Part Fourteen
Nakamori had growled deep in his throat when he'd learned where the freakin' accountant had hid the jewel. The basement of the Umeda Sky Building was a restaurant mall, designed in the romanticized Taisho Era - called the Roaring Twenties over in America, in Japan it was a time when a kimono and a business suit walked side by side; when Japan found foreigners fashionable and quaint, while foreigners found the Japanese charming and quaint, when the old world was still mixed with the new and living in (near) perfect harmony. He spat at the idea on principal; he hated over-fantasized shit like that, and he hated the Takimi-koji restaurant mall even more because the entire floor was ideal for the free-wheeling thief: narrow streets and allies, low ceilings, dim "atmospheric" lighting and too many ways for the damn thief to sneak in and out.
He bit on his pipe even more.
The added complication of having a secondary target made life all the more enjoyable for Nakamori; the public (and egotistical) challenge for the Interpol interloper to butt in again and try to shoot him again made planning for the heist even more difficult - because now he was accountable for the safety of everyone around him in those goddamn narrow streets and allies and low ceilings. The only saving grace was that the ass of an accountant was fired - no snipers at least, but that didn't necessarily mean no more danger.
"Mr. Collector," Nakamori moaned, rubbing a hand to his temple and looking at his foreign client who had just gotten back from a phone call, "It would be much easier to ensure your safety if you weren't here."
"Inspector Nakamori," the collector replied, his accent heavy but not incomprehensible, "If I were here in the first place, then perhaps this honor would have turned out less duplicitous."
Props for knowing that word in Japanese, but showing off was not helping Nakamori. At all.
"Besides, I think I owe it to Kid the Phantom Thief - if for no other reason - to personally apologize to him for the disaster that came of his piece of art."
"You make it sound like grand larceny is a respectable profession," the inspector groaned under his breath. He cursed thrice over when the collector heard him and answered.
"I hardly find the theft respectable, Inspector Nakamori, but even you can't deny that Kid the Phantom Thief has style. There are few people indeed who would so boldly announce their theft and then make a show of it. That kind of grand thinking is rare, particularly in a conformist country like this, don't you think?" Nakamori worked hard to bite down a curse, wanting instead to save his irritation at the unintended insult and redirect it to Kid. "Of course," the collector added, the polite grin on his face becoming much more confident and flagrant, his stance changing, his shoulder's broadening. "That is what Mr. Collector said. I personally don't think this country is overly conformist; if it weren't, people like you and Hakuba wouldn't have come up the ranks to try and stop me, would they?"
Realization was dawning as there was a giant puff of pink smoke.
"Ladies and gentlemen!"
And there, in the center of the smoke where the collector used to be, was Kaitou Kid.
"Hello Inspector," Kid said in his irritatingly mild tones, "I hope you're doing well tonight."
"You +_)(!~*&%$#!" He lunged.
One of the characteristics of Kid that was most annoying to the Task Force was his intangibility. No amount of lunging and thrusting and groping and grabbing ever resulted in laying a finger on the thief. One officer, a practitioner of martial arts, said he moved like water, like he had no bones to keep him rigid in any way. Kid had a natural (trained?) flexibility that made touching him impossible; even his cape was made of some kind of silken material that was slippery to the touch, and it was about the only thing that any Task Force member ever had the chance of getting.
Even as Kid seamlessly slid around Nakamori and about a dozen other officers, however, the Inspector did notice at least one thing: the suit was different. His realization of that was strong enough to make him pause, because in all the years he'd worked the Kid case, the thief had always, always, worn the same immaculate white suit, tailored and custom fitted no doubt with hundreds of secret pockets and seams. This one was a different cut, a little thick around the torso, and just different.
Kid, now crouched on the overhang of a storefront (a feat given he only had at best eight or nine inches before the sign blocked him from more purchase), looked down on all the officers under him, his hat low on his head and his monocle nearly hidden from view. "You all look relieved," he said brightly, not a hint of remorse in his voice. "Except you Inspector, you look downright scared. Was it something I said?"
