"Past conversation" / "Conversation" / Thoughts

When it came to observing sports, Haibara was a soccer fanatic, but when it came to playing, test tubes and chemicals were more of her thing.

The sun was blazing and the air was still and even sitting on the bench and under the shade of a tree, Haibara could still feel the heat radiating on her skin. She glanced up wearily at the small field in the park, where Ayumi, Genta and Mitsuhiko were trying desperately to fight for the ball in between their legs.

One day, these bunch of kids would realize that avoiding the sun rays would do so much better for their skin. For now, she preferred protecting hers rather than wasting her energy to ask them to stop playing their game under the harmful sun.

Usually in a minute, Conan would have scored at least a goal and the reason why he didn't was because he wasn't even here. It was summer break and Ran had brought Conan to Osaka for a small holiday trip. That was for the better. No need to look at his smug face whenever he scored a goal. It irked her for some reason.

Haibara sighed and wiped a sweat that just trickled down her face.

"Do you want this?"

She blinked and turned towards the already occupied seat next to her. Sitting right there was man, no, probably a high school teenager. Haibara wasn't quite sure. He wore a jogging attire and a cap, tipped low that it caused a shadow over his eyes and nose.

Waving in his hand was a can of soda.

"No." Haibara said warily. She didn't sense any danger or feel the need to be on full alert, but for a person to suddenly appear right beside her without her noticing... it never happen before.

"Aren't you going to say 'My parents taught me not to take anything from strangers.' or something like that?" He snickered. "That won't do, you know. You sound too cold to be a child."

What is he... talking about?

"I don't understand what you mean." She brushed her sticky hair away from her neck. "My parents never teach me not to take anything from strangers, but they taught me not to talk to one."

He snapped the can open, the sizzling sound of gas suddenly made her throat itched with thirst. "Just to enlighten you, we're technically not strangers. We're even on the same side of the chess board, don't you know?"

"I don't understand what you mean." Haibara repeated. This conversation was getting to nowhere. Maybe this man was a psycho, a weird outcast in school. She really didn't have to entertain such-

"Honestly, I don't like to drag conversations, much less in this stupid weather." He began talking and she listened with mild attention "But I would like to ask for your opinion about science."

Science? She frowned. That was the subject of her interest, though what exactly was this guy pulling?

"Don't you think that science is a wonderful thing?" He chimed. "I mean like, able to shrunk people to kids? What are the odds?"

Without a second passed, she flew up to her feet and glared hard at the man with a defensive stance. This overreaction wasn't supposed to happen but those words just send her nerve system into chaos. Her heart began beating faster and faster and her fingers were starting to tremble.

She needed to stay calm, and the weather wasn't helping.

Even so, the sense of danger just wasn't there. She trust her instinct more than anyone else, and if her sixth sense was telling her that this man was nothing wrong or no one bad, she believed that.

But who on earth was he?

Haibara narrowed her eyes.

The guy watched her with a tiny smirk. "Now do you understand what I'm talking about?"

No. No. No. She didn't understand shit. More sweat were trickling down the back of her spine and something in her mind was yelling her to run, then another part of her told her to stay.

Is he from the Black Organization?

No. She was pretty confident with that answer.

Then where did he get those kind of information from?

"Who are you?" She finally glowered.

"What about you?"

"Don't answer my question with a question."

He shook his head and scoffed lightly. "Such a rude child."

With a wave of his hand, the can of soda was gone and what replaced between his fingers was a stalk of rose. And that was when realization dawned upon her and she widened her eyes unintentionally.

Haibara wasn't sure why but it just clicked in her mind. It was crazy for her to even consider that answer, but this time, her brain and instinct told her so.

"Kaitou... Kid?"

"Wow." He chuckled. "You managed to uncover my identity with just a rose? You need to stop hanging out with that detective brat. His chaotic brain waves are dangerous for you."

