"Thank you all for coming today," Conan addressed the group as the final stragglers made their way to the chairs. "We're here because we have a common enemy, and it makes much more sense to join forces and fight them together, rather than working alone or fighting amongst ourselves," he gave Bourbon a pointed side look to emphasize that little detail, then continued. "Let's start with introductions. I'll go first. My real name is Kudou Shinichi, and—"
"Ehhhh?!" Jodie and Camel both leapt to their feet with exclamations of shock, then spun around looking at the rest of the group.
"What?! Wait, what?!" Jodie stammered. "You're Kudou Shinichi, the teenager? And somehow everyone else knew this too?!"
"Well, I didn't really know, exactly," Takagi said sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck. "But I did guess that something was going on? I mean, I had some theories, sort of?"
"I'm surprised," Bourbon commented, in the least surprised tone Conan had ever heard. "But I have to say that many things make a lot more sense like this."
"Wait, but then who is that?!" Jodie exclaimed, pointing at Kaito. "Isn't that Shinichi?"
"You know, I was wondering that myself," Sera agreed with a crooked smile, clearly finding the entire thing highly amusing.
"Kaitou KID, Phantom Thief, Moonlight Magician, and secret agent extraordinaire, at your service~!" Kaito proclaimed proudly with an ostentatious bow.
"KID?!" Jodie repeated incredulously. "As in, Kaitou KID the jewel thief?!"
"The very same~" Kaito beamed.
"What is he doing here, and why is he disguised as Kudou Shinichi?" Bourbon demanded.
"He's not in disguise; that's really what he looks like," Conan replied defensively.
"You did not tell me that a criminal would be present!" Mary huffed, rising to her feet. "I refuse to work alongside anyone as unreliable as a notorious jewel thief."
"Agreed," Bourbon added. "I refuse to be part of a team so disorganized and desperate that it must resort to recruiting petty thieves."
"Then leave," Conan told them. The entire room stilled at the volume and force of his words, but he continued undeterred.
"I am a detective," he told them, icy and forceful. "Hakuba is a detective. Hattori is a detective. Sera is a detective. Takagi-keiji and Satou-keiji are detectives. My dad does detective work. In fact, aside from my mom, Haibara, and Agasa-hakase, all of the rest of you are officers or detectives too. We have enough detectives! Who do we have that can gather intel without leaving a trace? Who else can mimic voices without a gadget? Can any of you make yourselves disappear into thin air? No! KID is the only one of us who can quickly make a perfect disguise, perform sleight of hand, infiltrate a high security vault, and so many other skills! I don't care what special roles any of you have — none of you can do what KID does! Nobody in the world can! He is by far the most valuable person in this room, and I trust him more than I trust any of you, so if anyone here doesn't want to work with him, then leave right now! If it's a choice between having all of you on my team or just KID alone, I will not hesitate to choose only him, and I will have a stronger team for it! This is not up for discussion! Any questions?"
He glared around the room, making eye contact with each shocked individual. He noticed that at some point he had clenched his hands into fists at his sides, but he didn't care. The absurdity of anyone questioning Kaito's reliability had set him off into an entirely justified rage. The only thing that could throw him off was when he accidentally caught a glimpse of the face Kaito was making at him, and had to do a double-take. Those indigo eyes were absolutely huge, filled to overflowing with gratitude and adoration, as if Conan had just saved a little kitten from a terrible fate and simultaneously handed him a winning lottery ticket. Hadn't anyone ever stood up for this guy before? That face was far too distracting — Conan jerked his head away to avoid the sight and hopefully regain his ability to think.
"I can also vouch for KID," Hakuba broke the ensuing silence with his typical formal tone. "I have known him both professionally and personally for some time now, and can attest to his strong morals and loyalty. We have nothing to worry about from working with him."
"The FBI stands behind him fully," James Black announced.
"I trust him as well," Yuusaku added, followed by Yukiko's enthusiastic, "Me too!"
"I trust him more than I trust the rest of you," Haibara said coldly, which felt more like an insult to the rest rather than a compliment to Kaito, but Kaito seemed to appreciate it anyway.
"I trust him too!" Agasa chimed in, then corrected himself, "Well, that is, to be precise, I trust him with my life, but you really shouldn't let him know where your secret stashes of cookies are."
"Hey now, I said I was sorry about that!"
