A/N: ok I've hit the Phantom Thief G ark which means this story is about to hit a go slow. I've got a few more chapters left but after that, I can only update as the manga comes out and I may have to wait weeks for enough for me to write something about. Sorry, but I'll do my best to stay on top of things when Hoshino-sensei updates. Basically, this chapter looks at the 14th analysing G. I figure G might interest the Fourteenth because the Fourteenth is also a phantom, in a sense. Please review, I really do appreciate it.

Disclaimer: I wouldn't have problems continuing this story if I was the mangaka now would I?

6. Phantom Thief

The latest mission interested me in a way few of the others did. The exorcists were going to look for a man known only as 'Phantom Thief G'. I highly doubted he was a phantom, being one myself meant I knew you couldn't steal. Not like this. If you took over your host, completely, you could but that took time. Days, months, years even, not hours or minutes and if the rumours we had heard were true, that was exactly what he did. I didn't know I approved of the team that was sent to handle this. Without doubt, I had been delighted when Allen was placed on the team. It meant I would get as close to the 'Phantom' as was possible. It was the teammates that made me wonder, Noise Marie, BaKanda and the ever-present Two Pimple. I had learnt the names of most of the people that frequently interacted with my nephew. I was, nonetheless, too fond of the nicknames some of them earned.

Kanda marched ahead of the rest of us in his usual brash manner and straight into a young lady. She started to apologise but was met with contempt.

"Watch where you're going, move."

He really needs to learn how to behave around girls, nephew, he'll never find a wife at this rate.

I expected the girl to be irate and snap back at him or maybe behave in that cool, self possessed way that so many young women had mastered when I was on the social scene. I remembered that haughty walk and the look that said, 'you are beneath me'. I was shocked when instead of annoyance or anger, wonder filled the girl's eyes. She seemed taken in by the rude, intemperate young man. Another man came up behind her, one who did not hesitate when he shoved her out the way to get to BaKanda.

"And who are you."

I think we may have found a friend for Kanda, they'll get on like a house on fire. There'll be few survivors.

Luckily, it was not Kanda alone on this mission, that might be why exorcists worked in teams, I reasoned. They balance each other. I had been surprised to find that Kanda and Marie both came from the same team. The icy samurai and the man who I had begun to think of as a gentle giant were worlds apart to me.

"Ah, we heard that some friends of ours are being held here. Do you think we might be allowed to see them?"

"The Black Order?! But what are you people doing in a place like…?"

The only thing they ever do in strange places, searching for innocence. Not that this place was strange, it was really quite normal, an average everyday sort of police station. Then again, with the Order, the norm was the supernatural. Was normal abnormal to these exorcists? Was I someone who could judge normality? No not at all.

***

"I'm sorry but releasing them won't be possible. Your friends are prime suspects in a case we are investigating at the present."

Oh please, they had only come here long after the thefts had started, how did he expect them to have done anything? It was beyond me. We could prove their whereabouts when the case was opened, that should be enough. I wondered if the man lacked suspects so he had grabbed a few who had been interested in the case.

"They'll be in here somewhere. I'm afraid you'll have to find them yourselves."

I swallowed my words on entering the room. The police didn't lack suspects, they had too many. On either side of us was a long, single cell that ran from one end of the room to the other. Inside both were men in the same ridiculous outfit. An over sized oblong, Cyclops head and a G on their chests. I was amazed by the sheer magnitude of what this G had done, but I knew one thing without question, he was not like me. Something entirely new. When we came in they all clambered to reach the front of the cells and explain how they had been 'made into' Phantom Thief G'. The inspector was quite good at ignoring them but my conscience twinged. I wondered what it was like for Allen, who truly knew what it was to become someone else. Did he sympathise with these people? Or did he envy them, because they had lost themselves for an inconsequential amount of time. What they had done in that time had been important but it was over…

"Exorcists?"

I didn't know how someone put that amount of emotion into one word, and softly spoken too. They sounded so hopeful.

"Is that you, exorcists?"

So we had found the finders, the irony was not lost on me.

"You really came for us~~~~~~!!"

"Thank god"

"You've gotta get us outta here~~!!"

"Zhizhi and the finder squad too!"

I admit that I knew that they would be in the same outfit but it still shocked me when I actually looked. It was hard to think of their usually uniforms. The smart, scientific and efficient look I was used to clashed with the childish one that assaulted my eyes.

"And what the hell have you punks been doing?"

If I had a body I would have looked like a teenager, I would have had the same exasperated look that they are so good at and I would have rolled my eyes. An art I had perfected in my youth and one I still, I was sure, excelled at. It was amazing the amount of feeling you could put into a 360-degree revolution. Suddenly the finders felt the need to stand at the back of the cell. Huddled together.