Nakamori quite nearly saw red. Scratch that, he did see red. "You %*&#$#%! You fall off the building and disappear and now you show up in a new $&*#$#* suit after challenging some rat ^*$#(&* to come and shoot you again and you think it was something you said?"
Kid actually straightened, slightly, as if surprised, and tugged curiously at the lapel of his white suit. "Was it that obvious?" he asked, almost like a child that had been caught. "My suit's at the dry cleaners, Inspector," he said in a singsong voice. "As you can imagine, some of the stains were a little hard to wash out."
Nakamori only seethed more, though this time not at Kid. "Stains that didn't wash out" in Kaitou language meant "blood," and it was about as close to an admission that Kid would ever give that he'd been hurt those lifetime of nights ago.
"But I'd rather not bore you with the trivialities of my laundry," Kid continued, letting go of his lapel. He stood, a hard task given he had very little clearance. "I only came out because I know tantei-han is about to take out the bad guy. Give him my thanks when you catch up to him. In the meantime, let's get on with the heist, shall we?"
There was another puff of smoke, and Kid was gone.
Nakamori could only do one thing.
"After him!"
"Nee-chan, where is he?" Heiji demanded. He was running full tilt down the black tiled "roads" of the mall; surprising himself when his well worn sneakers skid across the shiny tiles, making him reflexively pull out an arm to brace himself before he slammed into the corner or a store front, instead bending into the hit and using his arm to propel him down the next alley.
"Down two more, uh, blocks and hook a left," Ran said over the pin. "Looks like a grey sports jacket and dark pants."
Heiji let go of the pin and did as told. A quick glance over his shoulder showed him that Hakuba was still chasing after him. The Osakan growled on principal, shouting over his shoulder. "I got this, ya bastard; stay outta my way!"
The blond said nothing, still in pursuit, and Heiji decided to patently ignore him.
Hooking his left, he saw Itotsuki right where Ran had placed him. He was shorter than Heiji had surmised, anyone that had the balls to try and shoot at Kaitou Kid had to be six feet tall and built like a barn, but Itotsuki was at least a head shorter than him, heavy set and just scruffy looking. He did not belie the white-collar crime he partook in. The man was hunched over a dufflebag, hand half in it.
"Itotsuki," Heiji said slowly after a deep breath. His bokken was in his hand casually, but ready to be used if necessary. "Nice ta see ya face ta face."
"And you are?" he asked, his brown eyes narrow.
"Hattori Heiji," he replied, equally as calculating. "The dead weight runnin' up behind me is Hakuba Saguru."
Itotsuki glanced at the blond that had arrived, working to put his breath back under control. "The prodigal sons," he said lightly. "I'm surprised Kudo Shinichi isn't with you, it'd make the teenage trio of detectives complete."
Heiji's shoulders stiffened but showed no other sign of stress at Kudo's name. "Don't need Kudo fer this," Heiji replied, full of bravado. "Don't even need Hakuba, but he likes ta make a nuisance of himself."
"Arrogant," Itotsuki said slowly, still crouched over the duffle bag. Heiji kept himself ready, not knowing what was inside.
"Ya try ta commit murder in my city and ya think I won't take offense?" Heiji asked, shifting his weight slightly. If there was any kind of weapon, dead weight or not, he'd shove Hakuba out of the line of fire.
"As a point of curiosity, how did you know it was me?" the culprit asked. Heiji knew a stall when he heard one, and his green eyes narrowed. He was stalling too, for all his boasting he didn't have the authority to arrest the bastard, and he was trying to vie for time until the cops did show (assuming they weren't completely enamored with the Kid heist; but Heizo had better control over his men than that). The question was what Itotsuki was stalling for. He felt a trail of sweat trickle down his temple as he assessed the duffle bag again. Timed explosion? A little too theatric for someone who worked behind the scenes, and certainly suicidal, but if there was one thing Kudo had taught him it was that desperate people did desperate things when backed into a corner. More likely it was some kind of electronic something-or-other, part of a plan on how he would interfere with tonight's heist. Unable to tell for certain, Heiji answered the question.
