

Saguru had pulled out a notebook and made a short record of the piece positions in chess notation, then glanced up at Kaito as he tucked it away. "It's mildly terrifying, the way you do that."

Kaito—Kid—didn't blink. "Do what?"

"Changing mindsets—or perhaps you think of them as roles?—as easily as flipping a switch. Few people compartmentalize so well."

He shrugged, not really having an answer. He tended to not look too closely at the things that let him be a good actor, entertainer, Kid – especially when he suspected that he might not like what he would find if he did. It was easier not to look the gift horse in the mouth.

Saguru didn't pry further, choosing instead to don his bronze-threaded gloves, which he'd worn for the climb up to their perch before removing them to play chess. Kaito did the same with his pair of Kid's white ones and they fell silent again, waiting together. Thankfully, Kaito reflected as he idly flipped his card case between his fingers, the blond was Kid's equal when it came to patience.

Just over twenty minutes later, a silhouette filled the warehouse entrance. In time with the click of dress shoes on concrete, Kaito dealt out the top five cards from his side deck, a proper hand. He'd pulled straight from the deck before, but this felt… different. A real duel, against a human, and the shape of the rules was different. Kid had survived this long by knowing how to ride the currents of a situation—any good stage performer knew how to play the audience—so Kaito simply went with it and glanced at the hand. Malice Dispersion and Change of Heart were first, since he had placed them on the top of the deck earlier that day, followed by three other cards.

The clip of Connery's shoes had almost reached the ladder to their catwalk. Even without recognizing the sound of Oxfords on concrete, Kaito would have known the man by his presence. Kid's custom of going with the flow of a heist, unconscious signals heard and obeyed, definitely relied upon the Shadows, and the Shadows' tendency to taste and feel and know the people in their domain. Beside him, Saguru reached Kid's showman-sense as detective-rival-friend; below them both, Connery lurked in an acid-sharp sense of danger and arrogant disgust.

His lip curled unconsciously in a silent snarl. It was easier to be angry than to dwell on the twisted concoction of loathing and desperation that the man still managed to rouse. Knowing that Jii would be ruined or dead if Kaito didn't roll over and bare Kid's metaphorical throat to Nightmare was a memory he preferred to forget. The helplessness he'd experienced then had matched, far too closely, the sensation he'd felt when his world had imploded in a flash of light and smoke. Watching his mother rebuild herself from the ashes, one day at a time, he'd found that she worried less over Clown Face's smile than Poker Face's stoicism. He'd resolved to make his Poker Face a smile and to never, ever, feel that way again.

Nightmare had been the first to make him to renege on that.

Saguru, Méraud, and Riku had pretty firmly knocked out his guilt over the first Nightmare's death. That man had made his choices. But this one… he wasn't going to let die a man he could save, especially if their suspicions of Kudou were right and stopping Nightmare now meant one less body on the other teen's conscience. It still didn't stop him from wishing that the man had never come to Japan, never made Kaito have to choose between either justice for a murderer or maintaining Kenta's innocent faith in his father. Twice.

Yet if he had the same resources and faced the same situation a hundred more times, Kaito knew what he would choose.

Discard one card…

Kaito tossed Dian Keto back into his card case and held up the first card of the evening between two fingers.

"Malice Dispersion."

The warehouse exploded with blue light as the card took effect, bright enough to be seen from the museum if his estimates were right. Kaito tried not to think about it and focused on guiding the Shadows instead, letting them work on Nightmare with minimal interference on his part.

The fine art of delegation—you don't tell the people who actually know what they're doing how to do the job, just tell them to get it done.

Less than a minute later, the blue flare of light winked out and Connery collapsed in a heap on the concrete floor. Kaito waited for any signs of movement, then grabbed his bag and climbed down to confirm that Connery was still breathing, shallow but steady. Standing again as Saguru reached the ground, he gave the ICPO agent's concealing Nightmare mask a long, cold, thoughtful look, then turned to usher the detective behind a few shadowed crates. Connery would live, but he'd likely be arrested and jailed. Whatever assets he had that weren't taken for restitution would be used for Kenta's care, including surgery.

