LookingforAlaska: Conan kicking without his shoes was kind of a heat-of-the-moment action. As for Alex being mad at KID, Alex hasn't exactly had good experiences with people finding out about his past before, and to him KID is a criminal, albeit a nonviolent one. He is mad at MI6, but they're an ocean away and KID is right in front of him.


Chapter 4: Trial by Fire

Saguru half expected to be quietly ambushed with sleeping gas at every turn as he wandered towards one of the exits, but he reached the lobby unmolested. Instead of walking up to greet the police guards—it would be ironic if they mistook him for KID at this moment—he scanned the surroundings, looking for anyone out of place.

He received Alex's message just as he had satisfied himself that everything was normal. Hakuba, if you're not the one in the Roman exhibit, send reinforcements there now. Conan's guess had been correct, Saguru thought as he began running, making not for the Roman exhibit but a certain strategic position two turns and a hallway down from it.

What's more, this meant that Kaitou KID had purposely chosen to come out on this floor. The thief could have headed straight towards the upper floors and freedom, but instead decided to prolong the game.

Saguru reached his assigned position, and tried to conceal himself in the shadows as best as he could. He didn't have to wait long; he counted three and a half minutes on his internal clock before he heard a few quiet, precise clacks. Then half a minute after that, the sounds of three pairs of steps running in pursuit towards him (Hattori in front, with Conan and Alex slightly behind, if he had to guess).

The time had come. Saguru whipped out into one end of his corridor, and saw Hattori turn the other corner—crashing straight into a surprised Akako.

"Careful, Akako-san!" Saguru dashed up just in time to catch her from falling. It was her stilettos which he had heard earlier; not the best choice of footwear for stability.

Conan and Alex caught up to them. "Akako, did you see KID pass this way?" Alex asked. She shook her head.

"And how do you know she isn't KID?" Conan asked, suspicious.

"I was no more than two seconds behind him," Heiji said. "I know KID can change outfits quickly, but I think even he'd have trouble replicating a dress like that down to the last details in such a short time."

"She arrived here about thirty seconds ago; I heard her shoes," Saguru confirmed.

Conan looked skeptical. "Where did he go then? This is a dead end." The three of them had come up from one end of the corridor, Saguru from the other, and there was nothing behind Akako but a blank wall.

She rolled her eyes. "Go ahead and check me then."

"Hey." Conan pulled at her skirt, then blanched and stopped when the tug looked like it might make her entire dress unravel. "Earlier, what did you mean by crows?"

"They're waiting tonight, aren't they?" Akako looked down at the boy in interest. "Or did you not expect them, little detective?"

Her dress and her behaviour were perfectly Akako, but why was she here? Something unpleasant nagged at the back of Saguru's mind. Memories of another heist, and Kuroba with a perfect alibi

"Wait," Saguru said slowly. If he remembered the museum blueprints correctly… "Something's strange. This wall…"

He reached out one hand, and in that instant an enormous cloud of smoke exploded out from the wall behind Akako, blotting out everything from view.

Hattori was yelling. Saguru ran forward, expecting to smack straight into plaster, but there was no obstruction at all. Where did the wall go?

When the smoke thinned, it revealed a hallway where the wall had been mere seconds ago. Akako had moved there, wearing a manic, completely uncharacteristic grin.

"Well then, tantei-kun's." Her—his— voice skipped down an octave from one word to the next.


Well, I'll be damned. Alex could do nothing but stare in shock for a moment. He had known, intellectually, that the Kaitou KID was a master of disguise. But watching him perfectly impersonate someone he knew—someone who was a girl in an extremely revealing dress, to boot—was a head trip.

Even now, he couldn't see where the edges of the latex mask must be, and it was only logic that told him the KID's Adam's apple (if he truly was male) must be under that chunky black choker. Kaitou KID even had Akako's body language and her sleek confidence down pat. His manic smile was the only detail that broke the illusion.

"Not bad, tanteis," KID said, voice sliding back into Akako's smoky mezzo-soprano. He walked up, his steps silent even in stiletto heels. "And Rider-san, of course. I did enjoy our chat, however short it was."

