Prompt Exchange 2: A Twist in the Story
Dec 21, 2015 0:21:20 GMT
neonquincy1217 and twinborn like this
Post by assasin8 on Dec 21, 2015 0:21:20 GMT
Prompt: "Soulmate!AU with either ShinKai, HakuKai, or Akemi/Shuichi wherein each soulmate has the first words to them by the other tattooed on their wrists."
OK! So, I already know for a fact that this is riddled with errors in grammar, spelling, pacing, and storytelling, but it's past the deadline, so I'm posting what I got! (formatting this is actually what took time....) I took a lot of creative liberty with this, and the first words were kind of a stretch since I took them from the manga, but I hope that's not a major problem. Whoever sent this prompt, I'm really sorry!
Edit: Ok, one week and soooooo many words later, here's the rest of the story! The pacing is still painful to look at, and I'll have to go back and do some reformatting for the words that should be in italics, but I've got most of it here! (I say most of it because my ipad died before the last few hundred words or so could sync, but my family's about to go on a 7 hour long car ride, and I'm trying really hard not to get disqualified... I might still disqualified actually, but I'm still trying ^_^ Last second edits will be done though! I swear it! Sorry that this ended up being a 12k monster... I can sympathize with Mikau, writing can just go and go and go... but the difference between me and her is that she can actually write quality stuff!
Also, sorry in advance for the pacing, and thank you for the prompt!
---
'Your time is up, KID!'
Kaito had never really known what to make of his soulmate tattoo. He had been a clever child with a wild imagination from a young age, but even he was at a bit of a loss when it came to deciphering the clues hidden in the phrase written neatly on his wrist. Is he being chased or something when he meets his soulmate? Maybe they were playing a game, and his code name was "KID?" For some reason, the word "KID" was the only word written differently from the rest. It was especially odd when Kaito became old enough to recognize that the letters were foreign and asked his father what the word meant. His parents had always gotten this weird look whenever his soulmate tattoo came up, but Toichi simply told his son that "kid" meant "child" in English. After that he asked Kaito if he wanted to learn how to use a hanglider, which was admittedly a little random, but Kaito completely forgot about his soulmate tattoo for the rest of the day.
It was only nine years after his father's death that everything made sense. The first tip had come when Aoko, who had seen his tattoo on a number of occasions, barged into the classroom, and demanded to know if he was secretly Kaito Kid after her dad failed to catch the thief the previous night. Luckily he actually hadn't been Kaito Kid at time, so he had been able to give her a solid, honest excuse. The second, more obvious clue was the discovery of the secret room Kaito found behind his dad's portrait. The tape recording left by his father and the suit that hung in the secret compartment of the room suggested a conclusion that Kaito wasn't sure he was ready to accept. The final piece of the puzzle fell into place and confirmed his thoughts when he met "Kaito Kid" on the rooftop and made the choice to become Kid himself. As he listened to Jii's story, his resolve solidified, but at the same time he couldn't help but laugh a little.
Did this mean his dad had known? Had his dad had predicted that Kaito would take up his father's mantle and find his soulmate in the process? Not only that, but his soulmate's first words now made a little more sense. It was a strong possibility that his soulmate was going to be chasing him or something... That could end up being problematic. After thinks about it, Kaito decided he would cross that bridge when he got to it. For now he was happy to focus on finding his father's killers. If he found his soul mate along the way, he wasn't going to complain.
...
Kaito didn't know this, but a month before he was born, some very good friends of his parents were getting ready to have a son as well. The mother was a former student of his father's, and she had made a name for herself as a reknown actress before marrying the author of the Night Baron series. A while before Kudo Yukiko went in to labor, her husband had ushered her and himself into a taxi headed for Beika General Hospital at full speed.
Now, despite the fact that it was the middle of the day, it was quite possibly the worst possible to be in a rush out on the streets. For one thing it had just started raining, and the streets were packed with cars. The taxi driver was also not the most careful driver they could've found. It was almost inevitable that the cab ended up crashing into the back of another car about halfway to the hospital.
The accident actually wasn't as bad as it could have been. Airbags saved the driver, whose worst injury ended up being a broken arm. Yukiko had gotten pretty lucky too. She had her seatbelt on, and ended up only suffering some minor cuts and a sprained ankle. The accident could have easily cost her her child, but later they found that somehow the baby had endured the shock of the accident. However, Yukiko had only been able to avoid the brunt of the glass and debris because her husband had shielded her a moment before the collision. He had seen it coming a second too late to warn the taxi driver to slow down, but Yuusaku managed to cover his wife before the car crashed. His back was severely cut up and bruised, and the bloody sight amongst the wreckage had been enough to make Yukiko pass out until the paramedics got them out of the ruined cab.
Not long after the ambulance brought Yukiko to her hospital room, she went into labor. The hospital pulled some medical staff together quickly, and about an hour later, Kudo Shinichi was born. Everyone thought that it was a miracle the child had survived. Yuusaku had run to find his wife's room as soon as he was able to, and once he and his wife confirmed that they were both alive and well, they turned their attention to the baby Yukiko had been rocking in her arms and gave him his name.
The Kudo family spent about a month not realizing there actually had been a problem. Shinichi hasn't been born with a soulmate tattoo, but that was no reason to be concerned. After all, it was actually perfectly normal for people who were older than their soulmates to not get their tattoo until their soulmate was born. Roughly a month after Shinichi was born, Yukiko noticed a series of black smudges on his wrist just before she gave him a bath. She figured maybe he had somehow gotten a hold of a pen or a marker or something, but no matter how much she scrubbed, the ink just wouldn't go away. Eventually she took the problem to Yuusaku, and when he also failed to clean the ink off, one thing led to another, and they ended up at a soulmate specialist's office.
After a round of questions and examining, the specialist came to the conclusion that the most likely explanation was that Yukiko's shock and concern about her soulmate at the time of the accident somehow transferred to her son and damaged his soulmate connection. There really wasn't anything anyone could do about it, and Yuusaku and Yukiko were both worried about how this would affect their son as he grew up.
The funny thing was, as Shinichi grew up, he wasn't inclined to let his blurred soulmate tattoo affect him at all. When his parents explained his situation to him, he was old enough to read, and therefore very capable of forming opinions. After some thinking, he decided that he didn't need to be able to read to be happy. After all, Sherlock Holmes never went looking for a soulmate. It was possible to be happy without one, right? So Shinichi moved on with his life, made regular friends, and pursued his dream of being a detective.
It was this kind of maturity and stubbornness that led Yuusaku and Yukiko to believe that Shinichi was perfectly capable of handling himself. Even if that wasn't aabreast parenting call, they weren't necessarily wrong. By the time he was fourteen, Shinichi was living alone and sustaining himself with take out, cup noodles, and the goodness of his best friend's heart. Ran wasn't meant to be his soulmate, but she was definitely the one of the most wonderful people to walk the face of the planet (except maybe when she made threatening craters in brick walls). By the time he was seventeen, Shinichi was regularly solving cases for the Tokyo Metropolitan Police.
It was during a visit to the police station that Shinichi convinced the head inspector to let him on a helicopter ride...
...
"Man, the inspector's really on his game tonight!" Kaito thought as he crawled through the clock tower vent. They had seen though his disguise and chased him into the vent. The police were never this good! "Or maybe he's getting advice from someone?" He considered. "But who could it be?"
He had to think fast. The it would be tough to lose them in the vents...
If memory served, and his always did, he should be approaching the end of the ventilation shaft soon. It was perfect, actually. He sped up his crawl and got out of the policemen's line of sight. He took off the air vent cover and pulled himself so that he was standing perfectly balanced on the edge of the air vent's frame. A few seconds later, a policeman poked his head out of the vent.
"This is Nakamura, I've lost sight of the target at the ventilation shaft's exit!" The policeman looked around for a minute as he listened for instructions. "Um, I'm at..."
"The east hallway on the 4th floor!"
The policeman looked up in shock as he heard his own voice finish his sentnence. Kaito smirked as he spoke into his radio.
"The target has taken off his police officer disguise and is currently escaping down the stairs! Please send back up immediately!"
The police man barely got the chance to stutter in utter disbelieve before he was knocked out with sleeping gas. Without wasting anytime, Kaito climbed into the adjacent vent (he couldn't really move with the officer in the way of the vent he has come through) and made his way to the room with an opening to the clock tower's face. No sooner had he jumped out of the vent, the room was flooded with pink sleeping gas, and the officers dropped like flies. He quickly made his way over to the hatch and threw up his smoke screen. In a flash, he had let the projection screen down and changed into his Kaito Kid outfit just as the clock struck twelve. By the time Nakamori had figured out what was going on and made his way to the clock face hatch, Kaito was already standing casually on the clock hands. The inspector only got a few words into his radio before it was shot out of his hand.
"My apologies, inspector, but I don't have the time to play with you all tonight. It looks like you've got a clever joker on your side tonight." Kaito tilted his head forward. "At any rate, if you're going to call for someone, you should solve the code on this clock here," he said as he tapped the clock with his foot.
"C-code?" Nakamori sputtered out. Kaito was feeling confident, but suddenly the wind around him picked up, and he heard the sound of nearby helicopters grow louder. Suddenly out of nowhere, there was the sound of a gunshot, and a corner of the projector screen fell.
"Crap! Theres a helicopter this close?!" Kaito thought as he looked around. "There's no way I can use the hang glider like this! What should I do? What should I do?!" His hand tightened on his card gun.
"It alright, I won't hit anyone!" A voice called through the noise of the helicopters. "Your time's up, Kid! Let's have a look at the mastermind!"
Kaito's eyes widened in shock. A tingling feeling went up the back of his neck and his heart skipped a beat. No way. Could it be...?
Well, there wasn't really time to dwell on that. Soulmate or not, Kaito had to get out of fast if he didn't want to end up in a jail cell. He timed his next actions carefully, and just as the person with the gun fired at another corner of the screen, Kaito shot two cards at the other corners. The screen fell, and Kaito let go of the clock hands and fell with it. It covered his change into civilian clothing and he guided it to fall on a tree, where he promptly climbed down and blended into the crowd.
Who had fired those shots? Was he actually Kaito's soulmate? Could it have been a coincidence? Honestly "your time's up Kid" could be said by anyone... But then again no one had ever been able to back him into a corner this, so no one had ever really had the chance.... And normally the police force yelled "we've got you now!" Or "you're not getting away this time." This was getting into logistics though. He was in foreign territory with this subject, so the best course of action would be to gather information. That's how he usually planned heists in unfamiliar places. So he could start by figuring out who the guy on the helicopter was, learning a little about him, and go from there. There was no need to panic.
At any rate, he was getting ready to surprise Aoko in front of the clock tower. All of this was for her after all. Maybe she wasn't meant to be his soulmate, but there was still nothing Kaito wouldn't do to make her happy. He had to have his poker face on. Hr checked to make sure his blue rose was in place, and started looking around for her in the crowd. it wasn't long before he found her standing next to Keiko with a dreamy, faraway look on her face. It was the perfect time to suddenly produce the blue rose he had been hiding in his sleeve. Aoko looked up in surprise.
"I'm Kuroba Kaito. Nice to meet you," he said with a smile. She smiled back. It was the most comforting sight he could hope to see.
...
Kudo Shinichi. Well known high school detective and "Savior of the Police," as many a newspaper article had dubbed him. He didn't even have to ask about him, Aoko wouldn't stop talking about the guy who had almost captured the elusive phantom thief that night. Apparently her dad wasn't anywhere near as much of a fan though.
At any rate, a look through some old news reports and police records revealed that this Shinichi guy was a resident of Beika and lived alone. His parents were a famous former actress and novelist, but they were currently abroad somewhere. From what Kaito could gather, Shinichi sounded kind of arrogant, but there was no denying he was incredibly intelligent. Kaito wondered if he should go and see what Kudo Shinichi was like for himself, but dealing with a detective in person sounded like a hassle. He was actually pretty close to deciding that coming into contact with the Detective of the East was an unlikely future event anyway, so there was no need to seek him out if it was just a coincidence. That was, of course, until the marketplace incident.
Aoko liked going to the local marketplace because she claimed that they had the freshest produce for the cheapest price. It helped that she knew pretty much everyone so she got discounts on everything. There were occasionally days that Kaito accompanied her to the market, usually because a) he's free and feeling kind, or b) what she buys will affect his dinner. Today happened to be one of those days, and Aoko was off getting bread at the bakery while Kaito waited for her outside. He was playing with a deck of cards when a voice suddenly broke his train of thought.
"Shinichi! What are you doing here? I told you I would be back in just a minute! Didn't you want to read that new book...?"
Kaito looked up to see a girl who actually looked a lot like Aoko with a different hair style. She had her hands on her hips and a couple grocery bags hanging from her arms. She was obviously talking to him, but Kaito still looked around to see if anyone else was in the immediate vicinity.
"Um, I’m sorry miss, but I'm not Shinichi..."
The girl seemed to pause for a minute before blinking and realizing her mistake.
"Oh, I'm so sorry! I'm here with my friend, and you look just like him! I should've realized that detective geek wouldn't just leave a bookstore... Sorry about that!" And with those words, she entered the bakery.
Kaito couldn't help but think about Kudo Shinichi when she was gone. "Wouldn't just be crazy if he had been the Shinichi she was looking for?" Now that he thought about it, the girl had called him a detective geek, hadn't she? No, there was no way. Coincidences weren't that crazy...
Just then, Aoko walked out of the shop. She had a bag with a couple loaves of bread plus a little pastry box.
"Alright! This looks like enough bread for the week! And I got a free dessert too!" Aoko held up the pastry box with a bright grin. "Let's see if the tomatoes are good today..."
The two made their way through the marketplace, chatting about what ever topics happened to come up. Within twenty minutes, both Kaito and Aoko had their hands full with bags of groceries. Aoko checked everything off her list of things to buy, just to make sure they weren't forgetting anything, and was about to declare it time to go home when Kaito realized he had forgotten to get a magazine his mom wanted. He gave Aoko an apology and asked her to go home first. After she disappeared, Kaito started towards the bookstore. Not five minutes after he started walking, a scream resonated throughout the marketplace.
