3: Contingency For Tricks Gone Wrong

Conan sighed and glanced around the large overly bright ballroom. Leave it to Sonoko to convince her uncle, Suzuki Jirokichi, to hold a Halloween Costume Party in his mansion. Of course with Ran invited both Conan and Kogoro, her father, had been pulled along as well. How boring. Big parties like this would have been so much more enjoyable if he were tall enough to actually be included in adult conversation!

The first thing he had done upon arriving was excuse himself from the Mouris' side and plop himself down in one of the comfortable armchairs that lined the walls. Propping his head up on one arm, Conan continued to let his eyes roam idly over the crowd, deducing what he could from each outlandishly costumed figure.

He didn't even acknowledge when someone sank into the chair next to him with an audible groan of appreciation for the voluptuous cushions. "What a dull crowd." Moaned a smooth alto voice, finally prompting Conan to look at his new companion. Said companion was a dark skinned teenage girl with unruly black hair and strange golden-brown eyes. The tiniest hints of an Osakan accent gave her otherwise unremarkable voice a friendly drawl. Like the majority of the crowd she was in costume: an easily recognizable prison uniform complete with a set of handcuffs, binding her slim wrists. On her opposite shoulder a portion of a patch with a prisoner number was visible, but Conan could only make out the last two numbers, a 1 and a 2.

"Ah… yeah" Conan agreed quickly. The girl continued on unheeding of Conan's apparent shyness, "it's really not a very good party for kids. I mean look at that costume over there," she gestured to a busty girl in a skimpy cat costume. "Absolutely no taste." The girl complained airily.

Vaguely as she continued to babble, Conan realized that the handcuffs of her costume did nothing to prevent her energetic hand motions. In fact he could swear that she was slipping in and out of them with the ease of a pro.

"Hey!" Conan interrupted her tirade, "are those handcuffs real?" She paused to look thoughtful for a moment and Conan was pretty sure it had been the first breath she had taken since she started talking to him. She glanced at him in slight hesitation before shrugging and answering with far too much cheer, "of course!" She pointed to a blond male teenager in a deerstalker cap and Sherlock Holmes coat; "I borrowed them from that detective want-to-be."

Conan's eyes widened, recognizing Saguru Hakuba, the teen detective from London. "That's Hakuba-nii-san!" Conan exclaimed, "he's a real detective and I know for a fact he would not just give his handcuffs to anyone!" The girl had the grace to look bashful before admitting that she had borrowed them without permission.

Conan frowned in suspicion, "I find it hard to believe that you simply went and pick pocketed such a renowned detective as thought it were nothing." To Conan's utter confusion, the girl flushed and brought her hands to her face, gushing about how cute he looked when troubled and how nobody had ever complimented her in such a way. Conan was forced to endure the humiliation as she went so far as to hug him, muttering under his breath that it hadn't been a compliment.

They continued to banter back and forth for a while before switching to topics of varying degrees of seriousness. She introduced herself as Kitsugi Chiaki an average high school student and aspiring actress. Conversing with someone who didn't treat him like a kid actually let Conan feel like Shinichi again. In fact he even forgot for a while that he had been shrunk at all.

A few hours later they each got a glass of punch to wet their throats before resuming. However, Conan was not so relaxed as to not notice his companion's increasingly frequent glances at Conan's watch.

"What's the matter?" Conan asked eventually, "do you have a date or something later?" Chiaki grinned and flicked her hair over her shoulder, "no, nothing like that, but it is an appointment I have and am not looking forward to." By this point in the conversation, the handcuffs had mysteriously vanished. Conan tipped his head curiously, "what kind of appointment, it's a bit late for a doctor, dentist, job interview… any kind of meeting really."

Chiaki smirked in a familiar way and turned so that for the first time the number stitched into her prisoner costume was visible. 1412. Conan gasped in realization "Kaitou KID!" He lunged towards her… him… off his chair, only to be yanked back by his left ankle. The handcuffs were hooking him to the chair leg. "Why are you here?" He asked the grinning thief. KID shrugged, "miss Sonoko invited me and I hoped it would be some fun before I had to leave for my job."

Conan stopped testing the chain around his leg and frowned, "there was no notice for tonight." KID's face was grim as he… she… replied, "it's not a heist. I have a lead on some criminals of the darker sort. If I succeed they won't be around for much longer." Conan growled, "but that's dangerous! What if they kill you?!"

KID smirk confidently, "a phantom can't be killed so easily, but if I do die… well then, I just happen to know Kudo Shinichi, the modern Sherlock Holmes! If anyone would be able to solve my murder it would be him." Tipping a non-existent hat, the moonlight magician vanished easily into the crowd.

Cursing vehemently with words no 8 year-old should know, Conan heaved the heavy armchair up just enough to slip the other silver band free. Grumbling under his breath he headed into the throng to find Hakuba so he could unlock the second band. It was obvious that the thief was long gone already, but… it was fun taking with him… her. Damn KID's disguises! They make genders so complicated!