"We'll have plenty of time to continue it once you're in prison," Alex said. Heiji and Conan had moved to cover KID's back and left; Hakuba was to his right. The thief was completely surrounded.

KID raised one gloved hand and shook his index finger in admonishment. "Ah, but I haven't shown you all my greatest miracle of the evening yet! The one I promised in my note." His grin widened as they all stopped, wary. "Yes, I would suggest not coming closer. I came through water, and I shall leave through fire."

And with that proclamation, he burst into flames.

Alex could feel the scorching heat as he and the others all quite sensibly leapt away, Heiji cursing loudly. Through the smoke he could see the tongues of the inferno reflected in KID's monocle, turning his wide grin red-orange and almost demonic. The fire covered everything from KID's cape to his top hat.

Kaitou KID stood there, a white shadow wreathed in a pillar of flame which stretched from floor to ceiling—and vanished.

Conan ran forward with a cry, only for Heiji to pull him back. "Ya, watch it! It's still burning!" The flames still blazed high where KID had stood, but without fuel it quickly died down into small patches, which they stomped out.

"Thank god this section is tiled instead of carpeted. Or do you think he planned for that?" Saguru said, looking at the black scorch marks on the floor.

"Definitely planned." Conan walked around the perimeter where KID had disappeared, and looked up at the ceiling. There were scorch marks there as well. "Notice how the fire alarm isn't ringing now."

Something did start ringing then: Hakuba's phone. He answered it. "What?!" he said in response to whatever he heard, and put it on speaker. An officer's frantic voice yelled out above the commotion in the background (Alex could hear Inspector Nakamori bellowing what sounded like Japanese obscenities).

Conan ran for the doors, and was quickly overtaken by Hakuba and Heiji. Alex followed behind them, cursing his lack of Japanese. "What did he say?"

"The censored version? Kaitou KID just reappeared on the top floor in a giant ball of fire," Saguru told him.

"What? But he was just here a moment ago!" They were on the first basement floor; how could KID have gotten to the very top so quickly?

"He's in the perfect position to use his hang glider from there," Heiji said as they sped up the stairs and out the main lobby entrance, into the open courtyard. "I'd hate to say it, but the thief's pretty much in the clear."


Ueno Park was even more crowded than usual, thanks to the publicized heist. The usual volume of tourists was outnumbered by the Kaitou KID fans, waiting in support of their idol. A great cheer rose when a distinctive figure took off from a window on the top floor of the Metropolitan Art Museum. KID glided over the oblong fountain in the middle of the park, then made a sharp right turn along the main thoroughway.

"Looks like he's heading towards Shinobazu pond," Conan noted. He and Alex were tracking KID by themselves through the crowd; Hakuba had stayed behind to talk to the police, while Heiji had gone in a different direction 'to fetch something'. "Though he could turn again at any time and head to the subway station."

A loud vroom came as Heiji pulled up on a black motorbike. He tossed a skateboard to Conan, and took off again in KID's direction. Conan followed on his skateboard, somehow managing to keep up with his friend's sixty horsepower motorcycle.

"Seriously, where is that kid getting all of his wonderful toys from?" Alex said aloud to no one in particular. Lacking either a motorcycle or any source of transportation with wheels, he continued on foot, feeling a little redundant.

Everyone had their eyes on the white thief in the sky. Only Alex, unused to the sight of the park after dark and still gathering his bearings, saw the small, bright glint come from the roof of the concert hall nearby and recognized it for what it was.

Moonlight, reflecting off the scope of a sniper rifle. He started sprinting as fast as he could. The scar on his chest seemed to twinge in memory.

He reached into his pocket to call Saguru, but his cell phone wasn't there. Alex groaned and patted his other pockets, with no luck; his phone must have dropped out sometimes during the antics of the heist. It was probably in a random corner somewhere back at the museum.

Alex ran through the glass doors of the concert hall and stopped short as an attendant in a suit politely blocked his way. The middle-aged Japanese man blinked as he took in Alex's age and appearance—not wearing shoes, hair a complete mess, clothes torn and covered with strangely coloured goop—and said hesitantly: "Wagner?"