"Fine!" Mary interrupted with an aggressive wave of her hand. "I'll tolerate his presence. But if we're all going to share our real identities here, then he should give us his name too."
"Kuroba Kaito!" he answered for himself before Conan could respond. "I'm a second year student at Ekoda High, my father was Kuroba Toichi, and my mother, right over there, is Kuroba Chikage. Do you need to see my ID too?"
Mary huffed and crossed her arms, but she did resume her seat, implicitly signaling her acceptance. Bourbon, likewise, went back to silently judging everyone instead of actively fighting them.
"Anyone else have a problem?" Conan asked, warning in his tone.
"Um, actually," Satou began, tentatively raising her hand. "I also have a condition for working with Kaitou KID."
"Yes, Satou-keiji?" Conan prompted coldly, barely maintaining a neutral expression even though he still felt like attacking anyone who dared question Kaito.
"It's just…" Satou rose to her feet and pulled out her police notebook and a pen. "I'm such a big fan! Could I have your autograph please, KID-san?!"
"Stop," Conan ordered, throwing his arm out to the side to hold Kaito back. "There will be no autographs or fan-girling of any kind until after work is done. Sit back down, both of you."
Satou pouted but did sit down, and Kaito stepped back to his place by Conan's side. Conan pretended not to notice Kaito very obviously mouthing 'later' or Satou's victorious fist-pump. Instead he just sighed the heavy sigh of a weary middle-school teacher who'd finally gotten the class to quiet down for a minute, then resumed his introduction.
"Now, as I was saying, I am Kudou Shinichi, high school detective…" He described his first encounter with the men in black at Tropical Land and gave a brief overview of the Apotoxin that shrunk him. Then Kaito introduced himself, then the next person and the next, until the only one left to introduce was Haibara.
She was stiff and hesitated a moment, then stated in an aloof, almost bored, voice, "My alias is Haibara Ai. My real name is Miyano Shiho. I—"
"Miyano Shiho?" Mary interrupted.
"Yes."
"Is your mother Miyano Elena?"
"Yes. You knew her?"
"Yes. She's my sister."
"Oh."
Wait, what? Conan's eyes darted back and forth between the two of them, but neither broke their frigid expressions or cold silence. Did Haibara honestly not care that she'd just found out that she had an aunt?! And three cousins as well! Wait, wouldn't this mean—
Conan looked to Akai, whose mouth had twisted unpleasantly as if he were feeling sick. He met Conan's eyes, and Conan immediately realized that the other had not known about this and was not happy about it. But what…?
Oh. Right. Akai used to date Haibara's sister back when he was undercover in the organization. So Akai had accidentally dated his own first cousin. Oops.
As horrified realization dawned on Conan, Akai moved on to exchange subtle glances with the few others who knew. And yeah, everybody agreed, this need not come up again.
"Hey, this means we're family, Shiho-chan!" Sera exclaimed happily.
"Do not call me that."
"Are your parents and sister dead?" Mary asked without the faintest hint of tact.
"Yes," Haibara answered, equally devoid of feeling. They really must be related, Conan thought numbly.
"Pity."
"Yes. But not surprising. We all worked for the organization. I was born into it, raised to be a scientist to continue my parents' work after their deaths. I rebelled when my sister was murdered. They were planning to kill me, so I took the poison that I myself had been developing. As you can see, it failed. I have been attempting to develop an antidote, but so far have only managed a partial effect that has other side effects of its own. I expect that I'll be able to complete a proper antidote once the organization has been fully defeated and we've obtained the necessary data from their labs."
"I see. In the meantime, give me one of those partial antidotes. I have some other side effects from the poison besides the shrinking."
"That can be discussed."
Conan shook his head slightly, feeling the faintest chill in his bones from watching those two interact. Women were really scary, honestly! He instinctively glanced over at Kaito and felt warmed again by the beautiful, sunny smile that met him.
"Moving on," Conan announced to the room. "Let's review everything we know about the BO so far." He signaled for his mother to dim the lights, then turned on the projector and gestured to the mugshots now displayed on the wall behind him. "Vodka and Gin, the ones who attacked me at the amusement park. They were taken into custody a few weeks ago as part of a takedown of a smaller organization that turned out to be a branch of the BO. Unfortunately, they have refused to provide any information to the police, and none of the members of the branch organization know enough about the BO to help us."