"It didn't take much," he said easily. "Ya like to leave a signature when you're interferin' with electronics. Interpol's had its eye on ya fer a while now." An exaggeration, perhaps, but Itotsuki needn't know that. "But ya gotta give credit where credit's due," Heiji continued. "Kid was th' one ta give us yer name."
The scruffy man's eyes widened slightly, not expecting that nugget of information.
"His resources are larger than I imagined, then," Itotsuki said softly, more to himself than to Heiji.
The blond interjected, stepping up parallel to Heiji. "Why did you do it, Itotsuki?" he demanded, his eyes cold. Heiji snarled in his mind at the trademark question.
The communications expert stood easily, though Heiji noticed his hands were curled, making hard to see if he was hiding something in them or not. A kill switch of some kind?
"You know," the short man said, leaning on one foot so the other could cross it. "People in my line of work have certain protocols, decorum, rules if you will, that one has to maintain. Client privacy, for example. Good work for good money, for another. One of the prime directives for a professional like myself is stealth; the ability to sneak in and out as one will sans detection is quite a selling point. Kaitou Kid," he slurred the name like a curse. "He's an obstinate and flagrant albatross to all those protocols. He arrogantly announces his work and carries it out in the most outlandish and clownish - downright cartoonish manner possible. He's not a thief, he's a giddy attention-seeking adrenaline junkie."
Heiji couldn't help the snort. "Ain't that the truth," he drawled. Both in an' out of costume. He still eyed the man's hands, trying to see if there was anything in them.
"That ingrate is an insult to the profession," Itotsuki continued. "I've been waiting for a chance to take him down a peg since he came out of hiding, but he seems to have taken a cotton to Japan for some reason, so I had to wait until I had a job here. Imagine my pleasure when he announced the heist just as I was finishing up. It was too perfect to pass it up."
"It's just a professional grudge? You're doin' all this fer somethin' as stupid as that?" Heiji almost laughed. "Of all th' stupid reason's ta get someone? You're an ahou." He lifted his bokken. "We've been stallin' long enough," he continued. Hakuba, still at his side, had glanced at him, having heard something from his earpiece. "Why don't ya make it easy fer yerself?"
Heiji's gaze filtered down to the duffle bag again, still trying to - wait, that wasn't a bomb, that was electronics. The kill switch, it was... His eyes widened.
"You're right," Itotsuki was saying. "Let's make things easier."
Heiji grabbed his pin. "Kazuha! Take off th' earpiece now!"
Itotsuki showed his hand, it wasn't a switch, it was a remote, and Heiji had only made half a step before he pressed a button on the remote.
That was when chaos exploded everywhere. Even after ripping his own earpiece, he wasn't spared from hearing the ultra-high pitched shriek that was going across all the police bands. It pierced everything, and he watched Hakuba crumple, hands clutching his head even as he ripped his own earpiece out. Itotsuki grabbed the duffle bag, slinging it over a shoulder and racing towards them. Heiji stepped forward, taking a martial stance; but for his overweight and scruffy appearance, he seemed to know a thing or two on how to move, because he dodged under Heiji's swing and kicked at Hakuba in one motion.
"I wonder how many are bleeding from their ears," the culprit called over his shoulder.
... Was it possible to bleed because of noise? Even Heiji had limits on his knowledge - he would have to read up on the subject - but the jibe had the desired effect; he knelt down to Hakuba. "Hey, hey! Can ya hear me?"
Hakbua was still clutching his ears, blond bangs sweeping over his face before he looked up. "Everything's ringing," he said in a voice a little too loud, "but I can hear you." Then the piercing sound broadcast over the radios again, and even Heiji winced as Hakuba's eyes widened and he pressed his hand even closer to his ears. "Go," he growled.
Heiji didn't need to be told twice, and he raced in the direction the culprit had gone.
Heiji's warning came almost too late. The girls barely had time to pull off their headsets before the high-pitched shriek came over the radios. They all yelped and put their hands to their ears instinctively, curling into themselves until the piercing stopped.