"No, I'm not here for opera. There's a gunman on your roof," Alex said. The man looked blank. Alex tried to think of what Japanese he knew and gestured with his hands. "Uhm, danger? Gun! Ka-i-to-u KID-to, roof!"

"Kaitou KID?" The attendant pointed back out the door. "Tōkyōto Bijutsukan?"

There followed a short period of failed charade attempts and mutual incomprehension, because apparently Alex had been naive to assume that he wouldn't need to know the Japanese words for gun, sniper, police or assassin on this trip. Finally Alex gave up and ran back outside. KID was still flying above the square, occasionally turning this way or that to dodge what looked like some incredibly aggressive soccer balls and other objects kicked by Conan. The thief's constantly changing trajectory must be what was keeping the sniper from shooting. Alex squinted up at the rooftop, and thought he could make out a dark lump near the front of the building.

There was no time. Alex moved to the back of the building, found a striated section of the wall, and began to climb. The section ended a few feet below the roof edge, but the top ledge was wide enough for him to stand on and reach the top. He briefly wondered if the sniper had gotten up this way too.

Alex levered himself over the lip of the concert hall roof. There was a giant concrete cube in the middle, and he had managed to come up behind it. On the opposite side, a male figure dressed in all black lied flat on the roof, one hand making minute adjustments to the rifle he was aiming into the night sky.

Music filtered up through the cube from the performance below him: a crescendo of instruments and voices, all sturm and strang. It was enough to cover the sound he had made climbing up. Still, Alex crouched low to the ground, slowly inching towards the sniper.

He managed to make it to several feet away from his target, when the sniper pulled the trigger.


Alex heard the shot, abandoned his plan of sneaking up, and ran out to the sniper.

The man heard him and spun around from his position on the ground, raising his rifle. He hesitated for a second upon registering that his attacker was a teenager, but it was all Alex needed to rush forward, push the rifle away and land a kick before the shooter could get up.

It connected, though the impact was lessened as the man twisted to avoid it, and the shooter continued the movement to sweep Alex's legs out from under him. He dodged Alex's punch, Alex in turn avoided the retaliatory knee to the groin, and a silent but vicious fight commenced on the rooftop.

He had the advantage of not starting from a prone position, but the other man was stronger, and a professional. They rolled over once, twice. The sniper ended up above Alex, and slammed a hard hit right on his ribs with the butt of the sniper rifle.

Alex's vision went blurry from pain. He forced himself to keep moving, using his left arm to block the following strike. His next kick actually hit his opponent straight in the chest, forcing the man to stumble back a little.

Then for the second time that night, the man in front of Alex suddenly burst into flames.

Alex dropped and rolled away as fast as he could, but none of the fire caught onto his clothes. The sniper, who was not as lucky, was starting to turn into a human torch. Unlike KID in the museum, the fire on him burned pure red with no traces of orange or yellow. It also persisted despite all of the man's screaming attempts to put it out.

The rooftop door slammed open, and people filtered out. Alex recognized the attendant he had tried to speak to before. Luckily, the current situation required no words. The man spoke rapidly to one of his coworkers, who ran down and returned carrying a fire extinguisher.

It took two attempts for them to put out the flames, for both the fire and the burning man were uncooperative. By the time they were done, the area was covered in extinguisher foam, and the sniper was unconscious.

Luckily, one of the other attendants did speak English, so Alex explained enough to persuade them to give him a phone instead of detaining him for more questions.

He called Saguru as fast as he could. "Hakuba, is KID okay?"

"Alex, where are you?" Saguru's voice was grim. "KID was shot, and then he disappeared. It's chaos here right now. Where did you go?"

"I found the sniper," Alex said, and told him what had happened. "They're giving him first aid right now. You can come pick him up, but I don't think he can be questioned right now."

"I'll send some officers over. Alex, you should come back here. "


Conan and Heiji found Hakuba Saguru back in the lobby of the Tokyo Met Museum. The police were busy managing the crowds, which had turned nervous and unruly in the aftermath of the shooting. Alex Rider soon joined them, looking like he had just came from a hard fight.

