Don't own Detective Conan or Magic Kaito
I Guess He's Worth It
Shinichi blinked slowly at the gem in his hand, observing it in the moonlight. It was very beautiful, he noted, but it did not glow the red of Pandora's hope in its center. He put the gem down next to him and leaned on the balcony railing, unsurprised when a person made themselves comfortable next him and snagged the gem. "Having fun?" Jigen asked, and he shrugged.
"I suppose. I've never played in an orchestra that large or professional before. It was…interesting." He had been invited to an after party and danced with quite a few people. He felt great. But…
"Whoever you're doing this for sure must be worth it," Jigen said, and Shinichi snapped his eyes away from the horizon.
"How do you mean?"
"Look around you, kid." Jigen opened his arms to encompass the area surrounding them. "You're traveling across Europe working with a bunch of actual criminals to find a single jewel, and don't care about us selling off whatever gem we find that doesn't meet your specifications. You're breaking the law for this person. So," he gestured at Shinichi, "they must be pretty worth it."
Shinichi stared at him for a second before letting a tiny smile escape. "Yeah," he agreed, turning back to gaze out beyond the balcony. "I guess he is."
He didn't say anything about how, with his input and participation, he'd cut the number of injuries on both their side and the law's down to miniscule. Nor did he point out how they were ransoming the gems at a lower rate than they ever had before. He knew bringing it up would not be appreciated.
So he just looked at the horizon and wondered what time he would need to get up to see the sunrise, his heart tugging insistently that way.
"Hey, Ahoko! What the hell was last night? Was your dad even trying to catch Kid?"
Okay, so maybe Kaito wasn't the nicest when he was on a mission.
His friend turned to look at him, glare already fixed into place as she pulled a mop out. "Bakaito! Don't say that about my dad!"
They went through their usual song and dance, but Kaito didn't find any enjoyment in it like he normally did winding up Aoko. She seemed to pick up on that and soon slowed down, frowning at him. "What's gotten into Bakaito?"
He rested his arms behind his head and continued walking to school, keeping half an eye on her in case she started attacking again. "I'm just bummed. I wanted to watch Kid go up against that Kudo guy and see what he did to get away, but he doesn't even show up, it's just your third-rate inspector of a dad and that bastard Hakuba."
He ducked just as she swung at him again and she huffed a little in irritation. "Aoko can ask her dad about it," she offered reluctantly, and he made certain that his head tilt toward her was languid rather than anything that would betray his hope.
"That'd be great. If the guy's not going to show up anymore I need to know to lower my expectations," he said blithely, before running as her grip on her mop tightened.
After that Kaito spent most of the day in a distracted haze, thinking about why Kudo could have possibly gone to Greece. Was it random? Did he go for the culture? The atmosphere? The cats? Kaito had no idea what kind of criteria Shinichi was using if he was going to be traveling erratically like his mother implied he would be.
His mom had also said he'd done nearly everything he possibly could in Japan to keep his cabin fever low. Maybe a place would remember him? There was a good chance he frequented venues like theaters or parks that offered multiple things to do. And if Kaito could get a good sense for what would grab Kudo's attention, maybe he would be able to find him.
As he was looking up theaters in the Beika area he couldn't quite contain his bristle as he heard a voice start up next to him. "I imagine you're quite pleased with yourself."
Kaito looked up and quirked an eyebrow at Hakuba, his finger stilled on his phone screen. "Why would I be pleased with myself? I always get Aoko this angry."
Hakuba gave him an annoyed look. "Last night's heist?" he prompted, and Kaito snorted and turned back to his phone.
"More like 'last night's circus performance'," he scoffed. "Normally I'm on Kid's side but I'll admit that was quite the embarrassment."
The blond hissed at him before regaining his composure. "You seemed agitated last night," he hedged, and Kaito gritted his teeth a little as he realized he'd clicked on the same link three times now.
"Funny, I don't remember running into you. Why do you think I was 'agitated'?" He drew out the last word mockingly but Hakuba seemed determined to ignore his digs for the moment.
"You kept looking around and grew less predictable as the heist went on."
