Case Closed Fan Fiction ❯ When Pandora's Box Is Opened ❯ A Phantom Thief ( Chapter 33 )

Chapter Thirty-Three

A Phantom Thief

Probably only Saguru noticed Kaito's nanosecond of hesitation when they turned onto his street, but at least Akako had once again been on the ball; the car was gone. Kaito relaxed slightly as he led them up to his house, a decent-sized place at the end of the street. As he reached into his pocket for his house keys, Saguru saw a momentary flash of green; some sort of bug sensor, Saguru assumed, as he knew that Kaito would not be so incautious as to let them into his house without checking that doing so wouldn't make them targets. He hoped so, anyway. The house must have been clean, as he led them in with that faint shadow of his usual grin.

“I'll try and find the tea stuff,” he said. “Aoko, can you lead `em up to the rec room?”

“I'll be right back down to give you a hand,” she promised as she headed up the stairs. Saguru followed her and Akako with some interest. He'd gotten into Kaito's house a couple of times under the pretence of borrowing textbooks or homework, but only the ground floor, and he hadn't gotten to snoop much since either Kaito or his mother seemed to be around all the time.

They passed the door to what was presumably Kaito's room, the door slightly ajar. Several doves flew over their heads and into the room as they passed. The room looked normal- bed, computer, bookshelf filled with books on magic and gemology and Arsene Lupin, large dovecot (that looked normal enough to someone who had a hawk perch in his room). Then they turned into the rec room and Saguru stopped in the doorway. Someone was already in there.

After a moment, he realized that it wasn't a person but a life-size painting depicting a man in a white suit and tie almost identical to the one that Kaito had been wearing. There were a number of doves flying out of the white top hat held upside down in the man's hands. And his face was...

“Amazing painting, isn't it?” Aoko said softly. “It's like Toichi-ojisan's really here.”

“So this is the great Kuroba Toichi, is it?” Akako said, stepping up to the painting. “Well. Kuroba-kun certainly takes after his father.”

“I'm heading down to help Kaito,” Aoko said. “Make yourselves comfortable.”

Akako settled herself on the sofa sitting in the middle of the room, facing the TV that was sitting between a ceiling-height bookshelf and a similar-sized case full of CDs, DVDs and games- Kaito had a Wii, a PS3 and even a retro N64 hooked up to the TV.

Saguru wandered over to the painting. It certainly was lifelike. The artist had managed to capture something in his piercing blue eyes, identical to Kaito's, that gave Saguru the impression that Toichi was watching him- not in a predatory way, no, more like the way a passing adult watches children in a playpark; the friendly but slightly condescending way that Kid always watched the police. As Akako had said, it wasn't difficult to see the resemblance between father and son.

Saguru reached up and touched the edge of the painting. There was an odd feeling of space behind it...

“Yeah, that's him.”

Saguru stepped back from the painting as Kaito re-entered the room with Aoko, who was carrying a tray with tea and biscuits. Kaito sat on the back of the couch, where Aoko sat down next to Akako and set the tea tray on the coffee table. Saguru took a seat in the comfy chair that was at right angles to the couch.

“Who did the painting?” Akako asked.

“Apparently an artist did it after seeing one of Tou-san's shows live,” Kaito said. “I don't know his name, though. I think it was when I was only two or three, anyway. Whoever he was, he was good, huh?”

“It's certainly very impressive,” Saguru said. “Like it's alive.”

“Yeah,” Kaito said with a strange smile. “Sometimes it feels like he's still keeping a lot of secrets...”

“A sneaking phantom, eh?” Akako said, sipping innocuously at her tea.

“You can say that,” Kaito said, as Aoko glanced from one to another in confusion. “In fact, you just did.”

“Anyway, how was your visit to Kyoto?” Aoko said.

“All right,” Kaito said. “Tou-can's old pal's going to be travelling and doing some shows, as it happened- he and a few other magicians are doing a menagerie kinda thing. He knew I want to be a professional once I'm out of high school, so he was asking if I wanted to join `em for a couple of months.”

“You're going to travel?” Aoko said in surprise. “Wow! Overseas, or just around Japan?”

“Just Japan,” he said. “And just for a couple of months. I'm planning to be back by exam time.”

“In other words, he's about to disappear for a couple of months,” Saguru thought. Aloud he said, “So when are you leaving?”