She wasn't sure if he was insulting her intelligence but she shall ignore it. "What do you want from me? I have no jewels for you to steal." Carefully, she slipped back to her seat, this time sitting slightly further away from the thief.

He tipped the rose towards her and she flicked his hand away from her face, clearly annoyed. He chortled and with a poof, the rose was gone. "Jewels isn't what I want from you today."

"Then?"

"I shall cut to the chase too. What do you know about the gem called Pandora?"

Her eyes twitched.

"What's Pandora about?"

Haibara remembered Conan questioning her the same thing a while ago. She then stated again that she had no obligation to answer anything to him, much to his irritation. However at that moment, she was genuinely curious about why he asked such a question out of nowhere.

So it seemed that Conan and the thief made some contact and shared some information with each other. And since he couldn't deliver an answer to the mighty Kaitou Kid, the latter came straight to her instead.

Interesting.

That Edogawa Conan... She gritted her teeth. He definitely got a lot of explanation to do once he comes back. Just how much did he tell him? And in case she accused Conan, Haibara decided to hold back her questions on how Kaitou Kid knew and what else he knew. If she asked and got asked back, she was just going to provide the thief with more information instead.

There wasn't a need to further complicate things.

Realizing she still owed him an answer, she innocently blinked. "What's Pandora?"

"Are we seriously going to play a round of pretend?"

"I don't see why I should answer you or even talk to you." Haibara drawled.

"Then let's talk about science again. I assume that's a topic you liked."

This was getting to nowhere. Haibara took a deep breath and eyed on the kids who were still distracted with the soccer ball to pay any attention to them. Imagine their reactions if they knew the person sitting next to her was Kaitou Kid.

It was strange, really. Under the hot weather and casually sitting on the bench, Kaitou Kid was talking to her about science.

The thief was smart, bold, witty and amusingly a part-time nemesis of Edogawa Conan and frankly, she respected him to a certain extent. But that didn't mean he earned the rights to suddenly appear and interrogate her with things. His magic tricks and roses? She was neither interested nor easy to be swooned like his fans.

Though she was bluntly ignoring him till now, he still continued.

"Immortality. Do you ever think it's possible to attain that?"

He'd done his research, then why he's asking me?

"If you're referring to attaining immortality through science, I don't see an end to its possibility. Technology is still advancing over the years too." She carefully phrased her words. She didn't want him to find any loopholes and attack her with more unnecessary questions.

Even if Edogawa Conan and Kaitou Kid didn't understand how dangerous Black Organization was, she knew. The lesser the people know about them, the better. She didn't need anymore people to die because of her.

"Why do people seek for immortality?" He rubbed his chin.

"I don't know."

"Then what about you? Do you want to seek for immortality?"

In the past, Haibara- Shiho wished she could just die at the moment and that was why she ate those pills to end her life. As if fate played with her, the side effect happened to her instead and here she was as Haibara Ai.

If she had this life right now, peaceful and quiet with those bunch of innocent and nice people she knew by her side, she really didn't mind. But eventually, everyone would die and she would be left alone in the end, wouldn't she?

All she did was to shrug. "I don't really care about this."

And then there was silence.

She was patiently waiting for his next question, or at least to say something. What she received was the continuous silence, safe for the happy shouts and laughter from the children and family nearby in the park.

Finally, she received a response.

"It was nice knowing you. Haibara Ai."

"Ai-chan!"

She moved her head towards the direction of the detective boys who were waving at her.

"We want to get some ice-cream, wanna come?" Ayumi shouted, along with Genta and Mitsuhiko who were echoing the same words excitedly, prompting her even further to join them.

Haibara immediately turned to the empty seat next to her.

"Okay." She weakly shouted back, jumping off her seat and approaching the Detective Boys without a glance back.

.o.

Two days later, Kaitou Kid arrived punctually at the museum he promised in his note.

In ten seconds, the performance was over and the thief was simply gone in a poof. Just like that, he managed to send a few dozen of cops hot on their heels and scrambling everywhere in the building. All the audiences were on their move too.

