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Title: Role Reversal Rivalry – A Different Detective and Phantom Thief

Fandom: Detective Conan / Magic Kaito

Disclaimer: All rights reserved to Gosho Aoyama for he created the awesomeness that is Kaitou KID. Ah, and Detective Conan, too. This fanfiction on the other hand is entirely mine. No money is made with this, though reviews are more than welcomed.

Tags: m/m, role swap, hurt/comfort

Main Pairing: Kaito/Shinichi

DC/MK Characters: Kudou Shinichi, Kuroba Kaito, Mouri Ran, Suzuki Sonoko, Nakamori Aoko, Nakamori Ginzo, Hakuba Saguru, Agasa Hiroshi, Kudou Yukiko, Jii Konosuke, Kuroba Toichi

Summary: What if Kaito blamed magic for his father's death and turned his back on it, instead he becomes a detective, under Nakamori's mentorship, obsessed with solving his father's murder? And what if Shinichi became obsessed with KID as a child, after the scavenger hunt, and he learned magic from Toichi, just to then pick up the mantle as a teenager?

Role Reversal Rivalry

A Different Detective and Phantom Thief

Part 2: Kudou Shinichi, Magician

Kudou Shinichi was a very bright child. He'd grown up interested in mysteries. But one fateful night changed the course of what kind of mysteries Shinichi enjoyed. A scavenger hunt in his elementary school, with a strange adult, who seemed set on making Shinichi ask his father for help. No. Shinichi was not asking for help. He thought he'd figured it all out on his own and he had had so much fun chasing these riddles, to see if he could figure them out. Ran seemed mostly worried, if he was being honest, and Agasa seemed exhausted by it all. But Shinichi? He'd never had that much fun with a mystery before! He wanted more of this.

So he found himself asking his mom about it. About the man who claimed to be his 'little brother'.

"Your..." Yukiko blinked repeatedly, before it seemed to dawn on her and she laughed. "Oh. Oh, that was... That must have been a thief. Kaitou KID is his name. That name, your father gave him."

A thief? Thieves seemed so uninteresting though. But then this one had proven a challenge.

"Does he always give out riddles?" asked Shinichi curiously.

"Sometimes he does," Yukiko smiled and brushed her hand over Shinichi's hair.

He wiggled his nose and tried to dodge her. "I wanna solve more riddles!"

"What, you want to go chasing thieves now?" Yukiko raised an eyebrow. "You know, Kaitou KID isn't just any thief though, he is one who uses magic tricks."

Magic tricks? Shinichi frowned at his mother. That too didn't sound interesting. Yukiko lifted one finger to indicate that he ought to wait for her for a moment. Then, she produced a set of cards from her purse. What followed was a sleight of hands – as he later learned – but all Shinichi could think was oh. Oh, a performed mystery. Something to figure out and dissect. He made her repeat the trick five times, seven times, ten times, until Shinichi finally figured it out.

"This is exciting," declared Shinichi. "Not the trick itself. But figuring it out."

"Well, if this interests you, I could take you to my teacher," offered Yukiko with a smile, pressing a kiss to the top of Shinichi's head. "He can teach you even more magic."

"I don't wanna learn magic, I wanna take it apart."

"Ah, but to truly take something apart, you need to learn how it's put together."

There was a certain sense of logic to her words, he supposed. Perhaps taking some classes would be useful. He would learn the basics and then he'd have an easier time taking the magic apart. Okay.

/break\

Kuroba Toichi was Yukiko's teacher. The man was charming and friendly and very suspicious. He was hiding something, Shinichi knew it. Shinichi had always had very good instincts about this. But until he could fully figure the magician out, he was simply accepting the lessons. Learning whatever it was that Toichi had to teach him. Strangely enough, Shinichi found a certain sense of joy in it. He'd never expected to find this enjoyable, really. It was supposed to be just a stepping stone.

