Author's note: I don't own Kuroba Kaito (wish to…), not Nakamori Aoko, nor Kudo Shinichi, nor Mouri Ran, nor Hattori Heiji, nor Kazuha Toyama… still they all appear in this.

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Vol

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Aoko stared down at the jewel in the case. In the semi-darkness of the room, it was sparkling its blue reflections onto her face. The sapphire wasn't as big as she'd thought it would – actually it was quite small. The blueness of it seemed as pure and innocent as a child's heart. As pure and innocent as hers had been, such a long time ago.

"Keibu!"

She pivoted on her heels. Miyoshi the assistant was entering the room, along with two unknown men and… Kudo Shinichi.

"Kudo," she said, surprised.

"Hello, Nakamori. Mind if I come in?"

"No, not at all… what are you doing here? Is Ran-chan…"

"Down on the first floor. Along with Kazuha-chan."

"Oh… so Hattori-kun's here too."

He laughed, and for the hundredth time, she realized how much he looked like Kaito. "Yeah… Hakuba couldn't make it. Neither could Kuroba."

'I wish,' she thought. "Who are those two?"

Miyoshi coughed and advanced. "Nakamori-keibu, allow me to introduce Akashi-san and Ueki-san. They were sent here by Megure-keibu…"

"Oh! Megure-keibu did such a thing?" That sounded suspect. Megure-keibu knew what she worth, and that she didn't need reinforcement to catch Kid. It was skill her assistants lacked of. But maybe those two were particularly talented... "I'll have to call him and say thanks…"

"No need, Nakamori-keibu," the Ueki man cut in rudely. He was dressed like a policeman and the cap prevented from seeing his face in full light, apart from his blue eyes. "Megure-keibu is on a case tonight. He won't want to be disturbed."

"Ueki-san," the second man said disapprovingly. "Please remember your position. You are not a tantei anymore."

Shinichi's eyes opened with more interest on Ueki-san. Akashi-san turned to Aoko.

"Nakamori-keibu? I am very pleased to meet you. I hope our association, along with the two detectives of West and East," a polite nod at Shinichi, "will allow us to capture the thief."

His way of speaking reminded her a little of Hakuba.

"Are you an inspector?"

"Yes. Ueki-san is… well… was an private eye, but he integrated the police a few months ago."

That means he's not yet much accustomed with the police ways, Aoko thought. That allows for his rudeness a moment ago. Except if it's a remarkably well-performed comedy. Her eyes turned to Akashi-san. And if he is Kid, he takes a big risk in heading the way like this and talking to me. So now what I have to wonder is, which of them is the best disguise for Kid to be him?

Shinichi was consulting his watch. "There's still a hour and a half before Kid arrives. Don't you think we should talk before that?"

"Sure," Aoko agreed absently. "Go fetch the others and meet us in the police caravan parked down there."

"The girls too?"

"Yes. I'll need their perspective. … Akashi-san, would you come with m? Ueki-san, Miyoshi-san, I rely on you to keep the gem safe. I will be back shortly."

Ueki started, about to protest, but a rapid, authoritative glance from Akashi-san prevented him from going any further. Without more ado, all three left the room. Aoko shut the door behind her with a last look at Blue Child, thinking this might be the last time she saw it, until Kid returned it like he always did.

-

Later on, in the police caravan

"I think that what we need to wonder now isn't how Kid intends to steal Blue Child," Heiji stated, with a short glance at Aoko, who listened to him with a serious frown, "whether he intends to steal it as Kid himself or under a disguise."

"I think you're right," she replied to his silent question. "What do you guys–"

"It would be easier for him to come under disguise," Shinichi said. "That's his favourite trick, with the number of policemen in the building. It would be kid's play to him."

Aoko smiled at the joke, but when their eyes met she knew he was thinking the same thing as she. Her eyes swept on Akashi-san, who sat at the other end of the table, quite silent. He returned the gaze without blushing, without apparent trouble.

"Yet, his handglider would be necessary to escape once he's stolen the jewel," Hattori said.

"Yeah, you're right."

"Then he should have to come under disguise then go away as the flying Kid, wouldn't he?" Kazuha remarked. She didn't show much enthusiasm and it was obvious she had only came to accompany Heiji. She wasn't much interested in Kid, she never had been. It had been refreshing to meet her as such.

