File Forty-Four: Blue Sky, Blue Sea, Blue Wonder
"Thank you.
─ Class 1-A, Mouri Ran."
Mouri Ran just looked back that the note right in front of her eyes, blinking confusedly a few times before moving to look at the boy that stood right behind. He wasn't looking at her, and seemed to be rather annoyed for some reason.
"Kobayashi-sensei gave me extra homework."
Even though he was pretty sure that the teacher was just interested in that mystery note they had found inside a wallet at the library.
"Why did she give you extra homework?" her expression went a bit more stern.
"No reason."
"Conan-kun..."
"... I kind of fell asleep in class?"
"Conan-kun!"
The loudness of her voice caused the little boy to wince, letting his head drop as he simply listened through Ran's angry rant. What do you expect? I stayed up last night until four in the morning then passed out in a locker, he thought, but couldn't really say out loud.
Unless he wanted to risk a year-long grounding and several questions he knew he couldn't answer without extending that grounding to a lifetime.
"Kobayashi-sensei said she would overlook it," as soon as he saw an opening in Ran's one-sided conversation, Conan butted in. "If I managed to find out what was that thing doing there."
"... Kobayashi-sensei is a bit weird sometimes, isn't she?"
"Maybe you should look for a stronger word."
"Well, I guess I could tell you about that," she shrugged. "It's just a silly case Shinichi and I got involved with when we were about your age."
Now, Conan was curious. He said nothing, just watching as the girl seemed to remember, unaware of the fact that her lips were curving at the memory or the wistful look on her eyes, that then vanished with a shocked gasp. "Ah, I forgot!" she suddenly stood up. "I'm going with Sonoko to the movies tonight!"
"There's still time until then, isn't it? It's only three in the afternoon," Kogoro grumbled, from his spot behind a newspaper. "I don't get why you're in such a hurry."
"I have so many things to do, and I completely forgot to make dinner for you two!" she explained, rushedly. "So the only thing you need to do is heat it."
"Don't worry, Ran-neechan," Conan assured. "I can cook for both of us myself."
"Thank you, Conan-kun!" she beamed. "You're always so dependable..." a glare was sent to Kogoro's direction, but he didn't seem to notice. "Unlike some people."
"Actually," the adult in the room completely ignored that last comment. "Cook just for yourself, brat. I'm going out today."
Quite honestly, Conan wasn't that surprised about it, so he just shrugged, feeling actually a bit glad that he was going to have the house for himself, in silence and peace.
It had been a tiring day, after all.
But Ran didn't seem to be okay with that, however.
"Dad! Don't tell me you're going to play mahjong again!"
"Ah, no. Not today," Kogoro's face went more serious with those words. "There's some stuff I want to do."
While the teenage girl loudly opposed her father, clearly not wanting to let that go, the elementary student simply watched the older detective, curious eyes not failing to notice that there was an expression on his face that he rarely had ─ he wasn't cowering in fear at his daughter's anger, his eyes looked... rather solemn, actually.
It kind of made Conan want to know what he was thinking about.
Look at him. Occhan is actually thinking... What a shocker.
"I guess there's no helping it," finally, Ran gave up. "That's decided, then. You're coming with us, Conan-kun."
"... Eh?"
"I'm not comfortable with the idea of leaving you here all alone at night, and I can't just cancel," she offered him an apologetic smile. "Besides, I don't think Sonoko would mind-"
"She will," his voice was plain. "And I will, too."
Ran huffed tiredly, having already expected such a response from that boy, and imagining a similar reaction coming from her best friend when she showed up with Conan at the cinema.
"You're still coming along, Conan-kun. That's final."
It was Conan's turn to huff, as he crossed his arms in front of his chest, not quite realizing he was looking just like a petulant child right now ─ which amused Ran to no end but didn't let it show, doing her best to keep her stern posture in. He didn't talk for a few seconds, just looking anywhere but her face, and she could tell he was probably resigning himself.
"... Please don't tell me it's another of those American romance movies..."