"You're very talented, Shinichi-kun," Toichi praised him. "My second most talented student."

"Second," repeated Shinichi, trying not to sound too offended.

"Yes," Toichi chuckled. "I have a son, he's your age. And he's my best student."

"Mh," Shinichi narrowed his eyes at the man. "I want to meet this son of yours."

Toichi chuckled again. Entertained by him. It sounded nearly fond. Was he not taking Shinichi seriously? That was a problem Shinichi faced quite frequently and it was utterly frustrating.

"I'm sure you two will meet each other one day," promised Toichi.

/break\

Shinichi shuffled a deck of cards. It had become a bit of a habit for him, to keep his hands busy. He'd finally convinced his father to take him to a heist. Though his father claimed that he didn't frequent heists, that he only occasionally attended them at all. But thanks to Shinichi's insistence, he'd come to the scene of this one – and allowed Shinichi to tag along.

"That's a tacky outfit," commented Shinichi when KID appeared.

"That's not very nice of you, young magician."

Shinichi startled when the thief suddenly appeared right in front of him. The outfit was tacky, yes, but it was also distracting. White stood out. It drew the eyes. Which made him the center of attention. A real magician, mh? Toichi had taught Shinichi all about that, about being flashy and drawing attention so other things could happen unseen. Make them look at the right hand so the left hand could do whatever it wanted to do. There was something familiar about KID's posture as the thief bowed and disappeared again. Something too familiar. Not just from that one night many months ago at the school. No, the way he performed his magic, it was almost like...

Shinichi's eyes widened as he watched Kaitou KID get chased by the cops. Kuroba Toichi.

/break\

Tonight was the night. Toichi, who kept denying that he was KID (which was very annoying to Shinichi, who had a thing about wanting to be right at all times) was finally going to introduce Shinichi to his son. Kuroba Kaito, Shinichi knew the boy's name, but that was all. Well, that and the fact that Kaito was apparently Toichi's most promising apprentice. After all the things Shinichi had already learned from the man! And Shinichi was a quick learner, he knew that.

"What... What just happened?" Shinichi looked on in confusion.

He was pressed against his mother's chest, she was holding his head against her collarbone to prevent him from looking. There were screams and fire. Something had exploded, but... wasn't it part of the show? Yukiko was trembling as she held him tight.

"No, no, Shin-chan, you've seen many things you were too young for. Not this. Not this..."

It was only the next day that Shinichi learned of Toichi's passing. A great tragedy. An accident.

/break\

Shinichi was not stupid. He knew there was more to it. There was no way Toichi, as talented and in control as he was, would actually make any such mistakes. Something was off, Shinichi just didn't know what – and it was hard to come by details, because both his parents were quite determined to keep him from this investigation. Which was ridiculous, his dad had little problems taking him to murder scenes usually, but this one, the one he ought to solve, the one of a man dear to him, he was forbidden from investigating. They thought it'd traumatize him too much to see the gruesome details of Toichi's death, they wanted him to remember his uncle alive and happy.

Fine, then. Shinichi would find a way around it. There was one man he thought held answers. Jii Konosuke, who had been Toichi's assistant. Shinichi had been at enough shows behind the stage to take them apart, he'd met the man. Shinichi also knew that he had a billiard bar, he'd gone there once with Toichi before, when Toichi wanted to show him a trick involving a billiard set.

"Jii-chan," Shinichi's voice was as firm as a young boy could muster. "What happened to uncle Toichi? I know he didn't make any mistakes. He doesn't make mistakes."

Jii looked startled and guilty and pained and perhaps many other emotions Shinichi couldn't name. He just knew that he was right here and that Jii held at least some answers, or knew things that could direct all the questions Shinichi had.

/break\

Sonoko became Shinichi's assistant, because Ran found it embarrassing and she had never quite enjoyed that kind of attention. Sonoko? She reveled in it, and she also loved magic, just like Shinichi. It was the start of them finding more common ground than just Ran.