"Y'all okay?" Kazuha asked slowly, raising her head back up and daring to lower her hands.
"What the hell was that?" Aoko was demanding, rubbing a finger in her left ear. "What kind of maniac broadcasts that on a radio?"
"Jii-san? Jii-san, can you hear me?" Ran was asking in the front. Kazuha got up and walked up to her. "Hello? Jii-san?"
"What's wrong?"
"Jii-san," she said, her face tight in worry, "He was helping me monitor the cameras from... a different location. I can't get him back. Let me try the chat window."
Kazuha watched from over the other girl's shoulder as she furiously tabbed between - she tried to count - eight or nine different windows. The akido master blinked as she realized just how much Ran had put on herself for this heist. The scare with Conan at the first heist must have really affected her - Kudo's injury was probably lingering on her mind, too, increasing her protective drive to look after everyone close to her. A chat window did indeed come up, Kazuha only having a few moments to read the text before Ran sent her message and one came back almost immediately.
Are you alright?
Yes, but I and many others have temporarily lost their hearing.
"Oh, great," Kazuha said, rolling her eyes. Then the shriek came over the radio again. She grimaced but pushed through it. "I betcha he's set it ta a random timer ta keep everyone from usin' th' radios and keepin' in contact. We'll have to do this th' hard way."
"Conan-kun," Ran said quickly. "Can you still hear me?"
A crackled "yes," came in for a reply. "I think the encryption code we're using filtered out the noise somehow."
"Good," Ran said, "We have two people out that can still hear us."
Kazuha made a face. "Ya count th' kid?"
Ran smiled over her shoulder. "We'll have to."
"No, we don't. Ya got an extra one o' those pins?"
Ran paused, staring, before a broad grin spread across her face. "Let me see what I can dig up."
Kid blinked when he saw his entourage suddenly spasm and grab their heads. It had stopped all the fun, and he actually had to turn around and wait for everyone else to catch up. "Jii-chan," he whispered, "What happened?"
No response.
Given that Jii was over in Tokyo, the only thing that could incapacitate him would come over the radio. Something must have been broadcast over the police bands. He cursed; he'd thought that the buffer system he'd set up with Jii would help. Apparently not. "Tantei-kun, are you deaf, too?" he wondered aloud.
Nakamori, as expected, was the first to rise up from the crowd.
"What the *%!$&_)(*!~ was that?"
Kid tsked. "Did someone make a mistake with the radio?" he asked brightly, raising his voice to be heard over the ringing no doubt everyone was suffering from.
"YOU ~!#$%^&*()! Get him!"
Nobody heard him. Taking pity, Kid strode across the throngs of groaning police officers right up to Nakamori. "Tell you what," he said brightly. "Let's make things interesting."
He offered a wrist to the detective.
Nakamori stared at it blankly, not quite believing what he was seeing, before he pulled out handcuffs with a flare and put them on Kid's offered wrist and his own. "I've got you at last!" he shouted, his voice still too loud for a person of normal hearing.
Kid shrugged. "If you say so." A puff of smoke and a quick transplantation, and Nakamori found himself handcuffed to a snoring Mori Kogoro. Nakamori was glaring daggers at the sleeping detective, radiating accusation before swiveling his head to Kid, about ready to spontaneously combust. "There are two things going on, keibu," he said brightly in normal tones, fully aware Nakamori at best could only barely hear him. "First is the heist; second is the arrest of the man who tried to shoot at me. I'd taken steps to keep them separate, but I guess that didn't work as well as I'd hoped. So, for now, I'm going to put one on pause and see what I can do in the other. You just sit tight and keep each other company. When you can actually hear each other, see if you can find me. In the meantime, I need to have a stern conversation with tantei-han."
"You ~!#$%^&*()_+!"
