The nerves fluttering in his stomach make Shinichi regard his reflect in the mirror like an annoyance. The irregular color of his eyes thanks to the contact lens he has to wear make him feel like a stranger in his own skin. But tonight he isn’t Kudo Shinichi. Nor is he Edogawa Conan either.
“You need to go if you’re going to keep your schedule.” Ai says from the door, voice as flat as ever.
“Hai~” Shinichi hears himself say in a register naturally higher than his own under normal circumstances. False cheer dripping from the single syllable.
When he turns away from the mirror he catches the flash of white before his attention drifts to Haibara instead. The suit feels stranger, weighed down more than he’d ever have suspected. Her eyes are sharp and he can see the concern written in her posture.
A strangers laugh bubbled from Shinichi’s throat and he laid a gloved hand on top of her head. “Kaito KID would never be caught, so don’t wear that face ,ojou-chan.”
Haibara doesn’t even glower at him for the treatment.
“See that he doesn’t.” Are her parting words.
Layered disguises are terribly uncomfortable, Shinichi had learned that months ago when he’d been Chikage’s and Lupin’s pupil. Not that it made being in a task force uniform any less stifling for him. Less so when the gear only weighed him further down on his own portable arsenal.
Time was ticking down for the heist to begin and Shinichi was clinging onto his calm by the skin of his teeth. How in the world Kaito managed to keep his face little more than his affable persona during a heist had never been more impressive than on this side of things. While he didn’t feel like his life was in danger he was still in the den of the enemy. One false move and he would lose something that was nearly just as previous as he very life - his freedom.
The one benefit to the uniform was the face shield on the heavier set. Like Shinichi wore. It helped to obscure the details of his face. Though he got a few odd glances for his choice of a blond wig, not exactly police sanctioned.
Everyone was on edge after almost three years without any sign of Kaito KID. Not so much as a heist note that hand’t panned out to be more than a fraud trying to slip into the vacant spotlight or to lure the thief himself back out. Still KID had never turned up to clear his name, decidedly out of character for him. most likely assumed the more recent heist notice was no different. Not that Nakamori had shown any sympathy for the impersonators. If anything the man was more vicious on any pretender than he’d been on KID that Shinichi knew.
It made for a particularly tense atmosphere.
The strike of the clock to ten only seemed to draw the air from the room.
Shinichi felt himself grin at the sound of it. A burst of nerves spreading like anxious warmth as he started to make his way to the display case where his target sat. The ruby had excellent color and clarity. The cut wasn’t as good as it could have been but given the date it had been set in the ring it wasn’t surprising. Masters had been limited by the tools of their time.
Shinichi willed his poker face firmly into place.
“It’s showtime.” While he didn’t yell it several of the agents closest had turned in shock to watch hime. Perhaps able to see the sharp smirk that was purely KID that crossed his features.
In a puff of smoke Shinichi managed to swipe the ring from its pedestal to replace it with a rose.
The stillness in the room was unnatural and Shinichi held out the ring to get a real first-hand look at it. Only turning to regard the sound of approach footsteps when they had come perilously close. Shinichi made sure to turn before anyone would have been within arms reach.
“Maa, has everyone been asleep while I’ve been gone?” Shinichi asked and a murmur passed over those of the task force in the main display room.
Nakamori was notably staring.
“What a sorry reunion I’m being treated to. It’s like none of you missed me at all. “ Shinichi muttered while affecting a put-upon tone. Lifting the ring up to show he’d very clearly taken it. “I think I’m owed something in payment for such callous treatment. I’ll take this as my compensation, Nakamori-keibu.”
“K-Kid!” But it fell short of the shouting Nakamori used to work himself up to.
With a snap of his fingers and far more of a hurry than he’d ever admit to Shinichi stood in place in full KID regalia. Even offering an exaggerated bow to the man in question. “Been too long.”
Cape rustling behind him when he straightened again Shinichi wondered if perhaps he hadn’t gone a little too easy on them all. The shocked seemed a little too exaggerated on their part.
But whatever spell had been woven to keep them all in place broke and Shinichi offered another smirk.
That had been at the right level of volume. Yet that made the dog pile no more effective than it would have been anyhow.
Dodging left and right Shinichi began to weave his way through the oncoming task force. it had taken months of practice with Jigen and Goemon before he could compensate properly for the cape. Something he was very graceful for when the first time someone managed to snap it Shinichi knew to give into the pull and then break away rather than flat out resist.
“That’s more like it!” The laughter in his words wasn’t entirely false. There was a certain kind of rush in having to evade capture.
Soon enough Shinichi was going at a flat run and tossing a flash bomb in his wake once her got to the stairs. But rather than hoof it up the stairs he drew out the grappling gun and fired up through the open center of the stairs to go up far more quickly with shouts of outrage behind him. He pressed himself as compact as he could to make for a safe trip up but his shoulder still bumped a time or two on the pull upwards.
If he’d been faster he could have lodged a few cards to jam the door into the stairwell but Shinichi didn’t have that kind of dexterity and coordination quite in the bag yet with his non-dominant hand. A heist wasn’t the right place to take uncalculated risks.
