"Well, sir, there's good news and bad news." The young officer looked at Nakamori Ginzo nervously. He'd drawn the short coffee straw to deliver the report to their currently rather grumpy, irate commander, and he wasn't feeling too happy about it- especially since he had a funny feeling in the pit of his stomach that the drawing had been rigged by his fellow officers. "Which would you like to hear first, sir?"

"What exactly do you mean, good news? I've got a trailing that went horribly wrong, a possible multiple homicide on my hands and a very large group of reporters that are tripping all over themselves to try and get the story." He could feel the beginnings of a headache slowly creeping along his temples.

"Kid's a dummy."

Ginzo leapt up out of his chair and offered the officer a glare that froze him in place. "I hope you have a damned good reason for saying that." This was half-growled out in a dangerous tone.

"Oh! Sir, I, uh, certainly didn't mean that literally," replied the officer with a strained, nervous laugh after he realized what his superior was thinking. "Well, actually I did, but I meant that what we thought was Kaitou Kid at the scene of the shooting turned out to be a life-sized dummy." He walked out of the office at a brisk trot and came back in awkwardly wrangling a life-sized cloth male dummy in a white suit that was identical to Kaitou Kid's. The dummy also had several bullet holes in various places that were readily apparent once it had been set in a sitting position in one of Ginzo's guest chairs after a few moments. "According to our witness who's in the hospital, there was a sudden smokescreen that started up when some gunmen waylaid the van and took them all as hostages. Kid probably replaced himself with this dummy and got away in the confusion just before the shooting happened."

"A smokescreen?"

"Yes, sir." The officer flipped a small handheld notebook open and rapidly scanned its pages until he found what he was looking for. "This is directly from the initial witness statement that Takagi-keiji took: 'Thick black smoke that suddenly came out of nowhere when the black-jacketed guys had us pinned up against the van,' quote end quote." He shrugged and returned the small notebook to his breast pocket. "They unfortunately couldn't get any more out of him before he was wheeled off to surgery, although he was rather cooperative."

Ginzo wasn't quite sure whether he was feeling angry or relieved at the moment; he decided that it was a mixture of both. "Get as much out of that witness as possible, as soon as possible. I want to know what the hell happened out there and I want to know NOW dammit!"

"Yes, sir. First Division homicide's helping us by putting in some overtime as well, although they're waiting for our injured witness to come out of anesthesia for a while before they begin questioning him again."

Ginzo narrowed his eyes suspiciously before taking a sip of coffee. "You mentioned bad news, too, didn't you? What's the bad news?"

"Ah. That." He looked down at the floor and shifted his feet nervously before meeting his captain's eyes again. "We, ahem, have about fifty of the KKFC outside right now, with more showing up every minute. They're rioting because they think that we forced Kid to turn himself over. Sir," he added quickly as Ginzo rushed out of the room, turning the air a vibrant shade of blue in his angry wake.

"Jii-chan? Are you there?"

Thank goodness he's alright. Jii's initial thought at the sound of Kaito's voice in his ear was quickly followed by the realization that Kaito wasn't using the voice he normally adopted as Kaitou Kid. "I'm here; I've been looking for you for a while, actually. Where are you? Are you injured?"

"I don't know where I am exactly. I woke up ten minutes ago with a blanket on me in some back alley somewhere with my hat and monocle lying beside me," groaned Kaito. "When we were all traveling in the van two guys in black jackets shot the front tire out and ran us off the road before they came at us with guns. Then there was suddenly thick black stage smoke everywhere; the last thing I remember before waking up here is getting one hell of a knock on the back of my head. Aside from a killer goose egg on the back of my head I'm fine, though."

"It was stage smoke?"

"Yeah- It was pitch black but totally odorless, and it also didn't get my suit dirty like real smoke would have." This was followed by a few seconds of silence. "If it wasn't you that bailed me out back there- and it sure doesn't sound like it from the fact that you've been looking for me- then who was it?"

"I wish I knew. I, ahem, had a very brief conversation with an older-sounding gentleman over your headset a bit ago. He was very vague, however. I imagine that he's who assisted you." Jii pulled over and looked at the map that was laying open on the van's passenger seat. "Give me a description of where you're at so I can pick you up."

"I think I see you coming up the street, actually. Do you see a big tree up ahead on your left at the end of the block with a huge knot in its trunk?"

"Yes," replied Jii, who'd seen it under the streetlights as soon as Kaito finished the sentence.

"Stop there."

