Detective Conan and Magic Kaito characters, settings, and ideas do not belong to me but to Aoyama Gōshō.

TMPD Antics

By Taliya

LXIX: Kuroba and Kudou

A white-clad thief sighed to himself as he burst out of the stairwell of the museum building. Tonight's chase had been a little dull without Kudou present. Hakuba and Hattori had been in attendance, but with the two bickering as usual, they were rather ineffective on the whole. He pulled out the sizable aquamarine he had filched and held it up to the moon. Another sigh escaped him as he tucked it back into a pocket.

"Not what you were looking for?"

Kaitou KID spun, card gun out and finger on the trigger as he instinctively aimed it at the source of his surprise. He blinked. "Kudou-san?" he asked, lowering his weapon and tucking it away.

Kudou Ran leaned against the stairwell entrance, her presence hidden by the door when he had exited the building. She pushed herself off from the wall, taking slow, sedate steps towards him. Her eyes gleamed brightly in the moonlight as she approached him, and the magician felt his metaphorical hackles rise.

"May I inquire as to why you are here this eve, Kudou-san?" KID asked, watching the woman warily.

Ran came to a stop an arm's length away from the infamous criminal, her eyes holding steadily with his. "I've a score to settle with you, Kaitou KID-san," she answered blandly.

KID silently gulped. "Oh?" he murmured, intrigued despite himself. "Regarding?"

His instinctive reflex to dodge—courtesy of his ninjutsu training—was the only thing that saved him from a foot to his face, and he danced backwards in slight panic as Ran pursued him. "Kudou-san," he yelped as he dodged kicks and punches, "What…?" He retaliated with a few shots, forcing her to retreat a few times and thus allowing him small breathers. He had noticed, however, that she was not using anywhere near the full force of her strength, thank the gods for small favors—he knew for a fact that she could break concrete blocks with relative ease.

"An eye for an eye," Ran said after landing a solid hit on KID's left upper arm. He stumbled back with a grunt, clutching his definitely bruised, but reassuringly unbroken arm. "Since Shinichi broke his at your last heist."

The phantom thief's mouth dropped open in unfiltered astonishment. "That—that was Meitantei-san's own fault!" he squawked as he gingerly cradled his arm with a wince. "It's not my fault he broke his arm because he tripped on his untied shoelaces running down a flight of stairs!"

Ran hummed as she turned back towards the stairwell, apparently satisfied. "But isn't it an unspoken rule that you adhere to, Kaitou KID-san?" she asked as she walked away and entered the stairs. "Nobody gets hurt?" She popped her head back out and called in a sing-song voice, "Actually, that was payback for groping me." Then her head disappeared and the door shut with a quiet, deafening click.

KID stared at the stairwell door and blinked several times before he shook himself out of the trance he had fallen into. A fond grin curved his lips as he grumbled, "Of course she would remember that." He carefully stretched and tested out his arm before preparing himself for a somewhat rougher than usual flight home.

Author's Note: So I'm not entirely sure Ran would have actually done this, but the idea would not leave me alone. Anyhow, I had fun writing this. Also, in my personal head-canon, Kaito practices ninpou and thus has a reason he is so good at acrobatics and the like. I hope you enjoyed it.

Completed: 29.04.2016