"If you say so, keibu!" he responded brightly. He waved happily and left Nakamori and the deadweight, walking through all the bodies, occasionally jumping a desperate hand or two that tried to grasp him and disappearing into an alley. He didn't have long before they started chasing him again, with or without hearing, but it was enough for him to duck into a maintenance door and climb a ladder that led to the catwalks above the restaurant. His shoes only thudded against the metal once before becoming silent as he stalked his way around. He had much more room to maneuver up here; he'd used it to case the entire mall the previous night, to say nothing of setting up his traps beforehand.
It took, oh, three minutes to find Itotsuki, tucked behind a bright red tori guarding a small period shrine. Heiji was further down the way, spinning his head around and being thorough in his search. Kazuha was milling about, too, something in her fist that she kept speaking into. The pins no doubt, meaning that whatever Kudo's inventor had come up with had some pretty good tech to it. Kaito decided to politely ask (not mooch, not now that things were in the open - he had ethics after all) Kudo for a copy of the software after the heist.
The catwalks here were more open, and so Kid softly jumped down and shoved his hands in his pockets.
"Yo!" he said lightly. "I heard you were looking for me."
The espionage member started, staring up at the towering Kid with no small amount of surprise. It quickly faded for a more composed look, and though still crouched in his hidey-hole, he offered a polite smile. "That Osakan detective says you're the one who gave up my name."
"He did?" Kid asked lightly. "He must be feeling generous today."
"I didn't know you were that well connected."
Kid shrugged nonchalantly. "I don't know how well connected 'well connected' is."
"Heh. You told my brother that before you disappeared," Itotsuki muttered under his breath. Kid's ears perked; this was going in a direction he hadn't expected in the slightest. "He really looked up to you, did you know that? Claimed he even found out who you were, though he outright refused to say. He died two years ago, did you know?"
"No," Kid replied, his voice slightly softer, feeling sympathy for the man. Loss was always personal.
"Some bugger decided she didn't like him for a bedmate," Itotsuki continued. "Kidnapped him. Killed him - or he killed himself, I haven't decided which." Slowly, with a grace that denied his portly exterior, he lifted from his crouch and reached to the small of his back, pulling out a gun. "Well," he said easily. "We're now face to face. Let's talk."
Kaito, deep under the Kid veneer, started cursing.
Kazuha felt a hand clamp over her mouth, and she expertly threw the body attached to the hand over her shoulder, ready to kick ass, only to find a certain stupid ahou was attached to the arm instead. She settled for punching said arm.
"Ahou!" she whispered harshly, helping him back up before they ducked into an alley of the underground mall. "I coulda killed ya!"
"Ahou," Heiji whispered, equally harsh, "What th' hell are ya doin' here?"
"Helpin' ya, what does it look like?" she demanded, trying to keep her voice down. "Th' whole precinct is deaf now, an' whenever they try ta coordinate another one o' those stupid shrieks comes across the police bands makin' them more deaf. They can't talk ta each other over th' radio, and even if they could, they're yellin' so loud ta be heard they're announin' everythin' they do."
"I know," Heiji replied, his face dark. "If you're gonna be out here, Kazuha, you're gonna do this my way."
"Heiji-" the girl started, ready to give an argument.
"Not now," he snarled, with a heat that reminded the akido master of when he was cursing over Kudo taking away his decision to tell her the truth. "I'm tryin' ta keep everyone safe. Fer me ta do that ya gotta do what I say, got that?" His tone brooked no argument, and Kazuha's knee-jerk response was to do exactly that, but just as she was about to retort she looked over his shoulder and saw Kid drop down from nowhere. She gasped, making Heiji shove her down, him on top to give her cover. "Stay put," he hissed, before pulling himself up to his hands and knees and turning around, crawling forward.
Kazuha found herself panting for air and growled herself, closing her eyes and re-centering herself. Once her heart rate was back to normal, she got up and crawled to join Heiji. Their view was obscured, but she could see the red tori and Kid standing in front of it.
"What is it?" she whispered.
"Kid 'n' Itotsuki," Heiji replied.
"I figured that much," Kazuha hissed. "Why aren't we takin' 'em both in?"
"'Cause Itotsuki just pulled a gun," Heiji offered, pointing.