Justice was just. It was not nice.

If Saguru had anything to say, he didn't have a chance before Kid landed on the second-story ledge at the end of the catwalk above them, body language nearly radiating wariness.

"What the hell was that?" Kid hissed.

Kaito quickly pitched his voice to match Jii's. There was no guarantee Kudou was already close enough to hear them, but just in case… "Connery's fate. Let's leave quickly, young master, before witnesses arrive."

Kid peered over the edge of the catwalk, visible eye narrowed dangerously. Kaito stepped out of the shadows just long enough to gesture for Kid to stay put up there, the other hand holding a finger to his lips, before fading back into the dark. He hadn't realized the light would be so bright, but maybe it was better this way. Kudou's curiosity had probably survived intact, and he would make better time to the scene than Nakamori and the task force would. They just had to be ready, and not catch his attention too soon.

Sure enough, after a minute of tense waiting, a second shadow slipped into the warehouse by way of a side door, quiet as a ghost. Kaito watched with bated breath as the whisper of movement proceeded towards the warehouse's open entrance, finally resolving into a proper shape as he entered the moonlight surrounding Connery's form.

It was Kudou. Despite being dressed entirely in black, complete with a black balaclava obscuring his face and head, and a case the right size and shape to carry a broken-down sniper's rifle slung on his back, Kaito knew it was Kudou. Even twisted inside out, the feel was the same. He palmed the Change of Heart card.

Now, for a distrac—

Saguru stepped out from behind the crates, into Kudou's line of sight. "Well, there's something you don't see every day…"

WHAT?

Kaito barely managed to refrain from crunching the pasteboard in his hand as Kudou looked up, shock visible in his stance.

No, dammit, did falling into the swimming pool scramble your brains? Stop mouthing off at my lookalikes that will happily kill you!

"You—You're dead!"

Or apparently ALREADY TRIED.

Saguru stalked forward and around in a wide circle, forcing Kudou to pivot to keep him in line of sight. "I'm feeling better. I think I'll go for a walk…"

Kudou snorted. "Okay, I walked into that one. Too bad I'm going to have to kill you again."

"Oh, I don't think you will." Nearly opposite Kaito on Kudou's other side, Saguru smiled a shark's smile. Kudou angled the slightest bit more so that his back was almost entirely exposed to Kaito. "I wonder what Ran-san would say if she could see you now."

Kaito crept silently forward, one agonizingly slow step at a time, Shadows wrapped close to hide against Kudou's annoyingly accurate sixth sense.

"…Who?"

Damn it, did she leave you anything at all? I don't know how this affects memory…

Saguru was still tempting fate. "Do you remember anything before three years ago? Before Vermouth woke you up and told you that you were hers?"

"I don't know what you're talking about." Short, clipped, staccato speech. The way Kudou sounded when he knew he was missing something but not what, rather than when he knew something and was hiding it.

"I think you have some idea, even if your memory is compromised. There's always been an itch, a wonder… What do you know about your childhood? What name did she give you? Did she let you keep 'Shinichi'?"

Kudou full out twitched, and began raising a handgun in Saguru's direction.

Don't you dare.

Quick as lightning, Kaito darted a hand out, slapping Change of Heart against Kudou's neck in tandem with a silent invocation. For half a second, Kudou froze… then he let out a scream half of Tokyo should have heard and collapsed like a puppet with cut strings.

Kaito caught him, barely, and a moment later Saguru had arrived to take some of the weight. Kaito gave him a not-quite-murderous-but-definitely-acidic glare and snarled, "Stop doing that!"

Saguru gave him a bland smile in return. "I only turn myself into bait when I know you'll make use of the distraction. As I recall, Kid has had no such guarantee."

"I didn't really have a choice," Kaito growled. "Not any better than the one I made."

Saguru sighed. "That doesn't mean I have to like it. Or let you continue to play bait when you're also the main source of firepower."

