Waking up to an alarm was not as bad as it seemed, Conan thought. He'd always hated alarms, because he hated mornings, and waking up in general, but now that he'd had the distinctly unpleasant experience of waking up to the bone-melting pain of an Apotoxin antidote wearing off, he finally had a proper perspective on alarms.
He trudged back to the detective agency that evening feeling empty in every sense of the word, so even though he knew he ought to be hungry by now, he found he had no appetite when Ran served them dinner.
"Did you have fun camping, Conan-kun?" Ran asked casually, switching to a more subtle approach of trying to cheer him up after several vain attempts of simply asking what was wrong.
"I guess."
"It's nice you didn't encounter any murders this time, huh?"
"Yeah. No murders."
"Hmm…" Ran tried to think of a more effective diversion, and beamed as one came to mind — a topic that never failed to make her little brother practically jump for joy. "Sonoko and I had a lot of fun at the Kid heist last night!"
"Oh?"
Ran was shocked that this hadn't elicited more of a reaction from Conan, who still looked like his dog had just died, but she pressed ahead valiantly.
"Yes, Sonoko was able to get us right up next to the gem, well, I mean we were outside of the police line, but closer than the rest of the spectators, since her uncle owned it of course. Kid stole it without any trouble, without even touching it. I mean, obviously he touched it at some point, but he made it look like it just magically appeared in his hand from across the room. It's amazing how smart he must be to get around all the police so easily, and still put on a show just like a real magician! There were doves and confetti and spotlights and everything. He managed to trick the task force and Jirokochi-ojisan into getting caught in the cage they'd set up for him, and then it was just the three of us there."
"Really," Conan answered as politely as he could, poking half-heartedly at his curry.
"Mm! And then Kid looked around, then he walked right up to us! I thought Sonoko was going to faint with how much she was squealing. She even took a selfie with Kid in the background. Here, look!"
She held her phone up to him and he dutifully looked at it, not surprised to see that Sonoko's ecstatic face filled most of the frame, with only a blurry impression of a white suit about ten feet behind her. Conan made a noise of acknowledgement and Ran took the phone back and continued talking, completely oblivious to his signals of not wanting to talk.
"He walked right up to us, greeted us like a gentleman and gave us white roses, and then he asked about you!"
"Huh?" Conan whipped his head around at full attention like Ran knew he would, and she smiled at him.
"Yes, really! He asked if 'his favorite Tantei-kun' had come tonight. I think he assumed you were lying in wait for him somewhere, and maybe he was trying to get clues about it from us? But when I told him you were camping that weekend, he said 'what a pity,' and he sounded so sad, Conan-kun! I think he really missed you! He told me to make sure you prioritized him next time, because heists are no fun without you there! Isn't that sweet? I think you made a friend, Conan-kun," she said happily, tilting her head and employing that special tone reserved for comforting young children.
Conan stared down at his barely touched dinner, feeling quite sick and belatedly noticing that his face felt hot. "I… I think I'm going to go to bed now, Ran-nee-chan."
"Huh? Oh, okay. Are you feeling alright?"
"I'm just tired. I'll be ok after I sleep lots!" Conan lied, knowing full well that he was not going to sleep lots. He was not even going to sleep little. He'd told himself that Kid would surely not even care enough to even notice his absence, but instead the flashy arrogant otherworldly thief had actually approached Ran to ask about him? Kid missed him? Kid wanted him to come to heists because it was more fun?
Conan's face scrunched up and he hurried to his futon to hide his burning cheeks in his pillow. Why was he feeling so... so... what even was this feeling? Accelerated heart rate, tense muscles, face twitching. He felt overheated. Was 'overheated' an emotion? No. No, he was probably just angry. Conan tended to conclude that most all of his emotions were anger, but as he thought about it, he realized that he did in fact have plenty he could be angry about this time.
Chasing Kid at heists was not supposed to be fun for the thief, it was supposed to be threatening! He was not there to entertain himself or Kid, or to have "friendly conversations," he was there to arrest an internationally wanted criminal! And after the number of times he'd been so close to actually doing it, Kid should fear him, not miss him! How had this even happened?
Conan thought about the Kid problem all that night and every following night for the rest of the week. So much for his futile hopes of getting the guy out of his head by completing this investigation.
—
At school everyone, predictably, wanted to talk about the latest Kid heist. Conan kept shooting them dirty looks. Many classmates assumed that the local Kid Killer been attended the heist as usual, and tried to press him for details. Conan dismissed them with enough suppressed anger that they quickly gave up and left him alone. Haibara kept giving him side glances. Conan pointedly ignored her, and in fact barely exchanged any words with her all week.