"I don't see it," Kazuha offered, the red gate obstructed her view. She half climbed over Heiji, tilting as far over as she could. Only then could she see the culprit and the object in his hand. "Shit, what do we do?" she asked.
Heiji was already ahead of her. "Nee-chan," he whispered into his pin, "where's Conan-kun?"
"I don't know," Ran whispered back from the safety of the surveillance truck. "I lost sight of him as soon as I did Kid-san. I see Kid-san now, but I can't find Conan-kun."
"I'm up on the catwalks," the child's voice said, his voice sounding much older on the radio. "I don't have a clear shot."
"Shot of what?" Kazuha whispered.
"Never mind that," Heiji said brusquely. "An' get off." He lifted his strong shoulder, hoisting Kazuha's hands off the black tiles of the floor and making her lean back to her knees. He gave one last look at the tense affair happening only two dozen feet away and turned back to Kazuha. "This is what we're gonna do," he said slowly. "You're gonna sneak up from the side, an' I'll sneak up from behind."
"Heiji, th' guy with th' gun will see you."
"I know," Heiji said, his face hard. "I'm countin' on that; I'll distract 'im so ya can steer in an' surprise him. When that happens, Kid'll do somethin' spectacular I'm sure, an' that'll be enough fer th' both of us ta get the drop on him. Kudo, can ya monitor things from up there with Nee-chan?"
"Ah," the boy replied over the pin. Then in a lighter voice, "But call me Kudo again, Heiji-nii-chan, and I'll kick a soccer ball at you!"
The flat glare Heiji gave the radio pin made Kazuha smile in spite of the situation, and she put a confident hand on his shoulder, signaling that she was ready. Heiji nodded, a grin of his own falling across his features, and he pushed himself up to get himself placed.
Kaito was glad he'd put on the Kevlar vest. Heists usually went very well, but with this most recent advent of violence he decided enough was enough and had slipped it on under his shirt. The weight he wasn't used to, and no doubt it would affect his flying - something he'd find out the hard way later that evening; but as he stared at the barrel of the automatic and remembered the blood covered corpse of Minagami sprawled across a maintenance closet floor and the pain he'd suffered from just a bruised rib, well, he was thankful for the weight.
That didn't stop him from cursing, though.
"How much talking do you want to do?" he asked, not about to let his anxiety over such a disgusting weapon show.
"It's not much, really," Itotsuki said. "I just wanted you to know you're an embarrassment to the profession."
Kid raised an eyebrow, cocking his head to the side in the polite air of surprise and confusion. "I've been called a lot of things; never an embarrassment."
The information thief snorted. "You announce your crimes and then make a joke out of them? A flashy white suit and a hang glider is one thing; that's a trademark and a signature, but the rest of it is just trite. No self respecting thief in their right mind is that flashy unless they're a movie star."
Kid put a hand to his heart. "You wound me," he said lightly. It was then that he spied what was about to happen. His father's monocle, a beloved artifact that he cherished, was also perhaps his most useful tool in his arsenal. It gave him the illusion of intangibility, because the rim of that beautiful monocle was mirrored. It had taken some training to know how to look at its refracted reflections, but it was a godsend, because he had better than perfect peripheral vision. That was how he saw the hostess, Kazuha, slowly sneaking up from an alleyway. He had no doubt after that that the best friend Hattori was behind him. A shift of the eyes in Itotsuki confirmed it, and Kid realized he both had more options and more ways on how things could go wrong.
He smiled, lowering his hand from his chest. The other was still in his pocket, wrapped firmly around the card gun. He'd need that. He found himself wondering where Aoko was and if she was all right, but she trusted that Hattori had taken good care of her, and that Ran was still with her.
"So," he said lightly, tilting his head. Time for pop psychology. "Your brother died a bitter and ugly death, and because he admired me in life you've decided to have contempt for me after his death - enough so that you actually thought getting rid of me would make the hurt go away."