“Tonight, actually,” Kaito said. “I was just stopping by for the remembrance and to say bye to you guys and Kaa-san. I'm taking an overnight train to meet them in Osaka.”

“You're leaving so soon?” Aoko said in dismay. “You won't even get to see the Kid heist!”

“Yeah, and that sucks too,” Kaito said. “ `Cause I bet the one heist I miss is the one where something really special happens...”

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“So we think that's the target,” Yuusaku said as he and Shinichi walked down the corridor with Nakamori. They'd explained most of their reasoning, but had judiciously left out any deductions pertaining to Kuroba or the Black Organization. “We'll need to put the most security around the black sapphire.”

“Understood,” Nakamori said. “It's had a little extra security all day anyway. Apparently some odd people have been hanging around the exhibit.”

“What?” Yuusaku and Shinichi both said sharply. They exchanged a look.

“Black Org? But they don't normally get noticed...”

They stepped into the exhibition hall. There were a number of plainclothes officers lurking around, as well as two uniformed officers on each piece, apparently under the explanation that these jewels were very valuable and so needed the tightest security possible. Yuusaku and Shinichi made their way to the black sapphire, Shinichi on edge for any whiff of a Black operative. He calmed right down, however, when he saw the people who were “lurking” around the exhibit.

“I wish I could've seen the diamond,” a dark-haired woman was growling. “I kept getting a funny feeling about it, and now I can't be sure...”

“It might be back from Britain soon though, Laura-neechan,” Shinichi said as he sauntered up to the small group of foreigners. Only five of them were crowded around the case with the black sapphire in it.

“You know them?” Yuusaku said in surprise.

“Yeah, we met them on a case a while back,” Shinichi muttered back, “and while I can never say it definitively, I'm 99% sure that none of them are with Them.” Speaking louder, he said, “Wow, It's been a while! Hi everybody!”

“Hi Dr Nick!” Richard said. Charlotte and Alex both giggled. Shinichi and Yuusaku exchanged looks of confusion.

“They're from Scotland,” Shinichi said by way of explanation.

“Fancy running into you again, Conan-kun,” Charlotte said. “Are you here for the Kid heist?”

“Yeah- wait, how'd you know about that?” Shinichi said in shock.

“Oh, please,” Laura said. “Look how many cops are around, and we heard one of them talking to “Nakamori-keibu” on his radio, so we knew he must be around tonight.”

“We figured he'd hit this place sooner or later anyway,” Alex said, gesturing at the jewels. “Just look at all this loot!”

“What'd we miss?” Max said, running up, wiping his hands on his handkerchief. He was followed by a girl in a white t-shirt with a black corset on top who reminded Shinichi very vividly of Hakuba's creepy witch friend, though her short black hair, black trousers and black boots made her looks rather more tomboyish.

“You guys were in the bathroom forever,” Charlotte said. “Oh, Tay-kun, you've not met Conan-kun!”

“No, but I've heard of him,” the girl said. “Hajimemashite, Meitantei. Who this guy?”

“Good question,” Andrew said.

“Oh, how rude, we didn't introduce ourselves,” Laura said in shock. “I'm Laura, the girl dressed like a gypsy is Charlotte-” Charlotte waved, her charm bracelets clinking- “the Jolly Green Giant there is Richard-” Richard tweaked his green jumper and muttered “hohoho”- “The tall fairies are Alex and Andrew-” the couple linked hands and waved in the most stereotypically queer way possible- “Goth girl there is Taylor-”small bow from goth girl, who had produced a black top hat from somewhere and proceeded to tip it to them- “And the guy who just spent forever in the loo is Charlotte's little brother Max.” Max also waved. He was wearing a greek-collar shirt that made him look even more like his sister. They all seemed a little lightly dressed for winter. There wasn't a scarf or gloves between them, aside from Taylor's black fingerless gloves, and the only ones wearing a hat was Alex, who was wearing a black fedora, and Taylor's top hat. They were all wearing jeans aside from Charlotte who was wearing another layered skirt, this time in brown and green. They were mostly wearing hoodies or cardigans except for Alex, who had on a black leather jacket which was open to show his t-shirt, which read “I ROCK- Guitar Hero said so.” “Hajimemashite. You are?”

