:)

"So not ONLY did we not catch the real robber last night, but the damn suit we took from him is gone from the evidence room as well?" demanded Megure angrily, the keibu most definitely feeling the beginnings of a very nasty headache coming on.

He practically fell down into his plush seat as he emitted an exhausted sigh. Last night had quickly gone from a celebration of catching Kaitou Kid, the notoriously slippery thief-cum-currently wanted murderer, into a complete and total disaster that Megure's superiors were now breathing down his neck for- and rather harshly at that.

"I need answers and I need them yesterday," Megure muttered this as Satou and Takagi looked down at the floor. "I have half of upstairs out for either my or Kid's blood thanks to this fiasco and the other half trying to scramble around and cover their asses because of it," 'upstairs' being a rather disdainful way of referring to the plush administrative offices that the top police officials worked in.

"Well, keibu, what happened was that while we were on the stakeout we saw the guy heading towards the museum, and-"

"You chased him up onto the roof and arrested him, then realized that something was off, I know that much already, Takagi," nodded Megure as he shook his head and scribbled notes down. "But by the time you realized what was really going on, the thief had already come and gone and the Buddha statue wound up stolen anyhow. At least we've managed to keep that out of the media's hands so far because of that replacement we had made. It would be a field day otherwise." Megure leaned back in his seat before adding "This whole thing seems to only further point at Kid's guilt, too. How did the guy get his hands on that suit if it wasn't from Kid himself?"

"Well, do you remember that theory that Takagi-kun and I-?"

"Yeah, his suit looked tight on camera so you're operating off of the theory that someone else was wearing that suit when the guard got shot. That they knocked Kid out and took it off of him." Megure continued to write down notes. "Ever consider that Kid set up that whole thing just to make us think that? That he maybe tucked some padding in somewhere to make it seem like the suit was tight? This is Kaitou Kid, master of disguise. He may have done that just to mess with us, who knows?"

"But, keibu, that whole heist back at the museum was such a departure from his normal M.O.-" Why won't he listen to Takagi-kun and I?

"Megure, they're right. Kaitou Kid may do some stupid things, and mock us at times in the process of doing those things, but he hadn't ever killed and he won't ever kill. I've said it before, and I'll say it again until it sinks in. The only thing that Kaitou Kid would never steal is a life."

"Nakamori-keibu, what are you doing here?" inquired Takagi and Satou simultaneously as the other keibu walked into Megure's office.

"I heard about what happened last night," the other keibu offered with a laugh by way of explanation as he took one of the empty seats in Megure's office and made himself comfortable. "I take it that you guys already know that there's no way in hell that idiot you have back there in your jail is Kaitou Kid," he continued as he expertly lit a cigarette. "Can't even imitate voices worth a damn, much less do any magic tricks." With a smirk that wouldn't have been out of place on Kid's face during the midst of a heist he added "And besides, that ugly mug of his is no latex mask- I checked. There may be a bruise on his cheek for a few days, sorry about that if if gets your folks in trouble with the higher ups." He exhaled after taking the first puff before asking "So what was the guy's story when you picked him up? I can't wait to hear this one, I have a feeling it'll entertain me."

"I would appreciate it if you wouldn't smoke in my office," replied Megure with a pointed glance at the cigarette before Nakamori nodded and put it out in a half-empty coffee cup of water on Megure's desk. Megure began after the other keibu finished disposing of the smoke. "He claims that he's writing a biography of Kid in his spare time and that someone left him the suit in a bag on his front doorstep late last night with a note that said it was 'a gift for such a huge fan.' When asked why on Earth Kid would possibly ever give him the suit- and what possessed him to squeeze into the thing and crawl along rooftops, he replied-"

"He just wanted to 'see what it was like being Kid!' came a shouted yell from the next room in a tone full of mirth, which was followed by an uproarious burst of laughter from the men and women working in that room. "Can you believe that? The idiot went and got himself arrested because he was stupid enough to dress up in a suit that Kid was dumb enough to leave him!" The second round of peals of laughter caused all four in the room to get up and go see what was going on.

"Why do I have this funny feeling that I'm really, really not going to like participating in whatever you two have been so busy planning over there?" Kaito asked mildly as he continued the repair of his poor now-bedraggled costume's pants, Heiji and Shinichi both looking at him from the couch across the way with grins that Kaito knew meant trouble aimed at the direction of those grins- namely him.

"Well, Conan and I were just discussin' ways to get Hakuba off of his tail and back on the murderer's, where that idiot should be focused right now," explained Heiji in an equally casual tone. "You prolly know him way better than us, let's see if your train of thought goes along the same track. What would you say are the things that interest Hakuba most? 'Sides mysteries, that is. That's a given since he's a tantei like Conan and I." Jeez, I have to be careful, I very nearly used Kudo's name just then...

"Hmm. Well, he likes tea, and I can tell you from experience that he'll come down hard on you if you mess with his tea. And of course there's his big obsession with catching Kaitou Kid-" Kaito nearly dropped the needle he was using as his eyes narrowed when he realized where this conversation was very likely going. Have they both gone totally nuts? "Nope, no. No way. Not doing it," he muttered firmly to the pair as he resumed his work, grateful that he hadn't managed to poke himself.