By the end of the week, he'd made almost no progress with his own thoughts. Before this investigation, he'd thought of Kid as an interesting rival and sometimes ally. Someone who was annoying but fun to compete against and who was occasionally useful. He didn't think of them as friends, and honestly had never tried to analyze Kid or their interactions more than that.
Then he'd tracked down and learned about the person of Kuroba Kaito and had been intrigued. Perhaps the thought had even crossed his mind that he would be mildly curious to get to know that person better.
After the conversations with Kuroba's mother and then with Nakamori-chan, he felt oddly guilty about any animosity he'd held toward Kid, and the idea of working with rather than against the magician was suddenly rather compelling. It caused him to question his previously more rigid ideas of justice and legality, and he began to seriously contemplate if arresting Kid was even the right thing to do.
But then Haibara had to come along and mess everything up. Just when he'd started to consider not arresting Kid, she'd caused him to want to cling to that goal like his honor depended on it. She'd made him feel defensive about upholding the letter of the law and not giving Kid special treatment, which was rather opposite of what he'd just been feeling, and now all of those opposing desires and emotions and fears and questions were warring together in him at ever increasing intensities and all he'd managed to achieve so far was a week's worth of tummy aches.
He wanted to be able to make a clear decision about what to do about Kid from here on out, but he also wanted to be able to do it from a clean slate, having defended his previous actions to Haibara (and himself). He wanted to say that he used to genuinely sincerely try to catch Kid, but now, he'd changed his mind after uncovering new data. Because that would be logical and would have nothing to do with any irrational 'feelings' of any sort he might have regarding the thief. The thief that he was definitely not friends with, of course.
—
The soccer ball smacked against the wall of the building again and again, each time ricocheting back to where Conan absently caught it and sent it flying again. It was Friday evening and the rest of the Detective Boys had gone home for dinner a while ago, leaving Conan to face his thoughts alone, and the buildings in the public park to suffer for it.
Haibara didn't know what she was talking about. The brisk wind swirled some leaves around his feet and he kicked the ball again. Haibara had only ever been to a few heists, and each time only as a spectator. She'd never tried to capture Kid herself; she had no idea how hard it was! He ignored the lengthening shadows and increasingly dark gray sky to continue his attack on the poor wall. Haibara was just underestimating Kid like everyone else always did. A particularly strong kick caused the ball to miss its mark and bounce away into an alley. Conan ran after it then bent over to catch his breath.
Kid was remarkable. Anyone could see that! His physical strength, speed, and agility let him pull incredible stunts while pretending they were easy, while his reflexes and senses often made him seem nearly super-human. Plus, he was clever and extraordinarily adept at improvising, which made him nearly impossible to predict and therefore more slippery. The nickname "Phantom" hadn't come from nothing.
Haibara's mistake was that she was looking at everything with the advantage of hindsight. Anyone could capture him with the power of time travel! None of what she said would have worked if he'd actually tried it — Kid would've escaped from anything, he was sure of it. Even if he tried to dart him from behind before Kid knew he was on to him, he had every confidence that Kid would somehow notice and dodge it. That's why he'd never tried it before, of course. In fact, maybe that's why he'd never even thought of it, because he already knew that anything so simple would obviously fail.
Something like that would be very easy to test, and then he'd finally be able to answer her accusations and rest easier himself. So he decided he would prove her wrong at the very next heist. He would take all of her suggestions that sounded so good on paper, and expose them for the childish mistakes they were. He still hadn't made up his mind about what to do after that, but he could deal with that part later. In the meantime, he wouldn't load his watch with real darts, but at least he'd be able to prove once and for all that Kid would always manage to slip away, no matter how serious Conan was about chasing him.
Satisfied for now, he scooped up the soccer ball and headed home to apologize to Ran for ignoring her texts all evening.
—
Fortunately they didn't have to wait very long for the next heist. Conan hated waiting, after all. The announcement came just a week and a half after the previous heist, and the target was an antique necklace set with a large ruby being displayed in a Suzuki sponsored museum. Naturally, Advisor Jirokichi invited Conan to attend.
Ran managed to dampen his excitement over the notice with her unhelpful and very silly suggestion that perhaps Kid purposely didn't wait long and chose a Suzuki gem in order to see 'his favorite Tantei-kun' again. Unfortunately, his unamused expression only fueled her teasing and soon both she and Sonoko were laughing about the detective and thief being best friends. Sonoko even started to plot some ways for Conan to use his "influence" to introduce her to Kid.