That was why Haibara preferred watching it on television than appearing at the scene. She could see so much better on screen, rather than being at the heist and having to be pushed and squeezed around. It was a miracle that she wasn't being trampled flat.

But it was her decision to come and she couldn't blame anyone but herself. Maybe she could blame on Kaitou Kid instead. Ever since that afternoon, her curiosity about that mysterious thief increased by a fold and it bugged her for some reason. In the end, she could only remind herself that it was her choice for disclosing so little information to the thief and she had no rights to complain that she knew nothing about him.

Though with her small brain, she was able to connect the dots pretty easily; Kaitou Kid wasn't randomly finding jewels.

Pushing back those thoughts, she decided it was time to call it a day and head home instead of standing foolishly in the crowd. Kaitou Kid was none of her business, she decided. Those gems weren't something she cared and it wasn't part of any scientific research that she needed to know or understand.

Furthermore, she had too much things on hand to worry about things that weren't in the vicinity of her concern.

When Haibara turned around and was about to call out for Professor Agasa, she realized they must have lost each other in the crowd. She was about to fish out her phone when her hand froze and she felt her breath hitched.

Her hand suddenly turned cold and clammy as she tightened her grip around her phone in the pocket.

"Confirmed that isn't Pandora?" The voice was pounding in her ears like drums. The chatters of the people around her was dying away, leaving the voices which she clearly couldn't ignore.

She could feel blood rising to her cheeks.

"It isn't."

Her head was throbbing so painfully that she could count her heartbeat in her head.

"Fine. Then we'll head out."

Breathe. Breathe. Breathe!

Haibara slowly moved her eyes over to the crowd and finally spotted a few men in trench coat approaching stealthily and blending themselves with the people who were leaving the scene.

Snake or something, she couldn't remember the leader's code name clearly but she recognized them and that wasn't a good sign. But as they were leaving, the feeling of danger just continued to rise and rise and rise and she still couldn't breathe properly.

Clenching onto her chest, she realized she needed to get away from here. She should have known something like this would happen and if she could make a choice again, she would have chosen to stay in her lab and research all day long rather than taking a step outside. Haibara knew the risk, but she had unconsciously forgotten about it because she was too focused in wanting to come here.

As she staggered slowly and away from the building, she felt a hand fell on her small shoulders.

"Hello kid, do you need help? Are you lost?"

Haibara looked up. A policeman was watching her with a worried gaze that made her sick all of the sudden.

"I'm fine. I'm not lost." She barely whispered and tried to hurry her way with the crowd.

"This isn't good, you don't look well. Kid, do you have your parent's contact number?" The policeman took her by the elbow and began dragging her away already. "I'll call them for you. For now, I'll bring you to the police car to rest."

"But I'm-" She didn't have the energy to say any word as her head was in a mess. Shit. Shit. Shit. Why isn't the feeling going away? Professor, where are you?!

As the policeman was dragging her towards the car park, she could feel the grip tightening around her elbow. And she felt it wasn't because he was afraid he would lost her in the crowd, but more of making sure that she wouldn't run away.

That was when her instinct kicked in. This policeman was the danger.

"L-Let go of me!" She cried out.

He was now grabbing her and it was hurting her. He stayed silent all the time and now, they were already passing the car park, far from the police cars and into a dark and isolated alley.

Finding enough strength and courage, Haibara skipped and tried to kick the policeman's shin but she failed as he was quicker. He dodged and pulled her roughly forward, flinging her into the alley as she landed onto the ground with a thud, her arms bruised within seconds.

"Who the hell are you?!" Haibara yelled. She wasn't exactly prepared for the answer when she knew only a few people were capable of making her go through such a severe panic attack.

Gin or Vermouth?

And then who had the ability of disguising as a policeman?

Haibara clenched her fist.

"Good evening." It was no longer the voice of the policeman. Haibara knew that voice more than her own. She heard it too often during her nightmares. "It's been a while."