"Fine," Kaito conceded reluctantly as Kuroba approached them. "Just talk to me about it first, so you don't give me a damn heart attack."

"Provided I have your guarantee you won't try to interfere when I do take the role."

Much as I hate to… "Unless I have a better idea, yes."

Saguru nodded in acceptance, but Kuroba spoke first. "When you said more than sleight of hand, you weren't kidding. Are you sure that's him?"

Kaito smiled wryly. "Pretty sure, yeah." He pulled off Kudou's balaclava, revealing the mirror to his own face, with the resemblance made worse by the messy state of the older teen's typically flat hair.

"Holy…"

"Yeah. We look like twins. Still haven't figured out why… I've never been able to find a copy of the family tree."

"And this discussion should continue later," Saguru broke in. "The Task Force will have heard that."

Kaito could already hear Inspector Nakamori bellowing in the distance. "Right. Let's scra…" The 'm' died on his lips as his hair all stood on end, reacting to the sudden awareness of an approaching, horribly familiar feel of hidden poison and oily manipulation that echoed with his false memories.

"Kuroba-kun?"

He shoved Kudou into Kuroba's arms, expression closing off. "She's here."

Saguru cursed. "An officer's guise, perhaps."

Privately, Kaito couldn't help but be a little grateful that Saguru didn't question how he knew. "Yeah. She likes to take an interest." He nearly spat the final word, anger making another breach in the already cracking Poker Face. He couldn't entirely bring himself to care at the moment—he didn't have the reserves anymore. "Hakuba-kun, give him the taxi fare. Kuroba-kun, take Kudou-kun and go home. We'll follow."

Saguru blinked at him, looking almost surprised at having not been told to go with Kuroba. Kaito didn't want to waste the time, especially when he was pretty sure that the conclusion of the argument wouldn't be any different.

…Besides, given whom he was going to face, having Saguru to watch his back sounded better than going after her alone.

"Right." Saguru handed off a few bills, and Kuroba slung Kudou's limp arm over his shoulders.

"Are you sure?" Kuroba asked. "If she's as slippery and dangerous as you say…"

"So long as she's free, Kudou-kun will never be safe. Maybe not even then, which is why I need to talk to her. If he was a private side project and not a recognized operative, he'll be safe to re-enter society and contact his family and friends. Otherwise… not until they're gone completely."

"Mmm. Be careful."

Kaito nodded. They split up, the other pair vanishing down one alley while Kaito led Saguru along another. As they went, he glanced down at his remaining two cards, which had so far survived intact: Dragon Capture Jar and White Magical Hat.

Hm, idea…

He murmured to Saguru, "We need to be able to safely ask questions and trust the answers. The only way I can manage that is a Shadow Game, like Yugi-kun pulled on Ansem. But there's always a risk, to keep the game fair."

"Kuroba-kun, I think you could safely call any given heist an iteration of a Shadow Game. I've yet to see you lose one of those."

Kaito gave him a wry smile. "Then let me do the talking. She has to know the rules, after all."

"If only so she can break them."

And that will be a very happy sight.

Maybe this wasn't exactly the woman who haunted his nightmares, but it was close enough that if he hadn't gotten a better idea from the hand he currently held, he'd have been half-tempted by Man-Eater Bug.

She's hurt enough people. No more.

"Okay, then… Let's do this right. White Magical Hat."

The Shadows rose, and Kaito ignored how much more energy a full summon took as opposed to a single spell or trap, concentrating on the picture of the card. The image wavered for a moment in his mind, so uncannily similar to the uniform he wore like a second skin that he couldn't help but see the thief as he should be…

…As he unaccountably was, stepping out of the nothing to stand before them…

…Oops?

It was… Kid, but not. The suit was right, hell, even the monocle was right, all the way down to the charm, but the face was neither Kaito's nor Touichi's—clearly adult, but of oddly indeterminate age.

Kaito shot a mildly panicked glance down at the card in his hand. The monsters were supposed to match the images on the cards, they'd said, back in Domino... And he could have sworn that the card hadn't looked quite like that a moment ago, before he'd used it. The light was poor in the alley, but not enough for it to suddenly be so difficult to make out the colors on the figure standing in profile, cape billowing dramatically. It was almost like the picture was suddenly deeper in shadow...