He flipped to the next slide. "These people are codenamed Chianti and Korn, and they are both ruthless expert snipers for the organization. Real identities unknown."
Next slide. "Vermouth. Real name Chris Vineyard, or perhaps Sharon Vineyard, her supposed 'mother.' Based on their fingerprints, they're the same person. No, we don't know how she managed that. She learned some disguise skills from the previous KID, and can disguise herself or others. While she can't do it as quickly as Kaito, or for as many different body types and faces, we don't actually know the true extent of her ability. So, to be safe, please never assume that the person you're talking to is truly themselves until verified with face pinching and the code words that we'll establish for everyone by the end of today."
Next slide. "Hondou Hidemi, codenamed Kir. She's a member of the CIA and is currently undercover in the BO. Her cover was nearly blown, and getting her accepted back into the BO was extremely difficult. They're still suspicious of her, so we can't rely on her for much until the last moments."
Next slide: a question mark next to a picture of a bottle of rum. "Rum. The code name for the second-in-command of the BO. We don't know anything about them other than the code name and the fact that they supposedly only have one eye. We don't know anything at all about the boss. Now, unless anyone has anything to add, Haibara and Kaito have a few ideas for us about how we can start to gather more information about these guys."
Conan then hopped down from the table to be replaced by Haibara, who still carried an air of authority despite her discomfort.
"There are several tools we have at our disposal for our investigation," she began, and all that was missing from her unintentional impersonation of a college professor was the tenure. "Facial recognition. Cell phone tracking. Outright spying. Note that none of these methods will provide us with evidence acceptable to a court. Rather, this is meant to help us gather enough information to be able to safely plan the final takedown. We will have to acquire all the necessary evidence to convict during the takedown itself.
"We used facial recognition software to identify various members of the branch organization, and it may prove useful here as well. However, the BO does not often meet in areas with public or even privately available surveillance footage. This makes matters more difficult.
"Cell phone tracking, on the other hand, is trivial. Location permissions do not need to be enabled on the device. As long as we know the number of the cell phone, and it is connected to a cell network such that it is able to place and accept calls, then it is always traceable by triangulating its distance to each connected cell tower. I have worked with the Professor to develop malware that can identify the necessary signature of a cell phone if brought in close enough contact.
"However, we will NOT be using this strategy, as it is highly illegal. There is absolutely NO government clearance that will grant us permission to do this, so we will NOT use this method." Haibara's words were strict, authoritative, and accompanied by exaggerated slow nods every time she said 'not.' In other words, they would not officially use this method. Everyone understood, and Conan glanced around to affirm their implicit agreement. Takagi did shift uncomfortably, but, as expected, neither he nor Satou complained.
"Since we are NOT intending to do this," Haibara continued, "we will NOT be sending Kuroba-kun in disguise to make contact with each of the known members to begin tracing them. Therefore, we will NOT need Bourbon's assistance in identifying and locating said members."
"Hypothetically, I would not agree to such a plan," Bourbon interjected. All eyes turned to him while he fixed his gaze on Kaito. "Not even a highly skilled pickpocket could accomplish such a task without catching the attention of any significant member of the BO."
"Oh~!" Kaito replied earnestly, "Oh, but I have all my credentials right here! Would you like to see?"
"'Credentials?" Bourbon repeated disdainfully. "What sort of 'credentials' could you possibly have for pickpocketing?"
"Well…" Kaito pulled out a simple black billfold wallet and began thumbing through it. "It seems I have… a membership card for the Beika public library. A driver's license, a boating license, a — awww, that's cu-uute! — a credit card with little dolphins on it! And — oooh! A bakery loyalty card that's only two punches away from a free brownie~!"
By now, Bourbon had frantically turned out every single one of his pockets and was spluttering in shock as several of the others began snickering at him.
"Wha— how did you— but when?! You never even got behind me! How did—!?"
Conan joined in on the growing laughter at the PSB agent's expense. He would have thought it utterly impossible to fluster the man to this extent, but leave it to Kaito to find a way to accomplish it.
"Give that back!" Bourbon demanded furiously.
"Are my credentials sufficient for you~?"
"Yes, fine, I admit it, you should be able to manage the task. Now give me back my wallet, thief!"
"Hmm, ok, but I'm keeping the bakery card~"
"Like hell you are! I earned that brownie!"
