Part Eleven

Hakuba went through the articles again. Ever since he'd calmed down after his disastrous encounter with Kudo Shinichi at Toyama's home the previous day, he'd been over his conclusions and evidence, trying to ascertain where he'd gone wrong. He revisited his sense that Hattori being so crude during the heist was an indication that he was hiding something. He reviewed the voice he'd heard down the hall and tried to pinpoint why he was so certain it was Kaitou Kid. He tried to find the logical thoughts that had made him pull at Kudo's face. And he wondered why something still didn't feel right about the entire mess.

There were questions that Hakuba couldn't exactly go back and ask after his previous reprehensible behavior. But why was Kudo so close to Toyama's house in the pouring rain? Why was he out in the rain so much that he'd gotten ill and how badly ill was he to have had all of them awake and helping him throughout the night? What was Kudo even doing in Osaka, especially since no one could ever seem to contact him, find him, or had even seen him in such a long time?

But Hakuba couldn't go and ask those questions. He'd never get past the street, no doubt Hattori and Toyama would see that he never even made it to the property, let alone inside to ask his questions. So he'd gone back over things. Spread across his hotel room were articles about Kudo Shinichi, his time as the "Savior of the Police" as he became the rising young star of Tokyo, the Detective of the East. But the last article about him was solving a murder on a roller coaster, and then absolutely nothing. It was like Kudo had disappeared from the face of the earth. But if some of the things he'd overheard Aoko talk about with Mouri was any indication, Kudo had kept in contact with at least his girlfriend, though almost no one else.

Hakuba couldn't find out much more about the sleuth without starting to inspect Kudo's circle of friends to find out what he was like. But having never met Kudo before, how could Hakuba be certain that the person he'd met wasn't Kaitou Kid in disguise?

And the reason why his mind refused to let go of that supposition had to do with how eerily similar Kudo and Kuroba were. It was true that the person he'd seen had looked like Kudo in every detail, but that meant that with messier hair and a different body posture, he could have been Kuroba in every detail as well. Even their voices were the same, though Kudo's seemed to bear pure confidence and hard-won experience while Kuroba's was cocky and playful. And it was that confidence that had reminded Hakuba so much of Kaitou Kid.

For a brief time, Hakuba wondered if his theory of Kuroba being Kid was wrong and that Kudo was really the Moonlight Magician. But those thoughts were cast aside when he'd come across several articles recounting how Kudo had faced off with Kid at a clock tower.

The encounter at the Toyama home continued to bother Hakuba. Unanswered questions. How convenient that Kudo had never touched Hakuba so that he could use it as a DNA sample. But Kid was always disguised as someone for a few hours at most. Certainly this marathon of performing as Kudo would wear him out? Wouldn't the others notice? Especially since Kid had been shot.

With a sigh, Hakuba went through the articles again.

Conan sat down on the phone book on the chair so that he was more level with the table. Ran was beside him, Kazuha across from him, and Kuroba between Ran and Kazuha. Dinner was looking scrumptious, but then, that wasn't a surprise given that Ran had cooked it. They had just started in however, when Ran's cell rang.

"Yes?" she answered.

Conan went back to enjoying his food immensely, and from the corner of his eye, it seemed Kuroba was loving the food, given the way he was almost stuffing his face. So far, the day had been quiet, for which Conan was infinitely grateful. After the previous day with Hakuba storming in, Hattori and Kazuha sniping barbs at one another, and all the talking he'd done with Ran when they'd had a moment about the fact that yes him getting shot was a possibility and all that it stirred up as a result... well, quiet was a very welcome change of pace.

Granted, his sleep schedule was still torn to hell. Conan had maybe four hours of sleep the previous night and he'd tried to snag a couple of hours during the day to help make up for it so he could reestablish a more normal sleep pattern.

Ran gave a great sigh as she hung up.

"Ran?" Kuroba asked, in a perfect imitation of what Conan himself had just been about to do. (Conan tried not to scowl. It was a part to be played, nothing more...)

She shook her head, with a tired sigh. "Sorry," she said. "That was the station. Apparently one of the younger officers said he'd take my father out for a drink and lost him between bars."

Conan blinked. It had been lightning fast, but Kuroba had given him a look. It didn't take much for the truncated detective to realize that this was a chance to get Kazuha out of the house so that things could be talked about freely.

Ran let out another sigh. "I'm going to have to go out and look for him and make sure he hasn't found a geisha who will probably start charging him for her time."

"I'll go with ya," Kazuha agreed. "We can probably find'm faster together."

Conan immediately cheered. "Yay! I get to change Shinichi-nii-chan's bandages all by myself!"