"AHHHHHHHHHH!!!!"
Kaito jumped a little in surprise before taking off in the direction of the noise, and eventually he found the source of all the commotion. In front of a cafe, the corpse of a teenage girl in a cafe waitress uniform was laying face up on a coffee table. A knife was sticking out of her chest, and broken ceramic was scattered around the table. Kaito wasn't sure how to react. He was on the verge of throwing up, but it was impossible to look away. He had to work to keep a straight face and not panic. This was not a sight you saw every day.
Some people were looking up at the roof of the cafe and, to Kaito's surprise, there was a cafe employee standing there with a horrified look. He was a middle aged man with a slightly balding head. He looked down at the crowcrying wide eyes before suddenly running to the rooftop door and disappearing through it. The people in the crowd began to whisper nervously among themselves, until an authoritative voice broke through the noise.
"Everyone, please remain calm."
Every head turned in the direction of the voice to see none other than Kudo Shinichi himself making his way toward the corpse. The crowd made way for him, and after confiming that the victim was indeed dead and beyond any kind of help, Shinichi turned back around. "Ran," he said to someone nearby. It turned out to be the girl who had mistaken Kaito for Shinichi earlier. "Can you call the police?"
The girl, Ran, nodded her head quickly and turned away to make the call. She couldn't even form words until the the operator asked for her name and location. Shinichi then shifter his attention to the crowd. "Did anyone here see this happen?" He asked the people gathered around the victim. A couple of people raised their hands and stepped forward, but then suddenly the man who had been on the cafe rooftop burst through the front doors.
"I'm sorry! I didn't- I didn't mean to- is she really...?" the man trailed off as he laid his eyes on the body of the dead girl on the table. The gravity of the situation seemed to hit him as he fell to his knees and began apologizing profusely. Shinichi put hand on his shoulder and calmed him down enough to make the man stop blabbering. It was then that a young man in a café uniform, maybe twenty years old, came running out of the shop.
"Uncle! Did you really-? Are you really...?" he could hardly form a complete sentence.
The middle aged man hung his head with a conflicted look, but then he brought up his head and held it high. “Don’t worry about me. Please, go back inside, I’ll sort things out with the police when they get here.”
Before the other employee could add anything else, Shinichi stepped in and, after apologizing for the intrusion, asked the middle aged if he could answer some questions before the police arrived. The younger man, unable to say anything further, made his way over to the body of the dead girl rather than going back into the café as the older man had requested. He had an expression that reflected how Kaito felt when he first saw the body. Kaito wondered what it must be like to see someone you knew just suddenly dead like this…
Before his mind could start thinking anything especially dark, Kaito turned his attention to Shinichi and the man he was talking to. According to the man, who Kaito learned was named Kawahiro Jin, the female co-worker had gone to the roof and stayed up there even after her break ended. Kawahiro, whose break was next, went up to go find her and let her know they were switching off. He had brought a knife so that she could open some packages downstairs, but they ended up getting into an argument. Without even thinking, he had already stabbed and pushed her off the side of the building.
By the end of the story, people began to hear sirens approaching, and soon the police were on the scene.
Kaito had never really dealt with any of the police force outside of Nakamori’s division. He felt like he may have seen some of these officers in passing on a trip to the police station with Aoko or in disguise or something, but he wasn't really sure about any of their names. There was a chubby guy with a mustache, a chubby guy without a mustache, a woman, and a shy looking guy who walked behind her.
When the chubby guy with a mustache walked out of tthe police car, he immediately came up to Shinichi with a look of surprise. "Kudo-kun? What are you doing here?" Watching their interactions, Kaito couldn't help but wonder how often they met by chance at crime scenes.
The police asked the crowd to clear out and the people began to disperse. Before leaving, Kaito made sure to leave a listening device under a nearby table. He walked a few blocks to the bookstore and began to pretend to read some manga as he listened to the events happening back at the cafe.
Suddenly he heard Shinichi's voice. "Tanemura-san, do you mind if I sit here?"
Kaito's ears perked up a little. Had Shinichi decided not to stay for the conversation between the inspector and Kawahiro? He could only assume that "Tanemura" was the younger cafe worker who had exited the shop after Kawahiro. The guy had been sitting at a table and staring off into space ever since Shinichi went to talk to Kawahiro. Kaito was fairly sure that he hadn't moved from the spot when pretty much everyone else left. Tanemura didn't give an audible response, but Kaito heard metal chairs shifting, so the guy either nodded or Shinichi just took a seat anyway. The detective's voice spoke again.
"You know, it really surprises me that someone like Kawahiro-san would've killed someone in a fit of rage. I come here at least once a week, and I've never once seen him raise his voice at a customer."
There was a stagnant pause. After hearing no response, Shinichi continued.
"They're probably going to take him down to the police station for further questioning soon. The forensic department is doing investigations too. It's really noble of your uncle to take responsibility for his mistake, but I get the feeling that he's a man of good character in general. He helped you get a job here after all, right?"
Still nothing from Tanemura.
"I think it was smart of him to confess what happened rather than try to run away. If he pleads guilty, he'll get a lighter sentence, plus his conscience doesn't suffer. It's really honorable that he would choose to do the time in jail for an accident. That's not something a lot of people can do."
Another thirty seconds passed without a sound. Then Kaito heard an exasperated sigh.
"Well, this case shouldn't take up too much much of your time. The officers might ask you a few questions and run some tests, but luckily there isn't too much that needs to be clarified here. I'll really miss Kawahiro-san's coffee, but I'll have to learn to live without it for a while. I hope you have a nice rest of the day, Tanemura-san." And with that, there was the sound of shifting metal chairs again, and Kaito heard nothing but background noise for a full minute.
Suddenly, there was a loud static CRACK in Kaito's ear, and his reaction almost knocked a shelf of Kamen Yaiba manga onto the floor. He was able to catch them and put them back in an instant, but his ear was in pain for the next ten minutes. Who the hell had found his listening device?! That was actually painful. Kaito's ears were still ringing when he remembered he still hadn't gotten that magazine for his mom. He went over to the magazine section, grabbed what he needed, and got in line to pay for his stuff. As he waited for his turn at the counter, he couldn't help but notice when Shinichi and his friend, Ran, came walking down the street. Ran was talking with a concerned look on her face while Shinichi smiled casually and repeatedly tossed and caught something as they walked.
Kaito couldn't keep himself from staring as they walked by. Shinichi was without a doubt throwing his broken listening device in the air.
Suddenly Shinichi started looking around rapidly, and Kaito had to avert his gaze. Had he somehow sensed Kaito watching him? Kaito couldn't help feeling a little more curious about the detective. That curiosity was responsible for Kaito going to look through police files later the next day. It turned out that Tanemura had gone and told the police that he had actually been the one who killed his female co-worker that day. According to the file, Tanemura confessed to having been the one who killed the girl when she came up to the roof to get him when his break ended. Tanemura's hobby was carving wooden statuettes, and he often grabbed a knife from the kitchen to carve things on the rooftop during his breaks. When she came up toget him, she threw out some insults about Tanemura and his uncle before he headed down the stairs, and he ended up stabbing her with his kitchen knife on anger. Terrified at what he had done, he covered her body with a tarp and ran back down stairs.
At some point, Kawahiro must have given in and admitted he was covering for Tanemura because his testimony continued the story. About half and hour or so later, it was Kawahiro's turn for a break. The girl, Rina, often stayed up on the roof during her breaks to smoke, so he went up there to find her while his nephew served customers. He didn't see her initially, but before he went back down stairs to look for her more, he figured he should brings some of the crates that they kept on the roof for storage down to the shop before he went on break. The crates were kept under a tarp to protect them from rain, so when Kawahiro lifted the tarp to get the crates, he was also greeting with the sight of Rina's dead body. Tanemura had apparently had running a record of anger management issues, and so Kawahiro had been able to figure out what had happened quickly. But he cared a lot about his nephew, and thus a plan to keep him from going to prison took shape.
In addition to the testimonies, there were a number of items listed as "evidence," and from what Kaito could tell, all of it proved Tanemura's story as truthful. He had to say, he was rather impressed with how thorough the police was with investigating. The had finger prints, blood tests, DNA evidence, the whole nine yards. Kaito was suddenly really glad that he was so careful with covering his tracks as Kid. These guys would eat him alive otherwise. He couldn't help but note the obviousness of the fact that Kawahiro's attempt at covering for his nephew had been extremely sloppy though. It appeared that he was rushed and didn't have much time to think things through, but without even doing that much work, the police would've found him out in a heartbeat. It was lucky that Tanemura confessed before anything happened. He could have ended up going to jail with his uncle labeled an accomplice.
It was really lucky that Shinichi came and talked to him, wasn't it? Otherwise that might have actually happened.
Kaito was struck by the realization that that might have been Shinichi's goal the whole time. Now that Kaito had looked at the evidence, he could recall seeing a few things that could have clued him in on what was actually happening. There was no way Shinichi missed the rigor mortis kicking in or the way the blood had dried, so did that mean he had sat down to talk to Tanemura in order to stop the worst case scenario from happening? Now that he thought about it, Shinichi had said things that hinted at the notion that confessing to the crime was the best choice. He even touched on the fact that the police would be investigating further, despite the fact that someone had already admitted to the crime. Had that been meant as a warning that Tanemura would get caught regardless? If Kaito had been in Tanemura's position, there was no way he would've missed of Shinichi's hints. No wonder the guy had been silent when Shinichi tried to talk to him.
"Huh, maybe this detective isn't as much of a brat as the newspapers make him sound..."
At any rate, it couldn't hurt to look into Shinichi Shinichi a little more, could it? It wasn't much of an extra hassle to tap into the radios of division one as well as division two. If he heard Shinichi's name somewhere and decided to check out the situation, it wasn't like it would do any harm...
...
Shinichi was positive that someone was watching him. Ever since he found that listening device at the cafe, he had been feeling someone's gaze following him for the past three weeks. It usually showed up during cases, but oddly there didn't seem to be any mal intentions behind the staring. For that reason, he didn't say anything about it, but it still kept him on edge.
Whoever is was was watching him right now, but Shinichi had trained himself not to react too much anymore. He figured out that the presence disappeared when he made it clear that he knew someone was there. This way, at least he had a chance of being aware.
He had just finished explaining how a gymnast used piano wire to behead her friend on the Mystery Coaster. The police and the others involved listened attentively to his deduction, and soon the gymnast was arrested. The evidence had been easy to gather too. Now all Shinichi had to do was calm Ran down... She had been crying since they left the crime scene, and he was sure that his mysterious stalker wasn't the only one staring now.
As he tried to explain to her that sometimes these things happen, he couldn't help but notice two men dressed in black headed for an alleyway. If he recalled correctly, these guys were the ones who had been on the Mystery Coaster. They ended up having nothing to do with the murder, but when Shinichi looked into the eyes of the taller one, he saw the eyes of a hardened, cold blooded killer. He had seen those kinds of eyes too many times in the past to miss it. Seeing those two headed for a dark area with no people... Shinichi had a bad feeling about this.
"Sorry, Ran, do you think you could go home first?"
Ran hesitated. "But, Shinichi-"
"Don't worry, I promise I'll catch up later!" He was already on his way to following the men into the alley. He couldn't let them too far out of his sight. As he approached the alley, he heard some voices conversing.
********INSERT TEXT HERE********
Then suddenly, out of nowhere, he felt a sharp blow to his head, and he was on the ground.
Shinichi was only barely keeping conscious as the next events unfolded. Somewhere in his mind, he was berating himself for forgetting about the other guy and not noticing his approach. It was hazy, but he could just barely make out some of the words that the two men in black were saying to each other. Something about an organization? A drug? Shinichi suddenly felt himself being pulled up by the hair and a pill or something was forced into his mouth with some water.
Before they could close his mouth and force him to swallow it though, he heard the sound of something being shot through the air. Suddenly Shinichi was dropped, and as his head hit the ground, his vision went black, and he was out like a light.
...
It was a couple hours later that Shinichi woke up in the Tropical Land infirmary. He found that it was really painful to move his head around, and when he brought his hand up to touch his head, he felt only smooth bandages.
"He's awake!"
Shinichi blinked at the sound of an old's man's voice, but then suddenly a woman in a business outfit was standing before him. He recognized her as one of division one's officers.
"I swear, there can't be anyone luckier or unluckier than you," the officer said as she checked over Shinichi's injuries. He felt a tingling feeling go up the base of his skull and his heart skipped a beat. "Calm down, don't panic, the danger is gone... Deep breaths..."
"I'm sorry, I didn't realize there was another guy until it was too late... Did you manage to catch them?"
The officer shook her head. "They got away. We tried to chase them, but their clothes made them difficult to see. We did manage to catch the man they were meeting with though. He's being questioned right now."
About then, an older officer walked into the room and set a glass of water on the table next to where Shinichi was laying. Shinichi muttered a "thank you" as he drank it down.
"Careful there," the officer said as she set her roll of bandages down. "You might need to get checked into a hospital later to see if you got a concussion."
Shinichi nodded, but then flinched midway. His hand flew to the back of his head and the officer leaned into see what the problem was. Without hesitation, Shinichi grabbed the side of her cheek and tore off the latex mask that had been on her face.
"OW! What the heck?!" The officer, whose voice was now clearly that of a guy's rubbed his face indignantly. Shinichi was surprised to see that the fake Satou had a face much like his own. "What gave it away?" the imposter asked.
"Satou-keji has never this good with bandages. She's a great officer, but this isn't her forte. Also, your mask was peeling," Shinichi said with an annoyed expression. "Have you been the one who's been stalking me for the past three weeks?"