Vermouth carefully whipped out a gun from the pants pocket and smiled.

All Haibara could do was to continue to curse and curse and curse in her mind. Nothing else was entering her brain. There wasn't a escape plan. There wasn't Edogawa Conan. There wasn't anything she had. She had nothing. And nothing would kill her.

Her entire body was trembling so badly that she wasn't sure if her vision was failing or because she was shaking too much.

"Wh-why are y-you here?"

"It was fate that brought you to me, apparently." Vermouth smirked in the disguise of the policeman. "Snake hadn't been doing his job and I'm dropping by to warn him to buck up. Who knew you're a fan of Kaitou Kid too?"

Haibara could hear Vermouth tightening around the trigger and she squeezed her eyes shut. A faint shot was fired and she jumped in her position before realizing the cause of the soft gunshot was due to the silencer Vermouth just attached.

Vermouth shoot and she missed, again. There was no way in hell she would miss so stupidly, Haibara knew she did it on purpose to torture and ignite fear within her. She was used to it while she was in the Organization, just that it had been a long time since she had to go through such fear again. And to suddenly experience it, she wasn't ready.

She had been leading to many peaceful days already to nearly forget everything. Nearly.

"The way you shiver in fright," Vermouth laughed, "it gives me so much joy that you can't even understand."

"If you want to kill me, just do it." Haibara muttered, her eyes still shut. She clearly remembered how Conan told her not to give up on her life so easily and she had been doing it like that for the entire time, clinging onto her life as preciously as she could and making sure to stay alive. But this time, Haibara knew there was no way she could escape out here even if she desperately wanted to.

Rather than being tortured, she rather just die already.

"Oh?" Vermouth stepped forward. "Thank you for quenching my thirst of killing you so badly. I supposed if I can help you to fulfill your wish, the Silver Bullet wouldn't blame me, right?"

Haibara wasn't sure what the next sound that just came next. It was a sharp sound and then a metal object hitting the ground. She slowly opened her eyes, to find Vermouth gritting her teeth and rubbed her wrist in pain as she glared at the attacker at the other end of the alley.

"I don't appreciate it if someone damages my prize."

Vermouth straightened her posture and gave a raised of an eyebrow, her composure returned. "Your prize?"

Kaitou Kid took another step with the card gun in his hand. "More like a key to my treasure, though you don't have to know what it means."

Trained nonetheless, she swiftly took out another gun from her pocket in less than a second, already aiming at Kaitou Kid before he could fire the next card.

"Do you want to test which gun of ours is faster?"

"Not interested, but no harm trying." He smirked in the shadows. "It would be an honor."

She didn't know how Kaitou Kid knew where they were or why he appeared, but it did assured her to the extent she wasn't shivering so much anymore. But now, another worry surfaced. A gun and a card gun. If she had to put her knowledge about physics to the test, she didn't even have to think to know that the bullet would be faster.

So why on earth was Kaitou Kid still provoking Vermouth? She thought he was smart enough to realize the danger he was in. Maybe she was wrong.

Out of the blue, Vermouth began chuckling and immediately, Haibara's blood ran cold.

"How nostalgic." She shook her head playfully but her hand was still tightly grasping onto the gun. "You're indeed a phantom. A ghost of a ghost."

"Enlighten me."

"How would you even know what I'm talking about when you're not the Kaitou Kid I knew a decade ago?"

There was a short silence. And in that short amount of time, Haibara wasn't sure what was going on. It was too dark to see anything and at the same time, she could still see their shadow, unwavering and standing firm in their position. And in that silence, it was far more scarier than anything else.

"What do you mean by that?" His tone became firm.

"You're not the only apprentice of the original Kaitou Kid. Look at you, your mask is slipping and your emotions are showing. Don't forget your poker face."

Haibara didn't recognized the voice Vermouth intimated at the last part, though she was sure Kaitou Kid clearly know who it was.

