46: His Father's Ghost
Kaito smiles throughout the day.
He dodges Aoko's mops and gives empty dissents to Hakuba when the detective accuses him of the truth: of him being the phantom thief KID. Because it's a lie and it isn't.
His secret mission, to destroy Pandora, the gem of immortality, and to topple the ones who murdered his father… and yet he's not sure he'll be able to let the persona of the thief go even when those goals are reached.
He dons his father's suit and goes out at night and steals gems that many would kill for just to return them after admiring the way they sparkle. Baubles these gems are, described as priceless. But the only thing that is truly priceless….
KID laughs, his magic trick going off perfectly, to leap from a rooftop with an unnecessary, taunting flip.
His shadows have weapons that glint in the dark, his taskforce curse him from the ground, and his detectives call him crazy.
And Kaito knows they must be right.
Because as he dances through the darkness and moonlight, his father dances with him, identically dressed in white, but with a grin as proud as it is mischievous. And Kaito ignores the way the moon shines through transparent skin, and deceives himself into accepting that even though they're within reach they'll never touch.
He jokes that he is his father's phantom, but it's just because he can see the way everyone else's eyes glide through KID like he's not even there. His father just laughs silently, a white shadow over his shoulder, providing eyes for angles he can't watch alone, giving warning so he can flit away when death tries to claw at him.
Kaito knows it isn't healthy, but he doesn't care.
All he knows is that when he follows in his father's footsteps, his father returns to follow in his.
(Really short, but… I was playing with the idea of Kaito literally being in the process of losing his mind: either really seeing his father's ghost, or hallucinating it whenever he wears KID's suit. I wanted this chapter to feel disjointed and confusing, mysterious and vague, dark and light as though it were a fairy tale or dream. Because seeing his father's ghost is causing Kaito to disconnect from reality. Danger, is something to be laughed at; how can it possibly be real? His father is 'dead' and yet he's still just right there….)