Blinking, Ran looked down to him and he made a small twist of his finger, a subtle cue the two of them had created for her to play along with whatever he was doing.

"Conan-kun," she replied, an eyebrow raised, "you're too young to..."

"It's okay, Ran," Kuroba said with a small smile, acting the part of Conan's true identity perfectly. "I'm sure I can change them myself."

"No ya can't," Kazuha frowned. "You can't reach th' one in back 'n' Conan-kun-"

Conan can cut her off with childish enthusiasm, "I can do it! I can do it!" I've disarmed bombs, dug out bullets without marking the surrounding area, and administered first aid to a lot of victims. I sure as hell can do it, but that's not the point.

Ran looked back and forth between Kuroba and Conan.

"Tell ya what," smiled Kazuha, "I can go lookin' myself. Probably faster too. You oughtta take care o' yer boys here."

"Thank you, Kazuha-chan."

"No problem." Dinner continued, though for Kazuha at a faster pace. As Conan helped Kuroba clear the dishes, Ran wished Kazuha luck.

With Kazuha gone, Kuroba dropped his act and put on his fabled Poker Face, looking more like Kaitou Kid than Kudo Shinichi or Kuroba Kaito at the moment.

"So, tantei-kun. Think you can get tantei-han over real fast?"

Conan was already sending a text to Hattori.

"Kid-san?" Ran stood at the door. "If Hattori-kun is coming over, perhaps I really should change your bandages now."

"Sure thing," Kuroba hesitated, "tantei-chan."

Conan didn't bother to hide his scowl. Instead he just kicked the damn thief in the leg for being so familiar with his Ran.

They sat in the living room, Hattori having come over with extreme speed. Shinichi suspected things still weren't quite going well with his father, but it wasn't Shinichi's place to say.

"So," Kid smiled. After his bandages had been changed, he'd gone upstairs and gotten his monocle and hat, both of which, Shinichi suspected, were acting almost like a security blanket, given how he was once more using them to hid his face, just like when he was out running circles around Inspector Nakamori. "Tantei-kun, tantei-han, tantei-chan," he greeted all of them. Shinichi felt the urge to kick the thief again, but resisted it. He was too far away, in any case.

"Once, there was a Phantom Thief called Kaitou Kid. By day he was a world-renowned magician; by night, a white shadow that could steal anything and mystify anyone. He loved his wife very much and doted on their son, who knew nothing of his father's night life."

Shinichi listened intently, trying not to smirk as Kid stole the same device for telling his story that the minimized sleuth had used to tell his own tale.

"One day, he was hired to find a jewel called Pandora. Not much was known about the gem other than three curious facts. Pandora was a gem within another gem; it shined red under the moon's gentle beams; and as for the third, we'll get to that in a minute. Now this fantastic Kaitou Kid, somewhere along the way, realized that the people who wanted this jewel weren't people. They were animals, who would kill anyone to get their hands on the Pandora and its legend."

Hattori and Ran sat up straighter and Shinichi leaned forward. That sounded eerily similar to his own tale of cruel monsters in black.

"So this wondrous thief decided to stop working for them. In fact, he took it a step further. He kept stealing jewels that matched with Pandora's characteristics and returning them, ensuring that their security was increased.

"But then, one day, the son that Kaitou Kid so doted on, the son that was following in his father's footsteps in becoming a magician, came home. Both he and his mother were told that his father had died on stage."

Ran sucked in a breath beside him. Shinichi stole a glance at her and nodded to himself. She'd just figured out who Kaitou Kid was. She glanced at him, and he nodded, confirming what she had just put together.

"Oh!" she half-sobbed, half-hiccuped. "Oh..."

Kid said nothing, his face still obscured, but his hands were moving. Three doves had appeared and Shinichi recognized them at once as the doves that had been at the Budokan because one settled on Kid's shoulder, another ghosted over to Ran's shoulder and the third landed on Shinichi's head, nipping affectionately at his hair. No doubt a move to expend some of the nervous energy Kid had to have in sharing this. Shinichi himself had buried his nerves when he'd told his story, because he didn't know what else to do.

"From that time all the way up until I discovered a secret room in my own home, I never knew my dad was a thief. I had no idea what to do about that. Oh, sure, I was a Kaitou Kid fan, so's my mother. But I never knew. I couldn't process that my father was a thief. And then I saw the news about Kaitou Kid going to steal some gem." Kid shrugged, his dove hopping into his hands where he started stroking the feathers. "I didn't think. I acted. And I've kept on going ever since. If I can draw my dad's killers into the open, Inspector Nakamori can go to town with them. If I find Pandora before they do, I'm going to smash it into little pieces. I don't care how fantastic its legend is, nothing is worth the price that people are paying for that gem."