Or should that be deeper in Shadow?

He looked back up, as Not-Kid finished examining his appearance beneath the moonlight, and turned a perfect smirk on Kaito.

":I like it.:"

"…Um. Good?"

":I think I may keep it, after this.:"

"That's… good?" Kaito repeated weakly. "Anyway, that's… actually a lot closer to what we need than I'd hoped to manage. We just need to change your face a little, and this should work…"

He eyed the well-manicured mustache adorning the summon's upper lip. That would definitely have to go, and he dug into a pocket to take inventory of the disguise supplies at his disposal. His little disposable razor had gone missing somewhere along the line, but he could improvise with the tiny capsule of shaving cream that he had managed to find, even if it was the neon pink variety —

":That will not be necessary.:"

Kaito looked up, startled—even Saguru looked impressed at the effortless combination of dignity, polite distaste, and faint condescension that had been packed into that cool statement—and could not help but stare, just a little. There hadn't been time for the summon to do anything more than brush a gloved hand over his face, but the mustache was gone as though it had never been. Somehow the jaw line had also softened and the nose altered, so that when Not-Kid tugged the hat brim down, Kaito was hard-pressed to find any deviation from his reflection in a mirror.

"…Okay," Kaito managed after a beat. "That was a lot easier than my way would have been."

Not-Kid smirked at him. ":Dear boy, you use the Shadows. I am the Shadows.:"

Kaito deliberately did not think about the implications of that. "Then I trust you know what to do?"

":Yes.:" :And I will know what to say, when she faces us,: came directly into Kaito's mind. ":I've gone unused so long; this will be fun.:"

Great. Um. Maybe when this is over, you could put your unique perspective to work assisting Méraud, er…

:Mmm, Lupin will do.:

Lupin. Right. Sure. I've got problems bigger than this Shadow Game, and if you like me enough to snark in my head, after this I would really appreciate you helping her with said problems rather than contributing to her commentary on the current insanity that is my life.

Another smirk. :First you have to win this game, Shadow Master. But afterwards… a challenge does sound amusing.:

Saguru's voice interrupted the exchange. "Kuroba-kun, can you hear me? They're almost to the warehouse."

He shook his head to clear it, as Lupin bowed. "Right. Stay here; I'll be back once I've baited her over."

The adrenaline rush was helping counter the energy drain, at least for the moment. Edging to the alley entrance, he reached out for the same feel that had initially alerted him to her presence. He found it belonging to a nondescript Task Force officer—Sanada Ushio-san, age 37, wife and two sons, his memory for faces helpfully supplied—who stayed outside while Nakamori led the majority into the warehouse.

When her partner was looking elsewhere, Kaito stepped deliberately into her line of sight and made eye contact for just a moment. He ducked back into the alleyway once he was sure she'd recognized him as Kuroba (and consequently as Kid, given the parody of an apology note left with Snake's body). True to expectations, as he hurried back to Saguru's position he heard Sanada's voice telling the partner that he was going to check a possible movement in the alley. Grabbing his bag, he coaxed just enough time out of the seconds Vermouth would need to cross the loading area in order to effect a complete transformation into Kid's costume.

As he stepped up beside Lupin, conveniently blocking all sight of Saguru between twin capes and top hats, the detective muttered at Kaito out of the corner of his mouth, "How the hell is your suit unwrinkled?"

":Magic, my dear detective,:" Lupin purred before Kaito could answer.

…Maybe I imprinted a little bit too much of myself on him when I was changing what he looked like.

:I like your flair, youngling, but don't flatter yourself. You showed your thoughts to me for this Game, but my mind is not so easily manipulated.:

Yessir.

There was no time for Kaito to examine his knee-jerk response to Lupin's reprimand, because Vermouth stepped into the alleyway just then.

Showtime.

"Hello, Vermouth…"

Next Time: How to catch a chameleon.