Jii did, and he watched Kaito emerge from a nearby alley and run around the front of the van before opening the passenger door and sliding into the seat after tossing the map into the back. "Let's hurry up and get out of here, Jii-chan. You can tell me what that guy said to you on the way back to Hakuba's."

"Not much, really," began Jii as he pulled away. "He just made a reference to you opening Pandora's box, and that he had to try and make sure that a minimum of blood was shed in reshutting it."

"Oh MAN I'm dumb!" cried Kaito as he removed his hat and slapped his forehead with his gloved palm before wincing in pain and rubbing the small knot on the back of his head. "That box of Dad's...Dona Par has to be an anagram! It's the Pandora society." After Jii gave him a puzzled look, Kaito sighed and turned a bit in his seat. "That whole 'opening Pandora's box' thing got me thinking about it- that little box we found in Dad's stuff, remember? The one from the 'Dona Par' society?"

"I see. Yes, I suppose that's a possible explanation." Jii nodded his head while keeping his eyes on the road. "So do you think that your father might have been a part of this Pandora Society, then?"

"I don't know, but things seem to be pointing that way. I wonder if Dad was looking for Pandora, too, but didn't know that it was a gem..." Kaito rubbed the sore spot on the back of his head gingerly. "Ugh, they gave me a heck of a knock to the head all right."

"You know, that could very well be the case. His thefts did have two common strings now that I think back on them," replied Jii as he made a right turn. "They were all larger objects- nothing smaller than a baseball, if memory serves - and every single one of them was also supposed to have something else hidden within them. Just like Pandora."

"We need to figure it out in a hurry before any more people- well, magicians- get hurt. Them thinking I'm dead will probably buy some time to poke around, but Kaitou Kid's definitely gonna have to stop stealing until this mess is sorted out." Kaito sighed deeply. "I'd better call Mom real quick before she sees the news and freaks out, though. Then I need to have you take me back to Hakuba's- if I don't show up it'll probably just get him more on my case than he already is, not that he isn't already completely convinced that I'm Kid." Kaito then reached into his pocket and grabbed his phone to call his mom.

"Oh Kaito, I'm so glad you called," she began breathlessly after picking the phone up. "You should see what all the news stations are saying tonight. I was so worried!"

"That's why I called- to let you know I'm OK." He blinked. "What exactly are they saying?"

"Depending on the station, everything from Kaitou Kid being killed to armed bandits carting Kid off in a wagon. It's terrible! My stomach's been in knots for these past couple of hours."

"Well, I'm not going to be able to do much as Kid until I figure out who these guys after me are and why they've suddenly decided to come after me." He sighed. "I want you to stay put for a while longer, OK? At least until Jii-chan and I can figure out what these guys are up to."

"Oh, don't worry about me, Kaito. My cousins are very understanding, and I brought plenty of clothing."

Kaito then realized he had a perfect opportunity to ask his mom some questions about the Dona Par society. "Hey, Mom, do you have time to answer some quick questions?"

"About what, Kaito?"

"It's about Dad. Jii-chan and I found this box down in Dad's pit- an empty wooden box that had a message that said 'Thanks for your donation, the Dona Par Society' or something like that burned into the lid. Did Dad ever mention that group?"

"Ever mention them?" Akita chuckled. "He went to their meetings every single week, and sometimes even scheduled his heists around thier meetings. He loved talking shop with them for hours. The Dona Par society was one of the biggest parts of his offstage life."

"Talking shop? Do you mean that they were-"

"Other magicians, yes. It was a whole group of them that helped each other with tricks and stage equipment. They held benefits sometimes, too, for magicians who were having a tough time finding work or needed a bit of yen in between performances to help pay the bills." Akita's voice was filled with warm recall. "They were a fun, wonderful group of people. I don't know if you remember any of them very well because you were pretty small, but they were incredibly supportive to me after your father passed on until I was able to get back on my feet mentally and financially. I eventually felt like they were helping me out of a sense of guilt, however, and so I let myself slowly drift apart from them because I didn't like that feeling."

"Did Dad ever mention any names of any of the other members? Or do you remember any of their names?"

"Oh, goodness...it's been so long and I talked with so many of them that I honestly can't remember. I might have some of their stage names written down somewhere in one of my old notebooks but you probably don't want to go back there yet, do you?"

"I think I'm going to have to; don't worry, Jii-chan's with me. I'll call you tomorrow, OK? Get some rest."

"Be careful, Kaito."

"I will be," he replied before hanging up and turning to Jii. "We need to go to my house again and do some hunting."