Itotsuki smirked, shaking his head and looking down slightly as the amusement passed over him. "You're as smart now as you were then. You know, for a while, I thought you were a son or a brother, but you're the same guy. Only Kaitou Kid could look at a guy and understand his head in five seconds. I'll never understand why you let that stupid author name you Kid, it's too young for you."
Kid said nothing. The criminal didn't need to know that the name was actually perfect for him.
"But you're right," Itotsuki said. "Shrinks have told me it won't make me feel better in the slightest." He raised the gun to Kid's chest. "But I want to find that out for myself."
Kazuha was practically on top of them.
"Hey! Put the gun down, ya bastard!"
Right on time.
Things happened very quickly after that. Kid didn't move, but he heard Hattori brashly run up towards them, bokken no doubt in hand and ready to swing, giving Itotsuki just enough distraction to shift his eyes away. It was all Kid needed to pull out his card gun and use it like a hammer to knock the gun out of the culprit's hand, sending it spinning into the air just as Kazuha leapt over the waist high fence and squeezed behind the shrine - and therefore behind the culprit - and grabbed his shoulder, spinning her opponent around and grabbing his wrist and elbow, effectively pushing him to the ground in classic aikido fashion. In the meantime, Kid caught the gun in his free hand and leveled it to Itotsuki's head. Only then did he look over his shoulder to see Hattori was practically right on top of him; bokken still at the ready.
"Hey, put the weapon down," he said in a hard voice.
"Certainly," Kid replied. The pressure was off now, and he could be funny much more easily. "But which one?"
"Both, ya rat bastard," Hattori replied.
Kid grinned. "Ah, but you only said 'weapon,' not 'weapons.' That's a problem." He turned to the pinned Itotsuki. "Which one do you think I should let go of? The one that will tie you up? Or the one that will kill you?"
The thirty-seven year old, cool even with two guns pointed at him, only puffed out a laugh and shrugged his shoulders. "I'd choose the one that would kill me. Being arrested doesn't bother me that much in comparison."
Kid smiled. "Is that something your brother would do?"
The portly man's eyes widened. The smile that came after was much more genuine. "I guess it would be."
With a stylish twist of the wrist, Kid tossed the gun over to Hattori, who easily caught it. "Now th' other one," he said, bokken still at the ready.
"If you can still keep your attention after one little thing, I'll gladly hand it over," he said brightly. Without looking, he fired his card gun, magician's ribbons spinning out and tying up not only Itotsuki, but Kazuha as well, the two suddenly pressed against each other. Kazuha gave a surprised squawk, to say nothing of the noise that fell out of Hattori's mouth, and the teen detective was dashing forward to help his girlfriend. Kid took hold of the wire he'd used to jump down to now reverse the process, and up on the catwalks he saw the tiny form of his biggest critic.
"Well, now," Kid said expansively. "Did you get my last note?"
Kudo held up the micro recorder. "Ah."
"Have you decided what to do?"
"Ah," Kudo replied.
"Do I get a hint?"
Kudo held up a walkie talkie, and his voice suddenly became very boyish. "I found him, I found him! He's on the catwalks! Ne, ne, can anyone hear me?"
Kaito allowed himself to blink, knowing he had at best thirty seconds for the faux grade-schooler to explain.
"You want a public heist, right? To bring as much attention as possible so that you can draw out the right people? You can't have that without the chase, can you?"
Kaito gave him the most sincere grin he could muster before turning on his heel and dashing off in a (seemingly) random direction, Kudo's short legs unable to keep up.
Nakamori finally found the collector two hours later, just after one thirty in the morning, tied up and hidden in a cabinet in one of the back kitchens. He was none the worse for wear, even a little excited that Kid had decided to impersonate him for the heist, considering it an honor. Stupid bastard.
To add insult to injury, he'd discovered that Kaitou Kid had already lifted the jewel before the heist had even started, because the freakin' idiot had decided to keep the jewel on his person to ensure its safety. Nakamori remembered when he'd tried that idea by keeping a ring on his hand. It had been a disaster then, and it was a disaster now.