"Don't you- Don't you bloody use his voice." She could feel the rage just by hearing the gritting of his teeth and in the next second, Kaitou Kid fired two shots at Vermouth but she didn't flinch or move away. One of the card sliced across her cheeks and revealed the underneath of her real skin beneath her disguise, but there wasn't any blood.

"This girl is none of your concern and I suggest you to stay out of my way." Vermouth urged. "I don't give chances to anyone so you better honor it."

"I don't give a damn."

On the cue, thunderous footsteps were reaching this way and Vermouth became on full alert while Kaitou Kid appeared nonchalant. Haibara squinted her eyes at the end of the alley, to find tiny policemen at a distance running towards their direction.

"Kaitou Kid! Don't you escape!" The Inspector yelled.

"It's true, I'm just a mere apprentice of the original Kaitou Kid. So do you think a person like me is capable of outwitting the police and escaping successfully all the time?" The white thief shrugged. "This world is just corrupted, with human being selfish for their own desires. Greed, desire, immortality. They've captured me a few times and all I need is to tell them that I'll split the profits of the gem I've stole if they let me go, they did."

Wait, what? Is he serious about that? How could it be? It wasn't once or twice she witnessed how the Inspector handled the situation during the heist, but if the bribery was true then everything could be an act.

Unless... Haibara slowly moved her attention to Vermouth who was quietly watching Kaitou Kid with a calculative gaze. Even Vermouth was doubting him too.

"They'll let me go eventually with money. What about you?" He hissed mockingly. "What are you going to give them? You're currently illegally handling with guns. Who's in favor now?"

"We shall see about that." Vermouth returned a smile.

Haibara widened her eyes. She was clearly the only person safe among the three of them and she hadn't got anything to complain. But she knew both were just testing and taunting each other, hoping the other would break before the police arrived. Vermouth wouldn't allow herself to be caught, same goes for Kaitou Kid.

But as the policemen were getting closer and closer, the risk was just too great. She glared at the thief, hoping to send a signal to him.

Just escape already!

Suddenly, Vermouth's gun was directed at Haibara and her mouth hung open with no air able to reach her lungs. One second passed and it seemed like eternity to her.

"Just you wait, Sherry. I'm not done with you." She snarled. And in the next moment, she was already running to the other end of the alley.

Before Haibara could react, she felt herself being lifted from the ground as Kaitou Kid scooped her up like a blob of ice cream and ran further up ahead and dived right behind a convenient large trash bin and hid within the shadows.

The sound of footsteps echoed along the alley so loudly that she felt that she was being stepped on instead. But her lips were pursed and her sticky and sweaty back was tightly glued against Kaitou Kid's chest that she could almost feel his heartbeat beating against her.

For a moment, she nearly forgotten that Kaitou Kid was also a human too.

After a safe amount of time passed and it was confirmed that there wasn't anyone left in the alley, Kaitou Kid safely let her stand on her own feet and he heaved a sigh.

"You alright?" He briefly scrutinized her.

She was still alive, alive and well and she couldn't ask for more. While they were hiding, she had managed to calm down enough to present that stoic and cool expression as she replied. "I'm fine."

"That's good."

There was something obviously off in his voice. In that short conversation between him and Vermouth, Haibara's brain wasn't processing right to register what was happening and what they were talking about. Now that she tried to recollect some memories of it, she couldn't remember much anymore.

She stared carefully at Kaitou Kid. His hat was once again tipped down carefully to hide most of his face from her. Even the monocle couldn't be seen.

"Then are you alright?" She breathed out.

He watched her beneath the shadow of his hat and muster a smile. "Fine too."

Haibara wanted to tell him he wasn't but she held her tongue. She shouldn't overstep her boundaries.

"I'll bring you back. Your Professor is still looking for you."

"Okay." Was all she could say.

Shorter chapter compared to the rest though
Anyway, hope you guys like this chapter, reviews are greatly appreciated!