The guy in Satou-keiji's clothes worked on making attempts to salvage some of the wig that had been torn off with the mask as he tried to formulate a good answer. "... Yes, but I swear I can explain... or well, you'll think I'm an idiot... I swear I'm not crazy... this isn't coming out right...." the guy looked down and took a deep breath before looking back up. His face was a picture of calm and confident. "Sorry, now, seeing as I dont think there's a way to deny it, I'll admit that I've been watching you for the past few weeks. But! Before you call the authorities, please allow me to explain." Shinichi raised an expectant eyebrow.
"I've been a fan of your work for a long time now, and my dream is to be a detective like you. Disguises are my forte, and I figured that if I could use them to investigate you, the most well known detective around here, then I could improve my skills and learn from you at the same time. That's why I've been following you for the past few weeks."
There was a pause. Shinichi looked at the guy for a long minute before asking, "Do you know anything about British folklore?"
"What...?"
"Because that explanation was about as believable as the Loch Ness monster."
"But it's true!"
"What's the merit in just observing me?" Shinichi shot back. "If you really wanted to be a detective, you would've looked in a number of different detectives to observe. Clearly you're clever enough to have thought of that. Also, three weeks is way too long of an observation period. You should've learned most of what you could have learned from observing me over the course of a week. The method of deduction is pretty consistent, and the rest is just how observant you are. there's obviously more to this." Did this guy think Shinichi was blind or something?
"Well, I'm not budging from my explanation. It's the truth." The guy said with a completely straight face.
Shinichi sighed. He wasn't going to get anywhere with this angle. "Alright then... What happened to Satou-keiji? You didn't kidnap her for his to work out, did you?"
"Don't worry, her mom's been planning a weekend with the family for a month. She didn't want to go anyway, so it was totally believable when I came into the office and announced 'I' had found a way out of staying home."
"Were you also the one who got those men in black off me?"
"That was easy since I was dressed as a cop. I didn't get there in time to save you from getting hit in the head, but I did manage to stop you from swallowing that pill they gave you. You know, you should really thank me."
"What about the other police officers? Were you telling the truth when you talked about the investigation?"
"Of course, are you doubting me?"
Shinichi simply gave him a deadpan look. The guy smirked.
"At any rate, I'm actually supposed to call someone when you woke up if you were fit for questioning, which you clearly are, but somebody kind of ruined my disguise, so it'll be a problem if someone comes in here while I'm around. I'll play nice and call someone on the radio with Satou-san's voice, but after that I'll have to be on my way..." The guy picked up Satou's radio.
"Before you do that though, what's your name?"
Understandably, the guy hesitated.
"I promise I won't turn you in for stalking."
"It wasn't stalking, it was informative observation, and am I supposed to take that promise at face value?"
"Well I assume you haven't left any solid evidence to prove that you've been stalking me, right? After I found the listening device the first time, you've been more careful."
"Informatively observing, and true, but if I told you my name, you could just look me up on the Internet and send a police squad to my front door."
"Dont worry, you saved my life. On my honor as a detective, I swear to let you go today as a thank you."
"But that's just for today, isn't it? If I tell you my name, you could arrest me tomorrow."
"Well yeah, but I wouldn't be able to turn you unless I caught you doing a crime, right? So unless I caught you in disguise at the police station again, you can't be convicted of a crime. Besides, you know my name and pretty much everything about my life after stalking me for three weeks."
The guy let out a laugh. Even Shinichi could hear how this was bordering on childish, but he couldn't help smiling a little either.
"Fine, Kuroba Kaito at your service," the guy said with an exaggerated bow. "And how many times do I have to say, it was informative observation?" With that, Kuroba turned around with his police radio in hand and called in an officer. Once that was done, he gave Shinichi a quick wave and a puff of smoke suddenly appeared. When the fog cleared, it appeared to have taken Kuroba with it. "Well, the smoke is new..."
Shinichi laid in the infirmary for another two minutes or so before Inspector Nakamori came through the door. "Hello Makamori-keibu."
"Ah! You're that detective brat from the clock tower heist, aren't you?!"
Shinichi smiled sheepishly. "Haha, yeah, it was a really great experience to have been able to work with you then..."
"And now you're here with a busted head.... You see, this is why kids should stay out of cases!" After he got the comment out of his system, Nakamori was able to recollect himself. "Ahem. However, you were present during the transaction, and we have a few questions for you. As you know, I'm the head of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department's division two. Our domain is fraud and organized crime, and recently the weapons dealer that you saw tonight has caught our attention...."
Shinichi spent the next ten minutes or so trying to answer Nakamori's questions. He couldn't say as much as he would have like to have been able to say, but eventually the questions came to an end and Nakamori wished him well before he left the room. Shinichi took a look at his phone and found that it was later than he thought, and if he didn't get home soon, Ran would murder him. She'd already sent him six messages to check up on him, and he made sure to respond to them before he did anything else. After explaining to Ran what had happened after they split up, Shinichi was ready to head home. Shinichi checked his bandages bandages before he got up, but as soon as he exited the infirmary, he was met with a pair of sharp green eyes. A man wearing a dark green beanie and a black jacket greeted him with a serious face.
"Kudo Shinichi?" The man asked him. Shinichi didn't say anything, but the man continued, "My name is Akai Shuichi. I'm with the FBI, and we've been investigating those men in black that you encountered today. I've talked to the police and volunteered to drive you home. Wouyour ou mind answering a few questions on the way?" As he spoke, the man, Akai, held up a badge to prove his authenticity.
Shinichi contemplated his options for a minute. The badge appeared to be legitimate, and this Akai guy didn't seem to have any bad intentions. Not to mention, if the FBI was involved with this somehow, then this case must be huge. So Shinichi sent a quick message to Ran, telling her that he was on his way home with an officer now, and got into a car with a complete stranger.
...
Kudo Shinichi: Kuroba! I need you to investigate something. Can we meet somewhere so we can talk?
Kuroba Kaito: I knew you would look me up if I gave you my name!
Kudo Shinichi: Well yeah, but you still gave me your name and I'm still not turning you in. I'm just messaging you on Facebook
Kuroba Kaito: I bet you stalked my profile though
Kudo Shinichi: This is coming from YOU of all people? You can hardly call that fair after the past few weeks. And by the way, I KNEW that "I want to be a detective" thing was bullshit! You obviously want to be a magician! But that's beside the point and I can figure out why you were stalking me later. Can you help me?
Kuroba Kaito: Informativly observing and why should I?
Kudo Shinichi: It's really important. I looked into some of the police files, and this could be huge. But I need more information, and you might not actually want to be a detective, but you do have an extremely useful skill set. I can't say anything on the Internet though, so if you want me to explain, we'll have to talk in person.
Kuroba Kaito: ...Fine. I'll be at the French cafe by the local art museum on Friday at noon. Bring money, you are buying food
Kudo Shinichi: I can live what that. See you then.
...
After typing the last message, Shinichi looked down as his folder of gathered information. After talking to the Akai, he had learned a little about the organization that the men in black belonged to. The FBI agent couldn't tell him too much though, but that was understandable. Shinichi told him everything he could remember about the two men, and by the end of their conversation, he had developed the motivation to find out more. Shinichi looked at the case files, and the pill that he had almost swallowed wasn't listed as evidence. Thinking it strange, Shinichi went back to Tropical Land to look around the spot where he had been hit, and by some stroke of luck, found the pill in the grass there. He had Professor Agasa run some tests on it before he handed it over to the police, and he was able to trace its origins down to a specific laboratory in Tokyo. The head scientist there was a surprisingly young chemist named Miyano Shiho, but Shinichi had a hard time learning more than that.
How convenient was it that he had met a master of disguise the previous day?
Thankfully "Kuroba Kaito" hadn't been an alias, and Shinichi had been able to find his Facebook pretty easily. He was surprised but glad that Kuroba had agreed to meet with him. Shinichi had never met anyone that good at disguising themselves and changing their voice. If chasing the men in black hadn't caused the mask to peal a little, Shinichi might have never discovered anything was wrong. Even without a mask, Kuroba was an interesting person to talk to. He really was curious about why Kuroba had been stalking him, but Kuroba wasn't going to give him a straight answer. It was unlikely that he meant any harm, since he did save Shinichi from those men in black. Could he have been hired by someone? There was no gurantee that shadowing Shinichi had been for himself. That was a mystery that Shinichi could only solve if he got more clues though. Being able to gather more information on the mysterious organization while also getting to interact with Kuroba more was killing two birds with one stone.
...
Kaito was was having a really hard time figuring out whether or not it had been a good idea to give Shinichi his name. Right now Shinichi just thought he was a stalker, but the detective was asking for his help with a case? What would happen if he found out that Kaito was Kaito Kid? Would he arrest him then? Would he let him for? It was undeniable that Shinichi was different from what he expected, and Kaito wasn't sure how to plan his next move. He would just have to play it by ear. Luckily, that was something he was good at.
Right now Kaito was sitting in the French cafe, waiting for Shinichi to show up. Somehow the cafe was empty on a Saturday during lunch hour, and there was a peaceful silence. One thought that floated into Kaito's head as he stared out the window involved his soulmate tattoo. Would this meeting with Shinichi lead to spending more time with the detective? Could this eventually turn into a romance? Accidentally finding him at the marketplace that first time was one thing. Choosing to observe him was another. But now Shinichi was reaching out to him, and Kaito couldn't help but wonder, was this fate? Were all these events somehow pushing them together? Kaito's curiousity about Shinichi had originally been linked to his soul tattoo. This was actually kind of paradoxical.
Kaito couldn't imagine how Shinichi would react if he told him that he had been observing him because Shinichi's first words to him were also his soulmate's first words. Would he believe it? Would he call it a coincidence? This also led back to the question of "what would Shinichi do if he found that Kaito was Kaito Kid?" It had occurred to Kaito back in the Tropical Land infirmary that explaining why he had been observing Shinichi would inevitably lead to exposing his other identity. He could have come up with a better story, but Shinichi didn't seem to be aggressively pursuing the answer to that question. Kaito just had to keep hoping it would stay that way.
Kaito had arrived at the cafe a little early, but Shinichi ended being three minutes late. "Sorry! I had some issues on the way here! Did you wait long?" The detective asked as he took a seat. He was wearing a t-shirt under the jacket he had worn to Tropical Land.
"I will honest to goodness bet money on the guess that you ran into a murder on the way here."
"It was a purse theft!"
"You have still got to be kidding me." After three weeks of following this guy, Kaito was convinced he was cursed. Running into four crimes or more a week was just not normal, and Kaito had now seen so ,any corpses that they no longer made him want to throw up. He wasn't sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing.
"That wasn't only thing, but I'll get to that! I brought some of the case stuff!" Shinichi said as he began laying out some tan portfolios.
Kaito watched him spread them out over the table. Before Shinichi could finish organizing them, Kaito put a hand over the pile and said, "this is great, and I totally plan on reading these, but let's order first. I was promised food, and I haven't had breakfast yet."
Shinichi halted his file sorting and nodded. "Of course. Right! You know, I don't think I have either..." he trailed off with a look that appeared to be genuinely trying to remember if he had indeed skipped the most important meal of the day.
They called a waitress over and Kaito couldn't help but wonder if his potential future soulmate could actually be worse at taking care of himself than Kaito was. A person couldn't actually forget to have breakfast, could they? Kaito just slept in and opted to feed the birds instead because he knew he would be getting food at the cafe. After ordering the food, Shinichi filled him in on what happened after Kaito left the Tropical land infirmary.
Apparently an FBI agent had visited because the men who had been black mailing the weapons dealer were part of an international crime syndicate. They had their hands in pretty much every industry imaginable, and efforts to find and track them have been largely unsuccessful. Another one of the reasons Shinichi had been late was because he had to lose someone who had been following him. He knew it hadn't been Kaito, so he deduced that it was either an FBI agent or a member of the organization, but he wasn't willing to take any risks.
What Shinichi wanted Kaito to do was investigate a chemist named Miyano Shiho. Shinichi had apparently found some information by analyzing the pill he had almost swallowed, and he was thinking that they could find more information on the organization if they could learn about the drug she had been developing, and who put an 18 year old girl in charge of an experimental laboratory.
"An orange juice and a lemonade?" The waitress said as she approached the table.
"Ah, yes!" Kaito moved the folders to one end of the table. He saw Shinichi moving to do the same, and suddenly an idea came to mind. There was an easy way to settle the soulmate question, and Kaito felt like an idiot for not thinking of it sooner. He picked up the folders and straightened them into a single stack.
"Hey, Tomoka-chan, I heard you found your soulmate recently. Is that true?"
"Yes, it is actually. We met at the supermarket last week actually," she said with a faint blush as she set down Shinichi's orange juice.
"Well, congratulations!" Kaito threw up a cloud of confetti with a POOF and Tomoka jumped back in surprise. She had been holding Kaito's lemonade at the time, and it ended up spilling all over the table and on ShinichFaustian had been in the middle of picking up his organs juice.
"Oh my god, I am so sorry!" Tomoka said as she realized what had happened.
"Don't worry," Kaito told her, "that was my fault. Do you think you could tell me where we could find some rags though?"
"I'll be right back!" With that she ran back to the kitchen to find them.
When she was gone, Kaito turned to to Shinichi. "Are you ok?" The detective was taking off his jacket with a slightly annoyed expression. I'm fine, my sleeves are just a little soaked. You?"
"Yeah, I just got some drops on my sleeve."
"It's a good thing you picked up the files. They all would've been ruined."
"I guess I'm just lucky like that." Kaito said with a smile. He straightened the files in his hand as he watched Shinichi tug off his right sleeve. Finally the sleeve came off, and Kaito found it impossible to stop staring.
"Whoa, what...?"
"Oh, this?" Shinichi said as he held up his arm and examined the ink smears on it. "Yeah, my parents got to an accident a little before I was born. A month later, these ink smears came up instead of my soulmate tattoo and my parents went to see a specialist. Apparently it was because of trauma or something. It's always been like this."
"Really? When's your birthday?"
"May 4th."
"Ah, ok, I see... I'm really sorry to hear that, it must've been awful."
"It's alright, I'm surviving."
