Chapter 5: Ripples

Officer Nakamura escorted the young lady who was Hakuba-san's significant other right up to the doorstop of her Gothic mansion. Once he drove away, the redhead lightly fiddled with the doorknob, hesitating on the threshold before finally stepping through with confident long strides.

Those strides took the crimson clad figure up the twisting stairs and into the darkly lit living room, before halting at the hissing sounds as two hooded strands of black slipped out to block the way, and at the sight of the girl lying on the couch they guarded.

The two figures stared, their features perfect mirrors of each other. One standing with a pale face in the infamous scarlet dress, the other wearing an even more infamous white tuxedo, now torn about the middle and disfigured with blotches of darkening red.

The full moon shone down on the strange tableau for a moment. Then—

"Akako, what have you done?"

Akako weakly waved a hand and her cobras retreated back into the shadows. "I'm…fine now. We took out the bullet. It missed anything vital." She sounded hoarse, and Kaito could barely hear her.

There was a pile of bloodied cloth on the coffee table in front of her, he saw, along with a basin of rust-coloured water and various glass bottles that smelled strongly of herbs. Her top hat had fallen behind the couch, and a copy of his signature monocle was lying among the stained bandages. Kaito sighed, and with a snap of his fingers changed to his bare face, casual jeans and a t-shirt.

"I brought some first aid supplies, and I can try to find a discreet doctor." Jii would know someone. A hospital was out of the question with everyone on the lookout for a gunshot victim, but he could go and steal some medicine from one if necessary.

Akako shook her head. "My way is more effective. Look." She pulled back the ripped edges of her blue dress shirt, exposing the ugly red welt of a bullet wound that looked days old, and not hours fresh.

"Your way," Kaito echoed. "You set a man on fire."

"He shot me."

Kaito conceded the point with a nod. "Alex Rider was there too. He could have been burned as well."

"I have better control over my powers than that. The flames are only for the one who spilled my blood."

The mansion's demonic manservant came in, cradling a landline phone in one large, misshapen hand. "Mistress, there is a telephone call for you. He says he is Hakuba Saguru."

What little blood there was left in Akako's face drained out. She stared at the phone like it was cursed. "…Tell him I'm sleeping." Her manservant bowed and left, presumably to comply.

"Tantei-san's going to get suspicious," Kaito pointed out the obvious. "I don't think he's seen through our second switch or there'd be sirens blazing outside your house right now, but if you keep on avoiding him Hakuba's going to guess the truth."

Akako winced. "Ah, I really don't want to be arrested by my own boyfriend."

"He was pretty concerned about you this evening." Kaito remembered the detective's unexpected almost-embrace, meant for the real Akako. There was genuine regard there, not that he would have expected Hakuba to enter a relationship for shallow reasons, but…"How much does Hakuba knows about your powers?"

"About as much as you do, but Saguru-kun's agreed not to pry into them."

"Ah. And where does 'using your powers to help the internationally wanted thief he's trying to catch' fall under?"

"…That hasn't come up yet."

"You really didn't think this through, did you." Kaito's anger burned cool—he did not scream or shout; instead he focused on what made him mad and how to make it disappear. "Did you have to go this far, Akako? I did not need your help. Now you've gotten shot, and tantei-san may be hurt in the future as well."

"If I hadn't made that illusion you would have been cornered!" She protested, then winced from the sudden movement. "And in the wrong position to perform your little fire trick."

"I would have thought of something."

"Really? With both Saguru and Edogawa Conan there together, each of whom have come close to catching you by themselves? Along with Hattori Heiji, and Alex Rider, and that sniper who was waiting in the shadows? You have the luck of fools and madmen, Kuroba-kun, but how far can you push it before it runs out?" She may no longer be in love with him, but Kaito was one of the precious few friends Akako had. It still made him hers. She wasn't going to let him get caught, and she certainly wasn't going to let him get himself killed. Get himself or Saguru killed.

"You're not going to stop, are you?" he said softly.

"Not as long as you keep on doing things this recklessly. That bullet had been coated with Teflon."

"And it was meant for me. I know. This was my heist, and my risk to take, Akako. I knew how dangerous tonight was going to be, and I still went through with it." He had to go through with it. Canceling would have been the same as letting those bastards win. "No one else should be taking KID's part in any of this."

"Not even your friends?"

"Especially not them." He had thought that allowing Akako to leave from the roof in KID's guise while he took on her appearance again would let them both escape without suspicion. A black shadow awaits, and the white thief is shot down from the sky. "I am sorry, Akako. I forgot that one figure in white looks much the same as another from a distance."