Shinichi nodded, completely agreeing that nothing was worth the price of having to take someone else's life. Not like that. However... "What is Pandora's third property?"

Kid shrugged almost playfully. "Something that usually falls into the realms of fiction. But they think it's real enough. Whether I believe it or not, the fact that they do means I'll keep going, no matter how crazy it sounds."

"Oh 'nough preamble," Hattori growled. "What's the third identifyin' feature?"

"Why, an elixir made from Pandora grants immortality."

Three sets of jaws dropped.

Then Hattori and Ran and Kid started staring at him.

He glared at the three of them. "What?" he asked, suddenly nervous.

"Tantei-kun," Kaitou Kid grinned, "I do believe you might have stumbled across immortality. Or at least, some form of approximation."

Oh.

...Oh.

Shinichi scowled at them. "The person who made the damn drug was a poison expert. Not someone researching for immortality."

Ran and Hattori looked away and Kid just shrugged again. "Merely observing interesting coincidences."

"How about finishing your story before we start fielding questions?" Shinichi grunted, not really wanting to think of the implications of that quite yet.

"There's not much else to tell, Kudo," Kid replied, or rather Kuroba. The hat was pulled down further, until it covered his face. With only the briefest of hesitations, the hat came off entirely. "Hattori-kun. Kudo. Ran-san. We've met before. I'm Kuroba Kaito. It's good to see you again."

And sitting there, with the messy hair and carefree smile, Kuroba Kaito did indeed sit.

Shinichi sat back, giving Ran and Hattori time to digest everything. They had been talking late. It was pushing on nine o'clock when Kazuha had shoved in a stumbling Kogoro, who was too inebriated and covered with kisses on his cheek to even look and see Kuroba (who had flattened his hair in the time it took Kazuha to turn her keys) as Ran hurried over to help Kazuha get him to bed.

They had talked about a wide variety of topics. Whether Kuroba's enemies where the same as the Black Organization or not (everyone was still undecided... It might be a small splitter or faction or completely unrelated entities...), where they should go from here (Kuroba steadfastly refused to let them participate in his heists and Shinichi refused to let a chance to catch someone who might be Black Organization slip away and Hattori refused to work with Kid on principal at the moment and Ran kept trying to play mediator), how much Kazuha should know (Shinichi didn't think it was his call to make, Hattori wanted her to stay OUT of it, Ran wanted to let her know everything and Kuroba was already having difficulty with three new people knowing who he was...), and growling at Hattori who kept calling Kuroba "Kid".

Ultimately they got nowhere, not that Shinichi had really been expecting open trust on both sides. There were too many revelations that required time to settle and adjust to. Kuroba was no doubt very ticklish about his secrets being displayed to so many people at once and Shinichi couldn't blame him. He hated it whenever he needed to spill his secret to someone.

In some ways, Shinichi was at an unfair advantage over everyone. He'd known who Kuroba was since that case at the Budokan over the winter and had had the time to adjust. He'd thought out possible scenarios of still opposing Kuroba and working together and (as much as he didn't particularly feel like admitting it) working together seemed the better option. But Hattori and Kuroba wouldn't come to that conclusion immediately. They needed to think and look over the details just as Shinichi had. Ran was just wonderful and had been alone so long that her instinct was always to work together on things, but she also needed time to get used to the idea of possibly breaking the law.

It was something Shinichi cringed at. He was such an advocate of one truth and justice and letting the law handle things that he wondered if his decision to help Kuroba, be it active involvement or just his silence, wasn't compromising himself in some way. But he'd been examining that for months now. It would sting. He would pay Kuroba back for the thievery somehow (most likely through snarky comments given his current lack of height). There would be times where he'd feel the pressure of what he was doing, just like he did whenever he sat back and looked at what he'd done to Ran and so many others in his fake identity as Edogawa Conan.

"Well, tantei-han, tantei-kun," Kuroba eased himself up to standing. Despite looking like Shinichi's true self, he was back to sounding like Kaitou Kid again. "I don't know about you, but I'm exhausted. Sleep sounds like a wonder right now. Pleasant dreams."

Shinichi let out a sigh. "He's right, Hattori. We're just going over the same ground again and again."

"Y're probably right." The Osakan detective stretched, belting out a massive yawn. "Still need more sleep 'nyway." Hattori got up to say his goodbyes and Shinichi stayed, just listening as Kazuha and Ran put Kogoro to bed, as Kuroba ghosted through the house, and Hattori stumbled out to head home.