"Perhaps you can think of it as a punishment for sleeping in class."
Now, it was official. Conan genuinely wanted to cry.
On the bright side, Conan got to hear all about his brother's adventure with Ran when they were younger. As the two walked to the cinema Sonoko was waiting at, the girl retold the entire story, slightly frowning in confusion when telling him that the criminal had introduced himself as Shinichi's 'younger brother' ─ whatever that meant ─ then eyes twinkling as she told the little boy about the different places they visited, or even giggled upon remembering that Shinichi had read some kanji wrong, despite being so certain that he was doing it right.
The story ended very beautifully, with the two children gazing at the sunset and calling each other by they first names.
"That's probably a much better love story than the one I'm going to witness in a few hours..." he commented, under his breath.
"Conan-kun, you know it's not like that!"
He just gave the girl a long look, that only managed to get Ran to blush even more.
From that point on, everything else seemed to go smoothly, even if a bit dull for the young boy. They met Sonoko ─ who, naturally wasn't pleased at all for the youngester's appearance, and to be fair so was he ─ and headed to the movie theater, where he was forced to sit through three entire hours full of accidental kisses, hugs and promises for eternal love that most girls seemed to enjoy a lot.
He might have nodded off a few times, he wasn't sure.
At least, nobody got murdered today, Conan shrugged as they walked out the cinema, partly grateful for the unusually normal day.
Normalcy wasn't a luxury Conan could afford, however. Proof was what happened then.
As they were walking back home at some hour in the night, a random bulgar bumped into Sonoko and ran off with her bag. Of course Ran took of running after him with a look that promised a world of pain for the poor, poor criminal, followed by Conan and Sonoko.
It wasn't her who stopped the robber. It was a dog.
Yes, a dog ─ the owner had called him Lupin ─ had just jumped out of the sidecar of a moving motorcycle and attacked the criminal. The child and Ran simply stared at the old man that stepped out of his vehicle, wearing a smug grin on his face, before restraining the bulgar against the floor.
To their surprise, Sonoko seemed to recognize him. "Jirokichi-ojisama!"
"Oh, aren't you Shiro's daughter?" Jirokichi smiled at her. "I haven't seen Shiro-san in a while!"
Apparently, the old man was Suzuki Jirokichi, Sonoko's paternal uncle, as well as an advisor to Suzuki Corporation, who was supposed to be on a trip around the world. He told them that he had found the thing he was searching the world for. The perfect bait, he had called it.
Once they were on his mansion, they saw it. Among the several pictures, trophies and other figures that were probably worth more than Conan's head, there was a golden sculpture.
The child observed it looked like a woman holding a beautiful blue gem on her hand which, according to the legend, was made from mermaid tears.
"The name it has been given is Blue Wonder."
Blue Wonder... Conan couldn't really look away, and apparently the other two girls could either. Just perfect for a lousy thief like him... Wait a second, is this...?
"This is the bait for attracting that guy," as if he was reading his mind, the old man spoke. "After living here for 72 years, nothing has escaped me. Yes, I have captured everything in the world that I've wanted. That guy is the only one I can't capture."
Hey, hey... Don't tell me that guy is the guy I'm thinking of...
"No matter the strength of the safe or the amount of guards, he can steal it from the sky dressed even in white..."
Oh, goodness. He is.
"His name is Kaito KID!"
Predictable.
Rolling his eyes and feeling what was left of his good mood seeping away at the mention of that name, Conan simply turned around and absentmindedly strolled around, absently taking on all those other treasures while ignoring the squeals of excitement coming from Sonoko's lips at the mention of her moonlight idol.
Wherever he's involved, trouble is sure to come, he rolled his eyes. And, unlike me, he purposely does his best to make everyone's life as difficult as possible.
Half opened eyelids glanced over his shoulder, where Jirokichi was still talking with the other two girls and sighed,completely exhausted. As if he's going to fall into such an obvious trap.
His surprise had been big however when the thief in white accepted the challenge the old man had posted on the newspaper. Ran, on the other hand, wasn't that shocked, considering that Sonoko had told her already and forwarded her the magician's message, which Kogoro read out loud:
"It's my pleasure to accept your challenge.