"At least you're taking my visions more seriously now," Akako said, sounding more mollified. Then she remembered: "Hells Kuroba-kun, I'm going to have to go to school on Monday. Why did you have to schedule this right before finals?"

It was the only full moon while the Tiffany exhibit was in Tokyo that didn't collide with either theirs or Hattori's exam schedules, but Kaito didn't say that.

Akako sighed, and leaned back gingerly. "Well, did you at least get what you set up this evening for?"

After only a moment of hesitation, Kaito drew out the stolen salamander brooch, and she stared. "Wow. I don't think I've seen anything that tacky since great-aunt Dimity's voodoo scalp collection."

"Akako, your house looks like it came straight out of a bad horror movie." He raised the brooch to a small patch of moonlight let in by the thick velvet curtains. When a full minute had passed and nothing happened, he sighed and tucked it back out of sight.

"Well, are you going to tell me what you're looking for?" Akako demanded.

Kaito looked at her sidelong. "I find it hard to imagine that you haven't already tried to find out."

"I have," she admitted.

"And you still don't know?"

"The spirit I asked refused to answer. Apparently 'It's not ours'," Akako mimicked, looking very put out. She stopped talking to catch her breath, looking expectantly at Kaito.

"Only if you promise that you will not go after it yourself," Kaito said. It was a harsh measure, but a necessary one. "This I will need a blood oath for, Miss Witch."

Akako sat there unmoving for what felt like several minutes. Kaito couldn't tell if the tense line of her jaw was from pain or from thought. He was surprised that she was even considering it; the Akako he had first met would not have agreed to give up a chance to gain more power for herself. But that Akako also would not have dated Hakuba without coercion (he was still scratching his head over that one), or have taken a bullet while helping Kaito.

"Agreed," she finally said, gritting her teeth as she sat up straight on the couch. "Give me your hand."

He hadn't meant right now. Poker face firmly in place, Kaito knelt in front of her and offered up his left hand. She took it in her own right hand while her left moved to her abdomen, underneath the rip in her dress shirt and pressed hard against the wound there. When she withdrew her hand the tips of her fingers gleamed with fresh blood.

With one move she began to sketch a pentacle in liquid crimson on the back of Kaito's hand. "By this blood and the blood still within her, Koizumi Akako vows not to look for, pursue or acquire the gem which Kuroba Kaito seeks without his explicitly stated permission, and only in the manner which he permits." She did not break eye contact. "Satisfied?"

Kaito looked for loopholes in her oath and couldn't think of any. "Yes."

Akako finished drawing and released his hand. Her blood pentacle vanished into his skin, leaving it spotless. Kaito stared at it, hoping he didn't look as unnerved as he felt.

Well, she had fulfilled her part of the bargain; it was time to complete his. "Me and the crows responsible for tonight are looking for a gem called Pandora which will supposedly weep tears of immortality under the passing of a specific comet. According to the legend it's hidden inside another jewel, and will glow red under the full moon." Spoken in this Gothic mansion to an honest-to-goodness witch, the words sounded less ridiculous than they would have otherwise.

"Do you mean carmot?" Akako said after a moment's thought.

"What?"

"A red stone which produces the elixir of life and can turn lead into gold. It's most commonly known as the Philosopher's Stone, though there are many names for it." Akako thought again. "You know, I think one of them may even be Pandora. But the part about being a gem with an inclusion does not match with the legend, nor does glowing red under the light of the full moon."

"Have you heard of any gems with legends of immortality attached to them?"

Akako shook her head slowly. "Carmot is the only one I can think of right now for stones. There are other legends about acquiring immortality, of course: eating the flesh of a mermaid, or mystical peaches, or ambrosia, if you go with Western mythology, but eternal life is harder to achieve than you might think. Oh, I haven't tried to seek it myself, but there are many tales of others who have tried, and failed."

"I don't want it for myself," Kaito said. "Only to keep it away from others who would stop at nothing to take it for themselves."

"The crows from tonight? Well, I'm on board with that." Akako's gaze narrowed. "How about this, Kuroba-kun? I'll use all my resources to find information about this Pandora gem for you. In exchange, I want a few of its shards for study if you do find it."

"I thought you weren't interested in eternal life?" Kaito said, wary.

"I do not want to live forever, but I wouldn't say no to a few extra decades if the option was available."

Akako would have access to far more information in this particular topic than he ever would, given that sorcery was her domain. But how far did he trust her blood oath? It must have some effectiveness, or Akako wouldn't have bothered asking for his permission now that she knew about Pandora.