As a way to excuse himself from their company, Conan pulled out his phone and texted Haibara, reminding her that she'd agreed to accompany him to test out his theory and sending her the details about when and where to meet. She'd had such an air of amused disbelief about her when he'd suggested it that she'd managed to convey her expectation of his utter humiliation without a single word. He couldn't wait to prove her wrong.
—
"So, which one is he?" Haibara asked him quietly as the crowd in front of them buzzed with all the typical pre-heist excitement and last minute preparations.
"Oi oi, give me a minute! Remember that part where he's a master of disguise?" Conan retorted grumpily, though it was also mixed with a feeling of vindication at the demonstration that finding Kid was indeed hard. "I'd like to see you try to find him if it's so easy."
"But you can sense that he's here?"
"Of course. Can't you?"
"No. No, I can not. Nobody can. That's not normal thing, you know. Nobody else ever 'senses' him except for you, Edogawa-kun."
"Hmph. Whatever. It's not like it helps me pinpoint him exactly, so it's not that significant anyway."
"Is that so."
He continued scanning the crowd, trying to recall every minuscule detail that he'd observed about each person over the past few hours.
"Ah, there!" he said at last, "See that big man from the insurance company with the expression like he just swallowed a bug?"
"That's Kid?"
"No, but his assistant is. That young lady with light brown hair holding his coffee for him and taking notes on her phone. Kid seems to particularly like disguising as shy cute women, it's weird."
"Are you certain? How do you know it's him?"
"Right before she left for the bathroom earlier, she spilled a little coffee on her shirt, see near the hem? But ever since she came back, there's a few minor differences in the shape of the stain. Plus, her wedding ring is less shiny now. He's meticulous and a perfectionist, but he can't recreate an organic shape like a coffee spill down the tiniest random droplets. He did a really good job though, I'm sure nobody else would ever notice a difference that small. As for the wedding ring, he's too much of a gentleman to take her actual ring but clearly the replacement isn't going to look as worn as the real one."
"Well then, I believe you were going to demonstrate how it's impossible to sneak up on him?"
"Tsk. Impatient. I'll do it now. You stay here and only watch out of your peripheral vision — he'll definitely notice someone staring at him and I don't want to give him any advantages for this experiment. I'm not going to give myself away either, so don't give me that look and have a little faith in me."
With that, Conan took a quick second to orient himself for his method acting, then walked over toward Inspector Nakamori like he would've on any other day, conveniently placing himself several yards behind the assistant to the insurance agent. A quick casual glance around showed no one was paying him any attention at all, so he quickly flipped open his watch, aimed, and fired.
Nothing happened. He stood frozen in shock. Obviously he knew there were no darts in his watch, as this entire exercise was merely theoretical for now. But he'd been so sure Kid would've dodged, moved, or at least given some sign of recognition, that he was at a loss for how to process this new development.
He clicked the button to fire another imaginary dart. Nothing. Maybe it was too far away? Kid probably knew that this was the furthest range where the watch's aim was reliable. So Conan took a few steps forward and fired again. And again. And still nothing, the girl just kept nodding along to her superior's ramblings as she had all evening. Had he been wrong about this being Kid? But no, up close the evidence was even more apparent to him. In addition, he felt a strong sense of that distinctive bubbly warmth he always got when Kid was nearby. So what exactly was going on?
By now he was almost hovering around the lady's feet and hadn't yet proved anything that he wanted to, so he closed the rest of the distance and came around to stand directly in front of her, looking up at her with wide-eyed childlike confusion.
The assistant then finally noticed him, and squatted down to face him at eye level, asking gently, "Hello there, sweetie. Are you lost? Where's your mom?"
Without breaking eye-contact or bothering to close his slightly open mouth, Conan again flipped open his watch. He saw a flicker of realization pass over her face and she jerked her head to the side, but it was too little too late - he had fired again in more than enough time to dart the lady right in the cheek. Kid would've been arrested today, and the reality of that thought paralyzed him as it sank in.
Kid must've been having the same thought, because after glancing down at the watch to reassure himself that it had been a feint, he met Conan's eyes and held them for a long, long moment, an uncharacteristic serious and guarded expression on his face.
After an eternity, the insurance agent broke their staring contest by demanding his coffee, and Kid's mask instantly rematerialized as his slid back into his borrowed persona and hurried after his "boss" and away from Conan.
Conan took a few calming breaths then returned reluctantly to Haibara's side.
"Before you say anything," he preempted whatever snide remarks she was surely thinking of, "this is sort of my fault. I haven't done anything like this before, so Kid probably trusts me more than he should, which is why he wasn't on guard around me this time. I bet next time he would dodge."
She, mercifully, said nothing.