"Kaito," Conan interrupted before the argument could escalate. "Give the wallet back, including the card."
"But—"
"I'll buy you a brownie later."
"Oh, like a date?" Kaito asked eagerly. Conan snapped his head around to stare at him in wide-eyed disbelief. Kaito seemed to realize what he'd said a second too late and shrugged sheepishly.
"It sounds like a date," Sera commented helpfully.
"It's not a date," Conan shot back, just a little too loudly and quickly.
"Of course it's a date," Haibara announced calmly. "They go on dates all the time."
"Haibara!" Conan growled. He made a quick mental note to strangle her later, then addressed the others again, "It's not a date!"
"But you are dating?" Jodie asked, with the air of someone just wanting to confirm something they already knew.
"No!" Conan exclaimed firmly.
"That's an awful lot of flirting for people who aren't dating," Satou muttered to Takagi in a stage whisper meant to be overheard. There was scattered snickering and murmurs of agreement from the room.
"Let's stop talking about this!" Conan interrupted, cheeks burning, and was horrified to discover that his voice was an octave higher than normal. He cleared his throat. "It's not a date. Kaito, give the wallet back. Haibara, please continue what you were saying."
"Hmm," Haibara took half a moment to compose herself and try to clear the delighted smirk off her face before resuming her lecture. "Yes, regarding the last point of outright spying on the organization. Although it would otherwise not be possible, Kuroba-kun has generously offered his assistance in a way that should make it feasible. Kuroba-kun?"
"Thank you, Ojousan." Kaito stepped easily into the center of attention like he was made for it, paused for dramatic effect, then announced simply, "Doves~!"
"Doves?" Hakuba repeated skeptically, raising an eyebrow.
"That's ridiculous!" Bourbon scoffed. "Anybody would notice if spy doves started following them around! Worse, they would immediately know exactly who was spying on them!"
"Oh, not at all! You see, my doves are special. They're only seen when they want to be seen. Isn't that right, my little darlings?" With that, he threw his arms wide open, and more than a dozen birds somehow materialized from hiding places around the room to flock to his arms and shoulders. Several settled into the natural nest of his hair, and he began to gently pet one cupped in his hand.
"The idea is that the birds can be fitted with micro recorders and transmitters designed by the Professor, and then sent to either follow or listen in on various BO members as needed. Apparently they're smart enough to not get too close and are able to escape when necessary," Conan explained.
"But that still doesn't solve the problem of their distinctive color," Akai commented. "Even if they remain hidden while spying, they would surely be seen when they leave."
"Behold! I shall now transform this brilliant white dove into… an ordinary pigeon!" And, because he couldn't do anything in a non-showy manner, Kaito held a dove high up in his hand, magically produced a colorful handkerchief to cover it, imitated a drum roll, then lifted the cloth to reveal a small but otherwise entirely unremarkable pigeon.
"Ta-daaa~! It's a food-safe dye," he explained proudly. "It won't hurt the bird, lasts a few days at a time, is water-resistant, and isn't detectable by the eye. Unless you lick the bird, you'd never even notice it!"
Several of the group actually applauded, causing Conan to wonder at the wisdom of including too many KID fans on the team. Well, he had to take what he could get.
They continued with plans and details for the rest of the evening, only breaking briefly for dinner.
—
The only other hitch in the meeting occurred when Bourbon was finally confident enough with their plans to reveal Rum's identity.
"The truth is that you've already met him," he told Conan. "He's currently using the name Wakita Kanenori."
Conan paled and shrank back. "What? Him?"
"You know him, Shinichi?" Yuusaku asked.
"Yes," he answered, forcing his voice to remain steady so that Haibara wouldn't panic. "We've met multiple times already. He seems really interested in Occhan and has even followed us on several cases."
"It is a perilous situation," Bourbon stated solemnly, "but the good news is that he's not yet suspicious of you. He's just a very thorough person and wants to make sure Mouri isn't a threat. As long as you're careful to keep up your 'little kid' act, you should be safe."
Conan felt his shoulders sag as he sighed in relief. "Got it. I'll be careful."
"What is he like? If he's been shadowing Mouri on cases, is he also posing as a wannabe detective?" Akai asked, effortlessly ignoring the death glare that Bourbon shot him for that.
"No," Conan answered. "He's pretending to be a sushi chef who's just a fan of mysteries. He keeps 'coincidentally' making deliveries right as Occhan gets a case."