"Koizumi Akako, I give you permission to help me seek the gem called Pandora, in exchange for four of its shards in the eventuality that I acquire it and find some way of destroying it," Kaito said, taking care with his words. He felt a warm twinge on the back of his left hand, where the blood oath lay under his skin.

This was either going to blow up in his face or give him the breakthrough on Pandora he desperately needed. "I'll go and return the brooch before the tanteis get too frantic. Get some rest, Akako. Contact me through my doves if you need anything."

Kaito left, and headed straight for the police station. The night was still young, and the longer Hakuba was distracted by 'accidentally' mixed-up paperwork the less time he had to properly think about tonight's heist and the discrepancies that logic couldn't explain.


At two o'clock in the morning, the Tiffany salamander arrived at the police station in a white gift box with an accompanying doodle of KID. Saguru was so relieved that he finally relented and allowed Alex to drag him home, leaving the mountain of paperwork for later that day.

Or so he planned. Once he woke up, Saguru discovered that Alex had somehow managed to suborn Baaya while he slept, and both of them refused to let him return to the station on the grounds that he had final exams the next day.

"It's an English exam," Saguru had protested.

"And Chemistry, in the afternoon," said Alex pleasantly. "Can you imagine what Ai would say if you botched your Chem after what we did in Lymstock? Or your mother, for that matter?"

This, Saguru thought irately, was what happened when you let a spy into your house.

But school did offer another opportunity, though he didn't tell Alex what it was. On Monday morning he and Alex went to school early, waiting outside the gates for the others to arrive.

Akako arrived first, and lighted up when she saw him. She looked wan, and was wearing more makeup than normal, Saguru noted. "Did you stay up late, Akako?"

She startled. "What? Oh, yes. I had to work really hard…to cram. Oh seven hells, I'm going to fail analysis."

"Ohayou!" There was Aoko and Kaito, walking up together as usual. Kuroba certainly didn't move like he was seriously injured, but then again he was a phenomenal actor.

"No acrobatics today, Kuroba-kun?" Saguru had to ask. "Not even a cartwheel, for luck?"

Kaito gave him a look. "Well, if you insist…" He performed three perfect cartwheels in a row, backwards and forwards. His uniform shirt slipped down during the last one, earning a blush from Aoko. His exposed torso had neither bandages nor any signs of recent wounds.

Kaito finished with an exaggerated bow. "What, no applause?" he asked Saguru.

Saguru gave a few short claps, frustrated. Alex looked between them, detecting the undercurrent even if he didn't understand what they were saying.

Later, he cornered Hakuba in the basement as soon as he returned to the mansion after school. "What where you trying to do this morning, with Kuroba?"

Saguru deliberated. To tell or not to tell…"I was checking for a bullet wound," he said, slowly.

Alex's brown eyes widened as he caught on to the implications. "And did you find one?" he asked.

Saguru shook his head. "I have no proof. If you ask around, you will find that Kuroba Kaito once spent the entirety of a KID heist handcuffed to my wrist. Not to mention that he was obviously uninjured today. So he could not possibly be KID. Do you understand?"

"Ah, I see." Alex stared at one of the paintings on the wall as little details about class clown Kuroba Kaito were suddenly cast in a new light. "He's uninjured, with an iron clad alibi for a previous heist, but you still told me about it."

"Yes."

Honestly, Alex wouldn't put it past the phantom thief to be able to come up with some sort of alibi trick to protect his civilian identity. KID could also have faked being shot, though Alex couldn't understand how or why. Then he remembered something.

"I didn't get a chance to tell you, did I? Kaitou KID somehow found out about my activities with MI6. He was questioning me about them when we were alone during the heist."

Saguru was suddenly very glad he had taken certain precautions before this conversation started. "I don't know how he found out, but KID likes to keep an eye on the police and his more notable pursuers. That's part of the reason we regularly sweep for bugs, and why we're having this conversation here in the basement with the white noise generators running." One of the advantages of being the heir to a forensics technology company was getting to test out the latest prototypes.

"And I didn't just imagine Conan and Heiji's hints about me during the heist, did I?" Alex asked. Saguru shook his head. "How do people keep finding out about me?!"

"I told you before that if I could deduce your past, there are others who would be able to as well, and I'm afraid Edogawa-kun and Hattori are both in that category," Saguru said. "You may want to consider speaking to your former handlers about hiding the trail better."


"Wow," Heiji leaned back into his comfy love-seat in the basement of the Kudo mansion, eyeing the files in front of him with distaste. "So we were right 'bout Alex Rider, and I kinda wish we weren't."