He couldn't push things. Shinichi would have to be patient.

Aoko arrived at the station just as the sun was starting to set, with a large basket weighing down her arms. She knew her cooking wasn't as good as her friend Ran's (she doubted anyone's could be...), but Aoko had had to cook for herself and her father for a long time. Her food wasn't anything to sneeze at. And she knew how late the Task Force members could stay at the station, especially around a Kid heist, and particularly when violence ended up involved.

So she did what she always did. She offered support. Besides, Kazuha had mentioned how the station at Osaka rarely had any real good food, something Hattori's father seemingly insisted on in order to get his officers to head home for a proper meal once in a while.

Sure enough, once she found where most of the Task Force members had taken a corner of the officer bullpen, one of them saw her and they all swarmed, already offering thanks once they saw her basket and digging up plates, utensils and clean mugs from somewhere so that they could all take a well needed break to unwind. Her father didn't appear, but Aoko was expecting that. He'd once told her that, as the boss, he didn't feel entirely comfortable eating with his men like he was one of them.

But she was surprised when a familiar voice greeted her from behind. "Aoko-kun, this is a pleasant surprise."

She turned. "Hakuba-kun!" she grinned, happy more than she wanted to admit to see a familiar face that was actually her own age. Although, she reflected, it should have been obvious. She knew that Hakuba would have been here for the heist and given the reports she'd been hearing about shots being fired, it was really no wonder that Hakuba was putting in overtime with the Task Force...

Aoko gave a big smile. "So, how are things going?"

The British detective glanced around as he snagged himself a cup of tea and a bowl of soup. A small gesture and Aoko found herself following Hakuba to a more secluded cubicle where the two of them sat down. With a small sip, the blond let out a soft sigh.

"I realize that the reporters haven't been given many details, but I think you should know. There is a very good probability that Kaitou Kid was shot during the heist."

Aoko chilled.

No, she had no love for Kaitou Kid. The thief always stole her father away and being adored for committing crimes. It was wrong. But Aoko would never admit, even in the privacy of her own mind, that she had respect for the international larcenist. She knew what her father would do to make sure a jewel was safe, yet 1412 always seemed to wiggle past and make it seem easy when it wasn't. It had to take a lot of work and it was done. That really took something.

But as much as Aoko never admitted her respect, as much as she would go to heists to protest Kid showing up and shout for him to go home, as much as she sat home and waited up for her father until it got too late and she went to bed, as much as she held that resentment... Aoko would never wish violence on anyone. Especially Kaitou Kid, because that thief worked to make sure no one ever got hurt.

"Are you sure?" her voice was a harsh whisper.

"Quite certain," Hakuba replied. "Hattori Heiji, a well-known and moderately competent detective here in Osaka, was racing up the escalators when he saw Kaitou Kid slip off the safety rail, holding a child, one Edogawa Conan, and witnessed both go rolling down the roof of his escalator. During the tumble, he saw blood-"

"Is Conan-kun okay?" Aoko interjected. She'd met the child at the Budokan and Conan's quiet, insightful innocence had done a lot to help her through the chaotic emotional turmoil when Kaito had been accused of murder. Ran didn't often bring him over for their visits, but she'd seen him since then and was fond of the child. Ran doted on him and often talked of him and Aoko couldn't even imagine what sort of worry she might be going through if Conan-kun was hurt...

But to Aoko's surprise, Hakuba (though still flat-faced) went beet red. "Yes, Edogawa-kun is fine."

Aoko leaned forward, curious as to why the reserved detective was blushing so badly. "Are you okay, Hakuba-kun?"

Hakuba looked off to the side. "... Merely remembering something unpleasant. Nothing for you to worry about."

She wasn't convinced, but Aoko was more worried about other things. She would be calling Ran first thing in the morning. And if Kazuha wouldn't mind, she'd go over and check on Ran and Conan herself.

Hakuba cleared his throat. "Ahem. Well, we have the sniper in custody-"

"Good," Aoko growled.

"-but there seems to be some strange occurrences."

She blinked. "Oh?"

Hakuba nodded, sipping from his soup and then his tea. "All snipers had orders to fire on a specific signal that would be sent through their own specific set ups."

Aoko nodded, not sure how what that had to do with someone being a complete moron and firing with a child in range.

"The sniper in question apparently uses more modern digital encoders for receiving his messages."

"Digital..." Aoko repeated, now understanding where this was going. "His signal got hacked."

"And he received the order to fire, though it was not from his employer."