"I found some towels!" The two turned to see Tomoka jogging over to the table. They all grabbed a cloth, and soon the table was clean and ready for food. Tomoka went back to bring them what they ordered (along with some drinks to make up for the one that had been spilled) and Shinichi continued with the case.
Kaito's eyes couldn't help but flick back to Shinichi's "soulmate tattoo" every now and then. So much for the easy answer. He hadn't realized something like that had happened to Shinichi though... Kaito had never known anyone who couldn't read their soulmate tattoo. What was it like not to know what the first words you would hear from your soulmate would be? What was it like to not listen for those words in every conversation you have with a new person?
"So, will you do it?"
Suddenly Kaito was snapped out of his train of thought. He thought for a minute before responding.
"I'll investigate this girl and this organization, but I have a condition."
"Yes?"
"If I investigate this, I want you to look into another case for me."
"Explain?"
"My dad died eight years ago during one of his shows. The police concluded it was an accident, but I believe that there was foul play involved. I don't know if you'll be able to figure out who killed him, but I want you to take a look at the files and see if there's something the police might have missed. If you could just open his case again somehow, that would be enough."
"What makes you so sure he was murdered?"
"His old assistant brought it up to me. I'll take you to meet him sometime if you agree."
"Alright then, deal."
"Cool! I think I have an untraceable phone in here somewhere...."
"You just carry around untraceable phones? You do realize how suspicious that sounds, right?"
"Hey, you always have to be prepared. Here." Kaito handed Shinichi a regular looking flip phone. "My number should be in there, so text me if you come up with anything new, and I'll text that phone of anything happens on my end. That sound good?"
"That works! Now, I hope you brought your credit card because that was a great lunch!"
Shinichi looked down and realized that Kaito had completely cleared his food off his plates. Shinichi had yet to touch any of his food. He started scarfing it down as quickly as possible when Kaito let out a laugh.
"It's alright, slow down. I've got room for dessert, there's no need to rush!"
For the rest of their time at the cafe, the two talked about anything that came to their minds. Shinichi learned that Kaito was best friends with an inspector's daughter ("no wonder you were able to get into the police station so often!"), raised birds as a hobby, and really disliked fish. Kaito learned that Shinichi's best friend could probably break every bone in his body, his favorite pastimes were reading and soccer, and he really loved Sherlock Holmes. Neither of them would have ever said it out loud, but they both gained a friend that day.
...
Weeks passed, and the two found themselves enjoying each other's company more and more often. They lived in different areas of Tokyo, but they would often find times to meet up at that French cafe and talk. A lot of times they would help each other out with respective problems. Maybe Kaito would need to know something about a building for a heist (although Shinichi wouldn't know about the heist part), or maybe Shinichi would need a listening device on a stray suspect. One time Shinichi helped Kaito get the criminal record of a guy who tried to drive a friend of Kaito's out of business. Their association was mutually beneficial, and they usually told each other what they could about their endeavors.
As for their investigations, Shinichi was able to find out that Kuroba Toichi had been sighted speaking to some suspicious looking men every now and then. He was following some potential leads that might clarify their identity, but his investigation was a little difficult since the case was so old.
Kaoto had been able to learn that Miyano Shiho was an orphaned child of two reknown scientists. She also had an older sister who lived in the Beika area named Akemi and had an affinity for Fusae purses. Kaito saw her talking to a man in black once, but they appeared to be lying low for now.
There were many days when Kaito came to Shinichi to vent, and today was one of those days.
"... and I can't tell you how glad I am Hakuba's gone back to England! the guy's got a vendetta against me I swear it!"
"There's got to be reason he keeps provoking you though."
"Well yeah, but that doesn't help me if I don't know what the reason is! Did I tell you about the other day? He had the nerve to go up to Aoko and be all 'I'm tall and a Virgo and we should date!' Then! He goes and kisses her hand!"
"Don't you do that like all the time though?"
"It's charming when I do it, when he does it it's sleazy!"
"I think you're letting your personal bias cloud your vision here. He's a great conversationalist, and he's polite too."
"To you maybe, but that's because you guys spent an hour talking about Sherlock Holmes! He's out to get my best friend, and I'm not going down without a fight!"
"But the other day she said she found her soulmate."
"Her soulmate tattoo says 'nice to meet you!' Literally anyone could have said that to her!"
"But she saw Hakuba's tattoo too."
"Still refusing to believe it! His tattoo has to be at least as generic as her's!"
"Alright then...."
Shinichi smiled. Kaito got really passionate about things sometimes. It had been a month or two since their first meeting in this cafe, and the place had kind of become a refuge for them. Shinichi was an little frustrated with how slow their progress their cases were, but Shinichi was nothing if not patient.
"Anyway, do you have any plans?" Kaito asked as he took a sip from his drink.
"Well, Aoko invited me to her birthday party tomorrow, but there's a Kaito Kid heist. Happening nearby, and I thought I'd go check it out.
Kaito did a spit take. Luckily they were outside. "Y-you're what?"
"Going to to your best friend's birthday party and a heist? You've talked about Kid a few times before, and since this heist was nearby, I thought I would go check it out."
"Haven't you been to a Kid heist before though?" Kaito coughed out.
"Um, I don't think so...?"
"It was all over the news! The clock tower heist? Weren't you the "Kudo Shinichi" who almost cornered Kid?!"
"Oh, was that who I was up against? I never really heard the name of the guy who I was chasing at the clock tower..."
Kaito looked mortified. How could Shinichi not have known his name at the time? He half wanted Shinichi to go to the heist, just so he could outsmart him and rub in how even the great Kudo Shinichi can't catch the great Kaito Kid. But there was always the risk that Shinichi would figure out Kid's identity if he went to a heist... It had never been a problem before because Shinichi's life wasn't centered around catching Kaito Kid (like some other people Kaito knew), but it would be preferable if Shinichi stayed in the dark about Kaito's secret. If Shinichi was really his soulmate, Kaito hoped that he would understand his reasons and not turn Kaito in. Not to mention, if Shinichi wasn't mistaken, and he rarely was, Aoko's birthday was tomorrow, and he was going to have to finish the heist quickly if he wanted to make it to Aoko's party.
"So you know what a Kid heist is like! I actually won't be able make it to the first half of the party? Do you think you could cover for me?"
"What do you mean?"
"Like maybe change your hair and pretend to be me for a few hours...? Just until I get there!" Kaito suggested hopefully. If he could keep Shinichi occupied at the paate until Kaito got there, he could get it over with quickly.
"Come on, it's Aoko, she'd see through me in a heartbeat. Just let her know you'll be late."
"Right..."
Kaito tried to think of some ways to deter Shinichi from going, but knocking the detective out wasn't going to work if Aoko was expecting him to be at the party, and there weren't any good excuses that Kaito could make. Oh well, he was just going to have to finish before Shinichi left.
...
It was a little surprising when Kaito didn't make it to the party before Shinichi had to leave, but whatever Kaito had to do, it must be taking longer than he thought. Shinichi excused himself from the party after an hour or so, and Aoko saw him off with the hope that he would catch the thief quickly and let her dad be home before the party ended. Shinichi assured her he would as he walked out the door.
When Shinichi arrived at the heist site, he found the Fokine force trapped in a cage. An officer explained that Kid had tricked them into opening the cage and trapping them, but Inspector Nakamori laughed and explained that they had put a tracking device in the they'll and would be able to find Kid's hideout that way. Shinichi stopped to look at the officer guy on his computer, and sure enough, there was a map of the building. The tracker on the jewel was going up. Immediately, Shinichj headed for the roof. Even if there was a tracker, Shinichi at least wanted to make the attempt to get a glimpse of this elusive Phantom Thief.
Shinichi climbed the stairs as quickly as he could. Before he opened the door, he pressed the side of his head to it and prepared to push it quietly. But then-
BOOM!
Shinichi jumped a little in surprise. Was that a gunshot?
"We warned you not to lay your hands on the jewel," came a man's voice. Shinichi pressed his ear closer to the door.
"Long time no see, Kaito Kid. Or rather...." he paused for dramatic effect. "Kuroba Toichi, I should say."
Shinichi was stunned. "What?? How...? What??" He couldn't do anything but listen intently as the man continued.
"We were surprised to hear that the jewel we were after was being targeted by someone who was supposed to have been disposed of eight years ago." Shinichi heard the click of a gun being cocked before the man threateningly said,
"Hand over the jewel. If you give it to us quietly, we'll at least let you live."
Up until then, the man had been the only one talking. But at that moment, a new voice spoke up.
"Just answer me one thing," the person said as the sound of something metal hit the ground. "Why are you guys targeting jewels?"
That voice. Shinichi knew that voice. It was insane, but... Was Kaito actually Kaito kid? The man was clearly talking to Kaito Kid, but he thought that the person they were talking to was "Kuroba Toichi." Plus these guys had pretty much admitted they had killed the man. If Kaito had known about that, then the idea that Kaito may have followed in his father's footsteps wasn't a far fetched idea. The pieces of the puzzle began to come together, but Shinichi couldn't believe he hadn't gotten any kind of hint at this.
"It seems these jewels are the key," the man answered in response to Kaito's question.
"To what?!"
"Eternity."
"Eternity?" Kaito repeated incredulously.
Shinichi heard another click. "Allow me to give you a present," the man's voice said. "An eternity in the afterlife!" The sound of a gunshot rang through Shinichi's ears, and without thinking, he opened the door just in time to see a figure in white fall off the building. He was sure his heart stopped, but Shinichi barely had time to react. The sound of the door opening got the attention of the men on the roof top (Shinichi hadn't actually realized that the man who had been talking hadn't been alone.)
The men all raised their guns, and Shinichi was forced to shut the door as quickly as possible before running down the stairs. He hid in a corner as the men from the roof top rushed past him, and he managed to find an alternate stair case that took him down to the first floor. Once he was able to catch his breath, the impact of the events on the rooftop caught up with him.
Was Kaito actually... Dead? No one could survive a fall like that, and it sounded like the bullet had hit its mark. Shinichi took off towards the front doors of the building. "Doubt the murder until you see a body." Shinichi had seen cases where people survived long falls. He wasn't sure if he was being overly optimistic, but he hoped that Kaito would be one of those cases....
He rounded the corner to search the right side of the building, but then he heard voices. Suddenly, Shinichi was grabbed from behind and a hand flew over his mouth.
"Shhh," whispered the person behind him.
Shinichi froze immediately. The men from the rooftop walked past the front of the building and piled into some black cars that were parked out on the street. Once they drove away, the hands let Shinichi go, and he turned around sharply.
"Kaito! What the hell?! You're a Phantom Thief?! How are you not dead?! What's going on?!"
"Calm down! I swear I'll explain everything, but first we've got to follow those guys!"
Kaito ushered Shinichi out of the alley they were in and directed him to a car that was parked a few blocks up the road. Kaito hopped into the front seat, leaving Shinichi to sit in the back. Only when he got into the car did Shinichi realize who was driving the car. "Jii-san?" Shinichi asked in surprise.
Konosuke Jii looked back at Shinichi and struggled for the right words to say. "Are you- is he- what- Kaito-bocchama! Is this...?"
"Don't worry about it Jii-chan, just go follow those cars!"
That, the man was able to comprehend. He nodded and the car was now running full speed ahead. Kaito took out a small PDA with a tracker system pulled up and set it on the dashboard. A blinking dot on the radar showed Jii which direction the cars were going. That's when Kaito turned back to Shinichi.
"Ok, I feel like you have a lot of questions and things you want to clear up... I'll answer everything honestly, so please let me explain myself."
"Well, that makes things a lot easier," Shinichi said in a surprising calm manner. Kaito half expected Shinichi to blow up or something. "First off, are you really Kaito Kid? Like, the guy on the news, the one at the clock tower, that was all you?"
".... Yes, I've been Kaito Kid for the past few months..."
"And you've been doing this why?"
"You remember when I told you my dad was murdered, right? Well, asking you to investigate his death wasn't the only thing I've been doing to figure out who killed him... Eight years ago, my dad was Kaito Kid, and whoever killed him knew that. It was those guys on the rooftop.... They knew who my dad was, and they killed him."
"I know, I was listening at the door for a while."
"You were!?"
"That's why the police don't know your civilian identity yet. Believe it or not, I actually don't have that many questions because everything makes sense now. You got your skills and desire to be a magician from your dad, and you just told me that you took his place as Kaito Kid because you wanted to lure put his killers, and tonight you were sucessful. These guys killed your dad for whatever reason, and then they tried to kill you. I would be mad that you didn't tell me, but then again I actually do get why you didn't say anything with me being a detective and all. Don't worry, I won't arrest you because you're really just pretending to be a criminal when it comes down to it, but I will scold you because you've clearly got a DEATH WISH. How are you even still alive right now?! I saw you fall off an eleven story building after being shot!"
"I had a a parachute, just in case something like this happened! Also, the bullet didn't hit me!" Kaito reached into his pocket and pulled out a large blue sapphire. "It hit this lovely little thing here!"
"... You are so insanely lucky, it's not even fair."
"What can I say? It's a gift!"
Shinichi shook his head with an exasperated smile. It was sheer luck that his friend wasn't dead, but he was glad that Kaito survived.
Soon the black cars came to a stop in front of an old Japanese style house. Kaito got out of the car, and he tried to tell Shinichi to stay back with Jii, but Shinichi was stubborn and felt that Kaito might need back up. Kaito reluctantly let him come along, and they snuck around the house to the back and over the fence around the back yard, where they found the men from the roofroofer there'd with a guy in traditional Japanese clothing. He was in the middle of explaining to the leader of the group why they were going after large jewels.
Apparently there were a number of "big jewels" scattered around the world, and one of them held a jewel that would cry tears that would give a person immortality. Shinichi couldn't believe that these guys were wasting so much time on such a ridiculous idea. There was no way that something like this "Pandora" could exist, and yet these guys were willing to sort through jewel after jewel to find it.