"Kaitou KID just disappeared? How?" he asked.

"Conan-kun and I were following KID along the river," Heiji answered. "We saw him get shot, in the stomach it looked like. He started falling toward the ground, and then there was a big flash and he was just gone."

Conan felt a wave of nausea rise at the memory. He had seen the figure in white suddenly jerk and lose control of the hang glider, a red rose blooming across the man's midsection. KID began plummeting towards the ground, but before he hit there was a blinding flash, and the thief vanished without a trace.

No. This wouldn't help. "He was clearly above the tree line, and the nearest pursuing helicopter was still a good distance away," Conan said, pacing back and forth in a short line before them as he tried to think things through logically. "It's not KID's style to fake being shot, but where could he have gone?"

Inspector Nakamori's men were searching the area in a spiral pattern, and they had alerted the hospitals, but Conan had the nasty suspicion that KID would avoid those even if he was seriously hurt. With the sniper in custody but unavailable to be questioned, there was nothing for them to do. Nothing but to wait and go over the events of the evening again, trying to make sense of it all.

He looked to Alex. "What did the sniper look like?"

"I didn't get a good look," Alex admitted.

"Didn't you see him at close range?"

"Well, first I was fighting him and trying too hard not to die to admire his features. And then he kind of… spontaneously combusted."

"Sorry, my English vocabulary isn't that advanced," Heiji said. "I didn't quite catch that." Conan made a whooshing sound and mimicked flames with his fingers. Heiji blinked. "He caught on fire?"

"Yeah, his whole body did. I have no idea why. He's pretty badly burned, though. I don't know if you'll be able to identify him from his face right now."

"What about his clothes?"

Alex shrugged. "Also burnt, but it looked like standard sniper gear. All black, light padding—" he saw Conan and Heiji exchange glances, and quickly added: "You know, like how they look on TV."

"Fire again," Hakuba said, mulling over what Alex had told them. "Like KID's trick earlier?"

Alex shook his head. "No, the fire this time was different. It burned all red, and with almost no smoke." He gave a quick summary of his fight on the roof of the Bunka Kaikan concert hall, and how it had ended.

Metal salts were used to produce coloured fire, Conan recalled. Strontium compounds gave red flames. But it didn't make any sense. Why would the sniper carry strontium to a shooting? On the other hand, technicoloured fire was exactly the kind of thing Kaitou KID would have loved to use, except KID definitely had no knowledge of the sniper, or he wouldn't have gotten shot.

"Saguru-kun!" There was a clatter of heels as the redheaded girl KID had impersonated—Koizumi Akako, Hakuba's girlfriend, he recalled—ran up to them. "Was that a shot?"

Hakuba moved towards the girl as if he was about to embrace her, but remembered that they were in public at the last moment and placed his hands on her shoulders instead.

"They're saying that KID got shot."

"It's still unclear at the moment. We're currently investigating, but he did manage to get away." Hakuba stepped away and gestured an officer over. "You should head home, Akako-san. Officer Nakamura will escort you back. I'll call you later."

The girl opened her mouth to say something, changed her mind and complied. She looked back at them as she walked away, an expression Conan couldn't quite interpret on her face.

Hakuba coughed. "Let's go back to where KID's conflagration happened. There might be some clues about how it was done."


The hallway in the basement felt deserted, like a stage show after the audience had all gone. Soot and scorch marks still marked the area where the thief had burst into flames and vanished, a stark reminder of KID's final trick before the fateful shot.

Conan nudged Heiji. "Hey, give me a boost." Heiji lifted him up onto his shoulders so that he could take a look at the ceiling. "Ya think he escaped by going through the ceiling panels?"

"It's either that or the floor; all of his other sides were covered by us."

Hakuba and Alex Rider both knelt down and began to examine the floor. "I found something," Hakuba said after a moment, tapping the spot where KID had stood when he vanished. It sounded distinctly hollower than the surrounding tiles.

Heiji lowered Conan, and they all crowded around the spot. "Trap door," Conan said. "Kaitou KID raised the flames as cover, then dropped down it." As long as KID moved fast enough, it would have looked like he vanished in the inferno. The flames left behind and the still-hot tiles would have prevented them from finding the trap door immediately.