The cursing had only continued as the evening progressed. Between the raccoon that Kid had brought out from somewhere and running around claiming he was thinking about stealing its "mask" and the doves crapping on his jacket, there was the whispering. The damn thief knew they were all half deaf after the electronics criminal had hijacked the police bands, and so as a giant joke that was absolutely not funny, he whispered every damn thing he said, making it impossible to hear him.
He was sooooooo going to put that +_)(^#&(#(!~ in handcuffs - and he'd be freaking happy to do it!
There were, however, (for once) a few happy points to the evening. Hattori's son had managed to capture Itotsuki. Aoko had come up and given them snacks and was safe with the other girls, Mouri and Toyama, in the surveillance truck. She was rubbing his shoulders now - jacket off so her hands wouldn't be covered in bird shit, and Kaito had shown up at some point, a straightjacket of all things in hand and happily announcing that he wasn't going anywhere near his relatives ever again. Nakamori didn't even try to understand his good friend's son; he was too much like his father in that respect.
"Ooh, right there, sweetie. That's perfect!"
"Aoko-nee-chan will make a great wife some day!"
Oh yeah. The brat was here. He turned to glare at the child, not without respect to the fact that Kaito had turned bright red at the comment. "Isn't that damn Mori ever going to take you home?"
"Eh?" the boy asked in disgustingly sweet tones. "He already went home. I'm waiting for Ran, and she's not leaving until she knows that Aoko-nee-chan and Kazuha-nee-chan and Heiji-nii-chan are all okay." The grin he gave was utterly mischievous. "So I get to keep you company!"
"Brat."
"Dad, stop," Aoko admonished, digging her nails into his shoulder to prove the point. The curse he gave out only made her dig her nails in more. "There are kids here!" she hissed before turning back to the brat. "You're very nice to keep us company like this," she said brightly. "You'll make a good husband one day."
"The only husband I'll be is to Ran," he said brightly. Nakamori sputtered at the idea, and he saw Kaito turn a distinct shade of green. Aoko only cooed, enjoying the thought for some reason.
"You're so cute, Conan-kun!"
"He's also dead serious, Aoko," Kaito said, still looking sickly.
"Okay," the object of conversation said, finally appearing. "Hattori-kun and Kazuha-chan are fighting now, so I know it's going to be fine. Come on, Conan-kun, let's go back. Kazuha-chan will likely be a while and she gave me the keys to her home."
Nakamori blinked. "You mean Mori left without being able to get into the house?"
"Oh," Ran said easily, a vein pulsing on her forehead. "I'm sure he won't be home for hours yet. If he's not back by morning, Conan-kun and I will check the tea houses and drag him back." A dark aura started to surround her as she continued to smile. "If it comes to that he'll be in quite a bit of trouble," she said in deceptively bright tones.
"So we have the house to ourselves?" the brat asked happily. "Then we can have a date when we get back!"
Ran only grinned. "You're right, we probably could. Come on." She offered her hand and he happily took it.
Nakamori turned to his daughter and her not-quite best friend. "You keep strange company," he said finally.
Kaito nodded sagely. "You have no idea."
Author's Notes: ... I really have no idea where this chapter came from. I had literally no inspiration for this chapter whatsoever, and trying to find pictures of the Takimi-koji restaurant mall, while atmospheric, was not as helpful as I wanted them to be. However, in spite of this, the characters seemed to sure know what was happening, even if I didn't. A paragraph here, a sequence there, and suddenly I realized that everyone was building to something, and that something was a quick (but I dare to say clever) action sequence followed by Conan's final decision on how to handle Kaitou Kid.
On that at least I was inspired by their respective fathers. It's no secret that Kudo chased Toichi, even named him, and tailored his Night Baron series to him. I take a (small?) leap in thinking he probably knew who Kaitou Kid was and chased him anyway. At least, that's what was running through my head as I was banging it against the keyboard trying to figure out where the hell this chapter was going.
We continued to make this a Hattori sequence, he was the one to catch the criminal - with the added bonus of Kazuha, and Conan didn't overly do much in terms of the evening's events. We hope it upholds our goals and your expectations.
Next up: Epilogue