"Okay," Aoko said quietly, "let's assume he is under disguise, and even that he's already in the building, mixing with the throng. But right now we need to know what his disguise is… and whether the message he sent would be of any use."

"Read it aloud," Akashi-san suggested with his tranquil voice.

"'Messieurs les policiers,

Comme la nuit n'arrive jamais seule,

J'ai été charmé par l'innocence de l'enfant

Qui regarde la lune, une lueur d'espoir

Dans ses yeux bleus.'

Now the translation may be:

'Police gentlemen,

As night never comes alone,

I was charmed by the innocence of the child

Who looks up at the moon, a glimmer of hope

In its blue eyes.'

From this we had no great trouble deciphering what his aim was… even if I didn't want to believe it at first…"

"So why did he send it in French?" Akashi asked.

"That's what I wonder," Aoko said.

"What if it was a reference to Arsene Lupin?" Ran suggested. "That French thief is Kid's model, isn't he? Lupin's a master of disguise… Once he even faked himself as a police director. So the French message may mean that he would come under a mask."

"I hadn't thought about that," Aoko nodded thoughtfully. "But then it only indicates us what we already know. What do you think, Akashi-san?"

Akashi stopped reading the message over and over and cracked his knuckles before answering. "I think Kid's already there. Yet to come in as a policeman is a risk – he already tried it so many times. No, it would be cleverer to disguise as somebody else."

"Then Kid is either up there in the jewel's room, waiting for his time to come, or right here, with us," Heiji said.

"In that case, the two easiest to be suspected are Ueki-san and myself," Akashi said. "We pretend to be sent by Megure-keibu, but there can be no evidence of this. And to say, 'No, I'm not Kid' can prove nothing. But Kid's clever. My and Ueki-san's position are too risky for him. So I guess everyone here can be suspected, from the tanteis" he nodded respectfully at the two men, "to the girls… or…"

"Myself," Aoko added calmly. "I could be Kid pretending to be Nakamori Aoko. Now that's settled, it'll be easier."

-

"Akashi-san," Aoko asked as the two of them were climbing up the stairs to the jewel's room, "what do you know about Kid?"

Akashi gave a good moment's thought to this. "Only what the papers said about him. He looks like a fascinating character."

"Fascinating," Aoko grunted.

"But I wonder what his reason for this may be."

"What?"

He gave her a surprised look, then frowned. "Why, he must have a reason for doing this. I'm sure he's not stealing priceless jewels and giving them back the next day only for the fun of the thing."

"I thought like this, too."

"And what is your conclusion?

"That he's looking for one particular gem, although the reason for this I ignore."

"Hum… great minds do think alike." He grinned at her. They reached the door. Inside the room was only Ueki.

"Ueki-san?" Aoko frowned. "Where's Miyoshi-san?"

"He was called back to the cameras' room."

"And you stayed here alone?"

"You told me to survey the jewel, didn't you?"

Aoko didn't bother about replying. She dashed to the case and inspected the jewel. As far as she could tell through the thick glass, it wasn't a fake. She checked on the vitrin. It hadn't moved, it looked solid.

"Does she suspect me?" Ueki asked, quite loudly, to Akashi.

"In such a case everyone has got to be suspected… you, me, her closest friends… herself."

"Fine," Ueki said, and stalked over to the window.

"I apologize for my colleague's rudeness," Akashi told Aoko. "He's not–"

"… accustomed with the police's ways, I understand," Aoko said. "I apologize myself for suspecting him so hastily. You can understand I was worried."

"Certainly. I feel the same. It's–"

He couldn't finish his sentence – a great BANG! echoed from nowhere. Or else, from a place where there should be nothing. They all looked up at the ceiling where nothing was to be seen, and Aoko, in one panoramic glance around the room, caught the sight of a small remote in Ueki's hand for the split second before twenty policemen invaded the room.

"Keibu, what happened?" she heard her assistant shout at her above the din but right then a very familiar voice resounded through the room, cutting every other sound off.

"Looking for someone, gentlemen?"

Oh, that sarcastic tone…

Akashi-san, she noticed, was staring with unbelieving eyes at the place where Ueki-san had stood a moment before and Kid was now playing with Blue Child. He didn't say anything more as he stepped over the window's frame and grinned at them before flying away.

"Down!" Aoko shouted at her men who instantly obeyed her and rushed to the door. Two seconds later the room was empty.

Well, it almost was.

Akashi-san grinned fro himself as he approached the case, where, like nobody had ever cared about checking, the real Blue Child still stood.