"But sir! How can you tell if a jewel has this kind of power?" The leader of the group asked.
"Easy," the man in traditional clothing answered. "You simply hold a jewel up to the moon, and if it has Pandora, then another jewel will begin to glow red in
OK! So, I already know for a fact that this is riddled with errors in grammar, spelling, pacing, and storytelling, but it's past the deadline, so I'm posting what I got! (formatting this is actually what took time....) I took a lot of creative liberty with this, and the first words were kind of a stretch since I took them from the manga, but I hope that's not a major problem. Whoever sent this prompt, I'm really sorry!
Edit: Ok, one week and soooooo many words later, here's the rest of the story! The pacing is still painful to look at, and I'll have to go back and do some reformatting for the words that should be in italics, but I've got most of it here! (I say most of it because my ipad died before the last few hundred words or so could sync, but my family's about to go on a 7 hour long car ride, and I'm trying really hard not to get disqualified... I might still disqualified actually, but I'm still trying ^_^ Last second edits will be done though! I swear it! Sorry that this ended up being a 12k monster... I can sympathize with Mikau, writing can just go and go and go... but the difference between me and her is that she can actually write quality stuff!
Also, sorry in advance for the pacing, and thank you for the prompt!
---
'Your time is up, KID!'
Kaito had never really known what to make of his soulmate tattoo. He had been a clever child with a wild imagination from a young age, but even he was at a bit of a loss when it came to deciphering the clues hidden in the phrase written neatly on his wrist. Is he being chased or something when he meets his soulmate? Maybe they were playing a game, and his code name was "KID?" For some reason, the word "KID" was the only word written differently from the rest. It was especially odd when Kaito became old enough to recognize that the letters were foreign and asked his father what the word meant. His parents had always gotten this weird look whenever his soulmate tattoo came up, but Toichi simply told his son that "kid" meant "child" in English. After that he asked Kaito if he wanted to learn how to use a hanglider, which was admittedly a little random, but Kaito completely forgot about his soulmate tattoo for the rest of the day.
It was only nine years after his father's death that everything made sense. The first tip had come when Aoko, who had seen his tattoo on a number of occasions, barged into the classroom, and demanded to know if he was secretly Kaito Kid after her dad failed to catch the thief the previous night. Luckily he actually hadn't been Kaito Kid at time, so he had been able to give her a solid, honest excuse. The second, more obvious clue was the discovery of the secret room Kaito found behind his dad's portrait. The tape recording left by his father and the suit that hung in the secret compartment of the room suggested a conclusion that Kaito wasn't sure he was ready to accept. The final piece of the puzzle fell into place and confirmed his thoughts when he met "Kaito Kid" on the rooftop and made the choice to become Kid himself. As he listened to Jii's story, his resolve solidified, but at the same time he couldn't help but laugh a little.
Did this mean his dad had known? Had his dad had predicted that Kaito would take up his father's mantle and find his soulmate in the process? Not only that, but his soulmate's first words now made a little more sense. It was a strong possibility that his soulmate was going to be chasing him or something... That could end up being problematic. After thinks about it, Kaito decided he would cross that bridge when he got to it. For now he was happy to focus on finding his father's killers. If he found his soul mate along the way, he wasn't going to complain.
...
Kaito didn't know this, but a month before he was born, some very good friends of his parents were getting ready to have a son as well. The mother was a former student of his father's, and she had made a name for herself as a reknown actress before marrying the author of the Night Baron series. A while before Kudo Yukiko went in to labor, her husband had ushered her and himself into a taxi headed for Beika General Hospital at full speed.
Now, despite the fact that it was the middle of the day, it was quite possibly the worst possible to be in a rush out on the streets. For one thing it had just started raining, and the streets were packed with cars. The taxi driver was also not the most careful driver they could've found. It was almost inevitable that the cab ended up crashing into the back of another car about halfway to the hospital.
The accident actually wasn't as bad as it could have been. Airbags saved the driver, whose worst injury ended up being a broken arm. Yukiko had gotten pretty lucky too. She had her seatbelt on, and ended up only suffering some minor cuts and a sprained ankle. The accident could have easily cost her her child, but later they found that somehow the baby had endured the shock of the accident. However, Yukiko had only been able to avoid the brunt of the glass and debris because her husband had shielded her a moment before the collision. He had seen it coming a second too late to warn the taxi driver to slow down, but Yuusaku managed to cover his wife before the car crashed. His back was severely cut up and bruised, and the bloody sight amongst the wreckage had been enough to make Yukiko pass out until the paramedics got them out of the ruined cab.
Not long after the ambulance brought Yukiko to her hospital room, she went into labor. The hospital pulled some medical staff together quickly, and about an hour later, Kudo Shinichi was born. Everyone thought that it was a miracle the child had survived. Yuusaku had run to find his wife's room as soon as he was able to, and once he and his wife confirmed that they were both alive and well, they turned their attention to the baby Yukiko had been rocking in her arms and gave him his name.
The Kudo family spent about a month not realizing there actually had been a problem. Shinichi hasn't been born with a soulmate tattoo, but that was no reason to be concerned. After all, it was actually perfectly normal for people who were older than their soulmates to not get their tattoo until their soulmate was born. Roughly a month after Shinichi was born, Yukiko noticed a series of black smudges on his wrist just before she gave him a bath. She figured maybe he had somehow gotten a hold of a pen or a marker or something, but no matter how much she scrubbed, the ink just wouldn't go away. Eventually she took the problem to Yuusaku, and when he also failed to clean the ink off, one thing led to another, and they ended up at a soulmate specialist's office.
After a round of questions and examining, the specialist came to the conclusion that the most likely explanation was that Yukiko's shock and concern about her soulmate at the time of the accident somehow transferred to her son and damaged his soulmate connection. There really wasn't anything anyone could do about it, and Yuusaku and Yukiko were both worried about how this would affect their son as he grew up.
The funny thing was, as Shinichi grew up, he wasn't inclined to let his blurred soulmate tattoo affect him at all. When his parents explained his situation to him, he was old enough to read, and therefore very capable of forming opinions. After some thinking, he decided that he didn't need to be able to read to be happy. After all, Sherlock Holmes never went looking for a soulmate. It was possible to be happy without one, right? So Shinichi moved on with his life, made regular friends, and pursued his dream of being a detective.
It was this kind of maturity and stubbornness that led Yuusaku and Yukiko to believe that Shinichi was perfectly capable of handling himself. Even if that wasn't aabreast parenting call, they weren't necessarily wrong. By the time he was fourteen, Shinichi was living alone and sustaining himself with take out, cup noodles, and the goodness of his best friend's heart. Ran wasn't meant to be his soulmate, but she was definitely the one of the most wonderful people to walk the face of the planet (except maybe when she made threatening craters in brick walls). By the time he was seventeen, Shinichi was regularly solving cases for the Tokyo Metropolitan Police.
It was during a visit to the police station that Shinichi convinced the head inspector to let him on a helicopter ride...
...
"Man, the inspector's really on his game tonight!" Kaito thought as he crawled through the clock tower vent. They had seen though his disguise and chased him into the vent. The police were never this good! "Or maybe he's getting advice from someone?" He considered. "But who could it be?"
He had to think fast. The it would be tough to lose them in the vents...
If memory served, and his always did, he should be approaching the end of the ventilation shaft soon. It was perfect, actually. He sped up his crawl and got out of the policemen's line of sight. He took off the air vent cover and pulled himself so that he was standing perfectly balanced on the edge of the air vent's frame. A few seconds later, a policeman poked his head out of the vent.
"This is Nakamura, I've lost sight of the target at the ventilation shaft's exit!" The policeman looked around for a minute as he listened for instructions. "Um, I'm at..."
"The east hallway on the 4th floor!"
The policeman looked up in shock as he heard his own voice finish his sentnence. Kaito smirked as he spoke into his radio.
"The target has taken off his police officer disguise and is currently escaping down the stairs! Please send back up immediately!"
The police man barely got the chance to stutter in utter disbelieve before he was knocked out with sleeping gas. Without wasting anytime, Kaito climbed into the adjacent vent (he couldn't really move with the officer in the way of the vent he has come through) and made his way to the room with an opening to the clock tower's face. No sooner had he jumped out of the vent, the room was flooded with pink sleeping gas, and the officers dropped like flies. He quickly made his way over to the hatch and threw up his smoke screen. In a flash, he had let the projection screen down and changed into his Kaito Kid outfit just as the clock struck twelve. By the time Nakamori had figured out what was going on and made his way to the clock face hatch, Kaito was already standing casually on the clock hands. The inspector only got a few words into his radio before it was shot out of his hand.
"My apologies, inspector, but I don't have the time to play with you all tonight. It looks like you've got a clever joker on your side tonight." Kaito tilted his head forward. "At any rate, if you're going to call for someone, you should solve the code on this clock here," he said as he tapped the clock with his foot.
"C-code?" Nakamori sputtered out. Kaito was feeling confident, but suddenly the wind around him picked up, and he heard the sound of nearby helicopters grow louder. Suddenly out of nowhere, there was the sound of a gunshot, and a corner of the projector screen fell.
"Crap! Theres a helicopter this close?!" Kaito thought as he looked around. "There's no way I can use the hang glider like this! What should I do? What should I do?!" His hand tightened on his card gun.
"It alright, I won't hit anyone!" A voice called through the noise of the helicopters. "Your time's up, Kid! Let's have a look at the mastermind!"
Kaito's eyes widened in shock. A tingling feeling went up the back of his neck and his heart skipped a beat. No way. Could it be...?
Well, there wasn't really time to dwell on that. Soulmate or not, Kaito had to get out of fast if he didn't want to end up in a jail cell. He timed his next actions carefully, and just as the person with the gun fired at another corner of the screen, Kaito shot two cards at the other corners. The screen fell, and Kaito let go of the clock hands and fell with it. It covered his change into civilian clothing and he guided it to fall on a tree, where he promptly climbed down and blended into the crowd.
Who had fired those shots? Was he actually Kaito's soulmate? Could it have been a coincidence? Honestly "your time's up Kid" could be said by anyone... But then again no one had ever been able to back him into a corner this, so no one had ever really had the chance.... And normally the police force yelled "we've got you now!" Or "you're not getting away this time." This was getting into logistics though. He was in foreign territory with this subject, so the best course of action would be to gather information. That's how he usually planned heists in unfamiliar places. So he could start by figuring out who the guy on the helicopter was, learning a little about him, and go from there. There was no need to panic.
At any rate, he was getting ready to surprise Aoko in front of the clock tower. All of this was for her after all. Maybe she wasn't meant to be his soulmate, but there was still nothing Kaito wouldn't do to make her happy. He had to have his poker face on. Hr checked to make sure his blue rose was in place, and started looking around for her in the crowd. it wasn't long before he found her standing next to Keiko with a dreamy, faraway look on her face. It was the perfect time to suddenly produce the blue rose he had been hiding in his sleeve. Aoko looked up in surprise.
"I'm Kuroba Kaito. Nice to meet you," he said with a smile. She smiled back. It was the most comforting sight he could hope to see.
...
Kudo Shinichi. Well known high school detective and "Savior of the Police," as many a newspaper article had dubbed him. He didn't even have to ask about him, Aoko wouldn't stop talking about the guy who had almost captured the elusive phantom thief that night. Apparently her dad wasn't anywhere near as much of a fan though.
At any rate, a look through some old news reports and police records revealed that this Shinichi guy was a resident of Beika and lived alone. His parents were a famous former actress and novelist, but they were currently abroad somewhere. From what Kaito could gather, Shinichi sounded kind of arrogant, but there was no denying he was incredibly intelligent. Kaito wondered if he should go and see what Kudo Shinichi was like for himself, but dealing with a detective in person sounded like a hassle. He was actually pretty close to deciding that coming into contact with the Detective of the East was an unlikely future event anyway, so there was no need to seek him out if it was just a coincidence. That was, of course, until the marketplace incident.
Aoko liked going to the local marketplace because she claimed that they had the freshest produce for the cheapest price. It helped that she knew pretty much everyone so she got discounts on everything. There were occasionally days that Kaito accompanied her to the market, usually because a) he's free and feeling kind, or b) what she buys will affect his dinner. Today happened to be one of those days, and Aoko was off getting bread at the bakery while Kaito waited for her outside. He was playing with a deck of cards when a voice suddenly broke his train of thought.
"Shinichi! What are you doing here? I told you I would be back in just a minute! Didn't you want to read that new book...?"
Kaito looked up to see a girl who actually looked a lot like Aoko with a different hair style. She had her hands on her hips and a couple grocery bags hanging from her arms. She was obviously talking to him, but Kaito still looked around to see if anyone else was in the immediate vicinity.
"Um, I’m sorry miss, but I'm not Shinichi..."
The girl seemed to pause for a minute before blinking and realizing her mistake.
"Oh, I'm so sorry! I'm here with my friend, and you look just like him! I should've realized that detective geek wouldn't just leave a bookstore... Sorry about that!" And with those words, she entered the bakery.
Kaito couldn't help but think about Kudo Shinichi when she was gone. "Wouldn't just be crazy if he had been the Shinichi she was looking for?" Now that he thought about it, the girl had called him a detective geek, hadn't she? No, there was no way. Coincidences weren't that crazy...
Just then, Aoko walked out of the shop. She had a bag with a couple loaves of bread plus a little pastry box.
"Alright! This looks like enough bread for the week! And I got a free dessert too!" Aoko held up the pastry box with a bright grin. "Let's see if the tomatoes are good today..."
The two made their way through the marketplace, chatting about what ever topics happened to come up. Within twenty minutes, both Kaito and Aoko had their hands full with bags of groceries. Aoko checked everything off her list of things to buy, just to make sure they weren't forgetting anything, and was about to declare it time to go home when Kaito realized he had forgotten to get a magazine his mom wanted. He gave Aoko an apology and asked her to go home first. After she disappeared, Kaito started towards the bookstore. Not five minutes after he started walking, a scream resonated throughout the marketplace.
