"That," muttered Takagi darkly as he shook his head while careening up to the scene of a shots-fired report with sirens and lights on as Satou tried to brace herself in the passenger's seat, "doesn't look too good." The car's headlights revealed a black van leaning to its front left and what looked like at least one human body crumpled to its left in front of them on the right hand side of the road.

"No, it doesn't. And that also looks like Kid's foot right there," remarked Satou grimly as she briefly pointed to a white tennis shoe-clad foot that was laying at an angle and sticking partially out of the back of the van, the attached leg that was visible encased in white dress slacks. She then resecured her grip as Takagi finished their approach and slowed down. "We only lost track of the van for a couple of minutes back on that winding road, too...What could have possibly happened in that short of a span of time?"

"I don't know, but we'd better start by seeing if anyone's alive still," replied Takagi as he stopped the car and leapt out, leaving the keys in the ignition after turning the high beams on to give them more light to work with. Satou was right on his heels as he approached the prone figure stretched out next to the van. "He's alive!" he cried in surprise a few seconds later as the young man opened his eyes and looked at both of them as they approached, slowly moving his hand to cover the bleeding bullet hole in his gut. "Stay still, moving around will probably only make it worse alright?" Takagi then turned to Satou. "I'm going to go get the car's first aid kit and call for an ambulance on the radio. I'll be right back."

"Kid..." the young man groaned before apparently catching sight of the foot poking out of the back of the van, his eyes widening to the size of saucers before they clouded over with pain and half-shut again. "They wanted Kid...but then there was black fog everywhere...and they...started shooting all of a sudden… while we were all running away..."

"Don't try to talk right now. Save your strength, you'll need it," Satou replied gently but firmly as she got down on one knee and began to assist Takagi, who she guessed had set some kind of land-speed record getting to their car and back with the medical supplies. "After we're done here we should probably check the van," she added to Takagi after they seemed to have gotten the bleeding under control somewhat. Both eyed the still motionless white-clad foot sticking out of the back of the van with steadily increasing anxiety.

Konsuke Jii didn't like this at all. Kaito was supposed to have at least contacted him by this point with either his earpiece two-way or his cell phone, if to do nothing else than relay his current position and let Jii know where to pick him up at. Maybe they actually removed his earpiece? These people seem like they're awfully deliberate and careful after all...

After the magician kidnappings had begun, the older man had put two and two together almost immediately after the second kidnapping and seeing how much the targets resembled Kaitou Kid. Of course, there were several questions that he had about whatever group was behind this, chief among them being why the group had waited almost a year after Kaito's resurrection of Kid to make their move. I hope Kaito is alright. Of course, he has quite the talent for finding ways out of things, much like his father...

"Is there anyone there?"

A strange, unfamiliar voice had issued from Jii's earpiece- an older man with what sounded like a faint tinge of the rough patina that was left on a voice after years of smoking. Jii blinked twice, not quite sure whether he wanted to answer or not. The fact that whoever it was had Kaito's earpiece, however, was greatly unsettling.

"Actually, allow me to rephrase that. I know that you're there, Konsuke Jii" came the voice again, though in a hushed tone as if the speaker was trying to keep his name a secret. Jii nearly leapt out of his seat in astonishment before eyeing the ear wearing his headpiece warily and shifting nervously in the van's driver's seat. "Answer me, please, Konsuke-san."

Slowly pressing the earpiece down to respond after a few moments, Jii asked "Who is this?" with a mustered up confidence that he was nowhere close to actually feeling.

"There you are," the man half-chuckled before continuing in a more somber tone. "A pair of black-jacketed gentlemen decided to crash Kaitou Kid's little meeting in the van that he arranged through the newspaper. Being so public about the whole thing probably wasn't the smartest move, hmm?"

Jii's heart plummeted into his stomach, which itself lurched violently before he began to recover with his head still spinning. Black-jacketed men? Could they be part of the same group of men that were skulking around the equipment that Toichi used for his finale the day that his pyrotechnics inexplicably went awry and killed him? "Is he-"

"My apologies, but there's really no time for questions right now," interrupted the man firmly. "I'm afraid that your white-hatted young friend has likely bitten off quite a bit more than he can chew. I want to help him, but I need some questions answered and I need them answered in a hurry." This was followed by light, single cough. "Did Kaitou Kid ever discuss the Dona Par Society with you at all?"