At the last of the stairs he swung and landed on his feet ignoring the slight twinge of the unforgiving concrete under his feet. Shaking it off as he went Shinichi made for the door to lead to the open roof, ring firmly on one gloved finger.
Lo and behold there under the moonlight, waiting was Hakuba Saguru. Shinichi had been sure he’d turn up. Nakamori had been without humor in the face of impostors but Hakuba had been outright savage. Knowing the half-brits condition of Kaito KID’s identity he wouldn’t have missed a heist.
Not when Kuroba Kaito had disappeared almost three years ago. Never to be heard from again.
Shinichi didn’t stumble or startle to see him. Instead he regarded him easily.
“Tantei-san, did I keep you waiting long?” How this would play out was open. Shinichi only had a certain extent of time he could afford to give.
Hakuba turned a stormy expression on Shinichi. “I don’t know who you are but I know for a fact that you are not Kaito KID. Not the first, nor the second.”
Tilting his head to the side Shinichi allowed himself a smile. The charm on the monocle swayed from the shift.
“You won’t succeed in escaping. And if you did manage you surely have left behind evidence to your true identity. I would advise you to turn yourself over and confess to reduce your sentencing by cooperating with the-”
Laughing Shinichi just started to make his way for the edge of the roof. “You don’t change do you, tantei-san.”
Hakuba wasn’t quite prone to fits of temper so Shinichi had hit on the sore spot. Kuroba and Hakuba hadn’t been traditional friends, a relationship fraught with complications. But apparently Kaito had made enough of an impression that it could break through to the other man’s temper.
“No imagination.” Shinichi hissed in disappointment he didn’t really feel. He thought Hakuba personally was too rigid and quick to distance himself from most matters that he hesitated to act. “Do try to remember that there are mysteries in this world that the likes of which no critic can unravel.”
Not even half-way to the ledge Hakuba came at him. A glint of cuffs in hand and tick in his jaw that looked unhealthy. Shinichi heard them click into place around his wrist more than felt them through the layers of the suit. But he’d allowed it to happen. A twist and he could have avoided it or given Hakuba a dose of smoke to gain space.
Instead Shinichi held up his bound wrist. “Sorry but silver just isn’t my color.”
It was comical the way Hakuba was so stunned that the cuffs fell away as if they had never been locked. Or that when he twisted away from his grab it was too simple to turn the tides. Hakuba stared at his cuffed wrists then at Shinichi as he kept up onto the small raised wall of the roof.
Or perhaps he was eyeing the little silver key Shinichi held up.
Though when Shinichi threw himself from the lip of the roof into the open air Hakuba shouted after him. It hadn’t been strictly angry. Shinichi thought he’d heard a note of panic or desperation in his voice but he didn’t allow himself to look back. It was for the best.
Especially when he heard the door to the roof slam open and Nakamori bellowing after him.
Taking another bit of the granola bar Shinichi made his way into the bedroom turned private treatment room. His hands had been shaking earlier once he’d taken off the suit and stored the ring away. Nerves finally pushing through his poker face.
“I’m back.” Shinichi announced to the figure on the bed and frowned to himself to see everything still unchanged. A part of him had vainly hoped Kaito might wake up just to accuse him him of reining KID’s reputation after going on a heist. No such luck.
But the ventilator had been gone for over eight months and they were all relieved for that. Signs of improvement gave them some hope.
“I better not have to keep this up for long.” Shinichi liked to think he was thinking aloud more than he was talking to an unconscious man. There was debatable things to be said about talking to those who couldn’t hear you.
Though Shinichi had certainly cultivated a new perspective about detective being critics. The whole triad of Kaito’s made more sense.
It made him wonder if Kaito would have been furious with Shinichi’s adopting of the mantle of KID or not. If he wanted to complain he’d have to wake up.
The door opened and Chikage without a word set an ice pack on Shinichi’s right shoulder. The woman had an uncanny ability to know exactly what weak points Shinichi had - physical or otherwise. It unnerved at first but now Shinichi didn’t find it in himself to mind.
“Should eat something more substantial. Last thing you want for your pride is to faint after your first heist.” She teased with a knowing smile.
Shinichi frowned for that but didn’t deny it. There was no point. After learning the whole truth from her, and having been her pupil, lying was a waste of time.
“You’ll need to be more prepared for your next heist. They’ll be prepared to treat you like KID and not an impostor.” It was a well meaning warning. “No mistakes, Shinichi.”
Eyes drawn back to the body in the bed Shinichi nodded slowly.
Nothing could have prepared Shinichi for his life to come to this. To have learned the legend of Pandora. More painfully for it to have been entrusted to him the wounded Kuroba to destroy. Pandora the basis for the attempted drug of immortality the Crows sought to make. Very corner stone of the Apotoxin that had created Edogawa Conan. The key to creating an antidote.
“No mistakes.” Shinchi agreed. he’d come too far to fail now.
Chikage gave him a half-smile. “Kaito trusted the right person.”
It was high praise and Shinichi admittedly wanted to live up to it. To one day tell Kuroba he’d done what he could to repay the help he’d given him. Because a life returned wasn’t simply a debut to repay.