“Conan's Uncle,” Yuusaku said, “Kudo Yuusaku. Nice to meet you. I live in LA most of the time. This is my first time back in Japan for a while.”

“Kudo? Hey, are you related to Ran-san's boyfriend?” Alex said.

“Oh yeah,” Charlotte said thoughtfully. “The cute guy she was with at the skating rink... Kudo Shinichi?”

“Shinichi is my son, yes,” Yuusaku said as Shinichi flushed involuntarily. “However, he's left already, which was a real wrench for him and Ran-kun.”

“I can imagine,” Laura said, watching Shinichi. He shrank behind his father slightly.

“So do you know what the target's going to be?” Alex said excitedly. “We thought It'd be that hugeass diamond, but since it's not here...”

“I couldn't say, I'm sure,” Yuusaku said. “Kid's riddles are obscure, but we think it's one of the sapphires.”

“Well, let's go check them out, then,” Richard said.

“Oh, I hope we get to see Kid-sama!” Alex squealed.

“What jewel's he going to take?” Max wondered aloud.

“They don't care as long as they get to see Kid,” Laura sighed, jerking her thumb at the squealing Charlotte and Alex. “Fangirls. That's the word.”

“What's the word?” Andrew said, having apparently not been listening.

“You mean you haven't heard the word?” Richard said.

“What's the word?” Charlotte asked, with the wary air of one who knows they're setting themselves up.

“Word?” Max said.

“Bird!” Richard said and launched into a song, although thankfully the Scots had moved out of earshot of Shinichi and Yuusaku by this point.

“Interesting people,” Yuusaku said.

“I wish I didn't keep running into them,” Shinichi sighed. “Laura-san especially creeps me out like Koizumi-san does...”

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“Ummm... Koizumi-san?”

Akako ignored Hakuba entirely as she caught sight of the girl walking around the museum. The dark-haired woman's head snapped around, her eyes narrowing on Akako and her mouth curling into an almost feral snarl. The woman's friend was tugging on her arm and waving her hand between their locked gazes, somehow not burning it in the process, but the woman was ignoring her as Akako was ignoring Hakuba and Aoko.

“Akako-chan?” Aoko said worriedly. Her eyes were a little red. She was worried sick about Kaito, but she'd still come to cheer her father on and probably to vent her frustration on Kid.

“Laura?” the other girl was calling. “Laura, what's wrong?”

“Remember how I told you about the difference between witchcraft and Wicca?” the dark-haired girl growled. Her friend flipped her long golden-brown ponytail over her shoulder and glanced at Akako.

“You're saying she's a witch?” she said, a little incredulously.

“Wiccan bitch,” Akako growled. “white-magic-”

“Umm, Koizumi-san?” Hakuba was saying nervously. “What's going on?”

The dark-haired girl and Akako looked away with a snort at the same moment. Akako stalked regally into the museum while the dark-haired girl was towed away by her friend, who was talking in a soothing voice.

“Damn Wiccan,” Akako thought. She didn't actually know much about Wiccans, but the very nature of their magic was so diametrically opposed to hers that the other girl's mere presence was enough to make her skin crawl. She wondered what a Wiccan was doing in Japan. They didn't have a lot of power outside of their homeland, generally Europe, because holy magic was drawn from nature. Dark magic was drawn from people, and Kami knew they were the same anywhere. She prayed that the girl was just on holiday.

The place was crawling with cops, both plainclothes and normal. There weren't a lot of tourists or visitors, aside from a few foreigners, because it was getting late and it wasn't common knowledge that there was a Kid heist tonight. Still, something in the air was making her spine tingle, and it didn't feel like white magic. It wasn't magic at all, just normal, human evil and- something else, something not quite human, something wrong. Akako glanced around wildly, ignoring the confused looks and questions from Aoko and Hakuba, but she didn't see anybody but foreigners and police. Officers were hurrying in and out of the museum, and somehow the inhuman presence vanished.

But there was also...

“Akako-neechan? Aoko-neechan? Saguru-niichan? I didn't know you were coming!”

She glanced down. A child had appeared behind them, a child with glasses and strangely adult blue eyes and that disturbingly powerful aura.... A child that wasn't...

“Well, well, Conan-kun,” Hakuba said. “You're here for the heist? Is Kudo-sensei here?”