And while he kept training to be a magician, he also kept investigating the death of Toichi. At his heart, he was still a lover of mysteries and solving them. His stubbornness had breached Jii's secrecy. In the backroom of the Blue Parrot was the secret lair of Kaitou KID. But he was only privy to that after Jii himself had been foolish enough to pretend to be KID. Shinichi, alerted by this impossibility – seeing as he knew very well that Toichi had been KID and that Toichi was dead, had come to investigate and had followed Jii back to the bar.

"I always knew it," whispered Shinichi, voice weak as he stared at the costume.

The tacky top-hat, the stupid cape, the dumb monocle. It was all right there, looking silly.

"...Yes," Jii finally admitted what Toichi always denied. "He was... Kaitou KID. And... And in the end, that was what got him killed. Please, sit down, and I will... tell you the whole truth."

Finally. Finally, Shinichi was going to learn what had really happened.

/break\

Instead of an answer, Shinichi got a thousand other questions. Who were these men in black? What was Pandora? Where could he find it? Why did they kill Toichi – he had been more useful to them alive, since he basically did their job for them, after all?

Shinichi was sixteen when he first donned the Kaitou KID getup and gear. Because Jii had been onto something. This was a good way of luring out Toichi's killers. Only that Jii wasn't fit for the job, he was too old for the acrobatics and he had never had the showmanship. Now Shinichi? Shinichi was born to be in the spotlight. He thrived for the attention. And he had realized that creating mysteries and riddles was just as much fun as solving them.

Not long after his first appearance, he got to learn a different kind of joy. To meet a mind matching his own. A teen detective who seemed to be snooping around the heists, who soon proved to be obsessed with Kaitou KID. Shinichi found it flattering to be the object of obsession.

"Did you guys have fun at the heist?" Shinichi asked conversationally.

They were on their way to school together, Ran and Sonoko on either of him. While Sonoko made a dreamy noise, Ran heaved an exasperated sigh. Yes, it was quite awkward that Sonoko had a crush on him – even if she didn't know that Shinichi was Kaitou KID.

"It was amazing, as always!" Sonoko batted her eyelashes in excitement. "Until that blasted teen detective started poking his nose in, I have no idea why he can't let KID-sama be."

"Teen detective?" Shinichi tried to sound not too invested.

"Kuroba-kun," replied Ran with a smile. "He introduced himself to us, before... quarreling with my father. Apparently, he is some kind of protege to Nakamori-keibu."

Trust Ran to have the necessary information. Nakamori's protege, mh? That sounded quite interesting. What sounded even more interesting was the name. Kuroba-kun. Surely not a coincident, could it be? A teen detective around Shinichi's age who showed an unreasonable interest in Kaitou KID. As a child, Shinichi never had the chance to meet Toichi's son. Who would have thought that this was how they'd meet? On different sides of the law. As detective and thief, when Shinichi had always imagined to meet him as an equal. Both as magicians and apprentices to Toichi, perhaps to perform magic together one day. Shinichi grinned to himself as his mind wandered to what kind of challenge he could present to his new rival.

Author's note: *chants softly* Assistant Sonoko assistant Sonoko assistant Sonoko-No but in all seriousness, that feels like a role she would DELIGHT in! Gorgeous costumes, attention, partaking in tricks!

Now I DID have to make ONE change to the canon layout. The location of the KID Cave. Which, quite honestly, NEVER made sense to me to begin with. WHY in the WORLD would you have the entrance to your secret hideout be IN YOUR SON'S BEDROOM? If he'd been in his father's old study or whatever, okaaay fiiine I gueeeess. But it ALWAYS made more sense to me to have the KID lair ALSO be at the Blue Parrot? The way the billiard tables are already prepped to turn into display cases and silly things like that? It'd make so much more sense to hide the rest of the KID stuff there too

ANYWAY, next chapter, it's all bout our boys, interacting with each other ;)