"AHHHHHHHHHH!!!!"
Kaito jumped a little in surprise before taking off in the direction of the noise, and eventually he found the source of all the commotion. In front of a cafe, the corpse of a teenage girl in a cafe waitress uniform was laying face up on a coffee table. A knife was sticking out of her chest, and broken ceramic was scattered around the table. Kaito wasn't sure how to react. He was on the verge of throwing up, but it was impossible to look away. He had to work to keep a straight face and not panic. This was not a sight you saw every day.
Some people were looking up at the roof of the cafe and, to Kaito's surprise, there was a cafe employee standing there with a horrified look. He was a middle aged man with a slightly balding head. He looked down at the crowcrying wide eyes before suddenly running to the rooftop door and disappearing through it. The people in the crowd began to whisper nervously among themselves, until an authoritative voice broke through the noise.
"Everyone, please remain calm."
Every head turned in the direction of the voice to see none other than Kudo Shinichi himself making his way toward the corpse. The crowd made way for him, and after confiming that the victim was indeed dead and beyond any kind of help, Shinichi turned back around. "Ran," he said to someone nearby. It turned out to be the girl who had mistaken Kaito for Shinichi earlier. "Can you call the police?"
The girl, Ran, nodded her head quickly and turned away to make the call. She couldn't even form words until the the operator asked for her name and location. Shinichi then shifter his attention to the crowd. "Did anyone here see this happen?" He asked the people gathered around the victim. A couple of people raised their hands and stepped forward, but then suddenly the man who had been on the cafe rooftop burst through the front doors.
"I'm sorry! I didn't- I didn't mean to- is she really...?" the man trailed off as he laid his eyes on the body of the dead girl on the table. The gravity of the situation seemed to hit him as he fell to his knees and began apologizing profusely. Shinichi put hand on his shoulder and calmed him down enough to make the man stop blabbering. It was then that a young man in a café uniform, maybe twenty years old, came running out of the shop.
"Uncle! Did you really-? Are you really...?" he could hardly form a complete sentence.
The middle aged man hung his head with a conflicted look, but then he brought up his head and held it high. “Don’t worry about me. Please, go back inside, I’ll sort things out with the police when they get here.”
Before the other employee could add anything else, Shinichi stepped in and, after apologizing for the intrusion, asked the middle aged if he could answer some questions before the police arrived. The younger man, unable to say anything further, made his way over to the body of the dead girl rather than going back into the café as the older man had requested. He had an expression that reflected how Kaito felt when he first saw the body. Kaito wondered what it must be like to see someone you knew just suddenly dead like this…
Before his mind could start thinking anything especially dark, Kaito turned his attention to Shinichi and the man he was talking to. According to the man, who Kaito learned was named Kawahiro Jin, the female co-worker had gone to the roof and stayed up there even after her break ended. Kawahiro, whose break was next, went up to go find her and let her know they were switching off. He had brought a knife so that she could open some packages downstairs, but they ended up getting into an argument. Without even thinking, he had already stabbed and pushed her off the side of the building.
By the end of the story, people began to hear sirens approaching, and soon the police were on the scene.
Kaito had never really dealt with any of the police force outside of Nakamori’s division. He felt like he may have seen some of these officers in passing on a trip to the police station with Aoko or in disguise or something, but he wasn't really sure about any of their names. There was a chubby guy with a mustache, a chubby guy without a mustache, a woman, and a shy looking guy who walked behind her.
When the chubby guy with a mustache walked out of tthe police car, he immediately came up to Shinichi with a look of surprise. "Kudo-kun? What are you doing here?" Watching their interactions, Kaito couldn't help but wonder how often they met by chance at crime scenes.
The police asked the crowd to clear out and the people began to disperse. Before leaving, Kaito made sure to leave a listening device under a nearby table. He walked a few blocks to the bookstore and began to pretend to read some manga as he listened to the events happening back at the cafe.
Suddenly he heard Shinichi's voice. "Tanemura-san, do you mind if I sit here?"
Kaito's ears perked up a little. Had Shinichi decided not to stay for the conversation between the inspector and Kawahiro? He could only assume that "Tanemura" was the younger cafe worker who had exited the shop after Kawahiro. The guy had been sitting at a table and staring off into space ever since Shinichi went to talk to Kawahiro. Kaito was fairly sure that he hadn't moved from the spot when pretty much everyone else left. Tanemura didn't give an audible response, but Kaito heard metal chairs shifting, so the guy either nodded or Shinichi just took a seat anyway. The detective's voice spoke again.
"You know, it really surprises me that someone like Kawahiro-san would've killed someone in a fit of rage. I come here at least once a week, and I've never once seen him raise his voice at a customer."
There was a stagnant pause. After hearing no response, Shinichi continued.
"They're probably going to take him down to the police station for further questioning soon. The forensic department is doing investigations too. It's really noble of your uncle to take responsibility for his mistake, but I get the feeling that he's a man of good character in general. He helped you get a job here after all, right?"
Still nothing from Tanemura.
"I think it was smart of him to confess what happened rather than try to run away. If he pleads guilty, he'll get a lighter sentence, plus his conscience doesn't suffer. It's really honorable that he would choose to do the time in jail for an accident. That's not something a lot of people can do."
Another thirty seconds passed without a sound. Then Kaito heard an exasperated sigh.
"Well, this case shouldn't take up too much much of your time. The officers might ask you a few questions and run some tests, but luckily there isn't too much that needs to be clarified here. I'll really miss Kawahiro-san's coffee, but I'll have to learn to live without it for a while. I hope you have a nice rest of the day, Tanemura-san." And with that, there was the sound of shifting metal chairs again, and Kaito heard nothing but background noise for a full minute.
Suddenly, there was a loud static CRACK in Kaito's ear, and his reaction almost knocked a shelf of Kamen Yaiba manga onto the floor. He was able to catch them and put them back in an instant, but his ear was in pain for the next ten minutes. Who the hell had found his listening device?! That was actually painful. Kaito's ears were still ringing when he remembered he still hadn't gotten that magazine for his mom. He went over to the magazine section, grabbed what he needed, and got in line to pay for his stuff. As he waited for his turn at the counter, he couldn't help but notice when Shinichi and his friend, Ran, came walking down the street. Ran was talking with a concerned look on her face while Shinichi smiled casually and repeatedly tossed and caught something as they walked.
Kaito couldn't keep himself from staring as they walked by. Shinichi was without a doubt throwing his broken listening device in the air.
Suddenly Shinichi started looking around rapidly, and Kaito had to avert his gaze. Had he somehow sensed Kaito watching him? Kaito couldn't help feeling a little more curious about the detective. That curiosity was responsible for Kaito going to look through police files later the next day. It turned out that Tanemura had gone and told the police that he had actually been the one who killed his female co-worker that day. According to the file, Tanemura confessed to having been the one who killed the girl when she came up to the roof to get him when his break ended. Tanemura's hobby was carving wooden statuettes, and he often grabbed a knife from the kitchen to carve things on the rooftop during his breaks. When she came up toget him, she threw out some insults about Tanemura and his uncle before he headed down the stairs, and he ended up stabbing her with his kitchen knife on anger. Terrified at what he had done, he covered her body with a tarp and ran back down stairs.
At some point, Kawahiro must have given in and admitted he was covering for Tanemura because his testimony continued the story. About half and hour or so later, it was Kawahiro's turn for a break. The girl, Rina, often stayed up on the roof during her breaks to smoke, so he went up there to find her while his nephew served customers. He didn't see her initially, but before he went back down stairs to look for her more, he figured he should brings some of the crates that they kept on the roof for storage down to the shop before he went on break. The crates were kept under a tarp to protect them from rain, so when Kawahiro lifted the tarp to get the crates, he was also greeting with the sight of Rina's dead body. Tanemura had apparently had running a record of anger management issues, and so Kawahiro had been able to figure out what had happened quickly. But he cared a lot about his nephew, and thus a plan to keep him from going to prison took shape.
In addition to the testimonies, there were a number of items listed as "evidence," and from what Kaito could tell, all of it proved Tanemura's story as truthful. He had to say, he was rather impressed with how thorough the police was with investigating. The had finger prints, blood tests, DNA evidence, the whole nine yards. Kaito was suddenly really glad that he was so careful with covering his tracks as Kid. These guys would eat him alive otherwise. He couldn't help but note the obviousness of the fact that Kawahiro's attempt at covering for his nephew had been extremely sloppy though. It appeared that he was rushed and didn't have much time to think things through, but without even doing that much work, the police would've found him out in a heartbeat. It was lucky that Tanemura confessed before anything happened. He could have ended up going to jail with his uncle labeled an accomplice.
It was really lucky that Shinichi came and talked to him, wasn't it? Otherwise that might have actually happened.
Kaito was struck by the realization that that might have been Shinichi's goal the whole time. Now that Kaito had looked at the evidence, he could recall seeing a few things that could have clued him in on what was actually happening. There was no way Shinichi missed the rigor mortis kicking in or the way the blood had dried, so did that mean he had sat down to talk to Tanemura in order to stop the worst case scenario from happening? Now that he thought about it, Shinichi had said things that hinted at the notion that confessing to the crime was the best choice. He even touched on the fact that the police would be investigating further, despite the fact that someone had already admitted to the crime. Had that been meant as a warning that Tanemura would get caught regardless? If Kaito had been in Tanemura's position, there was no way he would've missed of Shinichi's hints. No wonder the guy had been silent when Shinichi tried to talk to him.
"Huh, maybe this detective isn't as much of a brat as the newspapers make him sound..."
At any rate, it couldn't hurt to look into Shinichi Shinichi a little more, could it? It wasn't much of an extra hassle to tap into the radios of division one as well as division two. If he heard Shinichi's name somewhere and decided to check out the situation, it wasn't like it would do any harm...
...
Shinichi was positive that someone was watching him. Ever since he found that listening device at the cafe, he had been feeling someone's gaze following him for the past three weeks. It usually showed up during cases, but oddly there didn't seem to be any mal intentions behind the staring. For that reason, he didn't say anything about it, but it still kept him on edge.
Whoever is was was watching him right now, but Shinichi had trained himself not to react too much anymore. He figured out that the presence disappeared when he made it clear that he knew someone was there. This way, at least he had a chance of being aware.
He had just finished explaining how a gymnast used piano wire to behead her friend on the Mystery Coaster. The police and the others involved listened attentively to his deduction, and soon the gymnast was arrested. The evidence had been easy to gather too. Now all Shinichi had to do was calm Ran down... She had been crying since they left the crime scene, and he was sure that his mysterious stalker wasn't the only one staring now.
As he tried to explain to her that sometimes these things happen, he couldn't help but notice two men dressed in black headed for an alleyway. If he recalled correctly, these guys were the ones who had been on the Mystery Coaster. They ended up having nothing to do with the murder, but when Shinichi looked into the eyes of the taller one, he saw the eyes of a hardened, cold blooded killer. He had seen those kinds of eyes too many times in the past to miss it. Seeing those two headed for a dark area with no people... Shinichi had a bad feeling about this.
"Sorry, Ran, do you think you could go home first?"
Ran hesitated. "But, Shinichi-"
"Don't worry, I promise I'll catch up later!" He was already on his way to following the men into the alley. He couldn't let them too far out of his sight. As he approached the alley, he heard some voices conversing.
********INSERT TEXT HERE********
Then suddenly, out of nowhere, he felt a sharp blow to his head, and he was on the ground.
Shinichi was only barely keeping conscious as the next events unfolded. Somewhere in his mind, he was berating himself for forgetting about the other guy and not noticing his approach. It was hazy, but he could just barely make out some of the words that the two men in black were saying to each other. Something about an organization? A drug? Shinichi suddenly felt himself being pulled up by the hair and a pill or something was forced into his mouth with some water.
Before they could close his mouth and force him to swallow it though, he heard the sound of something being shot through the air. Suddenly Shinichi was dropped, and as his head hit the ground, his vision went black, and he was out like a light.
...
It was a couple hours later that Shinichi woke up in the Tropical Land infirmary. He found that it was really painful to move his head around, and when he brought his hand up to touch his head, he felt only smooth bandages.
"He's awake!"
Shinichi blinked at the sound of an old's man's voice, but then suddenly a woman in a business outfit was standing before him. He recognized her as one of division one's officers.
"I swear, there can't be anyone luckier or unluckier than you," the officer said as she checked over Shinichi's injuries. He felt a tingling feeling go up the base of his skull and his heart skipped a beat. "Calm down, don't panic, the danger is gone... Deep breaths..."
"I'm sorry, I didn't realize there was another guy until it was too late... Did you manage to catch them?"
The officer shook her head. "They got away. We tried to chase them, but their clothes made them difficult to see. We did manage to catch the man they were meeting with though. He's being questioned right now."
About then, an older officer walked into the room and set a glass of water on the table next to where Shinichi was laying. Shinichi muttered a "thank you" as he drank it down.
"Careful there," the officer said as she set her roll of bandages down. "You might need to get checked into a hospital later to see if you got a concussion."
Shinichi nodded, but then flinched midway. His hand flew to the back of his head and the officer leaned into see what the problem was. Without hesitation, Shinichi grabbed the side of her cheek and tore off the latex mask that had been on her face.
"OW! What the heck?!" The officer, whose voice was now clearly that of a guy's rubbed his face indignantly. Shinichi was surprised to see that the fake Satou had a face much like his own. "What gave it away?" the imposter asked.
"Satou-keji has never this good with bandages. She's a great officer, but this isn't her forte. Also, your mask was peeling," Shinichi said with an annoyed expression. "Have you been the one who's been stalking me for the past three weeks?"
The guy in Satou-keiji's clothes worked on making attempts to salvage some of the wig that had been torn off with the mask as he tried to formulate a good answer. "... Yes, but I swear I can explain... or well, you'll think I'm an idiot... I swear I'm not crazy... this isn't coming out right...." the guy looked down and took a deep breath before looking back up. His face was a picture of calm and confident. "Sorry, now, seeing as I dont think there's a way to deny it, I'll admit that I've been watching you for the past few weeks. But! Before you call the authorities, please allow me to explain." Shinichi raised an expectant eyebrow.
