Disclaimer: Still not mine… Credit to ytak for thinking of the crossover first.
Chapter 5: Who in the World?
Kaito stared in awe. Some world's version of Tokyo Tower stood connected by thick cables to a fleet of surrounding helicopters. In agonizingly slow unison, the helicopters began to rise higher, trying to take the national monument with them. Countless pedestrians paused in the streets, all watching the extremely odd spectacle. A cloud of dust rose, quickly obscuring from view all but a single helicopter hovering to the side. Kaito caught a flash of red from just beneath it.
Binoculars, binoculars, I know I had a pair in my suit when I last left home…
A handful of precious seconds later, he raised the field glasses to his eyes and focused on the anomalous helicopter. A figure dressed from head to toe in the brightest red Kaito had even seen dangled nonchalantly from the rope ladder whipping about in the downdraft. Slight build and long, dark hair suggested that interestingly, the person was female.
I'm not afraid of heights, but that's pushing it, even for me… No glider, no parachute; the only thing between her and going 'splat' is the strength of her grip.
Focused on the distracting supervisor, it took Kaito a moment to realize the dust was clearing. The whir of helicopters had decreased significantly, as well. He shifted his binoculars to the left, and abruptly pulled them away from his eyes.
Tokyo Tower, the dust, and the helicopters had all vanished into thin air.
No, that's not right…
Kaito squinted through the binoculars at a patch of sky that looked unusual. With his full concentration focused solely upon it, he could barely see a shimmer rippling along a strange veil to his senses. A shape vaguely similar to his quarry blurred into view for a few seconds, then disappeared and left a headache in its wake.
"She has quite a talent at projection," Ansem murmured from beside Kaito on the skyscraper's roof.
"Urgh. You're telling me." Kaito massaged his temples, looking back at the remaining helicopter. The woman in red seemed to have wrapped her target in a blanket of illusion, and more powerfully than he could see through, at that. He wasn't used to hidden things staying hidden around him. It was annoying.
As they watched, the woman tugged her hat — a fedora, Kaito was pretty sure — further down on her head and sashayed up the rope ladder into the helicopter. A moment later, it whirred away in the direction of the near-invisible monument.
"Now that is a shadow thief."
A sidelong glance from Ansem. "Not a phantom one?"
"Well, she does seem to treat what she does like a game, and no one was hurt. I'll even give her points for style." Lots and lots of points for style. "But kaitous give back what we steal. Her game seems to be a challenge to find or catch her."
"Mm."
"Still…" Kaito shook his head regretfully. "She'd be a heck of a woman to understudy."
"I'll take your word for it. The police are lucky she's a thief of the shadows, and not of the dark."
Kaito paused, thinking of what he knew about the differences between the two. If a lady could cause this much trouble just flirting with the shadows…
"Agreed."
This plotbunnie caught me caught be while writing chapter five. Though short, it works better as its own chapter, so it usurped Chapter Five. The dangers of trying to write three scenes at once… you become plunnie susceptible. O.o
11/06