I'll appear at 8:00 PM on February 25th.
Expect my first appearance the eve just before.
─ Kaito KID."
"He's as annoying as ever," Kogoro commented.
"... I can't believe that I'm agreeing with Occhan," huffed Conan, under his breath.
"What was that?!"
"... I said that there's a P.S. at the end," the lie rolled easily off his tongue.
To be fair, there actually was something else under KID's ever-irritating doodle of himself.
"P.S: Just like Blue Wonder's name, I'll walk in from the sky..."
Conan's eyes widened, slightly, as he read the message by himself to realize that, yes, Kogoro had just read it right. He was going to walk there.
What...
"I hope you come to one of my heists one day, Tantei-kun," he had written a few months previous from this moment.
To the genius elementary school student, the thief was no more than an nuisance. An arrogant criminal that was probably bored sick so decided to start this routine. Waltzing inside wherever the heist would take place in and disappear with the jewel on his hand.
The worst of all was that the stolen gem would reappear somewhere. He couldn't even be like any other thief and sell it in the black market or something. No. He had to return it, humiliating everyone even further. As if it was a game to him.
Justice itself seemed to be a mere joke to him.
At the end, he was nothing but a criminal who used different tricks in order to deceive people, and Conan thought he ought to be used with that kind of mindset already.
But he was so, so exasperating...
He hasn't even arrived and I'm already getting a headache, he groaned, holding Ran's hand as he helped him pass through the crowd of fans awaiting the arrival of their favourite magician. Why am I here, even?
Ah, right. Ran insisted to have her father come and help out. Conan was dragged along because of that.
At least, he didn't have to pass through the painful check all other people had to go through. KID couldn't really disguise himself as a little child without shrinking somehow, after all.
While Sonoko introduced Kogoro to Jirokichi, Conan simply looked around, a bored expression etched on his face. As Inspector Nakamori had loudly complained a few minutes ago, several helicopters were roaming around, which should be good if they belonged to the police. They were brought by Jirokichi, though, so he could film KID's defeat for his autobiographical movie. Conan had to roll his eyes at that.
The group was led then to the ban, where the screens showed everything that the helicopters and the security cameras of the museum filmed, and Conan was honestly glad that he was away from the constant fangirling screams that had been blasting on his ears again and again.
His eyes fell on one of the screens and blinked. There was a figure, small and almost unrecognizable because of the distance, passing right in front of the full moon.
"He's here," came the flat, young voice.
The camera zoomed in and they saw his face. Sonoko beamed at the sight of KID's unmistakable grin.
Isn't that cheating? Conan thought, unamused. He said he would be walking, yet he's soaring through the sky in his paraglider as if he was ET... Only more showy and annoying.
... What is he trying to pull off?
He wouldn't admit, not even to himself, but he was feeling slightly curious about it now.
That might have been the reason he followed Nakamori out the trailer, who had rushed off when told that the thief was currently behind the museum. He eventually stopped running, standing in the middle of the crowd, eyes peeled and waiting for the magician to come out.
And he did. With a poof of smoke, hands inside his pockets and an arrogant smirk on his face ─ now, Conan couldn't actually see his face, but he was pretty confident that it was there.
Conan could only stare, shocked. The thief seemed to be standing in the air, unfazed by the helicopter that floated right above him, and around.
Don't be fooled by this cheap trick, he scolded himself. His body is just hung by wires attached to each building.
The inspector seemed to jump into the same conclusion, ordering the officer to check for wires in one of the buildings before going to the other himself. Just as he obeyed, Conan also did the same, rushing up the stairs, two at a time, until he reached the roof.
Both the officer and child were rendered speechless when they realized they couldn't see a wire.
"Ladies and gentlemen!" KID's voice resounded in the entire place, successfully causing the entire crowd to clap and squeal even louder than before. "Alright everyone. I hope you enjoy the miracle you're about to witness."