"I've been a fan of your work for a long time now, and my dream is to be a detective like you. Disguises are my forte, and I figured that if I could use them to investigate you, the most well known detective around here, then I could improve my skills and learn from you at the same time. That's why I've been following you for the past few weeks."
There was a pause. Shinichi looked at the guy for a long minute before asking, "Do you know anything about British folklore?"
"What...?"
"Because that explanation was about as believable as the Loch Ness monster."
"But it's true!"
"What's the merit in just observing me?" Shinichi shot back. "If you really wanted to be a detective, you would've looked in a number of different detectives to observe. Clearly you're clever enough to have thought of that. Also, three weeks is way too long of an observation period. You should've learned most of what you could have learned from observing me over the course of a week. The method of deduction is pretty consistent, and the rest is just how observant you are. there's obviously more to this." Did this guy think Shinichi was blind or something?
"Well, I'm not budging from my explanation. It's the truth." The guy said with a completely straight face.
Shinichi sighed. He wasn't going to get anywhere with this angle. "Alright then... What happened to Satou-keiji? You didn't kidnap her for his to work out, did you?"
"Don't worry, her mom's been planning a weekend with the family for a month. She didn't want to go anyway, so it was totally believable when I came into the office and announced 'I' had found a way out of staying home."
"Were you also the one who got those men in black off me?"
"That was easy since I was dressed as a cop. I didn't get there in time to save you from getting hit in the head, but I did manage to stop you from swallowing that pill they gave you. You know, you should really thank me."
"What about the other police officers? Were you telling the truth when you talked about the investigation?"
"Of course, are you doubting me?"
Shinichi simply gave him a deadpan look. The guy smirked.
"At any rate, I'm actually supposed to call someone when you woke up if you were fit for questioning, which you clearly are, but somebody kind of ruined my disguise, so it'll be a problem if someone comes in here while I'm around. I'll play nice and call someone on the radio with Satou-san's voice, but after that I'll have to be on my way..." The guy picked up Satou's radio.
"Before you do that though, what's your name?"
Understandably, the guy hesitated.
"I promise I won't turn you in for stalking."
"It wasn't stalking, it was informative observation, and am I supposed to take that promise at face value?"
"Well I assume you haven't left any solid evidence to prove that you've been stalking me, right? After I found the listening device the first time, you've been more careful."
"Informatively observing, and true, but if I told you my name, you could just look me up on the Internet and send a police squad to my front door."
"Dont worry, you saved my life. On my honor as a detective, I swear to let you go today as a thank you."
"But that's just for today, isn't it? If I tell you my name, you could arrest me tomorrow."
"Well yeah, but I wouldn't be able to turn you unless I caught you doing a crime, right? So unless I caught you in disguise at the police station again, you can't be convicted of a crime. Besides, you know my name and pretty much everything about my life after stalking me for three weeks."
The guy let out a laugh. Even Shinichi could hear how this was bordering on childish, but he couldn't help smiling a little either.
"Fine, Kuroba Kaito at your service," the guy said with an exaggerated bow. "And how many times do I have to say, it was informative observation?" With that, Kuroba turned around with his police radio in hand and called in an officer. Once that was done, he gave Shinichi a quick wave and a puff of smoke suddenly appeared. When the fog cleared, it appeared to have taken Kuroba with it. "Well, the smoke is new..."
Shinichi laid in the infirmary for another two minutes or so before Inspector Nakamori came through the door. "Hello Makamori-keibu."
"Ah! You're that detective brat from the clock tower heist, aren't you?!"
Shinichi smiled sheepishly. "Haha, yeah, it was a really great experience to have been able to work with you then..."
"And now you're here with a busted head.... You see, this is why kids should stay out of cases!" After he got the comment out of his system, Nakamori was able to recollect himself. "Ahem. However, you were present during the transaction, and we have a few questions for you. As you know, I'm the head of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department's division two. Our domain is fraud and organized crime, and recently the weapons dealer that you saw tonight has caught our attention...."
Shinichi spent the next ten minutes or so trying to answer Nakamori's questions. He couldn't say as much as he would have like to have been able to say, but eventually the questions came to an end and Nakamori wished him well before he left the room. Shinichi took a look at his phone and found that it was later than he thought, and if he didn't get home soon, Ran would murder him. She'd already sent him six messages to check up on him, and he made sure to respond to them before he did anything else. After explaining to Ran what had happened after they split up, Shinichi was ready to head home. Shinichi checked his bandages bandages before he got up, but as soon as he exited the infirmary, he was met with a pair of sharp green eyes. A man wearing a dark green beanie and a black jacket greeted him with a serious face.
"Kudo Shinichi?" The man asked him. Shinichi didn't say anything, but the man continued, "My name is Akai Shuichi. I'm with the FBI, and we've been investigating those men in black that you encountered today. I've talked to the police and volunteered to drive you home. Wouyour ou mind answering a few questions on the way?" As he spoke, the man, Akai, held up a badge to prove his authenticity.
Shinichi contemplated his options for a minute. The badge appeared to be legitimate, and this Akai guy didn't seem to have any bad intentions. Not to mention, if the FBI was involved with this somehow, then this case must be huge. So Shinichi sent a quick message to Ran, telling her that he was on his way home with an officer now, and got into a car with a complete stranger.
...
Kudo Shinichi: Kuroba! I need you to investigate something. Can we meet somewhere so we can talk?
Kuroba Kaito: I knew you would look me up if I gave you my name!
Kudo Shinichi: Well yeah, but you still gave me your name and I'm still not turning you in. I'm just messaging you on Facebook
Kuroba Kaito: I bet you stalked my profile though
Kudo Shinichi: This is coming from YOU of all people? You can hardly call that fair after the past few weeks. And by the way, I KNEW that "I want to be a detective" thing was bullshit! You obviously want to be a magician! But that's beside the point and I can figure out why you were stalking me later. Can you help me?
Kuroba Kaito: Informativly observing and why should I?
Kudo Shinichi: It's really important. I looked into some of the police files, and this could be huge. But I need more information, and you might not actually want to be a detective, but you do have an extremely useful skill set. I can't say anything on the Internet though, so if you want me to explain, we'll have to talk in person.
Kuroba Kaito: ...Fine. I'll be at the French cafe by the local art museum on Friday at noon. Bring money, you are buying food
Kudo Shinichi: I can live what that. See you then.
...
After typing the last message, Shinichi looked down as his folder of gathered information. After talking to the Akai, he had learned a little about the organization that the men in black belonged to. The FBI agent couldn't tell him too much though, but that was understandable. Shinichi told him everything he could remember about the two men, and by the end of their conversation, he had developed the motivation to find out more. Shinichi looked at the case files, and the pill that he had almost swallowed wasn't listed as evidence. Thinking it strange, Shinichi went back to Tropical Land to look around the spot where he had been hit, and by some stroke of luck, found the pill in the grass there. He had Professor Agasa run some tests on it before he handed it over to the police, and he was able to trace its origins down to a specific laboratory in Tokyo. The head scientist there was a surprisingly young chemist named Miyano Shiho, but Shinichi had a hard time learning more than that.
How convenient was it that he had met a master of disguise the previous day?
Thankfully "Kuroba Kaito" hadn't been an alias, and Shinichi had been able to find his Facebook pretty easily. He was surprised but glad that Kuroba had agreed to meet with him. Shinichi had never met anyone that good at disguising themselves and changing their voice. If chasing the men in black hadn't caused the mask to peal a little, Shinichi might have never discovered anything was wrong. Even without a mask, Kuroba was an interesting person to talk to. He really was curious about why Kuroba had been stalking him, but Kuroba wasn't going to give him a straight answer. It was unlikely that he meant any harm, since he did save Shinichi from those men in black. Could he have been hired by someone? There was no gurantee that shadowing Shinichi had been for himself. That was a mystery that Shinichi could only solve if he got more clues though. Being able to gather more information on the mysterious organization while also getting to interact with Kuroba more was killing two birds with one stone.
...
Kaito was was having a really hard time figuring out whether or not it had been a good idea to give Shinichi his name. Right now Shinichi just thought he was a stalker, but the detective was asking for his help with a case? What would happen if he found out that Kaito was Kaito Kid? Would he arrest him then? Would he let him for? It was undeniable that Shinichi was different from what he expected, and Kaito wasn't sure how to plan his next move. He would just have to play it by ear. Luckily, that was something he was good at.
Right now Kaito was sitting in the French cafe, waiting for Shinichi to show up. Somehow the cafe was empty on a Saturday during lunch hour, and there was a peaceful silence. One thought that floated into Kaito's head as he stared out the window involved his soulmate tattoo. Would this meeting with Shinichi lead to spending more time with the detective? Could this eventually turn into a romance? Accidentally finding him at the marketplace that first time was one thing. Choosing to observe him was another. But now Shinichi was reaching out to him, and Kaito couldn't help but wonder, was this fate? Were all these events somehow pushing them together? Kaito's curiousity about Shinichi had originally been linked to his soul tattoo. This was actually kind of paradoxical.
Kaito couldn't imagine how Shinichi would react if he told him that he had been observing him because Shinichi's first words to him were also his soulmate's first words. Would he believe it? Would he call it a coincidence? This also led back to the question of "what would Shinichi do if he found that Kaito was Kaito Kid?" It had occurred to Kaito back in the Tropical Land infirmary that explaining why he had been observing Shinichi would inevitably lead to exposing his other identity. He could have come up with a better story, but Shinichi didn't seem to be aggressively pursuing the answer to that question. Kaito just had to keep hoping it would stay that way.
Kaito had arrived at the cafe a little early, but Shinichi ended being three minutes late. "Sorry! I had some issues on the way here! Did you wait long?" The detective asked as he took a seat. He was wearing a t-shirt under the jacket he had worn to Tropical Land.
"I will honest to goodness bet money on the guess that you ran into a murder on the way here."
"It was a purse theft!"
"You have still got to be kidding me." After three weeks of following this guy, Kaito was convinced he was cursed. Running into four crimes or more a week was just not normal, and Kaito had now seen so ,any corpses that they no longer made him want to throw up. He wasn't sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing.
"That wasn't only thing, but I'll get to that! I brought some of the case stuff!" Shinichi said as he began laying out some tan portfolios.
Kaito watched him spread them out over the table. Before Shinichi could finish organizing them, Kaito put a hand over the pile and said, "this is great, and I totally plan on reading these, but let's order first. I was promised food, and I haven't had breakfast yet."
Shinichi halted his file sorting and nodded. "Of course. Right! You know, I don't think I have either..." he trailed off with a look that appeared to be genuinely trying to remember if he had indeed skipped the most important meal of the day.
They called a waitress over and Kaito couldn't help but wonder if his potential future soulmate could actually be worse at taking care of himself than Kaito was. A person couldn't actually forget to have breakfast, could they? Kaito just slept in and opted to feed the birds instead because he knew he would be getting food at the cafe. After ordering the food, Shinichi filled him in on what happened after Kaito left the Tropical land infirmary.
Apparently an FBI agent had visited because the men who had been black mailing the weapons dealer were part of an international crime syndicate. They had their hands in pretty much every industry imaginable, and efforts to find and track them have been largely unsuccessful. Another one of the reasons Shinichi had been late was because he had to lose someone who had been following him. He knew it hadn't been Kaito, so he deduced that it was either an FBI agent or a member of the organization, but he wasn't willing to take any risks.
What Shinichi wanted Kaito to do was investigate a chemist named Miyano Shiho. Shinichi had apparently found some information by analyzing the pill he had almost swallowed, and he was thinking that they could find more information on the organization if they could learn about the drug she had been developing, and who put an 18 year old girl in charge of an experimental laboratory.
"An orange juice and a lemonade?" The waitress said as she approached the table.
"Ah, yes!" Kaito moved the folders to one end of the table. He saw Shinichi moving to do the same, and suddenly an idea came to mind. There was an easy way to settle the soulmate question, and Kaito felt like an idiot for not thinking of it sooner. He picked up the folders and straightened them into a single stack.
"Hey, Tomoka-chan, I heard you found your soulmate recently. Is that true?"
"Yes, it is actually. We met at the supermarket last week actually," she said with a faint blush as she set down Shinichi's orange juice.
"Well, congratulations!" Kaito threw up a cloud of confetti with a POOF and Tomoka jumped back in surprise. She had been holding Kaito's lemonade at the time, and it ended up spilling all over the table and on ShinichFaustian had been in the middle of picking up his organs juice.
"Oh my god, I am so sorry!" Tomoka said as she realized what had happened.
"Don't worry," Kaito told her, "that was my fault. Do you think you could tell me where we could find some rags though?"
"I'll be right back!" With that she ran back to the kitchen to find them.
When she was gone, Kaito turned to to Shinichi. "Are you ok?" The detective was taking off his jacket with a slightly annoyed expression. I'm fine, my sleeves are just a little soaked. You?"
"Yeah, I just got some drops on my sleeve."
"It's a good thing you picked up the files. They all would've been ruined."
"I guess I'm just lucky like that." Kaito said with a smile. He straightened the files in his hand as he watched Shinichi tug off his right sleeve. Finally the sleeve came off, and Kaito found it impossible to stop staring.
"Whoa, what...?"
"Oh, this?" Shinichi said as he held up his arm and examined the ink smears on it. "Yeah, my parents got to an accident a little before I was born. A month later, these ink smears came up instead of my soulmate tattoo and my parents went to see a specialist. Apparently it was because of trauma or something. It's always been like this."
"Really? When's your birthday?"
"May 4th."
"Ah, ok, I see... I'm really sorry to hear that, it must've been awful."
"It's alright, I'm surviving."
"I found some towels!" The two turned to see Tomoka jogging over to the table. They all grabbed a cloth, and soon the table was clean and ready for food. Tomoka went back to bring them what they ordered (along with some drinks to make up for the one that had been spilled) and Shinichi continued with the case.