"Oh I thought you were going to say I was getting agitated watching what's supposed to be Japan's finest make complete fools out of themselves, considering that I'm not Kid and even the newspapers aren't pulling their punches this time."
The newspapers today had been so harsh that Kaito had actually grabbed his own copy and was keeping it for a rainy day when he needed a good laugh (and wasn't still reeling from Kudo being gone).
Hakuba seemed aware of this as well – of course he did, the asshole probably read it every morning with a cup of tea and a scone or something – and grimaced a little at the reminder. "What are you looking up?" He finally asked, eyes narrowed suspiciously.
Kaito mentally awarded himself a point for making him change the subject before looking down. "Museums." It was a list of ones in the Beika area, and Kaito was about to back out and continue looking through the parks there instead when a picture grabbed his eye.
It was a picture of Kudo, fairly recent, wearing a modification of the employee outfit. There were bags under his eyes but he was grinning at the camera, hand up in a V with other people in the picture dressed the same and doing the same pose. It was located next to the volunteer services link, and Kaito stared at it for a second with a bit of incomprehension.
Aoko, who had been looking over his shoulder, perked up a little. "Aoko knows him! Aoko met him a while ago working at a casino. Aoko mistook him for Kaito."
Kaito turned his stare towards her for a moment before resisting the urge to groan.
His search became both a lot easier and a lot more complex if Kudo was running around going to events and helping at them.
But Kudo had been chasing Kaito for years. Kaito certainly didn't mind doing a bit of chasing back.
"I don't see what this has to do with scouting for your next robbery," Shinichi grumbled, but sighed when Lupin ignored him to stare at Fujiko sappily.
Fujiko heard and laughed a little, leaning back to give him a tiny wink that made him shake his head in exasperation at her. "I personally just wanted to see you in a gondolier outfit," she admitted.
He grinned and tipped the hat at her, mostly to elicit another laugh, before pushing the boat further along. "I think I pull it off rather well," he mused to himself, looking down at the striped shirt and red kerchief. "I've certainly been dressed in worse. Now then, Lupin, would you get on with the debriefing?"
"The what?" Lupin blinked at him and Shinichi genuinely thought about using the stick as a blunt weapon for a second before Lupin placed his fist into an open hand. "Right! The gem, that's why we're in Italy. Not for a date with Fuji-chan."
"Yes Lupin," Shinichi confirmed slowly, lifting a hand to try and rub away the tension headache he felt building. "Not for a date with Fujiko-san."
"We're after something called The Griffin's Heart," Lupin said, and Shinichi steered the boat carefully along the waterway as he listened. "It's a huge piece of citrine, one of the Big Jewels, and is being kept in one of the more renowned museums. Boya, you might need to be more of a participant this time."
Shinichi frowned. "What would you theoretically need me to do?"
"We're going to bluff everyone out and make them think we've stolen the gem and then, while Zenigata and his men are chasing me and the cameras are still down, you can get away with the real Griffin's Heart."
Shinichi let that plan cycle gently through his mind, looking for weaknesses and pitfalls. It was a simple plan, with simple issues that were easy to move around, but Shinichi knew what the real issue was here.
Before now, while he'd known they were stealing things and was willing to be used as a distraction if necessary, he'd never physically stolen a gem himself. And now he might have to.
Shinichi worried his lip with his teeth for a moment, and Lupin and his paramour were understandingly quiet as he mulled over his change in participation. Shinichi, despite what Hakuba, Hattori, and various police officers thought, actually did know the law inside and out. He knew when he was doing illegal things, and he always took a moment to genuinely weigh if doing less-than-legal things to acquire proof or a confession was worth it in the end.
Shinichi had long known that he did things he thought were right, not what he thought were legal, not all the time. And stealing this gem was certainly proof of that, as this wasn't legal in the slightest.
But it was for Kid, for whatever made Kid steal every month and look like he was losing hope every time he put the gem to the sky and nothing happened.
And Shinichi never shied away from breaking the law if he thought it was for a good reason.
"I'm in."