"That was well-performed," he said in a much younger voice. His experienced hands cut a perfect a perfect circle in the glass and took the gem away. It sparkled and shone, streaming with blue reflects, as though rejoicing in being freed from its glass' prison. "Funny how those police people are always fooled by the same tricks."

He slowly came out of the room and listened carefully at the sounds in the staircase. Then he peacefully climbed it up, heading for the roof as always.

There was someone waiting for him there.

She was sitting, legs crossed, on the edge of the roof. As he came out in the open, his eyes instantly focusing on her, she stood up, smirking at him. "You made me wait quite a while, Kid l'insaisissable," she mimicked.

Kaito was quite startled but Kid's face showed nothing of it. "You were waiting for me?"

"Oh, yeah, you really thought I was fooled by this little masquerade from Ueki-san?" She laughed joylessly. "I'm no fool."

"Glad to know. So you had guessed it was me from the beginning?"

"Sorry to contradict what you said, but I couldn't suspect everyone. Neither Shinichi and Ran, nor Heiji and Kazuha, could really be suspected; because if Kid – sorry, if you had taken the place of one of them, his/her mate would have remarked it inevitably. You may fool friendship's eyes, but not love's. So the logical conclusion was that Kid was either Akashi-san – that means you – or Ueki-san, whatever his real name is."

"And how did you make out it was me?"

"That was simple. Akashi-san and Ueki-san knew each other, so it implied that either the both of them were truthful (which I therefore knew couldn't be), or the two of them were fake." She then grinned a little, and looked quite like Aoko, not Nakamori-keibu. "Knowing Kid to be the biggest smug I ever met, he wouldn't take the place of a foil. So it had to be you."

Kid applauded carefully. "What a splendid reasoning. But," he took blue Child out of his pocket, "it didn't prevent me from stealing this jewel."

That was what Aoko had been waiting for, the moment when he would have the gem in his hand. "No," she said. "It didn't."

And she jumped from the roof.

She saw a mixed look of surprise and horror slipping Poker Face away for an instant before seeing nothing at all.

She felt the lights blurred in her half-shaded sight, the air brushing against her skin, the wind in her hair – the fall in her lungs – and then the strong contact of two arms around her shoulders and waist, before she was hoisted back up in the air and against his chest.

She was flying…

He was holding her tightly, as though afraid she might fall back, and when she looked up she only saw Poker Face again – but his hands were trembling.

They were flying – her black police suit against his white tux.

It all ended too soon, as he lowered her to her feet on a nearby roof and landed himself on the edge of it, his cloak coming back to its original shape and shaking against him.

"You're mad," he said.

She couldn't help smiling. "Have to be. I've been chasing you almost every night for nearly a year."

He smirked. "That's right." He looked at the opposite roof, where they had been standing but two minutes ago, a little below the one where they were now. "So that was what you were trying to do… make me drop the jewel as I was going to save you."

"So it was," Aoko said. On the other roof, four people were waving at them. She waved back. "Now the gem will return to its rightful owners."

"And what if I had let you fall and kept the jewel."

He didn't mean that and they both knew it. But he was waiting for an answer. His smile was gone, replaced by a more serious expression. And Aoko gazed straight into those deep blue eyes of his, which had always bewitched her.

"Well, your model would never have done such a thing," she said softly. "Arsene Lupin was a gentleman thief, after all."

He grinned at her – perhaps a bit more tenderly than usual. "You probably think I missed my aim.

"I do." She looked at him with curiosity.

"Do you know why I wrote my message in French? I mean, apart from that Arsene-Lupin-master-of-disguise stuff…" he waved that away, "it's because in French to steal is said 'voler', which, incidentally, also means to fly."

Aoko frowned. "So…"

"So what was really my aim, I wonder? Voler a blue child, or teaching a blue child à voler? I don't know myself, really. Well… I'll let you reflect on this…" His white cloak changed itself into a handglider again, and he turned to leave. Aoko watched him, dumbfounded. She wasn't sure she'd really understood what he'd just say.

"Still," he added, thoughtfully, just before he flew off and she didn't try to stop him from going, "I wish it was an agreeable feeling to remember…"

-

So? What do you think, uh? There aren't a lot of chapters left… about seven or eight… but the End is already written!

By the way, 'Kid l'insaisissable' is how they translated 'Kaito Kid' in France…