Kaito's eyes couldn't help but flick back to Shinichi's "soulmate tattoo" every now and then. So much for the easy answer. He hadn't realized something like that had happened to Shinichi though... Kaito had never known anyone who couldn't read their soulmate tattoo. What was it like not to know what the first words you would hear from your soulmate would be? What was it like to not listen for those words in every conversation you have with a new person?
"So, will you do it?"
Suddenly Kaito was snapped out of his train of thought. He thought for a minute before responding.
"I'll investigate this girl and this organization, but I have a condition."
"Yes?"
"If I investigate this, I want you to look into another case for me."
"Explain?"
"My dad died eight years ago during one of his shows. The police concluded it was an accident, but I believe that there was foul play involved. I don't know if you'll be able to figure out who killed him, but I want you to take a look at the files and see if there's something the police might have missed. If you could just open his case again somehow, that would be enough."
"What makes you so sure he was murdered?"
"His old assistant brought it up to me. I'll take you to meet him sometime if you agree."
"Alright then, deal."
"Cool! I think I have an untraceable phone in here somewhere...."
"You just carry around untraceable phones? You do realize how suspicious that sounds, right?"
"Hey, you always have to be prepared. Here." Kaito handed Shinichi a regular looking flip phone. "My number should be in there, so text me if you come up with anything new, and I'll text that phone of anything happens on my end. That sound good?"
"That works! Now, I hope you brought your credit card because that was a great lunch!"
Shinichi looked down and realized that Kaito had completely cleared his food off his plates. Shinichi had yet to touch any of his food. He started scarfing it down as quickly as possible when Kaito let out a laugh.
"It's alright, slow down. I've got room for dessert, there's no need to rush!"
For the rest of their time at the cafe, the two talked about anything that came to their minds. Shinichi learned that Kaito was best friends with an inspector's daughter ("no wonder you were able to get into the police station so often!"), raised birds as a hobby, and really disliked fish. Kaito learned that Shinichi's best friend could probably break every bone in his body, his favorite pastimes were reading and soccer, and he really loved Sherlock Holmes. Neither of them would have ever said it out loud, but they both gained a friend that day.
...
Weeks passed, and the two found themselves enjoying each other's company more and more often. They lived in different areas of Tokyo, but they would often find times to meet up at that French cafe and talk. A lot of times they would help each other out with respective problems. Maybe Kaito would need to know something about a building for a heist (although Shinichi wouldn't know about the heist part), or maybe Shinichi would need a listening device on a stray suspect. One time Shinichi helped Kaito get the criminal record of a guy who tried to drive a friend of Kaito's out of business. Their association was mutually beneficial, and they usually told each other what they could about their endeavors.
As for their investigations, Shinichi was able to find out that Kuroba Toichi had been sighted speaking to some suspicious looking men every now and then. He was following some potential leads that might clarify their identity, but his investigation was a little difficult since the case was so old.
Kaoto had been able to learn that Miyano Shiho was an orphaned child of two reknown scientists. She also had an older sister who lived in the Beika area named Akemi and had an affinity for Fusae purses. Kaito saw her talking to a man in black once, but they appeared to be lying low for now.
There were many days when Kaito came to Shinichi to vent, and today was one of those days.
"... and I can't tell you how glad I am Hakuba's gone back to England! the guy's got a vendetta against me I swear it!"
"There's got to be reason he keeps provoking you though."
"Well yeah, but that doesn't help me if I don't know what the reason is! Did I tell you about the other day? He had the nerve to go up to Aoko and be all 'I'm tall and a Virgo and we should date!' Then! He goes and kisses her hand!"
"Don't you do that like all the time though?"
"It's charming when I do it, when he does it it's sleazy!"
"I think you're letting your personal bias cloud your vision here. He's a great conversationalist, and he's polite too."
"To you maybe, but that's because you guys spent an hour talking about Sherlock Holmes! He's out to get my best friend, and I'm not going down without a fight!"
"But the other day she said she found her soulmate."
"Her soulmate tattoo says 'nice to meet you!' Literally anyone could have said that to her!"
"But she saw Hakuba's tattoo too."
"Still refusing to believe it! His tattoo has to be at least as generic as her's!"
"Alright then...."
Shinichi smiled. Kaito got really passionate about things sometimes. It had been a month or two since their first meeting in this cafe, and the place had kind of become a refuge for them. Shinichi was an little frustrated with how slow their progress their cases were, but Shinichi was nothing if not patient.
"Anyway, do you have any plans?" Kaito asked as he took a sip from his drink.
"Well, Aoko invited me to her birthday party tomorrow, but there's a Kaito Kid heist. Happening nearby, and I thought I'd go check it out.
Kaito did a spit take. Luckily they were outside. "Y-you're what?"
"Going to to your best friend's birthday party and a heist? You've talked about Kid a few times before, and since this heist was nearby, I thought I would go check it out."
"Haven't you been to a Kid heist before though?" Kaito coughed out.
"Um, I don't think so...?"
"It was all over the news! The clock tower heist? Weren't you the "Kudo Shinichi" who almost cornered Kid?!"
"Oh, was that who I was up against? I never really heard the name of the guy who I was chasing at the clock tower..."
Kaito looked mortified. How could Shinichi not have known his name at the time? He half wanted Shinichi to go to the heist, just so he could outsmart him and rub in how even the great Kudo Shinichi can't catch the great Kaito Kid. But there was always the risk that Shinichi would figure out Kid's identity if he went to a heist... It had never been a problem before because Shinichi's life wasn't centered around catching Kaito Kid (like some other people Kaito knew), but it would be preferable if Shinichi stayed in the dark about Kaito's secret. If Shinichi was really his soulmate, Kaito hoped that he would understand his reasons and not turn Kaito in. Not to mention, if Shinichi wasn't mistaken, and he rarely was, Aoko's birthday was tomorrow, and he was going to have to finish the heist quickly if he wanted to make it to Aoko's party.
"So you know what a Kid heist is like! I actually won't be able make it to the first half of the party? Do you think you could cover for me?"
"What do you mean?"
"Like maybe change your hair and pretend to be me for a few hours...? Just until I get there!" Kaito suggested hopefully. If he could keep Shinichi occupied at the paate until Kaito got there, he could get it over with quickly.
"Come on, it's Aoko, she'd see through me in a heartbeat. Just let her know you'll be late."
"Right..."
Kaito tried to think of some ways to deter Shinichi from going, but knocking the detective out wasn't going to work if Aoko was expecting him to be at the party, and there weren't any good excuses that Kaito could make. Oh well, he was just going to have to finish before Shinichi left.
...
It was a little surprising when Kaito didn't make it to the party before Shinichi had to leave, but whatever Kaito had to do, it must be taking longer than he thought. Shinichi excused himself from the party after an hour or so, and Aoko saw him off with the hope that he would catch the thief quickly and let her dad be home before the party ended. Shinichi assured her he would as he walked out the door.
When Shinichi arrived at the heist site, he found the Fokine force trapped in a cage. An officer explained that Kid had tricked them into opening the cage and trapping them, but Inspector Nakamori laughed and explained that they had put a tracking device in the they'll and would be able to find Kid's hideout that way. Shinichi stopped to look at the officer guy on his computer, and sure enough, there was a map of the building. The tracker on the jewel was going up. Immediately, Shinichj headed for the roof. Even if there was a tracker, Shinichi at least wanted to make the attempt to get a glimpse of this elusive Phantom Thief.
Shinichi climbed the stairs as quickly as he could. Before he opened the door, he pressed the side of his head to it and prepared to push it quietly. But then-
BOOM!
Shinichi jumped a little in surprise. Was that a gunshot?
"We warned you not to lay your hands on the jewel," came a man's voice. Shinichi pressed his ear closer to the door.
"Long time no see, Kaito Kid. Or rather...." he paused for dramatic effect. "Kuroba Toichi, I should say."
Shinichi was stunned. "What?? How...? What??" He couldn't do anything but listen intently as the man continued.
"We were surprised to hear that the jewel we were after was being targeted by someone who was supposed to have been disposed of eight years ago." Shinichi heard the click of a gun being cocked before the man threateningly said,
"Hand over the jewel. If you give it to us quietly, we'll at least let you live."
Up until then, the man had been the only one talking. But at that moment, a new voice spoke up.
"Just answer me one thing," the person said as the sound of something metal hit the ground. "Why are you guys targeting jewels?"
That voice. Shinichi knew that voice. It was insane, but... Was Kaito actually Kaito kid? The man was clearly talking to Kaito Kid, but he thought that the person they were talking to was "Kuroba Toichi." Plus these guys had pretty much admitted they had killed the man. If Kaito had known about that, then the idea that Kaito may have followed in his father's footsteps wasn't a far fetched idea. The pieces of the puzzle began to come together, but Shinichi couldn't believe he hadn't gotten any kind of hint at this.
"It seems these jewels are the key," the man answered in response to Kaito's question.
"To what?!"
"Eternity."
"Eternity?" Kaito repeated incredulously.
Shinichi heard another click. "Allow me to give you a present," the man's voice said. "An eternity in the afterlife!" The sound of a gunshot rang through Shinichi's ears, and without thinking, he opened the door just in time to see a figure in white fall off the building. He was sure his heart stopped, but Shinichi barely had time to react. The sound of the door opening got the attention of the men on the roof top (Shinichi hadn't actually realized that the man who had been talking hadn't been alone.)
The men all raised their guns, and Shinichi was forced to shut the door as quickly as possible before running down the stairs. He hid in a corner as the men from the roof top rushed past him, and he managed to find an alternate stair case that took him down to the first floor. Once he was able to catch his breath, the impact of the events on the rooftop caught up with him.
Was Kaito actually... Dead? No one could survive a fall like that, and it sounded like the bullet had hit its mark. Shinichi took off towards the front doors of the building. "Doubt the murder until you see a body." Shinichi had seen cases where people survived long falls. He wasn't sure if he was being overly optimistic, but he hoped that Kaito would be one of those cases....
He rounded the corner to search the right side of the building, but then he heard voices. Suddenly, Shinichi was grabbed from behind and a hand flew over his mouth.
"Shhh," whispered the person behind him.
Shinichi froze immediately. The men from the rooftop walked past the front of the building and piled into some black cars that were parked out on the street. Once they drove away, the hands let Shinichi go, and he turned around sharply.
"Kaito! What the hell?! You're a Phantom Thief?! How are you not dead?! What's going on?!"
"Calm down! I swear I'll explain everything, but first we've got to follow those guys!"
Kaito ushered Shinichi out of the alley they were in and directed him to a car that was parked a few blocks up the road. Kaito hopped into the front seat, leaving Shinichi to sit in the back. Only when he got into the car did Shinichi realize who was driving the car. "Jii-san?" Shinichi asked in surprise.
Konosuke Jii looked back at Shinichi and struggled for the right words to say. "Are you- is he- what- Kaito-bocchama! Is this...?"
"Don't worry about it Jii-chan, just go follow those cars!"
That, the man was able to comprehend. He nodded and the car was now running full speed ahead. Kaito took out a small PDA with a tracker system pulled up and set it on the dashboard. A blinking dot on the radar showed Jii which direction the cars were going. That's when Kaito turned back to Shinichi.
"Ok, I feel like you have a lot of questions and things you want to clear up... I'll answer everything honestly, so please let me explain myself."
"Well, that makes things a lot easier," Shinichi said in a surprising calm manner. Kaito half expected Shinichi to blow up or something. "First off, are you really Kaito Kid? Like, the guy on the news, the one at the clock tower, that was all you?"
".... Yes, I've been Kaito Kid for the past few months..."
"And you've been doing this why?"
"You remember when I told you my dad was murdered, right? Well, asking you to investigate his death wasn't the only thing I've been doing to figure out who killed him... Eight years ago, my dad was Kaito Kid, and whoever killed him knew that. It was those guys on the rooftop.... They knew who my dad was, and they killed him."
"I know, I was listening at the door for a while."
"You were!?"
"That's why the police don't know your civilian identity yet. Believe it or not, I actually don't have that many questions because everything makes sense now. You got your skills and desire to be a magician from your dad, and you just told me that you took his place as Kaito Kid because you wanted to lure put his killers, and tonight you were sucessful. These guys killed your dad for whatever reason, and then they tried to kill you. I would be mad that you didn't tell me, but then again I actually do get why you didn't say anything with me being a detective and all. Don't worry, I won't arrest you because you're really just pretending to be a criminal when it comes down to it, but I will scold you because you've clearly got a DEATH WISH. How are you even still alive right now?! I saw you fall off an eleven story building after being shot!"
"I had a a parachute, just in case something like this happened! Also, the bullet didn't hit me!" Kaito reached into his pocket and pulled out a large blue sapphire. "It hit this lovely little thing here!"
"... You are so insanely lucky, it's not even fair."
"What can I say? It's a gift!"
Shinichi shook his head with an exasperated smile. It was sheer luck that his friend wasn't dead, but he was glad that Kaito survived.
Soon the black cars came to a stop in front of an old Japanese style house. Kaito got out of the car, and he tried to tell Shinichi to stay back with Jii, but Shinichi was stubborn and felt that Kaito might need back up. Kaito reluctantly let him come along, and they snuck around the house to the back and over the fence around the back yard, where they found the men from the roofroofer there'd with a guy in traditional Japanese clothing. He was in the middle of explaining to the leader of the group why they were going after large jewels.
Apparently there were a number of "big jewels" scattered around the world, and one of them held a jewel that would cry tears that would give a person immortality. Shinichi couldn't believe that these guys were wasting so much time on such a ridiculous idea. There was no way that something like this "Pandora" could exist, and yet these guys were willing to sort through jewel after jewel to find it.
"But sir! How can you tell if a jewel has this kind of power?" The leader of the group asked.
"Easy," the man in traditional clothing answered. "You simply hold a jewel up to the moon, and if it has Pandora, then another jewel will begin to glow red in