So someone else wanted Kaitou Kid dead. Aoko gasped. "Hakuba-kun! What if my dad got between Kid and the bullet next time?" Oh, that would be so like her father, focused so exclusively on Kid that he'd get in the way without even knowing someone had the thief in their sights. And because it was Kaitou Kid, the men never had to worry about protective vests because Kid was non-violent to the extreme.

"There won't be a next time," Hakuba replied calmly, tentatively reaching out and lightly patting the back of her hand. "We have a profile of the person likely to have hacked the sniper's frequency. It's merely a matter of looking up prior cases with similarities and narrowing it down. Your father and I have been going through the Interpol databases most of the afternoon."

And despite Aoko's faith in her father and what he could do, a brief, harsh thought flashed across her mind. You can't even catch Kaitou Kid, how can you catch someone in the shadows? She shook her head. "You promise? He'll be caught? This mystery guy won't hurt anyone else?"

Hakuba had a look in his eyes, one Aoko was familiar with. It was the look he had whenever his determination leaked over all his restraining walls of politeness. It was a familiar look whenever Hakuba had the chance to face down Kaitou Kid.

"You better believe it," her father answered, leaning over the cubicle and staring down with a grin, a fresh pipe in hand. "Leave it all to me, sweetie."

Aoko smiled.

Kaito was by his very nature (both pre and post becoming a thief) a nocturnal creature. With his father taking them out on picnics under the moonlight and just admiring the stars, he always found he tended to get more done at night. So it was no surprise to find him out on the roof of the Toyama residence, looking up at the moon and thanking her for her kindness. He had thought that Lady Luck had abandoned him on that horrid night after getting shot and ending up in the care of a bunch of detectives who had been trying to chase him.

But really, both Lady Luck and Tsukiyomi had been very kind to him. Kudo was, perhaps, really the best person around to take him in, despite the cost it provided. But Kaito had already figured out how to pay back the runt. He'd be getting to that in a moment. Or rather, part of it.

First thing's first. He had his top-hat with him, and from within he pulled out a familiar portable set up. A microscope. While not as ideal as the set ups that jewelers usually used, it did what Kaito wanted it to. After all his time stealing jewels, he'd often come across fakes, so he always had a way to check onsite if what he'd just spirited away was really the jewel he'd wanted to steal or not. Tsukiyomi and a flashlight provided the light he needed as he inspected the artifact.

"Well shit," he grunted. It was a fake. All that work and it wasn't even what he'd been after. Kudo sacrificing his identity to the Toyama girl, Hattori and Ran being pulled into this giant tangle of what Kaito was after, Aoko being alone for Golden Week, all for nothing.

Kaito took a deep breath and let the anger go. He'd stolen fakes before. He'd just do what he always did. Steal the real one.

But first, he had to start his thank-you to tantei-kun. So he kept the flashlight on and clenched it in his teeth as he pulled out a small screwdriver and a pair of heavier-than-normal black glasses.

Time to get to work.

Author's Notes: Gah, this chapter was pulling teeth. In the end, we feel like we copped out, both with the talk between Kaito and Conan-tachi and with some of the investigation things. . It's a transition chapter, setting up for the second heist. A little plate spinning.

This story had been a difficult balance between emotional content and plot. There had been a lot of side conversations that can occur with Kaito under Kazuha's roof and with Shinichi's secret (or part of it) outed to Kazuha. But if we spent our time on all of that, of Shinichi and Ran discussing the real possibility of his getting hurt, of Hattori and Kazuha and her involvement in things from now on, of Ran and Hattori over curbing Hattori's impulsiveness because it could expose secrets, of Ran and Kaito over Aoko and Kaito's big secret, etc, etc, etc, well. All those scenes, while fascinating to get into, would take a lot of time. We'd never see Aoko or Hakuba. And the investigation wouldn't start happening till much later.

So we cut out a lot of possible scenes, to keep the story from dragging. Besides, a lot of these scenes would be more drama and tension and very likely drag this into melodrama. We try and avoid that. As it is, it takes forever from the first heist to get to even investigating because just that night/following morning alone takes forever to get through things that were needed.

Meh... We hope it's turning out okay.

Side Note: There's this little holiday coming up you might have heard of called Christmas. It's rather an important holiday here in the States, with lots of things to do. One of the most familiar traditions is gift-giving. We both have jobs during the week. That leaves shopping for the weekends. So throughout December, on Saturdays that we usually spend on fanfiction . net, we'll be out shopping for gifts. This slightly changes when we'll be posting new chapters. You will still see a new chapter up in two weeks. No doubt about that. But we'll either be putting it up early Saturday morning before we head out (East Coast Time) or late Sunday night (more likely). Pardon the inconvenience.