Jii was still rapidly turning events over in his mind, trying to settle on how much to trust a disembodied voice that he had no way of knowing was actually telling the truth. He decided to at least answer the first question honestly since it could be couched in very vague, general terms. Well, actually more like a single word. "No." The Dona Par Society...wasn't that name inscribed on the inside of the little box that Kaito found buried in the hideout last week?

"That's surprising. Then again, maybe it's not surprising," the man muttered before quickly asking another question. "Does this new Kid know why the original one stole?" After a few moments of silence, he continued. "Oh, come now. We both know that this Kaitou Kid isn't the original Kaitou Kid, Konsuke-san. But it's a very vital question."

"No. And to be frank the original never mentioned the reason to me either, just to save you the question."

"I was afraid of that," sighed the man. "This new Kaitou Kid has opened up a regular Pandora's box- literally and figuratively." He cleared his throat. "It's my job to see that it gets closed up again before there are too many casualties."

"What exactly do you mean by that?"

"Everything that you need to know should be somewhere in the first Kid's house," replied the voice evenly. "Unfortunately, I have to cut our conversation short. I have a guest that I need to have a chat with."

Alright. That had to have come from somewhere within a two-mile radius of the van- these little earpieces can't link up any farther apart than that. Jii reached into the crammed glove compartment and grabbed a map out along with a pen. I need to draw a circle on a map and figure out what possible places that that could have come from so that I can find Kaito...

"Did you see where the hell that smoke came from?"

Gin had finally broken the silence between Vodka and himself nearly an hour after what the blonde considered one of their most botched kidnapping and sweeping operations ever. What was supposed to have been a simple thing- go in and grab Kaitou Kid while leaving no one else there alive to talk about the kidnapping- had turned to absolute, total chaos the moment that they'd walked over to grab the thief after pinning the passengers in the van against the door. Suddenly, thick black smoke had come billowing out of nowhere from behind them. After realizing that there was no way to see through the thick layers of smoke and that the people that had been pinned against the van were frantically scrambling to get away, Gin called out to Vodka to begin a complete sweep after the pair pressed their backs against each other to avoid friendly fire. Gin knew that He wouldn't be pleased that Kaitou Kid had been killed, but the Organization's law of secrecy stood above all else. The information they had desired could probably be gotten from other sources.

"No, aniki. It was like it came out of nowhere all of a sudden," Vodka muttered darkly. He suddenly sat up and turned to face Gin and began his next sentence in a worried tone. "Aniki, I just realized something. We didn't do a body count back there like usual to make sure that they were all-"

"There wasn't time, dammit," snapped Gin as he took a long, irritated drag on his cigarette before holding it out the window and flicking off the ash. "The cops had to have been following that van- there were at least two of them there not twenty seconds after that damn smoke started clearing." Of course, the bullets that they used were common and untraceable, but that really wasn't what he was worried about- it was that they couldn't be absolutely certain that the sweep had killed off all targets like they'd intended. If loose ends were left, they could be unraveled and picked apart for information or create a string leading back to the Black Organization. The bitter irony that going after one of those loose ends had probably led to the creation of several more on this disastrous evening was not lost on Gin.

"What are we going to tell the boss, Aniki? He won't like this at all..."

"We tell him exactly what happened," Gin replied curtly as he turned his eyes back to the road and put out his cigarette. "I think he'll agree that the sweep was the right thing to do based on the situation." His eyes narrowed as he thought back to when the first waves of black smog had drifted over his shoulders. "I still want to know what the hell happened back there. The people up against the van -including Kid- seemed just as confused about what was happening as we were."

"Are we going to back and stake out the Hakuba mansion some more, aniki?" asked Vodka while he adjusted his seat belt.

"No point anymore, is there?" the blonde snorted as he steered them toward the freeway. "The reason we had for going there is dead now."