Even if he didn't realize it himself, Conan's eyes widened behind his glasses, unable to conceive the thought that this was actually happening.
KID was walking. Slowly strolling over the large multitude of fans that simply watched, astonished and amazed, as he moved. Silent with shock, hearing actual steps sounding while the magician walked in mid air, closer and closer to the Blue Wonder, that Jirokichi had put in the roof of the building.
Scowling lightly, the little boy descended down the stairs in a heartbeat and returned to the crowd, watching as a mechanism hid the Blue Wonder away from the thief, who simply stopped.
And grinned.
Bending down, Conan activated his shoes.
KID glanced back at the crowd, from over his shoulder, and, for a brief moment, Conan genuinely believed the magician was looking right at him.
"The show for tonight has concluded," he then declared. "Let's do this once more, at 8:00 PM tomorrow, alright?"
With another poof of smoke, Kaito KID vanished into the thin air, leaving to the child to scold, irritation pumping through his blood even more.
But there was a part of him, a tiny little one, that was actually interested about that trick.
The gears started turning on his head, doing their best to figure that out.
Loads of things happened after the trick the magician had pulled out.
Not all of them were that interesting, such as finding out that Jirokichi used contacts ─ which would have been shattered beyond repair if Lupin hadn't stopped Kogoro from stepping on them. Or that the reason he wanted to catch the thief so badly was because he, despite his many, many accomplishments, had never made into the front page of the papers because KID would be the center of attention.
The day for the real heist came around and the crowd was as huge as ever, if not bigger. None of them had to go through any trouble to see KID amongst the multitude, because they got some special seats in the roof.
There it was. A table in the middle of the room with an umbrella on top and everything ─ including a butler to welcome them and offer them drinks. Sonoko, of course, didn't seem to be bothered about it.
Suddenly, Ran's hat was blown off by a strong breeze. "I'll get it for you," the boy declared, hopping off his seat. He received an apologetic look from the girl's part.
As he went to gather it, something caught his eye. Totally forgetting about the lost hat, he crouched next to the wall and noticed them. Two marks. Fresh.
Suddenly, everything began to make sense. He couldn't help it ─ his lips twitched upwards on their own.
"Conan-kun?" he blinked when he heard Ran's voice. "What about my hat?"
"Ah!" he instantly stood up. "Sorry, got distracted!"
Luckily for both of them, her hat had gotten struck on the grid. So, with a nervous laugh, he passed it back to the girl, who simply giggled as she accepted it, before settling back on his place. At this point, Kogoro was commenting something about the trick KID was using, wondering how he had done it.
"Really," Ran commented. "Through all of this, he never used a prop, huh?"
"He must have used one," Conan pipped in, with a smile on his face, then continued, as an afterthought. "If we humans could roam the skies so freely... the birds would be surprised, huh?"
He immediately regretted saying those words.
"Conan-kun, you talk so cute," Ran giggled again, while Sonoko and Kogoro gave him a questioningly look.
"I mean," he fought back a light blush, embarrassed by his childish comment. "They could be startled badly enough and trigger a fight or flight response, right? For his sake, I hope is the latter. I don't think getting pecked to death is a painless way to go."
"Conan-kun..." Ran tried to reason with him. If she didn't know any better, she would have said the child was hoping for the other option. At least, not to death, she believed ─ hoped.
"This is getting a bit dark," Kogoro scoffed.
"Ran," Sonoko gave her friend a pointed look. "That kid is not cute at all."
"Anyway," the child continued, completely unfazed by their opinion. "I found some marks. Maybe KID has something to do with them?"
It turned out the very same marks were present on the other building as well, yet the mystery continued unresolved. So, with a sigh, the child resigned to watch the TV that had been set on their table. They saw as Jirokichi arrived on his motorcycle, and Conan noticed something.
The old man wasn't using his goggles.
He jumped off Ran's lap at that, claiming that he had thought of something interesting and wanted to talk to Jirokichi about that. There, he asked to watch the videos from yesterday of KID, only to be told that they didn't have them around.