Kaito had dinner with the Nakamori family that night, and he was looking forward to Aoko's and possibly his interrogation of her father. He was disappointed he wouldn't be able to get an immediate start on his Kudo investigation, but he comforted himself with using the rest of the day to plan on where to go first.
When he arrived at their place the food was already prepared and he had a list of places he'd be going that weekend. He threw himself into a chair with a, "whatever it is smells good!" and did his part of keep the night fun. Worried as he was about his detective's disappearance, the teen had been gone for weeks now, and the country wasn't in mourning from a news report of his demise. Kaito could hope that he was doing alright wherever he was.
As the dinner was winding down Kaito caught Aoko sending him a look and glancing at her father. Huh, looks like she wanted him to open up the interrogation. Should be easy.
"So Inspector, what happened last night? Kid looked like he was running circles around you guys." The inspector tensed but Kaito just continued blithely onward, leaning his chin on a propped up hand. "Like no offense but the newspapers are kind of in the right on this one."
Like Hakuba, the inspector grimaced at the mention of the papers. Kaito had a feeling that, if the man ever found out Kaito was keeping one of those for himself (and considering getting it framed), he would stop at nothing to see it destroyed. "We just hadn't anticipated his change in methodology. We'll do better next time," he swore, and Kaito felt his brow furrow a little.
"What change in methodology?" He didn't remember doing anything out of the ordinary, but once he'd realized that his detective hadn't attended he could admit that the rest of the night had turned into a bit of a blur.
"He was less acrobatic and was using more gas and large area-affecting gadgets," the inspector told him, clearly proud to have picked up the change in routine, and Kaito stared at his finished plate, surprised as he looked through his own memories of the night and realized, yes, he had changed how he did things that night.
He drummed his fingers on his chin for a second. Why would he change his performance enough for the inspector of all people to notice? Not noticing his lapse in concentration the inspector continued. "He acted similarly the heist before that but we simply thought he was having an off day. If he's shifting how he behaves at his heists we need to adjust and respond in kind."
He'd acted weird on the heist before that too? Just what Kaito needed to hear. He groaned into his hand a little in frustration before Aoko spoke, her brows furrowed. "So he started acting weird after Kudo-san stopped going to his heists?"
Both Kaito and the inspector froze at that, her dad frowning. "What brought that connection together?" he asked, but Kaito was too busy looking at his childhood friend like she'd upended a bucket of water over his head to check the inspector's expression.
"I was going to ask if you knew why Kudo-san wasn't attending heists anymore, as you always looked closer to catching Kid when he attended, so I was thinking about when he stopped showing up." She shrugged easily and took more food from the center plate.
Kaito tried to center himself and took a sip of water, before grabbing more food for himself as well. He was digging into the rice when the inspector harrumphed and stabbed his chopsticks into his food roughly. "Well I can tell you the answer to that last question. Kudo isn't attending heists anymore because I banned him from coming."
Kaito inhaled some of his rice in surprise.
Coughing to try and clear his airways, Kaito's brain buzzed frantically. "Why would you do that?" he gasped, finally able to speak. "That Kudo guy was the only reason you were even close to catching Kid a few times."
"I'm going to be the one to catch Kid!" The inspector growled, and Kaito could barely stop himself from saying in what universe. "Besides, Hakuba had a good point. While we don't exactly know Kid's face, we know it looks like yours, Kaito-kun, and Kudo looks a lot like you. It would be child's play for him to disguise as Kudo, and then he would be able to get to scenes without having to even put on a mask. It was only a matter of time before Kid figured that out himself."
But I would never do that, Kaito wanted to argue, a curl of genuine indignation creeping through him. Kudo makes things fun, I wouldn't ruin his ability to attend my heists. I want him there. But he kept all of these thoughts tucked under his Poker Face and instead played the role of an irritated fan, and not the incensed thief himself. "You said it was that bastard Hakuba's idea?" When the inspector grunted an annoyed confirmation Kaito went back to his food as he mind started to whirl.
It looked like, next heist, he had a detective he needed to…chat with.
Thanks for reading and please review.