Jodie had found the information Conan asked for much faster than either of them expected—part of him wondered what kind of favours she had to call in (or promise) in order to get these files so quickly. Now that they had it, Heiji and Conan were digesting what she had dug up on Alex Rider, and finding certain parts hard to swallow.

"To summarize, MI6 had recruited an unwilling fourteen year old, probably using some form of blackmail or coercion given what's carefully not being said, and sent him on a series of missions that I would have found improbable had I come across them in my dad's novels," Conan said. "Despite overwhelming odds, he managed to not only survive but succeed, every time. So they kept on sending him out, even loaning him to the CIA on one occasion, until he was too broken to be used anymore."

Heiji had let loose some rather creative invectives when he first read through the files. Conan felt slightly sick. He had liked the CIA, liked Hidemi Hondou despite the ruthlessness he knew she would need to survive as a double agent in the Organization.

For the first time, he wondered what else an intelligence agency that was willing to let an operative kill her own father in order to keep her cover would do to achieve its goals. What he may have to condone, if he continued on this path to bring down the Syndicate.

A troubled Jodie had told him the FBI had once tried to create their own teenage spy, and failed spectacularly. Conan was suddenly very glad that Shuichi Akai (in his Subaru Okiya identity) was out of the house for the day.

"Ya, Kudo," Heiji said slowly after Conan told him. "Has it occurred to ya that…maybe we're attempt number two?"

It had. "Does it matter?" Edogawa Conan—no, Kudo Shinichi looked back at him. "I swore that I would take down the Org if it's the last thing I ever did. That hasn't changed."

"I was working alongside with Jodie-sōsakan and Akai-san and the others as equals. I don't believe…I don't want to believe that the FBI saw me as a tool. But if they did…you can't say that I've been an unwilling one." He had a choice. Alex hadn't.

Heiji riffled the pages of the file absently. "So we'll continue on as before, then?"

"I'm still going to do my best to destroy the Syndicate. So will the FBI, and the CIA. I don't see any reason to change our working relationship."

"And what 'bout Hakuba n' Alex Rider? They're trying ta find out what happened to ya, Kudo."

"I'll warn Mom and Dad so they don't accidentally reveal anything. But luckily, they both look to be very logical people." Conan gave a deprecating smile. "I don't think either of them would ever believe that I've been somehow turned into an eight year old, even if they notice the similarities between Kudo Shinichi and Edogawa Conan. And it's not like I'll be seeing them much, now that the KID heist is over."

"…"

"Hattori? What is it?"

"Ah, I was goin' ta tell ya, Kudo," Heiji said hesitantly. "I've found just the case fer trouncin' Hakuba in that rematch he's insistin' on. I was gonna ask if ya wanted to come along. But if ya think it might blow yer cover…"

Conan saw the danger—it would put him in close proximity with both Hakuba Saguru and Alex Rider again. "What's the case, exactly?"

"It's an inheritance case—figurin' out whose gonna be the heir to a fortune. It's taking place at this castle hotel on a semi-tropical island off Kagoshima. The client is a rep from some fancy Swiss bank, so yunno: all expenses paid, an' then some."

That did sound tempting. Once Heiji was done, he could go have fun on the white sandy beaches and in the sparkling azure waters. It would practically be a vacation. Conan sighed. "…Ah what the hell. They shouldn't suspect anything as long as I'm careful. I'll come and cheer you on, and maybe even solve it before either of you two do." He snickered. "As long as you stop almost calling me Kudo, I should be fine."

Besides, Hakuba would be distracted by his rivalry with Heiji, Conan thought as the Osakan protested. The half-British detective did have a tendency to hyper-focus on one thing at a time. Between the case they were hired for and the island paradise setting, neither Hakuba nor Alex Rider would have much time to spare to wonder about what had happened to Kudo Shinichi.


In a nondescript office of the Cadmus International Accounting firm building in Los Angeles, deputy director Joe Byrne of the CIA Covert Action section was about to have the other side of the conversation regarding Alex Rider and Edogawa Conan.

"Mr. Black," he greeted the grey haired man who entered the room. "Thank you for agreeing to this meeting." Relations between the CIA and FBI were often strained at best, but in Byrne's opinion a little courtesy never hurt.

Agent James Black of the FBI returned his firm handshake, and sat down. "You wanted to see me about one of my agents?"