"Come on," he muttered when there were only a few minutes left until the announced time. "I've already set the other traps, but I'm sure he'll dodge them, so let's just go wait for him at the escape point so we can see for ourselves."
Museums were slightly harder to escape from than some of Kid's other venues, given that most of the windows were made of reinforced glass and not designed to be opened. Though not above smashing through expensive windows, Kid did tend to avoid it when possible. This particular museum had several doors on the ground floor, a rooftop, and a janitor's closet on the third floor that had a small window used to vent fumes from the cleaning supplies. Given that the rooftop was heavily guarded this time, Kid would probably either try to escape from the front door in a disguise or wiggle through the small window in this room. Knowing how much Kid loved his glider, Conan had bet on the janitor's closet, so he and Haibara waited in a dark corner of the closet behind some shelves.
As expected, it it did not take long for Kid to steal the necklace and evade the police by leading them on a merry chase throughout the building. Soon after the sounds of the chase faded away, the door to the closet swung open without a sound, admitting one shadowy figure with a cape and top hat. Conan stepped out from his hiding place and flipped the light switch.
Kid snapped into an offensive position with his card gun somehow already drawn and aimed at him, until he saw who it was and relaxed into his familiar confident pose and smirk, the gun disappearing somewhere in the process.
"Ah Tantei-kun, what a pleasure! How are you this fine evening?" Kid asked, being entirely too friendly for comfort.
Conan took a break from glaring at him to instead examine his outfit, looking him over from hat to shoes, and back up again.
"Eh… Tantei-kun? Are you... checking me out?"
"You… you didn't dodge any of them?" Conan asked in horror, too upset to even respond to the dumb teasing.
"Huh? Oh, the traps! Ah, I see, I thought those might be yours! They were certainly too well designed to be set by dear old Nakamori-keibu, though I would've thought they weren't violent enough for your tastes," Kid answered lightly, fingering one of the splotches of bright paint near his wrist. Similar spots decorated his ankles, back, and neck. Most of them had been spring activated traps that had launched at him like bullets as he rounded corners, grabbed ledges, or opened doors, but even once he'd started looking for them he'd been hit several more times. "Were you trying to compose a Seurat on me, Tantei-kun? I'm flattered\~"
"You idiot!" Conan yelled, gesturing wildly as all his many emotions blended into rage. "This isn't a game! Were you even trying? Do you want to be arrested? How can you be so careless!? What would you do if you got captured? Don't you even think about these things?"
Kid raised his eyebrows, either unaware or unconcerned about his face being fully visible to the detective near his feet. "…Are we still talking about paint?"
"Is that why you didn't bother to dodge, you thought it was just some stupid paint? What if I'd used tasers instead of paint, would you start paying attention then? When did you get so sloppy?"
Kid, being the insufferable punk that he was, just chuckled amicably.
"Ah, Tantei-kun, I'm flattered that you think so highly of me, but — as much as I'm loathe to admit it — I'm not _actually_ a phantom, it's just a nickname. Not even I can dodge bullets, you know. It's adorable that you care so much about me, but I don't mind being used as a canvas for you to practice your art lessons on. Though, for future reference, my favorite color is blue. This orange is rather unsightly," he said with a pout, rubbing at the stain again. "Is it washable by any chance?"
"This is not about paint, you idiot thief! I just wanted to see if you'd be able to dodge the traps, otherwise I would've loaded them with tranquilizer darts instead!"
At the mention of tranquilizer darts, Kid's good mood vanished instantly and he resumed that somber tense stare from earlier.
"And back in the exhibit room! Why didn't you do anything? I was standing behind you for several minutes and had dozens of shots at your back before you even noticed me! Is it because it was just me? Would you have escaped if it was someone else?"
Kid opened and closed his mouth a few times but couldn't seem to come up with an answer. The uncomfortable silence stretched for another minute before Conan asked more quietly, "Was it always this easy to capture you, Kid?"
They held each others gaze for another few heartbeats before Conan turned on his heel and raced out the door. Kid lifted a hand as if to stop him but didn't complete the motion. Haibara then emerged from the shadows, looked up at Kid with an air of amusement and such a devious smile tugging at the corners of her lips that he instinctively draw back. Then she calmly left to follow after Conan.
Kid remained where he was in the middle of the janitor's closet for a while, until the muffled chatter of a police radio in the distance brought him back to the present. He hurried over to pick the lock on the window which earned him another surprise paintball, this one to the face. It hit his nose and splattered all over his cheeks and eyes, blocking his monocle and leaving an acrid taste in his mouth. But he found it significantly less funny now.
Next Up: It takes conversations with three different people, but Conan does finally get some sense knocked into him. About this one particular problem, at least.