Disclaimer: Nope, still don't own neither the Manga nor the Anime of Kaitô Kid or Detective Conan. Have fun!
AN: I am sorry for any mistakes you might be able to see in this chapter; it unfortunately hasn't been to my beta yet. I, myself, went through it more often than I can count after I wrote it, though. I wanted to give you the long-awaited update badly, so here it is! Please review and tell me about any mistakes you might find!
"Laurel" had exited the amusement park – with Kaito in hot pursuit and changing appearances – a while ago, going by foot towards a different destination that Kaito had no idea about. He'd tried finding out just where they were headed by attempting to find a pattern in his prey's wanderings, but there didn't appear to be one. "Laurel" could have just as easily been a piece of paper floating in the air after which he was following, he thought. The wind was as unpredictable as the man's route was. Nevertheless, Kaito decided to stay more and more in the shadows' cover, seeing as there were less and less people around the farther they travelled.
RollerCoasterMurderCase
Kaito knew something was wrong when after more than twenty minutes of following and playing hide-and-seek with the man in the trench coat his quarry still hadn't looked back to look if he was being pursued. And they hadn't come too far from the amusement park at all. It could still be seen by the naked eye whenever there was no building in the way. Concerning the more pressing matter, however, Kaito could clearly see the difference: the man in the trench coat had glanced back surreptitiously almost all the time when they'd been in Tropical Land. He frowned in thought. What could have changed for the man not to look around anymore? An uncomfortable feeling was growing in his stomach to slowly spread and envelop all his other body parts. That can't be right, can it? In order to stay calm he willed himself to disregard the obvious conclusion his thoughts had come to in favor of watching the man more closely. He can't have possibly found out… that Kaito had been the one trailing him.
Then something happened that made his hairs stand on end. The man had turned into a small alleyway that led away from the main street and then, after turning another few corners, he'd gone into an alley that Kaito knew led to a dead end. When he had followed suit, the man hadn't been there. He'd lost him. There was also no door or window looking into that alley. When he let his eyes travel downwards, he couldn't see a sewer cover as he'd expected to. When he looked up, he couldn't see any rope or ladder to pull the other man up, but then again, if it had been a makeshift ladder, they could have pulled it up before he came running to the entrance of the alley. Only a big refuse container that was leaning at a wall at the end of the alley drew his attention.
He was about to take a step forward, when he felt eyes watching him from behind. "Danger" his instincts told him. He'd swiveled in place as fast as he could, but still wasn't able to make out anyone in the near vicinity. And then, somehow, he knew. "Laurel" had been leading him there. The other man had known about him trailing them. That had been the reason why they had split up. This was a trap. His eyes grew big as saucers in dawning realization.
He felt like a rat. A stupid, common garden rat. Who had just unknowingly walked into the unknown men's trap, arrogantly thinking they'd never find out who had been following them. The realization that he had made a mistake hit him hard. It left his head spinning, instincts taking over. And that was all that counted at the moment, as he reacted on instinct and ducked, only feeling a sharp wind graze his hair by inches. It had saved his life, Kaito knew as he looked up. There. Something glinted shortly in the moonlight up on a balcony not too far away. That was all he had to know. He beat it.
Now, Kaito wasn't known at all as a coward. However when there were snipers involved (as there apparently were) and when he wasn't on a heist, moreover, he saw it prudent not to die, especially as a civilian and before attaining Pandora. But he was curious. So he came running back to Tropical Land one last time that evening, just to see whether he could track down his men-in-black again there. He didn't really know anywhere else to look for those two, but, considering that the other one had deliberately led him away from there, something had to happen there. Something big, presumably.
He had the good sense to change his appearance again, but other than that, he still kept to the shadows and the masses of people entering the park. Fortunately he'd let the guard hand him a re-entry ticket in form of a stamp before exiting the park, so he had no trouble getting in again. Deep in thought and on the look-out for a man-in-black, he narrowly avoided being run over by a policeman. A frown later, another one ran by, as well, disappearing in the direction of the Mystery Coaster.
He shrugged. It could be linked to the men-in-black. Then again, it might not be related at all. Kaito rather doubted they'd let themselves be caught by normal policemen of all people. So he paid the uniformed men no mind. Instead, he began with the doubtlessly tricky search for one of the trench coat wearers.
RollerCoasterMurderCase
Half an hour later, with his feet aching a bit from all the exercise they had been getting that day and having gone through the whole park once – even checking the not-so-common places like behind the attractions or small hiding places in-between, but still staying clear of the one place where there seemed to be police swarming around – he gave up. They seemed to have disappeared into thin air. He couldn't find them anywhere in the park. But then again, he was only one person. He could have easily missed them. They could have already exited the park. There were so many variables to consider that he already deeply regretted having lost sight of them before, even though it had been as dangerous as to have him run for his life. Never mind the fact that they didn't necessarily have to double back to the park, like he had done, in the first place. The action they were anxious to get over with – whatever it consisted of – could have happened ages ago with him none the wiser.
He ran out of options fast – mostly because the park was close to closing time –, so his steps brought him back to the exit of the park. Wearily, the teenager-turned-thief let out a long sigh. It was just another dead end, he conceded to himself. Just another failure to get … what was it that he'd hoped to have gotten out of this, anyways? Information? A chance at capturing Snake? A lead to Pandora's hiding place?
Kaito didn't know any more.
It had certainly not been snipers out for his life, he snorted to himself. He was confused, weary and exhausted. The day had been far too long for his tastes, so he started his long walk home, just having exited the park. Because he had had to come to the amusement park this fast, he'd had to take a taxi earlier, meaning that he had spent almost all the money he had packed on the one trip going there. There wasn't enough left for a train, never mind a bus ride back he mused, staring at his open purse, annoyed.
That was the moment when he felt a small form slam into him from behind, making him fall hard on his rear and the purse out of his hands onto the floor right beside him. Sparing the light of the street lamps a short but grateful thought, he only just caught a glimpse of a green jacket running quickly on two small feet away from him. Hit by a strange sense of déjà-vu, all the teenager-turned-thief could do was stare after the jacket that was slowly disappearing into the night.
Raising an eyebrow at just how strange this whole day was turning out to be – and hoping that it didn't turn out any weirder, he could do without all the snipers, thank you very much – he shook his head slowly and got up. He was just thankful that the purse hadn't disappeared into the sewer that it was lying close to.
Kaito chanced one last glance back at the still-lit-up amusement park right behind him, then slowly turned to go. He felt like he'd been kept out of the loop. Like he was the only one not getting an immensely big joke. All the way home, he imagined the waxing crescent moon laughing at him for having missed something extremely obvious. It was something that linked all of these incidents together, he knew, but he couldn't for the life of him figure out what it was.
AN: This one was actually only supposed to be a short story, telling the story of how Shinichi shrunk to Conan from Kaito's POV… but now, it might have just evolved into something bigger! I'm thinking of this as laying the "foundations" for a sequel-ff… stay tuned! I've got another MK-ff that I'd like to release beforehand, with which I'm hoping to explain and/or develop some of Kaito's maturity that he always shows off in DC-cameos, so… it's bound to be interesting! I'm slowly building up on those! Stay tuned for my next fanfiction! And I'd like to Thank You Very Much For Reading this and staying with me for so long, my dear readers!