“Yeah, he's talking to Nakamori-keibu,” the boy said, crossing his arms behind his head. “They're discussing catching Kid by predicting where he's going to fly. If you know the wind direction, it's easy!”

“That makes sense,” Hakuba said, “After all, if he uses the hanglider he's at the mercy of the wind currents...” They descended into a long, technical discussion about thieving and meteorology.

“I've lost track of what they're talking about,” Aoko whispered to Akako, “but as long as it involves catching Kid, I don't really care.”

Akako nodded, not really listening, watching the child closely, listening him trot out complex terms that no child should know...

“Hey, I'm about to head back,” a tall foreigner in a green sweatshirt was calling to his friends. “It's tomorrow already...”

Then all the lights went out.

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Happy Birthday to Aoyama-sama and Kaito! And Happy Father's Day to all the dads, especially mine! (Wow, these well-wishes are SO incongruous with this chapter...)

That was fast, FaithlessGirl! I got your review about two minutes after I posted the chapter XD Pale? When did I say that? *rereads chapter*... can't find that, sorry... I know it's my story. I know what's going to happen, which is why no amount of mass whining will bring the meeting forward. It will happen when it is time! There's more important stuff that has to happen first...

Glad you like (and follow) my fic, FHP2208! Don't worry, your English is great ^_- I'm just amazed that I'm reaching foreign audiences! :D

To AngelRoy... ^_-!

You're welcome, Mel72000! Here come da heist! :D

In that case, what I really wanna know, Kolidescope, is why the names of even sporadic background characters got changed- such as Yokomizo-keibu becoming Inspector Worthington- but the name that caused all the copyright trouble, Conan, seems to be the only one unchanged ~_~ weird :P

The master is referring to Toichi, Silver Shadowbreeze, meaning that “after the master's visit” means the fourth of January rather than the third. It's just to mess slightly with the police, but it's also the first note to carry a tiny hint of who Kid really is- in a subtle way, it could be construed as a tiny cry for help. Well, more a whisper than anything, but there.

IT shall come, Pretztailfan95! *she says while preparing the bunker* Chibi-Heiji is so cute... but I still love Kid-sama more! :D I guess, but I've already made a habit of referring to him as Saguru, so it'll probably stick forever now :P I dunno what Shinichi sounds like, but I'm not sure that I want to... ^_^; Fire types still own everything forever, though. Except Mew. Screw Arceus, he's a horse with a wheel stuck in him. Mew's way more awesome than some mediaeval traffic accident :P Can't wait for HeartGold and SoulSilver! I SHALL WALK THE WORLD FOLLOWED BY A CHARIZARD IF IT KILLS ME! Actually, I don't want it to kill me. I'd rather it killed everyone else XD I always seem to have a team made up of a fire type, a water, an electric, a flying, a ground/rock, and a psychic. I don't like grass types much. BURN EVERYTHING! *desperately attempts to restrain inner pyro* I tend to name them after characters in whatever manga currently takes my obsession... so I have a team named after InuYasha characters, a team named after Furuba characters, a team named after Aara's males from the truly stunning Otherworld AU fanfic series... and soon, I shall have a team of Shinichi, Ran, Heiji, Shiho, Akako (the psychic of course) and Kaito! Patiently awaiting the updates ^_-

Harley HartWICK?! Are you serious, Kinsey Adler? Man, I though Harley HartWELL was bad enough! I feel sorry for poor Kazuha. First she gets named Katie Thompson, then someone decides that it's not demented enough, plays Animal Crossing for a bit and comes up with the name Katrina Tolliver! And Nakamori-Keibu, on top of all his other troubles, becomes Mace Fuller! What the hell kind of name is THAT?!

I do not claim to own any of the characters in Meitantei Conan. They are the intellectual property of Aoyama Gosho. All characters, couples and locations, if Canon, will be faithful to the manga, so if you're into fics with weird pairings like Shinichi and Heiji, the back button is at the top there. The fic may not make sense if you have not read up to chapter 695, which you can do at a site called (read between the lines) O/n/e/ma/n/g/a, but I advise you to buy the official Tankoban novels (up to volume 29 are out in English at the time of writing) so that Aoyama-sensei can afford to continue gracing us with his imagination. Now, I hope you enjoy the fic! (If you don't, please see my previous comments re the back button).