"Is something the matter?" Hakuba asked in a curious and faintly concerned tone, causing everyone to follow his gaze to where Kaito was standing with a grim expression, suddenly rigid and pale.
"Kaito?" Conan immediately turned his full attention to his friend, desperate to fix whatever was upsetting him. "What's wrong?"
Chikage let out a stifled giggle, and everyone else turned to look at her. "Oh, it's just because of the sushi," she said dismissively. "He's afraid of fish."
There was half a beat of silence, then several simultaneous mutters of "huh" and "what?" and even some snorts of laughter.
"Wait, that's a joke, right?" Satou asked incredulously, her expression stuck somewhere between amusement and confusion. "I mean, there's no way, right?"
"I think it's actually kinda funnier if it's not a joke!" Sera laughed.
Conan opened his mouth to try to cut off their laughter, but his attention was captured again when he noticed Kaito jerk his head down to scowl at the floor.
"But why fish?" Jodie asked in bewilderment.
"Who knows?" Chikage shrugged, seemingly entertained by the situation.
"I just don't like them, ok?" Kaito muttered angrily, blushing furiously and still refusing to look up.
"Fascinating…" Haibara muttered to herself as she pulled out a suspicious notebook and began to write something down.
"I don't understand," Hakuba said, helplessly confused to the point of distress. "Sushi restaurants do not generally keep live fish. It's not possible for them to hurt you."
"I know, I just… the smell…" Kaito defended weakly, hunching his shoulders and hugging one arm anxiously.
Sera burst into a fresh wave of laughter that took a moment to recover from before she could share the joke. "Ah, the irony is just too good! To think, we could've saved so much money on fancy security systems and protected the jewels better by just ordering takeout while we waited!"
Conan was about ready to erupt from the intense surge of protective anger rising in him, but Bourbon spoke first.
"As funny as all of this is," Bourbon said in a cold and vindictive tone, "and it is very funny — it is also a serious problem for the mission. How do you intend to do your job if you can't get near the prime target?"
"It's not a problem!" Conan responded fiercely before Kaito had a chance to react. "Rum has been pretending to be interested in the detective agency, so I'll just get Occhan to invite him out to a case soon. Easy!"
"But what if something else—" Bourbon started, but Conan cut him off.
"Then we'll figure something else out when we need to! It's not a problem," Conan shot back, hoping the venom in his tone would dissuade any further jokes or arguments from the group.
Bourbon met his eyes, and they glared at each other for a minute in silent contention. Finally, Bourbon caved and looked away with a disgruntled "Tsk."
Conan swiftly moved on to the next discussion point before anyone could add on to this particular topic. He purposely avoided looking at Kaito, even though he was aware that the magician was staring intensely at him. It seemed likely that Kaito's expression at that moment would throw him off balance again, and he'd already made that mistake once tonight.
—
By the time they finally ended the meeting for the evening, everyone was so exhausted that Satou nearly forgot about getting that autograph. Nearly.
She paused halfway through putting on her jacket, gasped loudly, then quickly rummaged through her purse for her notebook and pen. Kaito watched her, waiting patiently with an angelic expression — a dead giveaway that he had planned some sort of mischief. This was proved correct when Satou opened her notebook to find every single blank page already littered with KID caricatures.
Satou stared at the notebook for a moment, then burst out laughing. She pulled out a pen and asked if Kaito could address one of them to a friend of hers. He gladly agreed, only for the pen to turn into a dove and fly away with a burst of confetti. Then Sera ran up to join the fun, and now Jodie, Camel, Agasa, Takagi, and Yukiko had gathered to watch the impromptu magic show and form a queue for autographs.
Conan sat on the edge of the folding table, elbow against his bended knee to rest his head in his hand, while the fingers of the other hand drummed against the table in irritation. He scowled at the group standing around his celebrity criminal. Really, there was no harm in it, and it had nothing to do with him anyway… but it still bothered him.
Until Kaito tilted his head back over his shoulder to catch Conan's gaze and smile that incredible sunshine smile at him. Conan found himself smiling back just as warmly, all traces of anger gone. Well… if the fans and autographs made Kaito that happy, they couldn't be all bad, he supposed.
Conan was so engrossed in his thoughts about Kaito that he never noticed a second group of people watching him with silent amusement at the expression on his face.