"Hmm. There's not enough room in the flooring for a tunnel, so he would have just ended up on the basement level below us," Heiji said, thinking. "He would still have to get all the way from there to the top floor without being seen in like two minutes."

"One minute and twenty-three seconds," Hakuba corrected. "That's how long it was between the time KID vanished and when we got the call about his reappearance."

Heiji smacked his fist into his palm. "The elevator shaft! Alex and I blocked the entrance on this floor, but it's open on the floor below, and it's close by."

"If KID set up some sort of pulley system, he could get to the top floor in time using the elevator shaft. The timing is incredibly tight, but it's possible. I still don't know how he managed to make that fake wall, though." There was also another explanation for how KID had seemingly managed to teleport himself, Conan thought. He wondered if Hakuba had thought of it yet.

"Well, that's one mystery solved, I guess," Alex said. He shook his head. "This entire night has been crazy. I still can't believe he managed to pass himself off as Akako, of all people."

"And you said you heard her heels," Heiji scoffed, pacing restlessly back and forth. "Can't you even tell when it's your own girlfriend or not, Hakuba?"

"If I recall correctly, I wasn't the one who swore KID didn't have time to change into a dress like that, Hattori-kun," Hakuba shot back, tone polite but voice frigid.

"Oh my god. Seriously, guys?" Alex looked at the pair of them, both wound up and looking for a convenient target. "You're both being beaten in maturity by an eight year old right now. What is up with you two?"

"Hakuba-niichan and Heiji-niichan once competed against each other in a deduction battle!" The mature eight year old chimed in helpfully. "Hakuba-niichan called Heiji-niichan hot-blooded and insulted his detective skills, but then he thought the wrong person was the murderer and Heiji-niichan didn't." He paused, and continued more seriously: "Also, I think it's easier for them to blame each other than to admit that they're both worried sick right now."

"Oi, Bōzu…"

"Edogawa-kun." The coldness had gone from Hakuba's manner. Now he just looked tired.

"I am too," he said, letting his childish tone dilute the weight of his words. Heiji wasn't fooled, and gave him a long look.

"I still maintain that Hattori-kun is too hot blooded," Hakuba said lightly, steering the conversation into less emotionally fraught waters. "The Detective Koushien ended up getting derailed, so I wouldn't exactly call the results indicative."

Heiji grinned, showing teeth. "I'm up for a rematch if you are. Say after your exams are finished?"

"Done. I'll keep an eye out for a suitable case."

"I will as well," Heiji said. Then he sighed. "I just wish there was something to do now."

From the look on Alex's face, he agreed as well. "What about the sniper's gear? Is there anything we can learn from that?"

"Forensics is working on it. They told me they had to lift fingerprints from the sniper rifle itself, since the shooter's hands were badly burnt," Hakuba said. Then: "The other bullets in the rifle had been coated with Teflon."

Oh. No wonder Hakuba had been so touchy, Conan thought. The coldness in his stomach seemed to have solidified into ice.

"You guys are all extremely worried," Alex said, looking at them all closely. "And all for a thief."

"KID…he doesn't kill, doesn't even hurt his pursuers, and he returns what he steals," Heiji said. "Hakuba and Conan-kun have chased him far more than I have, but even for me it's a relief from the usual killers we go after."

"More of a rival than an enemy, you can say," Hakuba admitted. "I guess you don't have anyone like that."

There was a short silence. "No. No, I don't," Alex said flatly.

Well, there was definitely a story there. Hakuba looked like he regretted his words.

Continuing on like this would do nothing but make them all pissed off at each other. Conan gave a yawn that was only half-feigned. "Ah, it's way past my bedtime." He looked up at the others. "If KID is alright, he'll return the target brooch as soon as he can. The police station will be the first place to get any new updates either way, so let's go there instead. As much as I hate to say it, there isn't much more we can do here tonight."


A/N: As always, thanks for reading and for all the lovely comments/reviews! The next chapter should clear up any lingering confusion about what exactly happened and wrap up the heist arc.