"WAH~~~ We're sorry!"

"The truth is we don't have a clue what's going on either!"

Check, in theory a possession would leave a host unaware of what had taken place in the possession time.

"We came here because we heard that strange things had been happening to the locals, so we wanted to find out if there was innocence involved."

Of course you did. Innocence is the only thing that gets most of you out of HQ.

"Komui told us that much and apparently he hasn't heard a word from you since."

Ah yes, I do remember that. That had been a cause for panic, finders not reporting in usually meant that there had been something there but the Earl had got there before the finders had time to report back.

"So what happened?"

"We were just carrying out our investigation but then… somehow we found ourselves in these crazy outfits, locked up in this cell."

I felt a certain degree of confusion and disbelief coming from my nephew and if the sounds the other exorcist was making were any indication I would guess that he too, found their story a little hard to swallow. I was a little sceptical myself, from personal experience, I knew this had to be some form of possession but it defied all logic. The amount of energy required to place your memories and conscious in another was not something to be sneezed at and suppressing the original host took time too. Maybe I had become soft, let Allen have free reign because in truth I wasn't sure I wanted him gone yet.

"However thanks to this incident we have become certain of one important thing. The innocence in question has something to do with Phantom Thief G!"

I had thought that was why we came here in the first place. Was I the only one who had immediately made the connection between the thief and the innocence? I wasn't the only one who thought that my nephew and Kanda Yuu were not convinced by the story. The finder thought so too.

"D-don't look at me like that, I may be wearing a ridiculous outfit but I'm being serious here!"

Allen caved first, of the two exorcists who were talking he was definitely the gentler of the two and again I wondered if what they were saying hit home. If it was just sympathy that made him willing to listen or, if it was a desire to know what could happen to him.

"So what makes you think that?"

They introduced us to a distinctly masculine person called Bonnaire nee-san (big sister). She proceeded to explain what she knew about G. apparently she had been one of the first arrests on the case and was considered the boss of the prisoners. She had spent nearly six months in the jail.

"There are three things we know about him. First: he wears an outrageous costume."

That was evident one look at the police holding cells would tell you that.

"Second: without fail, he always sends a note the day before he commits a crime."

That was an interesting habit. I could think of several reasons why he might do that. Firstly, there was a chance that he wanted to get caught. Secondly, he may enjoy the lime light, or may need it for a reason known best to himself. Thirdly, he may enjoy the challenge. I wondered at his choice of possessed people. Except for the debateable Bonnaire, I saw no women in the cells. This police inspector did not seem the kind to rule out a suspect because she was female so I assumed it meant he hadn't possessed any girls. Good breeding? Then why would he steal? Then again, thieves and criminals often had the strangest sense of justice. Able to accept one thing without question but when faced with another moral dilemma they were stauncher then the most pious man in the world. Not that pious men were all good, they would do exactly what a thief would. The only difference I they would say that they had a right to, because of their god. The costume made it hard to see but I thought that all of the people he had possessed were quite fit. That supported the challenge theory, perhaps he needed people capable of avoiding the police but they still got caught…

"And third… G has no physical form."

That comment hit home, in both Allen and I, it had a place in both of our hearts. There was one thing they'd missed. Someone with no physical form had no need for material wealth. They never recovered the goods he stole, that meant someone was taking them somewhere else at another time. The man who stole was caught but the goods disappeared. No, this man had a physical form or a need for the wealth at least. He hid it well but the clues were there. Inspector Galmar thought it was a ploy to get them out the cells, to escape being guilty. I didn't agree, they had missed a few points and made an erroneous conclusion but G was definitely the work of someone like me, or someone with innocence. One way or another, he would be a challenge.

"What do you think?"

Of course, we should listen to Marie's ruling but somehow I knew the answer before it was given. They would be telling the truth, what they described and the conclusions they had drawn made it obvious to me. Per chance not to others who lacked my level of experience.

"From the sound of their heartbeats, there is no sign of deception from any of the prisoners"

Just I thought.

"Thief, ghost or whatever it is, if there is innocence involved, we just have to retrieve it."

That would please me, whatever this creature was, he interested me. I wondered if raw innocence could do something like this. Surely, a thinking mind was required to send the motes, organize the thefts. What business did innocence have with gold? I was inclined to ignore the inspector who was under the impression that the case was still his. Honestly, you would think he would be grateful for the help. In half a year he was no closer to solving the case than when he had begun.

"Inspector! It's a note, another on. We have another note from Phantom Thief G!"

And so, the hunt was on.