He genuinely whined at that.
Then, the time for the show came up. Just like yesterday, KID appeared with a poof of smoke, standing in mid air. Is that jerk pulling the same trick again?
It started to rain right after that, yet KID remained perfectly still. Just then, the transmission from the helicopter number 7 went out. They claimed the water had likely disrupted it.
"No, it's more likely that KID's assistants interfered with the signal," Nakamori stated, frowning.
"Eh?" Conan couldn't help but blink. "Assistants?"
"Yeah, even though we're not sure if it's a young woman or an old man. We're sure he has at least one."
An assistant... That changed things, by a whole lot.
Still shocked by the revelation, Conan looked back at the screen, noticing for the first time that the helicopter whose transmission had gotten disrupted just happened to be the one hovering over him.
KID started walking. The helicopter started advancing at the same pace.
And the pieces of the puzzle had finally fit together in Conan's young mind.
Kaito KID was long gone by the time Suzuki Jirokichi made his way through the street, sitting on his motorcycle. Glancing over to the passenger seat, he couldn't help but laugh, loudly, at the sight of the one and only Blue Wonder at his side.
When a young voice suddenly rang through his ears, the old man froze.
"What's so funny..." from under the sheets that were all around the golden statue, a tiny head popped out. Blue eyes pierced right through his face, and a smirk didn't take long to appear. "... Kaito KID-san?"
"W-What are you talking about?" he defended himself. "I'm laughing because I saved the jewel from KID."
"Stupid, you can't save a jewel from yourself," his eyes rolled. "Next time you try to pretend to be someone that wears contacts, try not to forget to put on your goggles. It's painful for people with contact lenses to ride without them, you know."
Jirokichi ─ KID? ─ let out a loud laugh at that. "I can't be KID. Wasn't I standing near you when KID appeared earlier? I was there when he performed his miracle last night as well."
"Rather than a 'miracle', I would call it a simple trick," Conan's arms crossed behind his head. "Accomplice gets hired by Suzuki Corporation. You take a hook attached to a wire, latch it to one of the buildings before returning to the helicopter, then land to the other, connect a wire to the other. You ride the wire to the middle of the building, make your overly dramatic entrance. Helicopter takes you around while you show off your acting skills and pretend to walk. A bit of smoke, then disappear. Piece of cake."
The old man scoffed. "Why didn't you see the wires when you were at the roof?"
"Amateur mistake," Conan shifted uncomfortably. "I was surprised to see you there, so I didn't notice," he then shrugged. "Well, you did a bit of a stupid mistake as well by forgetting to put on your goggles, so I guess we're even, huh?"
"No, I didn't forget," he pulled the goggles to his face. "I just couldn't wear them," with a grin, he pulled his mask off. "Because it would ruin my disguise."
The wristwatch was pointed right at KID at that instant. It didn't seem to faze the thief, however.
"Aren't you nice?" Conan said, sarcastically. "You're basically leaving your assistant to deal with the police and the helicopters all alone."
"It's alright, the police must be panicking. They're confused by the many Number 7's."
"The many...? Ah, I see. So you placed pastes of the real numbers atop the fakes, huh?"
"Bingo," KID just grinned. "Now, my colleague will be able to escape. It really is the Blue Wonder. It helped me escape from the sky."
"What are you even talking about? Blue Wonder refers to the sea, not the sky," Conan's eyebrow raised. "And here I thought you have done your homework..."
"But aren't they the same? The blue of the ocean is reflected from the sky," KID's smirk widened as he said that. "And it's the same with thieves and detectives... They appear to be as different as heaven and earth, but if you look closely you'll see they're both insolent fellows who use the key of curiosity to pry open something that someone else wants to keep shut."
The child scoffed at that, feeling bit disgusting the thought of being compared to someone like him.
"Stupid. The blue of the sky and the sea are from colour's diffusion and reflection. It's because they're completely different substances. They're not the same thing at all," then added, with an annoyingly flat tone. "Fish tank water is not blue, now, is it?"