"Not doing what?" inquired Shinichi in an innocence-filled tone- a tone that merely caused his near-twin to give him a glare.

"Whatever it is you two have planned for Kaitou Kid to distract Hakuba. I know those grins, I've had one like that plastered on my own face way too many times to count." Breaking his concentration and sewing to look across the room, he added "Besides, have you forgotten? Kaitou Kid is wanted for murder right now so if I show up in this suit I'm hosed, and I know the police won't give up nearly as easily as they normally do because of that. I'm also sure that Nakamori-keibu has been over to the Tokyo station by now and laughed at whoever my impostor hired to wear that suit and run around."

"What makes you think that something like that happened? The killer hiring that guy to wear your suit?"

"Easy. He was using one of the easiest, simplest and most successful tactics that there is- distraction," replied Kaito as he resumed his sewing with a shrug. "All he had to do was find a willing participant and convince them to run around in the general vicinity of the museum. Then while the cops who have the place staked out are busy chasing the person in the white Kid suit, the real guy sneaks into the museum and makes off with the statue easy as pie."

"Well, that might explain why they're being so closemouthed about last night," replied Heiji as he gave a glance to Shinichi. "Maybe something like that did happen, eh? Now that he mentions it, I overheard them saying something about making sure that a replacement was ordered. And when I asked what they meant, they got real quiet really quickly. That was right before I got the chance to, ehh, return the suit to its proper owner."

"Maybe they ordered a fake statue so that no one will realize the real thing's gone missing," offered Kaito as he began to put away his sewing kit. "Of course, I'm sure the owners have been notified that it was taken, but I find the fact that they haven't announced that they guy they arrested last night is a fake or that the stature got stolen both very interesting."

"Hey, you said you have a police-band radio, right? Let's check it out," offered Shinichi. "Unless you don't want to go to your house right now that is." Maybe if we listen to what the police are talking about we can figure out what exactly happened last night and if Kuroba is right.

"I'd be more than happy to go to my house if Aoko and Mom weren't there busy baking for some school fundraiser we're having next week," the thief replied as he began to prepare his outfit for a very thorough washing. "Why do you think I came here in the first place?"

"So," grinned Heiji, "About that plan of ours..."

"I already told you. No, no and no again. I'm not going to risk getting arrested because Hakuba's been set on Kudo's scent somehow!" This was followed by the thief immediately covering his mouth as he realized that he'd uttered the wrong name out loud. I didn't intend for them to know that I know who 'Conan' really is, not yet at least...

"How the hell?" Heiji finally managed to spit out after fully twenty seconds of stunned silence and terror-filled looks from the other pair, Shinichi also having been unable to control himself from blanching a shade of near-white for a few moments when his true name had first come out of Kaito's mouth.

"Well, once you two found me out, I had initially decided to keep what I know to myself until a better time, but I guess that's out the window now." Kaito explained wearily as the other two glared at him so intensely that it made his skin crawl. "I got curious about whether you were hiding something when you first showed up at one of my heists to be honest, a strangely adult-seeming boy that tried to stop me and called himself a tantei. And I always make a point to know as much as possible about opponents that may present an actual challenge to me, so I decided to do some research. But there was next to nothing on Edogawa Conan when I went looking, and that made me wonder even more." Kaito cleared his throat. "Then I realized how much you looked like me as a kid- minus those glasses of course. I could tell that the glasses didn't have a prescription in them when we first met at that first heist of mine you tried to stop, and that got me wondering. A kid who looked just like me at that age that needed to hide his face behind fake glasses that I could find hardly any information on?

"As I was thinking about that, I remembered a tantei who had looked almost exactly like me that chased me for a bit with some success and then suddenly vanished off the face of the Earth about a year and a half ago," Kaito continued as Shinichi continued to eye him with a wary, horror-filled expression. "Kudo Shinichi, who along with Hakuba Saguru was one of the tanteis to come closest to actually catching me before he so mysteriously vanished." As his eyes continued to slide back and forth between the two friends, Kaito decided to tell them everything, since he knew that if he was in a position like this that he would want a similar amount of honesty- and besides, the tanteis had told him precisely how they'd arrived at thier conclusion as well. "Then I found out that Edogawa Conan first got enrolled at his elementary school about a year and a half ago, and that the Kudo mansion had been vacant from about the same time frame until a tenant moved in a few months ago. I don't know how you got in that small body, but I've known who you really are for several months. Of course, that was only because I had some idea of where to begin looking," Kaito finally finished.

"You had better not even think about telling anyone-" snapped Heiji, but Kaito waved the Osakan off.

"Hey. Are you forgetting who I am? I of all people know that people have a right to secrets. I've never said anything about it until now to you two, and I didn't plan to ever say anything." He turned to Shinichi. "I can understand if you're not willing to answer this, but what the heck happened to you that made you a kid again like that?"

"Well," Shinichi replied firmly after realizing that there was nothing left to lose, "it all started because of two men dressed from head to toe in black that were suspects in a murder I was solving..."