"Yes, just a small question I wanted to clear up." Byrne flipped open a file, more to occupy his hands than out of need to read the papers there. "I understand that one of your subordinates—a Miss Starling—recently asked us for information about a certain Alex Rider. I would like to understand the context behind that request." He smiled. "I have something of a personal interest in the welfare of Mr. Rider, you see."

Truth to be told, the use of Alex Rider—by both MI6 and his own agency—had never sat well with Joe Byrne. The boy had been a phenomenal agent, but Byrne had still given a private breath of relief when he learned that Alex had left that world behind. With Alan Blunt retired from MI6, he thought that Alex would finally get the chance to be the normal teenage boy he should have been.

Then Blunt's successor Mrs. Jones had contacted him with the request to keep an eye on Alex, along with a brief but troubling summary of Alex's recent adventures in Lymstock, including the apparent resurrection of the assassin called Yassen Gregorovitch. Byrne knew that Alex was currently in Japan; the request for information about Alex originated from Japan as well. Joe Byrne sighed. Alex Rider may be finished with the intelligence world, but it looked like the intelligence world wasn't finished with him.

"Yes, Jodie asked for the information on Alex Rider as a favour for someone else." Black paused. "You are aware of the details of the Hondou operation, and how the FBI ended up becoming involved as well?"

Byrne remembered. It had been somewhat of a fiasco, what with the two agencies screwing up each other's plans due to lack of communication. "Yes. An unfortunate debacle, but it was resolved in the end. Our agent was able to re-infiltrate the Syndicate with your help."

"The person who requested the information on Alex Rider was an invaluable help, not just in enabling Kir's successful return to the Syndicate, but in several other operations against the Black Organization, despite not being an agent himself," Black explained. "As such, Jodie thought it was proper to pay back the favour, and I agreed."

"And just who is this invaluable civilian helper?" Byrne asked. James Black visibly hesitated. Interesting.

"His name is Conan Edogawa," he finally relented.

Byrne studied him, and searched the name on his computer. Several articles showed up in Japanese, and Byrne scanned them. To the public, Edogawa Conan was primarily known for facing off against the phantom thief called Kaitou KID, but it wasn't that piece of information which made Byrne's blood pressure suddenly spike.

"Mr. Black," he said slowly. "Please tell me that there is another Edogawa Conan in Japan who is the civilian helper that you are talking about. Someone who isn't an eight year old boy."

"No, that's him," Black said. "Now, I know how this must look, but—"

"But nothing!" Byrne exploded. "What the hell? Didn't you FBI learn from your previous screw-up? You guys got a teenager killed trying to infiltrate a drug ring, so the next time you decide to use a child?!"

"The FBI is not using Conan; it's a partnership." Byrne gave a snort of derision. "I am not lying. Conan was the one who figured out that Hidemi Hondou was one of your NOCs. He independently deduced Vermouth's identity. He was instrumental in preventing the Org from retrieving Kir from the hospital before we were ready, and he and Akai together came up with the strategy to plant her back. You can ask Kir herself to verify this, if you don't believe me." Black looked back at him, utterly sincere. "Conan Edogawa may have the body of the child, but I haven't met a mind that sharp since Akai."

"I don't care how fucking brilliant the kid is, you can't force him to fight for you—"

"We are not forcing him! Look, I've read the file Jodie received on Alex Rider. Reading between the lines, it's pretty bloody clear that MI6 coerced him into doing their dirty work. That is not what's happening here. If the FBI and CIA withdrew their operations against the Syndicate tomorrow, Conan would continue fighting against them. By himself, if it came down to that. He wants Them taken down, just as badly as we do."

Joe Byrne could feel the migraine brewing. "So you're saying, that during all this time while I was cursing Alan Blunt for using a teenage agent, we've been doing the same with an eight year old?" Then it struck him. "And he's the one who requested information about Alex. Oh dear Lord."


LookingforAlaska: The sniper is currently unconscious and under police guard in the hospital. He's going to be there for a while, I'm afraid—there was too much going on in this chapter for me to fit him in.

A/N: And that pretty much wraps up the heist arc! The next chapter is going to be delayed, I'm afraid–I want to have most of the mystery arc written ahead to avoid gaping plot holes. Given my current writing speed, I'm estimating that it'll take about a month, more or less. I considered spreading the break out earlier, but I didn't want to leave a long update between cliffhangers.

This chapter ended up having a lot more sowing of long term plot threads and repercussions than I expected. The last scene pretty much wrote itself once I realized that in this crossover Joe Byrne would have knowledge, and probably oversight over Kir and the CIA's operations in Japan.

As always, thank you all for reading, and for your reviews!