An exasperated sigh was out of KID's lips at that. "You can't dream, can you?"
"It's not my problem if you dream too much."
KID simply stared into this child's far-too seeing eyes, whose wristwatch was firmly pointing at his face, and mentally sighed. Keeping up a poker face around this one was more than a bit hard, and his mind was still running, trying to figure out when was the right moment to put his escape plan in action.
"Challenging hecklers who interfere with your magic are always a pain to deal with. Thinking you'll floor them right away is the height of foolishness," his recorded father's words, which he had heard just this morning, ran through his mind. "There's the type that is so curious they can't stand not knowing the trick, even if it means interfering with the magic."
"You know, I'm actually a bit hurt," continued the thief, pulling out an offended expression, that was so deliberately fake that caused the child to give him a blank stare. "You make it look as my trick is so easy to pull off... It took a lot out of me to execute it properly, you know."
"Isn't how all magic tricks are supposed to be?" Conan pointed out. "Terribly difficult for the performer, but seemingly easy for the eyes of the others..."
For some reason KID was unable to comprehend, the young boy's voice trailed off into silence, as his eyes widened dramatically, like realization had just stuck him hard.
... Easy.
The last clue of Oniichan and Ran-neechan's challenge was a bit too easy, in comparison with others... Why would that person make it like that?
S → W... Turning ninety degrees? What, exactly?
Now, the location they visited were...
Blinking cluelessly, KID felt his poker face shattering as puzzlement took over. Not that he could be blamed, considering the miniature detective had just stopped pointing at him with that wristwatch. He had pulled out a notepad and a pen he carried inside his pocket instead.
"... Tantei-kun...?"
"Shut up," he barked at him. "Just for once in your life, try."
"O-Okay."
Like so, the magician just stupidly watched the boy scribbling a bunch of symbols that had nothing with do with the task on hand. When finished, he turned them over, and gasped.
... Oxhide?
"Alright," KID's voice brought him out of his thoughts. "Considering your attention has drifted somewhere else..."
There was a mechanical sound, then Conan saw that seat he was sitting in separating from the bike. He made a startled noise, as he found himself left behind, before frowning and taking action.
"The show is over for today!" KID yelled from over his shoulder, a big grin etched on his face as he looked at the little detective trying to regain control of the moving part of the motorcycle, only managing to produce some sparks instead. "Bye-bye, Tantei-kun~!"
His smile was wiped out of his face when he saw a line of flames lighting up, rapidly getting closer and closer. That bastard! he realized. He hit the tank!
So he began to drive away as fast as he could. Not fast enough it seemed, however. Poker face completely gone at this point, he genuinely screamed.
Conan ran up to the place the explosion had taken place, then stopped in his tracks, watching the white figure flying away from the scene. For a few moments, he didn't move, just stared blankly at the flames that danced right in front of his eyes.
... Maybe I went a bit overboard?
Meanwhile, Kaito sighed, wiping the sweat that had rolled down his forehead. The decoy had worked, it seemed, because he could see the boy was glancing up the sky, eyes not leaving the mannequin he had set off a few seconds after escaping, rolling under the bridge.
That kid... is quite a handful.
"For them, don't be bound by theory, but to intoxicate them with a display of brilliant magic that verges on the impossible," he recalled the rest of Kuroba Toichi's message. "If you can do that, your troublesome heckler will turn into an ardent fan."
In the darkness of the night, the vicious flames gave out a warm glow, illuminating everything around them. Thanks to that faint light, KID could make out the figure of the young boy and the deeply carved frown on his face.
That was until, without the kid noticing himself, a small, but clearly visible, smile adorned his features.
"This is how a true magician ought to be."
Kaito let a chuckle of his own rip away from his throat.
What kind of magic should I use to boggle his mind next time?
A/N:
GhostDespair: I'm not sure about it. I've actually thought about it, since I believe it was interesting to write that, but I don't know if it would be relevant in the story. I might do it in the future, but I'm not making any promises XD
ajjr12: Thanks for sharing those ideas! I will think about them ;)